News and stuff a collection of tidbits

Well, here’s some stuff for thought. I’m going to be all over the place here. With Scotland, China, the United States, food, girls, and being a Rufus all thrown together to make a disjointed point about being a human and showing humanity. So enjoy my ramblings and take a nice stroll in MM land here today. I hope you all enjoy it.

We start off with America

America’s Judges Are Putting My Life on the Line

Sara Nelson [New York Times, via Naked Capitalism 11-12-2021]

America needs more judges who understand and support the rights of workers. For too long, the courts have sided with corporations over labor, fundamentally and perniciously reshaping American law, life and liberty. Today, they are doing their part to unravel the American dream — and the social contract that has been in place since the 1940s, offering the working class a good life if they spend 40 hours on the job, the means to enjoy it in off hours and a secure retirement.

In one stark example, a judge in Alabama in October barred union mineworkers from picketing within 300 yards of mine entrances, even as the authorities there have failed to charge the drivers of vehicles that struck lawful picketers. In a more common infringement of free speech, a judge in Iowa limited United Auto Workers picket lines outside a John Deere plant in Davenport last month to just four people at each entrance to the plant….

This didn’t happen by accident. Republican presidents have stacked the federal courts with judges who hail from elite law schools, white-shoe law firms and corporate boardrooms. (More than a quarter of all federal judges on the bench in January had been appointed by Donald Trump.) As a result, the corporate win rate in American courts is sky-high.

This is especially true in cases heard by the Supreme Court, which has sided with the Chamber of Commerce 70 percent of the time since 2006. A study published in 2013 ranked Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas among the five most-corporate-friendly members of the court since 1946, and the pro-corporate voting rate of its conservative wing is only growing. According to one recent report, the court agrees with the Chamber of Commerce more now than it had at any other time in recent history….

This isn’t just an academic question, or even an economic one — it’s often a matter of life and death. Before he joined the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, as a judge on the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, voted to allow the firing of an employee who abandoned an unheated company truck in a blizzard to avoid freezing to death. This is just one example of the judicial callousness toward workers that has put our livelihoods and lives in real danger.

How Other Nations Pay for Child Care. The U.S. Is an Outlier.

[New York Times, October 6, 2021, via The Big Picture 11-7-2021]
Rich countries contribute an average of $14,000 per year for a toddler’s care, compared with $500 in the U.S.

GRAPH

The truth HURTS. Exceptional, my ass!

The carnage of mainstream neoliberal economics

Yves Smith, November 10, 2021 [Naked Capitalism]

Broken chain of supply

We chartered a boat with a logistics expert to look at port congestion up close and saw how American greed is leading to shortages and empty shelves

[Business Insider, via The Big Picture 11-7-2021]

A second tour of the The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. “‘I blame 150 years of supply chain optimization,’ Nathan Strang, Flexport’s director of ocean trade lane management, told Insider of why ships are still steaming towards Los Angeles and Long Beach. ‘It’s a sign of their success, that’s causing the congestion.’”

….the ports can’t just stack up the containers until a driver comes to pick them up: “There’s no space,” Rice said…. “A lot of the congestion is due to the fact that there’s nowhere to put the empty containers.” Flexport’s Strang said. “Having some way to get those empties stored and off the chassis so that we can pick up live containers, that would actually go very far.”

American GREED. Stop blaming China.

How American leaders failed to help workers survive the ‘China Shock’

[NPR, via The Big Picture 11-7-2021]
But most economists, like most American leaders, had believed that workers would adapt somewhat smoothly to economic change and that they would find solid places to work in other sectors. “We had this notion that the American economy is this incredibly dynamic place,” says Hanson, an economist at Harvard Kennedy School. “We create millions of jobs every year, and we destroy millions of jobs every year. 

We thought we could handle moving a couple of million manufacturing workers from one sector to another.”

Autor, Dorn and Hanson’s first peer-reviewed papers from their China Shock saga were published in 2013. The economists found that between 1990 and 2007, trade with China killed about 1.5 million American manufacturing jobs, or about a quarter of all manufacturing jobs lost during that period. 

But what was even more startling: These losses were heavily concentrated in small- and medium-size communities dotting America’s heartland — and workers who lost their jobs in those areas struggled to find other work. The China Shock created what looked like miniature Great Depressions in these places.

Standard economic theory said that the non-college-educated workers who lost their jobs would move or retrain and find work in other places or sectors. But they didn’t. 

Most stayed put and were never fully employed again. “It ended up creating these pockets of distress,” Hanson says. “That was the surprising part. That’s what we economists didn’t know was going to happen.”

As Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wrote in 1791: 

Experience teaches, that men are often so much governed by what they are accustomed to see and practice, that the simplest and most obvious improvements, in the [most] ordinary occupations, are adopted with hesitation, reluctance and by slow gradations … To produce the desirable changes, as early as may be expedient, may therefore require the incitement and patronage of government…

Too bad Hamilton is not required reading for economics students…

Bill Mitchell — When labour shortages just signal management caprice

[via Mike Norman Economics 11-9-2021]
I have been researching the so-called labor shortage that business types are talking about relentlessly as part of their on-going strategy to undermine the conditions of work and make more profit. 

In the course of that inquiry, I came across an interesting juxtaposition between two US companies that illustrate a lot of what we have known about for years but have allowed this relentless, neoliberal, race-to-the-bottom to obscure. 

Well-paid workers with job security, work better and are happy workers. 

Companies that pursue the ‘race-to-the-bottom’ strategy and seek to build profits by trashing the conditions they offer workers eventually struggle to prosper because their bad reputation undermines their ability to attract productive workers. 

In the case we discuss today, the so-called ‘labor shortage’ is really just a signal of management caprice. 

Rather than being a shortage of workers, there is a shortage of workers who will tolerate the indignity of low wages, onerous conditions and capricious management. 

It is also a union versus non-union type of discussion where the unionised work places generate high productivity and worker attachment, while the non-unionised workplaces find it hard to attract reliable staff and blame it all on ‘labor shortages’….

It’s all over the “West”. The capitalist democracies are all falling apart.

They’re not capitalists – they’re a criminal predatory class

[International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, via Mike Norman Economics 11-10-2021]

No shit! Dick Tracy.

David Dayen, November 12, 2021 [The American Prospect]

A new report identifies 20 major corporate recidivists, with rap sheets that should be in the sights of the Justice Department’s new approach to white-collar crime.

Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 12, 2021 [Wall Street on Parade]

Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 10, 2021 [Wall Street on Parade]

Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 9, 2021 [Wall Street on Parade]

As for leverage at hedge funds, yesterday’s Fed report had this to share:

“Hedge fund leverage remained somewhat higher than its historical average in the first quarter of 2021, according to the most comprehensive available measures. On-balance-sheet leverage at hedge funds, based on confidential data collected by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), decreased in the first quarter to a level close to its historical average. Gross leverage at hedge funds—based on the same source but including off-balance-sheet derivatives exposures—continued to be above its historical average in the first quarter.”

One needs to carefully parse the above paragraph. Why does the Federal Reserve, which has bank examiners in every mega bank that owns a trading house on Wall Street, need to ask the SEC for data about hedge fund leverage? The prime brokerage operations of those mega banks are the ones making those highly leveraged loans to hedge funds. (See our report: Archegos: Wall Street Was Effectively Giving 85 Percent Margin Loans on Concentrated Stock Positions – Thwarting the Fed’s Reg T and Its Own Margin Rules.)

Climate and environmental crises

[Twitter, via Naked Capitalism Water Cooler 11-12-2021]
Take a look at who actually emits the most carbon. And take a look at how much rich people in the US emit, compared to absolutely anyone else https://t.co/XGjRhj1OKE pic.twitter.com/UbNjGlx9Ld

— Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) November 8, 2021

Yeah blame China, instead of looking at yourselves.

[Financial Times, via Tweet above]

The fight to protect the planet is shifting in ways that could soon exacerbate conflicts within countries, particularly between social classes. Or, to put it bluntly, between the rich and the rest. The top 1 per cent by income of the world’s population account for about 15 per cent of emissions, according to UN data. That is more than double the share of the bottom 50 per cent.

[Digg, via Naked Capitalism 11-13-2021] [Slate, via The Big Picture 11-10-2021]
The challenge is not identifying the solutions, but rolling them out with great speed.
[South China Morning Post, via Naked Capitalism Water Cooler 11-11-2021]
“The Iceland plant, called Orca, is the largest such facility in the world, capturing about 4,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. But compared to what the planet needs, the amount is tiny. Experts say 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide must be removed annually by mid-century…. Leading scientific agencies including the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say that even if the world manages to stop producing harmful emissions, that still won’t be enough to avert a climate catastrophe. They say we need to suck massive amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air and put it back underground – yielding what some call “negative emissions”… As dire warnings have accelerated, technology to vacuum carbon dioxide from the air has advanced. Currently, a handful of companies operate such plants on a commercial scale, including Climeworks, which built the Orca plant in Iceland, and Carbon Engineering, which built a different type of direct air capture plant in British Columbia. And now that the technology has been proven, both companies have ambitions for major expansion. At Climeworks’ Orca plant near Reykjavik, fans suck air into big, black collection boxes where the carbon dioxide accumulates on a filter. Then it’s heated with geothermal energy and is combined with water and pumped deep underground into basalt rock formations. Within a few years, Climeworks says, the carbon dioxide turns into stone.”
[Pro Publica, via Naked Capitalism Water Cooler 11-11-2021]
“ProPublica’s analysis of five years of modeled EPA data identified more than 1,000 toxic hot spots across the country and found that an estimated 250,000 people living in them may be exposed to levels of excess cancer risk that the EPA deems unacceptable. The agency has long collected the information on which our analysis is based. Thousands of facilities nationwide that are considered large sources of toxic air pollution submit a report to the government each year on their chemical emissions. But the agency has never released this data in a way that allows the public to understand the risks of breathing the air where they live. Using the reports submitted between 2014 and 2018, we calculated the estimated excess cancer risk from industrial sources across the entire country and mapped it all.”

Creating new economic potential – science and technology

[Bloomberg, via Naked Capitalism 11-9-2021] [MIT Technology Review, via Naked Capitalism 11-11-2021] [Brighter Side, via Naked Capitalism 11-13-2021]
  • Information Age Dystopia

Securing your digital life, part one: The basics

[ars technica, via Naked Capitalism 11-13-2021]

Collapse of Independent News Media

David Sirota [The Daily Poster, November 8, 2021]

This morning, the New York Times published a screed from pollster Mark Penn and former New York City lawmaker Andrew Stein demanding Democrats abandon their promised agenda ahead of the midterm elections. The massive 1,500 word op-ed — designed to define the political news cycle for the coming week — echoes a house editorial from the newspaper making much the same argument, and it mirrors previous Penn diatribes that the Times has platformed in the past.

In the process, this essay offers a rare glimpse of how corporate media imperceptibly puts its thumb on the scale for a particular ideology that is decidedly neither centrist nor objective.

The Times’ original headline on Monday’s piece (which has since been changed) read “A Way Forward for Biden and the Dems in 2022 & 2024.” It argues that President Biden should “listen to centrists (and) push back on the left” and insists Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema “are in fact the very heart of the Democratic Party.”

It’s a hot take that might be mildly interesting, if it came from voices who genuinely had the Democratic Party’s best interests in mind. However, the Times decided to not tell readers that Penn is a private equity mogul with myriad connections to the corporate world that’s looking to kill the Democratic legislative agenda that the op-ed seeks to curtail. The paper doesn’t mention Penn’s ties to No Labels, a dark money group funded by big donors that’s been vilifying Democrats’ reconciliation bill. The paper also declines to mention that Penn advised President Donald Trump during his first impeachment, nor does it mention that Stein is the guy who

The Windows XP wallpaper is now a vineyard

Who would figure?

Ammonia-based fertilizers

Ammonia-based fertilizers are made from nitrogen (it’s most of our air, so never in short supply) and natural gas or methane (CH4), and make up almost 70% of all fertilizers used world-wide to support major agriculture crops such as wheat, corn, rice and even coffee. As natural gas prices have soared by anywhere from 300% to 500% over the past months, this has had a devastating impact on world fertilizer production, where some 80% of the cost of making ammonia fertilizers is due to the natural gas cost.

What’s more, big Ammonia plants in many countries are now closing (for how long?), and  China, who is said to make 30% of the world supply of ammonia, has just banned its export.  (Check to verify).  Early next year this will all become very evident.  First hit will be animal feed so it looks like meat eating will diminish greatly.  I don’t see any way it won’t happen.

https://journal-neo.org/2021/11/12/now-the-organized-takedown-of-global-fertilizer-supply/

Here’s Guangzhou, China.

It’s a very middle class city. Full of factories and just blue-collar Chinese people. Check it out. Video.

“Where’s Waldo” Beach addition for warmer wallpaper weather!

Some stuff on China

From the Daily Stormer

Since Biden has taken over, there have been nonstop threats against China, and US warplanes and warships are racing in and out of their territories. Biden’s Secretary of Defense flew to Japan to demand that they sign a blood pact to defend Taiwan. Most of the US military activity is not much reported on in the American media (I usually read about it on RT), but we are hearing rising nonsense about the poor and pitiful Moslems, and the importance of Americans devoting their military to defending the sacred democracy of the very important nation of Taiwan.

What is incredible to me is that both the right and the left are so easily manipulated into thinking conflict with China is a good idea. For the left, I guess it makes sense. As we’ve mentioned before, the Antifa type neo-socialists who have been so heavily force-memed on social media as the Democrat Party’s internet defense force (Vaush, for example) spend a lot of time talking about how China is a “fascist state.”

For the right, the support for anti-China sentiment makes no real sense, and is mostly based on stupidity and a lack of information. Republican leaders are openly saying that they need to protect Antifa in Hong Kong, Islamic terrorists in Xinjiang, and gay marriage in Taiwan. But Sean Hannity and Mark Levin continue to talk about “the threat of Chinese communism.”

As I’ve written about before, China is not a “communist country.” The average Chinese person knows nothing about Marxism. They have a very free market (much more free than America’s), where small business is encouraged.

As I’ve written before, the fact that it is even called “The Communist Party” in English is sort of deceitful, and an exploitation of the fact that Westerners know nothing about China or its culture, including the total difference of the nature of their language. “中国共产党” is translated as “communist party” consistently, yet a direct translation, as it would be spoken in Chinese, would be something like “The Party of People Working Together to be Productive.”

That’s how Chinese people view it.

Even with their supposed “communist” connections to Southeast Asian countries, they frame it as a historical cultural connection, rather than one based on a political system designed by a German Jew in London in the 19th century.

If you asked a working class Chinese person why China, Laos, and Vietnam all use the hammer and sickle, they would say something like: “this is the symbol of Asia people,” and laugh and point at their eyes, then say “eat rice, eat noodle,” and laugh again. A more educated Chinese person might be vaguely aware of the history, but would claim that no foreigner ever influenced China in any way, ever, in all of history: “we make a big, strong wall. Cannot allow.”

Under Emperor Xi, China has become increasingly more traditional, and backing away from the kind of modernism that had been encroaching. He is attempting to reestablish a form of Confucianism.

The Chinese are effectively the opposite of everything the modern West stands for:

  • Extreme ethno-nationalists
  • Patriarchal
  • Anti-feminist
  • Anti-gay
  • Pro-family
  • Pro-middle class and anti-elitism
  • Meritocratic
  • Militaristic in individual discipline

The Chinese government recently announced a program to build masculinity among boys, as they recognize that the school environment (which was largely imported from the West) is too feminizing, that the high tech environment itself is feminizing, and they recognize masculinity as a foundation of society.

In February, the Chinese government published “The Proposal to Prevent the Feminisation of Male Adolescents,” and said that they would use sports to toughen boys up.

The Western media outright declared this to be evil. (You might not have noticed, but at some point between 2018 and 2020, the media made the jump from talking about “toxic masculinity” as a social evil to simply referring to “masculinity” as a social evil. When they began talking about “toxic masculinity,” I noted that they were playing a terminology game, and that “toxic masculinity” just meant “masculinity.”)

Chinese cultural values are virtually a direct inversion of the modern Western values created and promoted by the Jews. But it is simply the basic order of nature they are promoting. No one in any society anywhere in history before the development of the modern West could have imagined a reality in which instilling masculinity in boys or discouraging family-destroying feminist ideology was a negative thing.

Most of us still living are not old enough to even be able to imagine a situation in which a Western government encouraged masculinity or discouraged feminism. So it’s hard to say how a right-winger in America can look at Joe Biden’s government, then look at the Chinese government, and say “yes, Joe, I agree – these people are so evil that we need to put our own nation’s problems on hold and use our military to defend the Taiwanese secessionist movement from this encroaching communism or fascism or whatever.”

The only thing right-wingers can ever say about the Chinese is that they are “too authoritarian.” Generally, that person will then immediately move to “muh social credit system.”…

…Conversation falls apart…

No “Where’s Waldo” Wallpaper? Couldn’t be me.

And about the US and Taiwan…

From HERE.

…the possibility of conflict between China and Taiwan, between whom tensions have been steadily rising.

Most members of the Blob, as the foreign policy establishment is called, believe the U.S. should be ready to go to war with China over the island, which escaped the Chinese Communist Party when Chiang Kai-shek and his defeated Nationalists fled there after their defeat on the mainland.

Indeed, U.S. analysts have been debating the idea of dropping Washington’s currently ambiguous stance—refusing to say yes or no—and making a clear commitment. Although the idea of not going to war is almost entirely absent in the capital, most analysts have convinced themselves that talking tough would be enough to scare off the Chinese.

"Scare the Chinese". Fools. 

-MM

However, Taiwan is the final Chinese territory stolen away during the “Century of Humiliation,” and even younger Chinese back their government’s claim. In such a contest angry nationalism commonly trumps good sense, as in America’s Civil War.

Americans who believe Beijing will yield its claim to Taiwan without a fight risk sleepwalking into a major war, as have so many other self-assured fools throughout history.

In any case, the president recently went off-script and declared that America would fight.

His aides quickly corrected the record, so to speak, as did President George W. Bush after making a similar promise in 2001. Nevertheless, Beijing has seen more than enough continuity between the Trump and Biden administrations toward China and assume the worst, irrespective of Washington’s verbal legerdemain.

So if the People’s Republic of China decides war is necessary and believes the U.S. will fight, the People’s Liberation Army will act swiftly and brutally, hoping to win before the U.S.—nearly 8000 miles away—can interfere.

War with China would be even worse than with Russia.

The PRC would have more at stake in the fight, local superiority, a couple score bases on the mainland roughly 100 miles away, and a victim that so far has shown little inclination to defend itself.

In combat the U.S. would have little choice but to strike the mainland, which would trigger escalation, with no obvious endpoint.

Indeed, Washington, attempting to fight from half a world away, has done poorly in wargames.

It is far easier for Beijing to deter the U.S. than for America to project sufficient power to defeat the PRC. And even a U.S. victory would probably be just the first round, as a nationalistic Chinese public prepared for round two. How much is Taiwan worth to the U.S.?

Worse, imagine if Washington faced simultaneous crises, perhaps with Iran, Russia, and China at once. While most of America’s allies discovered that they were busy, very busy, but nevertheless wished the U.S. well. Indeed, they would make a very strong statement as the bullets and missiles started flying.

President Biden has always seen himself as an internationalist. That doesn’t mean he should start a war, however. Indeed, he is one of the few policymakers who today understands the reality of war. He entered public life about the same time that the Nixon administration was pulling the last U.S. troops out of Vietnam. It has been almost a half century since America fought a conflict with heavy casualties, extended ground combat, heavy air action, and mass protest at home.

However, all could return if the administration managed to stumble into one or more major wars. At least a conflict with Russia or China would make the American people forget Biden’s ragged exit from Afghanistan. However, if he wants to be reelected—and, more important, to be a good president, however long he serves—then he should concentrate on avoiding real war with real opponents, and especially multiple conflicts at once.

It’s never a good thing.

Do something to make others happy

Like this subway artist. This gal was obviously having a bad day, but the emotion on her face says it all. video.

Oh, and don’t even think about starting a war with China or Russia

"Should there be any loss of life in the US as a result of a conflict the US federal government would disintegrate. Immediately as in ungovernable. Russia as a country has strength in the solidarity of it's people. The US and Europe not so much. A price to be paid for letting the ruling class and it's masters destroy the poor and the middle class."
-So | Nov 12 2021 20:27 utc | 15

A Brief History of the Cheez-It

From HERE.

Dayton’s historic Edgemont neighborhood is cocooned inside a crook in the Great Miami River, a winding waterway that snakes through the heart of southwest Ohio. Two miles from downtown, with its air of industry, the community hearkens to a time when Dayton was hailed “The City of A Thousand Factories.”

Cheez-It crackers.

In the early 20th century, inside a foregone factory on the corner of Concord and Cincinnati Streets, Green & Green cracker company cooked up its Edgemont product line, a collection of grahams, crackers and gingersnaps that were shipped across the region. But of the company’s four Edgemont products, only one, in particular, a flaky one-by-one-inch cheese cracker, would revolutionize snack time. On May 23, 1921, when Green & Green decided to trademark the tasty treat’s unique name, the Cheez-It was born.

“In 1921, Cheez-It didn’t mean anything, so Green & Green marketed the cracker as a ‘baked rarebit,’ ” says Brady Kress, president & CEO of Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park, a nationally recognized open-air museum centered on the city’s history of innovation. (Inside Carillon Brewing Company, a fully operating 1850s brewery at the park, costumed interpreters still bake crackers over an open hearth.) “People were familiar with rarebit, a sort of melted cheddar beer cheese spread over toast. Cheez-It offered the same great taste, only baked down into a cracker that will last.”

Cheez-It’s 11-month shelf life is impressive, but so is the company’s history. In May 2021, America’s iconic orange cracker turned 100. But the Cheez-It story stretches even further back than that.

In 1841, Dr. William W. Wolf moved to Dayton to practice homeopathy, a branch of alternative medicine that believes in the healing power of food. Hailed Dayton’s “Cracker King,” Wolf concocted the Wolf Cracker, a curious hard-butter snack made for medicinal purposes.

“In the 19th century, crackers were linked to Christian physiology and sectarian medical practitioners,” says Lisa Haushofer, a senior research associate at the University of Zurich’s Institute for Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine. “Christian physiologists like Sylvester Graham, of Graham Cracker fame, were concerned about a modern diet that contained too many stimulating substances.” (In addition to being a cracker evangelist, Graham was also a pro-temperance Presbyterian minister who preached a vegetarian diet). Wolf echoed Graham’s concerns that food was far too rousing (though Graham also dubiously believed his crackers could cure licentiousness), so he launched the Wolf Cracker Bakery to churn out his wholesome snacks.

“They believed there was too much nourishment per food unit in modern bread, too much excitement,” says Haushofer. “So they recommended grain products made from coarse flour, which, they believed, contained a more natural ratio of nourishing and non-nourishing parts. Crackers were considered health food.”

Cheez-It

According to Haushofer, homeopaths at the time were also concerned about digestibility, and since they believed heating food aided digestion, baked Wolf Crackers were just what the doctor ordered. But Wolf’s patients weren’t the only ones after his crackers. What started as a medical remedy soon became a sought-after treat.

In the 1870s, while living on the barren plains of North Dakota, Dayton natives J.W. and Weston Green often longed for a taste of home. “In those days food supplies were both expensive and scarce in that region,” wrote the Dayton Journal Herald in its October 31, 1907, edition, “and the father and son regularly sent back to their old home city, Dayton[,] for those necessities that could not be obtained there. ‘Invariably,’ Mr. Green says, ‘we would include in that order a good supply of … the ‘Wolfe Cracker’ [sic].”

J.W. Green never forgot the savory, buttery, nut-like flavor of Wolf Crackers. In 1897, when Wolf died, Green purchased the Wolf Bakery Company, then enlisted his son, Weston Green, to join him in business. The Greens renamed the enterprise Green & Green Company, and while Wolf’s recipe remained the same, they rebranded the doctor’s famous treat as the “Dayton Cracker.”

By the turn of the 20th century, Dayton held more patents, per capita, than any U.S. city; surrounded by this innovative environment, Green & Green flourished, expanding its operations to nearby Springfield and Lima, and delivering baked goods across southwest Ohio. But soon, the company’s crackers became more than a regional concern. During World War I, Green & Green fired up its ovens for the war effort.

“All our facilities but one little oven that can’t be used for Hard Bread will be speeded up to keep two car loads a day going by express,” read a Green & Green ad in the Dayton Daily News’s July 14, 1918, edition … “that OUR BOYS at the front may have their Fighting Bread.”

Cheez-It

Though far less tasty than the Dayton Cracker, Dayton’s Fighting Bread sustained countless soldiers during the Great War. Typically made from salt, flour and water, Hard Bread—also known as hardtack, teeth dullers or jawbreakers—was often soaked in water before being served. If stored improperly, weevils and maggots made Hard Bread their home, prompting soldiers to dub the wartime ration “worm castles.”

“We are mighty glad and proud to be a cog in the big machine that will win the war,” read Green & Green’s ad. However, Doughboys weren’t the only ones helping win the war. “P.S. We could still use a few more women in the packing of Hard Bread.”

After World War I, Green & Green Company sidelined Hard Bread in favor of more flavorful fare. By Armistice Day, the Dayton Cracker (still made with Wolf’s original recipe) had been baked in Dayton for nearly 80 years. But while the hard butter-cracker was a local treasure, customers yearned for a delicate, flakier treat. Soon, Green & Green launched its Edgemont line, and in 1921, unveiled the “baked rarebit,” known as the Cheez-It.

“Welsh Rarebit, at its most basic form, is essentially a cheese sauce spread on toast,” says Rachael Spears, a living history specialist at Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park. “Some 19th-century English recipes specifically call for cheddar cheese. To this day, Cheez-It still advertises 100 percent real cheese, which draws a connection to its rarebit roots.”

But in 1921, Americans needed more than a novel snack. Following the Great War, the global economy dipped, and American wallets were increasingly thin. “Rarebit is a lesson in frugality,” says Kress. “It’s a nutritious dish that doesn’t cost a lot of money. When it’s baked down into a Cheez-It, it becomes a tasty treat. And just like hardtack, if you store it correctly, it will stay for a very long time. You don’t run the risk of it growing weevils.”

Cheez-It

In 1915, one pound of Green & Green crackers sold for 10 cents, roughly $2.65 in 2021 dollars. “When Uncle Sam picked men for his army overseas,” read a June 1920 Green & Green ad, “he also picked foods that would keep those picked men robust and healthy—fit for the strenuous duties ahead of them. Just as the crackers for our soldiers kept sweet and fresh in tins, so Edgemont Crackers … keep crisp and creamy in the Family Tin. Ask mother to keep a tin in her pantry.”

Cheez-Its kept Americans fed during the post-war recession, throughout the Roaring Twenties, and at the onset of the Great Depression. But by 1932, Green & Green packed up its last Family Tin and sold the business to Kansas City’s Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company.

In 1947, the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company became the Sunshine Biscuit Company; in 1996, Keebler acquired Sunshine; and in 2001, Kellogg acquired Keebler.

“The Cheez-It name has accompanied the baked cracker since its creation in 1921,” says Jeff Delonis, senior director of marketing for Cheez-It. “The original Cheez-It packaging was green and white. In the 1930s, red was introduced into the brand logo, and by the 1940s, the box included the iconic red and yellow-orange colors that remain today. The general shape and look of the cracker has largely stayed the same.”

Cheez-Its may still look the same, but the cracker’s production has soared. Once baked on the corner of Concord and Cincinnati Streets in Dayton’s Edgemont neighborhood, then shipped to regional grocers, Cheez-It sold more than 400 million packages in the U.S. alone in 2020.

Scene from Ghostbusters. Cheez-It crackers and bud beer.

“It’s super fun to think about all the cities around the country that were producing foods for local audiences,” says Kress. “Every city had them. Here’s an idea that came out of Dayton, Ohio.”

But “baked rarebit,” once a prevalent idiom used to describe an obscure cracker, has since faded, replaced by the now-ubiquitous term, Cheez-It.

“When you bake a cracker, you roll the dough out thin, kind of like a pie crust,” says Spears. “But at the heart, it’s like a thin, crispy biscuit. When you bite into a Cheez-It, you get those nice layers. Those are the layers that form if you cook it a bit.”

Like the Cheez-It itself, we need only bite into the snack’s history to uncover countless compelling layers.

“Cheez-It is a survivor from a bygone time,” says Kress.

Why I like Chinese girls…

A big smile. Happy times. Food. video.

A local Chinese girl shows you her life…

Sure, I make a couple of videos, but there are other people who are more photogenic than myself, and easier on the eyes. They show their life, and their food, and their homes.

Here’s one such girl. A friend. video.

American “democracy”…

China slams the US:

“The electoral democracy of Western countries are actually democracy ruled by the capital, and they are a game of the rich, not real democracy.

I would gladly ignore this and write it off as Soviet style propaganda, were it not for some shocking statistics from Pew research poll that supports the thesis.

According to a new Pew survey published last week, many American’s seem to share concerns about the direction of the US’s democracy. The survey can be found here: (https://cnb.cx/3ooDsKw)

“Americans largely share the view that their democracy is no longer a model: 72% say U.S. democracy used to be a good example for others to follow but has not been recently.”

Frankly, I thought the number was shocking and perhaps reveals a nation tired of covid and legislative gridlock.

Pew continues with more stunning statistics from polling in 17 advanced economies:

“Few believe U.S. democracy, at least in its current state, serves as a good model for other nations. A median of just 17% say democracy in the U.S. is a good example for others to follow, while 57% think it used to be a good example but has not been in recent years. Another 23% do not believe it has ever been a good example.”

For the record I am not agitating for a change in government, nor professing undying love for China’s communism. Some will undoubtedly make these accusations.

I present this because I think it is important to acknowledge that the US’s “global brand” has been severely tarnished. Covid, Afghanistan and an assault on the nation’s capital among others are taking their toll on the US across the globe.

If it takes harsh critique from China to get the US to pay attention so be it. And it does seem to have hit a nerve , as this article is No 1 in google news search for “China” 24 hrs running.  That’s why I’m running it.

China isn’t making this critique up out of the blue, they are going for the jugular and calling out a problem at least roughly supported by global sentiment. Interestingly, they don’t often criticize the US so this inflammatory rhetoric is a bit of a departure especially after progress with the climate deal.

You can see the influences of large banks or techs on the American government. Money has created enormous lobbying groups that make Banks and large industry unassailable. Big tech seems impossible to control. Whistleblowers from Meta, election interference, and consumers asking for privacy don’t seem to count for much.

Lest I get comments that I am “paid by China.”  This isn’t about China but about a the real problem of money’s influence in government.

If the US’s economic rival China, sees the problem, as do American citizens, why doesn’t anyone in Washington?

Hum?

China schools compared to American schools…

Check out this little dialog. video.

And this followup. Also good. video

And, thus how it manifests for a typical Chinese family. Video.

Data Testing Julian Cope’s Dunnideer Hill Alignments Theory

A great adventure in Scotland.

It’s the story or tale of how one person took the time and effort to investigate ancient ruins in his own backyard. I applaud him, and you should too. -MM

From HERE.

In his popular guidebook to British prehistoric monuments, The Modern Antiquaria n, rock musician and poet Julian Cope proposed that a distinctive Aberdeenshire hill in Scotland, the 264 meter (866 ft) high Dunnideer Hill, formed a visual focal point of reference in the landscape in relation to the positioning of ten nearby Scottish Recumbent Stone Circles (RSCs).

Notably, no physical survey data was presented by Cope so I can only assume his comments were intuitively based, undoubtedly after physically visiting each circle and seeing for himself their collective inter-visibility with Dunnideer Hill (Figure 1). A reasonable assumption, but as an archaeologist I have to be careful when accepting such intuitively based information. More so given the fact that he used emotive language such as “Mother Earth Hill” to describe it. However, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and test his “inter-visible-theory” by conducting a quantifiable survey using GPS technology .

Figure 1. Dunnideer Hill. The remains of the hill’s medieval Chapel enhances its visibility amongst the surrounding landscape. (Author provided)

Recumbent Stone Circles (RSCs) Surrounding Dunnideer Hill

The stone circles surrounding Dunnideer Hill belong to a greater class of stone rings known as Recumbent Stones Circles (RSCs). A distinctive class of prehistoric circles which were confined to North-east Scotland.

Their architecture was consistent, set out in a ring, they often contained between ten or eleven standing stones plus an outlandishly large recumbent stone that was deliberately laid flat in the southern quadrant of the respective circle – hence their name (Figure 2). Amazingly 156 of these monuments were built across the entire landscape of Aberdeenshire.

Regrettably, only 71 of them survive today.

Carbon dating places their construction to the Late Neolithic, circa 2500 BC. The original purpose for building these stone circles remains unknown but what we can say with certainty is that no human burials have been found in any of their primary contexts.

I have already written about these RSCs in a previous article published on Ancient Origins . In that paper I proposed that a single specialist was responsible for designing every one of these RSCs.

As I also mentioned in that article, these RSCs were positioned across the landscape so that they were astronomically aligned towards each other forming clusters of circles within their respective landscape settings.

See the first of my freely available YouTube videos here explaining more about how these alignments work at the circles.

Although I had suspected that these clusters of circles were deliberately aligned towards natural features of the landscape, such as hilltop summits, I did not have any survey data to prove it.

So here was an opportunity to not only test the extent of stone circle alignments towards natural hills but also see if Julian Cope was correct.

Figure 2. The distinctive architecture of an RSC. A ring of standing stones plus its recumbent stone as seen at the Strichen House RSC. (Author provided)

The Ancient History of Dunnideer Hill

Of course my starting point was Dunnideer Hill. Located close to the small town of Inch, Aberdeenshire, this hill possesses its own long archaeological history.

Unfortunately, if ever a stone circle stood on the summit of this hill then whatever evidence for it is now lost.

Nevertheless, some 440 meters (1,443 ft) downslope, north-west of the summit, are the remains of the Dunnideer RSC (B), indicating that the hill was at least known to the Neolithic communities as far back as 2500 BC.

Survey Method Used at Dunnideer Hill

To survey the alignments between the Dunnideer Hill and its surrounding cluster of ten stone circles , I utilized GPS technology in the following manner. Standing on the summit of Dunnideer Hill, the GPS plotted my precise position on the ground.

This information was then relayed back to me via a positional coordinate for where I was standing.

Then systematically moving to each of the surrounding RSCs, the GPS plotted my successive positions, each time providing me with the corresponding coordinates. Using the “go to” facility on the GPS, I could then obtain the distance and direction travelled between each coordinate.

After completion I was able to cross-reference the combined GPS data to produce the maps discussed here.

What I was particularly looking for with the GPS data was to search for astronomical alignments between the hill and the surrounding ten stone circles .

Now, if I know the angle of the ecliptic (between the Sun and Earth) at around 2500 BC, I can divide that angle by the exact latitude for the hill and whichever stone circle I was standing at.

This “scientific calculation” then gives me the directions of where the Sun rose or set on the days of midwinter and midsummer for Aberdeenshire around 2500 BC.

With some adjusting (to cater for the angle of the moon’s orbit around the Earth), I could also determine similar positions for the Moon as well. After obtaining this scientific calculation I was ready to start.

The Dunnideer summit has been subjected to many alterations and much disturbance since that time. For instance, during the British Iron Age, a hill fort (circa 700 – 500 BC), was dug out across its summit. 1,500 years later, a medieval Chapel with both solid stone flooring and walling was built above the foundations of the fort, destroying anything below it.

Still, the views from the top of Dunnideer Hill are amazing (and well recommended – despite the short climb). Certainly, I could imagine the Neolithic specialist builder standing here some 4,500 years ago, viewing the landscape below, pondering where to position the ten stone circles in relation to those areas of land below being opened up for domestication and cultivation.

Figure 3. The ten RSCs selected for survey that are also inter-visible with Dunnideer Hill. (Dr. John Hill)

Dunnideer Hill Survey Results

I had established with my GPS an arbitrary distance equal to a radius of 6 km (3.72 mi.) circumnavigating Dunnideer Hill.

This radius immediately captured the ten RSCs (Figure 3). The logic behind this arbitrary distance being that (at the most) it would take an hour to walk from the farthest RSC to the hill. Secondly, all ten circles were physically inter-visible with good views of Dunnideer Hill.

Incidentally, another interesting observation uniting this cluster of circles is that they all shared similar oval-shaped large but thin recumbent stones – usually these recumbent stones are very broad and thick (Figure 4).

Possibly, these thin recumbent stones signified a specific local identity associated with this particular cluster surrounding the Dunnideer Hill.

Figure 4. Three examples of the thin, oval-shaped recumbent stones. 1 = Dunnideer RSC; 2 = Wantonwells RSC; 3 = Stonehead RSC. (Author provided)

After compiling the GPS data from Dunnideer Hill, the rock musician’s theory of it being a focal point for the surrounding stone circles was proving to be disappointing. I could not find any data that would indicate that the hill possessed any astronomical correspondences towards the surrounding ten circles other than them being inter-visible with the summit.

Incidentally, Dunnideer Hill is not the only hill in this landscape, there are other hills which could have acted as alternative focal points. Nonetheless, I wanted to give Cope the benefit of the doubt, so I continued to collect GPS data from the surrounding stone circles.

As I visited each of the stone circles I needed to re-compute my original scientific calculation. When I was standing on top of Dunnideer Hill’s summit I was looking downward towards the directions of the surrounding stone circles, so the altitude factor (within my first equation) did not matter with regard to the astronomical data I collected.

Now, standing at the circles, I was looking upward, towards the summit of the hill, so I had to make the necessary adjustments for the “upward” angle of altitude.

Having made these adjustments to my second equation the results I was anticipating began to materialize but not in the manner I expected. Yes, Dunnideer Hill was important to the astronomical alignments connected with the ten circles, but it was not the single focal point as I thought it would be.

Rather than being a single point of reference in the landscape for any one of its surrounding RSCs, the data suggests that Dunnideer Hill appears to have acted like an axis mundi around which the rising and setting of both the Sun and Moon would be seen to rotate during the seasons.

And it all depended on when and where one was standing in order to see the corresponding astronomical event at each of the respective stone circles. Indeed, one would have to follow a circular route around the hill, visiting each circle at different seasons to appreciate how the Neolithic communities organized their agricultural and ceremonial calendars.

In short, they were using the hill as a gigantic beacon in the landscape to monitor the movements of the Sun and Moon. Or rather, the cosmos above revolved around the earthen-hill below, with the hill acting as the axis mundi .

Let me explain further.

In Figure 5 we see an alignment between Ardlair RSC (A), Dunnideer Hill and Old Rayne RSC (F). Taking into account the altitude factor for the hill, then the alignment runs due east / west. So let us imagine that we are standing at Ardlair RSC, looking eastward, and watching the Sun as it appears to rise behind the eastern summit of Dunnideer Hill. When the Sun appears to rise in this direction then we have an astronomical alignment between the two circles (and the hill between them).

Now, this is the alignment that would only occur on the morning of either the spring, Vernal (21st March), or autumn equinox (21st September). And vice versa, standing at the Old Rayne RSC, looking westward we can watch the equinox sunsets, setting behind the hill in the direction of the Ardlair RSC. Thus, the two circles and the hill align with the equinoxes and as such we have an ingenious method of predicting the times in the agricultural calendar for sowing (i.e. spring) and harvesting (i.e. autumn).

Figure 5. The equinox alignments between two RSCs and Dunnideer Hill. (Dr John Hill)

Similarly, in Figure 6, we can see an alignment between Wantonwells RSC (G) and Dunnideer RSC (B), with Dunnideer Hill again positioned in the middle of the two circles. The axis of this alignment corresponds to the direction of the summer solstice sunset (21st June) and vice versa the direction of the winter solstice sunrise (21st December). So if we were to stand at Wantonwells RSC and watching the sunset behind the hill then we would be looking in the direction of both north-west and the Dunnideer RSC (at the time of midsummer sunset). Such an observation might have been a cue for the Neolithic farmers to move their cattle northward, during the warm summer months, to the higher pastures around the Candle Hill RSC (D).

Alternatively, standing behind Dunnideer RSC and watching the sunrise behind Dunnideer Hill in the direction of Wantonwells RSC, then we would be looking towards the direction of the midwinter sunrise. Seeing the sunrise in this direction may have been the cue for the Neolithic communities to commence the culling of their surplus livestock which would have provided them with plenty of meat for the cold winter months.

The GPS also provided data to support the statement that the Neolithic communities were also using Dunnideer Hill as a means to monitor the movements of the Moon. For instance, the alignment between Wantonwells RSC (G), the hill and the Stonehead RSC (C) captures the setting position of the midwinter full moon at its most southerly position on the distant horizon. In effect, by using Dunnideer Hill as an axis mund i, the Neolithic communities could operate (albeit a basic) solar-lunar calendar.

Figure 6. Solar and lunar alignments revolving around the axis mundi of Dunnideer Hill. (Dr John Hill)

I did not want to bombard the reader with too much of the astronomy in this article, so the above examples are just a sample of the alignments I have obtained for this particular cluster of stone circles. For sure, there are many more alignments that I could have discussed here. Of course, the reader may question as to how these astronomical alignments were achieved when their inter-visibility between the stone circles mentioned here was blocked by Dunnideer Hill.

Certainly, this is an important question and in in my recent book The Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire I propose a number of solutions. But for now, I would ask the reader to view my second freely available video which demonstrates how the geometry used to construct these circles and captured the symbolism associated with the astronomical alignments across the landscape: Ancient knowledge, Sacred geometry at the Loanhead of Daviot stone circle .

But here is another one of my solutions. That is the people were using “smoke signals” across the landscape in order to set out their stone circles in alignments (Figure 7). We have good archaeological evidence that fires were regularly set alight before, during and even after these RSCs were constructed. Although whatever the reasons for these fires remains conjectural, I can reasonably propose that they were a sure way for the Neolithic communities to set out their stone circles in straight lines across the landscape, especially when their visibility was blocked by natural hills such as Dunnideer Hill.

Figure 7. The Neolithic communities used smoke signals to set out accurate alignments across the landscape. (Dr John Hill)

Dunnideer Hill as Axis Mundi

As well as acting as a visible focal point in the landscape, Dunnideer Hill also operated as an axis mundi for the local Neolithic communities to organize their agricultural activities. Of course, I have so far interpreted the GPS data within the practical terms of farming and there is no reason why sacred explanations could not also be offered. Social ceremonies such as weddings or funerals could have been scheduled around the hill in accordance to the relative positions of the Sun and Moon.

Indeed, at certain times of the year the solar and lunar orbs may have even been invited guests to visit the stone circles. An ethnographic analogy springs to mind here with the ancient Japanese, shamanistic religion of Shinto, which was populated by kami-spirits who lived on the summits of certain sacred hills across the Nippon landscape. The Shinto-shamans would place special stones and rocks at the bases of such hills in order to entice the benevolent spirits to come down from their summits and enjoy both the seasonal gatherings and offerings left by the people in exchange for good fortune and productive harvests.

Finally, I should thank Julian Cope for his intuitive observations. Had he not written about his ideas about the “inter-visibility-theory” between Dunnideer Hill and its surrounding stone circles then I would not have undertaken this GPS survey nor written this report.

MM video riding in the taxi on tuesday

Here’s what it’s like in my “neck of the woods”…video

I do love watching people who love their jobs…

We should all be doing what we love.

And more about China from the Daily Stormer…

“Jewish conservatives” and shill conservatives in general have a script to inject China into everything, despite the fact that China is not running Western governments. This is partially a way to protect the people who are running our governments, by offering the distraction of a foreign enemy, but also a way to pump up anti-Chinese sentiment so that people will support conflict with them.

My goal is first and foremost to simply tell the truth. My goal is not to defend every aspect of Chinese society and culture. Politically, however, I am opposed to a war with the Chinese. Even more than that, I am against this obsession with the Chinese, which is so obviously a result of the fact that they are not on board with the globalist agenda. If you go around talking about China all the time, the only thing you are doing is shifting blame from our own leaders and feeding this drive for world government.

To the extent that I am a Chinese shill, this is the thing: as long as China is standing as an independent country, this world government cannot exist. Therefore, I am “pro-CCP” in that I am against this lunatic plan for a global tyrannical government. I also admire their strength as a people, nation, and race. How could I not admire them, when they’re the only thing standing between me and a brutal hell on earth? Furthermore, the Chinese haven’t ever done anything to me. Well, I take that back. One time I was staying at a hotel in Bangkok, and a group of Chinese tourists checked in, and they were spitting in the hallways and the elevator, so I had to switch to a different hotel. Eventually, in Bangkok, you learn that there are hotels that do not allow Chinese tourists.

But even with the spitting/yelling/cigarette-flicking – you can uncover something admirable about the Chinese. The reason that so many Chinese tourists behave in ways that we consider crude is that the overwhelming majority of the Chinese middle class are the children of literal rice farmers, who grew up in fields without electricity. Now, in one generation, their children are rich, living in a futuristic society.

China’s social credit system is a result of something called “being Asian.” The Asian social contract is totally different than the white one. No one in China other than criminals and CIA cults opposes the social credit system.

Everyone has seen this clip (regularly used by Ezra Levant), and talked about how terrible it is.

‘Social Credit Score System China’ … and how it works! 😡 pic.twitter.com/vOzt0lZphf
— daisymay4263 (@daisymay4263) October 1, 2021

But in the clip, the Chinese all say they support social credit scores. The response is “oh they’re scared not to say that.” Okay, well, we don’t see Chinese diaspora around the world opposing this system.

You can disagree with that, and I certainly would not want a social credit system in America, but nations should have self-determination.

Whining about the social credit system and supporting anti-CCP policy because of it is no different than saying that you support the war in Afghanistan because you’re against Sharia Law.

All of this stuff about how America is becoming like China is totally nonsensical.

I have a few simple questions for conservatives making these claims:

  • Where are my masculinity classes for young boys? Where is my program to discourage feminism?
  • Where is my nonstop propaganda about the superiority of my race, culture, and nation?
  • Where is my economic program to strengthen the middle class?
  • Where are my low taxes for family businesses and high taxes for large corporations?
  • Where are my anti-trust laws?

Comparing the Chinese social credit system to the attempts to force this vax pass thing in the West is apples to Doritos. “We’re becoming more like China because of the vaccine passport being like the social credit system” is a shallow, stupid take aimed at people who have low IQs or are just uninformed about the world.

It’s like saying America is becoming like Afghanistan because women have to cover their faces in public because of the virus.

It’s moronic on par with Dinesh D’Souza saying that Black Lives Matter is inspired by Adolf Hitler.

The only reason someone would make an argument so obviously dumb is if they were trying to manipulate you.

I will say again that I have no specific desire to defend everything the Chinese government does. I will certainly not defend everything they have done since the revolution.

However, while I do not agree with it, the “one child policy” is very overstated by Western critics. Westerners generally have no idea at all how Asian culture works. And they shouldn’t be expected to.

I personally find it interesting, but outside of that, no one in America should be under any obligation to understand the dynamics of Chinese culture.

Unless of course, they are making judgements about them – which apparently everyone in the West feels compelled to do now.

There are many things that Westerners simply could not possibly ever understand about Asia, no matter how much information they had, simply because the historical development of the culture, and the genetics behind it, are too different.

The role of law and the concept of law enforcement is an example of something no white person is ever going to grasp.

Here’s a big think for you: during most of 2020, Christians in America were banned from attending church, while Chinese Christians were not.

In Australia, the number two country which claims to be fighting against China to create freedom, Christians are still banned from attending church.

It’s again just utterly dishonest and slimy to have these publications that express open hatred for Christianity claim that the Chinese government is at war with Christianity, while the CIA is using these home churches to incite revolution against the government.

It’s like if the CIA were using hamburger stands to traffic guns into China and the Chinese government arrested them and the New York Times ran the headline “Inside China’s Brutal Crackdown on Hamburgers” – of course, right next to “You Must Eat Bugs: Americans Have Only One Week to Stop Eating Burgers Before Cow Farts Cause Deadly Earthquake.”

By pointing to “authoritarianism,” people who are trying to demonize China can make a superficial surface level critique without any context and leap to “China is the model for the New World Order.”

The attacks on China are disorganized and weird, but they are working very well.

Frankly, I’m the only person I’m aware of that is offering meaningful analysis of the China situation in the English language, aside from a few white guys who live in China.

China is a closed society, due not to communism, but to the massive language and cultural gap.

Food cubes – Can you name them all?

Food cubes.

And some more stuff from the Stormer…

Though it is clear that the globalist agenda hinges on regime change in China…

… that rampant anti-Chinese propaganda abounds…

… and that the entire political and military apparatus in Washington supports using the military to “defend Taiwan,” ….

… the US plan to destroy the CCP is completely unclear.

Right now, China is finally standing up and pushing back against this bullying.

If they decided to “invade” Taiwan, the Taiwanese military would put up less of a fight than the Afghan military.

Americans have no idea what is going on in Taiwan.

I would be surprised if even one soldier fired a shot if the CCP military landed in Taipei, and at least 40% of the people would openly greet them as liberators.

The people who are still against reunification in theory would just shrug, and carry on with their day.

No one in Taiwan even understands the concept of the mainland “taking their freedoms.”

No one thinks that anything substantial that affects them personally would change, other than gays and maybe some feminist women.

A lot of people want the CCP to come in and ban gay marriage.

The US forcing the gay marriage thing really rustled a lot of Taiwanese people.

Imagine the internet being flooded with videos of PRC troops landing in Taiwan and people either smiling and waving or just going about their business.

Imagine the female president of Taiwan giving a public statement apologizing to the Chinese people for “disrespectful behaviors and mean-spirited actions.”

Chuck Schumer and Ben Sasse could call a bipartisan press conference to release secret satellite photos of buildings in Taiwan that look shockingly similar to the infamous Hitler steam chambers.

They could bring in the daughter of the Taiwanese ambassador to cry and say she saw CCP soldiers eating babies.

But the jig would be up.

Seriously: what is the US going to do if China takes Taiwan? They’re going to start World War III?

I guess?

Every US military simulation about defending Taiwan from an “invasion” shows China winning, meaning the only option would be for the US to escalate.

China has consistently said they are going to fire nukes.

So we’re going to go to nuclear war for gay sex in Taiwan?

I sure looks like it.

How prepared is the US for nuclear war?

Who has been running the strategy on that front for the last two decades or so?

Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin?

Do what you can to help others.

Again, this subway artist strikes again. video.

Mysterious Carved Stone Balls Found in Scottish Isle Tomb

There’s a lot of interesting history in Scotland. Like this very curious article.

From HERE.

A 5,500-year-old tomb discovered on a Scottish island will soon be reclaimed by the sea. Archaeologists racing to excavate the site, “before it’s lost forever,” have discovered two enigmatic carved stone balls at the site.

Over the last two centuries archaeologists in Scotland have only discovered about 500 of these mysterious balls.

Dating back to between 3500 BC and 1500 BC, most carved stone balls measure around 3 inches (7.6 cm) in diameter, therefore, fitting easily into the palm of a closed hand. A 2017 Ancient Origins article explored a range of possible purposes for these stone balls.

While some archaeologists maintain they were hunting projectiles and fishing weights, others point out that most are flawless, and suggest they were sacred artifacts passed down from generation to generation.

The Press and Journal article reported that Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark, senior curator of prehistory (Paleolithic – Neolithic) at National Museum of Scotland, posted about the discovery of the two balls on Twitter.

He pointed out that only about 20 carved stone balls dating to the Neolithic have ever been found on Orkney.

The two balls recently discovered on Orkney were described by Dr Anderson-Whymark as a “cracking find from the tomb.”

The researcher described one of the balls as “size of a cricket ball,” and that it was “perfectly spherical and beautifully finished.”

The second carved stone ball found in the Neolithic tomb site at the edge of the sea at Tres Ness, Sanday, Orkney, Scotland. ( University of Central Lancashire )

The Rare Carved Stone Balls Of Scotland: Purpose Unknown!

Carved from both hard and soft stones, most carved stone balls have six projections (knobs) but they have been discovered with as many as 160. In 1876, J. Alexander Smith suggested that when bound to wooden handles the balls would have made efficient “ axe-like weapons .”

However, in the 1970s Dorothy N. Marshall pointed out that most of the balls are nearly flawless, and that ancient people wouldn’t have spent that much time and effort on spherical accuracy for a weapon.

The most recently discovered stone balls were found on what is, arguably, the most astoundingly beautiful of the many spectacular beaches in Orkney .

Tres Ness, on the island of Sanday, is according to Orkney.com “a special place.”

The website says you will often be the only people on the beach, “soaking up the ancient scenery as if you’re on a deserted island.”

However, for the last few years the prevailing silence has been disturbed by the chinking and chipping sounds of archaeologist trowels resounding from one of the island’s Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement that is about to fall into the sea forever.

Changes Times, Changing Coast Lines

The two Orkney stone balls were discovered within a Neolithic burial tomb. According to a report in Press and Journal the tomb on Tres Ness is formally known as “a stalled cairn” where the burial space was compartmentalized.

Dating back to around 3,500 BC the burial structure represents one of the oldest remaining buildings in Scotland and it was here that a team of archaeologists found the two rare stone balls. And luckily too, as the site is quickly being clawed away by the encroaching sea .

Professor Vicki Cummings is a reader in archaeology at the University of Central Lancashire.

She speculates that the tomb at Tres Ness was probably associated with the Neolithic settlement at the Cata Sand archaeological site.

Located about a mile-and-a-half away from the Tres Ness tomb, Cummings said that both sites and the beautiful beach at Tres Ness are under immediate threat from coastal erosion .

Another view of the Neolithic cliffside tomb side on Sanday. The left edge of the tomb is a seaside cliff that is eroding quickly. (University of Central Lancashire)

Sadly, The Sanday Orkney Site Is Vanishing Into The Sea

In the early Neolithic period both sites would have been located on a headland high above the coastline overlooking the sea from the distance and from above.

However, like sugary drinks working away at the roots of teeth, over time, the headland has been eaten away leaving the sites on the edge of a new, super-erosive, tidal coastline.

Cummings added that one major factor for the rapidly changing environment is the lack of trees, whereas in the Neolithic the entire area was wooded.

Cummings said, “sadly the site is vanishing into the sea,” so the focus of the site archaeologists is to extract as much information as possible “before it is basically lost forever.”

The discovery of the two rare carved stone balls really is what Dr Anderson-Whymark said, “a cracking find from the tomb.”

More from the Stormer…

Who is even running the US government?

Where are the adults?

The people running the US government are going around trying to force vax everyone, turn children into trannies as part of a program to normalize sex with children, and claiming that there’s a secret QAnon terrorist group planning to overthrow the government.

Then behind those freaks you’ve got freaks like Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab planning to turn themselves into genetically-engineered cyborg immortals.

Everything that is going on in the Western world is just as absurd and unserious as it is sickening and evil.

Here’s a thing which is happening: people – probably most of you reading this – are confusing the total power of the current US government for competence.

This is very natural, psychologically – it makes fundamental sense that people with absurd amounts of power would have to have competence.

But, if we break down the fact that these people inherited this power structure, then you might look at it like the logic of assuming a guy driving a Lamborghini must be rich, before you find out it was stolen.

It took me a long while to process it myself, and I definitely didn’t have a full understanding of it until Joe Biden took over as our overlord, but these people are not competent.

Upon closer inspection, we realize they are actual morons.

As a thought experiment: try to think of one single thing that the Democrats have done since assuming total domination of America that is indicative of competence.

The only thing you will likely be able to think of is the fact that they’ve managed to keep this virus thingy rolling, but that is obviously virtually entirely managed by the media.

And the success of the project is entirely dependent on the docility of the American people.

Same people, ten years later

MM home video

I took a minute to record what China is like. I was on my way to my office, and the contract of what China is compared to the crazy insanity that America is is breathtaking. It’s calm here. It’s nice and pleasant here. It’s clean, safe, relaxed, and healthy. video.

K-pop dance studios

As I have repeatedly stated in previous other articles, There’s three k-pop studios in my office building, and I often do down to watch the girls dance, make some friends, and find an opportunity to “pal around” with all the pretty girls there.

Here’s a gal performing vibrato by Stellar. video.

Some fine butt action there. LOL.

Some more from the Stormer…

China is understandably tired of having their country surrounded by the US military…

They are tired of being threatened and bullied.

And they’re tired of the humiliation of not being able to control their own internationally recognized national borders.

Yes, even the US recognizes Taiwan as a part of China…

…I guess people apparently don’t even know that.

Maybe the US will go to war, maybe they won’t – I have no way of predicting that.

I think it’s impossible to predict, given that there is no real order to the decisions being made by the people running the US government, other than that they are following this “New World Order” plot that was laid out by people who are already dead.

Most likely, if China took Taiwan, the leaders of the US would flinch, and that would signal the end of US global supremacy.

The empire would then enter into rapid decline, as without US military supremacy, there is no logic to the dollar as global reserve currency.

This would be a total tailspin, and America would look like the opening of that Dawn of the Dead remake.

It’s going to be a rough scene.

The best thing for you in such a situation would be if you – wait for it – lived in a rural community.

There will be serious rioting and all of the Walking Dead type stuff.

The blacks will probably form cannibal gangs pretty early on, but they’ll just end up eating each other. After eating his last remaining lieutenant, the last cannibal warlord in any given city will be totally alone, and his last words before he starves to death will be: “muffuggen wite ppl did dis.”

What will not happen: the Chinese will not invade America to enslave people in communism with their social credit system.

If you think that the Chinese want to invade America and enslave people, then you basically need to accept that you just don’t really have any idea what is going on.

Why would the Chinese want to invade and enslave Americans?

Just to be mean?

Do Chinese people strike you as that emotional, that they would waste huge amounts of resources in order to engage in an act of geopolitical meanness?

The entire Chinese mindset, and their entire marketing strategy as a superpower, is that they don’t invade countries, and instead trade with countries and invest in countries’ infrastructure.

There are all of these books published by Western universities over the last five years talking about how the US strategy of trying to convince countries to side with them over the Chinese was failing, and that all the countries who had made economic pacts with the Chinese were generally happy with the results.

China’s strategy has been to basically portray the US as a country of violent lunatics trying to enslave the planet with their military and their debt economic system.

And they are 100% accurate. -MM

Anthony Blinken was apparently chosen as Secretary of State because, along with being a Jewish Zionist, he’d given a bunch of speeches about the need for a new strategy to confront China in order to maintain US dominance.

It turns out he does’t have any such strategy, but he’s adamant that there needs to be a new one, which is more than the other candidates for Secretary of State were able to offer, apparently.

During his March meeting with Chinese adults, his first and thus far only major appearance on the global stage, Blinken brought a woman with purple hair and channeled Holden Caulfield when the Chinese “phonies” said that Americans need to start applying themselves to their job of maintaining world order.

America is viewed as weak by the rest of the world under the Biden administration. 
Putin is challenging Biden with live debate. 
And at the Alaska Summit, China told Blinken how he views America. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

pic.twitter.com/dNvSHFa0GN

— Rob Stark (@starkrob21) March 19, 2021

It’s rumored that during his interview for the job, Blinken did a pretty decent rendition of “Stairway to Heaven,” which Biden’s wife and caretaker “Doctor” Biden found “so dreamy.”

(Yes, Blinken actually was in a band and has admitted that his first choice for a career was “pop star.” Yes, he really had a single called “Lip Service,” which he wrote for Kamala Harris. Yes, that last part is a joke. I mean the Kamala Harris part. He really did release a single called “Lip Service,” which is on Spotify. This is going to go down in history alongside Caligula marrying his horse.)

Yes, after the total collapse, if you survive, then in 2050, there’s a high likelihood you will have a Chinese landlord.

Except maybe not, because if you survive the meltdown, it probably means you own rural land.

The point is: everything is probably all going to work out.

The ZOG empire is going to collapse, and the world is going to then be controlled by a Chinese merchant network, where the concept of “empire” is based on trade rather than military strength.

People will be fine in such a situation.

Certainly a lot better than we are now, under these guys.

In the Chinese version of Star Wars, Darth Vader has a pet triceratops.

Also, instead of blowing up Alderaan, he blows up the Kennedy Space Center.

Furthermore, Obi-Wan rides a motorcycle and wears a knight’s armor.

Han Solo is heavily grizzled, but he wears a heart locket.

Ask yourself: wouldn’t the new Star Wars movies have been better if instead of being about feminism and race-mixing, they explored Darth Vader’s relationship with his triceratops?

I rest my case.

Built like a fish.

In China, the idea of the perfect shape is one that resembles the smooth thin lines of a fish. Much like this girl does. video.

Or this woman who is shaped like a fish…

Nice bouncy Chinese woman. My guess is that she had implants, and the only way you can achieve such an aggressive bouncy softness is with the Motiva Ergomax implants. video. Yeah, these sixth generation implants are truly something.

It makes me want to play with her boobies. Jiggle. Jiggle. Jiggle.

China infrastructure projects.

It’s all totally under reported in the West.

video

Delivery guy stops and becomes a Rufus…

Just an ordinary guy, doing ordinary things, when he sees a boy drowning. In a split second he make the decision to dive in and save the boy. video

How to make authentic Pepper-pork

Here’s how you do it. It’s so easy, and OMG so very, very delicious. Give it a try, you will not regret it. video.

What it is like leaving the KTV going to the hotel…

Ah. For those of you who are not aware. This is what it is like leaving the business KTV hostess and having an evening of fun. It’s riding in the car to the hotel for the final enjoyment of the evening.

It was a fun evening. video.

Finally, Be the Rufus!

Imagine a world where everyone is nice to each other. Where families can live without worries, fear or threats. Imagine a place where everyone is helpful. Well, you don’t have to wait. You can start doing it now. Today. Just go forth and do some random acts of kindness. Smile at people. Go out of your way to be nice. Just put a little bit of sunshine in the lives of others. Be the Rufus. video.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

New Beginnings

.

Articles & Links

Master Index

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  • You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
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America has decided to wage a hot war against China. It’s not if, it’s when.

I pretty much agree with migueljose. I'm 77 years old, US native-born citizen and life-long resident. The main problem in the US is the intense interracial animosity of all against all, and the deliberate race baiting by our ruling class. Race relations were better in the 50's despite segregation (worse in the North).

The second problem is the collapse of our educational system K-post doc, and the resulting incompetence of our Ruling Class. The attempt to actually destroy important Russian and Chinese companies and institutions, like Huawei, is an actual act of war. When that game was run against Japan in the late 30's, we got the Pacific War. Our current policies will give us a war with Russia-China. After the Biden interview and Alaska meeting fiascos, it is clear Russia and China are now coordinating their future actions. One fears the worst.

Posted by: bob sykes | Mar 23 2021 19:23 utc | 6

I do not want to sound alarming. But… Jeeze Louise…

After this last week with [1] the events of the Alaskan meeting between the United States and China, and [2] the “write ups” leading to it are quite horrifying.

I wonder what the Hell is going on in the minds of the folks back in Washington DC, for they have obviously have a mixture of numerous mental illnesses. Not a singular one. A mixture.

The Alaskan meeting was stunning in it’s insanity.

For starters, America demands that China (and the rest of the world) STOP working with the United Nations. Instead they order all other nations, and their leaders to “follow the United States” as it leads.

Yes.

You read that correctly.

Well, for one thing, the Americans demand a “Rules based obedience“. Not one that follows the United Nations. I know that it sounds so nice, and so orderly. “Rules”. ‘Why would anyone not want to follow “rules”?’ says the American sheeple. And yes, it does play well in the “red states” back inside of America, but it is dangerous.

It is very, very dangerous.

Because this “rules based obedience” means…

  1. There is not any kind of national sovereignty, only American sovereignty.
  2. Nations exist at the pleasure and allowance of the United States.
  3. The United States makes the rules at will.
  4. The United States changes the rules at will.
  5. All other nations are subservient to the United States.
  6. The United Nations has no say what so ever in International affairs.
  7. The United Nations is a convenience that America uses when it wants to, and ignores when it decides to.

This is a very authoritarian and demanding posture.

It is unyielding and fixed.

It’s almost as if the leaders in America are Megalomaniacs. To believe and allow such an insane level of insanity.

Megalomania is a psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, omnipotence, and by inflated self-esteem. 

Historically it was used as a name for narcissistic personality disorder prior to the latter's first use by Heinz Kohut in 1968, and is used today as a non-clinical equivalent. 

But it’s not just that.

It’s many other things.

Such as the litany of demands that America placed on China.

Such as…

  • China’s actions and behavior regarding 台湾.
  • China’s actions and behavior regarding 西藏.
  • China’s actions and behavior regarding 香港.
  • China’s actions and behavior regarding 快乐的脚.

All of which might not look familiar to the American readers in the audience.

As all of the items (that America demanded on China) are de facto Chinese land, cities, areas and territories.

These are regions as specified within the United Nations and identified as Chinese domains.

Such as Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Taiwan.

So it really is insulting that these jackasses from Washington DC have the fucking nerve to tell the Chinese what to do in 香港.

Which is like China demanding that America do thing about Baltimore, the killings in Chicago, and the maritime operations in the Gulf of Mexico and Boston harbor.

This illness, where you cannot understand the personal barriers of others is known as Cognitive Dysfunction.

Cognitive disorders, also known as neurocognitive disorders, are a category of mental health disorders that primarily affect cognitive abilities including learning, memory, perception, and problem solving. 

Neurocognitive disorders include delirium and mild and major neurocognitive disorder. 

They are defined by deficits in cognitive ability that are acquired, typically represent decline, and may have an underlying brain pathology. 

The DSM-5 defines six key domains of cognitive function: executive function, learning and memory, perceptual-motor function, language, complex attention, and social cognition.

Why were the American delegation so rude, demanding, and ill behaved during the Alaskan meeting? Could it be that they ACTUALLY BELIEVED that they were that powerful, and that they indeed represented the United States within that capacity?

How and why would they hold this amazingly dangerous position? It’s not patriotism. It’s pure evil.

It is exactly what Hitler demanded of Austria, West Prussia, Poland, the Netherlands, and France in the late 1930’s.

It’s pure evil.

The hatred towards China inside America is just ripe for war

The last four years of spewed hate has been horrible. Here’s the “news” from today…

The Mike Pompeo Speech is codified into policy

In April 2020, immediately after China stopped the COVID-19B virus, Mike Pompeo laid out a speech decrying China. In his speech he stated that all efforts to contain it has failed and that new aggressive measures must be taken.

I guess Pompeo and trump were surprised that China could completely stop a major bio-weapons attack with an R0=20; the very dangerous “B strain” when China was must vulnerable; CNY.

In comparison, the American "safe strain", has a much smaller R0=0.01, and a much small lethality footprint. Which is why it is called the "herd inoculation strain".

This speech was bemoaned by the entire global community as unrealistic, a throwback to World War II, and entirely antagonistic as well as a violation of the UN charter.

Well, guess what?

Yup. It’s now official American policy.

The Longer Telegram

Don’t believe me? Here we look at an American “policy paper” known as “The Longer Telegram“.

It’s called a “telegraph” as it is used as a “fair warning” that the United States considers China as a hostile enemy that must be destroyed. Thus the message is “telegraphed” to all people involved.

It is a reissue, and rewording of a post World War II document on how to be Master of the World. And it is being followed with religious fervor in the United States by the Biden administration. Following this outdated, outmoded, and insane cartoon-image of what the world is today is hastening the demise of the United States.

As well as forcing the hands of the Chinese, Iranians and Russians towards nuclear war.

It’s authored by “anonymous“, but we can see clearly that the contributors are the entire neocon establishment on “K street”. That’s John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and the rest of the neocon cabal.

What is this “telegram”?

It’s a strategy and orders towards “reclaiming American greatness” by the destruction of the largest threats “to the American way of life” in the world. In it, it describes a very militaristic policy of total annihilation of the enemies of the United States.

Not cooperation.

Not negotiation, and trade.

Not Geo-political alignments, and posturing.

No.

It’s about total annihilation of all the threats the the United States global leadership, and how to go about making sure that it is successful.

  • Primarily the destruction of China.
  • Isolation of China from Russian support and alliances.
  • Isolation of China geographically.
  • Isolation of China internationally, culturally and socially.
  • Isolation of China in technology, skills, knowledge and science.
America is a military empire.

It’s a long-worded tome.

Obviously it was written by one or more “think tanks” in the military-industrial complex. Obviously a number of committees wrote various parts, spliced them together, and achieved “buy in” as a group.

As Strategic Culture writes…

The Atlantic Council has emitted The Longer Telegram: Toward A New American China Strategy written by Anonymous. Clearly it is supposed to echo Mr X’s (George Kennan’s) Long Telegram. But some differences: this is longer – much longer, grinding on for seven times the length of Kennan’s essay.

And what is it about…

It’s about China…

It’s about Russia too.

The document describes a China that exists only in their furtive imaginations; 

An “authoritarian” country whose communist rulers are divorced from the people they rule, in which President Xi is described as more or less a warlord surrounded by “cronies,” enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else, and who have visions of ruling the world. 

This fantasy is in fact a mirror-image of the United States.

Indeed.

It has absolutely no resemblance with China, as it is today, in any way, shape or form.

The American military are experts at fighting wars in far away lands.

Facts do not matter to the ideologically obsessed.

The Strategic Culture Foundation says it quite clearly…

But, enough of Anonymous’ fancies – they have no base in reality: 

The USA out-sourced its manufacturing to China long ago and won’t be getting it back.

Wokeism is killing its education system.
America's politics are broken.
America's military is losing everywhere and doesn’t realize it.
A tsunami of debt has built up. 

Most absurd of all, after years of needless hostility to Russia, Washington has no hope of separating Moscow from Beijing. 

And Xi Jinping is not some rogue who seized control...
...he is the top of a robust pyramid.

The only significance of this paltry effort is that it gives us another – and depressingly influential – example of the curious American obsession with personalities – everything in Chinese-U.S. relations was going along swimmingly until Xi. 

But actually, as anyone capable of seeing reality knows, China is much, much more than one man.

China/Russia/Iran/Iraq/insert-name-of-country was happy to accept its place in the Rules-Based International Order...

... until that nasty Xi/Putin/Ayatollah/Saddam/insert-name changed everything; get rid of him and it will all fix itself.

Sure...

When are they going to understand that it’s a whole country, not just one guy?
America is a Military Empire.

How about the details…

But what is this thing… this “Longer Telegram”…

In an extraordinarily provocative move, the U.S. foreign policy establishment has warned China that it is pushing for a more aggressive strategy...

... all the way up to instigating war. 

In a tome-like article published by the Washington-based Atlantic Council, there are foreboding demands for numerous “red lines” to confront China over.

Entitled ‘The Longer Telegram’ the article is a strange throwback to Cold War thinking. It is ostentatiously mimicking the famous document authored by George Kennan in 1946 who as a U.S. diplomat based in the Moscow wrote ‘The Long Telegram’ prescribing a hostile strategy of containment against the Soviet Union.

Thus the Atlantic Council is billing the recent article as a seminal historical contribution to formulating U.S. policy towards China, and one that is more bellicose and “comprehensive”.
The suppression of China will require “boots on the ground” inside of China.

Here’s a reprint of a very informative article…

The Longer Telegram: To Contain China or the USA?
Christopher Black
March 14, 2021

The paper repeats the mistake inherent in all American thinking about the world, of [1] inventing a rival that does not exist, and then [2] positing strategies to deal with this fiction.

Washington, Beijing and European capitals have been firing off barrages of commentary in the past weeks on an anonymously authored paper on China published on January 28 by the U.S.-NATO think tank, the Atlantic Council, entitled “The Longer Telegram: Toward A New American China Strategy.

It is modeled on another policy paper written by George Kennan in 1946.

That policy paper was called the Long Telegram. In it Kennan set out a strategy for “containing” the Soviet Union.

Which is a nice euphemism that means “destroying it”.

The American military has been training to seize Chinese islands and fight within Chinese cities.

Kennan’s advice was adopted and became U.S. strategy. The Longer Telegram purports to set out a strategy for undermining China and its socialist system.

Which is really fucked up as the Chinese system is far, far, FAR superior to the American system of oligarchy-run military-empire that pretends to be a democracy.

The Longer Telegram has met with approval by some U.S. and allied strategists and governments but alarm by others. China has denounced it for what it is, a plan for aggression against China and its socialist system.

The paper repeats the mistake inherent in all American thinking about the world, of inventing a rival that does not exist, and then positing strategies to deal with this fiction.

This delusory thinking has led the United States into one defeat after another and caused the world untold troubles as it tried to throw its weight around to secure markets and resources for its industries and capital.

  • Yemen
  • Panama
  • Libera
  • Afghanistan
  • Syria
  • etc, etc…

The destruction of one country after another to achieve that objective, the deaths of millions, the immiseration of entire regions of the world are nothing to American capital so long as it can make money.

All their rhetoric about “human rights” “democracy” and other such platitudes is just a cover for maintaining their economic hegemony and keeping everyone else down.

American occupation of Xinjiang, Taiwan, Tibet and Hing Kong are all part of the war plans.

They even sometimes admit this.

In the National Defence Strategy issued in 2018, the real reason for the slanders against China, the constant provocations in Hong Kong, and the South China Sea is stated clearly…

“Failure to meet our defense objectives will result in decreasing U.S. global influence...

...eroding cohesion among allies and partners...

...and reduced access to markets...

...that will contribute to a decline in our prosperity and standard of living.”

Of course even this is a lie since American capital does not care at all about the standard of living of the American people, only about the prosperity and standard of living of the big capitalists.

The world can see what conditions are in the United States.

The [1] failure to protect their people from the Covid pandemic, [2] the almost daily extrajudicial killings of blacks and poor people, [3] the hollow promise of Biden to institute a higher minimum wage, [4] the collapse of the power grid in Texas are[5] eloquent expressions of the contempt and disregard big capital has for the common people.

The document describes a China that exists only in their furtive imaginations;

…an “authoritarian” country whose communist rulers are divorced from the people they rule, in which President Xi is described as more or less a warlord surrounded by “cronies,” enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else, and who have visions of ruling the world.

This fantasy is in fact a mirror image of the United States.

The American marines have been drilling and practicing the invasion and seizure of Chinese held islands for the last four years.

The anonymous author(s) sees China as he has been conditioned to see America, and then projects that outward to any nation that attempts to develop its economy and improve the conditions of its people.

And just as the forces of capital in the United States manipulate elections and the political system to guarantee their power in order to feather their own nests, the author of the Longer Telegram accuses the President of China of doing the same in China, of using his position for his own benefit.

It then offers recommendations on how to try to split the Chinese leadership from the people, and even on how to split the Communist Party from its membership and the people, using false claims as propaganda to undermine social cohesion.

American military.

China did well to kick out the BBC last week and to arrest the U.S. and British agents in Hong Kong.

The document adopts the Henry Kissinger strategy urging a soft approach to Russia to try to lure it away from its alliance with China.

This would require a complete reversal of American strategy of surrounding Russia with bases, ships and missile systems, of attempting to ruin the Russian economy with all the illegal trade and financial embargoes.

It is not going to happen.

But the suggestion shows the confusion in the American leadership on how to stop its economic decline that precedes its decline as the world hegemon.

For decades the Americans have claimed to support nations trying to raise themselves from the poverty created by European and American colonialism, to achieve economic prosperity and a better life for their peoples.

But when a country achieves those goals it suddenly becomes an enemy.

America want no rivals.

The Chinese military are not 1980’s era conscripts with out-of-date Russian weapons systems. They are a modern and formidable army.

China is declared an enemy simply because the Communist Party has, over its long struggle from the Long March to today, raised a billion and more people out of poverty, has created a social and economic system no western nation can equal.

  • China is as big as the United States.
  • China has more factories than the United States.
  • China has a peer capable military.
  • China is a threat on all levels of (former) United States dominance.

And most importantly…

Their example shows the world what can be achieved by nations finally freed from colonialism, and shows the strength and vitality of socialism.

But now America faces renewed threats from the aspiring colonial powers.

China is a serious, serious nation that does not play.

Defeated in 1949, the colonial powers have never abandoned their ambitions to again reduce China to a colony.

They are, once again, actively engaged in trying to undermine China as a sovereign nation.

To slander it.

To sabotage its economy.

To threaten it with armed force.

And to break it into smaller, manageable pieces, as they want to do with Russia.

The method of attack is wide.

The Canadians, on U.S. orders, have essentially kidnapped and still hold hostage, Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of the technology company, Huawei.

At the same time, the U.S. used the arrest as a warning to others trading with Iran.

They have increased their military provocations off the Chinese coast.

With the U.S. and its vassal states sending naval ships, time and again, through the Taiwan Strait, claiming to be enforcing “freedom of navigation” …

…but in reality declaring that Taiwan, a province of China, is an American protectorate.

The Chinese are not illiterate goat herders living in mud huts.

The complete response to the Longer Telegram is found in China’s national defence white paper which states, “Though a country may become strong, bellicosity will lead to its ruin.

The Chinese nation has always loved peace.

Since the beginning of modern times, the Chinese people have suffered from aggressions and wars, and have learned the value of peace and the pressing need for development.

Therefore, China will never inflict such sufferings on any other country.

Any attack on China will come with an enormous price tag.

Since its founding 70 years ago, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never started any war or conflict.

You just cannot say this about America; the biggest military empire in history.

Since the introduction of reform and opening-up, China has been committed to promoting world peace, and has voluntarily downsized the PLA by over 4 million troops.

China has grown from a poor and weak country to be the world’s second largest economy neither by receiving handouts from others nor by engaging in military expansion or colonial plunder.

Instead, it has developed through its people’s hard work and its efforts to maintain peace.

China has made every effort to create favorable conditions for its development through maintaining world peace, and has equally endeavored to promote world peace through its own development.

China sincerely hopes that all countries will choose the path of peaceful development and jointly prevent conflicts and wars.”

All those who want peace in the world, can support that statement.

The US military experts gave a high estimate of the tests of the new Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile which showed that the US aircraft carriers are in real danger as reported by Washington Free Beacon at the beginning of July. The tests took place in the South China Sea, where, in particular, the US Navy ships are deployed. It is specified that the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) requires hi-tech surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting systems. According to the Pentagon, China has already deployed all of those. The US has no missile systems of the kind, and the possibilities to counteract them are limited, according to the website.

The Longer Telegram is not just a policy paper, it is also propaganda.

Dangerous anti-UN propaganda

Propaganda which must be rejected as a call for the violation of all the principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations.

A charter that guarantee every nation [1] the right to peaceful development, [2] to its sovereignty and [3] to non-interference from other nations; [4] to be treated with respect.

All of which were missing in the 19MAR21 Alaskan meeting between the USA and America.

Instead of contemplating strategies on how to contain China…

….the world must instead contemplate strategies for containing the United States of America.”


It’s all pretty damning. But why does MM believe that America has chosen to engage in a hot war?

Americans are ripe and “chomping at the bit” for a war.

There is unrestrained budget constraints and the debt is at twenty trillion dollars with no signs of any kind of fiscal responsibility. Either the American governance is counting on a financial and fiscal collapse, or…

…or…

…they plan on looting a large, plump and ripe nation to compensate for their fiscal irresponsibility.

And they are eyeing China.

History tells us that when nations have depleted their coffers, and their citizenry have taken to “torches and pitchforks” the only way out…

…socially, economically, and as a way to control the situation…

…is a war.

If they win, and conquer the opposing targeted nation, they can loot it, and fill their empty coffers. They can unite an upset and disturbingly angry citizenry with an enemy, and they can postpone the demise of their government that caused the fiscal irresponsibility in the first place.

China does not play.

Let’s look at this article, shall we…


Washington Telegrams China of Red Lines and Aggression

For a start (the policy paper) denigrates China’s President Xi Jinping in the most pejorative terms unbecoming of diplomatic norms. It proposes that “U.S. strategy must remain laser-focused on Xi, [and] his inner circle.”

The document states:

“At home, Xi has returned China to classical Marxism-Leninism and fostered a quasi-Maoist personality cult, pursuing the systematic elimination of his political opponents… Xi is no longer just a problem for U.S. primacy. He now presents a serious problem for the whole of the democratic world.”

What the Washington policy elite are explicitly calling for is “regime change” in Beijing by aiming to destabilize the senior government.

This marks an unprecedented notice of increased hostility towards the Chinese leadership. This is taking things way past U.S. aggression under Obama and Trump and brings it to a whole new level.

What’s even more alarming is the Atlantic Council article sets out numerous “red lines” which could trigger military confrontation.

These red lines include [1] “major hostile action” by China in the South China Sea, or [2] an attack on Taiwan, or [3] cyberattacks against the United States.

This is alarming because these actions are being exacerbated by the U.S. itself.

China is not afraid to use it’s nuclear weapons on any attacking force, and no one within America, England, Australia or wherever the aggressors want to hide .

[1] A“major hostile action” by China in the South China Sea

Since Biden took office last month, his administration has sent two navy carrier strike groups to conduct exercises in the South China Sea, which Beijing has condemned.

[2] Taiwan

A U.S. warship also recently passed through the Strait of Taiwan.

[3] And cyberattacks against the United States.

As for cyberattacks, they can be easily fabricated and falsely attributed by U.S. intelligence agencies. As clearly specified in the Vault 7 release by Wikileaks.

At one point the Atlantic Council article notes:

“U.S. strategy must understand that China remains for the time being highly anxious about military conflict with the United States, but that this attitude will change as the military balance shifts over the next decade. 

If military conflict were to erupt between China and the United States, and China failed to win decisively, then – given the party’s domestic propaganda offensive over many years proclaiming China’s inevitable rise – Xi would probably fall and the regime’s overall political legitimacy would collapse.”

This last paragraph is a clear sign that Washington planners are actually considering a preemptive war against China in which the latter “failed to win decisively” thereby precipitating the fall of President Xi.

The reaction from China has been surprisingly reserved.

Beijing condemned the American Cold War mentality but seemed to avoid condemning what are clearly U.S. threats of war.

One analyst for Global Times speculated that the Atlantic Council article was a “remnant from the Trump administration”.

Such thinking is dangerously complacent.

America wants China destroyed

For the evidence points to the article being an expression of policy formulation by the Biden administration.

It is notable in a recent interview with CBS, President Biden sounded remarkably disrespectful towards his Chinese counterpart.

Biden said he hadn’t yet spoken directly with Xi since the U.S. presidential inauguration ceremony nearly three weeks ago.

Such an absence of communication seems to be a calculated snub from Biden and his policy planners in Washington which is in total keeping with the proposed strategy outlined in the Atlantic Council article to “laser-focus” on denigrating Xi and his leadership.

Here’s another notable oddity.

While Biden has yet to contact Xi, the American leader held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin the day after his inauguration.

In the Atlantic Council article, the author proposes:

“Dividing Russia from China… is critical.” It calls for “stabilizing relations with Russia” and the United States.

In the 1970s, it was the other way around.

U.S. policy then, first under Richard Nixon and later successors, was all about drawing China away from the Soviet Union because Moscow was perceived as the main threat to American hegemony.

Now, as the Biden administration and other Washington planners assert over and over, it is Beijing that is perceived as the principal challenger to the waning U.S. global empire.

But the same tactic of divide and rule is at play.

Officially, the Biden White House says it has yet to formulate definitive policies on relations with China or Russia.

America has no defense for the hypersonic DF-17 carrier killer.

But the vibe and tone of the Atlantic Council article has Team Biden’s fingerprints all over it – indicating that it is preparing to take a reckless aggressive course toward China. The Trump administration – which was brazenly antagonistic to China – is criticized for lacking “comprehensive strategy”.

That’s Orwellian euphemism for the Biden administration telegramming the threat of much more confrontational policy.

It may all just be reckless rhetoric by Washington’s imperial planners.

Nevertheless, the mere playing with war rhetoric is reprehensible and speaks of American desperation to salvage its diminishing global power.

It’s a time to be very careful and guarded.

Do not be under the impression that Russia and China are all unaware of all this.

No wonder, China has been hurriedly mass-producing nuclear warheads, MIRV ICBM missiles, and state of the art weapons technology at a hectic pace.

They are not fools.

The DF-41 will render all of America completely radioactive rubble.

Do not be under the illusion that China is a far away land and that American military can engage China…

…on Chinese territory…

… in a superior manner…

…where American lays out the terms of conflict…

…and Americans can watch on their television sets eating popcorn as the war and conflict rages in far, far away China.

Nope.

It’s not going to be like that.

As the Saker has pointed out…

And crucially, “keep the barbarians from coming together” applied to Russia, China and Iran. That was Pax Americana in a nutshell. And that’s what’s totally unraveling now.

Hence the Kill Bill logic. It goes back a long way. Less than two months after the collapse of the USSR, the 1992 Defense Planning Guidance preached total global dominance and, following Dr Zbig, the absolute imperative of preventing the emergence of any future peer competitor.

Especially Russia, defined as “the only power in the world with the capacity of destroying the United States.”

Then, in 2002, at the start of the “axis of evil” era, came the full spectrum dominance doctrine as the bedrock of the US National Security Strategy. Domination, domination everywhere: terrestrial, aerial, maritime, subterranean, cosmic, psychological, biological, cyber-technological.

And, not by accident, the Indo-Pacific strategy – which guides the Quad – is all about “how to maintain US strategic primacy.”

China should be taken seriously and respected.

This mindset is what enables US Think Tankland to formulate risible “analyses” in which the only “win” for the US imperatively requires a failed Chinese “regime.”

After all, Leviathan is congenitally incapable of accepting a “win-win”; it only runs on “zero-sum,” based on divide and rule.

And that’s what’s leading the Russia-China strategic partnership to progressively establish a wide-ranging, comprehensive security environment, spanning everything from high-tech weaponry to banking and finance, energy supplies and the flow of information.

Yup. Russia and China are coming together to defend against the American monster…

Do not be under the misguided impression that America can conduct a far-away war with China or Russia independently. They are working together.

It will not happen that way.

Neither China, or Russia will allow that to occur.

Doing so, would result in American cities blasted out of existence. It’s real.

Consider the “dead hand” for instance…

Dead Hand
Dead Hand, also known as Perimeter, is a Cold War-era automatic nuclear weapons-control system that was used by the Soviet Union. 

General speculation from insiders alleges that the system remains in use in the post-Soviet Russian Federation as well. 

An example of fail-deadly and mutual assured destruction deterrence, it can automatically trigger the launch of the Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles by sending a pre-entered highest-authority order from the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Strategic Missile Force Management to command posts and individual silos if a nuclear strike is detected by seismic, light, radioactivity, and pressure sensors even with the commanding elements fully destroyed. 

By most accounts, it is normally switched off and is supposed to be activated during times of crisis; however, it is said to remain fully functional and able to serve its purpose whenever it may be needed.

-Wikipedia

But, America need not worry, right? A few strategically placed bombs here and there, a capture of an island or two and some “boot on the ground” will force China to obey America. Right?

Dead Hand

Russia upgrading its ‘Dead Hand’

29 Mar 2018 in 10:20

It’s active and alive. As this three year old article points out…

Russia is upgrading its nuclear final defence system which automatically launches it entire arsenal in a doomsday-like barrage, one of the US leading authorities on nuclear disarmament Bruce Blair said.

Russia’s defence chiefs are working to improve the so-called “Dead Hand” weapons system – also known as Perimeter. It has been referred to as a “Doomsday device” by analysts and was first developed during the paranoia of the Cold War.

Blair, who is the former US Air Force nuclear launch officer, said he believes the system is still operational and is even being “upgraded,” Daily Star Online reported.

Dead Hand is described as a “fully automatic” system which is turned on amid times of crisis by Russia. It is operated by three crew members whose sole job is just to make sure the system is operational with “no judgement” involvement.

Despite the terrifying concept, Dr Blair, co-founder of disarmament campaign group Global Zero, said the existence of such a weapon actually helps reduce the risk of nuclear war.

However, he questioned the system’s “vulnerability to cyber attack” as a cause for concern to global security. Dead Hand’s operation means the West will always have to think twice if there is a temptation for a nuclear strike.

“[Dead Hand] is fully automatic except that it has to be turned on by the general staff during a crisis, and there is a small crew that would perform a small number of functions before it would operate,” Blair said. “It is not a risk unless it could hacked and trigger an unauthorized launch,” he added

But don’t worry. China is isolated from Russia. And can be beaten easily by the superior American military…

Right?

Are you willing to bet your life, and your families lives on it?

So you really trust this man with your future…

Mike Pompeo

Or

Or, his “official” replacement in the Biden Administration.

Antony Blinken

So

So, do you really think that things are just going to be a lot of “hot air” and posturing?

And that nothing will come of all this, that somehow it will all go away…?

China will not be provoked

America will try and push and push China into an action. If China fails “to take the bait”, then America will make up and excuse a “false flag” event that will justify a war.

Now, let it be understood that America is not allowed to go to war without Congressional approval.

But that is meaningless.

America is currently fighting eight simultaneous wars all over the world directly and another twenty or so surreptitiously. None of which were specifically authorized by Congress.

So do not expect that the normal war declaration process will be followed. It will not.

Just expect a “false flag” event as an excuse to go to war within the next couple of years, if not months.

A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on a second party. The term is popular amongst conspiracy theory promoters in referring to covert operations of various governments and cabals.

-Wikipedia

Keep in mind that war is unpredictable

Please keep in mind that war is madness.

.

Yes it is crazy.

On one hand, don’t be so sure that China will be able to stop America, and this “road map towards destruction”. They might not be able to. And the United States might, and could very well, roll right over China. Destroy it, and carve it up into much smaller vassal states to service the American wealthy. Indeed, China might easily crumble after a concerted attack by skilled military forces working in unison.

After all, America is a well trained battle empire. It has over 75 years of non-stop military excursions, the top line and highest quality weaponry, and lots and lots of nuclear missiles.

It also has it’s cronies like the UK, Australia Korea, Japan and India who will participate in a conflict with China. Combined, it seems that China doesn’t have a chance, and while China can train and train, they do not have active hostile fighting experience like the American military has. The United States could plausibly rip right through China like a hot knife though butter.

And of course, please don’t be so sure that Russia will sit everything out. They might. They might just allow America and China to duke it out while they watch from the side-lines. Yes. That could happen, but don’t count on it. Russia and China see America as a very unpredictable enemy.

But war is about betrayals.

You will think that one nation and people are on your side, and then they could flip at a moments notice. Sort of how Italy was aligned with the Nazi Germans and then flipped and allied with the American during World War II.

Expect betrayals, and sabotage.

Expect messy things, and terrible reporting of the “news“. Like how the Trump Armada flotilla fared in the South China Sea in 2020.

Don’t be so sure that America will win a war against Asia. I know that this will come to a shock to those that watch the Rush Limbaugh show and watch FOX news. For in their minds, America is invincible!

There is no such thing as invincibility. There is only layers and degrees of damage, and ones varying ability to contain and repair the damage.

Don’t be so sure that any destroyed American cities will be able to be rebuilt either. America does have that ability any longer. Sure there are handymen, and construction companies. Sure there is the potential. But the real, active and genuine skills required to rebuild a devastated nation, it’s not really there.

I am sure that any destroyed city can be rebuilt. However we know from history that when Genghis Khan decimated Western Europe and the “Silk Road” cities, they remained empty and devoid of inhabitants for centuries afterwards. Indeed, many were never rebuilt.

America has lost the skills, and the ability to build, let alone rebuild. As well as the technical expertise in the most basic of constructions. While there are trillions of dollars in the value of American companies, most do not make anything. They either play with numbers or images in communication venues, or provide services. Both of which are not capable of rebuilding cities, infrastructure or societies.

Don’t be so sure that nuclear weapons will not be used. China does not play. They have repeatedly warned in words and deeds that they will respond in absolute terms with any American aggression. Do not think, for a minute, that they will risk allowing the United States to attack them unopposed.

This idea, this fantasy, that America can dictate terms to China, and bludgeon them into compliance as some kind of bargain-basement slave is very dangerous. China is like the nerd in High School that everyone picks on, makes fun of, and taunts without mercy….

….Meanwhile he’s also the kid who has built a death-ray in his basement.

Don’t expect anything.

But do not be under the misguided impression that the bullshit narrative the the “Long Telegram” is based upon has validity. It is a fantasy, and if the American leadership follows this “roadmap” for the “suppression” of China, it was end up turning out quite…

…ugly.

Conclusion

Yes, this is a profoundly sobering and disgusting article. I am sorry for it.

Any war with China will not be contained to the South China Sea, but will land inside of America in a most horrific manner.

But everything points to a historical progression of events. One that can no longer be ignored. It’s not if there will be a hot war, but rather how it will develop and whether or not it can be contained.

Certainly the American leadership believes that China can be “suppressed” and a war could be fought on American terms, with American rules of engagement, and on American defined battle fields. They might be right.

But I have a completely different projection.

And the earth might not survive the resulting insanity that will manifest.

If I were to take bets, I would argue that both Russia and China are working on plans to preemptively annihilate and castrate the United States before it slaughters the entire world.

But what do I know?

Be safe you all.

This is the meeting that China had with Russia immediately after the Alaskan meeting with the United States. I wonder why China was in such a rush to chat with the Russians…?

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying’s Regular Press Conference on March 22, 2021

CCTV:Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said in an interview that the Untied States and Western countries are pursuing policy of hegemony in international affairs, trying to impede the trend toward a multi-polar and democratic world, and imposing its will and requirements on others. The primary task of China and Russia is to strengthen high-level collaboration and jointly advance multipolarity and regional integration and collaboration. What’s your comment?
Hua Chunying: Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks are right to the point. The more unstable the world is, the more China and Russia need to advance our cooperation.
For a long period, the US and the West wantonly interfered in other country’s domestic affairs by using democracy and human rights as an excuse. Such moves created troubles in the world and even became the source of instability and war.
China and Russia always stand together in close cooperation, firmly rejects hegemony and bullying practice and have become a pillar for world peace and stability.
In the past year, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping and President Putin, China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era achieved remarkable outcomes. In the face of once-in-a-century pandemic and changes, China and Russia stand in solidarity to fight the virus together, and advance cooperation in such areas as economy, trade and scientific innovation despite challenges.
The two sides firmly support each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests and jointly uphold international fairness and justice. It is fair to say that China-Russia relations withstood the test and emerged stronger with our friendship becoming even closer.
We believe Foreign Minister Lavrov’s on-going visit will further cement the sound momentum of the high-level bilateral relations and bring the two countries closer in the strategic collaboration on international affairs.
China is ready to work with Russia to follow through on the consensus of the two heads of state, and take the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Good-neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation as an opportunity to carry forward the spirit of the treaty and advance China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era at greater scope, in wider areas and at deeper levels.
The two sides will join hands in building a model of international relations featuring strategic trust, mutually beneficial cooperation, close people-to-people ties, fairness and justice. Together, the two sides can make greater contribution to upholding world peace and stability.

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The big lie that everyone is equal

It’s really a pretty big lie that everyone is equal. No one is.

We are all different. We have different types of hair, different ways of thinking, different likes in food, different views of attractiveness, and different ways of handling things.

Conformity is a tool used to control groups of people.

When you need to handle unruly herds of people, or things (like herding kittens), you need to create rules and ways of handling things. Back in the days when organized schools first started popping up, the fierce independence of the children were bleached out of them to make room for order and control.

During this time, as the children grew up and became adults they began to consider that level of control and uniformity as necessary for “a great society”. And when the adults became politicians, they repeated that action and placed rule after rule, and law after law. One after the other. All in an effort to make a well-organized, well-run nation.

But it’s not really true.

Independent thought, differences in ability, thoughts, emotions and opinions are what makes the world an interesting and colorful place. You really don’t want to relive the old days of conformity under some kind of grand master plan do you?

We try to force people into boxes to make them equal. You know, sort of like the scene in the Movie Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, where all the students are being repackaged into clones of each other.

You know.

Maybe something like this…

Is everyone equal in a court of law?

Is everyone equal in skills or ability?

Is everyone equal in beauty or attractiveness?

So WHY is America so obsessed with this notion of “equality”? No one is equal at anything. Instead, I argue that it is our DIFFERENCES that should be treasured. Not our similarities.

But…

That’s not how American schools operate…

In School, everyone is equal.

And that indoctrination in school has entered American society. Like it or not. And that has since spread (like a dangerous virus) throughout the world…

One of the big lies in America today is that everyone is equal. It’s a lie because no one is actually equal. Everyone is different.

Quite. Different.

And that is a good thing.

Now the progressive liberals in the audience would be confused with this. As they equate “equality” with “democracy”, and “uniqueness” with “diversity”. You can’t do that and make those comparisons. They are nonsensical.

And the traditional conservatives want to make everyone fit into some kind of pre-determined role within society. One with stratification, and one where “misfits” have no place. It’s an exclusionary vision. It’s the “lone wolf” concept, where everyone is part of a tribe, with roles and set behaviors. All following a great parent-figure; their “leader”. And the misfits…

…well, they can just go somewhere else to die. Put them in a hospital. Put them on some kind of social program. Move them away, far away from the rest of society. They don’t belong. They are too different.

Which makes me want to have a cup of coffee and write this rant…

Do we really want to be like everyone else?

We see this all over the place.

There is NO SUCH THING as true equality. Yet, there is a large contingent of people that believe in this myth.

And I see it in the comment sections of social media. Where an eleven year old is commenting with a forty year old construction worker. The social media’s comment section gives the appearance that they are equal, but in “real life” they are world’s apart in knowledge, experience, ability and perceptions.

In truth, and in a real-world situation, the construction worker really wouldn’t give his “time of day” to the young opinionated kid.

Which is why metallicman screens all comments. It’s a grey-web don’t ya know. No one is equal. But everyone get’s an equal shot at saying their piece.

Other Places

On the LinkedIN social network, you can actually see the qualifications, experiences and abilities of the people commenting. This gives you advantage. And you can easily separate the commenters into groups;

  • Knowledgeable, savvy, experienced.
  • Young, idealistic, inexperienced.

Which is really handy-dandy in deciding whether or not to comment, respond or get dragged into a debate. If you see that the person is probably a ‘bot, or a youngster, or maybe a CEO (in name only) with no substantive background, you can well decide to ignore their sparring.

We need to know with whom we are talking with.

In “real life” you discuss matters as equals, with others that you consider to be equal to you. Whether it is an a social environment or in a work environment. You all know this. You talk differently with your bosses, boss than you do with a co-worker. Don’t you.

But social media has taken those natural barriers away.

Now we don’t really know whom we are talking with. Is is a peer, an equal, or someone we respect, or is it a snot nosed kid, a paid-for troll, or a drunk 20-something in his mother’s basement?

I like to imagine them trying to debate me face-to-face.

More than likely they would be pissing in their pants long before they skedaddled out the door.

You have to know who you are dealing with.

Which is a handy thing to be able to do; you only comment when it adds something to the discourse. You try to keep it focused, positive and kind if you can.

Metallicman Comments

Most of the Metallicman comments are worthy.

Meaning that they provide something of value to the discourse, and it enhances the site. You don’t have to crawl through comment after comment of insults, or distractions, or nonsense that you might find on other venues. (You know, I screen everyone. Yes. Even you Rob. LOL.)

Have you ever seen that?

You are reading a great article, and you get to the comment section and find that it has been hijacked by others, and the dialog went “off the rails” and on to some other subject? Yeah. Most of that is intentional. As most Trolls are paid to be assholes.

Anyways.

I like to think that the MM comment section is one of the best on the web. There’s good “meaty” stuff there from all over the world. And while not everyone agrees with each other, or holds the same point of view, everyone contributes equally. Some of which are truly outstanding.

It’s not like you have a stream of one-word gibberish from “participants” like this…

Hey!

Did any of those comments have meaning for you? Did they make sense to you? Are they contributing to the dialog in any way?

I read them, and I get this image of a 1950’s style robot with beeping and flashing red eyes, and brushed steel skin.

Contemporaneous commenters on most American social media platforms.

This equal participation is quite different from being fractionally equal to each other. Because I value our differences as key contribution vectors.

Contributions. Discussion. Social interaction.

Adds value to our life.

VALUE.

Time to chill over coffee

Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s there used to be a big old tureen of coffee in the backroom of where we would work. It did not matter what kind of work that you were doing. All companies provided free, thick and ample coffee to their employees. And as such, employees were free to drink as much as they want, with as much sugar and cream as they would like. This was thick, syrup-like deep coffee, with lots of sugar and real whipped cream.

Coffee Time!

We would drink the coffee in what ever was provided. Often is was one of about twenty old reused (over and over) old coffee cups. Sometimes it was styrofoam cups that we would use and then discard. When I worked in the military it was a big white cup emblazoned with the name of a project that I might be working on. I had about twenty of such cups lying all over my office(s) at one point in time.

Typical mug for people involved in Military development systems.

Anyways…

Drinking coffee and chatting about work is a pastime that I have come to appreciate. You know, when you go to a trade-show and you meet others in your industry, and you all can relate “war stories” about the same kinds of issues or the same kinds of problems… well it’s a bonding experience.

Whether it is something like this…

...That style mill is NOT a Sieg product, many enjoy it or the Precision Mathews branded version of it. I think Brian Rupnow has the Busy Bee one which is painted in Canadian paint. I can't specifically tell you if it is good for those jobs. I would think so, as long as it is mild steel and nothing hardened.

Or maybe something like this…

...With a nightmare engine, you may have tolerances set "by the book" on the ring gap, the mains and rod bearings, but every time you torque the bolts, you have to use a 4 foot pipe wrench on the crank pulley to turn it over. How does a normal rebuild become a nightmare? You may know or have heard of the scenario. You waste three gasket sets putting it together… tearing it down… putting it together… tearing it down etc, each time waiting for the UPS truck and new parts that you should've put in right off or replacements for new parts you destroyed on your first attempt. (Note: there's nothing I dislike more than cleaning gasket surfaces that I cleaned the weekend before). What should have been a weekend project has taken months, much of the time spent trying to avoid the shop so you can forget this perplexing failure. Many times, you are not at fault for a rebuild working out this way. It can happen frequently with engines that seized up in a hurry. Fortunately most rebuilds are undertaken because the tractor was just getting tired and nothing catastrophic happened to force the rebuild. By catastrophic, I mean something happened that made the engine stick hard and stick fast… while it was spinning at 1500 RPM.

Or on a different kind of subject…

We started off buy purchasing 1×12” fir from a local guy who has a small saw mill for his vast amount of timber. It’s always fun to dream of new creations when we go there. One thing when going through a small saw mill is the price of lumber is so much cheaper than the local hardware store. But the boards all needed plained so we bought a plainer to get this job done. It took five times per board going through the plainer. It was a full days job...

Or maybe something like this…

...now we must use the new FinCEN reports, which are available only electronically through the BSA E-Filing System. FinCEN is no longer accepting legacy reports, and that is a real pain in the ass...

To something not work related…

...You wouldn't need an alarm clock if you lived in the barn. That's because horses have a clock in their heads. Ask anyone who has to explain daylight-saving time to their horses. The better you can stick to a routine, the happier the horses are. That's not just referring to time, either. Make any other changes gradually, too, such as feed, water and turnout times.

Horses need friends. They're happy in a group situation, and if you see a horse who's a loner, he probably has some problem. Perhaps he's ill or hurting, or he's been pushed out of the group. You'll know right off that he's not a happy camper. The buddy doesn't have to be another horse, though that's preferable...

So what?

So what? Why is the “coffee break” so friggin’ important?

It’s simple really.

We are humans. We are not machines. We don’t go into a cube, at a certain time, stare into a lighted monitor for a set period of time, and then leave. We are social creatures, and we need social stimulation. The Coffee Break does that.

We can talk freely about anything.

A coffee break allows you to be able to speak freely about things.

Ah.

The freedom of speech.

It actually means something, don’t you know.

Being able to speak freely, with friends, colleagues, family or business associates is the bedrock of society. It is important. We can share our hopes, dreams, lives and frustrations together. We don’t need to hide behind politically correct speech or be quiet because someone might be offended.

Being able to speak freely.

And…

so…

I think that many of us have substituted “social media” for face-to-face in-person chatting and dialogs. We have forgotten that there is a difference between chatting with a kid on the street is different than with a coworker, which is much different than chatting in “mixed company” in a church, or some other social venue.

Conformity and “free speech”

When you have those that openly talk about limiting speech or print for one reason or the other, what you are seeing is that they are forcing people to conform.

Their vision of Heaven is one in which everyone wears the same state-issue wings. And all wear the same white robes, and all say the same things, in the same way.

Yet…

If you have a “free for all” where they are no rules, it becomes colorful and interesting. But only for a while…

A short while.

That marvelous utopia tends to collapse because there will always be a percentage who would abuse it. Whether it is a company trying to profit from it by spam, a couple of bored teenagers, a crusty old ill-tempered senior citizen, or an enraged SJW type, all it takes is a few misfits to spoil the entire “pot of chili”.

Which is why you need a minimum of rules, and a very flexible police force.

Here, on MM for instance… the rules are simple.

  • Don’t Troll.
  • Don’t insult me.
  • Don’t spam.
  • Don’t derail the discussion.
  • Don’t try to advertise.
  • Don’t be an asshole.

Aside from that, it’s pretty much a free-for-all. It’s colorful, and interesting and fun.

  • It’s not white = only approved comments that fit within the expectations of the readership.
  • It’s not black = anything goes. It’s not policed in anyway what so ever.
  • It’s grey. Minor policing of a chaotic situation.

And when you think about it, isn’t that the way everything should operate? Instead of having a 56 page manual on how to dress, like they did in General Motors, just replace it with a simple sentence “Dress appropriately for the task, role and situation.”

I like to believe that this “grey area” of discourse works for 95% of the population. And the policing keeps the 5% at bay and under control. It’s a mix of what is wanted and desired as opposed to abuse by those whom have poor social skills.

Conclusion

We need to realize that the ideal situation (in anything) is complex, colorful, chaotic and curious. To maintain that condition, you need to police it. You need to control the elements that want to either [1] destroy the individual environment (for what ever reason), or those that [2] want to improve the situation (usually invoking some kind of conformity).

This is true whether it is here at Metallicman, or in you local community.

We need to be on the constant alert for the people who wish to change what exists into something else…

…be it a free-for-all with trolls, commercials, profanity and other distortions…

…or, someone’s idea of utopia. One that can only be obtained with a great deal of laws, regulations and rules of behavior.

Do you want more?

I have more posts like this in my Happiness Index here…

Life & Happiness

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You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.

To go to the MAIN Index;

Master Index

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