Dear China Korea will have missiles unless you cure the cancerous tumor which is North Korea . . .4/30/2016 Beijing and Moscow Object to U.S.–Korea Missile Defense Collaboration
. . . don't call us, we'll call you, don't let the door slap your ass on the way out. Pikers! Dear US government, more please, and faster! This is how to negotiate with China over the South China Sea issue. Now let's do a second verse of this song with the Philippines. Yes, we need to remain in control of this technology, but still, expanding it to the others in the anti-China coalition in the South China Sea will put pressure on China to act in a mature, reasonable manner. We need to have Congress hold hearings on whether we should end the Chinese Most Favored Trading Nation status as well. We don't need to go to the trouble actually cutting China loose, but they could use some pressure. As for Russia, I don't much care, it is a dying nation with a truly tiny economy, which has ensnared itself in Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya, Syria, among other places. It's actions are making it a pariah among pretty much every other nation bordering it, and among the first world nations. Putin is settling into dictatorshiplite nicely. And it is entering an existential recession/depression due to its economy being all but entirely reliant on energy. The Hollow Men Smile and wave, it might be your last chance.
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China Blocks U.S. Navy Flotilla’s Visit to Hong Kong
Boom, China implodes in a puff of smoke. "WASHINGTON — The Chinese government on Thursday denied a Navy flotilla access to the port in Hong Kong, Pentagon officials said Friday, the latest sign of escalating tension between the United States and China. The rare refusal to allow the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, and several other vessels accompanying it, to visit the port comes two weeks after the Stennis hosted the defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter, on a visit to the South China Sea, where the United States is challenging what it sees as excessive maritime claims by China. During the trip, Mr. Carter criticized the Chinese and said the United States would work with its allies in the region." Cut the status, then work with the antiChinese elements in the South China Sea. Congress can do much of this without actually changing the status by simply holding hearings on whether they should change the status. It is time to put China on notice. The President was golfing and did not return our smoke signals requesting a comment. Expect nothing and you will never be disappointed. It's Now Cheaper To 'Buy' A Dry Bulk Freight Tanker Than A Starbucks Coffee
. . . and you really can buy one for a buck, well actually 6 for a buck, so can you spare 17cents? "Goldenport, one of the last shipping companies left on the London Stock Exchange, has delisted from the market and sold off six of its remaining eight vessels for $1... The giveaway reflects the most dismal shipping conditions in decades, caused by economic slowdown in China combined with an oversupply of vessels due to a building spree during a previous boom and the fact that "average daily hire rates have fallen below even a vessel’s daily operating expenses." The Greek owners are looking for buyers for two remaining vessels and are taking Goldenport off the stock market, saying it no longer makes sense to list shares which have dropped from highs of $100 in 2007 to less than 2c now. John Dragons, the chief executive of Goldenport, said “Dry bulk vessels generally have fallen in value by around 60% over the last year partly because of extreme oversupply and partly because of low demand for coal as China moves towards renewable energy to curb [carbon] emissions," adding that “The prevailing market conditions are probably the worst of the last 30 years.'" The canard I've heard most recently is the Baltic Dry Index doesn't matter. Well, it does if you are in shipping, or are interested in the state of worldwide shipping, or the health of the shipping industry. It probably means nothing, never mind, move along, move along. At its core, foreign policy/international relations is straightforward, the Anglo-spheric, the Scandinavian, the Germanic, and a few other nations all play by adult rules, for the rest it is just like kindergarten.
Russian Jets Buzz U.S. Navy Ship at 30 Feet Putin is a big kindergartner. And like all kinders he will push until he finds the limit. President Obama is like a yielding parent, always unhappy with the fact that the child is unruly, and unwilling to listen or obey. This is a problem with the parent not the child. It is time to take Russia to task for its boundary pressing maneuvers, and China as well for its incursions into the South China Sea. As Mead suggests new protective treaties, including US or NATO troops could do the trick. We need to strengthen our support for the opponents of China's incursion into the South China Sea as well. Each of these proposals would sting, and would serve to discipline these recalcitrant nations. The real problem is that such actions must be actions, and not threats. President Obama has a history of drawing lines in the sand, and when his adversary steps over the line, he simply draws another. Policy without consequences, is like parenting without consequences. It is incompetent and does not result in the desired results. Once the line is drawn, a consequence must flow from breech. Every. Single. Time. These actions are likely to be effective and do not risk a more serious international crisis. However, splashing a couple of planes is more dramatic, and cathartic. I can say that because Obama does not have the constitution to execute. I suspect this problem will fester until we have a new President. With the current pool of candidates, I am at wits end over foreign policy. Hillary is the architect of the Obama foreign policy, it has been a disaster. Trump is an unknown, as is Cruz, as is Sanders. Now would be a good time for a brilliant Cincinnatus with both foreign policy, and domestic policy experience to pop out of the woodwork, and steal the presidential election. A guy can dream! Chinese millennials discover joys of co-living - FT.com
. . . China has doubled down with its one child policy, now hell is a nation of 1.3 billion people where all the children are only children! Can't you just feel the narcissism? "By the age of 30, well-educated Chinese men like Yuan Hongfan are expected to be married, with apartment and child. But the event planner and emcee is one of a growing number of Chinese urbanites in their 20s and 30s who are unable or unwilling to buy a place and increasingly happy to defy parental and societal pressure to settle down early. After struggling to find a rental apartment in the booming megacity of Guangzhou where he lives, Mr Yuan recently moved into a new kind of accommodation designed to meet the needs of this new generation of young Chinese. Co-living spaces — which are like a luxury student hall of residence with rent and utilities rolled into a monthly fee — are springing up in China’s biggest cities, mirroring their initial success in Europe and the US. “It’s really good living here and I feel like I’ve gone back to university because it’s so easy to make friends here compared with where I used to stay,” Mr Yuan says in his 25 sq m room, which costs Rmb3,000 ($464) a month and features a wall-sized photo of himself at a party in his hip-hop get-up." A wall sized selfie! How, er, um, Presidential! The unbearable self absorption of the Chinese only child. Luckily, China has millions of them, and all searching for ways to become even more self absorbed. Maddogsfamily has hosted four Chinese students. All were nice, polite, and, frankly, a bit odd, and all were incredibly self absorbed, and narcissistic. How could they not be, they are the little Emperor of their family, they are the focus, the raison d'être of the family. "Ms Zeng insists that while Chinese urbanites are seeking shelter from the alienation of big city life, they want to determine their destiny more than ever." The cure for the alienation of the city is to leave. The city was a mistake, the quicker China realizes this, the quicker they can achieve better well being for all Chinese. China tussles over legacy of cultural revolution - FT.com
What could have possibly been worth the deaths of tens of millions of people? "An editorial in the Global Times, the party-controlled tabloid, on Tuesday warned against “small groups” creating “a totally chaotic misunderstanding of the cultural revolution” on the upcoming anniversary, criticizing both those seeking to restore the legacy of the period and those who might be overly critical. “After the party has long ago given an official conclusion . . . discussions strictly should not depart from the party’s decided politics or thinking,” it said. The party’s official verdict on the period is that it was a “leftist deviation” primarily caused by Mao but manipulated by counter-revolutionaries." Oh bloody hell! A detour, a lark, a mere side trip, which resulted in economic disaster, millions murdered, and for a while it was very clear, Mordor was China. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ It simply is not possible to take authoritarian socialism seriously. It is what happens when a country allows a group of psychopaths to play with the levers of power. Never forget progressivism is its idiot younger sibling. China keeps buying up American companies, and lawmakers are starting to sound the alarm
. . . blithering idiots. "China is buying American companies at a record rate this year, and lawmakers are getting increasingly worried about it. In February, 45 members of Congress signed a letter to the US Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), stating their concerns about a Chinese-led investor group's bid to buy the Chicago Stock Exchange." I'm old enough to remember when the Japanese buying spree during the 1980s was considered the horror to end all horrors. If you remember, the Japs came in and bought all kinds of assets like Rockefeller Center. Mon Dieu! Then then the nation essentially went bankrupt, and they sold many of these assets and left. The beauty of this was they bought high. and sold at firesale lows! So, exactly why are the American politicians bloomers in a knot over the Chinese coming in and buying American companies for more than any American is willing to pay? Are they afraid of money? Do they think the Chinese will steal our workers? Mon Dieu!!! Only a politician could explain this nonsense. What is happening is the Chinese are beginning to realize that China is a Ponzi, and their money is at risk in China. So, they want to take it out, but can't. But China will let them buy foreign assets, and so the wealthy Chinese come to buy assets. Why here? Because we are the only truly safe and stable country on the planet. Europe has socialismed itself into uncompetitiveness with their over-regulation, and bloated welfare state. Japan is dying, with debt to GDP of nearly 250%!!! The international oil patch is in zombie mode. Where would one go to buy valuable assets which will be available in the years and decades to come? America! They can buy stock, they can buy assets, like corporation, entities, mines, wells, and land. LET THEM! Our businesses will use the money for new productive ventures. That is good for the economy. Why don't our idiot politicians know this? Stop hiring funeral strippers!
I was over bumping around at Instapundit when I saw this article. As Glenn says, "I dunno I might have to add this to the open-bar plans at my funeral." "Pictures of a funeral in the city of Handan in northern Hebei province last month showed a dancer removing her bra as assembled parents and children watched." Happy children are a good thing! "The point of inviting strippers, some of whom performed with snakes, was to attract large crowds to the deceased’s funeral – seen as a harbinger of good fortune in the afterlife. “It’s to give them face,” one villager explained. “Otherwise no one would come." Especially the parents and children, why would they want to go to some dour funeral without strippers? "'This has severely polluted the local cultural life,' CCTV intoned at the time, marveling at the sight of one women gyrating out of her clothes mere steps from a photo of the deceased. 'These troupes only care about money. As for whether it’s legal, or proper, or what effect it has on local customs, they don’t think much about it.'" So says the local mouthpiece for the CCP, which spend the first 25 years in power destroying any vestige of Chinese culture. Talk about upping the bar. I thought a wake was hella good, now I am not so sure. I might have to go full Potlatch, with strippers, hookers, open-bar, and cage fighting. Caught On Tape: "Enormous Crowds" Of Unemployed Chinese Miners Take To The Streets, Clash With Riot Police
"'While so far most Chinese worker strikes had been largely peaceful, two weeks ago we said it was only a matter of time before these turned violent after Reuters reported that "China aims to lay off 5-6 million state workers over the next two to three years as part of efforts to curb industrial overcapacity and pollution.' All this changed overnight when as AFP reports, thousands of miners in China's coal-rich (or poor depending on one's perspective) north have gone on strike over months of unpaid wages and fears that government calls to restructure their state-owned employer will lead to mass layoffs." These are not people laid off, they are only owed back wages, and threatened with layoffs. Just wait till the layoffs begin. "Citing the video shown below, AFP reported that thousands of protesters were marching through the streets of Shuangyashan city in Heilongjiang province, venting their frustration at Longmay Mining Holding Group, the biggest coal firm in northeast China. Pictures showed enormous crowds filling the streets. And here is why we said this is the biggest threat facing China: "I'm on my knees, my family can't eat," an elderly woman pleaded with a man who appeared to be a government official. "Tell me, how can we live?" she shouted, before collapsing and being rushed away by fellow protesters. In the video footage from Heilongjiang, dozens of police cars, lights flashing, lined the streets, and protesters complained of violence by authorities as tensions mounted. 'Traffic in the centre of Shuangyashan city was halted," a witness told AFP, adding "some people were hurt.'" The crowds are truly impressive. But this is just a local problem, right? Wrong! "AFP adds what we have been warning about for months: "the situation in Heilongjiang exemplifies the dilemma faced by Chinese authorities, who say they want to reform the world's second-largest economy and at the same time seek to avoid unrest." China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are plagued by overcapacity and many are unviable, but the government has been loathe to kill off such "zombie" companies, fearing unemployment could lead to instability. Instability such as the one described above, and shown in the video below. * * * This is just the beginning: China plans to lay off about 1.8 million workers in the steel and coal industries, a human resources and social security ministry official said last month, and millions more across all state-owned "zombie firms." Earlier this month Premier Li Keqiang again pledged to encourage "structural adjustments" in his opening speech to the annual session of China's Communist-controlled parliament. Judging by the predicted confirmation violence, the only adjustments China has in place is a massive police force trained to break up precisely such protests, something we further showed back in May 2014 when we demonstrated how 'Chinese riot police train for a "working class insurrection.'" What's with China and zombies? There are zombie cities, zombie companies, zombie firms, zombie everything. The problem will not stop at these state owned firms, there are many other businesses which are being forced to close. China faces much unrest, and it is not clear how this will be handled. The people of China will not likely suffer tanks rolling through their streets, and citizens murdered just to keep order. On the other hand, the CCP knows little else. This could be an epic high noon showdown, if the CCP cannot find a way to defuse this situation. No matter what, it does not appear that the heady days of the early 2000s will return for China, not in the immediate future anyway. While I am hoping for a positive outcome, with the CCP agreeing to relinquish some power, assist these destitute families, and a turn to a more reasonable growth model in China, I am not holding my breath. North Korea claims it could wipe out Manhattan with a hydrogen bomb
This is from the if-then school of foreign policy blather. If we were to line up all the necessary "if's" to get to the "then," I would be able to walk from my house to Korea, without getting my feet wet. "Although there are many reasons to believe that Kim Jong Un’s regime is exaggerating its technical capabilities, the near-daily drumbeat of boasts and warnings from North Korea underlines its anger at efforts to thwart its ambitions. “Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” DPRK Today, a state-run outlet, reported Sunday. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name." Yeah, I am sure it's as big as your moon base, or any of the other wackadoo nonsense you knobs blather on about. Kim, you are number 1 indeed, number one in Earth Hour each and every year. No, that is not an accolade. North Korea Again Wins the Earth Hour Award— an annual event celebrating ignorance, poverty, backwardness and energy self-flagellation I think it is time to quietly tell China that they need to address the North Korea problem, and if they don't we're shit canning China's Most Favored Nation status, which would ensure a HARD landing. President Feckless ODither could not be reached for comment. |
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