Wearing a beanie in beantown on a beany day

After I left Prison, I was released to the custody of my father. And unfortunately that included me living in the same house with that psycho witch; my step mother who despised me to no end. She actually loathed me.

Anyways…

I would, while in prison, write letters to my father. In one of those letters, I talked about the food that they served us. I told him that I was so tired of the non-stop beans that they served us. It was a mix of Global (human canned dog food), lima beans, pinto beans, black beans and okra.

Anyways, it wasn’t all the time, but often enough that it was a real problem.

Well, as soon as I was released to my father’s custody, his psycho wife made dinners for us all. The meals were ridiculous. Bean soup. Mashed beans. Pinto beans and rice. Bean casserole. Three bean salad. Bean sandwiches with sprouts… bean dessert.

…what was her problem?

Every day. Every morning. Every lunch. Every dinner.

Day after day. Week after week.

Later on, months later, I figured that she wanted to make my stay as uncomfortable as possible for me. And on Christmas eve she kicked me out and the truth became apparent.

Ah. One of the reasons why it sucked to be me.

Every now and then I remember this, and I shake my head. You know, some people are so crazy, so unstable, that they will always surprise you in how absolutely rude and shitty they can be.

I’ll never forget the bowl of beans with sugar and milk that she made for me one breakfast.

Have you ever bought a car that didn’t run and found that it was an easy fix?

We bought a Saturn at auction a number of years ago. I was desperate for a vehicle that was cheap. It seemed several things we owned were breaking at the same time.

We went to the car auction and looked around. We picked out several possibilities, looked them over and then we prepared to bid. They all went higher than I hoped. In came the Saturn on a tow truck we hadn’t looked at from the it doesn’t run section.

Bidding was introduced at $800. no one bid. They tried $700., $500., and finally someone bid $100. and it raised from there $200. and then $300. My husband turned around and looked at it. Not only did it have no battery but no battery cables. The paint was scratched up both sides. I heard $300. going once and my husband raised his hand. Auctioneer said $400. he soon said, $400. going once, twice, sold. I looked at my husband and said please tell me you didn’t just buy that car that doesn’t even run and we know nothing about. He said Yep.

So the paperwork was complete. We walked out back and looked at it. It had been previously stolen and the battery was removed, cigarette holes burned in a few places in the seats. The letters B i t c h were clearly scratched into the paint on the trunk. I joked it had my name on it.

The battery was still good on my old car. We drove home (approximately 3 miles) and got the battery and stopped on the way back and bought the connectors. Went back and installed the battery and drove it home. It ran great. My husband buffed the trunk lid the following day.

I drove it several years. It got hit once at an intersection. The man at faults insurance paid me $800. It was only a little cosmetic damage that I didn’t care about. I drove it a few more years, money improved and I sold it for $500. and bought another car. I was prepared to go lower but they were glad for $500.

I saw the Saturn a few years later. Still going strong. They said it once needed a part they installed themselves but otherwise dependable.

LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA:

"People often think I'm joking when I say Global South with my mouth full.

Because we were once known around the planet as poor countries, then as third world countries, then as developing countries, then semi-developed countries.

And now we are developing countries...

No sir, we are now the economy of the Global South, we want to give ourselves a chance so that the Global South, which has part of what the world needs today, can occupy its place in the economy, in politics and in world culture.

Obviously, the BRICS are an exceptional opportunity.

We think it is possible to bring other African countries into the BRICS. We think it is possible for other African countries to participate in the G20, but we are just getting started.

We are just starting out and, at the G20, in Brazil, one of the things we want to discuss are the financial institutions that have existed since the UN was created, such as the IMF and the World Bank.

Whether these institutions will serve to help finance the development of poor countries or whether they will continue to exist to suffocate poor countries.

Africa, I don't have the precise number, but Africa has a debt of around 860 billion dollars. In other words, a debt that is practically unpayable by several countries.

Our suggestion is that the funds that lent this money—or the financial institutions—should take into account the need to transform part of this debt into a productive assets so that this money, instead of returning to the institutions that lent it, goes back by building railways, highways, hydroelectric plants, thermoelectric plants.

That is, something that means the development of the continent, that goes back to education, to a university, a research institute."

Excerpt from remarks by President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at a press conference during visit to Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, February 18, 2024.

Israel Quietly ‘Retaliates’ For Iran’s Retaliation Attack

Last night Israel attempted a minor attack on Iran to ‘retaliate’ for the Iranian penetration of its security screen.

The current exchange happened after Israel, in clear violation of international law, bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

The aim and success of last night’s attack is yet unknown:

Israel carried out retaliatory strikes against Iran early Friday morning local time, reportedly targeting locations in the west of the country. Explosions were heard in the city of Isfahan, prompting commercial flights to divert from their routes.Senior US officials speaking to ABC, CBS and NPR confirmed the strikes.
…
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported at around 5:30 a.m. local time (10:00 p.m. EST Thursday) that explosions were heard in Qahjaverestan, northeast of Isfahan.

A senior Iranian military official in Isfahan told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the explosions were caused by Iran’s air defenses that fired at a suspicious object east of Isfahan. Isfahan’s international airport is located just northeast of Qahjaverestan.

Two discarded first stages of Israeli ROCKS aero-ballistic missiles have been found in Iraq. ROCKS, a derivative of Sparrows ballistic target rocket, are air-launched, stand-off, air-to-ground missiles.

They may have hit something near Isfahan or they may have been taken down by Iranian air defense.

No Iranian or Israeli officials have commented the attack. The IAEA said that no Iranian nuclear facility has been hit.

As both sides are currently silent, and as there are no signs of further escalation, the strike will likely conclude the current exchange.

As a consequence of its strike in Damascus Israel has lost its escalation dominance. Iran managed to penetrate its external security screen just like Hamas had penetrated Israel’s internal security screen on October 7 2023 when it broke out of Gaza to collect hostages.

Those who moved to Israel because they thought that it could provide them with security should reevaluate their decision.

Posted by b at 14:04 UTC | Comments (127)

What are some possible reasons for Westerners to have negative views towards China/Chinese culture/people, despite not having personal experience or fluency in the language?

The Chinese are not arrogant or domineering in the world, nor do they bully others. They are also cautious when traveling. Why do Westerners still have negative views of the Chinese?

This negative view is not accidental, but inevitable.

Of course, there is no need for Chinese people to care about what Westerners think of China. After all, who doesn’t have a butthole?

1. The image trap under the hegemony of public opinion

Good impression or bad impression, how is it generated?

Obviously, this requires an input type of cognition, and then each person makes a judgment based on his or her own moral standards. If it is consistent, it will be a good impression, and if it is not consistent, it will be a bad impression.

Therefore, Westerners have mostly bad impressions of China, which has a lot to do with their “cognitive input.”

In fact, the West has been working tirelessly to discredit China for many years in terms of “cognitive input”, even starting hundreds of years ago.

The first is the deliberately created negative cultural symbol.

In fact, at the beginning, Westerners had a good impression of the Chinese.

According to the rumors brought back by various missionaries and sailors, China is an ancient, mysterious and civilized country.

China has a splendid culture and numerous scientific and technological inventions, and can also produce exquisite porcelain, silk, tea and other products.

On the contrary, Europe at that time was filled with corrupt churches, tyrannical nobles and autocratic monarchs. So at that time, Westerners admired China.

However, the Opium War broke all this.

In the Opium War, China suffered a complete defeat, which also allowed Western countries to completely recognize China’s reality.

Westerners are shocked to find that China is so weak, its officials are so ignorant, its people are so poor, and its technology is so backward!

In the hundreds of years since then, Westerners’ impressions of China have changed from one extreme to the other, thinking that China is an uncivilized and barbaric country.

Later, in order to beautify their aggression against the East, Western countries created the “Yellow Peril” theory.

The term “yellow peril” originated from the history of the Mongol Empire’s conquest of Eastern Europe. At that time, the Mongolian army burned, killed, looted, and destroyed civilization in Europe. Their barbaric behavior brought a huge psychological shadow to Europeans. Since China recognizes the Mongol Empire as one of the Chinese dynasties, it is naturally a barbaric and cruel country that will bring disaster to Europeans. This Yellow Peril theory directly gave birth to the biggest negative cultural symbol about China-Fu Manchu.

In the novel “The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu”, Fu Manchu is the leader of a Chinese evil organization. He has a bald head and long braids, a Qing Dynasty dress, thin eyebrows and long eyes, and a cunning face.

Fu Manchu’s biggest hobby was to kill white people. He “used insects, bacteria and venom to cause more casualties in a week than Hitler did in a year.”

The appearance of this image completely embodied the Western world’s fear of the mysterious East at that time.

Subsequently, with the addition of Hollywood screenwriters, Fu Manchu in the movie was even more terrifying than the one described in the book.

Indulging in murder and various tortures, these horrific plots have become the childhood shadow of generations of Europeans and Americans.

Subsequently, the Asian people represented by China, together with the evil-doing Fu Manchu, became a cunning, cunning, cruel existence that posed a serious existential threat to the white people.

This is how Western countries use cultural symbols to completely vilify the image of the Chinese people. As a result, when Westerners mention the Chinese, the first impression that comes to mind is the cunning and insidious Fu Manchu. How could they have a good impression?

The second is ideological incompatibility.

As we all know, China is a socialist country and believes in communism.

Communism advocates the elimination of private ownership of the means of production and calls on the proletariat of the world to use revolutionary violence to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie.

Capitalism is a social system based on private ownership of the means of production.

This determines that there is naturally the most intense ideological conflict and opposition between the two.

Since the birth of communism, Western countries have tried their best to vilify communism, causing people to feel disgusted with communism and have faith in and dependence on capitalism.

In this way, the authority of the government can be maintained, its political rule can be consolidated, and the capitalists can continue to legally exploit the proletarian masses.

Therefore, Western countries use all kinds of methods to discredit communism.

For example, Western countries took advantage of the public’s antipathy toward Hitler and deliberately confused Nazism (full name: National sozialismus) with socialism, combining historical inducements to arouse people’s antipathy and fear of communism.

For example, in 1948, high-level officials in the United States issued multiple documents one after another that clearly discredited the Soviet Union. Its ultimate goal was to rule the world by any means necessary and encourage its allies to vilify Soviet communism around the world.

Through the export of strong ideology, the United States teaches children to hate and fear communism from an early age.

So no matter what you say, no matter how much communist theory they read, they think it’s “brainwashing.”

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States shifted its target of vilification to China, which still adheres to the socialist path.

For example, the English abbreviation of the Communist Party of China is CPC (the Communist Party of China), which emphasizes the Communist Party of China. However, Western media have always called it the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), emphasizing China’s communist attributes.

This is actually a discourse trap that deliberately leads the public to unconsciously associate CCP with the image of communism that has been vilified in the past few decades, creating a negative image.

The third is that the United States manipulates public opinion to smear China out of anti-China needs.

In fact, during the honeymoon period between China and the United States in the 1980s, the United States had a relatively friendly attitude toward China. Even Fu Manchu was banned at that time.

But with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the United States labeling China a new generation enemy, this organized smear campaign motivated by anti-China began again.

At the beginning, the US anti-China propaganda mainly focused on “human rights violations” and “Tibet issue”.

After China’s economic aggregate ranked second in the world in 2010, Western countries were worried that China would threaten them, so they began to create the “China threat theory”.

The “China threat theory” covers a very wide range and can be related to anything.

For example, they say that China’s development of normal national defense is to disrupt regional balance and create the threat of war.
For example, they say that China’s population is too large, which will bring a crisis to the world’s food supply and cause food shortages.
For example, they say that everyone in China has a family car, which will cause environmental pollution and bring ecological disasters.
For example, they say that the Chinese engage in hacker activities and accuse Huawei and ZTE equipment of “endangering national security.”
For example, they say that China’s Belt and Road Initiative has created a “debt trap” for relevant countries.
For example, they say that China’s Confucius Institute is a spy agency and a cultural invasion.
For example, they say that China’s police cooperation with other countries is setting up “foreign police stations” to threaten its own nationals.
Even when Chinese people eat meat, Western media say that the carbon dioxide brought by Chinese farming will cause global warming and threaten all mankind.

According to the Western media, everything the Chinese do is wrong and threatens all mankind.

The purpose of this kind of strange, varied and negative reports that exceed the imagination of the Chinese people is to use “deceptive information” and “false propaganda” to offset China’s positive influence in neighboring countries and even in the international arena.

Suppress China’s international image and create obstacles for China to go global.

After all, in the face of a China that has been smeared as “doing everything with conspiracy”, any country that wants to cooperate with China will have to do it in its heart.

How can people in Western countries have a good impression of China when they are immersed in this information cocoon of anti-China public opinion every day?

2. Conflict of interest

If the media’s exaggeration is an external cause, then the conflict of personal interests is the internal cause of the deterioration of foreign people’s impression of the Chinese.

The first is the hostile attitude brought about by industrial competition.

Although the Chinese ideal is a unified world, in the real world, there are indeed stratifications.

In this pyramid-shaped world, it can basically be divided into 6 levels.

The top one is naturally the United States, with a per capita GDP of over US$60,000.
Next are the moderately developed countries, with per capita GDP of about US$40,000, such as Germany, France, the UK and Japan.
Next are the junior developed countries, with per capita income of US$20,000-30,000, such as Greece, South Korea, Spain, etc.
Next are relatively developed developing countries, such as China, India, and Russia.
Then there are some developing countries that sell resources, such as Venezuela, Egypt, etc.
Finally, there are some small and poor countries that cannot even sell their resources.

The total global GDP in 2023 will be approximately US$93 trillion. Among them, the overall GDP of developing countries is US$36 trillion, and the total GDP of all developed countries is approximately US$57 trillion.

What about population? The total population of developed countries is only about 1.1 billion. Except for the United States, which has more than 300 million, and Japan, which has just over 100 million, none of them exceeds 100 million.

In other words, developed countries, which account for less than 18% of the world’s total population, control two-thirds of the world’s total wealth!

If you were reborn in a developed country, you would have enough food and clothing, and receive basic benefits even if you didn’t work. If you are reborn in a small, poor country at the bottom, having enough to eat is just a luxury. Is this fair?

It’s unfair, but this is the reality. Developed countries and developing countries are completely different from the same world in terms of people’s living standards.

So how did these two severely separated parallel worlds come into being? The reason is simple: industry.

If we look at developed countries, we will find that they always have at least one or two trump industries.

Even if some low-end industries are transferred out, high-profit high-end industries are still firmly in the hands of the United States and its allies.

In this system, the United States controls high technology, finance, military industry, aerospace, biopharmaceuticals, computers, agricultural machinery, etc.

The UK controls higher education and finance, France controls nuclear power and passenger aircraft, Germany controls precision machinery and chemical industry, Japan and South Korea control semiconductor raw material manufacturing and automobiles, etc. Basically, each is in charge of its own business.

What are the benefits of this system?

On the one hand, it can leverage the advantages of each country, reduce product costs, and ultimately serve the United States.

On the other hand, since the allies of the United States are smaller in size, giving them some industries can easily ensure prosperity at the national level, lead a good life, and no longer have incentives to develop advantageous industries that threaten the United States.

Why can Westerners work 4 hours a day, drink coffee for another 4 hours, go on vacation to the Mediterranean, sunbathe, and pick up girls, but you can’t? And they are still not satisfied with this and go on strike at every turn! Because their high-end industries support this kind of life.

Their country, relying on its technological and industrial advantages, can live a good life comfortably after seizing its ecological niche. As long as a developed country builds a plane, people in developing countries need to use their hard work and sweat to create 700 million shirts in exchange. Other developing countries can only be locked in agriculture, animal husbandry, mineral resources and low-end industries forever.

In terms of profits, low-end industries can never compare with high-end industries.

This system has been running stably for decades, and the United States and developed countries have been lying on the top of the pyramid, selling sand for the price of chips, and sucking the blood of developing countries for decades.

But they never expected that China would appear.

China is different from other countries in that it has too many people and low-end industries cannot give Chinese people a decent life.

Even if the United States provides some high-end industries to China, China will not be able to become a developed country like South Korea, which has a smaller population.

Therefore, what China is pursuing is the upgrading of the entire industry, using the rise of various industries to cover more Chinese people and allow everyone to live a better life.

No matter how many pearls you have in your industrial crown, we’ll find a way to get them.

Moreover, China has the most complete industrial chain in the world.

China graduates millions of science and engineering students every year. It has a huge domestic market, strategic support at the national level and the national sentiment of “Do those gentry certainly have blue blood?” engraved in the Chinese DNA.

This means that as long as the Chinese want to do something, there is a high probability that they can do it.

Therefore, when the Chinese are no longer satisfied with sewing buttons and knitting clothes, and start to upgrade their industries, the comfortable days of Western countries will come to an end.

China’s industrial upgrading also has a magical ability. No matter what high technology is conquered by China, it will immediately become a bargain.

Then when we return to foreign markets, we can immediately reduce the dimensionality of foreign manufacturers and attack them without even having to compete.

For example, Western countries used to sell dyes used in the textile industry for hundreds of thousands of dollars per ton. After we mastered the core technology, we directly sold it for 10,000 CNY per ton, killing most of our international peers.
There are also white goods. In the past, every Chinese household was proud to have a Toshiba TV. As a result, now that China’s white goods market is all over the world, Toshiba is about to go bankrupt.
The same goes for LCD panels. In the past, China could only rely on imported LCD panels to make color TVs, and most of the profits from a color TV would be taken away by foreign countries. Now after China’s breakthrough, it has directly captured 80% of the world’s LCD panel share, and the price is so low that LCD panels can be installed above toilet urinals.
Also, China broke through the shield machine, and Germany’s Waldrich Coburg Machine Tool Factory closed down.
China made a breakthrough in pen tip steel, and Japan’s Shimomura Seiko suffered a sharp decline in profits and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
China started making mobile phones, and Nokia and Motorola went bankrupt.

China’s practice of using low prices to completely overturn the market structure once a technological breakthrough is really unbearable to Westerners.

China has destroyed so many monopolized industries in the West, making life for Westerners less comfortable. How can you expect them to have a good impression of China?

Let’s take a look:

Why were Western countries not as anti-China in 2010 as they are now?

Has the anti-China voice in Western countries suddenly become louder since 2010?

Isn’t it because China has started industrial upgrading and its GDP has surpassed Japan’s?

The second is that the rise of China has changed the international order and caused an imbalance in the mentality of Westerners.

Western countries like to talk about a saying: rules-based international order.

What exactly is this “rules-based international order”? To put it bluntly, it is the international order established by the United States after World War II by taking advantage of its status as the biggest winner in World War II.

In this order, the United States can recruit a “team of allies” to arbitrarily interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and launch color revolutions to overthrow other countries’ governments at will.

In this order, the United States has bound the U.S. dollar with gold and oil successively, making the U.S. dollar the world currency, and the United States can harvest the world’s wealth through the U.S. dollar tide.

In this order, the United States and its allies maintain strong military strength and bully other countries wantonly.

They can use a test tube of white powder as an excuse to bomb Iraq at will, killing and injuring millions of people, and if other countries build a new warship, they will be slandered as a “threat to regional peace.”

Simply put, the biggest principle of this order is to always maintain American hegemony.

After this order is established, everyone in Western countries will be a beneficiary of this order.

They can treat immigrants from other countries with an arrogant attitude and leave all the dirty work to immigrants.

They can draw high profits from developing countries by entering into unfair contracts through the economic advantages maintained by their hegemony.

They can go to developing countries at will, show off their identity as a Westerner, and attract countless women to throw themselves into their arms, and then abandon them.

Even in the face of a terrorist attack, as long as you show your identity as “I am an American”, you will most likely enjoy priority evacuation and special protection.

Over the past few decades, they have taken this kind of treatment for granted, as if they were born with this kind of treatment.

But they didn’t expect that China would appear.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has repeatedly declared that there is only one international order, and that is the basic order of the United Nations.

Obviously, China is willing to integrate with international standards, but it is not willing to be subject to the basic order of the United States.

China seeks a fair and just international order from the perspective of everyone in the world, not an international order dominated by the United States.

In the international order advocated by the Chinese, every child in Gaza should live to adulthood.
In the international order advocated by the Chinese, underage girls in Thailand should not become the playthings of white people.
In the international order advocated by the Chinese, Africans should not starve while guarding their fertile land.
In the international order advocated by the Chinese, South American children should not face the only two options: drug trafficking and football.

This is China’s original intention of building a community with a shared future for mankind – hoping to seek the sharing of development rights, development opportunities and development results, so that the results of world construction and development can benefit people of all countries more and more equitably, and truly achieve win-win sharing.

But this has undoubtedly touched the cake of the people of developed countries. You have changed the world order, so how can they continue to lie at the top of the pyramid and dominate?

It’s like a rural person who enters the city and feels inferior when looking at the high-rise buildings in the city. When he meets the city people, he feels inferior to others. The city people feel that everything is taken for granted.

However, when a rural person who comes to the city becomes literate through self-study and feels that he and the city people are both human beings and there is no distinction between superiority and inferiority, and demands to be on an equal footing with the city people, do you think the city people can accept it?

Therefore, Western people naturally do not have a good impression of China, which has taken the lead in “undermining the international order.”

Third, the successful path of Chinese-style modernization has completely overturned the only successful path of the West for a long time.

For a long time, there has been only one successful path to human development, which is Western-style modernization.

This was the only correct path proven by practice, and it became a model for all countries to learn from.

To a certain extent, Western-style modernization has dominated the process of human modernization.

But strangely enough, there are many countries that follow the path of Westerners. Whether it is political system or economic system, they are basically planned according to the Western model.

But today, not many countries have really reached the level of modernization in the West. On the contrary, some countries are getting worse and worse, and even go bankrupt.

Why is this so?

To put it bluntly, the other side of the Western modernization process has been deliberately hidden.

Since the Age of Discovery, the West has embarked on global capital expansion and colonial activities.

Ship after ship of silver, ship after ship of black slaves, and ship after ship of opium helped the West quickly accumulate a large amount of wealth, and also planted the root of poverty and backwardness in other regions.

With capital, coupled with the technological monopoly created by the first-mover advantage and the trade hegemony brought by the advantages of international rules, Western countries can easily seize high profits and play a game of scissors.

Therefore, despite the hype about Western modernization, it actually only requires you to comply with the international order established by Western modernization and the unfair international wealth distribution behind this order.

But they never expected that China would stand up.

China knows very well that copying the Western development model will not achieve modernization at all, so China has developed Chinese-style modernization.

China chose to rely on its new national institutional advantages and scale advantages to change from a free flow of funds to a government-guided capital flow.

Through rural revitalization and urbanization, China’s advantages of huge population and large cumulative effect have been used to help rural areas get rid of poverty and promote common prosperity.

Facts have proved that China was successful, and it took several decades to go through the path of modernization that took Western countries hundreds of years.

Today, both its economy and military strength have reached the point where it has surpassed countless developed countries.

China has provided a model to all countries, a model that can still succeed without following the path of Westernization, which has strengthened the confidence of all countries in the world that are interested in developing their own modernization.

When other countries see China’s success, they will naturally pursue their own modernization instead of following suit under the deception of Western scholars.

But in this way, the modernization theory that Western countries have maintained for decades will go bankrupt.

To put it simply, the rise of China has completely destroyed Westerners’ institutional and theoretical confidence.

Therefore, we cannot expect Western people to have any favorable impression of China, a “heretic” that does not follow the Western path and is leading more countries to abandon the Western path.

Therefore, there is no need for Chinese people to consider what Westerners think! You can’t change them either!

As winners, do Chinese people need to consider the thoughts of losers?

Have you ever lost any respect for someone instantly?

I was in the ninth or tenth standard.

Our Maths teacher was excellent in teaching maths in logical way.

I had a great respect for her teaching excellence.

Since I loved Maths and scored good marks, students who had problem with maths would come to me in the short interval for clearing their doubts in some difficult problems.

Those students were day schoolers , while I was in boarding.

In short interval when I was explaining Maths, they would offer me some food to taste which they brought from their home.

One particular item jowar roti(it is called jonna rotti in Telugu) with smoked brinjal chutney(baigan ka bharta) was my favorite. So whenever any of those girls brought those items, they would invariably offer me.

One day when I was explaining some problems to the girls, the teacher saw us.

After some time I was called into the staff room.

I was scared. “Did I do any thing wrong by explaining maths to those girls?” I thought.

“It is a good thing you are clearing the doubts for those girls. I appreciate you. You are saving my time” she said.

My respect for her increased.

“But why do you eat from their (mentioning their caste) tiffin boxes? Stop eating from now onwards”

My entire respect for her came crashing down in a minute.

From then onward, I respected her as a good Math teacher but never considered as a mentor.

RV Life is FINISHED! | 7 HARSH REALITIES Why RVer’s QUIT

Southern Fried Catfish

Ingredients

6 small catfish
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups cornmeal
Salt
Ground pepper

Instructions

Shake cornmeal, salt and ground pepper in a paper bag.
Heat oil to 360 degrees F, halfway up the sides of a cast iron skillet.
Dip catfish into buttermilk, then into dry mixture in bag.
Fry for about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes on each side (5 minutes per every inch of thickness).
Serve with Hush Puppies.

What kind of people will not succeed in life?

I had a good friend, Matt, growing up through high school.

He was a bright kid, did well on tests and stuff. But his parents, who were wealthy, kept giving him everything.

He never had to work during the summers (which is common here in the States). Anytime he needed anything, they handed him wads of cash. Anytime he made a mistake they bailed him out, never held him accountable.

Over time he just lost all motivation.

It hurts me to write this, but – here we are 34 years old, and he still hasn’t finished a college degree and literally lives in his parents’ basement. So much wasted potential already.

Spoiling a kid is the worst thing a parent can do.

She’s absolutely full of shit

Have you ever bought something from a yard sale or second hand store only to discover it was worth significantly more? What was the item you purchased?

Years ago, my husband stopped by a yard sale looking for old canning jars (which he collects). When he was getting ready to pay for his new treasures, the man running the sale asked him if he wanted a bottle he had – it was only $5. So my husband bought it. He put it in the back seat of his truck and headed for home.

When he got home, he noticed the vivid green coloring to the bottle so he took some pictures of it and uploaded pictures of it to a collector’s group he belonged to. One person offered him $100, another $200. Finally, someone messaged my husband and asked him if he even knew what he had. Turns out it was an old Binninger’s whiskey bottle and the second one known to exist. They offered to pay for transport to their facility and take it around to some collectors’ shows, then auction it off so it could get some exposure. My husband paid for the shipping and agreed that they could auction it off.

That bottle sold for $6000. The auction house got 10%. So $6000 – $620 (600 to the auction house and $20 to buy and ship) = $5380.00. Not a bad traffic

What is the best random conversation you overheard?

This was actually half of three conversations that were all connected.

A few years ago I was on holiday in Pisa. One day we were travelling back to Pisa by train after a day out and we were sitting near a young Italian.

When he started speaking to someone on his mobile, I did pay attention at first but I then found that I was understanding what he was saying without trying. I decided to practise my aural comprehension and started listening.

He was asking someone to meet him at the station and I assumed that it was his sister, since many young Italians live at home.

Anyway he said something like:

”…… if you could come and meet me at the station … I need to buy a birthday present for Mamma…”

I could not hear what the other person said but I realised he had received a negative response because he said “OK” in a tone of resignation. I had a vague suspicion that asking for help to choose a present was just an excuse and his real concern was getting a lift home. He then said something like:

”I’ll see you at home then ….. or maybe you could come and pick me up at the station …… Ah, OK. I’ll see you at home then”

I noticed that when he asked about being picked up at the station he spoke with exaggerated casualness, obviously wanting to give the impression that he had only just thought of it although it was his real reason for phoning.

After his request had met with another refusal, he phoned someone else and suggested meeting at the station before going to a bar. This person also declined.

A few minutes later the young man’s mobile rang and I just knew that the second person wanted to arrange something for another night. When he answered his mobile, I could half sense and half hear the other person suggesting that they meet another time. The young man did not want to arrange anything and ended the call very quickly.

Personally, if I had been in the other person’s position, I would not have bothered with that young man again. He seemed really self-centred.

Shorpy History

Why do some foreigners think that the Chinese are living in disasters and that the government is against its people?

It is the nature of commercial media that it reports only shocking bad news. Good news is of no interest to anybody. Commercial media has one job: to delivery a large audience to advertisers. To maximize the audience it must minimize the daily shock value.

It ‘s not just foreigners, newspapers in Singapore, HK and Taiwan report China like it is a complete cycle of violence, corruption, and sex, because that is what sells newspapers and attracts audiences. My relatives in HK won’t visit because they are too frightened to come to Suzhou. Despite us being in the SIP which is virtually crime free.

Government media would like to correct the balance. But they also are under pressure to deliver audiences to justify their huge budgets, so they too become superficial and concentrate on human rights, labour regulation failures, and corruption.

China tries to bring in its own message via publications and CCTV, but this is seen as propaganda and so viewership is limited to overseas Chinese.

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

I’m torn whether or not the share this because this “loophole” still exists.

When I was an undergraduate, I noticed that publishers would send professors copies of their textbooks. Some unsolicited. Some upon request.

A light bulb went off. As a new semester approached, I would find a copy of the previous syllabus and get the ISBN number or I’d just go to the bookstore and copy it down. All I really needed was the publisher’s name, the title and the author. I would Google the publisher and look for a customer service number or a request for review copy number. Then, I’d call and say, “Hi, my name is Charlie and I’m calling for Dr. Jones. Do you have any review copies of this textbook that you can send me?” (I used Jones as a pseudonym here but the person whose name I used was real). And then when they confirm that they do, I’d ask if there were any ancillaries that would accompany the book.

They would send the book, solution set and test bank directly to me at the department office. After my first semester, I didn’t pay for a single book in college.

I would exercise caution doing this. I think this worked for me was because I provided free tutoring to students and every one of the faculty members in the department knew me.

What are the lessons people most often learn too late in life?

1. Money might not buy happiness but it does make sadness comfortable.

2. The fuller your phone battery is by the end of the day, the better your day was.

3. Having a small circle is cool until your two friends are busy.

4. World history unfolding seems so unreal until you experience it first and it becomes too real.

5. If an object is large enough, it becomes a location.

6. Never run for a bus or a relationship. Because when one leaves, another arrives.

7. May you attract someone speaks your language so you don’t have to translate your soul.

8. Some people don’t realize how hard you are riding for them, until you park.

9. Everyone wants you to go the extra mile, but seldom gives you the gas to do it.

10. Randomly hearing your favorite song is more satisfying than putting it on yourself.

US Fake Man Moon Landing.

According to the plan, it was supposed to carry back 2 kilograms, but the density of the lunar soil is based on public information in the United States. The U.S. public information is incorrect. The actual lunar soil density is smaller than that disclosed by the United States.

In this way, under the same volume, the mass decreases: 2 kg → 1.731 kg.

This scientific parameter must not be wrong! Get it wrong and the mission will fail. Fortunately, the Chinese do not trust the United States and have margins when designing.

2 possibilities: Deliberately publicizing wrong information to mislead others. The second is that the United States really doesn’t know what is wrong. Therefore, the United States keeps asking China for information and lunar soil. China ignored it!

I am not qualified to say that the US moon landing was fake, I can only have doubts.

Some Problem discussion :

1. The Soviet Union also used unmanned missions to land on the moon, obtained the lunar soil, and found water, while the United States said there was no water. The Soviet Union was not confident and could only believe that the lunar soil it obtained was contaminated. Now, no one from China has landed on the moon to obtain lunar soil, proving that the lunar soil contains water.

2. The ironclad proof of the American moon landing is the installation of a lunar surface laser corner reflector . The distance between the earth and the moon can be measured on the earth through the lunar corner reflector. However, the United States installed two corner reflectors manually, and the Soviet Union installed three corner reflectors with automatic machines for unmanned lunar landings. At the same time, the Soviet Union’s corner reflectors can also measure the distance between the earth and the moon. The effect is the same, how can it be “irrefutable proof”.

3. Zhang Benan , deputy chief engineer of China’s aerospace industry , publicly stated that according to the internal assessment of the US Apollo moon landing, the reliability rate was less than 50%. If China followed the American moon landing model, it would be impossible to succeed. Look, Chinese scientists always speak in direct manner. If the success rate of a project is less than 50%, can it be successful? However, there were 6 Apollo moon landings, 5 of which were successful. Science is not feudal superstition. We talk about projects based on facts. We do not take personal feelings and evaluate rationally!

4. When the United States landed on the moon and returned to the earth, it did not master the ” Qian Xuesen ballistic ” re-entry technology and returned to the earth at the second cosmic speed , which would have killed all the astronauts. However, the three astronauts are not dead, they are alive. what happened? The United States has not yet mastered this technology. In 2022, NASA made big claims early, claiming that Orion was the first manned spacecraft in history to use a jump return method (i.e., “floating”) to reenter the atmosphere. This is actually a ” semi-ballistic return ” and is not fully understood. But how did they return to Earth in 1969?!

5. China and the United States, no one has landed on the moon, and some people have landed on the moon. Comparison of lunar surface pictures:

main qimg 9f3133a555bfba4b50b4547c58bb3bce

China, lunar surface, lunar soil is dense and discolored. United States, on the lunar surface, the lunar soil is like a cement pile, loose and does not change color. (Picture below: Moon landing announced by the United States)

main qimg da27dfb27dc0d274dda5f095a428ba41

There is another picture, below: Ground simulation training taken by the United States (published by the United States), take a look

main qimg 4ae1eed93956631e2abf65cb90cd3e78

In the ground simulation, the astronauts were held by two wires behind them, and the scene was almost the same as if they were on the moon… If you go to the studio and the wire ropes are blurred, you would think that they are on the so-called moon….The picture below shows the lunar surface taken by China’s Chang’e 2 , which is believed to be the remnants of the American Apollo 11. However, it is a shadow with a resolution of 70 meters. It does not prove that “someone landed on the moon”. A lunar rover? American flag? where? Where are the footprints? No one has ever landed on the moon, so we can throw something down. It’s pitch black, what are you looking at? ?

main qimg 31564713a11c1dfe16ed8e2776cbed29

Even if no one lands on the moon, we can still create this huge pile of ruins with nothing visible. 2002 American TV show, the host who questioned the moon landing insisted that astronaut Aldrin swear to the camera with his hand on the Bible, declaring that he had truly left footprints on the moon. If he refused, it would prove that the moon landing was a hoax. Aldrin remained silent for a long time. But the host continued to ask, saying that if you don’t swear, “you are a coward, a liar, and a shameful thief.” Faced with such verbal provocation, an angry Aldrin punched the host, but he still refused to swear in the end. Later, Armstrong and other three other astronauts who landed on the moon also refused to swear when they encountered similar situations. That is to say, no one who landed on the moon has dared to swear according to the Bible that he landed on the moon. (There is a video, you can look for it) According to American law, pressing the Constitution and the Bible with your hands and swearing an oath are essentially testimonials, which are legally binding. Many people do not understand American law. The act of swearing on the Bible can be used as evidence recognized by the court. If you lie, it is ” perjury “; and perjury is one of the six major felonies and must be sentenced to more than one year in prison. There is no Execution outside prison and understanding outside court. Therefore, when Americans are forced to swear or testify, they can remain silent and refuse to answer. This is a form of self-protection and is recognized by law.

Conclusion :

1. We must use a “real scientific attitude” to talk about problems, instead of “because the United States is very powerful”. Everything it does is right and true. This is inappropriate. Discuss things objectively without any subjectivity; let alone use force to overwhelm others, “America is great, how dare you doubt it?” “Scientists from all over the world don’t doubt it, so who do you think you are?” “Whatever culture you have, you are worthy of doubting Apollo”…This is no longer interesting.

2. Not much to talk about, just two:

A. The United States has not yet mastered the “floating technology.” How did the people inside the lunar return module survive when it returned to the earth at the speed of the second universe? Entering the atmosphere at the speed of the second universe, the spacecraft can withstand at least 16G inside and outside, and the human body can withstand up to 10G. If it exceeds, you will die. How did these moon landings survive?

B. Just one. Of all the “moon-landers”, not one of them pressed the Bible and swore he would land on the moon. Why? When talking about things, convince people with reason.

Everyone is interested in the ground training of the American Apollo moon landing. Here are a few more pictures. These are all announced by NASA:

main qimg 38177cfc66c2d536c1f6d1042656d1e0

It is speculated that the Americans do not know what the real land on the moon is like. They relied on reasoning to simulate the lunar surface and thought it was similar to a cement pile. However, now China has landed on the moon, and found that the lunar surface is actually similar to the Gobi Desert. The picture below shows the first American moonwalkers. They firmly refused to swear by the Bible that they had landed on the moon. They either cursed, ignored, or remained silent. There were 12 people who landed on the moon, and no one swore an oath!

main qimg 76d19541d6cded34a9b542d57834c6f4

We Chinese, born in a secular society, keep a distance from religion or are indifferent to it. But Western society is different. Even after the religious reform, most Americans are Protestants, and they still have a strong respect for religion. Swearing on the Bible is a big deal to them. This is not an oath, it actually explains a lot.….

The latest video I saw was Aldrin talking to a little girl. He probably won’t live long enough to control it, so he told the truth. July 2018, an 8-year-old girl asked Aldrin: “Why hasn’t anyone gone to the moon in so long?”Aldrin accidentally said this: I don’t know, we haven’t been to the moon either!

main qimg 1373f1630f997ff87de6e1980af36ab7

Author Note :

USA empire of lies, Barbarian who think himself noble.

Onion Crusted Catfish

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Catfish

8 U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish Fillets
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup French fried onions, crushed

Pecan Sauce

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

Catfish

Combine flour, salt, cayenne pepper and lemon zest in shallow bowl.
Dredge fillets in flour mixture and press in crushed fried onions, coating well.
Brown fillets over medium-high heat serving side down for 3 to 4 minutes.
Turn fillets and cook 3 to 4 more minutes or until done.
While fillets are cooking, make Pecan Sauce.
Place fillets on plate and serve with sauce.

Pecan Sauce

Melt butter in small saucepan until bubbly and slightly browned.
Add pecans and cook 1 minute to lightly toast.
Add lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Remove from heat; add parsley. Spoon over fish.

What accidentally rude things do Americans do while traveling even without realizing it?

Senator John McCain told this story. He was visiting an African nation and was in the office of that country’s president, along with a Congressional colleague. The colleague proceeded to talk to the African president loudly and slowly, using exaggerated gestures.

“MY country is VERY BIG. We have BIG MOUNTAINS. We have BIG CITIES. We have UNIVERSITIES. Do you know what UNIVERSITY means?”

The African president stared at him a moment and then replied, in a normal tone of voice, “I think so. I have a daughter at Vanderbilt.”

Edit, May 5, 2023: Eighty-two thousand views in a week suggests that this issue resonates with a great many people. I am also reminded of this incident of a few years ago:

EDITORIAL: Well, that was embarrassing… — Acknowledging our assumptions

There are many ways to strangle communication. We can misinterpret, not pay enough attention, pay too much attention (to ourselves!), and of course assume. It is much too easy to do. A recent case …

Finally, I am reminded of the employee orientation I attended at an internationally known non-profit institution that attracts employees from all over the world. The institution is located in Tennessee. A young couple with obvious British accents said they were from the UK, and the person in charge of the orientation, having no idea what the UK was, spent the entire day thinking they were from Ukraine.

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Have you ever worked with someone who deliberately tried to get you fired?

Yes. My BEST friend…who I hired to be an assistant manager…and he succeeded. Out of the blue one day, the COO of the company (a bit of a tyrant, but was ALWAYS cool with me) tried to get me to resign for “theft” of property that had been missing before I ever took the position as a manager. I flatly refused and even laughed at him, I hadn’t stolen anything and I knew I was the scapegoat for something. I was fired with no cause given, it certainly wasn’t for theft even though that was the claim. Months later he (best friend) then proceeded to go after my Dad (who worked at the same company) and my dad resigned (he was already job shopping because the company was beginning to have strange issues). Turns out he (my best friend) was a two faced POS (even his own family has now disowned him). He apparently knew that the COO of the company was having an affair…and he used that info to blackmail the COO into putting him into my position and then my father’s position. It lasted about a year until the company president found out about the affair and gave the COO a second chance to clean up his act (the COO’s wife worked for the president and was just a wonderful person). The COO couldn’t keep it in his pants and he got fired. The President took over the COO’s position and began to get information from recently fired employees about how they were fired without cause because the “big supervisor” (guess who) found “problems” that didn’t really exist. The big supervisor would have to come to the stores and do inventories, etc., and while he was doing that he was rewriting sales agreements and contracts so that HE was now getting the percentages of the sales vs the now fired managers. Well, all of that caught up to him…AND it was determined that HE was stealing and blaming it on employees. He had a nice racket going. He got fired and damn near got put in jail. I eventually heard that he had BIG BIG money problems, a serious drug issue and other things. His wife divorced him, his two kids won’t speak to him, his brother and sister won’t even mention his name…. He moved away, married a gal that had a “history” and became persona non grata around these parts.

This is a guy I knew all of my life, who I trusted with my life and would’ve died for. His family is one of the best and his father was as good a man as I’ve ever known. He threw all of it away for money and to try to dig himself out of a problem of his own making. It broke my heart because I’d never been betrayed like that before.

PROOF EVERYONE IS GOING BROKE!

If the Chinese government was forced to choose between Made in China 2025 and One Belt One Road for investment, which one should it invest in?

I believe that Made in China 2025 plays better to China’s traditional strengths, which are:

Production and manufacturing capacity;
Innovation and adaptation;
A growing domestic consumer market;
Fast to market speed;
Domestic consumers who are quicker to adapt than other markets.

It will also stimulate science innovation at a time when the US, EU and Japan are not investing as much.

Moreover, China needs to move up the value chain because the US has shown that it is an unreliable trading partner, which means that China needs to be strong in all the areas which the US is currently strong in, and replace the US as the world’s most innovative and reliable trading partner.

There is an opportunity here because the Trump administration and Republican Party have turned against science investment and education, which means that there is a good opportunity for China to attract science talent to work in China on next generation products and services.

In order to do this, China needs to open up immigration, not just to ethnic Chinese from overseas, but to all talented individuals with special skills who can contribute to Made in China 2025. It needs to become the immigration destination of choice for people from all over the world, replacing the US.

OBOR mainly benefits the large Chinese state-owned companies which are strong in transport development and infrastructure. However, the big question is when will these huge infrastructure projects be paid off?

If their domestic markets take a long time to develop, this means that these governments in central Asia will be saddled with high levels of debt to China, and creating animosity towards China among their own populations. (This has already happened in Malaysia, where the new Malaysian government has asked to re-negotiate the terms of Chinese infrastructure projects in Malaysia.)

For these reasons, I think that Made in China 2025 is the safer investment, and will help Chinese science and industry move up the value chain, replacing the US.

More common than you can believe

Beef Brisket

Ingredients

1 (5 or 6 pound) beef brisket
Onion, garlic and celery salt
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 small bottle barbecue sauce

Instructions

Marinate brisket in a mixture of the onion, garlic and celery salts and liquid smoke. Rub in well and poke holes in meat to help tenderize it. Marinate overnight or at least 3 hours.
Make a pouch of aluminum foil. Put meat in it and add salt and pepper to taste and Worcestershire sauce. Seal pouch well and bake at 275 degrees F for 4 to 6 hours.
Open pouch and put onion soup mix and small bottle of barbecue sauce over brisket. Seal pouch again and bake 1 hour longer.
Refrigerate for 1 hour before slicing across grain.

What was your favorite prison experience?

A few years ago, pre-COVID, I volunteered to teach inmates at Folsom Women’s Facility how to code.

In preparation for doing so, I was sent a list of do’s and dont’s (well, mostly don’ts, especially since any “do” can be converted to a “don’t” by negating it).

Some of the don’ts were fairly obvious–no physical contact with an inmate, no passing of messages to/from inmates, no discussion of their crime or sentence, etc.

Some were less obvious (to me, at least) but made sense once I read them…

Do not wear clothing that resembles the clothing that prisoners wear (so no jeans, no blue shirts, no orange, etc.)

Do not wear clothing that resembles what custodial staff wear (forest green pants, tan shirts, camouflage)

And there was “Do not under any circumstances run.”

I had (correctly) assumed I would be escorted to and from the classroom, so I couldn’t imagine running. “What’s this about?” I said to myself for a millisecond, then I read further. If a violent incident were to occur, typically the only people running are the perpetrators. Or the guards rushing to quell the incident. You don’t want to be mistaken for an inmate causing trouble, so don’t run.

All of a sudden, the blood drained from my face. “What am I getting myself into?”

Reading further, it said that incidents were rare, but they do happen. I composed myself.

Further down still, the verbiage was something like this–if an incident did occur, the guards’ primary objective was to prevent injury to the staff. I would be a volunteer visitor, and my safety could not be guaranteed. Hmm.

I signed the form. I wanted to help.

It was a bit of a drive–San Francisco to Folsom. Stayed overnight in an Airbnb, and was ready to go early the next morning. Short drive to the facility, enjoyed the scenery, etc.

Then I pull up the road that leads to the facility. As I approach and look for the parking area, I see guard towers, barbed wire, etc. “Holy shit, what did I get myself info?”

I panic for a few seconds, then compose myself. “This is going to be fun. Teaching is my happy place. These folks could use my help.”

I had always assumed that in retirement I would work at the Humane Society, or part-time at Home Depot or the like. But the moment I stepped in the classroom and introduced myself, I instantly knew what I was going to do when I retired.

I could make jokes about inmates being a captive audience, but the fact is–they were there to learn. Much more universally than my corporate clients, some of whom don’t really want to be there, or if they do, they aren’t allowed to focus because their boss keeps asking them to do things, even though they are in class.

I went back several times and enjoyed each and every moment with those students.

But the question asked about our favorite prison experience. It was a LinkedIn message I received a couple years later, from one of my former students:

“I hope you remember me from Folsom Women’s Facility. You did a Python workshop for us, I enjoyed it and was inspired by it. I am out now and working. Thank you for the knowledge and encouragement!”

That.

More of that, please.

Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer for an unusual reason?

The plant I work in is a 24/7 365 operation. I’m an industrial electronics technician/mechanic and this particular year I got the short straw. So late on the 24th of December Christmas eve and I’m on my way to work. Then this cop pulls in behind me, lights n such, and pulls me over. I couldn’t think of a single thing I had done wrong and was thinking, wtf, I’m gonna get a ticket on may way to work a night shift on Christmas eve, seriously???. I was clearly not feeling like this was going to be a good day.

Now I like putting my skills to work in my personal as well as professional life. My favorite thing is building projects, enter the pickup truck I was driving at the time. For note, this took place about 20yrs ago.

The cop comes up and immediately said, ‘you haven’t done anything wrong’. Which clearly left me very very confused. ‘Are those solar panels on your bed?’. Yes, yes they are. You see I had built an electric truck out of an old Chevy S10. The solar provided some free charging. The questions being flying and on the side of the road on Christmas eve I pop the hood and give an impromptu lesson on electric vehicles.

10min or so later excused myself, work awaited. Oddest stop I ever had.

As a car salesman, what was the biggest discount you ever gave on a car?

I worked for a Kia dealer in the late 90s. They had something called retro money. It was an incentive to the dealer. Every car you sold in a month got you xx dollars from the manufacturer. The more you sold the larger the incentive, and it was retro to all the cars you sold that month. So if the incentive went from 500 to 800 per car you would get the extra 300 on all cars sold for the month.

It is the last day of the month and we need to sell two cars to hit the next level. It would mean an extra 35k for the dealer. We sold the first one by 10am. Then it was a ghost town. No customers etc. I get a guy looking at a Kia Sportage. Not really interested, blah blah blah. It’s nearly closing time and this guy is the only customer. He is one of those that doesn’t buy the same day etc. I was ready to buy a car at this point. We offer him a deal, no, another deal, no. We gave him the rebate off of invoice as well as the holdback, the funny money. The final offer was a 4,000 loss from triple net cost. It was about 8k off of sticker price. This on a car that had a sticker price of about 18k. HE WANTS TO THINK ABOUT IT OVERNIGHT. I tell him this deal goes away. Honestly, if he didn’t buy it, I was going to. He did buy it.

Drizzle Drizzle; men have flipped the script but women DON’T GET IT

As a Starbucks barista, have you ever been terrified of the name someone wanted on their order?

I work at a fast food place, not Starbucks, but yeah, I’ve had my share of gross assholes who want me to call them shit like “big dick” or “daddy.” In the immediate aftermath of the 2016 elections, I had a Latine coworker who was told several times to put in “Trump,” and once, “Heil Hitler.” Thank g-d I wasn’t in the store that day. I think I would’ve had a heart attack.

The absolute worst I’ve personally taken was this douchebag who told me to put his name in as Hail Satan 666, and when I called his order by item instead of name, he told me he wouldn’t leave the store until I called it. I refused and told him we only called real names (not true, but a convenient excuse). He was snickering with his buddies and told me that was discrimination because that was definitely his real name, and did I have a problem with his real name? Goodness, I hope none of that merry band ever procreate.

On the flip side, I had a dude that same day who gave me his name, and when I apologized and said we could only use real names, he got the BIGGEST grin, pulled out his wallet….

…..and I put in his name, went to the back, and when my manager opened her mouth to tell me off I said “ohhh, no. I saw his driver’s license. His name is really Bruce Wayne, and we’re gonna call it.”

Can you write something that will shock me to the core?

In ancient Rome, the punishment for patricide (killing one’s father) was to be drowned in a sack along with a viper, a dog, a monkey and a rooster. The reason? I don’t even know.
Alice Stebbins Wells was the first ever policewoman who joined the LAPD in 1910. Because she was the first (and only) policewoman, she designed her own police uniform.

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3. Gorgias of Epirus, a Greek sophist, was born in his dead mother’s coffin while pallbearers were on their way to bury her. Who has an explanation for this?

4. In the 5th century, St. Simeon Stylites spent 37 years on a small platform on top of a tall pillar in Aleppo, Syria. He did it for ascetic reasons but sometimes I wonder how even spending 1 year on top of a skyscraper without coming down will be like.

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5. One of the most well-known gladiators of ancient Rome, Carpophorus, fought exclusively against beasts. You think Samson in the Bible was a beast? Carpophorus was a monster! Carpophorus famously defeated a bear, lion, and leopard in a single battle. That same day, he slaughtered a rhinoceros with a spear and set a record of killing 20 wild animals no other man will even venture to go near. Even Hercules didn’t do this!

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American Reacts to First Time You Realized America Really Messed You Up | Part 2 | TikTok

Have you ever had a job where you did nothing for years and nobody found out?

I do now.

It grew out of quiet quitting. Most other hospitals in town pay about 30–40% more for my job. So after making this known I cut back my work to about 60% and nobody noticed or cared so I cut back even further.

I do about 6 hours of work in a given week.

I show up, I train my classes 1–2 days a couple weeks a month then I go wander around clinics and bullshit with a few people to look like I’m busy. Then I go back to my desk and sit. Thanks to Covid office emptiness I keep headphones on so it looks like I’m listening to music. I’m listening to books on tape or watching YouTube videos. I keep something that looks like work on one of my monitors so I look busy but I pretty much just sit. Sometimes I work on additional certifications for when the ship sinks and I have to go work somewhere else.

I work from home on Fridays, which is to say I sign in to Teams and watch Netflix for 8 hours.

If I can keep this up for 13 years and this poorly run mess I work for doesn’t bankrupt itself, I retire with a full pension.

How did your marriage end?

I have been married twice.

My first marriage ended with my wife’s bloody body in my lap.

She took only about a minute to die.

We had been married, exactly 5 years, she died on our anniversary. She was pregnant, so I also lost the person who would have been my firstborn.

My second marriage ended when my wife died in hospital, from cancer, while I was asleep, at home, she took just days short of 2 years to die.

We had been married 46 years.

I’m still trying to work out which was the worst.

The strange thing about all this is that my first wife died on the 17th of August 1963, at 0130 hrs.

My second wife died on the 17th of August 2013, at 0115 hrs.

I decided to not remarry as I would be depressed every year as August approached.?

PS. My birthday is the 27th of August.

What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?

I came into work one morning at around 9:30AM and so was admittedly late. This was in the early 70s so flexible working was not a thing. My boss called me into his office, and gave me right bollocking. I resigned on the spot basically telling him that if he didn’t like it he could stuff his job.

This does seem to be rather high-handed of me, but the context is that I had finished work at 4 AM, destruction testing and debugging a programme suite I had written over the previous 6 months. I had just worked continuously from Friday 10 PM until Monday 4 AM surviving on sandwiches and copious amounts of caffeine citrate tablets so by the time I arrived at 9:30 AM on Monday I was still pretty strung out and probably resembled the crazy doctor in the Cannonball run.

I was incensed to be carpetted without being asked for an explanation. Two days later I had a new job with a 50% salary increase.

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

I worked a $8-an-hour part-time job on weekends because I needed the money. Like all low-wage jobs, it was hard work, stupid policies, supervisors with a take-it-or-leave it attitude. It was a high-turnover position; people were always quitting and they were always hiring. We were always understaffed.

We were without a manager. Our team lead had been pressed into service without title or pay raise while they recruited the position. For months. As an employee formerly in our position, he was sympathetic to our viewpoints, did the job well, and was popular with us front-line guys. He applied and interviewed for the position he was already spending 40 hours a week doing.

He didn’t get the job.

On the new manager’s first day, our disappointed and bitter team lead quit. Fully 80% of the team followed him out the door. Many of us told our team lead that the only reason we hadn’t already quit was that we hadn’t wanted to make his job as our unacknowledged manager harder.

That didn’t stop the fucker from disappearing instead of repaying the $500 I had loaned him.

There’s a brewing crisis in the semiconductor supply chain against the West that no one is talking about.

For years, the race we all hear about is to lower and lower node sizes. China (SMIC) decided that competing on this was a fools errand.

They are currently flooding the market with 28nm (and above), also known as “mature processes”. This is the same strategy they took in solar panels and batteries. By some accounts, they’ll have a third of this market in a few years.

28 nm is a limit after which transistors had to be redesigned for heat dispersion, data transfer and electric interference, expensive for minimal speed increase. Some think that it is better to keep that design. but use gallium, photonics and other tech to make chips faster. There’s also this interesting cost curve where 14nm is the inflection point where it starts to become more expensive rapidly.

The running after Moore’s law of stuffing more primitive logic into smaller and smaller chips ends up with, for most applications, only marginal gains in useful functionality. Bigger, although still tiny, integrated circuits take up marginally larger space/volume and energy consumption and do the job within acptable response times for logical cycles.

In marketing terms this makes even more sense to raise the cumulative return on mature proven minimum defect production cycles. Going after smaller etching dimensions involves a far higher investment and as can be seen a smaller market.

The experience and tacit knowledge gained on the rising throughput in 28nm etch production is likely at some point to result in the systems teams involved coming up with better designs for smaller dimensioned products simply as a result of their accumlation of their know how (learning curve).

Why is this a problem:

They need 28nm for a ton of things. Lower node is more profitable, but higher node chips are critical for a bunch of things. Cars. IoT. Microcontrollers.

And most worrying: these higher node chips are important for the military. The US government, especially under Trump, tried to get the military to have a better sense of the provenance of chips. They have, for the most part, failed. Chips are bought by systems integrators and the systems integrators have little sense of their own supply chain.

Qualcomm etc aren’t lying per se, but you need to fulfil orders. Some of them are civilian and are military. Some get filled by SMIC chips others by global foundries.

What’s more important?

Their military production might be at risk of being cut off in the event of conflict. Intel’s foundry is targeting lower nodes. It won’t touch these lagging edge processes. Why should it? There’s no $$ in it.

The US private sector has shown great disinterest in solving this.

It was obvious some time ago that this would happen, and it’s the consequences of capitalist short term policies of the US administration. Anyone in tech knows military equipment does not use advanced node chips.

Whatever West does is too little & too late if West’s purpose is to kneecap China. China can make everything, materials, chemicals, and equipment for making 28nm chips & above. China has some workarounds for making 5nm chips too.

This gain in Chinese market share is not export driven, but from domestic consumption growth and divestment from US foundries. Too many people are short-sighted and think that China cannot properly manufacture advanced chips. Take a look at Huawei’s recently released PUEA70, which has a 7-nanometer chip and a camera module that surpasses Sony’s.

I think another point that the West hasn’t realized is that Chinese advance in semiconductor will quickly spill over to Vietnam too (China is already eating into South Korea & Taiwan’s lunch) and there won’t be anyway to diverge from China-Vietnam supply chain network and still able to compete on price (China already can mass produce for much cheaper than other East Asian developed economies). This spillover has already happened in solar industries.

Saving Private Ryan RIPPED Me to Shreds – First Time Watching

One of the best reactions.

This movie was a hard watch and a complete emotional rollercoaster. I cried and laughed (sometimes at inappropriate moments), but mostly sobbed. Okay... not just sobbed, I UGLY cried. Kinda embarassing, but it's out there now, don't judge me for my faces of despair! Lol. Trust me, I went to bed hugging my dog after filming!

A tale of stale popcorn

When I was a senior in High School, I had a group of friends that I used to hang around with.

Oh, sure, most of the time we just stood around, smoked joints, drank beer and did acid. But it was a different time and a different place. We would alternate our locations, from the “standard” keggers, to road drives though the Western Pennsylvania woods to just hanging out near the river at a tipple.

Anyways, one of the guys was this older fella named Calvin. I liked him, but he was a hard drinker and partier.

I still get a chuckle out of this, but we are all stoned in my GTO. Calvin was in the back seat. A friend had lit a “Thai stick” which of course, was a very powerful form of marijuana, and when you smoked it, it felt like a baseball bat smashed your face. And we were parked outside this historical landmark; an old church and cemetery. We were listening to Led Zeppelin, and just sitting there completely zoned out. Our brains were pickled.

Calvin was chewing on something. He would reach into the ashtray at the side of the door wall and pull out some old cigarette butts and put in in his mouth and chew on it.

Then he said, after a while… “Man, this popcorn is the really stale”.

OMG! What a great belly laugh we all had.

Good times. Good Times.

Today…

ROC confronts PRC over water delineation around Quemoy

The PRC has sent barges into the channels between Quemoy and Xiamen to deepen the water channels between the ROC-held island of Quemoy and the PRC city of Xiamen. The ROC government in Taipei has said that this is a violation of the lines which the ROC had drawn between the two governments, and which had largely been respected by both sides.

Following the Feb. 14 event where an ROC coast guard ship chased a PRC fishing boat, leading to its capsize and the death of two PRC fishermen, the two sides have been involved in several rounds of negotiations. The PRC side has demanded a public apology and compensation to the families of the fishermen, but the ROC authorities have refused. So the PRC side has decided to deepen the shipping channels in the area, and violating the lines drawn up by the ROC.

Now the ROC authorities are threatening to take action against the PRC ships working in the area. They have not specified what actions they will take aside from pushing the PRC ships out of the area. This sets the stage for a confrontation.

The problem with the ROC position is that the authorities now publicly refer to the ROC as “Taiwan”, because the ruling DPP is for Taiwan independence. By taking a stance on offshore islands so close to Xiamen and PRC-held territory, they are choosing to enforce territory which is far away from Taiwan, and is not considered to be a part of “Taiwan”.

Why are they doing this? Do they expect the Biden administration to support them? It does not make a lot of sense.

If they don’t enforce it though, it is likely that the PRC air force and navy are unlikely to recognize air and sea claims made by the ROC anymore.

Salami-slicing in action.

Chuck Wagon Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

Cobbler Crust

5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup shortening
1 cup cold water

Cobbler

1 Cobbler Crust
1 cup granulated sugar
6 cups peaches, drained and juice reserved
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup Half-and-Half
1 cup juice from drained peaches
1/2 cup Black Jack Daniels

Instructions

Cobbler Crust

Mix dry ingredients and add shortening. Cut in with a fork. Mixture should look like coarse meal.
Add cold water gradually to make a ball.
Divide into 2 balls, top and bottom. Roll out one and line a 14 inch pan or 14 inch Dutch oven.
Roll out remainder and cut into 1 inch slices for latticework on top.

Cobbler

Melt butter in saucepan. Add peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon, sugar and Half-and-Half. Mix well.
Line pan or Dutch oven with crust.
Pour in fruit mixture.
Cover top with strips of crust in latticework pattern.
Moisten strips with water before baking and sprinkle sugar on latticework for crispy finish.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Every Man Needs To See This

What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?

When I bought my first car, a 1966 Mustang, my father insisted that I take it to his mechanic to go over it to make sure it was all working properly before I could drive it. It would stall out after 10 minutes of driving, so there was a problem.

The following was on the bill….
Clean top of carburator
Check oil filter for loosenes
Check window operation
Check exhaust system
Check steering, suggest replacement of steering box.

This was 1972 and the bill was over $300.00!!

The actual problem was a pinched fuel line. Rubber hose and two clamps. $1.50.
I replaced the oil filter and changed the oil. $7.50 total.
I removed the interior panels of the door, and greased the tracks. Already had grease $0.00
I replaced a broken hanger for the exhaust. $3.50
I pulled out the steering box and found it only needed grease and adjustment. Time and labor, already had grease $0.00.

The dude that worked on my car was a hack. I pointed out all this to my father and he only said “I guess your a better mechanic than the place we took it to. I never went back there.

Idiots

Is it difficult for British expatriates to find entry level jobs in law and business in Hong Kong as of 2023? Where do I look for work?

It’s difficult for my legal bod cousins. As I’ve mentioned before in another post during CNY celebrations a lot of UK born cousins were back in HK. A lot of them were looking for a route to come live in HK.

One of them was my cousin from one of my dad’s sisters. She’s worked in a UK legal firm for ages and wanted a way to come back here. Her just like many UK born ones have HKID cards so do not need visa sponsorship.

She had work experience.

She can work for less because accommodation is provided, the Clan provides several fully fitted out portacabins right at the back of the village, Portacabins are used because the common houses are being torn down and rebuilt. Anyway these portacabins all you have to do is pay for the electricity used.

She’s also pretty damned good in Chinese, HSK6… but here’s the thing HSK6 is still considered by most China born Chinese to be illiterate!

So? You have none of the above advantages.

You have to answer the question to HK immigration – why should I let you work in HK? What skills do you have that are in demand or somebody in HK can’t do. AND it has to pay over $28,000 a month.

You’re competing against all the returnees.

Jimmy Tells American General “The U.S. Is The World’s Biggest Terrorist!”

What is the most unsettling thing someone has said to threaten you?

A group of my friends was out drinking at a local bar where the music was loud, the floor was sticky, and the atmosphere was biker/tattoo/STD/obnoxious.

I was talking with someone who was an acquaintance-they were a friend of one of my friends. We knew each other, but only through these mutual friends.

Unfortunately, alcohol makes some people belligerent and, in the case of this one particular individual, paranoid.

I must have said something that didn’t sit well with him because the belligerent paranoid (BPA) accused me of disparaging him (I had not). He turned to my husband and told him he knew for a fact that our daughter was not his biological daughter (She is 100% his biological daughter). He started uttering non-sensical statements which I, for the most part, ignored and took as our cue to get the hell out of that dive bar.

The BPA went to the bathroom, my husband waited to pay the tab, and I went to get the car.

While I waited for my husband to come out, the BPA came up to my window and just stared into my car until I noticed him which caused me to jump and scream. I rolled down my window and told him he nearly gave me a heart attack.

Then he very calmly stared at me and said, “I’ll be by later tonight to stick a lighter in your outside dryer vent until your house catches and you all burn to death.”

Who the fuck communicates such a descriptive and specific way to unalive someone they barely know for reasons that are a complete figment of their imaginative paranoia?

My husband and I didn’t sleep well that night. The next day we installed cameras. And we have avoided all contact with the BPA since that unsettling and strange incident.

Bring your cat to work day

What are some deep things you should read today?

Everybody is self-made but only millionaires will admit it.
When you work for someone, the harder you work , the richer they get . When you work for yourself, the harder you work, the richer you get.
Continue to live for moments that make your heart smile wider than your face could ever imagine.
Uncomfortable dating tips : Women want you the most when you don’t need them.
Most people know “WHAT”to think , not “HOW” to think . If you learn this, you can conquer the world.
You can’t force love. Either it’s there or it isn’t. You’ve got to be able to admit it . If it’s there , you’ve got to do whatever it takes to protect it.
Modern life is low-level psychic warfare.
Men will gladly spend a whole day with a woman, but not a single hour on their purpose. And, in the end, they ask, “why did she leave?”.

Men Have FINALLY Had Enough Of Their FEMALE Colleagues

Who is the dumbest law enforcement officer you have ever encountered?

Oh I have a doozy.

1978. Houston. Near the Galleria Mall.

I was getting off the freeway when a police car cut me off, almost running me off the road, no signal. Just truly bad driving.

Being young and stupid, when I was beside him at the light, I called him on it.

Oh he lit me up. I had three friends in my car with me. He made me get out of the car and was just screaming at me, telling me he could do anything he damn well pleased and poking me in the chest the entire time. I politely asked him to stop poking me with his finger and he threatened to break all my fingers off. He was so mad he was spitting and his partner was standing next to him with a smirk.

I stayed calm and asked my friends to write down their name, badge number, and car number. That’s when they hopped in their cruiser and just zoomed off.

I didn’t like it, so I called and talked to the desk officer. He took all the information and I assumed absolutely nothing would happen.

Nope.

I got a call back from a lieutenant a few days later. They had done an investigation, because the location I reported them at was nowhere NEAR where they were assigned for that shift. What they discovered is that they were cutting out of their area, going to the mall, and catching a movie. Lots.

The lieutenant shared that this was not the first complaint, but it was the last, because they’d both been fired.

Moral of the story? If you’re doing something outright stupid, don’t light up the stubborn college kid.

Today’s Shinjuku Kabukicho August 23, 2023 UP

As a patient, what’s the angriest you have ever been toward a doctor?

Dad had stage four mastatised pancreatic cancer, double incontinence, dementia and crippling arthritis. His oncologists used to call him in every month for a check up that consisted of him looking at dad’s medical notes asking how he was then nodding his head, that’s it. But, the trip to the hospital took nearly an hours preparation, a forty minute drive each way, a ten minute walk from the car park to the clinic (dad in a wheelchair when I found one) and then the worst bit! The oncologist used to call ALL that days patients in at 0930 then see them in alphabetical order! Look at our surname! The first few times were bad but one time after dad returned to the hospice he had to be rushed back to the same hospital under blues and twos! The next appointment we managed about an hour in the waiting room and dad was struggling to hold back his tears of agony, so I wheeled him out and started along the corridors back to the car. First the receptionist tried to stop us and I told her what to do on a short pier, then the nurse came running up to try to return us to the clinic “as the doctor was very busy and would get to us as soon as possible”. Dad told her to go forth and fornicate or something similar! She ran back and told the doctor (don’t know if fornication was involved or not). Pushing a wheelchair with a mind of a shopping trolley containing a fifteen stone (210#) obese man (5′2″ ) in immense pain, who didn’t want to be there, you don’t move very fast! The doctor caught up to us to find out what was going on and exercise his presumed authority! Wrong move! My dad used to be a CSM and he taught me how to project orders across a parade ground! Don’t shout at me if you have sensitive hearing! Amongst other things (including the legitimacy of his birth) I told him we were there for the benefit of dads health and not his ego! And we left, luckily for him he didn’t try anything physical! I’m also 210# but six foot tall and very little of that was fat! Unfortunately the stress and strain on dad contributed to him once again that evening being returned to hospital by emergency ambulance.

Now my dad through a variety of reasons was no stranger to that hospital. In the ward he usually ended up on, all the staff knew him and were on first name terms, most since being students. One of the senior consultants had first met my dad when he was doing his medical training and had become friends (even came to dad’s funeral! What, you think you recover from stage four pancreatic cancer? At 81?) He wanted to know why dad was back in hospital once again. So we told him who, how and why! Now this senior consultant is married to the chief executive of the hospital, that may or may not be the reason that the oncologist changed his appointments policy from block appointments to individual appointments and a very significant attitude adjustment the next time we went to see him!

Gen-Z

What is the biggest secret that your first boss told you that has helped you the most?

I started to work as a programmer with a large insurance company.

I was also going to a university at night for an engineering degree.

So, the job was just a paycheck for me until graduated.

My supervisor called me into her office and let me know that she knew that I was just using the job as a steppingstone until I graduated. She was a quaker and peppered her speech with thee and thou. A lovely lady.

She told me the company had its own problems and if I showed some diligence in my job, she would ensure that I would be rewarded for my effort.

I took her advice and made a great effort to please her and focused on my job.

When the company put together a planning group, she insisted that I be a part of it.

The group consisted of two vice presidents, three directors and one programmer.

The first problem we tackled was the number of boxes of paper documents shipped to all our service locations at the end of the month. The cost of shipping the boxes and how hard it was to look up the data at the service location.

This was in the late sixties and personal computers were not common.

I was a tech magazine reader at the time, so I suggested to the group that we output the data to a fiche machine because the fiche produced would be less costly to ship than sending boxes,

It would require the home office to buy the fiche machine and the service locations to rent fiche readers, which at that time were very cheap.

The benefit to the service location was the fiche was easy to handle and never got torn.

Well, the company and the service locations loved the idea, so it was accepted.

The planning group stayed together for a year, and we solved some smaller problems.

That 15-minute conversation with my supervisor changed my life forever.

When I received my degree, I no longer had an interest in engineering and chose to stay in the computer field.

She is gone now but not forgotten.

Pepe Escobar: Putin and China Send DEVASTATING Warning to NATO as Germany, Macron Threaten WWIII

This is really rather good.

Can Quora conservatives explain why and when you started being a conservative?

I can try.

It’s a long story, though. But, like most other people, my political leanings are the result of my influences early in life, and my experiences. And, to some degree, what I didn’t experience, that others did experience.

For example, it’s easy to be supportive of the police, when you’ve only ever had positive encounters with them. It’s easy to assume that most people can avoid negative encounters with the police by simply obeying the law.

That door swings both ways. It’s easy to have an adversarial view of the police when you or someone you know had a negative encounter with them.

Once you get a political idea in your head, you start to see it everywhere you look. This is true for people across the political spectrum. You’re influenced to see certain things and, by God, now that you’re looking for them, you see them everywhere.

For me, my journey to the right side of the political spectrum is more of a journey of being pushed away by the left, rather than willingly moving towards the right. I’m more libertarian than conservative, but, in contemporary America’s binary political landscape, it seems that anything that isn’t progressive is often all grouped under “conservatism.”

Progressives: What’s your stance on [this issue]?

Me: Total indifference. It has nothing to do with me.

Progressives: So you don’t support the people who are dealing with it?

Me: Does my support or lack of it have any impact on the issue whatsoever? No? Then why must I choose to support it or not? Why can’t I remain indifferent?

Progressives: You sound like a conservative. Your silence tells us all we need to know, and it won’t protect you.

Me: If indifference on this topic makes me a conservative in your eyes, okay then. I’ll add your labeling of my political stances to the list of things I don’t care about.

If I’m being super honest, in the last decade or so, I’ve gone from identifying as “libertarian” to identifying as “cynical.” I assume that most politicians are only looking out for themselves, most government attempts to fix issues will fail, or make things worse, the government has more than enough money to fix society’s problems, but a lot of that money is wasted, etc…

For example, there’s a ballot measure here in Chicago to raise taxes on real estate sales over $1m, to raise funds for housing options for homeless people. My view on that is that it will likely pass, but not a single homeless person will be helped by this. Any money raised by this will find its way into the pockets of politicians and their supporters, while the expenses will just passed on to renters. The people who support it will get to pat themselves on the back for caring about the homeless, while ignoring the complete lack of tangible positive outcomes from it. The goal here is virtue signaling from the rank-and-file voters, sticking it to “rich people,” and lining the pockets of the Democratic machine. Homelessness is just the necessary reasoning for it all.

Basically, I assume that, for the rest of my life, the general situation in the world, and in my country, will be roughly the same as it is now, and my best move is to put myself and my children in a position to avoid the worst of it. The “status quo,” when it comes to politics, is too hopelessly entrenched to be uprooted, and too hopelessly corrupt to be effective.

But this question is about the origins of my conservatism, not why I stick with it in middle age.

I suppose my political journey began as a child in the 80s and early 90s. My father worked for the U.S. Navy, as a civilian machinist. Among other things I remember him saying about his job were:

He was forced to spend millions of dollars on machines that he didn’t really need in his shop, but the companies who made those machines donated to the right politicians.
He was forced to spend every single dime he was allocated for the fiscal year, or, the next fiscal year, he wouldn’t get as much allocated. Saving money isn’t rewarded, but is actually punished, when you work for the government.
He would never be promoted beyond his current level, no matter how well he did, because he was a white male. Back then, the federal government was only interested in promoting racial minorities and females.

That last one was something I heard versions of from most white men I knew growing up. Of course, half of them worked at the same base where my father worked, so they dealt with the same policies. None of these were rich white men. They were all working class white men, and they all felt like they were being punished for things they didn’t do, in the name of “fairness.” And they placed the blame for that injustice directly at the feet of liberals.

The same white “social justice warriors” of the 50s and 60s found themselves, by the 80s, on the receiving end of social injustice, in the form of Affirmative Action. It seemed like every middle-aged white male I knew growing up was a “live and let live” and “don’t judge a book by its cover” kind of guy, with a serious chip on their shoulder that others weren’t adhering to the “don’t judge a book by its cover” mantra. Every single white guy who felt like they were falling behind in society was able to blame Affirmative Action for their slipping, no matter how true it was.

The message, for younger white guys like me, was easy to pick up: it is legal to discriminate against you because of your race and gender, and you just have to accept it.

And, once you start looking for it, you see it everywhere.

Why does my high school have a counselor specifically for helping minority students get into and pay for college? That’s discrimination. Why is no one calling it out? My parents are taxpayers, too. That counselor should be helping everyone who needs help with those things, and not discriminating against students based on race.

You just have to accept it… or, affiliate yourself with the side of the political aisle which points out the hypocrisy of it all.

So it wasn’t so much “we’re conservatives,” as it was “liberals are working against people like us, so I guess that makes us conservative by default. Where else would we go?”

By the time I got to high school, I was socially liberal, in the sense that I simply didn’t care about people’s personal business, particularly in the bedroom. I was also very concerned about environmentalism, and even started a small paper recycling program in my school. It didn’t last, but at least I tried. I wanted to be a “part of the solution.”

My environmental views have skewed heavily to the cynical side in the 30 years since starting high school. I think recycling paper is a huge waste of time.

I remember, however, in high school, being annoyed by some of my more politically involved classmates, demanding that I (and everyone else) not only form opinions in line with theirs on certain topics, but openly express our support. They had the “if you’re not openly supporting us, you must be quietly opposing us” attitude that I’ve seen in other progressives in my adult life.

Some of my most common PG-rated thoughts throughout my high school years were versions of “I’d care more about this person’s point of view if they weren’t so damn loud and obnoxious all of the time.” And, of course, a sarcastic “the problem you’re in could have been easily avoided has you made more conservative choices in life.”

It was during those years that my own sister, of her own volition, developed a drug habit, became a teen mom, and dropped out of high school. I had a front-row seat, starting around age 12, of how to ruin your life through really shitty decisions, and it sapped a lot of the sympathy I had for people who were dealing with the consequences of their own shitty decisions.

Although I’m getting better about it, when I hear that someone put themselves in a bad situation, and is now begging “society” to bail them out of it, one of my first thoughts is, “how is this anyone else’s problem but yours? Why should we all have to pay for this?”

Anyway, that’s my evil conservative origin story.

Tales From The Streets : San Diego Streets Ep-4

What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?

While inprocessing for the military, I worked at a radio station selling air time in a town of 30,000. When I took over my route a retired Army major was occasionally hitting $6,000. That was pretty good in 1979. I took billings over $8000. Three months later, I was fired (I was the only man), and a young cutsie 22-year-old girl was hired. She had zero experience.

My sales manager/station owner’s wife told me to “clean out my desk.” I did just that, trashing everything including sales invoices for the month. She made a big point of letting me know I wouldn’t be getting my commissions. I waited patiently for my salary check ($1,500 at the time) at my desk, then walked to the bank and cashed it.

Two days later I got the call. “Where are all the sales invoices for August?’

“In the trash.”

“What!?”

“You said clean out my desk. I did.” Then I hung up.

I heard later the young girl didn’t work out, and the station went bankrupt.

Sad, isn’t it?

Do you think that coaching institutes like Unacademy should be banned as they charge lakhs and crores and those who study from these will do corruption to recover their investment made on studies which they can’t earn honestly in a government job?

I absolutely do

Coaching has become an Industry today and whenever such things happen, everything becomes counter productive

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Xi Jingping rightly said

In China :-

Private Tutoring Apps had become an Industry and had commercialized education so much that the newer generation was no longer going to such coaching facilities to LEARN OR ADD TO THEIR KNOWLEDGE OR UNDERSTANDING but to specifically orient themselves to scoring marks in a specific examination (Gaokao)

Private Tutoring Apps had become exploitative and were commercializing learning to an extent where it was feared that the entire Gaokao could be modified to suit the whims of the Private Tutoring Apps

So he wiped out the Industry mercilessly

“F*** the Billions of Dollars in Paper value”

Today Tutoring has gone back to the old 60 RMB per Hour student tutors or Volunteer Tutorials and Extra Coaching

India and China both have predators who suck the blood of common people and exploit them in the name of capitalism

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The Difference is CHINA BANNED THIS

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In China, if any Institute publishes the list of toppers for admissions

Their license is suspended for 5 Years
They are fined not less than 60,000 RMB but upto 250,000 RMB

Ministry of Education Bans the Idolization of China’s Top Gaokao Scorers

Stories of the top achievers of China’s national exams can no longer be propagated by state media; the emphasis should shift to the average, harmonious student.

https://www.whatsonweibo.com/ministry-of-education-now-strictly-prohibits-the-idolization-of-chinas-top-gaokao-scorers/

India not only allows this to flourish but ignores cases where Institutes LIE about their students by paying money to the students and making the students lie

Most Coaching Institutions are run with political contacts

Now my point is

Is Unacademy really predatory?

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Just because they offer coaching for a fee doesn’t make them predatory

Just because they have referrals doesn’t make them predatory. That’s just business. Same as a Tutor asking you to give her cards to your friends.

Do they exploit the situation in India and claim if you don’t take their course, you will lose badly
Do they help you learn or do they force you to structure your brain into clearing the JEE or NEET rather than learning the topics?
Do they prostitute education by paying more money to marketers than teachers?

So far at least I dont think they are that bad

Please correct me if they have become that bad

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Coz that’s what happened to BYJUS

From being a place that helped students sharpen their brains to understand CAT better, they prostituted and pimped education spending more on “Celebrities” like SRK who also prostituted himself like he did with Arindam Chaudhari

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Unacademy are also going BYJUS WAY

Using Tendulkar the dropout of Xth Standard to promote an Education Product

So they too are starting to pimp out education

It won’t create the Students India needs

Not the thinkers, analysts, people who understand fundamentals – they aren’t born from KOTA FACTORIES or Prospective Pimping Edtech Apps

They are born by self study with tutoring to help them sharpen their brains

One thing to learn and understand Physics, Maths and Chemistry and USE THIS KNOWLEDGE AND WRITE THE JEE

Another is to learn Physics, Maths and Chemistry BECAUSE YOU WANT TO WRITE THE JEE

The former is a winner

The Latter ends up mediocre in life in every aspect

Solution?

Ban full page Ads of Toppers by various Institutions
Regulate the Coaching Fees
Make sure Coaching Institutes remain Sole Proprietorships Or Partnerships and dont become Companies
Ban any Coaching Institute taking over another Institute
Register all Coaching Institutions with Ministry of Education with select standards

Otherwise the next two generations of students, the so called FUTURE OF INDIA would be the most worthless

Anyone who exploits students like this must be taken to Gulags and forced to labor for 20 hours a day in the -17 degree weather

Tokyo’s Night Joy Paradise Plus Unexpected PERMISSION 2

Can you provide an explanation of the recent Texas v. Pennsylvania case before the Supreme Court? Is it accurate that President Trump does not have jurisdiction over these cases due to not being a member of Congress?

Well, let’s start with some basic principles of U.S. constitutional law.

Under the constitution, the Supreme Court may only hear original cases in very limited circumstances. One of those is when one state sues another state. That’s not uncommon, but usually its due to disputes about the right to use water from rivers that pass through more than one state. The usual procedure is to refer the case to a special master (usually a federal court judge) who holds the trial and reports back to the Supreme Court which can then affirm the decision.

Congress cannot expand the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to hear cases that aren’t listed in the constitution. That was what Marbury v. Madison was about – the court was given power by congress to hear cases involving disputes about judicial appointments in the District of Columbia, and ruled that Congress didn’t have that power.

Now, onto the case. The State of Texas attempted to bring a case shortly before Congress was to meet to confirm the result of the 2020 election to sue the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for not following its own election laws. Essentially, they wanted to disqualify all the mail-in ballots cast during the election on the theory that Pennsylvania law hadn’t authorized them. This issue had already been tried by Pennsylvania courts which ruled such suits were “untimely” – any such suit had to be brought before the election, not after.

But the only issue before the court was whether they HAD to take the case. As a rule, the Supreme Court chooses which cases it hears, but again if this is a case within its jurisdiction to hear new cases, they might have to take it.

What the court ruled is that no state has the right to start a case in the Supreme Court unless the judges agree to hear it. That’s probably good policy as it appeared this case would have asked the Supreme Court to allow one state to enforce laws in other states, which in any other case would be a no-no. For example, Texas could not sue to prevent Pennsylvania physicians from performing abortions on Texas residents just because it’s illegal for a Texas resident to leave the state for an abortion, or based on some theory that Pennsylvania law doesn’t allow physicians to perform abortions except on Pennsylvania residents. Once again, the issues in this case were already settled in Pennsylvania courts, and those could have been appealed to the Supreme Court if there were a constitutional issue (that’s what happened in Bush v. Gore).

But let’s get back to the rule about the Supreme Court only being able to hear a narrow range of original cases. The president does not have the right to sue in the Supreme Court (although he could be sued in, for example, a case involving the appointment of an ambassador – that’s within the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction). Members of Congress don’t have the right to sue in the Supreme Court either.

Elysium Movie Clip | Full Robot Fight Scene | Matt Damon | Diego Luna

What is the most unbelievable behavior you witnessed from a new co-worker that made them get terminated almost immediately?

I worked in a loan department as a loan clerk. A man was hired as a new manager for one of our branch offices. Our Vice President asked me to train the man on the loan process and how to type out the form letters, etc.. This man gave me grief from moment one.

He was arrogant and a smart aleck. I wanted to slap him about every five minutes. He was also a male chauvinist pig. He kept making sexual remarks to me and about me. When I sat him in front of the computer to type out the form letters, he refused to do them, saying “Typing is women’s work. I’ll have one of the women do it for me.”

The final straw came when I took him back to our Vice President’s office. The VP was asking me how he had done and before I could respond, the man said something to the effect of “Well, she wouldn’t sit in my lap, so I think she needs to be spanked.”. I just stared at the VP. He turned to the new manager and said “You’re fired. This is one great lady and you’ve disrespected her since the moment you walked in. Get out before I turn her loose on you.”.

Middle Class Meltdown: America’s Unseen Crisis

Biden = Russia, Russia, Russia!

Trump = China!, China!, China!

Nothing is ever going to get fixed.

Was Hitler a drug addict?

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Adolf Hitler was a chronic drug addict. His drug use was of epic proportions.

Hitler was prescribed by his doctors so many various drugs (including cocaine) that he was rarely in a state unaffected by powerful mind-altering substances.

According to his doctors, Hitler was “a good patient.”

He was meticulously adherent to the regimen for his chronic sinusitis: cocaine in aerosol form.
The German Fuhrer also took amphetamines, sedatives, and hormones.
Hitler relied on daily injections of the “wonder drug” Eukodol. It contained oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid. The drug caused the state of euphoria, practically rendering the user incapable of making sound judgments.

In his book “Blitzed”, German author Norman Ohler described how the Third Reich was permeated with drugs, including cocaine, heroin and most notably crystal meth, which was used by everyone from soldiers to housewives and factory workers.

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Pervitin, an early form of methamphetamine, was available in Nazi German without a prescription.

In Nazi military during WWII, drug use was encouraged.

In September 1939, Ranke tested the drug on 90 university students and concluded that Pervitin could help the Wehrmacht win the war.

The effects of amphetamines on an person are similar to those of the adrenaline produced by the body, triggering a heightened state of alertness. In most people, the substance increases self-confidence, concentration, and willingness to take risks while at the same time reducing sensitivity to pain, hunger, and the need for sleep.

Later, a dose of cocaine was added to Pervitin tablets, to increase the drug’s potency and encourage continuous use.

When Hitler’s drug supplies ran out by the end of the war, he suffered severe withdrawal from serotonin and dopamine, paranoia, psychosis, rotting teeth, extreme shaking, kidney failure and delusion.

The Sopranos – Paulie enjoys Miami

Can Mike Tyson still knock out Jake Paul when he’s going to be 58 years old in the fight?

Technically yes but realistically an emphatic no.

I never thought I would be saying this but Jake Paul is likely to beat Mike Tyson.

Why? That’s a legitimate question since we are talking about one of the greatest and most feared heavyweight champions ever V a relatively junior pro boxer with very few fights.

I’m afraid it all comes down to age, activity and conditioning. At age 40 or even 50 I’d give Tyson a great chance but he’s nearly 60 now, been out of the ring close to 20 years and been doing a lot of other things. Put simply he’s just not in condition to fight a professional fight. He could beat the hell out of the normal types of guys in the street no doubt about it but this is a professional boxing fight we’re talking about. It’s very likely that after one round of intense fighting he’ll be totally finished from a cardio perspective. After that last stand, Jake Paul who if nothing else can at least hit hard will probably get him.

Don’t be fooled by the videos of Tyson looking fast and powerful in training. They have been carefully edited to make him look good. In reality in the fight (if it’s a real one) he won’t look that good or fast. He’ll still have a bit of power so there is some danger to Jake Paul but probably only for one or two rounds max. After that it will a big advantage to the younger man.

No matter how good a condition a fighter is in, the age aspect of this is relevant. A 60 years old head isn’t supposed to get hit hard by a pro fighter. The blood vessels can’t be trained to take those shots like they used to.

For people of my generation it’s pretty sad to see the great Iron Mike Tyson reduced to doing this kind of circus act.

This fight could end pretty badly and shouldn’t really be happening at all. That’s capitalism for you.

EDIT : I guess the most likely thing here is that they’re both in on it as a money grabbing exercise and have agreed with each other not to hurt each other. The fight will probably be the least interesting part of the next few weeks. It’s all about the build up.

Mr. Spock Sends Up a Flare – Star Trek – 1967

What is the craziest thing you ever did when you were a teenager?

I can’t believe I am going to admit this….

When I was 14 years old in 1982-ish. I was recently uprooted from my lifelong hometown. I moved from upstate New York to Pennsylvania with my mom and step-monster. A friend of mine had just gotten sentenced to serve time in a NY state jail. I wrote to Scott frequently, as I thought he must be bored and lonely. I used this same stationary every time, with little unicorns on it. After the third or fourth letter, I realized just how bad it was for him in there.

I got together a little bit of money and bought some pot. I put it in a little matchbook, and sent the matchbook to Scott, along with a letter saying something like “I hope this helps.” I was smart enough not to sign my name, just in case anything bad happened. I thought that it was illegal to tamper with someone’s mail. It never even occured to me that the jail’s officials in charge were allowed to open up Scott’s mail and go through it. I used the same stationary as normal. Little unicorns. Can you see where this is heading?

My parents were surprised when federal detectives showed up. The formal charges were:

“Using the Federal Government (The United States Post Office) to transport illegal drugs across state lines.” To a correctional institution, no less.

Okay, you can laugh your a** off now…

I’ll wait.

Thank God I was 14. I was sentenced as a juvenile offender (the record was sealed); deemed “incorrigible”; had a PINS petition put in place against me (Person In Need of Supervision); had to perform 100 hours of community service and was almost placed in foster care because my parents couldn’t handle it or me anymore. Thankfully, my grandmother took me in, instead. My parents called me all sorts of stupid. Yes, I have to agree. But my answer to them at the time was “I thought he could use a buzz.”

Hugs.
-Valeri

The fourth

What is a polite response when someone says they don’t like your home?

I am soon to be 64. At this stage in my life, I have a VERY low tolerance for a**hattery. I don’t bother trying to be polite to people that aren’t polite.

The last time one of my sisters came to my house and made a comment about a few papers laying on the floor, I didn’t let her get away with it. I left them laying on the floor after they fell off the desk; for a good reason, but that was none of my sister’s business. I don’t believe in explaining to people why my house looks the way it does. Why SHOULD I? So, what I said to her was this: “You don’t REALLY want me to start critiquing YOUR housekeeping, do you?”. After I said that to her, she never said anything about anything that was on the floor again.

You see, her and her husband always leave their dining room table FULL of all different kinds of papers, looks real messy, but you know what? I never say anything because it’s THEIR house! They can keep it the way they WANT to! Plus, I don’t CARE about it, it’s not MY house! They SHOULD have the same respect for me!

AND, that’s the same way I feel about someone coming into my home telling me they don’t like it. Depending on who it is that is saying it, I MIGHT say something like “I don’t care, you don’t live here.” or maybe ”What did you come over for then?”. See, the FUN thing about messing with RUDE people, is because they never expect people to be rude BACK, which is why they are rude in the first place, because people LET them get away with it. *I* don’t. The looks on their faces when they are rude and I am blunt with them…PRICELESS!!!

Cowboy Burgers

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon seasoned pepper
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons butter
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 (1.0 ounce) envelope taco seasoning or 2 tablespoons Taco Seasoning
4 slices Cheddar cheese
4 Kaiser rolls
4 lettuce leaves
4 tomato slices

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine ground beef, seasoned salt and seasoned pepper; shape into four patties.
Grill or broil to desired doneness (about 5 to 6 minutes on each side for medium).
Meanwhile, in medium skillet, melt butter.
Add onion and taco seasoning; mix well.
Cook onion over medium high heat until soft and transparent.
Top each patty with onions and cheese.
Return to grill or broiler until cheese is melted.
Place each patty on a roll; top with lettuce and tomato.

Companies Are Being Forced Out of NYC… Why?

Are Democrat supporters who have a pathological hatred of Donald Trump aware that at least 80% of what they think about Trump is misinformation and comes from outright lies by the US Mainstream Media?

I was a mainstream reporter (NYTimes and NY Herald Tribune) when Donald Trump was in his early 30s in NYC. I got to know him at his hangouts and on several more private occasions.

He was not then, nor is he now, “stupid” as so many anti-Trumpers continually proclaim. He was, however, a man whose word meant absolutely nothing. He spoke almost nothing but outright lies and “gut” fabrications. He’d betray a “friend” in a blink; he loathed any woman whose “pussy” he could not “grab”. He was a physical coward in private and in public. He was frightened to wetting his pants of his Nazi-loving, face-slapping, fascist father, to whom he lied and groveled. He had no friends since he only took and never gave. Both men and women immediately felt his creepy, duplicitous, despicable ways and avoided him unless they wanted to be close to what they thought was his money. Her learned how to manipulate and twist the American legal system from his evil genius lawyer Roy Cohen (“Don’t tell me about the law, tell me about the judge.”). I believed then that hate is stupid and as a reporter I did not hate Trump. But I understood him, and understanding is the opposite of hatred.

Trump is now and was then (as any woman who knew him even a bit well would agree) —- a mentally vicious, endlessly traitorous, sickeningly self-absorbed adolescent with feminine soft hands (no manual labor) and a filthy tongue. That was in his early 30s. Any honest observer and reporter quickly found him out and in New York and environs his name was a dirty joke. . . Then came TV “reality” shows and millions of unfortunate Americans watched how he behaved and they want to be just like him, and get away with it. If anyone who reads this considers themselves a friend of Trump, may their gods help them. He will make America and Americans poorer in mind, money, than it ever was, The only way to beat the Russian-sponsored thug is to confront him with a community of people who will oppose him and his fellow liars, cheaters, thieves, and those who tolerate them,

Father’s statement

What did you do when an aggressive driver got out of their car and wanted to fight?

Bad Traffic day in Orlando, FL. As a legal motorcycle rider, I was following traffic laws and traffic lights, and traffic wasn’t moving at all. The *ssh*l* in the car behind me started to lean on his horn. After 5 or 10 horn blows I started to respond with my 139 decibel horn everytime, followed by a turn of my head to look at the driver banging his hands on his steering wheel and yelling again. When he tried to pull up next to me in the space between me and the car in the next lane, I moved to block just enough of the lane that he would have to hit either me or the car in the next lane. At this point he starts yelling at me. He continues to try to move up. The Car next to me gives him just enough space, and I continue to control my lane.

When he gets close enough he started yelling “You! On the motorcycle! ….” and a flood of anti-hispanic, anti-biker rhetoric just comes spewing out of his mouth. Not being hispanic and not considering myself a “biker”, I calmly turned around, looked him in the eyes, and said “No hables espaniol”.

The drivers is ENRAGED! He starts to get out of his car. And he keeps screaming about immigrants. Once he is out of the car, I turn to him again.

I say to him “I was born in Philadelphia PA. Am I an immigrant? And aren’t you smart enough to understand that I don’t speak Spanish? That is what “No hables espaniol” means.”

The man is flabbergasted, stops in his tracks, flaps his mouth several times, and the best revenge, the log jam broke and the light changed, at the same moment. As I pulled away, the man was left standing in the middle of the street with every car behind him laying on the horn, and trying to get around him.

It Begins… Army Troops Take Over NYC

Have you ever had to tell an employee that their attire was inappropriate?

Yes, I had to take on the most difficult challenge of all, a man telling a woman that her attire was inappropriate for the office.

To set the scene, this woman was a young adult, a peer and also a work-friend. She had just lost a bunch of weight and also taken a European vacation. She was feeling good about her body and bought a dress in Paris that showed it off. This dress was so low-cut that it showed the underside of her breasts. If you wanted to pick up a casual hookup in a bar, this was exactly the dress you wanted to wear. But I would never, could never say that.

What I said to her was that this dress looked awesome on her with her weight loss, and if she was looking for a date, it was a great choice. But if she wanted to be taken seriously as an engineer and not distract people, something more conservative and businesslike might be a better choice. She was, in fact, having difficulty being taken seriously, so she took this advice on board and dressed more professionally after that. I got to keep our friendship and not get sued. I’m super glad I won’t ever have to do that again.

Passport Bros are leaving and Modern Women are HUMBLED

When U.S. prisons are inspected, does it actually help the prisoners?

The American Correctional Association (ACA) came to do an inspection at the Federal prison I was in.

A failed inspection would mean loss of accreditation. I’m not aware that means anything other than egg on some suit’s face.

For a prison inspection to be meaningful, hordes of inspectors should rappel from helicopters into the yard in the dead of night without warning. They could carry badges, clipboards, and maybe a few pieces of equipment. (OK… five minutes warning so nobody gets shot).

Instead, the prison had months of notice. They had enough lead time that they could leisurely waste weeks, doing nothing to get ready. When the visit was about two weeks off, suddenly stuff started happening.

New paint was slathered on everything, thick enough it could’ve stopped an escape all by itself.

In the chow hall, we had a persistent leak in the roof. Because it wasn’t fixed for years, the drop ceiling soaked up water, several tiles collapsed, and ominous mold was growing in the insulation around the duct work. At about the same time that paint was being poured over every surface, a crew of inmates came in to patch the ceiling. They didn’t fix the leak, they just patched the drywall and drop in sections that were affected.

Our dishwasher could never get up to temperature. The water was so hard that the heating coils were continually clogged with deposits several inches thick. Pick up any tray that had gone through the thing, and you’d immediately see that the luke warm water wasn’t getting trays clean (of course we never bothered with soap or surfactants either). Instead of trying to fix the dishwasher, the staff, experienced in many an inspection, simply stopped using it. It was “temporarily out of service” for the visit, and we used thousands of dollars worth of disposable foam plates and cups for each meal. This kept the inspectors from finding out that the machine was actually permanently out of service.

So, no. The inspections didn’t help us at all. Our food did get dramatically better for the couple of days that the visit went on, but that was really the only change.

After the visitors left, the dishwasher was plugged back in so it could moisten the dirt on the plates, and the ceiling started to crumble again, revealing mold that had blossomed nicely in the humid darkness.

What story of survival blows your mind every time you think about it?

A bolt of lightning hit the right wing of the aircraft, and suddenly LANSA Flight 508 was plummeting toward the ground. Over the screams of dozens of others, Juliane Koepcke — who was sitting at 19F, a window seat — heard her mother say from the seat beside her: “Now it’s all over.”

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Seconds later, the plane is disintegrating in mid-air, and Juliane’s mom is gone. Juliane is still strapped in her seat, but she is not inside the cabin anymore — instead, she is all alone in the open air at a height of 10,000 feet, tumbling down from the heavens.

The last things she will ever see are packed treetops that look like broccoli heads. Or so she thinks.

Because the next day, she wakes up on the Amazon rainforest floor, still very much alive and miraculously only modestly wounded:

[1]

She had a concussion, a broken collarbone, some deep cuts. The forest, she wrote in her memoir, “saved my life,” the foliage cushioning the impact of her 10,000-foot fall. She went in and out of consciousness before finally pulling herself to her feet.

That is her first survival story, but now she is all alone in a jungle. She is seventeen years old, and she needs to focus on the next step. A second survival. Luckily for her, Juliane has lived in the jungle for several years, in a research station where both of her parents were working at the time.

She looks for her mom first, but doesn’t find her. Then, she decides to look for a stream, because streams often lead to villages, and she will soon need water. And when she finally finds a creek, she also finds dead people:

[2]

“When I turned a corner in the creek, I found a bench with three passengers rammed head first into the earth. I was paralysed by panic. It was the first time I had seen a dead body.”

crash

[Image of plain wreckage of LANSA Flight 508, which had boarded in Peru. (Coral Brunner/Shutterstock.)]

As days go by, a wound on her upper right arm gets infested with maggots about one centimeter long each. She remembered that their dog once had the same infection and that her father had put kerosene in it, so when she finds a small hut with a palm leaf roof, and outboard motor and one liter of kerosine, she sucks the gasoline out and puts it into the wound.

The next day she hears human voices, and she is saved for the second time around.

Later, Juliane found out that her mom also survived the crash, but was badly wounded and died a couple of days later in the rainforest, all alone, and desperately hoping that a miracle had saved her daughter.

And I guess it did.

SOURCES: the footnoted site and Google images.

[3]Footnotes

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/06/14/juliane-koepcke-missing-plane-crash-colombia/

[2] Juliane Koepcke: How I survived a plane crash

[3] juliane-koepcke

Visiting Japanese Maid Cafe🎀☕️ | @Home Cafe AKIHABARA | Mizukin Premium Maid | ASMR

Damn! My daughter would just love this!

You all must watch this. At least until after the chick gets the order.

Sitrep April

Ok, today (as I write this, might take a few months to get out there, though) it is early April.

Sitrep April 2024

Time for a sitrep that will probably be way out of date by the time your read this.

The United States national debt is higher than what was initially calculated. Currently as of last week, the nation’s $34 trillion debt is approximately 99% of GDP and, according to the CBO, will steadily increase over the next 30 years. We are told that this is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile in China, the debt is 60% of GDP and we are told the “China is collapsing”.
The United States military is policing New York Subways. They are carrying full automatic weapons and this is to make New York safer.
The United States military is all over the Texas border. They are carrying full automatic weapons and riding in tanks and armored vehicles. This is to make America safer.
The United States military is now occupying bases off the coast of China. They are carrying full automatic weapons and manning rocket launchers. This is to make China safer.
I think that it is so caring that Washington DC wants to make the world a better and safer place. Don’t you?

…

Ah, but I digress.

Let’s continue.

Ukraine fiasco is winding down. NATO has given up. The USA is throwing it’s hands up and the Ukrainians are on zombie auto-pilot. Russia is going to “mop up” and probably make a final push to force what remains of Ukrainian “leadership” to capitulate.
The morons in the EU are in a state of (drug induced?) delusion and unaware how truly fucked they are. NATO is kaput.
But, but, but… American tanks are moving toward Ukraine. American troops are in Monrovia. American “volunteers” and Special Forces are in Ukraine. Obviously a buildup is ongoing… to “end the war” before November elections? Politically driven use of military is a Democrat staple. Historically it results in many causalities and is rarely reported. What will happen? Use history as a guide. You tell me.
The new members of NATO Finland and Sweden are all dressed up with nowhere to go. Expect a short fizzle and die sometime in the next decade.

Now you know everything you need to know about Europe.

The United States tried to “go for the gold”, fumbled and now the entire place is a mucky mess. Not a pretty sight.

But the USA has a plan…

Janet Yelen is in China making proposals, threats, warnings and promises. The USA wants money, and some “elbow room”. A cash infusion and a grant, or loan is the minimum demand. China is being ever polite. But honestly doesn’t give a rat’s ass. It doesn’t care.
There are some deep-state bureaucrats in Washington DC pushing the Philippine provocation storms against China. Seemingly going against the direct orders of Biden. Expect that to “blow up” in their faces in the next year and China starts playing REAL HARD ball.

Is that all?

Nope. Things are interesting this year…

Strange tit4tat events. A “earthquake” in Taiwan, followed two days later with an “earthquake” near Washington DC. Hum… what a coincidence. Ah. These strange occurrences are coming hot and heavy don’t you know. Makes you appreciate the hand of God, eh?
Gaza. This event was predicted in the mid 1960’s. It’s an a long timer. Horrific, but this is just the appetizer for what will follow.
Gonna be an “election” in the United States in November. I am sure that the Oligarchy has determined who will be the winner and what will happen. It’s all a shell-game for the mindless rabble to keep their minds off their stressful misery.
Trump is talking up a big anti-China storm. Biden is on his hands and knees begging China. Night and day. The policies that will result with determine the flavor of society of the upcoming years. But will NOT determine if and when the world will end.

Overall…

Global changing demographics continue. Mighty uncomfortable for many. It’s gonna get even more uncomfortable for those of you in the West.
Propaganda spiels are still generously funded out of Langley Va. Expect to hear more about the “Russian failures in Ukraine” and how terrible life is in Russia. Expect to hear a continuation of the narrative how “China is collapsing” any day now, and so on and so forth.
In the West, inflation is reaching unsustainable levels. In times past, the pitchforks and fire torches would be out, as would be hanging nooses and gallows. But you do have to give credit where credit is due. The Western government really have their cattle well behaved and totally enslaved.
The drunken parties in “Capital Hill” continue unabated. They continue to spend like drunken sailors on crack. No signs of abatement or rehab. It’s a clown-show on steroids and its a racing towards the end of the line. The big cliff fall is a mere few years away.
The United States is undergoing a frightful social change where no one is dating, no one is getting married, and the prognosis is a MAJOR drop-off in birthrates to sustain society. Ah. Expect riots long before that. Nasty ones too.

On the technology front are some interesting developments…

Electric Vehicles are talking the globe by storm. Everywhere. That is everywhere except in the West. The gas-guzzler cartel won’t hand over their mantle of power. Oh, not yet. You all want a glimpse of the future? Remember BETAmax?
The “Congress-critters” are all in an outrage about Americans being able to post their views online without censorship. Darn pesky rascals. Not to worry, they are gonna ban Tiktoc. And thus maintain their control over the soapbox of the common-man. That is until the next APP enters the scene. Wanna bet it’s gonna come from Asia?

The American allies are a joke…

Haven’t heard too much on the “news” about Argentina. With the election of the USA-loving, Communist-hating, “president”, a new Argentina has emerged. And if you thought it was a shit-show before, it’s a real cluster-fuck right now. Not being reported on… well… there’s NOTHING good coming out of there these days. So, NOTHING is being reported.
The South Korean “president” is another butt-fuck loving American prostitute. I was particularly moved… to vomit… when he sang the “Star Spangled Banner”. Well, his green card is in place, and money is transferred into American banks, so he has not a care in the world. Just let the 4B movement run its course. He’s doing whatever his owners want. He’s got his. What about YOU?
Many things are going unreported in the world. But that is to be expected. Lots, and lots and lots of “color revolutions” that have dudded out, fizzled out, and pretty much went limp dick. Please pass the peas, Marge…

And moving on…

Meanwhile, the (former) third-world operates 5G, high speed trains, has face recognition, drives electric vehicles, and has inflation a mere fraction of what is terrorizing the West with. The world got on the bus and drove off. The West is still playing in the mud puddle in the road… totally and completely oblivious that the rest of the world just left the building.
But not to worry, the Western media continues to portray the United States as the leader in everything… from “freedom” to “democracy”. From low inflation, to high employment numbers. From the best universities, to the best in everything. Weeeeee!

Maybe you don’t want my colored summaries. That’s fine. ChatGPT will tell you the same thing, only in a much more plausible manner.

The world is evolving. And it is painful; face contorting to endure. It is a dumpster fire, and it is a blazing. But it is going though the washer and drier and it will emerge better than before, by a long shot. I remain quite hopeful, even though the visuals are awfully nasty.

Today…

What is the most useless job that you’ve ever done?

When I was in high school I got my first part time job as a Maize Master.

You read that right. It’s a play on words, since I worked at a giant maze that was cut into a large corn field.

Every year the field is dug up and a new pattern is planted, since the corn maze only lasts about 8 months at best.

My job, was to walk the maze enough times to memorise the ways out and know where all the clues were hidden. It’s actually pretty simple after you’ve walked the maze with a map for a day or two. Then it just becomes engraved in your memory.

The reason this job felt useless was because I spent every weekend, for about eight months, walking this maze 8 hours a day in the blistering South African sun. When people got lost and started to panic they would end up just walking through the corn “walls” and force their way out of the maze.

I ended up spending most of that time strolling about, listening to music and reading the Harry Potter books.

The only fun part of this job, was having three of my friends working with me. We each had a walkie-talkie which was supposed to be used to keep in touch with each other in the maze and point out people that were in need of assistance.

We usually ended up just running around wildly, pointing out hot girls that were coming our way and calling ourselves the “children of the corn”.

Can politicians be called leaders? If not, what is the difference between the two?

Leaders are those who keep the Nation in mind all the time

To them the Country comes first

They make unpopular decisions if it benefits the nation as a whole

They are long term visionaries

…

Politicians are those who keep themselves and their party in mind all the time

They aim to have power to either enrich themselves or become more powerful

They don’t care about the country or the people

They are short term visionaries who care only about votes and elections

…

Populists are a hybrid between Leaders and Politicians

They either endorse a Doctrine or ideology of their own or by an organization like the RSS or NED or Religious Doctrine

Their ultimate quest is to ensure their ideology succeeds and they would do whatever it takes to achieve that

They use both Party and the People to achieve this

I only included Democratic Nations in this list of definitions.

If you are doing something that your partner would be uncomfortable with… THAT is cheating

Yellen trip to China

Reuters has a posting up about Yellen’s trip to China and the title is

Yellen says China is too big to export its way to rapid growth

China is not responding to its economic gyrations like empire wants because China retains control of finance and the PBOC is deciding who takes the losses instead of private interests forcing governments to cover their financial bets, like in the West….and rapid growth internally is not China’s goal, stable world growth is.

I expect China to school Yellen in just that scenario of privatizing profits/socializing losses that is staring the US in the face, again…..rampant social/financial abuse of humanity by the God Of Mammon cult and its supporters like Pope Frank and his Catholic church.

What right does Yellen have to preach anything to China? I have saved a 6 page story from somewhere about Yellen’s trip last year dated April 25, 2023 and we will see what the comparisons are as the circus show unfolds.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 5 2024 14:54 utc | 15

Looks like a lot of fun

Death of empires: History tells us what will follow the collapse of US hegemony

The turn away from expansion, production and trade toward lending and speculation has precipitated decline for centuries

One of the curious features of the American landscape is the fact that these days the financialization of the economy is widely condemned as unhealthy, yet little is being done to reverse it. There was a time, back in the 1980s and ‘90s, when finance-driven capitalism was supposed to usher in a time of better capital allocation and a more dynamic economy. This is not a view one hears often anymore.

So, if such a phenomenon is overwhelmingly viewed negatively but isn’t being amended, then perhaps it’s not merely a failure of policymaking but rather something deeper – something more endemic to the very fabric of the capitalist economy. It is of course possible to lay the blame for this state of affairs at the feet of the current crop of cynical and power-hungry elites and to stop one’s analysis there. But an examination of history reveals recurrent instances of financialization that bear remarkable similarities, which invites the conclusion that perhaps the predicament in the American economy in recent decades is not unique and that the ever-rising power of Wall Street was in a sense preordained.

Keep working

Introducing Giovanni Arrighi: Financialization as a cyclical phenomenon

It is in this context that it pays to revisit the work of the Italian political economist and historian of global capitalism Giovanni Arrighi (1937-2009). Arrighi, who is often simplistically pigeonholed as a Marxist historian, a label far too constricting given the breadth of his work, explored the origins and evolution of capitalist systems dating back to the Renaissance and showed how recurrent phases of financial expansion and collapse underpin broader geopolitical reconfigurations. Occupying a central place in his theory is the notion that the cycle of rise and fall of each successive hegemon terminates in a crisis of financialization. It is this phase of financialization that facilitates the shift to the next hegemon.

Arrighi dates the origin of this cyclical process to the Italian city-states of the 14th century, an era that he calls the birth of the modern world. From the marriage of Genoese capital and Spanish power that produced the great discoveries, he traces this path through Amsterdam, London and, finally, the United States.

In each case, the cycle is shorter and each new hegemon is larger, more complex and more powerful than the previous one. And, as we mentioned above, each terminates in a crisis of financialization that marks the final stage of hegemony. But this phase also fertilizes the soil in which the next hegemon will sprout, thus marking financialization as the harbinger of an impending hegemonic shift. Essentially, the ascending power emerges in part by availing itself of the financial resources of the financialized and declining power.

Arrighi detected a first wave of financialization starting around 1560, when the Genoese businessmen withdrew from commerce and specialized in finance, thereby establishing symbiotic relations with the Kingdom of Spain. The subsequent wave began around 1740 when the Dutch began to withdraw from commerce to become “the bankers of Europe.” The financialization in Great Britain, which we will examine below, emerged around the end of the 19th century; for the United States, it began in the 1970s.

Hegemony he defines as “the power of a state to exercise functions of leadership and governance over a system of sovereign states.” Central to this concept is the idea that historically such governance has been linked to the transformation of how the system of relations among states functions in itself and also that it consists of both what we would call geopolitical dominance but also a sort of intellectual and moral leadership. The hegemonic power not only rises to the top in the jockeying among states but actually forges the system itself in its own interest. Key to this capacity for the expansion of the hegemon’s own power is the ability to turn its national interests into international interests.

Observers of the current American hegemony will recognize the transformation of the global system to suit American interests. The maintenance of an ideologically charged ‘rules-based’ order – ostensibly for the benefit of everyone – fits neatly into the category of conflation of national and international interests. Meanwhile, the previous hegemon, the British, had their own version that incorporated both free-trade policies and a matching ideology that emphasized the wealth of nations over national sovereignty.

Returning to the question of financialization, the original insight into its epochal aspect first came from the French historian Fernand Braudel, of whom Arrighi was a disciple. Braudel observed that the rise of finance as the predominant capitalist activity of a given society was a sign of its impending decline.

Arrighi adopted this approach and, in his major work called ‘The Long Twentieth Century,’ elaborated his theory of the cyclical pattern of ascendency and collapse within the capitalist system, which he called the ‘systemic cycle of accumulation.’ According to this theory, the period of ascendency is based on an expansion of trade and production. But this phase eventually reaches maturity, at which point it becomes more difficult to profitably reinvest capital in further expansion. In other words, the economic endeavors that propelled the rising power to its perch become increasingly less profitable as competition intensifies and, in many cases, much of the real economy is lost to the periphery, where wages are lower. Rising administrative expenses and the cost of maintaining an ever-expanding military also contribute to this.

This leads to the onset of what Arrighi calls a ‘signal crisis,’ meaning an economic crisis that signals the shift from accumulation by material expansion to accumulation by financial expansion. What ensues is a phase characterized by financial intermediation and speculation. Another way to think about this is that, having lost the actual basis for its economic prosperity, a nation turns to finance as the final economic field in which hegemony can be sustained. The phase of financialization is thus characterized by an exaggerated emphasis on financial markets and the finance sector.

Women Are RAGING Because Men Are Going Their Own Way

What did you do first after being released from prison or jail?

Once pass the prison gate in the prison van..went over to the bank to cash the state check and then to the motel that I told DOC that I was going to…waited till the van turned,so that officer couldn’t see me leave ..walked over to the state DHS..got my food stamp card..then to Walmart .Got a dome tent and sleeping bag,food, quart of water. fillet knife and a ball of clothes line,a sharpie ,cell phone…once out side , looked in the trash bin and got a cardboard box..walked over to the street that would take me to the interstate..once there, walked over a overhead bridge.. went to sleep in the tent that night ..next morning,walked over the truck stop over the other side.made me a sign on where I was going to…

While I was setting there at the TS..a shoolie came in and 4 guys got out ..we spoke and I asked which way they were going..they was going my way ..I asked if I could join them..so I had a ride . Once there.had them drop me off where I wanted to be..call a person who I could stay with..got my DL , bought a pickup and a on bed camper..lived in it as I started my life outside of prison..

Since I discharged all of my sentences.I could travel and sleep where I wanted to..been out here for 13 years now…had a business that I had till I retired from.. Don’t want a place that I have to pay rent on.. upgraded to a shuttle bus now..not bad for a 70 year old guy…

The fiasco 4B movement

How financialization delays the inevitable

However, the corrosive nature of financialization is not immediately evident – in fact, quite the opposite. Arrighi demonstrates how the turn to financialization, which is initially quite lucrative, can provide a temporary and illusory respite from the trajectory of decline, thus deferring the onset of the terminal crisis. For example, the incumbent hegemon at the time, Great Britain, was the country hardest hit by the so-called Long Depression of 1873-1896, a prolonged period of malaise that saw Britain’s industrial growth decelerate and its economic standing diminished. Arrighi identifies this as the ‘signal crisis’ – the point in the cycle where productive vigor is lost and financialization sets in.

And yet, as Arrighi quotes David Landes’ 1969 book ‘The Unbound Prometheus,’ “as if by magic, the wheel turned.” In the last years of the century, business suddenly improved and profits rose. “Confidence returned—not the spotty, evanescent confidence of the brief booms that had punctuated the gloom of the preceding decades, but a general euphoria such as had not prevailed since…the early 1870s….In all of western Europe, these years live on in memory as the good old days—the Edwardian era, la belle époque.” Everything seemed right again.

However, there is nothing magical about the sudden restoration of profits, Arrighi explains. What happened is that “as its industrial supremacy waned, its finance triumphed and its services as shipper, trader, insurance broker and intermediary in the world’s system of payments became more indispensable than ever.”

In other words, there was a large expansion in financial speculation. Initially much of the expanding financial income derived from interest and dividends being generated by previous investments. But increasingly a significant portion was financed by what Arrighi calls the “domestic conversion of commodity capital into money capital.” Meanwhile, as surplus capital moved out of trade and production, British real wages began a decline starting after the mid-1890s – a reversal of the trend of the past five decades. An enriched financial and business elite amid an overall decline in real wages is something that should ring a bell to observers of the current American economy.

Essentially, by embracing financialization, Britain played the last card it had to stave off its imperial decline. Beyond that lay the ruin of World War I and the subsequent instability of the interwar period, a manifestation of what Arrighi calls ‘systemic chaos’ – a phenomenon that becomes particularly visible during signal crises and terminal crises.

Historically, Arrighi observes, these breakdowns have been associated with escalation into outright warfare – specifically, the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), the Napoleonic wars (1803-15) and the two World Wars. Interestingly and somewhat counterintuitively, these wars have typically not seen the incumbent hegemon and the challenger on opposing sides (with the Anglo-Dutch naval wars a notable exception). Rather, it has typically been the actions of other rivals that have hastened the arrival of the terminal crisis. But even in the case of the Dutch and British, conflict co-existed with cooperation as Dutch merchants increasingly directed their capital to London, where it generated better returns.

Boss level

Puffy Wings

Ingredients

Wings

12 chicken wings

Marinade

1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger root, minced
1/2 cup dry sherry
2 tablespoons sesame oil

Batter

1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk

Instructions

Add wings to marinade for at least one hour.
Combine dry ingredients, stir in egg and milk.
Pat wings dry.
Dip into batter. Drip off excess.
Heat oil to 350 degrees F.
Fry a few wings at a time for 3 to 4 minutes.

Wall Street and the crisis of the last hegemon

The process of financialization emerging from a signal crisis was repeated with startling similarities in the case of Britain’s successor, the US. The 1970s was a decade of deep crisis for the US, with high levels of inflation, a weakening dollar after the 1971 abandonment of gold convertibility and, perhaps most importantly, a loss of competitiveness of US manufacturing. With rising powers such as Germany, Japan, and, later, China, able to outcompete it in terms of production, the US reached the same tipping point and, like its predecessors, it turned to financialization. The 1970s was, in the words of historian Judith Stein, the “pivotal decade” that “sealed a society-wide transition from industry to finance, factory floor to trading floor.”

This, Arrighi explains, allowed the US to attract massive amounts of capital and move toward a model of deficit financing – an increasing indebtedness of the US economy and state to the rest of the world. But financialization also allowed the US to reflate its economic and political power in the world, particularly as the dollar was ensconced as the global reserve currency. This reprieve gave the US the illusion of prosperity of the late 1980s and ‘90s, when, as Arrighi says “there was this idea that the United States had ‘come back’.” No doubt the demise of its main geopolitical rival, the Soviet Union, contributed to this buoyant optimism and sense that Western neoliberalism had been vindicated.

However, beneath the surface, the tectonic plates of decline were still grinding away as the US became ever more dependent on external funding and increasingly ramped-up leverage on a diminishing sliver of real economic activity that was rapidly being offshored and hollowed out. As Wall Street rose in prominence, many quintessential American economies were essentially asset-stripped for the sake of financial profit.

But, as Arrighi points out, financialization merely stalls the inevitable and this has only been laid bare by subsequent events in the US. By the late 1990s, the financialization itself was beginning to malfunction, starting with the Asia crisis of 1997 and subsequent popping of the dotcom bubble, and continuing with a reduction in interest rates that would inflate the housing bubble that detonated so spectacularly in 2008. Since then, the cascade of imbalances in the financial system has only accelerated and it has only been through a combination of increasingly desperate financial legerdemain – inflating one bubble after another – and outright coercion that has allowed the US to extend its hegemony even a bit longer beyond its time.

In 1999, Arrighi, in a piece co-authored with American scholar Beverly Silver, summarized the predicament of the time. It has been a quarter century since these words were penned, but they might as well have been written last week:

“The global financial expansion of the last twenty years or so is neither a new stage of world capitalism nor the harbinger of a ‘coming hegemony of global markets’. Rather, it is the clearest sign that we are in the midst of a hegemonic crisis. As such, the expansion can be expected to be a temporary phenomenon that will end more or less catastrophically… But the blindness that led the ruling groups of [hegemonic states of the past] to mistake the ‘autumn’ for a new ‘spring’ of their…power meant that the end came sooner and more catastrophically than it might otherwise have…A similar blindness is evident today.”

An early prophet of a multipolar world

In his late work, Arrighi turned his attention to East Asia and surveyed the prospects for a transition to the next hegemony. On the one hand, he identified China as the logical successor to American hegemony. However, as a counterweight to that, he did not see the cycle he outlined as continuing in perpetuity and believed there would come a point where it is no longer possible to bring into existence a state with larger and more comprehensive organizational structures. Perhaps, he speculated, the US represents just that expansive capitalist power that has taken the capitalist logic to its earthly limits.

Arrighi also considered the systemic cycle of accumulation to be a phenomenon inherent to capitalism and not applicable to pre-capitalist times or non-capitalist formations. As of 2009, when he died, Arrighi’s view was that China remained a decisively non-capitalist market society. How it would evolve remained an open question.

Soaring debt pushing wealthy nations to ‘fiscal death’ – economist

While Arrighi was not dogmatic on how the future would shape up and did not apply his theories deterministically, especially with regard to the developments of recent decades, he did speak forcefully about what in today’s language could be called the necessity of accommodating a multipolar world. In their 1999 article, he and Silver predicted “a more or less imminent fall of the West from the commanding heights of the world capitalist system is possible, even likely.”

The US, they believe, “has even greater capabilities than Britain did a century ago to convert its declining hegemony into an exploitative dominion.” If the system does eventually break down, “it will be primarily because of US resistance to adjustment and accommodation. And conversely, US adjustment and accommodation to the rising economic power of the East Asian region is an essential condition for a non-catastrophic transition to a new world order.”

Whether such accommodation is forthcoming remains to be seen, but Arrighi strikes a pessimistic tone, noting that each hegemon, at the end of its cycle of dominance, experiences a “final boom” during which it pursues its “national interest without regard for system-level problems that require system-level solutions.” A more apt description of the current state of affairs cannot be formulated.

The system-level problems are multiplying, but the sclerotic ancien régime in Washington is not addressing them. By mistaking its financialized economy for a vigorous one, it overestimated the potency of weaponizing the financial system it controls, thus again seeing ‘spring’ where there is only ‘autumn.’ This, as Arrighi, predicts, will only hasten the end.

The Ukrainian Army Is No Longer Mechanized

This is a rather sad tale:

Address by the President of the Russian Federation – Kremlin.ru, Feb 24 2022

The purpose of this operation is to protect people who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime. To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.

—Official introduction of 153rd Mechanized Brigade – Military Land, Dec 27 2023

Another brigade from the 150s batch makes an official appearance.

On October 17, 2023, we reported about the creation of five new Ukrainian mechanized brigades for the possible counter-offensive in 2024. The 151st Mechanized Brigade was officially revealed on October 30 while 154th Mechanized Brigade on November 1.

Today, the 153rd Mechanized Brigade was publicly announced. The unit received its insignia and motto – the power of unconquered.

—Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu held a conference call with the leadership of the Armed Forces (machine translation) – Ministry of Defense, Apr 2 2024

Since January, the armed forces of Ukraine have lost more than 80 thousand servicemen, 14 thousand units of various weapons, including more than one thousand two hundred tanks and other armored combat vehicles.

—153rd Mechanized Brigade is no longer mechanized – Military Land, Apr 3 2024

The lack of vehicles forced Ukrainian command to back down from the original plans.The leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has reorganized the 153rd Mechanized Brigade into an infantry brigade. This change was announced through the official social media channels of the brigade.

While the official reason behind the change remains undisclosed, it is presumably linked to the shortage of infantry fighting vehicles.
…
The reorganization of the 153rd Brigade may not be an isolated occurrence. According to our sources, the 152nd Mechanized Brigade is also slated for transformation into an infantry brigade in the near future.

Each day the Russian Ministry of Defense reports the observed losses of the Ukrainian army. While the reported numbers are unlikely to be exact the reports are considered to be reliable and do tell a story.

In the first year of the war the Ukrainian army often lost more armored vehicles per day than general vehicles, i.e. trucks. By mid 2023 the numbers of armored vehicle and trucks destroyed per day, as reported by the MoD, were about equal. By the end of 2023 that ratio was on average two trucks per one armored vehicle. It has since increased further. Yesterday’s report claimed 32 destroyed Ukrainian trucks but only 4 destroyed armored vehicles.

The numbers provide that the armed forces of Ukraine, as well as its allies, have run out of armored vehicles of all kinds.

A mechanized brigade is supposed to have some 100 armored (i.e. ‘mechanized’) vehicles of various kind plus some 30 tanks. An infantry brigade has, if its lucky, some unarmored trucks or buses.

An infantry brigade can only fight on foot. Its men have to dig in, by hand, to have a chance stay alive without armor protection. To do this in an environment where the enemy has a near perfect view of the battlefield, a reported artillery supremacy of 7 to 1 plus the ability to drop hundreds of precision guided bombs deep behind the frontline is not really survivable.

A 2024 counter offensive by the armed forces of Ukraine was and is a pipe dream. The five new brigades will be destroyed as soon as they come near to the frontline.

Ukraine has been demilitarized. It is high time to acknowledge that.

To give up now is the only way for Ukraine to survive.

Posted by b on April 4, 2024 at 7:57 UTC | Permalink

Why does China always say that there will never be any compromise on the Taiwan issue?

If one day Beijing compromised on Taiwan issue, the next day white house would know that China is willing to compromise on almost any matter.

Xinjiang would be negotiable, inner mongolia will become a leverage too, HK would go back to be the oriental Casablanca.

Stop developing 7nm semiconductor? YES SIR!

Selling state-owned assets? AS YOUR WISH SIR!

Having 2 parties and elect a lunatic every four years? RIGHT AWAY SIR!

China would soon become Argentina in Asia.

It’s like dating a girl for the first time.

She said to you that her bottom line is no cumming inside, because she doesn’t want to take emergency pills.

Later in the hotel room, the first thing you did is having a big cum inside her pussy cat, and she didn’t fight back or call the police.

Next thing you know is that she is willing to do anything tonight. The limitation will only be your ability to imagine.

Taiwan is China’s bottom line.

Beijing doesn’t matter how the west telling its people, nor how Taiwan having oral orgasms.

It’s been stated in the law clearly:

1. Peaceful unification is always the first choice.

2. In case of every attempt of peaceful unification failed, or foreign powers interfering which causes peaceful unification not possible anymore, a war is the only thing left.

Reality

Don’t bringing up “but what about the choice of 23 million Taiwanese”, because no one ever asked the choice of 1.4 billion mainland Chinese.

The communist party of China is the best possible China the world could have.

If it were a democracy, philippines would face gunpowder powered canon instead of water canon in SCS.

The west has been ignoring the silent majority of China for too long that the majority of the west consider Chinese people as mindless machines.

It’s always when westerners arrived in China and then realized that ordinary Chinese people do have opinions, and they are much more friendly in daily life, and much more aggressive in politics and military.

Too many times

As a matter of fact, Beijing had compromised on Taiwan issues for too many times, and Washington took steps forward after, instead of backward.

Compromising is not the correct choice when dealing with the west.

You need to make the west hurt, so that it would know not to fuck with you.

BTW, Yellen visited China again. It seems that the last legacy of the golden ages wants to try for the last time to save her empire.

She must have felt the pain.

These Confident Men Got Up & Left Their Trashy Girlfriends In The Dust!

What is the one piece of advice you would give to anyone?

1. Time is precious, waste it wisely.

2. Never get into an argument with someone who types faster than you.

3. That one password you use everything and if anyone knew it they could destroy you.

4. Honesty may be the best policy, but insanity is the best defense.

5. Going back to your ex is like having a shower and putting dirty underwear back on.

6. An optimist thinks that this is the best possible world. A pessimist fears that this is true.

7. Not everything in your brain needs to come out of your mouth.

8. Don’t lower your standards, just lower your expectations of people.

9. It’s ok to have bad moments, but don’t give it the power to make it a bad day.

10. Admitting you need help doesn’t make you weak. Neither does accepting it.

USA will stand down

The US will not interfere if Iran attacks Israel Through a series of messages exchanged via third parties, the United States and Iran have come to an understanding.

Iran assured the Americans it will not target U.S. facilities, and in turn the U.S. says it will not get involved if Iran retaliates against Israel.

Israel carried out the attack on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, without consulting the United States.

Since the Embassy and the next-door Ambassador’s residence are on the same compound which was bombed, they are both Iran Sovereign territory. Israel’s attack was therefore an actual Act of War for which Iran has the right to respond with military force.

Modern Women Are DOOMED After New Anti Paternity Fraud Law In Tennessee

What is the most difficult thing for the elderly to accept? Why?

Nothing. I am 75 years old and many of my close friends are now dead. I not only accept the fact I will die soon, but I embrace the process. I am a Darwinist. The only way for each animal species to improve itself is through death. Death is an important part of life. Can you imagine an insane world where old humans NEVER die? If old humans never died, young humans would need to shoulder insurmountable levels of financial burden and time consuming elder care. I embrace my geezer-hood and I enjoy the simple pleasures I experience every day – like a latte in the morning and a glass of wine in the evening. I now embrace every moment of every day because many of my friends never had the chance to grow old. But I have also made peace with my impending death. The natural death of old people should NOT be a sad event – it is an event that improves the future of the human species. So I have had NO difficulty accepting all things that come with being elderly.

Various pictures of interest

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What is the best way to believe in yourself?

I teach mathematics to a girl.

She is in Class X.

One fine day, she came to my house with her father. Her father wanted me to tutor her for mathematics. Her father was so disappointed with his daughter.

He said, “I have been good in mathematics since childhood, I don’t know how she is my daughter. It is difficult to teach this girl.”.

The girl hung her head in shame during the entire conversation.

I said okay and told her to join.

She started coming to the class. I started teaching her. While teaching her, I realized that the girl already knew a lot and it was not at all difficult to teach her.

But, I could see lack of confidence in her. She did not believe in herself. She always hesitated in answering even when she answered. She believed that her doubts and answers are senseless. I could see that in her behaviour.

I realized that the girl has accepted and believed that she does not know mathematics at all.

Her father, her school, her teachers have made her believe that she is not at all good in mathematics and does not know shit about the subject.

She writes down the question and stares at it and says “ Ma’am ye nahi hoga merese.” (I won’t be able to solve this).

I always told her the same thing “Chinmayee tumhe aata hai already. Try karo bas. Have confidence in yourself (“You already know this, Chinmayee. Just try once. Have confidence in yourself”).

And most of the times, she answers right.

My mother asked me “How is this girl in studies ?”

I said “I am getting paid just to make her believe in herself. Rest she knows.”.

Moral of the story : To believe in yourself, first stop believing what others believe about you. Otherwise, you will end up being what others believe about you.

Edit : One year later (6th May,19)

Today I got a call from her. She thanked me and informed me that she cleared her board exams with 85% and she chose humanities with psychology for further studies.

As a white person living in the States, would you feel better if you lived in a majority white town and surrounded by only whites?

No. I wouldn’t. I didn’t. Sit the fuck down and read. Take notes, and let this shit echo in your head, as it has in mine for nearly thirty fuckibg years.

Shiawassee County Michigan. I hated it.

Now, let me tell you why.

I look like THIS:

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And you’re wondering, “well what’s the problem?” Right?

See, I am 3/4 western European, like throw a dart at the map and chances are I have that place in my bloodline.

The remaining 25 percent? The single most undiluted portion of my genetic makeup?

…Japanese.

If you look, and pay attention, some of the classical shapes are there. None of the PIGMENTS, however, are. So I am often mistaken for *MAYBE* part First Nation (sure, there’s some Lakota, but it’s so diluted from so many generations back, I generally don’t mention it unless someone guesses, and even then only to tell them it’s insignificant to how I look as far as the oddities in facial structure). Now here’s where it gets interesting:

Once I told literally anyone, ANYONE in that county I was a quarter Japanese. I lost that person as a friend. I’ve literally been called a “traitor to my race” (whatever the fuck that means for a biracial individual) by more than a few idiots.

These people, whom I’d worked alongside, lived next door to, etc… called me every Asian slur in the book: sl_pe, sl_ant, squ_nt, z_p, z_pperhead, n_p, j_p, g__k, and ch_nk (yes I know neither of the last two are slurs for Japanese people, but apparently we “all look alike” to racist white fucks. Even when they look like *ME.*

This told me that far too many, whom I’d considered friends and dependable people, allies even, who saw me as an enemy. A pest. Some sort of infestation to eradicate.

Let me tell you, son. It’s hard to reconcile the Revelation that your coworkers, the guys you drank at the bar with, the people who once invited you to cookouts…. Would happily march you off for a refreshing cyanide shower if they could get away with it.

And you wanna know what’s really heartbreaking?

Knowing that I, as a white passing person… I’ve literally experienced racism “LIGHT.” That everyone NOT passing, like I am, gets it far, far worse. Knowing that so many other people are treated far more harshly and far more readily so than I have ever been.

Suffice it to say I spent most of my time there working toward leaving. I was glad when I finally got out. I wasn’t born or raised there, but I wish I never ended up there.

I was only there… a year. And it was a year too fucking long.

And I already know, based on past experiences here on Quora, that my answer will open me up to attacks from fuckers who either secretly or openly have a white robe and hood in their fucking closets. Let me just tell you preemptively I’m just gonna a delete your bullshit, because I don’t owe your fucking bigotry an audience.

Rosemary Wings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1/2 cup lemonade
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
10 to 12 chicken wings

Instructions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a small saucepan, heat oil and butter over medium heat.
Add shallots and rosemary and cook 2 to 3 minutes.
Add lemonade, pepper and salt. Simmer over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes or until slightly reduced and syrupy.
Cool slightly.
Meanwhile, cut chicken wings into three pieces, discarding wing-tip joint. Place wings in shallow pan and coat well with sauce.
Bake until skin is golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Tinder Experiment Proves How Brutal it is For Average Guys

What’s the most unexpected life lesson you’ve learned recently?

1. Personality is not set in stone. You are able to take control or change it the way you like.

2. Never leave your parents. They are the reason you are here.

3. Never get confused to select between love and friendship. Both have their respective parts to play.

4. When in anger, isolate yourself. Give yourself some time. Finally think about the situation again with a calm mind.

5. People say “Follow your heart”. Not in every situation guys. Instead “Listen to your heart. Act With Your Brain”.

6. Time heals almost everything. Give some time and experience the change.

7. Thoughts control your Feelings. Feelings control your Actions. Actions control your Results. POSITIVE THOUGHTS = POSITIVE RESULTS

Were German soldiers scared of Americans in WW2?

They didn’t like Ma Duece.

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The July 1945 cover of this magazine depicted a waist gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress and his flexible .50 BMG M2 Browning in an official USAAF photo by Karl Gaston.

By Barrett Tillman

John M. Browning was a historic figure whose guns started the first World War and helped end the second. In 1914, Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip used a Browning-designed FN Model 1910 to assassinate Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, inciting the Great War. And though Browning died in 1926, he provided his nation with nearly all its World War II machine guns, its automatic rifle and its foremost sidearm. But he did something even grander. Browning’s magnificent M2 machine gun—chambered in the .50 Browning Machine Gun (BMG) cartridge—gave America and her allies the priceless gift of global air superiority. Nothing else came close.

Actually, the Browning .50 originated in the Great War. American interest in an armor-piercing cartridge was influenced by the marginal French 11 mm design, prompting U.S. Army Ordnance officers to consult Browning. They wanted a heavy projectile at 2700 feet per second (f.p.s.), but the ammunition did not exist. Browning pondered the situation and, according to his son John, replied, “Well, the cartridge sounds pretty good to start. You make up some cartridges and we’ll do some shooting.”

Reputedly influenced by Germany’s 13.2×92 mm SR (.53-cal.) anti-tank rifle, Ordnance contracted with Winchester to design a .50-cal. cartridge. Subsequently, Frankford Arsenal took over from Winchester, producing the historic .50 BMG or 12.7×99 mm cartridge.

The Army then returned to John Browning for the actual gun. Teamed with Colt, he produced prototypes ready for testing and, ironically, completed them by Nov. 11, 1918—the Great War’s end.

The scaled-up version of the .30-cal. (.30-’06 Sprg.) M1917 water-cooled machine gun possessed obvious potential. But the cartridge’s enormous power proved excessive to the Colt-Browning design, forcing the master back to his drafting board. He returned with a buffer system that seemed workable. Tests in 1919 and 1920 confirmed the viability of the cartridge and gun, and Ordnance approved it for production. The result was the M1921 water-cooled .50-cal. machine gun, the basis for today’s M2 model, the fabled “Ma Deuce.”

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“Ma Deuce” still serves today.

Because of its size and weight, the M1921 was issued as a light anti-aircraft gun, both ground- and ship-based. It remained in Navy use until replaced by 20 mm Oerlikon cannons in 1942.

Meanwhile, a more utilitarian .50-cal. gun was underway. After adopting the M1921, the Army decided to evaluate an air-cooled model, far more tractable for soldiers at 120 lbs. with a tripod. The result was designated “Caliber .50 Machine Gun, Heavy Barrel, M2.” The heavier 36″ barrel was expected to handle heat buildup, but experience led to a 45″ version that was adopted in 1933 and used ever since.

To War
The big Browning fought America’s war from the first day to the last. On Dec. 7, 1941, Navy CPO John Finn responded to the Japanese attack on Kaneohe Naval Air Station, Hawaii, by manning an AN/M2 in an instructional mount (“A/N” stands for Army and Navy). Alone and fully exposed, he fired at the raiders whenever they came within range. “I was out there shooting the Jap planes and just every so often I was a target for some,” he said. “In some cases, I could see their faces.” Though struck by 20 bullets or fragments, he remained at his gun until ordered to report for medical attention. Then he turned to arming his squadron’s remaining planes. His actions resulted in CPO Finn receiving the Medal of Honor.

At least four other .50-cal. gunners received the nation’s highest award, including Lt. Col. William J. O’Brien, an Army battalion commander on Saipan in July 1944. When the Japanese overran his position, he replied with an M1911 in each hand, then dashed to a jeep-mounted M2, according to his citation, “firing into the Jap hordes that were enveloping him” until he was killed.

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The three main variants of the .50-cal. Brownings were (top to bottom): the water-cooled M1921 (used mostly in the anti-aircraft role); the aircraft-mounted AN/M2, which could be flexible or fixed; and the M2HB used on the ground.

Undoubtedly the best-known M2 engagement occurred on the other side of the world six months later. In France on Jan. 26, 1945, 19-year-old 2nd Lt. Audie Murphy climbed aboard a burning tank destroyer to man the .50 as a company of German infantry advanced. Though hit in one leg, he remained at the gun, shooting down perhaps 50 of the enemy before running dry. Then he returned to his platoon to organize a counterattack. For this, Murphy received the Medal of Honor, and he would become one of the most decorated soldiers in American military history.

With a global need, it seemed that everyone built M2s, from AC Spark Plug Co. to Frigidaire to Guide Lamp. American Rifleman Field Editor Bruce Canfield’s encyclopedic U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War II shows nearly 350,000 M2 Heavy Barrels (M2HB) produced among nearly 2,000,000 .50 calibers of all models during the war years.

Everybody wanted the Ma Deuce in .50 BMG for its fabled power, range and reliability. One wartime study found that stoppages averaged one in 4,000 rounds, as long as headspace was properly adjusted. Armorers determined that a high ratio of malfunctions were due to faulty ammunition or links.

The Ma Deuce’s limit as an anti-aircaft (AA) gun was range, volume of fire and weight of projectile—especially when compared to 20 mm or 5″ cannons. A single-barrel gun firing a 700-gr. bullet could seldom inflict enough damage to destroy a fast attacker. Even multiple guns engaging the same target were marginal. At the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942, the fabled carrier U.S.S. Enterprise expended 400 rounds of .50 BMG versus 46,000 rounds of 20 mm; 3,200 rounds of 40 mm; and 400 rounds of 5″. The main reason for the discrepancy probably was engagement range: few attackers closed to within the .50’s effective distance.

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(l.) Adopted in 1933, the M2HB had a 45″ barrel and weighed about 120 lbs. with its tripod. A typical Army infantry battalion had six M2s. In Ordnance Went Up Front Roy Dunlop wrote: “All ground guns could fire single shots … and very accurate fire was possible.” (r.) The M45 quad mount—with four .50-cal. M2s—could be installed in an M16 halftrack or towed as shown in the Pacific Theatre. Although used mostly for anti-aircraft defense, in ground combat the power of four .50-cal. Brownings could be devastating.

Army anti-aircraft units made good use of the M45 quad .50 mount, either towed or mounted on M16 halftracks. Some of the heaviest AA activity occurred during Luftwaffe attacks on Allied airfields on New Year’s Day 1945. In the Metz area, Army AA gunners engaged 25 enemy aircraft, claiming 14 destroyed and four probably downed. Only 11 rounds of 90 mm artillery were fired with a combined 1,270 rounds of 37 and 40 mm, compared to 24,100 rounds of .50 caliber. Quad .50s also were employed in ground combat. A 1945 study noted, “A few bursts from the quadruple .50s directed at any source of small-arms fire very quickly eliminated the trouble.”

Through most of the war, a typical Army infantry battalion operated 20 .30-cal. machine guns (eight M1917 water-cooled) and six .50-cal. M2s. Weapons platoons typically had a jeep-mounted M2 that could be rushed to a trouble spot. The Axis armies had nothing comparable, though Germany issued light machine guns on a greater scale than the Allies. However, short of 20 mm canons, the Germans had no battlefield guns that could penetrate armored cars or personnel carriers at typical engagement distances.

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The M2HB (Heavy Barrel) could be employed as a ground arm while mounted on its M3 tripod (l.) or on vehicles, such as with the three MPs in their jeep in the winter of 1944-1945 (r.).

Pre-war match shot and American Rifleman contributing editor Roy F. Dunlap described wartime global trekking in his memoir, Ordnance Went Up Front. He wrote, “I believe the .50s have fewer breakdowns than the .30 caliber guns and that about 75 percent of the repair jobs I did were due to rough handling or carelessness on the part of the gun crew.” For practical application, he said, “I cannot think of a better way to screw up a road junction than to work a .50 to within a couple or three miles, set it in a hollow, camouflaged, and every so often throw a few armor piercers or incendiaries over to the crossing. The blue-tipped incendiaries explode with flash, report and puff of smoke. All ground guns could fire single shots … and very accurate fire was possible.”

In a 1945 summary, the U.S. Army in Europe concluded, “The half-track .50 caliber machine gun—one of the most effective weapons we have—is up where it can be used.” The same report noted that mechanized units had scrounged M2s from downed aircraft and adapted them to coaxial mounts.

On the Pacific isles, typical engagement distances were far closer than in Europe, and Japanese armored vehicles—rarely encountered—were vulnerable to .50-cal. fire. One of the Browning’s main advantages in that environment was its unrivaled penetration, as M2 rounds were far less likely to be deflected by foliage than .30s. Nevertheless, the Marine Corps divisional allotment of Ma Deuces declined from 360 in 1942 to 162 at war’s end.

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The .50-cal. water-cooled was the first adopted, and it was the heaviest, too. The guns served in the anti-aircraft role in all theatres of the war. While phased out for shipboard use, the Army continued to use the M2 AA gun.

Air Guns
Entering World War II, the British Royal Air Force installed eight Colt-Browning .303s in Hurricane and Spitfire fighter planes (later augmented with 20 mms) while Germany and Japan favored rifle-caliber guns and 20 mm cannon. But whether Oerlikon or Hispano-Suiza designs, cannon had limited ammunition capacity and were prone to malfunction.

The prewar U.S. Army Air Corps took a middle road. Early Bell P-39Ds had two .50s, four .30s and a 37 mm gun in the nose. The Curtiss P-40B packed two .50s and four .30s, while Lockheed’s futuristic P-38 had four .50s and a 20 mm. The .50-cal. round delivered at least four times the energy of the .30-’06 Sprg. at the same velocity, affording greater penetration and projectile selection. Clearly, the M2 was better suited for destroying modern all-metal aircraft.

Originally the Air Corps adopted the M2 with a 600 r.p.m. cyclic rate. But, as aircraft speeds increased, fighter pilots had less time to track and shoot. Therefore, Frankford Arsenal boosted muzzle velocity from 2700 to 2880 f.p.s. The standard ball cartridge was the 709-gr. projectile atop 253 grs. of IMR-5010. Armorers experimented with various belting combinations, alternating ball, armor-piercing incendiary (API) and tracer. The M2 AP round would defeat nearly an inch of face-hardened steel at 200 yds. Moreover, armor-piercing incendiaries (usually 647 to 662 grs.) were most useful against aircraft, as they could penetrate enemy armor and engine blocks, sever enemy airframe components and ignite enemy fuel tanks.

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The solid-nose version of the B-25 Mitchell was fitted for eight fixed M2s and could sink enemy ships by .50-cal. gunfire alone.

Tracer rounds, typically about 680 grs., had somewhat different ballistic properties than ball, AP and API, and they did not duplicate the others’ trajectories. Tracers probably were more widely issued to anti-aircraft units than aviation organizations. However, various fighter squadrons adopted different policies. Some loaded the last 50 rounds in each belt entirely with tracers to alert the pilot he was running low. But some very successful pilots shunned tracers. Lieutenant Colonel Francis Gabreski, leading U.S. ace of the European Theater, said, “Sometimes you miss with the first burst and tracers can give you away.”

Browning’s big gun won air superiority for America around the world. Army, Navy and Marine fighters were credited with 25,264 aerial victories, nearly all armed wholly or mainly with AN/M2s. The exceptions were 412 victories gained by British aircraft (mainly Spitfires) in American units and some U.S. night fighters, which were aircraft reconfigured or designed for combat in the dark.

Bombers also packed the M2 as single, manually operated guns and as turret-mounted pairs. The U.S. armed forces consumed vast amounts of ammunition—the St. Louis plant alone delivered 6.7 billion rounds of .30 and .50 caliber during the war. In the fall of 1943, when Eighth Air Force bombers flew unescorted deep penetrations into Reich airspace, one mission might consume more .50-cal. ammunition than a month’s worth of that used by the Fifth Army in Italy.

Around that time, aerial gunners began calling their guns “Mrs. Deuce,” an obvious precursor of today’s familiar “Ma Deuce.” The total Army Air Forces (AAF) overseas expenditure was nearly 460 million rounds, but monthly figures alone were staggering. In April 1945, shortly before Germany surrendered, the Army Air Force in the European and Mediterranean theaters fired nearly 25 million rounds of machine gun and cannon ammunition, the huge majority being .50 caliber. In July, Army airmen flying against the Japanese expended more than 6 million rounds.

During the war, about 100 American fighter pilots downed five or more enemy aircraft in one day to become “instant aces.” Six pilots were credited with seven kills in one mission. They flew very different aircraft—Wildcats, Hellcats, Corsairs, Lightnings and Mustangs—but all had the AN/M2 in common. One instant ace and future NRA member was Marine aviator James E. Swett, who received the Medal of Honor for downing seven (possibly eight) Japanese dive bombers over Guadalcanal in April 1943.

The outright record for aerial victories in a single encounter belonged to the Navy top gun, Cdr. David McCampbell. Flying from U.S.S. Essex over Leyte Gulf in the Philippines on Oct. 24, 1944, he and a wingman tackled a large formation of Japanese fighters. In 90 minutes of combat McCampbell was credited with nine destroyed and two probables while his partner added six more. With the confidence of experience and a disciplined trigger finger, McCampbell made maximum use of his Brownings and ammunition. Given the 2,400-round payload of his Grumman Hellcat, McCampbell averaged just 218 shots per victory.

Perhaps the most cost-efficient aircraft kill of the air war demonstrated the .50’s power. Over Okinawa in May 1945 a Hellcat night fighter stalked a Japanese floatplane harassing U.S. ground troops. Marine Lt. J.E. Smurr closed to minimum range—about 50 ft.—and centered the Aichi seaplane in his illuminated reticle. He pressed the trigger for less than one second and the enemy aircraft disintegrated into a fireball. Armorers found that Smurr had fired only 62 rounds. Throughout the campaign, Marine night hunters averaged 567 rounds per victory regardless of size or type of aircraft.

In a naval war such as the Pacific, .50 calibers inevitably were used against ships. Six M2s could cripple a corvette or a destroyer, whose typical 1/2″ plates offered little protection. Japanese destroyer hulls measured 0.4″ to 0.6″ (10 to 16 mm) whereas .50 ball from a 45″ barrel could penetrate 1/3″ (8 mm) at 500 yds. API rounds penetrated 1″ (25 mm) of homogenous plate at 200 yds. and 3/4″ (18 mm) at 650 yds. Face-hardened plate of 0.9″ (23 mm) was defeated at 200 yds. and 1/2″ at 600. The velocity loss from 36″ aircraft barrels did not seriously reduce the .50’s penetrative qualities, which could puncture engines, boilers and magazines.

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As well as its use on the ground, the big Browning proved a war winner in the air with the Army, Navy and Marines. The U.S. Army Air Force used lighter-weight, .50-cal. AN/M2 Brownings as defensive armament, including as a pair in a turret on a B-17 Flying fortress (top l.) as well as in the tail of a B-17 (top, r.). They were also used on fighter aircraft, such as in the nose of the P-38 Lightning (below l.) and in the wings of fighter aircraft in Europe such as the P-47 Thunderbolt (below, r.).

Certainly the outer limits were achieved by North American B-25H bombers optimized for shipping attacks. With eight nose- and fuselage-mounted .50s plus a top turret, two waist guns and the twin-gun tail position, the H model Mitchell was literally a flying gunship that could immobilize merchantmen—even without the short-barreled 75 mm cannon. However, when the H model entered combat in the China-Burma-India Theater in early 1944, shipping targets were rare. River traffic, on the other hand, was easily destroyed by fighters and gunships.

A study of Navy patrol bombers concluded that during 1945, “Dozens of small vessels were destroyed by fires caused by incendiary hits or strafing alone.” Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer bombers expended 2 million rounds of .50 caliber on 600 or more surface vessels, contributing to sinking as many as 300. “The effect was to cripple the remaining Japanese sea transport in most areas and to cause withdrawal of many vessels not sunk because of the danger of attack … .”

The AN/M2 was fully appreciated by the war’s midpoint. In 1943, Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, declared the Browning “the outstanding aircraft gun of the Second World War.” He added, “This weapon … is the backbone of offensive and defensive gun [sic] for American aircraft and was brought to such a state of perfection by the Ordnance Department during the years of peace prior to the present conflict that it has enabled the Army Air Forces, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to show a definite superiority in aircraft gun power through this global war.”

Despite the M2’s immense success, some operators wanted more. The M3 .50 caliber boosted cyclic rate to 1,200 r.p.m., but the increase came at too high a price. Tests showed greater barrel erosion, and rounds tended to “keyhole.” Only 2,400 M3s were delivered before V-J Day, but development continued. Subsequently, the M3 armed the first generation of American jet fighters, pointing the way to victory in MiG Alley during the Korean War.

In typical military fashion, in 2004 the Army tried to replace the M2 with a less effective arm at twice the price. The wasteful three-year program to develop the XM312 flopped during tests in 2005 but lingered two more years before cancellation. At that point “Big Army” defaulted to the best option: buying more M2s.

Longevity remains a hallmark of John M. Browning’s designs. His timeless M1911 pistol is more widely used today than ever, and “Ma Deuce,” dating from 1921, shows no signs of retiring. In fact, in 2015 the 324th M2 ever produced was finally removed from service—after 94 years in the inventory. The old warhorse was being retired because current standards would require extensive modification. Army Materiel Command quoted an armorer at Anniston Army Depot who said, “Looking at the receiver, for its age, it looks good as new and it gauges better than most of the other weapons.” Said John Clark, a small arms repair leader, “I’d rather put this one on display than send it to the scrap heap.” A veteran approaching its centennial, the M2 certainly deserves an honorable retirement—though its relatives will remain on the firing line well into the current century.

In this article

.50-CAL. BROWNING MACHINE GUN

, WWII, .50 BMG M2 BROWNING, JOHN M. BROWNING, MA DEUCE, BARRETT TILLMAN

HOT Girl Finds out what it’s like to be an Average Guy on Tinder

Have you ever had such a close call it makes your skin shiver everytime you think about it? If so, what happened?

I first thought it was the worst case of heartburn ever. After working two hours I decided to drive home and have my husband take me to the hospital’s ED. After frantically examining me, several blood draws, multiple EKG tests, and waiting for a few hours I was told it was not my heart, but my liver. An hour later a cardiologist stopped by and told me I had indeed suffered a mild heart attack, and luckily my heart suffered no damage. I would be transported to the main hospital that night for an early morning catheterization to see what was going on.

After the catheterization, the surgeon came to my room to discuss the procedure with my husband and me. He asked how I was doing, and I told him, “That is what I am paying you to tell me.” Looking very somber he told me, “Well you are lucky to be here right now. When we went in, we found your Widow Maker was 99% blocked. From the time of your first chest pain until we inserted the stent was much too long. Your chance of surviving was about 3%, I have never had a patient live through a blockage like that for longer than thirty minutes. In addition, you should have severe heart damage, and you have none. I can’t explain why you are here, and your heart is not damaged. Somebody must want you alive.”

All I could say is, “Damn! Does this mean I can still perform with the New York City Ballet troupe as lead in “Swan Lake?” He chuckled, “As long as you were already part of the troupe before your heart attack!”

I do not like to think about that day, the news, or how close I came to shaking hands with Jesus, or whoever is waiting on the other side. Instead, I joke and say I was knocking at death’s door, and thank god no one answered!

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

Never give advice until you’re asked.
Do not make plan infront of those friends you are not involving.
Don’t talk to someone if they have headphones in.
If someone is being quiet and doesn’t look like in a mood to talk, don’t nag them by asking ‘what’s wrong?’ every freaking second. Give them some space and ask once or twice max. If they want to, they’ll come up and share it with you.
Don’t close talk/invade someone’s personal space.
Do not use your cell phone at movies etc.. it breaks the “spell” and distracts from other’s enjoyment of the performance.
If invited to a dinner party and expected to arrive at 7 P.M., arrive no later than 15 minutes after the hour.
If someone pays for your meal, invite them over/take them out for a meal sometime. Even if they decline, it’s the invitation that matters.
Don’t talk whilst chewing..
The right side of the escalator is for standing, the left side is for walking.
If a person is speaking directly to you, staring at your phone is rude as shit.
Don’t date your friends exes.
Always let people out before you enter.
Be quiet when other people are asleep. That means more than not talking — not slamming doors, drawers, etc.
Put things back where you found them.

What is the single most mind-blowing fact that you did not believe until you looked it up?

The photo is not an original shot of an execution.

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In Iran, it is against the law to put to death female prisoners who are virgin. So, the Basij militias of the government marry and rape virgin female prisoners to get them ready to be killed.

In Iran, the law says that women who are still virgins cannot be put to death. So, the government sets up marriages the night before executions and forces female prisoners to have sexual relations with Besic members. “Women whose new husbands have raped them” are then allowed to be put to death. The Besic member told the reporter, “Even though it’s legal, I’m sorry for what I did.” During his speech, he said that he had just been let out of jail for letting two young people go who had been arrested during the street protests in Iran after the election. Members of Besic say that some of the prisoners who fight back are controlled with sleepy pills and that “many of the prisoners who fight back would rather be raped than killed. “The Besic member tells the reporter what happened by saying, “After the rape was over, I could hear them screaming and calling for help.” I’ll never forget how one of the girls used her nails to scratch her face and neck. She had deep cuts all over.

American Reacts to 6 LIES America Told Me about Europe || Life in the UK

Is Taiwan very important to China? China wants Taiwan so much.

From the point of view of the Chinese government, Taiwan is important for historical reasons, as unification with the rest of China would represent a clear end to China’s century of humiliation and the end of any pro-western colonial presence on Chinese territory. Any Chinese leader who brought Taiwan back into a unified China would be remembered in the history books as the leader who brought this period of humiliation to an end, and would be remembered for this single accomplishment.

Most PRC Chinese also feel this way about Taiwan.

In short, it would be the single largest accomplishment in Chinese history in the 21st century.

Most Americans, including US government officials, do not understand the depth of the Chinese commitment to unification with Taiwan.

If they can understand the commitment of Zionist Jews to Israel and a homeland in the Middle East, why can’t they understand China’s commitment to unification with Taiwan?

Things Genghis Khan did to His Slaves

Why can you only have one child in China?

This is not true.

There are no limits on how many children that you can have in China. So please, stop flooding my inbox with questions about “invasions of Taiwan”, “one child birth policy”, and “when China will collapse”. These are simply CIA propagandized narratives that the gullible believe.

But, instead I do want to address something that I personally find very interesting. Take note people! China does not play around. They are SERIOUS in regards to their population and raising children. It’s not an after-thought like it is in the United States.

Considerations, on the citizenship of the baby.

First off, take note, If you give birth in China, the child is stateless.

It does not get automatic citizenship as in the West. Oh, you can give birth, but it will not be a legal citizen, and will not be protected by law. It will be a burden of the couple that produced the baby.

If you want the child to become a Chinese citizen, then be advised;

You can give birth to a hundred children if you want (and are able to), but…

One parent must be Chinese and have a Houkou (a family register),
BOTH parents must pass paternity tests,
The child must not have any mental, emotional or physical deformities. (this is tested while in the womb by DNA testing, and the burden of payment is on the parents.)
Both parents must be able to afford the child. Not be a burden on society.

If the child, or parents fail any of the above considerations, then the baby will remain stateless and will need to exit the nation with the parents if they want to provide some other national citizenship for it.

That is the REAL deal.

…

One of the tools of manipulation of the people of the West is to keep them ignorant. Then fabricate fantasies that seem to make sense to the ignorant, the illiterate, and the moronic. One such lie is the idea and concept of “one child birth policy”.

If you believe it, you should be ashamed of yourself.

How did the policy of appeasement lead to World War 2?

When I was a child, my father told me to always stand my ground against bullies, “Because when you give them one thing, they will take the whole hand!” And this is true. This is what appeasement is all about. Its a misguided belief we all know, since childhood, doesn’t work. You don’t want trouble. You want to avoid a fight. So you give the bully whatever he desires.

The British establishment at the time, as did many other European leaders, felt that it was best to “play nice” with Hitler and his Nazi party. Just give him what he wants. He wants to add some more countries, annex some more lands for Germany? Let him. Let him make his Fatherland Great Again. Who cares. It sure beats war, doesn’t it? And it does… until the moment it doesn’t. The same line of thinking is seen today with those who hate NATO and sympathize with Russia. They want to give up on aid to Ukraine. Because they don’t want to anger the bully that started the war. This is appeasement, plain and simple.

It didn’t work in WWII. And it sure as hell won’t, now. Appeasement and playing nice with dictators leaves a dictator to feel secure, in control. It makes him feel strong, and makes you look weak. And it only emboldens him, and his friends, to take military action. “Peace in our time” only means: “A wider war is now certain… only a little bit later.”

Which movie(s) made you cry?

Yes! The following scenes from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness made me cry:

Chris and his son sleeping in a bathroom:

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With no money, no job and homeless, Chris turns a dirty subway restroom into an imaginary cave for his son and gets him to sleep there. Being at the depth of his poverty and despair, Chris breaks down in this scene and is shown blocking the door so that his son can sleep well. Heart touching scene.

2. The five-bucks scene:

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Chris’s boss forgets his wallet upstairs and is in a hurry to attend a meeting. He asks Chris to lend him five bucks. Being at the rock bottom of poverty, five bucks mattered for Chris and he lends his boss too. This scene regains our faith in humanity and the act of giving to those in need.

3. Chris gets the job:

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Who can forget this scene where he gets the job and is asked about his struggle? This scene still makes me emotional.

Will Smith is a genius!

Is there anything that China can teach the west about happiness?

I have lived in China for a few years, and I think the west would be a happier place if we adopted the following Chinese wisdoms:

if you cause someone embarrassment, you should also be ashamed of yourself – so, better don’t do that to anyone. It would be such a nice change from our silly, childish revenge culture.
take an entire hour for lunch every day. Better even: two. It celebrates the day, and makes for a more relaxed life.
get seriously into savings and whatever else you can do to build your fortune. We westerners have a debt culture. We live in denial of how unhappy that makes us.
choose the middle ground for all things. We westerners always look for extremes. But longterm happiness is not found in thrill, only in balance.
take naps during the day. You would be amazed how much happier you will be.
spend more time with your folks. Western society is always trying to isolate the individual, when life is so much nicer shared with others – especially your family.

“Passport Bros Are Just WEAK Men!”

Sitrep March 2024

This “sitrep” was compiled and written at the tail end of March, 2024. It contains active elements of the global Geo-Political situation focusing on the “primary core participants” as defined by the United States Department of State. I will intentionally leave out details on the “minor” participants, that while important, is not necessary in this overview.

The world is undergoing a massive shift in global [1] Leadership, [2] Finance, [3] Society, [4] Culture, [5] Military influences, [6] Technology, and [7] Planetary Management.

What was once the realm of the “rules based order” led by the United States (the United States makes the rules that others follow), and obeyed “in lockstep” by it’s captive proxy nations, has been eclipsed by a multi-polar world, led by the Russian / China leadership alliance.

The overriding plan

The United States, embroiled into (whether you don’t want to believe it or not, it is painfully clear and obvious that the United States “Leadership” is completely ensnared in this situation.) has worked out a long-duration plan to maintain and regain its hegemony.

The key to this is the suppression, followed by the break up of Russia, followed by a pivot to China.

The Timetable for initiation of hostilities

The Break up of Russia into an easily digestible entity was planned to occur in 2022. The war to start the collapse of Russia, however, got off to a bad start, and Russia has been thwarting all of the NATO efforts to manage that collapse.

However, the time-table has not changed. And as of this date a major push to destroy Russia once and for all is planned to occur in Spring / Summer 2024 this year. Leading participants to this fiasco; the United States, the UK, Germany, and France… with participative elements out of NATO to include Finland, Poland, and Sweden are expecting a NATO win by Fall of 2024.

A “buffer” period, or up to two years is planned to coincide with the planned destruction of China. This is planned for the tail end of 2026 and the Summer of 2027.

The Major Participants

For RUSSIA, the nations of NATO will attack on the chosen battlefields of Ukraine. Eventually weakening Russia to a point where “death blows” can be administered by aircraft and missile attacks.

The NATO troops are expected to consist of large quantities of Germans, Polish, Romanian, and French forces for the main thrust. With Northern contingent consisting of Swedish and Finnish forces that will deploy and assault from the North.

For CHINA, A “island chain” of American proxy nations have formed a QUAD of aggressor nations that is designed to instigate the precipitate motions that will force the Chinese entry into the upcoming Global catastrophe.

The primary antagonizing nation is earmarked as the Philippines, with major support from QUAD nations South Korea, Japan, (and to a lesser extent) taking a backseat, the resupply center of Australia.

It is expected that simultaneous “hot spots” will erupt that will trigger Chinese participation. Perhaps Taiwan declaring independence, with the Untied States, and proxy “toadies” nodding vigorously in agreement. Followed, or led, by disruptive assaults by the Philippines in the South China Sea.

The Timetable for war duration – Russia

What is going on right now in Ukraine is not a war. It is a military action, but not a full fledged war. Yet.

But once the full NATO assault begins in the Spring of 2024, a total war event scenario will begin. The United States, and NATO plans for a quick assault, and a rapid ending of the war.

Reports as ludicrous as the collapse of Russia by mid-November 2024 is being bantered about by the collective idiots in Brussels. Smarter heads prevail, and they anticipate a delay that could last until 2026 depending on a number of unknown factors.

But the plan is one of total victory by NATO over Russia and a “color revolution” internal to Russia that would dispose President Putin and replace him with a pro-American stooge.

Maybe an actor like Zelensky (Ukraine), a ideological imbecile like Javier Milei, (Argentina), a “stooge in debt” like Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr.( The Philippines), or an easy to control puppet like Yoon Suk Yeol (South Korea).

My understanding is that the replacement Russian “president” and his cabinet has already been selected, and the principals have already been contacted.

The Timetable for war duration – China

The ideal timeline for the “pivot to Asia” is once Russian territory is secure, and a proxy government is in charge. Due to the events of the last two years, this date has been pushed back from 2025 to 2027. But owing to the timer / stopwatch on the abilities of the West, the expiration date for action against China occurs in 2028. So the window for action is narrow, and there is an urgency to accelerate things aggressively.

While there will be a continuation of provocations in both the South China Sea, and in Taiwan, actual “False Flag” justification, and assaults against China is unlikely to occur before 2026. Thus, the window of 2026 to 2027 will be a VERY dangerous time, provided of course, if the West (The United States) is successful in taking over Russia through military victory.

Assumptions

The Pentagon along with a significant number of interested parties have made some baseline assumptions regarding both Russia and China. These assumptions color the battle and strategic policies that will govern this upcoming period of time.

Russia is “a paper tiger” and will not use nuclear weapons.
Russia is not as strong or militarily capable as it seems.
Russia, in regards to Ukraine, has been lucky so far.
The entire world is already against Russia, and the United States is leading the world against a renegade nation.

As far as China is concerned…

China is also a “paper tiger” and will not use nuclear weapons.
China has some basic technology, but it’s military is raw recruit, conscripts, with basic understandings and operates in crude military tactics.
China’s navy is expected to be “light weight”, and nothing to take too seriously.
China will fold once the oceans around China is controlled by the QUAD forces.

End Game

It is absolutely and positively understood that neither China, or Russia would dare attack the United States. As neither nations have the logistical ability to invade or assault America, the survival of the United States is understood as certainty.

So with both Russia and China devastated by massive conventional wars, and the United States left pristine and intact, the United States will rise from the ashes of a global war stronger, and better than ever before. Though looting the resources of both China and Russia, the Untied States can be rejuvenated, and the entire globe will listen to the undisputed leader of the planet; The United States.

Final Comments and thoughts

I personally believe that all the assumptions are wrong. That the timetable is off base, and a kilter, and the “leadership” of the West needs to stop taking so many drugs. We do not know what the future holds, but if this plan proceeds… one thing is certain, those planners in the West will not be happy when things go “tits up”.

Forgotten Chicken

Forgotten Chicken is a great fast and easy recipe! I have made this with chicken tenders, and it’s great. This is also known as “No Peek Chicken.”

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white rice, uncooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 soup can water
Chicken breasts or thighs
1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Instructions

Mix rice, soups and water.
Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Lay chicken on top of rice mixture.
Sprinkle chicken evenly with onion soup mix.
Cover tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F.

Shaming

I’ve been at my job for two years and have never called in sick. However, I’ve been vomiting and really unwell so want to call in sick tomorrow but my boss won’t allow it, saying it’s because we are short-staffed – is this allowed?

My boss refused to let me call in sick because I was throwing up. She said that would leave night staff short staffed. I said “no problem”.

I went to work as required. Within 5 minutes of arriving, I was using the wastebasket at the desk to throw up in. Boss insisted I would be fine and refused to let me leave

10 minutes later I was still throwing up. Finally the house supervisor came thru the station and saw me sick as can be. She asked why I was even there. I explained my boss refused to accept my call in.

Supervisor called boss to the nursing station. Supervisor reamed boss a new one and asked her “why would you have a nurse report to work in the ICU when she can’t even leave the trash can”. “Do you even understand ICU patients are in rough enough shape without a nurse throwing up on them”

Boss had to work my shift with calling someone in early for day shift.

No one questioned me calling off the next night too.

What are some daily things that we are unaware of?

Here are some common things we are usually unaware of the purpose of:

Stickers on fruit: The stickers mark the country and producer of the fruit, but it’s the numbers that are the important aspect. If there are 4 digits and the first number is 4, then it means the fruit is sprayed with pesticides. If there are 5 digits and the first number is 9, then the fruit has grown organically, and if there are 5 digits with the first number being 8, then the fruit has been genetically modified.

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Doughnut hole: In the past, it was difficult to get the edges and the middle of the pie equally baked. So they came up with the ingenious idea of using this shape to ensure equal baking on all sides.

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The original reason for sunglasses: today it’s obviously to protect us from the sun’s rays. But the original purpose was to protect Arctic people from the dazzling rays of snow. And in 12th century China, they became particularly widespread among judges in order to hide their true feelings from witnesses.

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Margins on paper: the original purpose was not for extra notes on the side. In the past mice and rats often gnawed on the paper, so in order for them not eat away the information, people started to leave spaces on the sides.

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Holes in padlocks: People usually buy a new lock when their old one doesn’t work due to rain. However, the purpose of the hole is to put in oil – once done, the lock should be able to open with no difficulty.

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Gran Torino , Clint Eastwood – Favourite scene

If you’ve worked in law enforcement, how often have you come across criminals like the Vince Vega character played by John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction,” who actually have intellectual interests outside of their life of crime?

Vince wasn’t an intellectual heavyweight. He was a deeply flawed asshat with an outsized ego and limited self restraint.

Remember the scene with The Wolf? The Wolf was there to save Vince’s idiotic neck, and yet our boy just couldn’t stand that someone else walked in and smoothly took control. When returning home with the wife of his boss, Vince was clearly working his way up to making a pass at Mia in spite of trying to talk himself out of it. If Mia hadn’t OD’d Vince would’ve discovered that his disposal wouldn’t even merit a pine box.

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Obviously my experience isn’t from the perspective of “law enforcement”, but from being locked up with, then living and working with other felons.

Those living a “life of crime” are different from you and your neighbors only because one aspect of their life is something illegal that they got caught doing. That doesn’t mean that they live and breathe crime 24/7.

These people are fully formed and complex individuals, just like you. In many cases, you would find that the “life of crime” really boils down to just one dumb act, not a daily ritual.

The only exception to this would be the addicts I’ve met, particularly the meth users. They might start off as “unique snowflakes” but something about that drug leeches personality from them like bathwater leeches the salts from your skin. Given enough time they become shriveled husks of former humans — having more in common with one another than with anyone else.

Playing around with text-to-picture

Default masterpiece best quality coloring book line art The Ha 3

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Default coloring book line art The Chariot tarot card with Art 6

Default masterpiece best quality coloring book line art The Ha 1

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The Sopranos – Getting everything ready for the Executive game

How does China’s emphasis on manufacturing prompt concerns about overcapacity?

This is what western economists say about the Chinese economy.

But the Chinese government and its economists don’t think that way because they look at potential market size first. In China, the leading importers and processors of minerals and raw materials are state-owned companies whose annual profits are capped at 3–5 percent annually. This means that raw material costs are lower. Chinese manufacturers are increasingly using robotics and automation so that manufacturing costs are lower. Then the Chinese yuan is kept lower against leading currencies to encourage exports.

Put it all together, and it looks to Europeans and Americans like China has impossibly low costs and is making it impossible for other competitors to compete. The problem is that China is different from Europe and the U.S. and its economy is designed to encourage manufacturing and exports.

The Chinese goal is to capture as much market as possible, and then to push costs down further through cost and efficiency improvements. This is different from western companies which start with lower prices to grab market share, but then gradually raise prices through predatory pricing.

How do Japanese see the US in 2024?

Some truths

Investing in a woman you’re not married to is a waste of energy and money.
If you find someone smarter than you, work with them, don’t compete.
Life is all about being intentional and proactive in our choices . The cure for a man’s depression ?? Focus on your purpose and stay busy.
The person who carefully designs their daily routine goes further than the person that negotiates with themselves everyday.
Stop complaining at every slight inconvenience. Do what has to be done . Be happy regardless.

Have you ever seen someone call the cops and it backfired on them?

My now ex wife wanted me out of the house and her life after I caught her red handed having an affair.

My relief called in sick so I had to pull a double shift, I got home and went right to bed, only to be woke up by her whaling away on me with a shoe. I picked her up and carried her out into the living room and gently tossed her on the couch, locked the bedroom door and went back to sleep.

It wasn’t long and there was a knock on the door, it was a couple cops, she had called them to report I was abusing her. They said I would have to accompany them to the station, then I looked up at them, there whole attitude shifted.

They handcuffed her and put her in the back of the squad car, one of the cops told me I should clean myself up, apparently she’d nailed me with a shoe and I had blood running down my face.

I went to sleep, she went to jail, couldn’t have worked out any better.

Mike’s 5 Most Badass Plans | Better Call Saul (Jonathan Banks)

How many cars have you owned and what were your favourites?

My first car was an old beater VW Karman Ghia . It was a tank, with the engine over the rear wheels it would go through snow, that bigger vehicles couldn’t handle. It was low to the ground, one day the neighbors pigs got out, and they had a huge boar, that blocked the road. He came over and leaned against my side window, and completely blocked the view.

It didn’t have a gas gauge, instead it had a reserve fuel tank, and when you ran out, you switched over, and drove to the nearest gas station.

It wouldn’t go the highway speed limit, maybe 63 mph with the pedal to the metal.

My second car was 1974 Plymouth Duster with imitation alligator skin roof, and a sun roof. It was an OK car.

My next car was a 1976 Chrysler Cordoba with real Corinthian leather seats ( best spoken in a Ricardo Montalaban accent) it had a high performance 400 cubic inch V8 with a 4 Bbl. Jet black with every option known to mankind. Sun roof, air conditioning, power everything. Pure white on white interior, to contrast to the black paint. I have a lot of fond memories of this car.

My next car was a 1969 buick skylark convertible. My plan had been to restore it, and always have a good car to drive. I spent thousands on it, and couldn’t keep up with repairs.

My next car was a 4 wheel drive AMC Eagle. It had air suspension, so it hugged the road, but if you went off road you pushed a button and the sur shocks filled and raised the car, to get more clearance. Best fishing vehicle I ever had.

The I had a 1989 Dodge D100 that was a rebadged Mitsubishi. It had a 4 cylinder that couldn’t get out of its own way, But it was solid steel, I was rear ended and it cost $200 to paint my bumper, but the brand new Previa that hit me was totalled. I wasT boned in an intersection and I I didn’t get a scratch, but it was $5000 to fix the other vehicle. It was a 4×4 with a half inch steel skid plate under the entire vehicle. It never had a problem until my power steering hose, and brake line started leaking. I couldn’t get parts, so I got rid of it.

I bought a 1997 Cadillac Catera , awesome looking car, and the day the warranty ran out, it started costing me money. Thousands.

I bought a 1999 Jaguar XKR convertible, with one year left on the warranty. It was the best looking car I owned, I had people hop out of their vehicle at a traffic light and ride with me until the next light. It was a great car.

I bought a 2004 Nissan frontier 4×4, which I drove in the winter, and the Jag in the summer. The Nissan was just OK, nothing special.

I replaced the Nissan with another 2013 Nissan frontier 4×4, which was significantly better than the first Nissan, but still not a memorable vehicle.

I got rid of the jag in 2021.

Hassayampa Casserole

This casserole is an original and was named after the Hassayampa River that flows in Wickenburg, Arizona.

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 teaspoons chili powder
3 teaspoons cumin
1 (8 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 pound fresh tomatoes, diced
10 ounces frozen corn, thawed
1 cup sliced black olives
3 large green chiles, chopped
1 pound shrimp or imitation crabmeat
12 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
12 corn tortillas

Instructions

Sauté onion in oil and add cinnamon, chili powder and cumin.
Stir in enchilada sauce and diced tomatoes. Set aside 1 cup sauce.
Add to remaining sauce the corn, olives, green chiles, shrimp or crabmeat and 1 cup cheese.
In a 3 quart shallow casserole dish, cover bottom with some of the tortillas.
Spread 1/3 of shrimp/crabmeat mixture over tortillas; repeat with 2 more layers.
Top with remaining tortillas, sauce and cheese.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes.

The Sopranos – Albert Barese

What is a historical fact that would sadden most people if they found out?

As a kid I was fascinated by the figure of Che Guevara, who looked cool, died relatively young and fought for a better world.

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Later in life, I read his biography by Jean Cormier, a French journalist/movie director who was a close friend of Che.

It tells the story of his childhood, his medical studies, his trip through South America on a motorbike, how he joined Fidel Castro’s revolution and how they disembarked in Cuba to start a guerrilla war against the Batista regime.

Both had their own regiment in the Sierra Maestra mountains, from where they would launch attacks against government forces. In Che’s regiment there was a little puppy that everybody loved, the mascot of the camp.

One day, Che and a group of soldiers left the camp to ambush a government caravan. But the little puppy had followed them and started barking. They had to shut the dog up or else they would be discovered by the government soldiers. So Che and his men formed a circle around the puppy while one of them strangled it.

I couldn’t put this image out of my mind of these heavily armed guerrilleros standing in a circle to strangle a puppy. They say innocence is the first casualty in any war.

Best Sopranos Scene – “We’re with the Vipers” -All Right Now

I received my ancestry DNA results and I am 0% Italian, however my maternal grandmother is 100% Italian. How is this possible?

Has your grandmother actually had her DNA tested and analyzed?

What I have found in 25 plus years of doing genealogy, and even MORE so since DNA testing came along……people get very invested in family stories and myths. They can build their whole sense of self around them. Then DNA and family history research comes along and blows big holes in their set ideas. Things aren’t what they seem.

There were some doozies told in my family. Some by accident – sort of multigenerational “broken telephones” where things had grains of truth but went sideways in the retelling. Some were deliberate, because it made for a better story. Tales of glory beat tales of misery. Some were told to hide things family members were ashamed of (we had more than our share of those).

DNA can also yank the rug from under you since who you think is your ancestor isn’t always. I have a 78-year-old friend who always believed her father was an Italian fellow who her mother sued for child support in the early 1940’s. Turns out she’s 50% Ashkenazi Jewish without a hint of Italian – and she’s found her biological father’s family, all of whom are at a loss to tell her what the heck happened (to say they were shocked would be an understatement, lol).

Your grandmother may have been born in Italy and raised speaking Italian, but her family could have been ethnically from elsewhere. Nationality should not be confused with ethnicity.

Japan is Changing, and it’s SCARY.

What is one moment in your life you thought could only happen in a movie?

So I have been dating this guy from eight years now. He is my family friend. My first crush,then my first love, my first boyfriend and my first everything. Me and his sister are best friends.

Even though our families knew each other for so long, my family never knew that we were dating, because we Never used to talk infront of them.We(me and him) always used to discuss about how we should convince my parents, how we should ask them and blah blah. I used to get very nervous thinking about my parents reaction. But I was confident that I will convince them and I always knew that he was the one that I want to spend my entire life with.

So one day i went out and came to home , and saw all my family sitting together and discussing seriously, they became silent after seeing me , and my brother asked me to sit beside him and asked me that, they are thinking to get me married. My heart was stumped, millions of thoughts rushed in my head and i was so shocked that i I couldn’t think of one word to say, then he mentioned about the guy that they were considering for me.

Well to my surprise he was none other than my love, the one who makes me feel butterflies even after 8years of togetherness, who just makes me happy by his mere presence. I was so happy that I wanted to jump and dance around. But I couldn’t I simply blushed and said “YES” to my parents. They still didn’t know that we are in love.

We are going to get married soon, preparations are started, IAM on the cloud nine since then. We are going to tell them about us on our wedding day.

I always thought things like this happens only in films and fairy tales. May be every love story is a fairy tale.

Real truth

Do Western countries want South Asia and Southeast Asia to have continuous conflicts? If yes, then what will be the policies of these nations?

They do dont they?

They don’t tend to leave any country alone do they?

They always make decisions based on the people of every country in the world

They must always decide who is free and who isn’t

Any Government that toes their line is ‘Good’ and any Government that doesn’t is ‘Had

They decide human rights violations

If Israel bombs and kills 32,000 Civilians and starves an entire population to death for a single terrorist incident – that’s KOSHER

If Russia invades Ukraine to come to the assistance of 2 Million to 3 Million people who live in Donbass and have been shelled regularly and lost 14,000 lives over 8 years, chronicled in the UN – that’s horrible and thats interfering in the sovereignty of a nation

If Russia arrests 439 people for Social Media posts that’s a huge civil rights violation

If UK arrests 3237 people for Social Media Posts including 900 people just for posting the N word – that’s perfectly acceptable

They have combined killed and liquidated through their decisions – almost 30 Million people in the last 300 years belonging to different countries including :-

Inquisitions
Literally NUKING a nation
Holocaust of 6 Million Jews
Starving a million Indians without a shred of remorse
Enslaving 3.5 Million people and treating them like Cattle and breeding them like Cattle and Dogs
Colonizing and cold bloodedly robbing, slaughtering and displacing 2 Million or more Native Americans , Maoris, Aborigines and stealing their land brazenly
Stealing Texas openly from Mexico and now hunting down the same mexicans as Illegals
Invaded a Nation, killed a known 93,000 people of that nation and displaced and impoverished an estimated 330,000 people literally lying that they had nuclear weapons
Bombed and killed and stole the Oilfields of a Nation merely because their Leader didn’t toe the American line (Syria)
Funded Color Revolutions, Coup de Ats and Uprisings against legitimate Governments by their Agencies

These aren’t conspiracy theories are they?

Every one of these incidents have been firmly listed and verified and is now regarded as history

Yet they always seem to turn the tables

Saddam was a Villian though they invaded Iraq for no reason and destroyed him

Yet Zelensky is a Hero

Gadaffi was a Villian

Mao was a Villian

Putin is a villian

Xi is a Villian

Yet not one of these people have conducted a war of aggression in their lives before 2022

Why?

That’s the key question

I believe the answer lies in an Ideology that is deeply ingrained into their blood for centuries

We are the Good Guys

We are the Angels to help these Backward People develop themselves and save them from themselves and their cruel leaders

Sometimes even if people die, we have to look at the long term and be harsh

Like Gates who openly supports an organization that wants 870 Million People dead because they eat up precious food

Now these Nations, it depends on the people of these nations

China and Russia and Iran and a few other nations have obviously woken up and now see these people for what they are

Putins 87% win is an indication

That people braved a rumoured terror attack and shelling and bombing and yet voted in larger numbers is the best middle finger possible

Niger is another example

The Middle East is slowly realizing things aren’t so rosy now

Others are TOO SCARED

India for instance is too frightened of the West because India is too weak to resist sanctions plus India cannot trust China Iran and Russia fully

Not when 40% of it’s exports are destined for US and EU and most of these export orders are non crucial and can be seriously affected

Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia are also too frightened of the West. They gave been dependent too long on the West and they don’t want to leave their comfort zone.

Some are TOO SUBSERVIENT

Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Philippines are simply too enmeshed into the Western system to come out of it

However luckily the hypocrisy of the West is slowly coming out piece by piece

That too despite the fact that they control the media in every way possible.

Ant farm prison planet

Back in the 1960’s, oh about 1966 or so, we used to read comic books. All of us kids did that. We would read Archie comix, and Richie Rich comix, and war comixs. SO many different kinds of comic books.

And at the back of these comix were advertisements that catered to us young kids. Boys and girls.

6a012875a9fd84970c0154348093f0970c 600wi

One of the advertisements was an “ant farm”. This consisted of two plates of clear plastic with sand between, and a ant colony trapped in the middle. You could go and watch the ants create their little rooms and passages in this tiny little world that they were trapped in.

Now, my friend “Dino” who lived across the street from me got one of those toys. And sure as shit, he would allow the farm to grow big, with all sorts of rooms, and what not.

And when the little tiny ant kingdom seemed to be well and functioning, he would pick it up and shake it vigorously. Thus destroying all the work those poor little ants put into it.

And they would start from scratch all over again.

Ugh!

We as boys, thought it was fun to do, and then we would lay the plastic ant farm on the table and then go outside to play and adventure throughout the day. Totally forgetting about what we had done to those ants.

…

I wonder…

If our “prison planet” existence is something like this. Where some other beings torture us, as a kind of intergalactic pastime. That they enjoy periodically. Then move on-wards to better experiences.

…

Sigh.

Today…

Have you ever caught your neighbor snooping around your property? If so, what did you do?

I sure did. I bought a house when I had gone thru a divorce in a nice neighborhood with a lot of retired people. Retired people are the best, free security system ever. One man would see me working in the yard and would always come help me. He might bring a tool to make the job easier or just help with heavy work. He asked me what all I was trying to get done in the yard, so I told him a list of things off the top of my head. He took it upon himself to come over while I was at work and finish some of the projects on my list. His yard was immaculate so I guess he was very nice and a little bored. I’d come home to rocks moved around, plants dug up, etc. Nothing not on my list. Occasionally I’d find a new hanging plant. He and his wife kind of adopted me. So I take care of them at Christmas and birthdays. It’s been awesome.

What changed in the US-China relationship that is pushing the two countries closer to war?

No one seems to know. Readers who follow developments in China closely, know that relations between the two superpowers have grown increasingly strained in the last few years. But while the US has taken a more hostile approach to China, no one seems to know why. Was there something in particular that China did that angered Washington leading to the imposition of economic sanctions, technology blockades and military provocations in the Taiwan Strait?

No, there’s no indication that China did anything. What changed was Washington’s approach to China. And—as you’ll see—Washington’s approach changed very quickly and very dramatically. China went from friend to foe almost overnight.

Here’s why.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US maintained a policy of engagement with China that accelerated its development and transformed the country into the main engine of global growth. In December, 2001, China was granted “most-favored-nation”(MFN) status which was followed shortly after by its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). These developments allowed China to access western markets which turned China into a manufacturing center for US multinationals like Nike, Apple and Dell. China’s opening also triggered a surge of foreign investment which pumped up growth while strengthening its financial assets and bond market. In short, US policy laid the groundwork for the “Chinese miracle” which set the stage for a great power conflict with the US.

No other country in the world is more responsible for China’s meteoric rise than the United States. Now, however, the foreign policy establishment has decided that it doesn’t like its own creation. It doesn’t like the fact that China took advantage of the opportunities it was given to transform itself into a peer competitor of the United States. It doesn’t like the fact that China’s economy is growing more than twice as fast as America’s and is set to surpass the US within the decade. It doesn’t like the fact that China is building a 21st century, state-of-the-art infrastructure grid that will economically integrate a large part of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia into the world’s biggest free trade zone. It doesn’t like the fact that China’s expansive economic/political strategy will inevitably replace the “rules-based international order” with a Chinese-led system in which the renminbi is the world’s reserve currency and China’s financial markets are the largest and most liquid in the world. America’s foreign policy establishment is not happy about any of these developments especially since it is largely responsible for all of them.

Don’t get me wrong; the Chinese are intelligent, resourceful, creative, and industrious people. And the Chinese Communist Party has played a critical role in lifting 800 million people out of poverty while steering the nation’s economy towards unprecedented growth and prosperity.

But if China was not given access to western markets and entered into the WTO, there would be no Chinese miracle and no Chinese superpower today. Those opportunities were the result of widely-supported policies that were endorsed almost-universally by US foreign policy elites. So, if Washington now regrets having supported those policies, it can only blame itself. Here’s some more background from foreign policy expert John Mearsheimer:

During the Cold War and under the policy of President Nixon, the U.S. decided to engage China and form a quasi-alliance with China against the Soviet Union. That made eminently good sense. And Nixon was correct to help the Chinese economy grow, for the more powerful China became, the more effective it was as a deterrent partner against the Soviet Union. However, once the Cold War ended in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the U.S. no longer needed China to help contain the Soviet Union.

What we foolishly did was pursue a policy of engagement, which was explicitly designed to help China grow more powerful economically. Of course, as China grew economically, it translated that economic might into military might, and the U.S., as a consequence of this foolish policy of engagement, helped to create a peer competitor.

My bottom line is that the Nixon-Kissinger policy, from the early 1970s up until the late 1980s, made eminently good sense. But, after that, engagement was a colossal strategic blunder….

The U.S. was not only expecting China to grow more powerful—it was purposely helping China to grow more powerful. It was doing this based on the assumption that China would become a democracy over time and therefore would become a responsible stakeholder in an American-led international order.

Of course, that didn’t happen. China did not become a democracy. And China, in effect, has set out to establish hegemony in Asia and challenge the U.S. around the planet. We now have a new Cold War.” U.S. engagement with China a ‘strategic blunder’: Mearsheimer, Nikkei

While I agree with most of what Mearsheimer says, I strongly disagree with the notion that US leaders were genuinely concerned about China becoming a democracy. Nor does democracy explain why US policy changed from mutually-beneficial engagement to open hostility. What Mearsheimer fails to acknowledge is that the western economies are controlled by an oligarchy of elites who have been unable to make any significant inroads into the Chinese government’s power-structure. This is not because the Chinese government is ostensibly “communist”, but because Chinese leaders are strongly nationalistic and determined to maintain China’s own sovereign independence against the onslaught of western elites. In other words, the emerging confrontation with China is a power-struggle between the WEF globalist cabal and Chinese nationalists.

In any event, China is not responsible for the strained relations that exist today. The hostility and provocations are all coming from the United States which is trying to undo the damage it did by implementing policies that ran counter to its own national interests. In short, the Biden administration is trying to reverse 30 years of failed policy by doing an about-face and then blaming it on China. It’s a classic “bait and switch” operation. Here’s more from Mearsheimer:

As time has shown, the engagement strategy was a failure. The Chinese economy has made an unprecedented leap forward, but the country has not transformed itself into a liberal democracy or “a responsible glass holder (a player interested in maintaining the current international order).” On the contrary, Chinese leaders see liberal values as a threat to their country’s stability. And they, as the leaders of the rising powers usually do, have a tough foreign policy. We must admit that economic involvement was a colossal strategic mistake. Kurt Campbell and Eli Ratner – two former Obama administration officials who admitted that engagement had failed and those in the Biden administration today – write: “Washington is now facing the most dynamic and formidable contender in modern history.” (U.S. engagement with China a ‘strategic blunder’: Mearsheimer, Nikkei)

The question that immediately arises is: If engagement was such “a colossal strategic mistake” then why did it take 30 years to figure it out? With a population that is 4 times the size of the US and GDP growing at roughly 9% for 2 decades, it should have been fairly obvious that China was going to be bigger and more powerful than the US in the not-too-distant future. And yet everyone in the political establishment pretended not to see what was right beneath their noses.

That’s shocking. And what’s even more shocking is the remedy our leaders have settled on to maintain their current advantage in the global order. They intend to do everything in their power to sabotage China’s economic development. This aligns perfectly with Mearsheimer’s observation that “the only opportunity that can change the dynamics is a dramatic crisis undermining China’s unrelenting growth.” And that explains what’s going on today, the Biden administration is making a concerted effort to target the vulnerable sectors of the Chinese economy and inflict as much damage as possible via sanctions, blockades and supplyline disruption. We expect that this economic war on China will gradually intensify in the next few years along with new provocations in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. If Mearsheimer’s analysis is correct, then we are still in the early rounds of a hybrid war that will undoubtedly drag on for years to come.

So, when did it occur to our foreign policy geniuses that fueling China’s growth might actually hurt US prospects for the future?

We don’t know the specific date, but it looks like sometime around 2017 the elite consensus that supported engagement began to fall apart as more and more people became aware of the policy’s shortcomings. Check out this comment by the Financial Times associate editor Martin Wolf who explains how quickly western elites turned against China:

I think what is happening is that western policymakers and above all, American policymakers have decided that the rise of China is a major strategic threat. And this has several dimensions. One of these is that the left of center has come to the view that “Well, they are never going to become a democracy as we thought they would, and that is problematic. We don’t like that.” But the bigger element—which is the view of the strategic community and quite a large part of the corporate community—is that “These people (China) are a serious threat. They have immense resources, the defense build up is quite substantial, and they getting are ahead technologically in some very important areas, and we are far too dependent upon them….. They see the interdependence on China as frightening, and this paranoia has now become a dominant element in American thinking…. And it has shifted very quickly and very much across the board in America although we are now seeing it in Europe as well. A paper was recently released by the German Industrial Confederation which basically said, “You know the Chinese technology policy; it’s a threat to Germany.” This is a big change and it’s happened quite recently.” China: Friend or Foe?, You Tube, 12: 35 minute

So, according to Wolf, overall views on China among foreign policy elites changed very quickly and very dramatically. (Wolf’s account is similar to many other elites who tell the same story.) Engagement was increasingly seen as damaging to western interests, and the search for a different approach began. What Wolf fails to tell us is what it was that convinced foreign policy mandarins that China had become “major strategic threat”? Was it due to the CCP’s increasingly activist oversight of foreign corporations or the Communist Party’s refusal to implement reforms of their massive State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) or did it have something to do with China’s impressive strides in advanced technology that put the future of AI and supercomputing up-for-grabs?

What was it?

While we can’t answer that question with 100% certainty, we can make an educated guess.

In 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping launched his signature infrastructure program called the Belt and Road Initiative, which is a vast, multi-continent development strategy that is the most expensive and expansive infrastructure program of all time. The BRI has already garnered commitments from more than 150 nations representing 75% of the global population. The stated goal of the project is “to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future.” In fact, the project does all of that and much more. The BRI will improve ports, skyscrapers, railroads, roads, bridges, airports, dams, coal-fired power stations, and railroad tunnels. It will create a vast spiderweb of cutting-edge high-speed rail that will lower the cost of shipping while boosting the profits of manufacturers and wholesalers. The BRI projects a vision of a fully-integrated 21st century world in which Beijing lies at the very epicenter of global commerce. This is why the US and its allies—who are the staunch defenders of an archaic, extractive model of neoliberal capitalism—are prepared to do whatever-it-takes to derail China’s development and prevent this futuristic plan from going forward. Here’s how Sir Malcolm Rifkind, politician and former cabinet minister, summed up the significance of the BRI in a recent discussion of China on You Tube:

“I think if we’re going to look years ahead, I think the most important thing is the potential relevance of the Belt and Road Initiative to the relationship of Europe and China. For a thousand years, Europe and China have had to have contact with each other through the sea lanes. That huge central Asian landmass was, like the Atlantic Ocean- a barrier. What is happening now; and if we look 5, 10, 15 years ahead—already freight trains are going from China to western Europe in increasing numbers in both directions. So, what that means is, Europe and China could be looking directly at each other in a way that Europe and North America were able to do because of air travel and because the Atlantic became a bridge. That would be a historic change regardless of the politics China and Europe looking directly at each other and trading with each other in that way. That would have massive implications.” China: Friend or Foe? You Tube, 1:21:10 min

Rifkind is right. The opening of transit corridors and freight lines between China and Europe are “the most important thing” because they draw the continents closer together into a giant free trade zone which will inevitably increase their mutual power and prosperity while leaving the US on the outside looking in. This is why the Biden administration is so determined to make sure the BRI does not become a reality. Keep in mind, the primary foreign policy objective of the United States is “to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.” The vast expansion of China’s Belt and Road across the Eurasian landmass and linking European capitals to Beijing and Shanghai, definitely fit that description and qualify China as Washington’s mortal enemy.

China’s leaders still believe that they can reach an accommodation with Washington that will help to avoid a direct confrontation. But Washington’s red lines have already been crossed and there’s bound to be trouble ahead.

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Italy Foreign Minister Visited China to Get Free From the US’s Rule Over Europe!

https://youtu.be/yJi1j_JkmS0

Huawei M60 Pro shocked the world. Why is it?

Try imagining this.

For the U.S. to decide this Chip Act it must have been debated at length by hordes of parties and institutions including dozens of companies in the U.S. and throughout US allies.

Why?

Well simple. The repercussions are simply gigantic and colossal if indeed this act fail. It will cause trillions upon trillions of dollars lost over time. At least a hundred U.S. and its cronies chip firms may simply go out of business all together.

Worst is that this is the last thing the US can do to stop and contained China if this fails, that will be the end of US hegemony in technology. So for the U.S. to take this measure is like putting everything at stake into this one act. Billions has to be spend to build a plants in the U.S. that hinge on China’s failure to counter act. Billions need to be spend to protect and subsidise these hundreds of firms in case it fail.

Countries whose livelihoods depend on this precise technology and business to survive and thrive have to be bribed and coerce to cut out China. These bribes probably run in the trillions of dollars figures.

And all these hinge on one and only one assumption. That is China will not be able to design, make and manufacture this high end chips for at least a generation! If this assumption fail to materialised then the U.S. will be thoroughly fxxked for a generation and it will forever not able to compete with China.

In other words, there is absolutely no room at all for failure. Failure means China will now totally controlled every aspect of Chip making technologies from materials, to designing, to developing , to mass producing in the billions. And it will do it at a fraction of the costs of doing it in the U.S. which simply means the total implosion of all the U.S. chip firms!

So after a mere 3 years China did precisely what the U.S. fears most. Their worst fears has come true. The Chinese simply do not need a single technology from the U.S. and its cronies to launched this 5NM chip capable of 5G and satellite communications which also means there is zero possibility for the U.S. to hack it. 150 million orders have been placed and 40 million orders has been fulfilled in a mere 20 days from its launch.

This Huawei Mate 60 series including the Mate 5X is such a blow to the U.S. For a start the U.S. already lost 3 billion in profit had they not banned themselves from selling to China and up to a few trillion dollars have been wiped off the stock values of these chip firms from 27th August till now. The melt down will carry on and on and on till the U.S. economy collapse all together. We in the rest of the world call this Karma.

That is why it is such a big deal.

Given Biden’s evident senility, who is the real decision maker in US foreign policy? Anthony Blinken?

Right now?

There are three power blocs in US

Block 1 consists of :-

The Gun Lobby AKA NRA
The Energy Lobby
The Don’t ask Don’t Tell Lobby
The Anti Abortion Lobby
The Baptist and Deeply Religious Bible Group Lobby
The Selective Immigration Lobby

This Block mainly support Republicans and like a White Majority to be in charge of the country and preferably like straight men who stick to the gender they were born with

Fox News, Newsmax, Rush Limbaugh (Late), Lou Dobbs are sponsored by this Lobby

Block 2 consists of :-

Big Tech (Google, Meta, Amazon)
The Gun control lobby
The Freedom of Choice Lobby
The Anti DOMA Lobby
The Freely Agnostic, Atheist or Freethinker Lobby
The Pro Migrant Lobby

This block mainly supports Liberal Democrats, like minorities to be ostensibly in charge and have a fascination with Gay people and Transgenders and LGBTQ agenda

All MSM, Whoopi Goldberg, Seth Myers, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon are all sponsored by this lobby

Block 3 also called the TRUMP Block consists of :-

Donald J Trump
Friends of Donald J Trump
Russian Naturalized Citizens in US
East European Naturalized US Citizens
Indian Migrants outside California
The Trade Lobby
US Steel Lobby
Any Group that likes protectionism
Law Enforcement Lobby of 31 States
Blue Collar White Males with High School Diplomas

This Block liases with Republicans and has an uneasy alliance with the Republicans as it hates the democrats more

Tucker Carlson, Jimmy Dore, NTG are

Ultimately no matter who comes to power, there are two groups who have the last word in how the US must react :-

Wall Street
The Military Industrial Complex Or Defense Manufacturers / Contractors

Nobody can cross these two groups in US

These Two Groups give instructions through their tame organizations like

National Endowment of Democracy
WEF
The NEOCON think tanks

Trump, Biden, Obama – they need an OK from these two powerful groups and their tame organizations, or they will be unable to do anything

This Senile Old Man probably needs to be told when it’s time to change his diapers

He is a total puppet controlled by the Neocons

Pennsylvania Dutch Brown Butter Noodles

This is a delicious side dish to a pot roast, fried chicken, baked ham, or pork chop dinner. In true Pennsylvania Dutch style, serve with a side of fresh cottage cheese topped with apple butter!

Ingredients

Wide egg noodles
Butter
Salt
Pepper

Instructions

Cook wide egg noodles according to package directions, in the amount needed. As the noodles are cooking, melt butter (1 tablespoon per person/serving) in a small skillet and allow the butter to brown lightly (do not burn!). Drain noodles well, place in serving bowl and toss with the hot browned butter. If desired, add a small amount of salt and pepper.

As a police officer, has a suspect ever asked you, “Do you know who I am?” indignantly, and how did you react?

Yes it did happen a few times.

One time my partner and I stopped a vehicle that cut off another vehicle and made a right turn into oncoming traffic. I approached the driver and was immediately told that I had no right to stop him and that I better be careful and to choose my words carefully.

So I slowly said “ Sir, I stopped you for illegal lane change, illegal right turn and impeding the flow of traffic, did you understand the words that I just spoke to you?

He proceeded to tell me that he was a Los Angeles City Councilman and that if I “ gave him any shit, he would have my job.”

I explained that I needed to see his operators license, proof of insurance and registration.

Mr. Councilman stated that he already told me who he was and that he didn’t have to show me anything. I explained to him that I was going to be exceptionally nice to him and politely ask him one more time, but if he was not going to comply with the lawfull instructions from a sworn police officer he would be arrested, period.

He actually said that I didn’t have the balls to “ try “ to arrest him for a vehicle code violation.

I then reverted to my interactions with my 4 year old son.

I said I’m going to count to 3, and if he was not going to comply he absolutely would be going to jail and also that I would be impounding his vehicle. He again refused and he went to jail and didn’t pass go, his vehicle was impounded and all was good in the world.

My favorite scene from “The Sixth Sense”

“I think why this scene is so powerful is because everyone can relate to having lost someone in their life and have that desire to know that they made some kind of positive impact on the lost ones life.”

https://youtu.be/FLyYYHqVTsE

Who is a celebrity you have met accidentally? How was your experience meeting them?

I was in Scotland on holiday with my husband in May 2023. We were on the Isle of Skye and had stopped in at a remote cafe for breakfast. Behind us in the queue was a lady whose face was so familiar I was sure I knew her really well.

I was wracking my brains trying to remember if I’d worked with her, or if she was a friend of a friend. She was so familiar! I whispered to my husband that I was sure I knew her and he agreed that he’d recognised her too.

I finally decided to just ask her if we’d met before, and where. She looked at me and gently said: “No, we’ve never met. But I’m an actress so we’ve probably spent some time together but just not in person.”

It was Frances McDormand. A real REAL actress- not just a movie star. And then she introduced us to her husband, Joel Coen.

She was so utterly charming, I was fangirling so hard.

I can’t think of a lovelier way to tell someone they’ve made a mistake.

What is the worst thing to say on a date?

I am Egyptian. Arranged marriages are common here. And don’t get me wrong I actually really like them when done right. They are very close to the concept of blind dating.

However, sometimes you’ll get terrible suitors with no social intelligence. And yes guys there are Arab men who are way more decent than these not-so-bright ones. Take some examples:-

A friend of mine sat with a suitor for the first time and the chat was actually pretty decent. But before he left he looked at her and said “but if you want to get married to me, don’t you think you should lose some weight?”. He was immediately out of the picture from that second. Not only are you trying to change someone on the first time you met them, but you also have no social intelligence to know what should and should not be said.
Another friend of mine sat with a very rigid man. He told her “listen, starting off, I noticed several things about you that I cannot accept in a wife: 1- I noticed that your clothes need to be looser. 2- I heard you travelled with your friends several times before, I believe travelling is a waste of time unless necessary and I don’t like you travelling without me. 3- you mentioned something about having separate accounts? A man and his wife should be one. So one account is a must. 4- I know you’ve been working for years but I prefer that my wife doesn’t work. She politely went through the date and never got back to him. Who does he think he is again?
When my cousin proposed to his current wife, he told her that he actually saw her before but definitely didn’t want to propose because she looked a little darker than he likes a woman to be, but thankfully that time it was just the lighting and she’s not as dark as he thought so here he is ! And yet she still married him. For me, he would’ve been a goner. What will you do if I get tanned in a vacation? If I get a burn on my face one day? Divorce me? Meh.

Lesson of the day : never try to change someone or comment on their appearance (unless positively) on the first date !

China refuses to allow DJI drones to deliver $6 billion in penalties to the US!

Over recent years, the United States has ramped up sanctions against various sectors of China’s industry, including the booming drone sector.

DJI, the leading Chinese drone manufacturer, now faces staggering fines totaling $840 million, along with demands for access to its core source code.

This controversy has not only sparked resentment in China but also raised questions about the U.S.’s approach to China’s technological advancements.

These sanctions are more than just punitive measures; they reflect the United States’ concerns and competitiveness in China’s thriving drone manufacturing industry.

As drones play an increasingly crucial role in modern warfare, tensions have escalated.

However, DJI’s dominance in the global drone market is rooted in its own innovation, not the misappropriation of U.S. technology.

https://youtu.be/_LlbqXGKX9A

What does Warren Buffett mean by making a “classic value bet” on HP?

Unlike us mere mortals, Warren Buffett actually reads company financial statements. Even more than that, he understands them. Surprisingly, he’s not big on what lawyers call “due diligence”, where you have a team of accountants and lawyers look at the company to see if they’re hiding anything because, over his years of experience, Buffett has learned that companies always hide their weaknesses in plain sight.

The “Buffet Way” is to go over a company’s public information and then put a question mark next to anything that looks weird. Other people do that too, but then they start asking questions of the company’s management. Buffett doesn’t do that – if there are too many question marks he just stops looking at the company. Plenty of companies to invest in. He’s usually right too.

So, what does he mean by “value”? Well, throughout Buffett’s career, his favourite companies tend not to be “growth companies” or “the next hot technology”. Frankly, unless Buffett fully understands the company’s products and business model, those are both massive question marks and he would rather not risk Berkshire-Hathaway’s money on them. Instead, Buffett has always preferred companies with lots of revenue that are consistently profitable. I remember reading one of his annual reports where he explained why he bought a company that made chocolates – it had consistent revenue and profits, and had a good management team and workforce. Sold.

Now, HP has been in business forever and has often been at the forefront of technology, but lately it has settled down to produce everyday products for consumers instead of specialty products for engineers. It sells a lot of stuff (at wholesale, it’s not a retailer), has a good team of management and engineers, and can be found at both the high and low ends of the market. It has good revenues and profits.

Naturally, most investors ignore HP because its stock price is pretty steady. That’s not a problem for Buffett. He thinks that many stocks of profitable solid companies are undervalued. He bases a stock’s price on its fundamentals, how much it sells, what it’s profit is, and how much it spends on ongoing research and development. In other words, he’s not buying HP’s stock because he thinks it’s going to go way up. He’s buying it because based on its current price, he thinks the share price will keep up with inflation and still have money left over for shareholders.

And he may be right. I bought two HP laptops this year. My printer is HP. My three old computers are HP.

What is the most unusual punishment a criminal has ever received?

You didn’t necessarily need to be a criminal to receive this punishment. This punishment was meant for vagrants and undesirable people. The punishment was called the tramp chair.

The Tramp chair was invented by Sanford Baker in 1885, and it was designed for towns that were too small for the Jails or for towns that couldn’t afford to build one.

The undesirables as they were known would be locked in the cage as an encouragement to move along. The people being punished were sometimes stripped naked before being locked in the chair, leaving the person to deal with the thick and sometimes rusty bars heating and cooling depending on the temperature outside.

They were even paraded around town to be subjected to harassment and cruel taunts from the public. They would then be wheeled to the edge of town to be released and foisted to the next town.

The Last of Us | Episode 1 | Fungus Pandemic Takeover Explained Perfectly

The gradual shift from amusement to horror on the TV host’s face is just so damn perfect, that scene in particular sends chills up my spine.

If the CCP attacks Guam as part of an invasion of Taiwan ought to the US destroy the Three Gorges Dam?

Jonathan Stern，I noticed that you don’t understand the military strength of the United States.

Iran’s strength is weak, but the United States dare not blockade the Strait of Hormuz.

Only by understanding oneself and the enemy can we win war.

For decades, the United States has attacked many weak countries. This makes you think that the United States can attack any country on Earth without retaliation. The United States can attack China’s Three Gorges Dam, and China can also retaliate and attack New York, rather than attacking the US warships.

Think about it, can China attack New York City after the United States attacks China’s Three Gorges Dam?

I hope my answer can make you smarter.

What are some potential internal factors that could cause China to fail?

Well. Just follow the United States model…

Large numbers of Chinese people could start getting themselves addicted to heroin and fentanyl and dying from overdose.
The China cops could start stepping on citizens necks in the streets or choking them to death or shooting them 12 times in the back for minor offences.
Families could quarrel and argue and split up over differences in political beliefs.
Hate groups could be allowed to spring up and flourish and spread their hate, on the basis that they are exercising their freedom of speexh.
China could let its school standards in math and science deteriorate badly.
China could stop providing universal healthcare to its citizens and make essential medical services very expensive for its people.
China could allow free and easy access to guns for all, and improve its chances of having numerous mass shootings occur each month.
It could choose senile octagenarians or outright criminals to be its leader.
China could deny birth control and abortions to its women and girls.
Instead of building more homes, schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure, it could buy more and more deadly missiles and bombs and mines and use them in wars on foreign soil, faraway from itself.

Well, that would be a very strong start.

Your soul belongs to God Bedazzled

Great scene.

“This scene is so powerful, just by looking at him and the friendliness of his voice, where he states that despite your mistakes everything is going to be just fine. This is by far the greatest interpretation of God I’ve ever seen, makes me happy to have witnessed it :)”

What’s the sleaziest trick a landlord tried to pull on you?

The landlord was this old witch in Ardwick Manchester.

She had a perfect set of furniture which she would move in and take photos of and develop them (this was still the age of paper photographs).

She would then move the furniture out and put some cheapo chipboard furniture into the house.

I took photos of these with time and date stamps.

She was an awful landlord and would always let herself in and root through our stuff. Absolutely nothing was repaired ever and I am almost certain she would steal money locked in our rooms. It was a shared house so when one of us had a day off and slept late she’d walk in on one of us sleeping and make excuses.

When the contract ended we decided to leave.

She of course kept the deposit because of significant damage to the furniture.

I showed my photographs she showed hers. This was back before deposit protection schemes so it went to the small claims court to get the house deposit back. She played the I’m an innocent old woman and these young men are scum.

She won, we lost. She kept the deposit.

The Ukrainian guy who lived with us didn’t like that at all. He went to Do it All bought a big lump hammer and caused massive structural damage to the house and went home to Kiev a couple days later.

CNN reported that the United States government is seeking more information about the Huawei Mate 60 Pro and to determine if parties bypassed American restrictions on semiconductor exports. What’s next?

Well, this is a prime example of the fog of war descending on America.

By forcing Huawei to cut ties with former partners, Huawei went dark, at least to the US government and foreign corporations vulnerable to US sanctions.

This is a problem America created, for America to solve.

The key pieces are all domestic mainland players who are sanction-resistant, or already under sanction. The US can certainly up the pressure and throw the kitchen sink at them, but they will not willingly divulge information based on a “query” by Americans.

You want it that way, you can have it.

Before 2018/19, the electronics industry was centered around East Asia, and people knew what the competition was working on, more or less, because the supply chain (and talent) was shared. Next-gen Apple and Google features were leaked months in advance, and many were right on the money.

But Donald the Orange changed all that.

Mainland players went dark, as multiple rounds of sanction tore up the eco-system for good.

It’s a brave new world, and there is a lot more uncertainty in the air ex-China, because the biggest unanswered questions are, what’s my Chinese competitors working on, and how is my largest market going to evolve? Remember, the Chinese government has mostly parried, and the Chinese will overwhelmingly buy Chinese once competitive domestic options come to market.

The electronics business is one with incredibly high bars for sunk cost, and mistakes can be very expensive, if not fatal.

The Chinese though, retain excellent business intelligence, because the major players are all represented in the industrial chain.

Good luck to the blind fighting the sighted, even if the spears are a little longer, and the swords sharper… for now.

When we study Russian military history, we realize that the Russian army always starts its wars badly and improves over time. Why does it happen?

This is not correct that it always happens, but instead of pointing out instances of this being wrong, because Russia eventually lost, or because Russia actually rolled their enemies right away, I will tell you why Russia has an affinity for this kind of warfare.

The answer is geography. Russia is an immense country, and even if most people live in the western regions it confers massive advantages. For example, Russia can hide things, even with modern intelligence gathering, Russia is so big, that yes you can take satellite images of all of Russia, but by the time that you analyze them things could have changed. For this reason many of Russia’s ICBMs are near invulnerable, as they are moved around Siberia on trucks, making it nearly impossible to have an accurate picture of where they actually are.

Historically, Russia has time on its side. Why? Because it has ample space to recover from defeats. Most enemies only ever fight a portion of Russia, with the rest of Russia supporting the economic efforts. If you advance 600km into Russia you will certainly hurt it, but you will have quite a bit more to go. If you advance 600km into Germany, you’re now in France.

As such, history is very forgiving to the country in Europe with the most natural resources, largest population, and most amount of room for failure. Russia can at least partially recover from nearly any initial failure militarily. This gives them time to adapt to what ever caused their initial defeat, and reverse the outcome of the war, provided they have the will to do so over the particular issue.
Other countries have the ability to do this, but rarely the time. For a small country, a defeat is usually decisive and they get no second chances.

The Sopranos || Fix You

The Sopranos is still the best written show to this date. Game of Thrones does some things better, The Wire does some things better, Breaking Bad does some things better, Mad Men does some things better, but The Sopranos takes the cake in terms of character interactions and making real lifelike characters. The Sopranos has more profound characters/character relationships than any show I’ve seen, and in my opinion characters are the most important part of a TV show, so it’s the GOAT no doubt. Plus the fact that it’s the foundation for HBO, TV dramas, and the “anti-hero.” The Sopranos is #1 all-time in my opinion.

TSMC prizes Japan’s chips skills after US stumbles

Taiwan’s TSMC, which is making an unprecedented push into chip manufacturing overseas, is taking an increasingly optimistic view of Japan as a production base, two industry sources said, as problems persist at its new factory in Arizona.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is frustrated in Arizona, the sources said, where it has struggled to recruit workers for the gruelling chipmaking trade and faced pushback from unions on efforts to bring in workers from Taiwan.

The company has growing confidence in Japan, where an $8.6 billion fab under construction in a chipmaking hub on the island of Kyushu is on track to start producing mature-technology chips in 2024, the sources said.

While keen to ensure a smooth ramp up at the first fab, the chipmaker is considering adding capacity and a second fab in Japan, the sources said, which could include the production of more advanced chips.

Several chip industry sources spoke to Reuters about TSMC’s view of Japan and its global expansion on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Successful expansion by TSMC in Japan could give a boost to efforts by the country to regain its lost status as a chip manufacturing powerhouse and support its automotive and electronics industries amid growing regional competition.

TSMC said in a statement its overseas expansion depends on factors including the needs of customers, the level of government support and cost considerations.

In Arizona, TSMC plans to produce advanced chips but a shortage of skilled workers has forced the company to push back production at its first fab by a year to 2025.

“Any project… will have some learning curve. In the past five months the improvement has been tremendous,” TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said of the Arizona project last week.

Fabs in the U.S., Japan and Germany, where it is also expanding, are “inherently incomparable” due to differences in location, setup and scope, TSMC said.

NATURAL FIT

The U.S., Japan and Germany have offered TSMC billions of dollars in subsidies for it to localise production in efforts to diversify the supply of chips, which are essential to the defence, automotive and electronics industries.

The $40 billion investment in Arizona allows TSMC to add capacity outside Taiwan, where it faces constraints on land, power, water and labour.

But the company views Japan as a more natural fit in terms of work culture, and its government is easy to deal with and generous with subsidies, the sources said.

“The relationship between TSMC and the Japanese government is mutually beneficial,” said Lucy Chen, an analyst at Isaiah Research.

Japan’s advantages for the chipmaker include its network of chip equipment and materials suppliers, similarities in work culture and proximity to Taiwan, she added.

TSMC sees workers in Japan, which is known for long hours and strong commitment to employers, as more willing to work a punishing schedule with overtime as chipmaking machines run around the clock in sterile clean rooms, the sources said.

“A lot of machines cannot be shut down because it costs TSMC to recalibrate on rebooting,” said a chip industry executive.

It is only a two-hour flight to Kyushu, where TSMC is partnering with companies including Sony, a leading maker of image sensors.

Taiwanese workers arriving to help set up the fab are welcome, and the chipmaker will pay higher wages to secure local employees as it competes with rivals such as foundry venture Rapidus, the sources said.

“It seems to us that TSMC is really positive about investment in Japan,” said a senior official at the powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which has offered subsidies worth up to 476 billion yen ($3.23 billion) for the first fab.

“We will really welcome the second fab project in general but we have to see the detail first,” the official said.

While many equipment and materials makers already have global operations, to meet its exacting standards TSMC has also brought suppliers to Japan from Taiwan, the sources said.

RISING CAPITAL SPENDING

TSMC’s enthusiasm for Japan is being tempered by concerns about higher costs across the business and worries about the macro environment, the sources said.

Capital expenditure ballooned to $36 billion last year from $10 billion in 2018, with the company forecasting a slightly smaller outflow this year.

TSMC thought costs to build a fab would be 20% higher in the U.S. than in Taiwan but they are actually about 50% higher, an investor briefed by company management said.

The chipmaker plans to build an $11 billion fab in Germany with local firms but is also concerned the work culture there, with long vacations and strong unions, will hit output, the sources said.

Investors worry about the effect of higher costs but “the impact on TSMC today has not been that big because its leading technology gives it pricing power,” said Brady Wang, an analyst at research firm Counterpoint.

($1 = 147 Yen)

What is the most embarrassing incident while you were on a vacation to a different country?

In a very nice cafe in Malaysia, I was sitting with my husband about to order after we decided on what we want.

I do what I always do in Kuwait and Egypt, raising a hand and loudly saying “excuse me!”, my voice breaking the strange quietness of this cafe.

I’m not even exaggerating when I say that almost everyone in the cafe turned their head to look at me.

I whisper to my husband “um. Seems like this is not how they do it here.”

A waiter comes to us rushing to take the order. He then very politely explains to us that we should use the pieces of paper on the table (which I mistook for tissues till that moment) to write down the numbers next to each order in the menu, then ever so easily press on a button on the table.

There is literally no need at all to even talk to the waiter. He just comes, picks up the paper while smiling at us.

Well, I guess that explains why 30 people or so were staring holes at me when my “excuse me” echoed around haha.

I felt like such a peasant.

The Power Of The Neocon Narrative Is Evil

With respect gentlemen, Europeans are too busy chewing grass. Like most of humanity. The politicians are busy bowing down to the money changers and are firmly in their grip. Peace, love and blessings to those that seek it.

Do you trust a cop as your neighbor?

Short answer, NO.

Let me explain….

I use to live in a subdivision with my mother when I was under the age of 18 and we had a female police officer that lived at the end of the cul de sac. Whenever she had a party her guests would park in front of others driveways and on others property (I came out of my house to find several cars parked on my mothers front lawn). I had to be somewhere, so I went down and asked her if the people who parked on my moms property and in front of my driveway could move. I was told NO and the door was shut in my face. So, I went home and called a friend of mine that owned a wrecker service and explained the situation to him. He said that he had 3 wreckers in the area and that he would be happy to help. Well, 20 minutes later I had all 3 wreckers pull up and start hooking up cars. One of the ladies at the police officers party must of noticed because the next thing I know I have 4 ladies screaming at the tow truck drivers to put their cars down, each had to pay a “Drop Fee” of $200.00. This was the last time that any of her guests parked in front of my driveway. Whenever I had a party, weather people were parked in front of her house or not, I was guaranteed to have the police called.

Many Worlds Theory: You’re in a Parallel Universe | Can You Visit Your Other Lives?

The ability of this man to explain the complexities of quantum physics in an almost digestable way to the masses is a superpower. Leaves me awe struck at the time, attention, care, & talent that goes into this channel. Bravo.

Did Huawei’s launch of the Kiriin 9000s chip for the Mate 60 Pro show that <5nm processes are not necessary for modern mobile phones, and how will this affect TSMC’s business?

TSMC is on course for reduced margins, just because it is forced to build plants beyond Greater China, which are more costly to build and run, not to mention having to hire local and deal with culture and language barriers complicating operations, especially the crucial ramp-up.

These are risk management strategies, and not economically driven.

That is baked in, regardless of Huawei.

This is a rather curious time to ask the question, because we have arrived at the plateau of mobile computing. A cheap phone today has similar performance as the cutting edge 5 years ago, and that is enough computing power for the average user, even the occasional gamer. The same happened with laptops some years back, when the node dividend began delivering machines with all-day battery life.

Huawei’s Kirin 9000s is a 7nm chip with 5nm performance, and there are compromises to raw computing power, die area, and of course, power draw, compared to the cutting edge from the competition.

Huawei’s customers know the Mate 60 pro isn’t as good as the iPhone 15 Pro performance wise, but this hasn’t stopped them from joining the queue for the phone. My dad told me enthusiastically “even Jackie Chan can’t get a set!”. Wonder where he heard that from.

Obviously, different dynamics are at work here.

What made the difference was the return of Kirin and more importantly, the 5g modem. At the mobile computing plateau, the “speed” of a phone is more likely bottlenecked by the network rather than the CPU/GPU, unlike mobile gaming and other specialized tasks.

The Kirin 9000s has decent performance (especially the highlight: 5g network speeds), enough to join the flagship club in 2023. More importantly, it offers a package that cannot be found anywhere else, including Hongmeng, AI driven gestures and automated payments, and a really snazzy camera.

These features directly impact lifestyle usability, and breed customer loyalty, because it is technology that just work. A lot of engineering was committed to refine and polish them, and these are major selling points.

So Huawei has a “good enough” flagship for 2023, in terms of specs. But is there a future for a node-bound Kirin? I believe Huawei will struggle to meet demand for the next year or two, but beyond that, we will have to see how far along the indigenization of the chipmaking supply chain is.

What interests me more isn’t the chip, but the independent direction Huawei will forge with AI, Hongmeng and its integration with the IOT. Even Qualcomm is sending overtures to develop Hongmeng devices, just because it doesn’t want to be left out of a 700m user base market.

For example, what will a Hongmeng-enabled 5.5G IOT ecosystem look like in maturity? What other AI-enabled features are in the works? I’ve heard some impressive forecasts but I’m bound to secrecy.

Exciting times in virgin territory.

It isn’t the chip, but the overall ecosystem.

What is something that you can do in your country that a person in America cannot do?

American expat living in Denmark. I’ve been here for 12 years, and I can honestly say that I have far more freedoms than I ever did in the US.

Things I can do here that I couldn’t do in the US-

Get injured, sick, or have a baby without having to pay to see a single doctor or hospital bill. This includes having an MRI, x-rays, ultrasounds, EKG, various blood tests, several days in hospital while in labour, and quite a number of procedures during labour.
While mental health care isn’t free, there are ways to get mental health care which is free. I’ve finally been able to get a diagnosis of ADHD and bipolar disorder, after living my entire life struggling.
Because I am on medication I’ll need for the rest of my life, I’m able to afford it without going bankrupt.
I’m going to school to get my degree, free of charge. In fact I even get paid to go to school!
Other things less personal- we can walk around with open containers of alcohol. We can drink while sitting in a park, on the beach, or pretty much anywhere else within reason.
I could, if I so wished, walk down to the beach and sun myself completely naked. I could also sunbathe topless most anywhere.
I don’t have to worry about including enough tax when mentally tallying up the cost of groceries or a meal out and. Tax is included in all prices.
I also don’t have to spend even more money tipping since the wait staff, bartender, busboys, etc. are all paid properly.
I can bike safely, even in the middle of the city, without worrying about getting hit by a car. We have such excellent bike paths which are much like a sidewalk with a curb dividing it from the street. My 7 year old can bike as well without worry.

I could go on, but these are just the basic ones that I thought of first.

The Sopranos || Wonderful Life

That one clip of Carmela and Furio dancing, while the line, “It’s a wonderful life” plays in the background is so perfect. What an absolutely brilliant video. This brought tears to my eyes. Nothing will ever match up to this show. Masterpiece.

What is the most badass display of professional expertise you have ever witnessed?

7 inches rain pour in a single night.
Roads flooded.
Cars were left on roadside by their owners as they couldn’t start them.

And 6am in the morning there was a knock at my door. The milk delivery boy was standing in front of me. Sleeves of his trousers folded, and with a smile on his face. I asked him “how did you manage to reach here?”. He replied “sir, I walked through the water with my friends, it is essential to make milk available to everyone in such conditions. Those who have kids can’t manage without it”.

It was a small incident but really worth giving a thought.

Education makes us capable but professionalism is self-taught.

The CRAZIEST MYTHS I’ve heard about CHINA! | UTTERLY SHOCKED***

Exactly, a young man who speaks the truth and not brain washed by US media.

“Why are so many Americans so damn brainwashed?”

https://youtu.be/h8QtTxE3XKI

Given Huawei’s chip break thru with the Mate 60 pro, would it make any difference to the future outlook of American chip manufacturers if the US was to abandon the high tech sanctions against China?

Strictly speaking, it isn’t a “breakthrough” yet, because this is the Chinese being very creative with a set of heavily crippled tools and components, producing a world-class flagship mobile device against immense odds.

The Chinese came together and dug a tunnel using shovels because the excavators were taken off the market.

Nevertheless, they persevered… and saw light.

But, and here’s the but, they have one tunnel, and still don’t own any excavators.

Before we go on, we should take a cursory glance at the chipmaking industry.

To reduce the clutter, we can divide the history of chipmaking into two epochs, pre-2007, and post.

In the first period, Intel was dominant, and it almost drove AMD out of business, taking Global Foundries along with it. AMD was a “fabless” foundry model developed to challenge Intel’s vertically integrated model, betting that superior design married with partners who could better control (and share) manufacturing cost while keeping pace with Moore’s law would deliver competitive products. AMD ultimately failed because it couldn’t wrestle sufficient market share in the x86 market, which was already past its exponential growth phase.

In other words, the scraps that fabs fed on ex-Intel were not enough to drive progress.

What changed in 2007?

That’s right. The arrival of the smartphone, in Steve’s hand.

It ushered in a new eco-system, ARM, that was completely separate (but even more profitable) than Intel- and Microsoft-controlled x86.

Another watershed happened in 2007, but it was quietly announced to little fanfare, unlike the iPhone. Nvidia announced CUDA, ushering in the era of GPGPU.

ARM and the GPU revolutionized the business of fabs. The chief beneficiary was TSMC, and to a lesser extent, Samsung.

Set free from the chains of x86 and Windows, the singular pursuit of mobile computing in the early days of the iphone 3GS and 4 was this: how to squeeze ever more power (flops) from engines shrinking in size (die area) but increasing in fuel economy (flops/Watt)?

To be perfectly honest, the early smartphones were pretty much unusable from a modern standpoint. That’s because the fabs lagged far behind Intel, despite the same tools and ecosystem available to the competition. [The original iPhone was powered by a 90nm Samsung chip]. Apple’s orders and the potential of the smartphone becoming the one piece of tech everyone MUST own finally gave fabs the nitro-fuel needed to beat Intel at its own game.

The secret?

As with most economic problems, lots of cash to buy the best tools and talent.

As late as 2014/15, TSMC was still tapping out chips at 28nm for the flagship Snapdragon 800 series. The contemporaneous A8 was preferentially made on the 20nm node, TSMC’s cutting edge offering 8–9 years ago. Intel tapped out Broadwell at 14nm, the clear industry leader.

It was around this time that truly functional smartphone computing arrived, delivered by process node improvement. Apple’s A8 tapped out at 2 billion transistors, and TSMC completed its leapfrog past Intel in 2017 with the A11, a 10nm chip with >4 billion transistor on die area slightly smaller than the A8. Intel’s Kabylake was still stuck on the same 14nm node, albeit with finfet improvements.

Why did I attempt a grandfather’s monologue of seemingly disjointed developments?

TSMC completed a doubling of transistor density in less than 3 years to leapfrog past Intel, and subsequently broke new ground conquering sub-10nm physics with novel methods and tools, including the all-too-familiar EUV.

Most of the talent that achieved the breakthrough were Chinese, and a good number of them (several thousands) are currently working for mainland competition. Key managers were offered “out of this world” renumeration that were unheard of in the industry to sign up. These are cutting edge talent that know the business of chipmaking inside out, baptized by the fire of success that successfully dethroned Intel.

There are experienced captains steering the Chinese ship through the hurricane of US sanctions.

My friend, who still works at TSMC, thought the battle was lost the moment Donald the Orange declared war on Huawei. In fact, it was American belligerence that finally persuaded several of her colleagues to jump ship, and not the numbers on the contract. These were people who worked tireless to push yields to records during ramp-up, and methodically improved workflow for novel methods and equipment, without the benefit of recipes and practical limits. I like to think of them as chefs experimenting with a new menu earning three michelin stars, despite having to learn new ways of cooking with never-seen-before ingredients.

You can’t lose, with master chefs like that.

As she likes to say, 欺负中国没人，门儿都没有。

America picked the wrong fight, and boarded the wrong train.

路选错了是没有尽头的。

Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken and Flat Dumplings

Ingredients

1 large (5 pound) washed chicken
1 large onion, quartered
3 stalks celery, cut into large chunks
1 teaspoon whole peppercorn
2 1/2 teaspoons salt

Instructions

Place chicken in a 6- to 8-quart stockpot. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to boil. Simmer until chicken is done, about 2 hours.
When cool, remove bones and fat from chicken. Cut into pieces, and return to pot.
Noodles: In a bowl, mix together 2 cups flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a well in the center, and gradually work 4 eggs into the flour until stiff dough is formed, adding water a little at a time if necessary. Knead until smooth. Divide dough in half. Roll each half as thin as possible then cut into thin 1-2 inch squares.
Bring the broth back to rolling boil. Drop noodle squares one at a time, making sure each are drenched in broth. Reduce heat, cover and continue to cook until noodles are done, about 8 minutes. DON’T PEEK!
Serve in large bowl and ladle onto plates at the table. Serve with chopped onion.

What would you do?

I’m asking.

[Daegonmagus] Simplified LD technique

03/10/2023

Last night after trying to devise a simpler method wake induced lucid dreaming I managed to LD. I once again went to the underground world place lagging our physical reality by 3 months that seems to be a common location lately. I seemed to be doing a usual recon job, dropping into some base to gain intel on as part of some team. This was in a section that was outside despite the rest of the place having that familiar underground feeling to it. I remember having to go up and over the side of this building into whatever compound it was we were infiltrating. These sessions seem a lot easier: we don’t seem to give much of a shit if our presence is detected, and make ourselves known to flush out whatever is inside. This particular time was no exception. A bunch of non physical guards came out to try and apprehend us but we just swatted them off like flies. There was some kind of weird flying object thing: it looked like a bunch of cubes with square orange lights coming off it which is I think what we were there to investigate. I decided I wanted to fly it so I projected into its core. It was a very peculiar object as the cubes all sort of shot of in different directions but I could control them. It wasn’t anything like the UFO thing I flew – some sort of key like object one had to project into to use.

That saga soon ended and I was back in the middle of the underground city – square sort of dwellings made out of brown clay everywhere – just sort of exploring. I got the idea to reach out to the Domain (the guys who operated on my astral body during a sleep paralysis episode about a year). I pinged a very strong thought out of them suggesting I wished to make contact along with a visualisation. I did this 3 or 4 times, and all of a sudden I was sucked into a worm hole and started travelling down it. Upon coming out the other side, it was like a great deal of distortion prevented me from being able to see properly. I popped out in this circular shaped room that was populated by what appeared to be smoky entities. I knew these things were beings but that just looked like tall blobs of smoke that kept shooting back and forth across the room before forming back into a tall pillar all around me. All in all there probably about 5 or 6 of these pillars, though when they dissipated to fly around the room they all just became one “mass” of smoke.

Session very soon ended after that.

What does it look like when all the jobs dry up? It looks like America today

The grand Ponzi scheme is coming to an end. And the West is slowly shutting down, turning off the lights, and starting the long slow slide into the night.

Let’s have some fun…

If This Was Not Caught On Camera No One Would Have Believed It

We start with a MUST WATCH video. Strange but amazing nature.

Pennsylvania Dutch Brownies

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup light molasses
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 1/8 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 13 x 9-inch metal baking pan; set aside.
In a 4-quart saucepan, melt butter with chocolate over low heat. Remove saucepan from heat. With wire whisk or fork, stir in molasses, then eggs.
With spoon, stir in flour, ginger, cloves, baking soda, salt, 1 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon just until blended. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted 2 inches from edge comes out clean.
Meanwhile, in cup, combine remaining 2 teaspoons sugar and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon; set aside.
Remove pan from oven; immediately sprinkle brownies with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Cool brownies in pan on wire rack at least 2 hours. When cool, cut brownies lengthwise into 3 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 5 pieces. Cut each piece diagonally in half.

Source: Good Housekeeping Christmas Joys – Hearst Books

China NOW Controls the Future of the 21st Century

Why did China participate in WWII?

They didn’t exactly choose to participate.

One morning Chinese civilians in Manchuria woke up to this:

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Japanese troops marching through their town.

Of course I use “woke up” in a metaphorical sense. They probably heard the Japanese army coming, and many of them were killed by bombs and artillery before the troops actually marched into town, but the invasion itself caught a lot of people(including some members of the Japanese government) by surprise.

The Japanese military(acting somewhat insubordinately from the government in Tokyo) launched an invasion of Manchuria(in northern China), and the Chinese had to respond with war.

It isn’t like the Japanese called up the Chinese and said “Hey we want to go to war, if you are interested call us back”….the Chinese weren’t given the option. China got invaded and the Chinese had to respond. Since China was struggling with internal political problems this wasn’t exactly the best timing for an invasion, but as a country they had to rally together to defend themselves against the invasion.

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As you can see the Japanese made it pretty deep into China. The traditional heart of Chinese civilization is the Hebei, Henan, Shanxi region which was almost completely conquered by the Japanese at one point. With such a fast acting, dangerous enemy China had to fight back, otherwise they could risk being completely subjugated by the Japanese.

Life under the Japanese occupation forces was brutal. Normal civilian women were raped almost daily, people were shot for no reason, living conditions were rough, and the Japanese would conduct horrific experiments on the people of China. It was in every Chinese citizen’s best interest to resist this occupation, lest they live a life under such an oppressive regime.

British police detain journalist Kit Klarenberg, interrogate him about The Grayzone

British counter-terror police detained journalist Kit Klarenberg upon his arrival at London’s Luton airport and subjected him to an extended interrogation about his political views and reporting for The Grayzone.

As soon as journalist Kit Klarenberg landed in his home country of Britain on May 17, 2023, six anonymous plainclothes counter-terror officers detained him. They quickly escorted him to a back room, where they grilled him for over five hours about his reporting for this outlet. They also inquired about his personal opinion on everything from the current British political leadership to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At one point, Klarenberg’s interrogators demanded to know whether The Grayzone had a special arrangement with Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) to publish hacked material.

During Klarenberg’s detention, police seized the journalist’s electronic devices and SD cards, fingerprinted him, took DNA swabs, and photographed him intensively. They threatened to arrest him if he did not comply.

Posted by: b | May 31 2023 13:54 utc | 1

China is a far better place to live than the US!

How do you survive while serving your sentence at a correctional facility? How do you stay sane while in prison or a halfway house?

This is me after 27 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days. I think I’m fairly sane:

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It’s a question of mentality. I know I have habits from decades in prison that people find strange. I’m a little OCD about my routines and keeping everything clean. But it’s all harmless. And some of it serves me well. These are products of the indoctrination of the Department Of Corrections.

While in prison, I tried to stay connected to the free world as much as possible. I read books, spoke to people on the phone, watched the news (slanted as it always is), and I listened to stories told by newcomers. It didn’t fully prepare me for what was waiting for me out here, but it helped.

For the first 17 years, I had no hope of ever getting out. But I learned to accept my situation for what it was. That doesn’t mean I gave up fighting to get out. It just means that I didn’t whine about my sentences. I deserved them. But I kept my nose in the Florida Law Weekly, Federal Law Weekly, FPLP (When it existed), and Prison Legal News, just in case there was a change in law. Eventually there was. It happened in 2012, but it still took 10 more years for it to impact my sentences and grant me an oppertunity to be out here.

That mindset. I got out 10 months ago. I have a job as a metal fabricator, I have a late model vehicle, my drivers license, a place to live and people who love me and rejoice in my freedom and success. It’s not hard. It just takes determination. It doesn’t “take” a strong mind, just the absence of a weak mind.

Humility. Remembering where I’ve been, and why. Treating people with kindness and compassion. Walking away and/or ignoring idiots. All things powered by our minds. Products of sanity. Prison is a physical place. You can keep it from doing too much damage to your mind.

What are some possible implications of military-to-military contacts between China and US all but evaporating in recent years amid a historic decline in governmental relations?

Typically, when the military communication between nations collapses, war soon follows. This is most especially true when (historically) China makes a public Casus Belli.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHgZ9xfL65k

It’s best not to try to talk with China if China doesn’t want to listen.

There have been several historical incidents in China where opposition military leaders or negotiators were returned back dead.

Here are a few examples:

1. The Battle of Muye (1046 BC) – During the battle, the Zhou army defeated the Shang army and captured their leader, King Zhou. However, instead of treating him with respect, the Zhou leader, King Wu, had him executed.

2. The Battle of Changping (260 BC) – During the battle, the Qin army defeated the Zhao army and captured their general, Zhao Kuo. However, instead of treating him with respect, the Qin leader, Bai Qi, had him executed.

3. The Battle of Red Cliff (208 AD) – During the battle, the allied forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan defeated the army of Cao Cao. After the battle, two of Cao Cao’s generals, Pang De and Ma Dai, were captured and executed.

4. The Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) – This was a treaty between the Qing Empire and the Russian Empire. The Qing negotiators, led by Songgotu, were unhappy with the terms of the treaty and refused to sign it. As a result, they were imprisoned and later executed.

5. The Tiananmen Square protests (1989) – During the protests, student leaders negotiated with the government for several weeks. However, when the government declared martial law and sent in the military, many of the student leaders were arrested and some were later executed.

6. The Urumqi riots (2009) – During the riots, Uighur leaders negotiated with the government for several days. However, when the negotiations broke down, the government sent in the military. Several Uighur leaders were arrested and some were later executed.

It’s worth noting that in some cases, the deaths of opposition military leaders or negotiators may have been the result of personal vendettas or political rivalries rather than a deliberate policy. Never the less, when dealing with the Chinese you must NEVER assume that they will behave in a well established Western fashion.

China is a nation of peaceful warriors. But with over 6000 years of fighting, they DO KNOW how to handle impertinent upstarts.

Watch out for Chinese cars, we are already behind!

If you could change one aspect of dating in your culture, what would it be?

Women need to start approaching men.

Good men are pretty timid in modern society, and rightly so. Most of the history of man has been mired in rape culture. We called it a lot of names, but it was rape culture. Feminists have spread that message well enough that good, kind, conscientious men know most of human history was one big rapist parade of female oppression.

And they don’t want to be part of that. If they can avoid it, they don’t even want to make a woman uncomfortable. They don’t want to put on the pressure that their gender thought was their birthright for millions of years, not even accidentally. This leads to a certain timidity in sensitive and considerate men, in men who are the best partners for most women.

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Not like this. This guy is clearly saying no. But you get the idea. Sadie Hawkins Day reenactment photo by Ed Westcott. Public domain.

Women only get to meet and date these men if they notice them, seek them out, and invite them home. Not quietly, not subtly, loudly and unabashedly. Speak clearly. Most men are simple creatures, and they appreciate it when women are direct.

Obviously, I don’t want women to become what men used to be. We need to take rejection just as gracefully as we always want men to take it. But we do need to step up and help men who take feminism’s message seriously find the partners they deserve.

That’ll never happen if we keep waiting for men to do all the work. We need to risk rejection, take our lumps, and find the nice guys we want. It’s our world if we want it. We should act like it.

China canceled orders worth billions of dollars from Germany

Recently, China has also wielded the sanction stick against the three major American military-industrial companies that enjoy the benefits of the Chinese market while undermining China’s interests. At the same time, China has tightened scrutiny of American chip companies, which has made Western countries quite uncomfortable. However, for Western countries, if they don’t even have the opportunity to benefit from China’s market, they will surely be furious!

https://youtu.be/6x-0QvIpIwE

Is the US creating three Asian Ukraines (South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines) to become frontline states to contain China?

It is trying.

It is bribing, coercing and threatening and using tons of U.S. taxpayers money to do this shit without much success.

I know your media fooled you into thinking South Korea, Taiwan and Philippines are on your side and willing to do shit on China. Nothing can be further than the truth.

Let’s talk about South Korea. They are oriental and the a from the same Confucian school of thought. The politely nod and give the impression they will but they are no fools. The squeeze. A ton of concession from the US to just bark without biting China whine they know either enrich them or bankrupt them. They know where their bread is buttered.

China and Korea has a few thousand years relation and their cousins and and relatives were biologically murdered by the Americans and quietly they assured the daft yanks that they will bark but won’t agree to let them even shot a bow and arrow at China. Singing American pie for a billion dollars is worth it.

Taiwan has 60% of its income from China, 99% of its inhabitants has a relative, friends, families or associates in China. The chance of Taiwan playing ball with you is zero and none. Sure we will cajole and encourage you to spend a trillion dollar on us and may be, perhaps, hopefully one day in the next ten thousand years time we may be foolish enough to be your dog. Meanwhile go play with your Anglo slaves. UK and Australia. They will serve you well.

China’s Going For Flying Train Of Speed 4000 KM/H

https://youtu.be/RaAfXIRMak4

“This past weekend officers were dispatched to a theft report.”

“They arrived and found that a 14-year-old’s birthday gift, a lawn mower, was stolen. After learning the victim mows the elderly’s lawns for free, they felt it necessary to find a way to get the young man a new lawn mower. After gathering contributions from fellow west sector officers, Officer Seibert ran to Lowe’s and purchased a new lawn mower and gas can for this young man.

This photo was shared to Evansville Watch, which is how we found out about the incident. EPD has many selfless officers that don’t want the notoriety when they do good deeds, but it’s often hard for us to overlook. Thank you Officer Seibert and Officer Siegel for proving what great officers our community has.”

Love What Matters

World War II Paintings From The Soviet Union

We tend to forget how horrific World War II was for the Soviet Union. Here’s a fascinating collection of Soviet War paintings.

China’s High-Speed Sleeper Trains

China must not allow India to act like the Trojan Horse in the BRICS

Recently, an American senator has recommended making India a NATO+ member. This proposal is viewed as an extension of the American military satellite camp, which includes Israel, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. These countries are deeply aligned with NATO’s agenda, as they aim to maintain Western hegemony on the world stage.

Of course, this statement was a proposal by an American senator and also something that the US has always wanted to do in Asia — to bring India under its control as a means to counter China. For now, the good news is that India has not yet released any official statement on this matter. Personally, I don’t think it is likely to happen. However, considering India’s alignment with the West when it comes to China and its current status as a Quad partner, there is still a risk that exists. Nevertheless, let’s consider a typical scenario of what could happen if India simply decides to go the Trojan Horse way.

What do I mean by this statement?

It is worth noting that India is also aligned with the rising East, which has been actively pursuing a long-term plan to rebuild the financial system in a more equitable manner that promotes Eastern interests. India is a part of two important blocs: the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS. The BRICS bloc comprises China, Russia, India, Brazil, and South Africa.

As we are aware, the BRICS bloc has garnered significant attention in recent years for its advocacy of de-dollarization. Nations worldwide have shown interest in joining this bloc due to their confidence in its ability to assist countries in breaking free from Western hegemony. India, being a part of this bloc, shares common interests in this regard. Additionally, India maintains a neutral stance towards Russia, which enables it to purchase oil at discounted rates. Furthermore, the friendship between India and Russia remains strong, with India regarding Russia as a valuable partner in terms of both the economy and military cooperation.

But again, India is a real “B.” Not only does it position itself as a rising power that can serve as an alternative to the current Western order, but it also appears to be aligning more closely with the West. One key goal is to promote Hindutva supremacy in other South Asian countries and to work towards containing China. China is seen as the biggest factor hindering India’s establishment of supremacy in Southeast Asia. Therefore, one can argue that India is acting as a Trojan Horse within BRICS. It doesn’t seem fully committed to being a trustworthy partner and instead appears to be a country that is reluctant to share power with other nations, preferring to exert its own rule.

Being a part of the NATO+ member comes with more risks than benefits. It will inevitably increase concerns among Southeast Asian nations about the future in their region, as tensions may escalate between the Asian powers. In recent years, Southeast Asia has slowly deviated from its status as a peaceful region free of conflict, especially since the US introduced its Indo-Pacific Vision. In a scenario where India joins NATO+, it would effectively transform India into a loyal servant of the West, aiding the West in achieving its goal of bringing India into its military camp.

Overall, it would be unwise for India to perceive any benefits in obtaining this status. Firstly, it is widely known how divided the country is, with many states not having Hindi as their primary language. Recent revolts against the Indian government, particularly concerning the BJP’s plans to enforce Hindi as the sole language across all of India, highlight the potential disregard for other languages in various states. Such a move could be seen as an affront to the linguistic diversity within India.

The good thing about British is that they imposed English or else India would be divided into many countries, because English is a bridge for many cultures inside India to understand each other.

China has options to keep India checked

The first answer lies in Pakistan. Oh yes Indiiians, I know, it is the poorest country, with most people lacking basic access to their human needs to maintain a normal lifestyle. However, it is important to note that there is also a “rich Pakistan”, particularly within the military itself. Despite any economi crises, the military will never allow itself to remain weak and has invested billions towards making it strong. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that the military controls key aspects of the economy.

Yes, Pakistan alone may not be a match for India. However, just imagine the scenario if China and Pakistan joined forces to launch a military intervention on Indian soil. It would be an absolute disaster for India and could potentially turn the country into a second Ukraine. Let’s not forget the historical fact that China was able to reclaim the lost land of Aksai Chin from India, even when it was not as powerful as it is today.

Of course, I am being hyperbolic with the first option. China does not operate in the same way as Western countries. However, as I mentioned earlier, if tensions continue to escalate, particularly regarding the unresolved border issue, it could potentially lead to a dire scenario. This would be the worst-case scenario for the India itself.

RUSSIAN Doomsday Planes Sent to SIBERIA, STRATCOM Targeted

When did you need somebody but nobody was there for you?

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I once saw something that I couldn’t explain to anyone and I probably can’t now.

One day I was walking home and almost in front of me a man just fell down.

Backwards away, just straight on the back of the head.

An insanely loud crash.

I’ve never heard a noise like that before.

I immediately went over to him, crouched down and looked at him.

And I saw his eyes.

They were wide open and I saw him walk away.

I saw it. He left his body and was “gone.”

The eyes were now empty. No one at home.

I started talking to him, I don’t remember what, some soothing stuff.

I got in touch with him.

And after a while I saw that he was back.

I know I brought him back by talking, I just know it.

The ambulance that somebody had gone for then came.

I stood up. All of a sudden, I was shaking all over and became freezing.

I asked someone to help me, but no one understood what was wrong with me.

I went home and was still in shock for a very long time.

Through the end-of-life care I’ve done, I’ve seen death many times.

But never, never, have I seen it as I did that day.

I would have liked someone to talk to me myself afterwards.

But I was alone and had to cope, and I didn’t know how to tell anyone.

China’s Explosive Chip Technology Breakthroughs Shock the World

https://youtu.be/nJZbMx2Oh3g

China goes crazy again with one of a kind supersonic drone

A Chinese supersonic combat drone has captured the world’s attention with its remarkable speed and formidable weaponry. Whispers of its unprecedented velocity have spread, leaving adversaries in awe of its lightning-fast strikes. The drone’s unmatched agility and maneuverability are said to surpass anything seen before, making conventional defense systems ineffective against its relentless attacks.

Revealed some years ago, the drone has now gained a new combat system which has made it formidable weapon and a force to be reckoned with. A recent leaked report shows China has been successful in making this drone the best version of itself and now the world is ready to see it.

Lets uncover China’s new WZ 8 Drone and it’s capability that gives China an upper hand in drone warfare:

The wez-8 Drone is a supersonic UAV meaning it can travel at speeds greater than the speed of sound, also it is a relatively small drone with a wingspan of around 9 meters and a length of 14 meters. The Drone is reportedly powered by a scramjet engine which allows it to reach speeds of up to Mach 3, nearly 3 times the speed of sound.

One of the key features of the wz8 Drone is its stealth capabilities the Drone has a low radar cross section making it difficult for enemy radar systems to detect it the Drone is also equipped with electronic warfare capabilities which enable it to jam enemy Communications and radar systems.

The wz8 Drone is also capable of carrying weapons although the specific weapons it is designed to carry have not been disclosed however given its Speed and Agility it is likely that the Drone could be used for air-to-air combat or for precision strikes on ground targets.

Potential uses the wz8 Drone is designed primarily for military use and its speed and stealth capabilities make it well suited for a variety of missions some potential uses for the wz8 Drone include surveillance the drone’s speed and range make it an ideal platform for reconnaissance and surveillance missions its stealth capabilities also make it difficult for enemy forces to detect electronic warfare the wz8 EW capabilities make it well suited for disrupting enemy Communications and radar systems + Precision strikes

The Drone Speed and Agility could make it an effective weapon for precision strikes on ground targets air-to-air combat given its supersonic Speed and Agility the wez-8 could potentially be used for air-to-air combat missions the wz8 supersonic combat drone represents a significant advancement in China’s drone technology capabilities.

China’s super Sonic drones provide an edge in surveillance, intelligence gathering and strategic operations, these drones offer unparalleled speed and agility enabling real-time information acquisition and Swift response capabilities.

China’s advancements in this field contributes to its National Security and enhances its military capabilities making it a formidable force in the global defense landscape like no other nation.

This unique drone is one of a kind in the world with no parallels. I am not sure if it is available for exports. Saudi and UAE would buy this in a blink of an eye.

The U.S. ‘won’t tolerate’ China’s ban on Micron and the Japanese have gone even further

As a black person, when did you realize that not all black people are your allies and not all white people your enemies?

When I was in the military, I found myself stationed in Korea near the DMZ. I was 18, from Chicago, and was considered one of the baddest and coolest guys in the unit. My parents were from the Jim Crow South, and white people were not at all favored in their estimate. By the same token, my personal experience with “Jon Burge” era perverted, genitalia focused, Nazi, and Klan cops, had left me equally jaded.

My racial epiphany occurred one night while on alert in a frozen bunker, and I fell asleep while others were on guard. To my shock and horror, I realized that my feet had essentially frozen, and I went into panic mode. To my surprise, all my “brothers” laughed at me like a clown as I stumbled around the bunker dreading the potential amputation of my feet. To be sure, it was the very worst experience of my young life on the other side of the planet, and I was really close to “losing” it.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an avowed redneck named Turley from Georgia, grabbed me and pulled into a corner of the bunker. He took off my insulated boots, (which worked fine IF you kept it moving) opened his parka, and positioned himself so that my feet was inside of his outer garments and pressed solidly against his body. Before long, the feeling returned to my feet and I went about my duties. Despite my embarrassment, I never forgot what he did for me; and from that day on, I’ve never allowed race to be a factor in my estimation of my fellow man.

China to Retaliate Against US Ban on Huawei and WeChat by Removing Apple from Market

https://youtu.be/hJ9baEK6LHc

If a foreigner launch an app which take a large share from WeChat or Alipay, will Chinese government make him to sell it?

Absolutely not

Like i said China is a land of laws

China is absolutely 100% for free competition

However there are two points to consider :-

A. Chinese Data Security Laws

B. Chinese ability to build and scale their own apps

Chinese Data Security Laws are very stringent and very strong

In China , any app cannot own the Customer Data nor control the Customer Data. The Customer Data is like our AADHAR in India.

The Databases are controlled by the Government of China and the App can use the data but cannot transfer or control the data in any way whatsoever.

The Bad news is YOUR CAB INFORMATION CAN BE SEEN BY THE GOVERNMENT ANYTIME THEY CHOOSE TO SEE

The Good news is YOU WONT GET A SPAM CALL FROM A DUBIOUS “BANK MANAGER” asking for your ATM CARD NUMBER and OTP

So Uber cannot cash in on their Customer Database which they can do in almost every other country and even value this database in the Billions of Dollars

Neither can Didi or most other Chinese Apps

In China – DATA of Chinese Citizens is always controlled by the GOVERNMENT OF CHINA

Chinese are the worlds best app developers and they scale their apps superbly

So the Chinese will eventually make an app that is better than yours and more efficient than yours

This is a country where 9th Graders create apps

Its a hobby for many kids in China

So any foreign app must always ensure that their services are exemplary and have a unique edge that allows them to compete with the Chinese

Otherwise Chinese will run rings around them

So Chinese Government never forces anyone to sell their Apps especially foreigners

Its just that Chinas Data Security Laws and Chinas own ability to build apps means that Foreign Apps have tremendous competition and are easily eclipsed once a Chinese App really scales to that top level.

And if you think China has only 1–2

This Only Happens In China Technologies That Are On Another Level

https://youtu.be/YUsDJc6RPDs

China plans to perform a crewed lunar landing before 2030. What do you think of this goal?

I believe that it is actually going to be achieved. When China says it is going to do something; it invariably happens.

In fact, China already has this ability. It could probably cobble up some kind of craft from systems already in stock, and sail out to the Moon, land and return successfully. Give China about six months to make the necessary arrangements.

I will tell you all this, and you can “take it to the bank”;

China does things in clusters.
The cluster of activities will all fit together like pieces in a puzzle.
You will not see the entire outline of the puzzle until it is nearly finished.

As such…

The First landing on the moon by China will be one of many.
Every landing will have activities that will cycle towards one singular goal.
Evidence suggests that all the landings will be dedicated to the creation of a long-term habitat (or base) on the moon.

This base…

Will in itself have numerous functional objectives.
- Manufacturing.
- Sustainability.
- Mining.
- Industrial technology development.
- Construction technology development.

Resulting in…

The setting up for a Mars colony.

“They were all killed instantly!” – Donetsk under continued devastating attack

What are some possible implications of military-to-military contacts between China and US all but evaporating in recent years amid a historic decline in governmental relations?

Typically, when the military communication between nations collapses, war soon follows. This is most especially true when (historically) China makes a public Casus Belli.

It’s best not to try to talk with China if China doesn’t want to listen.

There have been several historical incidents in China where opposition military leaders or negotiators were returned back dead.

Here are a few examples:

1. The Battle of Muye (1046 BC) – During the battle, the Zhou army defeated the Shang army and captured their leader, King Zhou. However, instead of treating him with respect, the Zhou leader, King Wu, had him executed.

2. The Battle of Changping (260 BC) – During the battle, the Qin army defeated the Zhao army and captured their general, Zhao Kuo. However, instead of treating him with respect, the Qin leader, Bai Qi, had him executed.

3. The Battle of Red Cliff (208 AD) – During the battle, the allied forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan defeated the army of Cao Cao. After the battle, two of Cao Cao’s generals, Pang De and Ma Dai, were captured and executed.

4. The Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) – This was a treaty between the Qing Empire and the Russian Empire. The Qing negotiators, led by Songgotu, were unhappy with the terms of the treaty and refused to sign it. As a result, they were imprisoned and later executed.

5. The Tiananmen Square protests (1989) – During the protests, student leaders negotiated with the government for several weeks. However, when the government declared martial law and sent in the military, many of the student leaders were arrested and some were later executed.

6. The Urumqi riots (2009) – During the riots, Uighur leaders negotiated with the government for several days. However, when the negotiations broke down, the government sent in the military. Several Uighur leaders were arrested and some were later executed.

China is a nation of peaceful warriors. But with over 6000 years of fighting, they DO KNOW how to handle impertinent upstarts.

Why do African nations love China?

Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Bake

Chicken thighs are nestled in a deliciously-seasoned mixture of sauerkraut, onions, apple, apricots and raisins.

Ingredients

1 (2-pound) package Perdue® Fresh Chicken Thighs
Salt and ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1-2 tablespoons canola oil
1 (14-ounce) can sauerkraut, undrained
1 (14-ounce) can whole onions, drained
1 tart red apple, unpeeled, sliced or diced
6-8 dried whole apricots
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup brown sugar, or to taste

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Season thighs with salt and pepper.
In a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Cook thighs 6 to 8 minutes per side until browned.
Meanwhile, in 9 x 13-inch shallow baking dish, mix sauerkraut well with onions, apple, apricots, raisins and brown sugar. Nestle thighs into sauerkraut mixture.
Cover and bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through, and a meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of thigh registers 180 degrees F.

Serves: 4

China Just Hacked The U.S. Navy…

Family

The first photo is of actor Pierce Brosnan and his wife of twenty years, at the beginning of their marriage.

The second photo is of them today.

When the fools pointed out to him that she had grown fat, he simply replied:

"She is in my eyes the most beautiful woman in the world, she raised my 5 children with love. In the past, I already loved her for her personality and not just for her beauty. Now I love her even more. I'm very proud of her and I always try to be worthy of her love."

That’s marrying a man who loves you as you are.

The Wildest And Weirdest Chinese EVs From The 2023 Shanghai Auto Show

Be the Rufus!

On my way home from a 12 hour day of cutting lawns, I seen this gentleman, I have no clue who he is to this day. But I said no way was I gonna let this guy tackle this on his own.

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So I turned around and went back and unloaded my mower and drove across the street and ask the gentleman if I could help. His eyes lit up and I took that as a yes.

I ran down, jumped on my mower and went to work. As I’m cutting the lawn I look over and see the gentleman hunched over his wife, resting his head on her shoulder. So I get it knocked out in no time. I give them a thumbs up and proceeded to load my mower up.

The wife makes her way over before I could leave. She was so thankful! Their riding mower broke down and her husband has been mowing their big lawn with a push mower. It only took 15 mins of my time. I changed their life, for a small moment.

I hope someone reads this and feels like doing something good for someone tomorrow. I’m grateful to be where I’m at and I’m thankful for the people that help me get here.

Credit: J&J Lawn Service

After Macron came to China, France to sell a 6,675 square kilometer island to China

The quiet and confusion before the next steps

Never trust a single word that comes out of the (United States) lying machine. 

What America has agreed to amounts to this: the US will sanction and ban whoever, whatever and whenever they like because they're defending American values and their rule of law, but they will not do so when they need to buy Chinese rare earths and EV batteries. 

Meanwhile, China should not decouple by continuing to buy American corn and low-end chips from Micron. 

This is American fair and free trade. 

It's a Kabuki show and China is playing along. It's a game two can play. Anyone who believes in a single word these liars say are morons and deserves to be scammed, pillaged and plundered. 

-PM

Use this time to take care of yourself.

Listen to me.

Found a new way to make Double Cheese Pizza! No kneading! Incredibly easy! Best pizza in the world

China trashes US request for restoration of military communication

China suspended regular military contacts with US in August 2022 after the then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. However, the problem existed even before her visit

Umang Sharma June 21, 2023 14:46:00 IST

China has clearly denied one of US’ requests of restoring military-to-military contacts between the two countries. During his recent visit to Beijing, Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeatedly raised the issue of military communications but was rebuffed by the Chinese.

Blinken said it was “absolutely vital” US and China have these kind of communications and it was something the United States will keep working on.

Why China does not want to restart military communications?

China suspended regular military contacts with US in August 2022 after the then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. However, the problem existed even before her visit.

The US says since 2021, China has declined or has failed to respond to over a dozen requests from the Department of Defence for top-level dialogues.

Meanwhile, China said it has refused to restart military communications as sanctions have been imposed by US. Beijing was possibly referring to sanctions on its defence minister, Li Shangfu.

The sanctions on Li were part of a broad package of measures against Russia, even before its invasion of Ukraine, imposed in 2018 over his involvement in China’s purchase of combat aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles from Moscow.

Yang Tao, Chinese Foreign Ministry official overseeing North American affairs at a press briefing earlier this week said, “The US side is surely aware of why there is difficulty in military-to-military exchanges.”

“One of the reasons is unilateral sanctions against the Chinese side. They first need to remove impediments and create conditions for military-to-military cooperation,” Yang said.

Earlier this month, Li declined an invitation to speak with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of a defence forum in Singapore.

“The US says the sanctions don’t prevent Li from holding talks with US officials, but culturally, Chinese officials may expect a form of public remedy before agreeing to re-engage after sanctions,” Li Nan of the National University of Singapore said.

“You impose sanctions on the guy, and then you also want to have dialogue with the guy from the Chinese perspective, that doesn’t make any sense,” Nan said.

Why US wants to restore military contacts?

Washington wants to restore military contacts as it wants to avoid an incident similar to one in 2001 when the US Navy aircraft and a Chinese interceptor jet collided in mid-air off the Chinese island of Hainan. The incident led to the death of the Chinese pilot and the US aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in Hainan without Chinese approval.

There is also fear among the US and other nations of a potential accident involving the militaries of United States and Chinese that could spiral out of control.

Tension between Beijing and Washington has increased over the recent months, including a suspected Chinese spy balloon over US territory.

Earlier in June, a Chinese warship unexpectedly cut in front of a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait, forcing it to slow down to avoid impact. Few days ago, a Chinese fighter jet flew in front of a US warplane over the South China Sea in a manoeuvre the US described as unnecessarily aggressive.

“The most important thing for the US side is to avoid these accidents,” said Nan.

France to Join BRICS? This Changes EVERYTHING!

Southern Summertime Lemonade

If desired, a few strips of lemon peel may be added at the beginning for a more intense flavor.

Ingredients

2 fresh lemons (about 1/3 cup juice)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 quart water
Sprigs of mint
Ice cubes

Instructions

Squeeze lemons; add sugar, water and mint. Shake well and refrigerate for flavors to mellow (1/2 to 6 hours).
Pour over ice cubes and serve.

This will make 4 large glasses.

What is the rudest thing that anybody has ever said directly to you?

I was a middle manager in a multi billion dollar corporation. One of my direct reports told me that he thought I was “making too much” of my husband’s brain cancer. Meaning that the occasional schedule changes I had to make because of emergencies or treatment were inconveniencing said direct report. He felt like he was an authority on such things because some relative of his who had cancer (not a terminal frontal lobe brain tumor) didn’t have emergencies and managing it was “easy”.

And I didn’t lose my cool. I didn’t scream at him. I remained as professional as I could given how profoundly offended I was. But I made sure to pass him off to someone else to manage. I wasn’t ever going to be impartial again. I’m sure karma will catch up with him one day.

Some tweets

Hua Chunying 华春莹 on Twitter: "1⃣If unexpected military conflict were to arise between China and the U.S., it would not be caused by China taking provocative moves of sending military vessels and jets to LA or anywhere off the coast of California." / Twitter

https://twitter.com/SpokespersonCHN/status/1670050207604813825

Hua Chunying 华春莹 on Twitter: "Rather, it would be triggered by US warships or warplanes close to China’s territory. In dealing with a country the size of China, mutual respect is the ground rule." / Twitter

https://twitter.com/SpokespersonCHN/status/1670050210339500033

Woman Near-Death Experience After Ending Her Life Reveals Future And A Memory Sealed Into My Soul

Who are the main customers of Chinese-made vehicles?

Russia and Mexico are top buyers of Chinese automobiles

Bofei Zheng and Jiang Jiang

Jun 21, 2023

Official figures showed that China overtook Japan to become the biggest car exporter in the world in the first quarter of 2023, shortly after surpassing Germany as the second largest in 2022.

As both the largest automobile market and exporter, where were the Chinese cars exported to? How much is the potential of the Chinese market and car manufacturers?

Caijing Magazine, China’s leading economy study magazine, analyzed the latest trends in the car market and warned car manufacturers of the past mistakes made by Chinese exporters, and highlighted the significance of favorable foreign trade policies, cost-effective products, and innovative momentum in new technologies. Your Ginger River believes it is a worthwhile piece for anyone interested in the market to dive into.

Some highlights first:

In 2022, Russia imported approximately 117,000 passenger vehicles from China, a 40 percent increase compared to the previous year. China has become the main source of imported passenger vehicles in Russia.
Mexico’s position as the second-largest buyer of Chinese automobiles among the top ten countries is surprising, since Mexico itself is a major automotive producer, ranking seventh globally in terms of production volume.
In Australia or Southeast Asia, Chinese automobiles possess an advantage in terms of price over European brands. They are gradually capturing consumers who used to buy from Honda, Toyota, Mazda, and other manufacturers, offering them affordable vehicles.
In Middle East countries, customized designs tailored to the local environment and affordable quality services are key factors contributing to the popularity of Chinese automobiles.
Although China ranks first in total automobile exports globally, it cannot be simply considered an automotive export powerhouse … Chinese automobiles still face the perception of being “disorganized, weak, and small” in overseas markets, and the negative perceptions of “low quality, low price, and copying” are deeply rooted.
In summary, stable supply chains, competitive pricing, advantages in NEV research and development, and preferential foreign trade policies are reasons for the export achievement of Chinese automobiles overseas.
However, the obstacles currently impeding the competitors will inevitably be overcome in due course. The question of how Chinese automakers can boost their competitiveness beyond just offering cost-effectiveness remains to be answered with time.

Why does the US sanction China if it only makes China stronger?

US tried everything, threats, intimidation, economic and technological sanctions and embargoes, diplomatic and military encirclement, nothing worked, it has to do something, sanctions is the only thing US can do, nothing else.

At this point, even war cannot stop China.

Even if U.S. wins an air-sea battles, it cannot stop China from producing, energy, food, natural resources just keep on pouring in from Russia and Central Asia. The only way to stop China is a total land invasion, but there is no place to land troops into China, all land entries are blocked. It is suicidal to invade China in a land war.

If while I’m boarding a commercial plane I notice there’s a crack, should I say something?

Absolutely, you should!

I remember reading about a case where a passenger had seen an accumulation of ice on the wings and alerted a flight attendant, who told him that the captain was probably aware of the ice accumulation and knew how to manage it.

In fact, the captain wasn’t aware of the ice.

The plane then stalled and crashed.

main qimg 6b23c4584f0890ce3c987df8c99b9845 lq

Never assume that the crew is aware.

Once, a friend of mine, who works in the aviation field, saw a streak of liquid leaking from one of the engines. He reported it to the cabin crew, but the flight attendant brushed him off saying that it was a normal situation and that it always happened, blah blah blah…

When he identified himself, her tone changed and she went to the captain.

When they landed, he saw a team of mechanics opening the engine cover, swarming like a bunch of flies on a piece of butter. He later found out that a seal had broken and that it could have led to the engine shutting down, if he hadn’t promptly reported it.

So yes, please, if you think you see something unusual, even if you risk not being listened to, report it for the sake of your own life and others!

UPDATED 5:50 PM — Europe Reveals Map BREAKING-UP RUSSIA into 41 new countries

World Hal Turner 27 April 2023

Gunther Fehlinger, Chairman of the Austria NATO non-governmental organization (NGO), publicly revealed today, the West’s “plan” for Russia: Broken-up into 41 new, autonomous countries! There wouldn’t BE a “Russia” anymore. Russia’s response was simple: If there isn’t going to be a Russia anymore, then there isn’t going to be a Europe or USA, either. World War 3 is officially on its way.

Here is Gunther Fehlinger and the West’s (suicidal) map of a world without Russia:

The revelation of this map is literal PROOF that it is the actual intention of the West to do-away with Russia. By even manufacturing such a map, the West has shown its intent. Russia now faces an ACTUAL existential threat. Their very existence is at stake.

Think about the time and effort that was necessary to research the populations and ethnicities in each of these areas, where they are, and how to draw actual lines along the geography of the demographics, to create this vision of new, autonomous, countries. The research and planning alone had to take . . . YEARS.

Now that the map is actually out, and the entire world can see that the West has literally been planning for YEARS to completely do-away with Russia, we can all now see that the situation with Ukraine was intentionally manufactured BY THE WEST to provide the impetus to set in-motion, their nefarious plans.

With the release of this map, it seems to many observers that war is now a foregone conclusion.

What many people, myself included, really want to know is, Whose idea was this?

Who decided this needed to be done? Because that person, or those persons, need to be directly confronted and engaged.

This plan is suicidal. Whoever thought of it, and whoever is promoting it, is a clear and present danger to the lives of millions.

People have a right to self defense against this monstrous and deadly plan. That self-defense may have to be applied to the people who are promoting this and to the people who thought it up.

UPDATE 5:50 PM EDT —

I have engaged in locating Gunther Fehlinger and much to my shock and dismay, he is presently HERE in the United States. Two hours ago, he was in Philadelphia where, among other stops, he entered the Masonic Temple. He then departed Philadelphia by car and, at this update, is presently on the New Jersey Turnpike, heading north, into New York City!

He is scheduled to appear at the Hudson Institute!

Biggest Fall U.S Technology Sector Crushed After China Imposed Bans

https://youtu.be/Qtlbty2-O2E

Southern Buttermilk Cornbread

Buttermilk makes every bite of classic cornbread moist and tender.

Prep: 10 min | Total: 40 min | Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups yellow, white or blue cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs or 1/2 cup fat-free egg product or 4 egg whites

Instructions

Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease bottom and side of 9-inch round pan or 8-inch square pan with shortening or spray with cooking spray.
In large bowl, mix all ingredients with spoon until blended. Beat vigorously 30 seconds.
Pour batter into pan.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve warm.

Notes

Nutrition information: 1 Serving (1 Serving) Calories 150 (Calories from Fat 50), Total Fat 6g (Saturated Fat 1g, Trans Fat 0g), Cholesterol 35mg; Sodium 370mg; Total Carbohydrate 19g (Dietary Fiber 0g, Sugars 2g), Protein 4g

What is the most spherical object in the world?

Only the material used to make this ball is worth millions of euros. It’s a sphere made of silicon crystal.

main qimg 974e600cef46f57b752cf12f859119b9

It is the most perfectly round object ever constructed. The perfect roundness is achieved because the atoms in this sphere can be precisely counted. In proportion, if the Earth were this round, Mount Everest would be four meters tall.

It is a perfect sphere made of silicon crystal and weighs one kilogram. The ultimate goal is to redefine the definition of the kilogram based on the exact number of atoms that a specific element contains. To do this, it is necessary to know exactly the atoms that make up the silicon crystal sphere Si-28, and this number will become the new definition of the kilogram.

How fast is the dollar losing its value?

This is an important article to read.

It was very detailed and documents the irreversible trend of de-dollarization and the important role that BRICS and its New Development Bank has played in building a multipolar financial order.

De-dollarisation unstoppable, BRICS cooperation fostering multi-polar currency world

As a global movement to reduce reliance on the dollar-centric financial system emerges, what can the BRICS nations offer in the establishment of a multi-polar currency system?

Article HERE

Amidst the growing flaws of the dollar-centric financial system and the concerning geopolitical weaponisation of the reserve currency, participants at this week’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF)

convened to discuss the transition from a unipolar currency-based international financial system to a new world order centred around a multipolar currency.

Moreover, the forum will explore the significant role of BRICS partnerships in shaping this emerging economic landscape.

De-dollarisation is occurring ten times faster than the decline witnessed in the previous two decades. From 2021 to 2022, the dollar’s share in global reserves dropped eight points, from 55% to 47%, compared to 73% in 2001.

What has led to this rapid de-dollarisation in recent years? Sanctions played a significant role. As Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, warned in a recent tweet

: “If you weaponise currency enough times, other countries will stop using it.”

In response to the Ukraine crisis, the US-led West imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Russia.

Some financial sanctions involved banning Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system and freezing $300 billion worth of assets from Russia’s Central Bank reserves. The economic sanctions have backfired, serving as a wake-up call for many countries worldwide, particularly in the Global South.

“Every night I ask myself why all countries are forced to do their trade backed by the dollar. Why can’t we do our trade backed by our own currencies?” Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva asked these soul-searching questions during his state visit to China in April, which summed up the growing sentiment and frustration regarding the dollar hegemony in international trade.

While actively advocating for local currency settlements among BRICS countries, Brazil signed an agreement with China to conduct trade settlements in their respective currencies before Lula visited China, meaning the annual bilateral trade flow of US$150 billion would be conducted using the Chinese and Brazilian currencies, rather than using the US dollar as an intermediary.

Meanwhile, as a member of the BRICS, Brazil has also been striving to encourage other Latin American countries to join the bloc. During a visit by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to Brazil in late May, he expressed a clear desire to join BRICS, a sentiment supported by Lula, who emphasised his dream of using local currencies for settlements and reducing reliance on the US dollar.

While Brazil is leading the movement to de-dollarise Latin America, South Africa, another BRICS member, is also actively involved. Earlier this year, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor expressed her concern and emphasised the importance of creating a fairer payment system as an alternative to the dollar. He believes that the current dollar-centric financial system tends to “privilege” wealthy countries, but developing nations like South Africa must incur additional costs when making payments in dollars. Pandor highlighted this as one of the reasons why the BRICS bloc established the jointly-run New Development Bank (NDB) in 2014.

In the face of the weaponisation of the dollar, Europe also seems to be taking steps to undermine the dollar’s supremacy. French President Emmanuel Macron recently called to reduce the European continent’s reliance on the “extra-territoriality of the US dollar”. Also, Macron has reportedly requested an invitation from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to attend the BRICS Summit scheduled for August in Pretoria.

While Ramaphosa did not make any commitments to Macron, this bold and innovative move by the French president indicates that his vision, at least regarding international financial reform, aligns with that of the BRICS countries.

So how can the New Development Bank assist in building a multi-polar currency system that is friendly to developing countries and emerging markets?

Firstly, let’s delve into the vision behind establishing the NDB. As the first new multilateral development bank created by developing countries since the end of World War II, the NDB aims to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS countries and other emerging economies. Its ultimate goal is to contribute to building a fair, just, and diverse international economic order.

Contrary to the goals of the NDB, the World Bank and the IMF, the two pillars of the Bretton Woods system, have long been focused on establishing and maintaining an international financial system with the United States at the helm and other Western countries and Japan playing supporting roles. Their objective has not been to serve the interests of developing countries genuinely. This is where the NDB steps in to fill the void and address this shortcoming.

Current NDB members include the five founding nations of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) as well as Bangladesh, Egypt, the UAE, and Uruguay. More countries are applying to enter or are in the process of joining the bank, such as Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and Honduras.

It’s worth noting that the combined GDP of the five BRICS nations (31.5% of the global total) surpassed that of the G7 nations (30.7%) this year, making it the world’s largest economic bloc. It is expected that by 2030, as more countries join BRICS Plus, the disparity between the two groups will further widen. This will increase the economic influence of the BRICS nations, making the New Development Bank even more attractive to other developing countries.

Secondly, the NDB has demonstrated institutional innovation in its operational processes, particularly in equitable governance structure, local currency financing, and sustainable infrastructure projects.

In terms of governance structure, unlike the World Bank’s approach to shareholding, the NDB has equally split shareholding among its five founding member countries. With an equal contribution totalling $100 billion as the initial authorised capital, each member country has equal voting and decision-making rights. More importantly, no country holds veto power, ensuring equal mutual benefits and respect among the nations.

Regarding local currency financing, the NDB stands out from the IMF and the World Bank, which primarily use the U.S. dollar as the dominant currency for international transactions. This new development bank for the Global South offers loans in multiple currencies, including the US dollar, euro, Chinese yuan, and other local currencies. And the approach effectively mitigates exchange rate risks associated with loan projects, reduces the vulnerabilities stemming from excessive reliance on the US dollar, and fosters the growth of member countries’ domestic capital markets.

For instance, as of the first quarter of 2023, loans in local currencies accounted for 21.5% of the NDB’s loan portfolio. And the bank aims to increase the share of project financing conducted in the national currencies of its member countries to 30% during the strategic cycle of 2022-2026.

This objective underscores the NDB’s commitment to promoting financial stability, enhancing regional cooperation, and bolstering the economic resilience of its members.

Regarding investment projects, the NDB focuses on sustainable infrastructure initiatives, including renewable energy, digital infrastructure, smart cities, water resources, and sanitation facilities.

Infrastructure development represents a significant bottleneck for economic growth in developing countries. Existing international multilateral development banks often adopt a cautious approach towards infrastructure investment due to the high costs, complex processes, and politically sensitive nature of environmental concerns and resettlement issues. However, the NDB is determined to make a unique and significant contribution.

The NDB’s “2017-2021 General Strategy

“ shows that about two-thirds of its investments are dedicated to sustainable infrastructure projects. In its ”2022-2026 General Strategy“, 40% of the funds are allocated to projects that promote climate change mitigation and adaptation. These strategies highlight the bank’s commitment to addressing global development challenges by prioritising sustainable infrastructure investments.

Lastly, the BRICS emergency reserve fund , also known as the Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA), complements the role of the NDB. With a full scale of US$100 billion, China has pledged the largest share of US$41 billion, while South Africa has committed US$5 billion, and the remaining BRICS countries have each pledged US$18 billion. The function of the CRA is to provide liquidity support through currency swaps when a member state faces a long-term shortage of U.S. dollars and struggles to repay foreign debts. This mechanism allows fellow member states to offer assistance, reducing dependence on U.S. dollar reserves and ensuring stability within the bloc’s financial system.

In summary, the vision of the BRICS bloc and its New Development Bank is focused on enhancing financial autonomy for participating nations, providing assistance to emerging markets and developing countries, and diversifying and stabilising the global financial system. The Global South has been neglected for far too long. They deserve sovereign development and the opportunity to thrive.

Former US spy reveals why Poland sabotaged South Africa peace delegation

Cardboard Cat Forts: The Ultimate DIY Project for Feline Fun

Picture this: You’re sitting at home, surrounded by Amazon boxes that you’ve been too lazy to recycle. You’ve got some time on your hands, a cat on your lap, and you’re feeling a little bit creative. What do you do? You build a cardboard cat fort, of course!

h/t: sadanduseless

Congress Tells Treasury Secretary to “Prepare for China to DUMP U.S. Treasuries”

World Hal Turner 19 June 2023

In an absolutely stunning exchange on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, appearing before a Congressional Committee, was told by Congress to Prepare for China to DUMP $859 Billion in U.S. Treasury Debt Notes — “overnight.”

The exchange went like this:

Congressman: “We did a tabletop exercise, and in response to Sanctions against a Chinese scenario where there would be an invasion of Taiwan, the scenario was that China, the second largest foreign creditor of US Treasuries, would dump that $859 Billion in Treasury Securities. How are you working with our Allies internationally and also the Federal Reserve to deal with a situation where China would dump that volume of Treasury Securities OVERNIGHT?”

Secretary Yellen: “So, uh, we are not engaging in specific exercises to address such a risk, but the United States National Security Council is certainly concerned on an ongoing basis.”

Congressman: “Madam Secretary, I would encourage Treasury to make preparations and be on-the-ready for that scenario.“

Here is video of that specific segment of the Congressional hearing:

Chinese readout of Xi Jinping-Anthony Blinken’s meeting

And an interview with Professor Wu Xinbo on Blinken's visit to China

Jiang Jiang ,Yu Liaojie,,Jia Yuxuan,Xitong Yue, and 1 other

Jun 19, 2023

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China on June 18-19, a trip that was postponed in February due to the “balloon incident”.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Blinken at the Great Hall of the People on Monday (June 19). Blinken also spoke with Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee on Monday, and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday.

Blinken’s China visit marked the first visit to China by a U.S. Secretary of State since Joe Biden took office as the U.S. President, and the first visit by a U.S. Secretary of State to China since 2018. His visit to China has drawn significant attention from China watchers and the international community.

Today’s newsletter included two parts: firstly, the Chinese readout of the meeting between Xi Jinping and Blinken, and secondly, a translated interview of Professor Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies and director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. Professor Wu shared his views on the significance of Blinken’s visit to the China-U.S. relations.

Part 1: Chinese readout of Xi-Blinken meeting in Beijing

1) The Chinese readout via Xinhua

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People on Monday.

Noting that the world is developing and the times are changing, Xi said the world needs a generally stable China-U.S. relationship, and whether the two countries can find the right way to get along bears on the future and destiny of humanity.

Xi pointed out that the vast expanse of the Earth is big enough to accommodate the respective development and common prosperity of China and the United States. The Chinese, like the Americans, are dignified, confident and self-reliant people, Xi said, adding that they both have the right to pursue a better life. "The common interests of the two countries should be valued, and their respective success is an opportunity instead of a threat to each other."

Xi said the international community is generally concerned about the current state of China-U.S. relations. "It does not want to see conflict or confrontation between China and the United States or choose sides between the two countries, and it expects the two countries to coexist in peace and have friendly and cooperative relations."

The two countries should act with a sense of responsibility for history, for the people and for the world, and handle China-U.S. relations properly, Xi said, adding that in this way, they may contribute to global peace and development, and help make the world, which is changing and turbulent, more stable, certain and constructive.

Xi stressed that major-country competition does not represent the trend of the times, still less can it solve America's own problems or the challenges facing the world. China respects U.S. interests and does not seek to challenge or displace the United States, and in the same vein, the United States needs to respect China and must not hurt China's legitimate rights and interests, said Xi. "Neither side should try to shape the other side by its own will, still less deprive the other side of its legitimate right to development."

Xi said China always hopes to see a sound and steady China-U.S. relationship and believes that the two major countries can overcome various difficulties and find the right way to get along based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, calling on the U.S. side to adopt a rational and pragmatic attitude and work with China in the same direction.

Xi pointed out that the two sides need to remain committed to the common understandings he and President Biden reached in Bali, and translate the positive statements into actions so as to stabilize and improve China-U.S. relations.

For his part, Blinken conveyed President Biden's greetings to President Xi. He said President Biden believes that the United States and China have an obligation to responsibly manage their relations, adding that this is in the interests of the United States, China and the world.

The United States is committed to returning to the agenda set by the two presidents in Bali, Blinken said, adding that the United States stands by the commitments made by President Biden, namely that the United States does not seek a new Cold War, it does not seek to change China's system, its alliances are not directed at China, it does not support "Taiwan independence," and it does not seek conflict with China.

The U.S. side looks forward to having high-level engagement with the Chinese side, keeping open lines of communication, responsibly managing differences, and pursuing dialogue, exchanges and cooperation, he added.

Xi asked Blinken to convey his regards to President Biden.

Wang Yi and Qin Gang, among others, were present at the meeting.

2) The U.S. readout on the conversation between Secretary Antony J. Blinken And People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping Before Their Meeting

PRESIDENT XI: (Via interpreter) Mr. Secretary, welcome to China. Director Wang Yi and State Councilor Qin Gang have met or held talks with you at length, and generally speaking the two sides have had candid (inaudible) discussions. The Chinese side has made our decision clear, and the two sides have agreed to follow through the common understandings President Biden and I had reached in Bali. The two sides have also made progress and reached agreement on some specific issues. This is very good.

It’s safe to say that interactions should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity. I hope that through this visit, Mr. Secretary, you will make more positive contributions to stabilizing China-U.S. relations.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Mr. President, thank you for receiving us today. President Biden asked me to travel to Beijing because he believes that the United States and China have an obligation and responsibility to manage our relationship. The United States is committed to doing that. It’s in the interest of the United States, in the interests of China, and in the interest of the world.

Over the past few days I have had candid and constructive conversations with State Councilor Qin Gang and Director Wang Yi. We covered a broad range of both bilateral and global issues. I appreciate this opportunity to discuss the way forward with you. Thank you.

UPDATE: The U.S. State Department’s readout is now available:

Secretary Blinken’s Visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC)

Part 2: Professor Wu Xinbo’s view on Blinken’s China visit

In a recent interview with The Paper, Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies and director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, said that Blinken’s visit was a consensus reached during the meeting between the two heads of state in November last year. It is a vital link to promote high-level exchanges between the two countries, and at the same time, this visit also intends to confirm with China the “road map” and “timetable” for the following high-level exchanges between the two sides.

According to Wu Xinbo, China and the U.S. may gradually resume their dialogues in the economic, trade, and climate fields for some time to come. Part of the “three cancellations and five suspensions“, countermeasures announced by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to China’s Taiwan region, are expected to be removed.

In addition, there may be some progress in cultural exchanges between China and the U.S. Apart from the issues above, Wu believes that, more importantly, Blinken and other US officials are closely monitoring whether Chinese leaders will attend the APEC summit in November in San Francisco.

Here are some excerpts from the interview, with certain omissions in Wu Xinbo’s responses regarding the potential topics that Blinken’s visit to China may address, since the specifics of Blinken’s three meetings with Chinese leaders have already been officially released.

How to define the nature of Blinken’s China visit?

The Paper: How should we define the nature of Blinken’s visit and the political signals it sends? Can it be seen as an “ice-breaker” in bilateral relations?

Wu: In fact, Blinken’s visit to China now aligns with the consensus reached during the meeting between the Chinese and U.S. presidents in Bali last November to advance high-level exchanges between the two countries. Previously, the visit had been postponed due to the “balloon incident” and Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen’s so-called “transit” trip through the United States.

However, this visit cannot be exactly considered as an “ice-breaker” since there have been prior contacts between China and the United States at the high-level. From May 10 to 11, Wang Yi met with Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security Advisor, in Vienna. [Editor’s note: It counts as the highest-level contact between the two countries since the “balloon incident”]

From May 25 to 26, China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai respectively in Washington.

Therefore, Blinken’s visit can be seen as a willingness from both China and the United States to end the recent deadlock and continue advancing high-level interactions. The aim is to address prominent issues within the bilateral relationship and promote coordination and cooperation on certain matters. As for the outcome of this visit, it would require further bilateral interactions to make a definitive assessment.

What communication channels between the two countries are likely to be restored?

The Paper: As far as you know, what communication channels between the two countries are likely to be restored in the days to come? In what fields can the two countries be expected to reach consensus?

Wu: First and foremost is the communication between the commercial and trade sector of the two countries. For instance, many are discussing the expected visits of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is also expected to visit China. These are some of the fields where bilateral dialogues and exchanges may likely resume. We may even have U.S. secretary of transportation in China to discuss the issue regarding the airlines connecting the two countries. Two of the major issues that obstruct the flow of people between China and the U.S. are overpriced airline tickets and too few airlines.

In the meantime, we are looking at the possible resumption of certain mechanisms which were suspended or canceled as part of China’s countermeasures in response to Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visited to the Taiwan region last year, including the talks on climate change and cooperation against transnational crimes:

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) — In disregard of China’s strong opposition and serious representations, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited China’s Taiwan region. Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday announced the following countermeasures in response:

1. 1. Canceling China-U.S. Theater Commanders Talk.
  2. Canceling China-U.S. Defense Policy Coordination Talks (DPCT).
  3. Canceling China-U.S. Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) meetings.
  4. Suspending China-U.S. cooperation on the repatriation of illegal immigrants.
  5. Suspending China-U.S. cooperation on legal assistance in criminal matters.
  6. Suspending China-U.S. cooperation against transnational crimes.
  7. Suspending China-U.S. counternarcotics cooperation.
  8. Suspending China-U.S. talks on climate change

As for the two militaries, it is expected that one or two work-level exchange mechanisms will be revived. However, due to the current atmosphere of bilateral relations, resumption of work-level exchange mechanisms is perhaps the most we can achieve so far. Exchanges between high-level military officials, such as defense ministers or the chief of staff of China’s Central Military Commission Joint Staff Department and the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, are still hard to realize.

The Paper: Problems with visa issuance between the two countries are also public concern. You mentioned that Blinken would talk about people-to-people exchanges with China. If that is the case, will the visa issuance policy be improved?

Wu: The two sides have actually been in touch with each other on this issue. As much as I know, senior officials of the US government discussed with Chinese envoy to the U.S. about this issue at the beginning of this week. A few days ago, China’s vice minister of education Chen Jie also talked about people-to-people exchanges between the two countries during a visit to the U.S.

People-to-people exchanges are a highlight of Blinken’s visit, which is expected to bring about some concrete results, even though the problems cannot be solved once for all. But it is for sure that progress will be made in this regard, as well as continuous progress in the future.

[Check a latest GRR podcast episode with Stephen D. Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs at the University of Virginia, on the importance of U.S.-China people-to-people exchanges]

The APEC summit in San Francisco in November

The Paper: Do you think Blinken’s remarks are meant to heat things up for future visits of U.S. Cabinet members?

Wu: I wouldn’t say that. When the Biden administration interacts with a foreign country, it would, in principle, go through diplomatic procedures before other departments step in, so as to achieve better coordination in terms of policy. Compliance with decision-making procedures is the most marked feature of the Biden administration compared to the Trump administration.

Whatever topics of interest may follow must fall under the charge of more specific agencies. Blinken’s visit is more of a confirmation of the “road map” and “timetable” for the next high-level exchanges between the two countries.

The Paper: Can you give us a sketch of the “road map” and “timetable”?

Wu: Judging from what I learned during my recent visit to Washington DC, the U.S. side believes that China-U.S. Interactions are currently on a very tight schedule, because many of the visits that should have taken place before June were not made possible until recently, owing to the postponement of Blinken’s visit to China in February. That means we have to move faster, and the U.S. side is also eager to make these visits as soon as possible.

In fact, the biggest concern for the U.S. is still the APEC summit in San Francisco in November. When I was in Washington DC, the chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council told me that they were somewhat at a loss, not knowing who was going to represent China at APEC. There weren’t many hotel rooms left and they had to make bookings now. So it seems that the U.S. side is also doubtful of the situation.

The Paper: Some believe that as the 2024 U.S. presidential election unfolds, the “time window” for improving the China-U.S. Relations is now nearing its end. As you said, the U.S. thinks they are on a tight schedule. Do you think the “time window” is disappearing?

Wu: Yes. With the U.S. focused on the APEC summit, there is little time left between now and November. Yet it would take much longer than that to make preparations if Chinese leaders were to attend the summit.

At the same time, the U.S. presidential election next year will cast a negative impact on the overall attitude towards China. It will then be politically difficult to improve China-U.S. relations and strengthen interactions.

The terms on which China and the U.S. interact is not up to U.S.’s whims

The Paper: Looking back on the past four months, how will these events influence the current and future China-U.S. relations? What are the lessons and implications to be learned by the two countries?

Wu: First, the China-U.S. relations are, for the most part, brittle and unstable. If any incident occurs at this delicate moment, it must be handled tactfully and calmly, with caution against excessive influence of domestic politics.

Second, the United States must handle the Taiwan question, which involves China’s core interests, with caution. China has a clear position and a firm resolve on the Taiwan question, and has increasing capabilities to guard its interests.

Third, the terms of China-U.S. interactions must be agreed on by both sides and not decided unilaterally by the United States. The United States is not allowed to come whenever they want and then wave away the decision. Blinken postponed his visit to China in February and said he wanted to resume the visit in April. But in fact, it is really not his decision.

More about Wu Xinbo:

Wu Xinbo is Professor and Dean, Institute of International Studies, and Director at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University. He teaches and researches China’s foreign and security policy, Sino-U.S. relations, and U.S. Asia-Pacific policy. Wu also serves on the policy advisory board of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on the editorial board of many renowned English language journals.

Currently, he is a member of the Advisory Council of Asia Society Policy Institute, as well as a member of The Trilateral Commission. Wu actively engaged in academic research and government decision-making consultations, undertook research projects entrusted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was invited to participate in expert meetings, and led a team of experts and scholars to conduct research abroad.

Last year in November, Wu Xinbo, as a member of a diverse group of former Chinese officials and scholars, visited New York in the largest semi-official diplomatic initiative in Sino-US relations in three years. After the visit, GRR posted an article introducing the interview of Wu who shared his observations from the delegation’s visit to the United States, as well as some in-depth insights into the 2022 midterm elections in the US, bipartisanship and social and political ecosystems in the US, and the meeting between Chinese and U.S. defense chiefs.

From June 5 to 11, Wu Xinbo visited the United States for exchanges and co-hosted “the 13th China-U.S. Young Diplomats Dialogue”, an event supported by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Embassy in the United States, and the U.S. Department of State. During his stay in Washington, Wu Xinbo exchanged views on the current China-U.S. relationship with officials from the U.S. Department of State and experts from think tanks. He also paid a visit to Xie Feng, China’s new ambassador to the United States.

“One of my observations from this visit to the United States is that the U.S. side currently holds some expectations for the restart of China-U.S. relations. Although these expectations are not high, let alone optimistic, there is still a sense of effort to promote the rebooting of bilateral relations. This also aligns with the interests of the U.S. side,” said Wu Xinbo.

This is why the Chinese are ahead

How significant is Antony Blinken’s visit to China, considering it is the first by a US Secretary of State since 2018?

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi (2nd R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (2nd L) in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023.

It is hard to predict the significance of Antony Blinken’s Beijing trip and to which extent can it thaw the frosty China-US ties.

Antony Blinken arrived at the Beijing Capital International Airport on the morning of June 18. He was greeted by Yang Tao, Director General of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, and U.S. Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns. There was no red carpet, flowers and applause.

This is the first trip to China by a US Secretary of State in almost five years. The visit comes at the lowest point of China-US ties, at a critical point where a choice needs to be made between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.

A planned Blinken visit in February was called off after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew in US airspace. The “twists and turns” of this visit itself highlights the highly complicated and difficult situation of bilateral relations.

Low expectations

Neither China nor US has high expectations on the trip, but information released by both sides after the talks on the first day has brought some positive expectation.

Daniel Kritenbrink, the State Department,s top diplomat for East Asia said a day ahead of the visit:

“We’re not going to Beijing with the intent of having some sort of breakthrough or transformation in the way that we deal with one another. We’re coming to Beijing with a realistic, confident approach and a sincere desire to manage our competition in the most responsible way possible. We do hope at a minimum that we will achieve that goal.”

US words and actions of the US are inconsistent

The US side asks for communication on the one side, yet on the other, suppresses and contains China by every possible means. In recent months, while pushing to resume high-level diplomatic talks, the US has slapped sanctions on Chinese companies, pushed allies to restrict semiconductor tech exports to China, rallied other advanced economies to counter Beijing’s “economic coercion” and signed a new trade deal with Taiwan.

The mixed signals sent by the US side are very confusing. This makes the Chinese side have no particularly high hopes for Blinken’s visit. It resulted in the attitude change of Chinese toward Blinken’s trip.

But this does not mean that China refuses to engage and improve China-US relations. On the contrary, the Chinese are more strategically determined and patient about the stabilization and improvement of China-US relations.

We hope that Blinken’s visit can be a good start for more communication, and we also hope that he can bring back the accurate information obtained in China to American society. The information is, in short, mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, cooperation and win-win. These short words deserve Washington’s careful consideration.

Rosemary Rolls

Ingredients

1/4 cup salted butter
2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary (or 2 teaspoons dried rosemary)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Melt 1/2 teaspoon butter in each cup of a 12-count muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, milk, mayonnaise, sour cream, rosemary and pepper; stir to mix well.
Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling half full.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

The Trammps – Disco Inferno (Original Long Version – Tony Mendes Video Re Edit)

China donates 20,000 tons of fertilizer to PH

By: Jean Mangaluz – Reporter / @JMangaluzINQ

INQUIRER.net / 11:38 AM June 16, 2023

MANILA, Philippines — The People’s Republic of China on Friday donated a total of 20,000 metric tons of urea fertilizer to the Philippines, which President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. himself received from Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian.

During a ceremonial turnover event, Marcos thanked China for the urea fertilizer, which is a common type of fertilizer rich with nitrogen.

“On behalf of the Filipino people, let me extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation to the Chinese Government and its people for this donation—a solid gesture of friendship and goodwill that is in keeping with our long and storied history of trade and cultural exchange,” said the President during the ceremony in a National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse in Valenzuela City.

“This donation that came from China is a product of our request from our friends from all over the world,” said Marcos.

According to the President, who also sits as the chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Philippines had difficulty procuring affordable fertilizer.

“This donation that came from China was a product of our request from all our friends around the world during the crisis when fertilizer — well, what we are still feeling now when fertilizer prices went up and the availability was also because of the supply chain problems that we are experiencing with our usual suppliers and China did not think twice and immediately came up,” said Marcos.

China turns over 20,000 tons of fertilizer to the Philippines, contained in a warehouse in Valenzuela City. (Photo from Jean Mangaluz)

The Chinese Ambassador said that “the arrival of the fertilizers speaks for China’s actions and sincerity, and demonstrates China’s friendship to the people of the Philippines”.

Xilian added that fertilizers are crucial to production and feeding the population, and that he hoped that the fertilizers will help Filipino farmers.

The 20,000 ton donation was delivered on June 7 and stored in the Valenzuela warehouse until the ceremony. It was then received by DA Regional Field Offices from Regions 1, 2, 3, 5 and Calabarzon.

The ceremony was also attended by Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian. Officials from the DA, NFA, Department of Budget and Management, and other agencies also attended the event.

Urea fertilizer Fertilizer prices previously hiked following the Russia-Ukraine war, with the Philippines struggling to secure fertilizer deals with other countries.

The Phantom Time Hypothesis | 300 Years ARE MISSING from the Calendar

First Tangible Sign that NATO “Exercise” May Go to LIVE WAR with Russia in 4 Days

World Hal Turner 19 June 2023

The first tangible sign that the ongoing NATO “exercise” dubbed “Air Defender 2023” will go “live” to direct war with Russia, has come out: British mass-media outlet SKY NEWS is running a piece calling for Western Air Power to directly enter the Ukraine war and bomb Russians.

On Sky News, an Op-Ed piece lays it out. The piece is titled:

Western intervention is the only credible way to protect Ukraine’s counteroffensive from Russian air power

It lays out all the pertinent facts as to why Ukraine stands NO CHANCE AT ALL of defeating Russia, and concludes “Kyiv needs modern air power, not a squadron or so of second-hand F-16 platforms that are neither supportable nor credible, against modern, stealthy Russian fighters.”

Written by Sky News “Military Analyst” Sean Bell, the piece introduces to readers the notion that the West entering the Ukraine Conflict with air power is “needed.”

(HT REMARK: Folks, Western Media Outlets do not — E V E R — print things like this unless they have been told to do so by government. As you might guess, government plants stories like this to begin to mold and manipulate public opinion, because not only does government WANT to do something, it INTENDS to do it. They want to prime the public to have this in their minds.)

What I see going on here is a coming media blitz, to manipulate the general public into preparing for, or expecting, Western air power intervention into the conflict. That a UK Media Outlet is the first step in this process is no surprise; the UK has been at the forefront of every step of the escalation in Ukraine.

Conspicuously absent from the Sky News piece are the exact, precise CONSEQUENCES of such a move: World War 3, that will go nuclear.

Today is June 19. NATO’s ongoing air exercise “Air Defender 2023” is scheduled to be completed THIS FRIDAY, June 23.

I have been warning for weeks that I think NATO and the collective West will either find an excuse — or make one — to convert that air “exercise” into a LIVE war with Russia.

My logic was simple; governments of NATO did not move three-hundred-thousand troops, and with “Air Defender 23” 225 war planes and air crews consisting of ten-thousand men, over to Europe, just two small countries away from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as an “exercise.”

When governments move that many troops, tanks, artillery guns, armored personnel carriers, planes, and air crews, THEY INTEND TO USE THEM.

I even reported to you last week, that NATO created a temporary refueling station in Wunstorf, Germany, loaded with 2.4 MILLION Liters of aviation fuel! For an “exercise?????” Uhhhhhh, no.

Now we see a major piece in a major British media outlet, Sky News, taking the first step to putting in the public mind, the idea of NATO Air Power entering the Ukraine-Russia conflict. That Op-Ed piece can be read at its source, HERE.

Make no mistake, Russia has long anticipated something like this and they explicitly told us “If Article 5 Collective Self Defense is activated against Russia, and NATO conventional troops enter the conflict, Russia will have no choice but to use its nuclear weapons.”

They’ve told us this over, and over, and over again.

Seems like no one in the West is listening. Either that, or the West is deluding itself that something so horrifying as actual nuclear war, “could never happen.” I think it CAN happen and I also think Russia WOULD do what they say, because if they fail to do so, then Russia would no longer exist.

Folks, I hate to repeat this, but the simple truth is, we could be only four short DAYS away from nuclear war.

You need to have Emergency food, water, medicines (the ones you need to live), a generator to make electric power if the grid goes down, and fuel for that generator. You also need COMMUNICATIONS gear such a CB or HAM radio.

Make a plan for your family: What will YOU do if nuclear bombs are launched against the US. Where will you and your family meet? Where will you all go (if anywhere)? What route will you take to get there? What if that route is blocked; what alternates can you take?

Right now, NATO has at least 225 aircraft taking part in the largest air drill in its history, in Germany; just two small countries away from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. NATO has also positioned three-hundred-thousand (300,000) troops near Russia’s border. You don’t move those numbers of troops and planes, then not use them.

NATO has supported Ukraine, but is losing, badly. Ukraine’s __only__ hope is if NATO becomes directly involved in the conflict, and if that happens, Russia has already made clear, it will use nuclear weapons to defend itself. Those weapons will not merely be used in Ukraine, they will be sent to NATO countries . . . . including the USA.

Some people erroneously believe Russia would never hit the US because of mutually assured destruction, but that notion is no longer true.

Russia has hypersonic missiles, the USA does not.

Russia’s hypersonic missiles can avoid our missile defenses.

Submarine-Launched Russian nuclear missiles can reach our nuclear silos BEFORE a Presidential Order to launch can get OUR missiles out of the silos! Our missiles get blown up inside their silos without ever being fired.

Russia has bomb shelters for its population; we DO NOT.

Russia has stocked those shelters with food, water, medicines, generators, fuel, and machine tools; WE HAVE NOT.

Russia has installed hospital operating rooms in all their shelters, with surgical gear and medicines; WE HAVE NOT.

Put simply, if the missiles fly, Russia survives, WE DO NOT.

If a nuclear bomb detonates on US soil, there will be chaos, havoc, and fear. People will panic throughout the entire country. Millions will rush out to supermarkets trying to get food and water. Shelves will be stripped bare in minutes.

The detonation of a nuclear bomb __could__ take out vast electronic networks, making credit and debit cards useless. You must have CASH MONEY in your possession to assure you have a way to buy things.

June 23 is when NATO “Air Defender” exercise ends and many, many people believe NATO will either find an excuse to enter the war, or make-up an excuse with some “false flag” event to justify it’s entry into the war.

Once NATO enters, or declares “Article 5 collective self defense against Russia” that’s it. That’s the end. The missiles will fly within minutes.

DO NOT be one of the families who find themselves with no food, no water, no medicine, no generator, no fuel. Because no one will share __theirs__ with you. Sharing with you means taking food out of THEIR family’s mouths to feed YOUR family. Few if any people are going to do that.

Prepare this week. Do not wait.

Just think about what you’ve already seen in years past when people panic before a hurricane hits: Food stores stripped bare:

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At gas stations, people panicking and fighting with each other trying to get gas:

If they panic like THIS for a Hurricane, what do you think they’ll do when nuclear bombs are coming? It will be freak-out city. Mad Max scenario!

Better to have extra food and not need it, than to need it and not have it. If things do NOT go bad, you can always eat the food, and put the cash back in the bank. But if things DO go bad, the shear panic that arises will make it all but impossible for you to get supplies.

Plan, don’t panic.

Get some extra rice, beans, canned soups, canned meat like chicken, canned tuna, boxes of pasta, jars of sauce. Have a way to HEAT FOOD / COOK, if the grid goes down; a propane barbecue grill or something similar. Get a gas can and fill it (but do NOT store gasoline in your house, store it outside.)

Your lives may depend on you planning and taking some small steps NOW, in case the SHTF. You have only 4 days left – maybe.

Yvonne Elliman – If I Can’t Have You

China leads world in 19 of 23 critical tech; US way behind in hypersonics, electronic warfare, undersea capabilities

In other key technologies such as autonomous systems operation technology, advanced robotics, adversarial AI-reverse engineering and protective cyber the collective strength of the AUKUS countries shifts this picture, and they take the global lead

FP Staff June 07, 2023 16:31:24 IST

In bad news for US-led West, China is leading in “high-impact research” in 19 out of 23 technologies, with “commanding lead” in hypersonics, electronic warfare and undersea capabilities.

This was revealed in the Critical Technology Tracker report of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

“China is leading in high-impact research in 19 of these 23 technologies and has a commanding lead in hypersonics, electronic warfare and in key undersea capabilities. But in other key technologies such as autonomous systems operation technology, advanced robotics, adversarial AI-reverse engineering and protective cyber the collective strength of the AUKUS countries shifts this picture, and they take the global lead,” the report said.

In a dangerous trend, the report cited an unassailable gap between China and other countries in some key technological areas.

“But across a number of technology areas China’s lead is so great that no aggregation of countries exceeds its share – highlighting the importance of the accelerating effect of greater collaboration between like-minded partners.”

“For some technologies at least 9 of the world’s top 10 research institutions are based in China (for autonomous underwater vehicles it’s 10/10) and they are collectively generating 8 times more high-impact research than the second-ranked country (in all cases the US).”

“In these 23 technologies, ASPI’s talent tracker dataset shows 14.2 per cent of high-impact authors working in China completed postgraduate training in an AUKUS country (US = 8.5 per cent UK = 3.8 per cent, Australia = 1.9 per cent), while 4.3 per cent trained in the EU, 1.9 per cent Canada, 1.6 per cent Singapore and 1.1 Japan. That knowledge import is highest in defence categories like hypersonic detection (AUKUS 19.5%) and electronic warfare (AUKUS 17.6 per cent),” ASPI added.

What is ‘Critical Technology Tracker’

According to ASPI, its ‘Critical Technology Tracker’ “provides – beyond datasets showing research performance – are unique insights into strategy, intent and potential future capabilities.

It also provides valuable insights into the spread and concentrations of global expertise across a range of critical areas. Sometimes countries are leading because they are well ahead across the entire technology (research, commercialisation, manufacturing, supply: for example China’s stunning lead in electric batteries).

In other cases, a country is leading in high impact research output because they (and their institutions: universities, national labs and companies) are seeking to catch-up through significant investment, typically incentivised by government funding and policy directives.”

Super Sweet Tea

Ingredients

1 gallon spring or distilled water
1 healthy pinch baking soda
4 – 6 family size tea bags (I like Great Value Decaf)
2 – 2 1/4 cups sugar

Instructions

In a 2-quart saucepan add 1 healthy pinch (about 1/8 teaspoon) of baking soda and fill pot to about 3/4 full and boil.
Remove from heat and add tea bags. Let bags set for about an hour, dipping 4-5 times every 15 minutes or so.
While waiting for tea to steep, in a 1-gallon pitcher, add the sugar and add roughly 1 quart of water to dissolve the sugar.
When finished steeping, add tea to sugar water mixture and add remaining water; stir and chill.

A Taste Of Honey Boogie Oogie Oogie

Why is the Tejas aka Indian-Hindu fighter jet a failed project in the export market?

Simple

main qimg 6420799912fa65fd5d0c1ad3a110aa4e lq

The Tejas and it’s delivery can be stopped in exactly fifteen minutes

The Tejas runs on as many as seven different export licenses for it’s engines and radar

Literally every piece of core technology than runs the Tejas is licensed from other nations

This means to sell a single aircraft,we need seven export certificates every single time

So that’s a major minus

Second is that the Tejas is untested in every possible way

Even the IAF doesn’t fly the Tejas as its largest flyer

So why would anyone buy the Tejas?

First build a reputation with your own Air Force,then build an Indigenous supply chain

Then sell the Tejas and find buyers

Otherwise nobody will buy it and it will only be political platitudes with zero actual orders

No-Knead Thin Crust Pizza

What would happen if China sinks an American warship in the South China Sea?

Anyone remember this guy?

main qimg 8a0585be98d8d31a36c37ff8b25478bc lq

That’s Francis Gary Powers. In 1960, his U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet skies during a CIA black op.

This didn’t trigger a thermonuclear war, not even close.

Now how about these people:

main qimg 7d74da52e8d841bc076e64250d4bc5cf lq

That’s the crew of the EP-3 spy plane captured by the PLA. Again, no war.

And what about this incident:

main qimg 25540ce8a02ffffbca7bad9e3a4aad85 lq

That’s the South Korean warship Cheonan after a North Korean torpedo hit it. Major incident for sure, but war was never a real possbility.

Point here is that war between major powers, or even minor powers is serious business. Singular incidents rarely spark wars unless one side already really want it or there’s some colossal mismanagement of diplomacy.

The last time an attack on an American warship sparked a war was with the Maddox in Vietnam. And that incident didn’t actually happen. It was used as an excuse to send troops to South Vietnam.

Blinken gets his just rewards

3 years ago this man (unfortunately) died:

main qimg 992a01da8851c980432943243d4e9872 lq

That guy’s name was Joseph Samuel Girardi. And he was nothing special.

Yet he was voted the best seller of all time by the Guinness World Record Book.

His job?

Salesman in a car dealership.

His talent?

It was IMPOSSIBLE for his clients to resist him.

No matter what company he worked for: he was consistently the BEST car salesman, EVERY time.

His colleagues began to wonder:

Was he cheating?
Was he manipulating his customers?
Was he threatening them to buy?

No one knew.

Until the day when…

A psychology researcher – Robert Cialdini – decided to study how Joseph sold.

After several weeks of research, Robert Cialdini made an astonishing discovery:

This good old Joseph.. was JUST a nice guy.

Yes, yes.

That was his secret.

He was literally… nice.

People bought from him because they liked Joseph.

But Cialdini deepened his research. And he found 3 details that made Joseph sympathetic:

1/ He often complimented

This is one of the most UNDERESTIMATED techniques of influence.

And yet it works better than anything else:

Joseph often gave sincere and laudatory compliments (not trivialities like: “You are beautiful”)

He found what interested his client, and he complimented him on it.

2/ He was looking for similarities

Joseph talked easily.

“Oh you like canoeing? I did it last summer with my son Eliott!”

“Your son’s name is Eliott? Like my dad, it’s fun!”

It’s the kind of (very) mundane discussions that bring people together – like it or not.

3/ He gave attention

One of Joseph’s craziest feats:

It is to have sent to + 13,000 customers greeting cards for the holidays. With the inscription inside: “You are a friend.”

Nothing more.

Sympathy is perhaps the ultimate form of manipulation. The one no one sees.

Yet it is more powerful and influential than anything else.

Because no one notices.

Kozyrev Mirrors and massive geopolitical change

Personally, I remain guarded and reserved about any changes in United States Geo-political policy. Simply because, the most effective propaganda is that which YOU WANT TO BELIEVE.

Ah, Isn’t that exactly what is going on now?

…

What I see are two vectors.

[1] a deconstruction of the entangling of the Ukraine fiasco.

[2] Monied interests demanding that the Chinese situation stabilize.

…

Both of the vectors are being driven by monied interests funding the radical neocons. I do not see that baseline problems being resolved. Instead, I see trivial “walk backs” from the brink of catastrophic global war.

…

I am very interested in the Kozyrev Mirrors. Please make sure that you check them out later on (down further) in this article.

Summary;

Do not pull out your Champagne yet. It is but tiny steps walking away from a catastrophic situation, but the fundamental underlying drivers are still in place and are not changing. As long as Tom Cotton and Victoria Newland are still holding the reins of power, there can be no peace.

Potato and Onion Fry-Up

potato and onion recipe 10 500x500 — potato and onion recipe 10 500×500

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
4 to 6 large potatoes, peeled, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1 large onion, halved, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 eggs, beaten

Instructions

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat.
Add potatoes and onions; cook, turning with spatula, 10 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium; cover, cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
Add salt and pepper.
Cook, uncovered, turning mixture with a spatula, until onions are golden, potatoes have begun to break apart and are slightly crunchy, 9 minutes.
Stir in eggs; cook until firm, about 1 minute.

Yield: 6 servings

CONFIRMED: TACTICAL NUCLEAR BOMBS TRANSFERRED TO BELARUS

World Hal Turner 16 June 2023

For the first time, actual, live, Tactical Nuclear Bombs have been transferred from Russia into Belarus, just north of Ukraine. This was publicly confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his speech to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum today.

resident Vladimir Putin delivered a keynote address at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, highlighting positive macroeconomic trends in the Russian economy and expressing doubt about the sustainability of Ukraine’s military operations suggesting that Kyiv heavily relies on external sources for equipment and fighting capabilities.

During his speech, Putin also revealed that Russia has successfully transported its initial batch of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus. This move comes as part of a previously announced plan, which has raised concerns and increased tensions with the United States and its allies in relation to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Putin said, “The first nuclear charges were delivered to the territory of Belarus. But only the first. This is the first part. But by the end of the summer, by the end of the year, we will complete this work.”

Ukraine war

“Soon Ukraine will stop using its own equipment altogether. Nothing remains of it. Everything with which they fight and everything that they use is brought in from the outside. You can’t fight for long like that,” he said, as per a translation of his speech by Reuters news agency.

Regarding Ukraine’s counteroffensive, President Putin commented that Ukrainian forces did not achieve their objectives in any of the sectors they targeted. He expressed doubt about the prospects for success and opined that the Ukrainian armed forces face significant challenges in the conflict.

“They did not achieve their goals in any of the sectors … I think that the Ukrainian armed forces have no chance here…,” said Putin.

When discussing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish heritage, President Putin said, “I have many Jewish friends. They say Zelensky is not a Jew, he is a disgrace to the Jewish people.”

U.S. Admits Defeat In War On Russia And China

Confronted with the realities of life the Biden administration has in the last days acknowledged defeat in two on its most egregious and delusional foreign policy games.

The Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed. Its army is getting slaughtered on the battlefield. The ‘counteroffensive’ of the ‘NATO trained’ Ukrainian brigades has made no real progress on any front. The high level of losses of men and material make it impossible that it will ever again regain the initiative.

The U.S. aim was to integrate the Ukraine into NATO. It would then have been able to station U.S. troops in Ukraine and to put its weapons into reach of Moscow so that any independent Russian move could be countered with a threat of imminent annihilation.

After more than 20 years of pursuing that aim the U.S. threw the towel:

President Biden on Saturday said he won’t make it easier for Ukraine to join NATO, adding that the country at war with Russia has to meet the requirements to be a member.“They got to meet the same standards. So, I’m not going to make it easier,” Biden told reporters. “I think they’ve done everything relating to demonstrating the ability to coordinate militarily, but there’s a whole issue of is their system secure? Is it noncorrupt? Does it meet all the standards … every other nation in NATO does.”

And yes, that is a change. A big one:

Biden has reportedly previously expressed that he is open to removing the Member Action Plan hurdle for Ukraine to join NATO, which requires countries that want to join the alliance make reforms militarily and democratically.

Still, it is not enough:

Biden has not said anything new. Biden senses that the US lost the proxy war but he must not and cannot admit it. So, in the absence of a time machine, which could have taken him all the way back to 1999 when the NATO’s expansion began unfolding, Biden simply walked back to the default position of the 2008 NATO Summit at Bucharest welcoming Ukraine into the alliance via the MAP route — as if that moment fifteen years ago is now the past and cannot be pulled back to the present. Russia is not going to accept it.

Though packaged in nice words the European Union gave Ukraine a similar negative outlook (machine translation):

An EU report on Ukraine’s membership bid states that Kiev has so far met two of the seven conditions required to start formal EU accession negotiations.
…
“There is progress. The report will be moderately positive. This is not about embellishing reality, but about recognizing progress, for example, there are well-known anti-corruption cases. In particular, in the case of the head of the Supreme Court Knyazev,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
…
“In terms of reforms, the glass would be half full, we would never take a negative tone towards Ukraine at the moment. Judicial reforms have made some progress, although there are still key ones that need to be carried out. Not everything is satisfactory.”

The much hyped counter-offensive has indeed become a death trap for the U.S. EU and NATO.

The other U.S. defeat was acknowledged by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the end of his trip to Bejing:

The United States will not support Taiwan breaking away from China, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said, amid a series of confusing statements by Joe Biden on the issue.’We do not support Taiwan independence,’ America’s top diplomat said in Beijing after meeting with Chinese president Xi Jingping.

This was more than a verbal change in Blinken’s pronouncements:

The US State Department has updated its fact sheet on Taiwan again to reinstate a line about not supporting formal independence for the Chinese-claimed, democratically governed island.
…
“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means,” according to the document, referring to the strait separating the island from the Asian mainland.Last month, the State Department changed its website on Taiwan, removing wording both on not supporting Taiwan independence and on acknowledging Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China, which angered Beijing.

Blinken’s change of heart came after an extremely short meeting with President Xi which had followed a series of lectures by other high ranking Chinese officials:

Wang gave a comprehensive explanation of the historical logic and inevitable trend of China’s development and rejuvenation, and elaborated on the distinctive features of Chinese modernization and the rich substance of China’s whole-process people’s democracy.

He urged the U.S. side not to project onto China the assumption that a strong country is bound to seek hegemony and not to misjudge China with the beaten path of traditional Western powers. “This is key to whether the United States can truly return to an objective and rational policy toward China.”

Wang demanded that the United States stop playing up the so-called “China threat”, lift illegal unilateral sanctions against China, stop suppressing China’s scientific and technological advances, and do not wantonly interfere in China’s internal affairs.

He stressed that safeguarding national unity has always been the core of China’s core interests. It is where the future of the Chinese nation lies and the abiding historical mission of the CPC.

On the Taiwan question, China has no room for compromise or concession, Wang said.

The Chinese language readout of the Blinken-Wang meetings is reportedly even more scornful than its English translation.

The next step for China is to stop the provocative ‘innocent passage’ drive-bys by U.S. military ships and airplanes in the Taiwan Straits. To do that it simply has to apply the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea:

Article 38
Right of transit passage1. In straits referred to in article 37, all ships and aircraft enjoy the right of transit passage, which shall not be impeded; except that, if the strait is formed by an island of a State bordering the strait and its mainland, transit passage shall not apply if there exists seaward of the island a route through the high seas or through an exclusive economic zone of similar convenience with respect to navigational and hydrographical characteristics.

A view on a map shows that this evidently applies to the strait between mainland China and the Chinese island named Taiwan.

biggerIf the U.S. really has a One China policy it will have to accept that the Strait is off limits.

This double whammy of defeat in its wars on Russia and China will take some time to stick.

In the Ukraine conflict there are still dreams of creating some kind of stalemate, of implementing some kind of a Korean cease-fire demarcation line on the 38th parallel:

U.S. officials are planning for the growing possibility that the Russia-Ukraine war will turn into a frozen conflict that lasts many years — perhaps decades — and joins the ranks of similar lengthy face-offs in the Korean peninsula, South Asia and beyond.The options discussed within the Biden administration for a long-term “freeze” include where to set potential lines that Ukraine and Russia would agree not to cross, but which would not have to be official borders. The discussions — while provisional — have taken place across various U.S. agencies and in the White House.

Russia wont have any of that. It will thoroughly defeat the Ukrainian army. It will retake the parts of Ukraine which for centuries had been Russian before the communists assigned those administratively to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The rest of a then neutral Ukraine, cut off from the sea and the mineral riches of the east, will be handed over to the underling that Russia is willing to accept.

The double defeat in its wars against the ‘rest of the world’ marks the end of the Wolfowitz doctrine:

The doctrine announces the U.S.’s status as the world’s only remaining superpower following the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War and proclaims its main objective to be retaining that status.

Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.

The end of ‘unilateral moment’ is there for anyone to see.

The Republicans will of course loudly blame Biden for this even though they are just as guilty of overreach as the other side of the isle. Biden may well have to sacrifice Blinken as the pawn guilty of losing the game.

Anyway, neither will help him to get reelected.

It is, by the way, not just a coincident that Israel, on the same day of the U.S. admission of defeat, got whacked by fighters of the Palestinian resistance. This another of those U.S. sponsored global problems that China is eager to solve.

Posted by b on June 20, 2023 at 9:42 UTC | Permalink

Breaking News: Denmark Officially APPROVES Providing 4th Generation F-16 Fighter Jets to Ukraine

World Hal Turner 18 June 2023

Denmark’s Acting Defense Minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, has said that Denmark will send F-16 fighters to Ukraine if the U.S. approves. (It’s on!)

There are 43 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets in service with the Royal Danish Air Force, 30 of which are an active part of the fleet. But they are now being replaced by the more modern American fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters.

Ukrainian pilots will soon come to Denmark, where they will be trained to fly and maintain F-16 aircraft. The training will take place at the Skrydstrup base in Jutland.

Hilarious Vintage X-Rated Movie Posters From Your Dad’s Era

In a day and age where sex is literally at our fingertips, where we can see x-rated pictures and films in the privacy of our own bedrooms (or even bathrooms), it’s hard to imagine that at one point in time people had to venture out into public in order to see porn.

They had to be seen entering an “adult” theatre, purchase a ticket and sit in a room full of jerk offs in order to see a porn flick. And the x-rated film industry had to create enticing posters to lure viewers in to said theatre, to make them want to risk someone they knew from work or school or church seeing them walk into one of these houses of ill repute.

While porn flicks today have names like “Butt Job 7” or “Only Teen Anal 18,” the adult film industry had to be more creative in their presentation of x-rated films half a century ago. Here’s a collection of pretty hilarious vintage adult movie posters that may have gotten your dad or grandpa excited enough to go to the movies by himself.

h/t: cvltnation

Bending Time: The Successful Time Travel Experiments using Kozyrev Mirrors

Kozyrev Mirrors… Very, very interesting.

You can access the book for FREE online. HERE.

Brown Sugared Turkey Bacon

maple and brown sugar bacon 3050910 hero 01 bbb394fe5c174185aeb633e0380dd9b9

Ingredients

1 (12 ounce) package turkey bacon
Vegetable cooking spray
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons coarsely ground pepper

Instructions

Arrange bacon in a single layer in an aluminum foil-lined broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and pepper.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 14 to 18 minutes or until done.
Serve immediately.

If 98% of Chinese citizens are satisfied with their government, why would anyone want to change that?

Democracy – is a very very dangerous concept

It is like a Ball of Polonium. It has to be handled very carefully. If you handle it carefully and utilize it perfectly – it gives you the finest result but the slightest mistake and it can be disastrous.

Reason – People are NOT equal

This is the Golden Rule!!!!

In any Successful Country – you must always have Ruler and Ruled

The Biggest mistake with Countries which had Ruler and Ruled was the conclusion that Rulers are BORN. Its why most Monarchies ultimately could not go forward. Rulers eventually became incompetent like Louis XVI or Nicholas II or John Lackland or Wilhelm II etc.

China rightly says Rulers are Chosen based on Sheer MERIT and ABILITY

You can count on your finger tips the number of Democracies Post World War II which are successful today. Most Democracies are Disasters.

Why?

People are not equal

A Toilet Cleaner or a Rag Picker cannot have the same decision making ability as a Professor or a Businessman or a Clerk or an Army Officer

They are all different

So how can they all be given the same rights and choice of their leader?

The Poor will obviously sell to the highest bidder or will be most likely to be brainwashed

The Middle Class will be most likely to vote based on taxation or morals (Abortion or Toughness on Crime)

The Upper Class will be most likely to vote based on who provides the maximum financial advantages

Why is Democracy so dangerous?

Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the best example

He was a Good Leader and could have taken India easily to a much better position than it is today had he remained PM until 2009

He had a terrific team of Ministers and Excellent Advisors

HE LOST

He Lost because the Rabble voted him out because he did not appease them enough

In China – the RABBLE are put in their place. They do what they are told to do or else….

This may look a bit like slavery but it creates superb efficiency where everyone does what he is best suited to do.

And if someone from the rabble is talented enough – he can rise to the top and easily become a EXCOM Member and a Top Minister

The fact is in China – the Best of the Best Govern and Decide on the Policies and if those policies fail – they are replaced by other meritorious candidates.

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And…

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This Concept works well in China, Singapore, S Korea, Taiwan – because eventually – since the Governing Class do their best for a Strong and Prosperous Country – The Country always prospers and the People always prosper.

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Now introduce Western Concept of Democracy into these countries – create Multi Parties and you will split the unity and create new concepts like division by categories like language or race, appeasement etc

So it is NOT TRUE that 98% of the Chinese are satisfied with their Government

The Fact is – The Governing Class do their best for a Stronger and Prosperous China and if the People are not satisfied – They can go to hell!!!

I am 100% Confident that had we abolished Elections in 1975 and given Mrs Gandhi full control of India – We would have been far, far ahead than we are because

(a) No Appeasement would have been necessary for Votes

(b) No Slew of Welfare measures that bankrupted our Nation

(d) Meritocracy would have been the news of the Day

So to conclude – Democracy is the best form of Government but only when the People are WORTHY enough and in 80% countries today , less than 10%-30% of the population are actually worthy enough

So the Greatest Hope for India…

…is to have a Man or Woman who can become a Deng or a Lee Kuan Yew. And thus take us forward as an Autocracy where the Rabble can be put in their place.

This would be to maximize efficiency and Democracy and Elections become a Distant Dream for at least half a century (Not Modi …. Certainly Not Modi or any of the present BJP or Congress or AAP leaders)

Does Kozyrev Mirror Mechanize Ascension?

VIDEO: Mexico Military Massing Near U.S. Border

World Hal Turner 18 June 2023

Video has come in to the Hal Turner Radio Show which shows a very significant number of Mexican military troops and armed vehicles massing just south of the US Border in the California area, LAST NIGHT.

No word from anyone as to why.

No word from sources in US Gov if this is related to Drug Cartels or some other domestic Mexican law enforcement action . . . or if this a military operation instead of law enforcement.

Here is the video that was sent in:

Clearly this came from Social Media and the caption in Spanish translates to “Waiting for the war cry”

But . . . . war with whom?

Given the vast movement of US military equipment, personnel and aircraft yesterday, one wonders what’s really in preparation.

As is well known, the US has severely depleted our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to less than HALF its capacity. We have also depleted our artillery and missile inventories, giving all away for free to Ukraine.

Over 100,000 US military troops are now out of the country on NATO’s eastern flank staring at Russia.

Hundreds of tanks and armored personnel carriers are also gone, out of our country, given away to Ukraine or assigned to NATO over in Europe.

What is someone who knows all this, has decided that maybe NOW might be a good time to try to invade . . . . us?

Time Mirrors: Experiments at the North Pole

UPDATED 10:33 AM EDT — US – China Talks, Fail

World Hal Turner 19 June 2023

“US-China relations are at their lowest point, ever” according to Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

He noted that such a situation is not in the interests of the United States or the interests of China.

It remains an open question who will have to yield in this fight.

Outcome

In China, talks were held between Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the head of the Chinese diplomatic mission of the PRC, Qin Gang.

Warning signs that this would be a nasty meeting began from the outset as Secretary Blinken arrived in China. When his plane landed, there was no red carpet, no flags, no big delegation. In fact, there were no high-ranking Chinese officials to greet him, just staff flunkies.

The aggravated contradictions between the two powers have long asked for dialogue, and now it has taken place.

The list of controversies is long. From the Ukrainian conflict to the American intervention in Taiwan and the state of human rights in China.

The American side did not reach an agreement on any of the points of the meeting. Beijing refused even the most insignificant requests. For example, Washington was denied a curb on the production and export of fentanyl precursors.

As a result of the negotiations, neither side was willing to give up their positions. Nothing was accomplished.

UPDATE 10:33 AM EDT —

This just in . . . Blinken’s trip to Beijing was such an abject FAILURE, China even refused to set up crisis military-to-military communications with the U.S..

This was a significant goal of his visit because China’s military has **NOT** taken any phone calls, video conferences, or even answered the Hotline with the US military, for MONTHS!

President of Russia Publicly Announces Conditions where Russia WILL BOMB NATO Bases

World Hal Turner 17 June 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin put the West on notice yesterday during his speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

President Putin made clear he knows the West is planning on supplying fighter jets to Ukraine, and that the US insists the F-16’s be nuclear capable.

He pointed out that those jets, especially U.S. F-16’s, require very large and complicated maintenance, which cannot now be done in Ukraine without fear of being hit with Russian missiles. Thus it would be necessary for the planes to use bases that are presently safe.

Therefore, he said, if those fighter jets takeoff from NATO bases outside Ukraine, and enter Ukraine for battle, Russia will not be able to know if those planes are armed with Tactical nuclear bombs and will have to assume THEY ARE.

Under such circumstances, Russia will have no choice but to hit those NATO Bases, and may have to do so with Tactical nuclear weapons.

Below, video from the SPIEF where Putin talks about this. The video has English sub-titles but is only a small portion of what Putin said. You get the jist of it:

Southern Biscuits and Gravy

216391 easy sausage gravy and biscuits TTV78 3x2 1 c21e8cfb2c524a7b882bd9c5300dadd3 — 216391 easy sausage gravy and biscuits TTV78 3×2 1 c21e8cfb2c524a7b882bd9c5300dadd3

Ingredients

1/2 pound bulk pork breakfast sausage
2 tablespoons chopped yellow onions
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 batch Southern Biscuits

Instructions

Heat frying pan and fry the sausage and onion until the sausage is brown and the onion clear.
Drain off all grease except for 2 tablespoons.
Stir in the flour and cook for just a minute.
Add the hot milk. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and then season with salt and pepper.
Serve over warm opened biscuits.

Weird stories, adventures, and some fun stuff as well as the Betz Mystery Sphere

The Betz Mystery Sphere certainly can up-turn your life. Please check out the video later on in this article.

Hum.

Lots of mysteries today.

Now you know…

St Petersburg Forum this weekend, Russian President Putin showed for first time a document agreed upon by Ukrainian side at spring 2022 peace talks. 

It appears that Russia withdrew forces from around Kiev, before Ukraine changed its mind…

main qimg 08a31db929364c77a2004363921f2b13

Putin: “…here’s the document. 18 pages & addition to it. It exists. They signed it. It guaranteed Ukraine’s neutrality & as per agreement we pulled out our military from the Kiev region. But as always Kiev threw away this document into the junk-yard of history.”

He said:

📌The treaty with Kiev included provisions for neutrality & security guarantees, but they threw everything out.

📌 Kiev initialed agreement with Moscow in Istanbul, but after the withdrawal of Russian troops from near Kiev, Ukraine threw it into the dustbin of history.

main qimg f754ef56a6eee415a64eeb9367703957

Istanbul document on Ukraine was initialed, everything was there, right down to the number of armed forces, to military equipment, personnel, they threw everything away, Putin added….

“The maximum number of personnel and military equipment”. Treaty on PERMANENT Neutrality and Security Guarantees for Ukraine.

Of course, US and UK were having none of it.

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NATO got the war it wanted. Europe’s economy decimated, ‘Defense’ industry record profits.

Harsh

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What are some common mistakes people make when designing cities?

Modern cities, particularly in the United States in Canada, aren’t built for people. They’re built for cars.

main qimg fc8de48a02a2f72fc27d42440918c665 lq

This is Kansas City, Missouri (thanks to Twitter user Jonathan Berk). Arrowhead Stadium (right) holds over 76,000 people. Kaufmann Stadium, on the left, holds almost 38,000. But note, as Mr. Berk did, that the Truman Sports Complex is mostly a parking lot.

main qimg 4e532adbd58dc66420a8008cffcb746c lq

This, by contrast, is Wembley Stadium in suburban London. Yes, it does have some parking, but it’s surrounded by other uses.

main qimg 618582727dd8a8ef19c1a2262d51a1e9 lq

Similarly, this is Scarborough Town Centre in a Toronto suburb, developed in the late 1970s as a shopping and municipal center, and now the home of a major transit stop. Note how little land is actually covered by buildings.

main qimg a145735564a03e3d4d8c08bcfb85d643 lq

And here is Toronto Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto (middle third photo) a shopping and office complex that was developed at about the same time. It does have parking, but it’s in a parking garage hidden in the structure. Again, very little in the way of roadway around it.

But if you look at a typical car dependent stadium or shopping mall, in addition to noticing how much parking there is, you notice how empty it is most of the time. You also need an extensive road network around those big parking lots. As it turns out that empty space is quite expensive, adding to your land needs for the structure as well as money to maintain it, and for the municipality it actually generates a lot less revenue

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Meanwhile, in places built before cars, like Montmartre here, you would be hard pressed to believe that its in a city with nine million people and you’re probably within a ten minute walk of a metro station.

The Chinese perpetually short on space, understand this. They were once derided for building new metro stations literally in the middle of nowhere. However, a few years later, those metro stations are surrounded by high density housing and commercial uses.

Before

main qimg e88d97792c51fe032be18ddf0a826616 lq

After

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Meanwhile, back in North America

main qimg 384b310840ced34c6aef22a416b79bc0 lq

This is the layout for Pickering GO Station on Toronto’s commuter rail network. No housing to be seen anywhere nearby although there is a large shopping mall across the freeway from the rail station. The good news is the world’s longest pedestrian bridge crosses the twelve lane freeway. The bad news is that the bridge is mostly to allow people who park in the transit lot on the othger side of the freeway to reach the train station. Throughout North America, train stations are surrounded by parking, not residential or commercial uses.

main qimg 68ae967388e0a8728a9ba8c70d8dfad7 lq

This is the transit system for Milton, Ontario – about 40 minutes west of Toronto and one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada. The bus system has one primary purpose – getting you to the GO station to downtown Toronto. Other uses, like getting around town, are secondary. For that, you should really have a car.

It’s not all terrible. Hamilton, Ontario, a large city just south of Ontario across the lake, actually has a transit system to get you around Hamilton. Its easier to get around in a car, but it’s possible to get around on foot or by transit.

And, frankly, people often like living where they don’t have to drive. The highest in demand residences in the City of Toronto are on car-free Toronto Island, which is only accessible by ferry. The process to even get on the waiting list is nearly impossible.

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In addition to demanding massive amounts of space, cars are what make cities noisy.

There are lots of options. Walkable neighbourhoods. Intensification and commercialization of existing neighbourhoods. Better transit. However, what’s more likely to happen is road widening and parking garages, neither of which solve traffic problems and both of which maintain car use.

Why IS AFRICA Choosing CHINA over THE USA?

Aren’t Americans embarassed to show the world that their President Election candidates have to be either Biden or Trump? Don’t they have better persons than these 2 old hats that are a shame to the country..

Anyone who believed that Americans get to choose their own leader is totally and absolutely mistaken. A year before the presidential elections they carry out primaries. What are primaries?

They are essentially selection dressed u to look like election to get the candidate from essentially 2 parties. Who get to select? Not the voters. The delegates. Who are the delegates. They are essentially? They are a select group of party elders who are very rich and powerful. No different from a cartel closely knitted elders who is essentially ensure a safe candidate.

Let me defined “safe” The candidates must tow their superiority complex behaviour to ensure the rich ages richer and the poor blacks, coloured and white are hardly their concern. They must protect their own kind and safeguard their own narrow agenda. Generally they are conservatives and xenophobic who sees the world as in the 1950s that U.S. rules the world. Many Neo conservatives are there.

This group essentially choose 2 candidates such as Trump and Biden to carry out their agenda. People like Bernie Sanders do not stand a chance. They don’t want to risk it. They don’t want to change the status quo. So the U.S. can change the government but it cannot change policy. It must allow gun ownership no matter how may school children dies.

It cannot stop wars it is the biggest war monger. Because many people are in the military industrial complex is amongst the most powerful block of delegates. So the U.S. will fight till it totally bankrupt itself. I won’t allow free college education because the delegates. Can afford their children college education easily. They don’t want a more successful coloured group of people to challenge the whites.

All these means voting is simply a charade. Nothing more nothing less. That is why less than 2/3 of eligible voters votes. The 1/3 knows it is all set up. The 2/3 are either the ignorant or the uneducated and the delegates group. You can also say roughly 0.8% decides for America. They can never lose. Heads they win and tails you lose.

JOHN TITOR: Time traveler, soldier, savior

Fun, but there’s much more to the story than what is presented here.

What would happen if the US stopped importing electronics from China?

It must be understood that there are realities involved in this question that one must understand. Nothing is ever so simple as one would believe if reading the “news”.

The realities are…

What is loudly announced and discussed in the “news’ media are often deceptive, misdirection, exaggeration, or outright lies.
When political-based laws are passed, manufacturing and industry, often use work-around clauses and exceptions to keep in business.
In regards to China, it is portrayed as incompetent, bad, evil, and unable to do anything right. While the United States is portrayed as an innocent, doing great and wonderful things.

With those realities well understood, we can expect the following to happen.

The functional implementation of any importation-interruption to be delayed by years.
China is expecting a time when these polices will manifest in full force and are running counter programs. They will be able to compensate and mitigate any negative influence.
It is not enough to ban a product. One must change the structural infrastructure of those that use that product. Something that no American legislation is doing.

Thus, the end result is very clear and well-understood in industry…

The vast bulk of products will continue to use Chinese electronics. The market share will increase over time.
Chinese cutting edge electronics is going mainstream, and the USA simply cannot compete.
Thus, China will eventually be the sole source of most all electronics in the world.
Leaving the United States military to develop it’s own electronic systems independent and out-of-step with the rest of the world.

The Secret Room Inside Mount Rushmore and Other Little Known Facts

Southern Biscuits

Ingredients

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons Crisco
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon Crisco (for frying pan)

Instructions

Mix dry ingredients together.
Blend in the Crisco until the mixture is coarse and grainy.
Stir in the buttermilk with a fork. Do not over-mix.
Put out onto a floured board and knead just a few times. Pat out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter or glass. Flour the cutter. Do not handle the dough too much or it will get tough.
Using a heavy cast iron frying pan, place 1 tablespoon of Crisco in the pan and put the frying pan in the oven for about 7 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and place the biscuits in the pan. Turn each once in the oil and bake the biscuits at 500 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until light brown.

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

Employees in critical roles being terminated happens quite regularly.

Scenario 1.

In the early 2000’s, Boise Office Solutions (formerly Boise Cascade Office Products) wanted to break into the consumer side of the office supply business. OfficeMax came along and said they were available. What great timing! So they do the filings and all the lawyer stuff but the Boise leadership discovers that OfficeMax uses SAP while Boise had an assortment of products including JD Edwards software.

So there’s a big purge within IT since they don’t need double our numbers. Quarter end approaches and someone realizes that they’d let go a key person for the JD Edwards stuff. Oops. I heard they had to hire that guy back as a contractor for some appropriately outrageous amount so we could get past quarter closing. Nice, huh?

Scenario 2.

After coming back to Sears as a contractor, our business unit had gotten a new VP (4th in 2 years!). This assclown makes the claim that he could replace me with three offshore people for the rate they were paying me. Some weeks later, this person from some offshore consulting service shows up in the guise of “helping” me. All that was really happening was that she would try to learn my job to turn around and train some offshore team. It’s completely obvious what was going on but as a professional, I do my best to streamline the reporting process. My last day comes and goes.

Less than a month later, I found out that all three of my offshore replacements had quit due to the stress of just one part of my job! Seriously? The thing I did every morning between 7:30 and 8:00 was so stressful that they couldn’t handle it. All three of them! Never mind the truly crazy requests that come in during the rest of the day.

A Time Travel Story | The Dodleston Messages from the past and future

So much fun! Enjoy!

Keeping in view the massive military modernization of the Chinese military, will they be a global military superpower around 2027?

Today China along with US and Russia are the only three nations on earth that cannot be invaded and that are invincible as far as defensiveness is concerned.

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Yet the Chinese can offensively push and force across a radius of upto 200–300 Kms at the most from their outermost boundary

US can do this anywhere in the world at any point on the map and that’s what makes them a Global Military Superpower

So while i believe the offensive ability of the US will weaken due to stronger defensive ability of other nations over time , China’s offensive ability won’t strengthen because THEY DONT WANT IT TO

China only want to be able to be stronger than all those who lie within the 200–300 Km radius from their outermost boundary

They already are starting to

Today,

China can defeat Taiwan, Japan, India, S Korea, Phillipines individually in battle

By 2027,

China can win any Naval battle on the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea against the US , Japan, India and Aus (Quad) and it’s total force combined

By 2035 , China hopes to depend no longer on any foreign core technology and either to evolve it’s technology on a parallel path or catch up with the West on their core technology

Thus 2035 is the year which experts say could make China the rising superpower especially with an assured oil & gas supply from Russia.

Another Dimension? Time Portal? Another Planet? What’s at the Bottom of Mel’s Hole?

Wagging the Moondoggie: Part V

by Dave McGowan | Oct 1, 2009

Stars are not the only thing missing in the Moon photos. Also conspicuously absent is any indication that the lunar modules actually landed in the locations in which they were photographed. Specifically, there is no crater visible under any of the modules, despite the fact that NASA’s own artist renderings clearly showed the presence of a substantial crater. Also, not a speck of dust appears to have been displaced by the 10,000 lb reverse-thrust engine that powered the alleged descent.

NASA’s artist renderings also depict a considerable quantity of smoke and flames shooting out from the bottom of the modules, though nothing of the sort is visible in the purported video footage of the first landing of a lunar module, allegedly shot from inside the module as it set down on lunar soil. In addition, despite the ridiculously close proximity of the immensely powerful rocket engine, no noise from that engine can be heard on the video.

As can be seen in the photo above, the area directly under what is supposed to be the nozzle of the descent stage engine is completely undisturbed. Not only is there no crater, there is no sign of scorching and none of the small ‘Moon rocks’ and not a speck of ‘lunar soil’ has been displaced! And if you refer back to the earlier close-up of the module’s landing pod, you will see that not so much as a single grain of ‘lunar soil’ settled onto the lunar modules while they were setting down.

Your initial response to this may well be, “Well, duh! … why shouldn’t the surface of the Moon be undisturbed?”

Glad you asked. The answer is that the lunar modules were not placed upon the Moon by the hand of God. They had to actually land there. And in order for them to land there in one piece, they had to make use of powerful reverse-thrust rockets. If they hadn’t, they would have made landings roughly comparable to a piano falling off the balcony of a high-rise apartment building.

“But,” you say, “isn’t the gravitational pull of the Moon considerably less than that of the Earth?” Of course it is, but that does not render objects weightless. A vehicle with a curb weight of 33,000 pounds here on Earth (what the lunar modules weighed, according to NASA) still weighs close to three tons on the Moon, so it’s not going to make a very soft landing without assistance. And the assistance options were necessarily limited.

NASA could not have used parachutes, such as were used with the returning command modules, because parachutes don’t really work without air, so that would have been a dead giveaway that the landings were faked. They also couldn’t use a helicopter-type rotor, because those also don’t work in an environment devoid of atmosphere. What they allegedly used then to provide the necessary ‘brakes’ was a powerful, reverse-thrust rocket engine.

That is why, in the artist renderings of the landings (the landings obviously couldn’t be filmed, because no one was supposed to be there yet), an enormous blast of flame and hot gas is seen shooting out of the bottom of the module. This massive reverse force would have served to counteract the effects of the Moon’s gravitational pull, allowing the module to gently set down in the lunar dust, unharmed and intact. And needless to say, that is kind of important when that very same vehicle is your only ride home.

The ‘debunkers,’ by the way, like to pretend as if the hoax theorists made those artist renderings up themselves, as if to say, “Hey, look over here! I just made up this drawing of what I think the landings should look like and NASA’s landings looked nothing like my drawing!” The reality though is that NASA’s own artists provided those images, based on the way that NASA claimed the modules would perform. What the ‘debunkers’ are telling you, in other words, is that NASA didn’t really understand how their own technology was supposed to work.

Given the manner in which the modules allegedly landed, the problem here is that – unless the landing surface was paved with, say, concrete – an inordinate amount of material should have been displaced by the force of the rocket blast as the module was setting down. As Plait likes to say, you can easily verify this yourself. All you have to do is get hold of a rocket with 10,000 pounds of thrust (there probably are some surviving members of the von Braun clan that can hook you up), and head out to the nearest desert location.

Once you find a suitable spot to conduct this experiment, hold the rocket aloft (you might want to wear gloves and an asbestos suit for this part, but it’s up to you) and fire that son-of-a-bitch up, directing the blast towards the desert floor (it might also be a good idea to grab on to a stationary object with your free hand and hold on real tight). Let it rip for whatever you think would be a reasonable amount of time to complete a landing procedure, and then shut it off.

If you’ve done this correctly, the result will be a fairly large crater and a blinding dust storm. That dust will, of course, eventually settle, leaving a heavy coating of dust on you and your rocket. You may also notice that the blast has lent the desert floor a distinctive scorched look. If you run the experiment for too long, you may even find that the intense heat has fused the cratered sand into something resembling a large bowl of glass.

The point here, of course, is that nothing of the sort is evident in the pictures allegedly brought back from the Moon. The lunar surface is, as noted, completely undisturbed and the modules are as clean as if they had just rolled off the assembly line. It appears as though they did not land at all, but were rather set in place with a crane or other such device. And of course we all know that there were very few crane operators on the Moon in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

How then did the modules get there? Could it be that the lunar surface was so compact that even the considerable force of the rocket could not dislodge it? That might be a credible explanation were it not for the fact that the astronauts themselves, who with the Moon’s reduced gravitational pull weighed in at about 30 pounds apiece (maybe 60 pounds each with the additional alleged weight of their packs), made readily identifiable footprints from the moment their feet hit the ground. It appeared, in fact, as though the lunar soil had roughly the same consistency as baby powder. And yet, amazingly enough, not a single grain of this soil seems to have been displaced by the landing of the modules.

The ‘debunkers,’ naturally enough, have an explanation for this. According to them, it’s all about throttle control. As Plait explains, “Sure, the rocket on the lander was capable of 10,000 pounds of thrust, but they had a throttle. They fired the rocket hard to deorbit and slow enough to land on the Moon, but they didn’t need to thrust that hard as they approached the lunar surface; they throttled down to about 3000 pounds of thrust.”

Plait also notes that originally on his site he had said “that the engines also cut off early, before the moment of touchdown, to prevent dust from getting blown around and disturbing the Astronauts’ view of the surface. This was an incorrect assertion.” The funny thing is though that he voiced that “incorrect assertion” just as forcefully and as arrogantly as he voices all the other assertions on his page – which makes sense, I guess, since everything else on his page is incorrect as well.

Phil has obviously never landed a lunar module. Or given much thought to how you would go about doing so. Actually, that’s probably not true. Phil is most likely just a shameless liar. Not a particularly good one, mind you, but you have to remember that he is working with a handicap – he has to weave all of his ‘debunking’ arguments around NASA’s lies.

Let’s try to inject a little sanity into this discussion, shall we? First of all, no one with an ounce of common sense is going to cut the engine and let their three-ton spaceship simply drop onto the lunar surface. Nor are they going to cruise on in while progressively easing up on the throttle, effortlessly setting the module down, as Plait claims, like “a car pulls into a parking spot,” as if they had been landing lunar modules since the day they were born. Because the reality is that the six astronauts who allegedly landed the six lunar modules hadn’t done it before and they only had one chance to get it right.

And do you know why, Phil? Because that module was their only ride home, and if they damaged it in any way, they weren’t going home. Ever. They weren’t going to do anything except die within days in the most desolate place imaginable. And that is why it is perfectly obvious that, if they had really gone to the Moon, they would not under any circumstances have landed the modules in either of the ways that Plait has suggested.

Has anyone ever seen a helicopter land? That is essentially how you would land a lunar module as well. The basic technique is to line yourself up with your landing site while hovering a fairly short distance above the ground (with the module, I presume, you would hold your position by utilizing those clusters of horns). Then, when you’re stabilized and lined up just where you want to be, you very slowly ease off the throttle so as to very gently set it down. And if you’ve never done it before, you’re definitely going to want to take your time.

And that is why there quite obviously should be blast craters under those lunar modules. That is why NASA itself indicated that there would be blast craters under the lunar modules. And that is also why it is fundamentally impossible for the modules to be as impeccably clean and dust-free as they are in all of NASA’s photos. And no amount of spinning from the ‘debunkers’ will ever explain that away.

As previously mentioned, there was much about the Apollo project to stand in awe of. Every individual phase of the missions was, in and of itself, a breathtaking technological achievement. Just blasting men into Earth orbit is a daunting task – so much so that in the nearly half-century that has passed since the first two nations did it (the US and the USSR), only one other (China) has managed to join that elite club. And China has only done it a few times. In the entire history of space exploration, just over 500 men and women have ever orbited the Earth.

And achieving Earth orbit was just the beginning. Then there was the 234,000-mile journey through the unknown to get to the Moon – on a single tank of gas in an unshielded spaceship. Then there was the main ship giving birth to the lunar module, and that untested lunar module then flying down and making a perfect landing on the surface of the Moon. Then there was that same untested lunar module blasting off from the surface of the Moon without the assistance of any ground grew and ascending 69 miles to attain lunar orbit. Then there was the ever-reliable lunar module finding, catching and docking with another ship while in lunar orbit, utilizing yet more untested technology. Then there was the command module shedding the lunar module and then commencing that 234,000-mile journey back home.

But as remarkable as it was to get the astronauts safely to and from the Moon, their survival while on the Moon was equally remarkable. To say that the Moon is an environment incompatible with the survival of humans would be a considerable understatement – which brings us to our next topic of discussion: those amazing NASA Moonwalking suits.

Those suits were able to provide the astronauts with everything they needed to stay alive in the Moon’s harsh environment. Remember NASA’s elaborate rendering of what a Moon work station protected from space radiation would look like? Neil and Buzz didn’t need any of that fancy stuff because they were wearing the magic suits. And those extreme temperatures of +260° F to -280° F? Not a problem when you’re wearing the magic suit. Not only could they provide the cooling needed to combat the searing temperatures in the sun, but they could also provide the heat to counteract those frigid shadows.

As can be seen in NASA’s photos, the egress side of the lunar modules (the side with the ladder and hatch) was usually in the shade (though almost always well lit). What that means is that, after traipsing around in the sun for a spell, the astronauts would have had to step into the shadows to reenter the spacecraft. And when they did so, those spacesuits were apparently smart enough to react instantly and switch over from turbo-charged air conditioning to blast-furnace heating in the blink of an eye. Awesome!

In addition to providing radiation protection that today’s technology is unable to match, and a climate control system that is beyond anything available in the twenty-first century, the magic suits also provided the astronauts with breathable air, which definitely came in handy. What the suits did, in essence, was provide the astronauts with their own little portable, climate-controlled, radiation-protected atmosphere.

Of course, to actually do that (if we’re pretending that it could be done at all), the suits would have had to have been pressurized. And it is perfectly obvious from all the photos that the suits were not, in fact, pressurized, because if they were, the astronauts would have looked like the Michelin Man bouncing around on the surface of the Moon.

The magic suits had to perform one other function as well: they had to serve as head-to-toe body armor. Because the Moon, according to NASA, has a serious problem with drive-by shootings from outer space. Seriously. I’m not making that up. I read it on NASA’s own website.

In the very same NASA post that discusses Moon rocks being constantly bombarded with absurdly high levels of radiation, another curious admission can be found: “meteoroids constantly bombard the Moon.” Our old friend from NASA, David McKay, explains that “Apollo moon rocks are peppered with tiny craters from meteoroid impacts.” NASA then explains that that “could only happen to rocks from a planet with little or no atmosphere … like the Moon.”

“Meteoroids,” NASA continues, “are nearly-microscopic specks of space dust that fly through space at speeds often exceeding 50,000 mph – ten times faster than a speeding bullet. They pack a considerable punch … The tiny space bullets can plow directly into Moon rocks, forming miniature and unmistakable craters.”

According to NASA, every square inch of every exposed surface of every rock allegedly gathered from the surface of the Moon shows this pattern. By extension then, we know that every square inch of the lunar surface is peppered with meteoroid craters. There really is no safe place to hang out. There you are minding your own business lining up your golf shot, and the next thing you know a meteoroid is ripping through your spacesuit at 50,000 mph. That has to sting a little bit.

Actually, what it would do is kill you. Almost instantaneously. Not the projectile itself, which probably wouldn’t be lethal after passing through the spacesuit, but ripping or puncturing your magic suit while on the Moon is certainly something that you would want to avoid. You know that old saw about how “nature abhors a vacuum”? How that applies here is that any penetration in your suit would result in all the air being immediately sucked out. And then your blood would begin to boil. And that can be rather unpleasant.

I guess the Apollo crews really, uhmm, dodged a bullet on that one. Not one of the astronauts was hit, nor any of the lunar modules, nor any of the lunar rovers, nor any of the equipment that was used. I have to say here, by the way, that those Apollo guys were studs of the highest magnitude. Did they know what they were signing up for? What did NASA’s ads say?

“Astronauts wanted. No experience necessary. Duties will include taking a trip to the Moon. Return trip cannot be guaranteed. Applicant must be able to withstand levels of radiation higher than anything that can be generated here on Earth. Applicant must also be able to work comfortably in heat in excess of +250° F, as well as in cooler conditions approaching -300° F. A continuous supply of breathable air may or may not be provided by employer. Snacks and water will necessarily be limited to what fits in employee-provided lunchbox. Rest room facilities will not be available. The ability to dodge 50,000 MPH space bullets is not required, but would be helpful. This is a great money-making opportunity! Paychecks can be picked up upon return to Earth.”

The Apollo guys didn’t have to worry about any of that, of course, because they were wearing the magic suits. Apparently those suits were yet another example of NASA digging deep into the well of lost 1960s technology.

A huge shout-out, by the way, is in order here for the guys at NASA for posting that article about the Moon rocks being bombarded with radiation and meteorites. It makes it so much easier for me when NASA has already done so much of the work of debunking the Moon landings.

When President George W. Jetson announced on January 14, 2004 that America was going to be returning to the Moon, we were quickly advised by NASA types and various television talking heads that such a goal would require about fifteen years to achieve. No one in the media thought to ask why it would take fifteen years to do with twenty-first century technology what it took only eight years to accomplish with 1960s technology. Not one voice was raised to ask how with the twin advantages of improved technology and prior experience it would still take twice as long this time around.

It’s not, after all, as if we have to reinvent the wheel here. Not only have we done this before, but we have done it safely and reliably. How could NASA possibly improve upon the record of the Apollo missions? What could they come up with that could outperform those vintage Saturn V rockets that made it to the Moon damn near every time, and made it home safe every time? And how do you improve upon a lunar module that not only performed flawlessly every time, but that was also the very model of lightweight, compact efficiency?

When you have a system that performs flawlessly on six incredibly technologically complex missions, and that delivers your astronauts home safely even on the one occasion that the system runs amok, why in the world would you toss it in the trash and start from scratch the next time around?

According to a Fox News report published the day after Bush’s announcement, “The effort to return to the Moon will require building new spacecraft and sending out robotic craft to provide materials to be used later by human explorers, say experts.” I wonder why they would need to do that? We didn’t have to do shit like that last time. Why does NASA keep insisting on reinventing the wheel here? Why do they seem to have forgotten that we are old hands at this sort of thing?

Other people have forgotten as well. Following Bush’s attempt to wag the Moondoggie, Republican Senator Sam Brownback sternly warned, “You’ve got the Chinese saying they’re interested – we don’t want them to beat us to the moon!” This may seem like a rather bizarre concern, until you realize that not only is China working on developing a Moon rocket, they are also rumored to be close to completing work on a time machine, which will allow them to transport their Moon rocket back to the mid-1960s and thus beat America to the Moon.

On a more serious note, I’m guessing that since China has managed, in the 50+ years of the space race, to put three whole spaceships into low-Earth orbit, there won’t likely be any Chinese flags waving on the Moon anytime soon.

Anyway, doesn’t it seem just a little strange that experts would now suggest that if we get to work right away, we might be able to land men on the Moon by the year 2020? Isn’t that like saying that with a lot of hard work and a little luck, we might be able to develop a video game as technologically advanced as Pong by the year 2025? Or that by 2030, the scientific community might produce a battery-operated calculator small enough to fit into your pocket?

And do you think that, if we do ‘go back,’ the voice actors will be given a better script? Will we be given something to replace Armstrong’s cheesy “One small step” line and Aldrin’s poetic “magnificent desolation” line? Have I mentioned, by the way, that Donald Bowman, who worked at the Houston Space Center, has said that Armstrong was indeed handed a script before embarking on the alleged mission? That obviously does not prove that the Moon landings were faked, merely that Washington was very concerned with how the alleged missions were presented.

A NASA statement released in July of this year contained a rather curious assertion: “Conspiracy theories are always difficult to refute because of the impossibility of proving a negative.” It is not, of course, NASA that is being asked to prove a negative, but rather those pesky ‘conspiracy theorists.’ NASA is merely being asked to prove a positive, which should be a relatively easy task. All they have to do is produce some actual evidence, beginning with all those reels of tape containing the telemetry data, the biomedical data, all voice communications, and all the original videotape. They could also release the plans and specifications for all that fancy space hardware. And maybe offer some kind of reasonable explanation for why so many of the official photographs are demonstrably fraudulent.

Alternatively, they could just send some guys back there, to prove that it can be done. It’s been thirty-seven years and counting since the last guests on the Moon checked out. NASA allegedly filmed that final lift-off from the Moon, by the way. In case you haven’t seen the historic film footage, you can view it here. It’s a very short clip and it’s actually quite funny, so be sure to check it out.

I can’t be 100% certain of this, of course, but I have a very strong hunch that NASA picked up the footage off the cutting-room floor after Ed Wood had finished editing Plan 9 From Outer Space. Actually, I probably shouldn’t joke about the clip because I do feel kind of bad for the guy that they had to leave behind to operate the camera. I wonder how he’s doing these days?

Actually, NASA claims that the camera was mounted on the abandoned lunar rover (even in space, Americans are arrogant litterbugs), and that the pan and zoom functions were operated remotely by the ground crew back on Earth. You couldn’t control your television from across the living room in those days, but NASA could pan and zoom a camera from 234,000 miles away. Awesome! And there apparently either wasn’t any delay in the signal or NASA had the foresight to hire a remote camera operator who was able to see a few seconds into the future.

You really have to hand it to the NASA boys – those guys think of everything.

George W. Jetson’s visionary proposal envisioned the Moon as a steppingstone for manned travel to Mars. How that works though is a bit of a mystery to me. The distance between the Earth and Mars varies depending upon where the planets are in their respective orbits, but the minimum distance astronauts would have to travel to reach Mars from Earth is 36,000,000 miles. And the minimum distance astronauts would have to travel to reach Mars from the Moon is, uhmm, also 36,000,000 miles. So I guess what I’m wondering is: what exactly would be gained by making a pit stop on the Moon?

Are there gas stations there to fill up the tank? Some nice hotels maybe where the astronauts could get some R&R? A couple of hot space hookers? How would making a technologically complex landing on the Moon, followed by a lift-off that would require an excessive amount of additional fuel, help get our boys to Mars?

Let’s take a big bite out of the reality sandwich here, shall we? The human animal is quite simply not equipped for space travel beyond low-Earth orbit. There is virtually no chance that we are going to send men to the Moon anytime soon. Despite what NASA would like you to believe, the combination of lethal space radiation, lethal temperatures, a complete lack of breathable air, and a lower gravitational attraction that produces serious health problems, including rapid tissue and bone degeneration, is simply not compatible with human existence. Neither is getting pelted with “space bullets.”Neither is a lack of food and water.

And as for Mars? A roundtrip ticket there would earn you about 75,000,000 frequent flyer miles. I wouldn’t count on that happening anytime soon.

Astronaut Steve Lindsey, after being chosen to command the final planned mission of the space shuttle, had this to say: “Everybody at NASA feels the same way. We’re in favor of taking the next step and getting out of low-Earth orbit.” So while technology in every other realm of human existence continues to take giant strides forward, everyone at NASA appears to want to take a big step backwards. To 1969.

Before bidding adieu, I have one final note to add: a certain Dr. Thomas Gold was an early skeptic of the feasibility of landing on the Moon. He made headlines prior to the alleged flight of Apollo 11 when he predicted that any attempt at a Moon landing would be disastrous. NASA, of course, purportedly proved the good doctor wrong.

Longtime readers will remember that Dr. Gold was America’s most prominent proponent of the abiotic theory of oil and gas production, and that he went and dropped dead just before the ‘Peak Oil’ propaganda started to heat up. Dr. Gold was recently proven to be correct on the origins of so-called ‘fossil fuels.’ The article, curiously enough, refers to the research as “revolutionary” – which it is, I suppose, if you ignore the fact that the Soviets and Ukrainians did the same research and drew the same conclusions some fifty years ago.

We all know that that can’t be true, however, because it would be impossible to keep a secret of that magnitude from the entire Western world … right?

The World Won’t Believe The Massive Infrastructure Developments In China, How China Builds Subway.

What is one single important fact that a person needs to be successful?

The brutal truth?

Meet a demand. People will judge you based on your usefulness at any given moment.

That’s it, NOTHING else really matters, at all. If you can meet a demand then you’ll be successful nothing else matters. But I’m a good father I go to church, I donate to charity… nah it may make you feel better but in the end it doesn’t matter.

The best case study to illustrate this is an emergency situation a car crash happens… a family were in the car. The children and wife are unharmed but the husband is severely injured bleeding out and dying.

What they need now is a medical professional to meet their needs.

You can heroically jump in and try to help but you’ll be told to fuck off. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good father go to church. In that moment the family need somebody who have the equipment and skills to save the husband.

This is an extreme situation… but we go through this process 10000s of times each day.

China is way ahead of the U.K. and that is a fact.

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

When I was the supervisor in a Social Security office I would occasionally have the staff ask me to speak with someone who was dissatisfied with our service.

A very frustrated man came in with his wife to complain about how long it had been taking to get a decision on his disability claim and he was not accepting the interviewer’s explanation so she asked me to speak with him.

I introduced myself and asked him how I could help him. This was his request.

“ I want to pull down my pants, bend over and have you kiss my bare ass.”

His wife nearly fell out of her chair. “Oh Thomas, how could you!”

I merely looked at him and said “We don’t offer that service here. Now what can I really do for you?”

He couldn’t phase me. He wasn’t my first disgruntled person and he wasn’t my last.

Woman Dies; Gets Shown Other Planets, Civilizations And Told Human’s Purpose (NDE)

What are you ashamed of as an Indian?

This was told to me by a friend while we were sharing an apartment via Airbnb. He is an Indian mariner working for some UK based shipping company. He travels around the world on a ship carrying petroleum products, visiting various ports in UK, Africa, Middle East, South and South East Asia. His crew contains mariner of many other nationalities.

He shared the embarrassing moments he has to face whenever his ship docks in any of the ports in India. The Customs Officers comes in with large bags, steals a good part of their cigarette cartons, packed meats, drinks, and many other stuffs from ship’s inventory(storage), meant for the mariners travel needs. Many a times he had been through these awkward moments, and he said you should see the looks on his co-mariner’s faces. He feels ashamed of being an Indian every time this happens.

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This Is How Some People Actually Work From Home

With the government strongly suggesting that people work from home you may also think that it’s a good idea… until you take a look how clean and tidy some people keep their home offices…

China has intruded in Arunachal Pradesh, but India is still silent. What are the reasons?

Without a concise border agreement, what exactly can India do?

If we ask China to withdraw from any intruded territories in Arunachal, it would mean acknowledging that China has indeed intruded in Arunachal Pradesh and that would be humiliation for the Modi Government

If we militarily intervene , it could be another debacle like GALWAN where with knives and metal rods and sheer gumption ,China gained 1070 Sq Kms territory in a mere 4–5 days — equivalent territory for which Russia has to spill the blood of 5000 of its soldiers and kill around 45000 enemy soldiers over 4 1/2 months to acquire

Jaishankar openly called out Pakistan repeatedly in front of the global media and in front of the Foreign Minister

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Yet not once did he whisper about China in any forum

It’s because China is TOO STRONG & POWERFUL for India to get into a direct conflict

China is so cautious about getting into a direct conflict with US despite the two nations being within 25–33% of each other

So India has to be much more cautious because China is almost 600% stronger and mightier

Thats why

Diplomacy means humiliation for the Modi Government

Military means certain and brutal defeat in the medium term

So just ignore everything and pretend things are hunky dory

It’s called LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE and that’s what India is doing today

Oh SH*T! Germany is going down a DARK road against anti-war voices

What was your first job experience like?

Working for a supermarket.

For most of my life I’ve gone to school. I’ve done odd chores for my parents that could be classified as “work” but that was just it.

In the Christmas break of 2021, I got my first ever job as, part-time at a supermarket. Stocking shelves, assisting with the daily count, even manning the counter.

It was incredible.

People treated me like furniture.

I was invisible until they needed to use me. Some people were very kind, all pleases and thank yous, others were like, “hey, get over here! Get me that!”

I was repeatedly encouraged by my coworkers not to be idle.

During slow hours I arranged and rearranged shampoo and perfume bottles meticulously, I dusted invisible dust, I slowly stocked the hats so I’d have less time to be idle. I paced, I observed customers with what I hoped was an interested gaze, ready to spring into action should they need any help.

Because Idleness = Lazy = Bad worker.

Soap was my section’s bestselling item, next to that was lotion.

People can have too much trust in shop workers to know everything about the products. Some even expect you to make decisions for them.

Customer: “Does this shampoo also work against dandruff?”

Me: “Uhm…”

*Picks up another bottle, scans it quickly.*

Me: “No, it doesn’t.”

”Would I save more money if I got one of the 300 mL bottles or two of the 150 mLs?”

*Glances at the prices tags, makes quick calculations.*

“Same price total; no difference.”

“What should I get, then?”

“Umm..Will you use the perfume yourself or are you sharing it with someone?”

”My daughter uses my stuff sometimes.”

“Then I’d recommend you get two, so she can have her own bottle.”

”Ok”.

”My child has sores on his legs, would this soap irritate them?”

“To be honest sir I’m not sure.”

“Oh.”

“These mouthwash, why are the big bottles and those smaller ones the same price? Is it because the bigger one has less quality?”

*Takes them, scans over the labels quickly.*

“The smaller ones are imported.”

“But is it a lesser quality?”

*Makes quick judgement, hope I’m right*.

“I don’t believe so.”

We just work there, we didn’t make those products. There’s only so much we can know.

I think the best part of that job was interacting with customers, especially for someone like me who doesn’t get out that often.

Southern Baking Powder Biscuits

Basic biscuits can be great biscuits. These are straightforward, relying only on baking powder for leavening.

These are simple biscuits to make with only five ingredients. If you wish to use self-rising flour, you can make these biscuits with only three ingredients.

They will rise tall and are slightly salty with no added sugar. If you like, you may add a tablespoon or two of sugar—but then they wouldn’t be authentic Southern biscuits.

A baking sheet, preferably a dark one that will not reflect the heat

A pastry knife or pastry knife

The following recipe can be used to make these biscuits.

You can also make biscuits with a mix. We make a buttermilk biscuit mix, a sour cream and chive biscuit mix, and a cheddar cheese biscuit mix.

These mixes are just-add-water and you should have them in your oven in about five minutes.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cold shortening
1 1/2 cup milk

Instructions

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the shortening until the mixture forms coarse pieces.
Add the milk and stir the mixture with a fork until most of the dry ingredients have been moistened.
Turn the ingredients onto the counter and knead and fold until the dough is formed. Do not knead longer than necessary.
Roll or pat the dough to about 3/4-inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a greased baking sheet with the edges touching.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until the tops are just golden brown and biscuits sound hollow when gently tapped.
Serve warm.

Yield: 15 large biscuits

EATING IN A CHINESE VILLAGE APARTMENT AS A BLACKMAN, WHAT COULD GO WRONG?!! BLACK IN CHINA

What do poor people in the United States of America eat?

I grew up very poor. My mom would make giant pots of stews like lentils and peas and it would go on for days. Getting thicker and thicker as the week goes on

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We’d put it in the middle of the bread and butter to try to change the flavor a bit… oh, when I say butter, I mean margarine, which cost about 25 cents and came in a giant jar.

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This was a typical dinner as a kid… a giant portion of what she called “ goulash ” and canned vegetables.

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We never really had fun snacks or chips or crap, these were considered luxury items. I remember spending the night at a friends house and being super excited that they had bags of chips of all varieties, Jell-O and brand name soda! We only had RC COLA or SHASTA.

We almost always drank Tampico

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Oh yeah, who cares about Sunny D when you have Tampico.

We often cook tortillas on the stove, like this:

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Then melt the butter (margarine) and sprinkle with a little salt.

We drank a glass of milk every day with dinner (in hindsight, that probably helped us feel full). But sometimes, when the gallon of milk was half empty, my mother would fill the other half with water. I hated it! Watery milk.

We always had hot dog sausages, but never buns (we used sliced bread for everything), of course, packets of ramen (not the cups) slices of fake cheese… basically anything that wasn’t from the famous brands. We drank tap water.

My mother did her best and was very good at making the most of what she had. I learned a lot from her. She knew I hated bologna and would fry it in a pan and somehow make our sandwiches bearable. If on Monday she made a stew, we would have stewed it for days and it would never get stale in any way. I still like sliced tomato mayo sandwiches to this day haha.

Do you think that China’s growing influence in the Pacific region poses a threat to regional security? Why or why not?

It’s simple

Laos is the best example

Five years ago they opened up trade with China and contracted China to build their Railways

Today their economy has shown 5.87% growth against a mere 2.13% inflation

In 2017 they had 5.19% growth against 3.88% inflation

You do the math

Same for Pacific countries

To this day Australia and USA gave them alms and kept talking about defence, defence, defence and more defence

China gave them TRADE

China built them ROADS

China built them SCHOOLS

China built them NETWORKS

China built them Ports

So it’s simple that these nations and their people want Chinese friendship

It’s some leaders who are US puppets who are Anti China just to please their masters in exchange for Swiss Bank accounts , like those mongrels Zelensky or Von Der Leyen

China is no threat to anybody

Only the US is.

How did China’s Realme sell 50 million phones in just over 2 years in India? Why can’t an Indian company do this?

Why cant an Indian Company do this?

Produce a Good Quality Product at affordable prices and any Indian, Botswana, Kenyan, Ugandan company will be able to do this. This is basic 101.

China doesnt offer earth shattering technology or something unique and revolutionary. It just offers a good product at affordable prices.

Quality thats a word that doesnt exist anymore. Our Companies simply cannot give us the Quality that foreign companies are providing us with.

Simple example Horlicks. Just take Horlicks from a foreign country sold in a duty free shop and our Indian Horlicks and mix it with hot water or milk. The Froth that the foreign Horlicks generates is more than twice that the Indian Horlicks generates.

Take USB Cables and Chargers. Made in India Charger costing Rs. 320/- Retail – charges as fast as a China made Charger costing Rs. 200/- with the same cable. A China made charger costing Rs.350/- can charge twice as fast.
A MI Powerbank once fully charged can charge my phone for 5 nights compared to any Indian Powerbank of the same strength (20000 MAH). Only Ambrane is comparable and gives power for 3 nights.
Shoes, Slippers, Watches, Smartphones, Laptops, Pickles, Food Products, Soft Drinks – all of them have shoddy quality, dubious manufacturing processes and tremendous lapses in quality controls.

Not just for us- but for our Heroes – the Army – our Blankets are atrocious for the Ladakh cold compared to the Bangladeshi Imports. Something called Ghirodes (Knots per Square Inch) have been compromised time and time again.

Now why cant an Indian Company provide good quality.

Surely Indians cannot genetically be crooks right?

The Answer is – Why should they?

Until recently – most of them have had monopolies and little competition.

They know worst case – the Consumer courts will take 10 years to decide to award the poor consumer Rs. 5000/- or Rs. 10,000/- in damages

They know worst case- a Briefcase or two of “Booty” can ensure that their operations continue smoothly – even if it is harmful to consumer life forget atrocious quality

They know worst case – our Media – will pursue them for 3 days and go back to Akshay Kumars cooking parathas during COVID 19 or making conspiracy theories

What should be done

Make them Afraid

Implement a Law like Chinas dreaded CAPA (English Translation) where

A Company can be nationalized in less than 48 hours by a Provincial Industrial Committee or a Higher Body for a temporary period of not more than 180 days if they receive complaints on sub standard manufacture.
During this stage the Companies big bosses will all be decided by the Provisional Commitee which will make the decisions for the next 180 days. All Accounts, All Inventories will be under Committee Control.
If the Company is guilty of sub standard manufacture or quality compromise – then the Company may be imposed to a huge fine which if not paid will result in the Shareholding of the Company being forcefully yanked away and sold free market and the fine amount recovered from the sale.

So imagine if a Leather Tannery that pollutes the Yamuna river can be nationalized in 2 days and the Owners stripped off their shareholding or fined Rs. 500 Crore for pollution?

In ten minutes – every Owner will scramble to ensure he follows the law right?

Billy Joel…

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Have you ever stood up for someone being bullied?

Yes, I did one day as a brave little nine-year-old girl. I came out of my apartment because I heard The neighbor kid crying. I follow the sound and just around the corner are four teenage girls probably ranging from 15 to 17 years old and they’re basically beating up this 11-year-old kid. I just remember my cheeks got hot and I just start screaming for them to get off of him. They had put a grocery cart on top of him and were jumping on it and he was a little heavier and he was losing breath and screaming and panicking and it scared the crap out of me so I get up in this one girl‘s face and I’m nine and she’s 15 and all the sudden she just slaps my face as hard as she can.

Well, my mother was just a few feet away in the laundry room and she had heard the commotion and was looking out and sees the girl slap me, and that was one of the few times I ever saw my mother come to my defense, like an angry bear, ready to rip someone’s head off. As a matter of fact, for about two or three seconds I was really worried for the Obnoxious teenage girl, because my mother was beautiful and petite and quiet, and that was not what was coming at that girl. Matter fact, the arms were flailing!!!

Anyway, as I was going to somebody else’s defense against a bully, my mother was coming to mine.

How has China rearranged its diplomatic pieces ahead of a potential conflict with the US?

Russia and its endless oil, gas, fertilizer, grains, timber, minerals and all natural resources, pipelines and railways plus more pipelines and railroads in construction, to/from Russia and Central Asia. Rapid developments of Manchuria, Siberia, Sakhalin island and the Arctic.

China and Russia are now back-to-back strategic partners. The biggest joint strategic partnership in the world. Potential US blockade in Indian Ocean or Malacca Strait is no longer relevant.

To the south, China-ASEAN trades reached US$1 trillion, double China-US trade, equal China-US+EU trades.

Don’t you see it by now?

China has already prepared to decouple from US.

US made the threat, China took it seriously.

Alien Probe, Sentient Machine, Nuclear Weapon, or Junk? What is the Betz Mystery Sphere?

What’s the saddest “card declined” moment you’ve seen?

I owned a bar and had a young couple come in and sit in bottle service. They told anyone who’d listen that they just got engaged and wanted to celebrate. They ordered the full service champagne with a bottle of our cheapest Andre we kept around just to spray the crowd for fun. Our server brought out strawberries and whip cream, the bottle, and the staff made the big baller fuss across the dance floor. Everyone was giving them the works. The bill came and the young man’s card was declined. He was completely embarrassed. He asked to speak to the owner, that’s me. He was brought to my office and I could see he was a little nervous. He explained he’d deposited his paycheck earlier and his bank account showed that the funds were available. He showed me on his bank app. He asked if I could trust him to bring the money the next day. He was about 22 years old. I saw myself in a similar situation with a gallon of milk as a young father 25 years earlier. I told him to consider it an engagement gift, no worries. No need to flip out over a $3 bottle of champagne, my cost, and $3 worth of strawberries. He enjoyed the rest of his evening and left. The following Monday, that kid stopped by with a $20 bill. He’d forgotten to tip the server and felt badly. I thought this kid had heart and I respected him for coming back. I put his tip in an envelope for the server and wished him the best. I know it’s not like paying for someone’s groceries, but it still made me feel good.

What are some examples of the United States’ decline as a superpower?

A decade ago your debt is 10’000’000’000’000 and today it is 31’400’000’000’000. Easy to understand for you?

OK. What about in 1945 your share of world GDP is 52%. Today it is a mere 15% and dropping fast. Enough?

More. Today as many as close to a million homeless people are living in tents at all you city! How about American standard of living has stagnated back to 1960’s level and dropping further. Eg. This year your forecast growth is 0.5% but your inflation is at least 5%. You guys are poorer by 4.5%! Good enough?

The U.S. growth used to be the biggest today China’s growth is bigger than the entire G7 put together! The U.S. life expectancy is the lowest among industrialised nation, in 2021 for the first time China’s life expectancy exceeded the U.S. and repeated that in 2022!

Still not convince? The U.S. handled the Covid amongst the worst in the world. It lose 1.1 million people! China by comparison has less than 1% of US death in spite of it having 4 times its population! Your infrastructure are totally dilapidated without improvement.

Not enough? Oh your nation fought some rag tag mountain tribe in Afghanistan for 20 years and lost. You blew 3–4 Trillion dollars and after 20 years invited the Taliban back. Taliban is the only reason you guys went to war in Afghanistan.

How about you fought another war against village folks in rice paddies in Vietnam for another 20 years till you lost all your gold. And lost the war. Running away on the roof top of the U.S. Embassy!

Still not convince? In the 1980 Moscow Olympics you gang up nations to boycott the Games and 65 countries supported you. By the 2020 Beijing Olympics you tried the same shit. And 5 nations agree to withdraw uninvited officials.

OK my last shot to convince you. When the U.S. order, coerce, bribed and threaten nations to support sanctioning Russia. Zero nations in Latin American, the Caribbean, Africa supported the U.S. 3 out of 30 nations supported the U.S 2 of them are your slave vassal state Japan and Korea. The third support to win you billions.

2/14 Oceania nations supported the U.S. Australia and New Zealand! In an international business forum invited by Russia. More than 100 nations participated!

US is a spent force burning cash as fast as they earn it and being dumped by the whole world except for some few racist nation and it Anglo brothers and your slaves who had no rights to say no. That is barely sufficient. It cannot afford to care for its own citizens let alone interfere in a hundred nations simultaneously, afford 800 Military bases overseas and trot around the world at a billion a week expenses on each Aircraft Carrier.

Ukraine alone will cost the US. a trillion dollars a year. If it don’t change course the U.S. debt will hit 100’000’000’000’000 or a hundred trillion dollars. Just at 3% interest it need to spend 3 trillion a year. As such. The U.S. is effectively a broke and a bankrupt even now.

Its all happening in China but half the world isn’t noticing

A battle between the American State Department and the Pentagon

I watched the American spokesman statement. The purpose of the Blinken trip to China was to “strengthen America’s ability to out-compete China”. Further he stated, that there were three key points that Blinkedin will tell China.

[1] To establish communication channels that are “open and empowered”.

[2] Communicate clearly and candidly on a range of issues regarding American displeasure in how China conducts its domestic matters.

[3] Will investigate potential area of cooperation on trans-national issues, but ONLY when it is in Americas interest.

Finally, he does not expect any “break throughs” on this trip.

And of course, we all know what happened next. China reamed him up and down and all around though out, and when he reported the news to Biden, that son-of-a-bitch complained in a long diatribe in front of his donor class.

Sigh.

Next…

In your opinion, what steps should be taken to support China’s economy and prevent further decline?

Ah yes

Of course

The Debt ceiling was raised recently to a whopping $ 33 Trillion right?

Obviously the West will deflect and bury the serious dire straits of their economies and pending recession to China

That’s what they always do

Whenever they have trouble at home, they deflect and jump to a foreign country that may be much much better off

Is China’s economy declining?

China’s economy shows resilience

Don’t ask me

Ask the 77 Countries who now have over 15% of their Trade share in Yuan since 1/1/2022

China’s economy is Sluggish

The reason is simple

Its two biggest earners have taken a hit

Exports have taken a hit due to Sanctions by US and mainly due to weakening global demand due to recession/inflation in EU and US

Many Producers aren’t sure how much to manufacture now because of their worry about exports and being saddled with excess inventory

The alternative domestic consumption to replace potential loss of export share will take time and confidence by the producers and consumers

Maybe 3 years or so

Second is Real Estate

China’s own Government have dynamically and drastically modified real estate lending causing a plunge in real estate markets

So it’s like a Cricket team with two big stars in bad form

The fact that any other country would have buried these facts stands out

China is dealing with them on a day to day basis

Promoting Domestic spending, reducing rates to rise liquidity and slowly ensure the export pain is mitigated by local demand

China is modifying it’s real estate

It’s bringing a real estate sector once controlled by 6% population now to a 60% population using economies of scale

Profiting $ 1 Million per flat through speculation to be replaced by Profiting $ 50,000 a flat for 20 flats by actual sales and market demand

It takes time for this 60% population to realize that the sector is good for them

Like say tomorrow 50% Indians investing in shares from 4.1% today

China has very temporary problems

It’s situation is changing and its adapting and that is causing blips

Now USA and the West on the other hand are in deep trouble

They have in print nearly $ 15.3 Trillion equivalent of currency circulating in Pounds, Euros and Dollars

They have to rise rates repeatedly to push the currency into institutions and prevent them from staying in the global economy and plunging in value and causing more Inflation

It’s a ticking time bomb

And unlike China, the West neither has the populace to absorb the hit nor the resources like Russia

The end result will be 1929 type depression unless the large shock detonates through a series of smaller shocks which will weaken the US significantly but help it survive and bounce back , which is what China is waiting for (Why else is China not retaliating to all the US Coercion? Because it knows time is on its side)

It’s 100 times more serious

Hence why the West is deflecting on to China

RED ALERT! OUR MILITARYS HUGE SECRET ABOUT WORLD WAR 3 (I CANT BELIEVE THIS!)

Can India afford to ban Chinese products?

I was in a Video Conference yesterday. There was this slick controller from Cisco. I picked it up and turned it around to see the sticker that said: “Made in China”.

We have all heard the phrase. So much so that it has become a cultural meme, like this creative advertisement.

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Every machine, and I mean it in the broad sense of the word, people use, almost certainly, has components made by the most populous nation of the world.

We are at a stage where manufacturing is synonymous with China. China’s total exports in 2017 were more than the GDP of India, at ~$2.26 trillion.

[1]

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US is close with $1.5 trillion, but there is the catch.

US exports are primarily expensive stuff like airplanes, gems, assembled cell phones etc. But China makes the “cheaper” things — the components of your phones, the clothes you buy, the filaments in your bulbs, the shoes you are wearing right now.

More than a decade ago, a US family tried to rid themselves of all things “made in China”

[2]

. Here are some excerpts from their experience.

When our son, then 4, needed new shoes it took me two weeks of frantic mall trips and phone calls across the country before I located Italian-made sneakers. (They cost almost $70, an obscene amount, and I bought him just that one pair of shoes all year to compensate for my excess.)

We boiled water for coffee every morning after our drip machine broke and the only affordable replacements we could find were made in China. Kevin stole —he likes to say borrowed—sunglasses from the lost-and-found at our kids’ preschool when he needed new ones and the only ones that fit our budget were made in China. We were barred from the market for humane mousetraps (I made my own), birthday candles (we used votive candles on our cakes instead) and the monster trucks and light sabers that our son dreamed of all year.

As December approached, we made lousy homemade Christmas presents, spent too much on toys from Germany and waited for the year, and our boycott, to fade into history.

And Chinese manufacturing has become even more pervasive and ingrained in the last ten years. Good luck with your attempt!

Why is the CCP so hellbent on unifying Taiwan with mainland China? If Taiwan do not want to be ruled by the CCP why does it appear as if China is forcing themselves on Taiwan? Why can’t the two countries not co-exist?

First of all, Taiwan is NOT a country. Neither the United Nations nor the United States recognize Taiwan as an independent state. Moreover, Taiwan’s own constitution stipulates that the mainland and Taiwan are one country.

The entire world adheres to the One China principle.

Second, no country is willing to give up any piece of its territory. Would the USA give up Hawaii or Texas? Would France give up Corsica?

Third, Taiwan is a remnant of China’s century of humiliation when the great powers of the time descended on China like vultures and carved her up like a turkey. It’s a painful reminder and a point of national pride.

Fourth, China and Taiwan can coexist. They’ve coexisted peacefully for decades now. They have massive trade with each other.

China seeks peaceful reunification, and she is very patient. But the United States is determined to stir up shit in Taiwan. Just leave them alone!

Fifth, since Taiwan is China’s domestic matter, it is absolutely none of our f*cking business. Why are we sticking our nose into it?

Do we want to start a war with China over this matter?

Are you f*cking insane?

What will make the US loose its status as the most powerful Nation in the world?

Hubris.

“My cup runneth over with hubris”, rather than “In God We Trust”.

Who in his right mind can praise America for being well led, when the President is 80 and belongs in a nursing home, with the primary competition 76 belonging in jail?

And yet those are the candidates two ailing parties who have swapped musical chairs for 250 years throw up, with NO ALTERNATIVES in sight.

Just like guns and drugs, even abortion.

Live with it, the American will say, because the Constitution is sacred.

I say God bless America.

America has visibly declined or regressed this century. Even life expectancy has dipped below third world China, courtesy of the horrendous response to covid for the country rated No. 1 for pandemic readiness by Johns Hopkins in 2019. The debt pile is growing too fast, struggling under the weight of living beyond means.

Barring a paradigm shift in domestic politics, terminal decline is but a matter of time. I will pay attention to the quality of life of the bottom 50 percent who share 2 percent of the wealth. Too miserable and the have-nots will stoke tensions and accelerate the process.

I have not heard much beyond doubling down on the current playbook.

And that is a road to ruin.

The question is one of when, rather than if.

The American people are getting tired!

Will Hong Kong ever be democratic under Chinese rule?

Under 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong wasn’t democratic. Why would we expect that to change?

Cheesy Tomato Casserole

Ingredients

1 (35 ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
1/2 cup round buttery cracker crumbs (about 15 crackers)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 large egg, well beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Instructions

Stir together all ingredients.
Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 30 minutes or until golden.

That girl don’t live here anymore…

How prepared is the United States of America for war with China?

The United States is as ready as it ever will be.

It has an enormous military budget, and bases everywhere. It’s got top of the line fighters, vessels and state-of-the-art equipment. In fact, if anything, I think that it is “over kill”. But that’s just my personal opinion.

The United States military is world-class in force projection, and they will glad-fully take the war to the shores of China and beyond. With the handful of proxy nations acting as “cannon fodder”, the United States would just sit back and watch the Australians and Japanese die in droves. Let them all be barbecued alive. As long as not one American is harmed.

So the United States force doctrine is one where the disposable peoples of Australia, Korea and Japan (with the Philippines) would be sacrificed first.

There is no question that the United States would choose Sydney, and Perth to become major battlefields. And with the rubbleing of Osaka, Tokyo, and Manila, the American military would wait out the carnage comfortably from afar in safe bunkers, Ukraine style.

Eventually, the Chinese force would peter out to an “approachable” level.

At that moment, the United States would pounce for a double “one two” blow that would destroy Chinese cities, and an invasion force in strength would seize the nation. Oh, the fighting might take a decade, but eventually the United States would win, and China would be partitioned into pre-determined bite-sized chunks for organized looting and seizure.

(Some interesting articles on this particular subject. It’s already been divided up! Though, I would advise “don’t count your chickens until the eggs hatch”.)

Anyways, there one teeny-tiny issue.

The only issue is would China really use it’s mass-casualty weapons. That’s of course, the Dong Feng, and the other novel and unique enhanced radiation and wave technologies. You know those massive enhanced radiation city-busters. Those hyper-velocity AI controlled stealth delivery systems, and the invisibility cloaking technologies.

But I am told it doesn’t matter.

As many in the “West” are very confident that “China would never…”.

So, if you (the reader) are part of this clutch, then by all means rest assured that the United States can destroy China, and it couldn’t do anything. The logic is simple. Simply because China has invested such a HUGE portion of it’s military to weapons of MASS DESTRUCTION. Leaving only a fraction of it’s military for conventional warfare. If China decides never to use the nuclear systems, then China would be handicapped to reliance on old-fashioned conventional systems.

So the United States would rip China a new behind.

…

But…

But, were China to be attacked, I am of the belief that China would use every weapon at it’s disposal. I mean, after all, why devote such a large proportion of your defensive equipment to nuclear and novel systems if you have no plans to ever use them? I figure that even if you have a Bentley in your garage, you do go and take it out for a spin from time to time. Even if that is the last thing that you do before you die.

Thus, the first cities to experience nuclear destruction would be American. I recon complete destruction of the top 35 cities.

This would really throw a monkey-wrench into the plans listed above.

The American “leadership” would be pissed and they (well the ones still alive and not wearing diapers) would order a MAD response. And the nukes would start a flying.

Correct me, if you disagree, but when the dust settles, I don’t think the world would be the same. You might think differently, but I think that nothing will ruin your day faster than global thermonuclear war.

…

Sigh.

So who ever asked this question, please stop asking about the end of the world. It’s not a pretty image. Go play with your army men elsewhere. War is not a game. It’s real, and very horrible. I strongly advise that it be avoided at all costs.

No one is going to win a US-China war.

How smart are the Japanese?

For over 700 years, the Japanese have been using a special method called Daisugi to grow trees without cutting them down.

It started in the 14th century and involves planting trees for the future and then pruning them like large bonsai trees. By doing this to cedar trees, they can get high-quality wood that’s straight, smooth, and perfect for building.

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With Daisugi, instead of chopping down the trees, they carefully prune them so they can keep growing and producing wood. This way, they can sustainably use the wood while also making sure the trees stay healthy and continue to live for a long time. Daisugi shows how people and nature can work together, using resources wisely while protecting the environment.

Discovery That Shocked NASA As China’s Discover 270 Billion Tons Of Water On The Moon

https://youtu.be/1_gNERd_Lt4

Was the US involvement in the Korean War a result of arrogance? Was the US too proud after WW2?

Not exactly arrogance, if arrogance, it was a well deserved arrogance, as US was supreme in economy, diplomacy and military as a superpower liberator. US actually saved the world with great sacrifices.

It’d have succeeded except the miscalculation on China entrance into the war, that changed the result. That was arrogance to underestimated the Chinese determination and ragtag poorly equipped military, which was a total surprise to everybody.

It is human nature that it is very difficult for warriors to stop fighting, Alexander the Great just couldn’t stop, Napoleon couldn’t stop, Hitler and Japanese couldn’t stop and US couldn’t-can’t stop.

Normal little people like us always wondered what if these superpowers just stopped at some points, enough is enough, I have enough, let me stop and build on my successes and conquered empires, let me treat my subjects well but none could. But warriors can’t stop, they must keep on going until the empires were destroyed by over expansions.

What China is going to do to Blinkin in his visit…

Oh, and it isn’t going to be reported.

https://youtu.be/S4cuIeNB114

What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you while you were camping?

When I was a kid our family spent a lot of time camping with a tent trailer in northern Canada. One weekend we were at a campground which was circled by a ring road. There was one group of campers that were partying hard with a giant bonfire and despite the campground rules for being quiet after 11 p.m. they carried on.

They threatened anyone who asked them to tone down the noise. Then they thought it would be funny to use the ring road as their own race course so they were doing loops on the road speeding and revving their engines and terrifying the other campers.

This was before the days of cell phones so a couple campers left the campground to drive to the nearest Ranger’s station to complain.

Soon after they got back, and with the partiers still going hard, we heard a helicopter approaching in the night. We could hear it getting closer until it was directly overhead. Then we heard a giant swoosh as the Rangers dumped a bucket of water directly on the partiers. And by bucket I mean the 300+ gallon bucket suspended on a cable carried by the helicopter to deliver water for aerial firefighting.

Needless to say, the party ended instantly and they were all gone by the time we got up the next morning.

Watch NOW before they silence me.

https://youtu.be/nRW5PlphZ4M

FT reported that the US, Japan and Taiwan region will share real-time data from naval reconnaissance drones. What are your thoughts on that?

For over seven decades, Japan has been subject to ongoing occupation by the United States, maintaining a presence through a network of over 90 military bases and an extensive arsenal of more than 65,000 military assets. Similarly, Taiwan is under the control of local collaborators aligned with the United States, who wield authority over both the island’s military and political processes, contrary to the One-China policy. In both regions, the United States not only dictates the sale and deployment of weaponry but also determines the conditions for their use, the required troop numbers, and the deployment locations, while providing comprehensive training.

Given the high level of military integration and influence, publicly disclosing real-time shared military information would only intensify local concerns regarding the potential loss of lives and livelihoods after being dragged into a war initiated by the United States, especially in light of recent devastating events in Ukraine as reported by the media.

Gravitas: Japan says no to NATO membership

How do you think China will respond to the Quad’s efforts to contain its rise?

QUAD is US, G7 is US, AUKUS is US, NATO is US. Whatever alphabets they added or changed, it is just US.

UK, Australia, Japan, India, France, Italy or whatever don’t matter at all to China, there are like the group of thugs accompanying the main bad guy in kungfu movies, they take turn to be punched and kicked by the kungfu master, and the first to run away or fake death. Faking death in the safest way to survive. They rarely charge forward all at the same time.

It is just US, that’s a handful all by itself.

Do you think that money gives you absolute happiness?

Whatever your opinion may be about this man, Dan Bilzerian, he said something very true in an interview, and I would like many people to reflect on it.

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In the Joe Rogan Podcast (the most famous and most listened-to podcast in the world), Rogan asked him the same question:

Joe: Hey Dan, for the people who are listening to us, and most of them won’t even make a quarter of the money you’ve made, do you think money brings happiness?

Dan Bilzerian: Money, Joe, brings satisfaction. Money can undoubtedly give you a lot of satisfaction, but never complete happiness.

When I go to a fancy restaurant, when I drive a brand new car, when I party at the best clubs, for me, that’s already normal.

But the day I can’t afford to eat at a restaurant of the same quality, or drive the latest car, or go partying, how do you think I’ll feel?

In my case, I raised the ‘satisfaction bar’ so high that I have to maintain this lifestyle forever because if I don’t, I get depressed.

Happiness, even if it sounds cliché, cheesy, or however you want to call it, comes from within, from your person. It doesn’t come from material things. Material things give you ‘satisfaction,’ but they will never give you happiness.

There’s always someone who says something like:

‘Money doesn’t bring happiness, but I’d rather cry in a Lamborghini.’

Now, let me ask:

Wouldn’t you rather smile from ear to ear in a Kia?

First Impressions of China in 2023 🇨🇳 CAN’T Believe What I Saw

Will Biden’s best salesman charm India into the arms of the US?

Washington has sent Jake Sullivan to New Delhi with an array of tempting offers to bring the country in line with the west

By Joydeep Sen Gupta, Asia Editor

US President Joe Biden’s administration is working overtime to give top billing to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official state visit to the US from June 21 to 24 in a key election campaign year. The visit will be Modi’s sixth to the US since he assumed office in 2014.

Biden wants to present Modi’s upcoming trip as being bigger than the Indian premier’s Manhattan moment

in 2014 when he was hosted by Barack Obama, and Howdy, Modi!

in 2019 during the Trump administration.

To that end Biden sent his trusted aide, US National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan, to New Delhi on a two-day trip on Tuesday, to lay the groundwork for the high-profile event, and build upon last week’s visit

to India by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Prominent Indian geopolitical commentator, C Raja Mohan, has suggested

that Sullivan’s visit may pave the way for Modi’s Deng Xiaoping moment in leveraging India’s unique situation into significant gains for the country. However, the current global churn is many times removed from the visionary Chinese leader’s time in office last century, and the US is more transparent in its efforts to create a unipolar world order.

Sullivan’s agenda

Economic cooperation is at the heart of the Sullivan’s India trip. The top US security official held talks with Modi, his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval

, and minister for external affairs, Dr Subramanyam Jaishankar

, on a range of issues that go beyond the optics of bilateral diplomacy. Doval and Sullivan also attended the second Track 1.5 dialogue on the Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) initiative, which was organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

They unveiled an ambitious roadmap for Indo-US collaboration in seven specific hi-technology areas, including semiconductors, next-generation telecommunications, artificial intelligence and defense.

Sullivan said the iCET is about people-to-people relationships, building skills, trust and confidence between the societies and governments of the two countries. He said it is also a way to deepen defense cooperation that will help both the countries strategically and economically.

Meanwhile, Modi’s upcoming US visit has been heralded as a new era of “future ties” amid a “robust outcome document” that is in the works. However, the underlying motive is the desperate US desire to gain access to one of the biggest markets in the world following its deteriorating

trade and diplomatic ties with the world’s second biggest economy – China.

Sullivan is playing the role of a traveling salesman, hawking US interests in key global capitals much like before his elevation

to the NSA.

On this trip, he pulled out all stops to impress upon the Modi government the ease of doing business with the Biden administration, which is all but a lame duck, ahead of a key election to be held later this year.

Sullivan’s talks centered on opening a $2.7 billion semiconductor chip-making facility in India by Micron Technology, which is headquartered in Boise, Idaho and sharing technical know-how regarding quantum computing technology. India imports about 80% of its semiconductors.

New Delhi is believed to be wooing Intel Corporation to set up shop in the country following fears of a disruption in supply chains in light of escalating tensions between China and Taiwan.

Significantly, the pièce de resistance is Sullivan’s last-ditch bid to jointly manufacture US aircraft engines for Indian defense forces by General Electric (GE) in partnership with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Will the transfer of technology (ToT) be a fillip to Modi’s ambitious “Make in India”

initiative? ToT is a key aspect in Indo-US bilateral relationship, where past misadventures such as the 2008 civil nuclear agreement between the two nations stick out like a sore thumb. The US is dragging its feet over ToT unlike Russia, which has been

an all-weather ally to India.

Biden has unpacked the top brass in his administration ahead of Modi’s visit. China – the elephant in India’s room – also figured prominently during Sullivan’s trip because he is being accompanied by US Indo-Pacific Coordinator at the National Security Council Kurt Campbell.

Washington has been raising the China alarm with New Delhi and accuses Beijing of flexing its military muscle over Taiwan and the South China Sea while underscoring India’s primacy in the elite grouping of the Quad

Truth be told, since its revival

in 2017, the grouping largely remains a non-starter as questions abound whether it is hitting the right notes to keep a belligerent China at bay.

The US is seemingly ratcheting up further bilateral tensions between the two most populous nations and nuclear-powered neighbors

as a means to insert itself as part of India’s solutions to security.

How does the US hypocrisy stand exposed?

Public memory, as the cliché goes, is short indeed. In 2005, PM Modi was denied

a US visa because of his alleged role

in the Gujarat pogrom against minority Muslims in the western Indian state in 2002, when he was the Chief Minister.

The US changed its tune in 2014 after Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoyed a landslide win against the incumbent Congress-led opposition alliance.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki had said Modi would receive a visa to the country once he took office and formed a government. And an AI visa, which is the eligibility norm for all heads of state, was made available to him. Washington then started making overtures towards him in a true bipartisan manner with Obama, Trump, and now Biden have been rolling out the red carpet for him as they seek to tap India’s growing middle class, whose strength is more than the total US population at last count.

But such foreign policy misadventures

have been the hallmark of the US in the name of championing democracy in all corners of the globe for which the UK fell

for hook, line and sinker.

With such checkered records and doublespeak, should the Modi government be enamored by Sullivan’s charm offensive?

The US seldom delivers what it promises, if its deeply flawed foreign policy is a marker of Washington’s overreach

Is the Biden administration on the same page?

There is a lack of clarity regarding whether the Biden administration’s various arms share Sullivan’s enthusiasm about Modi and India. Historically, the US State Department has been hostile towards New Delhi about ramping up bilateral engagement in the field of defense and hi-tech.

However, the jury is still out whether Sullivan, aided and abetted by the Pentagon, can ensure joint manufacturing of GE’s F-414 engine in India, which if Washington manages to pull off, will go down in the annals of history. At the same time, it will open a new front in the Arab world in the Middle East, where the US has been arming

them to the teeth in the name of twin threats from Iran and Israel. President Biden’s largesse may help India’s state-run Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) to indigenously develop the Tejas Mark II fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. US defense majors are also looking for an opening to manufacture other hi-tech weapons including loiter bombs, air-to-air missiles and long-range guided bombs amid stalled arms supplies from Russia owing to fear

of disruption in payment mechanisms over US-led Western sanctions on the ongoing special military operations in Ukraine. Sullivan aims to reboot several existing mechanisms such as upping the ante in sectors such as telecommunications, rare earth metals mining and space. Both NSAs discussed this during a meeting on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) in Washington on January 31.

The mechanism received a boost during the first India-US Strategic Trade Dialogue meeting

in Washington on June 4 and 5.

US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to New Delhi in March was a precursor to this high-level engagement that set the stage for Sullivan’s trip to iron out the rough edges in the bilateral ties.

Is Sullivan the ace of spades for Biden?

The New York Times stated

in 2021 that Sullivan, who has been equated with Henry Kissinger, has long been a “figure of fascination, somewhere between sympathy and schadenfreude.” He has been Biden’s go-to man for all reasons and seasons. He held

crucial talks with key Chinese officials and has a similar historic opportunity to make Modi seem to be a global leader, whose life has come full circle since Washington dubbed him a pariah. And time is of the essence as Biden’s fate is likely to be decided in a few months, even though Modi’s hold on power appears to be as firm as ever.

Sullivan had an inkling about Russia’s special military operations in Ukraine a couple of months before the conflict started in February of 2022. He tried to shape global opinion against Russia, including pushing through the sanctions. Has he managed to strengthen NATO, including Finland’s membership, is an open-ended question?

His speech

at the Brookings Institution in April laid bare the growing US challenges amid a new pivot known as the ‘new Washington Consensus’, a euphemism for geo-economics. How much has he achieved will be judged by posterity.

Sullivan has been single-mindedly pushing for a technological alliance with “trusted partners” such as India to stymie China’s dominance.

The Indo-Pacific maritime is his other pet project that has grabbed the headlines, even though he is not a foreign policy hawk. He seeks to be on an even keel with China, especially his recent engagement with Foreign Minister, Wang Yi.

India, according to Sullivan, connects all these dots, despite New Delhi’s deep historic ties with Moscow. But can the US play a “long game” since the presidential election may change the foreign policy outreach in the next few months.

Biden’s last hurrah?

According to a report

in The Washington Post, the US seeks to expand the developing world’s influence (read India) at the United Nations (UN). This hurriedly-thought through bid appears to empower the UN Security Council (UNSC) because of the latter’s ineffectiveness as a global body to stop conflicts such as the ongoing military standoff in Ukraine. This mechanism, which has long been in the works, is also Washington’s bid to push through a unipolar world narrative and keep Russia and China out of the frame. Wooing India helps because it is part of the strongest anti-US bloc in BRICS, where Brazil and South Africa bring up the rear

, to create an alternative world order.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, President Biden’s envoy to the UN, is reportedly consulting with diplomats from the organization’s 193 member states to gather feedback about a potential expansion of the UNSC ahead of world leaders’ annual gathering in New York in September.

But Washington is unlikely to create a consensus in a fractured world, where the US is seen

as a perennial big bully. Besides, it’s unclear which countries in the Global South and from Africa and South America are likely to make the cut.

For instance, any nation such as Venezuela, Cuba, Egypt and Morocco will not be welcome to join the exclusive club because of their close ties with Russia and by extension are considered as rogue states by the US.

The US is unlikely to have its way because India’s seat at the global high table will be opposed tooth and nail by Pakistan.

A tricky road for Modi

Modi, who is known to have an elephant’s memory, may do well not to bite the US bullet ahead of his re-election next year, where he appears to be in the driver’s seat, despite a few recent domestic setbacks.

As for Biden, it could be a classic case of too little, too late to woo American voters with last-minute optics. The maxim “It’s the economy stupid

” could seal his fate for a second-term in the White House. His historically low approval ratings are an indictment for lording over an economy that’s teetering on the brink, despite his lofty pronouncements of a rosy outlook.

China war party vs. Russia war party

A must watch. -MM

What is the biggest opportunity you, or someone you know, has wasted?

It was 1974 and I was about to graduate from college. My adviser called me into his office. He informed me that I had the top cumulative average in the Business school of Marketing and Advertising at the university. I was shocked as I never expected that (I was sure he would be telling me I needed more credits to graduate.). He then told me that the graduate program had some openings for the upcoming fall semester. He stated that if I applied, I would not only be accepted, but that his department would pay for it. In essense, I could get a masters degree for the cost of books alone.

I was the first person in my family to go to college, much less graduate. Nobody I knew had a masters degree at that time nor did anybody impress upon me the importance of obtaining one. I politely thanked him and stupidly declined, stating I had a job offer to work at the family business. I was tired of studying and simply wanted to get out into the working world.

It was the biggest mistake I ever made. The family ruled with an iron fist and I was prevented from making any meaningful changes there. The products they sold changed with the times and eventually disappeared but the business never changed with it. I could see that it was dying and would not survive much longer. Unfortunately, too many years had lapsed and I was no longer marketable. Masters Degrees were becoming the norm to get a higher level business job and I foolishly had turned down an opportunity to get one.

I ended up returning to college, disillusioned with the business world and secured a teaching degree and, eventually, a master’s degree at my own expense. I found I really liked that job and I am still teaching nearly thirty years later. Had I taken that original offer though, back in 1974, I could have been working for a large corporation, at a much higher salary, with a good retirement plan and a lot more perks. I would have been able to retire with a 401K and turn to teaching as a second career, with a lot more money saved and with a second retirement plan ahead of me.

Fast forward to 2005. My son graduated MIT, first in his class in the school of Mechanical Engineering. He won the Presidential Award and received a similar offer from them to obtain his masters degree. I recounted my story and urged him to take it, which he did. When he was nearly finished, his adviser presented him with a free ride to get his PhD. He was hesitant but I pushed him to accept. He graduated at age 26 and started his first job at six figures.

Never turn down an opportunity for free education. It is time consuming and a lot of work, but the rewards pay back in the form of higher salaries and a better lifestyle.

Simpsons predictions…

What do Taiwanese people think about the Nanking Massacre? Do Taiwanese people hate Japanese like Mainland Chinese people?

When I young in Taiwan, all students must watch a one hour long documentary, Roar of China 中國的怒吼, documentary of all the atrocities of Japanese killing and bombing. Once a year, every year for many years. Attendance was mandatory for all, we had to write essay on the Japanese atrocities. That built a deep hatred towards Japan and Japanese. All Japanese movies and books were banned.

Occasional reports of Taiwan people love Japan and Japanese are wrong. As decades passed, that hatred gradually faded away to lesser degree, but among older Taiwan people, hatred of Japan is constant and in daily conversations.

I no longer hate Japan or Japanese, but I did not forget.

Gonna be more and more common in the USA…

Why didn’t the US give serious support to the Republic of China government in Taiwan to recover mainland China from the Communists in the 1960s and 1970s?

The Korean war.

In the early 1950’s, the United States (fresh from fighting World War II), along with its allies invaded Korea. The stated reasons were “democracy”, “freedom” and “fighting Communism”. Of course. The real reason was to attack and seize China while it was still weak. Then, from that captured territory, place military bases on the Russian Southern flank for an eventual World War 3.

Well, the Korean war was a fiasco. The United States lost bigly.

In fact, the losses were so very horrific, that the retreat became a rout. And the piles of equipment and stockpiles in warehouses had to be bombed remotely, by the sea and the air, to prevent capture. (This is by definition a rout. Remote demolitions of abandoned material is a characteristic of a rout.)

General Douglas MacArthur was so upset and defeated that he demanded that President Truman start using nuclear weapons on China, but Truman refused.

Instead President Truman initiated a multi-decade long campaign of carpet bombing China with bio-weapons. (Which didn’t do much to China, except make it very VERY resilient to bio-weapon attacks.)

This kind of stealth; passive-aggressive, attacking continued for decades. Well into the 1970s.

So when the 1960s rolled around, the United States was busy fighting on China’s Southern borders; Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. All trying to obtain a “toe hold” there. But Chinese-backed Vietnamese forces were putting up a good fight.

You must realize that at that time, with a hostile and unstable SE Asia, and a very VERY pissed off China, the United States was in no way ready to take on China. Because over the decades of covert hostilities, the Chinese grew stronger, and angrier with each passing month.

So in the 1960s and into the 1970s, the United States did not attack China overtly. It’s not that the United States did not want to attack China. It is just that it simply could not. China was a very formidable fighting force, and the anticipated American (and allied) losses would have been enormous.

Tony has some words…

https://youtu.be/uHK30wl_0oo

What does it mean when the Chinese government turned down the request of the US Defense Department for the US and China defense chiefs to meet in Singapore to have discussions in June 2023?

It means that the Chinese are not fools. The United States sanctioned the Chinese defense chief, and if they would meet, that would be in violation of the sanctions.

Who knows what other “dirty tricks” the Biden administration has “up its sleeve”?

But also, and most importantly, nothing productive would come out of the meeting. The United States has proven itself to be two-faced, fork-tongued, lying, scheming, manipulating bastards that have only one goal which is to belittle, and ultimately destroy China.

Why would an American want to move to China?

Different people have different reasons.

I came to China because the Chinese government agreed to support my research and give me opportunity to build a team to pursue solutions for health problems with genomics. I tried again and again through the grant process and VC channels in the US. For grants, if you weren’t part of the group that gets most of the grant money or one of their proteges (“the club”), you weren’t getting a grant. And, if you weren’t 20 something with no experience but full of wild ideas VC funds weren’t interested, they are all looking for the next Zuckerberg or Gates. They didn’t care about sound business plans.

So, I came to China where I was first able to almost immediately raise money from VCs and then after a year the Chinese government agreed to support me, my team and my projects.

China is the land of opportunity for talented scientists. They are putting a lot of money into developing a broad group of technologies of which biotech is one. A key focus of the education system is STEM graduates. So, for me, China was the obvious choice.

Note: I could’ve gotten a job in the US and been paid a very good wage, although I am doing well, especially by Chinese standards, I would’ve made more in the US. But, here I am supported to pursue my passion. And, it is a very good opportunity to experience the culture and the people.

The largest group of American expats here in China are teachers though. In China, teaching is a very well respected profession and the teachers are well compensated with lots of perks. They came here, some for the experience, most for the increased wages and respect that they found they lacked in the US.

Fried Okra with Tomatoes and Onions

Ingredients

2 slices bacon
1 pound sliced okra
1/2 onion, chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Fry bacon crisp. Remove from skillet and drain.
Fry okra in bacon drippings.
Add onion. Cook until tender.
Add tomatoes; stir well.
Add bacon and salt and pepper. Cover and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.

What is the creepiest unexplained event you know of?

In 1989 two hikers who got lost while climbing Mount Asahidake in Daisetsuzan National Park were found when a helicopter saw the distress sign written on the side of the mountain and rescued them.

Great for the two hikers and lucky because this is where the story gets strange. The police in the area were sure the hikers had made the SOS sign that was made by stacking large birch trees on top of each other, the sign was quiet large. When the police questioned the two hikers about their ordeal they swore they knew nothing about the sign. It was just pure luck on their part.

This got the investigators worried because if they didn’t make the signal, who did? This led the police back to the area with a search team to find another potential missing person. After a few hours of searching the area the police discovered human bones with bite marks and fractures from before they died. This is where the story goes from strange to bizarre.

As they continued their search they came across a hole big enough to fit a human. In the hole they found a human skull, four cassette tapes, a tape recorder, some amulets, a backpack, tripod, some men’s shoes, two cameras, a notebook and a drivers licence belonging to Kenji Iwamura, a 25-year-old male office worker.

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Photo of Kenji Iwamura

On one of the tapes was the voice of a man screaming for two and a half minutes. A translation of the man shouting on the recording is as follows:

SOS, help me, I can’t move on the cliff, SOS, help me.
The place is where I first met the helicopter. The sasa [a type of bamboo plant] is deep and you can’t go up. Lift me up from here. The police were sure the bones belonged to the guy on the drivers licence but went sent for testing they came back as belonging to a female between the ages 20–30.

The rest of the tapes included music from the anime TV shows, Macross and Magical Princess Minky Momo In addition, a cut out of artwork of “Magical Princess Minky Momo” was used as a case for the cassette tape. This strange disappearance had the police perplexed.

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The wooden letters of the SOS sign were made by stacking large fallen birch trees, and it was estimated that it took about two days and considerable effort to create such a giant sign. It was speculated that the sign was made by the missing person that the skeleton belonged to, but in the autopsy of the skeleton that was found, who investigators believed was Iwamura, the body was described as thin and weak and that it would have been impossible for him to make the sign on his own.

No axe that would have been used to cut the trees down to make the sign has been found. There is also no record or report of a missing woman that could be connected to Iwamura.

Lx24 – Мокрые губы – 抖音BGM 2023

What was the most “Canadian” thing you’ve ever done or seen someone do?

I saw this video on the internet.

A wild lynx had broken into a farmer’s chicken coop and ate some chicken. (British Columbia, February 2021.)

So what does the farmer do? He corners the lynx, picks it up by the scruff of the neck, and takes it into the coop to show it the damage it has done – all the while scolding the lynx casually in the way that a person would scold a naughty cat who has scratched up a cushion.

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I think it has become a pet now.

Broke into a farmer’s coop, annihilated two chickens, gets a polite scolding and some selfies with the farmer. Only in Canada.

What is the best life advice you would give?

I’m in my 40s, if you’re still in your 20s and 30s read this:

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1. Your 3 most important life choices are:
I) Your spouse
II) Your career
III) Where you’ll live
Therefore, do not rush these decisions. Take your time and think.

2. To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.
To attract the right people, be the right person.
The world isn’t crazy enough to reward a bunch of undeserving people (Charlie Munger).

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3. Stop listening to what people say and watch what they do.
Words lie, and actions reveal the truth.
It is, therefore, important to listen and keep your eyes wide open.

4. The cowards never started and the weak died along the way.
There’s wisdom in age.

Study things and people who have been around for a long time in:
• Art
• Nature
• Architecture
• Classic books
• Classic movies

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5. Take care of your health.
Have a healthy body:
• Take 10k steps a day
• Be intentional and regular about exercising
• Adopt a high-protein diet
• Take only nutrient-dense food
• Drink 2-3 liters of water daily
• Avoid processed sugar and alcohol

In the long run, it is inevitable that you will have;
• Clear Skin
• A Clear mind
• High energy

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Your mind is your greatest asset.
So walk, write, think, stretch, be in solitude, meditate, and spend time in nature.
Avoid;
• News
• Politics
• Toxic relationships
Stop reacting to everything and instead, be proactive.

6. Attitude and mindset are extremely important.

Poor mentality traits:
• Waiting for motivation to start
• Quitting when the motivation fades
• Doing only what you think is your best

Rich mentality traits:
• Getting motivation after starting
• Showing up every day (no matter what)
• Doing what it takes
So, which one would you choose?

7. It’s not the strongest or smartest who survive, it’s the ones who are most adaptable to the changing environment.
Consistency beats intensity and the compound effect is one of the secrets to success.

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8. Don’t let people push you around, and stand up for the weak.
Fight back against anyone who pushes your boundaries.
Most people will not bother you if they know you’ll retaliate.

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9. Be a mad Scientist.
Life is one big experiment.
So whenever you feel stuck, adapt and try something new.
There are no failures, only experiments that go too long.
And never learn without taking action.

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10. Never play the victim.
Life will test you. It’ll test everyone. So you’re not special.
Learned helplessness is a trap.
Face your problems head-on to build character and resilience.
Instead of thinking about why the problem is happening to you, flip the script and acknowledge that it has already been done and it’s too late to undo it. From there you’ll be aware of the fact that the best thing you can do is move forward.

11. Practice Problem-Solving.
The bigger your problems, the bigger your opportunity.
Be thankful for your problems. God only gives you what you can handle.

12. Take responsibility for everything.
Blaming people or circumstances gives them power over you. Only blame yourself.

13. Find mentors.
Find mentors that are years ahead of you.
Absorb everything they teach you.
Learn from their failures so you don’t have to learn the hard way.
If you can’t find a mentor, read books.

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14. You will be happiest when building:
• Your mind
• Your body
• Your business
• Your family

Learn these skills and never worry about money:
• Selling
• Marketing
• Negotiation
• Copy Trading
• Copywriting
• Critical Thinking
• Creative Creation
• Emotional Intelligence
• Communication

15. Do what is difficult when it is easy.
You’re young, therefore:
• It’s easy to stay fit
• It’s easy to experiment and fail
• It’s easy to be open-minded and learn

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16. Financial freedom unlocks your extreme potential.
You get to experience and express your true self when you know your livelihood isn’t 100% reliant on other outside forces that might be uncontrollable by you. So when you achieve financial independence earlier on in your life, you are going to invest in yourself and believe in yourself regardless, you are going to work out and exercise because you will not be limited by time.

If you’re still employed, don’t be discouraged, just look for ways to make an extra buck and save it gradually till you have what you’d consider enough to get started. In one of my sources of passive income, I got started with just $500 and within a month, I saw immense results.

Growing old while the world decays

When I lived in Boston (actually Milford, MA), I remember an incident. I was sitting at a red light on the East side of town, and watched this little old man (90+ years) go to his office. He looked like he was on “deaths door”; just a short shabbily dressed old man. He hobbled down the sidewalk to this old store front.

The storefront was dusty. Inside the windows were pile and piles of papers, and the windows looked like they haven’t been scrubbed for decades. He produced a key and went in. Then closed the door behind him, turning the “We’re open!” sign on the old fashioned door.

I remember thinking about this older gentleman. Still running his business (whatever it was) in and out through the years. Insurance? Records? Dry cleaning? Attorney? Who knows. But he continued. It was part of his life.

Perhaps it was his responsibilities, and habits that helped him live into his grand old ages. Perhaps it is the idea of a “retirement” that is actually the death-blow to everyone.

We must provide purpose.

We must maintain responsibilities.

We must provide value to continue…

Bizarre Discoveries Found In Unexpected Places

Can US wage a war with China without suffering huge casualties and huge damage in bases like Guam etc and bases circling China and in carriers, fighter planes, subs, destroyers and space assets which are of utmost important to US in every way?

No they cannot. And the US generals know this and that is why they continually advise the politicians against war with China.

When the Pelosi visit happened, the USA pulled back its two carrier groups further away from Chinese Taiwan coastal waters. Now you know they always travel in protective formation for the sake of the carriers. When the Chinese conducted military drills including live missile firing off Taiwan in protest they landed enough missiles on every single position that the carrier group had been in 8 hours previously To the meter. Every single US ship in that group would have been sunk if that had been a real opening of the war. All of the US fleets in those waters would be lost in a real war. The chances of USA not using nukes as retaliation for this is near zero. That means 5 minutes after US nuke launch the Chines missiles would launch and China would take massive casualties. USA would lose Hawaii Guam Wake All the Japanese bases and most of American mainland cities. (There are only 30 US cities with more than 1 million people, so 30 nukes and they are gone) and most of the 100 US bases on home soil.

I suspect North Korea would take out the South Korean bases and cities and maybe even some Japanese along with Alaska. Im pretty sure China cannot or would not touch the US bases in Europe but they can reach all cities in USA with maybe the exception of Florida. . I guess maybe 100–300 million deaths in China and much the same in USA with the loss of all above ground bases on the mainland and in the Pacific. The generals all know this. The politicians dont, or dont care.

I wonder if Russia would take the opportunity to join in and get rid of their biggest warmongering problem altogether. 7000 nukes can make a mess of NATO and mainland USA if they did.

Carolina Hot Dog Chili

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds ground beef
1 large onion (about 1 cup chopped)
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon cider or white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (optional)

Instructions

Place the beef, onion and 2 cups of water in a Dutch oven or soup pot over high heat. Bring to the water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and stir to begin breaking up the meat.
Add the tomato paste, ketchup, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper, if using. Stir well until the tomato paste and ketchup are dissolved and the meat is mostly broken up.
Continue to cook at a simmer, stirring about every 5 minutes, about 15 minutes. As the chili thickens, you may need to reduce the heat to medium-low or low so it doesn’t stick. Refrigerate, covered, up to 2 days, or freeze in small freezer bags for up to 6 months.
Thaw or reheat in a microwave, stirring often.

If you want a finer texture, you can cool the chili at least 20 minutes and process in a blender or food processor for 30 to 45 seconds.

Approximate nutritional values per 2-tablespoon serving: 55 calories; 3 grams protein; 3 grams carbohydrate; 4 grams fat (58% calories from fat); 12 milligrams cholesterol; 0 fiber; 174 milligrams sodium

IMPOSSIBLE Places People Were Found

Hongkong media SCMP has tracked the number of US warplanes/warships at China’s door-step.

1,200 times in 2022 ! If this is not deliberate provocation & fight-picking by USA, what is it? Who is aggressive?

The key word here is : DOOR-STEP

Door-step in this article means outside your property line. Not inside.

Let say I walk at your door-step. On the street which is a public area. I have not entered your property line.

I carry something that looks like a rifle to you. Bullet-proof vest & helmet.

I have a track record that I made trouble for other households in the society.

How will you react to my appearance at your door-step if it is daily?

Now …

Let’s replace “I” with “USA”. “my rifle” with “US warplanes/warships”. “me at your door-step” with “USA at the door-step of China”.

Remember I am outside your property line. Same for US warplanes/warships outside China’s borderline according to UNCLOS.

Also, now replace “my daily” with “USA’s 1,200 times”

How will you react to my appearance at your door-step, daily?

If this is not DELIBERATE provocation & picking fights, what is it?

Minding one’s own business?
Assisting in keeping the region free of pirates?
Being there to help ships in distress during storms?

There is police/law to stop my malicious action towards you. If there is not, will you do everything to protect your family?

There is ICC & UN laws eg Non-Innocent Passage as I said in other articles. But ICC is believed to be “controlled” by USA. USA was not charged for war crime in the 2003 Iraq war.

Hence China must protect itself.

Now USA scolds CHINA BEING AGGRESSIVE ???

Only a bully or mafia is that unreasonable.

OK, so now replace “my freedom to walk on public street” with “US freedom of navigation”

Only a bully or mafia will turn the logic upside down & conveniently use Freedom as god.

It is this type of twisted logic that USA justified their action to instigate riots/coups/wars in the world 82 out of 100 times, since WW2. Causing millions of deaths & human suffering.

We must ask :

Why USA instigated riots/wars in Middle East for the past 20 years. OIL.
What about China? Rise of China that, in US words, threatens US status on world stage.

China works hard to better itself & thus achieves a lots. IMF said China contributes 30% of world GDP.

Am I not allowed to get A+ in my exam just because you get F- in yours?

Only sore losers have the type of mentality to contain others.

Search Quora for a question:

What is Innocent Passage under UNCLOS ?

Woman Dies During Stroke; Shown Past Lives & Life’s Purpose During NDE

“If you ignore the lessons, they’ll keep throwing them at you.”

No Collapse Is the Real Dystopia

Still waiting for the Big Collapse

Robert Stark • June 10, 2023

So far the 2020s seem more chaotic than previous decades. Based upon current events, economic and sociological data, and looking at historical cycles like the 4^th turning theory and Peter Turchin’s research, it looks like there will be a major historical crisis this decade.

In contrast, the 2010s felt very stagnant, despite the recession at the beginning of the decade, and political movements such as Occupy Wall Street, nationalism and populism in Europe, the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders movements, and the beginning of the Great Awokening.

Looking specifically at years, 2016 was a turning point with the election of Trump, 2017 was somewhat chaotic with political strife between antifa and the alt-right, then both 2018 and 2019 felt very stagnant.

Obviously 2020 was a chaotic year with the pandemic, as well as the BLM riots and acceleration in woke politics and cancel culture, with certain moments feeling apocalyptic. However, with the exception of Jan6th, 2021 was another stagnant year, with covid easing and the peak of the stimulus bubble and market euphoria.

Also in 2021, the right was totally demoralized and cancel culture had become the new normal. There was some return to chaos in 2022, with the onset of inflation and the Ukraine war. While this year has seen a banking crisis, dept default scare, migrant crisis, more political turmoil such as the inditement of Trump, and increased political instability overseas, overall things feel stagnant again, or perhaps a calm before the storm.

The perma bulls just won’t give up

It initially seemed that the Silicon Valley Bank crash would put an end to copes about economic recovery.

Despite recent fear of a debt default, major vulnerabilities in the financial system, higher interest rates, unprecedented levels of debt, sticky inflation, and the worst yield curve inversion in over 30 years, there is still a lot of bullish propaganda.

For instance talk of a mild recession, soft landing, a new bull market, and that we may have even dodged a recession altogether.

The bulls’ basis for optimism is a combination of the debt ceiling deal, official unemployment stats still being low, a slight dip in inflation, and hope for a pause in Fed rate hikes.

Not to mention the new cope of an AI boom saving the economy and ushering in a new bull market, which is just creating another bubble in stocks, on top of the existing super bubble.

This propaganda is in line with Janet Yellen’s infamous statement that we will never have another financial crisis again in our lifetime, the arrogance that the system is perfected to withstand collapse.

The cringiest bull take so far, is that the economy is doing great because of the exorbitant prices for Taylor Swift concert tickets, as obviously there are many affluent girls who use Daddy’s credit card to buy tickets.

If anything this just further shows the scope of the debt bubble, and high levels of income inequality.

The current vibes remind me a lot of January’s bullishness before the banking crash, though we will probably see some repeat of cycles of coming close to the imminent crash, followed by more copes of a recovery, before the inevitable big crash.

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Source

While bears have been vindicated, looking at the overall trajectory of the economy, there have been times over the past few years, when bears appeared wrong or overshot their predictions about the severity of an impending crisis.

For starters, expecting that covid would cause a depression, which did not anticipate stimulus propping up the economy, at least for the time being.

There was also concern, including from the mainstream media, that the Ukraine war was going to cause a global famine, the worst in modern history, by last fall.

However, there was a successful deal, negotiated by Turkey between Russia and Ukraine, to allow the safe shipments of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

The question is whether a prolonged conflict, delaying Ukraine’s planting season, will mean a global famine within the next few years.

There were also expectations that Europe would have a catastrophic energy crisis last winter, which also did not pan out.

Even Russia limiting oil production did not spike oil prices as high as anticipated. Europe lucked out by having a mild winter, and enough petrol and natural gas saved up in their reserves, and extra help from America, as Biden depleted America’s strategic petrol reserves.

Overall it was a combination of certain supply chain issues getting resolved from the pandemic and war, but also a decline in global demand, and just kicking the can down the road.

In order to have a healthier economy, it is necessary for super bubbles to pop, and a similar case can be made for social and political ills.

Since the pandemic mostly exacerbated the worst trends of the 2010s, such as social atomization, the mental health crisis, the sex recession, income inequality, the establishment consolidating power, cancel culture, cultural decay, and overall cringe, the question is whether a severe economic collapse would clear out societal bullshit or just make these problems worse.

An economic soft landing or stagnation scenario would likely exacerbate the worst existing trends, so I totally get the doomers and accelerationists who cheer on the collapse.

However, dissidents, who are often in despair, or feel that the current system is stacked against them, have this fantasy cope, that when the big collapse occurs, either they or their ingroup will do better or be liberated from systems of oppression, which is incredibly naïve. Dissidents have no institutional power and this doomer mentality is very passive, primarily fulfilling a psychological need. If one’s life and inner psyche is in chaos, one tends to want to see the cold indifferent society around them collapse as well.

Doomers rely upon this fantasy that one external shock to the system, or Black Swan event, will cause the entire system to come crashing down like a house of cards, but the system has shown itself to be much more resilient than that.

California shows that a one party liberal hegemonic system can last much longer than one would think, though it has been sustained by Silicon Valley revenue, and the exodus of the middle class acting as a safety valve for discontent. The financial propagandists who talk of a soft landing are partially correct, in that it is a soft landing or no recession for those at the top.

In fact, America is working great for the people who run it, but not for those with no power and influence.

The incoming severe recession may just mean more urban blight, homeless encampments, increased deaths of despair, and widening income inequality, but not necessarily a collapse of institutional power.

Anonymous 4chan post from 2013

b6bbb65d eb5d 48fe b6c7 05d5507f3567 1536x817 — b6bbb65d eb5d 48fe b6c7 05d5507f3567 1536×817

The prophet of despair, Michel Houellebecq, has been totally vindicated in his prediction from the beginning of the pandemic that post pandemic life would be “the same but worse.”

Collapses are often gradual and not overnight, and not necessarily a Mad Max scenario, but rather collapse just means a lower quality of life for most people. This is even true for third world nations that have collapsed, like Sri Lanka, or with the current high levels of inflation in Turkey and Argentina.

“The nightmare is not the “collapse.” The nightmare is that they pull off the End of History, and things just gradually get worse – more crime, more poverty, more degeneracy, fewer services, and a population incapable of anything other than demanding larger doses of the poison,” tweets VDARE’s James Kirkpatrick.

Basically a gradual decline in people’s quality of life or a frog in the boiling pan scenario, where people just get used to degradation, and may never actually reach that breaking point but rather merely adjust their expectations and standards.

Dissidents rely upon this fantasy of the masses awakening and rebellion, but with lower wages and higher unemployment, there is just greater leverage to those in power and less to the people.

The political elite must factor in that some type of economic crash means that people will be desperate enough to work for little or nothing and give up their freedoms and autonomy.

The question is whether Americans, especially middle class Whites, can psychologically handle the decline and transition to a post-American order?

Federal Reserve Chart of change in Foreign Exchange Reserves

Source

A probable scenario is where the US economy has a quasi-soft landing but at the expense of the rest of the world, by abusing the reserve currency to export inflation abroad.

For instance, nations being forced to play catch up with the Fed’s rate hikes in order to save their currencies.

This will accelerate the migrant crisis and increase resentment against America, with the potential for retaliation against the dollar.

America would go into a depression, if it lost its reserve currency status, but the dollar still dominates foreign exchange reserves, with no clear competitor.

On a similar note, an AI boom could turn the economy around after the recession, perhaps even a period of rapid economic expansion, but would also exacerbate income inequality and gradually erode the value of labor.

While there will likely not be a debt default anytime soon, the main danger now is the Treasury being forced to sell treasury bills and bonds, which would drain liquidity in the financial markets, thus exacerbating the banking crisis, push commercial real estate over the edge, and cause a pension solvency crisis.

Not to mention, exacerbating the financial trap that the Fed is in, where if the Fed pivots or bails out the banks, inflation resurges, but if rates are kept high, there will be a liquidity and debt default crisis.

Whether this will be the financial event that causes the big crash is hard to say.

Overall, the main vulnerability in the economy is the sheer levels of debt, both public and private, in which the response will likely be inflating the dollar to pay off massive debts.

The crash has taken much longer than anticipated, like watching paint dry, and I am done trying to guess when this mega crash will occur.

Generally I take the view that the economic bubble is just being propped up further, and that the inevitable is being delaying, which will lead to a much worse economic crisis.

However, what if this is all part of a successful managed decline, or manufactured stability, which is really depressing and demoralizing.

America is in decline but it is a stretch to say collapse, but rather a long term multidecade process, a slow motion decay, analogous to Rome’s decline as a late stage empire, which took a very long period of time to fall. America has both advantages over other nations and major vulnerabilities.

(Republished from Substack by permission of author or representative)

People are being killed over this – UFO whistleblowers EXPOSE the deep state agenda

US Attempts ’Divide and Conquer’ Strategy Against BRICS

Pepe Escobar • June 12, 2023

Something extraordinary, at least on the surface, happened on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore earlier this month – a somewhat pompous affair self-described as “Asia’s premier defense summit”.

Intel heads of 24 nations met in de facto semi-secrecy, because in the end the event was duly leaked (Western spin qualified it as an “informal” meeting).

Among the 24, the real deal comprised the US and all the other Five Eyes, plus representatives of two BRICS members, China and India. All the others were not identified with certainty or preferred to remain anonymous – presumably due to their “hanger on” status.

Crucially, key BRICS member Russia was not represented.

Reuters swore the information about the not-so-secret gathering came from five different – unnamed – sources. A Southeast Asian diplomat independently confirmed the presence of the Five Eyes, China, India and Singapore – and that was it.

The de facto sponsor of the meeting was Singapore’s Ministry of Defense.

Things gets curioser and curioser when we examine the leak a bit closer. So many sources basically corroborating each other point to a concerted spin – practically on an official level. If this was meant to be really secret, as in the past, that would have been the case, with every involved lip conveniently sealed. So why leak it?

Washington’s Divide and Conquer Strategy

Such spy vs. spy meetings, historically, take ages to prepare, especially one involving 24 nations and featuring superpower rivals US and China. That implies countless qualified sherpas redacting documents; very complicated logistics; an ultra-secure environment; and an extremely detailed script covering every intervention.

All of that must have been discussed in excruciating detail for months, side by side with putting together the larger agenda for the Shangri-La Dialogue: and all the while there were no leaks.

And then what was leaked, after the meeting, was just that it happened. With only selected participating players fully identified.

There’s absolutely nothing on substance.

It beggars belief that the Five Eyes would openly discuss Western security fears and/or procedures openly with the Chinese, not to mention the other minor hangers-on. After all the Beijing leadership is fully aware the US-UK is engaged in full hybrid war against China, with the Five Eyes and containment mechanisms such as Quad and AUKUS in tow.

The main reason for the leak is a dead giveaway when we see what US Think Tankland is spinning: the US was talking security with China and India behind Russia’s back.

Translation: the US is trying to undermine the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) from the inside.

This is purely wishful thinking – because no one knows anything about the substance of the discussions. The meat of the matter was not leaked on purpose.

The dead giveaway about the leak being engineered to undermine the BRICS – at least in the Western public sphere – would have to come from the usual suspects themselves: US think tanks, inserted in what the indispensable Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, christened as MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think Tank complex).

The chairman of the Eurasia Group laid it all out in detail: US foreign policy needs essentially to deploy the whole arsenal of Hybrid War techniques to seduce, coerce or subdue 6 so-called “swing states” in the geopolitical arena: Brazil, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkiye.

It’s no accident three of these are BRICS members (Brazil, India, South Africa) and the other three (Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye) are prime candidates to the inevitable expansion, BRICS+, already being discussed and about to get started during the upcoming BRICS summit in August in South Africa.

The American tactics remain predictable: classic Divide and Rule; attempts to undermine BRICS from the inside via P.R. operations and a vast 5th brigade; and if all goes wrong, attempts at color revolution and regime change.

Recently, the tactics miserably failed against both Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, and are also failing in terms of provoking mischief within the key RICs trio (Russia-India-China).

Growing Signs of US Desperation

The leak was, once again, shadow play: an extra layer of fog of war – and related to an ongoing war. It’s quite intriguing the “secret” gambit took place right before the green light from the usual suspects for Kiev to bomb the Kakhovskaya dam, and the de facto start of the spun-to-death Ukrainian “counter offensive.”

To have DNI head Avril Haines and her Beijing counterpart Chen Wixin discussing this on the same table is as far-fetched as it comes.

A more realistic scenario would have China and India on the same table discussing their intractable border issues. But they don’t need to go to Singapore to do that; they do it in the framework of the SCO, of which both are members, with Russia playing a mediator role.

US Think Tankland/MICIMATT spinning, predictably masquerading as political analysis, never reaches beyond the level of guesswork: they assume that China was discussing security with the superpower that really matters – the US – while ditching their comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia.

Nonsense strikes again: top security issues concerning both are discussed at the highest level, for instance during the recent visit to Moscow by China’s Minister of Defense Li Shangfu, complete with a personal encounter with Putin.

Even without any input on the substance of the meeting, it’s fair to consider all about the leak that points to Ukraine.

The American intel narrative would go something like this: we need an exit strategy, badly, immediately. So let’s get Chinese intel to convince the Russians to freeze the battlefield as it stands – a ceasefire of sorts. Then we can re-weaponize Kiev and have another go at it later on.

Anyone following Russia-China high-level interaction these past few months knows this is – once again – nonsense. Beijing may have its 12-point plan for peace – which Moscow respects. But facts on the ground, imposed by US/NATO hubris, have engineered a major game-changer.

And then there’s the really fundamental question: when and how Russia will decide to cross the Dnepr. Only after that Moscow will be willing to discuss any possible “peace”, and only under its own terms.

At the same time, both Moscow and Beijing are fully aware that the proxy US/NATO war in Ukraine against Russia is a rehearsal inbuilt in the ongoing Chronicle of a War Announced: the real one, up next, against China, with Taiwan as pretext.

To believe that Chinese intel would willingly bend to the whims of the Five Eyes because they feel China is in a precarious geopolitical position does not even qualify as laughable. And yet that’s also inbuilt in US Think Thankland spin.

It’s as laughable as the Beltway narrative, imposed 24/7, of “China threatening war over Taiwan” when it’s the Hegemon that is using Taiwan as a remixed Ukraine, forcing Beijing to lose its Taoist patience.

So in the end what really stands out in this spy vs. spy saga? Not much. Except yet another whiff of Hegemon desperation.

(Republished from Sputnik International by permission of author or representative)

JOHN TITOR: Time traveler, soldier, savior

Will China go bankrupt if it is no longer able to sell to the US market?

Nope.

People often think that China is extremely, extremely dependent on manufacturing goods and exporting to other countries.

Actually, China’s services sector is already bigger than its industrial sector. Furthermore, manufacturing is only one of three components in its industrial sector (the other two being construction and mining).

In addition, the biggest market for Chinese goods is actually China itself. Which also happens to be the biggest consumer market in the world.

Finally, it’s worth noting that while the USA is the biggest importer of Chinese goods, what the USA imports is only about the amount purchased by Hong Kong, Japan and Korea each year.

Meanwhile, there are still 120+ other countries that buy more goods from China, than any other country on earth.

To summarise, China doesn’t just manufacture & sell goods for a living. That isn’t even its main thing. Furthermore, while the USA is its biggest customer, the USA is still just one customer, out of MANY customers.

Egypt Shocking Announcement Joining BRICS: What It Means for the World Economics

https://youtu.be/w-92OEYxqMc

Amid U.S. “de-risking” rhetoric, world relies more on China’s exports — SCMP

Amid so-called “de-risking” rhetoric led by the United States, as the world relies more on China’s exports, China is learning to rely more on itself, reported the South China Morning Post. So far, Washington’s actions have little to show for results.

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According to official U.S. data, the United States’ merchandise trade deficit with China was larger last year than when former President Donald Trump took office, and the overall trade deficit is at a record high.

Moreover, U.S. imports of manufactured goods have not moderated, with import penetration rising to 34 percent from 31 percent in 2017, the article said.

There has been a dramatic decline in China’s importance to U.S. trade, but China’s exports to the world have risen to record highs in recent years.

China has moved on from being largely an assembler of imported components to a manufacturer of sophisticated products, which has made China more self-sufficient.

12 ALIEN CRAFT In US Custody, Intel Confirms; One Source Claims PILOT Found: Michael Shellenberger

Why did Dell publicly announce their decision to move all their production out of China and stop using chips made in China by 2024, leading to a 45.1% fall in sales in that market, when they formerly were one of the top ranking brands in sales?

Ah!!!

Other way round

Dells announcement came after their market share fell in China

It’s simple

Dell doesn’t have a good market in China anymore

It’s sinking by the day

When I visited the previous time, i wentto the malls to see the laptops and saw a lot of Dell, IBM & HP Laptops dominating in every showroom and shop

This time I saw only Realme, Xiaomi, Redmi, Honor (Huawei) laptops selling like hot cakes with only Apple selling at the same demand

Nobody is buying Dell in China anymore

So Dell will move out of China because they lost the huge Chinese market

They have no chance in US except with high level IT infrastructure where IBM dominates the market or laptops where Apple is the king

Like Samsung

Dell will come to India and hope to make India a cornerstone market because Dell is our leading laptop and our Domestic laptops are a big disaster to date

Kenya Drops The U.S. Dollar

Should the US enter into a Cold War with China?

US still mired in a Cold War mindset, but tide is turning

At his long-awaited face-to-face G20 meeting with President Xi Jinping, US President Joe Biden reaffirmed that notwithstanding vigorous competition, mutual conflict must be avoided. He cited the need for cooperation in a range of transnational challenges, including climate change, debt relief, health security, and global food security.

According to Chinese press reports, Biden doubled down on earlier pledges of nonconfrontation to encompass “five no’s” and “four no-intents” — no seeking of regime change; no new Cold War; no ganging up against China; no support for “Taiwan independence”; no support for “two Chinas”; no intention of conflict with China; no intention to decouple from China; no intention to hinder China’s economic development; and no intention to contain China.

However, these nine specific pledges do NOT appear in the relevant Washington readout. Rhetoric and diplomatic niceties aside, anti-China hype, postures and measures are likely to persist, fueled by strong bipartisan consensus of a systemic “China threat” echoed by a “hegemonic coalition” of America’s closest Western allies.

I experienced this continuing anti-China blowback firsthand as a sponsored speaker during a recent international conference, From Crises to Crises: Towards a New World Order — MEDays 2022 — held in Tangier, Morocco, from Nov 2-5. My three American co-panelists, all senior foreign policy advisers across the aisle, seemed to sing from the same robust anti-China hymn book.

I commenced by saying that I didn’t see how constantly antagonizing a targeted adversary can be regarded as a strategy.

I pointed out that all decoupling, sanctions, tariffs, denial of key technology access, and corralling Western allies to suppress China do not seem to have yielded meaningful outcomes.

With Ukraine-war disruptions and a faltering global economy, they have backfired on the United States (and the rest of the world), necessitating unprecedented serial interest-rate hikes to curb rising inflation.

With the possible exception of some of America’s closest allies in the so-called Five Eyes alliance, many countries do not wish to be forced to take sides, as China has become the largest trading partner to 128 out of 190 nations across the globe.

China’s centrality to the global supply and value chain is particularly prominent in the world’s largest trading bloc (accounting for one-third of the global economy and one-third of the world’s population), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which comprises the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as their principal trading partners — Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Singapore.

I also pointed out that the Chinese government, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, has been successfully winning the highest support and trust of the vast majority of the Chinese people, multiple rankings above many other Western democracies, including the US, according to the most recent comparative studies conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center and the Edelman Trust Barometer.

Although I didn’t have the time to go into the details, the Edelman findings show that China is the biggest people’s trust winner in this year’s survey, thanks to the decisive action taken to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic within the nation and a rising pride in China’s global gravitas despite escalating US tensions.

I contrasted the legitimacy between China’s CPC-led system and Western adversarial democracies. The all-time CPC imperative is to bring about much better lives for people across the whole nation, while adversarial democracies tend to focus on vested interests and voters supporting the winning political party in every election cycle.

As for alleged “technology theft”, I mentioned the example of China’s success in building its own space station from scratch. China had also succeeded in landing a robotic probe at the back of the moon ahead of all other nations.

I said that despite substantial advancement, China has neither the intention nor the full military, financial and monetary capability to supplant the US as a world hegemon.

As is clear from the CPC’s 20th National Congress, what China is seeking is to realize the “China Dream” of national renaissance by 2049 — the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China — to reestablish China’s historic place in the sun, so to speak.

I admitted there have been substantial US-China disagreements and concerns. But building a bridge with a multitrack dialogue would be more productive than constructing fences and barriers.

How China responds to what President Xi calls a world “crossroads” amid “momentous changes unseen in a century” is embedded in his speeches at the 17th G20 summit in Bali (Nov 15-16) and at the APEC CEO summit in Bangkok (Nov 17), as well as in Premier Li Keqiang’s speech at the 25th China-ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh (Nov 11).

Xi outlined a clear vision for an “Asia-Pacific community with a shared future”. The region is “no one’s backyard”, nor should it become “an arena for big power contest”. It should embrace “openness and inclusiveness”, guided by “diversity and nondiscrimination”, enabling “win-win cooperation” and “regional economic integration” free from any supply-chain disruption or dismantling.

Rejecting a “Cold War mentality” and “bloc confrontation”, Xi puts forth the idea of “common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security” in a “Global Security Initiative” based on the United Nations Charter.

Specifically, Xi proposes building a “free trade area of the Asia-Pacific”, including reform of the World Trade Organization, better alignment among the RCEP, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement,

For the world at large, Xi stresses that “drawing ideological lines or promoting group politics and bloc confrontation will only divide the world, and hinder global development and human progress”. He espouses a Global Development Initiative, under which more than 60 countries have joined a GDI Group of Friends.

China has established the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, and will increase its funding for the China-UN Peace and Development Fund, in furtherance of the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Xi refers to China’s submission of 15 projects to the G20 Action for Strong and Inclusive Recovery, working with G20 members on delivery.

Opposing the politicization of food and energy issues, the president points to China’s joint Initiative of International Cooperation on Resilient and Stable Industrial and Supply Chains, the Global Clean Energy Cooperation Partnership, and the International Cooperation Initiative on Global Food Security in the G20.

It’s clear that under President Xi’s leadership, China is proactive in taking on a much larger role to help build a better world in a “community of common destiny”, bound together by global challenges like climate change, pandemics, food and water security, terrorism and development bottlenecks. This should be welcome.

The pivotal question is whether the US, as the world’s leading superpower, can rise beyond “American exceptionalism” and a zero-sum, “win-lose” mindset.

For decades, the CPC has been consistently misunderstood, misjudged and misrepresented, if not thoroughly demonized, by the West, including some of the most respected authors, broadsheets, think tanks, journals and other media outlets.

The so-called “China threat” is reaching a crescendo, portraying the US-China rivalry as a “life-or-death” contest between “democracy and autocracy”. This can be seen in tomes like The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower (2015), The Return of Great Power Rivalry (2020), and Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China (2022). According to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, unfavorable views on China are reaching historic highs in many countries.

Rhetoric aside, Biden’s assurances at his three-hour-long meeting with Xi in Bali focused on guardrails rather than blue-sky thinking. The upcoming 2024 US presidential election and the election for Taiwan’s leader are also likely to politicize issues prone to upsetting the apple cart, though not necessarily resulting in war. I’m, therefore, not overoptimistic about a lasting breakthrough in US-China relations.

However, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development calculations, developing countries will account for nearly 60 percent of the world’s GDP on a purchasing-power parity basis by 2030. More are becoming confident enough to exert their national interests, individually or collectively, in defiance of hegemonic strong-arm tactics. OPEC’s recent refusal to expand oil production on the US’ say-so is a case in point. More are likely to have China as the largest trading partner and to welcome a more-inclusive world order not drawn on ideological lines, as espoused by Xi.

As the pandemic recedes and as its economy resumes running on all cylinders, China is likely to be on track to become the world’s largest economy in nominal terms, perhaps by the early 2030s, and a strong, more-advanced socialist economy by 2035 as planned, thanks to rising productivity (despite worsening demographics) driven by robotics and a digitized economy, technological innovation, high-speed-rail-connected supercharged urbanization, and a rapidly expanded middle class of some 800 million by 2035.

If China could manage to bust the West’s allegations concerning trade, intellectual property and human rights “transgressions”, Xi’s panoply of concrete ideas, initiatives and proposals for a global community of common destiny are likely to gain faster traction and momentum, regaining for China its rightful place in the sun as the “China Dream” of national renaissance is eventually realized.

China Will Protect Taiwan “At ANY Costs”

https://youtu.be/9tzlT0VPwpE

On The Failure Of The Ukrainian Counterattack

On June 4/5 the Ukrainian military launched its long announced counteroffensive in southeast Ukraine. Ten days later there is no significant progress.

biggerThis is not the outcome the war propagandists expected:

[General Petreus] spoke about the situation in Ukraine to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.On the counteroffensive, he said:

I think that this counteroffensive is going to be very impressive.

My sense is that they will achieve combined arms effects in other words, they will successfully carry out combined arms operations where you have engineers that are breaching the obstacles and diffusing the minefields and so forth; armour following right on through protected by infantry against anti-tank missiles; air defence keeping the Russians aircraft off them; electronic warfare jamming their radio networks; logistics right up behind them; artillery and mortars right out in front of them.

And most important of all … is that as the lead elements inevitably culminate after 72-96 hours, physically that’s about as far as you can go, and they’ll have taken losses … you have follow-on units that will push right on through and capitalise on the progress and maintain the momentum and I think that can get the entire Russian defence in that area moving, then I think you have other opportunities that will open up on the flanks as well.

Back in reality the lead elements of the Ukrainian attack got slaughtered. They ‘culminated’, i.e. lost their ability for further attacks, in less than a day:

The men of Ukraine’s 37th Brigade were freshly trained and armed with Western-supplied weapons, tasked with an initial push through Russian-occupied territory in the early days of a long-awaited counteroffensive.They would pay a heavy price.

Within 20 minutes of their June 5 advance south of Velyka Novosilka, in the southeast Donetsk region, mortars exploded all around them, soldiers said. A 30-year-old soldier known as Lumberjack saw two of the men in his vehicle bleeding heavily; one lost an arm as he cried out for his family. Lumberjack crawled into a crater, but the shrapnel from a mortar went through the soil and pierced his shoulder.

“We were left there in the field, without tanks or heavy armor,” said Lumberjack, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition that he be identified only by his call sign because he was not authorized to discuss the battle. “We were shelled with mortars from three sides. We couldn’t do anything.”

There were fewer than 50 men in the unit, he said, and 30 did not return — they were killed, wounded or captured by the enemy. Five of the unit’s armored vehicles were destroyed within the first hour.

Whoever trained those units made grave mistakes:

For the first hour and a half of the 37th’s assault near Velyka Novosilka, the Russians bombarded the unit with nonstop shelling that penetrated their AMX-10 RC armored vehicles, according to Grey, another soldier in the battalion who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his call sign. The armored vehicles, sometimes called “light tanks,” were not heavy enough to protect the soldiers, Grey said, and had to be positioned behind them instead of in front.

The AMX-10 isn’t a tank and can not be used as one. It is a wheeled light reconnaissance vehicle built by France 50 years ago to dominate insurgents in its former African colonies. One of its main features is to have a good speed when in reverse gear. This to bail out as soon as serious counter forces are detected.

The Ukrainian counterattack is now stuck in the Russian defense security zone, miles away from the real defense lines. This was predictable.

As the U.S. Field Manual 100-2-1 described the Soviet army in defense (pg 93ff):

When the defense is established before contact with the enemy, the Soviets establish a security echelon up to 15 kilometers forward of the main defensive area. The elements which make up the security echelon come from the division’s second echelon. A security force of up to battalion size may be deployed in front of each first echelon regiment.A detailed and coordinated fire plan is developed. Weapons are positioned so that the maximum amount of fire can be brought to bear directly in front of the [Forward Edge of the Battle Area]. Enemy penetrations are blunted by shifting artillery fire and by conducting counterattacks.

biggerThe Ukrainian army used at least four brigades for its attack. At least two of those were from the 12 brigade reserve that had been built up for the counterattack. With losses of some 30% those involved were seriously mauled for little to no gain:

The Russians are trying to inflict as many casualties and destroy as many vehicles as possible in a battle zone ahead of the main defensive line, depleting Ukrainian forces before they reach it. In effect, it turns the area in front of the main defense line into a kill zone.
…
If the Russian strategy proves effective, Ukraine could lose too many of its newly trained troops — which number in the tens of thousands — and too many tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to breach the main line.Even if they get that far, the forces might be too weakened to stream south and help accomplish a major objective: severing the so-called land bridge that connects Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula. This would be done by reaching the Sea of Azov, about 60 miles away.

The Ukrainian forces were obviously not trained for this. They also attacked in too many places. The map at the top shows attack arrows in 7 places and four main directions. One or two attack directions, with more concentrated forces, might have created better results.

The Russian President Putin recently described the Ukrainian casualties:

I will not give the number of personnel losses. I will let the Defence Ministry do it after it runs the numbers, but the structure of losses is unfavourable for them as well. What I mean to say is that of all personnel losses – and they are approaching a number that can be called catastrophic – the structure of these losses is unfavourable for them. Because as we know, losses can be sanitary or irretrievable. Usually, I am afraid I may be off a little, but irretrievable losses are around 25 percent, maximum 30 percent while their losses are almost 50/50. This is my first point.Second, if we look at irretrievable losses, clearly, the defending side suffers fewer losses, but this ratio of 1 to 10 is in our favour. Our losses are one-tenth of the losses of the Ukrainian forces.

Since the start of the counterattack the Russian daily report has listed a total of some 10,500 Ukrainian casualties.

A second large attempt to cross the Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA) with the remaining Ukrainian forces is expected, but is unlikely to have a better outcome. The long promoted Ukrainian counterattack is likely to end with high Ukrainian losses and no gains.

This then will soon become a huge political problem:

As he heads into next year’s reelection campaign, Biden needs a major battlefield victory to show that his unqualified support for Ukraine has burnished U.S. global leadership, reinvigorated a strong foreign policy with bipartisan support and demonstrated the prudent use of American military strength abroad.
…
A muddled outcome of limited gains in Ukraine would provide grist for all of those critiques and further cloud the already murky waters of NATO and European Union debate over future posture toward both Ukraine and Russia. A less than “overwhelming” success would probably also increase pressure in the West to push Kyiv to negotiate a territorial settlement that may not be to its liking.

There is little the Biden administration can do to change the grim picture. Congress will likely prevent it from openly using the U.S. military in Ukraine. The European NATO allies have now seen what the Russian army can do to its enemies. They will not be eager to see the same done to their own troops.

That leaves negotiations as the only way out.

The question for Russia is when and with whom. Talks with only Ukraine, a mere U.S. proxy with no real say, would be insufficient. It is the U.S. government that must agree to a new security architecture in Europe. The Russian conditions for peace will be harsh and it will still take a lot of time, and many dead Ukrainians, until the U.S. agrees to them.

Posted by b on June 16, 2023 at 14:47 UTC | Permalink

Chinese says 24 hypersonic anti-ship missile will sink #USSGeraldRFord carrier fleet

What are some of the reasons why China would never start a full-scale military conflict with the United States, even though they have a military advantage over us?

There are many reasons.

[1] China is a peaceful nation. It considers war to be the absolute result of failure to resolve differences. And, China, being a merit driven nation, avoid failure at all costs.

[2] China has no need to fight the United States. There is nothing the United States has that China wants. This aspect of reality is at odds with the American narrative, but seriously trade with the United States is trivial, and what ever technologies that remain in the United States is not exclusive. China has “work-arounds”. The idea that “China would collapse without the United States” is a trope that feeds a proportion of the most ignorant of Americans.

[3] China is doing quite well right now. There is no need to change the status quo one way or the other. China is content to leave things stay as they are.

Of course, these reasons are pretty basic.

There is ONE REASON why China actually WOULD start a full-scale military conflict with the United States. This is the one and only reason. That is if China is attacked.

To avoid being attacked, China has clearly explained to the United States what an attack entails. That way there is no ambiguity. China might be many things, but when it need to be blunt, it spells out its position clearly.

For those who cannot read Chinese, or cannot find the English versions, here is a quick summary…

Shooting, attacking, killing, wounding or harming China or the Chinese people.

I know, I know, that American neocons like Tom Cotton, and Mike Pompeo believe that this is a trivial and silly reason, and that China “would never” respond to an American attack with military force. But, aside from those ideological fanatics, China is quite clear that bombing Taiwan, shooting at Chinese vessels or planes (as of this writing) would result in catastrophic war.

China has also created clear “trip wires” that would automatically trigger a military action. These “trip wires” are often called “red lines”, and they function as a clear delineation of action for the PLA forces.

Supporting or assisting anti-Chinese terrorist and separatist actions.
Placement of offensive weapons inside of Taiwan.
Invading Chinese air space, land or operational regions.

Overall, the Chinese “trip wires” are identical to American versions. And for the longest time, a calm status quo has been maintained, but the 2022 collapse of the American society, and the raging incompetence of the American government has created a domestic need to acquire a scapegoat, and that has become China.

We can hope that the United States focuses inward on the multitude of domestic problems that are symptomatic of the ruins of American society, but my personal opinion is that it will take decades, and a major restructuring of the very structure of the United States government.

Meanwhile, China will continue to avoid conflict to the point whereas it must engage the United States militarily. And then, when this sad failure in diplomacy occurs, China will go VERY, VERY HOT militarily.

ONE FINAL NOTE

China has already ascertained that China and the United States are in a war. As such, China has already developed a Casus Belli in support of it. China has already made the necessary arrangements and have coordinated with Russia as well as numerous other nations) on how to prosecute this campaign.

Therefore, you can expect the United States to continue to “ratchet up the thermostat” as a prelude to war, but do not misunderstand.

China has already determined the time, the methodology, and the rules, and the mechanism in regards to this conflict. China will continue to ignore the insults and provocations until it is the proper time to enact and conduct war on its terms.

She wants YOU to pay for her extra airline seats

If China succeeds reversing their birth rate decline, will other countries follow suit and enact policies similar to China’s?

The problem with this line of thinking is 99 out of 100 countries won’t be able to follow in China’s footsteps.

China banned after-school tutoring overnight to equalize the playing field. Can other countries do it?

China eradicated extreme poverty by sending officials to the poorest villages to fight poverty on the finest granular level. In the final decade, more than 3 million officials were dispatched, with more than 1,800 cadres sacrificing their lives due to the difficult conditions. Can other countries afford that kind of extreme commitment?

China built 40,000km of HSR in 15 years, enough to circumnavigate the earth. That’s more high speed rail than the rest of the world managed in the last 60 years. Can other countries catch up with China’s rocket speed?

China, the second largest economy, handles 300m containers with a network of automated ports served ably by excellent road and rail. The United States, with a far longer coastline and access to two oceans, struggles with 50m. Can other countries play the Chinese shipping game?

Don’t try to emulate China. That is a road paved with tears and disappointment.

Southern Chili

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.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Young Girl Dies In Crash; Shown Afterlife And The Importance Of Thoughts (NDE)

Going into the rabbit hole as we explore the chronicles of the future

One thing that I do enjoy is the smell of pine. I used to live in Hattiesburg Mississippi and the pine forests were huge. During the Spring, if you were not careful, you would get one heck of an allergy attack, though. But pines are nice, and dare I say it, magical.

Of course, being a PA boy, I like hard-woods, but pines are easy to walk through and magical on snowy nights. It’s an exercise in white and black. Quite and experience. You all should try it some time. If you live in the Northern climes, please take the time to make your nights during Winter magical.

Take care everyone.

Todays…

Why is Bill Gates visiting China now?

Simple we’re meeting the real leaders of the USA.

What you thought your votes meant anything? The USA is a corporate dystopia owned and run for the mega corporations.

The president the government are simply going through the motions and most people can’t see through it.

China supports Palestinian people’s just cause of restoring legitimate national rights — Chinese FM

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki in Beijing on Tuesday.

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Al-Maliki is accompanying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on his state visit to China from June 13 to 16.

President Abbas is the first Arab head of state to be hosted by China this year, which speaks volumes about the special friendship between the two countries and China’s support for the just cause of Palestine, Qin said.

He said he believes the two heads of state will plan the future development of bilateral relations and advance the traditional friendship to a higher level.

China has always firmly supported the Palestinian people’s just cause of restoring their legitimate national rights and will continue to support peace talks between Palestine and Israel and contribute wisdom to resolving the Palestinian question, Qin said.

Al-Maliki said China is a trustworthy, reliable friend, and Palestine appreciates the proposals pushed forward by China’s head of state for resolving the Palestinian question.

He added Palestine follows the one-China policy and will continue to support China on issues concerning China’s core interests.

10 REAL Cases Of Time Travel That Cannot Be Explained

Interesting, but don’t get too caught up on this kind of stuff. Who knows how valid any of this is. All I know is that time is our own PERSONAL experience record. Time travel isn’t really something that can exist, but rather a hopping or jumping upon the template.

POLAND SAYS BORDER TROOPS “FIRED UPON FROM BELARUS”

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023

The government of Poland has just issued a statement claiming its Border Guards were “fired upon from the territory of Belarus.”

No further details have been released at this hour, 5:28 PM EDT. Check back for Updates.

What were wills that you do not see every day?

In June 1948, farmer Cecil George Harris accidentally put his tractor in reverse.

The tractor overturned, trapping Harris’ left leg under the rear wheel.

His wife didn’t find him until 10:30 that night, and he died at the hospital.

When neighbors investigated the accident scene days later, they found that Harris had carved an inscription into the tractor’s fender with his work knife.

main qimg 626b50d4768ccc251cecc8e8ae0d6633 lq

It read:

In case I die in this mess, I leave everything to my wife. Cecil Geo Harris.

The courts ruled that this was a valid will.

The fender was kept in the Kerrobert courthouse until 1996.

Today it and the knife are on display at the University of Saskatchewan Law Library.

This story reminds me of a Tuscan friend of mine who overturned his tractor and died.

Working a field with a tractor in mountains and hills is very difficult and dangerous, even though it looks easy to us who are just watching.

Lots of people die under a tractor every year.

Southern Pineapple Pound Cake

editedPineapplePoundCakjewithCreamChesseGlazeIMG 6164

Ingredients

8 eggs
2 cups Crisco
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Cream sugar and shortening.
Add eggs one at a time.
Add flour and salt gradually.
Stir in vanilla extract and pineapple.
Bake in a greased and floured tube pan at 350 degrees F for about 1 1/2 hours. Or bake in two greased and floured loaf pans for about 1 hour.

What is your opinion on the U.S.’s strategy to outcompete China?

It’s a pretty useless strategy. It’s failing badly.

It’s based on dirty tricks, typical Tonya Harding-style tactics.

The USA has no hope of restoring the semiconductor industry, nor general manufacturing, in the country. Labour is too expensive. The populace is too far behind in education. The populace is too fat and lazy. The population is shrinking, and for a population that is already a quarter the size of China’s, that’s a real problem.

The Amazing United States

President Biden – United States will build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean * this is something that even China cannot do Watch: * unable to compete with China, the Americans have turned “mental”

He Spent a Year in 3906 | This is what Paul Amadeus Dienach saw

This is very interesting.

The entire diary has been transcribed in a book titled “Chronicles from the Future”. There is all sorts of names, histories, places and stories worthy of review in the book. This you-tube video is simply just an overview. I am providing the full PDF of that book HERE for your reading pleasure.

A change in Mindset

The USA’s technology base is still the best in the world. Is that so, Mr. Zakaria?

According to a recent ASPI report, China leads the world in 37 out of 44 technological fields.

China has the finest infrastructure engineering in the world. That’s why it has spectacular bridges, high-speed rail, airports, seaports, dams, etc.

China is the world’s leader in green energy production, EV and battery production, thorium molten salt reactors, etc.

China has a spanking brand new space station, while the ISS is suffering leaks and is due to be decommissioned by 2030 with no replacement in sight.

China is the first and only nation to land on the far side of the moon.

China leads the world in 5G and 6G.

Despite US tech sanctions, China is rapidly creating its own semiconductor manufacturing chain with a number of major breakthroughs.

The USA is trying to spread good values? Perhaps that’s so but at what cost?

Over the past seven decades the USA has fought many dozens of wars and caused massive death and destruction everywhere (by some estimates, millions of civilian deaths). Is this worth the good values America is spreading? Please answer me, Mr. Zakaria.

Let’s be honest, the USA has no moral legitimacy.

The bad relation between Australia and China was Australia’s doing, sticking its nose into China’s domestic affairs.

India and China have had a long-standing border dispute. This can hardly be Xi Jinping’s fault. There’ve been border clashes for decades.

Vietnam and China still have positive economic relations, so I don’t know what Mr. Zakaria is talking about. Ditto for South Korea and China.

Moreover, China has vastly improved its relations with nearly every country in the Global South, including in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. What about BRICS, RCEP and SCO?

By contrast, the USA’s diplomatic relations around the world have fared far worse. US sanctions have driven a wedge between them. The USA alienated Saudi Arabia, esp. with the Khashoggi affair. When the USA went to Saudi Arabia pleading for increased oil production, Saudi Arabia dismissed them and did the exact opposite — cut oil production! Most of the world is massively de-dollarizing.

Why did China decide not to talk to the Americans? Consider this: for years, the USA has been demonizing China, sanctioning China, antagonizing China in Chinese waters, interfering in Taiwan, saying one thing and doing the exact opposite, and generally being a pain in the ass. Is it any wonder China is sick and tired of this crap?

The USA has proven itself to be duplicitous and dishonest. Is this a foundation for dialogue? Please answer me, Mr. Zakaria.

The USA needs to show China that it is willing to deal with China sincerely and consistently.

The choice between the US technology bloc and the Chinese technology bloc comes down to what each bloc has to offer. The US bloc offers military and security promises. The Chinese bloc offers peaceful economic promises.

If you have the mindset that says the world is after you and all is not safe, then the US bloc is the natural choice.

If you have the mindset that says the world can be peaceful through cooperation and common prosperity, then the Chinese bloc is the natural choice.

What is your mindset?

The United States returns to Africa BIG TIME

This is how the United States will counter China in Africa
AND ensure that America will reigned supreme into the next millennium

Watch speech by President Biden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zACN35LNO5Q

that is one incoherent incomprehensible mumbo jumbo

The Most Convincing Time Traveler Story

He ended up in a mental hospital…

Israel Just Smashed Themselves . . .

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023

Israel confirms it will give Ukraine 200 Merkerva Tanks.

Stabbed Russia right in the back.

7 Mind Bending TRUE Time Travel

What is a meal you cannot recreate, even if you tried?

When I was a kid, we rented a house in the country. We had access to wonderful locally produced food. Our landlord had two Guernsey cows as well as chickens. We bought from him amazing whole milk with a very high butterfat content. The milk was not homogenized. The eggs were from free range hens. My mother grew vegetables and berries in a large garden. It was apple country so apples were very reasonable. My aunt canned vegetables and pears from her garden and kept a few hens. The meals I ate could not be duplicated since many of the heirloom fruits and vegetables are no longer available. The number of free range Guernsey cows is quite low in the US (which has mostly Holsteins). Modern homes tend to treat hard water but we drank the pure well water.

Many of the meals my mother cooked could not be duplicated but I will use the example of breakfast. I drank a large glass of whole milk (from a cow I was fond of). The toast was made from my mother’s home made bread. The bread was made using unbleached flour and water from the well which was in a limestone aquifer. The butter was locally made. The jam was jarred by my aunt. The eggs came the from chickens we saw every day behind our house. My mother squeezed the orange juice herself. We did not have bacon often but when we did it was locally sourced. We even had country style entertainment at breakfast – just before we ate, my mother would feed the wild birds at the stone porch ledge outside our kitchen window. We always had a wide variety of birds to watch while we ate.

We ate high calorie meals but we were very active. The local farmers lived to ripe old ages and could heft big feed bags even when elderly.

I was very fond of foraging in my mother’s garden and ate a lot of vegetables right in the garden. I would go into the fields and eat sun warmed berries. We gathered our own beechnuts and hazelnuts.

My mother and aunt were both excellent cooks who rarely bought premade food.

UH OH! BANKS IN AUSTRALIA ANNOUNCE WITHDRAWAL LIMITS

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023

From August 20th 2023 Westpac Bank Australia customers will be prohibited from withdrawing more than $1000 from their accounts per day.

Other Banks will follow.

Access to your own cash . . . . SEVERELY LIMITED.

Still think Banking troubles are about a computer Virus?

Then, there’s THIS:

One needs only wonder why, if Australian Banks are owned mostly by U.S. financial firms, the people of Australia will be limited to their own money? Since it is U.S. Firms that __seem__ to be affecting withdrawal limits in Australia, then wouldn’t it be logical to believe they might try the same thing here in the US or over in Europe?

Forewarned is forearmed. Act accordingly.

Australia Approves Mandatory (Bill Gates) mRNA Vaccines for ALL Agriculture

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023

Australia has announced plans to inject Bill Gates’ mRNA vaccines into all livestock destined for people’s dinner plates.

According to reports, the Australian government plans to make the vaccine rollout mandatory for all animals, regardless of whether cattle farmers agree or not.

On May 2, 2023, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) announced funding for a project to ‘test mRNA vaccines that can be rapidly mass-produced in Australia in the event of a lumpy skin disease or other exotic disease outbreak’.

The Manager for Animal Wellbeing, released a statement declaring:

‘This project will develop a mRNA vaccine pipeline initially for LSD, but potentially for other emergency diseases. This will enable capacity for rapid mass production of a vaccine for LSD in the event of an outbreak. No LSD vaccines are registered for use in Australia yet. While some vaccines exist overseas, the path to registration in Australia for traditionally-produced [vaccines] is longer than that of an mRNA vaccine.’

Spectator.com.au reports: Why are traditional vaccines, which have safety records that outstrip mRNA vaccines, subject to longer approval periods than mRNA vaccines? That sounds like a significant structural failure within Australia’s health body that, instead of being fixed, has the potential to be exploited by manufacturers looking to cash in on mRNA.

mRNA vaccines are quick to produce and ‘nimble’, which is why pharmaceutical companies like them – but that doesn’t mean that they are safe, effective, or suitable for consumers whether those are humans or livestock.

A 2022 article in PubMed Central notes: ‘Recently, the successful application of mRNA vaccines against Covid has further validated the platform and opened the floodgates to mRNA vaccine’s potential in infectious disease prevention, especially in the veterinary field.’

Do you feel mRNA has been ‘validated’ over the last three years?

No doubt this is why we keep hearing bleatings of ‘emergency’ and ‘outbreak’ in the same breath as mRNA, as if to remind us of the mantra used during the Covid era to embark on what the former Health Minister referred to as the ‘largest clinical trial – the largest global vaccine trial ever’. Look how that turned out.

The fall-out of Covid mRNA vaccines is likely to continue for the best part of a century as a percentage of vaccinated individuals ‘die suddenly’ or suffer from long-term debilitating illnesses. These are quickly becoming a burden for the health industry and state finances after vaccine manufacturers hand-waved responsibility because it was an ‘emergency’. Most nations are setting up compensation pools of cash to cope with the growing list of individuals who claim to have been harmed.

Another excuse used to feather the nest of mRNA vaccines is that they are thought to provide the solution for influenza-style viruses which traditional vaccines have proven ineffective against. Everyone wants to see an effective vaccine against respiratory viruses, but it’s almost as if the doe-eyed vaccine industry has put on a blindfold for the last three years. mRNA Covid vaccines did next to nothing to combat or control the influenza-style Covid and do not, based on what we have seen, offer any advantage to traditional vaccines for this problem beyond the feel-good marketing headlines. There is a strong argument that for the majority of the population, they did more harm than good.

Instead of suspending all mRNA vaccines until we understand what went wrong, they are being given priority treatment by regulators and championed by manufacturers who love the competitive edge of speed their production offers. Governments, particularly the (broke?) Victorian state government, are funneling tens of millions into mRNA development to keep capitaliZing on the political popularity they enjoyed during the Covid era.

MLA note that mRNA vaccines should be ready for use within two years and while everyone is busy stressing that this will be a ‘voluntary’ option for the farming community, vaccines inside the agricultural industry rarely are if a producer wishes to sell their product into domestic and international markets. If we go down the mRNA vaccine production line, it is extremely likely that Australians will be eating mRNA-vaccinated livestock within a couple of years with very little understanding of what this will mean health-wise.

Anyone who criticiZes mRNA vaccines or their potential future within the agricultural industry are paraded through the press as ‘conspiracy theorists’ with publications quick to send out the fact-checkers to insist that it’s pure fear-mongering to suggest fragments of these vaccines will end up in the food chain.

Except, it was a ‘conspiracy theory’ to suggest that the human body would continue making Covid mRNA vaccines long after the injection, or to raise concerns that it would leave the site of the injection. Not only did the fears described as ‘conspiracy’ prove to be true, the behavior and side effects of Covid mRNA vaccines are reaching well beyond what anyone predicted.

How sure are we that in the rush to saturate the market with mRNA vaccines, that proper long-term testing will be conducted, particularly when it comes to lingering in meat and milk? Will it impact high-risk activities such as calving, given there is a strong suspicion that Covid vaccines are responsible for a spike in human miscarriages?

Keep in mind that we are still being told Covid vaccines are ‘safe and effective’. The Australian government, sitting on a pile of unwanted vaccines, is spending public money on marketing campaigns, encouraging Australians to go and get their booster shots at the same time other countries have removed Covid vaccines.

At least some States in the US are taking note, rushing to pass legislation to ban the use of mRNA vaccines for animals involved in the food industry whose meat or milk is produced for human consumption. Idaho is one example where it will be a misdemeanor to use mRNA vaccines – and that includes the Covid vaccines.

Australians need to be aware that mRNA vaccines are coming for the agricultural industry and they will likely be compulsory. America is having a serious conversation about whether this should be allowed, and Australia needs to do the same thing. It is perfectly reasonable to require extensive long-term safety data before we revolutioniZe agriculture.

This conversation will not happen on its own. Australia’s agricultural elite resemble a body of yes-men nodding furiously toward mRNA. Family farmers – disempowered, constrained, and demoraliZed – have no voice in this matter. Their wishes will be bulldozed by a small collection of billion-dollar farming entities, several of which are foreign-owned.

If Australians care about what they eat, it’s time to start making a racket. As for those of us in American and in Europe, it might be wise to STOP BUYING ALL AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS/MEATS, IMMEDIATELY.

Southern Peach Ice Cream

Ingredients

4 cups peeled, diced fresh peaches (about 8 small ripe peaches)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 (3.75 ounce) box vanilla instant pudding mix
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
4 cups Half-and-Half

Instructions

Combine peaches and sugar; let stand 1 hour.
Process peach mixture in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides.
Stir together evaporated milk and pudding mix in a large bowl; stir in peach puree, sweetened condensed milk and Half-and-Half.
Pour mixture into freezer container of a 4 quart hand-turned or electric freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Spoon into an airtight container, and freeze until firm.

Chinese FM holds phone talks with U.S. secretary of state on June 14. What did they talk about? What does this mean?

Let us compare their focus, shall we?

Qin: USA knows well who causes the difficult relationship between China & USA. Taiwan is China’s core among all core interests.

Blinken: USA & China must meet. (No main points)

Western media kept telling us that Blinken is going to China. Even has a date June 18.

But China maintains not to talk just for the sake of talking when USA never follows thru what it “promised” in meetings. It is a waste of time to talk empty.

This time US media said Blinken may meet 3 Chinese officials eg Qin Gang, Wang Yi & possibly Xi Jinping. (wow, Xi Jinping??? Right away we know it is exaggeration)

Like the Chinese “spy” balloon sage at the last minute of Blinken’s Chinese trip to China, this time there is suddenly a Chinese spy base in Cuba. Looks like USA is, again, preparing to say Blinken cancels the Chinese trip because of a spy base in Cuba.

Really, USA should learn that giving China pressure by fabricating a story wont get China to submit & meet US officials.

Treat China as a equal partner to USA. No more suppression. No more sanctions. No more LIES.

Today’s China is strong enough not to endure US “supremacy” any more.

Former NATO Chief Admits “We Decided Back in 2008, Ukraine WILL Become Member of NATO”

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023 Hits: 7447

Former NATO Chief Admits “We Decided Back in 2008, Ukraine WILL Become Member of NATO”

Folks who think the Russia-Ukraine conflict began on February 24, 2022 may be surprised to learn it’s been brewing since 2008. Former NATO Chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen admits in video below “We decided back in 2008, Ukraine WILL become a member of NATO.”

That decision caused today’s troubles.

In the video below, released by “Alliance of Democracies” which was founded by the former NATO Chief, Rasmussen speaks about the present Russia-Ukraine conflict and how NATO is trying to find a way to admit Ukraine even though it is presently at conflict with Russia!

Rasmussen points to the possibility that the US and NATO might give certain “Security Guarantees” to Ukraine BEFORE it is admitted to NATO. The Interviewer asks Rasmussen if such Security Guarantees might be worded similar to those between the US and Israel, and Rasmussen makes a STUNNING admission:

We don’t have to use that wording we can use the wording from 2008. “We decided in 2008 Ukraine WILL be admitted to NATO.”

At approximately 1m 57s into the video below, he makes that statement. Watch for yourself:

This is a stunning fact. This was not previously publicized, anywhere.

What this means is that the present troubles between Russia-Ukraine/NATO/US all began with that decision back in the year 2008.

From that decision, the US/NATO and the collective West, did what they thought necessary to lay the foundations TO DO EXACTLY WHAT THEY PROMISED RUSSIA THEY WOULD NOT DO.

Back in 1991, then US Secretary of State, James Baker, met with then-Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his then Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevrednadze in the Kremlin. It is noted in official US and UK documents that Baker, on orders from then US President George H.W. Bush, told Gobachev and Shevrednadze that if the then Soviet Union agreed to the re-unification of East and West Germany, “NATO will not move beyond the Elbe (River)” in East Germany.

Here is a snippet of the UK document, from the UK National Archive, outlining the facts:

ScreenShot Minutes Elba Meeting NATO Wont MoveEastOfElba

So NATO knew in 2008, that back in 1991, the US, UK, France, and Germany promised the then Soviet Union that NATO would **NOT** be expanded east of Germany and now we see above, straight from the horses mouth, that the very Chief of NATO back in 2008 agreed to admit Ukraine. He knew they were not supposed to do that, but they did it anyway.

The US, UK, France and Germany explicitly promised not to do that, and NATO went ahead and did it anyway starting in 2008.

That leads us to who was in charge back in 2008. In the US, George W. Bush (the son) was President.

Michael Hayden, a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Robert Gates, an American intelligence analyst and university president served as the twenty-second United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011.

Those are the men who needed to green-light such a move by NATO and, clearly, from Rasumussen’s admission in the video above, they must have actually done so.

Here we are, 15 or so years later, we are all on the verge of Nuclear World War 3 because of the decisions these men took in 2008.

Now, on several of my radio shows, I have wondered aloud if the people in our government are psychopaths based on the things they are doing which ARE leading us all into another World War?

The video above gives all of us a look into whether or not they actually ARE psychopaths.

When the Interviewer in the video above, asks Rasmussen “What will the Russians think about that (Giving security guarantees to Ukraine before it is admitted to NATO) Rasmussen replies “I don’t care.”

. . . and there . . . . right there . . . you now see the answer to whether or not these people are psychopaths.

We are facing nuclear World War 3 because of what men like Rasmussen did – and are still doing – and his response to the Interviewer is simply “I don’t care.”

With people like this, doing what’s being done, you and I seem to have no hope at all of avoiding nuclear world war 3.

Prepare as best you can with Emergency Food, Water, Medicine, a generator for electric, fuel for that generator, communications gear (CB/HAM Radio) and get right with God.

This Cat Table Gives Your Feline a Seat in the Table

Japanese online retailer Dinos has released a new line of cat furniture and part of their line-up includes this all-natural oak wood table.

With a perch underneath and a hole in the middle, it gives your feline friend a seat, right in the middle of the table. Expertly crafted with high-quality wood, the fashionable table is beautiful both with or without your kitty.

More: Dinos h/t: spoon&tamago

On 2023/6/2-4, in the 20th conference for world defense leaders, UAE announced that it has withdrawn from the US-led navy. Instead, UAE joins the Middle East navy alliance. What is Middle East navy alliance?

The Middle East navy alliance is formed by 8 countries: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, Pakistan & India. The job is to protect the waters in the gulf. Instead of asking USA for protection.

Iran navy spokesman said: we cannot find a legal reason to justify foreign (USA) navy to exist in Middle East. (I add) USA has no land, sea or air in Middle East. USA cannot “protect” gulf waters without invitation by ME. Middle East belongs to the peoples in Middle East.

Western media said UAE was not happy that US-led navy did not protect UAE well. Once a UAE oil tanker was said to have been detained, by Iran, western media said.

Then how to explain that UAE joins the Middle East navy alliance where Iran is in it?

The truth: after the Middle East reconciliation, ME countries compared notes. They found Iran did not detain UAE’s oil tanker. Who took UAE’s tanker? USA?

USA is like a gossiper who breaks up the friendship between people.

USA used threats to make others submit to USA.

ME was bullied by UK+USA. ME had no choice before. With the rise of China, & the help of Russia, ME rebels against USA. Simple.

In June 2023, Palestine representative visited China. Hope there is Palestine-Israel reconciliation in future. Israel+USA has turned Gaza into a hell. Violating lots of human rights. It breaks my heart.

US FedGov and NATO HQ Claims Under “Cyber-Attack” – Pro-Ukraine Group Promises to Blow-Up Kerch Strait Bridge within 36 Hours

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023

Several Agencies of the United States Government are saying publicly this hour (3:11 PM EDT) they are under “Cyber Attack.” NATO Headquarters in Brussels is also claiming to be under “Cyber-Attack” Meanwhile, pro-Ukraine groups are publicly promising to “Blow-Up” the Kerch Strait Bridge to harm Russia.

These are developing stories, check back.

UPDATE 4:04 PM EDT —

I was reminded of an unusual posting on Twitter from the Atlantic Council just ONE WEEK AGO, making clear a “Cyber Attack can trigger Article 5 collective Defense” as seen in the brief video below:

Interesting just one WEEK after the Atlantic Council reminds the world of this fact, lo and behold, there’s a cyber attack against NATO.

Gee, how convenient.

Maybe we should start a countdown or take bets to see how long it may be until they blame . . . . hmmmmmm . . . . who might they want to blame . . . . .

oh yes, RUSSIA!

This is so obvious it’s disgusting.

These people are treating the possibility of World War 3 as if it’s a game.

UPDATE 4:15 PM EDT —

Some people seem to be getting VERY carried away, but I am reporting this to you so you can see what’s already being spoken about on Social Media — it’s NOT good:

THIS IS SO OVER-THE-TOP I CANNOT BELIEVE ANY RATIONAL ENTITY WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY PUBLISHED SUCH A THING. YET, HERE IT IS.

This is precious

Why do Americans call the Chinese Communist government evil when it has lifted many people out of poverty?

To be more objective, rational, not all “Americans,” just a small group of them, especially the majority of those so-called “US elites” — including those in the political, military, financial, and media circles.

Not the vast in the trade and business circle — them with wide, deep and interwoven interests with China.

Not the vast in the education circle — basically they prefer more students from China, anyway, they equal to money to certain extent; also, most in the education circle still have some brain.

Not the vast of the ordinary Americans — they either would rather care less about anything China, or they personally have no those distaste towards Chinese government or the Chinese people.

Those Americans who really call the Chinese Communist government evil never really care about the human rights, wellbeings of other people, not even those citizens in their own country.

They only care about their own interests.

So, whoever “threatens” their already-possessed-interests, whoever blocks their way and becomes barriers for them to get more interests, is “evil.”

So, Chinese government has lifted some 800 million Chinese people out of extreme poverty in the past several decades? What’t their business?

But with more than a billion Chinese people uplifting their livelihoods, that means they need to consume more resources on the Earth. That would be “a miserable time” for “Australians and Americans,” as once said by Barack Obama.

Obama praises ‘smart but humble’ Rudd

So, isn’t the Chinese Communist government evil, by improving the over one billion Chinese people’s living standard? For us, it’s the realization of our China Dream, but for them, seems more like a nightmare.

China follows the political system of one-party-rule, with the other eight democratic parties providing consulations to its governance.

— How evil it is!

Because there leaves very very slim to no room for staging color revolutions in the country, especially on the Chinese mainland, where no “opposition party(ies)” for the US to infiltrate, and then to enstigate wide-spread anti-government protests, and hence be used as a weapon to shoot down the ruling administration!

But they never express it this way, they brand China as dictatorship, no election, no democracy! They are more than eager to “liberate” us Chinese people from the “tyranny,” and to force democracy onto us, even facts have spoken so loudly we are living a far better life nowadays without their “democracy.”

China “controls” its mass media, publications and also today’s online platforms.

— How evil it is!

Because there leaves very very slim to no room for the Western Mainstream Media to infiltrate into the mass media outlets, especially the state-owned media outlets here in China, but they still have achieved certain success, with spies infiltrated into even the highest level of state-owned media outlets. But on general, they can not control and manipulate the voices which should represent the Chinese people’s interests, as their louder speakers to demonize China, the Chinese government, the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese leadership as a whole and also as individuals — though they have been doing, are doing, and will continue to do all these outside China.

But anyway, the bulwalks are usually broken from within, no matter how strong they are. Now, with the “controlling” over the voices inside China by the Chinese government, we speak the same language, share the same vision, act in a unified manner, to build our country, our society, a better one, so the bulwark is strong enough as it should be. No possibility of being cracked by them into “a heap of loose sand,” so as to avoid being crushed one by one, with their philosophy of “divide and rule” — whether on regional powers or within a country with different parties/tribes/interest groups, etc.

But they never express it this way, they blame China for cencorship, they instigate that Chinese people are lack of freedom, they call Chinese living in an “Orwellian state”! But they would never shed even a drop of tear for the Chinese people once we live in a “free” world — like the then Russia immediate after the collapse of the Soviet Union, like the miserable Iraqis of today who are impacted by the US invasion, in the name of liberating the Iraqis and bringing democracy to the people there under the “dictator” Saddam Hussein……

China has most of its state assets “gripped” in the hands of the government, with a public system of — medical care, education, infrastructure, etc., or with its massive state-owned enterprises.

— How evil it is!

Because there leaves very very slim to no room for the Western capital to suck the Chinese blood like the leeches, or to even plough through the Chinese economic system and have a full control of the Chinese assets for their own interests, like what they have been parasiting on, exploiting and devouring many economies around the world.

But they never express it this way, they brand Chinese economy as “state-capitalism,” claiming Chinese economy not a free market economy, even though, it is the US who have listed more than one thousand Chinese companies, entities and individuals on its sanction list, while China is opening its arms as wide as it can, and welcoming CEOs and companies across the world to do business in and with China.

There are many other similar logic and similar cases.

In my opinion, whether a government is “evil” or not, we don’t necessarily need to listen to what the outsiders are trumpeting, we can see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears, feel with our own hearts, think with our own minds, experience with our own lives, whether the government has been serving the interests of the majority of its people, whether it has been delivering rather than shouting empty slogans and making empty promises, to its own citizens, as well as to the other peoples around the world.

As for what political system, what economic mode, what developmental road, etc., it takes, are all just tools serving the above goals and purposes.

We are living in a big enough world to accomodate various political systems, different economic modes and practical developmental roads.

And this, I believe, should be one of the key factors of a real democratic world.

Whenever I go to my favorite Chinese restaurant, I order pick-up. They’ll run my card and provide a receipt for me to sign. There’s a place for a tip, and they seem to expect a tip and act disappointed that I don’t. Am I wrong to not tip?

Let me preface my answer by first stating that I always leave an appropriate tip whenever I go to a restaurant and have a sit down meal that is served by a waitstaff. In the above case, however, this is going to be an unpopular and controversial answer but I stand by it.

My answer is “Absolutely not.” This is another example of “All participants get a trophy.” They are simply putting your items in a bag, ringing up the order and collecting your money. The same thing that happens in ANY retail store. Do you tip the Walmart cashier or the grocery store cashier? Of course not! This tipping nonsense for retail counter sales has really gone way too far. In fact, many times the “tip” section appears on your receipt is simply that the programmed computer simply does not differentiate as to how the food was purchased!

You have not been seated, no one brings your food to the table, no one cleans up after you. You bought an item at a retail counter and paid for it. If you were eating there and being served at your table (or counter) by a waitstaff it’s a different story.

That being said no one can tell you not to tip if you feel so inclined but do not feel obligated to do so.

Unexplained Mysteries That NEED Some Serious Explaining

More fun!

President of Czech Republic Calls for Russians in Europe to be put in Concentration Camps

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023

President Petr Pavel of the Czech Republic has gone on television and said Russian citizens throughout Europe should be rounded up and put in camps, as was done to the Japanese in the USA during WW2, because their country wages aggressive war!

How NAZI-esque of him! Just like Hitler did with the Jews!

Here’s the video:

If the little NAZI Gestapo leaders of Europe keep this up, the only thing it’s likely to do is to get their country steam-rolled by the Russian army like Ukraine. Except most of their countries are far smaller and with smaller military than Ukraine.

What are they going to do, call NATO? That’s a laugh. NATO is already running out of artillery shells from supplying Ukraine.

I’ve got to tell you, folks, this is getting scary; the willingness of these Politicians to do whatever it takes to actually START a World War, is terrifying to me.

When this is all over, I suspect the world is going to need Tribunals to put these politicians in front of, for fomenting a Third World War.

If such Tribunals are lawfully constituted and convened, these politicians from NATO countries should be tried, and if found guilty, the Tribunal should order them hung by their necks until they are dead.

De-dollarization: Bangladesh moves to settle $12bn Russian loan in Chinese yuan

Bangladesh has approved a payment of $318 million to a Russian nuclear power developer using the Chinese yuan, according to a Bangladeshi official, offering the latest instance of countries bypassing the U.S. dollar and using the Chinese currency to conduct international payments.

The decision to use the yuan was made at a meeting in the Bangladeshi Finance Ministry’s economic relations division on Thursday, Uttam Kumar Karmaker, who heads the ministry’s European affairs wing, told The Washington Post.

The decision resolves a payments deadlock between Bangladesh and Russia that has lasted for more than a year. The South Asian country has been unable to pay Russia for the power plant using dollars after Russia was banned from accessing the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) international money transfer system last year because of sanctions over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The transaction, a payment for a $12 billion loan Bangladesh obtained from Russia to develop a nuclear power plant in Rooppur, will now be completed instead using yuan via the Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), developed by the Chinese in 2015 to combat the dominance of the dollar in international trade.

A representative for Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp., the Russian contractor in charge of building the Rooppur nuclear power plant, confirmed the plan to use yuan for the loan repayment on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The Chinese online news outlet Sina reported Monday that a Bangladeshi official said that paying for the plant in yuan would be the most feasible option.

The majority of cross-border trade is denominated in dollars and flows through the U.S. banking system, which gives the United States the unique ability to impose sanctions on and freeze the assets of rival governments, such as Russia, Iran and Taliban-led Afghanistan. But critics of the sanctions accuse the U.S. government of “weaponizing” the greenback and undermining its global status.

The Bangladesh deal comes after several other countries signaled recently that they would opt for yuan payments to circumvent the need to use dollars. In March, Brazil said it would abandon the dollar for trade with China, a development that Chinese officials and state media celebrated as a step in the world’s gradual “de-dollarization” and the eventual collapse of American hegemony.

Putin: There Will No Longer BE a “Ukraine” – NATO Direct Intervention Will Not Change Outcome

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin made remarks in a TV interview Wednesday that make clear: There will be no negotiated settlement of Ukraine conflict, there will no longer BE a Ukraine, NATO intervention cannot change the outcome.

Explaining to a TV interviewer why Russia entered Ukraine, he pointed to Luhansk and Donetsk which were being pounded by Kiev Artillery and Mortar fire because those two Oblasts (states) wanted to secede from Ukraine like Crimea did. He told the Interviewer “We were forced to try to end the war that the West started in 2014 by force of arms.”

President Putin then went on with remarks that are utterly staggering. He said:

And Russia will end this war by force of arms, freeing the entire territory of the former Ukraine from the United States and Ukrainian Nazis.

There are no other options.

The Ukrainian army of the US and NATO will be defeated, no matter what new types of weapons it receives from the West.

The more weapons there are, the fewer Ukrainians and what used to be Ukraine will remain.

Direct intervention by NATO’s European armies will not change the outcome.

But in this case, the fire of war will engulf the whole of Europe.

It looks like the US is ready for that too.”

When Putin said “And Russia will end this war by force of arms . . . freeing the entire territory of the former Ukraine . . . there are no other options . . .” That makes clear there will be no negotiations. This conflict will end with the complete military defeat of Ukraine. But within that statement, Putin also mentioned “freeing the entire territory of the FORMER Ukraine . . .”

Whoa. The “former Ukraine.” Such words can only mean one thing: There will not BE a Ukraine anymore!

What other meaning can the words “the former Ukraine” mean?

Lest there be any question about there being “no Ukraine” anymore, in his very next sentence, President Putin made that explicitly clear. He went on to say “The more weapons there are, the fewer Ukrainians, and what USED TO BE UKRAINE will remain”

WHAM! “. . . and what USED TO BE UKRAINE . . . . ” There it is again. No more Ukraine. It won’t exist anymore!

He then got directly in the face of NATO by saying “The Ukrainian army of the US and NATO will be defeated, no matter what new types of weapons it receives from the West.”

Clearly, President Putin is signaling to the West that no matter what weaponry the West sends to Ukraine, Russia will win. Period. Full stop. So what does THAT tell you about the weaponry Russia is willing to use? Most rational people will understand it means whatever weaponry NEEDS to be used, i.e. nuclear.

But President Putin’s next words were most staggering. He went on to tell the Interviewer “Direct intervention by NATO’s European armies will not change the outcome.” What does THAT tell you? It tells most thinking people that Russia already KNOWS that NATO is going to intervene directly and that Russia is already prepared for such an eventuality. Folks, this means we’re going to actual World War 3!

President Putin made that explicitly clear when he also immediately added ” But in this case, the fire of war will engulf the whole of Europe.”

There it is. Plain as day. “The fire of war will engulf the whole of Europe.” World war.

Now, you’re probably wondering to yourself, “Why am I not hearing about this from the Mass Media?” Simple: The mass media doesn’t WANT you to know. They want you blissful and ignorant. So when all this DOES happen, you’ll be frightened and looking (to them) for answers.

And what will they tell you? Whatever propaganda the people who started this want told.

The folks in our U.S. Government are literally starting World War 3, it will likely go nuclear, and they want YOU kept fat, dumb, and happy.

Are you going to accommodate them, or are you going to step up and raise hell to maybe try to avoid what’s coming?

Whatever you choose, bear this in mind: Yesterday, the Ukraine legislature approved Child Military Training camps. Among the instructors are already experienced 16-year-olds who train 12-year-old recruits to fight.

Ukraine is now drafting and training 12 year old boys to fight for them.

What kind of monsters are these Ukrainian government people? Maybe it is better if Ukraine does NOT exist anymore.

Do all Chinese restaurants have “secret” menus?

If you are talking about the type of Chinese restaurants that cater primarily to the Chinese…

You need to bring a Chinese friend with you.

Often times, specials will be hand-written on a piece of paper and taped to the wall. The problem (for non-Chinese-speaking patrons) is that it is written in only Chinese.

I find that the more authentic Chinese restaurants make little effort to cater to their English-only speaking patrons. Why? Maybe that sector represents an insignificant part of their business. Maybe they are not proficient in translating and writing the English equivalent. It’s hard to say, for sure.

I’ll ask my girlfriend, “Hey, what does that sign say?”

Her: “Lobster Special: $9.99/lb.”
Me: “Hmmm. I don’t see that anywhere on the menu. Is it only available to Chinese?”
Her: “No comment.”

Why is the ASEAN alliance, along with BRICS abandoning the U.S. dollar like a sinking Titanic?

Lots of reasons for it.

I would like to share one of my perspectives, in a very simple way.

Previously, most people believed the US is the heaven on the Earth.

Everything related with the US was glorified.

Until former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”

People became sceptical, but still thought highly of the US, anyway, he talked just about intelligence, which is, somehow far away from our daily life, especially from our money bags.

But, with the Russia-Ukraine war, Russia, as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the second strongest military force with the most nuclear warheads in our world, also an ecomomic power (entered the top ten economies in the world for GDP in 2022 according to IMF, despite the war), its national assets, frozen or even threatened to be confiscated by US, as well as some of its allies; Russian citizens’ (mainly tycoons’) properties, frozen or even threatened to be confiscated, some actually being stolen; and Russia was kicked out of the SWIFT; Russia is now on the top of list with the most sanctioned entities, individuals in our human history, none of them can actually have any deal with US dollars.

Since now the US can “steal” money from Russia, actually, earlier, Afghanistan, and ongoing from Syria (oil and wheat, etc.)……who can guarantee it would not be the next one to be stolen?

And the best way to avoid such possibility is to turn away from US dollar, to reduce both the reliance and the holding rate of the US dollar. The less one has, the less could be “stolen” even if the day came.

US Dollar is a weapon, but double-edged, while it indeed hurt others, it can not spare the US itself as well.

There is an internet slang here in China, 不作死就不会死 (No Zuo, No Die), meaning, “You won’t die if you do not seek death. / You will not get into trouble if you do not seek trouble.”

A sinking Titanic is then its doomed fate.

Sincerely wish the US would learn from this lesson, and take a second and even a third thought before taking any actions against other countries now.

ALL would be boomeranged, just sooner or later.

Do all Chinese restaurants serve exactly the same dishes?

Exactly the same dishes.
Exactly the same menu.
Exactly the same cooks.
Exactly the same waiting staff.
Exactly the same chairs.
Exactly the same tables.
Exactly the same decor.
Exactly the same tea pots and tea cups too.
Exactly the same kid at the cash register who helps out his parents during the busy periods, and who, during the lulls, sits at exactly the same empty table doing exactly the same school homework.

So far, scientists have been unable to figure out how Chinese restaurants manage this incredible feat.
Some have posited that they all exist in a bubble universe, frozen at the same chronological point.

Explosion in Odessa so powerful, Registered as Earthquake

World Hal Turner 15 June 2023

Last night before Midnight eastern US time, an explosion took place in Odessa, Ukraine which was so large, it registered on earthquake seismographs in places as far away as Armenia!

Here is a seismograph image from a station in Kiev:

Whatever exploded took out all webcams and all internet connectivity in Odessa.

Below, another image from another earthquake sensor, this one located in Armenia. Same Odessa Explosion(s):

How come on Quora the Chinese expats never say anything negative about China? Is China a perfect country?

No, China is not a perfect country. There are no perfect countries. However, after reading so many negative comments about China on Quora and elsewhere, I feel the need to defend it. Most of the people I see criticizing China have never been there and are simply repeating racist, anti-Communist, or xenophobic lies. The truth, as always, is far more complicated and nuanced. I am an American, and I have found that, at least in the US, most people are not interested in the truth. Especially with covid, I am tired of hearing about the “China virus” or the “CCP”. I am sick of trying to discuss the reality of the situation, only to be called a “commie” or told to go back to China.

China is an amazing country. In many areas it puts the US to shame. However, half of America sees it as some comic book villain. I have watched my own country descend into fascism while claiming China is the bad guy. Even worse is the fact that my fellow Americans lap this up. I disagree with many things China does, but their government actually cares about their citizens. I can’t say that about my own government. If we ever get to the point where we can have an intelligent and fair discussion about China, then I can talk about both the negatives and the positives.

Southern Fried Chocolate Pies

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/3 cup cold water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold margarine
Vegetable oil*

* Use peanut or safflower oil or solid vegetable shortening for frying.

Instructions

Crust: sift flour and salt together; cut in the shortening with a pastry blender or 2 knifes, until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
Add ice water a little at a time while tossing with a fork, until dough holds together. Do not get too moist.
Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into circles about five inches in diameter.
Mix cocoa powder with the sugar. Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of this mixture onto one half of the circle and place 3 very thin slices of cold margarine on top. Fold opposite side over mixture and seal with a fork dipped in flour.
Pour oil to a depth of about 1/2 inch in a cast iron skillet. Heat over medium-high heat until very hot.
Place pies in a single layer in oil and fry, turning to brown each side.
Serve hot, warm, or cold.

How does the food in the Chinese restaurants in America differ from authentic Chinese food?

This is just my personal impression. Tastes in food are different for everyone.

American Chinese food has more exaggerated flavors at the expense of subtlety and diversity. There’s a long running joke about American Chinese food that it’s basically “sweet and sour everything”. American Chinese food is so salty (soy sauce) and so sweet to the point that these are the ONLY flavors you taste. There’s no subtlety, no layer of different flavors hitting your taste buds. And everything is over cooked. As a result, no matter what you order, you end up tasting the same mouthful of mushy sweet and salty whatever.

Cantonese food (粤菜) was the first school of cuisine to enter the US with the initial immigrants from south-east coastal regions. The food they brough over was not even the most high end Cantonese food, but rather street peasant food. Hearty, heavy flavored dishes that are filling, easy to prepare, and go well with rice. So for a lot of Americans, Chinese food is Dim Sum, small dishes coming with bamboo steamer containers. And most of them are salty and sweet tasting that, on top of that, you have your over salted fried noodles and fried rice.

And more recently, some more “sophisticated” diners had been introduced Sichuan food, which is super spicy.

Chinese food is so much more beyond Sweet and sour everything, Dim Sim in steamers and Spicy chicken. But Americans wouldn’t have it.

I’ve talked about my story about taking 3 days to make soup for my ex-boyfriend, who had dumped soy sauce in it before he even taste it. (see: Feifei Wang’s answer to What horrifies the Chinese?) At one point, I had the suspicion that American’s taste buds are numbed by all these high flavored food. I mean think about it, all your favorite American foods, fried chicken, pizza, BBQ ribs, Hamburger, Fries… all of them are high sodium, high sugar, high fat, high everything foods. It’s like you started with a 10 and had to bring it to a 15 to be happy.

I had once dined with a Japanese friend, who complained about how Americans add too much wasabi when eating sushi or sashimi. “You’re only supposed to add a little for flavor, it’s never supposed to be burning-your-eyes-out-hot”.

I get the feeling that other kind of food also get the same “bring it up to 20” treatment when they are forced to adapt to US tastes. I went to Italy in 2015, and their pizza tasted very different to American pizza, full of flavor and texture. I went to Cancun in 2016, and the taste was very different to American Mexican food.

I wish American food would have less sodium, sugar and fat, and more subtlety and diversity.

An Empty World, A Time Traveler, Another Dimension | Liminal Spaces: The Reality In-between

Fun to watch. Do not take too seriously… for now.

Liminal Spaces.

“He woke up in 2027, and there was no one anywhere.” This is actually super interesting, and I WILL discuss this later. Especially the guy who is being challenged by the television station.

Noclip is very interesting.

How do Chinese restaurants get their beef to be so tender? Like beef in black bean sauce or Mongolian beef etc. It almost falls apart in the mouth.

BEEEEEEEF!!!!!

I remember when my mom first taught me this as a kid. She told me that it was an “ancient Chinese secret” of some sort, that involves praying to the beef gods to make it all tender and that if I was good that day, it would be nice and tender when I sat down for dinner.

Little did I know that in order to turn the cheapest cuts of beef into this…

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that it took this…

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Corn Starch.

When the corn starch, ideally with a bit of soy or something along those lines, is mixed and coated over properly cut beef (I like to use flank steak personally), it breaks down the protein and makes it very tender and easy to cook.

You must have heard the term, “cut against the grain.” That’s the first important tip. When you’re cutting up the meat, take a look at how you’re cutting.

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See how it’s done? When you do cut it properly, the meat is much more tender already as it’s not structurally reinforcing its own integrity. Here’s a cross section of what it should look like when cut right.

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So when that’s done, just get a decent sized bowl, and mix a little soy sauce with the corn starch. Something like this…

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Mix it up, and this a good time to get down and dirty. I see so many videos and tutorials that say use a spoon or whatever. Honestly, just wash your hands well, and mix it by hand. You’ll be able to get the feeling if the meat is thoroughly covered easily and it should feel a bit slimy to the touch.

Give it then a couple of minutes to let it break down the meat. Some cooks like to put it in the fridge for an hour, but I find that 10–15 minutes is also pretty good in a jiffy, especially if the meat was sliced thin.

After that, the meat is ready for the stir-fry, and you’re ready to start cooking!

Oh, and before I forget, this works well with even the cheapest pieces of meat. No need for using pricey rib or porterhouse steaks and prime rib. Flank steak will do quite nicely.

This does wonders for chicken breast and thinly sliced pork loin as well.
Several commentators have told me that what I called “mom’s ancient Chinese secret” is a method called “Velveting”. Thanks to all who told me about the right term!
Baking soda works, and thanks to all who have mentioned it. The only reason why I don’t use it and don’t talk about it is that if it’s not rinsed off properly, you get an incredibly unpleasant chemical taste.
For every single person that’s said “corn starch” doesn’t work, then it’s probably the combination of the starch, soy and the cut all in one, especially the soy with the high salt content and the cut, which I cover. For heaven’s sake, stop griping about it and actually TRY THIS METHOD. It actually WORKS.

Blinken’s imaginary journeys – here’s what should happen

LOL. A most entertaining event when you expose their silly games.

Time to enjoy the lost pies of Summer

One of my great “little” pleasures is a nice cup of good coffee and a fine pie. In the United States, this is a staple of American Diners. You just cannot get this at Fast Food or Chain restaurants.

You go in. Sit up at the counter, and ask the waitress if they have any pies, and if so, what would they recommend. I have long ago discovered that the best pie is a Southern Sweet potato pie. Most especially with a scoop of vanilla (French) ice cream on the top.

Today, for reasons that elude me, I am “hankering” for a nice pie.

Ah. I cannot get one. But many of youse guys can. Please have a great bite of pie and think of me!

Best Pies in Texas: Flying Saucer Pie Company | Worth the Wait

Foreign firms cast wise votes of confidence in China’s economy

China’s economy has shifted from high-speed growth to high-quality development. The enormous opportunities created by this shift have retained China’s position as a top destination for foreign investment.

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Citing the latest economic data such as the purchasing managers’ index, some Western media reports recently cast doubt on China’s economic growth prospects. But this is just a repetition of their habitual pessimistic tone. Foreign firms continue to cast votes of confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.

Despite various challenges, the Chinese economy has followed an unwavering trend of sustained recovery. Furthermore, China has maintained a leading position in main economic indicators among major economies this year. The World Bank lifted China’s economic growth expectation to 5.6 percent in its Global Economic Prospects report released on Tuesday.

The huge market and resilience of the Chinese economy are still proving to be cardiotonic to foreign companies’ confidence in China. A large number of international business tycoons including the leaders of Tesla, Starbucks, Alstom and Volkswagen have visited China to seek cooperation opportunities.

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, praised China’s vitality and potential, voiced confidence in the Chinese market, and expressed his willingness to deepen cooperation during his visit to the country last week.

These renowned enterprises are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to foreign companies’ willingness to continue to invest in China. A total of 11,000 new foreign-invested companies were established in China in the first quarter of 2023, a 7.6-percent increase year on year, the State Administration for Market Regulation said.

Last month, U.S. Consumer News and Business Channel quoted Procter &Gamble, Starbucks, and other U.S. companies as saying that Chinese consumers’ increased travel and leisure spending had helped these companies improve their overall sales. The report also noted that with a large population base and a growing middle class, China is a desirable market for multinationals.

The sound prospects of China’s huge market, the resilience of its economy, and the mature industry chain of the global factory, combine to offer ample reasons for international firms to cast votes of confidence in China’s economy.

Another reason is that China is gradually becoming a source of global innovation. Volkswagen inked an investment agreement of around 1 billion euros (about 1.07 billion U.S. dollars) in April to build a research and development, innovation, and procurement center in east China, while Tesla’s energy-storage product factory is scheduled to break ground in Shanghai this year.

These facts speak for themselves and illustrate clearly that China remains a popular destination for foreign investment. China always welcomes foreign companies to access its market and benefit from its development dividends. Certainly, China’s economy will continue to be a major driver of global growth.

The True value of Pie

Happy Π day, guys. Have some pictures of pie. If you choose to combine the two to judge the total volume of leftover slices in any of these photos, feel free.

But I’d say the true value went into the fun of choosing a recipe, fiddling with the ingredients and “design”, sharing them with friends and family and, of course, eating them.

Choosing a recipe: traditional? international? savory? sweet? seasonal?

Designing the pie: Patterned pastry? Display the ingredients? Or create a zombie binary? (I’ll leave that example to my brother)

Sharing: make two, probably. Leave one at home, or take both so the recipient can keep one to themselves and share the other?

Easy as Pie

A good pie starts with a good crust – I stick to the basics for traditional pastry: 1:3 proportion of shortening to flour, with just enough water to hold them together. A single crust pie is 1/3 cup shortening, 1 cup flour.

I mix with my hands so I can tell when the texture is right and the #1 trick is to keep the shortening cold and the water icy so it doesn’t mix too much and get gummy and touch. Other methods include grated frozen butter – a rich dough my brother is partial to – or using a food processor to cut in the fat to the flour. Some people even make oil crusts, though I can’t say I have.

Back to the Basics

I’m a big fan of traditional dessert pies – apple, pumpkin, humble pie. Humble pie is not merely a metaphor for having to publicly display that you know you were wrong – an unpleasant sensation – it is also a on old-fashioned concoction of strawberries and rhubarb. Which is, to me, an entirely delicious sensation that always says spring is truly here, since we can grab both from our garden if we wish.

Pie Presents

Pie comes in so many flavors, but seem tied to scent and visual memories more than cake for many of our friends. I’ve made pies for graduation presents because I wanted to bring in some good memories from family celebrations past or for birthday presents to bring back memories of a favorite local bakery:

Thanksgiving Pies

You can’t do Thanksgiving in our house without at least two kinds of traditional pies, though our traditions are likely to include homemade Concord Grape Pie, not one you’ll find in many bakeries or cookbooks.

International Pies

You’re more likely to find meat pies when you explore beyond the basics of American cuisine, though of course they’re very traditional in the UK. The Italian meat pie below is more of an American invention, layering spinach and ricotta with meat sauce, tomatoes, and cheese. Bisteeya is a Moroccan version of Chicken pie that is hardly recognizable compared to our common types – and completely delicious.

Custom Variations

The credit for the most visually interesting pies on this list goes to my brother, who was feeling inspired for a friend’s Halloween party one year:

Although I made the traditional apple pie while listening/watching a season or so of Walking Dead and then it appears the zombies manifested in the pie itself in the next apple one.

Cherry Pie

Of all the pies in the world, Cherry Pie tops the list as one of the easiest pies to make, and I’m excited to share the simple, delicious recipe with you all!

How to make Cherry Pie:

If using fresh cherries:

Pit and halve the cherries. Add them to a saucepan with sugar and lemon juice and toss to combine. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until juices are released. Use a slotted spoon to spoon cherries out into a bowl. Spoon some of the sauce into a cup and stir in the cornstarch until dissolved. Return to pot with remaining juices and cook for a few minutes until sauce has thickened. Pour over cherries and set aside while you prepare the pie crust.

If using canned cherries:

Drain the juice from the cans of cherries into a saucepan, reserving ⅓ cup in a small bowl. Set the cherries aside.
Add cornstarch to the bowl with the reserved ⅓ cup of juice and stir well to combine.

Heat the saucepan (that has the juice in it) over medium heat. Add the sugar and stir well. Bring mixture to a low boil. Stir in dissolved cornstarch mixture. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in butter and lemon juice. Fold in the cherries. Add a few drops of red food coloring, if desired.
Allow mixture to cool to room temperature while you prepare the pie crusts.

Line pie plate with pie crust and cherry pie filling into it. If desired, cut the top crust into wide strips to lay a lattice crust on the pie, or place the whole, uncut pie crust over the filling and poke a hole in the top for steam to release as the pie bakes. (Here’s a lattice top tutorial if you’ve never made one on a pie.)
Pinch the edges of the top and bottom pie crusts together and crimp the edge, if you like. Brush a thin layer of beaten egg white over the top of the pie crust and sprinkle the crust pieces lightly with granulated sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 40-45 minutes.

Summary

Instructions

If using fresh cherries:

Pit and halve the cherries. Add them to a saucepan with sugar and lemon juice and toss to combine. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until juices are released. Use a slotted spoon to spoon cherries out into a bowl. Spoon some of the sauce into a cup and stir in the cornstarch until smooth. Return to pot with remaining juices and cook for a few minutes until thickened. Pour over cherries and set aside while you prepare the pie crust.

If using canned cherries:

Drain the juice from the cans of cherries into a saucepan, reserving ⅓ cup in a small bowl. Set the cherries aside. Add cornstarch to the bowl with the reserved ⅓ cup of juice and stir well to combine.
Heat the saucepan (that has the juice in it) over medium heat. Add the sugar and stir well. Bring mixture to a low boil. Stir in dissolved cornstarch mixture. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in butter and lemon juice. Fold in the cherries. Add a few drops of red food coloring, if desired.
Allow mixture to cool to room temperature while you prepare the pie crusts.

Prepare Pie:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Set aside a 9” pie pan. (If using canned cherries, there will be enough filling for a deep dish pie dish).
Remove one chilled pie crust dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured counter, roll out your dough to about 12” in diameter. Gently place in the bottom of pie dish. Spoon the cherry filling into the unbaked crust and sprinkle a little cinnamon over the filling. (If using fresh cherries, add a few small pieces of butter on top).
Remove the second pie crust from the fridge and roll it out in a similar manner. Use a pizza cutter, knife or pastry wheel to cut the crust into long strips, about 1/2” wide. Lay strips over the crust in a lattice pattern. (If you’re lazy, like me, you can just lay half of the strips going one direction, and the others on top, going perpendicular, leaving a small space between each.)
Pinch the edges of the top and bottom pie crusts together and crimp the edge, if you like. Brush a thin layer of beaten egg white over the top of the pie crust and sprinkle some granulated sugar on top.
Bake at 400 degrees F for about 40-45 minutes. Check after about 25 minutes and gently place a piece of tinfoil over the top crust to keep it from getting too brown.
Remove to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool for several hours. Once cooled completely you can cut and serve it, or cover it and refrigerate it overnight to serve the next day.
Leftover cherry pie will last up to 5 days, stored in the fridge.

Notes

Make ahead Instructions: The cherry pie filling and pie crust can both be made a few days in advance, stored in the fridge until ready to use.

Freezing Instructions: Cover the baked and cooled cherry pie tightly and frozen for 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. The prepared cherry pie filling and pie crust can also be frozen, stored separately.

Some Tips for perfect cherry pie:

Should you use Sweet or Sour Cherries for cherry pie? Sour, tart cherries (sometimes called “pie” cherries) are most commonly used in desserts like cherry pie. If using sweet cherries, decrease the sugar in this recipe by at least ⅓ cup.

Use a homemade pie crust! For pies like this that bake for longer in the oven, a homemade pie crust will make a difference in how the crust holds up as it bakes.

Most store-bought pie crusts are super thin and flimsy so the edges brown and dry out more quickly when baking. (Store-bought crusts work better for custard or pudding type of pie that only requires a pre-baked pie shell).

The good news, is my favorite pie crust recipe can be made weeks or even months in advance so that your pie dough is ready to “roll” (pun intended 🙂 ) when you need it!

Make ahead Instructions:

Both the cherry pie filling and pie crust can be made a few days in advance, stored in the fridge until ready to use.

Freezing Instructions:

Baked and cooled cherry pie can be covered tightly and frozen for 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. The prepared cherry pie filling and pie crust can also be frozen, stored separately.

What is the largest, most populated city no one has ever heard of? What is it called and where is it located?

Globally, chances are you have not heard of this city. It is called Chongqing, which is quite possibly what John Bolton also calls every single Chinese city when he is drunk, but if the characters were reversed I wouldn’t even be allowed to say the name of the city.

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Either way, the municipal area of Chongqing, had no less than 32 million people living there in 2020, with 22 million living in the urban area, compared to 19 million living in the New York City urban area.

Chongqing is however quite large, so despite downtown Chongqing obviously being very densely populated, the actually total density of the city is just around 400 people per km2.

So indeed, a regional city in China that most people haven’t heard of is larger than NYC in most ways, and likely more cities in China will follow this path soon.

Craftsman Michael Plichta Created this Incredible Globe of Planet Mars

Look, we all have seen a globe on more than a few occasions. Recently we got a look at the art of globe making, which was certainly interesting. Today however, the typical globe gets reworked into something unique and quite amazing by Michael Plichta. This unique and rather eye-catching design is artist, eye-catching and one of a kind, rocking a 12-inch Mars globe showing the famous mars canal map by Percival Lowell.

During a debate comparing Chinese and Western systems of governance, held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by the American nonprofit educational organization Intercollegiate Studies Institute on April 5, French entrepreneur and Internet influencer Arnaud Bertrand made a case for the suitability of China’s system for promoting the flourishing of its people.

Edited excerpts of his presentation follow:

One unstated idea that derives from comparisons between political systems is that models compete against each other and, if one is indeed better, it has the potential to take over the world.

I don’t believe this to be true at all. Take the Chinese model for example. It applies uniquely and only to China. It is the product of China’s very long and unique history, and it also fits the very particular economic and geopolitical context China is in today, but doesn’t fit or pretend to fit other countries.

As former U.S. National Intelligence Officer for East Asia Paul Heer said, “China is trying to pursue multipolarity and international legitimacy for their system, not impose it on other countries.” Similarly, Stephen Walt, a legendary professor of international relations from Harvard University, said “China explicitly embraces the idea that each country should determine for itself how it wants to be governed. The U.S., by contrast, loves to lecture others on how they should govern themselves and keeps trying to get other countries to embrace our liberal values.” Or again Henry Kissinger, who writes in his famous book On China that China never espoused the American notion of universalism to spread its values around the world.

Therefore, rather than comparing which system would be universally better for all, it makes more sense to look at which is better for their own people.

On freedom

We’ve progressively come to have a rather skewed understanding of freedom in the West, where we equate freedom with individual freedom, when it’s actually very much not the same thing. When you have a broader understanding of freedom as we used to have in the past, it becomes quite obvious that China might not in fact be the unfree place most people in the West picture it as, and vice versa: The West might not be quite so free.

A prominent example of this is China’s war on poverty. Unarguably an immense success: the largest and fastest reduction in poverty the world has ever seen. Even China’s biggest detractors agree with this.

The fact is that the extreme poverty has, by and large, been totally eradicated in China. I’ve traveled all over China, and the results are obvious. Can anyone genuinely make the case this made people less free, that they were freer when they were poor? Of course not, poverty is the antithesis of freedom. When you live in poverty, you’re quite literally a slave to your condition.

In contrast, there is a lot of poverty in countries like France and the U.S. You go to certain areas of Paris and you see hundreds of tents of homeless people. Any one of you can go to China today, travel all around the country and it’s extremely unlikely you’ll see homeless people on street.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 20.03 million people lived in deep poverty in 2021. Those in deep poverty represented 6.2 percent of the total population and 48.4 percent of those in poverty. Among them, a larger percentage of children under 18 live in deep poverty than adults in any age group. As defined by the bureau, “deep poverty” refers to living in a household with a total cash income below 50 percent of the national poverty threshold.

A recent study from the Urban Institute also revealed that, in 2022, a total of 25 percent of U.S. adults experienced food insecurity, meaning they sometimes can’t afford to eat. In France we’re at 14 percent of the population living under the poverty threshold. Can we genuinely say that those people are really free?

Many have forgotten this but Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941 gave a so-called Four Freedoms speech in which he defined “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear” as two of the four freedoms America ought to achieve. He, too, recognized poverty alleviation was fundamental to freedom.

On the subject of “freedom from fear,” ask yourself a simple question: Do people feel free to walk alone anywhere in America at any time of the day or night? Do people have this freedom?

This freedom, by and large, does exist in China. The statistics are absolutely incredible: You’re 70 times more likely to be victim of a violent crime in the U.S. than you are in China. This is anecdotal, but in my seven years in China, not only have I never been a witness or victim of any crime but I’ve never had anyone in my acquaintance who was. It is a very, very safe country. This freedom from fear does exist.

The biggest form of freedom, a freedom that Charles de Gaulle, former French President, used to describe as the precondition for all other freedoms, is your independence as a country, your collective freedom to determine your own future.

Can anyone argue that when you’re a so-called “vassal state” or when you’re in a larger state’s so-called “sphere of influence,” you’re really free? Anyone can see that’s not quite true.

America isn’t of course anyone’s vassal state, quite the contrary in fact. But there is something that limits America’s freedom in that regard: its system of alliances. America is in many, many alliances: NATO, AUKUS, the Five Eyes, with Japan and so on and so forth. And of course this, too, limits your freedom of action since, on paper at least, you are committed to certain actions even if they might not be in your interest at that point in time. As we’ve painfully learned from World War I, alliances can be incredibly constraining and destructive.

China is unarguably the freest country in the world in this regard, as it cannot be even remotely considered as being any country’s vassal state and it just doesn’t do military alliances—it doesn’t have any. In fact, many argue that it’s precisely this independence that’s driving the current attempt to contain China. This high level of sovereignty allows China to focus on internal development and to maintain its freedom of action on the international stage.

On stability and prosperity

China is arguably the oldest continuous civilization in the history of humankind. If that’s not stability, I’m not sure what is.

Most surveys done on the Chinese population, even by Western institutions, show that the Chinese population is extraordinarily united and aligned in how they view their system. For instance, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School conducted a 13-year-long study interrogating the Chinese population, which they summarized in a 2020 report entitled Understanding CPC (Communist Party of China) Resilience. Their conclusion is, I quote: There is little evidence to support the idea that the CPC is losing legitimacy in the eyes of its people. In fact, the survey found that 93 percent of people in China are satisfied with the Chinese Central Government.

The U.S. and Europe is, of course, a vastly different story. Satisfaction rates with public institutions are, as we all know, at all times low almost everywhere in the West. For instance, in the U.S., public trust in government went from more than 70 percent in the 1960s to a mere 20 percent today. In France, only 28 percent of citizens trust their public institutions. When you ask Americans, an extraordinary 43 percent believe civil war is likely within the next 10 years.

If we talk per-capita GDP or salary levels then obviously the average Chinese citizen is still less prosperous than their Western counterparts. They also obviously started their modern economic development from a much lower base, and much more recently, so the comparison isn’t quite fair.

The right way of looking at it, I believe, is therefore to look at the approach China is taking to make its citizens prosperous vs. the approach the West is taking, and which one is more likely to achieve sustainable prosperity over the long run.

China has spent close to 14 trillion yuan ($2 trillion) of all types of funding dedicated to lifting people out of poverty, roughly what the U.S. spent in the past 20 years in its post-September 11 wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan. This is quite illustrative of the different priorities of the two nations and how they impact prosperity.

To conclude, the Chinese system, with its emphasis on collective freedom, long-term stability, and unwavering investment in itself, has demonstrated its ability to provide a more holistic approach to societal wellbeing. While the American and European systems have their merits, it is the Chinese system’s unique blend of these attributes that ensures its citizens can enjoy greater overall stability, prosperity and freedom.

Giant Handmade Meatball Pies, Sold Out 200 Pies A Day!! – Korean Street Food

https://youtu.be/9orMPDg-hIs

Hackers promise to destroy Europe’s banking system in the next 48 hours.

World Hal Turner 14 June 2023

URGENT! Several computer Hacker groups, with a long track record of highly effective and devastating computer attacks, have announced “the strongest cyberattack in history” to bring down European Banks within the next 48 Hours.

Several hacker groups are allegedly planning to carry out a large-scale computer attack on the European banking system. As it became known to the

Hacktivists of “Killnet” along with representatives of “Revil” – which was long-considered defeated, as well as members of “Anonymous” say they have joined together to achieve this goal.

Put simply, Russian hackers have declared war on European banks.

According to sources who have seen it, a not yet published promo video dedicated to this attack has already been made. In the video itself, an unnamed representative of “Killnet” allegedly called on all active groups to engage in destructive activities against the European banking system.

“This is not a DDoS attack, the games are over. No money — no weapons — no Kiev regime” — this formula will work,” the masked man promised.

The leader of “Killnet” hiding under the nickname “Killmilk”, confirmed that preparations for the attack are already underway. It is expected to begin in the next 48 hours.

Cyberattack could be the largest in history

The representative of “Revil,” in turn, stated that “the world has gone crazy”, and the reason for this, in his opinion, was money. He also stated that it is the European banking system that governs the EU.

“No money, no problem. Revil is sufficiently familiar with the European financial infrastructure,” the representative of the group threatened.

A member of Anonymous also noted that European financial institutions will witness “the strongest cyberattack in the recent history of the world.” He urged them to be ready for the coming blow, and also stated that when it is struck, “it will be too late to fix anything.”

“Many European banks will be targeted, and we will strike without mercy,” concluded the representative of Anonymous.

VERY CONVENIENT FOR KLAUS SCHWAB AND THE W.E.F.

Klaus Schwab, leader of the World Economic Forum (WEF) has long warned, and recently reiterated, that some type of monstrous, worldwide cyber-attack, would cripple the civilized world, and would be more devastating than an actual war.

Isn’t a a bit convenient for him, that suddenly, these alleged “Hackers” announce “the biggest cyber attack in history?”

MORE:

Didn’t the United States adopt an official public policy that a Cyber Attack could be met with a military response?

That’s even MORE applicable here . . . look WHO is allegdly announcing this: “Russian” Hackers.

Oh, gee whiz, how convenient. NATO is all deployed for their Air Defender 2023 “Exercise” in Europe, and just itching to get involved in the Russia-Ukraine war on the side of Ukraine.

Right on cue, “Russian” Hackers announce a major attacking on the European Banking System while all those NATO troops and planes are deployed right near Ukraine!

If this cyber attack DOES take place, and it DOES take out European banks, NATO might just use that as the basis to claim they have been “attacked” (by Russia, of course) and wham, Article 5 of the NATO Treaty gets invoked, the NATO troops enter Ukraine, and the Russian nuclear missiles fly.

This is all a little too convenient for my tastes.

STILL MORE . . .

Today being Wednesday, 48 hours puts us all at FRIDAY.

Several years ago, weren’t we all warned by various other people, that before TPTB crash the system, the world would suddenly get word about some cyber attack problems with banks? Didn’t that years-ago warning tell us the attacks would start late in a week, explode on a FRIDAY, taking out the banks for potentially weeks?

Gee, how convenient that today’s announcement by Hackers fits all those details almost perfectly!

Folks, this _____ COULD _____ be the WEF/TPTB doing this. One would have to have his head in the sand not to see it.

You know the drill: Get some CASH MONEY from the bank – top live on . . . NOT TO PAY BILLS.

If these people do what they are saying, it is entirely ____POSSIBLE____ that bank ATM/DEBIT/CREDIT cards may go offline. And as Europe goes, so goes America as all the banks are connected worldwide.

So don’t panic — plan.

Remember, fuel up your vehicles, have food, water, medicines, and some cash to live on. For food, not for Bills. The Bills can wait if the choice is survival.

UPDATE 8:25 PM EDT —

I found someone on social media who has put up a copy of the Video announcement mentioned above:

Peach Cobbler Supreme

Ingredients

About 8 cups sliced fresh peaches
2 cups granulated sugar
2-4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup butter
Any pastry for a double-crust pie

Instructions

Combine first 4 ingredients in a Dutch oven; set aside until syrup forms.
Bring peach mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cook for 10 minutes or until tender.
Remove from heat; add almond extract and butter, stirring until butter melts.
Roll half of pastry to 1/8-inch thickness on lightly floured surface, and cut into an 8-inch square.
Spoon half of peaches into a lightly buttered 8-inch square baking dish; top with pastry square.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 14 minutes or until lightly browned.
Spoon remaining peaches over baked pastry square.
Roll out remaining pastry, and cut into 1-inch strips to arrange in lattice design over peaches.
Continue to bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until browned.

U.S. B1-b “Lancer” Nuclear Bombers over Germany as Russian Tactical Nukes ARRIVE in Belarus

World Hal Turner 14 June 2023

Two United States Air Force B-1b “Lancer” nuclear bombers are flying in German air space this morning. One took off from RAF Fairfield in the UK and joined another for a flight near (but not into) Ukraine air space. This comes as Russian Tactical nuclear bombs are being delivered into Belarus for storage by Russia.

At about 2:00 AM eastern US time, one B-1-b took off from the UK to go to Germany:

The aircraft started Squawking over England.

Then, it went on-station over North Sea.

It later moved to on-station over southern Germany.

Now, on-station over northern Germany.

These nuclear bomber aircraft from the U.S. Air Force are flying as Russian Tactical-Nuclear Bombs and Missiles have begun to arrive at Storage and Deployment Sites in Belarus.

UPDATE 12:19 PM EDT —

Both B1-b Lancers headed toward the Black Sea . . . . AND . . . . upon going out over the Black Sea, BOTH planes switched OFF their transponders!!!

Total Stealth mode.

Africa STUNNER! Ditching U.S. dollar for trade Kenyan President’s Announcement Shakes Global Economy

Another Year in China

Was 2022 the biggest year ever?

Godfree Roberts

Jun 15, 2023

During a visit in 2022, Xi transformed the once-fractious Middle East into a community united around a shared vision. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, the Arab League, Palestine and Lebanon signed thirty-four agreements, among them: KSA can order missiles, helicopters and air defense weapons with a phone call, and no approval necessary; the region will harmonize its plans with the BRI; Huawei will install $30 billion of telecom gear; China will build a $1 trillion regional hub of 21st century industries; Egypt will get a satellite factory; China and the region will unite to liberate Palestine and protect Syria.

Apart from that..

Inflation stayed flat at 2.2%
Power generation rose 8%
SOE revenues grew twice as fast as GDP.
48 million kids began kindergarten
4.7 million kids earned STEM degrees
Chinese universities surpassed American in the Top 500
British researchers chose China over US
China led in the top 1% of scientific papers
110 cities had 1 Gbps networks (the US has 0)
China built four exascale computers
Quantum secure smartphones came on the market
Mao’s old co-ops sold $1 trillion of food
Half of Chinese farms are cooperatives
Xi spanked Justin Trudeau on camera
Serious crime fell 30% since 2012
B-2 bombers left Guam, F-15s left Okinawa
82% supported Dynamic Covid Zero
Putin serenaded Xi Jinping at the piano
The 1000-mile Grand Canal filled with water end to end.

Southern Crusty Coconut Pie

Ingredients

1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cups shredded coconut
1/4 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell

Instructions

Pour milk over coconut and set aside while creaming butter and sugar together.
Add eggs to creamed mixture and beat well.
Add milk, coconut and vanilla extract.
Pour into an unbaked pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until pie is golden brown and firm.

Yield: 6 – 8 servings

This recipe may be doubled to make two pies.

Astroturfing For More War In Ukraine

Fellaraktar🇺🇦@fellaraktar – 14:46 UTC · May 29, 2023As a British citizen I want to say that arming Ukraine is the single best use of tax payer money for decades

My only criticism is that the west aren’t sending enough, fast enough

Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of their sons and daughters

Do more now

—

Karen Goetz📯🇺🇦 @KarenGoetz362 – 22:18 UTC · May 29, 2023As a German citizen I want to say that arming #Ukraine is the single best use of tax payer money for decades. My only criticism is that the west aren’t sending enough, fast enough. Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of their sons and daughters. Do more now!

—

Oksanna Oricia (Оксана Збігла) 🇺🇦🇨🇦 @Roxanne_Oricia – 1:46 UTC · May 30, 2023As a 🇺🇦 #Canadian I want to say that arming #Ukraine is the single best use of taxpayer money in decades.

My only criticism is that the west isn’t sending enough, FAST enough.

Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of their sons & daughters.
#ArmUkraineNow ✊🏼

—

Thomas C. Theiner @noclador – 4:57 UTC · May 30, 2023As an Italian citizen I want to say that arming Ukraine is the single best use of taxpayer money for decades.
My only criticism is that the west aren’t sending enough, fast enough.
Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of their sons and daughters.
Do more now!

—

brit engr 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇦 @brit_engr – 8:15 UTC · May 30, 2023As a British citizen, I want to say that arming Ukraine is the single best use of taxpayer money for decades.
My only criticism is that the West aren’t sending enough, fast enough.
Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of their sons and daughters.
Do more now!

—

bitiv @bitiv30 – 9:29 UTC · May 30, 2023As a #Romanian citizen, I want to say that arming #Ukraine is the single best use of taxpayer money for decades. My only criticism is that the West isn’t sending enough, fast enough. Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of its sons and daughters. Do more now!

—

Anne @KidsFromUkraine 🌷❤🌻 @AnneFella – 17:03 UTC · May 30, 2023As a 🇳🇱#Dutch citizen I want to say that arming #Ukraine is the single best use of taxpayer money in decades. My only criticism is that the west isn’t sending enough, FAST enough. Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of their sons & daughters. #ArmUkraineNow

—

Thibaud Ochem @Thibaud_Ochem – 18:51 UTC · May 30, 2023As a 🇫🇷 citizen I want to say that arming #Ukraine is the single best use of taxpayer money 4 decades. My only criticism is that the West isn’t sending enough, fast enough.🇺🇦is paying 4 political posturing with the lives of their sons & daughters. Do more now! #weapons4Ukraine

—

MH @Mickhavoc – 1:14 UTC · May 31, 2023As a Canadian citizen I want to say that arming #Ukraine is the single best use of taxpayer money for decades. My only criticism is that the west aren’t sending enough, fast enough. Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of their sons and daughters. Do more now

—

Bogdan Stech @BogdanStech – 22:07 UTC · May 31, 2023As a #Poland citizen, I want to say that arming #Ukraine is the single best use of taxpayer money for decades. My only criticism is that the West isn’t sending enough, fast enough. Ukraine is paying for political posturing with the lives of its sons and daughters.

—Well, by now you will have understood the idea …

There are many more such tweets.

In total I count more than one hundred by various NAFO troll accounts. All the tweets were issued between May 29 and June 6.

This is astroturfing on a fairly sophisticated level:

Astroturfing is the practice of hiding the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source’s financial backers. The term astroturfing is derived from AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to resemble natural grass, as a play on the word “grassroots”. The implication behind the use of the term is that instead of a “true” or “natural” grassroots effort behind the activity in question, there is a “fake” or “artificial” appearance of support.

I wonder whose taxpayer money gets wasted on it.

Yesterday the Russian President Vladimir Putin had a public talk with war correspondents. Yekaterina Agranovich, a blogger, asked him about ‘western’ propaganda and the people deceived by it. Putin responded:

The information space is a battlefield, a crucial battlefield.So, if someone uploads or writes something and provides an address, this is one thing. However, if there is no address and it is not clear who is writing or speaking, this is a completely different story. You and I are well aware that you can post things online using well-known technical means, and you can make it look like millions of people have seen these videos and commented on them when in fact there is just one person behind it who simply uses modern technology to replicate it endlessly. But, of course, there certainly are people who have a certain frame of mind, and they can express their point of view.

What can we do to oppose this? I think this audience will know what I mean. This can and should be countered not so much by restrictions or administrative or law enforcement constraints, but by effective work in the information environment on our part. And I am really counting on your help.

Well, he did not talk to me. And no, I do not post at Moon of Alabama to help Russia or Putin, but to lay things out as I see them. If that is at times consistent with whatever this or that other public person says, it is likely to be a coincidental and temporary state.

—

Hat tip: Syriacide

Posted by b on June 14, 2023 at 13:20 UTC | Permalink

Luna: Bring the Moon Along with You

What beats looking up at a large, illuminated, full moon? Well now, thanks to this brilliant creation known as the Luna Moon Lantern. This dope and rather eye-catching design lets you have that large illumination any time, giving us something quite contagious and rather unique. The design boasts a construction of glass fiber and non-toxic latex.

The Luna Moon Lantern offers up a brilliant and beautiful way to add light to your life, and certainly adds an eye-catching and artistic appeal to any room in which it’s placed. The design comes in seven different sizes, ranging from the XXS 3.2-inch ball to the XXL 23.6-inches.

We find a cord and a device that will allow you to adjust its glow. Check out the eye-catching new design in the images below and speak your mind on it after the jump. Looking to add this to your home or office, head over here right now!

Chinese FM Qin Gang holds phone talks with Antony Blinken

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang had a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 14 at the latter’s request, clarifying China’s firm stance on core concerns such as the Taiwan question, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Qin pointed out that since the beginning of the year, China-US relations have faced new difficulties and challenges, and the responsibility is clear. China has always viewed and handled China-US relations following the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Qin clarified China’s firm stance on core concerns such as the Taiwan question, emphasizing that [1] the US should respect it, [2] stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and [3] stop harming China’s sovereign security and development interests in the name of competition.

The Chinese diplomat said he hopes that [4] the US will take practical actions to implement the important consensus reached between the two heads of state at the G20 Bali meeting. As well as [5] the relevant commitments made by the US, move toward China, [6] effectively manage differences, [7] promote exchanges and cooperation, and [8] get China-US relations back on track to healthy and stable development.

Washington continued hyping China-related topics ahead of a reported trip by Blinken to China as the Biden administration said it has “taken diplomatic steps” that slowed China’s intelligence presence overseas following its recent hype over an alleged “Cuba spy base.” The latest US move was criticized by China on Tuesday as “taking the same page” of the US’ playbook.

Why does France want to join BRICS (June 2023)?

This is perhaps the biggest news of the Summer of 2023.

Taken together with previous trends we see some very interesting developments on the Geo-political stage.

A mere two months ago, Macron STUNNED the world when he arrived in China. He surprised everyone when he arrived with hundreds of trade representatives to cut deals with China.

This might not seem like much, but se made a very vocal, and public display of standing up against the United States. While the Untied States (and NATO) were expecting him to “toe the line” and regurgitate the (mindless manta) of “support Ukraine”, “sanction Russia”, “obey the USA or else”, and put pressure on China. Instead, he did the exact opposite, he supported, approved of, and embraced China.

And what can you expect?

The United States was infuriated, the raging up and down Washington DC was legendary.

So of course, the “police dogs” (used to keep the proxy nations in line with Washington dictates) began their disruptions, protests, and assaults. CIA operatives inside of France began their disruptions; their protests, and their threats of “color revolution”…

He didn’t care.

Instead he cut so many deals (with China) that the world was left a spinning. The sheer scope and size was unlike anything anyone expected.

Selling over 160 aircraft to China.
Joint ventures galore, and many new (BIG) factories to open up in Face to provide hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Allowing China to operate it’s Navy and use French bases on the third island chain! (Talk about “throwing a bucket of ice water” on the American neocons)

And so much more.

…

Nervous Chinese see the good and the threats of all this, but over all, the message is clear.

France is considering leaving the G7 and joining BRICS++. And if it is successful, the “rules based American order” is about to shrink in chunks and bumpy stages. We are (you and I) watching in real-time the repudiation of the American world order, the American USD, and the American LGBQ+ culture.

And France wants a seat at the table.

France, and Africa (both which are French speaking lands) are embracing a multi-polar world as equal partners and turning their collective backs to the shit-show; clown march of collapsed American society, and the massive crime syndicate that it represents.

Oh sure, there are many steps from here to there, and the United States is going to do everything to stop Micron before it’s too late. But as it stands now, France is waving the flag and is will to arrive in the embrace of a new world order.

One where France has a major seat at the table, instead of moldy American table scraps on the floor.

Rustic Southern Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet Potato Pie vs Pumpkin Pie

Sweet potato pies have a very similar taste and texture to pumpkin pie, but I prefer sweet potato pie. Typically a pie made with sweet potato is a little lighter in texture and sweeter with less spice and I think sweet potato pies are more buttery.

Ask any southerner and they will tell you that sweet potato pie is greatly superior to pumpkin pie.

Ingredients

Filling

2 large yams
2 large sweet potatoes
2 cups sugar
1 stick butter (melted)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter

Dough

3 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

Egg Wash

1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Instructions

Filling: In a large pot, boil yams and potatoes for about one hour or until tender.
Drain water and let potatoes cool.
When cool enough to handle, peel skins off and place yams and potatoes in a ricer or potato masher.
In a bowl, combine yams and potatoes, sugar, melted butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and vanilla extract. Mix well.
Dough: Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a small saucepan, heat the butter until it turns golden brown. When done, it should have a nutty-like aroma.
Remove from heat and let cool.
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar, mixing well.
In another bowl, whisk together olive oil, vanilla extract, milk and melted butter.
Pour into the flour mixture and mix with a fork. Dough should hold together. If too crumbly, add ice water, a tablespoon at a time.
Cover and let sit for about a half an hour.
Assemble: On a floured surface, roll out dough to fit a 14-inch round or rectangular baking pan. Place dough on pan.
Spoon filling into the center of the dough, leaving about a 1 1/2-inch border. Gently fold the sides of the dough up and over some of the filling.
Egg Wash: Mix the egg and tablespoon of milk together with a fork.
Coat the bread with egg wash using a pasty brush.
Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

A reality like no other

The repairs on the underlying foundation of our reality universe are about all patched up. Actually, it’s like a map of “rail road tracks” that are embedded in a kind of sticky quantum clay that lies under the template forms.

The instigators were trying to hoe rows into the clay like substance so that the tracks would be followed in great grand circles of many sizes and shapes and configurations.

But the Oompaloomas are just smoothing and polishing away, and the behavior tracks are really smoothed out. Its a good thing. But it will take some time before the templates react to the changes.

In other words, things are good. No worries.

Herman’s Words Of Wisdom | The Munsters

Hillary Clinton Rushed by Ambulance to Emergency Room

Nation Hal Turner 12 June 2023

3:59 PM EDT — Within the past hour, Hillary Clinton, wife of President Bill Clinton, was taken by ambulance from their home in Chappaqua, NY, to a nearby hospital emergency room.

Sources report that Hillary “was fine one minute, and in serious difficulty the next minute.” No other details about the sudden and debilitating situation were made available.

Fighting stuck in gray zone. Neocon escalation, tactical nukes

Have you ever bought something at a garage sale that turned out to be unexpectedly awesome?

I have indeed. I bought a non-running “fake” Rolex at an estate sale. The owner had died approx. a month prior and his kids (who clearly had no interest in being there – they were just trying to avoid a bill from a scrap disposal company) were selling off his possessions and personal effects. I asked about it. “It’s a fake, doesn’t work, two bucks”.

It wasn’t a fake – it was a 1972 Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date (Ref. 1500) with a sunburst grey dial. It simply needed a service and I had it back up and running again in under 4 hours – it kept great time, less than +/- 4 sec. a day. I did have to replace the acrylic crystal as it had a chipped edge, but I had spares in my stock. Being a small watch (34mm), it didn’t suit my wrist so I gave it to my nephew for his high school graduation gift. Should have heard his friends: “Dude, Ben’s uncle gave him a Rolex for graduation!”

These sell in similar condition for around $2500 – $3000 on the used market. Looks like this:

main qimg c0c2a77a0747235053ac0661379ca836

US Tech Giant Crushed in China, No More Arrogance After Micron’s Defeat!

https://youtu.be/DyVuJWOR6Uc

How DOES one fight China at all?

China has it all: Nukes, HUGE manufacturing capability, A huge Air force and Army and even IF one defeats China, it'll be a loss because if anything happens to China, the world economy will be practically dead. How do you fight China at all?

This is a very good question.

You are right. Fighting China is committing suicide. China is always 3 steps ahead of its adversaries and they cannot be hurt more than them.

Look at Donald Trump’s trade war with China. China wins hands down and the U.S. suffers till today. From 2017–2022 collectively China grew 26.5% while the U.S. grew 6.5%! The U.S. imports of Chinese goods actually grew higher than before the war.

Half a million Americans migrated into the the homeless category and up to 50 million people moved from middle class to the poor category. The life expectancy of China exceeded the U.S. for the very first time in 2021 and repeated the feat in 2022!

Trump would have still be president if not for this trade war. The poor who suffered higher prices resulting from the tariffs voted overwhelmingly against him. While China handled the Covid-19 effectively keeping deaths below 10K the U.S. lost more than a million lives. China opened up at perfectly the right moment when the virus strain has become docile and weak. The U.S. freedom of individualism is greater than collective good of the society hurt them terribly.

China is the biggest consumer by far. Chinese middle class alone is 700 million. And Chinese growth alone is 36.4 share of the world. US and G7 combined adds up to a mere 24.6%. China now represents 30% of world demand but what is more scary 30% of all things made for the world U.S. made in China. So when you fight with China you are cutting off at least 50% of sales opportunities world wide.

Chinese are ready for you if you dare try to attack China. It has a thousand surprises waiting for you. It has now the biggest army, it has more planes, ships and tanks. And it makes the most modern drones and they have 100 times more than the U.S. So crawl back to Beijing and talk politely like what Blinken is trying to do.

Don’t fight China. Work out a plan to be a good partner with China. China is not spoiling for a fight , US is, but China is absolutely ready. You destroy a 1000 homes in China they will destroy the same number of homes in the U.S. you kill a million Chinese they will kill a million Americans in the U.S.

The Beverly Hillbillies⚡️Granny Learns to Drive

https://youtu.be/hqNFFiw90x8

Southern Karo Syrup Chicken

Ingredients

1 broiler-fryer chicken
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup Karo corn syrup
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

Cut up chicken.
In skillet over medium heat, cook chicken in butter about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain off fat.
Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook over medium heat, turning often, for 5 to 10 minutes or until glazed.

WKRP Dr. Johnny Fever Awakens From The Dead

What do you think of the Chinese college entrance examination requiring memorization of 32 classical Chinese essays and 40 poems?

I was born and grew up in Taiwan. In my days, the standard education required that a student memorize more than the amount you mentioned before the time of college entrance exam. Looking back, I see this as both necessary and a blessing. Not unlike classics in other cultures, the Chinese classics is not something you peruse on an as-needed basis the way you consult Wikipedia, but something that has to be internalized and regurgitated in your subconsciousness hundreds of times over decades until it is integrated into your foundation. If you miss the opportunity of learning it by rote at a young age, you lose the chance of having it become a part of your personal makeup, and will at best have a casual and superficial connection to it. From the perspective of a culture, this would not be acceptable. I believe China is not unique in this.

This is especially true with poetry. We memorized a large amount of classic poetry, cream of the crop, early on. They sounded beautiful, but didn’t really speak to me for a long time. It would be much later, at unexpected instants when I ran into them again, and suddenly everything clicked, every word carried power I did not know existed. The experiences were so transformative that I clearly remember the exact settings in which they happened, where I was, what I was doing, who were around, etc. Such experiences would not have been possible if I had not rote-learned these poems a decade earlier as a youngster.

Having said that, as I have mentioned elsewhere on Quora, I must say that all these efforts to instill the Chinese classics into standard learning are a desperate attempt to save an endangered, if not extinct creature. The form of the traditional Chinese culture is preserved by doing this, but it is not clear if the essence, or the spirit, is still identifiable through such efforts. The traditional, self-contained and self-consistent Chinese system could be extremely efficient, creative, harmonious and powerful when it hummed like a well oiled machine. Our only, but indisputable, evidence of this are hundreds of powerful characters it was able to generate, capable of accomplishing impossible feats in the face of insurmountable challenge and adversity. But that self-contained and self-consistent system is no longer known to us. We no longer know how it looked or felt. The best we have now is the system of rote learning as documented in texts, which was far from the real thing.

But it is still much better than nothing at all. It could be worse.

Blind dates haven’t changed in 50 years

Beijing, Wellington to push for pragmatic cooperation

Beijing expressed its willingness to maintain high-level exchanges with Wellington and to enhance mutual trust and bilateral pragmatic cooperation as New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced on Monday that he would visit China at the end of June.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin did not confirm the date of Hipkins’ visit, but told reporters to “stay tuned” for further information.

Hipkins said he would lead a major trade delegation to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, which will be the first visit by a New Zealand prime minister to China since COVID-19.

Relations with China are among New Zealand’s “most significant, wide-ranging and complex” bilateral ties, The New Zealand Herald quoted Hipkins as saying. “We have a robust, ongoing dialogue with China,” he said.

Calling China and New Zealand “important cooperation partners”, Wang said he expects the two nations to achieve greater progress in bilateral relations and bring more benefit to the two peoples.

China is the largest trading partner, export market and source of imports for New Zealand. In 2022, bilateral trade volume in goods reached $25.15 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.8 percent, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Journalist visas with India

In another development, the Foreign Ministry spokesman urged India to meet China halfway regarding arrangements for journalists.

“Media outlets are important bridges for mutual understanding and friendly relations. China stands ready to maintain communication with India under the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. We hope India will work in the same direction with China,” Wang said.

Since 2020, India has refused to review and approve Chinese journalists’ visa applications, and limited the period of validity of visas held by Chinese journalists in India to only three months or even a month. Some Chinese journalists waited as long as three years for their visas, according to Wang.

As a result, the number of Chinese journalists stationed in India has plummeted from 14 to just one, he said.

The Indian side still has not agreed to renew the visa of the last Chinese journalist in the country. For Indian media outlets, four have been stationed in China in recent years and one is still working and living in China, Wang said.

“China has treated Indian journalists as friends and like family. We have communicated with the Indian side with restraint and goodwill. Regrettably, India has yet to take any action to address the problem,” he said.

The spokesman urged India to “scrap undue restrictions on Chinese journalists”, and effectively review and approve their visas as soon as possible, in order “to create conditions for resuming normal exchanges between Chinese and Indian media”.

MOMOLAND – BBOOM BBOOM

What does U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken think about Chinese diplomats’ negotiation skills?

Antony (the idiot) Blinkin?

2023 06 13 16 01

Who the fuck cares what this train-wreck thinks? I mean, I could somehow give him some deference, but getting to be Secretary of States through butt-fucking isn’t high on my idea of achievement awards. The only thing that he brings to the table is an almost magical ability to fuck things up in spades. I mean when you spell disaster, you spell it B-L-I-N-K-I-N.

But, so much for his good points.

It’s common knowledge that he learned geography and Geo-politics by reading the instructions on the back of the free LGBQ+ condoms handed out to the homeless. And his opinions of others is difficult to gauge, as he doesn’t recognize that anyone else in the world exists. He’s me-me-me-me all the time, with no consideration of the thoughts, needs or feelings of others.

A perfect example of his exclusivity of penis wagging is his first meeting in Anchorage, Alaska with the Chinese diplomatic staff. His opening words were nothing short of acute diarrhea, vomited out with a speed of ill-mannered excess that astounded even the murders on death row have stayed in shock by.

It does not matter what this over-grown pustule of human feces thinks.

The Chinese diplomatic corps are giants compared tho this sniveling and breathing abomination. He is incapable of any form of communication. He only knows how to piss on the carpet and shit in his diaper. His ability to be butt-fucked may be legendary, but is useless on the grand scheme of things.

But I will say ONE good this about this festering, sniveling, pile of pestilence.

He hasn’t YET got the United States and China in a nuclear war. But, give him time. He’s one walking cluster-fuck if there ever was one.

Biden Is ‘In Denial’ Over Collapse Of Empire – Economist Richard Wolff

Southern Pan-Fried Chicken

A country ham (such as a “Smithfield” ham) is salt-cured, smoked and aged well. Whole country hams are expensive; it is possible, however, to buy country ham steaks. But you may also substitute thick-cut, smoked, streaky bacon for the ham in this recipe.

2023 06 13 15 28

Ingredients

2 quarts cold water
1/2 cup kosher salt (regular table salt will make the brine too salty)
1 (3 pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 quart buttermilk
1 pound lard
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup country ham pieces, or 1 thick slice country ham, cut into 1/2-inch strips (see note)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Combine the water and the salt, stirring until salt is dissolved.
Place the chicken pieces in a bowl and pour the salt water over.
Cover and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
Drain the chicken and rinse out the bowl it was brined in.
Return the chicken to the bowl, pour the buttermilk over and cover and refrigerate 8-12 hours.
Drain the chicken on a wire rack, discarding the buttermilk.
Meanwhile, prepare the fat for frying: put the lard, butter and country ham into a heavy skillet or frying pan. Cook over low heat for 30-45 minutes, skimming as needed, until the butter ceases to throw off foam and the ham is browned.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the ham carefully from the fat. (Reserve the fried ham for another use, such as snacking.)
Just before frying, increase the temperature to medium-high and heat the fat to 335 degrees F.
Blend together the flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl or on wax paper.
Dredge the drained chicken pieces thoroughly in the flour mixture, then pat well to remove any excess flour.
Slip some of the chicken pieces, skin-side-down, into the heated fat. Do not overcrowd the pan; fry in batches, if necessary. Cook for 8-10 minutes on each side, until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through.
Drain thoroughly on a wire rack or on crumpled (not flat) paper towels. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

WKRP Venus’ 1st Day

Did Russia Destroy The Nova Kakhova Dam?

Propaganda will tell you that Russia detonated the Nova Kakhova Dam which was and is under its control. It thereby allegedly cut of Crimea from its major water supply and endangered the cooling of the six reactors of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The island as well as the power plant are under firm Russian control.

Well, so you can believe that. Or you can look for some facts hidden behind such ‘news’.

Battles Rage as Ukraine Tries to Retake Russian-Occupied Territory – New York Times – June 9, 2023

Experts say the dam, which was held by Russian forces, was probably destroyed by an intentional explosion within the massive structure. They say an explosion from the outside, like a missile strike, or a structural failure caused by earlier war damage and high water spilling over the top, were conceivable causes but far less likely.

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Ukraine Claims More Small Advances in Counteroffensive, but No Breakthroughs – New York Times – June 12, 2023

Engineering and munitions experts have said that the dam was probably breached by an explosion from the inside, not by shelling or other external attacks, and not by a structural failure.

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Britain has delivered long-range ‘Storm Shadow’ cruise missiles to Ukraine ahead of expected counteroffensive, sources say – CNN – May 12, 2023

The United Kingdom has delivered multiple “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles to Ukraine, giving the nation a new long-range strike capability in advance of a highly anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces, multiple senior Western officials told CNN.

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Storm Shadow – Wikipedia

The Storm Shadow’s BROACH warhead features an initial penetrating charge to clear soil or enter a bunker, then a variable delay fuze to control detonation of the main warhead. Intended targets are command, control and communications centres; airfields; ports and power stations; ammunition management and storage facilities; surface ships and submarines in port; bridges and other high value strategic targets.

“Two stage warhead punctures external shell, then detonates inside target”

ssss

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Storm Shadown – Federation of American Scientists

When engaging hard targets, such as Hardened Aircraft Shelters or bunkers, the missile will strike the target at the estimated optimum dive angle, selected during mission planning. On impact the detonation sequence commences. The precursor charge will perforate the target structure, and any soil covering, and the follow through penetrator warhead will continue to penetrate inside the target to be detonated after a preselectable fuse delay.

Posted by b at 5:30 UTC | Comments (12)

“This is the 2nd phase of UFO disclosure” – Dr. Michael Salla confirms UFO whistleblower story

Complex Systems Won’t Survive the Competence Crisis

From HERE

At a casual glance, the recent cascades of American disasters might seem unrelated. In a span of fewer than six months in 2017, three U.S. Naval warships experienced three separate collisions resulting in 17 deaths. A year later, powerlines owned by PG&E started a wildfire that killed 85 people. The pipeline carrying almost half of the East Coast’s gasoline shut down due to a ransomware attack. Almost half a million intermodal containers sat on cargo ships unable to dock at Los Angeles ports. A train carrying thousands of tons of hazardous and flammable chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. Air Traffic Control cleared a FedEx plane to land on a runway occupied by a Southwest plane preparing to take off. Eye drops contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria killed four and blinded fourteen.

While disasters like these are often front-page news, the broader connection between the disasters barely elicits any mention. America must be understood as a system of interwoven systems; the healthcare system sends a bill to a patient using the postal system, and that patient uses the mobile phone system to pay the bill with a credit card issued by the banking system. All these systems must be assumed to work for anyone to make even simple decisions. But the failure of one system has cascading consequences for all of the adjacent systems. As a consequence of escalating rates of failure, America’s complex systems are slowly collapsing.

The core issue is that changing political mores have established the systematic promotion of the unqualified and sidelining of the competent. This has continually weakened our society’s ability to manage modern systems. At its inception, it represented a break from the trend of the 1920s to the 1960s, when the direct meritocratic evaluation of competence became the norm across vast swaths of American society.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, the idea that individuals should be systematically evaluated and selected based on their ability rather than wealth, class, or political connections, led to significant changes in selection techniques at all levels of American society. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) revolutionized college admissions by allowing elite universities to find and recruit talented students from beyond the boarding schools of New England. Following the adoption of the SAT, aptitude tests such as Wonderlic (1936), Graduate Record Examination (1936), Army General Classification Test (1941), and Law School Admission Test (1948) swept the United States. Spurred on by the demands of two world wars, this system of institutional management electrified the Tennessee Valley, created the first atom bomb, invented the transistor, and put a man on the moon.

By the 1960s, the systematic selection for competence came into direct conflict with the political imperatives of the civil rights movement. During the period from 1961 to 1972, a series of Supreme Court rulings, executive orders, and laws—most critically, the Civil Rights Act of 1964—put meritocracy and the new political imperative of protected-group diversity on a collision course. Administrative law judges have accepted statistically observable disparities in outcomes between groups as prima facie evidence of illegal discrimination. The result has been clear: any time meritocracy and diversity come into direct conflict, diversity must take priority.

The resulting norms have steadily eroded institutional competency, causing America’s complex systems to fail with increasing regularity. In the language of a systems theorist, by decreasing the competency of the actors within the system, formerly stable systems have begun to experience normal accidents at a rate that is faster than the system can adapt. The prognosis is harsh but clear: either selection for competence will return or America will experience devolution to more primitive forms of civilization and loss of geopolitical power.

From Meritocracy to Diversity

The first domino to fall as Civil Rights-era policies took effect was the quantitative evaluation of competency by employers using straightforward cognitive batteries. While some tests are still legally used in hiring today, several high-profile enforcement actions against employers caused a wholesale change in the tools customarily usable by employers to screen for ability.

After the early 1970s, employers responded by shifting from directly testing for ability to using the next best thing: a degree from a highly-selective university. By pushing the selection challenge to the college admissions offices, selective employers did two things: they reduced their risk of lawsuits and they turned the U.S. college application process into a high-stakes war of all against all. Admission to Harvard would be a golden ticket to join the professional managerial class, while mere admission to a state school could mean a struggle to remain in the middle class.

This outsourcing did not stave off the ideological change for long. Within the system of political imperatives now dominant in all major U.S. organizations, diversity must be prioritized even if there is a price in competency. The definition of diversity varies by industry and geography. In elite universities, diversity means black, indigenous, or Hispanic. In California, Indian women are diverse but Indian men are not. When selecting corporate board members, diversity means “anyone who is not a straight white man.” The legally protected and politically enforced nature of this imperative renders an open dialogue nearly impossible.

However diversity itself is defined, most policy on the matter is based on a simple premise: since all groups are identical in talent, any unbiased process must produce the same group proportions as the general population, and therefore, processes that produce disproportionate outcomes must be biased. Prestigious journals like Harvard Business Review are the first to summarize and parrot these views, which then flow down to reporting by mass media organizations like Bloomberg Businessweek. Soon, it joins McKinsey’s “best practices” list and becomes instantiated in corporate policies.

Unlike accounting policies, which emanate from the Financial Accounting Standards Board and are then implemented by Chief Financial Officers, the diversity push emanates inside of organizations from multiple power centers, each of which joins in for independent reasons. CEOs push diversity policies primarily to please board members and increase their status. Human Resources (HR) professionals push diversity policies primarily to avoid anti-discrimination lawsuits. Business development teams push diversity to win additional business from diversity-sensitive clients (e.g. government agencies). Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), such as the Black Googler Network, push diversity to help their in-group in hiring and promotion decisions.

Diversity in Theory and Practice

In police academies around the country, new recruits are taught to apply an escalation of force algorithm with non-compliant subjects: “Ask, Tell, Make.” The idea behind “Ask, Tell, Make” is to apply the least amount of force necessary to achieve the desired level of compliance. This is the means by which police power, which is ultimately backed by significant coercive force, can maintain an appearance of voluntary compliance and soft-handedness. Similarly, the power centers inside U.S. institutions apply a variant of “Ask, Tell, Make” to achieve diversity in their respective organizations.

The first tactics for implementing diversity imperatives are the “Ask” tactics. These simply ask all the members of the organization to end bias. At this stage, the policies seem so reasonable and fair that there will rarely be much pushback. Best practices such as slating guidelines are a common tool at this stage. Slating guidelines require that every hiring process must include a certain number and type of diverse candidates for every job opening. Structured interviews are another best practice that requires interviewers to stick with a script to minimize the chance of uncovering commonalities between the interviewer and interviewee that might introduce bias. Often HR will become involved in the hiring process, specifically asking the hiring manager to defend their choice not to hire a diverse candidate. Because the wrong answer could result in shaming, loss of advancement opportunities, or even termination, the hiring manager can often be persuaded to prioritize diversity over competence.

Within specialized professional services companies, senior-level recruiting will occasionally result in a resume collection where not a single diverse candidate meets the minimum specifications of the job. This is a terrible outcome for the hiring manager as it attracts negative attention from HR. At this point, firms will often retain an executive search agency that focuses on exclusively diverse candidates. When that does not result in sufficient diversity, roles will often have their requirements diluted to increase the pool of diverse candidates.

For example, within hedge funds, the ideal entry-level candidate might be an experienced former investment banker who went to a top MBA program. This preferred pedigree sets a minimum bar for both competence and work ethic. This first-pass filter enormously winnows the field of underrepresented candidates. To relax requirements for diversity’s sake, this will be diluted in various ways. First, the work experience might be stripped. Next, the role gets offered to MBA interns. Finally, fresh undergraduates are hired into the analyst role. Dilution works not just because of the larger field of candidates it allows for but also because the Harvard Admission Office of 2019 is even more focused on certain kinds of diversity than the Harvard Admission Office of 2011 was.

This dilution is not costless; fewer data points result in a wider range of outcomes and increase the risk of a bad hire. All bad hires are costly but bad hires that are diverse are even worse. The risk of a wrongful termination lawsuit either draws out the termination process for diverse hires or results in the firm adjusting by giving them harmless busy work until they leave of their own volition—either way, a terrible outcome for the organizations which hired them.

If these “Ask” tactics do not achieve enough diversity, the next step in the escalation is to attach carrots and sticks to directly tell decision-makers to increase the diversity of the organization. This is the point at which the goals of diversity and competence truly begin displaying significant tension between each other. The first step is the implementation of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) linked to diversity for all managers. Diversity KPIs are a tool to embarrass leaders and teams that are not meeting their diversity targets. Given that most organizations are hierarchical and pyramidal, combined with the fact that America was much whiter 50 years ago than it was today, it is unsurprising that senior leadership teams are less diverse than America as a whole—and, more pertinently, than their own junior teams.

The combination of a pyramid-shaped org chart and a senior leadership team where white men often make up 80 percent or more of the team means that the imposition of an aggressive KPI sends a message to the layer below them: no white man in middle management will likely ever see a promotion as long as they remain in the organization. This is never expressed verbally. Rather, those overlooked figure it out as they are passed over continually for less competent but more diverse colleagues. The result is demoralization, disengagement, and over time, departure.

While all the aforementioned techniques fall into the broad category of affirmative action, they primarily result in slightly tilting the scale toward diverse candidates. The next step is simply holding different groups to different standards. Within academia, the recently filed Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College lawsuit leveraged data to show the extent to which Harvard penalizes Asian and white applicants to help black and Hispanic applicants. The UC System, despite formally being forbidden from practicing affirmative action by Proposition 209, uses a tool called “comprehensive admission” to accomplish the same goal.

The latest technique, which was recently brought to light, shows UC admissions offices using the applicants’ high schools as a proxy for race to achieve their desired goal. Heavily Asian high schools such as Arcadia—which is 68 percent Asian—saw their UC-San Diego acceptance rate cut from 37 percent to 13 percent while the 99-percent-Hispanic Garfield High School saw its UC-San Diego acceptance rate rise from 29 percent to 65 percent.

The preference for diversity at the college faculty level is similarly strong. Jessica Nordell’s End of Bias: A Beginning heralded MIT’s efforts to increase the gender diversity of its engineering department: “When applications came in, the Dean of Engineering personally reviewed every one from a woman. If departments turned down a good candidate, they had to explain why.”

When this was not enough, MIT increased its gender diversity by simply offering jobs to previously rejected female candidates. While no university will admit to letting standards slip for the sake of diversity, no one has offered a serious argument why the new processes produce higher or even equivalent quality faculty as opposed to simply more diverse faculty. The extreme preference for diversity in academia today explains much of the phenomenon of professors identifying with a minor fraction of their ancestry or even making it up entirely.

During COVID-19, the difficulty of in-person testing and online proctoring created a new mechanism to push diversity at the expense of competency: the gradual but systematic elimination of standardized tests as a barrier to admission to universities and graduate schools. Today, the majority of U.S. colleges have either stopped requiring SAT/ACT scores, no longer require them for students in the top 10 percent of their class, or will no longer consider them. Several elite law schools, including Harvard Law School, no longer require the LSAT as of 2023. With thousands of unqualified law students headed to a bar exam that they are unlikely to pass, the National Conference of Bar Examiners is already planning to dilute the bar exam under the “NextGen” plan. Specifically, “eliminat[ing] any aspects of our exams that could contribute to performance disparities” will almost definitionally reduce the degree to which the exam tests for competency.

Similarly, standards used to select doctors have also been weakened to promote diversity. Programs such as the City College of New York’s BS/MD program have eliminated the MCAT requirement. With the SAT now optional, new candidates can go straight from high school to the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 exam in medical school without having gone through any rigorous standardized test whose score can be compared across schools. Step 1 scores were historically the most significant factor in the National Residency Matching Program, which pairs soon-to-be doctors with their future residency training programs. Because Step 1 scores serve as a barrier to increasing diversity, they have been made pass/fail. A handful of doctors are speaking out about the dangers of picking doctors based on factors other than competency but most either explicitly prefer diversity or else stay silent, concerned about the career-ending repercussions of pointing out the obvious.

When even carrot and stick incentives and the removal of standards do not achieve enough diversity, the end game is to simply make decision-makers comply. “Make” has two preferred implementations: one is widely discussed and the other is, for obvious reasons, never disclosed publicly. The first method of implementation is the application of quotas. Quotas or set-asides require the reservation of admissions slots, jobs, contracts, board seats, or other scarce goods for women and members of favored minority groups. Government contracts and supplier agreements are explicitly awarded to firms that have acronyms such as SB, WBE, MBE, DBE, SDB, VOSB, SDVOSB, WOSB, HUB, and 8(a).

Within large employers and government contractors, quotas are used for both hiring and promotions, requiring specific percentages of hiring or promotions to be reserved for favored groups. During the summer of 2020, the CEO of Wells Fargo, was publicly shamed after his memo blaming the underrepresentation of black senior leaders on a “very limited pool” of black talent was leaked to Reuters. Less than a month later, the bank publicly pledged to reserve 12 percent of leadership positions for black candidates and began tying executive compensation to reaching diversity goals. In 2022, Goldman Sachs extended quotas to the capital markets by adopting a policy to avoid underwriting IPOs of firms without at least two board members that are not straight white men.

When diversity still refuses to rise to acceptable levels, the remaining solution is the direct exclusion of non-diverse candidates. While public support for anti-discrimination laws and equal opportunity laws is high, public support for affirmative action and quotas is decidedly mixed. Hardline views such as those expressed in author Ijeoma Oluo’s Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America—namely that “any white man in a position of power perpetuates a system of white male domination”—are still considered extreme, even within U.S. progressive circles.

As such, when explicit exclusion is used to eliminate groups like white men from selection processes, it is done subtly. Managers are told to sequester all the resumes from “non-diverse” candidates—that is, white males. These resumes are discarded and the candidates are sent emails politely telling them that “other candidates were a better fit.” While some so-called “reverse discrimination” lawsuits have been filed, most of these policies go unreported. The reasons are straightforward; even in 2023, screening out all white men is not de jure legal. Moreover, any member of the professional managerial class who witnesses and reports discrimination against white men will never work in their field again.

Even anonymous whistleblowing is likely to be rare. To imagine why, suppose incontrovertible evidence was produced that one’s employer was explicitly excluding white male candidates, and a lawsuit was filed. The employer’s reputation and the reputation of all the employees there, including the white men still working there, would be tarnished. That said, we can expect to see more lawsuits from men who feel they have little to lose.

This “Ask, Tell, Make” framework, under various descriptions, is the method by which individuals with a vested interest in more diversity push their organizations toward their preferred outcome. Force begins requesting modest changes to recruiting to make it “more fair.” Force ends with the heavy-handed application of quotas and even exclusion. The American system is not a monolith, however, which means that the strength of the push and its effects on competency is not distributed evenly.

Competency Is Declining From the Core Outwards

Think of the American system as a series of concentric rings with the government at the center. Directly surrounding that are the organizations that receive government funds, then the nonprofits that influence and are subject to policy, and finally business at the periphery. Since the era of the Manhattan Project and the Space Race, the state capacity of the federal government has been declining almost monotonically.

While this has occurred for a multitude of reasons, the steel girders supporting the competency of the federal government were the first to be exposed to the saltwater of the Civil Rights Act and related executive orders. Government agencies, which are in charge of overseeing all the other systems, have seen the quality of their human capital decline tremendously since the 1960s. While the damage to an agency like the Department of Agriculture may have long-term deadly consequences, the most immediate danger is at safety-critical agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The Air Traffic Control (ATC) system used in the U.S. relies on an intricate dance of visual or radar observation, transponders, and radio communication, all with the incredible challenge of keeping thousands of simultaneously moving planes from ever crashing into each other. Since air controlling is one of the only jobs that pays more than $100,000 per year and does not require a college diploma, it has been a popular career choice for individuals without a degree who nonetheless have an exceptionally good memory, attention span, visuospatial awareness, and logical skills. The Air Traffic Selection and Training (AT-SAT) Exam, a standardized test of those critical skills, was historically the primary barrier to entry for air controllers. As a consequence of the AT-SAT, as well as a preference for veterans with former air controller experience, 83 percent of air controllers in the U.S. were white men as of 2014.

That year, the FAA added a Biographical Questionnaire (BQ) to the screening process to tilt the applicant pool toward diverse candidates. Facing pushback in the courts from well-qualified candidates who were screened out, the FAA quietly backed away from the BQ and adopted a new exam, the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA). While the ATSA includes some questions similar to those of the BQ, it restored the test’s focus on core air traffic skills. The importance of highly-skilled air controllers was made clear in the most deadly air disaster in history, the 1977 Tenerife incident. Two planes, one taking off and one taxiing, collided on the runway due to confusion between the captain of KLM 4805 and the Tenerife ATC. The crash, which killed 583 people, resulted in sweeping changes in aviation safety culture.

Recently, the tremendous U.S. record for air safety established since the 1970s has been fraying at the edges. The first three months of 2023 saw nine near-miss incidents at U.S. airports, one with two planes coming within 100 feet of colliding. This terrifying uptick from years prior resulted in the FAA and NTSB convening safety summits in March and May, respectively. Whether they dared to discuss root causes seems unlikely.

Given the sheer size of the U.S. military in both manpower and budget dollars, it should not come as a surprise that the diversity push has also affected the readiness of this institution. Following three completely avoidable collisions of U.S. Navy warships in 2017 and a fire in 2020 that resulted in the scuttling of USS Bonhomme Richard, a $750 million amphibious assault craft, two retired marines conducted off-the-record interviews with 77 current and retired Navy officers. One recurring theme was the prioritization of diversity training over ship handling and warfighting preparedness. Many of them openly admit that, given current issues, the U.S. would likely lose an open naval engagement with China. Instead of taking the criticism to heart, the Navy commissioned “Task Force One Navy,” which recommended deemphasizing or eliminating meritocratic tests like the Officer Aptitude Rating to boost diversity. Absent an existential challenge, U.S. military preparedness is likely to continue to degrade.

The decline in the capacity of government contractors is likewise obvious, with the largest contractors being the most directly impacted. The five largest contractors—Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon Company, and Northrop Grumman—will all struggle to maintain competency in the coming years.

Boeing, one of only two firms globally capable of mass-producing large airliners, has a particularly striking crisis unfolding in its institutional culture. Shortly after releasing the 737 MAX, 346 people died in two nearly identical 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The cause of the crashes was a complex interaction between design choices, cost-cutting led by MBAs, FAA issues, the MCAS flight-control system, a faulty sensor, and pilot training. Meanwhile, on the defense side of the business, Boeing’s new fuel tanker, the KC-46A Pegasus is years behind on deliveries due to serious technical flaws with the fueling system along with multiple cases of Foreign Object Debris left inside the plane during construction: tools, a red plastic cap, and in one case, even trash. Between the issues at ATC and Boeing, damage to the U.S.’s phenomenal aviation safety record seems almost inevitable.

After government contractors, the next-most-affected class of institutions are nonprofit organizations. They are entrapped by the government whose policies they are subject to and trying to influence, the opinions of their donor base, and lack of any profit motive. The lifeblood of nonprofits is access to capital, either directly in the form of government grants or through donations that are deemed tax-deductible. Accessing federal monies means being subject to the full weight of U.S. diversity rules and regulations. Nonprofits are generally governed by boards whose members tend to overlap with the list of major donors. Because advocacy for diversity and board memberships are both high-status positions, unsurprisingly board members tend to voice favorable opinions of diversity, and those opinions flow downstream to the organizations they oversee.

Nonprofits—including universities, charities, and foundations—exist in an overlapping ecosystem with journalism, with individuals tending to freely circulate between the four. The activities of nonprofits are bound up in the same discourses shaped by current news and academic research, with all four reflecting the same general ideological consensus. Finally, lacking the profit motive, the decision-making processes of nonprofits are influenced by what will affect the status of the individuals within those organizations rather than what will affect profits. Within nonprofits, the cost of incompetent staffers is borne by “stakeholders,” rather than any one individual.

While all businesses subject to federal law must prioritize diversity over competency at some level, the problem is worse at publicly-traded corporations for reasons both obvious and subtle. The obvious reason is that larger companies present larger targets for EEOC actions and discrimination lawsuits with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. Corporations have logically responded by hiring large teams of HR professionals to preempt such lawsuits. Over the past several decades, HR has evolved from simply overseeing onboarding to involvement in every aspect of hiring, promotions, and firings, seeing them all through a political and regulatory lens.

The more subtle reason for pressure within publicly-traded companies is that they require ongoing relationships with a spiderweb of banks, credit ratings agencies, proxy advisory services, and most importantly, investors. Given that the loss of access to capital is an immediate death sentence for most businesses, the CEOs of publicly-traded companies tend to push diversity over competency even when the decline in firm performance is clear. CEOs would likely rather trade a small drag on profits margins than a potentially career-ending scandal from pushing back.

Whereas publicly-traded corporations nearly uniformly push diversity, privately-held businesses vary tremendously based on the views of their owners. Partnerships such as the Big Four accounting firms and top-tier management consultancies are high-status. High-status firms must regularly proclaim extensive support for diversity. While the firms tend to be highly selective, partnerships whose leadership is overwhelmingly white and male have generally capitulated to the zeitgeist and are cutting standards to hit targets. Firms often manage around this by hiring for diversity and then putting diversity hires into roles where they are the least likely to damage the firm or the brand. Somewhat counterintuitively, firms with diverse founders are often highly meritocratic, as the structure harnesses the founder’s desire to make money and shields them from criticism on diversity issues.

The most notable example of a diverse meritocracy is Vista Equity Partners, the large private equity firm founded by Robert F. Smith, America’s wealthiest black man. Robert F. Smith is one of the most vocal advocates for and philanthropists to historically black U.S. colleges and universities. It would be reasonable to expect Vista to prioritize diversity over competency in its portfolio companies. However, Vista has instead been profiled for giving all portfolio company management teams the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test and ruthlessly culling low-performers. Given the amount of value to be created by promoting the best people into leadership roles of their portfolio companies, one might imagine this to be low-hanging fruit for the rest of private equity, yet Vista is an outlier. Why Vista can apply the CCAT without a public outcry is obvious.

The other firms that tend to still focus on competency are those that are small and private. Such firms have two key advantages: they fall below the fifteen-employee threshold for the most onerous EEOC rules and the owner can usually directly observe the performance of everyone inside the organization. Within small firms, underperformance is usually obvious. Tech startups, being both small and private, would seem to have the right structure to prioritize competency.

The American System Is Cracking

Promoting diversity over competency does not simply affect new hires and promotion decisions. It also affects the people already working inside of America’s systems. Morale and competency inside U.S. organizations are declining. Those who understand that the new system makes it hard or impossible for them to advance are demoralized, affecting their performance. Even individuals poised to benefit from diversity preferences notice that better people are being passed over and the average quality of their team is declining. High performers want to be on a high-performing team. When the priorities of their organizations shift away from performance, high performers respond negatively.

This effect was likely seen in a recent paper by McDonald, Keeves, and Westphal. The paper points out that white male senior leaders reduce their engagement following the appointment of a minority CEO. While it is possible that author Ijeoma Oluo is correct, and that white men have so much unconscious bias raging inside of them that the appointment of a diverse CEO sends them into a tailspin of resentment, there is another more plausible explanation. When boards choose diverse CEOs to make a political statement, high performers who see an organization shifting away from valuing honest performance respond by disengaging.

Some demoralized employees—like James Damore in his now-famous essay, “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”—will directly push back against pro-diversity arguments. Like James, they will be fired. Older, demoralized workers, especially those who are mere years from retirement, are unlikely to point out the decline in competency and risk it costing them their jobs. Those who have a large enough nest egg may simply retire to avoid having to deal with the indignity of having to attend another Inclusive Leadership seminar.

As older men with tacit knowledge either retire or are pushed out, the burden of maintaining America’s complex systems will fall on the young. Lower-performing young men angry at the toxic mix of affirmative action (hurting their chances of admission to a “good school”) and credentialism (limiting the “good jobs” to graduates of “good schools”) are turning their backs on college and white-collar work altogether.

This is the continuation of a trend that began over a decade ago. High-performing young men will either collaborate, coast, or downshift by leaving high-status employment altogether. Collaborators will embrace “allyship” to attempt to bolster their chances of getting promoted. Coasters realize that they need to work just slightly harder than the worst individual on their team. Their shirking is likely to go unnoticed and they are unlikely to feel enough emotional connection to the organization to raise alarm when critical mistakes are being made. The combination of new employees hired for diversity, not competence, and the declining engagement of the highly competent sets the stage for failures of increasing frequency and magnitude.

The modern U.S. is a system of systems interacting together in intricate ways. All these complex systems are simply assumed to work. In February of 2021, cold weather in Texas caused shutdowns at unwinterized natural gas power plants. The failure rippled through the systems with interlocking dependencies. As a result, 246 people died. In straightforward work, declining competency means that things happen more slowly, and products are lower quality or more expensive. In complex systems, declining competency results in catastrophic failures.

To understand why, one must understand the concept of a “normal accident.” In 1984, Charles Perrow, a Yale sociologist, published the book, Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies. In this book, Perrow lays out the theory of normal accidents: when you have systems that are both complex and tightly coupled, catastrophic failures are unavoidable and cannot simply be designed around. In this context, a complex system is one that has many components that all need to interact in a specified way to produce the desired outcome. Complex systems often have relationships that are nonlinear and contain feedback loops. Tightly-coupled systems are those whose components need to move together precisely or in a precise sequence.

The 1979 Three Mile Island Accident was used as a case study: a relatively minor blockage of a water filter led to a cascading series of malfunctions that culminated in a partial meltdown. In A Demon of Our Own Design, author Richard Bookstaber added two key contributions to Perrow’s theory: first, that it applies to financial markets, and second, that regulation intended to fix the problem may make it worse.

The biggest shortcoming of the theory is that it takes competency as a given. The idea that competent organizations can devolve to a level where the risk of normal accidents becomes unacceptably high is barely addressed. In other words, rather than being taken as absolutes, complexity and tightness should be understood to be relative to the functionality of the people and systems that are managing them. The U.S. has embraced a novel question: what happens when the men who built the complex systems our society relies on cease contributing and are replaced by people who were chosen for reasons other than competency?

The answer is clear: catastrophic normal accidents will happen with increasing regularity. While each failure is officially seen as a separate issue to be fixed with small patches, the reality is that the whole system is seeing failures at an accelerating rate, which will lead in turn to the failure of other systems. In the case of the Camp Fire that killed 85 people, PG&E fired its CEO, filed Chapter 11, and restructured. The system’s response has been to turn off the electricity and raise wildfire insurance premiums. This has resulted in very little reflection. The more recent coronavirus pandemic was another teachable moment. What started just three years ago with a novel respiratory virus has caused a financial crisis, a bubble, soaring inflation, and now a banking crisis in rapid succession.

Patching the specific failure mode is simultaneously too slow and induces unexpected consequences. Cascading failures overwhelm the capabilities of the system to react. 20 years ago, a software bug caused a poorly-managed local outage that led to a blackout that knocked out power to 55 million people and caused 100 deaths. Utilities were able to restore power to all 55 million people in only four days. It is unclear if they could do the same today. U.S. cities would look very different if they remained without power for even two weeks, especially if other obstructions unfolded. What if emergency supplies sat on trains immobilized by fuel shortages due to the aforementioned pipeline shutdown? The preference for diversity over competency has made our system of systems dangerously fragile.

Americans living today are the inheritors of systems that created the highest standard of living in human history. Rather than protecting the competency that made those systems possible, the modern preference for diversity has attenuated meritocratic evaluation at all levels of American society. Given the damage already done to competence and morale combined with the natural exodus of baby boomers with decades worth of tacit knowledge, the biggest challenge of the coming decades might simply be maintaining the systems we have today.

The path of least resistance will be the devolution of complex systems and the reduction in the quality of life that entails. For the typical resident in a second-tier city in Mexico, Brazil, or South Africa, power outages are not uncommon, tap water is probably not safe to drink, and hospital-associated infections are common and often fatal. Absent a step change in the quality of American governance and a renewed culture of excellence, they prefigure the country’s future.

Grandpa’s… Wife?! | The Munsters

UPDATED AGAIN 5:30 PM EDT — TODAY! NATO “AIR-DEFENDER 2023” EXERCISE BEGINS . . .

World Hal Turner 12 June 2023

The largest air force deployment exercise in NATO history, Air Defender 23, kicks off today. Many people fear this “exercise” is actually a “cover” for NATO to directly involve itself in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and thereby commence World War 3, which would go nuclear.

From 12 to 23 June, 10,000 participants from 25 countries will train on 250 aircraft, including 190 combat aircraft, in European airspace.

Wunstorf Air Base in Germany is the centerpiece of the exercise, home to a purpose-built field tank farm.

The warehouse is the largest in Germany and holds about 2.4 million liters of kerosene. We are not hinting at anything.

On Saturday, about 300 people protested in front of the air base against NATO exercises. The protesters demanded diplomatic solutions instead of the use of weapons and called for an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

Everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop with the Russia-Ukraine Conflict which NATO uses as an excuse to involve itself directly. God knows NATO has done everything it knows how, to get Russia to attack them: NATO has provided Ukraine with guns, ammunition, artillery, shells, missiles, HIMARS MLRS, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconaissance and even targeting info on how and where to hit Russian troops. Countless BILLIONS in cash money has poured into Ukraine from NATO countries, to kill Russians.

That Russia has not taken this bait is amazing. The patience and self-discipline of the Russians and their leaders is mind-boggling. Yet, God bless them, the Russians have stayed the course.

In World War 2, Russia fought Nazi Germany. At the time, Russia was part of the then-Soviet Union, but it was Russia that lost the most in that war: 27 MILLION Russians were killed fighting NAZIS.

Fast-Forward to 2014, what pops-up in Ukraine? A NAZI infested government, installed by the West, after the West fomented, incited, and financed riots that toppled the government of President Viktor Yanukovich.

After overthrowing the Ukraine government, the West goaded Ukraine to start attacking the Russian-speaking populations of Luhansk and Donetsk. Those two provinces wanted to join Crimea and secede from Ukraine after it’s government was overthrown by the West. The new puppet government of Ukraine refused to allow those two provinces to secede, and instead, sent troops to begin attacking the Russian-speaking civilians there.

Russia covertly intervened with troops to help defend Luhansk and Donetsk. The two provinces, with Russian help, fought Ukraine to a standstill.

So the West got sneaky. A peace conference was called to meet in Minsk, Belarus. Ukraine, Luhansk, Donetsk, France, Germany, and Russia, attended. A peace agreement was signed . . . and Ukraine did not abide ANY of it for years after.

Turned out, the West overtly LIED during the Minsk Peace Talks. It came out later, that then-German-Chancellor Angela Merkel, and then-President of France, Francois Hollande, signed the Minsk Agreements knowing it was a ruse; they told the press in 2022, they just wanted to buy time to arm Ukraine!

So all the way back in the year 2014, it was the West’s intent to start a war between Ukraine and Russia!

For eight years, from 2014-2022, the West armed and trained Ukraine to NATO Standards. Ukraine had a standing army of 800,000; the largest in Europe.

In December, 2021, Ukraine massed more troops, tanks, artillery, fighter jets and the like, on the borders of Luhansk and Donetsk. The earlier years from 2014-2022 where Ukraine killed upwards of 13,000 civilians in Luhansk and Donetsk apparently wasn’t good enough; Ukraine was going to slaughter the people there.

Russia said “no” and stepped-in on February 24, 2022.

The West went nuts, claiming this was “an unprovoked aggression by Russia.” It wasn’t. It was provoked over, and over, and over again, by the West.

In the almost 16 months since the conflict began, NATO has done anything and everything it can to help Ukraine kill Russians. NATO failed. Ukraine is getting smashed on the battle field despite all of NATO’s help. Ukraine is losing the conflict – badly.

It is so bad for Ukraine that they have to draft 16 year old boys off the streets, at gunpoint – to force them to the front to fight. The bloodbath is horrifying, but NATO will not stop pushing Ukraine to fight further.

Yet for all its pushing of Ukraine to fight-on, and for all the equipment NATO has supplied to Ukraine . . . Russia is still winning. Russia just smashes all the gear being sent by NATO. Within the past 48 hours, look at what Russia did to NATO’s “advanced” weaponry:

Three out of the six Leopard 2R mine-clearing vehicles Finland donated to Ukraine have been lost in the same field.

With other engineering vehicles in the field as well, this is a massive loss for the brigade, no matter what.

Russia just moves right along, smashing and destroying everything NATO sends.

As you read this story on June 12, 2023, Ukraine’s only hope is for NATO to enter the war and fight Russia directly. But Russia has not attacked NATO. So at this point, an “incident” has to take place so as to justify NATO’s entry into the conflict. And THAT is what this “Air Defender, 2023” exercise is likely all about.

Someone is likely to create an “incident” which NATO will then use to justify its entry into the war.

From today through June 24, is the single most dangerous time in this world since the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962. If an “incident” is made to happen, and NATO enters the fight, it will go almost immediately to nuclear war. There will be no warning for any of us.

If you’re the praying type, now is the time. The world is going to look a lot different, and sooner than people might suspect. All it takes is one Keystone removed from the arch to threaten the entirety of the system upon which our society is based.

UPDATE 7:56 AM EDT —

NATO has already begun probing! NATO military aircraft are penetrating air space of the Black Sea:

Above is a “Rivet Joint” aircraft. The RC-135V/W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft supports theater and national level consumers with near real time on-scene intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination capabilities.

Features
The aircraft is an extensively modified C-135. The Rivet Joint’s modifications are primarily related to its on-board sensor suite, which allows the mission crew to detect, identify and geolocate signals throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. The mission crew can then forward gathered information in a variety of formats to a wide range of consumers via Rivet Joint’s extensive communications suite.

Below, a NATO Fighter Jet:

This jet is a single-seat, Block 5 or later aircraft (built or upgraded from F2) and is known as Typhoon FGR4s. The new mark number represents the increased capabilities of the Block 5 aircraft (fighter/ground attack/reconnaissance). The FGR4 has from June 2008 achieved the required standard for multi-role operations.

The purpose of these flights is to test Russian reaction times and gather up-to-the-minute Intelligence. NATO is fixin’ for a fight.

MORE:

-RAF RC-135W Rivet Joint RRR7212

-RAF KC2 Voyager KAYAK31

-Italian Air Force King Air 350ER IAM1482

-US Army CH-47 Chinook R08457

-US Army Black Hawk 11-20392

UPDATE 8:45 AM EDT —

In Crimea, there has been an explosion on the railway tracks. This is reported by Russian media and telegram channels.

The driver of the freight train allegedly spotted the explosive device and applied emergency brakes.

As a result of the explosion, according to preliminary data, the tracks and a freight locomotive were damaged. According to some reports, two railway workers were injured.

The explosion occurred in the Kirov region of Crimea – in the east of the peninsula.

The movement of trains on the site has been stopped, repairs may take several hours, the head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, wrote on his telegram channel.

(HT REMARK: This is clearly part of an effort to block Russian supply lines.)

RELATED ????

UPDATE 9:22 AM EDT —

RUSSIAN CONVOY HIT BY TURK DRONE STRIKE – SYRIA!

A Russian soldier has been killed and 3 Russian soldiers were wounded after being in a Turkish drone strike in northern Syria this morning.

The Russian military column was traveling between the villages of Herbel and Maarat Umm Hawsh outside Aleppo.

TURKEY IS A MEMBER OF . . . NATO . . . .

UPDATE 10:48 AM EDT —

This is my current assessment of the Ukraine situation:

Today is Day 8 of Ukraine’s “Great Counter-offensive” and all they have to show for it is a few fields, and more troops stuck in meat grinders.

The “Counter-Offensive” is bogged down — badly — and the Vilnius, Lithuania, meeting of NATO is coming up fast. That is the meeting at which Ukraine must show NATO that it is has made real progress with the Counter-Offensive, or future assistance from NATO goes into great jeopardy.

For what it’s worth, by Day 8, Ukraine was __supposed to__ be mopping up Melitopol, should have cut off Mariupol by standing on the AZOV Coast, and should have been starting the assault on Crimea.

Nothing is going as planned. Ukraine is taking huge losses, and have not even managed to reach the First defense line of the Russians – anywhere!!!!

Think about THAT for just a moment; they have not yet encountered Russian actual defensive lines yet . . . anywhere . . . along the front. All they’ve encountered are Russian Recon and Pickets; which are smashing and destroying much of what Ukraine has already put forth.

NATO equipment? Not nearly as good as everyone thought it was.

NATO Tactics? Utter failure at almost every turn.

NATO is a failure. Ukraine is the proof.

Thank God we didn’t have to find out via an actual invasion during the Cold War by the then-Soviet-Union; we’d have had our clocks cleaned.

Once again, the incompetents running Washington, DC and our military, made another a huge mistake….

UPDATE 5:29 PM EDT —

As of today, Ukraine has lost (or abandoned to caputre) fifteen percent (15%) of the M2A2 Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles donated to them for their “Counter-Offensive.” They achieved this 15% loss in eight (8) days.

Trapped In The Bank Vault | The Munsters

The repair work on the damage to the reality universe is still in process.

The repair work on the damage to the reality universe is still in process. I am unaware of the organizational structure of the who, and where, and what. But the intention is clear. To stop the emergence of a calmer cleaner world led by the Global South, and instead push the corrupt Western model back into power.

Amateurs. But the repairs are also fixing other things that were “flapping in the winds”, and that is overall going to make things easier for all of us.

Today, I had an interview with DM about his prayer affirmation campaign, you can watch it here, if you haven’t already.

Now, for the rest of the stuff…

Dangerous and irresponsible for US and NATO to push Russia step by step

By Global Times Published: Mar 27, 2023 09:07 PM

When it comes to the Ukraine issue, the West and Russia have never stopped testing and pressuring each other. The greater the pressure the US and NATO apply on Russia, the greater Russia’s counterattack will be.

NATO criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for what it called his “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric on Sunday, a day after Putin said he planned to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Reuters reported. On the same day, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell threatened on Twitter that “The EU stands ready to respond with further sanctions.”

As for the recent escalation, the reason is UK’s irresponsible decision to provide depleted uranium munition to Ukraine. On the one hand, depleted uranium munitions have already exceeded the red line that Russia can accept. On the other, this shows Western countries like the UK have no bottom line in providing weapons to Ukraine. As a response, Russia has opted for deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.

Now, NATO has come out to accuse Russia of breaking its own arms control commitments. But in fact, the US has long been a violator of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times that the US has deployed tactical nuclear weapons in European countries, including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, which means the US has long deployed its tactical nuclear weapons at Russia’s doorstep, posing a significant threat to Russia’s national security. Russia’s reaction this time is not just aimed at the UK’s move, but more about the US.

“Russia’s planned deployment of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is not only a response to NATO’s past and current provocations, but also is aimed at deterring US’ potential provocations, dealing with what is about to happen,” said Song.

Belarus is a key choice for Russia, as its geographical location is ideal. It is not far from Poland, Germany, the Baltic countries and even the Nordic countries. If tactical nuclear weapons are deployed there, it will have a huge strategic deterrent effect on some neighboring NATO countries near Russia, Song noted.

Nevertheless, whether the US and NATO impose various sanctions on Russia or continuously provide weapons to Ukraine, they are actually moving toward a more dangerous direction. It won’t help solve the Ukraine issue, but will only lead to a vicious circle, escalating the nuclear arms race and ultimately developing into a situation that no one wants to see.

Wang Shuo, a professor at the School of International Relations of Beijing Foreign Studies University, pointed out that knowing that the situation could get worse, the US is still pressuring Russia, and the purpose behind it is to maintain its hegemonic system. In addition, during the Cold War, the US used extreme pressure tactics against the Soviet Union, which eventually dragged the Soviet Union down, so today Washington still wants to apply the same tactics.

Now, the peace forces mediating the Ukraine-Russia conflict are still relatively insufficient. European countries have been kidnapped by the US to provide weapons to Ukraine, and even countries like Japan have gone to great lengths to provide assistance to Ukraine. This all serves the interests of the US, whose purpose is to force European countries, and even Indo-Pacific countries, to help the US counter Russia and drag it down. Since this goal has not been achieved, Washington does not want peace now.

It is the US that is pushing Russia step by step. Washington does not want to see a victory for Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield. If Ukraine loses, it means NATO loses, which also means the US loses its global leadership and hegemony, a price that it cannot afford. Consequently, when China proposed a complete, systematic and dialectical 12-point peace proposal, the US was among the first to come out to deny it. The peace proposal takes into account all aspects and is practical. The fact that the US is eager to dismiss it shows that it doesn’t want peace.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is a “proxy war” that the US has imposed on Europe. If the US and Russia cannot reach a compromise, there can be no peace between Russia and Ukraine. But if the conflict continues, not only will Russia and Ukraine be damaged, but also Europe’s security dilemma will worsen. The more Europe tries to be safe, the more insecure it becomes.

What should I absolutely not do when visiting the USA?

Don’t get out of your car if you get pulled over by police.

I was pulled over by a police officer while driving in Iowa. It was one week after I had arrived in the USA for the first time. I had accidentally made a minor mistake disobeying a traffic sign. Back home in Australia it’s considered polite to get out of your car and walk over to the police officer’s car and hand him your license* so he doesn’t have to get out of his seat. I wanted to be extra polite so I immediately jumped out of my car and walked towards his car while reaching into my back pocket.

I’m lucky to be alive.

If you come from a gun-free country like the UK or Australia you don’t have any natural instinct for gun culture. You don’t realize that police assume that everyone is armed.

Things got immediately serious. The police officer’s hand went to his weapon and I responded by dropping to my knees with my hands up. He yelled a bunch of things at me but my memory is vague because my heartbeat was suddenly pulsing in my ears blotting out all sound. I don’t know if he drew his weapon or not. I was staring intently at the ground, shaking and trying to project non-threatening vibes. My next memory is that there were three police cars around me and a bunch of cops who’d been called for backup. They were all keeping their hands close to their guns. After some time passed (a minute? 30 minutes? I have no idea) the tensions de-escalated and they told me to get up. I gave the officer my license and tried to explain why I’d approached him. It was completely incomprehensible to him that there was a place where people don’t fear cops and vice versa at traffic stops. It was as though I was trying to tell him that I came from Narnia and our cops were all talking animals.

I’ve spoken to several British people, New Zealanders, and Australians who have shared almost identical stories. They really need to put signs up in all major US airports.

Don’t get out of your car if stopped by police. They will assume you are armed and they might shoot you.

Edit: have a look at this story about an Australian woman who was shot and killed by an American cop. Ex-Minneapolis police officer sentenced to 12.5 years for fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond

To me, the chilling part of the story is this passage:

“When police arrived, Ruszczyk Damond approached the driver's side of the squad car, and Noor, who was in the passenger's seat, shot her through the open window…”

In Australia, we would think it perfectly normal to approach a police car to talk to the police. She probably had no idea that she could be in danger. American police are far too ready to kill.

It’s sickening.

A REVOLUTION has Begun!

The Covid-19 coronavirus was “intentionally released” by the United States

The Covid-19 coronavirus was "intentionally released" by the United States in Wuhan, China, with the target to trigger a global pandemic to raise public acceptance of vaccines, a US businessman specializing in patent auditing said.

David Martin, the founding chairman of M Cam asset management company, said at an International Covid Summit organized by the European Parliament in Brussels earlier this month that the US was responsible for the making of both coronaviruses causing the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome - or SARS - in 2003 and the Covid-19 pandemic in the past three years.

The third edition of the summit featured speakers from anti-lockdown advocates to medical academia to discuss the global pandemic response. The speakers shed light on the possibility that the coronavirus which caused the pandemic was man-made, instead of naturally occurring.

In his speech, Martin said: "The pandemic that we alleged to have happened in the last few years did not happen overnight. In fact, the very specific pandemic using the coronavirus began at a different time."

He said that in 1965, scientists discovered the coronavirus as a model of a pathogen - an agent that causes disease. They also found out that coronaviruses can be modified.

"Later we started learning how to modify a coronavirus by putting them in animals such as dogs and pigs," Martin said, adding that such a practice became the basis for US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's first coronavirus spike protein vaccine in 1990.

But very soon the medical sector and drug makers found out that the vaccines did not work.

"Because the coronavirus is a malleable model, it mutates," Martin said. "Every medical publication concluded that coronaviruses escape vaccines because it modifies and mutates too rapidly for a vaccine to be developed."

In 2002, a university in North Carolina initiated a study to develop an "infectious replication defective," which Martin interpreted as "a weapon to target individuals, but not have collateral damage."

Characterizing the project as having "mysteriously preceded SARS by a year," Martin said the coronavirus that caused the highly deadly infection was not from China and that it was "engineered" instead of naturally occurring.

On Covid-19, Martin said the coronavirus - named as SARS-CoV-2 by the World Health Organization - was poised for human emergence in 2016, with a preview about an "accidental or intentional release of a respiratory coronavirus" from a laboratory in Wuhan.

He said the purpose of the coronavirus "release" was to boost global acceptance on universal vaccination.

Explaining the common concern among the medical industry, Martin said: "Until an infectious crisis is very real, present and at the emergency threshold, it is often largely ignored.

"To sustain the funding base beyond the crisis, we need to increase the public understanding of the need for medical countermeasures, such as the pan-influenza, or pan-coronavirus, vaccine. A key drive is the media and the economics will follow the hype.

"We [pharmaceutical firms] need to use that hype to our advantage to get to the real issue. Investors will respond if they see profit at the end of the process," he said.

The Covid infection was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei province in central China in late 2019, with initial clusters coming from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.

The disease turned into a global pandemic in early 2020.

As of Saturday, over 766 million infections have been recorded worldwide, with nearly seven million deaths.

The source of the coronavirus remained a mystery. Some scientists believe it transferred to humans from wild animals like bats and manidaes, while some politicians, in particular those from the US, accused the Wuhan Institute of Virology - a government-controlled lab - of leaking the pathogen.

A team of WHO-appointed experts inspected Wuhan in early 2021 to probe the source of the pandemic.

After the 12-day visit, including a visit to the lab, the scientists concluded that it is "extremely unlikely" that the lab could have leaked the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Article HERE

Paula Deen’s Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

4 cups cooked elbow macaroni, drained
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Once you have the macaroni cooked and drained, place in a large bowl and while still hot and add the cheddar.
In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and add to the macaroni mixture.
Pour macaroni mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 30 to 45 minutes.
Top with additional cheese if desired.

Norway canceled China top shipyard 13 billion dollar order, was it a conspiracy?

This Woman Creates A DIY Dollhouse Door Electrical Outlet Covers

We can all agree that COVID-19 has turned our world upside down. Everything we knew we did has changed. Some people are furstrated but there are some that never lose their spirit. Even in these difficult times there are people that show us that you can use every situation to your advantage. Discover something new create something you never did before.

h/t: art-sheep

Làm gì phải Hốt – JustaTee x Hoàng Thùy Linh x Đen | Official Music Video

Seoul is gradually falling into US’ strategic trap to contain China

By Global Times Published: Jun 11, 2023 08:54 PM

On Saturday, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Nong Rong summoned South Korean Ambassador Chung Jae-ho to express his “serious concern and dissatisfaction” over Seoul’s “improper reaction” to comments made by Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming in a recent meeting with Lee Jae-myung, leader of South Korea’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Korea.

One day earlier, the South Korean Foreign Ministry summoned Ambassador Xing to protest his remarks on US-Korea relations, saying Xing had interfered in South Korea’s internal affairs by citing “inaccurate facts” and criticizing South Korean policy.

What exactly did Ambassador Xing say?

According to reports, he accused Seoul of being influenced by Washington and not respecting Beijing’s core concerns, including the Taiwan question, during a meeting with Lee on Thursday. Xing pointed out that the US is trying its best to suppress China and that some people are betting on the US to win and China to lose, which is clearly a misjudgment that fails to consider the broader historical context. He warned that “those betting on China’s defeat will certainly regret it later.”

Ambassador Xing was correct; he just made another factual and logical judgment. His remarks stem from South Korea’s provocative stance.

The US is mobilizing its allies in the Asia-Pacific region to form a containment ring against China, thereby compelling South Korea to take sides and assess the potential consequences of this strategic competition.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters before his visit to the US in April, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said that tensions in the Taiwan Straits are caused by attempts to change the status quo by force, and South Korea joins the international community in opposing such changes. Yoon also said that the Taiwan question is not simply an issue between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan but, like the issue of North Korea, it is a global issue.

By clearly copying the US position on the Taiwan question, the South Korean government is not simply following the US’ China strategy but also is expressing confidence in the US’ ability to prevail.

The current South Korean government is gradually falling into a strategic trap orchestrated by the US to contain China. We have every reason to believe that if this trajectory continues, South Korea will no longer be a mere follower of the US but could eventually find itself in a frontline role.

It would be prudent for the South Korean government to pause and reflect before taking the next step: Is China really an enemy of South Korea? If South Korea aligns with the US strategy and pushes China into a hostile position, can South Korea bear the consequences?

South Korea’s greatest concern is the security of the Korean Peninsula, but this can never be achieved by blindly adhering to the US agenda and engaging in confrontation with China.

It is not that South Korea does not have the ability to refuse to take sides; at least South Korea has some ability to maintain the balance. However, it appears that South Korea is now leaning toward the US side. We’re concerned that this decision will jeopardize the peninsula’s security, which the South Korean people desire for.

We acknowledge that a significant challenge to current East Asian cooperation is that the existing security system restricts our ability to draw closer to one another and fails to shield us from the chilling winds of the Cold War.

It’s akin to having a thermostat, but the remote control for that thermostat is held in the American military’s hands.

We can’t continue to be trapped in an outdated Cold War system. We should not allow the Americans to decide whether we are safe. What is certain is that once the desired reunification of the peninsula is achieved, there will no longer be a place for US soldiers.

Given increasing US pressure, China and South Korea now urgently need to expand cooperation on security issues and enhance communication and collaboration. But this can only happen if South Korea respects China’s core interests and security concerns and stops appeasing the US in a manner that “irritates” China. Such actions will not bring any real benefits to South Korea.

China and South Korea are close neighbors and cannot avoid each other. China does not want turmoil and war on the peninsula. The key now is how we can resist disruption and destruction by external forces and find the right path for Asians to solve our own problems through cooperation.

Why doesn’t the US bring North Korea freedom and protect the world from great danger? Surely Saddam fell for far less.

Oh! Watch out for that freedom shit. Everywhere the US brings freedom, it always ends up looking like this.

Beware of what you wish for, you’ll get it.

How can the USA and Russia bring peace between them without talking to each other directly?

Haven’t you noticed how peaceful it is for the moment where China does not talk to the US?

It’s the US that isn’t a good conversation partner. From just a talk, you may end up fighting with them, not unless you’re very subservient, like Japan or S. Korea (American Pie fillings)

What we get wrong about China.

Saucy Peach-Spiced Chicken

Ingredients

Cooking oil
1/2 cup flour mixed with 1 teapoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper
6 each fryer chicken legs and thighs or 2 breasts and 4 thighs
1 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups sliced peaches (fresh, canned or frozen)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon mace or nutmeg
1 teaspoon sweet basil
1 clove garlic, minced
Hot, cooked rice

Instructions

Put oil to a depth of 1/2-inch in a large skillet.
While oil is heating, dredge chicken in seasoned flour.
Brown chicken in hot oil.
While chicken is browning, combine orange juice and peaches with brown sugar, vinegar, mace or nutmeg, sweet basil and minced garlic in a saucepan. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove chicken when it is browned, and pour off oil, retaining the flavored browned bits in skillet.
Replace chicken and pour fruit sauce over top.
Cover and simmer about 20 minutes.
Serve over rice.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Hoàng Thùy Linh – Duyên Âm (Love of Ghost) | Official Music Video

A MAN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

In 1987, a 74-year old rickshaw puller by the name of Bai Fangli came back to his hometown planning to retire from his backbreaking job. There, he saw children working in the fields, because they were too poor to afford school fees.

Bai returned to Tianjin and went back to work as a rickshaw puller, taking a modest accommodation next to the railway station. He waited for clients 24 hours a day, ate simple food and wore discarded second-hand clothes he found.

He gave all of his hard-earned earnings to support children who could not afford education.

In 2001, he drove his rickshaw to Tianjin YaoHua Middle School, to deliver his last installment of money.

Nearly 90 years old, he told the students that he couldn’t work any more. All of the students and teachers were moved to tears.

In total, Bai had donated a total of 350,000 yuan to help more than 300 poor students continue with their studies. In 2005, Bai passed away leaving behind an inspiring legacy.

If a rickshaw-puller who wore used clothes and had no education can support 300 children to go to school, imagine what you and I can do with the resources we have to bring about positive change in our world!

Europe is riding a bumpy ride in the gallop towards the abyss

Yesterday, I was leaving the office and went to the bus station. (I tend to take the Zhuhai bus instead of driving. It’s cheap and I don’t have to fight traffic.) And there was my bus.

So I waved at the bus driver with my QR and tried to get to the the bus, but there was this doddering older couple just blocking the way. So I tried to get around them. Sure as shit, they moved in front of me, so I went around the other direction, there they still moved in front of me..

Intentional?

Poor sensory awareness?

Just pissed off and looking for a patsy?

I don’t know

So I got off the sidewalk, as it was blocked every which way I turned. And got off the bus station, and went on the road still waving my QR to the driver.

Wouldn’t you know it, but that senile couple jumped off the sidewalk and still continued to block me.

They actually got in front of me on the road!!!!

No shit. They got off the sidewalk. and blocked my path to the bus as I was trying to get to it on the street.

What was their malfunction?

So I forcefully plowed around them and got on the bus. Not rudely. I did everything I could to avoid touching them. I arched my back and scraped the incoming other bus with my backpack.

But, boy oh boy, they started up a bunch of complaining and bitchin! Some times I wonder why they picked on me to hassle. I’m not some dumb kid, I know when I’m being “cock blocked” intentionally, and three times is NOT an accident.

When you are in China, you may come across these senile old fixed minded people that start treating you disrespectfully, mistakenly believing that they (due to their age) will get an automatic pass for their behaviors. As they normally do.

The old are revered in China.

But not everyone is deserving.

I think that that kind of behavior is common in Washington DC these days…

What is Rear Adm. Mike Studeman referring to when he mentions “China blindness” at a military conference earlier this year?

Rear Adm. Mike Studeman might be referring to the phenomenon where individuals or organizations fail to recognize or intelligently address the strategic threat posed by China’s role as a significant global power.

This term “China Blindness” has been used to describe a range of issues related to China. In particular, it refers to a serious lack of understanding of what China is, how it operates, and what it is capable of. It is a “catch all” phrase that describes a cloud of ignorance of what China actually is today.

The Admiral is admonishing his peers as a warning. To believe the false narratives encapsulated in the public narrative is to risk serious defeat on the battlefield. To engage China, one must be realistic, and fully address the harsh and uncomfortable reality that confronts the USN. If it fails to do so, it could result in catastrophe.

As far as I can understanding it, the use of this term suggests a need for greater awareness and friendly engagement with China. As opposed to the politically-driven narratives of forcing and pushing China to follow United States dictates.

The real power of the JAMAICAN PASSPORT.

Why isn’t China’s space program as advanced as NASA’s or Russia’s or even India’s programs?

A major indication that a space program has achieved parity with NASA and Roscosmos (Russia) is the ability to successfully land a rover on Mars.

This is widely considered to be a world class achievement.

Evidently getting to Mars is the easy part… it’s landing on the surface that’s difficult.

As a matter of fact, it is insanely difficult.

The descent vehicle is unable to receive further instruction from Earth once it enters the Martian atmosphere.

Everything essentially has to be automated during the descent to ensure the rover lands safely on the ground, at or near the predetermined location.

main qimg 945573d74dc48c355db3dc0711c85d54

NASA engineers have described it as “7 minutes of terror.” And only three countries on Earth have achieved this milestone.

The Soviet Union was the first to succeed in placing a “lander” on Mars. In 1971 (albeit working for all of 20 seconds).

main qimg bc92881819189f0f005264a45cb59ba1 lq

The United States was the first to successfully land and operate a rover on Mars. As well as a helicopter (that flys). Which is neat.

main qimg 11e63f9e174da4da7d7bc1ef0559df84

And now China has successfully landed and operated a rover on Mars as well. On the first try. Which is a huge technological leap…

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How I see the US after living in Europe for 5 years

Could the U.S. realistically take over China with current military strength and technology? If so, what would they do first?

No.

It’s an obvious answer. Even the most pro-war, anti-China hawks recognize this fact. Which is why RAND has “cooked up” various suppression strategies designed to cripple China.

The idea behind these strategies is to weaken China to a point where it collapses, and then the oligarchic vultures can flock in and loot China at will. Previous methods were tried in the past.

Perhaps the most successful was the “century of humiliation”…

Use military force to enter China, and then force the government to become your proxy. Then, get the population hooked on drugs and loot, and rape the nation until it holds nothing left of value.

Since that dark period, there were other efforts…

A military operation to seize China though Korea. This is known as the “Korean War”, and inside America it is known as a “strategic victory”. Though, in reality, it is an absolute failure, and the Chinese kicked the American invasion forces to a small toehold in Southern Korea where they sued for peace.
After that fiasco, President Truman ordered the carpet bombing of China with Biological weapons. Failed, but most of the last 70 years involved various aspects of this effort against China.
Soros, and Bloomberg tried on multiple occasionsto seize the Chinese banks and wrest financial control over China. And did they fail! Lordy! I’m surprised that they didn’t keel over and die from the shock that some nation was smart enough to see what they were doing.
Economic sanctions, tariffs and trade restrictions have been the hallmarks and “calling card” for most conservative members of the United States. China pretty much brushes off the efforts with a big shrug and a “meh”.
Color revolutions, NED sponsored, and many CIA direct interventions have occurred. From Hong Kong, to Xinjiang, to Tibet, to Inner Mongolia. All of which have failed.

The current plan is to encircle China. Then sanction it so that no one would trade, and if they tried, the United States would start sinking ships.

Crafty huh?

Not really, by the time when everything is at 70% readiness “good to go”, the most likely outcome is [1] a betrayal of the proxy nations in favor of their own survival, [2] emerging high technologies that will render Western might impotent, and [3] a generalized mega collapse domestically inside of the United States.

If it wasn’t for the massive propaganda machine, all of this would be quite obvious to the West.

Not that I want those things to happen, but the trend lines are clear, and they haven’t deviated from the 2008 prediction vectors one iota.

Using lawfare to knock Trump out of 2024 race

How long can a shipwrecked man drifting in a raft on the sea survive?

Quite a long time, if you have “balls of steel”.

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In the picture you see Poom Lim, a sailor from China. He survived 133 days on this “thing”, alone, in the middle of the sea.

Why someone took a picture of him before he was rescued….well, people have always been like that.

He boarded a British merchant ship in 1942. Shortly after the ship left Cape Town, it was torpedoed by a German U-boat.

The ship sank.

Poon had gotten a life jacket in time and put it on.

And he swam to a raft containing drinking water supplies, a flashlight, cookies and a couple of flares.

He estimated that the supplies would last for about a month. Actually, quite a good starting point.

And in that first month, Poon saw a freighter, a U.S. Marine patrol and another German submarine. They did not respond to his calls for help.

Poon later said those were the worst moments.

But he wasn’t the type to give up. He understood from what had happened that he could not rely on others to save his life.

He decided to take matters into his own hands that he could somehow control.

And he resolved to stay alive until he found land.

In order not to break down all his muscles and stay fit, Poon jumped into the water twice a day, where there were plenty of sharks, and swam a few laps.

This way he lost weight but kept his muscles.

When he ran out of water, he collected rainwater with a small tarp.

The last remains of cookie he used as bait to catch fish. He had formed the fishing hook from parts of the flashlight.

He always picked up a few fish scraps to use again as bait.

Poon collected seaweed and algae, from which he formed a nest that he felt with fish remains.

Seagulls were attracted to it. Poon caught them with his bare hands.

And Poon drank seagull blood against his thirst.

One day a shark bit his bait. Poon pulled him onto the raft , but the shark attacked him in the process. Poon had a water jug to stun the shark.

Day 131.

The sea changed color, from dark to turquoise. Flocks of birds in the sky.

A ship. Pool waved his shirt and shouted. The ship turned.

The Portuguese-speaking sailors (they were Brazilian) on board gave him water and beans.

They took him to a hospital in Brazil, where Poon recovered for a few weeks.

He later received a medal from the English king and his survival techniques ended up in a pamphlet that was deposited on all the life rafts.

After the war, Poon emigrated to the United States and died in Brooklyn at the age of 72.

Is Life Better in the USA or Europe? (An Honest Review)

What questions do you have about the tensions between the US and China over China’s conduct in the South China Sea and Taiwan?

US is 8,300 miles away from home in Chinese water. China will do it again and again. I have no question.

Why Do Europeans Dislike Americans So Much?

Baked Fresh Ham, Southern Style

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

6 pound fresh ham
2 bay leaves
1 hot dried red pepper
1 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
1 tablespoon horseradish
1 garlic clove
Whole cloves
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Instructions

Put ham in kettle and cover with boiling water. Add next 4 ingredients. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer for 2 hours.
Cool in the broth and refrigerate overnight.
Remove rind from ham.
Mix mustard and horseradish and rub on fat. Insert garlic in the fat. Put on rack and bake in preheated slow oven (300 degrees F) for 2 hours.
Score fat with a knife, stud with cloves and sprinkle with the sugar.
Bake for 1 hour longer, basting occasionally with drippings in the pan.

BLACK AMERICAN SHOCKS EUROPEANS SPEAKING 6 LANGUAGE

Graphic Art Between Renaissance And Modernity

The French artist Benedicte Piccolillo, graphic designer and street artist, is the talent hidden behind Voglio Bene. Based in Mauguio, South of France, she creates from “coups de Coeur” that she may have had on old paintings from masters. Initially a photographer, the artist is self-taught in digital graphic creation.

“I can fall in love with a piece from the Middle Ages as well as a Mannerist painting. My favorite period remains the Renaissance, especially Italian, but also Spanish. It is full of religious paintings, each one more beautiful than the next, which maintains and delights my spiritual sidem” she explains.

Depuis quelques années, Bénédicte s’intéresse de plus en plus à l’histoire de l’art et veut donner une dimension plus culturelle à son travail. “French castles and museums are beginning to be seduced and to approach me in order to launch collaborations”, she added.

More: Benedicte Piccolillo, Instagram h/t: fubiz

TARGATE (1994) | Activating The Portal | MGM

Why was Li Peng known as ‘Butcher of Beijing’?

Because he was tough on the people who were paid to participate in the US sponsored colour revolution trying to topple the government. The colour revolution happened in Muxidi which is 5 Km from the Tiananmen Square.

The Wikileaks has disclosed the parity-wise verified cable that there was no bloodshed in Tiananmen Square.

How are Uyghurs treated in China?

Just came back from visiting Xinjiang:

Their culture and religion is respected. All street names, airports etc. include the Arab characters as well. Mosques are open.
Economy and daily life is fine. The population is half Uyghurs and half Han and they live ok together, normally.
Security is very tight. Police, road blocks and monitoring of individuals movements anytime and anywhere. But couldn’t see any abuse or disrespectful attitude by the security forces.
I believe that there is zero tolerance to any radicals and potential jihadists. Unlike the west who only RESPONDS to terrorism (rather than PREVENT it in advance), China takes preemptive measures. Gets more scolded by the world but keeps its citizens out of harm’s way.

What is the most haunting “last moments alive” picture you’ve ever seen?

This haunting photo of Nicholas Mevoli, an American free diver, has been seared into my mind.

It was on November 17, year 2013, when he did his final free dive while attempting to set a new (American) deep dive record.

He had attempted to dive to 236 ft/72 m on a single breath. He began to turn back at 223 ft/68m, but somehow changed his mind and dived further downward.

He surfaced, gave the OK sign, tried to speak, then promptly passed out.

This picture was taken just moments before he passed out.

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The look in his eyes…he looks scared stiff, frozen in fear, as if he knows what is going to happen.

Unfortunately, he never regained consciousness after that and passed away soon after.

His death was caused by breathing complications due to pulmonary edema (meaning fluid accumulation in the tissue and air spaces of the lungs).

At least some semblance of peace may be gained by his family from the fact that he passed away doing what he loved.

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Can you name one of the most meaningful stand out “light bulb moments” of your life that stuck with you?

The younger of my two sons had been quite a problem as a teenager. We fought and I was worried about his character. Jeremy flunked out of college.

In his 20s, he worked in desktop computer support. The other support tech was senior to Jeremy, but Jeremy neither liked nor respected him. Nonetheless, the senior tech invariably got his way. Of course. Then one day the manager found out that the senior tech was gay. He dismissed him.

My son discovered this about 10:00. By 10:15 he had quit, informing the manager that he could not work for a company which treated its workers unfairly. He had no job, but his integrity was intact.

At that moment, I learned that I had raised a man possessed of both morality and strength of character.

As it happens, three weeks later Jeremy had a new job at nearly twice the salary of the tech job he had quit. Things worked out rather well, all in all.

BORDER EVACUATED, Nukes Being Moved Miles From NATO Summit, Huge Fires, 72 HR WW3 Exercise

Hampton Plantation Shrimp Pilau

Hampton Plantation was once the largest rice producer in the United States.

Ingredients

6 to 8 slices bacon
2 cups shrimp (raw, cleaned – save shrimp peelings)
1 cup rice, uncooked
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup celery, diced
2 tablespoons green bell pepper, diced
1 to 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons flour
1 dash salt, to taste
1 dash pepper, to taste

Instructions

Fry bacon until crisp. Set bacon aside. Reserve bacon grease to add to water when cooking rice.
In a large frying pan on medium high heat, melt butter.
Add celery and green pepper and saute until soft and tender.
Add shrimp which have been sprinkled with Worcestershire sauce and dredged in flour.
Sauté shrimp until pink, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add cooked rice and mix until rice is all “buttery” and “shrimpy.”
Stir in crumbled bacon.
Serve hot.

Situation in Europe right now! (June 2023)

US ComSec Gina Raimondo said the US “won’t tolerate” China’s decision to ban chips by Micron Technology in some critical sectors, saying Washington sees it as “plain and simple, economic coercion” and won’t tolerate it.” How will the US retaliate?

How brain dead are the US leadership?

For years the US has been sanctioning China and now the US “won’t tolerate” a taste of their own medicine.

China doesn’t need the US, but the US needs China. Perhaps the US must be careful now and realise that their attempts at being “tough” on China to please their own voters look very stupid indeed in the international arena; the REAL WORLD.

American vs. European Suburbs (and why US suburbs suck)

This is surprisingly good.

What is up with the PRC’s refusal to implement crisis hotlines with the US, Japan, and the Philippines as well as its aggressive aerial maneuvers?

There is only one country here – the United States. As for Japan and the Philippines, they are American poodles, they do whatever their owners tell them to do, and they have no autonomy.

Is it possible that every time a US aircraft carrier crosses the Taiwan Strait or a US reconnaissance plane snoops over the South China Sea, it calls the China side in advance?

Once China side doesn’t answer the phone, Removal of guardrail, can’t the US playing “match-fixing” without fear?

Now, do US aircraft carriers dare to come to the Taiwan Strait?

Why have you lost your courage?

Isn’t the United States boasting all day about its control over the world?

Isn’t the United States boasting about its invincibility all day?

What are America’s “superheroes” afraid of?

Since there is no guardrail, the United States needs to find its own way!

Or, child, go back to your own home early, it is safest to move around outside your own home and risk areas are not the place for child to come.

Without high-level communication, many things would be different. You know!

Our soldiers cannot always exercise restraint if the enemy keeps snooping at our doorstep, and invaders from countries outside the region are not always lucky enough to return intact.

Our bomber pilots are very “not professional”, so if they get nervous and their hands shake and they accidentally “mistakenly bombed” a US aircraft carriers, we can only express our regret. 🤣

US bombers have “mistakenly bombed” the PRC Embassy in the FRY, and so can Chinese bombers. Wouldn’t you say that’s the case?

Calls to the Saudi Arabia side hotline from the US side, which the Saudi Arabia side do not answer.
Calls to the UAE side hotline from the US side, the UAE side does not answer.
Calls to the China side hotline from the US side, and China side doesn’t answer.

What does that mean?

It’s time for the United States to think about it and get a phone that works – Huawei P50s. Lol!

Working in USA vs The Netherlands: 12 Biggest Differences

My unpopular opinion

The year was in the early 1990’s. And I was working as a contractor at a electronics company that made high end military systems. Well, one day, I went to my boss and asked him for a raise. He said, “let me think about it”.

The next day he called me into his office. He accused me of being a fraud and a fake. He said that no one could find any background on me. And he spent perhaps the next two hours berating me up and down.

I left the office shaken.

Long story short, I made a few calls and got the entire mess all straightened out. But, you know, the damage was already done.

I came in wanting a raise, and left just happy that I had a job.

…

So the question is about US-China “tensions’.

Well, from my side, there’s no tensions in industry. No American companies are leaving China. If anything, more want to do more and more business with China. China is doing quite well. In fact, there is absolutely no correlation between the “news” about China and what is actually going on.

In fact, the smallest items are blown way out of proportion.

A wayward weather balloon becomes a network of spying technology…
A US spy aircraft gets close to the Chinese coast, and suddenly it’s a war provocation.
Two European warships hugging the Chinese coastline try to ram a Chinese destroyer, and it’s called a “serious incident”.

So my opinion is going to be very unpopular.

…

My opinion is that all these incidents, and “political song and dance” is for American domestic consumption. They are in NO WAY an attempt to force China to change policy or alter it’s Geo-political trajectory. Their only purposes is related to an out-of-control domestic situation.

My opinion is that the United States is impotent. It cannot do anything else to manipulate or suppress China. China has the United States in Check-mate. And any move that the United States does will hurt the USA far more than it would harm China.

Who is the most intelligent criminal in history? Why?

His name is Liu Zhaohua, who won the second prize in the chemistry competition when he was in school, taught himself to make 31 tons of drugs(methamphetamine), with a purity of 99%, and became China’s largest drug lord（He had only 9 years of schooling）! Until now many drug dealers are secretly inquiring, what method Liu Zhaohua used to make methamphetamine, what crystallization method he used.

Synthesized with various common chemical reagents, not based on ephedrine production. He changed the substrate and catalyst of the reaction and adopted the continuous generation + continuous crystallization method in 1999.

In terms of daily production, he can easily crystallize 1,000,000 grams of methamphetamine a day, which is one ton, and if it can be sold, five tons a day is not a problem. In terms of conversion rate he claims to have a conversion rate of 90%. Such a high capacity, such a high conversion rate, drug quality is still very good, and the production process is very environmentally friendly and pollution-free, even more environmentally friendly than some pharmaceutical plants, so much so that many top chemical and chemical experts and scholars can not believe.

Until today, there is not a single drug maker in the world, including some professor-level ones who can reach the overall quality (purity, crystallization, and appearance) of the meth produced by Liu Zhaohua. They may have no problem with the theoretical aspects, but the process technology they master cannot do it.

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He has a high IQ and an extremely strong psychological quality. He escaped from Guangzhou on his bicycle under the circumstances that the police had barricaded him all over the city, and carved “Liu Zhaohua, came here to visit” on the cave where he had been hiding, which made the police furious. At that time, Liu Zhaohua was staying in room 818 of the President Hotel in Guangzhou. The police were quickly dispatched and rushed to the President Hotel in Guangzhou, and at this time Liu Zhaohua had just returned to the hotel from outside. At the critical moment, Liu Zhaohua did not immediately twist and turn to flee the scene, but made an amazing move. He and the investigator took the same elevator, see the investigator pressed the 8th floor, Liu Zhaohua immediately pressed the 7th floor. And on the day of November 4, the Guangzhou police deployed a large number of police officers to impose martial law on the entry and exit gates and major traffic routes in the city. In particular, the suspicious vehicles leaving Guangzhou were checked, and the check was very tight. Buses, cabs, private cars along with cars hauling goods were checked one by one. Liu Zhaohua, who walked out of the President Hotel, knew very well that there would be checkpoints to arrest him at all major traffic roads in Guangzhou. The police will definitely check the vehicles entering and leaving the intersection of Guangzhou, so Liu Zhaohua chose a way to escape that no one expected – a bicycle. For Liu Zhaohua this is naturally the best disguise, Liu Zhaohua just rode a bicycle to escape from Guangzhou under the heavy police siege. And this is already the second time Liu Daohua slipped away from under the nose of the police.

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（Liu Zhaohua’s second wife）

He has three wives in the same time and four children, and his golden words are popular in the love scene: “The first wife is my favorite, the second wife is my most loving, and the third wife is my most loving.

In 2000. Liu Zhaohua settled in Quanzhou County, Guilin, Guangxi under the name of Li Senqing.He lived here, got married and had children, and was well known in the area. The neighbors of this “Mr. Li” said that he was kind to people, but rather petty, a rich man with the air of a small citizen. This time, Liu Zhaohua disguised very successfully. In fact, during the escape Liu Zhaohua also became a important guest of the local government. He leased more than 24,000 acres of land in the Phoenix Forestry in Lingui County, Guilin, claiming to complete a project with a total investment of 300 million yuan in three years. So, why is he going to do by renting so much forest land? Liu Zhaohua claimed that he did not have a sense of accomplishment in doing methamphetamine, while planting red bean fir gave him a sense of accomplishment because the area he planted was the largest in the world.

Liu Zhaohua is both cunning and arrogant, he does not follow common sense and believes that the most dangerous place is instead the safest. This is an important reason why he successfully escaped from the chase several times. During the years in Guilin, Guangxi, Liu Zhaohua made a big show of running his own business. The most important thing is that he did not shy away from getting himself into the newspaper and even became a local celebrity. on February 6, 2013, the Guilin Evening News reported a full-page story about a resident who bravely fought the thieves, and the resident who bravely caught three thieves was Liu Zhaohua, who changed his name.

After being caught, he said to the police in prison: “You can ask what you want to know, make a list, but don’t play with my intelligence, you can’t play with me.”

In court he sophomorically argued, “I don’t sell my drugs to domestic people, only to foreigners; foreigners used to open China’s doors with opium, and I should open their doors with meth too.”

In the eyes of the police, he is a misguided chemical genius who has cleverly escaped mass arrests by the police many times; in the circle of drug production and trafficking, he is a legend that cannot be replicated; in the eyes of his mother, he is a good student; in the eyes of his three wives, he is a master of “time management”; in the eyes of his children, he is a cold-blooded father who only cares about birth but not nurturing.

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Some people once described Liu Zhaohua as a real-life version of China’s “Walter White(Breaking Bad)”.The profession does not agree with this statement, because even Walter White, who has the aura of a protagonist, is several notches below Liu Zhaohua, both in terms of drug production technology (including methamphetamine quality) and production scale.

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In terms of influence, the fictional Walter White is even more incomparable. Liu Zhaohua is very famous in the global drug trafficking and drug production circles, and the Mexican drug lord “Shorty” Guzman, who was just released from prison in 2002, immediately sent his pals to inquire about the whereabouts of Liu Zhaohua, who was on the run, and wanted to pay a lot of money to seek cooperation.

In terms of life experience, Liu Zhaohua is also more legendary than Walter White in the movie and TV series.He has been a soldier and a bailiff. He has made meritorious achievements and received commendations. During his time in office, he was the backbone that every leader wanted to focus on training. If not engaged in drug trafficking, he has a bright future.

Of course, in terms of social harm, Liu Zhaohua is also worse, as he made 31 tons of methamphetamine. With his own power to influence the behavior of several industries in China, for example, the use of hydrochloric acid in some corporate factories, research institutions, schools, etc. need to be reported first.

American turned Dutch: Giving up US Citizenship

What should we remember as an Indian?

These are the same Russian submarines, which protected the Indian Navy by becoming a shield against America in the 1971 war.

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A story that has almost been erased from the Indian history books.

50 years ago in 1971, the US threatened India to stop the 1971 war. Concerned India sent an SOS to the Soviet Union. When Pakistan’s defeat in the 1971 war seemed easy, Kissinger prompted Nixon to send the US 7th Fleet Task Force, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, to the Bay of Bengal.

USS Enterprise, 75,000 tons, was the world’s largest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the 1970s with over 70 fighters. A moving monster on the surface of the sea. The Indian Navy’s fleet was led by Vikrant, a 20,000-tonne aircraft carrier, carrying 20 light combat aircraft. Officially, the USS Enterprise was sent to the Bay of Bengal to protect American citizens in Bangladesh, while unofficially it was to intimidate the Indian Army and prevent the liberation of East Pakistan.

Further, Soviet intelligence reported to India that a powerful British naval fleet led by the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle along with the commando carrier HMS Albion, along with several destroyers and other ships were approaching the Arabian Sea from the west in Indian waters.

The British and Americans planned a coordinated naval attack to intimidate India: British ships in the Arabian Sea would target India’s west coast, while the Americans would attack in Chittagong. The Indian Navy was caught between British and American ships. That was December 1971, and the world’s two major democracies were now threatening the world’s largest democracy.

An SOS from Delhi was sent to Moscow. The Red Navy soon dispatched 16 Soviet naval units and six nuclear submarines from Vladivostok to block the USS Enterprise.

Admiral N Krishnan, the chief of the Eastern Command of the Indian Navy, wrote in his book ‘No Way But Surrender’ that he feared the Americans would reach Chittagong. He mentioned how he thought of attacking the Enterprise in a do-or-die trick to slow it down.

On 2 December 1971, a task force of the US 7th Fleet led by the water giant USS Enterprise arrived in the Bay of Bengal. The British fleet was coming into the Arabian Sea.

The world held its breath.

But, unknown to the Americans, they were overtaken by submerged Soviet submarines.

As the USS Enterprise headed for East Pakistan, Soviet submarines came to the fore without warning. Soviet submarines now stood between India and American naval forces.

Americans_surprised_surprised_.

The 7th US Fleet Commander told Admiral Gordon: “Sir, we are too late. The Soviets are here!” no choice but to retreat. Both the American and British fleets retreated.

Today, most Indians have forgotten this huge naval chess battle between the two superpowers in the Bay of Bengal. It is important to know and remember.

If the US and China went to war, how long would it take the Chinese military to wipe out the US’ navy and air force?

Why ask questions that you know the answer to?

What are you, a sadist? Asking the same old questions day in, and day out. Hoping, praying, waiting, for some other tidbit of information that would make the reality easier to digest?

On paper, in theory, all of the 11 aircraft carriers that the United States fields (10 Nimitz and 1 Ford), could be destroyed by Chinese conventionally-armed DF-26 “carrier Killer” missiles. Given the flight times for the latest upgrades for the hyper-velocity versions of the DF-26 anticipated stopwatch from launch to destruction is within five minutes within the 4000 Km range.

They are very effective. And are designed to completely destroy Aircraft carriers.

From time to time, China takes them out as a warning to overly aggressive American neocons that are getting “too big for their britches”.

These units are not the ONLY weapons systems that are designed to destroy carrier flotillas, islands, and large bases like in Guam or Hawaii. There are many others. It’s just that the DF-26 is particularly good at it. Given the enormous numbers of launchers, and the insane levels of stockpiled munitions, one can only assume that all targets from land bases to submarines will be the prey for this missile.

The DF-26 appears to be designed specifically for high precision conventional strikes. The most likely target for the DF-26 missile would be Guam going by the range of the missile. Given the nature of the targets in Guam, which are mostly air bases (Guam has two large air bases where, as revealed by satellite imagery, B-52 squadrons are deployed), the DF-26 might be carrying specially designed cluster based bomb-lets to cause maximum damage to bombers spread out on the tarmac. In addition, there could be a specially designed deep penetration warhead for Hardened and Deeply Buried Targets (HDBTs).

Now, for the longest time, the USN and the ONI have been very quiet about the massive exponential increase in Chinese weapon lethality, survival-ability, and technology. The reports have been duly logged. The studies have been gamed out. The results and conclusions have been presented, filed and forgotten.

But it has only been during the last year that the USN admirals have become increasingly frenzied when dealing with hawkish Administration and Senate members. These people are not taking “no” for an answer, and want to find some edge; some justification, to “pull off” a “successful” war against China.

So, sometime, within the last nine months or so, the ONI through a number of key admirals, laid out the reality to the neocon “war hawks”.

And they are horrified.

The Chinese “just ran rings around us,” said former Joint Chiefs Vice Chair Gen. John Hyten in one after-action report. “They knew exactly what we were going to do before we did it.”

Dozens of versions of the above war-game scenario have been enacted over the last few years, most recently in April by the House Select Committee on competition with China. And while the ultimate outcome in these exercises is not always clear — the U.S. does better in some than others — the cost is. In every exercise the U.S. uses up all its long-range air-to-surface missiles in a few days, with a substantial portion of its planes destroyed on the ground. In every exercise the U.S. is not engaged in an abstract push-button war from 30,000 feet up like the ones Americans have come to expect since the end of the Cold War, but a horrifically bloody one.

And that’s assuming the U.S.-China war doesn’t go nuclear.

“The thing we see across all the wargames is that there are major losses on all sides. And the impact of that on our society is quite devastating,” said Becca Wasser, who played the role of the Chinese leadership in the Select Committee’s wargame and is head of the gaming lab at the Center for a New American Security.

“The most common thread in these exercises is that the United States needs to take steps now in the Indo-Pacific to ensure the conflict doesn’t happen in the future.

We are hugely behind the curve. Ukraine is our wakeup call. This is our watershed moment.”

So…

Please give me a break. Stop asking for answers that you do not want to hear.

If the United States drops one bullet inside of China, and Taiwan is China, the entire USN gets sunk. And the American losses in the first two hours will be absolutely horrific.

China issued a statement and the United States is left in mixed feelings.

https://youtu.be/I_GeZj3KZPM

The rules are draconian, but not applied equally. That is not fair.

I have said this over and over again. The world is changing. The West is going completely bonkers, and the “third world” is getting stronger and more aggressive.

If you are sitting in a pot of hot water, you will think that everyone in the world is experiencing what you experience, but that is not the case. You all need to step outside the cauldron. Cool down and enjoy yourself.

…

Many MM followers are writing to me and reaffirming their thoughts about all these “UFO disclosures” that seem to be very popular now. The over all opinion voiced here on MM is that it’s all a bullshit game, and the real deal is right here in MM land. I appreciate that. I really do.

Don’t get too caught up.

When one form of disinfo collapses, another one takes its place. The United States and the West) are so messed up that you will NEVER know the truth from the lies. Never.

…

Keep being yourselves and enjoy some nice Summer foods. Watermelon, tomato sandwiches, fried chicken, coleslaw, and all the rest. Like hotdogs over an open fire. Savor the good things.

Todays…

No empire has ever declined without going down fighting. Will it be the same for the USA, as China and Russia gain world hegemony?

Empires usually don’t collapse instantly, they degraded and decay slowly. Modern European colonial powers didn’t die and collapse, they didn’t fight each others, they fought in too many wars repeatedly, eventually they ran out of money. US didn’t fight UK, UK didn’t fight France in 20th century to destroy France.

Superpower can destroy itself if they mistakenly take on even more powerful opponent(s), such as the case of Germany and Japan, the result is total destructions and collapses.

Superpower often can defeat and destroy a rising power, as UK has done repeatedly, but each victory came with a heavy price, accumulating cost in money and manpower eventually diminished that superpower, as in UK, a shadow of its former empire, even India has a bigger GDP than UK.

China is not a lightweight but a super heavy duty global industrial and agricultural power bigger than US and all G7 combined. China and Russia combined is way beyond US and allies can handle.

War is not inevitable. If war is possible, US would’ve done it already.

I went to Canada and I was SHOCKED!

https://youtu.be/XBnaVQjLXfY

What honor remains in China?

Masses compared to the USA.

What deranged idiot wrote this question?

China; developed, civilised and well educated nation that spreads peace and prosperity around the world. Very honourable people if you go.

USA; crime ridden, poverty stricken hell hole full of deranged evil crazies (look at the pro US Quorans on this site) that spread war and suffering everywhere and hate anyone on this planet who complains about it. The US can go to hell. Leave the world alone. We; the people of the planet; over 90% who hate the USA have honour. You pro US ( and there are decent US people) hegemonic supporters have zero honour, courage, wisdom or anything anywhere near the decency that would warrant you being classed as an animal.

US Is Desperate For China’s Attention But China Isn’t Picking Up The Call

What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?

Let me preface this by saying that I was a journeyman machinist and helicopter mechanic. At the time, circa 1975, my daily car was a 1967 Ford Fairlane 2 door hardtop with a 289 V8 and 3 speed Hurst shifter on the floor. And I did all my own work on it.

I took it into the local Montgomery Ward Car Care Center to get the annual Virginia state inspection. After a while a mechanic came in the waiting room and told me I needed new shocks and they “just happened” to have a sale on shocks going on. I asked him to show me the problem and he pressed down on the rear fender and said the car was bouncing too much, indicating bad shocks.

I grabbed my keys so they couldn’t move the car and called the local state police office which was nearby. The staties were responsible for overseeing inspectors. A state cop soon showed up and I explained the issue. He had the center put a new inspection sticker on my car and proceeded to pull the inspection license from the shop. They had to go to an administrative hearing and lost their inspection for several months.

Oh, and by the way, just a few days before I had just installed a set of expensive air adjustable shocks on the car which was the first thing I mention to the state cop.

Urgency to Flee Australia Before New Rules Take Effect

What is the craziest April Fool’s joke someone has ever pulled off?

Some smart guy named Porky Bickar fooled his whole town into thinking the nearby dormant volcano was about to erupt.

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This was in Sitka, Alaska, 1974.

Bickar was a local businessman, pilot and apparently the local prankster. He came up with the idea for the volcanic eruption prank as a way to promote his new helicopter charter business and to bring some excitement to the lifeless town of Sitka.

First, he secretly flew up a hundreds of old tyres to the volcano’s crater and tossed them in.

On April’s Fool’s he set fire to them.

As you can imagine, the resulting smoke and flames caused widespread alarm among the poor confused folks of Sitka.

Panic set in, immediate preparations for evacuations were made. Kids were sent home, families gathered their precious possessions, called in their pets.

The last eruption was over 4000 years ago. What’s happening? The Coast Guard sent a helicopter out to investigate. When the pilot arrived, he looked down and saw:

A spray – painted Happy April Fool’s message.

But don’t think of Bickar as careless. He had taken precautions and informed the authorities with the exception of the coast guard.

Once news got out that it was a prank, most Sitka residents thought it was hilarious. Even a flight that was leaving Sitka that day was diverted so that passengers could see the faux eruption. The admiral in charge of the Coast Guard in Alaska later told Bickar he thought the prank was brilliant.

Thankfully, people had a sense of humor back then so everyone pretty much laughed it off; it would have been considered an act of terrorism today.

White Man Scolds Black People For Not Listening To Malcolm X Regarding Lying Liberals

What advantages did the Germans have during Nazi rule?

Have a lot of sex, if you are young and considered genetically attractive. They breed healthy Aryan girls who fit any type of man. Blonde and blue-eyed to the front of the line. It’s free, no-strings-attached sex. Something that young people tend to like. And Reich cared for the babies in a special SS “Kindergarten” called Lebensborn to raise them in order to replenish conquered territory. Most would be adopted to select families, mostly from the SS. An estimated 900 pregnancies were caused by the Nuremberg demonstrations alone.

Sex between chosen, young, and genetically pure Germans is recommended. Awards, such as the Cross of Honor of the German Lady, were given to women who contributed most to the Reich. The German high command knew that it had to replace the millions of soldiers and civilians who would be lost in the war. They think for the long term. But the Reich lasted only 12 years, not a thousand, so it was all in vain. Sports and physical fitness are also widely regulated and encouraged. And people are taught to give birth naturally, not look down on it as in previous generations. So, life was pretty good for most Germans until the war came to their home.

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What is something that most people don’t know about you but if you tell it you’re afraid they wouldn’t believe you?

I saved all the passengers on a plane, including myself and my family, from a deadly airplane accident.

But not in the way you might think. It wasn’t like the pilot passed out and I took control of the flight or anything like that.

Let me explain. I was around 7 or 8 years old. I remember we were at the airport, about to board a flight to Miami (USA). The plane was running a bit late (as it often happens), but eventually, we boarded, about an hour later than scheduled.

We entered the plane, stowed our luggage in the overhead compartments, and took our seats. Of course, I chose the window seat. I was sitting next to my father, while my mother was in the row next to us.

The pilot announced that they were ready for takeoff and asked everyone to fasten their seatbelts and prepare for departure. However, what he didn’t prepare them for was what was about to happen next.

Just seconds before the plane was about to start moving, I began convulsing out of nowhere, something that had never happened to me before. According to my father, veins popped out on my neck, and I wasn’t responsive to what they were saying, so he decided to shout for the takeoff to be stopped.

All the passengers got scared, thinking there was some kind of attack when in reality, it was just my father causing a commotion to halt the plane. In the end, a flight attendant announced that there was an emergency situation, and the plane abruptly stopped just as it was about to take off.

The curious thing is that after a doctor checked me and my father signed some papers, he made the daring decision (he wouldn’t miss his vacation for anything) to continue the journey. If anything happened to me, it would be his responsibility.

What’s even more curious about the whole incident is that after many passengers complained about the delay caused by me, the plane prepared to start again. However, as it started, one of the turbine generators spontaneously caught fire. They had to evacuate us, and the same passengers who had complained earlier now called me ‘The Blessed Child’ while giving me crosses and saint stamps, thanking me for potentially saving them from a fatal mid-flight accident.

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So, technically, thanks to my sudden seizure, I ended up causing a delay, which led to the turbine catching fire while the plane was still on the ground. I saved the lives of the passengers on that flight.

Johnny Cakes

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup water
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon grease, plus more, as needed

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.
In another large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, water, eggs and sugar. Add the buttermilk mixture into the flour and stir until just combined. Do not over-mix or the pancakes will be tough.
In a cast iron skillet, heat the oil over medium heat until just barely shimmering. Spoon 1/2 cup of the batter in the skillet. Cook until bubbles form all over the surface of the cake. Flip the cake and continue cooking until soft and fluffy, and the center is completely cooked through. Transfer to a plate.
Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more oil as needed.
Serve hot with butter, pure maple syrup, honey or your favorite pancake topping.

Biden Intensifies Warning To Uganda, Repeal Anti-Gay Law Or Else

Is Rishi Sunak’s assertion that China represents the “biggest challenge” to global security accurate?

I’m going to try to give a more sympathetic interpretation to Rishi’s comments.

I grew up in Canada and studied in the US at a time the West had just emerged triumphant from the Cold War. Francis Fukuyama had just written “The End of History”, trumpeting the ultimate victory of Western liberal democracy as led by the US. My view of China was formed by reading books such as Jung Chang’s “Wild Swans” about China’s Cultural Revolution. I knew little about China except that it was poor and umm… communist lol.

Then I moved to Hong Kong for work. I started going into China on business trips.

My first visits pretty much confirmed my biases. The country was very poor. But I also noticed something; it was developing very rapidly. I’d visit Shenzhen and each trip it seemed that a new office tower or highway had sprung up seemingly overnight.

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Shenzhen in 1990 (top) vs 2014 (bottom)

I consider myself reasonably knowledgeable about China — in part because of all the business I did there. And even though I was an eyewitness to the changes taking place, I still didn’t predict how fast the country would develop. Who would’ve guessed back at the turn of the millennium that in less than 25 years, China’s economy would be bigger (by PPP) than the US?

So yes, if by “global security” Rishi is talking about the US led post-war order, China is a threat. Because it is big enough and has a center of gravity that offers countries an alternative to the United States’ view of the world. I wonder if American policymakers realize just what a seminal moment the Saudi – Iran peace deal that China brokered was. By pulling off something America was unwilling or unable to do, it showed the limits of American influence — and demonstrated that meaningful geopolitical objectives could and would get done without the US.

Change can be scary. We live in a world that is changing so fast. And much like me at the turn of the millennia, Western policymakers have yet to come to grips with how fast China’s rise is or what the implications are. That’s why they view China as a “threat” to global security.

The unipolar world is dying. Long live the multipolar world.

It’s time to EXPOSE AFRICA, where are you for your people you enslaved?

A comparison of China and the US’s legacy in Africa

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Have you ever checked into a hotel room and found something unexpected?

This isn’t so much finding something unexpected as not finding something expected. One time when I was young and on the road home in an older car, my car broke down in the evening, on the off-ramp in the town of Port Hope, in Ontario, Canada. We managed to push my car to a nearby auto service shop and a nice guy drove us to a nearby hotel. The clerk gave us a key to a room and we went and found the room, but there was no bed in the room! We went back to the front desk and found the clerk in the pool room shooting pool and said “ummm, there’s no bed in the room you gave us.” He apologized and gave us a different room, which did have a bed. Aside from the missing bed, the people of that town treated us very well. It was a few days before Christmas and someone came in on his day off to fix our car while someone else showed us around town. I have fond feelings for the people of Port Hope, Ontario.

America’s Desperate Bid To Save The Dollar Just Failed

Paper: Saudi crown prince threatened to inflict ‘major’ economic pain on US amid oil feud

Friday, 09 June 2023 7:05 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 09 June 2023 7:12 AM ]

US President Joe President Biden (L) meets Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Alsalam Royal Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 15, 2022. (File photo by the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia)

A classified document has revealed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) threatened to impose significant economic costs on Washington after US President Joe Biden warned Riyadh over its decision to slash oil production last fall.

Even though the Saudi government publicly defended its actions politely via diplomatic statements, the 37-year-old de facto ruler of the country threatened in private to re-evaluate the Arab nation’s relationship with the White House and impose significant economic costs on the United States if it retaliated against the oil cuts.

According to the document, the crown prince claimed “he will not deal with the US administration anymore,” and promised “major economic consequences for Washington,” The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The US intelligence document was circulated on the Discord messaging platform as part of an extensive leak of highly sensitive national security materials.

“We are not aware of such threats by Saudi Arabia,” a spokesperson with the US National Security Council said.

“In general, such documents often represent only one snapshot of a moment in time and cannot possibly offer the full picture,” the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, added.

“The United States continues to collaborate with Saudi Arabia, an important partner in the region, to advance our mutual interests and a common vision for a more secure, stable, and prosperous region, interconnected with the world,” the official said.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington has yet to make a comment on the matter.

Eight months after Biden vowed “consequences” for Saudi Arabia after oil output cuts, the US president has yet to take any measures against the Arab country and MbS has continued to engage with top US officials, as he did with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the seaside Saudi city of Jeddah earlier this week.

Biden, who had pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” as a presidential candidate, now scarcely communicates with the crown prince but the president’s top aides have gradually rebuilt ties with him hoping the two nations can work together on pressing issues, including normalization with Israel, Saudi Arabia’s growing relationship with China, a long-sought peace deal in Yemen and continued disagreements over the supply of oil.

A second leaked US intelligence document from December last year also warned that Saudi Arabia plans to expand its “transactional relationship” with China by procuring drones, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and mass surveillance systems from Beijing.

During a news conference alongside Blinken in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud highlighted that China and Saudi Arabia are close and strategic allies and have been increasing cooperation in the energy and financial sectors, and that “cooperation is likely to grow.”

He said Saudi Arabia’s ties with the United States and China were not a “zero-sum game.”

“I don’t ascribe to this zero-sum game,” Prince Faisal said in Riyadh. “We are all capable of having multiple partnerships and multiple engagements and the US does the same in many instances.

“So I’m not caught up in this really negative view of this. I think we can actually build a partnership that crosses these borders,” the top Saudi diplomat said.

Riyadh’s strengthening of its commercial and security ties with Beijing comes as US influence wanes in the Middle East region.

I prefer to raise my child in China over most Western countries.

What was the biggest jerk move by a park employee you have ever seen?

A man, who identified himself as Ante, took his girlfriend to Disneyland, and there he got down on one knee on a stage in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle, ready to propose. He had his friends waiting a distance away, phone camera out recording.

Ante whips out the ring box, and as he’s asking the question, a Disney employee sprints in out of nowhere, snatches the ring box from his hands, and runs off stage.

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Why? Because people aren’t supposed to propose there, unless they got permission to.

According to the person who filmed, they had permission but that employee didn’t know this.

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He tells them to come down the stage and complete their proposal there.

In a daze, Ante told the employee, “She said yes.”

The man responded: “Yes, that’s great, but over here, it’s going to be even better.”

Disneyland Employee Interrupts Proposal After Man Got Permission || ViralHog

It was too late, though; he had fully ruined the couple’s moment.

I understand the employee was just doing his job but Jesus, have some fucking tact. He could’ve stopped them with his voice, yelled at them even, anything but snatch the ring out of Ante’s hands mid-proposal. That was disrespectful.

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Ante reacted quite well; many others commented they would’ve punched the man.

Disney apologised in a statement:

We have offered our sincere apologies to the couple concerned and we will do everything we can to make this up to them.

“Disneyland stands for dreams,” Ante said in a phone interview. “Our moment was destroyed.”

Undercover Boss Employees That Got BRUTALLY FIRED!

https://youtu.be/KF-ybeLfyHo

What was the extremely disturbing about the last century 😶?

Imagine for a moment that you were born in the year 1900. When you were 14 years old, World War I begins and ends only when you are 18 years old, leaving 22 million dead.

A little later, a worldwide pandemic, the Spanish Flu, appears, killing 50 million people. And you are alive, 20 years old.

At 29 years old, you survive the global economic crisis that began with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange, causing inflation, unemployment and hunger.

When you are 33 years old, Nazism comes to power.

When you’re 39, World War II starts and ends when you’re 45, with 60 million dead.

When you are 52 years old, the Korean War begins.

When you’re 64, the Vietnam War starts and ends when you’re 75.

A person born in 1985, for example, thinks that their grandparents have no idea how difficult life is, not knowing that they have survived several wars and global catastrophes.

Today we have been living with a great pandemic for more than a year. We are scared and tired. We lost friends and relatives, we are scared.

In the past, conditions were even worse, but yes, humanity survived under these conditions and overcame it.

Believe me, better days await us.

What is something movies always get wrong?

dig a grave

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This happens a lot in movies these days: someone kills someone else, and in an attempt to hide said body, they just go out and casually dig a 6-foot-deep grave big enough to fit a man with a shovel.

No. Crap. Chance.

Have any of these writers ever tried to dig a grave? Do you know what happens when you go below 8 inches of soil? Rocks. Clay. Slate. Very dense soil – you name it.

Very soon you will find that your shovel is completely useless.

Show at least someone with a pick, because that’s the bare minimum you need to dig a grave. And even with that, it takes you hours and hours.

Think about that too – if you assume the grave is 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and 6 feet deep – that’s 108 feet. mud. Dry mud typically weighs about 75 pounds per cubic foot. So one grave is 8,000 pounds of earth. 4 tons. Good luck feeling your hands after this.

Ukrainian Armored Columns Got SMASHED and AMBUSHED

Russia

What is Rear Adm. Mike Studeman referring to when he mentions “China blindness” at a military conference earlier this year?

China Prepares for Worst-Case Scenario

Is it true that a woman once tried to sue Keanu Reeves for child support?

Yup.

This was in 2009. The woman pictured, Karen Sala, filed a paternity suit seeking around $3 milion a month in spousal support plus about $150,000 a month in child support (going back to 2006).

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Sala claimed she had a sexual relationship with Keanu, that they lived together and that he was present at the birth of three of her children.

She said she had known him since she was four or five, as he grew up down the street from her.

“I didn’t know he was Keanu Reeves,” she said. “To me he was Marty Spencer.”

Marty Spencer, lol. The claim that that was his name should have been enough to throw the whole case out.

The strongest piece of evidence against her was of course, the DNA test results, which showed Keanu was not the father of Sala’s children.

It gets better. When presented with this evidence, Sara, who was representing herself, claimed Keanu could’ve used hypnosis to alter the test results. What the hell.

The judge threw the case out.

What is the saddest moment you have seen in a movie or TV?

I felt really sorry for this guy.

X-Factor New Zealand, 2015.

This man, Joe Irvine, stepped onto the stage and sang “Cry Me A River”.

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He sang well enough, nothing seemed to be wrong.

But when he was done, two of the judges ploughed into him, they completely laid into him. I mean they trashed him so bad they made Simon Cowell look like a sweetheart.

But why did they do that?

It wasn’t because of what he sang, or even how he sang. In fact it had nothing to do with his singing.

It was because of how he looked.

The two judges were Willy Moon and Natalia Kills, a married couple. Both of them are also singers.

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On that particular episode, the contestant Joe Irvine looked very much like Willy Moon.

Willy Moon, left. Joe Irvine, right.

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The couple claimed Joe Irvine changed his look so he could look like Willy Moon.

Willy Moon joined in the tirade, saying it felt cheap and absurd, and “like Norman Bates dressing up in his mother’s clothing”.

[1] (Norman Bates is the killer in the horror film Psycho).

All these comments were rude and completely unnecessary, and look at the poor guy’s face, he looked like he was about to cry.

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He didn’t say much back to them. He only said that he liked the way he looked.

The two judges’ tirade sparked an outrage on social media, causing both of them to be simultaneously fired from the show.

[2] They received so much hate that they fled the country to Los Angeles.

[3] The couple at the airport, accompanied by security, still trying to look fashionable as they flee the country. God, they look creepy.

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Joe Irvine received a lot of support on social media from the public and also from celebrities, such as Ed Sheeran.

New Zealand chart-topper Lorde sent him a letter and some cupcakes.

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Lorde’s letter read

I’m a performer too, and I wanted to say that no matter how many people make fun of me for how I dress, move and act, I’m being me – and that’s what’s important. Good luck and lots of love, Lorde.

People were understandably upset with those two judges. Those two judges said a lot of mean things to Joe Irvine, and even compared him to a (fictional) murderer.

On social media, people ridiculed those judges, and some people harassed them to the point where they felt they had to leave the country for the sake of their own safety.

No matter how much someone tries to copy your looks or style or whatever, you just can’t tell them they look like a psycho killer in front of thousands of viewers.

What I found hilarious were the memes made about the female judge, Natalia Kills.

She trashed Joe Irvine for copying her husband’s style, so people trashed her for copying the styles of other…..famous individuals.

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It’s kinda hilarious and she deserves it.

Southern Biscuits and Gravy

Ingredients

1/2 pound bulk pork breakfast sausage
2 tablespoons chopped yellow onions
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 batch Southern Biscuits

Instructions

Heat frying pan and fry the sausage and onion until the sausage is brown and the onion clear.
Drain off all grease except for 2 tablespoons.
Stir in the flour and cook for just a minute.
Add the hot milk. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and then season with salt and pepper.
Serve over warm opened biscuits.

The big game of chess is about to see some grand moves on the game board.

There is a lot of things going on. One of the big things is the apparent “disclosure” by the government that Aliens exist that that the United States government has been reverse engineering the vehicles for decade. Uh huh.

What is interesting is that the mainstream “news’ is ignoring this news.

Then you have this massive movement of NATO and the United States ready to take on Russia. That is NOT going to have a good result.

But…

I believe that China and Russia has already planned for this and are playing “this game of Chess” about 56 moves ahead of the USA.

Manifestations hitting hard! Good stuff.

Have you ever refused an inheritance? Why?

Yes. My grandmother died, and my aunt (her daughter) and uncle had lived with her for years and took care of her. My aunt died before my grandmother, so when my grandmother died, it left only my uncle living in the house. He approached me awkwardly and asked if I would sign over the deed so he could have the house. He needed me and my sister to do this, and we both did with no reservations. He had taken care of the house, my grandmother and my aunt for years, so it was the right thing to do.

Africans Vs African Americans

Interesting.

Speaker of the House Sends Lawmakers HOME – Three Days Before NATO Exercise . . .that may start Russia War

Nation Hal Turner 08 June 2023

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took the extraordinary and very unusual step of canceling votes for the rest of this week and sent lawmakers home today. Just three days before the largest-ever NATO “exercise” simulating war with Russia . . .

The “public reason” given by Speaker McCarthy is that this was due to a “revolt” by 11 members of the House Freedom Caucus, who banded together to grind proceedings to a halt in protest of the speaker caving to Democrats during last week’s compromise to raise the debt ceiling.

The looming and not-so-public fact is that NATO’s “exercise” simulating war with Russia starts in 3+ days – and that “exercise” — may turn out to be real.

Bear in mind, this action by the Speaker takes place just about one week after members of the Senate were all given Satellite telephones “in case a disruption to US communications occurs.” It also takes place just a few short days after the Memorial Day weekend holiday, during which, select high-level FedGov officials secretly spent the weekend at Government Bunkers with their families. a “practice run” for the real thing, maybe?

Or was it not “practice” at all? How many of those officials are STILL in those Bunkers? Is Congress now joining them?

I don’t believe the public reason given for this sending of lawmakers “home.”

Governing is always messy. It is always disordered. There are always disagreements and there is always upheaval. Yet, the Speaker chose to “send lawmakers home????” No, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy it one bit.

Who knows, maybe they’re planning some type off False Flag attack upon Washington, DC to be blamed on Russia?

Wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

Stay tuned . . .

Liquor Store Owner Shoots Armed Robber With Shotgun

https://youtu.be/WanvSbJHbWI

A delicious layered Tex-Mex casserole using three different cheeses.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (15.5 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes, with juice, coarsely chopped
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder, or to taste
1 (15 ounce) carton Wisconsin ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded Wisconsin Monterey Jack cheese
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
3 large eggs, beaten
1 (8 ounce) bag tortilla chips
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese

Instructions

Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Sauté green bell pepper and garlic until tender.
Add kidney beans. Set aside.
In saucepan, combine tomatoes, tomato sauce and chili powder. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Add to kidney bean mixture. Combine ricotta and Monterey Jack cheeses, chiles, onions and eggs.
Spread 1/4 of cheese mixture evenly in greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish.
Arrange 1/4 of chips over cheese.
Spread 1/4 of tomato mixture over chips. Repeat layer 3 more times.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove foil and top with cheddar cheese and bake 10 to 15 minutes more.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

(Real Zombieland) Visiting America’s Ruined City | 我走入美國加州最恐怖市中心華人為什麼還不離開?

Real.

What’s something a flight attendant did to you that you will never forget?

Flying into Jackson, MS, on USAir, my airplane stopped and people began to get out of their seats. I realized, though, that the hatch had not opened, and bumpety-bumpety-bump sounds were coming from it.

The captain came up on the PA. “Folks, there are marks on the ground where different aircraft types are supposed to park, in order to have their hatch lined up with the jetway. I’ve just been told that there is an error in ours. We’re going to have to be pulled back by a tug. Before that, everyone has to be sitting and strapped in.”

Grumble grumble. People sit down. Feeling of slight movement.

Bumpety-bumpety-bump. Bump bump. Hatch still isn’t open.

At that point, a flight attendant came up on the PA. In the most syrupy and seductive of Southern Belle voices, she oozed into the microphone, “Is it in?”

Unfortunately, the captain was talking to the tower, who heard this. I was later told that operations came to a halt for several minutes, until Air Traffic Control stopped laughing.

Let’s talk about some news (Live)

Interesting.

COVERT INTEL – U.S. POSITIONING MISSILE LAUNCHERS ALONG CALIFORNIA COAST

Nation Hal Turner 08 June 2023

From HERE. Paywall.

WARNING ⚠️ It’s MUCH Worse than People know! | shtf prepping news

Yah.

This Barbershop Will Give Kids A Discount If They Read

Reading is very important when it comes to a child’s development, and this barbershop in Ypsilanti, Michigan encourages kids to pick up a book. Every child who picks up a book and reads out loud will get $2 off their haircut. Barber Ryan Griffin says he was inspired when he discovered another barber shop in Harlem was doing something similar, and so far the idea is a big hit.

More info: Facebook

17 Things You Do Way Too Rarely For Your Cat

A must watch for cat owners.

The Biggest War Battle on European Soil Since WW2 is HAPPENING right now – almost not a peep from the Main-Stream Media!

World Hal Turner 08 June 2023

The largest war-fighting battle on European soil since WW2 is RAGING right now – today, June 8, 2023 – and not even a peep from the West’s so-called “main stream media!”

According to battlefield sources, Ukraine’s first attack on Zaporozhye is almost repulsed.

A lot of Ukrainian soldiers are laying down DEAD in the minefields. They were simply driven forward by their commanders without properly preparing the passages. They say the picture is terrible, the enemy has a lot of DEAD or seriously wounded just lying on the battlefield.

It is likely Ukraine will regroup and drive a few more waves to the slaughter.

The Russians say “Our boys are ready and charged.”

One Russian source said, “we are not sleeping, we are waiting!”

SO FAR . . .

From June 4th to June 8th, Ukraine has lost close to 400 armored vehicles, 115 tanks and close to 5,000 personnel on the Zaporozhye, Artemovsk (i.e. Balhmut), and Southwest Donetsk Tactical Regions. The intensity of the enemy attacks have decreased, however, a whole army in the reserve is waiting to attack. This will not be the end of their attacks. So far, no settlements have been lost (some changed hands but are back under the control of the Russian Armed Forces).

Importantly, in no instance, has even the first line of Russian defense been breached, and remember, on the Zaporozhye and Southwest Donetsk fronts, there are 5 lines of defense. Ukraine is targeting areas west of the Ugledarisky Tactical Region (nearby to the Velkya Novoselivka Tactical Region); as these regions are the least defended, however, geographically hard to conquer. This is primarily around the villages of Novodonetskoye and the Vremika Ledge.

To compensate for failures, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) attempted a counteroffensive on the Artemovsk(i.e. Bakhmut)/ Berkhovka area; they were subsequently wiped out. Enemy militants now resort to shelling of residential areas of the Belgorod, Russia, Region.

It is likely that Ukraine will attempt to cross the Left Bank of the Kherson River under the backdrop of the New Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam being blown up; they have strengthened groupings with fresh reserves from Lvov and Zhytomr, Russian forces are pre-emptively striking accumulations of Ukraine manpower.

The battles are raging. Hundreds are dying. But since the mass-media is simply not reporting what’s taking place, people of the West have no idea at all how bad things are, or that the US and NATO will likely find out they have LOST . . . this week. Unless, of course, they create a false flag designed to get directly involved in the war, and bring on World War 3.

The general public, being clueless, will be blind-sided at the outbreak of such a war. They will be afraid, and looking to government for safety and answers. The same government that LIED to them for 2 1/2 years over Trump/Russia Collusion. The same government that LIED to them about COVID-19. The same government that LIED to them about the COVID-19 vaccines, which are still killing many of the people who took them.

The next two weeks could very well see the outbreak of nuclear world war, and a change to all our lives that will never return to “normal.”

People Made this Kitten Aggressive And Spicy But He Loves To Cuddle Now!

What a cute and wonderful video. It will put some joy in your heart.

https://youtu.be/DfDIXKhhs0w

Is the US really winning against China in the Chip War? Will the USA be able to thwart China in her attempt to be the number one economy?

Let’s see what the tech giant Bill Gates say about this.

On March 2, the Financial Times published an interview with Bill Gates. The Microsoft founder strongly believes in the potential of US-China cooperation and does not think a military escalation is likely.

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Bill Gates claimed that the US would not be able to achieve the desired result and limit Beijing’s ambitions through procurement restrictions – which include a recent attempt to get the chip industry back under US control.

Gates does not see much sense in restricting chip sales to China, as the Asian nation will be able to catch up with the US rather quickly at this scale, and expressed his desire for Washington and Beijing to cooperate closer with each other.

Bill Gates:

Well, I don’t think the US will ever be successful at preventing China from having great chips. You know, we are going to force them to spend time and a bunch of money to make their own chips, but given 5 to 10 years and they take money out of their poverty program. The idea that we could ever sell them chips, we’re just eviscerating that.

You know, we’re saying make your own jet engines, your own software, your own chips. And I think that’s a shame and I don’t get the logic. Given that they’re at scale to catch up fairly quickly and I don’t see how that’s some gigantic benefit.

So you know, I wish the US and China could get along better. We seem to be on a deteriorating trend which when we have things like health, innovation, climate innovation that are win-win things between all countries, but the most important relationship in the world is the US-China relationship. I’m disappointed and worried about how that relationship has evolved over the last couple of years.

Regarding a possible military conflict between China and the US within the next decade, Gates argues that restricting Chinese chip sales and manufacturing would only warn Beijing about the intention for military escalation and thus further damage bilateral relations and provide China with advance warning of a future threat. The billionaire personally does not believe in a military conflict between the two countries.

Why Southeast Asia Chose China (You Won’t Believe What USA Did)

What else is new…

Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant Cooling Water RECEDING after Dam Blown Up

World Hal Turner 08 June 2023

The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) sits at the edge of the giant reservoir kept full by the Novo Khakovka Dam. When that Dam was blown up three days ago, water levels in the Reservoir began to plummet. This is causing water in the cooling pond that feeds water to the ZNPP to plummet as well.

Without sufficient cooling water, the nuclear reactors at the ZNPP will not be cooled, resulting in a nuclear disaster.

This is like a ticking time bomb. No one knows how long water levels will remain high enough to provide cooling water to the reactors. Disaster could be just DAYS away.

China canceled orders worth billions of dollars from Germany

Yup.

https://youtu.be/6x-0QvIpIwE

What can the U.S. do right now to make sure that China never becomes the world’s leader?

Well…actually the US can do nothing to stop China’s development. What can the US do now is to find the right way to get along with China.

Just wanna share Noam Chomsky’s view: When asked whether he believes that China will become a world leader, Chomsky said, “It already is.”

According to prominent US academic and philosopher Noam Chomsky, China has already become a world leader and its entering the Middle East arms market shows the erosion of the system in the region that has been run by the United States for 80 years.

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Chomsky explained that the programs based on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) extend throughout Eurasia and considerably beyond.

“In the past few months, Saudi Arabia joined the SCO, followed by the second regional heavyweight, the United Arab Emirates, which had already become a hub of China's Maritime Silk Road, reaching from Kolkata in Eastern India to the Red Sea and on to Europe."

Renowned US investor Jim Rogers also told Sputnik earlier in May that China will become the next great country and most important nation of this century.

This isn’t right, Somethings Changed.

Indeed.

An Adorable Line of Miniature ‘Bread Cat’ Shaped Resin Toys That Look Good Enough to Eat

Korean designer Rato Kim has created a really adorable line of catloaf toys that range from the very realistic to the surreal. The toys are crafted from resin and can be easily mixed and matched with other equally adorable toys of Kim’s design.

h/t: laughingsquid

Mennonite Meat Balls (Fleischbolle)

Ingredients

3/4 pound ground pork
3/4 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped finely
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup rice, soaked in water
2 eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup ketchup or tomato sauce

Instructions

Mix all but the ketchup and form into balls; brown balls in a pan, put into an oven dish and cover with blended ketchup and 1 quart of boiling water. Let simmer in oven for 3 to 4 hours, making sure the balls haven’t gone dry.

ALIEN BODIES! Video evidence of U.S. held UFO handed over to journalists | Redacted w Clayton Morris

Hum.

Tex-Mex Capirotada

Ingredients

Pudding

12 slices stale bread, preferably French or whole wheat
8 to 10 ounces grated Monterey jack or cubed cream cheese
3/4 cup pitted prunes, plumped in hot water and diced
3/4 cup seedless white raisins or dates, diced
2 large bananas, sliced, or coarsely chopped apples
1 cup sliced almonds

Syrup

2 cups water
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Egg Mixture and Topping

2 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs, separated
4 tablespoons flour

Meringue

Reserved egg whites
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Presentation

Sweetened whipped cream or ice cream

Instructions

Toast the bread and allow to cool.
Using a well-buttered baking dish, 12 x 9 x 2 inches, make a layer of bread, using about half the bread. Top with half the cheese and fruits and all the bananas or apples.
Add another bread layer, then the remaining cheese, fruits, and the nuts. Set aside.
In a medium-size saucepan, boil the water, sugar, and cinnamon together for 5 minutes.
Pour syrup over the pudding mixture.
Remove 1 cup and beat with egg yolks and flour, then add this egg mixture to the remaining syrup and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until thick. Pour custard over the bread and fruits.
Cover and let stand several hours at room temperature, or refrigerate overnight.
When ready to bake the pudding, beat the egg whites until very stiff, beating in the sugar at the last. Spread atop the pudding and then bake at 350 degrees F for about 40 minutes, or until the meringue is well browned and the pudding is set.
Serve small portions with a dollop of ice cream or whipped cream.

Yield: 12 to 14 servings

Storage, Freezing, and Advance Preparation

The basic dessert, excluding the topping, may be prepared 24 hours in advance or overnight. Because of the sweet syrups, the bananas will not turn brown any faster than they would during ordinary baking. The topping should be added just prior to baking. The pudding may be served either hot or cold; it will reheat easily without changing consistency, either in a microwave oven or in a hot 400 degrees F oven, covered with foil.

Psychologist EXPLAINS Why Not EVERYBODY IS ATTRACTIVE

Hey you!

Four Days Until NATO “Exercise” Begins . . . and Maybe Direct War with Russia

World Hal Turner 08 June 2023

SCENARIO: “Airspace over Eastern Europe is contested. Article 5 of NATO Treaty was activated. Within hours, hundreds of fighter jets from the US/NATO transfer to Germany to fly against Russia. Nuclear-capable F-35 stealth aircraft are prepped for deployment – the first hours of a major war have dawned.”

This scenario is the basis for the upcoming NATO “Air Defender 23″ exercise …”

which takes place from the 12th to the 24th of June.

The air war is simulated against an imaginary enemy who himself has a potent air force. The real meaning of this exercise is clear to anyone with a brain: Russia.

The maneuvering may still be cautious in their public communication, but Michael A. Loh, general of the US Air National Guard, expressed his motivation some time ago. In 2021, with a view to „ Air Defender “, he wished that his people „ think more about our impending dangers – China and Russia “.

The maneuver is carried out according to the principle „ Train as you fight “. Areas of application, tactics, logistics – everything should be as realistic as possible. It is therefore no coincidence that Germany becomes the central hub of the exercise. In an emergency, too, countless NATO jets would start and swarm out of German airfields. The flight routes that the fighter planes will test are just as realistic. They lead to the eastern borders of the NATO area, to the Russian and Ukrainian borders.

At first glance, what looks like a brazen but usual provocation is a tangible danger to world peace in times of war. An accident with Russian military aircraft, misguided navigation or a pilot error may be sufficient to make a training flight appear like an attack. It becomes particularly threatening if Ukraine uses the NATO exercise’s slipstream to carry out attacks, while Russian air surveillance is forced to pursue NATO activities. Russian territory is currently being bombarded almost every day, and the Ukrainian president is threatened with major attacks. The escalation potential of a Ukrainian military strike while NATO jets are patrolling nearby is obvious in this situation.

The federal government is not only willing to accept these enormous risks, it even suspends the usual security measures. Russian observers who could ensure that the exercise is not used to prepare for an attack are not invited. There shouldn’t even be a formal announcement. “We will not write them a letter. They will understand the news when our planes swarm out “, the highest German air force general Ingo Gerhartz replied at the beginning of April to the question of how Russia is informed.

This move away from an insurance policy is accompanied by a fight against diplomacy. Last week the Federal Republic of the Russian Federation banned the operation of four consulates. They must be closed by the end of the year.

So, shortly before the NATO exercise, the relationships are further burdened and important communication channels are sabotaged. The federal government appears to be doing everything it can to drive an escalation and increase the risk that the exercise could become a bitter reality.

NATO and its ilk have to decide very quickly. Obviously, the Ukraine offensive has stalled. It is indeed a question if Ukraine army is even capable of holding their positions or not. And the Russian army is making small but constant advances. It is probable that Ukraine army and state is on the verge of collapse. Because of that, it is time to make a decision. Either NATO enters officially into conflict or Ukraine is lost.

Of course, best moment to attack Russian army would be when all NATO equipment and personal are in Europe and are practicing that type of scenario. We only need a fabricated reason for war. Something like 9/11 at the WTC.

History shows the US federal government is perfectly willing to engage in treachery to cause the US to be involved in a major war.

In World War 2, the Roosevelt Administration KNEW the Japanese were coming to attack Pearl Harbor. They knew days in advance. While they told the US Military “you may be attacked” there was no ironclad statement that an attack WAS already on its way. The Japanese attack on December 7, 1941 caused the date to live in infamy. The American military was used as canon fodder to get hit and killed, bringing the US into the war.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was an actual fabrication by the US to get us into the Vietnam War.

Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, sat at a UN Security Council meeting, held up a glass jar containing ANTHRAX, and told Security Council members that Saddam Hussein of Iraq had “tons” of this bio-weapon and could destroy half the world. In to Iraq we went. We destroyed much of Iraq, searched high and low, but guess what? No weapons of mass destruction! It was all lies.

In 2014, the US, EU fomented, incited, and facilitated the forcible overthrow of Ukraine’s President, Vikto Yanukovich, then funded a puppet government favorable tot he West. The US/EU want to place American missiles on Ukraine soil, with a five minute or so flight time to Moscow. Russia said “no.” The West said “Too fucking bad.”

In December 2021, Russia tried to negotiate ironclad, legally enforceable security guarantees. The West laughed and basically threw Russia’s Diplomatic proposals in the trash can.

The Russians tried again, only this time warning that if Russia could not obtain ironclad, legally enforceable, security guarantees, via DIPLOMATIC means, they would attain them via military, or military-technical means. The West again quashed the Russian proposals.

On February 24, 2022, after giving Ukraine a five hour ultimatum that went unanswered, the Russian Army went into Ukraine. The West was mortified. It was never within the realm of possibility to them, that Russia would actually DO what Russia said they would do!

Here we are, over a year later, the war rages, hundreds of thousands are dead, and now NATO is (coincidentally) preparing its largest air defense exercise in history . . . right next to the Russia-Ukraine major conflict . . . where any misstep can open up the hellscape of World War 3.

Given the US track record of lying to get us into actual wars, is it any stretch of the imagination to believe that NATO and the US will do so again, four or so days from now?

Let me ask you: If, one day soon, you’re up in the morning doing what you usually do, and suddenly, the Emergency Broadcast System tones start coming out of your cellphone, or your nearby radio, or on your TV, and the announcement tells you “The United States is under nuclear attack from Russia, take shelter immediately.” what’s the first thing you would do?

For most people, they have no friggin idea . . . . at all. Do you call your spouse? Do you make a mad dash to get the kids from school? (You and everybody else . . . and find an instant “Mad Max” scenario on the roads.)

Do you have __any__ emergency food, water, medicine for after the bombs hit and the country is collapsing?

Do you actually think you’ll be able to go to the supermarket and buy food? Upon a nuke blast, do you think your credit/debit cards will actually work so you can buy food? Nope!

Better start thinking about these things, because the way things are going, four days from now could see your whole world change.

Waiting to Be Put to Sleep, She Sat Crying Silently in Her Cage At the Shelter

The USA is ready and would win a war against China, says American Admiral.

My daughter caught a fever, and then passed it on to me. The last week has been a struggle. Tired, achy, spitting out green flem, and sneezing has been terribly uncomfortable. Hopefully I’m at the tail end of this nightmare. But it’s been a real slog to get anything out. Sorry.

The USN Admiral of the Pacific was asked by Joe Biden if the USN was ready to counter China….just in case. He responded that they are ready and would win a war against China.

WTF?

The guy is either delirious, or seriously demented.

Sorry about last post about #passportbros. The entire things is so disheartening. I see the pain of the African American women, and I feel the pain of the African American men. I just want everyone to find their love, and build up a family.

Is that too hard?

Couple that with the Woke Movement banning and suppressing all videos, posts and writings about that content. WTF? Makes it really difficult to communicate when others want you to shut the fuck up.

I really need to put out a Paetron video, but this last fever has set me back. Ugh!

My affirmations are manifesting strong and hard. Things are definitely falling into place. Slow hard grind, but actually happening.

A commenter asked about why I “felt the need” to send someone to the Cornfield. I did it, because I have an ego, and I no longer “turn the cheek”. If you wrong me, I hit back hard.

Now, take care, and have a great day!

Of all, its Japan which has hurt China the most on semiconductors

Japan has officially announced that it will tighten controls on exports of 23 types of semiconductor equipment to China starting July 23. How the new trade curbs will impact Chinese semiconductor industry is drawing increasing concerns from market and industry observers.

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Japan will strictly restrict shipments of four types of exposure machines, three kinds of etching equipment, 11 film-forming machines, three cleaning equipment items, one thermal treatment system, and one front-end test solution, all needed to produce 14nm chips and more advanced ones.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao urged Japan to halt semiconductor export controls, calling it a “wrongdoing” that “seriously violated” international economic and trade rules. He issued the call during talks with Japanese Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on May 26 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in Detroit, three days following Japan’s announcement.

How large the impact of Japan’s trade curbs will be on China’s semiconductor industry?

The South China Morning Post also quoted a semiconductor analyst at Counterpoint Research as saying that Japan’s increasing cooperation with the US in tightening exports of advanced semiconductor equipment and technologies to China will heap large pressure on Chinese semiconductor players, given that Japan was China’s largest supplier of semiconductor equipment in 2022 as indicated in the United Nations merchandize trade statistics.

The analyst said that China is now capable of producing 14nm chips, yet in a small volume, and that Japan joining hands with the US to contain China will make it difficult for Chinese foundry houses to increase output of sub-20 nm chips.

Japan’s Diamond Weekly reported that five Chinese semiconductor firms will bear the brunt of impacts from the Japanese trade curbs, namely SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Huali Microelectronics, Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) and ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).

Meanwhile, as Chinese semiconductor companies are shifting production focus to non-advanced chips, they have placed increased orders with Japanese suppliers for equipment needed for producing semiconductor power devices, analog chips and other lower-end chips.

Tokyo Electron, for instance, saw its sales in the China market grow 11% on year to JPY131.3 billion (US$937.05 million) in the first quarter of 2023, and its president Toshiki Kawai has estimated the company’s shipments to China in fiscal 2023 (April 2023 to March 2024) will contribute over 30% of its annual revenues, up from 23% of a year earlier.

Please note that both China and Japan are the signatory members of RCEP – a free trade bloc.

China will knock the WTO door, but to what effect. It takes 2–3 years for hearing and verdict, but there is also a big hurdle as the US is not appointing appellate judges, hence nothing will come off it. For roughly two years, the US has blocked the appointment of new judges to the WTO’s Appellate Body.

US voting numbers are significant everywhere, as in WTO, IMF and WB. This way it is able to bully and hold these organizations to ransom.

INTERVIEW: All I know is that Gonzalo was detained on May 1

An Opinion by 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘀 𝗘𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗿
𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘢, 𝘉𝘦𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘺

As I See It:

Why is it that the West is so preoccupied with China? The usual answer is that China’s economic growth is challenging Western global hegemony which has held sway for at least 250 years. The Chinese military has also reached parity with that of the West, so it is no longer subject to Western intimidation and bullying. All that is true and reason for the West to want to savage China and portray it as the root of all evil.

But there is one other consideration that must be considered. It’s not only China’s economic prowess and military might that frightens the West, but also success as a nation versus the West’s failure.

Moreover, China has forged a society in which there is harmony between its different ethnicities in contrast to the systemic racism that characterizes Western society.

Western ruling elites and their media mouthpieces do not want to acknowledge the fact that China has eliminated extreme poverty while more and more of their own people descend into poverty. They do not want to admit that China has constructed a 21st century infrastructure while they lag far behind. They do not want to confront the fact that the Chinese people overwhelmingly support their government while people in the West have lost confidence in their own, they do not want to accept that China beat COVID-19 while they haven’t, and finally they are loathe to accept the fact that a non-white nation has outperformed them and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

In order to deflect attention away from these truths the West has concocted a series of lies and slanders that allow them to deny reality. Instead of poverty alleviation the West imagines “genocide.” Instead of the advances in HSR, EVs, alt-energy and e-commerce they focus on “IP theft,” instead of a socioeconomic system that serves the people, they accuse China of forced labour and forced sterilizations. Instead of seeing China as defending its national sovereignty in the South China Sea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, it’s called an aggressor.

All the China-bashing serves multiple purposes but ONE of the main reasons is to make sure that people in the West do not get to hear nor see what the real China is all about because if they did they may get ideas that the Western elites don’t want then to have, such as socialism works for the betterment of the 99% while capitalism works primarily to enrich the 1%.

What Happened to the First Human Head Transplant?

This is interesting.

10 Ways Life Really Sucked in the Middle Ages

by Selme Angulo

The Middle Ages lasted a long time… and probably felt even longer. Historians generally recognize the period as beginning with the fall of Rome at the end of the 5th century AD. Then, it lasted all the way through the middle of the 15th century—give or take a few decades. As you might imagine, quite a few things changed during this long cultural epoch. But there was at least one constant then, too: life really, really sucked.

There were only a few hundred million people on the entire globe—with less than 25 million in Europe–when the Middle Ages started, and those poor souls had it rough. Medicine was essentially nonexistent, and disease was rampant. Life was short, violent, uncertain, and occasionally brutal. Work was hard, the hours were long, and the physical toll was demanding. Civilization was sputtering along, and if you weren’t rich royalty, you got the proverbial (and sometimes literal) short end of the stick.

So let’s head back in time and take a long look at why life in the Middle Ages was so terrible. There will be famine, pestilence, and disease. There will be violence, starvation, political strife, and community turmoil. And there won’t be much hope! Here are ten reasons why it was really, really bad to be an Average Joe during the Middle Ages.

10 Pestilence and Plague

Back in 1347, the bubonic plague—which soon became known as the Black Death—arrived in Europe. It caused immense devastation almost immediately. Over the next decade, it took the lives of millions of people. Historians now estimate that around twenty million were felled by the disease. And there weren’t nearly as many people in Europe then to begin with as there are now. In just a few years, almost half of Europe’s population perished.

The Black Death was a merciless killer. People would go to sleep healthy at night, wake up deathly ill in the morning, and die in an agonizing way over the next several days. It didn’t discriminate between the rich and the poor, and it was ruthless. In fact, scientists now estimate that only about 10% of those who contracted the disease managed to survive. Families were devastated, and entire towns were nearly wiped off the map.

It changed the structure of European society in a way that is difficult to understand today. While the Middle Ages were already tough on regular people, all that death made things even more difficult. Children were orphaned, and families were fractured. Already nearly nonexistent social and community outlets were completely shuttered.

People were on their own even more than they’d been for centuries before that. And they attributed the plague’s wrath to a vengeful God hell-bent on punishing the world for its sins. It may have been difficult for the modern world to battle the COVID pandemic, but it was nothing compared to the plague. In just a few years, in the late 1340s, European society completely regressed.^[1]

9 Live Terribly, Die Fast

As you’ve come to see by now, life was tough in the Middle Ages. Even if you managed to stay away from hunger and the awful Black Death, there were still many ways to meet a gruesome end. Diseases like tuberculosis, leprosy, and cholera were everywhere. Basic cleanliness was hard to find. Nobody knew anything about hygiene. And in cities like London, there was no sewer system to speak of. Instead of disposing of excrement and human waste in a sensible way, they simply threw it onto the streets. Gross, right? Not only did it stink horribly, but it also created a terrible breeding ground for deadly diseases.

Knowledge about medicine was remarkably primitive, too. People in those times believed bad smells directly caused diseases. This idea was called the Miasma Theory, and it became quite popular across Europe. Of course, it wasn’t true, but it did make people realize the importance of being clean and taking baths. That, in turn, helped improve health conditions a little bit. Of course, the improvement was not felt by all classes. Rich people had the means and opportunity to stay clean and smell relatively fresh if they wanted. But for the serfs, who usually lived in cramped spaces with multiple families and even livestock, it was much harder.

Surviving childhood was a challenge back then too. Only about a third of all kids born in that era reached adulthood. Giving birth was also extremely dangerous, as you might expect. Mothers, babies, or both often didn’t make it out of childbirth alive. Across society at that time, the average life expectancy was only around 35 years. Men usually lived a little longer than women—and the rich, of course, often lived much longer than the poor. Still, it’s pretty shocking that giving birth was more risky than going into battle during medieval times. Life was very, very hard back then!^[2]

8 The Relentless Waging of War

During the Middle Ages, there was a great deal of fighting happening pretty much all the time. Some wars were short and violent, while others, like the 100 Years’ War, lasted way longer than expected. Because militaries lacked modern weapons, it often took decades for wars to finally and definitively end. Thus, everyone who was able to fight had to constantly be ready for battle. The nobles, especially, spent most of their lives training for war. Whenever a war broke out, it was their duty to show off their skills. If they didn’t want to fight, they had to pay the king a large amount of money to avoid battle.

Of course, the vast majority of people in the Middle Ages didn’t have enough money to buy their way out of the conflict. So they could be forced to join the army through conscription. If you owned any land, you could be summoned to provide soldiers for the war effort. The more land you had, the more soldiers were expected from you. The poor peasants, who had little or no military training, were usually the ones sent into battle by these powerful landowners. They were led by a knight or two who tried their best to bring some order to the chaos.

Some leaders recognized that having a well-trained and organized peasant army could be helpful in a fight. However, the rulers were also afraid that if these peasants became too skilled, they might rebel and try to overthrow them. This back-and-forth was the central tension around military might throughout the difficult Middle Ages.^[3]

7 The Cruelty of Crime

During the Middle Ages, violent criminals and thieves faced severe consequences if caught. And there were numerous petty problems that received cruel and unusual punishments too. Being a vagrant or getting caught begging was against the law in most European locales. Peasants were forbidden to marry without their lord’s permission. And in some places, women could even be punished for gossiping too much! Surprisingly, even playing football became illegal in England in 1314. Thankfully for our British friends, that didn’t last long.

In the early part of the Middle Ages, determining guilt or innocence involved a brutal practice called trial by ordeal. For example, if a woman was suspected of witchcraft, she might be tied up and thrown into a pool of water. If she survived, people would believe she was innocent. If she died, they assumed she was guilty. Considering she had already been tied up before being thrown in, well, you can guess how many “guilty” witches there were.

As time passed, trial by jury started to replace trial by ordeal from the 1300s onward. However, punishments during this era were still incredibly harsh compared to today’s standards. Public executions were common, as were floggings and beatings. Corporal punishment and forced labor were routinely levied against criminals and evildoers as well. Even petty crimes like thievery and pickpocketing were given harsh retribution.

One of the most dreadful crimes one could commit was high treason. Betraying one’s king was such a heinous act that it resulted in an unimaginably cruel punishment. The condemned person would be tied to a wooden panel and dragged toward execution. They would be hanged, but they would be cut down just before death. Yet there was no mercy in this act. While fully conscious, the person would be disemboweled, and their entrails would be burned before their eyes. Finally, an ax would be swung to sever their head from their body. Then, in what served as a brutal warning to others, their head would be displayed for all to see.^[4]

6 Brutal Feudal Life

Life in the Middle Ages was divided into different classes. As has been the case in most eras, those at the top had a pretty good life. They were the ones with power, money, and high status. In most Middle Ages communities, the king technically owned all the land in an area. He would lease it out to noble barons in exchange for an oath of their loyalty. Then, these nobles had the freedom to govern their land and impose taxes as they pleased. As you might expect, they could be brutal.

This privilege for the few landed barons came at a great cost to the serfs. This was the poor mass of people who had no land and no rights. They were essentially treated as slaves by the local nobles. Serfs toiled on the land and brutally worked six days a week from dawn until dusk. Per the feudal system, they were forced to produce crops, raise livestock, and offer some other value to pay their liege lord for the use of the land. And the grind never ended.

In ancient times, it was rare but possible for slaves to rise to powerful positions. Some former slaves became incredibly wealthy and led armies. In one notable instance, the son of a freed slave even became the Emperor of Rome. Sadly for the serfs in the medieval world, such social mobility was unimaginable.

If you were born into the lower class, it was extremely likely you would remain there for your entire life. There was no social mobility or opportunity to work through one’s birth position. Instead, the poor, unwashed masses simply kept working hard and toiling away with no chance of ever improving their lives.^[5]

5 Medicine? What Medicine?

Around 540 BC, a Greek doctor named Alcmaeon of Croton introduced a concept that gained popularity in his time. He believed human health depended on the balance of four fluids, known as humors. These humors were blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Alcmaeon’s theory was wrong, of course, but it managed to stick around for a thousand years.

By the Middle Ages, medicine hadn’t progressed beyond this point. In some ways, sadly, it had even regressed. Unlike the ancient Greeks—who acknowledged physical causes for illnesses—people in medieval times attributed supernatural reasons to their ailments.

It was quite common for medical examinations to begin with an analysis of the patient’s astrological chart. In many cases, the diagnosis would be an imbalance of the humors. The prescribed treatment involved either bloodletting through cuts or the application of leeches. There were no antibiotics or other medicines, of course. The primitive nature of pain management and symptom care at the time was brutal and unforgiving.

Those who required surgery faced even greater risks. Limited knowledge of the human body’s internal workings hindered progress. Out of fear of superstition and disease, dissecting corpses was prohibited. Moreover, physicians deemed surgery as beneath their profession. That left the task to even less-trained barber surgeons. These individuals were often illiterate and lacked formal scientific know-how. Their only qualification was generally their labor as barbers. Theoretically, then, they knew their way around scissors and (potentially) a scalpel.

The sole available anesthetics were alcohol or certain herbs like mandrake. Shockingly, many surgeons didn’t even employ these methods. They mistakenly believed pain actually aided the healing process. Then, those unlikely few who survived surgery were at substantial risk of infection and subsequent death during the following days and weeks. Sadly, there was no winning in medieval medicine.^[6]

Let’s see the European Union and their members continue to expose themselves as the Anglo-Naxi backed fascist experiments that they are by ignoring their own people

4 Work? What Work?

During medieval times, most people lived and worked on farms. Historians now estimate that about 80% of the population tended to the land. However, as towns and cities grew, new job opportunities arose. Sadly, many of these occupations were poorly paid, required a ton of time and effort, and were extremely unpleasant.

One unusual job that became popular was that of a leech collector. The medical profession had a constant need for leeches at the time. So this created an opportunity for people to make a living by gathering the bloodsucking creatures. Catching leeches was not an arduous task, but it was gross. Collectors would simply enter a suitable body of water and wait for the leeches to attach themselves to their bodies.

Another job that offered slightly more income was that of a fuller. Fullers were more common than leech collectors, and they could earn three times as much as a peasant working in the fields. However, being a fuller was far from ideal. Their responsibility was to remove oil, dirt, and other impurities from newly woven cloth. The most effective method they used was stomping on the cloth with their feet inside a barrel filled with human urine. This process would go on for hours and hours, dawn until dusk, six days per week.

As the importance of cities grew through the end of the Middle Ages, more jobs away from the farm took on various levels of significance. Through it all, though, labor protections were nonexistent, and wages were mostly terrible. People had to make the best of the opportunities presented to them, even if they weren’t exactly what they had dreamed of. There simply wasn’t anything better on hand!^[7]

3 One-Way Worship

During medieval times, the Catholic Church held immense power and influence across Europe. It had great wealth and authority too. For one, it was exempt from taxes. And yet it compelled peasants to pay a tithe of 10% of their earnings to the church. Additionally, peasants were obliged to dedicate their time and labor to the church’s lands without compensation.

The vast resources and political strength of the church allowed it to permeate nearly every aspect of medieval society. Because they had such soft power, worship was essentially forced. After all, who would mount a fight against an organization with that much of an ability to ruin your life?

As the leader of the church and the earthly representative of God, the pope held a level of power that rivaled, and often surpassed, most of Europe’s monarchs. Although popes did not directly command armies, their influence was so significant that they could call for crusades. Those violent wars were fought again and again versus Muslim soldiers across the Holy Lands. Of course, the numerous Crusades have become notorious in history for their extreme bloodshed. Centuries of fierce fighting caused the brutal loss of millions of lives.

In medieval Europe, the Islamic and Christian worlds were largely distinct. The majority of European people were devout Roman Catholics—or at least they claimed to be. However, there were small populations of pagans, Jews, and individuals following other teachings. They just couldn’t be too open about their faith.

These religious minorities faced the constant threat of persecution and death due to their unpopular belief systems. Because of the sheer dominance of the Catholic Church, diversity in religious practices existed at great risk to those who dared to differ. Worship was very power-driven from the top down in the Middle Ages, and if you went against it, you literally risked your life.^[8]

2 Woes for Women

Life during the Middle Ages was challenging and unjust in many ways. Sadly, this was particularly true for girls and women. For centuries, they found themselves stuck in a society dominated by men. In those days, women had very limited rights. Until they got married, they were essentially the possessions of their fathers. Once they married, their ownership would transfer to their husbands.

If a woman was attacked, harmed, or killed, the focus would often be on her husband as the unfortunate victim. That was because the husband was seen as the one who suffered the loss or damage to his wife as property. Pregnancy and childbirth were awful too. Women routinely died while giving birth to babies. Without anything close to proper medical knowledge, pregnant women and mothers were at the mercy of fate in an uncaring and cruel world.

Through it all, women were primarily viewed as child bearers and raisers. However, female peasants were still expected to toil in the fields. Sadly, they received much lower pay than men, even though they performed the same labor. Then, after work, they were still expected to do domestic duties and care for children.

Despite these obstacles, a small number of women managed to defy expectations and attain positions of power and influence. In certain instances in England, women were granted special licenses that permitted them to operate their own businesses. They could also inherit wealth under specific circumstances. But those women were the very rare privileged few. For the vast majority of women during the Middle Ages, life was a joyless slog.^[9]

1 It Was a Cold, Cold Time to Be Alive

The history of human civilization spans about 6,000 years. Across this journey, humans have been fortunate to experience relatively stable and pleasant temperatures. But not every decade has had it equally easy. Around 1300, a significant drop in the global average temperature occurred. For several centuries, it caused a temperature decline of approximately 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius). That may not seem like a lot, but it lasted a long time. And it was worse in some places (like Europe) than in others. Across northern Europe, cold languished for generations.

This prolonged cooling period was so significant that weather historians now know it as the Little Ice Age. As you might expect, its impact on Medieval Europe and other nearby regions was devastating. Frozen rivers and harbors persisted for months, crops failed, and tens of thousands of people perished due to famine and mass starvation. As if all these other things about living in the Middle Ages weren’t bad enough, the cold was the proverbial icing on a really crappy cake.

Scientists now know the Little Ice Age came from a combination of volcanic eruptions and solar activity. But during the Middle Ages, superstition prevailed. People held what we now consider to be primitive beliefs about the cause of natural phenomena. Some of them attributed these cold weather events to a vengeful God. Others claimed it was the machinations of magic and evil witches. The drastic temperature decline exacerbated religious persecution during the era. In turn, it greatly contributed to the prevalence of witch burnings and mass violence.^[10]

Man Has Weird Round Spots On Finger When The Doctors See It They Call The Cops

This is also interesting, and freaky!

https://youtu.be/FgeBLbiPF9k

Tex-Mex Chili Dip

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground pork or beef
1 (16 ounce) jar chunky salsa (2 cups, mild, medium or hot, depending upon preference)
1 cup water, divided
1 (1.61 ounce) package brown gravy mix (no fat or regular)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 to 2 teaspoons finely chopped jalapeno pepper (optional)
Tortilla chips or crackers

Instructions

In 2-quart saucepan or large skillet; cook and stir ground pork until meat is no longer pink, then drain.
Add salsa and 1/2 cup water and heat to boiling.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, blend gravy mix with 1/2 cup cool water; stir in cumin.
Pour gravy mixture into boiling mixture. Heat and stir until thickened.
Stir in beans and jalapeno, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
Transfer hot dip to heated server.
Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves, if desired.
Serve with tortilla chips.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Chili Dip Quesadillas: Spread dip on flour tortillas; sprinkle with shredded cheese. Place another flour tortilla over each. Cook on hot griddle for 2 to 3 minutes per side. Cut into quarters.

DAVY KNOWLES w/ Jeff Massey & Eric Saylors (Steepwater), march 2017

What western media will never cover.

30 officials from 16 Arab nations have visited Urumqi and Kashgar, Xinjiang Autonomous Region in a tour to witness social harmony, economic prosperity, the fact that muslims have full rights to practice their faiths from May 30th to June 2nd, the Arab League was accompanied by XAR party secretary Ma Xin Rui, XAR chairman Erkin Tuniyaz whom the west smeared for “defending genocide” last year and Diplomatic Ambassador Li Chen.

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Should Chinese people be careful around other Asians these days since there is so much anti-Han-Chinese sentiment and hostility from other Asians?

Hi, Rory Coates. Thanks for the very interesting question!

I don’t think Chinese need to be careful around other Asians at all.

Just before the New Year, I took a 2-week trip to South Korea to visit an old Korean friend, whom I’ve known for more than a handful of years now.

Here is a picture we took of the first sunrise in 2023, as seen on the southern coast, in Yeosu city.

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This is a regular and hearty meal we had at Yeosu, with fish as the main dish of the meal.

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And this is Yeosu’s famous soysauce crab dish.

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I greatly enjoyed the time I spent with my friend during my 2-week trip to South Korea. We had a fantastic time just catching up and eating some really, really delicious meals.

Being “careful” around other Asians because I am Chinese was the very, very last thing on my mind!

It was a really wonderful time catching up with a dear friend and enjoying the local scenery and food. Did my soul a world of good it did!

Tradwifes -TikTok’s Traditional Lifestyle Trendsetters

Well, it started with #passportbros, now we have #tradwifes.

https://youtu.be/mXM2rJ6G6gE

Heartwarming story

– especially for Simon and Garfunkel lovers like me . . . . .

“Hello darkness, my old friend…” Everybody knows the iconic Simon & Garfunkel song, but do you know the amazing story behind the first line of The Sounds of Silence?

It began 62 years ago, when Arthur “Art” Garfunkel, a Jewish kid from Queens, enrolled in Columbia University. During freshman orientation, Art met a student from Buffalo named Sandy Greenberg, and they immediately bonded over their shared passion for literature and music. Art and Sandy became roommates and best friends. With the idealism of youth, they promised to be there for each other no matter what.

Soon after starting college, Sandy was struck by tragedy. His vision became blurry and although doctors diagnosed it as temporary conjunctivitis, the problem grew worse. Finally after seeing a specialist, Sandy received the devastating news that severe glaucoma was destroying his optic nerves. The young man with such a bright future would soon be completely blind.

Sandy was devastated and fell into a deep depression. He gave up his dream of becoming a lawyer and moved back to Buffalo, where he worried about being a burden to his financially-struggling family. Consumed with shame and fear, Sandy cut off contact with his old friends, refusing to answer letters or return phone calls.

Then suddenly, to Sandy’s shock, his buddy Art showed up at the front door. He was not going to allow his best friend to give up on life, so he bought a ticket and flew up to Buffalo unannounced. Art convinced Sandy to give college another go, and promised that he would be right by his side to make sure he didn’t fall – literally or figuratively.

Art kept his promise, faithfully escorting Sandy around campus and effectively serving as his eyes. It was important to Art that even though Sandy had been plunged into a world of darkness, he should never feel alone. Art actually started calling himself “Darkness” to demonstrate his empathy with his friend. He’d say things like, “Darkness is going to read to you now.” Art organized his life around helping Sandy.

One day, Art was guiding Sandy through crowded Grand Central Station when he suddenly said he had to go and left his friend alone and petrified. Sandy stumbled, bumped into people, and fell, cutting a gash in his shin. After a couple of hellish hours, Sandy finally got on the right subway train. After exiting the station at 116th street, Sandy bumped into someone who quickly apologized – and Sandy immediately recognized Art’s voice! Turned out his trusty friend had followed him the whole way home, making sure he was safe and giving him the priceless gift of independence. Sandy later said, “That moment was the spark that caused me to live a completely different life, without fear, without doubt. For that I am tremendously grateful to my friend.”

Sandy graduated from Columbia and then earned graduate degrees at Harvard and Oxford. He married his high school sweetheart and became an extremely successful entrepreneur and philanthropist.

While at Oxford, Sandy got a call from Art. This time Art was the one who needed help. He’d formed a folk rock duo with his high school pal Paul Simon, and they desperately needed $400 to record their first album. Sandy and his wife Sue had literally $404 in their bank account, but without hesitation Sandy gave his old friend what he needed.

Art and Paul’s first album was not a success, but one of the songs, The Sounds of Silence, became a #1 hit a year later. The opening line echoed the way Sandy always greeted Art. Simon & Garfunkel went on to become one of the most beloved musical acts in history.

The two Columbia graduates, each of whom has added so much to the world in his own way, are still best friends. Art Garfunkel said that when he became friends with Sandy, “my real life emerged. I became a better guy in my own eyes, and began to see who I was – somebody who gives to a friend.” Sandy describes himself as “the luckiest man in the world.”

Adapted from Sandy Greenberg’s memoir: “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend: How Daring Dreams and Unyielding Friendship Turned One Man’s Blindness into an Extraordinary Vision for Life."

Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice Chili

tex mex chicken and rice 1 13 768x960 — tex mex chicken and rice 1 13 768×960

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Chili

1 box Rice-a-Roni Spanish Rice
2 3/4 cups water
2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey
1 (15 or 16 ounce) can kidney beans or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14 1/2 or 16 ounce) can tomatoes or stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Optional

1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
Sour cream
Chopped cilantro

Instructions

In a 3-quart saucepan, combine rice-vermicelli mix, special seasonings, water, chicken, beans, tomatoes, green pepper, chili powder and cumin. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low; simmer uncovered, about 20 minutes or until rice is tender, stirring occasionally.
Top with cheese, sour cream and cilantro if desired.

Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker? Was there a good or bad outcome?

Not my story but my wife’s great uncle. So Uncle Wimp (as he was known) used to pick up hitchhikers, and one of them tried to rob him at knife point. Uncle Wimp look at the guy and told him that he had no money because he had ten kids at home. What he did next was typical for this great man. The told the robber that he was going to take him home and feed him, because the only reason he would have to rob him is because he was hungry. The robber was shocked, and stunned by this turn of events. When he got to Wimp’s home he looked around the table at the ten young faces and started crying. He ate dinner and went on his way. A week later a canned ham showed up at the house. My wife’s uncle thought it was from the would-be robber and most likely stolen, but he had 10 mouths to feed so he didn’t ask questions. It was a good outcome for the family, and hopefully the thief changed his ways. Rest in peace Charles Solomon Maliseet Medicine Man, WWII paratrooper – veteran of Normandy and Market-Garden, and a man of devout faith.

Realizing She Just Became The Murder Suspect

What is the Longyou Caves in China and what is the mystery surrounding their construction and purpose?

Back in 1992, a group of villagers in Longyou county, China stumbled upon an astonishing discovery. The area near the village of Shiyan Beicun was home to several ponds or rocky pools that were believed to be “bottomless” with depths that seemed to go on forever. Some of the ponds were even void of fish. In an effort to test the legend, the villagers drained one of the ponds using a hydraulic pump and were shocked to find that the “bottomless” ponds were actually ancient man-made caverns.

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To date, at least 24 (with some sources stating 36) of these flooded caves have been found in the area, with no connections between them.

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These remarkable caves were hand-carved out of siltstone rock and have walls that come as close as two feet to each other.

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The caves also feature intricate relief carvings on the walls in vast rooms.

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Although estimated to have been constructed around 2,000 years ago, it remains a mystery as to who constructed them and what they were used for.

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These caves are now known as the Longyou Caves…

EMERGENCY! NATO TROOPS To UKRAINE, NUKE BLAST ON RUSSIAS BORDER, WILDFIRE TOXIC PLUME IN NEXT 24 HRS

Tex-Mex Four-Cheese Potato Casserole

Ingredients

1 (2-pound) package refrigerated mashed potatoes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 cup shredded 4-cheese Mexican-blend cheese
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic

Instructions

Place the top oven rack about 5 inches way from the broiler element, and turn the broiler on high.
Spoon the mashed potatoes into a microwave-safe, 2-quart casserole dish. Dot the potatoes with the butter.
Sprinkle the chili powder over the potatoes.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the cheese over the potatoes.
Cover the casserole with plastic wrap, and cut 2 small holes in the wrap for ventilation.
Microwave on HIGH for 4 minutes.
Remove the plastic wrap, and stir in the garlic.
Re-cover the dish, and microwave for 2 more minutes, or until completely heated through.
Remove the dish from the microwave, discard the plastic wrap, and sprinkle on the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese.
Place the casserole under the hot broiler for about 2 minutes, or until cheese melts and begins to turn golden.
Serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings

China’s Military POWER Explained | Just how strong is the Chinese military?

What is the most inspiring story you’ve ever heard? Why was it so powerful and meaningful to you at that time/place?

You’re a 19 year old kid.

You are critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .

Its November 14, 1965 . LZ (landing zone) X-ray.

Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in.

You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you’re not getting out.

Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again.

As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then – over the machine gun noise – you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.

You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn’t seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.

Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.

He’s not MedEvac so it’s not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he’s

flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.

Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He’s coming anyway.

And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety. And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!!

Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.

He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Army, died at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho.

May God Bless and Rest His Soul. I know he is sitting with our Lord telling each other stories!

I bet you didn’t hear about this hero’s passing,Medal of Honor Winner Captain Ed Freeman.

Now… YOU pass this along.

Honor this real hero.

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Why is the Chinese government spending so much to develop a network of modern canals for freight transportation in China?

I don’t have much time so I’ll sketch an answer.

Riverine transport is one of the lowest cost and efficient transport system, particularly goods and commodities. It is also a great tool for flood alleviation and irrigation, among others.

The best thing is, canals can be built with locks to overcome the natural gradient.

What the Chinese are doing with the canals, like they have been for thousands of years, is the same as what they have recently done with highways, electric grids and HSR, and that is to bring connectivity and modernization to areas previously unserved by services.

Take Guangxi, for instance. Even my grandma, a native of Guangdong who had left China for decades, told me people from Guangxi were dull and couldn’t compete with those from Guangdong. She stated Guangdong ate way better than their next-door neighbor.

Which is truth bundled with prejudice, like most folksy observations.

A major disadvantage of Zhuang-administered Guangxi is the flow of the rivers, which go east to discharge in the Guangdong coast. River and marine transport is the historical reason for Guangdong’s prosperity, and why Hong Kong remains a key seaport and entryway to China today.

The Pinglu canal pictured above will help Guangxi mirror the economic success further east. It won’t just be a canal but an entire marine/inland water transport system that’s integrated with the Pearl River delta.

The Zhuang are about to get a huge boost in their economy, and that includes a network of ports.

Just interesting things

The Gruesome Truth About Gibbeting: Explored

Biting Back at China Over Micron Will Break US’ Teeth

The news that Micron’s products sold in China did not pass the network security review has caused a strong reaction in the US. This indirectly shows China’s decision has touched some Americans, demonstrating its power and producing additional effects. However, the true nature of the matter cannot be covered up by the US.

A US Commerce Department spokesperson said in a statement that this was a “raid and attack” on US companies, restrictions that “have no basis in fact” that would lead to “distortions of the memory chip market.” This is Washington’s consistent use of strong words to justify its actions. In fact, these words are just the phrases used to describe US actions of undermining free trade in recent years. But China is not the US, and will not learn bad behaviors from Washington.

The conclusion was made after a seven-week investigation by China’s General Administration of Customs and a network security review conducted by China’s Cybersecurity Review Office (CRO) in accordance with the law, which can withstand scrutiny. The review found that Micron’s products have serious network security risks, which pose significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain and affect China’s national security.

According to laws and regulations such as the country’s Cybersecurity Law, operators of critical information infrastructure in China should stop purchasing Micron’s products.

Besides assessing how much losses China’s decision will bring to Micron, the US also shows a certain degree of unease and insecurity, feeling that the “blast radius of this matter may be much larger.”

This is mainly because they have done many unscrupulous things to China and are very clear about what it means for the US to attack Chinese companies under the guise of “national security.” Therefore, they reflexively imagine that any action taken by China toward US companies is “retaliation.”

Of course, it is not a bad thing to make those who harm China’s interests feel uneasy, and it is a punishment they deserve. The Micron case is indeed the first time that CRO has conducted a review of a foreign company, but Micron is not the first company to undergo a security review by the office. The so-called “targeting foreign companies” is simply not true. The only thing it shows is that with the gradual improvement of China’s regulatory system, all market entities must comply with Chinese laws in their business activities. This is not about targeting specific companies. There will be no discrimination based on the different “identities” of the enterprise, neither will anyone be targeted nor given special treatment.

As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of semiconductor storage and imaging products, Micron’s products in China have long been said to have cybersecurity risks. In addition, Micron has always been known in the industry for its “aggressive competitive tactics” and has been accused of playing an instigating role in the US’ crackdown on Chinese technology, as well as being the US company that has dealt the most blows at Chinese chip enterprises. Micron itself knows clearly whether it has cooperated with Washington to export unsafe products to China, and this will undoubtedly determine its future in the Chinese market.

Take a look at US’ vicious and ruthless suppression against Huawei, and its greedy and lawless attempt to forcibly acquire TikTok. It has reached an extreme in trampling on the rules of free trade and the principles of fair competition. However, a legitimate and necessary action taken by China is used by the US to turn around and bite back, which is indicative of their guilty conscience and unreasonableness. They must be kicked in the teeth and be made to weigh the consequences carefully.

Big name retail stores now targeted by gangs in organized hits: Investigators | Nightline

This is the reality in the United States today.

Could the U.S Navy bring decommissioned ships back into commission if they wanted or needed to?

This question comes up a lot, and it comes from a lack of understanding of the difference between the post-WWII mothball fleet and the current state of the US Navy.

During World War II, the United States built the largest fleet in the world. Most of those ships were commissioned between 1943 and 1945. By September 1945, the US Navy operated over 6,700 ships, including 28 aircraft carriers, 23 battleships, 71 escort carriers, 72 cruisers, over 232 submarines, and 377 destroyers.

When the war ended, most of these ships were redundant, but most of them also only had 2 – 3 years of steaming on their hulls, so they were practically new. Thus was born the mothball fleet.

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These ships were meticulously preserved and kept ready for recommissioning should the situation require it, and the US Navy lived off these collected assets for the next 25 years. These ships could easily be refurbished, upgraded, and sent to the fleet as needed, and they were.

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Gearing Class Destroyer during World War II

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Gearing Destroyer with FRAM modifications (1960s – ‘70s)

The last of the Gearing Class destroyers were decommissioned from the US Navy in 1983.

When a modern US Navy ship is decommissioned, it has seen 25 to 30 years of hard use. The usable life has been squeezed out of it. The preservation process is nowhere near comprehensive as that done to WWII ships, mainly because everyone knows these ships are just being held until their final dispositions are decided. Most will be scrapped, and a few will be expended as targets.

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Ticonderoga Class Cruisers stored at Philidelphia.

If it were practical or made economic sense to refurbish and upgrade these ships, they would have been kept in service. This is especially true of the 1950s through 1980s vintage ships that had aluminum superstructures on steel hulls that suffered from cracking and corrosion problems.

The Navy got everything out of those ships that they had to give.

BRICS is adding members, planning new currency to challenge US dollar

What is the most clever way you have seen someone respond to road rage?

A friend of mine was heading to town. At the time the highway was undergoing significant repair. This genius in a sports car was tailgating him so close that the headlights couldn’t be seen in the mirror. My friend has a Chevrolet S-10 Z-71… a truck built from the factory to drive thru rough terrain. The bridge at the time had all of the asphalt stripped off to the bare concrete, and the max speed was 35 mph. My friend just before the bridge sped up to 55 mph. The tailgater was so intent on camping his bumper that he failed to notice. I was shown the rear view footage and it was glorious. The sports car launched into the air with a spectacular spray of sparks to accompany the flight.

MARY HARTMAN E133

https://youtu.be/IP6B1r94FqE?list=PLCY6KBmKh0OMnSSlXyNCtAnrlyoIJzHyU

Pot calling the kettle black

The US “won’t tolerate” China’s effective ban on purchases of Micron Technology memory chips and is working closely with allies to address such “economic coercion,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Saturday.

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Raimondo told a news conference after a meeting of trade ministers in the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework talks that the U.S. “firmly opposes” China’s actions against Micron.

These “target a single U.S. company without any basis in fact, and we see it as plain and simple economic coercion and we won’t tolerate it, nor do we think it will be successful.”

China’s cyberspace regulator said on May 21 that Micron, the biggest U.S. memory chip maker, had failed its network security review and that it would block operators of key infrastructure from buying from the company, prompting it to predict a revenue reduction.

The move came a day after leaders of the G7 industrial democracies agreed to new initiatives to push back against economic coercion by China — a decision noted by Raimondo.

LOL

Imagine its just Micron that China has started with. The list is endless if China started continuing this process by doing the “Huawei” on the US.

Apple (iPhone) derives its 30% profit from China. What if Chinese started boycotting it and Tesla?

Their share value would plummet drastically, which if combined with other companies, would collapse the Nasdaq and S&P which has 40 + trillions market cap.

No wonder the US came to its own rescue and started a dialogue with China on semiconductors issue – whatever the outcome be.

“Tesla’s 5 Secret Successors” Who Mysteriously Disappeared

Will China survive in a globalist world if they keep their average citizen closed off from the rest of the world?

Which planet does this China reside on? Mars?

On planet Earth at least, China has the world’s largest:

Overseas student population. (>600k)
Traveling tourists. (>150m)
Container traffic.
Diplomatic missions. (>170 countries)

There are also Chinatowns (or significant Chinese population) in many cities around the world maintaining cultural and economic ties with the mainland.

China is the largest or second largest trading partner with more than 130 countries worldwide. She is also the proponent of the One Belt One Road initiative which seeks to build infrastructure connecting China with Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe.

China is also busy signing free trade agreements and further opening up her domestic markets to FDI, as well as evolving legislation to international standards.

China has paid her dues as a member of both the UN and WTO, and by and large, has been an exemplarary global citizen.

All this points to a global player keen to be part of shared humanity, and not a hermit kingdom closed off from the world.

Passport bros and the African-American women that they enrage

I learned something today. Just stop talking to Americans on social media. They are angry, rude, insulting, and just real dicks. I think that in the future, the term “American” will be synonymous with asshole.

In other “news”…

My wife was in a minor accident. A teenager, without a drivers license, and driving an unlicensed scooter ran in front of her, and it was a minor fender bender. Luckily the location had a traffic cop right there. (It happened right in front of him.)

No harm done. Some scrapes. We declined to do anything about it, and so the kid just got back up on his scoot and hurried away to work.

It could of been worse. But wasn’t. Good thing.

Today’s post.

What would few people refuse?

In 2015, a man named Joel Burger married a woman named Ashley King. Burger King decided to fully fund the ceremony:

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Seriously…

What are the chances???

But things don’t stop there. The buzz was so much that the staff of the restaurant line decided to contact the couple and say that they would cover all the costs of the ceremony.

How not to love?

Joel and Ashley said in an interview that they have known each other since kindergarten and that they were even united because all of their classmates thought the union of their names was funny.

A great write up from Frans…

Here in China, in every hotel, big and small, they have a robot. In the bigger hotels, they have up to 5 robots.

Such a robot looks like this:

Obviously, there are many different brands, sizes and colours.

The main purpose of these robots is to bring parcels (快递kuaidi) and takeway food delivery (外卖wai mai) to the rooms of the hotel guests.

All the time, at the reception desk of the hotels it is a busy coming and going of delivery guys, bringing in parcels and food delivery boxes. Not dozens but hundreds.

It would be impossible for the reception desk personnel to deliver all these parcels to the rooms of the hotel guests.

The robots are talking all the time with a smooth voice of a young girl. The name of the robot in this hotel is “Xiao Qiu” (“little Autumn”). In the hotel in Nanjing it was “Susie”

They introduce them and greet the guests accompanying them in the elevator.

The robots manage the elevator buttons without touching the buttons. They know the exact location of every door of every room.

Susie:

________________________

Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波

Much more HERE

What was something that someone said or did that has changed you forever?

My 10-year-old daughter came home from school one day and walked into my office. I looked up, scowled and spat out, “And what do you want?”

She thought a moment and said, “You know, Dad, you sound angry. But you’re not angry at me. You’re angry for some other reason and you’re taking it out on me.”

That stopped me cold. When I thought about what she’d said, I knew she was right. And I knew that I couldn’t snap at her again, not without good reason. In fact, I couldn’t snap at anyone again, not without good reason, and that good reason would have to be very good.

And that changed my life.

What questions do you have about Taiwan’s need for weapons and equipment to deter China from invading?

Resistance is futile. Look at the map, can you find Taiwan? The only salvation is to surrender as fast as possible to avoid bloodshed. Longer the resistance the more bloodshed it will be. Look no further than Ukraine.

Passport Bros Have BLACK WOMEN ANGRY!

Look guys…

These women are hurting. It’s difficult beign a single woman! Especially if you have Children.

But stop blaming other people; (Men), your past. Your parents for your misfortune. Women are strong. Be strong.

I don’t want to offend anyone.

I feel for the women, but see the mens side of the story.

What was the most embarrassing thing you (or someone else) were caught doing at work?

Nobody ever used the formal board room.

Well, that might be an exaggeration — technically the quarterly board meetings were held there, but that was it. And I always knew when those were happening because they were a Big Deal and required days of preparation on my part every time.

As the office manager for the Houston branch of a medium-sized oil & gas company, I knew everything that went on in that space. Every morning I made the rounds of the office — straightening chairs in the two smaller conference rooms that actually saw regular use, refilling drinks in the fridge, wiping down spots the janitorial crew had missed…that office was my domain and I maintained it with pride.

Every morning I poked my head into the board room and it was always exactly as I had left it, in pristine condition, because nobody had opened the door except me.

When my fibromyalgia started a major, weeks-long flare up I did my best not to let it affect my job, but by lunchtime each day I was exhausted and in a lot of pain.

My desk was in the reception area of the office and it would obviously look less than professional for me to put my head down or otherwise try to rest there, so I took to crawling under the 12 foot long conference table in the board room to nap through my lunch hour most days.

This would usually perk me up enough to make it through the rest of the day, and since nobody ever went in there, it was no different from me walking to a nearby restaurant for my lunch break. I kept a large shawl/scarf folded in my desk that I used to cover up if it was chilly, and my three-ring binder had a puffy cover that served well enough as a makeshift pillow. Anyone seeing me walk into or out of the room would see me carrying a folded up scarf and a binder; nothing unusual.

One day I was curled in a painful ball under the table, unable to sleep (as was often the case) but enjoying the chance to relax and recharge, when the unthinkable happened — the conference room door opened and I heard multiple male voices chatting loudly.

A Senior Vice President had invited a couple of friends to the office and was giving them the grand tour before leaving for lunch with them.

I froze and took stock of my position under the table and that of my belongings. There was a non-zero chance that, from the angle of the door, the intruders would think a few chairs were pushed away from the back side of the table where I had crawled underneath (bad enough in my estimation because I always kept the conference chairs perfectly spaced and aligned) but not realize anyone was in the room.

Alas…the SVP was one of those lovely execs who doesn’t think they’re too good to push in a chair. He walked around the table and when he leaned to straighten the first chair, our eyes met.

I gave him a panicked, “No, shhhh, nothing to see here!” gesture (probably looking like I was having some sort of seizure that involved slitting my own throat) and after a startled “Oh!” he proceeded to push the chairs closer to the table but not close enough to hit me.

He then smoothly guided his friends back out of the board room and a few minutes later I heard them leave the office. I shakily bundled up my stuff and returned to my desk, wondering if I would be in trouble when he got back and how I would explain myself.

Upon his return from lunch he asked very formally if he could please see me in his office for a minute. I grabbed my notebook and pen and followed him with my head down.

After closing the door he told me to sit down and then asked me in a very kind voice if I was okay, if there were problems at home, and if I needed anything.

Tears sprang to my eyes and I fought to keep from breaking down. He knew about the fibro — all of my bosses did, because sometimes during a flare up I walk funny and fibro fog

is a real thing — but he hadn’t realized how bad it was or how hard it could be to get through a work day.

He assured me that he wouldn’t say anything to anyone and I was free to continue resting in the board room anytime I needed to. He also told me that if there were days I was having a hard time, I should let him know and he would come up with a reason for me to arrive late or leave early from the office.

I’ve never forgotten his kindness. In a situation when he had every right to demand an explanation, he offered a sympathetic ear and support I didn’t expect.

Almost four years since we each left that company, I ran into him at Jason’s Deli a couple of weeks ago. We said we should have lunch; we probably won’t, but it made me smile to see him. There are indeed kind humans out there, even as corporate executives.

The Black Woman Was Weaponized To Destroy The Black Family

Watch this. See the other side.

As someone who lives in the United Kingdom, what is the most ridiculous thing you have witnessed a tourist do?

When I was a student at Salford University I met a group of American exchange students from Detroit.

They wanted to see as much of the U.K. as they could whilst over here and one of the trips they booked was a coach tour around North Wales. Excitement started to grow when I told them Wales is another country, separate from England.

A couple of days before they were due to leave I asked if they’d managed to get their entry visas through in time. They all started to get very worried as it hadn’t occurred to them they’d need a visa.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “they hardly ever check them anyway and the coach probably won’t even stop at the border. Just wave your passport at the window as you drive past, they’ll see you’re American and everything will be fine.”

When they got back a few days later I had a massive roasting. Apparently the bus was full of Americans and the girls had asked the driver to let them know when they were approaching the border. As they drove through an entire bus full of Americans all waved their passports at the sheep in the neighbouring fields. The driver, so I’m told, didn’t stop laughing for the rest of their excursion.

Iraq has banned the US dollar

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A whirlwind of changes is taking place in the global financial markets threatening the superiority of the U.S. dollar. A handful of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe are looking to end reliance on the dollar and promote BRICS or their native currencies. Iraq banned the U.S. dollar, posing a hefty fine and jail term for anyone trading with the USD.

The Iraqi government banned entities from initiating business transactions with the U.S. dollar. Iraq aims to control the fluctuating black market exchange rate, that plagues the country for decades. The move is also positioned to strengthen the usage of the Iraqi Dinar in the Forex markets.

Offenders who trade in the U.S. dollar will face a penalty of up to 1 million Iraqi Dinar. Repeat offenders will also face a jail term of one year and have their business licenses overturned.

The South African BRICS ambassador confirmed that European countries have expressed interest to join the BRICS alliance. He did not reveal the names of the European nations but hinted that a global financial change is brewing. According to recent developments, all arrows point towards France and Belarus showing interest to join BRICS.

France settled an LNG gas trade with China by settling the cross-border transaction with the Chinese Yuan in March. French President Emmanuel Macron also called for the European Union to distance itself from the U.S. dollar.

Was Emperor Commodus really a bad guy as we saw in the movie Gladiator?

Great question! He was WAY worse in real life compared to Gladiator.

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Gladiator portrays Commodus as this obsessive power-hungry monster concerned with the love of the people above all.

In reality, Commodus was a vain, sick, and evil bastard that caused tons of suffering to countless people and cared only for himself.

Commodus’s had a good father to learn from. His dad and Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was a top-tier Emperor who worked very hard to maintain the strength of the Empire.

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When Marcus died and passed power to his son he was at the end of a years-long war against the Germanic tribes along the border, specifically the Marcomanni. These tribes had long been a serious problem and had been raiding the Empire constantly for centuries.

Marcus was closing in on victory when he died and made his son promise to finish the wars. Once Commodus was in power though he decided that he just didn’t want to spend any more time fighting the Germans and ended the war with a crappy peace deal.

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Back in Rome, there were problems. Commodus could care less though.

You see Commodus never wanted to be Emperor. He only ever wanted to be a gladiator.

So Commodus appointed his two best friends (both slaves) to run the Empire while he went off to be a gladiator.

This was bonkers FYI. Gladiators were slaves who died for the amusement of the people. To see an Emperor fight as a gladiator is like seeing the President walk the street as a hooker trying to turn tricks.

While Commodus trained and fought his buddies mucked it all up. Rome would experience a famine, economic hardship, and social upheaval all while Commodus played gladiator.

Commodus would nearly bankrupt the treasury his father had built up by throwing near-constant gladiator games. You see Commodus loved to fight in the ring, though his opponents had dull swords and could never win. Mostly though Commodus enjoyed killing animals.

Moreover, Commodus loved to kill people he deemed “weird”. This includes women, dwarfs, disabled people, mentally ill people- you name it. He really enjoyed making them suffer often slowly killing them to show off his sword or bow skills.

In the end, the idiot would leave a “people I am going to kill” list on his desk for his mistress to find. The chief name on the list was hers, Commodus’s trainer, and a number of Senators. They decided to strike first and Commodus was strangled to death in his bath.

What’s the most obnoxious instance of America-centric behavior you’ve ever witnessed?

This was just last week, I was waiting for my wife to finish shopping at the (OMG soooo expensive) Westminster Abbey shop, when a group of American girls reached the till, (checkout) for payment, one of them proudly presented her black Amex card. Now the spotty lad on the till who was doing his best to control the queue said “sorry, we don’t accept this card”. Now this is when things started to get interesting, the young girl, maybe 17 or 18 years of age, I say girl because she was no lady, screams at the boy, “of course you take it, are stupid?” Now the spotty lad kept his cool and showed her the card indicating the payment options and surprise, surprise, NO AMEX . Well the girl turns bright puce and makes another attempt to explain to ‘spotty’ he is wrong. Shouting quite loudly now she says, “you have to take it, because the brochure says ‘accepted in the best places all over the world’ Is London not one of the best places”? ‘Spotty’ said yes it is, but you still can’t use it here. The girl just looked at her friends, screaming like a two year old who has been told ‘No’ and stormed out of the shop. “You could hear a pin drop” until an elderly gentleman in the queue said “well done lad, bloody yanks think they own the place” this was greeted with murmurs of approval, and normal service was resumed.

China’s secret suicide drone

Chinese experts have developed a bomber ammunition that resembles the Switchblade. The drone is called Yousun, but all parameters are being kept secret.

Here’s What is Known:

The hovering munition looks similar to the Switchblade drone developed by the US company AeroVironment. But the key feature of the Yousun is the ability to launch from ships and submarines.

As the drone can also be launched from under water. This will have major implications for China’s warfighting capabilities in East Asia.

The kamikaze drone is designed to destroy defensive fortifications. It is 2.5-3m long and equipped with folding wings. The video above shows the bomber unfolding its wings after launch.

Has anyone witnessed someone saying “I don’t” in a wedding?

Originally Answered: Has anyone witness someone saying “I don’t” in a wedding?

This happened here in Mumbai.

A girl was being married against her wishes.

People thought she would kill her wishes for her parents’ happiness.

Here’s how she acted bravely:

(In Islamic law a jurist has to ask the bride and the groom if they accept each other, thrice.)

1st time…

When Kazi (Muslim Jurist) asked her, “Do you accept it?”

She was supposed to say, “Yes, I accept.”

She: “Mujhe Qubool nahi hy” (I don’t accept this).

2nd time…

Kazi (Worried): “Kya tumne Qubool kiya?” (Do you accept it?)

She: “Mujhe qubool nahi hy” (I don’t accept this.)

*Now her parents got worried* *Her parents took her in a separate room, cried, argued, did everything to convince her to say yes. Finally she agreed to say yes.*

3rd time (Final time)…

Kazi (Sweat running down his head): “Kya tumne Qubool kiya?” (Do you accept it?)

*After a pause*

She: “Mujhe Qubool nahi hy” (I don’t accept it!!)

“Damnnn..!!! girl what did you do?!?” crowd uttered from all sides. There was chaos.

She refused it thrice. Now as per Islamic law, a marriage is not possible between them.

Finally, her parents had to agree to let her marry her boyfriend (a different man).

Brave girl.

Lucky is that guy, her boyfriend, to have such a courageous girl.

USA Begs Mexico On Its Knees To Not Join BRICS

The Producers (1968) The Hitler Auditions

TWO (2) ACTIVE DUTY British Soldiers KILLED inside Ukraine

World Hal Turner 05 June 2023

Last night in Ukraine, two British soldiers were killed by Russian Su-24 bombers which annihilated their multi-million dollar UK Storm Shadow missiles at Kropivnitskiy airfield in Ukraine.

In addition, at least one (1) critically injured ***ACTIVE DUTY** UK soldier was airlifted to Poland from that same strike scene.

Thus, active duty NATO military are, in fact, inside Ukraine where they do not belong, and now, they’re getting killed.

Why China Doesn’t Identify with the West, Explained

“Today while at the gas station I overheard a lady in her late 20’s telling 2 other men to leave her alone

so I decided to walk over to them and I asked her ” how was the meeting today darlin? ” she looked at me and said ” it was good, I’ll tell you more about it when we get home in a few “. I replied with ” wonderful I’ll pick up your favorite for dinner”.

The two guys left in a hurry and she told me ” you have no idea how much that meant to me …. thank you.” I said “you’re very welcome ma’am …. you can never be too careful. “

I made sure the guys left before I walked back to my car and as I was walking back all I could do was think ” I hope a man does that for my future daughter one day”.”

~ Cody Bret

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China is a far better place to live than the US!! They won’t admit it, though.

She’s right. Cashless is awesome!

Ditch the dolla

BRICS is moving at a rapid pace to sideline the U.S. dollar and promote their native currencies for global trade. Around 41 countries have expressed their interest to join the BRICS alliance and accept the new currency for cross-border transactions.

Russia and China are convincing many other countries to enter the bloc to dethrone the U.S. dollar. The USD’s global reserve status is being challenged by developing nations and could send the greenback on a path of decline.

10 ASEAN countries have agreed to stop trading in the U.S. dollar and will use native currencies for cross-border settlements. ASEAN is a bloc of 10 countries compromising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The ASEAN alliance put a declaration in place avoiding the U.S. dollar for settlements and advancing the local currency usage. The Eastern countries are taking steps to end reliance on the dollar and create a new global financial order.

On the other hand, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are following suit with the ASEAN bloc. Member nations of GCC Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have expressed their interest to join BRICS. In addition, Saudi Arabia is in talks to fund the BRICS bank, commonly called The New Development Bank (NDB).

If Saudi Arabia funds the BRICS bank, the alliance could receive an economic boost and sideline the U.S. dollar. The move could attract many other countries to accept the BRICS currency and stop trading with the dollar altogether. Read here to know more details on why Saudi funding the BRICS bank is dangerous to the American economy.

The decision to launch a new currency will be jointly taken in the next summit in South Africa in August.

“We have ALIEN craft in our possession” – Govt. UFO whistleblower admits BOMBSHELL

The USA needs a new enemy.

Below another bad news for US decoupling policy:

2023 04 25: Foxconn new headquarter open in China 郑州 （Zheng Zhou）

This is after experiencing the trouble in the Vietnam, India, and US factories, and APPLE transfers businesses to other Chinese manufacturers due to Foxconn other factories unable to operate smoothly in those countries as planned. So, 10 months ago, Foxconn decided to set up a second factory in Zheng Zhou.

Article HERE

UPDATED 9:50 PM EDT — Ukraine begins ‘large-scale offensive’ – Russian MOD

World Hal Turner 04 June 2023

UPDATED 9:50 PM EDT — Ukrainian forces have attacked the Russian troops along five sections of the frontline in Donbass during their “large-scale offensive,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Monday.

According to the MOD, the assault began on Sunday morning. “The enemy’s goal was to breach our defenses in what they assumed was the most vulnerable section of the frontline,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The enemy has failed to reach its goals and was unsuccessful,” the ministry stated.

The MOD said that Ukraine had deployed the 23rd and the 31st mechanized brigade from its “strategic reserves,” which were supported in battle by other units.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost more than 250 service members, 16 tanks, three infantry vehicles, and 21 armored vehicles,” the MOD said.

The ministry released a video of what it said were strikes on Ukrainian military vehicles.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Saturday that Kiev was ready to launch its long-planned counteroffensive and that the military could not wait “for months.” The deputy head of his office, Igor Zhovkva, however, said the same day that his country had still not received enough weapons and ammunition to mount a successful campaign.

Kiev has recently stepped up the artillery and drone attacks on Russian cities, including a UAV raid on Moscow last week. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday evening that the troops had repelled an armed incursion into the Belgorod Region, which shares a border with Ukraine.

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the ‘Freedom of Russia’ Legion – two pro-Kiev groups made up of fighters with neo-Nazi background – claimed responsibility for that attack and similar forays into Russian territory that took place throughout this spring.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gudkov wrote on his Telegram channel early Monday morning that a drone strike had started a fire on “an energy infrastructure site.” He added that there were no casualties and no power outages.

UPDATED 9:50 AM EDT —

Ukraine Army (UA) forces have breached the first lines of defense near Velyka Novosilka, Southern Donetsk.

The villages of Neskuchne and Novodarivka have been liberated and russians have fallen back to reserve positions in Storozheve.

Assaults ongoing.

The Reason why Men are Walking Away from Dating (Ep. 347)

I don’t want to offend anyone.

I feel for the women, but see the men’s side of the story.

“Rainy Day In Ireland”

Pennsylvania Dutch Sour Cream Cabbage

Ingredients

1 medium head cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup vegetable oil (for frying)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pint (2 cups) sour cream
2 cups distilled white vinegar

Instructions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add cabbage, salt and pepper and cook until tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Mix sugar and flour together in a medium bowl, then add sour cream and mix well; finally stir in vinegar and mix well.
Add mixture to cabbage and simmer all together until desired consistency is reached.

AFRICAN Woman DEFENDS Passport Bros And CLAPS Back At Black American Women

So much pain. Ugh.

The answer is in how you deal with it.

https://youtu.be/hPQG5LjuiJA

On 2023/6/3, a US destroyer & a Canadian cruiser sailed thru Taiwan strait. China warned them to leave but they did not. A Chinese warship sailed in front of the US destroyer & forced it to change direction. It was close to collision (137 meters apart). USA scolded China for dangerous sailing. China scolded USA for non-Innocent Passage. What is Innocent Passage under UNCLOS ?

There was a journalist(s) on the Canadian warship. Experience tells us that the Jun3 incident was a plot by USA+Canada to give people an impression that China was aggressive. After all, in the 20th Defense conference, China Defense Leader talked to counterparts of many countries. Except USA.

Anyway, what is Innocent Passage under UN Convention of Law Of Sea? Below are my over-simplified points.

Innocent Passage ie friendly, thru the waters of coastal state means …

the passage does not harm the peace, good order or safety of coastal state.

The following action is NOT Innocent Passage (ie hostile) to the coastal state

1, do military

2, do military drill

3, do surveillance

4, do propaganda to harm the defense & safety

5, aircraft carrier with warplanes taking off or landing

6, shoot, load or unload artillery equipment

7, break custom, immigration or health-related eg illegal drug

8, cause pollution

9, fishery

10, research or survey

11, interrupt communication system

Coastal state has the right to prevent non-innocent passage, by …

1, set up its own laws

2, ban fishing

3, temporarily block Innocent Passage

4, self determine another seaway as Innocent Passage

5, set up a system to monitor the passing ships

6, patrol

7, to suspicious ships, coastal state can go on board, inspect, search, detain & take proper action

8, order to leave before certain date

Let us play judge re the Jun6 incident.

1, China has warned US+Canadian warships to leave. China said USA+Canada were non-Innocent Passage ie hostile. I have not heard USA or Canada refuted.

When a US warship sailed thru Taiwan strait the 1st time after Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, the artillery on the US warship pointed at the sky. Have US+Canadian warships done so this time? Or have they covered their cannonballs? Or more.

Tell us their friendly side, please. So that we can help them scold China.

2, UNCLOS says coastal state can set up its laws to prevent non-innocent passage. Plus point 7 re suspicious. That gives China lots of room to maneuver.

Like it or not, under ONE CHINA principle, Taiwan is part of China. Taiwan strait is an inner sea of China.

It is not up to USA to unilaterally say this or that. Today’s Latin American, Middle East, Africa or ASEAN do not take US order. Needless to say today’s strong China.

3, What is Freedom of Navigation in terms of dispute?

In short, it is another state challenging the Innocent Passage of the coastal state.

9 Filipinas CLAP Back HARD | They ❤️ Passport Bros

They do not want to be the scapegoat.

Only in the United States, the cradle of Democracy

This is Dianne Feinstein

she is 89 years old
she is a Senator
who almost never show up at the Senate
she is reported to have cognitive issues, similar to President Joe Biden
as well as suffering from some very painful disease
during the course of her tenure in office, she has amassed over $200 million in assets

Elected American officials are allowed to put their own interests and ego over the interest of the American people. Americans deserve better. They deserve leaders who can lead them to a better place.

Passport Bros Are WINNING With FILIPINA Women!

Again. They are sick and tired of being blamed.

On Saturday June 3, 2023, a historic event happened in the Taiwan Strait.

A Chinese warship intercepted an American destroyer. The USS Chung-Hoon claimed to have asked the Chinese ship to stay away from it but the Chinese responded "Move, or there would be a collision". Eventually, the USS Chung-Hoon changed course and slowed down to avoid a crash.

That's the right attitude and the right language when dealing with an international bully.

There is a time for diplomacy but there is also a time for right assertiveness. And right now, so-called diplomacy would undeniably be cowardice.

Tot Ziens ! Quan

Article HERE

You Can Talk About PA55PORT BRO5 But Don’t Talk About Them | LESSON LEARNED

Fighting back.

Russian Ministry for Civil Defense Has Got a Bizarre Honey Cake Employee Now

In the city of Tula the Russian EMERCOM (Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergency Management and Natural Disasters Response) has got a new mascot and employee – the honey cake of Tula (which is the symbol of the city). Mr. Honey Cake even has his own offical ID and a medal for propaganda of the rescue work.

h/t: englishrussia

The US Has NO CHANCE of Defeating China in Taiwan

Real.

Allies after allies now turned against the United States

The newly re-elected Government of Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, speaking to a crowd from a balcony promised that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would:

“wipe away whoever causes trouble” for Turkey “and that includes the American military.”
Earlier, he declared that those who “pursue a pro-American approach will be considered traitors.”
Keep in mind that Turkey has been a member of NATO AND the most critical NATO member after the United States

Personally, I wonder why this took so long

the US supported an attempted coup against Erdogan. The leader of the coup is based in the US; and
American proxies, based in Syria, have launched attacks in Turkey
however, it does NOT surprise me that it is the Muslim countries that are now strongly speaking out against the US because the US and its western allies have killed and dislocated tens of millions of them in just the last two decades alone

A powerful Muslim world is currently increasingly convalescing behind the BRI world and will provide decisive military support to China in any future conflagaration.

Biden Is ‘In Denial’ Over Collapse Of Empire – Economist Richard Wolff

What was the most badass “I rest my case” moment you’ve ever witnessed in court?

Back in the early 2000’s I worked for Mega Evil Douchebag Corp (might not be the actual name, but that’s how I remember it…). MEDC main business was giving credit cards to people with bad credit. Seriously, you could have a single digit credit score and these people would say yes.

Due to the type of people this attracted, nearly 80% of people defaulted on their cards, usually after the first bill arrived and they realised it wasn’t free money. As staff, I also had a card, but with better rates and a considerably higher credit limit.

Because of the number of defaults, MEDC had a contract with a particularly belligerent debt collection agency. These debt collectors would come to the office once a month, go to the records room and be handed a pile of defaulted accounts. Every month they would leave with bin bags full of paperwork.

One day I had cause to go to the records room and I was amazed at what I saw. The room was exactly as the name suggests, a room full of customer records, but that’s as far as it went in terms of an accurate description. The records were everywhere. Piles on this desk, piles on that desk. Heaps on the floor. Boxes in no discernible order. It was a mess – and that’s being polite.

The debt collectors used to go into this room and were only supposed to take records from a particular desk. In fact, they took whatever they wanted.

One month, they managed to get my paperwork by mistake. This began more than six long months of letters, phonecalls, emails and debt collectors turning up at my door threatening me with bankruptcy and prison if I didn’t pay the full sum I owed them.

I didn’t owe them anything. My account was still open and my card in regular use. One of the conditions of having a card as a staff member was you had to pay the balance in full every month. I did, and could prove it.

Being debt collectors, and therefore not the brightest of individuals, they wouldn’t accept “go fuck yourself” as payment for a debt I didn’t owe, so I told them to take me to court. Eventually they did.

When I got to court I saw their solicitors huddling together, no doubt discussing how they were going to crush me under their mighty law degrees. I represented myself.

In the actual courtroom, I was sat on one side, on my own with just a glass of water and my wallet on the desk. They were sat on their side, all shiny briefcases, stacks of folders containing damning paperwork and expensive suits. I saw them look over at me a couple of times, knowing they were going to win. I just sat there quietly.

The judge walked in, introduced himself, and for my benefit, explained how this hearing would work. I sat, listened and nodded appropriately.

Before we started, he asked me why I was representing myself. I explained this was an easy case and I didn’t feel the need to waste money on a solicitor. I was also asked why I didn’t have any paperwork with me and I explained that I didn’t believe I needed any and was confident in my ability to defend myself, but that I would be asking the courts indulgence to break a minor rule during my defence, but I would explain at the time what I wanted to do, and why.

It was all very friendly. Then it was like he flipped a switch in his brain to turn “judge mode” on.

The debt collectors solicitors started as they were bringing the case against me.

According to them I had entered into a contract with Mega Evil Douchebag Corp for the supply and use of a line of credit, by means of a MEDC credit card. I had the benefit of that card (legal speak for “he used it”). I had failed to make payments as obligated by the contract, and payment demands. After a period of time, MEDC cancelled the line of credit, the card and the account, and sent the account to collections. Collections tried to contact me on many occasions, were unable to do so, and eventually sold the account to the debt collectors. The debt collectors then tried collecting the money owed over six months and were unable to do so, as I repeatedly refused to pay.

In evidence of their allegations they had the original MEDC card paperwork and all the account statements. They also provided copies of all the letters they sent me demanding payment, and proof of receipt of several of them. They stated that I told them over the phone I didn’t know who MEDC were, and that I never had a card with them.

It was a cut and dry, air-tight case. They had the contract, they had the letters, they had everything they needed to get a judgement in their favour.

In fact, they had nothing.

Now it was my turn.

I stood and immediately apologised for wasting the courts time. I opened my wallet and took out the obviously well used Evil Douchebag credit card and explained I never denied having one, or regularly using it. I then took out my company ID card, showing I was an employee of MEDC and then explained what that meant in terms of having one of their cards.

I asked for the statements being used against me and they were handed over. I showed the judge each and every time I had made full payment against the amount owed (which was every month as per the staff conditions). I then explained that the account had not been closed and sent to debt collectors as it was still open, and had been used that week to buy petrol.

The judge stopped me and asked the solicitors if my account was open or closed. They confirmed it was definitely closed.

He asked me to continue and it was at this point I asked to break the rules. I told the judge I could definitively prove their entire case was bogus by making a simple phonecall. I asked the clerk to call the customer services number on the statements the solicitors provided against me and the judge agreed. I went through security and connected to a customer rep. I asked for my current balance and the amount owed on the next payment. I then asked him to confirm if the account was listed as open or closed. He – of course – said it was open. I finally asked if he could check the notes screen for any Collections Dept activity and he said there was none. That’s where I ended the call.

I thanked the judge and quickly explained that since I studied law at A-level, there was something I had always wanted to say in open court, even though it wasn’t the done thing in the UK, and before he could say anything, I said “I rest my case”.

The judge just about went mental. He dismissed the case immediately, but refused to let the solicitors leave until they had explained why they were chasing me for a debt I very clearly didn’t owe. He wanted to know how their clients added fees were calculated, and exactly what was being charged for the “court fees” I was being charged too. He also told them that whilst I had no evidence of what was said when they visited my home and told me they would make sure I went to prison, he was inclined to believe me. Not only that, but he would now be watching out for cases involving their clients and be more inclined to accept verbal evidence than he normally would.

I just sat there and watched them squirm as they couldn’t answer any questions he wanted answers to. The judge told me I was free to leave if I wanted to, but the solicitors weren’t going anywhere until he had answers. As I left the courtroom, they were on the phone with their clients demanding those answers.

The judge told me “well done” as I left, smiling. I sincerely doubt the solicitors were smiling for quite some time afterwards.

Were the Chinese in the Korean War the toughest soldiers that U.S. troops ever fought?

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General Ray Davis USMC fought the Imperial Japanese Army, North Korean People’s Army, Chinese People’s Volunteers, and the North Vietnamese Army during his storied career. He was awarded the Medal of Honor while commanding an infantry battalion in 1950 during the Chosin Reservoir Campaign. I had the pleasure to meet him one afternoon in Virginia. During our conversation, I asked him for his opinion on the combat performance of the various enemy armed forces he fought over the course of three different wars. His response is provided below.

The Imperial Japanese Army was the toughest adversary he ever encountered on the battlefield. Japanese soldiers used their weaponry with great skill. Their camouflage and concealment was first rate. Their iron discipline and refusal to surrender made Imperial soldiers extremely difficult to defeat. They always fought to the death when overrun.
Chinese People’s Army volunteers were good soldiers. A lot of them were former Nationalist soldiers who had received excellent combat training from US Army instructors during WW II. The communist cadre provided mostly excellent leadership. Most CPV command groups had worked together in combat against the Japanese and the Nationalists before the Korean War and were thoroughly trained and experienced in the art of war. But the average Chinese soldiers lacked initiative and Chinese commanders tended to double down on failure during offensive combat. If one attack failed, a second, third, etc attack would generally use the same avenues of approach and tactics even though every proceeding attack failed. Chinese weaponry was a mixed bag. Logistics appeared terrible. Uniforms were unsuited for winter combat in Korea. Thousands of Chinese died from exposure and inadequate food and medical supplies. If the cadre became casualties, Chinese soldiers tended to surrender or retreat. Overall, the Chinese were tough soldiers, but the average soldier wasn’t as committed as an Imperial Japanese soldier.
The North Koreans were tough soldiers, but he only fought them briefly in Korea. Like the Chinese, North Korean units were prone to surrender or sudden withdrawals if their leadership cadre became casualties.
The North Vietnamese Army was highly disciplined, well led, and wielded its weaponry with great skill. NVA commanders refused to allow their units to be wiped out in unequal battles against US forces. They knew how to hit hard and when to break contact. NVA commanders always realized it was better to withdraw and live to fight another day rather than be annihilated on the battlefield. The NVA and the NV government focused on fighting the long war and outlasting US political will. They succeeded. Nonetheless, Davis assessed that the Imperial Japanese soldiers were tougher overall adversaries.

I hope this post answers your question.

What is the most offensive thing you overheard someone sitting near you on a plane say?

Being disabled and looking like I do there are two things I always get to overhear. Going through TSA my name comes up red flagged. Meaning check him completely.

A customs agent told me “it’s due to your Military career and past knowledge.”

What the hell does that mean? I’m in a wheelchair and have metal in my leg, shoulder, and back. I am a wand beep show. All hands pat downs in a wheelchair. You need two hips to stand, so I can’t stand. Any chance I am taking over the plane? Gunpowder tests on hands AND ARMS. OK so the Navy/CIA service made me an enemy of the state or something?

I think it is BS and it’s profiling but my wife said “no it’s not.”

Then you have people whispering when we get on first. “Bet they fake it to board first…”

I tore into a woman I heard say that. I yelled so loud the airport got quiet. Does it look like I’m faking it? I tried to get out of wheelchair and fell. Hurt. But I felt better with that. Maybe she’ll get it some day.

My wife wasn’t happy about my antics but I’m so tired of it. And she knows. On the plane though I overheard a mom telling their kid there is no difference between disabled people and us. Except a part of their body just doesn’t work like ours. She had me in tears. The best explanation of a disabled person I have ever heard explained. And plainly so a child could understand it. The kid kept asking me if I needed any help?

HURRAY FOR THAT MOM. YOU MADE MY DAY!

Those jinxed F-35s

The F-35 stealth fighter’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engines have cost the Pentagon $38 billion of dollars in unexpected maintenance costs due, according to a new report by auditors from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)

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The engine’s cooling capacity in particular has been wholly insufficient to meet the power demands of the fighter’s sensors and electronics, with the F135 having been commissioned when the F-35 was still conceptualised as a much lighter and cheaper fighter with lower power demands closer to the size of its predecessor the F-16.

The engine has gained growing criticism over the past year, with its role being particularly critical for the US Military and for NATO more broadly as the F-35 is the only post fourth generation fighter in production outside China and Russia – and the only peer level challenger to the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter in terms of avionics, stealth and the integration of key next generation technologies.

The F-35 is relied on by the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marines and the services of multiple allied states from Japan and South Korea to Israel and a fast growing number of European NATO members, with a lack of remotely comparable competition from other Western fighters ensuring a very large market share.

The F135’s outstandingly low availability rates and excessive maintenance needs have nevertheless continued to ground F-35s at six times the standard rate of other fighter classes, with Pentagon officials having highlighted issues with the F135’s power module as a key cause for the fighter’s low mission capable rates.

The Producers (1968) – Springtime for Hitler

My mom recently died and her landlord let family members go in and pack up her apartment after I told her not to let anyone in there. Can I sue her?

When a good friend, from the Marine Corps, was K.I.A., his eldest brother cracked open the deceased’s apartment, before the funeral had taken place. My friend’s widow, also deployed, hadn’t even been notified, yet. By the time she knew of the situation, their home had been ransacked by nearly twenty members of two families.

I called the brother, and offered him an out, which he blew off. Over the next ten days, I contacted each of the offending parties; only two responded, and not favorably. Then, acting on the widow’s behalf, I hired an attorney and filed police reports. I went to the D.A., who filed 98 separate charges against all of the perpetrators, including the management and owners of the complex.

After sixteen months of legal crap, nine of the family members(one was an attorney, another a university economics professor) were convicted of misdemeanors, spent between thirty and sixty days in jail, and paid both restitution and fines of $500.00–6,000.00. The eldest brother, an electrician and small-business owner, now a felon, spent eight months in jail; the widow sued him and won a $450,000.00 settlement. The apartment complex ended up terminating the managers; and, they paid the widow $2.9M.

Not one of these people had been a criminal, prior to the incident. They were simply ignorant, greedy assholes, who deserved everything they got.

The EU’s delegation to China has become a joke on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. Its official Weibo account was titled “EU in China” (欧盟在中国), but its IP address indicates that it is operated in the United States.

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Updates: The German embassy in China also manages its official Weibo account from the United States.

After learning that they had become the laughing stock on Chinese social media, both the EU delegation to China and the German embassy in China quietly switched their IP addresses back to Beijing.

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Pennsylvania Dutch Chili

Ingredients

1 pound homemade noodles or 1 (12 to 16 ounce) bag wide egg noodles
1 can baked beans
1 cup spaghetti sauce or less (or 1 small jar)
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped

Instructions

Brown ground beef and onion.
Cook and drain egg noodles.
Combine everything. You may need additional sauce if you have leftovers and warm them up later. Chili should be thick, not soupy.
Serve with crusty bread.

Modern Women Mocking Passport Bros get Stitch and Humbled

https://youtu.be/kG2yIeJmHP8

What is the name of the mysterious creature that is said to inhabit Loch Ness?

Nessie.

Let it be well understood that there is no hard and tangible proof that Nessie actually exists. Studies and efforts to discover this enigmatic creature has provided tantalizing glimpses of what might be a small colony of deep-dwelling marine crates that resemble a elasmosauros.

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A plesiosaurus, while superficially similar to an elasmosauros, is much smaller, and does not fit the observed and photographs of this creature.

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Photographs of this creature taken underwater clearly show fin, neck and head structures that are in alignment with known anthropological evidence.

This is not the only instance of this creature surviving into contemporaneous history. From time to time, fishermen, and others have found, photographed, and even captured entire carcasses of this creature.

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It is my personal belief that these are slow-moving bottom feeder creatures that inhabit the great depths of the ocean and enclosed seas. Over time, one day, absolute proof will be gathered that will end the mystery of Nessie once and for all, but until that happens, the interest in this OOPART borders on the “Science Fiction”.

NY Times admits they don’t like Chinese but they need Chinese talent to maintain the American hegemony.

Hongkong media SCMP has tracked the number of US warplanes/warships at China’s door-step. 1,200 times in 2022 ! If this is not deliberate provocation & fight-picking by USA, what is it? Who is aggressive?

The key word here is : DOOR-STEP

Door-step in this article means outside your property line. Not inside.

Let say I walk at your door-step. On the street which is a public area. I have not entered your property line.

I carry something that looks like a rifle to you. Bullet-proof vest & helmet.

I have a track record that I made trouble for other households in the society.

How will you react to my appearance at your door-step if it is daily?

Now …

replace “I” with “USA”. “my rifle” with “US warplanes/warships”. “me at your door-step” with “USA at the door-step of China”.

Remember I am outside your property line. Same for US warplanes/warships outside China’s borderline according to UNCLOS.

2, now replace “my daily” with “USA’s 1,200 times”

How will you react to my appearance at your door-step, daily?

If this is not DELIBERATE provocation & picking fights, what is it?

There is police/law to stop my malicious action towards you. If there is not, will you do everything to protect your family?

There is ICC & UN laws eg Non-Innocent Passage as I said in other articles. But ICC is believed to be “controlled” by USA. USA was not charged for war crime in the 2003 Iraq war.

Hence China must protect itself.

Now USA scolds CHINA BEING AGGRESSIVE ???

Only a bully or mafia is that unreasonable.

3, now replace “my freedom to walk on public street” with “US freedom of navigation”

Only a bully or mafia will turn the logic upside down & conveniently use Freedom as god.

It is this type of twisted logic that USA justified their action to instigate riots/coups/wars in the world 82 out of 100 times, since WW2. Causing millions of deaths & human suffering.

4, We must ask :

Why USA instigated riots/wars in Middle East for the past 20 years. OIL.

What about China? Rise of China that, in US words, threatens US status on world stage.

China works hard to better itself & thus achieves a lots. IMF said China contributes 30% of world GDP.

Am I not allowed to get A+ in my exam just because you get B- in yours?

Only sore losers have the type of mentality to contain others.

Search Quora for a question:

On 2023/6/3, a US destroyer & a Canadian cruiser sailed thru Taiwan strait. China warned them to leave but they did not. A Chinese warship sailed in front of the US destroyer & forced it to change direction. It was close to collision (137 meters apart). USA scolded China for dangerous sailing. China scolded USA for non-Innocent Passage. What is Innocent Passage under UNCLOS ?

How can I get my neighbor to stop pushing her kid off on me? I gave a ride to my neighbor’s child from the bus stop to her house and now every day the mother seems to expect me to do it. She now asks for rides in the morning as well.

I remember this situation when my children were little. I had two children in school. Grade three and grade two. The neighbour thought it was my children’s responsibility to take and protect her child to and from school. She said her child was the youngest, which she was not younger than my son. And she told my children that her child had to ride her bike in the center of the three children. My neighbour also told my children that they were not allowed to return home without her daughter.

I could not believe this when I heard my neighbour yelling all these rules to my children. I knew this would not last long as her child was a brat and the novelty of riding her bike would not last long. Right, as I was, after a week, this child cried to her mother and from then on, this child was driven to and from school. . . . However, my children were never offered a ride!

The only answer I can tell you is to be really bold like my neighbour was. Just tell your neighbour that it is not a convenient situation for you to be giving a ride to your child. Tell her straight that you do not want the responsibility of making sure her child gets home. It is a responsibility that is not yours and you no longer want to be giving rides to her child.

Explain to her that you enjoy having a good neighbour relationship, but anything to do with parenting and responsibilities has to remain within each home.

Be strong and whatever your neighbour says is not your problem. Know what you want for your children and your family. Fight for it.

What are some signs that someone doesn’t respect you?

There are outward signs, but there are very slight covert sneaky signs.

They interrupt you quite a bit (they don’t care about what you’re saying or that you’re talking at all)
They try to convince you of what you don’t believe – always wanting you to agree with them (in small ways they do this so they can go in for the kill on larger things later)
As an addendum to #2, they try to convince you in random ways that you can’t think for yourself so they can later make you actually believe you cannot “human” on your own and you’re defective. Forget the fact that you’ve survived this long without even knowing them.
They take your ideas and make them their own.
They bait and switch you. They make you believe one thing in private, then do the opposite in public. They also will convince you to do something and then act like its the worst thing in the world after its done. For example, a husband finally convinces his wife to cut her hair short because she would look so sexy, chic, cute, fierce, all those adjectives. Maybe even that she’ll be his little Halle Berry kitten. Then in public or among friends, he’ll go on and on about how beautiful women are when they’re hair is long and how he looooooves long hair.
They love bomb you. Anyone who flatters, says you’re they’re “soul-anything” right away or their “bestie” at an alarmingly fast rate, is setting you up for devalue. They love to put you on high so they can pull the rug from underneath you. Always remember flattery is dangerous. It’s akin to violence. Trust and believe that. And beware of the one who wants to know “all about you” and “I know you so well”, or “wow, You know me so well” before a natural passage of time.
A person who doesn’t respect you will not take your No for an answer. They will question you, try to make you doubt yourself, and dismantle your sense of reasoning every time.
They’re not interested in anything you’re interested in; on the flip side, they will feign interest to bate you in, and then show no lasting interest or no emotion. They shortly begin to act like they’re tolerating you or your interests, successes, etc. They also are not happy for you when you are happy about something.
A person doesn’t respect you when they are short tempered with others but nice to you. Also, if you’re only good to be with in private but never in public, No respect for you.
I’ll stop at 10 because the list goes on but over all the things, TRUST. YOUR. GUT. If your physiological responses are popping off in a negative way around this person, or you feel red flags, or just that something isn’t right….You’re right!

I hope this tiny little list has helped identify some of things you may possibly have experienced. There are things that we sometimes overlook in the spirit of being gracious or forgiving but the signs are there. We have to learn to manage them or we will end up all of a sudden like the guy who took a nap on a small raft- he eventually woke up and didn’t see land.

Stay awake and best to you

***Edit: Thanks to a commenter this list will be extended. By the time we’re adults, we all have observed or experienced some form of these things from the casual encounter with a stranger, to professional interactions, to that of our closest relationships. The things listed are meant to cover some of all of those kinds of relationships. So this might get a little deep but, here we go…

11. A person doesn’t respect you when you see or even detect that downward look, the roll of the eyes, that negative energy, or that smirk that communicates contempt. You don’t even have to be talking directly to them. You can see it from the corner of your eye- You are NOT imagining it. This is a real thing and they know you’re absorbing it.

12. They call you out without saying your name or reveal something very confidential in a public space (whether on social media or within a group of people). This is done without cause and whether this exposes you or not the point is, they know that YOU know they’re talking about YOU. Also, they will have you with them at public events and then actively ignore you. Provable only by you.

13. You tell them what hurts you and they use those very things to hurt you. They like to open up wounds.

14. They “collect” things you say to fire back at you at a later time, like ammunition. You get the sense that telling them things is unsafe even tho they welcome you to open up to them.

15. You have a strong feeling that there’s a hierarchy between you and them; them being superior and you being inferior/subordinate. When there is no employment situation, its disrespectful. (Even in employment, it can translate to subhuman treatment). But if this is a personal relationship its being done on purpose. They tend to find things you need help with or to make better. Sometimes they outright tell you that they want to mentor something in your life, or that they feel like your big brother/sister. Warning: they want you beneath them. In life, period; and they want you not trusting yourself.

16. They do not respect your boundaries. (addition to #7). For example: If you’re sick, somehow to them you’re not sick enough not to do the thing they want you to do or your level of illness is questionable to them when they want something. They have the overtone of making you feel better or cheering you up but really grooming you to do their bidding.

17. They do “nice” things for you as a deposit in the bank of “trust” so that they can get what they want out of you. Fake altruism.

18. They Do Not sincerely apologize.

19. They “joke” with you at your expense. Humiliating you. The same things they like you for, they hate you for. Disrespect on tap.

20. They rope in others to prove that you’re wrong about something that doesn’t merit right or wrong. Or to make you feel like you’re walking around looking and being foolish. In the meantime, they make you look defective to others. They will even get others to do their bidding and appeal to you; strengthening their claim that you’re just wrong.

21. They make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to you. Always making things a right or wrong…fault or no fault, where there’s no merit for it. They make you feel like other people’s actions, the weather, a circumstance… is your fault too.

22. They make you feel obligated to cater to them. They don’t say it, but they clearly communicate it.

23. They do offenses with plausible deniability. For instance, they offend you in a way that if you complain about it, they can easily deny it. THEY know and YOU know they did it on purpose but its hard to prove. Anyway, its very damaging.

24. They give unsolicited advice. They use words like “why don’t you do..” and “you should…’

25. When they give unsolicited advice, they follow up to see if you’ve done it. Then treat you like you’ve committed a crime if you chose to do something else.

26. You are treated like the pet of a hot and cold owner; coddled and abused across the board.

27. They ask entrapping questions and double bind you; meaning they put you between a rock and a hard place- damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Numerous ways this can be done. Either way, your response or action will be wrong.

28. They create drama situations, vilifying you while they play the victim. They do NOT care about your discomfort, setting “standards” you can never reach and always raising the bar.

29. They will build you up to let you down. Telling you they will do something you’re depending on them to do and they have no intention of doing it all, while having you in wait and on hold.

30. They monopolize your time. They will insert themselves in your space if it serves them. They love to know your coming and going so they can influence what and when you do things. If you deviate, it throws them off and they WILL let you know it.

31. Silent treatment (plausibly deniable- but deserved its own place on this list).

32. You’re at the climax of a story and suddenly “wait, hold on…let me call you back” – or something of the sort. Something could legitimately come up but in this case its a trend that you notice. Not your imagination, not a coincidence. Even still, they can deny it. When you try to revisit it- the long deep inhale and hard loud exhale (Grrr).

33. You’ve worked hard on something your’e proud of or that they encouraged you to do and boom!- reaction of a corpse. Or they give the weakest of responses that actually speak loudly that they could care less; its nothing to them. Or they actually find a fault in it. Well how bout that?

34. They gaslight you, re-write history and have circular conversations where you cannot get your problem resolved. Then try to convince you that you are the one who cannot have a progressive conversation.

35. They say disrespectful things within earshot of you- but deny saying anything when you confront them.

36. They speak too low for you to hear them when you’re in personal quarters. Or they claim to have responded when they didn’t- saying you didn’t hear them.

37. When you ask them to clarify something they say “I just said it” or ‘I explained it to you”. And you’re to fend for yourself to figure it out. You’ll be wrong. They want it that way.

38. They twist your intent and badger you with noble things (rules, morals, principles)- when you’ve violated none of such things. Just a way to make you seem like you have because you haven’t given them their way.

39. They use their measure of “power” to sabotage your opportunities while flattering you for having those opportunities (keep in mind, flattery is akin to violence- its aggression).

40. They flat out tell you that ‘They don’t care’! Listen when they say this in any way, shape, or form that they say it. They’re having an honest moment with you. Don’t take it for granted. They mean it.

I’m interested in any additions to this list. It gets pretty intricate. But the heir of disrespect in so prevalent that it has become like the fabric of our everyday interactions, cloaked in normalcy. However, an ancient book does say that these days we live in are “critical times hard to deal with…men (people) will be lovers of themselves…haughty…unthankful, disloyal…not open to any agreement ” and so on. (2Tim. 3: 1–5 NWT)

Be kind, be on guard, and practice the Golden Rule. We all know how we want to be treated. Let’s extend that good treatment to others.

I wish the best to you all

Passport Bros Are WINNING With FILIPINA Women!

What is really going on regarding China

Lot’s of stuff going on. I’ve collected a few articles to give an overview.

The Chinese are making relationships left and right. All sound promising, but the West collectively are lying weasels. And the Chinese are taking a “we’ll see approach”. Meanwhile the British is going to set up forward military bases in Japan to “counter China”, just like the USA is doing in South Korea, Australia and the Philippines.

But, I hope that sanity is forced upon the collective madness of the West. Because at this rate they will be radioactive in no time. Stupid acts deserve stupid prizes.

Have a good day everyone…

Iraq bans US dollar transactions in latest move towards ‘de-dollarization’

The Interior Ministry has said that violators of this ban will be subject to legal punishment, including fines and even jail time

By News Desk – May 16 2023

The Iraqi government issued a ban on 14 May outlawing the use of the US dollar for both personal and business transactions, coming as part of a growing ‘de-dollarization’ trend and an overall decline in Washington’s economic influence.

The ban was enforced on 14 May and aims to boost the use of Iraq’s local currency, the dinar.

It is also designed to reduce the gap between the official government exchange rate and the exchange rate offered by the black market, which continues to fluctuate and has resulted in price surges.

In a statement, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said: “The dinar is the national currency in Iraq. Your commitment to transact in it instead of foreign currencies boosts the country’s sovereignty and economy.”

The ministry added that anyone dealing in currencies other than the local currency would be subject to legal punishment and said that it is committed to “hold accountable anyone who attempts to undermine the Iraqi dinar and the economy.”

In order to properly enforce the ban, the Interior Ministry’s Crime Directorate has requested that traders sign agreements assuring the government that they will conduct transactions in local currency only.

According to General Hussein Al-Tamimi of the Crime Directorate, violators of these pledges will be forced to pay a fine of one million Iraqi dinars, adding that repeat offenders may be subject to prison time.

“If the violator repeats it, he will face an imprisonment penalty of up to one year plus a one-million Iraqi dinar financial fine. In case of a third violation, that penalty will be doubled, and we will have the business license turned,” the official added.

US dollars are already scarce in the country’s official markets as a result of recently imposed measures by Washington to control the movement of dollars inside Iraq. While the new government of Mohamed Shia al-Sudani

has moved swiftly to contain the financial fallout, these US policies have given rise to a debate inside Iraq about the benefits of de-dollarization.

Iraqi MP and member of the Finance Committee in Iraq’s Council of Representatives, Hussein Mouanes, told The Cradle in an exclusive interview earlier this month that “Iraq has been and continues to be a slave to the US dollar … every country’s economic strength depends on the strength of its currency.”

“It is clear that Iraq is economically dominated by the US, and our government does not truly control or have access to its own money … We believe that it is crucial to move away from the hegemony of the dollar, especially as it has become a tool to impose sanctions on countries. It is time for Iraq to rely on its local currency,” he added.

What the fuck?

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Radiation from Ukraine Reaches Lublin, Poland!

World Hal Turner 16 May 2023

Radiation and poisonous Uranian Dust has reached Lublin, Poland, from the ammunition dump hit in Ukraine last Friday. In that Ammo dump was about $500 Million of Depleted Uranium tank shells supplied to Ukraine by Britain. Now, the radiation and the poisonous dust, has reached Lublin Poland.

Levels of radioactivity shown on the graph above, were measured at the Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland). This indicates that dust from the uranium ammunition was blown by the wind from Khmelnitsky to Lublin.

2 days, 400 km away . . .

Those who were outdoors and breathes the poisonous, radioactive, dust, are highly likely to suffer serious respiratory illness, and later, lung cancer. Now that the dust has arrived, and some of it presumably settled on the ground, rain will carry it into ground water, where it will quietly POISON the water for decades.

Women who drink the water, especially while pregnant, will likely miscarry (lose) the baby, or see it born with hideous birth defects.

All this because NATO couldn’t mind its own business, and stay out of the Ukraine-Russia fight. NONE of this had to be.

Control your emotions

1. Control your thoughts when you are alone.

2. Control your tongue when you are with friends.

3. Control your decisions when you are angry.

4. Pay attention to your behavior when you sit in a group.

5. Control your pride when someone praises you.

And last

6. Control your emotions when someone says wrong about you.

UK media admits, ‘shock and awe’ sanctions have failed

“‘Europe’s “peace dividend” is over.'”

The M.I.C. crosses the Atlantic.

Patrick Lawrence

May 14, 2023

3 MAY—Maybe you recall all the post–Cold War talk of a “peace dividend” and maybe you don’t: It depends on when you took up residence on this mortal coil. The term arose as the Soviet Union disintegrated and was commonly mentioned during George H.W. Bush’s presidency, 1989–1993. A dramatic reduction in defense spending, and a corresponding increase in expenditures on education, health care, and so on, was put around as one of Bush I’s outstanding achievements.

That was the peace dividend.

The thing you need to know about all the talk of a peace dividend back then is that it was all talk. And the thing you need to know now, with Cold War II in more or less full swing and the proxy war against Russia raging in Ukraine, is that there is no longer any need to know anything about the peace dividend: As we speak it takes its place as an artifact of another time, a curiosity in the way of … what? … maybe Eisenhower’s promise of free electricity in his “Atoms for Peace” speech, delivered at the United Nations in 1953.

The New York Times published a remarkable piece on this topic last week under the headline, “The ‘Peace Dividend’ Is Over in Europe. Now Come the Hard Tradeoffs.” There are two ways to read this lengthy report, text and subtext.

On one hand, it tells us exactly what the head promises: European leaders, in response to the Ukraine crisis, now plan to dump a lot more money into the weapons of war and a lot less into the social-democratic apparatus—welfare programs, social programs, cultural programs—in which European citizens have long taken pride.

On the other, this piece has a special message for Americans: There shall be no more daydreaming about how good the Danes or the French have it. The military-industrial complex has crossed the Atlantic. Neoliberalism has won. It is indeed the end of history. It is “TINA” time: “There is no alternative,” as Margaret Thatcher famously used to say. The future will be no different from the present.

Rest of the article HERE

Space

Tlayudas

Yield: 10 tlayudas

Ingredients

2 cups corn masa mix
1 1/8 cups water
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
1 1/2 cups pinto refried beans
2 cups mole poblano (one 16 ounce jar)
1 whole chicken breast, cooked and shredded
Sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions

Mix the corn masa mix with water and a pinch of salt. Knead and let rest.
Form 10 medium-size balls; flatten into tortilla shape. Cook on pan or griddle. Then fry until golden. Drain.
Heat beans and mole separately. Spread each tlayuda with a tablespoon of beans; top with shredded chicken and mole. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 10)

Why So Many Americans Are Leaving The Great Lakes States

China’s sci-tech development witnesses great progress over past decade

Over the past 10 years, China’s sci-tech strength has grown along with the development of the country’s economic strength, becoming a driving force for Chinese modernization, according to a press conference on Monday.

China’s sci-tech strength and its global influence in innovation have been significantly enhanced, Wu Zhaohui, vice minister of science and technology, told a press conference on the 2023 Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing.

The R&D investment of Chinese society has increased three times from 1 trillion yuan (about $144 billion) in 2012 to 3 trillion yuan in 2022, according to Wu.

In terms of the quantity and quality of its scientific research personnel, China has maintained its first-place global position for many years, he said.

According to annual statistics issued by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, which is under the Ministry of Science and Technology, China had 1,808 “hot papers” as of September 2022, accounting for 41.7 percent of the world’s total and ranking first globally.

Hot papers refer to those published within the previous two years that are cited a sufficient number of times in the most recent two months to be placed in the top 0.1 percent when compared to peer papers.

China’s sci-tech innovation props up the country’s industrial transformation and development, and its ability to serve high-quality development has been significantly boosted, Wu said.

The volume of technology contract transactions in China is relatively large, rising from 600 billion yuan in 2012 to 4.8 trillion yuan in 2022, Wu said.

In the past decade, China has won major scientific research achievements, including its development of quantum information, nuclear power technology and AI technology. These technologies have not only spawned and promoted the development of strategic emerging industries, but have also accelerated the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.

The 2023 Zhongguancun Forum will focus on cutting-edge technologies and future industries, and showcase the latest technological advances in the fields of the metaverse, AI, quantum information, brain science, and cell and gene therapy, said Yu Yingjie, vice mayor of Beijing. Many advanced technological achievements will make their debuts at the forum’s exhibition.

The ability of China’s sci-tech services to improve people’s livelihoods and meet their demand for better lives has been greatly increased.

Science and technology are important guarantees for food security. According to Wu, the contribution rate of agricultural science and technology has increased from 53 percent 10 years ago to 62 percent in 2022. “Agricultural science and technology have contributed a lot to China’s rural vitalization and poverty alleviation.”

Sci-tech innovation propels the development of smart medical care and the new medicine. Internet hospitals allow medical resources to be allocated in a more balanced way.

In recent years, many Chinese-developed anti-cancer drugs have been listed, and the five-year cancer survival rate in China has increased from 30 percent to 40 percent, Wu said.

The 2023 Zhongguancun Forum is scheduled to take place in Beijing from May 25 to 30. Themed “Open Cooperation for a Shared Future,” it will include conferences, exhibitions, research achievement releases, competitions in cutting-edge fields and technology trading.

Opening Train Fight Scene | The Equalizer 2

China appreciates Norway’s firm adherence to one-China policy

China appreciates Norway’s firm adherence to the one-China policy and appreciates that the two countries respect and accommodate each other’s core interests and major concerns, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Friday.

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Qin made the remarks when jointly meeting the press with Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt.

Qin said that after candid talks with Huitfeldt, they both have confidence in and expectations for the development of China-Norway relations. He noted that the most important experience of the steady development of bilateral relations lies in adhering to mutual respect, equal treatment, mutual benefit and win-win results, and in seeking common ground while reserving differences.

The two sides exchanged views on the idea of strengthening bilateral cooperation in the next step, and agreed to resume and accelerate bilateral exchanges as soon as possible, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, enhance understanding and deepen friendship through more frequent people-to-people and cultural exchanges, Qin said.

The two sides compared notes on trade and investment, marine affairs, green transition, climate change, cultural exchange, tourism and local-to-local cooperation, Qin said.

China has decided to enlist Norway as one of the eligible countries for the 72/144-hour visa-free transit policy in relevant Chinese port cities, and the two countries have just signed a new version of the bilateral agreement for the avoidance of double taxation, Qin said, adding that relevant cooperation results will bring more dividends to Chinese and Norwegian companies and people.

Noting that next year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties, Qin said the two sides have agreed to organize a series of celebration activities to make the bilateral exchanges and cooperation even closer and lay a more solid foundation for the next 70 years of exchanges.

Qin pointed out that the Chinese government has made unremitting efforts to protect human rights, and that Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet-related issues are not human rights issues, but issues related to safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security and development interests. China firmly opposes external forces taking advantage of these issues to create instability in China.

The essence of the Taiwan question is a fight against secession, Qin said, adding that China expects the Taiwan Strait to remain peaceful and stable, and to achieve peaceful reunification of China.

It is the “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces and some countries’ connivance and support for the “Taiwan independence” that have been undermining the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, Qin said, stressing the unwavering determination of the Chinese government and people to safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Qin said that peace and development are the most enduring wishes of mankind, and that both China and Norway believe that the more turbulent the world is, the more necessary it is to strengthen dialogue and exchanges.

Both sides firmly support world peace, globalization and free trade, and support countries to jointly address climate change and achieve sustainable development, he added.

China is willing to join hands with Norway to firmly uphold the international system with the United Nations (UN) at its core, the international order underpinned by international law, and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, Qin said.

China also stands ready to strengthen cooperation in peace and reconciliation affairs with Norway, and promote world peace and development, he added.

Qin emphasized that the top priority for the Ukraine crisis is to facilitate a cease-fire and a cessation of hostilities without delay, and ultimately resolve the crisis through political negotiations. China will always stand on the side of peace and insist on promoting peace talks, he noted.

It is hoped that all parties involved in the crisis will remain calm and restrained, make joint efforts to resolve the crisis through negotiations, and foster a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture so as to achieve enduring stability and security in the region, he said.

6 MINUTES AGO, This is DEVASTATING news for the U.S.!

https://youtu.be/B8WEI-okUg8

Chinese commerce minister calls for common interests with Australia to be expanded

China’s Minister of Commerce has called on Australia to make joint efforts to expand common interests, and urged the two countries to address each other’s concerns on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, according to a commerce ministry statement on Saturday.

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Commerce Minister Wang Wentao made the remarks on Friday when co-chairing the 16th China-Australia Joint Ministerial Economic Commission in Beijing with visiting Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell, the statement said.

The two economies are highly complementary and have fruitful economic and trade cooperation, Wang said, calling for the important consensus reached by the two heads of state in Bali to be implemented, for common ground to be sought while reserving differences, and for practical cooperation to be advanced.

China will accelerate its establishment of a new development pattern and promote high-level opening-up, which will bring new opportunities to countries around the world, including Australia, Wang noted.

He said China is willing to work with Australia to expand areas of cooperation, and it hopes Australia will provide a sound business environment and treat Chinese companies and products fairly and justly.

In his remarks, Farrell said that the two sides have recently made substantial progress in advancing bilateral economic and trade relations, and in the proper handling of each other’s key economic and trade concerns, according to the statement.

Australia is willing to continue strengthening cooperation with China on multilateral and regional platforms such as the World Trade Organization and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Farrell added.

The two ministers have also agreed on several issues, including restarting the free trade agreement joint committee, strengthening green and low-carbon cooperation, and supporting cooperation between enterprises from both countries in the fields of digital trade and e-commerce.

HOLY $#!+!!! RUSSIA Just Sent NATO a NUCLEAR MESSAGE

The Ukrainian taunting is very ominous.

China, Japan defence ministers talk over direct line

Defense ministers of China and Japan held a conversation through a direct telephone line for the first time as part of a maritime and aerial communication mechanism on Tuesday, China’s Ministry of National Defense said.

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“On the afternoon of May 16, State Councilor and Defense Minister Li Shangfu for the first time held a telephone conversation with Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada via a direct telephone line within the framework of the maritime and air communication mechanism of the defense ministries of the two countries, exchanging views on the defense relations between the two countries,” the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, the establishment and use of the direct telephone line is “a practical measure to implement the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries”, which will “effectively enrich the communication channels between the defense departments of the two countries”, “strengthen the crisis management capabilities of the two sides in sea and air”, and “further contribute to maintaining regional peace and stability”.

The operation of the line was of significance because 16 years have passed since Beijing and Tokyo agreed on the launch of such a measure.

The talks began in 2007 when China and Japan initially agreed to set up a maritime and aerial communication mechanism to build confidence and prevent unexpected contingencies.

However, the launch of the mechanism then became a long-pending issue as Tokyo continually provoked Beijing over territory and history disputes.

A thaw in bilateral relations in 2018 saw the establishment of the maritime and aerial communication mechanism between the two countries, and as the pillar of that mechanism, the direct telephone line was set up between their defense authorities this March.

15 Facts That Show The American Family are In Deep Trouble

https://youtu.be/_deRVUlFYPY

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 4)

China and Central Asia countries share experience and good practices when fighting desertification

The straw checkerboard sand barriers in Jiuquan City, northwest China’s Gansu Province.

Using straw checkerboard as a barrier for sand fixation was a technology adopted during the construction of railway in Karakum Desert in Central Asia. In the 1950s, the technology was used in the construction of Baotou-Lanzhou Railway that crossed the Tengger Desert. Chinese scientists found that straw checkerboards of about 1 meter squared were the most effective and cheapest.

Building the ecological barrier around Astana

Scientists from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Kazakhstans Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical University and the Committee of Forestry and Fauna have also worked together on building the ecological barrier around Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. They selected 32 desert plants that can adapt to the harsh conditions and planted them at the 3.3-hectare plant breeding base. Finally they built 23-hectare demonstration zone in Astana

Restore the dried-up seabed Aral Sea

The Aral Sea, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was once the world’s fourth-largest lake. Farmland expansion, rising temperatures and a lack of water-saving technology caused the sea to shrink to just 10 percent of its original surface by the end of the 1990s.

The dried-up seabed is highly prone to sand and dust storms, which can blow up to 75 million tons of sand, dust, and salt across Central Asia, according to the World Bank. Li said that China’s desertification control experience can be applied to the ecological problems that the Aral Sea is facing.

Pants that are suitable for desertification control are selected to restore the dried-up seabed, and drip irrigation technologies were introduced to save water.

martin sheen meets robert duvall

Minnesota Isn’t What You Think It Is Anymore

Geopolitics at play:

China cancelled 80% of their corn order from the United States
AND purchasing similar products from South Africa and Brazil
Likely: to ensure stable future supplies free from geopolitical constraints and to support fellow BRICS nations

Now FRANCE announces Supplying LONG RANGE Missiles to Ukraine

World Hal Turner 16 May 2023

French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed that France will follow in the UK’s footsteps and quickly send its version of the Storm Shadow long-range missile to Ukraine.

This comes after the United Kingdom sent Storm Shadow missiles.

Both the Storm Shadow and the SCALP have a range of 250-300 nmi.

These are precisely the type of long range weapons that can be used by UIkraine to strike targets inside Russia; which Russia warmed the West not to send.

If Western weapons start hitting targets inside Russia, then Russia will hold the West — not Ukraine – responsible, and the West will be subject to Russian attack in their own countries.

World War 3 is deliberately being started by we in the West.

Americans and Europeans would do well to make preparation for bombs to start falling in their respective countries.

Have emergency food, water, fuel and communications gear. There’s very little time left before things start going “wild weasel.”

Reality today

Chinese Apps continue to gain global popularity, counterbalancing with those from US

Smartphone applications developed by Chinese companies are expanding internationally. A survey of the five most downloaded apps in 95 countries and regions revealed that Chinese apps, such as the video publishing software “TikTok”, made up more than 30% of the total. Compared to three years ago, the proportion has increased and is now on par with US applications. Despite increased regulation in the US for reasons of safety and security, the prevalence of Chinese applications has continued to grow.

Based on data from Sensor Tower, a US-based research firm, the Nikkei analyzed new downloads of Google and Apple’s app release services in the US from January to March 2023. Out of the top 5 apps in 95 countries and regions, including Japan, China, and the US, Chinese apps accounted for 33%, or 156 out of 475. This represents an increase of approximately 8 percentage points compared to Q1 of 2020.

The app with the highest number of downloads is TikTok, developed by ByteDance, which ranks among the top five in 82 countries and territories, accounting for 86% of the total. Additionally, CapCut, a video editing application provided by the same company, has also experienced significant growth and is ranked among the top five in 48 countries (51% of the total).

SHEIN, an online clothing shopping application that imports apparel and groceries from China at a competitive price point, has gained significant popularity among the younger demographic. It has secured a spot in the top five rankings across ten countries, primarily in European and South American regions such as Spain and Brazil.

In terms of countries and regions, four Chinese applications occupied four out of the top five positions in the United States, ranking first, second, third and fifth respectively. Chinese apps are present in 90% of countries and regions’ top five rankings while only ten countries including Japan and India have no Chinese apps among their top five.

Regarding the Chinese app, Toshihiko Okano from NTT Data stated that “new technologies and initiatives are required in the Chinese market from a user-centric perspective. The companies that have succeeded in China are expanding their business globally and demonstrating strong competitiveness.” He also mentioned that TikTok’s algorithm for recommending videos based on users’ preferences and SHEIN’s ability to leverage the Chinese supply chain to ensure stable product supply are both supported by young people.

In the past, the top five apps in the US accounted for over 30% of the market share, which is comparable to China’s app market. Meta apps like Instagram alone held a quarter of the total share, but American companies’ overall percentage dropped from over 50% in January to March 2020. Currently, Chinese and American enterprises are counterbalancing each other.

This has raised a number of concerns as the Chinese government is entitled to request personal data held by domestic Chinese companies.

In response to the Chinese app, countries are strengthening controls in areas such as risk management for safety and security. The US and Europe have prohibited its use on public terminals for government employees, while Montana state legislature passed a bill in April banning the activities of TikTok’s operating company. Additionally, in April, the US parliamentary advisory body published a report titled “Risk of Data Infringement and Intellectual Property Infringement” regarding SHEIN.

New Chinese apps continue to be introduced and welcomed despite the presence of adverse forces. Temu, the most downloaded online shopping app in the US and Canada from January to March 2023, was released by China’s PDD Holdings in the autumn of 2022, and the photo-sharing app “Lemon8” by ByteDance, released after the autumn of 2021, is also gaining popularity in Japan and US.

Summertime thoughts

AUKUS Powers Are Militarising Papua New Guinea in Preparation for War with China

16/05/2023

BY PAUL GREGOIRE

Journalist John Pilger’s 2017 documentary The Coming War With China warned that the US had established a “perfect noose” of 400-odd military bases surrounding China, while former Australian PM Paul Keating recently asserted that the AUKUS deal makes us part of this “containment policy”.

Indeed, the AUKUS, local US force posture initiatives and increasing interoperability between US and Australian forces have heightened the premise that this relationship has relegated our nation (Australia) to the status of a vassal state: independent domestically but ever-compliant with US foreign policy.

However, the increasing deployment of US troops and arsenal to Australian shores doesn’t complete Washington’s agenda, as there is an island nation to the north of this one, that being Papua New Guinea, which the White House is interested in incorporating into its ring around Beijing’s neck.

This process involves AUKUS power Australia acting in a similar manner to that of the US in regard to us, when it comes to accessing and periodically obtaining control over certain Australian military facilities, as Canberra is taking a similar path at PNG’s Lombrum Naval Base in Manus province.

And while most Australians are aware that Joe Biden is coming to our country next week as part of the China-focused Quad alliance leaders meeting, many are unaware that the US president will also be paying a visit to our northern neighbour on his way, seeking to establish defence agreements.

Of strategic importance In USA, Australia Militarizing PNG , a paper released last month, journalist and ex-PNG foreign affairs officer Dominic Navue Sengi describes the AUKUS pact as “a case of vassals”, specifically our country and the United Kingdom, “lining up together under US leadership”.

Sengi outlines that he’d predicted in 2006 that PNG would be of increasing importance to the western alliance, when it began targeting China in the South China Sea, as PNG sits squarely in “an island chain”, commencing in Tokyo to Saipan and onto Guam: “the US’ so-called ‘big spearhead’ looking into China”.

The PNG journalist is also clear about the reason why the US-led AUKUS has China in its sights, which is not, as Australian authorities and media have asserted, due to Beijing posing any military threat to Washington or Canberra, but rather it’s that it’s likely soon to surpass US hegemonic economic power.

That the “USA and Australia have inserted militarily in PNG territorial jurisdiction” is obvious to many, writes Sengi, adding that the main development that sees AUKUS powers threatening PNG’s sovereignty and independence is via their involvement in the Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island.

Yet, what Sengi describes as the AUKUS powers making forays into his nation’s jurisdiction involves a scenario whereby it’s Australia that’s asserting control over the PNG coastal military base, in a not dissimilar way to how the US has the ability to assert ultimate command over certain facilities here.

Increasing interoperability with PNG

The Obama administration shifted US military focus to the Indo Pacific region with its 2011 Pivot to Asia . And the following year saw the Gillard government agree to increasing US military presence in the north of Australia, which was officially established under the 2014 Force Posture Agreement.

This arrangement permits US forces to access dozens of local Australian bases and take control of them during any upgrades it decides to do.

And it further provides for the presence of 2,500 US marines in Australia, as well as increasing interoperability between air forces, and with the AUKUS, it also extends to navies.

In a similar manner, Australia now has access to PNG’s naval base on Manus Island. This was established via the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding for the Joint Initiative at Lombrum Naval Base , which aims to redevelop it and increase interoperability between both nations’ defence forces.

“The joint initiative will enhance PNG Defence Force capability to protect its borders and maritime resources through a broad program of mentoring, tailored training, infrastructure development and shared facilities at the PNG defence force base,” said then Australian defence minister Christopher Pyne.

Sengi suggests that secretive MoU implementation arrangements permit aspects of the multimillion-dollar redevelopment to remain hidden even to PNG cabinet ministers, with the obvious question triggered being whether Australia and the US are planning Lombrum to be an AUKUS submarine base.

A key feature of AUKUS is that Australia initially allows the US and UK to establish a joint rotational nuclear-powered submarine force here by 2027, which is prior to our nation then acquiring its own eight nuclear-powered attack-class subs, with all of this being in aid of mounting tensions with China.

Of increasing importance

Australian PM Anthony Albanese was over in PNG for a two-day visit in mid-January with the primary aim of releasing a Joint Statement of Commitment to Negotiate a Bilateral Security Treaty with his PNG counterpart James Marape: an agreement that involves increasing interoperability on security.

And ahead of the 24 May Sydney Quad Leaders’ Summit, US president Biden will be dropping in on PNG

to sign a defence agreement with that nation, which was finalised a fortnight ago, and he’ll also be meeting with 18 leaders of Pacific Island nations, with regional security likely to be the focus.

The second item on Biden’s PNG agenda is the signing of a Ship Rider Agreement , which will permit the US Coast Guard to patrol PNG waters, whilst also allowing the island nation’s military personnel to join onboard, with the aim of initiating them into the latest technologies.

“A US-China conflict could play out across the whole Pacific, including Melanesia and the Polynesian islands, not just in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, which puts PNG and the Solomons firmly in the spotlight,” UNSW Professor David Kilcullen told Reuters last week.

But according to Sengi, the Lombrum base MoU, the Ship Rider Agreement and the pending bilateral security arrangements with both Australia and the United States, all point to a situation whereby his nation has unwittingly been drawn into the noose of US bases tightening around China.

“The issues of command and control, of non-discriminate interoperability and training of naval officers, the parking of Australia’s hypersonic military transport assets and munitions are not particularly transparent,” the PNG journalist warns in his report.

And this lack of clarity, the former foreign affairs public servant maintains, poses issues for all levels of governments, as well as his nation’s peoples, in terms of how this growing interdependency with the AUKUS powers will impact PNG’s “sovereignty and national interest and foreign policy”.

Paul Gregoire is a Sydney-based journalist and writer. He has a focus on social justice issues

Fantasy And Funny Paintings By The Illustrator Sergey Svistunov

Russian artist Sergey Svistunov was born in a small city in Moscow region in 1985. Now he is a professional 2D illustrator and hobbyist making awesome funny and mainly fantasy (but also horror) style pictures. Sergey has the high level of skills and unbridled flight of fancy. His paintings include terrible monsters, fantasy girls, mystical landscapes, and just strange mythical essences. So let’s have a look at his great job.

What does the opening of NATO office in Japan tell us about the coming conflict

The United States, under the current administration of Biden, has taken a significant diplomatic offensive step in Japan. They have planned to open a NATO office in the country. While this news does not come as a surprise to me personally, as I have been predicting this scenario, it does shed light on the future of East Asia.

It appears that the “Ukraine 2.0” plan is gaining momentum as Washington is making efforts to contain China’s rise. The focus is on utilizing the Taiwan card and ensuring that semiconductor chips do not fall into Mainland China’s hands. This is crucial as it would undermine the Anglo-Saxon empire’s significant monopoly in that area.

NATO plans to take first step in Asia-Pacific by opening Tokyo office, undermining regional peace



NATO is reportedly planning to open a liaison office in Tokyo, the first of its kind in Asia, which Chinese analysts believe is a dangerous sign that the violent multilateral organization will take its first aggressive step in the Asia-Pacific, actively pushed by Japan. 



In response to the reported plan, Mao Ning, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told media on Thursday that Asia is an anchor for peace and stability and a promising land for cooperation and development, not a wrestling ground for geopolitical competition. 

NATO's continued eastward foray into the Asia-Pacific and interference in regional affairs will inevitably undermine regional peace and stability and stoke camp confrontation. 

This calls for high vigilance among regional countries, Mao warned. Through the potential move, a prototype of a military alliance consisting of the US, some European countries and Japan could be further formed, which will obviously target China, Chinese analysts warned, noting that Japan joining NATO cannot be ruled out in the future. 

Japanese media outlet Nikkei Shimbun revealed the plan between NATO and Japan. The office, which could be opened next year, will allow NATO to conduct periodic consultations with Japan and key partners in the region such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand "as China emerges as a new challenge, alongside its traditional focus on Russia," Nikkei reported. 

The plan was confirmed by both Japanese and NATO officials, Nikkei reported. If Tokyo provides the funding for the Western military alliance to gain a foothold in Japan, it would symbolize a new phase in defense cooperation, Nikkei noted. 

Although Nikkei said that NATO-Japan cooperation, going forward, will focus on challenges that transcend regions, such as cyber threats, disruptive technology and disinformation activities, Chinese analysts predicted that the Tokyo office is certain to develop into a frontline against China through strengthening military and security cooperation. 

Liu Jiangyong, vice dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University, believes that the liaison office will cover not only East Asia, but also regions ranging from Northeast Asia to the Indian Ocean and further to the South Pacific, so as to form an arc of military deterrence encircling China. 

Specifically, the NATO-Japan collusion aims to deter China on the Taiwan question, the Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea issues, Liu told the Global Times on Thursday. 

Japan has actively pushed for NATO's eastward advance, Liu pointed out. 

Japan is currently taking advantage of the so-called dramatic change in the security situation to push for a constitutional amendment with ruthless ambition. 

If the constitutional amendment is made, it is conceivable that Japan could formally join NATO, through which the US, some European countries and Japan will be ready to form a global military alliance against China, Liu said.

From HERE

What is China doing?

But why NATO is in Asia in the first place?

NATO or the US empire is essentially seeking to mobilize their so-called Indo-Pacific allies, who are actual puppets, as they prepare for war with China. As I predicted, Japan is being transformed into a base for white soldiers from various countries to be stationed on the Japanese mainland.

They are being prepared for the next major war, which would involve the UK, Canada, Australia, and the US on one side, and China and Russia on the other. It seems they are aiming to turn Asia into a scenario reminiscent of the Middle East.

With the establishment of a NATO office, there will likely be more strategic plans, coups, and various forms of warfare aimed at destabilizing Southeast Asia. The objective would be to create puppet regimes that align with the interests of the US and its allies, particularly in countering China’s influence. In some cases, this may even involve proxy wars similar to the Vietnam War, as a means to hinder China’s development and create further challenges for the country.

I miss days like that…

Is China prepared?

The good news is that China has been well-prepared and aware of these developments for years.

Upon Xi Jinping’s election as the leader of China, he prioritized the modernization of the Chinese military.

Through significant investments and training, China has transformed itself into a formidable power, particularly in terms of advanced technology.

While China may not have surpassed the US in this regard, it has reached a level where it can effectively face potential US conflicts in the Asian region.

In my view, one of the most significant contributions of China to this century is the leadership of Xi Jinping. While some may label me as a propagandist or wumao, I believe that a closer examination of China’s current military development reveals a leader who is thoroughly prepared.

Xi Jinping has effectively communicated the importance of being ready to face potential challenges and has motivated the Chinese people to stand strong, ensuring that China will not experience humiliation again.

His leadership has instilled a sense of preparedness and determination within the nation.

Chinese, at the same time, are ready to exact revenge on Japan for its past crimes in WWII. What’s ironic is that the Chinese are eagerly awaiting Japan’s involvement in the Taiwan conflict, as it would provide an opportunity for them to deliver the final blow, similar to how Stalin defeated Hitler during WWII.

Good luck with that Japan

Can the NATO plan work

If you ask me about their expertise in destabilization, oh boy, they sure can do that!

But let’s not forget how their grand adventures in Vietnam and Afghanistan turned out. It’s like watching a tragic love story, they always end up retreating back to their homes.

A person who understands Asia will know that Asians won’t allow Western powers to dominate them anymore.

They may attempt to create coups in countries like Thailand, Myanmar, or Vietnam, but the people will rise up and overthrow those puppet regimes. They are even ready for proxy wars if necessary.

While I personally dislike war, if the US believes they can win, they are welcome to try.

Even Taiwan will eventually reunify with China, and Japan will remain under our control. Japan will not be turned into a Western colony like Australia. If necessary, we will counter any attempts by Western forces by encouraging Asian immigration rather than allowing Western influence to prevail.

While we may not be able to prevent the Japanese people from the alleged genocide plan orchestrated by Western globalists, we are determined to ensure that Japan does not become another Australia.

We will resist any attempts to impose foreign control and strive to safeguard Japan’s sovereignty and identity.

Resistance will continue!

Casino: Rise of the Vegas Mob

Tablecloth-Stainer Chicken
(Mancha Manteles de Pollo)

Ingredients

2 dried mulatto chiles, toasted, seeded, de-veined, rinsed
1 cup boiling water
2 small sweet potatoes, pared
2 medium tomatoes, broiled
1 medium white onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil
1 broiler-fryer chicken, cut into quarters
1 cup chicken stock or broth
1 cup cubed, pared fresh pineapple
1 tart apple, pared and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 teaspoon salt, if desired
Fresh cilantro sprigs
Lime wedges

Instructions

Place chiles in small bowl with boiling water; let stand 1 hour.
Cut potatoes lengthwise into quarter; cut quarter crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices. Place chiles and 1/3 cup of the soaking water in blender container; discard remaining water. Add tomatoes, onion, garlic and cinnamon; process until smooth.
Heat lard in deep 10-inch skillet over medium heat until hot. Cook 1/2 chicken at a time, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides, 10 to 15 minutes; remove chicken to plate.
Remove and discard all but 2 tablespoons drippings from skillet. Add chile mixture to skillet; cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add stock; heat over high heat to boiling. Add chicken, potatoes, pineapple and apple to skillet; simmer, covered, over low heat until chicken is tender, about 45 minutes.
Remove chicken, potatoes and fruits to deep serving plates, dividing evenly; keep warm, covered.
Skim and discard fat from cooking liquid. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat until sauce is slightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes.
Stir in salt. Spoon sauce over chicken; garnish with cilantro.
Serve with lime wedges and Bolillos.

Happening Now: Kalibr Cruise Missile Launches from Black Sea – PATRIOT MISSILES JAMMED FAILING!

World Hal Turner 16 May 2023

The Russian Navy is launching a salvo of Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea against Ukraine. Dozens of missiles are heading toward Kiev. . . .

GoodFellas | Henry Hill | Tommy DeVito | Airline Diner | Bamboo Lounge

REPORTS: CHIEF JUSTICE OF UKRAINE SUPREME COURT ARRESTED AFTER $3 MILLION BRIBE

World Hal Turner 16 May 2023

The head of Ukraine’s Supreme Court has been apprehended by Ukrainian prosecutors over allegations of bribery, following the recent revelation of widespread corruption within the court.

The official’s identity has not been disclosed by prosecutors, who stated that they have yet to receive a formal “notice of suspicion.”

However, local media outlets have reported that Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniaziev was taken into custody in relation to a bribe amounting to nearly $3 million.

In an official statement posted on both its Telegram and Facebook social media accounts, Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Bureau, in collaboration with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, declared that they had exposed extensive corruption within the Supreme Court.

This corruption allegedly involved a scheme where the court’s leadership and judges received bribes. Attached to the announcement, was an image depicting stacks of cash placed on a sofa.

Notice he was apparently bribed with . . . AMERICAN MONEY. Your tax dollars going to Ukraine as “aid” are really going into various pockets over there!

From Fangtengboo who is in China now. His first impressions

Posted by Frans Vandenbosch  方腾波

I’m in China now. This is a short account of what I noticed in those first days.
The last time I was in China was in November and December 2018, just before Corona. Before (2004 — – 2016) I lived in Suzhou and before that in Shanghai. Yesterday I was briefly in Shanghai, this morning I was in Nanjing, today and tomorrow in Suzhou.

The Chinese are much richer than we are.

Obvious.

Traffic:

Traffic is very quiet, in my estimation 40% of the cars are electric. In China, electric cars are easy to recognize by their green and white license plate. I don’t see any bicycles (really zero, not a single bicycle seen) but electric scooters. All cars are shiny new, I don’t see any rickety second-hand cars driving around. All cars are mid-range or higher, I have not seen any small cars. About half of the cars are German brands (Volkswagen Porsche, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW), all of which are made in China. I’ve also seen a lot of Maserati, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, and other super luxury cars here, more than I’ve ever seen together in Western Europe. This morning I saw a pink pink Porsche driving next to me. Traffic is heavy in China, there are too many cars. But still there are no big traffic jams. The Chinese drivers are starting to get a little more experience and discipline. Ten years ago, traffic was chaotic and noisy.

Stay and eat

Tonight I am in “Sweet Garden Hotel”, just below “the Pants”, the iconic tower building at Lake Jinji in Suzhou. We went to eat in a seafood restaurant on the 4th floor in “the Pants” All kinds of fish and shellfish, lobster and crab, … super fresh (the fish still alive in an aquarium) eat as much as you can for less than 160 RMB /person. Yesterday we ate so terribly well in Shanghai Xujiahui. All staff incredibly obliging. In almost all hotels, large and small, you now see robots driving around.

Bank

This afternoon I was in the head office of ICBC bank in Suzhou where I have always been a customer. Again everyone very friendly and helpful. My bank account has been unblocked and I can use WeChat Pay again, because cash is almost no longer used in China. In the bank I used to see shabbily dressed Chinese who put money in their account in a plastic bag. That time is now over. I now see dolled-up ladies coming to discuss and rearrange their investments. Also a lot of super rich people in their twenties and thirties.

HST trains

On the Shanghai – Nanjing connection, an HST train runs on average every 15 minutes. They stop at only one or two HST stations (not all HST stations) between Shanghai and Nanjing. Some trains fly at a speed of 300 km/h through the HST station of Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, … That gives an effect like a fighter jet flying through a tunnel. Over the entire route, the HST trains run over “bridges”, on pillars that are sometimes only 2 meters high, the tracks are nowhere directly on the ground. The tracks are incredibly accurate, because when I put a bottle of water on my table, I hardly see any vibrations in the water. All HST trains have WiFi and a USB connection in every seat to charge your smartphone. All trains in China run punctually to the nearest half minute (more punctual than in Japan). The HST trains stop in the stations for exactly 70 seconds. Everyone has assigned places in the trains (That was already the case before the time of the high-speed trains). On the platform, the passengers are waiting at the correct carriage and door. Train tickets are now electronic with an app. There are hardly any regular “slow” trains running anymore.

China no longer needs us.

Where I used to see quite a few foreigners on the street, in the restaurants and on the trains, there are hardly any to be seen anymore. All together I saw 5 foreigners in China so far. Europeans. The Americans have all left. The knowledge of English in China (until 5 years ago it was better/more than in Japan, Korea or Thailand) is declining again. Chinese people now address me in Chinese and expect a conversation in Chinese. Always incredibly friendly and helpful.

Green

A tree is planted wherever there is a square meter of space in the city. All rivers, creeks, streams and watercourses are now neatly cleaned up with plantings and parks. Between Nanjing and Wuxi, where there used to be a lot of swamps, I now saw extensive tree nurseries, fish ponds and fish farms. Everywhere, really everywhere you look around you see new buildings, metro stations, roads, bridges, highways and HST train connections; under construction or just finished. But between all those new constructions, greenery is being planted diligently, every square meter counts. Highways are built “on growth”, for the expected traffic within three or five years.

In China, if you look around, you see surprising things every few minutes on average, things that you don’t see in the west.

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 5)

We are well on the way towards a new reality, and for many it WILL be a prosperous one

Still sick. Pretty nasty cold. Ugh.

As soon as my daughter got over one virus, another one hit, and of course…

I ended up getting both. Sigh.

What ever you do, stay away from sick people. All it takes is one inhalation.

Nice quote

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson

Seems like all of the American leadership these days are senile with dementia and should be in nursing homes.

Singa mengaum | Kung Fu Hustle

China breakthrough with world’s most powerful conventional explosive

Chinese scientists have managed to improve the stability of CL-20, the world’s most powerful conventional explosive by a factor of 500%.

While extremely powerful, the use of CL-20 thus far has been limited because of its dangerous instability. Scientists from the Sichuan Military and Civilian Co-Innovation Centre for New Energetic Materials successfully developed new nanomaterials that greatly improved the stability of the explosive.

This opens the way for CL-20 to be used more extensively in applications such as rocket propellants that provide greater range for missiles, more powerful warheads and/or lighter and more compact missiles and bombs. The material also has lower observability when used as a missile propellant. CL-20 is also a key material used for increasing the range and reducing the size of ICBMS. Some analysts believe the recent Chinese war games that simulated hypersonic missile attacks on aircraft carriers assumed CL-20 warheads.

The origins of this material are a bit murky. In 1994 Professor Yu Yongzhong a Chinese explosives expert synthesised CL-20 for the first time in his lab and reported the discovery in Chinese scientific journals. A couple years after that, US military scientists reported discovery of the same material, but claimed they actually first synthesised it in 1987. Ironically, the “CL” stands for China Lake, the military facility where the American scientists worked.

The Terminator – Fat Boy – Harley-Davidson motorcycle

Could someone from South Africa who is white come to America and legally declare themselves African American on their job and college applications?

Yes. I went to a high school with a girl of Dutch extraction who did exactly this. It was hilarious in class one day because there was a girl there from Botswana and apparently they could communicate. We had this insane black history teacher who just started screaming at this girl for claiming she was African, and the girl from Botswana jumped to her defense(they were really good friends) and the teacher kept claiming white people weren’t African. Apparently the girl from Botswana started swearing and insulting the black teacher in whatever language these two spoke and the girl from South Africa was laughing hysterically after a few seconds. When I asked why later that day, it turns out that the girl from Botswana had said something like “you cotton pickers don’t know a thing about Africa or real Africans and so all you can do is pretend” later the two of them tried running for class office as the “African American” candidates.

United States Senator Diane Feinstein

She’s on a number of major policy committees and is one of the people handling America’s Geo-political posture. She comes, and represents California.

Middle East is ditching Uncle Shame brics by brics

Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman will form a joint navy to guarantee the security of Persian Gulf.

The Persian Gulf region produces nearly one third of the world’s oil and holds over half of the world’s crude oil reserves as well as a significant portion of the world’s natural gas reserves.

Iran has always called on the Persian Gulf countries to participate in establish security in this important region.

Al-Jadid Qatar news website reported that the consultations of Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman have started with the coordination of China and with the aim of ensuring the safety of navigation in the Persian Gulf.

The US sphere of influence on Gulf states is wanning fast.

President Biden is confused again

Who is the biggest steel producer in the world?

China 🇨🇳 leads here with whooping share of 53.9%. There is a big difference between first & second spot. Tata steel is the king 🤴 in this sector 🇮🇳.

main qimg 61567c3dbd3ec52235d0b332cbb7aefb

“He’s really excited an has no clue why we’re here…”

In what areas is China ahead of the US?

In a few areas, actually. First is infrastructure. The Chinese planned waaaaaaaaaay ahead while building. That’s why there were ghost cities. The developers built huge communities before they were needed, knowing that large factories were coming soon. Above that is public transportation. Smaller cities have buses available that will take you just about everywhere within the city and bigger cities have subways as well as buses. For going between cities and provinces, China has a high speed rail system in place that is more extensive than the American highway system! For example: I lived in a city called Nanjing in China – about 200 miles/300 km from Shanghai. I could take a high speed train from Nanjing to Shanghai in about 1.5 hours!

In contrast, I took an Amtrak train from Detroit to Chicago (about 300 miles/480 km) and it took over 8 hours!

Another area China wins at is public utilities. They provide electricity, water, and gas for billions of people for very affordable prices! I paid maybe a total of $20 (US) per month for all utility bills, whereas it cost me over $100 in America! Atop of that is wireless technology (which is considered a public utility in China). I paid 100 rmb ($15) monthly for 16 GB of 4G data, with 1000 texts and 500 minutes of talk (which pretty much meant unlimited everything for me). In America I pay $50 a month for my unlimited plan. Yes, the 4G is a little faster, but that may just be because I’m not trying to access the foreign web here…

A third area (kinda related to the second) is how the CCP controls markets and prices so everyone can live a comfortable life. I ate a big plate of food at a small restaurant for between 10 and 20 rmb… ($1.25-2.50). The government controls the means of production, so there is plenty of food for everyone!

I hope you enjoyed my answer!

Those Aren’t Mountains Those Are Waves

The U.S. says it wants to “de-risk and diversify” its relationship with China, and Europe said it wants to de-risk rather than decoupling with China. What’s the difference between de-risking and decoupling? What does it mean for China?

When you decouple, it is liked cutting off the umbilical cord. There is no more that relationship. That’s something that US cannot afford as they still need China now and into the future. There is one and only China, no other country can replace China for that effective and cost-efficient supply chain and that best-in-class manufacturing capability that is too good to miss. The Americans had lost that art of manufacturing decades ago and they can’t just take it back to revive their industries and to make it competitive again.

When you de-risk which is actually what the Americans are currently doing, they can be selective on which items that they can use to suppress China where they think it hurts most and to slow down their economic-military growth and technological development and in areas where they pose the biggest threat to the American hegemony. But de-risking has to be clean and precise, it can backfire and cause even more harm to the American economy which is happening now – American semiconductor companies and their Korean/Taiwanese/EU/Japanese allies are seeing a sharp fall in revenue and may eventually lose the lucrative Chinese market which is the world’s largest consumer of semiconductor chips today.

Current silicon wafer technology has reached its technological limits and it can’t advance much without suffering lower production yields, higher production cost and lower reliability performance. Not all electronic applications require these <7nm semiconductor chips but low-voltage/power and high-speed processing consumer products like mobile phones do. But consumer type products are not a life or death type application, countries can still live without having such advanced technologies if they aren’t allowed to have them. I am still happily using an iPhone XR phone today.

China has its own self-sufficient ecosystem and has a huge domestic market consumption of its own products and services. So they can still exist and live life as per normal. Of course, China is investing and developing the next generation of advanced technologies as in the case of semiconductor applications – photonics chips, graphene chips, quantum computing chips etc…. and they are already leading the world in some of these future disrupting technologies.

So what does it mean to China? Nothing much. China had been isolated and humiliated for a century before. They do know how to survive with all the global sanctions and restrictions. But the world cannot live without China today.

Meanwhile…

“Jesus Christ, That’s Jason Bourne”

Antony Blinken said that the Russian army is not the second in the world, but the second in Ukraine. Do you agree with these words?

Antony Blinken has a way with words. However, it would be nice if he could actually back up those words. Thus far, Blinken’s tough guy antics have only gotten US special operators slaughtered.

The latest blow came on the night of Sunday, May 21st. That night, American special operators from Delta Force, the 75th Ranger Regiment and other NATO special operations units were staying at a workshop in the Yuzhmash ICBM factory in Dnipropetrovsk. They were forward deployed in preparation for the upcoming Ukrainian offensive. A Ranger Battalion and a squadron from Delta Force were tasked with spearheading an assault on the nuclear powerplant at Energodar in the opening hours of the upcoming, Ukrainian counteroffensive. They were waiting in the ICBM factory for their orders to move out.

main qimg ec57333ce272b5959000f649759cd4cd lq

However, it looks like the Rangers will be unable to complete their mission. On the night of the 21st, Russian KH-22 cruise missiles slammed into the workshop, killing all of the Rangers as they slept. After action reports from US military intelligence described it as “a burial for the living.”

It looks like as a result of the strike, the Ukrainians have been forced to call off their assault on the Energodar plant. Furthermore, it looks like that night’s attacks and other pinpoint strikes against command posts and arms depots have rendered Ukraine’s counteroffensive stillborn. That might help explain the mysterious delays behind the bold, Ukrainian counteroffensive.

It would be nice for a Western audience if Blinken’s words rang true. However, if the Russians are able to take out about 1,000 of the US’s best special operators in a night with a pinpoint strike, clearly they are the better side.

Representative Frank (NY)

He’s been reelected over and over again to the office ever since the 1950s.

Official Statements:

Peskov: relations between Russia and Poland are now at zero, if not at a negative level

“We have a rich history with Poland in our relations. Now, unfortunately, these relations are at zero, if not at a negative level,” Peskov said

main qimg 80b03bc76d76eeae2191c3bd6b916b20

Cranberry Fritters

Ingredients

3/4 cup fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
Oil (for deep frying)
Confectioners’ sugar (optional)

Instructions

Wash cranberries and dry on paper towels.
Sift dry ingredients together and mix in milk gradually to form a stiff dough. With well-floured hands, pinch off 1 teaspoon of dough and make an indentation. Sprinkle a little brown sugar in the indentation and place a cranberry in the center. Roll dough around the berry. balls should be about the size of a large marble.
Heat oil in a deep, heavy kettle until the temperature reaches 375 degrees F.
Drop fritter balls into the hot fat and fry, turning, until they are deep golden brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels. If desired, shake confectioners’ sugar over the fritters just before serving.
Serve hot.

This Mini Furniture Is Designed Just For Cats

A campaign revealing mini furniture for cats is unveiled in Japan amid a new generation of craftsmen’s hopes to build upon a once-prosperous industry. The 60-second clip shows the feline friends-come-guinea pigs getting comfy on genuine furniture scaled down to their size.

The campaign, produced by Okawa City, hopes to promote the area in Fukuoka, a hub for professional craftsmen specialising in traditional crafts such as woodworking, hardware, glass and cutlery. The prefecture, which is is home to 150 furniture-manufacturing factories, once boasted a large industry for wedding furniture specifically made from Kiri, a light but strong japanese wood used for chests and boxes.

More info: Okawa City (h/t: designboom)

Opening a cave and extracting a strange treasure with a metal detector

This is very interesting, but WTF did he find? What is it?

DM, can you identify?

US bet on Ukraine conflict turning into a strategic failure

By Aaron Good Published: Jun 01, 2023 08:03 PM

The war in Ukraine appears to be heading toward either a bloody stalemate or a successful Russian war of attrition. Against this backdrop, some argue that Washington’s worst geopolitical nightmare may come true due to the Ukraine war. To the extent this is true, and US elites have only themselves to blame. By all appearances, the US has entered a phase of decline when geopolitical gambits that are meant to forestall the end of imperial hegemony only hasten its demise.

When Russia launched the military operation in 2022, many on the left were surprised that Russia did it, as it did not seem to be in the Russian national interest to do so. There had been many alarms raised in the US warning of an impending Russian invasion. But after the Iraqi WMD and Russiagate hoaxes, it is easy to understand why many thought US officials and the corporate media were, as ever, lying.

One veteran journalist who clearly saw what was coming was Joe Lauria of Consortium News. This outlet was founded by the late Robert Parry, a legendary journalist who was forced to leave corporate media because his journalism routinely exposed the hypocrisy, duplicity, and criminality of US foreign policy.

In a February 4, 2022 article, Lauria wrote that, the US plans to weaken Russia by imposing punishing sanctions and bringing world condemnation on Moscow depend on Washington’s hysteria about a Russian invasion of Ukraine actually coming true.

There is a history of the US baiting adversaries into wars that the power elite believes will redound to the benefit of US hegemony. Such was the case when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

There is much reason to surmise that the US thought similarly about a Russian war against Ukraine. The strategic importance of Ukraine to Russia was well understood. After Russian military operations began, it was eventually reported that prior to February 2022, US officials had held a grim assessment of Ukraine’s chances in a war that Zelensky was apparently not trying to avoid. The Intercept wrote, “The Central Intelligence Agency was so pessimistic about Ukraine’s chances that officials told President Joe Biden and other policymakers that the best they could expect was that the remnants of Ukraine’s defeated forces would mount an insurgency, a guerrilla war against the Russian occupiers.”

Months before the war, Yahoo News, citing CIA insiders, reported that the US “is training an insurgency, [teaching the Ukrainians how] to kill Russians.” Echoing some of the darkest elements of the Cold War, the CIA had undertaken “stay-behind force training” in Ukraine.

In hindsight, we can discern that the US pursued NATO expansion into Ukraine knowing that this was a red line for Moscow – just as a Russian military alliance with Mexico would be unacceptable for the US. We now know that US officials had a grim assessment of Ukrainian chances in a war that the US understood was likely to result from Ukrainian statements and actions. We see that prior to the invasion, the US rebuffed Russian diplomacy aimed at defusing the crisis.

Rather, the US apparently wanted to use the war to damage Russia by getting the country mired in a long occupation and bloody insurgency. The US also sought to establish a sanctions regime that would cut Russia off from foreign trade, especially with Europe. This context helps explain why the US and UK scuttled peace talks that could have ended the war in Ukraine back in April of 2022.

Because the crackpot realists of the US power elite so badly misjudged the military, economic, and diplomatic aspects of the conflict in Ukraine, the war has served to accelerate the demise of US hegemony. As professional US imperialist Fiona Hill recently acknowledged, “The war in Ukraine is perhaps the event that makes the passing of pax Americana apparent to everyone.”

US leaders have only themselves to blame. The pursuit of open-ended global primacy was always madness. In decades past, US leaders tried and failed to turn the US away from empire. Now that the curtain is falling on US global hegemony, can new post-Biden leadership succeed where these men failed?

Native American Ravioli

Ingredients

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Instructions

Pour the flour into a mound on a flat working surface. Make a depression in the center with your hand that almost reaches through to the board. Crack the eggs directly into the well and, with a fork, whip in the salt and oil, mixing the flour in from around the edges. Mix and knead the dough with your hands for 8 to 10 minutes, until the dough has a smooth and elastic consistency. If the dough seems a bit dry, add a little water; add a little more flour if it seems too moist.
Once you have obtained the desired consistency, cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Divide the dough into handsful and roll out each section to a very thin, even, almost translucent thickness. Use your imagination to cut the dough into any size or shape.

Any filling can be used to make the ravioli.

Blue Cornmeal Ravioli: Substitute a combination of 1 cup finely ground blue cornmeal and 1 1/2 cups flour for the flour in this recipe. Increase the number of eggs to 5.

“Our daughter is gone!” Abandoned French Palace with Tragic Story explored

IC chip wars

TSMC moves to America

Article HERE

TSMC can’t find the staff. But if you look deeper Western media already trying to come up with excuses for America’s impending failure to steal technology from one of their vassals.

Here is the real reason:

American education system has failed; American workers are too uneducated to compete.
America’s government is too corrupt at all levels to build any real infrastructure.
American society has outsourced its social safety net to rent-seeking middlemen. These leech productivity from society, actually productive industries, and workers. Making production in the USA unviable.

But it’s apparently the fault of the Chinese (RoC types are always labeled as Chinese when it’s convenient).

Why the Hunter Biden “laptop issue” is so significant

Is this a ‘Bot or for-real?

Velociraptors Long Grass

Persian Gulf States to Form Joint Navy in Coordination with China

When US lost the trade and technological war against China, and lost Ukraine war to Russia, the world no longer afraid of US because the “perceived US position of strength to force the world to obey” diminished. As a result, all the victims of the mafias suddenly and voluntarily joint china to endorsed the policy of mutual respect and win win. The crusader regimes will be down faster than imagination.

UAE withdraws from US-led Middle East Maritime Security Alliance | Al Mayadeen English
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/uae-withdraws-from-us-led-middle-east-maritime-security-alli

Persian Gulf States to Form Joint Navy in Coordination with China | National Review
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/persian-gulf-states-to-form-joint-navy-in-coordination-with-china/

Is this a ‘Bot or for-real?

Satanic Treasure 🔞 Where To Find The Hidden Treasure In The Old House of Satanists ❌ HUNTER

The world is catching on…

Well, Western media just going to write whatever BS, quote “anonymous sources”, publish rumors and innuendos, WHY do they even NEED to be at the meetings? Any meetings?

It seems the “meetings” would be a complete waste of time and money for the Western media folks. So, it’s only for their “human rights” that they do not be subjected to such “meetings”?

India, China, every BRICS and global south country needs to learn this.

Is this a ‘Bot of for-real?

Men In Black 3 (2012)

https://youtu.be/Rc507n76IaM

Stop Saying ’Sorry’ If You Want To Say ‘Thank You’: A Seriously Insightful Cartoon

We often apologise assuming that people will appreciate our politeness and good manners. But in most cases, the other party is much more pleased to hear words of gratitude from you rather than an apology. Talented illustrator Yao Xiao, using everyday situations as inspiration, helps to explain why «thank you» is sometimes better than «I’m sorry» in this cartoon.

The international community has been de-dollorising and decoupling with the US. The US has been isolated by the international community. Will the US be able to bomb the international communities now?

Of course I can’t know for sure, but am encouraged by a video of George Galloway filmed last year in Belgrade by the remaining ruined buildings left by the US/NATO Winston-Smith-Memory-Holed bombing campaign against Serbia in which the Chinese Embassy was attacked. The former British MP said the world has changed since 1999 with BRICS outpacing the G7 and the Global South (the “world” that doesn’t exist on CNN, MSNBC, etc.) ditching the increasingly erratic US $: “Nobody’s going to bomb another Chinese Embassy now!”

Taiwan Rushes to Prevent China From Cutting Internet, Phones

Taiwan is beefing up its communications infrastructure to ensure that it remains connected to the rest of the world in case of any emergency. Cindy Wang reports on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)

China HUGE Breakthrough in Missile Chip Tech Amid US Chip Sanctions

https://youtu.be/6R3VG_BG4_I

Is this a ‘Bot or for-real?

What happened when selling a house that made you not sell to the prospective buyer?

We listed our house in 2016 during a red-hot sellers market. In the Pacific Northwest, houses were selling in 1–2 days. We were hoping to sell quickly because we’d just built another home and two mortgages would be a lot to handle.

When the house finally listed we had a full price offer of $275k on the first day and we were thrilled. We didn’t think twice about accepting it with only one contingency – a home inspection, which is common here. We arranged for the inspection which would take one week.

You know there’s often more to the story. *Image from CBS News.

We were a little concerned when the buyer asked to have an HVAC inspection using their own company instead of using the home inspector, but we gave our permission without asking why.

Their HVAC company did their inspection a few days before the previously-arranged home inspector was supposed to show up. We were presented with a quote for $15k to fix several problems: AC too small, gas fireplace won’t ignite, the furnace was not installed to building code, and the furnace didn’t work. The first words out of my mouth were “what the F?”.

Since it was springtime, we’d been running the AC and furnace on and off before showings so we knew they worked. We contacted the owner of our HVAC company who installed the furnace only three years before and he came out immediately to check on all these issues. We contacted the buyer’s realtor and we all went to our house to check out this mystery.

Our HVAC guy:

-measured the AC unit and determined it was sized properly for our home.

-the fireplace igniter was disassembled by “someone”. We put it together and it started right up.

-now the HVAC guy went into our crawl space where he confirmed the furnace was installed to code.

-we tested the furnace and it wouldn’t start. Our guy tested a few things and finally removed the steel face and found the igniter power wire had been unscrewed and the nut carefully set to the side for a quick reattach!

main qimg 0111caf4e6778c846fa9095c68264c86

Not my furnace but you get the idea. A nut was carefully removed and wire pushed aside. *Image from Google images.

We’d been sabotaged.

With the buyer’s agent standing right there, I asked why her client had done such an obvious job of messing with the system. She quickly became very nervous and near tears but I had a feeling she wasn’t involved. In her nervousness, she started telling us that she’d visited at least 20 houses with these people and they’d made many lowball offers, always sticking to prices that were too low. We assumed they had made a plan to buy and then demand price concessions after “inspecting” the HVAC. They probably had a family member that worked there or arranged for a kickback. In my head I’ve made the plot much more sinister over the years.

I told my realtor we weren’t going to work with this buyer. No deal. We’d take the property off the market before selling and if they pressed us they would regret it as we had a lot of evidence that they’d tampered with our HVAC systems. They walked away with their earnest money (pun intended).

Since we had offers so quickly we increased the price by $10k and removed the “pending” status. After a few days we had an all cash offer which we accepted.

So, the silver lining … a learning experience! I’m happy we had a trustworthy realtor on our side. He said he’d never seen a situation like this one.

Abandoned: Europe’s Largest Underground Airport explored

Is it correct to say that China cannot survive without trade from South Korea or Japan at all?

China exports to South Korea is 0.7% of Chinese GDP, exports to Japan is 0.94% of Chinese GDP. Both are great trading partners but still relatively insignificant.

Every Rodney Dangerfield line from Caddyshack

Many Americans think that Donald Trump resembles Rodney in this video.

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

Back in the late 90’s I worked on a net caffe back in Venezuela, and among other things we provided tech service. One day a client called about a computer she had that ate diskettes.

main qimg 193a80a6de729c90dd0634b900e5901a

These things for the younger folk.

So we asked her to bring it in, and I open it to see what’s up. She had a computer case that had a disketter opening, kinda like this one:

main qimg 9a983a6b31ce947a509e261f5d2b84f3

but there was no diskette drive inside the hole, so she would push them and they’d fall into the case. There were 20 diskettes inside.

No more meetings, no more talks on the phone with chief Lloyd Austin

main qimg 97b712b36fb93c44b74cc01e1e8a21fa

INTRODUCTION

Experiencing a series of vicious acts, violence and provocations as well as the general lack of trust, China has now decided not to answer phone calls from Lloyd Austin, chief of U.S. defense ministry.

Prospects for a renewed high-level military dialogue between China and the U.S. remain dim, with Beijing saying their defense chief will not hold a bilateral meeting while both are attending a weekend security conference in Singapore.

Closely monitoring the moods of the PLA and comparing the other Chinese departments with their U.S. counterparts, Beijing believes that the Defense Department under Lloyd Austin is the weak link in the United States.

Beijing is now deeply concerned that US and China are most likely to trigger conflicts between the two armies of the world’s largest superpowers.

Traditionally, China has always been faithful to their policy of peaceful and cooperative relations with the US, especially the military wing, believing that any armed conflict can trigger a war which is beyond calculation.

The Chinese leadership has decided to take a peaceful and preventive measure by sending the message unmistakably to the American side, hoping to forestall a future war that they believe is down the road.

The Chinese have an adamant sense of history: They have in their hearts reserved a special place for their American friends, and how much hate they have for their “foes”, the barbaric Imperial Japanese Army.

Today, the Chinese are still “fighting” these Japanese “foes”; the non-stop production and viewing can testify that they watch anti-Japanese war movies every day.

The message? China’s trying to avert any military conflict, but it’ll fight back if provoked.

FM spokesperson Mao Ning blamed the U.S…

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning most recently blamed the U.S., saying Washington should “earnestly respect China’s sovereignty and security interests and concerns, immediately correct the wrongdoing, show sincerity, and create the necessary atmosphere and conditions between the two militaries.”

She gave no details, but tensions between the sides have spiked over and Washington’s military support and sales of defensive weapons to self-governing Taiwan, China’s assertions of sovereignty to the contested South China Sea and its flying of a suspected spy balloon over the U.S.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to address the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, while Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu will speak at the gathering on Sunday.

Austin met previously with Li’s predecessor, Wei Fenghe, at last year’s Shangri-La Dialogue – which appeared to do little to smooth relations between the sides. In his address to the forum, Wei accused the U.S. of seeking to contain China’s development and threatening to assert its claims to Taiwan by military force.

China refused to take a phone call from Austin… insisting that communications on the military level have yet to show signs of improvement

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden cordially met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of large economies last November in Indonesia. Unfortunately, contacts have proceeded only sporadically since then, with only side meetings on neutral territory.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a visit to Beijing in February after the U.S, shot down a Chinese “spy” balloon that had crossed the United States. He later met with the Communist Party’s senior foreign affairs adviser Wang Yi in Austria.

China refused to take a phone call from Austin to discuss the balloon issue, the Pentagon said. Always beset by mistrust and accusations, communications on the military level have yet to show signs of significant improvement.

Beijing was reportedly angered by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s April stopover in the U.S. that included an encounter with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. China’s PLA holds military exercises and sends fighter jets, drones and ships near the island “to advertise its threat to attack and wear down Taiwan defenses.’

Moreover, “China protests movements of U.S. Navy ships and aircraft through the Taiwan Strait and close to Chinese-held islands in the South China Sea, dispatching its own ships and planes and raising the possibility of confrontations or collisions.” (Source: MDT/AP)

CONCLUSION

Last century’s Sino-Japanese war might be over, but the aftermaths of horror of war – such as hard-feelings and the anti-Japanese sentiments are still here to haunt the nation.

Remarkably, Germany’s leaders did an excellent job in easing the pains inflicted by the atrocities of the Nazis. Remember the picture of Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling before the million Jewish victims massacred?

Japan’s leaders have never done that; they have even erased this memory by white washing the “rape of Nanking”, a genocidal chapter in their bloody acts of atrocity.

Western anthropologists have observed that the Americans are reality bound, whereas the Chinese are past oriented in culture.

Some American leaders are mistaken as they perceive China as a “threat” to American national security. False!

Chinese students pose a “threat” to their American competitors; they are culturally and genetically prone to “academic achievements – a syndrome pushing them to succeed.” True!

The American public are manipulated by media to the point that they believe the Chinese president got carried away with the “no limits” friendship with Putin, who’s invading Ukraine. If one goes by the number of Chinese students attending colleges and universities in the U.S., the picture’s crystal clear. They prefer America to Russia.

If unprovoked, no Chinese has ever and would never think of harming the Americans, who are held high in regard as “professors of great learning”; the Chinese see themselves as “learners in apprenticeship”. Such perception has been around since the end of WWII.

The Chinese are happy to see their leaders getting along well with their American counterparts, Katherine Tai, the Secretary of Trade and Commerce, and Janet Yellen, the chief of finance, just to name a few.

The Chinese just can’t accept Lloyd Austin; they fear that he might “lead or mislead” the two nations to the tragedy of “sleepwalking” into war.

Noble Family disappears: Time Capsule Château left Abandoned

What roles does the US think China is playing in the world today?

Today?

Today, this June 2023, China is the dominant nation in the world.

In every metric, China dominates.

Some metrics are obvious and astounding. Where it is obvious that China is the predominant nation in the world in that particular role.

Lifestyle for it’s citizenry.
Destruction of poverty.
Elimination of air pollution.
Manufacturing ability.
New technologies.

And so on and so forth.

It is no mistake that the rest of the world (well, the nations that are not proxies of the United States, that is) turn to China. They turn to China for trade. For economics. For science, and manufacturing. They turn to China for help and assistance. They turn to China for guidance, and direction.

They turn to China.

…

Now that being the truth, you have a multi-billion anti-china funded effort. This effort is designed to keep the American public, and the citizens of the proxy nations, ignorant of reality. Anything positive or neutral is withheld, and colored with outrageous lies. There’s no other way to describe the war propaganda; it’s untruths, and lies that are the direct opposite of the truth.

And if you, the reader are not aware of this, shame on you.

…

The rest of the world is turning into a multi-polar world based on individual national sovereignty, They no longer use American currency, follow and obey American laws, rules and conventions, and are distancing themselves from the insanity that has gripped the United States and dragging it downward.

There are exceptions.

A “color revolution” in Thailand, and South Korea has placed “puppet governments” in power. And the first things that these puppets do is pull their nations closer to the United States, and then engage in a war where many of their countrymen are killed.

It’s the United States method of Geo-Politics.

…

But, back to the question about China.

Do you know what the United States will look like in 2040? Do you know the projections? What are the economic, social, scientific, and cultural changes that will manifest int he United States in 2040?

Well, you don’t know.

Because there just isn’t any writings, projections, or videos about this subject. The United States has no plans for this far in the future. Instead the United States fully intends to “kick the can down the road” and let someone else deal with the various messes and problems that are sprouting up left and right everywhere.

RAND studies are looking at regional wars, and proxy war and color revolutions well into the next decade. But NOTHING about building the American domestic society. Nothing about the future of schools, society, and infrastructure. It’s almost as if those issues are not important.

But…

China knows.

China knows what the world will look like in 2040.

…

I see a prosperous China. Where China is a wealthy nation. Far wealthier than anything in Europe today.

I see a vibrant, and healthy Africa. Crime being eliminated, and social services expanding as industry does as well.

I see South America growing and modernizing. And like Africa, a strong middle class.

I see Chinese bases on the Moon, and the start of a Chinese colony on the surface of Mars.

I also see some amazing breakthroughs in national governance across the world where nations restructure their nations to be more efficient like China, and to punish the evil and greedy like China has.

Yes.

…

I see a bright future ahead.

And it is all starting today with the global leadership of China.

The Ukrainian Military Is In Bad Shape

Erik Kramer and Paul Schneider are two former U.S. special operations soldiers who have been in Ukraine since 2022 to train Ukrainian troops.

At War on the Rocks they paint a dark picture of the state of the Ukrainian military. Their intent is to get money for more training, thus the real picture may be less dark than they describe. But even if one takes that into account it is still a sad state for an army that has been at war for more than a year. Some excerpts:

Based on our nine months of training with all services of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to include the Ground Forces (Army), Border Guard Service, National Guard, Naval Infantry (Marines), Special Operations Forces, and Territorial Defense Forces, we have observed a series of common trends: lack of mission command, effective training, and combined arms operations; ad hoc logistics and maintenance; and improper use of special operations forces. These trends have undermined Ukraine’s resistance and could hinder the success of the ongoing offensive.

What ongoing offensive?

Under mission command, the German Auftragstaktik, the leader disseminates his intent (“to attack through the northern woods to take town x”) and authority to subunits that is passed down with the mission to empower subordinates at all levels. Each subunits can make its plans to coordinate and execute the mission as best as possible. The contrast is an order command where every detail of execution is ordered from the top down. Both have advantages but to have a mixed system, as Ukraine currently has, is the worst of all places.

In our experience, across many units and staffs, the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not promote personal initiative and foster mutual trust or mission command. As Michael Kofman and Rob Lee recently discussed on the Russia Contingency podcast, elements of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have an old Soviet mentality that holds most decision-making at more senior levels. Amongst military leaders at the brigade level and below, our impression is that junior officers fear making mistakes.

But to use mission command down to the lower levels of a Platoon one needs noncommissioned officers (sergeants) to run the show. Those the Ukrainian military had are by now probably dead:

Having trained every component of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, we have continually seen a lack of an experienced noncommissioned officer corps. It is common to see field grade officers running around during training counting personnel and coordinating for meals. In the United States, it takes years to develop just a junior noncommissioned officer.

The next big lack is combined arms training and use. Tanks protect the infantry, the infantry protects the tanks, the artillery covers the battlefield to allow tanks and infantry to maneuver, command takes care that all three coordinate their actions.

The armor/infantry relationship is supposed to be symbiotic, but it is not. The result is that infantry will conduct frontal assaults or operate in urban areas without the protection and firepower of tanks. Also, artillery fires are not synchronized with maneuver. Most units do not talk directly to supporting artillery, so there is a delay in call for fire missions. We have been told that units will use runners to send fire missions to artillery batteries because of issues with communications.Most of the military’s operations are not phased and are sequential. Fires and maneuver, for example, are planned separately from infantry units — and infantry units plan separately from supporting artillery. This mentality also carries over to adjacent unit coordination, which is either nonexistent or rare and causes high rates of fratricide. Unit commanders have concerns about collaborators and thus are hesitant to pass on critical information that can be used against them to sister units.

These issues are compounded by unreliable communications between units and with senior leadership. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have a hodgepodge of radios that are vulnerable to jamming. Further, battalion missions are mainly independent company operations that do not focus on a main effort coupled with supporting efforts. The armed forces do not combine effects, so operations are piecemeal and disjointed. The separate missions are not supporting each other, nor are the missions of lower level units “nested” under a higher level mission. Sustainment is not synchronized with operations, either.

Due to the wild mix of weapons and for lack of trained mechanics logistics and the maintenance of equipment are a mess.

This lack of coordinated maintenance and logistics also translates into medical care. Medical evacuation and care are haphazard. Experienced Ukrainian combat medics have repeatedly stated that many of the evacuees would have survived it they had reached definitive care in a timely manner. The Ukrainian Armed Forces can solve this issue with a systematic logistics process.

Ukrainian special forces are mostly used as infantry even as they should be used for more demanding missions. There also are gimmick missions:

Ukraine special forces units comprised of international volunteers shop around their services to conventional unit commanders without a mission being tied to a strategic or operational goal. One example of a mission was a conventional brigade commander who had reported to his command that he had occupied a village taken from the Russians. When he realized that the information he had was mistaken and they had stopped short, he asked the international special operations forces unit to go into the occupied village and take a picture of a Ukrainian flag placed on top of a building in the center of the village.

A suicide mission to hide the commanders false reporting …

The authors claim that most of the above problems could be fixed by more ‘western’ training which they are more than willing to sell. However, what has become of the last armies ‘western’ forces have trained in Iraq and Afghanistan? Both fell apart. An army must reflect the local society and culture. It can not be formed top down by outside forces.

Since 2015 the Ukrainian army has been build up and trained by U.S. and British forces. What the WotR authors describe is the result of that.

Posted by b on June 3, 2023 at 17:01 UTC | Permalink

Inside This Secret Masonic Crypt will Shock You! (R$E)

How is China scaring the U.S?

China is scaring America in several ways:

China is about to overtake America as the world’s largest economy, probably by 2028.
China and BRICS are creating alternative reserve currencies to the US Dollar. China is accelerating global de-dollarization.
China is surpassing America technologically in most fields. In space exploration, China landed on the far side of the moon, China landed a rover on Mars, China built the Tiangong space station. China leads in 5G/6G. I could go on and on and on.
China is gaining substantial diplomatic credibility and influence around the world. BRI, BRICS, RCEP, SCO…these things keep US officials up at night. China recently brokered the Saudi-Iran peace deal.
China is modernizing its military with amazing military tech. Hypersonic missiles. J-20 and J-35. Type 003 Fujian with EMALS. Powerful destroyers and nuclear attack submarines. I could go on and on and on.
China’s extraordinary manufacturing capacity means that China could outlast the USA in any war. Building ships, planes, tanks…you name it.
China is such a crucial part of America’s supply chains, including military supply chains, China could strangle the United States.

US politicians are shitting their pants.

NATO INVADING SERBIA!!!!!

NATO will officially be invading Serbia, a non-E.U. European country even after protest by Belgrade.

A Staunch Chinese ally in the region.

“Wokeness” is the new COINTELPRO. Pink fascism is the du jour variety

Dr. Strangelove: Check List

When amazing is the norm, and bland is the government narrative

In this unique period of time, we all find ourselves in a period of transition.

The politics of the United States differs substantially from that of the rest of the world. While the “news” media is running amok, and the peoples of the West are just “inches away” from (what could be) open revolt.

If the USA defaults on it’s debt, the USA will die. Period. It will be over.

But if it raises the debt ceiling, that and loss of overall global confidence in the USD will cause inflation to reach unmanageable heights. No matter how you look at it, a shit-storm is coming towards the USA.

The only question is when…

US ComSec Gina Raimondo said the US “won’t tolerate” China’s decision to ban chips by Micron Technology in some critical sectors, saying Washington sees it as “plain and simple, economic coercion” and won’t tolerate it.” How will the US retaliate?

China has tolerated the US non-sense for decades, China today does not need to trade with the US, does not need to use the USD, does not need the US technology, so US sanctions are harmless. China’s military is capable to protect itself, so the US can only attack China’s interest in other countries.

Seriously, I have no idea what the US will do, as it has exhausted its arsenal against China.

Beijing to cooperate with Brussels in investigating sanction-circumventing companies if provided with evidence

So far the EU hasn't substantiated its claims & risks countersanctions, says Fu Cong, Chinese ambassador to the EU. Plus, Ukrainian FM casts doubt over WSJ scoop on Beijing's proposals to Europe

Zichen Wang

May 29, 2023

Brussels has failed to provide details about certain Chinese companies’ alleged violations of European Union trade sanctions on Russia and refused to work with China in investigating the claims, Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the European Union says.

Thus, Brussels risks a “strong response” from Beijing if it indeed sanctions the Chinese firms, Fu says in an interview with New Statesman by Bruno Maçães, the Portuguese Europe minister from 2013-2015, who describes Fu as “well-regarded in Brussels: most people I meet praise his cunning intelligence.”

Qin Gang, State Councilor and Foreign Minister, has already drawn the line on May 10 in Berlin

China does not sell weapons to parties involved in the Ukraine crisis and prudently handles the export of dual-use items in accordance with laws and regulations. Normal exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Russian enterprises should not be affected. China resolutely opposes long-arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions against other countries in accordance with its own laws, and will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

At the heart of the potential tit-for-tat that will most certainly, as Maçães correctly observed, “start a spiral of retaliatory sanctions that neither side will be able to stop,” is whether the Chinese companies have engaged in “importing electronic components from Europe in order to re-export them to Russia.”

The Financial Times first reported the EU’s plan on May 8 but unfortunately obscured the crucial justification for potential EU sanction of the Chinese firms that they allegedly imported dual-use goods from the EU and then sold them to Russia. Because the report basically didn’t mention the “import from EU” report until quoting an EU internal document in the seventh paragraph, less informed readers are likely to believe Brussels was trying to impose sanctions simply because of dual-use exports to Russia, which is exactly the Reuters dispatch reporting the FT scoop did.

It’s important to note that there is a major difference between EU sanctions and U.S. sanctions. As Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, recently clarified on the circumvention of EU sanctions against Russia

We also don’t want to sell technological products and components that Russia needs for its war machine. These are our decisions that are binding EU economic operators. Even if we would like other countries to do the same, we cannot force them, because our ‘sanctions’, are not extraterritorial.

So by the EU’s rules, the key is not exactly whether these Chinese firms have just exported dual-use goods to Russia, but whether they have circumvented the bloc’s trade restrictions forbidding certain goods from the EU to Russia.

Here, the Chinese ambassador says he needs evidence – even in private consultations that haven’t been reported. He even questioned if the potential sanctions would have been ex post facto. From the transcript of the interview published by the Chinese Mission in Brussels (New Statesman has a paywall.)

Fu Cong: First, let me say when it comes to Chinese exports to Russia, China has not provided any military equipment to Russia, and China has exercised extreme caution when it comes to dual-use items. At the same time, China maintains normal economic relations and cooperation with Russia. So these normal economic cooperation and activities should not be interfered with, and it should not be the reason for any coercive measures from any side, either from the US or from the European side. The second point I want to say is that we are against unilateral sanctions without the basis of international law or the authorization of (UN) Security Council resolutions. In particular, we are firmly against the extraterritorial jurisdiction of all these measures. These are our basic positions.

When it comes to these companies, let me be very clear: if the European side imposes sanctions on Chinese companies without providing us with any solid evidence to show that these companies are engaged with activities that may circumvent or that have circumvented the EU sanctions on Russia, then we certainly will retaliate. Because, as a government, we have the obligation and duty to safeguard the legitimate interests of our companies. But let me also emphasize that we want to resolve this issue in a cooperative way. I understand this 11th round of sanctions is aimed mainly at preventing circumvention. If the EU side has evidence that Chinese companies are engaged in such activities, please show us the evidence.

And also, I have a question to ask. Now we know that they want to prevent the circumvention, but when the European companies export those items, was there a requirement in the contract that says that you should not re-transfer these items to Russia or to any other country? Because actually, in our case, if you want to prevent a re-transfer of certain items, we require what we call End-User Certificates (EUCs). So when the transaction was made, was there such a clause? Was there such a requirement? You cannot use a new law to penalize an entity for their actions that happened before this new law entered into force. This is the basic principle of the rule of law, right? So that’s why we say that we need to talk about this. But unfortunately, we have approached the EU side, and we have not been given any clear explanations. One thing they did tell us was that they did not have solid evidence that those companies had re-exported the items they had imported from the EU companies to Russia.

New Statesman: They said they did not?

Fu Cong: They did not. They said that they had noticed a sharp increase in the import of certain items. But I said that there may be legitimate reasons, right? And that’s why I said if you have concerns and if you have evidence, show that to me. Maybe we have a legitimate explanation for that, and we can investigate for you. But unfortunately, the EU side has not picked up or responded to our gesture to resolve this in a cooperative manner. Actually, let me also emphasize that what the EU is saying is that they will put the Chinese entities on the list, which is basically a control list. So in the future, these companies should be companies of concern, and certain items should not be exported to them. They say that this is not an extraterritorial application of their sanctions. But this is exactly the extraterritorial application of sanctions. This is exactly what the US has been doing when they sanction foreign companies: they put foreign companies on what they call the entity list. I’m very sad to see that the EU is copying what the US has been doing in the past years. I would even add that it is in violation of the EU’s own position against the extraterritorial application of national sanctions. They are doing exactly the same as the US in this case. So we have great concern.

Fu has worked very hard to stabilize China-EU relations for the past six months since taking over as Beijing’s envoy in Brussels. European Council President Charles Michel visited Beijing in December and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in April. High Representative Josep Borrell was supposed to visit Beijing as well (and deliver a speech at the Center for China and Globalization), but unfortunately tested positive for COVID-19 before boarding the plane.

An AI answer

NASA chief’s ‘cliché’ accusations against China ‘reflect lack of confidence and narrow mindset’

By GT staff reporters Published: Dec 11, 2022 09:45 PM Updated: Dec 11, 2022 09:36 PM

In an interview released Sunday, the US’ NASA chief once again smeared China’s space missions and vowed to beat China in the “moon race.” The latest barrage of attacks was slammed by Chinese experts as a reflection of a lack of confidence and a dangerous, narrow Cold War mentality in the US.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson accused China of being “one of the very few nations” that would not be partners with the US and that it is being “very secretive” in terms of space programs in an interview with Nikkei Asia published on Sunday.

In the meantime, Nelson stated that he believes the US will beat China in terms of sending a manned spacecraft to the moon.

The two countries both have similar visions to launch a crewed moon probe in the next decade. China announced that its manned rocket for the mission is expected to be constructed by 2030, while NASA has pushed back its moon landing to 2025 or later.

Nelson’s unsubstantiated accusations fully reflect that the US lacks confidence in its aviation development, experts told the Global Times.

Nelson’s renewed hype of the Chinese aviation threat theory is actually a common NASA trope, spinning an external excuse to spur the US Congress to pass more related budgets, Song Zhongping, a space analyst and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday.

“China has never said it aims to engage in a so-called space race with the US,” he said, noting that the past race with the Soviet Union and Cold War mindset trapped the US.

In fact, publicly attacking China’s space programs has become normal for NASA in the past few months. In September, Nelson accused China of lacking needed transparency over issues. In July, the NASA chief blatantly claimed that China is “trying to occupy the moon.” In May, he said that China stole the US’ space technology.

“These accusations fired by NASA are unfounded and unjustified,” Song said. “China has always had a cooperative and open attitude in the space sector.”

In the 1990s, China launched satellites for other countries and provided space delivery services to other countries. Now, with its space station, return satellites and target vehicles, China has also been providing piggyback services and giving platforms to other countries’ projects.

China issued an action statement in November outlining its plan for promoting further international cooperation on space technology and exploration, working with other countries and international organizations within the framework of the United Nations.

Observers point out that China’s space station is facing all countries in the world that are willing to cooperate, including developing countries, which is the real sense of an international space station. On the contrary, the space station created by the US is precisely a club for the rich, and it is very difficult for developing countries to get their hands on it.

In 2011, the US Congress passed the Wolf Amendment, a law that prohibits NASA to engage in cooperation with China and China-affiliated organizations. “Now that China has moved into the top echelon of space-faring nations with its own innovations, the US is starting to worry even more,” Song said. “The country realizes that China’s momentum is going to be strong and even limitless, which needed to be contained.”

Such a narrow US mindset and approach would not only be unhelpful to the two countries’ technological development, but also could even overshadow the progress of human technology, analysts said.

If the US could treat China as a partner and not as an enemy, it would promote the humankind’s ability to explore space to soar, Song noted.

7-Year-Old Says He Was in 9/11 Plane Crash

A 7-year-old boy remembers falling off of the World Trade Center on 9/11 in this flashback clip from Season 1, Episode 1 of “The Ghost Inside My Child.”

Why are so many Americans against Chinese self reliance? Most Americans I have talked with about this say a self-reliant China is bad news for US corporations and should be stopped quickly to keep China in America’s pocket. Why is that the case?

KokHin Lim

Less than hundred years ago the laws allow the white man to kill Chinese like killing a dog in the U.S. Less than 60 years ago if a white man got on a public transport in the U.S. a coloured person need to give his seat to the white man.

Today many Americans people on QUORA is baffled by my calling a spade a spade. They expect a Chinese sounding name to be submissive and subservient towards Caucasians. Hence they call me all kinds of slur and derogatory names because l refused to be their slave.

US barely can accept another white nation to take over let alone a yellow nation and worst a system they slur and demonised for 78 years overtake them and collapsed their system they fooled themselves into thinking it is the best.

But the truth is the Chinese has overtaken them conclusively and comprehensively and there is no turning back. If anything the U.S. is collapsing harder by the day.

Cajun Crispy Oven-Fried Chicken

Jazz up your weeknight dinner with Cajun spiced panko-coated oven-fried chicken.

Prep: 10 min | Bake: 20 min | Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup unseasoned panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon McCormick® Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon McCormick® Paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Thyme Leaves
1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Ground Black Pepper
1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts halves
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Instructions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Mix panko and seasonings in shallow dish. Moisten chicken with milk. Coat evenly with panko mixture.
Place chicken in single layer on foil-lined 15 x 10 x 1 inch baking pan sprayed with no stick cooking spray. Drizzle with melted butter.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Why Is China Banned From ISS? Beijing Launches First Part of Its Own Station

By Ed Browne On 4/30/21 at 4:32 AM EDT

China successfully launched the first module of its own space station on Thursday, prompting curiosity about why the country does not simply use the International Space Station (ISS), according to Google Search data.The core module of China’s station, which will eventually be known as Tiangong, or the China Space Station (CSS), is the largest spacecraft China has ever developed and is 54.4 feet long, 13.7 feet in diameter, and weighs nearly 25 tons

Once complete, Tiangong will form a T-shape with the core Tianhe module in the middle and laboratory modules docked around it.

Bai Linhou, deputy chief designer of the space station at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), told the Xinhua news agency the station is “expected to contribute to the peaceful development and utilization of space resources through international cooperation.”

In 2019, the U.N. confirmed that six experiments were going to be conducted on the CSS involving institutions from Germany, Switzerland, India, Russia and others.

Gu Yidong, chief scientist of the China Manned Space program, told Scientific American: “We do not intend to compete with the ISS in terms of scale.” But the elephant in the room remains: China has never been to the ISS.

As its name suggests, the International Space Station is a global project, even though the vast majority of its inhabitants have come from the U.S. and Russia.

Other countries that have sent astronauts to the ISS include Canada, Brazil, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and others.

China is conspicuous by its absence from this list, and the reason lies simply in the fact that the U.S. does not want it to be there.

The 2011 Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, which set rules and funding for defense and other U.S. government agencies for that year, states in section 1340 that NASA may not use funds from that division to collaborate in any way with China unless a law specifically authorizes it.

Reuters reported in 2015 that the ban was due to human rights issues and national security concerns.

In 2015, space analyst Miles O’Brien told CNN the idea of the U.S. collaborating with China “gets shut down immediately” whenever it is brought up near Congress, adding that the Chinese Communist Party is “viewed as a government that seeks to take our intellectual property.”

“The Chinese government has always advocated the peaceful use of outer space,” Wang Jin, a spokesman for Beijing’s Ministry of Defense, said at the time.

The future of the ISS is currently uncertain. Partnerships and funding are due to run out in 2024. NASA told the Financial Times this month: “From a technical standpoint, we have cleared ISS to fly until the end of 2028.”

But Russia—one of the station’s most crucial partners—has already said it would withdraw from the program in 2025, marking the end of a significant period of international cooperation.

This Sexy Piece Of Clothing Is Becoming Increasingly Popular In Japan

This knitted sleeveless sweater with a large cut-back is all the rage in Japan right now, and it’s not hard to see why.

Robot Inside The Great Pyramid: Reveals a Secret Door in a Shaft

https://youtu.be/C79Vfxqsg5s

ap6y3

Hidden Chamber in Great #PYRAMID as big as a PLANE Confirmed by New Scan | Egypt

https://youtu.be/p4SrdfnZhnA

15 Fascinating Facts About The Sumerians

The ancient civilization of Sumer never ceases to captivate and intrigue. Scholars and historians are constantly busy uncovering new details and aspects of this civilization, even centuries after the first discoveries were made. Long ago forgotten and buried by sands of time, Sumer and its cities were the first foundations of all human progress and civilization. It is because of this that it never fails to impress. Here are just a few of the most fascinating facts about the ancient Sumerian civilization.

https://youtu.be/Bxxm_nzsO5Y

1. One of the World’s First Functioning Calendars Belonged to the Sumerians

Did you know that the Sumerians were amongst the first to have developed a functioning calendar? It is dated to roughly 2100 BC, and was divided into 12 lunar months, each numbering 29 or 30 days – much like the one we use today. The Sumerians had no weeks in their calendar, but even so they always had holy days and days free from work. These were usually celebrated on the 1st, 7th, and 15th of each month. Of course, each Sumerian city had its own special feast days that were celebrated at different times. Each month began with the sighting of the new moon.

2. Their Efficient Sexagesimal Numeral System is Still in Use

The Ancient Sumerians were skilled mathematicians, and were incredibly advanced for such an ancient time. They developed a numeral system with number 60 as its base. It is known as a sexagesimal numeral system – and it is still in use today! That is why we have 60 minutes in an hour, 360 degrees in a circle, and 60 degrees in an acute angle! The Sumerians developed the system and refined it, and it was later passed on to the Babylonians, and from them to other civilizations in the world. Today it is, of course, not the exact same system, but has many similarities and the same origins!

3. The City-States of Sumer Were Often at War With One Another

The Sumerian world consisted of many semi-independent city states, which were often very close to one another – almost within sight. But even so, they were not strangers to conflict. War was a staple of Sumerian life, and each city had its own standing army. When disputes over borders became an issue, it came to blows and bloodshed. One of the earliest depictions of Sumerian warfare was discovered on the Standard of Ur, an elaborate scene discovered in the tomb of King Ur-Pabilsag. Another important depiction is found on the Stele of the Vultures, which depicts warriors arranged in a phalanx formation. It is possible that the Sumerians invented this military tactic.

4. They Penned One of the First Epic Poems in History

One of the world’s first epic poems comes to us from the Sumerians. One would think that such an ancient civilization had little taste for poetry and arts. But that would be quite wrong to assume. The Sumerians were highly advanced for their time, and thus penned down the world’s first epic poem – the Epic of Gilgamesh . Centered on a mythical hero and his exploits, the poem was literally carved in stone: preserved in clay tablets upon which the lines were carefully incised. Containing both mythical human heroes as well as gods and supernatural beings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is a great insight into the culture and the beliefs of the ancient Sumerians, allowing us to better understand their affinities and aspects of their everyday life.

Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh. ( CC BY-SA 4.0 )

5. The Remnants of their Vast Civilization Were Long Forgotten to History

Sumerian civilization thrived for many centuries, but it eventually succumbed to invasions by Semitic-speaking Amorians and the Akkadian-speaking Babylonians. Slowly it began disappearing, losing its identity and lapsing into distant memory. The Sumerian language remained as a seldom-used sacred language, until it too disappeared for good. Centuries rolled on, turning into millennia, and Sumer was fully forgotten by mankind. It wasn’t until the 1800s that the diligent work of mainly British archeologists brought to light the tattered remnants of this pioneering world civilization. Scholars began piecing together the puzzle of Sumer’s identity, from scratch, until they finally understood what they were dealing with. So, after being forgotten for thousands of years, Sumer once again returned to the spotlight.

6. Sumer’s Eridu Was the World’s First City

Sumer, being one of the world’s first advanced civilizations, naturally had the world’s first cities. Sure, they weren’t cities as we know them today: they were more like urban settlements that grew around great temples and ziggurats. And one of the very first of the Sumerian cities was Eridu. Today, it is considered as one of the very first Sumerian settlements, which also grew into one of the most powerful city-states.

Eridu was situated just 12 kilometers (8 mi) from Ur, almost within sight of it. When it was built, the city was situated roughly on the coastline, with the Persian Gulf stretching before it. Now, many millennia later, the ruins of the city are situated far inland.

The Great Ziggurat of Ur, built during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC), dedicated to the moon god Nanna. (Hardnfast/ CC BY 3.0 )

7. Clay Tablets Perfectly Preserve the History of Sumer

Between 500,000 and 2,000,000 Sumerian clay tablets have been excavated to date, with only a part or them read and researched. They were the widely used medium by ancient Sumerians – with paper not being invented, soft clay tablets were the next best thing.

With special reed pens, cuneiform writing was carefully incised. Once baked, the clay tablet remained solid and durable. Everything and anything was written on these tablets: stories, poems, accounts, complaints, letters, diplomatic exchanges, treaties, histories, and so on. Today, clay tablets provide one of the most important insights into the lives and practices of ancient Sumerians, and are an invaluable historic heritage. One of the largest libraries of clay tablets was found in the remains of the Library of Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian King. The ruins contained over 30,000 unique clay tablets.

8. The Ancient Sumerians Invented the Plow and Heralded Progress

There is no doubt that the plow is one of the most important creations of mankind. This tool was the driving force before all progress in the world. And it is believed that the Sumerians invented it, as early as 3100 BC. The plow allowed them to harness the power of domesticated animals, and thus till the land and ensure fertile crops. This was a revolution for agriculture, of industry and progress. The plow quickly spread across the world, thoroughly reshaping it in the process. The Ancient Egyptians soon adopted it as well. At first, it was a crude wooden tool, but it was refined over the centuries.

Leonard Woolley holding the hardened plaster mold of the Sumerian Queen’s Lyre, 1922. ( Public Domain )

9. Oldest Surviving Stringed Instruments Were Found at Ur

The Sumerians were known for their innovations and inventions, some of which defined later civilizations. One of these could have been the stringed instrument, more specifically the lyre. While it is not known for certain whether the lyre was a Sumerian design, it is certain that those discovered at Ur are the world’s oldest surviving instruments. The lyres, exquisitely made and decorated, were found squished and fragmented, but have been painstakingly rebuilt. They are dated to roughly 2550 BC, which makes them more than 4500 years old! The lyres – more specifically harps – were discovered in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, in a lavish tomb that belonged to a high-ranking woman, likely a queen. Made with wood, silver, gold, and other quality materials, they were most certainly a symbol of power and prestige, and confirm to us that the Sumerians knew and loved music and arts.

10. Beer Was the Staple Food of Every Sumerian

Everyone loves a cold pint of beer on a hot summer’s day, right? The Sumerians certainly did – they were extremely fond of beer and brewing. So much so, that they had a goddess of just that – brewing and beer.

Impression of a Sumerian cylinder seal from the Early Dynastic IIIa period (ca. 2600 BC). Persons drinking beer are depicted in the upper row. ( Cuneiform Digital Library Journal )

Her name was Ninkasi, and she was revered by all the beer drinkers in ancient Sumer. It is important to note that ancient beer was not like modern beer: it was thick and mushy, and very nutritious, and likely not too cold. The Sumerians consumed it through special straws and strainers. Beer was consumed by both the commoners and the nobles, and was brewed in very large quantities. Clay tablets with special brewing recipes were recovered, as well as tablets that record the rationing of beer for workers. That’s right: in Sumer, workers were paid by a daily ration of tasty and nutritious beer. Could be worse.

11. Men of Sumer Had a Distinct and Recognizable Hairstyle

Did you know that the Sumerians sported a unique hairstyle? Many reliefs and depictions of common men of Sumer show them wearing their hair short on the sides and back, and curly and longer on the front! Otherwise, a lot of depictions show them completely bald and beardless. This could have been a trend in their society. In the ancient world, hairstyles and beards were often a distinct mark of a tribe or a society. To differentiate themselves from the neighboring cultures, the Sumerians likely adopted such unique hairstyles.

12. In Their Long History, They Had Just One Queen

The Sumerian King List is a literary work composed around 2000 BC, and preserved on several clay tablets. It lists the cities of Sumer, their kings, and the lengths of their reigns. It helped scholars to learn more about the various rulers of ancient Sumer. And virtually all of the rulers on the lists are men – kings. Yet there is one woman on the list: Queen Kubaba . Before coming to the throne, she was apparently a brewess – producing beer for commercial use. She was the queen of Kish, an important city-state in ancient Sumer. She was followed on the throne by her son Puzur-Suen, and grandson, Ur-Zababa. Sumer wasn’t solely a man’s world after all.

Relief of Queen Kubaba, only woman to make the King’s List. ( Public Domain )

13. World’s Earliest Customer Complaints Were Found in Ur

With advanced civilizations, come advanced tricksters. Ea-Nasir was a rich copper trader from the city of Ur, but his business practices were far from ideal. During the excavation of the city ruins, one house – Ea-Nasir’s – had a room full of clay tablets received from disgruntled customers. Apparently, Ea-Nasir would take money for quality copper ingots, but send poor quality ones instead. This resulted in a number of customer complaints against him. The most famous is the complaint from the merchant in Dilmun, whose messengers were treated badly, and his shipment of copper never arrived. Studying the numerous tablets, scholars deduced that Ea-Nasir wasn’t really troubled by these complaints, and continued to ignore them repeatedly.

An example of a cuneiform tablet. ( homocosmicos/Adobe Stock)

14. Sumerian Cuneiform is the World’s Earliest Writing System

The Sumerians were advanced in so many ways. Needless to say, one of their most important inventions was writing. Their cuneiform alphabet is amongst the world’s earliest writing systems. At first, it was just a number of symbols and images that were meant to represent words and actions. Over time, it evolved into a complex writing system that consisted of numerous tiny wedges. Incised with a special stylus, these symbols were written on soft clay tablets, which were then baked and hardened. It was an efficient, elaborate, and advanced writing system that was far ahead of its time.

Today, scholars are able to learn so much about ancient Sumer, thanks to the deciphering of the cuneiform script in the 19th century. It was, however, a painstaking process, and the script itself was an utter mystery for several centuries after its discovery.

The god Utu from the Tablet of Shamash ( CC BY-SA 1.0 )

15. Each City-State of Sumer Had Its Own Patron God

Ancient Sumer was divided into a number of semi-independent city-states. Some of the most powerful of these were Ur, Bad-Tibira, Eridu, Shuruppak, Sippar, Lagash, Kish, Nippur, and others. And each of these cities had its own patron deity, its protector and benefactor. There were lavish temples devoted to these gods in each city, as well as large pyramid-like ziggurats. There were around 7 principal Sumerian deities, and hundreds of minor ones. For example, Sippar was the cult-site of the Sun God Utu (Shamash to Akkadians), while Shuruppak was the city of goddess Ninlil.

15 Biggest African Songs That Broke The Internet in 2022

Sons of God: Sumerian Elite Ruling Sumerian Class Abducting Khabiru Women

By Stephen Martin

Translators, theologians, and biblical commentators provide many different theories to explain who the Bible is referring to as “the sons of God,” “the Nephilim,” “the men of renown,” and “the daughters of men,” but archaeology from ancient Mesopotamia adds a whole new layer of biographical perspective of these biblical figures.

The passage in question is in Genesis 6:4-5, and refers to an epoch before the great flood. According to most versions, it tells there were giants upon the land in those days, and after that. It is presumed that “after that” means after the great flood, so whoever these giants were, they were on earth before and after the flood.

It goes on to say that those giants were on earth whenever ‘the sons of God’ visited the ‘daughters of men’ and they fathered children for themselves.

It also explains that “those were the giants who were from long ago, the people of renown.”

Thinking back to ancient legends and myths, it takes no stretch of the imagination to see characters like Hercules and Perseus, or as is found in the ancient Sumerian myths of Gilgamesh and Dumuzi, and similar characters from nations all over the world, as heroes of old.

That is exactly what these ancient characters were, heroes of old and men of renown.

The Qumran Book of Giants tells the story of pre-diluvian origins of evil and the fate of the Watchers and their giant offspring. Fallen Angel by Odilon Redon, (1872). (Public Domain)

The texts of the Old Testament were preserved through a few different channels. The most commonly available text of the Old Testament today came from groups of Jewish scribes in the 10th century AD called the Masoretes.

The Masoretic Text is the one that was used as the source for most modern translations of the Old Testament, although this source text contains many problems and inconsistencies when it comes to early biblical genealogies and the dates given for events and lifespans.

The Israelite Samaritan Torah is a parallel source text that potentially date back to the sixth century BC, but unfortunately only contains the first five books of the Old Testament.

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New discovery inside Great Pyramid of Giza reveals hidden secrets

The Menehune of Hawaii – Ancient Race or Fictional Fairytale?

In Hawaiian mythology, the Menehune are said to be an ancient race of people small in stature, who lived in Hawaii before settlers arrived from Polynesia. Many scholars attribute ancient structures found on the Hawaiian Islands to the Menehune. However, others have argued that the legends of the Menehune are a post-European contact mythology and that no such race existed.

The mythology of the Menehune is as old as the beginnings of Polynesian history. When the first Polynesians arrived in Hawaii, they found dams, fish-ponds, roads, and even temples, all said to have been built by the Menehune who were superb craftspeople. Some of these structures still exist, and the highly-skilled craftsmanship is evident. According to legend, each Menehune was a master of a certain craft and had one special function they accomplished with great precision and expertise. They would set out at dusk to build something in one night, and if this was not achieved, it would be abandoned.

Some scholars, such as folklorist Katharine Luomala, theorize that the Menehune were the first settlers of Hawaii, descendants of the Marquesas islanders who were believed to have first occupied the Hawaiian Islands from around 0 to 350 AD. When the Tahitian invasion occurred in about 1100 AD, the first settlers were subdued by the Tahitians, who referred to the inhabitants as ‘manahune’ (which means ‘lowly people’ or ‘low social status’ and not diminutive in stature). They fled to the mountains and later came to be called ‘Menehune’. Proponents of this theory point to an 1820 census which listed 65 people as Menehune.

Luomala claims that the Menehune are not mentioned in pre-contact mythology and therefore the name does not refer to an ancient race of people. However, this argument holds little weight as most accounts of the past were passed down through word-of-mouth from one generation to the next.

If Luomala, and other scholars in her camp, is correct, and there was no ancient race of skilled craftspeople that predated the Polynesians, then there must be an alternative explanation for the ancient constructions of advanced design, which predated any known population in Hawaii. However, no alternative explanations exist and most history books still maintain that the Polynesians were the first inhabitants of Hawaii, some 1,500 years ago. So let’s examine some of the ancient constructions that have been attributed to the Menehune in the mythology of the region.

Alekoko Fishpond Wall at Niumalu, Kauaʻi

Alekoko, Kauai: Menehune Fishpond. Photo source .

The Alekoko Fishpond, sometimes called the Menehune Fishpond, is one of the finest examples of ancient Hawaiian aquaculture. A lava rock wall between the pond and the Hulei’a River, which is 900 feet (274 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) high, was built to create a dam across a portion of the river in order to trap young fish until they grew large enough to consume. The stones that were used come from Makaweli village, some 25 miles (40 km) away. It is considered to be an unexplained engineering achievement and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Hawaiian legend states that the pond was built in one night by the Menehune, who formed an assembly line from the fishpond location to Makaweli, passing stones one-by-one from start to end point.

The Ceremonial Site of Necker Island

Heiau at Mokumanamana (Necker Island). Photo source .

Necker Island is part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Few signs of long-term human habitation have been found. However, the island contains 52 archaeological site with 33 ceremonial heiau (basalt upright stones), believed to be celestially oriented, and stone artifacts much like those found in the main Hawaiian Islands. The heiau vary only slightly in design, but generally feature rectangular platforms, courts and upright stones. One of the largest of these ceremonial sites measures 18.6 meters by 8.2 meters. Eleven upright stones, of what are believed to be the original 19, are still standing.

Many anthropologists believe that the island was a ceremonial and religious site. According to the myths and legends of the people of Kauai, which lies to the southeast, Necker Island was the last known refuge for the Menehune. According to the legend, the Menehune settled on Necker after being chased off Kaua’i by the stronger Polynesians and subsequently built the various stone structures there. Visits to the island are said to have started a few hundred years after the main Hawaiian Islands were inhabited, and ended a few hundred years before European contact.

The Kīkīaola Ditch at Waimea, Kauaʻi

Kikiaola facing stones. Photo source .

Kīkīaola is a historic irrigation ditch located near Waimea on the island of Kauai. Also known as the Menehune Ditch, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 16, 1984. Hawaiians built many stone-lined ditches to irrigate ponds for growing taro (kalo), but very rarely employed dressed stone to line ditches. The 120 finely cut basalt blocks that line about 200 feet of the outer wall of the Menehune Ditch make it not just exceptional, but “the acme of stone-faced ditches” in the words of archaeologist Wendell C. Bennett. It is purported to have been built by the Menehune.

To date, no human skeletal remains of a physically small race of people have ever been found on Kaua’I or on any other Hawaiian islands. While this does not disprove that a race of small people existed, it does draw the truth behind the legend into question. Nevertheless, there is compelling evidence, both archaeological and in the numerous legends passed down over generations, that suggests that there was indeed an ancient race of highly skilled people who inhabited the Hawaiian islands long before the Polynesians arrived.

By April Holloway

Analyzing the North Face Corridor of the Great Pyramid

Cajun Beer Can Chicken

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 (3 1/2 to 4 pound) chicken
1 (12 ounce) can beer
4 teaspoons dry Cajun seasoning, divided

Instructions

Using a bottle opener, make three more openings in the top of the can. Empty 1/3 of the beer out to make it only 2/3 full of liquid. Lightly oil the exterior of the can with vegetable oil.
Wash chicken inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of dry Cajun seasoning (optional) into the cavity and two teaspoons over the outside of the chicken. Put a little foil on the tips of the leg bones to prevent blackening.
Set up gas or charcoal grill for indirect grilling. For charcoal grills, mound briquettes into two piles on opposite sides of grill. Light. Heat only one side of gas grill, at a temperature of 350 degrees F.
Stand the beer can on an aluminum pie plate, piece of aluminum foil or special beer can chicken roasting pan. Carefully ease the chicken onto the can, and spread drumsticks away from the body to support the bird in a tripod position. Add chicken, locating the bird between the two piles of charcoal on charcoal grills, or on the side away from heat on gas grills. Cover the grill and barbecue chicken over indirect heat for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the breast meat reaches 165 degrees F.
Remove chicken carefully, as there may be hot liquid remaining in the can.

Vintage Photos of Ugly Restaurants in the USA From the Mid-20th Century

The 1950s was a truly unique moment in time. Fresh out of World War II, the world – and North America in particular – were embracing prosperity and a strong economy, built and spurred on by the war.

More and more people were able to access the finer things in life in the 1950s. The times were also a period of conflict – and therefore, of thought and reinvention. The ongoing war on communism in the United States, as well as the Civil Rights Movement, exposed a division in American society.

The world was embracing automation, efficiencies, and simplicity, all with roots in nostalgia, old school familial values, and a distinct pining for prosperity. In the retail and hospitality industries specifically, the 1950s cemented itself as a vibrant time in consumer culture. Restaurants and eateries began to develop their own unique culture and way of doing things – all dependent on the year-to-year pulse of greater society.

h/t: vintag.es

Why does the Chinese government keep track of its citizens’ every move?

China is too big.

It’s population is five times the size of the USA. (Not four times, as some commenters like to repeat.) Geographically, it’s land mass is larger than the United States (minus the empty tundra of Alaska.). And there are more people in China that speak English than the entire rest of the world combined.

China is enormous.

New York City is a mere 6 million people. China has 200 cities larger than that.

A small rural village in China is larger than Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

It’s hard enough for a nation to assure compliance, reduce crime, and create a level playing field for everyone to play upon, but the easy way and the most effective way, is to monitor everyone by AI.

Not by person, but notice trends and actions.

And since China has done this all kinds of crime was nearly eliminated, government corruption fell immediately, and everyone now has “a set at the table”.

Ultimately, the hoarding of money is the cause of so much misery in this world. And those that become very rich are the causes of much of the world’s unhappiness. Hoarding money and turning into billionaire oligarchy is difficult to do without harming and hurting others. And with AI monitoring, the people are assured that it will never happen. The AI searches for people doing bad things. Finds them. Punishes them, and if necessary isolates and eliminates them.

Of course, it’s NOT perfect, but a work in progress. As we used to say in the ‘States; “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

But at least 1.4 billion people can sleep with roofs over their heads, eat good meals, have reasonable and affordable healthcare, not worry about layoffs on Friday, and live in crime-free areas.

To that I say; It is worth it.

China plans to perform a crewed lunar landing before 2030. What do you think of this goal?

As it appears, China will be the first nation to put men on the moon.

…

Notes:

There is overwhelming evidence that NASA did not put men on the moon in 1969, nor in the subsequent missions. To paraphrase the head of the Russian space program; “We sent lunar orbiters over the supposed landing sites repeatedly, and there’s nothing there.” Believe what you may. The vast bulk of the world considers the United States to be thieving, lying, and mischievous rogue nation. As time moves on, peoples throughout the globe question the supposed actions and accomplishments of the United States. Indeed, this is a debatable subject, but this is not the place for that debate.
NASA plans to put a progressively diverse crew on the moon this decade. It will be on a spacecraft that superficially looks like the Apollo spacecraft, but uses technologies not available during the 1960’s. This crew will attempt some trivial “science experiments”, perform some “crowd pleasing” antics, and return home (supposedly) reinvigorated and proud United States.
The Chinese strategy in space exploration is for long-term objectives, and is proceeding in a systematic step-by-step progression. It is boring, but methodical. The Lunar outpost will consist of members selected from the Global South, and will be the beginnings of a long-duration colony as a step towards (already planned) Mars colonization efforts.
You can expect that the Chinese WILL visit the supposed Apollo landing locations. They will do so in 3D, high definition color and 7G technology. What they will discover will be broadcast to the world. If they find nothing, and that is what is expected, the implications will be extraordinary.

The UnXplained: Mystery of Devil’s Tower

A giant fossilized tree stump?

Vietnam and your escape from the United States gulag

About depleted uranium: The main danger in DU is not it's radioactivity. The main problem is similar to heavy metals like lead, but much worse. 

It's inhaling the depleted uranium dust in to your lungs and digesting DU dust after it get absorbed by agricultural products or ends up lying in urban areas that makes DU extremely toxic. 

Heavy metals do much more to your body than "make you feel sick" they destroy the brain blood barrier and cause massive damage to the brain. 

They ruin the DNA of unborn fetuses which results in generation-wide genetic defects in society, they cause damage to many other parts and stay in the body forever. 

And heavy metals do not "degrade" they stay in the environment virtually forever, circulating and causing damage until quaranteed, like nuclear-power-plant waste (which is what DU is) is being stored.

Posted by: A200 | May 15 2023 18:25 utc | 26

Man oh man! The geopolitical situation is truly in flux.

And make no mistake, it is in Chinese favor.

Ah, meanwhile a “stealth war” is going on, but is not being reported at all. Instead it is being reported as something else…

UPDATED 4:01 PM EDT — M6.8 Quake off South Africa — Antipode is Cascadia Subduction Zone

World Hal Turner 21 May 2023

Yet another earthquake. It’s all happening in the oceans around the world. What do you know?

A strong Magnitude 6.8 earthquake has just taken place 1528.1km southeast of East London, South Africa. It took place at a shallow depth of only 10km. Problem is, this is the approximate “Antipode” for the Cascadia Subduction Zone off Vancouver, Seattle, and much of northern California.

There is a school of thought that holds when a major earthquake takes place on one side of the world, it directly affects its “antipode” which is the precise location on the exact opposite side of the planet.

According to the Antipode map, A Quake in this area off South Africa has its Antipode around Vancouver, BC, CANADA. Since the antipode effect can vary from precise, the entire Cascadia Subduction Zone is now in the crosshairs:

Quite often, a major earthquake on one side of the planet causes another one, afterwards, very near the exact opposite side of the planet. If that holds true, the Cascadia Subduction Zone of the US West Coast, could be in for quite a ride.

UPDATE 4:01 PM EDT —

A Magnitude 5.6 earthquake has just taken place in the area of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, as mentioned possible in the story above!

Classic Texas Sheet Cake

Classic Texas Sheet Cake is a recipe that is passed down from generation to generation—for good reason!

Ingredients

Cake

2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 cup water
3 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Frosting

1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
6 tablespoons milk
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 15 x 10 x 1-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
In large bowl, stir together flour, granulated sugar and salt; set aside.
In 2-quart saucepan, heat 1 cup butter, the water and 3 tablespoons baking cocoa to boiling. Remove from heat. Pour over flour mixture in bowl; stir until well mixed.
Add buttermilk, baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and the eggs; stir until well lended.
Pour into pan, spreading evenly.
Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Meanwhile, in another 2-quart saucepan, heat 1/2 cup butter, 3 tablespoons baking cocoa and the milk to simmering. Remove from heat.
Beat in powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract with whisk until smooth.
Stir in pecans.
Pour frosting over hot cake. Cool completely before cutting, about 1 hour.

What can I do for 10 minutes every day that will change my life?

Talk to random people.

Fellow passenger in public transport
Daily vendors
Store owners
Watchman
Peon of your office
Taxi drivers
Anyone you meet.

Remember, do not talk about yourself. Ask about them. And listen. I do that everyday and knowing people is amazing.

Here are some examples/ lessons I learned:

1. Got job offer from a real estate company owner

2. Made a friend during my journey home. I didn’t have return ticket but luckily I met the same guy again and we shared the railway berth.

3. Met a taxi driver whose wife works in some MNC (i guess it was GOOGLE, as a developer). After talking to him, my chauvinism went to drain.

EDIT: This conversation happened 3years ago in Hyderabad, and I don't remember what company exactly it was. But I do remember that while mentioning this, he pointed to some IT park where Google was written in bold.

4. Peon of my office gives me a distinct respect

5. Once a door to door vegetable daily vendor brought back my wallet which I dropped by mistake.

6. Some underprivileged children – whom I used to teach during my college send me “happy teachers day” card every year. And that is the most beautiful day my year.

7. I stay in Bangalore. The moment you approach a rickshaw either they will ask for 2times the meter or 20/ 30 extra over meter. But because I was listening to one of the rickshaw driver all my journey he kind of liked me, and he charged me as per meter. The meter was 74 and he took only 70 in spite Of my insisting.

8. Once in a restaurant a couple was struggling with their toddler. They were unable to eat. I was waiting for my meal so I started playing with the kid. The couple had meal in peace. By the time I left the restaurant it started raining cats and dogs. So the same couple saw waiting outside the restaurant under a shade and offered me a ride to the bus depot. During the ride we had great conversation and they decided to drop me till home.

9. I was waiting for my bus stop near the front door of the bus. So I started talking to the driver. For 20 mins we talked about topics ranging from girls empowerment to spirituality. And the drivers knowledge was surprising. His thoughts about “girl child” made me believe India is changing.

There are thousands of such conversations I can share. I learned that everyone is struggling with a fight which no one has ever fought, sometimes these conversations gives me hope, confidence, another perspectives to the different problems of life, when I am depressed it helps me feel privileged that I have such good life, parents and friends. It’s overwhelming to talk to people.

Most importantly the smile you get after listening to these people is just priceless. The life has become fast, and all one need is some ears.

Edit:

A lot of people have a question of “How to start a conversation?” Everyone can have there own way, but following is my two pence,

I have some pre-set ice breakers –

1. With Cab drivers (Ola/ Taxii for sure etc.) – “Is this your own, or you are hired?” Or “Don’t you feel frustrated with the traffic?”

2. Public Transport – Offer your seat to a lady/ old aged man. Ask when will your stop come? (even though you know when to get down). If someone is reading book – start talking about that book.

3. Coffee shop/ restaurants – Help (like I helped that couple). Or ask help in choosing dishes (this works during foreign trips).

4. If you see underprivileged child – ask if they go to school.

5. With your subordinates – Have lunch with them.

6. With roadside vendors – “How much business you make daily?” Or “do you pay some rent of this space” or “does xyz take some bribe for letting you stand here”

All in all the mantra is be observant. Understand what problem the other might have. Start talking about their problems/ situations/ likings etc.

Moving to Vietnam |BEAUTIFUL, CHEAP AND BOOMING|

This Is A Tiny Hamster Rides Her Own Personal Subway Train

In 2009, Brooklyn photographer Victoria Belanger took Edie, her tiny hamster for a ride on her own personal subway train. Little Edie wandered throughout the car, checked out the distinctive orange and yellow seats and even had a chance to peek outside before having to “stand clear of the closing doors”.

“This train is really slow.” Edie rides the model subway. Fall 2009.

More: Victoria Belanger, Flickr h/t: laughingsquid

Safeguarding Your Mental Health from the Harmful Effects of Western War
Propaganda – Ten Top Tips

By Geoffrey Roberts FRHistS, MRIA
Emeritus Professor of History
University College Cork

Beg, borrow, or buy a copy of Robert H. Thoules’s Straight and Crooked
Thinking. Pay particular attention to the sections on the manipulative use of
emotive language (’Russia’s unprovoked, criminal, aggressive and genocidal
war on Ukraine’), diversionary arguments (‘you can’t negotiate peace with an
indicted war criminal’) and drumbeat repetition (‘Ukraine has won, is winning
and will win the war’).
Beware bait and switch articles. Promising pieces with headlines like ‘in
reality, the Ukrainian are losing’ or ‘West exaggerates Russian losses’ often
turn out to be Neocon op–eds arguing for all–out western military support for
Ukraine whilst blandly asserting that Putin would be crazy to escalate the war.
Get into the habit of scanning articles about the war before reading them. If
you espy the words ‘Hitler’, ‘appeasement’, ‘Munich’ in the same piece – bin
it, unless it is written by a trustworthy historian with the initials GR.
Unsourced casualty claims from the Pentagon or the British MoD are a no–
brainer: simply divide those for Russia by 10 and multiply those for Ukraine
by the same factor.
Keep to hand a stack of old Ritter and MacGregor interviews predicting that a
storm of Russian armoured steel will soon sweep all before it and bring the
war to a rapid conclusion.
When things are going badly for the Russkies, mute the sound on reports from
Weeb Union and the Military Summary Channel. Then close your eyes and re–
imagine the meaning of all those little arrows flickering across the screen.
When things are going really badly, restrict your YouTube viewing to
Alexander Mercouris’’s nightly vlog. Nothing is more reassuring than
Alexander’s dulcet tones reminding us for the umpteenth time that he is not a
military man before launching into a lengthy explanation as to why a 50–metre
advance by the remnants of the Azov Brigade may not be as strategically
significant as some panic–mongering Russian bloggers would have us believe.
Goebbels was wrong. The Big Lie is not the most effective propaganda: it is
the cumulative effect of little lies, evasions, distortions and misdirection. The
best antidote is a daily dose of Responsible Statecraft supplemented by a
generous dollop of Naked Capitalism, Moon of Alabama and Antiwar.com.
If you don’t read Russian, invest in a machine–translation programme that will
enable you to follow Strana.UA’s sane and sensible coverage of the war.
Subscribe to a curated list of links that – at no cost to you – filters out the most
mentally damaging western war propaganda.

What’s Happening In Haiti Is Absolutely Beyond Belief!

Amazing!

Ukraine SitRep: Explosion in Khmelnytsky – Bakhmut Evacuation – Longer Range Missiles

In the early morning of last Saturday two large explosions (video) destroyed a large ammunition depot near the city of Khmelnytsky in west Ukraine.

biggerThis picture shows the depot before the strike:

biggerThe explosion destroyed the whole depot:

biggerThe depot sat at a rail line some 5,000 meter west from the city center. It is likely that the explosion destroyed not only a large amount of ammunition but also a large number of windows in the city and caused some casualties.

The city of Khmelnytsky, which has a population of 270.000, is named after a famous Cossack hetman (elected military leader) who in 1648 rose up against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that controlled the west of Ukraine.

While military operations continued inconclusively, and because Tatar support proved undependable at crucial moments, Khmelnytsky began to search for other allies.

He found those allies in Moscow:

Khmelnytsky secured the military protection of the Tsardom of Russia in exchange for allegiance to the Tsar. An oath of allegiance to the Russian monarch from the leadership of the Cossack Hetmanate was taken, shortly thereafter followed by other officials, the clergy and the inhabitants of the Hetmanate swearing allegiance. The exact nature of the relationship stipulated by the agreement between the Hetmanate and Russia is a matter of scholarly controversy. The council of Pereiaslav was followed by an exchange of official documents: the March Articles (from the Cossack Hetmanate) and the Tsar’s Declaration (from Muscovy).The council was attended by a delegation from Moscow headed by Vasiliy Buturlin. The event was soon thereafter followed by the adoption in Moscow of the so-called March Articles that stipulated an autonomous status of the Hetmanate within the Russian state. The agreement precipitated the Russo-Polish War (1654–67). The definitive legal settlement was effected under the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 concluded by Russia and Poland that re-affirmed Russia’s sovereignty over the lands of Zaporozhian Sich and left-bank Ukraine, as well as the city of Kiev.

The city is some 200 kilometer from the Polish boarder. The depot has likely held ammunition that was coming from the ‘West’ to go to the front line in east Ukraine. There are rumors that the depot held British ammunition for Challenger main battle tanks. The ammunition is filled with depleted Uranium. Some charts are circulating which claim to show a gamma ray spike in the area.

biggerHowever the relevant map does not load for me and I have no way to verify it. The chart seem to show an increase in Gamma radiation but that increase happened during May 11/12, not in the early morning of May 13 when the explosion happened. The increase is also very small and the total is normal and not dangerous. Flying in a commercial airplane will typically expose you to some 2,000 nano-Sievert per hour [nSi/h]. Small background radiation variances happen all the time so the chart does not really tell us anything.

In other news the Ukrainian army seems to abandon whatever is left of Bakhmut city.

In today’s clobber report the Russian Defense Ministry reported the intercept by air defense of a British Storm Shadow cruise missile. This confirms that these are not some new wonder weapons. (The recent two Storm Shadow impacts in Luhansk city were against undefended targets and also accompanied by a U.S. delivered electronic warfare missile which probably can confuse air defense radar.)

Also taken down yesterday were seven U.S. HARM anti-radar missiles and ten HIMARS missiles.

The use of so many HARM missiles is unusual and points to a new campaign in preparation of the much hyped counteroffensive.

Posted by b on May 15, 2023 at 17:23 UTC | Permalink

Report said India, US, Saudi Arabia and UAE are to develop joint railway infrastructure that connects Gulf and Arab countries. How do you see this move?

Is it the US’s containment of China’s Belt and Road Initiative?

The US is proposing a railway project to connect Gulf and Arab countries. But can it win favor from Middle Eastern countries?

Hmmm… doubt it…

What NOT to Eat in Vietnam, Why Banh Mi is so Famous? | Vietnam Culture Series: Eating

UN Operation in Mali Is a Scam. Just Watch the Germans Run From Wagner Troops

By Martin Jay

May 8, 2023

What the hell is going on in Mali? Many will be asking this question as to the future of the UN’s mission there, after Germany just announced that intends to withdraw its troops from the mission

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What the hell is going on in Mali? Many will be asking this question as to the future of the UN’s mission there, after Germany just announced that intends to withdraw its troops from the mission

According to newswire reports, the German government said on May 3rd it had decided to end its participation in the UN mission in Mali

by next May over problems, it claims, with the ruling junta.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet said Berlin would pull its 1,110 troops in the UN mission MINUSMA out of the West African country over the next year and pivot towards more humanitarian and development aid for the region.

“Whether we want it to or not, what happens in the Sahel affects us,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement.

“We are reorganising our engagement in the region and will let our participation in MINUSMA run out in a structured fashion over the next 12 months.”

But is it really true given Germany’s track record for its bare faced lies on the international circuit led by its odious chancellor Scholz who can’t even own up to Berlin’s role or knowledge of the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline? Is there another reason for Berlin getting out of Mali?

What was it doing there in the first place is also a good question. The truth is really not much to do with fighting terrorists in the Sahel but more about supporting France’s delusional ideas about its hegemony in Africa. Britain also sent 300 soldiers there initially to support Macron and his two-faced game in Mali of pretending to fight terrorism while really only interested in supporting French companies there and protecting French expats.

The UK pulled out those troops just months after France withdrew its soldiers in the summer of last year. Germany, it seems, is a little slow on the uptake of how shit happens in Africa and so its cumbersome political beast – a coalition of hypocrites, turncoats and dropouts – finally smelt the coffee and realised that its troops were a little isolated in a country they didn’t understand run by a junta which was aligned to Russia. Is it possible that Scholz suddenly woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and realised that his entire collation government would collapse if Wagner troops got a bit bored one day in Mali and decided to massacre the Germans as a way of sending a message that Russia is displeased with the commitment of Berlin to Zelensky?

It begs the question again in Mali, what are they European contingents doing now in Mali if none of them can get the junta there to stand in line and succumb to western elites’ needs and aspirations? Scholz clearly did the maths and realised that Mali is a ticking time bomb and his own troops were vulnerable to attack in the event of the Ukraine war stakes being raised this year.

And so the louche western media narrative is that Germany can’t get on with the military leadership in Bamako, which for anyone with an IQ more than 60 and who knows anything about how the world works, is of course nonsense. The heart of the problem for the regime in Mali is that they see no point of the Germans being there. If the Germans can’t get any results on the battlefield with the Islamic terrorists – and believe me, we would hear about it if they did – then the only other purpose for them would be to add a security later to the military leadership itself, politically.

If Germany is really there in Mali to fight the terrorists – which could/would take power in Mali if they could overpower the junta – then the thinking is why can’t they protect the elite there in any other way. The answer is because they are not there to neither fight terrorists nor prevent them from taking power in Mali. They were there to support Macron but now he and his boys have been kicked out it makes the Germans look like stupid teenage boys at the school disco all looking at each other with no girls in sight when the last dance begins. Uselessness is a word we should be comfortable with when talking about Germany and its army especially when it is lead by Scholz who is a buffoon on his best day and has led his own country into a direct conflict with Russia.

Misjudged military fuckwittery is actually a German speciality which keeps on repeating itself in history. Who could, after all, forget the initial jubilance of operation Barbarossa at the beginning of World War II which led to the German army being slaughtered when the soviets got their act together and took the battle to the next level? If the Germans themselves can’t explain to their own people what their troops are doing in West Africa, then it is hardly surprising they’re having troubles dealing with the military junta in Bamako who are proving to be “difficult”. Does anyone believe any of this bullshit from the UN press machine which recently went excrementally shite when it thundered that the UN chief was concerned about the fate of young women in Afghanistan and pledges to save them? This is the same UN chief who can’t even save his own UN staff from rape and sexual harassment on a grand scale in UN buildings?

10 INCREDIBLE Reasons Why You Should Move to Vietnam RIGHT NOW!

Do you believe that sanctions on Russia and countermeasures against China could help alleviate some of the economic risks brought by this crisis?

What about shifting these $100s of billions spending countering Russia and China to take care your own citizens and economies back home?

Hundreds of billions, eventually a trillion dollars spend on playing geopolitics, that money could be used to build infrastructures, factories, lower energy cost, free housing, free education, feed the poor. Instead all wasted on geopolitics.

~3,000 Turn Out in Sydney AGAINST NATO – Pro-Russia

World Hal Turner 21 May 2023

Video below shows about three thousand Australians turning-out in Sydney today, to protest NATO and show their support for Russia! The large group was peaceful and determined to let their country know their position: NATO is wrong, Russia is right, and the war in Ukraine must stop.

Here’s brief video:

HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION

Do you see how peaceful, calm, and orderly this is? THIS is what should be taking place here in the United States and over in Europe. Every day.

Here’s why:

What our governments are doing with the Ukraine situation is slow-walking ALL OF US into literal nuclear war with Russia.

The Russians are right; they have been provoked for years by more and more NATO bases, in country after country, surrounding Russia, and pointing missiles at Russia. They were also provoked when the West funded, incited, and facilitated the forcible, violent overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically-elected President, Viktor Yanukovich back in the year 2014.

Yanukovich had been previously contacted by the US and by the European Union (EU) about moving out of Russia’s sphere of influence, and becoming part of Europe. Yanukovich thought about it. He consulted his government, his top business leaders, and his people.

When the time came for Yanukovich to decide yes or no to the US/EU offer, he politely told them “Thanks, but no thanks. Ukraine will remain with Russia.”

That was an answer the US/EU was NOT going to accept.

They began funding and facilitating protests and riots in Ukraine. They paid almost a million dollars a day out of the US Embassy in Kiev, to keep the trouble going.

As the problems got worse and worse, there were shootings. Government buildings were being attacked and burned down. It got completely out of hand.

Yanukovich had to flee the country, and Ukraine’s government collapsed. When that happened, the US/EU was right there to fund a new, puppet government, favorable to the West.

When the new Kiev regime took over, Crimea, which had previously been part of Russia for over 300 years, but which had been “given” to Ukraine, by then-Soviet Union General Secretary Nikita Krushchev about fifty years ago, decided to have a referendum to secede from Ukraine and return to Russia. They held that referendum and the vote was overwhelming; Crimea wanted to go home to Russia.

Of course, Russia, which had a naval base on Crimea, supported this effort, and was lambasted by the West for “illegally annexing” Crimea. It was no annexation, Crimea voted!

When two other predominantly Russian oblasts (states) — Luhansk and Donetsk — wanted to also vote to secede, Ukraine sent its army to the border of those states and started lobbing artillery shells and mortars into the civilian areas to put down the move to secede.

Luhansk and Donetsk formed militias to fight-off the Ukrainians. But they needed help. Suddenly, “Little Green Men” started appearing in Luhansk and Donetsk. Fully kitted-out soldiers, in green military uniforms, but with no patches. No flags. They were, of course, Russian troops. They were clearly sent by Russia, to support Luhansk and Donetsk, whose people were being bombed by the Ukrainian army.

All this trouble, which really kicked-off from 2012, stopped dead in its tracks when Donald Trump won the US Presidency. There was relative peace in Luhansk and Donetsk for four years, until Biden stole the US Presidency.

Within literally days of Biden taking office in January 2021, all the trouble in Luhansk and Donetsk started again.

By December, 2021, Ukraine had massed about 80,000 troops, over 1,000 tanks, multiple launch rocket systems, fighter jets and the like, all along the borders of Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukraine was going to enter Luhansk and Donetsk and slaughter the civilians who wanted to secede.

Russia had no choice. They HAD to protect the civilians in Luhansk and Donetsk. In fact, under the United Nations (UN) Charter, Russia had a DUTY to protect!

The LIE Which Caused this Whole Thing

All this trouble and all this NATO effort with Ukraine is being done despite the fact that then-US Secretary of State, James Baker, assured then Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and then-Foreign Minister Eduard Shevrednadze that if Russia allowed East and West Germany to re-unite, “NATO will not move one inch eastward.”

Of course, NATO did not honor that promise, and began expanding eastward, right up to Russia’s border.

Country after country joined NATO, and got NATO missiles to aim at Russia. Many countries established NATO bases to rotate NATO troops in and out . . . . all with their eye on Russia.

When the same began with Ukraine, Russia made very clear to the west, Ukraine joining NATO is a red line for Russia. They also explained why:

From Ukraine, NATO missiles, would have about a five minute flight time to Moscow. They would also have a seven to ten minute flight time to Russia’s strategic nuclear missile silos.

While NATO claims these missiles are “defensive” with conventional warheads, missile technology has progressed so much that the warheads on these missiles can be “swapped-out.” They can be changed from “defensive” (conventional) warheads, to OFFENSIVE, NUCLEAR warheads. The swap takes about an hour.

So Russia would really have no way of knowing if the missiles being aimed at them were defensive or offensive.

And with a five minute flight time, Russia would have almost no viable defense. They would never know peace or security. This was completely unacceptable to them.

Russia tried to use Diplomacy, offering a Treaty to NATO which would provide Iron-Clad, legally enforceable, security guarantees to Russia. They offered this in December of 2021. NATO laughed at it; basically throwing the proposal in the trash.

About a week later, in January, 2022, Russia submitted the Treaty proposal again, only this time, they sent it via Diplomatic Courier, to the leaders of all NATO countries at their official residences (White House, #10 Downing Street, The Elysee Palace in France, and so on)

In this re-submitted proposal, Russia made clear, IN WRITING, if they cannot obtain iron-clad, legally enforceable security guarantees via Diplomatic means, they will obtain them by military or military-technical means.

So they TOLD EVERYONE this was going to become a military conflict!

NATO sat on this proposal for about two weeks, then rejected it again.

On February 23, 2022, Russia contacted Ukraine and gave them an Ultimatum: You have five hours to agree to not join NATO and that Crimea, which had seceded, was now permanently part of Russia, or Russia would take action.

Ukraine President Zelensky called the British Foreign Office and the US State Department. Both told him to “ignore the ultimatum” which he did.

After the five hours expired, Russia waited another two hours and with no movement by Ukraine, they sent the Russian Army across the Ukraine Border.

We Were ALL Warned

Russia had previously told everyone — the whole world — that this situation was going to become military. The world laughed.

They aren’t laughing now.

You see, when Russia speaks, they say what they mean, and they actually mean what they say.

It isn’t that way in the West. Here in the West, we are caught in this phony “virtue signaling” where we say things that sound oh so good and nice, but we never actually DO.

Russia doesn’t operate that way. If they say it, they mean it.

Which brings me back to the protests in Sydney, Australia, at the top of this story.

As the conflict with Ukraine has gotten uglier, NATO has been shipping billions of dollars worth of military gear to Ukraine. More and more gear. Better and better gear.

Along the way, Russia has REPEATEDLY warned they will use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.

As should be clear to even the most childlike intellect right now, when Russia says something, they mean it. They have proven this over and over again!

Despite Russia’s warnings, the West continues to up-the-ante and, as you read this right this minute, the West had given a green light to providing Ukraine with fourth generation F-16 fighter jets.

Russia announced publicly THIS MORNING, they will shoot down any F-16’s they find in Ukrainian air space.

They also publicly accused the United States of trying to escalate the Ukraine conflict into a world war. In this regard, it seems to me personally, Russia hit the nail right on the head. The US __is__ trying to start World War 3, and it is our American government, and its’; NATO vassals, that are slow-walking you and me to our death via nuclear Armageddon.

Unless people in Europe and the United States, take to the streets PEACEFULLY, RESPECTFULLY, and in a DIGNIFIED MANNER, I personally believe we are going to get nuked. I say, this war in Ukraine must be halted NOW. Right now. Before it goes any farther.

If we fail to step-up and make known that this war must stop, then I believe we will be nuked. Soon.

Moving to Uruguay |ONE OF THE BEST LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES!|

Russian Bombers Airborne; Explosions Now in Odessa

World Hal Turner 21 May 2023

Russian strategic aviation voice and morse net on frequencies 4397 USB and 5620 CW, indicate Russian Bomber Activity 3:30 PM EDT —

3 Tu-22 bombers airborne, possibly strikes in the coming hours.

3:51 PM EDT — More: 3 Russian Tu-95Ms strategic bombers have taken off.

Unidentified Object noted Airborne over the Odesa Region of Southern Ukraine; Air Defenses are reportedly Active.

Multiple Large Explosions heard across the City of Odessa; reports of a possible ongoing Shahed-136 Drone Attack.

3:54 PM EDT — It appears Russia has switched to radio silence mode. A massive rocket strike expected in Ukraine tonight.

4:04 PM EDT — Explosions reported in Zaporozhye region and Odessa

Tu-95MS are moving to the area of the Caspian Sea, to the missile launch site.

Inaccurate intel struck-thru

4:30 PM EDT — There is information circulating on the Internet that the Ukrainian military has just shot down a Russian Su-35S fighter over the Black Sea

4:40 PM — Ukrainian Sources are reporting that the Russian Pilot of the Su-35 was Killed in the Crash.

4:45 PM EDT — Explosions in the Dnepropetrovsk region In eastern Ukraine, an air raid continues, related to the work of Russian UAVs.

5:00 PM EDT — Officials of the Kherson Defense Forces confirmed the downing of a Su-35 of the Russian Air Forces over the Black Sea.

— Sirens in Kyiv, Gerans are headed its way.

— Mass MISSILE arrivals at Zatoka and Sergeevka to the coastal facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (there are camps for recruits and trainees)

— At least 7 Tu-22M3 Strategic Bombers and 4 Russian Naval Ships are reported to be currently approaching their “Launch Zones” over the Black Sea; these Aircraft and Ship are Armed with roughly 50 3M54-1 Kalibr Cruise Missiles.

— It is reported that at least 7 hits were made at AFU facilities in Odessa Region. There are also reports that a missile strike destroyed the bridge in Zatoka, through which the AFU was delivering reserves, fuel and equipment from Romania to Kherson and Nikolaev.

Ukraine confirms two Kalibr cruise missiles hits at Odessa port… western equipment hit in Odessa region

FROM RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE:

A Ukrainian S-300 surface-to-air missile system has been obliterated near Zheltoye (Donetsk People’s Republic).

The command post of the 102nd Territorial Defence Brigade has been hit near Poltavka (Zaporozhye region).

Air defence forces have intercepted fifteen HIMARS, Uragan MLRS projectiles, and Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles during the day.

In addition, nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were obliterated in the areas of Lozovoye, Terny, Vodyanoye, Novoandreyevka (Donetsk People’s Republic), Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk People’s Republic), and Energodar (Zaporozhye region).

6:03 PM EDT — At least 7 Tu-95MS Strategic Bombers are noted to have taken-off from Engels Air Force Base in the Saratov Region of Russia heading towards their “Launch Zones” over the Caspian Sea; a Missile Attack against Ukraine appears to be Imminent once again.

CRIMEA HIT?

A Bright Light and Explosion were seen in the City of Sevastopol in Crimea, after which electricity went out:

6 things I WISH i knew BEFORE moving to VIETNAM…

This Guy Makes 3D Printed Helmets For His Cat

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Thanks to 3D printers going mainstream, more and more awesome things are popping up around the internet. We already featured T-Rex arms for chickens, now it’s time to meet Rémy Vicarini who likes to make tiny helmets for his cat.

More: Instagram h/t: sadanduseless

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MAJOR NEWS!!! TOP UKRAINE GENERAL “IN HOSPITAL”, Tactical NUKES ON F-16s? BELARUS Border Alert WW3

The damage isn’t just a general but key support staff. This was a decisive hit

Why has Europeans stopped traveling to the USA?

Okay, I’m not European, but I think I may offer a tiny perspective as someone who spent most of last summer travelling all over Europe and who spent time in many, many European cities I’ve never been to.

I feel I really got into the lifestyle in Europe.

Sitting outside to eat on summer nights.

Walking and taking transit everywhere.

Seeing people outside everywhere just partaking in the city.

Enjoying the historic charm that is in abundance, feeling safe everywhere at all hours (Maybe with the exception of Marseilles and parts of London), etc.

I feel like the US in comparison is just… underwhelming.

I lived in Nashville for over a year and most of my life have lived in Los Angeles. I want to move to a new city but really don’t like any city in the US enough to be excited about going there. And it seems the only places in America that might give you a slice of that European lifestyle are prohibitively expensive, like San Francisco or NYC.

I feel like most American cities are bland, built around cars, have terrible transit, and are unsafe.

A few years ago I was walking through downtown Atlanta on a weekend in the afternoon, and was stunned that there were no people walking other than me. It was like the entire city had been essentially abandoned.

main qimg 50e4bac2c51757a88efd2f738c87a6e3

I could not imagine the center of an European city being completely empty of pedestrians. There is more vibrancy in an European city of 200,000 than in an American city of two million.

After the architectural splendor of Prague and Edinburgh, the Mediterranean charm of old town Nice, eating in the medieval alleyways of Croatia, I come back to America and feel kind of depressed at the same old landscape of strip malls, drive-thru Starbucks, urban blight, sprawling suburbs with cookie cutter houses and no sidewalks or pedestrians in sight.

Maybe one little historic “old town” street downtown that you have to drive into and that’s full of souvenir shops and chain restaurants.

I guess I’m just ranting and experiencing post-vacation blues, but I’m missing the European lifestyle so much it hurts and I’m having difficulty adjusting to America.

I liked just about every European city I visited. There are very few American cities I’d bother visiting unless I had a specific reason to go there.

On the plus side, the variety of natural scenery in the US, particularly the western US rivals anything in Europe and maybe surpasses it. And increasingly I’d rather rent a cabin in some place like the Smoky Mountains or Sierras in California than visit the bland American cities.

Russia and China

main qimg 75e23fca6297302b19348607a736e515 lq

Last thing both of them Care about now is the Dollar as Reserve Currency

The Two Nations now know they are on the Gunsights of the West and they also know luckily they were ignored for a bit too long a time and have become stronger than the West conceived possible while the West has been weakened

In 2008 – this wouldnt even have been a contest

Many things on Russia – China Agenda including:-

Technology Cooperation
Military Alliance – Russia and China need a Military Alliance especially a Nuclear Alliance
Economic Alliance – BRICS to be strengthened with Argentina being added
Resource Stability and Supply – China to ensure sufficient OIl and Gas and Coal from Russia
Yuan Transactions – Yuan to replace USD and Euro by 2035 as per Nabullianas Calculations as Russias Major Reserve Currency
Payment System – Global Payment System that can Rival SWIFT
Consumer Goods – To Replace Western Chains

Why is China hiding the real state of their economy?

You know you can go to China, right?

main qimg 35c4da2d3befadbe4d5fa54c50b54a5e

“NO! SLEEP! TIL 葫芦岛市!!!”

I went back in 2007 and it was a great trip. Really opened my eyes to some of the BS you hear in the states. My hotel was reasonably priced, brand new, and in the same block as the Beijing Lamborghini and Ferrari Dealership.

You can go there right now.

What is a bot?

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For example, we don't want bots running about trying to book airline tickets. They tend to try to cram large suitcases in the overhead bin, and they prattle on about celebrities they know while you are trying to watch the movie. 

But I am not a bot! I'm human! 

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You can rent a car, drive around, talk to folks. no problem.

The point is, it would be really, really damn hard for them to lie about their economy. You would see it in the streets.

20 Best reasons NOT to retire to Vietnam! Don’t live in Vietnam.

Chili Queen Chili

This is, according to the legend, one of San Antonio chili queen’s original recipes.

Ingredients

2 pounds beef, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 pound pork, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup suet
1/4 cup pork fat
3 medium onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 quart water
4 ancho chiles, seeds and stems removed, chopped fine
1 serrano chile, seeds and stems removed, chopped fine
6 dried red New Mexican chiles, seeds and stems removed, chopped fine
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, freshly ground
2 tablespoons Mexican oregano
Salt, to taste

Instructions

Lightly flour the beef and pork cubes. Quickly cook in the suet and pork fat, stirring often.
Add onions and garlic and sauté until they are tender and limp.
Remove all pieces of fat.
Add the water to the mixture and simmer for 1 hour.
Grind the chiles in a blender or molcajete. Add to the meat mixture.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer for an additional 2 hours.
Skim off any fat that rises, then serve.

From Citizens to Serfs: How the Middle Class is Eroding in America

https://youtu.be/Ya0bG4_xRQg

Pepe Escobar

May 20, 2023

With G7 “leadership” mired in a sticky swamp of intellectual shallowness, predictably the only agenda in colonized Japan was more sanctions on Russia.

Let’s start with a graphic depiction of where the Global North and the Global South really stand.

1. Xian, former imperial capital, and key hub of the Ancient Silk Roads: Xi Jinping hosts the China-Central Asia summit, attended by all Heartland “stans” (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgzystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan).

The final statement stresses economic cooperation and “a resolute stand” against Hegemon-concocted color revolutions.

That expands what the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are already implementing. In practice, the summit seals that the Russia-China strategic partnership will be protecting the Heartland.

2. Kazan: the Russia-Islamic World forum unites not only religious leaders but top businessmen of no less than 85 nations. Multipolar Russia proceeded in parallel to the Arab League Summit in Jeddah, which welcomed back Syria to the “Arab family”. Arab nations unanimously pledged to end “foreign interference” for good.

3. Hiroshima: the ever-shrinking G7, actually G9 (adding two unelected EU bureaucrats), imposes a single agenda of more sanctions on Russia; more weapons to black void Ukraine; and more lecturing of China.

4. Lisbon: the annual Bilderberg meeting – a NATO/Atlanticist fest – takes place in a not so secret hotel completely locked down. Top item in the agenda; war – hybrid and otherwise – on the “RICs” in BRICS (Russia, India, China).

I could have been in Xian, or most likely Kazan. Instead, honoring a previous commitment, I was in Ibiza, and then scraped the idea of flying to Lisbon as a waste of time.

Allow me to share with you the reason why: call it a little tale from the Baleares, breaking the trademark pledge that what happens in swinging, sweaty deep house Ibiza stays in Ibiza.

I was a guest at a top business gathering – mostly Spanish but also featuring Portuguese, Germans, Brits and Scandinavians: ultra high-level executives – in real estate, asset management, investment banking.

Our panel was titled “Global Geopolitical Shifts and Their Consequences”. Before the panel, participants were invited to vote on what worried them most when it comes to the future of their business. Number one was inflation and interest rates. Number two was geopolitics. That prefigured a very lively debate ahead.

When a EU hagiographer goes berserk

Little did I – and the audience – know that would turn into a wild ride.

The first presentation came from the director of a “Center for European Politics” in Copenhagen. She bills herself as a political science professor, and is an adviser to EU Chief Gardener Borrell.

Well, I adopted a Cheshire cat stance after the tsunami of clichés spewed out about “European values” and evil Russkies, as well as her being “frightened” by the future of Europe.

At least immediate relief was provided by the impeccably diplomatic Lanxin Xiang, an adorable character, always with a cheerful smile on his face, and one of the very few leading experts on China who actually knows what he’s talking about, in fluent English.

Lanxin Xiang, among other accomplishments, is Emeritus Professor of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva; director of the Institute of Security Policy at the China National Institute for SCO International Exchange; and executive director of the Washington Foundation for European Studies.

This is a column I wrote about him and his work, published in October 2020.

Professor Xiang offered a masterly exposition on the American obsession to fabricate a “Taiwan problem” and how Europe, already squeezed by the U.S. proxy war against Russia, must be very careful when it comes to lecturing China.

When it was my turn, I went for the kill, dismissing all those EU press release platitudes as absolute nonsense, and stressing how Europe is already being eaten alive by the proverbial “American interests”.

As briefly as possible I explained the whole geopolitical background of the war in Ukraine.

Well, this was all delivered to top business people who consume The Economist, Financial Times and Bloomberg as their prime sources of information.

Their reaction would speak volumes.

Predictably, the EU-paid bureaucrat completely freaked out, and shrieking with outrage, went full pre-ordained script, from threatening to abandon the stage to accusing me of being “paid by the Kremlin”.

I asked her, point blank, to “contradict me, with facts”.

No facts were provided.

Just fear and bewilderment, mixed with intimations of cancel culture.

To his great merit the vastly experienced moderator, Struan Robertson from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, kept things civil, giving more time for Lanxin Xiang to explain the Chinese mindset and opening the floor for a sequence of very good questions.

In the end, the audience loved it.

Many came to personally thank me for information they will never have access to in El Pais, Le Monde or The Economist.

A minority in the room was simply stunned – but our debate at least must have left them musing over a lot of preconceived notions.

It’s the total merit of the key organizers, Jose Maria Pons and head of the program Cristina Garcia-Peri, to host such a debate in fabulous Ibiza, in Spain, prime NATOstan territory.

In the current situation, this would be absolutely impossible in France or Germany, not to mention Scandinavia or those demented Baltics.

There’s no way to counter-act the fabricated narratives parroted by EU-paid hacks and bureaucrats except for ridiculing them – in their faces.

They become livid and barely manage to stutter when their lies are exposed.

For instance, one of the questions from the floor, by a top of the line German businessman, enumerated a litany of dark facts about Ukrainian “democracy” that are absolutely verbotten by EUrocracy.

The G-Less Than Zero freaks out

What happened in Ibiza dovetails with what happened in U.S.-nuclear bombed Hiroshima – Hegemons don’t do apologies – and in that locked down Lisbon hotel.

With the G7 “leadership” mired in a sticky swamp of intellectual shallowness, predictably the only agenda in colonized Japan was more sanctions on Russia – imposed over third countries and on companies in the energy and military-industrial sectors; more weapons to the Ukrainian black void; and a ridiculous counter-productive new obsession of piling up on China “containment” for alleged “economic coercion.”

In the photo ops, by the way, it’s not a shrinking G7 that shows up: but a warmongering G9, artificially augmented by that pathetic couple of unelected EUrocrats, Charles Michel and Pustula von der Lugen.

As far as the real Global Majority – or Global South – is concerned, this looks more like a G-Less Than Zero. The more the senseless, illegal Sanctions Wars are “expanded”, the more the absolute majority of the Global South moves away from the collective West, diplomatically, geopolitically and geoeconomically.

And that’s why the top Bilderberg agenda at the hijacked Lisbon hotel was to revamp NATO/Atlanticist coordination in a war – hybrid and otherwise – against the driving force in BRICS; the RICs (Russia, India, China).

There were other items on the menu – from AI to the acute banking crisis, from “energy transition” to “fiscal challenges”, not to mention proverbial “U.S. leadership”.

But when you get in the same room people like NATO’s Stoltenberg; director of U.S. intel Avril Haines; senior director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council Thomas Wright; Goldman Sachs president John Waldron; Chief Gardener Borrell (whose minion was in Ibiza); vice chair of Brookfield Asset Management, Mark Carney (one of their executives also in Ibiza); Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Christopher Cavoli; and Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, among other Atlanticist shills, the plot is self-evident:

It’s a war against the multipolar world.

At least we can dance it away in Ibiza.

US Comes To Africa To Steal Natural Resources & Finish Off The Continent

What are some useful features that are not found in American homes but common in other countries?

Another one that every Finnish house has but at least judging by sitcoms US houses don’t: draught lobby.

No matter how small the house, there’s a draught lobby in Finnish houses.

It helps keep the warm air inside the house and cold outside.

In many houses (including ours) it is very small but it does its job working like an air lock of kinds (open first door, enter, close, open second door).

This is a typical draught lobby:

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5-Year-Old Says He Is a WOMAN Reborn As a Boy – The Ghost Inside My Child (S1 Flashback) | LMN

What do top Chinese generals think about possible US invasion? Do they think “boys, we’ll be cooked in a second!” or “boys, we’ll own every inch of their a Ass!”?

Chinese generals are a very SERIOUS sort.

In general, they will always look at the worst case scenarios. All of them. They will envision themselves losing, and all the terror, and horrors that will result from them. They will plan, and then plan, and then plan some more.

What we, as casual spectators, can see is that the United States is planning to attack China. This is obvious.

The excuse will be “Chinese invasion of Taiwan”, whether it happens or not.
Funding for this effort is well in progress.
Local supply depots and nation alignment is almost complete.
The United States in in process to turn Taiwan into a Pacific “Ukraine”.

If we can see this, so can the Chinese generals.

The Chinese leadership have two primary roles for it’s military.

Defensive in a tactical sense.
Offensive in a strategic sense.

As long as the United States does not cross any Chinese “red lines”, the Strategic offensive deterrent is working. But the “red lines” have been crossed, and once “red lines” are crossed, then that deterrence has failed.

And now, we know what the Chinese generals think.

…

You can be assured that the Chinese generals will eviscerate all invasion forces to China. (And yes. Taiwan is a province of China.) The tactical situation strongly favors China.

The real issue is the strategic nature of war.

…

China cannot engage in a war that has no outcomes.

A tactical war alone, is simply defensive only.

To end a war; any war, strategic forces and systems MUST be applied.

…

China has only ONE kind of strategic military system. (It is not like the United States with multiple strategic systems MAC, SAC, etc.)

China has invested and developed but only one strategic system…

Nuclear weapons mounted on hypersonic ICBM glide vehicles.

Let that sink in.

If a war occurs between the USA and China, then it must not, and can not, be tactical alone.

It must have a strategic component.

And no matter what pronouncements about never using nuclear weapons are, and treaties signed. The fact is that for China to survive a war with the US, it MUST use strategic weapons systems.

This means that strategic forces will plummet the mainland United States. Though there is some debate on where Chinese “clean” enhanced radiation nukes will be used, it should be well understood that a war with China will intimately affect the lives and quality of life of Americans.

To fight China is to fight to the death.

…

Chinese generals know this.

Why High Paid Americans Are Actually BROKE!

Zombie Apocalypse is REAL

Many inner cities across the country have now been turned into wastelands:

Having worked, lived and travelled extensively across the world, I have never seen anything remotely closed to what is happening in the United States.

What is worst is that people who populate these places are essentially Zombies

It does not only affect poor blacks but also some of the richest and most powerful families. This included Hunter Biden, son of the current American President.

The United States could afford a military budget of over $800b and over 800 overseas bases which it uses to rain death and destruction on others but it cannot look after the welfare needs of its people.

Really SAD!!!!

China Just Found a MASSIVE Loophole to Survive US Sanctions!

Midwestern Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches

Midwestern Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches are extremely popular in Illinois and through the Midwest.

Yield: 4 sandwiches

Ingredients

1 pound boneless pork loin (or boneless pork chops)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 large sandwich buns

Instructions

Cut 4 (1 inch) slices of pork. Trim any exterior fat from edges and butterfly each slice by cutting horizontally through the middle almost to the edge so that the halves are connected by only a thick piece of meat. Put each butterflied slice between pieces of plastic wrap. Using a wooden meat mallet, or the side of a cleaver, pound vigorously until the slice is about 10 inches across.
Mix together flour, cornmeal, salt and black pepper.
Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a deep, wide skillet to 365 degrees F. Dip each slice of pork in water, then in flour mixture. Fry tenderloin, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Drain on paper towels and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve on buns with desired condiments (mustard, mayonnaise, dill pickle chips, ketchup, sliced onion, lettuce).

The Ghost Inside My Child: 5-Year-Old Claims to Have DIED on the Titanic

Why Chinese Democracy is Better than Western Democracy According to Tsinghua Prof. Yan Yilong

"Let the light of Chinese democracy shine even brighter, so that China can ... contribute to the building of a better, higher quality [form of] democracy for humanity in the 21st century."

Thomas des Garets Geddes

and Daniel Crain

May 25, 2023

Dear Everyone,

Democracy is yet another field in which Beijing is competing with Washington and, more generally, with the West. China’s aim may not be to convince others to adopt its political system per se, but it certainly appears intent on demonstrating that Chinese “democracy” is superior to what the West has to offer.

This was once again evident at an event organised by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in March, just days before U.S. President Joe Biden co-hosted his second virtual “Summit for Democracy” alongside the governments of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea and Zambia. The Beijing-based event, entitled “The Second International Forum on Democracy: Shared Human Values”, was attended by Li Shulei (李书磊), a politburo member and the current head of China’s Central Propaganda Department, and featured keynote speeches by a number of Chinese and foreign politicians and academics. Tsinghua University’s Yan Yilong (鄢一龙 ) was one of those taking part in this forum. His address is the focus of today’s post.

A big thank you to Daniel Crain for his parsing and translation of Yan’s speech.

SUMMARY

Although the West will not admit it, China’s “whole-process people’s democracy” is not only true democracy at play, but is also a more functional type of democracy than that practised in Western countries.
Chinese democracy outclasses Western democratic electoral systems because of the complex processes it has developed which have allowed it “to move closer towards ‘the people being the masters of their own house’.” Unlike in China, procedural rather than substantive democracy best defines what is now practised in the West.
Chinese democracy recognises the existence of “the people” in its holistic sense. Only by doing so can one ensure the people’s “overall, long-term and fundamental interests”.
Chinese democracy belongs to the majority, not to a minority as in the West. Unlike in America, China is not “owned by the 1%, governed by the 1% and for the benefit of the 1%”. Low voter turnout in election-based political systems is another reason why, unlike in China, electoral democracies are not able to represent the people as a whole.
Western elections have become a “talent show”, where people vote for the best performer rather than for those who are best suited to govern.
The general population does not have the specialist knowledge nor the long-term perspective required to elect competent representatives who have their nation’s best interests at heart.
Chinese leaders are “tested through practice, not through votes”. Democracy in China thus ensures that “political amateurs with no experience or qualifications” cannot become its leaders.
Unlike in the West, China’s political system allows democracy to be practised “at both the input and output levels.” It is a system in which people are able to “participate fully” and one in which officials serve the people and actually get things done.
Western democracy encourages competition, confrontation and the fragmentation of interests, which leads to constant political bickering and deadlocks. Chinese democracy, in contrast, is a “consensus-finding process” that ensures that policymaking is always moving forwards with the country’s core objectives firmly in sight.
Yan concludes: “Let the flower of democracy in China bloom even more colourfully, let the light of Chinese democracy shine even brighter, so that China can help mankind transcend its narrow, superficial and inferior view of democracy and contribute to the building of a better, higher quality [form of] democracy for humanity in the 21st century.”

CHINA AND THE WEST HAVE PROVIDED DIFFERENT ANSWERS TO THESE SIX QUESTIONS ON ‘DEMOCRACY’
Yan Yilong (鄢一龙 )
March 2023

“Democracy is the common pursuit of all humanity. As such, [it holds] a rightful significance in modern politics. Modern democracy does not adhere to a single standard. It is not a single unique flower. It takes multiple forms, [like] a hundred blooming flowers competing for attention [百花争艳]. The West has representative democracies centred on competitive elections, while China has a whole-process people’s democracy. These two types of democracy provide different answers to the [following] six questions on democracy.”

What is Democracy?

“The first question is: what is democracy? [Should we emphasise] its outward appearance [表相] or its substance [本体]? Aristotle once said that when one is trapped in a problem, it is as if one were bound by a rope and unable to move. In fact, a person trapped in narrow ideas can similarly be as unable to move as if they had been tied up with a rope. On the question of how to view democracy, what constrains the perception of many people in the world today is the view that representative democracy, centred on competitive elections, is the only form [表相] and only standard of modern democracy, when in fact it is but one of democracy’s [many possible] appearances [表相].”

“To understand what democracy is, we can use a concept from traditional Chinese philosophy —‘tixiangyong’ [体相用]: substance [本体], appearance [表相] and function [用途] [Note: Yan is referring to an idea found in the Confucian Analects and in Buddhist thought]. For example, the substance [本体] of a car implies that it must be a means of transport with a propulsion unit, a directional unit etc. At the same time, it comes in various shapes and sizes [表相], with different brand names and engine sizes. Its function [用途] is that it can carry people or goods, etc.”

“‘Tixiangyong [体相用]’ also applies to democracy. In terms of the substance [本体] of democracy, we have to go back to the original meaning of democracy, which is that the people are the masters of their own house [人民当家作主]. In other words, power should be in the hands of the people and, at the same time, should serve the people. The appearance [表相] of democracy refers to its various manifestations: democracy by lottery [i.e. sortition], democracy by election, democracy by consultation, direct democracy, indirect democracy and so on. In terms of its function [用途], democracy can be applied in different ways and is implemented by countries in order to improve the way they are governed.”

“Modern Western-style democracy is just one of the appearances [表相] that democracy can take on. Judging by democracy’s historical development, it [i.e. Western-style democracy] has departed far from its original meaning [本意] and substance [本体]. The Western concept of democracy has degenerated from ‘direct democracy [直接民主]’, to substantive democracy [实质民主], and finally to procedural democracy [程序民主]. Meanwhile, since the 1980s, there has been what the recently deceased Taiwanese political scientist Chu Yunhan labelled the problem of democratic deterioration [民主劣质化问题]. To see this narrow, superficial and inferior form of democracy as a beacon of democracy [民主灯塔] is like viewing a rattling old car [老爷车] that is in disrepair as the benchmark for the modern car, while regarding all other makes and models as not [even real] cars.”

“China’s ‘whole-process people’s democracy’ [全过程人民民主] has two qualifiers. The first one is ‘people’, which refers to the substance [本体] of democracy. ‘People’s democracy’ appears to be a tautology [同意反复]. In [the word] democracy, [the root demos] already signifies the people’ [人民], so why do we add the word ‘people’s’ [to people’s democracy] as a qualifier? It is precisely this qualifier that establishes the ontological [本体属性] nature of democracy: [it is something] which belongs to the people, to the majority, not to the minority. We [in China] guarantee this in our state system [国体], in our political system, and in the mechanisms we use to run our democracy [民主运行机制].”

“The second qualifier is ‘whole-process.’ Whole-process is defined based on the levels of appearance [相] and function [用]. Whole-process people’s democracy is a kind of complete chain consisting of multiple channels [多渠道], multiple levels [多层] and multiple settings [多场景]. Democratic [features] are implemented throughout this complete chain — from selecting and employing people, to decision-making, to management, to supervision. ‘Multi-channel’ refers to the Party’s mass line [群众路线], representation in the National People’s Congress [NPC], democratic decision-making in government, democratic management, consultation via the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference [CPPCC] and various other channels. ‘Multi-level’ refers to the central government level, local government level, grassroots democracy [基层民主], and so on. [Democracy] also comes in different forms [形式], elections being just one of these. Consultation, deliberation and selection [of talents] are all forms of democracy. ‘Multi-setting’ means applying [democracy] to different settings. There are major settings such as national-level governance and decision-making. There are also smaller-scale settings such as community governance, mediation of civil disputes and rural poverty alleviation [乡村扶贫].”

“Why does whole-process people’s democracy [全过程人民民主] seem so much more complex than competitive elections? This is because all [democratic] methods, forms and channels have their own limitations. [Employing] so many forms and methods maximises [our ability] to move closer towards ‘the people being the masters of their own house [人民当家作主]’ – the substance [本体] [of democracy].”

Who Does Democracy Belong to?

“The second question is: who does democracy belong to? Is it democracy for the majority or for the minority? Since Athens, the Western view of democracy has been that democracy does not belong to the majority. According to estimates, [Athenian] citizens [i.e. those who could vote], were probably only about one tenth of the total population. Women, foreigners and slaves were not considered citizens. In modern times, the push for universal suffrage in the West has been a long process. Although most countries today have achieved universal suffrage, this does not mean that democracy belongs to the majority: the people are essentially nothing more than voters. As [Giovanni] Sartori argues, from the perspective of modern Western democracy, the people are just specific individuals [who form] a majority [either] according to the principle of an absolute majority [绝大多数原则] or according to the principle of a limited majority [有限多数原则].”

“At the same time, one of the manifestations of Western democracy’s deterioration is declining voter turnout. Voter participation has been declining in presidential, parliamentary, and other types of elections. Statistics show that in 77 countries where a majority system was being used in the 1990s, voter turnout was only 60.4%. According to the simple majority-rule principle, a candidate can [therefore] be elected with just over 30% of the vote. This means that being elected does not equate to actually representing the [the will of] majority.”

“More importantly, although the people have the right to universal suffrage, voters are not familiar with the politicians themselves, but only with their personas as packaged by the media. [Furthermore,] voters have very little systematic understanding of specialist public policies, as they are more concerned with their [own] short-term interests. Such factors make it difficult for voters to make rational decisions. Since the general public has little say in public policy, the groups benefiting most from it remain a minority. That is why Joseph Stiglitz stated that America today is no longer owned by the people, governed by the people and for the benefit of the people. It is owned [he says] by the 1%, governed by the 1% and for the benefit of the 1%.”

“‘Whole-process people’s democracy’ [全过程人民民主] is a democracy that belongs to all the people. At the same time, the [word] ‘people [人民]’ contains several important meanings:”

“First, [the concept of ‘the people’ points to] the individual. When we talk about the development of people’s livelihoods, solving people’s urgent needs and worries and guaranteeing people’s right to vote, we are referring to ‘the people’ in the sense of individuals.”

“Second, [the concept of ‘the people’ points to] the vast majority of people [绝大多数人]. When we talk about this concept, we are always referring to this vast majority and we always have to be on the side of this majority. As the concept of ‘the people,’ has evolved, this category has come to include almost everyone. In legal interpretations, only counter-revolutionaries [反革命] and criminal offenders have been excluded from this category.”

“Third, [the concept of ‘the people’ points to] the people as a whole [整体意义]. Western-style democracy does not recognise ‘the people’ in a holistic sense. However, it is only when we recognise the existence of the people as a whole that we can ensure their overall, long-term and fundamental interests. High-speed rail is one such example. China and the United States had the dream of high-speed rail at about the same time. In 2011, President Obama ambitiously proposed that its coverage should reach 80% of the population. Today, the US only has a few hundred kilometres of high-speed rail, while China has built 42,000 kilometres. This is a case where the interests of the people as a whole [人民整体] are reflected effectively. If [China] were like the US [and had to deal with the] fragmented interests of different political parties, different states, different businesses, different interest groups and different individuals, thereby disregarding the interests [of the people] as a whole, it would be very difficult to be effective in the development of public infrastructure [projects] that have highly [positive] externalities and [thus] reflect the interests of all.”

“Fourth, [the concept of ‘the people’ points to] the middle and lower classes. This is related to the Communist Party of China’s primary purpose, whose core members [基本群众] are the working and peasant classes. [As such, the CPC’s] policies are tilted towards taking care of the lower and middle classes. We have just accomplished an impressive feat in the history of human poverty reduction by lifting nearly 100 million rural people out of poverty within a decade, [thereby] achieving an overall eradication of poverty among our rural population. Our next step is to continue to promote unremittingly common prosperity [共同富裕].”

Choosing Competent Leaders

“The third question is whether democracy chooses talents who are good at governing [治国人才] or talents who are good at putting on a show [作秀人才]? Western-style democracy, in which the leader of a country is elected primarily through competitive elections, poses the problem that certain businessmen, actors and other political amateurs with no experience or qualifications can become president. This is inconsistent with the basic logic of modern-day professional development. Almost all modern professions require a step-by-step process of advancement based on qualifications, competence, and performance. And yet, [Western-style democracy] assumes that a job of the utmost importance like the presidency can be achieved in one single step [一步登天] without climbing up the career ladder.”

“Another hypothesis, of course, is that the best people can be selected through the election process. However, the problem remains that those who are good at running for office may not be good at governing the country. There is a saying in the United States that politicians ‘campaign in poetry, but they govern in prose’. However, these two [skills] are not compatible. In these times where attention is king, one of the manifestations of democracy’s deterioration is that elections have become [like] a talent show; electoral competence has become the ability to perform in such a show [选举能力变成选秀能力]. Being good at raising money, setting issues, putting on a show, stirring up emotions and attracting attention is not the same as being good at governing a country.”

“Another indicator of democracy’s deterioration is the continued prevalence of party spoils [政党分赃] and rewards in politics [酬庸政治]. In the past, the US’s competitive electoral system had a party spoils system [政党分赃制]. Although this problem was subsequently addressed through various reforms of its civil service, in reality a [successful] election today still creates such spoils [战利品] that the winner then has the right to distribute. The US President has the authority to appoint around 7,000 government officials, of which only around 500 require the Senate’s approval. Overall, the appointment process is quite arbitrary. One can reward one’s friends, relatives or those who helped out during the election process. Trump frequently alerted officials on Twitter that they were fired. But, in fact, other presidents have also done the same thing. It is just that Trump brought this [practice] into the open.”

“‘The prime minister must first be a provincial official and renowned generals must rise up the ranks [宰相必起于州部，猛将必发于卒伍]’ [Note: Yan is quoting, Han Feizi, the 3rd century BC Warring States Period Legalist. The quote has been used on a number of occasions by Xi Jinping]. Officials in China’s ‘whole-process people’s democracy’ are mainly chosen through competitive selection [竞争性选拔]. In our country, many of our provinces have populations in the tens of millions or hundreds of millions, equivalent in size to the population of the world’s biggest countries. Ruling a province is thus equivalent to ruling a country. Before [being able] to join the Politburo Standing Committee, one has to familiarise oneself with local conditions first, followed by [China’s] national conditions. President Xi Jinping governed a village for 6 years, a county for 3 years, three cities for 11 years and three provinces for another 11 years. He was also trained in the party system, the administrative system, the National People’s Congress system and the military system, then moved on to the central government where he gained [an extra] five years of experience before finally becoming the country’s top leader.”

“[China’s] competitive selection system ensures that government officials have a wealth of practical experience. More importantly, [they] are tested through practice, not through votes. [They must go through] multiple layers of practice, testing, and selection before [they can] become leaders of our country. China’s competitive selection system is a way of picking a team of capable and professional national administrators.”

Combining the Input with the Output

“The fourth question is: is democracy a one-way or two-way street? Political democracy is essentially a discussion on the relationship between the people and their government. Democracy should be reflected both in the inputs of public opinion and in the outputs of government, which is at the service of the people. Western democracy, whether Athenian, classical or modern procedural democracy, emphasises the input side of democracy. [This is where] democracy allows the people to draw lots (i.e. sortition), vote and participate. Whether or not the government actually does things for the common people is outside the scope of [Western] democratic theory. This is due to [its emphasis on] the polity in its line of thought. Otherwise, it would not be able to distinguish democracy adequately from monarchy or aristocracy. In terms of democratic practice, this one-sided way of thinking about democracy can lead to an enormous error in our search for democracy. It allows for the election of a government that may completely deviate from the will of the people or simply that does not do anything substantial for them.”

“Chinese style democracy is a [type of] democracy that combines the input side with the output side. A very important aspect of traditional Chinese political philosophy is its people-centredness, the idea that government policies must be for the benefit of the people. In effect, this means understanding democracy from the output side. Today, the Communist Party of China’s philosophy of democracy comes up from the masses and goes back out to the masses [从群众中来到群众中去]. It comes from the people [来自人民], depends on the people [依靠人民] and is for the people [为了人民]. It means practising democracy at both the input and output levels. While emphasising that the people participate fully, it also stresses that government officials take the initiative in serving the people and doing things for them. For example, during the process of [rural] poverty reduction, we have seen countless party cadres going to live with the people in their villages and working with them to find solutions to their real-life problems. This is democracy in its most realistic form.”

Procedural vs Substantive Democracy

“The fifth question is: is democracy procedural or substantive? The classical theorists of Western democracy once put forward the theory of substantive democracy [实质民主]. However, today Western democracy is what Schumpeter called ‘modern procedural democracy [现代程序民主]’, where politicians compete for popular consent to rule through a specific electoral process. But even if this process is perfectly legal, it may result in a situation that is substantively pointless or even at odds [with its original aim]. For example, one indicator of the poor quality of American democracy is that the people have almost no influence on policy and that competitive elections are little more than a psychological placebo [心理上的安慰剂]. Another indicator is the prevalence of short-term and superficial politics, where politicians focus on short-term issues and the democratic system fails to address long-term, fundamental problems, such as poor infrastructure, massive income and wealth inequality, growing levels of government debt, shootings, racial conflict and other problems that limit America’s long-term development.”

“Chinese democracy is precisely the unification of procedural and substantive democracy, with procedural democracy placed in service of substantive democracy. The form in which popular sovereignty is realised is not through an empty social contract [虚拟的社会契约] that transforms power from a divine mandate [神授] to the people’s will [人民授予], but through an intermediary that acts as a stand-in for the people — the Communist Party of China. The CPC has become the highest form of organisation of the Chinese people and the highest expression of their will. Self-rule by the people through the intermediary of a stand-in [i.e. the party] is based on a subject-object dialectic relationship [主客辩证关系] between the party and the people. The two are both subject and object of the other. First of all, the people are the masters of the house [主人翁], while the party is the instrument for realising the people’s will [人民意志的工具]. The party’s policies must [therefore] come from the people and reflect the will and ideas of the people.”

“Next, the Party is the highest form of political leadership in China. It is the backbone of the people, while the people are its followers. The dialectical relationship between the people and the Party is the essence of China’s people’s democracy. The realisation of popular sovereignty [in China] lies precisely in this constant and close interaction between the people and the Party. Chinese style democracy is a closed tripartite cycle of public opinion [民意], democracy [民主] and the people’s livelihood [民生]. It is similar to the process of making [Chinese] hot pot. Public opinion is like the various condiments thrown into the hot pot. The democratic process is the process of cooking the hot pot. And finally, since democracy must solve the problems associated with people’s livelihoods [民生问题], this hot pot must be brought out and served for everyone to enjoy. This is true democracy. Major policies in China, including [those from] the recently-concluded two sessions, comprise a large number of issues relating to people’s livelihoods. And when we go out to various places to conduct research and investigate, we see that every year the government has a list of practical matters relating to people’s livelihoods that needs to be dealt with.”

Stoking Divisions vs Consensus-building

“The sixth question is: does democracy seek to build consensus or stoke divisions? Western-style democracy was originally a mechanism to find a compromise [between divergent] interests and ideas. Competitive elections provided a mechanism for temporary compromise between different competing factions. At the same time, many coordination mechanisms were put in place, based on a system of the separation of powers and of checks and balances. However, one manifestation of the deterioration of [Western] democracy that we have observed in recent years has been the increasing difficulty for it to bridge such divides [弥合分裂]. The first indicator of this is the prevalence of veto politics, where decision-making processes are riddled with veto points and [politicians] veto simply for the sake of vetoing, engage in fruitless discussions, make decisions without implementing them, argue endlessly over a single policy issue, and often find themselves stuck in a political deadlock.”

“The second indicator of this is the polarisation of party ideologies. Previously, it was thought that the two-party system would converge towards the centre and would strive to win over median voters. But political developments in the US in recent years have shown that polarising ideological struggles and conflicts between the two parties are becoming increasingly pronounced.”

“The third indicator is the problem of policy flip-flopping [政策翻烧饼] when different political parties take power. As [George] Washington pointed out in his day, party politics is merely the temporary domination of one faction over another. It is a dictatorship taken in turns [轮流的专政]. Today, this problem is even more pronounced. Change in political parties [at the top] has resulted in policies constantly shifting back and forth between left and right. When George Bush Jr. pursued his ABC (anything but Clinton) policy, this meant doing anything but what Bill Clinton had been doing. After Trump [took office], he completely reversed Obama’s policies. Biden has [likewise] reversed most of Trump’s policies.”

“Chinese democratic politics is a consensus-finding process. Although China’s 1.4 billion people have diverse interests and ideas, [they are] unanimous about the general direction of pursuing national rejuvenation and people’s happiness. The relationship between the Communist Party of China and [China’s] democratic parties is not a competitive or confrontational one. Rather, it is a collaborative relationship, in which different actors take part and provide their opinions in the policy-making process, but do not act as veto players. The goal is not to restrain, but to make policies better. Through democratic discussions and consultations, different groups [seek to] find the greatest common divisor and sketch out concentric circles [同心圆]. A change of leadership is not about flip-flopping [翻烧饼], but about the passing of a relay baton [接力棒]. One after the other, successive governments continue to run forward and get things done. This has enabled us to persist in advancing the goal of socialist modernisation throughout our 100-year history.”

Conclusion

“‘A single flower does not make spring, while one hundred flowers in full bloom bring spring to the garden [一花独放不是春，百花齐放春满园].’ (Note: Xi Jinping has used this Ming Dynasty aphorism in several of his speeches.) In [humanity’s] search for democracy, different nations and ethnic groups will provide their own answers. They do not need to copy the so-called standard answer from the West. By comparing [democratic systems] with one another, [we] are certainly not trying to show that China’s whole-process people’s democracy is perfect. Chinese-style democracy still faces numerous challenges and has many shortcomings. However, we must start by strengthening our confidence in our system. As Marx said in his day, ‘Here is the rose, here dance!’. At the same time, we must continuously advance the construction of [our] whole-process people’s democracy. We must unceasingly raise our level of democracy and its quality. Let the flower of democracy in China bloom even more colourfully, let the light of Chinese democracy shine even brighter, so that China can help mankind transcend its narrow, superficial and inferior view of democracy and contribute to the building of a better, higher quality [form of] democracy for humanity in the 21st century.”

Biden’s historic geopolitical mistake

The US can easily print another $ 300T and then distribute each American $ 100k to spend so that the US GDP can increase by 50%. Why does the US keep taking about the fake US debt issues to fool the world?

Don’t bet against it. America will print and prints and print it will create money without basis and backed by only word of the mouth trust. US dollar is a fake and a fiat currency. The U.S. debt is a time bomb that cast a long shadow on the real America.

To me the US economy is a dud and it is one humongous Ponzi scheme. From 2012–2022 a mere decade the U.S. debt increased from 10 trillion to 31.4 trillion today. Bush, Clinton, Obama Trump and Biden has released close to 20 trillion dollars into their economy of basically Monopoly money. That is haunting them with high inflation now.

China shocked me in Chongqing!

When the bullshit is just too deep

In George Orwell's 1984, the totalitarian state would periodically rewrite the history books, making everything logical and correct. The old Soviet Union had a similar classical approach to propaganda. But modern western propaganda is more like avant-garde jazz: a whirlwind of noise and conflicting rubbish that drowns out all else. It's like using noise to jam a radar system. One can still find old books that are clearly written, there is no attempt to destroy the past, just bury it beneath a blizzard of garbage so that people don't even know it's there.

Posted by: TG | May 22 2023 15:37 utc | 17

China no longer talks with the US government. But it is in active and productive talks with United States industry and commerce folk.

There is obviously a serious disconnect in this matter, as it seems that the United States government does not represent the people, or the industry that it is supposed to.

China is recognizing that.

And dealing directly with the principals.

But if you live in the West, you will be oblivious to that fact, and the reaction to this reality is being of a hysterical nature.

Spewing forth of massive quantities of bullshit…

Everything in the West is bullshit.

It’s all lies. It’s all nonsense. It’s all so much garbage, that no one can possibly figure out what is real or a lie. Bills to restrict what you can say are named “freedom to speak law”, and taxes to pay for more wars is titled “end the war tax”.

The food in the United States is GMO laden trash, filled with chemicals. The history books, if they are even read are filled with manufactured nonsense. The United States did not go to the moon, nor is Fort Knox filled with gold bars. There is no such thing as freedom in the Untied States, and the idea that Americans are well represented by “representatives” is laughable.

It’s lies after lies, and the “house of cards” is falling.

Right.

Now.

China warns the USA

Hit the brakes NOW, or face war.

They Cannot Hide It Anymore: China Refuses All Communication with U.S. – THREE Weeks Now!

World Hal Turner 27 May 2023

Since the end of high level meetings between the U.S. and China which took place in Vienna around May 10, China has cut-off all communication with the United States.

Chinese officials refuse phone calls, meetings, and any dialogue with American representatives says one high ranking State Department official.

This has gone on since the meetings in Vienna around May 10, which means it has now been THREE WEEKS since the two governments spoke with each other. Heck of thing for the two largest trading partners on the planet.

So . . . Who was it from the US that went to Vienna, met with China and clearly did something that smashed relations? None other than, Jake Sullivan.

The US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and top diplomat from China, Wang Yi, had two days of intense meetings in Vienna.

OPINION

Now, I have long viewed Jake Sullivan as not only a pencil-neck geek, but, to be candid, I view the guy as having the intellect of a flea.

What he did is not yet known to me, but I expect to find out in short order. When I do, I will report it.

In the meantime, the American people should know that relations between the U.S. and China are having a very large problem, and Beijing has cut off all contact.

When the talking stops . . . . well . . . .

…you know what generally comes next.

China still has some very sharp, unused arrows in the cabinets in the basement:

Imagine what will happen when tomorrow, someone will post a movie clip on TikTok with a Big Mac with a nail or an insect into it. The whole of McDonalds empire will implode. The same could happen with KFC, Subway, PizzaHut, Starbucks, Apple, Microsoft, … 

They’re all making more than half of their turnover in China. That could all be done and over with, in a mere couple of days.

________________________

Frans Vandenbosch  方腾波

US anti-China sentiment impedes resumption of high-level exchanges

By Global Times Published: May 25, 2023 11:00 PM

As high-level communication between China and the US resumes, an anti-China vanguard groupuscule in the US House of Representatives is getting even more fidgety. By hyping some twice-told tales about the “big bad China,” they try to show their presence and sabotage the improvement of bilateral relations.

The US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party on Wednesday approved two reports regarding China’s Xinjiang and the island of Taiwan as its first set of policy recommendations, hoping some of its recommendations will become law this year.

Formed in January, the bipartisan committee and its members have constantly made provocative moves on China-related issues, trying to prove its value to the US Congress.

For instance, it has held several hearings in a fanfare way to attack China on various topics, such as TikTok, Taiwan, economic and trade, and human rights.

In April, the panel engaged in a table-top simulated war game exercise over a possible conflict in the Taiwan Straits. On the surface, it concluded that “nobody wins when deterrence breaks down,” as the committee leader, Mike Gallagher, put it. But, in fact, it was a disguised attempt to encourage the US to strengthen its military intervention in the Straits.

Later that month, members of the committee also traveled to California with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to meet with Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen, disregarding strong opposition from the Chinese side.

In some way, the panel works as a policy incubator for Congress. Its members aim to form some consensus in their small circle and then propose and promote it in other bigger and more important committees. It is like delivering bullets to other panels and the leaders of the House that strive to shoot at China all the time.

Besides, all the 24 representatives in this committee share one similarity: They hold an extremely negative and hawkish attitude toward China, making the group a veritable anti-China vanguard in Congress. Working as a small group means their anti-China endeavors can become more well-planned and well-organized. As important sources for the Congress’s possible agenda against China, these US lawmakers actually live off by bashing China and use China-related issues to gain more exposure in US public opinion and climb up the political career ladder further.

The contrast between the provocative House panel and the White House’s desire to ease the tension with China shows that some US lawmakers and government officials do not entirely agree with each other on China-related issues. At the congressional level, more emphasis was placed on the saber-rattling geopolitical competition with China with strong ideological hues.

Thus, it is no surprise that some Members of Congress are unwilling to see the stabilization of China-US ties. Their sensationalist political posturing reveals the sinister intentions to destroy China-US relations or to push the two countries into a new cold war.

Yet, even within the US government, it’s hard to find a common understanding of how to deal with China. The announcement of Rick Waters, the State Department’s top China policy official, stepping down and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman retiring underscore the divergences among officials in Washington over which path to take in relations with China.

Overall, it is rather challenging for US President Joe Biden to unify the administration’s opinion and approach to China. And even if he does, a Congress that advocates a tougher China policy will still hinder the implementation.

“The current situation also reflects the limitation of the Biden administration’s China policy; that is, pursuing dialogue and engagement with China while thinking about suppression and restriction is impossible. If Washington continues to adhere to these two contradictory mentalities, it will never achieve the result it wants, Zhang Tengjun, deputy director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times.

As extremism in US politics has long hijacked the country’s policy toward China, we should not expect Washington’s China strategy to return to a rational and normal track soon. And it is a shame that US diplomacy, all along, cannot get rid of the aggravated interference and intervention of the extreme China hawks.

Big Vessel

The Dalian shipyard delivered a 460,000-ton (displacement) ship. The ship is an oil&gas floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. It is the largest of its kind and one of the largest ships ever built.

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Sci-fi Movie in Reality: Beijing Subway Pilots Palm Scanning for ‘Empty-Handed’ Entry and Exit!

No need to swipe a card or scan a QR code. A Beijing subway line now allows passengers to enter and exit “empty-handed” by scanning the palms of their hands.

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A pilot program launched on Sunday to apply the new technology on the Daxing Airport Express, which links the Beijing Daxing International Airport, said the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport.

Passengers can show their palms to pass ticket gates at stops along the line after inputting their palm information at the station’s ticket machines and authorizing the use via WeChat, a popular messaging app in China. Fees are automatically deducted after exit.

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The ticket gates recognize the user’s palm print and veins without contact, said the commission. It can allow passengers to take subway trains if they do not have cash when their smartphones run out of battery.

The commission said data masking and encryption technologies have been applied to protect the user’s information.

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Half-Dead Senator Fully Propped Up By Democrats

Meanwhile back in the United States…

WTF! These are who is “running” the United States.

Describe Americans

Putin just ENTERED the most dangerous phase of the war

Two hours of what the fuck! The legislation originating out of the USA is frightening.

Media And Politicians Throw So Much Bullshit At Us That It Is Difficult To See Through It

Western media are feeding us bullshit. It is so strong that even western politicians, like the public, seem to believe in it. The reason is that it is increasingly difficult to detect the bullshit because there is just too much of it.

Gilbert Doctorow takes on the Western disinformation campaign especially with regards to the fall of Bakhmut:

[I]t is these censorious states and the mass media that carry their messages with stenographic precision into print and electronic dissemination who are the ones that day after day feed disinformation to the public. It is cynically composed and consists of a toxic blend of ‘spin,’ by which is meant misleading interpretation of events, and outright lies.The many months long battle for the provincial Donbas city of Bakhmut, or Artyomovsk as it is known in Russia, has been described variously from on high in Washington, London and Berlin. When the likely outcome was unclear, the defense of Bakhmut was called heroic and demonstrative of the brave fighting spirit of the Ukrainians.

Casualty figures issued by Kiev and then trumpeted from Washington suggested that the Russians were stupidly throwing away the lives of their fighting men by using WWI style human waves of attackers who were decimated by the defenders. Russian lives are cheap was the message. The fact that Russian artillery on site outnumbered and outperformed Ukrainian artillery by a factor of five or seven to one was freely admitted by the Western propagandists as they pleaded for increased supplies to Kiev. They, nonetheless, issued casualty reports for the Russians that inverted the force correlation. It was assumed, obviously with reason, that the public was too lazy or too uninterested to do the arithmetic.

I had earlier taken on the nonsensical casualty claims:

The Russian forces fire ten times the number of shells the Ukrainians can fire. In a modern war artillery fire causes 65+% of all casualties. It is thus impossible that Ukraine is losing less soldiers than the Russians.The total ratio may well be 7 to 1 but it will certainly be to the advantage of the Russian forces side.

The reporting on the alleged not-fall of Bakhmut in mainstream media is similar nonsensical:

The New York Times writes:

As Russia Claims Victory in Bakhmut, Ukraine Sees Opportunity Amid Ruins

Russia’s capture of Bakhmut would be a powerful symbolic success for Moscow. It would represent the first Ukrainian city it has seized since Lysychansk last summer, and be a setback for Kyiv, which expended precious ammunition and sent some of its most capable forces to try to thwart Russia’s devastating monthslong assault on the city. Thousands of troops from both sides are believed to have been killed in nearly a year of intense fighting there.

Bakhmut has fallen. Why then is the NYT writing in the subjunctive ‘would’? It does not make sense.

The Washington Post does likewise:

As hold on Bakhmut slips, Ukrainian forces push to encircle city

Ukrainian forces have been reduced to small footholds in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which despite its limited strategic importance has emerged as the war’s bloodiest battlefield. But they have made gains on the Russian flanks, in a move to encircle the city and extend the fight there, according to Ukrainian officials and military personnel in the field.
…
Ukraine still holds slivers of the city, including the area around what has become a landmark of Ukraine’s last redoubt: a destroyed sculpture of a Soviet MiG fighter jet, according to multiple military personnel involved in defending the position, which Russian forces continue to contest.

No. Ukraine does not hold ‘slivers of the city’. Videos published yesterday evidently prove that:

Ukraine Control Map @UAControlMap – 10:50 UTC · May 22, 202346/48 Wagner flag raise in south west Bakhmut near the destroyed MiG statue
Coordinates: 48.57570907, 37.96475216
Map view: Google

‘Encircling the city’ is likewise a dream.

Situation in Bakhmut on May 8

Situation in Bakhmut on May 22

The scale of the map is on the bottom right. From it we can tell that the Russian forces, under attack, have moved back some 1 or 2 kilometers from the difficult to defend fields towards better suited positions after Ukrainian forces wasted their lives to open a corridor for the troops fleeing from Bakhmut. That attack happened on May 11. On the following day the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Ukrainian side, during the last 24 hours, had lost 1,725 men, 9 tanks and 55 armored combat vehicles. That was so far the biggest reported daily loss in this war. The lines on the flanks of Bakhmut have since been stabilized.

So where please is the ‘encirclement’? The maps show no attempt of one.

Yves Smith points out that the disinformation allures have seemingly turned into the believes of those who issues them:

US Geopolitics: Believing Impossible Things

In corporate America, there’s a decent risk that fakery will get caught out by competitors, short sellers, whistleblowers, and just plain careful reading of audited financials.
…
By contrast, in politics, reality avoidance is routinely the key to a long and successful-looking career, witness Eurocrats’ fondness for “kick the can” strategies. And that propensity is particularly dangerous when leadership groups have become both selfish and short-termist. There really was once upon a time some people who went into government service for the service part, and not for the revolving door and networking.
…
But now, the well-honed effectiveness of propaganda has encouraged politicians and their media amplifiers/allies to go hog wild with selling Big Lies. And the worst is there are no consequences for the perps.
…
The wee problem with the war in Ukraine and the escalating US eye-poking of China is neither is going very well, to the degree that the propaganda started fizzling out very quickly in the Global South and is losing its potency in the West.

It’s hard to keep up the pretense of a great inevitable Ukraine victory with Ukraine losing Bakhmut, after Zelensky made it the centerpiece of his Congressional love-fest last December. Oh, but Ukraine is still trying to deny it is lost, as they did for Mariupol and Soledar until well after the fact.

The believe into impossible things is not only with regards to the war in Ukraine but also with the bigger view towards China:

Similarly, US officials may have told themselves that much of the world regarded China with suspicion due to its often-overheated rhetoric and hypersensitivity to slights. But these self-comforting beliefs about China’s position on the world stage got a big wake up call with China brokering a normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and then Syria.

Now China is making more trouble by wandering into America’s back yard, as in Europe, and talking up its napkin-doodle Ukraine peace plan.

The extreme hostile G7 communique on China is simply another expression of western delusion:

According to the Financial Times, the G7 has issued its strongest condemnation of China, and most of the other international mainstream media also highlight that it “amps up pressure on China.” It seems that the only way for the G7 to catch people’s attention and show its sense of presence is to speculate on the issues related to China.As a “rich countries’ club” that once accounted for up to 70% of the global economy, the G7 has been facing a serious existential crisis in recent years as its economic weight has been declining, coupled with a decline in global population share and perceived attractiveness.
…
The louder the anti-China rhetoric from the G7, the smaller its actual impact will be, as this is a natural law. This is because it would mean that G7 serves the strategic interests of the US rather than the welfare of the international community, making it difficult to receive any “assistance” but more difficult to make progress. It is very likely that in the end, the G7 will find that it has expended a lot of effort, but the result is only spinning its wheels.
…
The Hiroshima summit seems to have given the G7 a sense of “shaping history,” but this illusion will soon be blown away by the winds of reality, since without internal prosperity and development, external displays of strength are only superficial.

Unfortunately many people in the west believe the bullshit their politicians and media are throwing at them. As Caitlin Johnstone observes:

The problem that underpins most other problems in modern times is that human minds are highly hackable, and that the science of hacking them at mass scale has been advancing since Bernays over a century ago. This is what keeps people consenting to the destructive and exploitative agendas of the powerful against their own interests.
…
Many people, maybe even most people, are to some extent aware that our entire civilization is bullshit. Relatively few are able to describe exactly how and why it’s bullshit, though, because there’s so much bullshit it’s hard to get a clear view of how the bullshit is happening.It’s hard to understand how and why our civilization is bullshit exactly because our civilization is bullshit. It’s rife with lies, the teachers feed us lies, the algorithms feed us lies, and we’re trained to look for information in areas that will turn up lies.
…
In a civilization that’s made of bullshit, it’s rare to gain solid enough footing and high enough ground to be able to look around and clearly see how all the bullshit is happening. Everything here is geared toward preventing us from gaining that footing. It takes hard, diligent work, and more than a little luck.

Unfortunately her conclusion is right.

Posted by b on May 22, 2023 at 14:25 UTC | Permalink

How China Is Using Artificial Intelligence in Classrooms

Godfree points out…

Wagner Finds Antique Weapons In Ukraine’s Underground Weapons Cache

Why I refrain from social media…

Unfortunately, we need to suffer parrots who don’t understand a word of Mandarin or Hokkienese, who cannot place Taiwan on the map, who cannot tell Taiwan from Thailand, yet consider themselves the world authority on China/Taiwan issues simply because they can produce a Fox Cable News invoice. Pathetic!

My response below:

The US congress is loaded with chicken hawk draft dodgers, as is the US administration. All words and zero nerve. Whom are you kidding? Your backing by the US Congress is worth no more than human refuse. The Congress had better make sure it has enough money to tide over the end of May first before worrying about Taiwan. LOL.

You are showing total ignorance of history and international law. The fact that the US recognizes the One China Policy is due to the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation from WWII. Never heard of them, right? Not surprised. It was not borne of some “good relationship” or US love of China, but international law that everyone must respect, or admit being a thug. Come on, let’s have some “Rule Based International Order”, OK?

You are welcome to come to fight and die for Taiwan independence. The Taiwanese would love you, as none of them wants to fight, and they are all betting on idiots like you to come fight and die for them, so they can keep making money. Put your acts where your words are and don’t be a chicken hawk.

Come to fight and die for Taiwan independence, so the DPP president Tsai Ing-wen and 2024 DPP candidate Lai Ching-teh can escape to the US to reunite with their huge families there. They will thank you.

INSANE: Young Americans Don’t Know ANYTHING!

Monument To The Unknown Bureaucrat

Several countries have monuments to the Unknown Soldier, but perhaps only Iceland has a sculpture honoring — and lightly satirizing — the thankless, anonymous job of the bureaucrat. The 1994 sculpture by Magnús Tómasson depicts a man in a suit holding a briefcase, with his head and shoulders subsumed in a slab of unsculpted stone.

Raeisi: Iran, Indonesia agree to trade in local currencies to defuse dollar dominance – Pars Today

Article HERE

Did you know that Japan used to be a vassal of China?

The King of Na gold seal (Japanese: 漢委奴国王印) is a solid gold seal discovered in the year 1784 on Shikanoshima Island in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The seal is designated as a National Treasure of Japan.[1]

The seal is believed to have been cast in China and bestowed by Emperor Guangwu of Han upon a diplomatic official (envoy) visiting from Japan in the year 57 AD.

The five Chinese characters appearing on the seal identify it as the seal of the King of Na state of Wa (Japan), vassal state of the Han Dynasty.[2]

The seal is currently in the collection of the Fukuoka City Museum in Fukuoka, Japan.

The seal is very well known in Japan, as its taught in Japanese history books to be a cultural asset which ascertains how Japan as a nation came into being. Its the first known textual record of Japan as a country.[3]

Richard Wolff: This Is the Worst Economic Period in My Lifetime

Deep-Fried Turkey

Ingredients

1 (10 to 12 pound) turkey
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 to 5 gallons peanut oil

Instructions

Rinse and dry turkey.
Remove neck and giblet bag from small cavity in front and the large body cavity.
Generously season inside cavity with salt and pepper. Use as much cayenne pepper as taste buds will allow.
Heat oil in cooking pot large enough to submerse turkey in hot oil.
Heat oil to 350 degrees F to 375 degrees F.
When oil is hot, using a sling of strong twine or a lifter, lower turkey into hot oil.
Cook about 5 minutes per pound or until meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of thigh reaches 180 degrees F.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

RED ALERT! US GOVERNMENT ISSUING SATELLITE PHONES, RUSSIA EVACUATE NUCLEAR WEAPONS, F16s WILL BE WW3

America is sick, and needs therapy

It is getting more ludicrous by the day!

main qimg 819a50819527c8b4344f8cc55e8c6c41

The debt ceiling crisis looms over the US. But guess what? Its politicians are crying wolf, warning that this crisis is “playing into the hands of China”.

These days, in shambolic America, everything problematic has a China angle, including debt ceiling.

They blame Chinese imports for their industrial decline.

Soon, they will blame China for their constipation or erectile dysfunction.

It’s Sino-phobia gone mad!

Unfortunately for China, irrational fear of China is the only thing that unites a bitterly divided Congress and country. Politicians speak the same language only when attacking China. Senator Patty Murray, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has gone so far as to declare: “The more we play with default….the more we prove that China and our competitors are right.”

Has US-China relations reached a point of no return?

Post-Trump, America is a hotbed for extremists.

So far, not a single official, elected or appointed, is brave enough to step forward to dilute the venom against a peaceful country whose only sin is outshining America.

China is busy supporting infrastructure projects in more than 150 countries, while the US has poured hundreds of billions into needless wars.

Insanely jealous, America finds in China its convenient bogeyman.

Then there is Republican Senator Susan Collins. She says: “The world faces an authoritarian government that seeks to regain its hegemonic past and dismantle the international order created by the United States and our allies following World War II.”

What a load of nonsense!

For two centuries, China was a humiliated, not a hegemonic, country. Where is this hegemonic past that Collins speaks of?

Her historical ignorance is alarming. As for “dismantling” the international order, look who’s talking? Who’s behind the military conflicts, big and small, in the last 75 years? China merely defended its territorial integrity. It has never disrupted the international order, whatever that is.

What then about the South China Sea?

Well, you are talking about China’s own backyard through which more than 50% of the world’s commerce flows.

It is a choke-point that China must either defend or be strangled by US encirclement.

Militarizing these islands is a must for self-survival.

Or else, China might as well sign its own death warrant.

What about Taiwan?

Under America’s one-China policy, it is a part of Chinese territory, and thus strictly a domestic issue, and in no way a slice of the global order. Ditto Hong Kong and Xinjiang. All internal affairs, all exclusively Chinese concerns.

Whipping up anti-China hysteria is America’s biggest con job, thanks to Trump the pathological con artist.

Want to know a little secret? China owes its stupendous success in the last 40 years, largely, to one thing: national unity.

While America is paralyzed by partisanship, and India is torn apart by genocidal village-burning religious or ethnic hatred, China promotes ethnic harmony and shared prosperity, bestowing preferential benefits on its minorities.

Free from division and distractions, ethnic peace is in China’s vital national interest.

That’s why, there is zero hate crime in every street across every city in China. Minorities coexist peacefully.

I totally discount the possibility of persecution of innocent Uyghurs.

Why should Xinjiang be a singularity? It’s illogical.

It’s unChinese. It rings untrue.

China doesn’t have a history of mistreating minorities.

Its respect for ethnicity is miles ahead of racist America.

China, however, won’t tolerate foreign-fomented Muslim terrorism. Like any country targeted by Islamic terrorists, China acts forcefully to contain them. There are re-education centers, yes, but they exist to re-absorb indoctrinated trouble-makers into society.

Discrimination runs counter to China’s pacific approach to inter-ethnic relations. If anything, there is reverse discrimination in favor of ethnic minorities.

I trust my own eyes.

I distrust American disinformation.

Pre-Trump, America used to enjoy a rosy and cozy relationship with China. Now it seems like a distant memory.

Today’s America is a troubled nation, angry at itself, and angrier at others who know how to govern. It’s no longer fit to be in the world’s driver’s seat.

The US is deeply troubled by China paranoia. Uncle Sam, you’d better book an appointment with your therapist, and have your head examined.

Americans Don’t Know Anything About America

There Are Now 3D Printing Spurs That You Can Attach To The Back Of Your Crocs

Even outlaws need to sip their whiskey with a comfortable pair of Crocs on their feet, which is why today’s post is bringing out the inner-cowboy in all of us. Transport your heels to the Wild West with these Crocs spurs, which fit perfectly on the back strap of your favorite pair of Crocs!

More: Etsy h/t: sadanduseless

These spurs (or sprocs) currently fit the full size range of the regular Croc Clog. The All Terrain, Yukon Vista, and other wide strap Crocs models will not fit.

They’re made out of plastic and come in 5 different colors: black, white, silver, copper, and marble. The shop’s description also says to reach out to them if you’re looking for custom-colored Crocs spurs, as they can do additional colors, though they also include that these orders take a little longer to fulfill.

OMG – Exposed by CNN

Chinese hiding behind an American flag
apparently its name is ZPMC（振华 or 振華), literally meaning MAKE CHINA GREAT AGAIN in chinese – I have NOT been able to verify this
Apparently even the American flag is Chinese

China has been trying to unite the world, a peaceful and a better world is good for China. The US and the UK have been inciting conflicts and wars in the world, which the US and the UK believe it is good for the US and the UK. Why?

If you are a despicable thief stealing from the rest of the world and when any country object to your thievery you bomb them and kill millions into smitten, you need to stage war after war after war.

And if you war monger and coerce either or both sides buys arms for you, war is very profitable.

If the side you picked wins you now have a slave vassal state and you can choose your puppet to run the nation for the benefit of US and UK, why won’t you trouble making and war mongering 24/7 and 365 days a year!

Why?

Any fool can see it benefits the US and UK to cause and create trouble all over the world.

The real question is that is it good for UK and the US in the long run.

I don’t think so.

why?

The trouble with the US and UK U.S. that it expects the world will be stupid and don’t see through their evil intentions.

They do.

And by 2023 180/195 nations don’t want and don’t allow the US and UK to manipulate and interfere in their nations anymore.

Today the US is very very very weak politically.

The Global South and most of Asia, And Eastern Europe are aligned to de-dollarise and move its economy away from the U.S. and UK.

So the net effect of fucking up the world may seem good when nations are poor and disorganized from 1945–2000.

But as nations progressed, people become sensible and clever the evil scheme is so very evident.

You mentioned China unites them, the truth they all jointly see no way out but to stop the US and UK excesses.

The world won’t allow 12.5% of humanity to rule the 87.5%! History will be told years from now the starting point is the Ukraine war.

Arms Stockpile in Ukrainian Salt Mine

China, US ‘candid’ trade talks in Washington pave way for addressing ‘core issues’ in ties

Exchange paves way for addressing ‘core issues’ in frayed ties

By GT staff reporters Published: May 26, 2023 09:39 PM Updated: May 26, 2023 11:11 PM

China’s commerce minister met with US commerce secretary and US trade representative in the US on Thursday and Friday respectively and held “candid” talks in a move that Chinese analysts said could be a prelude to further high-level engagement between the world’s two largest economies and could pave the way for China-US trade and economic ties to play more of a ballast role to help improve frayed bilateral relations.

However, the resumption of high-level interactions comes with Washington’s provocations and attempts to crack down on China in many fields, prompting calls for the US to adjust to a rational, realistic perception of China and to respect China’s stance and bottom line.

China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao met with US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in Washington on Thursday before attending the 2023 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting in Detroit. The two sides had “candid, professional and constructive exchanges” of views on China-US economic and trade relations as well as issues of common concern, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in a statement on its website on Friday morning.

The Chinese side expressed key concerns on the US’ economic and trade policies toward China, on semiconductors and export controls, as well as its outbound investment reviews, according to MOFCOM.

Wang also met with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Friday and the two had “candid, pragmatic and in-depth exchanges” of views on China-US economic and trade relations as well as regional and multilateral issues of common concern, according to MOFCOM.

The Chinese side expressed concerns regarding key issues, including the US economic and trade policies toward China, Taiwan-related topics in the economic and trade domain, the Indo-Pacific economic framework and Section 301 tariffs. Both parties agreed to maintain communication.

The meetings between the Chinese commerce minister and US commerce secretary and trade representative, along with the recent resumption of high-level engagements between Beijing and Washington, are one of the most important meetings between the two countries after the US shot down an unmanned Chinese civilian airship and hyped the “China threat”, which drove China-US relations to a new low. It also happened after China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met in Vienna and held “candid, in-depth, substantive and constructive” talks for more than 10 hours on May 10 and May 11.

“China and the US have been maintaining the necessary communication, but the key is that the US cannot engage in communication and cooperation with China while continuing to hurt China’s interests,” Mao Ning, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Friday, noting that the US should meet China halfway to bring China-US relations back to the right track of sound and steady growth.

Significant meeting

Chinese experts said the Thursday meeting is of major importance, as it takes one step further the pledge by the leaders of the two countries from last year’s Bali meeting to manage differences and disagreements and prevent confrontation and conflict.

It is believed that the meeting could help create an environment to solve, mitigate and manage differences in areas linked to trade and economic issues, the ballast of China-US relations, analysts said, holding the belief that such engagement could be a barometer of how much the two sides are heading toward the further restoration of high-level exchanges after months of recrimination.

The US’ crackdown and containment of China in the field of advanced technology must stop and “The concerns raised by Minister Wang are clear, detailed and to the point,” He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Friday.

The fact that the two ministers met for the first time since the pandemic in person in Washington showed that the working-level communications between the two sides have borne fruit, Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times Friday.

According to MOFCOM, China and the US agreed to set up communication channels to maintain and strengthen exchanges on specific economic and trade issues in addition to areas of cooperation, meaning “some new channels could be set up for issues that cannot be solved by existing ones,” Gao anticipated.

A readout from the US Department of Commerce said the discussions were “candid and substantive” and that the meeting was “part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the relationship.”

Chinese experts said that the core issues hindering China-US trade and economic ties at the moment are tariffs and the US crackdown on Chinese companies.

The US side has come to realize that bilateral trade grew despite the trade war and that trade with China has win-win results, experts said, noting that the meetings between the Chinese commerce minister and Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai could lead to trade ties playing an expanded ballast role in bilateral relations.

Experts said the Chinese side is making sincere efforts to improve bilateral ties.

China’s new ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, who arrived at his post this week, said on his Twitter account that his mission is to enhance China-US exchanges and cooperation, and he looks forward to working with his American colleagues in the future.

Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen on Friday met with Colm Rafferty, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, and representatives from some American companies to exchange views on bilateral trade and economic relations, US companies’ operations in China and China’s business environment.

However, Chinese experts also warned against being overly optimistic about these meetings, despite the positive signals that came from them.

According to the US readout, Raimondo raised concerns about the recent spate of Chinese actions against US companies operating in China.

Chinese experts noted that legal action taken against some US consultancy firms and the cybersecurity review by relevant Chinese authorities on Micron’s products sold in China have been carried out in accordance with the law and are based on facts. They should not be confused with or compared to the US’ broad crackdown on Chinese companies under the pretext of national security.

The US has used national security as a pretext to put more than 1,200 Chinese companies and individuals on various lists and subjected them to all kinds of restrictions despite the lack of hard evidence of wrongdoing, spokesperson Mao Ning said at Wednesday’s routine press briefing, noting that such moves constitute economic coercion and are unacceptable.

Mao on Friday also called on all parties to jointly oppose the US’ economic coercion and bullying practices and safeguard the multilateral trading system following the US’ grouping of its allies to contain China.

No easy path

Despite the resumption of high-level interactions between China and the US in the economic and trade fields, Washington has not reined in its provocations and attempts to crack down on China in many fields.
The US played a major role in hyping China-related topics at the just concluded Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima. The communiqué and other documents adopted at the summit smeared China and brazenly interfered in China’s internal affairs.

Arms sales to the island of Taiwan continue as Taiwan media said the US $500 million sale through the Presidential Drawdown Authority had recently begun, and that FIM-92 Stinger missiles arrived at Taoyuan Airport on Thursday.

A bipartisan House committee on Wednesday adopted two reports recommending that Congress take action over China’s Taiwan island and the Xinjiang region. The committee will focus on human rights before shifting to military and economic concerns, media reported.

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Friday that the US wanted to engage with China on economic and trade issues due to its own needs, but will not abandon containment in other fields.

The US still upholds the old method of dealing with China based on strength – ordering China to cooperate according to US needs and creating problems to maximize its bargaining chips, while not respecting China’s stance and bottom line, Li said.

The US’ hegemonic mentality and paradoxical behavioral pattern are the crux of the difficulties in China-US relations, said Li, who urged the US to adjust to a healthy, rational and realistic perception of China’s development, recognize that China’s growing influence will not constitute a “threat,” and handle China-US relations based on equality and mutual benefit, not hegemony and a new cold war.

Analysts acknowledge that due to the US’ imbalance in its mentality and policy, fierce competition and confrontation will not disappear and China-US relations will continue to be very complex with interests and conflicts intertwined.

As two major powers in the world, the most likely scenario would be to engage in certain areas of common interests while being cautious in managing differences and avoiding conflicts, Li said.

Dr Pepper Texas Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Cake

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup Dr Pepper
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting

3/4 cup butter-flavored vegetable shortening
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup Dr Pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans, tapping out any extra flour.
Cake: Sift together flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cocoa and baking soda into a bowl and set aside.
Pour the Dr Pepper into a saucepan and add the chocolate chips. Heat on low, stirring often, until the chips are just melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
Combine eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract in a mixer bowl and mix on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes.
With the mixer running, slowly pour in the Dr Pepper-chocolate mixture and continue beating until combined, about 1 minute.
With mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients. Increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more.
Divide the batter between the twp pans.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool the layers in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and flip the pans over onto a cooling rack. Gently lift off the pans and let the cake layers cool completely.
Frosting: Beat shortening and butter in a mixer bowl until soft and fluffy.
Add the confectioners’ sugar and cocoa, and continue mixing until combined.
Stir together the Dr Pepper and vanilla extract and very slowly pour it into the frosting, beating with mixer on high speed to thin it a bit. Continue beating until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
Set first layer, top down, on a flat plate. Spread 1 cup of the frosting on top.
Top with the second cake layer and spread remaining frosting on the top and sides of the cake, making attractive swirls.

Yield: 12 servings

Americans Living Abroad: First Time You Realized America Really Messed You Up

https://youtu.be/MPOsf_EpHxs

A free Patreon video for you all to enjoy

I posted this video up after repeated banning by you-tube.

It discusses the paper-trail of how COVID was developed, funded, patented, and used by the United States.

Five minutes.

The big lies continue as well into the whoppers of the past

Again, to remind everyone. We are discovering the world “of the West” is one completely obscured by lies, distortions and untruths. As time progresses, some of these lies, and distortions reach the surface. Such as what happened with the Kennedy assassination, and the carpet bombing of China with bio-weapons in the 1950s.

Now, perhaps we need to look at the the Apollo “moon landing”, because the contemporaneous narrative is that it is ridiculously easy to do in today’s day and age, because “we already landed there in the 1960s”, and there is absolutely NO ADVANTAGE to return back to it.

NASA is showing that this is a narrative that is at odds with American space capabilities at this time.

Which sounds suspiciously similar to the lie that masks are useless, while all hospitals continue to wear masks in operating rooms.

It’s a mismatch of narrative.

I do not know FOR CERTAIN if “we” went to the moon or not.

What I do know is that [1] the United States government is a lying machine, and [2] all lies eventually unravel over time. And [3] when big “whoppers” of lies start to unravel, that is when all Hell tends to break out…

We continue with this look…

Wagging the Moondoggie: Part II

by Dave McGowan | Oct 1, 2009

“Well,” you now say, “what about all those cool Moon rocks? How did they get those? The Moon is, you know, the only source of Moon rocks, so doesn’t that prove that we were there?”

No, as a matter of fact, it does not prove that we were there, and as odd as it may sound, the Moon is not the only source of Moon rocks. As it turns out, authentic Moon rocks are available right here on Earth, in the form of lunar meteorites. Because the Moon lacks a protective atmosphere, you see, it gets smacked around quite a bit, which is why it is heavily cratered. And when things smash into it to form those craters, lots of bits and pieces of the Moon fly off into space. Some of them end up right here on Earth.

By far the best place to find them is in Antarctica, where they are most plentiful and, due to the terrain, relatively easy to find and well preserved. And that is why it is curious that Antarctica just happens to be where a team of Apollo scientists led by Wernher von Braun ventured off to in the summer of 1967, two years before Apollo 11 blasted off. You would think that, what with the demanding task of perfecting the hugely complex Saturn V rockets, von Braun and his cronies at NASA would have had their hands full, but apparently there was something even more important for them to do down in Antarctica. NASA has never offered much of an explanation for the curiously timed expedition.

Some skeptics have said that it is possible that Moon rocks could have been gathered from the Moon with robotic probes. But while it isn’t being argued here that unmanned craft haven’t reached the Moon, it seems virtually inconceivable that any unmanned spacecraft could have landed on and then been brought back from the surface of the Moon in the 1960s or 1970s. There is no indication that it can even be done today. It’s been more than three decades since anyone has claimed to do it, and that claim, by the Soviets, is highly suspect.

What is known for sure is that even some of the ‘debunking’ websites have, albeit reluctantly, acknowledged that meteorite samples gathered from Antarctica are virtually indistinguishable from NASA’s collection of Moon rocks. Of course, as we very recently learned, that is not true of all of NASA’s Moon rocks. Some of them apparently bear no resemblance at all to lunar meteorites. Instead, they look an awful lot like petrified wood from the Arizona desert.

Such was the case with a ‘Moon rock’ that the Dutch national museum has been carefully safeguarding for many years now, before discovering, in August of 2009, that they were in reality the proud owners of the most over-insured piece of petrified wood on the planet. The ‘Moon rock’ had been a gift to the Dutch from the U.S. State Department, and its authenticity had reportedly been verified through a phone call to NASA. I’m guessing that NASA was probably running low on meteorite fragments and figured the Dutch wouldn’t know the difference anyway. Or maybe Washington was a little peeved over the fact that Dutch newspapers reportedly called NASA’s bluff at the time of the first alleged Moon landing.

This is not to suggest, of course, that all of the Moon rocks passed out by NASA and the State Department are obvious fakes. Most, presumably, are of lunar origin – but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were gathered by American astronauts walking on the surface of the Moon; they could just as easily have come to Earth as meteorites. It is also possible that they are of otherworldly origin but not from the Moon at all – such as meteorites from other sources that have been collected here on Earth. The only way to know for sure what NASA’s Moon rocks are, of course, would be to compare them to a ‘control rock’ that is known to be from the Moon.

The problem, alas, is that the only known source for ‘authenticated’ Moon rocks is NASA, the very same folks who are known to occasionally hand out chunks of petrified wood. The other problem, it turns out, is that most of the Moon rocks are, uhmm, missing. Does anyone see a pattern developing here?

Since the discovery of the fake Moon rock in the Dutch museum, ‘debunkers’ have claimed that the fact that no other Moon rocks have been declared fake proves that the Dutch case is an isolated one. “After that announcement,” goes the argument, “wouldn’t every other country in possession of a Moon rock have rushed to have them authenticated? And since no other country has made a similar announcement, doesn’t that prove that the Moon rocks are real?”

At first glance, that would appear to be a valid argument. The problem, however, is that the vast majority of those countries can’t test their ‘Moon rocks’ because, shockingly enough, no one knows where they are! As the Associated Pressreported on September 13, 2009, “Nearly 270 rocks scooped up by U.S. astronauts were given to foreign countries by the Nixon administration … Of 135 rocks from the Apollo 17 mission given away to nations or their leaders, only about 25 have been located by CollectSpace.com, a Web site for space history buffs that has long attempted to compile a list … The outlook for tracking the estimated 134 Apollo 11 rocks is even bleaker. The locations of fewer than a dozen are known.”

It appears then that having a ‘control rock’ wouldn’t really be of much help after all, since nearly 90% of the alleged Moon rocks that we would want to test don’t seem to be around any more.

“But I have also heard,” you now say, “that photos have been taken of the equipment left behind by the Apollo astronauts on the surface of the Moon, like the descent stages of the lunar modules. How do you account for that?”

It is certainly true that there have been numerous claims over the years that various satellites or unmanned space probes or space telescopes were going to capture images that would definitively prove that man walked on the Moon, thus settling the controversy once and for all. And in recent years, the ‘debunkers’ have openly gloated whenever such an announcement has been made, boldly proclaiming that all the “hoax believers” will soon be exposed as the ignorant buffoons that they are.

Despite all the promises, however, no such images have ever been produced, a fact that the ‘debunkers’ seem to conveniently overlook while forever rushing to announce that the hoax theories are about to be discredited.

For at least two decades now, since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, we have been promised dazzling images of the lunar modules sitting on the surface of the Moon. The Hubble technology, needless to say, never managed to deliver. More recently, in 2002, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (whose inventor apparently coined the name while watching Sesame Street) was also supposed to deliver the promised images. And seven years later, the fabled images have yet to materialize.

In March of 2005, Space.com boldly announced that a “European spacecraft now orbiting the Moon could turn out to be a time machine of sorts as it photographs old landing sites of Soviet robotic probes and the areas where American Apollo crews set down and explored. New imagery of old Apollo touchdown spots, from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) SMART-1 probe, might put to rest conspiratorial thoughts that U.S. astronauts didn’t go the distance and scuff up the lunar landscape. NASA carried out six piloted landings on the Moon in the time period 1969 through 1972. Fringe theorists have said … that NASA never really went to the Moon.”

I’m guessing that most “fringe theorists” will continue to harbor “conspiratorial thoughts” for as long as pompous websites like Space.com continue making arrogant proclamations such as that and then not following them up with so much as a single image in well over four years.

Who knew, by the way, that the European Space Agency had the technology and the budget to send a spacecraft off to orbit the Moon? Who knew that the Europeans even had a space agency? I wonder, given that they obviously have the technology to send spacecraft to the Moon, why they haven’t sent any manned missions there? I would think that it should be fairly easy to send some guys to at least orbit the Moon … right? I mean, all they have to do is add a couple seats to the spacecraft design that they already have and they should be ready to go.

Here is another thing that I sometimes wonder about: why it is that in the 1960s we possessed the advanced technology required to actually land men on the Moon, but in the 21st century we don’t even have the technology required to get an unmanned craft close enough to the Moon to take usable photographs? Or could it be that there’s just nothing there to photograph?

Just this year, NASA itself boldly announced that it’s “Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions’ lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon’s surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules’ locations evident … ‘The LROC team anxiously awaited each image,’ said LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University. ‘We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill – and to see how well the cameras had come into focus. Indeed, the images are fantastic and so is the focus.’”

Sounds promising, doesn’t it? The images, however, hardly live up to the billing. They are, in fact, completely worthless. All they depict are tiny white dots on the lunar surface that could be just about anything and that would barely be visible at all without those handy “long shadows from a low sun angle.” And the weird thing about those shadows is that, in the very same NASA article, it says that “because the sun was so low to the horizon when the images were made, even subtle variations in topography create long shadows.” And yet while it is perfectly obvious that there are more than just “subtle variations” in the lunar topography in the images, the alleged lunar modules are the only things casting the long shadows.

Even if we give NASA every benefit of the doubt and assume that the images have not been amateurishly Photoshopped and that the indiscernible white dots are indeed something of man-made origin, the most likely culprit would be those Soviet robotic probes mentioned by Space.com, which presumably did land on the Moon. A number of those probes, which were part of the Apollo-era Luna Program, were very similar in size and shape to the lunar modules – certainly enough so that images of much higher resolution would be required to make a definitive judgment.

Actually, after studying the image above, of one of the alleged Luna probes, I’m going to have to say that the Soviets were lying their asses off almost as much as NASA was. There is no way I’m going to buy into the notion that the Soviets sent a freeform abstract sculpture, which appears to have been constructed by Fred Sanford and Granny Clampett, on a 234,000 mile journey from the Earth to the Moon. Careful study of the central area of the photo, however, does reveal why the spacecraft were known as ‘probes.’ I wonder if they were capable of performing docking maneuvers?

According to NASA, Japan and India have also sent unmanned orbiting spacecraft to the Moon in recent years, as has China. As with the ESA’s and NASA’s orbiters, they too have failed to return any images of Earthly artifacts left behind on the surface of the Moon. If the hoax ‘debunking’ websites are to be believed, by the way, the reason that no one has returned to the Moon in thirty-seven years is because we pretty much already tapped that celestial body for all the information it had to offer. There’s really, you see, nothing much left to see there.

A ‘debunking’ article posted by ABCNews.com, for example, quoted Val Germann, the president of the Central Missouri Astronomical Association, as saying, “There’s no reason to go back … Quite frankly, the moon is a giant parking lot, there’s just not much there.” I wonder why it is then that just about everyone seems to want to send unmanned probes there, or to train enormously powerful telescopes on the Moon’s surface? What could they possibly learn about the “parking lot” from those distances that our astronauts didn’t already discover by actually being there?

Some True Believers also claim that what was dubbed the Lunar Laser Ranging experiment also proves that we really went to the Moon. As the story goes, the astronauts on Apollo 11, Apollo 14, and Apollo 15 all allegedly left small laser targets sitting on the lunar terrain (one of them can be seen in the official NASA photo reproduced below), so that scientists back home could then bounce lasers off the targets to precisely gauge the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

According to the ‘debunkers,’ the fact that observatories to this day bounce lasers off the alleged targets proves that the Apollo missions succeeded. It is perfectly obvious though that the targets, if there, could have been placed robotically – most likely by the Soviets. It is also possible that there are no laser targets on the Moon. In December 1966, National Geographic reported that scientists at MIT had been achieving essentially the same result for four years by bouncing a laser off the surface of the Moon. The New York Times added that the Soviets had been doing the same thing since at least 1963.

There was much about the Apollo flights that was truly miraculous, but arguably the greatest technological achievement was the design of the lunar modules. Has anyone, by the way, ever really taken a good look at one of those contraptions? I mean a detailed, up-close look? I’m guessing that the vast majority of people have not, but luckily we can quickly remedy that situation because I happen to have some really good, high-resolution images that come directly from the good people at NASA.

While what is depicted in the images may initially appear, to the untrained eye, to be some kind of mock-up that someone cobbled together in their backyard to make fun of NASA, I can assure you that it is actually an extremely high-tech manned spacecraft capable of landing on the surface of the Moon. And incredibly enough, it was also capable of blasting off from the Moon and flying 69 miles back up into lunar orbit! Though not immediately apparent, it is actually a two-stage craft, the lower half (the part that looks like a tubular aluminum framework covered with Mylar and old Christmas wrapping paper) being the descent stage, and the upper half (the part that looks as though it was cobbled together from old air conditioning ductwork and is primarily held together, as can be seen in the close-up, with zippers and gold tape) being the ascent stage.

The upper half, of course, is the more sophisticated portion, being capable of lifting off and flying with enough power to break free of the Moon’s gravity and reach lunar orbit. It also, of course, possessed sophisticated enough navigational capabilities for it to locate, literally out in the middle of fucking nowhere, the command module that it had to dock with in order to get the astronauts safely back to Earth. It also had to catch that command module, which was orbiting the Moon at a leisurely 4,000 miles per hour.

But we’ll get to all that a little later. I think we can all agree for now that such a sleek, stylish, well-designed craft would have no problem flying with that kind of power, precision and stability.

There is one thing that appears to be a problem though: how did they get everything on board the modules that they were going to need to successfully complete their missions? According to NASA, the modules were (excluding the landing pads) only about twelve feet in diameter. That is obviously not a whole lot of space to work with, so let’s try to think of everything that we would need if we were astronauts venturing off on a little journey to the Moon.

First of all, of course, we have to account for the space taken up by the various components of the ship itself. There is the framework and the, uhh, let’s call it the ‘fuselage’ of the craft. And we will need a lot of very sophisticated navigation and guidance and communications equipment, all of which took up a whole lot more space back in the ‘60s than it would today. And then, needless to say, there is the power supply – or rather multiple power supplies. For the descent stage, there is the reverse-thrust rocket that allegedly allowed the craft to make a soft landing on the Moon. And then for the ascent stage, there is a powerful rocket to propel the random bundle of sheet metal into lunar orbit. There are also additional rockets to allegedly stabilize the vessel in flight (the random clusters of what look like bicycle horns).

Next up is the massive amount of fuel that will be required to power all of those rockets, for both the ascent and descent stages of the mission. The ascent stage in particular is going to be a bit of a fuel hog, as ascending 69 miles and breaking free of the Moon’s gravity is a formidable challenge, to say the least. Though it may only have 1/6 the gravitational pull of Earth, keep in mind that it is still a force strong enough to create the tides here on Earth, 234,000 miles away.

I’m not a rocket scientist, by the way, so I am sure that there are quite a few components that I am leaving off of my lunar module – but that’s okay, because our spaceship is already feeling really cramped just with the stuff listed so far. And we’re just getting started.

Next we have to include everything required to keep ourselves alive and well. We aren’t going to be there very long, of course, and space is obviously limited, but we will still require some basic amenities. We will, after all, have to sleep somewhere in the ship, won’t we? Or will we just unfold cots on the lunar surface? We will also require a sanitation/septic system of some kind. Or did those missions bring about another ‘first’ that NASA has been reluctant to brag about? Was Neil Armstrong, unbeknownst to the American people, the first man to take a dump on lunar soil? Or was it Buzz Aldrin? Which astronaut has the distinction of being the first to soil the lunar landscape?

Anyway, getting back to our packing list, in addition to a sanitation system, it is imperative that we bring along an adequate supply of food, water and oxygen – and not just enough to last for the planned duration of our visit, but enough to supply a small safety cushion should anything go wrong. Because from what I have heard, running out of food, water or oxygen while on the Moon can really fuck up an otherwise perfectly good trip. The oxygen is especially important, so we’re going to need a really good, reliable system to deliver that oxygen, and to, you know, recharge the oxygen tanks in our spacesuits so we can walk around on the Moon and jump like 8” or 9” high like the Apollo guys did. And a back-up oxygen system probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.

We are also going to need to install a top-of-the-line heating and cooling system. Probably several of them, actually. Because the ‘weather’ on the Moon, so to speak, can be a bit unpleasant. According to the experts over at NASA, daytime highs average a balmy +260° F, but it cools off quite a bit at night, dropping to an average of -280° F. If you’re looking for anything between those two extremes, you won’t really find it on the Moon. It’s pretty much one or the other. If you’re in the sun, you’re going to be boiled alive, and if you’re out of the sun, you’re going to be flash frozen.

I’m not at all sure how the air conditioning system is going to work, come to think of it, since air conditioning requires a steady supply of – and please stop me if I am stating the obvious here – air. And the Moon doesn’t really have a lot of that.

It would help, of course, if our spacecraft was heavily insulated in some manner, but that doesn’t appear to be the case, so we’ll need a really, really good heating and cooling system, and plenty of freon or whatever it is that we’ll need to keep it running. So now we have to add all of the following to our already crowded spacecraft: ourselves; a minimal amount of room to sleep and otherwise take care of the basic necessities of life; some type of plumbing and sewage system; a really good heating and cooling system, and a considerable supply of food, water and oxygen. And we’re still not done packing for our trip.

Now we have to add all of the equipment that will be required to maintain the ship and complete our planned missions. First of all, we are definitely going to need to pack an exhaustive supply of spare parts and a wide variety of tools. That is an absolute must. From what I have heard, there are a few stores on the Moon that do stock spaceship parts, but they tend to close on certain days of the week. And orders from the mainland can take a frustratingly long time to arrive, so it’s always best to be prepared for any emergency. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with our spaceship and the only thing harder than finding a good mechanic here on Earth is finding one on the Moon.

And then, of course, we’ll have to bring all the fancy testing equipment that we will use to pretend to conduct experiments. Some of it is quite bulky, so we’ll need to set aside some storage space for all of that. And we’re going to need some additional storage space to bring back all those petrified wood samples, but we should have room for that after we jettison most of the fake testing equipment.

Our spaceship is now so ridiculously overloaded that we may have had to add a roof-rack and we still aren’t quite done yet. We still have a couple more items to pack, and we probably should have gotten them on sooner because they are going to require a lot of space. Since this is one of the later Apollo flights, you see, we also have to pack a dune buggy, otherwise known as a lunar rover. And the rovers, according to NASA, are a full ten feet long, just two feet less than the diameter of our craft. But not to worry – according to NASA, the rovers (pictured below) folded up to the size of a large suitcase. When released, they would just sort of magically unfold and snap into place, ready to roam the lunar terrain.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not really sure why we have to pack the damn rover. There is no real compelling reason to take it to the Moon … except for the fact that they make for good TV, and that seems to be of paramount importance. And as can be seen below, it should easily fit into our spaceship.

One last thing we’re going to need is a whole lot of batteries. Lots and lots of batteries. That’s going to be the only way to power the ship while we’re on the Moon, and we’ll definitely need to run the communications systems, and the oxygen supply system, and the heating and cooling system, and the cabin lights, and the television cameras and transmitters, and all the testing equipment, and our spacesuits, and that damn rover. And we won’t be able to recharge any of the various batteries, so we’re going to need a lot of back-ups. Especially of the really big batteries that run the ship. We may need a separate ship just to carry all the batteries we’re going to need.

By the way, I can’t possibly be the only one who is disappointed that we never followed up on that breakthrough folding-vehicle technology. If we had folding Moon buggies back in the early 1970s, then how far behind could folding automobiles have been had we chosen to stay the course? Had NASA’s pioneering vision been followed up, we could all be folding up our cars and tucking them away under our office desks. But as with all the Apollo technology, it existed only in that specific period of time and has now, sadly, been lost to the ages.

NASA has done something very odd, by the way, with the lunar module that it has on display for museum visitors to marvel at: it has staffed it with miniature astronauts wearing miniature space suits (the module may also be scaled slightly larger than the ‘real’ modules that allegedly landed on the Moon). I wonder why they would do that? I’m pretty sure that Buzz and Neil were of normal stature, so the only reason that I can think of that they would use miniature astronauts would be to portray the modules as larger than what they actually were. And in better condition too. Did they pick up the ones they sent to the Moon at a used car lot?

Before moving on, I need to emphasize here just how sophisticated the lunar modules actually were. These remarkable spacecraft – and I understandably get a little choked up here talking about this, because I am just so damn proud of our team of Nazi scientists – managed to make six perfect take-offs from the surface of the Moon! And understand here people that they did that, amazingly enough, with completely untested technology!

You can’t duplicate the conditions on the Moon here at home, you see, or even provide a rough approximation. And since no one had ever been to the Moon, they didn’t know exactly what to replicate anyway, so this part of the mission was pretty much of a crapshoot. Conditions on the Moon are, to say the least, a bit different than here on Earth. The gravitational pull is only about 1/6 of what it is here. And then there is that whole ‘lack of atmosphere’ thing. And the decidedly unearthly temperatures. And then, of course, there are the high levels of space radiation.

I’m quite sure that we had the best minds available working on the Apollo project, but none of them could have accurately predicted and compensated for how all those unearthly conditions would combine to affect the flight potential of the lunar modules. So the ability of the modules to actually blast off from the Moon and fly was, at best, a theoretical concept.

It is also important to remember that, unlike the initial blast-off from Earth (seen above), which involved the collective efforts of thousands of people and the use of all types of peripheral equipment, the astronauts taking off from the Moon had only themselves and a strange vessel that looked like it had been salvaged from the set of Lost in Space. What would you be thinking, by the way, if you suddenly found yourself on the surface of the Moon with what looked like a cheap movie prop as your only way home? Would you feel comfortable hanging around for a few days doing experiments, confident that, when the time came, the untested contraption behind you would actually get you back home from the Moon? Or would the words “bad career choice” be running through your head?

But as it turns out, America kicked ass back then and those lunar modules performed like champions every single time! They didn’t even need any modifications! Despite the completely foreign environment, they worked perfectly the very first time and every time thereafter!

On Earth, it took many long years of trial and error, many failed test flights, many unfortunate accidents, and many, many trips back to the drawing board before we could safely and reliably launch men into low-Earth orbit. But on the Moon? We nailed that shit the very first time.

Today, of course, we can’t even launch a space shuttle from right here on planet Earth without occasionally blowing one up, even though we have lowered our sights considerably. After all, sending spacecraft into low-Earth orbit is considerably easier than sending spacecraft all the way to the friggin’ Moon and back. It would appear then that we can draw the following conclusion: although technology has advanced immeasurably since the first Apollo Moon landing and we have significantly downgraded our goals in space, we can’t come close to matching the kick-ass safety record we had in the Apollo days.

The thing is that, back in the frontier days, we didn’t need all that fancy technology and book-learnin’ to send Buzz and the boys to the Moon and back. Back then, we had that American can-do spirit and we just cowboyed up and MacGyvered those spaceships to the Moon. All we needed was an old Volkswagen engine, some duct tape and a roll of bailing wire. Throw a roll of butt-wipe and a little Tang on board and you were good to go.

And how about the speed with which we cranked out those Apollo spacecraft? Once we figured out how to make them, we were stamping them out like Coke cans. We fired off seven of them in just under three-and-a-half years, or about one every six months. Given the extreme complexity of those vessels, and the fact that every component had to perform flawlessly under largely unknown conditions, that is a pretty impressive production schedule. America, I think it is safe to say, totally rocked back then!

Trenary Toast

This is a favorite in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Ingredients

6 slices dense white sandwich bread, crust removed
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment to make cleanup easier.
Trim the crusts from the bread slices.
Put the butter into a pie plate. Slide the dish into the oven to let the butter melt completely. Keep a close eye on it!
In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and cinnamon. Put cinnamon sugar out onto a dinner plate or another pie plate.
When the butter is melted, remove it from the oven, and dip both sides of bread in the butter. Apply the butter generously, so no spot is left uncoated. The bread should feel a little heavy in your hand.
Dip the bread slices into the cinnamon-sugar, taking care to coat both sides.
Lay them on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake the toasts for about 25 minutes, until lightly browned.
Transfer to a rack. The toasts will crisp as they cool.
When cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes

These toasts are better the day after they’re made!

76 countries incorporate Chinese into their national education system

Article HERE

A Green Berets WARNING About Whats Coming to USA “PEOPLE HAVE NO IDEA…”

More American dreamin’

The Biden administration is working to finalize an executive order to restrict outbound investments in China’s high-tech industry. How will it impact China’s technology development? What will be its implications on American companies?

Chinese tech companies do not need foreign funding. The government is providing more than ample funding because they know what’s at stake.

And banning U.S. tech companies from engaging with and doing business in China is just doing China the favor by allowing Chinese upstarts to supplant them.

Biden should heed the warning of Nvidia boss Jensen Huang about the immense damage to U.S. tech from U.S. semiconductor chip embargo with China.

'There Is Only One China': Nvidia Chief Flags Dangers To US Chips Act, Repercussions Of US Tech Embargo On China - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) chief Jensen Huang warned against immense damage to U.S.

Article HERE

Huang described how the sanctions have handicapped chipmakers like Nvidia from selling its advanced chips in one of the company’s biggest and most important markets, Financial Times reports.

Huang warned U.S. lawmakers to be “thoughtful” about imposing further rules restricting trade with China. “If we are deprived of the Chinese market, we don’t have a contingency for that. There is no other China, there is only one China,” Huang said.

Huang said China made up roughly 33.33% of the U.S. tech industry’s market and would be impossible to replace as both a source of components and an end market for its products.

What’s more devastating is the longer term. Chinese companies are now already building their chips to rival Nvidia’s market-leading gaming, graphics, and artificial intelligence processors. This is happening now and once critical market share is lost, there is no way of gaining it back.

What will be its implications on American companies? It will be the demise of the U.S. tech companies because market growth and demand will be in China, especially in the fields of AI and most other advanced technology applications.

Chinese archaeologists uncover World War II ‘horror bunker’ where Japanese scientists conducted lethal human experiments and shared data with US

Discovery of notorious Japanese army Unit 731 underground biological weapons laboratory at Anda ‘could lead’ to new evidence of war crimes
The unit’s leaders were granted immunity by Washington in exchange for the data from some of the most brutal experiments in history

Stephen Chen in Beijing

Archaeologists have located an underground research facility where Japanese military scientists conducted “horrific biological weapon experiments” on human subjects during World War II in northeast China.

The facility, near the city of Anda in Heilongjiang province, was the largest and most frequently used test site for the Japanese Imperial Army’s notorious Unit 731 that carried out some of the most brutal human experiments in history between 1935 and 1945.

Historical records show Unit 731’s experiments at the Anda site included infecting prisoners with deadly diseases and testing new biological weapons. Some of the most gruesome studies were conducted in underground bunkers designed to contain and control the spread of infectious agents.

Article HERE

Antarcticas Secret Alien

Jimmy Dore Added To Ukraine Government’s Kill List!

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake recipe comes from Rozanek’s Bakery, St. Louis, Missouri. This bakery has been in business for over 60 years.

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup evaporated milk
Confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Cake: In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup flour and 3 tablespoons sugar.
Cut in 1/3 cup butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling.
Use a flat bottom measuring cup to pat into the bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan.
Filling: In the mixing bowl, beat the 1 1/4 cups sugar and 3/4 cup butter or butter until combined.
Beat in the corn syrup and egg until just combined.
Add the 1 cup flour and evaporated milk alternately to the mixing bowl, beating until just combined (batter will appear slightly curdled).
Pour into crust-lined baking pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes or until cake is nearly firm when you shake it. It should jiggle slightly in the center
Let cool in pan on wire rack.
Remove to serving plate.
Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

UPDATED — Not so fast . . . U.S. SEC-DEF: “Ukraine is Losing . . .”

World Hal Turner 25 May 2023

United States Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, at a Press Conference attended by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, admitted this afternoon “Ukraine is LOSING on this battlefield.”

Search Engines like Google seemed to go into instant Censorship overdrive when videos like the one below started coming out. Clearly, Google does not want anyone knowing what Hal Turner Radio Show listeners have known for months! Ukraine __ is __ losing.

Here’s the remark made during today’s press conference:

Now, THIS ought to be interesting. I wonder how outfits like FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and especially REDDIT are going to deal with this ugly turn of reality?

I suspect almost complete censorship by these social media outlets, while they try to wrap their little left-wing brains around this fact.

Oh, and it ought to be a real eye-opener when all those morons with Ukraine flags in their profiles, start hearing about this. I think there could literally be rivers of liberal tears !!!!!!

From the beginning of this conflict, I told everyone who reads this site, and everyone who listens to my show “Ukraine lost the moment the Russian Army crossed their border.”

The West was clearly in denial. Still has been until . . . today.

Now what?

UPDATE: 7:10 PM EDT —

Well, it turns out that the people who grabbed the video above, took Lloyd Austin’s comments COMPLETELY out of context.

I have now seen the ENTIRE press conference video and while Austin did utter the words, he did so as follows:

“Sometimes when we have these conversations, it seems like Ukraine is losing . . .uhhh. . . on this battlefield. That’s NOT the case.”

He then went on to explain why the US needs to keep upping the ante, and send more and more, higher level weapons to Ukraine.

Call me dumb, but if Ukraine is winning, why do we need to keep upping the ante?

Maybe because Ukraine is, in fact, losing?

Biden Says U.S.-China Relationship Is Warming Up!

The Kremlin says it will shutter its consulate in Sweden and informed Stockholm that it will also close the Swedish consulate in Russia, declaring five Swedish diplomats persona non grata.

Wisconsin-Style French Onion Soup

While you might imagine French onion soup in a Parisian brasserie, Wisconsin-Style French Onion Soup is the ultimate at-home meal to soothe your worries and warm your soul from the inside. Stacked high with sweetly caramelized onions, crusty bread and piles of melted cheese, it’s hard to imagine anything better.

Active time: 40 min | Yield: 8 servings, 1 cup each

Ingredients

5 tablespoons butter, cubed and divided
3 pounds medium onions, halved and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
12 ounces lager beer
4 cups (1 quart) beef broth
8 ounces pretzel rolls, buns or bread, cubed
10 ounces Blaser’s Mild Wisconsin Brick cheese, shredded (2 1/2 cups)

Instructions

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a Dutch oven over low heat. Add onions; cook, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season with salt and pepper. Stir in sugar. Cook, uncovered, over medium heat for 35 to 40 minutes or until onions are deep brown, stirring frequently.
Gradually stir in beer; allow soup to boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2 to 3 minutes.
Stir in beef broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes longer or until broth is slightly reduced, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Melt remaining butter; toss butter with pretzel bread on a 15 x 10 inch baking pan. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until bread is toasted, turning once.
Ladle soup into eight ovenproof serving bowls. Top each with bread cubes; sprinkle with brick.
Broil 3 to 4 inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Notes

Brick cheese is a Wisconsin original. Traditional aged or German-style brick has a beige smear on its surface; the color darkens and flavor intensifies with age. Trimming the rind reduces its aroma and flavor.

Accusing China of spying on US infrastructure a US-initiated ‘disinformation campaign’: Chinese FM

By Global Times Published: May 25, 2023 07:36 PM Updated: May 26, 2023 12:14 AM

It is obviously a collective disinformation campaign launched by the US through the Five Eyes intelligence alliance to serve its geopolitical agenda, Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday as some Western countries and Microsoft alleged on Wednesday that a Chinese hacking group is “spying on a wide range of US critical infrastructure organizations.”

According to Reuters, Western intelligence agencies and Microsoft said on Wednesday that a state-sponsored Chinese hacking group is alleged to have been “spying on a wide range of US critical infrastructure organizations, from telecommunications to transportation hubs.”

Microsoft claimed in its report that the espionage has also targeted the US island territory of Guam, home to strategically important American military bases, adding that “mitigating this attack could be challenging.”

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a Thursday press briefing that this is an extremely unprofessional report – a patchwork with a broken chain of evidence. “We also noted that the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the cybersecurity agencies of the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, almost simultaneously issued similar reports. Apparently, this has been a collective disinformation campaign launched by the US through the Five Eyes to serve its geopolitical agenda,” Mao said.

It’s widely known that the Five Eyes is the world’s biggest intelligence association and the NSA the world’s biggest hacking group. It is ironic that the Five Eyes jointly released a report filled with disinformation, Mao noted. The involvement of certain company in the report indicates that the US is using additional channels to spread disinformation other than through government agencies. This is not the first time – and certainly not the last time – for them to do so. Whatever their subterfuge, it will not change the fact that the US is the champion of hacking.

In September 2022, relevant Chinese institutions released a report detailing the actions of NSA’s attacks on China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University. The US should explain immediately about its cyber attacks and should not spread disinformation and detract attention from what it had done, Mao added.

Why is everything about China in American media right now? Shouldn’t they be focused on getting America on track than vilify the Chinese all the time?

The United States is unable to improve a series of prominent domestic issues and can only shift public attention by creating an imaginary enemy and exaggerating the so-called “threat”.

The current United States has a severely disabled system for protecting civil rights, a hollowing out of American-style democratic elections, increasing racial discrimination and inequality, worsening basic survival crises for lower-class citizens, and historic setbacks in women and children’s rights. American politicians serving the interests of the oligarchs not only increasingly lose the subjective will and objective ability to respond to the basic demands of ordinary people and defend the basic rights of ordinary citizens, but also are unable to solve their own structural problems. Instead, they collude with the media to smear and attack other countries, creating opposition, division, and chaos in the international community.

The direction of American governance is just as written in “1984”, “Ignorance is Strength”. The United States carefully crafts its propaganda tools and, through various means, spreads a large amount of false information and inaccurate reports, inducing American people to regard the American political system as an unbreakable truth and causing them to have incorrect perceptions of other countries in the world. Compared to cultivating awareness of independent thinking among the people, the US government and media are more willing to see their own people become political tools that they can manipulate at will.

South Korea warns US could ‘overburden’ its chipmakers with China limits

A classic case of not doing the math before attacking China.

Article HERE

12 Most Amazing Unexpected Military Finds

What an angel this man is!

Thank you Sir for saving the animals and bringing them to safety. This man is a hero and a role model. Let’s all do our part to help the animals and help each other. This warms my heart deeply!

Iran launches new precision-guided Kheibar ballistic missile

Thursday, 25 May 2023 5:57 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 25 May 2023 10:46 AM ]

Iran has successfully test-launched its most advanced Khorramshahr-class ballistic missile called Kheibar, a medium-range precision-guided missile that can carry a 1,500 kg warhead.

The Khoramshahr 4 missile was unveiled Thursday morning in the presence of Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani during an event marking the 41st anniversary of the liberation of the southwestern city of Khorramshahr.

Kheibar is a liquid-fueled missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and a warhead weighing 1,500 kilograms, designed by the Ministry of Defense’s Aerospace Industries Organization.

The missile’s extended range, advanced guidance and control system, and improved structural features further solidify Iran’s status as a formidable missile power.

“The message of the Ministry of Defense… is that we are fully committed to defending our country and the achievements of the Islamic Revolution,” Ashtiani said during the unveiling ceremony.

“We are taking steps to equip the Armed Forces in various sectors of defense such as missiles, drones, air defense, and more. Undoubtedly, more (achievements) will be unveiled in the future,” the defense minister stated.

The Khorramshahr class of missiles have impressive strategic and tactical capabilities.

They are known for their unique guidance and control system during the mid-course phase – the longest stretch of flight when the missile is coasting, or freefalling towards its target.

This feature allows Kheibar to control and adjust its trajectory outside the Earth’s atmosphere, and to deactivate its guidance system upon entering the atmosphere, giving it complete immunity against electronic warfare attacks.

“One of the distinguishing features of this missile is its radar evasiveness and the ability to bypass enemy air defenses due to its low radar cross-section (RCS),” Gen. Ashtiani said.

Thanks to its advanced control system, Kheibar’s warhead does not need the typical thin-wing arrangement, which in turn allows the missile to pack up a heavier explosive load.

Iran’s Army in possession of world’s top missile, radar systems: Top commander

A senior Iranian commander says top radar and missile systems of the country’s Army have turned into a thorn in the eyes of the enemies.

The Kheibar missile also boasts an incredibly short preparation and launch time.

The use of self-igniting (hypergolic) fuel and the absence of the need for fuel injection and horizontal alignment after the verticalization phase have cut Kheibar’s launch time down to less than 12 minutes.

Furthermore, Kheibar is powered by an advanced liquid-fueled engine that enables the missile to reach speeds of 16 Mach outside the atmosphere and 8 Mach within the atmosphere, giving the missile an exceptional impact force.

The high speed at which the warhead makes impact with the designated target also prevents enemy air defense systems from detecting, tracking, and taking action to shoot down the missile.

The unveiling of Kheibar marks a significant advancement in Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and demonstrates the country’s commitment to enhancing its defense and deterrent power.

Iranian officials have long asserted that the country’s military capabilities are entirely meant for defense, and that its missile program will never be up for negotiations.

20 BIG RETAILERS Closing Down Right Now!

https://youtu.be/eAVWx_T6f6I

Russia signs deal to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus

World Hal Turner 25 May 2023

Russia and Belarus signed a deal Thursday formalizing the deployment of Moscow’s tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its ally, although control of the weapons remains in the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of the shorter-range weapons in Belarus earlier this year in a move widely seen as a warning to the West as it stepped up military support for Ukraine.

When the weapons would be deployed wasn’t announced, but Putin has said the construction of storage facilities in Belarus for them would be completed by July 1.

The Russian defense minister said today:

“In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere.”

Speaking in Moscow, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said “the movement of the nuclear weapons has begun.”

The Roofers are here today . . .

Nation Hal Turner 25 May 2023

As mentioned on my radio shows, the house here in Pennsylvania which I inherited from my mom, needs a new roof. The Roofers arrived at about 7:00 AM this morning, along with the 30 yard dumpster for construction debris.

Getting the dumpster down the curved driveway onto the property seemed like it was going to be tough, but the truck driver was from Brooklyn, NY (originally) and got it down onto the property like a pro!

Next, a couple vanloads of roofers arrived – even girls!

They strapped-on their hammers, took their tools up ladders, and began taking off the old roofing shingles. They spread tarps on the ground to throw the debris for easy clean-up, and began throwing the removed shingles onto the tarps.

They had a third of the house cleared in short order and then began removing the 1/2″ plywood roof itself; right down to the rafter joists!

By 8:30, two thirds of the house had no plywood roof!

Just before 8:30, the delivery truck from the lumber company arrived with 56 sheets of 5/8″ plywood, plywood clips, and nails. The truck had its own fork truck attached to the back and the driver used that fork lift to bring the lumber down to the job site.

Incidentally, the plywood clips go on the ends and sides of each sheet of plywood and act as spring-spacers to leave about 1/4″ gap between each sheet of plywood, so when the roof heats-up, and the plywood expands, there is no buckling of the roof!

As you might guess, this is a really busy morning here.

Thankfully, clear blue skies, gentle breeze, cool temperature . . . good work weather.

The two satellite uplinks for my radio show have to come off the old roof, so the new one can be installed. They won’t be back for a few days, so one of the “fail-overs” for my radio show will be out of commission until they’re back, but the show still has cable modem and cellular fail-over. I expect the show will air just fine.

I have a bunch of pictures, but am hesitant to put them online. If I do, I have to remove the EXIF data which specifies location, so it’s a hassle to do. Might do it later, we’ll see.

More later . . . .

Australia announces Men can now BREASTFEED

Two women in Australia were told that it is illegal to say that men cannot breastfeed on Twitter. Is it now? Who in the Australian government is asking Twitter to enforce these new laws? Meanwhile, a politician in the U.K., Baroness Falkner, is under investigation for using the term “bloke in lipstick.” Or is she being targeted for insisting on a legal definition of biological sex? Probably the second one.

All 700 boxes of transmissions from the Apollo lunar missions are missing WTF

The Apollo landings were of a nature that completely stopped the Soviet Union space program. They had a robust program, that was leaps and bounds better and more complete than the United States program, but suddenly that all ended abruptly when the United States landed on the moon.

But now, in the 2020’s we see just how extensive the network of lies, and slight of hand is, regarding the United States. Everything is a trick. Everything is a lie. Everything is a deception.

Could the Apollo landings be one such lie?

Some of you are probably thinking that everyone has already seen the footage anyway, when it was allegedly broadcast live back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, or on NASA’s website, or on YouTube, or on numerous television documentaries. But you would be mistaken. The truth is that the original footage has never been aired, anytime or anywhere – and now, since the tapes seem to have conveniently gone missing, it quite obviously never will be.

The fact that the tapes are missing (and according to NASA, have been for over three decades), amazingly enough, was not even the most compelling information that the Reuters article had to offer. Also to be found was an explanation of how the alleged Moonwalk tapes that we all know and love were created: “Because NASA’s equipment was not compatible with TV technology of the day, the original transmissions had to be displayed on a monitor and re-shot by a TV camera for broadcast.”

So what we saw then, and what we have seen in all the footage ever released by NASA since then, were not in fact live transmissions. To the contrary, it was footage shot off a television monitor, and a tiny black-and-white monitor at that. That monitor may have been running live footage, I suppose, but it seems far more likely that it was running taped footage. NASA of course has never explained why, even if it were true that the original broadcasts had to be ‘re-shot,’ they never subsequently released any of the actual ‘live’ footage. But I guess that’s a moot point now, what with the tapes having gone missing.

We start with this article…

Wagging the Moondoggie: Part I

by Dave McGowan | Oct 1, 2009

“It is commonly believed that man will fly directly from the earth to the moon, but to do this, we would require a vehicle of such gigantic proportions that it would prove an economic impossibility. It would have to develop sufficient speed to penetrate the atmosphere and overcome the earth’s gravity and, having traveled all the way to the moon, it must still have enough fuel to land safely and make the return trip to earth. Furthermore, in order to give the expedition a margin of safety, we would not use one ship alone, but a minimum of three … each rocket ship would be taller than New York’s Empire State Building [almost ¼ mile high] and weigh about ten times the tonnage of the Queen Mary, or some 800,000 tons.”—Wernher von Braun, the father of the Apollo space program, writing in Conquest of the Moon

I can see all of you scratching your heads out there and I know exactly what it is that you are thinking: “Why the hell are we taking this detour to the Moon? What happened to Laurel Canyon? Have you completely lost your mind?”

*Sigh*

It all began a few months ago, when I became very busy at my day job as well as with family drama and with what turned out to be a very time-consuming side project, all of which made it increasingly difficult for me to carve out chunks of time to work on the remaining chapters in the series. Over the next two months or so, I pretty much lost all momentum and soon found it hard to motivate myself to write even when I could find the time.

That happens sometimes. Though it sounds rather cliché, ‘writer’s block’ is a very real phenomenon. There are many times when I can sit down at the keyboard and the words flow out of my head faster than I can get them down on the page. But there are also times when producing just one halfway decent sentence seems a near impossible task. This was one of those times.

I found a new source of inspiration, however, when my wife e-mailed me the recent story about the fake Dutch Moon rock, which I and many others found quite amusing, and which also reminded me that I had a lot of other bits and pieces of information concerning the Apollo project that I had collected over the nine years that have passed since I first wrote about the alleged Moon landings. After taking that first look, back in 2000, I was pretty well convinced that the landings were, in fact, faked, but it was perfectly obvious that the rather short, mostly tongue-in-cheek post that I put up back in July of 2000 was not going to convince anyone else of that.

So I contemplated taking a more comprehensive look at the Apollo program. Toward that end, I pulled up my original Apollo post along with various other bits and pieces scattered throughout past newsletters, threw in all the newer material that had never made it onto my website, and then combed the Internet for additional information. In doing so, I realized that a far better case could be made than what I had previously offered to readers.

I also realized that a far better case could be made than what is currently available on the ‘net.

I was rather surprised actually by how little there is out there – a couple of books by Bill Kaysing and Ralph Rene, a smattering of websites and a variety of YouTube videos of varying quality. Virtually all of the websites and videos tend to stick to the same ground covered by Kaysing and Rene, and they almost all use the same NASA photographs to argue the same points. So too do the sites devoted to ‘debunking’ the notion that the landings were faked, and those sites seem to actually outnumber the hoax sites.

While suffering through the numbing uniformity of the various websites on both sides of the aisle, it became perfectly clear that the hoax side of the debate was in serious need of a fresh approach and some new insights. So I began writing again. Feverishly. That does not mean, however, that I have abandoned the Laurel Canyon series. I intend to get back to it quite soon.

And truth be told, while the Apollo story may initially appear to be a radical departure from the ongoing Laurel Canyon series, it actually isn’t much of a detour at all. After all, we’re still going to be living in the 1960s and 1970s. And to a significant degree, we’re probably still going to be hanging out in Laurel Canyon – because who else, after all, was NASA going to trust to handle the post-production work on all that Apollo footage if not Lookout Mountain Laboratory?

I am very well aware, by the way, that there are many, many people out there – even many of the people who have seen through other tall tales told by our government – who think that Moon hoax theorists are complete kooks. And a whole lot of coordinated effort has gone into casting them as such. That makes wading into the Moon hoax debate a potentially dangerous affair.

Remember when Luther (played by Don Knotts) gets taken to court and sued for slander in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken? And don’t try to pretend like you’ve never seen it, because we both know that you have. So anyway, he goes to court and a character witness is called and the guy delivers credible testimony favoring Luther and it is clear that the courtroom is impressed and everything is looking good for our nebbish hero, Luther. Remember what happens next though? On cross-examination, the witness reveals that he is the president of a UFO club that holds their meetings on Mars!

The courtroom, of course, erupts with laughter and all of that formerly credible testimony immediately flies right out the window.

I have already received e-mails warning that I will suffer a similar fate (from people who heard me discussing the topic on Meria Heller’s radio show). Not to worry though – I have somewhat of an advantage over others who have attempted to travel this path: I don’t really care. My mission is to ferret out the truth, wherever it may lie; if at various points along the way, some folks are offended and others question my sanity, that’s not really something that I lose a lot of sleep over.

Anyway, a whole lot of people are extremely reluctant to give up their belief in the success of the Apollo missions. A lot of people, in fact, pretty much shut down at the mere mention of the Moon landings being faked, refusing to even consider the possibility (Facebook, by the way, is definitely not the best place to promote the notion that the landings were faked, in case anyone was wondering). And yet there are some among the True Believers who will allow that, though they firmly believe that we did indeed land on the Moon, they would have understood if it had been a hoax. Given the climate of the times, with Cold War tensions simmering and anxious Americans looking for some sign that their country was still dominant and not technologically inferior to the Soviets, it could be excused if NASA had duped the world.

Such sentiments made me realize that the Moon landing lie is somewhat unique among the big lies told to the American people in that it was, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively benign lie, and one that could be easily spun. Admitting that the landings were faked would not have nearly the same impact as, say, admitting to mass murdering 3,000 Americans and destroying billions of dollars worth of real estate and then using that crime as a pretext to wage two illegal wars and strip away civil, legal and privacy rights.

And yet, despite the fact that it was a relatively benign lie, there is a tremendous reluctance among the American people to let go of the notion that we sent men to the Moon. There are a couple of reasons for that, one of them being that there is a romanticized notion that those were great years – years when one was proud to be an American. And in this day and age, people need that kind of romanticized nostalgia to cling to.

But that is not the main reason that people cling so tenaciously, often even angrily, to what is essentially the adult version of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. What primarily motivates them is fear. But it is not the lie itself that scares people; it is what that lie says about the world around us and how it really functions. For if NASA was able to pull off such an outrageous hoax before the entire world, and then keep that lie in place for four decades, what does that say about the control of the information we receive? What does that say about the media, and the scientific community, and the educational community, and all the other institutions we depend on to tell us the truth? What does that say about the very nature of the world we live in?

That is what scares the hell out of people and prevents them from even considering the possibility that they could have been so thoroughly duped. It’s not being lied to about the Moon landings that people have a problem with, it is the realization that comes with that revelation: if they could lie about that, they could lie about anything.

It has been my experience that the vast majority of the people who truly believe in the Moon landings know virtually nothing about the alleged missions. And when confronted with some of the more implausible aspects of those alleged missions, the most frequently offered argument is the one that every ‘conspiracy theorist’ has heard at least a thousand times: “That can’t possibly be true because there is no way that a lie that big could have been covered up all this time … too many people would have known about it … yadda, yadda, yadda.”

But what if your own eyes and your innate (though suppressed) ability to think critically and independently tell you that what all the institutions of the State insist is true is actually a lie? What do you do then? Do you trust in your own cognitive abilities, or do you blindly follow authority and pretend as though everything can be explained away? If your worldview will not allow you to believe what you can see with your own eyes, then the problem, it would appear, is with your worldview. So do you change that worldview, or do you live in denial?

The Moon landing lie is unique among the big lies in another way as well: it is a lie that seemingly cannot be maintained indefinitely. Washington need never come clean on, say, the Kennedy assassinations. After all, they’ve been lying about the Lincoln assassination for nearly a century-and-a-half now and getting away with it. But the Moon landing hoax, I would think, has to have some kind of expiration date.

How many decades can pass, after all, without anyone coming even close to a reenactment before people start to catch on? Four obviously haven’t been enough, but how about five, or six, or seven? How about when we hit the 100-year anniversary?

If the first trans-Atlantic flight had not been followed up with another one for over forty years, would anyone have found that unusual? If during the early days of the automobile, when folks were happily cruising along in their Model T’s at a top speed of 40 MPH, someone had suddenly developed a car that could be driven safely at 500 MPH, and then after a few years that car disappeared and for many decades thereafter, despite tremendous advances in automotive technology, no one ever again came close to building a car that could perform like that, would that seem at all odd?

There are indications that this lie does indeed have a shelf life. According to a July 17, 2009 post on CNN.com, “It’s been 37 years since the last Apollo moon mission, and tens of millions of younger Americans have no memories of watching the moon landings live. A 2005-2006 poll by Mary Lynne Dittmar, a space consultant based in Houston, Texas, found that more than a quarter of Americans 18 to 25 expressed some doubt that humans set foot on the moon.”

The goal of any dissident writer is to crack open the doors of perception enough to let a little light in – so that hopefully the seeds of a political reawakening will be planted. There are many doors that can be pried open to achieve that goal, but this one seems particularly vulnerable. Join me then as we take a little trip to the Moon. Or at least pretend to.

“If NASA had really wanted to fake the moon landings – we’re talking purely hypothetical here – the timing was certainly right. The advent of television, having reached worldwide critical mass only years prior to the moon landing, would prove instrumental to the fraud’s success.”
Wired Magazine

Adolph Hitler knew a little bit about the fine art of lying. In Mein Kampf, he wrote that, “If you’re going to tell a lie, make sure it’s a really fucking big lie.”

Truth be told, I’m not exactly conversant in the German language so that may not be an exact translation, but it certainly captures the gist of what the future Fuhrer was trying to say. He went on to explain that this was so because everyone in their everyday lives tells little lies, and so they fully expect others to do so as well. But most people do not expect anyone to tell a real whopper … you know, the kind of brazen, outlandish lie that is just too absurd to actually be a lie. The kind of lie that is so over-the-top that no one would dare utter it if it was in fact a lie.

That is the type of lie, according to Hitler, that will fool the great masses of people, even when the lie is so transparently thin that it couldn’t possibly stand up to any kind of critical analysis by anyone actually exercising their brain rather than just blindly accepting the legitimacy of the information they are fed. Take, for example, the rather fanciful notion that the United States landed men on the Moon in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. That’s the kind of lie we’re talking about here: the kind that seems to defy logic and reason and yet has become ingrained in the national psyche to such an extent that it passes for historical fact.

And anyone who would dare question that ‘historical fact,’ needless to say, must surely be stark raving mad.

Before proceeding any further, I should probably mention here that, until relatively recently, if I had heard anyone putting forth the obviously drug-addled notion that the Moon landings were faked, I would have been among the first to offer said person a ride down to the grip store. While conducting research into various other topics, however, it has become increasingly apparent that there are almost always a few morsels of truth in any ‘conspiracy theory,’ no matter how outlandish that theory may initially appear to be, and so despite my initial skepticism, I was compelled to take a closer look at the Apollo program.

The first thing that I discovered was that the Soviet Union, right up until the time that we allegedly landed the first Apollo spacecraft on the Moon, was solidly kicking our ass in the space race. It wasn’t even close. The world wouldn’t see another mismatch of this magnitude until decades later when Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini came along. The Soviets launched the first orbiting satellite, sent the first animal into space, sent the first man into space, performed the first space walk, sent the first three-man crew into space, was the first nation to have two spacecraft in orbit simultaneously, performed the first unmanned docking maneuver in space, and landed the first unmanned probe on the Moon.

Everything the U.S. did, prior to actually sending a manned spacecraft to the Moon, had already been done by the Soviets, who clearly were staying at least a step or two ahead of our top-notch team of imported Nazi scientists. The smart money was clearly on the Soviets to make it to the Moon first, if anyone was to do so. Their astronauts had logged five times as many hours in space as had ours. And they had a considerable amount of time, money, scientific talent and, perhaps most of all, national pride riding on that goal.

And yet, amazingly enough, despite the incredibly long odds, the underdog Americans made it first. And not only did we make it first, but after a full forty years, the Soviets apparently still haven’t quite figured out how we did it. The question that is clearly begged here is a simple one: Why is it that the nation that was leading the world in the field of space travel not only didn’t make it to the Moon back in the 1960s, but still to this day have never made it there? Could it be that they were just really poor losers? I am imagining that perhaps the conversation over in Moscow’s equivalent of NASA went something like this:

Boris: Comrade Ivan, there is terrible news today: the Yankee imperialists have beaten us to the Moon. What should we do?
Ivan: Let’s just shit-can our entire space program.
Boris: But comrade, we are so close to success! And we have so much invested in the effort!
Ivan: Fuck it! If we can’t be first, we aren’t going at all.
Boris: But I beg of you comrade! The moon has so much to teach us, and the Americans will surely not share with us the knowledge they have gained.
Ivan: Nyet!

In truth, the entire space program has largely been, from its inception, little more than an elaborate cover for the research, development and deployment of space-based weaponry and surveillance systems. The media never talk about such things, of course, but government documents make clear that the goals being pursued through space research are largely military in nature. For this reason alone, it is inconceivable that the Soviets would not have followed the Americans onto the Moon for the sake of their own national defense.

It is not just the Soviets, of course, who have never made it to the Moon. The Chinese haven’t either. Nor has any other industrialized nation, despite the rather obvious fact that every such nation on the planet now possesses technology that is light-years beyond what was available to NASA scientists in the 1960s.

Some readers will recall that (and younger readers might want to cover their eyes here, because the information to follow is quite shocking), in the 1960s, a full complement of home electronics consisted of a fuzzy, 13-channel, black-and-white television set with a rotary tuning dial, rabbit ears and no remote. Such cutting-edge technology as the pocket calculator was still five years away from hitting the consumer market.

It is perfectly obvious, of course, that it was not consumer electronics that allegedly sent men to the Moon. The point here though is that advances in aerospace technology mirror advances in consumer technology, and just as there has been revolutionary change in entertainment and communications technology, so too has aerospace technology advanced by light-years in the last four decades. Technologically speaking, the NASA scientists working on the Apollo project were working in the Dark Ages. So if they could pull it off back then, then just about anyone should be able to do it now.

It would be particularly easy, needless to say, for America to do it again, since we’ve already done all the research and development and testing. Why then, I wonder, have we not returned to the Moon since the last Apollo flight? Following the alleged landings, there was considerable talk of establishing a space station on the Moon, and of possibly even colonizing Earth’s satellite. Yet all such talk was quickly dropped and soon forgotten and for nearly four decades now not a single human has been to the Moon.

Again, the question that immediately comes to mind is: Why? Why has no nation ever duplicated, or even attempted to duplicate, this miraculous feat? Why has no other nation even sent a manned spacecraft to orbitthe Moon? Why has no other nation ever attempted to send a manned spacecraft anywhere beyond low-Earth orbit?

Is it because we already learned everything there was to learn about the Moon? If so, then could it reasonably be argued that it would be possible to make six random landings on the surface of the Earth and come away with a complete and thorough understanding of this heavenly body? Are we to believe that the international scientific community has no open questions that could be answered by a, ahem, ‘return’ trip to the Moon? And is there no military advantage to be gained by sending men to the Moon? Has man’s keen interest in exploring celestial bodies, evident throughout recorded history, suddenly gone into remission?

Maybe, you say, it’s just too damned expensive. But the 1960s were not a particularly prosperous time in U.S. history and we were engaged in an expensive Cold War throughout the decade as well as an even more expensive ‘hot’ war in Southeast Asia, and yet we still managed to finance no less than seven manned missions to the Moon, using a new, disposable, multi-sectioned spacecraft each time. And yet in the four decades since then, we are apparently supposed to believe that no other nation has been able to afford to do it even once.

While we’re on the subject of the passage of time, exactly how much time do you suppose will have to pass before people in significant numbers begin to question the Moon landings? NASA has recently announced that we will not be returning, as previously advertised, by the year 2020. That means that we will pass the fifty-year anniversary of the first alleged landing without a sequel. Will that be enough elapsed time that people will begin to wonder? What about after a full century has passed by? Will our history books still talk about the Moon landings? And if so, what will people make of such stories? When they watch old preserved films from the 1960s, how will they reconcile the laughably primitive technology of the era with the notion that NASA sent men to the Moon?

Consider this peculiar fact: in order to reach the surface of the Moon from the surface of the Earth, the Apollo astronauts would have had to travel a minimum of 234,000 miles*. Since the last Apollo flight allegedly returned from the Moon in 1972, the furthest that any astronaut from any country has traveled from the surface of the Earth is about 400 miles. And very few have even gone that far. The primary components of the current U.S. space program – the space shuttles, the space station, and the Hubble Telescope – operate at an orbiting altitude of about 200 miles.

(*NASA gives the distance from the center of Earth to the center of the Moon as 239,000 miles. Since the Earth has a radius of about 4,000 miles and the Moon’s radius is roughly 1,000 miles, that leaves a surface-to-surface distance of 234,000 miles. The total distance traveled during the alleged missions, including Earth and Moon orbits, ranged from 622,268 miles for Apollo 13 to 1,484,934 miles for Apollo 17. All on a single tank of gas.)

To briefly recap then, in the twenty-first century, utilizing the most cutting-edge modern technology, the best manned spaceship the U.S. can build will only reach an altitude of 200 miles. But in the 1960s, we built a half-dozen of them that flew almost 1,200 times further into space. And then flew back. And they were able to do that despite the fact that the Saturn V rockets that powered the Apollo flights weighed in at a paltry 3,000 tons, about .004% of the size that the principal designer of those very same Saturn rockets had previously said would be required to actually get to the Moon and back (primarily due to the unfathomably large load of fuel that would be required).

To put that into more Earthly terms, U.S. astronauts today travel no further into space than the distance between the San Fernando Valley and Fresno. The Apollo astronauts, on the other hand, traveled a distance equivalent to circumnavigating the planet around the equator nine-and-a-half times! And they did it with roughly the same amount of fuel that it now takes to make that 200 mile journey, which is why I want NASA to build my next car for me. I figure I’ll only have to fill up the tank once and it should last me for the rest of my life.

“But wait,” you say, “NASA has solid evidence of the validity of the Moon landings. They have, for example, all of that film footage shot on the moon and beamed live directly into our television sets.”

Since we’re on the subject, I have to mention that transmitting live footage back from the Moon was another rather innovative use of 1960s technology. More than two decades later, we would have trouble broadcasting live footage from the deserts of the Middle East, but in 1969, we could beam that shit back from the Moon with nary a technical glitch!

As it turns out, however, NASA doesn’t actually have all of that Moonwalking footage anymore. Truth be told, they don’t have any of it. According to the agency, all the tapes were lost back in the late 1970s. All 700 cartons of them. As Reuters reported on August 15, 2006, “The U.S. government has misplaced the original recording of the first moon landing, including astronaut Neil Armstrong’s famous ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ … Armstrong’s famous moonwalk, seen by millions of viewers on July 20, 1969, is among transmissions that NASA has failed to turn up in a year of searching, spokesman Grey Hautaluoma said. ‘We haven’t seen them for quite a while. We’ve been looking for over a year, and they haven’t turned up,’ Hautaluoma said … In all, some 700 boxes of transmissions from the Apollo lunar missions are missing.”

Given that these tapes allegedly documented an unprecedented and unduplicated historical event, one that is said to be the greatest technological achievement of the twentieth century, how in the world would it be possible to, uhmm, ‘lose’ 700 cartons of them? Would not an irreplaceable national treasure such as that be very carefully inventoried and locked away in a secure film vault? And would not copies have been made, and would not those copies also be securely tucked away somewhere? Come to think of it, would not multiple copies have been made for study by the scientific and academic communities?

Had NASA claimed that a few tapes, or even a few cartons of tapes, had been misplaced, then maybe we could give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps some careless NASA employee, for example, absent-mindedly taped a Super Bowl game over one of them. Or maybe some home porn. But does it really seem at all credible to claim that the entire collection of tapes has gone missing – all 700 cartons of them, the entire film record of the alleged Moon landings? In what alternative reality would that happen ‘accidentally’?

Some of you are probably thinking that everyone has already seen the footage anyway, when it was allegedly broadcast live back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, or on NASA’s website, or on YouTube, or on numerous television documentaries. But you would be mistaken. The truth is that the original footage has never been aired, anytime or anywhere – and now, since the tapes seem to have conveniently gone missing, it quite obviously never will be.

The fact that the tapes are missing (and according to NASA, have been for over three decades), amazingly enough, was not even the most compelling information that the Reuters article had to offer. Also to be found was an explanation of how the alleged Moonwalk tapes that we all know and love were created: “Because NASA’s equipment was not compatible with TV technology of the day, the original transmissions had to be displayed on a monitor and re-shot by a TV camera for broadcast.”

So what we saw then, and what we have seen in all the footage ever released by NASA since then, were not in fact live transmissions. To the contrary, it was footage shot off a television monitor, and a tiny black-and-white monitor at that. That monitor may have been running live footage, I suppose, but it seems far more likely that it was running taped footage. NASA of course has never explained why, even if it were true that the original broadcasts had to be ‘re-shot,’ they never subsequently released any of the actual ‘live’ footage. But I guess that’s a moot point now, what with the tapes having gone missing.

With NASA’s admission of how the original broadcasts were created, it is certainly not hard to imagine how fake Moon landing footage could have been produced. As I have already noted, the 1960s were a decidedly low-tech era, and NASA appears to have taken a very low-tech approach. As Moon landing skeptics have duly noted, if the broadcast tapes are played back at roughly twice their normal running speed, the astronauts appear to move about in ways entirely consistent with the way ordinary humans move about right here on planet Earth. Here then is the formula for creating Moonwalk footage: take original footage of guys in ridiculous costumes moving around awkwardly right here on our home planet, broadcast it over a tiny, low-resolution television monitor at about half speed, and then re-film it with a camera focused on that screen. The end result will be broadcast-ready tapes that, in addition to having that all-important grainy, ghosty, rather surreal ‘broadcast from the Moon’ look, also appear to show the astronauts moving about in entirely unnatural ways.

But not, it should be noted, too unnatural. And doesn’t that seem a little odd as well? If we’re being honest here (and for my testosterone-producing readers, this one is directed at you), the average male specimen, whether astronaut or plumber, never really grows up and stops being a little boy. And what guy, given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend some time in a reduced gravity environment, isn’t going to want to see how high he can jump? Or how far he can jump? Hitting a golf ball? Who the hell wants to see that? How about tossing a football for a 200-yard touchdown pass? Or how about the boys dazzling the viewing audience with some otherworldly acrobatics?

And yes, Neil and the guys did exhibit some playfulness at times while allegedly walking on the Moon, but doesn’t it seem a bit odd that they failed to do anything that couldn’t be faked simply by changing the tape speed? When I attended college, I knew a guy on the volleyball team who had a 32” vertical leap right here on Earth. So when I see guys jumping maybe 12”, if that, in a 1/6 gravity environment with no air resistance, I’m not really all that impressed.

Am I the only one, by the way, who finds it odd that people would move in slow motion on the Moon? Why would a reduced gravitational pull cause everything to move much more slowly? Given the fact that they were much lighter on their feet and not subject to air and wind resistance, shouldn’t the astronauts have been able to move quicker on the Moon than here on Earth? Was slow motion the only thing NASA could come up with to give the video footage an otherworldly feel?

Needless to say, if what has been proposed here is indeed how the ‘Moon landing’ footage in the public domain was created, then the highly incriminating original footage – which would have looked like any other footage shot here on Earth, except for the silly costumes and props – would have had to have been destroyed. Perhaps it’s not surprising then that NASA now takes the position that the original footage has been missing since “sometime in the late 1970s.”

Unfortunately, it isn’t just the video footage that is missing. Also allegedly beamed back from the Moon was voice data, biomedical monitoring data, and telemetry data to monitor the location and mechanical functioning of the spaceship. All of that data, the entire alleged record of the Moon landings, was on the 13,000+ reels that are said to be ‘missing.’ Also missing, according to NASA and its various subcontractors, are the original plans/blueprints for the lunar modules. And for the lunar rovers. And for the entire multi-sectioned Saturn V rockets.

There is, therefore, no way for the modern scientific community to determine whether all of that fancy 1960s technology was even close to being functional or whether it was all for show. Nor is there any way to review the physical record, so to speak, of the alleged flights. We cannot, for example, check the fuel consumption throughout the flights to determine what kind of magic trick NASA used to get the boys there and back with less than 1% of the required fuel. And we will never, it would appear, see the original, first-generation video footage.

You would think that someone at NASA would have thought to preserve such things. No wonder we haven’t given them the money to go back to the Moon; they’d probably just lose it.

(Deutsch) 🇩🇪 Germany – Chancellor Addresses United Nations General Debate, 77th Session

Actual video (mentioned in a previous article) without the overdub. Don’t even bother watching it unless you can understand German.

Big Changes for Europe

Russia eventually ripped the curtain down and denounced the treaty that mainly established security in Europe. From Maria Zakharova:

The masquerade is over, gentlemen!

Russia is denouncing the document signed in 1990 between the countries of the Warsaw Pact and NATO on the balance of the two blocs and the limitation of armaments along the line of contact. Behind this screen, the West, despite all its promises, openly escalated. Our attempts to adapt the treaty in 1999 were ignored.

NATO has brazenly advanced towards the Russian borders, having already carried out 9 waves of expansion of its military bloc, including our neighbor Finland.

Under these conditions, the denunciation became simply a necessary measure that threw off false covers and exposed reality. To put it bluntly, she’s intimidating!

In the last sentence, she means that the sheer size of the western fraud, swindle and deception is massive. She is talking about the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, which at the time formed the basis and cornerstone of European security. If you were wondering about the term ‘indivisible security’, then it comes mainly from this treaty. HERE

What it means in reality is that I cannot think of another treaty, another agreement that legally stands between Russia and a wider war. Then we have Mr.Shoigu yesterday saying that:

Western nations have basically been waging an undeclared war against Moscow and Minsk, according to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was speaking on Thursday with his Belarusian colleague Viktor Khrenin. Sergei Shoigu stated, ‘Today we are facing the collective West, which is virtually waging war against our countries’.

He stated that ‘the NATO’s military activities have become as aggressive as possible’. ‘The joint armed forces of the alliance in Eastern Europe are being made more combat-ready through the implementation of a number of initiatives. The deployment of more military personnel and facilities, as well as an increase in training and reconnaissance operations close to the Union State’s frontiers,’ said the head of the Russian military department.

I leave you to draw your own conclusion from this. What it means to me, is that the possibility of a wider war is now measured in probability percentage. The Mearsheimer video posted yesterday, tells us about the inability of NATO now to de-escalate. In addition, another new missile is unveiled in Russia. No doubt, Andrei Martyanov will tell us about it.

The following video is on a lighter note, but clearly indicates the Russia / China relationship. Again, draw your own conclusions.

Article HERE

Speaking out for China

TOP INTELLECTUALS IN THE U.S. stood up this week to speak out for China—and demand a stop to the powerful militaristic country’s drive to start an unnecessary war in East Asia.

The White House claim this week that they did not want conflict with China is “Denial and information distortion bordering on propaganda,” said Stephen Roach, Yale University professor and former chief economist at Morgan Stanley. The untrue statement was “classic Cold War posturing”, he said in statement on Twitter on Thursday.

Others agreed. Falsely painting the Chinese as trying to take over the world is bad for everyone, writer David Rothkopf argued in a Daily Beast essay printed today. Why paint China as a threat?

“Why? Why is it such a great threat even though the country has no history of conquest beyond its region in 5,000 years of history and is far from being able or inclined to pose a direct threat of attack to the U.S.?” he asked.

Even the relentlessly hostile Financial Times printed a column by Edward Luce admitting that the current geopolitical tension in the world did not come from China, but from the U.S.

“This week, Xi Jinping went further than before in naming America as the force behind the ‘containment’, ‘encirclement’ and ‘suppression’ of China. Though his rhetoric was provocative, it was not technically wrong,” wrote Luce in a column on Wednesday. Luce, like most FT writers, normally takes a very hostile line against China.

Offensive, but funny

Iowa Applesauce Cake

Ingredients

Cake

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting

6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Cake: In a large mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds.
Add both sugars and egg; beat until combined.
Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices.
Add flour mixture alternately with applesauce to butter mixture.
Stir in raisins and nuts.
Pour batter into a greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan and spread evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool in pan on wire rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat together cream cheese, softened butter and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in 2 cups of the confectioners’ sugar.
Beat in remaining 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar to make a spreadable frosting. Spread on cake.
For a decorative finish, set a doily lightly on frosted cake and sprinkle lightly with a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Carefully remove the doily.

Survey of the Japanese Submarine the 124 – mini documentary.

Is the UK like the USA, but less rich?

I am American, and I own a flat in North London. My mother’s family is from the UK, and we are still very close with our cousins there.

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Here are just some thoughts. This isn’t an exhaustive answer.

I think overall we’re more similar than we are different, but it is definitely different there.

Arriving in London feels like arriving in an East Coast US state or Canadian province, but much older and more populous. Things that I see Americans notice right away, are chimneys that look like they’re something out of Mary Poppins, and rows and rows of shops of all kinds along high streets. (Small businesses in the US have been utterly destroyed by Walmart.)

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As for less rich? I don’t get that impression at all. Just because things are smaller (shops, houses, flats, cars) doesn’t mean they’re less rich. In fact, the typical American doesn’t know the luxury of being able to walk up to the high street and take care of all of their errands within a hour, and not even get into a car.

Oh, and then to top it all off by walking home with food that is fresher and higher quality than anything you’ll find in most US cities that aren’t near farms.

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By the way, step into a Waitrose, and you’ll feel like you’re in a US supermarket. The only difference there is that the shopping carts (trolleys) are slightly smaller than ours, and their checkout employees are seated at the tills, rather than standing.

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For me personally, the weather is one of the biggest differences, but that’s mainly because I’m from the desert. But I love rain and fog and so I enjoy it. The grey skies are intensely grey though. It can feel like dusk all day long, on some days.

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One really cool thing is that North London is so diverse, that people generally can’t tell I am a foreigner from my American Southwest accent! It wasn’t always that way, but now there are so many immigrants and people from the all over the UK living there, that I sort of… just blend in, which I just love!

What’s the craziest or most dangerous thing that happened in your life?

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That’s my truck. Was my truck.

Summer of 2013. It was a normal day for me and my three sons. We were on our way to the storage place to retrieve a few important items and documents because we were in the middle of moving out to another city and needed proofs and such. It was a narrow two-way country road 50mph (70 to the locals). I had my turn signal on (at a dead stop) watching the oncoming traffic for my chance to take a left turn into the entrance of the facility when I just happened to look in my rearview and noticed some headlights coming up from behind really fast.

I recall shouting “Brace for impact! They’re not slowing down!” I couldn’t turn left because the oncoming traffic was still coming. Just then a truck slammed into the back of us! I would later find out he was going 70mph. It spun my truck into the left oncoming traffic. We were T-boned and spun around the other way. Then side swiped and spun again! We were hit three times at 70mph.

OnStar comes on over our radio and I cannot think about answering the woman on the other end because I’m seeing my then 4-year-old son unresponsive dangling from his car seat. My eldest son (13years then and in the passenger’s seat) is the only calm one in this situation and speaks to OnStar on my behalf. I’m checking on my middle son (10) and asking him to please wake up the baby. I tell him he’s okay and that he’s being a big boy and I’m so proud of him for taking care of his baby brother. I pull myself out of my side of the vehicle and climb into the back seat to my sons and take them out. The youngest vomited on me and kept apologizing and the middle wet his pants and was ashamed. My eldest came around and took my youngest from my arms and said “Mom, we’re okay. Everyone is okay. We’re not hurt.” He was right. No injuries whatsoever. We lived.

She Died Horseback Riding; What She Saw In The Afterlife Will Shock You (NDE)

The US is increasing its GDP by high inflation and printing tens of trillions of dollars, whereas China by increasing its manufacturing productivity. Why are the US and China GDP growth rates so different?

The US uses manufactured numbers and printed stacks of paper currency to create an economy. China uses manufactured goods at prices the world can afford, need and buy in huge quantities to create an economy.

It is the difference between a US fantasy Hollywood economy promoted by coercion with a powerful military as the enforcer and a Chinese well-organized real economy built on needs the world has and needs the Chinese people have, using honest mutually beneficial trading practices with more than 140 countries trading goods and services along the Chinese Belt and Road trade routes.

It is the difference between, Chinese Business and American monkey business

Switzerland

The G7 is an outdated tool of the US neo-empire

Washington has co-opted both the winners and the losers of World War II into defending Western domination around the globe

By Timur Fomenko, a political analyst

President Joe Biden, left, shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida prior to a bilateral meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Thursday, May 18, 2023, ahead of the start of the G-7 Summit. © AP Photo/Susan Walsh

The summit of G7 nations took place in Hiroshima, Japan over the last weekend.

Hiroshima is significant for a few reasons. First of all, it is known to the world as the location that the United States nuked, along with Nagasaki, at the end of World War II, which led to the surrender of the Empire of Japan and that country’s transformation into a US client state.

Secondly, Japan is working to remilitarize itself in line with America’s dual containment effort against China and Russia. Thus, while Japan is chair of the G7 this year, the event was a rubber-stamping of US-centric geopolitical goals which took aim at both countries.

However, what might be said about the G7 itself? Founded as a Cold War-era organization in 1975, and briefly incorporating the West’s aspirations for post-Soviet Russia, the group professes to represent the world’s “most advanced industrial countries,” but anyone could tell you this is an outdated category. Countries such as China and India, with economies larger than most G7 members, are not part of the group. Rather, the character and agenda of the G7 is distinctly ideological, and its goal is to preserve a Western-dominated concept of the world at all costs.

It should not go unnoticed that the G7 is an effective aggregation of former empires that once dominated the world unchallenged, now held under the wings and servitude of the US. Remarkably, all three Axis powers of World War II, defeated by the allies, are a part of this grouping. Although the respective fascist-oriented regimes of Germany, Italy and Japan were rightfully destroyed, these countries were all rebuilt as American client states following the war and their respective interests placed in the hands of Washington.

Similarly, the allied empires, which emerged victorious, including France, Britain and its imperial dominion, Canada, found that the war had severely depleted their national resources and strength to the point they could no longer continue as the global superpowers they had been. Consequently, they surrendered their leadership baton to the US and have ever since relied on following its lead to secure their interests around the world.

In each instance, all of these countries held positions of privilege from their imperial eras. Having colonized most of the globe, and Japan having militarily occupied much of Asia, these countries had made themselves tremendously wealthy. Britain’s fabulous wealth, for one, is tailored directly to the exploitation of Africa and India. Colonial empires were strictly commercial in character, using ideology as a justifying force for aggression, upholding their economic interests by immense military power. This gave these countries privilege, which thus formed the distinction between the Global North and the Global South.

Unable to carry their empires forward, either by exhaustion or defeat, these respective countries seek to sustain the unfair economic privileges they attained through compliance with the US, a “neo-empire” which is the inheritor of the international order they created. Thus, the G7, the aggregation of all these countries into one ideological grouping, is no coincidence. Their respective goal is to maintain their own economic privileges and to attempt to suppress changes in the international order that threaten their position, which in this case is the rise of the Global South and China.

On this note, the G7 buys into the US-led goals of attempting to blockade China from making breakthroughs in high-end technologies. It also wants to stop other countries from buying into Beijing’s development model and to sustain the fundamental gulf in wealth between the Global North and South. It wants to be the only group entitled to impose massive sanctions and embargoes on other countries and then decry China’s defense of its interests as “economic coercion.”

They also want to make sure that neither China nor Russia can challenge the West’s historic military dominance. The US has thus in effect co-opted both the winners and losers of World War II (minus the USSR) into one grouping and used it to continue the same world they were vested in. However, one undeniable fact is that the world is changing in ways that are not favorable to the G7. They no longer have that degree of dominance, and their share of global GDP is only going to shrink. As the BRICS economies continue to grow and multipolarity emerges, their own little exclusive club is hardly in a position to try and dictate the flow of the global economy.

This little club wants to remain rich, while stopping everyone else from enriching themselves as well. It isn’t going to work.

This Mistake Cost 16 Skydivers Their Lives (Lake Erie Disaster)

Does the US want to decouple with China or not? Just give a straight answer.

The United States does NOT know what it wants:

it wants access to the huge Chinese market for its products
access to cost effective Chinese suppliers for its consumers and manufacturers.

HOWEVER, it does NOT want Chinese competition

in the high profit, high margin products including semiconductors, aircraft and other industries which it currently lead

AND it is resentful of Chinese domination in key hi tech sectors including telecommunications, next generation products like EV and AI

Therefore it seeks to impede and reversed Chinese progress in these area thru:

sanctioning Chinese companies
restrict China’s access to underlying technologies
as well as other non-conventional atttacks
AND tried to get allied and other countries to do likewise

HOWEVER, it is clear that American efforts have failed.

The internal Chinese market is far too big, Chinese manufacturing too dominant AND, most all, the United Stated and its allies have sanctioned themselves off critical markets of the world including Russia, Iran and Syria.

Over the last few months, it is now clear that the Chinese have begun their fight back: from de-dollarization, the expansion of BRICS, the boycott of American products including corn and Boeing jets to declaring Micron a security risk. The Chinese have clearly concluded that the pendulum of power have swung in their favour AND they are correct.

The implosion of American power will be fast and furious.

The United States is reaping what it has sown.

A World War 2 Soldier Was Found Frozen in Ice!

Terrifying Discovery At Cleopatra s Tomb In Egypt That Changes History

Horseshoe Sandwich with Idaho® Fingerling Fries

The Horseshoe is a regional specialty in the Springfield, Illinois area. It is an open-faced sandwich on toasted bread that can utilize a variety of meats, topped with French fries and a creamy cheese sauce.

Yield: 4 sandwiches

Ingredients

Sandwich

4 toasted slices Texas toast
6 Idaho® Russian Banana Fingerling potatoes, sliced into fries
2 teaspoons olive oil
Freshly ground Italian seasoning blend
4 grilled hamburger patties, sprinkled with steak seasoning and seasoning salt before cooking
1 medium onion, sliced
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 red or green bell pepper, cut into large chunks
2 tablespoons butter

Cheese Sauce

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

Lay out potato slices onto cookie sheet lined with foil.
Drizzle olive oil over potatoes and use brush to evenly coat them.
Grind Italian seasoning over potatoes until there is a nice, even dusting of seasoning.
Place in oven heated to 425 degrees F. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until fries are cooked throughout and lightly brown.
Place onion, mushroom and pepper in foil. Place butter on top and sprinkle with freshly ground Italian seasoning. Tent foil and close. Place in oven. (They should be softened by the time the fries finish cooking.)
While the fries and vegetables bake, start on cheese sauce by melting butter in a small saucepan. Once melted, add flour and stir to make a roux.
Add milk and basil and stir constantly until it starts to bubble. Continue stirring for two to three more minutes until it begins to thicken.
Add shredded cheese gradually, stirring constantly as it melts.
Lay out toasted bread on plates, topped with hamburger patty. Spoon vegetables on top of burger, followed by a layer of fries. Top with cheese sauce.

Notes

Grilled vegetables, such as green peppers and onions, are also common on a Horseshoe sandwich. Alternate meat suggestions include smoked ham, pulled pork and grilled chicken breast.

‘I Died:’ Women Share What Their Near-Death Experiences Were Like

These 50 Pics Of Men Before And After Beards May Show Just What You’ve Been Missing In Your Life

The effect of seeing a smooth-faced person come out from the shadows sporting a full-fledged beard is undeniable. Think about the first time we, as a society, saw what wonders a handful of tactically-shaped hair on Keanu Reeves or Chris Hemsworth can do to already charming features. And don’t get us started on George Clooney… Although, we still aren’t sure about Prince Harry (then again, it’s not totally surprising he was ordered to shave that ‘thing’ off his face).

Whether inspired by curiosity or the lack of razors, many men across the world have tried to see if their faces are suited to rock a sexy lumberjack look. Similar to leather jackets and Aviators, it’s definitely not for everyone. But when a guy pulls it off, the world has to see it as well. And with that, dear pandas, we present to you a handful of men who let testosterone do its magic and showed us their transformations from baby-faced to stubbly.

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Dead for 11 Hours: My Unexpected Journey to Heaven and Hell with Jim Woodford

Russian Border Checkpoint Attacked by Tanks from Ukraine; Destroyed in Belgorod

World Hal Turner 22 May 2023

At this moment, a fierce battle is going on with the Ukrainian DRG on the border of the Belgorod region near the village of Dronovka — Russian sources

Tanks have entered the territory of the Russian Federation at the Grayvoron checkpoint.

Russian media report: “Right now, there is a fierce battle with the Ukrainian DRG on the border of the Belgorod region near the village of Dronovka. Military equipment has been brought in from both sides.”

VIDEO:

UPDATE 9:40 AM EDT —

The fighters of the self-proclaimed “Russian Volunteer Corps,” a unit within the Ukrainian Armed Forces comprised of Russian citizens who willingly defected to Ukraine, have taken responsibility for the raid in the Belgorod Region.

UPDATE 9:58 AM EDT —

Belgorod Regional Officials have stated that “Ukrainian Forces” have entered and Partially-Captured at least 4 Russian towns near the Border Region including the Towns of Kozinka, Glotovo, Gora-Podol and Grayvoron with a Heavy Fighting still going on in the North.

Russian Traitors For Ukraine Capture 4 Russian Towns

Forensic Detective Dies ; Came Back With Proof & Message Of Afterlife That Would Shock You NDE

…

That’s all for today. Now go forth and enjoy your day.

Biden the sly dog, and China had best be careful

Many months ago I said here that if Ukraine would devolve into a NATO war then Poland and Germany would be ruined immediately. It didn't take a soothsayer to figure this horrible turn of the war wheel. Today, England is also is a first wave target in any astute reading of the sadly arranged, miserable tea leaves. We shall see soon. When? June 12. The massive Air Defender 23 forces take to European skies that morning.

No matter what happens that day, Beijing or Rio de Janeiro will be safer places to be. Who knows about NYC or Washington.

It can't happen here.

Posted by: Elmagnostic | May 26 2023 16:38 utc | 1

The world have moved “to the other side”. The “banana republics” are taking over, and those in the West are unaware of the reality. They are instead still being manipulated; like wind up toys. Thinking one thing, and like Lemmings, moving towards pre-programmed actions and resultant conclusions.

President Biden has something “up his sleeve”, is he sincere, or is he trying to lull China into complacency? No one knows. My guess is that he’s not “doubling down”, but rather “Crushing down hard”, and he believes that a war with China will happen. In HIS personal favor.

Conveniently right before the 2024 election.

That’s what it looks like to me.

Upgrade in Pakastan

China is now considering to upgrade all the railway network in pakistan and connect it with its province so that it will largely reduce the time taken to reach China than other through the south China sea

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This will make the importing for China very easy and cheap.

It is big success for pakistan as its rail network will get updated.

the project is worth of $58 Billion Dollars

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GDP thoughts

Genuine US GDP is almost 50% less than the number stated due to the gross method with which its calculated that counts overhead costs as productive earnings. There’re very good reasons why the debt is $31 Trillion and the national government’s equity is negative $126 Trillion–many of those overhead costs and so-called productive earnings are actually monopoly rents that ought to be completely taxed and turned into government revenues but aren’t because the Donors (the Parasites) have captured the government. Actual GDP is about $15 Trillion making the debt 200% of GDP and the depth of insolvency worse than any nation on the planet. It will worsen until policy and regulation are ripped from the Donors’s hands.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 25 2023 15:52 utc | 35

Amana Pickled Ham

Amana Pickled Ham is served in many of the Amana restaurants as a side. This is a good appetizer to have around, and it keeps well in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

4 cups cubed cooked ham
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups water
1 cup vinegar

Instructions

Combine all ingredients and place in quart jars.
Let stand for several days before eating.

Perennial Predictions

Some memes don't age..

Godfree Roberts

May 27, 2023

1990. China’s economy has come to a halt. The Economist

1996. China’s economy will face a hard landing. The Economist

1998. China’s economy’s dangerous period of sluggish growth. The Economist

1999. Likelihood of a hard landing for the Chinese economy. Bank of Canada

2000. China currency move nails hard landing risk coffin. Chicago Tribune

2001. A hard landing in China. Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas

2002. China Seeks a Soft Economic Landing. Westchester University

2003. Banking crisis imperils China. New York Times

2004. The great fall of China? The Economist

2005. The Risk of a Hard Landing in China. Nouriel Roubini

2006. Can China Achieve a Soft Landing? International Economy

2007. Can China avoid a hard landing? TIME

2008. Hard Landing In China? Forbes

2009. China’s hard landing. China must find a way to recover. Fortune

2010: Hard landing coming in China. Nouriel Roubini

2011: Chinese Hard Landing Closer Than You Think. Business Insider

2012: Economic News from China: Hard Landing. American Interest

2013: A Hard Landing In China. Zero Hedge

2014. A hard landing in China. CNBC

2015. Congratulations, You Got Yourself A Chinese Hard Landing. Forbes

2016. Hard landing looms for China. The Economist

2017. Is China’s Economy Going To Crash? National Interest

2018. China’s Coming Financial Meltdown. The Daily Reckoning.

2019. China’s Economic Slowdown: How worried should we be? BBC2020. Coronavirus Could End China’s Decades-Long Economic Growth Streak. NY Times

2021. Chinese economy risks deeper slowdown than markets realize. Bloomberg

2022. China Surprise Data Could Spell R-e-c-e-s-s-i-o-n. Bloomberg.

Why do young Chinese have so little interest in democracy?

Modern fallacies/stereotypes about Chinese modern society:

Chinese are incredibly obedient and submissive.
Chinese do not think for themselves.
Chinese are not creative, cannot innovate.

But…

PRAGMATISM (务实)

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This word is huge to describe Chinese, and most Asians, in modern time, and in history.

Chinese can definitely think for themselves. They always ponder “what is in this for me, how can this benefit me?” Chinese don’t dive head first into anything without first checking it out. Chinese always see the big picture.

Chinese immigrants often ignore most luxury, work their arses off. 3 years later, they saved enough money to start a business. 6 years later, they buy their 3 million dollar house.

Chinese do not fight with the cops. They say sorry, pay the fine, move on. They choose pragmatism over principle. Principle says they should fight injustice. Pragmatism says it’s a waste of time fighting over $200 fine when they can use this time to make $1000.

Chinese do not get into fist fights. Chinese do not see the point. Too much risk, no gain. Getting into fights also make Chinese look unreliable and reckless. Companies do not trust and promote reckless people.

The big picture is always more important than a moment of emotional outburst (and I should take my own advice). Why waste time and money on something that is futile?

The big picture also dictates that you should worry about saving to downpay for a house, college saving for the kids, or at least find a suitable person to settle down with. Spending all your hard earned money partying, drunk and passed out on the streets, does nothing for your future beside liver cancer.

DEMOCRACY (民主)

First, WTF is democracy? Democracy is the practice of considering everyone’s opinion.

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What do you want to eat for lunch? Take a vote. Where do we go for vacation? Let’s hear everyone’s opinions, then we vote on it.

Chinese love odd numbers. Odd number is exciting. Someone will have the deciding vote. 4 people, 2 v 2 votes, stalemate. 5 people, the last person has to pick A or B, and the group can move forward. Fair and square, no argument. Harmony!

This is much bigger than you think. Such democracy is practiced throughout history. Whenever there is an absence of an absolute leadership, democracy happens. Absolute leadership be a teacher, a boss, a parent, a government official.

Of course you can’t argue with the laws. You run a red light, you get a ticket. You don’t take a vote with the policeman. You don’t take a vote whether to have homework, teacher says you do homework or fail the class. If you do not go to work, your boss fires you, no discussion. Democracy approach isn’t always logical in every instance.

INTEREST IN DEMOCRACY

What do you want to have for lunch again? Let’s take a vote. Democracy happens far too often among Chinese.

But wait, you aren’t talking about this democracy, but that democracy?

I get you. You are talking about American style government system that is guided by American constitution?

Why should Chinese honor and be obligated to American Constitution?

Why should Chinese adopt American style government system when Chinese society has drastically different culture and history?

American system is not even doing well for America.

Presidential election only allows 2 pre-selected candidates (everyone else can be voted, but with zero chance to win).
Presidential term lasts 4 years. The new president dismantles most things the previous president spent billions of dollars to create. This cycle of reset is extremely costly and counterproductive.
President candidates are not merit based. Even a cat can be president if he has enough money and support from its people.
Poverty is ignored. Healthcare is ignored. Presidents put their priorities in serving the rich first: war profiteering over developing America. Protecting big pharma to exploit the poor who go homeless to pay for medicine.

How the fuck is this a democracy?

And better yet…

How the fuck would Chinese people be expected to be interested in this shit?

Right?

Remember, Chinese are pragmatic. Chinese want to be heard, want to be taken care of by the government. American style government is not taking care of its people. It instead exploits and robs American people to support the oligarchs. This is American democracy: a democracy completely by facade.

Chinese don’t care about facade.
Chinese don’t care about time wasting principle that is all risk and no result.
Chinese don’t care about empty gesture and symbolism. Chinese people want results.

So the question is wrong in asking if Chinese is interested in democracy. It should be which style of government system does Chinese want?

Or… what the hell do you want for lunch? Burger or hotpot? Let’s vote on it.

INSANE! Biden to create new federal agency to track your behavior

Closing The Case Of Regime Changer Roman Protasevich And His Ryanair Flight To Minsk

Two years ago a Ryanair flight from Athens to Lithuania was diverted after the Belorussian flight control informed the pilot that it had received an email which said that the plane carried a bomb and would explode during landing in Lithuania.

The plane diverted to Minsk. All passengers stepped off board and where bused to the terminal. When they passed through passport control the immigration officers found that two of the passengers had outstanding arrest warrants against them. These were one Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend and co-worker Sofia Sapega.

The ‘western’ media and politicians were up in arms over the ‘unprecedented’ incident. But the event was far from unprecedented.

Western media also failed to report that Roman Protasevich had been a western government financed neo-nazi who had fought with the fascist Ukrainian Azov battalion before working for U.S. sponsored regime change media in Poland. He was one of the persons who had directed the failed 2020 color-revolution in Belarus.

Belarus had handled the airplane incident by the book. During the following days claims were made that Belarus received the terror threat email after the plane was informed – i.e. the whole thing was a setup. However, Belarus has claimed that it received the threat email twice, once before it notified the pilots and another copy later.

Moon of Alabama has followed the case throughout. Those interested in the details of the original incident can find them in our June 2 2021 post. For a wider political view of the ‘color revolution’ business in east Europe see this piece by Kit Klarenberg. Links to all MoA posts about the case are listed at the end of this piece.

A week after the incident, during a long TV interview, Protasevich spilled the beans about the whole regime operation. He also says that he has come to believe that one of his regime changer colleagues had sent the bomb threat email to get him arrested.

A few weeks later Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega were released and put under house arrest. A trial followed and, in early May of this year, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

I though that the sentence, in light of his public turnabout, was quite harsh but others accused of the same regime change operations against Belarus had received up to 20 years prison time. Still, eight years is a long time for a young man who had clearly changed his mind. Sofia Sapega, who is a Russian citizen, had earlier received a 6 year sentence.

On May 22 Protasevich was unexpectedly pardoned:

Roman Protasevich said: “I’ve just signed the paperwork saying that I have been pardoned. This is certainly simply great news.”BelTA reported earlier that on 3 May the Minsk Oblast Court sentenced Roman Protasevich to eight years in a prison colony. He was found guilty of making public appeals for seizing power, committing acts of terrorism, giving offence to the president, spreading knowingly fraudulent information about Belarus, and other crimes.

Protasevich was quite surprised:

“This news is extremely unexpected. A month ago I could not think that it was even possible, that it would happen. I am really overwhelmed,” Roman Protasevich said. “I would like to thank President Aleksandr Grigorievich personally because this is his decision. This is a bold move, a decision of a strong-willed person. I want to thank the country and the people who believed in me, in my sincerity, who think that people can mend their ways and admit their mistakes.”According to him, he is focused on the positive agenda. “I don’t read what they write about me. I unsubscribed from all possible information resources a long time ago. I mean pro-Western, opposition one because they recycle stuff about me. I’m not interested in what’s going on there, what they’re saying. I am focused [on] the positive agenda. I will devote maximum time to my family,” Roman Protasevich emphasized.

Reporting on Protasevich’s pardon the Washington Post notes:

Sapega, a Russian national, was accused of running another Telegram channel called “Belarus’s Black Book,” which published personal information about the country’s security forces. She was sentenced in 2022 to six years in prison. Last month, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus granted its Russian counterparts’ request to transfer Sapega to Russia following her family’s pleas.

I have found no other new information about Sapega but, if she is still with Protasevich, it is likely that she will now receive similar leniency.

—
Previous coverage of the case published on Moon of Alabama:

Lukashenko’s Revenge (Served Cold) – May 24, 2021
Roman Protasevich – Arrested In Belarus – Is A Western Government Financed Neo-Nazi – May 26, 2021
By The Book – What Really Happened With The Ryanair Flight In Belarus – May 27, 2021
Ryanair Incident – Email Warning Received Before Plane Entered Belorussian Airspace – May 28, 2021
How ProtonMail Lost The Public Trust It Needs To Do Business – May 29, 2021
‘Like An Amoral Infant’ – How ProtonMail Contributes To False Media Claims About Belarus – May 30, 2021
Ryanair Bomb Threat In Belarus – ‘Western’ Media Narrative Disagrees With The Facts – May 31, 2021
Timeline, Narrative Control And Consequences Of The Ryanair Incident In Belarus – June 2, 2021
Roman Protasevich, Casualty Of The Ryanair Incident In Belarus, Is Spilling The Beans – June 4, 2021
Putin Teaching A Journalist And Other New Bits Around Ryanair Flight 4978 – June 15, 2021
U.S., UK Information Warfare Behind Regime Change Drive In Belarus by Kit Klarenberg – June 15, 2021
ICAO Report – Ryanair Plane That Landed in Minsk Was NOT Forced Down – January 22, 2022

Posted by b on May 26, 2023 at 16:36 UTC | Permalink

15 Mysterious Individuals Throughout History That Science Can’t Explain

Is Russia losing economically after the conflict as the West predicted? Or is it performing better than expectations? Both sides make it seem like their opinions are 100% correct, so I am looking for a well-explained, unbiased answer.

First Point

Russia is a Country with Tremendous Resources.

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They have Oil, Wheat, Metals, Gas, Inert Gas, Enriched Uranium – the list is endless.

This means they can sustain themselves without any Import Dependence and yet the whole World Depends on their Exports

This means Russia is REALLY WEALTHY unlike the West who only have PAPER WEALTH

You see since the West is Paper Wealthy – its very easy to create an Economic Shockwave through Loss of Investor confidence. It is a realistic possibility in these Countries.

Since Russia is Really Wealthy or Commodity Wealthy – its near impossible to create an Economic Shockwave

So Shock and Awe sanctions simply couldnt have worked in the long run

Second Point

Russia and China joined hands before the Conflict

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This was a huge plus for Russia.

Shock and Awe sanctions couldnt have worked in the long run but they could have wrecked Russia in the short run had it not been for Chinas support or rather the Lack of Chinas condemnation.

Today China has a reputation that is even better than the US in Financial Capital Affairs.

If China has confidence in a Country – the World immediately recognizes it. Its why when China began to move away from SL and Pakistan, their Creditworthiness reduced whereas when China backed SLs IMF Loan in 2019 – it was granted unconditionally.

The Minute China didnt join the bandwagon – the Short term impacts were hugely mitigated.

Again this was something the West didnt expect.

Third Point

The Impact of SWIFT

The West over rated the importance of SWIFT.

Maybe 20 years ago – SWIFT was vital since the only other option was Telex which could take a week or two. Today you have many Messaging Architectures with the same know how so as long as Russia has Gas and Oil – The Banks will always find payments

Subsequently Russia easily bypassed the Swift

Again this was something the West didnt expect

Fourth Point

The Industrial Depth of Russia

The West were convinced that Russia was an Oil and Gas Station

They didnt realize that Russia , former USSR had a huge industrial depth and it could easily bounce back its Industrialization. Unlike China which formed its Industrial Base from scratch in 1982 and took so long, Russia had a massive industrial base from 1948 to 1991 and Russia could easily jumpstart this from 2012 onwards.

Thus Russias Industries were far more stronger than the West thought they were

Subsequently – Is Russia Losing Economically

I would say Russia may perhaps lose $1 for every $ 3.50 that the West Loses.

As on Date Russia is adding $ 173 Million a day to its GDP and losing $ 100.4 Million a day – that is a net of $ 72.6 Million a day or around $ 24 Billion a year which comes to around 1.6% Growth in GDP rather than 15% Contraction as predicted by the West.

Even if this becomes worse and doubles and Russia loses around $ 27 Million a day or $10 Billion a year – thats still only around 0.67% Contraction in GDP rather than 15%

Worst Case Russia loses around 3% GDP – 5% GDP but Russian Govt gains $ 287 Billion of Fresh Reserves and has only $ 542 Billion Debt against $ 11 Trillion Assets

The West may gain around 0.25% – 3% GDP but the West collectively loses $ 3.42 Trillion of additional debt due to higher prices of reserves and Ukranian assistance. Thats a massive addition to their debt. They now have combined $ 48.24 Trillion Debt against only $ 21.70 Trillion Assets

Conclusion – The West is committing HARA KIRI and Russia is expected to gain Massively in the Long term from this Stupidity

Perhaps, the end of “color revolutions”…

1. First guess is he has helped identify other trouble makers either in Belarus or Ukraine or both.

2. The 2020 Belarus and 2019 Hong Kong demonstrations were always a bit odd. It appeared that many years of US/USAID/CIA/MI6 preparations were being started much too early when they were bound to fail. Why not wait?

Well now we know. In 2019 Taiwan the lead in the Polls swung from the KMT (if not pro-China at least not pro-America or actively anti-mainland) to the DPP who won in Jan 2020. Fears of Chinese authoritarianism based of fake news of HK police violence were very influential.

Belarus was setting the scene for “Russia as the bad guy”. Again for Regional but not local advantage.

My guess is that these American/UK funded groups will now largely be closed down by the Russian and Chinese intelligence services, and their experiences and tools will be passed on to other countries, even those with complex relationships to US like Hungary or Turkey. There will be no more color revolutions (outside EU/US).

Posted by: Michael Droy | May 26 2023 18:04 utc | 7

The Real Reason Prince Was Taken Out Revealed

What is the Chinese military’s threat level to U.S. forces?

A realistic measure of a “threat level” is a summarized solution of multiple components.

Capability ( A realistic assessment of the potential damage that a designated “enemy” can inflict on your forces. As well as your ability to inflict damage on theirs).
Sustainability (A realistic assessment of the ability for the designated “enemy” to fight over a long period of time with little degradation of skill.).
Reduction (A projection of the ability of friendly forces to suppress the political and manufacturing ability of the defined “enemy”.)
Operational theater (A realistic assessment of the operational theater capabilities of the designated “enemy”.).
Peer confluence (This rates the training, morale, skills, technology, and tactics of the defined “enemy” relative to friendly forces.)
Alliances (This is a realistic appraisal of the “blocs” that will form upon a war situation. Who will side with whom, and who will fight as friendly forces, and who will fight alongside the enemy forces against us.).

There are, of course, other aspects worthy of consideration, but these six are the primary attributes and characteristics that are important.

In the case of a MILITARY conflict between the United States and China, we have to take all these characteristics into account, or else suffer though the potential of devastating consequences.

Let’s take the analysis step by step. Keeping in mind that for an accurate analysis, we have to perform it contemporaneously, and realistically, fully devoid of any (lead in) pre-war anti-”enemy” propaganda that would absolutely color the calculus in favor of friendly forces. After all, that is what propaganda is; a mechanism to demonize and belittle an enemy, and to “puff up” and inspire friendly forces.

Capability

China is a nation that is over 6000 years old. It is also one of the most populous nations. In its history it has seen nations come and go, but the Chinese have always survived in one form or the other.

When Genghis Khan invaded China, and seized it, the Chinese absorbed the military teachings and philosophy of the Khans and when that empire collapsed, China absorbed it and ruled over Mongolia and Manchuria for centuries afterwards. This action, this philosophy, has evolved into a society of “peaceful warrors”.

The Chinese are one of the most intelligent people on the planet. They run a merit-driven society, and abhor change to traditional values. They work hard, and they play hard. Besting each other by hard alcohol is a Chinese norm, and all Chinese (from the time they start school) though to college, obtain military training, operate in naturally forming squads, and organically function as one unified team.

When people, especially “armchair generals” try to ascertain the military capability of the Chinese, they often are wrong. There are many reasons for this.

They mistake being peaceful for pacifism.
The confuse the anti-Chinese propaganda with realistic assessment.
The Chinese do not promote or advertise it’s military capabilities and abilities.
China’s true numbers, quantities, and abilities are kept INTENTIONALLY secret. No one really knows the full numbers, and the full abilities, and the full capabilities. All reports on China are extrapolated guesses at best.

China has a military force that is broken down into two components.

Defensive.
Offensive.

The Defensive component is tactical in nature. It is designed to operate in and near China. This includes the South China Sea, Taiwan, and the neighboring nations of Korea, Japan, and South East Asia.

The Offensive component is strategic in nature. It is designed to strike deep inside the homeland of the attacking nations, proxies and sponsors. To destroy cities, infrastructure and disrupt civilian life to such a substantial degree that engagement of any war against China would be a very uncomfortable one.

Taken as a whole, China is a fortress.

It’s defensive preparations and military are absolute. Any nation trying to attack it would suffer massive causalities at multiple levels of engagement.

It’s cities are walled fortifications. It’s people are trained militia. It’s manufacturing capability is enormous, and could switch to war-time production in hours.

We cannot fully appreciate the defensive abilities of China without looking at the historical events; the most recent events where the United States fought China. That was in 1950 -54.

The United States and it’s allies lost and lost enormously.

In fact, the loss was so very horrific, that the retreat became a rout. And the piles of equipment and stockpiles in warehouses had to be bombed remotely, by the sea and the air, to prevent capture. (This is by definition a rout. Remote demolitions of abandoned material is a characteristic of a rout.)

General Douglas MacArthur was so upset and defeated that he demanded that President Truman start using nuclear weapons on China, but Truman refused.

Instead President Truman initiated a multi-decade long campaign of carpet bombing China with bio-weapons. Which didn’t do much to China, except make it very VERY resilient to bio-weapon attacks.

Ah.

Did come in handy. Don’t you know…

Anyways…

So, taken a a whole, the defensive branch of the Chinese PLA would put up a “good fight”.

By the nature of geography and numbers, any attacking nation could only focus on limited regions to wage war. Taiwan, South China Sea, XinJiang. And in each case the fighting would be extraordinarily difficult.

Attacking causalities would approach 80–90%. Loss of material, and weapons, and supporting systems is guaranteed.

Just like what happened in Korea, the last time.

While there is no doubt that United States forces, along with proxy nations would be able to bomb targets, and destroy buildings and maybe even a city or two, the direct result of THAT kind of attack would ignite the Chinese OFFENSIVE forces.

Uh oh.

Oh. God No!

…

Chinese offensive forces are simple.

They destroy the cities of the attacking nation. They use enhanced radiation neutron bombs mounted on hyper-velocity glide vehicles launched by MIRV ICBM platforms.

It’s a very “clean” system of radiation, very unlike the nuclear bombs of the West.

Instead of a big explosion with damage due to blast and pressure, heat, the bomb explodes and zaps entire regions with lethal radiation. Radiation that leaves in a few days.

Zap.

*Zzziiit*

Buildings will stand, but all life would be dead.

People. Pets. Cattle. Flies. Mosquitoes. Worms. Beatles. Butterflies.

All gone.

What survives would be dying.

The attacking nation would truly resemble a “ zombie apocalypse”.

In all studies by RAND; the premier American “military think tank”, the concluding summaries in regards to military conflict between the USA and China is to avoid it.

…

The only areas where the pro-war faction seems to see benefit are the…

“news media” (especially Australian),
the political establishment (to gain power though working with the media narratives),
and the industrial-military complexes that would profit greatly though a massive big war (assuming their factories are not blown to smithereens).

On this item “Capability” alone, it is very obvious that a risk assessment on the capabilities of the Chinese PLA would deter anyone from even considering a war with China.

With that being said, all the other characteristics also underscore this point.

Sustainability

China has a population, manufacturing ability, access to resources, more intelligent and hard working people, much, much, MUCH larger than the United States and Europe combined. In a war where only sustainability is an issue, China would easily win that war.

Reduction

Because of this massive, enormous; gargantuan resource pool, the only way that the United States would be able to suppress it would be to cut off access to it. Which it cannot. The BRI has made that impossible. This, thus leaves the nuclear war option, which as defined above would result in the massive erasure of life in both the United States and Europe by neutron carpet-bombing.

Operational theater

Any war might start out in an operational theater defined by the United States, but it will not stay there. Once the Chinese strategic forces are given the “go ahead”, the war will become global. The absolute targets would be the nations of the combatants. This would be the United States, and Europe, as well as the handful of Australian cities, and great areas of Japan.

Peer confluence

China is above peer confluence with the combined armies of the United States and it’s allies / proxies. This is an assessment dating back to 2004, and I am of the opinion that (if anything), the gap has widened substantially since then. Only the rabble that are influenced by the anti-China propaganda, and watch too many Rambo movies think that a war against China would be “easy”.

Wars are NEVER easy. And to fight China is a mistake that should be avoided at all costs.

Alliances

China is well aligned with the bulk of the world. To fight China would be to fight the world. Russia, Iran, North Korea are but the expected combatants, but in any war, you can well expect changing alliances, and force power projections to change in the favor of China.

And make no mistake. These alliances are active and have no doubts or misconceptions of the reality of this moment in time.

Conclusion

Q: What is the Chinese military’s threat level to U.S. forces?

A: Absolute. Complete, and final.

Why Are These Biden Officials Leaving Their Top Posts?

Recently several administration official who were working on China and Ukraine policies announced to step back or retire. The people in question were not neo-conservative China hawks like Secretary of State Anthony Blinken or National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

The unexpected loss of top sane hands has me concerned that there is some big move in planning that will damage U.S. relations with China and Russia even more than they already are:

The head of a new US State Department unit tasked to coordinate efforts aimed at countering Beijing plans to step down next month, the department’s second high-ranking official with a China portfolio to announce a departure in less than two weeks.Rick Waters, head of the State Department’s recently created Office of China Coordination, and known informally as its “China House”, will leave the position just six months after it was established to manage what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called “the scale and the scope of the challenge” posed by the country.

The career State Department official will “rotate out” of the unit and the Office of Taiwan Coordination on June 23 “as part of the Department’s normal summer transition process,” according to a State Department spokesman.

There was no reason given why Waters was moved aside. This comes shortly after an even more important figure suddenly decided to retire:

The announcement about Waters followed news of US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s retirement earlier this month.Sherman, the highest-ranking State Department official from the Biden administration to have travelled to China, has been an instrumental member of US President Joe Biden’s efforts to build an Indo-Pacific strategy that offers an alternative to China’s economic influence and expanding military presence there.

Sherman was a hard nosed negotiator but had a realist view on issues:

Before she was appointed Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman had pushed for a swift return to the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). She urged the Biden administration to immediately begin consultations with Europe, Russia and China on preserving the JCPOA after taking office. “It’s important for the U.S. to start its consultations as quickly as a new administration can,” Sherman said at Johns Hopkins University on November 19, 2020.

Another important figure will soon leave from a top Pentagon role:

The Defense Department’s top policymaker plans to resign, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the decision.Colin Kahl, who has been undersecretary of defense for policy since April 28, 2021, is likely to leave in the summer, the officials said.

The officials, who asked not to be named, said Kahl plans to return to the private sector, most likely to Stanford University, where he was a professor and fellow before he joined the Biden administration.
…
Before his time at Stanford, Kahl was national security adviser to then-Vice President Joe Biden from October 2014 until January 2017. During the Obama administration, he was also a policy official at the Pentagon.
…
Two years ago Kahl faced a tough confirmation battle to become the No. 3 civilian at the Pentagon, in part because of his critical comments about Republicans on social media when he worked in the private sector. Republicans also criticized his involvement in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran known as the JCPOA and his other policy views about the Middle East.

Kahl was also known for opposing escalation of the U.S. proxy war with Russia:

Kahl has also been one of the administration’s top officials making the case against sending U.S.-made F-16 jets to Ukraine, which has been a point of contention between the Biden administration and lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans.Despite a plea from Kyiv for more advanced jets, Kahl has argued sending F-16s would take years and cost billions of dollars, while noting fighters aren’t Ukraine’s most immediate need.

China hawks had rallied against Kahl’s position on China:

In an interview with Defense News this week, Kahl offered extraordinary overconfidence that China will not attempt an invasion of Taiwan within the next two years and likely far further into the future. This bears note because U.S. military and intelligence officials increasingly do believe that Xi is likely to order an invasion before this decade is out, possibly before 2027. Their assessment is vested in intelligence reporting and comprehensive political and military analysis.

Kahl, however, is unconcerned.

Kahl announced his departure from the Pentagon shortly before Biden elevated a China hawk to the top position of the U.S. military:

President Biden is nominating Gen. Charles “C.Q.” Brown Jr. to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president is expected to announce Thursday in a White House Rose Garden ceremony.Brown is currently the Air Force chief of staff.

The position is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, and the chairman is the primary military adviser to the president, as well as to the defense secretary and National Security Council.

Gen. Brown had previously commanded the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific region. He is known for seeing China as the top U.S. enemy:

Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. in his keynote address said China’s People’s Liberation Army has the largest aviation forces in the Indo-Pacific and the largest conventional missile capability in the world, and is actively fielding hypersonic missiles. China also is establishing bases around the globe, often in places where the U.S. already has a presence.China has said its armed forces will be fully modernized by 2035 and “world class by 2050,” said Brown, who noted that “China continues to move its modernization timelines left at a rate of change that is outpacing the United States.”

“The day after the last C-17 left Kabul, I was in the Indo-Pacific where a graver threat is manifesting, where the risk and stakes are high,” Brown said. “We must move with a sense of urgency today in order to rise to the challenges of tomorrow, because the return to strategic competition is one of our nation’s greatest challenges. Strategic competition may not be as stark or obvious as a 9/11-like event, but it can be just as catastrophic. We cannot wait for a catastrophic crisis, whether it be sudden or insidious, to drive change for the Air Force and the Joint Force. If we do, it will be too late.”

I think that all these moves are somewhat related. Wendy Sherman and Colin Kahl have known each other throughout their careers. Both of them cooperate with each other while serving in several Democratic administrations. It is hard to believe that did not talk to each other about stepping down.

But still I find none of the usual background pieces in foreign policy media that connects these moves or would explain the issues involved. Can they find no one who wants to talk about this?

Or is it just me seeing things that ain’t there because I fear that the Biden administration is preparing for even more escalatory policies?

Posted by b on May 25, 2023 at 14:07 UTC | Permalink

A comment

This mass resignation has all the hallmarks of a fully recognized cull–from top to bottom–an institutional recognition that a political cull is coming.

The first of these sorts of institutional culls that were instigated by anti-communist ideologues, back in the 1950s, were pushed by the FBI, CIA, the China Lobby (aka “Chiang Kaishek”, “Song Meiling”, and the general “Song” family + CIA/FBI/US Media empires of the era: Time and Live Magazines)–a coalition that the US Rethuglican Corporate Party happily funded and cooperated with (quietly, under Eisenhower’s awareness, which Nixon was keeping careful track of), along with Truman’s cabinet.

The cull that’s coming is going to swerve the US into an even more self-destructive path.

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | May 25 2023 15:57 utc | 38

Another comment

“biden” was publicly proclaiming a thaw in us China relations. Also accompanied by a narrative campaign to fix the idea that decoupling is impossible.

My guess is that the US is preparing to court China to dump Russia a la Nixon and kissinger in the 70s.

Where it goes I dunno, probably not far. After all the US truly doesn’t think it needs to abide by agreements, being exceptional as they are. China will need more than words, they’ll need concrete irrevocable action before they’ll engage

Let’s see what happens next, for sure the US will need to abandon its economic war campaign, and withdraw all support from Taiwan and I don’t think the ‘biden” administration can do anything so useful.

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | May 25 2023 16:28 utc | 46

Citizen Shoots 3 Robbers in a Houston Gas Station

Peer ability

On China, there’s no chance the Outlaw US Empire will ever become its peer over the next century. The power of integration within Eurasia is too strong for the weak Empire to crack. What matters most is the Eurasian people are all for it even if a few “leaders” are bought like those in Moldova and Pakistan–but even the bought Pakistanis won’t jettison BRI/China as development partner. The Thais are too integrated into ASEAN to abandon it as ordinary Thais will revolt. South Korea is an odd cookie. It’s greatly benefited from Asian integration and abandoning that for deeper vassalage to the Empire will likely be overturned with the next Presidential election. A good question: Is Japan a lost cause; will its people ever awaken and attempt to free themselves from occupation?

IMO, much depends on what occurs further with the Empire’s financial crisis and rapidity of dedollarization. Over half the population of the Outlaw US Empire is under the age of 35, with 25% under 15, which might make it easier to yet again rob from the young to pay for Imperial excesses. For the 13% nearing retirement age, this next election and how it will treat social policy will be crucial, even existential. Domestic politics have usually been ignored by US Imperialists, but with the escalating financial crisis and utterly wrong Fed and foreign policies driving it, I don’t see how it can be ignored in 2024 as it will be close to a replay of 2016. My crystal ball is hazy when it comes to what will happen here, although the next month ought to clarify it somewhat as the debt issue is either solved or isn’t.

Posted by: karlof1 | May 25 2023 15:42 utc | 31

Amana Ox Yoke Inn Rhubarb Custard Pie

Yield: 1 pie

Ingredients

Double crust pastry for 9 inch pie
3/4 tablespoon all-purpose flour
5 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup Half-and-Half
1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Make crust for a 2 crust pie.
Put bottom crust in pie pan; sprinkle with flour.
Mix the rhubarb, sugar, beaten eggs, Half-and-Half and salt.
Pour into crust, and put on top crust. Make slits in top of pie.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours.

World Class

I dunno if it’s just me, but I think the Chinese military is “World Class” right now, never mind 2050. It’s got a huge navy, advanced missiles and aircraft, and a lot of men under arms.

Aljazeera: Chinese Military strength

Posted by: JulianJ | May 25 2023 18:08 utc | 70

5 Unexplained Moments Caught on Live TV That Were Never Solved

BANKRUPTED – the last memory chip maker in the United States

Micron is the last memory chip maker in the United States
CHINA is a MAJOR market for its product
China warned that its product is a security threat and banned its companies from purchasing from Micron

Micron share prices will likely crashed on Monday
AND the company will likely go bankrupt
it is NOW clear that the Chinese state is NOW responding to American assault on their hitech companies
Micron will be the first of many American companies that the Chinese target

Ouch!

Which countries have fallen victims to the Chinese debt trap?

1). The US caused debt trap, then the US accuses China of causing the debt trap.

2). The US sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines, then the US accuses Russia or pro-Ukraine group of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.

3). The US biological labs man-made the covid-19, the US regime used the virus as a biological weapon to have sneakily attacked Wuhan China in Sept 2019, then the US accuses China of releasing the covid.

4). The US has been committing genocides to its own origin inhabitants and conducting massive shooting massacres in streets daily and nightly, then the US accuses China of committing genocides of Uighur.

5). The US has been aggressive, especially 900 terrorist US army bases in the world, but the US accuses China of being aggressive, while China hasn’t had any war over the past 45 years and no single army base outside Chinese territories.

6). The US has been stealing everything from all over the world, but accuses China of stealing.

7). The US has been the heaven of Child labour and forced labour, but the US accuse Uighur of being the laziest people to make a living on their own.

8). The US style of democracy, human rights and freedom are lousy, the terrorism and virus, but the US keeps attacking the superior Chinese style of democracy, human rights and freedom which are the model for the developing countries, the beacon of the human races on Earth.

The US dominated financial institutions have not just led to the debt trap, but also led to the death traps and destruction traps for many developing countries in the world such as Sri Lanka, Ukraine etc.

The book “America Traps” written by a famous French has described the various forms of the US traps including debt traps, death traps, destruction traps, assassinations traps, stealing traps, biological weapons traps etc.

China has been building roads, schools, trains etc for developing countries to let them make a living by themselves.

That’s why One Belt One Road initiative are so popular and welcome in the world, over 180 countries and international organisations have joined in the Chinese BRI projects.

When the chips are down

Recently, China announced that it would be restricting chips made by the US firm Micron in its critical infrastructure projects, citing it as a “national security threat”. In doing so, Beijing deliberately played the same card frequently used by the United States and its allies concerning its own technologies, most namely Huawei, where unfounded concerns relating to “national security” were used to exclude the telecommunications firm from participating in 5G networks, as well as the US has blacklisted thousands of other Chinese technology companies.

Ironically, despite having led an all-out policy of technological embargo against China, the United States condemned China’s move accordingly, stating that “We firmly oppose restrictions that have no basis in fact”. Well, isn’t that ironic? Especially seen as China’s move is in fact limited in scope, and does not even come close to the US’s actions against it. Despite this, the US was also reported to have previously “warned” South Korea not to take up the market left behind by Micron if China went ahead with such restrictions, something which to Seoul’s credit, they dismissed.

The episode nonetheless reveals the interesting double standards (yet again) in the US’s attitude to China. Washington reserves its right to impose sweeping embargos on Beijing and blacklist countless companies, yet if even as much as one move is pursued the other way round, it is hastily denounced and as the G7 communique farce depicted over the previous weekend, it is so-called “economic coercion.” In other words, the idea that the US and its allies are allowed to impose whatever measures they like on China, legitimately, but that it is only to be a “one-way traffic.”

While this has already been previously discussed, what is more significant about this technology war between the United States and China, is that it is an extension of Washington’s belief that it must military, economically and eventually, politically dominate the country. The US does not believe so much in an “equal” or “balanced” trading relationship with Beijing, as much as it believes it has an infinite right to exploit the Chinese market “on its own terms”. In other words, China is to be exploited and conform to American preferences, in a very similar light how the British used superior military force to subjugate the Qing Dynasty to its terms and conditions.

In doing so, the United States desires to cripple China’s leading industries, block its advances up the technology tree, diminish its global market share, and exclude it from global supply chains, in the view to strategically dominating all of it through its allies. That doesn’t mean though they don’t want to “trade” with China, as per the G7 communique even says. But rather it does mean they want trade and economic relations with Beijing to be exclusively for their own benefit. Hence, when China was only a low-end manufacturing nation, they could care little, but the idea that Beijing may challenge them in key strategic and technological goods, is deemed unacceptable.

This has created an inverted perspective that China must open its markets unilaterally for the West, hence even Ursula Von Der Leyden complained about “market access”, but that it is acceptable for the West to place curbs on Chinese investments and exports to the country. In this sense, these policies are driven by an effort to sustain a monopoly against China, preventing a change in the global balance of economic, and therefore technological and military, power. Thus, the United States sees absolutely no problem in allowing its chip companies to sell to the Chinese market (to the things they choose), but has every problem with China manufacturing and selling its own chips accordingly.

In doing so, it was perhaps naively assumed by Washington that their technological advantages were so great that China did not have the leverage to take retaliatory action against a US chip company directly, they were wrong. US chip curbs against China’s semiconductor industry have been disruptive, but they are by no means fatal. It is a bruising, but not a decapitation, and China has continued to make progress irrespectively in making technological breakthroughs in areas of chip design and lithography.

This only goes to show us that in the long run, the US strategy against China is likely to fail, and as it happens American companies will almost certainly be the biggest losers of these disastrous policies which seek to roll back globalization and exclude them from participating in the most lucrative market on Earth. Micron is the first, but it almost certainly won’t be the last. Biden has overplayed his hand.

Earth shattering breakthrough by Chinese company

main qimg c64485181aaeb3438b2ba1b66bf04a15

Chinese manufacturer Gotion High-Tech has announced a new battery pack will go into mass production in 2024 that it says will deliver range of up to 1,000kms for a single charge and could last two million kms.

The company says the manganese doped L600 LMFP Astroinno will be able to do 4,000 full cycles at room temperature, and at high temperature will get 1800 cycles and over 1500 cycles of 18-minute fast charging.

These incredibly high cycle numbers mean the battery could essentially last 2 million km before it starts to deteriorate. To put that into context, the average Australian car travels around 15,000 km per year so it would take 130 years worth of average driving to reach 2 million km mark.

Gotion High-Tech says the battery single-cell density is 240Wh/kg and that improvements in pack design have increased overall battery pack energy density to a point where 1000km range pack is possible with the highly durable chemistry.

“Astroinno L600 LMFP battery cell, which has passed all safety tests, has a weight energy density of 240Wh/kg, a volume energy density of 525Wh/L, a cycle life of 4000 times at room temperature, and a cycle life of 1800 times at high temperatures,” said executive president of the international business unit of Gotion High-Tech Dr. Cheng Qian.

Gotion High-Tech released a new video this week explaining the new chemistry, pack design as well as the battery’s safety and thermal properties.

20 Deadliest El Chapo Hitmen

THE US “INTENTIONALLY RELEASED COVID VIRUS IN WUHAN”

During the International Covid Summit in May 2023, Dr.(Phd) David Martin revealed historical patent filings on the development of the Covid virus. His explosive revelations indicate that US agencies and big pharma funded and developed Covid as a bioweapon and released it in Wuhan. The following is an article and a video of his speech.

5 BIZARRE Experiences of People Being in a Parallel Universe

Why do Chinese think dictatorship is justified? How can a small group having almost total control over society be justifiable?

Nobody justifies Dictatorship

The Chinese have held the opinion for millenia that everyone CANNOT be equal. Simple as that. A Sampan Coolie cannot have the same rights as a Hoppo or a Cohong Trader or an Artisan or a Inner Circle Minister.

Thats the Governing Principle of Chinese Governance

A Person can be WORTHY enough to participate in Governance or keep quiet and do his best to be productive to the Country.

Any Person can strive to become Worthy – which is allowed in China due to meritocracy of the highest order BUT the “Unworthy” cannot have a say in governance of the country. THEY HAVE TO BE RULED.

To me – this is one of the most successful forms of Governance.

Because I LIVE IN INDIA

Had i lived in Canada or Sweden or Iceland or Norway- I would have been screaming Democracy from the rooftops.

Because i live in India –

I have seen how in 1970 – My Nation and China both had a per capita income of $ 113 a year but today China has Six times my Percapita Income.

I have seen how in 1970 – My Nation and China both had equal wealth but today China has 9.8 Times more wealth than my Nation.

And i realize that the sole reason is because – EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO HAVE A SAY IN CHOOSING THE GOVERNMENT and the GOVERNMENT IS BUSY APPEASING THE “UNWORTHY” TO WIN THE ELECTIONS THAN DELIVER PROGRESS

The Rule of the Worthy over the Unworthy is Not Dictatorship. It is what made the world stronger and stronger. Rome, Egypt, Ottoman, Britain – all flourished under this system where the Unworthy were told what to do by the Worthy.

IN these systems – the Unworthy always remained Unworthy but in China – the Unworthy can tomorrow become Worthy enough by sheer talent and merit.

To me thats a Winning Formula!!!!

Do Chinese missiles cost less than Russian missiles?

Chinese production cost as a rule of thumb is 1/7 to 1/10 of American cost. I have been involved in productions in China for 30 years, the rule of thumb is one yuan equals one US dollar. Generally involved food and living cost too. If it costs $100 to eat or make something in US, it costs 100 yuan in China, or US$15.

Not considering slave labor, which should be a lot cheaper, but I have never seen or heard of any slave labor in China in 30 years. If you know where they are, I’ll buy 1000.

Besides cheaper labor, land, building and logistic cost, the biggest savings is efficiency, no bureaucracy, drawing on papers can be in actual samples on same day. Have done that many times. Chinese tend to answer emails within 1–3 minutes, one phone call can assemble a whole team in 30 minutes from varies outside locations. Counterparts tend to say YES, no problem and delivers. In many countries, it takes days or up to a week in tropical countries to answer an email.

No idea about Russians.

The Pendulum of Power in the Pacific have changed

there is absolutely no way that American carrier fleet can survive a Pacific war
the assassin toolkit that the Chinese can bring to bear simply overwhelms whatever the Americans can bring to bear
with the continue decline of the American economy and rampant corruption within its political system, this is unlikely to change

main qimg 6dc860797ef56d0915e1ad0380247e35

Scott Ritter: “PUTIN WILL END THE WAR ONCE AND FOR ALL, THIS IS IT”

https://youtu.be/haaHQjc6XL4

Wagging the Moondoggie: Part III

by Dave McGowan | Oct 1, 2009

If the Moon landings were faked, then one question that naturally arises is: why would any government go to such extreme lengths to mount such an elaborate hoax?

The most obvious answer (and the one most frequently cited by skeptics) is to reclaim a sense of national pride that had been stripped away by America’s having played follow-the-leader with the Soviets for an entire decade. While this undoubtedly played a large role, there are other factors as well – factors that haven’t been as fully explored. But before we look at those, we must first deal with the question of whether it would have even been possible to pull off such an enormous hoax.

Could so many people have really been duped into believing such an outrageous lie, if that in fact was what it was? To answer that question, we have to keep in mind that we are talking about the summer of 1969 here. Those old enough to have been there will recall that they – along with the vast majority of politically active people in the country – spent that particular period of time primarily engaged in tripping on some really good acid (most likely from the lab of Mr. Owsley).

How hard then would it really have been to fool most of you? I probably could have stuck a fish bowl on my head, wrapped myself in aluminum foil, and then filmed myself high-stepping across my backyard and most of you would have believed that I was Moonwalking. Some of you couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility that everyone was walking on the Moon.

In truth, not everyone was fooled by the alleged Moon landings. Though it is rarely discussed these days, a significant number of people gave NASA’s television productions a thumbs-down. As Wired magazine has reported, “when Knight Newspapers polled 1,721 US residents one year after the first moon landing, it found that more than 30 percent of respondents were suspicious of NASA’s trips to the moon.” Given that overall trust in government was considerably higher in those pre-Watergate days, the fact that nearly a third of Americans doubted what they were ‘witnessing’ through their television sets is rather remarkable.

When Fox ran a special on the Moon landings some years back and reported that 1-in-5 Americans had doubts about the Apollo missions, various ‘debunking’ websites cried foul and claimed that the actual percentage was much lower. BadAstronomy.com, for example, claims that the actual figure is about 6%, and that roughly that many people will agree “with almost any question that is asked of them.” Hence, there are only a relative handful of kooks who don’t believe that we’ve ever been to the Moon.

All of those websites fail to mention, of course, that among the people who experienced the events as they were occurring, nearly 1-in-3 had doubts, a number considerably higher than the number that Fox used. And, needless to say, the ‘debunkers’ also failed to mention that 1-in-4 young Americans, a number also higher than the figure Fox used, have doubts about the Moon landings.

Returning then to the question of why such a ruse would be perpetrated, we must transport ourselves back to the year 1969. Richard Nixon has just been inaugurated as our brand new president, and his ascension to the throne is in part due to his promises to the American people that he will disengage from the increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam. But Tricky Dick has a bit of a problem on his hands in that he has absolutely no intention of ending the war. In fact, he would really, really like to escalate the conflict as much as possible. But to do so, he needs to set up a diversion – some means of stoking the patriotic fervor of the American people so that they will blindly rally behind him.

In short, he needs to wag the dog.

This has, of course, traditionally been done by embarking on some short-term, low-risk military endeavor. The problem for Big Dick, however, is that a military mission is exactly what he is trying to divert attention away from. What, then, is a beleaguered president to do? Why, send Neil and Buzz to the Moon, of course! Instead of wagging the dog, it’s time to try something new: wagging the Moondoggie!

Nixon’s actions from the very moment he takes office belie his campaign pledges to the American people (not unlike that Barry Obama guy, who also led the American people to believe that he opposed an unpopular war). In May of 1969, with Nixon just a few months into his term, the press begins publicizing the illegal B-52 carpetbombing of Cambodia engineered by that irrepressible war criminal, Henry Kissinger. By June, Nixon is scrambling to announce what is dubbed the ‘Vietnamization’ of the war, which comes with a concomitant withdrawal of U.S. troops.

In truth, however, only 25,000 of the 540,000 U.S. troops then deployed will be brought home. This ruse is, therefore, transparently thin and it will buy the new president little time. To make matters worse, on July 14th, Francis Reitemeyer is granted Conscientious Objector status on the basis of a petition his attorney has filed which explicitly details the training and instruction he has just received in assassination and torture techniques in conjunction with his assignment to the CIA’s Phoenix Program. With these documents entering the public domain, the full horrors of the war are beginning to emerge.

Just in time to save the day, however, Apollo 11 blasts off on July 16th on its allegedly historic mission, and – with the entire nation enthralled – four days later the Eagle purportedly makes its landing on the pristine lunar surface. Vietnam is temporarily forgotten as America swells with patriotic pride for having beaten the Evil Empire to the Moon. There is little time to worry about the brutality of war when Neil is taking that “one giant leap for mankind.”

The honeymoon is short-lived, however, for just four months later, in November of 1969, Seymour Hersch publishes a story about the massacre of 504 civilians in the village of My Lai, bringing home to America the full savagery of the war in Southeast Asia. It’s time then for another Moon launch, and Apollo 12 dutifully lifts off on November 14th, making another picture-perfect lunar landing before returning on November 24th. The country is once again entranced by the exploits of America’s new breed of hero, and suddenly every kid in the country wants to grow up to be an astronaut.

All is well again until March of 1970, at which time a U.S.-backed coup deposes Prince Sihanouk in Cambodia and Lon Nol is handpicked by the CIA to replace him. Cambodia then immediately jumps in the fray by committing troops to the U.S. war effort. The war is further escalated the next month when Nixon authorizes an invasion of Cambodia by U.S. and ARVN ground forces, another move engineered by Henry Kissinger. Nixon has been in office just over a year and the war, far from winding down, has now expanded into Cambodia both in the air and on the ground.

Meanwhile, it’s time for yet another Moon launch. But this one is not going to be just any Moon launch. This one, you see, is going to introduce the element of danger. With the first two having gone off without a hitch, the American people – known for having notoriously short attention spans – are already adopting a ‘been there, done that’ attitude. The problem, in a nutshell, is that it looks just a little too damn easy. In order to regain the attention of the American people, it has to be impressed upon them that our brave astronauts are placing themselves in grave danger.

And so it is that on April 11th, 1970, Apollo 13 blasts off with Tom Hanks and a couple of somewhat lesser known actors on board, but unlike the first two missions, this Apollo spacecraft fails to reach the Moon and instead drifts about for the next six days with the crew in mortal danger of being forever lost in space! Now that gets our attention! So much so that when three Vietnam vets hold a multi-city press conference in New York, San Francisco and Rome on April 14th, attempting to publicize the ongoing Phoenix Program in which they have participated and have firsthand knowledge, nobody can really be bothered with paying much attention. It’s hard to be too concerned about the fate of Vietnamese villagers, you see, when Tom and the boys are clearly in trouble.

Awaiting news of the fate of the Apollo 13 crew, we all have our eyes glued to our TVs as though we are watching postmortem coverage of Michael Jackson. When our heroes somehow make it back alive, defying seemingly impossible odds, we are all so goddamned proud of them that we decide to award Tom another Oscar. And all is well again for the remainder of the year.

I really have to repeat here, by the way, that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, America really did rock! I mean, how about that Apollo safety record? Seven manned Moon launches with seven perfect take-offs! Tom and the boys obviously never did make it to the Moon, but the other six crews sure as hell did, and all six set those lunar modules down like the consummate professionals that they were, and all six used that untested technology to successfully blast off from the Moon and attain lunar orbit, and then all six successfully docked with the orbiting command modules. And all seven of those command modules, even Apollo 13’s, returned intact and with their crews happy and healthy.

That was just an awesome time to be an American and especially to be an American astronaut … well, except for the three guys (Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee) who were burned alive during a test procedure in the command module of what was to be the Apollo 1 rocket. But they were troublemakers anyway who probably wouldn’t have wanted to go along with the Moon landing fable. And then there was that Thomas Baron guy who was a safety inspector for NASA and who delivered highly critical testimony and a 1,500-page report to Congress, only to then be killed a week later. That report seems to have been sucked into the same Black Hole that swallowed up all the other Apollo evidence.

Anyway, returning now to our timeline, the dawn of 1971 brings the trial of Lt. William Calley on charges that he personally ordered and oversaw the mass murder of the inhabitants of the village of My Lai. And on January 31st, Apollo 14 is launched and once again makes a flawless lunar landing. On February 9th, the Apollo team returns, just a few weeks before Calley is convicted of murder (he served an absurdly short sentence under ‘house arrest’ and none of his superiors were ever held accountable).

A few months after that, the New York Times begins publication of the infamous Pentagon Papers, revealing American policy in Vietnam to be a complex web of lies. Publication is quickly stopped by the Justice Department but resumes once again as June turns to July. This is quickly followed, on July 26th, by the launch of Apollo 15. Four days later, yet another flawless lunar landing clearly demonstrates that America is the most bad-ass nation on Earth. But Moonwalking has become a bit of a bore for the American people, so a new element is introduced and from now on our beloved astronauts will roam the lunar surface in dune buggies. The lunar modules haven’t gotten any bigger, but now they can transport vehicles to the Moon. Cool!

Back on Earth, the astronauts return on August 7th and the rest of the year passes uneventfully. On March 30, 1972, North Vietnamese troops mount a massive offensive across the DMZ into Quang Tri Province, revealing as lies the pompous statements by numerous Washington hacks that victory is close at hand. Nixon and Co. respond to the offensive with deep penetration bombing of North Vietnam and, for good measure, the illegal mining of North Vietnam’s ports. They also respond by launching, on April 16th, another rocket (and another dune buggy) to the Moon. On April 27th, the crew of Apollo 16 once again return to a hero’s welcome.

By the end of the year, a ceasefire is finally looming on the horizon. Beginning in October, Kissinger and David Bruce (a member of the infamous Mellon family) are secretly negotiating peace terms with Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam. In December, however, those talks break down – but not before Apollo 17 is launched on December 7th in a most spectacular way: it is the first night launch of a Saturn V rocket. With the latest Apollo mission still a few days away from returning, the talks cease and Dick and Henry unleash a final ruthless carpetbombing campaign against North Vietnam, snuffing out countless thousands of civilian lives. Meanwhile, America warmly greets its returning astronauts.

Just five weeks later, the talks having resumed, a peace agreement is announced. Within a few days a ceasefire is in effect, thereby officially ending America’s involvement in Southeast Asia. Though the CIA will remain to continue directing the war by proxy, America’s men and women in uniform come home. And the Apollo program – despite several additional missions having been planned and discussed, and despite the additional funding that should have been available with the war drawing to a close – will never be heard from again.

In addition to restoring national pride and providing a diversion from the savage colonial war being waged in Southeast Asia, the Apollo program undoubtedly served another function as well: covert funding of that war effort. Needless to say, faking Moon landings is less expensive than actually making Moon landings, and a whole lot of money was funneled NASA’s way during the Vietnam years to accomplish the latter. It stands to reason that a considerable amount of that money could well have been diverted into covert operations being conducted in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In addition, a portion of the Apollo funding likely financed the early stages of the militarization of space.

There is no shortage of Moon hoax ‘debunking’ sites out there on the wild and wooly World Wide Web. The majority of them are not particularly well written or argued and yet they tend to be rather smug and self-congratulatory. Most of them tend to stick to ‘debunking’ the same facts and they use the same arguments to do so.

One thing they like to talk a lot about is the Van Allen radiation belts. The Moon hoax sites talk a lot about them as well. The hoaxers will tell you that man cannot pass through the belts without a considerable amount of radiation protection – protection that could not have been provided in the 1960s through any known technology. And the ‘debunkers’ claim that the Apollo astronauts would have passed through the belts quickly enough that, given the levels of radiation, no harm would have come to them. The hoaxers, say the ‘debunkers,’ are just being girlie men.

As it turns out, both sides are wrong: the ‘debunkers,’ shockingly enough, are completely full of shit, and the hoaxers have actually understated the problem by focusing exclusively on the belts. We know this because NASA itself – whom the ‘debunkers’ like to treat as a virtually unimpeachable source on all things Apollo, except, apparently, when the agency posts an article that implicitly acknowledges that we haven’t actually been to the Moon – has told us that it is so. They have told us that in order to leave low-Earth orbit on any future space flights, our astronauts would need to be protected throughout the entirety of the flight, as well as – and once again, this comes directly from NASA – while working on the surface of the Moon.

On June 24, 2005, NASA made this rather remarkable admission: “NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for a return to the Moon as preparation for even longer journeys to Mars and beyond. But there’s a potential showstopper: radiation. Space beyond low-Earth orbit is awash with intense radiation from the Sun and from deep galactic sources such as supernovas … Finding a good shield is important.”(http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/24jun_electrostatics.htm)

You’re damn right finding a good shield is important!! Back in the 1960s, of course, we didn’t let a little thing like space radiation get in the way of us beating the Ruskies to the Moon. But now, I guess, being that we are more cultured and sophisticated, we want to do it the right way so we have to come up with some way of shielding our spaceships. And our temporary Moon bases. And figuring out how to do that, according to NASA, could be a real “showstopper.”

As NASA notes, “the most common way to deal with radiation is simply to physically block it, as the thick concrete around a nuclear reactor does. But making spaceships from concrete is not an option.” Lead, which is considerably denser than concrete, is actually the preferred material to use for radiation shielding, but lead also isn’t very popular with spaceship designers. In fact, word on the street is that one of the main reasons the Soviets never made it to the Moon was because their scientists calculated that four feet of lead shielding would be required to protect their astronauts, and those same scientists apparently felt that spaceships wouldn’t fly all that well when clad in four feet of lead.

Now NASA is thinking outside the box and contemplating using ‘force fields’ to repel the radiation, a seemingly ridiculous idea that, whether workable in the future or not, certainly wasn’t available to NASA in the 1960s. Below is NASA’s own artist rendering of a proposed ‘force field’ radiation shield that would allow astronauts to work safely on the Moon. As you may have noticed in the earlier photos of the lunar modules, our guys didn’t bring anything like that with them on their, uhmm, earlier missions to the Moon. And you may have also noticed that the modules did not have any type of physical shielding.

How then did they do it? My guess is that the answer lies in that gold foil wrap. While it may look like an amateurish attempt to make the modules appear more ‘high-tech,’ I have a hunch that what we are looking at is another example of the lost technology of the 1960s – this time in the form of a highly-advanced superpolymer that provided maximum radiation shielding while adding virtually no weight. So all we have to do is track down a few leftover rolls of that stuff and we should be well on our way to sending guys back to the Moon.

According to Charles Buhler, a NASA scientist currently working on the force field concept, “Using electric fields to repel radiation was one of the first ideas back in the 1950s, when scientists started to look at the problem of protecting astronauts from radiation. They quickly dropped the idea though because it seemed like the high voltages needed and the awkward designs that they thought would be necessary … would make such an electric shield impractical.”

What a real journalist would have asked here, of course, is: “After dropping the electric shield concept, exactly what did they decide to use to get our astronauts safely to the Moon and back on the Apollo missions? And why can’t we do the same thing now, rather than reinventing the wheel? Don’t you guys have some of that gold foil in a closet somewhere?” No one in the American media, of course, bothered to ask such painfully obvious questions.

The 2005 report from NASA ends as follows: “But, who knows, perhaps one day astronauts on the Moon … will work safely.” Yes, and while we’re dreaming the impossible dream, let’s add a few more things to our wish list as well, like perhaps one day we’ll be able to listen to music on 8-track tape players, and talk to people on rotary dial telephones, and carry portable transistor radios, and use cameras that shoot pictures on special film that develops right before our eyes. Only time will tell, I suppose.

The Van Allen belts, by the way, trap most Earth-bound radiation, thus making it safe for us mortals down here on the surface of planet Earth, as well as for astronauts in low-Earth orbit (the belts extend from 1,000 to 25,000 miles above the surface of the Earth). The danger is in sending men through and beyond the belts, which, apart from the Apollo missions, has never been attempted … well, actually there was that one time, but I think we all remember how badly that turned out. In case anyone has forgotten, the astronauts returned to a world dominated by extremely poor acting, apes speaking with British accents, and a shirtless Charleton Heston. And I don’t think anyone wants to see that happen again.

The 2005 report was not the first time that NASA had openly discussed the high levels of radiation that exist beyond the Van Allen belts. In February 2001, the space agency posted a ‘debunking’ article that argued that the rocks allegedly brought back from the Moon were so distinctive in nature that they proved definitively that man had gone to the Moon. The problem though with maintaining a lie of the magnitude of the Moon landing lie is that there is always the danger that in defending one part of the lie, another part will be exposed. Such was the case with NASA’s ill-conceived The Great Moon Hoax post, in which it was acknowledged that what are referred to as “cosmic rays” have a tendency to “constantly bombard the Moon and they leave their fingerprints on Moon rocks.”

NASA scientist David McKay explained that “There are isotopes in Moon rocks, isotopes we don’t normally find on Earth, that were created by nuclear reactions with the highest-energy cosmic rays.” The article went on to explain how “Earth is spared from such radiation by our protective atmosphere and magnetosphere. Even if scientists wanted to make something like a Moon rock by, say, bombarding an Earth rock with high energy atomic nuclei, they couldn’t. Earth’s most powerful particle accelerators can’t energize particles to match the most potent cosmic rays, which are themselves accelerated in supernova blastwaves and in the violent cores of galaxies.”

So one of the reasons that we know the Moon rocks are real, you see, is because they were blasted with ridiculously high levels of radiation while sitting on the surface of the Moon. And our astronauts, one would assume, would have been blasted with the very same ridiculously high levels of radiation, but since this was NASA’s attempt at a ‘debunking’ article, they apparently would prefer that you don’t spend too much time analyzing what they have to say.

How exactly are we to reconcile NASA’s current position on space radiation with the same agency’s simultaneous claim that we have already sent men to the Moon? There are a few different possibilities that come to mind, the first of which is that, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, we simply threw caution to the wind and sent our boys off to the Moon with no protection whatsoever from space radiation. If that were true, however, then the question that would naturally be raised is: why not just do it again? After all, all of our Moonwalkers made it home safe and sound and most all have lived long, healthy, cancer-free lives. So why all the fuss over space radiation?

NASA could, I suppose, take the position that space radiation is a recent problem. Perhaps in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, space was relatively free of radiation, allowing unshielded Apollo rockets to cruise about without a care in the world while crew members primarily busied themselves with such important tasks as trying to capture all the stems and seeds that were floating around the command module as a result of cleaning their stash of low-grade ‘60s marijuana. It was just a different solar system back in those days. As aging hippies like to say, if you remember the solar system of the sixties, you weren’t really flying around in it.

If it proves not to be the case that this space radiation “showstopper” is a new development, then I suppose that the only explanation that we are left with is that we did indeed have the technology to shield our astronauts from radiation back in the 1960s, but at some time during the last four decades, that technology was simply lost. What probably happened was that an overzealous night custodian simply threw the data away. The conversation around the NASA water cooler the next day probably went something like this: “Holy shit! Has anyone seen that folder that I left on my desk last night? It contained the only copy of the secret formula that I devised for building a weightless space radiation shield. It could be forty years or more before someone else can duplicate it! My ass is so fired!”

Is 1,000 yuan a lot of money in China?

This is a fun question to answer.

It’s roughly $140 USD. But in China, the money goes a long way. So, here in the Southern Section along the coast, you can pretty much do any of the following with it…

Go to the movies about 8 times.

Or…

You can set it aside and buy a bus card; whether a physical card, or a QR registration code for your cellphone….

1000 yuan = 1000 bus trips

And, the same thing is true in Shenzhen with a subway, only it’s slightly more expensive, depending on your route. Let’s just call it double the price for simplicity sakes.

500 Subway trips.

Subway and bus not to your liking, how about DD or a taxi?

66 local rides
33 longer rides

How about eating?

250 breakfasts
66 stand-alone lunches
14 dinners

How about drinking?

100 bottles of beer at a BBQ
200 bottles of beer at at a store
10 bottles of medium priced wine
1 bottle of Beijiu

How about smoking?

142 packs of cheap cigarettes

How about some adult time?

Nope not enough.

How about hair styling and cuts?

Man = 60 trims
Woman = 2 hairdos
Dog = 4 sessions

Let’s talk about rents…

Apartment rent = not enough.
Parking rent = About 6 months worth
Electricity cost = about two months

I hope this gives you all an idea. Keep on smiling.

Does China Have a Huge Problem Despite Impressive Economic Development?

in World — by Kim Petersen — 26/05/2023

The G7 has recently wound up its meeting in Hiroshima, and the participants joined to affirm their fear of the Threat of China. British media reported that prime minister Rishi Sunak said: “China poses the biggest challenge to global security and prosperity of our age with the ‘means and intent to reshape the world order’.” The global septet spoke of “de-risking” rather than “de-coupling” from China. This was prudent because decoupling from the world’s leading manufacturing base would risk plunging all economies into recession. China leads the world in so many facets of production, particularly high technology: high-speed rail, rocket technology, their own space station, lunar and Martian probes and rovers, quantum computing, AI, robotics, bridge building, tunnel construction, chip production, hypersonic missiles, laser weapons, military armaments, nuclear technology, and on and on. Could it be that the Chinese economy is not as sturdy as it seems to be?

I asked Wei Ling Chua, the author of Democracy: What the West can learn from China and Tiananmen Square “Massacre”? The Power of Words vs. Silent Evidence, his forecast for the Chinese economy.

Kim Petersen: In a recent article, “Why China Can’t Pull the World Out of a New Great Depression,” strategic risk consultant F. William Engdahl writes, “… in real physical economic production, China has left the USA and everyone else in the dust. Therefore, the future course of industrial production in China is vital to the future of the world economy.”

He writes that steel production is “the single best indicator of a growing real economy” for which China crushes the competition. China leads in coal production, rare earth mining and processing, motor vehicle production, as supplier of essential cement for construction, aluminum production, and copper consumption. Engdahl adds, “The list goes on.”

Then Engdahl identifies a problem: “A huge problem with China’s economic model over the past two decades has been the fact that it has been a debt-based finance model massively concentrated on real estate speculation beyond what the economy can digest.” He points at the inflated housing market, rising unemployment, the dubiousness of official figures for total state debt, and the lack of transparency for financial information.

It is expected that there would be bumps along the road in the development of what was once, not so long ago, a very poor country compared to the economic colossus that China has become today. In addition to the commodities exported worldwide, China has also garnered much skepticism for its growth and development over the years, and yet China has always managed to steam ahead. China has a planned economy, and assuredly the mandarins have contingency plans for the unexpected.

What is your take on the Engdahl article?

Wei Ling Chua: I think the author lacks an understanding of the CCP series of policies and reforms, and he relies too heavily on the crusader agenda-based line-of-thinking.

Unlike western, Japanese, USSR development that relied heavily on imperialism, expansionism and looting

1) In the first 30 years of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the sources of finance were mainly from the agricultural sector, and the hard work, delegation and sacrifices of the entire population to rebuild the nation.

The Mao era was the hardest era in the history of the PRC, as the country just managed to hold together the entire nation with virtually nothing (no technology, no money, a 90% illiteracy rate, a divided population, a population hungry and in poor health with a super short average life-expectancy of 36 years, a hostile international environment (Korean war, Sino-India war, USSR border war, plus western sanctions, and in the 1960s USSR sanctions as well).

However, Mao managed to win the Korean war with mainly foot soldiers armed with rifles and hand grenades, helped Vietnam to chase away the US occupier, and defeated India and the USSR in skirmishes. China worked herself into the UN to replace the nationalist government as the only legitimate government of China. It also completed the first stage of the Chinese industrial revolution with all types of light industry (self-made household appliances, processed food), an active agriculture sector, fisheries, etc, and heavy industry such as producing trucks, cars, buses, trains, atomic bombs, satellite, missiles, and all type of other military weapons, construction technology…

2) over the next 30 years, China financed her economic reform via opening up with massive foreign investment plus massive land mortgage financing to fund all types of infrastructure across the country.

But, unlike the rest of the developing countries, China used cheap land and labor to attract foreign investment to build factories, and used her own land allocation as a guarantee to print money and provide loans for building infrastructure, commercial and residential property, and therefore, not incurring too much foreign debt. So, most of China’s debts are domestic and are outside of foreign control.

3) Since Xi came into power, his zero tolerance towards corruption and successful anti-corruption policy very much ensured the country’s continued smooth operation with high efficiency and less waste. This is a most vital element in any nation’s development and future prosperity (whereas all western countries are down down and down at the moment due to legalised corruption in the name of lobbying, political donations, speech bureaus, privatisation, etc)

Xi’s centralised medicine approval strategy has successfully reduced all drug prices by up to more than 90%, and hence china was able to introduce sustainable nationwide medicare coverage. Such a policy freed up people’s savings for domestic consumption. This economic generator is a pillar of any advanced country.

Under Xi, the average wages of the nation basically more than doubled.

Yes, like the rest of the world, the real estate market and tax on property transactions are major sources of government revenue. But Xi knew that if the real-estate market was allowed to continue being controlled by a handful of billionaires to reap speculative profits then the housing prices would keep rising. So, he openly told the nation that housing is for people to live, not for speculative profit. He cracked down on irresponsible real estate giants controlling too much real estate and using them to mortgage and buy more. Finally, this caused some collapse in overheated pricing. But unlike the US, there is no too-big-to-fail company in China; Xi froze these troubled giant companies from issuing dividends to shareholders, and made the owners sell their own assets to repay the interest and loans, sell their overseas companies and assets, and then domestic assets to repay the loans. And when the state bails out a company, all those assets return back to the people; i.e., state control.

The author also failed to take in a lot of things that have taken place in China.

4) Yes, there are debt issues in China, but debts should be distinguished between good debt and bad debt:

Across the west, they keep printing money to give away to political donors in exchange for personal benefits at the expense of the taxpayers, they also give away money to voters to win votes. These are bad debts as they produce no future return for the masses.

But, for China, the debts transform into infrastructure domestically and overseas. The outcome is apparent: more and more regions and countries with Chinese investment enjoy economic prosperity; hence, they help China to continue enjoying prosperity despite western decoupling policies.

The winning of trust and friends across the world will only pave the way for China’s Belt and Road win-win strategy to ensure mutual prosperity even without the West. We are now witnessing that the BRICS’s GDP is bigger than that of the G7, and the Chinese economy has been bigger than the entire EU (the combined GDP of 27 countries) since 2021.

Besides, the rise of China’s high-tech economy are obvious: due to China’s superiority in EV car technology, China has just replaced Japan as the world’s biggest new car exporter (the world number 1 in EV car exports), solar technology exports as well, infrastructure exports, ship building etc, and lately, overtaking the US in military armament exports to places like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Thailand… etc. Consider also the growing popularity of the RMB as a reserve currency. It is important to note that China managed to achieve these feats without firing a single shot; it’s all about investment in education, R&D, development of infrastructure, and a policy of win-win.

China’s future is very bright with the coming development, export of chips, nuclear power plants, and reunification with Taiwan. At this moment, the world has seen China managing to finally create a peaceful and Chinese-friendly Central Asia, Russia, Middle East, and ASEAN (excluding the Philippines under Marcos). We also notice that almost all African countries and Latin American countries are also very much preferring China over the West. This peace dividend will help create an entire region surrounding China to move towards the world’s biggest economic block developing in peace and harmony. It will become a magnet for the rest of the world.

These Eerie and Scary Glitches Will Creep You Out

‘Turbulence in the sky’

By now, every man and his dog knows about the rumble in the sky. Cathay Pacific flight attendants found themselves in the eye of a category-5 storm, caught disrespecting non-English speaking Mainland passengers.

Cathay is quick to smell existential threat as 70% of its revenue reportedly comes from the mainland. Consumer boycotts are still raging against Nike and Adidas over Xinjiang cotton, having humbled H & M. To its credit, its CEO acted swiftly, issuing 3 apologies in 3 days, ending with the announced firing of the 3 offending stewardesses. Discrimination is no laughing matter and the offenders didn’t get the last laugh.

Mainlanders won’t be pacified by Cathay Pacific’s actions, claiming that this incident is just the tip of the iceberg. They accuse its cabin crew of habitually disparaging non-English-speaking mainland passengers while according foreigners deferential treatment.

Cathay’s CEO has promised a full investigation which he will personally lead. But as the situation continues to ferment, only a root-and-branch change in company culture will do.

One thing Cathay must avoid is to repeat BMW’s blunder in handling its Ice Cream-gate, in which ice creams were handed out free to foreigners but denied to Chinese. BMW tried to repair the damage with a PR gimmick by giving out free dog-tags to the Chinese. But this backfired with its echoes of the infamous sign outside a Shanghai park: “Chinese and dogs are not allowed.”

Cosmetic changes won’t stop the tidal wave of anger. Cathay needs a systemic revamp. While the company recruits local staff from regions it serves outside Mainland China, it has refused to hire local cabin crew to service its mainland routes. This nurtures a noxious subculture which has come back to bite its mainland patrons. Cathay has an unshirkable responsibility to create job opportunities where it makes most of its money. An investigation is a Band-Aid solution. Why not a recruitment campaign that generates good will?

Hong Kongers’ tangled ties with mainlanders fall into three categories: On Canton Street, the heartland of ultra-luxury shopping, sales people would give their right arm to red-carpet mainland customers. Locals are cold-shouldered as improbable patrons. Likewise, in real estate agencies, mainlanders are royalty, preceded by a reputation for scooping up expensive properties sight unseen.

In public schools and private universities, devastated by declining birthrate and plunging student enrolment, Mainland students are greeted like saviors that prevent school closure.

But in Yuen Long, outside overcrowded drug stores, they are as welcome as “swarms of locusts”.

On buses and the MTR or busy restaurants, too, they are likewise viewed as big mouths with bulging wallets.

In short, where locals stand depends on where they sit. Cathay cabin crew is guilty of biting the hand that feeds them. I have never heard of a company prospering by insulting its customers. There is a symbiotic relationship between Hong Kong and its next-door neighbor, separated by a yawning language and culture gap that cries out to be bridged.

Hong Kong’s landscape is littered with pockets of colonial-era snobbery.

In truth, the city has never been decolonized. The handover happened with a piece of paper and a ceremony, with no corresponding action in education. This is why thousands of civil servants have chosen to quit rather than swear an oath of allegiance to the new sovereign. Maybe Cathay itself, with its ingrained snooty British culture, needs full decolonization and localization.

China is a misunderstood country. No nation in history has undergone such rapid and utter transformation. Attitude towards China can’t keep pace with the velocity of change. What was true in the 80’s or 90’s is no longer true today. But old attitudes die hard, whatever the new jaw-dropping progress.

Mainlanders dislike being belittled. They begin to call flight attendants “glorified waitresses”, who are too far down the food chain to be snobs.

These days, consumers wield a powerful weapon. Their smartphone is a camera, a recording device, a communication tool, and a potential “smoking gun”. Being caught red-handed in anti-social behavior could spell the end of a career. There is no place to hide, whether one is 30,000 ft. in the air or 3-feet apart face-to-face on the ground, or even in the boardroom.

Depopulation of the United States is imminent

"What we need is a king, and every now and then if the king’s not doing a good job, we kill him." -- George Carlin

Make sure your popcorn is out. The red lights are flashing and the Western “leadership” are partying like it’s 1999.

Soon, comes China.

Death will come quick.

China is the one country the US wouldn't want to mess with.

Why are the free people of the world terrified by Chinese communism?

They aren’t terrified of Chinese communism; they are frightened of how a powerful China will usurp the role originally occupied by the west for the past 500 years.

The west has never had to deal with a globally influential China before, so they are projecting their own worst fears onto China, and have thrown the kitchen sink at China, including that China is “communist”, which evokes fears of the Soviet Union.

For many in the West, this is like watching a chainsaw massacre movie being played out on the world stage, with themselves as the next victims of the chainsaw murderer.

So naturally, they are getting hysterical.

Communism is a stateless, moneyless, classless society. So, how is China a communist country? Has communism adapted a new definition?

China is NOT a communist country.

China embraces a policy of “Socialism with Chinese characteristics”. The truth is that China is unique and its system of governance is unique as well.

To best understand China, every-time you hear the word “communism”, replace it with “Community”. Your understanding of what China is will expand greatly.

China’s Advanced Military Weapons: Taking Warfare to New Heights!

https://youtu.be/wrxMxlAEgtU

You must eat with the dogs

North Korean defector: escape from dictator regime to find freedom and democracy.

Also North Korea defector: the free world is not quite what she expects.

“You must eat with the dogs” says it all.

Why does China produce by far more pollution than any other country? Does this adversely affect countries who try to control and lessen their pollution output for the better of everyone?

It is not at all surprising that China produces more pollution than any other country. The better question is – does China produce more or less pollution than ALL of the following countries combined?

USA + Mexico + Japan + Philippines + Vietnam + Turkey + France + South Africa + South Korea + Argentina + Canada + Malaysia + Australia + Sri Lanka + Ecuador + Belgium + Greece + Austria + Israel + Switzerland + Slovakia + Germany + Spain + Sweden + Serbia.

Why did I choose the abovementioned 26 countries? Well, because their combined population adds up to approximately the population of China (1.43 billion people).

So …. what do you think? Does China produce more or less pollution than all these countries combined? You can do your own research. I am pretty sure that the answer is no. Why am I so confident? Well, because stats are already available to show which countries, on a per capita basis, are the world’s biggest carbon emitters:

main qimg d5cdce57f5d03b3d6792990a927682a5 pjlq

It’s worthwhile to note that China, despite serving as the world’s factory (and basically making goods for the whole world), nevertheless emits less than half as much as carbon as the USA (on a per capita basis).

The world leader in pollution is therefore the USA, not China. This is not limited to carbon emissions, but to other areas of environmental concern as well, such as the use of plastic, the wastage of food etc etc.

THIS IS WW3, China just sent a TERRIFYING warning to the U.S.!

https://youtu.be/Uts1AqpG_-c

Why did you leave America?

I was born in the US, grew up in the US, and like a good brainwashed American, I believed in all the BS they brainwash you with, during your entire life.

You’re lucky because you’re American.
This is the greatest country on earth.
If you have difficulties in life is YOUR fault, not the system which is the best on earth!

After I graduated college, at the tender age of 22, I got a job working in Germany for the US government. An ex of mine helped me get it (Nepotism) but hey!

Living there opened my eyes to the fact the US was actually a pretty crappy place.

Then life took me to Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary, Spain, Croatia, Canada, South Korea, Tunisia, Colombia, Mexico, back to Colombia.

All of that confirmed to me the fact the US is a pretty shitty place in a rather large number of categories.

I decided to ditch the US, I only go there to see my momma and my sisters’, plus my nieces and nephews who live there.

This is what I can think of:

LACK OF EMPATHY = Americans are brainwashed to believe the system is great and full of opportunity but it isn’t. The system works if you have the right connections… (hence my first job in Germany at 22 right after college). As a result an enormous amount of Americans fall through the cracks of the BRUTAL SYSTEM that operates the land, and socially the rest of Americans (esp. REPUBLICANS) assume it’s the fault of those who fail, so why would the system help? so little to no empathy is given to those who fail.

SCARY FUTURE: Living in the US stresses me. I always end up worrying about what am I going to do when I am 75? How am I going to pay for my health insurance? Who is going to take care of me if I need help? How am I going to afford housing? (I am often told by righteous Americans, usually with debt up to their necks, that it is my fault for not following the path College > job > work your ass off > mortgage > 401k > continue to work your ass off until you’re too old > retirement.) See? IF you want to be ok in the US you HAVE to waste the only life you will ever have in being a slave of the system.
VERY HIGH COST OF LIVING AND YOU HAVE TO WORK A LOT TO BE ABLE TO KEEP AFLOAT: In Raleigh NC (A mid size, not expensive US city), a teacher makes around 2,600 USD per month. The cost of a small apartment in the same city is around 1,300. Half of your salary. Then around 500 USD on food, 250 USD utilities… Gas around 50 USD a week which totals around 200 USd per month on gas. Do the math, you barely get by! Forget saving for a house, forget saving money to travel the world, forget seeing your bank account grow.
HEALTHCARE: When I was 20 I didn’t care. Now at 45, (I’ll be 46 next month) health is starting to become a priority…. A simple annual check-up with a doctor with blood testing and all…. 200 – 300 bucks! Look at my point above and see how EASY it is to fall behind in the US. How is it possible that in Colombia an American friend of mine gets heart surgery and three stents implanted in his heart for FREE just because he is a tax payer! In the Us you pay taxes and forget about having healthcare readily available like you do here in Colombia.
TOO VIOLENT : I currently live in Colombia, not the safest place on earth, but Colombia is a different kind of unsafe. Colombia is dangerous if you GO LOOKING for danger. Meaning I go to a big Colombian city and I am in the wrong area flashing my expensive iphone, I hang out with drug lords and shady people, I am involved in the political sphere of the country and have enemies, Then yes, Colombia will be dangerous. If I skip all that, I will be pretty much safe! In the US on the other hand, danger comes to you, the shootings come to you, the psycho people come to you… Look at all the school shootings, the gun loving people ready to use their guns at the first altercation they get…. IT IS NOT SAFE!
DIVIDE AND CONQUER: Everyone hates everyone. America as a system exploits race, religion, politics, sex, sexuality, anything it can to create a dichotomy, and then use it to divide and conquer. As a result you have a nation of people angry with one another.
CAR ORIENTED AND CULTURELESS: Most of the Us is a vapid, boring, manicured, lame, massive sprawl full of FUCKING NOTHING but green manicured lawns, overpriced mcmansions inhabited by people likely in serious debt, and massive dying malls with gigantic empty parking lots…. and don’t forget the crumbling highway running right through the middle of the city. You might have nice museums (America does great museums), and the coffee shop here and there that is not starbucks, but that is it for a LOT of US cities.

I currently live in this small town of central Colombia. It has its pros and cons, but I wake up to the sound of chickens, cows, fruit sellers advertising their tropical fruits on the street…. Exotic birds in the patio. Sorry but the US is not a place I want to be in.

This is my current hometown in Colombia.

And no, I am not telling you where it is because the people in front of my house sold their house to a German couple, the new neighbors right down the street are a Canadian woman with her Nigerian husband, and now Americans are starting to pop up in the scene looking to live here too….

SO NOPE, not going to ruin paradise!

EDIT: Some of the replies from some nationalistic Americans, or folks from poor countries like Ukraine or some Quorans from Africa are hilarious. (YOU MUST BE LYING, WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE THE USA FOR COLOMBIA?)

Colombia does better than the US:

FUN / SOCIETY : Colombia is fun, its cities are full of squares, bars, cafes, they are walkable, colorful, full of music, pedestrians, trees.
CITY INFRASTRUCTURE: Medellin (the closest city to where I live), has public transportation that cannot be found anywhere in the US, I can literally go anywhere in Medellin in a matter of minutes without ever needing a car.
HEALTHCARE : Let us not even talk about this.
No crazy Karens, Kevins, and lunatics.
No car dependency.
Cost of living is not insane.
Healthier lifestyle.

And for those HITTING ME IN THE FACE with links from the internet…

…about how much teachers make in NC, please, before you throw me those figures at me….

…know that they take taxes and all sort of allotments from teachers before they ever see their paychecks.

On paper, a beginning teacher makes 3,500…. but the amount they get in their bank account is 2600 or so.

Try living with that anywhere in the US these days!

A Bipolar Order?

Wolfgang Streeck

01 May 2023

Italians, it is said, are given to a perspective on politics that they call dietrismo. Dietro means behind, and dietrismo means a habitualized conviction that what you see is designed to hide what you get, by powers operating behind a curtain that divides the world into a stage and a backstage, the latter being where the real action is, the former where it is purposely mispresented. You read something, or hear about it on the radio or on TV, and as a well-trained dietrista you wonder, not so much about what you are being told but why you are being told it, and why now.

These days, after three years of Covid and one year of the Ukrainian war, it seems we have all become Italians, dietrismo now being as universal as pasta. More and more of us read the ‘narratives’ produced for our benefit by governments and their client media, no longer for what they say but for what they may mean: as distorted images of reality that nonetheless seem to signify something, a little like the shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave. Take, for example, the semi-official ersatz account of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, published by the New York Times and handed to the German weekly, Die Zeit: the supposed culprits were six people, as yet unknown, on a Polish yacht rented somewhere in East Germany, who had conveniently left traces on the boat’s kitchen table of the powerful explosives they had taken along to the crime scene. Apart from the truest of the true believers and, of course, the loyal manufacturers of public consent, it didn’t require a lot of thinking to see that the story had been concocted to crowd out the account presented by Seymour Hersh, the immortal investigative reporter. What was exciting about it for the dietristic mind was that it was so obviously ridiculous that it seemed its ridiculousness could not be due to incompetence – not even the CIA could be as dumb as that – but was rather intentional, raising the question of what it might have been intended for. Perhaps, political cynics suggested, the purpose was to humiliate the German government and its federal prosecutor’s office, thereby breaking their will, by having them publicly declare this obvious nonsense to be a valuable lead to follow in their unrelenting effort to resolve the mystery of the Nord Stream bombing.

Another intriguing feature of the story was that the suspected boat renters were said to have some connection to ‘pro-Ukrainian groups’. While according to the report there were no indications that these were connections with the Ukrainian government or military, any Le Carré connoisseur knows that where the secret services are involved, any kind of evidence can easily be discovered if needed. Unsurprisingly, the report caused panic in Kiev, where it was read, probably rightly, as a signal from the United States that its patience with Ukraine and its present leadership was not unlimited. In fact, at about the same time there were mounting reports on corruption in Ukraine, emanating from the United States, coinciding with and reinforcing growing resistance among Republicans in Congress against ever more dollars being diverted into the Ukrainian defence budget – as though corruption in Ukraine had not always been notoriously rampant (viz. Hunter Biden’s stint as energy policy expert on the board of Burisma Holdings Ltd.). Beginning in January this year, the Washington Post and New York Times published a series of articles on Ukrainian outrages, including army commanders using American dollars to buy cheap Russian diesel for Ukrainian tanks and pocketing the difference. A shocked Zelensky immediately dismissed two or three high-ranking officials, promising to fire more in time.

Why was this now presented as news, even though it has long been common knowledge that Ukraine is amongst the world’s most corrupt countries? Further adding to what, seen from Kiev, must increasingly have appeared to be ominous writing on the wall, secret American documents leaked in the second half of April showed that the US military’s confidence in the ability of Ukraine to launch a successful spring counteroffensive, let alone win the war as its government had promised to its citizens and international sponsors, was at an all-time low. To American opponents of the war, Republicans as well as Democrats, the documents confirmed that keeping the Ukrainian army in action might turn out to be unacceptably expensive, all the more so since both political parties in the United States agreed that their country had to get ready sooner rather than later for a much bigger war, fighting the Chinese in the Pacific. (By the end of 2022, the United States was estimated to have spent something like $46.6 billion on military aid to Ukraine; much more is expected to be required as the conflict drags on.) For Ukrainians and their European supporters, it seemed hard to avoid the conclusion that the United States might soon take leave of the battlefield, turning its unfinished European business over to the locals.

Of course, compared to Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and similar places, what the Americans are likely to abandon is in not nearly as messy a condition. Working with the Baltic states and Poland, the United States has managed in recent months to push Germany into something like a position of European leadership, on the provision that it takes responsibility for organizing and, importantly, financing the European contribution to the war. Step by step over the past year, the EU was simultaneously turned into an auxiliary of NATO – in charge, among other things, of economic warfare – while NATO became more than ever an instrument of American policy flagged as ‘Western’.

When in mid-2023 NATO’s general secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, is rewarded for his hard work with a well-deserved sinecure, the presidency of the Norwegian central bank, rumour has it that Ursula von der Leyen, currently president of the European Commission, will be promoted to succeed him. This would complete the EU’s subordination to NATO – that other, much more powerful international organization headquartered in Brussels which, unlike the EU, includes, and indeed is dominated by, the United States. In her earlier life, von der Leyen was, of course, German Defence Minister under Merkel, although according to general impression one of the more incompetent ones. While in this capacity she shared in the responsibility for the allegedly dismal condition of the German armed forces at the beginning of the Ukrainian war, she has now apparently been forgiven on account of her ardent Americanism-as-Europeanism or, as the case may be, Europeanism-as-Americanism. In any case, an agreement on closer cooperation was signed by the EU and NATO in January 2023, made possible not least by Finland and Sweden ending their neutrality and joining NATO. According to FAZ, the agreement establishes ‘in no uncertain terms the priority of the Alliance with respect to the collective defence of Europe’, thereby enshrining the leading role of the United States in European security policy, broadly defined.

The German government is now busy assembling battlefield-ready battalions of tanks of different European builds (the American M1 Abrams are said to arrive in a few months – how many months exactly is kept a secret – in Europe, where their Ukrainian crews will be trained on German military bases). It will also supply and keep in good repair the fighter planes that Germany, along with the United States, still refuses to deliver to Ukraine (though not for much longer if experience is to be a guide). Meanwhile Rheinmetall announced that it will build a tank factory in Ukraine with a capacity of 400 latest-model battle tanks per year. Also, on the eve of the 21 April meeting of the Ramstein support group, Germany signed an agreement with Poland and Ukraine on a repair shop, located in Poland, for Leopards damaged at the Ukrainian front, to go into operation already at the end of 2023 (obviously on the assumption that the war will not have ended by then). Add to this the promise, freely renewed by von der Leyen on behalf of the EU, that Ukraine will after the war be rebuilt at European, meaning German, expense – no mention, incidentally, of a contribution from the Ukrainian oligarchs, not many in number, but each of them all the richer for that. Indeed, an early April visit to Kiev by the German Economy Minister, Robert Habeck, together with a delegation of CEOs of large German firms, provided an opportunity to explore future business opportunities in the reconstruction of Ukraine once the war is over.

This may not happen anytime soon, however. The recently leaked American documents and the pronouncements of the semi-official commentariat indicate that a Ukrainian Endsieg is not expected imminently, if it is expected at all. Western delivery of military hardware seems to be fine-tuned to enable the Ukrainian army to hold its position; when the Russians gain territory, Ukraine will be given as much artillery, ammunition, tanks and fighter planes as it needs to push them back. A Ukrainian victory, however, declared essential for the survival of the Ukrainian people by its governing party, seems not to be on the American shopping list anymore. Looking at the delivery schedules for Abrams tanks and fighter bombers, to the extent that they can be gleaned from official announcements, the expectation is rather for something like drawn-out trench warfare with heavy bloodshed on both sides. It is interesting in this context that, in an apparently unguarded moment during one of his daily television addresses, Zelensky, demanding as always more Western military support, argued that Ukraine must win the war before the end of 2023 because the Ukrainian people may not be willing to bear its burden much longer.

As the United States proceeds towards Europeanizing the war, it will be up to Germany not just to organize Western support for Ukraine but also to impress upon the Ukrainian government that at the end of the day this support may not suffice for the kind of victory that Ukrainian nationalists claim the Ukrainian nation needs. As American franchisee for the war, Germany will be first in line to take the blame if its outcome falls short of public expectations in Eastern Europe, in the United States, among German pro-Ukrainian militants, and certainly in Ukraine itself. This prospect must be even more uncomfortable for the German government, since it appears increasingly unlikely that how the war ends will be decided in Europe. An important, possibly decisive player in the background will be China, with its longstanding policies of opposing any use of nuclear arms and abstaining from delivering arms to countries at war, including Russia. Following a short visit to Beijing, Scholz claimed that these were concessions to Germany, even though they date back much further. Indeed, the apparent American reluctance to enable Ukraine to go for an all-out victory, leaving post-operational rehabilitation to Germany, may be motivated by a desire to enable China to stick to its policy – which it might not be able to do if Russia and its regime were at some point pushed against the wall. If this was not merely a tacit understanding but rather some sort of negotiated agreement, it would certainly not be made public at a time when the Biden administration is making preparations to go to war with China.

The super-nationalists in Kiev may already smell a rat. Shortly after the latest meeting of the Ramstein group, Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk, representative of the classical-fascist Bandera element in the Ukrainian government, expressed his country’s gratitude for the promised arms deliveries. At the same time, he let it be known that they were pitifully insufficient to ensure a Ukrainian victory in 2023; for this, Melnyk insisted, no less than ten times as many tanks, planes, howitzers and the like would be required. Again applying dietristic hermeneutics, Melnyk, trained at Harvard University, must have known that this was bound to annoy his American patrons. That he doesn’t seem to care implies that he and his comrades-in-arms consider Washington’s ‘pivot to Asia’ already underway. It also signals both the despair of the governing Ukrainian clique regarding the prospects of the war, as well as its willingness to fight to the bitter end, driven by the radical-nationalist belief that real nations grow on the battlefield, watered with the blood of their best.

The approaching nadir of Ukrainian ultra-nationalism signals the emergence of a new global order, the contours of which, including the place of Europe and the European Union, can be discerned only by bringing China into the picture. As the United States turns its attention to the Pacific, its aim is to build a global alliance encircling China, to keep Beijing from contesting American control of the Pacific. This would replace the unipolar world of the failed neocon ‘Project for a New American Century’ with a bipolar one: globalization, and indeed hyperglobalization, now with two centres, much like the Cold War of old, with a remote prospect of a return, perhaps after another hot war, to only one centre, a New World Order Mark II. (Capitalism, we must remind ourselves, transformed and re-formed itself more fundamentally and effectively than ever in the wake of the two Great Wars of the twentieth century, in 1918 and in 1945, securing its survival by taking a new shape; surely there must be some memory in the centres of capitalist grand-strategy of the rejuvenating effects of war.)

China’s geostrategic project, by contrast, seems to be a multipolar world. For reasons of both geography and military capacity, the goal of Chinese foreign and security policy cannot really be a bipolar order with China battling the United States for global dominance, nor a unipolar world with itself at the centre. As a land power bordering on a large number of potentially hostile nations, it needs first and foremost something like a cordon sanitaire, whereby its neighbouring countries are bound together with China by shared physical infrastructure, freely awarded credit, and a commitment to stay out of alliances with potentially hostile external powers – as opposed to the American desire to subject the world as a whole to a globalized Monroe Doctrine. (The United States has only two neighbours, Canada and Mexico, which are quite unlikely to turn into Chinese allies.) In addition, China actively encourages the formation of something like a league of non-aligned regional powers, including Brazil, South Africa, India and others: a new Third World which would keep out of a Sino-American confrontation and, importantly, refuse to join American economic sanctions against China and its new client state, Russia.

In fact, indications are that China would prefer to be seen as a neutral power among others, rather than one of two combatants for world domination, at least as long as it cannot be sure it would not lose a war against the United States. A desire to avoid a new bipolarism along the lines of the first Cold War would account for China’s refusal to provide arms to Russia, even though Ukraine is being armed to the teeth by the United States. (China can afford this because Russia has no choice other than to fall in line with it, arms or not, no matter the price China might extract for its protection.) In this context, the one-hour telephone conversation between Xi and Zelensky on 26 April, mentioned only in passing by most of the European press, may have been something of a turning point. Apparently Xi offered himself as mediator in the Russian-Ukrainian war, on the basis of a Chinese twelve-point peace plan that had been talked down as trivial and useless by Western leaders, if they took notice at all. Remarkably, Zelensky called the conversation ‘meaningful’, elaborating that ‘particular attention was paid to the ways of possible cooperation to establish a just and sustainable peace for Ukraine.’ If successful, the Chinese intervention might be of formative significance for the emerging global order after the end of the end of history.

In recent months the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has been crisscrossing the world on a mission to whip as many countries as possible into the American camp of a renewed bipolarism, by appealing to liberal – ‘Western’ – values, offering diplomatic, economic and military support, and threatening economic sanctions. In her capacity as America’s roaming ambassador, Baerbock’s credibility requires that her own country strictly follow the American line, including cutting China out of the global economy. This, however, is in fundamental conflict with the interests of German industry, and by extension of Germany as a country, forcing Baerbock to tread an awkward, often outright contradictory line in relation to China. For example, while she framed her recent visit to Beijing in aggressive and even hostile rhetoric both before her arrival and after her departure – so much so that her Chinese counterpart felt it necessary to explain to her at a joint press conference that the last thing China needed was lectures from the West – she also apparently indicated that German sanctions might be selective rather than all-encompassing, with trade relations in several industrial sectors continuing more or less unabated.

With an eye to what might be going on backstage, one may speculate whether Scholz could have managed to get the United States to give Germany some rope in its relations with its most important export market, as a reward for running the European war effort in Ukraine in line with American requirements. On the other hand, German producers seem to have recently lost market share in China, dramatically so in cars, where Chinese customers are spurning new electric vehicles from Germany in favour of homegrown ones. While this may be because German models are considered less attractive, German anti-Chinese rhetoric may have played a role in a country with strong nationalist and anti-Western sentiment. If this is so, it suggests that the problem of German industry being too dependent on China may be about to resolve itself.

German China policy, following the US’s bipolar world political project, causes conflicts not only domestically but also internationally, most of all with France, where it threatens to tear the European Union even further apart. French aspirations to ‘strategic autonomy’ for ‘Europe’ (and ‘strategic sovereignty’ for France) stand a chance only in a multipolar world populated by a good number of politically significant non-aligned countries, quite similar to what the Chinese seem to want. To what extent this implies some kind of equidistance to the United States and China is a question left open, probably deliberately, by Emmanuel Macron. Sometimes he seems to want equidistance, sometimes he denies that he wants it. In any case, this prospect is anathematized by German pro-Western militants, above all by the Greens who now control German foreign policy. Among them, suspicions run deep of Macron’s occasional protestations that ‘strategic autonomy’ is compatible with transatlantic loyalty, at a time of growing confrontation between ‘the West’ and the new East Asian Evil Empire. As a result, France is more isolated than ever in the EU.

Macron, like previous French presidents, has always known that in order to dominate the European Union, France needs Germany on its side, or more precisely, in Brussels jargon: on the backseat of a French-German tandem. His problem is that Germany has now dismounted the bicycle, and for good. Under Green leadership it dreams, together with Poland and the Baltic states in particular, of delivering Putin to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which requires Ukrainian-German tanks to drive into Moscow, just as Soviet tanks once drove into Berlin. Macron, instead, wants to allow Putin to ‘save face’ and hopes to offer Russia a resumption of economic relations, after a ceasefire mediated, if not by France, then perhaps by a coalition of non-aligned countries from the ‘Global South’, or even by China.

The Götterdämmerung of Franco-German domination of the European Union, and the transformation of its ruins into an anti-Russian economic and military infrastructure run by Eastern European countries on behalf of American trans-Atlanticism, was never more visible than in Macron’s trip to China on 6 April, following Scholz (4 November) and preceding Baerbock (13 April). Strangely, Macron allowed von der Leyen to accompany him, according to some as a German gouvernante charged with preventing him from embracing Xi too passionately, according to others to demonstrate to the Chinese that the president of the EU was not a real president but a subordinate to the President of France, ruling not just his own country but all of the EU with it. The Chinese, who may or may not have understood Macron’s signals, treated him royally although they were undoubtedly aware of his domestic troubles; von der Leyen, known as the Atlanticist hardliner that she is, was given a special non-treatment. While flying back on his plane, von der Leyen no longer travelling with him, Macron explained to the press that American allies are not American vassals, a remark widely understood to imply, again, that Europe’s position should be one of equal distance from China and the United States. Germany, first and foremost its Foreign Minister, was appalled and let it be known, no holds barred, with the German media dutifully and unanimously following suit.

A few days later, on 11 April, Baerbock attended the meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Japan. There she got her colleagues, including the one from France, to pledge as much allegiance as humanly possible to the American flag, standing as it does for one world indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. By this time Macron, noting that his rhetorical battle against French vassalage had gone unnoticed by the opponents of his pension reform, had already backpedalled and, again, professed everlasting loyalty to NATO and the United States. There is no reason, however, to believe that this will halt the Zeitenwende of the European Union underway with the Ukrainian war: the split between France and Germany and the ascent of the East European member states to European dominance following the return of the United States to Europe under Biden, in preparation for a global confrontation with the Land of Xi, in the untiring American effort to make the world safe for democracy.

Russia-1 State TV Host: “If we lose, we’re taking the whole world with us”

World Hal Turner 19 May 2023

Vladimir Solovyov, a popular TV news host on Russia-1 TV, has invoked Armageddon on his TV show in which the consequences of a Russian defeat in Ukraine were discussed.

In a clip on his evening show on the Russia 1 channel, which was tweeted by journalist and Russia watcher Julia Davis, Solovyov listened to his guest Karen Shakhnazarov, a filmmaker, talk about how the war was now “a question of our destruction.”

Shakhnazarov wondered whether Russian people fully understood “the gravity of the threat” that the war’s outcome poses, and that the conflict was “a lot more complex and dangerous” than World War II.

He also described how modern Russian society was nothing like the one that existed in 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union because there was no unifying ideology.

Contemporary Russians, in his view, had grown up consuming American culture and he said there were internal divisions in the country and a lack of younger people, which meant that older citizens were serving on the frontlines.

The war “is fateful for us,” Shakhnazarov said, “our political elites have to realize this. We should start admitting that this is not simply a special military operation but a war. If we lose this war, we will disappear” like some Native American tribes which “have simply vanished.” He went on to suggest that defeat for Moscow’s forces in Ukraine would lead to books being written about “how Russia lost itself and Eurasia.”

Solovyov chimed in to say he hoped Ukraine understood that “if we lose, we are taking the whole world with us.”

“Let me remind you what the Supreme Commander said, ‘who needs the world if Russia isn’t in it?'” Solovyov said, referring to a quote by President Vladimir Putin .

The anchor then went on say that Russia should use its nuclear weapons, shed restrictions against testing and “convincingly demonstrate what we have.”

Since the start of Putin’s invasion, Solovyov has repeatedly said that Russia should draw on its nuclear weapons capability to strike against Western countries that back Ukraine. Last week, he said on his radio show Full Contact that “nuclear war is inevitable.”

Jackie Chiles perfect attorney

The US and Taiwan media reported that Apple and other thousands of companies, mainly tech companies are leaving India. They are mainly fleeing back into Vietnam and China. Why?

Venture capitalists go where there is opportunity for gain. China is both a consumer market and a manufacturing base.

China has a huge consumer market of 1.42 billions.

China’s workers are conscientious, hardworking and smart.

China itself has many raw materials that are conducive for manufacturings.

China political system is ideal for foreign investors to flourish.

Another reason is geographically Asia is China, Russia, Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and South East Asia , the close proximity of these countries to each other means the sheer number of consumers within this region alone is itself a attraction for venture capitalists.

Miller Lite Just ONE UPPED Bud Light in New Ad and WOKE handbook

FACEBOOK Deletes “Jesus . . .” as “Hate Speech”

Nation Hal Turner 19 May 2023

A FACEBOOK user named Billy Hallowell posted “Jesus Died So You Can Live” on his account, and found it was DELETED by Facebook as “Hate Speech.”

Hallowell shared about this on Twitter, backed up by screenshots, and a comment stating that the incident was, in his opinion, “very, very bizarre.”

But there’s also been an appeals process, which didn’t help. Whoever/whatever reviews these complaints over on Facebook, stuck to their guns.

Hallowell first clicked “post” on Facebook around April 2 (so that would have been around Easter time, making the message he was trying to spread more pertinent). But the post quickly got flagged for allegedly violating community hate speech policy – and received a warning that it could be “reviewed.”

At that point, the punishment that Facebook’s censoring machine thought fit the “crime” was to make the post invisible to anyone but the author.

That Jesus died so his followers could live – like the notion or not – is just the principle of the religion.

So instead of justifying the extreme downrank of the – factual in that sense – post with, “we have these (hate speech) standards so that everyone feels safe, respected and welcome” – perhaps a non-mindless Facebook “moderation” system would have understood it was precisely reactions like these that made Christians feel neither “safe, respected, nor welcome.”

Then it got worse. The post was deleted altogether after an “appeal.”

“Your appeal was reviewed,” claimed Facebook, adding, “We are unable to show content that goes against our community standards on hate speech.”

America can’t get there from here

A China war is out of reach

Godfree Roberts

May 14, 2023

The man who is skilled at obtaining the support of the people is also the man who is skilled in using military force. Skillfully gaining the support of the people is the essence of military undertaking. It’s that simple.—Xunzi

Goodfellas Dinner in Prison

FBI WhistleBlower: “This Government Will Crush You if you expose what they’re doing”

Nation Hal Turner 19 May 2023

F.B.I. Whistleblower, Garrett O’Boyle just ended today’s hearing before a congressional committee with a chilling warning for future F.B.I Whistleblowers.

The US-China War Began in 1944, Part III

(Part I and II are here and here).

War with a Great Power like China, far from America’s shores, will be extremely expensive and require years of preparation – many times the $120 billion and eight years’ preparation the US and EU invested in Ukraine.

Here’s what that preparation will involve:

To fight China the US must double defense spending through 2030

1 . Today’s USAF and USN fleets are aging and shrinking while China’s bigger, younger fleets are growing rapidly, supported by vast automated factories producing specialized missiles at one-tenth America’s cost.

To finance a China war, Washington must grow the economy five times faster. In order to grow at its 1.6% historic rate, the US borrows $3 trillion/year

2 . The notion that the country could borrow three times more, $10 trillion/year, without triggering hyperinflation, is fanciful.

To decouple from China, the US must double manufacturing’s share of its economy from 12% to 24% (China’s is 27%). As TSMC has learned to its dismay, skilled workers are rare and expensive in the US.

To challenge China’s science lead the US must multiply its annual R&D investment tenfold (x10) through 2045. Nowadays, more research scientists move to China than to the US.

To compete in the world market with China, America must

Eliminate the health deficit that keeps its labor force participation at 62% (vs. China’s 72%).
Double literacy and numeracy. The US, #22 in world rankings, spends $14,000/child annually on education. #1 China spends $9,000 PPP and is doubling rural education spending.
Boost social wellbeing. The US is a shining example neither of democracy nor legitimacy: there are more hungry children, drug addicts, suicides, executions, and illiterate, incarcerated, poor, homeless people in America than in China.
Make up the $3 trillion infrastructure deficit and invest an additional $3 trillion to match China, whose 40,000 km. of high speed trains move entire armies across the country in hours.
Restore confidence in the dollar. Central banks saw Washington’s sanctions on 30% of the world’s nations and its theft of Russia’s reserves as portents of disaster. They are already finding alternatives to the dollar and demanding higher yields on US bonds.
Plan, coordinate and manage the additional $6 trillion of economic activity each year, with the additional energy, commodities, labor and infrastructure that it requires. Effective management of major, long-term projects is a national weakness, as the F-35 and the Navy’s LCS programs demonstrate.

Restore confidence in government. Barely 7% of Americans trust Congress, while 96% of Chinese are confident in their government.
Restore confidence in media. Only 28% trust the media, a vital element of war fighting. (80% of Chinese trust theirs).
Survive the lost war in Ukraine. Millions of Europeans are already demonstrating against the war. What will they do when they find that their sacrifices were in vain and they must pay 50% more for their energy forever?
Survive the new reserve currency that supports national development as much as the US dollar repressed it. BRICS and the EEU will launch it, with unpredictable effects on domestic inflation and stability.

Too late?

US science and industry lag far behind China’s in scale, momentum, capitalization, breadth, depth, adaptability, speed and quality, so investors are moving their money to China.

Reversing that flow, and making up America’s military, economic, financial, diplomatic, manufacturing and scientific deficits after lost wars in Afghanistan and Ukraine – while adjusting to a new reserve currency – is not only beyond Washington’s capabilities, it’s beyond imagining (try it).

The US will not attack China because it cannot.

It can’t get there from here.

1  The US Navy’s fleet is older, smaller, and its weapons shorter-ranged with less explosive power; Recruiting healthy young Americans is becoming impossible; US planners lost the Ukraine war in one month – after 8 years’ preparation.

2  China borrows nothing to support its $1 trillion (5%) GDP growth and trade surplus.

The HARD TRUTH about Western media vs China

What you may have missed

May 9th, 2023 came the Florida Chinese exclusion act.

All or nothing You either ban ALL foreigners or NONE of them. But Florida chose a particular group of foreigners. I wonder why.

Florida signed a series of bills banning Chinese citizens from buying land in Florida. I’ve seen people express support for these bills for one reason or another. People are free to have whatever opinions they want.

But make no mistake, that this law is racist, xenophobic, and discriminatory.

It is right to draw comparisons to these recent bills with the Chinese Exclusion Act

. Both of these laws aim to do the same thing, to restrict and reduce the number of Chinese people in the US.

I’ve seen people make the argument of “foreigners and foreign investment drive up the real estate value.” First of all, do realize this kind of rhetoric is inherently nativist. Read up on the alien land laws

which sought to ban Asian immigrants from owning property because White Americans were afraid of Chinese and Japanese people stealing their resources and land. Secondly, Canada

is the largest foreign investor in Florida’s real estate, followed by numerous Latin American countries. China isn’t even a top investor.

So frankly, people supporting this argument are either misinformed or plain bigots.

Another argument I’ve seen in defense of this bill is that “this bill isn’t racist, it only targets Chinese nationals, not Chinese Americans.

It’s for national security.” Again, extremely xenophobic and historically incorrect. If you believe this argument I would implore you to read and research how the Chinese Exclusion Act affected Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans. “National security” has long been used as as a tool of oppression and as an excuse for anti-Asian racism .

The China initiative by the DOJ comes as a recent example which sought to find and persecute perceived Chinese espionage in the US. In the almost 4 years of the initiative, not one person would persecuted. It only served to falsely destroy the academic careers of numerous professors and scientists

.In addition to creating systematic, racial used distrust in Chinese Americans. So if anyone believes these bills in Florida this won’t affect Chinese and other Asian Americans, history has shown you to be delusional.

South Carolina and Texas also passed a version of this law.

Douglas Macgregor: This is it, 500,000 Russian soldiers now invading the Polish border

https://youtu.be/5gcF88nyFTc

“Incident” a.k.a. “Other Event” in Alaska – Registered as 3.9 size Quake . . . but NOT a quake!

From HERE

At 12:22 eastern US Time today, Saturday, 13 May 2023, at GPS Coordinates shown below, something enormous took place. It was **NOT** an earthquake, but it registered as a Magnitude 3.9 quake nonetheless . . .

Newhart – Larry, Darryl, and Darryl Explain Beauty

China-Russia trade is booming, surges double-digits since beginning of 2023

The volume of trade between China and Russia has continued to grow, with both exports and imports surging at double-digit pace since the beginning of 2023, the General Administration of China Customs reports.

According to its report released on Tuesday, bilateral trade soared more than 43% in January-April compared with a year ago, to $73 billion. During that period, Chinese exports to Russia jumped 67.2% in annual terms to $33.6 billion, while imports from the country rose almost 25% to $39.4 billion.

China’s trade with Russia hit a record high in 2022, growing by nearly a third amid Western sanctions on Moscow. Bilateral trade is on track to surpass $200 billion this year, according to first-quarter results.

Official statistics show that Russia was the leader among China’s 20 largest partners in terms of trade growth in 2022. China has been competing with India as Russia’s biggest buyer of oil, and has overtaken the EU as the top importer of Russian agricultural products.

Both U.S. and Russia Release Ads seeking those who would betray their country!

World Hal Turner 19 May 2023 Hits: 12285

The CIA released an ad aimed at Russians itching to betray their country. The Russians made their own ad for Americans in response. Folks, this Russia-Ukraine thing is going total-wild-weasel. Our government is moving to World War 3 and so is Russia’s government, in response.

First, here is the CIA-produced Ad in Russian, with Russian subtitles, and added English subtitles.

Next, the Russians made their own ad for Americans, in response:

https://htrs-special.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Russian-ad-recruiting-Americans.mp4

Folks, when two major nuclear-armed countries begin openly recruiting citizens of each other, for war against each other, things are then so far along toward war that there really is no stopping it. I know the mass media is not telling the public how dangerously close actual nuclear war is, but it really __ is __ close. You ***MUST*** prepare to ___try___ to survive.

Pavo Asado (Roast Turkey)

Ingredients

Stuffing

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup onions, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 pound ground pork
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can tomatoes
1/4 cup juice from can of tomatoes
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried pears
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried apples
1/4 cup raisins
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 1/2 cups dried bread crumbs
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Baste

3 New Mexico or ancho dried chiles, stemmed and seeded
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Water
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Instructions

Stuffing: Put oil in a skillet over moderate heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft but not browned. Add pork and continue cooking, stirring constantly, to break up the meat until it is browned.
Add drained tomatoes plus 1/4 cup of the juice from the can. Then add the remaining ingredients except the bread crumbs, butter and salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until most of the juice has either evaporated or thickened, about 10 minutes.
Add bread crumbs and butter, stirring vigorously to make sure they are completely incorporated into the dish. Add salt.
The stuffing can either be cooked inside the turkey or baked, covered, at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or more.
Stuff the turkey with the stuffing, then baste it well with the sauce. Place the turkey in a preheated 350 degrees F oven and roast until done, basting it every 30 minutes.
Baste: Soak the chiles in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes, then place them in a blender with the garlic and vinegar. Add enough water to make a total of 3/4 cup and blend for 1 minute. Add the oil to the blender and pulse once or twice or just until it is mixed with the chiles.

A Chinese melody that is beautiful and comforting.

Flowers and Moons in Pairs [BDF2021 Theme Song] National Style Dance Song MV
花月成双【BDF2021主题曲】国风舞蹈歌曲MV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOBOntRon8k

Chengdu China

Meanwhile in Louisiana, USA

The State of Louisiana is expected to pass a bill that would prohibit Chinese nationals from renting property as of August 2023, and owned properties purchased or leased by Chinese nationals would be forfeited.

Meaning if a Chinese national owns property in the Louisiana it can and will be taken by the government! Liberals screech but it’s not racist! Chinese aren’t people!

As Rand Paul has stated; the USA is Germany 1932 already and it’s time to leave. As the writing is on the wall and the death camps are coming and most Americans will be just fine with it.

USA VS CHINA. Public Transport edition!

How useful of a role are the G7 playing in world affairs?

Not very relevant or important now. BRICS has already surpassed it, and if 19 more countries including many M East countries, BRICS will set the standards for the world not G7 that is not even world’s top 7 economies.

Did the United States actually land on the Moon?

the former Head of the Russian space program – Dimitry Rogozin – does NOT think so. As Head, he attempted to find documentary evidence of that landing but could NOT find any because he was puzzled as to how the American astronauts were able to walk off the lunar module when Russian astronauts were not able to walk for DAYS. He was puzzled by how the American could accomplish their feat with less power than that which power a usb-c drive. He could NOT find anything in the Russian/Soviet archives to show that the United States had landed on the moon.

my personal thoughts: if the Americans did so,

what happened to the technology now that the American are once again competing with the Chinese to return to the Moon. Would they not be able to easily recreate it and race back to the moon first???
how did the space buggy fit in the lunar module
how did the lunar module and space buggy survive the “landing” as it appears very filmsy
before the age of composite material, the space buggy must have been heavy. If so, how was that tiny lunar module able to transport it.
who took the photo of Neil Armstrong when he was first descended the space craft
why did Neil Armstrong not give any interviews for decades after Apollo 11 and, in the first interview talk cryptically about “a parrot”
why were the Americans NOT able to provide simple data such as where was the landing site was
one moon sample that was donated proved to be petrified wood from earth
some of the shadows does not “fit””
Telemetry tapes – Lost; Blueprints – lost; Negatives – Lost; Hand written calculations – Lost
Comments anyone?????

There Are Only Two Kinds Of People In This World

Everyone possesses a whole number of characteristics which make them unique. Yet there are certain things which all of us have in common.

This is it, 500,000 Russian soldiers now invading the Polish border

https://youtu.be/5gcF88nyFTc

Can the USA break China?

No. China is too big and powerful. It has the backing of nearly everyone in the Global South, thanks to BRI, BRICS, RCEP and SCO.

China’s economy is HUGE. GDP growth is expected to far outstrip that of all developed economies in the coming years.

China’s military is HUGE. The country is practically invulnerable.

The USA is an empire in decline. It faces innumerable domestic problems, including a crushing national debt. The world is de-dollarizing.

Predator Realizes He’s Going To Prison For Life

https://youtu.be/YBBTfy29WKI

The World No Longer Look To America To Lead & We Have A Lot To Do With That Sentiment

Why is it so easy to be thin in CHINA?

Chip giant Qualcomm reported to secretly collect, transmit user data

Smartphones with Qualcomm chips were found to send private user information, including IP address, unique ID, mobile country code, back to the U.S. chipmaker, according to a report by the German security company Nitrokey first released on April 25.

Such personal information was sent “without user consent, unencrypted, and even when using a Google-free Android distribution,” said the report.

Nitrokey tested with a Sony Xperia XA2 smartphone which was equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 chip and installed /e/OS, an open-source version of Android free of Google services.

No SIM-card was inserted in the phone, nor was the GPS location service turned on. The device can only access the internet through WiFi.

The company monitored the data with Wireshark, a network traffic software, and found that the data will be transmitted to izatcloud.net

server, which attributes to Qualcomm.

The report said the data packages were “sent via the HTTP protocol and are not encrypted using HTTPS, SSL or TLS,” making them vulnerable to attacks as anyone accessible to the network “can easily spy on us by collecting this data, store them, and establish a record history using the phone’s unique ID and serial number Qualcomm is sending over to their mysteriously called Izat Cloud.”

It added that the data sharing with Qualcomm is not mentioned in the terms of service from Sony or Android or /e/OS, which violated the General Data Protection Regulation.

While a Sony smartphone was used, Nitrokey said “many more Android phones” with popular Qualcomm chips such as Fairphone are likely to be affected.

Qualcomm’s response

The chipmaker reacted in a statement sent to Nitrokey that the data sharing was in accordance with its XTRA Service Privacy Policy.

“Through these software applications, we may collect location data, unique identifiers (such as a chipset serial number or international subscriber ID), data about the applications installed and/or running on the device, configuration data such as the make, model, and wireless carrier, the operating system and version data, software build data, and data about the performance of the device such as performance of the chipset, battery use, and thermal data,” said the statement.

In its statement sent to cybernews.com

, Qualcomm called the Nitrokey report “riddled with inaccuracies and appears to be motivated by the author’s desire to sell his product,” and noted that it only collects personal data permitted by applicable law.

Nitrokey said the chipmaker, however, didn’t mention IP addresses were being collected originally, but added IP addresses into its data collection list after the research was completed.

‘Not a backdoor’

The report triggered heated discussion after release.

A Reddit post said that Nitrokey proves a backdoor by Qualcomm chips, which the security firm denied, saying it did not discover a backdoor, and “this is not a backdoor.”

British tech news website The Register said that the Izat Cloud, part of Qualcomm’s XTRA service, is “basically a way to make GPS more precise and reliable while reducing use of energy-intensive radio hardware.”

It cited a source familiar with Qualcomm technology saying that all chipmakers “are going to have all kinds of different fetches that they’re going to make [over the network].”

While on the other hand, The Register cautioned that data transmission on mobile device can cause problems in high-risk environments in that “network identifiers such as IP addresses can be considered personal data, particularly when paired with hardware identifiers or other sorts of data. “

Martijn Braam, an IT expert said in his critique titled “Nitrokey disappoints me” that what’s in the HTTP traffic “does not contain any private data” but just downloads an GPS almanac from Qualcomm for A-GPS, which is to “make getting a GPS fix quicker and more reliable.”

Also, “The thing that gets leaked is your IP address which is required because that’s how you connect to things on the internet. This system does not actually send any of your private information like the title of the article claims,” Braam said.

He added the feature “happens in practically all devices that have both GPS and internet,” and also called the Nitrokey article a marketing piece for selling their own phones.

How did you react to the striking level of poverty when visiting China?

I’ve only been to three parts of China, namely Shanghai, Beijing and Hainan. Four, if you count Hong Kong. Five, if you count Taiwan.

I did not notice any striking level of poverty. At least in Pudong Shanghai, I was struck by the opposite. (But of course that is a very specific area of Shanghai).

I was there on a business trip. Here are some photos of the building adjoined to my office block:

main qimg d8dd5f0f7c7fb46b56e1e78578ba535e

It was the Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Armani, Versace, Rolex, Piaget, Burberry types of brands, everywhere I looked.

‘Radioactive cloud’ moving toward Europe – Russian security chief

The hazard was produced by depleted uranium munitions destroyed in Ukroid.

The destruction of depleted uranium shells in Ukroid has produced a radioactive cloud which has been blown toward Western Europe, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, has claimed. The UK supplied the munitions to Loozensky to be fired from British-made Challenger tanks.

The senior official revealed the purported threat during a government meeting on Friday, in which he accused the US of providing “help” to other nations that results in harm being done to the recipients.

“They ‘helped’ Loozensky this way too, applied pressure to its satellites to supply depleted uranium munitions. Their destruction resulted in a radioactive cloud moving towards Western Europe. They have detected an increase in radiation in Poland,” Patrushev stated.

Unconfirmed reports have circulated regarding the target of a Kremlin strike last Saturday, which Moscow said destroyed an ammunitions depot in the city of Khmelnitsky. According to the claims, the military facility was used to store British-provided depleted uranium shells. It has been suggested that the material may have been turned into dust by powerful explosions at the depot.

Russia previously warned that the use of depleted uranium munitions poses a long-term environmental and public health threat, based on studies in nations such as Serbia and Iraq, where the weapons were previously used. London has denied such a risk.

Is the American middle class disappearing?

Yes.

For me, the most obvious single example of this phenomenon is… The Simpsons.

The Simpsons is a American adult television cartoon that has been in syndication since the late 1980s.

When the Simpsons began, the overarching joke of the series was that the Simpsons were a struggling lower middle class family. Literally dozens of episodes make a plot point about how poor the Simpsons are and how they are doing worse than all their friends and neighbours, however that joke now falls completely flat, because what was presented as a struggling middle-class family in the 80’s is an almost inconceivably unattainable lifestyle in the 2020’s.

The Simpson family:

Live in a massive, detached house with huge gardens front, back and side, multiple living rooms, three bathrooms, a large kitchen diner, a separate dining room, four good sized bedrooms, a two car garage/workshop and a massive basement and attic.

Even if it were located in a town known as ‘Americas Crudbucket’, there’s no way this home costs much less than half a million dollars today.

In quite a nice suburban town. Yes, they make multiple jokes about how crappy Springfield is, but honestly it seems a lovely place to live – lots of amenities, reasonably crime free, friendly neighbours, close to nature, within seemingly easy driving distance of major cities, beaches, landmarks etc.
They can afford to take multiple holidays a year, often internationally.
They have at least two cars at any one time.
Homer has enough disposable income to drink at Moes basically every night without thinking about it.
They can afford to frequently splash out on hugely expensive one off impulse purchases such as a pool or an RV.
They afford all of this on a single income that Homer makes from his union job as a safety inspector, a job he got without even having a high school diploma, and is apparently so secure that he seemingly cannot be fired despite frequently being caught sleeping on the job, antagonizing his boss, and often just not turning up.
Although they often talk about money being tight, Marge never seems to be under real pressure to get a job and add a second income to the family, unless the plot for that week demands it.

Marge and Homer are in their mid- 30’s, having had Bart quite young. There is most likely not a single young family in the western world right now living in anything like the kind of situation the Simpsons are in, being supported by a single wage from a low skilled job.

Obviously I do get that the Simpsons is a cartoon and of course it is going to take liberties, but it’s a simple fact that the basic living setup of the family was deliberately set up to reflect the lower-middle class lifestyle of Americans at that time.

The idea that what was presented as a struggling middle class family in the 1980’s is now an unimaginably successful one is the biggest indictment of the past 40 years I can think of.

Edit:

Quite pleased at how this one has blown up and created a bit of a debate in the comments, I’m not going to address them all, but one thing I should clarify, a lot of people are making the argument that Homer as a Nuclear Power Plant safety officer would be making very good money, but this isn’t true, we see his payslip in the ‘Bear Patrol’ episode from 1996 and it looks like he makes only $352.19 per week, or $19k per year after tax.

Homer is neither smart or talented enough to demand a market rate, so $19k per year is what the family has to afford that lifestyle. I haven’t done the math to check what that 1996 wage would be in 2023 with inflation, but I would bet it’s average or below.

Sonoran Chicken Chili

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 (14 ounce) cans chopped tomatoes with garlic, oregano and basil
1 (14 ounce) can chopped tomatoes (undrained)
1 (14 ounce) can no-salt-added chicken broth
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cumin
4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1 or 2 (16 ounce) cans white beans, drained
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Shredded Cheddar cheese for garnish

Instructions

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and garlic and sauté until the shallots are soft.
Add all the tomatoes, chicken broth, green chiles, oregano, coriander and cumin. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add chicken and beans and mix well. Cook until heated through.
Add lime juice and pepper and mix well.
Serve garnished with shredded Cheddar cheese.

Makes 8 servings.

Chinese researchers prove presence of ocean on Mars

New evidence based on data collected by China’s Zhurong rover proves an ancient ocean was once present on Mars, said new research published in the academic journal National Science Review on Thursday.

main qimg d22950344412ad6345396dc787eeda4a

Led by Professor Xiao Long from the School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), the researchers conducted comprehensive analysis of the scientific data obtained by the cameras mounted on the Zhurong rover.

The rover, which was launched in 2021, landed on the southern margin of the Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the northern hemisphere of Mars.

The location is within Vastitas Borealis Formation (VBF), a lowlands-wide sedimentary unit, “whose outer contact closely coincides with the features interpreted as a shoreline,” providing an opportunity to verify the existence of ancient marine sediments, according to the research.

Though previous research has extracted evidence for the presence of an ocean in the northern lowlands of Mars, the lack of in-situ data of the VBF has left it controversial.

Thanks to Zhurong, the researchers carried out the first in-situ analysis of the VBF.

In its voyage of roughly 1,921 meters, the Zhurong rover had traveled southward towards the proposed shoreline since landing, exploring the surface exposures of the VBF along the way.

It deployed different imaging and analysis systems to conduct in-situ observations of outcrops and surface rocks. Among them, the navigation and terrain cameras acquired 106 sets of panoramic images, recording in detail the surface sedimentary structures and features of the rocks in the vicinity of the route.

By observing the images sent back by the rover-borne cameras, the researchers found the exposed rocks have developed bedding features that are significantly different from the volcanic rocks commonly found on the Martian surface or the typical aeolian deposits, but are similar to those seen in terrestrial low energy shallow marine environments.

The sedimentary structures and features in surface rocks suggest the VBF “was deposited in a marine environment,” providing direct support for the existence of an ancient ocean on Mars, said the researchers, adding that the deposition of the sedimentary rocks in the landing site of Zhurong occurred during the regressional period of an Hesperian ocean.

The discovery provides new implications for reshaping the history of Mars. “Future in-depth exploration and sampling of the region by Zhurong will deepen our understanding of Mars’ habitability and the preservation of life traces there,” said Xiao.

豆花之歌2 – RRA4 – 抖音BGM 2023

A daily dosage of Chinese pop music popular right now.

Did the US government unwittingly kick off the de-dollarization movement in the developing world and BRICS nations with its broad sanctions against Russia, Russian citizens and the ruble?

Yes.

That they do absolutely right!

It is the final straw that broke the camel’s back. stealing Russia’s 300 billion dollar is meant to show that the U.S. can fxxk up anybody anytime. Instead it scared off the world. What do you expect?

The world must keep in reserves in your banks so that the west and U.S. can steal it or make it disappear in thin air through a stroke of a pen? No way!

Or that the world must be made to use SWIFT to seek permission from the west or the U.S. if we can spend its own hard earned money? And actually pay atrocious fees using our good money to be granted this “right”. Dream on! No way.

Should the world continue to allow the west especially the U.S. to rob, steal, confiscate their physical and material and asset at a time of the west or the U.S. choosing without recourse?

The answer is simple. No fxxking way! Over our dead body will anyone allow this! The world have spoken. The will dump the USD, the western currency, savings it’s reserves in the West or the U.S. They will dump the SWIFT, VISA, the Western mineral and metal exchange and they won’t even park their bicycle or save a bar of chocolate in western financial institutions!

If you are a westerner still thinking that the Ukraine war is worth it, think again. To me it is the final nail in the western and U.S. coffin. That is how is serious this is. The west and the U.S. weapon is not the nukes or the sanctions or their ships or planes or tanks, it is their ability to do shit through the above. But this will be totally gone at best within a decade, but more like in 5 years.

Good Riddance!

DEBT CEILING NEGOTIATIONS HALTED – WILL REMAIN “ON PAUSE”

Nation Hal Turner 19 May 2023

Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), who has been leading debt ceiling talks between the Congress and the White House, said on Friday that Republicans would “pause” talks with the Biden White House on debt ceiling negotiations.

Graves said that Republicans would “press pause” on talks with the Biden White House, although it remains unclear how long they will pause negotiations.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tapped Graves to serve as one of the leading negotiators with the Biden White House, which includes White House counselor Steve Richetti and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Shalanda Young.

The Louisiana Republican accused the Biden White House of not negotiating in good faith. Reporters noted that, until now, Graves has been mostly tight-lipped about negotiations.

“It’s just unreasonable. Until people are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, then we’re not going to sit here and talk to ourselves,” he explained.

Here is video. Note his tense body language, and visible frustration with the meeting he just left:

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) arrived at the Capitol after talks had broken down and said the White House was simply not willing to accept spending cuts at the levels Republicans are insisting upon.

“We’ve got to get movement by the White House, and we don’t have any movement yet. So, yeah, we’ve gotta pause,” McCarthy said.

“Yesterday I really felt we were at the location where I could see the path. The White House is just — look, we can’t be spending more money next year. We have to spend less than we spent the year before. It’s pretty easy.”

American Dream Isn’t even real

Finally…

What is “real” and what is “fake”?

Three weeks after both Chinese and Russian attack subs entered the Pacific theater, and after “not a quake, but a quake outside of Alaska” has occurred, we have this news…

Magnitude 7.7 Quake Strikes South Pacific Ocean – Tsunami Warnings Issued

A lot of undersea earthquakes lately. -MM

World Hal Turner 19 May 2023

A staggeringly strong magnitude 7.7 earthquake, struck the South Pacific Ocean last night, triggering Tsunami Warnings within 1000km.

From the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center:

 ZCZC
WEPA40 PHEB 190303
TSUPAC

TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER 1
NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER HONOLULU HI
0302 UTC FRI MAY 19 2023

...PTWC TSUNAMI THREAT MESSAGE...


**** NOTICE **** NOTICE **** NOTICE **** NOTICE **** NOTICE *****

 THIS MESSAGE IS ISSUED FOR INFORMATION ONLY IN SUPPORT OF THE
 UNESCO/IOC PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING AND MITIGATION SYSTEM AND IS
 MEANT FOR NATIONAL AUTHORITIES IN EACH COUNTRY OF THAT SYSTEM.

 NATIONAL AUTHORITIES WILL DETERMINE THE APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF
 ALERT FOR EACH COUNTRY AND MAY ISSUE ADDITIONAL OR MORE REFINED
 INFORMATION.

**** NOTICE **** NOTICE **** NOTICE **** NOTICE **** NOTICE *****


PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
---------------------------------

  * MAGNITUDE      7.7
  * ORIGIN TIME    0257 UTC MAY 19 2023
  * COORDINATES    23.2 SOUTH  170.7 EAST
  * DEPTH          10 KM / 6 MILES
  * LOCATION       SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS


EVALUATION
----------

  * AN EARTHQUAKE WITH A PRELIMINARY MAGNITUDE OF 7.7 OCCURRED
    SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS AT 0257 UTC ON FRIDAY MAY
    19 2023.

  * BASED ON THE PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS... HAZARDOUS
    TSUNAMI WAVES ARE POSSIBLE FOR COASTS LOCATED WITHIN 1000 KM
    OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER.


TSUNAMI THREAT FORECAST
-----------------------

  * HAZARDOUS TSUNAMI WAVES FROM THIS EARTHQUAKE ARE POSSIBLE
    WITHIN 1000 KM OF THE EPICENTER ALONG THE COASTS OF

      VANUATU... NEW CALEDONIA AND FIJI


RECOMMENDED ACTIONS
-------------------

  * GOVERNMENT AGENCIES RESPONSIBLE FOR THREATENED COASTAL AREAS
    SHOULD TAKE ACTION TO INFORM AND INSTRUCT ANY COASTAL
    POPULATIONS AT RISK IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR OWN
    EVALUATION... PROCEDURES AND THE LEVEL OF THREAT.

  * PERSONS LOCATED IN THREATENED COASTAL AREAS SHOULD STAY ALERT
    FOR INFORMATION AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS FROM NATIONAL AND
    LOCAL AUTHORITIES.


ESTIMATED TIMES OF ARRIVAL
--------------------------

  * ESTIMATED TIMES OF ARRIVAL -ETA- OF THE INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE
    FOR PLACES WITH A POTENTIAL TSUNAMI THREAT. ACTUAL ARRIVAL
    TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE
    LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN
    WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR.

    LOCATION         REGION             COORDINATES    ETA(UTC)
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    ANATOM ISLAND    VANUATU           20.2S 169.9E   0330 05/19
    MARE ISL         NEW CALEDONIA     21.6S 167.8E   0332 05/19
    LIFOU ISL        NEW CALEDONIA     20.9S 167.3E   0336 05/19
    OUINNE           NEW CALEDONIA     22.0S 166.8E   0353 05/19
    HIENGHENE        NEW CALEDONIA     20.6S 165.0E   0402 05/19
    NOUMEA           NEW CALEDONIA     22.3S 166.5E   0414 05/19
    ESPERITU SANTO   VANUATU           15.1S 167.3E   0433 05/19
    SUVA             FIJI              18.1S 178.4E   0451 05/19


POTENTIAL IMPACTS
-----------------

  * A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES. THE TIME BETWEEN WAVE CRESTS
    CAN VARY FROM 5 MINUTES TO AN HOUR. THE HAZARD MAY PERSIST
    FOR MANY HOURS OR LONGER AFTER THE INITIAL WAVE.

  * IMPACTS CAN VARY SIGNIFICANTLY FROM ONE SECTION OF COAST TO
    THE NEXT DUE TO LOCAL BATHYMETRY AND THE SHAPE AND ELEVATION
    OF THE SHORELINE.

  * IMPACTS CAN ALSO VARY DEPENDING UPON THE STATE OF THE TIDE AT
    THE TIME OF THE MAXIMUM TSUNAMI WAVES.

  * PERSONS CAUGHT IN THE WATER OF A TSUNAMI MAY DROWN... BE
    CRUSHED BY DEBRIS IN THE WATER... OR BE SWEPT OUT TO SEA.


NEXT UPDATE AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
--------------------------------------

  * THE NEXT MESSAGE WILL BE ISSUED IN ONE HOUR... OR SOONER IF
    THE SITUATION WARRANTS.

  * AUTHORITATIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EARTHQUAKE FROM THE U.S.
    GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CAN BE FOUND ON THE INTERNET AT
    EARTHQUAKE.USGS.GOV.

  * FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THIS EVENT MAY BE FOUND AT
    WWW.TSUNAMI.GOV.

  * COASTAL REGIONS OF HAWAII... AMERICAN SAMOA... GUAM... AND
    CNMI SHOULD REFER TO PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER MESSAGES
    SPECIFICALLY FOR THOSE PLACES THAT CAN BE FOUND AT
    WWW.TSUNAMI.GOV.

  * COASTAL REGIONS OF CALIFORNIA... OREGON... WASHINGTON...
    BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA SHOULD ONLY REFER TO U.S.
    NATIONAL TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER MESSAGES THAT CAN BE FOUND
    AT WWW.TSUNAMI.GOV.

$$

Biden with the band of psychopaths and their end of the world discussions

If one read the famous SunZi Art of War, the key points are actually less about fighting a war, it is about prevention and how to win a war without fighting, it is also about managing people to win the right to rule by winning the hearts and minds of the enemies. As such, SunZi urged that prisoners of war be respected and well treated, so that when they are released and return to their country, they will share their good experience with other soldiers.

The art of war also regard taking the entire city with the entire population in take with the least killing and damage to property are the top level achievement.

The reality that more than 90% of Chinese population regardless of their native languages, geographical location, food habits as Han Chinese tell a lot of the inclusive nature of traditional Chinese rulers towards the entire population.

Europe is still a me and you , US and Them mentality till this day. That why NATO and EU will not last beyond this century.

Lordy! Found at the end of a study about how to conduct war against China…

Things are ramping up towards war! America wants to fight China.

The idea of US being at war with China… is terrifying.

How can the China/Taiwan issue be resolved diplomatically?

The Chinese government has always been committed to peacefully resolving the Taiwan issue. “Peaceful Reunification and One Country, Two Systems” fully considering the reality of Taiwan, is the basic policy for resolving the Taiwan issue and the best way to achieve national reunification.

The Chinese government is willing to engage in dialogue and communication with Taiwan’s political parties, groups, and individuals on the basis of the one-China principle and the “1992 Consensus,” and to exchange views widely.

It is also willing to continue to promote democratic consultations among representative figures elected by political parties and groups on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, to jointly promote the peaceful and integrated development of cross-strait relations and the peaceful reunification of the motherland.

However, we have also seen in recent years that the United States has intensified its efforts to use Taiwan as a tool to contain China, and has frequently engaged in provocative behavior.

The DPP authorities have even had the illusion that they can “rely on the US to seek independence.”

The collusion and provocation between the US and Taiwan are the real threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, casting a shadow over the process of peacefully resolving the Taiwan issue.

When reporting on issues related to China on the local time of the 16th, the US Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) hyped up Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s statement that day. Musk said in an interview that the official policy of the Chinese mainland on the Taiwan issue is to achieve reunification, which does not need to be interpreted, but should be “taken seriously.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5TzzzfLoTU

The Taiwan issue can be resolved peacefully, and the Taiwan Strait can be calm.

But this requires [1] the United States to stop playing the “Taiwan card,” [2] return to the essence of the one-China principle, [3] abide by the political commitments made to China, and [4] clearly oppose and stop “Taiwan independence.”

Ukraine Launches 100+ Drone Attack into Russia – 4 Explosions at Helicopter Factory

World Hal Turner 17 May 2023

The Ukraine NAZI government launched air attacks with over 100 drones into Russia today. Most of the Drones were defeated by Russian Electronic Warfare, but several did get through as seen on video below. At least one drone hit a Helicopter Factory in Lyubertsy, Russia, outside of Moscow.

Lyubertsy is a city and the administrative center of Lyuberetsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia.

Residents in Lyubertsy say they heard drone aircraft in the sky shortly before FOUR loud explosions.

Those explosions seem to have taken place at the Kamov company. Ukhtomsky Helicopter plant named after N. I. Kamov (developer of the Ka-50 “Black Shark” and Ka-52 “Alligator” helicopters)

As Rospublic writes, this happened some time after an UAV flew over Dimitrov near Moscow. Locals heard four explosions, then a fire broke out at the plant.

VIDEOS of drones in the air are now starting to appear on social media.

This one shows a drone flying over Dimitrov:

Sources inside Russia confirm over 100 drones heading to central regions were intercepted just today in Russia. Another source added that civilians in Moscow are struggling to get taxi due to interference of EW tools with GPS.

Mr. Gower (in “Teachers”)

Escaping Debt Slavery: Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor

17 May 2023

In 1987, at the Organization for African Unity, Thomas Sankara said, “Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa.” Ethiopia might actually be better off if the US keeps the IMF from signing off on its latest loan request.

The US is holding up Ethiopia’s request for a $2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for postwar reconstruction and development. I spoke to Robert J. Prince, Retired Senior Lecturer at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies , about Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF.

ANN GARRISON: A source who preferred to remain anonymous told me that the US is holding Ethiopia’s loan up, demanding accountability for wartime atrocities, but that their real goal is to force Ethiopia to distance itself from Russia and China, but most of all from Eritrea. That sounds plausible, but what do you think?

ROBERT J. PRINCE: I’m not at all surprised that the loan request is in limbo, as Washington has been putting all kinds of pressure on Ethiopia for some time. And this is just another form of pressure. Indeed, putting all the pieces together, Washington has been engaged in nothing short of hybrid warfare against Ethiopia ever since Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. The games being played with the IMF loan are simply one element of that.

Concerning Washington’s claims of Ethiopian government atrocities, Washington is well aware that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) tried to regain power militarily and failed. The TPLF has essentially been Washington’s proxy in the region.

This was a two-year war, and in war, unfortunately, atrocities are committed, but most of the documentation that I have seen places the atrocities on the TPLF side of the fence, and they have been, quite frankly, horrific.

Having failed to overthrow the Abiy government and bring the TPLF to power, the United States tried to control the outcome diplomatically, through the Pretoria peace agreement, which Washington orchestrated from the sidelines to save the TPLF from complete defeat. The pressure that is being put on them through this IMF agreement is an example of that.

Let’s just look for a moment at the comment about Eritrea. In my mind, there’s no doubt that one of the main targets of Washington in the Horn of Africa is the Eritrean government. We need to keep a couple of things in mind, given the wall of bad press that Eritrea gets in this country. One is that Eritrea is the only country in Africa that has refused to collaborate with AFRICOM, the US Africa Command.

And the other thing, less known and less appreciated, is that Eritrea also refuses to accept IMF and World Bank loans with their structural adjustment aspects. I don’t think there’s any other country in Africa that has done that either. So these are really the main reasons for Washington’s hostility towards Eritrea.

But you have to add something else. To back up a little bit, I was recently reading a book about Ethiopia called The Lion of Judah in the New World . The author is Theodore Vestal, an Oklahoma State University professor. And in that book, he makes a comment about Henry Kissinger’s policy towards the Horn of Africa. We’re talking 1972-1973, but it really sets the stage very nicely. And what Vestal notes is that in some National Security Council secret document, Kissinger said that the best thing for Washington’s policy in the Horn of Africa was to keep the region divided and pit one side against another.

Think about what’s happening now, the carving up of Sudan over 10 years ago, the splitting up of Somalia that you’re reporting on these days, and then the ethnic conflicts that continue to hurt Ethiopia. That is classic Kissinger divide-and-rule kind of stuff.

And the opposite of that is Ethiopia, trying to make regional alliances, both for economic and political reasons. And from what I can tell, the strength, the real key to economic and social dynamism and development in the Horn of Africa is the Eritrean-Ethiopian connection. So of course that’s something that Washington wants to break up. It’s another reason Eritrea gets all the bad press it gets.

It’s very difficult for me to analyze what’s fact and what’s fiction in US reporting on Eritrea. I don’t follow much of it because I feel it’s so one-sided.

AG: Okay, the same source, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that China is Ethiopia’s largest bilateral creditor. So therefore, the US thinks that China should take on more responsibility in terms of the bailout package. However, the Chinese want the IMF to foot the bill. Could you interpret?

RJP: We need to remember certain things about the IMF and the World Bank. While they claim to be international organizations, and of course to a certain extent they are, they are US run and dominated. And since the late 1970s, early 1980s, the IMF has attached conditions to its loans. And those conditions are known as structural adjustment, which has been discredited by academics all over the world for the past 35 or 40 years. It doesn’t lead to development, but it does lead to greater debt.

So how would this particular proposal be any different from other IMF proposals? I don’t know.

But in terms of the broader geopolitical question, let’s just be frank about what’s happening in the Horn of Africa. And here I would like to take a specific example that relates to foreign aid and major funding. And that has been the West’s attitude towards the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which has the potential of really creating a kind of economic dynamism in the Horn of Africa which hasn’t existed until now.

Ethiopia went on several occasions to the IMF and the World Bank asking for financial aid to help build the dam, but they didn’t get it. And, in fact, most of the funding for that dam has come from the Ethiopian people themselves, which is quite moving. So this is their dam. And this is their dam, whether they’re Amhara, Oromo, Tigrayan, Somali, or any other Ethiopian ethnicity. It doesn’t matter. It’s their dam.

The creation of this dam is one of the few counterbalancing forces that I see to all this ethnic tension and dissent. Everyone has a place in that dam. And not just Ethiopia, because this dam, when completed, and it’s near completion, is going to provide electricity for the entire region. And without electricity, development is difficult, difficult to impossible.

Now, where do the Chinese fit into this? The Chinese are the only major foreign country to my knowledge that have played any role in funding this dam.

AG: I believe they invested in the electricity delivery infrastructure.

RJP: That may be. I haven’t seen the statistics for a couple of years, but as I remember, Ethiopians had invested about $6 billion and the Chinese had invested about $1 billion.

So you’ve got that big project. And in the midst of all this ethnic tension that we’re seeing, the dam brings Ethiopians together and brings the Horn together, but what has the US and the World Bank position been on the dam? They’ve opposed it, they’ve opposed it down the line. They’ve thrown monkey wrenches into it. This is the kind of project that the IMF and the United States refuse to fund. But this is the kind of project that the Chinese in particular welcome and help. So there’s that part of it.

When I look at this Chinese, Russian, and American competition for Ethiopia, and for Africa in general, what we’re really seeing is the reemergence of the politics and division of the Non-Aligned Movement of the 1950s. If you really get down to it, very few countries want to take sides in this New Cold War.

They want to be able to deal with both China and the United States, but this is unacceptable to the US. This whole thing is being played out worldwide. It’s being played out in Africa, and the people of Africa are making it really clear that they don’t want to take sides, and that both sides have a possibility to engage in their development.

How could US policy towards Ethiopia change to make it more constructive? I don’t see that happening, by the way, but if it did, they would invest in infrastructure. All this US/AFRICOM military buildup that we’re seeing in the region is only causing more conflict.

If the US wants to compete with the Chinese in developing Africa, that can be done. The United States still has tremendous resources and has the ability to do it. Then ask the Ethiopians what kind of aid and investment they want. Ask Africans. That kind of competition would be a win-win situation for everyone. There’s no need for it to be anything else, but I don’t see our government moving in that direction at all.

AG: No, they don’t fund development. They fund aid, which creates dependency.

RPJ: Yes.

AG: For those not so familiar with the IMF, could you explain what structural adjustment means, what the IMF demands in exchange for these loans and bailouts?

RJP: Good question. Structural adjustment means laying down conditions that countries must accept in order to get the money that they need, often that they’re starving for. That means that they’re forced to open up their economies to foreign intervention, whether it’s investment or markets. And for a country that’s trying to develop economically—it really doesn’t matter whether it’s on a capitalist or socialist model—some kind of protectionism is almost required in the initial stages of development, for a certain amount of time.

Structural adjustment eliminates the possibility of a young, emerging economy developing to the point where it can compete globally. One part of it is allowing goods to be imported into the country at prices that local manufacturers can’t compete with.

Economies still recovering from colonialism are weak. So they need some form of protectionism. and some form of government support for their economic development.

Structural adjustment severely limits the role of a government in helping a country stand up. That’s really the heart of the matter.

Conditions include cutting government support for education, health care, transportation and other forms of infrastructural development. Then these areas are taken over by foreign players. As that happens, it’s inevitable that these countries can’t compete, their debt grows larger and larger, and therefore they have to come back to the IMF or the World Bank for further aid. And they get caught in a debt cycle. So this is the problem of structural adjustment.

AG: Don’t they typically wind up using the money they borrowed to pay interest on the debt, giving it right back to the people who loaned it to them?

RJP: Yes they do! Addis is applying for an IMF loan for debt relief, to service its increasingly heavy interest payments. Ethiopia’s debt distress level is rated as high and that’s probably one of the key factors behind this loan application. Between 1970 and 2006, Ethiopia’s debt levels were somewhere between $1 and 10 billion. Since 2006 those debt levels have risen precipitately. Just since 2020, when the TPLF’s failed attempt at a military coup began, Ethiopia’s debt ballooned from $34 to 60.1 billion, a near doubling over three years. This is an increasingly unmanageable burden for Ethiopia to bear, cutting into development possibilities not just for Ethiopia but for the entire Horn of Africa.

Virtually all Horn of Africa countries are near “debt distress.” Sudan and Somalia are already in debt distress, meaning they cannot in any way pay off the loans they have acquired from multinational entities like the IMF and World Bank, or from private sources. Twenty-two African countries are now either bankrupt or at high risk of debt distress.

African debt remains at its highest level in over a decade. Debt servicing sucks up increasingly large proportions of budgets and revenues. As a result, a wave of defaults in the world’s most vulnerable countries is likely to occur and faster than expected.

The other thing that happens is there’s so much corruption that gets involved, given all the African despots we support, that a lot of this money just disappears.

So they’ve set up a system that’s very hard to get out of. It’s an endless cycle of growing poverty and social problems and greater economic interference from larger countries, but particularly from Washington and the Europeans.

I first looked at this policy 30-plus years ago, after serving in the Peace Corps. And then I couldn’t believe it could last this long because it’s so punitive. But now it’s finally coming apart. We’re seeing countries that don’t want to be dominated by the dollar anymore and will trade with China in yen. These are attempts to get off of exactly these kinds of policies.

And who is looking at IMF policies and saying we’ve had it? Well, virtually the entire Global South.

One last point on these policies. It’s much easier to impose them on poor countries. When the United States or the World Bank or IMF tried to do that with China and Russia, and even Iran, as they did, they did not succeed. So it’s been middle and larger economies that have danced with the IMF for a certain amount of time, until they realized this is not in their interest and pulled back.

AG: It sounds like it could be better if they don’t get this $2 billion loan in the long run.

What do you think might be the consequence if they don’t? Calling it a bailout makes it seem dire.

RJP: Whether Ethiopia gets the loan or doesn’t there will be pressure either way. One of those “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situations for sure.

If they don’t get the loan – given the level of domestic turmoil the country is experiencing – their financial situation will be that much more difficult, forcing them to look for other creditors.

But it is not at all clear – given that the conditions the IMF is asking are not public – that even getting the loan could be problematic. For example,

One of the conditions for the loan to be processed is that Ethiopia give the IMF creditors and development partners guarantees for the $2 billion, which will be difficult for Ethiopia to come up with and add considerable pressure on Ethiopian finances should they be unable to pay on time. Nor is there any assurance that even if such conditions were met, that the loan would be granted.

So pressure both ways: if they get it, depending on the conditions, and if they don’t get it, given the financial problems. All this needs to be placed in the broader context of Washington’s hybrid warfare against the Abiy government.

If you just look at the Tigray War, and now all these terrible massacres taking place in the Oromia Region and elsewhere, it seems like the country’s falling apart. But when you look at the economic indicators, you see that it’s not in spite of all of this. The Ethiopian economy is growing, and regional integration is taking place. This region is tired of war, of factionalism, of the kind of sectarian policies that have dragged it down for so long.

All these countries want to find common ground. And so is that approach going to win out? I believe that it will in the end, but not without a lot of pain and struggle in the years ahead.

AG: Okay, thank you, Rob Prince for speaking to Black Agenda Report.

RJP: My pleasure.

Ann Garrison is a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at ann(at)anngarrison.com.

Robert J. Prince is a retired Senior Lecturer at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and a political commentator at Pacifica affiliate KGNU-Boulder, Colorado.

LIVE UPDATES! HEAVY RUSSIAN RETALIATION ATTACK (HAPPENING NOW)

World Hal Turner 17 May 2023

Russia is appaently retaliating for the 100+ drones launched by Ukraine into the Moscow area earlier today. At least fifteen (15) heavy explosions have already occurred in multiple cities in Ukraine. Fighter/bombers and Strategic Bombers are in the air. Ukraine is being PUMMELED!

This story is happening now (5:32 PM EDT ) Updates to appear below . . .

UPDATE 5:36 PM EDT —

Russian Strategic Aviation (T-22M3) launched an attack on Odessa using H-22 air-to-surface cruise missiles. During the attack, at least 15 powerful detonations were registered.

Air defense also operated, but apparently without success.

In total, about 15 explosions have already thundered in the Odessa region.

Russian missile strike on the transport hub near Odessa.

From Odessa, now:

Additional missile or drone strikes taking place in Zatoka, Kotovskoye and Krasnoselki.

Air raid sirens now once again sounding here in Kyiv. Drones detected in the skies above the region.

Takeoff of Russian TU-95MS strategic bombers from Russia’s ‘Olenya’ airbase has reportedly been detected.

Ukrainian monitoring groups report that the airspace of Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya regions is swarming with Russian UAVs searching for targets.

UPDATE 5:41 PM EDT —

Estimated list of destroyed military facilities in Odessa

Krasnoselka – BC warehouses
Settlement of Kotovsky – hangars with equipment
Zatoka – hangars with equipment
Nerubayskoye – BC warehouses
The Tsentrolit plant (Suvorovsky District), where military equipment was located, can also be added to the list of probable targets. Under Zatoka there is a railroad track on which NATO carries weapons through Romania.

not sure if Russian attacks succeeded, will see later.

Ballistic missile launches from the Belgorod region in Russia against the Kharkiv region, and Explosions are recorded in Kharkov.

Ukraine Air Raid siren alerts in:

Donetsk
Dnipropetrovsk
Zaporizhzhia
Cherkasy
Kharkiv
Kirovohrad
Poltava regions.

Massive explosions reported in Kharkov; Multiple rocket hits.

Strikes by FAB-500M62 UMPC glider bombs against AFU facilities in Kizomys and Velikiy Island, Kherson region.

UPDATE 5:55 PM EDT —

Over Kiev, central and north-eastern Ukraine, at least several dozen UAVs “Geran-2″Drones.

An air alert has been declared.

3 Tu-95 bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces took off into the air.

A little earlier, explosions thundered in the Nikolaev region.

UPDATE 6:11 PM EDT —

Ukraine says , “Our reaction on this , will be very very hard… and unexpected…

In Kupyansk district (Kharkov region), powerful explosions are heard.

Explosions in Zaporizhzhia – air defence at work. One Russian missile/drone (waiting for confirmation of exactly what it was) has been shot down so far.

UK escalation, Storm Shadow long-range missiles to Ukraine

A Minus And Plus For The Debt Ceiling Crisis

The debt ceiling discussions in Washington may well be help President Biden’s secret domestic agenda but it is hampering on of his foreign policy aims.

The New York Times economy columnist Paul Krugman is aghast that the Biden administration had not prepared for the obvious showdown with the Republicans:

As soon as Republicans took control of the House last November, it was obvious that they would try to take the economy hostage by refusing to raise the federal debt limit. After all, that’s what they did in 2011 — and hard as it may be to believe, the Tea Party Republicans were sober and sane compared to the MAGA crew. So it was also obvious that the Biden administration needed a strategy to head off the looming crisis. More and more, however, it looks as if there never was a strategy beyond wishful thinking.
…
[R]ight now I have a sick feeling about all of this. What were they thinking? How can they have been caught so off-guard by something that everyone who’s paying attention saw coming?

I am amused over this. Krugman seems to have believed Biden’s election campaign talk about being ‘progressive’ or on the ‘left’. Joe Biden was and is far from that. I for one would characterize him as a centrist with strong leanings towards the right.

The fight over the debt ceiling is arbitrary but a chance for Republicans to threaten some damage. The fear is then used to push for domestic policy concessions:

For those somehow new to this, the United States has a weird and dysfunctional system in which Congress enacts legislation that determines federal spending and revenue, but then, if this legislation leads to a budget deficit, must vote a second time to authorize borrowing to cover the deficit. If even one house of Congress refuses to raise the debt limit, the U.S. government will go into default, with possibly catastrophic financial and economic effects.

This weird aspect of budgeting allows a party that is sufficiently ruthless, sufficiently indifferent to the havoc it might wreak, to attempt to impose through extortion policies it would never be able to enact through the normal legislative process.

I do not for one moment believe that Biden is unhappy about that.

In the 1990s and early 2000s Biden supported bankruptcy reform that made it more difficult, especially for the poor, to get rid of debt:

[Biden] had pushed for two earlier bankruptcy reform bills in 2000 and 2001, both of which failed. But in 2005, BAPCPA made it through, successfully erecting all kinds of roadblocks for Americans struggling with debt, and doing so just before the financial crisis of 2008. Since BAPCPA passed, Chapter 13 filings went from representing just 24 percent of all bankruptcy filings per year to 39 percent in 2017.

Before that Biden had called for cuts to Social Security:

In 1984 he proposed freezing Social Security benefits — that is, ending cost-of-living adjustments that boost benefits to keep up with inflation. In January 1995 he gave a speech endorsing a balanced budget amendment (an utterly lunatic policy) and boasted about his previous record of proposing “that we freeze every single solitary program in the government, anything the government had to do with, every single solitary one, that we not spend a penny more, not even accounting for inflation, than we spent the year before.” In November 1995 he did so again, boasting that “I tried with Senator Grassley back in the ’80s to freeze all government spending, including Social Security, including everything.”

There are other non-progressive laws and several wars that had Biden’s support. In the current fight over the debt ceiling the Republicans demand cuts to several welfare bills. It is certainly not obvious that Biden is against those. He may well be using the debt ceiling fight to push for politics he favors but which a majority of Democrats would otherwise oppose.

Talks have been held in the White House with Senate and House majority and minority leaders. There were no serious results because the Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer held Biden back from making concessions to the Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy:

The California Republican had vented to his colleagues just hours before the meeting that the current format of negotiations — with all four party leaders in a room with the president — wasn’t fruitful. Speaking to his conference on Tuesday morning, McCarthy said the five of them had achieved little in their first sitdown last week, arguing that Schumer had prevented Biden from fully engaging with the speaker and McConnell, according to two people familiar with his remarks. Whenever Biden did seem to agree with Republicans, McCarthy said Schumer would try to cut him off.

The talks will now continue without the Senate leadership:

Leaders agreed to narrow a bicameral negotiation down to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden, hoping fewer players might be more productive in reaching a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling. Even then, it looks like a longshot to some Senate Democrats.

That setting will give Biden the opportunity to make ‘concessions’ that are favored by his rich donors but opposed by a majority of people who voted for him. He will then sell those by presenting them as the only possible step to take. Maggie Thatcher’s “There is no alternative!” will again succeed.

The current due date for a debt ceiling deal is Friday:

Reflecting the growing sense of urgency, the White House announced Tuesday that the president will cut short his trip to Asia and now plans return to Washington on Sunday in order to resume negotiations with Republicans as soon as possible.Biden will depart Wednesday for a trip to Japan but will no longer make stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia before returning stateside.

There is a G-7 meeting in Japan during which Biden will press for some anti-China wording but probably without much results. The canceled Quad meeting in Australia was also to support his anti-China agenda as was the planned stop in Papua New Guinea where the U.S. navy wants extensive port rights.

For Biden’s foreign policy agenda the canceling of those dates is bad. It makes the leadership of the PNG look stupid:

PNG News & Info @PngPles – 2:08 UTC · May 17, 2023PNG declares Monday as Public Holiday in Port Moresby as US President Joe Biden makes historical visit
Link

The canceling of the visit may well be the end of the planned port agreement as the opposition in PNG will now have chance to look into the dubious and secretive deal:

The Opposition Leader, however, said the cancellation of the trip would give the opportunity for the Prime Minister to tell this country what this Defense Cooperation Treaty is all about.Mr. Lelang said information on the contents of the Defense Cooperation Treaty with the United States was sketchy, therefore, created a lot of confusion and uneasiness around the country as to what this means for us. The Opposition is calling on the Prime Minister to come out and tell the nation the details of the Defense Cooperation Treaty.

The Opposition Leader reminded the Government that we have a foreign policy of “Friends to All and Enemies to None” and PNG need to stand firm on this foreign policy position.

Mr. Lelang said we should not be blinded by the dollar sign or be coerced into signing deals that may be detrimental to us in the long run.
…
Meanwhile, Former Prime Minister and Ialibu Pangia MP Peter O’Neil also expressed concern that the only people who seems to know about this security pact is the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, the PM and Minister for Defense.
…
I am told there will be Security Agreement to be signed between US and PNG, however, that particular agreement was never made public, never debated on the floor of Parliament, never been approved by Parliament so we are all going blind and some of the reports we are getting are concerning”
…
From the information we gathered, the Agreement is that the pact was largely drafted by the US Government. Only a few of our own PNG Government officials and the then Minister for Foreign Affairs have seen this document and as a result has been put forward to the Prime Minister and officials to sign the agreement on the day of the visit of the US President,” Mr O’Neil said.

This reminds one of the AUKUS deal which will see Australia pay huge amounts of money for nuclear submarines it does not need. That deal was also negotiated secretly and agreed upon without any public discussion.

If the Defense Cooperation Treaty with the PNG fails the chance for a conflict with China will lessen and the world will be better off. If some people in the U.S. will lose some government support due to a debt ceiling agreement it will be bad for them.

But in total that would still be a win.

Posted by b on May 17, 2023 at 16:12 UTC | Permalink

Szijjártó: The EU Will Lose Out if it Views China as a Rival

The European Union will lose out if it views China as a rival, as it has become evident in recent years that the Far Eastern country already has a competitive advantage in many areas, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook following his meetings on Tuesday in Ningbo, China.

According to a statement by the ministry, the minister emphasised during the opening of the China-Central and Eastern Europe Trade Exhibition that China is Hungary’s strategic partner. The agreement regarding the partnership was signed in 2017, and it is not just a communication ploy, but an issue that the government takes seriously. He pointed out that China’s gross domestic product has now surpassed that of the EU. He also reminded that in 2010, China accounted for only 9 per cent of the world’s GDP, while the EU accounted for 22 per cent. However, the situation has changed for various reasons, and now the figures stand at 18 and 17 per cent respectively.

He emphasised that if the EU wants to benefit from its relationship with China, it should focus on cooperation based on mutual trust, respect, and benefits

rather than rivalry. ‘Hungary does not see China as a risk or a threat, but rather as a state with which we can gain many benefits through cooperation,’ the minister nailed down.

According to Péter Szijjártó, the Hungarian example demonstrates that much can be gained from fair cooperation, as Hungary has become the number one investment destination for Chinese companies in Central and Eastern Europe. The country has the highest number of Confucius Institutes, and most Chinese cities can be reached directly from Hungary. Furthermore, Hungary has the highest number of food export licences among the countries in the region, and following the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing opened organised travel opportunities to Hungary, the first within the EU, he highlighted. The minister stated that there is an increasing demand for healthy food in China, and Hungary has a competitive advantage at the EU level due to its strict food safety regulations. Of the twenty-three Hungarian companies present at the exhibition, the majority represent the food industry, he noted.

The minister emphasised that the government strongly opposes the bloc formation that is taking place in the world, as this goes against the Hungarian national interest. He reiterated that Central Europe has always lost out historically when there was conflict between the East and the West.

‘Instead, we support connectivity and consider the East-West division as good news in the key sectors of the global economy.

Separation and risk reduction make no sense,’ he said.

He highlighted that Hungary is a good example in this regard, as it has become an important meeting point for Western car manufacturers and Eastern battery manufacturers who need each other. He emphasised that, apart from Germany and China, only Hungary has factories of all three major German premium car brands, and at the same time, four out of the world’s ten largest electric battery manufacturers are present in the country. He noted that the value of Hungarian trade with Zhejiang Province alone reached $1.6 billion last year, which greatly contributed to breaking the Hungarian-Chinese trade record. As a result, China has become Hungary’s number one trading partner outside of Europe.

“Most of them are dead!”- Ukraine’s army DECIMATED says Col. MacGregor | Redacted w Clayton Morris

The Car Rental Sales Tax Swap Scam

Car rental corporate consolidation, funded by you.

Pat Garofalo

Feb 3, 2023

Not-so-fun travel fact: Every time you rent a car, you are participating in a decades-old scam that lets rental car corporations dodge a bunch of taxes and foist the cost onto renters and local taxpayers. This backdoor subsidy entrenches the dominance of the big players in what is now a very concentrated industry — but a few states are starting to fix the problem, and more should get on the same road.

Here’s what happened: Starting in the 1970s and continuing through about 2000, dominant car rental corporations such as Enterprise convinced state governments to make a kind of tax swap. In exchange for being exempted from sales taxes or other taxes applied to the purchase of a vehicle, which everyone else who buys and owns one pays, car rental corporations started levying an excise tax on each rental of 6 to as high as 14 percent, depending on the state.

These swaps — where the same piece of legislation exempted car rental corporations from the sales tax or other related purchase taxes while creating a rental excise tax — occurred in 13 states: First in Texas in 1971, then Virginia, Maine, Illinois, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Iowa, Washington, Maryland, and South Dakota, ending in West Virginia in 2000, according to research documents I received from a smaller competitor to the dominant rental car corporations.

Many other states do the same thing in some way, either via administrative or executive order, or via different pieces of legislation that weren’t passed at the same time. The details may be different, and I’m glossing over particulars that vary state to state (for instance, in Kansas car owners pay property tax on their vehicles, which car rental corporations are exempt from), but the end result is the same.

The big car rental corporations, in short, did a very good job sweeping across the country collecting what is a massive backdoor tax subsidy on the purchase of their main business asset.

There are three issues that this rental corporation subsidy causes. The first is that the car rental corporations simply slapped the excise tax onto every customer’s bill. So they avoid the taxes every car buyer pays on the front end, in favor of one that renters pay.

The rental car corporations argue they should be exempt from sales tax because their cars are “business inputs,” as they say, or because they aren’t the actual end users of the product. But they’re perfectly free to take normal business deductions on car purchases, and they do; they just also get a very specific exemption for themselves.

The second is that states are losing a lot of revenue on this deal, as rental car corporations purchase some 2 million vehicles annually. That lost revenue totals more than $3.5 billion, according to one study, including more than $100 million dollars each in states such as New Jersey, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.

That’s significant money that could get put toward state needs, but instead subsidizes the car rental industry.

Third and finally, as mentioned, the car rental industry is very consolidated, and tax subsidies entrench both its economic and political power. Currently, just three corporations — Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis — hold 95 percent of the car rental market.

You may think you’re renting from other corporations when you land at the airport or somesuch, but nope, you’re just patronizing different brands from the big three: Enterprise owns Alamo and National, Avis owns Budget, Payless and Zipcar, and Hertz owns Thrifty and Dollar, for example.

These corporations explicitly don’t want competition now that they’ve successfully consolidated, so they’ve been lobbying state legislatures to apply excise taxes to rentals at upstarts like car-sharing companies — which is all well and good, except the people who share cars on those platforms very much paid the sales taxes and registration fees that the rental car corporations avoid. So it’s “tax thee and not me,” in order to maintain the big three’s dominance.

State policymakers, though, are working to fix this issue. In Oregon, for example, the state Department of Revenue won a court case affirming that the state’s vehicle sale tax should be applied when a rental car corporation purchases a car. North Dakota also repealed the exemption from sales tax that is applied to car rental corporations. Hawaii and Georgia partially ditched their exemptions, too.

In two states at the moment — Kansas and Massachusetts — there are bills before the legislature that would eliminate the car rental corporation tax exemption. In several other states, including New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Tennessee, an administrative change could even do the trick, because the sales tax exemption was never passed by the legislature, just applied by an agency or governor.

The road here is pretty clear: Stop the backdoor subsidizing of very dominant firms in a very concentrated industry. Elected officials just need to decide to take it.

Why the U.S. Should Close Its Overseas Military Bases

A growing movement is pushing back against long-held orthodoxy, arguing that it’s time to abandon these outposts and bring the troops home.

Today, the United States has more overseas military bases than every other country combined; its estimated 750 bases spread across 80 or more countries and constitute 75 to 85 percent of the world’s total overseas military bases—likely more than any other people, nation, or empire in history. . . . 

Despite being one of the most well-entrenched orthodoxies of U.S. national security strategy, it may well be time for change. 

A growing movement argues that rather than keeping the barbarians at the gate, the gates themselves have drawn the United States into reckless and unpopular conflicts, tempting policymakers into knee-jerk military responses rather than diplomatic ones, and provoke enemies rather than deter them. 

After decades of consensus, activists, scholars, and veterans are now pushing back against what they see as a geopolitical misstep, arguing that it’s time to abandon these long-held outposts and bring the troops home. . .

here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 17 2023 18:17 utc | 28

Russia and China Win Big, US Hegemony Dies w/ Garland Nixon, Dr. Wilmer Leon, Danny Haiphong, Margaret Kimberley

Such an outstanding interview!

Really worth your time!

Cayman depositors left in the cold after Silicon Valley Bank collapse

by Renae Stampp

May 13, 2023

(CMR) The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank two months ago is being felt by depositors at its Cayman Islands branch as their funds have reportedly been seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC).

According to a report by Wall Street Journal, American depositors were protected when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took control of the California-based bank on March 10 and were guaranteed all their funds.

However, WSJ explained that “it has been a vastly different story for customers of SVB’s Cayman Islands branch, which was left out of the First Citizens deal and placed under FDIC receivership. “

On March 31, the FDIC reportedly notified SVB’s Cayman Islands depositors that they wouldn’t be covered by its deposit insurance and that they would be treated as “general unsecured creditors.” FDIC said that only domestic deposits are covered by its insurance under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.

The FDIC’s notice surprised customers who had thought an earlier statement from U.S. regulators that said all SVB depositors would be made whole also applied to them, according to WSJ.

According to the report, the Cayman Islands branch was set up to primarily support the bank’s activities in Asia, and depositors, which include multiple Chinese investment firms, haven’t been able to access their funds since SVB’s collapse.

It is unknown how much in deposits the Cayman Islands branch had at the time of SVB’s failure. However, the bank’s last annual report said the bank had $13.9 billion in foreign deposits at the end of 2022 that were not subject to any U.S. federal or state deposit insurance.

SVB also had a bank subsidiary in the U.K. and branches in Germany and Canada. The German and Canadian branches didn’t take deposits; they only made loans. Its U.K. bank, which HSBC has taken over, had about $8.5 billion in deposits on March 10 of this year.

Following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and the appointment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as the Receiver in March, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority said it was engaging with the FDIC and other stakeholders regarding the receivership process and impact on SVB’s Cayman Islands branch.

A Cayman Islands Monetary Authority representative told WSJ the regulator is still assessing the situation.

A spokesperson for Phoenix Property Investors, a Hong Kong-based private-equity firm that had funds in SVB’s Cayman Islands branch, told WSJ, “When the FDIC announced they would insure unsecured deposits, it seemed that they would include all deposits, including ours.”

Employees of other investment firms that had deposits at SVB’s Cayman Islands branch also told WSJ that following the bank’s failure, they received notices reassuring customers that they would have full access to their money and that transactions were being processed.

Instead, their bank statements at the end of the month showed their balances were at zero and that their funds had been transferred to “SVB Receiver.”

Uninsured depositors are expected to be paid based on assets available in the receivership estate to pay claims; however, one lawyer explained that as the FDIC liquidates assets, there may not be sufficient assets available to satisfy all claims. This means foreign depositors may recover little or nothing.

Chicken Chilaquiles

Chilaquiles is a Mexican layered dish, sometimes called “Mexican lasagna,” that makes good use of somewhat dried-out corn tortillas. Fresh corn tortillas are perfectly appropriate, however. If you’re a cheese lover, use more in this recipe.

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
8 (6-inch) corn tortillas (preferably stale)
2 (10 ounce) cans tomatoes with green chiles (or substitute 2 1/2 cups salsa)
1 (15 to 16 ounce) can black beans, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
1 cup non-fat plain yogurt (or an 8-ounce container)
8 to 10 ounces grated Monterey jack cheese (or more if desired)

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray an 8- or 9-inch square baking dish (or similar casserole) with nonstick cooking spray.
Heat about 1 inch of water in the bottom of a wide skillet. Bring to a boil. Add chicken breasts. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer chicken breasts for 5 minutes (the water should not be boiling, but at the barest simmer; adjust the heat if necessary). Flip and cook 4 minutes more. Remove from heat and set aside. (If the chicken should appear a tad undercooked, don’t worry, it will continue to cook in the casserole).
Cut tortillas in half. Spread about 3/4 cup of the tomatoes in the bottom of the casserole. Cover the bottom with tortilla halves. Cut the chicken into small dice.
Begin building layers of ingredients on top of the tortillas: Sprinkle with half the chicken, then spread on half the remaining tomatoes. Spoon on half the black beans and sprinkle with cilantro. Dollop on half the yogurt and sprinkle with half the cheese. Top with more tortilla halves.
Again build layers. Start with chicken, then tomatoes, black beans and cilantro. Spoon on yogurt and top with cheese. Bake 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and casserole is hot. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Serve with green beans or salad.

Serves 6.

China and Zambia reveal America’s treatment to African Americans and democracy control

Sitrep today

Here is what the world looks like today MAY 2023.

Red color = The multipolar world. Led by China.
Blue color = Rules based world. Led by the United States.
Orange color = Leaning multipolar, but not fully committed.

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 1)

Do you think that China is investing billions in chipmaking to close the gap with global rivals?

They aren’t

They are just putting up a show of doing so

The Chinese always work in layer after layer of secrecy

Bottom line is if they display something to the world — it’s either perfected completely or its a red herring

China won’t be spending billions to close the gap with the USA. That would not be economical at all.

China is spending billions TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN VERY DIFFERENT CORE TECHNOLOGY RELATED TO PROCESSORS

You don’t understand?

Let me explain

In the mid 2000s, China sank billions into the automobile industry and everyone was saying how China would be developing its own path breaking vehicles and cutting edge IC engines

Instead for a long time it looked like China was merely copying foreign designs and their engines were pretty okay and nothing cutting edge

So they laughed and said how corrupt China was and how they were sinking billions into making ordinary engines and copycat designs of ICE cars

IN REALITY THE CHINESE WERE PUMPING THOSE BILLIONS INTO ELECTRIC VEHICLES, BATTERIES, TURBINES, SOFTWARE AND RARE EARTH PROCESSING

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And today China controls everything in that area and is superior even to the US or Japan in that aspect.

China is the world leader in this area

That’s China for you

Only someone who understands the Mandarin mindset would know what they plan to do

My guess is they will keep buying chips from the greyzone and keep diverting trade orders for IC chips and they will keep investing decently in local chip manufacture. A few billion maybe. Maybe around 20% of the amount they claim.

Yet THEY WILL INVEST THE REST OF THE BIG BUCKS IN AREAS OF TECHNOLOGY where they have a head start and where the West have no core technology control

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Like Photonic Chips, Like Graphene movement where the West is barely just ahead of China or even at the same level as that of China

Like they did with Trains, EVs, Solar Panels

China won’t spend billions just to level with the West. That’s a waste of resources

They will spend Billions to SLINGSHOT AHEAD OF THE WEST and develop their own independent core control technology

That’s the Chinese Way

Stone Temple Pilots – Interstate Love Song

DeepAi interpetation

I asked DeepAi to generate art from the song…

Here is what it came up with.

Stone Temple Pilots Interstate Love Song

Does China’s economy still have potential?

You ain’t seen nothing yet. In a decade China will double in size, in a generation it will grow 3 times its present size. And it will only stop once it’s economy is 6 times that of the USA. So the U.S. containing China is no different from some one trying to stop Lebron James from growing past 5 foot tall!

Yesterday the Chinese made your toys and sneakers. Today they make you computers and phones. Tomorrow the make your cars and jet planes. Mark my word even Chinese weapon sales will overtake the U.S. By 2050 the U.S. will be totally and absolutely destroyed by itself, India will overtake them. And the U.S. debts will hit 200 trillion dollars paying a minimum of 8 trillion a year just to service its debts if it Fong change its course.

By 2050 the entire Africa and Latin America will be filled with Chinese roads, bridges, ports, railway, high speed trains, airports and planes. And BRICS engulfed 100 nations and it will be 10 times the size for G7. If you are westerner thinking you can stop China. It’s is like you trying to stop the waves of the seas from hitting your shores.

By 2050 China will be mining the moon and having station on Mars. By 2050. China’s middle income will be at least 1.2 billion and its consumption alone will be 6 times that of the U.S. So are you sure you want to think China has hit its limit?

It is too depressing for a racist and xenophobic westerners. I spare you. Go back to sleep and think you still own the world.

Chicken a la Jerusalem

This is a recipe from the Santa Anita Racetrack in California.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken pieces
All-purpose flour
1/4 pound butter
Salt and pepper
Nutmeg
1/2 pound small mushrooms
6 cooked artichoke hearts
1/2 cup cream sherry
1 cup cream or Half-and-Half
Mined parsley
Minced chives

Instructions

Dredge chicken in flour.
Melt butter in large skillet. Add chicken and sauté until lightly browned. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Wash mushrooms and pat dry. Add to chicken along with artichoke hearts. Pour sherry over all; cover, then simmer for 15 minutes, or until chicken is tender and most of the wine has evaporated.
Stir in cream. Add more cream if needed to thin sauce to desired consistency. Add parsley and chives and serve at once.

Roy Buchanan – Turn to Stone (live)

Deep Ai version

I asked DeepAI to generate “artwork” based on that last video.

Here is what it came up with…

The Flight From the US Dollar

From his article In the Russian media preceding the meeting, Xi enthused that “China-Russia trade exceeded 190 billion U.S. dollars last year, up by 116 percent from ten years ago.”

Though it has reached 190 billion US dollars, it is no longer all being traded in US dollars. In his article in the Chinese media, Putin said that “the share of settlements in national currencies” of all that trade “is growing.” 65% of that massive China-Russia trade is now being conducting in their Russian and Chinese currencies.

Though the US sees Russia and China as the largest threats to its position in the world, it is not just America’s enemies that are fleeing the dollar. Its closest friends have hinted at it too. Following his meetings with Xi in China, French President Emmanuel Macron likely stunned and angered the US by calling for Europe to reduce its dependency on the “extraterritoriality of the US dollar.”

These calls for a flight from the US dollar are not merely economic, they are geopolitical. They are calls to reshape the world order by challenging US hegemony and advocating multipolarity. The monopoly of the dollar has not just assured US wealth: it has assured US power. Most international trade is conducted in dollars, and most foreign exchange reserves are held in dollars.

That dollar dominance has often allowed the US to dictate ideological alignment or to impose economic and political structural adjustments on other countries. It has also allowed the US to become the only country in the world that can effectively sanction its opponents. Emancipation from the hegemony of the dollar is emancipation from US hegemony. The flight from the US dollar is a mechanism for replacing the US led unipolar world with a multipolar world.

As the US has recently demonstrated in Cuba, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iran and Russia, the monopoly of the dollar allows it to be very powerfully and quickly weaponized. Countries’ funds can be held hostage, and countries can be coerced and starved into falling in line by sanctions. Recent demonstrations of that power have awoken many countries to their own vulnerability.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said that “There is a risk when we use financial sanctions that are linked to the role of the dollar that over time it could undermine the hegemony of the dollar.” She explained that “Of course, it does create a desire on the part of China, of Russia, of Iran to find an alternative.”

And that’s just what it’s done. But Yellen is still missing the larger effect of US dollar warfare. It is not just China, Russia and Iran that are now seeking to escape the pressure. America’s enemies, but also its friends and everything in between, are considering taking flight from the dollar.

China and Russia are doing it. NATO ally France is calling for it for Europe. Nonaligned countries are also either talking about it or already doing it.

India is a growing economic power. And, like China, India has massively increased its trade with Russia. India and Russia have now begun discussions on a free trade agreement between India and the Russian led Eurasian Economic Commission.

The two countries are now engaged in “advanced negotiations” for a new bilateral investment treaty. Russia has expressed interest in using “national currencies and currencies of friendly countries” for trade. India, too, “has been keen on” moving toward leaving the dollar behind by “increasing the use of its rupee currency for trade with Russia.” And India has recently begun purchasing some Russian oil in Russian rubles.

US dollar hegemony has also been threatened right in America’s backyard. Brazilian ;President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has proposed ;escaping dollar control by “creat[ing] a Latin American currency.” While in China for meetings with XI, Lula asked

“Who decided the dollar would be the [world’s] currency?”

He then answered his own question. In March, Brazil and China escaped the US dollar by each assigning one of its banks to conduct their bilateral trade in the Brazilian real and the Chinese yuan.

Pakistan is now also trading with China in its own currency. Iran and Russia have taken flight from the dollar and are now settling trade in rials and rubles

. They recently announced that they have circumvented the US financial system by linking their banking systems as an alternative to SWIFT for trading with each other.

Saudi Arabia has said that it sees “no issues” in trading oil in currencies other than the US dollar. Robert Rabil

, Professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, says that the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Israel have all made some movement away from the US dollar.

The Eurasian Economic Union has agreed on “a phased transition” from settling trade in “foreign currency” to “settlements in rubles.”

Perhaps more surprisingly for the US was the decision at the March 30-31 meeting of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reduce reliance on the US dollar. ASEAN is made up of Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Brunei.

The meeting produced a joint statement to “reinforce financial resilience . . . through the use of local currency.” But what must have been most unsettling for the US was the explanation given for the decision by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Widodo said that the move is necessary to protect from “possible geopolitical repercussions.” What did he mean by that? “Be very careful,” he explained. “We must remember the sanctions imposed by the US on Russia.”

Yellen was right. Widodo said that US sanctions on Russia exposed just how vulnerable countries are if they rely on US dollars and US foreign payment systems. He said that using ASEAN’s Local Currency Transaction system to trade in local currencies would help address the need for Indonesia to prepare itself for the possibility that the US could similarly sanction it.

The EEU and ASEAN are not the only organizations mapping their flight from the US dollar. BRICS is a massive international organization whose primary purpose is to balance US hegemony in a new multipolar world. Comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, it represents 41% of the world’s population. BRICS, too, is talking about conducting trade in the currencies of its members or even in a new BRICS’ currency.

Lula recently suggested that “the BRICS bank have a currency to finance trade between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other BRICS countries” so that countries are not compelled “to chase after dollars to export, when they could be exporting in their own currencies.” Russian State Duma Deputy Chairman Alexander Babakov also recently said that BRICS is working on creating its own currency.

A BRICS currency could challenge the dollar beyond the borders of BRICS. “Because each member of the BRICS grouping is an economic heavyweight in its own region, countries around the world would likely be willing to do business” in the currency, suggested a report in the Financial Post.

One such region is Africa. In July, the Russia-Africa summit will be held in St. Petersburg. Olayinka Ajala, senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Leeds Beckett University and the author of “The Case for Neutrality: Understanding African Stances on the Russia-Ukraine Conflict,” told me in a recent correspondence that a “main focus of Russia and China at the moment is to get African countries to support the proposed BRICS currency.”

He says that “this will be a major topic in the upcoming conference.” Ajala explains that “Africa is a consuming continent, meaning they import lots of goods and services.” He says that “with a population of over 1.2 billion, if Russia and China are able to convince African countries on the need to ditch the dollar, it will be a huge blow to the US.”

From Africa to Southeast Asia and Latin America, from Russia and China to India, Iran and Saudi Arabia, countries are mapping their course for a flight from the US dollar. As a mechanism for transition from US hegemony to a multipolar world, the economic effects would be great, but the geopolitical effects could be even greater.

Davy Knowles – Almost Cut My Hair

DeepAi version

I made a DeepAi art query.

Here is the result…

The most realistic cartoon.

No wonder westerners do not understand China. Because western media does not report it. France’s Macron invited EU chief von der Leyen to come along to visit China in April 2023. She was ignorant but arrogant. She was “lectured” by Xi Jinping. What has she said?

Arrogant

She asked Xi not to unilaterally change the stability of Taiwan strait. It will not be TO THE BENEFIT of the West.

Xi lectured her:

Under ONE CHINA principle, Taiwan is part of China. Taiwan issue is the core of China’s core interests. Taiwan is China’s internal affairs & nobody should interfere. China will not compromise its sovereignty for other’s benefit. Anyone think they can interfere China’s core interest is LIVING IN A DREAM.

But I dont see many western media reporting this. No wonder westerners do not understand China.

Ignorant

1, She said EU recognizes ONE CHINA principle.

What does ONE CHINA mean? It means Taiwan is China’s internal affairs. Nobody should interfere, UN law says.

Canada complains China interfering their last democratic election. What make Canada think they can interfere with China’s matter?

2, She shouted democracy.

Democracy means there are different opinions. When Hungary refused to sanction Russia, she punished Hungary. … She is a dictator; not democratic.

3, She warned Xi not to supply military aid to Russia.

Yes, China is afraid of her “warning” from a chief who has no power over any country.

Besides, tell me why NATO can supply military aid to Ukraine?

4, On the 1st day of visit, Macron loudly told the world that EU/France cannot decouple China.

Germany, Spain & at one point Italy also said so.

Now Leyen change the word “decouple” to “de-risk” as if change make-up can change the face.

Leyen has no responsibility for the livelihood of people in any country, she can speak with no consequence.

In Ukraine war, she shouted democracy. But the empty ideology of democracy does not give people a job/income to buy food or gas to heat the home.

5, Leyen shouted freedom.

But she has given up her FREEDOM OF THOUGHT to USA. Our brain controls our speech & action. No freedom of thought = no freedom of speech etc. That is why she repeats what USA says.

Without her own thinking, that is why she has no idea what ONE CHINA, democracy or freedom means.

Davy Knowles w/Band of Friends – A Million Miles Away

President Trump 2.0 may start a full-on cold war with China

Democrats and Republicans may be divided on former leader’s stance on Ukraine conflict, but both are impeccably hostile towards Beijing

Alex Lo

It’s fascinating to watch Donald Trump’s “town hall” performance on CNN. The man is clearly in possession of his mental faculties, and he can walk and talk at the same time. These are clear advantages over the 80-year-old incumbent Joe Biden.

Guns for all, lower taxes, banning abortion, fielding more conservative judges at all judicial levels, drilling for oil and gas like there is no tomorrow (indeed, there may not be a tomorrow if the climate crisis really is as bad as scientists think) – Trump has offered, regardless of his own beliefs if he has any, everything a diehard Republican would want in a president. That’s why he has, at least up till now, no real rival from the Republican Party.

And if a Washington Post/ABC poll is anything to go by, he would even beat Biden by 44 to 38 per cent if a presidential election were held tomorrow.

The man may be facing dozens of lawsuits, both criminal and civil, but his followers are convinced they are all engineered by the “deep state”. They may not be entirely deluded either.

They have pointed to how the state of New York, which is overwhelmingly against Trump, passed a law that allows for a one-year window for victims of sex crimes to sue even if their cases are way past the statute of limitations.

Some conspiracy theorists have claimed that the law was passed just so someone like the writer E. Jean Carroll could come forward to successfully sue Trump for sexual abuse and defamation, even though the alleged incident took place in the mid-1990s. One way or another, the Democrats are running scared, and they should be.

One of Trump’s headline-grabbing pronouncements on CNN was that he would immediately end the war in Ukraine.

“If I were president, I would have that war settled in one day, 24 hours,” he declared. That may not sit well with Democrats and many Europeans, but he has solid support among Republican voters.

According to a new Pew Research Centre poll, only 44 per cent of Republican respondents say they have confidence in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “do the right thing regarding world affairs”, compared with 71 per cent of Democrats.

The wide gulf between the two main US party voters held when respondents were asked whether they held favourable views of Ukraine in general, with 52 per cent of Republicans and 77 per cent of Democrats holding a positive view.

The Pew survey follows many recent polls showing increasing scepticism among Republican voters towards Washington’s blank-cheque support for Ukraine against Russia.

Nothing ends a proxy war faster than when foreign weapons and other military aids dry up. The United States, of course, has been the chief supplier of arms and intelligence to Ukraine. Given the unrealistic goal of Ukraine and its Western supporters to regain all lost territories, including Crimea, from Russia, Trump’s position is perfectly rational and defensible.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess who Washington will train its guns on once the crisis in Ukraine is out of the way.

As president, Trump started the economic war against China, which Biden has inherited and expanded. Under Trump’s ultra-hawkish secretary of state Mike Pompeo, his administration laid down a formal containment strategy against Beijing which he and his supporters once likened to the old cold war containment of the Soviet Union.

Despite the blatant hostilities of the Biden White House, his officials have so far refused to adopt the rhetoric of a cold war and even recently moderated the terminology of decoupling to de-risking.

Trump and his likely hardline officials will have no such inhibitions. After all, Republicans may not see eye to eye with Democrats over Ukraine; they share bipartisan hostilities towards China.

Perhaps the only wild card with President Trump 2.0 is whether he would continue with his personal disdain for traditional allies or build on Biden’s anti-China alliances.

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 2)

Larry the cable guy

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev talks in Chinese! What is his favorite Chinese food and literature?

In a recent interview, Tokayev had such a conversation with CCTV (a national television broadcaster of China) host Wang Guan.

Host: What do you miss most about China?

Tokayev: I have been in China for almost eight years, so I miss a lot of things, Chinese food, Chinese culture, and Chinese people.

Host: You just mentioned Chinese food. What is the one Chinese food that you like the most, want to eat the most, and miss the most?

Tokayev: twice-cooked pork, Peking duck, Dandan noodles.

Host: Dandan noodles!

Tokayev: Did you know? Dandan noodles.

Host: I know that Dandan noodles are a bit spicy, aren’t they?

Tokayev: Very spicy.

Host: Can you eat spicy food?

Tokayev: I eat, I like spicy food.

Having studied and lived in China for nearly 8 years, Tokayev can speak fluent Chinese and likes to play table tennis.

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On the day of his 70th birthday, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev came to the ancient Chinese city of Xi’an to attend the China-Central Asia Summit and had a warm reception from his Chinese friends.

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Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrives in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, on May 17, 2023.

Chickaritos

Ingredients

3 cups finely cooked chicken (or canned)
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 (17 1/4 ounce) box frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed, pie pastry for double-crust 10-inch pie or flour tortillas
Water
Salsa
Guacamole

Instructions

In a bowl, combine chicken, chiles, onions, cheese, and seasonings. Mix well; chill until ready to use.
Remove half of the pastry from the refrigerator at a time. On a lightly floured board, roll to a 9 x 12-inch rectangle. Cut into 9 small rectangles. Place about 2 tablespoons filling across the center of each rectangle. Wet edges of pastry around filling. Crimp ends with a fork to seal. Repeat with remaining pastry and filling. Place, seam side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Refrigerate until ready to heat.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve warm with salsa and guacamole.

Kremlin slams Macron comments over Russia’s ‘subservience’ to China

The Kremlin on Monday slammed comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said Russia was becoming a vassal to China as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

“We categorically disagree with this. Our relations with China have the character of a special, strategic partnership,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Macron’s comments reflected “an absolutely wrong understanding of what is happening.”

In an interview published Sunday, Macron said that Russia, isolated by its offensive in Ukraine, had “entered a form of subservience with regards to China.”

Macron also said Russia had already suffered a “geopolitical defeat” in the interview published by the Opinion newspaper.

China has sought to posture itself as neutral in the Ukraine offensive, but it has never condemned the Russian invasion.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping presented himself as a mediator concerned with maintaining stability when he visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in March.

The relationship between China and Russia is based on “mutual interests, benefits, close worldviews and the common rejection of any attempt to dictate” a country’s behaviors, Peskov said.

Xi has not visited Kyiv but he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by telephone in late April, the first known phone call between the two leaders since the start of the offensive.

Chinese special envoy Li Hui is expected to arrive in Kyiv for a two-day visit on Tuesday.

He will be the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to visit the country since Moscow launched its offensive last year.

He will also visit Russia, as well as European Union members Poland, France and Germany.

Video: U.S. PATRIOT Missile System Fires 30+ Missiles over Kiev But Gets TAKEN OUT by Russian Hit

World Hal Turner 16 May 2023

One of the much vaunted PATRIOT missile systems given to Kiev to fight Russia, fired about thirty Air Defense missiles overnight but in the end, was hit by a Russian inbound attack. Video below shows the salvos and the final inbound Russian hit. Ukraine is actively (and desperately) trying to have the video removed!

Overnight, Russia engaged in a very thorough missile attack against Ukraine, with what appears to have been a “saturation” attack against Kiev for the express purpose of overwhelming missile defenses.

Ukraine and its supporters are furious that these videos are published. They are actively and aggressively demanding the videos be taken down “because they can identify Air Defense locations for Russia to hit.”

And more…

In fact, there are literally DOZENS of these brain-dead NAZI Ukraine supporters aghast that the videos are available. Why they’re supporting a NAZI regime is beyond me, but then again they’re probably the same idiots who wore masks and got the death dart for COVID! No one pays attention to them because they’re demonstrably stupid.

In the first video below, we can see what __may__ be a PATRIOT system, (might also be NASAMS) deployed near an apartment or other large complex, firing about thirty outbound missiles:

Doing the numbers:

I counted 30 Patriot PAC-3 MSE launches here.

The cost of these per missile in FY2024 is about $5,275,000.

That was $158,250,000 fired in about two minutes. And as we see, the battery or something else got hit and exploded. So it failed in its mission.
The cost of a Patriot battery to the U.S. military is over a billion dollars, so its destruction is a significant thing

$5,275,000 is US port cost- PER MISSILE. By the time they reach Ukraine, cost must have blown to $20 million plus.

If the Russians get the US to use 30 Patriot Missiles a day (or more), soon the US will start seriously eating into it’s stockpile of Patriot Missiles.

I am unsure of the build rate on the Patriot Missiles but I think it is safe to assume that it is nowhere close to even 150 per month (5 per day) let alone 200 a week.

Saturation Attacks so as to overwhelm a defense’s amount of ready to use ammo is already a stated potential attack option by the Chinese against our fleet assets in the Pacific. It looks like that has now become a tactic of the Russians wrt Ukraine’s air defense systems.

Be interesting to know if any Patriot Missiles were in those weapons storage areas that were blown up earlier in the week.

The Patriot system is designed to shoot down sitting ducks as they glide in on a constant trajectory.

The Kinzhal hypersonic missile approaches its target with evasive maneuvers at a speed of over Mach 10. The missile pushes a plasma-mach-wave in front of it making it invisible to radar detection. There is no missile defense system in the world (including high energy lasers) which can shoot these suckers down.

Based on the video above, scratch one Patriot battery at a cost of about $1 billion dollars.

MORE:

This is how you can tell the Ukies had a bad night….

From Ukraine Defense official Telegram account:

“ Kiev is being hit with “Kalibers”.

The head of the office of the President of Ukraine Ermak reports that the air defense is working and urges not to post videos from the sites of Russian missile strikes.

There are also reports from Kiev that the Internet, including mobile, does not work in some areas.”

Sounds like a punk Rock group…

Biden and the Deviants

Since Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, China has stopped dialogue with USA. But USA officials badly want to meet China. Finally on 2023/5/8 China Foreign Minister Qin Gang met US ambassador to Beijing N Burns, Qin repeated what China has told USA before. Will USA hear it this time?

China-U.S. stalemate shows signs of easing

China and the United States are engaging in more high-level talks. Wang Yi, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had candid, in-depth, substantive and constructive discussions on bilateral ties in Vienna, Austria, on May 10-11.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Sullivan held discussions on removing obstacles in the Sino-American relationship and keeping bilateral ties from deteriorating.

Earlier, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing on May 8. It was the first time Burns had met China’s top diplomat since he took office in April 2022.

China-U.S. relations are of great significance not only to the two countries but to the world, Qin, who succeeded the posts previously held by Wang in March, told Burns. President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden reached an important consensus during their meeting in Bali, Indonesia, last November [ahead of the Group of 20 Summit there]. “However, a series of erroneous words and deeds from the American side since has undermined the hard-won positive momentum in the Sino-American relationship, disrupted the planned dialogue and cooperation agenda and chilled bilateral relations again,” he said.

The top priority is to stabilize China-U.S. relations, avoid a downward spiral and prevent misunderstandings between China and the U.S., according to Qin. He stressed this should be the basic consensus between the two countries, adding the U.S. should work with China to get the ties back on track.

Good timing

On May 8, Burns tweeted that he and Qin had “discussed challenges in the U.S.-China relationship and the necessity of stabilizing ties and expanding high-level communication.”

The meeting happened after Burns on May 2 had said “the U.S. is ready to talk” as he virtually joined an event organized by the Stimson Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C., according to NBC News.

“The U.S. relationship with China remains complicated and competitive, but Washington does not seek conflict with Beijing and believes more dialogue would be constructive,” the ambassador added.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on May 8 that the Qin-Burns meeting was a normal diplomatic arrangement as he answered a question about the timing and signals of this encounter.

“The meeting is a positive sign. I believe Burns had been waiting for this conversation and it finally happened, indicating the stalemate between China and the U.S. is beginning to dissolve,” Wu Xinbo, Dean of the Institute of International Studies and Director at the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told Beijing Review. “But it’s just a beginning.”

China halted cooperation with the U.S. on security, climate change and other areas as countermeasures following the visit to China’s Taiwan region by then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi last August, which constituted a serious violation of the one-China principle and infringed upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Despite China later resuming talks, the U.S. hyping up the “wandering balloon” incident led to new tensions. In late January, a Chinese balloon was spotted over North American airspace. The U.S. claimed it was a “spy balloon” and shot it down on February 4, collecting the debris, while China reiterated it was a meteorological balloon and the unintentional entry into American airspace was due to force majeure. The worsening situation resulted in the U.S. postponement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China scheduled for early February.

“Qin’s meeting with Burns shows that the level of diplomatic contact has been raised; it also implies that a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries may be on the agenda,” Lu Xiang, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Chinese newspaper Global Times on May 8.

In recent weeks, senior U.S. officials have hinted at a re-engagement with China, calling for healthy and constructive relations. Blinken told The Washington Post on May 3 that it’s important to re-establish regular lines of communication at all levels and across the government. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said the same day that China had invited him to visit the country in the near term for talks on averting a global climate change crisis, Reuters News Agency reported.

Burns has undertaken recent travels to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, Shanghai and Tianjin to engage in direct dialogue with individuals from a range of sectors, including government officials and representatives from esteemed universities.

Action speaks louder

In his meeting with Burns, Qin further stated “the U.S. should not talk about communication while continuously trying to suppress and contain China.”

He emphasized the U.S. must respect China’s red lines and stop damaging China’s sovereignty, security and development interests. In particular, the U.S. must “correctly handle the Taiwan question, stop hollowing out the one-China principle and stop supporting and conniving at ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”

“Qin’s message was clear: China is open to engaging in dialogue to resolve differences, but any dialogue must have a clear purpose and not merely be for the sake of talking. Dialogue cannot be used to justify actions that harm China’s interests and the U.S. must demonstrate its commitment to improving bilateral relations through tangible actions,” Lu said.

The U.S. officially rejects “Taiwan independence” but at the same time sends military contractors to the region; this is inconsistent, according to the research fellow.

A delegation of U.S. defense contractors attended a “defense industry forum” in Taipei on May 3. Head of the delegation, retired Lieutenant General Steven Rudder, who once oversaw U.S. Marine Corps operations in the Pacific, said in his speech that U.S. defense contractors “want to be part of the self-defense capabilities of Taiwan.”

Two days later Reuters reported the Biden administration planned to send $500 million worth of “weapons aid” to Taiwan using the same emergency authority that has been used more than 35 times for Ukraine.

Wu pointed out although the Biden administration has exhibited a willingness to talk and work with China, its strategy inherited from former President Donald Trump still considers China a major competitor instead of both a rival and partner. “That’s the root cause of the worsening China-U.S. relations,” he explained.

“To ameliorate bilateral relations, the U.S. must change how it perceives China on a handful of issues, including the Taiwan question and technological blockade,” Wu said. “America’s current China policy, which claims rivalry, competition and cooperation coexist, is self-confrontational because there’s no clear line between the three. You cannot request cooperation when you contain China in the name of competition, and you cannot avoid conflict when you cross China’s red lines. That’s wishful thinking on the part of the U.S.”

University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Joseph Nye also raised his concerns over the conditions of China-U.S. relations. “I’m afraid that, as I said, it’s a cooperative rivalry, but there’s too much emphasis on the rivalry and not enough on the cooperation,” he said at a book launch hosted by the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing on April 28.

He believes no country could pose an existential threat to the other unless the two blunder into a protracted conflict, similar to the situation in Europe in 1914 when great powers thought they could have a short, sharp war but ended up with a four-year war that killed over 10 million people and destroyed four empires.

“To get this [Sino-American] cooperation going, we’ll have more meetings like the one Xi and Biden had in Bali, but it’s going to have to become a more regular thing, not just the occasional event,” he added.

America is in need of Mental health, 40 yr old man identifies as this.

On March 28, Vinnink, President of ASML, visited China in a low-key trip. Not long after ASML officially restricted the sale of lithography machines below 14 nanometers to China, Wennink’s visit to China may be a curiosity about the Chinese market, or an investigation of the current state of China’s technology.

But it can all be summed up in one sentence. The reason for visiting China is that ASML and Wennink still have nostalgia for the Chinese market. According to reports, after meeting with Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce of China, the two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on ASML’s development in China.

However, the words that Wen Ningke said in person afterward caused chills in many Chinese people. In Wennink’s view, if China develops its own lithography machine, it will destroy the global chip industry chain.

This sentence is funny, as if China develops its own technology, it has already stood on the opposite side of the world.

Wennink’s visit to China

ASML, which was born in the Netherlands, is the world’s largest lithography machine manufacturer and the only company in the world that can produce EUV lithography machines. The title of “King of Chips” is not intrusive on them. With a share of more than 60% in the global lithography machine market, ASML is worthy of this title, not to mention the market share of EUV technology. It has exceeded 95%.

Originally, ASML’s technology and the Chinese market formed a win-win relationship of mutual nourishment. However, due to the suppression of China’s technology by the United States, ASML was forced to agree to the decision of the United States and banned the sale of many products exported to China. . It also includes the most advanced deposition equipment and immersion photolithography system in the world.

With ASML’s ban on sales to China, the company’s order market has shrunk rapidly. After all, China is ASML’s third largest market in the world by sales, with sales of nearly 2.7 billion euros, no matter who it is, it is hard for anyone to give up. So Wen Ningke finally started his trip to China after all kinds of entanglements.

After the talks between Wenninger and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, both sides received the confidence of the other party in Sino-Dutch economic and trade. Wang Wentao also said that he would maintain the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain and supply chain. For those goods affected by export controls, ASML said that it will take some time for these controls to be legislated and take effect.

In addition, from 2019 to now, ASML has strong confidence in Sino-Dutch trade. We have reason to believe that the arrival of Wennink is a performance of ASML’s gratitude. After all, the huge Chinese market has allowed one-third of ASML’s revenue to be shouldered in the past two years.

Since it is seeking peace, why provoke?

But when Wen Nink was interviewed, he said that if China wants to develop its own lithography machine, it is a “destructive behavior” that will cause impact and chaos to the global chip industry chain. Among Chinese companies, the one that left an important impression on Wenningke is “Huawei”.

In Wennink’s view, Huawei’s strength is unquestionable, but if Huawei wants to make its own chips, it needs to have its own lithography machine. But in Wennink’s view, doing so will disrupt the balance of the global supply chain.

Some people think that this is Wennink trying to save his respect for his visit to China, while others think that this is an excuse for the United States to restrict the sale of lithography machines. However, the premise of these conjectures is that Wenningke has no intention of the Chinese market.

This obviously does not match the purpose of his visit to China. So the most likely thing is Wennink’s fear of the rapid development of Chinese technology.

ASML originally planned to increase the production capacity of EUV lithography machines to 90 units and DUV lithography machines to 600 units in the next three years. In the case of ever-increasing production capacity, China’s stable and huge but limited market has become the largest digester of ASML’s output.

But once China’s technology matures and it has the ability to make its own lithography machines, “Made in China” will be a terrifying existence in the world.

Chinese technology development

On the other hand, Wennink’s timidity and fear are not unfounded worries. After all, since the second half of 2022, China has been continuously “applying eye drops” to ASML. For example, last year, Chinese companies expected to bid for 27 lithography machines, and Japanese lithography machine companies contracted 21 sets of large orders, and the remaining 6 sets were taken over by domestic lithography machine companies.

Behind the failure of ASML is the maturing of Chinese technology.

Coupled with the mass-produced 28nm lithography machine in China, the problem of immersion technology has been solved, and the difficulty of subsequent technology development should be greatly reduced. Moreover, in recent years, China has attracted many technical talents from its own “Taiwan Province”, and has also injected fresh and powerful blood into the development of China’s lithography machine technology.

Whether it is a country or an enterprise, the premise of existence and communication is to put profits first. China’s current research and development is progressing smoothly. If China’s technology progresses, it will really be a kind of “destruction”. Then face the destruction, after all, if the old doesn’t go, the new won’t come. Starting with China’s continuous development, destroying and rebuilding always leads to a better future.

The American Dream Is Dead

Don’t Make Workers Eat the Kroger-Albertsons Merger

How mergers push wages down, and what to do about it.

Pat Garofalo

May 16, 2023

Back in October, Kroger and Albertsons, two of the biggest supermarket chain corporations in the U.S., announced they intend to merge. If allowed, the merger would bring a host of brands, including Safeway, Shaws, and Harris-Teeter, under the umbrella of one grocery behemoth. It would be the largest merger in retail grocer history, and so has rightfully drawn antitrust scrutiny from Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and several state attorneys general, as well as a private antitrust action on behalf of grocery buyers.

One of the concerns raised, of course, is that the merger will result in higher prices, as the new grocery giant monopolizes local markets, which has particular salience in a moment of higher than normal food inflation. But another concern is that the merger will specifically harm workers, as the newly-merged entity will have significant power over labor markets too, giving it the ability to push down wages, not just for those who work at Kroger or Albertson’s owned stores, but across the industry.

Justifying those concerns, a recently released study from the Economic Policy Institute shows that workers across the grocery sector would lose more than $330 million annually should the merger be allowed to proceed. Here are the specifics:

The merger will lower wages for 746,000 grocery store workers in over 50 metropolitan areas of the U.S. […]

The total annual earnings of grocery store workers will fall by $334 million in affected metropolitan areas;

Because Kroger and Albertsons employ about one quarter of all grocery store employees, most of the wage losses caused by the merger will be a negative externality that falls on grocery store workers employed by other firms. On average, all grocery workers in affected markets will lose about $450 per year in wage income;

This drop in wages is a result of labor market power (or monopsony or buyer power, if you want to get fancy). When there are fewer employers, those that remain have more leverage to keep wages low because workers can’t credibly threaten to leave for a competitor, or actually leave, in order to raise their pay or improve their working conditions.

And this power would clearly be exacerbated by a Kroger-Albertsons merger, since the two corporations have significant overlap in their store footprints. To be exact, about half of Albertsons 2,270 stores are within three miles of a Krogers store, which would give the merged entity a lot of incentive to shut stores down and consolidate both consumer and labor markets.

The overlap is magnified especially in some localities, since grocery buying is typically an intensely local activity. For instance, in Chicago, 55 Kroger stores and 102 Albertsons stores are within three miles of each other. A similar situation exists in a host of other cities, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Seattle.

It seems pretty clear, then, both anecdotally and quantitatively, that workers would get left picking up crumbs should the merger go through.

The analysis being done around how a Kroger-Albertsons merger would push down pay fits into a broader investigation of employer power and a search for affirmative solutions, including the Treasury Department report I’ve pointed to a few times, which found that “a careful review of credible academic studies places the decrease in wages at roughly 20 percent relative to the level in a fully competitive market.”

Other work has looked at the effects large corporations such as Amazon or Walmart have had on labor markets, and they consistently find wages going one direction: Down. And labor markets with higher levels of concentration see more wage cuts and labor law violations. It’s all bad news.

Antitrust would be the traditional remedy for this sort of corporate power, but in recent decades enforcers have largely let buyer-side antitrust cases fall completely by the wayside. The only recent notable case in the space was the successful effort to stop two large book publishers from merging, on the grounds that it would drive down compensation paid to authors.

Instead, enforcers have resorted to janky agreements in which the merging entities sell off some of their facilities to competitors, in theory fostering an overall more competitive environment, despite the merger. Kroger claims it is cooking up just such a deal now to appease enforcers. But there’s a history of such deals resulting in complete failure.

In fact, in 2015, Albertsons sold off 168 stores across eight western states to grease the skids for its acquisition of Safeway. But the buyer of the bulk of those stores couldn’t handle such a rapid expansion, and ended up filing for bankruptcy and selling off 100 of its stores, 33 of which were bought back by Albertsons at fire-sale prices. So a bunch of small towns and cities that were supposed to avoid winding up with a monopolized grocery market received exactly that.

Legislation was introduced this legislative session in several states, including New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, that would bolster the ability of state antitrust enforcers to bring cases on behalf of workers, explicitly, by inserting into law that protecting wages and working conditions is a clear-cut goal of antitrust law. A separate Minnesota bill that has already passed the state House also includes such language around hospital mergers, with explicit protections for health care workers, who are especially susceptible to monopoly power as large health care systems consolidate.

But that’s the legislative long game. In the short-term, enforcers should block the Kroger-Albertsons merger so workers don’t have to eat it on another consolidation play that helps no one but the folks in suits sitting in corners offices.

What’s the geopolitical significance of Central Asian countries? What’s the significance of the China+Central Asia Summit in May 2023?

Central Asia is located in the heart of the Eurasian continent and is a strategic channel connecting the East and the West. The five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan – are China’s western neighbors. Over 2,000 years ago, the ancient Silk Road passed through Central Asia, serving as an important trade route connecting China with neighboring countries and Europe. In modern times, China has established strategic partnerships with the five Central Asian countries and deepened cooperation and exchanges. The five Central Asian countries are not only important energy suppliers to China but also cooperate with China on security to combat extremist and separatist forces and maintain regional stability.

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This year (2023) marks the 31st anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the five Central Asian countries. Over the past 31 years, China’s relations with Central Asian countries have continuously improved and upgraded, achieving leapfrog development. The upcoming China-Central Asia Summit will open a new chapter in China-Central Asia relations.

Taking economic and trade cooperation as an example, in the 31 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries has increased by over 100 times. In 2022, the bilateral trade volume reached a historic high of 70.2 billion US dollars, with China’s imports of agricultural, energy, and mineral products from Central Asian countries increasing by over 50% year-on-year, and its exports of electromechanical products to Central Asian countries increasing by 42% year-on-year. From January to March this year, the trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries increased by 22% year-on-year. China will work with the economic and trade departments of Central Asian countries to consolidate and develop the good momentum of trade and investment, and promote the further development of China-Central Asia economic and trade cooperation with the China-Central Asia Summit as an opportunity.

2023 also marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. With the joint efforts of China and the leaders of the five Central Asian countries, the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia is promising. In the future, China-Central Asia Belt and Road cooperation can be expanded to new areas such as digital economy, artificial intelligence, green energy, and poverty reduction.

China Cancels 129.1B Chip Orders, Deals $1.5T Blow to US Chip Giants, SMIC Emerges Victorious.

According to customs data, in the first quarter of 2023, the domestic import of chips was 108.2 billion, a decrease of 32.1 billion from the previous year.

Coupled with the cumulative reduction of 97 billion in 2022, the total is 129.1 billion.

Some foreign media have pointed out: “SMIC is the big winner!”

Since the second quarter of 2021, China has begun to reduce the import of chips.

In the first quarter of 2022, the import of chips decreased by 21%.

This trend directly affected the chip industry in the United States and TSMC. After losing the Chinese market, US companies face huge economic losses and can only maintain normal operations through layoffs.

China is one of the largest chip procurement countries in the world, consuming over 70% of global chip shares.

Reducing chip imports affects the production and exports of US chip manufacturers, leading to a significant compression of the US chip manufacturers’ market share and profit.

For TSMC, although the reduction in Chinese imports will not directly affect its business, if the chip purchases of other countries also decrease, it will lead to a reduction in the global chip market supply, which will in turn affect TSMC’s customer demand and revenue.

If the United States continues to take export control measures against China, TSMC’s days are also destined to be difficult.

https://youtu.be/4ARlrhxUhNE

As an American citizen, what is the best way for me to influence the response to a Chinese takeover of Taiwan? Although I care about the action, I don’t care enough about it to start WW3.

To be blunt, as an American citizen, IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

The thing between the mainland and Taiwan is an internal matter, and has nothing to do with anyone else.

It’s just different political views, THATS IT.

Originally it was between the CPC and the KMT, but now the DPP has emerged in Taiwan and they are the ones that want to split from the mainland, and of course the mainland is not going to let that happen.

Taiwan is a part of China and that’s the end of it.

Don’t worry, I cannot see the US being that stupid as to start a war, over an island that’s none of their business.

But then the US has done just that many times before, only this time their taking on a country that’s every bit as good as they are.

And there is no way they will get away scott-free this time.

THIS time they will see their own cities flattened as Hell.

Surely that must be enough deterrent.

US Empire of Debt Headed for Collapse

Pepe Escobar • May 15, 2023

Prof. Michael Hudson’s new book, The Collapse of Antiquity: Greece and Rome as Civilization’s Oligarchic Turning Point is a seminal event in this Year of Living Dangerously when, to paraphrase Gramsci, the old geopolitical and geoeconomic order is dying and the new one is being born at breakneck speed.

Prof. Hudson’s main thesis is absolutely devastating: he sets out to prove that economic/financial practices in Ancient Greece and Rome – the pillars of Western Civilization – set the stage for what is happening today right in front of our eyes: an empire reduced to a rentier economy, collapsing from within.

And that brings us to the common denominator in every single Western financial system: it’s all about debt, inevitably growing by compound interest.

Ay, there’s the rub: before Greece and Rome, we had nearly 3,000 years of civilizations across West Asia doing exactly the opposite.

These kingdoms all knew about the importance of canceling debts.

Otherwise their subjects would fall into bondage; lose their land to a bunch of foreclosing creditors; and these would usually try to overthrow the ruling power.

Aristotle succinctly framed it:

“Under democracy, creditors begin to make loans and the debtors can’t pay and the creditors get more and more money, and they end up turning a democracy into an oligarchy, and then the oligarchy makes itself hereditary, and you have an aristocracy.”

Prof. Hudson sharply explains what happens when creditors take over and “reduce all the rest of the economy to bondage”: it’s what’s called today “austerity” or “debt deflation”.

So “what’s happening in the banking crisis today is that debts grow faster than the economy can pay. And so when the interest rates finally began to be raised by the Federal Reserve, this caused a crisis for the banks.”

Prof. Hudson also proposes an expanded formulation:

“The emergence of financial and landholding oligarchies made debt peonage and bondage permanent, supported by a pro-creditor legal and social philosophy that distinguishes Western civilization from what went before. Today it would be called neoliberalism.”

Then he sets out to explain, in excruciating detail, how this state of affairs was solidified in Antiquity in the course of over 5 centuries. One can hear the contemporary echoes of “violent suppression of popular revolts” and “targeted assassination of leaders” seeking to cancel debts and “redistribute land to smallholders who have lost it to large landowners”.

The verdict is merciless:

“What impoverished the population of the Roman Empire” bequeathed a “creditor-based body of legal principles to the modern world”.

Predatory oligarchies and “Oriental Despotism”

Prof Hudson develops a devastating critique of the “social darwinist philosophy of economic determinism”: a “self-congratulatory perspective” has led to “today’s institutions of individualism and security of credit and property contracts (favoring creditor claims over debtors, and landlord rights over those of tenants) being traced back to classical antiquity as “positive evolutionary developments, moving civilization away from ‘Oriental Despotism’”.

All that is a myth.

Reality was a completely different story, with Rome’s extremely predatory oligarchies waging “five centuries of war to deprive populations of liberty, blocking popular opposition to harsh pro-creditor laws and the monopolization of the land into latifundia estates”.

So Rome in fact behaved very much like a “failed state”, with “generals, governors, tax collectors, moneylenders and carpet beggars” squeezing out silver and gold “in the form of military loot, tribute and usury from Asia Minor, Greece and Egypt.”

And yet this Roman wasteland approach has been lavishly depicted in the modern West as bringing a French-style mission civilisatrice to the barbarians – while carrying the proverbial white man’s burden.

Prof. Hudson shows how Greek and Roman economies actually “ended in austerity and collapsed after having privatized credit and land in the hands of rentier oligarchies”. Does that ring a – contemporary – bell?

Arguably the central nexus of his argument is here:

“Rome’s law of contracts established the fundamental principle of Western legal philosophy giving creditor claims priority over the property of debtors – euphemized today as ‘security of property rights’. 

Public expenditure on social welfare was minimized – what today’s political ideology calls leaving matters to ‘the market’. 

It was a market that kept citizens of Rome and its Empire dependent for basic needs on wealthy patrons and moneylenders – and for bread and circuses, on the public dole and on games paid for by political candidates, who often themselves borrowed from wealthy oligarchs to finance their campaigns.”

Any similarity with the current system led by the Hegemon is not mere coincidence. Hudson:

“These pro-rentier ideas, policies and principles are those that today’s Westernized world is following. That is what makes Roman history so relevant to today’s economies suffering similar economic and political strains.”

Prof. Hudson reminds us that Rome’s own historians – Livy, Sallust, Appian, Plutarch, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, among others – “emphasized the subjugation of citizens to debt bondage”.

Even the Delphic Oracle in Greece, as well as poets and philosophers, warned against creditor greed. Socrates and the Stoics warned that “wealth addiction and its money-love was the major threat to social harmony and hence to society.”

And that brings us to how this criticism was completely expunged from Western historiography. “Very few classicists”, Hudson notes, follow Rome’s own historians describing how these debt struggles and land grabs were “mainly responsible for the Republic’s Decline and Fall.”

Hudson also reminds us that the barbarians were always at the gate of the Empire: Rome, in fact, was “weakened from within”, by “century after century of oligarchic excess.”

So this is the lesson we should all draw from Greece and Rome: creditor oligarchies “seek to monopolize income and land in predatory ways and bring prosperity and growth to a halt.”

Plutarch was already into it:

“The greed of creditors brings neither enjoyment nor profit to them, and ruins those whom they wrong. They do not till the fields which they take from their debtors, nor do they live in their houses after evicting them.”

Beware of pleonexia

It would be impossible to fully examine so many precious as jade offerings constantly enriching the main narrative. Here are just a few nuggets (And there will be more: Prof. Hudson told me, “I’m working on the sequel now, picking up with the Crusades.”)

Prof. Hudson reminds us how money matters, debt and interest came to the Aegean and Mediterranean from West Asia, by traders from Syria and the Levant, around 8th century B.C. But “with no tradition of debt cancellation and land redistribution to restrain personal wealth seeking, Greek and Italian chieftains, warlords and what some classicists have called mafiosi [ by the way, Northern European scholars, not Italians) imposed absentee land ownership over dependent labor.”

This economic polarization kept constantly worsening. Solon did cancel debts in Athens in the late 6th century – but there was no land redistribution. Athens’ monetary reserves came mainly from silver mines – which built the navy that defeated the Persians at Salamis. Pericles may have boosted democracy, but the eventful defeat facing Sparta in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) opened the gates to a heavy debt-addicted oligarchy.

All of us who studied Plato and Aristotle in college may remember how they framed the whole problem in the context of pleonexia (“wealth addiction”) – which inevitably leads to predatory and “socially injurious” practices. In Plato’s Republic, Socrates proposes that only non-wealthy managers should be appointed to govern society – so they would not be hostages of hubris and greed.

The problem with Rome is that no written narratives survived. The standard stories were written only after the Republic had collapsed. The Second Punic War against Carthage (218-201 B.C.) is particularly intriguing, considering its contemporary Pentagon overtones: Prof. Hudson reminds us how military contractors engaged in large-scale fraud and fiercely blocked the Senate from prosecuting them.

Prof. Hudson shows how that “also became an occasion for endowing the wealthiest families with public land when the Rome state treated their ostensibly patriotic donations of jewelry and money to aid the war effort as retroactive public debts subject to repayment”.

After Rome defeated Carthage, the glitzy set wanted their money back. But the only asset left to the state was land in Campania, south of Rome. The wealthy families lobbied the Senate and gobbled up the whole lot.

With Caesar, that was the last chance for the working classes to get a fair deal. In the first half of the 1st century B.C. he did sponsor a bankruptcy law, writing down debts. But there was no widespread debt cancellation. Caesar being so moderate did not prevent the Senate oligarchs from whacking him, “fearing that he might use his popularity to ‘seek kingship’” and go for way more popular reforms.

After Octavian’s triumph and his designation by the Senate as Princeps and Augustus in 27 B.C., the Senate became just a ceremonial elite. Prof Hudson summarizes it in one sentence: “The Western Empire fell apart when there was no more land for the taking and no more monetary bullion to loot.” Once again, one should feel free to draw parallels with the current plight of the Hegemon.

Time to “uplift all labor”

In one of our immensely engaging email exchanges, Prof. Hudson remarked how he “immediately had a thought” on a parallel to 1848. I wrote in the Russian business paper Vedomosti: “After all, that turned out to be a limited bourgeois revolution. It was against the rentier landlord class and bankers – but was as yet a far cry from being pro-labor. The great revolutionary act of industrial capitalism was indeed to free economies from the feudal legacy of absentee landlordship and predatory banking — but it too fell back as the rentier classes made a comeback under finance capitalism.”

And that brings us to what he considers “the great test for today’s split”: “Whether it is merely for countries to free themselves from US/NATO control of their natural resources and infrastructure — which can be done by taxing natural-resource rent (thereby taxing away the capital flight by foreign investors who have privatized their natural resources). The great test will be whether countries in the new Global Majority will seek to uplift all labor, as China’s socialism is aiming to do.”

It’s no wonder “socialism with Chinese characteristics” spooks the Hegemon creditor oligarchy to the point they are even risking a Hot War. What’s certain is that the road to Sovereignty, across the Global South, will have to be revolutionary: “Independence from U.S. control is the Westphalian reforms of 1648 — the doctrine of non-interference in the affairs of other states. A rent tax is a key element of independence — the 1848 tax reforms. How soon will the modern 1917 take place?”

Let Plato and Aristotle weigh in: as soon as humanly possible.

Chip giant Qualcomm reported to secretly collect, transmit user data

Frightening. Pertains to 90% of all American / Western cell-phones.

CGTN

17-May-2023

Chip giant Qualcomm reported to secretly collect, transmit user data

Such personal information was sent “without user consent, unencrypted, and even when using a Google-free Android distribution,” said the report.

Nitrokey tested with a Sony Xperia XA2 smartphone which was equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 chip and installed /e/OS, an open-source version of Android free of Google services.

No SIM-card was inserted in the phone, nor was the GPS location service turned on. The device can only access the internet through WiFi.

The company monitored the data with Wireshark, a network traffic software, and found that the data will be transmitted to izatcloud.net server, which attributes to Qualcomm.

It added that the data sharing with Qualcomm is not mentioned in the terms of service from Sony or Android or /e/OS, which violated the General Data Protection Regulation.

While a Sony smartphone was used, Nitrokey said “many more Android phones” with popular Qualcomm chips such as Fairphone are likely to be affected.

Qualcomm’s response

The chipmaker reacted in a statement sent to Nitrokey that the data sharing was in accordance with its XTRA Service Privacy Policy.

In its statement sent to cybernews.com, Qualcomm called the Nitrokey report “riddled with inaccuracies and appears to be motivated by the author’s desire to sell his product,” and noted that it only collects personal data permitted by applicable law.

Nitrokey said the chipmaker, however, didn’t mention IP addresses were being collected originally, but added IP addresses into its data collection list after the research was completed.

‘Not a backdoor’

The report triggered heated discussion after release.

A Reddit post said that Nitrokey proves a backdoor by Qualcomm chips, which the security firm denied, saying it did not discover a backdoor, and “this is not a backdoor.”

It cited a source familiar with Qualcomm technology saying that all chipmakers “are going to have all kinds of different fetches that they’re going to make [over the network].”

He added the feature “happens in practically all devices that have both GPS and internet,” and also called the Nitrokey article a marketing piece for selling their own phones.

Reaching the evaporation threshold

Let’s look at the check-list…

Discord (check)
Unrest (check)
Overspending / debt (check)
War (check)
Foreign policy failures (check)
Climax (check)
Evaporation period…

…Up we are reaching the “evaporation period’; a time when the big bubbles pop, the long ride comes to an end, the champagne bottles are empty, the buzz wears off, and the long headache begins.

Except there’s no aspirin for this kind of hangover.

This is the moment when you wake up in the hospital, and are told that your loved ones in the car accident are all dead. This is the BIG ONE. The life-changing event.

We are almost there.

It’s the “evaporation threshold”. It’s a time of crash. It’s the “big ending”.

It’s the quiet cleanup after the big party.

It’s soon really soon.

16 Candles after the party scene

The Western “leadership” is still living their fantasies, and the anti-China forces, and the forces of control are all bought and paid for and will continue to operate until the funds dry up.

But it’s getting close to an “evaporation threshold“.

It’s soon.

It will be spectacular, and FINALLY, the USA will be forced to make some changes to policy. Both international and domestic. Well, long, overdue. I’m looking forward to it.

When it will happen is unknown, but it will be soon.

This will begin a two to three year long period of difficulty (domestically) within the United States. 2023/4 through 2026/7.

It will characterize the President (of the next term).

I anticipate calls for war NOW!, but an inability to engage.
I anticipate crazed and disorganized fiasco domestically.
I anticipate all sorts of discord and troubles, but yet…

…I anticipate that the Untied States will still stay cohesive. Uncomfortably cohesive, but still together.

Businesses will operate, but will be sized down. Banks will operate, but will limit access, and all the rest.

My guess is in the next year, leading up to the next Presidential election, but after the crash will be a massive slump and collapse.

You have one year to prep.

Start now.

All is to schedule.

All is proceeding to plan.

I think that you all will be able to avoid the big hurts, if you are prudent and take the appropriate actions. Control your thoughts. Prepare, and be social. You will be fine.

Spring FREEZE Hits Northeast; Crops Being Killed

Nation Hal Turner 18 May 2023

As of 6:02 AM eastern US time today, 18 May 2023, I awoke to the temperature outside reading twenty-eight degrees (28°) — a Spring Freeze! This will KILL crops in much of the northeastern USA.

I spoke about this during my radio show last night, telling my audience the National Weather Service has issued a FREEZE WARNING for my area here in northeast Pennsylvania, as follows:

Sent:

11:41 EDT on 05-17-2023

Effective:

23:00 EDT on 05-17-2023

Expires:

09:00 EDT on 05-18-2023

Event:

Freeze Warning

Alert:

…FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 11 PM THIS EVENING TO 9 AM EDT

THURSDAY…

* WHAT…Sub-freezing temperatures of 24 to 28 in rural areas, and

28-32 in urban locations expected.

* WHERE…Portions of central New York and northeast

Pennsylvania.

* WHEN…From 11 PM this evening to 9 AM EDT Thursday.

* IMPACTS…Frost and freeze conditions will kill crops, other

sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor

plumbing.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS…The coldest temperatures will be in rural

valley locations.

Instructions:

Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. To prevent freezing and possible bursting of outdoor water pipes they should be wrapped, drained, or allowed to drip slowly. Those that have in-ground sprinkler systems should drain them and cover above- ground pipes to protect them from freezing.

Target Area:

Bradford
Lackawanna
Luzerne
Northern Wayne
Pike
Southern Wayne
Susquehanna
Wyoming

Forecast Office:

NWS Binghamton (South Central New York and Northeastern Pennsylvania)

Unbelievable: John Fetterman’s Incoherent Rant Raises Questions About His Fitness for Office

PA Senator.

China launches world’s first trial commercial 5G inter-network roaming

China on Wednesday announced the launch of the world’s first commercial 5G inter-network roaming service trial at the conference of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) 2023.

The WTISD is celebrated every year on May 17. The conference this year was held in Hefei, capital city of east China’s Anhui Province, with the theme of “empowering the least developed countries through information and communication technologies.”

The first commercial 5G inter-network roaming will be put into trial use in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, allowing users to access 5G services of other operators when outside the range of their operators’ 5G network.

In areas where 5G roaming services are provided, users can use terminals that support 5G roaming without changing their SIM card or phone number, and directly use the 5G roaming service without paying additional fees.

Promotes large-scale 5G application, plans for 6G

In the future, China will promote the large-scale application of 5G and the industrial internet, and plan for future industries such as 6G, quantum information and brain-like intelligence, said Zhang Yunming, vice minister of industry and information technology during the conference.

The innovative application of 5G and the industrial internet has unique advantages in improving the efficiency of resource allocation and facilitating economic circulation at home and abroad, according to Zhang.

The next generation of information and communication technologies has become an important engine for the country’s high-quality development, said Zhang.

“We will deepen the integration of 5G and the industrial internet to support the development of high-end, intelligent and green manufacturing industry,” he added.

Mexican, While Being Arrested for Catalytic Converter Theft, Tells Cops “The Russians and Chinese are coming for you soon”

Nation Hal Turner 18 May 2023

Lynnwood, Washington Police officers were called to a suspicious circumstance. An officer arrives and initiates contact with a man under a truck, apparently STEALING a catalytic Converter. Then things get VERY interesting . . .

The officer immediately orders the man out from under truck. The individual claims it’s his friends truck and it going to get towed.

The officer asks for identification but the man tells officer he doesn’t have it.

The individual admits to officer he was taking out the catalytic converter.

At that point he walks away from the officer towards his vehicle. The man disobeyed officers commands to stop and forces officer to go hands on.

The man resists arrest as other officers respond to assist taking him into custody.

WHILE BEING ARRESTED, THE MAN TELLS COPS “THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING FOR YOUR SOON” AND THEN SAYS, “AMERICA IS A BITCH” and repeats “THE RUSSIANS AND CHINESE ARE COMING FOR YOU SOON.”

The individual is patted down for weapons and at that point the begins to resist again.

The officers walk him to another patrol car where he is seated in the vehicle.

Officers then begin to conduct an investigation. Officers walk around the vehicle and discuss the crime.

During the course of the investigation, officers determine the man has been stripping the truck. The officers finish up their investigation and transport the man to jail.

Here’s the Police Body Cam footage of the arrest from start to finish. Listen for yourselves once police intercept the guy:

HAL TURNER OBSERVATION

For many years, those who keep abreast of the illegal aliens crossing into the US have observed that most of the males are of military age, and very fit. Those observers have wondered aloud if these invaders are __actually__ foreign military, being sent into the US to be pre-positioned to harm us from within once hostilities begin.

This video seems to (quite accidentally) confirm that! A guy is being arrested for stealing catalytic converters. Why would he tell cops “The Russians are coming for you soon” unless he knows something that the rest of us do not?

I mean, who in their right mind would even bring something like that up while being arrested?

Oh, and the other thing he said “America is a Bitch” — THAT tells you that these PRESUMABLY (but not certain) Illegal aliens aren’t coming here for freedom or for love of America. Nope! They clearly seem (to me) to have some other agenda.

It now seems quite possible to me that these men are being sent from foreign military to be pre-positioned to harm us from within.

And the Americans respond in the comment section…

BOMBSHELL! Zelensky’s Pro-Russian Speech Uncovered!

China growth story

Companies covered in this issue include: Huawei, OPPO, Lenovo, Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, Li Auto, BYD, ByteDance

Amber Zhang

A key question for China’s growth story for the next decade will be how well China’s tech sector, especially the so-called “hard tech” (as opposed to consumer internet), can develop into a globally advanced level. However, a considerable amount of high-quality content in China resides in the Chinese-language world and is neither reported by mainstream Western media nor easily searchable. China Tech News Digest is a curated series that provides the most important trends and updates on China’s public companies and industry leaders.

We monitor and scan information in these less accessible domains under-reported by mainstream media, but are still worth your attention. This includes millions of articles published by professionals, independent journalists, industry experts, and analysts on platforms such as WeChat official accounts.

Semiconductors

Huawei: Huawei has applied for a semiconductor packaging invention patent that provides an alternative molding solution, aiming to reduce costs and improve the efficient and reliable manufacturing of semiconductor packaging. This move is part of Huawei’s efforts to innovate in semiconductor packaging and mitigate the impact of US chip sanctions. [source]

On May 12, Chinese consumer electronics and mobile maker OPPO abruptly shut down its chip development subsidiary, ZEKU, resulting in over 3,000 employees losing their jobs. The closure came as a surprise to employees, with no prior warning or indication. The sudden decision has raised speculation about the reasons behind it.

“Yesterday we were still rushing to meet the deadline, and today the company is closed,” said Chen Jia, who works in the ZEKU mixed-signal department.

ZEKU, established in 2019, is a chip-focused subsidiary of OPPO with seven research and development centers worldwide. It has grown to a scale of around 3,000 employees, with many of the employees coming from Huawei HiSilicon, Unigroup Guoxin (002049.SH), and some semiconductor companies in Taiwan. About 80% of the employees hold master’s or doctoral degrees from well-known universities, and 40% of the engineers have more than 10 years of experience. As ZEKU was laying off employees, Huawei held an emergency job fair to quickly recruit people.

Zeku CEO Jun Liu: “The global economy and the mobile phone industry are extremely pessimistic now, and the company’s entire revenue is far below expectations, so in this situation, such a huge investment in chips will be something the company cannot afford, so I have to make an announcement here with regret: After careful discussion, the company has decided to close Zeku and terminate its self-developed chip business.”

A Minus And Plus For The Debt Ceiling Crisis

The debt ceiling discussions in Washington may well be help President Biden’s secret domestic agenda but it is hampering on of his foreign policy aims.

The New York Times economy columnist Paul Krugman is aghast that the Biden administration had not prepared for the obvious showdown with the Republicans:

As soon as Republicans took control of the House last November, it was obvious that they would try to take the economy hostage by refusing to raise the federal debt limit. After all, that’s what they did in 2011 — and hard as it may be to believe, the Tea Party Republicans were sober and sane compared to the MAGA crew. So it was also obvious that the Biden administration needed a strategy to head off the looming crisis. More and more, however, it looks as if there never was a strategy beyond wishful thinking.
…
[R]ight now I have a sick feeling about all of this. What were they thinking? How can they have been caught so off-guard by something that everyone who’s paying attention saw coming?

The fight over the debt ceiling is arbitrary but a chance for Republicans to threaten some damage. The fear is then used to push for domestic policy concessions:

For those somehow new to this, the United States has a weird and dysfunctional system in which Congress enacts legislation that determines federal spending and revenue, but then, if this legislation leads to a budget deficit, must vote a second time to authorize borrowing to cover the deficit. If even one house of Congress refuses to raise the debt limit, the U.S. government will go into default, with possibly catastrophic financial and economic effects.

I do not for one moment believe that Biden is unhappy about that.

In the 1990s and early 2000s Biden supported bankruptcy reform that made it more difficult, especially for the poor, to get rid of debt:

[Biden] had pushed for two earlier bankruptcy reform bills in 2000 and 2001, both of which failed. But in 2005, BAPCPA made it through, successfully erecting all kinds of roadblocks for Americans struggling with debt, and doing so just before the financial crisis of 2008. Since BAPCPA passed, Chapter 13 filings went from representing just 24 percent of all bankruptcy filings per year to 39 percent in 2017.

Before that Biden had called for cuts to Social Security:

In 1984 he proposed freezing Social Security benefits — that is, ending cost-of-living adjustments that boost benefits to keep up with inflation. In January 1995 he gave a speech endorsing a balanced budget amendment (an utterly lunatic policy) and boasted about his previous record of proposing “that we freeze every single solitary program in the government, anything the government had to do with, every single solitary one, that we not spend a penny more, not even accounting for inflation, than we spent the year before.” In November 1995 he did so again, boasting that “I tried with Senator Grassley back in the ’80s to freeze all government spending, including Social Security, including everything.”

The California Republican had vented to his colleagues just hours before the meeting that the current format of negotiations — with all four party leaders in a room with the president — wasn’t fruitful. Speaking to his conference on Tuesday morning, McCarthy said the five of them had achieved little in their first sitdown last week, arguing that Schumer had prevented Biden from fully engaging with the speaker and McConnell, according to two people familiar with his remarks. Whenever Biden did seem to agree with Republicans, McCarthy said Schumer would try to cut him off.

The talks will now continue without the Senate leadership:

Leaders agreed to narrow a bicameral negotiation down to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden, hoping fewer players might be more productive in reaching a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling. Even then, it looks like a longshot to some Senate Democrats.

The current due date for a debt ceiling deal is Friday:

Reflecting the growing sense of urgency, the White House announced Tuesday that the president will cut short his trip to Asia and now plans return to Washington on Sunday in order to resume negotiations with Republicans as soon as possible.Biden will depart Wednesday for a trip to Japan but will no longer make stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia before returning stateside.

For Biden’s foreign policy agenda the canceling of those dates is bad. It makes the leadership of the PNG look stupid:

PNG News & Info @PngPles – 2:08 UTC · May 17, 2023PNG declares Monday as Public Holiday in Port Moresby as US President Joe Biden makes historical visit
Link

The canceling of the visit may well be the end of the planned port agreement as the opposition in PNG will now have chance to look into the dubious and secretive deal:

The Opposition Leader, however, said the cancellation of the trip would give the opportunity for the Prime Minister to tell this country what this Defense Cooperation Treaty is all about.Mr. Lelang said information on the contents of the Defense Cooperation Treaty with the United States was sketchy, therefore, created a lot of confusion and uneasiness around the country as to what this means for us. The Opposition is calling on the Prime Minister to come out and tell the nation the details of the Defense Cooperation Treaty.

The Opposition Leader reminded the Government that we have a foreign policy of “Friends to All and Enemies to None” and PNG need to stand firm on this foreign policy position.

Mr. Lelang said we should not be blinded by the dollar sign or be coerced into signing deals that may be detrimental to us in the long run.
…
Meanwhile, Former Prime Minister and Ialibu Pangia MP Peter O’Neil also expressed concern that the only people who seems to know about this security pact is the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, the PM and Minister for Defense.
…
I am told there will be Security Agreement to be signed between US and PNG, however, that particular agreement was never made public, never debated on the floor of Parliament, never been approved by Parliament so we are all going blind and some of the reports we are getting are concerning”
…
From the information we gathered, the Agreement is that the pact was largely drafted by the US Government. Only a few of our own PNG Government officials and the then Minister for Foreign Affairs have seen this document and as a result has been put forward to the Prime Minister and officials to sign the agreement on the day of the visit of the US President,” Mr O’Neil said.

But in total that would still be a win.

Posted by b on May 17, 2023 at 16:12 UTC | Permalink

What A 9 IQ Criminal Looks Like

Today’s JCS Inspired true crime documentary will cover the interrogation of John Elliott, Who started this interrogation by giggling about what a rough night he’s having.

Is it true that the more powerful China gets, the more dangerous it will be for Chinese diaspora living in the West? If so, is it in the interests of the diaspora for China to rise to the top?

Chinese disapora living in the West are currently being scapegoated for the failures of the West. Chinese students and researchers are currently seen as spies, seen as guilty of technology theft and Chinese businesses helping the community are seen as “secret police stations”. This is the picture that Western politicians have been happy to paint. What worse was during the pandemic, Chinese were the first to be seen as the source of the coronavirus despite evidence in Red Cross blood donation indicating the earlier presence of the virus in US.

Today, every technology advancement in China is not credited to the brilliance of Chinese scientists but perceived as “technology theft” despite the high number of STEM graduates every year and the high number of patents filed every year. So ultimately, China rising to the top may not make the lives of Chinese diaspora safer but in fact force them to relocate to a more welcoming place.

Remember the murder of Vincent Chin? He wasn’t even Japanese to start with. The rise of Japan didn’t make it safer for Japanese or Asians. It made lives more difficult.

Currently, there’s an exodus of Chinese scientists in the West since the FBI carried out unwarranted investigations against researchers of Chinese descents. It’s not that they are guilty, but having their home raided with guns pointed at their family members for being Chinese researchers just made them ask this question. “Is America still a place where Asians can enjoy higher degree of freedom?”

Saying all that, the rise of China and Asia are inevitable. Hate crimes and discriminations against Chinese and Asians are only going to worsen in the West. China will not bow down to the pressure from the West, there will not be a Plaza Accord. So be prepared, be safe and pray that one day those politicians may see cooperation as more rewarding than confrontation.

6G Development

Chinese scientists have developed an electromagnetic shielding material that can be used for 6G base stations and electronic devices

China is on track to introduce early 6G mobile applications by 2025 and roll out commercial services by 2030 [source]. The main difference between 6G and 5G lies in the communication frequency bands: while 5G mainly operates in the gigahertz (GHz) range, 6G will expand into the terahertz (THz) range. Challenges in 6G development include the need for electromagnetic shielding materials that can cover a wide frequency range, from gigahertz to terahertz, and withstand demanding usage environments, such as extreme temperatures, salt spray, and bending.

To address this challenge, researchers at Nankai University in China have developed a new type of electromagnetic functional material using MXene, a two-dimensional material, and polymers. The resulting composite film offers high-frequency compatibility and shielding performance, mechanical strength, and stability in harsh environments. The material is expected to be used for 6G base stations and electronic devices.

Why we think it’s important:

Countries around the world are actively developing 6G technology. It is expected to be officially put into commercial applications around 2030 according to market predictions.

In October 2020, the United States established the “US 6G Alliance” with companies such as Apple, Samsung, and Nokia to promote research and deployment in the field of 6G.
Research teams, including one from Nagoya University in Japan, have studied and experimented with urban 6G communication networks.
China has included the development of 6G network technology in its “14th Five-Year Plan” and “2035 Long-Term Vision Outline.” It has also established a national 6G technology research and development working group.
In 2021, Huawei conducted the world’s first trial operation of a 6G network.

Kidnapped for 18 days: How police found 4-year-old Cleo | 60 Minutes Australia

Merit-driven detective activity. This is what happens.

Artificial Intelligence

Lenovo (992:HK): Lenovo’s infrastructure Solution Group (ISP) revenue grew 48% YoY

The demand for computational power in the field of artificial intelligence, driven by the rise of deep learning and AI applications like ChatGPT, has led to increased revenue for Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG). In the third quarter of the 2022/23 fiscal year, ISG achieved a record revenue of 20.3 billion RMB, a 48% YoY increase.

Kirk Skaugen, Executive Vice President of Lenovo and President of the Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), said, “The reason for the high-speed growth is first of all the obvious increase in market demand, and secondly, more and more customers are beginning to realize that Lenovo is not only a PC company, but also a service and solution provider.”

In recent years, the number of supercomputers manufactured by Lenovo has been steadily increasing. As of 2022, more than one-third of the TOP 500 high-performance computer (HPC) systems are provided by Lenovo Group.

In June 2022, Lenovo Group’s Hungarian factory was fully operational. Currently, 90% of Lenovo Group’s data center products in the EMEA region and approximately 50% of Think desktop and workstation products in the region are produced at this factory.

How This 31 Year Old Woman Scammed JP Morgan

Looks harmless. Eh?

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU): Baidu’s Fintech arm, Du Xiaoman, won the highest honor in China’s AI field

Du Xiaoman’s Intelligent Credit Interpretation Middle Platform applies large-scale language models and graph algorithms to interpret credit reports, which can extract 400,000 dimensions of risk variables and improve the precision of bank risk control models by 26%. The project was awarded the Wu Wenjun AI Science and Technology Award, the highest honor in China’s AI field. Previously, Du Xiaoman’s intelligent voice robots, intelligent risk control, and other projects were selected as the first batch of Fintech application pilots by the People’s Bank of China.

The Mistake That Got So Many CIA Agents Killed in China

Actually, pretty good. Learn something.

Autonomous driving solutions for mining

The Chinese government has also set a clear policy goal for the implementation of autonomous mining by 2025. Several Chinese autonomous driving companies are actively involved in testing and operating in mining areas, with significant investments being made in the sector.

Carver Zhao, an industry expert, stated that “autonomous driving in mining areas has not met full expectations, but mining companies are willing to cooperate for their safety, efficiency, and cost reduction needs” … "Market penetration in the near future should still be mainly focused on large state-owned mines.”

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 4)

PandaLM: Reproducible and Automated Language Model Assessment

The PandaLM project, developed by researchers from Beijing University and Westlake University, introduces a new paradigm for evaluating large models. PandaLM aims to provide automated and reproducible testing of large models’ capabilities, with a focus on protecting privacy, reliability, and cost-efficiency. It offers a simple interface and can be run on consumer-grade hardware, making it suitable for academic research and organizations dealing with sensitive data. (PandaLM is an open-source project available on GitHub)

The research team constructed a diverse human-labeled test set of approximately 1,000. On the test dataset, PandaLM-7B achieved an accuracy level of 94% that of ChatGPT (gpt-3.5-turbo).

China has the advantage of large market demand, with downstream applications in various industries. Additionally, local companies generally develop and manufacture products in a much faster development cycle. Although there are currently no local AI-driven products comparable to those developed overseas, companies are actively exploring this field. The terminal consumer demand will largely drive the outlook of the semiconductor industry.

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 5)

Automobile

Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI): Li Auto has established a new chip company

Li Auto has established a new chip company, Jiangsu Changxiang Power Technology, with registered capital of RMB 200 million.

Automakers in China, including Xpeng, NIO, Geely, and BYD, are investing in chip design and manufacturing. Li Auto focuses on silicon carbide (SiC), while Xpeng and NIO are more focused on self-driving chips. Traditional automakers such as Geely and BYD are also developing self-driving chips and power semiconductor devices.

*SiC chips are used in automotive applications due to their higher voltage and temperature handling capabilities compared to traditional silicon chips, resulting in improved energy efficiency and reduced power losses

Due to the extremely complicated process requirements of SiC, the global SiC market is mainly monopolized by international giants such as STMicroelectronics, Rohm, and ON Semiconductor. Despite the alleviation of the chip shortage, silicon carbide is still in relatively short supply. The successful production of SiC would be a major step forward for domestically produced SiC chips.

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 6)

BYD (1211. HK, 002594. SZ): “Autonomous driving is all nonsense, it’s all bullshit!” – said Mr. Wang Chuan Fu, Chairman and President of BYD

The following statements are from Wang Chuan Fu, extracted and translated from BYD’s 2022 financial report earnings call:

“If you can’t even fix the problem of automating factory production lines, how can you do autonomous driving? Autonomous driving is much harder, tens of thousands of times harder!

“In Shenzhen, there were 24 deaths in one month due to car accidents, an average of 0.8 deaths per day, and BYD’s market share in Shenzhen is very high, so many of these may be BYD cars. But we haven’t received a single complaint phone call. Why? Because our steering and braking comply with regulations, and the accidents have nothing to do with us!”

“Autonomous driving is different. If you can’t make it clear, one car accident will make your car unsellable. Who dares to buy this car? Who will bear the responsibility? Neither the automaker, supplier nor the government is willing to take responsibility, and in the end, only the user will bear it.”

“Now the so-called “autonomous driving” is just being sugar-coated up by capital. I think that in the end, it will only be able to achieve “advanced assisted driving” at most.”

“The autonomous driving nonsense is all bullshit! How many years have they been fooling people? How many have succeeded?”

BYD’s PR Manager Li Yunfei mentioned that BYD is a leader in vehicle intelligence, including intelligent entry, intelligent cabin, and intelligent driving assistance. However, he acknowledged the challenges and limitations of fully autonomous driving, mentioning that the industry is not yet fully prepared.

BYD’s current offerings, including higher-end models like Han and Haibao, are equipped with mid-range automotive chips and only support Level 2 advanced driver assistance features. Their previously launched intelligent driving assistance system, DiPolot, has been criticized for its limited functionality.

Reactions:

Xiaopeng He (Xpeng CEO): “Autonomous driving is not a scam”; he emphasized the importance of advanced driver assistance and claimed that Xpeng’s XNGP represents the ultimate form of intelligent assistance.
Richard Yu (Huawei Consumer Business CEO): “Claiming that autonomous driving is bullshit has two reasons: either you don’t understand the industry or you are intentionally trying to say that. Those who say this are probably trying to undermine the industry. Leading the industry is not something that can be said casually, it can only be boasted about after achieving it.”

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 7)

Orange-Pineapple Chicken
(Pollo con Jugo de Naranja)

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (3 to 3 1/2 pound) broiler-fryer chicken, cut up
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup dark rum
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

Instructions

Mix flour, salt and pepper. Coat chicken with flour mixture.
Heat oil in 12-inch skillet until hot. Cook chicken over medium heat until brown on all sides, about 15 minutes.
Place chicken in ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking dish.
Mix remaining ingredients except almonds; pour over chicken.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F, spooning juices over chicken occasionally, until thickest pieces of chicken are done — 40 to 50 minutes.
Sprinkle with almonds.

Yield: 6 servings

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 16)

Privacy-Preserving Computation

China recognizes the importance of privacy-preserving computing and has issued guidelines to promote the development of the data security industry. It is projected that the privacy computing market in China will reach ten billion yuan by 2025. Currently, the financial industry is the largest application area of privacy-preserving computing.

Developments in Privacy-Preserving Computing by Chinese internet giants:

Tencent (OTCMKTS: TCEHY): Tencent’s Angel PowerFL is a secure federated learning platform that has been widely applied in finance, advertising, healthcare, government, and other industries. It has also been used for cross-institutional data collaboration, bank credit, insurance, government, and online education. Tencent’s privacy-preserving computing team has received accreditation both within China and internationally. The team has won the iDASH championship three years in a row from 2020 to 2022. (The iDASH competition, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health in the US, is the most authoritative international competition in the field of privacy computing.)

Alibaba (NYSE: BABA): Alibaba’s DAMO Academy released the FederatedScope federated learning framework in 2022. It is open source, supports large-scale and efficient asynchronous training, and is compatible with PyTorch and TensorFlow.

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU): Baidu has deployed privacy-preserving computing technology on multiple platforms, including Baidu Cloud, Baidu Security, and Baidu Super Chain. PaddleFL, a federated learning framework based on Baidu PaddlePaddle, can be used in computer vision, natural language processing, and recommendation algorithms.

ByteDance: ByteDance’s Fedlearner platform, which was launched in 2019, uses neural network vertical federated learning technology to improve advertising efficiency, and has expanded to the e-commerce, Internet finance, and education industries.

According to IDC’s estimates, China’s total data volume is expected to reach 48.6 ZB by 2025, accounting for 27.8% of the global total, and will contribute an average of 1.5 to 1.8 percentage points to the growth of domestic GDP. The development of the digital economy will bring new investment opportunities.

Buddy Hackett – penile implant / elephant’s trunk

Chinese Apps continue to gain global popularity, counterbalancing with those from US

This has raised a number of concerns as the Chinese government is entitled to request personal data held by domestic Chinese companies.

Thomas Sowell – The Origins of Woke

Tomas Sowell is great.

Sista Says We Will Never Be Respected In America, Africans Shouldn’t Run From The Continent

Person Who Ran Biden’s Psycho-Aggressive Agenda Against China Resigning – Will There be a Strategy Change?

Andrew Anglin • May 13, 2023

You may remember that it was not too terribly long ago that China was considered something of an ally to the United States. We are now ostensibly planning some kind of massive war against them.

How did that change happen?

Well, in 2015, Xi Jinping engaged in a series of government reforms which effectively made him Supreme Leader for life and dashed any hope the US still had that China would magically transform into a liberal democracy (this was the initial plan, going back to the 1970s).

Under the Trump Administration, you had Mike Pompeo, an obese psychopath and alleged cannibal, stirring up trouble with China. You’ll remember that the State Department was organizing massive riots inside of Hong Kong. The leaders of the riots were photographed meeting with US officials at the US embassy.

Screenshot 2023 05 13 at 6.56.33 AM 618x384 — Screenshot 2023 05 13 at 6.56.33 AM 618×384

These terrorist color revolution figures were at one point flown to Washington to meet with Nancy Pelosi.

However, it was not until Joe Biden took power that things started going really psycho.

Trump, for all his faults, was legitimately anti-war. Biden lined his State Department with unhinged Jewish lunatics who want war with the entire world. The man he chose as Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, was actually more known for his promotion of war with China than war with Russia.

But the Russia was was all ready to go, so Biden triggered that one first.

And he did trigger it – don’t let this “Putin is the one who invaded” nonsense fool you for a second. This was the equivalent of a guy getting an inch from your face saying he’s going to kill you and then you being called the aggressor for pushing him back.

Biden started talking about the Ukraine joining NATO, he shipped in all these new weapons, the Administration emboldened Zelensky to start talking about nukes on Russia’s border.

Where Trump had been engaged with Russia’s concerns about the humanitarian situation in the East of the Ukraine, Biden consistently rejected Putin’s attempts to negotiate a peace in the Donbass, instead encouraging neo-Nazi attacks on civilians.

While they started the war with Russia first, they also planned some kind of war with China, and started talking about Taiwan as “the next Ukraine.” The Biden Administration started sending all kinds of warships and warplanes through Chinese territory and aggressively questioning and threatening Chinese territorial claims.

They started going absolutely ape hyping up the Taiwan issue, which had not really been an issue before, with Biden personally suggesting repeatedly, in public, that Taiwan should start a war with China to gain “independence.”

No Western leader had ever said that before, by the way. It’s something you would only say if you were trying to start a war with China.

(For those who don’t understand: China liked the status quo with Taiwan as semi-autonomous. The situation was profitable for all parties, and they had no reason to question it. They certainly had no reason to invade Taiwan before these Biden neocons started saying Taiwan should start a war with China.)

They sent Rahm Emanuel to be the Ambassador to Japan, in order to plan a war footing there.

They started negotiations to build all these new bases in the Philippines, they sent Nancy Pelosi on this bizarre trip to Taiwan to try to humiliate the and provoke the Chinese (in the way they were humiliating and provoking Russia).

They then staged a totally bizarre hoax, accusing a weather balloon of being a “Chinese spy balloon,” and issued further threats.

Oh, and lest we forget – Biden with the media started ratcheting up brain-dead nonsense about “human rights abuses” of Islamic terrorists, while providing zero evidence.

Mainstream sources started published weird CIA disinformation straight from the pages of the Falun Gong (CIA-run cult) publication Epoch Times.

In multiple articles published since the Biden election, the Israeli English-language paper Haaretz published the cartoonish claim that China is murdering tens of thousands of people every year to harvest their organs.

Presumably, Haaretz wanted these stories picked up by Western media, but I think even WaPo type publications viewed the stories as too ridiculous for publication.

However, if they say it enough times, it will eventually become mainstream.

“Torture rape camps for innocent Islamic jihadists” was also at one point considered too goofy for publication, but under the Biden Administration, state-funded NPR publishes sicko fetishist type material about rape dungeons (all based on eye-witness accounts of supposed random, almost entirely anonymous people).

The whole thing has just been a whirlwind of aggression and provocation, without any real explanation. The media has simply not reported on the escalation of aggression, and how it is viewed by China and the rest of the world. If you are in say, Latin America, random people will ask you: “why is the US trying to start a war with China? Aren’t they worried this will cause problems?” But the American people are so dumbed down and dim-witted that they seem to believe that China is the aggressor here. But hey – the America people believe in child trannies. Most Americans are fat, stupid, amoral pigs that will believe anything.

Just as the Jewish hag Victoria Nuland runs the war against Russia at the Jewish Blinken State Department, the Jewish hag Wendy Sherman has been running the war against China. Interestingly, she is being replaced.

RT:

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is set to retire, the State Department said on Friday. The 73-year-old official was heavily involved in devising Washington’s current strategy toward China and the broader Asia-Pacific, where it seeks to challenge Beijing on several fronts.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed Sherman’s lengthy career as a diplomat in a statement announcing her resignation, saying she has “helped lead our engagement in the Indo-Pacific, the region where the history of the 21st century will be written.”

“She has deepened our bonds with our friends around the world, especially with the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the European Union. She has overseen our efforts to strengthen the [State] Department’s capabilities to manage our relationship with the People’s Republic of China, and built greater convergence with allies and partners,” he added.

…

As Blinken’s deputy, her focus has largely been set on China, often acting as an official spokesperson to explain the US strategy toward the People’s Republic.

In comments to lawmakers earlier this year, Sherman warned that China is “the only competitor with the intent and means to reshape the international order,” accusing Beijing of “provocations in the South China Sea,” human rights abuses, “economic coercion,” and “threatening behavior against Taiwan,” which China considers to be part of its sovereign territory.

It was ostensibly her idea to keep sailing warships back and forth through the Taiwan straits, and she had some role in planning the weird Pelosi trip.

I’m not hopeful that the aggressive stance towards China is going to change, despite the fact that some people from the State Department are showing signs of wanting to open diplomatic channels back up. It is notable that Jake Sullivan talked with some Chinese officials earlier this week, just before this woman resigned. So it is possible that they are trying to slow things down a bit as the Ukraine situation is getting overly complicated, and the idea of kicking off something more aggressive with China, while continuing the war with Russia – especially given the state of the US economy – must sound crazy to some people in Washington.

This debate can be followed in the think tanks, if you’ve got the patience, but it’s much easier to follow it on the opinion pages of the Washington Post and the New York Times. Just as an example, Jewish columnist Josh Rogin regularly argues that a two front war with Russia and China would be fun and easy.

It looked to me for a while like the Biden Regime was looking to scale down the Ukraine conflict in order to focus on escalating the conflict with China. However, the basic outline that China hawks have presented for a war with China, based on turning Taiwan into another Ukraine – that is, a spot for a proxy war – does not make any sense, for reasons I’ve outlined in some detail on this website.

There are cultural and geographical reasons, which are more or less self-explanatory, as to why Taiwan can’t be the new Ukraine. Obviously, whatever you want to say about the strength of the Chinese navy (which clearly does not compare with that of the US), China has the ability to rapidly surround and blockade Taiwan, so you would have to send in the US Navy to break the blockade by sinking Chinese ships in order to provoke some kind of urban warfare in Taipei.

The whole thing is just a tad bit ambitious.

However, with the entire world now turning on the US as a result of their instance on a brutal, endless war in the Ukraine, their ignoring of the disastrous economic consequences, and most importantly, their lunatic sanctions on Russia, the American Regime has left itself with very few options in terms of a strategy to maintain global hegemony.

So, the counterpoint to “we can’t possibly fight a two front war against Russia and China” is “we don’t have any choice.”

This is certainly the debate happening in Washington, where everyone agrees that the US should control the entire world, but disagrees as to how this system of control should be maintained.

For all of their talk of Nazi Hitler and grabbing ’em by the pussy, the real problem that the US regime has with Donald Trump is that he views a peaceful “multipolar” world based on trade, rather than violence, as good for the Untied States.

And while most of Trump’s promised policies failed to materialize during his term as president, he did manage to end the war in Syria and he did manage to prevent any new wars from starting.

As I always say when I discuss the potential behavior of this government: you can no longer use basic game theory when considering the next move of the US government, because it is no longer run by people capable of acting in rational self-interest. Y

ou can no longer look at the world and say “this is all part of their plan.” Clearly, something has gone terribly wrong. The people in Washington have lost control, the empire is on the decline, and the question now is how they will respond to this situation.

With Russia and China aligned, the Islamic world closing ranks around China, and even Latin America making it clear they prefer the Chinese trade-based model of global order to the violence-based model of the US, the idea of starting a major war with the entire world does not seem feasible.

Instead, the logical thing to do would be to accept that the post-USSR norms of US hegemony are gone, and a new balance needs to be sought, which allows the US to survive as a peer nation. The fear is that there are people in Washington – and

What Happened to the Middle Class Prosperity of the 1950s?

https://youtu.be/slqo0CKLllw

Which country is collapsing more, China or the US?

Oh, a fun question to answer, and I (being an American) living inside of China can answer this question.

First, some criteria.

Let’s establish a rating scale.

0 = Everything is functioning. And absolutely nothing is collapsing.
2 = Everything is functioning well. A looming problem or two are observed in the future, and the government is taking actions to prepare and diminish the impact of the looming problems.
3 = There are some problems, but the nation is well regarded, and functioning quite well. Inflation is causing problems, and some bad decisions made in the past are starting to cause discord.
5 = Some things are suffering from problems, some of which are indicative of eventual collapse. And other things are operating normally, and will continue to operate normally in the future. There is inflation, but it forms “bubbles” that come and go, and grow and wane.
7 = The nation has many problems. Key government functions are dysfunctional. Some items have collapsed and operate in zombie mode. Government budgets are bloated, and inflation is rampant.
9 = Many, many elements of the society has collapsed. Key functions of the government are failing at various levels. The government operates under a figurehead, but the entire operational premise of the government is missing. Elements of crime, organized criminal elements, and a break down of society are present. News media is covering up this fact and is run by the government. Internationally, the nation is considered dangerous.
10 = The nation is in full scale collapse.

Now, with that rating system well established, let’s now add another factor. This factor is national unity. A unified nation is one that is best able to “ride out the storm” and mitigate any problems that the nation might encounter.

National unity scales…

AAA = 100% unified. Over 95% approval rates by it’s people. A shared sense of identity.
AA = Mostly unified, with a shared national identity.
A = National pride, and a sense of purpose.
B = Significant problems, and a separation into groups of US vs. THEM.
C = Many groups all competing for power. Some of which are political, some are social, and some are geographical.
D = Many competing groups. Some are backed by the ruling government, while others are maligned by it.
F = Balkanized nation. Not only are people divided into groups, but the government favors some, and has created policies and laws supportive of that.
FF = The balkanized national groups are violent against each other. The national government is unsuccessful in preventing violence, and a certain section of the population is arming itself for protection as they no longer believe the government can protect them.
FFF = Open war and revolution.

Now with all that being said, let’s rate the United States.

The United States is a 9FF. Many, many elements of the society has collapsed. Key functions of the government are failing at various levels. The government operates under a figurehead, but the entire operational premise of the government is missing. Elements of crime, organized criminal elements, and a break down of society are present. News media is covering up this fact and is run by the government. Internationally, the nation is considered dangerous. The balkanized national groups are violent against each other. The national government is unsuccessful in preventing violence, and a certain section of the population is arming itself for protection as they no longer believe the government can protect them.

Now, let’s look at China.

China is a 2AAA. Everything is functioning well. A looming problem or two are observed in the future, and the government is taking actions to prepare and diminish the impact of the looming problems. The country is 100% unified. Over 95% approval rates by it’s people. A shared sense of identity.

Of course, if you haven’t set foot in the nations listed, you might have a different idea. In fact, the well-funded anti-china narrative might give you all a very strange and warped idea of what is going on with China. But remember, UNLESS YOU ARE PHYSICALLY THERE NOW, you haven’t any real idea of what is going on.

So You Can Buy a Fake Tongue To Lick Your Cat

Sometimes the idea of making something extremely weird outweighs the actual usefulness of the item. Take for instance this fake tongue that you hold in your mouth and use it by fake licking your cat with each stroke of fake tongue sticking out of your mouth.

More: Amazon h/t: sadanduseless

Not only does this most likely not work at all in regards to actually washing your cat, but also just makes you look like a complete idiot while using it, so it’s essentially a lose-lose situation.

You have to bite down to hold onto the fake tongue, that’s how it stays in your mouth. To use it simply approach your cat with a the fake tongue in your mouth and ease into a slow licking movement on their back or head while they’re sleeping or in an otherwise pleasant mood.

Since for cats it’s mutually beneficial to be licked, don’t be surprised if they start licking you back… while thinking that you have finally completely lost your mind.

Lauren Bacall – Who Was That Lady?

What is an “Only in Japan” moment?

I was traveling to Rishikesh from Delhi few months back and its my habit to arrive early at airport and eat the tasty food at the airport lounge and wait for the flight. I was comfortably sitting and was waiting for the time to pass, I noticed a middle aged women came right infront of my seat and was preparing to settle down. I saw a red passport and figured out she was a Japanese.

I was enthusiastic and wanted to start a conversation with her as I am learning Japanese. When she settled down, hesitantly I asked her “Sumimasen, Nihonjin des ne” (Excuse me, you are a Japanese right). She replied “Yes” happily and she came and sat on the seat beside me.

Then we continued talking a talk in our broken Japanese and English and using translator for 1 hour maybe. Then I told her that I am going to Rishikesh for learning Yoga and next what she did was extremely warm and heart touching.

She opened her purse, pulled out a 5 yen Japanese coin and gave it to me.

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She wished me good luck for my yoga class and gave that coin as a sign of good relationship.

Later I came to know that Japanese people usually offer 5 yen coin at shrines and it is considered pious.

It was such a nice gesture..!!!

It has been live broadcasted that the Russian normal missiles have destroyed the US patriot air-to-surface defense missiles in Ukraine war. Why is the US patriot defense missile inferior to the Russia defense missile S-300 in the world?

Let’s use Logic to see who is right

Both countries have a lot riding on the reputation of their weapons

However US has a lot more riding

The US advertises Patriots as a first generation AD to every Country across the Globe and openly sanctions anyone who buys or asks for the S 400s

Imagine if the Patriots were destroyed by the Kinzhals. That would be a HUGE EMBARRASSMENT

…

Let’s see the Narrations by each side

The Western Narrative

The Western Narration began with the fact that Six Kinzhals had been destroyed by the Patriot system
Then a Video emerged that showed the Patriot systems firing 30 Salvos at least. That means a minimum of Two Complexes and more probably Three Complexes of 36 Missiles (12 each)
The same video also showed a Huge explosion at the end of the 30 Missile Salvo around the area of the Patriot Complex
Now the West slowly changed their tune. They now claimed that the Patriots had received Minor Damage from the Kinzhals and that Five Kinzhals had been intercepted
Once again slowly it came to light that Russia used only two Kinzhals and the rest of the missiles for Air Saturation were Kalibrs.
Now the West changed the narrative for the third time and claimed that the Patriots intercepted both Kinzhals and the damage was minimal
Then again for the fourth time , the video was once again released which showed a huge explosion that always happens only if a missile strikes its target. No Debris. This was a straight inferno.
So by Logic, US admitted it’s Patriot Complexes were in that Location and the explosion reves that there was a huge inferno on that location. So the Patriots must have been destroyed , if not all Complexes then at least two of them.
Finally now US admit to significant damage to one Patriot complex.

As you can see the western narrative began minutes after the incident and changed six times in the last 48 hours

The Russian Narrative

As always the Russians TOOK TIME to release their statement. They first studied and investigated the number of missiles fired.
They confirmed that they had launched 24 Kalibrs on Kiev and that 22 had been intercepted by Patriot Missiles which had launched 30 Salvos or 30 Missiles.
They confirmed that because of these 30 launches,the Russians pinpointed the exact location of the Patriot Complexes and fired Two Kinzhals, both hitting their targets causing a massive inferno that comes only when a missile strikes its target.
They later confirmed that Two Complexes were destroyed and the third was damaged minimally and out of action for a few weeks
Finally yesterday based on Satellite Feeds, they concluded that as many as Five Patriot Complexes were located in that region and that three had been completely destroyed and one had suffered minimal damage. The evidence for this was the satellite movement of engineer corps who moved in very quickly

Even if both sides are lying,my guess is Russia is much closer to the truth

They took their time

They did their work

Then they made their statements

The West or Ukraine made a statement exactly fourteen minutes after the incident , logistically IMPOSSIBLE to make a statement like that so quickly without finding out what happened

…

Next point; Ukraine openly lied about Six Kinzhals

Russia has a policy never to launch more than Two Kinzhals at a given time because sustained launches allow the enemy to predict the trajectory code easily using latest computational software.

Next point; Ukraine kept shifting the narrative whereas Russia never did. They kept the same narrative.

So basically my guess is the Russian version is true

Maybe they didn’t destroy three Complexes, maybe they destroyed two complexes and inflicted minor damage to a third

However on the whole their version is believable.

As for US, the Patriot caused a huge embarrassment and the share prices depressed by a whopping 4.5% , another example that Americans tend to believe the Russian version

the big sleep

Why does it anger Americans when you mention that China got kicked out of the ISS program by the US and then they built their own without US help?

This generally means China doesn’t need America like Americans believe.

Americans are so full of shilt they thought that that China will be helpless if the yanks kicked them out is the U.S. space Center! Hahahaha what a god damn fool!

Chinese officials were laughing till they drop. China that’s as little as less than 15 years before Chinese own space Center, which is bigger, better more high tech an in space and U.S. space station is dead and gone. Today China says international mean international. Not the US international which favours white Caucasians and slaves of the U.S.

The U.S. are super mad because China shame the hypocrite US. They show that the U.S. has absolute no class. They show that all the US has is to talk shit. Today 195 out of 195 countries are invited to the Chinese space Center. Including the pathetic and despicable USA. Hahaha

The World No Longer Look To America To Lead & We Have A Lot To Do With That Sentiment

Why did you become pro-China?

I had my pro-west days.

Many patriotic Chinese had their pro-west days.

We were young, and saw the world with a childish ideology. We were easy targets of western media.

When I went to school in HK, all I saw on the news was negative things about China.

First thing was 1989 incident. I was furious. Then I went to Victoria Park on June 4, and listened to what they said. I dug the information that I could, and found a lot of things contradicting each other.

The I learned about color revolution. And I saw the US doing it in different countries again and again. I understood that there could be propaganda.

I used to see what the west have, but China doesn’t, and i thought, damn, the government must have pocketed the money that’s supposed to be used for the people.

But, no. China was a poor country, and still is today. China doesn’t have that much. That’s why we have to work our asses off, to barely support ourselves.

There are people pocketing a lot of money. But those people believe in the west. The rich people always immigrate to the west. Those people are greedy, and they learn it from the capitalists.

The west can have so much while work so little, because their ancestors did the work for them.

What work, you may ask.

The colonization, duh. Well, even though the colonies are no longer there, they never returned the gold, the artifacts, and all the money they made by unfair trade.

That’s a huge jumpstart on economy, and can keep a country ahead of others for centuries. They get to make the rules, and force others to follow. You need to pay to join their so-called alliance. If you don’t, the fine you. They also patent a lot of stuff, so when you produce something, you pay them.

That’s sounds a lot like extortion to me.

The west are hypocrites. They use so called human rights as an excuse to do indespicable things.

The US uses its dollar dominance to rip off the whole world.

Do you know that Venezuela has the most oil reserve on the planet? They could have been living like Saudi. But the US put their sanctions, to make sure the people in Venezuela can’t even feed themselves.

They had the jumpstart, now they need to make sure third-world countries never catch on.

Hence, all the accusation of human rights violations. Sanctions starve people. How can you starve people for the sake of human rights? Doesn’t it sound ironic?

They believe third-world people only deserve to work in sweatshops. It’s the modern day caste system. That makes me very angry.

That’s why I am pro-China. I want to live to see the world returns to the way it should be.

Pollo con Coca-Cola

Ingredients

1 (3 to 4 pound) chicken, cut into pieces
2 cloves garlic, halved
Salt
Black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
24 ounces Coca-Cola
1/4 cup water
1 large Spanish onion, sliced thin
4 carrots, peeled and cut in rounds
2 fresh chile peppers, seeded and cut in half
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 cup uncooked rice

Instructions

Rub each piece of chicken with garlic halves; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Heat oil in cast iron pot. Brown chicken in oil. Add onion, carrots, oregano and chile peppers, then the water and enough Coke to cover the chicken. Salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours. After 30 minutes cooking time, remove 1 cup of the liquid and use it, with 1 cup water, to cook the rice.
Serve chicken on a platter with rice alongside and the vegetables and sauce as a side dish.
Serve with salad and lots of French bread to sop up the sauce.

Serves 4 or 5.

Why is Indonesia changing its capital city?

Indonesia is in the process of changing its capital city from Jakarta to a new location on the island of Borneo.

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There are several reasons behind this decision:

Overpopulation and Congestion: Jakarta, the current capital, is one of the most populous cities in the world and has been facing significant challenges related to overpopulation, traffic congestion, and strained infrastructure. The move aims to alleviate these issues by reducing the burden on Jakarta and distributing development more evenly across the country.
Environmental Concerns: Jakarta is sinking at an alarming rate due to excessive groundwater extraction, land subsidence, and rising sea levels. The city is also prone to flooding, which causes significant damage and disrupts daily life. Relocating the capital is seen as a proactive measure to address these environmental challenges and ensure the long-term sustainability of the new capital.
Economic Development and Regional Balance: The government aims to promote economic growth in other regions of Indonesia by shifting the capital. The relocation is intended to encourage investment and development in the chosen area on Borneo, thereby creating new opportunities and reducing regional disparities.
Administrative Efficiency: The move is expected to improve administrative efficiency and governance by providing a fresh start and an opportunity to design and build a modern capital with better infrastructure and facilities.

The decision to move the capital is part of Indonesia’s vision for sustainable development and aims to address various challenges faced by the current capital, Jakarta.

Casablanca, 1942 – Bogart learns the truth

What’s the most ridiculous thing someone has said to you about your country?

One of my students in Kerala was praising America a lot one day.

He spoke of the big roads and big cars and big restaurant portions. He spoke as if everyone was wealthy and living the perfect life.

Then he said,

“The roads are so clean you probably eat off them.”

I never have and never intend to do so. I promise you our roads aren’t that clean 😅 Please never eat off the roads here 🙏.

Airbus signs deal with China aviation industry to expand A320 family production

April 11, 2023
10:29 am

airbus a320 family final assembly line in tianjin

uring the current state visit of France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, the Tianjin Free Trade Zone Investment Company, and Aviation Industry Corporation of China, have signed an agreement to expand A320 Family final assembly capacity with a second line at its Tianjin site.

This is in line with Airbus’ current target of producing 75 aircraft per month by 2026 throughout its global production network. Airbus currently has four A320 family final assembly sites worldwide: Hamburg (Germany), Toulouse (France), Mobile (USA) and Tianjin (China). The Tianjin Final Assembly Line (FAL Asia) became operational in 2008 and has produced in excess of 600 A320-family aircraft to date. In March 2023 the first A321neo aircraft was delivered from the line, which marked a new era of enhanced A320-family production versatility.

In addition, Airbus also signed General Terms of Agreement (GTA) with the China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) which covers the acquisition of 160 Airbus commercial aircraft. The GTA comprises earlier announcements for 150 A320-family aircraft and for 10 A350-900 wide-body aircraft orders, representative of the buoyant demand in all market segments by Chinese carriers.

Over the coming 20 years, China’s air traffic is expected to increase at 5.3% annually, appreciably faster than the world average of 3.6%. This will lead to a demand for 8,420 passenger and freighter aircraft between now and 2041, representing more than 20 percent of the world’s total demand for around 39,500 new aircraft in the next 20 years.

In line with its sustainability strategy, Airbus and the China National Aviation Fuel Group (CNAF) also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to intensify Chinese-European cooperation on the production, competitive application and common standards formulation for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Earlier in September 2022, Airbus and CNAF contracted to support commercial and delivery flights in China to be operated with SAF. By the end of March, 17 delivery flights and a first commercial flight were facilitated by the two partners. This new cooperation agreement aims at optimising the SAF supply chain by diversifying the sources and enhancing SAF production towards the ambition of using 10% SAF by 2030.

The Economist says Chinese car exports are increasing like a ‘hockey stick’ and will soon dominate in Europe and coming to the USA. Is this the final takeover by China of a key global market?

I am from Detroit, at various points in my life GM was the world’s largest car maker, the UAW had 2.5 million members (250k today), the River Rouge Plant employed 100,000 people the largest continuous factory in the world.

You came in with iron ore from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and you went out with a new car.

Today that concept would meaning absolutely nothing. No one cares as cars are no longer cars to start with. They are mostly SUVs and cross overs and trucks.

China has come late to this game and they have a massive advantage, the world has had enough of the internal combustion engine. China cannot make them very well and they stopped trying very hard and switched to EV’s and Hybrids but especially EVs.

Further the average buyer in China has dropped in age from 55 to 30 since the pandemic and they don’t care about the status of foreign brands. They want an ‘experience’ which is built around software where you are enveloped in the car but you don’t care about leather seats and big engines and a lot of noise to show how powerful you are.

In short, the Chinese have inadvertently by developing and serving their own market more and more are perfectly positioned to take over the lead in the next few years in a category that everyone thought would take them decades.

Like the west has done with everything else they gave this all to China. JV’s with VW, GM, Renault, Pugeot, Ford, Chrysler/Fiat (remember Beijing Jeep over 40 years ago they were in China). On and on it goes with the exception of the Japanese who have been kept mostly out of the market which is also a good thing as China took all that JV knowledge and developed their own brands.

China has gotten the latest robotic tech from Europe, I know we helped supply it via BMW. Best software solutions, best equipment, best engineers, latest designs all went to China from the west in order to get ‘market share’ in the world’s biggest market and guess what? They did!

Over 1/2 of VW’s global profit comes from China, the west sells over 10 million vehicles a year in China and almost all of them are made in China under joint ventures. And now? The Chinese have their own brands and they are taking on the world.

From an afterthought just a few years ago (check quora even 2 year old posts say China is nothing internationally in cars), today China is literally steamrolling the opposition.

Ironically the one market that is usually easy to win in, the USA is not receptive to Chinese autos as it is a nationalism plus tariff situation. As the Economist put it, no one wants to be seen in a Chinese car and that means no one.

Will that change? Of course. The purpose of this question is to highlight change is coming. Check the other answers, silly flippant oh China is going to run the world to Chinese cars are junk to this is a stupid question why are you asking it.

Quora is my forum to present questions and issues, anything related to China gets a slam by the Chinese and all of their trolls. Let them go for it, in this instance cars are not yet done and China does not yet own the world. However it has to be in everyone’s brain that the ‘hockey’ stick which is the holy grail for all companies that want to win big time, is clearly happening and the market, climate change to EV requirements, the tech, the know how and the money are all with China.

The west is fighting an uphill battle, good luck.

My prediction; China will win in SE Asia, in Australia (they are already everywhere I see them every day), parts of Europe already have them as rentals as in Hungary and other central Euro countries. Middle East as the family SUVs including Israel which is far more practical than you would imagine.

Africa and South America, absolutely perfect for China.

Within 10 years China will be the dominant player globally in cars/suvs/trucks. Again the USA will be a hold out and their light trucks like the Ranger/F150, GM products and Jeeps in the SUVs will continue to have market share. But eventually the USA will have to give in. Who will really get left behind?

Korea and Japan. And both of those countries need the auto business.

With China coming on strong, the auto industry has a new global competitor and it will be as fierce or more so than the so called Japanese invasion in the 1980s.

Casablanca – the must watch scene

What is the coolest line a pilot has said to the passengers?

“This is your captain speaking. That noise you just heard was a large bird hitting the nose of the plane. We have been granted first in line to land at our destination. Please put up your tray tables and fasten your seat belts” I was on this flight. I have a picture of the dent in the nose of the plane that I took after we got into the terminal…

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First Beidou satellite placed in orbit in 3 years to backup existing system

China launched a Long March 3B carrier rocket on Wednesday to transport a satellite into space for the country’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System, marking the first deployment of a Beidou satellite in three years.

As the countdown ticked down to zero at 10:49 am at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern mountainous region of Sichuan province, eight engines on the Long March 3B’s first stage and four boosters sprang to life and unleashed dazzling orange flame as they lifted the 20-story vehicle into clear skies.

Shortly after liftoff, the rocket successfully placed the satellite-60th in the Beidou system and the first backup craft for the third-generation Beidou network — into a geostationary orbit, said Deng Hongqin, director of the Xichang center.

Designed and built by the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing, the satellite has typical functions for a third-generation Beidou satellite — positioning, navigation and timing.

Compared with previous Beidou satellites, it has some upgraded hardware and features a stronger signal, faster transmission speed and higher operational stability, said Chen Zhonggui, chief designer of Beidou’s third-generation satellites.

Despite being called a backup, the satellite is designed to start working as soon as it enters orbit. Its primary tasks are to expand the service areas of Beidou’s short-messaging function, enhance Beidou’s positioning accuracy as well as improve the network’s operational continuity and reliability, he noted.

“The new satellite will help to increase the Beidou network’s short-messaging service capacity for nations and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Its operation will also enable Beidou users to access rapid, high-precision positioning service,” said Wang Dong, deputy project manager of the third-generation Beidou network.

“Before the end of this year, another two backup Beidou satellites are scheduled to be launched to further strengthen the reliability of the network,” he noted.

Beidou is currently China’s largest civilian satellite system and one of four global navigation networks, along with the United States’ GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the European Union’s Galileo.

Since 2000, a total of 60 Beidou satellites, including the first four experimental ones, have been lifted on 45 Long March 3 series rockets from Xichang.

In June 2020, the final satellite to complete Beidou’s third-generation network was lifted by a Long March 3B rocket at the Xichang center. The following month, President Xi Jinping announced that the system had been completed and had begun providing full-scale global services.

Currently, there are 46 satellites in active service, including the latest one.

According to the most recent statistics from the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location-Based Services Association of China, by the end of 2021, the overall value of satellite-enabled navigation and positioning services in China stood at 469 billion yuan ($67 billion), a 16.3 percent increase year-on-year.

China plans to establish the next generation of the Beidou system by 2035. The new version will be “omnipresent, smarter and more integrated” and upon its completion, there will be Beidou service not only on land and sea, but also in the sky, outer space and deep within the oceans, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office.

What is it like to be Chinese?

You learn an instrument when you are 6, performing whenever a guest comes around.

You learn poetry when you are 7, memorizing lines that will take you decades to appreciate.

You are told to be the best, even though you know you can’t always be the best.

You are put into a school, and from then on you feel you shoulder a grave expectation.

Your teacher calls your parents because of your falling grades.

Your mother yells at you while your father stays silent.

You catch your mother weeping and decide to do your best.

You stay up late to prep for the entrance exam to junior high. Your mother comes in and gives you a glass of warm milk. She does this every night. You realize you’ve never told her you love her. You open your mouth but nothing comes out. You see the white creeping into her hair. It stings you.

You get into High school. You fall in love. Your teachers are all against it but you don’t care. You know it’s going to be forever.

You break your heart.

You study all day and all night, complaining about Gaokao while writing your 3rd practice exam for the day.

You feel like you’re going to die from the stress.

You don’t.

You go off to university, maybe somewhere far away.

Your parents see you off.

You feel lonely and lost. And for the first time, you appreciate the stress of Gaokao, the camaraderie forged in that fire will be memories for life.

You rarely come home, busy with your own stuff. Even on the phone it’s hard to find things to say. But you try your best when it’s Chinese New Year.

You see your relatives. They comment on how tall you’ve grown.

You don’t recognize half of them, but they seem keen on knowing every detail about you: Have you found somebody yet? Do you have a job? How much does it pay?

You remember this road, but was that store always there?

You get nervous butterflies when you’re finally about to enter your old home. Huh, so the old poets had a point after all.

Your mother is in the kitchen. Your father is drinking tea on the balcony. They look older. You don’t mention it. They rush to greet you, asking about your life. You’re fine, you say. You’re fine, you’re fine.

You eat as much as you could, but your parents tell you to eat more. You’re not used to this much affection. You don’t know how to react.

You notice your mother washing the dishes. You get up to help.

You are back in your old room, on your computer late into the night. You hear someone step in. A glass of warm milk is put on your table. You feel something rupture.

You wait until she leaves the room, lean back and stare up into the sky…

You’ve grown up.

And unfortunately, that’s all I can say for now, since I’m 20 myself. I could write more but it won’t be real. (Not that this is, but it should be relatable to most).

But being Chinese is much like being anything else. You laugh when you’re happy. You cry when you’re sad. You sometimes feel like you can’t go on, but then you notice in the horizon, the clouds washing over the sunset, like the cold winter waves over the beaches of summer. And you realize how beautiful it all is and you pick yourself up and move on.

Casablanca Final Scene

[daegonmagus] – Part 31 – Adventures in the Occult: Thoughts on {Not} Being a Freemason

The following is the 31st part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

Adventures in the Occult: Thoughts on {Not} Being a Freemason

I came across this site, inscribed on believing on the mind (metallicman (inscribedonthebelievingmind.blog) in which I seem to feature in one of the articles along side Metallicman. Lucky me for being “famous”, I guess. Unfortunately the article makes some assumptions about me that are quite inaccurate, like the (very definitively written) idea I am a Freemason and another retired MAJestic agent. Guys, I don’t care if you want to write articles that feature me but at least fucking verify your information with me beforehand, else it makes your content look like its full of “badly researched” holes and shouldn’t be taken seriously. I wrote to the article’s publisher, Diana Barharona, requesting a polite change to its content, but never received a reply, so in response to it I’d figured I’d clarify a few points.

Firstly, I am not a MAJestic Agent, at least, not that I Know of – I came into contact with Metallicman after having experiences that paralleled with his during his time in MAJestic courtesy of my LDing – I offered to edit his books because I understand the true importance of his content. Secondly I am not, nor ever have been and never will be a Freemason, though I do have masonic blood in both sides of my family; my great uncle was a 33rd degree Mason from the Broome lodge of Western Australia, and on my mother’s side I only have a passing reference of who was actually involved in the organisation, as I never met them before their ultimate expiration from the earth. My connection to the organisation, is, therefore, now reduced to a silver ring that was kept and handed down after said expiration. In regards to my great uncle, I only met him a handful of times as a kid, and only found out about his masonic connection long after I’d started walking down my own metaphysical path.

I never liked the man particularly much; my first memory of him was him pulling his false teeth out and chasing me around the house with them. Which is probably a good thing, considering the unknown persona he carried with him over and through his deathbed; that he exhibited at one point paedophilic tendencies on certain members of the family – not really something anyone should be surprised by given the amount of similar stories arising about Freemasonic happenings.

Of course, his victims never spoke about any of it until they had 6 ft of dirt separating him from them. I only found out about it back in 2019, and was – to put it simply – QUITE FUCKING LIVID, as this is something that goes against the very essence of my being, and considering I still genuinely cared for the family member in question. My only solace is knowing that his dementia did a good job of obliterating his brains cells in the years before he finally kicked the bucket. That and the fact that his indiscretions could be considered at the more “minor” end of the spectrum when it comes to the question of psychological damage such individuals can cause upon their victims. I shudder to think there was more than what was brought forward. Maybe it is my own naievity, maybe it’s a defense mechanism to stop me digging too deep into it and setting me off on a path of grave defilement. Whatever, I guess it explains why I thought it necessary to clarify my position.

In addition to this, I was once approached to join the brotherhood by another old man at a spiritualist circle I used to attend with my mother and SD. As far as I am aware, him and my great uncle had no connection to one another. I politely declined the invitation because at that point I was not interested in submitting the celestial authority that came with the spark that animated my physical being over to a society built upon the idea of a spiritual hierarchy.

Quite frankly, I’d been astral projecting and lucid dreaming for a decade at that point, and had read all about Aleister Crowley and his Argentum Aurum, the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn, Ordo Templi Orientis etc. Call it arrogance – though I call it an unfaltering knowledge of self – the Freemasons seemed to me like just another group of novice Occultists that needed to be handed their divinity piece by piece by climbing through the ranks of the degrees. I preferred to bypass all that shit and reclaim my divinity myself, from the devil himself, if necessary; part of this involved never allowing any other individual or organisation to project false authority over my soul and its progression, as I truly believed that right belonged to my higher self, and my higher self alone.

Still, he sought the need to hand me some pamphlets on the Freemason’s apparent ideologies and how one cannot become a member unless they have an initiate vouch for them, which, I guess, is what he was planning on doing for me. You don’t get random’s making such an offer unless you have demonstrated you at least know a little bit about what it is you are talking about.

This does not mean I didn’t research what I could about them (much of which had already been done by the time I was propositioned to join). You may remember I was a steward of the Hell Fire Club which practiced spiritual alchemy. The only reason I had even bothered joining this Club was because it allowed for self initiation, as the club was not interested in using a similar hierarchal method of initiation to the Freemasons. Plus it had some really rare and hard to obtain books on magic, in a specially bound editions, which, like I have mentioned previously, is what really tickled my fancy.

This all sounds very mysterious, and diabolical, given the English chapter used to meet in the caves of West Wycombe in fancy masks and robes to carry out their rituals (based on Pagan festivities), but in reality my chapter never consisted of more than SD and myself, and all we ever did was sit on a carpet in our own house and throw a coin at a bottle; big fucking whoop. Nothing in comparison to the secret meetings and “architectural marvels” the Freemasons have been known to engage in and construct in the apparent quest to “become better men”. As I mentioned before, I revered knowledge above all personal gain and profit. The Hellfire Club was an interesting avenue into gaining more knowledge of the alchemical process of transmuting the lead of human consciousness into something much more profound and metaphorically “golden”.

But – and there is a but – being a club heavily inspired by Hermetic teachings, which crosses paths with some Freemasonic concepts and ideologies, it was inevitable that it was going to attract initiates of Freemasonry as well as other societies such as those aforementioned.

The Stewards for the other Australian (as well as international) Chapters, for example, are themselves occultists, which belong to such organisations as the Freemasons, the Hermetic Order of the Red Dragon etc etc. You have to also consider that this was in the early days of social media, before there were any real dedicated chat rooms where concepts such as the occult (which simply means “hidden” or “hidden knowledge”) could be freely talked about without ridicule from the spiritually inept who would brandish them as devil worshippers etc (wait until you see what the demonologists talk about, lol).

So you could say that as the international division of the Hellfire Club took off, us members began to realise we had a safe spot to bounce metaphysical concepts and ideas off each other, as each sought to incorporate their own occult knowledge and flavour into their own chapters. I became respected among these other members as I demonstrated knowledge I had picked up on the Kabbalah, Alchemy and the occult in general over many years of study, and likewise I respected them and the knowledge they offered me, a lot of which had to do with Freemasonic processes.

So yes, I had, and still do have access to a network of high ranking 33rd degree Freemasons, who have some influence over the operations of others in other jurisdictions. To give you an idea of this influence, when a potential recruit – also a low ranking Freemasonic initiate – into our HFC chapter tried to rape SD, I was told if I had brought the matter to one I am in contact with, himself a 33rd degree Freemason, immediately after it had happened, they could have ejected and banned this piece of shit from joining any of the Australian divisions – this is what I mean when I say my knowledge of the occult earnt me some “respect”. Am I involved in their evil diabolical scheme to take over the world?. Hence there are things that I know, some deduced from extension of my studies into the occult, and some communicated directly to me by these Freemasons, but at the end of the day I hold no oaths, or am held by no encumberances when it comes to the distribution of “what I know”. And Hence I have seen both the good and bad parts of the brotherhood, so I am loathe to jump on the bandwagon of vilifying them as a whole. The answer, unfortunately for those who’d have a mind to spin my content as being some form of Freemasonic propaganda, is a somewhat stale and rather definite “no”.

This does not mean I know all there is to know about the Freemasons and their goings on behind closed doors – honestly, to me, it’s a confusing mess of shit that varies from Rite to Rite and jurisdiction to jurisdiction, that I have no intention of delving too deeply into – but what I do know is that the Temple of Solomon, and the subsequent Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon, which deal with the summoning of “Djinn” or “demons” is a very integral part of the core concepts that are dealt with within {one aspect of} Freemasonry, as can be evidenced from HERE.

Unfortunately for the Freemasonic brotherhood, I also know, from another, exterior source, who was directly brought up under an operation involving Extra Terrestrials – a very big one, dating back before WW2 – that the ideologies around such “demons” or “goetic spirits” were originally distorted by the protectors of the very Temple the Freemasons worship (this goes back beyond Hiram Abif), to lead prying eyes down a false road. What was revealed to me by this source, was that the Freemasonic brotherhood was intentionally set up as a front to hide the true identity of what these goetic spirits actually were/are; interdimensional intelligences that could be communicated with and prepared for possession of a willing host through the Solomonic workings, ie the Greater and Lesser Keys. According to my source, Solomon himself, wasn’t exactly “human”; the original builders of his temple knew of this secret, because it was to be a chamber that provided the necessary atmosphere for that intelligence to acclimatise after it found a willing host. True Masons were those who allegedly knew this secret, and my source claims she was brought up by one of them. Of course, I have no way of verifying any of this, so its up to the reader how much salt they want to sprinkle o n that tasty morsel.

But I can attest to the assertion there is something otherworldly about these books, because I inadvertently summoned one of these entities early one morning and it scared the absolute shit out of me.

And I do not mean via an LD state either. Here, in this physical world, I accidentally brought one of these entities from its realm into ours, after simply reading from the versions of the Greater and Lesser Keys that I owned.

I was around about the age of 20, and I had just received my Hell Fire Club Bound Edition (extremely rare and worth $600 – $1200 respectively) copies of these works in the mail; A copy of Aleister Crowley’s own Goetia – the Lesser Key – , replete with his handwritten notes, and a copy of Sepher Maphtea Shalamoh, one of the oldest known surviving manuscripts of the Greater Key –

Here is a picture of the pages from an identical, non Hellfire Club edition I owned of the Sepher Maphtea Shalamoh. Good luck trying to read it if you don’t know Aramaic Hebrew (I sure as fuck don’t, though if you do I’d be very interested in a helpful translation of the entire thing).

You hear of people in the occult community who try and use these grimoires to obtain money and power and whatever other materialistic shit they can think of; this wasn’t part of my intention. I had them simply because I wanted the knowledge they contained. I was committed to reading them without ever actually trying the rituals contained within.

That very night, or more correctly morning as it was about 3am, I was in my caravan (trailer in American speak) playing xbox with my dog, Abby, sat on the couch next to me whilst SD slept in the bed just over from us. All of a sudden I heard a very deep, guttural roaring sound, deeper and louder than any human could ever manage, followed by a stomping from one end of the caravan to other. I was around 100kg at the time and these footsteps shook the caravan much more than I did even when I was in a pissed off mood. They were very, very heavy, and very dense steps – not the footsteps or noise of any Tom cat or animal one would expect to find in that part of Western Australia. Abby was a fearless dog, and this scared the shit even out of her. Make no mistake, this was a good, old fashioned demon summoning if ever there was one. As soon as it finished, the TV went nuts and just started flicking 666 over and over again despite the remote not being jammed under anything, as it was sitting on the table next to me. For anyone who has studied the occult, and certain people of historical fame, that number is an obvious reference to Master Therion, aka Aleister Crowley. How coincidental I’d been reading his copy of the Goetia only hours prior. Regardless, it was good lesson in taking care next time I read the thing.

So yes, these texts are powerful texts, but I do not recommend fucking with them unless you have balls of steel, and know absolutely what the fuck it is you are doing. And not unless you are intending to be a willing host for an interdimensional consciousness to take up residence in your body; regardless of whether or not this is your intention THIS WHAT THE KEYS INTENDED PURPOSE WAS. They are {allegedly} the original CE5 protocols, and I have a suspicion there are some Freemasons who know this and have incorporated it into the Lodges workings, though I do not think every single Lodge knows about it. Again, maybe that is my own naivety. New age demon worshippers (and yes there a lot of them, facebook now has groups dedicated to the subject – I have watched these spawn into communities from nothing) have no idea what they are fucking around with. Thinking it is a means for quick materialistic manifestations, many of these worshippers will willingly engrave, tattoo, embed the sigils of these interdimensional consciousnesses directly onto their bodies, using blood for ink, using the rituals to “command” these intelligences into doing their bidding etc.

Talk about fucking amateurs.

You see why I always had a thirst for knowledge of just what the fuck it was I was getting myself into before diving right into it? If you want to know how possession works, it is carried out via sleep paralysis; I have experienced this directly, and so has SD – the exact same experience. What happens is the dominant consciousness enters via the ear, in my case, the right one, and you feel your own consciousness distort as it gets squeezed to one small side of your head. You can then feel the invading thought form taking up residence in the greater portion of your head that you no longer occupy. It is not a pleasant experience, which I liken to “mind raping”.

To one who is not lucky enough to even get to sleep paralysis (that is a joke), you will simply wake up and have thoughts that will destroy you if you are unable dissociate yourself from them. In my case, it bent my perception to seeing suicide as a very tempting option, seemingly for no reason, then I remembered the mind worm invader the night previous, shook the thoughts off (repetitively) and they never bothered me again; you must be very savvy as to what constitutes your thoughts, and what are those thoughts from an invading parasite. This was some years after the incident in the caravan so I don’t think the two were related, but still if you see anyone engaging in this level of dumb shittery, high ranking Freemasonic members included, you can bet your bottom dollar they don’t have the faintest idea of what it is they are doing, and are, in all probability going along with something that has been taught at the highest levels, under the idea that a Goetic intelligence is a nefarious spirit to be “commanded to do one’s bidding”. Either that, or they are taking inspiration from Crowley when he deliberately stepped into the circle of the demon Choronzon and let it possess him. Not exactly sure what divine ending they would be expecting from that though.

The only proper way to communicate with such entities is via the hypnogogic/lucid dreaming state, when connected to the higher information stream of the higher self – this importance needs to be emphasized, because when connected to this information stream things cannot lie to you; you can literally trace their whole existence through MWI and analyse every thought and choice they have ever made; if they are deceiving you, it will show in this analysis. If you can muster the discipline to do away with the ritualistic commands of the Greater and Lesser Keys, the type of shit that apparent Masters of the Occult, like Crowley, suggested were necessary, and actually meet them face to face in their own domain with a level of respect, you might find they are willing to reveal to you “forbidden knowledge” of the earth and the greater cosmos; who do you think the “President” of the Unseen 5 that showed me “the fall” was? Wink wink. Of course, if you haven’t prepared your consciousness accordingly, the energetic signature of these spirits will likely be too intense for you to bear (another reason why you need the higher information processing capabilities of the higher self). It is just simply too much information for your consciousness to be able to handle. But it is sure a hell of a lot less intense than standing face to face with the Grand Architect of the universe, what the big G in the middle of the Masonic square and compass represents. Just trust me on that one

“The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain. Their seals therefore represent methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots (though the eye).” – Aleister Crowley, The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic in the Goetia.)

And I quote from the previous link:

“If we as masons want to look at this in a philosophical sense we are all seeking to be the wise King Solomon. We must unlock the brass vessel of our own unconscious mind releasing all the aspects of ourselves we care not to let out. Each demon can be seen as an aspect of our personality that we keep hidden from the world. It is the goal of the magician with the aid of angels and magickal weapons to face the dark aspects of him and symbolically slay and expel those forces from our own spiritual nature, thus purifying him. This medieval system of what some would consider “black magick” is simply a way to reflect upon the aspects of our own psyche. If we as individuals wish togain the wisdom of the archetypal king, we should face the shadow of ourselves and the demons that well in the void of our own nightmares.”

So the Freemasons, channeling their inner Carl Jung, believe that the texts allow an unlocking of deep aspects of the psyche which must be vanquished with the help of the “angels”….so what happens if the angels are really demons in disguise and are the very things responsible for those darker aspects of the self arising in the first place?

The Native Americans believed in such a concept they called the Wetiko, which they considered to be a sort of psychic virus that attached itself to the psyche of man and inflated his ego to the point he would put his own selfishness before empathy; Paul Levy does a good write up of this at https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/3472

Can you see where I am going with this? Through the illusion of duality of good and evil “spirits” – ie, angels vs demons – and the failure to understand that one’s own consciousness is originally of the highest attainable divine status, (ie, failure to adhere to a very basic and core concept of the occult) the Freemasons have allowed the submission of their own divine authority over to lesser divine parasitic entities, so that these same entities may “help” liberate them from a problem they {potentially} had a hand in causing in the first place.

To anyone who has read even a small amount of Carl Jung’s work in this area, it could be argued shadow work does not need to involve the help of supposed “angels” or “guides” to be carried out. In fact, repetitive self psychological evaluation was part of my “magickal undertakings”; I use to evaluate myself and my thoughts and try to understand where they had arisen, and what had caused them in my constant effort to “know myself” – again a basic edict of Alchemy. For us lucid dreamers, who can literally enter into the parts of our subconscious mind and “see” the thoughts as they arise, and what the shadow self is actually comprised of, and analyse these completely from an objective viewpoint, the last thing we need is “help”.

So where does this leave me? I already met the “Grand Architect”, who I called the All Being, back in 2016. What could any Freemasonic Lodge offer me if the whole goal of their brotherhood is to eventually bring one’s consciousness into contact with such a being? Seems I must have been quite learned in “High Magick” to achieve this feat without ever bothering to join their organisation.

The supposed “evil” nature of the Goetic spirits does not match to their temperament when met under LD – they can be considered very respectable intelligences in this domain – which suggests to me the Solomonic rituals are actually subverting the communication over to other entities who do not want us contacting these spirits because of the information they {the Goetic spirits} hold. If my source {and assumptions from my experiences and those in my inner circle} is correct and these are indeed inter dimensional intelligences, then the question must be asked: who is summoning what when using such ceremonial methods as the Freemasons and Crowley used?

Let’s continue from that link shall we?

“Before one sincerely attempts to evoke these demons, one should first spend some time invoking the 72 counterpart angels of the Almadel. The Almadel is a very enlightening experience and puts the magician in touch with the aspects of virtue within the psyche of the individual. This should be required for two reasons, one: one should be in touch with their inner strength before they face the demons, and two: the angels of the Almadel have direct control over the demons of the brass vessel. The Almadel is a system of scrying into a crystal ball over an altar made of wax upon which are engraved the Holy names of God. Remember that invocation is to call down a power within your spirit and mind, so you invoke angels to bring them closer. The Magician will evoke demons, to bring from within ones self into manifestation.

After one has made meaningful contact with his own inner angelic forces, he is now mentally and spiritually prepared to venture into the darkness of his own being. This system of High Magick should only be attempted by those who have magickal training, or are learned practitioners of ceremonial magick. This system to the unprepared is VERY DANGEROUS, and can be disastrous for those who approach the subject manner with a light heart or contempt in the mind. A short exert from the Lesser Key of Solomon will show the level of seriousness this system deserves.

Curse you and deprive you from all your offices and places of joy and place and do bind thee in the depths of the bottomless pit, there to remain until the day of judgment; I say into the lake of fire and brimstone… let all the company of heaven curse thee… let the hosts of heaven curse thee, I curse thee into fire unquenchable, and torments unspeakable as thy name and seal is contained in this box, chained and bound up and shall be choked in sulphurus and stinking substance and burnt in this material fire… which is prepared for thee damned and cursed spirits and there to remain until the day of doom and never more remembered of before the face of God which shall come to judge the dead and the world by fire.” (Lesser Key of Solomon, Book 1: Ars Goetia)

The Goetic demons require quite an elaborate array of magical implements such as a magic robe, wand, sword, circle, ring, brass vessel containing the 72 sigils of demons, black mirror within the magick triangle, and a very good memory. These evocations are quite lengthy and the magickal ritual can last quite awhile, especially when in a hypnotic trance which is required. “

What we have a case of is “the bible told us these {demons} were bad, and that these {angels} were good, so we will employ the service of the good guys and not question their motives”. That’s fine if you are of a religious inclination, but I never have been so the core concepts behind such a dualistic method of thinking in Freemasonry simply do not fit with my ideological makeup. The two are not compatible, therefore there is no reason for me to be a part of their Brotherhood.

My first novel, Dreaming Demons, as appalling as it was (first novels are always shit, especially when you are trying to offend as many people as possible with it), attempted to explain this difference in temperament between the Goetic spirits outside of the dualistic concepts of good and evil. It was a 120k word story which featured Astaroth as the main character (though “his” name was written backwards). As I was writing this book, I one day had an urge to switch on the TV, which was strange because I never watched TV in the day time. I specifically remember just randomly stopping typing and walking over to it and flicking it on. So what are the odds, that at that exact moment the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks was on, and the children were discussing “finding the Star of Astaroth? One in several million billion I bet. Astaroth is the 29th spirit of the Goetia and is said to “show people the fall”. His rank, as mentioned by Crowley, was Duke, though other spirits held the rank of President. So when I was shown “the Fall” by the leader of the Unseen 5, I was also shown that his rank is no longer Duke but now rather President – this is why he was taking the form of then president Obama. Does that clarify who this organisation really is? It should be obvious by now that it is the real Ashtar{oth}/ Command – not that fake ass bullshit one finds discussed in new age circles.

In case you weren’t aware, Astaroth was synonymous with The Phoenician goddess Astarte, the Babylonian Ishtar, and the Sumerian Inanna:

The name Astaroth was ultimately derived from that of 2nd millennium BC Phoenician goddess Astarte,[1] an equivalent of the Babylonian Ishtar, and the earlier Sumerian Inanna. She is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in the forms Ashtoreth (singular) and Ashtaroth (plural, in reference to multiple statues of it). This latter form was directly transliterated in the early Greek and Latin versions of the Bible, where it was less apparent that it had been a plural feminine in Hebrew. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astaroth

This should give you an idea of just how old the Unseen 5 really is. They have been monitoring humanity from their vantage point in the astral planes since at least the time of Ancient Sumeria.

So, to summarise the question of whether or not I am a Freemason, the answer is no, and the reasons are:

Submission of one’s own celestial authority over to lesser intelligences is the first failing step to what many occult and Hermetic societies strived to achieve. The ranking system of the Freemasons (and many other secret societies for that matter) is a sure fire guaranteed way of diminishing this celestial authority even further, and submits to the idea man is a lesser intelligence that must evolve its way into divinity, rather than already possessing a ticket of entry.

Freemasons believe in the duality of angel vs demon arising from a core religious belief that centres around Christianity. The subjectivity and personal nature of religion provides a weakness for manipulative entities to exploit, in my opinion, hence why I believe all occult practices should be done with an objective mind free from emotion and religious doctrine.

Freemasonry can’t offer anything in the development and understanding of the psyche beyond what Lucid dreaming can offer. Ritual becomes redundant when you can enter into the very part of the mind the ritual seeks to exploit and directly push the buttons that exist therein.

Personal Experience tells me that the Goetic spirits are real interdimensional intelligences that very much differ from being simply deeply repressed aspects of the shadow self, and that they hold some every important information about humans and their {true} cosmological history. Those in my inner circle, through their own experiences, agree with this assessment. This does not fit in with the Freemasonic understanding of these spirits.

I’ve already met the Grand Architect, there is simply nothing the brotherhood can offer me in the form of spiritual liberation.

Changes to everyone including MM

Heads up everyone.

My free time is getting whittled down to a pathetic few seconds a day. I will have to slow down on my MM updates. Not close down anything, just not update so rapidly (once a day) as I have been doing. Same goes for my other venues. I will post less often.

Do not freak out!

It’s called life.

But all is good. Change is good. Embrace it!

Running two companies, painting, hosting MM, You-tube and Patreon videos, participating on other social media needs to be culled to make way for various other efforts that are just now coming to fruition. Not to mention a four hour commute a day, and a totally rambunctious kindergärtner, takes up a heck of a lot of time.

But I asked for this, don’t you know.

It’s all mapped out in my affirmation campaigns.

I will be wrapping up the latest campaign at the end of May and entering a four month dwell / wait period.

Things are happening.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

…

Oh, and the future looks BRIGHT for China and the Global South. Not so for the West, but MM followers should be able to thrive and profit from any discord no matter where you live. Just sit down and start using the tools in your “toolkit”. Use them.

Change.

It’s a good thing.

Evidence US Planning WWIII Against both Russia and China

written by INTEL-DROP May 6, 2023

Submitted by Eric Zuesse

On May 3rd, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told C-Span in an interview, that there will be no objection by the U.S. Government if Ukraine’s Government attempts to or does assassinate Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin. He said: “These are decisions for Ukraine to make, how it’s going to defend itself, how it’s going to get its territory back, how it’s going to restore its territorial integrity, and its sovereignty.”

Also on May 3rd, Japan’s Nikkei Asia news service headlined “NATO to open Japan office” and reported that “NATO is planning to open a liaison office in Tokyo, Japan, the first of its kind in Asia.” The North Atlantic Treaty Organization aims now to become not only America’s anti-Russian military alliance but also America’s anti-Chinese military alliance, which will support the breakaway of China’s province of Taiwan (which since 1972 the U.S. Government has formally recognized Taiwan to be) from China, just as it refuses to support the breakaway of Crimea and three other provinces of Ukraine from Russia.

America and its NATO deny that they are either anti-Russian or anti-Chinese and insist that they instead seek merely regime-change in both countries so that both Russia and China will come to provide democracy and human rights like America’s Government does.

The U.S. Congress is now considering legislation that’s advertised as the “Ukraine Victory Resolution” but is formally titled H.Res.322 “on Ukrainian victory”, and which states that “it is the policy of the United States to see Ukraine victorious against the invasion and restored to its internationally recognized 1991 borders.” That would require the complete defeat of Russia in Ukraine. If it happens, then almost certainly Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would either resign or be overthrown and replaced by a leader that America’s Government will approve of. If it instead does not happen, then the U.S. Congress and President will already be obligated, by means of having passed this Resolution into law, to invade Russia in order to achieve by direct U.S. military force what Ukraine’s military had failed to achieve. That invasion of Russia by the U.S. and its allies would constitute World War Three, WW III.

The U.S. Government has not yet committed itself irrevocably to revoking its prior recognition that Taiwan is a part of China; but, if it finally does do that, then, of course, America and its allies will be at war against China, which would likewise be WW III.

There is also under consideration by the U.S. Congress something that is called “The Restrict Act” which would institute martial law over all news-media in the U.S. in preparation for a formal and all-encompassing declaration of martial law in America. By means of that total censorship, the U.S. public will know, regarding both Russia and China (and anything else) only what the U.S. Government will allow Americans to know; and this would enormously facilitate Congress to declare publicly that America is at war against both Russia and China. So: the legislative preparations in order to do this ‘Constitutionally’ (except for violating only the First Amendment) will already have been put into place.

‘Nearly A Third Of The World Economy Is Now Subject To Sanctions’

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) just published a study about:

The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions.

The results are as any observer of such acts would expect. Sanctions are used too broadly. They hardly ever serve their supposed original purpose and do not reach their aims. They hurt the poor more than the supposedly targeted leaders of this or that country.

These numbers though are astonishing:

Over the past six decades, there has been significant growth in the use of economic sanctions by Western powers and international organizations. Less than 4 percent of countries were subject to sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union, or United Nations in the early 1960s; today, that share has risen to 27 percent. The magnitudes are similar when we consider their impact on the global economy:

the share of world GDP produced in sanctioned countries rose from less than 4 percent to 29 percent in the same period. In other words, more than one fourth of countries and nearly a third of the world economy is now subject to sanctions by the UN or Western nations.

Under international law only sanction imposed by the United Nations’ Security Council have legal standing. Sanctions by the U.S. or EU are under international law an illegal use of state instruments. The U.S. is using sanctions constantly to press under nations to do its bidding. Until the recent war in Ukraine the EU has used sanctions mostly to ‘do something’ because it had run out of ideas or diplomatic abilities.

The recent sanctions on Russia proved to be hurting the Russians much less than they are hurting the people living in the European Union. It was a catastrophic mistake by EU leaders to preemptively agree to the sanctions the U.S. had been pushing for before Russia entered the civil war in Ukraine on the side of its Ukrainian brethren. The consequences had obviously not been gamed out and thought through.

When nearly one third of the world economy is under sanctions the other two-third are losing out too. It would therefore make sense for everyone to abolish all sanctions that have not been issued by the UNSC. Even UNSC sanctions should only be used sparsely and in a very narrowly targeted manner. Sanctions that hit the whole economy of a country are inhuman and should be prohibited.

Posted by b at 15:31 UTC | Comments (65)

The progressing New World System.

China’s chip imports have decreased by 130 billion, and US chips and TSMC have been hit hard – iNEWS

In 2022, China will reduce chip imports by 97 billion, and in the first three months of this year, it will reduce by another 32.1 billion. In 15 months, China will reduce chip imports by 129.1 billion. China continues to reduce chip imports, which has caused damage to US chips and TSMC Huge hit.

1. American chips have been hit hard

The United States is the world’s largest chip exporter, accounting for nearly 50% of the global chip market supply. However, the share of manufacturing in the United States is not large. Therefore, the chips of the United States are mainly exported, and the export destination is precisely China, because China is The world’s largest chip purchasing country.

China surpassed the United States in 2010 to become the world’s largest manufacturing country, and then China purchased more and more chips. In the early years, China’s chip purchases exceeded 200 billion U.S. dollars. In 2022, the amount of chips purchased will reach 400 billion U.S. dollars. Seventy percent of the chips.

However, in recent years, under the pressure of the United States, China has been pushing the development of domestically produced chips and increasing the self-sufficiency rate of chips. It can meet 70% of China’s demand for chips, so China continues to reduce chip imports.

2. TSMC is under pressure

Liu Deyin, chairman of TSMC, once said that the loss of orders for chips from mainland China would not affect it. He thought that as long as he moved closer to the United States, American chips would quickly fill the vacancy of chips in mainland China. However, this is not the case. The recession has now begun to affect TSMC.

With the reduction of orders for American chips, chip foundry companies such as Samsung, UMC, and PSMC began to start a price war in order to compete for limited orders. Their foundry prices generally dropped by more than 10%. At that time, TSMC was still stubborn, saying that Resolutely not to cut prices, would rather cut production than cut prices.

However, TSMC’s stubborn mouth can’t stop the decline in performance. Its first-quarter performance of this year shows that the revenue growth rate has shrunk to 3.6%, while the growth rate in the same period last year exceeded 36%. The chain fell by 18.7%. After reducing exports to China, it began to have a negative impact on TSMC.

3. Both American chips and TSMC turn to the Chinese market for help

After the U.S. chip recession, TSMC has slowed down the construction process of U.S. chip factories, shifted its focus back to the Asian market, and suddenly held a 3nm mass production ceremony in Taiwan, China, at the end of 2022. This is an unprecedented practice for TSMC; Accelerate the construction process of the 28nm factory in mainland China, hoping to get more orders from the Chinese mainland market.

It is obvious that the US chip and TSMC have now clearly seen the importance of the Chinese mainland market. As the world’s largest chip procurement market, the reduction of 130 billion chips in 15 months has dealt a huge blow to them. Seeking to sell is a huge change.

China Chip is now also clearly aware of the importance of self-reliance and self-improvement. Now China is aggressively expanding chip production capacity and accelerating the improvement of the chip industry chain. Even the most difficult lithography machines have formed an industrial chain in China. It is bound to become stronger and stronger, which makes American chips even more worried about chip sales.

The average number of paid annual leave days TAKEN by employees in the European Union in 2018 was 30. Americans took an average of 6.6 vacation days in 2020. Why don’t we even use up the vacation time we get?

American capitalism would do away with annual leave and sick leave altogether if they could. Just greed thats al and the power of knowing they can fire you cand get someone new who doesn’t take any leave at all whenever they want. Fear of losing your job is what Americans face if they take too much leave

U.S. Sanctions Drive Chinese Firms to Advance AI Without Latest Chips – WSJ

That the spirit:

Research in China on workarounds, such as using software to leverage less powerful chips, is accelerating.

U.S. sanctions are spurring Chinese tech companies to accelerate research to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence without relying on the latest American chips.

A Wall Street Journal review of research papers and interviews with employees found that Chinese companies are studying techniques that could allow them to achieve state-of-the-art AI performance with fewer or less powerful semiconductors. They are also researching how to combine different types of chips to avoid relying on any one type of hardware...

Article HERE

Mexican Crescent Puffs

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped green chiles
1 envelope taco seasoning
1/2 can refried beans
1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Salsa, medium
Sour cream, for garnish

Instructions

In a 10-inch skillet, brown ground meat.
Drain and rinse in warm water.
Return to skillet and add garlic, pepper, chiles, taco seasoning and refried beans. Mix well.
Remove from heat and set aside.
Open crescent rolls and separate. Take one and put on a cookie sheet. Spread crescent slightly.
Place two heaping tablespoons of mixture on wide part of dough.
Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese and fold points over meat mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve warm with salsa and sour cream.

WAR IS COMING, Putin just sent a TERRIFYING warning to NATO!

https://youtu.be/kX6s5Yva-4k

Xi’s New Currency

Conceived 2009, born 2023

Godfree Roberts

May 7, 2023

After the 2009 Global Financial Crisis Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the Peoples Bank of China, announced, “The world needs an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and able to remain stable in the long run, removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.

He proposed Special Drawing Rights, SDRs, valued against a basket of trading currencies and commodities like wheat and iron ore.

Nobelists C. Fred Bergsten, Robert Mundell, and Joseph Stieglitz agreed, “The creation of a global currency would restore a needed coherence to the international monetary system, give the IMF a function that would help it to promote stability and be a catalyst for international harmony”.

Beijing began valuing the yuan against a currency basket in 2012 and the IMF made its first SDR loan in 2014. The World Bank issued the first SDR bonds in 2016, Standard Chartered Bank issued the first commercial SDR notes in 2017, and the world’s central banks began stating their currency reserves in SDRs in 2019.

Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers called China’s 2015 creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, “The moment the United States lost its role as the underwriter of the global economic system. I can think of no event since Bretton Woods comparable to the combination of China’s effort to establish a major new institution–and the failure of the US to persuade dozens of its traditional allies, starting with Britain–to stay out of it”.

The AIIB’s one hundred member countries have eighty percent of the world’s population and two-thirds of its GDP. By mobilizing their savings, the new bank accesses a trillion dollars every year for long term, low interest loans to regional infrastructure, poverty reduction, growth, and climate change mitigation.

In 2020, as part of a plan for more efficient administration, the People’s Bank of China issued Digital Yuan, the world’s first digital currency backed by a central bank. Unlike privately issued mobile payments and credit cards, the Digital Yuan is a State liability, like banknotes and, since a billion Chinese already use mobile payments, the transition to digital currency should be seamless.

Harvard’s Aditi Kumar says, “Nations seeking to leapfrog development of digital currency and payments systems will likely seek out Chinese financial technology, and Chinese firms, at the forefront of digital payment technology, will capture the economic gains of a rapidly digitizing global economy. China’s central bank will have a panopticon view of all transactions in all digital currencies that leverage its technology, further strengthening its information advantage”.

Author Bruno Maçaes envisions the impact of these programs thirty years hence:

The year is 2049, one hundred years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The Belt and Road Initiative is complete… Some of the infrastructure projects are truly stunning and stand as the highest example of what human ingenuity can achieve in its drive to master natural forces. A bridge crossing the Caspian Sea—125 miles from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan—has made road transport between Europe and China fast and easy, changing old mental maps that separated continents. The Kra Isthmus Canal in Thailand has done the same for the Indian and Pacific oceans. No longer do we think of them as two separate oceans. In Africa a high-speed railway connects the two coasts, traversing Djibouti, Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Cameroon in under twenty hours. Trade between Africa, Asia, and South America increasingly uses this route.

Historian David Graeber adds, “There’s every reason to believe that, from China’s point of view, this is the first stage of a very long process of reducing the United States to something like a traditional Chinese client state”.

Taiwanese polls on Ma vs. Tsai

By now, everyone has heard of both Ma’s and Tsai’s trip. Ma Ying-Jeou went to China, while Tsai Ing-Wen went to the United States. How did both politicians fare in the eyes of the Taiwanese people? Let’s find out.

On a scale of 1 to 10, both politicians scored fairly similarly, but Ma did beat Tsai. Ma’s score is 5.66, versus Tsai’s 5.56
Ma scored exceptionally low among DPP supporters, with an average score of only 3.59
Tsai, however, did not score as poorly among KMT supporters, with an average score of 4.14 (although that’s still not a good score)
Tsai Ing-Wen scored the highest in southern Taiwan (not surprising at all, as that’s where DPP support is strongest), with an average score of 6.11
Very surprisingly, though, Ma scored the worst in eastern Taiwan and the outlying islands, with a dismal score of 5.1. Yilan is the only green county in that region, so it’s understandable. But Hualien, Taitung, Kinmen, and Matsu are absurdly blue and generally considered the most pro-China regions; I’m not sure why Ma scored so poorly among the pro-China crowds.
- Even freaking Tainan and Chiayi, the greenest places in all of Taiwan, gave Ma a better score of 5.52!
44.1% say Ma did a better job of handling relationships with China, compared to only 36.9% for Tsai.
48.8% of the people surveyed said they support the 1992 Consensus, while 44.1% opposed it
62.3% say there should be more dialogue between China and Taiwan for peace, while only 23.1% are against more dialogue (this one scares me. Although most people support dialogue, it’s a bit scary that almost a quarter of all Taiwanese do not want any dialogue)
50.3% say Taiwan should maintain a cautious distance between both China and America. 38.4% say Taiwan should only be pro-America, while only 6.9% say Taiwan should be pro-China

You know, despite Lai Ching-Te and the DPP absolutely dominating the KMT in all polls, it’s quite surprising that when asked about the policies that differentiate KMT and DPP supporters the most, the Taiwanese society seems incredibly divided. In fact, right now, slightly more Taiwanese actually prefer the KMT’s methods of handling Cross Strait relationships. This tells me that KMT being down in the polls isn’t so much that Taiwanese voters are anti-China, but more like the KMT is behaving like a bunch of morons (or maybe because Lai is just that charismatic and sexy)

US Dollar Is NO MORE | 19 Countries Want to Join BRICS

Havrylov Predicts …

Havrylov’s predictions:

Ukraine says whole of Russia will ‘panic’ when counteroffensive begins: ‘They will suffer the consequences’ – Independent, May 8, 2023

In an interview with The Independent, deputy defence minister Volodymyr Havrylov was deliberately vague about the timing of the counteroffensive, which is expected imminently as the mud and rains of spring give way to more favourable fighting conditions.
…
“We will launch our counteroffensive – when and where it doesn’t matter now,” he said. “[And when that happens] Russia will be in panic; you will see a lot of panic. They still don’t understand that [their] propaganda is demonstrating a false picture of what is actually happening on the ground. This war will be won on the ground, not on the TV screens, not on the internet.”

Previous Havrylov predictions:

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister predicts war will be over by ‘end of spring’ next year – Yahoo, Nov 20, 2022

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Volodymyr Havrylov said during an interview with Sky News that he thinks the country’s war with Russia will likely be over by “the end of spring” next year, saying that “it’s the maximum time” the Russian troops have. “Intuition” said the minister, when asked what drew him to the conclusion.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister flags pre-Christmas capture of Crimea as he predicts end of war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia forces in northern Spring – SkyNews, Nov 21, 2022

Ukrainian retired general and deputy defence minister Volodymyr Havrylov has predicted his country’s forces could take back Crimea by Christmas and end the war in early 2023.
…
Mr Havrylov has forecast further Ukrainian victories well into winter, arguing his country would not welcome peace talks until it had recaptured every inch of land.

Posted by b at 11:53 UTC | Comments (229)

Why are people still holding onto the worthless US Dollar?

The Superb Retro Inspired Collages by Figaro Many

His name is Tomasz aka Figaro Many, hailing from a small town in Poland. Tomasz began creating collages a year ago and it quickly turned into his passion. He enjoys merging the styles of vintage ads, posters, or magazine covers with something unconventional that appears amusing or provocative. Additionally, Tomasz has interests in music and movies.

More: Instagram

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Hot Tamale Pie

This pie is a layered version of the popular Mexican tamales. Easy to put together for a weekday meal. Complete the meal with a tossed green salad.

Prep: 20 min | Cook: 30 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 1/3 cups water
1 large onion, chopped
1 red or yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 (2 1/2 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Instructions

In a bowl combine the cornmeal, 1/2 cup cold water, salt, cumin and red pepper.
In medium saucepan bring the 1 1/3 cups water to a boil. Slowly add cornmeal mixture; stirring constantly to make sure it does not lump. Return to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat and cook for 10 minutes or until very thick, stirring occasionally.
Spread the hot cornmeal mixture into a greased 7 x 12 inch casserole.
Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet cook the pork, onion and sweet pepper until pork is browned and vegetables tender.
Stir in beans, enchilada sauce and olives. Bring to a boil.
Spoon the pork mixture over the cornmeal layer in the casserole, cover and bake in a 350 degrees F oven for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle with cheese; bake uncovered for 3 minutes longer or until cheese melts.

World’s Biggest Pulp Producer Suzano Considers Trading With China in Yuan

The tide is unstoppable. Do not be surprised with the speed of US economic collapse. If all the barbarian nations disarmed this way, it will be a blessing to humanity. 

Suzano SA, the biggest producer of hardwood pulp, is considering selling its products to China priced in yuan, adding to signs that the dollar is losing its dominance in commodity markets.

China’s currency is growing in importance and smaller customers there are requiring deals linked to the renminbi, Suzano Chief Executive Office Walter Schalka said in an interview from Bloomberg’s New 。。。。

Article HERE

It is a new world that we are moving towards – no freedom to speak and a hidden reality denied you

Well, Tucker Carlson was fired at FOX. At the same time, the ax fell on CNN. Now blogger Gonzalo Lira is arrested and silenced.

Some one, probably a “leader / dictator” in the United States gave “the order”. Sort of like this…

The Sopranos ordering hits

Chile Verde

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 pounds pork shoulder (bite-size cubes)
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
2 (4 ounce) cans diced green chiles
1 cup water
Salt to taste

Instructions

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil in a Dutch oven.
Remove onion and garlic and brown meat in same pan.
Return onion and garlic to meat, along with other ingredients.
Cook slowly for one hour (or until meat is done).

Notes

This is best prepared a day in advance. To reheat, simmer 30 minutes.

RUSSIANS LITERALLY INCINERATING BAKHMUT

World Hal Turner 05 May 2023

Within the past 60 minutes, Russian artillery surrounding what is left of Bakhmut, has begun firing Thermite Incendiery shells upon the **entire** area still occupied by Ukrainian troops. Whatever is left of the city after months of fierce fighting, is being incinerated.

As of 6:30 PM EDT on 5 May 2023, it is not known how many Ukrainian troops remain in the city, or how **any** of them can survive this onslaught.

Video from a Ukraine military drone over Bakhmut:

UPDATE 7:58 PM EDT —

Social media Geeks have been geo-locating the video images. Here’s what they’ve found:

And confirmed via NASA Satellite detection of the fires:

Video from Ukrainian soldiers ON THE GROUND as these shells hit:

Machaca (Shredded Beef)

Ingredients

1 (2 pound) beef chuck roast
Water, to cover meat
1/2 onion, sliced
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can Ro*Tel tomatoes and green chiles
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
Flour tortillas

Instructions

Simmer meat, onion and black pepper in water until very tender, about 2 hours.
Drain, and cool until meat is cool enough to handle.
Discard bone and fat; shred meat.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook until onion is soft, 4-5 minutes.
In a blender, puree Ro*Tel tomatoes (including liquid), tomato sauce, spices and salt. Add to meat. Simmer until meat absorbs most of sauce, 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve with warm flour tortillas and sour cream, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, diced tomato and salsa.

AI Takes Over Photography, Humans Forced to Find New Hobbies

Who needs humans to make things when we have AI-generated photos? Apparently, even ice cream can grow naturally in this brave new world. But if you’re wondering why the ice cream harvest only happens at night, it’s probably because it’s too scared of melting in the sun. Or maybe it’s just a winter crop, who knows? One thing’s for sure though, if these pictures were real, we’d all be a lot chubbier. Thank goodness for AI, keeping us in shape while fooling us with its realistic imagery.

h/t: sadanduseless

Military shake up after Prigozhin video

In my opinion, Jevgenij Prigozjin showed us a face of very serious human being , who in this very moment lost men unnecessarily, for idiot reasons. 

And I am sure that he is on the right side of the fence. 

He is a caring person and as I understand, both to civilians and to the enemies, trying to save as many as possible.  

A great man, in a really big anger and sorrow for losing his men. I think that many military are like him, but they don't show it in public. 

They take their own lives instead,

Indonesia rebuffs Australia, turns to Brazil for live cattle imports

Endless Greed, arrogant, selfishness, and stupidity will end up with no friend in the coming civilised world order. 

Australia’s monopoly on live cattle exports to Indonesia is coming to an end with Brazil expected to get the green light in coming months.

High prices for Australian cattle have prompted Indonesia to look for alternative supplies and Brazil, the largest exporter of beef worldwide, has promised to....

Article HERE

CLAIMS: UKRAINE “COUNTER-OFFENSIVE” TO “START WITHIN SEVERAL HOURS”

World Hal Turner 05 May 2023

Rumors have been circulating most of today claiming the much-vaunted “Ukraine Counter-Offensive” would begin in earnest “very soon.” Those rumors have now coalesced to statements that claim EITHER a) The counter-offensive will begin in several hours today, OR; b) It will begin this Sunday.

Here’s as snippet of what’s appearing all day on social media:

What is clearly factual is that Authorities in Russian controlled Zaporozyhe have ORDERED 70,000 civilians to “evacuate immediately.”

That evacuation is now clearly evident in traffic jams leading OUT of Melitopol, heading into Crimea. Worse, there are “miles long lines” at gas stations with people trying to put fuel in their cars to make the evacuation trip. (As usual, the “masses” are totally unprepared and now struggling to do what is needed.)

The fact that citizens are being told to evacuate from RUSSIAN-CONTROLLED areas is both good and bad. It is good to get the civilians out of the way if Russia KNOWS the battles will be fought there. It is also bad because it signals big questions about whether Russia can defend the land it conquered.

ALLEGED INTEL

One source tells me that a map was ALLEGEDLY sent to him by Kyrylo Budanov showing the counter-offensive battle plan. I am HIGHLY suspicious of this claim.

The map, shown below, seems to indicate a massive Ukrainian counter-offensive emanating from Zaporozhye, south:

It seems to me that no military leader worth his salt, would EVER reveal an operational plan to a “friend” before it began.

Yet, I can’t help but realize that stupid is, as stupid does, and if nothing else, the leadership of Ukraine and its military seem to me to be actually STUPID.

So I guess this map may be real. Perhaps we’ll all find out, soon enough.

The supposed “ Plan” for the Ukrainian Offensive looks eerily like the same rough plan they tried in 2014 against the “rebels.”

When they hit stiff resistance in the cities (especially Tomsk) they will bypass it, and get caught just like in Debaltsevo in 2014.

Since the EVACUATION is factual and verified, clearly there is something “up” and we may all see the SHTF as early as tonight.

‘Nearly A Third Of The World Economy Is Now Subject To Sanctions’

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) just published a study about:

The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions.

These numbers though are astonishing:

Over the past six decades, there has been significant growth in the use of economic sanctions by Western powers and international organizations. Less than 4 percent of countries were subject to sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union, or United Nations in the early 1960s; today, that share has risen to 27 percent. 

The magnitudes are similar when we consider their impact on the global economy: the share of world GDP produced in sanctioned countries rose from less than 4 percent to 29 percent in the same period. 

In other words, more than one fourth of countries and nearly a third of the world economy is now subject to sanctions by the UN or Western nations.

Posted by b at 15:31 UTC | Comments (45)

Gonzalo Lira arrested by Ukronazis

World Hal Turner 05 May 2023

Prolific Reporter/Journalist/Commentator Gonzalo Lira, whose videos from Ukraine about the ongoing war are viewed by millions, HAS BEEN ARRESTED by Ukrainian NAZI Secret Police.

SECRET POLICE VIDEO

The video above was recorded by Ukrainian Police. IT was released by them; as a warning to other Journalists or even opinion commentators, to keep your mouth shut.

THIS is what “Ukraine” is.

THIS is what “Ukraine” does.

Anyone supporting Ukraine is a NAZI SYMPATHIZER or NAZI COLLABORATOR.

Start calling them those things. Publicly.

UPDATE 2:18 PM EDT —

The Ukrainian Secret Police have issued a Statement which was auto-translated below:

His last video prior to his arrest

On The Hypocrisy Of The New EU Sanction Regime

Once upon a time the European Union rejected secondary sanctions which the U.S. used to press third party countries to follow its sanction regimes against other once:

Making use of the centrality of the US in the global economy, it has imposed ‘secondary sanctions’ on foreign firms, which are forced to choose between trading with US sanctions targets or forfeiting access to the lucrative US market. In addition, the US has penalized foreign firms for breaching US sanctions legislation.

To counter these extraterritorial measures the EU introduced a blocking mechanism:

The lawfulness of these sanctions could be contested before various domestic and international judicial mechanisms, although each mechanism comes with its own limitations. To counter the adverse effects of secondary sanctions, third states and the EU can also make use of, and have already made use of, various non-judicial mechanisms, such as blocking statutes, special purpose vehicles to circumvent the reach of sanctions, or even countermeasures.

Blocking statutes prohibit EU companies from complying with U.S. sanctions:

Pursuant to Art. 5(1) of the EU Blocking Regulation, EU operators are prohibited from complying “with any requirement or prohibition, including requests of foreign courts, based on or resulting, directly or indirectly” from a set of foreign sanctions laws deemed to apply extraterritorially by the European Union, “or from actions based thereon or resulting therefrom.” The laws in question are listed in the Regulation’s Annex; currently, all are US statutes. Art. 5(2) provides that the European Commission (the Commission) may, upon request, authorize EU operators to comply fully or partially with these laws, to the extent that noncompliance would seriously damage their interests or those of the European Union.In 2018, the Commission updated the Annex of the EU Blocking Regulation to include the (reimposed) US secondary sanctions against Iran. It also adopted an Implementing Regulation laying down the criteria that would be taken into account for the granting of compliance authorizations, and issued a Guidance Note on the application of the reactivated EU Blocking Regulation.

The blocking statute was used to reject sanctions the U.S. instated against Iran after the U.S. left the nuclear agreement.

Now however, the conflict in Ukraine has seemingly killed any resistance in the EU against illegal acts from the U.S. In fact the EU has now gone mad and is itself considering the introduction of extraterritorial measures against countries which do not follow its own sanction regime against Russia:

The European Union is discussing a new sanctions mechanism to target third countries it believes aren’t doing enough to prevent Russia from evading sanctions, particularly those that can’t explain spikes in trade of key goods or technologies, according to people familiar with the matter.The primary aim of the tool would be to deter countries from helping Russia and crack down on trade channels that Moscow may be exploiting, the people said. If that doesn’t work, the bloc would have the option as a second step of imposing targeted restrictions on key goods.
…
The new enforcement mechanism, aspects of which were first reported by the Financial Times, would give member states the authority to create two lists — one of affected third countries and the other of banned goods.

If the mechanism is approved by national governments, decisions on which countries and goods to list would be for member states to take unanimously, the people said. The measures were unlikely to target China at first, but focus mostly on nations in central Asia and Russia’s immediate neighbors, the people added.

Elsewhere, the proposed package would make it easier to sanction companies in third countries that are circumventing the EU’s sanctions.

The EU politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels are killing their own moral defense against the U.S. application of secondary sanctions against third parties.

How will they ever be able to again argue for their own blocking statute. Moreover what will they do when third party countries, like Turkey or China, introduce their own blocking statutes against secondary EU sanctions on their companies?

Posted by b at 15:31 UTC | Comments (51)

Leopard Tanks Arrive By Rail in Odessa

World Hal Turner 05 May 2023

Images (above and below) have appeared on social media showing either Leopard 2A4 or 2A6 tanks, on a train in Odessa. Odessa is a terminal railhead for trains coming from Romania.

It is not known if these tanks are to be used for an Amphibious landing into Crimea, or if they will be used elsewhere, but here they are:

AIR RAID SIRENS IN UKRAINE

World Hal Turner 05 May 2023

It appears Russia is commencing its retaliation for the Drone attack upon the Kremlin. Multiple fighter/bombers and strategic Bombers are in the air. Air launched cruise missiles already inbound to Ukraine! Live updates below . . .

Reports of several TU-95Ms bombers airborne. Seems to be flying in radio silence mode.

Kirovohrad region, air raid alert! – Regional Military Administration. Proceed to the shelters.

Ukrainian sources report on the launch of X-101 cruise missiles from over the Caspian sea, no missiles currently over Ukraine however.

Multiple Ukrainian sources are reporting missile launches from Russian strategic bombers.

CONFIRMED: 4 Tu-22M3s have taken off . . .

FILE PHOTO:

10:31 AM EDT —

Additional missile launches reported from the Caspian Sea. NOTE: It takes a while before these missiles reach Ukraine.

The Russian strategic bombers have switched to combat frequency.

Air raid sirens sounding in Kyiv. Head to the nearest shelter.

Residents report explosions in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. We are waiting for the official information.

Kyiv city, Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions, air raid alert! – Regional Military Administration. Proceed to the shelters.

10:34 AM EDT —

An air alert declared in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine.

Ukrainian TG channels report RuAF missile launches from the area of the Caspian Sea

Missiles over Kharkiv and Donetsk oblast.

10:38 AM EDT —

Russian strategic bombers are firing missiles at front-line areas in eastern Ukraine. Many explosions reported in Kramatorsk. I can’t remember this happening before.

More on air alerts in Ukraine: Ships with launch vehicles left the Black Sea. A massive launch on Ukraine is expected. There are already explosions in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Strategic aviation was also raised into the sky.

Reports of Russian Kh-22 missiles hitting Ukrainian targets Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk.

10:48 AM EDT —

Loud speakers in the Zaporizhia region inform residents that they need to evacuate. An estimated 70,000 residents will be forced to evacuate.

It looks like Slavyansk and Kramatorsk were hit hard.

Kamikaze drones towards Kyiv and Poltava, not missiles.

11:34 AM EDT —

The head of the Nikolaev region, Vitaliy Kim, urged local residents not to film or post on the Internet the movement of Ukrainian military equipment in the region in the near future.

Russian Kh-22 missile hit the NKMZ machine-building and steel-making plant in Kramatorsk:

Ramzan Kadyrov says Chechen forces will replace Wagner in Bakhmut

Blast Off into Hilarious Sci-Fi with These Humorous and Creative Posters

@SmallWorlds’ Twitter account is on a mission to make 2023 a little bit funnier with their daily sci-fi story idea posters. These clever and hilarious ideas will keep you entertained for the whole year. Some of the concepts may even surprise you (but not in a weird way, you pervert!). Check out our top picks below and get ready to blast off into a world of laughter and creativity.

More: Twitter h/t: sadanduseless

British Army General: Britain Has only 22 HOURS of Ammunition for War

World Hal Turner 05 May 2023

British General Rupert Jones publicly stated today “We have ammunition for only 22 hours of a great war. He warned that Great Britain and its allies are extremely UNPREPARED for a serious war.

One may have already gleaned that from the fact the entire British Army has only 77,000 troops; not even enough to fill Wembley Stadium in London!

This being the case, why is Britain poking the Russian Bear so aggressively in Ukraine? Clearly Britain cannot defend itself.

It seems to most educated observers that the British seem to be trying to commit national suicide with what they’re doing in Ukraine.

Of course Russia is likely aware of the actual lack of British strength and has thus far not responded militarily to what the Brits have been doing with Ukraine. In fact, it seems to even the village idiot that all Russia has to do is to ignore Britain and watch that nation kill itself!

Much the same can be said of ALL of the NATO nations. With the exception of the US, much of NATO is nothing but a military paper tiger.

The US, though, is not in much better shape. It has sent hundreds of tons of ammunition, countless rockets and missiles, and literal boatloads of military equipment; most of which Russia has already destroyed on Ukraine battlefields.

The much vaunted Ukraine “Counter-offensive” has yet to materialize in any meaningful way. Ukrainian troops are surrendering en-masse in places like Bakhmut.

Ukraine has already LOST this conflict. It should surrender. Today.

Zelenski’s Regime Is Finished

Yesterday’s drone attack on the Kremlin (and other installations) mark the end of the Zelenski regime. While Russia had so far refrained from regime change in Kiev it will now have to pursue it.

The former prime minister of Israel Naftali Bennet had reported that president Putin had promised him not to hit Zelenski:

“I knew Zelensky was under threat, in a bunker… I said to [Putin], ‘Do you intend to kill Zelensky?’ He said, ‘I won’t kill Zelensky,’” Bennett recalled in the interview, which was published on his own YouTube channel.
…
Bennett said he called the Ukrainian president immediately after the three-hour encounter with Putin, and told him, “I’ve just come out of a meeting — [Putin] is not going to kill you.“[Zelensky] asked me, ‘Are you sure?’ I said 100 percent. [Putin’s] not going to kill you.”

Bennett recalled: “Two hours later, Zelensky went to his office, and did a selfie in the office, [in which the Ukrainian president said,] ‘I’m not afraid.’”

Well, now he has very good reason to again be afraid, very afraid. As former ambassador MK Bhadrakumar writes:

Make no mistake, this is a tipping point; the clumsy attempt on Putin’s life jolts the kaleidoscope beyond recognition. The only comforting thought is that the Kremlin leadership is not going to be driven by emotion. The considered Kremlin reaction is available from the remarks by the Russian Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov:“How would Americans react if a drone hit the White House, the Capitol or the Pentagon? The answer is obvious for any politician as well as for an average citizen: the punishment will be harsh and inevitable.”

The ambassador went on to draw the bottom line: “Russia will respond to this insolent and presumptuous terrorist attack. We will answer when we consider it necessary. We will answer in accordance with the assessments of the threat that Kiev posed to the leadership of our country.”

I agree with Bhadrakumar that there will be no knee-jerk reaction from Moscow. But public opinion in Russia demands that there will be payback for the attack and against anyone involved in it.

Putin’s hands are tied beyond a point when the country is in rage and demanding retribution, as evident from the comments by former Russian President and current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev: “After today’s terrorist attack, there are no options left except for the physical elimination of Zelensky and his clique.”

That Zelenski fled to Finland, then to the Netherlands and Germany after the drones hit the Kremlin is a sure sign of his complicity in the act.

When (if?) he comes back to Kiev it will be bunker life for the rest of his reign.

Posted by b on May 4, 2023 at 16:08 UTC | Permalink

Deputy Foreign Minister: “US and Russia on the Abyss of Open, Armed Conflict” and Washington “Should Think About Its Own Safety”

World Hal Turner 05 May 2023

After the recent drone incident at the Kremlin, which Moscow has called a US-backed attempt by Ukraine to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, the US and Russia are on the verge of a shooting war with each other, a senior Russian diplomat has said.

“We are working on preventing a fall of our relations with the US into the abyss of an open armed conflict,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in a TV interview on Friday. “We are already on the verge of this abyss.”

Ryabkov described officials in Washington as “opponents” and “enemies” of Russia due to what he called Russophobic policies which are being pursued in spite of the risks.

“The anger and hatred towards Russia with which Washington acts in a situation in which it frankly should think of its own safety, is inexplicable,” he said.

At the moment, “no real diplomacy” regarding the Ukraine conflict is possible between the two nations, because the US “has bet on further escalation,” according to Ryabkov.

The deputy foreign minister said Washington tends to dismiss the statements of Russian officials, citing remarks made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding Russia’s claim that Ukraine was behind the drone attack on the Kremlin.

“I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt,” Blinken told the Washington Post.

“We leave it to Ukraine to decide how it is going to defend itself,” he added. Kiev denies having any involvement in the attack on the Kremlin.

The US government is treating “any signals coming from Moscow as an element of a disinformation campaign,” Ryabkov said. Meanwhile, Russia is “literally ready to use any means at its disposal” to deter threats to its security and the safety of its leadership, he added.

He also reiterated the Russian claims that Washington shares responsibility with Kiev for the incident, which the US denies. Their statements of non-involvement are “not convincing anyone,” and are reminiscent of “how they attempted to pretty much blame us for the bombing of the Nord Stream,” Ryabkov said.

“IT COULD START IN HOURS”- Russian Official, EVACUATION Underway, Nuclear Plant Incident Likely

Chorizo and Cheese Empanadas with Avocado Crema

Empanadas stuffed with ground pork, chiles, onion and a superb mixture of spices. An avocado, sour cream, cilantro and lime sauce is the perfect complement to these empanadas.

Prep: 25 min | Cook: 2 hr | Marinate: 12 hr | Yield: 48 to 64 servings

Ingredients

Empanadas

1 pound ground pork
2 pasilla chile peppers, or other mild dried red chiles*
1 guajillo chile pepper, or other mild dried red chile*
1 onion, cut into large chunks
4 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pound queso blanco, or other mild, semi-hard cheese, grated
Empanada dough, or store-bought empanada shells to make about 48 (6 inch) or 64 (5 inch) empanadas**
All-purpose flour, for the work surface
About 6 cups canola oil

Avocado Crema

1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and quartered
1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons sour cream
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, toast the chiles, turning occasionally, until blistered and fragrant, 4 to 5 minutes.
Transfer the chiles to a bowl of hot water, cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
Remove the chiles from the water and stem and seed them.
Place the chiles, onion, vinegar and garlic in the bowl of a food processor or the jar of a blender and process to purée, scraping down the bowl or jar as needed.
Transfer the chile mixture to a large bowl and add the pork, paprika, oregano, salt, coriander, cumin, pepper and cinnamon, mixing until well combined.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the pork mixture, breaking it up with a spoon or spatula, until no longer pink, 5 to 6 minutes.
Set aside to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor, combine avocado, cilantro, sour cream, lime juice and olive oil and process to purée, scraping down the bowl as necessary.
Add salt to taste and set aside in the refrigerator.
Stir the cheese into the pork mixture.
Arrange a 5- or 6-inch round of empanada dough or an empanada shell on a lightly floured work surface.
Spoon 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of pork mixture on top, moisten the edges of the shell with water, and fold the shell over the filling, pressing it with a fork to seal.
Repeat with the remaining shells and pork mixture, flouring the work surface as ncessary.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees F.
Arrange two or three paper towel-lined baking sheets in the oven.
Pour canola oil into a large, heavy saucepan or small stockpot to 1 inch deep and warm it to 350 degrees F over medium heat.
Cook the empanadas in batches, turning occasionally and adjusting the heat to maintain 350 degrees F, until golden, 3 to 4 minutes.
Transfer to the prepared baking sheets to keep warm.
Serve the empanadas with the avocado crema on the side.

Notes

* Look for dried chiles in the ethnic section of your supermarket and at Latin markets.

** Use Michelle’s empanada dough recipe or look for empanada shells—preferably muy hojadrosa (“very flaky”) style—at Latin markets, at gourmet food stores, and online.

Empanadas make a deliciously different lunch or dinner and need nothing more than a crisp green salad on the side. They’re also perfect for parties, right at home with other hot or cold appetizers. To make this recipe more quickly, substitute Mexican-style chorizo for the meat mixture. If you prefer, you can bake the empanadas instead of frying them.

China has a new semiconductor chip and OS, both are based on an RISC-V architecture which is open-source.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has unveiled a new high-performance processor chip and a new operating system, based on the popular open-source chip design standard known as RISC-V.

main qimg ab0540604c228eb81df8887c34f7e3ef

The chip has been named Xiangshan open-source high performance RISC-V processor, while the operating system is called Aolai.

These technological achievements represent China’s commitment to building an open-source chip ecosystem with a new blueprint to support its digital economy and promote international cooperation in chip development, experts and officials said on Friday.

For decades, computer chip designs have been expensive and hard to license. Global chip designers, such as Intel and ARM, have long kept their blueprints a secret, meaning consumers had to buy manufactured chips directly or pay more for a customized design.

RISC-V, which means an instruction set architecture rooted in reduced instruction set computer principles, has been open and free to use since its launch in 2010 and everyone can use it to design a chip tailored to their needs. As a result, MIT Technology Review named the chip design as one of the breakthrough technologies of 2023.

About 3,100 members worldwide, including companies and academic institutions, are now adopting the new design to build RISC-V chips, according to MIT Technology Review. “In a few years, RISC-V proponents predict, the chips will be everywhere,” the publication said.

Yin Hejun, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said during a session of the 2023 Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing that processor chips are the foundation of information technology and the digital economy.

Over the past four decades, open-source software ecosystems have revolutionized the global information technology industry.

Some notable examples include Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and PDF, all of which are based on open standards whose design specifications are publicly available, allowing consumers and product makers to access the same functions across various devices.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences attaches great importance to building open-source technology ecosystems. In 2018, the academy launched the China RISC-V Alliance to facilitate the construction of a RISC-V ecosystem.

In the future, the academy will continue to support innovations based on RISC-V, enhance international cooperation, and foster new industries and applications using the new design to strengthen the global chip supply chain and open-source ecosystem, Yin said.

Yu Yingjie, vice-mayor of Beijing, said RISC-V, x86 and ARM are becoming the three pillars of the global chip ecosystem, creating new opportunities.

The city will take advantage of its rich resources in human, policy and capital to create a high-quality open-source chip industrial hub that can yield innovation and contribute to the development of the global information technology sector, he said.

Sun Ninghui, a noted computer scientist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the Chinese Academy of Sciences had been developing open-source processor chips since 2015, achieving multiple breakthroughs and cementing China’s position as a global front-runner in open-source processors.

The Xiangshan chip and Aolai operating system are two notable achievements that showcase China’s commitment to strengthening the global chip supply chain and creating an open-source chip ecosystem that can benefit the world, he said.

5 MINUTES AGO, This is BREAKING news for the U.S.! with Clayton Morris

https://youtu.be/-QMpWJe5UJg

Relax and enjoy the entry into the new normal

“If the United States does not hit the brakes, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation,”

– Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang

Ah, the people of the United States, living in the manipulation bubble, cannot see what they are doing. They think that it is normal. Right. Just..

While we HAVE passed the crisis pivot point, we still must deal with 5 – 10 years of conflict that eventually evolves into grudging change.

So yeah. Nuclear bombs, military fighting, monetary collapse and all the rest are realities that are on the horizon. It’s just that the point where the West can do as it wants and successfully get away with it is well over. At this point in time, everything is lose-lose for the West. Everything.

And the sooner the “leaders” realize the hopelessness of the situation, the quicker change be implemented.

But…

They are high on egos, and drugs. They haven’t a clue as to how bizarre their actions appear to the rest of the world.

Australians need to wake up fast the US/UK is using it as a patsy to goad China, which is one of it main trading partners.

“The US government is permitted to have nuclear weapons in Australia. What’s more, Australians are not permitted to know whether or not this is happening. What’s more, not even Australia’s elected senators are permitted to know whether this is happening. It’s assumed to be none of Australia’s business whether there are foreign nuclear weapons in Australia.”

Article HERE

I Went To The Worst Place In Arkansas

Pine Bluff. Yeah. I attended ADC there.

US elites have plan to split Russia – security chief

The efforts are part of Washington’s desperate attempts to retain hegemony, Nikolay Patrushev has claimed

The US and its allies are seeking to preserve their power by dismantling Russia, with Western think tanks busy formulating the necessary plans, the secretary of Moscow’s Security Council has claimed.

In an interview published by the Izvestia newspaper on Wednesday, Nikolay Patrushev said the West was attempting to influence the global order through “the destruction of Russia or its weakening to the level of a third-rate country under foreign management.”

He cited a book published last year and titled ‘Failed State: A Guide to Russia’s Rupture’ as an example of academic work which suggests ways of achieving that goal for the elites in Washington.

The purported plan is to “support instability in nations neighboring Russia” and to conduct information warfare to “fan internal separatism,” Patrushev added.

The book was written by Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at conservative Washington-based think tank The Jamestown Foundation. The author made the case for the dissolution of Russia, claiming it had failed to become “a nation state, a civic state or a stable imperial state.”

Bugajski cited a range of factors that supposedly work against Russia, including a lack of economic growth, inequality, distrust in government institutions, the alienation of the population from the ruling elites, and “disbelief in official propaganda.”

The academic is a veteran critic of Moscow who has consulted the Pentagon and the US Agency for International Development, and according to his bio taught a course at the Foreign Service Institute at the State Department.

Patrushev claimed that the West is seeking to weaken Russian sovereignty to gain access to and exploit its vast natural resources. However, Moscow’s adversaries underestimate “the strength of our nation and the will of the Russian people to be independent,” the security official insisted.

He further alleged that Russia’s opponents are aiming to undermine the foundations of its national identity by promoting harmful ideas such as gender diversity and by attempting to revise history.

Patrushev argued that this policy actually alienates those in the West who value tradition and are not susceptible to anti-Russian propaganda. He suggested that these people are welcome to move to Russia and become citizens, as long as they respect local laws and culture.

Everyday Barbacoa Beef

This Everyday Beef Barbacoa is versatile and can be served on tortillas, chips or lettuce.

Ingredients

Beef

3-5 pounds beef cheek or chuck roast, cut into 4 inch pieces
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice
1 cup water
1/2 can chipotle in adobo, diced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, diced

Optional

Tortillas
Cilantro
Onion
Lime wedges

Instructions

Combine all ingredients into a large bowl. Cover and marinate for 2 to 24 hours.
Add marinated beef and leftover marinade to cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or until fork tender.
Carefully remove beef from cooker with little sauce as possible. Placing on a cutting board, shred beef with two forks and return to cooker. Cook for additional 10 minutes to absorb remaining liquid.
If desired, crisp meat in a cast-iron skillet before serving.

Clutch Cargo: The Low-Budget Cartoon Phenomenon

The CIA used 5 methods to plan “color revolutions” in at least 50 countries

This is the most comprehensive report on the US intelligence agency CIA that I have ever seen. A masterpiece of investigative journalism.
The Paper (澎湃新闻; Péngpài Xīnwén, literally “Rising News” is a Chinese digital newspaper owned and operated by the Shanghai United Media Group.

In the meantime, China continues to work diligently on systems to recognize and counter the color revolutions organized by the CIA.

Entire Paper HERE

English translation:

Report disclosure:

The CIA used 5 methods to plan “color revolutions” in at least 50 countries

CCTV News 2023-05-04 12:05

Global News
Investigation report:
A large number of Trojan horse programs for cyber attacks on China are linked to the CIA

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a more well-known name than the National Security Agency (NSA), is one of the main intelligence agencies of the US federal government. It is headquartered in Langley, Virginia, USA. The Intelligence Division (DI), the Covert Operations Division (NCS), the Technology Division (DS&T), and the Support Division (DS) are four departments. Its main business scope involves: collecting intelligence information of foreign governments, companies and citizens; comprehensively analyzing and processing intelligence information collected by other US intelligence agencies; providing national security intelligence and security risk assessment opinions to high-level US decision makers; organizing implementation and Guiding and supervising cross-border secret activities, etc.

For a long time, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has secretly implemented “peaceful evolution” and “color revolutions” around the world, and has continued to carry out espionage and stealing activities.

Since entering the 21st century, the rapid development of the Internet has provided new opportunities for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to infiltrate, subvert and sabotage activities. Organizations and individuals using US Internet equipment and software products around the world have become (CIA)’s puppet “agents”, helping the agency quickly become a dazzling “star” in the cyber espionage war.

This series of reports starts with a large number of real cases that 360 and the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center participated in the investigation, reveals the main details of their network attack weapons, and discloses the specific process of some typical network security cases that occurred in China and other countries. It is comprehensive and in-depth. This paper analyzes the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)’s cyber attack stealing and related real-life harm activities, as well as its contribution to the United States becoming a “Matrix”, and provides reference and suggestions for victims of cyber attacks all over the world.

Overview

From the impact of the international socialist camp in the 1980s, the upheaval in the Soviet Union and the East (“Velvet Revolution”) in the early 1990s to the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia in 2003, from the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine in 2004 to the “Tulip Revolution” in Kyrgyzstan in 2005, From the “Arab Spring” in West Asian and North African countries in 2011 to the “Second Color Revolution” in Ukraine in 2014 and the “Sunflower Revolution” in Taiwan, China, they were all recognized by international organizations and scholars around the world as “color revolutions” dominated by US intelligence agencies. Revolution” typical case. There have also been attempted “color revolutions” in some other countries, such as the “Snowflake Revolution” in Belarus in March 2005, the “Orange Storm” in Azerbaijan in June 2005, the “Cedar Revolution” in Lebanon in 2005, and the “Saffron Revolution” in Myanmar in 2007. “, Iran’s “Green Revolution” in 2009, and so on. If we count from the Cold War period, there are countless regime change events with the color of “peaceful evolution” and “color revolution”. According to statistics, over the past few decades, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has overthrown or attempted to overthrow at least 50 legitimate governments of other countries (while the CIA has only admitted 7 of them), causing turmoil in related countries.

Comprehensive analysis of various technologies in the above-mentioned incidents shows that information communication and on-site command become the decisive factors affecting the success or failure of the incident. These technologies of the United States are in a leading position in the world. Especially in the 1980s, the United States promoted the Internet to the world and was generally accepted by countries all over the world.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Albright once threatened: “With the Internet, we have a way to deal with China.”

This statement is true, many “color revolution” incidents have the shadow of Western powers fueling the flames with the help of the Internet. After the “Arab Spring” incidents in many countries in West Asia and North Africa, some large American multinational Internet companies actively intervened, invested a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources to all parties to the conflict, wooed and supported the opposition, and publicly challenged the legitimate governments of other countries that did not match the interests of the United States. Assist in the dissemination of false information, and promote the intensification of public protests.

One is to provide encrypted network communication services. In order to help protesters in some countries in the Middle East keep in touch and avoid being tracked and arrested, an American company (reportedly with a background in the US military) has developed a TOR technology that can access the Internet and is untraceable (“Onion head” routing technology, The Onion Router). The servers in question encrypt all information that flows through them, helping certain users to surf the web anonymously. After the project was launched by American companies, it was immediately provided free of charge to anti-government personnel in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and other countries to ensure that those “dissident youth who want to shake their own government’s rule” can avoid the scrutiny and monitor.

The second is to provide offline communication services. In order to ensure that anti-government personnel in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries can still keep in touch with the outside world, Google and Twitter quickly launched a special service called “Speak2Tweet”, which allows users to dial and upload voice for free Leave a message, these messages are automatically converted into tweets and then uploaded to the Internet, Twitter and other platforms for public release, completing the real-time report on the scene of the incident.

The third is to provide on-site command tools for rallies and parades based on the Internet and wireless communications. The RAND Corporation of the United States has spent several years developing a non-traditional regime change technology called “swarming”, which is used to help a large number of young people connected through the Internet join the mobile protests of “one shot for another place”, greatly Improve the efficiency of on-site command of the event.

Fourth, an American company has developed a software called “Riot”, which supports 100% independent wireless broadband network, provides variable Wi-Fi network, does not rely on any traditional physical access methods, and does not require telephone, cable or satellite connections. Can easily evade any form of government surveillance. With the help of the above-mentioned powerful network technology and communication technology means, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) planned and organized a large number of “color revolution” events around the world.

Fifth, the U.S. State Department regards the research and development of the “anti-censorship” information system as an important task, and has injected more than 30 million US dollars into the project.

The CIA’s series of cyber attack weapons

On March 7, 2017, the WikiLeaks website disclosed 8,716 secret documents allegedly from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Network Intelligence Center, which involved the attack methods and attack operations of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hacker team. Code names, technical specifications and requirements of attack tools, etc., WikiLeaks called the relevant documents “Vault7” (dome 7), which has aroused great attention worldwide.

In 2020, Qihoo 360 independently discovered an APT organization that has never been exposed to the outside world. It specifically targets China and its friendly countries to carry out cyber attack and stealing activities. The victims are all over the world. We separately number it as APT-C-39. There is evidence that the organization uses cyber weapon tools (including Athena, Fluxwire, Grasshopper, AfterMidnight, HIVE, ChimayRed, etc.) associated with the exposed “Vault7” (dome 7) data to carry out cyber attacks against victims in China and other countries. The earliest attack activities can be traced back to 2011, and related attacks have continued to this day. The attacked targets involve various countries’ important information infrastructure, aerospace, scientific research institutions, petroleum and petrochemical, large Internet companies, and government agencies.

In large-scale global cyber attacks, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used a large number of “zero-day” (0day) vulnerabilities, including a large number of backdoors and vulnerabilities that have not been publicly disclosed so far (some functions have been verified), Establish “zombie” networks and attack springboard networks around the world, and attack and invade in stages against network servers, network terminals, switches and routers, as well as a large number of industrial control equipment. We have successfully extracted several “Vault7” (dome 7) network attack weapon samples in the cyber attack operations that have been discovered specifically targeting targets in China, and several Southeast Asian countries and European partners have also extracted almost identical The samples mainly include:

2.1 Fluxwire (flux wire) backdoor program platform

A complex backdoor attack operation management platform that supports 9 mainstream operating systems such as Windows, Unix, Linux, and MacOS and 6 different network architectures. It can form a mesh network with many “broiler” nodes that can operate completely autonomously, supporting self-repair, Loop attack and multipath routing.

2.2 Athena (Athena) program

A lightweight backdoor program for the Microsoft Windows operating system, jointly developed by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US company Siege Technologies (acquired by Nehemiah Security in 2016), which can be used for remote installation, supply chain attacks, and man-in-the-middle hijacking attacks It can be implanted by means of physical contact installation, etc., and resides in the form of Microsoft Windows service. All attack function modules are decrypted and executed in memory in the form of plug-ins. 2.3 Grasshopper (grasshopper) backdoor program An advanced configurable backdoor program for the Microsoft Windows operating system, which can generate malicious loads in various file formats (EXE, DLL, SYS, PIC), supports multiple execution modes, and can be concealed after being equipped with different plug-in modules. Stay and perform spy functions.

1. AfterMidnight (after midnight) backdoor program

A lightweight backdoor that runs as a DLL service in the Microsoft Windows operating system. It dynamically transmits and loads the “Gremlins” module through the HTTPS protocol, and executes the malicious load in an encrypted manner throughout the process.

2.5 ChimayRed (Chimay Red Hat) Vulnerability Exploitation Tool

A vulnerability exploit kit for MikroTik and other brands of routers, which can be used to implant lightweight network device backdoor programs such as “TinyShell” with exploits. 2.6 HIVE (Honeycomb) Network Attack Platform The “Hive” network attack platform was jointly developed by a department of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a company owned by the famous US military enterprise Northrop Grumman (NOC). It provides the network attack team of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) A persistent attack stealing method with complex structure. It manages and utilizes a large number of lost assets around the world, forms multi-layer dynamic springboards and secret data transmission channels, and uploads user accounts, passwords and private data to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 7×24 hours (https://www. cverc.org.cn/head/zhaiyao/news20220419-hive.htm).

2.7 Other Derivatives In the process of attacking and stealing secrets through the above-mentioned “Vault7” (Dome 7) cyber weapon, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also derived and used a large number of attack samples other than “Vault7” (Dome 7) data, and the samples that have been extracted These include disguised phishing software installation packages, keylogger components, system information collection components, USB file stealing modules, and different open source hacking tools.

3. Functional Analysis of the Cyber Attack Weapon Samples of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

During the investigation of many typical cyber attacks in China, Qihoo 360 captured and successfully extracted a large number of data closely related to the Internet exposure of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “Vault 7” from the information network of the victim unit. Trojan horse programs, function plug-ins and attack platform samples. In-depth analysis found that most of the relevant program samples follow the Network Operations Division In-memory Code Execution Specification, Network Operations Division Cryptographic Requirements, and Network Operations Division Persisted DLL Specification in the “Vault7” (dome 7) data, etc. of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Malware development standards and technical specifications. These standards and norms respectively correspond to the loading and execution of malicious code, data encryption and persistence behaviors in cyber attack stealing activities, and relevant cyber weapons have undergone extremely strict standardized, process-oriented and professional software engineering management. It is reported that currently only the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) strictly abides by these standards and specifications to develop cyber attack weapons.

According to “Vault7” (dome 7) data, the above-mentioned cyber attack weapons belong to the EDG (Engineering Development Group) of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and its subordinate AED (Application Engineering Department) and EDB (Embedded Device Division) ) and other independent or joint research and development divisions. Most of these cyber weapons were born in a top secret internal network of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) called “devlan.net”. “devlan.net” is a huge network weapons development and testing infrastructure established by the Engineering Development Division (EDG) of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to the development log data of “devlan.net”, at least 200 engineers from EDG have been invested in the research and development of the “HIVE” (honeycomb) project alone.

Further technical analysis found that most of the backdoor programs and attack components of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) run in the form of memory-resident execution without physical files, which makes it extremely difficult to discover and obtain evidence for relevant samples. Even so, the joint technical team managed to find an effective solution to the forensics challenge. For the convenience of subsequent description and analysis, we temporarily divide the attack weapons of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) into 9 categories:

3.1 Framework platform classes. We discovered and captured attack samples and activities of Fluxwire (magnetic flux lines), Grasshopper (grasshopper), and Athena (Athena). Dome 7) The descriptions in the materials are confirmed one by one.

3.2 Attack module delivery class. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has used a large number of small malicious code downloaders with simple functions to load and execute more malicious codes and modules. The relevant samples have no special malicious functions and characteristics, but they cooperate with attack weapons such as framework platforms However, it can show a powerful secret-stealing function, and it is extremely difficult to attribute it to the source.

3.3 Remote control class. A variety of remote control plug-ins have been extracted, most of which are attack module components derived from framework platform attack weapons, and the two cooperate with each other.

3.4 Lateral Movement Classes. Among the large number of malicious program samples extracted, there are many backdoor programs installed and implanted by using Windows remote services with system administrator credentials. In addition, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also hijacked the upgrade programs of various security products on the intranet, issued and installed backdoor programs through the upgrade function of the intranet upgrade server, and carried out lateral movement attacks on the intranet.

3.5 Information collection and theft. The joint technical team accidentally extracted an information-stealing tool used by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). NSA) dedicated information-stealing tool. This situation shows that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US National Security Agency (NSA) will jointly attack the same victim, or share cyber attack weapons with each other, or provide relevant technical or human support. This adds important new evidence to the attribution of the identity of the APT-C-39 attackers.

3.6 Vulnerability Exploitation Class. The investigation found that since at least 2015, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has established a huge springboard resource for cyber attacks around the world, using “zero-day” (0-day) vulnerabilities to attack global IOT (Internet of Things) devices and Attack network servers indiscriminately, and convert a large number of lost devices into springboard “broilers”, or hide their own attack behavior, or blame network attacks on other countries. For example, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used a vulnerability attack kit code-named “ChimayRed” (Chimay Red Hat) to target multiple models of MikroTik brand routers, including a large number of network devices using such routers in China. During the attack, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will first maliciously modify the router startup script, so that the router will still execute the backdoor program after restarting; then, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will modify the router’s CGI program to block the (CIA) to prevent other attackers from re-invading and causing loss of authority; eventually, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will implant “Hive” (HIVE) or “TinyShell” into the router, which only the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ) exclusive backdoor program that can be used.

3.7 Masquerading as normal software. According to the network environment of the attack target, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) customized and disguised the backdoor program as an unpopular software installation package used by the target with a small number of users, and carried out precise social engineering attacks on the target.

3.8 Attack and defense of security software. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has mastered attack tools specially used to attack commercial anti-virus software. Through these special tools, the process of designated anti-virus software can be shut down and killed remotely, so that the relevant anti-virus software can attack the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Behavioral or offensive weapons are ineffective.

3.9 Third-party open source tools. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also often uses off-the-shelf open source hacking tools to carry out attacks. The initial attacks of the CIA’s cyber attack operations generally target the victim’s network equipment or servers, as well as social engineering attacks. After obtaining the target authority, it will further explore the network topology of the target organization, and move laterally to other networked devices in the internal network to steal more sensitive information and data. The target computer controlled by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will be monitored in real time for 24 hours. All keyboard strokes of the victim will be recorded, and information copied and pasted from the clipboard will be stolen. USB devices (mainly mobile hard drives) , U disk, etc.) will also be monitored in real time. Once a USB device is connected, the private files in the victim’s USB device will be automatically stolen. When conditions permit, the camera, microphone and GPS positioning device on the user terminal will be remotely controlled and accessed.

SummaryThe cyber hegemony manipulated by the United States originated in cyberspace, covers the world, and affects the whole world. As one of the three major intelligence-gathering agencies in the United States, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has already shown automation, systematization and intelligence in its cyber attacks against the world. characteristics. The 8,716 documents leaked from the WikiLeaks website alone contain many important hacking tools and cyber attack weapons of the U.S. intelligence agencies, indicating that the U.S. has built the world’s largest cyber arsenal. Through empirical analysis, we found that its cyber weapons use extremely strict espionage technical specifications, and various attack methods echo and interlock. It has now covered almost all Internet and IoT assets in the world, and can control other countries’ networks anytime, anywhere. Stealing important and sensitive data from other countries will undoubtedly require a lot of financial, technical and human resources to support it. The US-style cyber hegemony is evident, and the “Matrix” is well-deserved.

This series of reports attempts to disclose the long-term attacks and stealing activities of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) targeting network targets in China, and initially explores these network attacks and data theft activities.

In response to the highly systematic, intelligent, and concealed cyber attacks launched by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against my country, how can domestic government agencies, scientific research institutions, industrial enterprises, and commercial organizations quickly “see” and “handle” them immediately? “Particularly important. In order to effectively deal with imminent network and real threats, while adopting self-controllable localized equipment, we should organize and carry out self-inspection and self-inspection of APT attacks as soon as possible, and gradually establish a long-term defense system to achieve comprehensive and systematic prevention and control , against advanced threat attacks.

Editor in charge: Wu Zhichao
Picture editor: Shen Ke
The Paper: 021-962866

Why is China leading the World?

Russian Warships SUDDENLY Deploy to North Sea

World Hal Turner 04 May 2023

A concentration of at least five Russian Navy warships, plus two auxiliaries, has formed in the North Sea.

If the Ukraine invasion teaches us anything, it’s that the axillaries are just as worth watching as the pointy ships.

All 5 warships are Kalibr cruise missile capable.

While there may be many explanations for this, it will likely get NATO attention.

The most likely explanation at this stage is an unannounced exercise.

Unusually the group includes a frigate from the Black Sea Fleet, which is prevented from returning to its base in Crimea due to the war. Turkey has closed the Bosporus to warships. It is the Bosporus which is the only entry/exit between the Black Sea and ultimately, the Mediterranean Sea.

Russian Navy vessels identified in area:

Black Sea Fleet Pr.11356 Admiral Grigorovich class frigate, Admiral Grigorovich (494)
Baltic Fleet Pr.20380 Steregushchiy class corvette, Sbrazitelnyy (531)
Baltic Fleet Pr.20380 Steregushchiy class corvette, Stoikiy (545)
Baltic Fleet Pr.22800 Karakurt class corvette, Sovetsk (577)
Baltic Fleet Pr.22800 Karakurt class corvette, Odintsovo (584)
Baltic Fleet Pr.563 Goryn class tug, Yakov Grebelsky (MB-119)
Northern Fleet Pr.REF-675 Kaliningrad Neft class oiler, Kama

Saturday Morning TV Memories 1964 – 1976 !

Kremlin Publicly Accuses U.S. of Being Behind Drone Attack/Attempted Assassination of Putin

World Hal Turner 04 May 2023

The Kremlin has accused the US of being behind an “assassination attempt” on Vladimir Putin yesterday.

According to President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, Moscow is considering “various” options in response to the Wednesday morning drone attack on the Kremlin, which it accuses Ukraine of orchestrating “under the dictate of Washington.”

Washington is “definitely” behind the alleged assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin yesterday, the Kremlin has said.

Moscow claimed two drones attempted to attack the Kremlin, but were disabled and failed to cause any damage.

Russia has multiple response options, it said, but declined to comment on whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a legitimate target.

The Kremlin claimed the US was selecting the targets and Ukraine was merely implementing American plans, without providing evidence.

John Kirby, the National Security Council’s Coordinator for Strategic Communications, called accusations from Russia that the US directed Ukraine to carry out an alleged Kremlin drone attack and assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin “ridiculous.”

For Kyiv and Washington to try to disown the incident was “absolutely ridiculous”, the Kremlin said.

Mr. Zelenskyy has denied that Kyiv had anything to do with the incident.

Some experts have suggested Moscow itself could have created the incident as a false flag operation, intended to boost Russian support for the war.

Moscow warns of ‘imminent and inevitable punishment’ for alleged drone attack.

“Moscow is considering a variety of options for responding to the Ukrainian attack on the Kremlin, we can only talk about well-thought-out steps that correspond to the interests of the country. The attack of Ukrainian drones on the Kremlin is now being investigated.

Uncle Buck- Buck Finds Tia

U.S. to Deploy “THOUSANDS” of Troops to Taiwan; China said “Would be Invasion Causing immediate war”

World Hal Turner 04 May 2023

“Multiple sources” are reporting that the U.S. will deploy “thousands” of troops on to Taiwan to defend the island from China.

Last year, China made clear that US troops deploying on to Taiwan will be viewed by Beijing as an “invasion” resulting in immediate war.

More info if I get it.

Sure some neocons wish for this, were this to be attempted, full on war would occur. -MM

Dreaming. Thousands of deployed soldiers would be killed by the thousands. -MM

3 China Massive Culture Shocks: frustration to fascination!

I like this girl.

On The Hypocrisy Of The New EU Sanction Regime

Once upon a time the European Union rejected secondary sanctions which the U.S. used to press third party countries to follow its sanction regimes against other once:

Making use of the centrality of the US in the global economy, it has imposed ‘secondary sanctions’ on foreign firms, which are forced to choose between trading with US sanctions targets or forfeiting access to the lucrative US market. In addition, the US has penalized foreign firms for breaching US sanctions legislation.

To counter these extraterritorial measures the EU introduced a blocking mechanism:

The lawfulness of these sanctions could be contested before various domestic and international judicial mechanisms, although each mechanism comes with its own limitations. To counter the adverse effects of secondary sanctions, third states and the EU can also make use of, and have already made use of, various non-judicial mechanisms, such as blocking statutes, special purpose vehicles to circumvent the reach of sanctions, or even countermeasures.

Blocking statutes prohibit EU companies from complying with U.S. sanctions:

Pursuant to Art. 5(1) of the EU Blocking Regulation, EU operators are prohibited from complying “with any requirement or prohibition, including requests of foreign courts, based on or resulting, directly or indirectly” from a set of foreign sanctions laws deemed to apply extraterritorially by the European Union, “or from actions based thereon or resulting therefrom.” The laws in question are listed in the Regulation’s Annex; currently, all are US statutes. Art. 5(2) provides that the European Commission (the Commission) may, upon request, authorize EU operators to comply fully or partially with these laws, to the extent that noncompliance would seriously damage their interests or those of the European Union.In 2018, the Commission updated the Annex of the EU Blocking Regulation to include the (reimposed) US secondary sanctions against Iran. It also adopted an Implementing Regulation laying down the criteria that would be taken into account for the granting of compliance authorizations, and issued a Guidance Note on the application of the reactivated EU Blocking Regulation.

The blocking statute was used to reject sanctions the U.S. instated against Iran after the U.S. left the nuclear agreement.

The European Union is discussing a new sanctions mechanism to target third countries it believes aren’t doing enough to prevent Russia from evading sanctions, particularly those that can’t explain spikes in trade of key goods or technologies, according to people familiar with the matter.The primary aim of the tool would be to deter countries from helping Russia and crack down on trade channels that Moscow may be exploiting, the people said. If that doesn’t work, the bloc would have the option as a second step of imposing targeted restrictions on key goods.
…
The new enforcement mechanism, aspects of which were first reported by the Financial Times, would give member states the authority to create two lists — one of affected third countries and the other of banned goods.

If the mechanism is approved by national governments, decisions on which countries and goods to list would be for member states to take unanimously, the people said. The measures were unlikely to target China at first, but focus mostly on nations in central Asia and Russia’s immediate neighbors, the people added.

Elsewhere, the proposed package would make it easier to sanction companies in third countries that are circumventing the EU’s sanctions.

The EU politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels are killing their own moral defense against the U.S. application of secondary sanctions against third parties.

Posted by b at 15:31 UTC | Comments (26)

Chinese Culture: The values that set them apart.

I really like her message here.

Zelenski’s Regime Is Finished

Yesterday’s drone attack on the Kremlin (and other installations) mark the end of the Zelenski regime. While Russia had so far refrained from regime change in Kiev it will now have to pursue it.

The former prime minister of Israel Naftali Bennet had reported that president Putin had promised him not to hit Zelenski:

“I knew Zelensky was under threat, in a bunker… I said to [Putin], ‘Do you intend to kill Zelensky?’ He said, ‘I won’t kill Zelensky,’” Bennett recalled in the interview, which was published on his own YouTube channel.
…
Bennett said he called the Ukrainian president immediately after the three-hour encounter with Putin, and told him, “I’ve just come out of a meeting — [Putin] is not going to kill you.“[Zelensky] asked me, ‘Are you sure?’ I said 100 percent. [Putin’s] not going to kill you.”

Bennett recalled: “Two hours later, Zelensky went to his office, and did a selfie in the office, [in which the Ukrainian president said,] ‘I’m not afraid.’”

Well, now he has very good reason to again be afraid, very afraid. As former ambassador MK Bhadrakumar writes:

Make no mistake, this is a tipping point; the clumsy attempt on Putin’s life jolts the kaleidoscope beyond recognition. The only comforting thought is that the Kremlin leadership is not going to be driven by emotion. The considered Kremlin reaction is available from the remarks by the Russian Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov:“How would Americans react if a drone hit the White House, the Capitol or the Pentagon? The answer is obvious for any politician as well as for an average citizen: the punishment will be harsh and inevitable.”

The ambassador went on to draw the bottom line: “Russia will respond to this insolent and presumptuous terrorist attack. We will answer when we consider it necessary. We will answer in accordance with the assessments of the threat that Kiev posed to the leadership of our country.”

I agree with Bhadrakumar that there will be no knee-jerk reaction from Moscow. But public opinion in Russia demands that there will be payback for the attack and against anyone involved in it.

Putin’s hands are tied beyond a point when the country is in rage and demanding retribution, as evident from the comments by former Russian President and current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev: “After today’s terrorist attack, there are no options left except for the physical elimination of Zelensky and his clique.”

That Zelenski fled to Finland, then to the Netherlands and Germany after the drones hit the Kremlin is a sure sign of his complicity in the act.

When (if?) he comes back to Kiev it will be bunker life for the rest of his reign.

Posted by b on May 4, 2023 at 16:08 UTC | Permalink

Is China The American Dream ? : Chongqing China 重庆市

Tung Signa technology in Shanghai has two domestic lithography machines stationed in the production line

Article HERE

Recently Tung Signa technology in Shanghai has two domestic lithography machines stationed in the production line independently developed by Shanghai microelectronics

This represents a major advancement in domestic lithography machines highlighting that domestic lithography machines have rapidly replaced imported lithography machines

In the future the production capacity of 20 000 pieces of full process gold bumps per month can be realized

The introduction of the first domestically produced lithography machine this time is great news for China.

Shanghai microelectronics is the largest lithography machine company in China it has already mass-produced 90 nanometer lithography machines and is currently accelerating the promotion of 28 nanometer and 14 nanometer lithography machines

The lithography machine delivered this time is a packaging and testing lithography machine but this also represents a major progress in China’s lithography machine which means that the domestic 14 nanometers lithography machine will soon be mass produced

After the packaging and testing lithography machine is delivered it is expected to complete the debugging in May and complete the test and mass production next month.

It is expected that the production of twenty thousand chips per month will be completed by next year.

The first lithography machine of Shanghai microelectronics 20-year research was successfully delivered with move-in-ceremony held. This was the proud moment for China and its people.

The icing on the cake is the price of these lithography machines which is only one-seventh of the price of ASML equivalent lithography machines which shows the ultra low cost advantage of domestic lithography machines such a low-cost Advantage will help greatly reduce the cost of Chinese Chips.

lithography machines are not the only ones for making chips in addition to being divided into EUV, DUV and UV, according to the advanced level of the light source they can also be divided into front-end lithography machines for chip manufacturing and back-end lithography machines for packaging and testing.

This time the company introduced a gold bump packaging and testing lithography machine which belongs to the back-end lithography machine for packaging and testing in the field of packaging and testing lithography machines.

28 nanometers to 7 nanometers lithography machines are all immersion lithography Machine Technologies which means that China has successfully developed the 28 nanometers lithography machine to handle the key technology of immersion lithography machines.

Since the difficulty of developing 14 nanometers and 7 nanometers lithography machines has been greatly reduced, as a result ASML’s 1980 lithography machine will also lose its competitiveness.

If China successfully develops (front end) immersion lithography machine technology then ASML will lose a large chunk of market and may return to the days when it was lingering, so of course it is afraid.

This is the great news for China and a shocker for ASML who may want to change its attitude in the coming days.

50k Volts of Compliance Make Her Plank Like It’s 2011 – Florida Friday!

United States debt in comparison…

This was from last year, and does not include the massive increase in debt since December 2022.

The Sopranos – S06E06 – Spotted in a fag bar in New York – Allegedly!

Taking on China and Russia

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Two-front War

Richard Solomon • May 2, 2023

Waging a two-front war usually ends in defeat. Just ask Hitler.

The US Anglo-Zionist Empire not only faces a two-front war against Russia and China, but as technology entrepreneur, publisher, free speech activist, writer, and journalist Ron Unz pointed out in his article, “Did the Neocons Save the World from the Thucydides Trap,” reckless neocon aggression helped create the Eurasian juggernaut.

Their war crimes aside, old-school arch-globalists like Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger knew the strategic value of keeping Russia and China separated.

If the neocons wanted to take out Russia first, they should have offered China sweet trade deals, reaffirmed their support for the One China policy, and made Emperor President Xi’s birthday a public school holiday.

If China was the big prize, the neocons should have backed Nord Stream 2, promised Russia future NATO membership, and invited President Putin to Disney World.

Instead, the neocons tried to turn money laundering bio lab Ukraine into a NATO missile silo to threaten Russia while simultaneously antagonizing China using Pelosi bat landings and balloon shootdowns in hopes of making Taiwan a second Ukraine.

Like toxic foam that covers the surface of a polluted pond, in a neoliberal kakistocracy, the most venal depraved moronic scum float to the top. In addition, end-stage empires often act irrationally. Both conditions explain current US strategy.

For the record, I’m taking a bit of creative license with the term two-front war. I mean it in the sense of the US taking on a China-Russia united front, and the domestic, international, military, and economic implications that accompany that.

Technically, US vs China-Russia is a global conflict, with proxy wars raging in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and the likely future inclusion of the Latin American and Asian theaters.

Enough ethnoreligious hotspots exist to set off proxy wars across the planet. All that’s needed for conflagration is a CIA gas can and book of matches. The problem with that approach is the CIA can’t control what rises from the ashes. Any Phoenix will likely be China-Russia friendly.

Beyond proxy war lies the danger of direct superpower confrontation. With its forces on the ground in Ukraine, the US-NATO alliance comes close to crossing the line with Russia. US vs China is still in the nascent cold war stage.

For the neocons to wage an international two-front war, they also need to juggle a two-front anti-Russia/anti-China domestic propaganda campaign. The animosity between America’s “left” and “right” makes it difficult to bring both groups under a united war banner.

The “Russia-Russia-Russia” Blue and Yellow flag emoji weekly boosted knee-benders hate “Hitler-Putin” because he represents anti-wokeness and Western Civilization. However “liberals” lack visceral hatred toward China as Netflix programming has made it difficult for them to imagine a non-White villain.

While it would be easy to rile up “support the troops” Breitbart “conservatives” against the “godless Asiatic Chicoms,” many on the reactionary right view Putin as a defender of traditional values.

If the neocons managed to subdue their massive egos, they could put their two-front domestic psyops dilemma into one of Pentagon HAL’s simulation programs and follow the computer’s advice. Pentagon HAL could offer the following four suggestions:

HAL INPUT 1- Let the simulation program manage all components of the two-front war without “human” neocon interference. While this might prolong the life of the empire, it won’t prevent collapse, as the foundational rot is too far advanced.

HAL INPUT 2- When the US Ponzi economy crashes, blame it on a “Chicom-Putin/Hitler” financial cyber attack. Losing their bank accounts would unite both sides of the right-left divide into signing on to WW3. Under martial law, the US could transition into a wartime resource economy, issuing biometric ID food ration/vaccine cards and tent city housing vouchers.

HAL INPUT 3- Withdraw from Ukraine and declare victory. Then stage a military coup/civil war, crush the “wokies,” and replace the rainbow flag with the Cross.

In a divine revelation and post-sex scandal comeback, Pastor Jerry Falwell Jr. reveals that “China Flu” was a Chicom bio-attack and that the Chicoms also took down the Twin Towers, killed JFK, and buried Jimmy Hoffa under the Meadowlands Sports Complex. A unified US populace wages a “Christian Nationalist” crusade against “anti-Christ Chicomunism” to save Israel and usher in WW3 and the Rapture.

Falwell further states that after radioactive flames engulf the planet, Scotty beams up the Americans to Heaven, where they hang out with “Mushroom Cloud Jesus” and Ronald Reagan for all eternity.

HAL INPUT 4- Intensify the public dumb-down program. Soon every US citizen will be able to hold multiple opposing views while operating within the greater collective: “War with Eurasia. War with East Asia. War with Eurasia and East Asia. Who cares? Just give us our soma, cat videos,* and Soylent Green Doritos.” (*Cat videos really are funny. Ha ha ha.)

Propaganda in a full-spectrum totalitarian idiocracy would need to be even dumber than what’s currently produced by Deep State corporate media.

While I’m confident Pentagon HAL could provide other ideas on how to make the US public fall in love with a two-front war, no computer simulation can handle the real-world international challenge presented by a China-Russia alliance. And it’s not just China and Russia. They have allies. And future allies.

Before discussing the relations of the US and the China-Russia alliance in regards to the rest of the world, I’ll need to scale things down to a micro-fish filet. With infinite twists and turns, the unique complexities of each nation-state, and cosmic dice that may or may not be loaded, you could fill up the pre-nova Sarpeidon library with this topic alone.

Lacking access to Pentagon HAL forces me to plug everything into the Tao. A few small quirks in my operating system allow for a small margin of error. That said, it’s time to step into the transporter. Coordinates- Palace of Yamamah, Saudi Arabia. Beam us down Scotty. Hand phasers on stun.

China amazed the world with its brokered peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran. After FDR met with King Ibn Saud on the USS Quincy, Saudi Arabia became a vital US ally. So much so, that President Nixon made the Saudis a foundational component of the US petro-dollar.

While no fan of the House of Saud mafia crime family, I welcome their groundbreaking drift toward China. A black raven omen for Anglo-Zionist Middle East hegemony.

Except for its role as CIA prison black-ops site and buffer for Israel, Jordan has negligible value to the US. Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait exist as US military bases and will break free the first chance they get.

Egypt remains America’s last major Muslim ME ally. If a Nasser officer corps strongman with Sino-Russian leanings overthrows Egyptian zio-puppet Sisi, the US suffers the de facto loss of its Middle East empire.

Barring a few notable exceptions (who I’ll discuss later), most Asian (oriental) countries want good relations with China and Russia. I think if forced to choose, the majority Asian bloc, including West-friendly Thailand, go with China.

The Asian “stan” countries know their future lies with China and the BRI. The mighty Taliban’s victory over ZioCorp removed any doubts.

Pentagon’s AFRICOM controls a network of military bases and CIA-funded gangland militias that stretch across Africa. This gives America the ability to sow chaos throughout the continent, as well as sabotage China’s infrastructure and business projects. In the end, China wins, as Africa’s nation-states strongly favor a Sino-Russian alliance.

A long history of CIA-sponsored coups, assassinations, and corporate plunder destabilized and impoverished Latin America. The only Latin American nations loyal to the US are those ruled by CIA-backed oligarch families. The supermajority of Latin Americans prefer China and Russia over the US, and any successful populist coups will follow that sentiment.

While I think India likely favors a China-Russia future, I still consider it a wild card. A CIA-instigated Indo-China border dispute could push India toward the US.

Furthermore, in general, the H1-B US Brahmin* Big Tech class (and its associated professional class) is obsequiously servile to their Rothschild Zionist and corporate benefactors. I don’t know how much sway US Brahmin Big Tech scribes hold over their subcontinent counterparts.

(*I’m using Brahmin as a figurative ethno-power bloc descriptor in relation to domestic US ethno-hierarchy, and not criticizing individual Indians. I dug Aravind Adiga’s novel, “The White Tiger” and activist/scholar Vandana Shiva took on Bill Gates. The same applies for “Rothschild Zionist.” I’m not attacking innocent Jews.)

If most of the world aligns with China and Russia, what about the US Anglo-Zionist Empire’s major “true-blue” allies?” Where do Israel, the UK, Australia, NZ, Canada, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe (esp. Poland), Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Ukraine fit into the empire’s defensive framework?

To Israel, the US is a lobotomized goose that lays golden eggs. Should the goose ever get a hysterectomy, Israel would cut loose and try to negotiate its own China deal. If forced to choose between the Samson Option and a China-brokered two-state solution, I think Israel opts for the latter.

The UK’s hyper-corrupt Goldman Sachs Brahmin dork oligarch Prime Minister perfectly represents the nation destined to become a bankrupt Air Strip One. Or perhaps a multicultural Clockwork Orange. Beyond its use as an international banking and nuclear strike force hub and its SAS military advisors, the UK provides scant offerings in a global dogfight.

Vassal state Australia is captive to America’s China policy. As per journalist Caitlin Johnstone’s article, “Australia Pays Washington Swamp Monsters For War Advice,” US neocons hold official key positions in Australian military and state agencies, not unlike the Israeli nationals embedded in top US government slots. If WW3 goes down, frontline Australia could star in a real-world “Mad Max” sequel.

The best WEF-controlled New Zealand can hope for is to become a WW3 billionaire bunker.

Canada contains vast deposits of energy. Beyond its use as a police state gas station, I don’t place much stock in Canada’s military capabilities. Modern Canada is not D-Day “lumberjack” Canada.

In either a cold or hot war, I doubt Scandinavia poses much threat to the China-Russia alliance, as it’s currently in a cultural-spiritual-economic death spiral.

Finland’s entry into NATO represents the last spoonful of arsenic. As a NATO member, Finland will be forced to purchase overpriced and unreliable MIC weapon systems with its social welfare fund. Third-world police state dystopia follows.

Norway’s old-school NATO and in too deep to buck. Sweden’s screwed whether it joins NATO tomorrow or the day after. Goodbye ABBA.

Japan is a valuable asset to the US Anglo-Zionist Empire due to its geographical location and high-tech manufacturing capability. Retooled Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Toyota plants could certainly produce plenty of killer robots and next-generation drones. However, Japan can’t touch China’s production output.

Given its proximity to both Russia and China, if things go hot, Las Vegas odds say Japan commits harakiri for ZioCorp’s honor.

I hope a divine wind blows through Japan’s collective neural network before the “land of cherry blossoms” passes the point of no return.

Taiwan? Except for a few CIA brain-chipped suicide bombers, when PLA troops march through Taipei, the cheering crowds will welcome them with flowers. I think the Taiwanese are too smart to end up like the Ukranians.

As reported by Global Times, South Korea’s current President is a neocon-programmed automaton bent on wrecking his country for the glorification of ZioCorp. However, many S. Koreans loathe the prospect of another American-instigated Korean war and resent US military occupation and neoliberal debt slavery.

The South Korean flag displays the yin-yang symbol. The 5 tenets of taekwondo are courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit. If Tao knocks on South Korea’s door tomorrow, who answers?

Product of a looting dictator father and shoe-crazed mother, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is a well-compensated US State Department foreign contractor. Unlike Marcos, the previous president was China-Russia friendly. What if China started bankrolling Philippine political parties like the US does?

Western Europe, plagued by ziobankster austerity, forced MIC purchasing, deindustrialization, neocon terror attacks on vital energy infrastructure, hyper mRNA vaccination, and weaponized immigration, is on an Oswald Spangler death trip.

Brute force US military occupation, an EU surveillance state, and corporate media brainwashing keep Western Europeans in line. However, even worms like former Rothschild banker Emmanuel Macron and neoliberal technocrat Olaf Shultz want to maintain good relations with China.

Like its US counterpart, Western Europe’s political class would airlift its entire native citizen-serf population into a giant volcano for a few extra bucks and an ADL head pat.

Even so, EU technocrats realize the US Titanic suffers from a breached hull. How much and fast the water is pouring in is a matter of debate. One solid bet. Before the US sinks, it throws Europe into the icy water.

Should Western Europe escape total annihilation, it will need a Chinese Sun Tzu / Marshall Plan to rejoin civilization.

If a major economic downturn forces the US to reduce its European military presence, Western Europe bolts to China. And despite “Putin is Hitler” mass hysteria, by default, to Russia.

We may one day witness a true Eurasian (Europe-Russia-China) bloc that extends from the beaches of Normandy to Shanghai.

As reported in Philip Giraldi’s article, “Perspectives from Eastern Europe,” the Polish-led Eastern European bloc stands with the US Anglo-Zionist Empire. A somewhat understandable situation, given Eastern European-Soviet history. However, the Poles and their friends need to realize that Putin’s Russia is not Soviet Russia. Beyond the historical trauma, Poland wants a chunk of Ukraine. Following WWI, Poland snatched Germany’s “Polish Corridor” and “Free City of Danzig.” That didn’t work out well for the Poles. Neither will their Ukraine land grab.

Ukraine is finished. Whatever is not seized by Russia in the east gets vacuumed up by BlackRock corporations in the west. To maintain appearances, the BlackRock western zone might keep the Ukraine name.

Using Zelensky as their corporate Kaganovich, the Rothschild Zionists manifested a second Holodomor. Mega-death WW2 started shortly after the first Holodomor. Are we entering another historical rhyme cycle?

The US Anglo-Zionist Empire’s foreign alliance rests on “gun to the head” diplomacy. By contrast, the China-Russia foreign alliance is a “coalition of the willing” in the true sense of the term. Except for Israel, the UK, Eastern Europe, and maybe Japan, the world’s nations want to join the China-Russia alliance.

But what about the US military as a stand-alone outfit? Can it take on China-Russia?

As exemplified by current Secretary of Defense and former member of Raytheon’s Board of Directors Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon’s top brass are incompetent bloated venal careerists who lack rudimentary military proficiency.

Chinese and Russian military leadership outshines its US equivalent by many suns.

The Pentagon/MIC top brass view the future of warfare as a purely technological affair, i.e., killer robots backed by drone jet fighters and battleships managed by AI Pentagon HAL, with human cog positions filled by undocumented “dreamers,” purple-haired gender fluid gamers, H-1B techies, and poor people seeking military food ration cards.

In a technology-driven war, the China-Russia scientific alliance infinitely outbrains Dr. Strangelove. China’s “Artificial Sun” just broke the world record for a sustained nuclear fusion reaction. (Fission bad- Chernobyl. Fusion good- how the sun generates energy.) Check out Russia’s hypersonic missiles.

War is more than weapons. Soldiers need boots, uniforms, knapsacks, medicines, and canteens. The US outsourced its manufacturing base to China. It could take decades to rebuild. To demonstrate the industrial chasm between the US and China, compare Amtrak to China’s high-speed rail network. The US builds tent cities. China builds trains.

In human warrior vs human warrior, the nationalist-motivated Russian and Chinese fighting man outmatches his globalist US counterpart.

While the lower US military ranks still contain some “warrior” types, that demographic is systematically being weeded out. Good. Only a moron would fight for ZioCorp.

In the weirdest ever case of mismatch, the war machine appropriated the rainbow flag for its official symbol.

That’s not to say gay guys can’t fight.

To borrow from the Rolling Stones’ “Memo from Turner,” openly gay National Socialist SA leader Ernst Röhm was a “lashing, smashing hunk of man,” and from my viewpoint, ‘homo thugs’ make the top 5 scariest muthas list.

But that’s not who the Pentagon/MIC is looking to recruit. They want the Pete Buttigieg type. A blue and yellow patched rainbow armband hundred times boosted PrEP popper who wants to swallow up nation-states in a child groomer-Goldman Sachs pincer movement.

If America’s humiliating defeat by the amazing Taliban offers any indication of US military prowess, I think the China-Russia alliance comes out on top in a conventional war.

As an aside, shortly before the collapse of the USSR, the Soviets lost Afghanistan. With America’s recent ejection by Taliban forces, are we witnessing another historical rhyme cycle?

Given America’s astronomical accruement of bad karmic debt, a US collapse would open the floodgates of hell not unlike the torrent of blood elevator from “The Shining.”

The only thing worse than collapse is if AI, killer robots, and other high-tech police state innovations allow a financialized aristocracy to rule over their lab rat epsilon subjects in perpetuity.

Factoring in ruling class cognitive limitations, the probability of complex system breakdown, the history of empire, the destruction of the education system, the pathological corruption, and the nature of entropy- I lean toward collapse.

The best last chance escape-hatch for America is either a military coup led by a benevolent populist dictator who retracts the US back to its continental borders or a quasi-peaceful breakup that splits the US into ideological and ethno states.

Both outcomes require dismantling the Federal Reserve and purging the current ruling class.

Enough hope porn.

What if the US starts WW3 and starts to lose? A desperate US Anglo-Zionist Empire could unleash a US version of the Samson Option. I don’t think that will happen- at least not intentionally, as most global elitists don’t want to spend the rest of their lives in underground bunkers.

However, a Skynet technical glitch could set off an accidental nuclear launch. Or maybe a rogue Dr. Strangelove wakes up with a head cold.

The international bankers know the empire is doomed. For them, the US nuclear arsenal serves as a “threat weapon” against China: “Let us in, or we shoot.”

If faced with the loss of global financial control, would the Rothschild-Rockefeller bank cartel blow up the planet? I don’t know. The US is the only country that ever dropped nuclear bombs on its enemy.

If it goes down, the radioactive cockroaches might get their shot.

Biggest Differences Living in China VS America

Half of U.S. Tax Payments from Income Tax Filing Day – SPENT! Treasury Down to $188 Billion

Nation Hal Turner 04 May 2023

Americans filed their taxes for the year 2022 just two weeks ago . . . and HALF the money they paid, is already spent! According to data released by the US Treasury, the US Government is down to its last $188 Billion! June 1, it all stops . . .

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen penned a letter to Congress last week telling them that unless the US Debt Ceiling is raised, the U.S. Government “will not be able to meet its commitments BY June 1.”

That’s not Hal Turner or some talking head saying that . . . It’s the Treasury Secretary of the United States saying it.

A simple analysis of Yellen’s words makes clear it’s not just Debt servicing or interest payments they won’t be able to make, it’s all their “commitments” they won’t be able to meet. What ARE those commitments? Welfare, SOCIAL SECURITY, Medicare, Food Stamps, Obama phones, Section 8 Housing, and the like!

Worse, after June 1, the government will be in DEFAULT on more and more of its obligations, thereby smashing and wrecking the “full faith and credit” of the United States.

Who around the world will bother buying US Treasury Debt after we default? No sane person!!!!

If this takes place, the cities will likely fall apart first. It will be chaos as those with their hands out for money, don’t get any. There will likely be food thefts, riots, roving gangs taking what they want by force.

As the cities are emptied of food, the roving gangs will move outward into the suburbs.

This could turn into a “Mad Max” scenario, in very little time.

Below is the chart released by the US Treasury showing they have only $188 Billion left, and that they have already spent HALF of the Tax Revenue Paid By Americans just two weeks ago:

Starship Troopers: Sgt. Zim takes all challengers HD CLIP

Russian Warships SUDDENLY Deploy to North Sea

World Hal Turner 04 May 2023

A concentration of at least five Russian Navy warships, plus two auxiliaries, has formed in the North Sea.

If the Ukraine invasion teaches us anything, it’s that the axillaries are just as worth watching as the pointy ships.

All 5 warships are Kalibr cruise missile capable.

While there may be many explanations for this, it will likely get NATO attention.

The most likely explanation at this stage is an unannounced exercise.

Russian Navy vessels identified in area:

Black Sea Fleet Pr.11356 Admiral Grigorovich class frigate, Admiral Grigorovich (494)
Baltic Fleet Pr.20380 Steregushchiy class corvette, Sbrazitelnyy (531)
Baltic Fleet Pr.20380 Steregushchiy class corvette, Stoikiy (545)
Baltic Fleet Pr.22800 Karakurt class corvette, Sovetsk (577)
Baltic Fleet Pr.22800 Karakurt class corvette, Odintsovo (584)
Baltic Fleet Pr.563 Goryn class tug, Yakov Grebelsky (MB-119)
Northern Fleet Pr.REF-675 Kaliningrad Neft class oiler, Kama

Vito Was Blowing The Security Guard – The Sopranos HD

What China Is Really Playing at in Ukraine

Pepe Escobar • April 30, 2023

Beijing is fully aware the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is the un-dissociable double of the U.S. war against its Belt and Road Initiative.

Imagine President Xi Jinping mustering undiluted Taoist patience to suffer through a phone call with that warmongering actor in a sweaty T-shirt in Kiev while attempting to teach him a few facts of life – complete with the promise of sending a high-level Chinese delegation to Ukraine to discuss “peace”.

There’s way more than meets the discerning eye obscured by this spun-to-death diplomatic “victory” – at least from the point of view of NATOstan.

The question is inevitable: what’s the point of this phone call? Very simple: just business.

The Beijing leadership is fully aware the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is the un-dissociable double of an American direct war against the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Until recently, and since 2019, Beijing was the top trade partner for Kiev (14.4% of imports, 15.3% of exports). China essentially exported machinery, equipment, cars and chemical products, importing food products, metals and also some machinery.

Very few in the West know that Ukraine joined BRI way back in 2014, and a BRI trade and investment center was operating in Kiev since 2018. BRI projects include a 2017 drive to build the fourth line of the Kiev metro system as well as 4G installed by Huawei. Everything is stalled since 2022.

Noble Agri, a subsidiary of COFCO (China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation), invested in a sunflower seed processing complex in Mariupol and the recently built Mykolaiv grain port terminal. The next step will necessarily feature cooperation between Donbass authorities and the Chinese when it comes to rebuilding their assets that may have been damaged during the war.

Beijing also tried to become heavily involved in the Ukraine defense sector and even buy Motor Sich; that was blocked by Kiev.

Watch that neon

So what we have in Ukraine, from the Chinese point of view, is a trade/investment cocktail of BRI, railways, military supplies, 4G and construction jobs. And then, the key vector: neon.

Roughly half of neon used in the production of semiconductors was supplied, until recently, by two Ukrainian companies; Ingas in Mariupol, and Cryoin, in Odessa. There’s no business going on since the start of the Special Military Operation (SMO). That directly affects the Chinese production of semiconductors. Bets can be made that the Hegemon is not exactly losing sleep over this predicament.

Ukraine does represent value for China as a BRI crossroads. The war is interrupting not only business but, in the bigger picture, one of the trade and connectivity corridors linking Western China to Eastern Europe. BRI conditions all key decisions in Beijing – as it is the overarching concept of Chinese foreign policy way into mid-century.

And that explains Xi’s phone call, debunking any NATOstan nonsense on China finally paying attention to the warmongering actor.

As relevant as BRI is the overarching bilateral relationship dictating Beijing’s geopolitics: the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership.

So let’s transition to the meeting of Defense Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) earlier this week in Delhi.

The key meeting in India was between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Chinese colleague Li Shangfu. Li was recently in Moscow, and was received by Putin in person for a special conversation. This time he invited Shoigu to visit Beijing, and that was promptly accepted.

Needless to add that every single player in the SCO and beyond, including nations that are for the moment just observers or dialogue partners as well as others itching to become full members, such as Saudi Arabia, paid very close attention to the Shoigu-Shangfu camaraderie.

When it comes to the profoundly strategic Central Asian “stans”, that represents the six feet under treatment for the Hegemon wishful thinking of using them in a Divide and Rule scheme pitting Russia against China.

Shoigu-Shangfu also sent a subtle message to SCO members India and Pakistan – stop bickering and in the case of Delhi, hedging your bets – and to full member (in 2023) Iran and near future member Saudi Arabia: here’s where’s it at, this the table that matters.

All of the above also points to the increasing interconnection between BRI and SCO, both under Russia-China leadership.

BRICS is essentially an economic club – complete with its own bank, the NDB – and focused on trade. It’s mostly about soft power. The SCO is focused on security. It’s about hard power. Together, these are the two key organizations that will be paving the multilateral way.

As for what will be left of Ukraine, it is already being bought by Western mega-players such as BlackRock, Cargill and Monsanto. Yet Beijing certainly does not count on being left high and dry. Stranger things have happened than a future rump Ukraine positioned as a functioning trade and connectivity BRI partner.

WAR IS COMING, Putin just scored a DEVASTATING blow to the U.S. and Europe!

https://youtu.be/mwTQhwYa66c

Norway

This Outer Limits Episode Is SO DISTURBING It Will Keep You Up At Night

Top 10 Best Coping Mechanisms for Mental Health

Creative expression

Creative expression allows you to explore and express your emotions in a healthy and constructive way. Whether through painting, drawing, writing, or dancing, creative expression is a powerful tool that can help you process your feelings and reduce stress.

If you’re new to creative expression, starting can be as simple as picking up a pen and paper and writing down your thoughts, drawing a picture, or dancing to your favorite song. You don’t need to be an expert or have formal training; just let your emotions guide you and allow yourself to be fully present in the moment.

Here’s how to get started with creative expression:

Choose your medium—from painting and drawing to writing or dancing; pick a form of creative expression that resonates with you.
Create a safe space—find a quiet and comfortable place to be alone and focus on your creative expression.
Let go of expectations—don’t worry about creating something perfect or meaningful; just let your thoughts and emotions guide you.
Be present in the moment—allow yourself to fully immerse in the creative process and let go of any distractions or worries.

Exercise

It’s time to dust off that gym membership you haven’t used since New Year’s.

When we engage in physical activity, our bodies release endorphins, natural chemicals that make us feel good. Exercise is not only great for our physical health but also for our mental health. It helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression and improves mood.

Starting an exercise routine doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as going for a walk, taking a yoga class, or doing a home workout. The key is finding an activity you enjoy and can do consistently. Starting small and gradually increasing the intensity and duration of your exercise can also help you stick to it.

To get the most out of your exercise routine, make it a habit. Scheduling your workout time in your calendar, setting achievable goals, and tracking your progress can keep you motivated. It’s also important to listen to your body and give yourself rest days.

Mindfullness Mediatation

Mindfulness meditation is a powerful technique that helps you become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations in the present moment. By cultivating this awareness, you can gain greater insight into your own patterns of thought and behavior and learn to respond to stress and difficult emotions more skillfully.

To start practicing mindfulness meditation, find a quiet and comfortable place to sit undisturbed for a few minutes. Close your eyes and focus on your breath, noticing the sensation of air moving in and out of your body. If your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to your breath without judging yourself.

As you continue to practice, you can begin to expand your awareness of other physical sensations and thoughts that arise. Remember to approach these experiences with curiosity and openness rather than judgment or resistance.

Social Support

You don’t have to go through this by yourself—and you shouldn’t. Connect with others and receive emotional, informational, and tangible support. Whether through family, friends, or support groups, social support is a powerful tool that can help you reduce stress, build resilience, and improve your overall mental health.

Social support is an effective coping mechanism because it provides a sense of belonging and connectedness. It’s a chance for you to feel less isolated and alone. Involving other people in your mental health journey can motivate, encourage, and hold you accountable to stay on track with your goals and overcome challenges.

If you’re looking to build your social support, here are some tips to get you started:

Identify your support system—consider who you can turn to for emotional support, advice, or practical help.
Communicate your needs—be clear about what kind of support you need, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Nurture your relationships—make time to connect with your support system regularly through phone calls, text messages, or in-person meetings.
Be a supportive friend—remember that social support is a two-way street. Be there for your friends and loved ones when they need you, and offer your own support and encouragement.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, is one of the best coping mechanisms for mental health because it helps you identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviors contributing to your mental health struggles. CBT is a goal-oriented and structured approach that focuses on the present moment and helps you develop effective coping strategies to manage your symptoms.

If you want to start CBT, find a licensed therapist specializing in this approach. Together, you’ll work to identify your negative thought patterns and behaviors and develop practical skills and strategies to manage your symptoms.

Here’s a short guide to starting CBT:

Identify your goals—think about what you’d like to achieve through therapy and share this with your therapist.
Develop a plan—work with your therapist to develop a plan of action.
Identify negative thought patterns—learn to identify negative thoughts and beliefs contributing to your symptoms.
Challenge negative thoughts—practice challenging and reframing negative thoughts to reduce your impact on your mental health.
Develop coping strategies—work with your therapist to develop practical coping strategies to manage your symptoms in challenging situations.

Sleep Hygiene

This is not the time to skimp on sleep. Sleep hygiene refers to practices and habits that promote restful sleep. Poor sleep quality can seriously impact our mental well-being (hello, increased stress, anxiety, and depression!). But good sleep hygiene can help us get the rest needed to manage our emotions and maintain a positive outlook.

Quality sleep is essential for our bodies and minds to recover from the day’s stresses. When we sleep, our brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and regulates our mood. Without sufficient sleep, we are more vulnerable to negative thoughts and emotions, making it difficult to cope with daily challenges.

To start improving your sleep hygiene, try implementing some of the following practices:

Set a consistent sleep schedule—go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, even on weekends.
Create a relaxing bedtime routine—wind down before bed with relaxing activities such as reading, meditation, or a warm bath.
Limit exposure to screens—avoid using electronic devices such as phones, tablets, or computers before bedtime.
Create a comfortable sleep environment—keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet.
Exercise regularly—physical activity can help promote restful sleep.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation is a powerful technique to manage stress and anxiety, reducing the muscle tension that comes with them. It works by systematically tensing and relaxing each muscle group in the body, helping to release physical and emotional tension.

When we experience stress or anxiety, our muscles tend to become tense and tight, which can cause physical discomfort and make our mental state worse. By consciously tightening and relaxing each muscle group, we can release this tension and create a sense of physical relaxation.

Here’s a short guide to practicing progressive muscle relaxation:

Find a quiet and comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, focusing on your breath as you inhale and exhale.
Start at the top of your head and work your way down your body, tensing and then relaxing each muscle group for a few seconds.
Take a few deep breaths between each muscle group, allowing yourself to fully relax and release any tension.
Once you’ve completed the entire sequence, take a few moments to breathe deeply and reflect on how you feel.

Positive Self-Talk

Be kind to yourself—you’re going through a lot right now.

Positive self-talk involves intentionally replacing self-criticism with positive and encouraging statements, improving self-esteem, boosting confidence, and reducing anxiety and depression. One of the reasons positive self-talk is such an effective coping mechanism is that it can help shift our mindset from self-doubt and negativity to self-love and positivity.

Here’s a short guide to practicing positive self-talk:

Start by becoming aware of your negative self-talk. Notice when you’re being self-critical and pay attention to the words and phrases you use.
Challenge your negative self-talk by asking yourself if it’s true. Often, negative self-talk is based on irrational or unfounded beliefs.
Replace negative self-talk with positive statements. For example, if you think “I’m not good enough,” replace it with “I am capable and deserving of success.”
Practice positive self-talk regularly, especially when you’re feeling down or stressed. Repeat positive affirmations to yourself throughout the day to reinforce positive thinking.

Box Breathing

Box breathing, also known as square breathing, is a simple breathing technique to improve overall mental health. It involves taking slow and deep breaths, using a specific pattern of inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding.

Box breathing helps regulate our nervous system, calming our mind and reducing the physiological response to stress. When we experience stress or anxiety, our body’s natural fight-or-flight response is triggered, causing an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and shallow breathing. By consciously slowing down our breathing and taking deeper breaths, we can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation and a sense of calm.

Here’s a short guide to practicing box breathing:

Find a quiet and comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed.
Sit comfortably and take a few deep breaths, focusing on your breath as you inhale and exhale.
Begin by inhaling slowly and deeply through your nose for a count of four.
Hold your breath for a count of four.
Exhale slowly and completely through your mouth for a count of four.
Hold your breath for a count of four.
Repeat this cycle for several minutes, gradually increasing the duration of each count as you become more comfortable.

Gratitude Practices

Gratitude isn’t just for Thanksgiving. It’s an excellent coping mechanism for mental health. Focusing By focusing on gratitude, we can shift our perspective and cultivate a positive mindset. One reason gratitude practices are so effective is that they help us appreciate what we have rather than strive for more.

A way to practice gratitude is to take a few moments each day to reflect on what you are grateful for. This could be anything from a warm cup of tea in the morning to a supportive friend or a beautiful sunset. Another way to practice gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal, where you write down three things you are grateful for each day.

Here’s a guide to practicing gratitude:

Find a quiet and comfortable place to relax and focus on your thoughts.
Take a few deep breaths and reflect on what you are grateful for.
Write down three things you are grateful for, focusing on the feelings of appreciation and positivity that come with each item.
Take a moment to appreciate what you have written down and feel the gratitude and positivity they bring.

Uncle Buck – Bug’s Apology (full scene)

How To Set Healthy Boundaries In A Relationship?

April 27, 2023

Are you a doormat? Do you lead your own, independent life? Are you in charge? Or, on the other hand, does your wife or girlfriend tell you exactly what to do?

If you’re giving her the reins to your existence, I’ve got news for you. You need to learn how to set healthy boundaries in a relationship.

In a romantic relationship devoid of these boundaries, you end up bending over backward to please your partner which might lead to problems and you being unhappy in your relationship after a certain point.

Stop being a ‘yes’ man.

There’s a common misconception here. You think that if you set a boundary with your partner, you’re blocking them out. Incorrect. If you want to have a healthy, high-quality relationship with her, you need to let her know where your boundaries lie.

It’s not about keeping her out or even keeping her at arm’s length. It’s about not self-betraying in order to please her.

If she’s the woman that you think she is, she will respect you and the boundaries you draw up. She will give you that level of respect.

I’ve worked with many men that have found themselves in relationships where the boundaries have gone out of the window. Since they failed to set these boundaries from the offset, their partner has walked all over them.

They’ve found themselves becoming stressed, angry, upset… and not been able to pinpoint the cause of their problems.

The reason is obvious to everyone but them: there are no boundaries in place. That’s why I wanted to share a guide on how to set healthy boundaries in your relationships.

Tending to this part of your love life doesn’t have to be a chore. Taking the time to do this can help you gain the respect, love, and trust that you deserve from a partner.

Within this guide, I will dispel some of the myths surrounding setting boundaries and why you should do it.

Breaking Bad – Diner Scene

10 Major Reasons Why a Woman Leaves Her Man: A Brutally Honest Guide

Published On April 5, 2023 by Andrew Ferebee

Let’s face it. We’ve all been there.

You’re in a happy relationship and think you have everything under control. You’re crazy about her, and she’s crazy about you. And you genuinely cannot remember the last time you were this happy in a relationship.

You even begin to wonder if you found “the one.” At the very least, you fully expect it to turn into a long-term relationship; in the best-case scenario, you’ve found your life partner.

Then, you are blindsided. You get into a sudden argument, and—to your surprise—she walks. And there you are, left wondering just what went wrong. Even worse, you’ll probably never get a straight answer about what went wrong.

I’ve seen failed relationships like these destroy men. Many guys can’t recover from the heartbreak of their relationships ending so abruptly.

That being said, as a professional men’s coach, I can assure you that there are patterns to these things if you know how to look for them.

Today, I will give you some objective observations about why relationships fail and take a deep dive into what you can do to prevent it from happening to you.

This knowledge should be used to improve yourself and become a more grounded man so that you can build stronger, healthier relationships going forward.

But first, let’s talk about how you shouldn’t handle these situations.

Look, rejection never feels good. I don’t care if we discuss a relationship or a job promotion. Being told that you’re not good enough for something just plain sucks.

Naturally, the first thing you may want to do when this happens is to seek the support of your friends or family. These people will often come together and take your side to make you feel better.

This is entirely understandable, but taking a moment and being introspective is essential. After all, a man who refuses to admit he’s done anything wrong is doomed to repeat his mistakes.

I can tell you that I see many men who, as a defense mechanism, convince themselves that the failed relationship was entirely their girlfriend’s fault. Usually, this isn’t the case.

The truth is many men are unaware of their shortcomings. They fail to realize what they did to cause the relationship to go south. I always advise my clients to take a moment and think about the history of the relationship and consider what warning signs they may have missed.

More often than not, the signs were there all along. Unfortunately, when many men realize this, it is already too late.

That being said, here is a list of the ten most common reasons why a woman will leave her man and some actionable tips you can employ right now to stop them from happening to you.

1. She feels a lack of emotional support and a feeling of connection

I still remember a man I met who was about to propose while on vacation with his girlfriend. The entire trip was carefully crafted to be as romantic as possible, and he was confident that she would say “yes.”

To his surprise, though, she said “no.” Not only did she reject his proposal, but a big argument ensued that ended the relationship then and there. She booked a flight back home, and he had four days to wallow in his failure.

I remember him giving me this big speech about how he felt a deep emotional connection with her that was unlike anything he had ever felt.

He told me he couldn’t comprehend why she said they felt their bond “wasn’t deep enough” for marriage.

He failed to understand that a feeling of connection is unique to everyone. It was a profound connection to my client, but to his partner, it wasn’t anything noteworthy.

It doesn’t mean either person was being untruthful in any way, simply that they had different expectations.

A woman needs to feel like she can confide in anything in you and that you are genuinely interested in her feelings. If she doesn’t, she’ll eventually seek that connection somewhere else.

In the case of this particular client, after we talked it out, he realized that he was neglecting his girlfriend’s emotional needs—and that he had been for quite a while. There were noticeable clues that she was unhappy, but he failed to realize it.

Why?

Well, that leads me to my next point…

2. You are taking her for granted

My client had become so convinced that his girlfriend was deeply in love with him that he got lazy. The things he said and did that made her fall for him in the first place got put on the back burner.

He was overconfident and didn’t realize he wasn’t the supportive man she needed. In this circumstance, it seemed my client knew how to be emotionally supportive, but he just stopped prioritizing it.

Suppose you’ve been caught in a never-ending cycle of short-term relationships. Even though you want something long-term, those relationships never materialize, and you’re not sure why.

In that case, it’s probably because your partners aren’t getting the emotional support they crave.

Ask yourself, “Am I being lazy?” Because if you want your relationships to go the distance, you must put in the effort. It’s that simple.

Despite what many people think, relationships aren’t that complicated. All you need to do is maintain the chemistry that sparked the attraction in the first place. The rest will take care of itself.

And this is what leads me to my next point:

3. You failed to level up your communication skills

Think back to when you first started dating your partner and the things you used to talk about. Generally, people don’t get into deep introspective conversations on the first date. For the most part, when two people are just getting to know each other, casual topics take center stage

This is fine in the beginning because there is a strong physical or sexual attraction driving the relationship. Your conversations don’t need to be the most profound because other factors keep you both interested.

But as the relationship progresses and that physical attraction begins to cool, women often look for deeper communication. And that is where I see so many men fall short.

Actively listening, empathizing, and expressing your feelings clearly and respectfully take communication to the next level.

For example, take a look at how the two of you argue. While I’ll be the first to admit that arguing is not an indication that there is something wrong with the relationship, you need to be aware of how your arguments get resolved.

If you constantly brush off her concerns and disputes and never have a resolution, she will feel like you aren’t listening to her and don’t value her opinions. I often see couples argue, stop talking for a while, and then drift back together once their tempers have cooled.

They don’t discuss the issue because they don’t want to deal with the stress and spark another fight. The problem is that when you do this, you’re not fixing the underlying problem. Just because you’re on speaking terms again, it doesn’t mean there isn’t resentment underneath.

If you can’t level up your communication skills in a way that is befitting of a serious relationship, then you’ll never have one.

Admittedly, practical communication skills require years of practice and don’t come naturally to many men. If you think this statement applies to you, hiring a men’s coach to provide professional guidance might be the perfect solution.

4. You are jealous and/or insecure

While a bit of jealousy is natural—and arguably healthy—excessive jealousy that stems from personal insecurities can drive a wedge between you and your partner. If you constantly question or doubt her loyalty, it won’t be long until she grows tired of it.

As cliché as it is, trust is essential to any relationship, and if you lack trust, you need to examine why that is.

I understand that certain things can happen throughout a relationship that gives you reasonable cause for not trusting your partner, but I’m not talking about those here.

I’m talking about deep-seated insecurities that have nothing to do with your current relationship. These are issues that arise from past relationships or something else entirely, such as something that happened in your childhood.

Whatever the reason, it’s your job to work on yourself to become a trusting and confident partner. Besides, you will drive yourself crazy if you don’t, and your relationships will be guaranteed to fail.

How do you do that? Well, it all depends on you and your unique circumstances.

For example, if a past partner cheated on you, and now you walk around with a lingering fear that every woman you date will do the same, you need to address that directly.

On the other hand, if your parents constantly put you down as a child, you may suffer from low self-esteem in adulthood. The causes are different for everyone, but the one thing you don’t want to do is bury or repress those emotions.

If you’re unsure what’s causing your problems, a men’s coach can help you get to the root cause of your jealousy and insecurities and teach you how to heal and move on.

5. You are neglecting your growth

It’s always important to prioritize self-improvement and personal growth in your life. To be a strong, grounded man—to be a true leader—you should constantly search for ways to become a better person and partner.

This can come in many ways, shapes, or forms, but generally, you need to show that you are willing to learn from your mistakes, take responsibility for them, and grow as an individual.

In other words: stop acting like a little boy and start acting like a man.

Unfortunately, many men fail to realize when they’ve become stagnant. If your partner is career-oriented, entrepreneurial, and ambitious, it’s only natural that she will seek a like-minded partner.

If you were at one point but have now lost that drive, it may be causing tension in your relationship.

In the end, she will lose respect for you, and then you will lose her.

Again, it’s about not getting lazy in your relationships.

For example, just because you and your girlfriend decided to move in together and split half the rent doesn’t mean you get to sit on your ass and play video games all day.

Whatever expectations you have from each other need to be communicated to form a lasting relationship.

6. You are being financially irresponsible

Whether casually dating or building a life together, your finances will eventually intertwine. And yes, money isn’t everything, but financial stability is essential to a relationship.

If you’re reckless with your finances—even if that recklessness doesn’t personally affect your partner—it could be a red flag for her.

If a man fails to hold a steady job and bring home a decent income, it is often seen as a sign of weakness. And if you’re unwilling to contribute to shared expenses, she may view you as unreliable or untrustworthy.

Sure, you might have a five-year plan to become a billionaire, but it likely won’t matter to her if your actions fail to convey that. If you’re constantly overspending, racking up debt, and have no real plan to stop the financial bleeding, it’s completely natural that she’ll have concerns.

I should also note that I’ve seen the opposite be true, where a man has tons of money in his bank accounts but keeps it a secret because he wants to ensure the woman he is dating isn’t into him only for the money.

While this concern is valid, it doesn’t justify hiding things from your partner. In the end, this will only add distrust to the relationship.

The longer you stay together, the more your finances will become intertwined, so it’s better to be open with these things.

7. You are disrespectful or exhibit controlling behavior

This should go without saying, but no woman wants to be in a relationship with a man who disrespects or tries to control her. If you in some way try to insult or try to control your partner’s behavior, I can guarantee she won’t be hanging around for long.

Sometimes I’ll see guys who belittle or talk down to their women and act as if they’re doing so in a playful or joking manner.

They don’t realize that while it might all be fun and games to them, it would be highly offensive if the shoe was on the other foot.

Furthermore, if done in a group or social setting, it usually just comes off as a desperate cry for attention and makes them look like immature little boys.

If you need to boost yourself up by putting your partner down, that is a severe issue that needs to be addressed.

And in short, don’t do it.

Similarly, if you exhibit controlling tendencies, that’s another thing that cannot be ignored. As I mentioned earlier when I was talking about insecurities, behaviors like this usually stem from external factors, and they need to be remedied as soon as possible.

If you think you have a problem respecting your partner or have been accused of being overly controlling, you may need the help of a coaching expert who can help you bring the root causes to the surface.

8. You were guilty of infidelity

Infidelity is a common deal-breaker in relationships. Even if your partner has no concrete proof that you were cheating, just the suspicion alone is usually enough to cause severe tension that leads to the end of the relationship.

If you’re unhappy in your current relationship and develop an interest in someone else, it will save you significant stress and aggravation to break up.

Even if it truly is a one-time occurrence, cheating usually leaves lasting scars on the relationship.

Once a woman has a reason to doubt your honesty or loyalty, it probably won’t take long before she decides she’s better off without you.

I’ve met many men with girlfriends or wives who tolerated their cheating ways for years. They naively believed they were invincible, could walk all over their partners, and would tolerate it.

Then one day, when their wives or girlfriends suddenly packed up and left, they were left there twiddling their thumbs, trying to figure out what to do.

9. You do not satisfy her in the bedroom

This is probably the one item on this list that bruises more egos than others. The fact is, a healthy sexual relationship is a massive part of any romantic relationship, and it’s something you need to pay attention to.

If you’re the only one who’s enjoying sex and you routinely go through the motions and leave women unsatisfied, you’re just asking for trouble.

Sex, just like any other aspect of a long-term relationship, requires effort to maintain. Assumedly, your sex lives were pleasing at the start of the relationship—otherwise, you wouldn’t have made it this far—so ask yourself, what happened?

As difficult as it might be to admit, acknowledge if you are responsible for letting things stale.

And if you think to yourself, “Wait, she wouldn’t leave me just because of bad sex, would she?” well, what would you do if the roles were reversed?

What’s problematic here is that it’s doubtful you’ll find any conclusive evidence that bad sex caused a failed relationship. Nevertheless, if your past relationships lead you to believe this was the case, you need to address it moving forward.

10. She outgrew you (or you outgrew her

It’s just a fact of life: people grow apart. Their goals, aspirations, and interests change, and before long, whatever initially attracted two people to each other feels like nothing more than a distant memory.

Many things can cause these divisions, whether changing careers, having children together, or just realizing that you aren’t quite as compatible as you initially thought.

I often hear men say that that phrase—”We’ve grown apart”—was said to them, but they still don’t fully comprehend what it means.

Men often miss the subtle (or not-so-subtle) clues from their partners that something needs to change; they are given an ultimatum without even realizing it.

For example, if your girlfriend or wife tells you that the two of you should go to couples therapy, it’s a sign of serious problems. But beyond that, she believes the two of you are past the point of reconciling those problems on your own and now need professional help.

Some men dismiss the idea of couple’s therapy and are then surprised when she walks out on the relationship. This is another case where a failure to communicate quietly kills your chemistry, whether you realize it or not.

Simply put, in any long-term relationship, you will both change; that much is a given. The real test is how well you can adapt to that change.

Takeaways

If you’re reading this article, it means one of two things: either you were recently dumped, or you fear that you’re headed down that path.

Either way, just that you are here, reading this is a step in the right direction.

Becoming the best version of yourself is as much about you as it is about the people in your life. If you can’t reflect on your behavior and identify the areas where you need to improve, you’ll be caught in a vicious cycle of failed relationships.

If you’re feeling lost, confused, and unsure where to start, seeking help from a professional men’s coach is the best way to start. Having guidance and support from a group of men who have lived through the very things you’re struggling with can prove invaluable in the long run.

The thing is, you have to be willing to put in the work, and not everyone is. But if you’re one of those men out there who is genuinely ready for a transformative program that will change your life and allow you to achieve things you previously only dreamed of, there’s no better time to start than now.

So, if you believe you’re one of the select few who can handle the intensive, introspective training that I can offer you, why not prove it?

My team of coaches and I have created a “band of brothers” that provide tangible benefits as soon as you join. We are completely unlike other men’s mentorship groups out there and proud of it.

There are no whiners or little boys around these parts. Just serious men who are serious about becoming the absolute best versions of themselves.

If you’re ready to learn more, click the link below to get started. I’ll see you on the inside.

Creamy Santa Fe Cutlets

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 pound 1/4 inch thick pork cutlets
3 teaspoons oil
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Instructions

Combine flour, salt and pepper; dredge pork cutlets in flour mixture.
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a nonstick skillet. Sauté half the cutlets 1 1/2 minutes per side until cooked. Remove to a side plate.
Repeat with remaining oil and cutlets. Cover to keep warm.
After removing cutlets from skillet, add salsa, frozen corn and water. Simmer for 1 minute.
Off the heat, stir in reduced-fat sour cream and chopped cilantro.

Unexpected Finds In Houses

BREAKING NEWS: KREMLIN ATTACKED AGAIN, RUSSIA PREPARING RETALIATION

The dangers of AI…

We have not even started yet. Do not fuck with us. This is not a game.

Putin’s speech is amazing.

More about that later.

Watch the world unravel.

The spy balloon saga

Thought you guys might enjoy this. Worth watching til the end. This comedian sums up what’s been going on, in short.

The crowd response is really good.

The BIG news…

Difficult to convey as crystal clear on the diplomatic level the present Sino-Russian ties when Vladimir Putin (President) was meeting with Li Shangfu (Minister of Defense) on a Sunday, and not on any Sunday but on the Easter Sunday. 

Minister of Defense Li Shangfu : The present Sino-Russian partnership goes beyond what existed with the Cold War alliance. 

Apparently simple common sense, standing unwaveringly together is the best way to deter an agressor, especially a bully suffering from a leviathanesque hubris and for a long time... 

But maybe it's not simply common sense in the usual meaning of the expression, like 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' and that kind of stuff having its own value of course but that is far to be enough to sustain a close and long-lasting partnership when the stakes are so high. 

It is most carefully cultivated friendship and true mutual appreciation & respect, knowing perfectly what each one can give to the other in the common endeavor and the respective willingness of each one to share one's own assets with the other. 

It's the common awareness at the highest level being at a major nexus of Universal History and the roles China and Russia have been assigned by Destiny and more importantly, the awareness of such roles by that actors themselves and their willingness to go forward endowed with such roles. 

In the intricate mind games of interpersonal relations and international relations, it's quite easy to fall into the inevitable divisive traps if the ties are not set at the highest epistemological levels. 

The most clumsy & most overbearing behavior coming from the KFC-AZAEL (Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment) triggered the Sino-Russian rapprochement but the present Sino-Russian relation is defined by what the Chinese are and by what the Russians are, centered on what they represent and are incarnating with awareness and by what they can achieve together. 

It's centered on China & Russia, it's not centered on the other, the KFC-AZAEL. Do Svidaniya ! Quan 

Link

The US Just Crossed a RED LINE in Taiwan! Watch Out!

What is the process by which the Chinese Communist Party gathers public opinion and implements policy?

First, there are 8 other political parties that serve in government. They represent many constituents.

Second, there are locally elected officials at the village level who provide feedback.

Third, the government monitors social media to get the pulse of the nation.

Fourth, regularly convened congresses such as the Two Sessions are attended by thousands of delegates from across the country.

Fifth, when there are public protests against government policies, the government pays attention and responds appropriately.

China’s democracy, which does not follow the Western model, is very effective. So much so that it garners wide support…

Latana’s Democracy Perception Index 2022

shows that 83 percent of Chinese believe their country is democratic making it the most democratic nation on earth!

Edelman Trust Barometer 2023

shows that 89 percent of Chinese trust their government.

Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School in 2020 reported

that 95.5 percent of Chinese are satisfied with their government.

A 2019 UC San Diego study

shows a high level of satisfaction among the Chinese across a range of aspects up to 95 percent.

A November 2019 Ipsos survey

shows that 95 percent of Chinese believe their country is on the right track.

The Global Happiness 2023

survey from Ipsos shows that China is the happiest country in the world at 91 percent.

The statistical evidence is overwhelming.

Western countries, especially the United States, can only dream of having such numbers.

BREAKING: America’s Shocking Plan For Russia Just Crumbled

Gaeng Khio Wan Kai
(Green Chicken Curry)

The Thai name of this dish literally means “sweet and sour chicken curry.” There is a very similar recipe for a red curry (Gaeng phed kai).

As always, the quantities are up to you.

Ingredients

Curry Paste

15 to 30 fresh phrik ki nu (birdseye chiles)
10 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped galangal
1 tablespoon thinly sliced lemon grass
1/2 teaspoon zest of “kaffir” lime (ordinary lime will do)
1 teaspoon chopped coriander (cilantro) root
5 white pepper corns
1 tablespoon roasted coriander seeds
1 teaspoon roasted cumin seeds
Dash of fish sauce
1 to 2 teaspoons fermented shrimp paste (kapi)

The Curry

6 ounces chicken (in smallish bite-size pieces)
1/2 cup coconut milk
4 ounces Thai eggplant (these are small round eggplants)
2 kaffir lime leaves (or a little lime zest)
1 tablespoon sweet basil
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar
Oil for cooking
1 to 3 tablespoons green curry paste

Instructions

Curry Paste: Mix in a mortar and pestle or food processor. Will keep about a month in a fridge. You can buy commercial green curry paste (Mae Ploy brand is quite good), but as far as I am aware all commercial pastes contain MSG and preservatives.
The Curry: Cut the chicken up, then briefly fry the curry paste until fragrant, reduce the heat, add the coconut milk slowly, and continue to stir whilst cooking until a thin film of oil appears on the surface.
Add the chicken and other ingredients except the eggplant. Bring to a boil and cook until the chicken begins to change color. Adjust the flavors to suit yourself. When it is at a boil again add the eggplant and continue until the chicken is cooked through.
Serve over rice, or in a serving bowl with other Thai dishes.

Where U.S Weapons For Ukraine Are REALLY Going! w/ Sy Hersh

Escobar: Mr. Lavrov’s New York Shuffle

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s New York moment performed the diplomatic equivalent of bringing the house down…

Now picture a true gentleman, the foremost diplomat of these troubled times, in total command of the facts and endowed with a delightful sense of humor, taking a perilous walk on the wild side, to quote iconic Lou Reed, and emerging unscathed.

In fact, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s New York moment – as in his two interventions before the UN Security Council on April 24 and 25 – performed the diplomatic equivalent of bringing the house down. At least the sections of the house inhabited by the Global South – or Global Majority.

April 24, during the 9308th meeting of the UNSC under the agenda “Maintenance of international peace and security, effective multilateralism through the protection of the principles of the UN Charter”, was particularly relevant.

Lavrov stressed the symbolism of the meeting happening on the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace, deemed quite significant by a 2018 UN General Assembly resolution.

In his preamble, Lavrov noted how “in two weeks, we will celebrate the 78th anniversary of Victory in World War II. The defeat of Nazi Germany, to which my country made a decisive contribution with the support of the Allies, laid the foundation for the post-war international order. The UN Charter has become its legal basis, and our organization itself, embodying true multilateralism, has acquired a central, coordinating role in world politics.”

Well, not really. And that brings us to Lavrov’s true walk on the wild side, pinpointing how multilateralism has been trampled. Way beyond torrents of denigration by the usual suspects, and their attempt to submit him to an ice cold shower in New York, or even confine him to the – geopolitical – freezer, he prevailed. Let’s take a walk with him across the current wasteland. Mr. Lavrov, you’re the star of the show.

Are we on the brink of WW111?

Our way or the highway

That “rules-based order”:

“The UN-centric system is going through a deep crisis. The root cause was the desire of some members of our organization to replace international law and the UN Charter with a kind of ‘rules-based order.’ No one saw these ‘rules’, they were not the subject of transparent international negotiations. They are invented and used to counteract the natural processes of the formation of new independent centers of development, which are an objective manifestation of multilateralism. They are trying to contain them with illegitimate unilateral measures, including cutting off access to modern technologies and financial services, ousting them from supply chains, confiscating property, destroying competitors’ critical infrastructure, and manipulating universally agreed norms and procedures. As a result, the fragmentation of world trade, the collapse of market mechanisms, the paralysis of the WTO and the final, already without disguise, transformation of the IMF into a tool for achieving the goals of the United States and its allies, including military goals.”

Destroying globalization:

“In a desperate attempt to assert its dominance by punishing the disobedient, the United States went on to destroy globalization, which for many years was extolled as the highest good of all mankind, serving the multilateral system of the world economy. Washington and the rest of the West, which has submitted to it, use their ‘rules’ whenever it is necessary to justify illegitimate steps against those who build their policies in accordance with international law and refuse to follow the selfish interests of the ‘golden billion’. Dissenters are blacklisted according to the principle: ‘Whoever is not with us is against us.’ It has long been ‘inconvenient’ for our Western colleagues to negotiate in universal formats, such as the UN. For the ideological justification of the policy of undermining multilateralism, the theme of the unity of ‘democracies’ as opposed to ‘autocracies’ has been introduced. In addition to the ‘summits for democracy’, whose composition is determined by the self-proclaimed Hegemon, other ‘clubs of the elite’ are being created, bypassing the UN.”

“Garden” vs. “Jungle:

“Let’s call a spade a spade: no one allowed the Western minority to speak on behalf of all mankind. It is necessary to behave decently and respect all members of the international community. By imposing a ‘rules-based order’, its authors arrogantly reject a key principle of the UN Charter – the sovereign equality of states. The quintessence of the ‘exclusivity complex’ was the ‘proud’ statement by the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, that ‘Europe is the Garden of Eden, and the rest of the world is a jungle.’ I will also quote the NATO-EU Joint Statement of January 10 of this year, which states: the ‘United West’ will use all the economic, financial, political and – I pay special attention – military tools available to NATO and the EU to ensure the interests of ‘our one billion’.

NATO’s “line of defense”:

“At last year’s summit in Madrid, NATO, which has always convinced everyone of its ‘peacefulness’ and the exclusively defensive nature of its military programs, declared ‘global responsibility’, the ‘indivisibility of security’ in the Euro-Atlantic region and in the so-called Indo-Pacific region. That is, now the ‘line of defense’ of NATO (as a defensive Alliance) is shifting to the western shores of the Pacific Ocean. Bloc approaches that undermine ASEAN-centric multilateralism are manifested in the creation of the AUKUS military alliance, into which Tokyo, Seoul and a number of ASEAN countries are being pushed. Under the auspices of the United States, mechanisms are being created to intervene in maritime security issues with an eye to ensuring the unilateral interests of the West in the South China Sea. Josep Borrell, whom I have already quoted today, promised yesterday to send EU naval forces to the region. It is not hidden that the goal of the ‘Indo-Pacific strategies’ is to contain the PRC and isolate Russia. This is how our Western colleagues understand ‘effective multilateralism’ in the Asia-Pacific region.”

“Promoting democracy”:

“Since World War II, there have been dozens of criminal military adventures by Washington – without any attempt to gain multilateral legitimacy. Why, if there are ‘rules’ unknown to anyone? The shameful invasion of Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003 was carried out in violation of the UN Charter, as was the aggression against Libya in 2011. A gross violation of the UN Charter was U.S. interference in the affairs of post-Soviet states. ‘Color revolutions’ were organized in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, a bloody coup d’état in Kiev in February 2014, and attempts to seize power by force in Belarus in 2020. The Anglo-Saxons, who confidently led the entire West, not only justify all these criminal adventures, but also flaunt their line of ‘promoting democracy.’ But again, according to its ‘rules’: Kosovo – to recognize independence without any referendum; Crimea – not to recognize (although there was a referendum); Do not touch the Falklands/Malvinas, because there was a referendum there (as British Foreign Secretary John Cleverly said recently). That’s funny.”

The geopolitics of the “Ukrainian issue”:

“Today, everyone understands, although not everyone talks about it out loud: this is not about Ukraine at all, but about how international relations will be built further: through the formation of a stable consensus based on a balance of interests – or through the aggressive and explosive promotion of hegemony. It is impossible to consider the ‘Ukrainian issue’ in isolation from the geopolitical context. Multilateralism presupposes respect for the UN Charter in all the interconnectedness of its principles, as mentioned above. Russia has clearly explained the tasks that it pursues as part of a special military operation: to eliminate the threats to our security created by NATO members directly on our borders and to protect people who have been deprived of their rights proclaimed by multilateral conventions, to protect them from the direct threats of extermination and expulsion from the territories where their ancestors lived for centuries publicly declared by the Kyiv regime. We honestly said what and for whom we are fighting.”

The Global South fights back:

“True multilateralism at the present stage requires the UN to adapt to the objective trends in the formation of a multipolar architecture of international relations. The reform of the Security Council must be accelerated by increasing the representation of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The West’s current outrageous overrepresentation in this main UN organ undermines multilateralism. At the initiative of Venezuela, the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter was created. We call on all States that respect the Charter to join it. It is also important to use the constructive potential of BRICS and the SCO. The EAEU, the CIS, and the CSTO are ready to contribute. We are in favor of using the initiative of the positions of regional associations of the countries of the Global South. The Group of Twenty can also play a useful role in maintaining multilateralism if Western participants stop distracting their colleagues from topical issues on its agenda in the hope of muffling the topic of their responsibility for the accumulation of crisis phenomena in the world economy.”

So who’s breaking the law?

After this concise tour de force, it would be immensely enlightening to track what Lavrov has been telling the world since February 2022, in consistent, excruciating detail: the serial international law breakers, in contemporary history, have been the Hegemon and its sorry gaggle of vassals. Not Russia.

So Moscow was completely within its rights to launch the SMO – as it had no alternative. And that operation will be brought to its logical conclusion – inbuilt in the new Russian Foreign Policy Concept published on March 31st. Whatever may be unleashed by the Collective West will be simply ignored by Russia, as it regards the entire combo to be acting outside the norms of international law laid down in the UN Charter.

Ex-US Army Psyops Expert: Fox News Fired Carlson To Maintain “Semi Lobotomized Quasi Retarded Population”

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A former US Army psychological warfare officer says that Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News because of the regime’s agenda to maintain an “uninformed semi lobotomized quasi retarded population.”

The remarks were made by US counter-terror expert Scott Bennett.

Carlson and Fox News “parted ways” on Monday with speculation still raging as to the specific reason why the network canned its highest rated and most popular host.

According to Bennett, Carlson posed too much of a threat to institutional power because he turned Americans into proper “researchers and thinkers”.

Carlson offered an “intellectualism, truthfulness, and an analytical depth that no other news personality has ever done in the history of the United States as far back as I can remember,” said Bennett.

Tucker needed to be “silenced” because he represented too big a threat to the “powers and principalities, institutions and agendas that seek an unenlightened uninformed semi lobotomized quasi retarded population that do not question, do not research, do not analyze but simply digest and follow instructions,” according to Bennett.

“Tucker Carlson also exposed the fraud and money laundering racketeering crimes of FTX and the Democrat Party in Ukraine involving the United States government. He exposed the US biochemical labs in Ukraine and their connection to the Democrat Party, President Barack Obama, Vice President Biden, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Bill Gates, and other US government agencies and pharmaceutical companies,” Bennett told Sputnik.

The ex-host’s anti-regime rhetoric “could no longer be tolerated by the corrupt American media and political establishment,” said Bennett, adding that his exit signals “the death of American media”.

The former US army psyops officer suggested that Senator Chuck Schumer had threatened to utilize the CIA and the FBI to deploy secret government operations against Tucker to get him off air unless he was fired.

Schumer previously called for Carlson to be taken off air after he broadcast footage showing the January 6 ‘riot’ leaders were actually allowed into the Capitol and chaperoned around by authorities.

As we highlighted earlier, one of the reasons behind Tucker’s dismissal is a lawsuit fired by former show producer Abby Grossberg, who claims she was bullied and subjected to sexist and anti-semitic harassment.

However, Grossberg’s own lawyer revealed that she has never even met Carlson.

Tatiana Obrenovic

April 17, 2023

This article is based on the Sputnik interview with Dušan Kovačević, a renowned Serbian dramatist, film director, screenwriter, author and academic.

Sputnik: Dusan, our previous interview ended with the statement that more monkeys entered into ‘a taaaank’. It appears that your admonitions have come true. Let me ask you at the beginning of this interview how close to disaster are we indeed?

DK: The fear of the war in Ukraine turning into the Third World War, God forbid, is so present everywhere that anybody in their right mind feels that it is on the brink of a huge catastrophe. Particularly now after the official visit of Xi Jinping to Russia and after their tacit agreement to create a joint defense in case anything happens, that tension is growing particularly with the information that munitions with depleted uranium will be delivered to Ukraine. We have gone through that in Serbia and many warn of the fact that in some places where these weapons were deployed the cancer deaths have been on the rise by 1000 %, not 100 % but 1000%. So, the shipping of ever bigger and more destructive weapons into Ukraine, as Dmitri Medvedev said this morning is getting nearer a nuclear war. People keep talking about it and warning of its threats. However, Ukraine has turned into a war zone and a war polygon to try and test many different weapons. People are scared in principle and this war has caused this cataclysm: economic fear and then these demonstrations (in Europe) now. Nobody wants to admit it that it is directly related but they talk and make up all sorts of reasons but in fact, that is it: when the energy resources become more costly which have been primarily supplied from Russia, there is now a chain of new price increases and thus the protests all around Europe and the world.

Sputnik: It could be said that depleted uranium is the weapon against the Orthodox Christians.

DK: It could be called many different things but I would reduce it to one thing: sickly proposal. Whether it is exactly on that territory with the majority of Orthodox Christian believers, yes there is enough reason to believe that, due to one fact which we went through in the 90s. My sentiment is in the case of the war which occurred on the territory of the Former Yugoslavia and this war in Ukraine. These are unfinished conflicts of the Second World War. You know, there is an issue I talked about a long time ago and I can tell it again. You know when you have a wound, and the wound is the Second World War and Nazism. That is a most awful wound in the body of the world, and not only Europe. And you don`t clean the wound completely (medically) but you only apply a bandage on it, the way it was done after the First and the Second World War, that is why that wound gets infected and it has to be amputated. And that story of Nazism has never been completely defined for what it is. There has been no law on genocide and it was introduced at a later stage. But they managed to wriggle out; and then there came a ban on arms for one hundred years, and then that was canceled; And Germany which is remembered for its evil doing, among others, in the region of Mačva, Serbia, where I was born which suffered most horribly by Germany in between the two world wars Mačva was almost burned down to the ground out of hatred and revenge by the Nazis. In Šabac in 1914 and 1915 there was not one single house left unscathed. Everything was demolished and the atrocities which were committed entered the medical annals for their beastliness. So I myself am painfully aware of what Nazism means.

I first encountered the phenomenon of Nazism when I was a child when I started primary school, one beautiful day in September, my teacher Natalja Ikodinovic, whom I still clearly remember unlike many others the names of whose I forgot later, she came to school to teach in a blouse with short sleeves and I saw a number tattooed on her arm at which I felt appalled because I did not know anything about these figures on her arm. I asked my parents why my teacher had numbers on her arm, which I would normally see on problematic people (i.e. ex cons, tough guys): tattoos in general.

My parents told me that it was a number from concentration camps but they did not want to explain any further. When I grew up, I found out she was in Dachau for four years. I still remember that image of the number on her arm as shocking as something I never saw before and then another relative of mine who also was in a concentration camp said that a person who raises their arm in a Heil Hitler, Nazi salute should have his or her arm cut '. Why? Because they were forced to raise their arm in a Nazi salute in the concentration camp. He told me that he seriously thought of cutting his arm to not have to salute to the Nazi commander in this way. These horrors which I portrayed in Battle of Cer, I World War, Maratonci, Bombing of Belgrade in Ko to tamo peva (Who is singin' over there), and Underground, my movies and TV series and all the atrocities which is then again related to the movie Prica o Vasem ocu. Some scenes with the animals in the Underground were shot in the Belgrade Zoo and Vuk Bojovic, the then Director of the Belgrade Zoo helped us immensely to adapt the space for a month; we were shooting some scenes in one part underneath Kalemegdan Fortress but the animals in the movie were from the Zoo.

Vuk Bojovic told me about the horrors when a bomb struck a dark corridor where people from Dorcol came to hide and all of them died sadly (in 1941). So this same history is now re-emerging back and when I hear Germany is being asked if they should send weapons to Ukraine and they cheer for Ukraine and then some people who pretend to be 'very important and smart' seem to frivolously express their views, then I keep wondering how come they are even allowed to carry weapons? I would not allow the Germans to carry a slingshot in their hands', let alone firearms. They would have to, by all standards of humanity, be disarmed and not even be allowed for a century to use knives when they have lunch. However, in all levels of social communication, we are now talking about the war and we are now talking about the fact that they voted in Germany that young people should not choose their gender of preference until the age of 18. So, one very serious mental disorder has taken over Europe and the world.

Sputnik: Is EU driving the bus with blindfolds on? And who is Misko (the young and stubborn blindfolded bus driver in the movie) in the distribution of roles in the political arena today?

DK: It takes all sorts. They come and go. From one year to another, from one period to another. They simply pretend everything is all right but in all that narrative especially now since the war in Ukraine began that amount of aggressiveness and threats is brought to an absurd level. The top of that absurdity is the denunciation and threat that Putin will by some strange miracle (though I am not sure how) would be caught and brought before the ICC, which by the way nobody respects.

Sputnik: What is your comment on this piece of news? Should it be viewed as a tragedy, comedy or a TV drama?

DK: I view that as if it were an episode from Alo Alo TV series. This somehow looks like that: a game show. It is so frivolous, cynical and ludicrous. Finally, that threat against Vladimir Putin only raises the tension and the level among the Russians to understand that they are up against the people who are seriously problematic.

Sputnik: Which world characters nowadays would you compare your characters Marko and Crni from your movie Underground?

DK: Nowadays, when you think about it, there are many of them, today the manipulation of one group of people who keep the others under delusion in the proverbial underground (a metaphorical basement in the film itself) is to me rather close to U.S. politics. I am not talking about the U.S. population in general where each week there is either a domestic violence crime or something similarly brutal. I have listened to the news even this morning and some children were murdered and then some people were killed and then a suicide but what is so strange is that the delegates from the White House keep threatening Russia and China (regardless of their own internal national problems), which are nuclear powers with one third of the whole population in the world and which possess the weapons which nobody even knows what they have. The most highly advanced weapons are not on display on the fairground, surely. It is hidden away from the public gaze.

And they dare threaten Russia and China after having fled from Afghanistan when the Taliban stormed there in beach flip flops. The U.S. even abandoned their allies there and left them to suffer and die. This is absolutely absurd, abstract and unreal. On the other hand the tensions grow because of the nuclear arms which about ten countries have at this point. The story of North Korea is illustrative enough. If North Korea did not have nuclear weapons, Kim Jong-un would be most brutally executed in the same way Gadafi was and many other world leaders. But they are afraid of him because they possess extremely powerful and precise weapons and Kim Jong-un is not afraid of anybody either.

The world is going step by step towards the brink of abyss. I am not sure if there will be anybody in their right mind to stop it and invite everybody to gather at the round table to discuss and negotiate. Each war regardless and they normally last for four years (it has been calculated by the military tactics experts why the war normally lasts for four years: the economy can withstand the pressure, the population can, the number of casualties can) after that they have to sit at the table and negotiate with ten, twenty or like in the first and second world wars with 50 million deaths at hand. Generally we are not in a good place in the whole world.

Sputnik: Your movie Maratonci trce pocasni krug (i.e. the Marathon runners are running an honorable race) has been a cult movie for fifty years now and it seems that it has no intention of stopping being shown and gaining ever more popularity. And now to draw this interview to a close, who do you think will win in this war?

DK: The polarization of the world is ongoing and we are witnessing it but it is not abundantly clear whether we shall experience a definite division but we also can see the fact that the new blocs and the new spheres of interest are in the making. The world will never be the way it used to be. The world will split. Russia and China will go in one direction together for sure. The EU, or at least what the names are of those countries there, will take the other direction, provided that they do not disintegrate by themselves because of the protests and strikes and serious turmoil they have on their own personal national levels. The USA will get isolated at some point because nobody will listen to the U.S. any more as is already the case, and another powerful bloc will emerge: so called the Third World countries – because of the economy and their huge populations. We have to be aware of the fact that the most densely populated country is India with 1 billion 400 million people plus Pakistan with 1 billion 600 000 million. They are becoming not only a military, heavily populated power but economically powerful too. We are yet to see what will happen in the future.

FLASH: CHINA BANS IMPORTS/EXPORTS INVOLVING RAYTHEON AND LOCKHEED – CRIPPLES U.S. DEFENSE INDUSTRY!

World Hal Turner 18 April 2023

FLASH TRAFFIC: CHINA’S COMMERCE MINISTRY HAS BANNED SENIOR EXECS OF RAYTHEON MISSILES & DEFENSE, AND LOCKHEED MARTIN, FROM ENTERING, WORKING, STAYING, AND RESIDING IN CHINA.

CHINA WILL NOW ENFORCE ITS FEB 16 BAN ON CHINESE ENTERPRISES FROM CONDUCTING IMPORT & EXPORT ACTIVITIES WITH ABOVE U.S. COMPANIES.

This is said to include Microchips from “Taiwan, China.”

Of course, the U.S. considers Taiwan to be “independent” but yet adopted the “one China policy.”

If Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin cannot engage in Imports/Exports to or from China, and if the ban on Microchips is enforced, the two most major players in U.S. National Defense manufacturing are immediately crippled.

In addition, the U.S. weapons SALES to Taiwan, will not be able to take place because the missiles and such that Taiwan is trying to buy, cannot now be shipped to Taiwan.

Put simply, China just put a total halt to US defense sales to Taiwan, and crippled the US Defense manufacturing industry by cutting off microchips.

Raytheon and Lockheed Martin face serious risk if their rare-earth supplies are also affected by the sanctions, according to Wu Chenhui, an independent industry analyst who follows the rare-earth industry.

Wu told the Global Times that Lockheed Martin, now on the banned entity list, may have to source its rare-earth supply, especially that of heavy rare-earth elements, from elsewhere.

Given China’s dominant position in global rare-earth supply, substitutes may not be found in time. This would mean production of the company’s F35 jet and many other high-tech weapon systems may face a temporary slowdown or suspension.

If China decides to expand the range of its ban to components produced by other countries that contain Chinese-made rare-earth elements, the depth and scope of the new bans will be deeper and wider, Wu noted.

The Double Standards Of Our Society Revealed In 47 Comics

While many of our societies take pride in the accomplishments made in the field of equal treatment for everybody, there is still a lot of work to be done. And who better can reveal these absurd injustices than the illustrators, who are always on a lookout for those funny and sometimes painfully real contrasts?

Below you’ll find a list of the most striking examples of double standards in illustrations, highlighting not only the problem but also the stiffness of our minds when it comes to recognizing it in our own lives.

What situation from your own experience do these remind you of? Let talk in the comments.

h/t: boredpanda, demilked

China Brings Peace To Yemen, Syria And … Palestine?

Peace is breaking out in the Middle East and the U.S. is pushed aside by more friendly actors.

On March 10 the world was surprised with a China mediated deal that restored ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran:

There are winners and losers in this.The winners are:

Iran, which will now be even more able to break through the sanctions wall the U.S. has put up around it.

Saudi Arabia, which now will likely be able to end its disastrous and costly war on Yemen.

China, for outplaying the U.S. State Department by achieving this.

Iraq, Syria, Yemen as they will become more peaceful as the two middle powers influencing policies on their grounds end their rivalry.

The losers are:

Israel, because the chances for its attempts to get the U.S. into a war with Iran are now diminished. Its hoped for coalition with the Saudis will not come into being.

The U.S. for having been outplayed on its traditional ‘home grounds’ in the Middle East.

Anti-Iran hawks everywhere.

The Emirates for losing at least some of the sanction busting trade with Iran to Saudi Arabia.

…
Reviving relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran will make a lot of new things possible.That Iran and Saudi Arabia accepted China’s mediation is a recognition of Beijing’s new standing in world policies. That alone is enough reason for the White House to hate the deal.

I predicted that the U.S. and Israel would do their best to sabotage the deal or at least make its implementation difficult.

The U.S. sent CIA director Bill Burns to warn the Saudis off. However the deal has held so far and the Saudis are repairing their relations with countries against which they previously waged wars. Yesterday a senior Saudi official visited Sanaa and shook hands with Yemeni Houthi officials:

Saudi Arabia’s military intervention against the Shiite Houthis began in 2015. Bolstered by extensive American military and intelligence support, it came to include 25,000 air raids, according to a count by the Yemen Data Project. The years of fighting created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and resulted in the deaths of more than 377,000 Yemenis by the end of 2021 from both war and hunger, the United Nations calculates.The Houthis have made Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies pay a high price for their failed bid to return to the capital the internationally recognized government after it was ousted by the Houthis. They have launched more than 1,000 missiles and 350 drones into Saudi territory, increasingly deeply since 2019, prompting Riyadh to search for a way out of its military quagmire.

The accelerated moves follow just weeks after a high-profile rapprochement brokered last month by China between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran – both of which turned Yemen’s civil war into a proxy battleground to expand their regional influence.

Over the last week the Saudis and Houthi sides released prisoners of war. The U.S. has done its best to sabotage the deal:

In the wake of the China-backed détente, the Saudis have largely been willing to abandon their proxies in the interest of ending what has been a draining war. The U.S. responded with alarm, rushing diplomats to the region to insist that pressure continue being applied to the Houthi government in the hope of undermining the deal in the works. [Tim Lenderking, the U.S. envoy for Yemen,] rushed to Riyadh on April 11, as news broke of a peace deal, to remind Saudi leaders of the U.S. desire that they continue to back their proxies in the war.

Instead, the ceasefire talks appear to have become possible because of an agreement in principle that Saudi Arabia would abandon its puppet government, back down from the blockade, and — as the Houthis hoped — use its vast oil wealth to pay Yemeni civil servants.

A similar rapprochement is happening between Saudi Arabia and Syria. On April 12 the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited Saudi Arabia:

The visit is the first by a Syrian foreign minister to Saudi Arabia since 2011, when the war in Syria began. Saudi Arabia supported the Syrian opposition, but ties have thawed in recent months.Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has largely defeated the opposition with Russian and Iranian backing.

Over the past few months, there has been increasing engagement with al-Assad, who has been isolated since the start of the Syrian war.

Al-Assad has visited the UAE and Oman this year, and last month Saudi Arabia said it has started talks with Damascus about resuming consular services.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of regional foreign ministers on Friday to discuss the return of Syria to the Arab League.

The Arab League re-entry will not happen for some time as Qatar, which supported the Muslim Brotherhood rebels against Syria, continues to be hostile to it.

The Saudis will never the less continue their plan. Today the Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Damascus for a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad:

Saudi Arabia severed ties with Assad’s government in 2012 and Riyadh had long openly championed Assad’s ouster, backing Syrian rebels in earlier stages of the war.

Several other Arab countries also cut ties with Syria as some powers bet on Assad’s demise.

But regional capitals have gradually been warming to Assad as he has clawed back most of the territory lost to rivals, with crucial backing from Russia and Iran.

As with Yemen the U.S. does not like this move. It will continue its effort to isolate Syria and its government. It is no by chance that today, Just as the Saudi foreign minister visits Damascus, the U.S. is revealing a looming indictment of high ranking Syrian officials:

The inquiry, which has not been previously reported, aims to bring to account top Syrian officials considered key architects of a ruthless system of detention and torture that has flourished under President Bashar al-Assad: Jamil Hassan, the head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate when Ms. Shweikani disappeared, and Ali Mamlouk, then the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service.A federal indictment accusing the men of committing war crimes would be the first time that the United States has criminally charged top Syrian officials with the very human rights abuses that Mr. al-Assad has long denied using to silence dissent. Although the men are unlikely to be apprehended, a conviction would signal that the United States aims to hold the Syrian government responsible. Already, the United States has imposed sanctions on Mr. al-Assad and his inner circle, including Mr. Mamlouk and Mr. Hassan, over abuses like violence against civilians.
…
A potential indictment would “personalize the evil of this regime and make it clear you can’t do business with Assad,” said former Ambassador James F. Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s special representative for Syria engagement.

The move will be to no avail. The next country to patch it up with Syria will be Turkey. The Saudi clown prince Mohammad Bin Sultan has decided to develop Saudi Arabia into more than an oil producing country and pilgrimage enterprise. Peace is a prerequisite for development. Good relations with Iran and its various friends in the region will also keep Saudi Arabia out of a potential conflict between Iran and Israel.

There China may also be helpful. It has just offered to facilitate Israel-Palestinian peace talks:

In separate phone calls to the two officials on Monday, [China’s foreign minister] Qin Gang expressed China’s concern over intensifying tensions between Israel and Palestinians and its support for a resumption of peace talks, the Foreign Ministry said in statements issued late Monday.Qin stressed in his talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that Saudi Arabia and Iran have set a good example of overcoming differences through dialogue, a statement about that phone call said.

He told Cohen that Beijing encourages Israel and the Palestinians to show political courage and take steps to resume peace talks. “China is willing to provide convenience for this,” he was quoted as saying.

This is another area where the U.S. has previously held, as in Saudi Arabia, an exclusive role.

China, with the support of Russia, is wrestling the U.S. of that role bit by bit. It can do this because it is perceived as neutral and shows no interest in any aggression.

It is the opposite of how the U.S. is perceived in the region. The Chinese way of doing these things makes it likely that these efforts will have better and longer lasting outcomes.

Posted by b on April 18, 2023 at 16:19 UTC | Permalink

Sesame Noodles with Thai Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

1 pound vermicelli or thin spaghetti
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
3 cloves garlic
4 green onions, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
1 (1 inch) piece ginger root, pared and quartered
1/3 cup peanut butter (plain or chunky)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup tap water or chicken broth
1 tablespoon rice or white vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Instructions

Cook spaghetti as directed; drain and rinse with cold water.
Toss with 2 tablespoons sesame oil (this dish can be served cold or hot). If you want to serve as a hot dish, do not rinse with cold water; just drain.
In food processor, finely chop garlic, green onions and ginger.
Add remaining sesame oil and all ingredients. Process until thoroughly mixed.
Top each serving of vermicelli or spaghetti with amount of desired sauce.

Finian Cunningham

April 18, 2023

Western liberal democracy and its ubiquitous “austerity economics” is a euphemism for fascism. And the charade is finally coming to an end.

Western liberal democracy and its ubiquitous “austerity economics” is a euphemism for fascism. And the charade is finally coming to an end.

Austerity is not some recent policy under neoliberal capitalism. It was born out of the historic crisis in the Western system following the First World War and during the 1930s when fascism became a way to curtail any democratic challenge to the prevailing capitalist system.

That political instrument of repression is wielded today across all Western states. Quite amazingly, for a long time, few people recognized their captive, repressive state as fascism. We generally lived under the illusion that we were free citizens in “liberal democracies”.

In this interview, Clara E Mattei explains how the technocratic-sounding “austerity” is used to hide the brutal reality of dictatorship and repression against the vast majority of citizen workers in Western states.

Clara Mattei is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department of The New School for Social Research, New York. She is the author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism.

Her book investigates the origins of austerity as an economic policy after the crisis of World War One. Crucially, she argues that austerity is not merely about governments balancing financial budgets. Professor Mattei contends that austerity policy implemented by all Western governments is a political instrument of mass repression to prevent any challenge to the prevailing capitalist order.

Austerity forces the vast majority to accept unacceptable conditions that are otherwise shockingly anti-democratic. The precariousness and insecurity of employment, the widespread denial of social services, deprivation and poverty, and the relentless abuse of taxes and resources that are fueling insane militarism and war.

If we really did live in free, democratic societies why are such deformities enforced without any alternative? Austerity is used to crush the political imagination for any reasonable, more humane, more peaceful alternative.

However, as Clara Mattei points out in this interview, the extreme anti-democratic conditions in Western societies are inevitably forcing greater numbers of people to question the injustices and hideous anomalies of the prevailing capitalist order.

People are realizing that Western governments are in reality regimes of repression in service for the enrichment of a minority. That fundamental deformity is why Western societies are collapsing and why the United States and its Western lackeys are driven to increasing conflict against Russia and China.

The charade of “Western democracy” is coming to an end. The rulers and their pantomime political parties are losing the moral authority to hold power over the masses.

As people necessarily seek ways to reinvent societies that are fit for meeting their democratic needs, socialist solutions are beckoning. We have to throw off the mental shackles imposed by our dictators, and realize, as Karl Marx once eloquently said, that we have got nothing to lose except our chains.

The War On Free Speech Is Really A War On The Right To Criticize The Government

Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet.”

– Justice William O. Douglas

Absolutely, there is a war on free speech.

To be more accurate, however, the war on free speech is really a war on the right to criticize the government.

Although the right to speak out against government wrongdoing is the quintessential freedom, every day in this country, those who dare to speak their truth to the powers-that-be find themselves censored, silenced or fired.

Indeed, those who run the government don’t take kindly to individuals who speak truth to power.

In fact, the government has become increasingly intolerant of speech that challenges its power, reveals its corruption, exposes its lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.

This is nothing new, nor is it unique to any particular presidential administration.

For instance, as part of its campaign to eradicate so-called “disinformation,” the Biden Administration likened those who share “false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information” to terrorists. This government salvo against consumers and spreaders of “mis- dis- and mal-information” widens the net to potentially include anyone who is exposed to ideas that run counter to the official government narrative.

In his first few years in office, President Trump declared the media to be “the enemy of the people,” suggested that protesting should be illegal, and that NFL players who kneel in protest during the national anthem “shouldn’t be in the country.”

Then again, Trump was not alone in his presidential disregard for the rights of the citizenry, especially as it pertains to the right of the people to criticize those in power.

President Obama signed into law anti-protest legislation that makes it easier for the government to criminalize protest activities (10 years in prison for protesting anywhere in the vicinity of a Secret Service agent). The Obama Administration also waged a war on whistleblowers, which The Washington Post described as “the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration,” and “spied on reporters by monitoring their phone records.”

Part of the Patriot Act signed into law by President George W. Bush made it a crime for an American citizen to engage in peaceful, lawful activity on behalf of any group designated by the government as a terrorist organization. Under this provision, even filing an amicus brief on behalf of an organization the government has labeled as terrorist would constitute breaking the law.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the FBI to censor all news and control communications in and out of the country in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt also signed into law the Smith Act, which made it a crime to advocate by way of speech for the overthrow of the U.S. government by force or violence.

President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which made it illegal to criticize the government’s war efforts.

President Abraham Lincoln seized telegraph lines, censored mail and newspaper dispatches, and shut down members of the press who criticized his administration.

In 1798, during the presidency of John Adams, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to “write, print, utter or publish … any false, scandalous, and malicious” statements against the government, Congress or president of the United States.

Clearly, the government has been undermining our free speech rights for quite a while now.

Good, bad or ugly, it’s all free speech unless as defined by the government it falls into one of the following categories: obscenity, fighting words, defamation (including libel and slander), child pornography, perjury, blackmail, incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats, and solicitations to commit crimes.

This idea of “dangerous” speech, on the other hand, is peculiarly authoritarian in nature. What it amounts to is speech that the government fears could challenge its chokehold on power.

The kinds of speech the government considers dangerous enough to red flag and subject to censorship, surveillance, investigation, prosecution and outright elimination include: hate speech, bullying speech, intolerant speech, conspiratorial speech, treasonous speech, threatening speech, incendiary speech, inflammatory speech, radical speech, anti-government speech, right-wing speech, left-wing speech, extremist speech, politically incorrect speech, etc.

Conduct your own experiment into the government’s tolerance of speech that challenges its authority, and see for yourself.

Stand on a street corner—or in a courtroom, at a city council meeting or on a university campus—and recite some of the rhetoric used by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Adams and Thomas Paine without referencing them as the authors.

For that matter, just try reciting the Declaration of Independence, which rejects tyranny, establishes Americans as sovereign beings, recognizes God (not the government) as the Supreme power, portrays the government as evil, and provides a detailed laundry list of abuses that are as relevant today as they were 240-plus years ago.

My guess is that you won’t last long before you get thrown out, shut up, threatened with arrest or at the very least accused of being a radical, a troublemaker, a sovereign citizen, a conspiratorialist or an extremist.

Try suggesting, as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin did, that Americans should not only take up arms but be prepared to shed blood in order to protect their liberties, and you might find yourself placed on a terrorist watch list and vulnerable to being rounded up by government agents.

“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms,” declared Jefferson.

He also concluded that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Observed Franklin: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”

Better yet, try suggesting as Thomas Paine, Marquis De Lafayette, John Adams and Patrick Henry did that Americans should, if necessary, defend themselves against the government if it violates their rights, and you will be labeled a domestic extremist.

“It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government,” insisted Paine.

“When the government violates the people’s rights,” Lafayette warned, “insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.”

Adams cautioned, “A settled plan to deprive the people of all the benefits, blessings and ends of the contract, to subvert the fundamentals of the constitution, to deprive them of all share in making and executing laws, will justify a revolution.”

And who could forget Patrick Henry with his ultimatum: “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Then again, perhaps you don’t need to test the limits of free speech for yourself.

One such test is playing out before our very eyes on the national stage led by those who seem to believe that only individuals who agree with the government are entitled to the protections of the First Amendment.

To the contrary, James Madison, the father of the Constitution, was very clear about the fact that the First Amendment was established to protect the minority against the majority.

I’ll take that one step further: the First Amendment was intended to protect the citizenry from the government’s tendency to censor, silence and control what people say and think.

Having lost our tolerance for free speech in its most provocative, irritating and offensive forms, the American people have become easy prey for a police state where only government speech is allowed.

You see, 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.

This is how freedom rises or falls.

Americans of all stripes would do well to remember that those who question the motives of government provide a necessary counterpoint to those who would blindly follow where politicians choose to lead.

We don’t have to agree with every criticism of the government, but we must defend the rights of all individuals to speak freely without fear of punishment or threat of banishment.

Never forget: what the architects of the police state want are submissive, compliant, cooperative, obedient, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority, don’t speak out against government misconduct, and don’t step out of line.

What the First Amendment protects—and a healthy constitutional republic requires—are citizens who routinely exercise their right to speak truth to power.

Tolerance for dissent is vital if we are to survive as a free nation.

While there are all kinds of labels being put on so-called “unacceptable” speech today, the real message being conveyed by those in power is that Americans don’t have a right to express themselves if what they are saying is unpopular, controversial or at odds with what the government determines to be acceptable.

By suppressing free speech, the government is contributing to a growing underclass of Americans who are being told that they can’t take part in American public life unless they “fit in.”

Mind you, it won’t be long before anyone who believes in holding the government accountable to respecting our rights and abiding by the rule of law is labeled an “extremist,” is relegated to an underclass that doesn’t fit in, must be watched all the time, and is rounded up when the government deems it necessary.

It doesn’t matter how much money you make, what politics you subscribe to, or what God you worship: as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we are all potential suspects, terrorists and lawbreakers in the eyes of the government.

Ukrainian counteroffensive has started – Wagner boss

World Hal Turner 03 May 2023

The head of the private military company Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Wednesday that the Ukrainian forces had begun their counterattack in Artyomovsk (known in Ukrainian as Bakhmut) and are threatening to overwhelm his undersupplied troops.

Wagner forces advanced more than 200 meters on Wednesday, sustaining 116 fatalities and leaving less than three square kilometers of the Donbass city in Ukrainian possession, Prigozhin said in an audio clip shared online.

However the PMCs leader then announced that the Ukrainian military has “…begun its counterattack,” with “…unlimited manpower and ammunition.”

Meanwhile, he painted a dire picture of Wagner’s own situation, saying “ammunition shortages are acute” and his troops have enough rounds remaining “for just a few days.”

The Russian Defense Ministry is refusing to issue artillery ammunition to Wagner, “ignoring our every request,” Prigozhin claimed.

Wagner forces have been at the forefront of street fighting in Artyomovsk, known by Ukrainians as Bakhmut, a key rail and road junction in Donbass. Kiev has funneled tens of thousands of soldiers to the city, even as Wagner and other Russian troops established fire control over all the supply roads, leaving the Ukrainians half surrounded.

How the US Sold Australia a China War

What Is Flirting Like In Japan?

April 12, 2023

Flirting seems like a misnomer. It’s more like an absense of flirting. If you like someone in Japan, there are a couple of different ways of showing it and/or approaching them, none of which really resemble flirting in the west.

1. Nanpa (the “pickup”)

First off, only guys do nanpa; in the rare case that girls do it, it’s called gyaku-nan (“reverse nanpa”), but I never heard of gyaku-nan actually happening, it always seemed like it was more of an amusing theoretical idea, rather than something girls really did.

Nanpa only refers to the case when you don’t know the other person at all, and you want to pick them up.

Nanpa is direct. “You’re cute. What’s your name? Do you have time? Let’s go somewhere.” That is the classic script of nanpa.

It can be shortened to just: “Kawaii yo. Jikan aru?” If you hear that, you’re being nanpa-ed.

Of course, if you are a non-Asian foreigner, you will probably never hear that, because Japanese guys are too shy to try and nanpa a white or black woman.

Most Japanese guys are too shy to nanpa at all.

If you ask a Japanese if he has ever done nanpa, he’ll probably say, “ZOMG! No way! I’m too embarrassed!” since nanpa is direct, and mostly, if you are Japanese and you like someone, you embark on a series of subtle, indirect stealth manoeuvres, because liking prohibits action, especially for women, but also for men.

Why is this the case? Japanese social interaction is all about intuiting the other person’s wishes without discussing them openly, at the same time that they are intuiting your wishes without discussing them openly, so that although nothing is ever verbalised, the two of you will always exist in a compromise position of equilibrium.

If you like someone, that intuitive part goes into overdrive, because you should be able to understand everything about that person without them ever telling you, and you should be able to please them without ever asking how, even more than you would with a normal person.

So it’s more important than ever to be indirect. Which leads me to:

2. Negotiating through a third party

Again, it’s not really flirting, but since flirting is showing your feelings openly—that is, pushing your feelings onto another person, which is direct and rude—it’s better to show no sign to the other person and meanwhile exploit the back channels.

Sort of like in high school.

So that convoluted human chain whereby: you like Hiro and you tell Junko that you think Hiro has a nice smile knowing that Junko will intuit that you want to know if Hiro likes you back, since Junko is friends with Goro who is friends with Hiro and Junko will talk to Goro and Goro will bring it up with Hiro etc etc etc etc etc etc.

Once everything is confirmed, Hiro will ask you out. (The girl ask the guy out? Ahahahaha. Be serious.)

If you don’t have a third party to negotiate for you, you may be forced to use other methods, all of them so subtle that a westerner may not even notice them at all.

3. Subtle signals

Shyness. Pronounced shyness is form of flirting, since it’s a sign of liking, especially from girls, but also from guys.

She interacts with everyone else more than him, she doesn’t sit next to him, she doesn’t talk much to him, she doesn’t initiate anything with him.

Attentiveness. You make life easier for the other person without being asked to.

For example, when you got to a restaurant in Japan it’s normal to share food, so flirting means not ordering what you like, but ordering what s/he likes, which you already know without asking, because you’re observant. Stuff like that.

Eye contact. It’s the opposite to the west, where you gaze deeply into someone’s eyes if you like them. Direct eye contact is a bit rude in Japan at the best of times. If you’re flirting you look down and away a lot.

– Indirect compliments. I can’t think of a good example. It’s pretty rare to give direct compliments and even more rare to compliment someone’s looks. (It’s especially rare for guys to compliment girls directly.)

PACWEST BANCORP Stock Drops 56%+ in After Hours Trading RIGHT NOW!

Nation Hal Turner 03 May 2023

Last night, I reported to all of you that three more U.S. Banks were in big trouble and named PACWEST BANCORP as one of those three. Today, its stock value dropped but that was nothing compared to what has taken place since markets closed at 4:30 this afternoon. PACWEST stock has plunged 56%+ since 4:30 today!

As of 5:51 PM EDT tonight (3 May 2023):

2.7892 -3.6308 (-56.5545%)

PacWest now has mandatory institutional divestment. Opinions of Traders on the street is that the Bank will probably drop to $1-$2 tomorrow, and the Bank will be Dead in a week . . . just like First Republic Bank this past Monday.

2023 is the year toxic zombie & woke banks DIE!

Silicon Valley Bank…..DEAD

Signature Bank…..DEAD

First Republic Bank…..DEAD

PacWest Bank…..DEAD???

Who’s next?

My guess:

Western Alliance
Metropolitan Commercial
Homestreet
Zions

(Not necessarily in that order)

War Machine THRILLED To See Tucker Carlson Go

City Of Asheville Trapped In Crime Crisis, Prepares To Impose 60-Day ‘Safety Initiative’

The City of Asheville, situated in North Carolina, is facing severe challenges due to soaring crime and a dwindling police force in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd murder, which sparked the nationwide ‘defund the police’ movement. In response to the rampant lawlessness, city officials have declared an emergency plan, beginning next week and lasting for two months, to tackle the crime wave.

“There are complex circumstances contributing to the safety issues that Asheville is currently seeing downtown, and it will take a community response to address these complexities,” the city stated in a press release.

Next Monday, city officials are rolling out a 60-day initiative to address safety downtown:

“Our efforts in downtown should in no way suggest that we aren’t focused on safety across the entire community. This intensive effort is driven by data that suggests a disturbing trend of increases in both property and violent crime in our downtown,” said Asheville Police Chief David Zack.

Here are some initiatives the city will implement to combat criminal activity on its streets:

Increased law enforcement presence by utilizing foot, bike, and vehicle patrols as well as enhanced security in downtown parks.
Launch of a Community Responder Pilot Program led by the Asheville Fire Department to support individuals in crisis and provide a more visible City public safety presence downtown. The pilot will be used to inform a longer-term Community Responder initiative past the 60 days.
Focused attention on the removal of litter, needles and biological waste and general Downtown cleanliness; as well as increased maintenance activities in downtown parks.
Partner with any private or non-profit organization to identify key locations in downtown where there are public safety concerns and/or to schedule community clean-up efforts.
Enforcement of illegally parked cars with a specific focus on the areas in and around Pritchard Park.
Enhanced frequency of monitoring City-owned and operated public parking garages, including stairwells in these facilities.
Focused attention on quickly removing graffiti on public property and graffiti code enforcement on private property in the downtown area.
Concentrated effort to identify streetlight outages in the central business district and coordination of necessary streetlight replacements with Duke Energy.

The announcement comes as local newspaper Mountain Xpress recently warned of a severe police shortage due to the polarizing defunding of the police movement during the pandemic.

On an ordinary day in Asheville, 16 to 18 police officers patrol the entire city, an area covering 46 square miles.

That’s down from 30 cops on duty three years ago, when Asheville first started losing officers faster than it could replace them.

The Asheville Police Department has been operating at a reduced capacity, now just 60%, for more than two years — and the Police Chief, David Zack, told Asheville Watchdog that it could be another decade before the force returns to pre-pandemic levels.

Crime in Asheville

Remember, Democrats ensured everyone that defunding the police movement would make communities safer, but in reality, it has unleashed nationwide crime waves. This is evident in Baltimore, Chicago, and numerous West Coast cities.

Looking forward, it’s important to hold Democrats responsible for their role in promoting failed social justice reforms that have led to more dangerous metro areas. The best way is to vote these folks out of office in the next election cycle.

Putin warns NATO “We haven’t even started yet.”

UPDATED 8:12 PM EDT — ***BULLETINFLASHURGENT** COVERT NUCLEAR INTEL

World Hal Turner 03 May 2023

A long-range aviation source inside the Russian Air Force has now risked his life, namely the risk of going to prison for life, by informing that at least TWO (2) nuclear warheads have been removed from storage in Russia and have been taken to TWO airfields at

A rescued kitten suddenly started talking to a big cat when he met him for the first time

Playing around with CrAIyon

OK, so as of late, I have been experimenting with this “new” kind of Artificial Intelligence system. This one takes a sentence, a statement and then generates art from it. It’s fun, cool and quite an amusement. Something that I am just starting to “toy around with”.

And here’s my first attempt…

First trial

My images

I just screen-shot them…

Second Trial

The image matrix

Your Turn

Go click on this link to try it yourself…

CrAIyon

The changes are irreversible, and unstoppable…

You know what?

The USA is collapsing, and screaming as it dies. And the troll sharks are in a feeding frenzy, and they attack all of us what say anything outside the approved narrative.

I don’t care.

Die.

I don’t care.

Die. Go away. Fall apart.

There is nothing that I can do to save, change or accelerate the process. It’s over.

That’s my feelings.

Today’s article…

Wow! What a bombshell!

Chancellor of Germany.

I pray to God Almighty to keep this man safe. Initially, he was soft under pressure of the world hegemon, but he has now redeemed himself as one who is righteous. God bless him!

Abandoning the US, more scientists go to China

April 29, 2023

The Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) — an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries — has published new data showing that the United States is losing the race for scientific talent to China and other countries. China’s strategy to recruit scientific researchers to work at China‐affiliated universities is working, CATO Institute informs.

In 2021, the United States lost published research scientists to other countries, while China gained more than 2,408 scientific authors. This was a remarkable turnaround from as recently as 2017 when the United States picked up 4,292 scientists and China picked up just 116.

The OECD credits more Chinese scientists returning to China for the sudden reversal in Chinese and American inflows.

This is a disturbing trend that started before the pandemic. In fact, it appears to coincide with the Trump administration’s “China Initiative” — more accurately titled the anti‐Chinese initiative.

Launched in November 2018, the Department of Justice’s campaign was supposed to combat the overblown threat of intellectual property theft and espionage. In reality, it involved repeatedly intimidating institutions that employed scientists of Chinese heritage and attempting malicious failed prosecutions of scientists who worked with institutions in China.

U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling has even admitted that the initiative that he helped lead “created a climate of fear among researchers” and now says, “You don’t want people to be scared of collaboration.”

If Chinese scientists are afraid to work in the United States, that means that the United States will not benefit from their discoveries as much or as quickly as China will.

Although the Justice Department claims to have shut down its “China Initiative,” my colleagues doubt that Chinese scientists will be free from unjust scrutiny going forward. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is still bragging about having caused the firings of more than 100 scientists and shutting down research by over 150 scientists — over 80 percent of whom identify as ‘Asian’.

The administration continues to maintain contrary to evidence that Chinese industrial espionage — by scientists working in the United States — is a significant threat to the country. Universities and U.S. companies think the far greater threat is losing out on talented Chinese researchers.

3600 Pounds of GOLD BULLION Stolen from Canada Airport

World Hal Turner 20 April 2023

Police in Toronto and surrounding areas are going berserk looking for 3,600 pounds of Gold Bullion that was STOLEN from Pearson Airport in Toronto, Ontario. The Gold is said to be worth over US$100 Million.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed they are looking into a gold robbery at Pearson International Airport. Gold mined in Canada can travel through Pearson on its way to customers around the world.

The airport did not respond to a request for comment. Peel Regional Police, who are responsible for the area, asked for the Mounties’ help, the RCMP said.

The Toronto Sun reported earlier Thursday that 3,600 pounds of gold being moved through the airport had been stolen. The newspaper said the theft was likely linked to organized crime.

What are the economic consequences of the United States losing control over Asia (especially Southeast Asia) to China? Has this fact changed U.S. foreign policy towards China yet?

Southeast Asia wants business and investments, they want to make money for their countries, US is offering politics not business. China is offering business not politics. China offers free trade agreements, US doesn’t.

All you are thinking about and offering are politics, competition and conflicts, try business, free trade deals, investments, you’ll do better.

People loved Americans because they offered prosperity, now all they talk about is politics. They came empty handed and left empty handed. They don’t want free handout or charity, they want business.

THIS IS WILL BE WW3, NATO is finished! with Clayton Morris

The bunker wad made in USSR times, so Russia has it’s exact specifics – it is heavy fortified bunker, built to withstand direct nuclear impact.

Located 120 meters under the ground it had 8 meters concrete sealing + 1m of lead. Kinzhal has few known modifications and the one that destroyed the bunker was using kinetic / compression energy.

It’s claimed to be able to penetrate 30+ meters of concrete, so basically there is no place you can hide from it.

Here you can see how it flies and hear “explosion” , which in fact is the sound of it, due to it’s top speeds mach 10-12.

Also you can notice the glow, which surrounds the rocket – it’s plasma field, which makes it untraceable, not to mention that even if you detect it – there’s nothing faster to intercept it.

https://youtu.be/JCIpWxsHW5I

‘Catastrophic’ Collapse in American Standard of Living Incoming As Global De-Dollarization Takes Hold: Economist

dollar’s share of global reserves falling from 73% in 2001 to 47% in 2021.

Economist Peter St Onge just issued a major warning on the fate of the US dollar and the quality of life in America.

In a new market update, St Onge says widespread de-dollarization is not a fear for the future.

Instead, the economist says a “stunning collapse” is already well underway, with the dollar’s share of global reserves falling from 73% in 2001 to 47% in 2021.

St Onge says American sanctions are now fueling the flame, citing the fact that the US froze $300 billion in Russian central bank dollars after the country instigated war with Ukraine.

He believes a global realization of the sanctions risk is leading nations to further move away from the dollar and towards alternative stores of value, such as gold and the euro.

Article HERE

Cajun Chicken Spaghetti

Ingredients

1 pound butter, divided
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
6 cups chopped onion, divided
7 tablespoons Cajun seasonings, divided
5 cups water
2 1/2 tablespoons chicken base
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce or to taste
2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
2 (12 ounce) cans tomato paste
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
10 chicken breast halves, skinned, de-boned and cut into bite-size pieces

Instructions

Melt half the butter in a large heavy skillet. Add the garlic and 2 cups of the onion and sauté 5 minutes.
Stir in 3 tablespoons of the Cajun seasonings and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the water, chicken base, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce and simmer for 6 minutes.
Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Bring to a boil and add the sugar and 2 more cups of the onions. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Coat chicken pieces with remaining Cajun seasonings.
Melt remaining butter. Add the rest of the onions and sauté for 3 minutes.
Add chicken and cook for 10 minutes or until tender.
Stir chicken into sauce and serve over pasta (hot cooked spaghetti or linguine).

Zelensky is FINISHED and Biden knows it

Europe approves its $47 billion answer to Biden’s CHIPS Act

Apparently, Europe chip act removed all those conditions imposed by US chip act thinking they will be able to complete with US to win over investments. 

This is the beginning of dogs fighting dog, while China already making stage by stage breakthrough in home based chip manufacturing. 

Who will win the chip War when even the US, South korea, and Holland chip industrial reported massive sales dropped and stock crushed due to sanctioned against China ❗

From the way the Chinese handle competition based on self improvement and self reliance vs. the imperialist crusader's DNA nations of US and EU to simply sanctioned their competition, and looted other technology, it is not hard to tell why China able to lead the world for thousands of years before the 1840 opium war, and is already managed to self revive and lead the world against in all aspect very soon. 

The me-only crusader DNA nations need culture reform to earn to live well without war, Bullying, and looting.

Article HERE

European Chips Act

Full Text

US Dollar Suffering ‘Stunning Collapse’, Losing Reserve Status Due to Currency Weaponization: Report – The Daily Hodl

The US dollar’s global supremacy is reportedly eroding at an exponential rate, with countries backing away after witnessing how America used USD to impose sanctions against Russia.

In a new Bloomberg report, Stephen Jen and Joana Freire of asset management firm Eurizon SLJ Capital reveal that in 2022, the US dollar’s market share in global reserves plunged 10 times its average speed of the past 20 years.

Considering the fluctuations in exchange rates, the dollar lost about 11% of its market share since 2016 and twice that amount since 2008.

Jen and Freire say in an investor note that countries located in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Carribean and the Pacific Islands – collectively known as the Global South – are shedding their dollar reserves as they look for an alternative to avoid sharing Russia’s fate.

“The dollar suffered a stunning collapse in 2022 in its market share as a reserve currency, presumably due to its muscular use of sanctions. Exceptional actions taken by the US and its allies against Russia have startled large reserve-holding countries.”…

Article HERE

Jeffrey Sachs Interview – China Pushes Back Against US Foreign Policy

“Reality Called. I Hang Up”: Hilariously Offensive Greeting Cards by Bluntcard

Bluntcard is a branded style of image and humor. The humor style is often truthful, abrupt, and can be insensitive. Mostly dealing with social issues, self absorption, hypocrisy and sometimes current events. Bluntcards are virtual greeting cards to be shared on the web.

More: Bluntcard, Instagram

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Battle Scene from Downfall

Cajun Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bag fettuccine or penne pasta
Louisiana Cajun spice
1 jar Alfredo sauce
Chopped green onions (garnish)
Diced tomato (optional garnish)

Instructions

Season chicken breasts with Louisiana Cajun Spice generously, then season with garlic powder.
Pour 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a frying pan and cook chicken until done.
Boil pasta until done, then strain and add Alfredo sauce.
Slice cooked chicken into 1 inch cubes.
Put pasta mixture on a plate, and add diced chicken.
Garnish with chopped green onions and tomatoes, if desired.

Oh SH*T, the U.S. is in real trouble!

https://youtu.be/S7OmVnpfayc

Declan Hayes

April 20, 2023

Whether the Chinese want to eat them, use them as lab rats or put them into zoos, the sheer scale of this order shows that China is now a major player in the monkey business.

The news that Sri Lanka may export over 100,000 monkeys to China is another dagger to the Yankee dollar’s heart. Before moving on to other exotic exports from other exotic countries, let’s first put this monkey business to bed.

Sri Lanka’s economy, like her monkeys’ habitats, is in pieces. Sri Lanka needs every penny, every pound, every yen, every yuan she can scrape together. And, as macaque monkeys go for between $4,000 to $8,000 apiece, Sri Lanka is looking to gross between $400,000,000 and $800,000,000 for this exotic trade of a primate which is regarded as a pest throughout large swatches of Sri Lanka.

The trade in monkeys is big business, with the United States importing almost 500,000 of them for a variety of reasons (culinary, labs, zoos etc) in recent years. And whether the Chinese want to eat them, use them as lab rats or put them into zoos, the sheer scale of this order shows that China is now a major player in the monkey business.

If this was a once off trade or if Sri Lanka and China were not going to continue to be trading partners, it might make sense for China to pay in Yankee dollars, which Sri Lanka could then use to buy goods from one of its trading partners, China included. But, as China and Sri Lanka will forever remain major trading partners, the demand for yuan in Colombo and rupees in Shanghai will continue to grow.

Because the Sri Lankan rupee is an exotic currency for which there is only patchy overseas’ demand, the danger has been that China’s monkey importers would be loath to accept rupees as they are much harder to offload than the Yankee dollar. This problem can be seen more clearly with the 1997 passing of the late Princess Diana of Wales when the unprecedented demand for flowers to throw at her casket meant that Dutch traders (guilder/euro) were importing them wholesale from as far afield as Kenya (shilling) and Tanzania (shilling) to on-sell to the English (pound sterling). Far easier to take those currencies out of the frame and just count the resulting huge profits in one currency, the Yankee dollar, which would otherwise not be in the frame at all.

Complicating things further, the Sri Lankan rupee is a closed currency, which means it is not available to buy or sell outside of Sri Lanka. whose Central Bank is charged with stabilising it. As remittances from overseas Sri Lankans (down 20%) and tourist revenue (down 90%) both took massive hits from the Covid lockdown, the Central Bank’s job become much harder and desperate measures, such as curtailing the import of fertilisers, backfired badly on the ordinary Sri Lankan. Sri Lanka’s Central Bank really has its work cut out so much that if 100,000 macaque monkeys have to take it in the neck for Team Sri Lanka, so be it. As Sri Lanka’s annual debt service costs now run to over U.S.$10 billion, Sri Lanka cannot max out its national credit card any more but must think of new ways, like the mass export of monkeys, to tackle this crisis.

When Brazil’s President Lula recently rhetorically asked in Shanghai “why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar… why can’t we do trade based on our own currencies?”, Sri Lanka and many of his Latin American neighbours such as Argentina and Mexico supply much of the answer. The currencies of Mexico, Argentina, Sri Lanka and Brazil itself are known in the trade as exotic currencies, which are relatively minor in international commerce but whose resulting thinness and spread yields abnormally large profits for the British and American financial institutions who trade them.

When Brazil’s President Lula went on to rhetorically ask “Who was it that decided that the dollar was the currency after the disappearance of the gold standard?”, the answer is that the Americans decided that beginning at Bretton Woods, where the Brazilian and other delegations there were in no position to argue the converse. When Brazil’s President Lula then went on to rhetorically ask “Why can’t a bank like that of the Brics have a currency to finance trade relations between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other countries?”, the reason has as much to do with Sri Lankan monkeys as it has with monkey economics.

Quite simply, the Americans reaped the benefits of the Second World War much more than anyone else. The dollar replaced the pound sterling as the global reserve currency of choice as part of America’s campaign to achieve hegemony even during the Second World War when British backs were very much up against the wall and when, as a consequence, the pound sterling was under intense strain.

Although the paper notes the Bank of England issues promises to give the bearer one pound of sterling (92.5%) silver for every single note held, that is no longer the case. However, as long as credibility in the Bank of England and related central banks holds and people accept those pieces of paper, that is not really an issue and trade in these IOUs can continue more or less as before.

It is that credibility rather than the paper itself which is the Coin of the Realm, not only in England but in America, China and Sri Lanka as well. Having that credibility brings immense benefits to the Yanks, the Brits, the Swiss, the Japanese and the Germans and Dutch who are at the heart of the euro. If the Chinese (not, please note the Brazilians) can elbow their way into that happy circle, they will be well pleased with themselves. If they can get the Sri Lankans to take Chinese yuan rather than Yankee dollars for their monkeys, well then that is good news for both China and Sri Lanka.

And, of course, bad news for the Yanks, who have traditionally benefited immensely from all this. There is currently over $2,000 billion Yankee dollars, IOUs in circulation, with between 25% and 60% of that amount held outside of the U.S. If the Sri Lankans can strike a deal in yuan for their monkeys, then they can use some of their precious Yankee reserves for other purposes, much as Japan did in its leanest post war years, when it started to export guitars, sewing machines and bicycles in exchange for much-needed Yankee dollars.

America’s financial power goes much further than that, as the trade in American debt instruments is enormous and trade in gold derivatives is, by and large, a proxy for American interest rates, which determine the value of those debt instruments, which were historically considered a safe haven by Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Russia, which has been criminally and systematically robbed by the Yanks and their west European vassals over the last year.

The dollar’s status as a reserve currency allows the Yanks to print an almost unlimited amount of dollars without suffering hyperinflation, something that is biting at the heels of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank and which the Central Banks of Mexico, Argentina and, of course, Germany are no strangers to.

As long as the Yankee dollar is the reserve currency of choice, Uncle Sam can simply print more greenbacks, more IOUs and trade them for Arab oil or Japanese cars. The only other countries that can exchange their dubious currencies for tangible goods are those, like the West Europeans, who can get an American swap line, allowing them to trade their IOUs (euros or pounds) for Yankee dollars. Sri Lanka, to take the obvious example, can no longer do that. Without a swap line to the Yanks or its Bretton Woods frontmen, printing more money devalues the currency and, as Latin America, Sri Lanka and Germany know all too well, causes inflation and the societal problems ensuing from it.

Not only has Lula’s Bric currency no prospect of replacing the Yankee dollar in the short term but there is no prospect of that happening over the longer term either. What is happening is that the Chinese yuan, the Russian rouble and other second tier currencies are pushing the dollar and allied currencies out of areas, such as the trade in Russian oil and Sri Lankan monkeys, they are not needed in.

Although the yuan option makes sense for Sri Lanka, the Dutch and the Yanks won’t be too happy with that. The Dutch, remember, even tried to wrest Greece’s dairy industry from Greece after their euro swindle caused Greece’s economy to implode. As the Dutch and their trans-Atlantic partners in crime showed no mercy to the Greeks, we cannot expect them to look kindly on either the Chinese or Holland’s own former Ceylonese colony. Sadly, Sri Lanka, on its own, is, like Brazil, in no position to stand up to the bullyboy tactics of the usual NATO suspects.

China, as previously alluded to, may be another kettle of fish. If China can make such exotic trades and help break NATO’s banana blockade, then it will have the gratitude of tens of millions of Latin Americans, Africans, Sri Lankans and other Asians. For China to accomplish that, credibility and cold, common sense must be their Coin of the Realm.

China’s alliance with Mother Russia best illustrates this. For such alliances to work, there must be clear demarcation lines between what each party does and does not do. In the case of oil, that can be Russia delivering crude oil at a marked to market price in a place and manner of choosing to the parties involved. As that is an ongoing supply and demand business, China and Russia can mark themselves not only to the spot price but, going forward, to the futures and options prices as well.

Given that Uncle Sam objected in his usual violent manner when Libya, Tanzania and Kenya tried to form their own gold backed currency in times gone by, we can expect plenty of U.S. inspired bumps along the road as Russia, China and Sri Lanka look to the future with the economic cards at their disposal. That said, the key to the future of Russia, China, Sri Lanka and countless other nations is to fortify their sovereignty and trading monkeys for yuan and yuan for oil is a big step in that process. Although none of that will replace the global pre-eminence of the Yankee dollar, ditching the dollar, a yuan, a rupee and a rouble at a time, offers more hope to Russians, Asians and Latinos than does eternal vassalage to Uncle Sam and the global financial system he rigs in his favour.

NATO’s pending monkey business against China in the South China Sea will be an excellent weather vane in this respect. If NATO can upset China’s apple-cart there, then, for countries like Sri Lanka, it will be business and penury as usual. If, on the other hand, NATO can be sent packing, then there might be hope for all the peoples of the South China Sea, for Sri Lanka and for all the other peoples of South Asia as well.

The Walking Dead – Bombing Atlanta.

Slow to the EV Game, Foreign Car JVs in China Face Bleak Future

Nissan and Stellantis are among those with the worst joint venture sales

By Selina Xu

19 November 2022

A slow roll-out of electric cars and continued adherence to internal combustion engine models is putting some of the world’s biggest automakers on the back foot in China, the largest market for cleaner vehicles.

Among the joint ventures of major international players, the following 10 are at the bottom, ranking worst in terms of combustion-engine sales, according to CMB International Capital Corp. and using data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Article HERE

Vintage photos

Unsorted. Please enjoy.

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US vs China Parents – What skills do children need to be innovative?

by philmckinney

During a recent meeting I attended with educators and government officials, I shared my frustration with the “output” of the current educational system. In my opinion, we optimized the system to produce graduates with deep technical skills and the ability to take tests. One competency that I see missing in our children is the ability to apply creative problem-solving skills to any given problem.

The Creative Economy

If you believe, as I, that we are experiencing the transition to the creative economy, the ability to train future employees with innovation skills will determine the winners and losers for organizations and countries. Those with a workforce without innovation skills will be relegated to being producers rather than creators.

I don’t want to sound like I’m blaming educators. The ultimate responsibility falls on the parents for the education and training of their children. So what skills should parents ensure their kids? A recently published report based on the Newsweek-Intel Innovation Survey shows that US and China parents don’t agree on what skills are critical for children to have when it comes to innovation.

So, what are these critical skills?

Creative Thinking/Problem-Solving Skills: Children need to be taught how to think rather than how to memorize. It’s not about finding the one right answer for a test but instead the ability to search out all the possible answers to a question to find the optimal solution. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills should not be a stand-alone subject but taught across all subjects. For example, thinking through the range of options a given historical figure faced and then determining what would have been the alternative outcomes. Did that person make the right decision?

Entrepreneurial Skills: It is no longer about having deep expertise in an area but also having a broad understanding of how an idea is transformed into innovation. Understanding the structure, steps, and running of an organization is a fundamental skill that everyone needs to have.

Cultural Understanding: The world is flat and getting flatter. The ability to understand and collaborate with a global ecosystem of employees, partners, and customers is a table stake. Without them, you are at a distinct disadvantage that will become more severe.

What are parents to do?

Find opportunities for your kids to gain the experience and skills needed to win the emerging economy. Get them involved in Junior Achievement so they understand business and how to be an entrepreneur. Get them on a FIRST team so they learn how to invent, create and collaborate. Put them in situations where they have to work with others from different cultures, such as an international internship.

While we as a society need to change the educational system to ensure we are producing the best employees possible, it’s the parents that can have the most positive and immediate impact on instilling innovation skills.

What jobs will they be ready for when the creative economy takes over?

Heartbreak Ridge – This Is The AK-47 Assault Rifle

How do we detect an imminent Chinese invasion of Taiwan?

I assume that you are an American, or a member of a proxy state loyal to the United States.

I also must assume that you failed geography. Never studied war. Have no idea at all about China, and are just emotionally entangled with the anti-China nonsense being spewed forth from the Western media.

Well, I’ll try to answer this one.

But as we used to say in Mississippi; there’s “few things stupider than a mail box pole”.

…

Taiwan is close to China.

In close. As in really, really, REALLY close.

Not only geographically, but socially, economically, financially, culturally, historically, and in all other ways… Chinese.

There is so much cross-strait migration back and forth, that you cannot tell who is from Taiwan and who is from the mainland.

So what does this mean?

Well…

You cannot detect a build up of any kind of an invasion force.
You cannot discern who is who, and where is what.
China controls Taiwan. Even though there are DPP elements who believe otherwise.

…

So, to spell it out clearly… let’s just say this.

You can supply Taiwan with all the weapons and bombs in the world, and you can convince them that LGBQ+ is the “new sexy”, but China is far too big, far too powerful, far too influential, and far, far too well managed. If China said “enough is enough”. All the games and charades would be over.

President Biden would have a fit, the United States media would howl, and the neocons would demand war!

But you know what would really happen?

Nothing. A whimper. And the United States would slither back under the rock from whence it came from.

Uncle Buck Favorite Scene

Okinawa is seeking independence. It asks China for help. What has happened to Okinawa?

Okinawa is a Japanese & English name. Its Chinese name is Chong Sheng (冲绳). In 2023, it has returned to its history & renamed itself BACK to Liu Qiu （琉球）. It was called Zhong Shan Wang Guo （中山王国）more than 150 years ago.

Liu Qiu is composed of many islands & rocks. Geographically Liu Qiu is located between Taiwan & Japan. But is closer to Taiwan than to Japan.

Liu Qiu was an independent country. It had diplomacy & business with China since 1429 & was under protection of China (like Korea).

Before WW2, when China’s Qing dynasty was militarily weak, Japan colonized many Asian countries & places incl Liu Qiu, Korea & Taiwan.

After WW2, the defeated Japan were forced to leave its colonies. According to Cairo Declaration, Japan territory only included Japan’s 4 big islands & a few rocks where there were no human.

In Liu Qiu, there were & are natives living there. Clearly there is no way Liu Qiu was part of Japan according to Cairo Declaration. Liu Qiu was independent from Japan.

How did Liu Qiu become a Japanese county today?

In 1972, USA unilaterally renamed Liu Qiu to Okinawa & put it under Japanese jurisdiction. Liu Qiu government was powerless to resist USA. (USA also unilaterally gave China’s Diao Yu Dao （钓鱼岛） to Japan, but there was no human on the rock. Today China vigorously protects Diao Yu Dao from Japan.)

1972 was an important date. It is the year when USA betrayed Taiwan’s ROC sovereignty & recognized PRC as the legitimate government to represent China in UN.

Why gave Liu Qiu to Japan at this time?

USA built a big US military base on Liu Qiu close to Taiwan. That is, to closely watch Taiwan for rebellion. After all USA had betrayed Taiwan first.

Before & during WW2, Japan was a bully in Asia. Forced labor/slave people from Korea, China incl Taiwan & of course Liu Qiu. Slavery means Japan did not treat others as humans. Insufficient food. Long hours of work. Not to mention physical beating.

Like Hitler’s Jewish holocaust, Japan did the same in Liu Qiu, China incl Taiwan (Nanjing massacre) & Korea. Liu Qiu people never forget that massacre.

Today, US soldiers on Liu Qiu are lawless. Rapes. Assault esp after alcohol. But they are immune from Liu Qiu law incl covid restrictions.

In 2023, Japan also stations Japanese soldiers in Liu Qiu.

Liu Qiu knows well:

If there is Taiwan war, USA & Japan will turn Liu Qiu into a ruin, both physically & economically. Dont be naive to think USA cares about human rights.

That is why Liu Qiu badly wants independence & declares neutrality among big countries eg China & USA+Japan. Not to mention to kick out lawless US & Japanese soldiers.

China is to do 2 things.

1, Accept Liu Qiu’s request for formal diplomacy between the 2 in summer 2023.

2, Following Cairo Declaration, China will ask UN to recognize Liu Qiu as an independent country. USA’s unilateral action in 1972 was illegal.

What are the arguments for an Independent Taiwan when new Taiwan nation will be derived from a government called itself Republic of China?

There are no arguments “for” 🙄, Taiwan belongs to China end of. If people do not like it then they are free to leave.

Even the UN recognises Taiwan as belonging to PRC China.

These questions are moot 🙄

On 23 July 2007, Secretary-General of the UN

Ban Ki-moon rejected Taiwan’s membership bid to “join the UN under the name of Taiwan”, citing Resolution 2758 as acknowledging that Taiwan is part of China, although it is important to note, not the People’s Republic of China.[8] Since Resolution 2758 was said to be “deliberately ambiguous” and did not use the word ‘Taiwan’, Ban Ki-moon’s interpretation to this effect came under fire from the American media[9] and was also opposed by several UN members led by the U.S.[10] A report by the American think tank the Heritage Foundation, also suggests that the US government issued a nine-point démarche

specifically rejecting the Secretary-General’s statement.[11] The US did not make any public pronouncement on the matter. Nevertheless, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement reflected long-standing UN policy and is mirrored in other documents promulgated by the United Nations. For example, the UN’s “Final Clauses of Multilateral Treaties, Handbook”, 2003 (a publication which predated his tenure in Office) states:

…regarding the Taiwan Province of China, the Secretary-General follows the General Assembly’s guidance incorporated in resolution 2758 (XXVI) of the General Assembly of 25 October 1971 on the restoration of the lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. The General Assembly decided to recognize the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations. Hence, instruments received from the Taiwan Province of China will not be accepted by the Secretary-General in his capacity as depositary.[12]

Playing around with Stable-diffusion

This is pretty good. Style options are not present, though.

The first try pictures

My second try

My second try pictures

My third try

My pictures from the third try

My fourth try

The images

My fifth try

The images

Your Turn

Go click on this link to try it yourself…

Stable-diffusion

Playing around with runwayML

Personally, I do not like the results…

Your Turn

Go click on this link to try it yourself…

RunwayML

Playing around with Dreamstudio.AI

This one takes a little bit of time to figure out and work with, but it’s not that difficult.

You upload a “seeder” image. Blur it to represent the amount of change you want, pick a style. Write a description and the AI does the rest…

Here’s some examples when I typed in a sentence, and then clicked on the style icon…

I think that it is fun.

3136204005 tomato soup and cheese sandwich xl beta v2 2 2

2151311876 tomato soup and cheese sandwich xl beta v2 2 2

Now, let’s put a completely different image in the system. Everything else stays the same…

Some notes

This is part of a much larger “package” of tools for image manipulation and what-not. All in all it holds promise.

Go HERE to see the full “toolbox”.

Money issues

You need to purchase “credits’ to continue using this product.

It shows promise, but playing around for ten minutes isn’t enough time for me to judge it’s worth and utility.

I probably will get back to it and play around some more. Just not right now. I have others that I will evaluate before then.

Your Turn

Go click on this link to try it yourself…

DreamstudioAI

Playing around with Pixlr-X

Here’s some examples when I typed in a sentence, and then clicked on the style icon…

I think that it is fun.

Some of my art renderings…

I just set up a brief sentence (I only have five tries), and then conducted variations…

Your Turn

Go click on this link to try it yourself…

Pixlr-X

Playing around with Dream by Wombo

The capabilities of artificial intelligence just keep expanding, and this includes different kinds of art. We’re going to introduce you to an app that lets you create digital images with the help of AI technology.

Dream by Wombo is available for mobile and online, but the former has more to offer. Learn how to use this AI artwork mobile app and what you can expect from it in just a few steps.

Here’s some examples when I typed in a sentence, and then clicked on the style icon…

I think that it is fun.

Now, I did all of this on my computer. But you don’t need to. You can download the APP.

Summary on this…

It’s good.

It’s free, though you can buy a premium subscription.

It produces basic, recognizable art. The art style is cute / childish / basic illustration. Suitable for graphics, presentations and children’s books.

It makes nice renderings of cats and kittens. And after all, if you cannot render a kitty, then what is your value?

APP

This app is perfect for decorating books, websites, walls, or custom playlist art without hiring a professional illustrator or graphic designer. It’s fast and easy.

Whether you’re on your phone or computer, Dream by Wombo’s AI can quickly produce stunning images in an artistic style of your choice with a simple prompt.

The browser-based version is simple enough to use and has a Mint as NFT option, while it lets you download or buy a print of your AI artwork. The mobile app, however, puts more tools at your disposal.

We’re going to show you how to use Dream by Wombo on your smartphone or tablet, step by step. But first, make sure you have the app.

Download: Dream by Wombo for Android │ iOS (Free)

Some of my art renderings…

Your Turn

Go click on this link to try it yourself…

Dream

Playing around with Nightcafe

My first attempt

Alteration 1

The results

Alteration 2

Rabbits instead of cats. Same style generator.

The results

Alteration 3

Changed the preset to Anime.

Your Turn

Go click on this link to try it yourself…

NightCafe

The tipping point happened. The crisis point has passed. The battle still rages, but the major threat is now neutralized.

I will be composing a video of significance in the following week or two.

This turning; this Crisis, this potential World War 3 scenario has just passed the crisis stage. We made it!

Phew!

It is behind us. The worst has passed.

Oh, we are not yet through the brambles, and events are still firing, but yeah. We passed through the worst.

And no, it’s not “gonna be in 2027”.

Peak crisis (Climax) has just occurred in May 2023.

It’s done.

2023 05 04 05 54 — A graphic MM made back in 2021.

Remember, boys and girls, real events are not reported.

Oh, for certain, there will be some trials and political issues with Japan, Korea, and other nations. The United States will continue in it’s long drawn out madness, and all the rest.

But the risk; the BIG GLOBAL RISK, has passed.

Tipping point was some time early 3MAY23.

There will be those of you that will still read the prepper journals and pine-away worrying about nuclear war. And certainly those events can still happen.

But, I am of the (learned) opinion, that the worst is over, and we (as a species) are moving towards a period of “uncomfortable adjustment of the West to the new global realities“.

More later.

For today…

UH OH! THREE MORE BANKS – STOCK TRADES HALTED – PLUNGING

Nation Hal Turner 02 May 2023

BREAKING NEWS: Three more large U.S. Banks have seen their stock values PLUNGE today, causing all three to have stock trading SUSPENDED!

Last night I told my radio audience that, with the Banking Crisis, “We’re just getting started” after First Republic Bank failed. This morning, three MORE banks are heading south . . .

PacWest Bancorp $PACW stock trading halted, citing volatility, after sinking 30% today.

Western Alliance Bank, $WAL, now down 25%, stock halted.

Metropolitan Bank, $MCB, now down 24%, stock halted.

I also pointed out to my radio audience that some of the very same people who told us all that the COVID-19 “vaccines” were “safe and effective” are now the people telling us the banks are “safe and sound.”

Well, we all found out that the allegedly “safe and effective” COVID vaccines, were nothing of the sort. So what does THAT say for folks who are now telling us the banks are “safe and sound?”

Leaked Chinese Hypersonic Drone Will Change Naval Warfare: WZ-8

Albondigas con Chipotle
(Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce)

Ingredients

6 fresh, ripe tomatoes, halved
1 pound ground beef
4 tablespoons bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 whole cloves garlic
3 eggs
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
Sea salt, to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
4 chipotle chiles in adobo
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Instructions

To roast tomatoes, grill or broil them as close to heat as possible, turning as needed, until skin is blackened in spots, about 3 minutes on each side. Cool.
When cool enough to handle, remove skins. Reserve.
Combine beef, bread crumbs, chopped garlic, eggs, 2 teaspoons cumin, salt and pepper. Cover mixture, and let chill in refrigerator.
In a blender or food processor, blend reserved tomatoes with chipotles, stock, whole garlic cloves, remaining cumin and oregano.
Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Add the tomato sauce, season to taste with additional salt and pepper, and bring mixture to a boil.
Meanwhile, make uniform medium-size meatballs from meat mixture. Add meatballs to simmering sauce and cook about 25 minutes.
Serve as an entree over rice, or alone as an hors d’oeuvre.

Could China use the same plan for Taiwan just like in Hong Kong about having one country two systems to have Taiwan be a part of China?

Jiang offered an even better plan, just get both sides to change names to a simple China to acknowledge One China but continue to rule as before. In effect, both sides can live with their own status quo and interpret China according to their own situations. Looks clear that the DPP wants independence by rejecting this is why PLA went on to spend usd trillions to move to Plan B, retaking Taiwan by force.

GET OUT NOW, This is a DEATH blow to the US!

https://youtu.be/HGNBnuGtl74

These chains are meant to be broken !

Passengers, please tighten your seat belt, next stop, Hawaii

Surely, the American wouldn’t be bothered with the PLAN loiter around the so call island chain in the name of “Freedom of Nativigation”, right?

19 countries want to join BRICS

There are far more nations that are waiting in a line that are not shown on the map.

Like Mexico…

Like Turkey…

Like many, MANY African nations…

Like Canada…

Like Pakistan…

TSMC to Charge up to 30% More for Chips Made in the U.S. | Tom’s Hardware

Before it started, the logic of market already issued a death warrant. Thanks to comrade Trump and Biden, the chip industry outside China will soon either gone out of business or backward.

TSMC is ready to produce chips in the U.S., but are its American customers willing to pay extra for them?

Article HERE

What is behind China’s support for the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) becoming an independent kingdom from Japan again?

This position is only the most natural, and legally and morally defensible position to take for any nation, not just China.

Actually, this position of refusing to recognize Japan’s attempt to re-annex Ryukyu and even displaying sympathy for Ryukyuan independence has been a long-held one by the government of the Republic of China (ROC), sometimes conveniently referred to as Taiwan, where I am from. It is a position grounded in international law, and fully in keeping with the principles of moral justice, human right and national self-determination. It is shameful that the world community, especially the West, has intentionally turned a blind eye to this gross transgression of international law, justice, and human right for so long. Few cases are better than Ryukyu to expose the West’s hypocrisy and double standard*.

– Ryukyu is an independent nation of its own race, ethnicity, language, history, custom, religion, and culture, all distinct from those of Japan.

– Japan brutally annexed the independent kingdom of Ryukyu in 1879, murdering its people, obliterating its history, culture and language and renamed it Okinawa.

– Japan used Ryukyuans massively as human shields against Allied invasion in WWII (see the HBO series The Pacific, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks), resulting in decimation of its civilian population. Japan also used this opportunity to murder Ryukyuans of uncounted number, many of which by forced suicide.

– Japan renounced all its claims to Ryukyu/Okinawa and other territories in no uncertain terms when it unconditionally surrendered in 1945, per terms stipulated in the Potsdam Proclamation signed by ROC, the US and the UK.

– Japan re-annexed Ryukyu under tacit agreement by the US, who unilaterally transferred to it “administrative rights” of Ryukyu in the 1970, disregarding vehement objection from the ROC, one of the signatory nations of the Potsdam Proclamation whose opinion by definition was required in such decisions.

– Japan has not treated the Ryukyuans nicely. They have been second class citizens ever since the beginning, and always got the short end of the stick. For more detail, see the links included below.

Japan has dumped 74.4% of its share of the US military bases on Ryukyu, which accounts for less than 1% of the Japanese land area. The attendant lion’s share of intrusion, noise, accidents, pollution, rape, crime etc. are born by Ryukyuans alone.
Japanese officials can often be caught making racially derogatory remarks about Ryukyuans with impunity, let alone discriminatory and abusive practices committed daily against Ryukyuans in the society accepted as the norm.
Native grown voices and movements for greater Ryukyuan autonomy have been relentlessly suppressed by the Japanese government, counter to the liberal façade it presents to the outside world. Without this heavy-handed, anti-democratic oppression by the Japanese government, we would be hearing 100 times more outcries from native Ryukyuans accusing their Japanese colonizers of their crimes, and demanding more autonomy, if not independence.

I grew up in ROC/Taiwan. For a long time, the ROC government vocally expressed its refusal to recognize Japan’s claim to Ryukyu, although it was too weak and too beholden to the US to assert or enforce what was right in this issue. The ROC government has nonetheless insisted on sending ambassadorial level diplomats to the capital of Ryukyu as a protest, and used the name Ryukyu, not Okinawa, in all official proceedings. Such practice has persisted well into the 21st Century, until the DPP regime, backed by major financial donors and supporting US lobbyists with shady Japanese links, came to power. Today on Taiwanese streets one stills finds the name Ryukyu used much more often than Okinawa. Recently when the Governor of Ryukyu, Denny Tamaki, visited Taiwan, he was greeted by the sign “Welcome Governor of Ryukyu”, for which he expressed great appreciation. The well-respected Taiwanese political journal 遠望雜誌 has made it its mission to advocate Ryukyu independence. It is only the most legally and morally defensible position to take.

I should relate a story shared by a friend who lives in the US. Once he and his wife stepped into a sushi restaurant. They sat down, started talking to the sushi chef, and learned that the chef was a Ryukyuan. The next thing he heard was deep resentment, even hatred, toward the Japanese by the chef, who stated that he shared nothing in common with the Japanese, and wished his nation could become free from its oppressors one day. My friend was deeply impressed by the passion displayed by this Ryukyuan chef.

No need for the Ryukyuans to despair. I remember once, in the 1980s, seeing a small group holding a banner of “Independent Lithuania” in the Chicago July 4th parade. Everyone laughed his head off when he saw this procession pass by. But lo and behold, 10 years later, Independent Lithuania was a reality. By international law, Ryukyu has at least as much right to be independent.

We shall see.

* As you may know, whenever I see a brainwashed question about Xinjiang or Tibet, I ask the questioner to ask the same question about Ryukyu first before anyone should bother to answer.

Chinese Recipes Brought to Life: 12 Favorite Recipes Illustrated in Comics for Improved Memory

Linda Yi is an artist and a lover of Chinese food. As a Sichuanese American, she grew up cooking and eating the delicious cuisine of her heritage.

But, despite her love of cooking, Linda struggled with feeding herself consistently in her 20s. She felt overwhelmed by the thought of having to choose a recipe, grocery shop, and prepare a meal, leading her to resort to takeout or cold cereal for dinner.

More: Kickstarter h/t: boredpanda

Police Body Cam: THIS is the type of Sociopath our Society is Producing

Nation Hal Turner 02 May 2023

Police Body-Cam footage from East Peoria, IL shows in vivid, stunning, detail, exactly the type of complete sociopaths our society is producing. The woman killed two people while driving drunk and all she wants to know is when she can get her car and go to school.

Watch:

Sheech!

Amazingly, when the arresting officer tells her that she seems to care less that she killed two people, she has the unmitigated gall to ask “Can you say that to me as a cop?”

Why, sweetheart? A little too abrasive for your snowflake feelings?

I am not a Psychiatrist, and I don’t have any special training in the mental health field, but as an average man, THIS is what I envision a “sociopath” as being; no empathy, no remorse, no concern WHATSOEVER for anyone or anything, other than herself.

THIS is the type of monster our society is producing. People who are totally self-centered and self-absorbed.

What are some great examples of coincidence?

This story is about the engineer who worked in various major companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, Baidu, etc, contributed greatly, and was also the creator of what we now know as “Yahoo Shopping”.

He is Qi Lu.

During his twenties, his biggest dream was to study in the United States. But, in China, if you wanted to go to the States, you had to take two tests. The fees to take them were sixty dollars. His salary each month was about seven dollars.

So, to take the tests he needed to amass eight months’ worth of salary.

But on a Sunday night, things changed. As usual, he was planning to ride to his family in the village like he did every Sunday but on this particular day, it was raining heaving, and Qi stayed in his dorm room.

That evening, a friend came by to ask for help. A visiting professor from Carnegie Mellon University was about to give a lecture on model checking, but because of the rain, attendance was embarrassingly low. Qi agreed to help fill the seats, and during the lecture, he asked some questions. Afterward, the professor complimented Qi on the points he’d raised and wondered if he’d done any research on the topic.

Turns out, Qi hadn’t just done some research—he’d published five papers.

The professor asked to see the papers. Qi fetched them from his dorm room. After the professor looked them over, he asked Qi if he’d be interested in studying in the United States.

Qi explained his financial constraints and the professor said he would waive the sixty-dollar qualification tests. Qi applied, and months later, a letter arrived. Carnegie Mellon offered him a full scholarship.

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Now, none of this would have happened if it hadn’t rained that day. But none of them would have happened if he was not been the most prepared person in the room either.

He had worked incredibly hard. Reengineered his sleep patterns to four hours so he could’ve more hours to work. There was nothing coincidental about the papers he had published.

When asked about luck and coincidence, he said,

“Luck is like a bus. If you miss one, there’s always the next one. But if you’re not prepared, you wouldn’t be able to jump on”.

Is it possible for India to follow the Chinese model of growth and development?

Absolutely

India doesn’t need to become a One Party Nation or a Communist Nation for that

All India needs is

Drastic Legislation
Massive Base Education Program at Government Cost
Meritocracy and more Meritocracy
Failure Standards and Continuous evaluation in every arena

That’s how China became what it is

It was a Communist Autocracy for 43 years and yet was the same level as India

So it couldn’t have been Autocracy alone that steered Chinas massive growth. It should have been the above qualities

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Education and Meritocracy are Chinas biggest strength

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Social Justice, Reservations and Cheap Politics are Indias biggest weaknesses

In China,being poor gets you nothing except a free schooling and a lunchtime meal and community tutions

In China, the richer and poorer students go to similar Public Schools with the same Syllabus

So you can’t make excuses of poverty or of daddys daddy being oppressed

China says “Too bad. If you don’t have the merit , please go work at a farm”

Another biggest strength of the Chinese System is ACCOUNTABILITY and FAILURE STANDARDS

Any Problem and China will zero in on the culprit in minutes or days

Every Department has its own role to play

Every Ministry has its own Failure Standards and Performance standards and Promotions are based on these standards

Take Chinas 4.5% Growth for Q1 against the Target 3.9%.

Many Officials got rewarded, promoted

Had this been 3.2% Growth, then many officials wouldnt have got promoted for a long time

Every blunder in China has to be paid with

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India is the opposite

Zero Accountability, Zero failure Standards, Zero Goals for the Government and Excuses all the time

The Greatest Weakness

Like Sivans 98% Success

So definitely yes

India must follow the Chinese basics and they can do so even without having to be a dictatorship or an Autocracy

And of course China slogged hard for 45 years

India wants to sit down and expect magic to happen. That attitude must also change

Pay attention

Well known in China, NEVER reported on in the West. Pay attention people. Your lives would be much, much better, inflation would be lower, quality of life would be higher, if you would follow this simple Chinese model of governance.

A shocking figure was announced by the Chinese leader Xi Jinping: “For two five-year periods in China, 3.7 million bribe-takers were sent to court. And we are very worried about corruption”‼️

This figure is equal to the ENTIRE population of Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipro TOGETHER.

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I would want to ask any Chinese comrades: “And how did you achieve such success if you do not have anti-corruption bodies – such as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the High Anti-Corruption Court?”

In Ukraine it would be useful to adopt such practical experience.

China JUST CRUSHED The US Economy, Banning All Oil Imports!

https://youtu.be/5dVLgulMLmY

How do you evaluate Yun Seok-yeol’s recent remarks for a visit to the US?

Yoon Seok-Yeol’s reckless embrace of America

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On Saturday I visited a mini-museum in Seoul themed on the island of Dokdo, a small series of rocks and cliffs which Korea has fiercely defended its national sovereignty over amidst its territorial dispute with Japan. I was vaguely surprised that the museum had been allowed to continue to exist, especially seen as the foreign policy of the Yoon Seok Yeol presidency is now to improve ties with Japan and effectively brush historical disputes between the two countries under the carpet.

More surprising still, was the fact the museum highlighted that in 1948, the US Air Force conducted a series of bombing training missions around Dokdo island that resulted in the deaths of many Korean fishermen, I considered such as historical facts that might be scarcely acknowledged amidst the love in for the US that dominates this current, and its present leadership. As it happens, Yoon is visiting the United States today on an official state visit, having prepared the ground lavishly by attempting to unilaterally settle the wartime forced labour dispute and antagonizing China over Taiwan.

Despite South Korea’s overtly pro-American stance, and nationalist antagonism that has emerged pertaining to China over cultural patents, Yoon’s policies have ultimately proved to be deeply unpopular and have led to widespread disapproval from the Korean public. To say the least, Yoon is a right-wing populist, Trumpian sort of leader, with no political experience, who won political office by being controversial and aggressively opposing feminism, having exploited a dispute with President Moon Jae in while he was public prosecutor in order to put himself in the spotlight.

Having become President, his foreign policy is quite simple, to tilt towards the US and Japan, while taking a harsher approach to China, despite the overwhelming economic relationship between the two countries as neighbours, as well as unravelling the peace regime with North Korea, and sticking his nose in on Ukraine. Such of course is natural for South Korean conservatives, who stem from a traditional camp of Anti-Communism and of course are the successors of the right-wing dictatorships who governed the country from the 1950s to the 1980s, such as Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee. One only has to look at the unhinged supporters of such who gather in Gwanghuamun regularly, waving US and Korean flags together, and often simultaneously espouse zealous US evangelical style Christianity.

However, to take this path is a fundamental betrayal of Korean interests. First of all, the US is wilfully undermining the South Korean economy in pursuit of its crusade against China. By rewriting the global semiconductor supply chain, the US has strongarmed Korean semiconductor firms to invest in capacity in the United States, while simultaneously China’s own semiconductor expansion, a forced reaction to the US technology war, is undermining South Korea’s own favourable trade surplus with the US. Secondly, the United States has imposed unilateral and extraterritorial jurisdictions on Korean firms which block them from expanding in the China market, something of course which will obviously backfire. While other US protectionist policy, such as the Inflation reduction act, penalizes a wide variety of Korean industries.

When Yoon Seok Yeol began his US trip, he met with the CEO of Netflix, who pledged an additional $2.5 billion or so to invest in Korean content, a booming market. Yet if Yoon seeks to market that as the “prize” of his growing subservience to the US and the only thing he can gain for his country from such a visit, that truly leaves much to be desired. Even his one-sided grovelling to Japan over the wartime labour and comfort woman issue brought very little in terms of political concessions. On every front, he is selling out his country, and no doubt in Washington he will agree to a lengthy bilateral statement which will seek to lock South Korea into a number of anti-China commitments, such as aspirations for a “free and open Indo Pacific” and “preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan strait”, and potentially, deeper cooperation with the Quad, while finally taking aim at North Korea.

None of this will ultimately serve to empower South Korea, it will make it even more a client state of the United States, who is happy for Yoon to recklessly antagonize China, North Korea and Russia simultaneously, creating a myriad of crises which will jeopardize the stability, security and prosperity of South Korea. We can only hope South Koreans will send him the same way Park Geun-Hye went amidst his staggering incompetence.

What MM thinks…

It’s pretty obvious.

There are people who would sell off their family; sell their daughters into prostitution, their sons into slavery, pimp out their wives, and sell their dogs to the local butcher so that they can eat table scraps from their master’s table.

Yun Seok-yeol is one such person.

But he represents South Korea, and obviously he was elected by the majority of South Koreans. So obviously, they all share his world view; share his love for the United States, and share his desire for Korea to become the next Ukraine.

As a “American style” democracy, the spokesperson of Korea has clearly enunciated the desires and wants of the South Korean people. We have to respect that.

Cattle Baron’s Pepper Steak

Ingredients

Top sirloin or T-bone steak
Worcestershire sauce
Black pepper
Green bell peppers
Onions
Mushrooms
Butter
Cracked black pepper
Seasoned salt

Instructions

Rub a top sirloin or T-bone steak with Worcestershire sauce and black pepper and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, roughly cut green peppers, onions and whole mushrooms.
Sauté in butter, keeping them slightly crisp.
Season with cracked black pepper and seasoned salt.
Grill steak to the desired degree of doneness.
Cover steak with the sautéed vegetables.
Serve with baked potatoes.

THIS IS WW3, the U.S. is in real trouble!

https://youtu.be/Fqlo7YeN_1M

Ukraine SitRep: Offensive In Doubt – No Talks – Social Breakdown

Since early April, when Pentagon briefing slides about the state of the Ukrainian army ‘leaked’ onto the web, the writing in ‘western’ media about the much discussed Ukrainian counteroffensive has become more gloomy.The hyping is largely gone and the assessments become more realistic. Three days ago the London Times offered a piece in that category:

Ukraine isn’t ready for its big offensive, but it has no choice (paywalled, archived version)
Kyiv is locked into a spring or summer push despite burning through ammo so fast that the West can’t keep up. Luckily Russia is out of ideas too

[W]hile the Ukrainians are moving quickly to assimilate their 230 new and reconditioned western tanks and 1,550 armoured vehicles, they still lack proper air defences for any big offensive operation. That puts them at risk from Russian airpower. Western defence sources are also uncertain whether senior commanders can adapt to the new systems as well as their soldiers on the ground.Yet Kyiv has little real choice but to launch a major spring or summer offensive. Its leaders are increasingly boxed in. As an American defence official put it: “The Ukrainians have surprised us as well as Putin in the past, but have much less room for manoeuvre now . . . and the Russians know it.”

President Zelensky has managed the West with great skill, but to maintain its support he has to show what Washington insiders rather tastelessly call a “return on investment”.

He must also balance domestic politics. Hawks such as Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, prevent any meaningful talk about negotiations, even though some in the government think now is the time to put out feelers. One western diplomat in Kyiv described a “surreal parallel experience” as his interlocutors “discuss potential formats for negotiations one evening” and then “shout that there can be no talks with Russia” in public the next day.

During the war Kiev first burned through its standing army material and personnel. It then received a large amount of Soviet era equipment from former Warsaw Pact members and burned through that stash. It has now received ‘western’ arms for a third army that will largely consist of mobilized civilians with little military experience. After the counteroffensive has run its course, no matter the outcome, that third army will largely be destroyed. There will be no more material and personnel for a fourth army.

In contrast the Russian military is largely undamaged. So says General Cavoli, the U.S. commander in Europe:

Russian ground forces have suffered significant losses in Ukraine. Despite these setbacks, and their diminished stockpiles of equipment and munitions, Russian ground forces still have substantial capability and capacity, and continue to possess the ability to regenerate their losses.Russia remains a formidable and unpredictable threat that will challenge U.S. and European interests for the foreseeable future. Russian air, maritime, space, cyber, and strategic forces have not suffered significant degradation in the current war. Moreover, Russia will likely rebuild its future Army into a sizeable and more capable land force [..] Russia retains a vast stockpile of deployed and non-deployed nuclear weapons [..]
…
Russia pursues a military modernization program that prioritizes a range of advanced conventional, hybrid, and nuclear capabilities to coerce the West. […] These weapons provide Russia asymmetric threats to NATO and present new challenges to Western response options.

If or when the Ukrainian counteroffensive will start is still an open question. The weather is a major factor:

The spring rains have been much more intense this year than normal. The heavy downpours in Zaporizhzhia over the last few weeks have turned the battlefield into a gelatinous soup.“This has been an unusual spring,” a commander with the brigade said. “There has never been this much rain before.”

There is of course also the question of ammunition. Ukraine already lacks sufficient numbers of artillery rounds. Each days it uses more than it receives and what it receives is more than the ‘west’ can produce. The counteroffensive will burn through whatever ammo is left. Then what?

There may be additional reasons to hold up the counter offense. The British Ministry of Defense is requesting offers from the industry for some specific equipment. Among it are mine breaching equipment for main battle tanks, tank launched bridges with 70 tons capacity and transporters for heavy main battle tanks.

With around 40 tons Soviet tanks are build significant lighter than ‘western’ tanks which weigh up to 70 tons. The newly delivered Leopard and other tanks can not pass over typically Ukrainian country bridges without seriously damaging them. Without the necessary infrastructure and support equipment in place the ‘western’ tanks are largely useless. To launch a counteroffensive against hardened Russian defense lines without such equipment is not really possible.

But waiting is not possible either. There is not only the pressure from Washington and other supporters of the war in Ukraine but there is also the permanent threat of Russian strikes on the accumulated stocks and forces. As longer those stay in the preparation areas the higher is the chance that they will get detected and destroyed.

Over the last two weeks Russia destroyed a large part of the Ukrainian air defenses in the Kherson and Pavlograd region. There are no replacements for those systems.

Still, the British Ministry of Defense seams to believe that the war will continue for several more years. For Ukraine it also wants to acquire:

Missiles or Rockets with a range 100-300km; land, sea or air launch. Payload 20-490kg

The closing day for that request is May 4. If you happen to have a few of those missiles laying around or if can produce those you have two more days to make your offer. But realistically the earliest possible delivery for such missiles will likely be in 2024/25. One wonders if Ukraine will by then still be around.

Yves Smith is discussing the chances of a ceasefire after the counteroffensive has run its course. She finds that Russia is unlikely to agree to one without receiving very significant concessions:

I don’t see how peace talks get anywhere. The hawks are still in the driver’s seat and will either balk at negotiations or set preconditions. Recall Russia previously rejected preconditions; even if they were to entertain them now, the odds are very high the West’s initial demands, like an immediate ceasefire, would be rejected, or quickly vitiated by Russian counters like “Only if you suspend the sanctions.” That does not mean there won’t be backchannel chatter, but don’t expect it to go far.
…
Let’s charitably assume, despite all that, that the West actually does ask Russia to negotiate. Unless the request is made in an obviously unacceptable manner, Russia has to entertain it.But I don’t see how this goes anywhere until leaders in West have really, really internalized that Russia holds a great hand and does not have good reasons to stop until it has subjugated Ukraine.

And all Russia has to do to substantively sabotage negotiations is to bring up the demand that Putin has been making in different forms since the Munich Security Conference of 2007: security guarantees.

Who will give them? The gleeful French and German admissions of duplicity with respect to the Minsk Accords means no NATO state can be trusted, save maybe Turkey (and if Erdogan survives, he’ll likely be deemed too close to Russia to be acceptable). The US clearly can’t be trusted. China would not be acceptable, and is not suited to the role (it’s not a land power and does not have a presence in theater).

So unless some tail events happen (and Taleb warns tails are fat), we still look to be on course to Russia prosecuting the war until it can impose terms on Kiev.

Meanwhile the social-economic situation in Ukraine is getting worse:

The scene in the pawn shop illustrates the crisis of growing poverty in Ukraine, the reality of which stands in contrast to the surface bustle of Kyiv’s busy restaurants and bars where it is often hard to get a table, with many living a precarious existence.Poverty increased from 5.5% to 24.2% in Ukraine in 2022, pushing 7.1 million more people into poverty with the worst impact out of sight in rural villages, according to a recent report by the World Bank. With unemployment unofficially at 36% and inflation hitting 26.6% at the end of 2022, the institution’s regional country director for eastern Europe, Arup Banerji, had warned that poverty could soar.

Behind his window in Treasure, Stepanov describes the hardships experienced even by those who have work. “The price of everything has gone up. Food is the most expensive and then it is fuel for the car. Some things have gone up by 40-50%. Before the war my wife would go to the supermarket to shop and it would cost 200 hryvnia, now the same shop costs 400-500.”

The billions of dollars and Euros the ‘west’ provided to Ukraine are skimmed off by those who visit fancy restaurants and bars in Kiev. Those not in the bribes receiving circles will have to get used to being hungry.

Posted by b on May 2, 2023 at 16:32 UTC | Permalink

“Journalists” Suck Off The Powerful At White House Correspondents Dinner

If Putin comes to the BRICS summit in August 2023 in South Africa, will he be arrested?

Technically he would have to be

However there are many ways out of this

First is DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY

If Putin comes at South Africa’s invitation , then he becomes a Diplomat and any and all warrants against him become null and void

Best example of this is Kim Jong Un who visited Singapore on invitation of Lee Hsien Loong and so had the immunity

Another example is Bokkasa (African Leader)

So South Africa may invite Putin separately and end this issue

Second is EQUAL APPLICATION OF LAW

South Africa may simply say they need to recognise that a crime was committed by Putin before enforcing the Warrant

South Africa may say they don’t feel there is sufficient Evidence to enforce the warrant or even say that such a law doesn’t exist in South Africa

Third is the “F**k off” Law

South Africa simply refuses to arrest Putin and tells the ICC to do what it feels like

ICC cannot expel South Africa as that would be counter productive

Fourth is the DIRECT TERRITORY law

Putin lands in an African Nation that doesn’t recognise the ICC and lands by Chopper right on Russian Soil and the BRICS summit is held at the Russian Cultural Center in Johannesburg which is an extension of the Russian Embassy

So Putin technically is in Russia

Or say the Chinese Heritage Centre or the Indian Independence Centre

All SA needs is to make these places and extension of their embassies

It’s very easy indeed

The Law is already in place

In the 1970s when Soviet Defectors had to escape to Western Embassies, the South Africans simply had such centers designated as Embassy extensions so that BOSS could give excuses that the territory was not in their jurisdiction

Plus another dozen more

My guess is Putin won’t come

Putin will already be talking with Xi and Modi and he recently talked to Lula

So only the South African is left

My guess is Lavrov will attend

Or if Medvedev comes I would love it

Imagine Medvedev facing the ICC!!!!!!! He would tell them the names of their children and where they go to school and watch them quail in terror

The big war happened in 2019, China won. USA is dying. It is late stage collapse.

We are entering the era of "super Karens".

All indications are that the world has already reset.

It’s not being reported.

What remains is the military angle. War. Prep for war.

Hopefully the United States will collapse internally, but starting a war of desperation is still on the table, and it makes me extremely nervous.

Industry is flocking to China.

But, madmen are running the United States right now, and it is a true fiasco.

Did I summarize this well?

Stay calm. Be positive and eat well.

What the United States says about Ukraine…

Bangkok Beef with Basil

Ingredients

1 (1 pound) top sirloin or flank steak, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water or stock
1 tablespoon rice wine
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 serrano or jalapeno chiles, minced
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
Pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 cup canned bamboo shoots, well drained
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
3/4 cup fresh Thai basil leaves
Oil for sautéing

Instructions

Mix water, wine and cornstarch in a zip-type bag, add beef and marinate 10 minutes.
Heat oil in wok or large skillet.
Stir-fry garlic and chiles until fragrant, then add beef and tomatoes.
After 1 or 2 minutes, add all other ingredients except basil.
Cook 3 to 4 minutes more, then add basil.
Stir once more, then serve.
Serve hot over Asian noodles or warm with mixed greens as a salad.

Kamala Harris Offered $60M For LGBTQ acceptance in Africa

This is a very interesting video out of Africa. It tells you clearly, and in a loud voice, what the Africans think of the Untied States and it’s “human rights”.

This bill hilariously defines “China’s allies” as “countries that do not recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan”… which is 181 countries including the United States of America! 🤡

Why is the Cuban sandwich so popular in the USA?

Have you ever eaten a Cuban sandwich?

For those who never have, it starts with a loaf of Cuban bread that has a crispy crust and a moist tender crumb. The bottom half is slathered with mustard and dotted with dill pickle slices, the other half gets mayo. Slices of roast pork and ham are piled on, topped with Swiss cheese and the sandwich goes into a press, where it is toasted to perfection.

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A Cuban is one hell of a good sandwich.

A lot of people don’t know there’s another version of the sandwich named the Medianoche. The fillings are the same as those found in a Cuban but it calls for a softer brioche style roll. It’s equally delicious, but a slightly different experience.

So, why is this sandwich so popular?

Because it’s delicious.

Have You Noticed? NOTHING in the MSM about Ukraine

World Hal Turner 15 April 2023

Clearly, “the word” has gone out. Two days ago nearly 1 in 4 articles in the Main Stream Media (propaganda) feed were Ukraine stories. Yesterday it dried up to under 1 in 20 articles as Ukraine stories. Today: NOTHING.

The feeds haven’t been Ukraine-free like this for over a year.

It looks to me as though the memo went out; Ukraine is finished, no more coverage.

This entire Ukraine thing was clearly coordinated across the whole propaganda platform of MSM. Very similar to the “mostly peaceful” coordination of Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. Also very similar to all MSM outlets being told to call the Waukesha Parade Massacre the Waukesha Parade Crash.

When every single outlet starts using the same ridiculous term at the exact same time . . . it was ordered.

When every single outlet drops the hottest set of propaganda stories about Ukraine at the same time . . . it was ordered.

Free press does not exist today.

Something is definitely up with Ukraine. They were pushing it at a thousand miles an hour and then it just slammed into a brick wall and we hear nothing at all.

One possibility is the story about Zelensky embezzling the $400 MILLION in Diesel fuel money. That is definitely something the criminals in DC wish to keep out of the news.

Then too, it might also relate to the Classified documents allegedly released publicly by that 21 year old Airman via a Gamer chat forum. Have you noticed the coverage . . . it’s all about “the leak” and not one word about the CONTENTS of the leak.

These documents PROVE the US and NATO have actual boots on the ground in Ukraine, engaged in actual fighting against Russia. Not one peep about this from the MSM. Why?

Because the government knows it has crossed the final red line with Russia by having boots on the ground, and government doesn’t want the American (or European) people to have any idea WHY Russia slams us, when that slamming takes place. They want the public kept dumb.

Rabbit hole the whole thing then no one will know why Russia attacks the US.

Of course, Ukraine is losing to Russia even after the 100s of billions sent there by Biden . . . and . . . U.S. election campaigns for 2024 are getting ready to kick off.

How is Biden going to explain another Afghanistan debacle when the US/NATO tuck tail and run from Ukraine? So the MSM is quiet; thinking the country will focus on something else in the 72 hr news cycle.

Lastly, it could also be a lot more sinister. The PTB and NATO are about to escalate the war in Ukraine and they want no coverage while they start WW3.

Island Near Spain Reveals Evidence of Hallucinogenic Use in 1,000 BC

A new study has produced evidence that ancient peoples living on a Mediterranean island off the coast Spain nearly 3,000 years ago were regularly consuming hallucinogenic drugs obtained from plants. Scientists examined hair samples removed from a Bronze Age burial site on the island of Menorca, and were quite excited to find that these strands of hair contained traces of psychoactive ingredients. This is the first confirmed proof that ancient inhabitants of Spain’s Balearic Island chain were using mind-altering substances, which may have been taken during religious ceremonies as a way to induced altered states of consciousness and perception.

As reported in the latest edition of Scientific Reports , a group of scientists from Spain, led by Valladolid University professor of archaeology and prehistory Elisa Guerra Doce, carefully analyzed strands of human hair removed from Menorca’s Es Càrritx cave, to gather data about their chemical makeup. The researchers used Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography and High-Resolution Mass Spectroscopy to test for a variety of chemicals in the hair strands, and found psychoactive ingredients in three of them.

The alkaloids they discovered were atropine and scopolamine, which come from nightshade plants, and ephedrine, a stimulant that can be extracted from a few species of pine trees and shrubs. The chemicals from the nightshade plants are known to induce hallucinations and alterations in perception , while ephedrine boosts energy levels and increases alertness.

Studying the Miraculously Preserved Human Hair of Menorca

Es Càrritx cave was first occupied by humans in approximately 1,600 BC. Among its many wonders, it featured a vast burial chamber that had remained in use up until 800 BC.

Normally, hair from skeletons buried so long ago would not have been preserved. But in this instance strands of hair from some individuals were dyed red, put inside wooden containers and stored in a separate sealed chamber found further back in the cave. Testing has shown that this well-preserved hair, which is believed to have been removed from the heads of shamans or medicine men, is about 3,000 years old.

Based on their knowledge of the types of plants that would have been on the island of Menorca in 1,000 BC, Guerra-Doce and her colleagues know the people living there would have had no trouble finding sources for hallucinogens. The psychoactive alkaloids could have entered their bodies following their consumption of extracts from a bush known as the joint pine, and from chemicals taken from nightshade plants like the mandrake, henbane and thorn apple.

The researchers speculate that the plants or their extracts would have been consumed during rituals, specifically those organized by shamans who specialized in the exploration of altered states of mind. It was believed that shamans could visit different dimensions, including those occupied by deceased spirits, while under the influence of mind-altering substances. With information gathered in these distant dimensions the shamans would have been able to diagnose illnesses and learn how to cure them, and possibly see into the future as well—or so they would have claimed.

Interestingly, there were concentric circles on the wooden containers that held the dyed strands of hair. The scientists think these may have been meant to depict eyes, and could have referred to the unique type of inner vision shamans experienced while under the influence of hallucinogens. They speculate that the wooden containers were essentially created as time capsules, as a way to preserve the record of certain cultural or metaphysical traditions that were abandoned 2,800 years ago. They were sealed in a deep cave chamber to ensure their unconventional contents (the dyed hair of shamans) would be preserved, thus honoring the activities of those who served as healers and holy men in their ancient communities.

Prehistoric Travelers in the Shamanic Realms

The evidence of prehistoric hallucinogenic use uncovered in this latest study is consistent with what has been discovered at many other ancient sites around the world.

Human consumption of drug plants is a long-standing tradition,” the study authors wrote in their Scientific Reports paper. “By combining many different fields of study (archaeology, anthropology, chemistry, pharmacology, ethnobotany, and iconography, among others) it has been possible to trace back this habit to prehistoric times in Eurasia, North America and South America.”

Fortunately, traces of psychoactive alkaloids can sometimes be preserved for several millennia. This has helped archaeologists and anthropologists identify many prehistoric cultures that were using hallucinogenic drugs, establishing just how popular and widespread this practice has been throughout human history.

In their study, the researchers listed many discoveries that have revealed the ubiquitous pattern of hallucinogenic plant use over the millennia. For example, opium alkaloids have been found in Late Bronze Age (1,400 to 1,200 BC) containers recovered from archaeological sites in the eastern Mediterranean. They’ve similarly been found in jugs, mugs and bowls unearthed in Iberia (modern-day Spain and Portugal) dating to the Copper Age , Bronze Age and Iron Age , covering the period of more than 3,000 years up to the first century BC.

In the Americas, multiple types of hallucinogens have been found in artifacts manufactured in pre-Hispanic times. In China the psychoactive ingredients in cannabis have been discovered inside wooden boxes, dating back to the country’s prehistoric era.

Organic remains that contain psychoactive alkaloids have been unearthed more rarely, but they have been discovered from time to time. Hair samples taken from mummified bodies linked to ancient Mesoamerican cultures have been found to contain psychoactive alkaloids, and they’ve also been detected in prehistoric human bones excavated in China. In Vietnam alkaloids from the Areca nut have been found in dental enamel of individuals who lived during the Iron Age. And predating other finds on the Iberian Peninsula, bones removed from ancient mines in Gavá have produced evidence of hallucinogenic consumption dating to the Late Neolithic period (4,500 to 3,250 BC).

The use of hallucinogenic substances likely goes back tens of thousands of years, into the Paleolithic period. But hard evidence that shows exactly when and how mind-altering psychoactive chemicals were being consumed is rare, and that’s why the discovery of the sealed wooden boxes with the contaminated hair strands in the cave on Menorca is so important. The researchers involved in this new study are convinced that the boxes were made to preserve a kind of record of ancient ceremonial practices, with the dyed hair strands serving as artifacts directly linked to the shamans who were in charge of communications with other realms.

VIDEO: U.S. M1A1 Abrams Tanks Already Inside Ukraine

No surprises. Eh?

World Hal Turner 14 April 2023

Video has emerged showing United States M1A1 Abrams Tanks sitting in a field inside Ukraine. The person recording the video is speaking Ukrainian. Watch:

Japanese Artist Creates Epic Anime Costumes For His Cats

If you’re a fan of cats, anime, and adorable cats dressed in tiny anime costumes, this one is going to be a treat. Apparently, there’s a talented Japanese man likes to create handmade anime costumes for his two cute cats and you can find his beautiful creations on his Twitter account.

If you know your anime well enough, you might be able to tell that most of the costumes he creates are based on those seen in productions from Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film studio. It’s also worth noting that all of his designs are made from scratch and with his own two hands.

More: Twitter h/t: boredpanda

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Biden White House, out of control w/ Mike Adams (Live)

Very American-centric, but pretty good and is talking about the political scene in the United States today.

The Duran is “on fire”! Damn!

China’s Loongson Unveils 32-Core CPU, Reportedly 4X Faster Than Arm Chip

Loongson, a Chinese fabless chipmaker, has launched the new 3D5000 processor for data centers and cloud computing. MyDrivers (opens in new tab) reported that Loongson claims its 32-core domestic chips deliver 4X higher performance than rival Arm processors.

The 3D5000 still leverages LoongArch, Loongson’s homemade instruction set architecture (ISA) from 2020. The chipmaker was previously a firm believer in MIPS. However, Loongson eventually built LoongArch from the ground up with the sole objective of not relying on foreign technology to develop its processors. LoongArch is a RISC (reduced instruction set computer) ISA, similar to MIPS or RISC-V.

The 3D5000 arrives with 32 LA464 cores running at 2 GHz. The 32-core processor has 64MB of L3 cache, supports eight-channel DDR4-3200 ECC memory, and up to five HyperTransport (HT) 3.0 interfaces. It also supports dynamic frequency and voltage adjustments. Officially, the 3D5000 has a 300W TDP; however, Loongson stated that the conventional power consumption is around 150W. That’s roughly 5W per core.

The 3D5000 flaunts a chiplet design since Loongson has glued together two 16-core 3C5000 processors. Loongson developed the 3C5000 server part to compete with AMD’s Zen and Zen+ architectures. The latest 3D5000, which measures 75.4 x 58.5 x 7.1mm, slides into a custom LGA4129 socket.

The processor supports 2P and 4P configurations; therefore, Loongson has launched the 7A2000 bridge chip to manage the communication between the processors and other components. As per the chip designer, the 7A2000 is up to 400% faster than the previous generation. Furthermore, with the help of the 7A2000, there’s a possibility to scale up to 128 cores per motherboard.

According to Loongson’s provided numbers, the 3D5000 scores over 425 points in SPEC CPU 2006, a depreciated benchmark replaced with the newer SPEC CPU 2017 version. The 3D5000 also delivers over 1 TFLOPs of FP64 performance, up to 4X higher than regular Arm cores. Meanwhile, the processor’s stream performance with eight channels of DDR4-3200 memory crosses the 50GB mark.

While performance isn’t the 3D5000’s strong suit, security is. The 32-core processor allegedly has a custom-made mechanism to defend against vulnerabilities such as Meltdown or Spectre. The chip also has its Trusted Platform Module (TPM), so it doesn’t rely on an external solution. In addition, according to MyDrivers’ report, the 3D5000 also supports a secret national algorithm with an embedded security module that seemingly delivers excellent encryption and decryption efficiency higher than 5 Gbps.

In addition to the 3D5000 and 7A2000, Loongson also announced the 2K050, the company’s baseboard management controller (BMC). The 2K050 features LA264 cores at 500 MHz, integrated 2D GDP, 32-bit DDR3 support, and outputs at a 1080p (1920×1080) resolution at 60 Hz.

Loongson’s 3D5000 is no match for AMD’s EPYC Genoa or Intel’s Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors. It was never about beating the foreign competition but pushing for self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, with the ongoing U.S. sanctions, Chinese companies have no means to secure chipmaking tools originating from the U.S. In addition, the U.S. Department of Commerce recently blacklisted Loongson, which likely derailed some of the company’s plans.

Brazil’s Lula Backs BRICS Currency to Replace US Dollar in Foreign Trade – Bloomberg

The world no longer want to live with the risk of US confiscating their dollar assets at will :

He spoke after visiting headquarters of BRICS bank in Shanghai

Brazil’s president has a bilateral with Xi Jinping on Friday

Article HERE

NUKE Base EMERGENCY, WALMART WAR!

It’s a prepper channel, and he is speaking the TRUTH.

Ruthless! U.S.A. Foments Coup d’etat in Sudan Just Two Weeks After Russia Approachment

World Hal Turner 15 April 2023

Two weeks ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the African nation of Sudan. One of the topics discussed: A Russian Naval Base on the Red Sea. Here we are two weeks after that discussion, the U.S. has fomented a military Coup in Sudan.

Russia’s agreement . . . out the window. That’s how utterly RUTHLESS the USA is. It took our CIA just two weeks to make it all happen.

You see, when the USA cannot get what we want by peaceful means, or bribery, we foment the overthrow of an entire country’s government.

It comes down to power. The USA is the Top Dog of this planet, and the people running the USA are not going to “allow” anyone else to unseat us.

Whatever it takes to keep hold of our power, the people running our government seem willing to do. Economic sanctions, trade war, election fraud, bribery, or, as we see with Sudan (and as we saw with Ukraine) the OVERTHROW of a government.

The USA will not be dislodged from its perch above the world and anyone who tries, gets crushed, ruined, destroyed, or dead.

That is what our country has become.

That is why much of the world is distancing itself from us, and from our currency.

Unless the American People step up to put a stop to the way our government is doing things, I FEAR our country will get stopped. By Russian nuclear missiles.

What choice are we leaving the Russians? We won’t leave them alone. We’ve been surrounding their country for decades with more and more NATO members — all of whom then start aiming missiles at Russia.

We smash countries — like Syria — who are allied with Russia. We takeover countries that we cannot induce to join NATO (i.e. Ukraine), and when Russia tries to peacefully negotiate a naval base on the Red Sea with Sudan, we are now overthrowing the Sudan government.

No matter what Russia does, we interfere. Sometimes peacefully. Sometimes legally. Most times through Bribery and force.

Sooner or later, the Russians are going to realize that the USA simply will not stop; will not peacefully co-exist.

When that realization happens, there will be only one choice Russia has left: To either utterly destroy the United States, or capitulate to it.

The sleazy douchebags who infest the US Government think Russia will capitulate. I think Russia will push the launch button.

Asch Conformity Experiment

Once again Gonzalo is wayyyyy ahead on this story. We'll hear the other talking about this in a few months!

Nua Yang Nam Tok (Waterfall Beef – Thai)

If you’ve got a broiler/grill you can cook this one anytime, otherwise wait for the barbeque season. In Thai nua is beef, yang means broiled (over a charcoal burner), and nam tok is a waterfall. The name comes from the sound the juices dripping from the beef onto the open charcoal brazier.

Ingredients

Steak

1 pound steak, cut fairly thick

Marinade

1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon tamarind juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped red birdseye chiles (prik ki nu)

Remaining Ingredients

1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup lime juice
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped shallots
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped coriander/cilantro (including the roots if possible)
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped mint leaves
2 tablespoons khao noor (see the Pad Thai recipe for this)
1 tablespoon freshly roasted/fried sesame seeds
1 to 3 teaspoons freshly ground dried red chiles

Instructions

Marinade: Mix the marinade, coat the steak with it and marinade it for at least 3 hours.
The steak is then barbecued, broiled or grilled until on the rare side of medium rare, cut into half inch thick strips and the strips cut into bite sized pieces. The meat can be kept cool until just before you want to eat.
Remaining ingredients: In a wok, bring a little oil to medium high heat, and add the strips of beef, immediately followed by all the remaining ingredients, stir fry until heated through (about a minute).
Serve with Thai sticky rice. (Alternatively I rather like it as part of a meal with pad thai and a soup such as tom yum ghoong (hot and sour shrimp soup).

China and Russias MASTER PLAN is About to Begin.

Sometimes being a rufus can test you.

I will keep anotherwise long story short. Suffice it to say i had oversight (although) not ultimate responsibility for a major US airport. Part of my job was just observing, that security was ok, equipment was function, queus and staff was managed well and general aiport customer stervice what i believed our standards should be.

I1 situation of a mantraveling alone who had been sitting next to our help desk, often asking to use the phone. Of course in a big airport this normally isnt allowed. When i was boss I always allowed it.

Anyways on the 2nd day this man was still sitting there, decent street clothes not in anyway dishelved. I went to talk to him and ask what his problem was. It turned out he was an afghan refugee (US interptreter for the US army in Afghan. The state department had made arrangements for him to stay with a sponsor so he wouldnt be assisinated and who never showed so this man was stranded in the US no money, no one to help.

First thing idid was give himn $20 bucks to go get food. He hadnt eaten in 2 daays. Knowing full well helping this guy was way outside my job authority, I did it anyway. I had my staff call every aphfan refugee organiation in the US. Finally enough of us pooled money for him to get a room. After he returned from the hotel, my staff had found aa sponsor for him.

In the mean time i guess the original sponsor felt guilt and showedup and gave the guy $200. THis was better than nothing. the place we found waas in sacramento $450 plaane flight and another $60 transfer to the bus station.

I looked for another way and found good old 7-11 would give him aa bus ticket 1 way for 60 buCks. I sent my staff over to pick up his ticket and the nexxt morning he was on his way to support.

When you do the right thing you risk nothing. Always be the Rufus

Russia “Surges” Tanks into Ukraine

World Hal Turner 14 April 2023

Over the past 24 hours, Russia has begun a very large “surge” of tanks and other heavy military equipment into Ukraine. In the video below, a single train is seen carrying 36 more tanks, older T-62M models, into the war zone.

It is already known that at least five additional trains, each carrying more than 36 tanks, are also entering the war zone.

Meanwhile, today’s briefing from the United Kingdom Defense Intelligence ADMITS Ukraine is withdrawing troops from Bakhmut:

No matter how much military assistance NATO provides Ukraine, Russia simply adds more and continues to destroy the Ukrainians.

It appears to many reasonable people that NATO is now willing to fight Russia, to the last Ukrainian!

When will Ukraine admit they have no hope at all, and negotiate a surrender?

Being a daddy

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“Today at Meijer, I walked up to select my shaving cream and overheard a mother talking to her daughter about shaving her legs. It was her first time shopping for razors, and her mom was explaining what kind of razor she needed, how to shave her legs, etc. I felt that little punch in the gut that I normally feel when I see a mom and daughter doing mom and daughter things. I can’t help it. You’d think after 14 years without mine, seeing someone with their mom wouldn’t make me sad or jealous, but it just does.

This time, however, I couldn’t help but giggle. I was transported back to a similar moment I shared with my Dad. I’ll never forget the look on my dad’s face when I told him I wanted to shave my legs. It was the summer after mom died and some of the girls I went to summer camp with started teasing me about my hairy legs. I remember coming up to dad and being so embarrassed to ask him for help, but man, did he handle it like a champ! For a moment he put his head down; and then he turned the TV off, took me into the bathroom, gave me a new blade on his razor, gave me his shaving cream, and taught me how to shave my legs.

Single dads don’t get the credit they deserve; especially mine and all dads who are left playing both roles. There was never a time in my childhood where I truly thought I was missing out on anything. My dad was so good at fulfilling both roles and making sure my childhood was as normal as possible; that there was never a time I thought Life or God had screwed me over. My dad handled everything: periods, shaving, broken hearts, catty girlfriends–you name it and my dad took it like a champ.

Dad, I know I haven’t said it enough, so here’s a big public THANK YOU for never, ever, ever being too much of a man to be my mom. Thank you for never being too embarrassed to do the girl stuff you had to do, thank you for never making it embarrassing for me to ask you for help. Growing up without a mom is obviously something no one ever wants, but growing up with you was the best. I love you, Dad!” ❤️

Credit: Tiana Sheehan

Playing around with DeepAI

DeepAI offers an easy-to-use text-to-image generator that produces decent results with the right prompts. There are many image styles on offer, and almost half of those are free.

The free ones include basic text-to-image, cute creatures, fantasy worlds, cyberpunk, old, renaissance painting, and abstract, among a few others.

All of these styles produce images according to that theme, pretty much like the other tools on this list. However, among these styles, there is a logo generator as well that you can use to produce interesting logo ideas. It’s particularly useful for artists who are looking for inspiration to build on or to overcome a block.

Here’s some examples when I typed in a sentence, and then clicked on the style icon…

Pretty good.

You need to play with it, because if you use the wrong feed generation icon, your images won’t look “right”.

Here, I used the architectural icon for a house-based sentence…

I think that it is fun.

Some of my art renderings…

This one tuned out pretty good…

Your Turn

Go click on this link to try it yourself…

DeepAI

Now with the United States crazy mad-dog chained in a corner, the rest of the world are mending fences, and building bridges

The United States crazed mad-dog seems to be effectively muzzled. It seems to be on “pause” for a spell, and the rest of the world is galloping as far away from the United States as possible. Not just France, but India, Brazil, Australia, and many, many African nations. It’s almost a rout.

Meanwhile those in the “West” must be the most ignorant, and ill-informed people in all of history.

American “news” is like American Supermarkets; One long isle of sodas, only two brands (Coke and Pepsi). With a single tiny shelf in the far, back corner with one or two “off brands”.

Sheech!

China did it again! Yemen and Saudi Arabia mend ties!

Figuring things out

Shrimp in Caramel Sauce
(Tom Kho – Vietnamese)

The onions should practically disintegrate into the sauce. Adding the oil at the end lends a bit of extra richness; traditionally more lard or oil was added than prescribed here to also give an appetizing sheen to the shrimp.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds (31-40 count) medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoonsCaramel Sauce
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons oil
1 green onion, green tops only, chopped
Steamed rice, for serving

Instructions

Place the shrimp, salt, fish sauce and Caramel Sauce into a shallow saucepan. Bring to a vigorous simmer over high heat.
Add the yellow onion and pepper, stirring to evenly distribute. Continue cooking over high heat, occasionally turning the shrimp so that they’re well coated with sauce. They’ll curl up and release their juices to combine with the other ingredients and concentrate into a dark sauce. Add a little water if things get too dry.
The shrimp are done when they’ve taken on an orange-brown color and have a pleasant sweet chewiness, about 8 to 10 minutes after you’ve added the onion and pepper. There will be a few tablespoons of sauce in the pan.
Remove from the heat, add the oil and stir to coat the shrimp.
Scatter the green onion on top and serve with lots of steamed rice.

4 servings

Each serving, without rice: 229 calories; 725 mg sodium; 276 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 31 grams protein; 0.58 gram fiber

i love the 80’s montage

Not that Way: The Superb Concept Art Works of Oliver Ryan

Oliver Ryan is a UK based concept artist and illustrator working in games and animation.

More: Instagram, Artstation

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CHINA – April 18: “Major Military OPERATION . . .”

World Hal Turner 17 April 2023

The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration has announced that the People’s Liberation Army Navy will be conducting a “Major Military Operation” in the Yellow Sea off the Coast of Qingdao on April 18th between 0900 and 1200 Local-Time.

This is the first time they have ever used the term “Major Military OPERATION.” Usually, they say “military exercise(s)” Now, they’re saying “operation.”

Not quite certain what this entails. ALso not certain why they gave less than 24 hours notice. That part of China is about 12 hours AHEAD of US East Coast.

The Fall Of America ? | China’s Exposure

The first minutes of the video are a great demonstration on how distorted Americans see the world and how badly the mainstream media can spin stories into their favor.

Massive Numbers of Military-Age Chinese Men Lining Up in Panama to ILLEGALLY Cross into USA

World Hal Turner 17 April 2023

Massive Lines Of Military Aged Men From China Are Lining Up In Panama Headed For The United States open southern border! This is an Invasion that the President is NOT Stopping! Look at the one minute video below . . .

Here is what is taking place right now in Panama, heading to the USA unabated:

Now, pretty much EVERY American knows that relations between the USA and China are not good anymore. There is very candid talk that China is going to “re-unify” with Taiwan, and that may happen by force. . . war.

The US has publicly (and foolishly) stated it will “Defend” Taiwan. Quite a goal given that Taiwan is 8000 miles from the USA but only 90 miles from mainland China.

Just how does the US think it will supply a logistics train for wartime operations which has any hope of overcoming mainland China’s ability to supply Chinese troops?

Yet pledge to defend Taiwan, the US has . . .

So here we are, with talk of war and lo and behold, thousands of MILITARY-AGE CHINESE MEN are moving to cross into the USA illegally.

Is there any doubt in your mind that these men are part of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) being sent here by their Communist China bosses to attack the USA from within once hostilities break out?

One would have to be a fool to think otherwise.

If they were coming lawfully, they wouldn’t be doing this in Panama. They’re coming ILLEGALLY because they want no records of them being in the country! No records of who they are, where they will be staying, or for how long.

HAL TURNER ANALYSIS

Americans with guns need to start thinking to themselves “What if war breaks out and these people actually DO start attacking us from within? AM I ABLE TO SHOOT A HUMAN BEING TO DEFEND MY COUNTRY?”

Few normal people in any country, have had to contemplate shooting another human being. Even fewer have ever had to do it. It’s a big deal to do that. On an emotional and intellectual level, killing another human being is a tremendously big deal. It takes a considerable amount of thinking — in advance — to figure out if YOU are capable of actually doing that.

If you are, in a combat/fight/life-threatening situation, fine.

If you’re “not sure” then you’d better think long and hard, NOW, before any confrontation occurs. Because if you’re not sure . . . and, God Forbid, war comes . . . then YOU will get killed BY THEM in the moments you hesitate to shoot them.

None of us want war. I certainly don’t. Especially not here, inside my own country. But it sure looks as though that is exactly what’s coming.

What will you do after retirement?

I retired at 49, 6 years ago. Top 4 lessons for a successful transition from a rewarding career:

Don’t buy things that don’t include potential for building a community and friendships. Floating in a wakeboard boat alone is not much fun
180 degree shift of focus from wealth to health. Read books on nutrition. Take cooking classes. Take college courses on nutrition and wellness.
Pick a big goal that few have accomplished. Make the plan to attain. Write it down. Do the work. It took 2 years to train, completed two full Ironman races with my adult kids last summer. Next up Ironman Portugal.
Hang out your shingle. Never say retired. “I’m a consultant”. Offer your services and advice to a start up venture-even if you get paid in free lunches!

main qimg 82fd75e850a669af5534ef1dd3438bc4

In a nutshell, the skills one learns during a working life will be essential to flourish in retirement. We only get one shot at life.

80s Time Capsule – Tribute to 80’s Entertainment

This is pretty darn good!

How many Taiwanese consider themselves Chinese and would accept an invasion?

I am from Taiwan.

With some pseudo-research, one might come up with some statistics from dubious sources to pretend to answer your question, but one needs to realize that questions of this ilk are utterly irrelevant and useless in providing any insight into the ongoing Taiwan question.

Yours is the wrong question to ask.

Can Taiwan reunite peacefully with China?

I was born and grew up in Taiwan. I have never lived in mainland China, and do not consider myself enamored with the CCP. I see answers here, totally off the mark, from quite a few fellow Taiwanese. They talk about how they love freedom or democracy, or how they hate the CCP, etc., as an argument for why Taiwan cannot re-unify with China, as if such criteria, or even what they prefer, had ever been a deciding factor in any similar situations in human history. I challenge them to cite a precedent to support their thesis. Quite the opposite, let me give you a few counter-examples to show how futile and useless your arguments are: CSA (The Confederate States of America), Catalonia, Scotland, Kurdistan, …… In all the above examples, the constituents of respective Countries (not Provinces) wanted freedom and democracy, hated the other country that denied their independence, and either completed or are on the verge of completing the democratic procedure to secede. Maybe you can tell me what happened to all of them, and how the international community acted toward their causes. There are happy stories as well. The USA, after paying a steep price in blood and fire, relied on its own struggle and sacrifice to earn its independence, not stealing it under the table by telling the world how they loved freedom or hated King George. That kind of childish whining never cuts it. More counterexamples: Algeria and Vietnam. Both countries achieved independence through bloody and brutal wars of independence from France, incurring a huge loss in lives and properties. And Taiwan, a mere province whose own Constitution still stipulates itself to be a part of China, and who repeatedly refused to even conduct an independence referendum, because its politicians deep down are only interested in using such excuses to oppress its people and steal their money, is in a much worse position to talk about seceding from China. Its case is much, much less defensible than the self-proclaimed independent countries (not provinces) of the CSA, the Catalan Republic, Kurdistan, or a future Scotland. Nobody is asking you what you want or what you like, or whom you hate. The question is whether it is conceivable that Taiwan will re-unify with China, or more accurately, whether it is likely that the Province of Taiwan of the Republic of China (ROC) will be absorbed back into the People’s Republic of China (PRC) through peaceful means. To put it another way, what is your reaction when a 6-year-old screams that she doesn’t want to go to school, or she wants to eat 10 ice creams all at once? I have addressed this question, more on-point, here: And, if a peaceful re-unification is not possible, here are the three options faced by the people of the Province of Taiwan, Republic of China, all equally honorable in my opinion: I also have much more comprehensive background information on this issue in the following links, and nested links therein:

Let me ask you this:

How many Catalonians considered themselves Spanish in 2018? Does it matter at all?
How many citizens of the Confederate States of America (CSA) considered themselves citizens of the USA in 1863? Does it matter at all?
How many Kurds considered themselves Syrians, or Turks, or Iraqis in 2010? Does it matter at all?
How many Scots consider themselves British? Does it matter at all?

In most of the above, they not only considered to be someone else, but they also voted democratically to become someone else!

Does it matter at all?

And this might surprise you. Every single Taiwanese voted in multiple democratic elections in the past two and half decades to send multiple parties into office. All these parties (KMT or DPP) have

Chosen to uphold its Constitution, which stipulates in no uncertain terms that Taiwan is a province of China, and national re-unification is the ultimate goal, despite many rounds of Constitutional revisions on other issues,
Chosen to prosecute diplomatic relations with the entire world in the capacity of the Republic of China (ROC), with Taiwan being only one of its 35 provinces and two autonomous regions,
Chosen to repeatedly strike down motions to conduct referendum on independence, even disciplining party members who stepped out of line,
Chosen to maintain the appellation “Republic of China” for all its governmental units in all three branches, its military, its central bank, its passport, its state owned businesses, its public schools, etc..

These parties, on opposing ends of the spectrum, have both won landslide victories during the past 25 years, giving them impressive mandates each time in turn. Together, the two parties enjoy probably over 80% of the popular support*. Think hard about this fact!

The conclusion that one must draw from the above facts is clear, that Yes, the people in Taiwan do consider themselves Chinese.

Otherwise, you cannot explain the above facts. There is simply no other explanation!

How does it go? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, ,……? And a very “democratic”, a very “self-determining” duck at that.

I implore all you foreigners, to please respect the will of the Taiwanese people, if you agree Taiwan is a self-determining democracy. They have spoken, loud and clear. Please! Be consistent!

But then, don’t forget, as I said, it doesn’t really matter what the Taiwanese think either. Just ask the CSA, the Catalonians, the Kurds, and the Scots in a couple of years.

* The remaining 20% mostly goes to the TPP, which is yet to win a major election, but also upholds all the principles listed above. (Sorry to disappoint you?)

Pla Nung Khing Sai Het
(Steamed Fish with Ginger and Mushrooms – Thai)

Traditionally this is prepared with the fish known in the West as a pomfret, but any similar (flat) fish will do.

The traditional recipe calls for phak kaat dong (pickled Chinese cabbage). In the highly likely event that you don’t have this on hand, the best substitute is probably pickled red cabbage.

Ingredients

Fish

Pomfret (or any similar flat fish

Marinade

1 large field mushroom, thinly sliced,
2 tablespoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons phak kaat dong, thinly sliced (see above)
1 tablespoon prik chi fa daeng, sliced (red jalapeno)
2 scallions/spring onions/green onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon kapi (shrimp paste)
1 teaspoon prik thai (ground black pepper)
1 tablespoon whiskey (optional, but, if omitted, add 1 tablespoon fish stock)

Instructions

Clean the fish and score the sides with several cuts to allow the marinade to penetrate.
This is steamed, and as such is best done in a bamboo steamer, because in a metal steamer condensation on the lid drips onto the food, and marks it, spoiling the appearance, and also possibly affecting the cooking process (fish is best steamed in “dry” steam). If you use a metal steamer you should cover the fish with a paper towel which is not in contact with the fish. Alternatively you can cook this dish in a microwave, using low to medium power.
Mix the Marinade ingredients and rub them into the fish, leaving it to marinade for about an hour in a cool place.
Transfer the fish, and the marinade, on a dish large enough to hold it, to a bamboo steamer (see note above), and steam for about 20 to 25 minutes (if microwaving, cook until the flesh adjacent to the bones is cooked, allowing it to rest for 1 minute after each 3 minutes cooking before testing).

US Troops on the Ground in Ukraine

It’s official – the US is at war with Russia. This is no longer a proxy war regardless of whether an official declaration has been made.

Washington confirmed that there is “a small U.S. military presence,” but only made the admission after the Pentagon data leak.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby insists American soldiers are not fighting on the battlefield.

“I won’t talk to the specifics of numbers and that kind of thing. But to get to your exact question, there is a small U.S. military presence at the embassy in conjunction with the Defense Attachés office to help us work on accountability of the material that is going in and out of Ukraine,” Kirby said, claiming the troops are connecting to a specific embassy. The initial data leak showed that there are also at least 50 troops from the UK on the ground in Ukraine, along with military personnel from 33 NATO nations.

The New York Times reported on Monday morning that NATO members are amassing their troops along the border. “NATO is rapidly moving from what the military calls deterrence by retaliation to deterrence by denial. In the past, the theory was that if the Russians invaded, member states would try to hold on until allied forces, mainly American and based at home, could come to their aid and retaliate against the Russians to try to push them back,” Steven Erlanger wrote.

But NATO is going on the offensive rather than the defensive this time around. “To prevent that, to deter by denial, means a revolution in practical terms: more troops based permanently along the Russian border, more integration of American and allied war plans, more military spending and more detailed requirements for allies to have specific kinds of forces and equipment to fight, if necessary, in pre-assigned places,” the journalist wrote.

The war in Ukraine has already cost more than any war since World War II. Ukraine is not a NATO member, and there has never been a situation where NATO prepared its troops to battle a country unaffiliated with its alliance. Russia is completely backed into a corner now and the war must escalate. Putin will not retreat or surrender.

Russia does not have the option to surrender as the world powers would swoop in and take over the nation, including its very valuable resources, which they’ve wanted all along. Zelensky is no longer running the show, and the global elites will decide how quickly to escalate this battle.

Countless men, women, and children will die, all for the pride of a few who want to destroy the world to Build Back Better.

90s Time Capsule – A Tribute to 90’s Entertainment

https://youtu.be/vS_jGUIqcQ4

US warship sails through Taiwan Strait days after China drills

World Hal Turner 17 April 2023 Hits: 7588

A US warship sailed through the waters separating Taiwan and mainland China, the US Navy said, days after Beijing staged war games around the self-ruled island.

Led by the United States, multiple Western navies regularly conduct “freedom of navigation operations” to assert the international status of regional waterways such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

The USS Milius guided-missile destroyer “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit April 16 (local time) through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law”, the US Navy said in a statement.

“The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State.” This was the first such US operation through the waterway since January.

The US 7th Fleet shared images Monday on Twitter of crew looking out into the strait, one of the most crucial waterways in the world for international shipping.

China said on Monday it had tracked a US warship through the Taiwan Strait, adding that the United States had “hyped up” the transit.

Colonel Shi Yi, a Chinese military spokesman, said troops in the area “remain on a high level of alert at all times and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability”.

China claims Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to bring the island under its control one day. It also claims the entire Taiwan Strait as its territorial waters.

China launched three days of military exercises around Taiwan on April 8, simulating targeted strikes and a blockade of the island.

The drills were in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s recent visit to the United States, where she met with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

“The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese PLA fully monitored the US warship’s passing operations, maintaining a high-level alert at all times and resolutely defending national sovereignty and security,” a spokesperson said via the Global Times.

Beijing bristles at any official contact between Taipei and foreign governments. On the final day of last week’s drills, Taiwan’s defence ministry said 54 Chinese planes crossed into Taiwan’s southwestern and southeastern air defence identification zone (ADIZ) — the highest recorded in a single day since October 2021.

That same day, the USS Milius sailed through waters claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea.

That deployment triggered condemnation from China, which said the vessel had “illegally intruded” into its territorial waters.

Since the war games ended, Chinese warships and aircraft have continued to circle Taiwan.

On Monday, Taipei’s defence ministry said it had detected four warships and 18 aircraft, four of which had crossed its southwestern ADIZ.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon sailed through the Taiwan Strait on January 5, months after McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi visited the island.

Pelosi’s trip sparked China’s largest-ever war games around Taiwan.

Do you know what this reminds me of?

The neighbor down the street taking his dog to go shit in my flower garden.

Boy oh boy is the Geopolitical situation changing (with a good look at Vietnam)

Man, I can hardly keep up.

Today, we are going to enjoy contemporaneous Vietnamese pop music. Very, very popular in China and throughout SE Asia.

Man, oh man! Talk about color, and style.

Certainly SE Asia is not some third world banana republic any longer. Wow!

This is the same throughout the (rest of) the world. While the Untied States has been enjoying the fruits of looting, and unlimited spending, and fees, and excessive fees and taxes, the rest of the world has been quietly strengthening itself.

To understand what the new world is, you need to observe what is going on in the rest of the world. That means Asia and Africa.

If you are NOT AWARE how the rest of the world (outside of the West) has changed, you will never NEVER fully grasp how precarious the West is right now.

Do you hear me?

The world has REALLY changed.

Really.

It looks nothing like that old stale 1940’s , black and white, card-board cut-out imagery that the American / Western “news” portrays.

And that is a theme that all of us expats are trying to warn those whom remain inside the burning United States. It’s OVER. It has been over, and you all have no clue as to how far the United States has fallen.

To hitch your nation to the dying zombie nation of the United States is absolute insanity. The world has moved on…

I strongly suggest you all watch every one of the Vietnamese videos here.

French Warship Transits Taiwan Strait With China’s Approval

Reporter/Provider – Alex Chen/Bryn Thomas/Charlie Storrar

Publish Date – 04/12/2023

This is after France agree not to be militarily hostile to China:

Article HERE

Hoàng Thuỳ Linh – Hạ Phỏm | Official Music Video

Ma Ying-jeou’s mainland visit shows cross-Strait China-Taiwan kinship

main qimg df678e4f1f6502f01c58d3ea43a82e1a

A spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office noted that the visit of Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, to the Chinese mainland, showed that compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese and of one family.

Ma’s visit drew wide attention from both sides of the Strait and received positive comments from the public, spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said Wednesday (April 12) at a press conference.

It has positive significance for promoting the exchanges between compatriots on both sides of the Strait and the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, Zhu said.

The visit also showed the common hope of compatriots on both sides for cross-Strait peace, development, communication and cooperation, and manifested that the 1992 Consensus is the fundamental anchor for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, the spokesperson said.

Zhu expressed the hope that the compatriots on the two sides of the Strait join hands on the common political foundation of upholding the 1992 Consensus and securing the long-term welfare of the Chinese nation.

Làm gì phải Hốt – JustaTee x Hoàng Thùy Linh x Đen | Official Music Video

Macron Outlines Need for European Sovereignty

From VOA “news”

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron Tuesday outlined his vision for European economic and industrial sovereignty during a visit to the Netherlands, following criticism over recent remarks about China and the United States.

Speaking at a Dutch research organization in The Hague, Macron said it was essential the European Union carve out an independent stance on five key areas, including trade, competitiveness and European industry. Embedded across all, he said, should be European values and goals in areas such as climate change. (What is European values? Colonialism? Imperialism? Bullying? Looting? Double standard? Fake news? Colour revolution funding? So Typical ash hole supremacist language)

“We want to be open,” said the president. “We want allies, we want good friends, we want partners. But we always want to be in a situation to choose them. Not to be 100 percent dependent on them.” (besides the crusader DNA countries keep doing that, who else?)

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, looks at demonstrators unfolding a banner that says “President of Violence and Hypocrisy” while he explains his vision of Europe during a lecture in The Hague, Netherlands, April 11, 2023.

Macron said Tuesday the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine helped drive the need for an independent European strategy — not reliant, for example, on either Chinese or U.S. technology. (It is US that forced Europe choice, not Chinese. A balancing language to avoid upsetting the US too much?)

“Defending sovereignty doesn’t mean to shy away from allies,” he said. “It means we must be able to choose our partners and shape our own destiny, rather than being, I would say, a mere witness of the dramatic evolution of this world.”

Macron made his remarks during a state visit to the Netherlands — the first by a French president in more than two decades. The comments follow a controversial interview with French and U.S. media, when he reportedly warned against Europe becoming entangled in unrelated crises — apparently referring to Taiwan — and becoming too dependent on the United States for defense… read more…

Coq au Vin
(Cock with Red Wine and Mushrooms)

Equipment

Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) chicken, cut up (or parts of choice)
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 slices bacon
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 cup red wine
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons parsley, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dry basil
1 small bay leaf
1 (16 ounce) can white onions, drained
1/4 cup brandy

Instructions

Coat chicken, onion and carrot in mixture of flour, salt and pepper; set aside.
Fry bacon in a 4 or 6 quart pressure cooker until crisp; remove, crumble and set aside.
Sauté mushrooms in bacon drippings; remove and set aside.
Brown chicken a few pieces at a time; set aside.
Brown onions and carrots, then return all chicken to the pot.
Combine wine, garlic, parsley, basil and bay leaf; pour over chicken. Close pressure cooker securely. Place regulator on vent; cook for 8 minutes at 15 pounds pressure, with the regulator rocking slowly. Cool pressure cooker at once.
Remove chicken and veggies to a warm serving dish.
Add reserved mushrooms and the canned white onions to the liquid and simmer until heated through. Thicken if necessary (cornstarch slurry works fine). Add bacon and brandy; heat. Pour sauce over chicken and vegetables.

Hoàng Thùy Linh – Bánh Trôi Nước (Woman)

A personal favorite.

Classic Pin-Up Girls Before And After Editing: The Real Women Behind Those Gil Elvgren’s Incredible Paintings

Ever wonder about the process that went on behind the scenes of those classic pin-up images that adorned the noses of bombers and the walls of soldiers barracks in the 1940s and ’50s? Anyone who’s familiar with pin up paintings will know the caricature-esque works of Gil Elvgren. His fantastical cheesecake pictures feature curvy 1950s women revealing their stockings – and sometimes a bit more – in a series of eyebrow-raising situations.

h/t: vintag.es

It seems in the age before digital photo editing, it was paint which made women seem to posess an impossible beauty, as these erotic illustrations reveal. These great before and after images of 1950s pin-up girls will give you a sneak peak of the photograph that came before the artists rendering.

Hoàng Thùy Linh – Kẻ Cắp Gặp Bà Già (Diamond Cut Diamond)| Official Music Video

Super popular inside of China.

The EU Trojan Horse: Poland, Romania and the Baltic States

Roger Boyd

It is said that after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks left a huge wooden horse outside the gates of the city and seemed to have sailed away. The occupants of Troy brought the horse into the city, only to find that night that it was full of Greek soldiers who opened the city gates so that the Greeks could take the city. Just as the occupants of Troy brought a poisoned gift into their city, the EU welcomed in Poland (2003), Romania (2007) and the Baltic states (2004). What they did not understand is that they were welcoming in states with elites (especially their diasporas) that have a searing visceral hatred of anything Russian and are happy US vassals. Any thought of a new Ostpolitik of the 1970s or the European friendship that Gorbachev wished for was off the table. In addition, the concurrent accession of these states into NATO broke the repeated promises of the West not to move NATO closer to Russia, negating the possibility of a zone of neutral peace.

The history of Poland (the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569-1795) and Russia is one of repeated wars. At its peak in the seventeenth century, the Commonwealth included most of what is now the Baltic States and Belarus and western Ukraine. In 1795 it was put to rest as what was left of it was dismembered between Austria, Prussia and Russia. Poland came back into being as part of the WW1 settlement, which also created the states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (as well as Finland). Poland invaded Russian territories during the Russian Civil War (Polish-Soviet War 1918-1921) in an attempt to rebuild the Commonwealth. This included the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918-1919 against Ukrainian nationalists, with the latter forced into alliance with Poland. After being pushed back to Warsaw and nearly defeated, the Poles won the Battle of Warsaw (1920), and the Peace of Riga (1921) was signed that gave large areas of what is now western Belarus and Ukraine to Poland; areas that were predominantly Slavic not Polish. In 1939, the Soviet Union took back these territories, as well as the Baltic States, as part of its agreement with Germany. The territories taken back by the Soviet Union played a critical role in its survival of the 1941 German invasion, by moving the start line for that invasion (Barbarossa) hundreds of kilometres west. The Soviet Union had also forced the Finns to modify their border with the Soviet Union, to move it away from the Leningrad area. Poland, the Baltic States and Finland were all seen as putative allies of Germany in any invasion of the Soviet Union. At the time Poland was a majority peasant society, ruled by an authoritarian military regime (“regime of the colonels”) that was supported by the aristocracy and the landowning gentry. As Korbonski notes:

There is little doubt that interwar Poland presents a textbook case of what Huntington calls “oligarchical praetorianism.” In such societies, the dominant political forces tend to be the landowners, the clergy, and the military, with the last-mentioned exercising dominance.

Romania had gained Bessarabia after the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1918, but was forced to give it, as well as Northern Bukovina (the combination of which became the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic), to the Soviet Union in 1940. After the collapse of the Soviet Union these areas became the new nation-state of Moldova. This territorial change also pushed back the start line for Barbarossa, which Romania took an active part in as an ally of Germany. Pre-WW2 Romania was a majority peasant country, ruled over by a fascist dictatorship. Lithuania was a fascist one-party (Lithuanian Nationalist Union) authoritarian state, Latvia an authoritarian nationalist dictatorship, and Estonia a right-wing one-party (Patriotic League) authoritarian state.

I include the historical background above to combat much of the recent historical rewriting that serves to paint these nations, and their pre-WW2 leadership in as positive a light as possible. At the end of WW1, the new Soviet Union was “punished” by the other Allied nations through the taking of Russian lands to create Finland, the Baltic States and Poland; in addition to Western invasions of the Soviet Union in an attempt to crush the communist government. Poland and Romania also seized through wars of aggression other pieces of Russia. None of these states were democracies at the start of WW2, they were all highly antisemitic, and enemies of the Soviet Union. In 1940, the Soviet Union took back the lands taken by Poland and Romania, extinguished the Baltic States created from its territory at the end of WW1, and pushed back the Finnish border away from the critical Leningrad area. Without these moves, the Barbarossa offensive may have taken both Moscow and Leningrad in 1941 and Hitler may have gained his lebensraum. What would Eastern Europe and Russia look like today if that had happened? Those that wish to demonize the Soviet Union, and its progeny Russia, ignore and suppress these historical realities.

After WW2, the Soviet Union occupied Eastern Europe as a buffer against Western aggression, a position fully supported by the many European and Western attempts to subjugate Russia and then the Soviet Union. The historical enemies of Poland and Romania would be kept well under control, but not extinguished. Finland also had to accept some additional border changes but was not occupied by the Soviet Union. The Soviet-backed government of Poland was not the disaster many now claim, as it carried out land reform, eradicated illiteracy, provided universal healthcare and education, and established rapid industrialization and urbanization. The population of Poland doubled between 1947 and 1989 and many lower-class Poles had opportunities that they would never have had under previous administrations. The Polish crisis of the 1980s was the result of massive borrowing from the West in the 1970s that lead to severe economic conditions, even rationing, as Western interest rates rose as part of the Volcker Shock. This was the exacerbated by the economic disintegration of the Soviet Union toward the end of that decade. The Romanian experience of communism was much more brutal, but the extremes of the Ceausescu regime were due to the mass austerity imposed to pay off loans from the West; impoverishing the population.

In recent times, Romania has become a deeply corrupt state run by a kleptocracy, which is governed by a US and Western comprador elite and acts as a NATO forward base against Russia and pushes for integration with Moldova (recently with a “strategic partnership”) to reclaim the “lost” Bessarabia. A friend of mine recently visited Bucharest during a diplomatic summit and noted the difference between the modern rich center that the world tends to see and the sea of poverty that it sits within. An example of the deep corruption in Romania, not much has changed in the past few years since:

Read the REST HERE

Hoàng Thùy Linh – Lắm Mối Tối Ngồi Không (Run After Two Hares, Catch Nones) | Official Lyrics Video

Brisket and Beans

Cowboy Beans 3 1024x1536 1 — Cowboy Beans 3 1024×1536 1

Equipment

Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) brisket
2 cups water
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans
6 potatoes, peeled, quartered
1/4 teaspoon marjoram, crumbled
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Instructions

Remove any excess fat from brisket.
In a pressure cooker, bring brisket, water and seasonings to 15 pounds pressure and cook for 30 to 40 minutes.
Reduce pressure under cold water.
Open cooker, and add vegetables. Cover, then bring to 15 pounds pressure and cook 5 minutes; reduce pressure again.
Remove meat, and slice thinly on the diagonal.
Serve with green beans and potatoes drenched with cooking liquid. Do not thicken the natural gravy.

Hoàng Thuỳ Linh, Thanh Lam, Tùng Dương – Đánh Đố | Official Music Video

11 Illustrations That Show Just How Much The Internet Has Changed Our Lives

None of us should ever succumb to panic — real life is definitely still out there despite the huge role that the Internet plays in modern life. Gadgets and technology play a part in our lives, but it really is just a part. Nevertheless, it’s funny to think about the hundreds of little ways these things have changed our behavior.

h/t: brightside

Trưởng Nữ Chạy Trốn – Hoàng Thùy Linh (choreography by Pdragteam)

Greek Meatballs and Spaghetti Sauce

53044c7cc5c83dfd630f49a933228b9a greek meatballs spaghetti and meatballs

Equipment

Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

Meatballs

1 pound beef, veal and pork ground together (or ground turkey)
1/4 cup sherry
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 medium size onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 slices bread, finely crumbled (store bought bread crumbs if you want)
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup olive oil or less
1/2 teaspoon dried mint

Sauce

1 large onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 slices bacon, diced (optional)
2 carrots, coarsely diced
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup beef broth or stock
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
1/2 teaspoon mint
2 bay leaves
Cooked pasta or rice to serve

Instructions

Prepare meatballs. Set aside.

Meatballs

Combine meat, sherry and the egg in a bowl. Add onion, garlic, bread crumbs and seasonings. Knead until completely mixed. Shape into walnut-size meatballs. Do not over-handle or they will be tough.

Sauce

In a pressure cooker, sauté onion, garlic, tomato paste, bacon, carrots, and parsley over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Add tomato sauce or puree, broth, sherry, brown sugar, salt, pepper flakes, oregano, fennel, mint and bay leaves. Stir to combine, and add meatballs. Secure lid. Over medium-high heat develop steam to high pressure. Reduce heat to maintain pressure and cook 10 minutes.
Release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions. Remove lid. Gently stir meatballs in sauce. Discard bay leaves. Let stand 5 minutes.
Skim fat from surface.
In a pressure cooker, sauté meatballs in hot oil over high heat until lightly browned. Cook about 10 meatballs at a time, turning with tongs.

Hoàng Thùy Linh – Duyên Âm (Love of Ghost) | Official Music Video

What type of women should you never date?

Not by MM. Full Disclaimer. 
-MM

Five Warning Signs:-

Sign One:-

She expects you to pay for everything from the very first date or within the first 10 dates.

Going Dutch is the norm for any girl except for treats (50–50 or paying alternatively)

Sign Two:-

She expects you to improve your behaviour or parts of your personality from the first date or within the first ten dates

The usual norm is after 10 dates she says “Look I really like you but you eat too fast or you swear too much or you slouch toi much, will you please correct it”

Sign Three:-

She is dismissive to things you hold very dear from the very first date or within the first 10 dates

The norm is to nod her head when you praise Modi or Kohli or some random German writer she has never heard of

Then after enough familiarity, she will say “Please shut up. It bores me”

That’s perfectly normal

Sign Four:-

She talks too much of her boyfriend even if its angry stuff

It means you could be a rebound or she isn’t over him

The norm is she won’t want to talk about him initially and later doesn’t care about him enough to talk about him

Sign Five:-

She is dismissive about Parents or your mother or excessive caring by parents

Talent at the Top

Why China Leads the World

Godfree Roberts

Apr 21, 2023

Them

300,000 Chinese people have an IQ above 160¹, which means they can do highly innovative work in quantum physics and mathematics and invent sciences and win Nobels, and all of them work for the Government of China as officials, academics or researchers.

For fifty generations, China’s geniuses have always become government officials because, well, because China only allows geniuses run the country. No-one else need apply.

Young geniuses with political ambitions live in the poorest villages until they raise incomes 50%. Then, if their KPIs remain high for a quarter century, they might ascend to Beijing, official Valhalla.

Two geniuses – one ran the space program, and his buddy who designed its rockets – were made Provincial Governors², each responsible for 5% economic growth in his province, for environmental improvement, for a dozen KPIs, and for delivering their share of the Five Year Plan.

In preparation for their career change, they went back to school. They spent a semester at the most exclusive university on earth, the lakeside campus of the Central Party School in Beijing. There they hung out with world thinkers who earn small fortunes for giving seminars to promising officials and yakking about the future. A Hungarian economist friend, who had heard about the School’s generosity, waited until he was seated on the ‘plane to open his honorarium envelope, “My hands shook. I actually wept. The next week, I paid off the mortgage, bought my wife a car, and left the rest in the bank”.

Xi Jinping began his cursus honorum² at the same age as Cicero, by being elected Village Party Secretary at nineteen. His KPIs were excellent for 25 years, and he picked up a Master’s in Marxist economics and a PhD in rural marketization. An Oxford PhD and African developmental economist attending a conference in Beijing was astonished to find herself sipping tea with Xi and his translator in his office, gabbing about Chinese aid hits and misses. Xi, incidentally, is held responsible for the same KPIs and the same Five Year goals. All of them.

Despair

President Trump despaired, “People say I don’t like China? No, I love them! But their leaders are much smarter than ours. And we can’t maintain ourselves against that. It’s like playing the New England Patriots and Tom Brady against your high school football team.” His elaboration on Xi’s personal qualities is interesting:

Us

30,000 (note4) Westerners have an IQ above 160, but none of them will ever govern a state, let alone a country. Honesty is fatal in our politics, and smart people are honest.

In addition to their lack of intelligence, education and morality, our officials are unaccountable and have no goals. Most have never accomplished anything beyond winning an election, as their disastrous policies make clear.

Let’s not beat a dead horse. There’s no way on God’s earth the West can compete with China, as Lee Kwan Yew (note 5) warned decades ago, “The size of China’s displacement of the world balance is such that the world must find a new balance. It is not possible to pretend that this is just another big player. This is the biggest player in the history of the world”.

If you’re interested in how China actually works, read Why China Leads the World: Talent at the Top, Data in the Middle, Democracy from the Bottom. To learn how Chinese officialdom works, read Dean of Shandong, whose author, Daniel Bell, was a Chinese Government official in this lifetime.

…

IQ is distributed logarithmically and since China’s national IQ is 105, its 1.4 billion citizens harbor 300,000 of them. 95% of us have IQ’s under 130, so theoretical physics is probably beyond us.

There are typically 3 levels of civil service between a provincial governor and the President of China. At the provincial level, the governor is considered a level-1 official. Above the governor are level-2 officials who are responsible for larger regions or multiple provinces, such as the vice-ministers in various ministries of the central government. Level-3 officials are the highest-ranking officials in the country and are responsible for national policies and decision-making. The President of China is a level-3 official.

the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and early Empire.

Because China’s median IQ is 105+ and the West’s is 100- and because IQ is logarithmic and because China has twice as many people.

Lee graduated at the top of his year at Cambridge – he was a genius who ran his country well. He. His Prime Minister son outshone him – in mathematics. Singapore will succeed if it keeps Prime Ministerial IQ above 130? China’s has probably not been below 130 since 505 AD.

USA’s hegemony has angered the entire world & thus backfired to USA. After Brazil, France, Saudi & Iran, Africa & ASEAN, now Vietnam. What has Vietnam done?

On 2023/4/15, US Secretary A Blinken visited Vietnam & met Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. In the meeting room, there was a Vietnamese national flag. But absolutely no US flag.

This is unheard of in diplomacy.

Pham told Blinken:

We Vietnamese do not take sides. We can decide what is righteous & fair (to us).

Vietnam is communist. While USA propagates communist as evil, USA is befriending communist Vietnam. Haha.

2 points here:

[1], It is proof that communism is NOT the problem for USA. It is China. USA is paranoid about China surpassing it. That is all. Hence USA uses “communism” to scare Americans. Don’t forget. USA befriended communist China in 1972 to “fight” the strong USSR.

[2], USA uses Vietnam to encircle China.

USA is infamous in gossiping & breaking up friendship between countries. We witness the mess in Middle East caused by USA.

Blinken has 2 missions.

One, for the opening of a new US embassy in Vietnam.
Two, befriend Vietnam to encircle China.

USA delivered a 3rd naval cutter to support Vietnam coast guard in South China Sea. Security is US concern, Blinken said. (It is said that the cutter is pretty old.)

The Chinese embassy in Vietnam responded:

"all countries in the region of SCS work together to maintain peace in the region. Any outsider is malicious & to sow discord in the region."

Who is the outsider? USA because USA is many thousands of miles away from SCS.

There is a saying circulating around:

Vietnam was not afraid of USA some 40 years ago in Vietnam war. Neither is it afraid today.

Quite similar to what former Chinese Diplomat Yang Jiechi rebuked Blinken in the 2021 Alaska meeting:

"USA is not qualified to talk to China this way. Not today. Not 20 years ago. Not 40 years ago. China will not take it. "

MLEM MLEM | MIN X JUSTATEE X YUNO BIGBOI | OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

Africa is replacing the United States and Europe as a major middle class of value

So the USA raised the retirement age from 64 to 67. Phew! It’s a good thing that I applied for it early. Damn! I’d be forever waiting for this fucking stipend otherwise. Sheech!

Now this…

Freedom of speech and press. No longer exists in the USA.

Period.

Europe tries to break Russia and China apart

It failed bigly.

An outstanding video!

The idiot will not stop…

EU to sanction home appliance exports to Russia?

Memo to Frau von der Leyen: Pull the plug on it

Since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict in February 2022, the European Union has ratified 10 sanctions packages designed to undermine Russia’s capacity to wage war in Ukraine. Now, kitchen appliances are in the EU’s crosshairs.

British newspaper The Telegraph, claiming to have seen a confidential EU report, says Brussels is considering imposing trade restrictions “on countries helping Russia acquire [microchips] in washing machines and used cars to repair its battle-stricken fleet of tanks.”

Thus the EU is threatening to apply secondary sanctions – that is, penalties on persons and entities outside of the EU’s legal jurisdiction – on countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

When weighing the imposition of secondary sanctions, EU policy should be guided by realpolitik and strategic thinking rooted in common sense, rather than by ideology and moral indignation, whether feigned or sincerely meant.

For the EU to impose trade restrictions on other countries on the suspicion that they are reselling significant quantities of home appliances to Russia, which then strips them for their microchips, is potentially destructive of the West’s strategic interests across Middle Eurasia.

The evidence suggests that harvesting microchips contained in home appliances sourced in “secondary” countries, usually for military use, is an exceedingly rare occurrence. It is cost-ineffective and unnecessary to boot, because EU countries have not seriously clamped down on the export of EU-sourced processors used in refrigerators, washing machines and other such appliances.

EU (and G7) leaders should think twice before insisting that other countries – mainly in Central Asia and the Caucasus – expend energy and resources on so dubious an undertaking with potentially negative political consequences for themselves.

To sanction – and possibly punish – consumers and traders of home appliances is unreasonable and impractical in view of the easy accessibility of military-grade microchips on the market already.

Moreover, these chips are nearly impossible to track after delivery to distributors or resellers in third counties around the world. What’s more, by the end 2022, Qingdao Haier Ltd, a Chinese enterprise, had become the largest maker of washing machines and refrigerators in Russia.

(By the way, General Electric sold its 100-year-old appliances business to Haier in 2016.)

Common sense

Then there is this consideration, which should occur to anyone with an ounce of common sense: Why would the Russian military – or any military for that matter – go through all the trouble and expense of finding, importing or buying vast numbers of washers and refrigerators when it is easier and cheaper to order large quantities of microchips from the many companies and resellers hawking them worldwide, including chips compatible with Russia’s own global positioning system, GLONASS?

A Forbes magazine article titled “Is Russia really buying home appliances to harvest computer chips for Ukraine-bound weapons systems?” states that “these kinds of chips [for drones] have long been widely available to civilian users on the global market, and Ukrainian authorities say at least six US companies produce GLONASS-compatible chips.”

And these components are “not under embargo,” says Sven Etzold, the senior director of business marketing at U-Blox: “They are usually for civil usage and can be officially bought through a distributor.”

Chris Miller, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and specialist in semiconductors, said recently, “My feeling is that most of the chips that Russia is accessing today for integrating into military systems are not coming via this route [home appliances].

“We should probably assume that Russia is going to find ways to get access to lower-tech chips simply because they’re widely available,” he said.

Chip suppliers

According to an investigative report in January summarized in the Netherlands Times, “Several million microchips produced by Dutch manufacturers, including NXP and Nexperia, wound up in Russia last year in shipments that were handled by resellers after sanctions were in place as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

One can only assume that Russia has installed some of these Dutch microchips in military hardware.

“Key technology [used in drones for satellite navigation] is European and American,” reports CBS Evening News, and “the chips are still flowing” into Russia and available in the global market. The Columbia Broadcasting System singled out U-Blox, a Swiss company, and Maxim and Microchip, two US producers of microprocessors, whose chips could well have ended up in Russia.

In view of all this, it doesn’t seem to make sense to threaten Armenia, Kazakhstan or Turkey, for example, with sanctions of one kind or another when the availability of new lower-tech chips is widespread. Secondary sanctions on home appliances seem uncalled for.

EU-Russian trade

Al Jazeera reported last month that “in total, the EU imported €171 billion (US$186 billion) worth of goods from Russia starting from March 2022 until the end of January 2023.”

According to Eurostat, the EU statistics office, the European Union has posted a net trade deficit in the billions of dollars with Russia each month since January 2021. This means that significant business between Russia and the EU continues despite all the chatter to the contrary.

Europe’s double standards are clear for everyone to see. While Brussels wants to call on non-EU countries to cut their trade with Russia, the EU continues to trade with Moscow.

Start with Western firms

Nearly 9% of Western firms have divested from Russia since the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, according to Simon J Evenett, professor of international trade and economic development at the University of St Gallen, and Niccolò Pisani, professor of strategy and international business at IMD Business School in Switzerland: “Of the total of 1,404 EU and G7 companies with commercially active equity investments in Russia before the invasion of Ukraine … by the end of November 2022, a total of 120 (8.5%) [had] actually left.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen should be careful before boasting in public about the devastating efficacy of her sanctions:

“We have sanctions. We have banned all export of semiconductors. The impact of these sanctions is now very real and tangible on the ground in Russia. The Russian military, for example, cannibalizes refrigerators and washing machines to take out the semiconductors, trying to get the semiconductors for their military hardware.”

The EU does not seem to understand that the imposition of secondary sanctions works against its efforts in Central Asia and the Caucasus – as described in a recent official document – to “mitigate socio-economic dislocation, facilitate trade within and beyond the region, diversify transport routes, [and] lift investments.”

Brussels might go after those EU and G7 companies with active businesses in Russia and prevent its own microchip makers from making available thousands of microprocessors in world markets before giving the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus a hard time about refrigerators and washing machines.

It would be more diplomatically productive for EU ambassadors stationed abroad to engage their hosts as partners rather than as pawns on the global chessboard.

Article HERE

What are your thoughts on China’s RMB (Yuan) potentially replacing the US Dollar as the global currency one day? What do you think China must do/accomplish first before this could be possible?

Why would there need to be a Global Reserve Currency in the first place?

You see what happened to the US Dollar right?

As the US Dollar debts bloated more and more and more, the US survived entirely due to more and more Global circulation of the US Dollars

Initially the US had the TRADE DOMINANCE to keep the Dollar as a Reserve

In 1986 – the US dominated 47.72% trade and had a reserve currency percentage of around 73%

In 2022 – The US had a 15.2% trade and a reserve currency percentage of 56%

You see the difference?

Printed Dollars fled to different nations in various forms and protected the Average American from the impacts like Inflation

Every Dollar represents an IOU from the US Treasury to the holder

So technically the US holds a debt of almost $ 107 Trillion from its institutions and it’s capital markets and debts

As the US Dollar loses hold over the world and as the world begins to move to Economics over Politics, the US Dollar loses appeal and more people will begin to prefer other currencies or Gold Or Trade Barter

So what happens next?

All those US Dollars come HOME

In 2019 if you have $ 26 Billion of Trade in a single day, almost 67% went into foreign accounts of other nations and only around 30% returned to the US , keeping the Dollar Supply restricted

Today out of $ 26 Billion of Trade , only 55.8% goes into Foreign Accounts ensuring more and more Dollars come back to US Accounts

That’s 11.2% gone in a mere 4 years

Add to that newly printed Biden Dollars – $ 9.32 Trillion of them over 3 years

That’s BAD

That means US Citizens for the first time in say 15 years actually suffer Real Inflation and More Inflation

It’s ADANI GROUP except on a much larger scale

It’s a $ 107 Trillion Debt against an Asset base of barely $ 14.7 Trillion of Actual Core Assets

All because USD was a Global Reserve Currency beyond 2001

Let’s see China Today

China is in a Beautiful Position today

It’s economy is wonderfully controlled with a mere 2.14% Inflation because of it’s exchange rate with the Dollar of almost 7 instead of a more realistic 4.23–4.61

China dominates 21.6% Global Trade and the Yuan has a 2.85% Global Share

THIS ALLOWS CHINA TO KEEP THINGS ECONOMICAL IN CHINA YET HAVE ENORMOUS FINANCIAL CLOUT GLOBALLY

The Yuan is non convertible and that protects China from any foreign interference

Now Yuans share can rise to maybe 15% or maximum 20%

However if Yuans share goes to 60% like the Dollar, then China will start rising it’s Debt everywhere and abandon it’s Yuan – Remimbi system and end up in a bad way

Instead THERE SHOULD BE NO GLOBAL RESERVE CURRENCY

Instead maybe a Basket of Pegged Values like Oil, Food, Gold and Yuan and Rubles and a few other currencies to develop a GLOBAL CURRENCY

Like there was once

A Wonderful Pegged Resource called GOLD

Sleepwalkers

This sucker is going down.
Godfree Roberts

In January last year I published (NYT, FT, etc.) three claims, hoping to provoke responses from American readers, making sure that they could dispute my claims. I tracked their engagement until, late last week, a million folks had read at least one of the three:

Social Claim: There are more hungry children, drug addicts, suicides, executions, and illiterate, incarcerated, poor, homeless people in America than in China. 62% of Americans own homes compared to 96% of Chinese, and American families’ net worth, $97,000, is a fraction of Chinese families’ $363,000 PPP, which is also more equitably distributed.
Military Claim: China’s 340-ship navy will have 400 boats eighteen months from now, while the US hopes to grow from 290 vessels now to 300 by 2030. PLAN boats are newer and, thanks to advanced propellants, explosives, and terminal guidance systems, their 10x more numerous missiles outrange America’s. Their fleet sails under an umbrella of satellites and drones that guide 1,000-round salvoes of shore-to-ship missiles that destroy fleets in minutes, and hundreds of ballistic missiles that can sink a carrier in Darwin Port.
Economic Claim: China’s peacetime GDP is $30 trillion, America’s is $25 trillion PPP. China’s will add $1 trillion this year and can maintain that pace through 2049 while the US struggles to add one-fourth of that. China’s productive –wartime – economy, is three times bigger and more diverse than America’s service-based economy.

Heartbreaking Truth #1

Clearly, the US has passed the culminating point of its 170-year-long assault on China: it can no longer mount an attack with a reasonable prospect of success, or even survival. General Milley has begun lowering expectations, especially important after Afghanistan and Ukraine. Western elites, usually eager to exchange our lives for their status, find the prospect of nuclear dematerialization by one of China’s bigger, faster, ICBMs unattractive, making a shooting war unlikely.

Heartbreaking Truth #2

One million educated, engaged readers read at leas one of my claims. None seriously challenged them. Make of that what you will, but I suspect that despair plays a part. Besides, who wants to be the bearer of evil tidings?

The Bearer of Evil Tidings

The bearer of evil tidings, When he was halfway there, Remembered that evil tidings Were a dangerous thing to bear.

So when he came to the parting Where one road led to the throne And one went off to the mountains And into the wild unknown,

He took the one to the mountains. He ran through the Vale of Cashmere, He ran through the rhododendrons Till he came to the land of Pamir.

And there in a precipice valley A girl of his age he met Took him home to her bower, Or he might be running yet.

She taught him her tribe’s religion: How ages and ages since A princess en route from China To marry a Persian prince

Had been found with child; and her army Had come to a troubled halt. And though a god was the father And nobody else at fault,

It had seemed discreet to remain there And neither go on nor back. So they stayed and declared a village There in the land of the Yak.

And the child that came of the princess Established a royal line, And his mandates were given heed to Because he was born divine.

And that was why there were people On one Himalayan shelf; And the bearer of evil tidings Decided to stay there himself.

At least he had this in common With the race he chose to adopt: They had both of them had their reasons For stopping where they had stopped.

As for his evil tidings, Belshazzar’s overthrow, Why hurry to tell Belshazzar What soon enough he would know?

I Drove Around California For A Month. It Was A Disaster.

Traditional Beatdown (AKA Being ‘Jumped In’)

Probably the most common method of gang initiation is the classic “beatdown” (aka being “jumped in”). It involves the wannabe gangster fighting a specific number of the gang’s members for a certain amount of time. The wannabe must withstand the beating as well as fight back.

Most gangs have a variation of this method, including “The Line.” Candidates are kicked and punched repeatedly as they walk between two lines of gang members. The prospect must make it to the end of the line while still on his feet. If he doesn’t, he can try again on another day when his bruises and wounds have healed.

But even this method can be deadly . . .

In 2010, a senior from the University of Arkansas was beaten for three minutes as part of a jump-in for the Bloods gang. He suffered irreparable blunt force trauma to his head and died at the hospital an hour later.

Why did Japanese tech companies invest record money in China during 2020-2021 if Japan is a member of the Quad?

I have always said Business is Business

Japanese Investments in China for 2020–2021 hit $ 30.8 Billion of which 86% or approximately $ 28 Billion was by the Tech Industries.

Here are the distributions

Renewable Energy – 37.7%
High Speed Infrastructure – 24.3%
Finance and Domestic Luxury Retail – 14.2%

In 2019–2020, it was $ 18.4 Billion.

Why?

Simple. Japanese Businessmen want the best returns and its China that provides the returns

The rest is Politics

Thats why most Japanese Businesses that wanted to leave China in 2020 have tucked their tail and returned back despite a 32% rise in wages sanctioned by the CPC in 2021.

As Mehmood said The Whole Thing that ki Bhaiyya Sabse Bada Rupaiyya

‘Jacked In’

Being “jacked in” is a street-savvy term for committing an auto theft in the hopes of becoming a gang member.

It works like this: To show his “earning ability” for the gang, a prospective member will steal a car (usually at gunpoint), convincing the higher-ups of his gall. If successful, he’s accepted as a full member.

In January 2008, 17-year-old Charles Brown hopped into the back seat of a parked car in Kiamesha Lake, New York. The back seat already had three passengers. Brown then pointed a gun at the driver, forcing him to relinquish the vehicle. Later, police learned that this had been an initiation attempt for a local Crips gang.

French Keep Dining While Protest Fires Burn Outside

What a time to be alive!

Kidnapping

To prove themselves worthy of induction into the Vatos Locos gang, Jose Cruz and Hugo Torres of North Carolina spawned a national manhunt in 2011 after allegedly kidnapping a man and holding him at gunpoint during a robbery. Police said that the criminals drove the man to a secluded mobile home. There, he was beaten before finally being able to free himself and run for help.

All of this was done as part of the initiation of Cruz and Torres into a local Hispanic street gang.

In another crime in June 2013, Mexican soldiers were able to rescue 165 people—including women and children—who had been savagely kidnapped and held for ransom by Mexican cartel gangs.

Melitzanosalata

Ingredients

3 whole medium eggplants, approximately 4 pounds, washed
1/2 cup canned whole tomatoes, chopped, juices strained
3/4 cup white onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely chopped
1/4 cup goat’s milk yogurt (may substitute strained conventional yogurt, method follows)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1-3 tablespoons seltzer water
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, washed and dried
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Prepare a grill (you may also broil the eggplant). Pierce eggplant with a fork and grill, turning frequently to prevent burning Cook until the skin becomes black and the eggplant is soft, about 10-15 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack over a baking sheet, to catch the juices.
When eggplant is cool, peel the skin and coarsely chop. Discard the juices.
Place the paddle attachment on a standing mixer. Add the eggplant and tomato, onion and garlic, and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and add the yogurt. Mix on medium for 1 more minute.
With mixer on medium speed, slowly add the vinegar and lemon juice. Continue mixing; slowly add the olive oil. Add seltzer water as needed to reach desired consistency; slightly thick, but light and relatively loose.
Add parsley, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate overnight and serve.
To prepare the yogurt: You’ll need 1/2 cup yogurt to make 1/4 cup strained for this recipe. Line a strainer with cheese cloth and set over a bowl (the bowl should support the strainer so it does not touch the bottom). Put the yogurt in the strainer and let it drain overnight. Discard the liquid and use the strained yogurt as directed.

‘Sexed In’

Most gangs aren’t prejudiced against the idea of recruiting female members. As such, a special initiation process is involved. According to the Florida Gang Reduction website, a female recruit sometimes has to roll two dice. Then she has sex with that number of gang members.

Isha Nembhard, a former female gang member from London, said that women being prostituted as induction into a gang is common.

“A lot of girls are sort of prostituting themselves to have sexual relationships within a gang and get treated in a bad way,” she said. “For example, she might know about what happens to girls in the gang but still sleeps with all of them just for the status.”

Libianca – People (Check On Me) [Official Music Video]

African pop music.

Gang Rape

Once believed to be nothing more than a sensationalized “rumor,” rape is a very active and brutal method of initiation for some gangs. Eight teenagers from a California outfit known as the “South Side Mafia” were accused in 2011 of luring an 11-year-old girl into a park bathroom where they took turns raping her as part of an initiation rite.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, gangs created the ruse of inviting female mall shoppers to a “party” where they would be locked in a room and repeatedly raped by inductees. Given the choice between a traditional “jump-in” (being beaten into the gang) or raping a female, prospective gang members choose rape far more often in Albuquerque.

Vatican renounces ‘Doctrine of Discovery.’ When will Supreme Court do likewise?

Richard Becker

April 2, 2023

More than five centuries after it was formulated in a series of papal decrees, the Vatican issued a formal announcement on March 30 repudiating the Euro-supremacist “Doctrine of Discovery.” In essence, the “doctrine” said that all lands not occupied by “Christians” passed into the hands of the European conquerors as soon as they were “discovered,” and their inhabitants enslaved.

Composed of decrees issued between 1452 and 1497, it served as the quasi-legal justification for the expropriation of entire continents in the name of spreading the Catholic faith. The repudiation by the Pope is the culmination of decades of struggle by Indigenous peoples in the United States, Canada and around the world demanding its withdrawal.

But while the Pope has now renounced it, the U.S. Supreme Court has not. The high court continues to treat the “doctrine” as an integral basis of U.S. law, particularly in regard to the rights — or lack thereof — of Native peoples.

Most notable in recent times was a 2005 decision authored by the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg which invoked the “Doctrine of Discovery” in her majority ruling against the Oneida Indian Nation. The Oneidas were seeking to recover lands and rights in central New York State guaranteed to them under the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua treaty with the U.S., signed by George Washington, then president.

The Oneidas, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy were awarded 300,000 acres “in perpetuity” by the treaty. By the 20th century, nearly all of that land had been taken over. In the 1970s, the Oneidas began buying small parcels on what had been their reservation land, including in the small city of Sherill, New York. They objected to the demand by the city that they pay property taxes on the basis that they were a sovereign nation. While the Oneidas won in lower federal courts, the Supreme Court ruled against them 8-1, with Ginsburg authoring the decision:

“Under the Doctrine of Discovery, title to the land occupied by Indians when the colonists arrived became vested in the sovereign – first the discovering European nation and later the original states and the United States . . .

“Given the longstanding non-Indian character of the area and its inhabitants, the regulatory authority constantly exercised by New York State and its counties and towns, and the Oneidas’ long delay in seeking judicial relief against parties other than the United States, we hold that the tribe cannot unilaterally revive its ancient sovereignty, in whole or in part, over the parcels at issue.”

In 2020, the Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote upheld the right of Native nations to reservations that would have included nearly half of Oklahoma. While this was a victory for a coalition of Native nations, right-wing justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion upholding the government’s power to deny the right of self-determination to Indian peoples.

“Once a reservation is established, it retains that status until Congress explicitly indicates otherwise,” wrote Gorsuch. “Only Congress can alter the terms of an Indian treaty by diminishing a reservation, and its intent to do so must be clear and plain.”

How did a loathsome “doctrine” authored in feudal times come to have what liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices alike consider a legitimate basis in U.S. law?

It was the Supreme Court itself that incorporated the “doctrine” into U.S. law, which became foundational in dealing with Native nations, in a key 1823 case, Johnson v. McIntosh.

The decision by Chief Justice John Marshall, declared that, in keeping with the “Doctrine of Discovery,” Native people had only the “right to occupancy” of land and not the right to title or ownership. Only the federal government, Marshall ruled, could own and sell Native lands and that “the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands”

Following the Vatican’s repudiation, the struggle will intensify for the U.S. government to do the same.

Cutting And Slashing

In 2008, three kids from a Coney Island school were charged by police after cutting over a dozen other students with a razor as initiation into a local MS-13 gang. While some students willingly rolled up their sleeves, those who didn’t were pressed against a desk and cut forcibly.^[6]

Elsewhere in New York, a pair of similar incidents took place in 1999 when six members of a Bloods gang attacked a woman on a train. They cut her with razors and stabbed her. Two days later, another woman was robbed of her jewelry. During the crime, her face was slashed so viciously that it required 150 stitches.

Karithopita (Greek Honey Walnut Cake)

Ingredients

Cake

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cups chopped walnuts

Honey Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice or extract

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour a 9-inch square baking pan.
Beat all ingredients, except walnuts and honey syrup, in mixing bowl on low speed of electric mixer (scraping bowl occasionally) for 1 minute. Stir in walnuts. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Prepare honey syrup by heating sugar and water to boiling, then reducing heat and simmering uncovered for 5 minutes.
Stir in honey and lemon juice; pour over warm baked cake.
Cut in triangles and serve.

Stabbing

Stabbing someone is a frequent initiation rite among prison gangs, but it isn’t necessarily absent from the streets. Upon his release from prison, Mark Block of Hesperia, California, noticed that his friend’s brother was sporting a gang tattoo—one he hadn’t rightfully earned.

Insisting that the man “make his bones” the proper way, Block, a white supremacist, accompanied 21-year-old Kyle Smither and his tattooed brother on the search for a target. Spotting a Hispanic male working out in his front yard, the Smither brothers stabbed the man several times and slit his throat.

In 2003, a 13-year-old boy stabbed an elderly woman to death after robbing her. This was also a gang initiation. Police discovered the woman’s body in her apartment. She had stab wounds about her face and upper body.

Kizz Daniel, EMPIRE – Cough (Official Video)

African pop music

Trial By Fire

In December 2011, 10 teenagers from Sweden were charged with aggravated arson for gutting a shopping mall as part of a local gang initiation. The Berga Centre Gang had imposed a test on wannabe members. It required them to light a dumpster on fire, which rapidly spread to a nearby mall and burned it to the ground.

But gang arson isn’t limited to property. In 2013, Esterrell Simpson and Maurice Hollis, both of Houston, Texas, were charged with murder after chasing down Carlos Hernandez—a random passerby—and setting him ablaze as part of an initiation ritual for the Black Disciples.

2 ‘Blood In’ (Murder)

Homicides committed for gang initiation can encompass everything from drive-by shootings to the murders of gang rivals or even strangers. Others simply make no sense at all, such as the 2004 death of Bob Mars, a high school coach from Kennewick, Washington.^[9]

Two teenagers, one sponsoring the other for induction into a local gang, shot and killed the coach as part of an initiation rite.

In Richmond, California, police believed the random shooting of a pizza delivery man was likely the work of a gang initiation, too. As he approached a door to deliver the pizza, unknown gunmen shot him from behind and killed him.

Serial Killing

The police in Juarez, Mexico, have been battling an even more horrifying monster as it relates to gang violence: serial killings. Used both as an initiation method and a way to settle unpaid drug debts, Mexican cartels have racked up an astounding death toll in the name of gang warfare.^[10]

Many victims are found with their skulls crushed, having been run over by car tires. In October 2013, 20-year-old Juan Pablo Vazquez was arrested after being linked to 79 murders, all of which he committed himself in the name of a cartel.

OPEC: Saudis aren’t afraid of US anymore

Author: M. K. Bhadrakumar

The shock oil production cuts from May outlined by the OPEC+ on Sunday essentially means that eight key OPEC countries decided to join hands with Russia to reduce oil production, messaging that OPEC and OPEC+ are now back in control of the oil market.

No single oil producing country is acting as the Pied Piper here. The great beauty about it is that Saudi Arabia and seven other major OPEC countries have unexpectedly decided to support Russia’s efforts and unilaterally reduce production.

While the 8 OPEC countries are talking about a reduction of one million b/d from May to the end of the year, Russia will extend for the same period its voluntary adjustment that already started in March, by 500,000 barrels.

Now, add to this the production adjustments already decided by the OPEC+ previously, and the total additional voluntary production adjustments touch a whopping 1.6 million b/d.

What has led to this? Fundamentally, as many analysts had forewarned, the Western sanctions against Russian oil created distortions and anomalies in the oil market and upset the delicate ecosystem of supply and demand, which were compounded by the incredibly risky decision by the G7, at the behest of the US Treasury, to impose a price cap on Russia’s oil sales abroad.

On top of it, the Biden administration’s provocative moves to release oil regularly from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in attempts to micromanage the oil prices and keep them abnormally low in the interests of the American consumer as well as to keep the inflationary pressures under check turned out to be an affront to the oil-producing countries whose economies critically depend on income from oil exports.

The OPEC+ calls the production cuts “a precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market.” In the downstream of the OPEC+ decision, analysts expect the oil prices to rise in the short term and pressure on Western central banks to increase due to the possible spike in inflation.

What stands out in the OPEC+ decision is that Russia’s decision to reduce oil production by the end of the year has been unanimously supported by the main Arab producers. Independent but time-coordinated statements were made by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Oman and Kazakhstan, while Russia confirmed its intention to extend until the end of the year its own production reduction by 500,000 barrels per day, which began in March.

Significantly, these statements have been made precisely by those largest oil producers in OPEC, who have a record of fully utilising their existing quota. Put differently, the reduction in production is going to be real, not just on paper.

Partly at least, the banking crisis in the US and Europe prompted the OPEC+ to intervene. Although Washington will downplay it, in March, Brent oil prices fell to $70 per barrel for the first time since 2021 amid the bankruptcy of several banks in the US and the near-death experience of Credit Suisse, one of the largest banks in Switzerland. The events sparked concern about the stability of the Western banking system and fear of a recession that would affect oil demand.

There is every likelihood that tensions may increase between the US and Saudi Arabia as higher oil prices will push inflation and make it even more difficult for the US Federal Reserve to find a balance between raising the key rate and maintaining financial and economic stability. Equally, the Biden administration must be furious that practical cooperation is still continuing between Russia and the OPEC countries, especially Saudi Arabia, notwithstanding the West’s price cap on Russian oil and Moscow’s decision to unilaterally cut production in March.

However, the Biden administration has only a limited range of options to respond to the OPEC+’s surprise move: one, go for another release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; two, pressure US producers to increase domestic oil output; three, back legislation that would allow the US to take the dramatic step of suing OPEC nations; or, four, curb the US’ export of gasoline and diesel.

To be sure, the OPEC+ production cut goes against the Western demand to increase oil output even as sanctions were imposed against Russian oil and gas exports. On the other hand, the disruption in oil supplies from Russia contributed to the rising inflation in the EU countries.

The US wanted the Gulf Arab states to step in and step up oil production. But the latter did not oblige because they felt that there wasn’t enough economic activity in the West and there were clear signs of recession contrary to expectation.

Thus, as a result of the sanctions against Russia, Europe is facing the complex situation of inflation and near-recession known as stagflation. In reality, the adaptive and agile OPEC + read the situation correctly and has shown that it is willing to act ahead of the curve. At a time when the world economy is struggling to grow at a healthy rate, the demand for oil would be relatively less, and it makes sense to cut oil production to maintain the price balance.

All that the Western leaders can complain about is that the OPEC+ cut in oil output has come at an inappropriate time. But the woes of Western economies cannot be laid at the door of OPEC+ as there are inherent problems which are now coming to the surface. For instance, the large scale protests in France against pension reform or the widespread strikes in Britain for higher wages show that there are deep structural problems in these economies, and the governments seem helpless in tackling them.

In geopolitical terms, the OPEC+ move came after a meeting between Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman in Riyadh on March 16 that focused on oil market cooperation. Therefore, it is widely seen as the tightening of the bond between Russia and Saudi Arabia. In fact, in May, as the largest members of OPEC join Russia in its unilateral reduction, the balance of quotas and the ratio of market shares between and amongst the participants in the OPEC + deal will return to the level set when it was concluded in April 2020.

The big question is, how Moscow might profit from the OPEC+ decision. The rise in crude oil prices particularly benefits Russia. Simply put, the production cuts will tighten up the oil market and thus help Russia to secure better prices for the crude oil it sells. Second, the new cuts also confirm that Russia is still an integral and important part of the group of oil producing countries, despite the western attempts to isolate it.

Third, the consequences of Sunday’s decision are all the greater because, unlike the previous cuts by the OPEC+ group at the height of the pandemic or last October, today, the momentum for global oil demand is up, not down — what with a strong recovery by China expected.

That is to say, the surprise OPEC+ reduction further consolidates the Saudi-Russian energy alliance, by aligning their production levels, thus placing them on equal footing. It is a slap in the face for Washington.

Make no mistake, this is another signal regarding a new era where the Saudis are not afraid of the US anymore, as the OPEC “leverage” is on Riyadh’s side. The Saudis are only doing what they need to do, and the White House has no say in the matter. Clearly, a recasting of the regional and global dynamics that has been set in motion lately is gathering momentum. The future of petrodollar seems increasingly uncertain.

Koulourakia (Greek Butter Twist)

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 tablespoon water
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 to 3 teaspoons sesame seeds

Instructions

Cream butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl; gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed of electric mixer.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add vanilla extract; beat until blended.
Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing after each addition.
Chill dough for 1 to 2 hours.
Divide dough into fourths. Divide each fourth into 16 portions. Roll each portion into a 4-inch rope; fold each rope in half, and twist. Place twists 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Combine egg yolk and water; brush over twists. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sesame seeds.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown.
Immediately transfer to wire racks to cool.

Spyro ft Tiwa Savage – Who is your Guy? Remix (Official Video)

African pop music

Is the US practicing fearmongering by banning TikTok?

No they are practicing thievery, they want to steal it, that’s what they too, if I was in control of tik tok, I’d tell them to get stuffed, and pull out, just not go there, and let their kids know, in no uncertain terms, as to why. It looks like their government is run by a bunch of criminals, talk about a country being run by the mafia, this takes the cake,

Karydopita

Ingredients

3 cups water
4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 orange or lemon, peel only
2 whole cloves
18 eggs, separated
5 tablespoons cognac
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces zwieback, finely crushed
1 pound walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

Combine the water, 2 1/2 cups of the sugar, orange or lemon peel and cloves in a saucepan and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the peel and cloves and cool.
Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks until light and lemon colored, and gradually add the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar.
In a separate bowl, mix the cognac, vanilla extract and baking soda and slowly add to the yolks and sugar.
Combine zwieback, walnuts and cinnamon, and gradually add to the batter, mixing on low speed.
Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly fold into the cake batter, then pour into a greased 15 1/2 x 11 x 2-inch baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes, or until a deep chestnut color.
Remove from the oven and set on a wire rack. Spoon the cooled syrup over the cake and allow it to cool in the pan.
Cut into traditional diamond shapes, according to desired size.

This is fucking nuts!

‘Divide and Rule’ Becomes ‘Unite and Cooperate’ When Xi, Putin, Raisi, Farhan Al-Saud et al Set the New Global Rules

Author: Natasha Wright

We are yet to mull and muse as to how China has succeeded in bringing peace to the two countries which the USA has always tried to drive a wedge in between.

After it agreed with Saudi Arabia in December 2022 to purchase its oil in Chinese yuan and not only in dollars any more, and while Russia has also been cooperating with Saudi Arabia with great success as regards the oil business and with Iran, too within the Shanghai Organization for Cooperation (SCO) together with China, China has managed to clinch a historic reconciliation of Iran and Saudi Arabia despite the unrelenting efforts by the USA to wreak havoc and cause continual conflicts among them, all in line with the notorious test and tried model by the Roman Empire — divide and rule; rather than ‘bring peace, unite and cooperate’.

The intrinsic logic of each and every empire of the political West seems to be such. Perhaps the wretched citizens of Yemen and those of Saudi Arabia as well might have a chance to sigh a breath of relief but the USA will surely not.

A superb economic and political turn-up for the history book in the Middle East could easily prove to be fatal for their imperial interests in which their dollar will be the first casualty to suffer losses but certainly not the only one.

After the negotiations in Beijing twenty-odd days ago, after they were being held in Iraq and Oman for two years, the three countries, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, declared that the deal between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Islamic Republic of Iran had been reached, which includes the agreement on the renewal of diplomatic relations among them; it presupposes the respect for the sovereignty of each country and the non-interference with their respective internal issues.

Thus the negotiations in the area of economy and security, investments and science and about sport and culture came part and parcel of this cooperation.

Briefly speaking, with the assistance of India and China, two regional powers and bitter rivals to a great extent, have announced publicly that they have set off on a new political journey of all-encompassing process of mending their relations instead of their further degradation in the ’name’ of said blood-soaked ’divide and rule’ principles of the international relations.

Thus it is blatantly obvious whom the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had in mind when they declared that this elimination of differences between Iran and Saudi Arabia will have a beneficial effect on the liberation of the countries from the overwhelming foreign interference; that the two countries have now taken their political destinies in their own proverbial hands and that their agreement coincides with the monumental trends of development.

The highest ranking diplomat of China, Wang Yi who was on a political visit to Moscow recently, decided that Russian-Chinese relations are reaching new dimensions on their pathway to build a multipolar world and on this occasion he pointed out that the Beijing Agreement between Riyadh and Teheran represents a breakthrough complete with a dialogue and peace which happened at the moment in which, there obviously is an alarmingly scanty amount of both around.

’Why do Iran and Saudi Arabia place trust in China’ is one of the headlines on the Chinese global TV networks, which point out the close relations between Beijing,

Teheran and Riyadh as opposed to those with Washington, the relations of whose with Saudi Arabia have become ever more tense in that they do not even have established diplomatic relations and they cannot enable any dialogue between them.

Accepting China as a mediator represents their respectful admission of the rising importance of China in the Middle East where many crises have emerged as a direct result of foreign interventions.

Chinese diplomatic concepts of peace and cooperation to one’s mutual benefit have gained an overwhelming support in the region. And even further afield than just in the region, says the Indian diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar ’The new era in world politics has dawned.

This is a historic event of paramount proportions, which by far surpasses a question of Saudi Arabia — Iran relations. It stands in silent testimony of a colossal shift in tectonic plates of geopolitical politics of the 21st century. The USA, writes M.K. Bhadrakumar, which has for eight decades been a dominant power in the politics of West Asia is nowhere to be seen. The U.S. has been done away with, to its embarrassment. The USA has 30 military bases in West Asia, and as many as five in Saudi Arabia only. But the USA has lost the magic wand of its leadership. China, says the Indian diplomat, has shown to the whole rest of the world: the Global South, all the way from the South America to Africa, how the democratized, multipolar world can in effect function in the foreseeable future by way of the superb diplomacy of a great power based on agreement and reconciliation; in one word it certainly is a refreshing as much as it is a revolutionary approach ’unite and cooperate’ rather than ’divide and conquer’.

Moreover, says M.K. Bhadrakumar, perhaps we might never find out what role Russia played behind the scenes but on the eve of the unannounced reconciliation in Beijing one day before, the leader of the Saudi Arabia diplomacy, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud was in Moscow. And one week earlier on the 6th of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin talked on the phone with the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who visited Beijing mid-February. After that, Wang Yi was in Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The three leading oil and gas producers are speeding up their search for payment mechanisms, which are to give a wide berth to the U.S. dollar. China is already in the midst of talks on such arrangements with Saudi Arabia and Iran. China and Russia are doing away with the dollar currency from their transactions — the Indian diplomat indicates the key aspect of this non Western cooperation, which is gaining momentum with great success.

It is abundantly clear that a rapid erosion of the dollar status as the world currency will not only mean the collapse of the U.S. economy but it is bound to cripple the ability of the USA to wage never-ending wars, which happen to be conveniently far away from their home turf, and impose its global hegemony along the way. Besides, the reconciliation of Saudi Arabia and Iran will give rise to their joining BRICS in the foreseeable future. One has to bear in mind that in one comprehensive study by Cambridge University, BRICS was defined as ’the coalition for the de-dollarization’, which the Riyadh — Teheran reconciliation aided by Beijing gives all the more credit and lends it ever more historical significance.

We are yet to mull and muse as to how China has succeeded in bringing peace to the two countries which the USA has always tried to drive a wedge in between and bring but feud and discord on the brink of a direct military conflict. And we are yet to learn hard political lessons from it.

Victony & Tempoe – Soweto (Official Video)

More African pop music.

A measure of reality

Does the arrival of Ma Ying-jeou’s delegation to the mainland mean that the people of Taiwan prefer peaceful reunification?

There is no doubt that no one wants to see war happen. I believe that both people in mainland China and Taiwan would want to achieve reunification in a peaceful manner.

But it must be admitted that with the meddling of the United States, from textbooks that distort historical facts to Tsai Ing-wen’s sneaky visit the United States, many people in Taiwan have forgotten their origins under the influence of the political environment, remembering only that they are Taiwanese and not recognizing themselves as Chinese. And the voice advocating Taiwan’s independence is getting louder and louder.

main qimg f7c9f76ee4a9cb69050e87bb813a60d3

According to Tsai’s speech, the history of Taiwan begins in 1945, and the true origin of the so-called Republic of China in mainland China is not mentioned at all. With all kinds of deliberate guidance, even we foreigners take it for granted that Taiwan and China are two different countries.

Yet it is not so. Taiwan has been a territory of China since ancient times.

From records that can be traced back thousand years or the Cairo Declaration signed after WWII, all are evidence of facts that cannot be denied or distorted.

main qimg 960b47feeebd35c7d165fc7d9b3f5d49

Ma’s visit to mainland China is serving to remind people in Taiwan, especially the younger generation in Taiwan, of and understand again the common roots and history of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Ma’s visit included Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing, and Shanghai. Among these places, Xiangtan in Hunan is Ma’s ancestral hometown, Wuhan is the site of the Wuchang Uprising of the 1911 Revolution (The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China’s last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. ), Nanjing is the former seat of the Nationalist Government, and Chongqing was the capital of the Nationalist Government during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

Ma visited the Nanjing Massacre Victims Memorial Hall, the Wuchang Uprising Memorial Hall, and Zhang Zizhong Martyrs’ Cemetery. These places connect the people of mainland China and Taiwan with their common emotions and shared national and historical memories.

main qimg cf4d930bd688d2b691cec969262f9f58

What the “Taiwan independence” groups want most is to cut off the common feelings and memories of the people of Taiwan and mainland China.

In her speech last year, Tsai did not even mention the 1911 Revolution and Sun Yat-sen (Father of the nation in the Republic of China).

The so-called “Republic of China” seems to have sprung from a stone.

The visit of Ma Ying-jeou is a strong reminder that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the same China” and “we are all Chinese”, and can even be seen as a declaration.

In addition, the young Taiwan students he brought with him exchanged with mainland students in several universities, which is very conducive to enhancing mutual understanding and affection between young people across the Taiwan Strait.

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Media in Taiwan interviewed the youths who visited mainland China, and these young college students said they had re or in-depth understanding of the mainland and found that the mainland was not as scary as said in those propaganda, but equally rational and friendly.

They also learned more about the history of the war of resistance against Japan that had been deliberately erased in Taiwan, and found common roots and emotional resonance with mainland China.

Moreover, some of them also expressed that the mainland university students and them had a lot in common and they became friends during the exchange.

It can be said that the greatest significance of this visit is that it enables people in Taiwan to begin to notice what the real mainland China looks like and to begin to have access to the real history of being Chinese.

main qimg 2c36065de60625be844bdd8dd3549c98

While Ma Ying-jeou visited the mainland to lead young students to retrace their history, Tsai Ing-wen’s sneaky visit to the United States became a stark contrast.

The US insisted on allowing Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen to “transit” the US despite China’s stern representations and repeated warnings.

The US media kept hyping the matter, but called this sneaky and unwelcomed visit a normal “transit.

If it was a normal transit through the doorstep of the United States, then why did she enter the door as a guest, meet with Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives in a high-profile meeting, and have frequent contact with U.S. officials and members of Congress?

The US provides a platform for Tsai to make secessionist statements about “Taiwan independence.

The essence is that the United States and Taiwan are colluding with each other to enhance the substantive relationship under the guise of “transit”.

main qimg d3ab3d985ed1facf3207fd1451544a56

The US is undoubtedly seriously undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and moreover sending a serious wrong signal to the secessionists that want to make Taiwan independent from China.

The US, the world biggest troublemaker and peace-buster, only wants to create more trouble for China.

As for the lives of the people in Taiwan, it doesn’t care, as long as Taiwan continues to receive a steady stream of weapons from it.

Stupid people in Taiwan worship the United States as their daddy, while those smart ones in Taiwan long for peaceful reunification with the mainland China with the pursuit of common prosperity and development.

Mèla – Tulululu

Mourabiedes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup coarsely grated or finely chopped almonds
3 1/2 cups flour
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Heat oven to 275 degrees F.
Cream butter until light and fluffy.
Mix in the 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar and egg yolk, creaming well. Beat in almonds. Stir flour; measure and gradually add just enough flour to make a soft dough that you can shape with your hands. Pinch off pieces of dough the size of a walnut and roll between your hands. Shape into half moons or stylized S shapes.
Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.
Remove from oven; let cool in pan until lukewarm.
Sift confectioners’ sugar onto wax paper.
Carefully transfer the cookies from baking sheet to sugared paper. Sift more sugar over the top, coating them at least 1/4 inch with sugar. Let stand until cool; then store in a cookie jar or crock.

Makes about 30.

The Restrict Act Takes Away ALL OF YOUR RIGHTS – Not Kidding!

It should be called “The Restrict Your Freedom Act”.

Is China seemingly in disarray/controlled disarray? Is this how governments, even autocratic ones, fall into disfavor by losing/ expending the goodwill they’d accumulated unwisely? What’s really going on in China right now?

China is doing fine, far better than any of the Western developed nations.

Don’t believe the Western mainstream media garbage about China.

China isn’t autocratic, it’s a democracy. China has its own form of democracy which works well.

Latana’s Democracy Perception Index 2022

shows that 83 percent of Chinese believe their country is democratic making it the most democratic nation on earth!

Edelman Trust Barometer 2023

shows that 89 percent of Chinese trust their government.

Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School reported

that 95.5 percent of Chinese are satisfied with their government.

A UC San Diego study

shows a high level of satisfaction among the Chinese across a range of aspects up to 95 percent.

A November 2019 Ipsos survey

shows that 95 percent of Chinese believe their country is on the right track.

The Global Happiness 2023

survey shows that China is the happiest country in the world at 91 percent.

The statistical evidence is overwhelming. Western countries, especially the United States, can only dream of having such numbers.

The Rainbow Empire Is Alienating The Rest of The World

Actually this is amazingly good. Well worth your time. The final paragraph is prescient.

Ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach CLOSED; 40% of All Goods into U.S.A. Comes to Halt

Nation Hal Turner 08 April 2023

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have closed. It is said that China may be enacting an Embargo against the USA prior to invading Taiwan, the same way the US Embargoed Japan before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Others say it is a Union labor issue.

Unions representing workers at the two ports are in talks for a new contract.

The ILWU Local 13 withheld workers from their shifts starting Thursday evening, according to the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping employers on the West Coast.

“The action by the Union has effectively shut down the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – the largest gateway for maritime trade in the United States,” the PMA said.

The union, however, released a statement making no mention of any formal work action.

The organization said Thursday several thousand members were in attendance at the organization’s regular monthly meeting, at which a new president was sworn in. It said on Friday many members were observing religious holidays with their families.

“On Friday, April 7, 2023, union members who observe religious holidays took the opportunity to celebrate with their families,” read a statement from ILWU. “Cargo operations are ongoing as longshore workers at the Ports remain on the job.”

Port officials and shippers, however, believe the absences are a deliberate, if unspoken, message from the union to put pressure on the talks.

The closures come as cargo volumes have already dropped from peak levels a year ago.

The union has been working without a new contract since July.

Trade experts say some shippers have already started diverting cargo traffic away from the two ports.

“A lot of the cargo has been shifted away from the West Coast ports, into the middle of our country and the East Coast,” said Nick Vyas, executive director of the Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Southern California. “So we have a seen a significant drop in volume at our West Coast ports, which is not a good sign.”

He noted that some 40% of the foreign goods arriving to the United States are processed through the two ports.

The Port of Los Angeles released a statement saying it is continuing to communicate with the ILWU and the PMA to support a return to normal operations.

“Resuming cargo operations at America’s busiest port complex is critical to maintaining confidence to our customers and supply chain stakeholders,” Port of Los Angeles officials said.

Port officials remain optimistic that operations will resume Saturday.

Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero released a statement: “Four of the Port’s container terminals are closed for the day, today, April 7. Terminal operators at the affected sites said they made the decision to close when workers did not report for their shifts this morning. We have no further information as to the situation, but it is expected that normal, regularly scheduled hours and operations will resume tomorrow.”

“Expected” . . . but not certain.

[Daegon Magus] – Piloting the ET space craft

DM has another video up.

This one is a simulation of piloting of an ET spacecraft.

Please enjoy.

Utilising Advanced OBE Techniques to Hijack and Pilot ET Spacecraft Part 1 – YouTube

People are starting to panic regarding world war III and China

Today, I am going to review some of my earlier graphs concerning when the peak-transition time occurs. These estimations were compiled back in 2020; three years ago. I think that they have held up pretty well.

We start with this one.

When the “big war” will occur…

This is from Strauss and Howe. Here is the full historical turnings, plotted on a nice graph against each other…

And now, this is the zoom-in to the quarter that pertains to our period in time. As you can see, Strauss and Howe predicted the global war to occur sometime around 2025 – 27. Which is what the United States government is planning for.

That’s two to four years from now.

This is the MM prediction…

Makes sense, though, I have to admit, that perhaps things are running early this turning. The 2020 bioweapon on China, and the 2022 Ukraine war is suggestive of an earlier start. (Around 1936 if you transpose over the graph above.)

This is my intel.

First compiled and made in 2018.
And then posted again in 2021.

It’s now 2023, and I’m sticking with it.

CLIMAX this year.

As far as I can figure, I’ve pretty accurate.

USD collapse starting in 2023. All resolved by 2028.
Climax of all-out crazy in 2023.
USA domestic unrest starting in 2022 through 2028.
In 2024, the federal government will change radically.
USA society full collapse in 2024 though 2026.
Hot war 2023 through 2026. (Maybe one year earlier if you include Russia/Ukraine)

Notes

Some things that I am noticing…

Everything seems to be proceeding earlier than the 1930s-1940s model. Perhaps there were events that were not reported on to the general public, or perhaps modern technologies has advanced the schedule somewhat.
Fighting is on time. But the predictions suggest a three year long period of fighting. Which makes use in the second year of hot war conflict.
The discharge of the USD as a global currency is on time, but seems to be really accelerated than I predicted.
I see no evidence that the US government will change.
And societal American (Western) collapse is still years away???

What are your thoughts?

Bill in Canada to CRIMINALIZE “Offensive Remarks” about Transgender Freaks; $25,000 Fine!

World Hal Turner 05 April 2023

The government of Ottawa, CANADA is considering a Bill to make it criminal to utter “Offensive Remarks” about (Mentally-ill) Trans-gendered freaks, with fine up to $25,000 per offense!

In order to be clear about this, the government of Canada is “protecting” mentally delusional people, who ignore actual physical, biological, reality, and telling everyone else THEY must accept the mental delusion or face a fine.

There is no such thing as “Trans-gender.” It is a physical and biological impossibility.

Humans have DNA and Chromosomes which exist in every cell of our bodies. Each and every cell has DNA coding as to whether the cell belongs to a male or female.

Trans-gendered ignore that physical reality and claim their sex is something OTHER THAN what their DNA and chromosomes are. This is a mental delusion. It is a mental sickness. It is not reality.

Some of these so-called “Trans-gendered” take hormones and have surgery to mutilate their outward appearance from their actual biological sex, to what APPEARS to be the other sex.

These artificial hormone-taking, and surgically mutilated people do not, and cannot, change their DNA and their chromosomes. So while their artificial efforts to deny reality may make them APPEAR OUTWARDLY as the other sex, every cell in their body remains the sex they were born with.

The entire “Trans-Gender” movement is nothing more than severe mental illness. Denial of reality.

From another point of view, one can safely argue that Trans-gender people are literally at war, with God Himself. Their claim to be a different sex, is their statement that THEY are right, and God is wrong.

Worse, these people are so self-centered, so selfish, and so spoiled, they DEMAND everyone else agree with them, accept them, and not even speak any truth regarding them.

Mentally-ill, spoiled brat people are not the stuff of which legislation should be based.

Shame on Ottawa.

Pepperoni and Peppers

Doesn’t this sound absolutely yummy?

Skillet Cheesy Pepperoni Pizza Chicken 2

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups thin green bell pepper strips
1 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3/4 pound pepperoni, sliced thin
1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes, cut up
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooked pasta or rice (optional)
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions

In large skillet, sauté green bell pepper and onion in butter until crisp-tender.
Stir in pepperoni; cook for 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Serve over pasta with cheese.

Serves 4.

For microwave oven, cook pepper and onion in butter for 5 minutes. Add pepperoni, tomatoes and salt. Cook 3 minutes or until hot.

“The Crisis Is About To Get MUCH Worse..” | Jeffrey Sachs

March 2023: Biggest Loss of U.S. Bank Deposits in History

Nation Hal Turner 05 April 2023

The American people are pulling money out of banks at a rate which, during March, saw the biggest drop in Bank Deposits in U.S. History!

The image above from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (BOG) shows the sudden and dramatic change in Bank Deposits; it’s staggering.

For the month of March, 2023, banks inside the USA saw $389 BILLION Dollars taken out by US citizens and companies!

Even at the height of the “Great Financial Crisis” of the year 2008, not a single monthly decline in 2008 exceeded $100 billion. Since the recent high, total deposits in the US are now down a record $1 trillion.

So where is the money going?

Well, it certainly isn’t going to pay down debt. Americans debt remains at the highest levels it has seen in decades.

Auto loan and credit card interest rates just hit a new record high. Average interest rates:

– Credit Card: 24.5%
– Used Cars: 14.0%
– New Cars: 9.0%

Meanwhile, we have record levels of debt:

– Total Household Debt: $16.5 trillion
– Auto Loans: $1.6 trillion
– Credit Card Debt: $986 billion

The worst part? Student loans just hit a record $1.6 trillion. Interest on student loans has been suspended since 2020, but it set to resume this year. The debt crisis is real.

WHERE’S IT GOING?

So if the cash is coming out of banks, but not paying down debt, where is the money going?

Americans are “prepping.” They are buying the things they think they might need if everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

Sure, they’re buying shelf-stable foods that stay good for a long time: Pasta, Rice, Beans, canned tuna and canned meats, jarred sauces, and the like. But they are also buying interesting things: Generators to power their homes during an outage. Solar power systems for off-grid power or power during outages. TOOLS! Americans are buying tools like there’s no tomorrow; from simple sets of screwdrivers, wrenches and sockets, hammers, and manual saws, to power tools like saws, drills, nail guns, and the like.

Interestingly, Americans are also buying spare OIL for their vehicles, space oil filters, air filters, and even fuel filters for those who own diesel powered vehicles. Believe it or not, Americans are also buying spare brake pads for their vehicles in numbers far above the “typical” amount.

Quietly, a big item now being sold far and wide: Home safes. Not the cheap kind with digital keypads that might get wiped out by an electro-magnetic pulse. Real safes; with dial combination locks and keys. The fireproof and burglar proof kind that sell for several hundred dollars (or more) each. So clearly, Americans are keeping some of the cash at home, just in case.

It as though Americans see a complete collapse of society coming, and they want to make certain they have what they will need during the six months to a year they think it might take to put basic things back together again – or at least keep the basics operating for awhile.

Ominously, Americans are also buying what it takes to PROTECT themselves if everything goes to hell: GUNS and AMMUNITION. Lots of it. Sales of handguns, shotguns, and rifles are through the roof! In fact, sales of Ammunition are so brisk, it’s hard to find common items like 9mm .357 and .40 caliber bullets for handguns, and very hard to find 12 Gauge shotgun shells. Rifle ammo is still in good supply, but stores are starting to see drawdowns on inventory of .308 and 7.62 rifle ammo.

Strangely, the money isn’t coming out in bank “Runs” but rather coming out slowly and very consistently.

To try to stem the outflow of money, Banks are now offering significantly higher interest rates as shown below.

Some Bank Officers say that if the trend from March continues through May, “a slew of banks will be forced to go under.” Banks, they say “simply cannot afford to have this level of withdrawals happening so consistently.”

Prankster Replaces Pet Names With New Labels In Local Pet Store

In his simple but funny prank, comedian Jeff Wysaski changed the signs labelling some of the critters at the pet store to reflect who they REALLY are.

More: Instagram, Shop, Pleated Jeans

Russia: SECRET “WEAPON Will DESTROY USA”, DIPLOMATS Expelles, US Embassy WARNING

IDF CHIEF “ISRAEL IS READY TO ATTACK IRAN AND DOES NOT NEED U.S. HELP”

World Hal Turner 05 April 2023

Israel is “ready” to attack Iran and can do so even without support from the United States, Israeli media quoted IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi as saying on Wednesday.

“We are ready to act against Iran. The Israeli army has the ability to strike both in distant countries and near home,” i24NEWS quoted Halevi as telling the IDF’s army radio.

He said that the IDF will enhance its capabilities for a pre-emptive strike on Iran, and that such a strike would be “overwhelming” despite the geographical distance.

“We know how to act alone. We are a sovereign nation that reserves the right to make its own decisions. It would be good to have the United States on our side, but it is not an obligation,” he added.

These comments come amid growing tensions between Iran and Israel, with Iran accusing Israel of killing two of its military personnel in Syria last week and vowing to retaliate.

Israel accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a claim that Iran denies. Israel has previously warned that if diplomatic efforts fail to curb Iran’s nuclear program, it would resort to military action.

NEW YORK TIMES: “Ukraine War Plans Leak Prompts Pentagon Investigation”

World Hal Turner 07 April 2023

Classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military ahead of a planned offensive against Russia were posted this week on the Internet and social media channels, senior Biden administration officials said.

The Pentagon is investigating who may have been behind the leak of the documents . . . (Original Story HERE)

Several of the Documents referred-to by the New York Times are — and have been — on the Hal Turner Radio Show web site HERE

Mobile Nuclear Missile Launchers Moved to Finland Border

World Hal Turner 07 April 2023

pon Finland’s entry into NATO, the Russian government promptly began moving nuclear missiles on launcher trucks to the Russian border with Finland, near Vyborg, Russia. Video, below, shows the arrival of the nuclear launcher trucks and missiles.

The scalable map below shows the location of Vyborg Russia in relation to Finland, so readers can gauge just how close to the new NATO Member, missiles have now been placed:

Hal Turner Opinion: Somehow, I get the feeling that Finland was a LOT safer and in far less danger WITHOUT being a NATO member. Now, it seems to me, Finland has placed itself into Russia’s nuclear crosshairs. Pity. Bad decision to join NATO.

Catographer Nils Jacobi Captures Whimsical Cat Portrait

Photographer Nils Jacobi, also known as the “catographer”, has captured the hearts of cat lovers everywhere with his expanding collection of adorable cat photographs. Through his lens, Jacobi offers a diverse and comprehensive view of our beloved furballs, highlighting the unique character and personalities of each individual cat.

More: Instagram

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Classified “SECRET” Military Planning Docs LEAKED – Ukraine War – INVADE RUSSIA ITSELF!!!!

World Hal Turner 05 April 2023

Both the US and NATO repeatedly claim they are not “participants” in the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Documents classified as “SECRET”- shown below- tell a very different story. These documents also reveal PLANS TO INVADE RUSSIA ITSELF!

This content is for Hal Turner Subscribers only .

US military experts “concerned” about effectiveness of Wagner PMCs

World Hal Turner 07 April 2023

The Department of Defense (DoD) conducted an in-depth analysis of the activities of Russia’s Wagner Private Military Contractors (PMCs) and came to the conclusion that NO similar structure in the USA, Great Britain, or France is comparable.

Insiders in the DoD are concerned about the Wagner PMCs, because they are the most organized and combat-ready PMCs in the world, surpassing even the American Blackwater PMCs, the British Aegis Defense Service PMCs, and the French Salamandre PMCs.

Among other things, the mentioned Western PMCs have never encountered operations and tasks that the Wagner PMCs successfully perform.

Thanks to the highest level of training and equipment, the Russians operate at a level previously unattainable for private military companies.

An unnamed Pentagon official involved in these types of operations in Afghanistan said:

"Their effectiveness is absolutely stunning. If we had used similar strategies in Afghanistan, we would not have caused the chaos that we have left in the Middle East.“

According to the estimates of many experts, the Wagner fighters perform a number of tasks of increased complexity and increased risk. These are not only traditional tasks of all PMCs, such as the protection of diplomatic missions and civil operations. In general, these are the most complex combat operations in their implementation: ground attacks, control of artillery, air forces, and the use of air defense systems.

The fighters of Wagner carry out reconnaissance tasks, information gathering and data analysis, which were later used to make strategic decisions during the missions.

Earlier, the Dutch journalist Sonia van den Ende said that “Wagner” can become the main weapon of anti-globalism in the modern world and can eliminate the domination of oligarchic elite groups of the West, which is ruinous for the entire human civilization.

Pushing the United States out of the Middle East…

Read this next article. It really deep dives into the ground-breaking changes in the Middle East…

Iran–Saudi Deal: Not a Diplomatic Normalisation, But An ‘Architecture’

Alastair Crooke
Source: Al Mayadeen English
19 Mar 01:25

As this bellum (war) rolled across the region, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and others -- all formerly rich states -- were turned into economic dust-bowls of poverty.

The agreement reached by Saudi Arabia and Iran (and guaranteed by China) is not primarily about restoring diplomatic relations. Notably, the two teams were led by their heads of state security. Rather, the Accord is about building a new security architecture for the Region.

This potentially is revolutionary.

Ever since Yitzhak Rabin in the early 1990s decided to invert “Israel’s” original security paradigm of ‘The Periphery’ (non-Arab states) versus “Israel’s” Arab Neighbourhood (in order to lay the ground-work for Rabin’s aspiration for some Palestinian understanding), the region has been turned into a desert of a contrived Anti-Security Architecture.

To achieve the objectives of seeking peace with the Arab sphere, the Israeli leadership — needing a cause around which Israelis and the US Congress could rally — demonised Iran.

From that point on, Iran has been said (for some decades) to be at the very cusp of achieving a nuclear weapon (though it has never happened).

The consequence has been devasting: Iran curled into a prickly porcupine, with Ahmadinejad growling warningly to those who might come close to keep their distance.

The US and “Israel” then turned the inherent intellectual and cultural polarisation arising from the Iranian Revolution from a major social occurrence, into a casus bellum.

The mantra was that for “Israel” and its Arab allies to feel safe, Iran and its revolutionary mindset must be destroyed — or at least mentally ‘re-wired’ towards western ways.

(Any parallel with today’s western calls for Russia to be broken up, up and to be subject to a mindset rehab is not coincidental.)

In consequence, as this bellum (war) rolled across the region, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and others — all formerly rich states — were turned into economic dust-bowls of poverty.

But then the geo-strategic ‘plates’ moved: It was obvious that US interest in the region was flagging badly — and it was equally clear that China and Russia were coming into their own, with a much more attractive formula than that of Washington: Instead of demanding absolute fealty and subordination, China insisted on respect for sovereignty and autonomy in respect other states’ internal affairs.

So, there was the ‘pull’ exerted on the two rival Islamic states by the rise of the new global powers (China-Russia); but the other part to the equation was that the Saudi leadership had become jaundiced by the US demeaning them as vassals.

Even Trump insulted the Kingdom when he said the latter ‘could not last a week’ without US protection.

And then when the Aramco facilities (Abqaiq) were attacked by missiles, where was their US protection?

Zero.

It was not there.

Two other elements were necessary for this agreement to have come into being: One was patient old-fashioned mediation (the process had begun in Beijing, some six years ago, during King Salman’s visit), but with President Xi giving the mediation his personal attention (a trait of diplomacy long-forgotten in the West).

And the second was that Iran had been emerging from its long sojourn of introspection — thanks in no small part to its engagement by Russia and China, and from the ‘window’ opened by the possibility for it to join the SCO and BRICS. Iran was being offered ‘depth’ — strategic and economic depth.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia has been slowly, but incrementally, distancing itself from the proposition first launched with Abdul Aziz ibn Saud in the early twentieth century by St. John Philby — that radical Wahhabism was the secret weapon by which the kingdom could secure its dominance over the Islamic world.

A notion subsequently adopted with alacrity by western Intelligence services to service of weakening and containing Iran.

Simply, MbS slowly had been de-weaponizing Wahhabism.

The moment, therefore, was propitious.

And China seized it.

The most telling aspect was that the talks lasted over three days (6 -10 March), and that nothing leaked.

The outcome struck Washington and “Tel Aviv”, as if by a thunderbolt.

Of course, we do not know the secret side agreements, but for sure, Saudi Arabia will have sought – and got – assurances that Iran will not pursue a nuclear weapon; that it will not threaten the kingdom’s vital infrastructure, or seek to de-stabilise the Kingdom; and that Saudi Arabia and Iran jointly will work to bring the Yemen war to an end.

Similarly, it is a certitude that Iran will have sought from Saudi Arabia that it cease funding external media stations seeking to broadcast their regime-change messages into Iran, and supporting movements such as the People’s Mojahedin Organization (MEK), certain Kurdish groups based in Iraq, and militants operating out of Baluchistan into Iran.

What does the architecture portend?

Well, too much to list briefly, but as a thought exercise, imagine the consequences in Lebanon were Saudi and Iran jointly to resolve to end the miseries of the Lebanese people; the near-starvation in Syria, or the collapsed state of Iraq …

Imagine the economic consequences for Asia of a joint Iranian–Saudi/Gulf–Russian determination to effect a new energy policy in which they both act to shape commodity prices and also to give commodities a different pricing and selling structure.

And what of America and “Israel”? Well, Mark Dubowitz of the neo-con Foundation for the Defence of Democracies think-tank put it succinctly:

“[It is] a lose, lose, lose for American interests. It demonstrates that the Saudis don’t trust Washington to have their back, that Iran sees an opportunity to peel away American allies to end its international isolation, and it establishes China as the majordomo of Middle Eastern power politics”.

Simply put, Netanyahu’s dream of an Arab alliance coming together to support Israeli military action against Iran is over.

This is significant, as Netanyahu well knows that Washington would never support military action against Iran, absent substantive, active Arab support behind it.

That’s over, too.

The 1980 Carter Doctrine that determined that the US would allow no rival to rise in the Middle East is over too.

China-Russia and Eurasia is rising.

This Accord comes at an awkward time for Netanyahu. Iran was pencilled in to be the diversion for “Israel’s” spiking internal trauma.

Now he has to confront the crisis with nothing more than the crisis itself.

Iran and Saudi Arabia: a Chinese win-win

The single Iranian-Saudi handshake buried trillions of dollars of western divide-and-rule investments across West Asia, and has global leaders rushing to Beijing for global solutions.

By Pepe Escobar

April 07 2023

The idea that History has an endpoint, as promoted by clueless neoconservatives in the unipolar 1990s, is flawed, as it is in an endless process of renewal. The recent official meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Beijing marks a territory that was previously deemed unthinkable and which has undoubtedly caused grief for the War Inc. machine.

This single handshake signifies the burial of trillions of dollars that were spent on dividing and ruling West Asia for over four decades. Additionally, the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the fabricated reality of the new millennium, featured as prime collateral damage in Beijing.

Beijing’s optics as the capital of peace have been imprinted throughout the Global South, as evidenced by a subsequent sideshow where a couple of European leaders, a president, and a Eurocrat, arrived as supplicants to Xi Jinping, asking him to join the NATO line on the war in Ukraine.

They were politely dismissed.

Still, the optics were sealed: Beijing had presented a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine that was branded “irrational” by the Washington beltway neocons. The Europeans – hostages of a proxy war imposed by Washington – at least understood that anyone remotely interested in peace needs to go through the ritual of bowing to the new boss in Beijing.

The irrelevance of the JCPOA

Tehran-Riyadh relations, of course, will have a long, rocky way ahead – from activating previous cooperation deals signed in 1998 and 2001 to respecting, in practice, their mutual sovereignty and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.

Everything is far from solved – from the Saudi-led war on Yemen to the frontal clash of Persian Gulf Arab monarchies with Hezbollah and other resistance movements in the Levant. Yet that handshake is the first step leading, for instance, to the Saudi foreign minister’s upcoming trip to Damascus to formally invite President Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League summit in Riyadh next month.

It’s crucial to stress that this Chinese diplomatic coup started way back with Moscow brokering negotiations in Baghdad and Oman; that was a natural development of Russia stepping in to help Iran save Syria from a crossover NATO-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) coalition of vultures.

Then the baton was passed to Beijing, in total diplomatic sync.

The drive to permanently bury GWOT and the myriad, nasty ramifications of the US war of terror was an essential part of the calculation; but even more pressing was the necessity to demonstrate how the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, had become irrelevant.

Both Russia and China have experienced, inside and out, how the US always manages to torpedo a return to the JCPOA, as it was conceived and signed in 2015.

Their task became to convince Riyadh and GCC states that Tehran has no interest in weaponizing nuclear power – and will remain a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Then it was up to Chinese diplomatic finesse to make it quite clear that the Persian Gulf monarchies’ fear of revolutionary Shi’ism is now as counter-productive as Tehran’s dread of being harassed and/or encircled by Salafi-jihadis. It’s as if Beijing had coined a motto: drop these hazy ideologies, and let’s do business.

And business it is, and will be: better yet, mediated by Beijing and implicitly guaranteed by both nuclear superpowers Russia and China.

Hop on the de-dollarization train

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) may exhibit some Soprano-like traits, but he’s no fool: he instantly saw how this Chinese offer morphed beautifully into his domestic modernization plans.

A Gulf source in Moscow, familiar with MbS’ rise and consolidation of power, details the crown prince’s drive to appeal to the younger Saudi generation who idolize him…

Let girls drive their SUVs, go dancing, let their hair down, work hard, and be part of the “new” Saudi Arabia of Vision 2030: a global tourism and services hub, a sort of Dubai on steroids.

And, crucially, this will also be a Eurasia-integrated Saudi Arabia; future, inevitable member of both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS+ – just like Iran, which will also be sitting at the same communal tables.

From Beijing’s point of view, this is all about its ambitious, multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A key BRI connectivity corridor runs from Central Asia to Iran and then beyond, to the Caucasus and/or Turkey. Another one – in search of investment opportunities – runs through the Arabian Sea, the Sea of Oman, and the Persian Gulf, part of the Maritime Silk Road.

Beijing wants to develop BRI projects in both corridors: call it “peaceful modernization” applied to sustainable development. The Chinese always remember how the Ancient Silk Roads plied Persia and parts of Arabia: in this case, we have History Repeating Itself.

A geopolitical revolution

And then comes the Holy Grail: energy. Iran is a prime gas supplier to China, a matter of national security, inextricably linked to their $400 billion-plus strategic partnership deal. And Saudi Arabia is a prime oil supplier. Closer Sino-Saudi relations and interaction in key multipolar organizations such as the SCO and BRICS+ advance the fateful day when the petroyuan will be definitely enshrined.

China and the UAE have already clinched their first gas deal in yuan.

The high-speed de-dollarization train has already left the station.

ASEAN is already actively discussing how to bypass the dollar to privilege settlements in local currencies – something unthinkable even a few months ago. The US dollar has already been thrown into a death by a thousand cuts spiral.

And that will be the day when the game reaches a whole new unpredictable level.

The destructive agenda of the neocon leaders in charge of US foreign policy should never be underestimated.

They exploited the 9/11 “new Pearl Harbor” pretext to launch a crusade against the lands of Islam in 2001, followed by a NATO proxy war against Russia in 2014.

Their ultimate ambition is to wage war against China before 2025.

However, they are now facing a swift geopolitical and geoeconomic revolt of the World’s Heartland – from Russia and China to West Asia, and extrapolating to South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and selected latitudes in Latin America.

The turning point came on 26 February, 2022, when Washington’s neocons – in a glaring display of their shallow intellects – decided to freeze and/or steal the reserves of the only nation on the planet equipped with all the commodities that really matter, and with the necessary nous to unleash a momentous shift to a monetary system not anchored in fiat money.

That was the fateful day when the cabal, identified by journalist Seymour Hersh as responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, actually blew the whistle for the high-speed de-dollarization train to leave the station, led by Russia, China, and now – welcome on board – Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Philadelphia Scrapple

Ingredients

1 quart water
1 cup white cornmeal
1 pound pork liver sausage, crumbled or finely chopped
3 onions, diced
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper, to taste

Instructions

Bring water to boil. Let boil after adding each ingredient in order, then cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring frequently.
Pour into loaf pan and cool.
Slice and fry. If 1 pint milk and 1 pint water are used as the liquid, the scrapple will brown more easily.

Is Netanyahoo (Again) Looking For War?

Israel’s occupation of Palestine is moving towards another hot conflict.

Last night the Israeli police again stormed the al-Aqsa mosque:

More Palestinians had gathered in the mosque, responding to calls by Waqf to pray inside overnight. At one of the mosque entrances, police officers could be seen escorting dozens of Palestinians out of the compound. Residents and shoppers milled around, watching social media videos on their phones showing the renewed clashes that had happened just meters away.Early on Wednesday, Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, firing stun grenades at Palestinians who hurled stones and firecrackers in a burst of violence during a sensitive holiday season. Palestinian militants in Gaza responded with rocket fire on southern Israel, prompting repeated Israeli airstrikes.

The violence had calmed by early Wednesday morning, but in the evening, Palestinian militants fired two more rockets from Gaza, with one falling short inside Gaza and the other falling near the security fence separating Gaza from Israel, the Israeli military said. There were no reports of casualties.

The mosque sits in a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and conflicting claims over it have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest site in Islam and stands in a spot known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism.

Muslims currently celebrate their Ramadan holy month while Jews began their week-long Passover holiday. Last week some ultra-orthodox rabbis had asked prime minister Netanyahoo to allow them to abuse Al-Aqsa:

Fifteen rabbis have asked the Israeli government on Thursday to ascend the Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif next Wednesday, when the Jewish holiday of Passover begins, a move that could exacerbate tensions in Jerusalem during the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan.The rabbis have put a request to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday to ascend to the Temple Mount and for Jews to be allowed to offer the Passover, the way it was practiced in biblical times.

Over the years, a majority of rabbis has ruled that Jews are not allowed to ascend the Temple Mount site, since purification rituals cannot be performed in times when the temple is destroyed. Most rabbis also object to reviving biblical sacrifices of lambs or goats. Still, far-right religious activists have registered a clear trend in recent years of an increase in the number of Jews ascending the Temple Mount compound.

It is dubious that the place where Al-Aqsa is standing is the one where the mythical Jewish temple once stood. Despite intense decades long searches no archeological evidence has been found to prove that.

The Waqf, the authority that administrates the al-Haram al-Sharif, had called for Muslim believers to stay there over night to prevent the sacrilege against the Mosque. In response to the first raid on the mosque earlier this week some rockets had been fired from Gaza to which the Israeli military responded with bombings.

Today missiles were fired from south Lebanon:

Dozens of rockets were fired from southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon with 25 intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system over northern Israel, the military said. At least three people were injured and several buildings were damaged.The Israel Defense Forces said 34 rockets had been fired toward the border with five landing inside Israel, and most of the rest downed by Iron Dome. The impact sites of four others were not yet clear.

Such a massive barrage would this the largest number of rockets fired from Lebanon since the 2006 war, during which thousands of rockets were launched at Israel. In August 2021, Hezbollah fired 19 rockets at northern Israel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and a Hezbollah source told the Al-Arabiya network that it was not behind the rocket fire, apparently blaming Palestinian groups based in the area. However, it was unlikely they would do so without at least the tacit approval of the Iran-backed terror group that controls southern Lebanon.

This was indeed a message from Hizbullah.

Amal Saad @amalsaad_lb – 14:08 UTC · Apr 6, 2023The unprecedented barrage of rockets fired at Israel today, allegedly by Palestinian factions in Lebanon, was an indirect message from Hizbullah. Nasrallah had warned as recently as January 2023 that Al-Aqsa was a red line that would lead to an “explosion of the whole region” 1/2
Hizbullah is trying to stretch the rules of deterrence with a new equation: violating al-Aqsa will trigger responses not just from Gaza but also from Lebanon. Hizbullah is responding by proxy with grey zone warfare to preserve the rules of engagement and avert an escalation. 2/2

It is not yet clear that a escalation can be prevented. Currently the Israeli security cabinet is meeting. United Nations peacekeepers (UNIFIL) in south Lebanon have allegedly received orders to enter their bomb shelters. UNIFIl called the called the situation “extremely serious”.

Netanyahoo and his ultra-right coalition partners might be interested in launching a new war to divert from their attempts to change the secular state of Israel into a religious led one. Large color-revolution like protests have been held against that and Netanyahoo’s project of putting (secular) supreme court judgments under (religious led) parliament revision is currently on hold.

A ‘nice little war’ might be a welcome distraction and a way to silently revive the matter. But the 2006 war against Hizbullah, which Israel lost, showed that nice little wars can easily turn against their instigators.

Posted by b on April 6, 2023 at 15:42 UTC | Permalink

Australia to pour $13 billion into manufacturing to ensure nation ‘makes things here again’

Note: Re- industrialisation policy without addressing tax issue, high labor cost for low productivity work force, super high domestic and international transport cost, and other costly factor of production such as land, rent, power, water , and all type of local, state, and federal taxes, levies and fees already a policy failure even before it begin. 

The west is run by people with no common sense, no basic knowledge, and know no consequences... By tearing up China belts and roads agreement signed by Victoria government 3 years ago, Australia is never to lower it cost of International transportation, and hence, no condition to become a manufacturing based country.

Article…

Australia has launched a A$15 billion (S$13.3 billion) scheme to promote manufacturing and new technologies to address longstanding concerns that the country “doesn’t make things any more” and is too reliant on exporting its abundant resources.

The new scheme, called the National Reconstruction Fund, was a signature policy of the ruling Labor Party, which was elected last May on a promise to boost investment in manufacturing and the uptake of technology.

The move follows growing concerns about the country’s vulnerability to supply chain shocks as well as its economic over-reliance on China, which in 2022 accounted for 27 per cent of Australia’s total trade and 30 per cent of exports.

Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic said the scheme was one of the largest peacetime investments in Australian manufacturing. It will provide loans, investments and guarantees to projects in the field of renewables and low-emissions technology, agriculture, medical science, transport and defence.

“We are trying to rebuild and revitalise manufacturing at a time when we’ve been dependent on concentrated or broken supply chains,” he told Sky News last week. “We’ve got the geopolitical environment we’re operating in where we do need to reduce those dependencies.”

The scheme aims to address concerns about the make-up of Australia’s economy, which receives massive revenue from exporting raw items such as natural resources and agricultural produce, much of which is processed abroad. A report in 2020 found that Australia had the least self-sufficient manufacturing sector of any country in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes 38 developed economies

A separate study of 133 countries by Harvard University in 2020 found that Australia had the 91st most complex economy. The top five countries in the list – which measured a country’s ability to produce a diversified and sophisticated set of products – were Japan, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea and Singapore.

Article HERE

Russia Deputy Foreign Minister: “United States escalated Past Cold War and is now in Hot Hybrid War with Russia”

World Hal Turner 06 April 2023

The United States is “playing with fire” and engaged in a hot “hybrid war” with Russia, having already graduated from the Cold War stage, a Russian government minister has claimed, even going so far as to blame the U.S. for rising nuclear tensions.

The new Cold War is already over, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said, accusing the United States of “playing with fire” by pushing the world towards nuclear war that he insists Russians wish to avoid.

The comments come just hours after Russia announced it had deployed nuclear-capable missiles to the borders of NATO in Belarus, and refitted Belarussian jets with the equipment to carry and drop nuclear bombs. Moscow made a tacit accusation that the United States was to blame for this, saying Russia was doing no more than America already did, in stationing nuclear weapons in the territory of European allies.

While blame is generally laid at Russia’s door for invading Ukraine, the minister insisted it was in fact the U.S. that was pushing the world towards nuclear war and that Russia was the peaceful party trying to avoid such an exchange. Expressing this, Ryabkov postulated: “…there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it must not be unleashed.”

“The way our American opponents are recklessly, provocatively, and in many respects absolutely carelessly, moving up the escalation ladder, the way they are blinded by their absolutely absurd certainty about their ability to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, makes one doubt their mental faculties and their common sense.”

The U.S. is “playing with fire” and was risking making “fatal mistakes”, Ryabkov said, saying the Russian Federation “will be ready to take all measures and to use all means at our disposal” if there were attempts to encroach on their sovereignty.

China Russian alliance that is NOT an alliance (wink wink)

Grab a bowl of potato chips and dip and sit a spell.

If youse got some brewski’s, have a quaff.

Enjoy today’s installment.

MM Interview on “Super Soldier Talk”

Bob & Doug McKenzie – Twist-off Tops

They were basically mocking the American impression of Canadians, and then Americans started basing their Canadian impressions on Bob and Doug McKenzie, which was a satire of how the Americans thought Canadians talked and... I've gone cross-eyed...

Saudi Arabia takes step to join China-led security bloc SCO, as ties with Beijing strengthened. What does it mean for the US influence in the Middle East?

It should be the nail in the coffin of the US hegemony in the gulf region and the Middle East, also it will be a blowback for the US arms & ammunition sales. Even Military Industrial Complex already book the sales of their used arms and ammunition in the Ukraine war. But it is obvious that after the peace deal brokered by China of Saudis and Iran, all proxy wars in the region (especially Yemen, Libya, Syria, etc) will be finished. Because most of the wars are fought between Sunni and Shia factions. So the middle east and the gulf will be cleansed from wars in near future.

Even though the US and the west have already Ukraine war as a proxy war and arms sale, also they are trying hard to instigate another war in the heart of Asia in form of Taiwan. But in the gulf specifically, in war-torn areas like Syria and Yemen, China will be the lead in reconstruction and rehabilitation work, which will financially important in this era of global recession and slowdown.

Finally, with the strong leadership of China in regional trade blocks like SCO, RCEP, ASEAN, BRICS, and many more, the chance of disruptions or war chances is minimized (even for China and India too). So no room for USA MIC here. In Africa and Latin America, the situation is abruptly changing in favor of China instead of the USA, due to the strong influence of China. Conclusively the fall of the war-mongering policies of the USA will be no room in near future due to the peaceful rise of China and its soft power.

On 2023/3/27, China Foreign Affairs Qin Gan announced that China will sign the “Southeast Asia Nuclear-weapon-Free-Zone Treaty”. What is the treaty about?

Qin’s announcement came out after meeting with ASEAN secretary. ASEAN all welcome it, except perhaps Philippines who does not want peace in the ASEAN region.

Qin said: China will be the first one to sign the “Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty” so as to maintain safety & stability of southeast Asian region (hereafter SA region).

China will work with southeast Asian countries to eliminate interference from country(s) outside SA region.

China will implement the rules in “Declaration on Conduct of Partners in South China Sea” that were set by countries in SA region.

China will make South China Sea a peaceful sea. A friendship sea. And a cooperation sea.

The 2023 treaty is a supplement to “Declaration on Neutralization of Southeast Asia” that was signed in Bangkok in 1971 by 10 countries in SA region.

By signing the 2023 treaty, China has promised southeast Asian countries not to install nuclear weapon in any countries in SA region.

China urges southeast Asian countries to exercise their strategic sovereignty. Do not let the US-led West lead them by their nose.

Philippines has been led by the nose by USA recently. Macros allowed USA increase US military base from 5 to 9. Before going to Japan, Macros repeated a Japanese slogan “when Taiwan has problem, so will be Philippines”.

Westerners only hear the western narrative without knowing the history of South China Sea.

Let me give a summary re South China Sea – history from natives on Hainan Island, China

Natives on Hainan Island are fishermen for generations. Can trace back to Han Dynasty ie 2000 years ago. They own a book that records the rocks/islands in South China Sea. This book 更路簿（literal translation: distance & road record) 1更 (distance) = 10 海里 (nautical miles). It was a map & directory for fishermen in old days before there is beidou/GPS. This book is classified as world cultural heritage today.

In the past, fishermen would leave 1 person on the island (for months) so as to guard it. Or erect a sign with Chinese words to mark their territory.

Can any countries eg Philippines or Vietnam present such historical records?

Two Quorans gave detailed history of SCS. Search Quora.

1, Why does China not declare out of the UNCLOS 1982 to continuously claim 80% of South China Sea in the Chinese legal way? Answered by Johnny Fung in China World Leader

2, USA approved Chiang Kai-shek’s 11-dot line – prepared by Chiu Yu in China World Leader

American “news” for today…

The “Drudge Report”…

Prince – Purple Rain (Official Video)

On 2023/3/28, there are 2 forums going on. One whose headquarter is located in China is called Boao Forum for Asia. One is led by USA & called The Summit for democracy. What is the difference of the 2 forums?

China’s focuses on business & trading which unifies the intl community. USA divides the intl community by political system.

When USA unilaterally decides which country can join or not, USA itself is NOT democratic. … there is no justification for USA to lead the summit.

USA’s foreign policy is to DIVIDE. Divide countries & divide people inside any country. Like a gossiper dividing the friendship of you & your friend, by creating hatred or fear of the rival. By demonizing rival with lies & twisted facts.

USA divides the intl community into “democracy” & “authoritarian”.

Russia runs western democracy but is called authoritarian by USA. Aha. Now we see it. The so-called “democracy” depends on whether a country submits to USA or not. Submit to an un-democratic USA. Isn’t that an irony?

True democracy calls for respect & coexistence of the different. We dont tell others how they manage their home. Why can USA tell others how they govern their country?

See, USA is so authoritarian that they takes away other’s FREEDOM to govern their country according to their situation, culture & history.

So authoritarian that they uses arbitrary economic sanction or military to deprive people in other countries of human rights eg Economic Right to job/income, Social Right to safety, & even Right to Life in case of wars.

USA is a true AUTHORITARIAN in the intl community. But USA calls itself democratic.

China is also called authoritarian by USA because China does not submit to USA.

What is Boao Forum about? Business & trading.

Every country & individual needs economy to maintain life eg buy food, shelter, healthcare etc. Everyone can live under any political system; the world exists long before the word “democracy” was born.

Business & trading has no nationality, political system, religion or ethnicity. They speak the same language – money ie basic need for life.

BusIness & trading UNIFIES people. Not dividing people.

FYI, there is a 3rd one called China Development Forum. It is organized by Chinese government to invite world CEO eg Apple, Pfizer, BHP etc.

American “news”…

Yahoo…

CHINA/ RUSSIA NUKE WARNING to NATO

Nashville School Shooting

Nation Hal Turner 28 March 2023

A guy called my radio show tonight saying he viewed video and found what HE says are discrepancies in the shoes and pants the shooter was wearing. I stopped that call dead in its tracks and I’ll tell you why.

I am not Alex Jones. He pulled that stuff with the Newtown, CT school shooting and it got him sued.

I’m NOT going to be another radio host who gets sued to oblivion by airing whack-jobs who deny reality, because those calls and their absurd theories cause emotional harm to grieving families.

Alex Jones did that, and now he’s on the hook for a Billion Dollars in damages. Oh, and all those callers to his show that pushed that bullshit, none of THEM ponied-up even one cent of that court judgement, did they? Nope! They left Alex Jones swinging in the breeze and moved on to some other outlet to push their tripe.

I’m not gonna have that shit on my show.

It is my considered opinion this shooting at a Christian School in Nashville, TN took place. I believe the victims were brutally murdered in cold blood, and the families of those victims are in my thoughts and prayers. They should be in yours too.

I will not abide absurd theories about this type of incident somehow being manufactured or in any way untrue.

If you want to push that crap, do it somewhere else. I won’t have it on my show or on my web site.

Barbecue Pork Roast, Tavern Style

Ingredients

2 large onions, sliced
1 (4 pound) pork roast
6 whole cloves
2 cups water
1 (16 ounce) bottle your favorite barbecue sauce
1 large onion, chopped

Instructions

Place half of the sliced onions on the bottom of the slow cooker.
Place meat on top along with cloves and the remaining sliced onions.
Add water, cover and cook for 8-12 hours or overnight on LOW.
Remove meat from slow cooker. Drain liquid from slow cooker and discard.
Remove bone and fat from meat; shred meat; return to slow cooker.
Add chopped onion and barbecue sauce.
Cover and cook another 1-3 hours on HIGH or 4-8 hours on LOW, stirring 3 or 4 times.
Serve from slow cooker on large toasted buns.

Building a community with a shared future for mankind way to peace, development and prosperity

At around 11 am on March 23, 2013, all eyes were on the podium at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations as the world attentively awaited an important speech that was to be delivered.

It was Xi Jinping’s first important speech during his first overseas trip after he was elected as the Chinese president. The speech was highly anticipated and drew worldwide attention.

“It is a world where countries are linked with and dependent on one another at a level never seen before. Mankind, by living in the global village in the same era and on the same Earth where history and reality meet, has increasingly emerged as a community of common destiny in which everyone has in himself a little bit of others,” he said.

This major concept of human beings having “a community with a shared future for mankind” proposed by Xi soon grabbed international headlines and was quickly spread to all parts of the world through extensive media reports.

In what seems like an instant, one decade has passed since the momentous speech, and the decade has been marked by numerous and significant changes.

As the world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, the historical trend of peace, development, and win-win cooperation has gathered an unstoppable momentum. The prevailing trends of global multipolarity, economic globalization, and greater democracy in international relations are irreversible. Meanwhile, the world is being confronted with complex and intertwined traditional and nontraditional security challenges with damaging hegemonic acts, domination and bullying. There is a long and tortuous way to go for the global economic recovery. Countries around the world are deeply concerned and eager to find a lasting solution to mounting crises through cooperation.

The world has gained a more profound understanding that peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefits make the world vibrant while bullying, division, conflict, and confrontation only lead nations into strife and chaos.

The world today is also full of uncertainty. Human beings must overcome the fog of hegemonism, the prevailing Cold War mentality, the employment of zero-sum game tactics, the notion of the inherent superiority of certain civilizations, and other forms of interference, and veer away from this turbulent course of history as soon as possible. The concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” proposed by Xi is the ideological beacon charting this course.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres once said the UN is willing to join China in promoting world peace and development, and in realizing the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

A vision to future

Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a major global concept in his speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, calling for joint efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind, on March 23, 2013. Photo: Xinhua

Truth can only be made clearer through the test of time. The great value of the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” has been repeatedly validated over the last decade because of its insight into reality and a forward-looking vision for the future.

Only with insight can we see the times clearly.

Xi noted that we should expand our global vision and develop keen insights into human development and progress trends, respond to the general concerns of people from all countries, and play our part in resolving the common issues facing humankind.

Historically, the world has never been more connected than it is now, and human beings have never been more interdependent as they are today. If the Suez Canal is blocked, Europeans will run out of coffee to have with their breakfast; a severe rainstorm in Southeast Asia will increase the prices of computer hard drives in Latin America; thousands of parts for an airplane are manufactured by companies in dozens of countries; when an earthquake hits a country, news and pictures of the natural disaster can spread all over the world in a few minutes; and now the novel coronavirus disease has forced the entire world to fight together.

As we are all members of the global village and we belong to a community with a shared future for mankind, it is impossible to solve problems arising from such interconnectivity by severing links. All human beings must be seen as one in order to find the right way to deal with such problems.

A vision is the key to the future.

Xi has repeatedly used a “ship” as a metaphor to portray the future of mankind, when he virtually addressed the 2022 World Economic Forum, stating that “facts have shown, once again, that amid the raging torrents of a global crisis, countries are not riding separately in some 190 small boats, but are rather all in a giant ship on which our shared destiny hinges.”

In the last decade, the world has experienced dramatic changes and the road has been fraught with difficulties. Against this backdrop, the vision of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” is becoming more forward-looking when we consider how mankind has worked together to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, when the UN Climate Change Conference achieves positive outcomes, and when the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) creates many “national landmarks,” “livelihood projects” and “monument of cooperation.”

As Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain’s 48 Group Club, said in 2020, “Coronavirus [disease] is a global crisis that no country is immune from. It has proved that building a community with a shared future for mankind is the only right choice to win the battle.”

History has proved once again that nearsightedness leads nowhere and selfish interests lead only to bad results. “Building a community with a shared future for mankind” is the only way to overcome the rapids in the treacherous waters of history.

World of great harmony

Throughout the ages, people at home and abroad have shared their yearning for a better world. The idea of “a community with a shared future for mankind” continues to resonate because its approach emphasizes “commonality.”

Pursuing the concept of “Datong,” or “a world of great harmony,” is the main aim.

“We should jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and work together to build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity,” Xi said in relation to the vision of an ideal world. This is a clear blueprint for a community with a shared future for mankind, and a contemporary version of the ideal of “great harmony” for mankind.

Over the last decade, Xi has visited more than 70 countries on the five continents during his more than 40 overseas trips, hosted and attended a series of important multilateral diplomatic activities, proposed the BRI, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, and promote a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation, all of which have enriched the vision of “a community with a shared future for mankind” and created specific ways to achieve the said vision.

This has offered China’s solution to the changing world, times, and history, and gained broad international consensus.

“It’s mankind’s common ideal to build a world in which there are no disputes, every country enjoys development, and every person lives happily,” Yasuo Fukuda, former Japanese prime minister, said at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in April 2018. “To realize this ideal, political leaders in the world need to show great foresight, point out the development direction, and make their best efforts to turn the vision into a reality,” he said.

“China’s initiative to build a community with a shared future for mankind is based on such a vision and it is hoped that all countries will join hands to realize the goal,” he noted.

Facing together is an effective way to solve problems.

In China’s eyes, to truly pursue world peace, we need dialogue and consultation, and to truly benefit the global population, we should build a shared future.

As Xi said, prejudice, discrimination, hatred, and war can only cause disaster and suffering, while mutual respect, equality, peaceful development, and common prosperity represent the right path to be taken.

Over the last decade, the universal values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom have gained increasing popularity. Building an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity has become an increasingly common pursuit for more and more countries.

The international community clearly realizes that there is no such a thing as a superior state, nor a one-size-fits-all model of national governance, nor an international order dominated by a single country. A united world － not a divided one － that is peaceful and not volatile is what serves the common interests of mankind.

The initiative of building a global community with a shared future was initiated by China, but promoted by all.

The concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” proposed by Xi is extremely important, Pakistani President Arif Alvi said on March 15, 2023, adding that only by working together can countries around the world address the challenges they face, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and poverty.

China, under the leadership of Xi, has established a better image in the world and is leading the world in a good direction, Alvi said.

Beneficial global thoughts

The charm of thought often reflects one’s great personality. The idea of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” has gained increasing popularity among the people because it reflects Xi’s spirit as the leader of a major country and a world-class leader with the aim to benefit the world while deeply caring for its people.

This spirit offers great wisdom for the benefit of the world.

“All countries should rise above differences such as nationality, culture, and ideology, to build a community with a shared future for mankind and jointly build our shared planet,” Xi has said on numerous occasions internationally while extending a sincere invitation to the rest of the world. “All countries are welcome to board the train of China’s development,” “Our aim is to turn the Chinese market into a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all,” “Development is real only when all countries develop together,” he said.

The facts speak for themselves. The BRI has become a quality international public goods jointly built by all parties and shared by the world.

The China-Europe freight train line, so far, runs more than 65,000 trains, making it an “iron caravan” connecting Asia and Europe. The China-Laos railway can transform Laos from a landlocked country into a land-linked hub that connects the wider region. The Chinese-built Peljesac Bridge in Croatia fulfilled the Croatian people’s dream of connecting their northern and southern territories.

This sentiment also encapsulates the Chinese’s leader’s “people first” philosophy.

Even when China was poor, it tightened its belt to help its African brothers build this [Tazara Railway] railway, Xi said when he held talks with visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing on November 3, 2022. “Now that China is more developed, it is better placed to act on the principle of sincerity, real results, amity, and good faith, to help our African friends achieve common development, and to build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era,” he noted.

From the Tazara Railway to Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, and Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), from the China-Cambodia Friendship Poverty Alleviation Demonstration Village Project to the provision of 1,000 training quotas for poverty alleviation at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to various countries, sincerity and real actions all bear witness to China’s initial sincerity in seeking development with the world.

“Most of the world has said this is really how we want to move forward… China and its development, and its willingness to share that development has created a new opportunity for the world,” said William Jones, Washington bureau chief of the US publication Executive Intelligence Review.

China’s success story of poverty alleviation has given “a different direction to history,” Jones said.

By relying on independence, putting people and their lives first, peaceful development, openness, inclusiveness, and solidarity, instead of war, colonialism, and plunder, the Chinese people have blazed a new path to modernization, which is different from the Western mode.

The Chinese path to modernization has inspired many other countries, especially developing ones, to figure out a new path to modernization. The Chinese people hope and believe that as more countries in the world embark on the path to modernization, the dream of a community with a shared future for mankind will come true eventually.

Right path serves common interests

The world belongs to people from all countries, and the future of the world must be in the hands of all people. Why has the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” profoundly influenced the world? Because it encourages openness, goodwill, and innovation to achieve common goals.

This right path best serves the common interests of the vast majority of people in the world.

Xi stressed that to have a community with a shared future for mankind is not to replace one system or civilization with another. Instead, it is about countries with different social systems, ideologies, histories, cultures, and levels of development coming together for shared interests, shared rights, and shared responsibilities in global affairs, and creating the greatest synergy for building a better world.

In the last decade, the concept has brought joy along the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR thanks to faster and smoother travel instead of the cries of the refugee camp; it has brought about the opening of new factories in industrial parks around the world rather than enterprise collapse in the wake of Western-proposed “decoupling”; it has transformed certain land-locked countries into land-linked hubs, prevented some countries from being sadly made into “chess pieces.”

Martin Jacques, a senior fellow of politics and international studies at Cambridge University, said that China has carried out unprecedented work at home and abroad, and offered “a new possibility” to the world.

This right path encourages active participation.

In the last 10 years, the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” has been written into the resolutions or declarations of the United Nations, BRICS, and other international organizations many times over: At the bilateral level, China has resonated with many countries in the face of complicated global issues; at the regional level, the building of several communities with a shared future has enjoyed steady promotion; at the global level, communities of global development, human security, human health, and human and natural life, communities with a shared future in cyberspace, a community with a shared future in nuclear security, and a community with a shared future in the ocean have emerged.

The Global Development Initiative proposed by Xi has received positive responses and support from more than 100 countries and international organizations, including the United Nations, and about 70 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative.

Recent Saudi Arabia-Iran talks in Beijing had achieved important outcomes, which are a testament to the successful practice of the Global Security Initiative, which has been praised and supported by more than 70 countries, and was unanimously welcomed by the international community.

Xi introduced the Global Civilization Initiative at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting on March 15, 2023, which was warmly endorsed by the participants and resonated widely with the international community.

The BRI has transformed from a blueprint proposed one decade ago to a reality today, turning into effective development for countries and tangible benefits for countless people. So far, it has seen the participation of more than three-quarters of the world’s, attracting trillion dollars of investment, forming more than 3,000 cooperation projects, creating 420,000 jobs for countries along the BRI route, and lifting tens of millions of people out of poverty.

It has been a decade since the concept of “building a community with a shared future for mankind” was proposed. The world has seen the power of ideas and heard the echoes of history – only when destiny is shared will the world have a brighter future.

People want to live comfortable lives, to have friends and wine in every place they go, to have a happier future for their children that’s better than they have today. No one wants to survive in uncertainty, poverty, and backwardness, to grow up in a land shrouded in hostility and intimidation.

“Building a community with a shared future for mankind is an exciting goal, and it requires efforts from generation after generation,” Xi addressed the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 18, 2017.

How can we take responsibility for our children and give them a better future?

The world’s tomorrow depends on our decisions today. We believe that as long as we uphold goodwill and communicate sincerely, even the biggest conflicts can be resolved and even the thickest ice can be broken. We look forward to realizing harmonious coexistence and win-win cooperation among countries, passing on the flame of peace from generation to generation.

Chinese people are ready to cooperate with the people of the world, to always be on the right side of history and on the side of the progress of human civilization, and to walk hand in hand on the path to peace and development.

China’s rare earth countermeasures have succeeded!

The Burden Of Blogging

Some times it’s just like this. I am not feeling well. I am not sick but something is just not right.

I have no idea what to post about. Every theme and issue feels so repetitive. It is the burden of blogging, especially when one tries to post every day.

I need a pause. Likely only for a few days. I will continue to post open threads. I will continue to clean the spam queue and to somewhat police the comments. But over the next few days there will be no new original content here.

I will do something other than reading news, thinking and writing about it. I hope that it will help to clean my mind to then come back with some fresh ideas.

Posted by b at 16:37 UTC | Comments (227)

Artist Illustrated 25 Bad Puns To Brighten Your Day

According to an artist Irina Blok: “I am a designer based in San Francisco, and I love to doodle during my spare time. I hear many words that amuse me during the day, not sure why, but they are just too funny. Perhaps it’s a combination of being easily amused and having English as a second language. In any case, it’s a good method to escape our sad pandemic reality and deal with stress.

For example, when my mother mentioned she is doing “intermittent fasting,” an image of a person putting a mitten over their head popped into my mind. Then when I heard “thumb drive,” I saw an actual human thumb driving a car. Same with “Bluetooth” (my daughter was asking why someone came up with this name?) – in my head, I saw an actual blue tooth transmitting Wi-Fi from a mouth.

I usually write down funny words, and when I have some free time, I grab my iPad and quickly draw it. My goal is to create a new drawing every day, and I have been sharing them on my Instagram.

I really enjoyed drawing this, and I hope you’ll find these amusing too! Here are the links to my previous posts if you missed them here and here.”

More: Irina Blok, Instagram h/t: boredpanda

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The World Has Misjudged the Semiconductor Supply Chain

https://youtu.be/NfTTUjo5FJo

What was Hitler’s last day on Earth like?

March 20, 2023

In late April 1945, chaos reigned in Berlin. Years of war had turned former superpower Germany into a battleground, and its cities from strongholds into places under siege. The Red Army had completely circled the city, which now called on elderly men, police, and even children to defend it. But though a battle raged on in the streets, the war was already lost. Adolf Hitler’s time was almost up.

The people of Germany had already taken leave of their Führer. Since a public appearance on his birthday, April 20, he had been disconcertingly absent from the public eye. In reality, he was holed up in a bunker near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, surrounded by his command staff and a few private citizens, including his mistress Eva Braun.

For weeks, bad news drifted into Hitler’s hideaway. As American forces advanced from the west, and the relentless Soviet tanks from the east, Hitler’s generals began to lose their heads. Suspicious of a coup by his closest advisors, Hitler raged and planned and raged again. When he learned that Felix Steiner, one of his SS commanders, had ignored his orders to stage a heroic last stand south of the city, he began to rant and cry, declaring the war lost. Later that day, he consulted with Werner Haase, his private doctor, about the best ways to commit suicide.

By April 29, the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Though Hitler married Eva Braun that morning, people were more interested in discussing suicide than celebrating a wedding.

Hitler had learned that Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, had given the Allies an offer of immediate surrender—an offer they promptly refused. Outraged, Hitler demanded that Himmler—once his close and powerful compatriot—be arrested.

Then Hitler heard of the death of Benito Mussolini, his counterpart in Italy. Executed and defiled by an angry mob, the dictator’s end was a powerful warning about what might be in store for the man who had promised his now-devastated country an endless empire. Mussolini’s death set the last 24 hours of life in the bunker into motion.

APRIL 30, 1945

All times are approximate

1 a.m.: Field Marshal William Keitel reports that the entire Ninth Army is encircled and that reinforcements will not be able to reach Berlin.

4 a.m.: Major Otto Günsche heads for the bathroom, only to find Dr. Haase and Hitler’s dog handler, Fritz Tornow, feeding cyanide pills to Hitler’s beloved German Shepherd, Blondi. Haase is apparently testing the efficacy of the cyanide pills that Hitler’s former ally Himmler had provided him. The capsule works and the dog dies almost immediately.

10:30 a.m.: Hitler meets with General Helmuth Weidling, who tells him that the end is near. Russians are attacking the nearby Reichstag. Weidling asks what to do when troops run out of ammunition. Hitler responds that he’ll never surrender Berlin, so Weidling asks for permission to allow his troops to break out of the city as long as their intention never to surrender remains clear.

2:00 p.m.: Hitler and the women of the bunker—Eva Braun, Traudl Junge, and other secretaries—sit down for lunch. Hitler promises them that he’ll give them vials of cyanide if they wish to use them. He apologizes for being unable to give them a better farewell present.

3:30 p.m.: Roused by the sound of a loud gunshot, Heinz Linge, who has served as Hitler’s valet for a decade, opens the door to the study. The smell of burnt almonds—a harbinger of cyanide—wafts through the door. Braun and Hitler sit side by side. They are both dead. Braun has apparently taken the cyanide, while Hitler has done the deed with his Walther pistol.

4:00 p.m.: Linge and the other residents of the bunker wrap the bodies in blankets and carry them upstairs to the garden. As shells fall, they douse the bodies in gas. Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda, will kill himself tomorrow. Meanwhile, he holds out a box of matches. The survivors fumble and finally light the corpses on fire. They head down to the bunker as they burn.

On May 1, Germans who can find time between shells to listen to the radio are greeted with the tones of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung—“The Twilight of the Gods.” Hitler, they are told, has “fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany.” The Führer is dead.

Huawei has completed key technical breakthroughs in chip autonomy and 14nm EDA tools.

What Were Aztec Sacrifices Ritual Actually Like?

March 21, 2023

They were religious events first. The Aztecs believed that their gods got their sustenance from human sacrifice; and one of the basic duties of Religion is caring for your gods. The most important of these sacrifices were carried out during the 18 monthly festivals of the Solar Year.

One of these, to give you an example, was the Tlacaxipehualiztli, the Festival of the Flaying of Men, celebrated at spring equinox before the rainy season, one of the most brutal and complex.

We know about it thanks to the notes of the Spanish monk Bernardino de Sahagun, who in the 16th century interviewed old Aztec men who were still alive in pre-spanish Mexico and recounted how this festival was held in the Aztec capital:

40 days (or maybe even a year) before the festival, a captive (from war) was designated to impersonate the god Xipe Totec (Our Flayed Lord), and he was celebrated in public as living image of the God until the Festival.

He was taught courtly manners, walking about the city playing a flute, smoking tobacco and being praised by the people and the Tlatoani (the leader).

He was even wed to four young maidens representing goddesses. There were similar representants for other important gods (Tonatiuh, Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Chililico and so forth).

These slaves-gods were to be sacrificed on the main pyramid by cutting out the heart. There were six sacrifice-priests who cut open the slaves breast with an Obsidian knife and then cut out the heart.

After that, the corpses were rolled down the pyramids stairs. The corpses were then flayed and their flesh given to important Aztecs. Moteuczuma would have gotten the best part, the femur. The flesh was then eaten.

Other captives would be clothed in the skin of the flayed corpses and adorned with the ornaments those killed earlier wore as “gods”.

They were paraded through the city by their captors, and finally, on the next day, fought in mock combat against Eagle- or Jaguar-wariors (they only had a mock sword with feathers instead of obsidian).

Once the captive was beaten down, he was sacrificed by a priest wearing the vestments of Xipe Totec.

His heart and blood from his chest was then presented to the sun. The captor would take that blood, and walk around the city to the statues of the gods, feeding them by painting their lips with blood.

The captives corpse was then brought to his captors house, flayed, and cut up, his flesh given away and eaten.

However, there was a special link between captor and captive, and the captor wouldn’t eat of the flesh of his captive.

Poor or sick people would walk through the streets, wearing the skins of the sacrificed, begging.

For twenty days, the priests, too, would wear the flayed skins, often adorned with gold and feathers, until the next festival (Tozoztli) approached.

The skins were then stored in special containers in a cave in the Xipe-Totec temple.

There were certainly festival-like elements, but the main events were very ritualized and everyone involved hat a part to play and knew what to do.

Even the captives were probably not struggling against their fate, but from what I’ve read, walked to the place of their sacrifice willingly, and played their part in the choreography.

The religious part was the most important. The gods needed to be fed.

China’s anti-sanctions solution released! Biden’s plan may fail.

What Was it Like Living in Occupied France During WWII For the Average Person?

March 6, 2023

In France, the Nazis split France into an occupied and unoccupied zone – occupied being the north, unoccupied, or Vichy, being the south. Nazis would have been living in the occupied zone – you would have had to board one for several days at a time – from 1940, and into the unoccupied zones from 1942.

The economy certainly suffered. By the terms of the armistice, the French had to pay for the costs of their own occupation. Although the French got the Vichy government, the Nazis became less and less interested in collaborating with them as opposed to outright taking advantage of them, particularly in the economic sector. 40% of French industry and 58% percent of state revenues went towards Germany, and in 1943 Germany instituted what’s called the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO) which was basically a labor draft. You get your papers from the Germans, you get sent to Germany or Poland to go work in a factory. You’re there for however long they want you and you don’t get to go home. It was hugely, hugely resented.

And yes, there were definitely strict rations, which became even stricter as the war went on.

The Vichy government had their own special police, called the milice. The important thing to remember about occupied France was that the Vichy gov’t legitimized itself by asserting that Vichy France was a free France. As a result, you get Vichy police in addition to the Nazi police, you get French civil servants organizing much of the “National Revolution,” etc. (Interestingly, the Vichy government also made Mother’s Day an official holiday.) The idea of French sovereignty was huge, and when the Nazis started to infringe on it by instituting things like the STO and trying to deport French nationals, then you have a problem.

As for clandestine resistance movements, that’s another post entirely, but I’ll go on.

In France you had the external resistance and the internal resistance. The former was led by Charles de Gaulle, who flew to London after the 1940 armistice and basically said that he thought Vichy was stupid and if you agreed with him, go join him. He eventually had 7,000 people in what was called the FFL (Free French Legion, I think) and they fought out of Algeria. They were rather successful. I’m not a military historian by any means, so I have no idea what they actually did, but several governments recognized de Gaulle as the legitimate leader of France and de Gaulle was able to pester Eisenhower into liberating Paris in the summer of 1944.

Then you had the internal resistance, which was much less organized. The FFL tried to hook up with them in 1942 so that all the resistance forces in France could be under de Gaule – it was a success if only because the internal resistance needed the money from the FFL. The CRN (National Resistance Council) that came out of this “merger” was generally successful? I think. They coordinated with the guerilla fighting units to distract German/Vichy forces and kept up morale after the STO/full occupation. They also helped out in the Battle of Normandy.

Planet Claire (The B-52s Cover) by Jan van Grean

What Was Life Like For a Jester In The Medieval Era?

November 30, 2022

Being a true Jester was very hard work. You had to be a one-man entertainment machine.

One had to be able to memorize long-form poetry, tailor jokes to fit the crowd, tactfully tease your patron without committing offense, and zing guests that your patron wasn’t fond of.

You had to play instruments, sing, dance, perform acrobatics, and design and maintain your own motley.

They would learn puppetry, ventriloquism, juggling, balancing, and slight of hand.

The best description I’ve personally heard to describe the life of a licensed Jester was to think of yourself as a living television.

You were to appear immediately when your patrons needed you and provide whatever form of entertainment they desired for as long as they desired.

You would sing a lullaby for the children one moment and recite accounts of bloody wars the next if that’s what was asked of you.

A sharp mind, a strong body, and a gift for improvisation were often requisite for this sort of work.

Secondly, a Jester’s job wasn’t only to make whatever noble employed him laugh. Their position as a member of court was surprisingly complex.

The most famous jesters were probably quite intelligent and quick witted, similar to our best comedians today.

A jester was given the right to say things without deference to authority, but they had to walk a thin line of not offending too many people or pushing the limits too far.

That ability to bypass deference had a lot of uses in a royal court where everyone was obsessed with being “politically correct” if you will.

A jester was able to deliver bad news to King Phillip VI of France about the destruction of his fleet by the English when nobody else dared by allegedly stating that the English “don’t even have the guts to jump into the water like our brave French”

They also provided a check to nobles who were too full of themselves. While it was expected for most in your court to agree with and support the noble, the jester was there to point out flaws.

Elizabeth I of England reprimanded one of her jesters for not being severe enough with her.

William Sommers was liked by Thomas Cromwell for often pointing out the extravagant spending of the English court.

Further, as a member of the court and an employee of the noble, they were generally well paid and granted a decent amount of influence and power.

This is REALLY bad!

Old Record Producer Hears – BABYMETAL – Gimme Chocolate – Old Guy Reaction

I'm a 44 year old metal head and I've been jamming out to Babymetal for ten years. As the rest of the music industry has drowning in trash for the last 20 years Babymetal is a breath of fresh air wrapped in metal. FYI the fans of Babymetal are known as The One and no we are not cult.......or are we?

Cajun Sausage Jambalaya

A slow cooker makes Cajun Sausage Jambalaya a snap. Be sure to check the last hour or two to keep the rice from overcooking.

Prep: 30 min | Cook: 6 hr | Yield: 8 servings (12 cups)

Ingredients

1 pound boneless pork loin roast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, lean
12 ounces andouille sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups rice, medium-grain white
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 bell pepper (green, red, or both), chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup green onions, chopped

Instructions

Mix all ingredients except green onions in slow 4 to 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours, or on HIGH for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Watch carefully during the last 1 hour (LOW) or 1/2 hour (HIGH) of cooking to prevent rice from overcooking.
Just before serving, check seasoning and add green onions.

Working as KTV Girl in Beijing

https://youtu.be/DSlFSMPe_vQ

The 10 Deadliest Battles Of The American Civil War

Dec 14, 2016 Lincoln Riddle

The American Civil War is a devastating mark on the history of America. The number of lives lost was substantial, and the social and economic repercussions, though some needed, changed the face and future of the United States forever.

These are a few of the deadliest (and most important) battles of this historic conflict.

Fort Donelson

The Battle of Fort Donelson took place in early February of 1862. Fort Donelson, located near the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, was a Confederate stronghold backed up by thousands of soldiers. The Union, lead by Ulysses S. Grant, attacked the fort after their initial taking of Fort Henry.

The Union won the battle, and it was a significant victory on their part, as it resulted in the surrender of 12,000 Confederate soldiers and new power in Kentucky and access into Tennessee. The number of casualties? 17,398, mostly Confederates.

Second Bull Run

The second Battle of Bull Run took place in Manassas, Virginia, and evidence of the battle can still be seen today. It was a Confederate victory resulting in 22,180 casualties, with slightly more than half of those casualties occurring on the Union side. This battle is considered one of the most important for the Confederacy.

Antietam

It’s not entirely certain who won the Battle of Antietam, but there’s no doubting the heavy losses on both sides, resulting in 23,100 casualties. The result of the battle was the Confederate retreat across the Potomac, after the battle took place in Maryland, in mid-September, 1862. Not long after the battle occurred, President Abraham Lincoln gave his Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important events in American history. While this battle certainly isn’t the deadliest on our list, it is significant, as September 17th was the bloodiest day in America’s military history so far.

Stones River

This Tennessee Union victory was not far ahead of the Battle of Antietam in terms of casualties, coming out at 23,515. After a Kentucky battle, Confederate and Union troops clashed outside of Nashville in December of 1862. The battle began on New Year’s Eve, took a small recess on New Year’s Day, and then resumed on January 1st, 1863. It lasted until January 5th when the last of the Confederate troops retreated further into Tennessee. When the troops retreated, the Union did not follow, proclaiming a victory for themselves and awaiting their next opportunity.

Shiloh

Another Tennessee battle, the Battle of Shiloh took place in April of 1862. The Union did win this battle, although they suffered the most casualties. The total number of fatalities was 23,746, and 13,047 of these fatalities were on the Union side. However, despite this, they still won the battle.

The Confederacy lost a chance to overpower the Union troops, after the Confederacy launched an attack on General Ulysses Grant at Pittsburg Landing and the Union called for reinforcements and the Confederates lost their general. After a counterattack planned by Ulysses, the Confederates were forced to retreat, despite their better numbers.

Chancellorsville

The Virginia Battle of Chancellorsville took place nearly a year later, in 1863, taking place in late April and early May. The Confederates took the victory under General Robert E. Lee, and there was a total of 24,000 casualties, approximately, with the Union suffering 14,000 and the Confederacy suffering 10,000. The battle is told in many history books as General Robert E. Lee’s best and most important victory throughout the war. However, the Confederacy also suffered a huge blow during the battle with the death of Stonewall Jackson. The worst part? Jackson was killed by his own men, accidentally wounded at night due to a soldier mistaking his identity.

The Wilderness

In May of 1864, more than 100,000 Union troops went head to head with only 60,000 Confederates. With Ulysses Grant newly in charge of the entire Union army, he planned to attack Robert E. Lee in what was to become a historically tragic battle. The Union lost about 17,666 men and the Confederacy lost about 11,000 for a total of more than 28,000 casualties. Worse yet, one night, with many of the dead and dying lying about the battlefield and camps, a fire broke out over the landscape, killing those who could not escape. The resulting scene of the Battle of the Wilderness has been depicted as one of the most horrific of the war.

Spotsylvania Court House

Taking the third spot on our list, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House took place near the same time as the Battle of the Wilderness, also in May 1864. Again, there is no clear winner in this battle, but there were almost 30,000 casualties, though more were on the Union side. The battle saw Generals Grant and Lee go at it again, for nearly two weeks, in a series of battles often grouped into one in retelling. Many important military figures on both sides were killed, before the two sides broke it off and the Union continued their march to Richmond, Virginia.

Chickamauga

The Battle of Chickamauga took place in Georgia, in 1863, resulting in 34,624 casualties, split almost evenly between both sides. The Confederate army won, forcing the Union army back into Tennessee. While the battle did not play much of an important role in the overall war and was not significant on either side, it was the second most deadly incident over the Civil War, earning it the second spot on our list of the Civil War’s deadliest, bloodiest battles.

Gettysburg

Arguably one of the most well known and the most easily recognizable battles in the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg was also one of the absolute deadliest. The three-day event resulted in more than 50,000 casualties. Regardless of its date almost two years before the war’s end, it was the beginning of the South’s destruction. From this point forward, the South no longer attempted to invade the North with their war efforts, and battles were fought on Southern ground. The battle site, in Pennsylvania, is one of the most popular, if not the singularly most popular, Civil War site in the country.

David Bowie – China Girl (Official Video)

•David Bowie – vocals

•Stevie Ray Vaughan – guitar

The Complete Guide to What Every Man Should Keep in His Car

When I was growing up, I noticed that my father kept his car well-stocked with supplies. A lot of the equipment was for his job busting poachers as a game warden, but most of the things were for emergency situations that could happen to anyone. And there were plenty of times when my dad was able to put those supplies to work.

Be it a maintenance issue or a snowstorm, keeping the following items in your vehicle can save you time and discomfort, and perhaps even your very life, should an emergency arise. Obviously, the necessity of some items depends on the environment in which you live/are driving through (you don’t need an ice scraper in Tampa) and the season (though it’s best just to stock this stuff and keep it stocked, rather than removing/adding things as the seasons change).

1. Paper maps. Sometimes — okay, plenty of times — Google Maps or Waze doesn’t want to cooperate. And if you don’t have service, their reliability is of no import anyway. It’s always a good idea to keep paper maps handy of the areas you’ll be driving through.

2. Snacks/MREs. You never know when you’ll be stranded for long periods of times in your car. And depending on where you are, you could be dozens of miles from the closest source of help. Keep some MREs or granola/power bars in the back of your car to munch on while you wait for a tow truck to come, or to sustain you for a long walk to a gas station to call for help.

3. Cell phone charger/extra battery. Cell phones, and their batteries, are notoriously unreliable and quick-draining in emergency scenarios. It’s like they know when you need them most. Build some redundancy into your car’s emergency kit by keeping both a charger, and an extra battery. No excuses; they’re cheap these days.

4. LifeHammer. Should an accident trap you in your car, this rescue tool could save your life in a couple ways. It has a seat belt cutter, a steel hammer head that easily breaks side windows, and a glow-in-the-dark pin for easy retrieval in the dark. Every car should have one easily accessible!

5. Flashlight. Good for providing light at nighttime when 1) putting on a spare tire, 2) jump starting another car, or 3) exchanging insurance information with the clueless driver who rear-ended you at a stop light. Get a Maglite and you can also thump would-be carjackers in the head with it.

6. Portable air compressor. When your tire is leaking but hasn’t totally blown out, instead of putting on a spare, you can use a portable air compressor to get back on the road. The compressor fills your tire up enough to allow you to drive to a repair shop to get it fixed. It plugs right into your cigarette lighter. Bonus use: no more paying 75 cents to fill up your tires at stingy gas stations.

7. Windshield wiper fluid. Few things are as indispensable as wiper fluid. Dirty windshield, no fluid, and wet, dirty roads? Get used to stopping every 10 minutes to clean the windshield. Always have some in the car for when you inevitably run out and need it most.

8. Roadside flares. When pulled over on the side of the road, you’re basically a sitting duck, hoping that other drivers don’t clip you. It’s especially dangerous at night. Ensure that you and those around you are visible when you pull over by using road flares, or at least a reflective triangle. The old school flaming flares seem to be harder to find these days as people switch to the LED variety.

9. Jumper cables. You walk out to your car after a long day of work, stick the key into the ignition, give it a turn, and…click, click, click. Crap! You then look up and notice you left the dome light on all day. It happens to the best of us. Car batteries die, so be ready with a set of jumper cables. And even if you never suffer a dead battery, it’s always good to have a set of jumper cables so you can help a damsel (or dude) in distress who needs their car jumped.

10. Tow strap. Get your car unstuck from anything with a tow strap. Attach one end of the strap to the front of the car that you want to pull and the other to the hitch on the back of your car. The stranded driver stays in the dead car, puts it in neutral, and gets freed. Easy as that!

11. Water. For when you’re stranded in Death Valley in the middle of the hottest heat wave on record…or for any other time your car decides to break down on you. Also for when you’ve been on the trail and are parched because you didn’t pack enough in your hiking pack. Always keep a few bottles handy in the trunk.

12. First aid kit. Whether you’re cleaning up a head wound filled with glass shards or fixing a boo boo on your two-year-old, it’s good to have a first aid kit. You can always buy one, but putting together your own in an Altoids tin is more fun.

13. Blankets. Blankets have uses that go beyond emergency situations. It’s always good to have a blanket in the car for snuggling with your gal while you cheer for your team on a cold fall night or for laying it on the ground for a picnic. Get the space-saving (but not very romantic) emergency Mylar variety, or something a little classier like the Paria from Rumpl.

14. Fire extinguisher. Car fires can be especially dangerous because of the flammable liquids coursing through their systems. Keep an extinguisher in the car that can be used not only for your own emergencies, but for others who might be in danger as well. An auto extinguisher is useful, as it will be rated for putting out car-specific fires that are fueled by gasoline and oil.

15. Shovel. There are a couple of instances where a folding shovel might come in handy. The first is when you get stuck in the snow or ice. You can use the shovel to dig some snow out and place some dirt under the tire to get more traction. The second situation is when a car tire gets stuck in a hole or something. You can use the shovel to dig about and create some ramps to help get your car unstuck. Also, it can be used as an improvised weapon.

Winter/Snow-Specific Items

16. Kitty litter. Kitty litter? For traveling with your cats and they need a potty break? Hardly. Kitty litter is extremely useful as a traction device when you’re stuck in the snow or ice after a skid gone wrong. It’s not usually that you’re buried in snow that keeps your car from moving, but the slickness of the surface you’re trying to move on. Throw a handful of kitty litter in front of the tires, and they’ll have some traction to help get you on the road again.

17. Multi-wick candles. If you’re stranded in a broken-down car in the winter, you might need more than just a blanket. An actual heat source will come in mighty handy. Have a multi-wick candle (the single wick kind don’t provide adequate warmth) on hand (and matches!); it can keep your car warm for quite awhile. Candles are expensive, so make your own on the cheap (and you save even more money going scentless).

18. Ice scraper. Don’t be the chump who’s out there scraping their windshield with a credit card at 5AM in the morning. A good ice scraper will set you back just a few bucks from most any convenience store, and it will make clearing your windshield much easier and much faster.

19. Hat and gloves. Along with a blanket, make sure your head and hands stay toasty warm too. The thicker the better here; you aren’t going for fashion, but survival.

20. Tire chains. Not only are tire chains handy in wintery mountain passes, they’re actually required in some states. Don’t get stuck in the mountains; don’t get a ticket for not having chains.

BABYMETAL – PA PA YA (feat F HERO) – Old Guy Reaction

How to Escape a Sinking Car: An Illustrated Guide

Nearly 12% of the bridges in the United States have been deemed “structurally deficient” by the Federal Highway Administration. It’s scary to think that one might collapse while you’re driving over it, plunging your car into the water below. Becoming a victim of bridge collapse is hardly the only way to end up in a submerged vehicle, however. Many drivers simply skid out around a curve, go over a guardrail, and end up in a body of water. According to some studies, over 10,000 water immersion auto accidents happen each year.

Finding yourself in a sinking vehicle can be a terrifying experience and panic can keep you from being able to escape. Memorize these easy-to-follow tips so you can stay calm and get out quickly and safely if this ever happens to you. You don’t have to know every detail, but remember these four words: “Seatbelts. Children. Windows. Out.”

Stay as calm as possible. When you have gallons of water filling your car, it’s hard not to panic. But when the difference between life and death comes down to a matter of minutes, having a clear head is essential to your survival. Panic is often the reason people drown; they lose the ability to think straight and don’t know what to do. The women in the North Dakota accident called their friends on their cellphones! But panic=death. Hyperventilating and wasting your energy on ineffective actions closes off the easiest options of escape, wastes precious oxygen and shortens the amount of time you’ll be able to hold your breath when making an escape. Just concentrate on what you need to do.

Your best chance of escape is the first 30-120 seconds. In research done on the subject, it was found that in the vast majority of situations a vehicle will actually float for 30-120 seconds before sinking. This is your best chance at escape. Stay calm, but also act quickly. If you have your wits about you, 30 seconds is plenty of time to escape, even with passengers.

Do not wait for the pressure to equalize! When your car starts really sinking, the differential between the pressure outside the car and inside the car makes opening the door impossible. So people are commonly told to wait until the car fills completely with water in order for the pressure inside and outside of it to equalize, at which point you will supposedly be able to open the door. But two shows, Mythbusters and Top Gear have tested this theory and found it wanting. The inside/outside pressure will eventually equalize, but it won’t happen just as soon as the car fills up with water. It takes a bit longer, so long that you’ll likely drown before it happens. It is possible if you are patient, calm, and conserve your oxygen, but don’t count on it.

The door is an option, but not your best option. There are still some experts that say your best chance of escape is through the door right as you hit the water. In our research, however, this theory is losing steam. Sure, you have the ability to escape through a door if it’s done immediately, but there are a few serious downfalls. One, if you try and can’t do it, you’ll have exhausted much of your energy. Then you’ll be panicked, which is bad. Two, it requires a tremendous amount of strength to open a door, even in just a foot of water. You may be able to escape that way, but can your wife and kids? Third, if you escape through the door, the car will pretty much immediately sink, rendering it impossible for passengers to escape. If you’re a strong man, you can go this route, but only as a backup plan and if you’re the only passenger in the vehicle.

Roll down or break a window. Simply put, the window is your best chance for escape. If the waterline has not risen past the windows, try rolling down the window first. Contrary to popular belief, Mythbusters found that automatic windows don’t immediately short circuit underwater. But as the car sinks, the pressure of the water will prevent you from rolling them down. This is even the case with manual windows. Even if you’ve got Popeye-sized biceps, you won’t be be able to overcome the pressure and roll down the windows. You’ll probably just break the crank.

So if rolling down the window doesn’t work, you’ll need to break the side window to escape. This is actually harder than you might think as the windows are made of strong, tempered glass. While the windshield is easier to shatter, they’re designed to be unbreakable and are laminated with a plastic sheet that could keep you trapped in the car. If you’ve been doing your push-ups and pull-ups, you might be able to break the side window with your elbow or fist. Aim for the corner of the window. But this is extremely difficult. The water significantly slows down the force of your movements. The Mythbusters were unable to break it with a kick from a steel-toed boot. Even if you are able to punch it through, your risk cutting up your hands on the broken glass. Remember the scene at the beginning of Karate Kid II when Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese punched through some car windows? Yeah, your hands could look like that. Wrapping your hand in something can help reduce the chance of slicing them up.

Your best option is to have some sort of device in your car at all times that allows you to easily break your windows in case of an emergency. The LifeHammer or the T3 Tactical Triage and Auto Rescue Tool are two tools you might want to consider keeping in your car. The former has a hardened steel tip while the latter has a spring loaded steel tip window punch, which allows you to break strongly tempered windows with the push of a button. They also have cutting devices that will cut through a seat belt if you find that you can’t unbuckle yourself. Keep them in a place that will be immediately accessible in case of an accident; you don’t want to be rummaging through your glove compartment as your car fills with water.

Escape through the window. If the waterline is still below the car window, escaping from the window will be pretty quick easy. If the waterline is past the window, keep in mind that as soon as you break the window, you’ll be hit with a flood of water. But you should still be able to swim out. Watch Adam from Mythbusters “break” the window and make his escape:

Swim to safety. Push off the car and swim to the surface. If you’re disoriented and don’t know which way is up, look for bubbles and follow the direction they’re going.

What to Do with Passengers

First, don’t open the door to make your escape. While you might be able to get out, the car will quickly fill with water and sink rapidly, possibly trapping your passengers in a watery grave. Instead, roll down or break the window.

Escaping from a sinking car is hard enough by yourself. But what if you have passengers? The first goal is to keep them calm. Take control of the situation by explaining exactly what you’re about to do. When people see there’s a plan, they’ll usually calm down. Make sure they can get out of their seatbelts. If the buckles don’t work, they’ll need a cutting tool. A child can escape from the rear window, but know that they are smaller than front windows. If it’s a small child, pull them up to the front and get them out of your window and follow after.

Prince & The Revolution – When Doves Cry (Official Music Video)

More American “news”…

No wonder Americans are considered to be ignorant and boorish by the rest of the world.

Is it true that every single piece of information on TikTok is automatically transferred to the Chinese communist party intelligence?

Of course. Every time you post a funny cat video on TikTok, the Chinese intelligence agents want a full report on the colour of the cat; its age and gender; and its exact location by GPS.

Don’t you know? Every aspect of your personal life that you post on TikTok is a grave matter of national security. Such as what you ate for lunch, snd the new pair of shoes you bought, and the latest video game you’re playing.

Besides, the CCP intelligence officers have nothing better to do but watch millions of TikTok videos all day long.

Strange Brew 1983 : Van Jump scene..

USA media believe that the USA’s tech war against China and a possible military war will completely cripple China and the USA will reign supreme until the end of the century. What’s your opinion?

It’s clearly not working. Trump’s trade war cost the US 1,800 factories and 250,00 jobs. Trump and US experts said that the US would win the trade war in 2 weeks. 2 years later. the US is the one that has suffered massive damage.

Fed research: Trump’s trade tariffs led to losses in billions

Chinese exporters and American importers have been misrepresenting data to avoid paying taxes or losing out on rebates.

HERE

Trump’s trade policies have cost thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs: Action is urgently needed to rebuild the manufacturing sector after the coronavirus pandemic

A new report by EPI Senior Economist and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Research Robert E. Scott finds that President Trump’s trade policies have failed to curb offshoring—and they have not addressed the root causes of America’s growing trade deficits and the decline of American manufacturing. In addition to the Trump administration’s overall weak trade…

HERE

And now Biden would have you believe that the US is going to stop China from producing chips. Well, SMIC just started mass production of 12nm chips with Chinese equipment. SMIC was already producing 7nm chips and no one knew until some reverse engineer took apart a SMIC chip to see what process node was used and discovered, to his surprise, that it was 7nm.

None of the equipment China is currently using stopped working. They are still producing chips.

SMEE just released their 28nm machine to a customer for testing in production. Which means that it will be mass produced this year. With 28nm machines, China can make 7nm chips using all Chinese equipment.

Huawei just came out with 12nm EDA software for designing chips at 12nm. So expect 7nm or smaller for EDA software this year or early next year.

As far as the military is concerned. China is a peer. Which means that China has comparable technology or better. Everything the US uses must be brought by ship. China has zero logistics for their fight with the US should the US start a war.

China’s industrial capacity is more than the US and the EU combined. And China has already stockpiled enough missiles to sink double the number of US ships in existence. So even if the US convinced all NATO nations, Japan, South Korea, Australia to send everything they have. They will all be sunk.

The problem for the US is that each ship has limited ammo. The ships have maximum of 90–120 VLS launch cells. They carry anti-missile missiles and land attack missiles. The mix is about 1/3 to 1/2 anti-missile missiles.

It is SOP to fire 2 missiles per incoming anti-ship missiles.

China has 1,200 frontline fighters like the J-15, J-16, J-20. Each can carry 6 air to air missiles or 4 anti-ship cruise missiles. China has around 500 H6 bombers that can carry 5 anti-ship cruise missiles each. China also has a large drone fleet of around 500. Each drone can carry 4 air to air missiles or 2 anti-ship missiles.

Go look up the number of US destroyers. And do some simple math. You will find that the US doesn’t have enough ships or fighters. Which means that everything the US, NATO, SK, Japan, and Australia will be destroyed or sunk.

Notice I didn’t even bring up Chinese ships or submarines or land launched anti-ship missiles or hypersonic missiles.

So the US government has seriously mis-calculated. The US simply can not win. The current policy will backfire. we can hope that the US won’t be stupid and start a war that the US will lose.

In 3 days EVERYTHING changes for the US Dollar | Redacted

The Countries Bailed Out by China:

A new report published by the AidData research lab at Virginia’s College of William & Mary sheds some light on the usually nontransparent practice of Chinese bilateral emergency loans. The researchers that also hail from the World Bank, Harvard University and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy identified 22 countries that were bailed out by Chinese loans when they ran into liquidity problems between 2000 and 2021.

main qimg b09ed01416c71f6f29fe1a5e2556958f

Countries that utilized these loans in an especially high number of years, i.e. rolled over their loans into subsequent years include Pakistan, Mongolia, Argentina and Sri Lanka. The latter country tapped China’s central bank for the first time in 2021 before defaulting on its debt anyways in 2022. Argentina and Mongolia were also identified by the report as countries that have been in dire financial distress since the early 2010s and were using China as a lender of last resort despite the country’s loan terms being less favorable than lower-interest bailouts offered by the IMF or the U.S. Fed. The list of Chinese bailouts also includes countries experiencing major inflation events, like aforementioned Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt.

Bailout amounts provided by China remained quite low in the 2000s and early 2010s, before shooting up from 2015 onwards, climbing to a total of $100 billion for the two decades. The two most common ways in which these loans work is through a liquidity swap with the Chinese Central Bank – where most of the outstanding balances of around $40 billion were located as of 2021 – or through credit lines from Chinese state-owned banks. Three countries, Venezuela, South Sudan and Ecuador, received prepayments on goods they were to deliver to China.

CIA Larry Johnson: “What’s Coming IS WORSE THAN A WW3, THIS IS SERIOUS” in Exclusive Interview

https://youtu.be/nhWXUowhInA

The West is stuck between the public sentiment which it contrived and the reality on the ground, Alastair Crooke writes.

Consequential Strategic Change – Upon leaving his meeting with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping said to Putin, “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years – and we are driving this change together”.

The ‘Entente’ was sealed during hours of talks over two days, and amidst a plethora of signed documents. Two powerful states have formed a duality that, in marrying a gigantic manufacturing base to the pre-eminent raw materials supplier and the advanced weaponry and diplomatic nous of Russia, leaves the U.S. in the shade. A seat in the shadows (assumed through volitation, or inability to contemplate such radical transition) reflects the U.S. with its back turned towards participation in the unfolding multipolar world.

With the U.S. in thrall to hegemony, the emergence of a global trifurcation is inevitable – including the three spheres of trade war: Eurasia, led by Russia China; Global South influenced by India – and with the U.S. dominating over the EU and Anglo-Sphere.

But that was not the essence of what President Xi meant by ‘change’; trade, military interchange and monetary system change were already ‘baked in’. What Xi and Putin are suggesting is that we must cast aside the old spectacles of western orientalism, by which we have been accustomed to view the world, and to think it differently and in diverse ways.

Transformation is never easy. How is the U.S. political class reacting? =It is flailing about wildly. It is deeply spooked by the manifestation of this new entente. It has lashed out, as usual, with a propaganda outpouring: Putin got little from Xi’s visit, bar pomp and ceremony; Xi’s was a ‘bed-side call’ on an ailing patient; Russia humiliated by becoming a Chinese resource colony –and to top it all, the summit failed to find a Ukraine resolution.

All of this propaganda is nonsense, of course. These are canards thrown to the winds. Washington understands how compelling is the Chinese narrative: China seeks harmony, peace and a meaningful way of life for all. America, however, stands for domination, divide and contain – and bloody, colonial-type forever wars (in the China meme).

Xi’s narrative has traction – not just in the ‘refuse-to-be-aligned’ world, but significantly within ‘Other America’, too. It even resonates a tad in otherwise wholly ‘tin-eared’ Europe.

The problem here, is that these ‘two Americas’ – the entitled Oligarchy and ‘Other America’ – simply were not able to discourse with each other, and have withdrawn into separate spheres: The western tech-platforms (such as Twitter) were knowingly configured so as to precisely not listen to ‘Other America’. And to cancel, or de-platform, contrarian voices. Today’s anti-Russian schema is yet another derivative of ‘nudge psychology’, originally trialled during Lockdown: Then ‘Science’ (as determined by the governments) offered public ‘certainty’, and at the same time stoked fear that any non-compliance with government rules might lead to death.

The moral certainty (claimed from following the ‘Science’) gave justification to judge harshly, condemn and dismiss people who in any way questioned Lockdown. Today’s geo-political psychological ploy – a derivative from the Lockdown precedent – is to ‘paste’ to the geo-political sphere the woke position of zero tolerance towards questioning supposed principles ‘that are inviolable’ (such as Human Rights). Thus, the schema uses the narrative ‘clarity’ of Russia’s ‘illegal, unprovoked and criminal invasion of Ukraine’ to give the western public the satisfying sense of righteousness needed to similarly judge harshly, oust from employment, and publicly denigrate any who expressed support for Russia.

This is viewed as an Intelligence Success, by contributing to the objective of maintaining NATO ‘burden sharing’ – and in ensuring across-the-board western expression of ‘moral outrage’ at all things Russian.

The West’s ‘Certainty Ploy’ may have worked, in that it deceptively has kindled a moral fury within a large segment of public opinion. Yet it can also be a trap – by firing up such emotionally charged propaganda; the force of the latter now limits western options (at a time when the circumstances of the Ukraine war are much changed from what had been expected). The West is now trapped by that public opinion that views any compromise that is not one of full Russian capitulation to violate its ‘inviable principles’.

The notion of exposing differing facets to a conflict (which lies at the crux to mediation), providing differing perspectives coming into view, becomes intolerable when set against ‘black and white’ righteousness. Xi and Putin are held by the western media to be so morally deficient that many fear being scorned for being on the wrong side of the ‘moral’ fault line on such a contentious issue.

Notably, this ploy does not work in the rest of world, where wokism has little traction.

There is however a substrata of Ruling Class worry about this denial technique. Two real issues arise: First, can America survive absent U.S. hegemony? What bonds, what national meaning, what vision could substitute to hold such a diverse nation together? Is ‘modernity as the winner of history’ convincing in the context of contemporary cultural degeneracy? If today’s scouring ‘modernity’ comes only at the cost of personal loneliness and loss of self-esteem (which is the recognised symptom of alienation arising from severance from community-roots), is technological ‘modernity’ then worth it? Or can some return to earlier values become the guiding prerequisite to a different mode of modernity? – one that works with the grain, instead of against the grain of cultural embeddedness.

This is the key question posed by Presidents Xi and Putin (through the civilisational nation-state concept).

Secondly, the U.S. has morphed from being a military to essentially a rent-seeking financialised hegemon. What price the enduring U.S. business prosperity should the U.S. lose dollar hegemony? Dollar ‘privilege’ has long sustained U.S. prosperity. But American sanctions, asset seizures, and new monetary arrangements pose the question: Is the global order changed so much that dollar hegemony, beyond the U.S. and its dependencies, is no longer sustainable?

The western ruling classes are certain of the answer: Political and dollar hegemony are interconnected. Keeping power, enriching the ‘golden billion’, means sustaining both – even as the Élites plainly can see that the American narrative is losing traction around the world, and states are migrating to new trading blocs.

That ‘Other America’ is not so sure they see the carnage associated with America’s endless interventions as ‘worth the candle’. There is too, an undercurrent of thought that a financial system, dependent on ever more and ever bigger ‘fixes’ of financial stimulant, either is healthy (in creating inequalities), or that its’ pyramiding leverage can be sustained over the long term.

Some years ago when Nathan Gardels was speaking

with Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, the latter said

: “For America to be displaced … by an Asian people long despised and dismissed with contempt as decadent, feeble, corrupt and inept, is emotionally very difficult to accept”. Yew predicted, “The sense of cultural supremacy of the Americans will make this adjustment most difficult”.

Equally, for China, which has had a long and continuous history as a great power, to be blocked by a ‘people from nowhere’ is intolerable.

l’Entente is a bitter pill for the West. For a generation, separating Russia from China has been a primordial U.S. goal – as originally prescribed by Zbig Brzezinski: To contain both Russia and China through exacerbating regional disputes (Ukraine, Taiwan) was the zero-sum-game, with Russia the first target (to compel a pivot back to the West through economic implosion),and then move on to contain China – but China alone. (Yes, some in the West believed

that a Russian pivot westwards was very feasible).

A former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Wess Mitchell, wrote

in the National Interest magazine: To Prevent China Grabbing Taiwan: Stop Russia in Ukraine! Simply put, Mitchell’s point was: “Were the U.S. to inflict enough pain on Putin for his gamble in Ukraine”, then Xi implicitly would be contained.

So, containing Russia via Ukraine was ‘it’: “If the United States is going to threaten catastrophic sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, they better damn well be catastrophic, because the credibility of the U.S.-led financial system for punishing large-scale aggression – is on the line”, Mitchell warned. “The United States will only get one chance to demonstrate that credibility—and Ukraine is it”.

Mitchell continued,

“The good news in all of this is that Ukraine has given the U.S. a momentary, and perishable, window to act decisively and not only deal with the situation in Ukraine – but dissuade a move against Taiwan… The impact of Putin’s brutality in galvanizing European burden-sharing is a game-changer for U.S. global strategy. With Germany spending more

in coming years on defense than Russia ($110 billion annually vs. $62 billion), the United States will be able to focus more of its available conventional forces on deterring China”.

‘A momentary window’? But here was the egregious mismatch: the U.S. was betting on ‘the perishable moment’, but Russia was preparing for a long-term war. The financial sanctions didn’t work; Russia’s isolation didn’t happen; and the containment strategy contributed rather to destabilising the global financial system to the detriment of the West.

The Biden Administration had bet all on a containment strategy intended to avoid a two-front war – a strategy that has not worked out, as expected. More than that, the shooting down of the Chinese balloon and the ensuing anti-Chinese battle cries emanating from all quarters in the U.S. convinced the Chinese that their earlier, November attempt at détente with U.S. and Europe at the Bali G20 was ‘dead in the water’.

China re-calibrated; and prepared for war. (At minimum, a sanction Cold War, but ultimately, for Hot War). Full steam ahead with l’Entente. The Brzezinski divide and rule strategy had been holed below the waterline and sunk.

The West is now painted into a corner: It cannot sustain war on both Russia and China, yet its overblown, deliberately deceitful, manipulation of public opinion to create western ‘cohesion’ makes de-escalation almost impossible.

The public in the U.S. and Europe now sees Russia and China in the darkest shades of the Manichaean Demiurge. They have been repeatedly told that Russia stands at the cusp of total collapse, and that Ukraine ‘is winning’. Most Americans, most Europeans believe this. Many have come to revile these new adversaries.

The U.S. leadership class cannot back down. Yet, it has not the means to wage a two-front war. The trap consists in propaganda stemming from an earlier Lockdown schema that was designed to frighten, and dis-inform the public. A principal aim of which was to make doubt or scepticism appear morally irresponsible within public discourse. Similarly, the new schema of western public control by which Presidents Xi and Putin are made to look so morally deficient that much of the public fears to criticise the war on Russia – has boomeranged. That ‘certainty’ means that it would be morally irresponsible to back out of a war – even one that is being lost. The war now must proceed to the defeat of the Ukrainian regime – an outcome far more humiliating than a negotiated end would have been. But public opinion will not allow anything less than Putin’s humiliation. The West is stuck between the public sentiment which it contrived and the reality on the ground.

In this way, the West fell into its own ‘Certainty Trap’.

The full movie “Strange Brew”

Counting the minutes as the United States reaches maximum insanity and just snaps

Things are approaching critical mass.

let’s hope that the US will not panic and accept the truth that everyone is finally beginning to see, which is: USA is the No. 1 Terrorist organization on this planet, our home.

But I don’t see that coming. It would be naïve to think that they will let China do what they are doing. The US will fight for their unipolar hegemony.

However, it is surprising how stupid the US is acting… (no need to explain that further in this audience) But the fact that such stupid people have access to all kind of weapons, is very worrying.

In the last days I have already noticed a new level of emotionalized propaganda in the German media, “explaining” in all “newspapers” the ever-boring story of The Good and The Evil. The language is becoming more infantile and desperate, almost embarrassing (Fremdscham) 
I am afraid they are preparing their people for a justification of something …. very very stupid. I hope not.

So far Russia and China have acted quite cleverly, not responding to the various childish provocations. Instead they behaved like adults and were surprisingly successful in de-escalation. They show strength and wisdom at the same time. 

They seem to be prepared for anything the US will do. They know the US empire is ending and they even seem to be aware that they should not humiliate the Empire (something they could do very well, if they wanted to). 

May peace prevail. 


Posted by: HansJuergen | Mar 20 2023 11:07 utc | 4

Huawei makes breakthrough in EDA design tools for 14nm chips

Nicknamed the “cradle” of integrated circuits, EDA is a widely used software in the sector and significant to the entire chip-designing process. /CFP

Huawei has developed electronic design automation (EDA) tools for chips produced at and above 14-nanometer technology with domestic partners, marking a major breakthrough for China’s semiconductor industry.

Nicknamed the “cradle” of integrated circuits, EDA is a widely used software in the sector and significant to the entire chip-designing process.

The Chinese tech giant has achieved localization of EDA tools above 14nm in the chip field and will complete comprehensive verification this year, Huawei confirmed on March 24, citing the remarks made by its rotating chairman Xu Zhijun on February 28.

Xu also said the company has developed 78 tools related to chip hardware and software.

China has long relied on U.S. companies such as Cadence and Synopsys for high-end electronic design automation tools.

Chips produced at the 14nm level were first introduced in smartphones in the mid-2010s and are two to three generations behind leading-edge technology, but it still marks a breakthrough.

The progress is part of a broader push by Huawei to develop domestic development tools for hardware, software and chips amid the U.S. governmental restrictions.

Xu further mentioned that although the company has achieved many breakthroughs in product development tools over the past three years, it still faces formidable challenges, thus Huawei will redouble its efforts to attract more global talents to achieve a strategic breakthrough in the area.

Caramelized Onion Smothered Pork Chops

Caramelized Onion Smothered Pork Chops are exceptionally delicious. They will most certainly become a part of your meal rotation.

Ingredients

4 boneless pork chops, with as much fat removed as possible
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons butter
2 cups thinly sliced onion
4 teaspoons granulated sugar

Instructions

Season both sides of pork chops with garlic powder, sage, thyme, salt and pepper.
Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat, evenly coating the bottom of the skillet.
Increase heat to medium-high. Cook both sides of chops for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.
Push chops to outside edges of skillet. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the center of the skillet and add onions to the center of the skillet, sprinkling with sugar. Replace skillet cover and cook for 10 minutes, frequently tossing and stirring onions with a spatula. Onions are caramelized when tender and medium-brown in color. DO NOT let the onions burn!
Check chops for doneness before serving. They will be done when a fork piercing the thickest part of the chop draws clear juice. If the juice is pink, cook chops a bit longer until done.
Serve pork chops with caramelized onions piled on top.

Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World

It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.

By Graham Allison, a professor of government at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to visit Moscow this week in his first trip abroad since his reelection comes as no surprise to those who have been watching carefully. When one steps back and analyzes the relationship between China and Russia, the brute facts cannot be denied: Along every dimension—personal, economic, military, and diplomatic—the undeclared alliance that Xi has built with Russian President Vladimir Putin has become much more consequential than most of the United States’ official alliances today.

Many observers still find this alliance hard to believe. As former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis put it in 2018, Moscow and Beijing have a “natural nonconvergence of interests.” Geography, history, culture, and economics—all the factors that students of international relations focus on—give both nations many reasons to be adversaries.

On today’s map, large swaths of what was in earlier centuries Chinese territory are now within Russia’s borders. This includes Moscow’s key naval base in the Pacific, Vladivostok—which on Chinese military maps is still labeled by its Chinese name, Haishenwai. The 2,500-mile border between the two nations has repeatedly seen violent clashes, most recently in 1969. On the Russian side, the land east of the Ural Mountains is full of natural resources but has a population of just 32 million people, while on the Chinese side, hundreds of millions of people live with few natural resources.

On the broader canvas of history, Russia was a prime antagonist in China’s “century of humiliation,” joining forces with Western imperialist powers to put down the Boxer Rebellion and forcing China to sign eight “unequal treaties” during the second half of the 19th century. In recent decades, the status inversion resulting from Russia’s decline from its position as the second superpower in a bipolar world, combined with China’s meteoric rise, must cause a leader as status-conscious as Putin some consternation.

But while history deals the hands, human beings play the cards, and Xi has defied expectations to masterfully build a relationship with Putin that matters deeply to both. Putin was the first leader Xi visited after becoming China’s president in 2012. Since then, the two have held 40 one-on-one meetings, twice as often as either has met with any other world leader. Putin calls Xi his “best and bosom friend,” who, as Putin noted in 2018, is the only world leader with whom he has celebrated his birthday. When Xi awarded Putin China’s Friendship Medal in 2018, he called the Russian president his “best, most intimate friend.”

In recent years, Sino-Russian economic ties have grown. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China had displaced the United States and Germany to become Russia’s No. 1 trading partner and top buyer of Russian oil and gas. In the past year, China has provided an economic lifeline for Russia, buying everything the West won’t and helping Russia maintain access to financial markets amid sweeping Western sanctions. Chinese purchases of Russian energy last year were up 50 percent from 2021 levels while bilateral trade hit record highs. China was not only the world’s largest exporter to Russia in 2022, but it also accounted for the largest year-over-year increase in export volume to Russia of any country in the world. Last month, the yuan overtook the dollar as the most traded currency on the Moscow Exchange for the first time ever, representing almost 40 percent of total trading volume.

And despite Western sanctions intended to eliminate Russia’s access to critical technologies, Chinese exports of integrated circuits to Russia doubled in 2022. Indeed, in every area where China can support Russia without incurring major costs to itself—unlike lethal arms sales to Russia that violate U.S. sanctions, which CIA Director William Burns recently said China was “considering” but “reluctant to provide”—it has done so.

Furthermore, while many Americans discount Sino-Russian military cooperation, as a former Russian national security advisor has put it to me, China and Russia have the “functional equivalent of a military alliance.” China regularly participates in joint military exercises with Russia that dwarf those the United States conducts with its much more publicized “strategic partner,” India. It sent soldiers to Russia’s annual Vostok exercises in September and conducts joint air and naval exercises on a near-monthly basis. Russian and Chinese generals’ staffs now have candid, detailed discussions about the threat U.S. nuclear modernization and missile defenses pose to each of their strategic deterrents. While, for decades, Russia was careful to withhold its most advanced technologies in arms sales to China, it now sells the best it has, including S-400 air defenses. The two countries share intelligence and threat assessments as well as collaborate on rocket engine research and development. More recently, Beijing and Moscow have collaborated to compete with Washington in a new era of space competition.

Their diplomatic coordination has also ramped up as Xi and Putin become increasingly convinced Washington is seeking to undermine their regimes. The two countries almost always vote together in the United Nations Security Council and reinforce each other’s political narratives. For instance, China has repeatedly refused to call Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a war, instead labeling it an “issue,” “situation,” or “crisis.” Its diplomats and propaganda megaphones echo even Russia’s most extreme claims about the war, blaming NATO for ignoring Russia’s “legitimate concerns” and suggesting the United States wants to “fight till the last Ukrainian.”

Neither leader has made a secret of his ambitions to end U.S. hegemony and create what Xi called on Monday a “new model of major-country relations.” Their success in forming new alignments of nations—including the so-called BRICS bloc and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, whose citizens make up two-thirds of the world’s population—demonstrates that their declarations are not merely aspirational. While U.S. talking points highlight the world’s condemnation of Putin’s invasion, Chinese and Russian diplomats note that many countries have not joined in, including the world’s largest country, the world’s largest democracy, Africa’s leading democracy, and most nations in the global south.

An elementary proposition in international relations 101 states: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” By confronting both China and Russia simultaneously, the United States has helped create what former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski called an “alliance of the aggrieved.” This has allowed Xi to reverse Washington’s successful “trilateral diplomacy” of the 1970s that widened the gap between China and the United States’ primary enemy, the Soviet Union, in ways that contributed significantly to the U.S. victory in the Cold War. Today, China and Russia are, in Xi’s words, closer than allies.

Since Xi and Putin are not just the current presidents of their two nations but leaders whose tenures effectively have no expiration dates, the United States will have to understand that it is confronting the most consequential undeclared alliance in the world.

Revenging An Abused Girl Scene – The Equalizer 2 (2018)

What is actually going on…

The Chinese "Peace Plan" - as annotated by me:
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/zyxw/202302/t20230224_11030707.shtml

China's position on a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis

2023-02-24 09:00

First, respect the sovereignty of all countries. Universally recognized international law, including the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, should be strictly observed, and the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all States should be effectively guaranteed. All countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal, and all parties should jointly safeguard the basic norms governing international relations and safeguard international fairness and justice. International law should be applied equally and uniformly, without double standards.

[MY NOTE: Boilerplate, standard Chinese position which does not even mention Ukraine or Russia.]

Second, abandon the Cold War mentality. The security of one country cannot be at the expense of the security of other countries, and regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs. The legitimate security interests and concerns of all countries should be taken into account and properly addressed. There are no easy solutions to complex problems. We should adhere to the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, focus on the long-term peace and stability of the world, promote the construction of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture, oppose basing one's own security on the insecurity of other countries, prevent the formation of camp confrontation, and jointly safeguard peace and stability in the Eurasian continent.

[MY NOTE: Ditto]

3. Ceasefire and cessation of war. There are no winners in conflict wars. All parties should remain rational and restrained, do not add fuel to the fire, do not intensify contradictions, avoid further deterioration or even loss of control of the Ukrainian crisis, support Russia and Ukraine to meet each other halfway, resume direct dialogue as soon as possible, gradually promote the de-escalation of the situation, and finally reach a comprehensive ceasefire.

[MY NOTE: Note that this does not call on Russia or Ukraine to do anything. Instead it calls on "all parties" to "avoid loss of control", calls on outside parties to support Russia and Ukraine in peace efforts to promote a ceasefire. No direct calls for either Russia or Ukraine to actually commit to a ceasefire.]

4. Initiating peace talks. Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. All efforts conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis should be encouraged and supported. The international community should adhere to the right direction of persuading peace and promoting talks, help all parties to the conflict open the door to a political settlement of the crisis as soon as possible, and create conditions and provide a platform for the resumption of negotiations. China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in this regard.

[MY NOTE: Ditto.]

Fifth, resolve humanitarian crises. All initiatives that contribute to alleviating the humanitarian crisis should be encouraged and supported. Humanitarian action must respect the principles of neutrality and impartiality and prevent the politicization of humanitarian issues. Effectively protect the safety of civilians and establish humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from warring areas. Increase humanitarian assistance to relevant areas, improve the humanitarian situation, provide rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and prevent larger humanitarian crises. Support the coordinating role of the United Nations in humanitarian assistance to conflict areas.

[MY NOTE: Again, boiler plate concern for humanitarian issues. Russia can agree to this in a heartbeat without having to do anything different than they've been doing.]

Protection of civilians and prisoners of war. Parties to a conflict should strictly abide by international humanitarian law, refrain from attacks on civilians and civilian facilities, protect women and children and other victims of conflict, and respect the fundamental rights of prisoners of war. China supports the exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine, and all parties should create more favorable conditions for this.

[MY NOTE: Ditto.]

7. Maintain the safety of nuclear power plants. Oppose armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities such as nuclear power plants. We call on all parties to abide by international law such as the Convention on Nuclear Safety and resolutely avoid man-made nuclear accidents. Support the constructive role of the IAEA in promoting the safety and security of peaceful nuclear facilities.

[MY NOTE: Same, same - Russia has been doing that, Ukraine has not. This is a strike against Ukraine and is something which Russia again could agree to in a heartbeat without having to do anything at all.]

8. Reduce strategic risks. Nuclear weapons cannot be used, and nuclear war cannot be fought. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons should be rejected. Prevent nuclear proliferation and avoid nuclear crises. It opposes the development and use of chemical and biological weapons by any country under any circumstances.

[MY NOTE: And who has biowarfare labs in Ukraine? Not Russia! Another strike against Ukraine - and by extension, the US. Again, Russia need do nothing.]

9. Ensuring the export of grain. All parties should implement the Black Sea grain transportation agreement signed by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations in a balanced, comprehensive and effective manner, and support the United Nations in playing an important role in this regard. China's initiative on international food security cooperation provides a feasible solution to the global food crisis.

[MY NOTE: Once again, Russia need do nothing it isn't already doing.]

10. Stop unilateral sanctions. /b10>Unilateral sanctions and maximum pressure will not only fail to solve problems, but will also create new ones. Oppose any unilateral sanctions not authorized by the Security Council. Relevant countries should stop abusing unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" against other countries, play a role in cooling down the Ukraine crisis, and create conditions for developing countries to develop their economies and improve their livelihood.

[MY NOTE: Direct strike against the United States and Western Europe. Again, Russia doesn't need to do anything.]

11. Ensure the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain. All parties should earnestly safeguard the existing world economic system and oppose the politicization, instrumentalization and weaponization of the world economy. Jointly mitigate the spillover impact of the crisis, prevent international cooperation in energy, finance, food trade, and transportation from being disrupted, and harm global economic recovery.

[MY NOTE: Ditto.]

12. Promote post-war reconstruction. The international community should take measures to support post-war reconstruction in conflict areas. China is ready to provide assistance and play a constructive role in this regard.

[MY NOTE: Ditto.]

This is a "peace plan"? I thought China was trying to get a real ceasefire going based on the babble I was reading from everyone else. This is pablum. This is a PR document, nothing more. It's utterly meaningless. Why the US even bothered to say they won't do it is beyond me - other than, of course, to guarantee that no negotiations ever occur. But this document doesn't even call for meaningful negotiations on any specific time frame, venue or with any support except China.

Russia can agree to this in a heartbeat, then get right back to prosecuting the war the same way as it did yesterday.

This is the biggest nothingburger I've ever seen. It makes it very clear that Xi is going to Russia for discussions on matters other than this nonsense and is using this to solidify the Russian-Chinese alliance for the benefit of the perception of the non-aligned nations.

There will be absolutely no change in the war based on this document or any comments which Putin or Xi may make in the wake of their meetings.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 20 2023 11:30 utc | 5

Why do people who have been to China and the USA prefer China?

I have taken a vacation in China recently( Tianjin and Xiamen ).

China is so beautiful, peaceful, very modern, super safe . Chinese cities are very clean , very vibrant and life is very convenient . The public transportation systems are superb and most advanced . You almost don’t see any homeless people on the streets or anybody smoking marijuana . Chinese people are friendly, nice and helpful . China is not perfect and needs a lot of improvements but she has really caught up with the best countries in the world and has even exceeded some of them.

I hope that the mayor of LA (where I live )can do something about the homeless ,beggars and people with mental illness who live on the streets , build some shelters for them and don’t allow them to set tent everywhere, making LA like a shithole.

I hope that the mayor of NYC ( where my child lives ) can rinse NYC subways thoroughly , so there will be no more human shits and urine, no more rats and mice, no more cockroaches , no more dirty/crazy people living there.

If China can make their cities/ subways/train stations/air ports super clean, why can’t America ? Don’t forget that many people still believe USA is the most powerful country in the world ,right ? A first class country should be safe and clean , correct ?

P.S. some people asked me that if China is supposed to be very crowded ,why there are so few people in my photos ? I agree that many cities of China are very crowded , but there are still some locations with very few people. I didn’t choose place without people on purpose to take pictures. I saw nice places ,I stopped and I just took pictures.

Better Call Saul | Mike Gets Revenge

COVERT INTEL: ISRAEL ON VERGE OF POLITICAL & SOCIAL COLLAPSE

World Hal Turner 26 March 2023

The state of Israel is literally on the verge of political and social collapse tonight (Sunday) after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Gallant who opposes changes in the country’s Judicial Powers. The Israeli Army is already suffering DESERTIONS as the Army sides with the fired Defense Minister!

Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies. But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition.

This has become far more than a political/legal matter. The citizenry and institutions of state are engaging in almost outright rebellion against these proposed moves.

Change the world

There's a RSOTM video in which Russian soldiers have to walk through an Ukrainan trench they conquered. They have to walk, they cannot avoid this even if you see them doing it gingerly, over the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, collapsed face down into the cold mud. Imagine seeing your son, husband or father killed like that. That's what war is - all for the greed and callousness of some "Western" millionaires and billionaires. And it was ever so. I do not worship Xi and Putin, but I admire them and we can but hope they will change the world.

Posted by: Anthony | Mar 20 2023 12:44 utc | 18

Operational update

Scorched earth, war crimes, Avdeevka and the Chinese

Aleks

Introduction

With circumstances on the battlefield having changed, I’ve decided to write a new operational update. It looks as if the end of Ukraine’s armed resistance is drawing nigh, which leads me to a couple of questions about the justification for continuing the conflict as well as some legal considerations. I’ll try to provide a brief summary.

I see a change in Russia’s operational approach to the vectors of attrition in Donbass. BMA originally outlined five vectors, which in fact have been activated and pushed. Our original five vectors have changed, so I’ll revise our definition to bring it into line with the current state of affairs.

I’ll also touch on next week’s meeting between President Xi and President Putin, which starts March 20, and what they might propose to President Zelensky to end the war.

Background

For a better understanding of what I’m going to discuss, I suggest you read the following articles in advance:

Scorched earth

Today we see that Ukraine is struggling to keep the five theatres of war supplied with fresh troops and equipment. The demand for replenishment is growing, and Ukraine’s logistics capacity is shrinking.

Why demand is growing:

The battles are intensifying as the Russians push forward aggressively.
In slightly more than a year of fighting, Ukraine has used up almost everything it needs to sustain the war, not only military equipment but also civilian goods required for rear functions.
The Ukrainian army has become almost entirely dependent on Western equipment, because the Soviet inventories have been depleted or destroyed. Western equipment has to be maintained in Poland or Germany. Soviet equipment can be maintained in Ukraine, often on the battlefield itself, but Western matériel has to be transported thousands of miles. This factor puts further stress on the logistics network.
Ukraine had plenty of huge machine plants where its weapons and equipment were maintained. Russia has identified and destroyed most of them as well as Ukraine’s improvised workshops.

Why capacity is shrinking:

Ever more electrical substations are being destroyed, which adversely affects rear logistics.
A great quantity of rolling stock has been destroyed.
Ever more warehouses used to store supplies are being identified and destroyed. The West and Russia are playing a cat-and-mouse game, identifying new storage locations and then destroying them.
I estimate that, from the outset of the war, 150,000 people have been engaged in Ukraine’s rear logistics, carrying out transport of matériel between the west and the east and, within Ukraine, transport, production and distribution of goods and equipment for training, replenishment, etc.

With Ukraine increasingly short of manpower, I assume many of the rear troops and civilian auxiliary forces have been also mobilized and sent to the front, which of course further complicates logistics on the ground. Still, I assume that logistics is still working adequately because it is the most important function of an army. But if Ukraine fully cannibalizes its rear troops and people, collapse will follow. In fact, collapse could happen in the next two or three months.

But, most important, Ukraine is running out of soldiers. Its remaining professional troops, who were trained in the West, are being committed to the fight. They should have been held back for the counteroffensive in the south. Since Russia has intensified the pressure in the five theatres of war, the attrition rate of the Ukrainian forces has increased unsustainably. To stabilize the frontlines and to prevent them from collapsing, Ukraine has been forced to use professional troops earmarked for the counteroffensive.

If any of the theatres of war collapses, all the other theatres will follow suit because the rear of the others will be exposed.

Well, that’s definitely not in the interests of the collective West. So, what is actually happening?

Ukraine is losing an insane number of troops every day. I assume the figure is far higher than those cited by either side. Ukraine has an interest in keeping the numbers low to maintain public support. Russia can’t report high numbers without dampening its soldiers’ morale. Brothers are fighting brothers. Sometimes Donbass brothers are fighting one another. What is happening is a civil war, a slaughter forced on the Russians (and the Ukrainians) by the West. No Russians are happy about it. Nor am I. The conflict only serves the interests of the West.
Ukraine is using insane amounts of ammunition, weapons and equipment to hold the line in Donbass. This matériel produces no added value for the West. The Ukrainian troops in Donbass usually don’t even encounter a Russian soldier, let alone kill him; they are dying almost exclusively from artillery shells, airstrikes and tank fire. The equipment supplied by the West is being squandered. Its purpose is to kill plenty of Russians; but in this configuration thousands of Ukrainian troops are being equipped with Western weapons, sent to the frontline and dying without firing a shot or even seeing a Russian. That is a very bad investment.

Conclusion? The Ukrainians wasting equipment and dying, to no purpose. The investment in political and financial capital is not achieving their main goal:

Cutting off the road to Crimea. This would be a major political blow to Russia and would cost it a great deal of political capital, domestically and in the eyes of its allies.
Or, even better, but worse for the Russians, would be to have at least a single Ukrainian soldier set foot on Crimean soil. Even if Ukraine were to collapse immediately after, such a political setback would be deadly for Russia.

These unreliable Ukrainians…

Not entirely:

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are dead. Multiple times more are wounded. Hence, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian families have been torn apart, destroyed or displaced. The West can be sure that at least several generations of Ukrainians will hate Russia. The Russians will have to set up a very expensive program in the newly incorporated or occupied territories to integrate these people into Russian society. Scorched Earth.
Tens of thousands of Russians are dead or wounded. The toll could reach 100,000 before the war is over, if it hasn’t already, which in turn means millions of families that will resent every policy that involves spending to integrate the now-hated Ukrainians. Scorched Earth.
This brings us to the general hatred that has been fomented by the West between Russians and their Ukrainian brothers (of whom most are RUSSIANS). Scorched Earth.
The Western commanders are forcing the Ukrainians to fight in all the major industrial plants in Donbass to make sure they are completely destroyed. Destruction of the plants will lead to unemployment in the new territories. People who have experienced a war and are left sitting idle at home can do crazy things. Moreover, rebuilding these facilities will be costly. Most likely BRICS partners will be invited to invest, which will detract from sovereignty. Scorched Earth.
Even though Russia is trying hard to win the war with legacy weapons, so as not to expose its most advanced technologies to NATO, we can assume that NATO is meticulously studying the way the Russians are fighting, especially in standard situations (offensives, defence, logistics etc.).
A massive demographic catastrophe is in progress in Ukraine. Most families have fled abroad and will never return. The able-bodied male population that has not been able to hide in villages or elsewhere has been worn down on the frontline. The wounded and disabled will paralyze the country further for decades. In the new Russian territories (many are still to join), these additional costs will weigh on Russia’s balance sheet. Scorched Earth.
The same goes for disabled Russian soldiers in Russia. Many will not be able to return fully to work, and caring for them will be expensive. Scorched Earth.

From the start, Ukraine had no chance. As the West knew full well. Even so, vast amounts of money and equipment have been invested to sustain the Ukrainians’ ability to fight, which has led to the catastrophic consequences enumerated above.

Today it is clear that collapse is imminent. And yet we see, that the West is insisting, instead of preserving these men, to attrition them in the right way. Not, to no purpose, into the Artemovsk meat grinder and the other theatres, merely to gain political advantage in the south, namely to Melitopol.

Remaining Ukrainian men, don’t die senselessly for us – the West! Shame on you! Die in Melitopol, so we can gain political leverage over the Russians!

I hope, dear reader, you understand what I want to highlight. The war and the struggle for victory have been over since the Russians created a semi-cauldron around Artemovsk, which serves as a shooting range where Ukrainians try to enter or to escape from the meat grinder. Ukraine is no longer fighting to defend Ukraine. That struggle is over. The time has come when the commander-in-chief is obliged to realize that there is no purpose in continued fighting; it’s time to start negotiating the best possible surrender conditions. Once the army is thoroughly defeated, the window will close, and all that’s left will be unconditional surrender, which I expect in the summer of 2023.

Keep all that in mind for the “Chinese” section.

Next, let’s consider the legal implications of driving people to certain death with no prospect of ever gaining the upper hand.

War crime

If military success is not feasible, but the fighting continues with a massive loss of lives, both civilian and military, the leaders could be guilty of a war crime.

Ukraine continues to mobilize and to send people to certain death without any prospect of victory. Hence, with the continuation of the war, tens, or hundreds, of thousands of civilians and troops are going to die without affecting the outcome of the war in any way.

This is a serious war crime. The severity of it is extreme. It is murder.

Could I have made this argument earlier? Actually, no. Ukraine had some chance of winning the war politically. I outlined these chances in my analysis of phases one, two and three. Then Russia mobilized. And still no war crime had taken place because the mobilized Russians were not ready to fight, at least not the majority of them. I now assume that all these troops have finished retraining and are ready for their assigned tasks. At precisely that time, Ukraine’s continuation of the conflict became a war crime. It now has zero chance of winning, politically or militarily. From now on, every person killed is murdered. By the West.

Theatres of war

I need to correct my five theatres of war.

Originally, I declared Ugledar as one vector of attrition. It seems to me, however, that Ugledar has turned for Russia into a small version of phase one of the war. Mines and artillery ambush on open fields have slowed the Russian offensive there. Pushing farther would lead to unnecessary Russian casualties. Russia is not rushing toward Berlin, as in 1945, when people were traded for time. It looks to me as if the Russians have chosen to slow the offensive there and instead to work more with artillery from a distance. This approach has the same attrition effect but preserves the lives of their troops.

Some of you have pointed out that I did not place any significance on Avdeevka in my previous analysis, and rightly so. If Marinka, Artemovsk and Ugledar fall, Avdeevka will automatically end up in a cauldron, and the Ukrainians will be forced to pull out to avoid being cut off far behind the frontline. The reality is that the Ukrainians are holding both Ugledar and Marinka with all their available resources – hence, it makes no sense to sacrifice Russian troops there, especially when the end of the war is so near.

Thus, we can see how the Russian strategy for Avdeevka has changed, which could have come as a surprise for NATO’s planners. Note that Ukraine has more or less “hard-wired” logistics routes to its main frontlines. If a new frontline or an intensification of the battle in a certain area occurs, then it is no easy task to reroute operations to such an area, especially logistics infrastructure, supply lines and frontline depots.

In brief, I see the activation of another vector of attrition, or theatre of war, to release the pressure on Marinka and Ugledar. Or, if Ukraine is able to sustain all the frontlines, then Russia will try to shorten the war with increased attrition of men and matériel.

As for the Belarussian theatre of war, we can assume that the Ukrainians’ ability to keep up the fight has been overestimated for several months. If the Ukrainians pull troops away from the northern border to replace their losses in Donbass, then the situation will be dire. I expected a vector of attrition near the border. But there might not be much left to wear down there.

As soon as the frontlines in Donbass collapse, there is a real possibility that Russia could use the Belarussian border to put pressure on Kiev and to take it in a pincer, thus forcing negotiation of a Ukrainian surrender. More about that eventuality in the last section.

Sino-Russian peace proposal

President Xi of China and President Putin will meet next week amid rumours that China will propose to Ukraine a peace deal agreed upon by the Russians.

Readers of my blog know that I see no chance on Earth that Ukraine will not entirely fall to Russia. Yes, some parts of it could be given pseudo-independence after denazification and demilitarization, especially parts of Western Ukraine. My assessment has not changed in any way.

Especially because the Russians’ overall goal is implementation of the New Draft Treaty for European Security.

Remember that if Russia does not achieve its geopolitical goals, it will automatically lose the war, even if some kind of temporary peace is achieved, and Novorossiya, including Odessa, joins Russia. Remember the threat of NATO, which would still be too close to Russia’s large cities and could lead to automated Armageddon if Russia’s “Perimeter” (or “Dead Hand”) system were switched on in automatic mode.

So, what could the Chinese offer be? And why is it being offered at all?

Why is it being offered? Well, I could explain it politely but I won’t. In a nutshell, it’s a public relations exercise.

What could the offer be? I have no way of knowing but I will make an assumption. Given that all of Ukraine will have to surrender, and then some parts could be given pseudo-independence, I can speculate that the question is whether Kiev will be part of Russia or of the new pseudo-independent country. If Kiev is still part of it, it would mean the preservation of “Ukraine”, despite its dependence on Russia.

If Kiev is incorporated into Russia, Ukraine is done for. And with it the Western dream of restarting the whole adventure and infiltrating the pseudo-independent state again to bring it back under the West’s influence. If Kiev is not part of the farce, then there will be nothing viable or interesting for the West, except the land bridge to Hungary and Serbia, which of course is a geopolitical necessity for Russia in order to break up NATO.

Do you think China will formulate its proposal as bluntly as I have here? That’s not how diplomacy works. There will be an X-point plan that is beautiful but meaningless. The real terms of surrender will be communicated behind closed doors. Do I expect the Ukrainians to accept such an offer? Well, given that the Ukrainians have nothing to say (only the Americans do), I have two different considerations:

The West wants to fight to the last Ukrainian. See the “Scorched earth” section. Hence, any ceasefire that would save even a single Ukrainian life is unacceptable to the leaders of the United States. By the way, I don’t blame the people of the US.
Since keeping Kiev out of Russia could be seen by the United States as a chance to preserve NATO by sabotaging all efforts of this new dependent entity to create a land bridge to Hungary and Serbia, it still could be an interesting offer for the United States.

Is it a huge risk for Russia and China to allow a vulnerable corridor to Hungary? Yes. I’m sure that the calculation is that Ukraine will reject it anyway or that the ability of Russia and China to protect this land bridge is assured.

Or I could be totally wrong. Perhaps the Sino-Russian proposal is something totally different, or there is no proposal at all. 😊

Why are the Russians and the Chinese meeting now? And why is there (presumably) a proposal NOW? As I said, with the Ukrainian army on the verge of collapse (which means in two or three months) and Russia’s main force, mobilized and trained, now in place, I assume we are in a do-or-die situation.

What does it mean? The Ukrainian forces have been almost defeated, and a Russian force that is far larger than the one that has defeated four iterations of the Ukrainian army is ready to deliver the final blow. The Sino-Russian proposal could be something along the lines of “Sign this conditional surrender now or face defeat and unconditional surrender in the near future.”

Here, I’d like to make a brief point: Russia and China will sign various agreements quite apart from the Ukrainian question. It doesn’t matter for these agreements whether an agreement on Ukraine, if it exists, is accepted. But what are the other agreements under discussion? I will cover this question and many more in my coming major article about Asia.

Further developments

What does that mean actually? “Big Arrows”? 😊

As I’ve said, the Ukrainian army is on the verge of collapse. I give it two or three months. As soon as this happens, I can see Russia’s well-trained, armoured motorized tank and rifle divisions pushing from Belarus through undefended positions in the north to place Kiev in a pincer. You could perhaps argue that this would, indeed, be a big-arrow offensive. But because ever more Ukrainian troops are being pulled from the northern border regions and moved to Donbass, there won’t be many left who could put up a fight against such a large armoured force.

Hence, it wouldn’t be a big-arrow offensive; rather, it would involve positioning forces around Kiev to reinforce negotiating efforts.

You don’t see troops, logistics and equipment in Belarus yet. Nor do I. I assume that such a build-up would happen if the proposal for surrender were rejected. Nevertheless, storming Kiev would be madness. Kiev is a Russian hero city, like Odessa. I could imagine an encirclement, though. Negotiations would take place so long as the Donbass front advances to Zaporozhye and the Belarus front to the south. Every day that these fronts move forward increases the probability that Kiev will surrender if it comes under siege. But Ukraine will suffer a complete military defeat if it isn’t allowed to surrender. Which would be regrettable. While reading these lines, keep the “War crime” section in mind!

Casino: House of the rising sun

RUSSIANS GRAB UKRAINE DRONE – OPERATING VIA STARLINK!

World Hal Turner 26 March 2023

The Russian Army has downed an attack Drone, operated by Ukraine, but not by direct radio control; this drone is operated through Elon Musk’s STARLINK Internet Satellite Service! Musk has previously said his company would not be party to any war operations. Now the world sees otherwise.

In the photo above, taken today, 26 March 2023, the square shaped panel atop the drone is the STARLINK antenna.

For months, Ukraine has been using radio controlled drones to attack and kill Russian soldiers. Russia engaged electronic warfare, which jammed those radio signals.

Clearly, Ukraine decided to provide drone control not by radio signal, but by means of the satellite Internet terminal Starlink.

The drone has a rather compact design, however, despite all the efforts of the Armed Forces, the drone was still successfully hit by the anti-drone gun and is now the trophy of the Russian military.

Now the drone can be carefully studied by the Russian military to develop more effective means of counteracting UAVs of such design.

Geopolitical Rumblings Leave U.S. Behind

Over the last month we have seen astonishing geopolitical developments.

In February China publicly lambasted U.S. hegemony, launched a global security initiative and offered a peace plan for Ukraine.

On March 10 China mediated an agreement which restored relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

On March 15 Moscow rolled out the red carpet for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Yesterday al-Assad and his wife Asma arrived in the UAE for talks with Sheikh Mohammed

Also yesterday Iran and Iraq signed a security cooperation agreement that will stop the CIA sponsored Kurdish activities against Iran.

Also yesterday King Salman of Saudi Arabia invited the President of Iran to a visit in Riyadh.

For the last 30 years the U.S. considered the Middle East as its backyard. Twenty years ago it illegally invaded Iraq and caused 100,000nds of death and decades of chaos. Now China, by peaceful means, changed the balance in the Middle East within just one month.

Today China’s President Xi arrived in Moscow for three days of talks with Russia’s President Putin. An article by President Putin was published in the People’s Daily while Russian media published a signed article by President Xi.

The U.S. is afraid that China’s peace initiative for Ukraine will gain ground. It has openly come out against a cease-fire and peace talks. I had thought that was for Ukraine to decide?

It is likely that Putin will publicly endorse the Chinese peace plan while the U.S. is paranoid that peace might indeed happen. It may even want to sabotage the Saudi Iranian deal.

China’s people are by the way the most happy people in the world.

Xi and Putin are now running the multilateral global show. Biden and the hapless ‘unilateral’ people around him are left aside.

Posted by b on March 20, 2023 at 10:21 UTC | Permalink

Nacho’s Death | Rock And Hard Place | Better Call Saul

Russian Su-35 Fighter Jet Intercepts Two US B-52 Bombers Over Baltic Sea – Defense Ministry

From HERE

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian fighter jet Su-35 prevented two US strategic bombers B-52 from reaching the Russian border on Monday over the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry's National Defense Control Center (NDCC) reported on Monday.

"On March 20, 2023, the radars of the air defense forces of the Western Military District on duty detected two air targets flying in the direction of the state border of the Russian Federation over the Baltic Sea. The targets were identified as two strategic bombers B-52N of the US Air Force," the NDCC said.

In order to identify and prevent breach of the state border, a Su-35 fighter from the air defense forces of the Western Military District was scrambled. After that, the crew of the fighter occupied the established zone of duty in the air.

"After the removal of foreign military aircraft from the Russian state border, the Russian fighter returned to its base airfield," the center said.[.]

The latest scramble comes days after the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on March 14 that a US MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed in the Black Sea as a result of its own extreme maneuvers after violating airspace and carrying out its flight with transponders turned off.

The chickenhawks are Testing, Testing. These diversions will not make the banking crisis disappear. And Xi is on a visit to Moscow

Posted by: Likklemore | Mar 20 2023 21:19 utc | 137

French Gov’t BANS Cartoon Video About Ukraine War – The Cartoon is “Spot-on”

World Hal Turner 26 March 2023

The government of France has officially BANNED the one minute video below, which describes the Ukraine War perfectly, calling it “Russian Propaganda.” Sorry Macron, the truth hurts!

Here’s the cartoon by a French independent journalist group called “BarracudaS”

Meanwhile, the world grows weary of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, and his alleged Cocaine use. It’s becoming public mockery now, as evidenced by this “Mobile Tribute to Volodymyr Zelensky”:

And when the world isn’t poking fun at President Cocaine, they’re mocking his alleged Money Laundering:

I hear rumors that schools are even teaching this in Geometry:

While we’re all laughing, this Zelensky has now resorted to having Priests arrested, in church, DURING MASS:

ISRAEL ON VERGE OF POLITICAL & SOCIAL COLLAPSE

World Hal Turner 26 March 2023

This has become far more than a political/legal matter. The citizenry and institutions of state are engaging in almost outright rebellion against these proposed moves. Here’s how serious things have gotten TONIGHT:

“There Is No Way Out For You!” (2023)

Iran Moving MUCH More Military Gear to Azerbaijan Border

World Hal Turner 26 March 2023

Iran has increased the pace of moving military hardware toward its border with Azerbaijan.

All the latest type of military gear are now quite visible on the Iranian side of the Border.

Meanwhile, the Russian Southern Military District announced crews of army aviation helicopters Mi-8MTV-5 and Ka-52 performed training flights in the mountains of Armenia.

Russia and Iran are preparing to defend Armenia from Azerbaijan, which wants to grab the southern portion of Armenia so as to cut Iran off from Armenia, and cut Armenia off from the rest of the world.

Neither Russia nor Iran will allow that.

Breaking bad Tuco

African Nation CHAD has “Nationalized” Assets of Exxon-Mobil

World Hal Turner 26 March 2023

The government of Chad has decided to nationalize all the assets of the American oil and gas company Exxon Mobile located in the country. The decision to nationalize the assets of the American company
was made by the interim President of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby.

The nationalization of a private company means that all assets are now owned by the government. While this used to happen in the 1960s and 1970s, it hasn’t happened recently and doesn’t conform to usual legal frameworks in the sector, say energy experts.

Chad began producing oil in 2003 and Exxon has been operating in the country for several decades. It was running the Doba oil project in Chad.

The move could scare away investors from West Africa at a time of growing global energy demand and a decline in foreign investments in the region, said Olufola Wusu, a partner and head of the oil and gas desk at Megathos Law Practice based in Nigeria.

“Expropriation of any sort without compensation is not a step in the right direction, because it is going to erode investor confidence in that particular country and once investors are jittery, they pull back their investment, so regulators and leaders in Africa need to play by the rules,” he said.

The government’s decision came after a long dispute between Exxon and Chad, which rejected the sale of the company’s operations last year.

Tensions have risen in the West African nation in recent months with unprecedented protests mounting against the government of President Mahamat Idriss Deby.

Deby was declared the head of state after his father’s death in April 2021. The son’s succession did not follow Chad’s constitutional line of succession. Opposition political parties at the time called the handover a coup d’etat, but later agreed to accept Deby as interim leader for 18 months.

Chad is about to learn the reality of America: Capital (money) follows return. The Flag follows the money. Troops follow the flag.

The new young “president” of Chad should prepare for 500 and 1000lb democracy installments. I advise the interim President that air travel is not recommended. American special forces are in at least 9 African countries.

Finn Says That Vito A Fag – The Sopranos HD

Sunday Morning, Norway Sounds ALERT: Advanced Russian Subs & Missiles Detected, North Sea

World Hal Turner 26 March 2023

Norwegian Navy Commander: We have detected very modern Russian submarines with very advanced missiles in their arsenal in the North Sea, and this threatens the security of Europe and the United States.

Norway has not yet given further details about which submarines, but the “rumors” say Borei Class.

Borei class includes a compact and integrated hydrodynamically efficient hull for reduced broadband noise and the first ever use of pump-jet propulsion on a Russian nuclear submarine.

Russian news service TASS claimed the noise level is to be five times lower when compared to the third-generation nuclear-powered Akula-class submarines and two times lower than that of the U.S. Virginia-class submarines. The acoustic signature of Borei is significantly stealthier than that of the previous generations of Russian SSBNs, but it has been reported that their hydraulic pumps become noisier after a relatively short period of operation, reducing the stealth capabilities of the submarine.

The Borei submarines are approximately 170 meters (560 ft) long, 13 meters (43 ft) in diameter, and have a maximum submerged speed of at least 46 kilometers per hour (25 kn; 29 mph). They are equipped with a floating rescue chamber designed to fit in the whole crew.

Smaller than the Typhoon class, the Boreis were initially reported to carry 12 missiles but are able to carry four more due to the decrease in mass of the 36-ton Bulava SLBM (a modified version of the Topol-M ICBM) over the originally proposed R-39UTTH Bark. Cost was estimated in 2010 at some ₽23 billion (USD$734 million, equivalent to US$863 million in 2020 terms. In comparison the cost of an Ohio-class SSBN was around US$2 billion per boat (1997 prices, equivalent to over US$3 billion in 2020 terms.

Each Borei is constructed with 1.3 million components and mechanisms. Its construction requires 17 thousand tons of metal which is 50% more than the Eiffel Tower. The total length of piping is 109 km and the length of wiring is 600 km. Ten thousand rubber plates cover the hull of the boat.

Each Borei submarine is armed with 16 × RSM-56 Bulava SLBMs with 6 MIRV warhead. Those 16 Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) missiles with 6 warheads each, equals 96 total nuclear bombs, each of which is independently targetable. Each warhead is believed to be either 100 or 150 kiloton blast yield.

‘We’re dividing the world’: NZ no fan of AUKUS submarines

By Matthew Knott

A senior New Zealand politician has raised concerns about Australia’s plan to acquire a fleet nuclear-powered submarines, saying the AUKUS pact will make the region less safe and limit military co-operation between the two allies.

Defence Minister Richard Marles told parliament on Tuesday that nuclear-powered submarines would form part of Australia’s “contribution to the collective security of the neighbourhood in which we live” and would improve relations with its Asia-Pacific neighbours.

Gerry Brownlee, foreign affairs spokesman for New Zealand’s centre-right National Party, said he was concerned AUKUS was painting China as an “enemy” that needed to be contained.

New Zealand is a proud nuclear-free state that has formally declared its airspace and territorial waters as nuclear-free zones.

Asked if the nuclear-powered submarine fleet would make the region safer, Brownlee told AAP: “No, I don’t think it does.

“What I don’t like is the concept that we just seem to be dividing the world

Labor MP questions AUKUS deal

The Member for Fremantle Josh Wilson’s concerns include construction taking longer and costing more and what to do with nuclear waste.

He said he was concerned Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines would not be able to dock in New Zealand under its nuclear-free policy.

“We’ve only got one alliance. It is with Australia,” said Brownlee, who previously served as foreign minister and defence minister.

“Our position is that we should remain as interoperable with the Australians as we possibly can.

Democracy

Global Times announced the publication by China’s MFA of a scathing document, “The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022”, only available currently in Chinese, although my translator worked quite well. Its aim is to provide truths about what “democracy” is in reality within the Outlaw US Empire as Biden prepares to hold another propaganda summit on the topic at the end of March. What follows are the document’s concluding remarks:

Democracy is a value shared by all mankind, but there is no model of political system in the world that applies to all countries. The gardens of human civilization are rich and colorful, and democracy in all countries should also bloom. The United States has American-style democracy, China has Chinese-style democracy, and each country also has a unique model of democracy suited to its own national conditions. Whether a country is a democracy and how to better realize it should be judged by the people of that country, not by a few self-righteous countries.

Under the guise of democracy, harming others and disrupting the world should be unanimously opposed, and simply dividing the countries of the world into two categories, democracy and authoritarianism, lacks modernity and science. What the world needs today is not to create division in the name of democracy and to promote de facto unilateralism, but to strengthen solidarity and cooperation on the basis of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and to adhere to genuine multilateralism. What the world needs today is not to interfere in other countries' internal affairs under the guise of democracy, but to promote true democracy, abandon pseudo-democracy, and jointly promote democracy in international relations. What the world needs today is not a "democracy summit" that exaggerates confrontation and is not conducive to working together to address global challenges, but a solidarity conference that does more practical things and focuses on solving the outstanding problems facing the international community.

Freedom, democracy and human rights are the common pursuit of mankind and the values that the Communist Party of China has always pursued. China adheres to and develops people's democracy in the whole process, and concretely and realistically embodies the people's mastery of the country in the governance of the country by the Communist Party of China. China is willing to strengthen exchanges and mutual learning with other countries on the issue of democracy, carry forward the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind, promote democracy in international relations and make new and greater contributions to the cause of human progress.

Hopefully, China will quickly translate this into numerous languages and distribute it through its embassy’s globally.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 20 2023 18:43 utc | 91

Taiwan is always part of China, but war with Australia is a fallacy

Xiao Qian

Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Australia

“If the Pacific has become an area of military contest, the question will be, how does that manifest itself?

“Where would we be if the Australians decided they wanted a sub to visit? We can’t do that. We won’t change our laws. So there’ll be potentially a little bit of an issue around that.”

New Zealand will hold a general election in October, with a close contest expected between the governing Labour Party and the National Party.

New Zealand’s foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, is currently visiting China for the first such visit since 2019.

Mahuta said her nation’s relationship with China – which accounts for 30 per cent of New Zealand’s total exports – was “our most important, complex and wide-ranging”.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age reported this week that the labour movement will hold its annual May Day march in Port Kembla out of growing concern the Wollongong suburb could become the east-coast home for eight nuclear-powered vessels.

During a visit to Canberra last month New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the three AUKUS nations – Australia, the US and the UK – were “incredibly important security partners for New Zealand, but our nuclear-free policy hasn’t changed either”.

What is AUKUS and what are we getting in Australia’s biggest ever defence spend?

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark posted on Twitter: “New Zealand interests do not lie in being associated with AUKUS. Association would be damaging to independent foreign policy.”

Pointing to supportive comments from Fiji and Japan, while nations such as Indonesia and Malaysia were willing to discuss their concerns, Marles told parliament: “The response from our region to the announcement that we made last week has been gratifying. Australia draws our security from being a part of Asia and being located in the Indo-Pacific.”

Both CNN and FOX News Do Stories about “De-Dollarization” – If MSM is covering this; it’s because FedGov KNOWS what’s coming

Nation Hal Turner 27 March 2023

For literally decades, people scoffed-at “conspiracy theorists” talk about the US Dollar collapsing. They laughed at “the tin foil hat crowd” when it screamed from the rooftops that rampant over-spending would kill our currency. The responses to the conspiracy theorists and tin-foil-hat-crowd was simple: “The dollar is the world’s reserve currency; the world can’t do without it.” Turns out, the responses were wrong.

Within the past 24 hours, far left-wing CNN and far right-wing FOX NEWS have both begun airing stories about “De-Dollarization.” For both the far-left and the far-right main-stream-media to be airing such stories is no coincidence. That the MSM is now airing this means the powers-that-be in the US know – as a matter of absolute fact – the world __is__ turning its back on the Dollar, and that means trouble is coming to the US. Trouble on a scale that literally NONE of us has seen in our lifetimes.

We begin with the piece aired on FOX NEWS, which featured an interview with former Assistant US Treasury Secretary Monica Crowley. As you will see in the brief, 4:45 video below, she clearly mentions “Weimar Republic-type inflation” . . . . she’s talking about here. HERE! In the United States! Watch:

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1640178308246634496/vid/640x352/8tPCWdyr4WWPN_nu.mp4?tag=16

Next, the segment that aired on CNN:

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1640058570904416257/vid/1280x720/hnAf890m2HaDaLB4.mp4?tag=16

Folks, they’re beginning to tell the general public what’s coming.

CNN’s piece talked about the dollar suffering “a death by a thousand cuts.” THAT is what is going on. As the Dollar “bleeds-out” our cash will buy less and less. And CNN’s piece makes clear “America will face a reckoning like none before.”

You have to prepare. You have to get the things you will need, NOW. The you must begin changing how you hold assets and wealth. You need to put your “dollars” into something which is not “dollars” but will hold its value no matter what changes take place: things like real estate, shelf-stable foods, tools, and, of course, precious metals . . . . but be careful about those precious metals.. You can’t eat gold or silver. And since no aspect of our economy is moving toward the acceptance of either gold or silver in COMMERCE, having all your assets tied up in those metals would be a recipe for starvation.

The de-dollarization of the world is not going to happen overnight. Yet, it __is__ happening.

I am NOT a licensed financial expert. I do NOT have any special training or knowledge in matters financial and I cannot give financial advice.

What I _can_ do is tell you what’s actually taking place in the world so you can decide for yourselves about what — if anything — to do with your assets. You should consult with a Licensed financial expert before making any financial or investment decisions.

Having said that, for myself, I and members of my family choose to start making moves now with pension plan, IRA, 401-K and the like. Because having all our assets (what few we have) in “dollars” is suddenly becoming a very bad idea.

“Stay Out Of My Territory” | Over

They listened to me!

. . .from Global Times
China releases report that removes facade of American democracy

On the day that marked the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a report on Monday further unveiling the decline of American democracy and the chaos it has brought to the world under its disguise.

Analysts called the report, along with an increasing number of developing countries' growing discontent over US' hegemony, a "slap in the US face" and it helps remove the facade of American democracy, especially when the Biden administration is so keen on touting the "democracy versus authoritarianism" narrative for the second Summit for Democracy on March 29 and 30. 

The report, titled "The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022," contains four parts, and by collecting a multitude of facts, media comments and expert opinions, it presents a complete and real picture of American democracy over the year - not only revealing American democracy in chaos at home but also presenting the havoc and disaster the US has brought by peddling and imposing its democracy around the world. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 20 2023 19:41 utc | 103

Sweet Chili Meatballs

Round out your game-day lineup with an amazing flavor combination they won’t see coming – something sweet, tangy and savory that brings just the right amount of heat: Sweet Chili Meatballs.

Bite-size meatballs made with ginger, fresh cilantro, green onions and sweet chili sauce are baked before getting doused in even more sweet chili sauce, making them an irresistibly tasty addition to any game day spread. If the game heads into overtime, no need to worry because these meatballs will say warm in the slow cooker all game long.

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground turkey or ground beef
1/3 cup Japanese panko crumbs or bread crumbs
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely minced
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces Frank’s RedHot Sweet Chili Sauce, divided

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix ground meat, panko crumbs, cilantro, green onion, ginger, egg, salt and 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce. Form into one-inch meatballs.
Place meatballs on lightly greased baking sheets.
Bake 20 minutes, turning once halfway through. Put meatballs in slow cooker on warm.
With slow cooker on low to keep meatballs warm, pour remaining sweet chili sauce over meatballs. Gently stir to coat.

Why Would China Be An Enemy?

March 21, 2023 in Uncategorized by craig

I am completely at a loss as to why the UK should seek to join in with the US in considering China an enemy, and in looking to build up military forces in the Pacific to oppose China.In what sense are Chinese interests opposed to British interests? I am not sure when I last bought something which wasn’t maufactured in China. To my astonishment that even applies to our second hand Volvo, and it also applies to this laptop.I have stated this before but it is worth restating:I cannot readily think of any example in history, of a state which achieved the level of economic dominance China has now achieved, that did not seek to use its economic muscle to finance military acquisition of territory to increase its economic resources.In that respect China is vastly more pacific than the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain or any other formerly prominent power.Ask yourself this simple question. How many overseas military bases does the USA have? And how many overseas military bases does China have?Depending on what you count, the United States has between 750 and 1100 overseas military bases.China has between 6 and 9.

The last military aggression by China was its takeover of Tibet in 1951 and 1959. Since that date, we have seen the United States invade with massive destruction Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

The United States has also been involved in sponsoring numerous military coups, including military support to the overthrow of literally dozens of governments, many of them democratically elected. It has destroyed numerous countries by proxy, Libya being the most recent example.

China has simply no record, for over 60 years, of attacking and invading other countries.

The anti-Chinese military posture adopted by the leaders of US, UK and Australia as they pour astonishing amounts of public money into the corrupt military industrial complex to build pointless nuclear submarines, appears a deliberate attempt to create military tension with China.

Sunak recited the tired neoliberal roll call of enemies, condemning: “Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, China’s growing assertiveness, and destabilising behaviour of Iran and North Korea”.

What precisely are Iran and China doing, that makes them our enemy?

This article is not about Iran, but plainly western sanctions have held back the economic and societal development of that highly talented nation and have simply entrenched its theological regime.

Their purpose is not to improve Iran but to maintain a situation where Israel has nuclear weapons and Iran does not. If accompanied by an effort to disarm the rogue state of Israel, they might make more sense.

On China, in what does its “assertiveness” consist that makes it necessary to view it as a military enemy? China has constructed some military bases by artificially extending small islands. That is perfectly legal behaviour. The territory is Chinese.

As the United States has numerous bases in the region on other people’s territory, I truly struggle to see where the objection lies to Chinese bases on Chinese territory.

China has made claims which are controversial for maritime jurisdiction around these artificial islands – and I would argue wrong under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. But they are no more controversial than a great many other UNCLOS claims, for example the UK’s behaviour over Rockall.

China has made, for example, no attempt to militarily enforce a 200 mile exclusive economic zone arising from its artificial islands, whatever it has said. Its claim to a 12 mile territorial sea is I think valid.

Similarly, the United States has objected to pronouncements from China that appear contrary to UNCLOS on passage through straits, but again this is no different from a variety of such disputes worldwide. The United States and others have repeatedly asserted, and practised, their right of free passage, and met no military resistance from China.

So is that it? Is that what Chinese “aggression” amounts to, some UNCLOS disputes?

Aah, we are told, but what about Taiwan?

To which the only reply is, what about Taiwan? Taiwan is a part of China which separated off under the nationalist government after the Civil War. Taiwan does not claim not to be Chinese territory.

In fact – and this is far too little understood in the West because our media does not tell you – the government of Taiwan still claims to be the legitimate government of all of China.

The government of Taiwan supports reunification just as much as the government of China, the only difference being who would be in charge.

The dispute with Taiwan is therefore an unresolved Chinese civil war, not an independent state menaced by China. As a civil war the entire world away from us, it is very hard to understand why we have an interest in supporting one side rather than the other.

Peaceful resolution is of course preferable. But it is not our conflict.

There is no evidence whatsoever that China has any intention of invading anywhere else in the China Seas or the Pacific. Not Singapore, not Japan and least of all Australia. That is almost as fantastic as the ludicrous idea that the UK must be defended from Russian invasion.

If China wanted, it could simply buy 100% of every public listed company in Australia, without even noticing a dent in China’s dollar reserves.

Which of course brings us to the real dispute, which is economic and about soft power. China has massively increased its influence abroad, by trade, investment, loans and manufacture. China is now the dominant economic power, and it can only be a matter of time before the dollar ceases to be the world’s reserve currency.

China has chosen this method of economic expansion and prosperity over territorial acquisition or military control of resources.

That may be to do with Confucian versus Western thought. Or it may just be the government in Beijing is smarter than Western governments. But growing Chinese economic dominance does not appear to me a reversible process in the coming century.

To react to China’s growing economic power by increasing western military power is hopeless. It is harder to think of a more stupid example of lashing out in blind anger. It is a it like peeing on your carpet because the neighbours are too noisy.

Aah, but you ask. What about human rights? What about the Uighurs?

I have a large amount of sympathy. China was an Imperial power in the great age of formal imperialism, and the Uighurs were colonised by China. Unfortunately the Chinese have followed the West’s “War on Terror” playbook in exploiting Islamophobia to clamp down on Uighur culture and autonomy.

I very much hope that this reduces, and that freedom of speech improves in general across China.

But let nobody claim that human rights genuinely has any part to play in who the Western military industrial complex treats as an enemy and who it treats as an ally. I know it does not, because that is the precise issue on which I was sacked as an Ambassador.

The abominable suffering of the children of Yemen and Palestine also cries out against any pretence that Western policy, and above all choice of ally, is human rights based.

China is treated as an enemy because the United States has been forced to contemplate the mortality of its economic dominance.

China is treated as an enemy because that is a chance for the political and capitalist classes to make yet more super profits from the military industrial complex.

But China is not our enemy. Only atavism and xenophobia make it so.

————————————————

Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.

Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.

Breaking Bad – Gustavo Fring’s Revenge

The Chinese leader’s visit comes at a time when bilateral relations are at an all-time high, according to Russian officials

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on Monday for a three-day state visit to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. During the summit, the two sides will discuss strategic cooperation in the energy and military spheres, as well as the Ukraine conflict. (emphasis added here)

Xi said he was happy to be back in Russia after landing at Vnukovo Airport, and stressed the importance of strong relations between Beijing and Moscow, not just for the nations themselves but also for the wider international community.

The Chinese leader asserted that together with Russia, his nation is ready to “defend with resolve the UN-centric international system.”  The two countries would endeavor to “abide by true multipolarity and foster a multipolar world with democratized international relations, to encourage the development of global affairs in a direction that would be more just and rational,” Xi added.

Later in the day, the Chinese leader is scheduled to hold an informal meeting with Putin which will focus on “key and sensitive issues,” according to Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov.

The main round of talks, however, will take place on Tuesday, with the Chinese leader also expected to meet with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Later, the Russian and Chinese delegations will hold negotiations in an expanded format.

[.] 
In total, Moscow and Beijing are set to sign a dozen documents outlining bilateral cooperation, including two major joint statements.[.] (emphasis added here)

LINK to RT

We are spectators to a global shift off the Richter scale.
Heart attacks due in D.C.

Posted by: Likklemore | Mar 20 2023 18:55 utc | 94

Astonishing!

«astonishing geopolitical developments. […] China publicly lambasted U.S. hegemony […] Moscow rolled out the red carpet for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. […] Today China’s President Xi arrived in Moscow for three days of talks with Russia’s President Putin. […] Xi and Putin are now running the multilateral global show. Biden and the hapless ‘unilateral’ people around him are left aside.»

This is nothing astonishing, just a repeat of Cold War news, almost unchanged, with the “second world” made of PRC and RF and a few others (Korea-North, Iran, Mongolia, Cuba, …) is again “contained” behind the Iron Curtain, just as
The “first world” has expanded enormously (eastern Europe, most of south-east Asia and western Asia, most of Africa), and the “third world” led as usual by India is as usual playing both sides, but mostly pro-USA.

Sometimes our bar host “b” sounds to me quite fond of wishful thinking, like the others who overplay the “multilaterality” and “collapse of the USA hegemony” claims.

Realistically speaking the USA are still enormously powerful, they have kept most of the huge gains made during the past 30-40 years, and they are successfully isolating RF and PRC behind a new Iron Curtain to prevent their vassals from defecting.

Posted by: Blissex | Mar 20 2023 19:03 utc | 97

U.S. Embassy to Americans: “Leave Israel Immediately”

World Hal Turner 27 March 2023

The United States Embassy in Jerusalem has told Americans to “Leave Israel Immediately.” The country of Israel is descending rapidly into what some have called “Civil War.”

Unions have gone on strike. The airports have all shut down. Restaurants, banks, shopping malls, have all joined in a national strike against proposed changes to the government that would basically gut the Judiciary of Israel.

Members of the Israeli military are openly DESERTING after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu FIRED the Defense Minister for opposing judicial reforms.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barack says Netanyahu and his “gang” are “acting insane and bringing civil war to the country.”

Israel’s Counsel General in New York has resigned.

For almost a whole week, hundreds-of-thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in every major city of the country.

There are now open calls from the far right inside Israel, for people to “take up arms” against left-wingers in the country.

Israel is descending into chaos . . . . just days after introducing legislation that would make it a criminal offense, punishable by two years prison, for discussing . . . Jesus. . . anywhere in the country or online. (Story HERE)

Interesting turn of events.

Ukraine Troops Training inside UK with — DEPLETED URANIUM TANK PROJECTILES

World Hal Turner 27 March 2023

The United Kingdom is, in fact, training Ukrainian Soldiers on the proper handling and USE of Depleted Uranium tank projectiles. The image below was secreted out of a UK training facility . . .

Back on March 21, the Deputy Defense Minister of the United Kingdom publicly acknowledged that the UK will be supplying Depleted Uranium Ammunition to Ukraine forces to utilize in certain weapons platforms supplied to Ukraine by NATO. (Story HERE)

Russia has made clear that if Depleted Uranium ammunition is given to Ukraine, this will be viewed by Russia as an attack with “Dirty nuclear bombs” and Russia will respond accordingly.

Here now, an image secreted out of a UK training facility where Ukraine troops are, in fact, being given training on how to handle and use such ammunition:

The United States has become the meme for depravity, politics, and war-mongering

I’ve watched snippets of the Congressional “hearings” in Tictok being banned. What a “horse show”. Forget about the context. Look at the hatred and anger spewing from Congress. This is America today.

Aching. Ready for a fight.

Helpless. Impotent. Frustrated.

Gonna get bad before it gets better.

The NYT’s Ed Lee calls TikTok CEO’s congressional testimony ‘brutal’

Anti-chinese hysteria, pure and simple.

Reality 2023

Swiss abandoned neutrality and confiscated Russian assets. Threatens to do the same to China if she sides with Russia.

Swiss banks’ clients, new and existing, are scared. Funds run to Singapore and Hong Kong, etc. HSBC (HK & Shanghai Banking Corp) needed to arrange extra staff working over weekends to handle the transactions.

Now Swiss’ own working group declares the confiscation unconstitutional and unlawful. Will the Swiss ruling party or politicians be responsible for the illegal acts?

See Reuters below:

ZURICH, Feb 15 (Reuters) – The confiscation of private Russian assets would undermine the Swiss constitution and the prevailing legal order, the Swiss government said on Wednesday, citing the findings of a working group set up by the Federal Office of Justice.

A working body set up to discuss the issue said the expropriation of private assets of lawful origin without compensation was not permissible under Swiss law.

“The confiscation of frozen private assets is inconsistent with the Federal Constitution and the prevailing legal order and violates Switzerland’s international commitments,” the Swiss Justice Ministry said on Wednesday.

Switzerland’s banks had also been against the confiscation. “There is no legal basis for confiscation today,” the Swiss Bankers Association said last month.

Evanescence – Bring Me To Life (Official Music Video)

Brothers in tech, trade, currency and military arms, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

It spells the death knell for the West's 500-year colonial rape and plunder of Planet Earth.

From HERE

Article:

Fantine Gardinier

During their multi-day talks in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate in building a world no longer centered on Washington, DC, or Europe.

However, that world order won’t simply be one that replaces the United States as the global hegemon, but one that is built upon multipolar relations and a rapidly developing Global South, Fabio Massimo Parenti, a PhD in geopolitics and geoeconomics and associate professor of international political economy and geopolitics at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Noting that Putin told Xi he supports using Chinese renminbi (RMB) or yuan as an international means of payment and reserve currency, Parenti said it was part of a larger effort to de-center the US dollar in the global economy.

“The yuan is already the fifth international currency in the world, in terms of global circulation and official reserves. The China-Russia rapprochement has gone hand in hand with global economic transformation towards multipolarity, which passes through a monetary system shift,” he explained.

Parenti said he agreed with Putin’s statement about the importance of China and Russia combining their information technology and artificial intelligence efforts as a sort of “tech alliance,” saying such cooperation is going to be key in the future, especially as the West tries to target both nations’ tech sectors.

“China is already a world leader in many fields and Russia can benefit a lot from its partner’s ability and development,” he said. “At the same time, China can benefit from Russia’s new open market left by Westerners, from Russian raw materials and TLC education and expertise.”

“Combining financial resources with raw materials, talents and market size, both countries can find mutual advantages by bolstering bilateral relations at an even higher strategic level,” he asserted. “It goes without saying that all of these developments will increase both countries’ independence from every sort of Western sanctions.”

“First, I think that Western sanctions are an abuse and generally detrimental for people’s daily lives. Therefore, whilst the West attacks political systems and leaders, it is actually attacking the people of entire countries. Second, the Western abuse of unilateral sanctions is surely accelerating other powers’ reorganization, [who are] searching for a greater level of independence and autonomy. Under this respect, I believe that both China and Russia can take advantage of this sanctions crisis/impact.”

Turning to Beijing’s proposal for peace in Ukraine – and Washington’s rejection of such a deal – Parenti said that time and again, “the US has confirmed itself as the biggest threat to humanity, the main promoter of wars, the most irresponsible country, incapable of promoting peace talks and peaceful coexistence.”

“They look only at hegemony and unipolarity, rejecting a democratization of international relations. Herein Russia-China ties find their quite recent historical roots. Only starting from this consciousness can we understand these two great countries’ will to build a multipolar world system, along with many other countries of the ‘Global South’ historically enslaved by the West. All of this, in the Chinese view, means building a community with a shared future for humanity.”

Jeff J. Brown, author of The China Trilogy, editor at China Rising Radio Sinoland and co-founder and curator of the Bioweapon Truth Commission, told Sputnik that China and Russia “clearly” know that “the West’s historical ability to rape and plunder the world’s resources for the last 500 years has been enforced by an imposed reserve currency, earlier the British pound and postwar, the US dollar.”

“Among non-Western currencies, the Chinese yuan [RMB] is the most sought after to de-dollarize global trade, due to the size and scope of its [China’s] economy. With Russia’s SPSF [System for Transfer of Financial Messages’] interbank wire system, any use of the RMB is going to enhance the ruble,” he noted.

“If India and Brazil buy Russian oil and gas in yuan using the SPSF, it can use them to trade with China, whose bilateral total will easily surpass US$200 billion this year.”

Brown noted that for more than five years, the US dollar has faced “death by a thousand cuts” around the world.

“Russia and China trading in their national currencies is more than a cut, it is a gash,” he said.

He explained that when it comes to SPSF, “countries are lining up to participate, including China, India, Iran and even Germany and Switzerland. Little known is that China has its own payment system, the Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System (CIPS). Now that the West’s SWIFT has cut off Russia and China knows it could be next, there are plans to integrate these two anti-SWIFTs,” he predicted.

Among those that could join such a Russian-Chinese financial “coalition” are the BRICS nations, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and oil giant Saudi Arabia, the lattermost of which he said was “probably the most disconcerting for Western empire.”

Brown said that “Westerners underestimate Russia’s historical and broad technical prowess. While there is some overlap with China (nuclear, military and aerospace), they have much to offer each other to cooperate in high-tech industries. Why not a combined ‘Manhattan Project’ for microchips, a big problem for both countries? The opportunities are endless.”

The expert also noted that China has benefited “plenty” from Western sanctions against Russia, pointing out that China has been “a win-win partner” for countries around the globe by helping them address trade imbalances in the energy, agricultural, and tech sectors.

“After what the USA and its vassals have done to both Russia and China, in terms of onerous, hegemonic sanctions in the recent years, China and Russia are benefitting tremendously with all their initiatives to enhance bilateral, Asian and African trade,” Brown said. “Over time, sanctions have never worked, especially against two big, powerful and rich countries.”

“All of these Western imperial sanctions are already a huge catalyst for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to seek synergies, as well as China’s SCO and Russia’s Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). ASEAN is tired of US subterfuge, BRICS is expanding and Latin America’s anti-colonial CELAC all have much to offer for continuing multipolar, mutually beneficial integration,” he added.

Buffalo Chicken Pie

Love Buffalo wings? Pack a punch of Buffalo flavor in an easy-to-make chicken pie.

Prep Time: 15 min | Total Time: 45 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken strips*
1/2 cup Buffalo wing sauce
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled blue cheese
1 cup (about 2 1/2 stalks) chopped celery
1 cup Original Bisquick® mix
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2/3 cup blue cheese dressing

* Use refrigerated cooked chicken strips (from two 6 ounce packages) or any cooked chicken for this recipe.

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. In large bowl, toss chicken and Buffalo wing sauce until well coated.
Stir in cheeses and celery.
Pour into ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate.
In medium bowl, mix Bisquick mix, cornmeal, milk and egg. Pour over chicken mixture; spread to cover.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown.
Cut into wedges; drizzle with blue cheese dressing.

I Went To The Most Republican County In America

What’s the most embarrassing thing your father caught you doing?

When I was 14 or 15, my dad found a playboy magazine under my bed. I was summoned, and he yelled at me for 15 minutes. I couldn’t tell you a word he was saying because he was that mad, that loud, and I was simply terrified. You have to understand that my father was hard-core Christian and did NOT brook with any such thing as pornography. He spent a long time in that tirade talking about the evils of porn.

At the end of the tirade, he finally demanded, “WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU EVEN GET SUCH A THING!?”

I was way to terrified to lie, so I told him the truth, “Under *your* bed.”

At which point he turned beet red, stood there for several seconds, and then walked out of my room and never said another word about it.

After that he started hiding the Playboys in his closet.

US considering barring Chinese airlines using Russian airspace

The arrogance! I suppose that will stop Xi Peng’s visit to Moscow, eh?

The Transportation Department of the United States of America is considering imposing a ban on Chinese airlines which use of Russian airspace. On Friday, three officials from the Biden administration told The New York Times that the US is eying to impose a ban on Chinese airlines and other competitors who are using Russian airspace to fly passengers to the United States. The decision came in the midst of the raging Russia-Ukraine war. After the war broke out in February last year, several allies of the Ukrainian bloc decided to stop using Russian airspace in fear for the safety of the passengers. Meanwhile, China and the US have strained relationships over wide-ranging issues.

Last Monday, a proposal was submitted to the national security team about pushing an order obliging China to follow the same restrictions followed by US airlines and others. After the catastrophic war broke out, countries like the United States, the UK, Canada, etc not only decided to fly over Russian airspace, but they also banned Russian aircraft from flying over their airspace. However, many countries are still using Russian airspace for convenient travel. According to The New York Times, these restrictions have impacted the business of American airlines to a great extent. “Foreign airlines using Russian airspace on flights to and from the U.S. are gaining a significant competitive advantage over U.S. carriers in major markets, including China and India,” a US official asserted last month. “This situation is direct to the benefit of foreign airlines and at the expense of the United States as a whole, with fewer connections to key markets, fewer high-paying airline jobs, and a dent in the overall economy,” they added.

From HERE

The Monkees – Daydream Believer (Official Music Video)

What are the lessons people most often learn too late in life?

Steve Jobs, Jobs’s last words.

He died a billionaire at 56 years old from pancreatic cancer, and here are his last words on a sick bed:

′′I reached the peak of success in the business world. My life is the epitome of success in the opinion of others.

But, I have nothing to be happy about except work. In the end, wealth is just a reality of life that I am used to.
It was then, lying on a sick bed reminiscing my whole life, I realized all the recognition and the wealth that I was very proud of, became pale and meaningless in the face of the impending death.

You can hire someone to drive for you and make money for you, but you can't make someone else take the illness from you. Lost substance can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when lost -”life".

When a person enters the operating room, he will find that there is a book that has not yet been read - ′′ The Healthy Living Book ". No matter what stage of life we are in right now, over time we will face the day when the curtain falls.Cherish the family that loves you, love your spouse, love your friends... be kind to yourself.

As we age, we gradually realize that wearing a $300 or $30 watch - they tell the same time.

Whether we carry $300 or $30 purse / handbag - the money inside is the same.

Whether we drive a $150k car or a $30,000 car, the road and distance are the same and we reach the same destination.

Whether we drink a $300 bottle or a $10 bottle of wine - hangover is the same.

The house we live in 300 sq ft or 3000 sq ft - loneliness is the same.

You will realize that your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world.

Whether you take a plane on first or on economy class, if the plane collapses - you'll go with the flow.

Therefore, I hope you can recognize that when you have a partner, buddy, old friend, sibling, you talk, laugh, talk, sing, talk about North East Southwest or Heaven and Earth... that is true happiness!!”

Four undeniable facts of life:

1. Don’t educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. Therefore, when they grow up, they will know the value of things, not the price.
2. words for the best reward in London……”Take your food as your medicine. Otherwise you have to take medication as your food.”
3. The person who loves you will never leave you to someone else because even if there are 100 reasons to give up on him or her, they will find a reason to hold on. There are huge differences between people.
4. Only a few really understand it. You were loved when you were born. You will be loved when you die. In between, you have to manage!

Note: If you want to go fast, go alone! But if you want to go far, go together!

“wisdom doesn’t automatically come with old age. Nothing does, except wrinkles. It’s true some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place”

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning is young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young”

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed” -Mahatma Gandhi

“Poor are those who need too much, because those who need too much are never satisfied” -Jose Mujica, Former President of Uruguay

“If you really think the environment is less important than economy, try holding your breath while you count your money” -Dr. Guy McPherson, an environmental, health and industry activist.

There are 4 types of wealth:
1. financial wealth (money)
2. social wealth (status)
3. time wealth (freedom)
4. physical wealth (health)
be wary of job that lure you in with 1 and 2 but robs you with 3 and 4.

Six top doctors in the world
1. Sunshine
2. Rest
3. Exercise
4. Healthy diet
5. Confidence
6. Friends

Veruca Salt – Seether

We are headed into Collapse. Been this way for over 3,000 years.

Nation Hal Turner 19 March 2023

We do not learn from history because our studies are brief and prejudiced.

In a surprising manner, 250 years emerges as the average length of national greatness. This average has not varied for 3,000 years.

The stages of the rise and fall of great nations seem to be:

The Age of Pioneers ,
The Age of Conquests ,
The Age of Commerce ,
The Age of Affluence ,
The Age of Intellect ,
The Age of Decadence.

Decadence is marked by:

Defensiveness,
Pessimism,
Materialism,
Frivolity
An influx of foreigners
The Welfare State
A weakening of religion.

Decadence is due to:

Too long a period of wealth and power,
Selfishness,
Love of money ,
The loss of a sense of duty.

"The life histories of great states are amazingly similar, and are due to internal factors. Their falls are diverse, because they are largely the result of external causes." 

- Sir John Glubb The Fate of Empires

We are at the end of the Age of Decadence, heading into COLLAPSE.

Frankly, we’re ahead of schedule.

Kansas – Carry on Wayward Son (Official Video)

People Who Compete For The Title Of The Worst Boss Ever

We all look for a real leader in our boss. The one who can have our backs, who motivates and inspires. It’s a person you can thoroughly trust, learn from, and grow together with professionally.

The truth is, in reality, exactly the opposite can happen. Our managers, bosses and supervisors can downright make our life a living hell. And having in mind that we spend 40 hours a week and 2,080 working hours a year with them, this is a huge lump of our life to spend in misery.

bad annoying bosses 10 63e6472a7f037 700

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bad annoying bosses 13 63e6477283dea 700

bad annoying bosses 127 63ef547a53fca 700

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bad annoying bosses 34 63e9f46c2a9d5 700

Journey – Any Way You Want It (Official Video – 1980)

Why would the US ever even consider getting into an armed conflict over Taiwan knowing the potential implications and how deadly serious they are?

Here, we will discuss the REAL and actual reason. If you want to read about what others think, there’s around nine other pontifications on this question.

Around the late 1990’s, it was becoming increasingly obvious to the United States “leadership” that the original plan to “tame China” and make it into a proxy nation was not going so well. China was growing too fast. It remained incorrigible. And injected operatives were having a difficult time impressing “American thoughts, ideas and values” on the Chinese people.

After the failed color revolution (NED sponsored event known in the West as the TianAnMen massacre”), the United States turned to RAND to come up with policy projections. They saw the “crystal ball” and read an uncomfortable future.

The RAND studies can be broken down into groupings of policy.

Taiwan seizure
First Island Chain basing
Second island chain basing
Recapture of HK
Recapture of TIbet
Destabilization of Xinjiang along the Afghanistan model
Farming destruction and famine
Psyops
Bioweapon suppression Events
Blockade
Sanctions city
AUKUS
India (Southern flank attack)

As you can see, the plans constructed by RAND were detailed and substantive. They also came (early on, mind you) to the conclusion that a direct conflict with China was very dangerous. Thus, their plans has been, and still are, to weaken China in many ways, and then break it up into parts for greater American control.

Now, there has been a lot of things that has happened in the last 25 years regarding China. But like it, agree with it or not, one thing is very clear. China has dealt with each and every RAND operational plan adroitly. Most of the implementation policies have been interrupted, and in many cases stopped completely. Making China stronger, and now, quite a formidable power.

For purposes of this discussion, let’s look at the individual efforts, and what happened.

Taiwan seizure

In process. In 2014, American backed separatists took control of the DPP, and took control of Taiwan’s government. They outlawed opposition parties, held purging efforts, and followed the Ukraine model. As it stands today, the major opposition party the KMT has a large enough block to counter balance the current DPP regime, and the United States is fearful of a complete take over, so they are accelerating the timetable for full seizure of Taiwan and turning it into a proxy nation. An “aircraft carrier” from which to launch the invasion of China like what happened in the 1930’s with japan.

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First Island Chain basing

Failed. China has complete and utter control of the waters in and around the “first island chain”. This control is complex and very detailed, but an ONI review presented to President Trump in early 2017 was so convincing that war-mongers John Bolton and Mike Pompeo reluctantly advised a tactical retreat to “second island chain” basing policy.

Second island chain basing

In process. The plan is still to maintain American basing on the “second island chain”. However, ONI has advised that China has an “incredible” force of “near invisible” “attributes” that would be severely problematic when a war occurs. I am unaware of what these advisements refer to. As it stands, the USN believes that it can effectively suppress them with little effort.

Recapture of HK

Failed. The NED “color revolution”, known as the “pro-democracy movement” in HK during the 2018–2019 riots was effectively and absolutely suppressed. Making HK stronger, and closer to China than ever before.

Recapture of TIbet

Failed. Another NED (attempted) “color revolution”. Failed abruptly and suddenly, and the mop up operation was quick. No Western coverage.

Destabilization of Xinjiang along the Afghanistan model

Failed. Took more time than one would expect. The United States had been arming and radicalizing the local Uighur Muslims for decades. China had to clamp down, make substantive changes in the region and wiped out the NED pockets of control.

Farming destruction and famine

Failed. From 2016 through 2019, there were eight bio-weapons targeting livestock. And over thirty different kinds of (in some cases genetically modified) pests that devastate crops. Because pig farms were so widely scattered, swine flu needed to be sprayed from drones. This effort caused an increase in food prices, and a spike in access, but that all recovered. In addition, the Chinese confederates to the CIA turned sides in 2020 and provided a wealth of information to the PLA.

Psyops

Failed. Psyops promoting American-style “democracy” and a hatred of Communism pretty much collapsed. The antics of the Trump administration erased any gains in whatever pockets that the effort had attained.

Bioweapon suppression Events

Failed. There were three bio-weapons unleashed on China. The first was the “B” strain of Covid during 2020 CNY. The second was the “death by vomiting” Tick virus in July 2020, and the third was the nasty “death by diarrhea” virus unleashed in August 2020. Chinese anti-viral measures caught all attempts, secured the infected individuals and suppressed the assaults.

Blockade

Reduced threat. The RAND studies were written at a time when the primary bulk of trade (conducted by China) was sea route reliant. Since then, the BRI land route through XinJiang opened up and now, a sizable percentage of trade goes by overland routes to Asia, Europe, and Africa. The sea lanes are still susceptible to blockade, but the primary nations affected by this kind of blockade are the United States, UK, and Britain.

Sanctions

Neutered. China has effectively been partnering up with a vast majority of nations to use other currencies instead of the USD. In addition, it has been selling off it’s treasury holdings. In addition, China has developed a tit4tat reverse-sanctions policy that would cause great damage to any nation trying to sanction China.

AUKUS

In process. Both Japan and Australia with some participation with the Philippines, are gearing up to become the next “Ukraine” battle zones. The United States is sending weapons, training, and American military leadership to fortify these areas so that they can “hold out” and wage a war of attrition against China. Media control in these nations are readying the population to acceptance of dying for the “American way of life”.

India (Southern flank attack)

Battleground. India is torn between the East and the West. There are elements that hate China. Elements that love Russia. Elements that want American statehood, and everything in between. India is playing the “neutral card” as best that it can. And American assets are working behind the scenes to push India to obey American policy dictates.

And so…

This is the situation. So to answer this question if “America would ever…”. Do not be naive. The Untied States is actively engaging China. It’s not going as well as the “leadership” hopes, but it could be worse. I do not have a crystal ball as to what will happen. But I can make predictions.

No matter what happens, the United States will continue falling into a dark pit of decay. The only question, at this point of time, is how many other nations will it drag down with it?

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Pie

Ingredients

12 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Chopped onion to taste
4 eggs
1 cup Bisquick
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Butter a 9-inch pie pan.
Layer bacon crumbs on bottom and cheese on top.
Beat remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour over top.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes.
Garnish with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and bacon.

Why do transgenders say they’re being persecuted when in reality they’re given more rights than most people?

I am sure there are places where transgenders are actively being persecuted, but over here in China this is 100% not the case.

Trans people are also not given more rights than normal people. Here we go by meritocracy, where you are judged only on prior and current performance. If you are smart, you will do well, if you are moral, you will do well, if you love our country, you will do well. But if you are a narcissist and or a corrupt and or a China hater, you will not do well here.

This is how we normally think in China. I don’t know why the American ‘transgender activists’ are so obsessed about this trans stuff.

We consider the US obsession with these cluster B personality disorders and the trans activists’ war on society to be a joke in and of itself, and we will soundly reject any of these unscientific rubbish from ever coming to our country.

I really hate that people think that this shit is so called communist, because we are actual communists over here and we will never let this shit fly in our country.

I am grateful my country bans Facebook and Twitter, if this is the shit they peddle every single day.

Trans trans trans trans trans… like wtf? Actual trans people are like 0.1% of the population and just want to live their own lives in peace without being bothered by these stupid activists.

I have a feeling most trans activists are not even transgender people, but rather just dick riders, trans chasers, and woke girls seeking not to get excommunicated from their cliques. Of course there are transgender people who are also trans activists, no shit there, but most of the people I see who dare not define what a woman is on the Western internet are stupid woke girls age 15–25 that are not even transgender.

You guys are trying to destroy your own society. I’m Chinese and we have learned the lessons of Cultural Revolution. It’s crazy how I am seeing shit similar to Cultural Revolution (and fascism from both the Democrat and Republican Party) unfold in the US at the same time.

I think it goes to show that once a trend is created, the people who are too scared to have any moral principle and integrity of their own, these people with no backbone are going to do the worst damage to society. The real billionaires funding this trans movement are just going to sit back and laugh.

And they will hop on the next trend, because they don’t actually care for trans people and they will do the next trendy thing.

At the core this trans activism issue can only be solved by solving the underlying issues of why men are treating women wrong, and why girls and women are going to stupid trend groups instead of following legitimate groups who want to be intellectual and cool at the same time.

Meanwhile, we continue to advance, and judge people by their merits.

Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer 2012 Live Video FULL HD

Chinese Elections

Herewith is an overview of the newly appointed or confirmed politicians by the National People’s Congress on 10.03.2023

These are the 7 members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party China:

Van Halen – Panama (Official Music Video)

How does China build so many massive infrastructures so quickly without any bureaucratic hurdles? What is special about China’s bureaucracy?

The Reasons?

Here are some reasons

(a) Eminent Domain – This is one of the main reasons. When a Committee in China decides to build something – it takes over all the surrounding land without one seconds hesitation no matter how many residents live there or what else exists (Unless it is environmental). Its called Eminent Domain.

You will have some officials visit you and tell you to vacate your flat within 90 – 180 days (Depending) and that you will be paid market value of your flat times 1.4 – 3.1 depending on Area (Upto 2018) and if you dont vacate – the demolishing begins on the 91st and 181st day.

On the 84th or 85th day – you get the amount deposited into your account and you are asked to leave as planned by the 91st or 181st day.

Even if you dispute this amount (You believe you should be paid more) you can go to a special court to ask for higher value but you have to leave your flat.

If you dont – the authorities will either arrest you or demolish the building with you in it after 24 hours of manual checks.

As a result – China gets a Clear area of even upto 10 Hectares in 6 – 7 months flat.

No Stay Orders, No PILS, No Opposition Dharnas, No Residents Protests – nothing. Sheer and Brutal Efficiency.

Who can resist Eminent Domain? If you registered your land prior to 1.1.1972 then you can avoid Eminent Domain but then your rights are revoked. You can no longer claim insurance for damage to your property or even file for civil or criminal claims. (Say a Car runs off this round ring road and crashed on to this building and 7 people die – their bodies will be treated as Dog bodies and tossed out without any Civil or Criminal charges against the Driver or the Authorities or Insurance agencies)

(b) 99 / 999 Year Lease – Thats for Freehold Land. Most of the land in Village areas are Leased Land where you lease land with the Govt for 99 / 999 years. This means the Govt can simply take back their land and offer you another land.

One fine day – the Party rep comes and tells you – all your leases have changed. You will be given similar quality land in another part of the province (The Law is within 50 Kilometers radius) and you are to leave in 90/180 days. Thats all. You may have spent 20 years but sorry. You will be given a compensation for moving and a compensation for building a house.

To be fair you dont get shafted – you get similar land and same size and you will get houses built by the Public Housing Authority at standard rates with good efficiency.

And when they come to clear the Village – you have 10 – 20 Buses and you board with luggage for your new life.

No Protests, No PILs, No Stay Orders, Just Sheer Brutal Efficiency.

In 7 months you have the land you need for a Major infrastructure project.

This Village was cleared for a Dam Project in a mere 42 Days. The residents were built a new Village around 38 Miles away with better houses.

(c) Engineering Quality and The Construction Blitzkrieg

Have you heard of a Blitzkrieg? Where Germany would march at 10 times the normal speed and take over territories in days.

The Blitzkrieg was originally developed in South Korea but China is now a master having stolen the art from the Singaporeans beautifully.

It is like a full force. Geotechnical Engineers studying the soil and designing the foundation, Structural Engineers, Construction Engineers, Professional Engineers (Handling the Management), Consultants from Britain or Canada or Israel and a huge number of Cranes of various sizes equipped to handle weights of even 25 -50 Tonnes.

Quality testing on site through a dedicated team.

High Quality Steel or RC, High Quality Skilled Workers, First rate scaffolding – It looks like an Army at work.

(d) Finest Materials – Roads are Graded G4 Rubber Asphalt Composite. Only Japan, Malaysia and South Korea and Singapore use them in Asia. Our own Bharat uses the far more inferior Fractional Distillaton Grade Refined Asphant (FDGR Asphalt) for Highways and Crude Tarring Stone for Local roads that cannot survive the next two rains

Excellent Steel with Ore imported from all over the world to make up for a shortfall, Impinging Technique being revolutionary in the world (Right now better than any other nation)

(e) Finest Engineers – Deng sent students in the 1970s and 1980s to Universities all over the world in Canada, UK, Singapore, Europe, USA – and they learnt everything they had to learn – worked for 10 – 15 years for European companies and returned to China and began to lay the foundations for the best Engineering Design in the world.

By 2005- Chinese Engineers were among the best. Only Israelis and Canadians could be said to be better in Construction and Civil Engineering.

It is to be noted that Chinese engineers who attended prestigious Soviet Institutions also contributed massively to the country.

(f) Power Decisions

There is a Crystal Clear structure of Power. Every 5 years each Region has a 5/9/14 member Reorganization Committee or Infrastructure Committee constituted by the CCP responsible for reconstruction and awarding licenses. Licensing is transparent and bidding is done by Hidden Tender Method (Name and Details are wiped out).

This Committee cannot be impeded by a Court Order which they can tear up in 10 seconds, by the local leadership whose interference they can stop in 10 minutes or by the local police law authority whose interference they can stop in 10 seconds.

Imagine such a power committee in India. The Local MLA can be booted out or even arrested for interference. The Minority leaders can be arrested or beaten to pulp for interference or even shot. The Judges will be told to get lost. The MPS will be kicked on their rump for interfering

The Result – Sheer Brutal but Brilliant Efficiency.

But the constant whining says “Democracy…..Freedom…..Peoples Rights…..”

People get compensated at least 5 times faster than countries like India
People get re-allocated at least 5 times faster than countries like India
An Engineer who screws up is held responsible and accountable and the Committee assumes responsibility unlike India where the Poor engineer is alone whereas the Corrupt MP or MLA or Politicians or Officials are left well alone.
100% of machinery is locally made and readily available unlike India where at least 43% is imported and 19% is made exclusively by foreign technology.

Mr.Kitty • After Dark || Jennifer Connelly • Career Opportunities

Reject modernity. Embrace Jennifer Connely.

What is it like to be discreetly wealthy?

It’s painful.
I used to work at Mercedes Benz when I was young – and one day the CEO/Owner calls me to his office and ask me to teach his son computers & software ( after work hours , for extra money of course ).

His son was only a few years younger than me and eventually we became friends.
After his college he started working at his father’s company.

Now, this is a silver spoon guy that was born into a very wealthy family…yet, his father wanted him to work everywhere in the company, so he gets familiar with all parts of the company and eventually utilizes this information to improve things.

First year he was sent to work in the warehouse… worse place to work in by far; very hard physical labor – dirty & noisy – and just very tough people to work with too… he was not used to it.

Now, those were different times … where warehouses were not yet automated – it was not Amazon… so it was not a nice place to work at, and was regarded hard work even for a regular Joe.

None of the employees knew who he was – they did not know he will own that company in just a few years, and they did not know how wealthy he was.
I talked to him a lot in those days – he was suffering, no doubt.
He could not stop complaining to me…every single day.

He hated the uniforms he had to wear, the food in their cafeteria… he hated people screaming at him, he hated the “smell” there… he just hated everything.

He kept saying – “I didn’t know people like this exist… why do we hire them?”, as he never really met “poor people” before (that’s what he called them though those were not really poor people but hard working people with jobs…).

He always talked about wanting to go back home… leaving… he missed his home constantly… terribly , and he was not even allowed to use his new car, so other employees don’t treat him differently.

But that’s what his father wanted… and though he did not understand why – he respected his father. He feared him.

About a year later he was moved from there to upper management – not before 3 guys from warehouse were fired… coincidence ? I think not.

Taiwan

Poison – Nothin’ But A Good Time

The ‘Junior Partner’ Meme Gives No Insight To Real Changes

It is quite interesting how ‘western’ political memes are created and spread.

China’s New Vassal – How the War in Ukraine Turned Moscow Into Beijing’s Junior Partner – Aug 9, 2022 – Foreign Affairs
China used to be Russia’s junior partner. Ukraine changed that. – Feb 24, 2023 – MSNBC
Russia Becoming China’s ‘Junior’ Partner – Bolton – Mar 13, 2023 – MENAFN
Fatalism is not an option for addressing China-Russia relations – Mar 17, 2023 – Brookings
> China’s leaders appear guided by three top objectives in their approach to Russia. The first is to lock Russia in for the long term as China’s junior partner. <
White House knocks Russia as China’s ‘junior partner’ – Mar 21, 2023 – Washington Post
> Is Russia now a client state of China, a reporter asked National Security Council spokesman John Kirby at the daily White House briefing. “They certainly are the junior partner,” Kirby replied, a line sure to echo inside the Kremlin and at Chinese Communist Party headquarters. <

From an older piece in Foreign Affairs to an MSNBC opinion writer, then through warmonger Bolton and the librul Brookings think tank to the White House.

And from there it is all over the synchronized media:

Meet China’s ‘junior partner’ – Mar 21, 2023 – Politico
Xi Jinping-Vladimir Putin talks highlight Russia’s role as ‘junior partner’ to China – Mar 21, 2023 – Financial Times
A Slim Rhetorical Wedge Could Drive China and Russia Apart – Mar 22, 2023 – DefenseOne
U.S. officials must skip no opportunity to remind Moscow that it is Beijing’s junior partner.
A new cold war with Russia as junior partner and the US as a ghost of itself – Mar 22, 2023 – Digital Journal
Xi’s visit to Russia was humbling for Putin and showed how much China is dominant, experts say – Mar 22, 2023 – Insider
Blinken dismisses Xi-Putin ties as ‘marriage of convenience’ – Mar 23, 2023 – AlJazeerah
Blinken said Russia is “very much the junior partner” in the relationship and noted that China had so far declined to provide weapons to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.
China’s drive for a new global order leaves Putin in the back seat – Mar 23, 2023 – NBC News

> But what Xi’s visit mostly underscored, experts say, is how imbalanced the China-Russia relationship is becoming.

“It certainly shows Russia needing Beijing far more than the other way around,” said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, who specializes in Chinese foreign policy. <

But is this really true? Is there really a ‘junior partner’ in the Russian Chinese relations? Does Russia really need China more than China needs Russia?

Well, who of two, Russia and China, has all the stuff that is needed for a modern life?

I mean energy, minerals, commodities, foodstuff plus the abilities to retrieve and process all of them into useful products. It is obvious that Russia has all this stuff right within its borders. China, on the other side, is mostly importing these things through rather fragile sea routes. China has a naval problem that can only be solved with Russian weapons. So who is really in need of whom?

China has obviously more people than Russia. But for all the Chinese riches these are still less well off than the people in Russia.

On purchase power parity base (PPP) Russia’s GDP per capita in 2022 was $31,962 while China’s was $21,291. When the Russian GDP per capita is 50% higher than the Chinese one can it really be a ‘junior partner’ in this?

I don’t think so. I believe that Russia and China see themselves as equals. That is certainly true for the relation between President Putin and President Xi. Two equals who together do great things:

As he left a state reception at the Kremlin on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping turned to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and said the world was undergoing changes “the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years.”“And we are the ones driving these changes together,” he said.

“I agree,” Putin replied, shaking hands with the Chinese leader in an exchange that was captured on camera.

A hundred years ago the world had just seen off a big war. Four big empires, the Russian, German, Austria-Hungarian and the Ottoman had suddenly vanished. The U.S. had stepped onto the international scene. In China the Kuomintang and the Communists founded the United Front to beat the rampant warlords the imperialists had created. (Russia helped with that.)

Those were indeed times of great changes. We now see similar changes in this word. The U.S. empire and its proxies are in decline. The BRICS countries, led by Russia and China and rising, now have a bigger GDP(PPP) than the G7.

Times have changed. The arrogance of the ‘west’ has ruined its own position in the world. A multitude of other powers have established themselves and are taking over. Russia and China together will see to that.

Can the ‘west’ do something about this. I could. If it became humble and truly aware of its own position and of those of the rest of the world. But I for now see no way that it is going to happen. Certainly not anytime soon. Certainly not as long as its political discussions are made up from unfounded memes.

Posted by b on March 23, 2023 at 16:18 UTC | Permalink

David Lee Roth – Just Like Paradise

Avocado Salmon Rice Bowl

From HERE all credit to Lyuba Brooke

Beautiful honey, lime, and cilantro flavors come together is this tasty salmon rice bowl. Slightly sweet cilantro lime rice topped with juicy salmon roasted in honey, lime, cilantro glaze and fresh cilantro avocado.

Avocado Salmon Rice Bowl

Have you ever taken a bite of something delicious and just melted into the chair?

Well, that is exactly how this Avocado Salmon Rice Bowl is going to make you feel! This sweet and citrusy flavor experience is a treat for your taste buds. Honey, lime, and cilantro flavors are carried throughout the whole dish and works beautifully with salmon, avocado and rice.

I’m such a sucker for seafood, especially when it comes to salmon and shrimp…and scallops, and calamari, and crab. Okay, there is really not much seafood that I don’t like. The only thing I have not tried and loved yet is the raw oysters. I just can’t get passes the texture there, no way. Taking the raw oysters aside, all seafood is wonderful, and especially salmon. That’s my favorite fish and I would eat if every day if I could.

Aside from being delicious, the second best thing about salmon is how fast and easy it is to prepare. It takes a couple of minutes to come up with the glaze or a seasoning for the salmon and into the oven it goes. After 12-15 minutes in the oven, you have a juicy, delicious piece of salmon.

Did you know that salmon is really good for you too? It is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein. It’s also a great source of vitamin B12 and vitamin D. Many people actually have a deficiency of Vitamins B12 and D, myself included, so salmon is a great thing to be added to the menu as often as possible.

Top if off with some fresh avocado topping and you have a delicious, and really healthy dinner.

Ingredients

Rice

1 cup jasmine rice
1 1/2 cups water
Salt
1/2 lime, juice only
2 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp chicken or vegetable stock

Salmon:

1 lb salmon fillets skin on
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
Salt to taste

Avocado Topping:

1 ripe avocado
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp chili powder less for milder topping
Salt to taste

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Rice:
Cook rice in salted water per package instructions. Take off heat when it’s just done.
Preheat a medium cooking pan over medium-high heat. Mix stock, lime juice, honey, and cilantro together. Pour the mixture into the preheated pan and let it simmer for about a minute. Take the pan off heat and mix rice into the liquid. Season with a little bit more salt, mix well, and set aside.
Salmon:
Preheat oven to 425 and cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and grease it.
Rub the salmon skin with some oil and place the fillets skin down on the prepared baking sheet.
Mix lime juice, honey, and cilantro together and rub salmon fillets with it on all exposed sides. You can pour more glaze over the top and season with some salt. (Some glaze will likely run down onto the baking sheet, it will most likely get quite scorched in the oven. Don’t be scared it’s not your salmon burning, it’s the glaze that ran down.)
Bake salmon for 12-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your salmon fillets.
Avocado:
Cut avocado in half, take out the pit, and take off the skin. Chop avocado and add it to a small bowl. Add lime juice, cilantro, chili powder, and salt. Gently mix.
To assemble the rice bowls: divide rice among two bowls, top it off with a salmon fillet, and top each bowl with half the avocado mixture.

This recipe can be found HERE along with other great and delicious things.

14 Red Flags To Look Out For When It Comes To Dating

March 15, 2023

I made a general list of red flags in women. Every situation is different. Not every red flag necessarily means the relationship is doomed, sometimes you need to just work around it. This isn’t an all inclusive list, and can usually work for both genders, but I was requested to make one specifically for women.

1. If she isn’t responding/engaging in conversation – She’s most likely not interested, and if she is, is it really worth it? If a girl wants to talk to you, she WILL. Nobody waits days to answer someone they’re genuinely interested in.

2. If she’s obsessed with you – This might seem great at first, but can turn south quick. Codependency is not healthy, and can create a foundation for control, manipulation, and abuse later on. It’s better to have a life outside of your relationship, rather than let your life revolve around it.

3. Always expects you to pay/bad with money – This might not be an issue right away, but can come back to bite you in the ass in the long run. How can you build a future if your partner can’t stop spending? How do you feel about being the breadwinner? Why should it be your responsibility to pay for everything?

4. My exes are psycho – This one take with a grain of salt, because sometimes people legitimately just have bad luck dating and reading people. But in a lot of situations there’s one common denominator and a reason their relationships ended badly. So stay on your toes.

5. She slaps/hits you if she’s upset – Physical violence is NEVER okay in a relationship, man or woman. If your date/SO hurts you in some way, run. If they do it once, it’s likely it will happen again, and could be much worse. Not to be confused with play fighting or BDSM in the bedroom, which if consented to by both parties, is okay.

6. She makes her mental health your problem – A lot of people legitimately have mental health issues, but it is not okay to make them someone else’s responsibility. You shouldn’t have to tiptoe around them all of the time. If they can’t handle their emotions on a day to day basis, they have no business being in a relationship. If they ever ever ever say “if you leave me, I’ll kill myself”, run like the wind. Contact police, family, whoever you need to, to get them the help they need. But that’s the end of your responsibility. That is nothing but an abuse/control tactic and is never okay.

7. Showers you with gifts and affection, but uses it against you – This one is tricky. Have you ever heard of “love-bombing”? Basically, someone will shower you with affection, but use it against you later. “I did XYZ for you, and you can’t appreciate it?” You didn’t ask for it, you don’t owe them anything. It’s manipulation.

8. Makes fun of you for humor – She’ll joke about your flaws or make rude comments, but say “babe it was just a joke”. There’s always some truth behind every one, and a lot of people will use humor as an excuse to make fun of you/complain about you. If it hurts your feelings, it was probably meant to even though she said it wasn’t. Don’t encourage those mind games. If it’s a one off situation it might be an honest mistake, but if it’s reoccurring, run.

9. She’s always picking a fight – As much as people like to say “relationships are work”, they shouldn’t be like this. Relationships really should be a source of stress relief. If everything you do is a problem to her, you need to find someone where it isn’t. You shouldn’t have to fight for a relationship, it should come naturally.

10. She doesn’t say what she means – This is a big issue I hear talked about a lot. “Women never say what they mean”. That just means she has poor communication skills and expects you to just read her mind. Nobody is a mind reader, and relationships don’t work without communication. I promise you that the women out there who are worth it, will tell you exactly what they want. How are you supposed to know unless she tells you? That’s not fair to you.

11. She plays the poor me act – Some people are truly down on their luck. But for some they use it as a tool to manipulate you. They just need some help back on their feet, but never seem to actually get back on their feet. They’re usually just using you as a meal ticket.

12. She only talks about her ex – Sometimes this is unavoidable if they’ve spent years of their life with an ex. However, this is often a sign they are not over them or might be comparing you to them. You shouldn’t have to compete for your partner.

13. She isn’t consistent – If some days she’s super interested, and other days she’s not. She might be working, might have other commitments, but watch for patterns. If she’s hot and cold all of the time, you might not be the only one on her radar. If she does have other commitments, are you okay with working around those?

14. She has cheated, or indicates she’s cheated in the past – If your partner has cheated, there’s a very good chance they may do it again. A lot of cheaters just become sneakier once caught, and will tell you whatever you want to hear to not lose you. You can never erase that memory from the relationship. If she’s cheated in the past, what were the circumstances? Use your best judgement, people do grow and change, but some never will. If she cheated on someone with you, use caution.

You might be thinking, well how do I find a woman that doesn’t have any of these red flags? If it were easy, everyone would be in great relationships. But it’s not. Sometimes you need to sift through hundreds of women before you find her. It is not worth dating someone who doesn’t give you the love and affection you deserve. Again, this list does not include all red flags, but just some major ones I see come up a lot.

I can’t link anything here, but look of different types of emotional abuse tactics. Read them, get familiar with them, and save yourself some hurt in the future.

Remember, you never are obligated to stay in a relationship. Their life is NOT your responsibility. Take care of yourself first. And communicate, communicate, communicate.

Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (Live 1981: Escape Tour – 2022 HD Remaster)

Demands for war from the United States “Congress”

Make no mistake. The Ukraine war is United States driven.

American “news”…

Silly stuff

Really silly.

China “acting” like a Global Power. Say what?

Chinese credit system

The social credit system in China is premised on an assumption that everyone starts equally … at zero.

From then on, it is the decisions that they make that increase or decrease their social credit scores, and consequences follow in the form of rewards, incentives, disincentives or punishments.

The system exists in China in the way it does because it presumes everyone from the President down has an equal interest in the social, financial and economic stability and security it aims to provide.

It has nothing to do with whatever physical attributes they are born with, and physical attributes are not a good criterion on which to base economic, social or legal equality, or access to goods and services whether public or private.

You’d deny a child the right to an education because that child is smaller than other children of the same age?

Equal opportunity is premised on the notion that people should have equal legal access to resources.

Access is not incumbent on their physical appearance or attributes (or lack of particular attributes) or on past social, economic or legal background or decision-making, depending on the context.

Hoobastank – The Reason (Official Music Video)

BULLETIN: UK To Send Depleted Uranium Ammunition to Ukraine

World Hal Turner 21 March 2023

United Kingdom Deputy Minister of Defense Annabelle Goldie publicly stated today that the UK will supply Ukraine with Depleted Uranium (DU) Ammunition for some of the weapons systems supplied by NATO. Russia has previously warned the use of Depleted Uranium will be considered an attack by a “Dirty Nuke” and will result in a nuclear response.

Annabel MacNicoll Goldie, Baroness Goldie DL (born 27 February 1950) is a Scottish politician and life peer who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2005 to 2011 and has served as Minister of State for Defence since 2019. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the West Scotland region, from 1999 to 2016.

DEPLETED URANIUM AMMUNITION

The use of DU in munitions is controversial because of long-term health effects. Normal functioning of the kidney, brain, liver, heart, and numerous other systems can be affected by exposure to uranium, a toxic metal. It is only weakly radioactive because of the long radioactive half-life of Uranium (4.468 × 109 or 4,468,000,000 years) and the low amounts of 234 U (half-life about 246,000 years) and 235 U (half-life 700 million years).

The biological half-life (the average time it takes for the human body to eliminate half the amount in the body) for uranium is about 15 days. The aerosol or spallation frangible powder produced by impact and combustion of depleted uranium munitions can potentially contaminate wide areas around the impact sites, leading to possible inhalation by human beings.

The actual level of acute and chronic toxicity of DU is also controversial. Several studies using cultured cells and laboratory rodents suggest the possibility of leukemogenic, genetic, reproductive, and neurological effects from chronic exposure. According to an article in Al Jazeera, DU from American artillery is suspected to be one of the major causes of an increase in the general mortality rate in Iraq since 1991.

A 2005 epidemiology review concluded: “In aggregate the human epidemiological evidence is consistent with increased risk of birth defects in offspring of persons exposed to DU.” A 2021 study concluded that DU from exploding munitions did not lead to Gulf War illness in American veterans deployed in the Gulf War. According to 2013 study, despite the use of DU by coalition forces in Fallujah, no DU has been found in soil samples taken from the city, although another study of 2011 had indicated elevated levels of uranium in tissues of the city inhabitants.

RUSSIA EXPLICITLY WARNED AGAINST THIS

On January 25, this web site reported that Konstantin Gavrilov, the head of the Russia Delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has just publicly thrown down the nuclear gauntlet to the collective west, in an official statement:

Gavrilov said that he has been instructed by his government to announce “We know that the Leopard-2 tank, as well as the Bradley and Marder infantry fighting vehicles, are armed with uranium-core armor-piercing projectiles, the use of which leads to [radioactive] contamination of the area, as happened in Yugoslavia and Iraq.

If such shells are delivered to Kyiv, we will consider this as the use of dirty nuclear bombs against Russia, with all the ensuing consequences.” (Original Story HERE)

UPDATE 12:58 PM EDT — URGENT —

Russian President Putin stated today that Russia will “Directly Respond” to the U.K. if they decide to send Depleted Uranium Rounds to Ukraine. (i.e. If The UK sends Uranium over here, we will send Uranium over there.)

During a Joint Press Conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Putin said “Russia will have to react accordingly, bearing in mind the collective west is already beginning use use weapons with a nuclear component.”

RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTER: THERE ARE FEWER AND FEWER STEPS LEFT TOWARDS A NUCLEAR COLLISION – TASS

UPDATE 2:10 PM EDT —

Russia and China issued a statement from Moscow: “There will be no winner if a nuclear war breaks out.”

Baked Spaghetti Pie

Ingredients

2 pounds spaghetti
2 pounds ricotta cheese
1/2 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
1 pound ground beef
1 pound spicy Italian sausage
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1 pound Provolone cheese, sliced thin
1/2 cup Romano cheese, grated

Instructions

Heat oven to 475 degrees F.
In a large pan, boil spaghetti for 20 minutes; drain and set aside.
Mix ricotta, milk and eggs together in a small bowl; add to spaghetti and stir together.
Press into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan until compact and even.
Cook ground beef and sausage in a large skillet.
Drain fat, removing as much as possible.
Stir in spaghetti sauce. Spread evenly over spaghetti base in pan.
Layer slices of Provolone over meat mixture, then add the grated Romano on top of that.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Yellen Remarks for Banks Today . . .

Nation Hal Turner 21 March 2023

In remarks prepared for the American Bankers Association, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the U.S. banking system is “sound” but more rescue arrangements “could be warranted” if new failures at smaller institutions pose a risk to financial stability. here’s the “rub” . . .

Yellen’s small bank comments were released under embargo at 7am. Treasury wanted them out before markets opened, as Yellen speech isn’t until 10am.

That tells everyone that Yellen and company still see the ongoing Banking “crisis” as dangerous, and they are deliberately trying to calm markets.

Trouble is, Jerome Powell over at the Federal Reserve has a meeting this week about raiding interest rates again. His choice is now stark:

Tucker: Zelenskyy is demanding you send your kids to war

Send Graham to the front lines in Ukraine immediately.

Today is my 61st Birthday (Hal Turner)

World Hal Turner 15 March 2023

I am 61 years old today. Wow! Seems so weird even writing that. I don’t perceive myself to be 61; it’s like . . . . how did this happen? Where did all the years go? And how the heck did they go so fast?????

It’s like . . . . it all lasts only . . . . 5 minutes.

Yet here I am.

My son came up here to the Pennsylvania house last night. Arrived a little after 8:00.

He’s going to his job from here and will return here tonight after work.

I got a new Behringer MDX-2600 Audio expander/gate/compressor/peak limiter as a Birthday present from him and my wife, to replace the one that I’ve used since setting this house up as a backup broadcast facility after my mom died in November 2021.

The audio gear that I’ve been using seems to have suffered a strange but now recurring audio failure, causing audio levels to randomly change. Weird.

My son will install the new gear after work tonight.

It a little frustrating to be getting up in my years. There’s physical changes that I don’t like . . . at all.

For certain, the heart attack I suffered in April 2019, which forced me to get open heart surgery and quadruple bypasses for clogged heart arteries, was a big deal. But it was small compared to the SECOND heart attack I suffered seventeen months later, in October, 2020 after two of the four cardiac bypasses clogged with blood clots.

That second heart attack was very much worse than the first, and it was during that incident that I went into heart failure on the cardiac catheterization lab operating table, and felt myself dying.

I have told this story a number of times; I had never experienced “dying” before, yet the feeling is so utterly distinct, you KNOW IT when it’s happening. It’s not painful, or scary . . . it just . . . happens.

Thankfully, the Doc was able to fit a stent under my clogged left circumflex artery opening and restore blood flow. That artery had been bypassed but its bypass was one of the ones’ which had clogged with blood clots. So if he wasn’t able to get a stent to move arterial plaque away from the opening and restore blood flow, I would have been dead.

Fast forward to about a month ago, I felt the same types of “twinges” in my chest that I had felt before my first heart attack. I told the Doc, he scheduled me to go in for another cardiac catheterization and when they were in there, they saw that the walls of my left anterior descending artery were wilting inward and restricting blood flow. So they did angioplasty to open the artery, but when they removed the inflatable balloon, the artery walls just wilted closed again. So Doc said he had to Stent that, too.

So here I am, now having had two heart attacks, open heart surgery, and now two stents. WOW!

The leg from which they took veins to use for my bypass surgery, swells-up from time to time. Docs said the blood had to find a new way to get back to my heart after they took the vein, but for some reason, the leg swelled a little for a long time after the open heart surgery.

Then, my right knee (same leg) and right hip started deteriorating. It felt like the connective tissue that hold my muscles and ligaments to my bones, was just falling apart. So the right knee swells a lot almost every day now, and it makes it very uncomfortable to walk – especially if I have to do stairs. The hip hurts when I lay down. I don’t need this shit.

I’ve also noticed lately, I seem to be getting a bit forgetful. I’m having trouble instantly recalling proper nouns. I know the word I want to say, I just stop mid sentence to have to recall it. Weird.

Yes, I take vitamins, Co-enzyme Q-10, and Straus Heart Drops. No, I didn’t take the COVID Vax . . . and I won’t. Those so-called “vaccines” are clearly dangerous and worse, they don’t work. No one is putting that shit in me.

So with all that, I’ve attained 61 years on this planet. Not too shabby, I guess.

My marriage has changed a lot. After 31 years, it’s not so good anymore. That’s why I’m up in PA while the Mrs. is in NJ. I needed time away to figure out how to proceed.

The wife and I talk several times a day, but it’s just not good anymore.

I’m too old to bother coloring my hair to get rid of the gray, hit the gym and go out to stud. Been there, done that. It’s all “wrote” for me. Besides, my son tells me that women today, are all “nuts.”

I’ll take his word for it. The last thing I need is to go out to play the field and find myself with a psycho-slut-from-hell. Too many of them around nowadays.

Anyway, I just focus on my work and my show. Pay what few bills I have, and am doing my best to get right with God and enjoy the time I have left.

Given the way things are falling apart in our world, that may be a lot less time than any of us think!

And so it goes, this fifteenth day of March, 2023.

Orange-Rosemary Butter Glazed Pork Tenderloins

Enjoy this lean and delicious premium cut of pork drizzled with a sweet and savory citrus flavored butter. With only a handful of ingredients, it’s an uncomplicated dish that’s quick and simple to prepare and full of aromatic flavor.

Ingredients

Orange-Rosemary Butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) Challenge European Style Butter
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped, or 2 teaspoons dried rosemary, crushed
1 tablespoon grated orange peel

Tenderloins

2 pork tenderloins (approximately 1 pound each)
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon thin slivers of orange peel
1 cup ready to serve chicken broth
To taste coarse salt
To taste freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Orange-Rosemary Butter: In a small bowl, mix together the orange-rosemary butter ingredients. Use immediately or chill (bring to room temperature before using).
Tenderloins: Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
With a knife, make slits in tenderloins and alternately insert garlic and orange peel slivers.
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 2 Tablespoons of the butter mixture and brown tenderloins evenly for 5-10 minutes.
Place tenderloins on rack in roasting pan. Spread a teaspoon of flavored butter over each tenderloin.
Add broth to skillet drippings and stir. Pour broth/drippings into the roasting pan and roast uncovered for 20 minutes.
Spread another teaspoon of flavored butter over each tenderloin and roast for an additional 15-20 minutes or until center of tenderloin registers 155 degrees F (use meat thermometer).
Transfer pork to serving platter and cover loosely with foil. Temperature of meat should increase to 160 degrees F while standing.
Pour liquid from roasting pan back into skillet and bring to a boil, cooking until reduced by half. Whisk remaining flavored butter into liquid and simmer about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper.
To serve, slice pork and drizzle with sauce.

10 min Prep time | 50 min Cook time | 6 servings

UBS Seeking to TERMINATE Credit Suisse Deal

World Hal Turner 22 March 2023

BREAKING NEWS — UBS is reportedly engaged in meetings right now, SEEKING TO TERMINATE ITS DEAL TO ACQUIRE CREDIT SUISSE!

If UBS Backs out, then Credit Swiss will fail, enter Bankruptcy, and that will mean a Bulge-Bracket-Bank (a.k.a. “too big to fail”) has gone under.

The effects on the Global Financial System are, right now, incalculable. A Credit Suisse Default would trigger Credit Default Swaps, and would put the bank in DEFAULT on all its Derivative Contracts.

This could be a “Black Swan Event” that sets in motion a Domino effect, taking out BIG banks all over the world.

More details on tonight’s Hal Turner Radio Show from 9:00-11:00 PM eastern US time (GMT -0400)

China banned the export of 24 techs to the US. The more USA needs it, the less China will sell it.

The Worst Deal Ever – Australia To Pay U.S. For Nuclear Insecurity

The the last week’s review I mentioned the AUKUS deal. It was first announced in September 2021. Back then I wrote:

Yesterday the U.S., the UK and Australia announced that the latter one will buy nuclear powered submarines to do the U.S.' bidding against China. 
...
This is a huge but short term win for the U.S. with an also-ran booby price for Britain and a strategic loss of sovereignty and budget control for Australia.

It is another U.S. slap into the face of France and the European Union. The deal will piss off New Zealand, Indonesia and of course China. It will upset the international nuclear non proliferation regime and may lead to the further military nuclearization of South Korea and Japan.

Australia currently has six conventional submarines. It had ordered new ones from France but scrapped that deal for AUKUS:

The price for the new submarines Australia will have to pay will be much higher that for the French ones. 

Some $3 billion have already been sunk into the French contract. 

France will rightfully demand additional compensation for cancelling it. 

The new contract with the U.S. or UK will cost more than the French one but will only include 8 instead of 12 boats. As three boats are needed to keep one at sea (while the other two are training or in refit), the actual patrolling capacity for Australia's navy will sink from 4 to 2-3 concurrent submarines at sea.

The much higher price of the fewer more complicate boats will upset Australia's defense budget for decades to come.

I further suggested that blackmail may have played a role in the AUKUS deal.

A few day’s after the announcement there were new details publish which suggested that Australia would lease nuclear submarines from the U.S. because the new ones will take many years to build. It would upgrade Perth harbor to be able to handle nuclear propulsion boats:

Perth will thereby be build up into a base that is compatible with the likely permanent stationing of U.S. nuclear submarines. 

These carry nuclear weapons.

The 'leased' boats, or at least their propulsion parts, would of course be still manned by U.S. or British sailors. 

The Australians already have problems retaining crews for their existing submarines. The few that will be available for the 'leased' boats will not be enough to run them. The Australians would pay largely for the privilege of being guests on board of doubtlessly U.S. commanded submarines.

Australia’s overall position did not look well:

Australia's extraction boom fueled by China's rise is coming to an end. The country will have to cut its budget and will need to seek a new economic model.

But why did I call this a "huge but short term win" for the U.S.?

It is a win in that the U.S. has gained a submarine base in Australia and will get paid for using it. This looks well if the intent is to wage a cold war on China. It is doubtful that this is a necessary strategy and it is equally doubtful that it can be successful. The weapons manufacturers will of course still love it.

But it is a only a short term win in the sense that the U.S. will lose many of its current and potential future partners over it. It has degraded its QUAD partner India and Japan to second tier status. It has increased suspicion in Indonesia, Malaysia and even Singapore of eventual nefarious plans against them.

In May 2022 Australia elected a new parliament.

Labor replaced the Liberals in the government. It found that the new submarines and the whole deal was extremely expensive. That was the chance to bury it:

The answers are obvious. Ditch the whole AUKUS deal and buy the German U-boats.

The real reason for the deal might well have been the U.S. wish for a port and base in Australia from where it can send its own nuclear submarines to harass China.

The offer to Australia to buy nuclear submarines was likely only made to remove Australian public resistance to the stationing of nuclear submarines (with nuclear weapons) on the continent.

Australia will be better off without those.

But Anthony Albanese, the new prime minister, did not have the courage to push for ending the deal. Last week the three involved countries announced new details:

Australia’s nuclear submarine program will cost up to [AUS]$368 billion over the next three decades, with confirmation that the federal government will buy at least three American-manufactured nuclear submarines and contribute "significant additional resources" to US shipyards.

The Australian government will take three, potentially second-hand Virginia-class submarines early next decade, pending the approval of the US Congress.

There will also be an option to purchase another two under the landmark AUKUS defence and security pact, announced in San Diego this morning.

In the meantime, design and development work will continue on a brand new submarine, known as the SSN-AUKUS, "leveraging” work the British have already been doing to replace their Astute-class submarines.

That submarine — which will form the AUKUS class — would eventually be operated by both the UK and Australia, using American combat systems.

One submarine will be built every two years from the early 2040s through to the late 2050s, with five SSN-AUKUS boats delivered to the Royal Australian Navy by the middle of the 2050s.

Most curious is the buy of second hand Virgina class boats. A leasing agreement would have been much better. Nuclear driven submarines are extraordinary expensive to scarp. Their 60% enriched Uranium fuel will have to be guarded for a very long time. Australia has no experience with anything nuclear.

The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has called the agreement the worst deal in history:

Paul Keating has labelled the $368bn Aukus nuclear submarine plan as the “worst deal in all history” and “the worst international decision” by a Labor government since Billy Hughes tried to introduce conscription.

The former Labor prime minister launched an extraordinary broadside against the Albanese government at the National Press Club on Wednesday, blasting the “incompetence” of Labor backing the decision to sign up to Aukus while in opposition and when it had “no mandate” to do so. 
...
The $368bn being spent to acquire as few as eight nuclear submarines – Virginia class and next-generation SSN-Aukus submarines – was the “worst deal in all history”, he said, because it could buy 40 to 50 conventional submarines instead.

Keating also revealed that France, which lost a contract for conventional Attack class submarines in favour of Aukus, had offered “a new deal” for the “newest French nuclear submarines”.

These would require only “5% enriched uranium, not 95%, weapons grade” and came with a “firm delivery date” of 2034 at “fixed prices”, he said. The French received “no response”, Keating claimed.

James Acton, an expert a nuclear defense policy, commented on the deal:

(((James Acton))) @james_acton32 - 20:16 UTC · Mar 13, 2023

As @POTUS, @RishiSunak, and @AlboMP announce AUKUS submarine plan, here’s my assessment of the technical and proliferation risks.

BLUF: They’ve made serious efforts to mitigate those risks, but those that remain are real and significant.

Link to video of announcement
(1/n)

Here’s the plan (in brief):
1. 🇬🇧 & 🇺🇸 deploy SSNs* in🇦🇺(from 2027)
2. 🇦🇺deploys Virginia-class SSNs purchased from 🇺🇸 (from ~2032)
3. 🇦🇺deploys AUKUS SSNs, designed and produced with UK (starting in early 2040s)
*SSN=nuclear-powered attack sub.
(2/n) 
...

Acton details the risks of the deal. They are huge.

Next to financial, technological and timing risks there are also the proliferation issues.

The deal is defying the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and should Australia get an exception for the deal from the IAEA others will make similar requests.

I responded Acton’s second tweet:

Moon of Alabama @MoonofA - 20:24 UTC · Mar 13, 2023

1. is what the U.S. wanted from AUKUS.
2. will be with mostly U.S. crew and under only nominal AUS command.
3. is way too costly for AUS and will never happen.

Australia will spend billions to upgrade naval base HMAS Stirling in Western Australia so the U.S. and UK can use it for their rotational stationing there. It will ‘invest’ more billions in nuclear shipyards in the U.S. and UK. It will pay billions for the Virginia class boats over which it will have little sovereignty.

Submarine designs are long complicate programs. It took 35 million labor hours design the first batch of Virginia-class boats and it took nine million labor hours to build the first one. The new SSN-AUKUS will have similar costs and issues. I for one expect that none will ever be build. Neither Australia nor the UK have the money for them.

Still – the political fallout will come from all sides.

With this deal Australia is essentially paying the U.S. an exorbitant price to confront Australia’s biggest customer, China. Its neighbors are unhappy. Indonesia is making noise about the proliferation risk as is Malaysia. Europe is miffed that Australia scrapped the deal with France and rejected the new French offer. The deal does not increase Australia’s security.

Labor party members, who saw the interview with Keating (vid), will come to understand that their party leaders made the wrong decision.

What will it take to revers it?

Posted by b on March 15, 2023 at 16:50 UTC | Permalink

Brine Cured Pork Roast

Ingredients

2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup kosher salt or sea salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (4 to 6 pound or more) boneless pork loin tied with string

Instructions

Combine sugar and salt with 1 quart hot water and stir to dissolve.
Crack the peppercorns and fennel seeds in a mortar or on a cutting board, crushing them with the flat bottom of a heavy saucepan (or grind very, very briefly in spice grinder). Add to water along with thyme and red pepper flakes. Add 3 quarts cold water and the pork. Submerge the roast and refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days.
Remove from brine and dry off the pork.
If you have fresh herbs such as rosemary, tie them onto the top of the pork.
Put the meat on a rack in a shallow roasting pan.
Heat oven to 500 degrees F.
When the oven is hot, place the roast in it and lower the heat to 325 degrees F. Bake for 1 1/4 hours. Check the internal temperature to make sure it is at 160 degrees F. If the pork is cooked, remove it and let it stand 15 minutes before carving. If not, cook a few more minutes.

The U.S. pushing for WW3 using ANYTHING they can find

The US is preparing Australia to fight its war against China

By John Lander

Feb 1, 2023

The United States is not preparing to go to war against China. The United States is preparing Australia to go to war against China.

Thank you for inviting me to address the Salon. I am greatly honoured and somewhat daunted, given the long list of eminent scholars, analysts and writers who have preceded me.

I am not a “writer”, although I have written a lot during my thirty-year diplomatic career, much of it in relation to China. None of it published and most of it buried in government archives. All I can bring to the table is my personal interpretation of current developments regarding US and China, in the light of my past experience.

One of your previous speakers, Patrick Lawrence, advocated putting the main point first. So here goes:

The United States is not preparing to go to war against China.

The United States is preparing Australia to go to war against China.

The ANZUS Treaty

A look at the ANZUS Treaty and the way it has been manipulated over time will explain why I have come to this conclusion.

Originally defensive in concept, the ANZUS Treaty was seen by Australia from its very beginning as a means to “achieve the acceptance by the USA of responsibility in SE Asia” (Percy Spender) to shield Australia from perceived antagonistic forces in its region. It has, however, developed into an instrument for the furtherance of US ability to prosecute war globally – previously in Iraq and Afghanistan, currently against Russia and potentially against China.

The ANZUS Treaty, usually referred to in reverential tones as “The Alliance”, has been elevated to an almost religious article of faith, against which any demur is treated as heresy amounting to treachery. Out of anxiety to cement the US into protection of Australia, the Alliance has been invoked as justification for Australia’s participation in almost every American military adventure – or misadventure – since WW II.

Unlike NATO or the Defence Treaty with Japan, the ANZUS treaty actually provides no guarantee of protection, merely assurances to consult on appropriated means of support in the event that Australia should come under attack.

On the other hand, the Alliance has facilitated the steady growth of American presence in Australia, to the point that it pervades every aspect of Australian political, economic, financial, social and cultural life. Australians fret about China “buying up the country”, but American investment is ten times the size.

They are unaware or uncaring that almost every major Australian company across the resources, food, retail, mass media, entertainment, banking and finance sectors has majority American ownership. Right now US corporations eclipse everyone else in their ability to influence our politics through their investment in Australian stocks.

The transfer of Australian assets to American ownership has continued unabated: In the second half of 2021 then Treasurer Josh Frydenberg approved the transfer of $130 billion of Australian assets to foreign private equity funds, benefiting Goldman Sachs who facilitated the transactions, by multimillions of dollars. Josh Frydenberg now is employed by Goldman Sachs:

Sydney Airport – Macquarie Bank led by a NY investment banker
AusNet (electricity infrastructure) $18 billion takeover by Brookfield – NY via Canada
SparkInfrastructure (electricity) $5.2 billion takeover by American interests
AfterPay financial transaction system $39 billion takeover
Healthscope, second-biggest private hospitals group (72 Hospitals) taken over by Brookfield and now controlled in the Cayman Islands.

The USA and the UK between them represent nearly half of all foreign investment. China plus Hong Kong represents 4.2%. The 4 big “Aussie” banks are dependent on foreign capital which dictate local banks’ policies and operations.

Defence and military weapons manufacturing industries in Australia are now largely owned by US weapons corporations – Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Thales, NorthropGrumman. The deep integration of Australia’s defence industries and economy into the US military-industrial complex greatly influences Australia’s foreign/defence policies.

That, plus US capture of Australia’s intelligence and policy apparatus through the “Five Eyes” network and ASPI (which has lobbyists from American arms manufacturers on a Board headed by an operative trained by the CIA) means that the US is able to swing Australian policy to support America in almost all its endeavours.

Despite the fact that it contains no guarantee of US protection of Australia, the Treaty and further arrangements under its auspices, such as the 2014 Force Posture Agreement and now AUKUS, have greatly facilitated US war preparation in Australia. This has accelerated exponentially in the past few years. The US now describes Australia as the most important base for the projection of US power in the Indo-Pacific.

Indicators of war preparations

* 2,500 US marines stationed in Darwin practicing for war with the Australian Defence Forces, soon to include the Japanese Defence Forces

* Establishment of a regional HQ for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Darwin

* Lengthening the RAAF aircraft runways in Northern Territory at our expense for servicing US fighters and bombers

* Proposed stationing of 6 nuclear weapons-capable B52 Bombers at RAAF Tindal in NT

* Construction of massive fuel and maintenance facilities in Darwin NT for US aircraft

* Proposed acquisition of eight nuclear-propelled submarines at the cost of $170 billion for hunter-killer operations in the Taiwan Strait

* Construction, at the cost of $10 billion, of a deep water port on Australia’s east coast for US and UK nuclear powered and nuclear missile-carrying submarines

* The long-established satellite communications station known as Pine Gap in central Australia has recently, and is still being, expanded and upgraded. It is key to the command and control of US forces in the Indo-Pacific (and even as far afield as Ukraine)

The Government and right wing anti-China analysts and commentators, whose opinions dominate main stream media, accept the Defence Minister’s contention that this militarisation enhances Australia’s sovereignty by strengthening the range and lethality of Australia’s high-end war-fighting capability to provide a credible deterrent to a potential aggressor.

Many analysts and commentators outside the governing elite, including myself, argue that these arrangements effectively cede Australian sovereignty to America. This is especially because of the provisions of the Force Posture Agreement of 2014, entered into under the auspices of ANZUS.

I understand that a paper has been circulated to the Committee, expounding the details of the FPA, so in summary, it gives unimpeded access, exclusive control and use of agreed facilities and areas to US personnel, aircraft, ships and vehicles and gives Australia absolutely no say at all in how, when where and why they are to be used.

All Australian analysts, whether sympathetic or antipathetic to China, agree on one point. That is, that if the US goes to war against China over the status of Taiwan, or any other issue of contention, Australia will inevitably be involved.

The Threat

All these preparations are justified by the false premise that China presents a military threat. China has not invaded anywhere. It has never proposed use of force against other countries. It has enshrined in its Constitution the ‘Three No’s – No military alliances; No military bases; No use, or threat to use, military force. China has, however, reserved the right to use force to prevent secession by Taiwan.

It has recently rapidly increased its defence capability in response to the fearsome US naval presence and war-fighting exercises just off its coastline. Its defence budget is one third that of the US and the bases that it has constructed in the South China Sea pale into insignificance compared to the hundreds of bases that the US has ranged all around China.

So, if China is not a military threat, why is it designated as the primary systemic threat of the collective West, led by the US? The answer lies in the word “systemic”. China has expressed a determination to revamp the global financial system to make it fairer for developing countries. Kissinger is reputed to have said: “If you control money, you control the world”. The US currently controls world finance and China (with Russia) is out to change that.

The US, which played the leading part in the establishment of the post-World War II institutions, has become a leading revisionist, abandoning the UN for “coalitions of the willing”. The US has declined to join important Conventions like those on the Law of the Sea and on Climate. It has refused to accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and has exempted itself from the Genocide Convention. It has played a leading part in the weakening of the World Trade Organisation by imposing trade restrictions on other countries, while not agreeing to new appointments to the WTO’s appellate tribunal, so preventing that body from functioning.

China is the second-largest (or by some calculations, the largest) economy in the world. It is the major trading partner of over 100 countries, mainly in the global south, but including Australia and a number of other Western countries. Hence China has the clout to undermine the “international rules-based order” set up by, and for the benefit of, the West.

China has already established an alternative to the Anglo-American international financial transaction system: – the Cross-border Interbank Payments System CIPS, (in which, ironically a number of Western banks are shareholders). In collaboration with Russia and within the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) China is creating an alternative to the almighty dollar as the preferred currency for trade and for national reserve holdings.

It seems that the US has concluded that, since it can’t constrain China economically, it will have to get it bogged down in a long-drawn-out war to hinder its economic growth and hamper its infrastructure development cooperation with other countries. On 25 March 2021 President Biden vowed to prevent China from overtaking the US as the most powerful country in the world – “not on my watch” he said.

Nevertheless, the latest CSIS computer modelling, like previous modelling by the Rand Corporation, indicates that all involved in a Sino-US war would lose.

Proxy War

All of these analyses overlook one significant point. US determination to pursue the Wolfowitz doctrine of preventing the rise of any power that could challenge US global supremacy (neither Russia, nor Europe, nor China) has not diminished, but has morphed into a strategy of fighting its adversaries by proxy.

This has been clearly demonstrated by the war in Ukraine. A White House press briefing on 25 January 2022, before the Russian intervention, stated that “the US, in concert with its European partners, will weaken Russia to the point where it can exercise no influence on the international stage”.

Political leaders from Biden, through Pelosi and on to Members of Congress have told Ukraine that “your war is our war and we are in it for as long as it takes”. Congressman Adam Schiff put it bluntly that “we support Ukraine… to fight Russia over there, so that we don’t have to fight it over here”.

In the case of China, defined in the NDS as the principal threat to the US, the proxy of choice is clearly Taiwan. The strategy envisages:

• a world-wide media campaign (going on for several years already) to portray China as the aggressor;

• goading China into taking military action to prevent Taiwan’s secession;

• leaving Taiwan to conduct its own defence, with constant resupply of arms and equipment from the US, at great profit to the military/industrial complex;

• sustaining Taiwan sufficiently to keep China ‘bogged down’, thus hampering its economic development and its infrastructure cooperation with other countries;

• avoiding direct military engagement, in order to maintain the full capacity of US forces, while China’s would be significantly depleted; Although Biden has publicly re-affirmed adherence to the ‘One China’ principle, the US has been goading China by;

• stationing the bulk its naval power off the coast of China;

• ‘freedom of navigation’ and combat exercises in the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits;

• visits by senior US officials using US military aircraft;

• creation of a putative ‘Air Defence Identification Zone’ (ADIZ) extending well over mainland territory and then alleging Chinese violation of it;

• secretly providing military training personnel (whilst denying it);

• including Taiwan in the Summit for Democracy (9-10 December 2021), implying it is a separate country;

Many Australian politicians, (although not the present government), joined in goading China, by encouraging Taiwan to consider the possibility of declaring independence, which would trigger military action by China.

If Australia were to make good on its promise to ‘save Taiwan’, it would be devastated:

• The Australian navy would be obliterated, given the disparity between China’s and Australia’s forces;

* command/control centres (and possibly cities) in Australia could be wiped out by Chinese missiles. Australia has no anti-missile defence;

• To preserve its own assets, and to forestall the descent into nuclear conflict, the US would not engage directly in defence of Australia;

• US ‘support’ would be through massive arms sales to replace our losses – just as in Ukraine – at further profit to the US military/industrial complex;

• ASEAN is unlikely to support Australia. It has renewed and up-graded its Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China. Each member country has infrastructure projects under China’s BRI, which they would not want to jeopardise in a ‘no-win war’;

• Support from India is unlikely, despite its membership of the Quad – which is nothing more than a consultative dialogue. India has security commitments to China under the SCO and gets its arms from Russia, which has a “better than treaty” relationship with China.

• Australia relies heavily on China for many daily necessities. In a war, deliveries from China would be severely disrupted.

Australians generally are more than happy for the material benefits of a trading relationship with China, which constitutes more than one third of Australia’s export earnings. But, any attempt by China to improve Australians’ understanding of China’s historical, social, cultural and scientific achievements, let alone its political systems or foreign policy, are instantly feared as nefarious attempts to infiltrate Australian politics and undermine the ‘Australian way of life’.

The increasing size of China’s economic (and, by extension military) strength, to which Australia contributes important resources and from which it derives so much benefit, is portrayed as a threat to Australia’s security. This has Australia trapped in the absurd policy paradox of preparing to go to war against China to protect Australia’s trade with China.

Recent developments in Taiwan, particularly the county and municipal elections, which caused the President, Tsai Ingwen, to resign her leadership of the pro-Independence Party, suggest that Taiwan prefers the status quo and is unwilling to be the proxy of the US in a war with Beijing.

Australia thus becomes the potential proxy.

In the name of the Alliance, American service personnel (active and retired) are now embedded in Australian defence policy making institutions and in command and control positions within the ADF. All of the American military assets installed in Australia under the Alliance and the AUKUS deal, are now “interchangeable” with the ADF, making it possible to use them as putative Australian forces against China, while the US stands aside and maintains the same pretence of “no engagement”, as it is doing in Ukraine.

This is why I said at the beginning that the US is preparing to send Australia to war against China.

Whilst these are the dangers that the ANZUS Alliance poses for Australia if the US instigates a war against China, there are risks for the US also.

1. There would be crippling expense that further exacerbates the US wealth divide and related domestic political breakdown. Supplying the weaponry and everything else required for a proxy war with China would be a bigger drain on the US budget than the Ukraine conflict. The expenditure would flow back to the military industrial complex, constituting a further massive transfer of wealth from the ordinary taxpayer to the plutocrat billionaires. It would blow out the already unsustainable national debt, and either take away from expenditure on essential services and infrastructure, or, if they print money, further blow out inflation. The political and social breakdown that the US is already suffering as a consequence of its real economic decline and widening wealth gap could only intensify to breaking point.

2. The slide into a direct war would probably be inevitable. Planning a proxy war is all very well as an academic exercise, but sticking with those plans when the fighting starts will be very difficult. There are already lunatic politicians and “experts” in the US who think American can win a direct war, so when China starts bombing Australia, and good old Aussie “mates” are dying in massive numbers, the voices of those in the US advocating direct engagement will be amplified. Combined with the already extreme polarisation of US politics in which ONLY war is bipartisan, the risk that extremists will take the US into direct conflict, and a nuclear showdown with China, is very serious.

3. The folding in of Japan into the AUKUS arrangements will increase the risk that Japan would be obliged to assist Australia in any military conflict with China. The US, because of its Defence Treaty with Japan, would then be obliged to join in the fighting, vitiating its plan to avoid direct military engagement.

A point of historical irony:

I’ll wind up with a bit of historical irony, in which I was personally involved:

In the early 70’s, we had been kept completely in the dark about the secret Kissinger visits to China, until the plan for Nixon to visit was announced. Feeling blindsided by a momentous change in US policy towards China, we produced Policy Planning Paper QP11/71 of 21 July 1971.

It recognised.. “political disadvantage resulting from the manner in which the United States conducts its global policies” and argued that this would mean that. “The American alliance, in a changing power balance, will mean less to us than it has in the past.”

It went on:

“If anything, this argument has been strengthened by recent United States actions and America’s failure to consult us on issues of primary importance to Australia. Accordingly, we shall need, now more than ever, to formulate independent policies, based on Australian national interests and those of our near neighbours…”

This is even more true today than it was in the 1970’s. For example, Australia was not consulted in the precipitate US withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite our role as ‘loyal’ supporter of the US in that ill-advised conflict. Our indignant protestations were met with Biden’s statement that “America acts only in its own interests”.

Our present predicament is due largely to the failure of a succession of Australian Governments to take this analysis to heart and act upon it. Prime Minister Fraser, who replaced Whitlam, ironically came to a very similar view towards the end of his life, which he set forth in detail in his book ‘Dangerous Allies’, but too late to do anything about it. He identified the paradox that Australia needs the US for its defence, but it only needs defending because of the US.

A couple of pertinent quotes, first from the late Jim Molan:

“Our forces were not designed to have any significant independent strategic impact. They were purely designed to provide niche components of larger American missions.”

We were, in his view, abdicating our own defence and cultivating complete dependence on the Americans.

And from Chris Hedges:

“Finally, the neo-cons who have led the U.S. into the serial debacles of Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Ukraine, costing the country tens of trillions of dollars and even greater amounts of destroyed reputational capital, will claim their customary immunity from any accountability for their savage failures and cheerily move on to their next calamity. We need to be on the lookout for their next gambit to pillage the treasury and advance their own private interests above those of the nation. It will surely come.”

An (incomplete) list of some of the commentators from whom I have drawn:

John Menadue – former secretary PM&C

Richard Tanter – military analyst, Nautilus Foundation

Brian Toohey – author (political and historical analysis)

Mike Scrafton was a senior Defence executive, and ministerial adviser to the minister for defence

Paul Keating was the prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996.

Geoff Raby AO was Australia’s ambassador to China (2007–11); He was awarded the Order of Australia for services to Australia–China relations and to international trade.

Gregory Clark began his diplomatic career with postings to Hong Kong and Moscow. He is emeritus president of Tama University in Tokyo and vice-president of the pioneering Akita International University.

Dr Mike Gilligan worked for 20 years in defence policy and evaluating military proposals for development, including time in the Pentagon on military balances in Asia.

Jocelyn Chey AM is Visiting Professor at the University of Sydney and Adjunct Professor at Western Sydney University and UTS. She formerly held diplomatic posts in China and Hong Kong. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

Joseph Camilleri is Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and President of Conversation at the Crossroads

David S G Goodman is the Director, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney.

Geoff Miller was Director-General, Office of National Assessments, deputy secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to Japan and the Republic of Korea, and High Commissioner to New Zealand.

Cavan Hogue was Ambassador to USSR and Russia. He also worked at ANU and Macquarie universities.

Edited transcript of a speech to the Committee for the Republic, Salon, 18 January 2023

Why the Failure of Credit Suisse is such a big deal; It was a “Bulge Bracket Bank”

World Hal Turner 20 March 2023

To average, everyday people, the failure of Credit Suisse is simply some news headline. They have no clue at all what this means: ALERT – Time’s up. Why? Because Credit Suisse was a “Bulge Bracket Bank.” You may know it better as “too big to fail.” But fail it has.

What is a bulge bracket bank?

A bulge bracket bank refers to a top-tier, multinational investment bank that has a leading role in the global financial markets. The term “bulge bracket” originally referred to the banks listed at the top of the “league tables” for securities underwriting, but it has since come to encompass a wider range of financial services.

Bulge bracket banks typically have a strong presence in both the domestic and international markets, providing a broad range of services such as underwriting, M&A advisory, equity and debt offerings, and sales and trading of securities. They also typically work with large, high-profile clients such as corporations, governments, and institutional investors.

Examples of bulge bracket banks include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank. These banks are known for their extensive resources, large-scale operations, and high-profile deals.

What banks are considered bulge bracket?

Some of the banks that are considered bulge bracket are:

JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Morgan Stanley
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Citigroup, Inc.
Deutsche Bank AG
rclays PLC
Credit Suisse Group AG
In fact, UBS Group AG
Wells Fargo & Co.

These banks are considered bulge bracket because they typically have a leading role in the global financial markets and provide a wide range of financial services to large, high-profile clients such as corporations, governments, and institutional investors. They are also known for their extensive resources, large-scale operations, and high-profile deals.

What would happen if a bulge bracket bank failed?

If a bulge bracket bank were to fail, it could have serious repercussions on the global financial system and the broader economy. This is because these banks are deeply interconnected with other financial institutions and play a significant role in the global financial markets.

If a bulge bracket bank were to fail, it could trigger a domino effect that would lead to other financial institutions experiencing financial distress or failing. This could lead to a credit freeze, where access to credit is severely restricted, making it difficult for businesses and individuals to obtain financing. This, in turn, could lead to a slowdown in economic activity and a recession.

To prevent such a scenario, regulators have put in place various measures to monitor and regulate the activities of bulge bracket banks. For example, these banks are subject to more stringent capital and liquidity requirements, stress tests, and other regulations to ensure their financial stability and resilience. In the event of a failure, regulators may also intervene to stabilize the financial system and protect the broader economy from the fallout of a bank failure.

Credit Suisse Failed

Those measures do NOT seem to have worked. Reverberations from the Credit Suisse failure, and the utterly vicious zeroing of Credit Suisse “Tier A1” Bonds, is starting to spread.

As this story is written at 4:45 AM on 20 March 2023, Asian Stock Markets have almost completed their trading day. They’re all in the red:

Credit Suisse, $CS, was worth $10 billion a month ago and sold for pennies on the Dollar.

The government said $CS had “serious risk of bankruptcy.”

A shareholder vote was bypassed.

Regulators knew it was a matter of hours for bankruptcy.

This deal was made out of desperation.

In fact, the “rescue” was not a rescue. UBS could only work an equity trade, they themselves lacked the cash for a real buyout! That deal was total clown world.

Stock Markets know this. Stock Holders are learning of it now. The markets will begin to react TODAY.

Europe is opening shortly. That’s where we will see some of the Credit Suisse fallout.

In the Asian Markets HSBC & Standard Chartered both down 6%…. will be interesting to watch the European markets when they open.

US markets open in about 3.5 hours. As Europe goes, so will the US.

You see, those “Tier 1A “Bonds that were Zeroed for Credit Suisse . . . they totaled slightly over seventeen billion dollars. Somebody has now lost all that money. Well, a lot of somebody’s, actually.

That loss is going to have an impact. Maybe an impact on someone big. And that may take THEM out.

Moreover, the zeroing of Tier 1A Bonds just showed bondholders all over the world, that when it comes to BANKS, their “totally secure” Tier 1A bonds, aren’t nearly as secure as they were lead to believe! People are going to start dumping those bonds, because clearly, they’re now far riskier than anyone ever thought.

When you factor-in the reality that the Swiss government changed their law in real-time, to prevent Credit Suisse stockholders from having the Statutory 6 weeks to consider a merger or buyout offer, the bondholders (and Stock holders) now know they’re sitting ducks. They have NO PROTECTION of law. The “rules” went right out the window.

As these Bond holders (and maybe stock holders) run for the exits today – and this week – their selling is going to put the banks under even MORE pressure.

In the US, here’s how fragile the banks actually are:

At the far right of the chart is this year – right now. As you can see, the banks are stuck holding Bonds that are worth LESS than their face value. In the color gold, those bonds can be sold by the banks if the banks need to raise cash. Those gold-colored (sellable) bonds are worth three-hundred BILLION dollars LESS than their face value.

As long as the banks don’t have to sell them (to raise cash) the loss on the bond is “unrealized.” But as people begin to take more money out of the banks, because the general public sees the banks as untrustworthy, some banks are going to HAVE TO sell those bonds. And the moment they do, the loss becomes “realized” and the bank is in trouble.

This week may very well be historic. We just don’t know how it will turn out.

Politicians all over the world are screaming from the rooftops that “the banks are safe and secure.” Trouble is, the public long ago learned that when they tell you things are safe, that’s when you run!

Because politicians and government officials have shown themselves to be liars, over and over , and over again. Only the truly stupid believe them anymore.

With that reality, there’s no telling what will happen this week. However . . . Calamity . . . is on the menu.

This isn’t going away.

This is not your typical msm-driven race-baiting, class warfare, type of drivel designed to distract you from real problems.

This is a real problem. They’re going to try to keep your eyes – and mind – off of it with crap like North Korea nuclear threats, Trump’s impending arrest, etc. Expect some race-fueled incident to really throw everyone over the edge.

If they can keep us worked up over things like that, maybe we won’t notice all the banks failing and the economy literally crumbling around us. Maybe.

This isn’t something they can bury and hide for long, though, but they will try to keep us in the dark as long as possible. Many won’t notice until bank failures and sky-high inflation impacts them personally.

When they know you notice the real problem, like with the Credit Suisse-UBS merge, they’ll issue some statement about how all is well and good, the US dollar is strong and we shouldn’t worry. When they say this kind of nonsense is when you need to worry the most.

UPDATE 5:20 AM EDT —

European market:

UBS – 12%

Deutsche -10%

most others -8%

people do not believe their lies anymore . . . this is a bad omen for everything today . . . .

UPDATE 5:31 AM EDT —

They just talked on Bloomberg about “the possibility of UBS walking out of the deal.”

You’ve Gotta Be F**king Kidding Me

Russell is truth teller that is so needed in society- THANK YOU! It is truly unfathomable that Wasserman is given ANY time after her known corruption. The world is upside down…

Global Times editorial

Global Times has published a brutal editorial that damns everything about this event and deserves to be pasted in full:

The leaders of the US, Britain and Australia celebrated the unveiling of the AUKUS nuclear submarine plans with great fanfare at the Naval Base in San Diego, California, on Monday. It was a public humiliation to France, which was cheated by them, and a cover-up and deceit to the Australian people, and a kind of bravado to neighboring countries. It was also a blow to the already fragile international nuclear non-proliferation mechanism, and obviously a dangerous move for the entire international community.

According to the agreement, Australia will purchase up to five US nuclear-powered submarines in the next few years, which means that Australia will become the seventh country in the world to have nuclear submarines. The peace and stability of the Indian Ocean and Pacific region will expectedly bear the impact, pressure and risks brought about by this agreement for a long time. Some American media even called it a "milestone." This obvious misnomer has produced ironic effects, but the agreement may indeed become a boundary stone for the US, Britain and Australia to drag the Asia-Pacific region into a "new cold war." It is what everyone is worried about.

In order to obtain the US' nuclear-powered submarines, Australia may have to spend nearly $250 billion. Does Australia have too many mines and is too wealthy? Australia indeed has mines, but life in Australia is not rich for most, and the current economic situation is very bad, with a huge structural budget deficit. $250 billion is roughly equivalent to about two years of public healthcare expenditure of Australia. In order to pay for this huge sum of money, Australia is bound to squeeze social welfare. In other words, the 25 million Australians will eventually have to pay the bill through a certain degree of frugality.

Another question, is Australia in danger without US' nuclear-powered submarines? Can't it survive? Obviously not. Not only does Australia not need them, but it will definitely put itself at risk by buying them. Australia, which is isolated in South Pacific and far away from other hotspots in the region, has a relatively unique geographic advantage. No country will attack or even invade Australia for no reason. Australia has had the conditions to spend its main resources and energy on improving people's livelihood.

Australia's inexplicable sense of insecurity when facing China is basically the result of being spiritually controlled for many years by the US. Australia thinks that it is the "deputy sheriff" of the Asia-Pacific region under Washington, but not to mention that it has no salary, even its police uniforms and firearms have to be bought from the US at a high price. The AUKUS agreement is actually a big trick of the US on Australia. It is equivalent to asking Australia to build a nuclear submarine base to produce its own submarines, but more importantly, to maintain and ensure the nuclear submarines of the US and Britain, and hand them over to be commanded by the US Navy, moreover, the hundreds of billions of dollars need to be paid by Australia itself. The follow-up nuclear submarine equipment, maintenance, related personnel training are an even bigger bottomless hole. Australia is at best a cat's paw which helps the US to get chestnuts from the fire, and it can be regarded as one of the most representative chump in the history of international relations.

In the English context, "white elephant" usually refers to a useless but expensive and eccentric object. It could have been better if the nuclear submarines of the US were just white elephants, but they are also a big ill omen. Canberra bought them back with a huge sum of money and will turn Australia into a haunted house, bringing risk to the whole region and making the years of efforts of South Pacific Countries in building a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, which is protected by formal treaty, face the most serious impact. Not only China firmly opposes it, but Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia are also very dissatisfied. New Zealand directly denies Australia's nuclear submarines' access to its waters. Otherwise, the Australian Defense Minister and Foreign Minister would not have been running around recently, trying to dispel people's concerns about nuclear non-proliferation issues.

On the same day as the three AUKUS countries gathered together, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released a new report on global arms import and export. The report shows that the US share of global arms exports has increased from 33 percent to 40 percent, and imports to East Asia and certain states in other areas of high geopolitical tension rose sharply. All this is in Washington's calculations. Just look at what America is exporting: weapons to kill, crises of all kinds (the fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is still brewing), and the most destructive of all is geopolitical malice, which America uses to spiritually control Australia. [My Emphasis]

Not too long ago China published a long list of Outlaw US Empire crimes and its hegemonic ways. This event will be added to it even if it’s eventually rejected by Australians who the Chinese rightfully say don’t need it whatsoever. It can be said that the Australian continent’s been invaded twice–first by the British and second by the Americans and both have partnered to chain Australians similar to their convict forebearers.

There’re a lot of good Aussies here at the bar; I’m very sorry my government has done what is has done.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 15 2023 20:53 utc | 50

Ghost (1990) – the bank scene

What the war in the Pacific will look like…

Good morning with a beautiful #map by@ConGeostrategy on #AUKUS power projection in the #Indopacific.

If you color Russia the same as China, you‘ll get the #Dragonbear power projection in the #Arctic and #IndoPacific too. #India will be key to both geopolitical constellations.

They are suggesting this…

I think that the map should have a LOT of light RED nations to include North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, and much of SE Asia.

The point being is that maps that originate out of the West also self-isolate China, when that is not at all a reflection of reality.

First Republic Bank Stock HALTED 7+ Times Today alone; Looks Like There’s No Saving it

Nation Hal Turner 20 March 2023

Trading of the stock in First Republic Bank ($FRC) just got halted for its 7th time since the open today! Two weeks ago, the stock traded at $130. Today it is down to less than $10.

The Trading HALTS are wild; STOCK GOES LIVE AND IS GETTING HALTED WITHIN SECONDS. STOCK IS NOW DOWN 50% TODAY from its Friday Close.

We are on track to make a new record for most number of halts in a day. The regional bank system continues to lack a solution.

It appears to many observers that there’s no saving this bank. Investors are spooked and are leaving. Period. Full stop.

Over $20 BILLION in Market Capitalization has been wiped this month.

This is the Canary in the coal mine for the banking industry.

Other banks just gave $30 billion in deposits to the bank last week, to shore-it-up, and the Bank is borrowing a lot more from the Fed to stay solvent.

No business or individual with half a brain is going to keep more than 250k in their business or personal accounts in any non-mega banks for much longer. The risk of loss rises daily.

They will need to backstop all banks deposits soon or this thing is going to blow sky high.

In the time it took to write this story — FRC stock has been halted TWO MORE TIMES! Nine trading halts today alone.

We are on track to mark a record for most number of halts in a day.

You’re witnessing history.

Australia’s Defence Policy Explained

Utopia is criminally underrated.

China donated just $5.8m to assist Turkey, while the US pledged $185m and the UK $30m.

The after-effects of the tragic earthquake in southern Turkey and northern Syria are still being felt more than one month on, both literally and metaphorically. As a report mentions, global assistance has been provided – China donated just $5.8m to assist Turkey, while the US pledged $185m and the UK $30m.

A recent poll by Premise, a research technology and data company, asked 1,000 Turks from across the country for their views on the international relief effort, the contributions from various aid agencies and also for their views on causes of the catastrophic damage

The managing director of Premise, Arthur Soames, explained that “starkest finding in data is that China is perceived as being far and away the most valued country in providing disaster relief: 72% of our nationally representative sample had a positive or very positive impression of China’s contribution, while the US, despite providing more than 20 times as much cash, was perceived in a similar light by only 59% of the population.”

“Having invested historically in their relationship with Turkey, China has found it simple to project its influence as a high-profile presence in the disaster relief from the start. This has clearly struck a powerful chord with people. The US, on the other hand, has had to pay a vastly higher premium in return for credit from the Turkish people.”

“Qatar is perhaps the most surprising outlier to have secured a powerful, positive impression amongst Turks: 26% believed that Qatar has provided the greatest support to the relief effort, the highest figure for any country.

“A lot of this must have been due to Qatar’s decision to donate 10,000 housing units to the affected area that were left over from last year’s World Cup.

“The donation received widespread coverage in the Turkish media and clearly had a powerful impact – proof that Qatar continues to receive international and diplomatic benefits from hosting the World Cup.”

“Behind these two comes the EU. It came in third with 16% of people saying that it had provided the most support, while 11% thought it would be most capable of assisting in the rebuild.

“By contrast, the relief effort from the US and the UK does not appear to have been particularly recognised. Only 8% of the poll felt that the US had done the most. The UK falls much further behind, barely registering 1%.”

Read the full report here.

Moscow wrote off more than $20B in debts from African states, Russian president says

Anadolu Agency ECONOMY

Published March 20,2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said Moscow has written off the debts of African states worth more than $20 billion.

Speaking at an international parliamentary conference titled “Russia-Africa in a Multipolar World,” Putin said the trade turnover between Russia and Africa countries is growing every year, reaching almost $18 billion in 2022.

“It is unlikely that such a figure can fully suit us, but we know that this is far from the limit,” he added.

Putin also said he believed that “the development of counter-commodity exchanges will be facilitated by a more energetic transition in financial settlements to national currencies, and the establishment of new transport and logistics chains.”

He further said: “Additional opportunities are opened up by the process of establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which began in 2021, which in the future will become a continental market with a total GDP of more than $3 trillion.”

Russia, he said, is in favor of establishing ties with AfCFTA both through the Eurasian Economic Union and on a bilateral level, adding that Africa will become one of the leaders of the multipolar world.

“The states of Africa are constantly increasing their weight and their role in world affairs, they are asserting themselves more and more confidently in politics and in the economy. We are convinced that Africa will become one of the leaders in the emerging new multipolar world order,” Putin added.

He said Russia and the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America are against the neo-colonial ideology.

“Russia and African countries uphold moral norms and social principles traditional for our peoples, and oppose neo-colonial ideology imposed from outside,” he said. “Many states of Asia, the Middle East, Latin America adhere to similar positions, and together we make up the world majority.”

3 Doors Down – Here Without You (Official Music Video)

Steel barricades are being unloaded outside Manhattan criminal courthouse – TRUMP INDICTMENT?

Steel barricades are being unloaded outside Manhattan criminal courthouse as shown in the brief video below:

Numerous metal barricades have arrived outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, located at 100 Centre St. in Manhattan, New York City, ahead of a possible Indictment of former President Trump this week.

NYPD is reportedly mobilizing up to 700 Riot Cops, Ahead of potential unruly protest.

Italian Meatballs with Peppers

Chopped red and yellow bell peppers add color and texture to these savory meatballs seasoned with Italian herb mix and enriched with mushrooms.

Ingredients

1 pound ground turkey
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon MAGGI Instant Chicken Flavor Bouillon
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION®
Evaporated Fat Free Milk, divided
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot cooked rice
Chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

Combine turkey, onion, herb seasoning and salt in large bowl; form mixture into 24 one-inch meatballs.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add meatballs; cook, turning occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes or until browned on all sides.
Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
Remove meatballs from skillet; keep warm.
Add bell peppers, mushrooms, garlic and bouillon to skillet; cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes.
Combine 1 tablespoon evaporated milk and flour in small bowl; add to skillet.
Gradually stir in remaining evaporated milk; cook, stirring frequently, for 5 to 8 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened.
Add meatballs to skillet; stir to coat.
Serve over rice. Garnish with parsley.

Prep: 20 min | Cook: 25 min | Yield: 6 servings

Peace In Ukraine Is “Unacceptable” Says Biden Spokesman

CHINA TO OFFICIALLY ARM RUSSIA IF KIEV REFUSES PEACE PLAN

World Hal Turner 21 March 2023

China will officially join Iran to arm Russia, “if Kyiv does not accept the Chinese peace plan.”

That is the information coming directly from the China delegation accompanying President Xi Jinping during his ongoing state visit to Russia.

Xi is expected to call Ukraine President Zelensky later this week; perhaps FROM MOSCOW during Xi’s state visit!

Washington’s response was like lightning: The Free World officially rejects China peace plan for Ukraine: “China’s ceasefire initiative is an attempt to give Russia time to launch a new offensive.” – The White House.

More info as I get it. Check back

UPDATE 10:36 AM EDT —

The Pentagon may soon announce measures for the possible delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine earlier than expected, White House spokesman John Kirby said.

Putin and China just dealt a KNOCKOUT blow to the west with this move

We are indeed, catching on we ARE catching on

When I was young, my mother stayed at home and would take care of the house. We called it “domestic chores”. My father would work all day, and then when he was paid, he would give all of his pay to my mother to budget for. She in turn, would give him a small stipend for his wallet and spend the rest on our family needs.

All in all it worked out pretty good.

Then came 1974, and the “Woman’s Lib” movement (which my mother was a great advocate of – burning her bra and all the rest), as well as the advent of high inflation and credit cards forever changed the traditional household to something “better”; a more progressive family unit.

While I often miss the simplicity of those days, the things that I love about China is how “traditional” it is in regards to friends, family and relationships. You’re never going to starve or want in China.

Today’s installment…

No Need

Intelligence shows that the Biden administration has been discussing how to sabotage the Iran-Saudi Arabia relationship, the Ukraine-Russia peace talk in White House daily & nightly now. Why has the US been so terrified of the world peace?

No need to hear from you intelligence!

Just looking at the U.S. evil intentions will make the world certain that the U.S. will sabotage it no different from how they destroyed the Nordstream 2 pipelines. The U.S. never wanted peace. It never wanted a better world. It design a messy world so that it can jumped in and take advantage of the chaos. And stir up a war do that Ot can sell weapons to both parties.

The only difference today in 2023 is that the world knows now! And this is not good for the west and the U.S. Their only game in town is up. Nation by nation will stay as far away as possible from the U.S. No different from a strange bed fellow that no one wants to get near.

Very soon, the U.S. needs to steal from their fellow colonials and fellow native slaughterers. Let’s see how U.S. cons the UK!

Cheap Trick – Surrender (from Budokan!)

What was life like in the 1960s in the USA?

I’ve often wished I could pick up my kids and take them back to the 60s for a day, just so they could see what it was like.

We dressed up on Saturdays to go shopping. There was always a G-rated movie to see.
Store clerks were grown-up professionals who actually made enough to live on and really knew their products. Big department stores had elevator men with wearing uniforms with big gold braid who cheerfully did their job of getting you where you wanted to go.
You could go out in public all day and never hear a cuss word.
Ladies wore hats and gloves to church. Ladies even dressed up to come over to play cards with my grandmother.
Men wore hats and knew when it was proper to take them off, when to touch them, etc.
It was quite common to have homes and cars unlocked all day.
Moms were home in the daytime. Neighborhoods were not deserted during the day as they are now. Big groups of children in my neighborhood played outside together every day. There was no air conditioning, so it was unthinkable to play in the house on a sunny day.
It was rare for women to drive and it was very common to see older ladies rolling their groceries home in a cart. Lots of men didn’t drive, either, as we lived on a bus route.
Parents in the neighborhood watched out for everyone’s kids. If one of the kids misbehaved his or her mother knew all about before he or she even got home.
Dogs and cats roamed the neighborhood. It was common to see several dogs sitting outside the grocery store waiting on their owners.
People were friendly and polite. Always. At least in public.
On Saturdays everyone in the neighborhood ran errands and did their yard work. Ladies went to the beauty shop to have their hair done for church the next day. Men went to a barbershop and they most certainly never set foot in a beauty parlor. You had to make sure you had everything you needed for Sunday because all the stores would close by Saturday afternoon.
On Sundays most people went to church. Even if they didn’t, the neighborhood was completely quiet. Sunday was a day of rest and stores were closed. There was never a lawn mower running or any activity going on outside. Most people visited with family and had a big family dinner.
It was normal for people to have big front porches and go from house to house visiting.
There were only three TV channels and they all signed off at 11 p.m. with the national anthem.
It was common for neighbors to listen in on your telephone conversations because everyone was on a party line.
You couldn’t wash clothes last minute because nobody had a dryer. If it were raining it took forever for your clothes to dry in the house. Clothes also had to be ironed, so you really had to plan ahead.

I was surprised by some of the comments. I was born in 1963, so I am writing from the perspective of a little girl and focusing on what was most different from today. I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in a small southern city. It was definitely not Mayberry and I most certainly did not have an idyllic childhood.

My parents were divorced and I lived with my mom, my grandmother, and an uncle. I had a babysitter with two grown daughters. My father was in prison.
My house was just down the street from the Catholic church and there were dozens of big Catholic families on our street. I never met another child with divorced parents until 1974.
I heard about Vietnam and body bags in hushed tones but I didn’t understand what was going on. I did have an uncle there, so I did recognize the fear that gripped my mother and grandmother every time they watched the news.
I vaguely understood there was racial unrest but I didn’t understand why. I attended the Catholic school through the fourth grade and was told Jesus loves everyone equally. From what I remember, grown-ups would agree with that thought, but believed there would be no trouble between races if they simply didn’t interact. It wasn’t until the 70s when things got violent. It became common to hear gunshots at night and we moved to a “better” neighborhood in 1974. In the 70s We endured forced busing for a few years, which was a huge waste of time and money and caused more racial upheaval. For the first time, there were fights every day in school.
I never realized we were poor until we moved to the “better” neighborhood and all the girls in my class had pierced ears, wore designer clothes, and had long ago given up playing with toys, in the fifth grade.

While there are things I remember fondly from the 1960s, I certainly wouldn’t want to live there. I do, however, really miss beautiful manners and beautiful clothes.

This is Uyinene Mrwetyana:

South African girl.

She disappeared on the 24th of August 2019. After her disappearance, her friends went and stood outside the Post Office and handed out missing person fliers.

She had gone to the Post Office to collect a parcel. When she got there, the man who attended to her said she should return later, as the lights were out. He told her to return at 2pm. The Post Office closes at 1pm. When she came back later, he raped and killed her.

When the friends were giving out fliers, this man apparently watched them and even took some and said he’d distribute them to people that visited the Post Office.

You know what he told the police when they caught him?

“This one really put up a fight. It took so long for her to die.”

At her funeral, her mom said “ I’m sorry I warned you about everything except the Post Office.”

It broke my heart.

She was 19 years old.

Who are some of the dumbest criminals ever to be caught?

I would like to nominate the following interesting group of guys.

In the city of Charleroi, Belgium, a group of men walk into an e-cigarette store around 3 p.m. They demand money from the owner of the shop, a man called Didier.

main qimg 2f57106b4bf9ecb6622a2f9856714234 lq

Didier knows he can’t fight off six men at once, so he came up with a plan. He told the wannabe robbers that 3 p.m. was a terrible time to rob his place. If only they would leave and come back around 6 p.m, when there would be more money in the cash register. The men talked with Didier for roughly 15 minutes and then left.

Didier picks up his phone and calls the cops on the gang, telling them what happened and that they would be back in a few hours.

main qimg 7ecc64f33a6688b25a0295511367874e lq

The police listened to Didier and thought: “Nobody would be so dumb. They aren’t actually going to come back after this, right?”

False. Around 6 p.m., as instructed, the guys return to the store to rob it. The plainclothes officers who showed up just in case were there waiting for them in a back room.

main qimg 2edebabde6e4ae093badf4331f59c225 lq

I have to give it to them, they do like to believe in their fellow man.

What is the difference between a Chinese and Japanese child?

This post is mostly a response to Sean Landy’s answer.

The idea that Japanese children are somehow better-behaved, or simply “cuter” than their Asian counterparts, is a widely accepted stereotype that fits into the whole mythos of “Japanese superiority”. The problem with that idea, however, is that as with all forms of superiority complexes, it’s based on half-truths and even untruths.

Lemme give you an example of what I mean.

Back in 2021, this picture of a cute little 2–3 year old girl went viral on Chinese social media. It was claimed that this was a Japanese kindergartner walking alone to school, and that Japanese people raise their kids to be independent and self-reliant at a very early age. Others claimed she was standing because she’d given up her seat to someone in need – being this cute, brave, and well-mannered, is surely a testament to the superiority of Japanese society, culture, and genetics.

Internet commenters simply couldn’t stop talking about the greatness of Japan, and the sheer inferiority of China. Due to oppressive politics, a subpar culture, and hopelessly flawed genetics, Chinese children will never look as cute and confident as this!

Except if you looked at the posters on the train, you can see the photos of her were clearly taken in mainland China. Specifically, Hangzhou.

↑ The girl’s (very Chinese and very patriotic) mother was furious about people stealing and mislabeling photos of her daughter, just to further an anti-Chinese narrative.

But people still couldn’t (or wouldn’t) believe such a cute child could possibly be Chinese. So her mother dressed her up like this, which shut everyone up for good:

So there you go. Children everywhere are all the same. They’re snotty, stinking, screaming balls of flesh who are only occasionally adorable. Anything to do with “cuteness” and such is mostly a reflection of a family’s level of wealth and care, as well as a society’s level of development. The same way house-cats in a rich household tend to look better than strays on the street.

And as China continues to grow its GDP (PPP)

, children are probably only going to look even cuter than before.

There are already enough double standards out there, with the specific aim of keeping the Chinese down. It is important not to let them affect children, and how adults perceive of them.

Tiffany – I Think We’re Alone Now (Official Music Video)

What are the most important psychological facts that everyone should know?

We all know the unavoidable Karens, but there’s also the Ritas, and they are much worse and definitely more dangerous. Unfortunately we all trust them, due to a simple but simultaneously very sophisticated psychological trap.

And that trap is called trauma.

We all know those women who once had an eating disorder (think anorexia), and then later became “professional” diet coaches. Without any medical degree whatsoever. The Goop herself is a dangerous example.

She is the basic Rita with a capital “R.”

Given people diet tips while she barely eats anything.

Just weeks ago I read about this woman who is famous in The Netherlands, who proudly stopped drinking alcohol, and suddenly is a self-proclaimed anti-alcohol advocate. How convenient when the advocacy begins after you stopped using.

She also declared that she had had an alcohol problem for many years — although she never said a word about any problem before she quit. And nobody else did.

In hindsight, our problems always become much worse, since then our heroism (of quitting) becomes much greater. In my opinion, she might have had a problem, but that does not mean other people do.

Again: Rita with a capital “R.”

I even know a professional stillbirth coach. The woman in question has three healthy kids, but a fourth died at birth, and suddenly she became an expert — and not much later a paid professional — coaching couples who end up in the same situation. Without any psychological expertise.

But still, we believe such people, as if trauma makes us wiser, which it does not.

Having experienced trauma does not mean you can professionally help other people suffering from similar trauma.

Suffering from psychosis does not make you a psychologist. Suffering from anorexia in your childhood does not make you a diet coach in later life (while you still suffer from anorexia, by the way). Being a victim does not make you suited to be a professional guide.

Being a patient does not make you a doctor.

Expertise requires a much greater effort, much wider and deeper knowledge, much more theory and much more experience. It takes years and years and years of guided study. And Ritas can and will hurt vulnerable people even more (even if they think they are doing the right thing).

So please stop following Ritas, stop consulting them and stop paying them. Stop watching them, and stop reading them. They are using trauma for their own benefit, and they have no expertise whatsoever, whatever they say or believe.

You are not helped by Ritas such as Gwyneth Paltrow — you are abused.

“Rita” stands for Rather Ill-suited Trauma Adviser, by the way.

And although I coined the term myself, you do not have to pay.

This is Natasha Conabeer:

Another South African girl.

main qimg 39756d15e85c0dd761cb3abd54e9ed4d lq

She went missing on the 18th of August.

About 2 days ago, she was found outside her house. Her kidnappers drugged her, raped her and beat her. They broke every bone in her body, and they apparently scooped out her one eye. Then when they were done, they went and left her at home. She died on the 9th of September at the hospital.

This isn’t even all of them. Another woman was apparently dumped by a car in her neighborhood last week after being raped and killed. A 17 year old girl was shot dead by her boyfriend, who then killed himself afterwards. Another woman, just like Natasha, left for work in the morning and disappeared. When she was found, she was drugged and beaten. She died in the hospital. A man also killed 3 of his kids and his stepdaughter because their mother wanted to divorce him.

A 20-year-old boy called Nicholas Ninow raped a 7-year-old at a restaurant last year and they want to say he needs psychological help.

I am angry because the women in my country of South Africa are dying, but the only thing people are putting their energy on is being Xenophobic.

The other day, I had to work in a different shop. A man there that I don’t know and have never met, came and put his arms around my waist to hug me. I pushed him off. He asked me why. I told him I didn’t want him touching me. He flat out said “I have the right to touch you however I want to.” I’m not even exaggerating. Those were his words.

Gobble It Up Pot Pie

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

Filling

2 (15 ounce) cans mixed vegetables, drained
1 pound (2 cup) cooked turkey, shredded
1 (12 ounce) jar turkey gravy

Topping

1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
1 (6 ounce) package instant turkey stuffing mix
1 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Filling: In large mixing bowl, combine vegetables, turkey and gravy; mix well.
Pour into a greased 2-quart casserole.
Topping: In skillet, melt butter.
Add onion and celery and cook until tender.
Add seasoning packet from stuffing mix and water. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat; stir in stuffing. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Stir in dried cranberries.
Spread stuffing evenly over vegetable mixture.
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until heated through.

Deeper Down The Western Elites’ Rabbit Hole

Roger Boyd

The examples of the Western elite fever dream warping their thinking have multiplied at an extraordinary rate in the past few days and I simply cannot cover all of the main ones in a single post, so there will be a later post with the examples that would have made this post far too long.

Just when you think that the Western elites cannot sink any lower, they prove otherwise. The level of rank hypocrisy and utter pettiness reminds us that we are dealing with the equivalent of a child throwing a tantrum because they cannot get their own way. How dare Russia not collapse under our sanctions! How dare the Russians shoot down our drone spying off their coast! How dare the Chinese support the Russians! How dare the Russians and Chinese work to bring peace to the Middle East! … The list of “why can’t you accept that we are the ‘Massa’” style reactions accumulate day after day. The Western garden is annoyed that the trees in the non-Western forest will not bow down to it and accept it as their guide to what a good civilization is (this reminds me of the scene in the Lord of the Rings where the Ents uproot themselves and join the fight against Mordor by attacking Isengard).

All of the Western elite propaganda actions are part of the playbook for any nation that stands up to the West; make the country and its leadership look as horrendous as possible through extensive media control and the use of ~~civil~~ puppet institutions to smear them. That’s how you get a population to go to war with the enemies of the Western elites, to shed their blood and their money for the benefit of the elites. For now, it is the blood of the Ukrainians, a nation that is slowly being depopulated of its young able-bodied men, but as this approach seems to be failing Western young men’s lives may be the next to be squandered. Of course, the reality is that there are at least 20,000 “sheep dipped” Polish military personnel already in Ukraine (at least 2,000 of which have died) as well as significant numbers of other sheep-dipped “mercenaries” and special forces personnel.

The ICC indicts Putin for saving children’s lives

The Polish President of the Interminable Criminal Court (yeah, I bet he is unbiased against Russians) announces the indictment of President Putin for the “crime” of transferring children beyond the reach of murderous Ukrainian artillery salvoes aimed directly at civilian areas and the retribution of Ukrainian fascist organizations. The British Prosecutor of the ICC, who will have led the ~~investigation~~ stitch-up is also the brother of a convicted paedophile (you really can’t make this stuff up!). As Russia is not a signatory to the ICC this is all just propaganda pantomime BS. This is the same ICC that the US is not a signatory to and has threatened to invade the Hague if any US citizen is tried there! The ICC could also be called the International Colonial Court given its predilection for taking down African politicians. It is certainly a Western organ of dominance given its’ studied blindness to Western crimes. The ICC found the President of Serbia not guilty of war crimes, but only after he had died suspiciously in The Hague under their detention! The Mississippi courts of the 1950s could have learnt a few tricks from the ICC!

A German Idiot/Minister states Putin will be arrested if her enters Germany

The German Federal Minister of Justice decided to open his mouth and ruin any hope of a future relationship with Russia even more by stating that he would arrest Putin if he entered Germany given the above ICC propagandist ruling. He could have just kept his mouth shut and demurred if questioned on this, but no he had to stand up to show what a complete tool he is. Just like the idiot Canadian elites who ruined their relationship with China when they ~~arrested~~ kidnapped Meng Wanzhou and were then shafted by the US administration who made a deal with China. That’s what happens to mere supplicants, they are seen as expendable by their master; the Germans don’t seem to have learnt this lesson yet.

NATO asks for Russia and Belarus to be thrown out of the Olympics

A whole bunch of countries asked the International Olympic Committee to ban Russia and Belarus from the next Olympics. When looked at closely the list of nations is basically NATO countries plus NATO wannabees, so basically NATO asked the IOC to ban a country they are having a war with (and one not actually involved in the Ukraine War). Perhaps a better solution would be to move the Olympics from France, who put their name to the list and are to all intents and purposes an active participant in the Ukraine War, to a neutral nation and declare the Olympics politics free. If those nations want to ban themselves from the Olympics that’s up to them. Maybe the IOC should have done that when NATO illegally bombed Serbia, NATO countries illegally invaded Iraq and when NATO destroyed Libya etc.? The hypocrisy is redolent.

Perhaps also, the Olympics should be moved away from France given the obvious disregard of the French President for his people through extensive police violence and ruling by decree to ram through an increase in the pension age that 75% of the French people are against:

https://rumble.com/v2d9hj4-imagine-if-this-police-crackdown-happened-in-hungary.html

https://rmx.news/article/will-macrons-government-fall/

https://www.politico.eu/article/boot-russia-from-paris-2024-olympics-more-than-30-countries-urge-ioc-neutral-flags-vladimir-putin-zelenskyy/

A Canadian Idiot/Minister Calls for Russian Regime Change

Yes, I am a Canadian and have to watch my leaders commit what accounts to treason, acting against the national interest, again and again. They are like sock puppets with Uncle Sam’s hand up their arses, it is utterly pathetic. But one of the worst has to be Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Joly, who mixes incompetence with being a US puppet. A civil and commercial lawyer, an MP for only 7 years and with previous positions of Canadian Heritage (3 years), Tourism (1 year), and Economic Development (2 years). Hardly a deep career in diplomacy to be able to deal with giants like Lavrov (Russian Foreign Minister) and Wang (China)! Then again, we have a Prime Minister whose main previous experience was as a drama teacher and a Ukrainian nationalist (also a previous minister of foreign affairs), as Finance Minister. Of course, the US doesn’t set a high bar with an ex speech writer as Secretary of State.

Well, Ms. Joly proved her metal by doing exactly what diplomats are explicitly not supposed to do, say the quiet bit out loud! Calling for explicit regime change in Russia! I wish we could have regime change in Canada, but all of the main parties are captured by the Western fever dream.

The US Trump Fever Dream

Matching the external fever dream of the US establishment is their internal Trump Fever Dream. Just as in the international area, every move the establishment takes seems to make their enemy, Trump, stronger. The completely unneeded raid on Trump’s Mar-el-Lago estate supposedly to go after “secret” papers ended up shining a light on the breaches of security by Biden with respect to “secret” papers and the partisan nature of the state; with no “gotcha” to discredit or imprison Trump. Now we have a New York district attorney who seems to have spent the last few years trying not to prosecute people while working overtime to find something, anything, on Trump to prosecute. As Elon Musk stated quite correctly, an indictment of Trump on this flimsy case that stretches the bounds of the law could bring Trump a landslide in 2024.

This inter-elite war, between the internationalist bourgeoisie who give little thought to a true reinvigoration of US manufacturing (that would significantly reduce their profits) or the US population (their response to the East Palestine eco-disaster displays this lack of caring, reminding us of Obama’s show of disdain with respect to the Flint water crisis of 2014 – watch the video, below, did he even sip that water?) and the domestic bourgeoisie who rely on domestic real estate, domestic extractive industries and what’s left of domestic manufacturing has ripped the mask of the US elite. The capitalist-controlled state and media which previously only aimed their wrath at the workers and economically leftist politicians, is now being used in an attempt to crush a capitalist domestic competitor. But after seven plus years of “Russia, Russia, Russia”, “Trump soft on Russia”, and “Trump is corrupt” and more generally “Trump Bad”, The Donald is the front-runner for the Republican nomination to run against Biden(?) in 2024.

Expect the US internationalist establishment to get more and more desperate as time goes on, Trump should stay away from open topped cars in any large spaces ending in “Plaza”. Their desperate acts may only expose them more and strengthen Trump more. If the establishment can awake from its Trump fever dream, we may see an “arrangement” where some senior Democrats are thrown to the wolves to protect the whole. Perhaps the Biden Crime Family plus a few others get thrown under the bus, with Biden himself conveniently non compos mentis. A Hunter show trial may serve to feed the retributive thirsts of the Trump supporters, while the lurid details of “Chinese interference and bribery” will serve to vilify China. The details of Ukrainian corruption could also be used as a smokescreen to exit the Ukrainian stupidity. The timing would also be good for the establishment to move on from their failure in Ukraine and focus fully on China; something that Trump would be happy to do. Let’s remember though, Trump is a billionaire capitalist who mimics a populist politician while really not giving a damn about the US people, what he really cares about is his domestic assets; and going after China.

A Ray of Light: Taiwan Now Only Recognized By 0.49% of the Global Population

El Salvador has now removed its recognition of Taiwan and accepted China as the true representative of all of China, including the province of Formosa. Only 12 of the tiniest of the 193 nations of the world now recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, with pretty much all of them being in the Caribbean (Guatemala, Haiti, Belize etc.), South America (Paraguay) or are Western-dominated tiny Pacific island nations (Marshall Islands, Palau, Tuvalu, Naura). Of course, this will do nothing to stop the US trying to stir up trouble with China over Taiwan, but it does help remove even more of the diplomatic cover, now if only Guatemala and Paraguay could do the same …

https://newcoldwar.org/taiwan-separatists-lose-key-ally-honduras-recognizes-china-just-12-small-countries-remain/

Xi Jinping Visit to Moscow

The ongoing tightening of the relationship between China and Russia continues onwards, driven by the Western elites’ rising fever dream. The formal visit of Xi to Moscow and the contents of the public announcements and press conferences show that China understands that its support for Russia is existential to both nations. The West cannot be allowed to divide and conquer, with an example of Chinese support being Russia’s move to #1 oil supplier to China ousting Saudi Arabia; so much for the Western attempts to control Russia’s oil exports. China (and India) will be the beneficiaries of Russian hydrocarbons rather than Europe; with ongoing work to expand Russia gas supplies to China through pipelines and LNG tankers.

It does seem that the Western elites thought that the ICC indictment of Putin would stop Xi travelling to Russia, perhaps that was even the main reason for the sudden indictment? The utterly delusional nature of this is evident to anyone outside the fever dream. They really thought that a China which is seeing increasing hostility from the West is going to undermine its biggest ally because of an indictment by the Western kangaroo court in The Hague? The Chinese snub of the ICC will play very well in Africa, with the West delivering a propaganda win for China outside the West. The utter delusions and hypocrisy of the Western elites is shown in their pathetic denunciations of Xi’s visit, while all their crimes are conveniently not investigated by the ICC. Russia will also have won in the non-West as it stands up to the ICC and moves to indict the ICC sock puppets involved in constructing this fact-challenged indictment. In his recent statement.

Secretary of State Blinken recently condemned the China visit to Russia, using the ICC ruling as flimsy support for his statements. He accused the Ethiopian government (the one that overthrew the Western puppet regime) of war crimes, reminding Africa of the games that the US plays in legitimizing its’ acts of aggression against those that will not say “uncle”; gold for the leaders who accept US dominance and lead for those that do not. The fact that the US State Department considers that it can judge the rest of the world on human rights, while being the biggest violator of them (Iraq, Rendition and Torture program, Occupation of Syria, mass imprisonment at home), shows utter hubris, hypocrisy, and mendacity.

With the tight alliance now including Iran and Belarus, and China and Russia’s influence spreading throughout the non-Western world (e.g. their negotiating of a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia) and the Ukraine war going Russia’s way, time is on their side. The rumoured peace deal being negotiated by Russia between Turkey, Iran and Syria would underline the very significant loss of influence for the West in the MENA region.

In the area of foreign relations, the relative size of official foreign visits can tell us a lot. The Brazilian President’s visit to the US was spartan, while the upcoming trip to China is much bigger: with a very large business contingent. Brazil is open for business with China. Although Lula has to tread carefully it seems with respect to the Ukraine war belligerents (although short of implementing sanctions) he is carefully balancing between the West and non-West while understanding the inevitable decline of the former with respect to the latter.

The reception for Chinese and Russian visits to Africa has also been visibly warmer than that for Western delegations; with Macron being treated with relative disdain. Neocolonial bullies only apologize when they have been severely beaten, and Macron’s speech promising “profound humility” toward Africa (although perhaps just propaganda) is a statement of France’s much weakened position in that continent. Below are a couple of excellent presentations by Cyrus Janssen covering why the US is losing its’ position in Africa and Latin America; in two words – arrogance and hubris.

And…

All fuel for the Western fever dream, which will only intensify the China, Russia, Belarus, Iran alliance, and force other nations to pick a side. They will tend to pick the side they see winning, and that is increasingly not the West.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Russia-Overtakes-Saudi-Arabia-To-Become-Chinas-Top-Oil-Supplier.html

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/china-is-set-to-become-russias-main-gas-importer-to-replace-eu/2762421

https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202303/1287571.shtml

https://www.voanews.com/a/in-africa-and-in-europe-france-struggles-to-exert-influence/7006122.html

https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/russia-africa-new-world-order/

Judas Priest – You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ (Live from the ‘Fuel for Life’ Tour)

This is Tshegofatso Pule.

main qimg fe77ddde4858052fa3f67295cce6bf56 lq

She was 8 months pregnant. She went missing on Thursday, 4 June. She was last seen on security footage being accompanied by her boyfriend to an unknown car that she left in. On June 8th, she was found killed.

South Africa is a very dangerous place.

The Grand Strategy: Kissinger & Rockefeller Scheme to Transfer Wealth & Industry to China

Written by Radix Verum

April 10, 2020 at 1:26 pm

April 10, 2020 – The Coronavirus has exposed the Globalist neo-liberal World Order for what it is: a system designed to transfer wealth from the many into the hands of a few in order to dominate the rest of the world and protect their monopolistic power.

Author Antony Sutton claims #WallStreet funded the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and China’s economic miracle was manufactured thanks to #Rockefeller getting the US Govt to move production to #China #TheMoreYouKnow #QAnon #TheGreatAwakening https://t.co/7UOoSpjR5k

— RadixVerum (@VerumRadix) April 9, 2020

Author Antony Sutton claims Wall Street funded not only the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, but the rise of Nazi Germany and Hitler as well as international Communism.

Here is a telling quote from Sutton’s book, “The Best Enemy Money Can Buy” (1986):

By using data of Russian origin it is possible to make an accurate analysis of the origins of this equipment. It was found that all the main diesel and steam-turbine propulsion systems of the ninety-six Soviet ships on the Haiphong supply run [to the North Vietnamese] that could be identified (i.e., eighty-four out of the ninety-six) originated in design or construction outside the USSR. We can conclude, therefore, that if the [U.S.] State and Commerce Departments, in the 1950s and 1960s, had consistently enforced the legislation passed by Congress in 1949, the Soviets would not have had the ability to supply the Vietnamese War – and 50,000 more Americans and countless Vietnamese would be alive today.

Who were the government officials responsible for this transfer of known military technology? The concept originally came from National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, who reportedly sold President Nixon on the idea that giving military technology to the Soviets would temper their global territorial ambitions. How Henry arrived at this gigantic non sequitur is not known. Sufficient to state that he aroused considerable concern over his motivations. Not least that Henry had been a paid family employee of the Rockefellers since 1958 and has served as International Advisory Committee Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, a Rockefeller concern. – Skull and Bones, Antony Sutton & Bankrolling the Enemy

It is a bizarre strategy indeed to engage in trading and doing business with an enemy, especially when that enemy is engaged in egregious human rights abuses.

Here is a conversation between President Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about Chairman Mao Zedong from February, 1972:

While discussing Nixon’s trip to China, Kissinger said, “Your trip [his upcoming historic trip to China] can change the whole future of the world.” Nixon and Kissinger then went on to speculate as to why Mao and the Chinese wanted to open relations with the Americans. What is most striking is the lack of critical thinking regarding the true intentions of China.

Dick Eastman of 21st Century Wire details this turn of events in an article entitled “US Middle Class Still Suffering from Rockefeller Kissinger Industrial Transfer Scheme to China“:

When Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller met with Zhou Enlai in China in 1973—just after President Richard Nixon had visited China establishing official relations—an understanding was reached whereby the U.S. would supply industrial capital and know-how to China.

In return Kissinger-connected corporations would gain the monopolistic advantage of low-cost labor production which could out-compete all U.S. domestic industry.

The comparative advantage gained was being able to hire Chinese laborers who were ready to work hard at exceedingly low cost—with no drugs, no alcohol, a strong work ethic, no unions, no paid benefits and weak environmental standards. And with such a large labor pool, burned out workers could simply be replaced. This gave the Rockefeller/Kissinger corporations a major edge over their domestic U.S. competitors who had to pay relatively high wages, high regulation costs, deal with union strikes and collective bargaining etc.

Of course, the American consumer did not see greatly lowered prices commensurate with such greatly lowered labor costs. The $19.99 plastic action-figure toy marketed with a Hollywood movie still cost $19.99 even though it cost $12 to $15 to produce in the U.S. but less than $2.00 per copy to produce in China and transport to America’s West Coast container ports for distribution throughout America.

The consumer paid pretty much the old prices but the corporations split the monopoly profit with China’s Princelings since it did not take much of a lowering of prices to drive high-wage, high-benefit, contracted-labor domestic corporations out of business (not to mention the environmental and workplace safety regulations with which domestic companies were saddled). Then, Wal-Mart became a near-monopoly retailer that increased and reinforced the widespread selling of these off-shore manufactures.

Thus, America’s domestic producers were not simply being bested on one or another area of production; they were being bested across the entire spectrum of manufactured goods that American buy. It was anticipated that these domestic firms would fail, and their failure was hastened by the banks maintaining a deflationary domestic economy in the U.S. throughout the post Rockefeller-Kissinger-Zhou buildup of China and the degrading of American domestic manufacturing. – 21st Century Wire

Just as author Antony Sutton described, this was a way for the ruling class to gain a foothold and monopoly at the expense of the American middle class who saw all manufacturing sent overseas. The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed how damaging a policy this was, as America had become reliant on our adversaries like China. All while China is engaging in a military doctrine called “unrestricted warfare” that it is waging against us as part of their China 2050 grand strategy.

Take a look at some of Chairman Mao’s western handlers. Take for example, Israel Epstein and Sidney Shapiro, both of whom come from the west, with Shapiro having been trained by the US Army. Israel Epstein was Mao’s propagandist for the west, and we have to wonder if there is any familial relation to Jeffrey Epstein:

Were these men working on behalf of the central bankers? Most likely. But that will be explored further in a separate article.

We see a similar pattern with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia: it was planned, financed and instigated by a small group of men in New York, acting on behalf of the international bankers. As Antony Sutton described in Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution:

We can conclude that the rise of China was not so much organic, as it was engineered by the same people and their philosophical heirs who have orchestrated other “cultural revolutions” in the past and then enforced socialism/ communism on the people. The Asia Society has described this same thing on their website:

You can click on each box and read how China was shaped very much by western bankers. Transmissions Media has produced a thorough breakdown of some of the more recent instigated “changes” in regard to China.

This timeline describes a plan for the destruction of America and the takeover by China as the new superpower that will impose the will of the international banking community. According to the author, the World Trade Organization was key to this, while perhaps the UN was the distraction.

Researcher T. Jack Mulcaire has done an incredible job detailing the Rockefeller family introduction into China that began with John D. Rockefeller, Sr.:

The Rockefellers made the United States of America dependent on China. That should send a chill down the spine of any reader, considering China’s horrific human rights abuses.

T. Jack Mulcaire claims:

The Rockefeller dynasty is more responsible for the creation of the twin-engined US-China financial system than any other group of people. The family saw China’s potential as a market early on. John D. Rockefeller Sr., the family’s patriarch and founder of the Standard Oil monopoly empire, sold his first kerosene to China in 1863 and made his first charitable donation to Christian missionary efforts in China that same year. Commerce and philanthropy would come to define the next several decades of Rockefeller engagement in China. The synergy between trade and charity was strong and definitely intentional.

Rockefeller philanthropic institutions and biographers have portrayed the family’s interest in China during the early 20th century as a hobby, driven by nothing more than an idle fascination with Chinese culture and history and a generic desire to ‘do good’. But when we look at the activities of their commercial empire in China during this time, it’s clear that they were investing, not just donating. You don’t get to be the richest man in the history of the world, with a family fortune equal to about 1.5% of total annual US economic output, unless you’re always looking for an angle. During the early decades of the 20th century, the United States was transitioning to a coal-generated electric power grid. But China was desperately poor and would not be electrified for decades. The country was a market of 400 million people who mostly relied on vegetable oil lamps to light their nights.

The Rockefeller-owned Standard Oil monopoly, which was the largest company in the world at that time, made large capital investments to capture that market and provide ‘Oil for the Lamps of China‘. The company gave away at least 8 million new kerosene lamps, branded with the ‘Mei Foo’ name under which Standard Oil sold kerosene in the Chinese market, and sold millions more at ultra low prices, to create a demand for Standard Oil kerosene.

The Standard Oil presence in East Asia was the largest American direct investment in the region prior to World War II. Although the company was broken up in 1911 due to anti-trust action, the family retained control of most of its constituent parts and operations in China were not affected. Stanvac, the company’s main operating subsidiary in China, owned hundreds of river vessels to bring its products to market in China’s interior, including 13 large tankers. After 1932, Standard took a hit to its market share by entering into a voluntary market allocation agreement with Royal Dutch Shell, Texaco and the Soviet owned Kwang-Ha oil company, but China remained an important market for the Rockefeller petroleum empire.

Concurrently with this massive investment of capital and expansion of operations in China, the Rockefeller family’s philanthropic institutions were spending lavishly in the country. Rockefeller funded philanthropic institutions spent tens of millions of dollars in China between 1900 and the Second World War. Rockefeller money created the China Medical Board and Peking Union Medical College, which essentially introduced modern Western medicine to China, as an adjunct to a concurrent effort by Rockefeller-funded organizations to totally transform the American health system. The Foundation’s attempted a total transformation of the lives of hundreds of millions of rural Chinese peasants, by introducing modern technological agriculture methods via the North China Council for Rural Reconstruction. The agricultural program was cut short by the Japanese invasion in 1937, but over the course of the 20th century, the Rockefeller Foundation would dedicate well over $1 billion to ‘change China’. – T. Jack Mulcaire

Could this be why we see China following the Rockefeller Foundation “Lockstep” playbook during this Coronavirus outbreak? There certainly is evidence that the bankers are still very much banking on the Chinese elites. CNN Money reported in 2016 for example, that JP Morgan Chase had been fined for hiring the children of China’s elites to gain access to deals. This is called pay-to-play.

This is all part of the Kissinger-Rockefeller Grand Strategy of building up China while systematically destroying America.

Bush was also connected to China according to an article entitled “Skull & Bones: The Bush China Connection” that also explains how Mao attended a Yale Divinity School were he was groomed.

It is not a coincidence that people like Bush and Rockefeller have generational ties to China.

In fact, after the death of David Rockefeller, Jr., China Daily published a 10-page eulogy and memorial that detailed how “important” Rockefeller was in shaping modern China. The article entitled “Rockefeller Family’s Connections to China” reports some incredible things:

Robert Blackwell, a Kissinger Fellow and member of the Council of Foreign Relations recently wrote a paper entitled “U.S. Grand Strategy Towards China” which illustrates that the same elites are trying to mold current policy.

Henry Kissinger recently gave an interview to The Atlantic, which is a NATO think tank that attempts to re-form America into the image of the European Union. Take a look at the symbolism:

The title of it “World Chaos and World Order” is a reference to those in the know, about the infamous Masonic “order out of chaos” motto. This centuries-long plan by these international bankers is not over at all. I believe that Kissinger deceived Nixon who did not understand what was intended in opening up relations with China. Nixon believed that the Chinese people would see the value in freedom and “free trade.”

It’s been speculated that this is why Kissinger and Rockefeller instigated the Watergate coup against Nixon—a frame-up with John Dean and Kissinger as the real “Deep Throats,” by my deductions from public information. Was this so that the Rockefeller/Kissinger plans for China’s industrialization and America’s de-industrialization could proceed unopposed? Exactly that certainly did occur after Nixon resigned to avoid a constitutional crisis that would hinder the proper working of government.

If so, what does that say about the current and still on-going coup attempts against President Trump? He clearly is not following their script. That is one thing for which we can be most grateful.

Autograph – Turn up the Radio

Pork Loin Cordon Bleu

Ingredients

8 thinly sliced pork loins
8 slices boiled ham
8 slices Swiss cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 small shallot, diced
1/2 cup Pere Magloire Calvados

Instructions

With a rolling pin, pound each pork loin 3 times. On 4 pieces of pork, place a slice of ham and a slice of cheese and top with another piece of pork. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook the pork for about 1 1/2 minutes on each side.
Add the shallot and cook for another minute.
Next, add the chicken stock and place in the oven for 6 minutes at 300 degrees F.
Serve immediately.

This is Naledi Phangindawo.

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She was murdered by the father of her kids. He was apparently abusive, and she tried leaving him so he killed her. South Africa. Very dangerous place.

What is the most badass thing a historical figure has ever said?

King Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor was one of the most powerful entities in Medieval Christian Europe. He fought against the Turks and founded “The Order of The Dragon”, a society committed to keeping Christian Europe free from Islamic rule. He was also a total hottie.

bangin’

Now my dude Sigismund was known for being a total, all-around badass. He was super intelligent, spoke like 7 languages, campaigned against Venetians, drank booze out of a giant gold and jewel encrusted horn, and all that other badass stuff. Nobody dared question his intellect… that was, of course, until the day.

Sigismund was holding a counsel to settle the Western Schism, which is just a fancy word for “there were 3 different dudes trying to convince everyone that they were The Real Pope™ and nobody knew who to believe”. Not good because The Pope had a lot of power in the Middle Ages and was basically a Super Holy King (A.K.A “The Mac Daddy”).

So during one of those counsel meetings my dude Sigismund was just up there killin’ it. Speakin’ Latin. All that Medieval shit. When all of a motherfucking sudden there was a cardinal, a representative of The Catholic Church, who decided to interrupt Sigismund and tell him that his Latin was weak af.

That’s right. They straight up Grammar Nazi’d The Holy Roman Emperor and oh ho ho boy — he did not like that shit. So he reached into the depths of his magical, fur capped head and pulled out this sick burn;

“I am The King of the Romans — I am above grammar.”

OH LAWDY.

He needs some milk.

get wreck’d nerd

Is the world really controlled by just a few families?

Indeed, we live within a power hierarchy where only a few dozen families control the world and do whatever they wish for themselves. It seems as if they have limitless abilities with their power, as they limit humanity from obtaining true information, acquiring certain medication, normal food and cheaper energy that we could have long used instead of oil. They act based on their egoistic pursuits and position.

We are powerless to create any different kind of order in our world unless we rise to a degree of connection where we start feeling the positive forces dwelling in nature, which are currently concealed from us. We will then exit this power structure we find ourselves in. These few families cannot stand in the way of nature’s governance and limit our world in its positive form of development.

The wisdom of Kabbalah calls these people in power “angels.” The Kabbalistic meaning of “angels” is completely different to the way most people think about that word. “Angels” means certain forces that are under the complete control of the upper force, and these ones in question function as a shadow of our flaws.

If we positively connect in a way that adapts us to the positive forces of nature—forces of love, bestowal and connection—we neutralize negative forms of control over us. For the time being, however, while we remain detached in our egoistic connections, each one pulling their own way, then it is as if we sustain those few families’ power. In other words, we ourselves are their power source, and we create the conditions for their existence.

Therefore, our progress to a harmonious and peaceful future depends on our transformation to positively connect. When we do so, we will feel the powers over us operating out of absolute love and care—an attitude that will grant everyone access to the most powerful, boundless and perfect form of fulfillment.

5 things a narcissistic pervert will never tell you!

What are the things that a narcissistic pervert will never tell me? What does the manipulator hide from me? How to understand a narcissistic pervert?

The manipulative narcissistic pervert hides all sorts of things from you, often to prevent you from escaping from his grip.

He especially does not want you to succeed in getting into his head in order to understand his real game. Indeed, it is totally possible to recognize the weaknesses of the narcissistic pervert.

Learn to detect the signs quickly and you will be able to destroy the narcissistic pervert.
HERE ARE THE 5 THINGS A NARCISSISTIC PERVERT WILL NEVER TELL YOU:

The narcissistic pervert is completely dependent on you.

He would feel a great inner emptiness without your presence and would go completely crazy, as if all of a sudden his precious treasure disappeared.

If this were to happen, he would be alone with himself and would even be very afraid of it. For the NP, you are his favorite prey!

He would like to be like you and have your qualities.

The manipulator is extremely jealous of the extraordinary person that you are. He is jealous of your qualities that he will probably never have.

Often, they keep you in their grip to take away all the good in you since their jealousy is too intense. You must learn to protect your value from this toxic person.

The Narcissistic Pervert Manipulator wants to own you and is desperate to control you.

He is constantly in need of controlling you. It is in his nature and if he were to lose control, he would fear being controlled by you.

He has the mind of a very spoiled child.

A narcissistic pervert is not a responsible adult. The actions and mindset of this personality are exactly that of a child king.

If they can’t keep you, they will easily replace you.

As you know, the NP doesn’t want to be alone and is desperate for a prey to fill an inner void. It’s as if he lives and breathes for the simple purpose of destroying others.

BABYMETAL – ギミチョコ！！- Gimme chocolate!! (OFFICIAL)

Did China keep Snowden in Hong Kong?

Absolutely

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On May 7th he requested for a 21 day Holiday to go to Hong Kong for Traditional Medicine Treatment for Epilepsy.

On May 13th 2014, Snowden wrote to the Ministry of State Security in China and the FSB in Russia requesting for Asylum.

He gave 10 IP addresses to each Country monitored by the NSA as an initial offer of Asylum

The US promptly decided to extradite him from Hong Kong

Enter Robert Libbo & Ong Boon Keong

US filed three immediate requests :-

Provisional Arrest Immediately
If not Provisional arrest, at least Confinement in his Hotel Room
Monitoring all his activities

Sadly for US, China had got the IP Addresses and were Furious!!!!

Two Chinese Big Shots from the CPC visited HK and left a day later

HK said – Sorry!!!! We cannot arrest him or monitor his activities!!! Send your Extradition request within 30 days

Chinese Officials from the Singapore Consulate met Snowden and Snowden gave them over 278 GB of Data across 4 80 GB Support Disks. It contained many many many monitored IP addresses and protocol routes.

A Pro West Judge was slated to hear the case but 1 hour before the first hearing – He was so terrified by someone who called him that he mysteriously took a 14 day recuperation and the case moved to a devout pro chinese Judge – a Lady who refused everything to the US and openly told HK authorities to arrest anyone who entered the Mira Hotel without permission- diplomacy be damned

By the time US used Political clout – Snowden vanished. He moved to Kowloon to some Refugee apartment and the Pro Chinese Judge exempted him from any appearance.

The Technicalities

The US sent a formal extradition request and Lackey HK politicians dutifully endorsed it to the court.

Our Pro Chinese Judge promptly rejected it on grounds of:-

—Error in listen name

-Social Security Document not a valid proof of ID in HK and Passport details are mismatched

This was true. The Request was so hurried that the Name and Passport were botched up.

However China of 2013 wasnt the China of 2022. The Mainland Authorities knew eventually they would have to kowtow to US and send Snowden to US unless they invaded HK.

So they tipped off Snowden who moved to the Russian Consulate in HK

Snowden throws a Brilliant Curveball

Snowden applied to 21 Nations for Asylum knowing fully well he would go only to China. Later he changed to Russia after advise from the Chinese.

Snowden used the NSA tracking against them by making 20 calls to the Bolivian consulate in HK and talking to the Bolivian Ministry.

Everyone believed he would make for the Bolivian consulate.

Unlike Assange, Snowden wasnt an Idiot who trusted the Western System knowing they were all prostitutes of USA long ago.

Nobody looked at Russia

It was China or Bolivia.

Meanwhile HK authorities passed an order forbidding Snowden to leave by Air if he presented his passport

China makes the last call

Again China made a call and the order was revoked on Human Rights grounds and was called for somewhere in Mid June 2014

Snowden left 2 hours after it was revoked and well before US State Department could respond.

By the time the US State Department responded, Snowden was Long Gone and was in Moscow where Asylum was granted in a record 40 minutes pending a hearing scheduled 11 months later.

So it was China who ensured that Snowden never got caught or extradited

They however knew that they could not bring Snowden to Beijing and risk so much Political Pressure, so they orchestrated his movement to Russia and subsequently demanded details from the US on their spying that US simply could not give.

CHECKMATE

Today Snowden is a Russian Citizen

What happened in China next

The Great Firewall was enhanced and every single Protocol was destroyed

China amended the law to exempt Personal Security to US Equipment Server Engineers – Two Engineers who were arrested on grounds of spying were beaten so badly in custody that the rest fled China in sheer terror.

Over 500 Equipment Contracts with US were decimated

China demanded newer Security Agreements and told a Facebook Engineer who was arrested how they would target their families

It was literally a Mafia Moment in China

US Security Experts in China were so frightened that they all fled China and their equipment was seized and destroyed.

US didnt protest because they were caught with their pants down

Israels entire Surveilance system was compromised in Iran and Five Iranians were executed and their families disappeared

Israel and US lost a Massive Surveillance Behemoth in the Region

Snowden was easily Chinas Greatest Patriot

Without him imagine?

China would never have set up counter surveillance on US and created their Great Firewall and protected itself from Malicious Western Impacts.

Into the Black

Why is American life so much harder than it was in the 50s and 60s?

Not by MM-MM

This is a white guy’s perspective. Please don’t beat me to death.

Mom stayed at home. Dad went to work.

There were more, and better paying jobs out there for men who came back from the wars because there was less competition (not from working women)

So the Dads brought home the bacon and Moms cooked it.

There were Black and White TV’s in mid 50’s. No dishwashers (only Mom). We were ahead of the game and had a washer AND a dryer in the basement.

Got our first color TV in 64. Same year my mom, who was 46 got her driver’s license and first car. It was also the same year I was mugged as a 16 year old and hospitalized for a shattered nose and fractured skull (this was in a Good Neighborhood) on the S.W. side of Chicago.

This is the street corner where I was mugged.

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So it seemed to be simpler.

4 TV channels which went off about midnight.

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No internet, ping pong in the rec room, BBQ’s every weekend at a different house in the neighborhood.

Baseball in the park.

Good Humor Ice Cream trucks.

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Door to door salesman.

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The Milkman. Edit 10/5/2019 – They still exist! I met one today, didn’t look like this guy, but it seems that they have evolved, still delivering to retail outlets, BUT he does deliver milk and cream to people who are shut-in’s because of a disability.

That sort of surprised me. Enjoy.

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Friendly streets.

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That’s what I remember and why it seemed to be simpler. The homes on this street are at least 67 years old, the age of the red brick 1 story house where I grew up (photo from 2018).

Maybe life seemed simpler than it really was. 🙂

EDIT: I want to thank the thousands of you who feel the same, and understand what happened when you read this post, and upvoted me.

It also dawned on me that I did not reference a lecture I had seen about the evolution about our information OVERLOAD.

Simply, in the 1800’s we only made a few decisions a day, Plow the front 40 or the back 40. kill and dress a chicken or a pig for dinner, THIS WHITE SHIRT OR THAT WHITE SHIRT for Sunday Church.

Today we make THOUSANDS of decisions AN HOUR.

The process of typing this edit meant I had to think, phrase and actually perform thousand+ keystrokes, just for this message.

Yep, life was easier when we didn’t have computers, IPads, SMART watches and SMART PHONES or 1000 TV Channels with 999 different opinions.

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The volume of information and decisions that we need to make every day is outpacing the evolution capability of our 30 Million year old brains.

Thanks again for reading!

Edit Christmas Day 2019.

One thing I just remembered today was when I was little, we did not have a fireplace in the house that you can see in the picture above. So I would go to the front door, and not only unlock the door, but open it slightly. My parents tried to tell me that when Santa couldn’t find a chimney to come down, he had a master key and came in.

But I did not believe them. In my mind I was only slightly taller than the door knob. So I would open the door, and then go to bed. But in the middle of the night after my parents went to bed, I would check the front door. It was always closed, so I opened it again, maybe just 1/2 inch. I would leave the cookies and milk next to a chair right by the door. While there was a storm door, the house would get still get cold, most Christmases were snow free, but still cold in Chicago.

My parents figured it out, because the milk and cookies were always gone, and the door was always closed when I got up.

Deep Dish Hamburger Pie

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 can green beans
Salt and pepper to taste
Ketchup
2 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Brown the meat and add your seasonings.
Stir in enough ketchup to suit your taste.
Add green beans and stir in well.
Place this mixture in a casserole dish and top with the mashed taters and then top that with the cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F until heated through and cheese is browned.

China’s Governance Gap

‘First, enrich the people’ – Confucius

Godfree Roberts

In the West, where the State is regarded with varying degrees of suspicion–even hostility–and, as a consequence, an outsider. In China the state is seen as an intimate, a part of the family. Indeed, as the head of the family. Martin Jacques.

Cut to the chase

China is winning because it is run by honest geniuses and its people make stuff. We are losing because America is run by professional liars and we’ve stopped making stuff. Let us count our losing ways:

China’s productive (wartime) economy is three times bigger than America’s.
96% of them own their homes vs. 60% of us.
Their incomes double every decade. Our last raise was in 1975.
Their median net worth is higher, their wealth and income inequality lower.
Their streets are a hundred times safer.
They live much longer, healthier lives than Americans.
Their kids graduate 3 years ahead of ours in math and science.
They have a ‘stunning lead in 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies’
The IQ cutoff for a government job (or a PhD in theoretical physics) is 140.
Their government does not lie.
Their government keeps its promises.
Covid Zero was the greatest civil defense demonstration ever.
There are more hungry children, drug addicts, suicides, executions, and illiterate, incarcerated, poor, homeless people in America than in China.
China’s diplomacy is unmatched, as is its prestige: 100 heads of state will attend the BRI tenth anniversary this year.

Do the Math

Every year, twelve million Chinese babies are born with IQs averaging five points above ours, ten million graduate high school three grades ahead of ours, eight million graduate college, the top one-million take the three-day guokao, the civil service examination and, every year, the smartest 27,000 get jobs. This is a cause for clan celebration and an entry in Family Books, some of which predate the birth of Christ.

Every year, the government offers its new hires a choice of career tracks. The ambitious ones choose the leadership track and are promptly dispatched to the nation’s poorest villages with vague instructions to double their incomes. Those who succeed are asked to repeat their performance for an entire county. That’s how Xi started.

That’s how they all start.

And that’s how, in 2021, China’s government accomplished far more than all Western nations combined. As Chairman Rabbit explains, “In China, the government must solve problems by all means and take all responsibility – and its responsibility is both political and moral”.

The Moral Issue

That’s another major difference between our systems: Chinese officials are expected to set a moral example and civil service promotions are determined first by candidates’ moral maturity – for reasons familiar to John Quincy Adams, “Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Gallantry would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net”.

Planning

In 1951, Mao refined the Confucian model, adding democratic oversight, local experimentation, and endless surveys run by four-thousand full-time researchers at the Academy of Social Sciences’ fifty research centers and two-hundred sixty social disciplines. Says author Jeff J. Brown, “My Beijing neighborhood committee and town hall are constantly putting up announcements, inviting groups–renters, homeowners, over seventies, women under forty, those with or without medical insurance, retirees–to answer surveys. The CPC is the world’s biggest pollster for a reason: China’s democratic ‘dictatorship of the people’ is highly engaged at the day-to-day, citizen-on-the-street level. I know, because I live in a middle class Chinese community and I question them all the time. I find their government much more responsive and democratic than the dog-and-pony shows back home, and I mean that seriously”.

Planners tour the country, hold meetings, listen to local opinions, and formulate proposals which specialists evaluate and budget. Then twenty-seven levels of bureaucrats responsible for implementation submit feasibility analyses. Says a planner, “Computers have made huge improvements in collecting and analyzing the information. Still, thousands of statisticians, actuaries, database experts and technicians with degrees in urban, rural, agricultural, environmental and economic planning invest thousands of hours interpreting and analyzing this vast trove of data, statistics and information. Needless to say, for a continent-sized country with over a billion citizens, it takes hundreds of thousands of people to develop a Five-Year Plan”. Think tanks formulate policies, provincial field trials test them. Successful solutions are rolled out nationwide and their sponsors become front-page heroes.

Heroes

Let people see that you only want their good and the people will be good. The relationship between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend when the wind blows across it. If good men were to govern a country continually for a hundred years they would transform the violently bad and dispense with capital punishment altogether. Analects.

Most Chinese heroes – and even some of its Gods – were real-life government officials whose legacy is a happier, richer country. If that doesn’t explain the governance gap, I don’t know what does.

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

When I was 10, my parents signed me and my younger siblings up for the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Kids Birthday Club. Basically, I gave Krispy Kreme my address and birth month and they would send me a coupon for a free dozen doughnuts every year on my birth month until I aged out of their Kids Club at age 12— ‘cause this is just for kids, OK?

Sweet deal.

But Krispy Kreme forgot to ask for the year in my birthday. They have no clue how old I am.

So I’m now almost 25, and I’ve been a member of the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Kids Birthday Club for 15 years. That’s a 180 free doughnuts for me, plus another 180 for my sister and 180 for my brother.

540 free doughnuts.

They’ve since closed the loophole to new signups— first you had to list your full birthday down to the year to join the Krispy Kreme Kids club (which they temporarily and unfortunately called “KKK”

, no joke), and now they don’t even offer it. Adults can sign up to get one single donut on their birthday and some special days (tax day, Halloween, National Doughnut Day), but that’s it.

Will anyone at Krispy Kreme ever notice that I’ve been “under age 12” for 15 years? Tune in next year to find out.

Edit 2018: Nope, didn’t notice yet.

Edit 2019: More donuts.

Edit 2020: Happy donut day!

Edit 2021: Still more donuts.

Edit 2022: Congratulations to me, I’ve been “under 12” for 19 years! Can we get to an even 20?

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What was your rescue cat or dog’s name before your changed it? If you didn’t, did you consider it?

My husband has severe anxiety and panic attacks. He decided to get him an emotional support animal. My husband loves cats, so we decided to get a kitten. I called the local rescue and was put in touch with the kitten foster mom. When I talked to her, I told her that we were looking for a kitten that was calm and would tend to be a lap kitty. She said she had the perfect one. It was a kitten named Sadie.

We went to see the kittens. The foster mom had two large rooms with about 20 kittens. She brought a black and white kitten to my husband. This was Sadie. My husband petted her but soon she jumped down and was off playing with the others.

Then this lanky blond kitten crawled into my husband’s lap. He purred like crazy. My husband fell in love with this kitten. The foster mom said she wasn’t sure that this kitten would be a good match for us. He was always play fighting and getting in trouble. She had named him Scrappy because of his feisty personality.

My husband had made up his mind, so we took Scrappy home. We had thought of different names that we liked. The kitten became Marley before we even got home.

Our Marley has been an angel. He has helped my husband so much. Marley always knows when my husband needs him. He will cuddle up close to my husband and purr. Since Marley came to live with us about 8 months ago, my husband has not had a bad panic attack and his anxiety is better. We love our “Scrappy” kitten named Marley.

Marley petting my husband.

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The Super insanity that is the United States “leadership” Yikes!

The US’ humiliating exclusion from the centre stage of West Asian politics constitutes a “Suez moment” for the superpower, comparable to the crisis experienced by the UK in 1956, which obliged the British to sense that their imperial project had reached a dead end and the old way of doing things—whipping weaker nations into line as ostensible obligations of global leadership —was no longer going to work and would only lead to disastrous reckoning. <

-India Punchline

When I was in High School, I worked in the coal mines, and did other work as a Forest Fire Fighter, steel mill roustabout, and worked as a clerk in the local grocery store. I needed to earn enough money to go to college.

One of my coworkers; a Dan <redacted>, quit his job working minimum wage and got a job in a town called Petrolia.

Nice short video of this town…

Drive though the town (sorry too jittery)

There, for an extra dollar an hour, he would put on this deep-sea-diving-suit, and crawl into the rail cars that carried toxic chemicals from the processing plants there. His job was to scrub out the interiors. And he did so for a couple of Summers…

A few decades later, say four decades, I’m talking with his Aunt who attended my mother’s funeral.

She told me that Dan had “somehow” gotten a rare form of cancer, and was really having a hard time at it.

I felt bad. But I didn’t tell her my suspicions.

We look at things and life with the eyes of age and experience. I do hope that Dan is doing better, but cancer is a bitch.

Take care people…

…

Jesus H. Christ. Watch this video…

Putin and China just launched the GREAT RESET on the west with this move

Comment

3 cheers for Caitlin!
3 cheers for b's Twitter sketch comedy about Oz spending $400 Billion to protect Oz's trade routes with China, from China, for the Evil Stupid Yankee psychopaths.

What's REALLY stupid about all this submarine malarky is that if AmeriKKKa believes its own bullshit about wanting a war with Russia + China, and that daydream comes true, then AmeriKKKa will be glowing in the dark before construction of the subs has STARTED.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 12 2023 16:18 utc | 15

Talking Heads – Wild Wild Life (Official Video)

Grilled Chili Cheese Fries Foil Packet

Fries topped with chili, diced tomatoes and cheese wrapped in foil for a grilled foil packet recipe to serve as an easy side with no messy dishes.

Ingredients

PAM Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
1 (15 ounce) package Alexia® Yukon Gold Julienne Fries with Sea Salt
1 (15 ounce) can Wolf® Brand Chili with Beans
1 (14.5 ounce) can Hunt’s® Diced Tomatoes, drained
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Heat gas grill for medium-high heat. Overlap by three-fourths two 18 x 20-inch pieces of heavy foil on counter; spray with cooking spray.
Place fries in center of foil.
Stir together chili and drained tomatoes in medium bowl.
Spread mixture evenly over fries; top with cheese.
Double fold top and ends of foil, leaving space for steam to gather.
Carefully place packet on grate; cover grill.
Grill for 25 minutes or until fries are tender and cheese melts.

prep time 5 min | total time 25 min | Yield: 6 servings

Hack chip Bags into Clean & Easy Snack Bowls

If you don’t like fishing blindly for the perfect chips, you can either keep cutting down the opening for more visibility (which ultimately gives you less leverage for resealing) or turn it into a bowl using the “roll up from bottom” method (which retains the leverage you need for proper sealing later).

7 life changing hacks for you eat potato chips other bagged snacks.w1456fg

This also had the added benefit of keeping your forearms and hands cleaner, and is easy to straighten back out for storage. The only downside is that you’ll have a few more crushed chips than usual (see #7 below for help with that). To see how it’s done, check out Grant Thompson’s full guide here on WonderHowto.

Biden’s Zugzwang

Despair or Extinction?

Godfree Roberts

Mar 13

With only bad choices left, Washington has chosen total extinction. In a national version of suicide by cop, the US is rushing towards a war with China it cannot possibly win.

From an historical perspective, this is normal, even predictable.

Rich, powerful people, especially those whose wealth and power are unearned, sincerely believe that God wants things this way and they will fight to the last employee and farmhand rather than surrender a tax break.

Spain’s Philip IV squandered billions maintaining his country’s prestige in the Netherlands and lost the empire.

Japanese politicians, often scions of great warrior clans, went to war rather than accept the vassalage that American embargoes entailed after the Imperial Japanese General Staff correctly predicted the course, duration and outcome of the Pacific War.

Will proud American politicians go to war rather than accept Chinese equality?

Can we avoid war?

Events like these are shaping the battlefield, winning without fighting:

China’s Iran-Saudi coup dented White House self-confidence, writers need time to weave a new narrative, of thinner thread, delaying Armageddon by weeks or months.
500 Chinese billionaire Party members hobnob with the Rothschilds, Windsors, Krupps and Wallenbergs, endow their charities, research centers, universities and hospitals, attract Old Europe towards prosperous, non-interfering China and away from impecunious, meddlesome America.

Russia’s victory in Ukraine soon after America’s loss in Afghanistan means a further loss of face and confidence. The US must provide hundreds of billions of dollars for Ukraine’s postwar support and spend more replenishing equipment and supplies, delaying Armageddon 2 years.
Taipei and China Coast Guard announce joint patrols, forcing White House speechwriters to rework the “defend Taiwan” meme.
The possibility of dying a noble death in a distant battle has some appeal. The certainty of being fried alive within minutes has none. The 46-minute interval between pressing a button and seeing the first flash is insufficient time to board the chopper.
At the BRI’s 10th birthday party in Beijing this summer, 151 heads of state will announce the new reserve/settlement currency. In it, the dollar will be fairly weighted, as will commodities like gold and corn that anchor it to the physical world. It will erode the dollar’s privilege slowly and organically.
The US took six months to prepare for the Iraq war while in full control of the land, sky and seas. China completely controls the land, sky and seas 1000 miles from its borders – and deep space.
China’s missile defense system beats America’s by the same margin that China’s health defense system beats America’s: 100:1.
Though fleets win battles, economies win wars. China’s productive (wartime) economy is three times bigger than America’s and growing three times faster.

America the humble?

Rome declined for a thousand years, Spain took a century, the British Empire was gone in forty. America has two years to adjust to its real status or initiate a nuclear war¹.

Humility footnote

We got a foretaste of America’s forthcoming humiliation after Nicholas Burns, US Ambassador to China, told Beijing expats that China must accept America’s leadership.

Questioned about his claim, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman quipped, “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t”².

This is Reality…

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Disasters Strike Egypt – The Ten Commandments 1956

Uh oh…

The US Navy researchers invented a new explosive with formidable capabilities in 1987, named China Lake Compound No. 20 (CL-20), after the Southern California base where it was developed.

main qimg 01a78b8d3f7488810d45d60428b9859d

The CL-20 had 40 percent greater penetrating power and propellant range than the US military’s mainstay explosives, first produced during World War II (WWII).

However, following the disintegration of the Soviet Union (USSR), the Pentagon’s sense of urgency to field new and advanced weaponry declined, which stunted the effort of perfecting CL-20 and designing weapons to use it.

China, however, understood the potential of the CL-20 and developed its version of this explosive material which began mass production in 2011.

Most of the long-range missiles fielded by China to prevent the US warships and non-stealthy aircraft, such as refueling tankers, from intervening if the Chinese military attacks Taiwan, are believed to be propelled by CL-20.

“This is a case where we could potentially be beaten over the head with our technology,” Bob Kavetsky, head of the Energetic Technology Center (ETC), a nonprofit research group that works for the US government, told Forbes.

For years now, Kavetsky and other experts in the field of energetics have been warning that the US, which was once a leader in explosives, has fallen dangerously behind China.

To worsen matters more, the US depends on China as a primary source for about a half dozen chemical ingredients in explosives, propellants, and other hostile foreign countries for another dozen.

If the US decides to intervene in a conflict in Taiwan Strait, the US military will face a greater number of Chinese missiles, including some with better range and power, made possible by Chinese advances in CL-20 and technology to make fuels burn more efficiently.

Also, the Chinese have invested heavily in developing and producing larger missiles than US forces can bring to the conflict by either air or sea.

China Overtakes The US

Meanwhile China appears to be trying to position itself as a world leader in energetics. As per the data from Georgetown’s Center for Strategic and Emerging Technologies, over the last five years, Chinese researchers in energetics materials have published nearly seven times as many papers as their American counterparts.

Due to the dangers of handling explosives, and limited civilian applications of the materials involved, military explosives have been almost entirely developed and manufactured in US government facilities.

While some American military researchers have developed new explosives and propellants over the past few decades, none have been put into mass production.

As for the production, almost all US explosives are produced at a single US Army plant in Holston, Tennessee, that goes back to WWII and is run by UK-based defense contractor BAE Systems, as the production processes are just as old, with explosives being prepared in 400-gallon vats resembling cake mixers.

It is impossible to produce CL-20 and many other advanced energetic materials using these processes, as they are synthesized in smaller amounts in chemical reactors.

Regarding the production scale, it is possible to produce 20,000 pounds of CL-20 annually with current amounts of precursor chemicals. However, large-scale use would need 2 million pounds a year, which could take three to five years to step up.

A thought

CrazyTrain @57--Asks:

do people really foresee a benevolant world governance being successfully implemented and led by China? Don't people think the fallibility of human hubris and overreach will eventually corrupt their system as well?

The world governance being discussed is based on the principles contained in the UN Charter and would be led by all nations as zero hegemony is to exist. My answer is based upon what Russia, China, and their RoW partners have and continue to say and put into daily practice over the past five years at minimum. Russia's been espousing the need to follow/enforce the UN Charter since Putin came to power and his team plus the vast majority of Russian's endorse that view, and the same goes for China. China and Russia formed a Friends in Defense of the UN Charter organization almost three years ago that contains the rest of BRICS, SCO and other nations while slowly continuing to grow. I insist you read the Global Security Initiative forwarded by Xi Jinping along with the 4 Feb 2022 Joint Declaration made by Russia/China. Furthermore, while following Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, meetings globally for many years now, in most every review of his talks it's mentioned that it's agreed by the host nation that the principles of the UN Charter must be followed, or that there's no substitute for those principles. Putin in almost every speech aimed at an international audience for many years now has emphasized the principle of sovereign equality between all nations regardless of size or "geopolitical weight." The need to further democratize the UN is voiced by both Russia, China and their partners and echoed by all others except the Outlaw US Empire and its vassals. And yes, it's admitted that the current UN is corrupted by the Empire and thus doesn't obey its own principles thus requiring reform.

And then there's the international financial system that's mostly controlled by the Empire which has also proven its 100% untrustworthiness though its actions over many decades. That is currently in the process of being altered into the fair, just system demanded by the RoW.

I often emphasize that the war that's happening IS global as the RoW has finally banded together to defeat the Empire's hegemony. That may not be readily apparent but it's true nonetheless. Russia's December 2021 security proposals are based on the same principle as Xi's GSI and the UN Charter. Several years ago at the UNGA, Iran proposed a very similar plan for the Persian Gulf Region, which was based largely on a previous proposal made by Russia. The reality is despite the longstanding Establishment Narrative voiced by the Outlaw US Empire it is the semi-totalitarian entity responsible for the vast majority of human conflicts since 1945 that include several genocides. The current goal is to contain it, force it to retreat, then strip it of its vassals until most of its bloc has melted away. Perhaps by that time the many great contradictions that exist within the Empire will have finally forced a complete political overhaul; otherwise, it will retain and exploit its continental empire until revolution alters its nature.

So, my answer to your query is no, humanity will evolve beyond conflict to cooperation, and this is already very visible. The main entity restraining that evolution is the Outlaw US Empire and its vassals. No, it won't be instantaneous, and conflict will be a part of the process as the Empire will contest its containment and retreat; and within the Empire, there'll be suffering as the parasites continue to kill the host. But to prompt the required rebellion, economic suffering will be required as nothing else seems to be a motivating factor.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2023 23:05 utc | 90

TALKING HEADS – Psycho Killer (1980)

Keeping up with the “news”

Last week’s post on Moon of Alabama:

Mar 6 – Why Bakhmut Is Falling
Mar 11 – Ukraine Is Lying About Casualty Ratios To Justify Holding Of Bakhmut
Related:
– Defending Ukraine’s ‘highway of life’ — the last road out of Bakhmut – Washington Post
– I Teach International Relations. I Think We’re Making a Mistake in Ukraine. – Max Abrahms – Atlantic
The U.S. risks provoking Russian aggression.

Mar 7 – Nord Stream Attack – White House Counters Hersh’s Reputation With Weak ‘Intelligence’
Mar 8 – Nord Stream Attack – ‘Officials’ Throw More Chaff To Hide The Real Perpetrators
Related:
– A global mystery: What’s known about Nord Stream explosions – AP
– Nord Stream mystery: the tanker Minerva Julie spent 7 days idling near the attack site – Business Insider
Note: AIS can be faked so it may have been a different ship.

Mar 10 – Mediated By China Iran And Saudi Arabia Restore Ties – There Are Winners And Losers
Related:
– Chinese-Brokered Deal Upends Mideast Diplomacy and Challenges U.S. – New York Times
– Saudi Deal With Iran Surprises Israel and Jolts Netanyahu – New York Times
– China-brokered Iran-Saudi deal raises red flags for US – The Hill
– China steps up, a new era has dawned in world politics – Indian Punchline

> The US’ humiliating exclusion from the centre stage of West Asian politics constitutes a “Suez moment” for the superpower, comparable to the crisis experienced by the UK in 1956, which obliged the British to sense that their imperial project had reached a dead end and the old way of doing things—whipping weaker nations into line as ostensible obligations of global leadership —was no longer going to work and would only lead to disastrous reckoning. <

—
Other issues:

Silicon Valley Bank:

SVB Chief Pressed Lawmakers To Weaken Bank Risk Regs – Levernews
Silicon Valley Bank employees received bonuses hours before government takeover – CNBC
Silicon Valley Bank Used Former McCarthy Staffers to Weaken Regulations, Lobby FDIC – Intercept
Two senior aides to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy were among the top lobbyists for the bank at the center of a new financial crisis
Fed Hawkishness, Crypto Implosion, and Private Equity Subscription Lines of Credit Imperil Silicon Valley Bank and Freak Out Bank Stock Investors – Naked Capitalism
Saturday Night Thoughts on the Need for a Lender of Last Resort – Brad DeLong
Bailout talk roils Washington after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse – Washington Post
Government help for large depositors could ignite a political firestorm — but failing to act could crush some tech start-ups
US weighs new fund to backstop deposits if more banks fail, Bloomberg News says – Reuters

Aukus:

Caitlin Johnstone: Spreading War Fever in Australia – Consortiumnews
Concern eye-watering cost for Australia to go nuclear could lead to higher taxes – News.au
To Protect Itself From U.S. Hostility Australia Decides To Buy U.S. Submarines (Sep 16, 2021) – Moon of Alabama
See also this and this MoA piece.

Twitter Files:

1. TWITTER FILES: Statement to Congress – Matt Taibbi
THE CENSORSHIP-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
EXPOSED: America’s Secret Censorship-Industrial Complex – Michael Shellenberger
U.S. government officials, agencies, and contractors are violating the First Amendment
FTC Twitter Investigation Sought Elon Musk’s Internal Communications, Journalist Names – WSJ
Hearing Brings Attention To US Agency’s Effort To Compel Twitter To Identify Journalists Working On ‘Twitter Files’ – Dissenter
Jim Jordan Leads Hearing Targeting Govt Suppression Of Free Speech On Twitter Feat. Matt Taibbi (video, 140min) – Forbes
With the Twitter Files, Democrats Support Government Censorship of Lawful Speech – Bracing Views
Post-decency politics: House Democrats use a hearing to attack free speech and a free press – The Hill

Cleopatra (1963 ) Elizabeth Taylor Entrance into Rome Scene (HD)

Why are investors turning to China again?

Turning to China?

They are FLOODING to China

Reason is simple – China is the only strong economy that will not see Recession until at least 12–15 months after the US

Economies like India rebounded positively in 2022 after the Covid Lockdown so imagine a Dragon like China rebounding after 3 long years

The Rebound that China will have will push way all Recession by at least 12–15 months whereas US has high inflation and recession – not exactly the right recipe for investments

EU is not reliable today

UK is even worse

Japan is so slow that its better to bury your money in the back garden and take it out 20 years later with a shovel

That leaves China !!!!

All Investors want to ride with the Rebound of China and maximize their returns

Already almost 80% of the Capital that didnt come to China from 2021–2023 – has surged into China plus China is the second largest recipient of Russian Investments after UAE since 2022.

Plus Investors like Chinas conservative outlook and market

Lets wait and see how long it takes for the US Congress to pass some looney law demanding no investments into China

Best Comedy scene “History of the World” by Mel Brooks

Will China ever have a social network that connects to the rest of the world?

No, for several simple reasons:

Most Chinese prefer to use Chinese for communications because it is their own language and it takes less time and mental overhead for them.

People like to do what is easiest for them in daily communications.

There is another reason:

Chinese communicating in Chinese have a better understanding of daily issues they face because they have grown up and are living in China, and are much more likely to provide intelligent feedback than non-Chinese.

Non-Chinese who do not know Chinese and have not lived in China don’t have understanding of what is going on, which means that they would not be able to provide intelligent feedback. In simple terms, you want to ask the right person with the right background, not someone who has no knowledge.

This means that feedback from non-Chinese is not required for daily life because it would be a waste of time.

Unemployment Insurance History Of The World

This is so darn funny!

Don’t Open potato chips Bags Using Hands Only

For most of us, opening a bag of chips is second nature. You grab each side and pull it apart. If it sticks, you use one hand to pull on the vertical flap for more leverage. Occasionally, though, you’ll get a stubborn bag that would rather disfigure itself than give you a clean opening.

7 life changing hacks for you eat potato chips other bagged snacks.w1456

Making the bag easier to open at home is not the main concern with snack manufacturers, it’s making sure they don’t prematurely open on the way to the store. Most bags are heat-sealed with adhesive polymer, which is usually done at low temperatures with high pressure to speed up the bond and keep production lines moving fast.

But chip makers don’t all use the same ratios, making some brands easy to open and others impossible. To make sure you always get a clean opening, which is important for resealing, always use a knife or pair of scissors.

Chicken Bacon Breakfast Sandwiches
with Tomato and Arugula

Chicken Bacon Breakfast Sandwiches. Chicken bacon, eggs, tomatoes, cheddar cheese and arugula are piled inside toasted English muffins.

Prep: 5 min | Cook: 10 min | Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 (3 ounce) package Al Fresco Uncured Original Fully Cooked Chicken Bacon, 8 slices
4 whole wheat English muffin, sliced in half, toasted
4 eggs, large, raw
1/2 teaspoon vinegar, distilled
4 slices tomato, thinly sliced
4 slices cheddar cheese, lower sodium
Small handful arugula

Instructions

To poach the eggs, fill a deep skillet with 2 inches of water, add vinegar, and bring to simmer over medium heat.
Crack each egg into separate custard cups. Gently slide 1 egg at a time into simmering water in skillet. Cook just until egg whites are set, about 3 minutes (yolks will be only partially cooked).
Place 8 slices of chicken bacon on a microwave safe plate and heat in the microwave for 30 to 50 seconds, or until desired crispness is achieved.
To assemble, place 1/2 of the toasted English muffin on a plate and top with a slice of cheese.
Use a slotted spoon and carefully transfer the egg on top of cheese, add chicken bacon followed by the tomato slice and arugula.

Keep Your Hands Clean with Chopsticks

No matter what method you’re using above, you’re still going to get your hands dirty when you finally dive in. For some, it’s all part of the job, and leads to the even more delicious salt or cheese flavored fingers. But if you want to avoid Cheeto fingers while you’re playing Call of Duty 18—just use chopsticks.

This trick also works well with other finger foods like chocolate, sour candies, and popcorn.

Radiohead – Creep

Well done. I love this.

Surrounding AUKUS topic, the 1967 prophecy of former Singapore premier Lee Kuan Yew surfaces again. What was Lee’s prophecy? What is the US motive of AUKUS?

Lee Kuan Yew is one of few politicians who has strategic vision, world scholars said.

He was called a dictator because he suppressed freedom of speech, press & expression. But he is called a GOOD dictator because he made Singapore prosperous & socially stable. He genuinely cared for the livelihood of people & welfare of country.

In 1967, Lee predicted China will become powerful. He said the more powerful China is, the better will be for Singapore in terms of regional safety.

Lee said, a powerful China will balance US (military) hegemony. So that USA cannot keep selling weapons to countries in southeast Asia & let these countries fight with each other,

To me, the arms sale is not the problem. The problem is …

USA is the one who creates conflicts/wars between countries. Like gossipers breaking up friendship between friends.

USA was an international gossiper 40 years ago in Lee’s time. USA still is today. Exactly what Lee predicted in 1967.

USA lives on others’ conflict/war. They make $$$ out of wars but at the expense of humanity/deaths.

USA’s AUGUS is to militarize Australia to become a military satellite of USA in Pacific while USA is in Atlantic. … a copy of Israel in Middle East.

USA is to build shipyards in Australia to make warships incl submarines ie make Australia a branch of US military shipyard.

Effectively, USA has “colonized” Australia. Once you have a foreign military base in your country, you have lost your sovereignty.

Borg Queen Is Aware Of Q | Star Trek Picard S02E02

"The change in the time-line originates in 2024."

Lordy!

Talk about forecasting the future through fiction!!!!

The Great Reckoning

Some racist remarks in this excellent commentary. Do not be upset by the words. -MM

Posted on March 14, 2023

For generations, going back to the middle of the last century, people have been warning about systemic problems in American society. Some of the warnings have been tricks to continue the cultural revolution. Some have been part of the financial legerdemain that defines so much of our economy and politics. There have been, however, many sincere warnings about long term structural problems. Out of necessity and expediency they were ignored, but that may be about to change.

The most obvious is the most immediate. Going back to the Clinton years people who understood money were warning about loose money policy. People forget that Clinton winning was a surprise. After all, Bush came into the election with a huge war victory and a solid economy. The Reagan expansion was viewed not only as a miracle of Republican policy, but a rebuke of left-wing economics. Then the economy soured before the elections and Clinton was president.

Much of official Washington blamed the tight money policies of Alan Greenspan for tanking the economy under Bush. Team Clinton made sure this could never happen again, especially with a Democrat in office. Loose money became official policy and only got worse with each administration. By the Obama years, we were in a world of Zero Interest Rate Policy. Now those ZIRP chickens are coming home to roost in the form of a systemic banking failure.

No one should be deceived by what is happening. Last weekend, the Federal Reserve decided that the banks are all broke due to holding assets that have a declining market value, so the Federal Reserve effectively nationalized the banks. The only way they can regain control of money policy is to eliminate the market for long dated bonds by promising to buy them at face value. The Federal Reserve has nationalized the banks by nationalizing the bond market.

This is required to avoid a bank collapse but also allow for the long overdue reorganization of the financial sector. A generation of free money has turned Wall Street into a drug addict. It is entirely organized around getting the narcotic of free money from the government, rather than the normal practice of banking. All of its schemes are designed not to create value in the economy but to generate the need for more free money, a portion of which ends up in executive pay.

This did not happen in isolation. The great auctioning off of the manufacturing base that began in the 1980’s has finally caught up to America. The subtext to the Ukraine war is the fact that America no longer has the ability to make the weapons it requires to wage war on the world. Russia, with a third of the population, can now make more weapons for war than America. Her production of ammunition dwarfs what America can muster, which is why Russia is slowly grinding down the Ukrainians.

Of course, one main reason for the auctioning off of the manufacturing base is it raised quick money to invest in the rigged casino that is Wall Street. This fact was masked to a great degree by cheap consumer goods. In fact, the culture of cheap consumer goods has justified all of the nation wrecking policies. Everything from open borders to wholesale political corruption have been justified by cheap lawn care and cheap products sold in big box stores.

The price tag for decades of cheap goods underwritten by the sale of the manufacturing base is now coming due. The only thing America makes now is sexual deviance and lectures in favor of sexual deviance. It turns out that there is no global market for rainbow colored marital devices and films promoting the culture around them, which means America does not have a real economy. The ongoing economic crisis is about to get much worse as that reality becomes clear.

In fairness, some of the proceeds from auctioning off of the manufacturing base went into the technology sector. In the fullness of time, the robot historians may remember America for having singlehandedly created the technological revolution. This has changed the world. The trouble is, the technological revolution ended decades ago, but Silicon Valley continues to consume trillions in money. With the collapse of SVB, that great money drain is now ending.

The war with Russia and the looming war with China has also brought other chickens home to roost. For a long time people have been warning about the military industrial complex and its addiction to expensive, high tech weapons. Those whiz-bang systems look great, but they are not what wins wars. What wins a war are the tools the average soldier uses to kill the enemy. We no longer bother making them and instead focus on rocket ships and space lasers.

What the war in Ukraine has revealed is that NATO would have to use nuclear weapons in a war against Russia, because NATO lacks the men and machines to fight a ground war against the Russians. Most NATO countries would run out of ammunition in a few weeks and have to surrender. Against China, the American military would deliver some serious early blows, but then run out of supplies. Chinese manufacturing capacity is now greater than America and Europe combined.

Overlaying all of this is the crisis of competence. The SVB fiasco is a great example of a problem that permeates American society. Instead of rewarding skill and accomplishment, our system is rigged to reward nonwhites at the explicit expense of whites, especially white males. The only market that is booming in America is the racial revenge market and the result is colorful people in positions of authority who lack the basic skills to do the jobs they have been given.

Thirty years ago, people warned about this. What started as tolerance in the 1980’s, became sensitivity in the 1990’s, then diversity in the new century. It has now turned into a full blown cult of anti-whiteness. While towns in Ohio suffer from an ecological disaster, the people in charge fret of racist sidewalks. Corporate America is more concerned with its ESG and DEI scores than its financial stability. We have combined demographic reality with anti-white fanaticism into a ruling ethic.

No society can run this way. Good luck fighting China with a rainbow coalition of drag diverse drag queens trying to operate space guns. Good luck weathering a reorganization of the financial system when the banks are run by people who were just recently coaxed from caves by European explorers. Imagine surviving an end of empire crisis with the productive portion of society seething with rage at the fanatics who brought about this disaster.

One could go on a long time listing the things that should never have been allowed to happen that are now turning up in the nation’s crisis list. All of these are the result of bad polices hatched in the late 20th century and used to loot the country by the new generations of rulers ushered in by the Clintons. The bill for the great bust-out is now coming due and there is no avoiding it. Like drunks at closing time, we await the bill for generations of reckless behavior.

Arunachal integral part of India, condemn China: Rare resolution in US Senate | World News – Hindustan Times

In a rare bipartisan signal of unequivocal support to India, three powerful Senators introduced a resolution on Thursday in the United States (US) Senate that reaffirms that the state of Arunachal Pradesh as an “integral part of India".

It supports India’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”, and condemns China for the “use of military force” to change the status quo at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and its other provocations, and lauds the government of India for the steps it has taken to “defend itself” against the “aggression and security threats” from China.

USA trying to stir up trouble again

Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Space Oddity scene

One of my favorite films. A wonderful scene.

KTVs, war with some thoughts about life and cheeseburgers

The flu is going around. All of my in-laws have it, and I just caught it from my daughter. Because I am no stranger to the Flu (having had it perhaps 16 times before when I lived in the ‘States), my Chinese family is not so fortunate. They are all pretty darn suppressed.

Banks are closing all over the USA. The American “leadership” wants even more war. And the entire situation is darn surreal.

Xi Peng is visiting Putin in Russia and combined (and aligned with other Geo-political events) is suggestive that all of their plans are working out…

Oh, not what you read about… certainly.

But the [1] bleeding out of the American / NATO military. The [2] suppression of the American heartland, and [3] an increase in the collapse of the economic situation in the West.

This post will reflect the levels of insanity… with elements of humanity. Please enjoy.

Boss, you’ve done a beautiful thing…

My favorite scene from the movie…

Backlash Of Sanction On Russia Must Not Lead To Sanctions On Everyone

More than a year ago I was wrong in predicting that the backlash from sanctions would push the ‘west’ to accept Russia’s demands.

The Sanction Backlash Will Push The ‘West’ To Accept Russia’s Demands – Mar 9, 2022

The Anglo-Saxons prevented that – at least so far.

But parts of my predictions were still correct:

The first [map] shows the countries which banned Russian airplanes from their airspace. Russia in turn denied its airspace to operators from those countries. It will cost quite a bit for U.S. and EU airlines as their flight times and cost to and from Asia, which typically fly through Russian airspace, will now increase. Carriers from Asian countries will now easily out-compete U.S. and European airlines on these routes.

That has indeed happened. U.S. carriers have lost much of their traffic to Asia to Asian airlines as their flight time on those routes are now shorter and their prices cheaper.

But instead of appealing to the U.S. government to take back the sanctions, which would be good for them and their customers, they ask to sanction the Asian carriers.

Banned From Russian Airspace, U.S. Airlines Look to Restrict Competitors

Unable to fly through Russian airspace because of the war in Ukraine, U.S. airlines are stepping up a lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill and at the White House to address what they say is a growing problem: They are losing business to foreign competitors who can take passengers between the United States and Asia faster and more cheaply.

Russia closed its airspace for U.S. and European carriers not because of the war in Ukraine but because the U.S. and its NATO proxies closed their airspace for Russian carriers. To mislead about that, as the opener of NYT piece does, is a disservice to the reader.

Flights on U.S. carriers from the U.S. to India, which previously crossed Siberia, now have to take other routes:

Airlines for America estimated the lost annual market share of U.S. carriers at a collective $2 billion per year.

But for passengers who chose the right airline the issue makes no difference:

As of Wednesday, the outbound leg of an April round-trip journey from New York’s Kennedy Airport to New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport cost about $1,500 and was estimated at 13 hours and 40 minutes on Air India, according to Travelocity. The most comparable flight on a U.S. carrier: a $1,740 American Airlines trip with estimated flying time of 14 hours and 55 minutes.

The consumer’s choice here is obvious.

“Foreign airlines using Russian airspace on flights to and from the U.S. are gaining a significant competitive advantage over U.S. carriers in major markets, including China and India,” the presentation, dated February, said. “This situation is directly to the benefit of foreign airlines and at the expense of the United States as a whole, with fewer connections to key markets, fewer high paying airline jobs” and a dent in the overall economy. 
....
Now airlines are pressing the White House and Congress to fix the problem by subjecting foreign carriers from nations not already banned from Russian airspace to the same restrictions applied to U.S. airlines, effectively forcing them to fly the same routes as their American competitors.

The Biden administration should “take action to ensure that foreign carriers overflying Russia do not depart, land or transit through U.S. airports,” said Marli Collier, an Airlines for America spokeswoman.

The proposal appears to have gained traction with the Transportation Department, which recently drafted an order that would ban Chinese carriers that fly passengers to the United States from flying through Russian airspace, according to three people who were briefed on the order.

In effect the transport department, lead by dimwit mayor Pete Buttigieg, says: “F** the consumer. Just take away the good choices they have.”

Air India and other Asian carriers would not be happy about such steps. It is not their fault that they can still cross Russia while U.S. carriers no longer can. The government of the countries that would have such rules imposed on their airlines by the U.S. would see that as a quite unfriendly step.

Making flights more expensive for everyone, as the planned steps would do, would also hurt U.S. tourism and general commerce.

The New York Times writers then try to argue that there is a security issue. U.S. citizens on an Air India flight making an emergency landing in Russia could somehow be endangered. The cases they use to argue that are nonsense:

In 2014, a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine, killing 298 people. 
...
In 2021, a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Belarus, a close Kremlin ally, after officials in that country alerted air traffic controllers to a supposed bomb threat on the plane. Their true purpose, U.S. prosecutors said, was to arrest a dissident journalist who was a passenger by inventing a false safety issue. 
...
Last year, the American basketball star Brittney Griner was detained at an airport near Moscow and later sentenced to nine years in a penal colony for carrying vape cartridges of hashish oil in her luggage. She was freed in December.

A flight over an active battlefield in Ukraine, some murky issue in Belarus and a U.S. woman who admitted that she had smuggled drugs into Russia are not demonstrations of danger for U.S. passengers on Air India over Russia. Even if such flight would have to land in Russia there would be no trouble. Russia is not at war with the U.S. and private U.S citizens in Russia are safe.

To close the airspace for Russian airliners was simply a dumb idea. During a prank call European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde admitted to a fake Zelensky that sanctions on Russia have failed.

Sanctions that do not work, or even caused a backlash, should be lifted immediately and not be extended into sanctions on everyone.

Posted by b on March 18, 2023 at 17:22 UTC | Permalink

Roggenbrot (Sourdough Rye)

Ingredients

Sponge

2 cups sourdough starter
1 cup bread flour

Dough

1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
2 cups rye flour
Water as needed

Instructions

Knead the sponge ingredients for 5 minutes; allow to sit for 8 hours or longer.
Add the dough ingredients and select the basic, white or grain cycle and press start.
This is a heavy dough that rises slowly and needs a relatively long rise, such as a last rise of 2 hours or more. This means you will need a programmable machine or you can prepare it on the dough cycle and then shape and allow to rise in a regular pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F until done. The interior should read 200 degrees F when a thermometer is inserted in the center.

KTV lineup – China

Son picks out a girl for his dad.

About the bank collapse(s)

The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) did not happen overnight - as it would appear. It had been planned for a while. This has been boasted by a World Economic Forum (WEF)-insider (see video insert in the text). 

And yes, it fits perfectly into the Great Reset. It may be the beginning of a series of bank failures, of even causing a domino effect of bankruptcies of financial institutions.

Banking deregulation which started with the Clinton Administration and culminated with repealing the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, is at the heart of the matter.

It shows that what we are living today -be it covid, be it energy crisis, be it famine, be it an intended  financial collapse - it has all been planned with a long hand.

The intent is to wipe out the western economy to rebuild it again according to WEF's concept of a One World Order.

They will not succeed.

But it is important to connect the dots - and to know that nothing is simply as it may appear on the surface.

Knowing your adversary's plan, is part of defeating him.

And remember the articles opening phrase by Kybalion.

-peter

-------
Warning! Silicon Valley Bank Collapse – A Prelude of Much Worse to Come? Derivatives: “Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction” (16 March 2023)
Article HERE 
----------------------------

“You’ll have to answer to the Coca-Cola company”

China and Russia

China’s ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, was asked a series of written questions by Global Times reporters. IMO, the Ambassador’s conclusion provides a good recap:

"The more turbulent and unstable the world becomes, the more it is necessary for China-Russia relations to steadily move forward. Faced with a complicated international situation, China is willing to work with Russia to maintain peace, security and development, jointly build a global community of shared future, implement the BRI, promote the leapfrog development of pragmatic cooperation between the two countries, and continuously advance China-Russia relations for a new era. Regardless of how the international situation changes, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era will inevitably move forward at a higher level."

An editorial was also published supporting Xi’s visit and contained these two complementary paragraphs:

"President Xi's upcoming visit will also be a tour of peace. There is one major concern for the outside world: Does China have specific actions to bring about peace and promote talks during this visit? This expectation itself stems from China's continuous efforts to play a constructive role and ease the Ukraine crisis in its own way. China is one of the few major powers that can build a bridge of communications between Russia and Ukraine. This is even more precious as both sides in the conflict find themselves in a deadlock.

"However, it must be said that China is not the cause of the Ukrainian crisis, nor a party to it. It is the US and Western countries that have got themselves deeply involved in the crisis. The key to solving the Ukraine crisis is not in China's hands, but in those of the US and Western countries. If they continue to stir up trouble instead of cooperating, it will be unlikely that any efforts to bring about peace and promote talks will be effective." [My Emphasis]

IMO, it was SOP for the Outlaw US Empire to issue a rejection of any attempts by Xi to facilitate peace in the Nato-Russian War even before anything was offered thus showing the Empire’s policy in the matter–the war’s to continue until a result the Empire likes is achieved. Also note the bolded text that’s the core of the narrative China’s been promoting for the benefit of RoW, a narrative with the benefit of having the truth on its side.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 18 2023 21:51 utc | 46

American Hustle – Jeep’s blues – Duke Ellington – scene

US rejecting calls for Ukraine ceasefire shows ulterior motive of fueling the fire of conflict

ByChen Qingqing

The US rejecting calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine ahead of the meeting of Chinese and Russian leaders again showed its ulterior motive of fueling the fire of conflict and using Ukraine as its pawn to geopolitically weaken Russia to the maximum level, Chinese experts said, who also pointed out the sharp contrast between Washington and Beijing, with the latter always seeking peace and dialogue on the matter.

China announced on Friday that President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from Monday to Wednesday.The visit is widely considered a journey that will advance peace as China has been long committed to promoting peace and dialogue over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, the Biden administration threw mud over the trip, expressing concerns over any proposals from China and claiming any framework offered by Beijing “would be one-sided and reflect only the Russian perspective.”

John Kirby, spokesperson for the US National Security Council, told reporters ahead of Xi’s planned trip to Russia next week, that “We don’t support calls for a ceasefire right now.” He said a proposal from China could include some type of ceasefire, which would merely be a way for Russia to regroup before launching a reprisal, CNN reported on Friday. “A ceasefire now is effectively the ratification of Russian conquest,” Kirby said.

The US also views the China-proposed position paper on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis with “deep skepticism,” and Kirby said “we do not believe that this is a step toward a just and durable peace.”

“The US rejects any effort that is conducive to easing the situation, as it always hopes to escalate the tension and use Ukraine as a pawn to weaken Russia. The US wants to punish Russia in a ruthless and uncompromising way,” Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Such zero-sum mentality and “winner-or-loser” geopolitical game between major powers is extremely dangerous not only to Russia, Ukraine and Europe, but also to the world, Li said.

In contrast, Xi’s upcoming visit to Russia, viewed as a trip of friendship, cooperation and peace, is expected to further promote China-Russia cooperation and contribute to global peace and development. Especially after China brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran recently, many observers raised expectations for whether China will play a crucial role in political settlement in the Ukraine crisis when Beijing has open communication channels with both countries.

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba that China is very concerned about potential escalation of the Ukraine crisis, and hopes talks can be resumed as soon as possible to promote a political solution.

Some experts said any possibility for China to mediate the Russia-Ukraine conflict could not be ruled out as the global community has been anticipating China’s constructive role in global and regional conflicts.

“The US looks at the world differently than Moscow and Beijing. For them, prosperity depends on hegemony, and all practical policy must support this fundamental goal. Therefore, the West’s most important tool is pressure, and China and Russia’s most significant tool is cooperation,” Timofei Bordachev, Moscow-based Valdai Club program director, told the Global Times.

The China-Russia partnership is not directed against anyone else in the world – it is not an instrument of war, but the instrument of peace, Bordachev said.

China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era is conducive to helping maintain the global security, stability and helping tackle pressing security and economic issues, which has great significance to the world. China-Russia relations – setting a good example for international relations – won’t be kidnapped by the US-led West, experts said.

“Badmouthing China’s role in promoting peace in the Ukraine crisis is because China’s possible efforts would interrupt the US’ long-term plan to weaken Russia and control the Europe,” Cui Heng, an assistant research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Saturday. “Also, China’s role in promoting peace talks also shows the country rising influence as major power, a development that the US cannot accept,” Cui said.

Even though the US does not accept the fact that China is gaining power and influence on the global stage, it has to face the fact that the upcoming visit of China’s top leader to Russia is widely expected to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis and will help advance all-out practical cooperation between China and Russia.

Sourdough Chocolate Cranberry Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup powdered milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
3 (1 ounce) squares melted semi-sweet chocolate
1 16 ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce

Instructions

In a large, non-metallic bowl, combine sourdough starter, water, flour and powdered milk.
Let ferment uncovered, for 2 to 3 hours in a warm place until bubbly and a clear sour milk odor develops.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a 9 x 13-inch pan with cooking spray and, using a small sieve or shaker, dust lightly with cocoa powder.
In a separate large bowl, mix together sugar, oil, salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon and baking soda.
Add eggs, melted semi-sweet baking chocolate, and cranberry sauce.
Combine the mixtures together and stir until well blended.
Pour into a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes, or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.
Cool at least 10 minutes before serving, excellent served slightly warm.
Garnish by sifting confectioners sugar onto a paper doily or just dollop spoonsful of whole berry cranberry sauce on top of each serving of cake. This cake can also be baked in two- 8 inch round layer cake pans, baking time is decreased to 20 to 25 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.
Another can of whole berry cranberry sauce can be spread generously between and on top of the unfrosted layered cake rounds for an impressive look during the holidays!

Bank collapse spreading fast as deposits dry up

A new study by Chinese scientists has made startling revelations about North Korea’s missile program and capability.

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...claiming that an ICBM fired by Pyongyang could reach the central United States in just over half an hour.

Beijing-based defense scientists claim to have simulated a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile attack on the continental United States.

The team opined that if the American missile defense network failed to intercept it, the North Korean missile could strike the center US in 1,997 seconds, or almost 33 minutes, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

Similar studies by Chinese researchers had typically avoided mentioning specific nations or regions, especially when the results were publicized.

This report came when North Korea launched another Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), its fourth in a week, amid joint naval drills underway between the United States and South Korea. The missile traveled nearly 1,000 kilometers before landing in the waters of Japan.

According to Japan’s defense ministry, it was an ICBM that soared over 6,000 kilometers for around 70 minutes.

Less than a month ago, North Korea launched an ICBM, which prompted a UN emergency meeting and G7 criticism. ICBMs are particularly of concern because of their long range.

According to experts, such missiles launched from North Korea may be able to reach the US mainland. This precedent becomes even more perilous as it is believed that Pyongyang has developed ICBMs capable of carrying multiple warheads.

Against that backdrop, the Chinese study assumes more significance as the tensions between Pyongyang and Washington have risen. Although the US Indo-Pacific Command said that these launches did not threaten the US immediately, North Korea has made several statements covertly threatening the country.

China’s Study On North Korean ICBM Is Alarming

The study simulates the launch of North Korea’s Hwasong-15 missile, which was first fired in 2017.

It is a two-stage, nuclear-capable missile with an effective range of 13,000 kilometers, according to the Chinese team led by Tang Yuyan from the Beijing Institute of Electronic System Engineering, a leading research center in China’s aerospace and defense sector.

According to research by Tang and her coworkers published on February 15 in the Chinese-language journal Modern Defense Technology, a Hwasong-15 missile was launched from Sunchon, a city in South Pyongan province in central North Korea.

Columbia, in the central US state of Missouri, was the intended target of the simulation. The Chinese team estimated an alert would take around 20 seconds to reach the US missile defense command.

Within 11 minutes, the first interceptor missiles would launch from Alaska’s Fort Greely. If they were unsuccessful, a second wave of interceptors would be launched from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The simulation, however, revealed that despite its great power, the US missile defense network has holes in its “kill chain” mechanism to recognize and defend against an attack that could be used by an adversary.

One of the key goals of Tang’s team’s study was to gauge how well the US missile defense system could safeguard the country. According to their simulation, it might be effective against conventional ballistic missiles.

This simulation by the team revealed that the US’ current surveillance systems in space, the seas, and on land occasionally had trouble keeping track of the Korean missile, particularly during ascent and fall in midcourse flight.

They calculated that the US missile defense system would be overwhelmed if North Korea fired multiple missiles with more than 40 warheads or decoys. The largest US military installation in the western Pacific Ocean, Guam, was the target of researchers’ missile strike simulation.

According to the Chinese analysis, if the North Korean missile took a unique trajectory with an extraordinarily high altitude, the US could send four waves of intercepting missiles from its foreign military facilities, such as Japan, although some might miss their targets.

The report stated that the US currently does not have the capabilities to deal with [such targets] in near space due to North Korea also creating hypersonic glide weapons that may alter course in the atmosphere.

Previously, a set of media reports had indicated that China’s newly commissioned nuclear-powered submarine could pose a significant threat to the US mainland. China’s new Type 094A, or Jin class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine SSBM, can fire the JL-3, or Julang (Big Wave) SLBM with a range of over 10,000 kilometers.

This means the missile fired from this submarine could easily reach the mainland United States.

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Although the US has maintained a credible defense against ballistic missiles, it has yet to develop a system that can intercept and shoot down hostile hypersonic missiles.

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World – Legendary ’60s Comedy Gold

Yanjin

There are many strange places in this world. I personally discovered a very strange place in the mountains of Guizhou. After a long professional stay in Chongping, I went on a motorcycle tour through the mountains of Guizhou. As I drove along the Guanhe River, I discovered many small towns that were actually squeezed between the river and the mountains, it seemed.

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There were entire towns that stretched along the river a few meters wide. That seemed completely surreal, especially since the high-rise buildings reminded you of really big cities, but in terms of the number of inhabitants, they were rather small towns. For two days I drove past such places.

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CCR – Green River

Members of Mexico’s “Gulf Cartel” who kidnapped and killed Americans have been tied up, dumped in the street and handed over to authorities with an apology letter

A letter purportedly from the Mexican cartel allegedly behind the kidnapping and subsequent kidnapping and killing of 2 Americans last week claimed it has dealt with the members “involved and responsible” for the incident, handing them over for authorities to detain.

Handwritten apology note translated:

“The Gulf Cartel Grupo Escorpiones strongly condemns the events of last Friday, March 3 in which unfortunately an innocent working mother died and four American citizens were kidnapped, of which two died.

For this reason, we decided to hand over those directly involved and responsible for the acts, who at all times acted under their own determination and indiscipline and against the rules in which the [Gulf Cartel] always operates.”

Members of a Mexican cartel kidnapped four Americans who traveled across the border from Brownsville, Texas, to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, last week. Two of the Americans and an innocent Mexican bystander died during the incident, according to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar.

Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me Deleted scenes

Confessions Of A Woman Who Just Confronted Her Childhood Abuser

May 4, 2022

I knew he would lie. I knew he would deny deny deny. I knew he’d get angry and throw out whatever he could to hurt me. I didn’t care and I didn’t budge. It happened. I remember it all. I’m not the only one it happened to. I known the truth and I didn’t flinch, not even once.

I told my mom first. I had told her once before, but she didn’t believe me. I was 17 and I was afraid. My dad is a narcissist, screams and goes berserk if things aren’t EXACTLY how he wants them. He would pin the family against one another, we would all take turns being the one berated all day. If it wasn’t you then you best hop on the berate bandwagon or your next. The entire day you were followed around being yelled at for how you do everything wrong, and all the family would have to agree. You go up the stairs too slow, you don’t sit quietly enough on the couch, the way you speak, the way you smell, you’re not smiling anymore, everything. Spoken to like you are dirt hoping tomorrow won’t be your day again. If you fought back you were hit, shoved into whatever table or thing was near you. You guys get it. I was afraid.

My mom is very kind but very meek. She also wanted a perfect family and when people were over that’s the picture he would paint. She’d turn a blind eye to pretty much everything.

When I was 17 they found a poem I wrote about hating him. He demanded to know why on earth you could hate your daddy so much. I felt so backed into a corner, over and over I was being drilled. So I said it “you molested me”. Well he blew up “I never did that! You are a LIAR! I would never touch my kids! Maybe I did but I forgot!” Yes I am serious about that last part. Those were his exact words. They demanded to know what he did, but I was so afraid. I couldn’t get it out. I never talked about it before, I couldn’t do anything but cry. They called me a liar and a few days later my mom reminded me to get him a father’s day present. I didn’t dare bring it up again.

That was 11 years ago.

I’m now living in an entirely different state with my amazing husband. But, he was still in my life and ruining it. Even just the sound of his voice when I would call my mom made me want to SCREAM. This man is a MONSTER. He destroyed me. As if the emotional and physical abuse wasn’t enough he took every piece of innocence from me. People freak even imagining one of their parents reaching into their pants to get them off, and thats my life. It never goes away, it’s in my head forever.

I had to cut him out. Forever.

So, my parents came to visit and I sat my mom down alone and flat out told her. I told her everything. Every detail. She cried. I hope she believed me.

Then I sat down with her, my husband and my father.

I stood my ground, I told him I wanted him to get help but this was the last time he would ever see me because he molested me. He blew, finger pointed, called me a liar, said he didn’t remember anything like that. I just kept repeating firmly “I don’t believe you.” Never breaking eye contact, my husband said there wasn’t even a tremble in my voice. Every time he threw something else at me I knocked it down calmly and firmly “you can talk about that in therapy. But there is no need to lie to me, I don’t believe you. I remember and I was so young, I know you remember. You are a child molester.”

Boy did my calmness get him angry! I have never seen him sweat and squander like that EVER. After about 5/10 minutes of him changing his story and squawking I said “you can leave my house now”. And he said in the most degrading tone possible “what makes YOU so righteous?!” I know he meant it as an insult but damm I took it as a complement.

That was yesterday. I am excited for my new life. I feel like the rabbit from the velveteen rabbit, like I’m finally becoming real. I just can’t believe it, I can’t believe that person who stood up to him, so calmly and confidently, was me.

A Beverly Hillbilly’s Christmas at Hooterville

I about passed out laughing when the book keeper goes to check Drysdale’s heart and says, ”Oh, I forgot, he hasn’t got one”.

Artist Illustrates How Doing Anything Is Much Better When There Are Animals Around

Chilling alone is fine, but chilling with animals is the best. There’s nothing better than vibing with your furry friends; you get the best of both worlds. You still can feel like you have company without the unnecessary noise that comes from hanging around with other people. Let us introduce you to an artist who portrayed it perfectly in her mini illustration series.

Peijin (previously here) is a self-taught freelance artist based in Munich, Germany. Just a little bit more than two years ago, she gave up her engineering career and fully committed herself to art. Her decision was supported by her fans and clients alike, so she never looked back. Besides her illustrations, she also makes tutorials, process videos and studies, as she believes that if she can be an artist, everyone can! Drawing is her true love, and she feels many people feel the same way.

More: Artstation, Instagram, Patreon h/t: boredpanda

Green Acres clips – Lisa Cooking 04 Shpaghetti

40 Newspaper Headlines That Push The Limits Of Human Stupidity

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Creating a good headline for an article is an art within itself. Just think about it: you basically have to describe your whole text using just one sentence. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don’t, and sometimes you produce such a mind-bogglingly dumb headline, that people still remember it 20 years later. Stupid newspaper headlines are never truly forgotten. Unfortunate wordplay, lazy editing and poor math – it takes some creativity to come up with headlines like that.

h/t: demilked

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Jeffery Sachs | The UNITED STATES is a MADMAN

https://youtu.be/uJ33GaBpSbY

Whiskey Sour

Lisa Insists “You Can’t Make a Boo-Boo with Bibbers” Instant Cake Mix – Green Acres – 1969

Austrian man admits to locking up daughter, fathering her children

A 73-year-old Austrian man confessed Monday to imprisoning his daughter in a windowless cell in his basement for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, police said.

“He admitted that he locked his daughter, who was 18, in the cellar, repeatedly had sex with her and that he is the father of her seven children,” said Franz Polzer, head of the criminal investigations unit in the province of Lower Austria.

Polzer said the man, Josef Fritzl, who was earlier identified only as Josef F., also confessed to tossing the body of a newborn baby boy into an incinerator when the infant died shortly after birth.

“We are being confronted with an unfathomable crime,” said Austrian Interior Minister Guentter Platter.

Hans-Heinz Lenze, a local official in the town of Amstetten, said the man’s wife “apparently had no idea” of what was going on. She and the suspect had seven children of their own.

Drugged, imprisoned in 1984

Three of the daughter’s offspring were raised in the family home while the rest were kept hidden in the basement with their imprisoned mother.

“You have to imagine that this woman’s world [just] fell apart,” Lenze said.

Police said Sunday that a 42-year-old woman, identified as Elisabeth, told them her father lured her into the basement of the family home in 1984, and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her.

Photos were released Monday showing the basement cell where the woman was held. It included a small bathroom and a narrow passageway leading to a tiny bedroom.

Investigators say an electronic lock with a keyless entry system and a soundproof door apparently kept the woman from escaping the cell, which was constructed of reinforced concrete.

Police picked up the woman and her father on Saturday at a hospital in a nearby town, where one of the surviving children was rushed unconscious with a serious, undisclosed illness.

3 children never went outside

In her statement, Elisabeth said her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11.

An outside view of the house in Amstetten, Austria, where a 73-year-old man said he kept his daughter imprisoned, repeatedly raping her and fathering her seven children. ((Helmut Stamberg/Associated Press))

Her father allegedly locked her in a room in the cellar on Aug. 28, 1984. The woman was reported missing the next day and a month later, a letter surfaced, allegedly written by her, saying she didn’t want to be found.

Police said the woman appeared “greatly disturbed” during questioning and agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have contact with her father, and that her children would be cared for.

The woman and her children are undergoing psychiatric care, officials say.

Three of the children were raised upstairs in the family house by Elisabeth’s father and his wife. They went to school and lived relatively normal lives, according to police. The other three remained locked up in the cellar with their mother and none of them had been outside before last week.

Similar incident unearthed in 2006

Neighbours said Fritzl and his wife were quiet but friendly, and frequently shopped in local stores and talked to members of the community.

The CBC’s David Common, reporting from Austria, said the story is causing shock and revulsion across the country.

“It’s a very embarrassing day for Austria,” Common said, “because this is the second time something like this has happened here.”

Natascha Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in 1998 on her way to school in Vienna. She was held by Wolfgang Priklopil for nearly nine years in a small dungeon in his home in the suburbs.

Hours after Kampusch escaped in August 2006, Priklopil killed himself by jumping in front of a train.

Japanese KTV KARAOKE HIGH LIGHTS in Manila, Philippines

Lineup begins HERE

Now, youse guys must know that I do not frequent these kinds of KTV’s as I am in China. I go to a different kind of KTV. One which is more *cough* high class…

KTV in China – ridiculous birthday party

This is what MM life is actually like.

Lineup starts HERE

Girl in Dungeon Basement Case Held 10 Years, Tortured by Captors

Linda Weston’s niece was kidnapped and tortured for a decade.

ByCOLLEEN CURRY

October 19, 2011, 10:06 PM

Oct. 19, 2011– A 19-year-old girl who has been missing for 10 years has been found with open wounds, burn marks, scars, and broken bones by police investigating the alleged basement dungeon and kidnapping ring in Philadelphia.

Beatrice Weston, who was taken at the age of 8 by accused dungeon ring-leader Linda Weston, is now in a Philadelphia hospital recovering from the ongoing cruelty and torture by her captors, according to Philadelphia police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers. Linda Weston is the girl’s aunt, and police said she took her niece after a family feud with her sister, Vicki Weston.

The girl was found two days after police uncovered a basement dungeon in which four mentally handicapped adults were held against their will. Police have arrested and charged Linda Weston, 51, her daughter Jean McIntosh, 32, Weston’s boyfriend Thomas Gregory, 47, and Eddie Wright, 49, with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and other related charges.

Police pleaded with media to let the girl heal in privacy at the hospital.

“This girl was beaten, tortured, absolutely the worst thing you can see one person do to another,” said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

Evers said Wednesday after finding the girl that he would be happy to see the four prosecuted wherever the punishments would be the harshest.

“We’re going to prepare to prosecute this here or, without hyperbole, wherever the prisons are going to be the worst. Federal prisons might be too nice,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before on a living person, that kind of cruelty over and over again. No penalty is too harsh to the people that did this, absolutely no penalty,” Evers said.

The lieutenant said the girl’s torture in the “house of horrors” included signs of a spoon being heated and then burned into her skin. She had fractured bones that healed over incorrectly, and bones in her ankles showed the effects of being shot repeatedly with something like a pellet gun, he said. There are open wounds on her head, which she had covered with a hood when police found her. She had scars over her face, arms, and legs, he said.

Police found Beatrice Weston among a group of 10 children and teens who were located Tuesday after Florida police tipped off Philadelphia cops that there may be more victims and that Weston had been living with at least seven children in her last home in West Palm Beach, Fla..

One of the individuals found was Weston, and another was McIntosh, whom police arrested. Two other adult males were initially taken into custody and then released.

Police also took six children into protective custody, two of whom were the children of a mentally handicapped couple who were held captive by Weston for years, police said. The children, ages 2 and 5, were severely malnourished. Evers noted that the 2-year-old girl looked like a 6-month-old baby when she was found.

Police are trying to identify the rest of the group, including three other young adults and four other children. Weston and Gregory’s son, Thomas Gregory, Jr., was not among those taken into custody and has not been arrested in connection with the crimes.

Benita Rodriguez, a 15-year-old girl from Florida who traveled to Philadelphia to be with Thomas Gregory, Jr., was also found by police on Monday. The girl told her mother during a phone call that once she arrived in Philadelphia, Weston would not let her contact anyone back home, according to ABC News affiliate WPBF.

“Once (the victims) were out there in Philadelphia, she was not allowed to be outside,” Rodriguez’s mother, Juana Rodriguez, told WPBF.

Dungeon Case Finds Two Girls Who Have Been Missing

A task force is working around the clock to try and locate as many as 50 possible victims of the alleged fraud and kidnapping ring that is said to have spanned a number of states including Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and now Pennsylvania.

Police identified the four Philadelphia victims as Derwin McLemire, 41, of North Carolina; Herbert Knowles, 40 of Virginia; and Tamara Breeden, 29, and Edwin Sanabria, 31, both of Philadelphia.

Detectives also found dozens of identification cards, power-of-attorney forms and other documents. Philadelphia police formed a task force to investigate the case as authorities try to find as many as 50 more possible fraud victims, Officer Jillian Russell said.

The four defendants are believed to have moved from Texas to Florida to Philadelphia with the kidnapped individuals, fleeing each place when authorities began to close in on them, according to Florida authorities.

A spokesman for West Palm Beach said that the city had shut off the water supply to the group’s home multiple times, but Weston or other individuals in the home had stolen water meters and illegally turned their water back on. The group was eventually evicted from their home in West Palm Beach, Fla.., according to WPBF.

Gregory Thomas was also arrested twice while living in West Palm Beach, once for burglary and once for grand larceny. He was convicted only of the burglary.

Arnold Ziffel’s Conversation with a Beeping Moon Rock – Green Acres – 1970

Banks: Getting Very Much Worse; Very Much Faster

World Hal Turner 18 March 2023

As of Saturday morning, 18 March 2023, the Banking crisis is getting a lot worse; fast. CREDIT SUISSE CFO TEAMS ARE BEING CALLED IN TO WORK OVER THE WEEKEND TO CLEAN OUT THEIR DESKS!

This is just days after Credit Suisse received a $54 BILLION assistance package from the Swiss National Bank.

Word from corporate contacts says that Credit Suisse is “Weighing options and is under pressure to merge with UBS.”

Swiss regulators informed their US and UK counterparts on Friday night that the merger of the two banks is their Plan A in hope of preventing a total loss of confidence in Credit Suisse. The Swiss National Bank would like a simple and uncomplicated solution before the markets open on Monday. However, there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached in the discussions.

There were also rumors overnight that US firm Blackrock wanted to make a bid for Credit Suisse, but that rumor was quickly refuted.

Meanwhile, Global stock markets tumbled again Friday over continuing fears of a broader banking crisis, despite elected officials’ pledges to shore up banks that may be in trouble.

Shares of First Republic Bank tanked 30% Friday despite $30 Billion of support from other banks. First Republic Bank stock ended the week down 72%.

An interesting note: The Balance Sheet of the US Federal Reserve jumped to $8.69 TRILLION on March 15, up from $8.39 TRILLION on March 8. They’re literally making “money” out of thin air by simply adding digits to computers which “creates” money in accounts.

They don’t have the money for that! If they try to run the printing press to cover that amount of debt, the dollar would collapse overnight. Foreign countries would dump all their dollar reserves. People would drain their accounts to go and buy hard assets while they still could.

Today’s financial turmoil is beginning to look a LOT like the 1980’s movie “Rollover” starring Kris Kristofferson, Jane Fonda, and Hume Cronin. Here’s a scene from that movie showing what a world economic collapse looks like:

It __appears__ to many people that this is exactly where we are all heading.

Play it, Sam

13 Popular Fast Food Cheeseburgers, Ranked Worst To Best

By Dani Zoeller/Updated: March 16, 2023 8:27 pm EST

Few things are as quintessentially American as the cheeseburger. Between cookouts, road trips, lunch breaks, or those middle-of-the-night greasy goodness cravings, cheeseburgers are a comforting, delicious go-to option. From humble offerings with a beef patty, cheese, ketchup, mustard, and pickle, the cheeseburger has become something of a statement piece for many fast food establishments. After all, if you strip away the condiments, cheeseburgers offer a relatively simple canvas.

Many fast food stops have really dressed up the humble cheeseburger with unique and delicious spins on the classic sandwich. With so many options available, it can be challenging to determine which fast food chain serves up the best. There are plenty of top contenders with lots of factors that help set the individual burgers apart. From burgers named for favorite football players to ones so small they are sold by the sack, we’re convinced that there’s a cheeseburger for everyone, no matter how simple or gourmet your preference.

13. Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen Cheeseburger

Dairy Queen is mainly known for its delicious frozen treats, particularly the famous Blizzard. However, the chain also offers a variety of tasty burgers, including its classic cheeseburger and several Stackburger offerings.

The original Dairy Queen cheeseburger features the typical fare but is curiously missing onions. This classic burger is simple yet satisfying, and it has been a fan favorite for generations. Dairy Queen calls its larger burgers Stackburgers because they have multiple patties. The Two Cheese Deluxe option comes with both American and white cheddar cheese. This burger also includes onions, which even the original Stackburger does not have. If you’re a fan of bacon, you can also add it to any of the burgers for a nice touch.

For those who like their burgers with a bit of heat, Dairy Queen also offers the Flamethrower Stackburger. This burger includes a zingy DQ FlameThrower sauce, melted Pepper Jack cheese, jalapeño bacon, tomato, and even lettuce. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a more indulgent option, the Loaded A.1. Steakhouse Signature Stackburger is perfect. This one features beef patties, A.1. Thick & Hearty Steak Sauce, creamy peppercorn sauce, Applewood smoked bacon, American cheese, and onion rings. Though interesting options, while these burgers are just ok, Dairy Queen is simply a better ice cream stop than a burger joint.

12. McDonald’s
McDonald’s cheeseburger options

When you think of classic fast-food cheeseburgers, it’s almost impossible to ignore McDonald’s. After all, small towns and large cities across the United States tend to have at least one, and McDonald’s has even stretched to become a global franchise. In fact, in 1948, when McDonald’s became more of a walk-up burger stand than the barbecue restaurant it originated as, a cheeseburger was one of the only four food items on the menu, alongside hamburgers, potato chips, and pie.

Today, the only burger McDonald’s offers without cheese is its classic hamburger. Everything else, from the Big Mac to the quarter pounder and even the McDouble, offers at least one slice of American cheese. Most McDonald’s burgers also come with onions, pickles, ketchup, and mustard. The additional toppings set the different cheeseburger variations apart on the menu. For example, the Big Mac has an extra bun in the middle of the sandwich, while the Quarter Pounder Cheese Deluxe adds shredded lettuce.

The McDonald’s cheeseburger may be one of the simplest fast food cheeseburger options you can find, but it continues to be so popular because it is delicious. The truth is Mcdonald’s sells around 75 burgers each second, and many American children grow up eating happy meals from Mcdonald’s, so it offers a heavy dose of nostalgia. All told, however, there’s just not much special about a McDonald’s burger. There are better fast food restaurants, even if McDonald’s is the one most ingrained into our childhoods.

11. Burger King
Cornell Haynes Jr meal

Whopper main loaded 1526x1080 1 — Whopper main loaded 1526×1080 1

Burger King was founded in 1954, and since then, it has served approximately 11 million guests. Over the years, Burger King has introduced several new menu items, including Chicken Fries and the Impossible Whopper, a vegetarian version of the Whopper. Burger King is well-known for its delicious burgers, but in a market flooded with fast-food chains offering similar items, each restaurant must have a spin on the classic offerings. Burger King’s distinctive spin is that its burgers are cooked over an open flame using a fire broiler, giving them a smoky and charred flavor that is hard to replicate.

Burger King offers a variety of burgers, including the classic Whopper, their signature burger. Interestingly, the Whopper does not have cheese, but several other burgers on the menu do, such as the King burgers and melts.

In the late 1990s, Burger King introduced a burger available in many Wisconsin affectionately called The Gilbert Burger. It was named after Gilbert Brown, a former defensive lineman for the Green Bay Packers football team. The Gilbert Burger was a giant, messy cheeseburger with doubled cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, onion, and ketchup. As Gilbert Brown didn’t like pickles, they were left out of the burger.

We love Burger King for its newer offerings, but the basic burger suffers from the same issue as McDonald’s: It just isn’t unique enough, even with the flame-grilled aspect.

10. Checkers and Rally’s
Checkers and Rally’s cheeseburger

Checkers and Rally’s are known for their delicious and classic cheeseburgers with a vintage look. Despite being the same restaurant, they are called different names depending on the restaurant’s location. Rally’s originated in Tennessee in 1984, while Checkers is from Alabama and was established in 1986. Then, in 1999, they merged through a stock swap.

One of the most classic burgers at Checkers and Rally’s is the All American Cheeseburger. This traditional burger includes a beef patty, melted cheese, pickles, ketchup, and mustard. But if you’re looking for a more sophisticated burger, the Cheese Champ is a great choice. It includes all the components of the All American Cheeseburger, but with the addition of tomato, red onion, iceberg lettuce, and mayonnaise.

For something unique, you can order a burger featuring those famous, seasoned fries. The Double Fry Lover’s Burger is a cheeseburger with fries, as well as basic condiments. Since Checkers and Rally’s are known well for french fries, it is a popular choice among customers wanting to enjoy the best of both worlds in one burger. And this is one of the reasons we enjoy these restaurants. Even still, the different varieties of burgers make those new to the menu a little overwhelming and even difficult to decode.

9. Culvers
Culver’s Double Cheeseburger

Culver’s is a beloved Wisconsin institution known for its mouthwatering ButterBurgers. Made with never-frozen beef, Culver’s cooks prepare these burgers to perfection and top each with a buttered bun to add that extra layer of flavor. Culver’s ButterBurger Cheese is the staple Culver’s cheeseburger. Topped with red onion, pickle, tomato, ketchup, and mustard, it is the perfect option for a simple and delicious meal.

For those who prefer a more loaded burger, Culver’s offers several other options, including the Deluxe, Bacon Deluxe, and Mushroom and Swiss ButterBurgers. These burgers all come with cheese, adding an extra layer of flavor and richness to the already delicious burger. In fact, it’s worth noting that the only burger option on the menu without cheese is the original ButterBurger.

No matter which cheeseburger you choose, we think you’ll love Culver’s attention to detail, hospitality, and great pride in sourcing its beef and cheese from local producers, ensuring that every bite is packed with flavor and quality. However, these burgers can be elusive since Culver’s isn’t available everywhere.

8. Portillo’s
Portillo’s cheeseburger and fries

Portillo’s is a cherished restaurant chain. It is known to be a classic Chicagoland restaurant and was founded in Villa Park, Illinois by Dan Portillo in 1963. Today, the chain has expanded to over 70 locations across the country. We love it for those delicious, drug-through-the-garden Chicago-style hot dogs, but the restaurant also serves up a delightful menu featuring cheese fries, Italian beef, and many delicious items, including cheeseburgers that are sure to satisfy.

You can order the cheeseburger in either a single or double patty option. It’ll come with a freshly toasted old-fashioned style bun with cheese, mayo, pickles, ketchup, lettuce, tomato slice, and red onion. For some smokiness, add some bacon. More than many of our other favorites, this burger tastes and feels like it was cooked right at home on the family grill. Though Portillo’s has much more popular favorites on its menu, the cheeseburger certainly shouldn’t be ignored if you’re really craving a burger, but we’ll always struggle to go to Portillo’s and not order a Chicago-style hot dog.

7. Wendy’s
Wendy’s Dave’s Double

Wendy’s first restaurant opened in 1969. From the beginning, the franchise intended to make itself distinctive from its competitors. Instead of eating at tables designed to rush you out, Wendy’s created dining rooms where you felt like guests rather than customers. The tables were even lit by stained glass lamps rather than overly bright and boring lights.

When it came to burgers, Wendy’s was different too. Instead of using a circle patty, Dave Thomas introduced the square burger. Because it would stick out from a circle bun, the squared Corners allowed Wendy’s to show off the juiciness of the burger. But it wasn’t just the shape that was different; then, like now, Wendy’s burgers are cooked from fresh beef rather than frozen beef.

Like McDonald’s, the simple hamburger is the only burger Wendy’s offers without cheese. In recent years, more creative options like the Bourbon Bacon Cheeseburger and even the Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger have been added to the menu, and, yes, they all include cheese. To us, you really can’t do better than Dave’s originals. These come in single, double, and triple options with the same number of burger patties. However, the single cheeseburger already comes with two cheese slices. For us, Wendy’s makes one of the best cheeseburgers readily available through a drive-through window. Even still, these are a little on the greasy side.

6. White Castle
White Castle cheese sliders

White Castle is famous for its small, square burgers called sliders. The story of White Castle began in 1921 when Billy Ingram started selling sliders for just five cents each. These burgers were so small and inexpensive that they could be sold by the sack, which became a catchy slogan for the chain. Over the years, White Castle has become an iconic name in the fast-food industry. In fact, it helped popularize the concept of fast food as we know it today.

White Castle’s cheeseburger made its debut in 1962. The cheese slider is a beef burger with grilled onions and your choice of American, jalapeño, or smoked cheddar cheese. You can also add bacon or even double up that burger. Another cheeseburger option includes the 1921 Slider, which includes caramelized onions, cheddar cheese, a slice of Roma tomato, lettuce, and pickles.

When it comes to White Castle, these burgers are simply a classic, and since they are some of the original fast food cheeseburgers, we’re just in love with the rich history here. Simply put: White Castle does burgers and cheeseburgers well.

5. Sonic Drive-In
Sonic Drive-In cheeseburger

For years, Sonic’s cheeseburger has been a beloved fast food classic that continues to delight customers. It boasts a juicy beef patty, melted cheese, diced onions, lettuce, pickles, tomato, ketchup, and mayo, making it stand out from other fast food burgers. Sonic also offers a double cheeseburger with two beef patties and more cheese to cater to those with bigger appetites. And if you’re looking to take your burger up a notch, you can add bacon for an extra dose of savory flavor.

Sonic also has a plain cheeseburger with just a bun, beef, and cheese for a simpler option. However, the Quarter Pounder is an excellent choice for those craving more flavor. It features two beef patties, cheese, ketchup, mustard, and pickles, providing a more satisfying and flavorful meal.

Between the pebble ice, iconic drive-up, and delicious options, we love a Sonic cheeseburger. What makes Sonic even more appealing is its history as a drive-in restaurant, allowing customers to enjoy their burgers from the comfort of their own cars. Sonic’s first drive-in opened in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1953, and despite the decline of the drive-in concept in the fast food industry, Sonic has kept it as a staple of its identity.

4. Five Guys
Five Guys Cheeseburger

If you’re looking for a burger with a hefty price tag but a delicious taste, a Five Guys burger is going to be your best bet. Unlike some other burger restaurants, the menu at this favorite burger chain is pretty simple, but the real magic comes from all of those customizations you can add. You can choose from a variety of free toppings, including lettuce, pickles, onions, tomatoes, and more. Additionally, you can add premium toppings such as bacon, grilled mushrooms, or jalapeño peppers for an additional charge.

Though you might not know Five Guys for its buns, the sesame bun on each cheeseburger is actually the only proprietary item the restaurant offers. In fact, these buns are baked in restaurants fresh throughout the week. In addition to your juicy but rather greasy cheeseburger, you can also order a side of fries. Be ready, though, because you’ll be taking a lot of fries with you. We highly recommend the Cajun variety, and these fries, though separate from the burgers, certainly help elevate how much we love these cheeseburgers. We also adore the incredible number of customization options you have when ordering from Five Guys.

3. Shake Shack
Shake Shack cheeseburger

Shake Shack is a beloved American fast-food chain that has gained immense popularity for its delicious menu. For instance, the White Truffle Burger is a delectable treat featuring Fontina cheese with a rich and creamy white truffle sauce. It’s dressed with crispy onions on a perfectly toasted potato bun. If you prefer a classic cheeseburger, the ShackBurger is a perfect choice with all the usual loved trimmings. If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, the SmokeShack will satisfy your taste buds with applewood-smoked bacon, chopped cherry peppers, and a ShackSauce.

Though Shake Shack began as a humble hot dog cart in New York City’s Madison Square Park over 20 years ago, it has expanded to over 300 locations worldwide. Still, its commitment to using high-quality ingredients and cooking techniques has remained unchanged. In addition to their burgers and hot dogs, Shake Shack also offers crave-worthy milkshakes that satisfy your sweet tooth.

2. In-N-Out Burger
In-N-Out Cheeseburger and fries

In-N-Out Burger is a widely beloved fast-food chain founded in 1948 by Harry Snyder in Baldwin Park, California. The fast food joint has primarily kept to the western United States, with most locations in California. In-N-Out Burger is known for its fresh, made-to-order burgers, fries, and shakes, and it has developed an enthusiastic group of worshipers and burger lovers.

One of In-N-Out’s signature items is the cheeseburger, made with toasted buns made from sponge dough, a thick slice of American cheese, beef, fresh or grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, and the company’s unique spread with unlisted ingredients. Though the burgers and cheeseburgers do not come with mustard, you can request that your burger or cheeseburger be made “Animal Style” as a mustard burger. For this unique twist, your cook will cook one side of the beef patty as normal and add mustard on the raw side. Then, when they flip over that patty, the mustard cooks right into the beef. This interesting cooking method made its appearance in 1961.

1. BurgerFi
CEO cheeseburger and fries

BurgerFi is a relatively new establishment that was founded in 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This burger joint prides itself on its chef-driven recipes and commitment to using only the freshest ingredients. BurgerFi does not take shortcuts in the kitchen and ensures that each burger is perfectly prepared.

One of the standout features of BurgerFi’s menu is its selection of cheeseburgers. They offer several burger options with cheese, but its flagship BurgerFi Burger does not have any cheese. For those who love a little heat, the SWAG (Spicy Wagyu) Burger is a must-try. It features a double premium Wagyu blend patty, charred jalapeños, candied spicy bacon, a helping of sweet tomato relish, pepper jack cheese, and a hot steak sauce.

We also love The CEO burger. This burger has a double premium Wagyu blend patty, homemade candied bacon-tomato jam, rich truffle aioli, and aged Swiss cheese. The sweet and savory combination of the bacon-tomato jam and truffle aioli elevates this burger to another level. If you’re ever near a BurgerFi, don’t hesitate to stop. It’s an excellent fast food restaurant that just knows how to make a cravable burger.

Casablanca Final

Herman Applesauce Spice Cake

Ingredients

1 cup Herman
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Instructions

Exactly as listed, beat all ingredients, adding each ingredient 1 at a time and beating 30 seconds after each addition. Beat 4 minutes after last addition.
Pour into greased 9-inch square baking dish. Let batter “rest” 15 minutes uncovered then bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or till wooden pick tests done.
Cool 30 minutes and frost with Thin Vanilla Glaze.

Date Nut Cake: Use Applesauce Spice Batter above but stir into batter, 1 cup well chopped dates, moistened first and lightly floured, along with 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans. Bake as otherwise directed in that recipe.

Mistakes are being made by Western governments, but what about you personally?

You know guys, I look back at all the mistakes I have made, and the stupid, stupid and so very embarrassing things that I did. I look at the opportunities that I had, but didn’t take, and the times where “paradise” was thrown at me, and I was oblivious to it. I look at my life in hindsight and the term “What the fuck were you thinking?” comes to mind.

I don’t know if youse guys understand. I mean, to say, I’ve really done some stupid things.

Sometimes over girls. Maybe mostly…

Sometimes not being serious when I needed to, while at other times being too serious when I should have lightened up some.

I know that when I was born, I told myself not to forget: “this is going to be an adventuresome life!” Truth this. But so damn exhausting. I wonder if I was the fellow who scripted this life. Not that some committee “convinced” me to accept it. And in so scripting it, man! It’s be cray-Zee.

Makes you think. That I scheduled out this life that I am living.

That I made it. That I planned it. That I am living it…

Don’t you know.

Anyways, been thinking alot about “telltales” and “signposts”. I’ve been seeing a lot lately. Hum. What could that mean? I wonder…

Tell-tails.

Signposts.

Hum…

…

Today’s installment.

Introducing Karaoke KTV in Manila, Philippines

One of the many reasons why I love Asia… the KTV scenes are EDITED OUT. But you can see entering the establishment, and read my writings to discern what happens inside.

Hostess lineup HERE

Confessions of an Underachieving High IQ Individual

February 9, 2023

What’s it like to have an extremely high IQ?

Years ago, aged eighteen, I joined MENSA. I left after a year, having seen ample evidence to support the old description of MENSA as “The society for people impressed by their own intelligence”. In truth, the whole organization was creepy.

Anyway, when I applied they sent me an IQ test which you sent in to be scored. If you scored highly enough they asked you to attend a monitored exam. I scored 158 on the test at home and 159 when I went to London to be tested.

I have never encountered anything, either at school, university or at work that has been intellectually difficult for me.

I got an English degree and a law degree and barely worked to get either.

My memory has always served me well. I quickly see patterns that others don’t seem to notice (that’s your IQ test sewn up right there) and just find concepts come easier to me than to a lot of other people.

I do get bored with most subjects quite quickly but, so far, so good.

The problem, for me, lies in the fact that I never developed any sense of urgency about anything.

People will be impressed by how hard I worked on something when, in truth, I zipped through it in no time at all, paying it almost no attention.

I learned to let people think I have worked hard because it serves me well.

I’m essentially, and incurably, lazy.

I should have achieved so much more and I am bright enough to know it.

I’m fifty years old now, have been married twenty years and have three beautiful children, so my life is no train wreck, but I know I have shortchanged myself and my family.

I constantly look at others with envy; never of their material success but of their professional achievements and work ethic.

I could have done pretty much anything I wanted to do, but have ended up drifting into a sales career which pays well but gives me not one ounce of professional satisfaction or pride.

A high IQ is a great advantage but, in later life, it will torment you in ways the young cannot imagine.

If you don’t learn to make best use of it, a high IQ will remind you on an almost hourly basis that you threw it all away.

This is why so many underachieving people are unable to shut the fuck up about it – we become addicted in childhood to praise which dries up once more diligent, if less intelligent, peers start overtaking us.

Those who are not socially intelligent enough to recognize how obnoxious it is will mention their intelligence whenever they get a chance, imagining that other people care.

The world and its prizes belong, quite rightly, to hard working people, not intelligent ones.

Italian Chicken Packets

Ingredients

1 chicken, quartered, or 2 pieces chicken per packet
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
4 fresh ripe tomatoes or 1 can drained tomatoes, chopped
4 large green olives, chopped
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 bay leaves

Instructions

Wash chicken quarters or pieces; drain and pat dry.
Peel and chop tomatoes if using fresh tomatoes.
Cut 4 (12-inch) pieces of aluminum foil, and grease one side of each with olive oil.
Place a chicken quarter or chicken pieces in center of each piece of foil.
Combine onion, garlic, tomatoes, olives, basil, oregano, celery salt, and pepper and mix well.
Spoon sauce over each chicken packet. Top with a bay leaf.
Fold foil into neat, sealed packages. Place on a cookie sheet.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 40 minutes to one hour, until chicken is cooked.
Serve from package.

People having a bad day

After 8 years living in China, these are the 8 reasons why I still don’t want to leave!

2.5 Tons of Uranium Ore Concentrate “Missing” from Libya Mine

World Hal Turner 16 March 2023

The UN nuclear agency said on Wednesday that approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium ore concentrate had gone missing from a site in Libya.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi told the organization’s member states that inspectors on Tuesday found that 10 drums containing uranium ore concentrate “were not present as previously declared” at the location in Libya.

The IAEA will conduct further activities “to clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location”, it said in a statement, without providing further details on the site.

Libya in 2003 abandoned a program to develop nuclear weapons under its long-ruling former dictator Mohammar Qadhafi.

The North African country has been mired in a political crisis since Qadhafi’s fall in 2011, with a myriad of militias forming opposing alliances backed by foreign powers.

It remains split between a nominally interim government in the capital Tripoli in the west, and another in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Look What China Did Shocking American Scientist | INSANE!

China’s incredible space technology achievements are being recognized as well as their future potential. Thanks Alex for sharing this well researched video!

GT Voice: US’ hooligan nature laid bare in forced divesting of TikTok

By Global Times Published: Mar 16, 2023 10:31 PM Updated: Mar 16, 2023 10:38 PM

There has been an absurd development of the political farce surrounding the crackdown on TikTok, which has recently been playing out in the US and spreading to Canada and some EU countries.

The Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners don't divest their stakes in the popular video app, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Even though TikTok has tried its best and done almost everything possible within the technical range in response to the so-called national security concerns, it remains helpless in the face of Washington's economic vandalism.

The message is clear: if Washington cannot see TikTok ending up in an American hand, it will shut it down. Judging by the various bans and legislation involving TikTok that US politicians have been working on, it is not impossible for the worst to happen.

Yet, the Emperor's New Clothes surrounding national security concerns cannot hide US politicians' selfish and hooligan nature. The US claims that TikTok threatens to undermine US national security, but there is no evidence at all supporting the killing or robbery of such a globally successful app on national security grounds. The fact that Washington can suppress and even rob TikTok without justification and only because it is owned by a Chinese company is the latest manifestation that in order to maintain the US hegemony, Washington can make any rogue behavior that is against the law and business rules. This could serve as a wake-up call to companies around the world about the political risks of doing business in the US. If they are successful enough to pose a real challenge to American business titans, a rogue government in Washington will start finding fault with them.

TikTok has been seeking various technical solutions to soothe the so-called national security concerns. For instance, it has committed to spend $1.5 billion on a plan known as "Project Texas," which would enact a stronger firewall between TikTok and employees of its Beijing parent company. It has also built what it called a Transparency Center in Los Angeles to help legislators and journalists understand how it safeguards data and how its algorithms work.

But what has happened to the company has laid bare that there is no way to play by the rules to address the US politicians' so-called concerns. This is because it is not national security issues, but TikTok's ability to challenge the supremacy of the US internet industry, that is what really upsets Washington.

With more than 1 billion active users, TikTok is the most downloaded Chinese app in the world last year. The US has 113 million active TikTok users aged 18 and above, and a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of American teenagers aged 13 to 17 found that 67 percent say they use the app, which would add up to about 17.4 million teenagers.

By comparison, the development of some American internet giants has been overshadowed. Facebook-parent Meta Platforms announced on Tuesday it would cut 10,000 jobs this year, marking a second round of mass layoffs following the first one in fall 2022. Since 2020, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out on several occasions about TikTok's threat to American values and technological dominance.

Of course, the US government's crackdown on Chinese technology companies has not only aimed to rob economic interests off Chinese companies, but also to curb China's high-tech development and to maintain the US technological and financial hegemony.

However, it should be noted that the fact that Washington cannot allow a Chinese company to have the potential to beat American internet giants in market competition doesn't mean China will allow its hegemony to rob Chinese companies of core technology. Behind TikTok's success is the rise of a new algorithmic technology, which is the representative of Chinese high-tech companies gaining an advantage in international markets.

When the former Trump administration tried to push through a forced sale of TikTok in 2020, China's Ministry of Commerce already made adjustment to its catalog of technologies that are subject to export bans or restrictions, which includes certain advanced information process algorithms. It goes without saying China will resist any bully-like robbery of Chinese companies' core technologies.

12 People Reveal What It’s Like To Have Loving Parents

February 8, 2023

1. Best way I can describe it is just a general feeling of security. Just knowing that they’re behind you 100%, and even when they’re mad at you it’s almost always because they’re trying to help you in the long run.

It’s not something you really appreciate until you get older and start to notice kids around you that have to deal with some pretty fucked up shit from their parents. It’s kind of slowly realizing how many bad things you’ve just never had to worry about thanks to your support system.

And, the best part is how your relationship changes as you get older. When they slowly start treating you like a fellow adult, and you get to see them as more of a whole person.

2. I had a loving mom, but a very shitty dad.

My mom supported me through all my school. Would go to different stores to get me supplies for my projects. She’d try to read the same books I had to so she could engage in critical thinking discussions. Attended my sporting events and cheered me on. Would lay in bed with me after I’d have a nightmare and run her fingers through my hair till I fell asleep. Would constantly reassure me that I was capable of pursuing my dreams. She made sure to tell me she loved me every day and give me hugs frequently. She’s an amazing woman and am so grateful I have her.

3. It’s safe to take risks, they’ll catch you

4. It’s affirming – that whatever goes wrong or right, they’re “there” for you.

Not everyone has this, I understand. But for those that do, it’s something for which to express gratitude.

5. I have loving parents and am an adult.

They are not perfect. I’ve got baggage. We’ve all made mistakes in our relationship.

I was never abused in any way.

As an adult, I have a very good relationship with them. Maybe the big thing is that we can forgive eachother easily for the errors of our past. Now it’s more like having very good friends than patents. And the roles are changing as I give more advice than I recieve these days.

6. I’m 25 (nearly 26). My parents were incredible growing up, and they still are. I grew up middle class, never extravagantly wealthy or anything, but we never had to worry about where our next meal was coming from.

My mom is a pretty tough lady. She’s a 3rd generation Italian immigrant and grew up on The Hill, St. Louis’s Italian neighborhood. She kept us (my brother, sister and I) in line and was never very sentimental, but she always cared for us and stuck up for us.

My dad is one of 6 siblings. He’s the second oldest. He is a very caring, sentimental guy. He’s 62 and retired now, but he worked as an information technology project manager for Anheuser Busch and made good money.

They both provided well for us, gave us what we needed and were fair in their discipline when they needed to be. I realize at my age now that they sacrificed a lot along the way – taking us to soccer and baseball games, dropping us off and picking us up from school every day, dealing with our being whiny and annoying, all kinds of stuff. I suppose I really did have the sort of classic, American dream childhood and I think I’ve always taken it for granted.

What was it like, OP asks? It was nice. It was comfortable when it needed to be and challenging when appropriate. I live on my own now and I’m going over to see them for Father’s Day today. I may mention a word of thanks for giving me a pretty nice life.

7. You just always feel 100% safe and that no matter what happens EVERYTHING will be okay.. it makes life way better.. you don’t have to seek companionship outside of your family as much because you already got that “loved” feeling from your family.. basically you rarely feel alone when you have loving parents/family.

8. The most beautiful part is watching your parents love EACH OTHER! Didn’t even see how this would be valuable until I became an adult and learned that not everyone gets to grow up seeing healthy love. This plays an important factor in the relationships I have and it’s the reason why I’m glad to say I’m a healthy SO. Whenever I hear about people I know in a abusive and toxic relationships, the first thing I always ask is how were their parents relationship…trauma is a real and unfortunate learning mechanism.

9. I’m not going to lie to you, it’s incredible. I was born to two loving parents who waited until they were well-off financially to have children. The only struggle I’ve ever had in my life is with depression (genetic/hereditary, nothing I can really do about it). I’m in college now, my parents pay for my expensive university with all their heart, they go out of their way to do little things to make me happy. My mom will surprise me with take out from my favorite restaurant, my dad will surprise me with basketball tickets or take me to see a movie. We have “arguments” but its 99% of the time over little things that we don’t remember 10 minutes later, and it rarely happens. We operate as a family, make decisions as a family. Like every important decision I make is not all on me, its as a family, so it’s low risk, high reward. A big part of parents being loving is parents being responsible, and my parents have always been responsible adults. I think its a special kind of cruel when a child loses the strong image of parents, or they never had it in the first place. I view my parents as strong figures, anchors. They have their moments of weakness but overwhelmingly are always strong.

I only hope to continue this and be an even better parent to my eventual kids.

10. Especially my mom told and still tells me that she loves me nearly every time we see each other.

They don’t tell me they are happy or mad with my life choices but tell me that I am the one who need to live with them and as long as I am happy, they are too.

They weren’t perfect though but they were able to apologise when they realised they deeply hurt me. They always explained their parenting choices and I never once in my life heard the famous “my house, my rules”.

And the last thing that is very important to me is that they are absolutely loyal to their kids. Other adults or family members like older cousins or so are mocking me? They would always step in and defend me if I weren’t able to. Always took my feelings seriously. I realised in elementary school that this wasn’t normal for most of the adults

11. Amazing! My mother is the most loving and caring mother you could ask for. Im 30, but still close as hell with my mum, visit every weekend and help her with the DIY side of things in her home. She’s slowly going blind which is heartbreaking to watch her struggle with day to day life!! Once she’s completely blind, I’m leaving my job to help look after her as much as i can. She gave me and my siblings the best upbringing she could of given us, so I have to repay her.

So yeah, its great having loving parents. You will do anything for each other.

12. The feeling of acceptance, understanding, and security. Also the immense knowing that they will do anything for you, even if it means that they go through hell.

My father and mother escaped from communist countries (Poland and Vietnam), and nearly died during it. Upon arriving they worked many jobs and went through hell in order to give us a good upbringing. My father owns a pizza shop, and in its early days he worked from 8am-3am, usually not being able to sleep beacuse of the stress of knowing that if something goes wrong, his family will starve. At the worst of it (that I know of), he had to set up a mattress at the back of the store, and slept there so he knew that it would be okay.

My parents have been through hell and back for us, and will in the future if they need to, nevertheless they gave us enough attension and love.

One of the biggest thing for me is trust, I trust them, and they do trust me. We have a mutual respect.

Dexys Midnight Runners, Kevin Rowland – Come On Eileen (1982 Version)

What if, Tomorrow Morning, You Wake Up to: “Banking Crisis Shuts ALL Banks – ATM’s Credit, Debit Cards ALL Shut Off”

World Hal Turner 16 March 2023

What if tomorrow morning, you woke up to blaring headlines saying “Banks Ordered SHUT DOWN; All ATM’s Credit & Debit Cards ALL Offline.”

What if, as you listened to, or read the story, you found out that because of systemic losses and stock market crashes, ALL banks had to be shut down completely . . . . for two weeks . . . . until authorities could isolate the failed banks, and control the financial contagion?

For most people, the idea that their bank would be closed for a couple weeks is never even a passing thought. And the notion that all credit cards and debit cards would suddenly be offline and unusable, is even less of a possibility. Yet that is PRECISELY what could happen given the ongoing bank failures and stock plunges!

So, let’s just play “make pretend” for a minute and ask yourself “How would I get by for a couple weeks with no bank, no ATM’s and no credit/debit cards?

How would you eat? How would you feed your family? Do you even HAVE two weeks worth of food in your house?

How would you put fuel in your car to get to/from work? Do you even HAVE a 5 gallon gas can (or two) on your property? Is it full?

Most folks have never even considered this situation and that . . . . that right there . . . . is why most folks would be in shear panic (and shit outta luck) if this situation actually takes place.

Now, a lot of you might be thinking to yourselves “I can write a check.” Fat chance. If you’re a business, are YOU going to accept checks when you know the banks are failing? Uhhhhhhhh. . . . . . . hmmmmmmmmm. . . . . NOPE!

Cash only!

Supermarkets? Grocery stores? Gas stations? Same thing. CASH ONLY.

Now what do you do?

I pose this scenario to get you thinking. Because PLANNING has to be done BEFORE a crisis hits. Sadly, most people today, don’t plan beyond their next 5 minutes.

You see, those of us who actually DO plan . . . . you mock us as the “tin foil hat crowd and/or “conspiracy theorists.” We think about such things. We plan. We’re as ready as anyone can be for local, limited, disruptions to regular life.

And we have some bad news for you. Don’t come calling to us when you and your kids are going hungry. Don’t come calling to us when your car is out of fuel. Because if you come calling for such things, we have a stark choice to make: Either feed you, or feed ourselves.

Guess what? In that situation, YOU LOSE.

I have to feed me and MY family before I feed you or yours. And I am not going to take food out of MY family’s mouths because YOU never thought (or couldn’t be bothered) to plan.

That may sound harsh, but that’s reality.

So take a few minutes right now and take a look at what food you have in your pantry. Do you have enough Pasta, Rice, dried beans, canned tuna, canned chicken, a couple jars of sauces for over the pasta or rice, a jar or two of mayonnaise? Do you have a couple loaves of bread? Any canned soups that are heat and eat? How about a manual can opener?

You need to have this stuff to make sure YOU and YOUR FAMILY can eat if everything goes to hell with the banks.

You need to have some spare fuel.

Most of all, YOU NEED TO HAVE CASH MONEY stashed in the house somewhere, to get by if everything falls apart.

Don’t say you weren’t warned. Because the plain truth is, most people just couldn’t be bothered to plan . . . . and those folks get no sympathy.

Chinese troops set out for China-Cambodia joint exercise amid intensive foreign military exchanges

ByLiu XuanzunPublished: Mar 16, 2023 10:18 PM

A Type 071 comprehensive landing ship is carrying Chinese troops on their way to participate in a large-scale joint exercise with Cambodia, marking yet another major event in a busy month of foreign military exchanges by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

In accordance with a bilateral agreement, the armed forces of China and Cambodia will hold the Golden Dragon-2023 joint exercise in Cambodia from late March to early April, with the subject of the exercise being operations for the security of important events and humanitarian aid, China’s Ministry of National Defense said in a press release on Wednesday.

More than 200 troops from the Army, the Navy and the Joint Logistic Support Force of the PLA Southern Theater Command held a departure ceremony on Wednesday in Zhanjiang, South China’s Guangdong Province, on the flight deck of the Jinggangshan, a Type 071 comprehensive landing ship, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on the day.

After the ceremony, the Chinese forces set sail for a port in Cambodia, where they will mobilize motorized vehicles to the exercise area, CCTV reported.

The goal of the exercise is to further advance the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Cambodia, enhance political mutual trust, expand military exchanges, and boost the two militaries’ capabilities in anti-terrorism work and humanitarian aid, the report said.

More than 3,000 personnel and over 300 vehicles will participate in the drill, which is the fifth such joint exercise between China and Cambodia, CCTV said.

The Golden Dragon-2023 exercise comes amid China’s intensive foreign military exchanges. Other major events include the ongoing China-Iran-Russia joint naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman, the China-Russia-South Africa joint naval exercise off the South African coast in late February, the AMAN-23 multinational maritime drills in Pakistan in early February, the Edelweiss Raid 2023 international mountain infantry competition in Austria in late February, and the Cobra Gold 2023 joint exercise in Thailand from February to March.

China’s participation in all of these exercises is focused on communication, exchanges and cooperation to boost understanding and joint capabilities. The training subjects focused on safeguarding regional peace and stability from non-traditional security threats such as terrorism, piracy and natural disasters, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Thursday.

In the post-COVID era, the Chinese military will continue to resume, expand and deepen foreign exchanges, contributing to peace and stability and displaying China’s international responsibilities, Zhuo Hua, an international affairs expert at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy of Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times.

By comparison, the US has been rallying gangs in exercises that stir up regional military tension and serve its hegemonic geopolitical aims, experts said, citing events like the recent US-Philippines Balikatan exercise, the US-Japan Iron Fist exercise and the US-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise.

The world should see that the Chinese military is providing public security goods to the international community and acting as a stability factor for peace, while the US is creating tensions and even conflicts for its own interests, observers said.

Chumbawamba – Tubthumping

“Gender Fluid” Director of Credit Suisse Draws Scrutiny as Bank Collapsing

World Hal Turner 16 March 2023

As the world watches the stock value of Credit Suisse implode, people are asking how this could happen. That question is causing attention to be paid to the company Directors; one of whom is “Gender Fluid.” Folks are now asking “How can this guy run a company when he can’t even decide if he’s a man or a woman?”

Director Credit Suisse Gender Fluid large

Pictured above is Credit Suisse Director Philip Bunce. However, depending on how he feels on any given day, he may come to work dressed in a wig and women’s clothes, calling himself “Pips” Bunce.

And while he’s busy trying to decide on whether he is a male or female on any given day, the company he is supposed to be Directing is seeing it’s stock value collapse.

Of course, none of this would matter in most other business situations, but Credit Suisse just happens to be a “Systemically important” bank. Now that it is is serious liquidity trouble, the company and its Directors have BECOME the public’s business because the public is being asked to “backstop” Credit Suisse with about $54 Billion in liquidity from public funds through the Swiss National Bank.

Switzerland has agreed to provide that funding. Yet folks are rightly asking whether or not this “Director” should continue to be with the firm now that his actions and those of the other Directors, have made Credit Suisse a public welfare recipient?

Maybe Mr./Ms. Bunce should be sent on its merry way and be replaced with someone who is actually mentally/sexually stable, who can actually do the job necessary to make the company solvent and stable?

On, and the other “Directors” who hired this . . . . thing . . . . it seems to many people THEY should be given THEIR walking papers as well. Clearly, THEIR judgement – in hiring this . . . . thing . . . . – seems questionable.

“Weird” Al Yankovic – Amish Paradise (Parody of “Gangsta’s Paradise”)

Confessions of a Hypersexual Woman

March 15, 2023

What are your urges like?

The need for sex is constantly present. The pleasure it brings is pure euphoria. And I have the constant need for it so when I get it, I want it even more. All the time. The better the sex, the more sex, the happier I am.

Is having a relationship hard?

It’s hard on my partner. We hooked up when I was 16 and I was needing to have sex multiple times a day. At one point 10 times in one day. Which he could keep up with back then. But now 10 years later he is understanding of my needs but not quite meeting them. In 2020 he agreed to letting me do onlyfans to get some of my needs out without being unfaithful. But became uncomfortable with that after a while. It does put a strain on our relationship because his sex drive cannot match mine.

Have either of you brought up an open relationship?

We’ve talked about it and it’s just not for us. I NEED sex but I want it from him. And he doesn’t want me with anyone else. And I don’t want to be with anyone else.

That’s not to say I don’t have strong urges that could make me cheat and I do worry about what would happen if I were put into a position of temptation.

Do you avoid situations where you cheat? Like bars or clubs?

I do go out but I have to bring one of my sisters with me who will decide when I’m getting out of line or in a dangerous situation and have a bouncer wait outside with us for a ride/Uber. But I go out less now since I’ve put my sisters in situations where they feel I/they are unsafe.

When I drink I become very bubbly and friendly and sometimes respond to that behavior in ways that could get me in trouble or seem like an invitation.

Is it the act of sex (penetration) or the orgasm that you seek? Like, is masturbation a part of it as well?

I would say it’s both. It started getting worse around 12 with like obsessive masturbating. But now I also need the penetration to feel close to someone.

Does it satisfy you if he uses toys on you? Is that an option for you to get your needs met and him to be a part of it?

Absolutely! But he works a lot so he’s often tired and has to go to bed early

Have you tried denying/avoiding those instincts/feelings for a while? If you did how long have you lasted?

Even after having a baby I was supposed to wait 6 weeks to have sex and I only waited 2 lol it’s complicated to explain I guess. I need sex to be happy and I need it very often. I’m very horny all the time and I get disappointed and upset if I can’t have it. Which can cause problems

How does your sex drive correlate to your mood? Does bad/good mood bring it down temporarily?

Usually when my head is in a bad place I want it even more and I’m pan

Is there an event in your life that contributed to your hyper-sexuality? Was there any sexual abuse that you think may have led to your hyper sexuality?

I was molested at age 7. But also very over sexualized by men from a young age due to my features. And then I was introduced to chat rooms like Omegle around 12 and would have inappropriate relationships with adult men

Have you found any solutions or working towards a solution to break your addiction?

It has gotten better over the years to wear I can go 2-3 nights a week without it but meds do not work for my specific mental illness, I’ve done 10 years of therapy and 7 years with a psychiatrist.

Were you diagnosed?

Borderline personality disorder. I’m diagnosed with ptsd as well.

Have you been prescribed medicaiton?

I have been on Latuda, Wellbutrin, Prozac, Zoloft, lamictal, risperdal, the list continues. 7 years of different medication combinations with little to no difference in most symptoms.

How do you counter this huge thing in your life to allow yourself to lead a normal life?

I mean it’s not debilitating I still function and do things like a normal person

Obviously you were a victim in your childhood, do you resent your hyper-sexuality sometimes because of the circumstances in which you got it?

I guess it’s hard for me to really resent sex because I do love it. I guess I would like it if it wasn’t too much for my partner sometimes but it’s not his fault it’s fully on me

Russian Navy Blockades Downed US Drone

World Hal Turner 16 March 2023

The Russian Navy has located the downed US MQ-9 “Reaper” Drone in the Black Sea, about 50 nautical miles from Sevastopol and has created a blockade around the crash site.

The Russian Navy salvage Vessel Kumma is enroute to the location.

It is reportedly going to attempt to retrieve the drone, which is said to be under about 90 meters of water.

Do you trust the media? This is SHOCKING, Operation Mockingbird is back

The Just Won’t Stop – NYT Pushes New False Claims By Debunked Anti-Russia Propagandist Clint Watts

This propaganda is way too obvious.

Russia’s Spring Offensive in Ukraine Could Include Cyberattacks, Microsoft Says – New York Times, Mar 16 2023
Moscow also appears to be stepping up influence operations to weaken European and U.S. support for sending more aid to the Ukrainian government.

A hacking group with ties to the Russian government appears to be preparing new cyberattacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure and government offices, Microsoft said in a report on Wednesday, suggesting that Russia’s long-anticipated spring offensive could include action in cyberspace, as well as on the ground.
…
For now Russia’s main influence campaign is concentrated in Europe, but it will shift to the United States “as the year gets closer to a presidential election debate going into fall,” said Clint Watts, the head of Microsoft’s Digital Threat Analysis Center.

Where, again, have I seen that name?

Latest Twitter Files show media, Dems relied on single source alleging ‘Russian bot’ activity: ‘It was a scam’ – Foxnews, Jan 28, 2023
Elon Musk says ‘shame on MSNBC’ for pushing misleading Russian bots narratives

Substack writer Matt Taibbi previously reported how top Democrats like California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, as well as Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, kept promoting claims that the Kremlin had significant influence in public discourse despite being told otherwise by Twitter executives.On Friday, Taibbi did a deep dive into their source, Hamilton 68, a so-called “dashboard” that purportedly monitored Russian bot activity.

Hamilton 68, which was spearheaded by former FBI special agent and MSNBC contributor Clint Watts, was operated by the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD), a “neoliberal think tank” founded in 2017 with an advisory council that includes Clinton ally John Podesta, former Obama-era acting CIA director Michael Morrell, former Obama official Michael McFaul and The Bulwark editor-at-large Bill Kristol.

Taibbi wrote Hamilton 68 “was the source of hundreds if not thousands of mainstream print and TV news stories in the Trump years.”

But behind the scenes, Twitter executives trashed Hamilton 68 and deliberated whether they should publicly rebuke ASD.

“I think we need to just call this out on the bulls— it is,” Twitter’s then-head of trust and safety Yoel Roth wrote in an October 2017 email, later writing in January 2018 that the dashboard “falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts of being Russian bots.”

“Virtually any conclusion drawn from it will take conversations in conservative circles on Twitter and accuse them of being Russian,” Roth wrote in February 2018.

Despite such fact based reporting three big wig NYT ‘reporters’, Julian E. Barnes, David E. Sanger and Marc Santora, continue to repeat the baseless ‘disinformation’ lies of the known anti-Russia propagandist Clint Watts . This without adding any critical context.

As the first commentator on my previous media education piece noted:

Reporters are garbage.

I would not generalize it like that. Matt Taibbi for one is a good reporter. But some other ‘reporters’ are indeed producing nothing but a constant stream of the most stinking refuse ever.

Posted by b on March 16, 2023 at 9:46 UTC | Permalink

Happy pictures

Rita Hayworth Is Stayin’ Alive

Confessions of Parents Who Absolutely Regret Having Children

March 14, 2023

1. I’m tired of people trying to make me feel bad because I didn’t want to deal with this nightmare of a diagnosis. I straight up admit I absolutely did not fucking want a special needs child which is why I aborted my first pregnancy – there was a chromosomal abnormality so I noped out real quick.

Got just about every damn test you could with the second pregnancy and everything was fine. But no. Autism.

All I ever fucking wanted was a normal family, is that so much to ask? My life growing up was walking on eggshells because of my mentally ill father and intellectually disabled sister. Then I was free. Only to get dragged back into hell.

I’m tired of all the extravagant accommodations and never ending extra shit that goes into autism. We’re supposed to bend over backwards to children who only care about their immediate needs and themselves no matter what the fuck anyone else’s needs are – and then we get blamed for churning out entitled assholes.

I’m tired of this broken fucking kid and never ending heavy burden. While I would never hurt him I can absolutely see how this breaks some parents and these nightmare kids end up getting thrown off a bridge. (I’m not saying I would throw him off a bridge you drama queens, I’m saying I can understand how parents snap)

Pre natal diagnostics needs to get on the fucking ball.

Edit: like moths to a flame the autists are in full force to bitch about how awful I am.

Autism isn’t a shield for shit behavior. I’m allowed to be irritated with shit behavior no matter the origin. I’m human.

Guess what, you don’t live in a vacuum and your caregivers matter too. I’m sorry (not sorry) that the truth of raising an autistic child triggers you so much but, well, it’s not my job to cater to your feelings. Go somewhere else if you hate it so much.

2. My (40M) son (12M) has been physically and verbally abusing my wife (42F) and daughter (9F) for 3-4 years. Dozens of medicinal combinations, 4 hospitalizations (writing this from the hospital while waiting for a placement for his 5th), 8 months in a residential center, making his needs/problems the center of our lives (wife has had not worked or done anything but be his full time caretaker for years), have yielded no relief. I pay for a house the wife+kids live in, and an apartment I live in and work from a few miles away, because my presence/existence is an irritant to my son (and wife prioritizes son’s preferences/comfort above all else), and my daughter occasionally has to stay in the apartment with me when son attacks her.

Yesterday, wife and MIL and both kids went for ice cream, but the store was unexpectedly closed. That disruption in plans was enough that son escalated from standard daily behavior of punching my wife, to attempting to strangle her, and attacked elderly MIL with a heavy wooden board (luckily she knocked it out of his hands and was uninjured).

So, marriage in shambles, finances and mental health destroyed, daughter traumatized… all societal systems (US) from hospitals to cops to therapists to public schools to private schools to psychiatrists to psychologists to residential centers to crisis response (and probably more I’m forgetting) unable to help at all.

My daughter is mostly a joy and (aside from removing what she’s been exposed to) I would change nothing about her.

I regret my son’s existence.

3. The actual reason I had a kid was just pressure from society. I mean, this is what people are supposed to do you know? I’ve always made so much effort ticking all the boxes what people are “supposed to do”. I’m 30 years old and my biological clock is ticking. All my friends have kids so I thought to myself that it was now or never. Now I have this beautiful, healthy, lovely 2 year old whom I love more than words – make no mistake, I’m a good mom. But what I want is sleeping in, going to the gym whenever I want, travel, doing spontaneous things etc. That was my life before my daughter was born. I don’t feel this “rewarding” feeling everyone are talking about. I feel bitter and unfulfilled. I wouldn’t dare saying those things out loud to anyone.

4. I was told the moment you push out your baby & hold it in your arms is the most amazing, most magical, euphoric moment you will ever experience in your entire life.

So there I was..in the hospital, holding my new baby, waiting for it… I felt NOTHING. But I did lose a lot of blood though. I was told that C-Sections are not that bad. I’ll be fine! I couldn’t talk for weeks & barely had any energy to move. But I do have a long nasty cool looking scar that my wax lady points out to me every time I get a wax.

I was told that my breast would just go back to my regular size. My breast are so flat and saggy that I literally have to rush to put clothes on after I get out the shower bc I hate lookin in the mirror. I was told that it’s just “baby weight” it’ll go away after birth. My stomach is so fat & sloppy that it looks like I’m in the early stages of pregnancy.

I was told by my OBGYN that “I’m just in a phase, I’ll get my confidence back!” Today, as I write this in tears, I haven’t felt like me in years. Something’s off..I always look like I’m feeling & feel how I look (which is ugly).

I was told that “Kids are a blessing, you’ll enjoy it!” I literally look forward to every freakin day & night when my kid goes to sleep for that little peace & quiet time that I have to myself. This is the biggest highlight of my day! I use every bit of that time thinking about all that I could be right now before I enter parenthood.

I was told that I have “18 Summers to get it right” That is true & I take that to the heart, but I might just spend my whole adulthood living for my kid & I haven’t even enjoyed my life yet. Thing is, I could be the best parent ever & it still won’t ever be enough cause in the end, kids grow into individuals w/ a mind of their own. 70% comes from me & the other 30% will come from life itself. Life is the greatest teacher. Hopefully when she turns 18, I’ll have something to look back & smile about.

Knowing all the sacrifices, blood, sweat & tears it took to get here will be more than enough for my warm heart to accept. I wait everyday for that moment. I was told that this sht comes easy, being a parent is natural. I’ve been a mom for damn near 3 years & ain’t sht been easy yet. Literally been winging this sh*t since day 1.

I was told just taking 10 mins for yourself will do wonders for you. I can’t even take a shower w/o thinking I’m hearing someone crying & banging on my bathroom door. I was told that child support payments will ease the load. The court ordered $194 in payments & he doesn’t even pay that. I was told from friends & family that I have their support. I’ve had to quit so many jobs bc I had no one to watch her. I had to steal food so many times bc I just don’t have it right now. I was told that it’ll get easier, when?

The fact is, I was lied to.

5. My son is gifted. He’s also a gigantic fucking asshole.

What they see is the tiniest little sliver of a moment, and have no idea that the rest of the time is absolutely exhausting. He has behavior problems, is constantly argumentative, and lives to push every fucking one of my buttons every single goddamn day. It is honestly a battle not to hit him the way I would have been, and my reward for restraint and respecting his person is constantly eating shit.

He has no friends, acts half his age, and is a gigantic brat no matter what we do. I’ve had to give up my life to revolve around his, and I expected to be done by now honestly. Most mothers can get back to work when their kid starts school… I cant.

All of my fucking time is taken up by his endless needs, the time he’s in school is the only time I can get anything meaningful done. The entire parental load is dumped on me, as well as every speck of housework, and society thinks I need to bring in an income too because I’m not doing enough?

It’s all shit. All of it.

When he is on stage and captivates everyone, if just for a moment… I would trade all of it to go back and remain childless. I see parents whisper to each other that they wish their kid could be more like mine and it makes me want to cry. Because they don’t realize how difficult having a gifted kid is. Honestly I would have preferred a normal child.

I put on a brave face though, and gush about how proud I am. But I’m dying inside.

Lots of us regret. Even the ones you would never think do. But I regret all of it.

It’s funny how when I was younger the idea of a hardworking husband that could afford for me to be a stay at home mother to a gifted kid – that was like a dream scenario.

But that’s exactly what I got, and it’s a prison.

I love him and I will continue to do my best for him, but Christ this is the worst job I’ve ever had.

6. I fucking hate being a mother (and wife). There, I said it.

I’ll preface with saying that I do love my children , but It absolutely drains every single part of my being. To the point where I’m not sure I can keep going much longer.

I hate how I went undiagnosed with a neurological disorder my entire life until recently, which makes being a parent/partner so damn difficult. I could have made better choices had I known.

I hate that I grew up thinking because I was a girl, having kids was just part of life. I hate how we don’t normalize conversations surrounding the topic of NOT having children.

I hate that I even feel this way. Not like they asked to be here. So I go through the motions and try my best . For them. But what I wouldn’t give to go back 20 years and make different choices.

The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed

Confessions of a Tech CEO Who Had Millions Tied Up In Silicon Valley Bank

March 13, 2023

So something like from that show Silicon Valley? You stocks went from millions to nothing?

Worse. Our bank account had millions of dollars in cash in it which we use to pay rent, employees, etc. All of that money has been frozen now that the bank has collapsed and the FDIC has stepped in. We can’t access it, use it, or transfer it to another bank.

This has happened to countless companies. Hundreds of companies missed payroll on Friday or will miss payroll over the next few days.

Why would you keep so much in one bank knowing it’s uninsured? Why not buy US treasuries as an alternative?

There’s a lot to dig into here, and arguably this is the most important cultural shift that needs to occur amongst venture-backed companies going forward.

Large companies – and thus more mature ones – absolutely diversify. For that reason, SVBs implosion is mostly hurting small and medium sized startups who maintained all of their capital in SVB. The question is: why were these startups not more proactively defensive? I think there’s a lot of contributing factors.

1) Most early stage startups are founded by and focus entirely on employing non-admin talent, meaning no HR, no finance, etc. In fact, one of our investors (a tier 1 investor with several billion dollar funds) explicitly talked me out of hiring a CFO until we were “50-100 employees”. So, what you end up with is a talent pool of specialists whose strength and focus isn’t in financial risk aversion, but rather in the skills needed to build product, find traction, and drive growth.

2) Focus. In early stage startups, you’re so frantically working to find product/market fit, recruit key talent, close customers, and navigate investors that you quickly deprioritize anything that doesn’t immediately drive revenue or product market fit. This leads to a bunch of blind spots in the business that are easy to take for granted. One is financial risk aversion. There are only so many tasks you can commit your attention to each day, and the purely administrative ones tend to fall by the wayside.

3) Convenience. Take your typical seed stage startup. In 2019, a seed round would be 2 million, plus or minus. In 2021, that same seed stage round could be 4-8. That means 32 bank accounts required to ensure that no more than $250k is present in any account. Amongst all of the other stuff you have to do as both a manager and individual contributor, this degree of oversight feels untenable.

4) Hubris. Probably a bit too strong language, but worth at least mentioning. Startups are inherently risky and financially insecure businesses, but we tend to have faith that our institutional partners — VCs, banks, etc. — are trustworthy and secure. We try to focus on the things we are most in a position to control, and we trust our partners to support us in the gaps. That’s not a good perspective to have going forward.

There are a lot of reasons. Going forward, all startups should probably have CFOs actively protecting cash. That hasn’t been the standard in the past for small companies. It should be going forward.

You weren’t notified of the potential problem before ?

I received an email.at 3:09 ET on Thursday.from.one of our investors saying, “This is probably alarmist, but you might want to move your money out of SVB.” That’s it. I immediately contacted another bank, but by the time the application was submitted, approved, created, and transfer submitted, it was already too late. About 16 hours.

Do you think your company can bounce back from this?

The next few days are critical.

The industry is expecting the FDIC to provide $250k in insurance on Monday. If that miraculously happens, it provides limited relief for the smaller companies, of which mine is one. With that $250k, I can make 2 payrolls. So, that gives me 3 weeks to figure out our next step.

The biggest question is whether or not the government will step in to make all of the depositors whole (meaning ensure companies like mine get access to the cash we already had). Even if that happens, there’s no way to know how quickly that can occur. Many Americans don’t think it should at all.

If that doesn’t occur, then we’ll likely be looking for a new source of capital (probably an investment) and use that to keep the company alive long enough to hopefully find a buyer.

What happens to a company that can’t make payroll?

We held a 2 hour company wide call, during which I explained what happened, what’s next, and the options we have. Then we did breakout sessions with each team. People are understandably concerned, but not because they’re in the dark.

There is a lot of he said/she said going on about when any of this money will be returned. The truth is nobody knows. My plan A is to access (hopefully on Monday) the FDIC $250k insurance to cover my team’s next two payroll cycles. That gives me time to do two things: 1) see if there’s a short-term resolution of SVB that benefits us, and 2) work with our partners in a bridge loan. The latter is the most likely path for any early-stage startup that has the option.

After that, who knows. If it takes months or years for any of the capital to be returned, then probably look for an acquirer so my team has a soft landing somewhere.

Do you think that the failures on the bank should be settled by tax payer money?

It’s a great question. I think the potential reverberating damage of not making the depositors as whole as possible is catastrophic. Not just for those companies, but for the us economy itself and the future of the US as a global innovator. Seeing online chatter, it’s clear to me that most people don’t understand how broad reaching this situation is. It’s MUCH bigger than a few “coastal leftist capitalist millionaires”.

Does that mean that taxpayers should be responsible? No. Ideally the capital would come from another bank acquiring the assets over the coming days/weeks. That seems unlikely, at least at a price that would cover all depositors.

Somebody is getting fucked. It shouldn’t be the depositors who only held cash. And it shouldn’t be the taxpayers. Very difficult situation.

Who do you think will be the White Knight? (Do you believe there will be one?)

Interesting question. No for-profit institution can truly be the white knight. They’re self-interested parties (which is fine) and are going to try to acquire the assets for pennies on the dollar. Meaning whatever is left will be a fraction of what was there before. The govt. Can certainly intervene, but to what end.

Ultimately, I think the question is really: Who is going to get screwed over the most in order to protect the rest.

If the government is the only way to make yourselves whole, what are your thoughts about the government taking equity positions in those companies rather than providing a cash bailout?

We need cash to operate. If that cash is in exchange for equity, I’m generally okay with the idea. In fact, I would personally love a closer relationship between govt and innovation companies. I have long maintained that we need our best people thinking about the biggest problems – govt, education, healthcare, etc. But because public sector salaries can’t compete, we often pool too much top talent in the private sector. A closer relationship between the two might have positive outcomes.

Did you start the company or just rise up to the position?

I started the company with two co-founders. They made salaries first. I started getting paid about a year later.

CEO compensation varies WIDELY by company, stage, and sector. I firmly believe that CEOs at most large corporations are grossly overpaid. That is far from my personal case. I currently make $150k/yr. I’m far from the highest paid employee at my own company. For early stage companies, there is a director correlation between a startup’s likelihood to fail and how much s/he pays him/herself. I made much more at previous companies, but founder/CEOs typically don’t work for the salary. They work for the potential equity outcome.

What were your roles and responsibilities as a CEO for this company.

At my stage, the primary responsibilities are hiring, budgeting, HR, team management, fundraising, and investor relations. After that, each CEO has a unique set of skills based on their background which determine what else they do. My background is in product management, so I also lead the design and development of our software product.

Typically external CEOs are brought into a startup after the company has achieved a certain degree of scale. Maybe the founder is ready to move on, or maybe the company needs someone with more expertise at that growth stage. Typically external CEOs come from within the existing social network, via investor introductions, or through an executive recruiter.

Putin’s next cyber attack will be DEVASTATING, according the deep state

17 People Reveal The Biggest Problem Plaguing Their Life Right Now

March 16, 2023

I’m 60. My biggest problem is having to work 50 or 60 (or more) hours a week just to keep up with the bills. Plus I have a bedridden wife with cancer and we’re raising our oldest grandson. As Sargeant Murtaugh once said, “I’m getting too old for this shit.”

37 and I’m going blind. I don’t know how long it will take, when I will be legally blind and unable to live my life with the richness, independence and everything else I expected, but it’s coming. It’s a crushing inevitability. Every day that I get to see my loved ones faces is a gift.

40’s and I drink too much and need to lose weight. I only drank 3 times in February and I’ve increased my daily walks so I’m working on it!

I’m just trying to find some reasons to not hate my own existence. But here we are. A couple days ago was my 43rd. My finances suck. I’ve been depressed most of my adult life but I’m just really sad right now too. There is a difference between sad and depressed and I’m both right now. And I don’t deserve to be either, I’m healthy, I still have all my limbs and digits thanks to modern medicine, and there are people who care about me, which makes the depression just feel like even more of a failure. I hope you feel better soon. I hope I do too.

74 and don’t really have any problems other knowing my time is limited. Don’t buy any green bananas. 🙂

78, and knowing I am terminal. I can handle it, but everybody else is in denial. I’m hearing lots of, “After all, doctors don’t know everything, do they?”

No. They don’t. But they do know the five-year survival rate is 1%. Now let’s all say that together boys and girls.

“The five-year survival rate is 1%.”

59 and my thoughts are consumed with losing my wife(and best friend). I’ve loved her for 42 years. I want 42 more.

The older I get the shorter it all seems, Ive heard the same from everyone. Everyone pretends to be at peace, I thinik it’s more for the others than that they really believe it. There isn’t anything you can tell someone when they are 16 that they will ever truly understand until they’re 60. I suppose this is where the bitter sweet thing hits. But it hits really fucking hard when it does.

61(F)… Relationship heartache and likely to be let go at work. I’m too old for either of these when 6 years away from retirement.

29. All my bills are going up, but my paycheck is not.

I’m 62 and I am watching my wife die day by day from pancreatic cancer. She is the love of my life, God’s gift to me. I had been married before but never have I known love until I met her. I cannot breathe. I cannot cry because I must be strong for my beautiful bride. My heart is breaking day by day. When the end comes I cannot imagine living a day without her smile and laughter.

My mother just passed away, leaving me with implied responsibility for my same-aged brother with special needs. There was no plan, despite me begging them for years to figure something out. I live ten hours away and work full-time plus. Now I’m supposed to figure it all out.

31, grief, anxiety, money, never being able to afford a home and by extension claw my way out of poverty. I have more money now than I ever did in my life and it still won’t get me anywhere.

55, live alone, work 100% from home, and have no friends and family. Shit be lonely.

27 and more and more I’m coming to the horrifying realization that I don’t really like the world, where it’s headed, the way we idolize and reward cruelty and selfishness, the way the world is just kind of… ugly. This is not the world I envisioned living in when I was younger, and that crushing realization is a lot to come to terms with. Some days are especially difficult. Other days I wonder whether it’s worth sticking around for something I dislike so much.

I’m 48 and my son is 16. He has a muscle eating disease call Muscular Dystrophy and has lost the use of his legs, his arms have weakened to the point that he can barely lift a glass and he’s in a wheelchair. He has an upcoming major surgery for scoliosis (caused by the disease) that will enable him completely for up to a week. He worries about it and about the disease (dying) and on top of that, he gets very depressed about not being able to do the things that other kids his age can do. I worry constantly about him, but there is nothing I can do. That’s my biggest problem (he’s not the problem, but the fact I can’t do anything but worry).

My kids won’t stop getting sick. They’re missing so much school. It’s like their bodies have decided to just alternate weeks with different respiratory viruses.

via

Old Movie Stars Dance to Michael Jackson

Abandoned treasures

Weezer – Buddy Holly (Official Music Video)

This video was hidden inside the movie folder in all Windows 95.

30 of the Best Non-Sexual Feelings in the World

March 9, 2023

1. When you unexpectedly catch a smell that reminds you of a person or a place that you love.

2. Laying awake with someone, and being so lost in conversation that you talk for hours without even realizing it.

3. When something funny catches you off guard in just the right way, and you laugh uncontrollably.

4. A dog or cat or just a fluffy, non threatening animal coming up to you and cuddling you until you can’t breath.

5. Being close to someone you have a crush on and just nearly touching. The almost touch is a magical thing.

6. Farting away a stomach ache

7. Seeing someone happy with the gift you gave them.

8. Taking a piss after holding it for the whole car ride

9. Getting that popcorn kernel out of your teeth

10. Tingles from listening to some good music

11. Having a 3 day weekend and waking up on that Saturday realizing you still have two more days off.

12. Having a conversation with someone who’s genuinely interested in what you have to say

13. Waking up in the middle of the night and realizing you still have 5 hrs more to sleep.

14. Head massage. Even those wire “hands” you can get to do it yourself feel amazing.

15. Sleeping in a bed with clean and warm sheets straight out of the dryer.

16. That moment of clarity when your brain stops going and you’re just present, wherever you are.

17. Silence. Just go to an area with no civilization whatsoever and sit. No expectations, obligations or unnecessary needs.

18. Waking up at 3 am with massive thirst and then you take that nice, cold and godly sip of water

19. First sip of coffee when you wake up on vacation.

20. Water coming out of your ear after it’s been stuck there for a bit.

21. When you’re at someone’s house and their pet chooses your lap to sit on.

22. Taking a smooth, efficient, clean poop. Also taking a huge shit that you’ve been holding for too long.

23. Contagious laughter, to the point no one remembers what made us start laughing.

24. Love. Long ago in a relationship -I said something awkward that revealed my feelings but not directly and the response was ‘I love you too stupid, let’s go get some coffee’

25. When you find yourself genuinely looking forward to the next time you’ll see/talk to someone, then you realize you’re smiling like an idiot.

26. When you feel like someone truly sees you.

27. When you put down your judgment long enough, to let yourself be proud of the things you’ve accomplished.

28. When someone says, “I love you” for the first time, or you finally muster up the courage to say it yourself.

29. When you get together with siblings or cousins, and laugh for hours while retelling childhood stories that you all have already told 100 times.

30. Watching people enjoy the food you cooked.

China’s Rise As A Superpower | Warning To America

Chicken and Sourdough Dumplings

Ingredients

Dumplings

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted shortening
2 quarts boiling water

Chicken

2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons melted shortening
1 (6 ounce) can evaporated milk
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup water
1 (10 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped pimiento
1 (2 to 3 pound) fryer, cooked, boned and cut into bite-size pieces

Instructions

Dumplings: In large bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Combine milk, egg, sourdough starter and vegetable oil or melted shortening and add to dry mixture all at once, stirring just until moist. Drop dough from tablespoon into boiling water. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon. Drain and place on top of cooked chicken.
Chicken: Over medium heat, add flour to shortening. Stir constantly while adding milks, soup, water, salt, pepper and pimiento. Add chicken. Pour into a 3-quart casserole and top with dumplings.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.

Serves 4 to 6.

NDE and some reality

This post includes a very well done NDE, Star Trek TOS (in sections), the usual food and art fare, and some indications that American banks are collapsing left and right.

In case you all haven’t been paying attention, MM is a repository of a step by step staged archive of the end of the old world order, and the beginning of a new one.

Because, in the future REAL historians will be able to find this site, undetected by the present political powers, and pristine in ways that revisionism cannot corrupt.

But that’s not your concern.

What you concern should be enjoying today.

Big Big Meeting going on in Russia right now!

The Duran comments on it…

Big changes in the world today!

Have a great one!

Star Trek Balance of Terror (part 1 of 7) TOS (The Original Series)

Natasha Wright

January 31, 2023

Davos annual meeting comes across as rather outdated and obsolete with its now heavily tarnished global image all the more so.

While geopolitics is threatening to deal a heavy blow and most probably demolish the world created in the cauldrons of Davos, as has the Financial Times voiced their concerns, and surely not without a series of justifiable reasons, one of the unexpected leaders of the Global South, Indian PM Narenda Modi, rebelliously self-confident, said in his address to the world: “Our time is yet to come. We are all those who are not the Collective West ‘made to Davos measure”. Moreover, even the U.S. CNN couldn’t help noticing, this year’s Davos meeting (aka the Davos annual “gab fest” as Rowan Dean, Sky News Australia famously called it) has attracted a record number of visits but its relevance appears to be dwindling and slowly but surely vanishing into political void. Davos annual meeting comes across as rather outdated and obsolete with its now heavily tarnished global image all the more so.

The overwhelming fear this year’s WEF in Davos is frantically obsessing about internalizes the fact that the long-lasting period of peace and prosperity and global economic integrations is regrettably drawing to an end – not even the Financial Times try to handle the perils of their own pessimism in that they seem to specify to the smallest minutiae, who did prosper in that famous and infamous Collective West in the period of global integration, which has existed so far but is in a terribly precarious position now.

The conflict in Ukraine has shown the ways the war can suddenly sever the ties in economic relations on the foundations of which the globalization has been built so far. The European Union seems to be drastically reducing the import of Russian energy supplies and in so doing it further foments the inflation in Europe and renders some of its industries grotesquely uncompetitive and regrettably redundant. The politicians and industrial moguls are now casting scrutinizing looks along the horizon and beyond, in their comically concerted effort to possibly spot the next ominously pernicious threat. It sounds only too eerie that the London-based newspaper forecasts with a proverbial admonishing finger in midair. The U.S. channel says that this year in Davos, one cannot help noticing the absence of U.S. President Biden, the French President Emanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on one hand and the leaders of India and China Xi and Modi on the other. Some of them were obliged not to attend because of the backlash on their home turfs because Davos has become the toxic symbol of inequality and brutally merciless international capitalism.

There is surely a very good reason for this tarnished reputation, because in the last two years apparently, 1% of the richest of the rich have accumulated even two times bigger “new riches” than the rest of the world altogether. Those leaders who believe this is “not OK” such as Xi and Modi, did not attend Davos because they were otherwise engaged and they had to prioritize. But to get back to truly serious world leaders, PM Modi was absent for a good reason because instead of WEF, he addressed his audience in the Voice of the Global South Summit. Unlike that overwhelmingly pathetic pessimism in Davos, Modi’s voice was brimming with rebellious optimism. It is blatantly obvious that the world is in the grip of the global crisis. It is difficult to foresee how long this state of uncertainty will last – Modi started his elaboration and then went on to get across what is to come next. “We shall have the biggest share in this in the future. Three quarters of mankind live in our countries and we need to have an impact commensurate with that share and number. Therefore, whilst the eight decade long global governance behind us is gradually changing, we need to aspire to shape the emerging world order. The peoples and nations in the global South should not be deprived of the fruits of the global development out of purely selfish reasons. It is incumbent on all of us together to reconstruct our common political and financial governance. Only that can multiply our opportunities and increase prosperity”. All that, Modi points out, may happen with the respect for all nations, rule of law and peaceable resolution of all differences and disputes and the reform of international institutions, including that of the UN, so as to render them more relevant.

By the way, Russia has publicly supported this request by India to be granted the continual seat in the UN Security Council. “Despite the challenges the world is facing I remain an optimist,” Modi sends a clear resounding message. “Our time is coming. In the past century we have been helping each other in our struggle against foreign governance. We can do that again in this century so as to create the new world order, which will in turn ensure the well – being of our citizens” – says Modi. And not only him. An almost identical message was sent from Cairo, Egypt. After a meeting with the Arab League officials, the new Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang said “We have agreed to work together towards creating the new world order based on the rule of law and equality of the whole humanity, dedication to human values of the whole civilization together with their adamant refusing to politicize human rights issues and their (ab)use as a mere political ploy to interfere in the internal affairs of individual sovereign countries.” He did not utter this out loud and there was no need to do any such thing other than in this Qin Gang’s filigree diplomatic style, though it was blatantly obvious who Qin Gang was referring to.

Truth be told, the clear signs of the new non-Western world order are rapidly proliferating. Not only that 85 % of mankind have not joined “the Collective Biden” sanctions against Russia but as an example, thanks to these sanctions, India is now importing 33 times more from Russia than before. Iran, regardless of the U.S. sanctions on them, is now exporting more of its oil than before the sanctions. And the Republic of South Africa, as one very good but a somewhat different example, is dismissing the raging wrath expressed by the Collective West because of their (i.e. South African) marine military exercises with Russia recently. But as its key point, after Xi Jinping announced in Ryadh recently that China will be paying Saudi Arabia for Saudi oil in yuan, the Saudi Finance Minister confirms with a dollop of irony from Davos that the situation is abundantly clear that they will not sell oil exclusively in U.S. dollars. And, South African Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naledi Pandor reveals that more or less since 2014 the BRICS countries have been working hard on creating an alternative to the dollar system. All the projections tend to indicate that by 2030 China and India economies will be the biggest economies in the world and Russia will graciously overtake the economies of Germany and Japan.

The new world order is not a mere buzzword for the idle ones any more. One cannot but wonder who will shape it and in what manner: economically, financially and politically. Will the Collective West do their diabolical best to prevent that from happening by resorting to what they have always done: the truly global world war and possibly aided with nukes?

Semiconductors: China is getting there by leaps and bounds.

China has broken up foreign monopolies of high- performance semiconductor temperature controllers.

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China has been working on the research of adjusting the temperature of semiconductor chips and his team researches on micro semiconductor temperature controllers.

The controller can immediately produce the temperature difference of up to 100 C at the moment of getting connected to electricity, and works as an air-conditioner to cool semiconductor chips.

It took only three months to transfer the scientific research results to actual production and the monthly production capacity of the temperature controller has exceeded 300,000 pieces.

Last July, the domestic-developed temperature controller developed by the team was launched to the space with China-developed research rocket and completed the first successful in-orbit verification of 5,000 kilometers in space.

It means that China has realized the domestic production of a series of micro semiconductor devices from space grade to industrial grade, breaking the previous foreign monopoly on high-end temperature controller parts.

Currently the controllers are widely used in laser communication, vehicles, and biomedicine among other fields.

Hats off!

Balance of Terror (part 2 of 7) Star Trek TOS 1966 1967 1968)

Construction Workers Renovating The Lincoln Memorial Uncover A Secret Passage

When workers were renovating the Lincoln Memorial for a major event, they discovered something totally bizarre right beneath their feet. It turned out that Honest Abe was sitting atop a massive secret — literally. And millions of us have been inches away from this sight without noticing it. If you’ve ever set foot on the Tennessee pink marble floors and stared up at the stoic expression of America’s 16th president, you were actually standing right above a decades-old secret passage that few knew existed.

Workers made a startling discovery

A construction crew working at the Lincoln Memorial back in 1975 was tasked with renovating the bathrooms. Little did they know, their seemingly-simple task would lead them to an unexpected discovery. Not long into their project, they noticed something strange about the structure’s foundation that no one was prepared for.

The hidden room

When workers took a closer look at the foundation, they discovered a massive room beneath the chamber that housed Lincoln in his chair. As anybody else would do after discovering a major historical secret, the construction crew quickly spread the word about the mysterious area. It was a point of fascination. How long had this room been there, and why was it there in the first place?

Exploring the “cave”

Of the people told about the secret room, some were members of the National Speleological Society — AKA, they were passionate about exploring old, mysterious caves. And when they cave divers first ventured underground, they explored the giant room with awe. Stalactites and stalagmites formed during the years the space was neglected. It was while they were exploring that they had a startling realization.

Why was it there?

Oddly enough, the cave wasn’t naturally formed but man-made. And the room was massive: 43,800 square feet, to be exact. The more they poked around, the creepier Lincoln Memorial’s concealed level revealed itself to be. Besides the rats, insects, and general spookiness, its mere existence made the group prickle with paranoia. Why was no one aware of this clearly intentionally-made chamber?

Lincoln’s biggest secret

The mystery of it all added to the general creepiness. How is it possible that one of the most iconic monuments in America, with over 7 million visitors each year, kept its gigantic “basement” a secret? Surely, the space once served a purpose. Even more confusing, when exactly did its existence fall between the cracks?

40 years in the making

Solving this mystery required the explorers to dig deeper into the monument’s past. Construction for the Lincoln Memorial kicked off in 1914. It took 40 years for the Army Corps of Engineers to create the Potomac Park shoreline that now serves as the attraction’s backdrop.

Digging into the earth

Workers dug 40 feet down in the earth to begin the project. Then, they installed a series of concrete pillars to support the rest of the structure. When they were finished, it looked like a cathedral all on its own. It was certainly grand enough to stand in the nation’s capital. Of course, something not-so-grand lurked beneath the ground.

It slipped from people’s minds

The crew then created the rest of the 19-foot statue and the 145 steps leading up to it. This massive undertaking took the majority of the builders’ time and energy. No doubt they were focused on installing the main event of the memorial — Lincoln himself — to properly honor the famous president. Somehow along the way, the underground chamber slipped from people’s minds.

Tourists explored the cavernous passages

But once the National Parks Service got wind of the Lincoln Monument’s killer basement, they had to show it off. Over 50 years after it was sealed off and forgotten, people finally filed into the hidden chamber. Without much preparation, the derelict space was opened to the public, and tours of amazed visitors shuffled through its cavernous passages.

A dark look behind the curtain

Officially, this space is called the undercroft, but it remains relatively unknown to the general American public. Though, some might reason it’s not that big a loss. After all, it’s a dark, dank look behind the curtain of how the dazzling Lincoln Memorial was constructed. But that still doesn’t answer why most people never see the space for themselves.

Dangerous air quality

Only those who visited the memorial during the ’70s and ’80s were lucky enough to glimpse the undercroft. Knowing that, for a time, people were allowed to traipse through the elusive passageways, why did they eventually shut it down? Well, it wasn’t exactly safe. During one tour, for example, someone spotted what looked like asbestos.

Shut it down

Countless tourists being struck down by an outbreak of asbestos poisoning was definitely something the government wanted to avoid at all costs. The National Parks Service needed to take care of the asbestos situation, and probably realized that the space was generally unfit for tours. So in 1989, the undercroft was shuttered to the public. Still, it didn’t lie untouched and forgotten for another 50 years.

Funny little illustrations

Over the years, select lucky adventure seekers have glimpsed the insides of the Lincoln Memorial undercroft, witnessing its most special feature — graffiti. Many of the columns in the basement are covered in funny little illustrations from those brave (or foolish) enough to dive below the surface. Some of the graffiti, however, comes from an unexpected source.

Traces of personality

Steven Schorr, the president of DJS Associates — a forensic consulting firm that took scans all over The National Mall and Lincoln Memorial — said, “The builders actually drew cartoons and they have them covered in Plexiglas.” Yep, the old-timey-looking cartoons were drawn by people back in the 1910s, not by modern teenaged ne’er-do-wells.

The century-old graffiti is being preserved

Drawing silly pictures on the pillars of a presidential memorial must have felt like the most rebellious act for those 1914 laborers. Nearly a century later, though, the cartoons are the shining jewels of the undercroft. Silly graffiti is definitely at odds with the more solemn black-and-white photos of the era. Perhaps that’s why they’re being protected — and for a staggering sum.

Plans for the undercroft

Billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein has invested a mind-boggling $18.5 billion into a project to modernize the Lincoln Memorial, including the undercroft space. His hope is for more people to be captivated by the humanity of the doodles, humbled by Abraham Lincoln’s firm gaze, and, of course, fascinated by the once-forgotten underground chamber. The billion-dollar project won’t be completed overnight.

Its biggest update yet

The project marks the most extensive renovation of the memorial since its debut in 1922. Rubenstein is tremendously honored to contribute to preserving this new chapter for the Great Emancipator’s monument. Through his efforts, modernized construction equipment and healthy financial backing mean the updates will probably be completed sooner rather than later.

Coming soon…

The plan was to reopen the undercroft to the public for the Lincoln Memorial’s centennial in 2022, but for now, construction is slated to be complete in 2026. One day soon, though, people will walk among those storied columns … and maybe even descend below the surface to another time. Until that day comes, there are still signs of the undercroft you can spot in person.

A point of fascination

People can see the coordinates marking the entryway to the chamber if they look closely. But even just standing on the coordinates can elicit a strange feeling. The enormous Lincoln itself has an overwhelming aura, one curator Harry Rubenstein, from the Smithsonian’s political history wing, explained to National Geographic. “It has that temple-like quality, and the statue reveals itself slowly as you walk up the steps — it doesn’t hit you all at once. And as you move up, you are made small by this incredible statue.”

Hidden symbolism

While the sheer scale of the giant Lincoln perched in a chair is what most people take in, the memorial is also richly symbolic. But some of the messages hidden within the statue’s design can be difficult to pick up on, even more so than its cavernous ‘hidden’ basement. So they tend to be missed by the average observer.

Straight from the drawing board

The intentional details concealed within the monument trace back to the immediate aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s murder. Pretty much straight away, people were calling for a monument to be raised in his honor. But it would take many decades and several design reworks for the project to really get off the ground properly.

The green light

It was only many decades after Lincoln’s death that a memorial was finally given the green light by Congress, which set aside $2 million for the project in 1911. Still, even at this point, progress remained very slow. For three years, debate raged about exactly what it should be and where it should be sited.

Greek inspiration

In the end, the person tasked with the memorial’s design was Henry Bacon, who’d previously studied in Europe. His stint abroad gave Bacon a taste for ancient Greek design, which would ultimately come to be seen in his plans for the Lincoln Memorial. If you look at the structure today, you’ll see a purposeful resemblance to the Parthenon temple that stands at the heart of Athens.

Off the wall

It’s difficult to imagine the statue of Lincoln standing inside any other building besides the one Bacon designed. But his idea was actually one of many. Another man named John Russell Pope also came up with a bunch of other designs that were ultimately rejected. And some of them were fairly off the wall.

Ancient temples

One of Pope’s rejected designs resembled a Mayan temple, which would house an enormous, undying flame. Another idea for the building was based on a ziggurat, a structure most famously found in ancient Mesopotamia. And yet another of Pope’s concepts resembled a pyramid from ancient Egypt. All were dismissed, but Pope would ultimately go on to design the Jefferson Memorial down the line.

From all over

It was Bacon who would design the Lincoln Memorial, and he had some strong ideas when it came to the symbolism his building would employ. For instance, he was adamant that the stone used in the construction should come from all over the United States. That, in his mind, would epitomize Lincoln’s commitment to the Union.

Another designer

Bacon’s design is full of little messages to be interpreted, if you look close enough. But what of the statue of Lincoln that’s housed there? Well, this thing is rich in symbolism, too, but it wasn’t Bacon who was responsible for this. No, he just designed the building. The statue was the work of Daniel Chester French.

Designed with care

French’s Lincoln statue was clearly designed with care. The president’s face is very expressive and thoughtful, plus he is seated — an unusual feature for statues of this nature. Why did French make these decisions? Well, that’s open to interpretation, as a writer behind a biography of the sculptor has explained to National Geographic.

Speaking for itself

According to Harold Holzer, French rarely chose to explain the finer points of the thinking behind the works he designed. Elaborating, he said, “My favorite French quote on this was: ‘A statue has to speak for itself, and it seems useless to explain to everyone what it means. I have no doubt that people will read into my statue of Lincoln a great deal I did not consciously think. Whether it will be for good or ill, who can say?’”

A long time

French worked on his statue for about five years. That’s a long time, but it clearly illustrates the scale of his task. Even just in terms of its size, it’s easy to understand why he needed so much time to complete the project. Even though the figure of Lincoln is seated, it’s still extremely tall.

Revisions

From the seated position, the figure of Lincoln reaches about 19 feet. But if it was standing up, it would reach about 27 feet. Incidentally, the original design was way smaller, but French revised it. His originally intended scale, with the seated figure reaching 10 feet, would have left it appearing dwarfed within Bacon’s immense temple.

Under stress

As for the expression on Lincoln’s face, French put in a lot of research to get it right. He studied photographs of the slain president, as well as reading descriptions of him. As Rubenstein said, “It was Lincoln under stress, who had the burdens of presidency and the war. Those are the photos [French] had to work with, not those of a young Lincoln.”

The Piccirilli brothers

French didn’t work on his statue alone: it was far too big a project for that. No, he actually hired a group of brothers to carve the stone. The Piccirillis were six men originally from Italy who’d made a name for themselves in America as excellent sculptors.

Invaluable contribution

The Piccirilli brothers put in a lot of work on this project. Laboring in their workshop in the Bronx, New York, these men took great care to chisel out this statue in a series of slabs, which were then brought to Washington D.C. and assembled on-site. Their contribution was invaluable, yet they’re perhaps not as famous as you’d expect. French actually suggested carving their name into the plinth of the statue, but they declined the proposed credit.

Disruption

All in all, the whole Lincoln Memorial project took a long, long time. Work on the foundations started in February 1914 and was finished up in May 1915. Progress was steady on the main structure until April 1917, which is when the U.S. began to fight in World War I. That derailed the project, slowing it down drastically.

Taking shape

Still, by the end of 1919 the project was really starting to take shape. Throughout that December and the following month of January, the Lincoln statue itself was successfully pieced together. By 1921 paths leading to the landmark were installed, as were gardens. By May 30, 1922, the memorial had reached a level of completion where it could be officially dedicated. Finishing touches to the monument’s surroundings, though, continued for a few more years.

Beloved monument

Nowadays, it’s probably fair to suggest that the Lincoln Memorial is Washington D.C.’s most beloved monument. According to newspaper The Washington Post, a regular year will see something like 8 million people showing up to pay a visit to the structure. People of all stripes come to see the famous attraction firsthand.

American icon

For 100 years now, the Lincoln Memorial has been an American icon. It’s shown up in a bunch of movies, it can be seen on the currency, and it was the setting of some very important historical moments. Most notably, perhaps, Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” monolog there in 1963.

A lot going on

The Lincoln Memorial is instantly recognizable to so many people, who have grown up seeing it in films, on money, or in real life. But not everyone fully appreciates the symbols and messages hidden away under the surface. There’s a lot going on at that monument, even down to something as simple as the statue’s hands.

Showing character

French put a lot of consideration into these hands. And despite his reputation for keeping quiet about his work, he even wrote about them. He said, “It has always seemed to me that the hands in portraiture were only secondary to the face in expression, and I depend quite as much upon them in showing character in force.”

Left and right

The statue’s right hand is open, while the left is clenched tightly. You might not think much of this, but lots of other people have read plenty into it. They think the open hand is welcoming, an extension of acceptance and warmth to his one-time Confederate enemies. The closed hand, meanwhile, shows Lincoln’s resolve to win the war.

Sign language

This seems like a reasonable interpretation of the statue’s hands and their meaning. But other people have proffered some additional thoughts about what French intended to convey with them. They think the designer had an understanding of sign language, and that the position of the hands was actually expressing the letters “L” and “A.”

The evidence

This might seem like a stretch, but proponents of the theory do have evidence they can cite to back up the claim. French had previously produced a statue of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was a pioneering figure when it came to educating the deaf community. This statue showed Gallaudet teaching a child the sign for “A.”

Lincoln’s interest

On top of that, Abraham Lincoln himself was known to be interested in deaf education. He wanted to encourage the take-up of sign language, and even gave the go-ahead for Gallaudet University. As the name suggests, this school for the deaf was established by the very same man who, as intimated above, became the subject of another of French’s statues. It all fits.

Other signs and symbols

But who knows whether or not French really did intend his statue to communicate in sign? It’s possible, but let’s not dwell on it. There are, after all, plenty of other signs and symbols at the site that bear closer examination. Some people, for instance, see references to the Roman Empire in the design.

Power

The Lincoln statue is resting its arms upon stacks of timber known as fasces, which in Roman times expressed power. Elsewhere, the columns of the monument — which are based on the Parthenon — are themselves full of hidden meaning. There are 36 of them, which is important. They represent the 36 states that, during Lincoln’s time, constituted the Union.

Tilted columns

The columns also have an interesting quirk, which is more for practical reasons rather than symbolic ones. The pillars look straight, but in actual fact they’re tilted. If they weren’t, the structure as a whole would look a little out of shape. It’s strange, but the best way to make them look straight was to tilt them.

Chamber of secrets

Another secret hidden away at the Lincoln Memorial is a massive chamber that sits underneath the statue. Given the sheer scale of the monument, the foundations needed to go very deep into the ground. That meant a big, subterranean space was required, and it’s obviously still there today.

The undercroft

The chamber is about three stories tall, and it’s known as the “undercroft.” It’s extremely evocative to think this massive, secret space exists underneath such a famous monument, and it’s easy to get carried away thinking about it. In reality, though, there’s not much down there, except from some stalactites and a little graffiti from the construction workers who’d labored there.

Beneath the surface

The Lincoln Memorial is obviously recognizable from the features we can see from the ground level. But the reality is that a huge proportion of the structure is actually beneath the surface. Roughly 40 percent of the total space it occupies lies underground, hidden away from public view.

Famous words

Back up on the surface, we can see a pair of the real Lincoln’s most well-known speeches carved into the walls. On one flank are the words from the Gettysburg Address, while on the other is his Inaugural Address following his reelection as president. These speeches are a huge part of the man’s legacy.

A mistake

You would think, then, that every single word would appear on the monument’s walls in pristine shape. In reality, that’s just not so. The truth is that the Inaugural Address was actually carved into the wall with a mistake. It shows up in the sentence that should read: “With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.”

“Euture”

Whoever was chiseling out this phrase made an error. Instead of carving out “future,” they accidentally used an “E” at the start of the word, spelling out the non-existent word “euture.” They must have been mortified! And while the mistake was covered over, if you look very carefully, you can still make out the blunder today.

Reading into it

Despite this mistake, the Lincoln Memorial is still one of the most revered monuments in the United States. And the man who created the statue within it always knew this would be the case. He was perfectly aware that people would study his design with a rabid intensity and interest.

Lasting legacy

So while the name Daniel Chester French isn’t terribly well-known today, his masterpiece is among the most famous creations in America. The sculptor put a lot of thought and effort into his design, loading it with meaning and symbolism. And even now, a hundred years after its unveiling, it continues to enrapture virtually all those who come to see it.

Sanctioning China Will Destroy The Dollar | America’s Ultimate Mistake

Kansas City Dogs

Enjoy these grilled beef Kansas City Dogs with mustard, pickle and barbecue sauce – a tangy dinner made ready in just 15 minutes!

Prep: 15 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

8 beef hot dogs
1 cup refrigerated original barbecue sauce with shredded pork (from 18 ounce container)
8 hot dog buns, split
1/2 cup pickle slices
2 medium green onions, sliced (2 tablespoons)
Mustard, if desired

Instructions

Heat gas or charcoal grill.
Place hot dogs on grill over medium heat.
Cook uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes, turning frequently, until hot.
Place sauce with pork in medium microwavable bowl; cover loosely.
Microwave on HIGH for 45 to 60 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds, until hot.
Place hot dogs on buns.
Spoon about 2 tablespoons sauce with pork on each bun.
Top with pickles, onions and mustard.

Notes

To broil hot dogs, set oven control to broil. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Place hot dogs on cookie sheet. Broil with tops 4 to 6 inches from heat 4 to 5 minutes or until hot.

China’s New Technology Secret Weapon: What Does It Mean for the West?

Never never underestimate others…..

https://youtu.be/GqeNgEcOO38

Balance of Terror (part 3 of 7) Star Trek TOS (The Original Series)

Only ONE Thing Can Stop a US China War Now!

An Artist Made Stunning Illustrations About Modern Society

Artist Steve Cutts is an illustrator and animator based in London.

Star Trek Balance of Terror (part 4 of 7) TOS (The Original Series)

Man Dies In Crash; Discovers Truth About Guilt And Forgiveness In Emotional NDE

His story is very compelling. But it is more than that. Not every NDE is a “real experience”. Some narrators are just using the venue for their own purposes, others want to express their experience, but throw in other things. This is genuine.

Definitely worth a listen.

Meet Hilda: The America’s Forgotten Pin-Up Girl

The typical 1950s pin-up girl was slim and conventionally-posed. But a recently-unearthed collection of images has revealed the less familiar Hilda, a plus-sized redhead who broke the mold with her plump figure and light-hearted demeanor.

More: Duane Bryers’ Hilda h/t: vintag.es

Hilda, the creation of illustrator Duane Bryers (191-2012) and pin-up art’s best kept secret. Voluptuous in all the right places, a little clumsy but not at all shy about her figure, Hilda was one of the only atypical plus-sized pin-up queens to grace the pages of American calendars from the 1950s up until the early 1980s, and achieved moderate notoriety in the 1960s.

Not only was Hilda one of the only plus-sized pin-up girls of her time, but she also displayed a fun, carefree and somewhat clumsy attitude, making her all the more charming.

Star Trek Balance of Terror (part 5 of 7) TOS (The Original Series)

Italian Sausage, Peppers and Onion Sandwiches

Yield: 6 sandwiches

Ingredients

Filling

1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 green bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
2 red bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper

Bread

6 crusty, submarine sandwich rolls, sesame seeded or plain

Instructions

Slice the rolls making a nice pocket to fill.
Place the sausages in a large nonstick skillet.
Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and pierce the casings with a fork.
Cover sausages, reduce heat and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes.
Remove sausages and slice into 1-inch pieces on an angle, if desired. Otherwise, leave them whole.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet, if needed.
Add garlic, onion and peppers.
Season vegetables with salt and pepper.
Add the sausages to the skillet.
Toss and turn the sausage, peppers and onions, picking up all the drippings from the pan.
Place the sausages and peppers into the sub rolls and serve.

Star Trek Balance of Terror (part 6 of 7) TOS (The Original Series)

U.S. B-52 “SIMULATES” NUCLEAR ATTACK AGAINST ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA – VIOLATES AIR SPACE

World Hal Turner 11 March 2023

A United States B-52 stratofortress long-range bomber simulated a nuclear attack against St. Petersburg, Russia today, and _apparently_ violated Russia air space in the process.

March 11, 2023

Arms control and disarmament are on life support, and John Bolton and the Washington Post have predictably come along to try to prevent any resuscitation. The Post masthead daily proclaims that “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” but the paper fails to recognize that there are seminal issues that affect the interests of democratic regimes. Arms control is one of these issues.

Bolton has been fighting arms control and disarmament for the past several decades, and the Post has willingly provided a sounding board for his specious arguments. In tracing the dangerous demise of disarmament, Bolton emerges as a dangerous and permanent presence. He was the key adviser to the Bush and Trump administrations when they abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iranian nuclear accord).

These steps amounted to dangerous personal actions that were devoid of any consultative or substantive process. National Security Adviser Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were also enthusiastic supporters of regime change in Iran, which ignored our ill-fated experience with regime change in Iran 70 years ago. Bolton also played a key role in the disinformation campaign against Iraq in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of 2003.

Bolton was the arms control adviser to President Bush in 2002, when he guided the abrogation of the ABM Treaty, the cornerstone of strategic deterrence and one of the pearls of Soviet-American disarmament policy. Bush abrogated the ABM Treaty without cause in order to incur the outrageous and unnecessary expense of a National Missile Defense (NMD). There is no better example in the creation of our national insecurity than Bolton’s foolish belief in thinking the United States could create an impenetrable nuclear umbrella.

In addition to encouraging an end to the Iran nuclear accord, which promised to bring a measure of predictability to the volatile Middle East, Bolton orchestrated the abrogation of the INF Treaty, which was responsible for the destruction of more missiles than any disarmament treaty in history. The combination of ending the INF Treaty and any failure to renew the New START accord guarantees increased defense spending in the United States.

The Trump administration followed its INF disaster with withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty, which had allowed more than 30 nations to permit unarmed observation aircraft to fly over their territories to observe military forces and activities. President Dwight D. Eisenhower first proposed an Open Skies agreement in 1955 to reduce the risk of war for both intelligence and confidence-building purposes. The Soviet Union rejected the proposal, which opened the door to U.S. U-2 flights over the Soviet Union to collect strategic intelligence. In withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty in 2000, the United States ended the “only means” for European states to “alleviate security concerns through timely overhead imagery,” according to former secretary of state George Shultz.

As part of the Trump administration, Bolton took advantage of the total inexperience and ignorance of Trump and his key advisers regarding arms control and disarmament. (The Washington Post is similarly taking advantage of its readership in allowing a troglodyte like Bolton regular access to its editorial pages.) In addition to leading the way in abrogating important treaties, Bolton did his best to weaken the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), signed by 35 nations, to limit the sale of sophisticated weaponry, particularly advanced armed drones. Trump and Bolton ignored the restrictions of the MTCR in order to sell the MQ-9 Reaper to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have used advanced U.S. weaponry to conduct war crimes in Yemen.

Over the years, Bolton was also influential in making sure that the Pentagon’s Defense Planning Guidance assigned a high priority to replacing the current nuclear force, which was described as “obsolete” and “inflexible.” Similarly, the Pentagon’s Nuclear Posture Review typically referred to current strategic weaponry as “old” and “untrustworthy.” These documents are part of the Pentagon’s con game for greater defense spending in an effort to increase the overkill capability that currently exists.

The tragic reality is that nuclear weapons have no utilitarian value whatsoever, and the fact that American and Soviet leaders maintained a nuclear weapons inventory at one time that totaled more than 60,000 warheads points to the irresponsibility and cavalier attitudes of leaders in both countries. With the abrogation of the ABM and INF treaties and the possible expiration of the New START Treaty in 2026, we are looking at a renewed arms race and the further appropriation of scarce resources on unneeded weapons,

If the United States is serious about arms control, the Biden administration needs to respond to Vladimir Putin’s previous interest in engaging the United States on no-first-use of nuclear weapons; no militarization of outer space; and the creation of nuclear-free zones. Unlike Trump and Bush, who abrogated important arms control treaties. Putin merely suspended Russian membership in New START, which suggests the Kremlin hopes to resume the strategic discussion at some stage.

Meanwhile, Bolton argues that the strengthening of China as a nuclear power and its “entente with nuclear-superpower Russia” means that arms agreements with Moscow are not only “inadvisable but dangerous.” Au contraire! There has never been a more important time for rebuilding arms control agreements and the nuclear disarmament movement itself.

counterpunch.org

Jeffery Sachs | EUROPE is DOOMED

https://youtu.be/WBbpXMz0Kx8

It’s Official: Silicon Valley Bank Failed Due to a “Run” – $42 BILLION in Withdrawals

Nation Hal Turner 11 March 2023

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was caused by a massive run on the bank, with customers initiating withdrawals of $42 billion this week.

The bank was placed into Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receivership on Friday after the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) determined the bank had been rendered insolvent.

Prior to the run on the bank, the bank was in “sound financial condition,” according to the DFPI. Customers withdrew $42 billion, leaving the bank with a negative cash balance of $958 million.

Here’s the summary of what happened from the DFPI’s order taking possession of the bank:

On March 8, 2023, the Bank announced a loss of approximately $1.8 billion from a sale of investments (U.S. treasuries and mortgage-backed securities). On March 8, 2023, the Bank’s holding company announced it was conducting a capital raise. Despite the bank being in sound financial condition prior to March 9, 2023, investors and depositors reacted by initiating withdrawals of $42 billion in deposits from the Bank on March 9, 2023, causing a run on the Bank. As of the close of business on March 9, the bank had a negative cash balance of approximately $958 million. Despite attempts from the Bank, with the assistance of regulators, to transfer collateral from various sources, the Bank did not meet its cash letter with the Federal Reserve. The precipitous deposit withdrawal has caused the Bank to be incapable of paying its obligations as they come due, and the bank is now insolvent.

Prior to its collapse, Silicon Valley Bank was the 16th largest bank by assets in the U.S. Federal Reserve data shows the bank had $209 billion in assets as of December 31, 2022.

How It Happened . . .

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and several other high-profile venture capital firms (i.e. Coatue Management, Union Square Ventures) advised their portfolio companies to pull money from Silicon Valley Bank on Thursday, responding to panic about the bank’s financial situation in tech startup circles.

They asked on Thursday. By Friday morning, the Bank was dead.

OPINION

It __looks__ like Peter Thiel and some of his Venture Capital buddies, panicked.

When they told their pals to pull money out of the bank over a measly $1.8 Billion loss during the Bank’s sale of some Mortgage Backed Securities, that set in motion the collapse of the bank.

Had Thiel and his pals just left things alone, it seems to many people the bank would still be standing.

Now, its a gigantic mess.

As a result of this mess, things can go one of two ways:

1) The mess is contained, FDIC comes in, protects basic depositors, and sells-off the rest of the Mortgage Backed Securities, and ****some**** of the uninsured Depositors get ****some**** of their money back . . . . years from now, OR;

2) The mess is NOT contained and this mess snowballs into a gigantic systemic collapse.

Next week will be telling about which way this will go.

UPDATE 9:25 AM EST (Saturday) —

The Bank of London is exploring the possibility of assembling a Rescue offer for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) UK as start-up founders warn Jeremy Hunt that its collapse will “cripple” the British tech sector,

Elon Musk just said he is “open to the idea” to buy Silicon Valley Bank and become a digital bank. (HT REMARK: As long as no major U.S. bank is willing to touch it, I wouldn’t expect Elon’s “golden touch” to stabilize everything.)

China orders its Finance Ministry to sell its US Treasuries at “fastest pace.”

Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China has added over 102 tons of gold in 4 months in an attempt to limit counterparty risk in a conflict with the US over Taiwan.

Star Trek Balance of Terror (part 7 of 7) TOS 1966-1968

What is next…

The World’s Greatest Gallery Of Seductive Carrots

The world is bat-shit crazy, but…

I’ll tell youse guys it’s all changing. There’s some movement on not being so focused on a war with China. This is promising.

It all fits together.

What the world needs right now is ART…

This Artist Inks People With Micro Pop Culture Tattoos, And Here Are His Best Works

Go big or go home? How about go small and conquer the Internet while securing a career in the craft you love? Eden Kozokaro, aka Kozo Tattoo, is a tattoo artist from Israel who made a name for himself with his micro designs. From popular TV shows and movies to comic books and music, Eden’s colorful miniatures often feature pop culture elements, and look so detailed and precise, the man could’ve easily become a surgeon.

More: Instagram h/t: boredpanda

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5 Amazing Cat Inventions You Must See

Not a paid promotion. I just thought these inventions were just crazy cool!

Lukashenko meets Xi Jinping. Cold war lines are being drawn

Don’t march on Moscow.
Don’t bluff the Chinese.

Chinese people give utmost respect due a head of state. In around the year 1400s, a Sulu king (Sulu Sultanate of southern Philippines ) who paid Chinese emperor a visit died of illness in China. The muslim Sulu king, Datu Paduka, was accorded funeral ceremonies fit for a king. His grave is still there, very well kept. History tells us that Chinese people are a respectful people and does not look down or belittle smaller countries..

Final statement: “It’s looking like a Chinese-led bloc.”

South Korea to ask US to let chip makers keep investment in China

After bearing the consequences of obeying Biden orders to sanction China, South Korea experience first hand: a drastic drop in chip revenue, excess chip stock problem and price collapsed, and a historic massive trade deficit with China. 

US me-only policies will end up self-decoupling from the rest of the world. The force of markets, factors of production will turn against the barbarian regimes in favour of the win - win China. 

One should note that China is super careful in selecting the list of US companies for sanctions.

Seoul is seeking ways to allow chip makers such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to retain semiconductor facilities in China. It is still unclear whether South Korean companies can extend a one-year reprieve from the US on its export controls targeting China

Article here

The Deep State is pushing the U.S. to war over this LIE | Redacted

Insert <country> here…

What Was It Like To Be In Hiroshima Survivor On August 6, 1945?

September 15, 2021

“The hour was early; the morning still, warm, and beautiful. Shimmering leaves, reflecting sunlight from a cloudless sky, made a pleasant contrast with shadows in my garden as I gazed absently through wide-flung doors opening to the south.

Clad in drawers and undershirt, I was sprawled on the living room floor exhausted because I had just spent a sleepless night on duty as an air warden in my hospital.

Suddenly, a strong flash of light startled me – and then another. So well does one recall little things that I remember vividly how a stone lantern in the garden became brilliantly lit and I debated whether this light was caused by a magnesium flare or sparks from a passing trolley.

Garden shadows disappeared. The view where a moment before had been so bright and sunny was now dark and hazy. Through swirling dust I could barely discern a wooden column that had supported one comer of my house. It was leaning crazily and the roof sagged dangerously.

Moving instinctively, I tried to escape, but rubble and fallen timbers barred the way. By picking my way cautiously I managed to reach the roka [an outside hallway] and stepped down into my garden. A profound weakness overcame me, so I stopped to regain my strength. To my surprise I discovered that I was completely naked How odd! Where were my drawers and undershirt?

What had happened?

All over the right side of my body I was cut and bleeding. A large splinter was protruding from a mangled wound in my thigh, and something warm trickled into my mouth. My check was torn, I discovered as I felt it gingerly, with the lower lip laid wide open. Embedded in my neck was a sizable fragment of glass which I matter-of-factly dislodged, and with the detachment of one stunned and shocked I studied it and my blood-stained hand.

Where was my wife?

Suddenly thoroughly alarmed, I began to yell for her: ‘Yaeko-san! Yaeko-san! Where are you?’ Blood began to spurt. Had my carotid artery been cut? Would I bleed to death? Frightened and irrational, I called out again ‘It’s a five-hundred-ton bomb! Yaeko-san, where are you? A five- hundred-ton bomb has fallen!’

Yaeko-san, pale and frightened, her clothes torn and blood stained, emerged from the ruins of our house holding her elbow. Seeing her, I was reassured. My own panic assuaged, I tried to reassure her.

‘We’ll be all right,’ I exclaimed. ‘Only let’s get out of here as fast as we can.’

She nodded, and I motioned for her to follow me.”

It was all a nightmare…

Dr. Hachiya and his wife make there way to the street. As the homes around them collapse, they realize they must move on, and begin their journey to the hospital a few hundred yards away.

“We started out, but after twenty or thirty steps I had to stop. My breath became short, my heart pounded, and my legs gave way under me. An overpowering thirst seized me and I begged Yaeko-san to find me some water. But there was no water to be found. After a little my strength somewhat returned and we were able to go on.

I was still naked, and although I did not feel the least bit of shame, I was disturbed to realize that modesty had deserted me. On rounding a corner we came upon a soldier standing idly in the street. He had a towel draped across his shoulder, and I asked if he would give it to me to cover my nakedness. The soldier surrendered the towel quite willingly but said not a word. A little later I lost the towel, and Yaeko-san took off her apron and tied it around my loins.

Our progress towards the hospital was interminably slow, until finally, my legs, stiff from drying blood, refused to carry me farther. The strength, even the will, to go on deserted me, so I told my wife, who was almost as badly hurt as I, to go on alone. This she objected to, but there was no choice. She had to go ahead and try to find someone to come back for me.

Yaeko-san looked into my face for a moment, and then, without saying a word, turned away and began running towards the hospital. Once, she looked back and waved and in a moment she was swallowed up in the gloom. It was quite dark now, and with my wife gone, a feeling of dreadful loneliness overcame me.

I must have gone out of my head lying there in the road because the next thing I recall was discovering that the clot on my thigh had been dislodged and blood was again spurting from the wound.

I pressed my hand to the bleeding area and after a while the bleeding stopped and I felt better

Could I go on?

I tried. It was all a nightmare – my wounds, the darkness, the road ahead. My movements were ever so slow; only my mind was running at top speed.

In time I came to an open space where the houses had been removed to make a fire lane. Through the dim light I could make out ahead of me the hazy outlines of the Communications Bureau’s big concrete building, and beyond it the hospital. My spirits rose because I knew that now someone would find me; and if I should die, at least my body would be found. I paused to rest. Gradually things around me came into focus. There were the shadowy forms of people, some of whom looked like walking ghosts. Others moved as though in pain, like scarecrows, their arms held out from their bodies with forearms and hands dangling. These people puzzled me until I suddenly realized that they had been burned and were holding their arms out to prevent the painful friction of raw surfaces rubbing together. A naked woman carrying a naked baby came into view. I averted my gaze. Perhaps they had been in the bath. But then I saw a naked man, and it occurred to me that, like myself, some strange thing had deprived them of their clothes. An old woman lay near me with an expression of suffering on her face; but she made no sound. Indeed, one thing was common to everyone I saw – complete silence.

All who could were moving in the direction of the hospital. I joined in the dismal parade when my strength was somewhat recovered, and at last reached the gates of the Communications Bureau.”

Dr. Michihiko Hachiya lived through that day and kept a diary of his experience. He served as Director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital and lived near the hospital approximately a mile from the explosion’s epicenter. His diary was published in English in 1955

Inside Taiwanese Chip Giant, a U.S. Expansion Stokes Tensions – The New York Times

A lot of problem in USA:

By John Liu and Paul Mozur

John Liu and Paul Mozur, who are based in Seoul, interviewed dozens of semiconductor experts on the geopolitics of Taiwan’s chip making.

Feb. 22, 2023

阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s biggest maker of advanced computer chips, is upgrading and expanding a new factory in Arizona that promises to help move the United States toward a more self-reliant technological future.

But to some at the company, the $40 billion project is something else: a bad business decision.

Internal doubts are mounting at the Taiwanese chip maker over its U.S. factory, according to interviews with 11 TSMC employees, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Many of the workers said the project could distract from the research and development focus that had long helped TSMC outmaneuver rivals. Some added that they were hesitant to move to the United States because of potential culture clashes.

Their concerns underline TSMC’s tricky position. As the biggest maker of chips that power everything from phones to cars to missiles, the company is strategically important with highly coveted technical know-how. But caught in a deepening battle between the United States and China over technological leadership, TSMC has tried to hedge its bets — only to find that its actions are creating new kinds of tensions.

Its factory expansion in the northern outskirts of Phoenix is meant to bring advanced microchip production closer to the United States and away from any potential standoff with China. Yet the effort has stoked internal apprehension, with high costs and managerial challenges showing how difficult it is to transplant one of the most complicated manufacturing processes known to man halfway across the world….

Read more:

Article HERE

Arnold Ziffel’s “Extra! Extra!” News: Hooterville Secedes from the Union – Green Acres – 1971

*TODAY IS THE DAY ** (Allegedly)

World Hal Turner 05 March 2023

***** TODAY is the day *****

If, as we reported earlier this week, Big Shot Officials are going into the “Hotel” (i.e. Bunkers), we ought to be able to see some signs. In my original report (HERE) I revealed that a senior Aide to a `sitting US Senator for 25 years, was told earlier this week to pack bags and be ready to leave for “the Hotel” Sunday, March 5. The phrase “the Hotel” is government-speak for the nuclear bunkers.

She was also told not to reveal anything to anyone except for close relatives to tell them she would be out of the loop for awhile. The aide told her sister. The sister told me.

Anyone near Green Briar in West Virginia? That is a Hotel where the US built underground nuclear Bunkers for the US Congress back in the 1950’s but it is allegedly decommissioned now. Any significant helicopter traffic there?

We know Sen. Fetterman from PA was admitted to a “hospital” for . . . (ahem) “Depression” so he’s out of public eye.

We also know that Sen. Fetterman’s wife took the kids and left for CANADA!!!!! So they’re far away.

We know Sen. Feinstein was allegedly admitted to hospital for Shingles even though the only treatment is a prescription for Valacyclovir and being sent home, so SHE is out of the public eye.

We know Gov. DeWine of Ohio allegedly broke his leg in East Palestine and he’s out of the public eye.

Last Wednesday, Gov. Newsome of California left the state on “Personal travel” and hasn’t been heard from since. No idea where he is or when he’ll be back.

I was told last night that Newsome was sent to the DENVER AIRPORT Continuity of Government facility underground there, but I cannot verify that.

I was also told last night that all the other Governors are being sent to various facilities and they are NOT being told where the other Governors are. CANNOT verify that, either.

Either way, TODAY is the day a lot of these folks are supposed to be traveling, so do we have any info on any of it?

If they’re traveling today, my guess is the SHTF tomorrow.

Any info will help, guys!

Self-Driving Car That Takes Off If You Miss A Payment!

The World’s Greatest Gallery Of Seductive Carrots

This kind of high-quality relevant content is exactly the reason why Al Gore invented the internet. Scroll down to see the greatest collection of seductive carrots in the world!

h/t: sadanduseless

Yes. China knows the crusaders are preparing for a preemptive strike. So they have setup nationwide defense mobilization office:

Article HERE

We all know that no one can enjoy peace with the bloody crusaders without the readiness to strike back.

Confessions Of A Man Who Cleans Porta-Potties For A Living

October 6, 2021

Is it as bad as it sounds? Not denigrating you, just it sounds like tough work.

Honestly not really. After awhile you kind of get used to it, it is a dirty job but I’m paid well.

How well?

I’m paid $18 an hour to basically drive around and do five minutes of work every 10 to 20 minutes or so. I get 40 hours a week over the winter and overtime in the summer, which can hit 20 plus hours a week.

In the winter time, how do you deal with frozen water and other temperature related problems?

In the winter time we run a brine solution in the blue stuff to prevent it from freezing usually keeps a liquid or until -12°F

How long have you been doing this job?

I’ve been doing the job for about two years and I’m 32 almost 33

So, how exactly does cleaning a porta pottie even go? And how long does it take?

I’m not sure about every company but my company prides itself on the cleanliness of its units.

First we suck out the tank. Then we apply the cleaning agent, which is an acid based cleaner. Next we scrub down all of the affected areas that are heavily soiled and then we rinse with clean water. Refill the hand sanitizer and the toilet paper, then we move on to the next one. The whole process on a bad day takes about 5 to 7 minutes per unit. On a good day about two and a half. It all depends on how much scrubbing with a brush you have to do

Do you wear full body suits? Protective masks and goggles?

No, none of that. We wear safety glasses and puncture resistant rubber gloves. It’s pretty much on the driver how much extra gear they want to wear.

Have you dealt with one that’s been tipped over? Is that just heinous?

It is really gross, not going to lie, but we are given the proper equipment to clean those units up. About two years ago, right after I started, we had one of the biggest wind storms we’ve had in my area and I spent 18 hours of my day with that order. I went through 450 gallons of water that day, on a normal day I go through 50.

Who makes the bigger mess, tailgating or festivals?

Neither. County parks are by far the worst toilets that I’ve ever had to clean. People poop in the urinals. Elementary schools also. Little fucking bratz throwing sticks and rocks and other bullshit into the tank.

What kind of stuff do you find?

There’s a lot of drug paraphernalia in units; needles, meth pipes, pot pipes, that kind of stuff.

Cell phones, if we find them in working condition we try to contact the owners via the contacts. If we can’t turn the device on we throw them away.

What’s the most expensive thing you ever fished out?

A functioning iPhone 10

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found in a potty?

By far the weirdest thing I’ve ever found in a porta potty is literally a females and males entire outfits including shoes inside of the tank.

One of the guys that I work with found a “Great American Challenge” (an 18 inch 6 inch around silicone dildo,) in one of the toilets. We stuck it to the back of our bosses flatbed truck that he uses for hauling containers. We still don’t know if he found it before he left the yard, or if it fell off somewhere along the road.“

I’ve heard that there are always lots of undigested vitamins/pills at the bottom. Is that so?

By the time we usually get to them we clean them once a week there’s not really any solids left. In the healthy and wealthy areas, I see more of this kind of granular sludge that I think is attributed to taking a lot of pills or something similar.

Ever seen any poop graffiti?

Yes actually, more frequently than I’d like to.

I used a porta potty once and saw shit ABOVE THE RIM. Has this ever happened to one of your jobs? Why would it get this bad?

First off shooting above the rim of the toilet is actually more common than you’d think. I have no idea how it happens. It’s just there.

Have you ever cleaned a porta potty as part of an investigation?

No I have not but I have turned over things to the local authorities that were suspicious items in the toilets

Like what??

Usually anyting that’s suspect is pulled out of the unit and the customer contact that we have is notified unless it is more seemingly detrimental then we will contact the authorities

Knives, keys, identification cards, credit cards, wallets. I actually carry a box of gallon Ziploc bags with the double zippers in my truck just in case I find things like these. One of guys found a empty magazine in one of the toilets and turned it in. I don’t know if anything came of that, but hey it might have actually helped.

Have you ever become physically sick from your job? Like didn’t use enough protection one day and ended up with a stomach bug?

Aside from a slight cough from the cleaners we use on the toilet which are acid-based that usually clear up in 10-15 minutes, I’ve never actually gotten physically ill from doing the job. Sometimes the smell makes you wrech, but that’s about it.

How does one get a job like this? Do you need any certifications?

Depending on how big of a tank you have on your truck you have to have a tank endorsement otherwise just a DOT examiner card and a class d driver’s license

Are you employed or an independent contractor?

I am a full-time employee of one of the three largest companies in the state I’m in

What’s your diet like surely working 10 hours a day? Would be tough on yourself right?

I eat breakfast at home bowl of cereal eggs bacon that kind of stuff in the morning for lunch I stop and have a salad or maybe a burger depending on how warm it is that day and I have a great home-cooked meal things to my wife in the evenings every day actually I recently have lost almost 60 pounds just by changing my diet and getting rid of energy drinks and switching just a regular soda

Why not find a better job?

Honestly this is got to be the easiest job I’ve ever done with the least amount of manual labor. Not that I’m lazy, but I broke my back about 10 years ago in six places, so driving around and doing this is better than sitting at home on disability

You know what they say in the start of the dirty jobs intro “it’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.”

You know if it’s one thing that this job has taught me it’s to respect all of the service industry and the people that work in it because there are some jobs that I would hate to do and I’m just glad I don’t have to do that particular job and I fulfilled that same role not everybody wants to do it but they want the service, so I do it with a smile on my face and a kind heart.

Lisa Brings Hairdos to “Hootersville” – Green Acres – 1965

EU-China Relations and the War in Ukraine: A Reappraisal

One year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Chinese scholars assess its impact on EU-China relations and take a look at the future.

Dear Everyone,

Last week, Sinification examined a piece by Zhang Jian that discussed the economic and political impact of the Russo-Ukrainian war on the EU.

Its assessment was particularly bleak (I have included a summary of his piece at the end of this post). EU-China relations were written all over Zhang’s analysis of European strategic autonomy but he refrained from discussing these ties in direct terms.

Today’s edition provides a brief rundown of four commentaries that complement Zhang’s piece well.

They were chosen on the basis of two relatively loose criteria: having been recently published (≤ 2-3 months); and providing a fairly comprehensive overview of the recent and future trends in EU-China relations and/or European strategic autonomy.

As one might expect, EU-China relations do not attract as many heavyweight scholars as the analysis of US-China relations does. What’s more, recent analyses by some of China’s more senior EU specialists have tended to remain fairly superficial.

I have nevertheless included those views that I did come across in the “key takeaways” section provided below. Much like Sinification’s coverage of the US-China spy balloon incident, I have proceeded by using bullet-point summaries of these articles rather than translations.

Your feedback on this new format was much appreciated last time and will be again today.

So if you find these summarised overviews helpful, please do let me know by liking this post, leaving a comment or by getting in touch with me as you did last time.

Similar overviews on different topics will follow if I sense that this is something that is both useful and enjoyable for everyone to read. Translations will of course remain the core focus of this newsletter.

Key takeaways:

The war in Ukraine has hobbled the EU’s push for strategic autonomy, but its desire to pursue this goal remains.
The war has increased the EU’s dependence on and tilt towards the US. This trend is largely expected to continue.
The war has accelerated the EU’s shift of emphasis to “competitor” and “rival” in its triadic “partner-competitor-rival” positioning on China.
Beijing’s stance in the Russo-Ukrainian war has been misunderstood and has contributed to Europe’s growing antagonism towards Beijing.
The influence of pro-US (and China-sceptic) countries in central, eastern and northern Europe over EU decision-making has increased considerably over the past year. This is not good for EU-China relations.
The EU is beset with economic, political and social problems and the situation continues only to get worse. This is detrimental to the EU’s pursuit of strategic autonomy.
The bloc remains a key player in international relations but its strength and influence are declining when compared with other major powers, notably the US and China.
Nevertheless, the EU is often seen as key to alleviating the diplomatic and economic pressure brought by the US on China.
Areas of cooperation with Europe still exist: global governance, climate change and economic cooperation tend to be the most frequently cited.
Past and upcoming visits to Beijing by European leaders signal that Europe still wants (or needs) to strengthen economic ties and engage with Beijing even if this means going against US wishes.
The EU’s economy is in the doldrums. Deepening economic ties will continue to be one of the keys to fostering closer relations with the EU and its members states. But the pull of the Chinese market will not prevent the EU from reducing its dependence on China in certain areas. Nor will it prevent the EU’s continued “interference” in and around the Indo-Pacific.
Transatlantic ties may have strengthened over the past year but rifts remain and could widen again in future. EU-US economic competition and European distrust of Washington should encourage the EU in its pursuit of strategic autonomy and prevent it from tilting too far towards the US (see also Xin Hua).
France and Germany remain the two key “pragmatic” countries that China should continue to engage with, though they have less sway over the EU than they used to. France continues to be seen as the country most aligned with China’s hope for a more independent EU.
Germany’s forthcoming China strategy will act as a bellwether of EU-China relations.
Outlook for 2023: Uncertainty prevails. Assessments range from the pessimistic to the cautiously optimistic but adding a positive twist to such predictions is often de rigueur in China.

Opinion | To Save Our Economy, Ditch Taiwan – The New York Times

WITH a single bold act, President Obama could correct the country’s course, help assure his re-election, and preserve our children’s future.

He needs to redefine America’s mindset about national security away from the old defense mentality that American power derives predominantly from our military might, rather than from the strength, agility and competitiveness of our economy. He should make it clear that today American jobs and wealth matter more than military prowess.

As Adm. Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared last year, “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.”

There are dozens of initiatives President Obama could undertake to strengthen our economic security. Here is one: He should enter into closed-door negotiations with Chinese leaders to write off the $1.14 trillion of American debt currently held by China in exchange for a deal to end American military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan and terminate the current United States-Taiwan defense arrangement by 2015.

Article HERE

The View’s Hysterical Meltdown Over 3rd Political Party!

Indonesian Pork Skewers

Ingredients

1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1/4 cup light molasses
2 tablespoons ginger preserves or orange marmalade
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 (1 1/2 pound) lean boneless pork, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 medium pineapple, halved lengthwise, cored and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 medium red sweet pepper, cut into strips

Instructions

Combine the vinegar, mustard, molasses, ginger preserves and ginger in a small mixing bowl.
Alternately thread the pork cubes, pineapple slices and pepper strips on 12 (6-inch) metal skewers, leaving about 1/4 inch between pieces.
Brush with the molasses mixture.
Grill the kabobs on the rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium-hot coals about 12 minutes or until no pink remains and juices run clear, turning and brushing with molasses mixture after 6 minutes.
Heat the remaining molasses mixture and pass with the kabobs.

Green Acres – Oliver’s Souped-Up Tractor

Fears of Eros, Dreams of Thanatos: Sensual Illustrations by Alex Varenne

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Alex Varenne (29 August 1939 – 19 October 2020) is a French comic book artist, master of erotic drawing and plastic arts. Unfortunately, Varenne has been dead for two years, but his legacy lives on – the Frenchman’s illustrations and comics are so gentle and powerful that they can without exaggeration be included in the list of European cultural classics.

Slightly NSFW.

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The history of the world according to cats – Eva-Maria Geigl

The most amazing part about cats is that humans are literally the only other species that they fully acknowledge and communicate with. Cats speak to us. They look us in the eye. They speak to no other species except for the occasional bird and mouse chatter or meowing at a familiar dog, and hissing at strangers. The friendly chatter and meow, meowing back at us while looking at us, everything that we hear from our cats is directed solely at us, no one else. Not to the other cats, not to the dog, but only for us, and that’s pretty amazing if you think about it.

Confessions of a Man Who Just Found Out His 15-Year-Old Daughter Isn’t His Child

October 13, 2021

I just found out my 15 years old daughter is not my biological child.

My daughter was preparing for a family tree project for an online class and wanted an ancestry test.

My father is half Native American but he died several years ago and I don’t know precisely what Native American blood is in the family.

My daughter came to me because it was my father and we didn’t mention it to her mother at the time. Well it turned out my daughter doesn’t have any Native American blood.

The obvious conclusion didn’t occur to me at first because the truth of the situation didn’t seem possible. I assumed there was a mistake, my first thought was that my father hadn’t been part Native American.

After our ancestry tests were different due to her lack of Native American blood we got proper DNA tests and everything became apparent.

It was a very emotional situation for me and my daughter. What I will remember the most was after she started crying she hugged so tightly and just kept saying over and over “I love you daddy.”

At home I confronted my wife and she looked like she’d had a stroke. She started crying and apologizing, you can probably imagine it.

My wife and I got married BECAUSE she was pregnant. We had been together for more than a year when it happened.

It turns out she was sleeping with multiple guys at the time. She says it didn’t mean anything and she doesn’t even remember some of their names.

When she realized she was pregnant she said she she wasn’t sure who he father was. Since I was unaware of her extracurricular activities, she let me believe I was the father because I was the most financially stable.

In terms of that she may have chose correctly, I have been very successful in my career and building passive income streams has been a hobby of mine for a long time.

My daughter got my wife to admit to this on tape as my daughter records the whole thing.

I asked my wife several times, and she keeps insisting that she has been faithful for the entire time we have been married. I’ve never suspected anything but I also didn’t realize she was sleeping around before we got married so I’ve said I don’t believe her.

I’ve come across a lot of the ‘red flags’ of cheaters and I can’t think of any of them during our marriage.

She doesn’t use social media and she has never been guarded about her phone.

She only drinks on special occasions and doesn’t go out for girls night or anything. Also she is a stay at home wife/mom so here aren’t any coworkers to worry about.

She exercises at home as we have a very nice home gym. I don’t believe her when she says she hasn’t cheated after getting married but I can’t think of anything suspicious.

We have a pre nup so I’m not worried about divorce if It comes to that

My daughter is another story. She is absolutely livid about the whole situation.

I know teenagers can be emotional, I certainly remember how I was at her age. But she has never been very expressive, something I thought she or from me (nature vs nurture?) my daughter can’t stand to be around her mother.

She has said some truly awful things to her mother. Basically variations of calling her a dirty sl@t who ruined our family.

Whenever my wife tries to talk to her, my daughter yells and swears and cries like I have never seen.

My daughter has even come to me privately saying that in the event of divorce she wants to stay with me.

I have made it clear in no uncertain terms that she is my daughter and I am her father regardless of the situation.

I’ve reiterated to her repeatedly that she can stay with me and I will never leave her.

She has even asked if it is possible to disown her mother and be adopted by me. I haven’t told this to my wife.

…

I need some time to process this. I think I’m writing this as a way to just come to terms with everything that has happened.

Chicken and Pork Adobo

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 pounds boneless chicken, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound pork or beef, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 small onion, sliced
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar (optional)
Hot steamed rice

Instructions

Add oil to saucepan and heat on medium heat.
Add chicken, pork, bay leaves and garlic. Sauté about 5 minutes or until chicken and pork are light brown.
Drain off excess oil.
Add black pepper, onion, vinegar, soy sauce and brown sugar; cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
Stir meat to cook evenly in the sauce.
Serve with hot steamed rice.

Biden announces STUNNING news on China, Taiwan flips out

We start with everyday stuff in the United States…

OMG!

Walmart in Pennsylvania -Lipstick Aisle — for MEN

Nation Hal Turner 26 February 2023

I was shopping in a Walmart in northeast Pennsylvania last week, and had to walk past the lipstick aisle to get elsewhere in the store. As I’m walking, I notice an Ad for the lipstick . . . photos of lips . . . when I noticed the photo on the bottom right: a Man!

Men don’t wear lipstick; or at least NORMAL men don’t.

This is how our society is being perverted with degenerate crap; subtle degeneracy. We’re bombarded by it at every level of life.

From ads like this in Walmart, to TV commercials showing interracial couples, and even men kissing each other on TV. The whole thing is disgusting to me.

Is it any wonder our society has become so screwed up?

Retailers like Walmart and advertisers ought to be ashamed for pushing this crap into society.

Disgusting.

Is the United States bat-shit crazy?

Yes. Apparently.

Check this out!

Some thoughts on the latest…

The world has long suffered over the past centuries under the violence, Bullying, and looting of the crusader 's DNA nations.

China belts and roads, plus the values of win - win, and the mutual desire to send off the crusaders, particularly the USA will become the driving force in the coming decades.

From what the US regimes did against China and Russia in the past few years, and the boomerang effects to itself and Europe, most part of the world finally see the weakness of the previously almighty crusader nations.

At the same time, the resilience of China and Russia against the crusader's nations all out aggression, allow the world to see the light from the other end of a tunnel approaching at high speed, and so, nations are willing to listen to China analysis and put aside any previous differences with each other to unite against the ongoing crusaders' aggression and threats.

Belts and roads project and the win-win values will eventually create a more peaceful world order and removed the crusader controlled "me-only" killing-bullying - looting", socalled international "rule - based" order.

The dollar will be crushed sooner than we can imagine. That will change the world order from non-stop crusader initiated conflicts to mutual destiny and win - win.

But, before that, the US establishment may work on a preemptive strike against China. If that happen, China already fully prepared.

We all shall witness that quite soon.

Cheers
<redacted>

Confessions Of An Chinese Buffet Owner

March 10, 202

What is the largest amount of food you have seen/heard about someone eating at one sitting?

Personally I had seen one man pile 9 plates of Chinese food (mostly cheap noodles and chicken). When they eat by themselves, I think they eat a lot more. When they are with friends, the social pressure keeps them from gorging too much. My waiters had said a larger number, but they might be overestimating. No one can really eat more than 2 pounds.

If people constantly get multiple plates of the most expensive foods, do you lose money?

Fortunately that does not happen often, but when it does, we lost at most the price of the buffet. They will not cover the cost of labor, rent, and utilities, but I’m pretty sure no one will pack several pounds of heavy-protein food, so it’s less than the buffet price. They also bring their friends along, so if there is one glutton in the group, they convince the rest of them to go to our place, while we make money on the glutton’s friends.

Is your restaurant menu fairly standard, or do you try new menu items regularly to mix things up?

I would say about half of them are rotated regularly, but on a fixed schedule. Some things we just try because the ingredients are cheap. Right now tomatoes are at $57/cs while they were $11/cs 4 months ago. However the price of cabbage and potatoes dropped, as well as bass. That influences the new dishes we make.

How much is prepared by your kitchen vs how much is prepared outside of your kitchen?

The meat dishes are made from scratch, but the base for the sauces are from the supplier. Most of these dishes are made with ingredients common to each other, such as General Tso’s Chicken, Sesame Chicken, and other American Chinese dishes. Some things like the pizza, fries, sesame balls, desserts, are all from the supplier and come frozen. The microwave is not used that frequently, but the fryers are.

How long does it take to prep and cook everything before the store opens?

2-3 hours before we open is how long it takes, with a complete team. Most prep work is done the night before, so it isn’t that unreasonable.

What is the exact number of shrimp that you would cut someone off at?

Depends, what size. I have the ability to buy shrimps from 200 to a pound size to jumbo 4 ounce shrimps.

But really, we just would change out the type of shrimp for another type of shrimp with a different sauce/cooking method. The customer won’t come again, but if they are losing us money, we cannot let them take advantage of us. They are already getting their meal at a fraction of a la carte price, but the abuse cannot happen, as it is unsustainable. Before you know it we have to raise prices because of a group of people who become too greedy and just want to make us lose the most.

Do you ever have to ban someone from returning because they ate too much or wasted too much food?

Regulars do not eat too much, as they are there just because we provide a comfort to them. Most are very picky eaters who love the idea of getting anything whenever they want. Fortunately we make a lot of money on these people. The heavy eaters do not come very often. I still don’t know why that is the case.

We have never banned anyone because they ate too much food.

Some children however, I would love to ban, throwing food all over the place, and wasting whole plates of deserts they cannot finish, and their parents not giving a shit.

What is one item you would advise people to stay away from at an all you can eat buffet?

Crab legs. I’m being serious. I have seen Chinese buffets at the fish market going and buying bottom of the barrel seafood including crab legs past their prime. And then they don’t steam them properly either to save on volume.

The sushi on the other hand, a common misconception, is relatively safe to eat IN A BUSY PLACE, as the health code standards in the region of raw food is very strict, and you cannot skimp out on prices of salmon and tuna fillet.

Isn’t getting the crab legs past their prime dangerous? Wouldn’t it make people sick?

It does, unfortunately. Very often. But it is very hard to sue with the little amount of evidence people have. We do not even risk giving cheap crab legs for that reason

The oysters always sketched me out. You say the crab legs you should avoid and the sushi is fine. But what about the oysters?

Oysters are also to be avoided as they source them, especially in the midwest, from groceries and fisheries past their prime. Sometimes on the coasts they are imported from China and South America, but are decent quality while they are fresh.

Are sushi made from a factory? Or made in-house? The’re usually pretty bland
Sushi are not made from a factory. They are made in house, but not from the finest fisheries or filling. They are made with pretty safe treated fish, but we have to tone down the flavor since it’s a wide crowd we are appealing to.

Why are you always running out of chicken wings?

Chicken wings are hard to make in a busy kitchen. Each wing has to be spun and dipped by hand in sauce, which increases time. Chicken wings also come in smaller cases from restaurant wholesalers now for some reason, and the price increased.

Hot and Sour Soup…my absolute favorite but it is never the same place to place. Some it is ok, some it is amazing, never had one I hated, what is the story on it?

Egg composition. Hot and sour soup contains a lot of egg, and some places put less in the soup base when egg prices swing too high. It is made in a wok on high heat, so a high egg content makes it thicker.

Why do the deserts always look so delicious but taste like stale cardboard covered in colored sugar?

That’s what they are. They all come from the same factory in one of the major cities for Chinese immigrants in the US. The ingredients used are not half bad, but they lack preservatives to help it taste fresh. Some customers do say they get hard after some time on the trays. But I doubt these factories hire any food scientist to prevent them from turning into cardboard.

What measure do you have in place to prevent ‘water drinkers’ from drinking the soda?

Our waiters serve the soda, so that is not a problem.

There’s a buffet near me that charges people for any food left on their plate. What do you think about that kind of policy? Do you think it’s sensible, or risks driving customers away? Is wasted food a serious enough problem to necessitate such strict measures?

I would imagine if we implemented that policy we would lose some of our new customers. In practice, it is sensible, as running this place is very low margin, and any food wasted lowers that. But driving customers away ultimately results in fewer customers, which is more devastating than a bit more wastage.

What do you do with the food which is left after end of service? Serve it up again the next day?

Half of the stuff at the end of the day is reprocessed much like other restaurants, even MCD and Panera Bread. You can turn so much stuff into soup, and will still taste fresh. We mark all our food to make sure that the day old soup, while it would normally last 2 days with fresh ingredients, we would only put out for a day. In almost all cases, the food is eaten and turned over within the next 12 hours by the morning. Stuff like fried food however and mushrooms, have to be thrown away.

What is the buffett crowd really like to deal with?

Some customers will bitch at you and purposely spoil the food in order to get their food for free. Some customers leave out their food at their table for 10 minutes and say it is cold, AFTER THEIR MEAL, and demanding it should be free.

What is your worst customer experience?

The worst experience was when a customer wanted a take out box from the buffet, which was by weight. He got two huge boxes, and the bill turned out to be higher than the price of the buffet. He argued and started yelling in the whole restaurant that it was a rip off that he took 5 pounds of food (verified on the scale) and should pay more than the buffet price. He said that he could eat more than the amount in the boxes, but it was 5 POUNDS of food! After arguing and initially lowering the price a bit, he threw a fit and wanted the whole 5 pounds of food for free. Regardless, we have a price policy in place, but some just don’t want to pay it. If you are going to take your food home, we cannot charge you the buffet price. This was well known before even walking in. Not to throw a fit and bother other customers.

I’m always interested to know how these all-you-can-eat for $15.00 joints manage to turn a profit. After paying salaries and operating expenses, how do you manage to stay in the green?

You only eat $6 worth of food in a $15 buffet. If my labor at $14 an hour including taxes can cook for 7 people, thats only $8 total. Add the drinks margin and you are profitable. A la carte restaurants are a rip off in this scenario, where you might only get $3 cost of food for $15.

How profitable are buffets in general?

Very low margins, but good if high volume. Low labor cost. Food cost is slightly higher.

Asado de Cerdo

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 pounds thin, boneless pork chops or pork roast, cubed
Salt
Pepper
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups water
1 tablespoon cumin
3 -5 tablespoons chili powder

Instructions

Heat oil in a heavy pot.
Add pork, salt and pepper, stirring until well browned and most of the liquid is vaporated.
Add garlic and saute 1 minute more.
Add flour, stirring until thoroughly coated.
Add water all at once.
Add cumin and chili powder.
Stir thoroughly until gravy is dark and velvety smooth.
Add more chili powder to taste.
Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until pork is tender.
Serve with rice and tortillas.

It Is Done: Bakhmut is Encircled by Russian Troops

World Hal Turner 26 February 2023

It took months of fierce and deadly fighting, but the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine is now, officially, tactically-encircled by the Russian Army. Upwards of seven thousand (7,000) Ukraine troops are now trapped and cannot get out.

This morning, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported to Ukraine President Zelensky about the tactical encirclement and the impossibility of evacuating the remaining Ukrainian units.

UPDATE 3:16 PM EST —

Video from Bakhmut today:

WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW

Dead Ukrainians in Bakhmut:

HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION

This is a massive victory for the Russian Army. By finally taking Bakhmut, Russia has now cut-off all supply lines for the Ukrainian Army to the south and southeast of Ukraine. Those areas will now fall, one at a time, to the never-ending Russian onslaught.

Ukraine is losing the war. As reported on this web site from the very beginning, once the Russian Army crossed their border, Ukraine stood no chance at all. Only the West thought otherwise, and provided aid to Ukraine. That aid only served to delay the inevitable, and cost tens-of-thousands of more Ukrainian deaths.

Ukraine should surrender.

Confessions of a Former QAnon Conspiracy Theorist

March 8, 2021

How did you get in to Q in the first place?

I had been DEEP into conspiracy for about 8 years. Had very recently been down the ufo paranormal rabbit hole so when Q really took off midterm for trump I “did my research” and fell right into it.

Do you mind describing what you thought research was and how you’d go about doing it?

Oh research is just going down rabbit hole links and back alley corners of the net. Let’s not kid ourselves and think it’s anything fancy. Unfortunately an ignorance of the world and overconfidence in one’s own critical thinking leads to believing in stupid shit

Did being part of Q make you feel important? Like did you have a small group of other Q’s you talked to that you considered friends so you felt needed and that it was important to figure out “the truth” with your community, like you were apart of something

Oh absolutely! I totally got a massive ego boost out of it. Come to think of it, Q would often stroke our egos, saying in his posts that we were humanities last hope, his autistic cyber soldiers. What idiots.

Did you slowly decide that you didn’t believe it, or was it a quick process? What do you think helped you get out?

It was a gradual dawning after I realized many of my Qultist friends had no idea how computers operate. It’s NOT easy realizing you’ve been conned, been a rube, been taken in. I had recently been questioning lifelong fundamental Christianity, so I’d been in the mood to question my beliefs including my cherished conspiracy theories

What was your epiphany?

Honestly? It was a couple of posts made by Q on the chans that seemed highly suspicious because of how ignorant they were of technology. Q posts often had weird syntaxe as a kind of co

- - Kind Of [writing like this] as if there was [a secret] in using brackets To Tell The Truth.

One morning Q claimed to have shut down 7 FBI super computers (named after the seven dwarves no less) via satellite hacking and all the rabid fans ate it up, claiming that “their internet was running a little bit faster)

FBI Super Computer ::SLEEPY::[[OFFLINE]]

alarm bells went off in my head because, come on, that’s not how any of this works. Using elementary school syntax form To SpeLl a [[Secret Code ]] felt fishy, and claiming your email in rural Montana loaded faster because seven super computers got shut down by remote hacking was a bridge too far for me. I realized that most of the Q believers I had seen were Boomers with no idea how technology works or people my age with no idea how computers operate. That day, I Googled Q Anon Debunked and got out.

You said you googled ‘qanon debunked’ to get out. did you do research on it before, or why didn’t you?

When I Googled that it was with a lens critical of my own beliefs. The reason I fell for pizzagate et all was because I was critical of other people’s beliefs. And I was a fucking idiot, ngl. I think most people in conspiracy theories have poor critical thinking skills. I’m a huge fan of skepticism post Conspiracy theory shit

Do Qanon believers believe everything that’s posted on there? What if some posts contradict each other?

Yeah seems like they swallow everything. See like a lot of cults, it’s a prophet complex. Once you Buy In to the overall idea, you’re less likely to question when two things don’t add up, or to cover for own belief you justify and defend the flaw.

Is it really that people are gullible or is it that technology has gone so crazy apeshit via social media and the internet that no one knows what to believe anymore

Oh it’s gullibility and lack of knowledge of how tech works. That’s why so many boomers fall for it.

Would mind explaining the need to constantly speak about your beliefs and bringing them up even when it’s destroying relationships?

When people are in a cult and convinced they have THE TRUTH about life the universe and everything they often feel the need to save others by spreading their ideas. So it can come from a sort of compassionate zeal, and yes that was me though I was pretty bad at it.

The phrase “I did/have done my research” is so frustrating to read from conspiracy theorists. Is this a phrase that’s echoed on message boards, encouraged for people in these communities to use? Do they actually believe that YouTube videos and random internet holes qualify as “research”? In your experience, what kind of critical thinking skills do people in these communities possess?

Yes they use the phrase unironically. Yes they are over confident. It stems from a distrust of authority as do sooo many cults and theories. In my experience, very little.

How does one end up taking an anonymous post that seriously in the first place?

I…. Don’t know.

It sounds like you dropped all the rabbit hole conspiracy theories at once. Did you realize something about your brain’s “wiring” that makes you vulnerable to conspiracy theories?

I did drop it all at once. Yeah. It was massively humbling to realize I’d been a sucker. I think a huge part of the problem was growing up fundamentalist Christian. Theories about evil evolution, science denial and The End of The world rapture return of Christ stuff is all pretty crazy too. There’s a strong link between the two

How did your fellow conspiracy theorists react to your change?

When I quit, about two years ago, I was so embarrassed I didn’t really make any public statements. My fellow conspiracy nuts were all online though, as thankfully nobody in my family believed it at the time.

Did anyone accuse you of treason, calling you a “government plant” or a “compromised asset” who was secretly sent to infiltrate and destroy their “movement?”

Haha no. If I’d been more vocal about leaving it might have happened. Everything must fit into the jigsaw worldview narrative

Do you think Qanon will become a global problem for democracies?

I have been ex Q for a couple years. When I found out how much crazier shit the theory has gotten I was blown away bc when I left I was certain it would be all over soon.

At this point the problem isn’t Q, it’s gullible people who lack critical thinking skills and gain a massive ego boost in thinking they have secret in that the sheeple don’t know. So who knows?

What do the rest of us get wrong about Qanon supporters? I think when people like you are open about this type of stuff we tend to ask questions that confirm or reaffirm our assumptions but what are the rest of us missing that enables Q to connect with so many people , anything you can think of?

Great Q. Pun intended. Uh, well I’m not anymore, but even when I was a Qtip and Trump supporter I personally was not a racist white supremacist, and not all Trumpers are. Although I also tend to think that maybe those people just left the movement.

How do you feel about these other conspiracies now that you’ve debunked Q? Still want to believe or sworn them all off?

I left it all behind when Q fell. Life is full of enough wonder and magic that I don’t need to entertain myself with aliens and ghosts

What steps are you taking to ensure you don’t fall for another conspiracy theory?

Having some fucking worldview humility. The problem with fundamentalist religions, cults, and conspiracy theories is they all demonize doubt and are all so absolutely certain that they have the total truth of reality figured out. I hold my beliefs much more humbly now, I acknowledge that I could be wrong.

I read more widely and expose myself to the ideas of others, so that I don’t end up in an echo chamber.

How can we, the family members taken advantage by this whole Q thing infiltrate them and steer them, away from the hella dangerous stuff?

Hmm. I’m honestly not sure I’m much help here, sadly. I had to rescue myself from the madness. I don’t think anyone at the time who tried to deconvert me would have succeeded. When into the conspiracy stuff I tried constantly to convince friends and family and it never worked. When I was out I couldn’t deconvert people. It is never easy to change someone’s mind.

Maybe start by asking them if they have any doubts about Q or if anything in the movement doesn’t make sense? Or better, ask them what conspiracy theories they don’t buy. Love Q but think flat earths are flat heads? Explore with them how their reviled conspiracy theory is obviously fake and maybe that will flex the critical thinking part of their brain that has atrophied.

How has your life improved or devolved since then just based on Q beliefs or lack thereof alone?

People don’t realize how Fucking Scary life is when you think about the world is being run by a cabal of evil demon possessed overlords intent on destroying your way of life. I was always in a dark anxious mood. Now I’m so much happier.

I no longer think the world is run by evil mastermind villains. I realize it’s run by idiots. 😉

Did you have a significant other through any part of the eight years and now? Did they share any beliefs, if so?

I tried to convince my long suffering wife of this, pizzagate, aliens, big foot, Yada Yada. She mostly said that’s nice honey and went back to her crossword. God I don’t deserve her sticking with me.

Now that you’re out of it, what would you say to those still deep in baseless conspiracy, Q or otherwise?

Have the courage to Google “insert conspiracy debunked.” have the courage to take a long look at the evidence against your theory.

South Africa Has Collapsed; US Embassy Warning Americans “Prep” with Food, Water, Medicines . . .

World Hal Turner 26 February 2023

South Africa has collapsed. The US embassy is now informing international travelers to stock up (prepper style) on food and water.

City electric power has an average turn around time of 2 to 3 days for grid repairs. They don’t have the manpower, supplies, nor funds. And they’ve already used this year’s budget.

Throughout the country, they are seeing an increase in coordinated attacks on water, power, and communications infrastructure as mobs descend upon gear and steal it to sell the copper and aluminum to junk yards as scrap.

Looting is no longer just a daily thing, but is also now becoming more structured with guerilla planning involved.

Most roads no longer exist. In fact, according to long time residents, anything that is state run is crumbling.

Police, fire, and hospital resources for most of the state, don’t exist. In the few places that still have such services, they are also slowly disintegrating.

ESKOM – South Africa’s only power producer – is averaging 50% or less power output. Plunging massive parts of our country into rolling blackouts.

One person, reporting from Ekhurhuleni, says “We are day 5 now no water.”

Another person from the same area reports “Our rail is dead. Almost the entirety of South Africa’s rail system is non operational.”

In every city and most suburbs, people confirm Sewage. Everywhere. In the streets. In the rivers and oceans; flowing through our fresh water dams too.. just everywhere.

Under “The Apartheid” (1948 to 1994) in South Africa was racial segregation under the all-white government of South Africa which dictated that non-white South Africans (a majority of the population) were required to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the two groups was discouraged and severely limited.

Under Apartheid, South Africa thrived. When the world decided that the indigenous population should control the country, (instead of White people) it descended into this . . what we all see today.

Way to go world! You focused on a perfectly good country because, in your stupidity, you claimed “all people are equal, and Apartheid was “Racist” and had to be ended. You didn’t care that everyone there had food, water, healthcare, electricity, good roads, infrastructure . . .. NOPE. All you cared about was “one man, one vote.”

You pushed and pushed and pushed until you turned the country over to its indigenous people in 1994, who have now completely wrecked it. It took less than thirty years — about one generation – for the indigenous people to utterly wreck the whole country. But hey, at least you made sure they can vote!

Now that you see the actual, DISASTROUS results of ending Apartheid and putting the indigenous people in charge, tell us again how “all people are equal?”

What Was It Like To Be Gassed At A Nazi Concentration Camp

March 31, 2021

Filip Muller, is one of the rare survivors among those condemned to work in the Sonderkommando (The members of Sonderkommando, composed almost entirely of Jewish inmates, were forced under threat of death to do the most disturbing work for the SS: dispose of the countless corpses of the victims killed in the gas chambers.)

Born in 1922 in a small town (Sered) in Slovakia, Muller was only twenty years old when he was brought to Auschwitz in April 1942. After a short while, as punishment, he was assigned to dispose of the corpses of the victims. Many of them had wasted away to skin and bones in Auschwitz or in Polish ghettos; others had died of typhus and other diseases in the concentration camp; some had been brutally beaten and shot by the SS, others were hung to set an example for other prisoners, but by far most—hundreds of thousands of men, women, children and babies–were collectively massacred in the gas chambers.

As Muller recalls, the sadism and brutality of the SS soldiers knew no bounds: “Shouting and wielding their truncheons, like beaters at a hunt, the remaining SS men chased the naked men, women and children into the large room inside the crematorium. All that was left in the yard were the pathetic heaps of clothing which we had to gather together to clear the yard for the second half of the transport”. Here he is describing a gassing:

As people reached the crematorium they saw everything – this horribly violent scene. The whole area was ringed with SS. Dogs barked – machine- guns. They all, mainly the Polish Jews, had misgivings.

They knew something was seriously amiss, but none of them had the faintest of notions that in three or four hours they’d be reduced to ashes.

When they reached the undressing room they saw that it looked like an International Information Centre. On the walls were hooks,and each hook had a number. Beneath the hooks were wooden benches. So people could undress more comfortably, it was said. alise his son lay beneath him”.

And on the numerous pillars that held up this underground undressing room, there were signs with slogans in several languages – “Clean is Good”,” Lice can kill”, “Wash Yourself”, “To the disinfection area”. All those signs were only there to lure people into the gas chambers already undressed – and to the left, at a right angle, was the gas chamber with its massive door.

In Crematoriums II and III, Zyklon B gas crystals were poured in by a so-called SS disinfection squad through the ceiling, and in Crematorium IV and V through side openings. With five or six canisters of gas they could kill around two thousand people.

This so-called disinfection squad arrived in a truck marked with a red cross and escorted people along to make them believe they were being led to take a bath. But the red cross was only a mask to hide the canisters of Zyklon B gas and the hammers to open them.

The gas took about fifteen minutes to kill. The most horrible thing was when the doors of the gas chambers were opened – the unbearable sight – people were packed together like basalt, like blocks of stone. How they tumbled out of the gas chamber.

I saw that several times- that was the toughest thing to take – you could never get used to that. It was impossible.

You see, once the gas was poured in, it worked like this: it rose from the ground upwards. And in the terrible struggle that followed – because it was a struggle – the lights were switched off in the gas chambers. It was dark, no one could see, so the strongest people tried to climb higher. Because they probably realised that the higher they got, the more air there was. They could breathe better. That caused the struggle.

Secondly, most people tried to push their way to the door. It was psychological – they knew where the door was, maybe they could force their way out. It was instinctive, a death struggle. Which is why children and weaker people, and the aged, always wound up at the bottom. The strongest were on top. Because in the death struggle, a father didn’t realise his son lay beneath him”.

And when the doors were opened?

“They fell out. People fell out like blocks of stone, like rocks falling out of a truck. But near the Zyklon B gas, there was a void. There was no one where the gas crystals went in – An empty space. Probably the victims realised that the gas worked strongest there. The people were battered – they struggled and fought in the darkness. They were covered in excrement, in blood, from ears and noses.”

“One also sometimes saw that the people lying on the ground, because of the pressure of the others, were unrecognizable. Children had their skulls crushed. It was awful, Vomit, Blood – from ears and noses, probably even menstrual fluid. I am sure of it.

There was everything in that struggle for life, that death struggle. It was terrible to see. That was the toughest part.”

“It was impossible to save people. One day in 1943 when I was already in Crematorium V, a train from Bialystok arrived. A prisoner on the Sonderkommando saw a woman in the undressing room, who was the wife of a friend of his.

He came right out and told her – “You are going to be exterminated. In three hours you’ll be ashes”. The woman believed him because she knew him. She ran all over and warned the other women – “ We’re going to be killed. We’re going to be gassed”.

Mothers carrying their children on their shoulders did not want to hear that.

Jeffery Sachs | First UKRAINE next TAIWAN

Jeffery Sachs is a voice of calm, objective reason and intelligence and TRUTH. Admittedly, the observations he makes are not what anyone WANTS to hear, but the realities of which he speaks are things we NEED to be aware of.

https://youtu.be/mA6zu8Gxx0c

What It’s Like To Lose Your Child Unexpectedly?

March 23, 2021

My 18-year-old daughter died in a car accident on her way to school a few weeks ago. I’m going to try to convey what it’s like.

Police officer shows up at the door: This will haunt me for the rest of my life. My fiancee and I were sleeping, as we work 3rd shift. The beating on the door was loud… I’m not sure how long he was there before it woke me up. It did not wake my fiance up. I looked out the window and saw an unmarked SUV but I could tell it was the police. I answered the door and he said my name. I answered “yes”. He said my daughter’s name and I said “yes”. He said that she was in an accident (I knew what was coming next) and that she had expired. I went to my knees and made noises I’ve never heard myself make before. He got me inside to the couch and asked if anyone else was there. I told him my fiance’s name as I was crying uncontrollably. He yelled her name a number of times and she came out. He started talking to her and she started yelling “Oh my God” and came to hold me. She and my daughter were very close.

Telling family: About a half hour later I started making phone calls. This part is crucial. If this happens to you, make these calls as soon as possible or have someone go tell them quickly. Word spreads like wildfire… especially with social media. You do not want loved ones finding out this way. Someone posted about this on my wall only a few hours after this happened. I made the calls and cried as I listened to them wail. It is aweful.

Seeing her after the accident: At first I did not want to see her. I kept saying “That’s not her.” Later in the day I changed my mind. This was extremely surreal and heartbreaking. She was transported to the funeral home the same day. We all stood there in the hallway until a man asked if we were ready. He opened a door to a room, I walked in and saw her all by herself at the far end of the room in a casket. This was my daughter in front of me… my beautiful girl that was full of life that very morning. I kissed her forehead repeatedly and told her how much I love her.

People and planning: Besides the grief, I never realized how overwhelming something like this was. While I was still in shock, people were reaching out from everywhere… many of which I hadn’t heard from in years. I was on the phone for the majority of each day for over a week straight… not to mention all the people visiting. All of these people were sincerely caring and I appreciate them all, but I can’t exactly describe what it does to your emotional state other than saying it’s overwhelming and draining. The planning is another thing that I did not expect and it begins almost immediately. There are countless things that needed to be taken care of and I had to do all of these things while grieving. I’m still not done with everything, actually.

Her funeral: It was six days after her death and I thought I had no tears left. I was very wrong. I still could not completely wrap my mind around the fact that I was at my own daughter’s funeral. I’ve known other people who have lost children… but this had actually happened to mine.

Grieving: The first two days after her accident were filled with non-stop crying and disbelief. I’m a grown man who rarely cries. The third day was off and on crying all day and now it’s about 2 to 3 times a day. For the first week it hit me especially hard in the mornings when I woke up. I’m now in a state of constant sadness and still some disbelief that she is not coming home… but not as much crying. The most accurate and heartbreaking word I can use to describe this whole thing is “permanent”. It’s the most permanent thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. No matter how much my mind tries to find a way around it at times, she’s not coming back.

Guilt and Regret: I wish I had done things different. I wish I had spent more time with her than what I did. I wish I had protected her more than what I did from those who were unkind and even emotionally abusive to her. I wish I had been awake that morning to see her off to school… maybe I could have changed something and maybe she wouldn’t have wrecked. I wish I could have been there to hold her during her last minutes of life. I wish it would have been me instead. I feel guilty doing things… like going out to eat (haven’t felt like cooking) and taking my other two children to the movies last night.

Her accident: I’m still obsessing over it and still finding out details from those who were there. She knew she was dying and was asking those around her to pray with her. She always wore her seatbelt but she didn’t have it on this time. Did she drop something and take it off? She had food in the car that she got from the nearby gas station that morning. I checked her phone and my Verizon log and she wasn’t texting or talking to anyone. Why did she over-correct her steering? These are the questions I’m trying to answer. I know it won’t change anything but for some reason I need to know.

I’m only 2 weeks and 3 days in to this and I know I have a long way to go… but so far this is the best way I can describe what it’s like to lose your child. She was extremely smart, talented, beautiful and kind… she had an amazing life waiting on her. I love her to no end and I miss her every minute of the day.

I have to remain strong for those who need me… so I think telling my story and pouring my heart out here helps in a way.

Statement by Russian Ministry of Defense Regarding Ukraine Attacking-Transnistria

World Hal Turner 27 February 2023

Statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the preparation by the Kiev regime of military provocation against the Russian enclave of Transnistria at the eastern border of Moldova with Ukraine:

“In connection with the significant accumulation of personnel and military equipment of Ukrainian units recorded by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation near the Ukrainian-Transnistrian border, the deployment of artillery at fire positions, as well as an unprecedented increase in flights of unmanned aircraft of the Armed Forces over the territory of Transnistria, we warn the United States, NATO member countries and their Ukrainian wards from the next adventurous steps.

We consistently advocate the solution of any issues in a political and diplomatic way. At the same time, no one should have doubts that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will adequately respond to the provocation of the Kiev regime, if one does follow, and will ensure the protection of our compatriots, the Russian peacekeeping contingent, military personnel of the Operational Group of Russian troops and military depots in the village. Any actions that pose a threat to their security will be considered in accordance with international law as an attack on the Russian Federation.”

Confessions of a Gay Man Who Married A Straight Woman

March 1, 2021

Why?

She was my best friend and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, regardless of whether I was sexually attracted to her. She’s the best human being I know.

We wanted to live together, we wanted to have kids together, we wanted to wake up next to each other every morning, and we wanted to grow old together. We wanted an exclusive relationship with each other even if sexual attraction was not a driving force in that relationship. I’m not saying that marriage is necessarily the right solution for anyone. For us, it’s just what made the most sense.

How long have you been married?

Six years.

Why did she marry you?

I guess she married me for the same reason I married her — we wanted to be married to each other. Kind of a boring answer, but it’s honestly that simple.

What did you do on your wedding night?

I’m sure this sounds ridiculous, but we ate popcorn and watched movies into the wee hours of the morning, and we both still remember it as being the perfect ending to one of the best days of our lives.

Do you have sex with her?

We do have sex maybe once a month, which she enjoys the usual way and which is more a curious fascination for me than an erotic experience.

How do you get it up for her?

Getting hard usually involves oral foreplay. Most straight guys like to imagine that they couldn’t possibly get hard if a guy was sucking their dick. The simple fact of the matter is that regardless of your sexual orientation, only the most stubborn (or broken) of cocks can ignore skilled fellatio, whether it’s a guy or a girl doing the sucking. You just wouldn’t know, because you’d never let a guy suck your dick in the first place.

The first year, staying hard long enough for her to climax was difficult, so I became a pro with my tongue. Now, I think my body’s just grown accustomed to the whole experience. I can usually stay hard until she’s reached her peak, and half the time I can stay on board until I orgasm myself.

Do you have sex with other men?

Had sex with other men prior to our relationship. Monogamous since we married.

What is your marriage like? Is there any physical connection between you two, or is it strictly emotional?

It’s definitely more emotional but the physical has evolved over the past six years. I accommodate her because I realize she is sexually attracted to me, so we have occasional sex. Sometimes we both climax, sometimes only she does. The first year, it was difficult for me to reach orgasm when we had sex, but it’s gradually become easier.

On that note, let me quickly point out that I don’t think I’ve somehow changed my sexual orientation, and I’m absolutely not in any way trying to advocate ANY kind of ex-gay anything whatsoever. Whoever you are, that’s who you should be. As for me, my natural attraction (i.e. the sexual attraction toward men that I have always had) is the same as it always was. I just choose not to act upon it because I’m committed to the relationship I’m already in. I am highly skeptical of the idea that you can convert yourself from gay to straight, but I do think it’s entirely possible to learn to have a sexual relationship with someone you’re not sexually attracted to, and even to grow to enjoy it.

Do you carry on sexual relationships outside of your marriage? Does she?

No. We’re monogamous with each other, though it’s infrequent, i.e. about once a month (which seems about her ideal frequency). It’s more because I know she enjoys it and I like to do things for her that she enjoys.

What about the rest of the time? Do you, for example, kiss each other in the way a heterosexual couple would a lot?

Sure we kiss. I don’t know, kissing to me is one of those things that’s more an expression of the fact that I love her, not necessarily something meant to simply convey, “I want to fuck you.”

I suspect I would still think that if I were in a relationship with a guy. Kissing (for me, at least) is more an expression of love and intimacy, not just sexual attraction.

Has a threesome ever entered your minds?

We’ve discussed it with each other and mutually decided that it’s a dynamic that neither of us wants to add to our relationship. If other people want to give it a shot, more power to them, but it’s just not for us.

Do you think you are bisexual?

The reason that I don’t feel like that label fits me personally is that it seems to imply a sexual attraction to both men and women. I am not, and have never been, sexually attracted to women.

Do people outside your marriage (like family and friends) know about your “unconventional” marriage?

My parents and siblings know about my past relationships with guys, even though I never declared myself to be gay, and they asked before I got married whether my wife (then my fiancee) knew about this. I told them that she did, and they all left it at that. I figure they must think the relationship is a little unusual, but they’ve all just accepted it and don’t ask questions about the specifics. Most likely my parents figure that I went through a “gay phase” and turned out to be straight, but it really doesn’t matter to me whether they completely understand all the details.

Have you two talked about having children?

Yes. We have a three-year old son and a seven-month old daughter. We both agreed during this past pregnancy that we didn’t want more after these two.

When your kids are old enough to understand, how and when do you plan to explain the situation to them?

We plan to tell them plainly how our relationship works when they’re old enough to learn about sex and relationships. My hope is that they would find the courage to pursue relationships in their own way, whether they’re gay, straight, or something else. They need to follow their own paths, conventional or otherwise.

Was there pressure to live a “normal” life with a wife and kids?

Somewhat. My folks would have been troubled over having an openly gay son, but I suspect they would have gotten over it eventually. As for kids, I always wanted kids. I realize that there are other ways of going about this, but it’s worked out for me just fine in my present scenario.

Do you feel you needed to get married to have the relationship you currently have? Why is that?

I’ll admit that there was part of me that used to worry, in my own immaturity while we were dating, that if I didn’t marry her, someone else would. But that wasn’t the ultimate reason behind getting married. I don’t think it would have been fair to marry her JUST so I could keep my best friend.

So to answer your question, I don’t think that marriage was some necessary ingredient to keep our relationship from failing, but I would say that marriage has caused our relationship to become what it is.

I would also caution anyone in a similar scenario that I think this arrangement could have been a phenomenal disaster if we hadn’t been completely honest with each other about the way we each felt, or if we had been trying to convert me into being straight.

What if you met a man and developed a similar bond?

Couldn’t you have found a similar bond with a man

I just don’t see it happening. I have guy friends, both gay and straight, and they’re great friends, but I don’t have the bond with any of them that I have with my wife. Some of these male friends are quite attractive, but I simply wouldn’t consider having a sexual relationship with any of them because I’m already in a committed relationship.

Are you religious? How does that interact with your sexuality?

I would consider myself spiritual but haven’t really found a religion that I completely identify with. I believe in God, but I also believe that mankind has generally tried to project itself upon God to the point that God has become more of a convenient excuse for how one man wants to mistreat another.

As for how it affects my/our sexuality… If there is indeed a God who, by whatever means, has created mankind, God understands perhaps better than I do exactly what I am, and why I am the way that I am. I recognize that I find myself sexually attracted to other men, but also that the person with whom I fell in love so deeply happens to be a woman.

So regardless of what anyone else might insist that God says, I do my best to be true to who I am, and I figure that in so doing, the God who made me is perfectly capable of reconciling the details.

Are you happy with your choice to be committed to only her?

Yes, I’m happy with my choice and wouldn’t do a single thing differently if I had it to do all over again. I’m speaking for her here, but I’m confident in saying that she feels the same way I do.

ROMANIA PREPARES FOR WAR; TANKS & HIMARS ON THE STREETS

World Hal Turner 27 February 2023

Army columns of Gepards and HIMARS Multiple-Launch-Rocket-Systems (MLRS) are on the streets inside Romania, apparently headed towards the Moldova border.

Video below shows one such column:

This comes on the heels of an ORDER issued by government on January 31 informing Romanian men to ” Immediate Training for All Men Fit to Fight. ” They are required to report for mandatory training by March 31.

That Order, issued by the Ministry of National Defense, Brila County Military Center, shown below, is being referred to as a “CALL TO WAR.”

More . . .

The US military/NATO is deploying some reservists to Romania to train European soldiers. The reservists have been told that the war will escalate. They will be training the Europeans to fight against Russians for at least six months.

Russian President Signs Law SUSPENDING “START” Nuclear Treaty

World Hal Turner 28 February 2023

This morning in Moscow, Russia, President Vladimir Putin signed a new law SUSPENDING the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). This means Russia can now deploy nuclear weapons anywhere, without reporting them to the USA, including re-deploying nukes into Cuba (Cuban Missile Crisis).

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963, the then-Soviet Union deployed medium range and intermediate-range nuclear missiles onto Cuba. The medium range missiles had a five minute flight time to Washington, DC. Then-U.S.-President John F. Kennedy, “Quarantined” Cuba (Naval Blockade) and began massing troops into south Florida for an invasion.

The crisis lasted thirteen days between the time the nukes were discovered via US Spy Plane photos, and the time an agreement was made to remove them. What made the situation so volatile was that for a period of about 24 hours, before the US could invade, the Soviet Union was faced with this simple choice over their Cuban nukes: Use them or lose them.

If the then-Soviets had decided to use them, the US had no defense.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and then-Soviet Leader Nikita Kruschev agreed to remove those missiles, with a promise from the US that the United States would remove its “Jupiter” nuclear missiles from Turkey within 6 months

Today, with the Russia-Ukraine situation ongoing, relations between the US and Russia are almost non-existent.

It began in the year 2014 when The US and European Union (EU) financed and facilitated the forcible, violent overthrow of Ukraine’s government back in the year 2014, then installed a puppet government, intent on joining NATO and placing US missiles on Ukrainian soil. Those missiles would have had a five minute (or so) flight time to Moscow.

Russia objected over and over. The objections fell on deaf ears.

In February, 2024, Russia entered Ukraine to de-militarize and De-NAZIfy that country.

Relations between Russia, NATO and the collective West became all but destroyed.

The signing of this new law, by Russian President Putin, demonstrates how severely relations now stand.

By signing this law, Russia is now able to deploy its nuclear warheads wherever it wants, without reporting the locations to the US. That means they can put missiles back into Cuba if they want.

A small hint as to what its actually taking place, was seen today: Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev is a Russian politician, security officer and intelligence officer who has served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia since 2008. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service from 1999 to 2008.

Today Platonovich arrived in Caracas, where he will hold Russian-Venezuelan consultations on “security issues.”

If Russia places nuclear missiles in Venezuela, they would be able to reach parts of the United States within about ten minutes.

What’s It Like To Be Anorexic

April 13, 2021

I remember the simultaneous high and pain of being hungry and light-headed. One can of diet Pepsi, one loaf of bread on my better days. Peruse obsessively through foodie magazines, as if looking was eating—without the calories. Whenever my mother left the house to go shop or run an errand, I ran to my closet, dug out my backpack, filled it with gallons of spring water, and—when the pack was full—grasped the handle of a gallon in each hand and ran or lifted. I biked. I took 2 hour aerobic classes and returned home for 2 more hours of surreptitious stair-climbing as my parents watched television downstairs. I got up in the middle of the night to pace the bedroom or stand on tiptoe. I sat on the edge of the seat—determined not to relax and let my fat recline and absorb into my body. Before I knew it, the only thing I was doing in my life was starving and exercising.

But what I remember most is the “voice” in my head. I found out later many eating disorder patients experience a halving of their mental state, a “voice” disassociated from the rest of them: an eating disorder “voice”—the friend, the aggressor, the doer, the one trying to help you be continually better—who later turns against you. The “voice” began nicely enough—with whispers of running just one more mile or shaving down just a few hundred more calories.

My starvation fed the “voice”: As I listened, it grew bigger and meaner. [ is absolutely right about the ‘constant pounding.’ In my case, the pounding came from this inside ] And there came a point when this whole thinness quest was no longer a “high” point or a gateway to control; it was simply controlling me. There came a point when I cringed against that “voice” because I was tired now. But I never thought once about resisting, the same way you wouldn’t resist to the demands of someone with a gun to your temple. I might have felt caged but it was better than saying no, letting go, and falling over a precipice to the unknown and to fat-dom. I could not imagine anything but death if I stopped listening. Death was being fat, obscure, and silenced again. Death was guilt so big I would end up killing myself. So, there was no other way, really.

I was seventy pounds at five feet three inches the first time I was hospitalized, and under sixty pounds the second time I was hospitalized. People cringe and shudder when they hear the numbers. The truth is, if you asked me how sickly and thin I must have looked back then, I couldn’t tell you.

Before I stepped into the shower, I would turn and peer back at two darkened grooves on the center of each buttock. In hindsight those grooves were probably the bruising of poorly cushioned bones, although a friend recently told me with utmost authority that we do not have butt bones. But that’s all I remember of how skinny I was. I looked in the reflection obsessively, but, in my eating-disorder mind, I always saw a normal-sized girl. And, obviously, normal was not okay.

Normal was mediocre; normal was just as bad as fat. Normal was not the best. Why bother being anything but the best especially if I was used to being the “best”? All-or-nothing. And, so, I actually wanted to look like a poster-child from the starving Middle East or Africa’s. I fantasized about dropping down to thirty pounds. But, if thirty pounds was possible, why not fifteen? I think my final weight-goal was to weigh fifteen pounds.

Like many of the other respondents here, I could go on and on. The condition ‘eating disorder’ understates so many things about the disorder. It takes over and takes away everything. So, I’ll leave it at snapshots:

Hospitalization– being watched in our big ‘glass bowl’ sitting room, monitored via camera feeds in our room– was heaven in a way I couldn’t outwardly admit. Physical prisons are the Maldives resort escape to your inner prisons. Your inside warden is still there but, at least, it’s not just you and that warden. It’s you, the warden, and the buffer– the army of nurses and hospital monitors and other watchful eyes that somewhat ‘absolve’ you of your guilt in not feeding the voice. I remember fearing the day I’d be released. I never wanted that day to come.

You can complain and wheedle about having to put that pat of butter on your toast, or downing that can of Ensure, but there’s a guilty thrill juxtaposed with horror knowing that you don’t have a choice.

My lips would turn blue with cold by mid morning on a summer’s day because of malnutrition.

My parents told me later they would creep into my room, lift up the covers to check if I was still breathing. (Various doctors had told them to prepare for the worse– projecting I wouldn’t survive past a year.)

The voice of an eating disordered mind is like that of an abusive boyfriend. You are that cowering shell of a person you once used to be– who believes he is everything to you and that he loves you and you need him in spite of everything he’s done, and you wouldn’t know how to go on or be ‘yourself’ without him.

Recovery from the eating disorder and recovery of your real self is painful, and it takes a long time to feel like you aren’t abjuring some pure, higher-order ideal, that you aren’t being traitorous; you aren’t selling out. You’ll feel all of those things for such a long while and you’ll feel like you are losing your identity. You’ll even feel empty. You’ll feel like it the whole world had it wrong and should have just let you be. You’ll feel like gold turning to rusted copper.

An eating disorder is a full-on assault on all battle-fields– the cognitive, the neural, the physical, the emotional, the social. It is so all-encompassing, nasty, and seductive. It’s not a neat war-front of parties on opposing sides like it is with you against cancer. When you are losing you feel like you are winning, and when you are winning you feel like you are losing.

US military plans for war on China, backing Taiwan separatists

Medvedev: “A collapse. Apocalypse . . . Until the rubble ceases to emit radiation”

World Hal Turner 27 February 2023

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated Monday his country’s threat of nuclear war if the West’s supply of arms to Ukraine continues.

The warning in an op-ed piece in the state-run newspaper Izvestiya was the second time in three weeks the key aide to President Vladimir Putin has invoked the nuclear option in an effort to deter the U.S.-led NATO alliance from arming Ukraine.

Medvedev, who was president from 2008 to 2012 and currently serves as the deputy chairman of the powerful Security Council of Russia, dangled the prospect of talks while demanding shipments of arms to Ukraine be halted immediately.

Echoing comments by Putin yesterday Medvedev wrote that any existential threat to Russia would not be decided on the front in Ukraine, but would spiral into an existential threat to human civilization, repeating the refrain “we don’t need a world without Russia.”

“Of course, the pumping in of weapons can continue and prevent any possibility of reviving negotiations,” Medvedev said.

“Our enemies are doing just that, not wanting to understand that their goals obviously lead to a total fiasco. Everyone loses. A collapse. Apocalypse. When the former life will have to be forgotten for centuries, until the rubble ceases to emit radiation.”

Last week Putin ramped up nuclear tensions by announcing Russia was suspending its participation in the key 2010 New Start treaty — its last remaining arms control agreement with the United States — which limits each side’s arsenal of intercontinental nuclear weapons.

Russia has reserved the right to use nuclear weapons unilaterally in the face of “aggression” even if its opponents only employ conventional arms.

At the start of the month, Medvedev said any attempt to re-take Crimea would result in the “flaming” of all of Ukraine with all the forces at Russia’s disposal, including nuclear weapons “in accordance with our doctrinal documents, including the Fundamentals of Nuclear Deterrence.”

“All Ukraine that remains under the rule of Kyiv will burn,” Medvedev warned.

According to clause 19 of the Fundamentals of the State Policy on Nuclear Deterrence, Russia may use nuclear weapons “in the event of aggression against Russia with the use of conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is threatened.”

Earlier Monday, a Russian surveillance plane was damaged in a drone attack in neighboring Belarus mounted by a dissident group opposing the pro-Russian government of Alexander Lukashenko.

Aliksandr Azarov, leader of the anti-government group BYPOL, claimed responsibility for the attack on social media.

The Beriev A-50 early warning aircraft was hit by multiple blasts near the Machulishchy airbase near the capital Minsk.

“These were drones. The participants of the operation are Belarusian”, Azarov said.

The attack comes as Lukashenko prepares to travel to Beijing tomorrow at the invitation of President Xi Jinping for a three-day state visit.

Medvedev’s remarks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday (last week), publicly accused the West of wanting to liquidate Russia, claiming that his people may not survive.

The Russian president said Western countries were seeking to dismantle Russia, and Moscow had no choice but to take Nato’s nuclear capabilities into account.

Putin told state television channel Rossiya 1: ‘When all the leading Nato countries have declared their main goal as inflicting a strategic defeat on us, so that our people suffer as they say, how can we ignore their nuclear capabilities?’

‘They have one goal: To disband the former Soviet Union and its fundamental part – the Russian Federation,’ Putin said in the interview recorded on Wednesday and broadcast yesterday.

Appealing to nationalist sentiments, Putin said if the West succeeds in destroying Russia, ‘such an ethnic group as the Russian people may not be able to survive in the form in which it exists today’.

‘There will be Muscovites, Uralians and others,’ he said of Russia’s possible fragmentation. He also claimed that the West was an indirect accomplice to the ‘crimes’ committed by Ukraine.

Putin made the remarks while justifying Russia’s suspension of its participation in the New START treaty, which seeks to cap the number of nuclear warheads possessed by the US and Russia.

He said the suspension stemmed from the need to ‘ensure security and stability’ for Russia.

What If “Not Of This Earth” Was A “Twilight Zone” episode?

The Context Of The New Anti-China Campaign

The reactions to yesterday’s Moon of Alabama post have demonstrated how easy it is for government propagandists to yank the leash of their subjects.

More than half of comments are about barely informed Covid conspiracies theories. Only few recognized the propaganda item for what it was. The starting point of a new China hate campaign that will divert the public from mass casualties in Ukraine and other issues.

After the Wall Street Journal launched its Sunday leak the New York Times and the Washington Post also jumped onto the train. The Times thankfully does better than the WSJ given the ‘low confidence’ expressed about the ‘intelligence’ a prominent position instead of hiding it deep down in its piece:

Lab Leak Most Likely Caused Pandemic, Energy Dept. Says
The conclusion, which was made with “low confidence,” came as America’s intelligence agencies remained divided over the origins of the coronavirus.

The Post is less cautious. It is putting the content into the context of some ‘storied team known as Z-Division’ without ever explaining what that entity is.

Little-known scientific team behind new assessment on covid-19 origins
Small shift in favor of ‘lab leak’ theory was prompted by new data and group of weapons-lab scientists

The stenographers of various main stream media outlets understood the propaganda hints given to them and were eager to offer their participation in it.

Laura Rozen @lrozen – 20:00 UTC · Feb 27, 2023(the number of questions at the WH press briefing about a low confidence assessment by two of 18 agencies, disputed by others, also with low confidence, on the origins of covid 19, …strikes me as bizarre. it seems there is so little there there, …)
…
would almost think it would not be worth reporting except as a footnote.

That is certainly correct if it were the real issue. But the context is much wider. The coming weeks will see a larger campaign of China bashing.

As the Post notes:

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines is scheduled to testify at a Senate worldwide threats hearing next week and probably will be asked to address the matter. The House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic was set to hold a roundtable exploring early covid-19 policy decisions on Tuesday.

There will be more Congress action as the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, a new China bashing House panel, inaugurates today:

The 7 p.m. hearing will feature four witnesses, including former President Donald Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Trump’s former deputy national security adviser and China expert Matthew Pottinger. Tong Yi, who was the secretary to a prominent Chinese dissident and jailed in China for more than two years, and Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, are also set to testify.Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, the committee’s Republican chairman, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the panel plans to highlight the threats the Chinese Communist Party poses to U.S. interests.

“I think the Chinese spy balloon incident illustrates perfectly that this isn’t just an over-there problem,” the Republican said. “This isn’t just a matter of some obscure territorial claim in the East China Sea. This is a right-here-at-home problem.”

Mike Gallagher had promised strong action:

To win the new Cold War, we must respond to Chinese aggression with tough policies to strengthen our economy, rebuild our supply chains, speak out for human rights, stand against military aggression, and end the theft of Americans’ personal information, intellectual property, and jobs.We must recognize that China’s “peaceful rise” was pure fiction and finally confront the CCP with the urgency the threat demands. To do that, House Republicans will establish a Select Committee on China in the new Congress.

The committee itself can not do much about the issues and its attempts to go against China will mostly be diverted into deregulating U.S. environmental protection:

Meanwhile, in 2019, approximately 90% of the world’s rare earth metals, alloys, and permanent magnets were produced in China. The Select Committee will expose our dangerous dependence on China and advance policies to build secure sources for critical supply chains, either in the United States or in partnership with like-minded allies.

A WSJ Opinion piece details what that means:

The U.S. must challenge China’s dominance in producing the refined rare-earth minerals that go into both chips and green energy. But extracting, refining and using our domestic resources—such as the newly discovered 7-square-mile store of rare earths at Sheep Creek, Mont.—will require regulatory certainty and clarity, not the current morass that fosters litigation and deters development. As these pages noted last month, America suffers from a “green-energy mineral lockup.” To compete with China, Congress must unlock them.Reform is also necessary for less exotic yet no less essential commodities. As S&P Global urged last year in a report on copper and the green-energy transition, America’s “nexus between a politicized regulatory process and the ubiquity of litigation makes it unlikely that efforts to expand copper output in the United States would yield significant increases in domestic supply within the decade. The prospects for any expansions are higher on state and private lands.”

But domestic deregulation is not the only point of the agenda. The U.S. led conflict with China must also transfer into more spending for useless weapons. The further erosion of the U.S. One China policy, which puts China into a militarized zugzwang, will take care of that:

Despite its increasing reliance on military intimidation, Beijing’s calculus for the actual use of force remains heavily political, not military; it is centered on whether or not Washington entirely abrogates its One China Policy and opts for the permanent separation of Taiwan from China.Such a U.S. move would back Beijing into a corner and compel it to take the huge risk of using force, either to compel Washington to reverse course or to attempt to resolve the Taiwan problem once and for all.

It is not that China has not noticed any of this. The new super aggressive U.S. ambassador to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, has done his best to prepare the scene for more conflict:

On February 15, about 350 representatives from Chinese and US political and business sectors attended the AmCham China’s annual appreciation dinner where Burns delivered a speech. He criticized China’s trade, state-owned enterprises, industry subsidies, cybersecurity and regulation, anti-epidemic measures and human rights policies, and even mentioned the recent unmanned airship incident. His criticism of China caused dissatisfaction among the attendees.A source familiar with the matter told the Global Times on Thursday that a staff member from AmCham China said that while Burns was delivering the speech, “the atmosphere was extremely embarrassing.”

China has learned well how U.S. propaganda works. Unlike some MoA commentators it immediately recognized the issue for what its is:

US hypes old ‘lab-leak’ theory in new information war operation against China

Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the US again gave the “lab-leak” theory a major boost, as its Energy Department, citing “new intelligence” but holding “low confidence” in it, joined the FBI in smearing China.Reported exclusively by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Sunday, the claim immediately made headlines in major US news outlets. However, its timing and source “only show the low credibility” of the report, analysts said, adding that the new hyping of an old topic is part of the US’ political and information warfare with China.
…
One of the WSJ report’s authors is Michael R. Gordon, who was behind the “weapons of mass destruction” narrative the US fabricated to justify its invasion of Iraq 20 years ago.

Lü Xiang, research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that the timing of the hype is not a coincidence, and that the US will not leave COVID out of its “ammunition depot” against China.
…
Being ambiguous and non-official and using media rather than government departments to announce something demonstrated the US’ skill in fighting a political war, Lü said.

Hysterical crusades against China have become a signature of the US in our time. To win the competition with China, the US will not let a single chance go by to smear China, whether it is a balloon that has gone astray, a carefully planned “lab-leak” theory, or unfounded weapon supply accusations regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the expert said.

Anti China rhetoric in ‘western’ media is indeed off the charts.

One reason that bashing China has intensified is the fear that its alliance with Russia will make a U.S. defeat in Ukraine inevitable. The recent accusations of China considering weapon deliveries to Russia, a thought crime, was a hint to that. Dima of the Military Summary channel, who is from Belarus, suggested that China could produces ammunition for Russia in his home country to avoid to be punished for it. Lukashenko’s current visit to Beijing may well include talks about such a scheme.

There are some delicate non-denials that let me think there is something to it :

Yesterday, when asked about US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s warning Sunday that there would be ‘real costs’ for China if it went forward with providing lethal aid to Russia, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning did not give a direct answer. “The US is in no position to point fingers at China-Russia relations. We do not accept coercion or pressure from the US,” she said.Interestingly, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also chose not to answer a related question as to whether Russia had asked China to provide any equipment for its special military operation.

The forthcoming visit by Xi Jinping to Moscow, likely to take place next month, will be a defining moment. There is a palpable sense of disquiet in the West, as China’s manufacturing capability exceeds that of the US and Europe combined. Russia is deferring the big offensive in Ukraine, pending Xi’s visit.

Posted by b on February 28, 2023 at 17:56 UTC | Permalink

Douglas Macgregor: UKRAINE WILL BE DESTROYED

Confessions of a Successful Real Estate Investor

December 30, 2020

I am currently 31M, married, no kids, living in San Diego and working as a senior front-end engineer + running a real estate startup on the side.

My portfolio consists of 35 total units, mostly 4-plexes, with a duplex and some SFRs sprinkled here and there. 3 units in San Diego, 1 in Atlanta, 3 in Birmingham, 28 in Kansas City.

My units cash flow between $250-$350/door and the total cash flow of the portfolio is about $10-11k/month (accounting for vacancies as well). My average COC return at purchase is about 15% and long-term IRR is usually 20%+.

All properties are financed. The only financing I have ever used was conventional loans (as many as they would let me) and later commercial financing on multi-family properties. Never had any partners (besides my wife), never did syndicate deals, no seller financing, no other creative financing.

How did I get here? I did a pretty long podcast not too long ago, where I share more details, so if you’re interested, have a listen .

Here are the important parts:

Joined the US Navy out of high school, active duty (Fire Controlman). Served most of the time in Japan.
Both parents passed away in 2008-2010. I was left with a single condo where they lived. At first, I was going to sell it, but decided to rent it out through a local property manager (I was in Japan at the time). Cash flow was terrible, so that didn’t really give me much encouragement to pursue real estate at the time..
2013: Left the Navy, moved back to San Diego, got a regular job (electronics technician at first). Decided to give real estate another shot. After about 6 months of searching, found a duplex that needed a good amount of work in a B- area. Moved in one of the units with my wife, rented out the other. She was not very happy, but this turned out a great investment over time and we eventually moved out.
2014 – 2015: Ready to buy more properties, but real estate in San Diego is too expensive and cash flow almost non-existent. Started looking out of state. Decided it was too risky to try to buy/rehab myself, so ended up buying 4 turnkey SFRs in Atlanta and Birmingham. Cash flow was good and prices started appreciating over the years, so still happy with these homes.
2016: Felt more confident with managing out of state rentals and owning properties in general, so decided that I could make more money by buying value-add properties off MLS or private sellers. After extensive research, decided on Kansas City, flew out there, built a local network, started looking at 2-4 unit properties. Ended up buying three 4-plexes in a private sale because the agent tipped me off.
2017: Feeling more comfortable in Kansas City, but was having a hard time finding new deals on the MLS (spent about 10 months looking). Decided to do a direct mail campaign to a very select group of multi-family property owners (about 100 total). Hand wrote the letters, added photos of their exact houses, sent out myself. Ended up landing 4 sales for more 4-plexes.
2018: Taking a little break for the first 6 months, focusing on doing rolling rehabs on all units I picked up in 2017, raising rents to market, improving general operations. Will start looking for more in the summer (already have some possible leads from the mail campaign).

Future Plans

My original goal was to get to 50 units before turning 40, so I’m quite a bit ahead of schedule. Barring anything crazy, I anticipate to get there within the next 1-2 years (15 more units to go).

This will put my passive income somewhere in the neighborhood of $15k/month or $180k/year. I’m not sure I want to retire quite yet, so I will most likely continue with the same strategy, buying more units up to 65-75 total.

I’m also planning to do a full review of my entire portfolio (now that there are a few years of operational history), sell the underperforming properties (and probably most SFRs) and re-invest into better performing multi-family buildings. I’m also considering focusing on larger apartment complexes, but we’ll see.

Key Takeaways

It’s hard to pin point a single thing that helped me the most. Some may say I was fortunate or “lucky” at several points in my life, but I think a steady, consistent growth strategy is what played the biggest role.

Here are some other things:

Maximizing my income

Since I didn’t rely on any “creative” financing strategies, all of the deals I’ve done required some cash from me to close. Now that I buy value-add properties, I also finance the rehabs myself.

What really helped is maximizing my income from my full-time job and side-business. I went from being active duty in the Navy (around $40k/year) to senior front-end engineer (around $150k/year) and running a profitable startup (another $150k/year) on the side in a few years.

Everybody’s situation is different, but I think most of us can do at least something to increase their income.

Having a ~70% savings rate

Throughout my adult life I have consistently maintained a savings rate of around 70%. Combined with the point above, this was really the key to saving money for the next property quickly. Especially in the last few years, as my income increased substantially, this really helped.

Along the same lines, I’ve never touched any of my income from rental properties or other investments. 100% of that is re-invested.

Again, I think this is something that can be done by anyone, regardless of their income level. I meet far too many people who make six figures and have almost no savings, because of their lifestyle choices.

Focusing on the right markets

There isn’t such a thing as “the best market”. Macro and micro economic conditions are also always changing, so the markets that may be “good” for rental properties today will not be the same a year from now.

I definitely would not consider myself an expert of picking rental markets, but I have talked to a lot of people who are a lot smarter than me and have developed a set of criteria that help me focus on where to invest next.

Since where I live is so expensive, and I originally had limited funds (and wanted higher cash flow), I primarily focused on larger metropolitan areas with good economic and population projections, but which have strong cash flow and average property prices around $55-100k per door (for multi-family properties).

Last time I did my “analysis” a few years ago, there were several promising candidates, including Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Kansas City, Nashville. I ultimately settled on Kansas City and that’s where I’m planning to buy in the next few years.

Being very conservative with cash flow projections

I’m an analytical person by nature, so the whole process of analyzing potential cash flow from a rental property always appealed to me.

I’ve always been extremely conservative when estimating cash flow projections. This probably caused me to pass on some “ok-good” deals, but ultimately got me “great” deals, which is what you obviously want.

I never use rough estimates or the so-called “50% rule” (I think it’s actually extremely misleading). I look up exact rental comps to estimate rents, I look up what insurance, management, utilities, and property taxes (after sale, NOT current) will be for each property.

On top of that, I use high vacancy and maintenance estimates, basically accounting for the worst possible scenario. I’ve gotten into plenty of arguments with sellers over “my numbers”, but this strategy has only done wonders for my returns.

Running my rental portfolio like a business

I’ve figured out pretty early on that owning 1-2 properties isn’t going to make me rich or allow me to retire early. After I set a goal to get 50 units, my brain started thinking on what I need to start doing NOW to make this possible at the end.

And what I came up with is a realization, that I should treat this whole operation as a business, instead of just passive investments. So I focused on 2 things – building a network and a team of professionals to help me (property managers, agents, lenders, mortgage brokers, insurance guys, etc.); and training/teaching them to basically do most of the work for me.

The biggest challenge of owning this many units, especially all over the country is management. I never self-managed a single property. I have always used property managers and over time developed a set of criteria for picking them, and a system for keeping them accountable.

I don’t get into day-to-day operations, but I basically groom each of my property managers to do the job for me in a way where I’m satisfied. It takes some work up front, but overtime pays off big time, as mutual trust and understand develops.

Best Carne Asada

Flank steak is marinated in a glorious combination of onions, cilantro and spices, then grilled to perfection.

Cook: 12 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

Steak

2 (1 pound) flank steaks

Marinade

1 lime, juiced
1 orange, juiced
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon California chile powder
2 teaspoons chile powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 large onion, cut into rings
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Instructions

In a large glass bowl, mix Marinade ingredients through black pepper. Add cilantro and onion.
Add meat. Let marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight, the longer the better.
When ready to grill, mix the steaks and marinade one more time.
Place flank steaks on grill for about 5 or 6 minutes on each side.
Remove steaks and set in an 8 inch square pan. Cover with foil, and let steaks sit for about 10 minutes.
Slice meat into strips against the grain.
To plate, place a baked potato (with a chunk of butter), rice and slices of Carne Asada on a plate. Add 1/2 avocado in center, a couple tablespoons of salsa and a grilled jalapeno. Dinner is served!

Notes

Grilling the steaks for the time given in the recipe will produce medium rare beef.

Confessions of a Mass Shooting Survivor

March 31, 2021

This happened to me four years ago. It’s by far the most extreme and life threatening situation I’ve been in. The eyewitness account you are about to read is 100% true, and is mine.

For some understanding, this happened in the United States. It was the summer of 2012. My longtime boyfriend and I had recently gotten married. Even though we were dirt poor college students and lived in a dinky apartment, we were having a blast. That particular summer we gathered with our friends at the local movie theater almost every weekend. There was one just down the street from our apartment that had really cheap movie tickets. A night out that was under $10 was certainly within our budget!

Anyway, one Thursday night I received a call from this group of friends inviting us to watch the midnight premiere of the newest Batman movie. I had just finished working a 12 hour shift and was pretty tired. I almost refused the invitation and thought of crashing in my apartment instead. However, I didn’t want to miss out on the fun, and it was a movie I’d wanted to see for a while anyway. Certainly it wouldn’t do any harm to stay up later than usual and miss a few hours of sleep, right?

At 10:30 PM we met at the theater. We passed large cardboard cut-outs of Catwoman and Batman as we walked inside, greeted by the smell of buttery popcorn and the chatter of excited movie goers. The ticket booth was to the right of the entrance, and just above that was an electronic list of movies being played. The 12:00 AM showing of the Dark Knight Rises was displayed up there in bright red letters. Being paranoid that the tickets would sell out quickly, one of my friends swung by earlier that day and purchased tickets for all of us. We bypassed the ticket line and went straight to the ticket taker. She smiled at us and kindly directed us to Theater 9, which was on the right side of the lobby.

If only I had known what I do now. That among the crowds a killer was lurking. That as I walked across that tacky red and purple carpet towards Theater 9, I could have been walking to my death. I think about it often now, what I would have done had I known. Pulled the fire alarm, called the police, screamed for people to run away….But, of course, I had no way of knowing what was about to happen. Oblivious to the peril I was putting myself in; I pushed open the doors for Theater 9 without giving it a second thought.

The hallway in this theater was shaped like a U and you could go either right or left. Theater 9 was the largest screening room in the building, perfect for accommodating the crowds that midnight premieres brought in. The screen was motionless and gray; not even the previews had started yet because there was still a good hour and a half to go until the movie actually started. We entered on the right side, so all of the seats were to our left. I remember being surprised at just how packed the theater already was. Just about every seat was filled, much to our dismay. At first it seemed like we wouldn’t find a spot to sit together. Now, the way this theater was set up, there was a section of seats right in front of the screen. This area was flat, and there were about five rows of seating in this section. A lot of seats in that section were empty, but sitting right in front of the movie screen sucks and none of us wanted to sit there. One of my friends then spotted a row with five empty seats all next to each other, perfect for the amount of people we had. These seats were about 3-4 rows up from where the seating rows start to elevate. We ran up the stairs before someone could take the seats and filed in. My husband, Brock, sat in the 5th seat. I sat next to him, and my friend Samantha sat next to me on my right side. Her boyfriend, Tommy, sat next to her, and another friend named Leo sat in the aisle seat.

We spent the next several minutes casually chatting, joking around, and laughing. After a while my three friends went to the lobby to buy drinks and that addicting movie theater popcorn. While they were gone, Brock and I passed the time by people watching. The theater was bright since the lights weren’t dimmed yet, and I could see everyone clearly. There were a lot of people dressed in Batman T-shirts and hoodies. One person even had a mask and one of those shirts with an attached cape. There were a lot of kids in attendance as well, which wasn’t surprising because, even though it was a Thursday night, it was summer vacation so that meant no school the next day. Of all the people I saw, the person I will never forget was the little girl sitting in our same row a few chairs away. She was really cute, blond with blue eyes, and passed us several times on her way to the lobby, each time coming back with various snacks and popcorn. Overall, people seemed very excited to see the movie, and the room was filled with energy and laughter.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the lights started to dim and the previews began. Just like every movie I’ve seen before, a quick animation flashed across the screen reminding us to get refreshments from the lobby (we were already devouring that popcorn like ravenous animals), to silence our cell phones, and to make sure we know where the emergency exits are. The animation had this ugly CGI cat in a tuxedo that was sitting in a movie theater. I casually glanced at the bright green emergency exit signs that were on the left and right sides of the movie screen. I didn’t think much of the reminder, like usual. After that, I only remember one preview for the Man of Steel, the others I’m not sure what they were about. When the movie started the theater erupted into cheering and clapping. The title of the movie, The Dark Knight Rises, exploded onto the screen. This was followed by the scene where Bane is hijacking a plane. I thought this scene was pretty cool and it caught my interest right away. Only when the movie started to get a little less interesting did I remember just how tired I was. I decided I would close my eyes at the more boring parts to get a little bit of rest. I had been awake for 20 hours at that point, so I was rightfully sleepy. My eyes were closed for most of the duration of Batman and Catwoman’s encounter. I don’t really remember what was going on in that part of the movie (perhaps some of you have seen it and know what I’m talking about.) Anyway, when I opened my eyes again Bruce Wayne was on his computer digging up information on Catwoman. This is the last scene I saw. I never got to watch the rest of the movie.

All of a sudden, a loud BANG erupted from the left side of the theater. I sort of screamed a little because it startled me. A strange smell started to fill the auditorium. It was like the smell of a firework, so I thought it was a cherry bomb or something similar. Had someone thrown fireworks into the crowd as a prank? Then, down near the right sight of the movie screen, the dark silhouette of a person caught my attention. They were just a black frame against the bright movie screen. A series of flashing lights was coming from this person. It was a weird moment where time literally slowed down and everything went strangely quiet. I was completely frozen, unable to move and really unable to think at all. It was like my brain had stopped working entirely.

Brock caught on immediately to what was happening and he grabbed me. He pulled me to the ground and lay on top of me, shielding me with his own body. At this point time and sound returned to me. I could hear the gunshots ringing out across the theater. People were screaming. The movie was still playing on top of it all, creating a chaotic explosion of sound. I realized the flashing lights I had seen were bullets flying out of a gun barrel. An instant sensation of adrenaline flooded my body. There was absolutely nothing I could do except lay there and hope to God that the bullets I heard ripping through seats and walls wouldn’t go through me, too. At one point shrapnel hit my head, cutting off a good chunk of my hair, and as I reached for the spot to make sure it wasn’t bleeding hot pieces of metal fell into my hand.

I was lying face up, so I could see everything that was happening. The lights from a still-playing movie danced across the ceiling and walls. My friends were on the floor with me. Our unfinished bucket of popcorn was spilled all across the floor. Leo had his legs sticking out into the aisle because there wasn’t enough room for him to hide completely behind the seats. At some point Samantha’s water bottle, which had been in the cup holder between our seats, exploded. Water splashed all over my face. The smell of gun smoke was overwhelming. Riot grade tear gas made me cry and caused me to cough uncontrollably. There was another smell, too; the horrible metallic smell of blood that I’ll never forget. I remember my lower body feeling wet all of a sudden. For some reason I thought this came from the leaking water bottle, but I soon realized this wasn’t the case.

All of a sudden things went strangely quiet. The bullets had stopped for some reason. Tommy shouted “LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!” We took advantage of the opportunity and made a run for it. We ran down the stairs, across the front of the screen towards a bright green EXIT sign. We crammed into a small, closet-like space where the door was. It was so dark we had a hard time finding it. We were screaming and slamming on the walls to find the door, blinded by the tear gas and dumbfounded by shock. Then, finally, my hands felt the metal door handle and I pushed against it with all my strength. The door flew open and the light of a nearby streetlight flooded our eyes. We pushed against the door so hard that we all fell over onto the concrete. Samantha lost her pink flip flops just outside this doorway.

As I scrambled to my feet and literally ran for my life, I realized my legs were red; absolutely soaked with blood. It was like I dipped my legs into a bath tub full of it. I checked my body all over and realized I wasn’t injured at all. Where had this blood come from? I looked behind me and realized that the blood was my husband’s. He had been shot in the leg. A massive, gaping hole had ripped through the lower half of Brock’s right leg. His foot was barely hanging on and dangled lifelessly. Leo and a young man I didn’t recognize were carrying Brock because, after falling outside the door, he lost all his strength and he couldn’t walk. I was completely shocked. I had no idea he had been injured, especially since he was right behind me the whole time and managed to escape the theater all by himself. How he did it on one foot, I’ll never know.

At this point I screamed. My scream was so loud that it alerted nearby construction workers. At the back of the theater there was a narrow parking lot, followed by a grassy lawn and then the street beyond that. The construction workers were doing road repair on this street, but as soon as they heard my scream and saw us running they stopped working and watched what was going on. I’m not sure why this is such a vivid part of my memory. Anyway, they carried Brock along the back sidewalk all the way to the end, where the corner of the building is. This was quite a distance, several dozen feet. My husband then collapsed from exhaustion and pain, saying he couldn’t move anymore. He lay down and a puddle of blood started to form beneath him. I looked back, and realized we had left a trail of blood leading from the door all the way to our current position.

I was trembling. I knelt beside Brock and glanced around to see who else was injured. Tommy had been shot in the knee and the hip, and was further away in the parking lot. The teenager who helped my husband was also injured. His dad and mom were with him; his mom was sitting against the wall and looked like she was going to pass out. She was bleeding from several places. That family escaped at the same time we did. I guess they heard the bullets stop and decided to make a run for it, too. We were all lucky, because the shooting was still going on inside.

I had to take off my shirt and use it to stop the bleeding. I’ll never forget how lifeless and limp his leg felt, and I imagined that’s what a dead body must feel like. I got blood all over my hands and arms. The police showed up really, really fast. I’d say we were only outside for a minute or two before the red and blue sirens filled the night and rushed to our location (we were literally a block away from the police station). A female officer stood by us the whole time until paramedics arrived, which took a very long time.

Brock was one of the last to be taken to a hospital. He was bleeding out for almost twenty minutes before an ambulance pulled up on the same street with the road work. At this point he had become almost unresponsive and was on the verge of unconsciousness. Several massive guys rushed across the grass with a stretcher, loaded him onto it, and then ran with him back to the waiting ambulance. I wasn’t able to go with him because there was another injured person in the ambulance, and it was too crowded. I wandered around to the front of the theater alone, unsure of where my friends had went. My blood stained shirt and a pool of blood were left behind on the corner of that sidewalk.

Walking through the crowds felt like a dream. I couldn’t believe what just happened. People were in hysterics and crying. A lot of people such as me were covered in blood. And, like me, I’m pretty sure the blood staining their skin and clothes wasn’t their own. A lot of people seemed to notice how lonely and dazed I looked, so they kept me company and even offered me a ride to different hospitals to find Brock, because I hadn’t been told what hospital he was taken to. I hung around these people for a while as police swarmed the area and asked us what we saw inside the theater. The whole parking lot was on lockdown, and we weren’t going to be allowed to leave any time soon. It was around 2:00 AM, so it was very dark outside still (and I was pretty cold, wearing only an undershirt and shorts). The flashing red and blue lights of what seemed like 100 police cars were blinding. I remember seeing a big police vehicle pull up that said something like “Crime Scene Investigation Unit” on it. I think that’s when it really sank in and hit me. I started to get sick to my stomach and wanted to vomit, but somehow I was able to hold it back.

Eventually, police started letting people leave. I jumped into my truck and booked it out of there. I was in such a panic that I didn’t even think to go back to my apartment, grab my cell phone (which I had forgotten) and call my parents or someone else to help me! I was angry, upset, scared, and most of all still in a state of shock. Was I really going to lose Brock only a month shy of our first wedding anniversary because of some psychopath with a gun? Thankfully, by the time dawn rolled around I found the hospital he was treated in. This was in the next city over, maybe 45 minutes from the theater if you’re going the speed limit. I was so happy to be there, and the hospital staff were all so welcoming and understanding. After making sure I wasn’t injured as well, they let me wait in the ICU room that Brock would be placed in when he was done recovering from surgery. I was so glad he was alive. Brock and Tommy both had survived, though many others weren’t so lucky.

I found out the following day (after some much needed sleep on a hospital couch) that 12 people were killed in this shooting and over 70 were injured (I remember they first thought 15 people were killed, but the real number was 12). The little blond girl sitting in my row did not survive. She died in the theater no more than a few feet from us. She had been shot multiple times. A heart broken police officer, who cried during his court testimony, tried unsuccessfully to save her by carrying her out of the theater and having her sent to a hospital. Tommy was rushed to a different hospital in the back of a police car. He underwent surgery and made a full recovery. The bullet missed his hip bone and narrowly missed his urinary tract and bladder. According to the surgeons, my husband lost almost half his blood. Brock made it to the hospital just in time; any later and he would have died. He underwent several blood transfusions and was in the hospital for 21 days. The wound to his leg was severe enough that they had to amputate it after trying unsuccessfully to save it.

It’s been so long since the shooting happened that my husband, friends, and I have been able to recover from it somewhat. The event was pretty horrifying and has left us scarred for sure. I wouldn’t consider that part of the story to be creepy, though. No, the creepy part is the shooter himself. I later learned much about him from the murder trial that would follow in the coming years. Though my encounter with this man was very brief, he has affected my life greatly. Just to know that people like this exist…is disturbing. He is certainly one twisted individual that I never want to see again.

I learned everything from watching the televised trial that took place in early 2015. This guy was going to school for neuroscience or something in California. I guess he was a pretty smart guy. However, for some reason he had an obsession with killing people and had a stalker mentality. After dropping out of his university, he moved to my state and chose my local theater to commit a mass shooting. Before that, he was planning on hiding along remote hiking trails up in the mountains, jumping people, pulling them into the woods and killing them there, though he never went through with that idea. He stalked my theater for months and had this shooting all planned out for the night of July 20th. Though I never saw him before this, its unnerving to think this guy could have been watching us every time we went to the theater, and we would have never known it. We were completely unaware of what he had planned against us. This completely ruined my sense of security, because who knows what the stranger next to you is planning on doing to you.

I came very close to the shooter, but I never actually saw his face in person until I was forced to testify in court. Of course I saw his mug shots on television, but while in the theater I only saw him as a dark silhouette in the shadows, like a demonic figure rendered from the darkest and most sinister nightmare. He was even in the hallway that we passed upon running for the emergency exit. The only thing stopping him from killing us there and then was his jammed assault rifle. To commit this crime, he ordered a few thousand rounds of ammunition, riot gear and armor, tear gas, an assault rifle, and a shotgun. He took pictures of himself, which were shown in court, wearing all of this gear like some sick trophy and holding up these weapons with a menacing smile. He dyed his hair orange and put in these creepy black contacts while making devilish faces into his camera, something that made me sick just looking at. Before driving to the theater with all of this gear in his car, he booby trapped his entire apartment and set it to explode if anyone opened the door. Then, once at the theater, he posed as a movie goer and even bought a ticket for the movie. I think his ticket had Theater 8 on it, which was next door, but Theater 9 had more people in it so he went into number 9 instead. He was in the few front rows. I must have passed him several times in the lobby while he was there. Maybe he had seen me, too. At some point during the movie, he got up and went through the side exit (which didn’t have an alarm for some reason), kept it propped open with something, then went to his car to put on all his armor and grabbed his weapons. Then, he came back inside and started shooting. When we escaped the theater, we ran past his white car which was parked right at the exit. We didn’t even notice it. At some point he came outside, and he would have seen us there on the concrete. I don’t know what stopped him from shooting people that were outside, too, but he could have easily ended us there and then if he wanted to.

I think the hardest part for me was facing this twisted individual in court. I’ll never forget rising as they called my name, walking down the center row past my family, other survivors, and crowds of news hungry media personnel. I sat right across from him, maybe only 10 feet away. While his orange hair was gone and he wasn’t wearing black contacts, being so close to him was a creepy and uncomfortable experience. My encounters with this man are certainly ones I will never forget. I can now say that I’ve come face to face with a true, deranged psychopath. He just had this blank stare in his eyes the whole time. If eyes truly are the windows to the soul, then his soul was filled with nothing but a cold indifference for those he had murdered and harmed. He wouldn’t even look at me. Sitting across from him in court was the second time I had knowingly been in the same room with this man. A man who had tried to take my life, but thankfully failed, a man who would end up spending forever behind bars when, at the end of it all, he was sentenced to 3,318 years in prison for his crimes.

This is to the man who tried to kill me. The man who has caused countless nightmares and fueled the fires of my paranoia. The man who hurt my friends and family, causing years of untold grief for my husband because he will never walk the same again. The man who stole the innocence and joy from a 6 year old child who went into that theater alive and came out dead. To the man who carried out the worst mass shooting in Colorado history, let’s not meet again. Ever. I hope you rot in prison.

Poor cat was living her last moments on the pagoda | but no one came to help her

Confessions of a Man Who Won A $40 Million Dollar Lottery

March 9, 2021

Can you describe your immediate thoughts and feelings upon winning?

Denial. I never thought I would win. I thought I was dreaming when I checked the numbers. I almost passed out during a conference call with the lottery officials and an estate lawyer when they told me I won the $40,000,000. I believed I was probably going to die before getting to spend it.

What did you do with the ticket immediately after finding out you had won? I would be so paranoid that I would lose it or something.

I hid it in a cereal box and contacted a lawyer.

Have you spent it all yet?

No, because I haven’t received it all.

How many of your friends and family know? Or did you keep it quiet? How did it change your life, for better or worse?

Everybody knows. My winnings were made public. It didn’t take much time for people to start asking for money. For example, my sister quit her job thinking I would just take care of her for life and people I hadn’t spoken to in years asked me to pay for their honeymoon.

The worst was the charities. I have always been private so that is something I lost.

I did change my name.

Well what caught me off-guard was that people actually thought I would just give them free money. They didn’t really try to hide their motivations. It was just “congrats. So can you shoot me some money because I’m getting married and we want to rent a yacht out Bali for two weeks.” To this day, I have no idea why they asked me.

Did you end up giving your sister the money?

She and her kids moved in with my mother after I bought (got ripped-off, actually) the house she was renting. I was going to pay her rent indefinitely but her landlords found out about my winnings and evicted her under the excuse that they were going to “sell” the house. The house was worth under a million (this is CA BTW) but they sold it directly to me for 1.8 million.

That was my one and only “gift” to my family. That too was also a mistake.

Why was that a mistake? Was it that it increased your sister’s expectations are that you were ripped off by the original home owners?

Neither my mom nor my sister knows how much I paid. The mistake is that my niece is becoming my sister 2.0. I feel like I am enabling it.

After all this do you still have a relationship with your family?

Not in particular. They were trying to turn me into a human Amazon/ATM machine and I saw the effect it was having on my niece and nephew thinking that everyone has a rich uncle who will take care of you so no need to do well in school or do anything.

It’s a shame. Like for my mother’s birthday, I was going to buy her a $10,000 Cartier bracelet but that would create drama so I just sent flowers.

Why do they make your name public?

They have to announce winners for transparency reasons. How do people know that the son of the guy who runs the lottery numbers didn’t win?

Are you upset you had to change your name? Or do you like the name you picked better so it’s not a big deal?

No, changing my name helped out a lot.

How much was personal security a concern? Do you feel you or your close family members are a kidnapping/extorsion/etc target?

None. I get monthly distributions into an estate so it’s not like I have cash lying around like in a rap video. I literally have $14 cash in my wallet.

What was your favorite thing you did after winning the lottery?

The honeymoon part of winning is my favorite. Looking at houses and cars that I could now buy.

So what did you buy?

A house (which was a mistake) and a new Audi.

Why was it a mistake?

I purchased a townhouse on Venice Beach.

I realized it was too big for one person. Also the homeless took over the area and I don’t even feel safe going to the beach at 4AM in the morning to mediate anymore.

Also, all my neighbors are well over 50 (I’m 38) so I have nothing in common with them.

Which Audi?

A3 premium

What sort of luxuries do you spend on now?

I shop at Whole Foods.

What was your job before lottery win?

Admin work.

How great was it quitting your job?

They fired me.

It was a week after I had won.

They requested to have a meeting with me on a Friday at 4PM. They asked me if I knew why I was there and I said I didn’t.

They said they were going to keep it short and sweet.

Congrats on the lotto win and they didn’t expect me to stick around so in the interest of the company, they wanted to start looking for a replacement. In order to do that, they needed my position vacant.

They handed me my walking papers.

Do u have a bucket list of adventures to do?

I would really like to be a parent before 40. That’s unlikely.

What’s some things you’d like but can’t buy with money?

Family.

What do you do now assuming you’re not working any more?

During the day, I manage my estate and do research for investments.

Do you do any philanthropic work?

I’m not interested in going through all that. I’ve donated here and there but the problem is that I don’t want to be harassed and bothered by charities to give more and more often. And then they sell your information to other charities. That gets annoying. I’d rather have a cold.

Any advice you’d give to future lotto winners?

My advice to winners is to consult with a lawyer who does estates. You cannot manage that much money on your own.

Are you happy?

I’m happier with money than without. Even with money, there are some things you cannot buy.

Is the Biden Administration completely brain dead?

I’m reorganizing my archive index, and are placing things in better-to-access groupings. This is a work in progress. Please do not be alarmed.

As I have repeatedly stated, we are in the middle of World War 3. We are at the plateau. Anything can happen at this stage.

Overall, however, things are well in hand by the “adults in the room”. Don’t worry too much. It’s gonna be middle bads at the worst.

Then it will be all gravy.

Let’s do today’ installment.

Was There An Explosion In The Great Pyramid In Antiquity?

With recent discoveries of “new” spaces or chambers behind the so-called “Gantenbrink’s Door” in the Southern Shaft and another “door’ in the Northern

Shaft of the Queen’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid, interest in the ancient monument continues to capture the imagination of many people in the world. Even Dr. Zahi Hawass, ex Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, has remarked that the Great Pyramid has not yet yielded all of its secrets by any means.

In fact, the inner chambers of the Great Pyramid exhibit many anomalous features, which have never been adequately addressed or discussed by Egyptologists such as Hawass. In his landmark book, The Giza Power Plant (Bear & Co., 1998), engineer Chris Dunn made the suggestion there is evidence that the Great Pyramid may have experienced a cataclysmic event, an explosion some time in its distant past which ended its role as an active power plant, a machine, which is what Dunn proposes was its primary function in his book. I further advanced Dunn’s hypothesis of an explosion in the pyramid in my book, The Land of Osiris (Adventures Unlimited Press, 2001) due to investigations I made on site in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

My recent trip to Egypt enabled me to further pursue the hypothesis and gather even more evidence, not only in the Great Pyramid, but at other sites as well.

There are several features in the inner chambers of the Great Pyramid that cannot be explained by the structure merely being utilized as a tomb for a king, whether an actual or symbolic tomb. As mentioned in both my and Chris’s book, the King’s Chamber presents several anomalies. There are cracks in the granite beams on the southeastern ceiling of the room. I first noticed these cracks in 1992. Egyptologists have explained the cracks away as being the result of an earthquake, but there is no evidence of seismic damage in either the Descending Passage or Subterranean Chamber, which would have been closer to the epicenter. The SCA (Supreme Council of Antiquities) attempted to repair these cracks in 1998 but they are still evident today.

The walls of the King’s Chamber can be seen separating from the floor and seem to bulge out, suggesting that an explosion or powerful energy pulse acted upon them. Chris Dunn is also the only investigator to remark that the stone box in the King’s Chamber (erroneously referred to as a “sarcophagus”) is today a chocolate brown color, not the original rose color of the Aswan granite it is from. The color change could be due to tremendous heat, which could indicate it was chemically altered by an explosion or fire in the chamber in antiquity. If a sample of the box could be obtained, it could be tested to determine if this was so.

There are other anomalies to be found in the Grand Gallery. First discovered by Chris Dunn in May of 1999 when we were in Egypt together, the upper wall of the Grand Gallery, near the entrance into the King’s Chamber, is made of granite, not limestone. The entire wall shows deep dark stains that may be the result of being exposed to tremendous heat, perhaps from an explosion. Along the side ramps of the gallery are several rectangular holes or sockets, evenly spaced throughout the entire distance of the ramps. Some Egyptologists, such as Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass, have speculated that statues of Khufu, the supposed builder of the Great Pyramid, were situated in these holes, but no evidence of any statues has ever been found in the pyramid. Chris Dunn has speculated that some sort of devices, perhaps Helmholtz Resonators, may have been inserted in these slots to amplify the energy produced in the pyramid. There is evidence that these resonators, or some other devices, may have exploded during the proposed cataclysmic event that occurred in the pyramid as there are burn or scorch marks on the ceiling of the Grand Gallery directly above and corresponding to the slots on the side ramps. This also may be why no traces of the resonators have also ever been found.

In January of 2003, I discussed the possibility of an accident/explosion having occurred in the Great Pyramid in antiquity with my Egyptian teacher, indigenous wisdom keeper Abd’El Hakim Awyan. While not specifically mentioning an explosion in the pyramid, Hakim stated that his tradition does record (orally) that a cataclysmic event occurred thousands of years ago on a global scale, an event that may have been sparked by a cometary flyby, a meteor strike or some other celestial/geosynchronous activity. Although Hakim does not often deal with exact dates, I believe this event may have occurred around 11,500 years ago as stated by Barbara Hand Clow in her book, Catastrophobia (Bear & Co., 2001).

In my book, The Land of Osiris, I mentioned a series of sites in prehistoric Egypt, from Dahshur in the south to Abu Roash in the north, and including Sakkara and Giza. These sites were all interconnected and linked by stone masonry pyramids and temples, and were all erected over 10,000 years ago according to the indigenous wisdom keepers of Egypt. I mention that the site of Abu Roash, some five to eight miles north of Giza, once had a pyramid, which is all in ruins today. Egyptologists state that the pyramid was unfinished and therefore is insignificant, but my research indicated otherwise. Where I once thought the pyramid had been attacked and quarried by Arabs in the last few hundred years seeking stone to rebuild mosques damaged by earthquakes, I now speculate that the pyramid may have been destroyed in the same aforementioned cataclysmic event. Abd’El Hakim also believed that this was the case.

Recent investigations at the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur also revealed some possible evidence to support this explosion hypothesis. The northwest corner of the pyramid, also believed by Egyptologists to have been recently quarried, appears to have been blown away as if from an explosion. The pyramid shows uneven loss of stone, inconsistent with systematic quarrying. Most of the original casing stones are still intact, yet this one side seems to be blown off.

A cataclysmic event in antiquity, proposed by many authors as having occurred around 11,500 years ago, whether celestial as a comet or meteor strike, planetary near miss, or even an ancient global war as suggested by David Hatcher Childress and Zecharia Sitchin, may have affected all the stone masonry pyramids on the gridline that I have labeled The Land of Osiris, approximately 25 square miles from Dahshur to Abu Roash. The evidence presented that can be found in the Great Pyramid does indicate that the inner chambers of the monument were once subjected to great heat and/or an explosion which caused the great 70 ton granite beams in the ceiling of the King’s Chamber to crack. This evidence, obvious when carefully observed, cannot in any way be explained or accounted for by merely dismissing the monument as being a tomb for a king constructed 4500 years ago. There needs to be more independent holistic study by scientists and researchers of varied disciplines concerning these anomalies mentioned to determine, if possible, whether an explosion did indeed occur in the Great Pyramid in antiquity. There is enough evidence presently to bring into serious question the whole assumption of the pyramid being constructed as a tomb for a king in 2500 BC.

By Stephen Mehler

Transdneistria BANS Ukrainians from Entry Unless They Have Relatives in the enclave – Ukraine Military HIDING Equipment along border

World Hal Turner 24 February 2023

The authorities of Transnistria have banned entry into the territory of citizens of Ukraine️ who do not have relatives among local residents.

The Ukrainian Armed forces are hiding their equipment near the villages of Topaly and Domnytsya, which are located near the Transnistria/Ukraine border, near the massive Arms Depot filled with 20,000 tons of Soviet-era weaponry, located in Cobasna, Transdniestria.

The fact that the Ukrainians are preparing a provocation is clear.

Tucker Carlson Given Unreleased Jan 6 Footage-Democrats FREAK OUT!

8 Guys Reveal What It’s Like To Be Good Looking

October 13, 2020

1. Everyone thinks I’m funny. People are always sneaking glances at me. Cashiers and waitresses and people like that are way nicer. People respect me when I haven’t given them a reason to. Women make excuse after excuse regarding why they fucked me on the first or second date and how they never do that. Thanks to dating apps, I can reliably get laid by Friday if I work on it starting Monday that week (though I am now dating).

But the biggest difference is just general day to day life and its impossible to describe. I used to be ridiculously ugly so I know the other side of the tracks. There is something unquantifiable – but everyone treats you differently. Everyone. Your parents will treat you differently. Your coaches, teachers, men, women. They probably don’t realize it but they definitely do.

2. On an everyday basis it’s easy to talk to strangers. Getting checked out by woman really does make me feel great, the more attractive the woman the better. When I’m nice to people it’s almost always reciprocated.

I’m a scientist and professionally it can be less stellar. I’m also pretty friendly and people often assume I am less intelligent. That can be a hurdle to get over for some people. In general people can be far more critical of my work or combative, often needlessly. This is especially true of around half of the women in my field and other men have noticed the same thing. As a result I get along much better with men and the other half of the women (who are great).

Socially it can be very difficult to remain friends wth single women. I’ve been with the same women for a third of my life. There has only been her (she’s freeking great). So I’ve had several relationships with women go sour when I’m not interested, or I don’t reciprocate feelings, or seemingly randomly.

3. I use to be unattractive a few years ago. Worked out, learned how to dress, became more social, have my own company, and get told quite a bit I’m cute,

girls just open up more. When you smile at a stranger, she’s more likely to smile back.
girls try to get your attention more. When I’m at a bar or a club, women will smile and make eye contact with me. Before I felt invisible.
girls are less flaky when it comes to dates. If I’m having dinner with someone, I don’t get bullshit texts 5 mins before that she can’t make it
way more options for dating, life’s just better

I wanna make one thing very, very clear. Any guy can become more attractive with some work. – workout – dress well – smile – be passionate about things in life

Looks do matter to girls, but not as much as it does to guys. Just dont expect your girl to be a 9 when you look like a 4, when u could easily be a 7 with some effort.v

Just kinda irks me when a guy says he’s forever alone but he’s 300lbs and stays at home all day surfing reddit and watching porn.

4. People are very trusting of you. I get asked for directions a lot on the street – far more than anyone I know. I live in Manhattan – but i’m talking 3 separate groups of women in 1 block. It’s almost silly sometimes, as if i’m famous.

People believe what you tell them, which is part of the reason I’ve been so successful in business. The flip side of that is you begin to believe that whatever you say is true. Then someone who doesn’t care that you are handsome ends up thinking you are just some arrogant cock bag.

Women hit on me all the time. For all their tough talk about how men are so weak, women are unbelievably arrogant around a hot guy. My wife and kids could be right next to me and they’ll still flirt with me. Very strange.

Tying into that last one, I get a lot of inappropriate advances too. I guess because there are proportionally fewer ‘hot’ guys around, women feel like the sexual harassment rules don’t apply. At work this can become awkward. When I was a teen/early 20’s I didn’t know how to handle this gracefully and so became a bit of a dick in these situations.

You tend to get invited places. Parties/events/friends etc – people just want to have you around a lot. This becomes very difficult to handle – and is one of the main reasons I don’t go out too much. With too many invites you must choose between friends, and that sucks. Those who you choose like you, and those who you overlook assume you look down on them. You cannot win.

Men have a 50/50 reaction to me – either they love me or hate me. It’s very easy to tell which guys are self confident and which are self conscious.

5. I have been told that I am attractive (I have a very beautiful wife, if that is any proof) and I am also very tall (6’5, I stand out in a crowd) so perhaps I have a little insight.

Remember the episode of 30 Rock with John Hamm as Liz Lemon’s boyfriend? He basically did whatever he wanted to do and nobody ever told him he was wrong; they just agreed and gave him whatever he wanted. It’s a little like that; people don’t obey my every command, but they are more accommodating. For example, if I make a suggestion to a group and someone who is considered unattractive also makes a suggestion I can almost guarantee that people will go along with my suggestion, even if it isn’t the best one.

One more thing: I catch people looking at me all the time. Women (and some men) will crane their necks or turnaround to look at me. Sometimes it’s a little flattering, most of the time it’s somewhat creepy.

6. Women stare at me quite a lot. Some stare like as if we are boxers staring at each other before the fight. Creepy as hell.
Older women tend to flirt a lot. Younger girls – less. Anyway, 75% of the interaction is light teasing and flirting. Girls at the office open and loud at the way I dress and look right in front of me, as if on purpose, sometimes I can hear “look at Sasha’s white shirt, omygawd” as I walk by. Also, I can get away with any shit when talking with woman, they may get upset for a moment, but never keep anything against me for long. Whenever I approach a woman, chance of her being mean or rude are less than 10%, I never heard stuff like “eew, get away from me” or something similar.

Here’s an example. I went slow dancing with the new girl at the office party last week, saw something like group of five-six other girls at the table staring at me like baby owls at the piece of meat. Later on, after the dance, they started acting out like I cheated on them or something. So I went to karaoke bar to escape the drama. Next time I saw them at the workplace some of them suddenly started to apologize that they did not dance with me at the party. That’s weird, to be honest.

7. 6’1″ 180 pound fit male who has been rated many times at “9-10”. I’ve had opportunities to do modeling and been asked to do several casting calls while in public. Not as great as you would think. I get groped and have my ass grabbed a lot, not by “hot” girls either. I’m still nervous and awkward around very attractive women, this doesn’t go away with good looks. Women stare ALOT and openly sexually harass you.

As far as being treated better by people: my female professors jumped through hoops to help me with anything, but my male professors were always uncomfortable/very standoffish before getting to know me well. Guys will take any chance to openly belittle you in front of anyone else. Probably an insecurity thing.

8. Black guy here. I’ve always known that i was considered cute/attractive by black women. I’ll say i am an 8/10, not tall, too skinny, but i almost always end up with attractive women.

I was never really able to read white and asian women, i grew up mostly surrounded by whites and asian so I actually didn’t get that much female attention, therefore i was a little unsure where i stood physically.

Fast forward to present day…

I am pretty confident i can get with most black women. White and Asian women tend to approach me more when they have a little alcohol in them…usually looking for casual fun.
I purposely avoid sexual relationships because it takes too much effort to end it
I have pretty high standards and i can find someone willing to have casual sex on any weekend without trying too hard
I’ve had a few awkward boyfriend is at the party but gf is sneaking around cornering and groping me
Someone ditched her date and attacked me sexually at a bar while the date was just a few feet away. We barely made it around the block before she started giving me head. I actually felt bad about this but it ain’t my fault.
Lots of failed public sexual encounters after bars and clubs close
I have asshole-ish tendencies and it doesn’t seem to diminish attraction women have for me.
Sex with one of my professor’s daughter in their garage during a christmas party (this is still one of my favorite sexual encounters)

Former Prime Minister of Malysia: World War 3 Has Begun

World Hal Turner 25 February 2023

The former Prime Minister of Malaysia has now publicly warned World War 3 has begun; and it is the fault of Europe and the US.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad
@chedetofficial
WORLD WAR III

1. I hesitate to write this article. I may be accused of apologising for the Russians. I am not. I think the present war between Ukraine and Russia is caused by the Europeans’ love of War, of hegemony, of dominance.

2. Russia was the partner of the Western Europeans (including U.S. and Canada) in the war against Germany. The moment Germany was defeated, the west declared that Russia, their partner was their new enemy.

3. So they must prepare for war against Russia. And NATO was set up to form a military alliance against Russia. Russia then set up the Warsaw Pact. And a Cold war ensued. And the world had to choose between the west and the east.

4. After the Russians disbanded the Warsaw Pact and allowed the countries of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to leave the bloc, NATO did not disband.

Instead the countries freed from Russian hegemony were urged to join NATO as enemies of Russia. The pressure against the weakened Russia was heightened.

5. As the former socialist republics join NATO and the threat against Russia heightened, Russia rebuilt its military capabilities and confronted the powerful western alliance. Tension increased as NATO forces carried out exercises close to Russia.

6. Provoked, Russia pre-empted with the invasion of Ukraine. That invasion can be interpreted as the start of the Third World War. There is talk of using nuclear weapons. Already the world has to endure shortages of supplies due to sanctions against Russia and Russian retaliation

7. There is also provocation in the Far East. A visit by a high U.S. official to Taiwan caused an increase of tension between China and Taiwan. Both are arming and the U.S. has sold a lot of weapons to Taiwan, while China became more belligerent.

8. Even Malaysia is experiencing shortages and inflation. It is important that the country prepares contingency plans to deal with what may be the beginning of a Third World War.

DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
24 Feb 2023

Jeffery Sachs | We WILL NEVER KNOW PEACE AGAIN

https://youtu.be/9NoCbQqkay8

Feijoada (Black Bean Stew – Brazil)

Black Beans and Meat is the national dish of Brazil. Although usually involving several days for the preparation and traditionally calling for pig feet, ears and tail, this version is made with readily-available pork cuts. Serve this with hot white rice, sliced oranges and sliced white onion.

Ingredients

1 pound dried black beans
Water (to cover beans)
6 cups water
1 pound boneless ham, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 pound boneless pork loin, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
3/4 pound hot Italian sausage, sliced into 1-inch pieces
3/4 pound smoked sausage, sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 pint cherry tomatoes, stemmed
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/8 teaspoon orange zest

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large Dutch oven, combine beans, the 6 cups of water and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, skimming if necessary. Cover and transfer to oven. Bake 1 1/2 hours; remove cover and bake another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve immediately, with cornbread, if desired. Or allow to cool slightly, then cover and refrigerate overnight.
Remove any fat from surface. Reheat Feijoada slowly.

Serves 12.

Russia Halts Pipeline OIL Supplies to Poland

World Hal Turner 25 February 2023

Russia has halted pipeline oil supplies to Poland. Unclear at this stage why and for how long.

It may come as a surprise to many that oil pipelines had NOT been shut off under the “Sanctions” imposed due to the Ukraine situation. In fact, Russia has continued to sell and ship oil to most countries in Europe despite their howling over Ukraine.

Poland is still buying Russian oil!

The deal expiring at the end of 2024 covers around 10 percent of the needs of (Polish oil firm) Orlen. That means Poland is still buying 200,000 tons of oil from Russia each month.

Now, OIL is being shut off.

This situation continues to get worse.

Is the Biden Administration completely brain dead?

Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons on all its ships. The US arrogantly told China not to support Russia or that they would impose sanctions on China as they have done with Russia. That is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Once you make such a public demand on China, they now MUST act against it or their leadership will lose face.

I have dealt with governments for some 40 years +. Warnings of this nature have ALWAYS been communicated privately – NEVER publicly for that is confrontational and will necessitate the opposite side to vote against your demand. I cannot imagine that even I know far more about diplomacy than anyone in the Biden Administration. That suggests to me that this is deliberate. They just cannot be this stupid. They seem to be deliberately moving Russia and China together against the arrogant West in the very same manner that resulted in the Peloponnesian War with Sparta taking down Athens for its arrogance.

As the world teeters on the edge of World War III between Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran against the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Europe, diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful settlement are seriously lacking. Europeans should be storming their own parliaments demanding the end to supporting Ukraine and honoring the Minsk Agreement to forestall a potential conflict the likes of which Europe has not seen since the end of the second World War and will certainly not survive.

The Biden Administration appears to be taking the advice of Adolf Hitler given the complete lack of any diplomacy whatsoever. China has offered a peace settlement but the Biden Administration wants war. China had no choice but to respond to Biden:

‘The US is in no position to tell China what to do’

It’s starting to come out…

OMG. United States military bio-labs…

Belarus Moving ISKANDER Missiles “for Combat”

World Hal Turner 25 February 2023

Belarusian Ministry of Defense has relocated “Iskander” missile systems to a specified location in order to get them ready for combat. Video below.

Ensalada Criolla (Argentina)

Ingredients

2 tomatoes
2 onions
2 green bell peppers
2 tablespoons vinegar
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cut all the ingredients in small pieces, then add the dressing.
Chill until serving time.

Serves 4 to 6.

Did Ancient Japanese Fishermen Reach South America 5,000-Years-Ago?

The notion that pre-Columbian cultures from Europe, Africa, or Asia sailed across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to discover America, is a popular theory backed by numerous books and television documentaries. While most of these claims seem baseless, one theory did gain some credibility, in that it was backed by a reputable archaeologist from the esteemed Smithsonian Institution, the so-called ‘Jōmon-Valdivia hypothesis’. Until recently, mainstream historians and archaeologists most often shunned ideas about ancient transcontinental oceanic travel and the entire notion was considered as pseudoscience. Even in the face of new findings around the world that support the idea that oceans were travelled by ancient peoples who had both the motivation, and means to do so, many archaeologists still refuse to engage with the term “ancient transoceanic voyage.” And this is not as dogmatic as one might at first think, for the history of the subject is infected with mistakes, misinterpretations, and hoaxes that have left trails of confusion in their wake.

A drawing of a raft (balsa) near Guayaquil, Ecuador in 1748. The drawing resembles the description given by 16th-century Spanish explorers of the rafts used by Indians. ( Public Domain )

Some theorists suggest that the lost tribes from Israel appeared in North America, or that Phoenicians made it to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, but no one story has left such a wake of confusion as the ‘Jōmon-Valdivia hypothesis’, a 50-year long archaeological delusion that suggested the ancient peoples of Ecuador did not develop their own culture, but that they inherited it from prehistoric fishermen from Japan around 3000 BC.

Final Jōmon dogū (土偶) earthenware figure (c. 1000 – 400 BC) ( CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Jōmon period in Japanese history extended from circa 14,000–300 BC and represents an epoch when diverse hunter-gatherer groups merged with early agriculturalists through a common Jōmon culture. The name ‘Jōmon’ means cord-marked, referring to the twisted cord impressions that decorate the iconic pottery from this time, which is generally accepted to be among the oldest decorated clay crafts in the world. The earliest pottery fragments in Japan were found at the Odai Yamamoto I site in 1998 and date back to 14,500 BC, and similarly dated pottery was later recovered from the Kamikuroiwa archaeological site, and from within the Fukui cave.

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Ashley Cowie is a Scottish historian, author and documentary filmmaker presenting original perspectives on historical problems, in accessible and exciting ways. His books, articles and television shows explore lost cultures and kingdoms, ancient crafts and artifacts, symbols and architecture, myths and legends telling thought-provoking stories which together offer insights into our shared social history . www.ashleycowie.com.

Top Image : Utagawa Hiroshige’s Sailing Boats at Arai ( Public Domain )

By: Ashley Cowie

“Porn Fashions”: Obscenely Tasteless Apparel From 1980s Adult Magazines

It’s become a cliched joke to claim you read Playboy for its articles; but, in all seriousness, the best place to find wicked wild 70s and 80s fashions are in vintage porn.

Sounds like a flimsy excuse, I know. But when you get a load of some of these magazine scans, you’ll be a true believer. There was something magical about the admixture of drugs, sluts, and alcohol. The already unique 80s sensibility was taken to spectacularly awful (or awesome, depending on your tastes) extremes. Here are some of the finest fashions 80s porn had to offer. Enjoy.

h/t: flashback, retrospace

Putin’s ‘civilizational’ speech frames conflict between east and west

In his Federal Assembly address, President Putin emphasized that Russia is not only an independent nation-state but also a distinct civilization with its own identity, which is in conflict and actively opposes the values of 'western civilization.'

February 23, 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s much awaited address to the Russian Federal Assembly on Tuesday should be interpreted as a tour de force of sovereignty.

The address, significantly, marked the first anniversary of Russia’s official recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, only a few hours before 22 February, 2022. In myriad ways, what happened a year ago also marked the birth of the real, 21stcentury multipolar world.

Then two days later, Moscow launched the Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine to defend said republics.

Cool, calm, and collected, without a hint of aggression, Putin’s speech painted Russia as an ancient, independent, and quite distinct civilization – sometimes following a path in concert with other civilizations, sometimes in divergence.

Ukraine, part of Russian civilization, now happens to be occupied by western civilization, which Putin said “became hostile to us,” like in a few instances in the past. So the acute phase of what is essentially a war by proxy of the west against Russia takes place over the body of Russian civilization.

That explains Putin’s clarification that “Russia is an open country, but an independent civilization – we do not consider ourselves superior but we inherited our civilization from our ancestors and we must pass it on.”

A war dilacerating the body of Russian civilization is a serious existential business. Putin also made clear that “Ukraine is being used as a tool and testing ground by the west against Russia.” Thus the inevitable follow-up: “The more long-range weapons are sent to Ukraine, the longer we have to push the threat away from our borders.”

Translation: this war will be long – and painful. There will be no swift victory with minimal loss of blood. The next moves around the Dnieper may take years to solidify. Depending on whether US policy continues to cleave to neo-con and neoliberal objectives, the frontline may be displaced to Lviv. Then German politics may change. Normal trade with France and Germany may be recovered only by the end of the next decade.

Kremlin exasperation: START is finished

All that brings us to the games played by the Empire of Lies. Says Putin: “The promises…of western rulers turned into forgery and cruel lies. The west supplied weapons, trained nationalist battalions. Even before the start of the SMO, there were negotiations…on the supply of air defense systems… We remember Kyiv’s attempts to obtain nuclear weapons.”

Putin made it clear, once again, that the element of trust between Russia and the west, especially the US, is gone. So it’s a natural decision for Russia to “withdraw from the treaty on strategic offensive weapons, but we don’t do it officially. For now we are only halting our participation to the START treaty. No US inspections in our nuclear sites can be allowed.”

As an aside, of the three main US-Russian weapons treaties, Washington abandoned two of these: The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty was dumped by the administration of former president George W. Bush in 2002, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was nixed by former president Donald Trump in 2019.

This shows the Kremlin’s degree of exasperation. Putin is even prepared to order the Ministry of Defense and Rosatom to get ready to test Russian nuclear weapons if the US goes first along the same road.

If that’s the case, Russia will be forced to completely break parity in the nuclear sphere, and abandon the moratorium on nuclear testing and cooperation with other nations when it comes to the production of nuclear weapons. So far, the US and NATO game consisted in opening a little window allowing them to inspect Russian nuclear sites.

With his judo move, Putin returns the pressure onto the White House.

The US and NATO will not be exactly thrilled when Russia starts testing its new strategic weapons, especially the post-doomsday Poseidon – the largest nuclear-powered torpedo ever deployed, capable of triggering terrifying radioactive ocean swells.

On the economic front: Bypassing the US dollar is the essential play towards multipolarity. During his speech, Putin made a point to extol the resilience of the Russian economy: “Russian GDP in 2022 decreased only by 2.1 percent, estimates of the opposing side did not become reality, they said 15, 20 percent.” That resilience gives Russia enough room to “work with partners to make the system of international settlements independent of the US dollar and other western currencies. The dollar will lose its universal role.”

On geoeconomics: Putin went all out in praise of economic corridors, from West Asia to South Asia: “New corridors, transport routes will be built towards the East, this is the region where we will focus our development, new highways to Kazakhstan and China, new North-South corridor to Pakistan, Iran.”

And those will connect to Russia developing “the ports of the Black and Azov Seas, it’s necessary to build logistics corridors within the country.” The result will be a progressive interconnection with the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) whose principals include Iran and India, and eventually China’s mega-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

China’s plan for global security

It’s inevitable that apart from sketching several state policies geared towards Russia’s internal development – one might even compare them to socialist policies – a great deal of Putin’s address had to focus on the NATO vs. Russia war till-the-last-Ukrainian.

Putin remarked on how “our relations with the west have degraded, and this is entirely the fault of the United States;” how NATO’s goal is to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia; and how the warmongering frenzy had forced him, a week ago, to sign a decree “putting new ground-based strategic complexes on combat duty.”

So it’s no accident that the US ambassador was immediately summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs right after Putin’s address.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Ambassador Lynne Tracey in no uncertain terms that Washington must take concrete measures: among them, to remove all US and NATO military forces and equipment away from Ukraine. In a stunning move, he demanded a detailed explanation of the destruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, as well as a halt to US interference in an independent inquiry to identify the responsible parties.

Keeping the momentum in Moscow, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi met with secretary of Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, before talking to Lavrov and Putin. Patrushev remarked, “the course towards developing a strategic partnership with China is an absolute priority for Russia’s foreign policy.” Wang Yi, not so cryptically, added, “Moscow and Beijing need to synchronize their watches.”

The Americans are doing everything to try and pre-empt the Chinese proposal for a de-escalation in Ukraine. China’s plan should be presented this Friday, and there’s a serious risk Beijing may fall into a trap set by the western plutocracy.

Too many Chinese “concessions” to Russia, and not as many to Ukraine, may be spun to drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing (Divide and Rule, which is always the US Plan A. There’s no Plan B).

Sensing the waters, the Chinese themselves decided to take the offensive, presenting a Global Security Initiative Concept Paper.

The problem is Beijing still attributes too much clout to a toothless UN, when they refer to“formulating a New Agenda for Peace and other proposals put forth in Our Common Agenda by the UN Secretary-General.”

Same when Beijing upholds the consensus that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” Try to explain that to the Straussian neo-con psychos in the Beltway, who know nothing about war, much less nuclear ones.

The Chinese affirm the necessity to “comply with the joint statement on preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms races issued by leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states in January 2022.” And to “strengthen dialogue and cooperation among nuclear-weapon states to reduce the risk of nuclear war.”

Bets can be made that Patrushev explained in detail to Wang Yi how that is just wishful thinking. The “logic “of the current collective western “leadership” has been expressed, among others, by irredeemable mediocrity Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general: even nuclear war is preferable to a Russian victory in Ukraine.

Putin’s measured but firm address has made it clear that the stakes keep getting higher. And it all revolves on how deep Russia’s – and China’s – “strategic ambiguity” are able to petrify a paranoid west flirting with mushroom clouds.

(Republished from The Cradle by permission of author or representative)

Professor Richard Wolff: Dangerous Motives Behind US Aggression Toward Russia and China

Russia Engages GPS-JAMMING over Nuclear Weapons Facilities

World Hal Turner 25 February 2023 Hits: 13797

Overnight, Russia implemented very strong GPS Jamming over and around its nuclear weapons sites; both missile and storage sites.

This is designed to thwart GPS-Guided precision missile strikes by causing the missiles to go severely off-course.

The image above shows the area being jammed (in red) in Russia’s far east, over a national-level-nuclear-weapons-storage facility.

More interestingly, Russia has also engaged GPS Jamming of Finland, Denmark, and Sweden.

There are three primary GPS systems in operation around the world, and Russia’s Electronic Warfare is JAMMING ALL THREE!

It should be noted that such electronic warfare jamming is not done routinely; it is __generally__ engaged when a country believes an attack is likely.

The big question then becomes, does Russia think it is going to be attacked first . . . OR . . . does Russia KNOW it is going to be attacked, perhaps because Russia itself is going to launch an attack first?

Amazing Vintage Photos That Show How Life Before AutoCAD Looked Like

Before the advent of AutoCAD and other drafting softwares, the engineering drawings were made on sheet of papers using drawing boards. Many equipments were required to complete a given drawing such as drawing board, different grade pencils, Erasers T-squares, Set square etc.

Almost 20 years ago, engineers and toolmakers used to draw all things on paper with the help of drafting tools and pencils. Drafting was indeed was tedious and time-consuming. Designing and putting everything on paper was a tough job, maybe that’s why the need of creation of AutoCAD software came up. The major disadvantage of paper based design was that, you can not actually change it after it’s been put on paper. So if design is changed, then start making sketches over!

AutoCAD and all that softwares are just tools which save us the time and give some more accurate designs. However initial designs are still done on paper which later converted to CAD design for better understanding!

h/t: vintag.es

Confessions Of A Retired Bank Robber

October 5, 2020

What made you get into bank robbery?

Bank robbery is the real American Dream. We make movies about it, and as long as innocent people aren’t hurt or killed, our society loves bank robbers.

Also, it seemed like a worthy challenge. I thought it would be quite an accomplishment if I could solve the puzzle and figure out how to get away with it.

Did you have a mentor of sorts that you learned from or did you have a community of bank robbers that you would talk to?

Only the Internet. I studied countless reports of other robberies that had gone wrong and people who were caught. I never told anyone what I was doing. One of the main things I learned from research was that an overwhelming number of people are caught because they didn’t do it solo. So I never let anyone (not even my wife or best friend) know what I was doing.

How much planning did you do before robbing a bank?

I researched for about five or six months prior to my first one. I studied mostly the things that people did to get caught, and I just tried to plan around those things. It’s hard to know how people get away since those details rarely make it to the news, but studying how people get caught was incredibly helpful in knowing what to avoid.

Once I did my first bank, very little planning was needed for subsequent banks. I never really scoped out a particularly location other than to make sure there was parking that was out of view from the bank.

Were any movies helpful or are they all too unrealistic?

Hollywood knows how to tell a story, but they don’t know how to rob a bank.

Could you walk us through the process?

Basic Outline: – Stand in line like a regular customer – Wait for the next available teller -Hand them an envelope and tell them to give me their $50s and $100s (usually this was written on the envelope rather than me verbally saying it) – Turning around and walking out like a regular customer

No gun. No threats. No Hollywood drama. No mask. No disguise. Nothing.

Just a regular customer. In and out in the same amount of time as if I was making a deposit.

I generally chose a time of day when I thought the cops were on shift change, which was usually around 3pm. Some cities actually publish that for whatever weird reason.

I usually went to Chili’s or somewhere to eat and chill out.

Doesn’t sound like a whole lot. How much would one teller even carry?

In their top drawer, it was usually less than $10k. I probably averaged around $5k per bank. But it was pretty low risk that way, so that was cool with me.

Why did you only want $50 and $100s?

I don’t know about today, but back then all of the marked bills, dye packs, and tracking stuff was in $20s, so I definitely didn’t want those. And $1s, $5s, and $10s were such a small denomination that they wouldn’t add up to much anyway. It wasn’t worth the extra time for them to get everything out of their drawer.

Also, if someone else noticed the teller clearing out their drawer, it might look weird and trigger some sort of response. Getting out a bunch of $50s and $100s, however, seemed to be the quickest way and drew no attention from other tellers.

Was there a threat involved? Or you just said “give me this money” and they did it?

No threat. I just told them what I wanted, and they complied. This is how it works in America because the amount of money a bank gives up ($5-$7k on average) per bank robbery is infinitely less than the amount of business they’d lose if shit got wild in a bank full of customers.

They just want to give you what you want and for you to get the hell out of their bank.

Why did the tellers give you the money if you had nothing to threaten them with?

Standard procedure at most banks.

Where did you look when the actual robbing was going on, did you stare at the teller in the eye, look down, just watch their hands?

Definitely stared at the teller’s eyes. You can see everything a person is thinking in that moment if you pay attention.

How did you get away? They would press some sort of alarm wouldn’t they?

Yes, and they always did. Button calls the alarm company. Alarm company calls 9-1-1. 9-1-1 dispatches an officer. An officer speeds to the bank. I’m out the door before all that happens.

Did you carry a weapon??

No. I strapped a hammer to my leg under my pants just below my knee in case I needed to break out of a locked door or something, but I never used a gun or anything like that.

There were no security guards at the banks?

I didn’t do banks with guards.

Would you have harmed someone if you found yourself in a position between that and getting caught?

That depends on the situation. If it was just some random guy trying to be a hero, I would have probably gone to any extreme necessary to get away because that’s a challenge. On the other hand, if it was a cop or a security guard of some sort, I would have probably let them win.

Did anything ever not go as planned?

Yes. The last one I did.

The teller freaked out as soon as I turned to leave the bank. She started screaming “lock the doors, lock the doors” but I ignored it and just kept walking like nothing was happening. I got out before the doors were locked, but a guy walking into the bank seconds later already found them locked. He was pissed, of course, because it wasn’t closing time, and he thought he had gotten there too late. He obviously didn’t realize the guy who had just walked out of the bank and past him had just robbed the bank.

Did you ever get one of those ink cartridges that blew up on you and the money?

No dye packs. Nothing like that.

How were you not found out with CCTV or anything without wearing a mask?

Imagine you’d never met me or read anyting about me. Now imagine if they sent you the video of the bank jobs I did. Would you be able to find me?

If all you have is a picture or video of someone, that’s not really useful. As long as I didn’t make it to the news, I was good to go. And nothing I did was newsworthy because nobody got hurt and I didn’t make a scene.

When you were robbing a bank was it intense or were you calm the entire time?

I was calm and controlled, but it was incredibly intense at the same time.

It’s like having sex while taking the SATs. You have to focus on both 100% even though that’s not totally possible, and that’s why it’s so rewarding when it works.

What’s the most memorable thing that someone has said to you while you were bank robbing?

One teller skimped out on me and didn’t give me all I had asked for, and I told her, “You can do better than that.” She just shrugged — palms up like a little kid — and said, “That’s all I got.”

Pretty ballsy on her part.

On a scale from 1-10, how fun or sacry was it?

I don’t think I would describe it as fun. It’s kind of like sex. Everyone will use a different adjective to describe it, but none of them are quite accurate. It’s just…aahhhhh. Ya know? It was scary the first time I ever went to do it, and I chickened out. I sat in my truck in the parking lot beforehand but couldn’t calm down, so I went home and came back the next day. Except for that one day when I backed out, I never experienced fear.

How many banks did you end up robbing?

I eventually stopped counting. I originally fessed up to one bank, but they didn’t believe me, so I gave them two more. I did time for those three.

What did you do with the money that you robbed?

I used the majority of it for charitable stuff like helping people in need or donating to worthy causes. I gave quite a bit of money to a local charity that helps out the families of first responders who are killed in the line of duty.

What made you turn yourself in?

I always figured prison was in the cards for me — even before I was doing crime — so it made sense to turn myself in and get it over with, but most of all, I became a father and wanted to just do my time while my son was a baby instead of the cops accidentally figuring out who I was and taking me to jail when my son was older.

How did the police react when you turned yourself in?

The police were very professional. They sent the SWAT team to the hotel where I told them to come get me, so that was pretty shit-your-pants scary, but they didn’t fuck me up or anything. Once I was cuffed and cleared and all that crap, they all talked to me like I was a rock star or something. It was really strange. They asked “why” and all that stuff, but it wasn’t like the cop style of “why.” It was more like a fascinated curiosity.

How much time did you serve?

Three years

How did you only get three years?

First time criminal, turned myself in, lots of crap like that. The judge just believed three years was enough. Who am I to disagree?

Are you and your wife still together even after she found out about the robberies?

No. We divorced while I was in prison for personal reasons not related to my crimes.

How did she take the whole robbery thing?

She thought it was crazy, but not totally unexpected either. I was a little wild back then.

And what was prison like?

Prison was like church camp without the girls or weird counselors. I played a lot of chess and read a lot of books. I also wrote a lot, of course. Mail is the highlight of anyone’s day in prison.

There are some pretty bad dudes there, but nobody really wants any trouble unless you just really fuck them over. There’s always trouble if you want it, but it’s pretty laid back most of the time. You learn the way of life pretty quick in there if you’re smart.

Prison is lonely and depressing, but it’s also a great place to really work on yourself if that’s what you want to do. Most men and women waste that opportunity. Thankfully, I didn’t.

Did you ever actually feel guilty about anything you did?

I never felt guilty because I never attacked or assaulted anyone. Under the circumstances, I was as nice as I could possibly be to the bank employees because I did feel a little sympathy for them.

Did you ever feel that the concept of stealing money was wrong?

I think morality is very subjective. I wouldn’t steal from an individual person because I’m not comfortable with that. The banks, however, consider this kind of theft an acceptable loss, so that was okay with me being part of the loss that they consider acceptable.

Part of my process did begin with how poorly I thought rich people handled their money. I’d always thought, “If I was that rich, I could change the world instead of just piling up cash.” I don’t use that to make bank robbery “okay” but that’s what made it okay for me at the time.

Did you keep the money?

I paid it all back.

If you could go back in time would you have still done it?

Yes. I still acknowledge what I’ve done, but the process and experience of going to prison and finding myself (as well as a purpose in life) has really made it all worth it, relatively speaking. It’s hard to regret something that has turned into something so good.

What do you do now for income?

I was working in the oil fields until recently. Now I stay at home with my boys, and I am trying to get a book published and turn that into some sort of career, if at all possible. I’ve been on a few shows, and people seem genuinely interested in hearing more, so that’s what I’ve decided to do.

How difficult was it to get a job after prison?

I got out of prison on a Tuesday and had a job on Thursday. It only paid $13/hr, but it was good work, and I was happy about it. I worked there for about 14 months (while steadily looking for something better) and finally found work in the oil fields making quite a bit more.

What’s the life lesson you can give from this whole experience?

I think generally, it’s important to embrace the shit you’ve done wrong and be accountable for the things you can change in your own life. I’m a big fan of just stepping up and admitting where I was at fault, and I take a lot of pride in accepting responsibility for the things I’ve done.

Romania Deploys Air-Defense Missiles Along Moldova Border

World Hal Turner 25 February 2023

Overnight, Romania began deploying air-defense missile systems along its border with Moldova/Transnistria.

Tensions in the region are now at maximum, with Ukraine troops massing along their border with Transnistria/Moldova, just near a huge ammo depot filled with 20,000 tons of Soviet-era weapons and ammunition. If Ukraine can grab that weapons depot, it will supply their war effort against Russia for a full year.

Yesterday, this web site reported that Transnistria is now BLOCKING entry by Ukrainians unless they have relatives in the local area. Story HERE

Ukraine began massing 15,000-20,000 troops near Transnistria earlier this week. Story HERE

It is now coming out publicly that Russia may have to use TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS to make certain Ukraine cannot get its hands on that ammo depot. IT would serve to stop Ukraine and also serve the Russian military doctrine of “Escalate to De-Escalate” by showing adversaries that Russia is, in fact, willing to go all the way.

This is a flashpoint the world has never seen before, and it could happen within days.

Coconut-Raisin Pudding
(Dulce de Coco – Brazil)

Ingredients

3 cups shredded fresh coconut
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups milk
Dash of salt
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup raisins
3 tablespoons rum

Instructions

Heat coconut, sugar, milk and salt to boiling in 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently.
Stir at least half of the hot mixture gradually into eggs. Blend into hot mixture in saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.
Remove from heat; stir in raisins and rum.
Serve warm or cold.

Yield: 6 servings

DEVASTATING Chemical Explosion In Palestine Ohio After Train Derailment

Peking University professor Lu Feng (路风) stresses that, in the context of the US-China chip war, his advice is indeed to “take a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye”. 

“The more China backs down”, he says, “the more frequent and heavier the blows [by the US] will become. 

Thus, it is time for China to harden its fist and develop the ability to grab hold of the other side by the ‘throat’. Only then will the other party acknowledge that we both belong to a ‘community with a shared future for mankind’.”

Been crazy busy as of late.

I will provide updates later. Note that the “worm is turning” for many in this world, and there are major, MAJOR things on-going behind the scenes right now.

My response on Quora…

Question is…

Clearly World War 3 will erupt in four fronts, Russia Ukraine, China-Taiwan, North and South Korea, and Iran vs Israel.

Answer is…

Can the US handle all these war fronts just in case world war 3 breaks anytime?

Ah. This is most certainly a “wet dream” of American neocons.

And, ah most certainly, the mainstream media “news” is promoting the various narratives. So it appears to be this case.

But, if you all even knew a mere fraction of what I know, then you would realize that what things appear has nothing to do with the actual reality. Everything is a lie; a distraction and a fabrication. What you think is often, more often than not, just nonsense.

So let’s talk about “World War 3”…

Well, for starters, when the history books (describing this period in time) are written, it will layout the start of world war 3 to be around 2014. With the precursors initiating around 2008.

We are currently enduring the 3 – 5 year long peak of hostilities.

The end of “hostilities” will terminate after a 10 year long period of conflict. Roughly around 2024.

And a period of “rebuilding” and “reconstruction” lasting around ten years, and a new global normal well established around 2034.

The “four fronts”…

The questioner is truly saturated with the mass lies from mainstream media. The true reality looks nothing like the fears generated by the question suppose.

Russia Ukraine

The on-going pro-Ukraine propaganda narrative is really nonsensical.

Instead, Russia will “win” the conflict, and the end result will be a “rump state” of Ukraine, without ports and land-locked. Eastern Ukraine will continue to be part of Russia. Western Ukraine may or may not be incorporated into Poland.

A balance will settle down, and the idea that Ukraine will “continue” to be the breadbasket of the world will fade. The DU ammo remnants will have to be cleaned up, else the world will be flooded with radioactive fertilizer and cooking oils.

China-Taiwan

Reunification is in process.

The DPP (pro-America party) was thoroughly smashed during the last elections , it is unlikely to ever recover. Ongoing talks between the KMT (the status quo party) is going on in Beijing in regards to the technical details of providing the Taiwanese with a seat on the CPC people’s congress.

There will be no “invasion”.

One day, within the next five years, the West will wake up to Taiwan hoisting the Chinese mainland flag in Taipei without a shot being fired.

North and South Korea

Again, reunification is in process, but under the blanket of secrecy, least the United States overlords start a spate of “color revolutions”, terror attacks, and other covert operations.

Iran vs Israel

Iran is NOW well-connected with both China and Russia. This amazing power-block is significant and important. It’s still a work in progress, but with the BRI, Iran is no longer isolated, and future conflicts originating from the USA and Israel will gradually wind down.

The “real” war

The real and actual war wasn’t listed. Imagine that!

The “real war” is the decline of the United States and it’s proxy nations, against the rest of the world.

This decline of the West cannot be stopped.

The big concern is whether or not the United States will “flip the tables” and create a global catastrophe.

Latest political events in the United States, the Biden “War Party” against the Republican “War party” suggest that this might not happen.

Never the less, if you have been paying attention, the unified Asia are ready for this, and were the United States to ignite such a fiasco, the results WILL NOT be in the United States favor. If you think that the United States is going downhill now, you have no idea of how bad it can and will get.

The curtain is going down. The lights are going up, and people are moving out of the theater. It’s almost over.

Have some patience, and please, for God’s sake, turn off the “news”.

Lisa Vento’s Sausage Spinach Pie

Ingredients

1 pound sweet Italian sausage links, casing removed
6 large eggs
20 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry, or 1 pound fresh salad spinach leaves, stemmed
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
5 1/2 ounces (1/2 container) ricotta cheese
1/8 teaspoon pepper
10 to 11 ounces piecrust mix or 2 (9-inch) deep dish pie crusts

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Crumble sausage in a medium skillet and brown meat over medium heat, breaking up with a spoon. Drain on paper towels.
If using fresh spinach, bring a large pot of water to a boil and put spinach in water. Boil 1 minute and drain; squeeze dry.
Separate 1 egg. Combine 5 eggs with 1 egg white, sausage, spinach mozzarella, ricotta and pepper and set aside.
Prepare pie crust mix if using. Lay 1 pie crust in pie pan and spoon mixture into it. Lay another crust on top and flute with a stand-up edge. Carefully cut a 2-inch circle out of the top crust.
Mix egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water and brush on top of pie. (Can decorate with scrapes of dough.)
Bake for 1 hour, 10 minutes until golden and bubbly. Check crust after 1 hour and put foil on edges to prevent over-browning.
Let stand for 10 minutes and cut OR chill uncovered until cold; cover and refrigerate until serving cold.

Russian War Planes Enter POLAND Air Space

World Hal Turner 14 February 2023

F-35 fighters from the Royal Netherlands Air Force intercepted a formation of three Russian military aircraft near Poland and escorted them away, the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Dutch planes were part of the NATO Air Policing mission which monitors Central and Eastern Europe airspace.

According to a tweet by the Dutch Defense Ministry, the intercepted aircraft were a Russian IL-20M Coot-A reconnaissance plane and two escorting Su-27 ‘Flankers.’

Polish media is reporting the incident took place near the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in international airspace.

Lieutenant Colonel Guido Schols, the commander of the Netherlands’ F-35 detachment which is stationed in Poland, was quoted by the ministry as saying that Polish airspace is protected 24 hours a day seven days a week.

The Il-20M Coot-A is Nato’s reporting name for the Russian Ilyushin Il-20M reconnaissance aircraft while the Su-27 Flankers are Nato’s reporting name for the Sukhoi Su-28 fighter aircraft.

he Il-20M (ASCC name Coot A) was designed for intelligence gathering with its distinguishing features being the Igla-1 phased-array SLAR (Side-Looking Airborne Radar) pod under the forward fuselage, housings for A-87P LOROP cameras and the Romb 4 sigint system. Two antennas also protrude from the top of the fuselage for the Vishnaya communications intelligence gathering system.

OOOPS! Poland Changes its story . . .

They are changing their story a little bit now…

“Poland’s Ministry of Defense has confirmed that Dutch F-35 fighter jets were scrambled on Monday to intercept three Russian aircraft.

“Dutch F-35s stationed at the 22nd Tactical Air Base in Malbork were scrambled on Monday (February 13) in order to identify and intercept 3 Russian aircraft that were operating near Polish airspace,” the Polish Defense Ministry said in a statement sent to CNN on Tuesday.

The defense ministry said that the F-35 fighters were operating over international waters and Polish airspace was not violated.”

Richard Wolff on the decline of the US empire and the denial of the US

This is spot-on and brilliant. A must read.

he Buildup To War In Ukraine – February 15 2022

After the 2014 coup in Kiev the dully elected President Yanukovich had fled the country. His supporters in parliament were afraid and would no show up for further assemblies. The incoming U.S. selected government immediately set out to suppress the Russian speaking parts of Ukraine. The first move of the rump parliament, now dominated by right-wing people from west Ukraine, was to prohibit the Russian language for official business.

The ethnic Russian population in the east and southeast was opposed to the coup and rebelled against it. The new government tried to oppress it by military means. But a lot of soldiers defected to the rebels and soon those won the upper hand. The Ukrainian government troops were decisively defeated, twice. Each time the French, German, Russian and Ukrainian governments set down to come to agreements on how to proceed:

The first, known as the Minsk Protocol, was drafted in 2014 by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, consisting of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with mediation by the leaders of France and Germany in the so-called Normandy Format. After extensive talks in Minsk, Belarus, the agreement was signed on 5 September 2014 by representatives of the Trilateral Contact Group and, without recognition of their status, by the then-leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). This agreement followed multiple previous attempts to stop the fighting in the region and aimed to implement an immediate ceasefire.

The agreement failed to stop fighting, and was thus followed with a revised and updated agreement, Minsk II, which was signed on 12 February 2015. This agreement consisted of a package of measures, including a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line, release of prisoners of war, constitutional reform in Ukraine granting self-government to certain areas of Donbas and restoring control of the state border to the Ukrainian government. While fighting subsided following the agreement’s signing, it never ended completely, and the agreement’s provisions were never fully implemented.

The Minsk II agreement, a “Package of measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements”, was endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2205. It is available here. The package includes clearly numbered tasks. An immediate ceasefire is task 1. The ‘Launch of a dialogue’ about legislation measures the Ukrainian parliament would have to take to recognize a special status for Donbas is step 4. Step 9 is the reinstatement of full control of the state border by the government.

These clearly defined steps later proved to be the reason why the agreement was never fully implemented. The government of Ukraine insisted that step 9 should be taken before step 4. The governments of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics insisted on the original sequencing as giving up any control over the boarder with Russia, and the supplies coming through it, would have taken away their ability to defend themselves before the other steps, specifically the recognition of the special status of the Donbas republics, had been taken.

Over the years several summits were held to push for a fulfillment of the Minsk agreements. But the government of Ukraine, with ‘western’ support, continued to block the process.

On Tuesday, February 15 2022, following talks with the German chancellor Olaf Scholz, President Vladimir Putin ordered some troops who had been stationed near the border with Ukraine to move back to their barracks.

France 24 listed other headlines of the day:

Blinken speaks to FRANCE 24: The Ukrainian crisis has ‘reinforced transatlantic solidarity’
NATO chief says ‘cautious optimism’ over Ukraine crisis
Ukraine crisis: Blinken says risk of Russian invasion high
Should I stay or should I go? Ukrainians remain resolute despite a war of nerves
Scholz welcomes Russian withdrawal of some troops from near Ukraine
Putin, Scholz begin talks in Moscow over Ukraine security
Russia says some troops return to base, Ukraine reacts cautiously
Markets calmer after Zelensky’s invasion joke spooks investors

France 24, and many other ‘western’ media, missed something important that was happening in Russia:

Russia’s parliament will vote on Tuesday to decide whether to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognise two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent, the speaker of the Duma lower house said.
…
The idea of asking Putin to recognise the breakaway territories was first floated by lawmakers on Jan. 19 but has taken weeks to get onto parliament’s agenda, with the Kremlin declining to comment on whether it likes the idea.

In late January 2022 the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) had analyzed the idea:

On January 19, 11 members of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, registered a draft law to recognize the independence of two separatist statelets in eastern Ukraine that have been warring with Kyiv since 2014 with substantial but undeclared support from Moscow. The document, which was put forward by members of the Communist Party, comes amid rising tensions along Ukraine’s border and in occupied Crimea, as Russia continues its buildup of military forces while demanding that the collective West agree to proposals to reshape the European security order to its liking.This is not the first time that Russian parliamentarians have sought to provide official recognition to the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (abbreviated as the DPR and LPR, respectively). In 2014, deputies from the party launched an abortive campaign to collect signatures in support of recognizing the territories’ independence, which would have been delivered to President Putin for consideration. Meanwhile, the Just Russia party called for recognizing the statelets’ independence that same year and has included it in subsequent party platforms.

This was not the idea of the major government supporting United Russia party, but of the parliamentarian opposition. Putin had rejected the 2014 attempt towards independence as he did want to keep the Donbas republics within Ukraine.

CSIS writes that an eventual recognition of the independence of Donbas was seen by its supporters as a step that might help to avoid a war:

The approach suggested by the Communists offers certain advantages to Russia. First, with negotiations on Russia’s security demands stalled, extending official recognition to the LPR and DPR could give Putin a relatively simple way to shift the status quo in Russia’s favor without (necessarily) involving the 127,000-strong Russian forces currently encircling Ukraine.The chairman of the State Duma’s committee dealing with relations in neighboring states has already indicated that recognizing the statelets’ independence could be part of Russia’s “plan B” in case talks fail. If Russia would want to allow more time for negotiations to play out, while also escalating pressure to compel the West to accept at least some of its core positions, then recognition of the statelets could be considered in the Kremlin as an appropriate next step. Should Ukraine and the West make substantial concessions at that stage, then Putin would be able to proclaim a victory in the current standoff and draw down his forces rather than risk a spiraling escalation with unpredictable outcomes.

During its February 15 session the Duma adopted the resolution:

Russia’s lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognise two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and the European Union told Moscow not to follow through.The move by the State Duma, if approved, could further inflame a wider standoff over a Russian military build-up near Ukraine that has fuelled Western fears that Moscow could attack. Russia denies any invasion plans and has accused the West of hysteria.

Recognition of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics could kill the Minsk peace process in eastern Ukraine, where a conflict in the region known as Donbass between government forces and Moscow-backed separatists has cost 15,000 lives.

“Kyiv is not observing the Minsk agreements. Our citizens and compatriots who live in Donbass need our help and support,” Vyacheslav Volodin, the State Duma speaker, wrote on social media.
…
At a news conference in Moscow, Putin declined to be drawn out on how he plans to respond. He said Russians were sympathetic to the residents of the Donbass region, but he wanted the regions’ problems to be resolved through the Minsk accords.
…
Four-way peace talks between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany were held last week but ended without a breakthrough.

After the talks, Ukraine said it would not yield to pressure from Moscow to negotiate directly with the separatists, while Russia accused Kyiv of putting forward absurd proposals.

The OSCE Special Observer Mission at the ceasefire line in southeast-Ukraine reported of February 15 that the number of ceasefire violations continued to be below average. The number of explosions, i.e. artillery impacts, was higher than average but mostly limited to one area where they hit on both sides of the ceasefire line:

In Donetsk region, the SMM recorded 24 ceasefire violations, including five explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded 17 ceasefire violations in the region.In Luhansk region, the Mission recorded 129 ceasefire violations, including 71 explosions.
…
The majority of ceasefire violations occurred in areas close to the disengagement area near Zolote (government-controlled, 60km west of Luhansk) (see below). In the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded 157 ceasefire violations in the region, some of which also occurred near the disengagement area near Zolote.
…
During the reporting period, the SMM camera in Zolote recorded four projectiles in flight, while Mission patrols heard 61 undetermined explosions and 37 bursts of heavy-machine-gun fire, assessed as outside the disengagement area near Zolote but within 5km of its periphery.

Posted by b on February 15, 2023 at 14:45 UTC | Permalink

Russia-Ukraine Coming to a Head – Major “Historic” Speech by Putin on February 21

World Hal Turner 15 February 2023

All Russian TV outlets have been told to drop everything and broadcast a speech by President Vladimir Putin, live, on 21st February. The speech is to the Russian Federation Assembly. Sources tell me this could be “it.”

TV stations have been told to expect the speech to last about an hour. I am also told all radio stations in Russia are to carry the speech live. This seems unprecedented.

Between this and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kuleba boasting that “something is going to take place on February 23 and 24 that Russia will not like, it will affect the whole world” it is appearing more and more likely that the crap is going to get real for all of us; maybe the formal outbreak of WW3.

Today, Russia called for an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council over US destruction of Nord Stream pipe line.

The Russians will get nothing out of the US-controlled UN other than obstruction.

This afternoon in Russia, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, a guy named Tolstoy, announced new denunciations of international treaties by Russia: “There is no possibility and no desire to work with the Europeans on any issues.”

Yesterday, this web site reported Covert Intel that Norwegian Intelligence Services reported, for the first time since the Cold War, Russia has started deploying tactical nuclear weapons to their Northern Fleet warships.

Today, it came out that The U.S military ordered depleted uranium (DU) munitions designed for the Abrams tanks that Biden is sending to Ukraine. DU caused cancer and birth defects in Iraq, Afghanistan, and former Yugoslavia. Russia considers these to be a “dirty bomb” and, as reported by this web site weeks ago, Russia will respond to being hit with a “dirty nuclear bomb” exactly the way anyone would expect them to — with nukes.

Right now Nukes and their delivery systems — Ships/Subs/Mobile Launcher Trucks are on the move everywhere.

Global tension is off the scale.

Putin’s speech on 21st February might be simultaneous with the Nukes being launched. In my gut, I pesonally believe (and this is only my personal view) I’d expect Putin to give the West an Ultimatum and a date. After that a State of War will exist with the West…

I bet all those Russian ships that sailed out of port have attack orders. Once the go signal is sent, they will unleash their nuclear missiles…

We are so close.

He may announce that Russia will in the future interdict war supplies being sent to Ukraine. This could involve the seizure of ships.

He may announce that Russia now regards certain countries as being co belligerents with Ukraine, and that Russia may strike at weapons and training facilities in Europe. This is extreme though.

My money is that this is about Nordstream and the US. He may try to peel apart the US and some European countries. Then join forces with China saying there will be no peace treaty until Russia wins Ukraine and China wins Taiwan.

Russia doesn’t want to face Nato. It’s a losing situation. But if he can divide NATO over Nordstream and if he can ally with China he might go for it.

Nukes are reserved for when you’ve lost. But even then you don’t use them. You insist that even in defeat you retain the reins of your country, your country retains it’s sovereignty or you’re going to launch your nukes. This is damned believable and anybody will settle for that.

Make preparations. Food, water, medicines, generator with fuel, communications gear, a plan for the family that everyone knows by heart where to meet, how to get there, what to do if some don’t make it.

If you can, try to avoid being around high risk targets.

What Does It Feel Like To Go From Physically Unattractive To Attractive?

April 9, 2019

All growing up, I was extremely sick—undiagnosed with Celiac Disease.

At school, I think the worst insult I ever heard was, “Hey Cole, the holocaust called and they want one of their bodies back.” That’s how skinny I was.

I lacked any and all confidence, and had no peer group to call my own—my group of friends lived on the Internet in the World of Warcraft.

I didn’t attend a single dance or high school event until my senior year prom, and I took a girl from another school—a girl who I tried very hard to keep from realizing that my social capital was next to nothing.

I think the above photo on the left sort of speaks for itself. I was not quite what many would deem “attractive.”

Fast forward 7 years…

I now resemble society’s definition of “attractive.” Horrah. I finally did it.

The girls that never paid any attention to me suddenly crawl from the woodwork.

The guys who made fun of me now ask for my help, wanting to know how they can get bigger, praising me and my achievements.

Teachers, family friends, work associates place value on my physique, many of them assuming life for me has always been this way—I grew up that star athlete who could get any girl he wanted.

And now more than ever I realize just how few people really know me.

This transformation taught me a lot about who we are as humans and as a society. I think there is absolutely something to be said for presenting your best self—that’s why we’re told to dress well for job interviews, to “look the part.” It makes sense why people would endear the fact that I have achieved something physically for myself.

The hard part (and this is more of an internal thing within myself) is coming to terms with the fact that a lot of the pain I felt growing up was the result of something as trivial as my body. It’s sad that as a scrawny kid, playing World of Warcraft made me a nerd, but as a shredded bodybuilder, playing World of Warcraft makes me “sort of kinky/a hot nerd” (direct quote from females).

It’s sad that we high-five and praise the football players and the athletes, but condemn the chess players or the artists.

It’s sad that nobody recognized my intelligence until I gained something that had very little to do with my intelligence.

And it’s sad how many people think that this is what defines me. They talk about my biceps as if they’re detached from my body, someone else—an entity we can discuss objectively. They taunt me to take my shirt off and entertain the crowd. They ask me why I’m out right now, shouldn’t I be in the gym, aren’t I obsessed, lololol. They ridicule my work ethic and at the same time ask for my help.

So I embraced it. And decided I wanted to do something positive with it.

I want to support the kid who wants to become a professional gamer, or an artist. I want to help others improve their bodies so that people will take them seriously. I want to do something positive with the knowledge I’ve gained, instead of parroting the same script society tells us is the end goal: “get shredded, fuck bitches.”

As Nas said: “By the time you can afford it / the car ain’t important.”

By the time you’ve changed into the person you want to become, you’ll realize that it’s no longer for other people’s benefit.

I can’t knock the rewards I’ve gained with such a drastic transformation, but I also want it to be known that I think it’s absurd what we truly value in life. But if it takes being 170lbs and “shredded” for people to hear what you have to say, then I would like to be that voice for all the outcasts and misfits out there, quiet and shy, in love with their own unique crafts, scrawny or fat, made fun of for whatever reason.

Instead of putting them down, I would like to give them a high-five.

Because I was one of them.

– Nicolas Cole

DEVASTATING Chemical Explosion In Palestine Ohio After Train Derailment

Not being reported in the MSM. Big deal. A train derailment.

China and it’s reactions to the United States

The excerpts below are from a recent article by one of China’s most respected US specialists, Da Wei (达巍).

Da is, amongst other things, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University and the director of its prestigious Centre for International Security and Strategy (CISS).

His article was first published a couple of weeks ago (i.e. before the balloon incident) and has since been crossposted several times by Chinese think tanks and university research centres alike.

Even the notoriously US-averse Global Times published his piece both in Chinese and an abridged version of it in English.

For those of you who might not be so used to reading this type of article, Da’s arguments are framed using concepts and rhetoric promoted by the Chinese Communist Party. Indeed, it is Da’s way of providing substance to these and, in so doing, of shaping the debate in China.

More important than his references to Mao and Xi are his underlying arguments, which are:

US policymakers are now determined to exclude China from today’s interconnected world and are prepared to pay a price for doing so.
In the face of US attempts to decouple from China in certain areas, Beijing must respond in a way that does not end up exacerbating this trend.
China must both preserve and strengthen its connections with the outside world. This applies in particular to its ties with developed countries and thus also with the US. Only by doing so will China be able to prosper.
Except for matters that touch upon China’s core interests, Beijing should avoid responding to American provocations in a tit for tat way and should focus its efforts on “building bridges” with the US and the rest of the world.
Xi’s emphasis on developing China’s “fighting spirit” and on “being good at struggling” does not necessarily imply that China should become more aggressive. This, he says, should be understood as advocating compromise and cooperation with the outside world.
If productive engagement is not possible with Washington, Beijing should focus on strengthening its ties with groups and individuals at the local level in the US (state-level officials, academics, businesses etc.).
When the US is attacking China, it is all the more important for Beijing to enhance its ties with “Europe and countries in the Asia-Pacific” and be a little more “tolerant” with these countries than it would otherwise be with the US.

Ukraine Army to BURN Houses; Create “Smoke Screen” as they Retreat

World Hal Turner 15 February 2023

The Ukrainian Army is posting notices like the one shown above, on houses in Bakhmut saying “On February 16, this house will be burned to create a smoke screen against the Russian Army.”

Ukraine is LOSING the war so badly, and so fast, it has to set fire to people’s houses to create a smoke screen under which their troops can flee!

Reunification of Taiwan.

Cut and paste from Frans, long time MM readers knows who this is.

This is what was said last night by Larry Yu on “Radio Tsingtao” in San Francisco, USA. The channel is run by the Chinese community in San Francisco.
Translation into English follows below.

十五年統一大綱待全國代表大會通過。所有與中國有外交關係的國家都將收到通知。這是聯合國承認一個中國政策的補充。

15年計劃將讓那些不想成為中國人、不想成為中國一部分的人有足夠的時間離開，包括像香港一樣的外國資本。美國、英國、歐盟和 5 眼聯盟反中集團 (美國 加拿大 澳洲 英國 紐西蘭) 可以為他們打開大門，尤其是那些有錢的人可以生活在種族主義盎格魯撒克遜(西人) 國家.

美國將加速台灣武器化對烏克蘭的說法在意料之中，但不必擔心，台灣不是烏克蘭，離中國大陸只有幾英里。

為什麼要製定 10-15 年計劃？

在烏克蘭針對俄羅斯的美國代理人戰爭削弱了北約、歐盟和美國。對歐盟最大的傷害是每天被美國搶劫，他們已經開始醒覺, 被強暴還要面帶笑容, 他們不會支持美國在台灣對中國發動代理人戰爭。

陸路和海上的“一帶一路”將在俄羅斯、伊朗和中東國家的支持下，使美國對中國的海上封鎖失效。

今天，美國航空母艦特艦隊在中國海岸 2000 英里範圍內將難逃被擊沉。今天，中國的武器裝備在各個方面都與美國相當，預計在未來 10 到 15 年內超過美國數英里。

今天，超過169個國家、70億世界人口站在中國陣營。只有 10 億人口，主要來自歐盟、美國和 5 眼聯盟反中集團，主要是盎格魯撒克遜人(西人) 支持美國。俄烏戰爭後，大多數歐盟國家，尤其是德國和法國，都不想繼續做美國的附庸國。

The 15 years reunification plan to be approved by National Congress of China. All countries with diplomatic relations with China will be notified. This is in addition to the recognition of the one China policy by UN.

The 15 years plan will allow those don’t want to be Chinese and don’t like to be part of China plenty time to leave including foreign capitals just like those in HK. US, UK, EU and the 5 eyes ani-China alliance (US Canada UK Australia New Zealand) could open the door for them especially those with money to live in the racist Anglo-Saxon countries and suffer.

The argument that US will accelerate weaponizing Taiwan like US is doing to Ukraine expected but need not worry. Taiwan is not Ukraine and only miles from Chinese mainland.

Why the 10-15 years plan?

The proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has weakened NATO, EU and US. The biggest damage is to EU being taken to the cleaner by the Americans everyday. They are waking up fast will not support US proxy war against China in Taiwan.

The One Belt One Road by land and by seas will be in place rendered US sea blockade against China ineffective with the backing of Russia, Iran and the Middle East nations, Global South and etc.

Today, US aircraft carriers task force is sitting duck within 2,000 miles of China coast. China weaponry is in par with US in every category today expect to overtake US by miles in the next 10-15 years.

Today, more than 169 nations or 7 billions of world population is in China’s camp. Only 1 billion population mainly from EU, US and the 5 eyes anti-China alliance, mostly Anglo-Saxon are backing the Americans.

After the Russia-Ukraine war, most EU nations especially Germany and France will not want to remain a vassal state of US.

Largest Hypermarket Chain In Russia’s Far East Imposes Limits Amid Buying Frenzy And Fear Of Shortages

World Hal Turner 15 February 2023

The largest hypermarket chain in Russia’s Far East is restricting how much sugar, salt, and other essential foods people can purchase amid a buying frenzy triggered by fears of future shortages.

Samberi, which has 30 hypermarkets in nine cities in the Far East, announced restrictions on 10 items, including baby food, on its social media page on March 12.

“In essence, we are seeing signs of speculative demand. People are buying from us at reasonable prices and reselling them in other stores at higher prices,” Samberi said.

The hypermarket said demand for sugar has risen 400 percent compared with the average and that the sizes of individual purchases resemble what a small neighborhood retail store would buy, implying owners of mom-and-pop shops could be turning to Samberi to fill up their empty shelves.

Russians have been panicking about the prospects of food and goods shortages ever since the United States and its allies imposed punishing financial sanctions on the country after it invaded Ukraine.

Samberi is restricting the purchase of sugar, flour, buckwheat, pasta, and rice to 10 kilograms; cooking oil to 10 liters; salt to 3 kilograms; saury fish to 10 cans; baby food mix to three cans, and Pampers to five packs.

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

I have been telling my readers and radio audience FOR MONTHS to “prep” and “stock-up” because war is coming. War over the Russia-Ukraine thing that the West fomented, facilitated and financed since 2014 when it helped overthrow the duly elected president of Ukraine. Now, we see Russians engaged in “frenzy buying” for “fear of future shortages.” THEY know war is coming. THEY know they will need long term supplies. THEY are doing something NOW, before the war hits. Are you?

Taiwanese DO NOT trust the USA!

Whoa, who would’ve guess this turn of events! Good for the people of Taiwan.

Derailed Train in Ohio was ON FIRE at least 40 minutes BEFORE Derailing

Nation Hal Turner 14 February 2023

A Norfolk-Southern Railroad train which derailed and burned in East Palestine, OH, was shown to have one car with axles on fire at least 40 minutes BEFORE the train derailed.

Video obtained by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette newspaper, shown below, vividly shows the axles of one train car actively on fire. According to the newspaper, the location of this train relative to the derailment, proves the car was on fire a full 40 minutes before the train derailed and burned.

According to the newspaper, tracks have devices called “hot boxes” which monitor the temperature of wheels and/or train car axles, and alert the railroad if a car is overheating . . . . to avoid exactly this type of later derailment. If such an alert was generated, the train crew would have been required to halt the train immediately.

The video below begins showing the flaming axles at about 20 seconds:

After the primary fire from the derailment was put out, officials reportedly determined that a “controlled-burn” of other cars, carrying the chemical “vinyl-chloride” was the safest way to prevent an uncontrolled release of such chemicals or uncontrolled explosion. So officials reportedly engaged in a controlled burn.

The problem is that when vinyl chloride burns, it gives off other, deadly, chemicals; primarily hydrogen chloride and . . . phosgene gas.

If that last chemical name rings a bell, it should. Phosgene gas is a chemical weapon used in World War one, choking troops to death on battlefields in Europe.

Now, people living in and around East Palestine, OH are reporting severe respiratory troubles. Fish in nearby creeks and rivers are floating dead in the water. Farms with chickens are reporting all the chickens dead. Car owners are seeing chemical etching of their car paint and windows when they drive through rain or puddles from rain, in the area.

People are now talking openly that East Palestine may have to be permanently evacuated. They are also using the term “Chernobyl” to describe the exclusion zone that may have to be created.

Worse, the creeks and rivers flow into other, larger, rivers, and ultimately, to the Mississippi River.

If those local waters are so polluted that the fish are dying, what will that do to fish in the larger rivers.

Moreover, drinking water comes from those rivers for millions of people downstream.

This could be the biggest environmental disaster in US History . . . and it could have all been avoided if the train was stopped because a car axle was on fire.

I’m not a licensed financial expert or stock broker, so I cannot give financial advice. But if I owned stock in the Norfolk Southern Railroad, I’d sell it immediately given the likely cost exposure of this company, to potential civil liability. Of course, you should talk to a licensed financial professional before making any investment/divestment or money decisions.

Heroin Junkie Reveals The Schemes He Used To Support His Daily Habit

March 26, 2019

I’ve been addicted to opiates for about 6 years but for the past 3 years I was an IV heroin and meth addict and I got high everyday, and when I say everyday I mean everyday. (I also went to a methadone clinic) For the first year I had a good job and was able to afford it but I eventually lost my job which led me to doing all kinds of things to make money , and many I’m not proud of…I know I’m a shitty person for doing these things , and I know its wrong…I’m 5 months clean off heroin and meth so I no longer do this stuff, but I just want to tell my story on how I mostly supported my habit , some may find it interesting .

Every so often my mom would give me a little money here and there, but definitely not enough to support the habit I had , so I had to come up with ways to make it myself . The most easiest way I made money, and what I did the most , was simply driving my best friend around . I dated this girl about 6 years ago , but we figured out we were better just as friends, and we both got strung out on drugs together . She was the first person I injected drugs with . I’m 21 and she’s 28.

As we got bad off in our addiction she became a prostitute…she lived with her father in the ghetto and had 2 kids . During the day from when they got out of school and until they went to bed around 9pm she was usually at home with them, but from 9pm Until 7:00 am when they had to catch the bus, is when she worked .

I would take her on outcalls all night long , and the deal was , we keep gas in the car , keep cigarettes, and the rest goes on heroin and we split it 50/50 . She didn’t do meth , just heroin . She charged 160$ an hour , 120 for a half hour , or 80 for a q.v. 95% of the calls were q.v’s.

A q.v. stands for “quick view” and it basically means , just long enough to make the guy cum, so in most cases a q.v. only ranged from 5-15 minutes no longer. For us, it was the best deal because she could knock them out really fast , and we could get a half gram of heroin for 80$ and that was enough to start us out for the night .

If we didn’t have dope you could talk her down to 60$ for a q.v. and if we were dopesick she would do it for 40$, but that was rare…it’s definitely happened a few times , but only if we were desperate . We always mixed all the heroin up together and split it between two syringes . She usually got anywhere from 3-10 calls a night . 3 would be a slow night and 6 would be an average night , and 10+ would be a good night. Most nights we would make around 200 being the lowest, 400-600 being normal, and 1000+ being a good night . We’ve made $2000 a few nights , but that was very rare . Luckily we never had any trouble with the police, did have alot of sketchy dealings though .

I never went dope sick when I was rolling with her , we might of woke up dope sick , but it didnt stay that way for long . For some reason , people don’t do much during the day time , it would be pretty rare for her to go on a call during the day time , it was mostly always from 2am-5am. Some days she wouldn’t have good luck and we’d have to do other things .

There’s been many occasions where we would wake up sick , and have no money or anything . In those cases, I would drive my car from gas station to gas station and ask people for “gas money”. I was very good at talking to people , and selling my story…of course not everyone gives you money , but for the most part , I was always able to get what I needed . Out of all my friends , I was the best at doing this , because I’m pretty quick on my feet , I’m able to look people right in the eye and tell them a 100% bullshit story ,not stutter one word, and make them believe it…

I mostly sold the same story everytime…”I’m almost out of gas , left debit card at home , do you have 1 or 2 dollars I could have for gas , or even any change…I’m just trying to make it home, anything counts.” There’s small things you can do to ‘sell your story’ like look for change in your car while your talking to them, carry a gas jug etc. Depending on the person , the story would vary , but to make it short that’s it . I could always make 40$ in 2 hours max , but most of the time within 1 hour . That’s all we ever needed, was just 40.

If I didn’t feel like begging , (because it’s degrading), and somedays I just wasn’t up for it , I would go to Walmart . My golden rule was to never walk out with something you didn’t pay for…as long as you paid something. There is a box of vitamins in Walmart that are 34$ for one box , and there is another kind that’s the same brand name for 4$. I would peal the barcode off of the 4$ box and place it over the top of the 34$ box barcode and go to the self checkout . Hell sometimes I would go to a regular checkout…I’ve never been caught doing this.

You can return anything to Walmart without a receipt, but you must have an ID…you can get a cash refund for any item under 40$ and anything over 40$ you will get a gift card . I would buy a box for 4$ and take it to another Walmart and return it for 32$ as long as somebody had their ID…you can only do it 3x a month, but I always got a friend or somebody to return it .

If you have a receipt you don’t need an ID, so when I didn’t have an ID I would find a receipt for something around 30$ in the parking lot , go in and put a cheap barcode over the top of the items barcode, buy whatever it was for around 3$-5$ and return it with the receipt and get cash back .

If I needed a bunch of money , I would go to the fishing pole section , and get a 100$ fishing pole , and peel the barcode off of a 15$ pole , and put it over the 100$ poles barcode . Return the pole at another Walmart and get a 100$ gift card , and then go to the Walmart gas pumps , and find somebody that would pay me cash to pump their gas for them . It’s kind of lengthy , but I could earn a couple hundred bucks a day doing that .

It sounds goofy replacing the barcode , but it’s just wayy easier to get caught actually stealing something , than it is to “buy” it . I’ve done this hundreds of times and never have been caught once, but you can’t be obvious about it , and you have to be slick , or you will get caught.

We ate fast food everyday and 75% of the time we didn’t pay for it . I’d call and tell a restaurant I came last week and got such and such , and was missing one burger , and that I was coming for a replacement . I’d always tell them that I called back that same day , and talked to somebody and they wrote my name down…give them a fake name . You can only ask for one burger though…if you get greedy it won’t work.

The trick is , you have to be confident , and talk to them like it really happened…you can’t be sketchy , or iffy about it , you just have to be able to talk fast , and make them actually believe it…I was great at this…it would work 7/10 times…every time we did pay for food , we kept the receipt , so when we called and fed them the story , we could actually have a receipt and then it would definitely work. We survived off of this .

Of course we pawned all of our stuff of any value , and did a lot of middle manning , but these are just a few stories of some of our schemes that people don’t usually hear about .

I know all this is shady stuff , and I’m ashamed of it…and I know it’s wrong , but desperate times call for desperate measures…a hard drug addiction will make you do some terrible things , you’d never do in your right mind…there’s no need to comment on here and tell me I’m a piece of shit lowlife junkie , because I already know that…

I just figured a lot of people would be curious how a lot of junkies are able to make money on the streets for drugs without a job , and this is how a lot of them make it…a lot of people I know and hang around with do these same things …most of my friends like robbing houses and stealing, and robbing people for drugs, but I never liked taking things from somebody…a multi-million dollar corporation? Yeah I don’t care , but as far as breaking in a persons house and taking all their stuff, and robbing people for their dope Nah…

I’ve been ripped off before , and I’ve worked a hard labor job for almost 4 years so I know how it is to work hard for something and then have it stolen from you , and it’s the worst feeling ….I don’t do shit like that…I could easily make more money by breaking in houses and cars and robbing people for dope , or “robbing tricks” which is what a lot of prostitutes do , but I just wasn’t okay with doing that…Hope y’all enjoy.

Senator After UFO Briefing Tells Americans “Lock Your Doors Tonight”

Nation Hal Turner 14 February 2023

John Neely Kennedy is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Louisiana since 2017. Today, he got a briefing about the UFO’s the military has shot down. In press remarks afterwards he tells Americans “Lock your doors tonight.”

After the past two weeks, wherein high profile US military action resulted in the shooting-down of a China Surveillance Balloon and THREE OTHER Unidentified objects, members of the US Senate received a briefing from the military about the items shot down.

According to Senator Kennedy, the only thing they seem to know is that they don’t know much. So why did the Senator end his press remarks today by telling citizens “Lock your doors tonight?”

What Edward Snowden just said about UFO’s is TERRIFYING and should concern all of us

If anybody believes the Gov there is no help for you.

Confessions Of A Former Member Of A Polygamist Cult

May 13, 2019

How many wives did you father have? How many siblings do you have?

My dad had 27 wives and I have over 200 brothers and sisters from other mothers. I’m the oldest of 11 children from my biological mother

I’ve always wondered if kids, or even fathers/other mothers, remember ALL 200+ of their siblings and their names. Don’t they just kind if blend together after a while?

My dad doesn’t know half of his kids names. When John Daniel Kingston went to court, the judge asked him to name all his kids. He couldn’t name half of them.

How do the various wives deal with their husband constantly laying down with other women? Living under the same roof while this occurs has to be borderline torturous, right?

Most of the women don’t really know their husbands very well. Even so, there is so much jealousy in my cult. One of my half moms actually tried to run over a new wife with her van, who was marrying into our family. Most of the wives only live with another wife for the first 6 months to a year after they marry into the family. Most of the women have too many children to live together anyways.

Can you tell us some stuff about the logistics of a household/ community that size? Like grocery shopping and stuff

In my home, we got our food from the garbage. We would hop in the dumpster at Smiths every Saturday night to find whatever we could eat. Then, we would buy the rest of the Order grocery store on Sunday after church.

As far as bedroom, we had 5 girls share 1 bedroom and 3 boys in another bedroom. My mom had her room and my dad had his own room even though he was never there.

My mom owned a Ford Aerostar van and we never wore seatbelts. There weren’t enough seatbelts for that many kids

How did anyone make enough money to support that many children/wives?

In my group, the men don’t financially support the wives. They own the house for the family and the woman is expected to pay rent to the man. Most of the women are on government assistance or they don’t eat.

How do they get government assistance?

They are able to claim single mother and get help from the state.

Does the father have to pay child support? In other states when a mother and children get state assistance the father must pay child support to off-set the assistance.

The women claim they don’t know who the father of their children is. They are taught to lie to the state about everything including the paternity of their children.

Wow. That is massive fraud. How is that not investigated further by the state or feds?

There’s really no way to prove it. When they tried to charge my dad with incest, he sent all his related wives out of state until the order expired.

How do the leaders square this with the group’s religious beliefs?

They believe the government is evil so it’s not a bad thing to take money and resources from them. It’s called “bleeding the beast” and most polygamous groups practice it

Do you believe that your father actually believes what the religion preaches (especially in regards to polygamy), or does he just use it as manipulation for personal gain/desire?

I think he believes in polygamy and the LDS doctrine, but I think he’s taken it and practices it in a way that just hurts people

Did your cult call themselves “Mormons”? Did they take a lot of their beliefs from that religion?

We called ourselves fundamentalist Mormons and yes, most of the doctrine is the same. We believed the LDS church fell away from God when they stopped following polygamy and consecration and that’s the reason our particular group was formed in the first place.

How do groups like this operate without attracting attention from the different authorities?

My cousin Jacob Kingston is currently in prison pending a trial for fraud and money laundering of 500 million dollars. If you google Heidi Foster, Jacob Kingston, John Daniel Kingston, David Kingston, all these people have been in prison or have had charges against them. They don’t prosecute polygamy because it’s hard to prove and it’s recently been decriminalized. (not legalized)

What was the extent of your contact with the outside world while in?

I went to a public school for kindergarten and 1st grade and then my dad pulled everyone out of school to keep outside beliefs from getting in. I went to college when I was 15, but wasn’t allowed to see anyone outside class. We were not allowed to make outside friends. The order (the cult) owns grocery stores, their own school, etc. We never had access to the outside world. Even our employment was at an Order business.

When was the first time you realized “wait a minute, something is off here?”

When I was gang raped at 6 years old.

Is that normal within the cult? Are many of the girls experiencing this?

Almost every girl I grew up with in the cult was sexually abused in some form or another. It’s more rare to find a girl who was not abused.

Could someone report the sexual abuse of children in the cult to the Dept of Social Services? Wouldn’t they have to investigate?

The problem with reporting is the statue of limitations. I was sexually abused at 14, and I didn’t know I could even report it until I was 18. By that time, it had been 4 years and the statue of limitations had expired. I’ve reported abuse for my siblings, but they are so afraid of the outside world that they won’t cooperate with an investigation

How do people in the cult come to terms with child abuse, domestic violence, etc that go on?

In a cult, you are taught that the law doesn’t matter. God’s law is higher and the leaders determine God’s law.

Was there one person in particular that was the voice of reason and persuaded you to get out? If you can talk about them without worrying about outing them of course.

When I was about 16, I started sneaking out to go to a martial arts class. My sensei would listen to my crazy ideas and then debate with me about them. He would research my questions and help me see things from an outside perspective. The more I questioned my belief system, the more I realized the religion was abusive and wrong

What was the last straw for you to actually make the decision to leave?

My dad sat me down on my 16th birthday and told me I had to get married. I knew I was leaving about that point even if I couldn’t admit it to anyone yet

How old was the cousin they had arranged for you to marry?

I had a choice between a first cousin and a second cousin. 1st cousin was 19 (I was 17). 2nd cousin was 27 (I was 16)

Was your cousin into the idea of you two ending up together?

Yes, he cried when I told him we weren’t getting married

Why were those your two choices, why not one of the few thousand other people that weren’t related to you? Do they not know that marrying close relatives can result in so many issues with reproduction?

Getting married is a business transaction. You are given to a man as payment for something else (money, a business, strengthen family ties, etc.)

Are members concerned about genetic issues due to first cousins marrying? Did you see a lot of genetic problems within the community?

They have recently started genetically testing people before they get married due to the high birth defect rate in recent years. This was not a thing when I was there though

How exactly did you escape? What was the plan and how did you follow through with it? (Housing, money, running away, food, etc)

One night, when I was 17, I packed my photo album, journals, and some clothes in the back of my car and I disappeared. I was homeless for a month, before I found a friend who allowed me to stay with him. When I contacted my family, they brainwashed me into coming back. When I was 18, I left again. I stayed with a boyfriend’s parents while I waited tables and struggled through college.

You had a car/had access to a car?

I had a car because I threatened to turn my father into the authorities if he didn’t allow me to spend my money to get a car. It was much easier to leave after I was 18. I was able to legally be free of my parents.

How did you get money for it?

I had been employed since I was 11 years old. I was not allowed to spend any of the money I made. I ended up leaving most of my money in the cult after I left because I couldn’t prove it was mine.

Have they tried to reach out and get you back into the cult? And were they accepting of your wish to leave or did they try to stop you?

They tried to get me back into the cult for the first 2 years after I left. They finally gave up after I tried to help the authorities arrest my dad

Were you shunned when you left? Are your siblings technically not allowed to speak to you?

When I left, I was definitely shunned. I was not allowed to see or speak to any of my siblings. When I showed up on my little sister’s birthday to give her a present, my mom called the cops on me for trespassing. It was very difficult when I left. The only thing I could do, is assure my brothers and sisters that I was there for them in any way I could be. I’m the oldest of 11, so I raised most of them while my mom worked 2 jobs. Eventually most of the older ones reached out to me, even though none of them have had the courage to leave the group. I’m currently close to 3 of my full siblings, though our relationship has stayed secret

I’m really curious about the mothers and children on why they stay. Especially your mom calling the cops. Is it simply brain washed? Are they told lies about the outside word? Are they happy with that life style?

They really are brainwashed into believing the Order is everything. I’ve tried so hard to have a relationship with my mother, but it’s impossible because she will always put the cult before everything else, including her children. It breaks my heart

What do you feel is the worst part of your upbringing? Do you see any benefits to your upbringing?

The worst part of my upbringing is the extremely traumatic physical and sexual abuse. Also the brainwashing.

I guess the benefits would have to be: I graduated high school at 14 because I wasn’t allowed to go to a real school. I had to do an online distance program. Also, I learned a lot about running a business. My dad was a lawyer so I learned a lot about the law too

What was the biggest “WTF. that’s not true” realization you had regarding the FLDS teachings after leaving?

My family is very racist and we were taught that African American people had an extra bone in their body because they were descended from a monkey. I felt so stupid when I voiced that belief lol

But what was the extra bone?

The extra bone was in the leg. This allowed them to jump higher

So, is it like just one extra bone? Or an extra bone per leg?

One extra bone

So they believe in evolution?

They claim they don’t. Most of their beliefs contradict each other though

How are you doing now? What have you been up to now?

I’m pretty boring now haha. I have PTSD and Bipolar 2, which comes from the PTSD and I’m in therapy and on medication to deal with that. I’m hoping to be off medication in the next 2 years.

I’ve been running a licensed home daycare for the past 5 years, and I’m 3 classes away from a bachelor’s degree in business management. I have kids and a husband whom I’m pretty happy with. (yes it’s the same husband I write about in my book lol).

I love writing and I love fitness.

What has been the hardest part of raising your children differently than you were raised?

Because I have a licensed daycare, I am required by the state to take child training classes. (20+ hours a year.) These classes have been my lifeline in raising my own children, because I didn’t have a blueprint to take with me. Even if my mother and I were on good terms, I would never trust her to care for my children.

Have you found it difficult to maintain relationships on the outside after growing up in such an environment? Have you done any kind of therapy to adjust?

After I left the cult, I became very promiscuous and actually avoided relationships. When I met my husband, he encouraged me to go to therapy. I have been in therapy for about 3 years

What part of mainstream life do you think we who have never been in a cult wouldn’t realize how close it is to cultlike behavior?

lol I’m still trying to figure out mainstream life haha. I would probably have to say consumerism. We really don’t need 98% of the things we buy

Ae you related to the girls who do Escaping Polygamy?

They are all my first cousins. Shanell and I are actually still very close

Is that show fairly accurate? I’ve always wondered if it was all scripted or not

It’s actually pretty scripted. I think only a couple of the escapes have actually been real time

Have you read/heard of “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer, and if so, how accurate is its portrayal of Rulon and Warren?

Yes I have read Under the Banner of Heaven. I really enjoyed the book and found it very accurate. I’ve recommended it to many people who have been curious about my backround

How have your beliefs in religion changed after you left?

I don’t believe in organized religion at all. I do like the idea of spirituality though.

Italian Sausage and Peppers

Ingredients

8 Italian sausages
4 green bell peppers, quartered (or a combination of yellow, green and red bell peppers)
1 onion, sliced

Instructions

Put sausages with 1 cup of water in a frying pan over medium heat. Turn as they brown and water evaporates.
Add onions and peppers. Stir, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
Uncover and cook until the sausages and onions are brown.
Serve in small French bread buns.

No man (or woman) is an island

Ah…

"Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

Robert Kennedy
from a speech at the University of Kansas on March 18, 1968

Just a thought, from HERE.

Hardcore survivalists and preppers cherish the lone-wolf scenario. It goes something like this: The world is crumbling and cities collapse into mayhem. We,the preppers are well equipped for the end of the world. We are the last chance of humanity since we can withstand anything faith throws at us. Our society is no longer built on everyday trust and neighborly reliance, but do you want to be alone in the end?

Do you really want to be alone for the end of the world?

The world around us is full of unfriendly strangers and nobody cares anymore about the person next to him. If the other guy doesn’t take care of himself…well, then to hell with him and his legacy. It’s a dog eat dog world and only the fittest survive. The media keeps bombarding us with nothing but violence, tragedy and sadness. It’s us or them!

And it is true, in any major, long-term disaster, preppers and survivalists could face deadly threats from desperate and unprepared people. The only problem when it comes to “them” is that they are much more numerous than us and a lone-wolf scenario doesn’t work like in the movies. There’s no one to yell “Cut!” when a scene goes wrong and life doesn’t give you do-overs.

The fact is, for most of rural people, one of the biggest things they’re going to face in the event of SHTF is this: a need to join forces with others who are in the same boat and who share similar beliefs.

We need a circle of well-prepared friends more than we need five guns and a ton of ammo. We need to make connections with trust-worthy people for when the world crumbles. And, we need to do this because there is a preparedness truth that some of us chose to ignore: no matter how well prepared we think we are, we will always lack something. It may be something obvious or it may be something obscure, it may be something we had that got lost or damaged, or used up. Don’t fool yourself, we will lack something no matter how good we think we have it.

You can’t wait for FEMA or the National Guard when a disaster strikes and you can’t count on luck when the world becomes a dark place. Luck won’t prevent the grocery store to run out of food and luck won’t keep you safe for the end of the world.

You need to start preparing to count on each other. You need to get together with neighbors and friends and enhance each other’s preparedness. And it’s not something you have to do out of altruism, but out of pure practicality. In the end the goal is the same: we’ll all be better off when SHTF.

“What can I do to connect with my friends and neighbors when it comes to preparedness matters?”, you may ask.

Well, you shouldn’t go running and tell just anybody what do you stock, where do you keep it and what guns and ammo you have stockpiled, and then ask them” Now show me yours”.

You can start with small steps and if some real disaster has recently struck your area, the aftermath gives a perfect opportunity to go to your neighbors and do a mutual check. Find out what they run out of, where they screwed up and what they can do differently next time. You can get this info just by discussing with your neighbors without appearing to organize any sort of preparedness league. You can even make agreements with them: for example you could store some extra gasoline for them if they help you with medical emergencies or anything else that you might need during a disaster.

People are always worried about something because self-preservation is part of our nature. You have an opening to discuss about preparedness and you need to approach the people from your community. Don’t tell them you are preparing for the end of the world as they might think you are crazy. Bring up for debate topics related to disasters/threats that are happening or are most likely to happen.

You can start practicing mutual preparedness:

Instead of selling your farm produce to your neighbors, start seeing what those neighbors might have to barter for them. Barter will be more useful than money in a serious disaster. It gives you a chance to know the people you are bartering with.

Get involved in a food co-op because you can always establish a cooperative network based on the main element: food. They may be open to the idea of organically grown crops, hormone-free meats or bulk food purchases on a budget.

If somebody in your circle of preppers has a pick-up truck and others don’t, the truck owner can offer to transport goods for a small fee or for barter. The same goes with any other type of machines that can be used by the community.

You can find some neighbors and sign up for and commute to skill-building classes together. It doesn’t matter if you learn about first aid, home canning or defensive shotgun use as long as you do it with somebody else. It will help you stay committed and motivated to the activity but also to the people.

Start offering to do things for your neighbors and ask them to do things for you. Do this even if you can actually take care of everything yourself. It’s a good way of bonding and getting to know each other’s skills. It provides a good opportunity to learn whom you can trust and whether you yourself are trustworthy.

If somebody close to you, especially relatives, feels unable to prepare for a disaster, see how you can change that by helpfulness and gentle persuasion. When you talk with certain people about preparedness, they feel overwhelmed, too unskilled or too poor to handle it all. Everybody is vulnerable to something and being prepared doesn’t mean you have to become an expert prepper. You have to make sure you increase your odds of survival and you have a fighting chance. Having a bug-out bag will make a huge difference. Knowing how to fortify your home will keep your family safe. Everyone can start with small steps if the mindset is there.

Garage sales are good occasions to know your neighbors and to stock up on preparedness supplies. You will be able to discuss with people from your community and know more about their prepping plans. If someone sells a camp stove because he never used it and thinks he never will, then that person might not be into prepping. But if someone sells a similar item because he got a better model, you might have some common topics to discuss. It’s all about knowing your neighbors and you can tell a lot about a person based on the stuff he owns.

With those you must trust, talk openly about others in your community who might become a problem in harsh times. Those who are clueless about fending for themselves will get desperate and might become real troublemakers. Thieves or chronic freeloaders will bring down the community. Everyone deserves a chance, but I’m willing to consider it for people who ask for one in the first place and are willing to work for it, rather than for those who “make a mistake” and ask for forgiveness and a second chance. When SHTF, there will be no luxury such as second chances and you must act first in order to survive the fall.

Safety in numbers will save you and the community. Your home could be on a map outlining evacuation routes for your area, the government could make your propriety an assembly area just for the fact that it is situated above the flooding zone. Regardless the scenario, there could be many who will come your way and most of “them” won’t have peaceful intentions. What then? You can’t keep up your fort for long if you are all alone. Joining a militia or having a group of trustworthy friends will help you deal with the masses. If some will try their luck with a just one person, nobody will be foolish enough to go against a number of well-armed individuals.

Another aspect that we need to consider during a crisis is what to do with friends and family that come rushing in, knowing you’ve been prepping for anything and your home is a safe haven. I know a few people that said “if the end of the world comes we’ll just move in with you”. Although it sounds like a joke, I’m pretty sure it isn’t. There will always be someone who knocks at your door during a time of need and you just can’t turn your back on them. They are the “friendly freeloaders” and although you are well intended, odds are you won’t be able to take care of them forever. This is why they need to be integrated in your local community and here is where it gets tricky.

If you are a lone wolf you won’t be supported by your community. Even worse, you will be seen as a threat if you bring in outsiders when things turn bad. However, if you have a good reputation amongst your peers, if you have the same interests. If they know how the skills of someone can help the entire community, it will be much easier to integrate others and give them a job insides the community. It is important to show how the new arrivals can help everyone and it can be done much easier if there is room for debate.

A last word

No man is an island and we should make sure we have someone to spend our time with, when the world around us dies. The government will tell you to wait for their help, to be passive and rely on experts and outsiders. They will ask you to behave like dependent children and wait for big daddy when in reality, you have people you can trust around you. People, who can help us out or, if need be, take us in.

Would you rather wait alone or turn to others, your friends and neighbors, when the world ends?

What’s It Like To Have A Photographic Memory?

August 8, 2018

I have a semi-photographic memory in that I can remember the content of most anything I’ve read and sometimes visually remember where the information is on the page or how far into the book/article it is. I don’t generally remember the names of the author or possibly the article/book but can usually find it with the specific information I do remember. I have almost no autobiographical/experiential memory ability and that usually feels like an unfair price to pay

What is it like? It’s complicated.

There are certainly positive ramifications:

- In college; I’ve never had to study as long as I took notes during lectures and I didn’t have to buy textbooks unless they were going to be used for independent reading and/or were interesting enough for me to want to buy them. I usually get 100% or thereabout on any test and if I miss any questions its usually because I missed a class or got lazy and didn’t take notes one day. I don’t experience any test anxiety because I know I will get an A. I can answer most people’s questions with some degree of certainty and back up my response with a reference to the research or source of my answer. I can write research papers more quickly than most people because I have the info in my head and know which references I need to collect in order to cite/back up my ideas. Professors tend to enjoy me as a student because I am knowledgeable about the topics and can participate in well-informed and interesting conversations about their work/research. I easily generate original ideas for projects and papers because I can remember and connect information from different fields and studies related to the topic.

In regular life; I don’t get lost (photographic navigational memory). I can provide accurate information to friends and family about topics ranging from legal problems, medical problems, psychological problems, investments, business, parenting, nutrition, politics, fashion, etiquette, art, crafts, and anything else I’ve been interested enough to research (I research for fun and relaxation). I know how to fix things. I’m useful to have around and this helps me socially. I can generally come up with a relevant and amusing quote or anecdote from history or current events to amuse people with, I rock at karaoke, and no one can beat me at word games (except my brother whose strategy skills blow me out of the water during scrabble).

It’s not all good though, on a personal and emotional level its quite costly.

In college; I feel guilty about getting As on tests I didn’t study for when really hard workers struggle to pass. I feel guilty about ruining the curve in classes that have one (and sometimes negotiate with the teacher to be removed from the curve equation, even if it might lower my scores). I hate working in groups because I end up doing more work when I have to not only carry more of the burden but also figure out how to make sure everyone looks like they’ve done an equal amount of work on the project. I hate working in groups because it takes me more time to complete projects when I generally have to spend a fair amount of time providing my group-mates with the information I have that they don’t. I am popular as a group member (particularly with average and below average peers) because working with me pretty much guarantees an A on the project– this is a disadvantage to me because I’d rather work alone but am afraid of hurting others’ feelings if I refuse to work with them. I am unpopular as a group member with better students (usually those who actually work hard to earn their grades) because I choose unconventional projects and make them very anxious with my disorganization and procrastination. I have TERRIBLE study skills because I’ve never had to develop them and I fear it will one day bite me in the ass. I am a crazy perfectionist because I know what I am capable of and will punish myself severely for failing to get an A on a test or project. I find it hard to make friends because many people dislike me since I have an “unfair” advantage and don’t have to work to get the grades they struggle to approach. I find it hard to make friends because many people who like me in spite of my “unfair” advantage find it difficult to relate to me on a personal level and seem to feel like I have super-powers or am otherwise alien. I find it hard to make friends because I don’t fit in with most other people and they find it hard to comprehend that I research for fun and would rather spend a Friday night intensely discussing potential solutions to unsolvable problems than going out to drink and socialize with random people.Some professors dislike me because I ask questions that they don’t have the answers to or related to research on the topic that they haven’t yet read. Some professors dislike me because they feel like I am “too big for my britches,” and I often feel guilty for asking questions during class (so many questions) that are related to the topic but beyond the scope of what is being presented and often beyond the ability of others to understand when they haven’t accumulated as much information as I have about the subject.

At work: I get bored easily because I have an insatiable drive for new information and most jobs are repetitive. I piss off my managers because they often feel like I’m making them “look dumb” and I don’t know how to keep my mouth shut if I have pertinent information. I piss off my managers because my coworkers often come to me for information and assistance instead of them. I have trouble working in groups because I usually have too much more information and I can easily dominate the discussion or make people feel like I’m being pushy. I have trouble working with other people because I often have more knowledge about any given topic we’re working on and its not actually a good thing to “always be right” about things because you can’t not remember what you remember. I have trouble making friends at work because many peers find me odd, difficult to understand, and/or feel like I threaten their chances of advancing as much as they’d like.I have a lot of trouble even deciding on a career path because I am “really good at” (and really educated about) too many subjects and in order to choose one path I would have to give up my dreams and passion for the other paths I’m not taking. At 38 I haven’t yet been able to establish a track record or formal evidence of expertise in any particular field because my memory (and number of topics I’m passionate about) makes me have high aptitude for too many things and prevents me from being able to focus on one thing long enough to make tangible progress. Worst of all, I have difficulty following through on projects because my memory is such that thinking through the problem (and figuring it out) seems like having done it completely and I then find it hard to muster motivation to take the time to finish it in real life.

The personal costs are what I hate the most: I have trouble in relationships because I’m “always right” when it comes to facts & information that I’ve accumulated knowledge about (non experiential) and have not yet figured out how to let other people “be right” without compromising my intellectual principles and/or unfairly hoarding information I could have shared. I have trouble finding people who connect with me intellectually because while many people are as or more informed than me in their particular domain of interest it seems impossible to find others who are equally informed in a wide range of domains of knowledge. I have trouble connecting with others because I often end up feeling guilty or becoming aware of the frightening potential of manipulating or unduly influencing others when they unquestioningly accept my input as fact due to my wealth of information about everything that I am compelled to learn about– It’s frightening to feel responsible for being infallible when you know you actually are not.I am disorganized because everything I experience internally or externally triggers a memory and demands that I contemplate the connection /relationship and I am rendered effectively incapable of reliably noticing the organization/cleanliness of my home or office. I lose track of time and days because I am distracted by associative memories triggered by anything; I forget to pay my bills & cannot properly manage money because I am usually stuck in my head and lose track of time or lose the bills in the clutter I’m failing to notice. Other problems associated with being constantly reminded of something that is potentially related to whatever: I can’t keep a schedule, I forget to eat, I forget to shower (or that I forgot to eat or shower), I forget important dates like birthdays and anniversaries, I often have insomnia, I lose everything (If I were a man I’d be very grateful not to have a detachable penis), and I am always anxious that I’ve forgotten some important deadline or other task I usually forget.I can’t remember experiences like my 21st birthday, special times with my daughter (I think its a trade off for my other kind of memory ability), my first kiss or the first time I had sex, friends and lovers I have fallen out of contact with (I somehow completely forget many people which makes me sad), or most any personal accomplishment that would probably look really good on my resume.
I feel really guilty about not being grateful for my “gifts.” I feel really guilty for not using my ability as much as I could or should have. From childhood, people have told me that I am responsible for using my gifts to improve the world, I don’t feel I have honored that responsibility and so feel guilty for letting “the world” down (irrational, I know). I fear I am arrogant; I fear that others think I’m arrogant. I struggle to achieve greater humility but have little success on that count. I sometimes worry that I’m a “bad person” because I have failed to use my abilities or live up to the potential this memory gives me.

The single worst thing for me, though, is that I feel like I’m not quite human. I don’t have many experiences others have, have not developed skills that others have developed because they require repetition or other tools to remember information, and I have many experiences that others do not have due to the differences in how my brain works. If I could feel like I “belong” somewhere or that I am really “connected” to another human being then I might feel like all the other negatives are worth it for the benefits I experience.

I don’t know if this actually answers “what it is like” to have this type of memory because it seems more like I’m simply listing the effects it has on my life. However, I don’t know what its like to NOT have this memory of mine and since this type of question requires a comparison between the two experiences… I think the question could only REALLY be answered by someone who has both had and not had this type of memory ability.

– Juliette Creech

Kartoffelkloese (Potato Dumplings)

Kartoffelklöße or kartoffelknödel are traditional German potato dumplings that are consumed all over the country but are especially popular in Bavaria, Thuringia, and the Rhineland area. Depending on the variation, the dumplings may consist of cooked potatoes, raw potatoes, or a combination of both.

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 pound butter, melted
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs

Instructions

Boil potatoes in their skins; drain, peel, and grate or put through a food mill or ricer.
Beat eggs and add flour, onion and seasonings; beat mixture into the potatoes with a wire whisk to make them as fluffy as possible.
Roll potato dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Drop them into boiling salted water and simmer about 10 minutes. Drain well.
Pour the butter over the dumplings and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Serves 4 to 6.

Air Space Over Havre, Montana Closed for “National Defense” – Fighter Jets Scrambled from Multiple Bases

Nation Hal Turner 11 February 2023

The Federal Aviation Administration has closed the air space over and around Havre, Montana under the designation “National Defense.” U.S. Fighter Jets have been scrambled from THREE separate military bases.

Flash traffic came in to me stating the following: “Portland based F-15s just scrambled out on a northbound heading”

Those jets were scrambled out of the Portland Air National Guard base.

Additional fighters scrambled out of McChord Field.

Shortly thereafter, the ALERT TANKERS were sent into the air from Fairchild Air Force Base (AFB).

Flights in/around Seattle-area appear to be operating as normal. Overflights appear to be unaffected as well.

RUM-INT (RUMOR) Another unidentified object over Vancouver — UNCONFIRMED

A new NOTAM has been issued by the FAA for an area over Havre, MT. The airspace has been defined as “National Defense Airspace.” Unclear if it is related to another “unknown” object. It appears below:

NEW: reports of fighters scrambled from Malmstrom AFB in Montana.

USAF KC-135R mid-air refueling craft is on task just outside Great Falls, MT. Took off from Fairchild AFB.

FAA statement: “The FAA closed some airspace in Montana to support Department of Defense activities. Contact NORAD for additional information.”

Aircraft on Billings Approach being notified of closed airports to the north to do “National Security”

The NOTAM issued in northern Montana are about 50 by 50 nautical miles

Rep. Rosendale confirmed an object in the airspace. They will observe and ground the object in the morning…

The NOTAM has been pulled, effective 0112 UTC.

Billings-Logan International Airport and Havre City Airport have reportedly been reopened to incoming and outgoing Commercial Aircraft.

Canada closes air space – fighter jets scrambled again – ANOTHER Unidentified Object – Ontario! ! !

World Hal Turner 12 February 2023

sECOND cANADA aIRSPECE cLOSURE 02 12 2023 large

Canada has closed a portion of its air space over Ontario for yet ANOTHER “Unidentified Object.” Fighter jets have been scrambled. . . live updates below . . .

Canada closes airspace near Tobermory in Ontario due to “active air defense operation”.

5:48 PM EST —

Canada has just Closed a section of Airspace over the Great Lakes and near the U.S/Canadian Border due to an “Active Air Defense Operation.”

The NOTAM over Lake Huron appears to quite large and cover almost 1/4th of the Lake

Just north east of Tobermory, Ontario is Canadian Armed Forces 22 Wing which is their Space surveillance unit which interacts with US Space counterparts

6:03 PM EST —

Air Refueling Tanker now circling over Lake Huron.

Turned around and now heading back north toward the NOTAM

US Military has just “Decommissioned” another object over Lake Huron. The U.S. military has shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron.

An F-16 shot down the object over Lake Huron, according to a congressional aid who says the object was octagon shaped and was at an altitude of 20,000ft, posing a threat to civilian air traffic.

Pentagon used an F-16 fighter jet, armed with a Sidewinder missile, the same missile used on the other three objects.

Four of these incident in eight days.

Three in just the last three days.

PENTAGON SAYS OBJECT SHOT DOWN ON SUNDAY WAS A THREAT “DUE TO ITS POTENTIAL SURVEILLANCE CAPABILITIES” PENTAGON SAYS OBJECT FLEW IN PROXIMITY TO SENSITIVE U.S. MILITARY SITES

Search Engine Sleuthing

How Tightly-Controlled is Your Favourite Media Outlet?

Bruce O’Hara

Most of us have a favourite media outlet that we browse from time to time to get a sense of what’s going on in the world.

I’ve found it useful to use a media outlet’s own search engine to determine a) how often that news outlet suppresses important stories, and b) what kind of stories get suppressed.

Some stories are easier to search than others.

To illustrate how this is so, let’s consider four important stories from the past week that often didn’t make it into the mainstream press, and how easy or hard it would be to search for them.

Seymour Hersh accused the United States of destroying the Nordstream pipelines. ‘Seymour Hersh’ is a name that is both unusual and famous. It’s likely that his name will be in any article title – so the search engine will find it. “Nordstream” is an excellent keyword – neither too wide nor too narrow.

Tom Jefferson was the lead researcher of a Cochrane Report meta-analysis of 67 random controlled trials that found that masks were essentially useless in preventing COVID or the flu. ‘Tom Jefferson’ and ‘Cochrane Report’ are both common enough names that the search engines will find a large number of articles completely unrelated to what you want. The key word ‘masks’ may find what you’re looking for, but will likely find a great number of unrelated stories.

Moonofalabama has reported that the ‘unidentified object’ the US shot down over Alaska last Friday with a $400,000 Sidewinder missile was likely a US weather balloon. This story has two strikes against it. It appears in a blog – which mainstream media only rarely use as a source. And the keywords ‘American weather balloon’ will generate a lot of garbage if the site looks separately for ‘American’, ‘weather,’ and ‘balloon’.

A New Pre-print correlation study from lead author Denis G. Rancourt published by ResearchGate has estimated that COVID vaccines have killed 13 million (mostly old and frail) people worldwide. Denis Rancourt has an unusual name, but he’s not famous enough to appear in a title. Notice also that it’s a pre-print – In my experience, the mainstream media won’t touch a finding that controversial with a ten-foot pole before it has been peer-reviewed.

Given the above, I think it is wise to limit your search for censored stories to those stories that search engines will likely find.

I would add the further caveat that I have found the search engines for print media to be more reliable than the search engines for TV networks. A good back-up check for TV networks is to search Youtube using a good keyword and the network’s name, e.g., searching Youtube with keywords ‘Foxnews + Nordstream’ will find a story when Foxnews’ own search engine does not.

Finally, if you can’t believe your favorite news channel has censored an important story, use the advanced search features on your favourite search engine, for example, search for stories which contain all of ‘CBC’ + ‘Hersh’ + ‘Nordstream’. (The caveat on this latter approach is that I’ve found that Google in particular sometimes has trouble finding materials which might embarrass either the CDC or the Biden administration.)

To find out how many stories your favorite media censors, you’ll first need to find some frequently censored stories.

My favourite source for such stories is Moonofalabama.org. Bernard is very careful about vetting carefully any stories he selects. (Today he gave Seymour Hersh hell for using unnamed sources, even though he acknowledges that Hersh’s past track record has been remarkably good) Bernard usually only does one story a day on a wide variety of geopolitical issues, so he won’t overload your inbox.

Dr. Robert Malone is good at covering medical issues jncluding COVID, and he usually only posts once a day. (Twice a week he sends out a post of cartoons – but you can ignore them.)

Some of the sources below will overload your inbox if you subscribe, but will often have important stories suppressed by the mainstream media:

Zerohedge is technically an alternative investment site, but they are probably your single best source of stories the mainstream has censored.

Matt Taibbi at Racket News is always interesting and often covers stories that others censor.

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism covers a wide range of stories about economics and geopolitics.

Larry Johnson at sonar21.com is an American veteran who covers Ukraine and geopolitics really well.

Caitlin Johnstone has good pieces about narrative control and geopolitics, and usually only does one post a day if you want to subscribe.

The Vigilant Fox covers health and COVID stories, as do Steve Kirsch, Dr. Vinay Prasad and Stephanie Brail at Wholistic.

For suppressed Canadian stories, try Rebel News.

My suggestion is you do a quick check of all these sites and bookmark the ones you find most interesting and/or trustworthy. After that, surf your chosen sites from time to time.

Each time you find a story you think is important but didn’t see on your usual news source, use the search engine from your favorite media site to see if they did cover the story. My suggestion is you keep a list of the stories they censored – in case you decide to send them a complaint letter at some point in the future.

It’s also useful to know your particular news outlet’s strengths and weaknesses. Some websites are great on alternative medical stories but lousy on geopolitics, or vice versa.

A second way you can use search engines is to do a survey of a wide selection of major media, either nationally or globally, and keep track of how often, and where, a major story got censored.

Let’s use the Seymour Hersh Nordstream posting as an example. Here’s a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who’s very first Substack post presents very detailed information on how the United States blew up the Nordstream pipelines. I would argue that when a journalist this esteemed makes a charge this important and this detailed, it clearly deserves media coverage, even if we can’t be sure that the charge is true.

In a way, it’s a good example to use to see how tightly a particular media outlet is controlled. If an outlet censors in only limited ways, the outlet will cover the story in a way that is highly skeptical or dismissive, perhaps describing Hersh as a ‘blogger.’ This at least lets the audience know that the story exists. A higher level of censorship is to suppress the story completely.

Looking at various media websites, you can see where, and how tightly this story has been censored by using the media websites’ own search engines. (Many media websites will often let you search their website even when they restrict site access to subscribers.)

So, if you’re wondering why more people aren’t upset about Seymour Hersh’s charges that the US blew up the Nordstream pipelines, the answer may be as simple as: THEY DON’T KNOW!

Having done a lot of search engine sleuthing, I would offer the feedback that the pattern seen in the table above is fairly typical of most controversial stories.

Countries of the former British Empire typically display a higher level of censorship than the rest of the world. (If one were to infer power relationships from censorship patterns, one could be forgiven for wondering if Canada, England, and Australia are American colonies!)

It’s also not surprising that the English language Indian websites Wion and Hindustan Times covered this story. I find that freedom of the press is an order of magnitude higher in India than it is in North America.

One important caveat on the above table is that many news outlets restrict their coverage of controversial subject to opinion columnists. About half of the news outlets above reported the Hersh story only in a single opinion column. I suspect the large majority of those audiences won’t have seen the story.

Even lousy media websites are not without value. I browse CBC News from time to time to remind myself that a good chunk of the Canadian population relies heavily on a highly-scripted and controlled news source.

Censoring the news impoverishes our map of reality. I suspect we may see some major anti-NATO protests in Europe over the next few weeks. If there’s a snap election in Germany any time soon, we can expect the anti-NATO AfD Party to do extremely well.

This will be surprising and confusing to most Americans, because most Americans will not have heard of Hersh’s charges of American covert military action against the Nordstream pipelines. The actions of Europeans would be much more comprehensible to Americans if Americans knew as much about the charges made against their Government as many Europeans do.

PS: I suspect a lot of readers of this site may find themselves dismissed as ‘conspiracy theorists’ by their more straitlaced friends. If you have friends who refuse to believe that the CBC, or CNN, or the New York Times would ever censor an important story, forward this post to them with a challenge.

Ask them to surf some of the alternate sites listed above, looking for stories that they find shocking but credible. Have them then do the search engine test to see if their preferred media is an trustworthy as they think it is.

Who knows, they might eventually admit to you that it probably is advisable to get your news of the world from more than one source.

NORAD Gives Notice of Air Defense Exercise Around Washington, DC, Set for Tuesday!

Nation Hal Turner 12 February 2023

The announcement comes after a fourth “unidentified Object” is shot down over North America.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, (NORAD) will conduct an air defense exercise on Tuesday, February 14, between midnight and 2:30 a.m. EST, according to officials, around the Washington, D.C. area.

Officials said some flights may take place at 2,500 feet, making them visible from the ground, and if weather interferes with operations, they will commence the next day at the same time.

The agency said it conducts routine exercises that include a variety of scenarios, whether it is a hijacking, response to unknown aircraft, or airspace restriction violations, and that all exercises are controlled and planned out.

(HT Remark: I don’t recall them ever announcing these exercises around the White House before. Strange.)

U.S. Says Americans “SHOULD LEAVE RUSSIA IMMEDIATELY”

World Hal Turner 13 February 2023

The US State Department has begun telling Americans they should “LEAVE RUSSIA IMMEDIATELY.”

The United States Embassy in Moscow has released a notice saying “US citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately. Exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions. Do not travel to Russia” – US embassy in Moscow

Direct Link to this notice on official US Gov’t We Site HERE

Hal Turner Remark

This is a tripwire. This is what the US does when it knows military action (or Terrorist Attack) is planned against a specific country.

In fact, the notice specifically mentions terrorism by saying “Terrorist groups, both transnational and local terrorist organizations, and individuals inspired by extremist ideology continue plotting possible attacks in Russia. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs and systems, markets/shopping malls, local government facilities, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, major sporting and cultural events, educational institutions, airports, and other public areas.”

This has lead Russian Authorities to conclude the US is planning actual Terrorist attacks inside Russia — as was done in Syria.

All-in-all, today’s notice is among the worst developments possible for the situation. War approaches. Prepare.

UPDATE 9:17 AM EST —

“Ukrainian delegation left the negotiations and STOPPED communications [In Turkey] with Russia, at the command from above” – Dmitry Peskov

Confessions Of The Son Of A Billionaire

August 21, 2018

How much is your father worth?

My father is worth just shy of $2 Billion liquid, and he’s on a rapid trajectory be worth significantly more.

What do you do for a living?

As for my current job, I work a generic IT position with a standard salary – nothing that will produce the kind of fortune my father’s work has.

What kind of car do you drive?

A 2014 Subaru Outback. Prior to that, a very-used ’98 Outback. Probably not the answer you were expecting!

As for my parents, the primary cars at each property are a Mercedes GLS and SL Roadster; they have lots of others, but nothing too fancy. Mostly old Chevy and Ford cars primarily driven by the various employees they have.

What do you do for work and why did you go into that field?

I’m a computer systems adminsitrator for a small company because it’s what I enjoy and it doesn’t require a large amount of non-immediate work. I didn’t inherit my dad’s strong ambition and drive, unfortunately.

Do you think having the trust fund played a role in your lack of ambition and drive?

The truth is that I didn’t know about the trust fund until I got married, so it had little influence over my upbringing. I knew that my parents were well-off and perhaps assumed that that would come to us someday, but nothing was explicitly stated about it as a kid. So if it did affect my ambition and drive, it was more subconscious. It’s certainly possible, though it didn’t affect my siblings. I’m more inclined to think of it being how I’m neurologically wired, just as my dad is wired to be a workaholic but less emotionally engaging. But it’s hard to say. I certainly do blame myself for my lack of sustained ambition, most of the time.

Do your nearest and dearest know your worth, potential or otherwise?

Well obviously my wife knows! We have one pair of friends who at least know my parents are very wealthy, since they’ve stayed with us at one of their properties. Everyone else (hopefully) assumes we have little more than the middle-class lifestyle that we provide for ourselves.

Wait so does your father not share his wealth with you?

We enjoy their material assets, get awesome gifts for Christmas, and each have a trust fund of $28K/year. But to have a comfortable life and income, we have to have our own jobs. For now, at least.

Did your father insist on a prenup for your wife to sign before marriage?

They suggested a prenup, but it didn’t happen. My wife hates their wealth and wants no part in it so I’m not concerned about her trying to run away with it.

How is your relationship with your parents?

My relationship with them is complicated. I appreciate what they’ve provided, but the emotional connection has been poor. I wish I could feel closer to them, but I just don’t think they’re wired for that kind of relationship. Dad’s a workaholic, Mom’s a socialite, I’m the kid who didn’t do everything perfectly and felt like the pariah for a decade. Things are better now, but conversations are rarely more than business and small talk.

What kind of schools did you go to? Were your peers wealthy?

I went to a private school for grade school, a boarding school for high school, and then private university which I eventually dropped out of. Since the familial wealth grew as I did, the peer group evolved over time; but I never understood the extent of their or our worth until recently. My perspective was more than a bit off growing up.

At what point in your life did you realize that your parents are very, very rich?

Far later than I probably should have. I didn’t really realize just how out of touch I was until around 23 or 24. Granted, we were worth significantly less when I was younger, but still, many things that I took for granted were definitely not common.

Do you think you grew up in a bubble, so to speak, unaware of things those of more modest wealth take for granted? Any funny or embarrassing moments?

I think so. Generally I was more naïve than anything. I can’t think of any specifically funny moments, but there are a lot of things that I roll my eyes about where I was much more flippant about the price of things. I was just a kid who was excited by certain things, but I didn’t realize that talking about them so much was likely very awkward for others who were adults and yet had experienced far less. I remember asking the person who maintains some of our land what his favorite place to travel to was, and when he told me that he had never flown on a plane in his life, I suddenly realized that there was a very big difference in how we grew up. I felt quite awkward and guilty about that one.

Do your parents pressure you to want more? Make more money?

Well I do think that my anxiety comes from my dad wanting me to do better, in part. As I mentioned elsewhere, I dropped out of college; I did terribly in school – had high overall intelligence and tested well but just failed to put in the necessary sustained effort. I’ve recently been diagnosed with ADHD and the difference since starting treatment has been profound, but I wouldn’t dare tell my father that because a) he’s convinced that it’s a fake condition, and b) I doubt the diagnosis myself because it just feels like too convenient of an excuse. I’ve been taught that there’s no excuse for not succeeding other than not working hard enough, and by that metric, I’ve largely been a failure. My dad’s success and his hope for my success has been an enormous burden, but I think at this point he’s generally “given up” on me having the same drive as him.

Do you have other siblings?

I have siblings, and I get the feeling that they’ve been better-supported financially because they’ve lived their life much more in line with how my parents had planned.

What’s that -one thing- you never got as a kid?

A gaming console. Or as my dad affectionately referred to it, the “Super No-friend-o”. Somehow computer games didn’t fall into that purview though, so I had a top-end desktop and laptop anyway. Didn’t stop me from being obsessed with gaming; the PS2 was the first purchase I made when I started getting my own paycheck.

Seems like even though you had connections to wealth, it wasn’t used as a magic wand to get you shiny things all the time. Did you learn the value of money and earning, over just “having” money?

Sort of. We (my siblings and I) certainly didn’t have carte blanche, and I’m self-sufficient currently outside of a growing and accessible trust fund; but they have a “what’s mine is yours” mentality when it comes to enjoying their homes and possessions, which are plentiful. As we speak, my wife and I are staying in one of their massive homes for a stress-free weekend, and everything from the cars to the cook is at our disposal. These days I’ve never asked for something that they’ve said “no” to, but I’ve never tried to push the limits.

Are the other homes always “staffed” even if your family isn’t there, or is it a more “on-call” situation?

Some of the properties are quite large and require constant upkeep. One is on a farm and has a family living on the property – the husband and wife handle the land and home maintenance, respectively. Some of the properties are in city high-rises and have building staff to take care of them. Then they have their main guy (I have no idea what his official title is but he’s effectively a modern butler valet) who almost always travels with them and handles arrangements to keep their flow as uninterrupted as possible. He also lives in a home provided by my family, right next to one of their “hub” properties.

Do you have any “regular” friends now? What’s a Friday night like for you?

My wife and I are shut-ins and will spend most evenings just watching shows and playing video games together. When we meet up with friends, we meet at the pub or go to one of each others’ houses. A couple times we have taken some friends up to one of my parents’ properties, but only after we’ve come to know them quite well.

But generally, unless I’m with my parents at the time, I live a very standard middle-class lifestyle.

Thoughts on economics and/or politics? Libertarian free market, radical socialism, social democracy, liberal welfare state?

I generally lean conservative/libertarian on fiscal issues, which probably isn’t surprising.

Do you travel a lot ?

I did as a kid, less so now that I have my own income and my own job schedule. Starting around 12 or so, each spring break was spent on another Caribbean island and each summer was spent visiting another country or series of countries. My dad would increasingly joke that our hotels were picked by my mom Googling “Most expensive hotel in ____”; and those trips usually consisted of a private tour guide who would take us everywhere, get us behind velvet ropes at various museums, etc.

I didn’t appreciate how special those trips were as a kid, though I certainly did love them.

What games do you play?

We play special billionaire-only games that you wouldn’t have heard about.

Kidding. We just wrapped up Dishonored 2 and are currently replaying the Bioshock trilogy.

What type of hobbies do you have?

Technology, media, games. I have an awesome home theater which is my biggest piece of personal extravagance.

Please elaborate

Well we squeezed it into our relatively normal house, but it’s a 150″ screen with a 4K projector, seating for eight, Atmos 7.2.4 sound, and a whole lot of soundproofing to keep it contained 😉

I was so close to convincing my dad to put an amazing theater into his newest home, but regrettably he decided that a massive wine cellar was the more prudent option. But at least I get to say that I have a better home theater than him 🙂 Not much that I can beat out the billionaire in, so I’ll take what I can get!

What’s your favorite pop tarts flavor?

Nothing beats brown sugar!

Do you actually eat pop tarts? I don’t just mean pop tarts either. Like, when I imagine rich people eating, I always think of private chefs, or at very least having someone else cook for them in some way. Do you ever just open up the panty and grab something like a box of cereal, or pop tarts, or ramen noodles? Or do you always have other people prepare food for you?

Well at the house where I’m staying at right now, there’s a pantry with Tostitos and Skippy peanut butter, a freezer with Eggos, and there are always a half-dozen Oscar Meyer wieners available for cooking. Of course there are other fancy snacks as well and our freezer is actually mostly full of the meat from a cow and pig we won at a rodeo auction last year, but sometimes you need a quick breakfast or midday snack and it’s not worth having a professional always handling it. Depends on the circumstances.

What’s a problem that billionaires have that we plebians do not?

Child-of-a-billionaire problems include rock-bottom self-esteem and endless guilt.

As for my parents, their problems are a lack of time and a loss of perspective. Worst has probably been their focus on maintaining a social appearance which has come at a significant cost in regards to their relationship with me and my siblings. They spend so much time these days trying to make our family seem perfect that they forget to do the actual things that keep a relationship strong.

Is this more keeping up with the Jones’s or just being scheduled too much to make time? Running an empire is hard work, I don’t envy then the drudgery.

My dad lives to work. He knows he doesn’t need any more money, but it’s when he’s working hard that he’s having the most fun. So for him, it’s just keeping busy. My mom, on the other hand, took our class status as an opportunity to become a major socialite. I participated in literally over a half-dozen debutante events. I felt like a trophy being paraded around, the illusion of our familial excellence masking the superficial relationships we had underneath.

Things are a bit better now since I confronted them on all of this a couple years ago, but still, our relationship is so-so at best and I expect the wealth was a catalyst in that.

You mention that you live a middle class life now and work in a normal job. Are you content with this or do you have plans to get independently wealthy?

I’m not a strong worker. There are things that I’d love to excel at, but I lack the patience and focus to accomplish them. There are many causes and industries which I look forward to financially supporting once I am afforded that lifestyle, but I would be content to just live out my life as I currently do (with more perks, of course) and leave the ambitions to those who are cut out for it.

Why do you work, particularly in mid-range IT? You could be doing anything. Does working feel like waste of time?

The trust is only $28,000/year for the time being. That’s the maximum non-taxable amount and is enough to provide a nice boost without letting us get away comfortably with doing nothing. That will change in the future, but for now, my parents strongly encourage a good work ethic and the value of earning your self-sufficiency. Not to scoff at how valuable that $28,000 has been, of course.

Are you any less miserable than we are?

I have emotional problems like everyone else. But I don’t have to worry about my paycheck, I don’t have to worry about my retirement, I don’t have to worry about supporting my child financially, I don’t have to worry about a medical crisis ruining our family… There are so many burdens that I simply won’t know. I wouldn’t dare make a claim to the same sadness and difficulties that many people deal with.

What are your thoughts on whether money can (or can’t) buy happiness?

I once read that money can’t buy happiness but that it’s a good “unhappiness repellant”, and that seemed like a good way to describe it. There are a lot of things that can cause unhappiness that can be prevented with money: financial issues obviously, health-related crises, and lots of little things. Being able to skip the major airports and take a private jet instead bypasses a major headache!

But money can cause problems too. Especially extreme wealth.

Being given such an extreme amount of wealth creates the burden of managing that wealth properly. You don’t want to be the generation that loses what prior ones have worked so hard to provide. But you also want to do as much good as you can for the world while you have the opportunity.

Most importantly, I’m terrified about raising my kids well. I don’t want to raise spoiled brats, but I have no idea how to both acknowledge our extreme privilege and simultaneously impose a modest lifestyle. There are so many bad examples out there, and we only get one chance to raise them right.

What’s the best thing money can buy?

That’s a profound question to answer which can delve into the philosophical, so I’m just going to modify the question to “what’s your favorite thing your parents have bought?” to keep it simple and light. And to that, it’s almost impossible not to say the private jet. Not because of how comfortable it is, but because of the convenience and time-saving.

We don’t need to show up at the airport 90 minutes early, check our bags, wait in the security line, put our liquids in special containers within containers, then sprint to the gate desperately trying to reach it before the door closes. Instead, we literally drive the car onto the tarmac, let a crewmember carry in the luggage while we take a seat, and are in the air within 10 minutes. The crew is employed by us and is ready to go the moment we pull up. And our dog gets to sit in the leather seat next to us. Usually a meal is provided: shrimp caesar salads, a charcuterie board, a glass of wine, even a steak dinner if we request far enough in advance. And when we land, someone pulls our car around and meets us at on the runway, they put our luggage into the car, and we’re on the road – often much closer to the final destination than a larger airport is.

It is absolutely extravagant, but the reduction in stress and time is so significant that it’s one of their expenses that I absolutely think was worth it.

Schmarrn (Scrambled Pancakes)

It is generally agreed that Schmarrn was first prepared for the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I (1830–1916).

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 eggs, separated
Pinch of salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk or cream
2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

Cream butter until frothy, then add, one after another, sugar, egg yolks, salt, flour and milk.
Beat egg whites until stiff and carefully fold in.
Melt remaining butter in a cast iron skillet, and pour in batter. Fry on each side until golden brown.
With 2 forks, chop the resulting pancake.
Serve on a hot platter sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and garnished with pieces of apple, cherry, seedless raisins or other fruit, sautéed in butter.

Prep: 10 min | Cook: 6 min | Yield: 4 servings

[daegonmagus] – Part 30 – A Report on the Operational Characteristics of the ET Craft I Piloted

The following is the 30th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

Up to date version

This article is in HTML. It is version 1.

A better version of this summary is on PDF, and it corrects some errors and adds some more detail.

I suggest that you read this PDF, downloadable HERE rather than reading this summary…

If it is more convenient to read here in HTML, go ahead…

A Report on the Operational Characteristics of the ET Craft I Piloted, (later TBD) Accompanied by a Video Simulation:

The following report is based on an experience I had on the 27^th June 2022 in which I believe I was successful in having my consciousness merged and attached to what most people would consider an extra terrestrial space craft. Whilst this falls under the category of a Lucid Dreaming/ Astral Projection experience, these forms of nomenclature are, in my opinion, not sufficient in describing the vividness of the experience, which was comparable to the vividness of waking, physical reality. It is for this reason I have decided to write this report including as much detail as possible, so it can hopefully be built upon by other explorers of consciousness. I am confident that there is valuable information here that will give insight into the potential operating parameters of ET spacecraft visiting our planet. I am currently working on an accompanying video simulating what it was like to fly this space craft. The original article I wrote can be found at [daegonmagus] – Part 26 – Lucid Astral Projection – The Consciousness Craft Launch Facility and Something Dwelling in the Red Planet: – Metallicman, albeit, much to my chagrin I had not found much time to properly scrutinize the experience and draft a proper report on my findings when I wrote it. This document is to make up for that, though bear in mind it has been written several months after the fact. I apologise, for not writing this sooner, as life got in the way.

To the layman, and those who have not had Out of Body experiences such as astral projection and lucid dreaming this report might come as a bit outlandish in its claims. It is therefore important to understand some back context derived through many years worth of experimentations in lucid dreaming I myself have conducted over several decades and note some passages from prior works in this field of Ufology that are relevant to what is being discussed here. Hopefully, I can then provide a logical process by which other consciousness explorers may adapt to their own voluntary OBE sessions to achieve similar results. I am confident in my assertions that further investigation into this material will yield results that will make the scientific community pay more attention to astral projection and lucid dreaming. In saying that though I am only one man who is limited to only a very narrow window of knowledge and skillsets which can be used for the purpose of scientifically investigating this matter (specifically electronics and radio propagation theory), therefore I welcome any input and advice from others whose own windows of knowledge and skills can further compliment this research. I have done my best to provide as much information as possible to give a starting point for further investigation, but at the end of the day, much of this model has been derived through my own interpretations of what I was experiencing that may prove to be inaccurate. However, I do not think these inaccuracies warrant this material to a swift shuffling into the dustbin, and am confident that they can be ironed out if enough manpower takes the subject herein seriously enough.

An integral part of the theory being discussed here is the idea that consciousness and the physical body are two completely separate things that interface with one another to provide a singularly functioning biological machine that is capable of perceiving and interacting with the physical world around it. It is important to cast aside Darwinian theory of evolution here, as it does nothing to assess the consciousness components that drive said machine, and assumes, rather incorrectly, that consciousness and body are one combined “thing”, inseparable until at least the expiration of the biological body through death. While the evolutionary model of the biological body through Darwinian theory is likely correct (I have no intention of setting out to prove or disprove it), it fails to provide any rationale to the consciousness component and somewhat considers it as an after thought in the question of human {intelligence} evolution. I therefore argue that if consciousness existed before the body (from the rationale that it is too complex to evolve to its current position through a single incarnation), then it deserves a much more thorough scrutinisation, and its own theory of evolution to be applied.

Based on my own experiments and experiences during my OBEs, consciousness, itself, is a superior technology, far in advance of what humans can consider our greatest technological achievements, of which only very advanced civilizations are able to fully realize (for the sake of the argument we will consider these advanced civilizations as being of extra terrestrial nature, or non human, as the human experience is a direct consequence of their manipulation strategies of this superior technology – something which has been directly communicated to me during OBEs, by representatives of such advanced civilisations). It is an extremely versatile component and energy source, of a quantum construction that is extremely adaptable to its own environment. What do I mean by this? To put it simply, through the voluntary act of initiating an OBE, or more specifically through initiating a conscious transition into the sleeping state (where consistent awareness is carried over and no break in understanding or memory is allowed to interfere before sleep is induced), one can deliberately change the dynamics of their own consciousness and manipulate it at a quantum level, to experience things of an indescribable nature to the layman who is yet to have an OBE.
To the investigators of quantum physics, this equates to a witnessing and understanding of the other side of the quantum domain, where Schrodinger’s cat is both alive and dead at once (metaphorically speaking). Where the particle becomes wave and the seemingly impossible becomes possible.

So now we understand that consciousness is a superior, quantum based technology, we can start to gain an understanding of the relationship between consciousness and body, and the irrelevance of Darwinian theory thus becomes apparent. Indeed, consciousness is an entirely separate thing to the body, and can actually be detached from it voluntarily through advanced lucid dreaming practices. Through years of practice, I became somewhat of an expert at regularly achieving this level of detachment, in which I took the opportunities to experiment with just what exactly is achievable by consciousness whilst in this state, pushing it beyond limits that can be explained through common rationality and logic. This detachment can be felt during the aforementioned conscious transition into the sleeping state, where the “interfaces” that allow movements of the limbs and data to be obtained and processed through the nervous system are felt to “fall away”, in which physical reality then becomes replaced by a quantum reality, and where the act of thought creates a seemingly physical environment to manifest around you (what we commonly equate to being dreamscapes).
It is here that consciousness can be tuned out of resonance with the body and made to adapt to other containers, of both physical and non physical (quantum) nature, simply by the use of tought.

How exactly is this achieved? I once had a lucid dreaming experience which I believe offers valuable insight into this question. In the dream, my physical reality was applied like a holographic overlay over my dream environment as I awoke. This physical picture of my room “grew” in definition the closer I got to waking up until I was completely awake, washing out the dreamscape as it did so. During this holographic overlaying of physical reality, I observed a back and forth “wave like” effect (of the holographic physical reality) that moved back and forth through its wave’s peaks at a rate somewhere around 0.5Hertz.Originally I stated this to be about 4Hz, but after reassessing these waves, I figured it closer to being 0.5Hz, based on my understanding of frequency. I immediately applied my (somewhat limited) expertise in radio modulation to my mode of thinking to try and conceptualise what was happening during this experience. After several years of studying that radio theory more in depth (and comparing it to an experience whereby I remembered my own reincarnation and my consciousness being placed within the fetus of my current incarnation, again courtesy of lucid dreaming), my arriving hypothesis is that the brain emits a carrier wave somewhere down this end of the ELF spectrum, (the exact frequency I suspect which can be determined through the application of standard antenna theory to the neurological/ nervous system pathways assuming they act as complex antenna arrays that are susceptible to drift tuning from the parasitic oscillations derived through the natural inductances, capacitances and resistances inherent within the body’s fats and salts) and that consciousness “rides” on the envelope of this carrier in a similar way to how an audio frequency can be modulated on to an AM carrier wave. It could also be closer to an FM or PM wave, though admittedly I have not bothered trying to conceptualize this operating potential beyond simple imaginings.

An important note is to be made here; the formulas associated with finding wavelengths and frequency are based on the idea of electromagnetic radiation being propagated at the speed of light (minus 5% on earth due to atmospheric influence). Whilst these formulas may provide an explanation of the physical, biological body’s energetic radiation (and thus may determine its carrier wave frequency), it would seem that mode of thought (the consciousness signal that rides upon the carrier) operates much fast than the speed of light, which means that an entirely new set of formulas would likely need to be devised before attempting to calculate these thought component wavelengths/ frequencies. I suspect that this modulation operation is actually achieved through a range of harmonic carriers, rather than one stand alone frequency, and would suggest dream researchers study more in depth, the envelopes between the brainwaves picked up through EEG equipment, rather than the actual waves themselves. In other words, try looking for information where at first glance there doesn’t appear to be any.

In another lucid dreaming experience I was in a hypnogogic state bordering a conscious transition into the sleeping state, and caught a signal from nearby non physical intelligence. This signal I heard coming through like a typical broken radio signal, interlaced with heavy static/ white noise, that almost completely drowned at the audible component of the signal out. Given that in these states of mind, thoughts produce tangible environments, I deliberately used my thoughts to manifest a radio dial in which I was then able to tune out this white noise interference and bring out the fidelity in the audible signal. I understood this immediately as being “not of human or earth origins”, as whatever was speaking spoke in a “clickity clack” dialect that had no familiarity to any language I had ever heard; I had no idea what they were saying.
Almost simultaneously as I tuned into this frequency, I was “teleported” to a sort of large ship (no longer in hypnogogia but on the otherside of transitioning into the sleeping state) filled with a strange liquid where telepathic images were transmitted to me about what these creatures looked like (not describable), as well as gesturing me to enter a strange cylinder device to my side. Upon entering the cylinder, I underwent a calibration process, whereby an understanding of this foreign language immediately happened. The details of that conversation are irrelevant to this report and have been discussed elsewhere in my literature. After having many experiences of contact with non physical “alien” intelligences within these states, I am very confident in my assertion that the operational characteristics of consciousness can be finely tuned whilst consciously aware one is in this state.

So, to summarize, the hypothesis is that the biological human body is simply a vessel that locks consciousness into it through the use of what essentially equates to signal modulation. Through deliberately induced lucid dreaming (or more specifically Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming) one can gain access to the mechanisms that allow them to control and tune their consciousness away from this “capturing” frequency of the human body, in which it can then be primed for habitation within other vessels both of biological and non biological substance.

We now take a look at the testimony of Lt Colonel Philip J Corso (which was relayed in his book The Day After Roswell) in which he states his assumption (from reports he read) that the craft that crashed at Roswell in 1947 seemingly had no operational controls that one would expect to find in conventional aircraft, and that this particular craft was possibly controlled by an extraterrestrial consciousness that was able to be tethered in with it. In the book, Corso mentions how the suits worn by the ETs also somehow allowed control of the craft by emitting an electromagnetic signature that matched in with the craft. Corso’s assumptions are heavily similar to my own determinations of using a carrier frequency to lock consciousness within a biological body; in fact if you substitute the space craft for the human body they are almost identical, and these were hypotheticals I was conceptualizing years before reading his book.

Further, in the Alien Interview (an alleged manuscript of an interview with the alien from the same Roswell Crash) Airl, the alien suggests a very similar mode of piloting their craft by moving their consciousness into it. Regardless of whether or not either of these works are legitimate or not, they present a very workable hypothesis that I believe warrants further investigation, which I used as a basis for experimentation during my own lucid dreams: deliberately using induced OBEs to target and hijack functional ET spacecraft.

Based on my experiences and experiments therein, I can state with 100% surety that Lt Col Corso was correct in his assessment, but that he failed to identify deliberately induced OBEs, such as Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection as a very reliable means in achieving operational control of extra terrestrial vehicles (if you believe the military industrial complex hadn’t already worked this out). I remind the reader of this article that I am very well versed in what constitutes a sub conscious dream, a deliberately constructed (visualised) dream, an astral projection experience, hypnogogia, sleep paralysis and the difference between all of them. What my experience entailed was something completely different; it was a rerouting of my consciousness into an extra terrestrial space vehicle that I wore and experienced in the exact same way I experience the physical body I use to type these words. I was physically present in (physical) outer space whilst operating this vehicle, not simply buzzing around the astral plane (which I have done before and also managed to bump into some kind of flying UFO).. The following is based on notes I was able to take during that flight out of the solar system into incredibly “deep” space, which hoping will one day be taken as validation of the experience, when space exploration technology progresses to a point where a more thorough exploration to the region of space I was in can be carried out.

The Vanquish DM-22 Specifications:

Given my appreciation of the craft in question, and the achievement of the experience, I feel the need to refer to it in specific manner, so that no confusion can be made if this craft is ever witnessed in our local region of space. Thus I came up with the name Vanquish DM-22; Vanquish (because it seemed like the space fairing equivalent of an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, also fitting considering the safety of feeling being able to “vanquish” any offensive attack that came my way), and DM – 22 in reference to my initials and the year I first flew it. Flying this craft was a very big deal for me.

Size and shape were hard to determine, as a) it is hard to determine the outside of a body you are currently inside of (just like we cannot determine the shapes of our own bodies without a mirror, except for those parts we can see), and b) the distance between celestial bodies gave a distorted perception of size, particularly at the speeds I was travelling. In saying that though, I got the feeling of a sort of spinning top as a basic silhouette of shape (through my field of vision and based on what I could “feel”, just like one can “feel” their head is a certain shape without touching it). I am confident the above CAD model is a close representation of its shape, considering. The bottom point of the VDM-22 would be what I consider the standout feature, as I could feel this as being the main “limb” of the VDM-22. Most of the control points (the “nerves” of the craft) seemed to gather at this bottom point.

Based on the hangar length, and that the VDM-22’s width was almost touching each side of the launch “chimney”, then considering my perspective of the chimney whilst inside of it, then once again outside in space, I am guessing the diameter was somewhere around 20m. I consider this to be a less accurate assumption than estimating the shape as I had a limited frame of reference to work off. The movement of celestial bodies past the ship suggested the size was astronomically large, but again at those distances and speeds it becomes almost impossible to tell. Extrapolating from the idea I was able to eventually land on Mars, is suggestive the craft was much smaller than that particular planet. At the same time, using the atmospheric boundary of the same planet during landing also suggests it was bigger than conventional earth shuttles.

The “ears” of the VDM-22 body seemed to be some kind of telepathic transceiver that increased audible range to the point that atmospheric noise could be heard with crystal clear clarity from great distances. Noises very similar to those compiled by NASA on what planets “sound like” could be heard on approach to certain planets, which faded as one moved away from them. According to NASA these particular frequencies (before being manipulated by them so they could be heard by the human ear) sit somewhere within the 800MHz spectrum, suggesting this craft body allows the filtering of signals far beyond the 20kHz limit of the human ear. Through the use of the HUD, zooming in to a neighboring galaxy also allowed one to pin point the audio signals coming from that region of space. Interlaced throughout this white noise, in various star clusters, intelligent voices could be heard quite easily. It appeared that certain planets were also conscious (as if consciousness had taken up residence in them like I was taking up residence in this craft) and exhibited intelligence to the level they were able to seemingly communicate (which took the form of English, assumedly translated through the craft’s “ears”) with other nearby planets and me as I approached them. An apparent Martian intelligence was one such example that seemed quite dominant and “loud” and easily discernible even from deep space. Two way communication with these intelligences could be achieved through first zooming into their region of space and using thought as a transmission medium. This zooming feature allowed identification of planetary bodies to extremely high detail from vast distances over several hundred lightyears away.

It was also apparent that some of these planetary transmissions had been set up as beacons to provide navigational data to similar space craft that would be traversing the area.

I was also able to use a stellarium astronomy software that came with a telescope I bought, called Starry Night 8, to devise a very close simulated representation of some aspects of the experience, and derive from it interesting data in the form of star maps that allowed me to approximate in space I was, as well as speeds I was achieving with this craft. This simulation will be included in the aforementioned video along with animations to better show the process of how to merge ones consciousness with these type of craft.

The speeds of the VDM-22 can be broken down into 3 categories of operation: atmospheric, local space and outer galaxy speeds. Atmospheric was the initial speed upon launching from the facility tunnel perched on the top of an asteroid I tracked using Starry Night 8 to being somewhere near the Pawlowia Asteroid during the time of the experience. I have in my head (and I don’t know why) that the approximate length of the tunnel the VDM-22 was hangared in was between 32 and 36km in length (protruding directly into space). This length was covered in about 10 seconds, which equates to about a 13000km/hr initial “launch” speed and presented the hardest part to navigate, as I was very much aware there was limited clearance between the edges of my craft body and the tunnel walls (within a mere meter). Extreme focus must be given to propel the craft at this speed through such a confined space. I knew if I was out by even small degree, at that distance I would crash into these tunnel walls and the experience would end.

How to Achieve Flight Control of the Vanquish DM-22:

To understand how to gain operational control of the Vanquish DM-22, we must first delve a bit deeper into this idea that one experiences a detachment of the consciousness mechanisms from the interfaces of the human body that allow motor control over the limbs etc which can be directly ported over to a target space craft. I mentioned previously that consciousness whilst out of body (lucid dreaming, not astral projecting, as consciousness is still attached to an energetic body with the latter) is extremely versatile in its ability to adapt to its quantum environment. This should be taken as meaning that consciousness can exhibit an infinite range of movement and form whilst in this state, that does not conform to typical standards related to the physical plane. These mechanisms therefore can be considered as control points with an endless number of ways that they can be arranged. When locked within the body, these control points take the typical bipedal human form, which appears like a tree branch that extends out from the head, down both sides and branches off at the arms or the legs (I highly recommend vigourous study of the Kabbalistic tree of life, as it provides the template of consciousness whilst in human form, according to the students of it). If we consider a MO capped stick figured commonly used a basis for building CGI characters off the movements of real people, this acts as a good mock representation of these control points. We can then start to identify the crucial control points and designate them with specific alphanumeric characters:

What we now have is a rudimentary map of the “quantum body” (my own terminology). This body should in no way be compared to the astral or etheric bodies, as it is really just a ball of energy without any recognizable form – our consciousness in pure consciousness state. What our quantum body map allows us is a means to conceptualise how these control points are reshaped according to the interfaces of whatever vehicle it is being adapted to. In the case of the interstellar craft I was lucky enough to pilot, this shape takes a similar form to the typical sitting lotus position many people use to engage in meditation, if only differing from the position of the hand control points that would equate to resting in the middle of the lap. If one takes our stick figure, arranges it into this position, and then compares it to the typical flying saucer shape, the similarities between the two, should immediately become apparent. This will give an idea of where the consciousness control points will “sit” within the craft that is being piloted.

We can then equate specific gestures that are activated within our biological “meat suit” bodies courtesy of our consciousness stimulating these control points, with actual real time space craft controls. This is the key to controlling these craft. Effectively what you are doing is stimulating these same control points which are now tethered to different parts of the craft in question rather than your biological body. This is how I was able to propel this vehicle at incredible speeds into very deep space.

Through my experience piloting this craft I made the following observations mid flight on how control of the craft through these control points is realized. These determinations were made after going through a “calibration process” or “dance” by which I had to become acquainted with these gestures before I could properly fly the craft.

The shape of the saucer has nothing to do with aero dynamics (which always eluded me due to the idea in the vacuity of space velocity is not effected by drag ); it has to do with the turning motion of consciousness within the craft. In the craft I was in, it was as if there was an invisible central axis running from top to bottom that was the main housing for my consciousness. An action comparable to turning my head to look in a certain direction was achieved by spinning consciousness around this axis in either a clockwise or counter clockwise motion. This allowed a 360 pivot and scouting of one’s entire surroundings without any actual physical movement of the craft being carried out. When propelling forward, turning of the vehicle was achieved by rotating consciousness around this axis, which was almost instantaneous. This allowed tight 90 degree bends to be achieved rather effortlessly mid flight.

As consciousness was spun around this central axis, the control points, which were embedded into walls of the vehicle, also spun with it.
To move through the z axis, the control points of the head are used to what would equate to a looking up or looking down gesture, except that the craft never tilted as our head would do when making such a gesture. It always stayed in the same position relative to how consciousness was viewing (through the x/y axis) from within the central “cockpit”.

To strafe left and right on the x axis we take the triangular arrangement of control points at the top of the forearm, the elbow, and the top of the bicep and push them out to the side, we wish to strafe to, like we are elbowing someone in the ribs. An elbow “jab” would equate to a quick evasive “jump” in that direction, whilst a prolonged “shove” would propel the VDM-22 quite a distance.
A tilt of the craft (ie left or right) was achievable by using this same triangular arrangement of control points and bringing them down to our side (like we are making a chicken flying gesture). This would equate to a “barrel roll” around the y axis on whatever side the control points were on, allowing the ship’s relative plane to be changed.

A forward propelling motion through the y axis equated to taking all control points above the pelvis (from the middle of through the arms and fingers to the head) and pushing them forward, like they comprised a joystick.
Braking was achievable by pulling these same control points back to center.
Reverse was simply the opposite of forward propelling through the x axis using the same control points, or a “lean” back motion.
A detailed HUD map of current location was accessible through simple thought. This is hard to explain but it effectively allowed one to target areas of interest as well as zoom in incredible distances (into neighboring galaxies) in order to pin point travel destinations. It was effectively like switching from 1^st person to third person view, except the craft was not visible during the process. My assumption is that it was some sort of controlled method of projecting consciousness into these regions, not comparable to astral projection.
Targeting of areas of interest were achievable by using the control points equated with the fingers. Rapid, multiple target acquisition could be achieved similarly to playing a piano or typing on a computer keyboard when the HUD was activated (if you could fit it into the crammed space of your lap in the lotus position).

Close scrutiny of the above should allow one to conceptualize a near complete range of movement through all 3 axes and explain the evasion techniques seen by most UFO encounters by pilots. In addition to the above I also had an inkling that the control points of the toes (ie wriggling them) would activate the on board weapons arsenal, which I never bothered testing due to an inner knowing it would be quite devastating (beyond humankind’s worst weapons). This knowledge of having these weapons on board was comparable to the understanding one has male reproductive organs whilst sitting in this (lotus) position; one does not have to “take them out” or “play with them” to know they are there. I suspect it was some kind of laser system, but as I never used it, this is just a guess. I understood that I was a force to be reckoned with, that the composition of my space craft body was virtually indestructible and almost wished for another craft to engage me so I could so test out the defence capabilities of the VDM-22. I felt confidant that I was the biggest fish in the universe, and nothing was going to injure me.

Body Disconnection and Spacecraft Reattachment Process:

Importance must be given to the Hypngogic phase of the OBE, as there is a very small window of opportunity between properly disconnecting consciousness from the body, then attaching it to another usable vessel. Whilst hypnagogia can be considered as a cleavage point of consciousness, where it is “drifting” away from the physical body, but still attached to it, it does not equate to a full separation. Proper separation of consciousness from the body happens very quickly after consciousness inverts from its projected outward state which one experiences from hypnagogia (as well as from sleep paralysis) as a fast “sucking backwards” sensation in which it is pulled away from all hypnogogic imagery (what would happen if Han Solo slammed the millennium falcon in reverse whilst in hyperdrive). This inversion of consciousness is where the physical world becomes supplanted by the quantum one, where the attachment mechanisms of the body fall away and is the crucial point at which consciousness must be quickly tethered to its new container. In the case of my experience, this tethering was achieved by a sort of {non physical} hook that hung from the hallway roof that had the ability to pull my consciousness out of the body I was remote viewing from, and orient it in such a way that it aligned with the space craft cockpit (which was rotated 90 degrees in reference to the ground plane of the facility), and simultaneously merged me into it. It seemed it was by almost sheer luck the timing of this hook hitting me coincided with a conscious transition into the sleeping state, but it is more likely that the hook actually initiated the transition.
My suggestion here is that this hook is probably standard affair in many ET space craft docks, or at least those that exhibit an effortless ability to move their consciousness between different containers. An important take away from this is that hypnogogia can be used to target a specific craft through remote viewing practices.

Interestingly – and I am going to be bold with this statement – our models of neighboring galaxies seem to be somewhat inaccurate. According to this experience, I can say with 100% certainty that the Milky Way is not the largest galaxy in this region of space, and that we have a neighboring twin of roughly the same size that comes off perpendicularly to it.

The Experience:

The experience began as an involuntary remote viewing in hypnagogic trance. If I wanted to I could move my body and get up out of bed, but my consciousness was almost completely “away” and viewing from inside of a body that was walking around the launch facility, which took the form of a typical hospital insofar as layout and design was concerned. I was, evidently, on the very cusp of falling asleep. It is important in this stage of the veiwing, one intentionally refrains from exploring any random thoughts that present themselves, and just let the viewing unfold, as experience tells me that any focus away from the events unfolding in the viewing session has a tendancy to ruin it. I thus watched as this body walked about 50m down a hallway, past what appeared to be a cafeteria lounge, turn right through a door way and then walk down a neighboring hallway back from the direction I had just come. I passed what appeared to be two female reception staff to my left sitting at a table which appeared to have a doorway to outside behind it. The whole effort was quite casual, including the very brief conversation that was had with these reception staff; mine and my escort’s destination was through some blast doors that were located just up ahead. Upon reaching just in front of these blast doors the hook became evident. This was of non physical nature, but I could see it, not through the eyes of the body I was observing through, but through my own consciousness. It looked like a standard length of metal that protruded from the roof, and folded at a 90 angle towards the direction I was coming from – perfectly aligning with the centre of my forehead. The end of the hook seemed to taper into a sharp point.
I had barely had time to react before the head of body I was observing through walked was pierced this hook.
My consciousness immediately underwent the same transition into the sleeping state I have become accustomed to experiencing during my lucid dreams. I entered on into the same void space (written about elsewhere), only that this hook seemed to turn my consciousness 90 degrees upwards as it transitioned; if you picture Han Solo throwing his Millenium Falcon into a sideways back flip as he hits hyper drive in reverse, this is what it felt like; it takes much practice for one to find their bearings through such confusion, and is, in my opinion, the “fun” part of the whole affair. I immediately noticed a cluster of stars coming through what appeared to be a circular hole in this void space. My immediate realization was that this “void space” was some sort of non physical (quantum) hangar; I had just never bothered looking upwards in my other experiences with it. Ie, every time one enters into the sleeping state and into this void space, they are entering into one of these quantum hangars (even if they don’t remember it).

There was a slight period of distortion during the engagement period of my consciousness control points interfacing in within the craft body, similar to how when one first wakes up they are in a daze and their arms and legs are yet to work properly. After several seconds this haze wore off, and I was now completely attached and using this craft as if it was my own body, perceiving the physical, cylindrical, structure of the hanger. The interesting part of this haze period, was that the hangar seemingly went from being in non physical state to becoming solid as the haze wore off, and I could make out, with great vividness, tapered ridges running the entire length of the launch “chimney”. I can remember the roaring sound my thruster exhausts made as it echoed along these tapered ridges, as I propelled the craft forward, towards the opening with the stars, taking care not to move too close to the sides of the launch. This marked the hardest part of the flight; I was aware that any slight movement or twitching of the control interfaces would crash the craft into this chimney, so particular attention was paid to slowly accelerating forward until I was confident I wasn’t going to drift into it. At the same time, I had launch protocols being relayed to me via telepathic means by an unknown party, and I could feel their presence through telepathic means (not describable). A few seconds later I arrived at the opening and shot out of the chimney into space where I could see, in very vivid detail a ring of asteroids circling our sun. These asteroids looked like wet rocks glistening from the rays of light of the sun that were hitting them.

Once in open space, I underwent the calibration process to better get acquainted with the consciousness control points and how they would move the craft. This calibration process was a few minutes of me “dancing” around in space doing barrel rolls and amateur flips as if I was taking a car out to a parking lot to learn how to drive it properly. I am therefore quite sure in my assessment of the above control point manipulation to space craft operation criteria; I had to run myself through it before I could properly control the craft; it was like stretching ones limbs before playing a football game to make sure they work properly. The entire time I was aware of the base launch facility beneath me perched on a small asteroid. The facility appeared somewhat like it was made of brick work (something I found curious given its location in the middle of space) and was probably about fifty by one hundred meters in area, several stories high. The launch tunnel was several tens of kilometers in length.

After a quick tour of this asteroid ring, pin pointing earth, I decided I wanted to get away from these asteroids into a much more open area so I could test this craft’s speed capabilities. I had the inner knowing that this particular craft was the Bugatti Veyron of space (ie, engineered for speed); this understanding was akin to the intimate understanding one has of their own body and it’s capabilities and knowing that a lethargic, heavy weighted body is unlikely to perform as well in a 100m sprint than a more agile one. I just knew, this craft body was designed to be “fast”, and I was itching to see what it could do.

Using starry night software I was then able to simulate a very close representation of the time it took to fly past Jupiter and Saturn (note that in the simulation these planets appear further than I was to them because of lack of control I have over that particular program; in the experience these planets were much bigger, taking up almost all of my viewport, which I assume would mean the speeds to be somewhat faster, as I would have been covering greater distances at the same time). According to starry night 8, this would equate to an approximate acceleration of this craft from a standstill to about 4 Astronomical Units (roughly 598,000,000km) in 2 seconds; 4AU to 250ly/sec (23,652, 000, 000, 000, 000km) within 30 seconds. The region close to the location of the Magellanic clouds was reached within 1 minute of burning with barely any effort, in which I assume I was travelling somewhere near the 250ly/ sec mark. The simulation is a very close representation as to what I witnessed and how planets and stars “floated” past me during the experience. Stoppage from any of these speeds was instantaneous (no coasting or wind down), from the moment the braking control points were stimulated. As one can see, even at initial launch speeds, this craft is capable of flying pretty fast – faster than photonic based light, whilst out of atmosphere, that is for sure. The simulation from finishing the calibration process to entering into the nearby Sagittarius Galaxy can be considered 99% exact to how I experienced it, with a short period of total darkness coming out of the milky way before entering into the next galaxy., taking probably a few more seconds in actuality.

Coming out of the Milky Way, and entering into this darkness, I then turned around (spun my consciousness around the central axis of the craft), which is when I noticed two twin sized galaxies arranged perpendicular to each other. A period of disorientation occurred in which I did not know which exact one it was that I had come from.

In the bottom galaxy, I noticed a large anomalous black hole petrusion taking up about a third of the entire galaxy, spanning from one edge to other, so proceeded to fly over the top of the pancake to get a better view. This black hole I identified as being part of the anomaly I have written about elsewhere (consciousness disassembler I have experienced during prior OBEs). My suspicions are that from our vantage point on earth much of the light from this larger neighboring pancake’s stars is being swallowed by this anomaly which distorts our perception of this galaxy and makes it look much smaller than it really is. I am aware radio emissions are used by astrophysicists to map areas around black holes, but this particular area was somewhat silent around this anomaly (remember, my audible range was several hundred MHz wide, possibly even wider, as opposed to human hearing which peaks at 20kHz), suggesting this anomaly is also capable of swallowing radio frequencies. At the cracks of this anomalous protrusion were what looked like bits of sea foam being brightly illuminated by nearby stars, which I assumed to be left over remnants of other stars that this thing had swallowed after it had spat them out.

Using starry night, and trying to ascertain the relative location of this galaxy from the apparent sizes of galaxies neighboring the Milky Way at different angles, my conclusion is that this close twin is located in the very same region of space that houses the small and large Magellanic Clouds. My suggestion here is that the Magellanic Clouds are actually one larger galaxy which has been.

“cleaved” into two parts through this anomaly, which distorts our perception of them from earth, making them appear as two different clusters. I am hoping that future advances in space exploration will one day provide validation of my experience through the finding of evidence of this supermassive black hole anomaly.

Regardless, after pondering this anomaly for a few moments, and being somewhat concerned of its proximity to earth, I then penetrated out into very, very deep space, to the point I was left floating “in the middle of nowhere”. This would have equated to somewhere near the edge of the cosmic web (the real one, which covers a far greater distance than the known one, judging from what I was witnessing, and comparing to the starry night simulation software).

It was here I tried to establish telepathic communication with the Elder Guardians, who I knew existed very, very far beyond this cosmic web. This was the prime intention of what I wished to achieve with this experience. Up until that point I had been quite active in my exploration around the universe, but it was at this point that I simply just stopped and floated in the middle of no where and the realization hit me that I was an almost unfathomable distance from my physical body back on earth. A curious discovery was made out here; even at that vantage point, I was not able to receive more than a broken transmission that consisted of mainly white noise in between a few “Hello, can you hear me’s”, which suggests to me that there is a barrier that “absorbs” (or more correctly, introduces interference at) even the frequencies associated with telepathic thought transmission somewhere near the edge of the universe.

Shortly after this communication attempt was aborted, the Martian Intelligence spoke directly to me, the amplitude of its “voice” coming through extremely prominently and clear even from this deep region of space. It had evidentally “spotted” my presence flying inside and out of the milky way, and was curious about what I was up to. I had been aware of this intelligence from breaching the outer edges of the milky way, but had not paid much attention to it until it decided to specifically address me. How this was done was hard to explain, but it was like someone shouting at you from a distance, and saying “yes you” when attention was given to the voice. This attention was achieved through the aforementioned “zooming” in to the region of space this intelligence was coming from. The initial thought was that, to a human, this intelligence would have been quite sinister and dangerous, though from the comfort of my space vehicle I thought it’s attempts at coercion to be quite lame, like an adult trying to scare a child who has already called their bluff. I proceeded with extreme caution at its suggestion I come closer to it as it had “something I needed”. Through my targeting apparatus I was then able to run a scan of the planetary body this intelligence was inhabiting, which I identified from its red patterns as being Mars, or a very similar looking planet (galaxy and solar systems were still hard to determine even with this apparatus, unlike my simulation software I did not have the luxury of labels I could use for identification). I was basically operating as a police officer would, going through basic protocols to make sure I was not going to be ambushed.

Once the Mars like planet had been identified, I accelerated forward to it and came within its atmosphere within about 10-20 seconds. Note, that in the simulation, this is covered much quicker on account for the limited way I had to show the targeting of Mars from deep space. However, the part where I look around trying to pin point where this intelligence was coming from is fairly accurate, although actual movement was more robotic. Atmospheric penetration of the Martian like planet was different to that outlined in the simulation, and involved a forward acceleration into a region that was darkened by the lack of sunlight, close to where daylight would have been breaking. This forward acceleration eventually allowed me to get close enough to gently bring my craft body down to almost ground level, in a rocky outcrop with several cliffs surrounding me. There appeared to be a violent dust storm that made visibility of anything but the nearby cliff faces hard to make out. Even upon landing the intelligence still beckoned for me to follow it into this dust storm, which I was very convinced by this point was a trap.

I decided that the wisest move would be to report my findings of this alien intelligence back to the launch facility base on the asteroid near Pawlowia. Shortly after this, my consciousness was disconnected form this space craft body and I awoke in bed, suggesting that this craft may have been left on whatever planet this was I was on.

Determinations from the experience:

ET spacecraft can 100% be “hijacked” through using techniques commonly involved in initiating out of body experiences. Remote viewing practices can be used as an effective means to target these craft.
There is a launch facility for these craft set up in the asteroid belt, which seems to be close to where the asteroid Pawlowia was on the 27^th June 2022.
This facility exhibits human like construction methods (brickwork) and is populated by beings seemingly indistguishable from humans.
These spacecraft have the ability to up scale the bandwidth of frequencies that can be heard during their piloting. There seems to be a common “channel of communication” through this entire bandwidth.
Operation of frequency transmission is different to common methods used on earth; whereas we tend to use a single frequency to modulate the information onto, typical signal transmission from these craft seem to happen simultaneously over this entire frequency range, which has a bandwidth several MHz wide.
The instantaneous transmission speeds through vast distances of space suggest that these transmission are operating beyond those restricted to the speed of light. Instantaneous communication from two different points, many millions of light years apart also suggest a different means of signal propagation, as radio waves are limited to the speed of light (minus 5% under earth atmospheric conditions)
Planetary bodies can seemingly exhibit intelligence at a level that they can be communicated with by not only other planets over great distances, but also by intelligences passing by in some of these space vehicles. My assumption is that this intelligence really comes from an extremely high powered transceiver stationed on these planets by other ET races, in which the planet itself becomes part of the transmission component. I suspect ET races are actually using the planets in some way as an amplification medium of the signals on this telepathy channel.
The most dominant of these transmission stations comes from a planet that either is Mars or looks very similar to it. This transceiver, from whatever its location, can propagate signals out into the edge of the cosmic web instantaneously, with effectively 0 attennuation. Again, this alludes to the idea that these are not typical electromagnetic based radio signals we use on earth, given the obvious bypassing of the inverse square law. The intelligence behind these transmissions is extremely hostile and malicious as far as human standards go, but somewhat inferior when operating from one of these vehicles, suffering from an obvious cowardice.
Some planetary bodies are being used as navigational beacons for these type of space craft. These transmission beacons cover radiuses of several light years, or in the case of the Martian like planet transceiver, several million lightyears, but can be pin pointed from distances very far away from them through directional receiver (audio telescope) capabilities of these craft. This means that sounds from these beacons will not be heard until passing into their broadcasting range, unless these areas are specifically targeted by the craft’s audio telescope zooming capabilities.
Earth propagates a signal that is very noticeable throughout, at least, its own solar system. There is no way it can remain hidden to outside craft of similar capabilities given the loudness of this signal.
The regions inside and outside of the Milky Way are teaming with “intelligent chatter” on this telepathic line. This comes across like being in a crowd of people all speaking at once, until the audio telescope is used and zoomed into a particular sector, where signals in that sector get louder and drown out the crowded noise. In the case of the Martian transceiver, it was essentially like being shouted at by someone on the opposite end of the universe, the loudness of the shout being very obvious.
There is a boundary out past the cosmic web in which signals from this telepathic channel are broken and experience a high level of interference. Estimated distance from earth to this boundary is in the “trillions” of lightyears or more.
There is a neighboring pancake galaxy of similar size to the milky way that comes off perpendicular to it at an approximate distance similar to the Magellanic Clouds. A large part of this galaxy is taken up by a massive anomalous black hole that swallows light and radio frequencies around the site. An ocean of foamy white substance lines the edges of this “crack”. It is also possible this galaxy with the anomaly is the milky way itself. Past experience with this black hole anomaly suggest it exists outside of known time and space, originates from outside of the telepathic signal boundary, and can rip consciousness apart. From those experiences, it seemingly has a direct relationship with the amnesia introduced into our consciousness that prohibit us from retaining memory of past lives.
The universe is spherical, and does not feel a big enough a place to explore when using one of these craft.
Through directional audio telescoping capabilities and relevant speeds of the craft I piloted, exploration into useful areas and galaxies for resource gathering purposes could be carried out extremely easily and efficiently in a very small amount of time. I estimate, that if humans had consistent and unfettered access to this technology, they could accurately map the entire universe within a single year.

It is my belief that it is possible to move consciousness in a similar manner to what is done via lucid dreaming at the moment of death. It is my intention to try and move my consciousness into one of these space craft suits at the expiration of this physical body, in an attempt to provide some form of validation of my claim that techniques used to induce OBEs can be used to hijack and pilot these craft. If I am successful in my endeavors, then I will use this opportunity to provide not only evidence of the existence of these craft, but that my curriculum for piloting them is at least somewhat usable. Therefore, any sightings of a craft similar to the Vanquish DM-22, distinguishable by the pointed “spinning top” bottom, over areas or during events with direct significance to my life, such as properties I owned, burial site of my body, etc, can be taken as a visitation from the same consciousness that piloted the body used to write these very words. I am certain that direct telepathic communication, along the same channel used by this craft, can be made through broadcasted thoughts during hypnagogia or whilst in the void space after a conscious transition into the sleeping state. I recommend using this avenue for any parties interested in trying to contact my consciousness post humously.

A more thorough explanation of visiting schedule will be given to my Ordo Occultum Astrum once it has been worked out.

Dancing and Enchiladas

What are your thoughts?

And now you know.

Have a great day. Today’s postings…

Strictly Ballroom [1992] – Love Is In The Air (1977)

One of the best Australian movies ever made.

January 29, 2023

Something worse than anything seen even amidst the dark years of the Cold War has awoken, Matthew Ehret writes.

It feels like today’s world is spinning quickly out of control.

Fear of nuclear confrontation between Russia and NATO has increased to a fever pitch and something worse than anything seen even amidst the dark years of the Cold War has awoken.

A strange form of insanity has swept across the collective west as the US Congress infuses billions of dollars of more lethal aid to a regime in Kiev which a smiling Senator Lindsey Graham has said Kiev “will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian”.

This is the same American Congress which unabashedly fuels Nazi-infested military units in Ukraine, and ISIS-affiliated groups in Syria and Iraq who additionally chose to declare Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism” with the senate voting unanimously to this effect on July 27, and the House of Representatives following close behind with a resolution that has vast bipartisan support of both parties.

Meanwhile in Brussels, and across the Five Eyes, pressure mounts to ban Russia’s president from the G20, while a glorification of Nazi “heroes” accelerates across the many nations of the former Soviet Union including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania etc… all of whom having been absorbed into NATO during the past two decades.

Talk of nuclear Armageddon has become commonplace, and it appears that no effort to heal the divide between east and west is considered by any of the neo-liberal politicians occupying positions of authority

What is going on? Has the world gone insane?

Why have leading figures of the “free and democratic” west become so blind to even their own strategic interests to the point that they would voluntarily risk spreading thermonuclear fire across the globe rather than end the policy of “global NATO” and international unipolarism?

This man-made crisis- like all man made crises, has solutions.

But these solutions require that both sides Russian and American alike, properly identify the nature of those agencies pushing the world to the brink of extermination.

For it is only by doing this, that we may properly appreciate the potential of restoring the USA itself back to its constitutional traditions while at the same time establishing a basis of a genuine new security architecture so desperately needed if the world will survive the remaining decades of the 21st century.

Understanding the pathway needed to navigating through the current storm requires revisiting a bit of recent history starting with the collapse of the soviet union and the three pregnant moments which nearly saw humanity embrace a new epoch of win-win cooperation driven by a US-Russian strategic alliance.

1988-1992: The first attempt at an age of multipolar cooperation is subverted

By 1988, it was becoming increasingly clear that the system of mutually assured destruction was coming to an end.

The rigid economic systems of the Soviet bloc had been incapable of introducing the needed technological innovations to the general civilian economy which would have been needed to avoid a general breakdown.

Everyone knows of the dark days of Perestroika and the western-directed looting of the 1990s…

but few are aware of the ripe potential for a new age of cooperation and abundance driven by forces within the American intelligentsia and their Russian counterparts who saw in this crisis, an opportunity to turn swords into plowshares.

These figures sought to build a new architecture based on mutual development, trust building measures and scientific progress.

Backchannel discussions had been arranged for several years with leading figures of the new Gorbachev administration and their American counterparts within the Reagan administration and even the industrial leaders of Germany led by Deutsche Bank Chairman Alfred Herrhausen. These anti-Malthusian statesmen may not have fully appreciated the evil forces they were challenging, but they none the less worked hard to end the Cold War not by crushing Russia into oblivion, but in providing a new synergy of industrial and scientific cooperation between east and west.

The story of these plans and possibility for an age of cooperation premised on large-scale industrial progress is told both in the recent autobiography of American University in Moscow’s Dr. Edward Lozansky as well as in the 2008 Schiller Institute documentary The Lost Chance of 1989.

These figures worked hard to present development plans which involved billions of dollars of promised investments into the modernization of all sectors of the Soviet economy premised around large scale infrastructure, and industrial growth.

Despite the many promises of east-west cooperation, the 1990s instead saw a bloodied Russia swimming with sharks.

Figures like Strobe Talbott, and Jeffrey Sachs were assigned the task of breaking the Russian government and its people economically, psychologically and morally under a program of Shock Therapy overseen by the worst elements of the IMF, City of London and Washington utopians.

Even basic security guarantees were abandoned as the promises made by then Secretary of State James Baker to “not move NATO one inch beyond its 1992 configuration” were increasingly abandoned, as NATO transformed from a Cold War defensive alliance to an aspiring new global offensive structure absorbing as many former Soviet Nations it could acquire.

Instead of cooperation, speeches calling for a New World Order and “end of history” became part of the western political discourse

Even then Senator Joe Biden was quick to get into the action writing such 1992 tracts as “How I learned love the New World Order”

For those nations resistant to this New World Order, Balkanization and bombs were swiftly deployed to shake them into “correct behavior”

Behind the illusion of America’s victory over communism, a rot could be felt growing ever faster as the post-industrial policies of the 1970s and 1980s were transforming America’s once powerful industrial base into a useless services economy with no sovereign capacity to stand on its own feet, produce for itself or even maintain basic infrastructure.

Poverty, drug use and crime increased under Clinton while a wealth transfer was taking hold that saw America’s dwindling small and medium sized entrepreneurs wiped out under new behemoth corporations who enjoyed free reign to gobble up everything they could acquire under the financial deregulation bonanza of the North American Free Trade Agreement and Europe’s Maastricht Treaty. In both treaties, former zones of sovereign nations were stripped of their power to legally emit productive credit, use protectionism to defend their interests, or control their own national banking systems. Where sovereignty over these vital powers was once legally the prerogative of the nation, after NAFTA and Maastricht, supranational entities now enjoyed this privilege.

Within this decay on all sides of the former Iron Curtin, two new leaders came to power.

With their ascension in 1999 and 2000, it was hoped that Vladimir Putin and George Bush Jr might be able to restore a measure of sanity after a decade of betrayal.

1999-2001: The second attempt at an age of multipolar cooperation is subverted

By the year 2000, hopes were again high that the dismal decay of US-Russian relations could be healed as a young trouble shooter named Vladimir Putin was brought into play in Moscow replacing the alcoholic trainwreck that was Boris Yeltsin.

The defeat of Al Gore (whose deep relationship with Russian traitors such as Chernomyrdin and Chubais left him with no shortage of Russian blood on his hands) awoke a weary optimism among patriots in both nations.

Within the USA, over 100 elected representatives endorsed a call led by republican congressman Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania who commissioned a report titled “US-Russia Partnership: A Time for New Beginnings“.

In this influential document published in early 2001, a coherent vision not seen in over a decade was presented that called for a new paradigm touching on every aspect of US-Russian relations.

Cultural diplomacy, the teaching of Russian in American schools, Agricultural assistance, full spectrum energy development, space exploration, defense cooperation, asteroid defense, and fusion research all figured prominently in Representative Weldon’s dossier.

The sensitivity to the existential moment not being lost to history can be seen in the report’s opening remarks:

“America and Russia must forge an alliance beneficial to both, or face the near certainty that

historical suspicions will reassert themselves and plunge the world into a new Cold War. Such an eventuality would be especially tragic since the United States and Russia have more in common than not. Indeed, given that the gravest and most imminent threats to both nations are terrorism and WMD proliferation, these great common enemies should make the United States and Russia natural allies.

The Cold War era model of bilateral relations and arms control is predicated on mutual antagonism and nuclear threats: a situation that is unacceptable as the basis for 21st Century U.S.- Russian relations. Russia and the United States each have unique security concerns, but have more security concerns that are shared in common. U.S. policy should encourage Russia to recognize the advantages of U.S.-Russian cooperation in areas like counter-terrorism, non-proliferation and missile defense… The key to forging a U.S.-Russian alliance is to do it now, before U.S.-Russian relations deteriorate further. The United States must offer Russia a relationship that clearly benefits Russian as well as U.S. interests, and begin as soon as possible, working jointly toward mutually beneficial goals.”

It was this spirit of goodwill within the leading strata of American policy makers that Vladimir Putin spoke towards when he made his intention for Russia’s participation in NATO known to the west.

Of course, Putin was not ignorant to the dangers NATO posed under the influence of unipolarists like Gore, Soros, Nuland et al, but as long as figures who thought differently exercised power among western nations, then Russia’s intelligentsia presumed it to be an organization whose destructive orientation could be neutralized.

It was for this reason that Putin’s early appearances in the USA during this period alongside President Bush demonstrated the optimism that a sane foreign policy might be adopted.

Sadly, another darker current within the US governing class was emerging with the incoming Bush Administration which had a very different view of things.

This group not only carried on the worst elements of the Clinton-Gore-Talbott Russia policy of the 1990s but added an obsessive militaristic drive for global supremacy with a Pax American flavor not seen in the previous regime.

Figures like Strobe Talbott’s assistant Victoria Nuland went on to find new employment as Dick Cheney’s assistant and soon US Ambassador to NATO where she oversaw the military bloc’s vast expansion from 16 to 24 nations by 2008.

Under Nuland’s lead, Georgia and Ukraine’s aspirations to join the alliance is welcomed officially by NATO.

Nuland also worked closely with the CIA front group National Endowment for Democracy and George Soros in setting the stage for a new era of regime change operations in the form of color revolutions in Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004) and scorched earth humanitarian bombing of nations back to the stone age across the Middle East in the wake of 9/11.

Nuland’s husband Robert Kagan was an early co-founder of the Project for a New American Century- a neoconservative think tank which produced such dystopic policy visions for the 21st century as the September 2000 Rebuilding America’s Defenses which saw both Russia and China, not as potential allies, but as intrinsic enemies to be destroyed if the planned global hegemony of the USA was to be ensured.

In total opposition to the positive spirit of win-win cooperation envisioned by Representative Curt Weldon and company, the unipolarist networks outlined in the PNAC RAD document envisioned a much more dystopic world order of Hobbesian struggle of each against all when they envisioned the wars of the future saying:

“Although it may take several decades for the process of transformation to unfold… “combat” likely will take place in new dimensions: in space, “cyber-space,” and perhaps the world of microbes. Air warfare may no longer be fought by pilots manning tactical fighter aircraft sweeping the skies of opposing fighters, but a regime dominated by long-range, stealthy unmanned craft… Space itself will become a theater of war, as nations gain access to space capabilities and come to rely on them; further, the distinction between military and commercial space systems – combatants and noncombatants – will become blurred. Information systems will become an important focus of attack, particularly for U.S. enemies seeking to short-circuit sophisticated American forces. And advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.”

The thinking of grand strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski was visceral in the pulse of ideologues like Kagan, Nuland and other neocons like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney who ran the malleable Bush Jr presidency.

It was former National Security Advisor Brzezinski who outlined the needed carving up of Russia in his 1997 Grand Chessboard under Washington diktat could also be smelled across the pages of the PNAC white papers.

In his 1997 book, Brzezinski wrote:

“Potentially, the most dangerous scenario would be a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran, an ‘anti-hegemonic’ coalition united not by ideology but by complementary grievances.”

Brzezinski added: “How the United States both manipulates and accommodates the principal geostrategic players on the Eurasian chessboard and how it manages Eurasia’s key geopolitical pivots will be critical to the longevity and stability of America’s global primacy.”

Unfortunately for the world, the policy doctrine which was adopted by George Bush was not that of the better American patriots surrounding Curt Weldon, but rather this hive of unipolarists who sought to do everything possible to ensure that the world would remain as divided and suppressed as possible while a new Pax Americana could consolidate its possessions under a program of Full Spectrum Dominance.

It was this group that ensured the USA would soon quit the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty which Bush announced in December 13, 2001.

The 1972 ABM Treaty had ensured that both Russian and American militaries cease deploying, testing and developing sea, air, space and mobile land based anti-missile systems for intercepting strategic ballistic missiles.

The USA’s withdrawal from this treaty made the increased danger of the ballistic missile shield built up around Russia (and China’s) perimeters an unbearable existential threat, and a new arms race between offensive and defensive systems was launched.

A day after the USA officially left the ABM Treaty, Russia announced its withdrawal from the START II Treaty which would have not only banned the use of multiple warheads on ICBMS but also vastly reduced the total number of warheads.

It wasn’t long before President Putin called out this threat during his famous 2007 Munich Security speech which laid out not only Russia’s understanding of the true intentions underlying the offensive properties of the Ballistic Missile systems built up across her borders, but also set firm red lines regarding NATO’s continued encroachment on Russia.

2016-2020: The Third attempt at an age of multipolar cooperation is subverted

Between 2007-2016 the western unipolarists had doubled down on Full Spectrum Dominance despite the fact that the contours of world politics had drastically changed with the new Russian-Chinese alliance that had become a bedrock of the success of Eurasian integration.

Other nations had been swept into hell under a western-manipulated Arab Spring followed by the 2011 humanitarian bombing of Libya and the targeting of Syria for similar “nation building” treatment.

In the Pacific, the Clinton-Obama Asia Pivot had accelerated US military commitment across China’s perimeter with THAAD Missiles in South Korea and 100,000 troops spread across western-manipulated Asian governments.

Under Biden and Victoria Nuland’s lead, Ukraine was lit on fire as a pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych was overturned in a 2^nd color revolution and a regime chosen by the US State Department was installed in power.

Amidst this world of darkness, a light was beginning to shine as China announced the Belt and Road Initiative as its new foreign policy in October 2013, which soon began merging with Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union.

In 2015, Russia was sufficiently strong to launch into a new foreign policy doctrine in Syria which prevented another regime change project from lighting the heartland on fire.

By 2016, things were looking bleak for the world as all public opinion polls in America were forecasting certain victory for Hillary Clinton as the 45^th President of the United States.

But something changed.

The upset victory of Donald Trump did more than merely derail the continuation of neocon agenda which had found a new home in the worst elements of the Democratic Party of Obama and Clinton, but a new potential for rebuilding US-Russian relations was beginning to be felt as the new president called for good relations with Russia and China while also pushing for ending the “never ending wars” and re-calibrating American military activity in Syria with the Russians.

Throughout the 2016-2020 presidency of Trump, a full assault was launched to undo the vote of the majority of American citizens through gaslighting, “Russiagate” propaganda, and vast media witchhunts which attempted to paint Trump as “a Kremlin stooge”.

Despite this, Trump was able to fend off impeachment attempts, and managed a variety of reforms that entailed cutting NED funding in Ukraine, Hong Kong and beyond, severing vital components of the CIA from conventional military operations, harmonized US miliary operations with Russia in Syria, and drove a vast program of diplomatic bridge building across the middle east with the Abraham Accords, and in Asia where Trump brokered meetings with South and North Korean leaders. This bridge building was most important in regards to the leadership of Russia and China.

It was in April 2019, that President Trump appeared at the White House alongside Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and said:

“Between Russia, China and us, we’re all making hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including nuclear, which is ridiculous. I think it’s much better if we all got together and didn’t make these weapons those three countries I think can come together and stop the spending and spend on things that are more productive toward long-term peace.”

Although deep state operations active within the US State Department worked tirelessly to sabotage these positive initiatives, and although neo con swamp creatures like John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo continued to surround Trump’s inner circle like vipers, it would be foolish to ignore these positive, albeit short lived initiatives to revive the missed chances of 1990 and 2000.

Will “The Other America” Please Stand Up?

Two years after the installation of Biden into the White House, the world has slid once again towards an existential cliff of confrontation not only with Russia over the events in Ukraine but increasingly China with the build up of a new NATO-of the Pacific which some have come to dub the “Quad”.

Where a post-NED color revolution Ukraine was used as a flashpoint for this antagonistic program against Russia, a post-NED color revolution in Taiwan (under the 2014 Sunflower Revolution) was used to turn this Pacific island province of China into a new potential flashpoint of war in the Pacific.

With 140+ countries joining onto the Belt and Road Initiative, and an increasing list of nations waiting to join the BRICS+ and Shanghai Cooperation Alliance, it is becoming increasingly clear that the nightmare of Zbigniew Brzezinski of a Russia-China-Iran led new Eurasian Alliance is threatening to forever upset the unipolar paradigm.

President Putin made such a point clear in a recent speech calling out the end of the unipolar system

The American population know that they do not benefit from the proxy war in Ukraine, and according to recent polls, the situation of Ukraine doesn’t even make the top 10 concerns for most Americans who care more for increased gas, food and rent prices over the geopolitical ambitions of detached neocons.

Additionally, polls by Rasmussen demonstrate that nearly 70% of Americans strongly believe America to be heading down the wrong track and approval of both the president and congress has hit historic lows.

The previous three attempts to overthrow the unipolarist ideologues and establish a sustainable foundation of US-Russian cooperation were made possible not only through well positioned politicians but a network of well organized, informed and engaged American citizens who understood how to think about the direction their nation was headed.

If today’s world is to avoid the consequence of the insane policies of Global NATO which can lead only towards thermonuclear war, then it will be thanks to the important factor of this “other America” whose time, energy and sacrifice may make all the difference between a new dark age or new age of cooperation.

The Ukraine Conflict — A Primer

Tex-Mex Enchiladas 2

Ingredients

1 tablespoon shortening
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon red chili powder (or more)
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 corn tortillas
1 onion, chopped
2 cups grated Longhorn cheese

Instructions

Melt shortening in a heavy skillet. Stir in flour and make a roux.
Add chili powder and water; stir and cook until the gravy is thick. Keep warm while preparing the tortillas.
Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Lightly grease an ovenproof casserole dish.
Heat oil in a skillet and lightly fry each tortilla for about 5 seconds on each side. Do not overcook or they will get rubbery. Drain on paper towels.
Dip each tortilla into the gravy, put some of the onion and cheese on the tortilla, roll it up, and place it, seam side down, in a casserole dish.
Repeat until all 6 tortillas have been rolled.
Pour the chili gravy over the tortillas, top with more cheese, and bake for about 10 minutes.

Yield: 2 servings

Oh SH*T, something big is happening with mandates, lawyers nervous

To The Vanishing Point: The Obscure Broken Worlds Of Artist Sergey Kolesov

Sergey Kolesov aka Peleng is from the city of Ivanovo, Russia. He uses the fantasy style creating his pictures. Basically he draws kind of horror pictures, a bit scary, but cool and rather dramatic… well, some of them are more scary, than cool.

Scientist Dies and Comes Back Changed Forever – Near Death Experience

Very interesting.

Tex-Mex Chops

A very tasty and easy five-ingredient recipe for Tex-Mex Chops.

Ingredients

4 pork chops, pork steaks or stuffed pork chops
1 1/2 cups salsa, chunky style
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

Heat oil in nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Brown chops on one side, about 2 minutes.
Turn chops. Add salsa, chiles and cumin to skillet; mix well. Lower heat, cover and barely simmer for 6 minutes until internal temperature on a thermometer reads 145 degrees F.
Uncover; top each chop with 1 tablespoon cheese. Cover and simmer an additional 1 to 2 minutes, until cheese melts.
Allow to rest for 3 minutes before serving.

Servings: 4 | Prep: 5 min | Cook: 15 min

Dirty Dancing – Final Dance Scene

Advice From Cats On How To Survive The Holidays

The holidays can be quite stressful—between buying gifts, coping with family, attending various functions, and realizing that mixing Jagermeister and egg nog together to make “Jag Nog” was a bad idea, it can get a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, the felines behind You Need More Sleep: Advice from Cats are here to give you all the tips you need to enjoy a joyful, peaceful, and—most importantly—restful season.

What A Feeling | The Final Audition | Flashdance

Remember High School pizza?

Today’s…

"...For Confucian societies that value the family and the community more than the individual, people will be more willing to suffer a little bit to save the lives of the old and the weak. Whereas, for societies that value the individual rights and their freedoms, they will not care about the underprivileged that are more likely to die, and that is their freedom of choice. They must have their freedom and their economy. They have a million deaths yet they laugh at China with five thousand, in total. It is their freedom to be stupid and delusional."

I guess you could classify 2023 as a settling down, begrudgingly by some, of new Geo-political realities. Things are shaking out. It will be choppy, but good!

Remember High School pizza?

City School Pizza

Yield: 24 servings

Ingredients

French-Style Pizza Crust

2 packages dry or cake yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 1/2 cups lukewarm water
9 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt

Topping

1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon instant minced onion
1 (8 ounce) can tomatoes, drained and chopped
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
3/4 cup water
3/4 teaspoon oregano
Salt
3/4 teaspoon dried sweet basil
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 pound ground or chopped luncheon meat
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

French-Style Pizza Crust

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water.
Add flour and salt. Knead until smooth.
Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.
Cut into 2portions. Let rest 15 minutes.
Pat or roll to even thickness in 2 (15 1/2 x 10 1/2-inch) jellyroll pans. Set aside.

Topping

Brown ground beef and onion in a large skillet.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, water, oregano, salt to taste, basil, garlic powder and luncheon meat. Sauté until mixture comes to a boil. Simmer for a few minutes.
Spread sauce on prepared French-Style Pizza Crust in pans. Sprinkle each crust with cheese.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes or until cheese layer is bubbly and browned.

Notes

Source: Los Angeles Times – 9/23/82

Marine Corps reactivates base on Guam

The U.S. Marine Corps reactivated a new base on Guam in a ceremony, Jan. 26, honoring the long-shared history of the Marine Corps and Guam and establishing a forward presence in the Indo-Pacific that will endure into the future.

USMC press release

Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Blaz is the first newly constructed Marine Corps base in 70 years and serves as a testament to the U.S.-Japan alliance. Guam was chosen as the location for the new base during the 2012 Bilateral Agreement between the U.S and Japanese governments, under the Defense Policy Review Initiative, which set the framework for the relocation of Marines from Okinawa to Guam. The base is named in honor of Brigadier General Vicente Tomas “Ben” Garrido Blaz, the first CHamorro Marine to attain the rank of general officer.

“Today is an important day that marks the future of the Marines on Guam, and it is also a day to reflect on the century-long history of the Marine Corps in this beautiful place we call home,” said Col. Christopher Bopp, Commanding Officer, MCB Camp Blaz. “On this island Marines and their CHamoru brethren have lived in peace and fought in war together and we are proud to carry on this legacy of honor and courage.”

Guam’s history is marked by the enduring partnership between the U.S. military and the people of Guam. Since the establishment of Marine Barracks Guam in 1899, the Marine Corps has had a nearly continuous presence on Guam. The Marine Barracks was reactivated after World War II and deactivated November 10, 1992.

During the ceremony at War in the Pacific National Historical Park, honors were rendered to the Honorable Lou Leon Guerrero, Governor of Guam; Commandant of the Marine Corps; U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environmental; Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Defense and Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs provided remarks. The ceremony ended with a traditional pass and review.

From HERE

The West Has Lost Already

Gotta love this dude. Lives in a literal true warzone, was interrogated and held hostage by SBU and just brushed it like nothing, had bike accident, AGAIN BRUSHED IT LIKE NOTHING AT ALL, and just went full "anyyyyyway, look at those fools!" and started dropping truth-bombs like it's nothing, another day in our mundane lives.

What is your opinion on the U.S./China relationship? Do you think it will improve or worsen in the future?

It will worsen for one more president after Biden.

why?

Simple, the U.S. has been in a denial mode since 2014 all the time they underestimated China and China is happy to let the U.S. lulled themself into oblivion.

Biden ought to have woken up to know that China is no pushover but he is too old and too uninformed about China except for fear mongering by his handlers.

I think it needs about 15 years of adjustment by the U.S. to move from disbelief to denial to refusing to accept China is in most way bigger than the U.S. and that the more you contain or to control China the worst it is for America.

By the next president, they will be in a refusing to accept reality stage. That president will know China is really a big deal and the U.S. can hardly match China but for political reason it is better to still pretend that they are still weaker and we the U.S. can still tell them what to do.

But by late 2020s say after 2028 China’s strength is too big to pretend and denying it looks very daft and silly even as a U.S. president. Also by that time the U.S. dollar is a shade of it is even now. By that time it makes sense politically to move into reluctant acceptance stage and to try to benefit by China’s size and market beats trying g to contain China.

American pain will have been rather unbearable by then and it’s people will recognise that selling to China and cooperation with China and Asia is the way to go.

Not at the moment. Today the chest beater and the blind optimism of the U.S. group overwhelmed the realist. And politicians are smart. They know that politically it is still better to talk as though China can be beaten. And talking shit on China is still fashionable. I see 2028–2032 period as the time the realist becomes the majority in America.

A Secret Roswell Journal Becomes The Focus Of A New UFO Documentary

From HERE

A secret journal offers new clues about the nature of the alleged 1947 AD UFO crash at Roswell in the New Mexico desert, or does it? Before we kick off, this isn’t one of these Reddit stories that emerged from some basement decorated with posters of the Starship Enterprise and Chewbacca. Quite the opposite.

Live Science is one off the internet’s more respected academic media outlets and today they tell the story of a hitherto unknown personal diary belonging to Major Jesse Marcel, a head intelligence officer at the Roswell Army Air Field. The secret Roswell journal could change the narrative of this famous UFO event. In particular, the secret Roswell journal may contain secret coded observations that will help to “clarify” what really happened in Roswell in 1947 AD.

Marcel investigated the famous Roswell site in New Mexico where in 1947 a UFO is believed by many to have crashed. Furthermore, he claimed to have recovered some of the debris from whatever ditched in the desert that July night near the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF). Newspaper photos at the time showed Marcel with pieces of metallic material and on the afternoon of July 8, 1947 AD he disclosed to the media “the crash and recovery of a flying disc.” However, the following day, an army official made a statement saying that a weather balloon had fallen to earth, “not a flying saucer.”

Will The Secret Roswell Journal Change Everything?

The Roswell story now takes a new turn since Major Marcel’s family revealed they had kept his personal secret Roswell journal which contains “hitherto unknown clues about the crash.” The secret diary and its equally secret contents will soon be presented on History Channel´s History’s Greatest Mysteries series in an episode called Roswell: The First Witness . The episode was released on December 12th, Saturday, 2020 AD. The show host, Ben Smith, is a former CIA operative and the show’s lead investigator. He thinks it is very unusual that the day after the government claimed they had recovered a UFO they switched stories and maintained it was merely “a weather balloon,” Smith told Live Science .

This story is another in a long line of recent reports pertaining to UFOs. According to The Guardian in 2017 AD a former Pentagon official confirmed the existence of a federal agency that had been “secretly investigating UFOs since 2007.” Then, in 2018, U.S. Navy pilots reported “three encounters with fast-moving UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena” better known to us civies as UFOs. And building up this emerging alien narrative, officially declassified videos of these occurrences were published in April of this year, as previously reported on Live Science .

Secret Roswell Journal: A Problem Of Might, May And Could

Let´s now return to Major Jesse Marcel, the author of the secret Roswell journal. He investigated the site at Roswell and recovered what he believed to be debris from a flying saucer . In 1997 AD, Time published an article saying Marcel told an interviewer at the time that “he believed” the object that crashed in the New Mexico desert had extraterrestrial origins. Now, a forensic analysis of Marcel´s secret Roswell journal “could reveal” coded messages that he wrote about the crash at the time that it happened, Ben Smith said.

This application of the word “could” will no doubt have skeptics raging, because they all know what’s most probably coming here. If the diary really contained any actual evidence that the Roswell incident was nothing more than a collapsed weather balloon we would certainly have heard about it by now. Unless of course thousands of unpaid interns and staff at the network have all kept quiet, doubters can argue. Perhaps the skeptics greatest argument is presented in plain sight in the newspaper photograph of Marcel on the evening of the crash. To all but the most committed believers in extraterrestrials it is perfectly clear that Marcel is holding a piece of a crumpled (crashed) weather balloon.

When the History Channel episode airs and unavoidably “no evidence” of extraterrestrials is offered, perhaps then maybe some “believers” will consider the content of the Ancient Origins news article I wrote about this only last month.

A team of Oxford University researchers recently applied statistics to the question “are we alone” and concluded that “life on earth is probably a unique universal phenomena, and that it´s ‘extremely unlikely’ that any other intelligent life exists anywhere else in the universe.” This is a profound claim that sceptics love and believers loathe.

And the same extreme opinions are likely to flood across social media channels when the details of Major Marcel’s secret Roswell journal are revealed.

Japanese Illustrator Suzusiro Puts Maids On Skateboards And We Can’t Complain

If you’re a fan of Japanese manga and anime, you may have seen skateboarding characters before (Misaka Yata in K comes to mind), and there’s a very strong probability that you’ve seen maid characters before (Roberta from Black Lagoon, Ram and Rem from Re:Zero Beginning Life In Another World, etc.), but unless you’re a fan of Japanese illustrator Suzusiro, you’ve probably never ever seen the two of them combined!

Bialys

What is a bialy? It’s a disk of dough with slight depressions in the center and topped with onions. These are as popular as the bagel is in the northeast. They are a great snack which tastes great with some cream cheese.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water ( 105 to 115 degrees F)
5 teaspoons rapid rise yeast
5 teaspoons granulated sugar
5 to 5 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup dehydrated minced onion*
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds (optional)
1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt for sprinkling (optional)
1/4 cup cornmeal for baking sheet
1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water for wash

Instructions

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Whisk together warm water, yeast and sugar in a large bowl, stir in one cup of flour and salt. Add most of the remaining flour and stir with a wooden spoon to make a soft mass. To your mixer, attach the dough hook and mix 8 to 10 minutes or you can knead by hand.
Cover the dough and allow to rest for about 45 to 60 minutes. Line 2 large baking sheets with baking parchment paper and lightly sprinkle with cornmeal.
Place dehydrated onions in a bowl and add hot water and allow the onions to soak for 15 minutes. Drain the onions well, place in a bowl and add the oil and poppy seeds if using. Set aside.
Punch down the dough and divide into two. Divide each half of dough into six equal pieces. Allow dough to rest 10 minutes.
Roll of stretch each portion into a 4- or 5-inch oval or circle, being careful not to overwork the dough. Place bialys on prepared baking sheets, with your fingers make indentations in the center( do not go through the dough). Lightly brush the outer perimeter with the egg wash. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of prepared onion topping and a little sprinkle of salt, if using. Cover with a floured tea towel and allow to rise 30 to 40 minutes or until puffy.
Bake until golden brown, approximately 25 to 30 minutes. (If the bialys are browning too fast, reduce heat to 425 degrees F).

Notes

* or you may substitute 1 cup finely chopped fresh onion, the dehydrated onions will stick better to the raw dough

If you like a thicker bialy (which is great for sandwiches) let the dough rise longer. For thin bialys, reduce the rising time.

Onions, bro. Onions.

Rebecca Orchant

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you didn’t boil a bagel before baking it? Have you ever wondered why bagels have a hole in the middle instead of more bagel? Have you ever wished that bagels contained more onions, were slightly more tender and weren’t the size of manhole covers? Guys, this unicorn exists, and it’s called a bialy.

The bialy is like the bagel’s older, less famous cousin who gets more handsome the longer you look at him. If you live outside of New York City, LA or a few very select spots in Chicago and Florida, you might have never even heard of bialys, but that should definitely change. Bialys show up anywhere there is a significant Jewish population — they’re Polish, by origin (from Bialystok!), but have been adopted by American Jews for just about as long as there have been American Jews. Here are a few reasons why bialys will always be better than bagels.

You’ll never have to unhinge your jaw to eat one. You’ll also never have to have jaws made of steel to chew them. You can eat one with your breakfast and you won’t feel so full you are going to die.

Biden Admin May Regret Shunning China’s FM as Ambassador

Shut him out for 500 days when he was “just” an Ambassador

Phelim Kine 5 Jan 23

Source: Politico

The Biden administration shut out outgoing Chinese ambassador Qin Gang for much of his more than 500-day tenure in Washington, D.C. But that all changed last week when Chinese leader Xi Jinping appointed Qin as the country’s new foreign minister, creating a headache for the administration at a time of high tension between Washington and Beijing. The problems will be front and center in the coming weeks when Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits China as the countries clash over trade, Chinese military intimidation of Taiwan and access to technology.

“I think that there are probably those within the administration that feel chagrined that they did not extend the courtesies [to Qin] that normally would be extended to an ambassador,” said Craig Allen, president of the U.S.-China Business Council.

Qin didn’t get all of the meetings he requested with senior administration officials over the past 17 months, although the administration did relax its restrictions on Qin’s access in the run-up to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial trip to Taiwan in August. But he returns to Beijing this week to helm China’s foreign ministry stung by failed efforts to connect with the Biden administration.

Qin’s promotion confirms he has Xi’s trust, something the president signaled in October by appointing Qin to the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. Qin replaced Wang Yi, whom Xi appointed to lead the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission last week. Beijing will name Qin’s successor “after completing due procedures,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Tuesday.

Months after arriving in Washington, D.C., in July 2021, Qin was limited to meetings with just a handful of U.S. officials, according to two people with knowledge of the interactions. That narrow access came despite repeated requests to meet with more senior administration officials, said those people, who were granted anonymity to share private conversations.

The White House rejects this characterization. “Senior White House officials — along with senior officials from across the administration — have engaged regularly with Ambassador Qin since his arrival in Washington,” spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a written statement. The statement included a list of eight senior officials, including Blinken, Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who had met with Qin while he was ambassador.

The Chinese embassy didn’t respond to a request for comment regarding Qin’s access to U.S. officials during his tenure.

Qin responded to the restrictions on high-level access by relying on lower-level interactions with other foreign ambassadors and state and municipal-level officials. He even hung out with the NBA’s Washington Wizards.

That experience may work to his advantage as foreign minister. Qin’s “broad exposure to the United States outside the Beltway … will give him an appreciation of the broader forces informing America’s foreign policy,” said Ryan Hass, former director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the National Security Council.

If Qin resented his treatment in Washington, his farewell messages didn’t show it. He expressed “sincere gratitude” for the “great support and assistance from all sectors of the American people” in a tweet thread published on Monday.

The test of Qin’s sincerity will be his management of Blinken’s trip to China. “Our understanding is that Secretary Blinken will be traveling to Beijing in February right after the Chinese New Year,” said USCBC president Allen. If Qin is still nursing a bruised ego — and if the visit occurs after a promised trip to Taiwan by GOP leader Kevin McCarthy — Blinken may hit a diplomatic brick wall in Beijing.

Blinken has yet to release an agenda for that trip. But he’ll need Qin’s help to address a growing list of issues including counternarcotics cooperation and China’s growing nuclear weapons arsenal. Qin has signaled such cooperation is possible. In a tweet published on Sunday, Qin thanked Blinken for “constructive meetings” and said he looks forward to “continuing close relations” with Blinken.

Blinken marked Qin’s promotion with a tweet that confirmed the two men discussed “maintaining opening lines of communication” in a farewell phone conversation on Sunday. Blinken “expects to continue a productive working relationship with Foreign Minister Qin in his new role,” a State Department spokesperson unauthorized to speak on the record told POLITICO in a statement.

Qin’s history of bare-knuckled pushback of foreign criticism of China may have worked against his success in D.C. In his public debut in September 2021, he reinforced his reputation as a prickly avatar of Chinese diplomacy with a speech that excoriated U.S. “wrong beliefs” and cautioned against violating Beijing’s “red line” of core interests in areas including the South China Sea, Taiwan and Xinjiang. He spiked those comments with an ominous reference to China’s nuclear weapons capability and warned of “disastrous consequences” if the U.S. seeks to suppress China using a “Cold War playbook.”

Time didn’t dull those sharp edges. A year later, Qin used a near-90-minute press briefing to decry perceived U.S. transgressions against Chinese sovereignty. He also expressed frustration that his best efforts to engage with the Biden administration had failed to prevent Pelosi’s Taiwan trip. But the structure of China’s diplomatic corps may limit Qin’s influence on bilateral relations.

“Through Fire And Water”: The Superb Concept Artworks Of Ross Tran

Ross Tran is a concept artist and illustrator who attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Ross has worked for companies such as Walt Disney Studios, Psyop and Tyler West Studio.

ross tran e78f7c0c 5760 429c a40d c10952f132cd

The USA is pretending it is not bankrupt.
Slowly, then suddenly as the observation attests.

If you can’t finance your trillions, with what medium of exchange will the goodies for military be paid?

Keep an eye on the trajectory of U$D. USG relies on its hegemony -the dollar as the global reserve currency -to finance its budget and trade deficits.

As the dollar is shunned…….Paul Craig Roberts former Assistant Sec. of U.S. Treasury, commenting on KSA’s recent announcement to accept other currencies in payment for oil…wrote

Article HERE

In recent years Washington has so abused the dollar’s reserve currency role with sanctions and asset seizes that many countries desire to settle their trade imbalances in their own currencies in order to escape Washington’s ability to threaten and punish them for serving their own interests rather than Washington’s. If Saudi Arabia abandons the petrodollar, the demand for dollars and the dollar’s value will fall.[.]

This is a major threat to Washington’s power and to the financial power of American banks[.]

Prime example of self-harm unfolding. Within hours of Blinkie’s (US Sec of State) departure:-

Egyptian parliament approves agreement to join the BRICS bank

Cairo, Jan 30 (Prensa Latina) The Egyptian Parliament approved an agreement adopted by the Government that allows the country to join the New Development Bank of the BRICS group, the Al-Ahram diary reported.
The vice-president of the Economic Committee of the House of Representatives, Mohamed Abdel-Hamid, affirmed that joining the institution benefits the country.

“We will benefit from the Bank’s financial and technical assistance in areas such as sustainable development, health, infrastructure, transportation, water, and telecommunications,” he said. “It represents a step in the fight against the dollarization phenomenon and opens up new markets for Egypt’s agricultural and industrial products,” he said.

Legislator Mervat Mattar, stated that “the BRICS group is an important forum that can divert the course of the international economy from US and dollar dominance.” He also welcomed the Russian central bank’s decision a week ago to add the Egyptian pound to its list of foreign currencies exchangeable for rubles.

Last December, the Egyptian Council of Ministers announced its decision to join the BRICS, after a proposal by President Abdel Fatah El-Sissi.

The addition of Egypt will also relieve the state budget of the pressure to find dollars to meet imports because members of that bank can use their national currencies in bilateral trade, he said.[.] (emphasis added)

LINK

BRICS founding members: Brazil Russia India China South Africa

Have you read the list of countries applying for BRICS membership?

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Morocco, Mexico, Iran, Argentina, Uruquay are among some 22 countries named to date.

Chicken with Olives and Feta Cheese

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken thighs with skin and bones
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 (14 1/2) ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
3/4 cup Kalamata olives or other brine cured black olives, pitted, sliced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano or 2 teaspoons dried
2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Instructions

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and sauté until brown, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons drippings from skillet. Add onion to drippings in skillet.
Sauté over medium heat 3 minutes. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes with juices, olives, wine and oregano.
Return chicken and any accumulated juices to sauce; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer until chicken is tender and cooked through, about 25 minutes.
Transfer chicken and sauce to platter. Sprinkle with feta cheese and serve.

Yield: 6 servings

Stop blinking your eyes

When I was in fifth grade, I lived a normal boyhood in a small town in Western Pennsylvania. There, everyday, we would sit at a formal dinner that our mothers had prepared for us. My mother would cook roasts, and other fare that varied from Chicken to fish, and all manner of vegetables as sides.

Being a traditional household, my father sat at the head of the table, with my mother at the other end, and us kids sat in the middle.

Now for some reason, my father was stressing out at work for some reason or the other, and today’s story is about how it manifested when he came home.

He, in a completely asshole move started to pick on me (as I was the oldest son), and started to accuse me of blinking my eyes too much.

Yeah. I’m what? Nine years old.

He’d scream at me at the dining table “Stop blinking your eyes”! Or if I was reading a book in the living room, or watching television. Or riding my bicycle. I must have heard that demand “Stop blinking your yes” over ten thousand times.

Anyways…

Long story short. Eventually he stopped accusing me. And I learned to stay hidden from him. As an older man, I can now clearly see that he was under stress and neuroses were developing, but at that time, I just “took it”.

As we get older, we view our past experiences with the eyes of experience, and learn what is good and what is bad, in ways that we can understand and learn from.

Let’s get on with today’s post…

Meme’s about the United States are everywhere…

Unlocking the Secrets of the Holloways: An Exploration of England’s Sunken Labyrinths

Natural England is embarking on a journey to uncover hidden gems known as holloways tucked away in the English countryside. These paths, also known as sunken lanes, have a rich historical and cultural value that is waiting to be discovered.

According to the BBC, experts are conducting 3D surveys at Shute’s Lane, a picturesque holloway near Bridport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. They are also studying the 300-year-old Hell Lane, a path that winds its way through Symondsbury and North Chideock. The goal is to create a map that will showcase the locations of these mysterious sunken lanes all across the UK.

What is a Holloway?

A holloway is tunnel-like road, lane, or path that has become naturally sunken over centuries of repeated use. According to Atlas Obscura , in some places, the holloways in Dorset have receded as much as 20 feet below the land on either side.

The pathway is typically surrounded by tall trees that grow out of the banks on either side. They may have intertwined their branches forming a canopy over the road, creating the appearance of a tunnel through the dense foliage.

Hell Lane, near Symondsbury, Dorset. (Mike Faherty / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

The Long History of Sunken Roads

The English name “holloway” is derived from the Old English “hola weg” meaning a sunken road. Many of these ancient paths date back centuries, with some dating as far back as Roman times or earlier, with an age range of 300 to 3,000 years old. Holloways can be found all over the world and are often considered to be important cultural and historical landmarks.

The tunnel-like paths are formed over time by the movement of people, animals and carts along routes with soft ground, which causes the path to become deeply indented or “sunken” into the surrounding landscape.

Today, most holloways are no longer in use due to their narrow width and slow pace, which makes them unsuitable for modern modes of transportation. Additionally, they are too deep to be filled in and repurposed for farming. As a result, these paths have become a labyrinth of wildness, surrounded by heavily farmed countryside.

In England, most of these sunken lanes have become overgrown with nettles and briars, making them impassable and unexplored for decades. They offer a unique and integral part of the English landscape, providing a glimpse into a time long gone.

Holloways have been used for centuries, and many feature carvings. (Natural England)

Ancient Holloway ‘Graffiti’

These paths are not only steeped in history but are also adorned with ‘graffiti’ carved into their banks, depicting ghouls, gargoyles, and Celtic patterns that add to their allure. The carvings hint at a deeper purpose to the pathways – some experts maintain they were not only used as transportation routes, but also as sacred pathways, which were believed to have spiritual or magical properties.

Digitizing the Magic of Holloways

The 3D survey will provide detailed measurements and create a digital visualization that captures the mystery and magic of these holloways. Mr. Jefferies said, “Nobody knows the full extent of them right across the UK – so we are trying to collect them and create this map.”

The initial project is set to be completed by the end of March and a report of the findings will be published through Natural England. But you don’t have to wait until then to get involved, Natural England is inviting you to share pictures and details of your local holloways via Twitter using #sunkenpaths.

Man Dresses Up Every Sunday To Take His Grandmother To Church

By now most of the legends have already been debunked and sorted out. Except maybe for the one of the mysterious Sunday Man from Baltimore, Maryland.

OH SH*T, all the EGGS are disappearing

In the United States…

Ambassador Says U.S. WILL ALLOW Allies to Give F-16’s to Ukraine

World Hal Turner 22 January 2023

The USA will support the transfer of F-16 fighter jets by allies to Ukraine – the American ambassador to the OSCE. Michael Carpenter, confirmed today.

Washington will agree with the idea of partners to transfer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Answering the question whether the administration of US President Joe Biden is ready to allow the Netherlands to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, the ambassador said: “We have long been of the opinion that what our allies supply is their business. And we support the countless contributions (to defense) that our allies have made for Ukraine.

This has been true from the very beginning of the war, when we discussed legacy Soviet systems, to the present period, when we discuss main battle tanks and more sophisticated air and missile defense capabilities and systems. And so I expect there will be broad support in the United States for our allies to continue to increase their contributions,” Carpenter said.

Earlier it became known that the Netherlands is ready to consider the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, if a request comes from the Ukrainian authorities.

At the same time, during an address to the participants of Ramstein meeting, Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the partners to discuss the possibility of sending the F-16 at the next meeting.

Beef and Mushroom Casserole

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
1 (5 1/2 ounce) package risotto mix with garden vegetables
1 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Instructions

Prepare risotto mix according to package directions.
Meanwhile in large nonstick skillet, brown ground beef, mushrooms, bell pepper and garlic over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes or until beef is no longer pink, breaking beef up into small crumbles.
Pour off drippings.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stir risotto into beef mixture.
Sprinkle with cheese and basil.

Yield: 4 servings

Alternative instructions

700g braising or stewing beef, cut into chunks
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
2 tbsp plain flour
150ml red wine
450ml beef stock
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp tomato puree
3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
300g forest mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper
Handful of chopped flat leaf parsley to garnish

First

Get things moving by preheating your oven to 180C, and really seasoning your beef chunks well with salt and pepper. Heat half the oil in a large frying pan, and brown your beef in batches for 2-3 minutes. Transfer the meat to a stew or casserole dish.

Second

Add the remaining oil, and soften the onions over a medium heat for 5 minutes. You want them to be lightly browned before you remove them, add them to the casserole dish, and sprinkle them with the flour and the herbs.

Third

Into the casserole dish goes the red wine, the stock, the bay leaf, and the tomato puree. Stir it all well, and place on the hob. Cook over a medium heat until you get to a gentle simmer, then transfer to the oven, and continue to cook covered for 1.5 hours.

Fourth

Once 1.5 hours have passed, remove the casserole from the oven, and stir in the carrots and forest mushrooms. Season again to taste, then cook for a further 45 minutes. Serve with mashed potato and your favorite greens.

French Video

This 30 minutes long video (in French but English subtitles are available) is simply miraculous.

A Frenchman capable to explain China’s foreign policies with clarity, fairplay and his explanations are buttressed with facts.

Also miraculous is his capacity to see reality and expounding it quite well and not the usual Kool-Aid from the Western presstitutes.

In French, there is a perfect word for the presstitute MSM : Merdias.

Até logo ! Quan

https://youtu.be/LJURmSo_tYw

Harlech Castle: Wales’ Most Formidable Fortress

Harlech Castle is a medieval castle located in Harlech, in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The castle was built during the 13 ^th century by the English king, Edward I, as part of an ‘iron ring’ of castles aimed at the subjugation of Gwynedd. As a defensive structure, Harlech Castle played an important role in the region’s history in the centuries following its construction. By the 17 ^th century, however, Harlech Castle lost its military function, and fell out of use. Nevertheless, it received a new lease of life in subsequent centuries, as it began to attract tourists. Today, Harlech Castle is a tourist destination, and is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the ‘Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd’.

The Tragic Legend of Princess Branwen

Harlech is located in Gwynedd, in the northwestern part of Wales. It lies on the coast, to the north of Cardigan Bay, and is situated within the western edge of Snowdonia National Park. Although Harlech Castle was built during the 13 ^th century, locals associate the site with the legend of Branwen , a Welsh princess. This Welsh legend is found in the second of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. This is a set of four distinct but interconnected stories originally written in Middle Welsh. The tales were compiled between the latter half of the 11 ^th century and the early 13 ^th century. This makes them the earliest prose stories in British literature.

Branwen, on the left, is one of the most tragic figures from Welsh mythology, is associated with Harlech Castle. ( Public domain ) Right; The Four Branches of the Mabinogion are a collection of Medieval Welsh mythological which include the story of Branwen ferch Llŷr. (National Library of Wales / CC0)

The main character of the legend is Branwen ferch Llŷr (Branwen, daughter of Llŷr). Branwen was the sister of Bendigeidfran (Bran the Blessed), the giant King of Britain, and was given in marriage to Matholwch, the King of Ireland. At the wedding feast, however, Efinisien, Branwen’s half-brother, mutilates the horses given to Matholwch as a dowry, since he was furious that he was not consulted about Branwen’s marriage. This infuriates Matholwch, but Bendigeidfran is able to calm him down by presenting him with more gifts. After the wedding, Matholwch and Branwen return to Ireland, and the latter gives birth to a son. Nevertheless, the mutilation of the horses by Efinisien had not been forgotten, and the king was urged to avenge this insult.

As a result, Matholwch banishes his wife to his kitchen, where she is forced to work as a servant. Branwen suffers further humiliation by being slapped by the butcher every day. The princess manages to tell her brother of the terrible treatment she was receiving by sending a bird to him. Consequently, Bendigeidfran assembled his army, and attacked Ireland. The Irish were defeated, and Matholwch tries to make peace by offering the throne to their son, Gwern. In fact, he was plotting to kill the Britons at the coronation feast. The plot, however, was discovered by Efinisien, who foils it by throwing Gwern into the fire, thus causing the Irish and Britons to fight once more. In the end, only seven Welshmen survived, and Branwen returns to Wales with them. The princess’ heart was broken at the thought that two kingdoms were destroyed on her account, and she dies soon after.

Edward, the Vindictive King

Although Harlech is associated with the legend of Branwen, there is no evidence that there was a castle at the site before the 13 ^th century. In 1272, the English king, Henry III, died, and was succeeded by his son, Edward I . At the time of Edward’s ascension, much of Wales was under the rule of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd , the Prince of Wales . Edward, however, was determined to reduce Llywelyn’s power. The prince’s persistent evasion of his duty to pay homage to the English king was used by Edward as a convenient excuse to conduct a military campaign against Wales. Thus, in 1277, Edward invaded Wales, defeated the Welsh, and forced Llywelyn to sign the Treaty of Aberconwy. Although the Welsh leader was allowed to keep his title ‘Prince of Wales’, he lost much territory, and was left only with the western part of Gwynedd.

Edward I was determined to reduce the power of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and invaded wales in 1277. ( Public domain )

In 1282, the Welsh, who were dissatisfied with English rule, rebelled. Initially, there were only sporadic outbreaks of resistance. Soon, however, it turned into a united uprising, and Llewelyn eventually became the leader of the rebellion. Under Llewelyn’s leadership, important castles were captured, and the English army was defeated. In response, Edward assembled his army, and invaded Wales again. The Welsh used guerrilla tactics against the much larger English army, and enjoyed some success. At the Battle of Irfon Bridge, however, Llewelyn was slain. This was a heavy blow to the Welsh, but they continued their resistance under Dafydd, Llywelyn’s brother. The resistance crumbled in 1283, when Dafydd was captured, tried, and executed.

Master Architect of Harlech Castle

Harlech Castle was built at the time of Edward’s second Welsh campaign. Construction of the castle began in 1283, and was completed in 1290. It was meant to be part of an ‘iron ring’ of castles that surrounded the coastal fringe of Snowdonia. This ‘iron ring’ included Conwy Castle and Caernarfon Castle, and the entire project was placed in the hands of James of Saint George, a master architect from Savoy. Like Conwy and Caernarfon Castles, Harlech Castle was designed to have access to the Irish Sea. This was meant to ensure that the castle’s defenders would be able to obtain supplies and reinforcements in the event of a land assault. Unlike the other two castles, however, Harlech Castle is situated in place of little strategic importance. It has been suggested that the Edward deliberately constructed this formidable castle in such a remote location as a display of his power to the Welsh.

Harlech Castle was built to be a mighty fortress, and the genius of its architect reflected in its design. For a start, James chose the edge of a prominent cliff as the site to build the castle. This meant that any would-be attacker would be forced to approach the castle from the east. As already mentioned, the castle has direct access to the Irish Sea, which is reached via a gated, fortified stairway. Harlech Castle is a concentric castle, which means that relied on curtain walls, rather than a keep, as its main system of defense. Therefore, Harlech Castle has two rings of walls, each reinforced by towers.

The gatehouse of Harlech Castle. ( hipproductions / Adobe Stock)

On the eastern side of the castle is a massive gatehouse, which would have served to intimidate any would-be-attacker. The gatehouse was not merely a defensive structure, but also the castle’s main private accommodation. The first floor of the gatehouse would have served as personal residence of the castle’s constable or governor, whilst its top floor would have been reserved for visiting dignitaries. It may be added that this was also the case for the corner towers, i.e. that they were not only used for defensive purposes, but also provided accommodation for the castle’s residents.

Although Harlech Castle is defended by massive curtain walls, its inner ward is considered to be somewhat smaller than what one might imagine. Nevertheless, it contains all the amenities that the castle’s inhabitants may need. These include a kitchen and great hall against its western wall, a chapel and bakehouse against its northern wall, and a granary and another hall against its southern wall. Interestingly, this hall, which is known as Ystumgwern Hall, is believed to have originally belonged to Llywelyn. It was located to the south of Harlech, and after the Welsh prince’s defeat, was dismantled, brought to the castle, and reassembled there. It seems that Edward did a similar thing at Conwy.

The inner walls of Harlech Castle. ( Fulcanelli / Adobe Stock)

Turbulent Times for Harlech Castle

Harlech Castle saw much action in the centuries that followed. In 1294, not long after the castle was completed, the Welsh rebelled once again. This time, they were led by Madog ap Llywelyn, one of Llywelyn’s distant relatives. Harlech Castle was deep in Welsh-held territory. Nevertheless, its defenders were able to hold on to the castle throughout the rebellion, which lasted until 1295. One of the primary reasons for this was the castle’s access to the Irish Sea. In 1404, the Welsh revolted once again. This time, Harlech Castle, which was defended by a small, poorly-equipped garrison, fell to the Welsh after a long siege. The Welsh leader, Owain Glyndŵr , was proclaimed Prince of Wales, and made the castle his main residence and military base. Additionally, a parliament is believed to have been held in Harlech Castle by Owain in 1405.

In 1408, Harlech Castle was besieged by Henry of Monmouth, the future Henry V, and his commander, Edmund Mortimer. The English brought artillery with them, and it is thought that the southern and eastern parts of the outer walls were destroyed during this siege. Nevertheless, the Welsh defenders continued to resist, and only surrendered to the English in February 1409, due to lack of supplies and exhaustion. But, it was not too long before Harlech Castle saw action once more. The Wars of the Roses broke out between the House of Lancaster and the House of York in 1455. Five years later, Margaret of Anjou, the wife of the English king, Henry VI, sought shelter at Harlech Castle, thereby turning it into a Lancastrian stronghold. As the civil war progressed, the castles of the Lancastrians fell to the Yorkists one by one. In the end, Harlech Castle was the last main fortress that the Lancastrians controlled. The castle had been under siege since 1461, but its defenders were able to survive thanks again to its access to the Irish Sea.

In 1468, Edward IV ordered William Herbert to capture Harlech Castle. After a month-long siege, the castle’s defenders surrendered to the Yorkists. It has been suggested that the courage of the castle’s defenders during this siege inspired the song Men of Harlech . Alternatively, it has been speculated that the song is actually associated with the Welshmen who defended Harlech Castle against the English in 1408. In any event, after the siege of 1468, Harlech Castle was abandoned. Records from the 16 ^th century show that the castle ‘s defensive and domestic equipment had been removed. The towers’ interiors were in ruins, whilst the chapel and hall were left roofless. Furthermore, Harlech Castle was repurposed as a debtors’ prison.

Harlech Castle has borne witness to a violent history of war and rebellion. ( Public domain )

Harlech Castle regained its defensive function during the 17 ^th, when the English Civil War broke out between the Royalists and Parliamentarians. A royal army took possession of Harlech Castle, and its commander, William Owen, had the castle repaired. Harlech Castle was besieged again in June 1646, four years after the war started. By this time, it was the last castle on the mainland in the hands of the Royalists. The siege lasted until March 1647, when its garrison of 44 men surrendered to the Parliamentarians under Thomas Mytton. Following its capture, Parliament ordered Harlech Castle to be demolished, so as to prevent it from being used by the Royalists in the future. Fortunately, the order was only partially carried out, and hence much of the structure was spared.

Harlech Castle, Gwynedd, Wales ( valeryegorov / Adobe Stock)

Time for Peace at Harlech Castle

The siege of 1646 was the last time Harlech Castle saw action. In the next centuries, the castle was abandoned once again. The 19 ^th century saw the transformation of Harlech Castle into a tourist destination. The violent history of the castle seems to have faded away. Instead of armies, the site was now visited by artists, who were drawn there by the scenic natural landscape. The popularity of Harlech Castle amongst artists of that period is evident by the many paintings, drawings, and engravings that were made of the castle and its surrounding area. Harlech Castle has maintained its role as a tourist destination till this day. Harlech Castle has been restored during the 20 ^th century, though these works were minimal so as to preserve the castle’s pristine state.

Harlech Castle became a popular destination for artists from the 19th century, attracted by its beauty and the surrounding landscape. Watercolor of Harlech Castle by Copley Fielding (1855). ( Public domain )

Today, in addition to being a tourist destination, Harlech Castle is also an important piece of cultural heritage. Although parts of Harlech Castle have been destroyed by the passage of time, and by human hands, it is still considered to be one of the best-preserved castles in Wales. Internationally recognition for the site’s significance came in 1986, when the castle was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site , as part of the ‘Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd’. Apart from Harlech Castle, the group includes three other Welsh castles – Beaumaris, Conwy, and Caernarfon Castles.

Top image: It may not seem like it today, but Harlech Castle is Wales has witnessed Welsh rebellions, the Wars of the Roses and the English Civil War. Source: Darren Tennant / Flickr

By Wu Mingren

Saudi Arabia Is Breaking Away From The Dollar System – Shock In Davos!

Turkey Stuffing Soup

Don’t let a bit of that tasty Thanksgiving meal go to waste. Everyone will love this delicious soup.

Ingredients

1 roasted turkey carcass, broken into pieces
10 cups cold water
3 carrots, thickly sliced
3 celery stalks with leaves, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
2 1/2 cups leftover turkey stuffing or dressing
2 cups turkey gravy
Salt

Instructions

Combine turkey carcass, water, carrots, celery, onion, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, stuffing, gravy and salt in a stock pot pot. Place over medium heat and bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Stir and break up all clumps of stuffing. Simmer, covered, about 1 1/2 hours.
Remove carcass, saving any meat that can be stripped, and add up to 1 1/2 cups water if necessary to replace evaporation.
Adjust salt to taste.
Let simmer for 10 more minutes.
Serve hot.

Cat meme

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Big Feelings: How to Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay by Liz Fosslien

Liz Fosslien (previously featured) is the co-author and illustrator of the book Big Feelings and the Wall Street Journal best-seller No Hard Feelings. Liz is an expert on how to make work better.

She regularly leads interactive, scientifically-backed workshops about how to build resilience, help remote workers avoid burnout, and effectively harness emotion as a leader. Her work has been featured by TED, Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, The Economist, and NPR.

“We all experience unwieldy feelings. But between our emotion-phobic society and the debilitating uncertainty of modern times, we usually don’t know how to talk about what we’re going through, much less handle it. Over the past year, Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy’s online community has laughed and cried about productivity guilt, pandemic anxiety, and Zoom fatigue. Now, Big Feelings addresses anyone intimidated by oversized feelings they can’t predict or control, offering the tools to understand what’s really going on, find comfort, and face the future with a sense of newfound agency.”

More: Instagram, Amazon

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149 Countries Joined China’s Belt and Road …Is It a Debt Trap?

2023 is a year of the Water Rabbit let’s take glimpses of the past to see the future

Let’s have a nice and easy slide into the new year of the Rabbit.

2023 is a year of the Water Rabbit, starting from January 22nd, 2023 (Chinese New Year), and ending on February 9th, 2024 (Chinese New Year's Eve). The sign of Rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture.

2023 is predicted to be a year of hope.

I’ll gather up some videos and put it up on you-tube when I get a chance.

Let’s check out today’s post…

Back in the day…

Most of us believe that Victorian era was a grim and serious era, full of hardworking people, so that they didn’t even have time to enjoy their lives and having some fun. While this isn’t true, because cameras were very expensive and for a single photograph one had to sit in static position with same facial expression from few seconds to 10 minutes. So it seems impossible for a person to smile or laugh for minutes, that’s why majority of the Victorians preferred to sit in static position with strict expressions.

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The All New Baby Safety Seat. Never Leave Your Kid Inside A Hot Car While You Shop Again. Late 1950s, Early 1960s

East Texas Buttermilk Pie

Ingredients

1 (9-inch) pie shell, baked
3 rounded tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Nutmeg, to taste (optional)
Cinnamon, to taste (optional)

Instructions

Mix flour, sugar and salt; add to butter.
Add eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Mix and pour into pie shell; sprinkle with nutmeg and cinnamon, if desired.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes. Test with knife. It should come out clean when pie is done.

Poor kitten was living his last moments on the roadside but no one came to help him!

https://youtu.be/6Aa-zF6-yGE

We Won’t Be Fooled Again – Inflation Is Most Definitely Not “Under Control”

January 12, 2023 by Michael

Inflation is going down! Let’s all celebrate! We all knew that when the Federal Reserve began aggressively hiking interest rates it would have an impact on inflation. Higher rates have caused a new housing crash, they have crushed the tech industry, and they have sparked the biggest wave of layoffs that we have seen since the Great Recession. We have entered a significant economic downturn, so it was inevitable that the annual rate of inflation would start to moderate. But as I will explain below, that doesn’t mean that inflation is now “under control”. The real rate of inflation is much higher than we are being told, and people all over the country are being absolutely crushed by the rising cost of living.

Let’s start with the good news first. According to the Labor Department, the annual rate of inflation is rising at the slowest pace since October 2021…

Consumer prices increased 6.5% from a year earlier, down from 7.1% in November and a 40-year high of 9.1% in June, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index, a measurement of what people pay for goods and services, which labor released on Thursday.

The rise last month marks the slowest annual gain since October 2021 and matches economists’ estimates.

Okay, but Fox Business has just reminded us that the annual rate of inflation “remains about three times higher than the pre-pandemic average”…

Still, inflation remains about three times higher than the pre-pandemic average, underscoring the persistent financial burden placed on millions of U.S. households by high prices.

So we are still definitely in a high inflation environment.

But let’s dig deeper.

Most Americans don’t realize that the way that the inflation rate is calculated has literally been changed more than two dozen times since 1980.

And every time it has been changed, the goal has been to make inflation appear to be lower than it actually is.

If the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the real rate of inflation would be close to 15 percent right now.

That would be comparable to the peak inflation that we witnessed during the Jimmy Carter era.

So don’t let anyone try to convince you that inflation is “low” or “under control” or anything like that.

The main reason why the rate of inflation moderated somewhat during the month of December is because energy prices have been falling…

Americans saw some real reprieve last month in the form of lower energy costs, which fell 6.1% in December. Gas prices dropped 12.5% over the month, the biggest contributor to the overall headline decline in inflation in December.

That is great news, but it is already being projected that gas prices will rise significantly later this year.

And once war in the Middle East erupts, gas prices will go to heights that most people never even dreamed was possible.

Meanwhile, services inflation has just spiked to a level that we haven’t seen in decades.

The cost of living has become extremely oppressive, and the American people are becoming increasingly frustrated by this.

I would like to share a video with you that illustrates what I am talking about.

The woman in this video doesn’t understand all of the numbers that I have just shared in this article. All she knows is that when she goes to the grocery store, prices are way higher than they once were. This video contains some graphic language, and I apologize for that in advance. But I want you to see her anger, because this is how millions upon millions of Americans are feeling about inflation right now.

Would you like to be the one that tries to convince her that inflation is “under control” now?

Sadly, the truth is that over the past few years the cost of living has been rising faster than our paychecks have, and so U.S. families have steadily been getting poorer…

The average American family has lost the equivalent of more than a month’s salary in annual income since President Biden took office as high inflation and rising interest rates eat away at their finances, according to research by the Heritage Foundation.

Experts at the conservative think tank analyzed consumer prices and interest rates and found in their latest report released Thursday that the average American household has lost the equivalent of $7,400 in annual income since Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20, 2021. The income loss represents an increase of $200 from September, when the think tank’s research found a $7,200 decline in annual income for the average American household dating back to the start of Biden’s term.

Prior to the pandemic, we were in a low inflation and low interest rate environment.

Now that the Federal Reserve has dramatically hiked interest rates, we now find ourselves in a high inflation and high interest rate environment.

And higher interest rates are also hammering our standard of living…

While their elected representatives in D.C. struggle to pay the nation’s bills, Americans are facing a similar challenge as their household budgets are stretched thin due to inflation and higher borrowing costs. Those financial challenges led more than one-third of households to rely on credit cards or loans to buy necessities in December. Average credit card interest rates reached a new record high of 19.14% APR compared to a Bankrate.com database.

“Americans are increasingly relying on credit cards to make it from paycheck to paycheck, resulting in higher levels of indebtedness. Rising credit card balances in an era of rising interest rates is a path to insolvency,” Antoni told FOX Business. “The average interest rate on credit cards is now around 20 percent while half of Americans cannot pay off their credit cards each month, and balances are growing at a 16 percent annual rate.”

We are getting hit from both ends.

We have to pay more to buy the things that we need, and we have to pay higher interest rates when we borrow money to pay for those things.

The Federal Reserve has lost control, and we are careening toward the sort of historic economic crisis that I have been warning about for years.

But those that are under the spell of the corporate media will continue to assume that everything is fine and that our leaders have a plan to get us out of this mess.

I truly wish that was true.

Unfortunately, the short-term economic outlook is extremely dismal, and prominent voices all over Wall Street are warning that 2023 will be a really rough year.

Remarkable Behind-The-Scenes Photos From ‘Back To The Future’ That Will Bring You Back To The ’80s

Some people have speculated for a while now that there will be a remake of the legendary movie series Back To The Future. But this mindset is not without criticism and skepticism since many fans feel that without Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd there simply is no way that a remake would be good enough to even be considered.

Here’s a great collection of rare behind the scenes photos for Robert Zemekis’ film Back to the Future. These images came from the incredibly well researched Back to the Future site Outatime, offer a candid behind the scenes look at this classic movie. Be sure to check out these 70 pics below, and let us know what your favorite Back to the Future scene is.

Secret revealed

Spooky strange

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“Retired Military Had Motorcycle Crash, Has Vision of Imminent Transformations in the World” [ NDE ]

Yikes!

Vision-Dieter glasses

There have been countless weight loss hoaxes over the years, from pills and elixirs to topical treatments, fad diets, and more. One product sold in the 1970s with glaringly false claims was Vision-Dieter glasses, which were said to decrease cravings and hunger by using “secret European color technology.”

The initial objective of the creator was to manufacture glasses that would distort the color of food packaging in hopes of making shoppers less likely to purchase products just because they were in colorful containers. But realizing how much money could be made in the dieting field, he decided to market the glasses as a tool for consumers who were trying to lose weight.

It should come as no surprise that the Food and Drug Administration took action. These color-tinted weight reduction glasses were seized due to misbranding. Most pairs were eventually destroyed by the FDA when the claimant refused to come forward.

Totally cool!

Recently discovered?

A Starfish Waking Back To The Water

Chef Eddie Jackson’s Smoky Texas Chili
with Cheddar Jalapeño Dumplings

This chili is absolutely divine. It’s rather labor-intensive, but the result is well worth the effort.

Yield: 16 servings

Ingredients

Smoked Chuck Roast

4 pounds beef chuck roast, smoked, cut into 1 inch cubes
Salt and pepper

Chili

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup dark chili powder
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon fine black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 roasted poblanos, coarsely chopped
1 quart (4 cups) beef stock
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon beef base
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt to taste (optional)

Cheddar Jalapeño Dumplings

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup honey or 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 small jalapeño, finely diced

Instructions

Smoked Chuck Roast

Add wood chunks, chips, pellets or charcoal to smoker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Preheat to 250 degrees F.
Season trimmed chuck roast generously with salt and pepper.
Place chuck roast on rack in smoker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Set timer for 8 hours.
After 4 hours, or when the roast reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees F, wrap with unwaxed butcher paper and place back on smoker.
After 4 more hours, or when the roast reaches 208 to 210 degrees F internal temperature, remove roast from smoker.
Let rest in the butcher paper for at least 1 hour.
Slice the roast into cubes right before adding to the chili.

Chili

In a Dutch oven, heat vegetable oil over MEDIUM-HIGH heat. Add diced onion and sprinkle with salt, if desired. Saute until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the red peppers and saute for 2 minutes.
Add chili powder, paprika, cumin, black pepper, and garlic powder stirring frequently for about a minute allowing the spices to bloom, but not burn.
Add the cubed smoked chuck roast and poblano peppers. Once all ingredients are coated with spices, stir in beef stock and tomatoes to the pot, deglazing the bottom.
Add oregano, beef base, and Worcestershire sauce to the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Bring chili to a boil then turn stove to LOW heat and simmer covered for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.Meanwhile, make Cheddar Jalapeño Dumplings.

Cheddar Jalapeño Dumplings

Mix together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar for Cheddar Jalapeño Dumplings.
Add eggs folding gently to combine. Then stir buttermilk into the mixture until combined.
Fold in cheese and jalapeños, being sure not to over mix the batter.
Place 1 to 2 ounce dollops of dumpling batter into the chili. Continue to simmer chili, covered, for 20 minutes or until dumplings are firm, but fluffy.
Serve chili in bowls garnished with shredded cheese, sliced scallions, cilantro leaves and a dollop of sour cream, as desired.

You Guys Are Cute With Your Scary Spiders. I Found This Under My Couch A Month After I Fumigated

This is “Wow Cool”!

I imagine the plumage must have been impressive.

Cool Pics That Show How People Enjoyed Parties In The 1970s

Here below is a photo collection that shows how people enjoyed parties from the 1970s.

WFLD Channel 32 – Lost in Space – “Blast Off Into Space” (Complete Broadcast, 4/16/1980)

This Will Haunt My Dreams

We Are Witnessing An Enormous Wave Of Bankruptcies And Layoffs During The Early Stages Of 2023

January 18, 2023 by Michael

Is your job safe? Right now, we are witnessing so much turmoil is so many different sectors of our economy. The housing market is crashing, the cryptocurrency industry has imploded, the tech industry is laying off workers at an extremely frightening pace, and some of our most important retailers are heading into bankruptcy. The information that I am about to share with you is deeply troubling. It has become exceedingly clear that our economy is in huge trouble, and I fully expect that our problems will accelerate even more as the year rolls along.

Let me start by pointing out what is currently happening at Microsoft. It is one of the wealthiest companies in the entire world, but due to a shift in “macroeconomic conditions” executives have decided that it has become necessary to lay off 10,000 workers…

Microsoft announced thousands of job cuts this week, becoming the latest tech company to pluck its workforce as the global economy slows.

The software company confirmed Wednesday its reducing workforce by 10,000 people through the end of the third quarter of the 2023 fiscal year.

The cuts come “in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities,” the company’s CEO Satya Nadella released in a statement to its employees Wednesday.

If even Microsoft is laying off thousands of workers, is any job in the private sector truly safe?

Meanwhile, some of the biggest names in the retail industry are plunging into bankruptcy now that the holiday season is over.

On Tuesday, it was Party City’s turn…

Party City filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, weighed down by competition and years of financial losses.

The largest party goods and Halloween specialty retail chain in the United States said in a regulatory filing that it reached an agreement with debtholders to cut its $1.7 billion debt load.

Even more alarming is the fact that it is being reported that a bankruptcy filing for Bed Bath & Beyond has become “likely”…

Bed Bath & Beyond has been in discussions with prospective buyers and lenders as it works to keep its business afloat during a likely bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the matter.

The retailer is in the midst a sale process in hopes of finding a buyer that would keep the doors open for both of its major chains, its namesake banner and Buybuy Baby, said the people, who weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

So many brick and mortar retailers are really struggling right now, and many of them are blaming competition from Internet retailers such as Amazon.

But if Amazon is doing so well, why did they start laying off approximately 18,000 workers on Wednesday?…

Earlier this month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in a blog post that the company was laying off about 18,000 people as it seeks to cut costs and would begin contacting impacted employees on Jan. 18.

“Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so,” Jassy said in the Jan. 4 post. “These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure.”

The wave of layoffs that we have been witnessing in the tech industry is truly unprecedented.

Prior to this week, more than 25,000 tech industry workers had already been laid off this year, and this comes on the heels of the massive layoffs that we saw last year…

According to the data tracking website, more than 101 tech companies around the world have laid off 25,436 employees so far in 2023. Most of the layoffs have taken place in the United States, accounting for 22,400 employees fired.

The number of workers being laid off from tech companies is a trend that is continuing since 2022, when 154,336 workers were fired from over 1,000 tech companies around the world, according to the data.

But at least the tech industry is in far better shape than the cryptocurrency industry is.

Let me share four major announcements that have all happened within the past 10 days…

#1 It is being reported that Genesis Global Capital “is laying the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing”…

Genesis Global Capital is laying the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing as soon as this week, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

The cryptocurrency lending unit of Digital Currency Group has been in confidential negotiations with various creditor groups amid a liquidity crunch. It has warned that it may need to file for bankruptcy if it fails to raise cash, Bloomberg previously reported.

#2 Crypto.com announced that it will be laying off “20% of its workforce”…

Crypto.com announced plans to lay off 20% of its workforce Jan. 13. The company had 2,450 employees, according to PitchBook data, suggesting around 490 employees were laid off.

CEO Kris Marszalek said in a blog post that the crypto exchange grew “ambitiously” but was unable to weather the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire FTX without the further cuts.

#3 Coinbase has decided “to cut about a fifth of its workforce”…

On Jan. 10, Coinbase announced plans to cut about a fifth of its workforce as it looks to preserve cash during the crypto market downturn.

The exchange plans to cut 950 jobs, according to a blog post. Coinbase, which had roughly 4,700 employees as of the end of September, had already slashed 18% of its workforce in June saying it needed to manage costs after growing “too quickly” during the bull market.

#4 The founder of cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato has actually been arrested. Apparently he was laundering money on a scale of epic proportions…

The founder of the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato was arrested early Wednesday in Miami in connection with a vast money laundering operation, accused of transmitting more than $700 million in illicit funds in the past four years.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Anatoly Legkodymov, 40, a Russian national, oversaw a major “high-tech financial hub that catered to known crooks,” including cybercriminals and drug dealers seeking to process dirty money.

The cryptocurrency industry will never look the same again after all of this turmoil.

On top of everything else, the Saudis appear to be poised to make a major move that could literally change everything.

At the yearly gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Saudi finance minister decided to drop a bombshell…

Saudi Arabia is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the US dollar, according to the kingdom’s finance minister.

Needless to say, this could potentially completely undermine the dominance of the petrodollar.

Of course we cannot afford to have that happen, because the dominance of the dollar is one of the only things that is keeping our system afloat.

At this point just about everything is moving in the wrong direction for the U.S. economy, but most people still do not understand the bigger picture.

A lot of the “experts” assume that we will just suffer through a temporary recession and then things will eventually return to normal.

I wish that was true.

Unfortunately, our entire system is starting to crack and crumble all around us, and those that are currently running things are not going to be able to put it back together again.

Very unique and interesting

My Dad Brought A Kitten Frozen Stiff Back To Life.

I'm a retired trauma nurse, and, you did EXACTLY what you should do. Cold truly does slow the dying process!! Im in love with that adorable little fur ball!!! You are a genuinely good and kind person!!!

On the back side…

Mostly Harmless and Baked Stuffed Papayas

Good stuff here. The truth about the GDP as a measurement. Some fantastic and delicious Caribbean food. Stories about cat rescues. A reality check about nuclear war. And some personal stories that many of us can relate to.

There’s also a very disturbing report about the United States mRNA injections and what is going on.

We will start here.

Pentagon, Chinese analysts agree US can’t win in Taiwan Strait

US mulls ‘scorched earth’ strategy for Taiwan instead of defense

by David P. Goldman December 6, 2022

China’s satellite coverage in the Western Pacific has doubled since 2018, the Pentagon reported last week in its annual assessment of the Chinese military. That gives China the ability to detect American surface ships with an array of sensors that can guide its 2,000 land-based missiles to moving targets, including US aircraft carriers.

The Defense Department’s November 29 report “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China” reflects a grimly realistic rethinking of China’s military capacity in its home theater.

China hawk Elbridge Colby, a prominent advocate of a Western Pacific military buildup to deny China access to its adjacent seas, tweeted on November 6, “Senior flag officers are saying we’re on a trajectory to get crushed in a war with China, which would likely be the most important war since WWII, God forbid.”

The strategic takeaway is that the United States cannot win a firefight close to China’s coast, and can’t defend Taiwan whether it wants to or not. That view in the Joe Biden administration’s Department of Defense (DOD) persuaded the president to discuss “guardrails” against military confrontation in his November summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Republican hawks appear to have come to the same conclusion. The United States will enact a scorched-earth policy in Taiwan, destroying its semiconductor industry, if the PRC seizes the island, former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien told a conference at the Richard Nixon Foundation on November 10, reports army-technology.com.

“If China takes Taiwan and takes those factories intact – which I don’t think we would ever allow – they have a monopoly over chips the way OPEC has a monopoly, or even more than the way OPEC has a monopoly over oil,” O’Brien said.

A much-read paper by two Army War College professors published this year proposes that “the United States and Taiwan should lay plans for a targeted scorched-earth strategy that would render Taiwan not just unattractive if ever seized by force, but positively costly to maintain.”

“This could be done most effectively by threatening to destroy facilities belonging to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the most important chipmaker in the world and China’s most important supplier.”

O’Brien evidently agrees with the Pentagon’s assessment that the US can’t win a war in the Taiwan Strait, proposing – apropos of the Vietnam War’s most celebrated sound bite – to destroy the island in order to save it.

Anti-ship missiles are the 21st-century equivalent of the torpedo and dive bombers that banished the battleship from military budgets after the 1941 sinking of the Bismarck by the British and the sinking of the Repulse and the Prince of Wales by the Japanese. Surface ships, including aircraft carriers, can’t defend against modern missiles that can downlink guidance data from reconnaissance satellites.

The DOD report states that the PLA Rocket Force’s “conventionally armed CSS-5 Mod 5 (DF-21D) ASBM variant gives the PLA the capability to conduct long-range precision strikes against ships, including aircraft carriers, out to the Western Pacific.”

“The [People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s] ground-based missile forces complement the air and sea-based precision strike capabilities of the PLAAF and PLAN.… DF-21D has a range exceeding 1,500 km, is fitted with a maneuverable reentry vehicle (MaRV), and is reportedly capable of rapidly reloading in the field.

“The PLARF continues to grow its inventory of DF-26 IRBMs, which it first revealed in 2015 and fielded in 2016. The multi-role DF-26 is designed to rapidly swap conventional and nuclear warheads and is capable of conducting precision land-attack and anti-ship strikes in the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea from mainland China.

“In 2020, China fired anti-ship ballistic missiles against a moving target in the South China Sea.”

China tested these weapons thoroughly, the Pentagon report adds:

“In 2021, the PLARF launched approximately 135 ballistic missiles for testing and training, more than the rest of the world combined excluding ballistic missile employment in conflict zones. The DF-17 passed several tests successfully and is deployed operationally.

“While the DF-17 is primarily a conventional platform, it may be equipped with nuclear warheads. In 2020, a PRC-based military expert described the primary purpose of the DF-17 as striking foreign military bases and fleets in the Western Pacific.”

Key to the effectiveness of anti-ship missiles is satellite intelligence and electronic warfare measures. As the Pentagon reports:

“China employs a robust space-based ISR [intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance] capability designed to enhance its worldwide situational awareness. Used for military and civilian remote sensing and mapping, terrestrial and maritime surveillance, and intelligence collection, China’s ISR satellites are capable of providing electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery as well as electronic and signals intelligence data.”

Most important:

“As of the end of 2021, China’s ISR satellite fleet contained more than 260 systems – a quantity second only to the United States, and nearly doubling China’s in-orbit systems since 2018.”

Satellite signals can be jammed or spoofed (misdirected to show incorrect coordinates), but

“The PLA continues to invest in improving its capabilities in space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), satellite communication, and satellite navigation … the PRC continues to develop a variety of counter-space capabilities designed to limit or prevent an adversary’s use of space-based assets during crisis or conflict.

“In addition to the development of directed energy weapons and satellite jammers, the PLA has an operational ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) missile intended to target low-Earth orbit satellites, and the PRC probably intends to pursue additional ASAT weapons capable of destroying satellites up to geosynchronous Earth orbit.

“PLA [electronic warfare] units routinely train to conduct jamming and anti-jamming operations against multiple communication and radar systems and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite systems during force-on-force exercises.

“These exercises test operational units’ understanding of EW weapons, equipment, and procedures and they also enable operators to improve confidence in their ability to operate effectively in a complex electromagnetic environment.”

China’s military has improved quality as well as quantity, according to the Pentagon:

“Recent improvements to China’s space-based ISR capabilities emphasize the development, procurement, and use of increasingly capable satellites with digital camera technology as well as space-based radar for all-weather, 24-hour coverage.

“These improvements increase China’s monitoring capabilities – including observation of US aircraft carriers, expeditionary strike groups, and deployed air wings. Space capabilities will enhance potential PLA military operations farther from the Chinese coast.”

Overall, the Pentagon’s readout on China’s missile and satellite capability is virtually identical to the estimation of Chinese analysts, for example, the widely read military columnist Chen Feng in the prominent Chinese website “The Observer” (guancha.cn). In a November 27 report, Chen explained why an array of small satellites can achieve precise real-time target location:

“Small satellites are not only small, lightweight, and low-cost, but also operate in low orbits. In terms of space ISR, one is worth nearly three. This is true for optical and radar imaging, as well as for signal interception. So the actual reconnaissance capability of small satellites is no weaker than large satellites, and commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar small satellites in the United States and China are able to reach 0.5-meter resolution.

“Optical imaging has always had the advantage of high resolution, which is also a very mature technology. In the era of digital imaging, there is no longer a need to use the re-entry capsule to send the film back to the ground when the satellite is overhead.”

Synthetic aperture radar, Chen explains, “is not applicable to moving targets, but most of the intelligence can be interpreted from still images, and the similarities and movement can be inferred from differences between the before and after still images can also be inferred from the movement.”

A lead satellite may detect a suspicious object, and follow-up satellites “can be switched to a detailed investigation mode, and relay the results of detailed investigation.” Other satellites with electromagnetic rather than optical sensors can conduct real-time triangulation.

In addition to its satellite ISR capability, Chen says, the other half of China’s reconnaissance capability consists of “unmanned aircraft, unmanned boats, submarines, and networked land-based radar, and undersea hydroacoustic monitoring.”

China, Chen concludes, does not yet have global ISR capability, “but theater coverage has been achieved.”

In the past, the US Navy has insisted that a combination of electronic warfare measures and anti-missile defenses can defend US capital ships against Chinese attack. This year, the navy’s top officer Admiral Jonathan Greenert told reporters that a combination of spoofing (feeding false position coordinates to an incoming missile), masking electronic emissions, and anti-missile systems like Aegis can defend US carriers.

But as Gabriel Honrada reported on August 14, US anti-missile systems like Aegis or Patriot aren’t effective against missiles honing in from a high trajectory. China’s DF-21 and other anti-ship missiles are designed to ascend to the stratosphere and strike vertically.

Electronic countermeasures, moreover, are less effective against multiple sensors. China’s tiered system of sequenced optical, as well as electromagnetic reconnaissance combined with air and sea drones, is getting harder, if not impossible, to spoof. And China’s missile force is so large that it can inflict devastating damage even with a high error rate.

Apart from its formidable inventory of conventional missiles, China has developed hypersonic glide vehicles that hug the ground and maneuver at the speed of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or several times the speed of sound. No conventional missile defense can stop HGVs.

Apart from its missile force, China has about 800 fourth-generation fighters deployed at its coast and close to 200 fifth-generation (stealth) fighters. As the Pentagon report notes, China has corrected the most important deficiency in its domestic warplane production, namely jet engines:

“China’s decades-long efforts to improve domestic aircraft engine production are starting to produce results with the J-10 and J-20 fighters switching to domestically produced WS-10 engines by the end of 2021. China’s first domestically produced high-bypass turbofan, the WS-20, has also entered flight testing on the Y-20 heavy transport and probably will replace imported Russian engines by the end of 2022.”

A noteworthy observation in the new Pentagon report is that China now has only 30,000 marines, compared with a US Marine Corps of about 200,000 including reserves.

Only 200 Chinese marines are deployed outside the country, at China’s sole overseas base in Djibouti.

China has about 14,000 special forces versus an American count of about 75,000. This isn’t consistent with the report’s claim that China wants to “project power globally.”

If the USA starts bombing Taiwan; they will be bombing China. And China will have every right to start bombing New York City. -MM

He Thinks He Can’t Survive Without Our Presence | Poor Cat Gets Glue From a Mouse Trap

Rescued. Happy ending. But what a poor sad sight. OMG!

How To Become a Cat: The Complete Guide

This informative guide has been created by illustrators and book authors Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar. We sincerely hope this will help you to achieve your life-long dream to become a cat.

What’s It Like To Date A Woman 25 Years Older Than You?

December 8, 2021

I dated a lovely woman that was exactly twice my age. I was 25 and she was 50.

She’d been through a terrible, abusive marriage, and had 3 grown children, 2 of which were older than I.

Her ex and her kids treated her like shit and unfortunately she let them.

Together we made a life running a business together that was successful enough for us to afford 2 homes, 3 nice cars, and a 30+ foot house boat.

Eventually I realized that while I had a damn good life, I was not happy.

Age is not just a number. It eventually gets to the point where you can see the huge difference.

I got tired of the Mom jokes and I was totally out of my element when her kids visited. I hated how they treated her and it became a source of contention for us.

Sexually, we were great at first, but that changed quickly as she went through menopause. She was no longer interested in sex and I was a raging 30yr old by then.

We started sleeping apart because her “back hurt” and I was just so comfortable with my life that I didn’t protest.

Things really started to fall apart when I was getting closer to 40 and realized that she just couldn’t keep up with the things I wanted to do in life.

I was taking care of her more and more and I started to resent her for it. Eventually I realized that unless I left I would be miserable.

I told her when I was 38, after 13 years together, that I thought it was time for us to part ways. One of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.

She was totally devastated. So much so that I almost stayed, just to make sure someone would be there to care for her as her health failed.

I begged her to become self reliant and moved out after 6mo. of trying to help her settle her life apart from me.

I moved out of state and told her idiot kids that they needed to help her.

That’s the last time I saw her. I left her with everything. Both the houses and 2 cars and the boat, also the business we’d built together.

Financially she wouldn’t ever have to work again. I started over with a pickup truck and about $2k in the bank.

Caribbean Honey-Spiced Chicken with Mango

Ingredients

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon peel
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, halved and seeded
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine honey, lemon juice and lemon peel; whisk until well-blended. Remove 1/4 cup of mixture to food processor container; set aside. Add mango to honey lemon mixture in bowl; toss to coat. Store in refrigerator.
Add onion, jalapenos, paprika, oil, garlic salt, cinnamon, pepper and allspice to honey-lemon mixture in food processor container. Process until very finely chopped, scrape down sides when necessary. Spread mixture evenly over both sides of chicken breasts. Spread oil in 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Arrange chicken breasts in pan.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken to serving platter; top with reserved mango.

Soldier Clinically Dead For Over 10 minutes And Was Told Three Huge Things In Heaven -Remarkable NDE

 I am nearly 80 years old and for the past six months have been watching testimony of near death experiences. Although I'm healthy and have experienced little pain in my life, stories like this give me comfort regarding the idea of death. I go to bed at night feeling peace and know there's a better time coming my way. I live alone and feel quite peaceful... it's a wonderful way to live out the rest of my life.

“Fuel For The Soul”: Outstanding Nostalgic Motorcycle Paintings Of David Uhl

David Uhl is an artist’s artist. His technique, realistic with an impressionistic flair, breathes fantastic life into even the most ordinary of subject matter. He is now among the select few officially licensed fine artists of Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

Having grown up in a fishing village in Michigan, David Uhl draws on both nature and nurture for his artistic ability. His father was an inventor-engineer and most of his family is oriented toward the arts.

After spending his high school years drawing and painting, he received the only scholarship offered to a senior to attend the Colorado Institute of Art. This education allowed him to explore his illustration and life-drawing abilities, which led to projects for such companies as Sony, Hewlett Packard and Coca-Cola.

An avid Harley owner since 1988, Uhl’s passion would soon coincide with his artistic talent. Harley-Davidson Motor Company executives recognized David’s creative talents and introduced him to Segal Fine Art, a licensed publisher of Harley-Davidson fine art. David would now spend endless hours in the Harley-Davidson Archives researching vintage photos to use as reference for his official fine art paintings. Captivated by the extraordinary history of the Motor Company, David’s desire was to memorialize the legacy.

David Uhl’s work reflects an uncanny ability to view black and white photos from earlier periods and imagine what they must have looked like in color.

David states, “My work must be life-like and believable, which requires a great amount of mixing colors to reach the desired temperatures and hues. It’s a lot of trial and error, but I feel the final product is my reward.”

Pfizer CEO Intercepted by Media in Davos

World Hal Turner 18 January 2023

Albert Bourla, the Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer, was intercepted by new-media in Davos, Switzerland. It quickly became clear Mr. Bourla was not prepared for the questions asked by citizen journalist media as opposed legacy mass-media lapdogs. Video below shows the encounter.

Reporter Ezra Levant of Rebel News made the initial interception outside the World Economic Forum event in Davos, Switzerland. Mr. Levant was quickly joined by Avi Yemeni, also of Rebel News, but from their Australia outlet. Here’s an Excerpt:

Levant: Mr. Bourla, can I ask you when did you know that the vaccines didn’t stop transmission? How long did you know that without saying it publicly? We now know that the vaccines didn’t stop transmission, but why did you keep it secret? You said it was 100% effective, then 90%, then 80%, then 70%. But we now know that the vaccines do not stop transmission. Why did you keep that secret?

Bourla: Have a nice day

Levant: I won’t have a nice day until I know the answer. Why did you keep it a secret that your vaccine did not stop transmission?

Yemini: Is it time to apologize to the world, sir? To give refunds back to the countries that poured all their money into your vaccine that doesn’t work, your ineffective vaccine? Are you not ashamed of what you’ve done in the last couple of years?

Levant: Do you have apologies to the public, sir?

Yemini: Are you proud of it? You’ve made millions on the backs of people’s entire livelihoods. How does that feel to walk the streets as a millionaire? On the backs of the regular person at home in Australia, in England, and Canada?

Levant: What do you think about on your yacht, sir? What do you think about on your private jet? Are you worried about product liability? Are you worried about myocarditis? What do you have to say about young men dropping dead of heart attacks every day? Why won’t you answer these basic questions?

Yemini: Do you think you should be charged criminally for some of the criminal behavior you’ve obviously been a part of?

Levant: How much money have you personally made off the vaccine?

Yemini: How many boosters do you think it’ll take for you to be happy enough with your earnings?

Levant: Who did you meet with here in secret? Will you disclose who you met with? Who did you pay commissions to? In the past, Pfizer has paid $2.3 billion in fines for deceptive marketing. Have you engaged in that same conduct again? Are you under investigation like you were before for your deceptive marketing?

Yemini: If any other product in the world doesn’t work as promised, you get a refund. Should you not refund to countries that laid out billions for your ineffective vaccine?

Levant: Are you used to only sympathetic media? So you don’t know how to answer any questions.

Yemini: Shame on you.

Levant: Shame on you.

VIDEO

The video below was posted to social media. Within minutes, it _seemed_ to get “shadow banned” as viewership each minute went from 70,000, down to 50,000 and continued dropping. We publish the video here pursuant to exception to the U.S. Copyright Law which exists for news purposes:

HAL TURNER COMMENTARY

You know, I am REALLY proud of those two citizen journalists. I don’t even know them, have never met or spoken with them, yet I feel PROUD to know they’re in this profession. THIS is what investigative reporting _should_ be on controversial and important topics.

For my part, I would have asked “Mr. Bourla, how do you feel about your vaccine killing people and ruining their lives with chronic disabilities for money?” and, “How do you sleep at night knowing that you’ve killed babies, and are STILL in the process of killing babies with your vaccines?” “Are you going to pay families back for their loses?”

Or perhaps: Albert at what point did you become aware that your product is killing kids?

At what point did you become aware it was linked to stillbirths and the deaths of the unborn?

At what point did you become aware that it was linked to heart attacks, strokes, and turbo cancer?

At what point did you realize the vaccine is sterilizing healthy young men and women so they cannot have children?

Lord knows I could go on and on and on.

Kudos to the guys at Rebel Media for what they accomplished. In one fell swoop, they showed the real questions being asked by common folks all over the world, and let the world see a fat-cat Billionaire devoid of answers while a product his company produces continues to harm people all over the world.

China had banned Google, Amazon, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Discord, WhatsApp, Whisper, and pretty much every single major US website. Then made a Chinese knockoff that gives the CCP complete access. Why should anyone defend TikTok?

China has banned nothing in China and in the world.

Amazon, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Discord, WhatsApp, Whisper, and pretty much every single major US website refuse to follow the Chinese laws to operate their operations in China, this they have not been approved by the Chinese laws for these businesses to operate in China.

It is the US who has blocked all the free international media and internet such as the free Russian international media and internet.

As a result, all Americans have been living in their totally isolated, completely censored and lying media. Americans know nothing about the free world, but the US style of democratic nonsense and disinformation.

Michael Hudson has a nice lecture on GDP and why it’s a bad metric these days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ock3144BKG4

Smart deterrence: China’s AI-warfare plan for Taiwan

New military concept builds on informationized and intelligentized warfare, leveraging AI to advance them to a new strategic level

by Gabriel Honrada January 17, 2023

Chinese military experts are reportedly exploring “smart deterrence” concepts, marking a significant evolution in China’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies from tactical and operational military levels to influence strategic-level decision-making.

This week, South China Morning Post reported that China could become a leader in so-called “intelligent warfare”, drawing on advanced technologies such as AI, cloud computing, big data analytics and cyber offense and defense.

Ni Yongjie, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies, opined in the peer-reviewed journal Cross-Strait Taiwan Studies that China should use AI and other enabling technologies to deter the US and pro-independence factions in Taiwan, in addition to blockade exercises around the self-governing island, the South China Morning Post said.

Ni also wrote that smart deterrence is already being studied in Chinese military circles. He stated that China should normalize military exercises beyond the median line, the de facto sea border separating China from Taiwan, approaching the baselines of the latter’s territorial waters and cutting off maritime transport.

He also says that such exercises would be a powerful deterrent against Taiwan’s independence and foreign intervention, in addition to nuclear and conventional deterrence.

Ni’s suggestion to normalize military exercises off Taiwan aligns with Asia Times’ previous assessment that China has enacted a long-term and flexible strategy for the self-governing island.

This strategy involves periodic military exercises that amount to blockades, with a tighter military noose increasing the threat level. Moreover, it sends the message that any large military exercise could quickly be the real thing – an indefinite blockade of Taiwan to starve it into submission.

Apart from staging military exercises near the baselines of Taiwan’s territorial waters, Ni stated that China should hold similar exercises in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and Dongsha Island, which Taiwan controls.

In addition to blockades, Ni called for the use of economic, legal, psychological and cyber tools to deter Taiwan’s pro-independence factions while giving punitive examples of regulating cross-strait trade, stopping imports of agricultural products and halting the two sides’ 2010 free trade agreement.

Smart deterrence adds a cognitive aspect to China’s strategy for Taiwan, as deterring the latter from declaring independence by military and economic threats alone may not be sufficient.

As noted by an October 2022 policy brief by the University of San Diego’s 21^st Century China Center, China has long been able to threaten Taiwan with severe military and economic consequences should it declare independence, but has not been able to convince the population that refraining from taking steps to independence will be met with restraint, rather than reunification on Beijing’s terms.

Other expert opinion about China’s approach towards the self-governing island comes to mixed conclusions. A September 2022 survey of China experts by the Center of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) shows that China is determined to reunify with Taiwan, but needs a coherent strategy.

The CSIS survey also says that Chinese President Xi Jinping still believes there are non-violent avenues for reunification but states that the potential for a Taiwan Strait conflict is real, as China assumes the US will intervene in the event of a conflict.

A 2020 study by RAND outlines the evolution of China’s military strategic and operational concepts from the aftermath of the Korean War to the present. The study shows that China’s military strategic and operational concepts have changed from fighting an imminent conventional war or major nuclear war with positional offense and mobile defense to active defense relying on information dominance and target-centric warfare.

However, China’s strategic and operational concepts may have already evolved beyond mere information dominance and target-centric warfare. A September 2020 US Department of Defense (DOD) report to Congress notes that China has been moving from “informationized” warfare to “intelligentized” warfare, with enabling technologies increasing the speed of future combat.

The source notes that under informationized warfare, China’s military strategists believe that victory in future wars depends on which side can observe, orient, decide and act faster.

In that connection, a November 2022 US DOD report to Congress notes that China’s intelligentized warfare concept aims to seize control of the information domain to deter or manage a conflict by destroying an adversary’s access to information.

The source also mentions that China has been honing its “Cognitive Domain Operations” (CDO) concept, adapting its previous concepts of public opinion and psychological warfare to the information domain using enabling technologies such as AI.

China’s previous concept of informationized warfare may thus be seen as too focused on warfare’s military and kinetic aspects. In contrast, its succeeding concept of intelligentized warfare expands the application of emerging technologies into the cognitive domain at the operational level.

As such, China may be trying to scale up its intelligentized warfare concept to the strategic level, referring to the stretched concept as smart deterrence. This approach follows a bottom-up hindsight evolution to military strategy, as technology often moves ahead of tactics and strategy.

Narratives will play a key role in smart deterrence, with China portraying its approach to Taiwan as a domestic issue while the US frames it as a struggle between democracy and autocracy, with both sides gaining supporters and detractors. Through smart deterrence, China would aim to influence Taiwan’s center of gravity – its society – to erode its will to resist via disinformation aimed at demoralization.

Asia Times has previously noted that while China has devised numerous military strategic and operational concepts, including informationized and intelligentized warfare, China has not fought a conventional war since the disastrous 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War.

As these concepts remain untested, it is unclear if China has an established military strategy or operational concept to fall back on should its plan for absorbing Taiwan without a fight through smart deterrence ultimately fail.

What’s It Like To Chew On Coca Leaves?

December 10, 2021

So I’ve been to Peru many times, beautiful country, and each time I’ve used coca leaf, which is abundant, cheap, and used often here, but mostly in the form of tea, although I did put it in my mouth to “chew” it before but without the base needed to extract the alkaloids (one being cocaine, in tiny amounts).

Anyhow this time I did use both lime (comes with the bag of coca if you ask) and sodium bicarbonate to activate the alkaloids whilst holding the leafs in your mouth. I’ll outline my experiences below:

Coca tea (Mate de coca)

Extremely common here in Peru, used for altitude sickness and also just like you would use coffee. It’s light, not even as strong as coffee, but less taxing. I’d compare it to black tea, although again it’s a bit different.

Increased energy, more wakefulness (although definitely less than caffeine), and a slight mood uplift, without any noticeable comedown, nor any stomach issues (my stomach is sensitive and tea and coffee both are slightly uncomfortable to it).

It’s nice, definitely good for the high altitudes here, but nothing special, what’s noteworthy is that there doesn’t seem to be any tolerance, likely due to how light the effects are.

“Chewing” coca without a base to extract the alkaloids

“Chewing” is in quotes, as this is what it’s commonly referred to as, but really you just hold the leafs in the side of your mouth letting your saliva build up. Previous times I was here I didn’t realize the importance of the lime/sodium bicarbonate for this process. It’s slightly stronger than the tea, but the effects are fairly similar and it’s far less enjoyable.

“Chewing” coca with a base to extract the alkaloids, including a small amount of cocaine and some of its metabolites

Far far more potent, a whole different ball game. I can’t and won’t compare it to cocaine, as it doesn’t compare to it despite the similar effects.

The potency, onset, and just general feeling is much much different. From what I’ve read (feel free to google) this is mainly due to the lower quantities of cocaine actually consumed, combined with the much slower intake.

You first start feeling your mouth go numb, if you have enough leafs your whole tongue, gums and side of your mouth your holding it in will go numb. It’s important not to swallow your saliva as your stomach breaks down most of it, the effects come from your it entering your bloodstream through your capillaries in your mouth.

After about 10 – 15 minutes you feel more energized, more wakeful, and far more cheerful, I’d almost call it euphoric but it’s slightly less than that, but only slightly.

Your mood is significantly uplifted. It also stems your appetite. Whilst I can’t compare it to cocaine, nor can I too caffeine as the mood uplift is just far far better.

The effects peak after about 30 – 40 minutes of holding it in your mouth, you can then spit it out and redose, I’ve done this all day on a Trek and it seemingly works pretty much as strong each and every time.

The comedown from just doing it a couple of times is almost nothing, quite amazingling. You do come back to normal after about an hour of spitting it out, but mostly you are a little more tired, actually I have felt, again with normal usage, quite sleepy after it.

Taking it to the max, as I have, using it all day, you will have problems sleeping and a noteworthy, but not large, negative affect on your mood. The next day you will be absolutely fine though.

Another issue with using it too much is that your mouth can hurt quite a lot the next day, basically because your mouth was completely numb all day and you bite your tongue or excessively press the coca against your mouth without noticing it. This took two days to go away after using it almost all day for a three day hike.

It also sobres you up quite a bit if you’re drinking, really quite amazing how similar, yet far less powerful) the effects are to cocaine.

Many workers use it here, and I now know why. Taxi drives, for example, use it to drive all night. This makes perfect sense as it keeps you awake.

I met miners who would use it to avoid eating until the evening, again this makes perfect sense, it definitely suppresses your appetite. People on the farm use it to work during the day, again makes perfect sense as it increases your ability to strenuous exercise quite noticeably.

Overall I find it to be really really nice, the biggest issue is the method of consuming, it’s obvious you are doing it (mouth full of leaves, teeth as well), and it does lead to a sore mouth if overusing.

Miracle a poor cat was buried so deep in the snow that rescuer found her just in time

Short video at one minute 20 seconds.

Be the Rufus!

The true cost of “Made in the USA” Levi’s? $178

GlobalPost

September 10, 2012 · 5:10 PM EDT

By Patrick Winn

BANGKOK, Thailand — Want a “Made in the USA” tag stitched inside your iconic Levi’s 501 jeans?

Your patriotism will cost you.

In the outsourcing era, all Levi’s jeans are stitched outside America with one exception: a single line of jeans produced at a factory called “White Oak” in Greensboro, NC. The mill is staffed by old hands who’ve narrowly survived the American garment manufacturing industry’s collapse.

Levi’s ad copy tells you that the jeans are “handcrafted by our faithful friends at the White Oak denim mill” and “proudly made in the red, white and blue” before reminding you that 501 jeans are “the ultimate icon of American culture.”

If you’re feeling overrun with American pride, I hope your pants-shopping budget can keep up with your patriotic zeal.

The standard-issue version of these 501 jeans costs a whopping $178. (Though, as I write this in early September, you can acquire a much cheaper version if you’re self-assured enough to wear purple jeans: a pair in the color “eggplant” sell for $58. A pair of “crushed wine” 501s is going for $138.)

In the world of denim, a “Made in the USA” tag has become a novelty. The garment industry’s economies of scale are long gone.

The outcome: it now costs the equivalent of a car payment to buy jeans, sourced from a US factory doling out decent pay and benefits, from a major apparel brand. This is actually cheap compared to the $300 to $400 fashionistas pay for celebrity-endorsed luxury jeans handcrafted in L.A.

That doesn’t mean affordable “Made in the USA” jeans have gone extinct.

Though lacking strings of retail outlets and huge advertising budgets, little-known brands are quietly producing affordable US-made jeans.

A pair of Gusset Jeans, made in Georgia, will cost you $55.95.

A pair of Texas Jeans, made in North Carolina, goes for $29.99.

Neither are shy about extolling their folksy, American bonafides. Texas Jeans even produces a “conceal and carry” line stitched to accommodate hidden pistols.

These brands are hardly hip but they are American through and through: even the buttons and denim are sourced stateside. The same can’t be said for the “Made in the USA” Levi’s, which are “meticulously crafted” in America — out of “imported fabric.”

China announces first countermeasure against discriminatory travel curbs

By suspending visas for South Koreans, Beijing defends its legitimate rights on the principle of reciprocity: experts

Health workers guide travelers from China at a COVID-19 testing center at Incheon International Airport in South Korea on January 3. Photo: VCG

China imposed its first countermeasure on Tuesday toward discriminatory and unnecessary travel restrictions against travelers from China by suspending short-term visas for South Korean citizens who wants to visit China. The latest measure is considered as China’s direct and reasonable response to protect its own legitimate interests, particularly after some countries are continuing hyping up China’s epidemic situation by putting travel restrictions for political manipulation despite that many public health experts around the globe have criticized it as a “toxic trend.”

China suspends issuing short-term visas for South Korean citizens to travel to China for visit, business, tourism, medical treatment, transit or other personal affairs, with the new adjustment taking effect starting Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy in South Korea said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The decision will be reassessed as soon as South Korea removes its discriminatory travel restrictions

targeting travelers from China, the statement said.

Following the move by the Chinese Embassy in South Korea, the Chinese Embassy in Japan also issued a notice on Tuesday to suspended the issuing of ordinary visas for Japanese citizens who want to travel to China without notifying a date for resumption.

The US, Japan and South Korea are among the countries that had announced restrictions on travelers from China, citing concerns that the current surge of COVID-19 cases in China could lead to the emergence of new variants.

When asked about whether China also suspended visa application for Japanese citizens who plan to travel to China, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a routine press conference on Tuesday that since China adjusted its COVID management and unveiled the resumption of people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries and regions, many countries have welcomed Chinese travelers but a handful of countries adopted entry restrictions against travelers from China.

China holds the sincerest attitude, with adhering to the fact and fully communicating with relevant countries, introducing in detail the scientific basis and reasons for China’s optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention measures as well as domestic epidemic situation, Wang noted. “But regrettably, some countries ignore science, facts and their own situation by imposing travel curbs against China, toward which China firmly opposes and takes countermeasures.”

On January 2, South Korea tightened rules on incoming travelers from China, including allowing them only one port of entry – the Incheon International Airport – and performing COVID-19 tests on passengers after they disembark, Korea JoongAng Daily reported on Monday.

In addition, people traveling from China are required to submit negative COVID test results before boarding the plane to Seoul. This also applies to people coming from Hong Kong and Macao, the JoongAng Daily report said.

Japan also further tightened border controls for travelers from China on Sunday by requiring proof of COVID negative test results, which should be taken 72 hours prior to departure, according to media reports.

The travel restriction has been criticized by health experts from across globe as logistically cumbersome, and a toxic trend. Many countries, unlike the US-led allies including Japan and South Korea, warmly welcome China’s adjustment and reopening without putting any extra measures targeting travelers from China, striking a sharp contrast with those tougher rules, which were also called “unacceptable” toward which China will take corresponding measures with the principle of reciprocity.

Legitimate defense

Relations between countries must be built based on mutual respect and equality, which has been recognized as international norms, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Certain countries including South Korea and the US have come up with an idea to slander and question China’s epidemic response measures, and such move resulted in the international communities’ query toward China’s COVID-19 response, Li said.

“China’s latest countermeasures on visas are a legitimate demand which is reasonable and can better protect our own interests,” Li said.

In recent days, news that travelers from China have to take a yellow badge (for short-term visa holders) before entry has gained wide attention from Chinese netizens, with more than 190 million views on Chinese twitter-like Sina Weibo as of press time on Tuesday. Some netizens shared their unwelcomed and unsmooth experiences when arriving in South Korea such as mandatory nucleic acid testing, according to media reports.

For example, a large number of South Korean reporters were filming travelers from China when they were forced to wear the yellow badge and some reporters even followed those Chinese travelers like “tracking criminals,” according to some posts circulating online.

“South Korea’s entry policy toward travelers from China is really the most unfriendly and strictest in the world. Entry inspection, wait for report for two to five hours or even longer, and mandatory quarantine at traveler’s own expense for a week if tested positive,” a netizen said.

Many Chinese netizens have expressed their discontent over the measures carried out by South Korea toward passengers from China. “I suggest you to delay your travel plan to South Korea,” one netizen wrote.

There is absolutely no need to impose travel restrictions on arrivals from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, Dennis Lam, a Hong Kong lawmaker and a deputy to the National People’s Congress, told the Global Times. When epidemic prevention measures have been eased across the globe, the mainland and Hong Kong have no higher possibility for new variants than any other countries or regions, Lam said.

“It has been three years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, and large-scale epidemics and infections have occurred all over the world with most of the global population forming a certain immunity against the virus through self-infection or vaccination, so the virulence of the new variants is no longer as bad as at the beginning of the epidemic,” Lam remarked.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang said “We once again call on relevant countries to make sure that their COVID response measures are fact-based, science-based and proportionate. COVID response should not be used as a pretext for political manipulation. It should not be discriminatory and should not affect normal cross-border travel and people-to-people exchange and cooperation.”

Leo Poon Lit-man of the University of Hong Kong, who is also an expert in various World Health Organization Working Groups for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses, said that it is possible surging caseload could lead to generation of new variants, “but this possibility can also be applied in other countries and cities, for example, the XBB.1.5 subvariant evolved outside China,” and there’s a major difference between the variants circulating in and outside China.

It is important to continue to do surveillance inside China and share this information with other countries, said Poon, warning that it is also equally important for other countries to do the same level of surveillance. “So whenever there’s a new variant coming out in around the globe, we can able to share and exchange the information in a timely manner.”

Despite a few countries who have imposed unreasonable travel curbs out of political purposes, many countries took a much more rational attitude.

For example, Singaporean Health Minister Ong Ye Kung explained on Monday that Singapore will not impose pre-departure tests on travelers from China as severe cases can originate from anywhere.

Putting up such requirements, he said, raises the question of travelers from other regions that contribute more infections and severe case, Channel News Asia reported.

“How about local community settings which we know are conducive to spreading the disease and can drive infection numbers and severe cases?” Mr Ong asked.

“By triggering PDT (pre-departure test requirements) on travelers from one part of the world experiencing high infection numbers, are we contributing to an international precedent of imposing tests on travelers from countries going through an infection wave? How will other countries treat travelers from Singapore when we encounter another infection wave?”

What It’s Like To Be Cheated On By Someone You Love

February 16, 2022

Have you ever balled up your fists so tight for so long that your knuckles got all white, your nails started digging into your palms, and you were afraid you might be drawing blood? When letting your hands slowly open up feels almost unnatural after having them so tightly wound for so long? It kind of feels like that.

It’s a pain which is at once deeply frustrating and oddly self-sustaining. You feed into the anger because it comforts you, in a strange way. Because to stop being angry, to stop clenching your fists, to loosen up for a minute and let go, would mean you have to feel the actual undercurrent of your anger: your pain.

Finding out, of course, is most accurately described as an unexpected punch to the stomach.

There are some people who have been taken aside and told with composure and elegance that they have been betrayed in the most profound way they could be. “I made a mistake,” the culprit might say, or, “I found someone else.”

Depending on the intensity of the illicit relationship, the confession could range from the deeply apologetic to the coldly indifferent.

But for those who find out because they stumbled across the evidence, or found it after frantic hours of terrified searching, the punch is strong enough to force the air entirely out of the lungs.

The searching is perhaps the worst part, the breathless moments before the floor falls out from underneath you.

That precarious dangling in the purgatory where you at once want to find something — anything — to justify your gnawing suspicions, and you want to be relieved with a realization that it was all in your head.

In many ways, though, once that frantic searching has begun, there is no way to be satisfied that you imagined it all.

If you have been driven to the point of checking through messages or looking in pockets or asking potential witnesses, if you have allowed yourself to come to the ugly, unflattering point of invading the privacy of the person you love to prove yourself right, you have already lost.

And you know it. You know you have become what you had always condescendingly looked down upon, the couple who is as untrusting and dysfunctional as they are unable to admit it.

But somehow, finding that shred of evidence or hearing the confirmation which proves you right in the worst way possible is almost a triumphant moment of victory. You have won, and you have lost everything. But for at least those few precious milliseconds of “a-ha!” you have gotten exactly what you wanted.

And then comes the fall, the bottomless descent into every ugly moment of self-doubt and self-loathing in an attempt to find a justification or explanation which could never exist.

What did you do wrong? What does the other person do better? Do they smell better? Taste better? Have more interesting things to say at parties which don’t involve sarcastic, ill-timed jokes?

Suddenly, everything you are is wrong, every aspect of yourself is something you want to peel off and throw on the floor behind you.

And the ignorant person you were before, the one blissfully unaware of all that was happening behind a turned back, is suddenly both laughable and enviable.

You cringe imagining all of the things that were happening when you weren’t looking, but wish that you could return to a moment where not knowing was a possibility.

But that person — the ignorant-yet-blissful person who was only so happy to be unwittingly cheated on — was ultimately not good enough to keep your love.

And that is the real pain, the idea that there was something that was yours to keep which you were unable to hold a tight enough grip on.

You delude yourself into believing that there was anything you could have done to prevent it, and yet never stop to understand that it was entirely your partner’s choice. If anyone could have stopped anything, it was your partner.

Somehow, placing the blame where it truly belongs when cheated on is about as futile as feeling positively towards the “other.”

At the end of the day, there is always something to find fault in within yourself, something which can be identified as the true culprit in the infidelity, instead of the beloved cheater. “If only I were thinner” somehow makes more sense than “if only he wasn’t a cheater.”

As you unclench that fist, let go of all of every minor pain you’ve kept close to your chest so as to not have to see it in its full splendor, you finally exhale.

You distance yourself from the betrayal and start to believe — the way a baby bird might open its wings for the first time — that not everyone must be monitored with the distrusting cunning of a fox.

You accept that you may not have been able to stop it, or that you certainly didn’t deserve it. And while there will always be a part of you which longs to look twice at the inbox of a cellphone, who can’t believe that someone can be honest for uninterrupted years at a time, it is up to all of us to push those thoughts away.

“If they are going to do it,” we must say, “Ruining myself in worry and doubt will not stop them.”

With Ukraine Situation Getting Worse, What Would Happen if Russian Nuke Hit New York City . . .

Nation Hal Turner 19 January 2023

The situation between Russia and Ukraine grows worse each day because the United States and its NATO vassals, continue to escalate the weapons given to Ukraine. At some point, Russia may have to tell the U.S. to stop or be made to stop. Of course, the U.S. will not back down, and as such, the missiles may fly. Here’s what scientists say will happen if a Russian nuke hits New York City . . .

Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles are believed to carry a total of approximately 1,000 strategic nuclear warheads that can hit the US less than 30 minutes after being launched. Of this total, about 700 warheads are rated at 800 kilotons; that is, each has the explosive power of 800,000 tons of TNT. What follows is a description of the consequences of the detonation of a single such warhead over midtown Manhattan, in the heart of New York City.

The initial fireball. The warhead would probably be detonated slightly more than a mile above the city, to maximize the damage created by its blast wave. Within a few tenths of millionths of a second after detonation, the center of the warhead would reach a temperature of roughly 200 million degrees Fahrenheit (about 100 million degrees Celsius), or about four to five times the temperature at the center of the sun.

A ball of superheated air would form, initially expanding outward at millions of miles per hour. It would act like a fast-moving piston on the surrounding air, compressing it at the edge of the fireball and creating a shockwave of vast size and power.

After one second, the fireball would be roughly a mile in diameter. It would have cooled from its initial temperature of many millions of degrees to about 16,000 degrees Fahrenheit, roughly 4,000 degrees hotter than the surface of the sun.

On a clear day with average weather conditions, the enormous heat and light from the fireball would almost instantly ignite fires over a total area of about 100 square miles.

Hurricane of fire. Within seconds after the detonation, fires set within a few miles of the fireball would burn violently. These fires would force gigantic masses of heated air to rise, drawing cooler air from surrounding areas toward the center of the fire zone from all directions.

As the massive winds drove flames into areas where fires had not yet fully developed, the fires set by the detonation would begin to merge. Within tens of minutes of the detonation, fires from near and far would join to form a single, gigantic fire. The energy released by this mass fire would be 15 to 50 times greater than the energy produced by the nuclear detonation.

The mass fire, or firestorm, would quickly increase in intensity, heating enormous volumes of air that would rise at speeds approaching 300 miles per hour. This chimney effect would pull cool air from outside the fire zone towards the center of the fire at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. These superheated ground winds of more than hurricane force would further intensify the fire. At the edge of the fire zone, the winds would be powerful enough to uproot trees three feet in diameter and suck people from outside the fire into it.

The inrushing winds would drive the flames from burning buildings horizontally along the ground, filling city streets with flames and firebrands, breaking in doors and windows, and causing the fire to jump, sometimes hundreds of feet, swallowing anything not already violently combusting.

These above-hurricane-force ground winds would have average air temperatures well above the boiling point of water. The targeted area would be transformed into a huge hurricane of fire, producing a lethal environment throughout the entire fire zone.

Ground zero: Midtown Manhattan. The fireball would vaporize the structures directly below it and produce an immense blast wave and high-speed winds, crushing even heavily built concrete structures within a couple miles of ground zero. The blast would tear apart high-rise buildings and expose their contents to the solar temperatures; it would spread fires by exposing ignitable surfaces, releasing flammable materials, and dispersing burning materials.

At the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, about one half to three quarters of a mile from ground zero, light from the fireball would melt asphalt in the streets, burn paint off walls, and melt metal surfaces within a half second of the detonation. Roughly one second later, the blast wave and 750-mile-per-hour winds would arrive, flattening buildings and tossing burning cars into the air like leaves in a windstorm. Throughout Midtown, the interiors of vehicles and buildings in line of sight of the fireball would explode into flames.

Slightly more than a mile from ground zero are the neighborhoods of Chelsea, Midtown East, and Lenox Hill, as well as the United Nations; at this distance, for a split second the fireball would shine 10,000 times brighter than a desert sun at noon. All combustible materials illuminated by the fireball would spew fire and black smoke.

Grass, vegetation, and leaves on trees would explode into flames; the surface of the ground would explode into superheated dust. Any flammable material inside buildings (paper, curtains, upholstery) that was directly exposed to the fireball would burst into flame. The surfaces of the bronze statues in front of the UN would melt; marble surfaces exposed to the fireball would crack, pop, and possibly evaporate.

At this distance from the fireball, it would take about four seconds for the blast wave to arrive. As it passed over, the blast wave would engulf all structures and crush them; it would generate ferocious winds of 400 to 500 miles per hour that would persist for a few seconds

The high winds would tear structural elements from buildings and cause them to disintegrate explosively into smaller pieces. Some of these pieces would become destructive projectiles, causing further damage. The superheated, dust-laden winds would be strong enough to overturn trucks and buses.

Two miles from ground zero, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with all its magnificent historical treasures, would be obliterated. Two and half miles from ground zero, in Lower Manhattan, the East Village, and Stuyvesant Town, the fireball would appear 2,700 times brighter than a desert sun at noon. There, thermal radiation would melt and warp aluminum surfaces, ignite the tires of autos, and turn exposed skin to charcoal, before the blast wave arrived and ripped apart the buildings.

Three to nine miles from ground zero. Midtown is bordered by the relatively wide Hudson and East rivers, and fires would start simultaneously in large areas on both sides of these waterways (that is, in Queens and Brooklyn as well as Jersey City and West New York, NJ). Although the direction of the fiery winds in regions near the river would be modified by the water, the overall wind pattern from these huge neighboring fire zones would be similar to that of a single mass fire, with its center at Midtown, Manhattan.

Three miles from ground zero, in Union City, New Jersey, and Astoria, Queens, the fireball would be as bright as 1,900 suns and deliver more than five times the thermal energy deposited at the perimeter of the mass fire at Hiroshima. In Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and in the Civic Center of Lower Manhattan, clothes worn by people in the direct line of sight of the fireball would burst into flames or melt, and uncovered skin would be charred, causing third-degree burns and worse.

It would take 12 to 14 seconds for the blast wave to travel three miles after the fireball’s initial flash of light. At this distance, the blast wave would last for about three seconds and be accompanied by winds of 200 to 300 miles per hour. Residential structures would be destroyed; high-rises would be at least heavily damaged.

Fires would rage everywhere within five miles of ground zero. At a distance of 5.35 miles from the detonation, the light flash from the fireball would deliver twice the thermal energy experienced at the edge of the mass fire at Hiroshima. In Jersey City and Cliffside Park, and in Woodside in Queens, on Governors Island and in Harlem, the light and heat to surfaces would approximate that created by 600 desert suns at noon.

Wind speed at this distance would be 70 to 100 miles per hour. Buildings of heavy construction would suffer little structural damage, but all exterior windows would be shattered, and non-supporting interior walls and doors would be severely damaged or blown down. Black smoke would effuse from wood houses as paint burned off surfaces and furnishings ignited.

Six to seven miles from ground zero, from Moonachie, New Jersey, to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, from Yankee Stadium to Corona, Queens and Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the fireball would appear 300 times brighter than the desert sun at noon. Anyone in the direct light of the fireball would suffer third degree burns to their exposed skin. The firestorm could engulf neighborhoods as far as seven miles away from ground zero, since these outlying areas would receive the same amount of heat as did the areas at the edge of the mass fire at Hiroshima.

Nine miles from ground zero, in Hackensack, Bayonne, and Englewood, New Jersey, as well as in Richmond Hill, Queens, and Flatlands, Brooklyn, the fireball would be about 100 times brighter than the sun, bright enough to cause first- and second-degree burns to those in line of sight. About 36 seconds after the fireball, the shockwave would arrive and knock out all the windows, along with many interior building walls and some doors.

No survivors. Within tens of minutes, everything within approximately five to seven miles of Midtown Manhattan would be engulfed by a gigantic firestorm. The fire zone would cover a total area of 90 to 152 square miles (230 to 389 square kilometers). The firestorm would rage for three to six hours. Air temperatures in the fire zone would likely average 400 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (200 to 260 Celsius).

After the fire burned out, the street pavement would be so hot that even tracked vehicles could not pass over it for days. Buried, unburned material from collapsed buildings throughout the fire zone could burst into flames when exposed to air—months after the firestorm had ended.

Those who tried to escape through the streets would have been incinerated by the hurricane-force winds filled with firebrands and flames. Even those able to find shelter in the lower-level sub-basements of massive buildings would likely suffocate from fire-generated gases or be cooked alive as their shelters heated to oven-like conditions.

The fire would extinguish all life and destroy almost everything else. Tens of miles downwind of the area of immediate destruction, radioactive fallout would begin to arrive within a few hours of the detonation.

But that is another story.

Baked Stuffed Papayas (Jamaica)

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (16 ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 (12 ounce) papayas
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Cook and stir beef, onion and garlic in 10-inch skillet over medium heat until beef is light brown; drain. Stir in tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, salt and pepper; break up tomatoes with fork. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered until most of the liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes.
Cut papayas lengthwise into halves; remove seeds. Place about 1/3 cup beef mixture in each papaya half; sprinkle with cheese. Arrange in shallow roasting pan. Pour very hot water into pan to within 1 inch of tops of papaya halves.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F until papayas are very tender and hot, about 30 minutes.

435,897,435,897 Free Roaming Spike Protein Molecules After COVID Vax Booster – Their Hearts Will NEVER Fully Recover from the “Vax”

World Hal Turner 18 January 2023

There’s a new peer-reviewed research paper out regarding the COVID Vax. It’s bad. How bad? I’ve shown it to two physicians so far. One said he “had a seizure” reading it. The other said something worse.

Long story short: 436 BILLION copies of spike protein are found circulating freely in blood plasma, a month after the COVID (Gene therapy) vaccine.

In kids.

Their hearts, screeching in pain with Myocarditis, will never fully recover.

You knew that, didn’t you? But there is more than that . . . The graphic below, from this new study, shows the medical and scientific evidence:

Below is the damning part of the graphic. The vertical scale is a log scale. The line at about 15pg/ml is the limit of detection, which is why the blue dots are there. There are still up to 100 billion molecules of spike in those patients – 20 days later.

But in some of these cases the concentration of spike is RISING 20 days after vaccination (see the red lines going up), so we have no idea how much is actually circulating. Spike is toxic, particularly to the heart. If it’s not toxic why do we need a “vaccine” against it?

The authors of this new peer-reviewed study claim that the mean serum level of free spike protein in the patients with myocarditis was 34pg/ml. (There was less in the non-affected patients, but there was still a lot) How many molecules is that? Well there is about 3000ml of plasma in a 70kg male…

And the molecular weight of a spike protein monomer is 141kDa. That’s 2.34 e-19 grams. So 34pg/ml x 3000ml is a total of 102ng (102e-9) of spike. Divide by 2.34e-19 gives you… 435,897,435,897 molecules. Of a toxic protein. Circulating in a young adult.

It’s worth noting also that the blue dots in the graphic don’t indicate “no spike” – they are the lower limits of detection at 15pg/ml. That’s a lot of spike.

BUT… There are two other things that have come out of this paper.

The first is that the amount of spike protein circulating in the PLASMA (when we were told it didn’t leave the arm, remember) weeks after the injection is shocking. So this . . .

was a lie:

Yes, what you see above . . . what we were all TOLD . . . was a L I E.

The whole article in Conversation.edu from their “Researcher” @vasssssso was in fact a lie, so we’ve archived it. The claims in that article made by the authors have likely resulted in deaths of young adults. Look at the “partners” for the article – including RMIT again.

But the worst thing about this new peer-reviewed myocarditis study is this – and you might not have realized. The study showed, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the COVID “vaccine” was causing myocarditis, with elevated troponin (confirming heart damage).

Troponin is an enzyme given off by cardiac cells when they are injured or dying. That’s how Doctors can tell if a person is having a heart attack over a panic attack. If its an actual heart attack, there will be measurable Troponin in the blood. In cases of myocarditis, Troponin also occurs as heart cells are severely damaged -or dying – by the Spike Proteins.

You know, sometimes people have to do something BAD, to achieve something good. And this is no exception. You see, when the people doing this new peer-reviewed study saw the first few cases of Myocarditis, they should have STOPPED the study and sounded the alarm right away. You see, that was their duty. It was a duty as medical officers and as research officers. But to our knowledge they said nothing and kept recruiting for the study!

What mattered (to them) was finishing the study so they could publish. Of course, from the home of the #surgisphere authors, what else would you expect?

This is the environment they operate in:

WHAT THIS MEANS

First, this study was done and submitted for “peer-review” on May 26, 2022. It was ACCEPTED for publication (after peer-review) on November 23, 2022. So the world has known, as a matter of scientific research, these details, since May of last year. Yet no one . called for Vaccines to be HALTED.

They had scientific proof the vaccines were causing heart damage . . . myocarditis . . . which, incidentally, has a FIFTY PERCENT mortality rate within five years, and they said . . . nothing.

Want to know why? MONEY.

They can’t admit it’s potentially harmful and deadly.

They can’t suddenly stop the shots; To do so would be an admission of guilt.

So they’ll continue, pretending everything’s fine. In other words, doubling down on stupid

All those kids coming down with Myocarditis, have a fifty-fifty chance of DYING within the next five years. Oh, and the rest who took the vaccine and at least the first booster, the way things look right now, most of them (statistically) will be dead by the year 2027.

Hikers Find Dead Body In Tent, Revealing Chilling Mystery: The Solved Case of Mostly Harmless

I don’t think Vance was exactly a “kind” or “bad” person, just a complicated one. He was still a human being who was dealing with his own demons and the consequences of his past actions and guilt in his own way. So I hope he found some form of peace out there before dying.

https://youtu.be/QISwNN1k-_w

You will need to be calm and accepting of your new reality

Why the “Back to the future” screen shot above?

Note the actor. Yeah, half of the film was shot, and then he was fired, and replaced with Michael J. Fox.

Why?

What are the lessons here?

What about your life…?

Are you learning from your life? Are you making a difference?

Consider being the best YOU possible.

Manchego and Serrano Crostini

“I found this easy tapa dish on the internet. It’s tasty and will disappear in moments! They are the perfect size for your guests to handle for an appetizer or at a wine and cheese party. Enjoy!”

Ingredients

1 whole grain baguette, cut into 1/4-inch to 1/3-inch slices
¹⁄₄ lb serrano ham, sliced thin and to fit the baguette slices
8 ounces manchego cheese, sliced thin and slightly smaller than the ham
2 tablespoons olive oil (approximate)
2 teaspoons garlic, minced

Directions

Saute garlic in olive oil until lightly browned. Discard garlic if you like.
Arrange baguette slices on a baking sheet. Brush slices with olive oil.
Assemble crostini, with ham first then cheese. Cook under broiler until until cheese is melted and ham is warm. Watch carefully!
Serve.

Woman Was 15 Minutes Clinically Dead And Spent 5 years In Heaven

She talks about her perceptions of “the triad”. As I have discussed related to quanta.

She’s showing things from her perspectives…

4 People Describe What’s It Like To Have Bipolar

November 10, 2022

1. It’s the most amazing pile of beautiful misery to grace the hell of my divine existence! When your good, things are FANTASTIC! the other %80 of the time is spent trying to prevent your (percieved) justifiable suicide.

2. I have bipolar disorder type 2. It has affected me my whole life, though I didn’t realize it and didn’t get diagnosed until my late 30s.

I’m afraid of my own brain. I hyper analyze every mood and feeling, worried that I may be sliding into yet another episode of mania or bone crushing depression.

It sucks. I feel like so much of my life’s potential has been eaten up by the alternating bouts of depression, mania, and the guilt and shame I felt (and still feel) when I do have clarity. I lost my job, my marriage, and very nearly lost my life to bipolar. My ex tried to get my partial custody revoked because I am “crazy” but thankfully in my state that doesn’t hold water unless I demonstrate an inability to care for my kids.

I’ve also lost almost all of my friends, either due to manic or depressed behavior that alienated me from them, my ex’s embellishment of how insane I am, or my isolating myself after my last nervous breakdown. It took 18 months to be well enough to try working again, and every day at work seems like the day I will quit because I can’t take the stress and anxiety of it. But I go. And I keep going every day.

I can’t handle this illness anymore. But I take it a day, an hour, a minute at a time if I have to. And I take my medication religiously. At least I know without a doubt that I have done everything in my power to control this thing rather than let it control me.

3. Sometimes I’m very happy all of the time and I don’t need much sleep. I will start a lot of things and take up many new hobbies which rapidly develop into an obsession and then I’ll move onto something else.

It takes a lot of effort to get things complete because I will work on multiple tasks simultaneously. I was once cleaning the 2 bathrooms, sorting through laundry, cleaning the cooker and dishwasher, cleaning the patio doors, washing the floors, dusting bookshelves and sorting out the drawers under the bed all at once. I was running from task to task and became convinced my slippers were slowing me down. Our apartment at the time had a long, open plan living/dining room and kitchen. I grew convinced my slippers were slowing me down and kicked them across from the living room and into the kitchen.

I also suffer from memory problems during hypomanic episodes, which means that I only remember brief things once the episode has passed. An example of this is with my medication. I had gone to the pharmacy to collect my prescription, but they didn’t have enough and I said I’d call back in for the rest another day. They gave me a slip of paper and I went back a week later after running out of the meds I’d got the week before.

The pharmacist had said I’d been in the day after and collected the rest of my prescription, which I have absolutely no memory of, nor did I know where I would have put my medication if I had. She ended up doubting herself and went back to check the records and could show me that I’d been back in to collect the pills. Not even the time or date jogged any memory. I left to go back to my doctor and ask for another prescription but I had to go home for something. I got to the entrance of my apartment building and I couldn’t find my keys in my pockets and went hunting into my bag. While digging around I found a paper bag and found the remainder of my prescription that I’d picked the following day. I went back and told the pharmacist I’d found them and apologised for taking her away from her other jobs.

I also avoid going outside when I’m hypomanic. When I’m in large crowded areas, I pick up on people’s emotions and start feeling them as if they were my own. And it’s not just a single emotion I’ll feel at once, but a mixture of all emotions. Because people with bipolar’s emotions are already extremely elevated, this becomes intoxicating and I’ll end up very hyperactive and happy, but I’m also more prone to getting angry too. Because I’m hyperactive, I am doing everything faster and it feels like time around me has slowed down, so people walking in front of me, or having my way somewhere blocked makes me very angry.

If I do need to go into a crowded area, I’ll have to spend a few hours mentally preparing myself to go out. So I’ll make a mental map of the places I need to go, the route I’ll need to take to get the things I need in the most efficient way and I can’t deviate from that route as I’m more easily distracted when hypomanic and if I deviate from my route, then I’ll end up spending all my money on cheap tat because I felt like it would make my life a lot better at that time, and then not know why I got it.

My memory problems have also got me into debt several times too. I can buy things and forget I’ve purchased them, then remember I was wanting to buy it and go and buy it again. It’s not uncommon for me to buy 2 – 3 copies of the same thing, and shops rarely allow you to return them, so I end up just giving the multiples away to people.

I’m also prone to making rash, snap decisions. It’s not uncommon for me to randomly quit a job or take a sudden dislike to a close friend and remove them from my life. Due to the way bipolar works (depression and hypomania/mania), your job performance will drop while depressed, and then you can suddenly snap into a hypomanic/manic episode without knowing it and start irritating those around you. Because of how work places tend to treat those with mental health problems, they often won’t take you back if you quit because they see you as a liability.

But you tend to crash into one of the deepest depressions you can have when it ends. Like the saying goes “the higher you go, the further you have to fall”.

4. Some people say stupid things “yesterday I was feeling great and today I just feel normal, omg I’m like so bipolar lol”, don’t say this, it’s hard enough being a victim of it, and it becomes infuriating when people say things like this (this is pretty much true for all mental illnesses).

So what is it like being bipolar? Imagine swimming, swimming forever, you are not a particularly talented swimmer and to make things worse you have weights on your wrists and ankles. The heaviness of these weights change, with no real pattern, sometimes the weights are light enough for you to swim along with everyone else and it’s manageable and life is bearable. But sometimes the weights are heavy and just staying afloat becomes incredibly difficult, and sometimes the weights become even heavier than that, when the weights become too heavy you will eventually slip below the surface.

When you are under it seems like getting back up is impossible, sometimes the weights are so heavy you can’t get back up and you have to hold your breath until they get lighter but the longer you hold your breath the harder it is to not sink further leaving you to be in constant hope the weights become light enough to cope and get back up. For most the thought of giving up and letting go crosses their minds, once you’ve drowned you don’t have to struggle and cope anymore, because of this some people do. For some people the weights do get lighter and they can get back above the surface and continue swimming, some people don’t.

Friends are other swimmers, some have their own weights some don’t and it’s your friends who will rescue you when you sink under, they will help you swim carrying you along but they are also swimming and have to carry themselves, the more they help you the harder their own swimming becomes, some will move on and leave you, some will stay, and you will encounter more, replacing the ones lost.

Some use drugs to help with the struggle, drugs will temporarily make the weights lighter and it will be easier until they wear off but when they do wear off the weights will be heavier than before. Some people hurt themselves, doing this makes the weights slightly lighter but it makes the wearer weaker.

I can’t say bipolar does get better, certain medication will lighten the weights as will positive things in your life but you will always wear your weights. So why keep swimming? Everyone drowns at some point anyway so what’s the point? You want to get as far as you can during your swim, you want to experience the good things and you want to keep going, you want to beat your weights, you want to help carry others, you only get one swim, some people have it easier than others but it’s best not to waste it.

Rory Gallagher Irish Tour 1974 Tattoo’d Lady

I had this album. This is the first time that I watched him perform what I once owned.

13 People Reveal Their Secret That Could Ruin Their Lives

November 7, 2022

1. I run a cake business. I charge people hundreds for wedding cakes… Every last one is made using Pilsbury cake mix I buy for $1 a box at Walmart. I suck at baking. Every time I’ve ever tried to make a cake from scratch it sucked. But baking is like.. My whole deal.

My friends all call me the cake girl. It’s like my whole life is a lie. People compliment my cakes all the time. Telling me how delicious they are. Telling me it’s so much better than box mix cake. Telling me they could never bake a cake so delicious.

Well guess what? For $1, they too can make a cake just as delicious. Just add oil, eggs and water. In my defense, I love cake decorating. I make all of the frostings and fondant from scratch. I just hate baking fucking cakes!!

I base my prices mostly on the decoration of the cakes and not of the cake itself, ifthat makes sense. Still… No one knows about this except my husband. Even my best friends think I fucking slave over the oven mixing and baking these damn cakes.

I have been doing this for YEARS. If anyone knew my business and reputation would be in the toilet for sure. :/ I keep telling myself I have to learn how to make the damn cakes without the box mixes, but I never do it. I feel like such a sham sometimes.

2. Some guy convinced naive 15 year old me to send nudes and then used it against me for 6 months. He found me on Facebook and threatened to send them to my friends list if I didn’t do whatever he asked me too. He would make me get online whenever he asked and have me masturbate for him. He even tried to get me to meet up with him in person. I got really lucky when his profiles just disappeared one day and I took that opportunity to delete every social media account I had. I haven’t gone back since and I never will. It really fucked me up for a while but I don’t really have anyone to blame but myself. It’s been 6 years since and I still haven’t told anyone I know this story.

3. I get paid a six figure salary for a standard 40 hour a week corporate job for a massive well known company. In a given week I do maybe an hour of actual work, the rest of the time I am on social media or youtube slacking off. I thought when I got this job that eventually someone would figure out I don’t do anything all day but here I am 14 years later still doing fuck all and getting paid a lot for it.

4. I once helped out my a female friend’s family by taking care of their cat for a week. Every day for a week, I would go over there and snoop around their house. I found my friend’s diary, and proceeded to read the entire thing. I used this information to get her to like me, and she is currently my wife.

5. Cousin died when we were both seventeen. There was a reception at his house just after the funeral. I went into his room and stole all the money that was there, took some other valuables that his parents wouldn’t realize were gone. No one knows that I did it, they just assumed he didn’t have any money in his room, only loose change. I don’t regret it, but I will never admit I did it.

6. I had a baby with sperm donated from a man who advertised on craigslist. If my very religious family found out it wasn’t an “accident” I would be completely shunned and disowned.

I am a female who is ugly. NO, that’s not the secret. But.. I AM ugly because I have a facial deformity that I was born with. I’ve never had a long term partner and only had sex a few times in my life. My biological clock was ticking LOUDLY and I desperately wanted a child – there wasn’t going to be time enough to meet someone and my odds were none existent as a middle-aged, ugly female.

I own my home, have a career – but I didn’t want to lose all my savings to pay to have it done through a clinic and sperm donation, etc. It would have been at least $15K per try. My chances of adopting were also almost none existent as any women looking to adopt her baby out isn’t going to pick the ugly, middle aged lady to adopt their baby, plus is crazy freaking expensive. I wanted the money I had in savings, etc.. to toward raising the child.

So I turned to Craigslist and got it for free.

My child is a preschooler now and I’ve never been happier or more fulfilled! I pinch myself every day because my child is in my life and I feel so fucking lucky. Every day is a dream come true and I savor each and every moment. I try to be the best mom I can be in every way. Parenting really makes you take a long, hard look at yourself and how you show up in the world. I parent from my heart.

I regularly send pictures and updates to the generous and selfless man who trusted me on a hand shake.

7. I am basically living a lie. I told my entire family I was able to transfer out of community college and into a university, but I never finished up the requirements. So since I live at home, every day instead of going to school I go to the local library and bs. My lies are so extensive, I even go to the campus and meet my girlfriend for lunch sometimes. I’ve made fake transcripts to show my family, and to make it look like I’m actually studying I go to MIT opencourseware to look up facts that I “learned in class” that day. I have become a remarkable liar. I hope to be transferring in the fall and then I look forward to living a normal life. Coming clean is not an option at this point.

8. Ok, so this is a secret I’ve kept for nearly 20 years.

During the summers when I was growing up, my parents would often leave my brother and I(I’m male) with our aunt and uncle who lived out in the country. It was great as they had 4 sons of ages close to ours so we had a lot of fun doing kids stuff.

One summer when I was 8, the oldest cousin was maybe 16. We somehow got talking and he asked me if I wanted to sleep in his room that night. He has the nicest room and bed so I was all for it. Got into bed and he asked if he could touch my penis. I was 8 and just thought it was ok so I let him. He rubs it for a bit and then asks me to do the same to him. So I do. This progresses and eventually I’m sucking his cock. I think I knew this was wrong so I said I didn’t want to carry on. We stop and I goto sleep quite confused.

I wake up and he hands me some money and tells me never to tell anyone about what happened. Next night he tries to do the same thing.. But now all I care about is the money. So I do it. This carried on for 2 summers.

Eventually I got old enough to realize it was quite wrong regardless of the money and stopped.

I’ve not told anyone this. He’s now married with 2 kids. I’m also married and we see them sometimes at family events. I don’t have the balls to even try and talk to him about it.. Hell I’m not even sure what I’d say.

9. I came very, very close to committing a school shooting

I was picked on A LOT in high school. I think it was because I tried so hard to be cool and everyone saw right through it. There were these 4 cowboy jock types that gave it to me the worst. After being publicly humiliated and beaten in front of a girl I liked (as she laughed/cheered), I decided that none of it was worth it anymore. I had no support at home being an only child and having parents that worked constantly, and cutting and burning myself didn’t make me feel better anymore. So I got my dad’s handgun out of the gun-safe (he uses the same combo for everything, the idiot) and brought it to school with me the next day.

I can’t adequately describe to you guys how ready I was to kill these four. I had absolutely no fear or doubt in my mind. I wanted nothing more than to show everyone what happens when you push someone over the edge like they did. I had the gun tucked in my waistline. I was wearing this baggy pair of cargo shorts that i wore a couple times a week that day. I remember walking towards the cowboy’s table, so goddamn ready for it to be over, when the gun fell out of my waistline, down my left short leg and made the loudest fucking sound as it hit the cafeteria floor. I tried my best to grab the gun real quick, but people saw what it was and screamed, and one of the instructors tackled me to the ground.

They eventually concluded that I had brought the gun to school to impress people with badassery, and had no intention of using it. I was expelled and sent to live at a youth ranch in Idaho until I was 18. I did have the intention of using it though. I was going to kill all of them. I’m 24 now, and I still think about it all the time. I have not recovered from high school. I’m still terrified of people in general, and avoid having relationships because of what I fear I’m capable of.

10. A while back, I was cheating on my wife with a coworker. It went on for months, and I never really cared for the woman I was cheating with. She was super hot, though. After a while my coworker started getting really crazy and threatening to tell my wife (whom I had a child with and a baby on the way) about everything. Obviously, I kept trying to cut things off because I realized I was making a mistake. She lost it one night and was freaking out and texting me telling me she was going to come to my house, and a drunk driver hit her. She died instantly. No one knows I was having an affair, and my family went to her funeral.

1. I’ve been in a strictly sexual relationship with a first cousin for the last five years. We only ever saw each other once or twice a year growing up before she moved to the other side of the country and then never really saw or interacted with each other again until 5 years ago when she moved back. What started as us meeting up one in awhile has become a regular thing in the last few months. It’s escalated to the point where we’re now sexting each other.I’m scared to death of what might happen if anyone in our family finds out but I don’t want to stop what’s happening either.

Here’s the story: It all started out very slow before it escalated into full on sex.

I was informed by another cousin of ours and asked to help her move since I was free at the time. We started hanging out throughout that summer and then one afternoon we had brunch and then went back to chill at her apartment. It was a super hot day so we thought let’s just go indoors and relax and watch some TV or a movie.

I can’t remember what we were watching but we were chatting the whole time too, just talking about our relatives and what we were looking to do with our lives and careers. After awhile she kind of just leaned on me and got comfortable and I threw my arm around her (almost instinctively) and were just hanging out like that for a bit.

Eventually she gave me a lingering look that was kind of asking “what’s happening here?” and we both went in for a kiss. We were both shocked that it happened but we got over it fast and started making out and running our hands all over each other until my hand was up her skirt touching her thru her panties and then I realized what we were doing and stopped it from going any further.

We both came to our senses and stopped before anything went any further. We decided to forget it happened and move past it but every time we met up after that we’d make out and push our boundaries until we eventually ended up having sex. Afterwards, we were meeting up regularly until we both got really busy with work and only met up on occasion. We completely stopped when each of us had a significant other but would start hooking up again every so often when we are single. As mentioned before, now it’s become a regular occurrence where we hook up multiple times a week and we’ve been sexting with each other now.

12. On the outside, I am a happily married 30-something, about to buy a house, in sync with my wife on most things like religion, kids, that things will get better for us, etc.

In reality, I am a deeply depressed, secret alcoholic (which I fear is already adversely affecting my health, but I can’t stop), don’t believe in any higher power anymore and derive little or no pleasure or satisfaction from anything.

Most of this started with a sudden and untimely death of my mom, and some other family drama that happened around the same time while I was in university. I powered my way through there because I was encouraged to by those around me, even though I wanted so badly to drop out. This is also about the time I started abusing alcohol, I barely drank at all before.

My family is rather scattered now, living in different states. My wife and I are close, but I have been unwilling (unable?) to find or make new, meaningful friends as an adult in the city I moved to for a job.

I am so stressed: I feel pins and needles in my brain/head and tongue constantly, and drink heavily (5-10 drinks/units per day most of the time, sometimes more, I can hold off if I am traveling or around family (or in a situation where I can’t drink at all). I don’t even get really that drunk visibly anymore, which is why (I think) I hide it well from my wife. There is usually an empty vodka bottle hidden in my briefcase by the time she gets back from work, and I have usually poured my “first glass of wine” by then to mask that I have already been drinking (I get home from work earlier than she).

She thinks I am as happy and fulfilled as she and excited and ready to have kids and start a family, etc. etc. In truth I am just numb to this world. I try to love her, I think I do, and expend all of my energy keeping up the facade and affection for her. But apart from that I have zero energy or desire for anything. I used to be athletic, and still look decent, but my physical shape is fading fast. I don’t have or enjoy any hobbies. I just wake up, go to work, drink when I can, and mark off the days as I get older and closer to eventually dying.

I don’t know what to do. Tried therapy back in the day, and meds, didn’t seem to help. I just am trying to make life ok for the people around me who I don’t want to see be like me inside, mostly my wife. But beyond that I feel like I have totally missed the boat and am past satisfaction or having any meaningful place in the world.

13. My whole professional life is built on a lie and it’s about ready to come down.

When I was 22 I was in a bad way — halfway through my bachelor’s degree, but with a building addiction to opiates and some mental health issues.

Summer of that year I was in a bad car accident — in addition to broken bones throughout my body, my head went through the window and my face received severe lacerations that required hundreds of stitches to close and left me looking very rough. As tough as that was to deal with, I also now know that I sustained a traumatic brain injury that left me very confused, angry, and overwhelmed by life in general.

I wanted to keep up appearances, so after taking three months off to recover I tried to go back to school. Within the first week I knew I couldn’t handle it. Too many questions about what happened, too much anxiety, and I had lost pretty much all my coping skills. When I got overwhelmed (which happened often), I would feel sick and scared and literally forget where I was and what I was doing. It was frightening and embarrassing, especially for someone like me who had always had high expectations placed on my shoulders by those around me.

I had lost pretty much all my friends at this point, and in my mental state, I thought that those who remained would abandon me if they knew how much I was struggling.

So, I told everyone that it was going great. Every day I would I leave the house for six hours and drive. Sometimes I would stop in a parking lot, sometimes I would just keep driving all day. I would find cheap used textbooks at college bookstores so that I could bring them home and “study.” I created elaborate lies about my classes and my professors in order to have stories to tell when people asked how it was going.

I kept telling myself that I was just doing this until my brain worked again, and that next quarter I would go back for real when I could actually handle it. Problem is, things just kept getting worse, and as time went on I became less able to get back on track.

This went on for 2.5 years, until I was supposed to be graduating. So, I lied about that too. I forged transcripts and came up with stories of why I didn’t want to work in the field of my degree and hoped to move past it. I got a labor job and slowly found things working themselves out as my brain chemistry improved and steady work kept me from completely destroying myself.

Eventually I had to move. For the first time in over a decade, I was finally free of my opiate addiction and starting to feel part of the world again, but I was still carrying the lie of my college degree. I volunteered in some places related to that field and they really liked me.

They liked me so much, in fact that they hired me on an emergency basis (no transcripts required) and I’ve worked there ever since. Now, three years into my sobriety and seemingly a lifetime removed from the pain of those years, they want to promote me to a career-level job that I would absolutely love.

I’m so good at what I do and it brings me so much joy, but this promotion would come with scrutiny and background checks that I know I can’t stand up to.

When I was so depressed, I honestly didn’t think I’d even live this long, so while I knew that my lies could create this situation, I never prepared for it. Worse than losing this job would be having everyone around me find out what happened, so I am at a point now where I have to quit what I love because they like me too much.

I plan to go back to school for real and I think I’ll do well, but the shame and regret of this situation is something I don’t think I’ll ever shake.

Pronounced Dead for 20 Minutes – What He Saw and How it Changed His Life Forever

Scott Drummond shares his amazing experience of what he felt and saw when he was pronounced dead for 20 minutes. It is a very personal and tender moment in his life, a moment that drastically changed the rest of his life forever.

A Car For The Jet Age: Cool Pics Of The 1956 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket

The 1950s was a rememberred decade in many things. From the boom of culture and fashion to the unique inventions of cars, especially the 1956 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket.

The Oldsmobile Golden Rocket was a two-seater show car built by Oldsmobile for the 1956 General Motors Motorama. The radically styled fiberglass concept, designed to resemble a rocket on wheels, was revised several times and displayed at various other auto shows, most notably at the 1957 Paris Motor Show where it generated much fanfare, 18 months after it was first revealed.

The car was also featured in the promotional short film Design for Dreaming along with the rest of the 1956 General Motors lineup.

Here below is a cool photo collection of the 1956 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket.

Confessions Of An American Indian

November 22, 2021

What tribe are you from?

I grew up and lived on the Oneida Nation rez in Wisconsin. I am part of the Turtle Clan (or Wolf, if you want to be pedantic)

Why do some people call your clan the Turtle Clan if it’s really the Wolf Clan?

Oneida is a Matriarchy and my ancestry is through my father which would put me in wolf clan. My Grandma is Turtle though, so i choose to go off of that.

Is your Oneida Nation related to the Oneida Nation in NY?

Same ones. We were moved forcefully from there

How many people are in your tribe?

There’s only about 15,000 people left in my tribe

Can you speak the Oneida language?

I know a handful of words. I know MAYBE 3 people that can hold a really shitty conversation. It’s pretty much forgotten

What kind of lodging/homes are on a reservation? Regular houses? Does the traditional teepee survive? Are teepees a Hollywood thing?

My great grandparents were part of the last generation to be taken from New York (Oneida Lake) They lived in longhouses/tepees. My grandma (who is still alive) was part of the first generation to be born on the rez. People live in regular homes though. There’s cool housing programs though the tribe that they expand every year.

What is the most common misconception that people have about you and/or your culture?

That (my tribe specifically) wear headdresses. Also rain dances are not a thing, they were never a thing and will never be a thing

How much of the old bush crafting/ living in the outdoor skills are still taught?

Not really. It’s more of people teaching beadwork/dancing/language.

What exactly is the significance of beadwork?

It is just as important as dancing as it connects us to our ancestors. There’s a lot of rules for when you bead though. You can’t bead when you’re tired, when it’s stormy, when its dark out, and a whole host of other things.

How much of native tradition is carried on in the reservation? Does anyone still believe in the spiritual ways of native Americans in the past?

To be honest, it is pretty much all lost or dead. We still observe certain traditions such as powwows. (I actually had a powwow just for me) The elders are dying faster than we can interview them and there isn’t much we can do. Just recently two of our oldest elders were stabbed and murdered in their own home and left to rot for almost a month. I would like to think the good outweighs the bad though

Any idea why the elders were murdered?

I actually knew the guy personally. He had a really rough life. (physical abuse by all his family) He was probably looking to rob them and things went south. I feel no remorse for this guy. Everything coming to his is what he deserves. He took two lives.

Rest in Peace Harry and Lorraine Brown Bear.

What is the biggest issue facing your tribes and/or natives in general?

Generational poverty. It’s sad how a lot of my people live.

How often does your reservation rely on tourism, if you had to take a guess?

We get 99.99 percent of our money from our . If you count that as tourism then quite a bit.

How big are your monthly membership checks from the ?

We have one large and members get 1000 dollars a year from it. Far from a monthly check. Elders get more money though and have other benefits such as free wood and housing

What’s the biggest obstacle to living on a reservation besides being low income/poor?

There is nothing here. It’s kinda sad actually

How bad is the drug/alcohol abuse on the reservation?

There is so much alcohol abuse it’s disgusting. There’s more heroin then meth from what I’ve seen. A lot of my family drinks and it will bring them to an early grave

What kind of changes do you think needs to take place for the betterment of people living on reservations?

The biggest change that i would like to see with Indians is to get off of welfare and actually have the US have good programs for a change. It’s so hard when people are this poor and cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. Leaving the rez is not looked down on the traditional sense. There’s more of a jealousy going on. Very few people can just leave.

What do you believe the government should do to improve the lives of people on your reservation?

They could keep honoring the treaties. I don’t think the government will ever help out besides that. It’s nice to dream though

Do you think reservations are good/useful? As an outsider, I’ve always thought they were pointless because there is more bad than good e.g. alcohol and drugs, poor education, poor job opportunities, poor healthcare, poor justice, etc.

If that happened the culture would die almost instantly. Reservations are the last thing that we have they may be broken but broken things can be mended. I would cry if the USA took my home away

Do you still harbor any deep rooted anger/frustration at the atrocities commited by the US Govt?

At this point the older i get the more i realize that nobody will ever give a shit about us. We will cease to exist and only become a footnote in a history book. I personally have moved on from the past, it’s just that nobody cares about their neighbors anymore

Have you found much prejudges or animosity between different native tribes? Or has the history of oppression unified the native peoples somewhat?

I’ll be blunt with this one. There are respectable tribes and there are not respectable ones. Theres a lot of shit some tribes do that make me angry

How do people in reservations view “Outsiders”?

The rez is open to the public as it stands right now. The tribe does not own 51% of the land and therefore cannot fully govern the territory. I don’t have any disdain for white people living here and i don’t really know anyone who does.

Do you feel like an American? I’m not suggesting that you should, but I just find the social status of American Indians odd in that way. You didn’t choose to have this government or culture put upon you, but do you accept it and feel a part of it?

If I lived on the rez forever I would never feel like a American Citizen.

Does it bother you at all to be called “Indian”?

Frankly, I have been an Indian longer than iv’e been a Native American and most people here like it that way.

What is your opinion of the team name of the Washnington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians?

Who gives a flying fuck! Let them have their team! Nobody really cares on my end haha

Do you guys actually care about Native Indian costume on Halloween?

I find them Hilarious

How do you and others you know feel about Thanksgiving?

I fucking love thanksgiving. Huge meal with all my family? Sign me up! I really don’t care about the implication at this point. White people are offended enough for me

How do you feel when you see hipster chicks get dream catchers tattooed?

Dreamcatchers are for children to ward nightmares away. They are kinda like a nightlight. The kids think they work but its all made up

Where do you live now and what are you doing for a living?

Right now I live in Appleton Wi. I’m currently on the path to becoming a Firefighter! I go back the the rez every weekend pretty much to visit my family.

How would you compare life on the reserve to the life you currently have in the city?

I can walk down the street without feeling like i’m going to get robbed. Also there is so much more things to do here. The rez is poor and boring to be honest. In Oneida you have to drive a good 40 minutes to get to any place of culture that is not a bar.

Do you have any idols?

My Father is my idol. He has worked hard all his life (and continues to do so) to give his children a future. He’s tough as nails and a big reason I’m going into a Firefighting career. He continues to volunteer at the Oneida Fire Department and hes a huge influence on my life.

What do you think is the perfect way to live life?

Free of stress and surrounded by loved ones

They CAN’T hide this anymore, it’s all starting to unravel

When it starts happening to family and friends people know, it’s going to raise eyebrows. The whole “help, I’m having a coincidence!”thing only can last for so long…

11 People Who Gave Up On Their Dreams Reveal Whether Or Not They Regret Their Decision

October 5, 2022

1. Honestly turned out great. I realised my band wasn’t going to get a record deal after a few years and then after playing for other peoples bands for a while it starred to become less fun.

I got a ‘proper’ job, started working on my career and used my new spare time to start playing rugby again. Now I’ve got a really good job in a sector I enjoy working in, married, kids, nice house all that stuff and I still play rugby on Saturdays (pre pandemic) to keep things a little different as well as keeping in shape.

I don’t really see it as giving up on my dream. It was just recognising that it wasn’t going to happen. I’m very fond of that period of my life and having spent quite a few years chasing that particular dream I don’t have any regrets or what-if’s about being in a band.

2. Chased my dream, took decades, and did better than I thought I could. Stayed focused throughout. Thing is, I should have re-evaluated long ago. Turns out I was chasing the wrong dream. I regret not recognizing that the dream can and should change. If you blindly chase one dream, the finish line isn’t necessarily fulfilling.

3. No. I was on the path to becoming a professor, and I don’t regret leaving academia AT ALL. The pay is terrible, the requirements to achieve your dream can crush the soul out of you if you’re not careful, and the chances of achieving actual job security grow dimmer by the day. There are some things I miss about it, but I really can’t regret choosing a good paying, if somewhat more boring, office job that gives me security and disposable income to pursue my own hobbies and travel (before the pandemic, of course).

4. Part of me regretted it, part of me knew I had to.

I always wanted to be a doctor. No pushy parents or anything like that. I just wanted to fix problems and medical things seemed like the most interesting problems, things change, get worse/better, add new problems.. My little brother was born and developed seizures and development issues. I decided Pediatrics was for me! The same problems/puzzles but with the added intrigue of the patient being unable to tell me what was wrong.. Sounds a bit sick, but that’s what my brain wanted.

I didn’t get the grades at school, unfortunately my step dad died and it messed me up a bit being needed at home with my siblings and I shifted my focus. I did go to university, did an access course and a biology degree with the aim of then going on to medicine afterwards. Sadly, I got two rejections for med school (on my birthday no less) and I pissed away the rest of my final year, because…what was the point anymore??

I then met a boy (now husband), and needed to get a job. Any job. Please just give me a job. Countless applications were ignored or rejected. I felt worse than useless. I finally landed a job at a call centre. Hated every minute of it. But bills got paid, a wedding and honeymoon have been paid for, and we bought our house..

But. In 2019 I knew I was turning thirty soon and knew this wasn’t what I wanted, even if it was what I needed.

I enrolled at a local college on an access course and last year I passed with distinction. I applied to a few university courses, and I had two successful interviews. I quit my sucky job on new year’s after nearly 6 years of hating it. And in two weeks I start my course to become a nurse.

Plans change, needs must. But I’m hoping its worked out…

5. 18 months ago I left my mediocre career as a stuntman for more secure work as a DoD contractor. I’m now living life in Japan with a loaded bank account and my wife can focus on her writing. Although I miss performing stunts I now enjoy my day to day life without worrying about finances or health insurance.

I regret nothing. I can say I doubled Gerard Butler and Micheal Madsen but it was time to move on to provide for my new family.

6. As someone who quit academia shortly after my PhD and gave up all my research hopes and dreams, I couldn’t be happier with my decision. I work a relatively “boring” job in marketing now (I worked with wolves during my PhD so pretty much everything is going to be “boring” in comparison). I have no emotional attachment to my job or colleagues which is a refreshing change and affords me a lot of mental space and freedom. I can finally tune out and stop working, something I could never do during my PhD.

The pay is mediocre, but when you’re used to being in academia, the job security itself is a huge boon. Besides, as an international PhD student who had spent almost all his life savings to move and set up abroad, I learned to maintain a 50%+ savings rate very quickly. If you learn how to have a good savings rate (even if it isn’t that high) and can maintain it after quitting academia, that shit adds up fast.

I desperately miss working with those fluffy, lovable, morons, but I can now daydream about buying a car and building a house without mentally kicking myself for it.

7. I went to school for and worked as a video game developer. I saw the crunch times, the frequent layoffs, and general instability of the industry and decided it wasn’t for me after all.

Been doing work in various industries trying to find something I want to do for a living. Came to the conclusion that I will never like working. So I am settled in at an aerospace manufacturing plant that has been in operation since WWII and I can and probably will spend the rest of my working days here.

I’ve decided that it’s better for me to get my life’s fulfillment from my hobbies and relationships instead of my work.

8. Turned out great, just not right at the moment as I am still job hunting after having to quit my previous job. Still no regrets though.

I went to college to become a 3D animator. Something I always dreamed about. I was top of the class, constantly won awards for my work. I honestly thought I was going to make it big. Then the final semester started and all the seniors were required to go to a special hiring event where tons of big names would be. I got my portfolio and resume copies ready to go, and spent hours researching the big names and their projects as well as rehearsing lots of practice questions.

It was devastating. No one would look twice at my stuff. Introduced myself, made some awkward small talk as they were so disinterested, then as I walked away they would immediately put it in the stack with hundreds of other portfolios, and not in the special pile.

I switched up my game. I started introducing myself with a quick mention that I had a background in programming (I did). Thinking that maybe that would give me an edge. Oh boy did it work. Suddenly I was getting personal business cards, phone numbers and emails, my resume was put on the special pile.

It was at that moment I realized I went into the wrong field. I was just a tiny insignificant drop in a sea of artists, many of whom were much more talented than I could ever be.

Finished up my degree and went back to college for a BS in Computer Science. Got my first job right out of college from an internship I did over the summer. The job itself was heaven, and I really enjoyed it. It also helped that I made bank when I was there. Paid off all my school loans within 3 years and had plenty to invest and put into savings.

While it sucks not having anything right now, I’m hoping to find something soon.

Side note: The 3D stuff I still do as a hobby. Not nearly as good as I once was, but it is still fun and relaxing.

9. At age 15 I started playing guitar in a band. The dream was to become a Rock Star. At age 22, I was playing Gazzari’s on the Sunset Strip. A set of original tunes in club where so many famous people started. It was the heyday of the metal scene and that was happening in Los Angeles. By 1984 I realized that it was not just a question of being a great band. Or writing great songs. I had seen a lot of great bands in Los Angeles that had great songs, go absolutely nowhere. Then really crappy bands, I won’t mention names to avoid hurting anyone, that did have commercial success. So why was this?

It turns out being a great band that writes great songs, is just not enough. You also have to be incredibly lucky. More people win the lottery than become famous rock stars. It was time to get real. I was 22 and I wanted things. So I gave up my dreams and became an electrical apprentice.

By the time I was 24, I was running jobs. At 27 I was accepted in the IBEW as a journeyman electrician, after passing the Journeyman Block Test, accepted in a lot of states. At age 31 I became a Master Electrician and General Foreman in the IBEW. I then became the Superintendent of a large Union shop . And finally at age 33 I started my own Electrical Contracting business. At age 41 I became 100% disabled and was forced to retire. That was almost 20 years ago. I still have my Bray Amp and my Les Paul in my bedroom, always plugged in, so I can pick it up anytime I want. So, I’d say everything turned out ok for me.

10. I made a solid run at becoming a writer. It was always my dream as I’ve been an avid reader my whole life and have always had an active imagination. I studied English in university, read everything I could and spent my 20s living and travelling overseas. I joined writers groups, did an apprenticeship with an established author and worked my ass off for years, both abroad and when I returned home. I even got a few short stories published. And I was miserable.

Writing fiction has to be the worst paying job in the world when you factor in the time you put in (Stephen King references this at the start of On Writing). Writers like King are extreme outliers, and even he had to work a 9-5 while writing Carrie. It is extremely hard to grind out a job all day, then come home and try to write all evening. Or get up at 5am everyday and write before work. Not only is it difficult to conjure up the juice you need to write when you’re working around a “regular” life schedule, but everything else in your life slips. You don’t have time to workout. You miss out on spending time with friends and family. You’re sitting in you desk or chair every night while your partner is watching TV alone. And if you have kids… good luck.

I became overweight, depressed, and miserable. I developed back issues from spending 12+ hours a day in a chair. I wasn’t getting anywhere in life, and while it was nice to get published the odd time, I didn’t find the joy in my own writing the way I do in others. So I let it go.

Now, I have a great job, nice house, and lots of time to spend with my wife and pursue my hobbies. I fixed my back issues and got in great shape (until COVID) And I have grown so much as a person since then. So no regrets.

I do think about it from time to time though. I still read a lot, and I’m sure that itch will come back sometime. It’s not like being an athlete… nothing to say I can’t pick it back up any other time

11. I was a child actor. I was relatively successful – I was on a popular soap and even had my fifteen minutes of fame – I had TV shows and films and commercials on the go. Of course this meant I was bullied at school – if I answered their incessant questions about what it was like on set, they said I was stuck up for talking about myself. If I didn’t answer their questions, they said I was stuck up for not engaging with them. I was talked down to, ignored, laughed at – the usual high school stuff. But for most people, that stuff ends in high school. For famous people, it never ends (as we see on the internet daily).

Then I met someone on set who told me what it was really like – that if you’re not made for it, the fame part can completely destroy you as a person – if you are private or shy or anxious, as I am, it can tear you apart inside, and it’s constant, and for the really famous people, it never, ever goes away. She helped me recognise that what I loved was the process, the on-set family, the job itself. The recognition, the total lack of privacy, and the inevitable bullying just wasn’t what I wanted my life to be. She showed me that at this early stage of my career, I could make my choice, I didn’t have to just stumble into a lifestyle I wouldn’t easily be able to get out of. She showed me the truth – that for most people, by the time they know they hate the lifestyle, it’s already too late.

When I was 18, I quit my agency, and never looked back. Now, 19 years later, in my office job in finance, I make a fraction of what I could have made, and I don’t enjoy my work nearly as much as I enjoyed tv and film sets. But I’m anonymous, and I am happy. The girl I met, these days she can’t even go to a grocery store or a petrol station without being mobbed (we’re not still in touch, but I follow her career). Me, I can go anywhere and do anything without anyone giving me a second glance. That makes me happy. I hope she is happy too.

US spy plane makes dangerous maneuvers against monitoring PLA airplane during close-in recon on China

By Liu Xuanzun

It was a US RC-135 spy plane that engaged in dangerous maneuvers against a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy J-11 fighter jet which was monitoring the US aircraft during the latter’s close-in reconnaissance over the South China Sea, and the US intentionally misled the public, the PLA Southern Theater Command said on Saturday, releasing a video documenting the incident.

The US statement disregarded the truth and is pure slander and hype, said Senior Colonel Tian Junli, a spokesperson of the PLA Southern Theater Command, in a statement on Saturday.

Tian’s statement is a response to a recent US military statement claiming a PLA Navy J-11 fighter jet came within six meters of a US Air Force RC-135 aircraft over the South China Sea on December 21, forcing the US aircraft to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision in international airspace, Reuters reported on Friday.

A US RC-135 aircraft conducted intentional close-in reconnaissance on China’s southern coastline and the Xisha Islands of Hainan, South China’s Hainan Province on December 21. The PLA Southern Theater Command organized aerial forces to conduct tracking and monitoring through its entire course, Tian said.

Despite multiple warnings from the Chinese side, the US aircraft suddenly altered its flight stance, pushed the Chinese aircraft toward left in a dangerous approach movement, which seriously compromised the flight safety of the Chinese military aircraft, severely violated the Rules of Behavior for Safety of Air and Maritime Encounters between China and the US as well as related international law and practices, the spokesperson said.

A video documenting the incident from the perspective of the Chinese J-11 fighter jet was attached to Tian’s statement, which showed the US RC-135 intentionally altered its flight stance in a dangerous approach toward the Chinese aircraft at 11:25 am on December 21.

From the video released by the Chinese side, it is obvious that the US aircraft actively maneuvered left toward the Chinese aircraft, verifying that it was the US side that engaged in dangerous moves, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Saturday.

On the other hand, the video release by the US only showed the Chinese aircraft flying alongside the US aircraft without making any dangerous maneuvers, the expert said.

The Chinese pilot took professional and standard action according to laws and regulations, fully reflecting the Chinese military’s responsible attitude toward regional safety and the safety of frontline personnel, Tian said.

“The US side intentionally misled the public, called black white, blamed on China while itself is to be blamed and attempted to confuse international opinion,” he said.

“We sternly require the US to restrain the movements of its frontline maritime and aerial forces, strictly abide by related international laws and related agreements and prevent maritime and aerial accidents,” Tian said.

The Chinese military is on high alert at all times, as it will resolutely carry out its duties and missions, safeguarding national sovereignty and security, the spokesperson said.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson from the China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a regular press conference on Friday in response to the incident that, for a long time, the US has frequently deployed aircraft and vessels for close-in reconnaissance on China, which poses a serious danger to China’s national security.

The US’ provocative and dangerous moves are the root cause of maritime security issues, Wang said.

“China urges the US to stop such dangerous provocations, and stop deflecting blame on China. China will continue to take necessary measures to resolutely defend its sovereignty and security, and work with regional countries to firmly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Wang said.

Confessions of the Deputy Warden Of The World’s Most Humane Prison

November 19, 2021

How did a program like this come about, was it at first controversial or was it always accepted as a good idea?

Building the facility was a decision made by the parliament in Norway. The way is was built, was to reflect some of the central principles of the Norwegian correctional services; Humanity and Normality. Some said the first months that is was to “luxurious” – but that critique silenced after a while.

How many prisoners are in your prison?

Approx. 260. A big prison by Norwegian standard, very small by US standards…. We could argue for hours what is the “best” size, however my experience is that very large prisons is more about “logistics” than rehabilitation.

What sort of crimes have the majority of inmates committed? Are there particular crimes that make the inmates less likely to be rehabilitated?

Drug-related crimes are on top. In “second place”, murders. Third; rapists/sexual offenses. Rehabilitating pedophiles is difficult.

Do you see many repeat offenders?

Absolutely, we have them in Norway (and Halden) also. However, re-offending is less likely in Norway and the other Nordic countries, due to our focus on rehabilitation. If I simplify, you might say that re-offending is often connected to those having a drug addiction that we don’t succeed in helping enough.

What are the psycho-social backgrounds of your prisoners? Is there a common theme?

90% have some kind of mental issue, 60% are substance abusers, a substantial number have had problems (violence, sexual abuse, et.c) i their upbringing, many are without jobs, very low education, et.c The majority of the inmates have issues in many aspects of their life.

What is an inmate’s day-to-day life like at Halden?

In short; All inmates shall be in some kind of activity – every day. The normal routine is getting up in the morning, prepare their own breakfest and lunch, thereafter going to work or school. After work/school, they return to their living unit to have dinner. In the afternoon, there are visits, time in the yard, going to the library/gymnasium/etc. They are locked in their cells from around 20:30 to 07:15 Next morning.

What is the reason behind the 20:30 lock down?

Its a cost issue really regarding staffing.

How would you deal with the type of “Fight or die” culture that pulls non-violent offenders into prison gangs for self defense? That issue is pretty much universal in the US prison systems. I’ve always held that putting a burglar in the general population of a prison with violent lifers just forces the non-violent criminal to evolve into a more dangerous criminal.

We do the same in Norway also, mixing all kinds of offenders together. So why do we not have the same problem, or at least not to the same extent, that the US do? I think the answer is because in our prisons, our officers are together with the inmates at all times – we control the prison environment, not the “high-status” inmates. This is part of what we call “dynamic security”, the dialogue and contact between the officers and the inmates.

Do you ever feel intimidated or in danger from your inmates?

Very seldom. Treating people with respect and have a willingness to communicate, reduces tension.

If an inmate gets violent, how are you supposed to handle it?

First of all, most situations that are evolving, is possible to solve by communication. Since our officers are together with the inmates, they feel any tention early and are able to talk the situation down. In the few cases this is not possible, all officers are trained in the use of “physical power”, both on an individual level, as well as a team.

Is there ever a need for solitary confinement? If so, how often is it used and for how long?

Norway doesn’t use solitary confinement as in the US. We have “Security cells” where inmates who present a clear danger to themselves, other inmates, or staff – are put. But they stay there just until the situation is calmed downed, normally within 24 hours – where they move back into general population. You don’t stay in the Security cell as a punishment, as you do in the US.

What are some effective strategies for changing prisoner behaviors for the long term?

Start building trust – by treating them humanely and with respect. Then you have the basis for talking about change, future, etc.

What methods do you see inmates use to help rehabilitate themselves?

This varies among the inmates, you might say that we try to “tailor-made” the effort for all inmates. Screening and interviews form the basis for how we plan the intervention, together with the inmate. In addition to what you mention, I could add; Substance abuse treatment, housing issues, debt counselling, social network, et.c

How do Norwegian sentencing standards compare to US standards? Wouldn’t alternative sentencing for non-violent criminals help ease the burden on the system to allow for that level of supervision?

Alternative forms of “imprisonment” have shown very good results in Norway. I am especially thinking about “Electronic bracelet sentence”, where you live in your own home, being able to keep your work and social relations. The results are low re-offending and low operational cost for the correctional service, very cost-effective over-all.

What criticism do you face nationally and internationally about providing this kind of facilities and treatment to convicts/criminals?

Not much criticism anymore, actually – only some in the beginning. The values, methods, et.c – are the same nationwide, so the reactions initially in Norway was that the facilities was “to nice”. Same from some European countries, UK in particular. Later, the interest har been more curious and open-minded – from most countries really, I guess it is because they feel we are doing something right.

Do you think that Norwegians (and other Scandinavians) are more law abiding in the first place?

I don’t know really. And I am not sure if being law abiding is the right question to begin with. I think the level of crime is partly connected to our up-bringing; Do we have good schools, do we have a good child welfare service, do our children live in caring and functional families, etc. The background to inmates are so “filled with issues” from their younger years.

How do Norwegian citizens feel about having convicted criminals in the workplace? In the US most companies do a background check on prospective employees and felony convictions are a barrier to employment in many cases.

A criminal record might stop you from having certain jobs permanently, or for a period of time, also in Norway. But only these jobs/employers can request that insight into police records, not all employers. So even if there is some stigma of being an “ex-con”, there are job opportunities in Norway. Norway has a low uneployment rate in general, so if you have the right education/et.c – getting a job is absolutely possible.

If your wife was raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?

No.

Would you favor sending the perpetrator to a prison similar to the one you run, or to a prison similar to those in the US?

Similar to the one I run.

It is of course easy to sit here behind my computer and have principles. On a personal level I would have been devistated by such a crime, and it is hard to predict what I would say then – as a private person. But one the same time, a government system’s actions and operations can’t be based on emotions – but on facts, knowledge, et.c – hence my answers initially.

If you had to make a single critique of the United States Criminal Justice System as a whole, which would make the most good?

To much focus on punishment&revenge, to little focus on rehabilitation.

Do you believe that the Norwegian model of prison systems can be replicated in other parts of the world?

Yes, definitely. I often hear that “this will not work in my country”. Have in mind then that Halden prison inmate population consists of approx. 40-45% non-Norwegian inmates – coming from 30-35 different countries. Do we have more “issues” with those coming from other countries? No, we do not. This tells me there is something “universal” about treating people with respect and humanity.

Whats your favorite part of the job?

I think it is the daily feeling of “doing good” for society.

Boston Cream Pie

“An ancient Good Housekeeping recipe that I religiously make every New Years day. If you’ve never made a scratch cake, you don’t know what you’re missing. Using cake flour is a must. See Lennie’s recipe #87689. Be sure to properly measure your flour by lightly spooning into a measure cup until overflowing then using the backside of a knife to level off. Too little flour will produce a callapsed cake and too much will have wet spots with dense layers. Cake layers freezeable. Prep time also includes assembly time.”

Ingredients

CAKE LAYERS
2 large eggs
2 cups unsifted cake flour
1 cup sugar, separated
2 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
¹⁄₃ cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
CREAM FILLING
1 ¹⁄₂ cups milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¹⁄₄ cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
CHOCOLATE GLAZE
¹⁄₄ cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
¹⁄₂ cup semisweet chocolate or 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9″ round cake pans or make it easy on yourself and trace the bottom of the cake pans on a piece of waxed paper and cut to fit then place on bottom of pans. No need to grease; the cakes will fall right out.
For the cake layers: Separate eggs; place whites in a small, clean bowl free of any grease or oil and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine cake flour, 3/4 cup of the sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a small bowl with an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Very gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar; beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Add egg yolks, oil and 1/2 cup milk to flour mixture. With electric mixer, beat until smooth, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Add remaining 1/2 cup milk and vanilla. Beat just until combined. Carefully fold beaten egg whites into batter. Divide batter into prepared pans.
Bake cakes 20 to 25 minutes or until centers spring back when gently pressed. Cool in pans on wire rack for 5 minutes. Loosen cake around edges with a sharp knife then turn cakes out onto racks and remove waxed paper, if used; cool completely. (Tip: I make the cake layers in advance, wrap and freeze. Defrost in wrapper for a couple of hours then proceed with the filling and glaze.).
While cake is baking, make cream filling: In a 1-quart saucepan, heat 1 cup milk to boiling. In cup or small bowl, combine remaining 1/2 cup milk, cornstarch, sugar, pinch salt, egg and vanilla until blended.
When milk comes to boiling, gradually stir in cornstarch mixture with wire whisk. Return to boiling, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer 1 minutes or until thickened to pudding consistancy. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Make chocolate glaze: In 1 quart saucepan, heat water and sugar to boiling. Add chocolate chips; stir until glaze is smooth; remove from heat. Cool 5 to 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.
To assemble, place one cake layer, upside down, on a serving plate. Spread with cream filling. Top with remaining cake layer, right side up. Spoon glaze over top; spread to edges of cake. Refrigerate.

The Defeatist Confessions From The Forever Alone Community

November 17, 2021

1. Sometimes I remember just how lonely I am, how deprived of physical or emotional intimacy I am, and it just leaves me with a cold, numb, empty feeling that radiates from my core to my extremities.

Sometimes I think back on a time, any time, that a girl smiled at me, or laughed at a joke, or any basic, every day, little social cue that she’s potentially a little interested, and I’m overcome with frustration bordering on rage because I couldn’t bring myself to do anything about it.

When that happens I might just sort of growl/moan to myself if I’m somewhere with other people around, but if I’m alone (especially in the car)I’ll scream at the top of my lungs, either a stream of profanities or just a wordless bellow.

When I see or hear any sort of reference to sexuality or romance I just want to bash my face in against the corner of a wall somewhere. Kissing scenes in movies, couples doing couple-y things in public (seeing teenage couples is hands down the worst,nothing like knowing you’ve got less game than a sixteen year old), even just seeing a picture of a hot woman can make me feel like shit sometimes.

I feel like at this point I can’t even show an interest in women, any women, like I’m incapable of it, or not allowed to. It’s like I’ve been in this fucked up situation so long that my brain has rationalized it, and I’ve concluded that I’m supposed to be alone, that I deserve it for whatever fucking reason.

Back in college sometimes when I rode the bus and it was crowded, I’d get a girl sitting next to me. Just feeling our thighs touching lightly, or our shoulders, and it would be the highlight of my day often. sometimes I’d even stay on past my stop just to keep that brief, fleeting moment of human touch going, however meaning less and unintentional it all was. The worst part about that was when I’d get a boner, and I’d feel like some kind of horrible, perverted creep, which would play back into that whole “I deserve to be alone like this) kind of mindset.

Basically, it seriously fucks with your head, and puts you in a mental state where it’s almost impossible to do anything to fix how lonely you are.

2. It’s a source of more or less constant misery in my life. No matter what I do, what I succeed at, what I achieve etc. that albatross is going to be around my neck forever – I’m unwanted, undesirable, not good enough for the rest of the human species.

I try my best to not let it affect my life, vent my frustrations strictly online and try to live every day of my life to the fullest, but I can’t say it doesn’t sap my motivation to do things. I have this lazy loser streak in me, so the desire to just let myself go and become a stupid boring slob gets strong at times.

I’m currently in therapy to learn to deal with those feelings more effectively. I’m allowing the possibility that doing so may finally lead me to experience sex and love, but I’m not holding my breath. I know I’m pretty much bottom of the barrel when it comes to attractiveness and, logically, can’t think of a reason for a woman to choose me – anything I can give, a better looking man can give too.

The worst part of being FA for me is the future. I’m still only creeping up on 30 and have managed to stay healthy so far, but I won’t be this way forever. I’m scared of dying slowly and painfully with no one to even help me. I’m scared also of becoming completely isolated when everyone I know is married and has a busy family life. I’m scared of eventually spiraling into a depression so strong and so bad that I will kill myself.

3. Soul destroying. Humans are social animals, so we need intimate contact and sufficient social interaction in order to be happy and functional. Being deprived of it is horrendous. It’s almost like physical pain. I mean, it isn’t but it feels close to it. It is crushing, excruciating, inescapable and utterly all consuming.

The most intimate thing I have ever experienced is platonic hugging with a female friend of mine (I’m male), and that is almost like a drug to me. The odd thing is that it isn’t a sexual thing – I’m not aroused or turned on that much when we do it. I mean, I am a bit as I am a heterosexual male, but what I mostly get out of it is just intimacy with another human – something I’m very deprived of. Just holding her, feeling her skin, her warmth, her hair, the sound of her breathing, even her smell. It’s just so nice to have intimate contact with someone who cares about me, even if its non sexual. Because that’s why I’m depressed. I’m not too bothered with never having been kissed; its being unwanted, worthless, unloved and utterly, truly alone that kills me inside every second of every day.

4. I’ll be 39 in a few months. I’m really struggling with finding reasons to keep trying or stay around. I wish I could adequately describe in proper detail just how bad the pain and hopelessness is and the events that lead to it, but it would be several pages. I’ll try to sum it up as short as possible

Live in the middle of nowhere with my mother, zero career opportunities, this is a very isolated, rural, and depressing place
Have not had a job in almost ten years now
Zero social life, zero friends either online or in real life
Still a virgin and zero dating opportunities for the reasons above, and my lack of culture-fit with this state, basically here if you aren’t native and didn’t find your life partner in high school, lots of luck finding anyone. If you’re an otaku, better hide your power level.

I think the worst part of all of it is, twelve years ago, I got out of this miserable place, moved 3000 miles to the west coast, and finally, for the first time in my entire life, had a small taste of what romantic and social success are actually like. I really wish I had never had that experience, because it showed me just exactly what it is I’ve been missing for my entire existence, and what I will never experience again.

I lost all of that from a very devastating, improbable series of events and bullying in my social and romantic life which culminated in me getting fired from my job and having to drop out of grad school to move back here due to no longer having an income and being severely depressed from the fallout.

When I was younger, people still cared about me, but now, I am considered by every part of society (familial, social, romantic, professional) as irrelevant, unredeemable and a lost cause who should do everyone a favor and stay out of sight. I find it heartbreaking how fast one’s value to society depreciates as they age, the only way to offset that is to keep a social network and most importantly, a significant other.

5. I’m 39 gonna be 40 in the coming year and all I had was a single month relationship throughout my life. At first I felt that I was a cripple trying to run without legs when it comes to attracting girls. I had plenty of female friends yet being friend zoned was a certainty. They all told me I was handsome but of course hearing that and yet not being handsome enough for them told me in my head that was just a pity story for them. I held no apathy towards them..I just accepted that it,s just nature’s way of selection of attraction and I was not meant for selection.

Years later it turned into a hatred…a growing seed of emptyness where I had a dim view on not just women but the whole game of dating and it gave me a perspective seeing from afar hanging with friends. Seeing how superficial pick ups were, how girls would go out with the “jerk” so to speak. How a single word or gesture in the first seconds of your life will determine if she likes you or not. In the end I felt being judged every second when I was being sincere. My openness towed caring for another was threatened by the very girls that I wanted to share with. Agian..I felt the laws of natural selection playing it’s game.

Later in the years it came to experience..or the lack of. I was already being generalized as some sort of creep or loser the second I told them i am a virgin in my late twenties. I guess one night it hit me…i didn’t want to be hateful for the rest of my life.

I was able to see my lack of skill of talking to girls was creeping into a depression or more accurately I felt I was going through a withdrawal of a addictive drug but without the benefits.

I guess I wanted to turn my single status and turned into a weapon against my hatred and unhealthy obsession for finding love that I have seen cripple others in the same situation as me.

I wanted revenge and live a positive life and free of the addiction that made me feel so lonely the last decades.

Looking back I felt I have gone through an emotional battle accepting the truth. I am not part of the natural selection process..love is blind ..so it will never find me.

I felt I let go a poisonous part of my life…i feel free..I do get a little stab in my heart ..a little bit of emotion crawls out and tries to lie to me that I still have a chance of findinging someone…then I remind myself of all the superficial bullshit people who never been in my situation..and here their rose colored fairy tales of how easy it is.

Those ignorant empty words give me strength ..no a challenge to stay single. Because there are more of me who are in the same situation..and we are growing.

Intimacy is the most foreign concept to me…except knowing that it has no logic to it as all emotions do. It can inspire and also destroy…love dwaldles on both good and evil taking no true accountability but only taking credit for the successes and leaves the room when someone fails at it. The risks are great..that is no mystery to me. We all take risks..for me I feel I’m taking a bigger risk…but I know the reward of self sustained emotional positive life is a absolution rather throwing for heart to a girl who is fickle with her emotions. (Men of course are are capable of this as well.).

When my years of absence of another become more then the years ahead a question grew inside me…but I guess it was always there….”Why is love such a big deal?”. Love is just an emotion..a perk so to speak but not a right..like driving….just because you deserve love does not mean love will come to you and even if you work hard at it it’s not a absolution. If it was Every single person on earth will be paired up and that is a fairy tale believed only by the true naïve.

Love is not for everyone..cause not everyone finds it. Because I did not find it should I suffer further looking for it? Should I listen to people who never been in my situation who have the audacity to force false hope upon me? Thats one way to stay single forever.

Miserable blind cat crying for help rescue cat before & after 7 months

Happy ending.

Posted by Jamie Wright :

Jan 5, 2023. China has neither the intent nor the capability to attack us – Former senior Australian diplomat John Menadue

“We are being led in our anti-China hysteria by the United States which is not concerned that China will attack us, or even the United States, but is concerned that its world hegemony is being challenged.”

That is why the US is persistently goading China into conflict and possible war. And we follow along.

As Jack Waterford put it from a US official, the US sees us as an ‘easy lay’.

What the United States really resents about China is that it is successful after almost two centuries of poverty and humiliation.

China has certainly changed but the problem is the US refuses to change and accept the fact that it’s no longer the sole hegemon.

And the recent US election will not change anything in that regard with both the major parties having a common view about the ‘China threat’ and heavily influenced if not controlled by the military/industrial complex supported by a compliant media.

We follow like a patsy.

The United States is by any measure the most aggressive and violent country in the world and will not accept a multi-polar world where countries large and small can live in peace together.

The US has a dogmatic and self- righteous view that it is ‘exceptional’, a ‘chosen people’ and should set global rules for everyone.

It parrots endlessly about ‘ a rules based international order’.

That is really code for US hegemony and domination.

And to top up its cynicism, the US then cherry picks the rules that it decides to support.

The only military risk that we face from China is if we continue as a proxy for the US in its endless wars.

The US is a dangerous ally, as Malcom Fraser put it. With the complicity of our Ministers, senior public officials and journalists our national sovereignty is being seriously eroded.

Our military is being fused with the US.

We employ retired US military people in our Department of Defence.

In Five Eyes our intelligence agencies take in the dirty washing of the CIA. None of our Prime Ministers stand up for Australia in relations with the US like Gough Whitlam did fifty years ago.

In the 19th and 20th Century we were drawn into United Kingdom’s Imperial wars.

We are now drawn into the United State’s imperial wars.

We allow others to control our thinking and behaviour.

Our ‘leaders’, think Richard Marles, have been on an American drip feed for so long they have an instinctive Washington mind set.

As China reasserts its historic world role there is no doubt that Chinese influence and footprint is growing in our region but there is no evidence whatsoever that we are under military threat from China.

Yet the assumed military threat from China guides almost everything the Albanese Government does and says on strategic and defence matters.

And our captured journalist join the anti China throng.

Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton must be delighted to find themselves mimicked by Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles.

China has neither the intent nor the capability to attack us.

But as a settler society we remain fearful of our region with echoes of the yellow peril and White Australia.

China does not have a history of military aggression beyond the defence of its own borders.

It has only one foreign base in Djibouti, mainly for anti-piracy purposes.

In contrast, the US has over 800 overseas bases including in Guam, Diego Garcia, ROK and Japan that ring China.

The US fleet, with our support, regularly patrols off the China coast.

The US would have hysterics if Chinese vessels patrolled off the Californian coast and the Florida Keys.

Or if China had B-52 type aircraft based in Mexico!

Not surprisingly, China is determined that it must have the military capability to defend its homeland.

However, it does not project its military power around the globe as does the US. China has not been engaged in military activity for the past forty years.

In that time, the US has overthrown numerous governments and illegally invaded many countries.

China has a large and diverse population in areas such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

It has land borders with fourteen other countries. Not surprisingly China focuses on domestic issues and the protection of its borders.

If China was an imperial power, it would have swallowed up Mongolia, a democratic, mineral rich state which is more than twice the size of Ukraine.

Japan is the only country that has threatened Australia.

China never has.

Japan occupied large parts of China in WWII and was responsible for the deaths of over 20 million Chinese people.

Clueless and careless of its aggressive history, Japan is again leading the anti-China frenzy in QUAD. This will not end well.

Calm down and do not too caught up in the nonsense that surrounds you

I woke up to this comment at the top of my comment stack.

Ah, what is fucking wrong with you people? I don’t need to read this, and I don’t want to promote this, but I am (at times) flooded with this exact kind of nonsensical gibberish.

Look people, I get enough of this “ugly” for a lifetime. I am sorry to put it on MM. Please accept my apologies, but I do want you all to see what is festering in the United States these days.

Today, well, this post is just going to be rather soft.

Please have a nice day, and make the most of what you have. Be kind to dogs and cats. Buy a cup of coffee for some co-workers. Try to add some good into the world, rather than vomiting out on everyone with evil, vile hatred puke.

Make the world a better place. In a kind and soft way, you can make a difference. You. Yes, you can.

Know that I believe in you guys.