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mykingdomforapen · 10 months ago

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courage of stars, ch1 | writer’s commentary

Hello and welcome to the writer's commentary for courage of stars, chapter 1! I'm so excited to talk about this fic and share some background information with you, and I hope you will enjoy this journey as well!

Just a bit of housekeeping, the chapter-by-chapter commentary will go less into the symbolism/motif/narrative commentary (saving that for the end of the fic!). It's more here to get into some of the history and/or cultural tidbits, since both lend itself in both the form of Easter eggs to being pretty integral to the plot. I love getting to write Link Click fic because I get to tap into parts of me that I don't always get to do in other fandoms, so I am really excited to get into this!

As a note: I am neither a historian nor native-born Chinese. I have had the privilege of being raised in the culture and the anecdotes of modern Chinese history, but I feel it necessary to comment that this is not going to boast as 100% historically or culturally accurate, and so I encourage you that if something about the story piques your curiosity about real life events or culture or history, go ahead and read up on it! That being said, my depictions of history are based a lot of anecdotes or personal history, and I typically am not exaggerating.

Housekeeping done! Let's get into it!

***

“Sweet husband,” Cheng Xiaoshi said coyly. His tongue tentatively wrapped around the Cantonese pinyin, delicately trying the five extra tones for size.

In this universe, I've made both Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang at least half Cantonese (because I write fic for ME). Cantonese is a different dialect than what they typically speak in the show, which is Mandarin. Only Ouyang Bubei is seen speaking Cantonese in Link Click. Cantonese is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin--that is, a native Mandarin speaker is not going to understand someone speaking Cantonese unless they already know and are familiar with the language. The fact that Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang made no mention of having difficulty understanding Ouyang Bubei when he spoke exclusively in Cantonese made me jump onto the headcanon that they both grew up with the language.

Cantonese is considered an older language than Mandarin, or at least it is closer to what classic Chinese sounded like than Mandarin, which may have Mongol/Manchurian roots. It also is said to be more difficult to learn for a non-native speaker. Mandarin has 4 tones, while Cantonese has 9. So for Cheng Xiaoshi, who hasn't been speaking it for a while, he has to mess around with 5 extra tones while trying to impersonate this native speaker. Good luck to him!

***

"We may have another Chinese Nobel Prize winner for physics, right here in this apartment!” said another. “Your name will go down in history like Yang Chenning–you will make China move forward, maybe even surpass our neighbors. Who knows! Perhaps we can go to space too, like the Russians and Americans.”

During the CR, education more or less came to a standstill. Depending on when and where you were born within China, your high school education would have been very much delayed, and there were certain subjects where you would have severely been lacking. After the CR was put to an end, the country realised that they were very much lagging behind in STEM compared to their competitor countries, particularly in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. So there was a period right after the CR where those subjects were emphasized and highly encouraged--the shu li hua (数理化) priority that Lu Guang mentions later. It means Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry, which China at that time considered the most important subjects for their academics to learn in order to propel China forward into progress and advancement, to catch up (and hopefully surpass) their neighboring countries.

Yang Chenning and Tsung-Dao Lee are two physicists of Chinese descent who had won Nobel Prizes for their contributions to physics in 1957. They eventually became lauded as role models for Chinese students of physics, when the sciences were more emphasized in studies. Yang had even come to China to help build science programs in the country after it had been more or less torn down during the CR.

***

Sun Yihan stood respectfully as Professor Lu passed him. Professor Lu gave him a small bow of the head, his eyes soft with sadness like a bruised fruit.

“Sun zi,” he said. “So the rumors are true. You really have returned to Peidi."

Sun Yihan smiled primly.

“I hope that isn’t too disappointing,” he said.

“Disappointing isn’t the word I would use,” said Professor Lu. “I am glad, but selfishly so.”

To study shu li hua was considered the best way to propel China forward, but there are some caveats to it. Studying physics alone, or studying mathematics alone, is a lot about calculations and theories. In order to use them for practicality, you need to apply things like engineering to it, which wasn't always offered (but one could pick it up along the way). Studying shu li hua was considered a way to more easily leave China and study elsewhere, for those who were ambitious and hoped for better opportunities.

Also, you will notice throughout the story that Sun Yihan (孙遗憾) will be called all sorts of names in this fic (Also, his 'Yihan' is differently written from the name of that one actor from the Link Click musical, or at least I assume so else I will feel bad for him lol). Professor Lu is calling him Sun zi, or 孙仔. The zi (仔) is like a little moniker that you call someone young, or like your kid/nephew/etc. Or even like your little pet. There's an affection to it, generally, and an indication that they are younger or smaller than you.

***

“He has much to be proud of,” Cheng Xiaoshi murmured. “He’s working with some of the first computers in the city.”

“And he used to dig clay to make bricks like the rest of us,” Sun Yihan said. “It seems that all those months spent in the countryside taught him quite little.”

So while one didn't have conventional school during the CR, there was still some kind of 'school' for the young people. That usually entailed sending them to the countryside to work one or several months with the farmers, the laborers, etc. For some people, that meant making clay bricks. You would live out in the countryside with these rural families to learn and appreciate their work, since the rural laborers were most uplifted during this time.

***

He heard shouts and chants thundering in his eardrums. A door being thrown open and heavy boots tracking monsoon mud across a floor, bookshelves thrown aside and papers strewn across a desk. Armbands tied around people’s sleeve, red with silk and blood. Streets full of bodies, some moving, some not. A hysterical scream, bubbling up his throat–

–a lonely photo studio, the neighbors’ judging whispers, children’s jeerings and pointed fingers, pain in the side of his head–

–two young girls clinging to her older sister, begging her not to risk the swim to the freedom of Hong Kong to escape oppression, before watching helplessly as she plunged into the sea–

–a little boy, sleeping soundly in his bed, and pain tearing through every inch of a woman’s body as she finally stood up to go–

I'll leave the first section alone, for now.

The third section is a reference to the freedom swimmers. When the Party took over China, those who wanted to escape to Hong Kong for freedom or to escape persecution would have had an extremely difficult time going to Hong Kong. For many of them, they would attempt to swim across the sea to reach Hong Kong, which was at the time a British colony and therefore not affected by the new regime. Many of those swimmers did not make it--drowned, or in some cases attacked by sharks--but there were some who miraculously swam and swam and made it to Hong Kong to a new life. I want to say this wave happened in the 60s or 70s.

Those are the notes for chapter 1! If you have any other questions or curiosities, feel free to ping me. Otherwise, thank you for reading and can't wait to see you for chapter 2!

#LC writes #Stars Commentary

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sorenphelps · 10 months ago

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I need to know more about Hungary! 8, 14, 22, 26, and 29 please ❤️

Hi there! Here we go, it took way longer to answer than expected...

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

It's a tricky question on my end, because I am partly Vietnamese on my father's side, so I'm usually not assumed to be Hungarian at all (even tho that as I'm getting older I'm looking more and more Caucasian). I'm assumed to be Chinese, because Asian=Chinese in most people's minds here. (It's actually a pet peeve of mine, but that's another question.) I think Hungarians in general get confused with Slavic/Balkan people? Maybe Germans? Idk, when abroad they often think my mother is either Russian or French, while my bf is thought to be Austrian (which is fair enough, because his ancestors are from Austria/Germany).

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

Already answered here.

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

Proud: We are ridiculously good at some sports, we are I think the 14th in most Olympic Games medals per capita list at the moment. We also have a lot of Nobel prize winners (we are the 13th I think?), and generally a lot of cool things were invented by Hungarians (e.g. Rubik cube, matches, ballpoint pens, Vitamin C, the basis of computers, the basis of Microsoft Word and Excel, etc.). I also think our language is badass, it's in the top10 hardest languages to learn. I also really like how diverse our gastronomy can be, and the so called ruin pubs are good stuff.

Ashamed: Politics... And the general attitude of people, I mean when I can see a sign printed out in Hungarian in hotel cafeterias abroad, saying "Please do not steal!", I feel like denying where I'm from.

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

Hungary is mostly non-existent is Hollywood, but since a lot of American movies/TV shows are actually produced in Hungary, recently we are mentioned by name more (see the Black Widow movie for example). Sometimes our language is used as like an evil devil "language", or we are just vaguely referred as "East European" or "Post Communist" or part of the Balkan. We are depicted as uncultured poor people and/or criminals. Not the most flattering portrayal, however there is some truth in all.🤷🏻‍♀️

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

Oh boy, it's easier to list the ones we don't hate. XD We have a mutual friendship with Poland, but that's about it? Hungarians hate everyone (including themselves). We were very, lets say, unlucky with our history, so we are a country who is surrounded by itself population-wise. Therefore we hate every neighboring country (I think maybe Romania the most?). We are historically super bad at picking sides (I mean we always were on the eventually losing side of every big conflict), so it's no wonder that nowdays we try to be good with Russia, China, Turkey, Trump's USA... As I said, politics are bad here.

#lau gets personal #ask game #fun facts about hungary

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falseandrealultravival · 1 year ago

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Lao Tzu's best translation annotated by Tamaki Ogawa (Essay)

I am not ashamed to claim that Lao Tzu is the best book in the universe. This is an essential book for the world of the future. Legend has it that Lao Tzu was Confucius' senior, but it is reasonable to think that he was written much later than Confucius, in the 200s B.C., around the time of Mencius, and was written after knowing various ideas of ancient China. I guess it was. It is the culmination of ancient Chinese thought.

In areas where Chinese characters are cultured, such as Japan, China, and Korea, there is the advantage of being able to read Lao Tzu in its original text. This is something that Westerners cannot do and is a privilege of East Asians. Among them, the translation and annotation of Lao Tzu by the Japanese Chinese scholar Tamaki Ogawa is unrivaled. By the way, Tamaki Ogawa is the younger brother of Hideki Yukawa, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, and Hideki Yukawa was also familiar with Lao Tzu.

Let me point out the excellent points of Tamaki Ogawa's translation and annotations.

1) Accurate and easy-to-understand translation notes.

2) He boldly incorporates the views of Arthur Waley, a British researcher on Lao Tzu that other Japanese translators and annotators ignore, and makes his annotations solid and valid.

3) The explanation about ``proper nouns'' in the notes made me realize the fact that ``Lao Tzu hardly ever uses proper nouns,'' and I learned about Lao Tzu's careful ability to construct sentences. This is a clear departure from the Bible, which overuses proper nouns and tends to cause unnecessary conflicts.

4) The writing gives a sense of Lao Tzu's passionate soul.

For now, I will mention these four points. Tamaki Ogawa is a top-level Lao Tzu commentator.

Rei Morishita

老子最良の訳注者：小川環樹（エッセイ）

私は、「老子」を宇宙最高の書と主張して恥じない者である。これからの世界に必須の書である。老子は、伝説では孔子の先輩にあたるが、実際には孔子よりずっと後の時代、紀元前２００年代、孟子の頃に書かれたと考えるのが妥当で、古代中国の諸思想を知ったうえで執筆されたのだろう。古代中国思想の集大成なのだ。

日本、中国、韓国などの漢字文化圏では、「老子」を原文で読めるというメリットがある。これは欧米人には中々出来ないことで、東��ジア人の特権である。中でも日本の漢学者：小川環樹による「老子」訳注は、他の追随を許さないものがある。ちなみに小川環樹は、ノーベル物理学賞受賞者の湯川秀樹の実弟で、湯川秀樹も「老子」に詳しかった。

小川環樹の訳注の優れた点を挙げてみよう。

正確で解りやすい訳注。

日本の他の訳注者が無視しているイギリスの老子研究者：アーサー・ウェイリーの見解を大胆に取り入れ、その訳注を強固で妥当性のあるものにしている。

注にあった「固有名詞」についての解説で、「老子にはほとんど固有名詞が出て来ない」という事実を認識させられ、老子の周到な文章構成能力を知った。固有名詞を乱用し、要らぬ争いの元となりやすい聖書とは一線を画する。

老子の熱いソウルを感じさせる記述になっていること。

とりあえず、この４点を挙げておく。小川環樹は、最上級の「老子」解説者だ。

#Lao Tzu #best translation #Tamaki Ogawa #essay #rei morishita #annotation #Arthur Waley #proper nouns #passionate soul #Bible

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artzychic27 · 2 years ago

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I can't not make a Clone High au

Marinette: Clone of a peasant turned royal tailor from ancient China who created fabulous garments for royalty and received praise for her work until her untimely demise when the jealous wife of the emperor poisoned her food

Adrien: Clone of a former beloved Parisian mayor from the 70s who won the hearts of all with his charisma, good looks, and natural charm… Then he got assassinated after he signed a bill to allow gay couples to adopt

Nino: Clone of a famous Moroccan director who gained recognition from his first short film which he shot in his home town. He made a name for himself, traveled, and won many awards, but then died in the 70s after someone drugged him… Because it was the 70s

Alya: Clone of a young runaway slave from Martinique in the late 1790s. She taught herself to read and wrote several books detailing the effects of Code Noir on her home. She was soon found and killed just five years before slavery was abolished. Her books were published decades later and shed some light on Martinique’s struggle

Nathaniel: Clone of a Jewish man from the 1930s who escaped the concentration camp when he was twenty and went into hiding, boarded a ship, and made it to America. He made his living as an artist, and was free to express his religion and tell his story when the war ended up until he turned 68, and died of a heart attack

Alix: Clone of a pro skater. Being female and Arab made her the target of a few choice words from competitors and spectators, but she rubbed her wins in their faces until her tragic “accident” at one event in 1978. Some jackass tampered with her wheels, and Alix landed in a horrible way. Fortunately, the asshole was arrested

Kim: Clone of a champion Olympic swimmer from the 50s. He took home gold twice and was ready to win his third gold medal. Right as he got in the water, shots rang out. A bullet hit his leg, and he sank to the bottom of the pool. (A jealous competitor resorted to drastic measures)

Max: Clone of a teenage genius from the early 70s. People thought he’d change the world with his brilliant mind. He even won a Nobel prize. The world probably would have been improved had it not been for the tragic lab fire

Juleka: Clone of a Romanian noble from the 1600s accused of kidnapping and draining young women of their blood to retain her youth. One night, the villagers stormed her manor and set fire to everything, even going so far as to lock her inside

Rose: Clone of a celebrated singer from the early 50s known for her pink rockabilly style. She died in her sleep when she was 83, and by that time, she had written over sixty songs

Ivan: Clone of a famed poet/song writer. He lived a pretty peaceful life, never got in any fights, attended protests organized by marginalized groups, and even wrote a book. He died peacefully in his sleep when he was 100

Mylène: Clone of an well known actress/activist who was protesting companies dumping lead into urban neighborhoods. Her words got their attention, but instead of being decent human beings, they poisoned her as a threat, but ended up killing her in 1978. To this day, those ass-bitches got away with it

Sabrina: Clone of a secretary from the 50s who had just about enough of her male colleagues treating her like less than the gum on the bottom of their shoes. She got up in the dead of night to paint their cars pink, filled their cars with women’s undergarments, and spiked their coffee with vodka. The cop was gonna let her off easy, but she demanded to be arrested… She shouldn’t have said that, because on their way to the prison, the cop car got t-boned bad

Chloé: Clone of a young aristocratic woman who was accused of killing her parents in cold blood in the 1800s. While she was acquitted of the charges, people still believed her to be a murderer, and she lived with that title all the way to her death

Lila: Clone of a scorned Italian woman from the late 1800s who sold out her village to a mob boss to live a life of luxury… And she did for about five weeks before one man from her village sought revenge for what the mob did to his family and shot many, including her

(Next Gen Clones)

Marc: Clone of a French writer and playwright from the 1800s whose stories mainly consisted of queer protagonists… Then he got arrested because being gay gets you in trouble in Europe during those times. He lived to be 102, and made out with so many guys in secret

Denise: Clone of a young enby from the 1960s who was part of Operation Pedro Pan to help Cuban youths escape from Castro’s regime when they were seventeen. They made it to America, faced some bigots, wrote two books detailing their life from Cuba to America, and advocated for the rights of Cuban citizens until they got sick and died in 1999

Simon: Clone of an Irish Catholic from the 1600s who hid with his family during Oliver Cromwell’s invasion and attack on the Catholics. They were going to escape together as a family, but his asshole parents left him to be killed at the hands of Cromwell himself. Prior to that, he wrote in a journal explaining the unfair treatment toward the Irish in great detail and it was soon published upon discovery

Ismael: Clone of a famed escape artist from the early 1900s. He performed all sorts of death-defying tricks until he performed one he didn’t survive- The escape from the water-filled tank trip… He forgot to hide the key on his person

Reshma: Clone of an Indian-American woman who lived a well off and made a name for herself as a fashion mogul. She used her influence to speak out against injustice against queer people and bring attention to current events in India. She died in her sleep when she was 70 in 1992

Jean: Clone of a beloved actor from the 1800s, most known for his “satirical” roles as women when really, he just likes wearing dresses, but they don’t gotta know that. However, someone found him making out with another man and killed him in his dressing room

Lacey: Clone of a famed spelunker. She has several museum wings named after her due to her discoveries, and became moderately wealthy. She continued exploring caves until her 50s when she slipped and fell into a crevice in 1978. The only thing that remained of her was a video camera with her final words

Aurore: Clone of an investigative journalist from the early 1900s reporting the abuse of conversion therapy victims. She was set to publish her story and expose the people behind the practice until she was photographed kissing a woman and dragged to a facility. Fortunately, one of her most trusted associates published her story and she was freed due to public backlash and threats against the facility. She died when she was 79

Mireille: Clone of a boxer from the 1920s who won many competitions, stole the hearts of a few women, and was on her way to greatness until a party got just a little too crazy, and she “fell” of the balcony after an encounter with an ex

Cosette: Clone of a Civil Rights activist from the 1950s who has been arrested several times for protesting. They publicly spoke out against the blatant racism in the country, and because of this, they were a person of interest for the government. She would’ve exposed the cameras and microphones she found in her home, but got into an “accident”

Zoé: Clone of a New York heiress from the early 1900s who ran off to join a rebel group that provided resources for the poor… By stealing from the rich. She hasn’t been caught once and eventually eloped with a woman five years before her death in 1997

Clone High is in Paris, secretly being run as an elaborate military experiment orchestrated by a government office called the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures

In 2003, the school is entirely populated by the clones of famous historical figures that were created and raised with the intent of having their various strengths and abilities harnessed by the military for a project called, Operation: Mighty Eagle. And one day, they will have them take over the world

One night, during a dance where everyone was in attendance, the teachers flash froze the clones to keep them out of the board’s evil hands, and the board eventually forgot about them

In secret, but they made new clones in 2007, and raised them during the twenty years that they were frozen, making the clones all roughly the same age after the Gen1 clones were unfrozen to resume Operation: Mighty Eagle

Due to being frozen for twenty years, the G1 clones are so far behind, have missed many important events, and have to learn what they can’t say that was okay in the 90s, but wrong to say now

Chloé is very put off when she realizes she’s no longer popular by today’s standards and instead, Nathaniel, Max, and Juleka are

Mme. Bustier: So, how’d the kids take it when you told them they’ve been frozen for twenty years?

Mme. Mendeleiv: Oh, I think they handled it very well.

*Earlier*

Mme. Mendeleiv: For anyone who thinks it is 2003… You are wrong!

Clone Kids: … *Freaking out*

Nino: *Holding up a cellphone* WHAT IS THIS?! *Points to a laptop* WHAT IS THAT?! *Points to Kim’s sneakers* WHAT ARE THOOOOOSE?!

Mme. Mendeleiv: It’s not 2015.

Marinette: This isn’t real! I’m dreaming!

Alya: The world is so warm!

Adrien: Guys! Guys!… Blockbuster is gone!

Rose: NOOOOO!!

Chloé: WHERE IS DESTINY’S CHILD?!

Max: There was a brother in office?!

Nathaniel: I CAN’T HANDLE THESE SUDDEN CHANGES!

*Later*

Mme. Mendeleiv: … Yeah. They’re fine.

—

M. Damocles: Here to help get you all acquainted with the future is the most popular clone and the the most conventionally attractive by today’s standards in the school.

Chloé: Finally!

M. Damocles: Chloé… Please move out of the way so everyone can see Marc Anciel, your class president!

Marc:

Chloé: Who?!

Marinette: He’s what?!

Kim: He’s a guy?

Nathaniel: I don’t care what he is, but I am smitten!

—

Alya: *Holding up a cell phone* Okay, and this is a…

Aurore: Cell phone.

Alya: How is it different from my telephone?

Aurore: For one, it’s lighter, and you can take pictures of yourself.

Alya: … No… Way!

—

Adrien: You know who's gonna get canceled? Kim. You should have heard him back in the day. That guy's always saying stupid things.

Kim: I like men and woman of any shape or size!

Aurore: Wow, a bi Himbo.

Kim: *Laughs* No, I’m not a biathlete.

Jean: Refreshing honesty.

Mireille: So uninhibited.

—

Ivan: How can you stay so calm when the world is so warm, animals are dying, children are dying, everyone is dying, and so many wars are happening now?! You see it all on your weird telephone!

Cosette: Eh, I just channel all my anxiety into something meaningful. Like traumatizing white parents with lessons on how removing critical race theory from history books will mess their kids up.

—

Nino: Ismael, what gives you the confidence to be so good at skateboarding, and magic, and chilling?

Ismael: I don't know, Nino. Guess it's just hard work and practice.

Nino: Hard work and practice? Sounds like a fool's errand; You're stupid, Ismael. We tried practicing, but we failed.

Isnael: Did y'all try practicing a second time?

Nino: Oh, let me guess. "'Cause practice makes perfect."

Ismael: No. There's no such thing as perfect. Practice makes progress.

Nino: That's a dumb saying. You're dumb. This is dumb. Everything's dumb. But, okay, we'll try.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #clone high #mlb au #clone high au #akuma class #science kids

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comradeocean · 1 year ago

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The Secret of Why the Dinosaurs Went Extinct

Prologue: It was the winter of 1993… [non-fiction]

Naturally, the K Literature Award was instituted for the commemoration of 'K's. The prize money is not much, but people all say that with the K Literary Award in hand, the Nobel is not far off.

Why K? Because K is the signpost of literary genius for our time: Kafka, Kawabata, Koestler, Kundera, Kureishi, Krasznahorkai, Kraus… The time of 'K' is Kommunistische Zeit, and the time of Kapital. Ke Xiangying is surnamed 柯, Kay E. He really was blessed by the ancestors.

In order to retrieve the award, Ke Xiangying had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, from the East Coast of the United States to Europe. After picking up the trophy (and not much prize money), the publishing house, anxious to sell books, did not let him go. Instead, he was taken on a grand tour of the developed capitalist nations of the West, giving readings, interviews, guest lectures, seminars. Paris was their last stop.

One afternoon after the signing, Ke Xiangying emerged from a bookstore rotating his sore wrists and saw that the streets from the Luxembourg Gardens to the Pantheon were packed with people.

"What's this about?" Ke Xiangying asked the on-site interpreter.

The interpreter hired by the bookstore was a young international student. He shook his head and said that it could be anything since people in France were always protesting. It was the French translator of Ke Xiangying's novel who answered in halting Mandarin: "These are workers from several state-owned enterprises opposing privatization reforms. The ones at the front, yes, under the red CGT balloons, those are railway workers. They're the most militant. How do you say this in Chinese again? '砸了铁饭碗' — smashing the iron rice bowl. I actually learned the phrase from Ke's book."

The young international student was quite shocked. "There are still state-owned enterprises in France?"

The French translator was also surprised. "Which country doesn't have nationalized industries? Water, electricity, the post, automotive manufacturing… Of course the state has to be the controlling shareholder."

"Then are you also opposed to privatization?"

The young French man laughed. "Well, take the SNCF, it was probably nationalized long before I was born."

Ke Xiangying stood at the door of the bookstore, and watched the people with red flags walking past in waves. He suddenly remembered when he was very young, Chinese people could still take to the streets in demonstrations, carrying Chairman Mao's portrait (he had never seen any with portraits of Lin Biao; Ke Xiangying was only one year old when the plane crashed in Öndörkhaan). During the National Day parade, there were floats, and the ones featuring ranks of the working class [brothers] were particularly eye-catching. It was beyond glorious, all the workers of The Big Four gallantly marching by.

When he was young, he had a boyfriend named Jiang Ming who was a worker. That's right, Ke Xiangying was a homosexual. This was expected. Why else would a jury give the award to someone from China? Just because his last name began with K? There must always be something else beyond the writing: being a sexual minority, of color, anti-Communist, a Commie-lover, anti-Unification, pro-Unification, a Croat, a Serb, a Jew, a Tutsi, a Native American … Third-World literature cannot avoid politics.

As a matter of fact, Ke Xiangying really didn't want to talk about all that. He always said in interviews, "I'm not a liberal. How can you discern ideology from a love story?" The academics in the Faculty of Arts just laughed and kept on writing their papers — "Although Ke refuses to acknowledge the political orientation of his novels, we see that in his writings, the authoritarian regime…" And if Ke Xiangying only had cock in mind when he picked up a pen? That was not their purview.

But the cock was not Jiang Ming's. He didn't dare recall it. Ke Xiangying pressed the Jiang Ming who was unlike anyone else in all of existence into the deepest little box in his heart. Even through the hard days of New York City when he only had the free Chinese church meals to eat, or when his manuscript was rejected by the 17th publisher, or when a Mexican gigolo robbed him of all his money, he didn't dare to take the lid off the box and think about Jiang Ming. He was afraid that his thoughts would make the memories fade, like sugar that melted away more and more with every lick.

Ke Xiangying knew that he had never loved anyone in his life the way he loved Jiang Ming. Only when he looked at Jiang Ming did his soul tickle as Plato said, become warm and moist, and grow the fine feathers that carried people into the sky. But now he no longer had wings, and he didn't dare try to remember Jiang Ming like it had been a previous life.

In this moment though, everything had to come rushing back in. He couldn't stop staring at the ranks of trade unionists in the demonstration. Some of them wore blue overalls. Some took off their shirts, revealing the slightly-tanned inverted triangles of their muscular bodies, just like Jiang Ming used to do. In the summer, he didn't bother wearing an undershirt, just walked around the house with his upper body bare. Ke Xiangying couldn't stand it anymore. He announced to the publisher with the self-righteous impulse prone to middle-aged men that he will return to China soon. The publisher nodded, as if to demonstrate his knowingness about the matter at hand — that of a triumphant return and all.

Ke Xiangying's brother, Ke Xianghai, drove to Beijing International Airport for the pick-up. In recent years, after a long period of estrangement, they had started contact each other more frequently again because Ke Xianghai's son was studying in the United States.

Sitting in the car, other than the grey-blue sky, Tianjin seemed very different from when he had left. Ke Xiangying made a sound of surprise when the car drove over the Hai River. He had never seen any of these skyscrapers and reconstructions of the foreign concessions that filled the night sky with light pollution. And the chimneys he was so familiar with, there was no trace left at all. Back then, the Tianjin Radio and Television Tower had not been built yet, and the tallest building in the city was that big chimney. Day and night, white smoke had floated out of it, like little white dragons bound for the high sky of the North China Plain, crossing en-route the Hai river, which had seemed much wider than it was now.

Having made an appearance at his brother's drinking party and fulfilled the role of hometown kid made good, Ke Xiangying could hardly wait to ask his brother to help him find and contact old friends.

Before going abroad, Ke Xiangying and Jiang Ming's family, or more precisely, his two sisters, were almost at each other's throats. And after Jiang Ming's family discovered Jiang Ming had unexpectedly titled the deed of his apartment to Ke Xiangying, he became the sworn enemy of the Jiang parents.

Now, with the passage of time, Ke Xiangying can even be in the inconceivable position of sitting in a cafe with Jiang Ming's little sister. Her name was Jiang Liang, and she was a senior engineer at the design institute. They sat there for about half an hour. Ke Xiangying had the distinct realization that as their conversation drew on, Jiang Liang's hatred for him was growing with every second. By the end, this middle-aged, middle class woman no longer cared to put up with the notion of respectable conduct. That rough and tumble childhood spent in the alleys of Tianjin was once again revived in her body. "You intellectuals…" she said. "I've figured it out now. You intellectuals are the most selfish and misanthropic people of all. It was my brother's curse to have met you. So jot this down: other people have the right to say whatever they want about my brother. But not you.

No one would be talking to him about Jiang Ming.

That night at home, Ke Xiangying tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. Finally, he got up and turned on the computer. You all refuse to talk about him with me? Fine. I'll do it myself. He opened a new document, and the screen was as empty as the memories he now had. His fingers fell into the familiar shapes of typing on the keyboard.

"It was the winter of 1993…"

translated author's notes

[1] This work is named in honour of Antonia Pennacchi's debut novel "Mammut" or Mammoth. ["L’egemonia operaia? Ma per piacere… Siamo una classe estinta… Come il bisonte d’Europa. Come i mammut" — Workers' hegemony? Please… We are an extinct class… Like the buffalos of Europe, like the woolly mammoths.]

[2] The Big Four, or literally the "Four Heavens" refers to the four big enterprises in Tianjin that once 'built all of China' - the Tianjin tractor plant, the Tianjin heavy machinery plant, the Tianjin machinery plant, and the Tianjin engine plant.

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collapsedsquid · 2 years ago

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Her data show a clear sign of what economists call the environmental Kuznets curve. The Russian-American, Nobel Prize-winning economist Simon Kuznets argued that as countries industrialize and grow wealthy, the efficiency with which they use natural resources shows a common pattern. They begin in a cheap-and-dirty way, with terrible resource efficiency. But gradually, as pollution and other downsides of this inefficiency increase, they invest in doing things better. Eventually, at least for some materials, efficiency gains exceed rising demand for the products being produced. At that point, economies can start to “dematerialize,” as Rockefeller University futurologist Jesse Ausubel has put it.

In most rich countries, use of agricultural nitrogen shows this curve. The NUE of American and European farms deteriorated until around 1970, as farmers poured on more fertilizer. But after that, it began to improve. Since 2001, the U.S. has been getting higher yields despite putting on less fertilizer, says Zhang.

But in developing countries, there is so far little sign of similar tipping points. The crops bred by the green revolution in effect optimize the cheap-and-dirty approach. With heavily subsidized fertilizer prices in countries like China and India, there are no incentives for farmers to use less. That is why so many nations — and the world’s farmers as a whole — remain stuck on the wrong side of the Kuznets curve, says Zhang.

So what to do? The huge NUE discrepancies between countries mean that the world could cut nitrogen losses simply by rearranging where crops are grown. Ecologist Nathaniel Mueller, of Harvard University, reported recently that the world emits 69 percent more nitrogen from fields than it would if crops were grown in places with optimum nitrogen-use efficiency. But such a global rearrangement of crops sounds unlikely.

Yes I can't imagine why India and China aren't willing to let other nations do all their farming.

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subtlesolitude-tailoredtaste · 1 year ago

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Why the fuck did my parent flee this goddamn country? I wonder. Why the fuck did two ppl who shouldn’t have gotten married and had a child but needed to get the fuck out of the refugee status in a foreign equally poor Arab colony next door? I WONDER.

Now I’m here and now she may not be able to go back. ALL WHILE NIGGAS SCREAMING AND COLLAGING A PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN ALL OVER SOCIAL MEDIA (blame drought and vacuum and abuse of power from TPLF for all of a generation while they loot their own country LOLOLOLOLOLLLOLOPO AND THEY GAVE THE LITERAL STUPID LITERAL FUCKING IDIOT OF A PRIME MINISTER PUSSY WHOLE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE . My nigga let China take it we don’t deserve it.

Shoutout uppity Amhara’s as well head down and turned tryna be like papa Selassie (don’t forget how it ended for that shortie ;/) our parents failed us and we failed our parents.

Salute to Somalia and Eritrea diaspora making power moves in America and uk w strategy and unity respect.

#beam me up Scotty or whoever at this point #am I thee asshole? or am I tired and hopeless?#i wonder #lol #shoutout only children with ropes and access to pharmacies #shoutout being a statistic #sad fucking days #fuck everybody #fuck everything #back to the future my fucking existence #UNDO IT

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anneisbusy · 3 months ago

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Novel - colonialism programme notes

Harriet Beecher Stowe- uncle Tom’s cabin. Biggest selling book in Europe. Transformed people’s views of slavery. Then uncle tom used negatively, faithful servant. But the only way she could win over her middle class audience at the time. 1852. Can high Arles sienne Van Gogh.

Beloved - Toni Morrison 1987

TM descent of slaves. Won Nobel prize for lit.

Ancestors and loss.

Transcends the subject of itself and becomes something bigger.

Heart of Darkness- scramble for Africa

Rudyard Kipling - rush for India. Kim. - skills he picks up as odd job boy in Lahore. Unmasked as white and enrolled at most expensive school in India. School looked down on boys ‘too native’ and will be in charge of natives. Kipling captures ambiguity of identity in colonial encounter. Who is Kim? Key to the novel itself. Kim passes as Indian and recruit in secret service. Dye for skin.

1954 James Bond. Ian Fleming. Escape from 1950s Britain. Exoticism. Live and let die- second novel, buried treasure, Florida, Jamaica. Voodoo and gangsters and sex. Detail. Good writing, attitudes at a political moment. Status. Very funny and engaging. Master of product placement! Bond villain. Where are the coins coming from? Negro corpulent villain. End of empire fantasy. Melancholy. Reassert dominance of Britishness, nostalgia.

Colonies seeking independence 1950s. A house for mr biswas, things fall apart, China Achebe. English and African experience.

Windrush, docked at Tilbury. The lonely Londoners written in England published in 1956. West Indians arrived in England with hopes but bashed. Novel = Bring empire to Britain. Try to find jobs, lose job in the end. Live in bad places. Ducking and diving. Tales of the city. Colonial migrants burden of expectation. Lonely in title - what happens when they get here. Eating pigeons. .selvon’s book natural, insider, ease of being in the writing. Light touch. Spectre of racial prejudice.

Noughts and Crosses- Malorie Blackman. Reversal and inversion. Brutal for people you love. Every character trapped.

African-American novelists- written for black audience. The Sellout, Paul Beatty. African American owning a slave. Anger and comedy. Shocking juxtaposition. Black on black relationships. Humorous lens.

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kramlabs · 5 months ago

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE STRAUSSUIANS

Let us stop for a moment to consider this group, the Straussians, about whom Westerners know little. They are individuals, all Jewish, but by no means representative of either American Jews or of Jewish communities worldwide. They were formed by the German philosopher Leo Strauss, who took refuge in the United States during the rise of Nazism and became a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago. According to many accounts, he had formed a small group of faithful students to whom he gave oral instruction. There is no written record of this. He explained to them that the only way for the Jews not to fall victim to a new genocide was to form their own dictatorship. He called them Hoplites (the soldiers of Sparta) and sent them to disrupt the courts of his rivals. Finally, he taught them discretion and praised the “noble lie”. Although he died in 1973, his student fraternity continued.

The Straussians began forming a political group half a century ago, in 1972. They were all members of Democratic Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson’s staff, including Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz. They worked closely with a group of Trotskyite journalists, also Jewish, who had met at the City College of New York and edited the magazine Commentary. Both groups were closely linked to the CIA, but also, thanks to Perle’s father-in-law Albert Wohlstetter (the US military strategist), to the Rand Corporation (the think tank of the military-industrial complex). Many of these young people intermarried until they formed a compact group of about 100 people.

Together they drafted and passed the “Jackson-Vanik Amendment” in the midst of the Watergate crisis (1974), which forced the Soviet Union to allow the emigration of its Jewish population to Israel under pain of economic sanctions. This was their founding act.

In 1976, Paul Wolfowitz [1] was one of the architects of the “Team B” charged by President Gerald Ford with assessing the Soviet threat [2]. He issued a delirious report accusing the Soviet Union of preparing to take over “global hegemony”. The Cold War changed its nature: it was no longer a question of isolating (containment) the USSR, it had to be stopped in order to save the “free world”.

The Straussians and the New York intellectuals, all of whom were on the left, put themselves at the service of the right-wing president Ronald Reagan. It is important to understand that these groups are neither truly left nor right wing. Some members have switched five times from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and back again. What is important to them is to infiltrate power, whatever the ideology. Elliott Abrams became an assistant to the Secretary of State. He led an operation in Guatemala where he put a dictator in power and experimented with Israeli Mossad officers on how to create reserves for the Mayan Indians in order to eventually do the same thing in Israel with the Palestinian Arabs (the Mayan Resistance earned Rigoberta Menchú her Nobel Peace Prize). Then Elliott Abrams continued his exactions in El Salvador and finally in Nicaragua against the Sandinistas with the Iran-Contra affair. For their part, the New York intellectuals, now called “Neoconservatives”, created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Institute of Peace, a mechanism that organized many colored revolutions, starting with China with the attempted coup d’état of Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang and the subsequent repression in Tiananmen Square.

At the end of George H. Bush’s (the father’s) term of office, Paul Wolfowitz, then number 3 in the Defense Department, drew up a document [3] based on a strong idea: after the decomposition of the USSR, the United States had to prevent the emergence of new rivals, starting with the European Union. He concluded by advocating the possibility of taking unilateral action, i.e. to put an end to the concerted action of the United Nations. Wolfowitz was undoubtedly the designer of “Desert Storm”, the operation to destroy Iraq that allowed the United States to change the rules of the game and organize a unilateral world. It was during this time that Straussians valued the concepts of “regime change” and “democracy promotion.”

Gary Schmitt, Abram Shulsky and Paul Wolfowitz entered the US intelligence community through the Consortium for the Study of Intelligence’s Working Group on Intelligence Reform. They criticized the assumption that other governments think the same way as the US government [4]. Then they criticized the lack of political leadership in intelligence, leaving it to wander into unimportant issues instead of focusing on the essential ones. Politicizing intelligence is what Wolfowitz had already done with the B-team and what he would do again in 2002 with the Office of Special Plans, inventing arguments for new wars against Iraq and Iran (Leo Strauss’ “noble lie”).

Richard Perle

In 1994, now an arms dealer, Richard Perle (a.k.a. “the Prince of Darkness”) became an advisor to the President and ex-Nazi Alija Izetbegović in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was he who brought Osama Bin Laden and his Arab Legion (the forerunner of Al Qaeda) from Afghanistan to defend the country. Perle was even a member of the Bosnian delegation at the signing of the Dayton Accords in Paris.

In 1996, members of the PNAC (including Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser) wrote a study at the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) for the new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. This report [6] advocates the elimination of Yasser Arafat, the annexation of the Palestinian territories, a war against Iraq and the transfer of Palestinians there. It was inspired not only by the political theories of Leo Strauss, but also by those of his friend, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of “revisionist Zionism”, of whom Netanyahu’s father was the private secretary.

Robert Kagan

Thanks to the 9/11 attacks, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz installed Admiral Arthur Cebrowski in Donald Rumsfeld’s shadow. He played a role comparable to that of Albert Wohlstetter during the Cold War. He imposed the strategy of “endless war”: the US armed forces should not win any more wars, but start many of them and keep them going as long as possible. The aim would be to destroy all the political structures of the targeted states in order to ruin these populations and deprive them of any means of defending themselves against the US [7]; a strategy that has been implemented for twenty years in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen…

Bernard Lewis and Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Office

Some individuals, such as Bernard Lewis, have worked with all three groups, the Straussians, the Neoconservatives and the Revisionist Zionists. A former British intelligence officer, he acquired both U.S. and Israeli citizenship, was an advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu and a member of the U.S. National Security Council. Lewis, who halfway through his career assured that Islam is incompatible with terrorism and that Arab terrorists are in fact Soviet agents, later changed his mind and assured with the same aplomb that the religion preaches terrorism. He invented the strategy of the “clash of civilizations” for the US National Security Council. The idea was to use cultural differences to mobilize Muslims against the Orthodox, a concept that was popularized by his assistant at the Council, Samuel Huntington, except that Huntington did not present it as a strategy, but as an inevitability that had to be countered. Huntington began his career as an advisor to the South African secret service during the aparteheid era, and later wrote a book, The Soldier and the State [9]understanding national security needs.

After the destruction of Iraq, the Straussians were the subject of all sorts of controversies [10]. Everyone is surprised that such a small group, supported by neoconservative journalists, could have acquired such authority without having been the subject of a public debate. The U.S. Congress appointed an Iraq Study Group (the so-called “Baker-Hamilton Commission”) to evaluate its policy. It condemned, without naming it, the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski strategy and deplored the hundreds of thousands of deaths it had caused. But Rumsfeld resigned and the Pentagon inexorably pursued this strategy, which it had never officially adopted.

In the Obama administration, the Straussians found their way into Vice President Joe Biden’s cabinet. His National Security Advisor, Jacob Sullivan, played a central role in organizing the operations against Libya, Syria and Myanmar, while another of his advisors, Antony Blinken, focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. It was he who led the negotiations with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of key members of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s team in exchange for the nuclear deal.

Regime change in Kiev in 2014 was organized by the Straussians. Vice President Biden is firmly committed to it. Victoria Nuland came to support the neo-Nazi elements of the Right Sector and to supervise the Israeli “Delta” commando [11] in Maidan Square. A telephone intercept reveals her wish to “fuck the European Union” (sic) in the tradition of the 1992 Wolfowitz report. But the leaders of the European Union do not understand and protest only weakly [12].

“Jake” Sullivan and Antony Blinken placed Vice President Biden’s son, Hunter, on the board of one of the major gas companies, Burisma Holdings, despite opposition from Secretary of State John Kerry. Hunter Biden is unfortunately just a junkie, he would serve as a front for a gigantic scam at the expense of the Ukrainian people. He would appoint, under the supervision of Amos Hochstein, several of his stoner friends to become other front men at the head of various companies and to plunder Ukrainian gas. These are the people that President Vladimir Putin called a “clique of drug addicts”.

Sullivan and Blinken relied on mafia godfather Ihor Kolomoysky, the country’s third largest fortune. Although he is Jewish, he financed the heavyweights of the Right Sector, a neo-Nazi organization that works for NATO and fought in Maidan Square during the “regime change”. Kolomoïsky took advantage of his connections to take power within the European Jewish community, but his co-religionists rebelled and ejected him from international associations. However, he managed to get the head of the Right Sector, Dmytro Yarosh, appointed deputy secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council and to get himself appointed governor of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast. Both men would be quickly removed from any political function. It was their group that President Vladimir Putin called a “clique of neo-Nazis.”

Joe Biden is not a Straussian, but he has been doing business with them for about fifteen years. Here with Anthony Blinken.

THE STRAUSSIANS ARE STILL THE SAME AS EVER

Since Joe Biden returned to the White House, this time as President of the United States, the Straussians have been running the show. “Jake” Sullivan is National Security Advisor, while Antony Blinken is Secretary of State with Victoria Nuland at his side. As I have reported in previous articles, she went to Moscow in October 2021 and threatens to crush Russia’s economy if it ded not comply. This was the beginning of the current crisis.

Undersecretary of State Nuland resurrected Dmitro Yarosh and imposed him on President Zelinsky, a television actor protected by Ihor Kolomoysky. On November 2, 2021, he appointed him special advisor to the head of the army, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The latter, a true democrat, rebelled at first and finally accepted. When questioned by the press about this astonishing duo, he refused to answer and mentioned a question of national security. Yarosh gave his full support to the “white führer”, Colonel Andrey Biletsky, and his Azov Battalion. This copy of the SS Das Reich division has been staffed since the summer of 2021 by American mercenaries formerly from Blackwater [13].

Having identified the Straussians, we must admit that Russia’s ambition is understandable, even desirable. To rid the world of the Straussians would be to do justice to the million or more deaths they have caused and to save those they are about to kill. Whether this intervention in Ukraine is the right way remains to be seen.

In any case, if the responsibility for the current events lies with the Straussians, all those who let them act without flinching also have a responsibility. Starting with Germany and France, who signed the Minsk Agreements seven years ago and did nothing to ensure that they were implemented, and then with the fifty or so states that signed the OSCE declarations prohibiting the extension of Nato east of the Oder-Neisse line and did nothing. Only Israel, which has just got rid of the revisionist Zionists, has expressed a nuanced position on these events.

This is one of the lessons of this crisis: democratically governed peoples are responsible for the decisions taken for a long time by their leaders and maintained after alternations in power.

Thierry Meyssan

[1] “Paul Wolfowitz, the Pentagon’s Soul”, by Paul Labarique, Voltaire Network, 4 October 2004.

[2] Killing Detente: The Right Attacks the CIA, Anne H. Cahn, Pennsylvania State University Press (1998).

[3] This document was revealed in “US Strategy Plan Calls For Insuring No Rivals Develop”, Patrick E. Tyler, New York Times, March 8, 1992. See also the excerpts published on page 14: “Excerpts from Pentagon’s Plan: ’Prevent the Re-Emergence of a New Rival’”. Additional information is provided in “Keeping the US First, Pentagon Would Preclude a Rival Superpower” Barton Gellman, The Washington Post, March 11, 1992.

[4] Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence, Abram N. Shulsky & Gary J. Schmitt, Potomac Books (1999).

[5] « Toward a neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy », Robert Kagan & William Kristol, Foreign Affairs, july-august 1996, vol. 75 (4), p. 18-32.

[6] «A Clean Break : A New Strategy for Securing the Realm», Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (1996).

[7] “The Rumsfeld/Cebrowski doctrine”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 25 May 2021.

[8] «Sommet historique pour sceller l’Alliance des guerriers de Dieu », Réseau Voltaire, 17 octobre 2003.

[9] The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations, Samuel Huntington, Samuel Huntington, Belknap Press (1981).

[10] This controversy is still ongoing. To write this article I have mainly consulted these eight books: The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss, Shadia B. Drury, Palgrave Macmillan (1988). Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire, Anne Norton, Yale University Press (2005). The Truth About Leo Strauss: Political Philosophy and American Democracy, Catherine H. Zuckert & Michael P. Zuckert, University of Chicago Press (2008). Straussophobia: Defending Leo Strauss and Straussians Against Shadia Drury and Other Accusers, Peter Minowitz, Lexington Books (2009). Leo Strauss and the Conservative Movement in America, Paul E. Gottfried, Cambridge University Press (2011). Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West, Harry V. Jaffa, Rowman & Littlefield (2012). Leo Strauss, The Straussians, and the Study of the American Regime, Kenneth L. Deutsch, Rowman & Littlefield (2013). Leo Strauss and the Invasion of Iraq: Encountering the Abyss, Aggie Hirst, Routledge (2013).

[11] «Qui sont ces anciens soldats israéliens parmi les combattants de rue dans la ville de Kiev ?», AlyaExpress-News.com, 2 mars 2014. « The new Gladio in Ukraine », Manlio Dinucci, Il Manifesto (Italie) , Voltaire Network, March 18, 2014.

[12] “What about apologizing to Ukraine, Mrs. Nuland?”, by Andrey Fomin, Oriental Review (Russia) , Voltaire Network, 7 February 2014.

[13] « Exclusive : Documents Reveal Erik Prince’s $10 Billion Plan to Make Weapons and Create a Private Army in Ukraine », Simon Shuster, Time, July 7, 2021.

Via: https://www.voltairenet.org/article215855.html and here: https://www.voltairenet.org/article221176.html

#Thierry Meyssan #neocons #BRICS vs NATO #BRICS vs WHIGS #ziocon #team b #straussians

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nosacouragenosafb · 6 months ago

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Tales of triumphing over challenges and attaining success 1. Nelson Mandela: Endured 27 years in prison under the apartheid regime in South Africa only to be released and become the country's first black president leading the nation through a peaceful transition to democracy. 2. Helen Keller: Overcame deaf-blindness from a young age to become a renowned author political activist and lecturer receiving numerous accolades for her achievements. 3. Walt Disney: Faced multiple business failures and setbacks before creating the iconic Disney brand and revolutionizing the entertainment industry. 4. Beth Comstock: Overcame self-doubt and fear of failure to become the first female vice chair of General Electric where she played a key role in transforming the company's culture and innovation practices. 5. Chris Gardner: Went from being homeless and struggling to provide for his son to becoming a successful stockbroker and motivational speaker inspiring others to pursue their dreams. 6. Misty Copeland: Overcame poverty racism and body image issues to become the first African-American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre breaking barriers in the world of classical ballet. 7. Michael Jordan: Faced numerous setbacks and challenges throughout his basketball career including being cut from his high school team but went on to become one of the greatest athletes of all time and a successful businessman. 8. Malala Yousafzai: Survived a Taliban assassination attempt for advocating girls' education and went on to become the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate and a global advocate for children's rights. 9. Jack Ma: Rejected from multiple jobs and faced numerous failures before founding Alibaba Group one of the world's largest e-commerce companies and becoming one of China's wealthiest individuals. 10. Maya Lin: Overcame discrimination and backlash for her young age and Asian-American heritage to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. a powerful symbol of healing and remembrance. Let us Understand that achieving goals takes time and effort. Don't expect immediate results. Nosa_316 #challenge #courage #nosa_316

Tales of triumphing over challenges and attaining success 1. Nelson Mandela: Endured 27 years in prison under the apartheid regime in South Africa, only to be released and become the country's first black president, leading the nation through a peaceful transition to democracy. 2. Helen Keller: Overcame deaf-blindness from a young age to become a renowned author, political activist, and lecturer, receiving numerous accolades for her achievements. 3. Walt Disney: Faced multiple business failures and setbacks before creating the iconic Disney brand and revolutionizing the entertainment industry. 4. Beth Comstock: Overcame self-doubt and fear of failure to become the first female vice chair of General Electric, where she played a key role in transforming the company's culture and innovation practices. 5. Chris Gardner: Went from being homeless and struggling to provide for his son to becoming a successful stockbroker and motivational speaker, inspiring others to pursue their dreams. 6. Misty Copeland: Overcame poverty, racism, and body image issues to become the first African-American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, breaking barriers in the world of classical ballet. 7. Michael Jordan: Faced numerous setbacks and challenges throughout his basketball career, including being cut from his high school team, but went on to become one of the greatest athletes of all time and a successful businessman. 8. Malala Yousafzai: Survived a Taliban assassination attempt for advocating girls' education, and went on to become the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate and a global advocate for children's rights. 9. Jack Ma: Rejected from multiple jobs and faced numerous failures before founding Alibaba Group, one of the world's largest e-commerce companies, and becoming one of China's wealthiest individuals. 10. Maya Lin: Overcame discrimination and backlash for her young age and Asian-American heritage to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., a powerful symbol of healing and remembrance. Let us Understand that achieving goals takes time and effort. Don't expect immediate results. Nosa_316 #challenge #courage #nosa_316 Uploaded by Nosa Courage Nosa 2024-08-07T21:54:28.000Z via Facebook https://ift.tt/CjVH0rE

#IFTTT #Facebook

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back-and-totheleft · 1 year ago

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The Death of Kissinger

Let the news of the death of the all-powerful Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, aged 100, catch you in a college class where filmmaker Oliver Stone is dissecting some of the state crimes committed with his blessing over the century. It is one of those journalistic lucks that you only get when you work for them.

Last week we were at the home of history teacher Peter Kuznick to talk about the 60th anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. On the table was a book The Untold History of the United States, written with Oliver Stone.

He told us that every semester, after Thanksgiving Day, Stone takes part in one of his classes so students can ask him whatever they want about his films and documentaries. He uses those films to review some of the most traumatic episodes in recent American history. Would you like to come? he asked. Of course.

It is a night class , almost clandestine in the parameters of the American schedule: it starts at half past nine in the evening and ends at eleven at night.

Stone gets there by dragging his feet a little, his 77 years and the effort to smile from time to time evident. "The title of this class should be LIES. That's my obsession, the lies that have sustained many of the military actions that this country of ours has sponsored. This obsession to arm countries, to have interests everywhere, to be permanently involved in wars. It seems to be our leitmotif, always at war - far or near."

There are students of history, education or journalism. They ask him about his experience in Vietnam, about who killed Kennedy, about his parents' divorce or about his "less" political-historical films, such as Natural Born Killers or The Doors.

He doesn't always answer what he is asked. At first, because he is a little deaf and finds it difficult to catch them. And then - this is just my speculation - because he decides what he wants to talk about .

And lately he likes to talk about nuclear energy as a tool to fight climate change (he just released a documentary on the subject, Nuclear Now) and what he sees as America's sick obsession with Russia. "We should be cooperating with Russia, and with China and with Iran. All this militarization, this division, it makes no sense. It is possible to cooperate [internationally]. There is no reason not to, beyond the ideological."

A journalism student stands up to tell him that 15 minutes ago it became known that Henry Kissinger, who was secretary of state and political adviser, formally or informally, to almost every president of the United States from JFK to the present, died at 100 years old.

"Is Kissinger dead? What a great role Paul Sorvino played in the movie we made in 1995 [Nixon]… Well, he was Nixon's guardian angel. It might even seem like he commanded more than the president...and he doesn't give a shit? They gave him a Nobel Peace Prize! Nixon wanted to bomb Cambodia. Kissinger made it possible. The killing was the same. He may not have realized it, but he would've served the Nazi regime, probably, back in the day."

Oliver Stone does not raise his voice much, but he is comfortable in excess and provocation. Professor Kuznick shrinks a little next to him. "Maybe not in the Nazi regime, but it is clear that he acted without any morality."

Up to four times, Stone directs his criticism at the mainstream media and accuses them of always rowing in favor of the government's theses, and hiding shame under the rug.

He does not feel that he has to prove that with any evidence, which, on the other hand, he does want when someone tells him that maybe Putin has something to do with the death of the leader of the Wagner group, or when he says that he has not seen anything that prove that Joe Biden won the last election.

These are statements that he has made these days while promoting, in conventional media as well, his latest documentary. This is the cinematographic genius who has been able to capture and portray -like few others - the traumas of a country he says he loves, but which he has not fully understood for a long time. He who walks the fine line that separates skepticism and critical distancing from the sources official conspiracy theories.

We wanted to ask him how he manages not to cross the line, or if he thinks he's ever crossed it But we couldn't. He leaves the class tired and - I'd say - a little fed up, and dismisses us very quickly. The teacher who had invited us there takes pity on us and summarizes what part of the history of the United States they maintain is not explained: "That of the dominant empire. That - of this empire with hundreds of bases everywhere, of billions of dollars dedicated to the military - that of its more than 200 years of existence, it's always at war. We talk about other people being aggressive and doing terrible things, and we don't look at ourselves."

The journalism student asks him for one final piece of advice, and Oliver Stone seems to give it straight: Don't get too close to the big fish or power. Try to get into the system and try to do as well as you can within it. To that we say, amen.

-Lidia Heredia, "Kissinger, Oliver Stone and a history and film class," 3Cat, Dec 23 2023 [translated from original]

Video at link.

#oliver stone #henry kissinger #peter kuznick #untold history of the united states #class #american university

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bobmccullochny · 1 year ago

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History

October 16, 1701 - Yale University was founded in Killingworth, Connecticut (as the Collegiate School of Connecticut). The school moved to New Haven in 1716. Two years later, the name was changed to Yale College to honor Elihu Yale, a philanthropist. In 1886, it became Yale University.

October 16, 1793 - Queen Marie Antoinette was beheaded during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. She was the wife of King Louis XVI and had become the symbol of the people's hatred for the old regime due to her extravagance and frivolity. According to legend, she responded, "Let them eat cake," when told poor people had no bread.

October 16, 1853 - The Crimean War began after the Turkish Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia, Britain, France and portions of Italy allied with the Turks against Russia. It became the first war observed up close by newspaper reporters and photographers. One of the battles was immortalized in Tennyson's poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade. Amid poor sanitary conditions, disease killed many wounded French and British troops. British nurse Florence Nightingale then pioneered modern-style sanitation methods, saving many lives.

October 16, 1859 - Fanatical abolitionist John Brown seized the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry with about 20 followers. Three days later, Brown was captured and the insurrection was put down by U.S. Marines under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was convicted by the Commonwealth of Virginia of treason, murder, and inciting slaves to rebellion, and was hanged on December 2, 1859.

October 16, 1916 - The first birth control clinic in America was opened in Brooklyn, New York, by Margaret Sanger, a nurse who worked among the poor on the Lower East Side of New York City.

October 16, 1946 - Ten former Nazi leaders were hanged by the Allies following their conviction for war crimes at Nuremberg, Germany.

October 16, 1964 - China detonated its first nuclear bomb at the Lop Nor test site in Sinkiang.

October 16, 1978 - Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland was elected Pope. He was the first non-Italian Pope chosen in 456 years and took the name John Paul II.

October 16, 1995 - The Million Man March took place in Washington, D.C., under the direction of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who delivered the main address to the gathering of African American males.

Birthday - American teacher and journalist Noah Webster (1758-1843) was born in West Hartford, Connecticut. His name became synonymous with "dictionary" after he compiled the first American dictionaries of the English language.

Birthday - Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was born in Dublin, Ireland. Best known for his comedies including; The Importance of Being Earnest. And his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in which he wrote, "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about."

Birthday - David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) was born in Plonsk, Poland. He was largely responsible for founding the modern state of Israel in 1948 and is revered as "Father of the Nation."

Birthday - American playwright Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) was born in New York City. He wrote more than 35 plays and was the first American dramatist awarded a Nobel Prize for literature. He also received four Pulitzers. His dramas, which dealt realistically with psychological and social problems, included; Beyond the Horizon, The Iceman Cometh, The Emperor Jones and Long Day's Journey into Night.

Birthday - American jurist William O. Douglas (1898-1980) was born in Maine, Minnesota. He served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court for 36 years and was also a world traveler, conservationist, outdoorsman and author.

#today's smile

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ramrodd · 1 year ago

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Why does Secretary-General António Guterres said "without strong global institutions “multipolarity could be a factor for escalating geostrategic tensions, with tragic consequences.”?

COMMENTARY

What he is saying is that the toxic political polarization being generated by all things January 6 majority is an incubator for the global Nazification associated with all things William F. Buckley and is a strategically fraught circumstance, with China getting silly about Taiwan and Russia and Ukraine engaged in a end game that needs to be shut down by a United Nations enforced cease fire sponsored by Biden.

Let me illustrate with an identical situation, internationally, when Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay blunted Clinton’s ability to prevent a nasty little genocide from getting any traction in Bosnia. Just like the January 6 insurgency, Newty and Delay were trying to overturn and election because Clinton’s economics were fixing the mess the Reagan Bush administrations left for Clinton to clean up,,

Gingrich was Speaker of the House because of the political strategy of GOPAC which is based on the Trotsky-inspire political strategy of the anti-war movement that led to the Chicago Police riots in 1968 He was doing the same thing with the native white supremacist agenda anywhere the Presbyterian Church is and put together his Contract with American victory with the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6 and emerged during the Obama administration as the Tea Party wing of the Jim Crow Bigotry of Woodrow Wilson and Lost Cause fans of “A Nation is Born. And while Newty and DeLay were preferring charges for consensual sex in the Oval Office, the Christians in Bosnia began killing their Muslim neighbors for being Muslims.

And the “Diplomat-speak for Dummies” version of Guterres's statement is that the January 6 majority is doing the same thing as part of Trump’s treason and it is far more dangerous now than the avoidable genocide in Bosnia.

I don’t know what effect Tommy Tuberville’s obstruction of national security will have, downstream, but it will not be something good for America. When Gingrich and Delay were fucking with Linton’s ability to direct his full attention on bin Ladin, to say nothing of the avoidable genocide of Bosna. Tommy Tuberville represents the people who want to dismantle the administrative state until it fails like American in Atlas Shrugged so they can take over and buy America for salvage prices.

What Jack Smith is engaged in is defense of the Republic from enemies, foreign and domestic. The January 6 majority are domestic enemies of the US Constitution and are the people causing the problems that are increasing the avoidable and unnecessary risks to American national security, if not global de-Nazification and the organic society of Herbert Spencer and Hegel.

The 14th Amendment has been the obvious solution since January 6. Super Tuesday will not interfere with Trump’s court schedule in the least. He will be able to consolidate all his fund raising around his legal defense.

Here’s the thing: Clinton is the only President since Nixon and Eisenhower who understood Clausewitz. He should have shared a Nobel Peace Prize with the French Foreign Legion UN blue Helmets who put on a demonstration of tactical Peace Keeping the pun out the nasty little genocide that Newty and DeLay encouraged to happen with an empty impeachment. The only Bike Pence moment Lindsey Graham ever performed in his contribution to the January 6 majority was voting against impeachment in committee, where it should have died.

If you are woke, just remember that Dan Sickles was the Tommy Tuberville of Gettysburg. The leadership cadre of the January 6 majority has been running America on the basis of Tommy Tuberville’s command of military issues since the Hollywood John Birch Society came to Washington with Reagan and began inflicting their Ivy League Socialism as the law of the land ever since. The collapse of commercial airline service last Christmas is just one example of the damage being done below decs.

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