MicroB

There are elements of provocation. China is daring the US to seize the canal by force. It knows the US can do this easily, but the cost is shipping away at the US's soft power; its ability to influence its Western Allies. This is inline with China recent embargo on the entire world (not just US) for rare earths. Its designed to provoke the US to take a huge gamble and seize Greenland. It is a huge gamble, because it would be a move catastrophic for US relations with anyone. And its a huge gamble because the geologists might be wrong. Greenland isn't a rare earths exporter at all.. What might be less of a gamble, but rather more costly (in blood) would be US intervention in the DRC; that might be less impactful on US-Europe relations, and might even be sput quite positively (the people in the Congo are living miserable short lives). But the US will be intervening in an actual war (between DRC, Rwanda and numerous non-state actors) which makes Iraq look like a proverbial walk in the park, with warfare certainly much more stoneage and savage. With the global embargo, China is banking on US support for Taiwan to whither, because it feels the US is no longer supporting Taiwan on a point of principle (UN Charter, Right of Self Determination etc) but based on transactional value (what can China do for us, supply us with chips). Forget about Ukraine ever being an exporter of rare earths in either President's lifetime. The entire southern area of Ukraine is likely to go down in history as the most heavily mined region on Earth. We just need a heavily battle damaged Zaporizhzhya NPP to be fired up (Europe;s biggest, and probably least safe nuclear power plant) to add generational irradiation into the mix. Now obviously, the Chinese are hoping their actions will cause the Americans to come and talk. But history tells us politicians, through hubris, can horrbily miscalculate. The current US President, who is barely a politican, and who possesses zero political instinct (his instincts are based on New York property transactions. Prior to 2016, he had zero experience of public service) made the first huge miscalculation, causing an enormous mess. The Chinese might compound that, ironically for similar reasons.

One hopes there isn't an unintended (or maybe intended) consequence, similar to when the US put an oil embargo on Japan, in 1940 (a former ally).

You miss the point or deliberately try and change the subject. The point, which you patently fail to cmprehend, or refuse to acknowledge because you are in reality a Russian stooge, is the Russpria, a superpower you continuously express faith in and admiration of, is resorting to B&Q (Home Depot, if you really are an American, but I suspect you are not) to uparmour. I don't think nthat you are so stupid that you cannot comprehend, so I revert to the alternative, that you are a Champion for Russia and Putin an apologist for barabarism and fascism, in the same way that during the Cold War, Communists in the West went out of their way to defend the ills of the Soviet Union, and before them, the likes of Mosley, Joyce, Lindbergh and others defended the indefensible. You are part of a long line of apologists. Of course, for a while, the US military was reduced to scouring scrap piles to up armour Humvees in Iraq, until a brave NCO in Kuwait stood up and took Rumsfeld to task over this. Back in the days when members of the US military were not simply sacked for not following the political ideology.

Not just American companies. 64% of Taiwanese exports are now tariff free, 44% of Malaysian, 30% Vietnam, 30% Thailand, 10-12% of Indian/Mexican.Korean imports now exempt.. The exemption to some of Mexico's exports is significant, because the rest of Mexican exports are hit with extra tariffs allegedly because of fentanyl. Which is now shown to be a sham reason. The whole week has been a nonsense. Billions of wealth gone. Jobs lot. And no doubt it will come out that some people have died as a result of these presidential elections. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2019/08/30/amid-trump-tariffs-farm-bankruptcies-and-suicides-rise/

If there is a game, its pick'em up sticks, or the card versio, Round them up Cowboy.

"350" comes up a lot. £350 million per week was the number the NHS would get following Brexit. Of course it didn't. 350ppm CO2 is apparently the atmosheric threshold, above which life on earth changes fundementally. 350.org is a climate change pressure group. 350 is an "Angel Number" among the God Botherers/Holy Joes. Obviously Lizard People code.

DEI used in the US is specifically illegal in Great Britain. In GB, positive action is legal, affirmative action, the US standard, is illegal. In Northern Ireland, affirmative action is legal; it was necessary in order, for instance, to increase the Catholic composition of the PSNI (formally RUC). But even Affirmative Action in NI is different from the US. Positive Action is legal in the UK. Positive Discrimination is illegal.

Because its free to read, and isn't full of appalling popup ads like the Sun/Mirror/Express/Mail. For the Telegraph, there is an incredibly simple hack in modifying the URL to read articles for free which I ain't sharing.

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Christ, if they picked up a British soldier, at any point in history, you would hear a stunning range of accents and patois, and varying commands of English. Wellington called them the Scum of the Earth, and was proud of them, in response to a French officer pointing out the educational differences between British and French troops. As is true in many wars, mercenaries are attracted by on the one hand, wanting to fight the good fight (George Orwell in Spain) and those just in for the money ("Colonel" Callan in Angola). The latter often attracts individuals from the more deprived parts of society, with or without military experience. I'm sure the PLA, like all other armies, includes recruits who were otherwise ne'er do wells. Not all join for King/President/Flag/Country. So it make sense that a couple of Chinese nationals rocking up in Ukraine are a few bottles short of a 6-pack. I would say the same for some of the Brits going there; if I was being generous, some seem to be looking for adventure after a mediocre life. There are exceptions of course.

He missed an obvious opportunity. EO for the US to adopt the Imperial Gallon, resulting in 25% more water at shower time, and better miles per gallon. Also helps Elon's sums about getting to Mars.

Also some people have convenient back stories.

They have Chinese passports. But its now new news. There were former PLA members fighting in 2024 and 2023. https://nationalsecuritynews.com/2024/06/chinese-mercenaries-are-fighting-for-russia-in-ukraine/ Chinese national have fought for both sides.

A rare display of mostly unity, in that the Tate brothers are utter depraved scumbags, hopefully being bled dry through being holed up in an Arab hotel. Extradition requests are prepared by the Crown Prosecution Service. Its a matter of UK Law that the decision to request an extradition come from the Prosecuting Authority; the CPS. The CPS prepares the request, then it goes to a jubge. Only then does it go to the Home Secretary, who basically has to determine if the request is lawful. Bedfordshire Police already has a Europe wide arrest warrant for alleged offences committed in 2015. I suppose the CPS is also thinking about why the case collapsed in Romania. No doubt there has been extensive exchange of notes between prosecuting authorities. He's not going anywhere in Dubai. Justice will come.

And went on to facilitate much worse.

Farmers don't get shot at. The Russians have alreadyn been using these Chinese golf carts elsewhere. What this is is the Ulan; a rebodied 1977 Lada Niva. Nivas of course have their fans among the Tankie and Gripped crowd, but they were never "efficient". The 1.6 4-cylinder model, as I recall, managed a miserable 20mpg on road tyres. Probably mid-15s in the origami folding form. Its another signal. Along with the log armour, its a signal of a former superpower regressing. They've taken a surplus 40 year old car platform, and stuck on an easily constructed body made of non-ballistic material. Ukraine started off improvising, scouring Europe for cheap 15-20 year old pickups. Most of those have gone now, replaced by properly armoured vehicles. Ukraine has ben innovating as well, using superior commercial platforms (Ford F-Series and Toyota LC-70), and much more emphasis on providing force protection (not putting your soldiers in death traps like the Russians seem to be). No doubt you wil find these Russian modifications to be impressive Not a new idea, but it looks like it didn't really work 80m years ago either In WW2, Britain had to make crap like this when its back was against the wall, eg the Sten gun, which wasn't great, but met a basic need. Russia is supposed to be winning according to its fants and acolytes. But there are lots of signals suggesting otherwise, eg, Russian troops complaining they are only getting 500mls of water a day

Two Superpowers fighting to see who can devalue each other's currencies. BBC:

No I didn't. I literally made no comment. I responded with quotes and images from various sources, that can be taken out of context, as a response to a claim from a Forum Member that Biden placing his hand on the head of a girl could be seen as inappropriate. In both cases, its about context. Biden is not a paedophile (why are you now using a British spelling??? Ergo, you are not an American, and your whole persona is a construct). The 47th President is not one either, in my view. You called me a paedophile. That is beyond the Pale, and defamatory. You have not apologised nor withdrawn the remark. I want you banned.

China has declared in the next 5-10 years or so, it wants Chinese companies to hold about 90% of the domestic market. Its also signaled it doesn't want these companies to be merely fronts for foreign enterprises (JVs) and so in that respect, its giving accelerated approval times for Chinese companies with genuinely innovative solutions (how they define innovative is another thing), which is very similar to the FDA's "De Novo" approval scheme. One of the upshots is that medicine improves for everyone. It might threaten American, German, British, French. Japanese market share, but I'm not sure that is a terrible thing if the result for patients is better healthcare. I think most here can appreciate the philosophical differences between Western medicine (based on studying the dead) and Eastern medicine (studying the living). Chinese hospitals are split between "Western" medicine hospitals, offering treatments and diagnostics much like and hospital in the West, and so-called "Traditional Chinese Medicine" hospitals (their term) which probably should be called Eastern Medicine hospitals, because what they practice isn't necessarily old fashioned nor brackward. I've seen some medtech out of China which genuinely is eye-raising innovative, in ways we would describe as lateral thinking ("why didn't we think of that"). There are a huge number of Chinese medical companies; gargantuan in fact. Which means most are tiny. Yes, there are some big Chinese companies looking to export into Western economies, and competition is good. But most of these companies have zero interest in exports. Many don't have even much interest outside of their province. And curiously, they are not interested in competition in the way we would think of it (ie they don't have competitors, they just have customers, the hospitals). Hospitals tend to become loyal customers, and no one would dare to upset those relationships through discounts, incentives and the suchlike. There are also 3 tiers of hospitals, plus the private ones. Top tier and the private hospitals are full of the latest equipment, doctors trained in the West etc. The bottom tier do not, with increasingly reliance on domestic brands and Eastern medicine. China has quite a strong tradition of health insurance; the Chinese save money, massively. That staeted in Mao's day, when he established schemes, which were contributory, for farm workers and for factory workers, with the farmers, who were always the poorest, getting the better scheme. Back then, it was about farm collectives and factory collectives. So factories built their own hospitals. Those collectives have long gone, and in the modern China, it means a job for a company comes with a strong health insurance scheme, with farm workers paying into a state scheme. In the West, for medicines and medical devices, we have a lot of contradictions. The FDA was established in the wake of the first batches of polio vaccine going wrong; basically one of the vaccine manufacturers didn't understand how to make the formaldehyde that inactivated the polio virus, with awful results. The FDA was established so that companies did understand how to make the things they were making. And over the years, rules and regulations grew, with the objective of safeguarding the patient, but not necessarily meaning the patient had access to the best technology, just the safest. Europe regulatons were a bit of a mess, ranging from a precautionary approach in countries like the UK, to zero regulation in Eastern Europe. With the EEC, and later the EU, the UK, France and Germany played a pivotal role in establishing common standards; for Western countries, that was easy, because they all tool a similar approach. In the Common Market, there was emphasis on supporting business. So Directives were developed to establish the standards by which companies could market their products. Getting anyone to buy them was another matter, and member states always had the last word about reimbursement, and conducted their own efficacy studies. In the US, industry pays for the trials, in Europe, governments mostly pay (or did pay). Typically, it was a lot quicker for companies to get things to market in the EU than the US; on average, European patients could access new technologies 7 years before those in the US. That might sound a surprise. But the difference is US approvals essentially includes the technical assessment, allowing the CMS, and therefore the insurance companies, to take faster decisions whether they were going to pay for it or not. In the 1980s, the first cracks started to appear, because the regulatory authorities in the US couldn't keep up. First it was genetic tests; loads of them appeared, and they were taking too much time to approve. So the FDA created the "CLIA waived" status; essentially they trusted a regulated lab to understand the test they were carrying out, so approval could be expedited. 40 years on, labs are now doing next gen sequencing tests that they don't understand; they don't understand the results, and depend on the manufacturer interpreting that for them. Another thing is "substantially equivalent"; a medical device is pretty similar to something alreadhy on the market, and so didn't have to jump through all the hoops. That failed in the case of hernia meshes which has left thousands of women with lifelong chronic pain (to do with scarification around the mesh put in to fix a hernia; everytime they move, it feels like they are being stabbed. Removal requires major surgery, and results in disability). In Europe, Directives over time become Acts. A Directive is essentially a broad set of instructions to a memberstate how to change their legislation, but there is no time frame. An Act is mandatory. But by the time a Directive becomes an Act, everyone is already aligned; going back to the US, France, and Germany; all 3 countries had already developed similar standards, and it was never a bit deal in trade as a result. But with medical regulations, the change from Directive to Act was an opportunity to pug gaps in safety, so there was huge change. Moreover, the new regulations were no longer about the safest healthcare, but now the "most advanced" healthcare. That line is now causing issues, especially with grandfathered products. Anything new must be better, because the regulation says so. As a hospital, are you really going to purchase products that are not as good as the latest ones...... In Europe, the new regulations now include technical assessments, meaning member states can take reimbursement decisions more quickly. So timelines are getting longer, kind of. the 45th President did say he wanted to deregulate the FDA, but didn't get around `to it. In theory, the FDA deregulating, and the EU regulating means standards should get similar, allowing better trading; US products can be more readily purchased in Europe and vice versa, given that approvals are mutually recognised. This is what happens with cars. A car made for the US market isn't all that different from those in Europe; DOT marks are seen as equivalent to E-markes, and the same for Japanese JIS marks. In the current idiom. FDA deregulation is being achieved by sacking them all. This will mean increased approval times; already happening. The FDA response will likely be to simplify what they do, and get to what Europe used to do. Under the old European approach, manufacturer essentially self-regulate through audits they pay for. Insurance companies though aren't going to pay for some shonky device thats had a rubber stamp approval. That deranged individual who murdered the health insurance executive; he had undergone unecessary spinal fusion surgery (because the doctors told the insurers so) that did nothing for him, but cost a lot of money (the insurance companies are now increasingly pushing back against spinal fusion claims). I suspect the constant pain left him lacking mental capacity. So they will develop their own assessment processes, at a cost passed on to the customer (increased rates), or they will view more favourably, products that come with their own technical assessments for scrutiny, from Europe, and from China. As for scientists seeking employment. Consider the modern history of the passport. The modern passport was introduced in WW1, as a means to STOP people leaving the country. Only with a passport, could you leave, so in that way they stopped engineers and scientists switching sides. Now, we think of a Passport as a Right. That can be taken away.

Explain yourself. Unless you are poorly enunciating a point, you have just called me a pedophile. A lacki of response I will take as the affirmative.

"Futile attacks" don't seem futile when they at least interupt production of Russia's only domestic source of fiber optic cable. And using SAMs in a surface to surgace mode is the reason the Ukr AF has been dropping JDAMs on Russian forward positions. https://theaviationist.com/2025/02/03/ukraine-new-1000-lb-jdam-er/ Goering made the tactical error of using up his best bomber crews bombing London instead of focusing on military targets (the airfields). The fact that a former super power is having to repurpose defensive weapons in an offensive configuration, and risk losing troops and equipment it can ill replace is a signal certainly. It signals that Russia's retaliatory options are become more limited. It remains curious why the RuAF is still employed in a stand off mode (launching glide bombs from hundreds of KMs away). They surely had the capability at the beginning of Putin's War of Aggression of neutralising Ukrainian air defence very quickly (viz. US campaigns over Iraq), which would then allow the RuAF bomber crews to loiter and attack at will more accurately than they currently are achieving. Rumours are that the RuAF pilots lack flying hours, and there is a high accident rate.

Factory before Factory after Russiann pre-war source confirming the Ronald MacDonald colour scheme building on fire is indeed the fiber optic factory https://yandex.eu/maps/org/optikovolokonnyye_sistemy/191115326297/?ll=45.196156%2C54.225054&z=15 The street address is "430006, Саранск, Лодыгина, 13". https://maps.app.goo.gl/YEfpymofCi7h142z6 Factory tour

Well, the 47th President describing his 16 year old daughter Ivanka: Don’t you think my daughter’s hot? She’s hot, right? Trump: “My daughter is beautiful, Ivanka." Stern: “By the way, your daughter…” Trump: “ - she’s beautiful" Stern: “Can I say this? A piece of ass.” Trump: “Yeah.” When asked if Ivanka appeared inside Playboy magazine It would be really disappointing — not really — but it would depend on what's inside the magazine.......... I don't think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her." “Isn’t that terrible? How terrible? Is that terrible? Yeah, she's really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren't happily married and, ya know, her father . . . https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/trumps-lewd-talk-about-daughter-ivanka-in-front-of-white-house-staff-recalled-in-new-book/ “Aides said he talked about Ivanka Trump’s breasts, her backside, and what it might be like to have sex with her, remarks that prompted Kelly to remind the president that Ivanka was his daughter,” writes Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, in his new book, according to Newsweek. If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her. Isn’t that terrible? How terrible? Is that terrible?”