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The Impending Sixth Seal (Revelation 6:12)
Massachusetts struck by 4.0 magnitude earthquake felt as far as Long Island
By Jackie Salo
A 3.6-magnitude earthquake shook Bliss Corner, Massachusetts, on Sunday morning, officials said — startling residents across the Northeast who expressed shock about the rare tremors.
The quake struck the area about five miles southwest of the community in Buzzards Bay just after 9 a.m. — marking the strongest one in the area since a magnitude 3.5 temblor in March 1976, the US Geological Survey said.
With a depth of 9.3 miles, the impact was felt across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and into Connecticut and Long Island, New York.
"This is the strongest earthquake that we've recorded in that area — Southern New England," USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso told The Providence Journal.
But the quake was still considered "light" on the magnitude scale, meaning that it was felt but didn't cause significant damage.
The quake, however, was unusual for the region — which has only experienced 26 larger than a magnitude 2.5 since 1973, Caruso said.
Around 14,000 people went onto the USGS site to report the shaking — with some logging tremors as far as Easthampton, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut, both about 100 miles away.
"It's common for them to be felt very far away because the rock here is old and continuous and transmits the energy a long way," Caruso said.
Journalist Katie Couric was among those on Long Island to be roused by the Sunday-morning rumblings.
"Did anyone on the east coast experience an earthquake of sorts?" Couric wrote on Twitter.
"We are on Long Island and the attic and walls rattled."
Closer to the epicenter, residents estimated they felt the impact for 10 to 15 seconds.
"In that moment, it feels like it's going on forever," said Ali Kenner Brodsky, who lives in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
andrewtheprophet	Uncategorized	Leave a comment April 2, 2021 April 1, 2021 1 Minute
Biden administration quietly ramping up aid outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11
Biden administration quietly ramping up aid to Palestinians
The Biden administration is quietly ramping up assistance to the Palestinians after former President Donald Trump cut off nearly all such aid
By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer
Blinken reveals latest report on status of human rights worldwide
Secretary of State Antony Blinken discus…
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is quietly ramping up assistance to the Palestinians after former President Donald Trump cut off nearly all aid. Since taking office with a pledge to reverse many of Trump's Israeli-Palestinian decisions, the administration has allocated nearly $100 million for the Palestinians, only a small portion of which has been publicized.
The administration announced last Thursday that it was giving $15 million to vulnerable Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. A day later, with no public announcement, it notified Congress that it will give the Palestinians $75 million for economic support, to be used in part to regain their "trust and goodwill" after the Trump-era cuts.
The State Department declined to comment on the notification, and it wasn't clear if the $75 million includes the $15 million in pandemic aid. Nevertheless, the funding plan represents a major shift in the U.S. approach to the Palestinians after the mutual recriminations during the Trump years.
In general, the administration supports a resumption in aid to the Palestinians, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
"We continue to believe that American support for the Palestinian people, including financial support, it is consistent with our values. It is consistent with our interests. Of course, it is consistent with the interests of the Palestinian people. It's also consistent with the interests of our partner, Israel, and we'll have more to say on that going forward," he told reporters.
The administration has made no secret of its belief that Trump's approach, which alienated the Palestinians, was flawed and made prospects for peace less likely. The new assistance appears aimed at encouraging the Palestinians to return to negotiations with Israel, though there is no indication it will have that effect and Israel's response has yet to be gauged.
A copy of the March 26 congressional notification from the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development was obtained by The Associated Press, just hours after the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office issued a report that found USAID had not properly vetted all of its Palestinian funding recipients for U.S. antiterrorism criteria as required by law.
Under U.S. law, the United States may not provide aid to the Palestinian Authority or fund projects it would benefit from as long as the authority pays stipends to the perpetrators and families of those convicted of anti-Israel or U.S. attacks. Such payments were one reason the Trump administration cut off aid. Although none of the assistance is to be provided to the Palestinian Authority, pro-Israel lawmakers, many of them Republicans, are likely to raise objections.
The GAO based its findings on a review of aid provided to the Palestinians between 2015 and 2019, when Trump severed most of the aid. While it said that USAID had followed the law with respect to people and groups it funded directly, it had not done the same with entities, known as sub-grantees, to which those groups then distributed taxpayer dollars.
"If funding resumes, we recommend measures to improve compliance," said the GAO report, which was released late Monday.
According to USAID's congressional notification, much of the $75 million is intended for urgent short-term projects aimed at quickly rebuilding U.S.-Palestinian relations, which had sunk to lows during the Trump administration. The notice said the money may start to be spent on April 10.
"Given the absence of USAID activity in recent years, engaging civil society actors will be critical to regaining trust and goodwill with Palestinian society," the notification said, explaining the rationale for providing $5.4 million to Palestinian civic groups, including possibly independent media, in the West Bank and Gaza.
Other areas identified for USAID funding include the health care sector and the resumption of assistance to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network that Trump had cut off, sanitation, water supply and transportation infrastructure, social services and job training for Palestinian youth, micro-loans and grants for small businesses as well as disaster preparedness.
In a bid to forestall expected questions and criticism from lawmakers who supported Trump's aid cuts, USAID sought to assure Congress that it would ensure all legal criteria for providing the money would be met.
"USAID adheres to rigorous partner antiterrorism vetting and certification, auditing, and monitoring procedures to help ensure that its assistance does not go to Hamas or other terrorist organizations," the notice said.
In announcing the $15 million in COVID-19 assistance, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said it was "one piece of our renewed commitment to the Palestinian people," but she did not elaborate.
Under Trump, the U.S. provided unprecedented support to Israel, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv and breaking relations and slashing financial assistance for the Palestinians.
Soon after President Joe Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20, his administration announced that it would restore relations with the Palestinians and renew aid as key elements of support for a two-state solution to the conflict.
Thomas-Greenfield reiterated Biden's support for a two-state solution and said "the United States looks forward to continuing its work with Israel, the Palestinians, and the international community to achieve a long-sought peace in the Middle East."
andrewtheprophet	Uncategorized	Leave a comment April 2, 2021 April 2, 2021 4 Minutes
Europe Pressures Biden to Concede to Iran
Europeans Fear Iran Nuclear Window Closing
The Biden administration rebuffed European pleas to lift some sanctions in its first weeks in office.
Colum LynchMarch 26, 2021, 11:56 AM
Iranian protesters demonstrate outside the Tehran Research Reactor in Tehran on Nov. 23, 2014. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
In the weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden's inauguration in January, British, French, and German diplomats approached the new administration with a plan to revive the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal. They proposed lifting some of the sanctions that had been removed by President Barack Obama and then reimposed by President Donald Trump. The idea was to bring the United States closer to compliance with the nuclear accord it had walked away from, and to put the onus on Iran to reciprocate, according to two European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of negotiations.
Europe figured Biden could keep a raft of additional measures Trump had levied, to maintain some leverage over Iran and make progress on issues of concern to all sides, especially Iran's ballistic missile program and its support for a host of regional militias.
"The advice of the Europeans to the Americans was do it quickly and immediately, because all the signals they had from the Iranian side was as soon as the Americans come back, we will come back," said Gérard Araud, a former French ambassador to the United States and the United Nations who previously led France's nuclear negotiations with Iran and other key powers. "The best way forward would have been to immediately come back to the [nuclear pact] with an executive order, and they didn't do it."
The challenge of striking a deal, Araud added, may prove insurmountable, given the growing domestic U.S. opposition to a pact that would leave Iran with more money and no new constraints on its ballistic missile program and its support for regional militia. "It will be complicated, it will take months and it may fail," he said.
Biden instead insisted that Iran would have to take the first step by reversing a set of nuclear activities it restarted in response to Trump's rejection of the deal. The Europeans, according to Ali Vaez, an expert on Iran with the International Crisis Group, "were told from the get-go that the president doesn't want to make any unilateral gestures toward Iran."
The exchange provided an early sign to Europeans that Biden wasn't going to move as fast as he had signaled during the campaign. It also raised concern among European diplomats that after they struggled to save the landmark nuclear deal from Trump's attempts to kill it, the new U.S. administration might be risking the agreement's future through caution, delay, and inaction.
"There is a degree of concern and anxiousness that both the U.S. and Iran have missed a window of opportunity in the early days of the Biden administration to make some swift moves toward compliance," said Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"After four years of trying to keep this agreement together under the Trump administration, the Europeans are hoping that it doesn't fall apart under a Biden administration," she said. "There would be a real tragic irony in that happening."
In recent months, the White House has resisted additional European entreaties to lift sanctions on humanitarian goods and to release Iranian funds in foreign banks as confidence-building measures, insisting that Tehran move first to scale back a range of activities it has taken in violation of the 2015 pact, including enriching more uranium than permitted and to higher concentrations. Europeans have also been pressing Washington to reinstate waivers that permit foreign governments to participate in civil nuclear programs with Iran. The arrangement, a cornerstone of the 2015 pact, was meant to curtail Iran's nuclear program, including by redesigning the Arak heavy water reactor to ensure that it can't be used to produce plutonium.
For its part, Iran has also refused to engage in talks with signatories of the nuclear deal until the United States agrees to lift sanctions, leaving the two sides deadlocked.
Who's to Blame for Stalling U.S.-Iran Negotiations?
A senior Biden administration official said that the Europeans never proposed that the United States meet all its obligations under the nuclear treaty without Iran taking mutual steps; even China and Russia, also signatories, envisioned some sort of synchronized return to compliance with the pact, the official said.
But it is "accurate that some Europeans felt we should take the first early steps. The Europeans, Russians, and Chinese all felt the U.S. withdrew from the deal first, the U.S. should take the first step. I think it's fair to say some Europeans thought an early gesture by us might have set a different tone. It might have helped, it might not," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity given the confidential nature of nuclear negotiations.
"What we conveyed to the Europeans was that we were prepared to take some steps, but not unilaterally," the official said.
If Europe was expecting quick action on sanctions, it's because that's what Biden promised on the campaign trail.
But Europeans underestimated the widespread domestic political opposition to the deal, which has been led by powerful Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Bob Menendez, the Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham. In a March 8 letter to the president, the two lawmakers urged Biden to work with key allies, including critics of the nuclear pact in Israel and the Gulf States, to forge a new agreement that not only constrains Iran's prospects for acquiring a nuclear bomb but also checks its ability to destabilize the region and advance its ballistic missile program.
"[W]e must confront the reality that Iran has accelerated its nuclear activity in alarming ways including increasing its centrifuge research and production and enriching uranium up to 20 percent," they wrote in the letter, which was forwarded to the president on Thursday with the signatures of 41 additional Democratic and Republican senators. "Iran continues to pose a threat to U.S. and international security through exporting arms, including highly accurate missiles, supporting Shia militias that target U.S. service members, and supporting terrorist organizations and other malign actors throughout the region."
Supporters of the Iran nuclear pact say aiming for a huge deal, which mirrors the Trump administration's demands for greater Iranian concessions for sanctions relief, would undermine any prospects for reviving the limited deal. "The nuclear pact is not a domestic political issue in Europe; they didn't understand how much of an obstacle domestic political opposition to progress it would be," Vaez said.
The debate over reengaging with Iran has opened fissures within the Democratic Party. Progressives worry that the White House is yielding to political pressure from Menendez, even though "his hawkish views are out of step with his caucus, and out of step with the vast majority of voters who support diplomacy over war," said one congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This is a political calculation," the aide added. "It's worse. It's a bad political calculation.
The congressional aide expressed concern that Biden may already have botched an opportunity to make good on a promise to rejoin the nuclear agreement. "This is one of President Biden's clearest commitments. As a candidate, Biden stated the 'urgent' need to rejoin the JCPOA. I am not feeling the fucking urgency," the congressional aide said, referring to the deal by an abbreviation of its formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "They should have done this on day two. Instead, we're watching the opportunity for diplomacy slip away, and the likelihood of greater conflict increase."
For its part, Iran has refused to scale back its prohibited nuclear activities until Washington lifts sanctions as required by the 2015 nuclear pact. A year after Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, Iran gradually stopped abiding by certain aspects of the agreement. Tehran ramped up its centrifuges to produce enriched uranium, increased both the size and purity of its uranium stockpile, and has shortened its breakout time toward a bomb. More recently, Iran has taken steps to escalate the crisis, announcing plans in February to scale back international nuclear inspections.
In a statement marking the Iranian New Year, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said his country was in "no hurry" to revive the nuclear pact, and that Tehran would recommit to the accord once the United States has verifiably lifted sanctions. "It's not a matter of who should be the first. The issue is that we trusted the Americans and fulfilled our commitments in the nuclear deal, but they didn't," he said.
Some observers say it's naive to think Tehran will meet Washington halfway. The United States has already taken steps toward accommodating Iran: reversing Trump's effort to reimpose U.N. sanctions, ending travel restrictions on Iranian diplomats in New York, and asking Iran to come to a meeting of signatories of the agreement. (Tehran refused.)
The senior U.S. official noted that Iran decided to restrict access of international nuclear inspectors in the country after the United States announced plans to withdraw some Trump-era sanctions.
"I don't buy the idea that if only Biden would have moved quicker, this would have happened, regardless of what the Biden administration did or did not do in its first months in office," said Henry Rome, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group. "The conservatives in the Iranian government were going to very be strongly opposed to reentry into this deal." Rome said that he expects that while the United States and Iran are unlikely to strike any nuclear deal before Iran's June elections, he believes Washington and Tehran will return to compliance before the end of the year.
The push to salvage the deal has also been complicated on the ground. On Feb. 15, an Iran-backed militia allegedly fired rockets at the Erbil airport in northern Iraq, killing a Filipino contractor who worked for the U.S.-led military coalition and wounding several others, including a U.S. service member and an Iraqi civilian who died a week later. Ten days later, Biden ordered a limited rocket strike against Iran-backed militants in eastern Syria.
"It's not really helping the climate in the U.S. to have Iranian allies take shots at Americans in Iraq or elsewhere, and the U.S. will respond as it has responded and it will continue to respond," Robert Malley, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, said in March.
The United Kingdom, France, and Germany have pursued a nuclear pact with Iran since 2003, after revelations emerged that Tehran had secretly begun developing a heavy water reactor that Western governments feared could be used for the production of plutonium, as well as an underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. It was the first of a series of on-again off-again diplomatic initiatives aimed at containing Iran's nuclear program. The United States, which was preoccupied seeking to pacify Iraq, did not take part in those early talks.
A decade later, Obama dispatched Bill Burns, a veteran U.S. diplomat who was recently sworn in as Biden's director of the CIA, to Oman to begin secret talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Those initial talks culminated in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was endorsed by Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United States, and the European Union, and which placed a series of verifiable constraints on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions.
The nuclear pact faced fierce opposition from allies in the region, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, and pro-Israeli lawmakers in the United States, who feared it would provide Tehran with the financial resources to threaten its neighbors. They argued that Iran could not be trusted to live up to its obligations.
"It was never going to be easy," said Mark Lyall Grant, who served previously as Britain's national security advisor and led its Iran nuclear negotiations. "It's true that the opposition has had time to mobilize, but the opposition has always been there. If the Americans are persuaded there is a deal to be done, I don't think opposition from others in the region is a problem. It's a challenge, but it's not an insuperable one."
Grant noted the efforts Europeans have made to keep the deal alive, even as Washington walked and Tehran balked.
"The Europeans have done well to keep the JCPOA on thin life support during the Trump administration, even though the Iranians have gone off the tracks," he said. But, he added, all the Iranian increases in centrifuges and uranium enrichment are reversible.
Iran was largely in compliance with the Iran nuclear deal until Trump pulled out of the agreement and dialed up a so-called maximum pressure campaign, replete with sanctions on every corner of the Iranian economy. Even humanitarian aid was affected.
In an interview with the BBC's Persian-language network, the U.S. envoy Malley said, "The maximum pressure has failed. … It's been bad for the U.S., for Iran, for the region."
"What we want to do is get into a position where the U.S. can lift sanctions again, and Iran can come back into compliance with its nuclear commitments under the deal," he added.
But many supporters of the nuclear pact, including some European officials, believe that the Biden administration needs to own up to America's role in undermining the deal—even if the damage was inflicted by the previous administration.
"I think there was a need for a mea culpa from the Biden administration," Vaez said. "The maximum pressure campaign inflicted not only economic damage on the country but also cost Iranian lives in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The Biden administration acted as if all this harm inflicted on Iran was done by a different country. It didn't take any responsibility for the mistakes committed by its predecessor. That is going to have long-term implications for Iranian-U.S. relations."
Playing Chicken with Nuclear Weapons: Revelation 16
Chinese and American Leaders Are Playing a Game of Chicken That Couldn't Be More Dangerous
Could the U.S. and China face an unintended blowup in the western Pacific in the Biden years?
byMichael T. Klare
The leaders of China and the United States certainly don't seek a war with each another. Both the Biden administration and the regime of Chinese President Xi Jinping view economic renewal and growth as their principal objectives. Both are aware that any conflict arising between them, even if restricted to Asia and conducted with non-nuclear weapons—no sure bet—would produce catastrophic regional damage and potentially bring the global economy to its knees. So, neither group has any intention of deliberately starting a war. Each, however, is fully determined to prove its willingness to go to war if provoked and so is willing to play a game of military chicken in the waters (and air space) off China's coast. In the process, each is making the outbreak of war, however unintended, increasingly likely.
History tells us that conflicts don't always begin due to planning and intent. Some, of course, start that way, as was the case, for instance, with Hitler's June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union and Japan's December 1941 attacks on the Dutch East Indies and Pearl Harbor. More commonly, though, countries have historically found themselves embroiled in wars they had hoped to avoid.
This was the case in June 1914, when the major European powers—Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire—all stumbled into World War I. Following an extremist act of terror (the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie by Serbian nationalists in Sarajevo), they mobilized their forces and issued ultimatums in the expectation that their rivals would back off. None did. Instead, a continent-wide conflict erupted with catastrophic consequences.
Sadly, we face the possibility of a very similar situation in the coming years. The three major military powers of the current era—China, the United States, and Russia—are all behaving eerily like their counterparts of that earlier era. All three are deploying forces on the borders of their adversaries, or the key allies of those adversaries, and engaging in muscle-flexing and "show-of-force" operations intended to intimidate their opponent(s), while demonstrating a will to engage in combat if their interests are put at risk. As in the pre-1914 period, such aggressive maneuvers involve a high degree of risk when it comes to causing an accidental or unintended clash that could result in full-scale combat or even, at worst, global warfare.
Provocative military maneuvers now occur nearly every day along Russia's border with the NATO powers in Europe and in the waters off China's eastern coastline. Much can be said about the dangers of escalation from such maneuvers in Europe, but let's instead fix our attention on the situation around China, where the risk of an accidental or unintended clash has been steadily growing. Bear in mind that, in contrast to Europe, where the borders between Russia and the NATO countries are reasonably well marked and all parties are careful to avoid trespassing, the boundaries between Chinese and U.S./allied territories in Asia are often highly contested.
China claims that its eastern boundary lies far out in the Pacific—far enough to encompass the independent island of Taiwan (which it considers a renegade province), the Spratly and Paracel Islands of the South China Sea (all claimed by China, but some also claimed by Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines), and the Diaoyu Islands (claimed by both China and Japan, which calls them the Senkaku Islands). The United States has treaty obligations to Japan and the Philippines, as well as a legislative obligation to aid in Taiwan's defense (thanks to the Taiwan Relations Act passed by Congress in 1979) and consecutive administrations have asserted that China's extended boundary claims are illegitimate. There exists, then, a vast area of contested territory, encompassing the East and South China Seas—places where U.S. and Chinese warships and planes increasingly intermingle in challenging ways, while poised for combat.
Probing Limits (and Defying Them)
The leaders of the U.S. and China are determined that their countries will defend what it defines as its strategic interests in such contested areas. For Beijing, this means asserting its sovereignty over Taiwan, the Diaoyu Islands, and the islands of the South China Sea, as well as demonstrating an ability to take and defend such territories in the face of possible Japanese, Taiwanese, or U.S. counterattacks. For Washington, it means denying the legitimacy of China's claims and ensuring that its leadership can't realize them through military means. Both sides recognize that such contradictory impulses are only likely to be resolved through armed conflict. Short of war, however, each seems intent on seeing how far it can provoke the other, diplomatically and militarily, without triggering a chain reaction ending in disaster.
On the diplomatic front, representatives of the two sides have been engaging in increasingly harsh verbal attacks. These first began to escalate in the final years of the Trump administration when the president abandoned his supposed affection for Xi Jinping and began blocking access to U.S. technology by major Chinese telecommunications firms like Huawei to go with the punishing tariffs he had already imposed on most of that country's exports to the U.S. His major final offensive against China would be led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who denounced that country's leadership in scathing terms, while challenging its strategic interests in contested areas.
In a July 2020 statement on the South China Sea, for instance, Pompeo slammed China for its aggressive behavior there, pointing to Beijing's repeated "bullying" of other claimants to islands in that sea. Pompeo, however, went beyond mere insult. He ratcheted up the threat of conflict significantly, asserting that "America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law"—language clearly meant to justify the future use of force by American ships and planes assisting friendly states being "bullied" by China.
Pompeo also sought to provoke China on the issue of Taiwan. In one of his last acts in office, on January 9th, he officially lifted restrictions in place for more than 40 years on U.S. diplomatic engagement with the government of Taiwan. Back in 1979, when the Carter administration broke relations with Taipei and established ties with the mainland regime, it prohibited government officials from meeting with their counterparts in Taiwan, a practice maintained by every administration since then. This was understood to be part of Washington's commitment to a "One China" policy in which Taiwan was viewed as an inseparable part of China (though the nature of its future governance was to remain up for negotiation). Reauthorizing high-level contacts between Washington and Taipei more than four decades later, Pompeo effectively shattered that commitment. In this way, he put Beijing on notice that Washington was prepared to countenance an official Taiwanese move toward independence—an act that would undoubtedly provoke a Chinese invasion effort (which, in turn, increased the likelihood that Washington and Beijing would find themselves on a war footing).
The Trump administration also took concrete actions on the military front, especially by increasing naval maneuvers in the South China Sea and in waters around Taiwan. The Chinese replied with their own strong words and expanded military activities. In response, for instance, to a trip to Taipei last September by Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Keith Krach, the highest-ranking State Department official to visit the island in 40 years, China launched several days of aggressive air and sea maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait. According to Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang, those maneuvers were "a reasonable, necessary action aimed at the current situation in the Taiwan Strait protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity." Speaking of that island's increasing diplomatic contact with the U.S., he added, "Those who play with fire will get burned."
Today, with Trump and Pompeo out of office, the question arises: How will the Biden team approach such issues? To date, the answer is: much like the Trump administration.
In the first high-level encounter between U.S. and Chinese officials in the Biden years, a meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18th and 19th, newly installed Secretary of State Antony Blinken used his opening remarks to lambaste the Chinese, expressing "deep concerns" over China's behavior in its mistreatment of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang Province, in Hong Kong, and in its increasingly aggressive approach to Taiwan. Such actions, he said, "threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability." Blinken has uttered similar complaints in other settings, as have senior Biden appointees to the CIA and Department of Defense. Tellingly, in its first months in office, the Biden administration has given the green light to the same tempo of provocative military maneuvers in contested Asian waters as did the Trump administration in its last months.
"Gunboat Diplomacy" Today
In the years leading up to World War I, it was common for major powers to deploy their naval forces in waters near their adversaries or near rebellious client states in that age of colonialism to suggest the likelihood of punishing military action if certain demands weren't met. The U.S. used just such "gunboat diplomacy," as it was then called, to control the Caribbean region, forcing Colombia, for example, to surrender the territory Washington sought to build a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Today, gunboat diplomacy is once again alive and well in the Pacific, with both China and the U.S. engaging in such behavior.
China is now using its increasingly powerful navy and coast guard on a regular basis to intimidate other claimants to islands it insists are its own in the East and South China Seas—Japan in the case of the Senkakus; and Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines in the case of the Spratlys and Paracels. In most instances, this means directing its naval and coast guard vessels to drive off the fishing boats of such countries from waters surrounding Chinese-claimed islands. In the case of Taiwan, China has used its ships and planes in a menacing fashion to suggest that any move toward declaring independence from the mainland will be met with a harsh military response.
For Washington in the Biden era, assertive military maneuvers in the East and South China Seas are a way of saying: no matter how far such waters may be from the U.S., Washington and the Pentagon are still not prepared to cede control of them to China. This has been especially evident in the South China Sea, where the U.S. Navy and Air Force regularly conduct provocative exercises and show-of-force operations intended to demonstrate America's continuing ability to dominate the region—as in February, when dual carrier task forces were dispatched to the region. For several days, the USS Nimitz and the USS Theodore Roosevelt, along with their accompanying flotillas of cruisers and destroyers, conducted mock combat operations in the vicinity of islands claimed by China. "Through operations like this, we ensure that we are tactically proficient to meet the challenge of maintaining peace and we are able to continue to show our partners and allies in the region that we are committed to promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific," was the way Rear Admiral Doug Verissimo, commander of the Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, explained those distinctly belligerent actions.
The Navy has also stepped up its patrols of destroyers in the Taiwan Strait as a way of suggesting that any future Chinese move to invade Taiwan would be met with a powerful military response. Already, since President Biden's inauguration, the Navy has conducted three such patrols: by the USS John S. McCain on February 4th, the USS Curtis Wilbur on February 24th, and the USS John Finn on March 10th. On each occasion, the Navy insisted that such missions were meant to demonstrate how the U.S. military would "continue to fly, sail, and operate anywhere international law allows."
Typically, when the U.S. Navy conducts provocative maneuvers of this sort, the Chinese military—the People's Liberation Army, or PLA—responds by sending out its own ships and planes to challenge the American vessels. This occurs regularly in the South China Sea, whenever the Navy conducts what it calls "freedom of navigation operations," or FONOPs, in waters near Chinese-claimed (and sometimes Chinese-built) islands, some of which have been converted into small military installations by the PLA. In response, the Chinese often dispatch a ship or ships of its own to escort—to put the matter as politely as possible—the American vessel out of the area. These encounters have sometimes proven exceedingly dangerous, especially when the ships got close enough to pose a risk of collision.
In September 2018, for example, a Chinese destroyer came within 135 feet of the guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur on just such a FONOP mission near Gavin Reef in the Spratly Islands, obliging the Decatur to alter course abruptly. Had it not done so, a collision might have occurred, lives could have been lost, and an incident provoked with unforeseeable consequences. "You are on [a] dangerous course," the Chinese ship reportedly radioed to the American vessel shortly before the encounter. "If you don't change course, [you] will suffer consequences."
What would have transpired had the captain of the Decatur not altered course? On that occasion, the world was lucky: the captain acted swiftly and avoided danger. But what about the next time, with tensions in the South China Sea and around Taiwan at a far higher pitch than in 2018? Such luck might not hold and a collision, or the use of weaponry to avoid it, could trigger immediate military action on either side, followed by a potentially unpredictable escalating cycle of countermoves leading who knows where.
Under such circumstances, a war nobody wanted between the U.S. and China could suddenly erupt essentially by happenstance—a war this planet simply can't afford. Sadly, the combination of inflammatory rhetoric at a diplomatic level and a propensity for backing up such words with aggressive military actions in highly contested areas still seems to be at the top of the Sino-American agenda.
Chinese and American leaders are now playing a game of chicken that couldn't be more dangerous for both countries and the planet. Isn't it time for the new Biden administration and its Chinese opposite to grasp more clearly and deeply that their hostile behaviors and decisions could have unforeseeable and catastrophic consequences? Strident language and provocative military maneuvers—even if only intended as political messaging—could precipitate a calamitous outcome, much in the way equivalent behavior in 1914 triggered the colossal tragedy of World War I.
andrewtheprophet	Uncategorized	Leave a comment April 2, 2021 April 2, 2021 10 Minutes
Russia loads up more nukes: Daniel 7
Russia's Navy is making a big bet on new, smaller warships loaded with missiles
Benjamin Brimelow Apr 1, 2021, 8:41 AM
The Russian Navy has been busy.
It's stepping up operations in the Arctic, expanding its presence in Africa and the Middle East, and keeping a close eye on NATO around Europe.
It's also making progress on a number of high-profile shipbuilding projects. It plans to commission or receive six new submarines — three of them nuclear-powered — by the end of this year and expects to receive a fully modernized Kirov-class nuclear battlecruiser and to begin sea trials for its only aircraft carrier by the end of 2022.
These are impressive advances for a force that largely fell into disrepair after the Cold War. While the Russian Navy isn't as big as its Soviet forebear, the work shows that the Kremlin is committing to its modernization.
The Soviet Navy was a considerable blue-water force at the end of the Cold War, numbering about 650 ships by 1990. The US Navy had 570 ships in service at that time.
That Soviet fleet included seven aircraft carriers, 73 guided missile cruisers and destroyers, and as many as 260 submarines, though some of those vessels were not combat-capable and were counted to boost the fleet's numbers.
Russia inherited the bulk of the Soviet fleet after the dissolution of the USSR but couldn't afford to operate most of it. Moscow maintained a number of the larger, higher-end vessels, but ultimately wrote off 70% of the Soviet ships.
Russia's Navy went into a period of neglect and dilapidation after the Cold War, with deadly accidents further tarnishing its prestige.
In 2000, the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk exploded and sank, killing all 118 crewmen. In 2016, malfunctions on board its only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, caused the loss of two jets and forced its entire air wing to operate from land.
The carrier continues to face problems during its refit, with multiple accidents resulting in deaths and further damage.
Those incidents underline another critical problem for Russia's Navy: A lack of expertise and suitable shipyards after nearly two decades of neglect. The loss of access to Ukrainian shipyards and expertise, particularly after Russia's incursions in Ukraine in 2014, caused further problems.
New ships, new capabilities
Russian Navy frigate Admiral Groshkov launches a Zircon hypersonic cruise missile in the White Sea, October 7, 2020. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
Today, the Russian Navy operates about 360 vessels of all types. Big guided-missile cruisers and destroyers have been largely replaced by smaller warships, such as corvettes and frigates.
Basically, they're building subs and small surface combatants," Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Marine Corps colonel, told Insider. "That represents primarily a home-defense force, although they retain some ability to send forces overseas."
Corvettes like those of the Karakurt and Stereguschiy classes are meant to support larger guided-missile frigates, namely the Admiral Gorshkov-class and Admiral Grigorovich-class.
Many of these ships are smaller in size and armament than their NATO counterparts, but new technology and weaponry, especially the Kalibr cruise missile, which was introduced in 2015, give them an edge.
Comparable to the US-made Tomahawk, the Kalibr can carry a 450 kg warhead to targets 1,500 km to 2,500 km away. The Kalibr has repeatedly proven its worth on Russia's ships and subs, most notably against land targets in Syria. It can also be used against naval targets.
Russian military strategists also see submarines as among the best weapons to defeat the US Navy. For their part, US Navy officers have taken note of the Russian submarine fleet's expanding capabilities.
The submarine fleet of the future will be based around Borei-class SSBNs and Yasen-class SSGNs, which are slowly replacing their predecessors. Built after the Cold War, they are considered the best submarines Russia has ever made and first-rate vessels on par with their NATO counterparts.
Borei-class subs have six torpedo tubes and carries 16 new RSM-56 Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Each missile carries six to 10 150-kiloton nuclear warheads and can travel some 8,000 km.
Yasen-class subs have 10 torpedo tubes and eight vertical missile launchers, allowing the launch of 32 Kalibr or 24 P-800 Oniks anti-ship missiles. The Yasen-class has already proven it is able to evade NATO
Russia has four Borei SSBNs and one Yasen SSGN in service. It hopes to have 10 Boreis and at least nine Yasens by 2030.
A new Russian military
Russian frigate Admiral Makarov in the Black Sea near Feodosia in Crimea, November 28, 2020. Sergei Malgavko\TASS via Getty Images
The Russian Navy is currently outfitting all its ships with Kalibr missiles and plans to put the Zircon hypersonic missile, which is still being tested, on both submarines and surface ships. The Zircon, capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 8, will further enhance the fleet.
The new investments and developments are just one part of a broader effort to modernize the Russian military.
"There was this tremendous reckoning after the disappointing showing of the Russian military against Georgia in 2008, and the Russian military has gone through a huge reorganization," Cancian said.
The Russians have slimmed down their force with the intention to make it a higher-quality, more professional force with more modern equipment.
For the Navy, this has meant restructuring the fleet, focusing on quality over quantity to the extent allowed by budgets and ship-building capability. With new weaponry, the fleet now has a larger and more important role in Russia's defense strategy.
"In a certain sense, the Navy is now more integrated into Russia's strategic framework that they refer to as 'strategic deterrence,'" Edmonds said, noting that the threat from Kalibr-equipped warships enables Russia to threaten critical infrastructure across virtually all of Europe.
There are serious obstacles — the lack of expertise and infrastructure are major challenges to shipbuilding — but Russia is committed to overcoming them. Its Navy is not likely to reach the size of the Soviet fleet, but recent developments show that it is no longer the dilapidated force it was in the 1990s.
"The gears might be turning slowly, but they are turning again," Edmonds said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2019. "They're getting there."
Antichrist: PM Al Kadhimi's visit to Saudi Arabia will bring Iraq 'out of isolation'
Sadr: PM Al Kadhimi's visit to Saudi Arabia will bring Iraq 'out of isolation'
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi performs Umrah at the Grand Mosque complex in the holy city of Makkah on April 1, 2021. Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi's trip to Saudi Arabia will allow the country to restore ties with its Arab counterparts, influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr said on Thursday.
After former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia, along with many countries in the region and the wider world, severed ties with Iraq.
Baghdad has been working to restore regional ties since the US-led invasion of 2003.
"I'm looking at my brother Al Kadhimi's visit to Saudi Arabia with eyes of hope," Mr Al Sadr said on Twitter.
Mr Al Sadr commands a large following among the urban poor of Baghdad and southern cities and was once the leader of a powerful militia who fought against American forces stationed in Iraq.
Iraq lies on the fault line between the Shiite Muslim power Iran and the Sunni-ruled countries that are Tehran's regional rivals, among them Saudi Arabia.
"It is a door that takes Iraq out of isolation from its historical Arab environment, hoping that it will be a visit of friendship and partnership in various fields and an end to conflicts and crises," he said.
Mr Al Sadr made a rare visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017, where he met Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other officials.
It was seen by experts and officials as a significant development for regional stability and countering Iran's expansionism in the region.
Since 2003, successive US administrations have pushed for more Saudi engagement with the new Iraqi government, which Baghdad embraced by maintaining good ties with Riyadh and Tehran.
Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iraq have improved since Riyadh reopened its embassy in Baghdad in late 2015.
The kingdom has taken a more proactive role in regional policy, building stronger ties with Iraqi leaders has become a priority to limit Iran's influence in the country, where it has ties to Shiite groups that have dominated Iraqi politics since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Mr Al Sadr rose to prominence as a firebrand who led militias against US troops in Iraq who were seen as backed by Iran, but his ties to Tehran have been ambiguous.
Mr Al Kadhimi's first trip abroad as leader last year was to Iran, shortly after he visited the US.
He was scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia in his first foreign trip as prime minister last July, but the visit was cancelled at the last minute when King Salman had an operation to remove a gall bladder.
The Iraqi leader began his visit to the kingdom on Wednesday where he was received at Riyadh's international airport by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Iraq and Saudi Arabia agreed to set up a $3bn fund to boost the private sector in Iraq.
Updated: April 1, 2021 05:04 PM
Israeli forces push deep outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11
Israeli forces push deep into Deir al-Balah in Gaza
[31-03-2021 11:12 AM]
Ammon News – Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday made an incursion into east of Deir al-Balah town in the central Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources.
The sources said that the occupation troops, backed by military vehicles and bulldozers, pushed dozens of meters into the area and razed the Palestinian-owned lands.


Mel Ryane's sitcom pilot, Ask Alice, was optioned in Canada. She directed her one-act play, Titanic Twice, for the DuMaurier World Theater Festival. When Mel was accepted into the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women she wrote and directed a short film, Stepping on the Cracks. Her screenplay, On the Head of A Pin was a finalist in the Nicholl Fellowships for screenwriting sponsored by The Motion Picture Academy. Her memoir, Teaching Will has secured representation in NYC and is out to major publishing houses. She writes a successful blog: www.teachingwill.com	Mel Ryane lives in Los Angeles.


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Home > Membership
Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU)
Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU) formally established in August 2011. Before 2011, CSU has also been known as GESSA, i.e. General Establishment of Space Science and Application, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which was founded in 1993. The name GESSA is still referred to today.
On behalf of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), CSU has participated China's Manned Space Program ICMSP), acting as an organizer, coordinator and integrator of the Space Utilization System of CMSP. Institutes and universities inside and outside CAS have been involved in the Space Utilization System.
China's Manned Space Science and utilization has long been playing an important role in serving the national major strategic demands and gaining world-class competitive capabilities. With 20 years of unremitting endeavour, tens of scientific research projects have been successfully implemented, by utilizing the "S2" series spacecraft and "T G-1" space laboratory. Fruitful achievements have been attained in these researches. With the significant contribution to the progress of CMSP, especially to the space science and application, a number of awards and reputation were gained, such as National Prize of Scientific and Technological Progress, National May 1 Labor Award, Outstanding Contributions to the Manned Spaceflight and more.
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Web: http://english.csu.cas.cn/About_CSU/General_Information/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ralph Breaks the Internet is the sequel to Wreck-it Ralph, a Disney movie that was released in early November 2012.
The new movie continues the storyline of a video game "bad guy," Ralph, and his lovable best friend Vanellope von Schweetz. They risk it all by traveling to the internet to get a game part to fix Vanellope's video game "Sugar Rush." They go on a journey and stop by places like BuzzFeed, YouTube, and Oh My Disney. Through this journey, they find the true meaning of friendship and form a stronger bond.
The movie racked up a score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes but it has an audience score of 68%. The movie alone was great, but the fact it was a sequel lessens the Wow Factor of the movie. The original Wreck it Ralph was a favorite of mine and many viewers like myself had high expectations for the film that sadly it didn't really meet.
The movie was still good and made me laugh a few times. If you want to see a movie with your younger siblings or family, this is a good movie to see. The movie is estimated to be on DVD and digital download in February 2019.


Nuclear Nation Halloween party/20 year aniv.
with: Johan Piribauer, Martin C Herberg, Magda Andersson, Lurco, Linn Ulwebäck, and more..
with: Johan Piribauer, Kristian Anttila, Cajsa Siik, Martin C Herberg, EMP, Emma Fred, Clara Sandberg, Julia & Emma.
with: Johan Piribauer, Kristian Anttila, Swerengoma Arts, Linn Ulwebäck, Martin C Herberg, EMP – eldshow.
with Vergil, OSB, EMP and Jesper Westermark.


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How Is Paper Made?
Updated on: 22 Nov 2019 by Akash Peshin
The Paper Mill
Paper is one of mankind's most revolutionary inventions. The invention of paper finally put an end to the cumbersome task of carving on wood or stone. In fact, the scope of information mankind could now limn was so enlarged that paper wasn't merely used to catalogue the details of trade, but of daily events, to express feelings, wisdom, to write poems, to write stories we tell ourselves to transcend or escape the mundanity of life or stories that nature whispers to the ones who are keen to listen.
Photo Credit: Ginny / Flickr
No one is quite sure when the first sheet of paper was invented. What we do know is that it was invented some centuries ago in China, from where China's extraordinary trading network ensured that it was eventually exported to other countries. However, how did the Chinese create it?
Surely, everyone is aware that paper is made from trees, but you'd be surprised to know that it is not made from their thin and soft leaves but rather their hard and rugged logs! A logical question, of course, is how does a rigid, inflexible log bear something as flexible and foldable as paper?
Photo Credit: Pixels
What the Chinese first did was peel the bark off the logs. The large cylinders of wood were then diced into chips as small as a few inches. The chips were dissolved and cooked in boiling water to form what is called a pulp. The cooking ensured that the wood was purged of its robust attributes. The pulp was then left to dry in a rectangular vessel. The solution, like cement, would gradually and completely dry to assume the shape of its container. What materialized was a thin, rectangular sheet of paper.
However, the paper obtained, due to the primitivity of the prevalent technology, was coarse and crude. What's more, the paper would eventually turn yellow due to the presence of lignin, an organic polymer that comprises the intricate structures of plant tissues. As technology flourished, we figured that we could produce papers of a more refined quality. However, these papers would not only be smooth and velvety, but also wouldn't be blemished yellow with age.
The way we make paper today is not very different from how the Chinese did it centuries ago. What differs is the modern technology, which makes the process exponentially more efficient. It also allowed us to meticulously refine or regularize the inconsistencies in the dried, flattened pulp. We also identified certain chemicals that, when dribbled into the cauldron, would alter the paper's texture in accordance with our desires.
Today, the logs are first fed into a drum-shaped machine called a 'debarker' that, as the name suggests, separates the bark from the logs. The wood is then diced into single-inch chips and cooked in a solution of acid to separate the desirable plant fibers from the undesirable lignin, rendering the solution pulpy and fibrous. The pulp is then described as wood-free because it only contains plant fibers. This pulp is cleaned and bleached with water to remove the acid and ensure that no residual lignin survives. The treatment with water causes it to acquire the white color that is characteristic of paper.
Apart from the wood itself, water is the most important ingredient of the process. At least 100L of water is required to make 1kg of paper. However, engineers have devised clever ways to ensure that very little water is wasted. Almost 90% of the water is recycled by soaking or recirculating it on a mesh of pipes throughout the long process. In fact, a majority of the wood chips used are actually the waste products of sawmills! Even the chemicals used to bleach the pulp don't include chlorine, but rather oxygen and peroxide, to ensure that no harm is inflicted on the environment.
Next, the pulp is passed through a series of adroitly placed blades to flatten the fibers, which were entangled like earphones in your pocket. Other than eradicating inconsistencies, this process also gives the fibers fibrillated ends, which facilitate fiber bonding with adjacent fibers, making the paper much stronger. Manufacturers also add calcium carbonate to the pulp to enhance its density and opaqueness, as well as starch or dyes to color it based on the buyer's requirement, and optical brighteners to further improve the paper's appearance.
Pulp. Photo Credit: Flicker /Paper Pulp
The pulp is now ready to dry. To eliminate the water, the pulp is fed into the paper machine, the heart of a paper mill. The paper machine is a conglomeration of different, smaller machines that simultaneously perform a variety of chores. Essentially, the pulp is dried by making it gush through narrow spaces between rotating wires and belts. The belts carry the water away, while the increased pressure and temperature ensure that a sheet of paper rolls out from the other end. To remove any residual moisture, the paper is subjected to infrared radiation.
The paper is then meticulously reviewed by experts who might send it for further refining to eliminate any inconsistencies that might have been spared in the previous processes. The rolls of paper produced can run up to 80km in length and 9m in width! A single roll can weigh as much as 120 tons! That is a lot of paper. Finally, the paper is divided into smaller lengths, which are loaded in cardboard boxes to be sold in the market.
A Paper Machine. Photo Credit: Pixabay
The pulp is also treated with different chemicals to create different kinds of paper, such as the craggy paper on which the content of a novel is printed, the smooth paper that forms its cover, tissue papers, and let's not forget the most valued paper with which we buy every other paper: money! So, try not to take this most ubiquitous of materials for granted and appreciate the prudence and stringent labor that goes into making it.
Wisconsin Paper Council • Advocating & Educating • Madison
The short URL of the present article is: http://sciabc.us/p2Lx3
Akash Peshin is an Electronic Engineer from the University of Mumbai, India and a science writer at ScienceABC. Enamored with science ever since discovering a picture book about Saturn at the age of 7, he believes that what fundamentally fuels this passion is his curiosity and appetite for wonder.
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The practice of martial arts promotes cardiovascular development, strength training, flexibility improvement and mobility enhancement. In the course of a single martial arts training session of 30 to 45 minutes, a person can engage in exercises that incorporate cardiovascular capacity improvement and strength development, along with better flexibility and joint mobility.
This ancient practice is proven to reduce pain and improve your mental and physical well-being. Invest in yourself with gentle Sun-style Tai Chi routines that are safe, easy to learn, and suitable for every fitness level.
This martial art traces its lineage back 2,000 years to the Korean peninsula and is a method of empty hand and foot fighting based on scientific use of the body. The three goals of Tang Soo Do are self-defense, physical health and self-improvement. We offer Tang Soo Do classes for preschool ages and above.
This Korean art which uses hands and feet as a means of practical self-defense is recognized as the national sport of Korea as well as an Olympic sport. Stay active, cultivate discipline and push yourself with this martial arts practice.


text:
Invasion of US Capitol building
Thread starter El Barto
D_W
PA, US
Jake said:
I think, haven't checked, that there were thousands of BLM arrests. Also, 10 killed by police in Chicago in 3 days wasn't it?
I think as it comes out we will find some of them were seriously hunting people.
14,000 blm arrests over a group estimated to be 15MM to 25MM in terms of number of protesters. About 1 in 1500 protesters got arrested.
How does that compare with last weekend. The group was permitted between 5 and 30k, and there are at least 125 arrests so far (probably more). At least 6 times the arrest rate and they're just getting started.
As far as "some were hunting people", there were a few who left rotten messages on social media. It appears that they were known about before they got there and they were arrested. I'd bet they didn't get far. Most of the group was unarmed and misguided enough to think they were protesting election integrity.
The next day, Mike Pence protected the election integrity and showed them what being a "patriot" means (I'm not a fan of labels, but would rather say "showed them what learning of the facts and doing the right thing looks like").
If some part of a group of between 5 and 30k people went "hunting" for someone, there would've been some outcome that occurred. I don't believe it was more than fantasy to them, and then reality turned out more sour than they expected.
TRITON said:
Personally I prefer brown furniture to white. There, I've said it.
Shoes and boots, too, but in furniture made of leather or wood, definitely brown.
mikej460
The BLM vs. Capitol riots were so very different to my (ok foreign) eyes. Trump and his cronies forced the police response to the BLM protests in Washington because he is racist; the Capitol riot police response was so ill prepared, despite the FBI warnings, as to be totally inept. That said both sides had their bad actors, thugs who mingled with the protestors and stirred them on. I watched this last night Storming the Capitol: The Inside Story - Storming the Capitol: The Inside Story - ITV Hub
I'm not sure if D_W will be able to view it, but it is a UK TV channel's on the ground report of the Capitol riot and makes fascinating viewing. I was go-smacked by the interviews with seemingly ordinary, intelligent people at the riot who were genuinely convinced the election was a fraud (although there were some who were just dangerously bonkers).
As for the attempts to impeach Trump, I think the Democrats need to get rid of him politically if they are to move forward to repair the damage Trump has done to the US. He is a dangerous man with mind-boggling control over a large number of people who follow him like lemmings. I also suspect that there is a right wing faction who are just using him to further their own extremist ends.
Reactions: Vann, billw and Jacob
Pres Trump TOD of administration 21:22GMT
Reactions: mikej460
I don't have time to watch the special right now (not sure if I can view it), but thank you for the comment in the middle of your assessment, because it matches my thoughts about the group
>> interviews with seemingly ordinary, intelligent people at the riot who were genuinely convinced the election was a fraud <<
That's my assessment and that's why I think this movement has no long-term teeth. I do what I can when someone brings it up to question what they believe. My father thinks the election was stolen because it corresponds to vote fraud from eons ago in chicago that he remembers occurring. I think he's convinced now because I've run through likelihoods. If there are supposedly 30 provable events of large scale fraud, can you tell me that not a single prosecutor and judge in a conservative district would pick one up? That is *extremely unlikely*. Like perhaps one in 100,000 chance events, but who really knows. We don't make movements in life based on chances like that - it's stupidity.
But the average person doesn't understand likelihood and speaks in definites instead. This Zilch-Wedlock me off as my job is dealing with probabilities and data that isn't pure and clean. You can sniff out what ifs with bad data to see if it really matters and get an idea of what's likely or not.
At any rate, because the majority of the group, in my opinion, believes that there's actually an election stolen, they will eventually see enough reality to realize that it wasn't, and it'll die.
The *vast* majority that I've talked to would have no interest in actually toppling the system - they think they're protecting it and they have a hitch in their giddy-up as soon as you get them to realize they may be wrong.
The actual dangerous nutballs in the group who have been sniffed out and arrested, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with that. When they post what they posted on facebook, etc, and then show up with illegal or improvised weapons, they're going away. No more wondering.
Reactions: mcgranag and mikej460
Also keep in mind that the 'Mob' is actually an entity in its own right. The 'Mob' can act by it's own, and the people in it are mostly powerless to act against it's actions. They are in fact carried along, and later felt they had no control over their actions.
Crowd psychology - Wikipedia
One could put in the suggestion that with an understanding of crowd behaviour, the lack of dissenting voices contributed to the scenes we witnessed, blame therefore could be leveled against the Republican party, or even the police force, in that knowing how the crowd might act, they stood back and allowed it to continue.
This plays in to the notion of the mob being driven to attempt to overthrow the elected Biden government, and given the Biden government is one of socialist policy, it suggests strongly that the authoritarian aspects of a country's make up are directly responsible for the attack on the Capitol building. ie The police and the military.
This is of course just idle speculation, but lets not forget intellect.
Let's also not forget the assassination of JFK. Another socialist*.
* Socialism is not Communism, nor is it Marxism. Many appear not to know the difference. But to put it in its simplest format -
Marxism - Everybody has to die for the ideology.
Communism - Everyone has to die for the party.
Socialism - Nobody has to die, and everyone gets a better standard of living.
Last edited: 13 Jan 2021
Reactions: Jacob
quote today, national guard upped to 20k now. I'd like to say I called this ahead of time- wait, I did - it's in this post.
(interesting text replacement above - Zilch wedlock?)
rafezetter said:
Yeah but you still gotta do bad stuff to get there, or be very stupid 3 times, so try not to cry too much for them compared to being in a Thai prison eh?
Or the comparible holiday camps in the UK
This plays in to the notion of the mob being driven to attempt to overthrow the elected Biden government, and given the Biden government is one socialist policy, it suggests strongly that the authoritarian aspects of a country's make up are directly responsible for the attack on the Capitol building. ie The police and the military.
The conservative portions of the government here aren't particularly fascist and never have been. Biden is a moderate, and most people know it (which is how he got the nomination). As far as the mob not being able to move independently, apparently when the woman got shot in one wing, most of the people didn't mindlessly continue on, they followed the police out in an orderly way.
The history of the conservative party here has been to allow more rights and more individualism, not less or not more mandatory things - with one exception - the older right was obsessed with legislating morality and a puritanist kind of attitude. The far left side of the democratic party has been interested in limiting free speech or forcing certain types of speech by accommodation, but they are a tiny fraction of the fringe. There's no real bulk reason to fear loss of freedom here or imposition of anything by any minority.
or rather Nobody has to die, and all get the same standard of living?
Pint of bass, porkpie, and packet of crisps please
mikej460 said:
..... all get the same standard of living?
No it would be impossible.
More a constant process of cheques and balances in a constantly changing scenario. Pretty much how all modern states work anyway, but freer of free market ideology and doing more of what is simply necessary - such as providing homes for the homeless, one of the many things the free market can't do
There may be one country that has a socialist economy that has a higher per capita GDP and higher average standard of living, and If I'm guessing right, it's because the economy is supported by oil sales.
Generally, socialism results in lower output, a lower standard of living and greater uniformity.
At best, median standard of living may be even, lower class would be higher or at least more secure, and anything above that is lower. The trouble with believing that will last in the long term is that it doesn't account for the fact that the highest producers will establish themselves somewhere that's rewarding to them.
Median income - Wikipedia
That chart is median income (average income is more skewed in favor of the states, we obviously have more income disparity). It also doesn't account for taxes (if you have health care through an employer, in the US, it's far cheaper to live here due to the lower tax burden).
But you take more risks here because the safety net is at the poverty level, not at the 33rd percentile or some other more comfortable level.
It drives me up a wall a little when we hear (we here it here, too) that with socialism, everyone gains. All it ignores is reality.
I think the very term puts people off, like communism it has a history and is regarded as an old, unrealistic theory used by politicians to deride attempts to focus on the impoverished. Whereas what you suggest (and I totally agree with) is a fairer economic system that prevents such things as homelessness; however I feel this shouldn't be at the expense of a free market as that is what generates economic wealth to achieve what should be done.
@oliverdarcy
While Fox hosts have uttered the words "protest that got out of hand" in last hour, CNN reports via law enforcement official that evidence uncovered so far suggests level of planning that has led investigators to believe attack was not just a protest that spiraled out of control.
No doubt our American friend D_W will still protest it was just a couple of nut jobs!
It puts people off here, but it's not a new thing. Our papers in the early 1900s were inundated with talk about implementing socialism. If we began to say that we don't have it, it would be very misleading. I just googled the total for medicare, medicaid, disability, social security - about 2.5 trillion per year.
That doesn't cover unemployment, child assistance, any state or local programs, housing assistance, food stamps. etc. It's probably 3-4 trillion a year.
We have a highly progressive tax system at the federal level, as do a lot of state and local governments.
It's just administered in a lot of parts and the non-federal benefits differ by state in some cases.
Our social spending is probably greater than the GDP of all but four countries (including us). I guess we're socialists.
harryc said:
You're searching for something to support a conclusion. That the whole group or near the whole was intent on overturning an election that they know they lost. you quote fox who says protest out of hand (duh?) and CNN, who has a political interest in exaggerating the intent of the overall group to stir up their audience.
Do you think fox news ever exaggerates something liberals do to stir up their audience?
Do you really think a giant attack would lead to everyone walking back out of the building a couple of hours later?
I'd imagine if there are 30k people in the group and they can find 50 people for you who are bonkers and want to overturn the government, you'll rest your conclusion on the 50 you can see interviews from.
I discount what you're doing because it's simple - you have something you want to find and you're looking for it. I'm willing to wait to see what happens going forward rather than making accusations. I can only go from the experience I have with people who think the election was "stolen". They're not looking to overturn the government, they think they're going to scare evidence of fraud out of someone. They'll realize they're wrong. If it doesn't fit what you're hoping, I can't really make you feel better.
D_W said:
You come across as the typical American we view over here, dogmatic in his/her views unwilling to see what is in front of your eyes.
But that's your perogative as you clearly want to see events in your ideology but that's like a lot of people, its human instinct.
You won't accept your official reports telling you of pipe bombs brought to the Capitol, hell loads of reports of Republican Congress people showing extremists around Congress just a couple of days before the attack.
What were all those nutters planning on doing with zip ties if not to take hostages?
Might be embarrassing for you to see the outside world looking at your Country as a banana republic but maybe a period of introspection is exactly what's needed by the so called silent majority to send the neandenthrals back to the caves who came out after Obama got elected.
you're drawing a conclusion and I'm waiting for information. You think that someone is going to take over the government and I don't. I personally think you have bad judgement if you actually think you're likely to be correct. It's that simple.
As far as embarrassment, you may have noticed that we (most americans) don't really run around worrying about appearances. I think that's kind of man pursey, actually, but we're aware that there's a fairly large group of people in other countries who have a chip on their shoulder about the state and always hope for the news to be as bad as possible.
I think we have a disinformation problem that'll be solved as reality sinks in to the bulk of the misinformed. I actually live here, you watch the news channels. Your quotes above sort of clarify reality - a protest that got out of hand (yes), and a news channel that offered that it was going from objective news to a slant, but they put a shiny hook in the water and you're on it.
You've singled out a couple of doofuses -doofus one brought pipe bombs but didn't use them. Doofus 2 brought zip ties, but didn't use them. Let's assume they were actually nuts and did use them (it's a bit odd that if they'd have intended to, neither did - in fact, nobody used anything but a fire extinguisher and things they could grab). Are you really that dense that here in the states where about half of the households have guns that these folks went to the capitol unarmed and decided
1) we're staging a coup
2) we're going to do it unarmed, because if we're armed, we hear it's a felony to do an armed coup
It's inconvenient for you, maybe, if you're hoping for the worst that sanity is the most likely thing to prevail. People who speculate and hope for the worst, I don't know, I really don't get it. To me, it signals something not that great.
Lefley
Trainee neophyte said:
At every turn the Democrat party seems intent on creating more friction, more anger, and more divisiveness. Did the left wing protestors who crashed the Kavanough hearings get charged with sedition? Did they get charged with anything at all?
If I had just won won an election, I would be going out of my way to try and build bridges, pour oil on troubled waters and generally calm things down. What I wouldn't be doing is persecuting the opposition in every way possible, unnecessarily impeaching the failed leader, threatening pogroms and "Truth and Reconcilliation" education camps etc. In other words, burning bridges, pouring oil on the fire, and inciting as much violence as possible.
Trump is insane, therefore Trump supporters are insane, therefore....?
Is that really a good way to fix all this chaos?
But they want to impeach him, so they can then stop him from ever again holding an elected office. That is there end game.
Semley
Woody2Shoes said:
I think you're revealing a bit about your social milieu !
Err, which of these do you mean?
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text:
Home » Outside Bollywood » Hollywood
Paris Hilton Is 'Definitely' Considering To Start Her Own Production Banner, Deets Inside
Hilton has had a number of executive producer credits in the past.
Socialite Paris Hilton is planning to set up her own production company.
Hilton said that she is "definitely" considering her own television production company, reports deadline.com.
She was speaking after her Winter TCA press tour panel to promote "This Is Paris", the YouTube original documentary that takes a look at her life.
She executive produced Netflix's 2018 social media documentary "The American Meme" and "Paris Hilton's My New BFF".
She has also served as an executive producer on feature films like "The Hottie & The Nottie" and "Pledge This".
Hilton said that she is going to continue to expand her brand and empire all around the world.
Code M Review: Jennifer Winget's Digital Debut Is Bold & Keeps On The Edge Of Your Seat
Ayushmann Khurrana's Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan To Recreate Bappi Lahiri's 'Yaar Bina Chain'
She said: "I have 19 product brands, I just released my 25th fragrance, we have three more in the works. I just shot two music videos last week that are coming out in the next few months, I'm going on tour, playing at Tomorrowland again as a DJ."
"I have my own real estate properties so I'm following in my family's footsteps and also tech, I have apps and other tech ventures and virtual reality world and writing another book and acting. I think I need some clones."
Pledge This
The Hottie & The Nottie
The Witcher 2 To Face Another Delay – Courtesy Henry Cavill's Injury?
Extraction Director Sam Hargrave Spills Beans On The Sequel & The Universe: "Moving Forward On It As If We're Shooting In The Fall"
Koimoi Recommends Yuva: When Mani Ratnam Made Sharp Social Commentaries & Taking Offence Wasn't A Social Media Trend
Mrunal Thakur To Romance Dulquer Salmaan In Her South Debut?
Hrithik Roshan Jams With Excel Entertainment On Senorita But Fans Slam...
Blake Shelton Wants To Undergo Drastic Weightloss Before Tying The Knot...
WandaVision: Hilarious Memes About Wanda & Mysterious Beekeeper Trend On Twitter...
Imran Khan's Wife Avantika Malik Shares Another Cryptic Post, This Time...
The Flash: Christian Bale AKA Batman Has Been Offered A Lucrative...
Tiger 3: Salman Khan To Start Shooting For Ali Abbas Zafar's...
10 Best Hollywood Romantic-Dramas Of Last 10 Years: From Before Midnight...
Katy Perry Reveals The Most Important Thing In Her Life &...


text:
package com.coolweather.android;

import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.os.Build;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar;
import android.support.v7.app.AlertDialog;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.Window;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ListView;
import android.widget.Toast;

import com.coolweather.android.db.SavedCity;

import org.litepal.crud.DataSupport;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class ControlActivity extends BaseActivity {
    private List<String> dataList;
    private List<SavedCity> savedCityList;
    private ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;
    private Toolbar mToolbar;
    private static final String TAG = "ControlActivity";

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(final Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
            Window window = getWindow();
            window.getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN | View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_STABLE);
            window.setStatusBarColor(Color.TRANSPARENT);
        }
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_control);
        final ListView listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.list_saved);
        dataList = new ArrayList<>();
        savedCityList = DataSupport.findAll(SavedCity.class);
        for (SavedCity savedCity : savedCityList) {
            dataList.add(savedCity.getCountyName());
        }
        adapter = new ArrayAdapter<>(ControlActivity.this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, dataList);
        listView.setAdapter(adapter);

        listView.setOnItemClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
                String weatherId = savedCityList.get(position).getWeatherId();
                Log.d(TAG, "weatherId "+weatherId);
                Intent intent = new Intent(ControlActivity.this, WeatherActivity.class);
                intent.putExtra("weatherId", weatherId);
                setResult(RESULT_OK,intent);
                finish();
            }
        });

        listView.setOnItemLongClickListener(new AdapterView.OnItemLongClickListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onItemLongClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, final int position, long id) {
                AlertDialog.Builder dialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(ControlActivity.this);
                dialog.setTitle("确定要删除吗?");
                dialog.setPositiveButton("否", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {

                    }
                });
                dialog.setNegativeButton("是", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                        DataSupport.deleteAll(SavedCity.class,"id==?",""+
                                savedCityList.get(position).getId());
                        dataList.remove(position);
                        adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
                        Toast.makeText(MyApplication.getContext(),"删除成功^_^",Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                    }
                });
                dialog.show();
                return true;
            }
        });

        mToolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        mToolbar.setTitle("");
        setSupportActionBar(mToolbar);
        ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
        if (actionBar != null) {
            actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
            actionBar.setHomeAsUpIndicator(R.drawable.ic_back);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        switch (item.getItemId()) {
            case android.R.id.home:
                finish();
        }
        return true;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly. Open the Tutors Valley Homepage and look for links to the information you want. Use the navigation bar to find the link you are looking for.


Who buys broken cars in Salt Lake City Utah like this Volkswagen Beetle? WE DO!
Posted February 10th, 2014 by CarSoldForCash & filed under Uncategorized.
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text:
Rare and often-overlooked species found only in limestone ecosystems get a conservation boost
by Kristi Foster, Fauna & Flora International
A new report by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and three other conservation organisations calls on companies and regulators in the extractive industry to safeguard biodiversity found only in limestone areas.
Limestone – used worldwide as a building and ornamental stone and as an essential ingredient of cement – is essential to major infrastructure projects, from dam and bridge construction to road-building and port development. It is one of the building blocks of development and economic growth, but its extraction risks harming species we don't even understand yet.
In tropical and temperate regions alike, limestone areas are home to unique ecosystems (such as caves) that support a diversity of bat, snail, orchid, fish, spider and beetle species found in no other habitat on earth. Some cave species, like the blind water mite FFI discovered on Vietnam's Cat Ba Island in 2013, are so highly adapted to life in darkness that they cannot survive in other habitats.
Understudied biodiversity and overlooked threats
Limestone quarrying – the process of extracting the valuable rock from the ground – is one of the primary threats to biodiversity found only in limestone areas.
"Some limestone habitats, such as caves, form through natural processes over millions of years and are often impossible to restore once damaged," explains Dr Tony Whitten, Asia-Pacific Regional Director at FFI.
But in some cases, we may not even know what species are being lost. "Biodiversity in limestone areas is some of the most challenging to study due to the simple fact that it's tough to access," says Tony. "It's often the first to be overlooked by governments, companies and scientists and the last to be included in national or regional biodiversity surveys."
Whip spider in a limestone cave in Kampot Province, Cambodia. Credit: Jeremy Holden/FFI.
An even bigger challenge is that many limestone species are confined to very small areas – in some cases a solitary hill or cave. For these species, a single extractive operation, quarry or poorly-planned blast can lead to a global extinction.
Urging industry to step up
Acknowledging the rapidly increasing problem of limestone extraction, FFI, BirdLife International, IUCN and WWF have produced a joint briefing paper, Extraction and biodiversity in limestone areas, calling on scientific, regulatory and business communities to raise the profile of limestone-restricted biodiversity.
The paper urges operators of new and expanding limestone quarries to avoid key habitats such as caves and isolated limestone hills and restrict extraction to only a portion of a limestone area to reduce the chances of causing species extinctions.
It also encourages industry associations and regulators to help map critical areas for preserving limestone-restricted biodiversity to inform strategic planning and better coordinate the location and management of sites operated by different companies.
FFI's work on limestone biodiversity
Ha long bay, Vietnam, is home to thousands of small limestone islets. Credit: Rachel Austin/FFI.
FFI is working to conserve limestone areas in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos, to ensure that their incredible biodiversity value is recognised alongside their economic potential.
This work includes protecting limestone ecosystems in China's Guangxi Province by educating and training government and society on limestone landscape management, and working with Holcim (a leading cement and aggregates supplier) in Indonesia to examine the impacts of their quarry and broader management issues for the 11,500 hectare limestone prison island of Nusa Kambangan, off the south coast of Java.
Through work with Holcim Indonesia, we discovered 40 species new to science and developed a management plan which is now being implemented by the company within and around its mining zone.
The Critically Endangered Kanthan trapdoor spider has survived for 325 million years but now faces extinction because of limestone quarrying in Malaysia. Credit: Bjorn Olesen.
IUCN's Species Survival Commission has also formed a Specialist Group for Cave Invertebrates. Co-chaired by FFI's Tony Whitten and Louis Deharveng from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the group is dedicated to conserving cave invertebrate fauna.
A cave cricket, found in China. Credit: Tony Whitten/FFI.
"Limestone quarrying is essential for economic and development purposes, but could be responsible for more species extinctions – past and future – than any other sector. If done right there are big opportunities for operators, associations and regulators in the extractive sector to safeguard biodiversity and make high-profile contributions to conservation," says Tony.
Blind, scaleless cave fish species discovered in Vietnam
More information: The briefing paper, "Extraction and biodiversity in limestone areas," is available online: www.fauna-flora.org/wp-content … iversity-Final-3.pdf
Provided by Fauna & Flora International
Citation: Rare and often-overlooked species found only in limestone ecosystems get a conservation boost (2014, May 22) retrieved 19 January 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2014-05-rare-often-overlooked-species-limestone-ecosystems.html
Tiny colorful snails are in danger of extinction with vanishing limestone ecosystems
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Hitch Theaters wants to make your next road trip a more cinematic experience. Mashable reports that the company is currently raising money on Kickstarter to produce portable projector screens that can transform a truck bed (or any vehicle with a hitch) into a drive-in movie theater.
According to the Hitch Theaters Kickstarter, the screens are easy to set up and work with normal speakers and projectors. The company has designed three models: the True Drive-In Theater, the Group Date, and the Movie Night. While the first two attach to the back of a truck and allow travelers to watch a movie seated in or near their truck bed, and the other can be set up without a truck—perfect for backyard parties.
The screens can fit into a bag the size of a camping tent and take around 10 minutes to set up. Check out the video above to learn more.