Thread: Eurasia Topics

What a surprise, our resident chinky brown noser claims it wasn't the chinkies when he knows absolutely fuck all about the subject matter.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

claims it wasn't the chinkies

Care to highlight your allegation in my post #1401.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Care to highlight your allegation in my post #1401.

I haven't made any "allegations", merely statements of fact.

And you're the fucking imbecile that thinks this is related to vaccines, so you're merely hammering home my point about you knowing absolutely fuck all. Good job!



P.S. the chinky bastards have been at it for a year.

"Since early 2020, Recorded Future's Insikt Group observed a large increase in suspected targeted intrusion activity against Indian organizations from Chinese state-sponsored groups. From mid-2020 onwards, Recorded Future's midpoint collection revealed a steep rise in the use of infrastructure tracked as AXIOMATICASYMPTOTE, which encompasses ShadowPad command and control (C2) servers, to target a large swathe of India's power sector," the report reads.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

And you're the fucking imbecile that thinks this is related to vaccines, so you're merely hammering home my point about you knowing absolutely fuck all. Good job!

Like Klondyke, he's hopelessly lost in his one-sided brainfarts

chinky bastards at it again.

NAKHON PHANOM: The Mekong River is currently only a little over one metre deep as it flows through this northeastern border province, posing a threat of severe drought during the dry season.

Officials said the river level is dropping faster than in recent years due to the construction of dams in neighbouring Laos and low rainfall in catchment areas.

Water levels in three main tributaries - the Nam Kam, Nam Songkhram and Nam Un rivers - is now at 10%-20% of their capacities, causing shortages of water for agriculture.

Underground water is also running dry.

Therefore, irrigation officials have stopped releasing water from Nong Han lake in Sakon Nakhon province into the Mekong river via the Nam Kam stream, to keep enough water to irrigate about 60,000 rai of farmland during the dry season.

Farmers have been told to grow crops outside irrigated zones and look for new sources of water to cope with the drought.

Mekong river level critically low

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

chinky bastards at it again.

^What a surprise in dry season...

Do the "chinky bastards" steel the water also from the Ping River in Chiang Mai and Nan River? The main sources for the 2 biggest hydro power plans...

4. Water condition in reservoir
Water condition in large and medium scale reservoirs (28 Feb. 2021): water volume inreservoir appears 41,542 MCM which is equal to 55% (while usable water volume appears 17,612MCM which is equal 34%). It seems 32 MCM less than year 2020; however, more water capacity gets34,525 MCM.

Water condition in large scale reservoirs (28 Feb. 2021): water volume in reservoir appears38,367 MCM which is equal to 54% while usable water volume appears 14,825 MCM which is equal to31% and 1,051 MCM less than year 2020.

http://water.rid.go.th/flood/flood/weekreportnew_e.pdf

An artcle discussing the ameristani 4IR Re-set. Suggesting "democracy" should be the guiding light.

Unfortunately the definition of "democracy" is somewhat clouded.

Biden and the ‘Yellow Brick Road’

Alastair Crooke March 8, 2021

"Across the board, there probably is not enough ‘majority’ to push through this new, 4IR Re-set – at least for now.

Biden intoned the sacred word ‘democracy’ over and over again at the Munich Security conference, including three times in his concluding sentence; but the mask already was stripped from America’s long-service, 1940s, moralising myth some time ago. Recent events in the U.S. have only served to underline ‘democracy’ as sham and to expose the bitter divisions lying beneath America’s skin.

America’s position as ‘global leader’, Stephen Wertheim has observed in his book Tomorrow the World, was premised on a set of impermanent and atypical post-war circumstances that handed primacy to the U.S.; but Wertheim then goes on to underscore how “those days of incontestable unipolarity are over, and cannot be wished back”. The U.S. empire is, then, at an impasse: Its moral and political justification of overseeing a global order shaped to its norms is now beyond its capabilities (militarily or financially) to maintain.

Yet those original ‘pathologies’ built into the system persist. Aris Roussinos, an editor at Unherd notes: “As the useful myth [of spreading democracy hardened into] dogma, the neurotic belief that the end of American hegemony would mean the return of dark forces has become so entrenched that it constrains America’s ability to negotiate reality … Indeed, there are worrying intimations that America’s leaders believe that victory is predestined, purely through its own perceived moral virtue: as if the victories of the Second World War and the Cold War were won through holding to correct ideology”.

Robert Kagan recently ‘nailed’ the impasse: Absent the justifying myth around which to organise the empire (now that U.S. Democracy is tarnished), the moral logic of the entire enterprise begins to fall apart. Kagan argues that the empire is required – in order to preserve ‘democracy’ at home: An America that retreats from global hegemony would no longer possess the cohesive impulse to preserve America as idea at home either.

But the key words here are ‘victories won through holding to correct ideology’. Presenting their case for conviction at the impeachment trial of Trump, the House Democratic managers repeatedly invoked President Trump’s threat to “our democracy”. The notion of a threat to ‘our democracy’ as a political argument is new. It has emerged of late among progressives as a routine term of political art. “The word ‘our’ implies that to be a member of ‘their’ democracy, one has to share their beliefs. If you’re not in, you’re out. And if you’re out, they may come after you for being a threat to democracy”.

So, whilst Biden paid fealty to the myth of spreading democracy at Munich, he also mentioned ‘4IR’ (the fourth industrial revolution, a term much used at Davos to underpin their advocacy of a Great Re-set). What Biden’s Administration is making very plain is that the credo which both defines and distinguishes ‘our democracy’, and which demands conversion in ‘our’ thought and action, is the global pursuit of full-spectrum Human (i.e. diverse identity) Rights, and an overriding commitment to rectifying climate change everywhere. The tools to undertake this redemptive mission imply that the U.S. must command the digital (and cyber) sphere, dominate in space, and ensure unqualified U.S. primacy in AI technology, in quantum computing, robotics, 3D printing and 5G.

So ‘America is back’, and the Great ‘Re-Set’ unfolds itself as a grandiose vision, indeed. It combines a crash, almost wartime, approach to the development of advanced technology, as exemplified by the Apollo program of the 1960s, and to making ‘climate’ the central topic in all spheres of U.S. government activity. Biden has promised to channel $2 trillion into building a “clean” national infrastructure. This is above and beyond the $1.9 trillion ‘stimmie’ package passing through Congress.

That is straight-forward enough. But there is an underside to it all. It is that the Biden Administration precisely intends to use identity politics, U.S. digital and cyber muscle, technology export/import restrictions – and above all, the ‘climate crisis’ – as the means to reimpose U.S. primacy in a climate-led, ‘newly virtuous’, global order.

The U.S. proposes to act as the global ‘enforcer’ of CO2 reduction measures – and in this, Biden intends to focus especially on China. Countries that refuse to reduce their emissions by the necessary amounts voluntarily must be forced to do so. The logic is inescapable. The old-style U.S. sanctions will continue, but a new scaffolding of CO2 border taxes and other penalties, as well as identity politic (i.e. woke) sanctions, will be added to the basket.

Democracy drags on, as a required mantra, but it is now widely accepted that it alone no longer can underpin U.S. exceptionalism. True believers in ‘our exceptional democracy’ understand that when Biden says ‘America is back’, it means – this time – ‘to save the planet’, and redeem our catastrophic (and past, ‘sinful’) behaviour.

By implication, Biden’s executive orders make the release of CO2 in any corner of the world into a U.S. national security issue. The forthcoming National Intelligence Estimate would provide the basis for using the resources of the U.S. intelligence community and national security apparatus to enforce Administration climate policies on a global scale.

Additionally, Biden has emphasized that, for the United States, replacing the world’s entire fossil fuel infrastructure with clean technology over the next 30-40 years, together with the introduction of a “social cost system” based on attaching a numerical value to the “global damage” attributed to emission of a given amount of CO2, will create a whole new digital market for social cost trading credits and CO2 debits – and create a new market of colossal dimensions (dominated naturally by the U.S. financial oligarchs).

All of this – building back cleaner, and the crash Apollo-style investment into technology – implies a veritable tsunami of magic money emanating from the Fed printing presses. Plainly Biden’s planners believe that they can kill two birds with a single stone: save the economy by “Going Big” and “Going Hot” (Treasury chief Yellen), and save the planet at the same time.

Saving the planet on the one hand, represents the moral ‘cudgel’ designed to restore American moral leadership. But, on the other, it lends meaning to that interesting catch-phrase used by U.S. domestic activists when they talk of saving ‘our democracy’ from its domestic and external threats. It’s not just Trump. It should be understood that these converts have set off on that upward path of the ‘Yellow Brick Road’, with Dorothy and friends (Tin Man and Scarecrow), happily singing along, as they march off in search of the magical Emerald City of technological wonders – and there, of course, to meet with the Wizard of Oz himself.

Well, the wizard, has already forewarned our three friends (in his 2020 open letter) of wondrous events to behold: The globe stands at the very “edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance”, he predicts. And yes, immense amounts of financial capital have already been committed to the expectation of radical climate policies. CO2 emissions are being monetized and a vast financial machinery created, tying asset valuations to parameters such as “carbon intensity” and “sustainability indices”. Jonathan Tennenbaum writes:

“Climate projections are being built into long-term risk strategies and the premium structures of insurance companies. The volume of carbon trade is growing exponentially and, with it, the market for climate-linked financial instruments such as green bonds (already at $500 billion) and other so-called green assets.

“Thereby, climate policy becomes a powerful instrument for [America to] shape global investment patterns and financial flows … In the meantime BlackRock, several of whose executives have been named to high positions in the Biden Administration, has announced that it is making climate change central to its investment strategy for 2021”.

The wizard, Blackrock’s own Larry Fink, demands that companies provide him with visions for long term value creation which include a calculation of societal impact. The import of this cannot be overstated. BlackRock does have the weight to ‘swing’ this. Fink lists the question he requires companies in which he invests to ask themselves:

“What role do we play in the community? How are we managing our impact on the environment? Are we working to create a diverse workforce? Are we adapting to technological change? Are we providing the retraining and opportunities that our employees and our business will need to adjust to an increasingly automated world? Are we using behavioural finance and other tools to prepare workers for retirement, so that they invest in a way that that will help them achieve their goals?”

It is not hard to see what is going on here, behind the Wizard’s curtain – America’s financial and banking oligarchy are pulling and tugging at the levers and twiddling the dials to re-invent themselves as a tech-savvy, expert élite. Out, is the classical model for investment – Is this a viable business proposal; does it have an output of real value to offer; is there a demand and the ability to pay for it?

In, comes complicated mathematical calculations of risk, of social credits for metrics of diversity and inclusion, coupled with calculations of debits and costs of impairment to the ‘environment’. And a market in which all these variables such as how many or few LBGTQ are employed may be costed, traded and futures bought and sold – social norms translated into an algorithmic perpetual-motion machine.

It is a new economy. One already epitomised by Tesla. This company on a pedestal of its own, in fact makes no profit from its electric cars; a main income derives from selling CO2 credits.

But wait – what about individuals? Domestic citizens that refuse to alter their environmental, or socially impaired behaviour voluntarily: Will they be ‘cancelled’, or forced to change their conduct too? Fink’s phrase about the need to leverage behavioural finance really says it all: a social credit system is intended. The logic is inescapable.

A whirlwind snatched Dorothy from a dusty Kansas farm, to take her along the Yellow Brick Road of hope, and then up to the futuristic Emerald City, before finally she meets with the Magus, who unexpectedly exposes himself as the sham behind the curtain, frantically pulling at levers to stop the whirling, overheated machine from spinning out of control. Dorothy then wants to go back home to Kansas, and ‘bumps down’ in her old, familiar wooden farmhouse in the dusty Kansas plains. It is unchanged, except that the wind has dropped. And for most of us, ‘coming back home’ with a bump is similar – the dulling encounter with old, failing bridges, potholes in the road, ancient sewers and decrepid rolling-stock.

One of the principal participants at the recent Virtual Davos asked whether the 4IR and the Re-set projects were not, in fact, confusing ends and means. The Re-set seems to be more about the means to preserve the existing 0.1%, albeit now wearing virtuous new hats (i.e. saving the world). All must be changed, in other words, so that everything (including the oligarchs) remain the same? And America is back in charge.

Haven’t we forgotten something, the Davos speaker suggested? Aren’t the ends supposed to be about people?

Perhaps here we should pause, and recall that the Democratic “hold on Congress and the Senate is tenuous: A titular, razor-thin margin.

The American electorate wants Covid relief, economic recovery, and a return to a measure of ‘normality to life’, before any radical change be contemplated, especially since they have observed how over-investment in tech renewables brought California and Texas to the brink of collapse during the recent freeze-up. And thirdly, very close to half of the electorate, voted for Trump, and against the woke programme — especially in its cultural identity revolution iteration.

Across the board, there probably is not enough ‘majority’ to push through this new, 4IR Re-set – at least for now. Both American parties are regrouping, and though active hostilities may have subsided somewhat, the rhetoric of struggles ‘far from won’ – and of future battles to come – has not.

Dorothy’s old wooden Kansas farmhouse still is the ground zero for many Americans. It would be great if it were to get a tad better – most just hope for a Life.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...ow-brick-road/

This is the bloke that thinks Israel has been "outfoxed".

He waffles more than you and makes less sense.

You actually read the shit he posts?

Originally Posted by panama hat

You actually read the shit he posts?

Nah. Usually the author is enough to show what utter fucking crap it is.

US exceptionalism surges again: Will it fly?

US’ return to the UNHRC is part and parcel of Biden administration’s plan to put democracy and rights at the center of its foreign policy


by MK Bhadrakumar March 3, 2021

"In a statement last Wednesday marking the “return” of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Secretary of State Antony Blinken disclosed that President Joe Biden’s administration is placing democracy and human rights at the center of American foreign policy. But the cat is out of the bag. The US is in relative decline and there is a resource crunch. There is an absence of a positive vision for humanity, as the country struggles with its own demons.

The dramatic events in American society and politics in the recent past badly exposed the country as a sham democracy with an abominable record of racism and appalling inequality where the top 0.1% of the population hold roughly the same share of the country’s wealth as the bottom 90%.

But the resurrection of American exceptionalism will have no takers, and the US, lacking the capacity and the moral authority to advance a unifying agenda in the international arena, is assembling a toolkit for its diplomacy, with geopolitical objectives.

The potential of the UN Human Rights Council ought to be directed at the raging Covid-19 pandemic, which has undermined the social and economic foundations of states. The most fundamental human right – the right to life – has been threatened, with the world economic downturn causing a big rise in unemployment and aggravating social insecurity. The development gaps between nations and regions are widening.

Yet the US is in a category by itself even among the rich countries. Covid-19 deaths per million inhabitants have gone through the roof in the US in comparison with its own allies. The appalling reality is that in the US the death toll from the epidemic has crossed 500,000.

Ironically, per capita Covid-19 deaths in some of the countries that Blinken berates for deficit in democracy and human rights put the US to shame, including Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and Sri Lanka. And of course China.

But for Blinken, such a horrific level of deaths among his countrymen isn’t a human-rights issue. Not a single state functionary in the US has been held responsible for such a tragedy of unspeakable proportions.

Suffice to say, the US is bringing disrepute and shame to the whole Western world by leading them into such a cynical game, strutting around as champions of human rights when according to a recent estimate, more than half of all vaccines against Covid-19 have been reserved for one-seventh of the world’s population. Isn’t that a matter of human rights?

The UK alone has reportedly secured enough vaccines to give each of its citizens five doses. If orders are met, the European Union and the US could inoculate their populations three times over, while Canada would have enough to do so nine times. It is obscene, Mr Blinken.

At the same time, competition for diminishing vaccine supplies may lead to price spikes and further friction. Acrimony has erupted among the EU, the UK and AstraZeneca over a shortfall in vaccine production. Meanwhile, in any situation where supplies are scarce and demand rises, it is poorer countries that will suffer most.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was spot on when he said at the UNHRC meeting on February 24, “The pandemic has exacerbated old problems such as racism and xenophobia, as well as discrimination against national and religious minorities. Mass protests in the United States and Europe have exposed these countries’ continuing systemic inequalities, while highlighting the risks of condoning extremist ideologies.”

It is utter moral bankruptcy that the US and its rich allies in the Western world – the so-called “golden billion” on planet Earth – walk into the UNHRC and start pontificating about human rights and pursue coercive approaches and unlawful methods of intimidation and pressure with narrow and self-serving geopolitical goals.

Again, aren’t the non-transparent policies of social networking platforms a matter of human rights, too? The US, in particular, undertook commitments to ensure freedom of access to information for all citizens but is now hiding behind corporate policies to avoid delivering on these commitments.

As for the social networking platforms, they have begun brazenly to manipulate public opinion in the developing countries by banning or censoring user content at their own discretion. Now, they are, under US protection, trampling on the human rights of world citizens, aren’t they?

The human-rights toolkit is universally applicable and there is not a single country on Earth, including the US, that doesn’t have a problem with democracy and human rights.

Isn’t it a crying shame that an average black American lives six years less than his white countrymen? Don’t black Americans get locked up in jails in much larger numbers than whites? But the United States’ human-rights standards are highly selective – it’s the “white man’s burden.”

Evidently, the toolkit becomes a potent weapon to stigmatize the United States’ adversaries Russia and China; to pressure small countries that do not conform to US regional policies (such as Sri Lanka, Cuba or Venezuela); or to extract concessions from countries by blackmailing them (such as Saudi Arabia).

The toolkit has been used to bring about regime change too – that is, overthrow established governments and replace them with client regimes. The best-known examples are Ukraine and Georgia. A recent attempt in Belarus flopped.

A trial project in Russia in recent weeks was simply squashed by the Kremlin. But it is a developing story. The countries in the periphery of Russia are being systematically destabilized and turned into theaters of geopolitical contestation so that the United States’ great adversary will get entrapped in a quagmire.

The Biden administration is using this toolkit to try to re-establish the United States’ trans-Atlantic leadership, which Europe is no longer comfortable with. Europe is experiencing the hidden charms of “strategic autonomy.”

But the US cannot hope to exercise global hegemony without the Western alliance system backing it, either. In this shadow play, Biden estimates that the human-rights plank stands the best chance of bringing the United States’ Western allies on board under its leadership.

The US return to the UNHRC does not stem from noble intentions. It is primarily due to the worry over China’s increasing influence in the UN body during the US absence in the most recent years. Specifically, China stole a march over the US by bringing the pandemic under control, and it has become an eyesore.

Equally, China’s stance on human rights has growing resonance among the developing countries – that human rights should be relative to the situations of developing countries; that the concept of human rights should be diversified as there is no one-size-fits-all approach for human-rights development; and that countries should not export their own model or use human-rights issues to interfere in other countries’ domestic affairs.

Indeed, the Western concept of human rights, narrowly focused on freedom of speech or religion and democratic elections, tends to overlook that the basic right for the bulk of humanity is about living and development. The Western countries refuse to accept the fact that there are many roads to development and prosperity for the developing countries, and their path is only one of them and, perhaps, not even the best or the most suitable path.

Plainly put, human rights are being used as a tool to reinforce and perpetuate the present global order in accordance with Western interests. However, it is a losing battle. A new world order is taking shape with a vastly different global humanitarian agenda, which will inevitably become the mainstream for human society.

According to a plan jointly issued last week by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on China’s comprehensive transportation network layout, the country aims to build all over the world 200,000 kilometers of railways, 460,000km of highways, and 25,000km of high-level sea lanes with 27 major coastal ports, 400 civil transportation airports and 80 express hubs by 2035, which will make the country not only a global production center but “a logistics center, trade center, clearing center and financial center, laying a solid foundation for a path to be the world’s economic center,” as an expert put it.
How could the Biden administration possibly counter this latest Chinese challenge?

Unsurprisingly, the US is at its wits’ end in dealing with China’s surge. In 2020, China’s GDP was more than 70% the size of the United States’. The current forecast is that it will surpass the US to be the world’s largest economy by 2028.

The US realizes that the economic race is pretty much lost already."

US exceptionalism surges again: Will it fly? - Asia Times

A new world order is taking shape with a vastly different global humanitarian agenda

There is nothing about the way chinkies treat humans that can be associated with the word "humanitarian".

Genocide.

Repression.

Control.

This is the chinky agenda.

Important to consider in the ongoing conflict: if Russia goes to war with Ukraine they will have to fight against such intimidating people as their ambassador to Germany.

THIS is the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany:



Andriy Melnyk


S.E. Dr. Andrij Melnyk, LL.M.

S.E. Dr. Andrij Melnyk, LL.M.Außerordentlicher und Bevollmächtigter Botschafter der Ukraine in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Statements und Kommentare

999 – 2004	Korezkyj Institut für Staat und Recht (Kyjiw) Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften der Ukraine Lehrstuhl für Völkerrecht und vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft Promotion zum Doktor der Rechtswissenschaften
November – Dezember 1998	Harvard University (USA) John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard Ukrainian Security Program
1996 – 1998	Universität Lund (Schweden) Fakultät der Rechtswissenschaften Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights Master of International Human Rights Law (LL.M.)
1992 – 1997	Ivan Franko Nationale Universität Lwiw (Ukraine) Fakultät für internationale Beziehungen mit Schwerpunkten Völkerrecht und deutsche Sprache Abschluss als Spezialist (Magister) summa cum laude
Berufserfahrungen
Seit 19. Dezember 2014	Außerordentlicher und Bevollmächtigter Botschafter der Ukraine in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
März – Dezember 2014	Stellvertretender Minister Ministerkabinett der Ukraine (Regierungskanzlei) zuständig für die Integration in die Europäische Union
August 2010 – März 2014	Abteilungsleiter (Director General) Europaabteilung Außenministerium der Ukraine
April 2007 – Juli 2010	Generalkonsul der Ukraine in Hamburg
Mai 2005 – März 2007	Stellvertretender Abteilungsleiter – Referatsleiter Abteilung für Außenpolitik Sekretariat des Präsidenten der Ukraine (Präsidialamt)
Januar 2004 – März 2005	Hauptberater (Völkerrecht) Abteilung für Außenpolitik Administration des Präsidenten der Ukraine (Präsidialamt)
August 1999 – Dezember 2003	Zweiter Sekretär, Erster Sekretär Botschaft der Ukraine in der Republik Österreich, Wien
1997 – 1999	Beginn einer diplomatischen Laufbahn Berater, Senior Berater, Hauptberater Abteilung für Außenpolitik Administration des Präsidenten der Ukraine (Präsidialamt)

Offizielle Fotos

Außerordentlicher und Bevollmächtigter Botschafter der Ukraine in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Geboren in Lwiw (Lemberg), Ukraine, am 7. September 1975

Would you like to see more photos of him, Skidmark?

https://germany.mfa.gov.ua/de/galleries/oficijni-foto-melnik-ya

^ Look closer. Its the same guy. He's just all minced out in the first pic. Get with the program. Homosexuality has been the leading cultural theme of the US's takeover of Ukraine in 2014.

Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington travels to Ukraine

Just a moment...
Ukraine hosts biggest ever gay pride parade

Ukraine hosts biggest ever gay pride parade | Reuters

You're embarrassing yourself

Originally Posted by Backspin

Homosexuality has been the leading cultural theme of the US's takeover of Ukraine in 2014.

You really are a special kind of dumb

Originally Posted by panama hat

You're embarrassing yourself
You really are a special kind of dumb

He has "special needs" you see.

Every few years the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China members, all 3,000 of them, along with the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) (the CPPCC is a consultative body that includes over 2,000 members from various aspects of Chinese society, ranging from business entrepreneurs to movie stars).

They arrive at a plan of action which has now been published.

Here is the simple cartoon version listing the priorities and planned outcomes.

An extensive number of targets and achievements.

More info is available here:

China's development blueprint to stabilize global economic recovery - China.org.cn

From yesterday's Alaskan press statements:

Dialogue, win-win are right choices for China-US relations

Xinhua | Updated: 2021-03-21 08:30

"During this round of dialogue, the two sides conducted candid, in-depth and constructive communication on their respective domestic and foreign policies, China-US relations, and major international and regional issues of common concern.
They expressed their willingness to enhance cooperation or coordination in some specific areas. For instance, the two sides are committed to strengthening dialogue and cooperation in the field of climate change and will establish a joint working group on that subject. In the spirit of reciprocity and mutual benefit, the two sides will hold talks on facilitating activities of each other's diplomatic and consular missions and personnel, as well as on issues related to media reporters.


The talks in Anchorage once again proved that communication and dialogue based on mutual respect can help the two sides increase trust, reduce misperceptions, properly manage differences and promote mutually beneficial cooperation.


In Anchorage, the United States reiterated its adherence to the one-China policy on the Taiwan question, which sent a right signal to the rest of the world.

The two countries can cooperate on three most pressing tasks facing the international community -- fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling climate change and promoting world economic recovery -- and strengthen communication and coordination on major international and regional issues, so as to expand their cooperation on a bigger scale.


During the dialogue, the two sides said they will step up coordination and consultation on activities within such multilateral frameworks as the Group of 20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.


They also exchanged views on a series of other topics, including climate change, the Iranian nuclear issue, Afghanistan, the Korean Peninsula and Myanmar, and agreed to maintain and enhance communication and coordination.

Beijing and Washington have the responsibility, capacity and wisdom to find a way for major countries with different political systems to get along with each other. To that end, it requires an even grander vision and greater political courage."

Dialogue, win-win are right choices for China-US relations - World - Chinadaily.com.cn

Secretary Antony J. Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan Statements to the Press

Remarks to the Press

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Hotel Captain Cook
Anchorage, Alaska
March 19, 2021

"the two things that we wanted to do in coming here and meeting with our Chinese counterparts:

first, we wanted to share with them the significant concerns that we have about a number of the actions that China’s taken and the behavior it’s exhibiting – concerns shared by our allies and partners. And we did that.

We also wanted to lay out very clearly our own policies, priorities, and worldview, and we did that too."

Secretary Antony J. Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan Statements to the Press - United States Department of State

One looks forward to both parties continuing to jaw/jaw in the future.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Lest we forget.

Ten years on, Syria is almost destroyed. Who’s to blame?

Still Putin. Has never changed.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Every few years the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China members, all 3,000 of them, along with the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) (the CPPCC is a consultative body that includes over 2,000 members from various aspects of Chinese society, ranging from business entrepreneurs to movie stars).

They arrive at a plan of action which has now been published.

Here is the simple cartoon version listing the priorities and planned outcomes.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Still Putin. Has never changed.

Moreover, helping his friend Donald. But that was last year, now he (Donald) obviously no longer do it... (But can we believe Newsweek and Syria?)

Syria Says Donald Trump 'Stealing' Its Oil, After U.S. Company Makes Deal to Drill

Originally Posted by OhOh

Ten years on, Syria is almost destroyed. Who’s to blame?

Mainly Bashar al-Asaad

Statement of Concern: The OPCW investigation of alleged chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria
Posted on March 11, 2021

The OPCW investigation of alleged chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria

We wish to express our deep concern over the protracted controversy and political fall-out surrounding the OPCW and its investigation of the alleged chemical weapon attacks in Douma, Syria, on 7 April 2018.

Since the publication by the OPCW of its final report in March 2019, a series of worrying developments has raised serious and substantial concerns with respect to the conduct of that investigation. These developments include instances in which OPCW inspectors involved with the investigation have identified major procedural and scientific irregularities, the leaking of a significant quantity of corroborating documents, and damning statements provided to UN Security Council meetings. It is now well established that some senior inspectors involved with the investigation, one of whom played a central role, reject how the investigation derived its conclusions, and OPCW management now stands accused of accepting unsubstantiated or possibly manipulated findings with the most serious geo-political and security implications. Calls by some members of the Executive Council of the OPCW to allow all inspectors to be heard were blocked.

The inspectors’ concerns are shared by the first Director General of the OPCW, José Bustani, and a significant number of eminent individuals have called for transparency and accountability at the OPCW. Bustani himself was recently prevented by key members of the Security Council from participating in a hearing on the Syrian dossier. As Ambassador Bustani stated in a personal appeal to the Director General, if the Organization is confident in the conduct of its Douma investigation then it should have no difficulty addressing the inspectors’ concerns.

To date, unfortunately, the OPCW senior management has failed to adequately respond to the allegations against it and, despite making statements to the contrary, we understand has never properly allowed the views or concerns of the members of the investigation team to be heard or even met with most of them. It has, instead, side-stepped the issue by launching an investigation into a leaked document related to the Douma case and by publicly condemning its most experienced inspectors for speaking out.

In a worrying recent development, a draft letter falsely alleged to have been sent by the Director General to one of the dissenting inspectors was leaked to an ‘open source’ investigation website in an apparent attempt to smear the former senior OPCW scientist. The ‘open source’ website then published the draft letter together with the identity of the inspector in question. Even more alarmingly, in a BBC4 radio series aired recently, an anonymous source, reportedly connected with the OPCW Douma investigation, gave an interview with the BBC in which he contributes to an attempt to discredit not only the two dissenting inspectors, but even Ambassador Bustani himself. Importantly, recent leaks in December 2020 have evidenced that a number of senior OPCW officials were supportive of one OPCW inspector who had spoken out with respect to malpractice.

The issue at hand threatens to severely damage the reputation and credibility of the OPCW and undermine its vital role in the pursuit of international peace and security. It is simply not tenable for a scientific organization such as the OPCW to refuse to respond openly to the criticisms and concerns of its own scientists whilst being associated with attempts to discredit and smear those scientists. Moreover, the on-going controversy regarding the Douma report also raises concerns with respect to the reliability of previous FFM reports, including the investigation of the alleged attack at Khan Shaykhun in 2017.

We believe that the interests of the OPCW are best served by the Director General providing a transparent and neutral forum in which the concerns of all the investigators can be heard as well as ensuring that a fully objective and scientific investigation is completed.

To that end, we call on the Director General of the OPCW to find the courage to address the problems within his organization relating to this investigation and ensure States Parties and the United Nations are informed accordingly. In this way we hope and believe that the credibility and integrity of the OPCW can be restored.

Signatories in Support of the Statement of Concern:

José Bustani, Ambassador of Brazil, first Director General of the OPCW and former Ambassador to the United Kingdom and France.

Professor Noam Chomsky, Laureate Professor U. of Arizona and Institute Professor (em), MIT.

Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor, Harper’s Magazine.

Daniel Ellsberg, PERI Distinguished Research Fellow, UMass Amherst. Former Defense and State Department official. Former official of Defense Department (GS-18) and State Department (FSR-1).

Professor Richard Falk, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University.

Tulsi Gabbard, former Presidential candidate and Member of the US House of Representatives (2013-2021).

Professor Dr. Ulrich Gottstein, on behalf of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW-Germany).

Katharine Gun, former GCHQ (UKGOV), whistleblower.

Denis J. Halliday, UN Assistant Secretary-General (1994-98).

Professor Pervez Houdbhoy, Quaid-e-Azam University and ex Pugwash.

Kristinn Hrafnnson, Editor in Chief, Wikileaks.

Dr. Sabine Krüger, Analytical Chemist, Former OPCW Inspector 1997-2009.

Ray McGovern, ex-CIA Presidential Briefer; co-founder, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence Council (rtd); member, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.

Professor Götz Neuneck, Pugwash Council and German Pugwash Chair.

Dirk van Niekerk, former OPCW Inspection Team Leader, Head of OPCW Special Mission to Iraq

John Pilger, Emmy and Bafta winning journalist and film maker.

Professor Theodore A. Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Antonius Roof, former OPCW Inspection Team Leader and Head Industry Inspections.

Professor John Avery Scales, Professor, Pugwash Council and Danish Pugwash Chair.

Hans von Sponeck, former UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator (Iraq).

Alan Steadman, Chemical Weapons Munitions Specialist, Former OPCW Inspection Team Leader and UNSCOM Inspector.

Jonathan Steele, journalist and author.

Roger Waters, Musician and Activist.

Lord West of Spithead, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff 2002-06.

Oliver Stone, Film Director, Producer and Writer.

Colonel (ret.) Lawrence B. Wilkerson, U.S. Army, Visiting Professor at William and Mary College and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Statement of Concern: The OPCW investigation of alleged chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria | Courage Foundation