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Week 5

Some commentators might be confusing which purge was done by whom. The ones that removed Xi's allies previously were not done by Xi, obviously, but MSM reported them as such. They also keep saying "Zhang was Xi's strong ally in the military". Way back Zhang supported Xi so he could continue to serve as president beyond his term limit. The situation is different now. Hu, Zhang do not heart Xi anymore, the previous purges were done by them against Xi.

"Long series of purges" 🤨

"[Expert] says that the removal of General Zhang Youxia.. is just the latest in a long series of purges and calls into question President Xi Jinping's judgment."

Because they renamed the place Trump Kennedy Center?

"@dbattistella@todon.eu

Philip Glass has withdrawn his upcoming symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center."

The Wrecking Crew, trailer looks good

Gamer guy built himself a custom PC last year with lots of memory, now he says "I can use these [chips] as down payment on a new house!"

CNBC: "SK Hynix smashes earnings estimates as AI memory demand drives record profit"

Subir Sarkar: "In the standard model of cosmology, about seventy percent of the energy density of the universe—the dark energy driving its accelerating rate of expansion - is described by Albert Einstein’s cosmological constant. In this essay, I argue that the standard model of cosmology is wrong...

[I]n quantum field theory, all contributions to the vacuum energy can be formally canceled order by order by adding appropriate counterterms to the Lagrangian. This would have no effect on any quantity measured in the laboratory. It is only when the standard model of particle physics is supplemented by gravity that the quantum vacuum can have a possible effect on the universe as a whole.

When these implications were first realized in the 1930s, they were quickly swept under the rug. '[A]s is obvious from experience,' Pauli confidently remarked, 'the [zero-point energy] does not produce any gravitational field.'..

Pauli offered no reason why the vacuum energy density should not gravitate, and overlooked, or ignored, the obvious conflict with general relativity. In Einstein’s theory, all forms of energy must gravitate.

This is the bone in our throat."

"Why Dark Energy is a Local Illusion"

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Lev Landau: "[2004] Cosmologists are often in error, but never in doubt."

The Lever: "Larry Ellison Knows Where You’re Scrolling From.. TikTok’s new owners have eliminated a privacy rule protecting U.S. users’ precise location data from being collected."

The Lever: "Congress Wants Us To Pay For Corporate Lobbying.. A new bipartisan bill would establish a taxpayer-funded advisory panel dominated by corporate executives — not investors or consumers."

"Pays into", "welfare", "handouts".. These are incorrectly defined words. A better system can have better words.

Any system that requires more young than old so that it's economics does not collapse is a badly constructed system.

WaPo: "U.S. population growth slowed last year as net immigration fell by about half"

"@GeofCox@climatejustice.social

Ex-Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman defects to Reform UK... It's clear that the UK Tory Party is splitting - a split that started over brexit, included Boris Johnson's expulsion of 21 pro-Europe MPs, and now the drift away to ReformUK.

What's driving it? The last Tory split like this, over the Corn Laws, resulted in a generation out of power and Peel's reformulation of conservatism in more-or-less its modern form, as the party of business. This split was understood at the time in terms of policies and personalities (as politics generally is) - but in reality the division was driven by the divergence of economic interests between the landowners (who wanted to keep food prices high so enable them to collect more rent from farming) and the interests of industrialists (who wanted low food prices so they could pay workers less).

So if it's conflicts of economic interests in the underlying electoral coalition that is similarly driving the split unfolding now - what are these conflicting interests ?

I think Boris Johnson told us when, in the brexit debates, he shockingly said 'Fuck Business' - because the business world was itself split over brexit, between serious smaller businesses, entrepreneurs that wanted stability, predictability, sensible regulation - and City 'investors', 'disaster capitalists', that move money around globally, and whose gambling and tax-evasion actually requires unpredictability, instability and the global free-market-race-to-the-bottom. Certainly not the EU.

It's the return of the contradiction at the heart of Peel's conservatism: representing the interests of those with wealth and privilege in the current capitalist social formation, while capitalism itself actually insists on constant change and instability."

"@elasticsoul@mastodon.social

The US is threatening #Canada (again) if we don't buy their F-35s. Here's what Denmark said about the ones they bought, and regret buying:

'They're in for repairs about half the time or even more,' he said, 'so the Americans have all the power of actually destroying our air force just by shutting down [parts] supplies'"

CBC News: "NORAD would be 'altered' if Canada doesn’t buy F-35 jets, warns U.S. ambassador"

via @solarpapst@social.anoxinon.de

A mildly extremist Ba'ath.

A new Assad with a beard.

These are the good scenarios.

HTS gains can help build a state.. But with who in charge? Well, f-ing Al Qaida of course. We the people of ME are not drowning in options. We make do with what we have. I hope for the best. Saudis are supporting the new regime, even UAE seems to be getting along. Together with Europeans and US maybe that will entice the gov to stop from getting their "freak on".

True Rate of Unemployment published by the Ludwig Insitute increased to %25.2 in December from %24.8 in November.

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You make an enemy of Xi you make an enemy of Russia... Russia has top notch intel, maybe they gave the warning to Xi on a possible arrest.

That would mean the death of some of those bodyguards... Hey it's not an easy call to make.

If Zee Ping Ping knew they were coming to arrest him at the Jingxi Hotel, why didn't he take his bodyguards with him when he left? Actually you want those bodyguards there, to see how far Zhang's people will go to get at Xi (they wouldn't know he'd already left). That gives you a guage showing how serious the opposition is. And surely they crossed the line, the Rubicon. Then Xi would obtain both a confirmation the intel was good, and a reason to move on the other side.

"According to Zadeh, the U.S. drive toward war and military aggression is often dictated by internal, self-expanding dynamics rather than immediate external provocations. He argues that the timing of U.S. military actions is driven by several key factors within the 'military-industrial-Likud alliance'.

The Survival of the Military-Industrial Complex

The MIC has evolved from a means of national security into an end in itself. Unlike past empires where arms production was dictated by war requirements, the private, market-driven character of the U.S. arms industry means that profit imperatives now drive the demand for war. This 'parasitic imperialism' requires occasional 'shooting wars' to draw down stockpiles of armaments, display the efficiency of new 'smart' weapons, and justify the military's continued appropriation of the lion’s share of public money.

The Invention of 'External Threats'

A central hallmark of U.S. militarism is the constant need to invent or manufacture external threats to justify high levels of military spending.

Economic Stimulus and 'Military Keynesianism'

The timing of military expansion is often linked to cycles of economic slowdown.

Geopolitical Recasting and the Likud Alliance

We can identify a de facto alliance between the MIC and militant Zionist proponents of 'greater Israel'.

Before any type of attack, I ask myself, what would Hossein-Zadeh think? A quick summary on the why, against any country is above.

MSN: "Delta's the rare airline doing well—because it's catering to the rich"

Compensation and Profits Comparison

I see an increasing gap, sign of incoming slowdown / recession?

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The graph shows US trade deficit is decreasing. Initially there was an increase right after the election (the red line). It's obvious what happened there, after Trump's win importers front loaded their purchases knowing increased tariffs were coming.

US Trade Balance

u.get_fred(2000, "BOPGSTB").plot()
plt.axvspan('05-11-2024', '07-11-2024', color='r', alpha=0.5, lw=0)

The latest report matches the internal struggle scenario we wrote about recently. A conflict has been raging between Zhang and Xi, and according to some leaks, Zhang finally turned up the heat and planned an overt coup, Xi was to be arrested at a hotel in January 18. But Xi received intel, left the hotel early, while leaving an armed contingent behind. Then, "[a] gunfight broke out at the Jingxi Hotel between Zhang’s people, who had already arrived, and forces arranged by Xi. Nine of Xi’s personal security guards were killed, while dozens of Zhang Youxia’s people were killed.". Major action.

It looks like Xi strenghtened his position, we'll see how the other side responds.

The Epoch Times: "China Probes 2 Top Military Officials for ‘Serious Violations’.. The announcement indicates an intense power struggle within the highest level of the Chinese regime. The officials named were Zhang Youxia.. vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and Liu Zhenli, a member of the CMC"

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BBC: "China's defence ministry says it has opened an investigation into the country's highest-ranking general"

Combined posts on thorium

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🫎 🫎 🫎

"Canada Models Guerrilla Warfare Response to Hypothetical US Invasion"

CA will also redirect power from previously planned US export towards H2 electrolysis?

US-CA relation is not good, US' loss will be Germany's gain.

"EU backs €200m Germany-Canada deal to scale up renewable hydrogen production.. Germany’s €200m commitment is expected to unlock a matching €200m in funding from Canada, creating a €400m investment package for RFNBO production.

These fuels are produced using renewable electricity, typically through electrolysis, and can be stored or transported as synthetic gases or liquids derived from hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

The programme will support the construction of up to 300 megawatts of electrolysis capacity in Canada, significantly expanding renewable energy-based hydrogen output"

Jerusalem Post: "Israel ranked last for the second consecutive year in the 2025 Nation Brands Index (NBI), according to data released on Thursday by BrandIL, recording the steepest annual decline since the index was established nearly two decades ago.

The Nation Brands Index, developed by policy adviser Simon Anholt and conducted annually by Ipsos, is based on large-scale international public-opinion surveys that measure how countries are perceived"

"How We Make Hope Normal Again - Green Party Political Broadcast"

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"In The Man Who Killed Kennedy, Roger Stone investigates one of America's most infamous events—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He presents the theory that Lyndon B. Johnson conspired with criminal organizations and rogue CIA elements to orchestrate the murder of Kennedy and subsequently cover up any traces of their involvement."

The new points / areas being searched (OI regions, Lyne and Godfrey). Davey was an earlier estimate. Let's see who wins.

import json, requests
qr = requests.get("https://trise5631.github.io/areas2.js").text
jres = json.loads(qr.replace("parseAreas(","").replace("})","}"))
cs = {"Lyne": list(reversed(jres["areas"]["LYNE"][0])),
      "Davey": [-38,88] # -38.968, 86.22
      }
GCM = u.flip_c(jres["areas"]["GCM"])
a =  u.flip_c(jres["areas"]["OI2025A"])
b =  u.flip_c(jres["areas"]["OI2025B"])
polys = {"OI2025A": a, "OI2025B": b, "Godfrey": GCM}
u.map_coords([-19,110],cs, polys, zoom=4, outfile="map01.html")

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"The [MH 370] search resumed on 30 December. Phase 3 is about to end on 15th Jan"

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Recent HTS gains (dashed line before, solid line after).

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BBC: "Rapid rollback of Kurdish-led forces reshapes Sharaa's Syria.. The retreat of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north-east marks the biggest change of control in Syria since the fall of Assad"

Some will get screwed when the changes take effect..

"The Paper Silver Market is 250 Times the Size of the Physical Silver Market"

The Lever: "The Supreme Court’s Quiet War On Cuba.. Lawsuits by an oil giant and Cuban-American hardliners could help corporate interests recoup hundreds of millions in expropriated Cuban assets if Trump delivers regime change."

"The European Union’s foreign policy arm has raised questions about U.S. President Donald Trump’s broad powers over his new Board of Peace, according to an internal document seen by Reuters"

Culture = numbers + proximity, draw a circle anywhere in the world map, people within that circle should be able to get along, coexist because they are near eachother. It doesn't matter whether they call themselves X or Y.

Trump let Iraqi central government beat up on their Kurds too, during the first term, Iraq took back Kirkuk (2017). That would've helped Iraq to remain as a viable state.

Integration is not a bad thing.. Hopefully Kurds are not overrun but a seperate landlocked NE would not be in a good shape anyway.

F24: "[T]he Syrian government gave Kurdish forces until Saturday to reach an agreement on how they will integrate into the state. Is the dream of an autonomous state over for Syria’s Kurds?'

Axios: "Panama Canal ports deal remains unsettled"

America is constantly screwed by the MIC.. and they get away with it. They have harmed citizens at every turn, they take public's money, they lead policy towards inefficient energy solutions, they pollute US international relations.

Taggart: "I got to interrupt that and say.. "Okay, well, gosh, if thorium is so much better than uranium, why the U.S. abandoned thorium in the 1960s–70s why did we shutter this thing in in the 70s? Why did we go down the uranium path and not the thorium path?'"

Sorensen: "I spent years finding the answer to that myself. I ended up writing my thesis at the University of Tennessee on the very question. The really short answer is, very early on, our priority was weapons and thorium was not a path to weapons... And so much work had been done on uranium and plutonium versus thorium that it was more ready to be demonstrated. And so the efforts of the Nixon and Carter and Reagan administrations went into what was called the Clinch River Breeder Reactor around uranium, plutonium and thorium was shelved. That was a bad move. That was a mistake. We really should have been continuing the work of Dr. Weinberg at at Oakidge and and pushing the thorium direction. He correctly foresaw the problems that we would run into with the uranium approach in every facet, both in safety and in ultimate fuel utilization. And he would have not been one bit surprised to be here in 2025 with us right now going 'I could have told you you'd be in this problem way back when because you didn't take the the thorium direction'."

Taggart: "So okay so uranium essentially is a less efficient fuel. it has more safety issues.. but it offered the opportunity for weaponization and I'm guessing because of the interest of the military-industrial complex, [they] really pushed for that and then once we had enough momentum around that technology it just became easier to continue that momentum than to try to go back to the drawing board with thorium"

"Is Thorium The Future Of Nuclear Energy? | Kirk Sorensen"

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"How to Colonize Venus - Floating Cities"

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But their plans will be great for binness..They will get their bread buttered, on both sides.

TAC: "The Hawks’ New Plans for Iran Are Disastrous.. Killing the supreme leader and balkanizing the country are terrible ideas."

Tuber: "The new American Dream is to leave America"