First disclaimer than comment, I am living and working in China for last 8 years.
As someone who lives in China and works for Western Companies here in China, entire this situation with Top Gun was somewhat cheerfully and extremlly disappointing.
For years I have watched how all kinds of Western brands (especially American ones), going full Woke back at home (BLM, Trans in female sports, CRT, canceling everyone who speaks up against woke ideology), while at same here in China, they are very happy to do anything what CCP requires, nothing is taboo. Many decisions made by Management in the West was not only conterary to Western values, but also represent irreversible damage to Western manufacturing and technological advantage, since for one positive earnings in China, many companies would gladly outsource key technologies to Chinese competitors, effectively gutting Western companies in the long run.
This Top Gun ordeal was small glimmer of light, were American Company stood up for something. But then it hit me, I have seen these glimmers before. West would celebrate, but after they to bookkeeping, and Wall Street ghouls see how much money they have "lost" by not selling our own country to CCP, they will quickly make sure, that this never happens again.
For me most painful to watch were how NBA, an American sport (my favorite), has bent over to the CCP to that extent, that they will do anything that is required from them. Second one was John Cena, when I was kid, I used to watch WWE, and John Cena was always "super Pro American", until the found out that he was more "pro CCP Money". Those are just examples, plenty others exists (Nike, Apple...)
If we really want, to help our companies, stop being subservant to CCP, first what needs to be done, is in one hand limit Wall Streets access to our politicians at home and then limit access of Wall Street to China. Wall Street represent the worst of American values, they will sell their own mother to the highest bidder with no questions asked, all the while cheering companies that killed American manufacturing and our middle class while at the same time building up Chinese manufacturing and middle class.
PS
If someone asks what am I doing in China, well you can thank to politicians and Wall Street, that have outsource entire manufacturing sectors from West to China.
Sometimes I think, that West is actualy under occupation by enemies, because no one in their right mind would deindustrialize on such scale as US had done in last 30 years without being forced by some foreign power. But hey, with our politicians, who needs enemies
Great comment but your list of miscreants left off the fact that the President of the United States took Chinese money, laundered through his drug addled son. In a sane society, he'd not only be impeached, he'd be slow walked to the gibbet.
It is clear to millions of us that the World Economic Forum/Davos elites, and China literally control America. Is it any wonder that they had to convince a huge % of the US that the one person who actually stood up to both of these sets of tyrants must be bludgeoned to obscurity, and those of us who still understand that mean tweets pale up against genuine tyranny must be called insurrectionists. When I saw what was done to my friend and a great gentleman, Larry Elder, in the Calif governor's race when Soros and Zuckerberg offered unlimited $s to the Dem machine, I understood even more clearly what a trillion dollars of propaganda can do to a US president. Thus even exceedingly bright people such as those who run Common Sense will never be able to align with their only allies in the world, people who have supported Trump and now DeSantis. This is a profound reason for pessimism.
They control all nations . This is planetary. There’s a heck of a lot more of us than there are of them. Bunch of rich white trash - hillbilly wannabes.
Bruce, do you mean the guy who not only once but twice recently said he would commit American forces to defend Taiwan? That's more of a commitment than a tiny jacket patch in a big budget Hollywood jet fighter movie. A lot of Dems didn't like that (all of them). I sort of did. Do you think Biden is signalling the right thing? Showing the limits to China's bluster? (especially if he was the recipient of Chinese money, as you say..)
Wait until later this year when US arms are still going into Ukraine and reserves are depleted. Then perhaps on the back of a manufactured crisis somewhere around Taiwan or the South China Sea, China will engage in Taiwan. Whether the US will be willing to get into a genuine hot war with China is debatable.
Either way, the US isn't well placed. Economically the shelves of Americas retailers are still filled with Chinese goods. Will all this be turned off? What happens when a few other more significant countries collapse in the same way Sri Lanka has. How much of an appetite will the American people have for war?
They don’t have an appetite for war now. I don’t see it changing. Ukraine was Biden’s war. He pushed & pushed until Putin thought , why not. Biden used NATO as a weapon, Why NATO went along with it, I have no idea. Turns out, it was pretty stupid, just like everything this regime does.
Saying and having the ability are two different things. Also his aides tried to walk back whatever the demented fool says.
But you ignore the fact that Hunter's laptop is acknowledged to be authentic and his e-mails in it implicate the Big Guy in a money laundering scheme to take payments from our enemy. Is it accurate? Who knows. But the failure to investigate it is beyond criminal because if true, we have a corrupt traitor in the Oval Office.
I don’t ignore it. I just didn’t mention it. The list of Impeachable offenses is to long to list. The laptop is but one of many. The invasion of our country aided & abetted by Biden/Harris is Treason or Sedition, & that’s just one issue. They have shredded the Constitution with every EO. Harris as well. She is complicit in everything as well as Pelosi. The entire so called administration is illegitimate, illegal & needs to be removed ASAP. It is beyond incomprehensible that there are not enough moral Congresspersons to get rid of this problem right now. Biden & Co. are destroying the country, that is an incontrovertible fact. Waiting for midterm miracle is wrong. Every day that passes brings more disaster. Impeach & Convict now.
Well, Trump said he wanted to nuke North Korea. Then basically kissed the kid’s feet. So dementia works both ways. Biden won’t be allowed to do anything, you’re probably right.
But some administration, either this one or the next will have to face China and credibly say no more is no more.
The last paragraph is true. We are under occupation, but it's a sick kind of willing occupation. Half the country is hypnotized by what brainwashing leftist promote as Woke ideology but it's really authoritarianism. The mainstream media does whatever it can to maintain the narrative. We should all be flying American flags upside down right now. We need help.
If it was simply America yes we could be sending an SOS. But since it’s planetary not sure who we would be sending it too? I think the SOS needs to get through as a message to self - “hey self, we’ve made a Faustian bargain with technology and it has thus far been our worst enemy.”
Yes, this is so true. But we must dismantle then the cloud World which joins all this at the hips. This cloud is supported in an digital feedback loop by Google, AWS, CIA, DARPA, THE US GOVERNMENT INC. AND ETC. Not to mention all of our personal data collected on huge server farms soon to support our rapidly onrushing international slave state. They may be really stupid and shooting themselves in the collective feet but they do have we the people cast as the slaves in this movie.
Although it is a spiritual battle and our respective gods and goddesses need to be included I believe it is a dialogue with our deepest selves and our respective personal pleas to find sanity. Once we do that we may be capable of doing somethings together to deliver us from evil. God as they say is in the details.
I don’t think it’s half Rusty I think it’s a small group of elites radicals and hard core leftists plus a 2020 election that had no integrity a bizarre lockdown that is what has set us on this sick path downhill and yes we desperately need help from where I don’t know but the help needs to happen very quickly!
We don’t really need help we live in America the land of the free and the home of the brave. We had a President who’s priority was America first we did not understand what we had now we are well and truly in a quagmire with no way out for the next 21/2 years there will be much more damage going forward it’s just a matter of how much Leslie but in spite of my negative comment we still live in the best country on the planet! God bless America
It’s only the best country if you have money to get through this. Otherwise you are 💩 out of luck & it’s no better than anywhere else except you are not in a gulag. YET.
Yeah I understand you not wrong and we may as well call it a gulag we have no more free speech our 2nd amendment is being trampled on we have 1/6 plus the arrested of Peter Navarro in handcuffs and leg irons Alan Dershowitz says his arrest is unconstitutional but I have faith this cannot last forever come the midterms the Dems going to be trounced and perhaps we can move on with the Republicans
When KW Norton and Rusty Shackleford use the word woke within the context of China, this is the acronym for their thinking: (W)acko (O)afish (K)knuckleheaded (E)mpty-headed thinking! Working people were betrayed because of capitalism’s worship on the altar of the God of profits. Both Democrats and Republicans went down the path hand-in-hand that sold out 90% of the men and women in America. Capitalism really works well for 10% of America. The other 90% is a hit or miss proposition; if a medical procedure was a hit or miss proposition for 90% of the time, it would be considered a disaster, not so with capitalism!
Glad I didn't engage with You. No, America and Nordic capitalism don't mix well. You may not have noticed, but there's a considerable difference in population and ethnicities involved. I ignored the talking points You had to say about American capitalism. As long as You got nothing to replace it with, it's just a bunch-a hot air.
As you effectively note there is a deep connection between the Woke promoters around the planet and the distorters of our public narratives. We see this in film, media - print, visual media, and in social media. It’s not “Western” but planetary. We’re in the fight for our lives as we, the people.
In a sense we are under occupation, by a global elite and a left wing ideology that primarily hates Western values. Hard to say which is more powerful but imo they are partners in the problems you are talking about, in causing them.
The global elite (WEF, Bilderberg, etc) support anything which they see as an effective tactic against we the people. If today that is China which provides what they see as most effective control tactics then they support that. They are an intelligence challenged lot - suffering from lack of creativity and no originality. These fascist systems are so easy to copy and paste.
On related note, I just noticed a random ad pop up on my generic newsfeed that I'd never seen before: a WWE John Cena figurine. What the fuck Google...
For years I have wondered why we and by we, I mean US companies and the US Government have been trading or dealing with the Red Chinese. They are the most repressive country in the world bar none. Russia is bad but they don't hold a candle to China.
I wonder how many politicians are in the pockets of the Chinese. We can see which companies are dominated by them but the politicians are hiding their involvement.
I look at the leftist companies like Apple and Nike, hard core left, hypocrites, who deal and play kissey face with the Chinese yet curse the US as a racist, oppressive country.
Remember the San Bernardino massacre of 2015 when a Muslin and his wife shot up the break room of the company where the husband worked? The FBI asked Apple for the algorithm to crack the password on the husband's iPhone and the CEO, Tim Cook, refused because it might compromise their iPhone customers privacy. He has no problems cooperating with the Chinese in spying on their iPhone users and he has no problem running sweat shops to manufacture their phones. Apple's manufacturing plants place impossible quotas on their Chinese work force and have a huge employee suicide rate because of it.
Nike CEO says their company is 'of China and for China' yet this hypocrite sponsors the anti-American, Colin Kaepernick. Nike has no problem with the brutal, murderous, genocidal Chinese but curses the US for being oppressive and racist.
This reinforces my belief that leftists are hypocrites and the dollar trumps ethics every time. To be fair, I am sure there are companies run by conservatives that do the same thing but don't advertise it like Apple and Nike do.
I read the China manufactures 80% of our pharmaceuticals. This is madness. If China wants to really hurt us, they cut off our supply of meds. Millions would die.
If we want cheap labor in a country that doesn’t oppress their citizens, move the manufacturing to India. India has its own problems but as far as I know they don’t practice genocide, arrest people for speaking out against the government and don’t have reeducation prisons for dissidents. Also they are not imperialists like China is. China is threatening to annex Taiwan and has illegally claimed much of the South China Sea as its own.
The free world needs to sever all ties with China both diplomatically and commercially. It would do two things. It would strangle them financially and two it might force them to stop murdering and incarcerating their people.
What I am suggesting is the moral thing to do and politicians are rarely moral.
Here is just a little add on to raise your morale. Remember when Obama bailed out GM? Almost as soon as GM got their bailout funds, they transferred seven GM manufacturing plants to China. We paid for that. This happened at the same time Obama brought on GE’s CEO as the person to head up the “keep the jobs in the US task force”.
On month after the GE CEO was made the keep the jobs chief, he transferred GE’s imaging factory (CAT scanners, MRIs and Xray machines) and RND shop to China. I know this will surprise many of you but you heard little about this from the left wing sycophants in the press.
China wants to rule the world and if we do nothing, they will succeed.
Oh.. Forgot to mention that the CCP has hold-a the universities, too. Both by supplying paying students, and also by funding research. You'd just figure it'd take an academic to say how great China is with a straight face. Yeah, their *money* smells nice.
And btw, a lotta those students themselves are CCP. And anecdotal evidence says that 50% of the Chinese students go *back* to China to fight us. Those that stay, I'm all in favor of. [Edit: Except the CCP spies who'd be glad to stay. What a mess.]
Thank you for taking the time to share firsthand experience with us in the USA and Western World. But your truest words are these: “… that [the] West is actualy under occupation by enemies…”
VPNs, with them you can access outside world with no issues. I personally use one even when in the west :), partly as a habit, but largely as precaution.
I use Norton. I put the US as the country I want the server to be in. I tried a different country, Germany, at first but then the web sites I visited were in German.
I agree that the environmental regs starting in the 70s is what started it. Which illustrates to me not only the hypocrisy of the so-called environmentalists but also the stupidity. It is after all the same air.
Agreed. You do not even want to get me started on the utter stupidity of having third party, for-profit entity making a person's health-care decisions.
I remember working in automative in the mid 00’ and I was thinking, how crazy is this? They all just giving their intellectual property away… just like that, just to make a few more bucks in the short term, but in the long term they will lose big. It seemed crazy, and still does. But like so many other things, the west does like to think short-term. Profit shares and share prices rule the decisions. We ourselves to not demonstrate the values we claim we fight for… you are spot on. But based on that you work where you work, you too don’t think this can be changed. I left automotive for that reason. The lack of imagination as to the consequences of the actions and decisions were driving me insane. But it’s been decades so don’t think this can be rolled back now. The damage is done.
Years ago, 1980s, I was connected to and friends with several Asians who came as adults to the USA (from China, Japan, and Korea). During a friendly outside-of-work social gathering, a topic came up of “sharing” intellectual property and know-how between East Asia and the United States. My friend from China made a jovial statement that the other Asian friends concurred with and that I’ll never forget: “We can copy anything to the smallest detail so keep sending your innovations!” Another added, “We’re not that creative in coming up with ideas, but we can take any ideas and run with them.” The truth of both those astonishingly insightful statements actually brings HOPE: America needs to CREATE and INNOVATE our way beyond all this previous “sharing” (stealing), and NO LONGER give spots at our universities to overseas people who learn the American ways then use them against us. Infiltration works on multiple levels.
Yeah. A long time ago Younger-Sister was in a conference in China. In the airport, she saw books "How to Be Creative" and "Innovative" and suchlike. I thought that was *great.* YOu can't learn than kind-a stuff from books!
Just gotta keep away from giving it all away, and we'd *have* something here to work with.
Following up on this, after your comment, jt, I recalled that during my years and years of upper-level secondary teaching, typically about 95-97% of our “Top” academic students (with the highest grades and highest class rank) were Asian students. But in my advanced classes (AP and IB) they were the ones stymied when facing ANY creative or abstract assignment, such as a fiction written narrative, or a visual, such as a simple first-of-year “fun introductory activity”: “a visual depiction of your personality and what your goals are (no words allowed).” These assignments were to be “graded” (so they’d DO them), but mostly on “completion,” “on time,” and “evidence of effort.” Thus, it was set up to be an “Easy-A” at the beginning of the year with no right or wrong answers. These “Top” students had no where to go to find and regurgitate answers, and they squirmed with discomfort at even getting started. Every year I observed their panic as they looked around the room to see how the other students were accomplishing this task — and they saw that the other students were doing it—with ease, enthusiasm, and glee! Don’t misunderstand me — most of my Asian students were wonderful young people, and they certainly earned their accolades. But in this microcosm way, what my professional Asian friends had profoundly put forth was being acted out “Live” in my own classroom.
I was in the sales end of semi's at the same time, and it was apparent that executives, most of who make their REAL money on stock, would get all starry eyed when they saw the size of the Chinese market, and promptly got incontinent. When you sell or give away your IP, you can BS the investment community its a good thing ( for a few quarters at least), but you're retired and running your vanity winery in Napa when the the chickens come home to roost.
Raziel, might you please expand on "...going full Woke back at home (BLM, Trans in female sports, CRT, canceling everyone who speaks up against woke ideology), while at same here in China, they are very happy to do anything what CCP requires, nothing is taboo."?
Specifically, might you contrast the CCP endorsed culture norms/beliefs regarding: LGBTQA+, Climate, and Religion?
Best example that I can give you is Disney. Just check what they are doing, they are very woke in US, but here, they will do anything what CCP requires. Be it remove characters, shoot movies on location that CCP wants them (check out where they shoot Mulan). Second good one is Nike, back home they are very very woke and progressive, and here they are quiet as a church mouse
I suspect it's similar to the Left's partnership with Arabs/Muslims: they share a goal that is more important than their ideological differences.
The destruction of Israel is the goal in the Leftist/Muslim partnership. I'm not sure yet what the goal in the Leftist/CCP partnership is, unless it is simply the economic destruction of the U.S.
You are blaming it all on the "politicians and Wall Street". How about your manufacturing bosses? Be careful out there, people tend to get overconfident on the computer.
CEOs are appointed by the board and company shareholders(usualy large ones), what in most American companies are Mutual Funds, Banks, Hedge Funds and other Wall Street entities.
Sadly our companies have been doing Wall Street bidding for last 40 years, any CEO who tried to resist, would be replaced very fast.
Yes. Blackrock, which I understand really throws its political weight around, and I forget the 3rd. Even if you as an individual oppose this you have no control over your retirement funds except withdrawal (with the consequential penalties and tax implications).
TY. And yeah. Good reason to go into business for Yourself, if Ya can. Not that *I* ever knew much about investing, but YOu have choice of who does it for You.
Politicians are paid by foreign interests even though it is illegal and our manufacturing leaders are focused on cheap labor resulting in cost saving bonuses. Most importantly, government over-regulation in ALL sectors of our lives is the ultimate problem; most recently the inhabitant of the White House outlawing all of cheap energy.
I have designed and manufactured American OEM products for 25 years now and the Chinese still cannot compete with our machining prowess when we make the right strategic decisions like Trump cutting the corporate rate in half to 21%; it will be the saving grace in our economy while navigate the fallacies of 'green energy' and printing money.
People overlook the impact of IRAs and 401ks in this situation.
The over reliance on profit margins is partially due to the fact that most Americans whether they know it or not are in the stock market for their retirement money.
It’s an unintended consequence of helping individuals plan for retirement combined with an inverted population structure.
Yes, there’s that overconfident online behaviour to look out for. But when the offenders are politicians, Wall Street and manufacturing bosses ? Look no further than the international Corporatocracy - the joined at the hips synergistic entity of governments, corporations (manufacturing bosses) and institutions. Many times governments are the manufacturing bosses (corporations) and vice versa and so on. Look to the World Economic Forum and Bilderberg group for complete lists of the International participating individuals and bodies.
As one writer noted, if keeping a patch on a jacket is what counts as courage in Hollywood these days, we'll have to be happy with what we can get. It's a small but welcome step. On a different note: what a great movie. I never cared for the original. TG:M has to be the most entertaining film I've seen in years.
That is very true and very sad. The abuse they're suffering for making (what I see as) a modest and reasonable defense of their religious beliefs shows we're only truly free to express certain ideas without fear of reprisal.
Ditto. This film was very smooth; all subplots meshed seamlessly with the main story. "High speed, low drag" all the way. I never once glanced at my watch during the film. Kudos to the director!
Absolutely. It was crisply paced. And kudos to Tom Cruise. He seems like he has his quirks (who doesn't), but he sure knows how to make some really good movies.
I literally just came from seeing TopGun Maverick- I thoroughly enjoyed it.
China can't produce movies of Hollywood caliber so they just want to chip away at ours.... If they don't Like TopGun maybe they'd be happier focusing on making Top Ramen.
The original movie was a little cheesy, but very cool. After I saw it in 1986, I said: our next war will be a music video. And so it was: the Persian Gulf war, 1990-91.
After the 2020 Steal and Fox News' traitorous acquiescence to The Big Lie, I literally threw my satellite dish into my pond. It's remarkable how much it immediately lowered my anxiety level. I upgraded my Internet connection and now pick-and-choose news articles about a half-hour per day - just about the same amount of time my dad and I watched network news in the 'sixties. I haven't seen an NFL or NBA game in a year-and-a-half.
Right after I ditched my dish, a strange woman appeared in my living room. She said she was my wife.
The reptilian Vlad Lenin was prescient with his comment about selling rope to one's hangman. Whether the nerds behind the scenes in Hollywood snipping "offensive" scenes, to the hulking, glowering "King James" on bended knee, to to the prostrate corporate execs such as Jamie Dimon - he of the abject apology, they share the same greedy cowardice. China has been worming its way into our cultural life through buying influence, through "Confucian Institutes" and through planting its paid agents and spies throughout our nation. All allowed by our leaders. Payment by China? No problem. Sleeping with a Chinese spy? That's cute. Until the point where we have clear evidence that the sitting president of the United States received Chinese cash, laundered through his drug addicted son. And yet we do.....nothing. No outrage. No reforms. No prosecutions. So why are we surprised by this shocking level of influence in Hollywood by a malign, authoritative and thoroughly evil communist state? Why, indeed. As John Harington observed many centuries ago - "Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason."
Yes we’re already very deep into the rabbit hole. Many don’t seem capable of building the necessary mental models to find their way out. It’s a very ancient game of Chess, Poker and GO combined.
Great piece. "...ideological rivalry between Washington and Beijing". What ideological rivalry? The Chinese are paying our politicians starting with the dementia patient's family inhabiting the Oval. Our 'elites' love the Chinese model of just doing what they want using the FBI as the Stasi to stifle dissent at all levels.
Like the 80's when I grew into a man serving against communism we are once again at a time of choosing. Unfortunately, our 'elites' are miring our assets into never-ending, useless(to the People) wars once again in Ukraine rather than continuing to build on the economic triumphs Trump's team gave us leading to the greatest economic period of all time for all Americans and our allies.
All points to 2008 as the starting point of China executing its strategic plan of taking over USA. All of the events after were just steps in their game
I want more real America in our films. No censorship by anyone, especially our enemies. Top Gun was inspirational to American men in 1986, and should also be in 2022. Just say no to the CCP and watch the magic happen here in the good old U S of A.
A few of us. A technology company I consult with will have nothing to do with China in any way. No vendors, suppliers, partners, sales or investors. Period.
My company manufactures household products in use in every home in America. 100% of our products components are U.S. manufactured using U.S. labor. China has tried a number of times to duplicate our finished products - and repeatedly failed. Life without the CCP is possible - but it's a lot of work. I hope that changes.
The problem I see here is that to say no to the CCP we will also need to say no to the USA since in reality they are no longer much different in real terms. The US government, corporations, institutions are all in bed with the CCP. And all of these are in bed with the World Economic Forum and the Bilderberg group.
I see your point. But we Americans are not in bed with these foreign institutions. We can as individuals exert pressure, small but consistently, to embrace American ideals. I try myself and urge my friends to buy American or American friendly products, boycott those companies who kiss up to China and radical ideologues, and look past partisan headlines and misleading slogans while thinking for themselves. Yes, our government is populated with sell-outs who give the swamp its odor. The CCP has too much of our money and they use it wherever they can get the most benefit for themselves - including buying political favor and twisting arms everywhere. Scary. Let's fight back.
I believe in America as framed by our founding ancestors & in line with the Constitution but put no faith in the "Build Back Better" Davos-related crowd who believe they are the foxes who have stolen the hen house. This includes all those on the WEF partner list and the attendees at the Bilderberg group. Since all major governments, institutions and corporations are part of this including all cloud architecture & providers I would be very happy to see your plans going forward. I've been trying to fight this since early 2020 and we haven't gained much foothold. Much more to say than will fit in this comment, lol.
Me? No plan. But if You wanna see a glimmer, You can pay 5 bucks and get a sub to N.S. Lyons if You enjoyed the long clip above. Long read, but gave me some hope. That's just me, tho.
Important post in the recognition of just how deeply the ongoing propaganda is planted in our midst. What it feels like as we are subjected to being repeatedly played by the international Corporatocracy - deeply intersected alliance of governments, corporations, institutions around the planet. Once we see this thing we cannot unsee it.
Lots of predictive programming all around us from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to The Northmen to the films mentioned in this post. We’re being serially abused by masters of the art. Once we blow their covers and glimpse the full deceptions they have no further power. That’s the fatal flaw in the “art” of propaganda.
at the least it would confuse them...when they are used to having something to push against (rationality) and that goes away, when they lean in to push on something that's no longer there they fall over (metaphorically...)
I dunno it's possible to fight fire with fire. More likely, their downfall will be when people who *are* rational (or like most-a us, semi-rational)..
Well, an awful lotta people know there are only two genders. That's rational. But they've just been confused that they need to be sensitive to the insanity of those who think there are more than two. Eventually tho?
"Once we become convinced we’re dealing with a serially abusive relationship we need to initiate action to extricate ourselves and our fellow creatures from the situation as expeditiously as possible."
IMO, *both* parties are simultaneously in an abusive relationship with each other. That's just me.
Well that for certain is an important part of the rabbit hole we’re in. It is also part and parcel of being in a Civil War. We are in the midst of a planetary civil war where families, communities, nations, our world are all being torn apart. Poets, historians, literary giants have written of this. But we must begin where we are - being grounded enough to stay sane. If we don’t hold to this who will.
When neighbors, family members, all our associates become possible combatants in this war then what? We’re then forced to revert to very fundamental first principles. They are very old and eminently based on common sense.
Since I wouldn't survive a physical war, I would apply first principles to avert one. Firstly, a civil war here. Secondly, WWIII.
I would *expect* China to (or at least attempt to) ruin the U.S. in an economic war in the next decade. Then they wouldn't need their army to rule us. We're seeing a flash of that in this very article.
China will be very dangerous for the next 10 to 15 years.
China is in a desperate situation with their population decline starting within a year or two, far earlier than the projections issued around 2010 that the decline would start around 2050. They do not have the normal population pyramid, which shows the largest population at age 0 to 1, and declining as the age gets older. They have a population tree, which currently has fewer people in each age 0 to 29 than in each age 30 to 60.
They also have far fewer women than they should. The UN said they were missing 66 million women in 2010, and they still have a higher ratio of male to female than is normal.
There are many problems this causes, such as the more than 50 million empty apartments in China, invested in by men with very little hope of marrying.
These problems will make the Chinese government increasingly desperate, leading to extreme actions.
Well that’s the idea. Our task is to try to avert a physical war when we’re already in one. Nine of us may survive a war - and we all have many ancestors (near or distant) who have not. Bit our goal is to ever work toward peace amidst the reality of war. Seems to me that none of us alive today have ever existed outside of wartime.
What’s happening here has been in the works for longer than many of us realize.
At the heart of it is the idea that the individual does not matter. His or her importance is only related to employment or consumerism. And both of those are, or can be, transient. It is an age of anti-humanity.
Yes indeed, I think I remember at least the first one of those articles. And my question is rhetorical for the broader group, not expecting you individually to have the game plan. But we need to move beyond identifying this craziness and come up with an action plan. 
The way the politicians have our duopoly party system correct, it will be quite the challenge. 
Yes, many of us remain stuck in this frustration. Unless we the people find ways of working together it seems it will stay locked in this frustration. We are all having to work within the tools provided by our enemies. Unless, until we create our own underground tools we may stay well and truly stuck.
Or figure out a way to hijack the Democratic Party back from the wokesters. I realize there are probably too many flaws in that idea to count, but unless someone has a route plan to actually introduce additional competitive parties, that could be the best plan, albeit a long shot.
And before anybody jumps on me, I loath both of the duopoly parties, but it would seem to be slightly more effective to hijack the Democrats than the Republicans. But perhaps I’m wrong, would love to hear other thoughts.
Wish I could support the idea to hijack the Democratic Party back from the wokesters. They have so well and truly damaged the name and associations I don’t know how this would be possible.
I am in an endless loop of working outside the system we have as the system is so hopelessly corrupted. For me it must begin with using simplicity (Occam’s razor) in analysis of the rabbit hole we are in. It actually comes down to engagement at the local level, growing our own food, working it all out in the borderlands beyond (for awhile anyway) the direct reach of their defenses.
We exist within a dying stew of world civilizations. The rot is very old, systemic, and likely beyond the reach of our current political machines - which are all a part of it.
I read that yesterday. It reveals a lot about what made Nellie the person she is, and it makes me even more impressed that she ever stepped back from Progressivism and said, "Wait a minute...."
It's appalling how much lip-service must be paid to the "good intentions" of left-wing extremists in order to get published. Their intentions are no better than anyone else's, and the more inescapable the horror of their practices becomes, the more clear it becomes that their intentions are the worst in our society.
So I went there and read it and my conclusion is no matter how beautiful SF is, the only way to save it would be to fence it off and then drop a neutron bomb. Cleanse the city of people and then start over. What she described is appalling and anyone raising a child in that city is asking for more than trouble.
PS she must have gotten paid by the word. Sometimes less is more and more is just too much.
Haha! I dunno. YOu think one would do it? And, yeah. Atlantic articles are usually long, and I sure *hope* she gets paid by the word! Either Way, that's a pretty good platform to get the Common Sense name out there to the public.
Thanks for the link, jt. I'm halfway through it now (it's a long one) - I'm getting to the part where I may have to soon stir a gin and tonic to continue; it's a sad lament to a city I've adored.
And in a poor seque, here's one for you from the same magazine:
Yeah, that's a sad story, about a sad city, in a sad state, in a sad country, in a sad world.
About Your link: Sorry, Lee. I knew there was gonna be trouble as soon as I saw it was in The Atlantic from a "law professor." I read up to "assault rifle" and then skimmed it.
I think there's a *middle* way here. Dunno anybody else would.
But as far as bringing in the NRA like they are *purposefully* shooting children? (How many times does he mention "children.") And the Oath Keepers?
I dunno how this passes for intelligent propaganda. I guess it appeals to the readers tho. Shed more heat than light, for my taste. Hope that doesn't offend Ya, Lee.
Which is why Hollywood has never made a film about the horrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution 1966-1974. Many memoirs of the time could be brought to the big screen. A Schindler's List type film is what is required to showcase that horror. I will not old my breath.
The Chinese film industry, which is huge, has made several. The evil Japanese during the WW2 era (which started in 1937 in China) being opposed by the brave CCP, and omitting the Nationalists who were doing most of the fighting against the Japanese, is a common theme.
In other words: Hollywood has always been a national propaganda machine - but now instead of being exclusively an American empire tool, it's being leveraged to accommodate Chinese propaganda, too.
Yes because I support American values not Chinese ones and I think a lot of the rest of the world does too - we offer hope to countries in the shadow of tyranny and even those people under tyranny - Russians were smuggling in American goods, movies, radio in droves under communism - if only we can figure out how to do the same in China - we’ve shot ourselves in the foot by naively assuming the people of China have the ability to influence the ccp because that’s the case here - I want the Chinese people to be frantically smuggling our movies full of liberty
Hollywood and hypocrisy go like peas and carrots, as Forrest Gump might say. How do the penultimate Wokies of the film industry, with their pride flags and their virtue signalling, square up with cutting homosexuality out of movies for the CCP? They are, apparently, the most brazen capitalists I can think of.
I think Top Gun is doing so well because it is patriotic. Hollywood has been giving us deviant dreck for so long that people ignore it. And haven’t the marvel cons gone on long enough?
What I find shocking is Grim Lizzie Warren concerned about China. I figured she be on their payroll for sure.
I just read an interesting story that offers additional insight on this. Republican politicians are beginning to wake up to the fact that too many corporate CEOs are pushing left-wing anti-American (IMO) policies. By and large their shareholders are much more conservative. One way to limit these shenanigans is to empower shareholders to go after some of the egregious CEO behavior.
First disclaimer than comment, I am living and working in China for last 8 years.
As someone who lives in China and works for Western Companies here in China, entire this situation with Top Gun was somewhat cheerfully and extremlly disappointing.
For years I have watched how all kinds of Western brands (especially American ones), going full Woke back at home (BLM, Trans in female sports, CRT, canceling everyone who speaks up against woke ideology), while at same here in China, they are very happy to do anything what CCP requires, nothing is taboo. Many decisions made by Management in the West was not only conterary to Western values, but also represent irreversible damage to Western manufacturing and technological advantage, since for one positive earnings in China, many companies would gladly outsource key technologies to Chinese competitors, effectively gutting Western companies in the long run.
This Top Gun ordeal was small glimmer of light, were American Company stood up for something. But then it hit me, I have seen these glimmers before. West would celebrate, but after they to bookkeeping, and Wall Street ghouls see how much money they have "lost" by not selling our own country to CCP, they will quickly make sure, that this never happens again.
For me most painful to watch were how NBA, an American sport (my favorite), has bent over to the CCP to that extent, that they will do anything that is required from them. Second one was John Cena, when I was kid, I used to watch WWE, and John Cena was always "super Pro American", until the found out that he was more "pro CCP Money". Those are just examples, plenty others exists (Nike, Apple...)
If we really want, to help our companies, stop being subservant to CCP, first what needs to be done, is in one hand limit Wall Streets access to our politicians at home and then limit access of Wall Street to China. Wall Street represent the worst of American values, they will sell their own mother to the highest bidder with no questions asked, all the while cheering companies that killed American manufacturing and our middle class while at the same time building up Chinese manufacturing and middle class.
PS
If someone asks what am I doing in China, well you can thank to politicians and Wall Street, that have outsource entire manufacturing sectors from West to China.
Sometimes I think, that West is actualy under occupation by enemies, because no one in their right mind would deindustrialize on such scale as US had done in last 30 years without being forced by some foreign power. But hey, with our politicians, who needs enemies
Great comment but your list of miscreants left off the fact that the President of the United States took Chinese money, laundered through his drug addled son. In a sane society, he'd not only be impeached, he'd be slow walked to the gibbet.
And Ukrainian money from international pharmaceutical corporations. As deep as we may dive it just gets deeper.
But after all that he is sitting in the White House - life is seriously strange
And the press NEVER addresses that his son broke federal gun laws. No one ever calls him out when he gives a speech about gun laws.
By stealing an election.
Thought he was included by default. He’s such an infamous figure among we the people today.
It is clear to millions of us that the World Economic Forum/Davos elites, and China literally control America. Is it any wonder that they had to convince a huge % of the US that the one person who actually stood up to both of these sets of tyrants must be bludgeoned to obscurity, and those of us who still understand that mean tweets pale up against genuine tyranny must be called insurrectionists. When I saw what was done to my friend and a great gentleman, Larry Elder, in the Calif governor's race when Soros and Zuckerberg offered unlimited $s to the Dem machine, I understood even more clearly what a trillion dollars of propaganda can do to a US president. Thus even exceedingly bright people such as those who run Common Sense will never be able to align with their only allies in the world, people who have supported Trump and now DeSantis. This is a profound reason for pessimism.
They control all nations . This is planetary. There’s a heck of a lot more of us than there are of them. Bunch of rich white trash - hillbilly wannabes.
Bruce, do you mean the guy who not only once but twice recently said he would commit American forces to defend Taiwan? That's more of a commitment than a tiny jacket patch in a big budget Hollywood jet fighter movie. A lot of Dems didn't like that (all of them). I sort of did. Do you think Biden is signalling the right thing? Showing the limits to China's bluster? (especially if he was the recipient of Chinese money, as you say..)
He’s lying. His minders will never allow it.
Well, if Biden says it one more time, Leslie (after all he's still got over 2 years to go) - all bets are off..
Wait until later this year when US arms are still going into Ukraine and reserves are depleted. Then perhaps on the back of a manufactured crisis somewhere around Taiwan or the South China Sea, China will engage in Taiwan. Whether the US will be willing to get into a genuine hot war with China is debatable.
Either way, the US isn't well placed. Economically the shelves of Americas retailers are still filled with Chinese goods. Will all this be turned off? What happens when a few other more significant countries collapse in the same way Sri Lanka has. How much of an appetite will the American people have for war?
They don’t have an appetite for war now. I don’t see it changing. Ukraine was Biden’s war. He pushed & pushed until Putin thought , why not. Biden used NATO as a weapon, Why NATO went along with it, I have no idea. Turns out, it was pretty stupid, just like everything this regime does.
Americans have an appetite for war that lasts about seven days. If it's longer than that, count the war as lost. Speaking from prior experience.
Saying and having the ability are two different things. Also his aides tried to walk back whatever the demented fool says.
But you ignore the fact that Hunter's laptop is acknowledged to be authentic and his e-mails in it implicate the Big Guy in a money laundering scheme to take payments from our enemy. Is it accurate? Who knows. But the failure to investigate it is beyond criminal because if true, we have a corrupt traitor in the Oval Office.
I don’t ignore it. I just didn’t mention it. The list of Impeachable offenses is to long to list. The laptop is but one of many. The invasion of our country aided & abetted by Biden/Harris is Treason or Sedition, & that’s just one issue. They have shredded the Constitution with every EO. Harris as well. She is complicit in everything as well as Pelosi. The entire so called administration is illegitimate, illegal & needs to be removed ASAP. It is beyond incomprehensible that there are not enough moral Congresspersons to get rid of this problem right now. Biden & Co. are destroying the country, that is an incontrovertible fact. Waiting for midterm miracle is wrong. Every day that passes brings more disaster. Impeach & Convict now.
Maybe you should storm the Capitol a la Jan 6..
Very funny.
Maybe you should just continue to pretend that Biden isn't suffering from dementia and that he wasn't hopelessly corrupt before that.
d'accord
Well, Trump said he wanted to nuke North Korea. Then basically kissed the kid’s feet. So dementia works both ways. Biden won’t be allowed to do anything, you’re probably right.
But some administration, either this one or the next will have to face China and credibly say no more is no more.
The last paragraph is true. We are under occupation, but it's a sick kind of willing occupation. Half the country is hypnotized by what brainwashing leftist promote as Woke ideology but it's really authoritarianism. The mainstream media does whatever it can to maintain the narrative. We should all be flying American flags upside down right now. We need help.
If it was simply America yes we could be sending an SOS. But since it’s planetary not sure who we would be sending it too? I think the SOS needs to get through as a message to self - “hey self, we’ve made a Faustian bargain with technology and it has thus far been our worst enemy.”
It isn't only tech. For my money, if a meteor had hit Davos, the world would be a far better place.
Yes, this is so true. But we must dismantle then the cloud World which joins all this at the hips. This cloud is supported in an digital feedback loop by Google, AWS, CIA, DARPA, THE US GOVERNMENT INC. AND ETC. Not to mention all of our personal data collected on huge server farms soon to support our rapidly onrushing international slave state. They may be really stupid and shooting themselves in the collective feet but they do have we the people cast as the slaves in this movie.
🤣🤣🤣the sooner the better
If it is a planetary threat (and I agree it is), then maybe a plea to God can help deliver us from all these evils?
Although it is a spiritual battle and our respective gods and goddesses need to be included I believe it is a dialogue with our deepest selves and our respective personal pleas to find sanity. Once we do that we may be capable of doing somethings together to deliver us from evil. God as they say is in the details.
HE gave us a warning in the form of Covid the fact that we haven’t taken much noticed is our problem
I don’t think it’s half Rusty I think it’s a small group of elites radicals and hard core leftists plus a 2020 election that had no integrity a bizarre lockdown that is what has set us on this sick path downhill and yes we desperately need help from where I don’t know but the help needs to happen very quickly!
This is where worship of currency leads - to the highest bidder.
Who would help us. We are always the one who helps. It’s never in return.
We don’t really need help we live in America the land of the free and the home of the brave. We had a President who’s priority was America first we did not understand what we had now we are well and truly in a quagmire with no way out for the next 21/2 years there will be much more damage going forward it’s just a matter of how much Leslie but in spite of my negative comment we still live in the best country on the planet! God bless America
It’s only the best country if you have money to get through this. Otherwise you are 💩 out of luck & it’s no better than anywhere else except you are not in a gulag. YET.
Yeah I understand you not wrong and we may as well call it a gulag we have no more free speech our 2nd amendment is being trampled on we have 1/6 plus the arrested of Peter Navarro in handcuffs and leg irons Alan Dershowitz says his arrest is unconstitutional but I have faith this cannot last forever come the midterms the Dems going to be trounced and perhaps we can move on with the Republicans
Perhaps. Or maybe the damage is so severe that it can’t be fixed because nobody had the courage to step in earlier.
When KW Norton and Rusty Shackleford use the word woke within the context of China, this is the acronym for their thinking: (W)acko (O)afish (K)knuckleheaded (E)mpty-headed thinking! Working people were betrayed because of capitalism’s worship on the altar of the God of profits. Both Democrats and Republicans went down the path hand-in-hand that sold out 90% of the men and women in America. Capitalism really works well for 10% of America. The other 90% is a hit or miss proposition; if a medical procedure was a hit or miss proposition for 90% of the time, it would be considered a disaster, not so with capitalism!
Lor' Ha Mercy, Troll. Glad You didn't manage to insult anybody in this post, still...
...I don't like to engage a troll, otherwise I'd ask what the "heck" You got to replace Capitalism?
Glad I didn't engage with You. No, America and Nordic capitalism don't mix well. You may not have noticed, but there's a considerable difference in population and ethnicities involved. I ignored the talking points You had to say about American capitalism. As long as You got nothing to replace it with, it's just a bunch-a hot air.
Replace American capitalism:
• Persistence of poverty.
• Many workers earn less than a livable wage.
• Growing inequality between the working class and the rich.
• A health care system twice as expensive as good systems in other countries.
• A college education means accepting a substantial debt load.
• High and rising food and rent costs facing the working class.
• Racial, ethnic and gender discrimination in businesses and housing.
• More people in prison than in any other country.
• The rich own most of the politicians in both parties.
• The U.S. spends much money on defense and not enough on infrastructure.
• Social assistance programs are insufficient.
Nordic capitalism.
https://sarasotainstitute.global/is-america-ready-for-nordic-capitalism/
As you effectively note there is a deep connection between the Woke promoters around the planet and the distorters of our public narratives. We see this in film, media - print, visual media, and in social media. It’s not “Western” but planetary. We’re in the fight for our lives as we, the people.
In a sense we are under occupation, by a global elite and a left wing ideology that primarily hates Western values. Hard to say which is more powerful but imo they are partners in the problems you are talking about, in causing them.
The global elite (WEF, Bilderberg, etc) support anything which they see as an effective tactic against we the people. If today that is China which provides what they see as most effective control tactics then they support that. They are an intelligence challenged lot - suffering from lack of creativity and no originality. These fascist systems are so easy to copy and paste.
Westerners are unruly and unpredictable which is no longer perceived as a good for orderly society. But the question is, whose order?
Glad you mentioned Cena. That spine-less, groveling 'apology' made me physically wince watching it. What a turd.
Me too! I can't believe he has any fans after he did that. I wonder if he ran to the bathroom to throw up after delivering the message.
Same, especially since he made his career playing super patriotic American.
On related note, I just noticed a random ad pop up on my generic newsfeed that I'd never seen before: a WWE John Cena figurine. What the fuck Google...
For years I have wondered why we and by we, I mean US companies and the US Government have been trading or dealing with the Red Chinese. They are the most repressive country in the world bar none. Russia is bad but they don't hold a candle to China.
I wonder how many politicians are in the pockets of the Chinese. We can see which companies are dominated by them but the politicians are hiding their involvement.
I look at the leftist companies like Apple and Nike, hard core left, hypocrites, who deal and play kissey face with the Chinese yet curse the US as a racist, oppressive country.
Remember the San Bernardino massacre of 2015 when a Muslin and his wife shot up the break room of the company where the husband worked? The FBI asked Apple for the algorithm to crack the password on the husband's iPhone and the CEO, Tim Cook, refused because it might compromise their iPhone customers privacy. He has no problems cooperating with the Chinese in spying on their iPhone users and he has no problem running sweat shops to manufacture their phones. Apple's manufacturing plants place impossible quotas on their Chinese work force and have a huge employee suicide rate because of it.
Nike CEO says their company is 'of China and for China' yet this hypocrite sponsors the anti-American, Colin Kaepernick. Nike has no problem with the brutal, murderous, genocidal Chinese but curses the US for being oppressive and racist.
This reinforces my belief that leftists are hypocrites and the dollar trumps ethics every time. To be fair, I am sure there are companies run by conservatives that do the same thing but don't advertise it like Apple and Nike do.
I read the China manufactures 80% of our pharmaceuticals. This is madness. If China wants to really hurt us, they cut off our supply of meds. Millions would die.
If we want cheap labor in a country that doesn’t oppress their citizens, move the manufacturing to India. India has its own problems but as far as I know they don’t practice genocide, arrest people for speaking out against the government and don’t have reeducation prisons for dissidents. Also they are not imperialists like China is. China is threatening to annex Taiwan and has illegally claimed much of the South China Sea as its own.
The free world needs to sever all ties with China both diplomatically and commercially. It would do two things. It would strangle them financially and two it might force them to stop murdering and incarcerating their people.
What I am suggesting is the moral thing to do and politicians are rarely moral.
Here is just a little add on to raise your morale. Remember when Obama bailed out GM? Almost as soon as GM got their bailout funds, they transferred seven GM manufacturing plants to China. We paid for that. This happened at the same time Obama brought on GE’s CEO as the person to head up the “keep the jobs in the US task force”.
On month after the GE CEO was made the keep the jobs chief, he transferred GE’s imaging factory (CAT scanners, MRIs and Xray machines) and RND shop to China. I know this will surprise many of you but you heard little about this from the left wing sycophants in the press.
China wants to rule the world and if we do nothing, they will succeed.
Oh.. Forgot to mention that the CCP has hold-a the universities, too. Both by supplying paying students, and also by funding research. You'd just figure it'd take an academic to say how great China is with a straight face. Yeah, their *money* smells nice.
And btw, a lotta those students themselves are CCP. And anecdotal evidence says that 50% of the Chinese students go *back* to China to fight us. Those that stay, I'm all in favor of. [Edit: Except the CCP spies who'd be glad to stay. What a mess.]
If it were me? Yeah about India. Do to India what we did with China only smarter. Not to mention they're traditional enemies of China.
Thank you for taking the time to share firsthand experience with us in the USA and Western World. But your truest words are these: “… that [the] West is actualy under occupation by enemies…”
Yes, a more accurate phrase would read that (the) entire planet, East and West is under occupation by enemies.
Yes! Thank you — I stand upgraded.
Just curious, how are you able to post comments like this while in the CCP?
VPNs, with them you can access outside world with no issues. I personally use one even when in the west :), partly as a habit, but largely as precaution.
A good VPN with multiple random bounces off foreign servers is worth every penny.
Recommendations?
I’m partial to Proton but there are many out there.
You have to pay attention to where the servers are located and how you can configure the links.
I use Norton. I put the US as the country I want the server to be in. I tried a different country, Germany, at first but then the web sites I visited were in German.
They’ve outsourced because US regs are extremely onerous. Also NIMBYism (not in my backyard.)
I agree that the environmental regs starting in the 70s is what started it. Which illustrates to me not only the hypocrisy of the so-called environmentalists but also the stupidity. It is after all the same air.
Environmental and labor...mandating companies provide health coverage?
Agreed. You do not even want to get me started on the utter stupidity of having third party, for-profit entity making a person's health-care decisions.
What's great about Bari's substack is the high caliber articles and the high caliber comments from the audience. We learn from both.
Thank you for shedding light on the reality, from the inside.
I remember working in automative in the mid 00’ and I was thinking, how crazy is this? They all just giving their intellectual property away… just like that, just to make a few more bucks in the short term, but in the long term they will lose big. It seemed crazy, and still does. But like so many other things, the west does like to think short-term. Profit shares and share prices rule the decisions. We ourselves to not demonstrate the values we claim we fight for… you are spot on. But based on that you work where you work, you too don’t think this can be changed. I left automotive for that reason. The lack of imagination as to the consequences of the actions and decisions were driving me insane. But it’s been decades so don’t think this can be rolled back now. The damage is done.
Years ago, 1980s, I was connected to and friends with several Asians who came as adults to the USA (from China, Japan, and Korea). During a friendly outside-of-work social gathering, a topic came up of “sharing” intellectual property and know-how between East Asia and the United States. My friend from China made a jovial statement that the other Asian friends concurred with and that I’ll never forget: “We can copy anything to the smallest detail so keep sending your innovations!” Another added, “We’re not that creative in coming up with ideas, but we can take any ideas and run with them.” The truth of both those astonishingly insightful statements actually brings HOPE: America needs to CREATE and INNOVATE our way beyond all this previous “sharing” (stealing), and NO LONGER give spots at our universities to overseas people who learn the American ways then use them against us. Infiltration works on multiple levels.
Yeah. A long time ago Younger-Sister was in a conference in China. In the airport, she saw books "How to Be Creative" and "Innovative" and suchlike. I thought that was *great.* YOu can't learn than kind-a stuff from books!
Just gotta keep away from giving it all away, and we'd *have* something here to work with.
Following up on this, after your comment, jt, I recalled that during my years and years of upper-level secondary teaching, typically about 95-97% of our “Top” academic students (with the highest grades and highest class rank) were Asian students. But in my advanced classes (AP and IB) they were the ones stymied when facing ANY creative or abstract assignment, such as a fiction written narrative, or a visual, such as a simple first-of-year “fun introductory activity”: “a visual depiction of your personality and what your goals are (no words allowed).” These assignments were to be “graded” (so they’d DO them), but mostly on “completion,” “on time,” and “evidence of effort.” Thus, it was set up to be an “Easy-A” at the beginning of the year with no right or wrong answers. These “Top” students had no where to go to find and regurgitate answers, and they squirmed with discomfort at even getting started. Every year I observed their panic as they looked around the room to see how the other students were accomplishing this task — and they saw that the other students were doing it—with ease, enthusiasm, and glee! Don’t misunderstand me — most of my Asian students were wonderful young people, and they certainly earned their accolades. But in this microcosm way, what my professional Asian friends had profoundly put forth was being acted out “Live” in my own classroom.
Interesting.
I was in the sales end of semi's at the same time, and it was apparent that executives, most of who make their REAL money on stock, would get all starry eyed when they saw the size of the Chinese market, and promptly got incontinent. When you sell or give away your IP, you can BS the investment community its a good thing ( for a few quarters at least), but you're retired and running your vanity winery in Napa when the the chickens come home to roost.
As Lenin said: “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” And he probably never even liked basketball.
Raziel, might you please expand on "...going full Woke back at home (BLM, Trans in female sports, CRT, canceling everyone who speaks up against woke ideology), while at same here in China, they are very happy to do anything what CCP requires, nothing is taboo."?
Specifically, might you contrast the CCP endorsed culture norms/beliefs regarding: LGBTQA+, Climate, and Religion?
Thanks.
Best example that I can give you is Disney. Just check what they are doing, they are very woke in US, but here, they will do anything what CCP requires. Be it remove characters, shoot movies on location that CCP wants them (check out where they shoot Mulan). Second good one is Nike, back home they are very very woke and progressive, and here they are quiet as a church mouse
I suspect it's similar to the Left's partnership with Arabs/Muslims: they share a goal that is more important than their ideological differences.
The destruction of Israel is the goal in the Leftist/Muslim partnership. I'm not sure yet what the goal in the Leftist/CCP partnership is, unless it is simply the economic destruction of the U.S.
You are blaming it all on the "politicians and Wall Street". How about your manufacturing bosses? Be careful out there, people tend to get overconfident on the computer.
CEOs are appointed by the board and company shareholders(usualy large ones), what in most American companies are Mutual Funds, Banks, Hedge Funds and other Wall Street entities.
Sadly our companies have been doing Wall Street bidding for last 40 years, any CEO who tried to resist, would be replaced very fast.
It is my understanding that much is controlled by 3 mutual funds.
Really? Which three? I s'pose Vanguard?
Yes. Blackrock, which I understand really throws its political weight around, and I forget the 3rd. Even if you as an individual oppose this you have no control over your retirement funds except withdrawal (with the consequential penalties and tax implications).
TY. And yeah. Good reason to go into business for Yourself, if Ya can. Not that *I* ever knew much about investing, but YOu have choice of who does it for You.
Politicians are paid by foreign interests even though it is illegal and our manufacturing leaders are focused on cheap labor resulting in cost saving bonuses. Most importantly, government over-regulation in ALL sectors of our lives is the ultimate problem; most recently the inhabitant of the White House outlawing all of cheap energy.
I have designed and manufactured American OEM products for 25 years now and the Chinese still cannot compete with our machining prowess when we make the right strategic decisions like Trump cutting the corporate rate in half to 21%; it will be the saving grace in our economy while navigate the fallacies of 'green energy' and printing money.
People overlook the impact of IRAs and 401ks in this situation.
The over reliance on profit margins is partially due to the fact that most Americans whether they know it or not are in the stock market for their retirement money.
It’s an unintended consequence of helping individuals plan for retirement combined with an inverted population structure.
Like most issues this one is multifaceted.
That is true. The individual investor is at the mercy of his or her retirement fund.
Yes, there’s that overconfident online behaviour to look out for. But when the offenders are politicians, Wall Street and manufacturing bosses ? Look no further than the international Corporatocracy - the joined at the hips synergistic entity of governments, corporations (manufacturing bosses) and institutions. Many times governments are the manufacturing bosses (corporations) and vice versa and so on. Look to the World Economic Forum and Bilderberg group for complete lists of the International participating individuals and bodies.
Forgot to say TYTY, Raziel. One-a best.
As one writer noted, if keeping a patch on a jacket is what counts as courage in Hollywood these days, we'll have to be happy with what we can get. It's a small but welcome step. On a different note: what a great movie. I never cared for the original. TG:M has to be the most entertaining film I've seen in years.
Sadly it's also what counts as courage in Major League Baseball. See the Tampa Bay five.
That is very true and very sad. The abuse they're suffering for making (what I see as) a modest and reasonable defense of their religious beliefs shows we're only truly free to express certain ideas without fear of reprisal.
Ditto. This film was very smooth; all subplots meshed seamlessly with the main story. "High speed, low drag" all the way. I never once glanced at my watch during the film. Kudos to the director!
Absolutely. It was crisply paced. And kudos to Tom Cruise. He seems like he has his quirks (who doesn't), but he sure knows how to make some really good movies.
I literally just came from seeing TopGun Maverick- I thoroughly enjoyed it.
China can't produce movies of Hollywood caliber so they just want to chip away at ours.... If they don't Like TopGun maybe they'd be happier focusing on making Top Ramen.
Screw em
Provably because we weren’t being pandered to like most films these days.
The original movie was a little cheesy, but very cool. After I saw it in 1986, I said: our next war will be a music video. And so it was: the Persian Gulf war, 1990-91.
Will not watch anything starring Tom Cruise who represents to
the world the corrupt so-called non-profit Scientology.
After the 2020 Steal and Fox News' traitorous acquiescence to The Big Lie, I literally threw my satellite dish into my pond. It's remarkable how much it immediately lowered my anxiety level. I upgraded my Internet connection and now pick-and-choose news articles about a half-hour per day - just about the same amount of time my dad and I watched network news in the 'sixties. I haven't seen an NFL or NBA game in a year-and-a-half.
Right after I ditched my dish, a strange woman appeared in my living room. She said she was my wife.
I haven’t had broadcast TV of any kind in my home since 1995.
The reptilian Vlad Lenin was prescient with his comment about selling rope to one's hangman. Whether the nerds behind the scenes in Hollywood snipping "offensive" scenes, to the hulking, glowering "King James" on bended knee, to to the prostrate corporate execs such as Jamie Dimon - he of the abject apology, they share the same greedy cowardice. China has been worming its way into our cultural life through buying influence, through "Confucian Institutes" and through planting its paid agents and spies throughout our nation. All allowed by our leaders. Payment by China? No problem. Sleeping with a Chinese spy? That's cute. Until the point where we have clear evidence that the sitting president of the United States received Chinese cash, laundered through his drug addicted son. And yet we do.....nothing. No outrage. No reforms. No prosecutions. So why are we surprised by this shocking level of influence in Hollywood by a malign, authoritative and thoroughly evil communist state? Why, indeed. As John Harington observed many centuries ago - "Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason."
Yes we’re already very deep into the rabbit hole. Many don’t seem capable of building the necessary mental models to find their way out. It’s a very ancient game of Chess, Poker and GO combined.
Ray Dalio might be the most morally bankrupt of the finance big wigs - google what he said to Sorkin on CNBC last Nov.
https://twitter.com/squawkcnbc/status/1465660719756681218?s=21&t=Tu3tragtBKj6TRqD4xkt2A
Great piece. "...ideological rivalry between Washington and Beijing". What ideological rivalry? The Chinese are paying our politicians starting with the dementia patient's family inhabiting the Oval. Our 'elites' love the Chinese model of just doing what they want using the FBI as the Stasi to stifle dissent at all levels.
Like the 80's when I grew into a man serving against communism we are once again at a time of choosing. Unfortunately, our 'elites' are miring our assets into never-ending, useless(to the People) wars once again in Ukraine rather than continuing to build on the economic triumphs Trump's team gave us leading to the greatest economic period of all time for all Americans and our allies.
All points to 2008 as the starting point of China executing its strategic plan of taking over USA. All of the events after were just steps in their game
I want more real America in our films. No censorship by anyone, especially our enemies. Top Gun was inspirational to American men in 1986, and should also be in 2022. Just say no to the CCP and watch the magic happen here in the good old U S of A.
And just who is "saying no" to the CCP?
A few of us. A technology company I consult with will have nothing to do with China in any way. No vendors, suppliers, partners, sales or investors. Period.
My company manufactures household products in use in every home in America. 100% of our products components are U.S. manufactured using U.S. labor. China has tried a number of times to duplicate our finished products - and repeatedly failed. Life without the CCP is possible - but it's a lot of work. I hope that changes.
The problem I see here is that to say no to the CCP we will also need to say no to the USA since in reality they are no longer much different in real terms. The US government, corporations, institutions are all in bed with the CCP. And all of these are in bed with the World Economic Forum and the Bilderberg group.
I see your point. But we Americans are not in bed with these foreign institutions. We can as individuals exert pressure, small but consistently, to embrace American ideals. I try myself and urge my friends to buy American or American friendly products, boycott those companies who kiss up to China and radical ideologues, and look past partisan headlines and misleading slogans while thinking for themselves. Yes, our government is populated with sell-outs who give the swamp its odor. The CCP has too much of our money and they use it wherever they can get the most benefit for themselves - including buying political favor and twisting arms everywhere. Scary. Let's fight back.
I believe in America as framed by our founding ancestors & in line with the Constitution but put no faith in the "Build Back Better" Davos-related crowd who believe they are the foxes who have stolen the hen house. This includes all those on the WEF partner list and the attendees at the Bilderberg group. Since all major governments, institutions and corporations are part of this including all cloud architecture & providers I would be very happy to see your plans going forward. I've been trying to fight this since early 2020 and we haven't gained much foothold. Much more to say than will fit in this comment, lol.
Me? No plan. But if You wanna see a glimmer, You can pay 5 bucks and get a sub to N.S. Lyons if You enjoyed the long clip above. Long read, but gave me some hope. That's just me, tho.
https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/liberalism-and-its-discontinuities?s=r
It's about time. Now, if they could just become a little more creative we might have a movie industry.
Important post in the recognition of just how deeply the ongoing propaganda is planted in our midst. What it feels like as we are subjected to being repeatedly played by the international Corporatocracy - deeply intersected alliance of governments, corporations, institutions around the planet. Once we see this thing we cannot unsee it.
Lots of predictive programming all around us from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to The Northmen to the films mentioned in this post. We’re being serially abused by masters of the art. Once we blow their covers and glimpse the full deceptions they have no further power. That’s the fatal flaw in the “art” of propaganda.
OK, if it is a fatal flaw, then explain what is fatal about it? We see it, but there needs to be a game plan for doing something about it
There is a Star Trek episode on this subject. Overwhelm the "system" with irrationality and craziness. ???
Well, that theory is working pretty well *for* the Woke Religion. Not sure how practical it'd be *against* 'em.
at the least it would confuse them...when they are used to having something to push against (rationality) and that goes away, when they lean in to push on something that's no longer there they fall over (metaphorically...)
I dunno it's possible to fight fire with fire. More likely, their downfall will be when people who *are* rational (or like most-a us, semi-rational)..
Well, an awful lotta people know there are only two genders. That's rational. But they've just been confused that they need to be sensitive to the insanity of those who think there are more than two. Eventually tho?
Thanks. I began to explain it a few months ago:
(1j https://kwnorton.substack.com/p/the-problem-with-censorship?r=boqs0&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
(2) https://kwnorton.substack.com/p/the-problem-with-censorship-part?r=boqs0&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Nice. From the second, pretty sure:
"Once we become convinced we’re dealing with a serially abusive relationship we need to initiate action to extricate ourselves and our fellow creatures from the situation as expeditiously as possible."
IMO, *both* parties are simultaneously in an abusive relationship with each other. That's just me.
Well that for certain is an important part of the rabbit hole we’re in. It is also part and parcel of being in a Civil War. We are in the midst of a planetary civil war where families, communities, nations, our world are all being torn apart. Poets, historians, literary giants have written of this. But we must begin where we are - being grounded enough to stay sane. If we don’t hold to this who will.
When neighbors, family members, all our associates become possible combatants in this war then what? We’re then forced to revert to very fundamental first principles. They are very old and eminently based on common sense.
Since I wouldn't survive a physical war, I would apply first principles to avert one. Firstly, a civil war here. Secondly, WWIII.
I would *expect* China to (or at least attempt to) ruin the U.S. in an economic war in the next decade. Then they wouldn't need their army to rule us. We're seeing a flash of that in this very article.
China will be very dangerous for the next 10 to 15 years.
China is in a desperate situation with their population decline starting within a year or two, far earlier than the projections issued around 2010 that the decline would start around 2050. They do not have the normal population pyramid, which shows the largest population at age 0 to 1, and declining as the age gets older. They have a population tree, which currently has fewer people in each age 0 to 29 than in each age 30 to 60.
They also have far fewer women than they should. The UN said they were missing 66 million women in 2010, and they still have a higher ratio of male to female than is normal.
There are many problems this causes, such as the more than 50 million empty apartments in China, invested in by men with very little hope of marrying.
These problems will make the Chinese government increasingly desperate, leading to extreme actions.
Well that’s the idea. Our task is to try to avert a physical war when we’re already in one. Nine of us may survive a war - and we all have many ancestors (near or distant) who have not. Bit our goal is to ever work toward peace amidst the reality of war. Seems to me that none of us alive today have ever existed outside of wartime.
What’s happening here has been in the works for longer than many of us realize.
At the heart of it is the idea that the individual does not matter. His or her importance is only related to employment or consumerism. And both of those are, or can be, transient. It is an age of anti-humanity.
Yes indeed, I think I remember at least the first one of those articles. And my question is rhetorical for the broader group, not expecting you individually to have the game plan. But we need to move beyond identifying this craziness and come up with an action plan. 
The way the politicians have our duopoly party system correct, it will be quite the challenge. 
Yes, many of us remain stuck in this frustration. Unless we the people find ways of working together it seems it will stay locked in this frustration. We are all having to work within the tools provided by our enemies. Unless, until we create our own underground tools we may stay well and truly stuck.
Or figure out a way to hijack the Democratic Party back from the wokesters. I realize there are probably too many flaws in that idea to count, but unless someone has a route plan to actually introduce additional competitive parties, that could be the best plan, albeit a long shot.
And before anybody jumps on me, I loath both of the duopoly parties, but it would seem to be slightly more effective to hijack the Democrats than the Republicans. But perhaps I’m wrong, would love to hear other thoughts.
Wish I could support the idea to hijack the Democratic Party back from the wokesters. They have so well and truly damaged the name and associations I don’t know how this would be possible.
I am in an endless loop of working outside the system we have as the system is so hopelessly corrupted. For me it must begin with using simplicity (Occam’s razor) in analysis of the rabbit hole we are in. It actually comes down to engagement at the local level, growing our own food, working it all out in the borderlands beyond (for awhile anyway) the direct reach of their defenses.
We exist within a dying stew of world civilizations. The rot is very old, systemic, and likely beyond the reach of our current political machines - which are all a part of it.
Ah... M. Bowles in The Atlantic on San Fran: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/how-san-francisco-became-failed-city/661199/
(Haven't read yet. Sorry if paywalled.)
What a great article!
Thank You! I would not have read if you did not post this, Nellie is great! I I guess I still had my free articles)
(Lucky You. :-) Nellie mebbe mention it tomorrow, and more will get to see it.
I read that yesterday. It reveals a lot about what made Nellie the person she is, and it makes me even more impressed that she ever stepped back from Progressivism and said, "Wait a minute...."
Yeah, hadn't thought of it that Way. That *is* impressive.
It's appalling how much lip-service must be paid to the "good intentions" of left-wing extremists in order to get published. Their intentions are no better than anyone else's, and the more inescapable the horror of their practices becomes, the more clear it becomes that their intentions are the worst in our society.
Naw. I gotta disagree just a little. THeir *intentions* are fine. Try to ease the way for the least of us. Misguided, tho.
And the way they go *about* it.. Well, it's just insane. About all I can say in a few words.
So I went there and read it and my conclusion is no matter how beautiful SF is, the only way to save it would be to fence it off and then drop a neutron bomb. Cleanse the city of people and then start over. What she described is appalling and anyone raising a child in that city is asking for more than trouble.
PS she must have gotten paid by the word. Sometimes less is more and more is just too much.
Haha! I dunno. YOu think one would do it? And, yeah. Atlantic articles are usually long, and I sure *hope* she gets paid by the word! Either Way, that's a pretty good platform to get the Common Sense name out there to the public.
lol..
Thanks for the link, jt. I'm halfway through it now (it's a long one) - I'm getting to the part where I may have to soon stir a gin and tonic to continue; it's a sad lament to a city I've adored.
And in a poor seque, here's one for you from the same magazine:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/second-amendment-gun-regulations/661208/
Yeah, that's a sad story, about a sad city, in a sad state, in a sad country, in a sad world.
About Your link: Sorry, Lee. I knew there was gonna be trouble as soon as I saw it was in The Atlantic from a "law professor." I read up to "assault rifle" and then skimmed it.
I think there's a *middle* way here. Dunno anybody else would.
But as far as bringing in the NRA like they are *purposefully* shooting children? (How many times does he mention "children.") And the Oath Keepers?
I dunno how this passes for intelligent propaganda. I guess it appeals to the readers tho. Shed more heat than light, for my taste. Hope that doesn't offend Ya, Lee.
Day done. Mebbe tomorrow.
No worries..
Have a good one
Not q but g - segue.
@jt I’m still digesting this article.
I thought it was interesting. (But then, I'm a little biased. :-) Hope a trend is starting in SF and mebbe beyond.
Which is why Hollywood has never made a film about the horrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution 1966-1974. Many memoirs of the time could be brought to the big screen. A Schindler's List type film is what is required to showcase that horror. I will not old my breath.
Partly. I doubt we'll get a film about the rape of Nanking either. Mainly because there isn't really an audience for such films.
The Chinese film industry, which is huge, has made several. The evil Japanese during the WW2 era (which started in 1937 in China) being opposed by the brave CCP, and omitting the Nationalists who were doing most of the fighting against the Japanese, is a common theme.
If we are bringing back Top Gun from 1986 can we also please bring back Ronald Reagan?
In other words: Hollywood has always been a national propaganda machine - but now instead of being exclusively an American empire tool, it's being leveraged to accommodate Chinese propaganda, too.
Yes because I support American values not Chinese ones and I think a lot of the rest of the world does too - we offer hope to countries in the shadow of tyranny and even those people under tyranny - Russians were smuggling in American goods, movies, radio in droves under communism - if only we can figure out how to do the same in China - we’ve shot ourselves in the foot by naively assuming the people of China have the ability to influence the ccp because that’s the case here - I want the Chinese people to be frantically smuggling our movies full of liberty
Hollywood and hypocrisy go like peas and carrots, as Forrest Gump might say. How do the penultimate Wokies of the film industry, with their pride flags and their virtue signalling, square up with cutting homosexuality out of movies for the CCP? They are, apparently, the most brazen capitalists I can think of.
The H in Hollywood stands for hypocrisy. It’s always follow the money with those clowns.
The same people who deny the existence of Taiwan also deny the existence of Women. They also deny the existence of America...
Those who deny the reality of billions to please a Powerful Few do so for a reason - to make the world of the Powerful Few a reality.
Deny THEM.
I think Top Gun is doing so well because it is patriotic. Hollywood has been giving us deviant dreck for so long that people ignore it. And haven’t the marvel cons gone on long enough?
What I find shocking is Grim Lizzie Warren concerned about China. I figured she be on their payroll for sure.
That is shocking. What is she concerned about? Anything to do with them trying to corner the market on batteries and components?
I just read an interesting story that offers additional insight on this. Republican politicians are beginning to wake up to the fact that too many corporate CEOs are pushing left-wing anti-American (IMO) policies. By and large their shareholders are much more conservative. One way to limit these shenanigans is to empower shareholders to go after some of the egregious CEO behavior.