“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

This week one of my projects was determining what to do with the growing number of mushrooms appearing amongst the coppiced black locust grove I started a few years ago for firewood and fence posts.

After checking with Audubon Guide to North American Mushrooms and Mushrooms Demystified it appears they are Prince mushrooms. Double checked a few youtube videos for additional pictures and a spore print. Never too careful with mushrooms. Taste test successful. Another flavorful perennial added to the landscape.

Slowly the year around the food sources are taking place. This next week a few frost sensitive vegetables and herbs will be dug up for potting to add fresh flavor for meals cooked throughout the winter.

The world is a changing.

‘Samarkand Spirit’ to be driven by ‘responsible powers’ Russia and China The Cradle by Pepe Escobar Sept 16, 2022

Fast forward to an Op-Ed by Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev published ahead of the SCO summit, where he stresses how Samarkand now “can become a platform that is able to unite and reconcile states with various foreign policy priorities.”

After all, historically, the world from the point of view of the Silk Road landmark has always been “perceived as one and indivisible, not divided. This is the essence of a unique phenomenon – the ‘Samarkand spirit’.”

And here Mirziyoyev ties the “Samarkand Spirit” to the original SCO “Shanghai Spirit” established in early 2001, a few months before the events of September 11, when the world was forced into strife and endless war, almost overnight.

All these years, the culture of the SCO has been evolving in a distinctive Chinese way. Initially, the Shanghai Five were focused on fighting terrorism – months before the US war of terror (italics mine) metastasized from Afghanistan to Iraq and beyond.

Over the years, the initial “three no’s” – no alliance, no confrontation, no targeting any third party – ended up equipping a fast, hybrid vehicle whose ‘four wheels’ are ‘politics, security, economy, and humanities,’ complete with a Global Development Initiative, all of which contrast sharply with the priorities of a hegemonic, confrontational west.

Arguably the biggest takeaway of this week’s Samarkand summit is that Chinese President Xi Jinping presented China and Russia, together, as “responsible global powers” bent on securing the emergence of multipolarity, and refusing the arbitrary “order” imposed by the United States and its unipolar worldview.
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The increasing Russia-China-Iran interpolation – the three top drivers of Eurasia integration – scares the hell out of the usual suspects, who may be starting to grasp how the SCO represents, in the long run, a serious challenge to their geoeconomic game. So, as every grain of sand in every Heartland desert is already aware, the geopolitical pressure against the trio will increase exponentially.
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Putin’s bilateral with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not have been more cordial – on a “very special friendship” register – with Modi calling for serious solutions to the food and fuel crises, actually addressing the west. Meanwhile, the State Bank of India will be opening special rupee accounts to handle Russia-related trade.
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Samarkand also gave an extra impulse to integration along the Russian-conceptualized Greater Eurasia Partnership – which includes the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – and that, just two weeks after the game-changing Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) held in Vladivostok, on Russia’s strategic Pacific coast.

Moscow’s priority at the EAEU is to implement a union-state with Belarus (which looks bound to become a new SCO member before 2024), side-by-side with closer integration with the BRI. Serbia, Singapore and Iran have trade agreements with the EAEU too.
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Successes are already notable: from Russia and Iran introducing direct settlements in rubles and rials, to Russia and China increasing their trade in rubles and yuan to 20 percent – and counting. An Eastern Commodity Exchange may be soon established in Vladivostok to facilitate trade in futures and derivatives with the Asia-Pacific.
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Russia, even more than China, knows that the usual suspects are going for broke. In 2022 alone, there was a failed coup in Kazakhstan in January; troubles in Badakhshan, in Tajikistan, in May; troubles in Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan in June; the non-stop border clashes between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (both presidents, in Samarkand, at least agreed on a ceasefire and to remove troops from their borders).

And then there is recently-liberated Afghanistan – with no less than 11 provinces crisscrossed by ISIS-Khorasan and its Tajik and Uzbek associates. Thousands of would-be Heartland jihadis have made the trip to Idlib in Syria and then back to Afghanistan – ‘encouraged’ by the usual suspects, who will use every trick under the sun to harass and ‘isolate’ Russia from Central Asia.

So Russia and China should be ready to be involved in a sort of immensely complex, rolling Great Game 2.0 on steroids, with the US/NATO fighting united Eurasia and Turkiye in the middle.

Is Australia becoming a major defensive position for the United States?

Australia wants B-21 stealth bombers to check China Asia Times Sept 12, 2012

In a seeming prelude to basing strategic bombers in Australia, this July the US deployed B-2 bombers as a part of “enhanced air cooperation through the rotational deployment of US aircraft of all types in Australia and appropriate aircraft training and exercises,” the Australian Department of Defense said to leading defense publication Janes.

The US move may reflect the capability gap caused by its decision to end its continuous bomber presence on Guam, with the US Air Force noting in April 2020 that it will no longer base strategic bombers outside the continental US.

The US Air Force decided to change its bomber force posture in favor of a “dynamic force employment” model that allows its bombers to operate from a “broader array of overseas locations”, as noted by the Air and Space Magazine.

However, a more plausible concern is that Guam has already become too vulnerable to Chinese and North Korean missile threats, which puts US strategic bombers on the island at risk.
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The US may thus be looking at Australia as an alternative basing area for its bombers. By selling extra B-21s to Australia, the US can also lower production costs for the aircraft, notes senior defense analyst Peter Suciu in an article for 1945.

Always interested in the opinions formed by others from various backgrounds regarding China. It is a complex situation with extreme input by the United States over the past decades.

Avoiding conflict and begging for peace will lead to Taiwan Strait war Taiwan News by Shih Ming-te Sept 15, 2022
Shih Ming-te (施明德) was born in 1941. He served as the Democratic Progressive Party Chairman from 1994-1996.

China’s claims are just as absurd and ridiculous.

A little bit of reading about Taiwan’s history will show that the first countries to occupy and exercise sovereignty over Taiwan were the Netherlands and Spain, not China. Where does this idea that Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times and is an “indivisible” part of China come from?

The tragedy of Taiwan is that for nearly 400 years, it has been continuously occupied by the Netherlands, Spain, the Ming Dynasty-pirate Koxinga, the Qing Empire, the Japanese Empire, and the government of the Republic of China, which have all established regimes on this beautiful island.

It was not until Taiwanese activists made the nation a democracy more than 30 years ago that nearly four hundred years of foreign colonial rule came to an end.

The Republic of China has undergone quantitative and qualitative changes that took root in Taiwan. Taiwan belongs only to the current 23 million Taiwanese, with no distinction of personal wealth or regard as to who came first.

Taiwan has not been a part of China since ancient times, let alone a part of the People’s Republic of China, which has never ruled Taiwan for even a minute or a second! To be more specific: China is only a part of Taiwan's history, and China is only one of many foreign colonial powers.
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Thus, Taiwan should form a new branch of the military: the police force. This force would be ten times larger than the regular military.

By turning a police station into a company during a battle, one precinct would become a battalion.

These police officers should receive various levels of training, including officer training. Let them be both part of the police and military, so they can also enjoy the benefits of being a soldier.

Wartime militias should be well organized and trained in peacetime. This would let China know: Bring it on!
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I am a rebel who has fought against dictatorship and foreign invasion at all costs throughout my life. My life has proven this—I'm not just repeating a slogan.

I am a staunch pacifist and an advocate for reconciliation. People like me cannot tolerate dictatorships and violent invasions.

May the Chinese think deeply.

May the Taiwanese have resolve.

I always get the sense from this author China should just comply without complaint the demands of the collective West.

Why China can’t let go of Taiwan Asia Times by Francesco Sisci Sept 1, 2022
Francesco Sisci is an Italian sineologist living in Beijing.

That identity arises at the intersection of imperial legacies, Western territorial ambitions and conceptions, and unarticulated practical considerations about the country’s security.

From Beijing’s perspective, the argument is as follows. Han people make up some 95% of the Chinese population. However, about half of China’s present territory used to belong to minorities: Mongols, Tibetans, and Uighurs (although now Han are the majority even there).

If Taiwan, claimed by China and with a Han majority, is allowed independence, why can’t Mongols, Tibetans and Uighurs have their independence? There are no easy answers.

That is, giving up on Taiwan would push Beijing into a corner. Either it should grant massive concessions at home, or it would have to redefine what is “China”, which is also very complicated.
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Still, realistically, foreigners are fed up with China and being entangled in its real or alleged presumptuous and unfathomable difficulties. Therefore, they’ll go for shortcuts.

Knowing the difficulties and with vested interests in keeping its present borders and claims, China will argue for the status quo and against the “adventurism” of foreign-suggested shortcuts.

Foreigners will then be torn between shortcuts and passive acceptance of the Chinese position. The possible answer is what is arguably happening now – the drifting of Western policies away from China’s standpoint (as is happening with Taiwan). This drift is almost parallel to Chinese drifting “expansion” on Hong Kong and the South China Sea.
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In the meantime, besides geography, the political economy knocks at the door. China has a relatively closed economic and internal political system. It can sell and invest relatively freely abroad but foreigners are not free to do the same in China.

Of course, this difference creates imbalances that grow with the size of the trade. Also, because of a drastic contraction of its domestic consumption, China may end this year with a whopping US$1 trillion trade surplus. This money comes basically all from G7 countries.

There is then a situation similar to the times before the Opium Wars, exactly 200 years ago, when China was a massive exporter and a minimal importer. Such a situation can be tolerated for a short time; it’s unsustainable for a long time.

For the next few weeks until the end of irrigation and harvest season my time and energy is limited. The table is set with the main dish - salads and deserts are up to C99 members - have fun.

What is on your mind today?