China closes down

Lei Ge, a senior media person, said in an interview with this station: "It is an integral part of Xi Jinping's vision of China's development strategy. Xi Jinping is determined to take the so-called socialist road with Chinese characteristics and fight against the mainstream of modern Western civilization in the United States. This is surrounded and blocked by European and American societies. This is the harsh reality China has faced in the past five years.”

 Immediately after the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, things start happening in China. 50,000 supply and marketing cooperatives in rural China have been re-activated. The purchase and sale of agricultural products will be completed by the supply and marketing cooperatives. Details: https://reurl.cc/oZLqVg 

The old Supply and Marketing Cooperatives were created during Mao's famine in 1959-60, to supply the cities. Internet commenters remember them as a government instrument and fear the end of free agricultural marketing and the return to mass scarcity. Although cooperatives are logical and successful in many parts, Xi's decision reminds me of Soviet collectivization and the Holodomor.  

The best mosque in Europe

 

The mosque of Cologne-Ehrenfeld. Architecturally, it is nice. The nicest churches in Hungary are former mosques of the Turkish occupation time. People are unaware that Hungary was an Islamic country. Like Spain. 

America is ending Globalization

 
China has painted itself into a corner. People now have weakened immune systems, and cannot stop the Zero COVID policy without massive deaths. 

No one is buying Chinese high-tech products. 

Xi is focused on stability and defense. He changed the list of promotions minutes before the vote and did not allow his left-hand partner to see the actual list to be voted on. Loyalty to Xi is the main requisite for advancement. 

Israel will prosper. 

Wuuttke said there used to be many "liberal" officials in the CCP who supported deepening reforms and embracing the market. But after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, these different voices may no longer exist, and almost all major decisions need to be set by Xi Jinping, who has already stated that he would rather sacrifice economic growth to achieve national security and economic independence. . He also said there was no sign that China would soon relax its "zero policy" to prevent and control the new crown epidemic.

Excess Males in China

Conrad Hackett

@conradhackett

Most male-biased sex ratios at birth around the world from 2000-2020 (UN data) China: 115 boys per 100 girls Azerbaijan 115 Armenia 114 Vietnam 111 Albania 111 India 110

A few years ago the internet was full of speculation about the gender imbalance in some populations. War and civil unrest were to be the obvious results. That did not happen. There are 35 million more men in China than women.  This caused women to be overly privileged. Chinese women are beautiful on the outside, but very nasty on the inside...demanding and money hungry.

US Navy vs EPA

“The Navy is contesting an $8.7 million fine for Clean Water Act violations and alleged deficiencies at its Pearl Harbor–Hickam wastewater treatment system, arguing the penalty levied by the state Department of Health (DOH) is legally prohibited because the state is barred from seeking punitive damage,” Stars And Stripes reported. “DOH fined the Navy in September for 766 counts of discharging undertreated sewage into the ocean between January 2020 and July 2022, in addition to 229 counts of operational and maintenance failures at its Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam wastewater treatment plant.”

This is just the latest in several ongoing drinking water and wastewater treatment issues surrounding the Navy. Officials were recently reprimanded for their role in allowing fuel from a Hawaiin bunker to enter and contaminate local drinking water supplies, and consumers are currently suing the government as a result. And recent revelations suggest sailors are routinely subjected to jet-fuel-contaminated drinking water aboard Navy vessels as well.

We had a similar issue of a military airport spilling fuel and contaminating the aquifer. I don't know how it ended.

Israeli Arabs: Crime and Terrorism misexplained

 
Taubcenter writes: Another factor that contributes to the high rate of crime among young men in Arab society involves the emerging trends in the Arab marriage market. The average age difference between a bride and groom in Israeli Arab society is six years. Since cohorts below age 18 are smaller than those aged 18-22, this means that starting from around 2026 the number of men at the normative age for marriage will be about 5–10% greater than the number of Arab women at the normative age for marriage. This ratio does not even take into account the phenomenon of polygyny in Arab society, found primarily among the Bedouin population, which itself reduces the number of women available for marriage to never-married men.

However, in the population pyramid above I don't see that cohorts below 18 years of age are SMALLER than age 24. On the contrary. The boys are having a growing choice of younger marriageable girls.

Racist environmental crimes in Jackson, Miss.

 

The Jackson, Miss. sewage treatment plant operates a high flow rate dewatering tubes system to contain and dewater 92,000 dry tons of biosolids. This is the world's largest project using geotextile tubes. This approach saves the city over $3 million in solids handling costs due to the decreased volume of material to be hauled. The plant discharges into the Pearl River and is in permanent contravention of its permit.  

Currently, Jackson City has no drinking water supply. The media says it is an environmental racist crime.  

BTW, I have relatives who left Hungary and settled in Mississippi and were in the supermarket business. The Klein Scholarship Fund helps Hungarian students.  

Thanksgiving

I am aware of my age and condition, yet I only realize my situation by looking at my old friends.  Today died Alejandro Alaluf and found a sad story about his wife Sarita. We all made aliyah at the same time and spent half a year in the Kfar Saba ulpan. Alejandro married Sarita Gelbard and opened a dental clinic here. In the clip (pic), I cannot recognize the sexy redhead I knew then. Forty years in the same village, and they never invited me. Now she is very ill, secluded at home, looking demented. At the start of the COVID-19 epidemy, she panicked and paid 13,000 sheqels (3500 US$ then) to a "friendly" neighbor for a dozen of masks. I feel blessed am still living, healthy and working; my wife and the family are all right. I  have survived virtually all my male friends, yet I am still far from the average life expectancy of Israeli males. As Solon answered king Croesus if he considered him "happy" and living a good life, 

I count no man happy until his death, for no man can know what the gods may have in store for him. (Herodotus, I.32)

Defenestration in the Plenarium

 

I do not understand the political background of what is happening in the above video. But it is very dramatic. The leader ejects his left-hand sidekick. In the picture, Hu is trying to grab a pile of documents, but Xi puts his right hand over it. Observe the stony faces of the Politburo members as the disgraced man is taken out behind their backs. They seem to say "I see nothing, I am not here".

The official version is that Hu was feeling unwell and was politely escorted out. But we see that a policeman and not a doctor led him out, and he resisted.  Some called Wu writes" If he was sick, the people around him would have come forward to care, at least take a wheelchair and let Hu sit and push it out."

Another nicknamed Truth comments:  If it's a physical reason, why didn't any of the officials in the front row stand up to greet/ask about the old man's condition? Do you think that Hu always touches porcelain? Or don't want to get bad luck?

I say it was a setup for the whole world to see who is the Boss. 

P.S.: Hu became instantly non-person and was immediately erased from the internet. 

Nazi U-Boat remains found in Argentina shores

It is well known that Peron provided passports and refuge to Nazi criminals escaping from Europe after WWII. There were even rumors that Nazi submarines were sighted in the South, carrying high-ranking Nazis. There was even a book titled "Is Hitler Alive?" that proposed that Hitler had escaped and arrived on one of the submarines and was living in Bariloche.  

Now, Clarin reports that the remains of a U-boat sunk and exploded were discovered and documented by an Italian team (Liga Navale Italiana LNI) 4.2 Km out of the coast of Necochea, at 28 m depth, facing the tourist spots of Costa Bonita and Arenas Verdes. 

The rumors had a basis in truth. We know that Nazis Eichman and Mengele, to mention only two of them, were living in Argentina. We know that the ODESSA organization existed. I had a very nice German girlfriend, Dorly Kohlman, and loved her. We could have married and made aliyah. 

Mearsheimer and the Truth of America

 

Prof. Mearsheimer, in lecturing to Australians a few years ago, told them that they have to choose between China and the USA. Australia depends on China to buy its minerals. He warned that America had gone frenetic each time confronted by a peer competitor and did not stop till totally destroyed it. America is foaming at the mouth vis-a-vis China's rise and Australia better choose sides. What he predicted is happening. 

Today America is close to an outright state of war with China, with Biden intent on totally crippling China’s vital domestic microchip industry. Ron Unz says that this measure is eerily similar to the embargo imposed in 1941 against shipments of oil to Japan, a decision that led to the Pacific War. Undeclared war with Russia is not enough and America must have one at the same time with China as well.

Old liberal Biden appeared almost socialist before being elected but has been extraordinarily aggressive in foreign policy and protective of capitalism at home. At the same time, he has promoted "diverse" weirdoes to visible governmental positions. Counterintuitively, those exotic figures are doing well. Even the unimaginable Jewish Almirante in drag seems to be carrying out "her" duties as any Nordic sea dog of the old. 

Intelligence vs Skin Tone

 

There is a very large study of the causes of American Black academic problems The statistical analysis of the raw results is complicated, and above my pay grade. It seems to say that black/blueish-toned  African immigrants are no less intelligent than Europeans, but the descendants of slaves - in spite of carrying 17% European ancestry - are talentless. Chinese-European mestizos seem the most talented of all. Since I have not met American Blacks for decades, the issue is irrelevant to me, and will not spend thinking time about it. 

China's reaction against a bioweapon

China has painted itself into a corner.  With its uncompromising policy of zero COVID, now it has no herd immunity, and the day it softens its isolation policy, millions will get sick. The hated Xi dictatorship cannot allow that to happen. With time, they will find a solution and also, a way to explain it to their non-voting citizens. 

China's reaction to this bioweapon attack (if it was that) was instinctive: total isolation. Isolation was the historical reaction of China (and Japan) to the first contact with Europeans. Japan understood relatively fast (two hundred years) that isolation does not work, and adopted the opposite policy of openness. China of our days apparently is still unable to react fast and flexibly to a new situation. In the pic.: massive disinfectant spraying in all cities. COVID is a virus that spreads by personal contact, exterminating rats and insects is indifferent to the virus. I think it is another wrong reaction, and I am surprised because the Chinese people are very far from being stupid. 

My conclusion is that China is impotent and will lose against a tricky, crafty, crooked enemy, such as the USA. We go by the Bible: "You shall wage war by the way of deception."

If it is true that the USA created and liberated this bioweapon, well, it is being a success. China's GNP growth has been stopped. Israel's reaction was the fastest and most audacious, and it is successful. I am happy and proud. 

Do you want to own a share in the German heavy industry?

Of the more than 300 companies listed in the strictly regulated Prime Standard of the Deutsche Börse , one comes pretty close to the P/E of one: Salzgitter AG from the city of the same name in the northern Harz foothills. The value of the company on the stock exchange is currently estimated at almost 1.2 billion euros. Profit after tax tripled in the first half of the year to 781 million euros. 

That means that the P/E of Salzgitter approaches 1. So probably it will pay a very nice dividend. Is it a buy? Yes, to the point that German heavy industry is facing a really hard future, because of the price of energy, and the rise of the dollar (aka American imperialism). 

Think! 

PD 13-10-22: The speculation with Salzgitter involves many expenses: Shekel to Euro + commission to my bank + commission to German bourse agent + then: the reverse operation to shekel. I need to spend 5-6% just to start. 

Θάλαττα! The Money!

 New project in Tel Aviv. Facing the Sheraton hotel and the sea Θάλαττα. An old aparthotel is being renewed as part of a worldwide chain and refurbished as more or less the same but with a bar and a kitchen. Arrived home at 1 PM and my daughter Shany had organized a lunch at Max Brenner Herzliya at 17 hs. Why? Suddenly I felt very tired. We succeeded in moving it to Friday and suddenly, all my tiredness was gone. I had long known that stress causes tiredness. The solution: Relax. 

 Laugh is the best remedy (from Reader's Digest):

“Credit Suisse does not tolerate tax evasion,” the bank said in a statement. “We have implemented extensive enhancements since 2014, to root out individuals who seek to conceal assets from tax authorities. Our clear policy is to close undeclared accounts when identified, and to discipline any employee who fails to comply with bank policy or falls short of Credit Suisse’s high standards of conduct.”

Falling out of practice

 
We have this Succoth week-long holiday here, and no one is phoning or messaging me. No one is pressing me to finish his plan. So, I totally forgot how to work and it is becoming very difficult to sit down for more than five minutes and work. Yesternight we had dinner with daughters and families, and I overate to the point that could hardly move. For next Thursday Shany organized a birthday in Max Brenner and cannot refuse. Am too old for these things, and I have no desire for social events. But I must. 

"You shall enjoy your holidays".  And you shall draw water with a smile. 

Buoyancy

 Only fifty years ago, I could swim underwater 50 meters, without taking a breath. This morning, in the pool, I could not submerge myself and floated powerlessly like styrofoam on the surface. I am so fat that my specific weight must be around 0.85. Over the years, I became less and less dense. Soon I may be less dense than air and will fly up and away in the wind like a free helium balloon.   

Whites Flying Away

The city of Jackson, Mississippi, is unable to manage its water supply system, spite being built on rich aquifers and on the shores of a large river. The root cause says Lumumba, is "White Flight". See pic. Those evil birds refuse to be shot at. Lumumba is Jackson's major.

The Jacobin instead blames Wall Street:

When government defaults do occur, as happened in Detroit in 2013 and Puerto Rico in 2016, Wall Street is always the culprit. Wall Street firms loaded up these communities with toxic debt that required huge debt service payments, precipitating their bankruptcies.

Where did I hear this argument? In Argentina. The IMF did not loan billions to insolvent beggars, it "loaded them with toxic debts".  

Who did it?

Somebody blocked Russia's main income source. And by the way, sabotaged the American industry's main competition. Russia-Germany Gas Pipe destroyed. 

 Who did it?

Did that somebody say, softly, "one way or another"? Was she quoting Blondie?

One way, or another, I'm gonna lose ya
I'm gonna give you the slip
A slip of the hip or another, I'm gonna lose ya
I'm gonna trick ya, I'll trick ya
One way, or another, I'm gonna lose ya
I'm wanna trick ya, trick ya, trick ya, trick ya
One way, or another, I'm gonna lose ya
I'm gonna give you the slip

The Meaning of Life

 

Those who feel meaning in life live longer because they are physically and mentally healthier. This has been scientifically proven many times. But what is behind it?

My conclusion is that life and the universe in general have no meaning or sense. It just exists. 

All supposed meanings are artificial and imagined, but that is OK. Any pretended belief works well as the real one. Well, I'll have to pretend to believe in something. 

Pic/: The caparot ritual. You transfer your sins to a chicken and you sacrifice it. Ancient Greeks considered the Ancient Jews - stupid. THEY sacrificed bulls.

Red Famine

 

I bought Anne Applebaum's book "Red Famine" about Ukraine's history in the early 20th century. The map (left) by the British Foreign Office shows the demographic impact of the civil war and the Sovietization of the country. It is impressive, a quarter of the population disappeared as a consequence of the imposition of Soviet rule. 

Copper Squeeze

 
The price of copper has fallen by nearly a third since March. Investors are selling on fears that a global recession will stunt demand for a metal that's synonymous with growth and expansion.

You wouldn't know it from looking at the market today, but some of the largest miners and metals traders are warning that in just a couple of years, a massive shortfall will emerge for the world's most critical metal — one that could itself hold back global growth, stoke inflation by raising manufacturing costs and throw global climate goals off course. The recent downturn and the under-investment that ensues only threaten to make it worse.

That's what Bloomberg says. Who invests for the next decade? I don't.