The Evening Blues - 11-25-24
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Texas blues guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson. Enjoy!
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Match Box Blues
"Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling."
-- Ambrose Bierce
News and Opinion
US and European Officials Discussed Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons
According to the New York Times, US and European officials have discussed a range of options they believe will deter Russia from taking more Ukrainian territory, including providing Kiev with nuclear weapons. The outlet reports that Western officials believe the Kremlin will not significantly escalate the war before Donald Trump is sworn in as President in January. ...
American officials who were briefed on the intelligence community’s assessments told the Times that weapons will not alter the challenging situation that Kiev is currently facing. “US spy agencies have assessed that speeding up the provisions of weapons, ammunition and matériel for Ukraine will do little to change the course of the war in the short term,” the Times reports.
Desperate to bolster Ukraine’s standing in the war before the transition of power on January 20, the Biden administration is looking at a range of serious escalations. “US and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire.” The article continues, “Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union.”
Alastair Crooke : Deep State vs Trump
Trump’s Cabinet Picks Aren’t Looking Good For Peace In Ukraine
Conventional wisdom about the outgoing Biden administration’s reckless escalations in Ukraine these past few days is that things will cool down once Donald Trump takes office, but Trump’s cabinet picks aren’t really selling this idea.
While Trump did campaign on ending the war in Ukraine, the president elect has given multiple cabinet appointments to strategists who say that the way to achieve that peace is to substantially escalate aggressions against Russia. Michael Tracey has been doing a great job compiling footage of Trump’s recent cabinet picks advocating extreme measures which happen to be in perfect alignment with the nuclear brinkmanship of the demented outgoing president and his handlers.
Sebastian Gorka, who Trump has named as his next senior director for counterterrorism, is on record saying that Trump has told him he plans on saying to Putin, “You will negotiate now or the aid that we have given to Ukraine thus far will look like peanuts.”
Sebastian Gorka, who Trump just named a Director of national security policy in the White House, says that Trump's strategy for ending the Ukraine war will include threatening Putin to provide Ukraine with exponentially more military "aid" pic.twitter.com/SB9RTWtqth
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) November 23, 2024
Mike Waltz, who Trump has selected as his next national security advisor, promotes a similar vision. Waltz says Russia can be pressured to come to the negotiating table via increased energy sanctions combined with “taking the handcuffs off of the long-range weapons we provided Ukraine.” Biden has since removed those very “handcuffs” by authorizing Kyiv to use US-supplied long-range missiles to attack Russia.
If it seems like these remarks from Trump’s incoming administration work very nicely with the actions of the outgoing administration, then you may find it interesting that Waltz just told Fox News Sunday that the two administrations are working “hand in glove” as the presidency changes over.
“Jake Sullivan and I have had discussions, we’ve met,” Waltz said. “For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of opportunity, that they can play one administration off the other — they are wrong. We are hand in glove. We are one team with the United States in this transition.”
This would seem to be an oblique reference to Russia specifically, since that’s the only US adversary with any hope that the incoming administration might be a bit less hawkish toward it than the outgoing one, and since years of mass media coverage went into spinning narratives about Trump being a pawn of Vladimir Putin.
But Trump was never a pawn of Vladimir Putin. Contrary to the narratives of both Democrat-aligned punditry and Republican-aligned punditry while he was in office, Trump spent his entire term ramping up cold war aggressions against Russia which helped pave the way to the war and brinkmanship we are seeing in Ukraine today. Tracey recently shared an audio clip of Gorka on X Spaces back in January 2023 exuberantly boasting about the way Trump ordered the US military to kill hundreds of Russian mercenaries in Syria in 2018. Putin himself cited the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty in 2019 when defending his decision to hit Ukraine with a new type of intermediate-range missile the other day in response to its use of US- and UK-supplied long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
Other cabinet appointments who have taken extremely hawkish positions on Russia include secretary of state nominee Marco Rubio, secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth, CIA director nominee John Ratcliffe, and National Security Council appointee Doug Burgum. But it’s those comments from Waltz and Gorka which I find most concerning, because they explicitly refer to escalatory strategies that Trump might employ once he takes office.
This all comes out as we get news that US and European officials recently discussed providing nuclear weapons to Ukraine under the gamble that Putin will not escalate against the west before Trump takes office. The more aligned the Trump administration’s posture toward Russia appears to be with that of the Biden administration, the less safe a gamble this appears to be.
It seems likely that the Trump administration will end the Ukraine proxy war at some point down the road in order to reallocate those resources toward preparation for war with Iran and/or China. But it is not at all clear that this will happen soon enough before soaring escalations spin out of control into the single worst-case scenario that could possibly unfold on this planet.
Netanyahu’s arrest warrant is just the beginning | Clare Daly interview
Hundreds flee north Gaza as IDF orders more evacuations amid intense airstrikes
The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of new areas of northern Gaza, setting off a fresh wave of civilian displacements on Sunday as intense airstrikes continued across much of the territory. In Jerusalem, a senior minister said the war in Gaza was far from over and that Israel would stay “for years” in the territory. “Gaza will never be a threat to the state of Israel, no matter how long it is going to take … I think that we are going to stay in Gaza for a long time … I think most people understand that that will be years, “said Avi Dichter, a member of Israel’s security cabinet.
The Israel Defense Forces said the evacuation orders for the Shujaiya neighbourhood were issued after Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israel on Saturday from a location within the densely populated district. Hamas’s armed wing said it had targeted an army base over the border.
The IDF routinely circulates warnings by social media, pamphlets and phone calls, telling people to leave areas that will be attacked. “For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south,” an IDF post on X said.
Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday’s early hours, witnesses and Palestinian media said. Images on social media showed hundreds leaving Shujaiya on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
The humanitarian situation in northern Gaza has been described as apocalyptic by humanitarian officials, with tens of thousands suffering acute lack of water, sanitation, food and medical supplies.
Israel Has Killed Over 1,000 Doctors and Nurses in Gaza
More than 1,000 doctors and nurses are among at least 44,211 people killed in Israel's 13-month assault on the Gaza Strip, officials in the Hamas-governed Palestinian enclave said Sunday.
"Over 310 other medical personnel were arrested, tortured, and executed in prisons," Gaza's Government Media Office also said in a statement, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency. "The Israeli army also prevented the entry of medical supplies, health delegations, and hundreds of surgeons into Gaza."
"Hospitals have been a declared target for the Israeli army, which bombed, besieged, and stormed them, killing doctors and nurses, injuring others after directly targeting them," the office said. The statement came after the director of the main partially functioning hospital in northern Gaza was injured in an Israeli strike.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the last functioning in northern Gaza, has been injured in an apparent Israeli strike.
Safiya has refused to close Kamal Adwan despite Israeli strikes and raids, one of which killed his 15-year-old son. https://t.co/QHOHWWiPbj
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) November 24, 2024
Hussam Abu Safiyeh is the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital—which, according toAl Jazeera, Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked, damaging "the facility's generators, fuel tanks, and main oxygen station."
The wounded director said: "These people, they target everyone, but I swear, this will not stop us from continuing our humanitarian work. We will keep on providing this service no matter what it costs us." ...
Last month, 99 U.S. healthcare providers who have volunteered in Gaza since last fall sent U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris a letter detailing "the massive human toll from Israel's attack" and urging them to "end this madness now!"
"It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza's population," the Americans wrote. "With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer, and probably every Israeli hostage: every man, woman, and child."
"We quickly learned that our Palestinian healthcare colleagues were among the most traumatized people in Gaza, and perhaps in the entire world," they continued. "All were acutely aware that their work as healthcare providers had marked them as targets for Israel. This makes a mockery of the protected status hospitals and healthcare providers are granted under the oldest and most widely accepted provisions of international humanitarian law."
They added that "we wish to be absolutely clear: Not once did any of us see any type of Palestinian militant activity in any of Gaza's hospitals or other healthcare facilities. We urge you to see that Israel has systematically and deliberately devastated Gaza's entire healthcare system, and that Israel has targeted our colleagues in Gaza for torture, disappearance, and murder."
Despite such appeals and accounts, the outgoing Biden-Harris administration has declined to cut off weapons to the Israeli government and earlier this week most U.S. senators from both major parties rejected a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have blocked some American arms sales to Israel.
Israel And Lebanon Ceasefire Talks Come TOO LATE To Fix Biden Admin's DISASTROUS Foreign Policy
Rabbi in UAE killed in ‘antisemitic terror incident’, says Israel
Israel has said that an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates was killed in what it described as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident”.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement about the death of Zvi Kogan, who worked in the UAE for an Orthodox Jewish group called Chabad and had not been seen since Thursday.
“The state of Israel will use all means at its disposal to bring the criminals responsible for his death to justice,” the Israeli prime minister’s statement said.
Late on Sunday, UAE authorities said they had arrested three people over the attack. The Emirati interior ministry did not give further details on the suspects but said the ministry would use “all legal powers to respond decisively and without leniency to any actions or attempts that threaten societal stability”.
Earlier in the day, the UAE’s state-run news agency acknowledged Kogan’s disappearance but did not mention his reported Israeli citizenship, referring to him only as Moldovan. It is unclear exactly when and where the 28-year-old’s body was found.
Gunman dead, police injured in shooting near Israeli embassy in Jordan
A gunman was dead and three policemen injured after a shooting near the Israeli embassy in Jordan, a security source and state media said on Sunday. ...
Jordanian police had earlier cordoned off an area near the heavily policed embassy after gunshots were heard, witnesses said. Two witnesses said police and ambulances rushed to the Rabiah neighbourhood, where the embassy is located.
The area is a flashpoint for frequent demonstrations against Israel. The kingdom has witnessed some of the biggest peaceful rallies across the region as anti-Israel sentiment runs high over the war in Gaza.
Ray McGovern : Taking Russia Seriously
Project Ukraine demolishes German & UK economies
Zelenskyy fears Ukraine is ‘testing ground’ for Russian weapons amid rise in Shahed strikes
Ukraine’s president said the country had been targeted by nearly 500 drones in the past week as well as more than 20 missiles and complained that Russia was using the country as “a testing ground” for its munitions. Though Russia’s first ever use of the Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile on Dnipro on Thursday captured global attention, on Sunday Volodymyr Zelenskyy highlighted the increased level of Shahed drone attacks.
Fifty drones were shot down on Saturday night, out of 73, the Ukrainian president said. Over the previous week a total of 460 of the Iranian-designed drones were launched by Russia into Ukraine’s airspace, he added. ...
Ukraine says Russia has set up two factories to make the distinctive delta-winged Shahed 136 drones, called Geran-2 by Moscow, in Tatarstan, about 800 – miles from the border in Ukraine. Production amounts to “hundreds per week” said a government source in Kyiv. The drones are often fired into Ukraine as soon as they are ready, and while they remain easier to shoot down or neutralise compared to high-speed missiles, they tie up the country’s air defence and can cause serious damage with a 50kg warhead when they reach their targets.
In October, 2,023 Shahed drones were launched into Ukraine, a record according to Kyiv’s military. Last week’s figures suggest the rate of attacks continues to be similar with attacks on Kyiv and major cities a near nightly feature, tiring out civilian populations woken up by air raid alerts. Russia is continually modifying the drones to try to make them more deadly. Earlier this month, Ukraine’s military posted a video of a thermobaric warhead, which creates a fire cloud of about 2,000C when detonated, and is considered particularly lethal if it explodes inside buildings.
Oreshnik Transforms War, Zelensky Demands More Useless Air Defence, UK MoD Seethes, Russia Advances
Evo Morales speaks to The Grayzone, blames U.S. for failed assassination
Romania votes in presidential poll with nationalist and leftist vying for runoff
Romanians are casting ballots on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election that could pit a far-right nationalist against the incumbent leftist prime minister in the runoff. Thirteen candidates are vying for the presidency in the EU and Nato member country and the vote is expected to go to a second round on 8 December. ...
In the final vote George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), could face off against the incumbent prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, backed by Romania’s largest party, the Social Democratic party (PSD).
The presidential role carries a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security, foreign policy, and judicial appointments. Romania will also hold parliamentary elections on 1 December that will determine the next government and prime minister.
Simion, 38, is a vocal supporter of the US president-elect, Donald Trump, and has long been a controversial figure. He campaigned for reunification with Moldova, which this year renewed a five-year ban on him entering the country because of security concerns, and he is banned for the same reason from entering neighbouring Ukraine.
Tulsi Gabbard TERRIFIES Dems Because She'll CLEAN HOUSE At DNI: Michael Shellenberger
Trump Taps Project 2025 Architect Russ Vought for OMB: Wants to Fire Civil Servants, Deploy Military
Texas approves new Bible-based curriculum for elementary schools
The Texas board of education voted 8-7 on Friday to approve a new Bible-based curriculum in elementary schools. The curriculum, called “Bluebonnet Learning”, could be implemented as soon as August 2025 and affects English and language arts teaching material for kindergarten through fifth grade public school classes.
Teachers will have a choice to opt into the new faith-based learning curriculum, but the state is offering a financial incentive of $60 a student for participating school districts.
Parents, teachers and rights groups expressed outrage at the move that some say violates the US constitution and will alienate students and teachers of other faiths.
“The Bluebonnet curriculum flagrantly disregards religious freedom, a cornerstone of our nation since its founding. The same politicians censoring what students can read now want to impose state-sponsored religion on to our public schools,” said Caro Achar, engagement coordinator for free speech at the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “We urge districts to reject this optional curriculum and uphold a public school education that honors the religious diversity and constitutional rights of Texas students.” ...
Bryan Henry, a local Cypress, Texas, parent and public school advocate affiliated with Cypress Families for Public Schools, said the curriculum was “just the latest example of Texas being a laboratory for Christian nationalism”. Henry added: “What I find particularly insidious about it is the fact that they are going to incentivize school districts to adopt the curriculum in exchange for extra funding at a time when the state government is starving public schools of needed money because they want vouchers for private Christian schools.”
Bernie Declares WAR On Dems - 3rd Party Coming?
World will be ‘unable to cope’ with volume of plastic waste in 10 years, warns expert
The world will be “unable to cope” with the sheer volume of plastic waste a decade from now unless countries agree to curbs on production, the co-chair of a coalition of key countries has warned ahead of crunch talks on curbing global plastic pollution. Speaking before the final, critical round of UN talks on the first global treaty to end plastic waste, in Busan, South Korea, this week, Norway’s minister for international development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, acknowledged the split that had developed between plastic-producing countries and others. She represents more than 60 “high ambition” nations, led by Rwanda and Norway, who want plastic pollution tackled over its full life cycle. Crucially, this means clamping down heavily on production. ...
This year, various researchers found microplastics in every sample of placenta they tested; in human arteries, where plastics are linked to heart attacks and strokes; in human testes and semen, adding to evidence of the ubiquity of plastics and concern over health risks. The plastics crisis is widely recognised as a threat to human health, biodiversity and the climate. ...
Fractious negotiations have seen divergent views, and countries with large fossil fuel industries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran, dubbed the “like-minded” group, have eschewed production cuts and emphasised waste management as the main solution to the crisis. Developing nations, which bear the consequences of plastic overproduction overwhelming their inadequate waste systems, are calling for global cuts.
The uncertainty dogging the talks has been exacerbated by the US position. One of the largest plastic producers, the US recently signalled it would support a treaty calling for curbs on production. But the impending return of Donald Trump, a fossil fuel advocate, as US president in January, has led to doubts.
U.N. Climate Summit Ends with a "Bad Deal" as Rich, Polluting Nations Nix $1 Trillion Finance Plan
Cop29 agrees $1.3tn climate finance deal but campaigners brand it a ‘betrayal’
Rich and poor countries concluded a trillion-dollar deal on the climate crisis in the early hours of Sunday morning, after marathon talks and days of bitter recriminations ended in what campaigners said was a “betrayal”. Under the target the developing world should receive at least $1.3tn (£1tn) a year in funds to help them shift to a low-carbon economy and cope with the impacts of extreme weather, by 2035.
But only $300bn of that will come primarily in the form they are most in need of – grants and low-interest loans from the developed world. The rest will have to come from private investors and a range of potential new sources of money, such as possible levies on fossil fuels and frequent flyers, which have yet to be agreed.
Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa thinktank, said: “This [summit] has been a disaster for the developing world. It’s a betrayal of both people and planet, by wealthy countries who claim to take climate change seriously. Rich countries have promised to ‘mobilise’ some funds in the future, rather than provide them now. The cheque is in the mail. But lives and livelihoods in vulnerable countries are being lost now.”
Some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries fought hard during two weeks of fraught negotiations at the Cop29 UN summit in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku for a bigger slice of the money to come directly from developed countries. They also wanted more of the available finance to go to the countries most in need, instead of being shared with bigger emerging economies, such as India.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Patrick Lawrence: The ICC Warrants and the World They Announce
Iran Announces New Centrifuges To Come Online After IAEA Rebuke
The Case Against Joe Biden for Complicity in Genocide
Vijay Prashad: Swimming in Mud in 5th Circle of Hell
Why These New Russian Missiles Are Real Game Changers
Russia Says US Missile Defense Base in Poland Is a Potential Target
Report on US Killer Robots Warns of 'Reckless, Dangerous Arms Race'
Chinese Defense Minister Rejects Talks With US Over Taiwan Support
Chris Hedges Report: Surveillance Education
Defense Official Laughs In JON STEWART’S FACE Over Pentagon’s Failed Audit!
HUGE Liar Jen Psaki Demands CENSORSHIP Of Social Media!
A Little Night Music
Blind Lemon Jefferson - That Crawlin' Baby Blues
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Wartime Blues
Blind Lemon Jefferson - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Broke And Hungry
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Black Snake Moan
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Chump Man Blues
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Jack 'O Diamond Blues
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Hangman's Blues
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Hot Dogs
Blind Lemon Jefferson - Police Dog Blues
Comments
Good evening, Joe. Thanks for the EBs. It looks like the Ukies
attacked Kursk city with attacms sometime today, so I guess that we're in serious potential FAFO territory.
Hilarious hat Jen Psaki wants to rein in disinformation, since she is such a champion level spreader thereof,
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
yep, the story i read says that the ukronazis hit an airport parking lot near kursk with atacms fitted with cluster munitions. they also are said to have fired some (non-atacms?) missiles at a munitions factory somewhere in western russia.
i suspect that putin is probably not in the mood to let these behaviors continue, so i would guess that there will be a significant retaliation.
yep, should jen psaki need a new job anytime soon, i bet she could get one running a manure spreader, she's certainly more than qualified.
Clare is quite good in your clip
.
wide scope analysis
is important in these times
thanks EB master
question everything
evening qms...
yep, i hadn't heard from clare in quite a while and i was delighted to find that clip. it's good to see that she has lost none of her eloquence.
Wowzer….
.
Patrick Lawrence doesn’t hold back on Ukraine being given permission to use long range missiles.
My opinion on Biden is that he has always been this stupid, but I’d add in mean and arrogant. He was against us pulling out of Vietnam and he has been for every war we fought during his time in office. A million Iraqis dead. A million Afghanis dead, and more Libyans, Syrians, Somalis and Palestinians and gawd only knows how many people in other countries dead.
And if he could stick it to the working class and we the people he did in favor of his donors.
Biden’s legacy was always going to be bad, but since he became president….just icing on the coffin.
evening snoopy...
biden's legacy is making people forget how awful george w. bush and dick cheney were.
Maye because he tell us that he has been and still is a
Zionist.
Lately he is showing his bone fides.
IT seems as if the election results have already inflated his
large ego.
https://thehill.com/business/5009285-trump-new-tariffs-canada-mexico-china/
I think that he fails to understand that it was more of a repudiation of Genocide Joe, Killer Kamala and the democrats rather than an endorsement of him.
Woe is Us!
heh...
i'm guessing that fairly extreme tariffs are going to have some unintended consequences that trump is not thinking about. given that we don't make a lot of useful things here in the u.s. and are dependent on imports, tariffs will have an effect that mimics inflation for the vast majority of americans - the more extreme the tariffs, the greater the pressure on american wallets, harming trumps working class base the most.
i just read an article in which trump was quoted as saying he wanted to impose 60% tariffs on china.
good luck with that, donald.
More cope for why Kamala didn’t win
.
Bush and Romney never stepped up and the generals that called T a fascist didn’t endorsed her. If they had she probably would have won.
For gawd’s sake she got Darth Cheney to endorse her and his spawn Liz was dragged along on the campaign trail so I doubt Bush would have had more clout. Romney who?
It’s also Garland’s fault because he only started going after Trump 4 days after he declared he was running again…. And of course McConnell for not voting to convict after he was impeached….
But anyhow it’s great news for John McCain.
gawd...
what a hopelessly idiotic bunch of losers the democrats are.
I know right?
And she ran a perfect campaign, but she was limited on time because Biden didn’t drop out sooner… But I remember how ticked they were that he dropped out because the donors thought his mind was gone…which they acknowledged after the debate. Boy talk about wishy washy.
More cope. From MoA
lol….in other words Israel is above the law just like America is. They’re just saying that out loud. Weird how the world’s most important justice system was created with no way to hold criminals accountable. It was created neutered. Bad design? Ahh well…immediately after the UN was created so that all countries would play nice America started doing things against its charter…
Lindsay is once again running his mouth about the trillions in minerals Ukraine has and it’s why we need to win the war. Hey…haven’t we been in control of Ukraine’s government for 10 years now? Why didn’t we take them after 2014? And wasn’t that one of the reasons why we invaded Afghanistan? For the oil and minerals and yet we just walked away from them. Or did we take them during the last 20 years before we did? Hard to get details on resource wars.
lol…
I just read it and if I close my eyes I think that Netanyahu wrote it.
Cope must be the word of the day.
Ha ha! Israel just sanctioned Haaretz because it’s too critical of Netanyahu. But Israel believes in free speech and freedom of the press. They actually said that.
Only in clown world is Israel a democracy.
Link
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-government-sanctions-haaretz-s...
And I said please
Don't drop that H-bomb on me...
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
evening cass...
it seems that americans should start openly discussing dispensing tnt suppositories to genocide joe and his minions.
Hey…
Now that’s an idea!
The WH finally acknowledged that it has given Ukraine permission to use missiles on Russia. Before it wouldn’t confirm either way. Why?
"Ukraine has the right to defend itself!."
But Russia apparently doesn’t.
The CIA backed leadership in Pakistan won't like this.
A Fun Visit to Shenzhen, China for the late night crowd..
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This video is from Jason-in-China, a long time popular vlogger and resident of China.
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In 1979, Shenzhen was a series of fishing villages, lying just north of Hong Kong, along the coast of the South China Sea. That year, Shenzhen was declared a special economic zone—i.e., one of several cities along the coast of China that were opened to foreign investment. From 1980 the city grew at a phenomenal rate, as a tremendous amount of both domestic and foreign capital was invested there. Today, Shenzhen is a global hub for technology, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship. With its breathtaking architecture and a pulsating energy, Shenzhen draws visitors from all around the globe. It's the third largest city in China, and one of the most modern cities in the world.
.
.
.
Jason can be funny sometimes
Someone else I know who isn't much into politics, gets a laugh from his China videos. His focus on the NYC subway system is appropriate. Looks like it hasn't changed much since I was child, except it's filthier. I know South Koreans consider US airports decrepit as well. Don't even get me started on the health care "system." When Korean-Americans get older, they go back to South Korea to get competent medical care that doesn't put you in the poor house.
Daniel Dumbrill had a business in Shenzhen and still lives there, if I'm correct. I used to follow his videos but he doesn't do them much anymore. I find his X threads somewhat tedious and argumentative, as people try to discredit him, there always seems to be a flame thread going on, but his views on China are well informed. Cyrus did one or two videos from Shenzhen as I remember.
I believe the controversy over the Foxconn dormitory suicides was in Shenzhen a few years back embarrassing Apple who was responsible for exploiting brutal working conditions for young people there. Someone tried to tell me, after I read a book about US outsourcing labor to China, that the suicide rate there was "statistically normal." There was an entire chapter in the book about this controversy. The book explained the ins and outs of how an I phone assembled for 50 dollars was was assembled and shipped internationally to avoid labor costs and taxes so it could be sold here for $750 (at that time).
Although development in Shenzhen is perhaps the most spectacular in China, the development in other cities is equally impressive. I'm all in favor of investing in the commons by building new capital infrastructure, especially trains. The grand scale of development is particularly Chinese in nature. But it's the influence and preservation of the older agricultural folkways and customs, and the traditions from the past that I find most attractive.
Liziqi is back. I think she's among the most popular youtubers in the world. I love the way she respects and cares for her grandmother. She has inspired an entire generation of copycat youtubers throughout east Asia trying to capitalize on her success. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.
語必忠信 行必正直
An amazing talent Liziqi exhibits
A forest themed closet indeed!
Thank-you for sharing this.
question everything
Ceasefire...
Pro-Pal X accounts cover the ME and other conflicts are anxiously and
contentiously awaiting the announcement of a Lebanon ceasefire.
Lot of speculation about whether Hezbollah is caving on its commitment to
Gaza & much etc. It's being floated that it will allow Israelis to return to the
north, that Israel would retain the option of striking what it regards as threats
within Lebanese territory.
Much less clear what if anything Hezbollah would gain - they have been pummeling Israel
on the ground and making record breaking attacks on Galilee, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Israeli bases.
It's pretty clear also that Israel was not at all prepared for a war of attrition on multiple fronts, their economy and logistics are under great strain. Hezbollah does have to contend with domestic politics and opinion in Lebanon, however - and don't want to be blamed for the major destruction that Israel is wreaking there on a daily basis. The are allied with several Christian parties and have to consider those relationships...
Quite a few seem to think that having failed to defeat Hezbollah (or Hamas) directly, the proposal may be an attempt by Israel and US to bring about renewed civil war in Lebanon, maybe splitting the country and turning the western bit (and hence the rich offshore energy resources) into a de facto colony of Israel.
Seems counter-intuitive that Hezbollah would stop now absent a major Israeli climb down in Gaza, there's the hanging question too, of what Iran and other Resistance will do.
Guess we'll be finding out more soon enough...
aggression and control
.
.
branded as a cease fire?
Don't think it will fly.
One is reminded of the
'peace with dignity' gambit
or
stuff crap in a newspaper
and call it gourmet street food
question everything