Sunday, December 25, 2016
Repost 2012: Christmas Must Proceed In 1864
The Davis family tried to make the best of Christmas, despite the lack
of even basic staples. Gifts were homemade and simple. Supper was
spare, but there was still a celebration.
Why China should follow Trump’s example and cut taxes
Via Billy
The unorthodox foreign policy views of incoming US president Donald
Trump may have unsettled Chinese leaders who are still trying to make
sense of the billionaire’s true intentions. But the mainland’s obsession
with Trump’s presidency is not just about politics or bilateral trade.
His domestic economic agenda, in which he champions tax cuts and deregulation to boost the economy and create jobs, has inadvertently fuelled an already intense debate in China over the state and direction of the Chinese economy.
More specifically, the issue is about how to help the manufacturing industries. Those industries once gained China a reputation as the world’s workshop and helped turn it into the world’s second largest economy, but are now weighed down by suffocating taxes and fees, soaring land prices and other operating costs.
Women work in a shirt factory in Nantong, in
China’s Jiangsu province. China’s labour costs are no longer the
advantage they once were.
It’s time for the Chinese leadership to heed concerns of private sector.
His domestic economic agenda, in which he champions tax cuts and deregulation to boost the economy and create jobs, has inadvertently fuelled an already intense debate in China over the state and direction of the Chinese economy.
More specifically, the issue is about how to help the manufacturing industries. Those industries once gained China a reputation as the world’s workshop and helped turn it into the world’s second largest economy, but are now weighed down by suffocating taxes and fees, soaring land prices and other operating costs.
More @ This Week In Asia
The Reality of the Cruel Communist Life
Via Billy
I can sleep better at night now that the specter of global communism has temporarily dissipated from our America with the election and confirmation by the Electoral College of our 45th president, Donald Trump.
One cannot imagine my temporary relief and inner peace, not having to hear Hillary’s hectoring voice, giving us lectures on social justice, equality, racism, bigotry, and white privilege, while banking billions of other people’s money.
Her voice reminded me of Elena Ceausescu, the “mother,” co-creator and conspirator of our communist misery and exploitation we had to endure for decades. She and her husband brought an entire nation to its knees with a Stalinist police state that was state of the art at the time.
On a really cold day like today, 22 degrees Fahrenheit, I remember my gloveless fingers turning red in the frigid air but holding on tight to my precious loaf of bread called "franzela." I had waited in line for a long time to buy it and nobody let me ahead of the line because I was a child, it was a fight for survival.
No crayons, coloring books, or puppies to comfort and shield me from the harsh reality. I was fighting, in a small way, for our daily existence. There was no safe space for me to crawl into except my mother’s arms. And she was too busy to give hugs to her scared and cold little girl who did not understand that other people, in faraway lands, lived much better lives even in their darkest days.
There was no time or place for pampering, we had to become hardened and learn fast how to survive.
I can sleep better at night now that the specter of global communism has temporarily dissipated from our America with the election and confirmation by the Electoral College of our 45th president, Donald Trump.
One cannot imagine my temporary relief and inner peace, not having to hear Hillary’s hectoring voice, giving us lectures on social justice, equality, racism, bigotry, and white privilege, while banking billions of other people’s money.
Her voice reminded me of Elena Ceausescu, the “mother,” co-creator and conspirator of our communist misery and exploitation we had to endure for decades. She and her husband brought an entire nation to its knees with a Stalinist police state that was state of the art at the time.
On a really cold day like today, 22 degrees Fahrenheit, I remember my gloveless fingers turning red in the frigid air but holding on tight to my precious loaf of bread called "franzela." I had waited in line for a long time to buy it and nobody let me ahead of the line because I was a child, it was a fight for survival.
No crayons, coloring books, or puppies to comfort and shield me from the harsh reality. I was fighting, in a small way, for our daily existence. There was no safe space for me to crawl into except my mother’s arms. And she was too busy to give hugs to her scared and cold little girl who did not understand that other people, in faraway lands, lived much better lives even in their darkest days.
There was no time or place for pampering, we had to become hardened and learn fast how to survive.
More @ Freedom Outpost
The Official F-35 Price Tags Are Bogus
Via comment by Papa on Trump Pits Boeing Against Lockheed to Cut Costs of...
The price is not for a functioning airplane.
On Dec. 12,
2016, president-elect Donald Trump asserted that F-35 unit cost was “out
of control” through his preferred medium Twitter. On Dec. 19, 2016,
U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, in charge of the Joint Strike
Fighter project, gave the press his version of things.
Multiple media outlets
passed along the officer’s comments, but with no analysis of the
completeness and accuracy of Bogdan’s assertions. The reports offered no
context or alternative views on the stealth fighter’s actual cost per
plane.
The
general said each one of the Air Force’s F-35A would cost $102.1
million, while both the U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35Bs and and U.S. Navy’s
F-35Cs would set the taxpayer back 132 million each. Those costs average
to approximately $122 million for a “generic” F-35
More @ War Is Boring
The U.S. Navy’s Next Hawkeye Plane Can Detect Stealth Fighters
Via comment by Papa on Trump Pits Boeing Against Lockheed to Cut Costs of...
Specifically, the next generation of Russian and Chinese fighters
Earlier
this month, the first Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne
early warning aircraft equipped with aerial refueling capability made
its first flight.
The
ability to receive fuel addresses one of the few shortcomings of the
new airborne surveillance plane, which acts as the airborne eyes and
ears of a U.S. Navy carrier strike group.
More @ War Is Boring