China: First the ‘Amazon’, then Taiwan, and then the World…

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Here’s my sad tale:

I am Canadian. I have no car. I need to buy things, and so, Amazon is my go-to option. They have been good to me, over the years…the trouble is, it is extraordinarily difficult to find something on Amazon that isn’t MADE IN CHINA.

But now, the news out of China is profoundly disgruntling to anyone with a functional heart in their chest; especially now, given its lame silence over it’s buddy’s shelling the shit out of Ukraine. It is difficult for me to know that my $$$ are ending up in China.

China’s Xi  fancies itself to be a regime that has SOMETHING TO CONTRIBUTE TO CHINA AND THE WORLD, when in fact it is the SPOILED CHILD OF A FAILED ‘PEOPLE’S REVOLUTION’, that now has its hands on the wheel of the car…without having a clue how to drive. This child only knows how to press on the gas. The People’s Revolution has not yet figured out how to take the transmission out of Reverse. THEY ARE GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. Xi is driving China right over the cliff.

Today, after several attempts to find doggie pee pads that are not made in China, but are comparable in price, I finally come upon a product on Amazon.ca by the American Kennel Club (AKC).

I think to myself, ‘Eureka!’. They were twice the cost of what I had been buying locally from Dollarama (they get theirs from China too), but, this was way better than what Glad or some German outfit or a British outfit were charging on Amazon, so I bit my lip and made to click on <Add to Cart>.

But wait! On a lark I <Page Down> to the Place of Origin/Mfr…

THE PEE PADS SOLD WITH THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB BRAND are made in China.

Alright, that’s it. I GIVE!

[I hope they change this…their website shopping page says, Peace For Ukraine. The AKC is donating their profits to the Ukraine! WONDERFUL. But I wonder if they remember the pee pads sold under their brand are coming from China? China could stop the rape of Ukraine WITH ONE PHONE CALL, but will not pick up the phone, just like they wouldn’t when they got the first whiff of COVID-19.]

I’m back to Amazon now, looking into washable pee pads. Good for the environment. I am thinking that if I can find one at a reasonable price, and NOT made in China, I’m going to do that, BECAUSE THAT IS GOOD FOR UKRAINE, CANADA, AND THE WORLD. China is already buzzing with too much ‘sugar’ in its system…I am loathe to feed it more.

China is interested in Western $$$ and uses Western $$$ to fatten its military to expand its territorial reach. Amazon seems to have become a Chinese Manufacturer’s version of a Hollywood Western Façade. There is nothing of substance to Amazon: nothing ‘American’ or ‘Canadian’ or ‘European’ or ‘Ukrainian’ about it; it is all about $$$/profit in the absence of common sense and honour, and for that reason, I will soon cancel my Prime membership and limit my business with Amazon to CANADIAN, AMERICAN, AND (maybe) EUROPEAN PRODUCTS…the ‘maybe’ depends on how much Germany and others are committed to NATO and respectful of America’s sacrifice to them in the Past and supportive of America in its response to Russia and China right now. [btw, country of manufacture should be clearly displayed ON ALL PRODUCTS we buy, online or instore]

The AKC should reconsider who it does ‘business’ with, like I must. I waste a lot of time making sure stuff I get from Amazon is NOT made in China, BECAUSE OF WHAT CHINA IS DOING WITH THE $$$. hello?

If $$$ remains the rule, nothing will change.

See here if you want to know why China is all over Amazon.

 

Family Lore

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‘Once upon a time’, my uncle Russ told me, ‘your dad was driving along the street on his Harley-Davidson (or was it his Indian?), when he happened to pass a bar with several of the local’s motorcycles parked out front. One bike belonged to the local ‘fool’, the remainder to the crowd of locals. Your dad imagined right away what was transpiring inside the bar without too much difficulty. He parked his bike, walked into the bar, and marched straight through the crowd of locals who were menacing the ‘fool’. Your dad stood beside the ‘fool’ (whom, by the way, your dad didn’t care for either), and said to the crowd, “If you want a piece of him (the ‘fool’) you’ll have to go through me.”‘

And that was the end of my uncle’s story. He could see in my face how proud I was to hear that about my dad. MY. DAD.

Imagine how proud I would feel if only my government and my PM and the ruling class they serve would stand up and tell Russia and China, ‘IF YOU WANT UKRAINE AND TAIWAN YOU WILL HAVE TO COME THROUGH US.’

If PM Justin were really like his dad, he’d be talking like my dad.

If the World’s ‘leaders’ were more interested in ‘leading’ than in protecting their assets (and using Ukraine to steal Russia’s; ineffective in the context of protecting Ukraine), they would already be standing between Russia and Ukraine/China and Taiwan, like my dad stood between the ‘fool’ and a menacing crowd, greatly outnumbered, but undaunted…he did what was right.

I get what President Biden is saying about WWIII. At the same time, Russia is doing everything it can to start WWIII. Meanwhile China’s regime – engaged in a race to the pathetic bottom with Putin, the Ayatollahs, and folks like MBS and the Western ruling classes- ‘watches’.

At the very least, peacekeepers need to be brought in to protect the humanitarian corridors. To be fair, military supplies must find another way in. Under these circumstance, Ukrainian non-combatants can get out safely of the way, while their heroes fight to defend their way of life.

As much as Trump trumped NATO’s cohesion, he also exposed the wishy-washy underbelly, the lack of resolve and the political will to DO THE RIGHT THING of European politics.

It is the likes of Zelenskyy that the World needs now. That courage and honesty, together with President Biden’s apparent personal motivation to do the right thing. Not only to face Russia and China and Iran,  but to face the evil that threatens all of us…the ego of Wealth; because that is in service to Satan and it won’t be just $$$ the poor are denied…IT WILL BE THE HELP OF THE CREATOR to make things right.

I sicken at the blather of politicians and the knowledge that the ones responsible for the carnage in Ukraine sit safely in their homes, offices…and, when they are in their Parliaments, the houses of democracy, they talk and do nothing but pat themselves on the back for the nothing they do…and then, down the road, they’ll be telling the poor of their nations that they cannot help them out because they had to help the Ukrainian refugees. There would be no refugees if we did the right things in the first place. But we don’t. Actually, our ruling classes don’t because there is more money in doing things they way they are now…without honour, without self-respect…only the respect of those who are also wealthy and also screwing over their own citizens with trade agreements and tribunals are such ‘leaders’ earning.

Satan is laughing at the Wealthy. We sleepwalk through the b.s. Wealth passes for good government. ha ha ha. Salesmen for wealth is what an Executive with the Whip becomes.

We need only wake up. Satyagraha, not Trucks, is the way forward, if our leaders will not steward our societies.

Strength and Honour.

Like my dad. He was afraid too, but HE NEVER LET FEAR BECOME HIS MASTER.

The New World Order

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We are today at a point of inflection in human history. It is the ‘New World Order’ spearheaded by the West v. the ‘Old World Order’, represented by the East.

Whereas the East would coerce cooperation; the West would promote collaboration. So far, so good.

Whereas Russia is emboldened in their malicious and malevolent assault on Ukrainian citizens by NATO’s response with only economic sanctions, NATO appears to be weak. Even so, they and are doing their damnedest to appear strong; not with bullets, but bullshit. So long as Russia keeps its troops out of the E.U., NATO is prepared to let Ukrainians be slaughtered.

Europe does not want to escalate the Russian gambit into a broader war involving all of Europe, and so it does everything it possibly can to help Ukraine, short of putting its own troops in the line of fire. It is doing a lot. It isn’t doing enough, when people are dying or giving up their life’s possessions and fleeing to ???. Exposed and Afraid. With their children. Their entire lives will be tainted by this business, if they are lucky enough to survive.

NONE OF THIS WOULD BE HAPPENING TODAY, if China stood up and said to Putin, ‘Withdraw your troops,’  – but they do not. The World would have had a better chance and a shorter ride with COVID-19 had China notified the World when it first got a whiff of the virus – but they did not.]

China will not stand up for Ukraine, but they will release a dove every now and then in the news, asking the two sides to negotiate.

NATO will not stand up for Ukraine, but they will supply Ukrainians with weapons to fight a war against a pirate whom they cannot defeat.

???

If China is willing to watch the slaughter and displacement of so many innocents at the hands of a brutal [expletive deleted], what do you suppose is in the back of their minds?

If Putin is successful in obtaining guarantees that what he leaves of Ukraine will not join NATO, why, he has succeeded in halting the evolution of NATO into the U.N.’s global police force. That’s good for China too because they would know, when they move on Taiwan, that they will only have to deal with the US and its regional allies, and not all of Europe’s military (or the U.N.’s) as well.

The global response to COVID was to focus on the avenues and channels of business, to keep them open -propping up folks currently working and businesses/corporations currently operating- but support for the vulnerable was an after thought. Mention of their plight was made by our federal NDP leader, but, his party supported the government without the promise of supports for people looking for work, as I was, and I was not the only one. And let us not forget that SARS warned us of our susceptibility to pandemics and governments did little to nothing with the information.

The global response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine is eerily similar: Democracies around the World are ‘with Ukraine’ like my government was ‘with the poor and longer term unemployed’ during the pandemic. Oh, they’ll talk about Basic Income some day, just not today and ‘We don’t know when exactly we can get to that…so you will have to fend for yourselves in the meantime…’ sort of thing.

Am I missing something, or are the ethics and convictions of the modern world determined by $$$ and nothing else? Whomever has the $$$ must shoulder the blame.

China could end this RIGHT NOW. They could promise to remain neutral at the very least and invite NATO into the European conflict. But t hey do not.

China is playing Xi’s game, just like Russia is playing Putin’s. The citizens of both nations are being duped by the leaders they revere. Shame on those leaders. Right now the slaughter of the innocents on a scale never before seen is happening. But China does nothing.

‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.’ The famous quote by Edmund Burke is even more relevant right now than when he uttered it.

China does nothing. NATO isn’t doing enough; once Russia declares victory, or is allowed to keep what they took already, what NATO is doing now, well, even that amounts to nothing. If he can survive the ‘sanctions’, why he now owns Ukraine.

Thousands dead. Millions displaced. Genocide.

The evil coming appears to be a tripartite world divided between Russia, China, and America, with wars ongoing and people dying in the margins between the three power blocks; just as Orwell imagined when he watched Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt et al. divvy up the post WWII world.

China could earn for itself some good karma, to dispel the bad karma it has incurred over the COVID-19 outbreak in not warning the World in good time, were it to rein in Putin. RIGHT NOW.

If China does nothing, then Xi IS NOT A ‘good man’. If the leaders of NATO do nothing but talk and help at arms-length, they aren’t ‘good men’ either -not for the Ukrainian kids who will die in the assault. What good does saying ‘We are with Ukraine’ do them? It only does something for the utterer and that is to make them feel better about doing NOTHING.

Let us all be good people. Let us stand beside and in front of Ukraine, rather than ‘behind Ukraine’.

Our creator is watching.