Thursday, February 8
It Takes One to Know One
The year was 1968 and I did not want to be drafted so I enlisted in the US Naval Reserves accepting a two by six program. Two years active duty and four years in the reserves. I was trained as radioman but cross-rated to a communication technician. I applied for a three month early out to return to college.
After having spent 21 months on active duty, I was eligible for full GI benefits and my last two years of college and two years of graduate school was completely paid for. NO STUDENT LOANS.
During my 21 months on active duty, 15 months were spent in Norfolk, Virginia and 6 months were spent in the Mediterranean. While on the med cruise, I purchased tax free stereo equipment and camera equipment at the Naval Base in Rota, Spain, saving me several hundreds of dollars.
Am I proud to be a US Veteran? YES and NO...
I do not believe in war and more importantly, I don't believe this government of ours has the right to send Americans overseas to fight other country's wars simply because we want to be everyone's big brother.
On the other side of the coin, I get pissed off and angry because Islamic Terrorists want to kill Americans because they see us as Christians who do not believe in Islam. And, when they attack US military assets in the Middle East, then I think we should respond like RAMBO would have responded.
- Let the Arabs fight each other.
- Let the Arabs fight the Jews.
- Let the Arabs treat women worse than dogs.
- Let the Arabs travel the deserts.
- Let the Arabs sell their oil.
BUT LET THE ARABS LEAVE AMERICANS ALONE...
The USA should copy the example of CHINA and while they might supply weapons and money, they don't send troops to fight in other country's wars. That strategy will allow the Chinese to survive, flourish, and grow. The USA should be so lucky.
It is time for the USA to think of itself. We have enough NUCLEAR POWER to completely destroy the rest of the world including ourselves. If other countries want to achieve that kind of nuclear power, let them. No one really survives a nuclear war - and those that think they can do so underground will be forced to live underground for several generations and when they return above ground there will be nothing there.
WHAT KIND OF LIFE IS THAT?
We need to focus ourselves and let the rest of the world do what they will with each other.
Boosting Domestic Uranium Production
The U.S. and Europe face challenges with uranium supply due to dependence on Russian imports and global shortages.
The U.S. is advancing in high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) production with projects like Centrus Energy Corp's facility in Ohio.
The U.K. plans to invest in developing HALEU production capabilities for its next-generation nuclear reactors.
There is great potential for several new uranium production markets as the U.S. and Europe look to diversify away from Russia for new nuclear energy pursuits. The U.S. and several European countries have announced ambitious nuclear power plans for the coming decades, in support of a green transition.
However, the lack of uranium production outside of Russia is posing a threat to achieving these plans. Sanctions introduced on Russian energy and other products, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, have led to global shortages of natural gas, uranium, and other critical materials.
This has driven several state powers to diversify their supply chains and increase the regional production of a variety of energy sources and related materials. This means we could soon see new uranium-producing markets emerge in Europe and the U.S. READ MORE...
Wednesday, February 7
The Comeback of the Russian Navy
According to reports from the Kremlin, the Russian Navy will receive 12 surface warships and four submarines in 2024 – while it also claimed to achieved total import substitution in the construction of those vessels.
The Resurgence of the Russian Navy is Already Underway - The United States has increasingly put a focus on the size of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which is now the largest naval force in the world. However, it may not just be China that should be seen as a potential concern.
According to reports from the Kremlin, the Russian Navy will receive 12 surface warships and four submarines in 2024 – while it also claimed to achieved total import substitution in the construction of those vessels. Import substitution industrialization (ISI) is a policy that has been typically enacted by developing countries with the intention to enable domestic development and self-sufficiency through the creation of an internal market. However, Russia faced international sanctions following its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago. READ MORE...
Trans is Trans
- a male is a male
- a female is a female
- a trans is a trans
Consequently, we need three different categories in our athletic events... otherwise, we are possibly giving biological males the advantage.
According to the DEMS, we need to push for EQUITY otherwise the loser is going to feel bad about losing.
We have done away with GRADES in education because the NOT SO SMART students feel bad when they receive low grades... and the reason that they feel bad is because our educational system is grounded in a white supremacy ideology not the reality of the world in which we live.
However, until we eliminate the WHITES, we will always have the opportunity to claim they are white supremacists.
White supremacist don't like or approve of biological males beating biological females... and, it is difficult to understand that anyone would think otherwise but they do.
Therefore, since we are divided on this issue then why not split the difference and create an athletic category just for TRANS... let them compete against their own kind. This should hold true for both trans males as well as trans females, because trans males are still biological females competing against biologicals males... that ain't fair either.
North Korea Tests Submarine Launching Missiles
SEOUL, Jan 29 (Reuters) – North Korea tested its new strategic cruise missiles for the second time in a week on Sunday, calling it a newly developed submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM), accelerating its navy’s nuclear armament, state media reported on Monday.
Leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test of the missile, called “Pulhwasal-3-31,” which is identical to the strategic cruise missiles that the North said last week were under development.
State news agency KCNA and official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the missiles flew above the sea off the country’s east coast for 7,421 seconds and 7,445 seconds and hit an unspecified island target, indicating the flight time exceeded two hours.
Kim called the test a success, KCNA said, “which is of strategic significance in carrying out the plan…for modernizing the army which aims at building a powerful naval force.”
South Korea’s military said on Sunday that the North fired multiple cruise missiles off its coast but did not provide details.
Last week, the North said it had tested a new strategic cruise missile, indicating it was designed to carry a nuclear warhead, but at the time did not mention it was being developed for submarine launch. READ MORE...
Tuesday, February 6
Beijing's Bubble Bursts
February 1, 2024
China suffered major setbacks in 2024. On January 13, the much-anticipated election in Taiwan was won by William Lai who had been dubbed by Beijing as “a separatist troublemaker”. His victory was a rebuke: The Taiwanese landed a you-don’t-scare-us punch at the giant panda next door and China simply took it on the chin. Throughout January, mainland China's stock exchanges declined 6 or 7 percent, and Hong Kong’s fell 12 percent — the lowest levels in years. Then, on January 29, the country’s high-wire financial/real estate saga ended when a Hong Kong judge said “enough is enough” and ordered the liquidation of Evergrande Group with $300-billion loans, equivalent to Singapore’s national debt. The property developer defaulted in 2021 and at that time owned 30 million unsold units across China, enough to house the population of Germany. Another 100 million units, capable of housing 260 million people, had been “bought on spec” with small deposits invested by working-class Chinese in smaller urban centers. The bubble occurred after Beijing allowed people to own more than one home and turned the country into a casino. Bejing so far has been able to duck a “Lehman Brothers” moment, but its debt debacle has taken a toll and is why China has lost prestige and its mojo.
China is no longer a get-rich-quick destination, nor is it user friendly to foreign capital or even to many of its own tycoons. President Xi Jinping also handled COVID poorly, and further damaged the country’s reputation and prospects by not denouncing Vladimir Putin and his genocidal war against Ukraine. The pandemic and war upset the West which has pivoted trade and capital away from China, and repatriated jobs or created them in other parts of Asia. To many, a diminished Beijing is not a bad outcome because weak countries don’t invade their neighbors. But the world’s economies are affected by its troubles and, as economist Paul Krugman wrote recently: “Let’s not gloat about China’s economic stumble, which may become everyone’s problem.”
Frankly, Beijing’s bluster and attention toward Taiwan never made much sense for either country. For China it’s unproductive. Xi’s sabre-rattling frightens away foreign investment from its own economy. For Taiwan, it’s business as usual for 23.9 million people. They ignore it and prosper, enjoying the 14th highest income per capita in the world. By contrast, China’s incomes rank 72nd. The Taiwanese have also become distinct. In 1945, opponents of Mao Tse Tung’s communist regime left the mainland for the island, then known as Formosa. In the 1980s, the island evolved from a one-party state to a democracy and successfully adopted Japan’s export-oriented business model. And world’s beating businesses evolved.
The island’s delicate balancing act has worked despite China’s threats to swallow it whole and punish those who recognize it as an independent nation. Only 12 countries officially recognize Taiwan, but Washington and Europe have played their diplomatic cards carefully and do not support a formal declaration of independence. But America is Taiwan’s biggest backer and arms supplier, and in September 2022, after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden explicitly stated for the first time that U.S. Forces would defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion.
Taiwan’s President-elect William Lai
Taiwan’s newly-elected President Lai also plays the politics astutely. In his victory speech, he averted tweaking Beijing and merely said “Taiwan will continue to walk side by side with democracies around the world.” By contrast, China responded by resuming combat exercises around Taiwan to intimidate its populace and Russia said it viewed Taiwan as an integral part of China. But the other Asian tigers, Japan and South Korea, were supportive and rebuild their military forces as a counterbalance in the region. The QUAD (Asia’s fledgling NATO) was launched a few years ago by Japan, India, and the US and now includes a dozen other nations as members.
Beijing’s is preoccupation is internal: A major military corruption scandal, the existence of hundreds of zombie cities with empty buildings, and a Generation Z sociological phenomenon labelled in China as the “lying flat movement”. China’s current generation disdains the work ethic of its parents and grandparents, partly because they were indulged “only children” as a result of its one-only child edict. But they are also unimpressed by their government’s real estate and other economic fumbles and discouraged by the economic slowdown. Youth unemployment in the country is so excessive that the government refuses to publish the figures, and Beijing censors now block any economic “negativity” comments that appear online.
In recent years, President Xi publicly warned against the danger of “lying flat” and began imposing athletic requirements in schools and restricting video game usage. But many are idle because of the economic downturn. A “laying flat” student protest
A Chinese “zombie” city: New and vacant
Another sociological trend sweeping the country is called the “runolution” — or the unprecedented desire of young Chinese people to immigrate and live in more interesting and prosperous countries. And reports of discontent also dog the military, said an official on Chinese social media. “Many of China's officers don't want to fight, and so we really have a force led by an officer corps that is ambivalent about going to war.”
China’s slump points to a safer Taiwan, region, and world. Beijing’s bubble has burst and its middle class and younger generation appear to be uninterested in economic superiority or military conquest. They seek security and comfort.
Ancient Roman Concrete Lasts a Long Time
The ancient Romans were masters of building and engineering, perhaps most famously represented by the aqueducts. And those still functional marvels rely on a unique construction material: pozzolanic concrete, a spectacularly durable concrete that gave Roman structures their incredible strength.
Even today, one of their structures – the Pantheon, still intact and nearly 2,000 years old – holds the record for the world's largest dome of unreinforced concrete.
The properties of this concrete have generally been attributed to its ingredients: pozzolana, a mix of volcanic ash – named after the Italian city of Pozzuoli, where a significant deposit of it can be found – and lime. When mixed with water, the two materials can react to produce strong concrete. READ MORE...
America is No Longer Great
Obviously, IRAN remembers the BOTCHED withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan by the Biden administration soon after he took office.
HOW DOES THE REST OF THE WORLD PERCEIVE AMERICANS???
It does not matter how they perceive us because we don't GIVE A DAMN what they think.
Americans don't care what other Americans think about America because America is one hell of a divided country right now.
OUR ENEMIES want Biden to win the presidency again in 2024...
Why do you think that is???
What's that?
YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME...
If that's the case then you should vote for BIDEN...
The state of TEXAS is defying a Supreme Court Ruling and Biden is doing nothing about it.
Republican governors from 25 other states are supporting Texas defiance.
The governor of Florida is sending 1000 national guard troops to Texas to help Texas defy the Supreme Court ruling.
BIDEN is doing nothing to stop Florida.
By the end of 2024, EXPERTS predict that both Iran and North Korea will have nuclear bomb capabilities.
Biden is doing nothing to stop those countries.
Over 100 countries have decided not to use the American dollar when they are conducting trade agreements with other countries.
Biden is doing nothing.
But what can he do?
Absolutely NOTHING.
Illegal Immigrants are in NYC and have attacked the police there. They were arrested and a Democrat Judge released them without bail. In defiance they presented their middle finger to the media that was covering their release.
Biden says and does nothing.
AMERICA MAY BE FULL OF MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES BUT SHE IS NO LONGER THE GREAT COUNTRY SHE ONCE WAS.
Sea Otters Preventing Coastal Erosion
Sea otters are proving to be Mother Nature's solution to the prevention of coastal erosion, a recent discovery that further demonstrates how conservation efforts can help to restore an ecosystem as a whole.
Sea otters were nearly hunted to extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries for their pelts. But as populations begin to recover in California after decades of conservation efforts there, the marine mammals are helping to fortify the environment as they expand their range, according to a paper published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. READ MORE...
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