Hum.
Lots of mysteries today.
Now you know…
St Petersburg Forum this weekend, Russian President Putin showed for first time a document agreed upon by Ukrainian side at spring 2022 peace talks. It appears that Russia withdrew forces from around Kiev, before Ukraine changed its mind…
Putin: “…here’s the document. 18 pages & addition to it. It exists. They signed it. It guaranteed Ukraine’s neutrality & as per agreement we pulled out our military from the Kiev region. But as always Kiev threw away this document into the junk-yard of history.”
He said:
📌The treaty with Kiev included provisions for neutrality & security guarantees, but they threw everything out. 📌 Kiev initialed agreement with Moscow in Istanbul, but after the withdrawal of Russian troops from near Kiev, Ukraine threw it into the dustbin of history.
Istanbul document on Ukraine was initialed, everything was there, right down to the number of armed forces, to military equipment, personnel, they threw everything away, Putin added….
“The maximum number of personnel and military equipment”. Treaty on PERMANENT Neutrality and Security Guarantees for Ukraine.
Of course, US and UK were having none of it.
NATO got the war it wanted. Europe’s economy decimated, ‘Defense’ industry record profits.
Harsh
What are some common mistakes people make when designing cities?
Modern cities, particularly in the United States in Canada, aren’t built for people. They’re built for cars.
This is Kansas City, Missouri (thanks to Twitter user Jonathan Berk). Arrowhead Stadium (right) holds over 76,000 people. Kaufmann Stadium, on the left, holds almost 38,000. But note, as Mr. Berk did, that the Truman Sports Complex is mostly a parking lot.
This, by contrast, is Wembley Stadium in suburban London. Yes, it does have some parking, but it’s surrounded by other uses.
Similarly, this is Scarborough Town Centre in a Toronto suburb, developed in the late 1970s as a shopping and municipal center, and now the home of a major transit stop. Note how little land is actually covered by buildings.
And here is Toronto Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto (middle third photo) a shopping and office complex that was developed at about the same time. It does have parking, but it’s in a parking garage hidden in the structure. Again, very little in the way of roadway around it.
But if you look at a typical car dependent stadium or shopping mall, in addition to noticing how much parking there is, you notice how empty it is most of the time. You also need an extensive road network around those big parking lots. As it turns out that empty space is quite expensive, adding to your land needs for the structure as well as money to maintain it, and for the municipality it actually generates a lot less revenue
Meanwhile, in places built before cars, like Montmartre here, you would be hard pressed to believe that its in a city with nine million people and you’re probably within a ten minute walk of a metro station.
The Chinese perpetually short on space, understand this. They were once derided for building new metro stations literally in the middle of nowhere. However, a few years later, those metro stations are surrounded by high density housing and commercial uses.
Before
After
Meanwhile, back in North America
This is the layout for Pickering GO Station on Toronto’s commuter rail network. No housing to be seen anywhere nearby although there is a large shopping mall across the freeway from the rail station. The good news is the world’s longest pedestrian bridge crosses the twelve lane freeway. The bad news is that the bridge is mostly to allow people who park in the transit lot on the othger side of the freeway to reach the train station. Throughout North America, train stations are surrounded by parking, not residential or commercial uses.
This is the transit system for Milton, Ontario – about 40 minutes west of Toronto and one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada. The bus system has one primary purpose – getting you to the GO station to downtown Toronto. Other uses, like getting around town, are secondary. For that, you should really have a car.
It’s not all terrible. Hamilton, Ontario, a large city just south of Ontario across the lake, actually has a transit system to get you around Hamilton. Its easier to get around in a car, but it’s possible to get around on foot or by transit.
And, frankly, people often like living where they don’t have to drive. The highest in demand residences in the City of Toronto are on car-free Toronto Island, which is only accessible by ferry. The process to even get on the waiting list is nearly impossible.
In addition to demanding massive amounts of space, cars are what make cities noisy.
There are lots of options. Walkable neighbourhoods. Intensification and commercialization of existing neighbourhoods. Better transit. However, what’s more likely to happen is road widening and parking garages, neither of which solve traffic problems and both of which maintain car use.
Why IS AFRICA Choosing CHINA over THE USA?
Aren’t Americans embarassed to show the world that their President Election candidates have to be either Biden or Trump? Don’t they have better persons than these 2 old hats that are a shame to the country..
Anyone who believed that Americans get to choose their own leader is totally and absolutely mistaken. A year before the presidential elections they carry out primaries. What are primaries?
They are essentially selection dressed u to look like election to get the candidate from essentially 2 parties. Who get to select? Not the voters. The delegates. Who are the delegates. They are essentially? They are a select group of party elders who are very rich and powerful. No different from a cartel closely knitted elders who is essentially ensure a safe candidate.
Let me defined “safe” The candidates must tow their superiority complex behaviour to ensure the rich ages richer and the poor blacks, coloured and white are hardly their concern. They must protect their own kind and safeguard their own narrow agenda. Generally they are conservatives and xenophobic who sees the world as in the 1950s that U.S. rules the world. Many Neo conservatives are there.
This group essentially choose 2 candidates such as Trump and Biden to carry out their agenda. People like Bernie Sanders do not stand a chance. They don’t want to risk it. They don’t want to change the status quo. So the U.S. can change the government but it cannot change policy. It must allow gun ownership no matter how may school children dies.
It cannot stop wars it is the biggest war monger. Because many people are in the military industrial complex is amongst the most powerful block of delegates. So the U.S. will fight till it totally bankrupt itself. I won’t allow free college education because the delegates. Can afford their children college education easily. They don’t want a more successful coloured group of people to challenge the whites.
All these means voting is simply a charade. Nothing more nothing less. That is why less than 2/3 of eligible voters votes. The 1/3 knows it is all set up. The 2/3 are either the ignorant or the uneducated and the delegates group. You can also say roughly 0.8% decides for America. They can never lose. Heads they win and tails you lose.
JOHN TITOR: Time traveler, soldier, savior
Fun, but there’s much more to the story than what is presented here.
What would happen if the US stopped importing electronics from China?
It must be understood that there are realities involved in this question that one must understand. Nothing is ever so simple as one would believe if reading the “news”.
The realities are…
- What is loudly announced and discussed in the “news’ media are often deceptive, misdirection, exaggeration, or outright lies.
- When political-based laws are passed, manufacturing and industry, often use work-around clauses and exceptions to keep in business.
- In regards to China, it is portrayed as incompetent, bad, evil, and unable to do anything right. While the United States is portrayed as an innocent, doing great and wonderful things.
With those realities well understood, we can expect the following to happen.
- The functional implementation of any importation-interruption to be delayed by years.
- China is expecting a time when these polices will manifest in full force and are running counter programs. They will be able to compensate and mitigate any negative influence.
- It is not enough to ban a product. One must change the structural infrastructure of those that use that product. Something that no American legislation is doing.
Thus, the end result is very clear and well-understood in industry…
- The vast bulk of products will continue to use Chinese electronics. The market share will increase over time.
- Chinese cutting edge electronics is going mainstream, and the USA simply cannot compete.
- Thus, China will eventually be the sole source of most all electronics in the world.
- Leaving the United States military to develop it’s own electronic systems independent and out-of-step with the rest of the world.
The Secret Room Inside Mount Rushmore and Other Little Known Facts
Southern Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons Crisco
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon Crisco (for frying pan)
Instructions
- Mix dry ingredients together.
- Blend in the Crisco until the mixture is coarse and grainy.
- Stir in the buttermilk with a fork. Do not over-mix.
- Put out onto a floured board and knead just a few times. Pat out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter or glass. Flour the cutter. Do not handle the dough too much or it will get tough.
- Using a heavy cast iron frying pan, place 1 tablespoon of Crisco in the pan and put the frying pan in the oven for about 7 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and place the biscuits in the pan. Turn each once in the oil and bake the biscuits at 500 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until light brown.
Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?
Employees in critical roles being terminated happens quite regularly.
Scenario 1.
In the early 2000’s, Boise Office Solutions (formerly Boise Cascade Office Products) wanted to break into the consumer side of the office supply business. OfficeMax came along and said they were available. What great timing! So they do the filings and all the lawyer stuff but the Boise leadership discovers that OfficeMax uses SAP while Boise had an assortment of products including JD Edwards software.
So there’s a big purge within IT since they don’t need double our numbers. Quarter end approaches and someone realizes that they’d let go a key person for the JD Edwards stuff. Oops. I heard they had to hire that guy back as a contractor for some appropriately outrageous amount so we could get past quarter closing. Nice, huh?
Scenario 2.
After coming back to Sears as a contractor, our business unit had gotten a new VP (4th in 2 years!). This assclown makes the claim that he could replace me with three offshore people for the rate they were paying me. Some weeks later, this person from some offshore consulting service shows up in the guise of “helping” me. All that was really happening was that she would try to learn my job to turn around and train some offshore team. It’s completely obvious what was going on but as a professional, I do my best to streamline the reporting process. My last day comes and goes.
Less than a month later, I found out that all three of my offshore replacements had quit due to the stress of just one part of my job! Seriously? The thing I did every morning between 7:30 and 8:00 was so stressful that they couldn’t handle it. All three of them! Never mind the truly crazy requests that come in during the rest of the day.
A Time Travel Story | The Dodleston Messages from the past and future
So much fun! Enjoy!
Keeping in view the massive military modernization of the Chinese military, will they be a global military superpower around 2027?
Today China along with US and Russia are the only three nations on earth that cannot be invaded and that are invincible as far as defensiveness is concerned.
Yet the Chinese can offensively push and force across a radius of upto 200–300 Kms at the most from their outermost boundary
US can do this anywhere in the world at any point on the map and that’s what makes them a Global Military Superpower
So while i believe the offensive ability of the US will weaken due to stronger defensive ability of other nations over time , China’s offensive ability won’t strengthen because THEY DONT WANT IT TO
China only want to be able to be stronger than all those who lie within the 200–300 Km radius from their outermost boundary
They already are starting to
Today,
China can defeat Taiwan, Japan, India, S Korea, Phillipines individually in battle
By 2027,
China can win any Naval battle on the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea against the US , Japan, India and Aus (Quad) and it’s total force combined
By 2035 , China hopes to depend no longer on any foreign core technology and either to evolve it’s technology on a parallel path or catch up with the West on their core technology
Thus 2035 is the year which experts say could make China the rising superpower especially with an assured oil & gas supply from Russia.
Another Dimension? Time Portal? Another Planet? What’s at the Bottom of Mel’s Hole?
.
The World Won’t Believe The Massive Infrastructure Developments In China, How China Builds Subway.
What is one single important fact that a person needs to be successful?
The brutal truth?
Meet a demand. People will judge you based on your usefulness at any given moment.
That’s it, NOTHING else really matters, at all. If you can meet a demand then you’ll be successful nothing else matters. But I’m a good father I go to church, I donate to charity… nah it may make you feel better but in the end it doesn’t matter.
The best case study to illustrate this is an emergency situation a car crash happens… a family were in the car. The children and wife are unharmed but the husband is severely injured bleeding out and dying.
What they need now is a medical professional to meet their needs.
You can heroically jump in and try to help but you’ll be told to fuck off. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good father go to church. In that moment the family need somebody who have the equipment and skills to save the husband.
This is an extreme situation… but we go through this process 10000s of times each day.
China is way ahead of the U.K. and that is a fact.
What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?
When I was the supervisor in a Social Security office I would occasionally have the staff ask me to speak with someone who was dissatisfied with our service.
A very frustrated man came in with his wife to complain about how long it had been taking to get a decision on his disability claim and he was not accepting the interviewer’s explanation so she asked me to speak with him.
I introduced myself and asked him how I could help him. This was his request.
“ I want to pull down my pants, bend over and have you kiss my bare ass.”
His wife nearly fell out of her chair. “Oh Thomas, how could you!”
I merely looked at him and said “We don’t offer that service here. Now what can I really do for you?”
He couldn’t phase me. He wasn’t my first disgruntled person and he wasn’t my last.
Woman Dies; Gets Shown Other Planets, Civilizations And Told Human’s Purpose (NDE)
What are you ashamed of as an Indian?
This was told to me by a friend while we were sharing an apartment via Airbnb. He is an Indian mariner working for some UK based shipping company. He travels around the world on a ship carrying petroleum products, visiting various ports in UK, Africa, Middle East, South and South East Asia. His crew contains mariner of many other nationalities.
He shared the embarrassing moments he has to face whenever his ship docks in any of the ports in India. The Customs Officers comes in with large bags, steals a good part of their cigarette cartons, packed meats, drinks, and many other stuffs from ship’s inventory(storage), meant for the mariners travel needs. Many a times he had been through these awkward moments, and he said you should see the looks on his co-mariner’s faces. He feels ashamed of being an Indian every time this happens.
This Is How Some People Actually Work From Home
With the government strongly suggesting that people work from home you may also think that it’s a good idea… until you take a look how clean and tidy some people keep their home offices…
China has intruded in Arunachal Pradesh, but India is still silent. What are the reasons?
Without a concise border agreement, what exactly can India do?
If we ask China to withdraw from any intruded territories in Arunachal, it would mean acknowledging that China has indeed intruded in Arunachal Pradesh and that would be humiliation for the Modi Government
If we militarily intervene , it could be another debacle like GALWAN where with knives and metal rods and sheer gumption ,China gained 1070 Sq Kms territory in a mere 4–5 days — equivalent territory for which Russia has to spill the blood of 5000 of its soldiers and kill around 45000 enemy soldiers over 4 1/2 months to acquire
Jaishankar openly called out Pakistan repeatedly in front of the global media and in front of the Foreign Minister
Yet not once did he whisper about China in any forum
It’s because China is TOO STRONG & POWERFUL for India to get into a direct conflict
China is so cautious about getting into a direct conflict with US despite the two nations being within 25–33% of each other
So India has to be much more cautious because China is almost 600% stronger and mightier
Thats why
Diplomacy means humiliation for the Modi Government
Military means certain and brutal defeat in the medium term
So just ignore everything and pretend things are hunky dory
It’s called LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE and that’s what India is doing today
Oh SH*T! Germany is going down a DARK road against anti-war voices
What was your first job experience like?
Working for a supermarket.
For most of my life I’ve gone to school. I’ve done odd chores for my parents that could be classified as “work” but that was just it.
In the Christmas break of 2021, I got my first ever job as, part-time at a supermarket. Stocking shelves, assisting with the daily count, even manning the counter.
It was incredible.
- People treated me like furniture.
I was invisible until they needed to use me. Some people were very kind, all pleases and thank yous, others were like, “hey, get over here! Get me that!”
- I was repeatedly encouraged by my coworkers not to be idle.
During slow hours I arranged and rearranged shampoo and perfume bottles meticulously, I dusted invisible dust, I slowly stocked the hats so I’d have less time to be idle. I paced, I observed customers with what I hoped was an interested gaze, ready to spring into action should they need any help.
Because Idleness = Lazy = Bad worker.
Soap was my section’s bestselling item, next to that was lotion.
- People can have too much trust in shop workers to know everything about the products. Some even expect you to make decisions for them.
1.
Customer: “Does this shampoo also work against dandruff?”
Me: “Uhm…”
*Picks up another bottle, scans it quickly.*
Me: “No, it doesn’t.”
2.
”Would I save more money if I got one of the 300 mL bottles or two of the 150 mLs?”
*Glances at the prices tags, makes quick calculations.*
“Same price total; no difference.”
“What should I get, then?”
“Umm..Will you use the perfume yourself or are you sharing it with someone?”
”My daughter uses my stuff sometimes.”
“Then I’d recommend you get two, so she can have her own bottle.”
”Ok”.
3.
”My child has sores on his legs, would this soap irritate them?”
“To be honest sir I’m not sure.”
“Oh.”
4.
“These mouthwash, why are the big bottles and those smaller ones the same price? Is it because the bigger one has less quality?”
*Takes them, scans over the labels quickly.*
“The smaller ones are imported.”
“But is it a lesser quality?”
*Makes quick judgement, hope I’m right*.
“I don’t believe so.”
We just work there, we didn’t make those products. There’s only so much we can know.
I think the best part of that job was interacting with customers, especially for someone like me who doesn’t get out that often.
Southern Baking Powder Biscuits
Basic biscuits can be great biscuits. These are straightforward, relying only on baking powder for leavening.
These are simple biscuits to make with only five ingredients. If you wish to use self-rising flour, you can make these biscuits with only three ingredients.
They will rise tall and are slightly salty with no added sugar. If you like, you may add a tablespoon or two of sugar—but then they wouldn’t be authentic Southern biscuits.
A baking sheet, preferably a dark one that will not reflect the heat
A pastry knife or pastry knife
The following recipe can be used to make these biscuits.
You can also make biscuits with a mix. We make a buttermilk biscuit mix, a sour cream and chive biscuit mix, and a cheddar cheese biscuit mix.
These mixes are just-add-water and you should have them in your oven in about five minutes.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup cold shortening
- 1 1/2 cup milk
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the shortening until the mixture forms coarse pieces.
- Add the milk and stir the mixture with a fork until most of the dry ingredients have been moistened.
- Turn the ingredients onto the counter and knead and fold until the dough is formed. Do not knead longer than necessary.
- Roll or pat the dough to about 3/4-inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a greased baking sheet with the edges touching.
- Bake for about 15 minutes or until the tops are just golden brown and biscuits sound hollow when gently tapped.
- Serve warm.
Yield: 15 large biscuits
EATING IN A CHINESE VILLAGE APARTMENT AS A BLACKMAN, WHAT COULD GO WRONG?!! BLACK IN CHINA
What do poor people in the United States of America eat?
I grew up very poor. My mom would make giant pots of stews like lentils and peas and it would go on for days. Getting thicker and thicker as the week goes on
We’d put it in the middle of the bread and butter to try to change the flavor a bit… oh, when I say butter, I mean margarine, which cost about 25 cents and came in a giant jar.
This was a typical dinner as a kid… a giant portion of what she called “ goulash ” and canned vegetables.
We never really had fun snacks or chips or crap, these were considered luxury items. I remember spending the night at a friends house and being super excited that they had bags of chips of all varieties, Jell-O and brand name soda! We only had RC COLA or SHASTA.
We almost always drank Tampico
Oh yeah, who cares about Sunny D when you have Tampico.
We often cook tortillas on the stove, like this:
Then melt the butter (margarine) and sprinkle with a little salt.
We drank a glass of milk every day with dinner (in hindsight, that probably helped us feel full). But sometimes, when the gallon of milk was half empty, my mother would fill the other half with water. I hated it! Watery milk.
We always had hot dog sausages, but never buns (we used sliced bread for everything), of course, packets of ramen (not the cups) slices of fake cheese… basically anything that wasn’t from the famous brands. We drank tap water.
My mother did her best and was very good at making the most of what she had. I learned a lot from her. She knew I hated bologna and would fry it in a pan and somehow make our sandwiches bearable. If on Monday she made a stew, we would have stewed it for days and it would never get stale in any way. I still like sliced tomato mayo sandwiches to this day haha.
Do you think that China’s growing influence in the Pacific region poses a threat to regional security? Why or why not?
It’s simple
Laos is the best example
Five years ago they opened up trade with China and contracted China to build their Railways
Today their economy has shown 5.87% growth against a mere 2.13% inflation
In 2017 they had 5.19% growth against 3.88% inflation
You do the math
Same for Pacific countries
To this day Australia and USA gave them alms and kept talking about defence, defence, defence and more defence
China gave them TRADE
China built them ROADS
China built them SCHOOLS
China built them NETWORKS
China built them Ports
So it’s simple that these nations and their people want Chinese friendship
It’s some leaders who are US puppets who are Anti China just to please their masters in exchange for Swiss Bank accounts , like those mongrels Zelensky or Von Der Leyen
China is no threat to anybody
Only the US is.
How did China’s Realme sell 50 million phones in just over 2 years in India? Why can’t an Indian company do this?
Why cant an Indian Company do this?
Produce a Good Quality Product at affordable prices and any Indian, Botswana, Kenyan, Ugandan company will be able to do this. This is basic 101.
China doesnt offer earth shattering technology or something unique and revolutionary. It just offers a good product at affordable prices.
Quality thats a word that doesnt exist anymore. Our Companies simply cannot give us the Quality that foreign companies are providing us with.
Simple example Horlicks. Just take Horlicks from a foreign country sold in a duty free shop and our Indian Horlicks and mix it with hot water or milk. The Froth that the foreign Horlicks generates is more than twice that the Indian Horlicks generates.
- Take USB Cables and Chargers. Made in India Charger costing Rs. 320/- Retail – charges as fast as a China made Charger costing Rs. 200/- with the same cable. A China made charger costing Rs.350/- can charge twice as fast.
- A MI Powerbank once fully charged can charge my phone for 5 nights compared to any Indian Powerbank of the same strength (20000 MAH). Only Ambrane is comparable and gives power for 3 nights.
- Shoes, Slippers, Watches, Smartphones, Laptops, Pickles, Food Products, Soft Drinks – all of them have shoddy quality, dubious manufacturing processes and tremendous lapses in quality controls.
Not just for us- but for our Heroes – the Army – our Blankets are atrocious for the Ladakh cold compared to the Bangladeshi Imports. Something called Ghirodes (Knots per Square Inch) have been compromised time and time again.
Now why cant an Indian Company provide good quality.
Surely Indians cannot genetically be crooks right?
The Answer is – Why should they?
Until recently – most of them have had monopolies and little competition.
They know worst case – the Consumer courts will take 10 years to decide to award the poor consumer Rs. 5000/- or Rs. 10,000/- in damages
They know worst case- a Briefcase or two of “Booty” can ensure that their operations continue smoothly – even if it is harmful to consumer life forget atrocious quality
They know worst case – our Media – will pursue them for 3 days and go back to Akshay Kumars cooking parathas during COVID 19 or making conspiracy theories
What should be done
Make them Afraid
Implement a Law like Chinas dreaded CAPA (English Translation) where
- A Company can be nationalized in less than 48 hours by a Provincial Industrial Committee or a Higher Body for a temporary period of not more than 180 days if they receive complaints on sub standard manufacture.
- During this stage the Companies big bosses will all be decided by the Provisional Commitee which will make the decisions for the next 180 days. All Accounts, All Inventories will be under Committee Control.
- If the Company is guilty of sub standard manufacture or quality compromise – then the Company may be imposed to a huge fine which if not paid will result in the Shareholding of the Company being forcefully yanked away and sold free market and the fine amount recovered from the sale.
So imagine if a Leather Tannery that pollutes the Yamuna river can be nationalized in 2 days and the Owners stripped off their shareholding or fined Rs. 500 Crore for pollution?
In ten minutes – every Owner will scramble to ensure he follows the law right?
Billy Joel…
Have you ever stood up for someone being bullied?
Yes, I did one day as a brave little nine-year-old girl. I came out of my apartment because I heard The neighbor kid crying. I follow the sound and just around the corner are four teenage girls probably ranging from 15 to 17 years old and they’re basically beating up this 11-year-old kid. I just remember my cheeks got hot and I just start screaming for them to get off of him. They had put a grocery cart on top of him and were jumping on it and he was a little heavier and he was losing breath and screaming and panicking and it scared the crap out of me so I get up in this one girl‘s face and I’m nine and she’s 15 and all the sudden she just slaps my face as hard as she can.
Well, my mother was just a few feet away in the laundry room and she had heard the commotion and was looking out and sees the girl slap me, and that was one of the few times I ever saw my mother come to my defense, like an angry bear, ready to rip someone’s head off. As a matter of fact, for about two or three seconds I was really worried for the Obnoxious teenage girl, because my mother was beautiful and petite and quiet, and that was not what was coming at that girl. Matter fact, the arms were flailing!!!
Anyway, as I was going to somebody else’s defense against a bully, my mother was coming to mine.
How has China rearranged its diplomatic pieces ahead of a potential conflict with the US?
Russia and its endless oil, gas, fertilizer, grains, timber, minerals and all natural resources, pipelines and railways plus more pipelines and railroads in construction, to/from Russia and Central Asia. Rapid developments of Manchuria, Siberia, Sakhalin island and the Arctic.
China and Russia are now back-to-back strategic partners. The biggest joint strategic partnership in the world. Potential US blockade in Indian Ocean or Malacca Strait is no longer relevant.
To the south, China-ASEAN trades reached US$1 trillion, double China-US trade, equal China-US+EU trades.
Don’t you see it by now?
China has already prepared to decouple from US.
US made the threat, China took it seriously.
Alien Probe, Sentient Machine, Nuclear Weapon, or Junk? What is the Betz Mystery Sphere?
What’s the saddest “card declined” moment you’ve seen?
I owned a bar and had a young couple come in and sit in bottle service. They told anyone who’d listen that they just got engaged and wanted to celebrate. They ordered the full service champagne with a bottle of our cheapest Andre we kept around just to spray the crowd for fun. Our server brought out strawberries and whip cream, the bottle, and the staff made the big baller fuss across the dance floor. Everyone was giving them the works. The bill came and the young man’s card was declined. He was completely embarrassed. He asked to speak to the owner, that’s me. He was brought to my office and I could see he was a little nervous. He explained he’d deposited his paycheck earlier and his bank account showed that the funds were available. He showed me on his bank app. He asked if I could trust him to bring the money the next day. He was about 22 years old. I saw myself in a similar situation with a gallon of milk as a young father 25 years earlier. I told him to consider it an engagement gift, no worries. No need to flip out over a $3 bottle of champagne, my cost, and $3 worth of strawberries. He enjoyed the rest of his evening and left. The following Monday, that kid stopped by with a $20 bill. He’d forgotten to tip the server and felt badly. I thought this kid had heart and I respected him for coming back. I put his tip in an envelope for the server and wished him the best. I know it’s not like paying for someone’s groceries, but it still made me feel good.
What are some examples of the United States’ decline as a superpower?
A decade ago your debt is 10’000’000’000’000 and today it is 31’400’000’000’000. Easy to understand for you?
OK. What about in 1945 your share of world GDP is 52%. Today it is a mere 15% and dropping fast. Enough?
More. Today as many as close to a million homeless people are living in tents at all you city! How about American standard of living has stagnated back to 1960’s level and dropping further. Eg. This year your forecast growth is 0.5% but your inflation is at least 5%. You guys are poorer by 4.5%! Good enough?
The U.S. growth used to be the biggest today China’s growth is bigger than the entire G7 put together! The U.S. life expectancy is the lowest among industrialised nation, in 2021 for the first time China’s life expectancy exceeded the U.S. and repeated that in 2022!
Still not convince? The U.S. handled the Covid amongst the worst in the world. It lose 1.1 million people! China by comparison has less than 1% of US death in spite of it having 4 times its population! Your infrastructure are totally dilapidated without improvement.
Not enough? Oh your nation fought some rag tag mountain tribe in Afghanistan for 20 years and lost. You blew 3–4 Trillion dollars and after 20 years invited the Taliban back. Taliban is the only reason you guys went to war in Afghanistan.
How about you fought another war against village folks in rice paddies in Vietnam for another 20 years till you lost all your gold. And lost the war. Running away on the roof top of the U.S. Embassy!
Still not convince? In the 1980 Moscow Olympics you gang up nations to boycott the Games and 65 countries supported you. By the 2020 Beijing Olympics you tried the same shit. And 5 nations agree to withdraw uninvited officials.
OK my last shot to convince you. When the U.S. order, coerce, bribed and threaten nations to support sanctioning Russia. Zero nations in Latin American, the Caribbean, Africa supported the U.S. 3 out of 30 nations supported the U.S 2 of them are your slave vassal state Japan and Korea. The third support to win you billions.
2/14 Oceania nations supported the U.S. Australia and New Zealand! In an international business forum invited by Russia. More than 100 nations participated!
US is a spent force burning cash as fast as they earn it and being dumped by the whole world except for some few racist nation and it Anglo brothers and your slaves who had no rights to say no. That is barely sufficient. It cannot afford to care for its own citizens let alone interfere in a hundred nations simultaneously, afford 800 Military bases overseas and trot around the world at a billion a week expenses on each Aircraft Carrier.
Ukraine alone will cost the US. a trillion dollars a year. If it don’t change course the U.S. debt will hit 100’000’000’000’000 or a hundred trillion dollars. Just at 3% interest it need to spend 3 trillion a year. As such. The U.S. is effectively a broke and a bankrupt even now.