@Lookout

Another year older and the decades slip by. Make the best of the time you've got. Enjoy your life!

We hope to make it up to the mountain again this year, or maybe to Gulf Shores for a reunion.

Thanks brother.

A wet and poorly attended trade day, but I got to see my buddies and catch up a bit. It was a light 0.5" rain last night...should help with the soil moisture.

Another year older and the decades slip by. Make the best of the time you've got. Enjoy your life!

Thanks for covering the OT today, el. Hope all is well in your world.

@JtC and how much you have made such an impact in my POV over the last 20 some years.

Even now it means so much to me, perhaps even more now. For example, this post shows me and reminds me even tho it is really painful, how much I missed in those years when my personal events overshadowed what I should have experienced.

That time offered so much and I'm finally seeing it. Your invitation to this site has added so much for me.

Thanks again, have a most happy birthday.

Thanks el and everybody! I just got up at 10:30, had too much fun last night celebrating the last day of my 60s.

Thanks again!!

@on the cusp
technically my 60s aren't over yet. I was born at 4:54 PM on the 23rd. So I have a few hours left.

After 4:54 PM I start on my path to my 80s.

Jtc, when you start a conversation with 'When I look back on the 60s', you will have to clarify.
Prost!

@soryang

It's long and every part of it is enlightening because they are really discussing a crucial issue of our time. The US neocon coup government seems determined to force the world to the brink of World War III, if that's what it takes to hang on to its position of economic hegemony over all nations. Geopolitically, US power comes from its ability to deliver economic harm to reluctant countries that do not fall in line with US demands. The South China Sea is exactly where this War is planned to occur.

The US has been pushing its domestic gaslighting hard in recent years, clearly determined to transform China's President XI Jinping into an evil Demon from Hell in the American mind. Moreover, convincing the world that China has evil intensions is vital to US national security — and it has become a top priority. So the daily propaganda, lies, and accusations against China, the fake news and predictions of China's upcoming economic failure, the sabotage and the character assignations of Chinese leaders continue to flow freely out of the US boosted by the US media monopolies. (When the fact is, XI Jinping is a benevolent and caring leader. His vision is noble and reasonable; he is focused on creating the best possible opportunities and happiness for the people of China. To help other under developed countries, China has been underwriting infrastructure modernization that connects nations around the world for trade, and helps them achieve their own development goals. China aspires to make it possible for people everywhere to achieve economic security while helping to eradicating poverty.)

Below are two highlights from this very important debate, if you're interested but cannot watch it all:

Go to 43:16. Q: How can we manage the strategic distrust between China and the US that threatens to destabilize the world?

Answered by Kishore Mahbubani, Singaporean diplomat and geopolitical consultant who served as Singapore Permanent Representative to the United Nations between 1984 and 2004, and President of the United Nations Security Council between 2001 and 2002.

THIS IS A MUST WATCH

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End at 49:39. Or watch on.

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Go to 100:41. The Final Question from the Audience

The two debaters each give a brief answer to the final Question from the Audience about whether Global Warming is a top priority for both nations. First up is:

Orville Schell, Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. He previously served as dean of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Schell also wrote a famous book on China many years ago, which I read.

Schell embraces the Neocon view of China. If you want to know what that is, listen to this. He spouts a completely flipped false narrative of China that portrays it as a threat to the US, weaving in several factual lies based on real events. He paints global warming as a matter of "reciprocity" between China and the US, implying that the US is not required to curb emissions if China does not curb its economy.

Kishore answers the question, but he is annoyed at Schell's brazen lies about XI Jinping. He doesn't discuss the lies but hits back with a scold about US ideologies that the rest of the world rejects. He ends with a message about the global warming issue. (Where China is leading the world with the greatest year-over-year reduction in carbon emissions, and plans to achieving carbon neutrality ahead of most countries. China is the world's primary producer of green energy technologies.)

This is the new world perspective, Asia, contrasted with the old world, North America.

Kishore's discussion of the attitude of SE Asians and ASEAN to US exceptionalism and hegemony is brilliant. His discussion of the Philippines back and forth movement from the US toward China and back again, as a cycle is insightful.

Not that Kishore needs any help from me, but the old finger wagging US ideologue Schell prompted a rant on my part. Here goes:

It is the US and Japan that have upset the status quo in East Asia. The Chinese were fine with the three communiques with three US presidents, but recently the US began changing its relationship with Taiwan. The US says one thing and does another. The US was condescending and ignorant at Anchorage. Does the US have any diplomats? I've heard repeatedly for several years now from US military representatives that Taiwan is an indispensable part of the so called first island chain strategy necessary to contain China. The US openly discusses its strategy to "strangle China" at the Malacca Straits. There was a US carrier strike group there just within the last few days. This is the old gunboat diplomacy of yesteryear, which is unnecessarily provocative. The US is opening new military bases in the northern Philippines so that it can strike China more easily. These are all old cold war pre-Deng, pre-three communiques, geopolitical moves intending to assert US-Japanese hegemony over Taiwan. For years, the US has also been encouraging Japan to rearm with offensive strike weapons so it can participate in wars with allies. It's finally succeeded. Like that's a good thing? In case people are not aware of it, prior cold war confrontations with China, were accompanied by US threats of nuclear war.

Recently, South Korea has been inveigled to participate in an openly anti China military alliance with Japan and the US which is detrimental to its long term historical national security interests substituting US and Japanese interests for its own. Schell is a basically an old cold warrior. Spent time in Taiwan during the dictatorship. He also worked for the Ford Foundation, (like Obama's mother) in Indonesia before the Jakarta solution. So his views are about what I'd expect. I'm waiting for him to exclaim "who lost China? and "unleash Chiang Kai-shek!" I was stationed in Seoul during the Tienanmen Square "massacre" and in my opinion at that time, it appeared to be a US engineered rebellion managed from the US embassy in Beijing. At that time, I wouldn't have used the phrase "color revolution" but that's what I was thinking at the time the events were ongoing. I didn't have any kind of privileged access to information, but listening to US reports on Armed Forces Television, that is exactly how I saw it. This is an impression, I don't have "proof." In subsequent years I've never read anything to disuade me from that view. Hong Kong was a similar operation orchestrated by the west, in a futile attempt to "roll back communist China," from its own sovereign territory. There has been more evidence available to analyse because of the internet allowing other reports to be heard. These operations like Maidan in Ukraine represent unlawful interference in the internal affairs of another country.

Just one more specific comment on Japanese provocative actions. Not too long ago, Defense Minister Kishi, deceased former Prime Minister Abe's brother, visited Taiwan and promised to come to the aid of Taiwan if it were attacked by China. This sort of framing of the issue, presents, in terms of history, the kind of provocation to bring about a war with China. Joe Biden said publicly the US would be committed to come to Japan's defense if their was a Japanese Chinese military conflict over the Senkakus. Incidentally, both mainland China and Taiwan claim the Senkakus. Both mainland China and Taiwan dispute the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration UNCLOS decision held in favor of Philippine claims in the South China Sea. The latter decision is very questionable. There is more than one argument that the PCA exceeded it authority and otherwise had no jurisdiction. The judges were selected by Japan. Biden also said when questioned once by media that the US would come to the defense of Taiwan if it were attacked by China. Then other administration officials tried to walk it back.

Horrible Mike Pompeo, vain, ideological nut case, below delivering the usual US message of hegemony and world domination. If he could only recruit India. This is getting little attention, relatively speaking, but it's an indication that in the in a future administration, this may be what we will see. He hints of his willingness to serve in a new administration. I don't know where the nation could find worse leadership. It's 26 minutes long. If you don't have time, don't bother.

I saw the Pompeo had a video short on youtube where he blamed China for the US failure at Hanoi, to get North Korea to stop producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. This is an absolutely ridiculous contention. He and Bolton orchestrated a very unwise walkout from Hanoi by Trump. Because of that North Korea now has two or three times the amount of weapons grade plutonium for nuclear weapons. This guy should never be allowed near a federal public office again. The Chinese helped induce Kim to the table by cooperating with the draconian sanctions regimen against North Korea. China was by far the North's leading trade partner, and North Korea was dependent on trade with them for markets and many products as well as sources of foreign exchange. I saw Choe Son-hui chase Trump down the hallway and basically beg him to come back to the table. Trump made his grandstand play, "Sometimes you gotta walk," he said. Even Stephen Beigun, the assigned US envoy to North Korea criticized the US negotiating strategy there. Siegfried Hecker perhaps the most well informed US technical expert on North Korean nuclear weapons technology criticized the US position at Hanoi as well.

(fixed a couple of typos)