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The War On Humanity — Part 6

Par : AHH — 6 décembre 2025 à 17:43

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “didn’t purchase the high-risk mortgages due to pressure, but because they were participants reading from the same script as Goldman, Sachs. These institutions weren’t naive victims but rather active participants in a coordinated worldwide scheme to loot and plunder.”

By Larry Romanoff at Blue Moon of Shanghai.

The Jews’ War On Humanity — Part 6 – The 2008 US Gentile Housing Crisis (3 of 4)

Three Perpetrator-Victims:

Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac
The Strange Case of Lehman Brothers
American Insurance Group (AIG)
The Bailout
The Official Story
Rinse and Repeat

1. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac

This is a crucial piece of the 2008 puzzle. The institutions of Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) were Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). They were not original lenders but existed to provide liquidity and stability to the US mortgage market. They would buy mortgages from banks and other lenders then pool those mortgages to create Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS), and sell these MBSs to investors (like pension funds) worldwide.

But there was a crucial difference between them and all other participants in the mortgage market in that they purchased only high-quality mortgages, and they fully guaranteed these investments. Both institutions guaranteed to pay the principal and interest on the underlying mortgages even if the homeowner defaulted. Thus, a 100% guarantee of the value of the investment. It is a matter of record that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned or guaranteed about half of all US mortgages, a figure that rose to over 80% after the crisis began. In reality, it was rather like buying a government bond in that no investor could ever lose money because the US government provided a backstop to these two entities, if they were unable to meet their obligations. Their “securitisation” process served two vital functions. It freed up capital for banks and other lenders, allowing them to issue new mortgages. Also, it standardised mortgage underwriting while providing a massive, steady flow of capital into the US housing system. It is important that these two institutions were privately owned, but with a US government sponsorship and a federal backstop, the eventual guarantee provided by the US government itself.

As things unfolded, the “guarantee” inherent in their securities became a poison pill, and was the cause of their destruction. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac had purchased – and guaranteed – trillions of dollars of securitised NINJA mortgages and, when the bubble burst, those guarantees were called. They were then contractually obligated to make investors whole, paying out the missing principal and interest from the defaulted mortgages. This turned their massive, steady stream of income into a catastrophic, unending cash outflow. They were actually hit by a double whammy. The first was being obligated to cover the losses on the defaulting mortgages they had guaranteed. The second was that they held many of those low-quality mortgage-related assets in their own investment portfolio and, when the market collapsed, the value of these assets plummeted, forcing them to write down their value and realise massive losses.

They were not just the guarantors of the market; they were also one of its largest, most highly leveraged speculators. They bet on the US housing market with an implicit government guarantee, and they lost. In September 2008, the US government was forced to place both companies into a form of bankruptcy where they were put under federal control and propped up with around $200 billion in taxpayer funds to prevent their total collapse from annihilating the global financial system.

Prior to the bankruptcies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were classified as Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) but, in reality, they were publicly traded, private businesses. They had a diverse base of institutional shareholders. Capital Research Global Investors was the largest single shareholder of both companies, with other shareholders including Fidelity Investments, American Funds, and many other funds having significant stakes. These two firms were the pillars of the US housing market, owning or guaranteeing over 80% of all US mortgages after the crisis began. Their debt was held by central banks and financial institutions worldwide.

A Look Backward at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

A “standard narrative” was being promoted that Fannie and Freddie caused the subprime crisis by buying risky loans, but the reality was different. As the housing bubble inflated in the early 2000s, the private-label (and low-quality) MBS market (led by Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers) exploded. The official story for the gullible public was that the “prime” sector of the market where these two GSE firms lived, was nearly stagnating while the “subprime” portion was growing exponentially. And because of this, Fannie and Freddie’s market share shrank dramatically. We were told that to maintain relevance and profitability, they felt immense pressure to lower their own underwriting standards and buy these riskier securitised loans to package into their own MBS.

There is something very wrong with the official story which says they felt “pressured” to purchase vast amounts of the toxic securities. It is not possible their purchases resulted from pressure of any kind. These institutions were owned and controlled by firms like Capital Group, who are the largest fund managers in the world, managing more than $3 trillion. Given the sophisticated ownership and management, to suggest that public pressure forced them to purchase enough garbage securities to bankrupt themselves, is an insult to intelligence. These people, of all people, had to fully understand the nature of the CDOs and the risks. They were not children.

The only theory that fits all the known facts is that these firms were active participants along with Goldman, Sachs, Lehman Brothers and the other investment banks in the massive fraud underlying the housing crisis. And that means their purchase and sale of the toxic securities was just another “financialisation project” where they helped firms like Goldman, Sachs privatise the profits and socialise the losses by using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as tools. Given their social mandate, there was no valid reason for these two institutions to have knowingly purchased toxic securities when they were full guarantors. They knew they were bound by law to make investors whole, but they also knew the government backstopped them. They didn’t purchase the high-risk mortgages due to pressure, but because they were participants reading from the same script as Goldman, Sachs. These institutions weren’t naive victims but rather active participants in a coordinated worldwide scheme to loot and plunder.

It is not possible to definitively confirm or deny a coordinated script with firms like Goldman Sachs, but an assessment of all the small details of the framework and incentives, creates a compelling argument that this was a massive and deliberate fraud. The argument is that the shareholders of these firms saw such immense and immediate profits in the subprime market that they jumped in with both feet. And they were not sacrificing the companies in the process: they knew they would be unable to fulfill their obligations, but the government would bail them out and they would survive, having looted investors and the US government of hundreds of billions of dollars. And that is precisely what happened. The People’s Bank of China published an assessment of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac that you might care to read. [1]

The market operated under a long-standing belief in an implicit government guarantee—that the US would not allow the GSEs to fail because of their vital role in the housing market. This created a “heads we win, tails the taxpayer loses” dynamic, encouraging risk-taking with the understanding that the downside would be borne by the public.

Well before the 2008 collapse, there were clear signals that the GSEs were engaging in dangerously aggressive behavior. Warren Buffett was a major investor in Freddie Mac but sold nearly all of his holdings starting in 2000, when the scheme had barely begun. Buffett expressed a fundamental loss of confidence in their management and, crucially, detected signs that Freddie Mac’s management was “cooking the books” and providing misleading financial reports. This action from one of history’s most astute investors is a powerful piece of circumstantial evidence that the problems were known internally. Before the crisis even unfolded, Buffett said the company had “the signs and the smell of death“. [2] [3] Buffett also sensed the increasing danger from the “derivative” securities that were being so aggressively marketed (the CDSs); he said they were “financial weapons of mass destruction”.

Insiders were also keenly aware of the impending doom. Internal documents and subsequent investigations revealed that the GSEs were aware of the risks they were taking. There were many internal warnings: As early as 2004, a Fannie Mae risk manager warned in an internal presentation that the company was so excessively leveraged on subprime mortgages that even a 5% decline in house prices would wipe out their capital and leave them bankrupt. That warning was ignored, but it wasn’t a case of ignorance. There is much evidence of knowing complicity in what was essentially a huge criminal fraud. The executives and shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac knew precisely what they were doing, knew the inevitable end result, but were executing a plan to loot trillions from investors and the public and leave the US government holding the bag when the bubble burst.

As the housing bubble inflated in the early 2000s, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers aggressively securitised subprime loans—the very risky, high-yielding mortgages that fell outside Fannie and Freddie’s traditional “conforming” standards. The official narrative about their market share shrinking, was both irrelevant and untrue. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had never taken part in this segment of the market, and the borrowers with good credit did not disappear, so their market share could not shrink.

The official story says that if they lost market share, they would no longer the dominant players in the fastest-growing part of the market, and facing a threat to their dominance and profitability. But that entire line of reasoning is irrelevant, a false “official story” that does not explain WHY these two agencies would want to buy toxic mortgages. These were not normal commercial enterprises like Ford and VW fighting for “market share”, and they cannot be compared to normal corporations. Their legislated function was fundamentally social and economic, to provide a stable mortgage market, not to dominate a market or to maximise profits for the next quarter.

Their only concern about the explosion of the subprime sector should have been to minimise it, not to participate in it.

There is no rational reason they should have purchased securities they knew were high-risk, which went entirely against their stated purpose. The only logical explanation that fits all the known facts, is that the owners of these two companies were part of the plot, cooperating with Goldman and Lehman to plunder the US Treasury, knowing that they could extract enormous profits today and, when they failed, the government would assume the guarantees on all the toxic mortgages they held. Thus, the owners and shareholders could afford to be reckless. They sucked tens of billions of investor money into their pockets, paid billions in bonuses to their staff to purchase these toxic investments, then left the US government holding the bag for hundreds of billions more. Their actions perfectly mirror those of Goldman, Sachs, Citibank, Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, Citibank, and all the others. All players were reading from precisely the same script. When we connect all the pieces, we can’t avoid concluding this was a deliberate fraud, with all available evidence supporting that interpretation.

It is important that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were not normal commercial companies. Their congressional charters established them for a public purpose: to provide liquidity, stability, and affordability to the US mortgage market. To suddenly begin chasing market share in the subprime sector was a direct betrayal of that mission. Their hybrid public-private structure proved fatal because that structure created a perfect environment for criminal behavior. They used their government-backed advantage not just for market stability, but for aggressive looting to please their private shareholders. This was in many ways reminiscent of the giant Savings and Loan fraud of the early 1980s.

When the fraud began, executives at Fannie and Freddie were paid like private Wall Street CEOs, with their compensation heavily tied to metrics like earnings per share and market share growth. In the early 2000s, CEO compensation at the GSEs reached tens of millions of dollars. To hit the targets that would generate these massive bonuses, they had dive into the pool of private subprime mortgages. The accurate and damning story is that the Jewish owners, shareholders, and management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hijacked these two institutions with a plan to deceive investors and to loot the US government of hundreds of billions of dollars. The record is clear that they created a perverse incentive and bonus structure to ensure this, bonuses not aligned with their public mission, but with private greed. Taking advantage of their private ownership and government backing, they knowingly abandoned their role as a stabilising force and became a primary accelerator of the crisis, secure in the belief that the American taxpayer would be forced to cover their losses. The tragedy is that the “privatise profits, socialise losses” model I have identified, is not an anomaly in modern finance. But the 2008 crisis was its most spectacular and devastating manifestation.

While proving criminal intent is difficult, the evidence overwhelmingly supports a conclusion of gross, calculated negligence and a breach of fiduciary duty. We have no choice but to conclude that this was a massive betrayal of trust. The leaders of these institutions foresaw the potential for massive losses but proceeded anyway, believing the profits would be theirs and the losses would be borne by the taxpayer. The fact that this was a foreseeable consequence of their actions is the very definition of the moral hazard I described – where foreseeable consequences imply intent.

From left, Henry Paulson, secretary of the Treasury; Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman; and Timothy Geithner, head of the New York Fed, at a news conference in 2008, as global finances faced ruin. Meeting transcripts from the period were released Friday. CreditHyungwon Kang/Reuters. Source

2. The Strange Case of Lehman Brothers

This is a profound and troubling point that ventures into one of the most controversial aspects of the 2008 crisis. From assembling and connecting the pieces of evidence, it appears that Lehman Brothers was permitted (or, more accurately, chosen and pushed) to go bankrupt, in large part to frighten the US Congress into bailing out the other big banks. It is a bit of a question why Lehman was actively disliked in some powerful segments of the international Jewish banking fraternity.

Lehman had 158 years of history, and was the fourth largest investment bank in the United States. When it filed for bankruptcy protection, it had assets of $635 billion and liabilities of $613 billion. [4] Throughout the summer of 2008, due to the deterioration of the real estate market, the crisis in the financial market became more and more serious, and Lehman’s problems became more and more obvious: Lehman held too many non-performing housing loans which it couldn’t divest. The most important thing is that the scale of these non-performing assets was extraordinary: Lehman lost as much as $7 billion in commercial housing loans alone, and its stock price plummeted by 90%. [5] [6]

The official narrative was that Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail because the government lacked the legal authority to bail it out, and perhaps secondarily wanted to teach the market a lesson about moral hazard. The theory was that if Lehman were rescued, it would encourage financial institutions to engage in high-risk business recklessly, thereby seriously damaging market self-discipline mechanisms. In addition, multiple bailouts of financial companies were bound to cause other industries in trouble to ask the US government to rescue them. But the actual Lehman events that unfolded, suggest a far more calculated and cynical operation. I cannot conclusively verify all the specifics, but we can still analyse the plausibility of this scenario based on known facts, financial mechanics, and historical patterns.

Lehman was definitely an exception to the US government largess of bailout money, and this could only have been a deliberate decision. The suspicion that Lehman Brothers was “chosen” to go bankrupt is supported by the historical record, a stark contrast to the US Treasury’s actions with other similar institutions. Only months earlier, in March of 2008, the FED had facilitated JPMorgan‘s takeover of Bear Stearns by agreeing to back $30 billion of its risky assets. When Lehman found itself in an identical crisis by September, its CEO, Richard Fuld, desperately sought a similar deal. However, the US government’s stance on Lehman was not determined by the US government, but by Henry Paulson who was “totally in charge” and who made a conscious choice not to save Lehman. Paulson called investment bank executives on Wall Street and said he would not use taxpayer funds to rescue Lehman.

After that, the Treasury Department and the FED made it clear that the federal government would not provide any financial support for investors to acquire Lehman. Paulson’s main stated reasons were that the US had no authority to prevent a Lehman failure, and that a bailout would create a “moral hazard” – rewarding risky behavior and setting a dangerous precedent for future crises. But this public rationale deserved only ridicule at best. If the US had no authority to bail out Lehman, and if Lehman didn’t deserve a bailout due to moral hazard, then what was Goldman, Sachs? And what “right” did the FED or the Treasury have, to bail out AIG, Bear Sterns and the others? The suspicion that Lehman Brothers was “chosen” to go bankrupt is supported by the historical record.

The then-President of the NYC FED, Timothy Geithner, (a junior to Paulson) arranged a private sale to Barclays bank in the UK, but the deal collapsed when UK regulators suddenly refused to approve it. Paulson apparently traveled to “Europe” (i.e. the UK) and informed various parties that the US would not use “taxpayer funds” to bail out Lehman Brothers. But the official narrative was nonsense; Paulson’s statements were a warning to others that any attempt to bail out Lehman would not be appreciated. The UK government were not objecting to this bailout, and indeed had bailed out other banks. But, after Paulson’s intervention, the UK government abruptly backed away.

Without a government backstop to absorb Lehman’s worst assets, no other buyer was willing to take on the risk. It was Henry Paulson who definitively killed the rescue of Lehman Brothers. Geithner published a book revealing the inside story of Lehman’s collapse. [7] In that text he wrote, “This was one of the few estrangements between me and Henry during the crisis. There was even some estrangement between me and [then-Fed Chairman] Ben [Bernanke].” Ultimately, Paulson declared that the FED “did not have the right” to save Lehman.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley had the strength to acquire Lehman, but both had suffered heavy losses in the subprime mortgage crisis, and were taking care of themselves. Private equity funds such as J.C. Flowers, KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co), Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group also had the strength to buy, but those institutions were not interested in acquiring Lehman as a whole, but hoped to acquire some of Lehman’s high-quality assets at a low price after the bank was liquidated.

WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 11: Executives from the financial institutions who received TARP funds, (L-R) Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein, JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon, The Bank of New York Mellon CEO Robert P. Kelly, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis (obsucred), and State Street Corporation CEO and Chairman Ronald Logue testify before the House Financial Services Committee February 11, 2009 in Washington, DC. The hearing focused on how financial institutions have spent funds received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images). Source

The bankruptcy raised many questions and offered much to confound observers. One is whether Lehman was pushed into bankruptcy as a planned “Sacrificial Lamb”. This is the most strategic layer since it tries to explain why Lehman was singled out for destruction while AIG, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, and Bank of America were saved. The most plausible answer is what we term the “Controlled Demolition” theory. Many analysts have argued that the system needed a catastrophic event to shock Congress and the public into accepting unprecedented bailouts (the TARP program) for the bankers. Letting Lehman fail provided the necessary “heart attack” to justify the “open-heart surgery” on the rest of the banking system. In this view, Lehman’s failure was a tactical sacrifice to save the whole – and socialising some of the largest collective losses in history.

The chaotic aftermath of Lehman’s bankruptcy truly did terrify global markets and the US Congress, and was what spurred Congress to approve the $700 billion TARP program, and also to become much more aggressive in bailing out other firms, like the insurance giant AIG. It is of course possible that Lehman was simply the weakest link with the least political clout or the most disagreeable management in the eyes of the Treasury and the FED. The notion that its collapse was “planned” implies a level of coordination that is hard to prove. However, the outcome was the same: its failure served as a justification for a massive, no-strings-attached rescue of its competitors.

When Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, its global operations were frozen and began a long, complex process of liquidation. However, its European operations, based in London, were placed into administration (the UK equivalent of bankruptcy) under different rules. The administrators for Lehman Brothers International (Europe) have so far (to the end of 2025) spent over a decade unwinding its positions and returning assets to creditors. What remains today is not “Lehman Brothers” the active investment bank, but a shell of its former self, managed by teams of lawyers and administrators who are still settling claims.

There is something else here, that was strange. I encountered credible information that “someone” was selling bonds in Lehman Brothers right until the day of the bankruptcy, and were selling them not at a discount but at a high price, claiming that Lehman was in good health. My sources in Hong Kong claimed that at least several billions of US$ of Lehman bonds were sold to investors in Hong Kong right up until the day of the bankruptcy. This raises some interesting questions. If billions of dollars of Lehman bonds were sold, the money would normally have gone into Lehman’s treasury and the firm could not have gone bankrupt. But the money from those bond sales clearly did not go into Lehman Brothers treasury, which means it went into the pockets of the private owners of the company. There is justification for a belief that insiders knowingly sold Lehman bonds at inflated prices right up to the bankruptcy, diverting funds to private pockets rather than the company treasury. I saw documents that claimed, with some good (circumstantial) evidence that, although Lehman was planned and permitted to go bankrupt as a kind of sacrificial lamb, the owners would not necessarily be losers.

I haven’t enough evidence to jump to conclusions, but it appears possible, if not likely, that the Lehman bankruptcy holds yet another financial fraud, and where the bankruptcy was a kind of “controlled demolition” of Lehman, done for greater purposes. Certainly, the historical context gives plausibility to this thesis. In financial crises, there are almost always suspicious trading patterns before collapses. The bond sales in Hong Kong align with known issues of offshore financial opacity, and we can draw comfort from documented patterns from other financial scandals. If we think of the bond sales, the sacrificial lamb theory, and the strange afterlife of Lehman Brothers in London, we can easily tie this back to the broader theme of deliberate wealth transfer.

First, the plausibility is high that “someone” really was selling Lehman bonds until the end. This would be entirely consistent with the “Greater Fool” theory and the incentive structures we’ve examined. When the insiders knew a bankruptcy was imminent, their primary goal would be to raise and extract as much cash as possible through any means before the doors shut. Selling bonds, especially in distant markets like Hong Kong where information asymmetry was high, is a classic tactic the Jews have used repeatedly.

The most damning part of this is that selling a distressed asset at a deep discount is one thing; fraudulently marketing it as a safe investment at par value is another, and would obviously constitute securities fraud. To support this thesis, there were numerous civil cases after the fact alleging that Lehman and others misled investors about the health of their assets right up to the collapse.

The critical distinction is perhaps the destination of the funds obtained from the sales. If Lehman Brothers the corporation issued new bonds, the cash would go to the corporate treasury to fund its operations, even if those operations were doomed. However, if major shareholders or partners (the “private owners”) were selling their personal holdings of existing Lehman bonds to unsuspecting buyers, then the cash would go directly into their pockets, not the company’s. This would be a direct transfer of wealth from the new buyers to the insiders liquidating their positions. Proving this on a large scale is difficult, but it is a known phenomenon in dying companies. As one easy example, insiders often use their superior knowledge to dump their stock before bad news becomes public, and Lehman would be essentially the same thing – but with lies attached.

The scenario outlined above, fits a recognisable pattern of financial predation. There is always insider knowledge prior to such a collapse, where the apex players at the doomed institution know the true state of its balance sheet. When we examine these cases, it seems almost inevitable that the insiders used this knowledge to offload toxic assets onto less-informed investors in offshore and distant markets at inflated prices. And the cash from these final sales extracted from the system went directly into the pockets of insiders selling their personal stakes. The institution is then allowed to fail.

3. American Insurance Group (AIG)

AIG was the largest insurance company in the world, operating in more than 130 countries. The company’s CEO for nearly 40 years, was Maurice Greenberg, who was part of the Jewish financial elite and well-known to all the players. Greenberg built AIG and, under his leadership, AIG’s market value soared from $3 billion to $1.7 trillion. The man was known for his obsessive control, relentless drive, and sophisticated understanding of risk and financial innovation. Greenberg was also a financial criminal. His reign as CEO ended abruptly in 2005 when a New York investigation uncovered accounting irregularities, forcing his resignation and a $1.6 billion regulatory settlement. AIG did indeed engage in fraudulent accounting. In 2000, AIG engaged in a complex transaction with Warren Bufffet’s General Re that regulators concluded was not true insurance, but a $500 million deal designed to artificially bolster AIG’s financial appearance. [8]

This would suggest that Greenberg was a perfect partner in the massive 2008 mortgage fraud, and he was certainly no stranger to either risk or profit. However it happened, Greenberg and AIG became so deeply involved in the US housing CDO fraud that it bankrupted the company and needed a bailout by the FED and US Treasury.

To recap, the heart of the 2008 crisis was the process of securitising mortgages into complex financial products. Because the bankers conspired to loot the entire known world, this process interconnected the entire global financial system to the US housing market. First, banks issued trillions of dollars of subprime mortgages to totally unqualified borrowers. Then, the investment banks (like Goldman and Lehman) bought these mortgages and bundled them into bonds called Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS).

Maurice Greenberg, former CEO of American International Group, in better days in 2005. Greenberg believes the 2008 government bailouts left him and other AIG shareholders poorer. Photograph: STEPHEN CHERNIN/AP.

They then took these MBSs and split them into new, even more complex products called Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs). These contained tiers, or “tranches,” with different levels of risk and return. The complexity of these (repeatedly sliced and diced securities) was not well known; the prospectus was more than 200 pages and there were probably few who could, or would, read that document. These MBSs and CDOs were sold to investors worldwide (pension funds, foreign banks, etc.).

To make these risky products seem safe, two additional frauds were perpetrated. The rating agencies like S&P and Moody’s falsely gave the subprime rubbish packages a rating of AAA. The second fraud was that AIG sold insurance on securities through instruments called Credit Default Swaps (CDSs). AIG wasn’t a buyer of the toxic securities, but a seller of a kind of insurance on them.

Through a small, 377-person unit in London called AIG Financial Products (AIGFP), the company sold CDS contracts to major banks and investors worldwide. In simple terms, AIG promised investors that if their complex bundles of mortgages (MBSs and CDOs) were to default, AIG would cover the losses. The company appeared to believe that the only risk was in a severe and nationwide crash in US housing prices, a condition considered to be a “once in a million” event for which the possibility was essentially zero.

WASHINGTON – MARCH 18: Code Pink protesters hold signs as Chairman and CEO of the American International Group Edward Liddy prepares to testify before the House Financial Services Committee March 18, 2009 in Washington, DC. Hired after AIG accepted billions of dollars in aid from the federal government, Liddy faced intense scrutiny from members of Congress over $165 million in bonuses paid to employees of the insurance giant. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images). Source

For AIG, this seemed like “free money.” They collected billions in lucrative insurance premiums, believing that they would never have to pay out. AGIFP stated openly that there was essentially zero risk that they would ever have to pay “even $1.00”. For the banks, buying this insurance from a top-rated firm like AIG made their risky assets appear safe, allowing them to meet regulatory requirements.

This “insurance” from AIG, added to the fraudulent AAA ratings from the rating agencies, is what convinced investors to participate.

AIGFP’s models were built on the assumption that a crisis affecting all regions and housing market segments was virtually impossible. They grew this business to an enormous scale, at one point providing CDS protection on over $600 billion in bonds, creating a huge, undiversified risk that eventually threatened the entire company. When the “once in a million” housing market collapse occurred and the securities AIG had insured plummeted in value, three things happened simultaneously: (1) The risk of default skyrocketed, meaning AIG’s potential insurance liabilities became enormous. (2) AIG’s own credit rating was downgraded. (3) These two events triggered clauses in the CDS contracts that forced AIG to immediately post billions of dollars in cash collateral. Despite being a massive company, AIG was not a bank and did not have tens of billions in liquid cash on hand. It was this liquidity crisis—the inability to meet its immediate collateral calls—that pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy within days.

4. The Bailout

The US government decided that AIG was “too interconnected to fail”. Its collapse would have caused catastrophic losses for the countless banks and pension funds that had bought its insurance, potentially triggering a domino effect through the entire global system. In September 2008, the Federal Reserve stepped in with an $85 billion emergency loan to keep AIG afloat. Then, the US government took an 80% ownership stake in AIG, effectively nationalising it. There is an interesting article from Peking University that gives a clear explanation of why AIG was bailed out when Lehman wasn’t. [9]

There were many investigations and much public anger about AIG’s collapse and the subsequent bailout. There were reports of FBI investigations into several financial firms, including AIG, for potential fraud, and there was also widespread public outrage over the use of taxpayer funds for bailouts while the same firms continued to pay million-dollar bonuses to their staff.

The Supreme Court declined to review a challenge to the government’s actions during the crisis-era bailout of insurer American International Group Inc. Source

There were enormous controversies about the bailout of AIG, primarily because that money did not go to AIG. Instead, nearly all the bailout funds were passed through AIG to its counterparties who were the banks that originated the fraud but had exposure to AIG. Of the money supposedly paid to bail out AIG, $12 billion went to Goldman, Sachs, another $12 billion to the Bank of America & Merrill Lynch, $16 billion to Societe Generale in France, and $8.5 billion to Deutsche Bank, among many others. Another $12 billion went to various US states and municipalities. None of it remained with AIG.

The decision to fully repay AIG’s counterparties was contentious for several reasons. One was that the “bailout” of AIG appeared to fraudulently divert funds from their stated purpose to in fact bail out the same banks that caused the crisis (the so-called “counterparties”). And these banks were refunded 100% of AIG’s obligations to them, making them whole on their own risky bets. This was all done with questionable justification. The New York FED defended its actions by stating that it aimed to avoid destabilising the financial system and that the banks needed full payment to avoid failure.

Another contention was the intense lack of transparency. The entire process was initially conducted in secret, with the Federal Reserve refusing to publicly disclose the recipients. This secrecy, combined with the fact that many of these banks had already received direct government bailouts, led to intense criticism from lawmakers and the public, who saw it as a “backdoor bailout” for Wall Street at the expense of the people.

Perhaps the most politically explosive part of the bailout was that the US government, through AIG, effectively bailed out European banks like Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank. The official justification was not about saving them, but about saving the American financial system from them.

Because of the massive volume of “insurance” contracts it had sold, AIG was at the center of a global web of financial contracts. If it had declared bankruptcy and defaulted on its CDS obligations, the massive, sudden losses would have instantly crippled its major counterparties, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch. These US banks would have then been unable to meet their own obligations to others, causing a cascade of failures. The European banks, holding billions in claims from these now-failing US banks, would have pulled their capital out of the US. system, freezing credit completely. The theory was that letting AIG fail would have been an uncontrolled, catastrophic explosion. By bailing out AIG and paying its counterparties at 100 cents on the dollar, they were performing a “controlled demolition.” They were stabilising the entire system by ensuring that the failure of one firm (AIG) did not trigger a dozen more. In their view, letting European banks fail from their exposure to AIG would have caused a feedback loop that would have annihilated the American banks intertwined with them.

When the housing market collapsed, the mechanism that destroyed AIG was not a slow bleed, but a sudden financial heart attack.

5. The Official Story

There are many problems with the official story of AIG. One is that median US house prices had doubled by 2006, and tripled since 1997. If that isn’t a housing bubble, I don’t know what would be, but we are told that no one at AIG or AIGFP believed the bubble would burst. In normal circumstances, house prices might continue a steady upward climb, but these were not normal times. Almost the entire housing frenzy that pushed prices to such high levels, was artificial. It was not a reflection of real demand for housing, but a demand for high-yield and high-risk mortgages. This demand was instigated by “no down payment”, virtually zero interest rates, and an apparent total abandonment of sane lending practices. Most of the mortgages were “subprime” and most borrowers substandard. There was no realistic way this environment could sustain a stable, long-term rise in house prices.

Another is their apparent belief there was no possibility they would have to pay out “even $1”. Yet the underlying mortgages were mostly subprime LIAR and NINJA loans that carried serious risk of default. Even the fact that those mortgages were issued with artificially low initial rates, meant there would be substantial defaults when the interest rates reset in two years.

Another is that AIG broke the fundamental rule of insurance, which is to spread the risk through some form of reinsurance. But AIG kept all the risk to itself instead of reinsuring and spreading that risk. Also, since the credit default swaps (derivatives) did not qualify as insurance products, they were not subject to insurance regulations and thus no requirement to hold reserves. And AGIFP kept no reserves. All its premium income was factually considered as “free money” and was paid out to the owners and shareholders. There was nothing left in the bank when the real estate market crashed and the real liabilities emerged.

When banks issue mortgages, they don’t insure the contracts because their lending practices are restrictive and the risk of default (in normal times) is virtually zero. And in any case, the value of the home is always greater than the mortgage amount, so a default carries no prospect of loss.

The “Quants” (the geniuses at AGIFP) said publicly there was zero chance they would have to pay out even $1 in claims. We must take them at their word. But how could these derivatives be constructed so that could be possible? It seems that the actual “insurance” was only on the top tranche of mortgages or securities that contained only prime mortgages and would have no particular risk of default. Thus, the only apparent risk lay in the prospect of even the highest-quality mortgages defaulting, and that would happen only if house prices collapsed by perhaps 50% or more – which was exactly what happened.

There was a kind of “Too-Safe-to-Fail” arrogance. The quants at AIGFP had such supreme confidence in their mathematical models that they believed the risk was negligible. Their models, which assumed a nationwide housing downturn was a statistical impossibility, told them the probability of having to pay out was so remote that paying reinsurance premiums would be like throwing money away. Also, they seemed to view themselves as “The Ultimate Reinsurer”. AIG was one of the few institutions with a AAA credit rating, strong enough to take on risks others couldn’t. In their view, they were the end of the line. Who could they possibly reinsure with? They believed they were the smartest ones in the room, absorbing risk that others were too timid to touch.

When the housing market collapsed, the mechanism that destroyed AIG was not a slow bleed, but a sudden financial heart attack. The prime result came from collateral calls. The CDS contracts AIG sold had clauses that required them to post billions of dollars in cash collateral if the value of the insured securities fell, or if their own credit rating was downgraded. In 2008, both of these things happened at once. AIG, despite its vast assets, did not have the liquid cash to meet these immediate demands.

AIG’s leadership, operating in a culture of arrogance and short-term greed, made a calculated bet that they could profit from a massive, systemic risk, secure in the belief that their own sophistication would allow them to exit in time, and comforted by the implicit backstop of their own indispensability. This was not a failure of intelligence or risk assessment. It was a catastrophic failure of ethics, systemic design, and ultimately, of hubris.

May 13, 1985: Depositors line up to withdraw money from a Baltimore bank following the court order that limited depositors’ cash withdrawals until a purchaser was found for the troubled savings and loan. (Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann/Getty Images) Source

6. Rinse and Repeat

If we compare the Savings & Loan US mortgage fraud of the 1980s to the mortgage fraud of 2008, they are essentially the same animal, differing only in the method of looting the US Treasury and taxpayer. Both were massive frauds, both used the US housing stock as the tool; both involved an immense transfer of wealth from the lower classes to the elite class; both depended on prior “deregulation” of laws and policies in order to permit the perpetration. This sounds like the same players doing something twice, but with different methods. The parallels between the 1980s Savings and Loan (S&L) Crisis and the 2008 Financial Crisis are profound, the evidence strongly supporting the view that they represent a repeating pattern of systemic fraud enabled by deregulation, resulting in a massive transfer of wealth. And again, entirely Jewish in origin.

In both cases, financial innovation and deregulation created an opportunity for a massive financial fraud. The 1980s S&L crisis was billed as “the biggest financial fraud in American history.” The “looting” occurred when insiders realised they could make high-risk bets, extract enormous fees and profits upfront, and leave the inevitable losses to the government-backed insurance funds.

Privatise the profits and socialise the losses.

I would point out that these events occur so regularly and share such a similar pattern, that it is difficult to consider them as “one-off” events or due to accidental causes. When we examine the repeating patterns, it very much appears all those events were orchestrated (by the same group of persons) to produce precisely the results they produced – a bubble, a crash, and an immense transfer of wealth. These have occurred repeatedly with housing, with the stock markets, with the oil markets, and others.

≈≈≈

Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 34 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chap. 2 — Dealing with Demons).

His full archive can be seen at
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ + https://www.moonofshanghai.com/
He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com

≈≈≈

NOTES [Part 6] – Perpetrator-Victims

[01] Background knowledge questions and answers about the “two rooms” in the United States
[02] Buffett: Before the crisis, the company had signs of “death” and smelled that it was about to withdraw……
[03] Buffett’s biggest enlightenment from investing in Freddie Mac: Before the crisis, the company had signs of “death”
[04] Geithner published a book revealing the inside story of Lehman’s collapse
[05] Let Lehman Brothers go bankrupt
[06] Lehman Brothers once again tested the wisdom of U.S. financial regulation
[07] Geithner published a book revealing the inside story of Lehman’s collapse
[08] America’s most greedy CEO
[09] Xie Shiqing: Save the American insurance giant AIG

≈≈≈

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Other Works by this Author

Slices of Temple Mount

Par : AHH — 30 novembre 2025 à 10:47

“… congressman Wilbur Mills, often called “the most powerful man in Washington,” was a married man from Arkansas. Unlike Clinton, he didn’t settle for Lewinsky or Trump. Sex and war is a permanent 69 in the American psyche…”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

(R): Washington DC, 7/27/17

Jewish Crusade! — Nov 28, 2025.

Besieged, Trump is momentarily saved by two West Virginians barely out of their teens. On duty in DC illegally since August, they were shot near Faragut West, the safest part of the capital. Just a block north is K Street, known for its lobbyists. Half a mile away is Mpire Gentlemen’s Club, DC’s classiest. Camelot, also on M Street, is long gone. I poked my head in there a few times. DC has always had the nation’s best strip bars, where everything is shown. Do you expect the most powerful and corrupt to stare at pasties? They have no patience for glimpses of bushes and gashes niggardly flashed every few minutes. They want everything yesterday.

When I first got to know DC around 1980, the sleazy 14^th Street scene was still going strong. It’s not unlike NYC’s 42^nd, best known to outsiders through Taxi Driver. Like M Street, 14^th was also a short walk from the White House, the mayor’s office and, of course, K Street. Powerful lawyers and lobbyists needed dancing white flesh plus alcohol to relax a bit. Tentatively, I prowled 14^th Street. Working at McDonald’s and just learning how to drink, I was too young, innocent and broke to know anything about the Silver Slipper on 13^th Street, with its legendary Be Be Sweet, Gi Gi Lamour, Bubbles Seville and, of course, Fanne Foxe, “The Argentine Firecracker.” Caught with congressman Wilbur Mills right by the Jefferson Memorial in 1974, Foxe jumped into the water to save his reputation and her ass, so later became known as The Tidal Basin Bombshell. Sex and war is a permanent 69 in the American psyche.

Twenty-seven years older than Foxe, Mills was a married man from Arkansas. Unlike Clinton, he didn’t settle for Lewinsky or Trump. As drunk as Hegseth, Mills staggered onto the stage of Boston’s Pilgrim Theater as his Tidal Basin Bombshell was stripping. To the disappointment of all, Mills didn’t perform any Bangkok number. Just a month earlier, Mills had retained his seat with 60% of the votes. No gadfly, Mills served 19 terms [!!!] in congress and was often called “the most powerful man in Washington.”

What’s known is barely an icicle on the iceberg. DC has always been a cesspool of depravity. Two miles from Faragut West is the Georgetown Starbucks where 25-year-old Mary Mahoney was murdered. Though cops claimed robbery, not a dime of $10,000 sitting right there was taken. Just three days earlier, Newsweek announced a “former White House staffer,” believed to be Mahoney, was going to come out with stories of being sexually harassed by Bill Clinton.

Midway between Faragut West and Georgetown is Foggy Bottom. It’s a name both poetic and creepy. DC should really be called Foggy Bottoms. Counting presidents, senators, congressmen, military brass and an army of journalists, DC has more whores, each one certified kosher, than anywhere else on earth or in history.

Washington DC (L): 2/22/17 ; (R): 3/10/15

In mid-19^th century, the capital’s best known whorehouse was run by one Mary Ann Hall. It had around 25 rooms with up to 17 “substitutes.” Young bodies substituted for aging wives. Some mulattos were always available. Then as now, rich, classy white men needed variety. On Maryland Avenue within sight of the US Capitol, this bawdy house lasted for +40 years!

DC’s power center is also its playground, so must be well protected. National Guards sent in by Trump are meant to be seen, it’s a PR stunt, for now, so they’re around the White House, Faragut West, the National Mall and Union Station, America’s best and safest train terminal. They’re not in ghettos since no tourists go there. To pass the time, uniformed soldiers pick up trash. Unlike ICE psychos, they’ve pretty much behaved very well, for they didn’t sign up to terrorize fellow citizens. Now that two of their own have been shot, at least some will behave like ICE assholes, so hope Trump, Hegseth and, above all, Stephen Miller.

As for the alleged shooter, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, he loved America enough to work for the CIA in his native Afghanistan. He believed Devious Samuel’s promises of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Settled in Bellingham, Washington with a wife and five children, Lakanwal supposedly drove all the way to DC not to shoot Trump or any politician, but two National Guardsmen, though they can easily be found in nearby Portland, OR. Driving 10 hours daily, it would have taken Lakanwal four days just to reach DC, so he had plenty of time to rethink his rash decision, if that’s what it was.

Since the Jewish operation of 9/11, whites serving Jews have destroyed one Muslim nation after another, as well as themselves, by the way. The day before the DC incident, some whites even showed up in Dearborn, MI to taunt Arabs with a pig head on a spear. In another incident this month, the Koran was stomped on. Biden then Trump have enabled the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands have been murdered. With all these provocations, it’d be perfectly understandable for Muslims inside the US to retaliate. What Lakanwal supposedly did serves neither Muslims nor himself, however, but only Trump and MAGA.

Laura Loomer spoke for millions when she tweeted, “That’s it. I want a King.” MAGA morons have treated Trump like one all along. Paranoid or enraged soldiers will now flood into American cities.

(L): Saint Paul, 7/5/14 ; (R): Minneapolis, 7/4/14

Homeland Wrecking Globalists — Nov 29, 2025.

Pete Hegseth’s American Crusade begins with this quotation, “There is not room in the country for any fifty-fifty American, nor can there be but one loyalty—to the Stars and Stripes.—Theodore Roosevelt.” Immediately, I think of Jews First Jews, but not Hegseth, of course, or Trump. When you’ve gotten so many Christian children to rape and torture, you must be grateful to your Jewish benefactors.

Chapter five is “GLOBALISM: THE WORLD’S WORST CITIZENS.” Hegseth’s ghost writers and editors need some English tutorial from this fifty-fifty American, or you can just call me a 100% Vietnamese who speaks, with embarrassment and strains, some English. It should be, “GLOBALISTS: THE WORLD’S WORST CITIZENS.”

Since the most powerful globalists are Jews, as we all know, including dimwit Hegseth, this word must be sidestepped, but globalism is an ideology or mindset, so can’t be citizens of any kind. That makes as much sense as saying, “Capitalism: The World’s Worst Citizens,” or, “Judaism: The World’s Best People.”

In chapter 5 is “THE MOSQUES OF MINNESOTA.” There are mosques everywhere, and churches, too. What Hegseth is warning about, though, is his home state being swarmed by Muslim fanatics, “Instead of embracing Minnesota and American culture, most Somali Muslims have maintained a highly insular existence. As FOX News has reported—and as I saw for myself during multiple trips to Minneapolis for FOX & Friends—for Somali residents in large urban neighborhoods it’s possible to go about day-to-day business without ever interacting with a non-Somali.”

That was true of Poles, Irish, Italians and Jews, too, just a century ago. More recently, older Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laos and Hmongs, all refugees fleeing the aftermath of American “engagement” in their native lands, could function without much interaction with white Americans, but their children have only been too eager to become more white or Nordic than even Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth, “I walked the streets of ‘Little Mogadishu’ in Minneapolis for hours, encountering Somali Muslims, many of whom have lived in Minnesota for years and most of whom did not speak English. When I asked a local Somali teenager whether his Islamic school taught about American law and the US Constitution, he looked confused and said, ‘Actually, I have no idea about that one.’ When asked if it teaches Sharia law, he quickly said, ‘Yes, Sharia law.’”

Most white teens also have no idea about the US Constitution. They can name dozens of rappers and hundreds of athletes, few of whom are white. Who dominate the music industry, professional sports and the media, Hegseth? If a Somali teen is going to an Islamic school, of course he’s getting religious instructions, just as a white kid is half paying attention in Bible classes. With his earbud, he’s listening to Diddy diddled Justin Bieber or “Mutt” by Leon Thomas. On his phone is a cornucopia of coochies liberally dispensed by Jews. It’s an honored tradition and, by now, believed by billions to be heaven on earth. The Second, Third and Fourth Comings are here! Screw Magazine’s Al Goldstein, “The only reason that Jews are in pornography is that we think that Christ sucks. Catholicism sucks. We donʼt believe in authoritarianism.”

Hegseth’s arguments about mass immigration, woke culture and America’s social ills have been amplified by his child raping and cock sucking boss. Trump on 11/28/25, “This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America, something that did not exist after World War II (Failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, and large deficits, etc.). As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for ‘prey’ as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone. The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst ‘Congressman/woman’ in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how ‘badly’ she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation, which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc…”

It’s hard to believe the incontinent moron could write all that, but he signed off on it.

Let’s get real here. The most powerful nation on earth hasn’t been ruined by backward Hmongs, Somalis, Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Libyans, Venezuelans and Cubans, etc., but by those who wrecked their homelands, then let them into the USA to 1) exploit their labor and 2) weaken the dominant white culture and cause, to whatever degrees, social chaos.

Could all American leaders going back at least half a century be this stupid? Of course, not. Most eagerly, they kissed Jewish asses and covered their own. It’s a win, win. Trump, Hegseth, MAGA Mike, Biden, the Clintons and Obama, etc., are doing just fine.

With a minimal Jewish presence, Oriental nations are more coherent and intact, so better equipped to move forward. Though many have suffered from Jewish Marxism and American bombs, they’ve retained or regained their identities, religious beliefs, age old habits and even superstitions. What’s useful from the West, they’ve absorbed and even improved upon, and I’m not just talking about Japanese cameras and Korean fried chicken. White worship is still too prevalent, however.

Since Jesse has just arrived at Ông Bầu, let’s ask him about being terrorized by roving Somalis, “Yo Jesse, were you locked inside all the time to not be killed?”

Inexplicably, the tall Minnesotan just laughs. Living among savages must have driven him mad. Calming down, Jesse remembers, “The first time I saw a Somali must have been 1994. There was a woman waiting at a bus stop. She was dressed in traditional clothing. They all do. They hold tight to their traditions. You rarely see them in jeans. I was with a friend. He had a 32-ounce Big Gulp. He just threw the whole thing at her!”

“You’re kidding me!”

“He’s very proud of it for the rest of the day.”

“Not for a whole week?”

“No, us Minnesotans have a guilt complex because we’re Lutherans!”

“What about Somali gangs, man? Have they taken over Minneapolis?”

“Hell, no! That’t so funny. Sometimes they take over a street corner. It’s usually in their area. They don’t go into white neighborhoods. They don’t even do donuts. They just play loud music. When a very rare fight breaks out, it’s Somalis against Somalis. There were a couple of shootings, but in the Somali shopping malls. I’ve never met anyone who’s been robbed by a Somali.”

“Every immigrant community had gangs, man. Jewish ones were among the worst! You don’t hear about that.”

“The Somalis were attacked by blacks, so they had to defend themselves. Most of them lived in these two buildings called the Crack Stacks. It’s this hideous brutalist architecture.”

“Like all projects.”

“Now, their neighborhoods are normal. They’re clean. They mow their lawns. I lived in West Bloomington. There were Somalis all over. They went to Normandale Community College. Somali kids sat at the public library, studying. They worked at the blood donation place. Many of the women got into nursing. They’re entrepreneurial. If you go into their malls, you see hundreds of stores, not just restaurants but travel agencies, jewelers, perfume shops, computer repair shops, clothing stores, whatever. Because of their link to Italy, they import Italian shoes. I heard two old guys speak Italian to each other. Djibouti was colonized by France, so some of those Somalis speak French. They brought Europe to Minnesota!”

“That’s hilarious.”

“My biggest problem with Somalis is their littering. They leave bottles on basketball courts. My mom even loves them. I even had a Somali girlfriend.”

“For how long?”

“Two years.”

“So it wasn’t a hit and run,” I laughed. “I had this and this, so let’s try this!”

“No, no.”

It’s OK, then, for Jewjerked Uncle Sam to generate millions of refugees yearly, just don’t let them into the greatest white Christian nation ever, with its soldier occupied streets, tent cities and citizens shivering in storage units. Even legal immigrants should be rejected. As for seditious citizens like the Democrat Six, why shouldn’t they be executed, as urged by Trump? Law and order must be maintained.

Despite Somalis “completely taking over the once great state of Minnesota,” Trump is in charge, so don’t you worry. He’ll fix everything in two weeks. Lining up at food banks for expired cans of baked beans and Chef Boyardee, Americans just don’t realize how rich they are. If George Washington and Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead to run as president and vice president, they’d just get their wrinkled, sagging asses handed to them by the greatest American ever.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.

Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’

AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks

Slices of Life, #16

Par : AHH — 29 novembre 2025 à 21:37

“People robbed of their past seem to make the most fervent picture takers, at home and abroad. “As humans, we’re born naked and will leave with nothing,” yet another monk speaks.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Vung Tau, 11/12/25

Bill Gates, Primo Levi and Max Beckmann in Vietnam — Nov 13, 2025.

Just before 5AM, I got a call from Sơn, the NaLi Beach security guard. Come out, he urged. Sơn was sitting at a newly opened café just five yards from the disappeared Coffee Seven. I sat there once and hated it. Maybe tomorrow, I told him.

On the way to Ông Bầu, I noticed an old white guy in a “Good Morning Vietnam” T-shirt. On Thủ Khoa Huân, there’s a bar, Black Sheep, meant for them. Most Vietnamese don’t care to sit on high stools. In Macau six years ago, I hung out with an international bunch. At the bar, though, there were just me, a Chinese-American and an Indian who had spent decades in the States. We were the Americans. Others sat at tables.

Though other businesses on Thủ Khoa Huân have English names, they’re still designed for Vietnamese. Their names are telling. There’s Củi Warehouse, The Góc, Nomad Café and NBNB Bakery. It’s ultra cool to mix English with Vietnamese. A block away is Salt Water, where all those dressed up girls are snapping selfies.

In this week’s Tuổi Trẻ Cuối Tuần, a magazine aimed at the young and cosmopolitan, there’s an article by Willow Dương Liễu. Four of the seven global news pieces focus on the USA. “Salaam New York!” one screams. There’s also one on Bill Gates and AI. Sipping my second cappucino, I’m browsing this pretentious rag. (Kabu, as it’s called here, is found all over, and is even more ubiquitous in Cambodian cities.) On the back cover is some freak with a chest tattoo. He wears something like a crusader hood crossed with a keffiyeh. Words fail me.

Most curiously, there’s a translation of Primo Levi’s “Cena in Piedi.” First published in La Stampa on 1/22/77, it’s about a kangaroo at a dinner party. Of course, this springy beast feels very out-of-place until some chick comes by to stroke and caress him. Unfortunately, her hands never reach his tails and thigh. Is this kangaroo a Jew about to be sent to Auschwitz? It’s bad enough to be a minority anywhere.

To help Vietnamese readers understand, here’s the beginning of Levi’s accompanying bio, “Primo Levi (1919-1987), an Italian chemist and writer of Jewish ancestry, survived the genocidal Holocaust. He became famous through works about his camp experience.”

There’s also a reproduction of Max Beckmann’s Die Nacht, perhaps his most famous canvas. Unforgivably, it’s not attributed. Worse, this scene of sexual sadistic torture with a capped man who looks very much like Lenin is meant to suggest Nazi horrors. Painted in 1918-1919, Die Nacht depicts a Jew dominated Germany. The Weimar Republic lasted from late 1918 to 1933.

a shot of that Beckmann illustrating a Levi story

In the sports section, Mahathir Mohamad is quoted, “It’s a real shame that non Malaysians are representing Malaysia. Though we crave victories, we should do it correctly, without resorting to cheating or fraud.” Sounds like Hitler! At one hundred years old, Mohamad is just senile. Vietnam’s star striker is Nguyễn Xuân Sơn, a Brazilian who was born as Rafaelson Bezerra Fernandes. He’s even less kosher than Stephen Miller. At least Miller speaks English.

With another world war looming, consider this Levi passage, “Most of them weren’t monsters, idiotic lechers, or perverted dandies: they were functionaries of the State, more pedantic than brutal, effectively indifferent to the daily horror in which they lived, and which they appeared to get used to quickly, partly because, in agreeing to oversee the Lagers, they avoided being sent to ‘cover themselves with glory’ on the Russian front. In short, they weren’t elegant, stylized beasts but vulgar, cowardly little men.” (That’s from his “Movies and Swastikas,” as translated by Alessandra Bastagli and Francesco Bastagli.)

Levi is describing SS men who would rather terrorize helpless women, children and the old. Beats being maimed or killed at the frontline. ICE agents are exactly like that. All you vulgar, cowardly little men better sign up with ICE before you’re sent to a real war. There’s no higher calling than serving the most vulgar, littlest man ever.

On the way to Ông Bầu, some woman on a bicycle said, “Happy birthday, uncle!” so words got out. Before encoutering the West, Vietnamese paid no attention to birthdays, only deathdays, ngày dỗ. Even years after a relative’s death, this is solemnly remembered. In Stung Treng, Cambodia, I met a woman who would rush back to Vietnam each year for her parents’ deathdays.

I’m all for the primacy of deathdays. Its only drawback is you can’t celebrate yours with those closest to you, if you had any.

As a 12-year-old retard in 1976, I saw my first Beckmanns in New Orleans. In 2002, I caught his retrospective at Paris’ Centre Pompidou. His canvases aren’t just brutal but contemplative. They also employ age-old techniques like glazing. He’s a better draftsman than Otto Dix, and his colors are better tuned than Kirchner’s. The latter was aiming for something else. It was a frightful, hysterical era, and unspeakably tragic. Somehow, it got even worse.

Vung Tau, 11/12/25

Give Us This Day Our Daily BeerLao! — Nov 13, 2025.

About two decades ago, Americans were introduced to customer service agents from India. Nearly all US companies adopted this cost saving solution. Calling your bank over some minor issue, you’d be greeted by “Rachel” or “Chase,” but with a distinctly Mumbai or Chennai accent. After ten minutes or so of frustration, many people simply gave up.

Now, there’s an AI anything to not help you out. They include doctors, psychiatrists, teachers, tutors and financial advisors. There must be AI priests. God, it’s proven, was the first Artificial Intelligence. Jesus being nailed to the cross was the first Deep Fake. It was a huge hit.

Living outside the US since 2018, I still have a US bank account. This is necessary for many practical reasons. Two days ago, I had to call Wells Fargo. Since its numbers for Vietnam didn’t work, I dialed the USA. As a cellphone adverse person, this was rather trying, but I managed to reach some guy who sounded reasonable enough. It was still a disaster.

Reached this morning to grade Wells Fargo’s service, I gave it a zero star out of ten, with this considered explanation:

Terrible customer service. Staying overseas, I was locked out of my account due to a wrong password entered. When I called the US to get this resolved, it couldn’t be done! The man online said his name was “Varney,” but would not give his last name. I doubt that’s his real name. He also gave me this as the number for my case, “k101192315.” He probably just made it up. That’s how much faith I have in Wells Fargo.

Soon as I get back to the States, I will cancel my account and switch to a more professional bank. I remember Wells Fargo being heavily fined a while back for fraud. Should have switched my bank then.

I actually signed up for Wachovia because it was in my Philly neighborhood. Wells Fargo bought it when it went bankrupt.

Before leaving for Kathmandu two weeks ago, I used Xoom, a PayPal linked service, to withdraw $1,400 from Wells Fargo. With a fee of $12.99, I paid $1,412.99. Though I had no problem receiving my money from a Vietnamese bank, I was alerted while in Kathmandu that Xoom never got $1,412.99 from Wells Fargo. Contacting PayPal immediately, I was told by an AI that everything was fine, but it wasn’t. Yesterday, I called Xoom to straighten this out, only to be told I needed to contact Wells Fargo. I’m not calling another Varney, man. Fuck it.

Given up on Xoom, I used Western Union to send money to myself. At Agribank on Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, the teller refused this transaction, however. Though I had my passport, Vietnam visa and Western Union’s code number, she said “LINH DINH” is not “LINH HOANG DINH,” as stated in my passport. Though everyone there could see she’s being preposterous, I had to walk away without losing my cool.

AI, Varneys and ditzy bank tellers are in our future. At least I’m not living in a land lorded over by moronic tyrants like Trump, Hegseth and Bessent.

At Ông Bầu, my BeerLao bottle from yesterday is displayed on a shelf. If only I could drink one or two a day for the rest of my life!

At the licker store yesterday, there was a poster for Budweiser. Buy many cans to possibly win one of ten grand prizes to next year’s World Cup. Nothing is said about securing a visa from Trump’s regime. It’s a time consuming and exasperating process for citizens of many countries. Once in, there’s no guarantee you won’t be harassed or even arrested by Trump’s goons. Knowing this, foreigners are increasingly shunning the USA. Worse than isolated, it’s becoming a pariah nation.

Bud is also dangling 200 consolation prizes. Free Bud for a year, it promises or, rather, threatens.

Eating much more sanely and walking barefoot on hard ground as much as possible have undoubtedly improved my liver and kidney. I don’t need doctors, real or AI, to tell me this. My body, especially my skin, says so. Having mostly abstained from alcohol over two years, I’m also ready to ease, ever so gently, back into BeerLao! Give us this day our daily BeerLao should be a universal prayer.

taken by Troy Skaggs (L): Marion, Indiana on 11/6/25 ; (R): Kokomo, Indiana on 11/13/25

Checking In With Troy Skaggs in Kokomo, Indiana — Nov 13, 2025.

In your group house, how many people are relying on government programs to get by? How many are working? In what jobs, for how much an hour?

-I’ve been in Kokomo since the beginning of August. After losing my VA pension while in South Bend, I couldn’t afford the room I was renting. I was in Kokomo last summer before returning to Michiana for tomato season and the winter. It’s a smaller, quieter place. No rainy day saver, I stayed a month in my folks’ basement before heading here.

I spent just over a month at the Kokomo Rescue Mission. It’s an evangelical Christian organization. I’ve been in a few others so knew what I was getting into. The Protestant work ethic goes hand in hand with salvation from sin. Six day work weeks in the kitchen and their warehouse weren’t conducive to seeking outside employment and services, but that’s how it works. I was there when Charlie Kirk was dubiously assassinated. The response at the Mission was to be expected. Prayers for Kirk, his family and this fallen life on Earth. A persecuted believers vs. the sick, sick world kind of vibe. It was hard to swallow. I always appreciate a warm meal, bunk and shower. They provided and I’m grateful for that.

I left the Mission on good terms with the understanding that the work schedule was just too much. I was accepted into the CAM (Coordinated Assistance Ministries) Center, a smaller men’s shelter. No prayers for Chuck or excessive work requirements, just guys playing video games and bullshitting all hours of the night. Patrick, a dorm mate, was a piece of work. He’d survived a drunken car/tree collision and had completed three back to back in-patient rehabs. When he asked if I was interested in smoking cocaine in the laundry room, his espoused philosophy of “radical acceptance” took on a new light. Birds of a feather flock together. I declined. Maybe that’s why he called me an asshole and a pussy on the day I moved out. Bill, in the bunk below me, just chuckled, “Hey, it’s Kokomo, man.” That made me smile.

I haven’t been able to attend to my health so the babesiosis I’d partially recovered from has returned. It’s a bitch and I’m running ragged.

I left the CAM center after signing a lease at Jackson Street Commons, a subsidized complex for military veterans. I was hesitant at first since requires some form of disability. Though I’ve had my go rounds with addiction, mental illness, physical sickness and existential uncertainty, I still like to consider myself an independent operator. Backing into the parking space Jackson Street Commons, my power steering blew.

Most of our residents are subsidized and aren’t working. Kokomo is doing better than some Indiana places thanks to Chrysler, but it’s still struggling. Most available jobs are in the service sector. That’s always a concern. We all know healthy economies don’t run on services alone. I’ve seen similar poverty in South Bend, but so far Kokomo’s a safer choice. Buttoned down factory towns can make for freak undercurrents. My buddy Steve calls it the 50-year-old wigger on a BMX phenomenon. I saw a dude a couple of blocks from here on a riding mower towing a trailer with two refrigerators and his wife on board. I always have to remember that there but for the grace of God go I. For all of my religious misgivings, I still believe that we’re all on Mr. Sky’s watch. It helps to keep that in mind. Part of me wants nothing more than to be a BMX dude. At this point, why not?

I’m in a one bedroom apartment on the third floor. The Veterans Service Officer got my pension reinstated, so I pay just over $400 a month, 30% of my pension. It’s a sliding scale, so no section eight. The unit is handicap accessible. From another resident, I learnt that at least one of my room’s previous occupants left in a body bag.

JSC houses a variety of veterans with a range of mental and physical issues. Of course, there have been many overdoses. Brandon next door has been here nearly a decade. He told me about two fatal OD’s within two weeks. That’s just the circle of life around here. I have some survivor’s guilt considering how I was able get housing in Kokomo within three months. Some of the guys at the Mission or CAM have been stuck there for months, even years.

I’m extremely fortunate. It’s a weird scene here, but it’s a scene. Time will tell. Just a few yards from my window is the flagpole. I can see the Stars and Bars, plus the POW/MIA flag right below it. A ways beyond is the Martin Luther King Memorial. I can just see the back of Doctor King’s concrete head.

taken by Troy Skaggs in Kokomo, Indiana on 11/13/25

The poor are often exhausted from overwork and worries. Still, they must socialize, so is there a bar nearby where you and those you know hang out? How much does it cost to drink there for a couple hours? In Kensington, a Philly neighborhood, I once sat next to an old woman who kept lifting an empty beer mug to her mouth. She couldn’t afford to buy another one. She did that regularly at Jack’s.

-I can’t really tell you about the bar scene here. I’m within walking distance of Tom Thumb Tavern, Elbow Room, The Hoosier Bar and The Handle Bar. I have seen a lot of activity at the Legion a few blocks away. I’m guessing these places are cheaper than in most American cities. Sadly, that isn’t saying much if alcohol prices have increased along with groceries and everything else. The Coterie, a downtown hipster place, does host some decent live music. On a summer night, you can sit anywhere downtown and listen to the bands. Most of these places are your basic, shabby working-class establishments. With plenty of bliss, torment and everything in between under the same roof, bars can be fascinating. I do like seeing folks coming and going. Due to my alcoholic history and present circumstances, I hesitate to enter bars by myself. I can have a pint or two of Guinness once or twice a year with a close friend who was born in Ireland, but that’s about the extent of it lately. My worst drinking days ended twelve years ago. I spent a lot of time in bars in my twenties. Some good times, but by the end of it all, I’d been to jail and accidentally set my car on fire outside Corby’s in South Bend. This was prior to the Army. I did a few rounds of bar hopping in Colorado Springs, but by then, I was a pretty solitary drinker.

I’m still in contact with Michelle from Philly. We got pretty close. She had some good bar stories. Miserable but tough, she’s still at the rooming house in South Bend. I think you have to be in places like Philadelphia, probably more so than the rural Midwest. Reading about the woman from Kensington says it all. It’s sad, but sometimes an empty mug is better than being alone.

taken by Troy Skaggs in Kokomo, Indiana on 11/13/25; (R): graffiti says “BOBBY KNIGHT IS A HONKY”

It’s too depressing to drink alone. It should be social, with much talking and laughing. I know of a Vietnamese nail salon guy who would sit at his kitchen table to down many Buds, fall asleep and, often enough, piss in his pants. That’s his social life, pretty much, in East St. Louis. It’s too dangerous to walk outside. Finally, is Kokomo still solidly MAGA? Is no one doubting the greatest American ever and infallible one?

-The kind of despair and isolation you mention is something I still struggle with daily. I’ve made inroads, but it’s still a problem. Budweiser was my beer of choice at the end. Much like your East St. Louis acquaintance, I’d sit in front of the TV and drink myself into a stupor. Pissing myself became a common occurrence. I was pushing the boundaries of late stage alcoholism. Towards the end of 2013, things got pretty hairy after I got discharged from the Army and booted from the oil fields for excessive drinking. Not being unable to walk safely in your own neighborhood is one of the worst aspects of living in today’s USA. I see it everywhere, in myself and others. It’s a feeling of defeat. I try to fight it because it plays into the hysteria and isolation playbook.

Again, I’m pretty lucky. There are places and situations where getting out is easier said than done. Marijuana is my surrogate crutch right now. Like many Americans, I find it difficult to function without a buzz. It is what it is. That’s the problem. Alternatives exist, but immediate gratification is the easiest option for the worn and overworked. It’s the option that many choose. A vicious cycle.

I’d place Kokomo in the MAGA camp by a margin. In the Mission’s defense, they didn’t push politics too hard besides their veneration of St. Kirk. Since Evangelicals are captured by the MAGA cult, they didn’t need to. One guy on an adjacent bunk was always on his phone talking to his girlfriend about Trump and how he needs to reinstate the Insurrection Act, to take care of business. The TV at the CAM center was usually tuned to FOX News. Vince, one of the guys there, calls it trailer park conservatism. A Stockholm syndrome of sorts. I think the desire for political salvation crosses the political divide. Like the controlled asset stripping of this country, it’s a bi-partisan affair disguised as politics.

We’re in Team Red phase. This freaking joke is on all of us. I remember reading your take on Trump in 2016. You got it right, Linh. Most didn’t. I got fooled the first time around myself. I’ve never voted. I can’t t endorse more war, more debt and less freedom each time around. Still, I had my hopes. Ten years later, it’s easier to see.

What really saddens me is that, as deluded and unhinged as MAGA has become, it’s an obvious reaction to the rhetorical and physical abuse that conservatives and traditional values took at the hands of the Woke crowd. It was nasty. I’d be pissed, too, and that’s why anger and fear are such wonderful tools for political control.

Controlled we are and controlled we will be, I’m afraid. Woke, MAGA, same monster. I’ve tried to point it out, but for my own sanity, I now leave it alone. When we outsource our minds, bodies and communities to transnational interests, why be surprised at the state of things?

Good intentions and bad habits are a toxic combo. I’m a walking example. I’m a fan of Sade, the smooth jazz chanteuse, not the perverted Frenchman, yet a smooth operator I am not. Time to smoke a bowl and think about it all.

taken by Troy Skaggs in Kokomo, Indiana on 11/13/25

Fearless — Nov 14, 2025.

Having told Sơn I would see him at his new spot, I went there just after 4AM to find it still closed. Across the street was one just opening up, so I’m there. It’s an entirely new universe. Tables and chairs are placed on the dark sidewalk. I’ve claimed someone’s regular seat, I’m sure. The guy sharing my tiny round table is listening to a Buddhist monk. Instructions on how to live is interspersed by a woman singing.

Tired of one monk, he switches to another. “Don’t be greedy, don’t steal, don’t lend money at exorbitant interest.” Then, “Get along with everybody, respect all religions.” Another woman, much older, sings.

The coffee here is not quite hot, and there are no frisky dogs. Coming from Bến Đình, Sơn on his motorbike will pass by, so should see me. At 4:22AM, that café is still closed. Now, my table mate is listening to a didactic woman. Religious or ethical instructions are his drug of choice. Five other men, all regulars and older than 50, must also be edified, if not enlightened. Nirvana is just a band whose lead singer shot himself in the head. The guy at the next table has suffered a stroke, it seems, for he has one of those three pronged canes I never saw half a century ago.

No one is talking.

This café’s owner is a squat woman with a dull face. She almost grunted when I showed up.

“As humans, we’re born naked and will leave with nothing,” yet another monk speaks.

At 4:35, I see light over there, so will head over. The owner’s daughter married an older Aussie. Let’s hear what she has to say.

That didn’t last long. After five minutes of sitting with Sơn plus another woman, Quý, we decided to vacate that joint. Its coffee wasn’t just bad, but dubious, and they refused to turn off the music. I’m at my third café, Anh Trần. Each cup here, very good, is served with a tin filter, and the tea is also fine. Across the street is a hotel, Hoàng Yến, built in the 70’s. Such buildings recall the Vũng Tàu of my childhood.

Vung Tau, 11/14/25

A white haired guy just praised a younger woman’s buttocks. “That’s like two chunks of silicone!”

“My ass is money!” she laughed back. Her cushy tushy looks real. Clearly, they know each other well enough.

A boastful man with a Hanoi accent, he’s lived in Germany and England, he tells me. He’s been all over. One hundred and seventy five countries, to be exact.

“How do you manage that?! There’s not enough time. Plus, there’s the paperwork.” A Vietnamese passport doesn’t open many doors.

Smirking, he adds, “I have two sons in the US, two in London and one in Australia. I see them whenever I want.”

“How can you afford to travel so much?”

“People give me money.”

“Who?”

“People.”

“What’s your business?”

“None. I have never worked. All my life, I’ve just enjoyed myself, and gotten into fights.”

Laughing, I turn to another man, “And he hasn’t been killed!”

“Now, I’ve hung up my sword. If I get pissed off, though, I will still fight.”

“Have you been jailed?”

“No.”

“You’re very lucky.”

“When I was 15, I survived bombs. My shelter was blown to bits. Other kids were killed. Chunks of flesh were dug out with bare hands. I survived.”

“In 1970?”

“72.” Executed with B-52’s, it’s Operation Linebacker. “Those bombs taught me to be fearless.”

Even now, not one out of a hundred Vietnamese knows what a linebacker is. The best Vietnamese-American athlete ever is Dat Nguyen, a middle linebacker for Texas A&M and Dallas Cowboys.

“You were lucky. You were spared.”

“I do whatever I want.”

“I just look.”

“I see your laptop. You’re filled with words, with knowledge. You think.”

“I just look. You do!”

“Everyone is different.” Turning to two other men, he remarks, “Look at his forehead. Flies would have trouble landing there!”

“I’ve done nothing. I only have my brain. The rest is paralyzed.” This drew laughs from the owner. She’s in her mid 60’s.

“Nearing that hole, I’ve slowed down,” continues the braggadocious. “Each man has three holes he must deal with. The hole from which he was born, his wife’s hole then the hole he’s tossed into.”

“Many people don’t even get that middle hole.”

“We’re not talking about freakish exceptions, but generally.”

Coming to Anh Trần, I didn’t expect any of this, obviously. Sơn and Quý left a while back. Since it opens at 4AM, this wouldn’t be a bad place to sit. Braggadocious has asked nothing about me. It’s fine.

He speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and English comfortably, he claims. He can do whatever and go anywhere. Vietnamese gangsters across Europe are terrified of him. Even top cops don’t dare to mess with Braggadocious. Saigon whores can’t empty his pockets.

“They’re like sharks and alligators,” I say.

“They can’t bite me. I bite them!”

Though living with any braggart must be hell, there are those who adore bombastic boasters. So sad this constant need to prove you’re not worthless.

Shut up already about all your awards, prizes, ribbons, medals, books published, contests won, pussies or dicks “conquered,” world records, championships, countries visited, weird dishes eaten or famous hands shaken. Every winner finishes last! How’s that toothache or cancer treating you? Just be thankful you weren’t slapped around, nuked or neutered decades earlier! Everyone or his grandma could have been a contender! You’re making me sick! There’s no weight division too low for you.

At 8:20AM, I finish this at Ông Bầu. Soon, I must go to Saigon to get a five-year visa, meant for overseas Vietnamese. There’s an agency that can arrange this, I think. With that, I will only need to leave every six months, instead of three.

Interviewing Troy Skaggs about small town Indiana made me want to go there, but that would mean flying into O’Hare, a state away. There are so many steps and miles before I can sit inside Handle Bar or Tom Thumb. Close enough to that hole, I should just take it easy.

There’s a desolation peculiar to the USA. It’s especially striking in rural areas and suburbs. Car culture isn’t solely responsible. No other population is as leery of mingling. More than macho DeKooning, Kline or Pollock, Edward Hopper is the most representative American artist, for he’s best at isolating this desolation. In movies and music videos, the opposite appears. That’s the American con.

Edward Hopper art

As for being fearless, I must mention Mo, Cà Phê Cà Pháo’s kitten. Yesterday, I saw him for the first time since returning from Kathmandu. There he was, sleeping on a cushioned chair.

“I’ve been away nearly a month, but he hasn’t gotten any bigger. He’s shrunk!”

This provoked much laughter, for it was a different cat. For a week, Mo disappeared. Whoever found him had replaced his collar, before Mo ran off again. Thanks to an online notice, he’s finally recovered on Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, a good mile away.

Back home, he didn’t even open his eyes when touched. Strange voices couldn’t disturb his sleep. In his brief life, he’s been lost twice, hit by a motorbike and gotten so sick, he had to spend a week at the vet. Even when half conscious, he fears nothing.

“Amazing,” I marveled. “It’s as if nothing happened.”

Like a proud parent, his owner smiled.

Such quiet assurance Braggadocious has never known. Lowered into that hole, he’ll still be terrified of ridicule. With rotting ears, he’ll hear mocking laughter. At least he doesn’t need to print his name on every piece of clothing, building or plate.

The weakest men must screw the smallest bodies. Virginal, they can’t compare him to any other. Even then, he’s still terrified.

(L): Kōji Yakusho in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days ; (R): Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “U. A. Play House, New York,” 1978

Naked and Barefoot — Nov 18, 2025.

Three mornings at Anh Trần were enough. The Hanoian braggadocious wasn’t just tiresome but menacing. Bombastic boasters are often like that. People who admire them are like squirming worms, not necessarily with red hats. Though I have a high tolerance for all types, I must focus on my thoughts and writing. This morning, then, I began typing before 4AM while sitting outside Ông Bầu in the dark. From the house next door, a woman could be heard coughing several times.

Talking about Perfect Days, I forgot to mention Hirayama’s habit of never picking up his watch when leaving his flat. He only takes his keys and coins. Hirayama doesn’t just know exactly what he must do with his day, but how long each task should take. Neither impatient nor frantic, he’s serenely focused.

Eating lunch on the same park bench each day, Hirayama always takes photos of swaying leaves above him. Since it’s the same tree, Niko, his niece, asks, “Is that tree your friend?”

Though surprised by this question, Hirayama has to admit, “Yes, this is my tree friend.”

Hundreds of these leaf photos are kept in tin boxes. Those that don’t turn out well are thrown away. His film camera, an Olympus Stylus, is not just amateurish but old fashioned. It has no screen. Held so low, Hirayama can’t even look through its viewfinder. Only after each roll is developed does he know how many keepers there are.

Though Hirayama is admired for his zen like composure, there’s something neurotic about his picture taking, no? He takes hundreds of photos to not really look at them. Worse, he must document his enjoyment of komoberi. Defined at the end of the film as “the shimmering of light and shadows that is created by leaves swaying in the wind. It only exists once, at that moment.” All too human, Hirayama must capture and solidify such fleeting phenomena.

Like most of us, Hirayama is radically alone. Sure, he has a few friendly acquaintances at Asakusa Yakisoba Fukuchan, his noodle shop, and Beni no Akari Novu, an atmospheric old school bar whose owner can sing so soulfully, but he sleeps alone and has no deep conversations with anyone. Unable to confide his pains, fears and infinite sadness, Hirayama must stay calm. His most intimate and steadfast friend is a rustling tree.

Note that Hirayama always buys the same coffee drink from a vending machine just ouside his door. Why doesn’t he stock up on a bunch, thus save a few pennies? Always waking up alone, Hirayama needs this machine to give him, without fail, some sweetness before he’s thrust, again, towards an infinity of shitters. It’s also the only neighbor he has any meaningful intercourse with. We’re not introduced to any other.

(L): Hiroshi Sugimoto seascape ; (R): sketch by Hà Quang Đại

It’s no accident Wenders made this film in Tokyo. At the end of WWII, its destruction by the U.S. Air Force was greater than in Nagasaki and roughly equal to what happened in Hiroshima. Much of what America failed to raze, the Japanese did, in their rush towards progress and economic recovery. Even Donald Richie, who loved Japan deeply and spent 65 years there, had to admit Tokyo was “unusually ugly.” This is because much of its past is gone.

Regarding the past, photography and the Japanese, Susan Sontag has this to say, “People robbed of their past seem to make the most fervent picture takers, at home and abroad. Everyone who lives in an industrialized society is obliged gradually to give up the past, but in certain countries, such as the United States and Japan, the break with the past has been particularly traumatic.” Bombers and bombed share this unspeakable loss.

Robbed of family and community, Hirayama can only cling to images no one, not even him, cares to look at much, plus songs he can’t fully understand. Hirayama tearing up over Nina Simone is mostly fiction. Only you and I cry for real.

Before I slink off somewhere to bawl, wail and gnash my remaining teeth, I must point out Hirayama’s appreciation for tiny shifts in the mundane is very Japanese. Check out Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photos of oceans across the globe, for example, or his images of abandoned theaters. In these gorgeous temples to mass hallucinations, the big screens are still lit up, but nothing is shown. We’ve seen it all so many times, we see nothing.

Wenders’ inclusion of bathhouse scenes evokes Japan’s disappearing past. It’s striking, and exotic, to see naked men sitting on low stools to soap and wash, then soak together in a hot pool. Relaxing in a common room, Hirayama is even seen fanning a dozing old man, a beautiful touch. Most foreigners may not realize these bathhouses were, not even a century ago, unisex.

Consider this 1927 passage by Akugatawa, “He had previously been quite unperturbed about undressing in Kōno’s presence when he entered the bath located next to the kitchen. Recently, however, he had not allowed himself even once to appear to her in such a state. He was now undoubtedly ashamed of his body, which resembled that of a plucked rooster.” A pioneer writer during an unsettling era, Akugatawa killed himself just a year later.

Such inclusion and exposure are gone. Contemporary men must be screened off from each other, if not masked. His isolation ever increases. Listening to cassettes and reading complicated books in silence, Hirayama is a dinosaur, if not freak.

Sitting in Ông Bầu, I’m feet away from Mr. Đại, painting from life. He’s inserting me, though, walking barefoot past the altar to the Goddess by the banyan tree. While painting, he’s singing a Phạm Duy song from 1971. At age 50, that great song writer, a poet, really, recalled a girl he fell in love with as a teenager. Like so much else, those sweet, gentle sentiments are lost.

Vung Tau (L): 11/24/25 ; (R): 11/22/25

Westminster, Vietnam To Begin With — Nov 25, 2025.

This morning, I woke up Hùng around 5AM to get his phone number. He was sleeping in his cyclo cab, of course. “I have a Westerner who will probably hire you. He’ll call you today or tomorrow.” Groggy, Hùng looked older than his age. He’s a most gentle man, or perhaps just thoroughly defeated. Before something went terribly wrong internally, Hùng was a falling down drunk. He’ll die without ever seeing his parents, siblings or hometown of Da Lat again.

“How’s business?”

“Bad.”

“Yet you won’t make that sign!” I had urged Hùng to clearly list his price for ½ an hour and an hour. “You’re so stubborn!”

I then bought two toothbrushes from a Circle K. Since it was so early, I didn’t feel too self-conscious about walking in barefoot. With Ông Bầu not open for an hour, I decided to go to Mrs. Hạnh. She’s the one married to an impotent American for six years.

Riding past me was a woman in cycling tights and listening to a Buddhist chant on her Bluetooth. Nam mô a di đà phật, she had to hear over and over. The idea of Buddhist chanting is to empty your mind of bullshit, I think, but this chick has turned it into bicycling muzak. On that street is an ex drug addict who always sits alone before dawn to listen to Eminem. People who can’t stand silence are lost to themselves and, thus, understanding of anything, from the most trivial upward.

Since Mrs. Hạnh and her husband were still setting up, I headed to Front Beach, where hundreds of people were exercising or jogging. I sat by two young women who chattered, giggled and laughed as they loosened their joints and got their blood flowing. Doing a forward thrust, they joked about diving onto the jagged rocks below. Lights flickered along the shoreline. Some people rubbed their belly in a circular motion as they walked quickly. I used a fingernail to groove into my flesh around my ankles and soles.

Finally sitting down at Mrs. Hạnh’s, I asked if she enjoyed her eight-day Singapore vacation so many years ago.

“Of course! I also have dozens of relatives overseas.” In Bolsa and Canada. Bolsa is a Vietnamese area in Westminster, CA. Its mayor is Chi Charlie Nguyen. All three council members are Vietnamese-Americans.

Whatever happened to the annexation of Greenland and Canada becoming the 51st state? I, for one, think Westminster and Santa Ana must be ceded to Vietnam immediately, with an additional city added yearly until at least a third of California belongs to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Its residents of all races will enjoy more freedom, including economic, than under President Trump, J.D. Vance or Gavin Newsom, guaranteed.

Twice, I’ve seen a young woman helping out at Mrs. Hạnh’s. She’s not her daughter but a 34-year-old homeless woman who sleeps nightly at Trưng Sisters Park. Trưng Sisters were warriors who fought against the Chinese two thousand years ago. Think Boudica times two.

As a girl, she was taken in by a noodle soup seller at Old Market, now demolished. As a pretty young woman, she started sleeping with Westerners, so her adoptive father kicked her out. He still brings her food, and she’s paid nearly $2 daily by Mrs. Hạnh, who also feeds her. It’s charity, more or less, since Mrs. Hạnh and her husband can do everything themselves.

“Where’s your puppy?”

“He’s big!” her husband answered. “He’s at home.”

“Why don’t you bring him here?”

“He causes too much trouble,” he smiled.

There was a tiny kitten in the grass. I picked him up and caressed the beast. He started purring. When I put him down, this cat rubbed his head against my foot.

“You know,” I said to Mrs. Hạnh, “a woman sleeping alone in a park in the US would be raped in no time. Homeless people there often cluster together for protection. A woman like that cannot sleep alone outside.”

“I wish I could sleep alone,” Mrs. Hạnh joked as her husband stood by her side.

I laughed hardest. He only smiled.

Now at Ông Bầu, I just ordered a second cappuccino. Mr. Đại is painting a nude from some photo he got off the internet. It’s totally pointless, but whatever. Wouldn’t some aging whore, at least, be willing to pose for him for phở money? To be exposed and stared at for an hour might be too much.

Checking my email, I see one from Max, whom I met in Albania. In his rented car, we went to Montenegro. On his first visit to Vietnam, Max is in Da Nang. I’m pretty sure Max is Syrian. He spends most of his time in London. Go to Hội An and Huế, I just told Max. Even a side trip into Laos would be fantastic. If you decide to come down here, I’ll show you around.

Near death, I have less energy to take photos, but yesterday, I did catch two lovelies outside The Góc. One, with her butt cheeks just peeking out, was taking photos of her friend in a mini skirt. Nothing exists unless it’s photographed.

Maybe 15 years ago, a woman told me this joke in Philly, “What looks like shit and feels great?”

“I don’t know,” I replied.

“A pussy!”

Now, we must ask, What looks great and feels like shit?

Come on, man, give me the punchline!

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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The Khazar Jews’ plan to eliminate Gentile home ownership

Par : AHH — 24 novembre 2025 à 08:47

“This event of the housing bubble, crash, and crisis, was not an accident. We need to dig a little deeper, to trace this event from its inception … and to the broader category of the War on Humanity.”

By Larry Romanoff at Blue Moon of Shanghai.

This essay is about housing, and the Khazar Jews’ plan to eliminate home ownership for all but the (primarily) Jewish financier and industrial classes. Yes, I know. It sounds like just another conspiracy theory, but reserve your judgment until the end.

The Jews’ War On Humanity — Part 4 – The 2008 US Gentile Housing Crisis (1 of 4)

It can be hard to figure out who actually owns a building. Homes being treated like major sources of capital, instead of places for people to live.

British banker Montagu Collet Norman (1871 – 1950), 1st Baron Norman, Governor of the Bank of England. Source

I would remind readers here again about the statement by Montagu Norman, who was the Governor of the Rothschild-owned Bank of England, to the United States Bankers’ Association in 1924, often referred to as “The Bankers’ Manifesto”:

“Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through the process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. These truths are well known among our principal men who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance. It is thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.” [1]

There is no way to misunderstand the man’s words. The quote contains several distinct ideas, all of which are truly ominous for people in almost every country.

1. Debt enslavement
2. people losing their homes
3. government of central power by bankers
4. bankers forming an imperialism to govern the world
5. “democracy” a sham to divide and conquer the population; people waste their time on “questions of no importance”.
6. “we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned”. If this isn’t a “conspiracy”, then what would be?

“We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether world government will be achieved by conquest or consent.” James Paul Warburg (1896-1969) was the son of Paul Moritz Warburg, nephew of Felix Warburg and of Jacob Schiff, both of Kuhn, Loeb & Company which financed the Russian Revolution through James’ brother Max, banker to the government of Germany. Source

I would remind you of James Paul Warburg, Jewish Banker, who in 1950 testimony to the U.S. Senate, said, “We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether world government will be achieved by conquest or consent.” [2] I would remind you also of David Rockefeller, Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, who stated in 1991 during a Bilderberg Meeting, “We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine, and other great publications… for their commitment to global governance. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” [3] Rockefeller explicitly endorsed a “supranational sovereignty” led by bankers and elites, dismissing national sovereignty as outdated. This is directly connected to the Jews’ War on Humanity, because we will first be subjugated and colonised, one representation of this condition is us being homeless renters. This is not a joke.

To fully appreciate the extreme ferocity of this intent and the power and influence that lie behind it, we need to take a closer look at the 2008 housing crisis and financial meltdown. This is a complex topic with much detail necessary, so I have divided it into 4 parts.

The “housing problem” is a social boil that has been festering for many decades, and it emerged in full force (yet again) in 2007-2008 in the so-called “financial meltdown”. The 2008 financial crisis resulted in tens of millions of families in the US and some other nations losing their homes. This was generally referred to in the mass media as a “housing bubble”, insinuating that the problem somehow “just happened”.

But it didn’t just happen. It resulted from the confluence of processes consciously and deliberately executed by established capital, primarily the US FED, firms like Goldman Sachs, many banks, and some other participants, and of legislation and policies effected by the US government. We needn’t pretend to consider this a conspiracy between the major players. It is sufficient that they were all on the same page at the same time, each acting in their own interest, but with their actions complementing each other and magnifying the result. We can think of it as a sharp confluence of interests rather than a secret conspiracy. Nevertheless, when we examine the details, it is inescapable that the “housing bubble” was deliberately created and executed by a select group of actors with a willing and supporting cast, and that the end result was clearly foreseen at the inception of this process.

And that leads us to the inconvenient truth that foreseeable consequences imply deliberate intent. I can foresee the consequences of striking a window with a hammer; it does me no good to claim I didn’t mean to break the glass. Foreseeable consequences imply deliberate intent.

It is necessary to emphasise that, while the bubble was being inflated, all the participants had to be aware of that fact, and also aware of the inevitable result. First, the US FED opened the credit taps wide, providing virtually unlimited credit for home purchases. Next, mortgage interest rates were reduced to an all-time a low, not only making home purchases possible for many otherwise unenfranchised families but also encouraging widespread speculation. At one point in Canada, the mortgage interest rate at the major banks was 0%. If that isn’t a warning sign of something, then what would be? How can a bank lend money at 0% interest and remain solvent? As another indication, particularly in the US, the normal conditions required to qualify for obtaining a mortgage, were totally deleted. As the bubble inflated, mortgage applications contained no requirement for a minimum income, nor even for the applicant to have a job. House mortgages were available with no down payment, the banks willingly lending the entire appraised value of a dwelling. Further, the normal legal fees and real estate commissions were simply added to the mortgage amount. All the normal requirements for obtaining a home mortgage were suspended, along with all the cautious lending practices of banks.

At the end, the mortgage market was flooded with what were termed “LIAR” loans and “NINJA” loans. The LIAR mortgages were loans made with no documentation: borrowers could state their income or assets without verification. The NINJA Loans meant “No Income, No Job, no Assets.” The situation became so ludicrous that, at the end, homeless unemployed drifters – with zero assets – were obtaining mortgages on $500,000 homes. Given that every participant in the financial industry had to be fully aware of these conditions, we can hardly claim the housing bubble was an unexpected accident.

To summarise: (1) Credit was easily available to anyone, with virtually no limitations; (2) you could purchase a home at an extraordinarily low interest rate – sometimes zero; (3) you could purchase a home of almost any size or selling price; (4) you needn’t have had sufficient income to qualify for the mortgage payments, and in fact needn’t have had any income at all; (5) you didn’t need to be employed, nor to even have a fixed address; (6) you needn’t have had a down payment; you could borrow not only 100% of the selling price of a house, but also additional funds to cover the legal fees and real estate commissions, all included in the mortgage loan. Countless qualified (and unqualified) purchasers bought a house with the intention of flipping it within weeks at a higher price. This was the situation that actually existed at the time. It shouldn’t require much mental effort to conclude that something was very wrong with this picture.

Source

There were many “customer-friendly” advertisements stating, for example, “It doesn’t matter if you can’t pay the loan every month, you only need to pay interest for the first 24 months, and the principal of the loan can be paid after two years!” [4]

To additionally entice speculative purchases, advertisements promoting “zero down payment” and initially low “teaser” interest rates became common. Billboards everywhere yelled out “Why rent when you can own?”, drawing more buyers into the market and fueling demand. The teaser interest rates meant that mortgage loans were offered at unreasonably low interest rates (sometimes zero) that would “re-set” to much higher levels after perhaps two years. The combination of low interest rates and easy credit led to an increase in speculative buying. Investors purchased homes with the expectation of selling them for a quick profit, contributing to the rapid rise in home prices. Given the frenzied speculation in the housing market, the borrowers essentially relied on “the greater fool theory” which assures us that we will be able to flip this property to yet a greater fool in the near future. Caution was therefore eventually thrown to the wind.

Now think, what would be the natural, inevitable result of this combined set of circumstances? The first is that housing became financialised as an investment commodity, totally detached from the social good of dwellings for people. The second, and most obvious, would be a literal tsunami of home buyers. With free money and no restrictions, and with house prices promising to rise rapidly, why not purchase a house? The third result, stemming from the first two, was a dramatic increase in selling prices. This didn’t occur overnight; the bubble was being inflated since about the year 2000, and by 2008, or even 2006, the median selling price of homes in the US had doubled, and tripled from 1997 prices when the scheming first began for this fraud.

The bubble was obvious to everyone, but greed prevailed. Goldman, Sachs executives slept with dreams of riches far beyond the limitations of mere avarice, while the intermediary financial institutions had the same disease to a lesser extent. The local banks appear to have been totally overcome with equal portions of greed and recklessness, to the point where their lending practices became insanely unrestricted. And the eventual real losers, the individuals who purchased the homes, saw an innocent (and easy) opportunity for profit by purchasing a real estate asset that was rapidly appreciating. Everyone saw only the upside; no one seemed to consider that most hills have a downside.

But this wasn’t the whole story. Goldman, Sachs created something new that was critical to the scheme, and in hindsight appears to have been their main purpose, and also unquestionably the cause of the financial meltdown. Through intermediaries like Countrywide, Washington Mutual, and Wells Fargo, Goldman, Lehman Brothers, and others, purchased these “subprime” mortgage loans from the original lending banks, mixed the good mortgages together with the subprime debt (the trash), Then sliced, diced, and repackaged them as AAA-quality bundled securities called CDOs, and sold them off to innocent pension funds, national social security funds, and other investors. With these bundles being marketed aggressively throughout the world, the demand for mortgages increased almost exponentially, serving to increasingly corrupt lending practices while further inflating the US housing market.

In case it isn’t obvious, I should state that a very significant percentage of the mortgages issued by the various banks were clearly substandard in terms of quality, with potentially millions of borrowers having no hope of making the required mortgage payments. And in fact, by the end of the bubble inflation, nearly all mortgages would have met this description. Yet it is crucial to note that as Goldman, Sachs and others heavily promoted these bundled securities, they assured purchasers the securities were “Grade AAA”. To assist in the fraud, the major stock and securities-rating firms, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch, cooperated to rate these “securitised investment packages” as Grade AAA. It should have been obvious to investors that AAA could not be possible under these circumstances, but few knew the details of the mortgage securitisation until after the bubble burst.

By 2006, the market reached its limit. As borrowing costs reset higher and household budgets were squeezed, people began to default on their mortgages. This led to a surge in foreclosures, which flooded the market with homes and caused prices to fall sharply. Documented reports were that house prices quickly plunged by 30% to 50% in many US states. [5] [6] To compound the effect, the FED raised interest rates in 2006, claiming an attempt to slow the growth of the housing market, but surreptitiously this was a deliberate act to burst the bubble and to effectively force the desired collapse in house prices. And, as house prices collapsed, the Jewish vulture funds and billionaires swooped into the market to buy up all those foreclosed homes at very low prices. More later.

You can see from the chart below, drawn from the St. Louis FED, what happened to US home sales. Note the dramatic increase from 2000 to 2005/2006, and the plunge to 2010. Note also the repetitive rises and plunges from 1970 onward. None of these were accidents either.

Source

Commensurate with this, the banks and financial institutions faced significant losses on those same mortgage-backed securities, and that led to a widespread credit freeze. This credit freeze, and the subsequent realisation that trillions of dollars’ worth of mortgage securities were of seriously questionable value, led to our “2008 financial crisis”.

Everything I have written above, is generally well-known. But with these details fresh in our minds, we are no closer to being enlightened. We still have no understanding of WHY this disaster occurred, nor in fact HOW it occurred. We need to dig a little deeper, to trace this event from its inception, and to relate it properly to the agenda of the dispossession of the world’s Gentile housing, and to the broader category of the War on Humanity.

This event of the housing bubble, crash, and crisis, was not an accident. When we examine the entire circumstances and connect all the dots, it becomes very clear that the “crisis” was an orchestrated event meant to produce precisely the results that obtained from it. When we examine the details and put all the pieces into proper place, there is no way to avoid the conclusion that the entire 2008 housing event was a planned criminal fraud executed by a small group of players. This is where we will go first.

What Really Happened to Create 2008?

From all the available evidence, this debacle originated somewhere in the bowels of Goldman, Sachs, probably around 1995, when one of their officers or officials conceived the idea of securitising high-interest-rate and high-risk mortgages, and selling them off in tranches that would later be termed “Collateralised Debt Obligations“, or CDOs. Despite the fact that this enormous fraud had many deeply-involved active participants, it needn’t be seen as a conspiracy in any real sense. The impetus for the hatched plan likely originated during a casual discussion over lunch between a Goldman employee and someone from perhaps the Treasury Department. Given the attractiveness of the scheme and its potential for vast profits, and the fact that all the potential actors at this level were reading from the same playbook, the scheme likely took on a life of its own after that discussion. There were many pieces to put into place to create the environment and set the stage for this housing bubble-to-come, but much of this could have been accomplished through casual discussions among the necessary key players. Treasury could have spoken to the FED, the lobbyists from AIPAC to members of Congress, others to the intermediary banks, and some to the local banks as well.

Setting the Stage, Step 1 – The curse of Financialisation

It may not be well understood, but also is not a secret, that the Khazar Jews financialise almost everything. For example, this is the root of the push for privatisation, basically converting public goods into private profit streams. This applies to railroads, airports, prisons, electrical, water and gas utilities, toll highways, and much else. For more background on the severe dangers of this ideology, you may care to read “A Further Look at Privatisation” [7] and “World Map of Privatisation“. [8]

It is the cause of the increasingly short-term vision exemplified by American and most Western multi-national companies, where “long-term” is the next financial quarter. This, in turn, has led to stock buybacks, call centers relocating to India, the offshoring of American manufacturing, huge unemployment, and much more. Simply put, due to financialisation, companies no longer exist to manufacture and provide products, but to avoid taxes and pay high dividends to stockholders. As Steve Ballmer of Microsoft so eloquently said, “Our purpose is not to make good software. Our purpose is to make money.”

Source

The Financialisation of Housing

Returning to housing, the core issue here is that the 2008 crisis really stemmed from a deliberately-programmed fundamental shift in what housing is: from an essential social good to a financial asset. This shift was not an accident, but the consequence of decisions and systems that evolved in planned measure over time. This process that we call “financialisation,” is a complex transformation driven by very specific mechanisms and by very specific actors (all Jewish), with profound implications for economies and societies.

There were several key mechanisms that prioritised the investment value of a house over its use as a home. A classic sign is what we term the “price-rent disconnect”, when housing prices rise far beyond what can be supported by their rental income. When the cost of buying a home is not justified by the potential rent, it indicates that prices are being driven by speculation on future resale value, not by the fundamental value of providing shelter. This speculation creates a dangerous cycle, a kind of self-reinforcing feedback loop. As prices rise, housing becomes a more attractive “investment”, drawing more capital into the market. This influx of money further drives up prices, which in turn attracts even more investment, rapidly inflating a price bubble. This is where the role of easy credit and leverage come into play. This process is deliberately fueled by easy credit, where buyers are encouraged to take on large amounts of debt, betting that future price increases will justify the loans. This of course amplifies both the boom and the eventual bust. This shift to the financialisation of American housing wasn’t an accident; it was propelled by the actions and incentives of several key groups. And, it is important to point out, this wasn’t the first time.

The consequences of the financialisation of housing are very serious. Speculative “investment” in housing, as opposed to normal purchases, seriously distorts other sectors of a nation’s economy, depriving “real” sectors of needed capital. The attraction is vast immediate profits, even though the activity contributes nothing to a nation’s economy and in real life distorts it badly. Also, housing financialisation worsens the gap between the rich and the poor. It creates a situation where those who already own property assets see their wealth grow effortlessly, while younger generations and lower-income families find it nearly impossible to get on the property ladder. This is one of the main factors that has destroyed the prospect of social mobility in the US and many Western countries. Those who can never accumulate a down payment – and pay off – a home, are almost certainly condemned to remain in the lower class. And of course, a financialised housing market is fragile. When a real estate bubble finally bursts, it will most often trigger a full-blown financial crisis with lasting damage to the entire economy, leaving behind a mess that takes years or decades to clean up. Think of Japan in the 1990s or the US after 2008.

One inevitable result is the abrupt plunge into the lower class by former members of the middle class, and another is the inevitable transfer of wealth from the middle and lower classes to the 1/10th of 1% who engineer these booms and busts. But it is very important to understand the process: the hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars in losses from a collapsed housing market, are not really ‘lost”; they become profits for the billionaire class who purchase these depreciated assets at pennies on the dollar. The main result of the collapse of any bubble, but here especially a housing bubble, is a transfer of wealth of almost unimaginable proportion from the lower and middle classes to the elite financial class. As I mentioned earlier, as house prices collapsed, the Jewish vulture funds and billionaires swooped into the market to buy up all those foreclosed homes at very low prices. Thus, the equity and value of all those homes (and families) were transferred from tens of millions of Americans into the hands of a few dozen Jews and their hedge funds.

I would note here that China’s approach to this issue is astute. Chinese policymakers and analysts have explicitly identified “real estate financialisation” as a major risk. Official discourse consistently warns that it is as addictive and dangerous as a narcotic to the economy and emphasises that the fundamental positioning of a house is for living, not for speculation. This represents a conscious effort to resist the global trend of financialisation and re-anchor housing policy to its social function. Still, all of this is just background to help us understand the social and financial travesties that were created. We are still lacking the necessary enlightenment.

Roosevelt signs the Glass-Steagall Act on June 16, 1933 to fix banking issues that had led to the Great Depression. Source

Setting the Stage, Step 2 – Regulatory Changes

There were two critical objectives necessary to be accomplished for this fraud to come to life. First, since Goldman’s scheme was clearly prohibited by law at the time it was hatched, Congress would have to be enlisted as a Shabbos Goy agent (servant of the Jews) at some point. Secondly, since the scheme would depend in very large part on stealth and secrecy as to the content (and quality) of the securities to be marketed, this required special legislative protection as well, involving Congress yet again.

For the first point, the Glass-Steagall Act was a law that had long separated commercial banking (taking deposits, making loans) from investment banking (underwriting securities, making speculative bets). That meant that Goldman, Sachs could not proceed with this housing securities fraud with the Glass-Steagall Act still in force. The movers and shakers of this scheme used their “bought and paid for” influence over Congress and the White House, utilising the extortionate abilities of AIPAC and similar pressure groups, and President Bill Clinton signed the repeal into law in November 1999. [9] [10] This repeal not only permitted Goldman, Sachs and friends to plunder the Gentile world unmolested, but it allowed the creation of megabanks like Citigroup that could originate mortgages, package them into securities, and then bet against them, creating catastrophic conflicts of interest.

The second point required laws that were “friendly” to the kind of securitisation that Goldman had in mind. To this point in time, the securitisation of assets, and the various complex insurance policies used to bet on, or bet against, those same securities, were tightly supervised by law. There was no possibility of Goldman, Sachs or Citibank executing this fraud in the dark. This situation clearly had to change and, courtesy again to AIPAC and Bill Clinton, it did change. In 2000, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (which Clinton again signed into law) explicitly prevented the regulation of Credit Default Swaps (CDS), the insurance policies on CDOs. This allowed the securitised mortgage market to grow in the shadows, completely unregulated. [11] [12] And not only unregulated, but with the ability to completely hide the fraudulent nature of the scheme behind an impenetrable veil of secrecy. There was actually additional protection created to ensure the ability of these Jewish financiers to work in the dark: federal regulators actively preempted state-level attempts to interfere with or disrupt the execution of this fraud by warning them off in advance. The message from the top was clear: do not interfere.

This would be a good place for you to ask yourself WHY Goldman, Sachs and the other initial participants wanted the Class-Steagall act repealed. You might also want to ask yourself WHY the US Congress would, suddenly and without apparent need or provocation, enact legislation prohibiting the supervision of, or investigation into, precisely such schemes as the bankers envisaged. Keep in mind that it is primarily such schemes that demand supervision and investigation. You might also care to ask yourself WHY federal regulators would want to warn the state-level regulators against investigation or interference in the bubble-to-be.

Bill Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act on November 12, 1999. Source

Setting the Stage, Step 3 – Taking The Fraud Worldwide

Something else very important happened that was apparently missed by the media, but that was excruciatingly important to the mortgage fraud. You will recall the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which permitted these vultures to loot the American people and the US government of trillions of dollars (to say nothing of the unimaginable social cost). But ambition and greed are unlimited, or at least they were unlimited in this case. Our banker friends actually wanted to loot the entire world, not just the US, but they had a problem in that most countries had their own version of the Glass-Steagall Act, preventing our parasites from exercising their plan outside the US. To re-state, all other countries had laws prohibiting the confluence of commercial and investment banking and also prohibiting the issuance of precisely the toxic and fraudulent securities these bankers wanted to issue. What to do?

At the same time that Henry Paulson became Goldman’s CEO, he apparently conspired (evidenced by a now-public memo) with Lawrence Summers, [13] who was then US Treasury Secretary, and also with a handful of other financial vultures, to remove banking and securities regulation worldwide – just as he had done in the US. While he was Treasury Secretary, Summers was instrumental in blocking all attempts by the US government and society to restrict or even supervise the creation and distribution of this new category of financial assets. He succeeded, but this was insufficient for the worldwide plan. To achieve their goal, Henry Paulson and Lawrence Summers conspired in a scheme to eliminate controls on banks in every country in the world.

To accomplish this, they used the WTO as a platform in what may have been the most egregious campaign of bullying and extortion in world history. In simple terms, the WTO was designed for trade in goods. But Summers and the other bankers concocted an amendment that would force all nations to specifically include banking “services”, and more specifically the trade in derivatives and other toxic financial instruments. Summers and the bankers did a re-draft of the Financial Services Agreement portion of the WTO, with new rules that would force all nations to open their borders to these same banks and their imaginative new financial products. [14] Readers should note that all of the articles and documents critical of this WTO “liberalisation” of financial “services” appear to have been deleted from the Internet. At one time, there were many of these. They may still exist, but the search engines refuse to supply them. The only articles remaining are documents from the WTO or BIS, which present only a sanitised, fairytale narrative. This clearly is a sensitive topic that powerful people want suppressed. Some may still be available on the Wayback Machine at archive.org, although the US is suing to have many documents deleted.

But no nation was sufficiently crazy to willingly enact or accept such changes. Hence, the bullying and extortion. All nations, one by one, were presented with a “Hobson’s choice”; two alternatives equally disastrous and unappealing. Any country refusing to accept the new rules was threatened with economic hell – financial “sanctions”, a total trade embargo, total dislocation from the world’s financial system, confiscation of their US assets, and more. Eventually, almost every nation in the world was bullied into agreement by these Jewish bankers employing typical American “diplomacy”. And thus, the people who arranged the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in the US, accomplished the same result worldwide. And now the fraud-based calamity that faced the US people and the US economy, could be inflicted mercilessly on the rest of the world.

Sources: Paulson – Goldman, Sachs; Corzine – Goldman, Sachs; Kamanski – Merrill Lynch – ; Coulter – Bank of America; Reed – Citibank; Shipley – Chase Manhattan

The Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The record indicates there were 5 banks involved initially in this worldwide scheme, but it is important to realise that “banks” do not bully and extort; it is the “bankers” who do that, real people with names. These are the banks and bankers, and their names

Sources: Summers; Rubin; Geithner; Bernanke

Setting the Stage, Step 4 – The “Revolving Door”

You have no doubt read about the constant two-way traffic in the US between the regulators and the regulated. The head of the FDA approves for public sale a questionable but highly-profitable new drug (Think of the Sackler family and their Oxycontin), and six months later is hired by that same pharmaceutical firm at a high salary for a position with no particular duties. It works in reverse, too: A pharmaceutical company wants to distribute a questionable but highly-profitable new drug, but cannot obtain government approval. Suddenly the company’s CEO is appointed as head of the FDA who then magically approve the new drug for sale. Six months later, the man quietly returns to his former position at the pharmaceutical company. There are literally dozens of such examples, each with a purpose that would be obvious even to a child.

I raise the Revolving Door here, because the 2008 housing boom and bust could not have happened without it, and this leads us back to Henry Paulson, the CEO of Goldman, Sachs. Paulson joined Goldman in 1974, became a partner in 1982 and a managing partner in 1988. He co-headed the firm’s investment banking division from 1990 to 1994, when he was named president and chief operating officer. He became Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs in 1999, which is almost certainly when the housing mortgage fraud scheme was nearing fruition and being promoted among the select group of bankers. Paulson was promoted to those positions around the time the Glass-Steagall act was repealed, and when the “Act to Protect Criminal Bankers From Scrutiny” was passed.

In May of 2006, when the housing crisis was nearing its peak and the impending explosion was becoming obvious, US then-President George W. Bush chose Paulson as Treasury Secretary, a nomination surprisingly and unconscionably confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Then, in 2008, when the bubble finally burst, Paulson was placed specifically in charge of the US government’s attempts to prevent a full-blown, world-wide credit crisis “resulting from widespread losses on faulty or subprime mortgage loans made by financial institutions”. That is actually an astonishingly euphemistic statement that magically disperses all the blame. Henry Paulson was the Chairman and CEO of Goldman, Sachs in 1999 when the mortgage fraud was implemented there, and remained at the helm through all of its execution, until it was obvious the entire house of cards would soon collapse. At precisely that moment, George Bush opened the revolving door and made Henry Paulson the US Treasury Secretary, where he would now be in a position to protect the bankers from the consequences of their criminality. This is like hiring the bank robber as CEO to now come in and save the bank from insolvency. But without returning the money he stole.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Christopher Cox, and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency James Lockhart III, testify during a hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee September 23, 2008 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Source

In this new position, Paulson was given enormous, almost unlimited power over the financial scene, despite his almost unlimited conflicts of interest. One of Paulson’s first acts: “He quickly pushed through the federal takeover of the quasi-government mortgage-loan agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” In other words, Paulson engineered the US government takeover of the two massive mortgage agencies that he more or less personally bankrupted while at Goldman, Sachs. Then Paulson worked closely with FED Chairman Ben “helicopter” Bernanke to create a “credit facility”, i.e. quantitative easing (QE), i.e. the sudden issuing of trillions of dollars of free money to all the criminal banks involved in the fraud to enable them to escape with all their profits intact. Paulson and Bernanke especially convinced Congress to quickly pass an act to bail out the insurance company American International Group (AIG). At one point, Paulson was actually on his knees in Congress, begging them to approve the funds for the bailout. [15]

It should warm your heart to know that Paulson was also instrumental in the creation of the “HOPE NOW Alliance”, which was proclaimed as an effort by the same bankers “to assist struggling homeowners during the crisis”. Sadly, it bore no fruit and tens of millions of Americans lost their homes with no banker or government assistance anywhere to be seen. But it played well in the media as an effort to put a human face on the same bankers who caused all those tens of millions to lose their homes in the first place. [16] After having saved all his Jewish banking and insurance friends from bankruptcy, and after expressing appropriate sympathies for all the Gentiles who lost their homes, Paulson was replaced as Treasury Secretary by Timothy Geitner, who carried Paulson’s “financier resurrection programs” to their conclusion.

Stephen Friedman, left, was co-chairman of Goldman, Sachs in 1991 with Robert E. Rubin. Credit Gary Spector. Source

Yet More Background

We could profitably step back a bit further in time, to determine the onset of the planning for this immense worldwide fraud. Robert Rubin was the US Treasury Secretary from 1995 to 1999, and by 1997 he had been already exerting considerable pressure on US officials to “de-regulate” the banks. His first push was to dismantle the barrier between commercial and investment banks, which required the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. As one observer noted, this “was like replacing bank vaults with roulette wheels”. Rubin was also part of the Revolving Door, having been a Vice-Chairman of Goldman, Sachs along with Stephen Friedman, and Chairman of the firm’s management committee. [17] According to the Goldman, Sachs website, “Robert Rubin has led both the US Treasury and Goldman Sachs, which gives him a rare perspective on interactions between the financial and political systems.” [18] In this article, Rubin claims “The biggest risks to the US economy are political, not financial”. On this, he is 50% right because it is nearly entirely the Jews’ political influence and parasitical control of the US political system that leads to all these debacles – of which the 2008 meltdown was only one of many. But he was 50% wrong in that, because of the Jews’ control of the US political system, they create most of their disasters through the financial system.

But let’s not lose the main point, which is that the scheme which was being hatched by the bankers to loot the entire world, began around 1995 and required years of pressure on the US Congress to finally create the necessary legal environment for the execution of their massive fraud. And it should be noted that within weeks of leaving his position as Treasury Secretary, Rubin was named the Chairman of Citigroup. This is notable for reasons in addition to the Revolving Door, since it was expressly Rubin’s efforts to “de-regulate” the banks, that permitted the creation of the monstrosity later known as Citigroup.

Setting The Stage, Step 5 – The specialised Mortgage Companies

I stated above that “banks” were the originators of the subprime loans, but that was not entirely accurate. Our friends at Goldman, Sachs et al had conceived the idea of obtaining toxic mortgages in the trillions of dollars, bundling and re-packaging them, stamping them with AAA ratings, and selling them off to unsuspecting buyers all over the world. But there was one bottleneck in this “supply chain”; the investment banks (Goldman, et al) could not depend on the normal inhabitants of the US commercial banking system to cooperate in this fraud. Normal and sane bankers would resist providing mortgages to unemployed drifters, meaning that Henry Paulson’s dreams of unlimited avarice would go unrequited.

The solution was that the investment banks who were behind this fraudulent scheme took matters into their own hands and bought up several dozens of the seedy mortgage companies that lived in the nether world of low-quality high-risk borrowers. For example, Merrill Lynch acquired First Franklin Financial Company, a major subprime lender, and others did something similar. These were not passive investments; they were a strategic move to directly secure and control a steady supply of the high-yield raw material they needed for their CDOs. In cases where they couldn’t find a substandard, subprime mortgage company to purchase, the investment banks created, or financed the creation of, “specialised mortgage companies” to do the dirty work for them. The process functioned much like a manufacturing supply chain.

The record indicates that most of those “specialised” lenders went bankrupt after the bubble burst, and it seems clear that this was the plan, that these mortgage companies were specifically created (or purchased) as “one-trick ponies”, solely to vacuum up every substandard borrower in the US, issue them a mortgage, and supply Goldman and Lehman with the high-yield assets they wanted. Many (perhaps all) of the subprime specialists like New Century Financial and American Home Mortgage Investment Corporation went bankrupt when the bubble burst, confirming the conclusion about these companies being temporary one-purpose tools. This was the actual structure of the subprime mortgage machine. The specialised mortgage companies were the crucial, and disposable, engine designed to generate the specific “product” that investment banks wanted.

It is vitally important to appreciate that the huge contrived demand created by the bankers was not for “housing” or “homes”, but for high-yield mortgages.

Setting The Stage, Step 6 – “Weapons Manufacturing” by Investment Banks

This is where the focus of the scheme could now actively turn to housing. The financial engineers on Wall Street had created in their imaginations a very lucrative and high-yielding securitisation machine, and the housing stock of the United States would now be used as the raw material to feed it. [19]

It is very important for readers to understand this next point: The “demand” in the 2008 bubble was not for “housing”, but for “mortgage investments”, specifically high-yielding (and high risk) mortgages. The creation of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) would create an insatiable demand for high-yield mortgages. But the only way to obtain mortgages in sufficient numbers was to encourage hugely increased activity in house purchases. The problem was that traditional, safe, 30-year fixed mortgages weren’t sufficiently profitable, and thus unattractive, for what Goldman, Sachs and their friends had in mind. You cannot generate and execute a worldwide financial fraud by offering investors 3% or 5% on their money. You need the temptation of exceptionally high returns and, in the housing market, this could come only from subprime loans. The high yields were available only with high risk – the LIAR loans and the NINJA loans. And now we move into the fraud with a vengeance.

To meet this demand for high-yield mortgages, lenders were incentivised to create a new high-yield product – the subprime mortgage – meaning low quality loans made at high interest rates to those with poor or no credit. This was the root cause of normal banks dumping all their lending restrictions and throwing caution to the winds. It was from this contrived “demand” for high-yield mortgages that mortgage companies began promoting zero down payment and initially low teaser interest rates, intended to draw more buyers – and especially substandard buyers – into the market, thus fueling an almost completely artificial demand for “housing” while providing the high-yield (and very high risk) mortgages. These subprime LIAR and NINJA mortgages were specifically designed according to specifications dictated by Goldman, Sachs.

When the real world is functioning normally, a bank lends its money to a borrower and maintains that loan on its books. It is therefore of considerable interest to the bank that the borrower have the capacity to repay the loan. No bank officer, even one mentally challenged or high on drugs, would issue a mortgage of $500,000 on a house worth $450,000, to an unemployed drifter with no income and no fixed address. But they did. And the reason they did, was that these mortgages were never designed to be retained by the bank. They were issued only for sale to Goldman, Sachs, Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, and other financial wizards (parasitic vultures, actually) to be securitised and sold. Thus, the lending banks didn’t care if the borrower could afford the payments because they would have sold off the loan to Wall Street within weeks. You can appreciate that this represented a fundamental shift from traditional lending. [20]

The mortgages did not go from the local banks or mortgage companies directly to Goldman and others similar. There were financial intermediaries like Countrywide, Washington Mutual, and Wells Fargo. It was these intermediaries, acting on explicit instructions from the wizards of Wall Street, who dealt with the local banks. It was they who would communicate in strict and direct terms the kind of mortgage, the size, and the yield required. If the local bank produced the specific high-yield, high-risk mortgages the intermediaries demanded, they were guaranteed purchase by the intermediary and thus these outstandingly risky loans carried no risk for the bank doing the lending.

It was only this guarantee of immediate purchase by Wall Street that prompted the local banks to ignore their normal lending practices.

As if we weren’t already sufficiently deeply embedded in a fraud, there were two powerful supporting frauds in terms of “quality assurance”, and this involved the corruption of the rating agencies and insurance policies from AIG. For Goldman, Sachs and friends to perpetuate this fraud on a global scale, the severely toxic securitised mortgages had to be mislabeled as “safe”, and this first required the conscious, paid complicity of Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch. The profits offered to these agencies were enormous, provided they did what they were told to do. And they did. This was clearly and entirely a criminal fraud, involving willful ignorance and complicity by the rating agencies. Internal emails proved that rating agency analysts knew the models were flawed and referred internally to the securitised mortgage products as “dogshit.” [21] [22] But they rated them AAA anyway because they were knowingly and willingly an important part of the scheme, and were paid handsomely for their fraudulent mislabeling. The rating agencies provided the scientific-looking stamp of approval that made the entire fraud seem legitimate to pension funds and foreign investors. More about the complicity of AIG later.

It should be more than obvious by this time that a Jewish merchant bank hatched a scheme for an immense financial and social fraud, and enlisted many participants as active players. We cannot know exactly how this unfolded. At this distance in time, we will never know who said what to whom. We don’t know who exerted pressure on the US Congress to repeal the Glass-Steagall act, although we know pressure must have been exerted, since Congress would never have originated this abomination its own. And certainly, Bill Clinton was sufficiently compromised and pressured to sign it. We will never know precisely the circumstances that led the US Congress to pass the Commodity Futures Act that prohibited supervision, examination – and even knowledge – of dangerous financial schemes. This was by any measure one of the most recklessly stupid pieces of legislation ever passed by any government anywhere. It was an act that permitted a select few financiers to create financial instruments with a high likelihood of being not only financially disastrous, but also fraudulent and criminal, and specifically prohibiting any government oversight.

Looking back on this immense treasonous criminal scheme, I would conclude that there was no single meeting in which it was created or expanded. Instead, there was most likely a series of conscious decisions by different individuals in different sectors, all reading from the same ideological script of deregulation, profit-maximisation, and obscene greed. There would have been some distinct coordination between the large merchant banks and the intermediaries and between the latter and the local banks, but these might well have been one-on-one conversations. When we have a distinct group of persons, all members of the same small tribe, all of whom are known to each other, and all of whom share the same ideology and “values”, it is easily possible for them to act in coordination without meeting the test of a “conspiracy”. Although, I would say that this distinction is largely academic since the result is the same.

Once again, it is vitally important to appreciate that the huge contrived demand created by the bankers was not for “housing” or “homes”, but for high-yield mortgages that could be bundled as CDOs and sold as high-quality investments to unsuspecting buyers.

The financial system itself was at fault, but this must be personalised to individuals. It is not “the FED” that lowered interest rates to create the bubble and then raised them to burst it, but specific individuals at the FED, all under the watchful eye of Alan Greenspan. It was not “Goldman, Sachs” that created the bundled securities, but senior individuals within that organisation, most likely Henry Paulson who was Chairman and CEO. Identified individuals at banks and other institutions played a key role by providing ample credit for housing purchases, with extremely relaxed lending standards. The widespread securitisation of mortgages was performed by specific individuals at the very large merchant banks – real people with names. There is also a matter of US government policies and legislation; Certainly, Bill Clinton can claim major responsibility for the crisis, but so can most members of the US Congress. And of course, there were specific individuals with names at the rating agencies who actively and knowingly cooperated to fleece the public and investors alike.

Important Reading

The real estate bubble in the United States from 2001 to 2007 and the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008
Spiritual Godfather Colonel House and the Diplomatic Association (Part II)
Lessons From the 2008 Financial Crisis

≈≈≈

His full archive can be seen at
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ + https://www.moonofshanghai.com/
He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com

≈≈≈

NOTES – Part 4

[01] Capital must protect itself in every possible way
[02] The flow of money creates a path to a world group
[03] The flow of money creates a path to a world group
[04] With strong demand support, U.S. real estate will not fall hard
[05] US housing prices fell halfway
[06] The S&P 1 Home Price Index shows that housing prices in major cities in the US are falling at an accelerated pace
[07] A Further Look at Privatisation
[08] World Map of Privatisation
[09] Glass-Steagall Act of 1933: Definition, Effects, and Repeal
[10] Glass-Steagall Act Repealed, USA | 1999-11-12
[11] How Deregulating Derivatives Led to Disaster, and Why Re-Regulating Them Can Prevent Another
[12] Transforming big banks into bucket shops
[13] The Confidential Memo at the Heart of the Global Financial Crisis
[14] The GATS agreement on financial services – liberalisation
[15] “Business leaders in crisis” No. 4: U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson
[16] Henry Paulson
[17] Rubin and Friedman Become Co-Heads
[18] Robert Rubin: The biggest risks to the US economy are political, not financial
[19] The causes, disposal and enlightenment of the 2008 real estate crisis in the United States: the second part of the overseas real estate series
[20] Why does Bank of America dare to lend high-risk loans?
[21] Dogshit ratings
[22] Dogshit ratings

≈≈≈

Other Works by this Author

Bubba Blow By Blow

Par : AHH — 16 novembre 2025 à 12:51

“Most curious, though, are the 36% of Americans who still swallow Donald whole. The Donald sure knew what he was doing. His muscle memory was still fine.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Bubba Blow By Blow — Nov 16, 2025.

Before the Internet, you’d never hear from a guy like The Enemy from Within. He’s a trucker who has posted 368 videos on YouTube. Dude has done a fantastic job tracking America’s economic collapse. Due to Trump’s tariffs, much less stuff is being imported or moved about. Thanks to Trucker, let’s call him that, we know how bad it really is. Approaching this Christmas shopping season, Trucker sees dead truckstops everywhere, with one designed to hold around 300 trucks having, at most, 30 on a recent night.

I enjoy listening to Trucker because he sounds just like the Philly motherfuckers I used to drink with. It’s not just his language, but his candidness. He’s not some hit and run pussy who can only act tough while hiding behind some faggoty pseudonym. Now that Trump’s been outed as a cocksucking hypocrite, the internet has blown up. Most curious, though, are the 36% of Americans who still swallow Donald whole. Good Christians all, they must defend this child rapist held hostage by Jews. Red heifers are here.

Though Trump has dropped countless clues over decades, MAGA morons were steadfast. I had some among my readers, I’m embarrassed to say. Like others, I’ve had to conclude many enjoy Trump’s sexual exploits, if you want to call them that, vicariously. The most polite term for this is freudenfreude. These perverts just want to increase the world’s happiness.

“Dr. MDL” shared, “Note that grabbing pussies and banging miss universe types is [sic] not only fine but admirable.” How about banging helpless children and slurp slurping Bubba’s cock? I suppose that’s fine, too, for this doctor. How many clueless patients has he cared for? How many genitals has he grabbed?

During Biden’s era, I spoke out against the enforced trans fetish, but, again, I don’t care what anyone does with anyone else, if it’s consensual. I don’t think Arwin Weiwess should have been jailed for slowly killing Bernd Brandes, then eating him, chunk by chunk, over days. As performance art, it’s even more sublime than Mao Sugiyama serving pieces of his pecker at a banquet. Germans and Japanese are just different.

Trump, though, has never owned up to anything. He’s always pretended to be the exact opposite of what he is. A cowardly pervert business failure born into wealth who hates just about everybody, including his wives and “lovers,” Trump has tricked billions into wanting to be just like him, so copies of his How To Think Like A Billionaire are selling everywhere, including in Vũng Tàu, and this is technically a Communist country!

MAGA jerkoffs are fine with this Epstein statement, “Have them ask my houseman about donald almost walking through the door leaving his nose print on the glass as young women were swimming in the pool and he was so focused he walked straight into the door.”

Who can resist juicy chicks bobbing in a pool? Even Trump having some hooker piss on him sounds like a blast. The only problem with this is blackmailing. Trucker:

My understanding of that was that Donald Trump was in a hotel room with a Russian hooker that peed on him. And they had a tape recording of it. And they were holding that over Donald Trump’s head as leverage. And I don’t know why you would even try to cover that up. I’m going to level with you, my friends. And you’re going to find out just how much of a degenerate I can be sometimes. If I had a weekend where I got drunk off my ass and ended up in a hotel room with a hooker that pissed all over me, you wouldn’t be able to shut me up about that tape. I’d be telling all you guys about it. You’d see me get on a video, hair all messed up, looking tired, like I had one hell of a weekend going. Guys, you would not believe the weekend that I had. And I wouldn’t be able to post that video here on YouTube because it would get me kicked off of YouTube really quick. But I would be finding ways to make sure all of you guys got to see the video of the weekend I had. You would not be able to blackmail me with a video of a hooker peeing on me. That would be my crowning life achievement right there. On my deathbed, that would be the last thing that I thought about. It wouldn’t be blackmail around here, baby. Not at all. That’s what I call a good fucking weekend, all right? Truckers, man. We’re degenerates. We do shit.

I wonder what my Scranton buddy, Chuck Orloski, is thinking about his superhuman savior? How much are you paying for eggs and ground beef, Chuck? How many bags of groceries are you getting per week from your soup kitchen? How many new jobs have appeared in Deer Hunter country? You must be so rich, Chuck, you don’t know what to do. The next time I see you, you better buy me rounds of Yuenglings!

As a Philly housepainter, I used to hit the titty bar with the rest of the crew right after work. We had to unwind, man. Sitting in the Office, I watched some old fart lick a stripper’s high heel. Standing on the bar, she had come round to collect tips. After grandpa was done, I asked, “Why did you do that?”

“I don’t know. It’s something new.”

Since it was his first time, gramp was terrible.

When Trump gave that microphone a simulated blowjob in front of thousands, he acted like a seasoned pro. The Donald sure knew what he was doing. His muscle memory was still fine. Now, he can’t locate his mouth or asshole to wipe it.

I don’t know any straight guy who would even attempt that. Shit, man, even queers would have had stage fright.

Dr. MDL, “Flipping shit and trolling people is [sic] funny as hell. You must know that from hanging in Philly.” No, doctor, Philadelphians may talk much shit, but most of us have class. We have boundaries and respect. Like Trucker, we laugh best at ourselves.

On 8/26/15, Trump tweeted, “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?” At Friendly Lounge, Dom, Felix, Johnny AC, Johnny the Hat, Chinese George, Marty the Mortician or Vern the Vietnam vet would never think of saying that, much less broadcast it to billions for posterity. They’re not retarded teenagers.

Only Donald can satisfy Bubba. At 79, his teeth are supernaturally white, and that tongue is flickering as well as ever. Geriatric slobbering is a natural, God-given lubrication. Holding down that bobbing red hat, Bubba sighs rhythmically until they both scream. Is there a better example of Republicans and Democrats working together to benefit Joe and Jane Sixpacks? It’s your turn, Bubba. Fair is fair. America has never been greater.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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Slices of Life, #15

Par : AHH — 12 novembre 2025 à 15:40

“No life is boring if properly recounted. His given name, Quyết Chiến, means Determined to Fight. Quyết Thắng means Determined to Win.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Vung Tau, 11/3/25

Nguyễn Quyết Chiến — Nov 05, 2025.

An extraordinary story imperfectly told is better than one simply ignored. I will now tell you about a Vietnamese-American in Oklahoma. If alive, he’d be at least 75. His given name, Quyết Chiến, means Determined to Fight.

In 1972, Chiến was tasked with diverting ARVN troops away from the main thrust of an NVA assault. Basically sacrificed, all men in his unit died, but Chiến was captured. Weirdly enough, the ARVN officer recognized Chiến’s Nghệ An accent. Not only that, they had attended the same school. Instead of turning Chiến over to an ARVN prison camp, where at least beatings awaited, he reported Chiến as a “Chiêu Hồi” defector.

Spared, Chiến made broadcasts for the South Vietnamese, then he became a spy. In groups of three, these elite commandos were airdropped into North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, to collect information. Of course, many were detected and killed, but Chiến survived.

Just before the Fall of Saigon in 1975, Chiến was in Vũng Tàu. As everyone, including armed ARVN soldiers, scrambled to get onto anything that floated, Chiến noticed a hysterically sobbing boy. Grabbing this kid, Chiến was determined to take him along, but they didn’t manage to get onto any boat. Now, Chiến was stuck. Death seemed certain when he’d be caught by the North Vietnamese. He’d betrayed them, after all.

Chiến’s father had fought under General Võ Nguyên Giáp at Điện Biên Phủ, and his younger brother, Nguyễn Quyết Thắng, had died during the Vietnam War. Quyết Thắng means Determined to Win. Chiến had also betrayed his family.

Again not shot, Chiến was sent to a reeducation camp way up north. Even more miraculously, the warden took a liking to Chiến, so made him a barber. Though he barely ate like everybody else, Chiến wasn’t really beaten up or put into solitary confinement. After just over five years, Chiến was released. This, too, was a stroke of luck. ARVN soldiers jailed under five years weren’t allowed to emigrate to the US under the Humanitarian Operation program.

Before leaving, Chiến had another frightful encounter. His old man had come south to look for him. Instead of giving Chiến a sound beating, his dad was shocked at how thin and poor Chiến was, so all was forgiven.

“You don’t even have an extra bowl!”

To feed his father, Chiến had to borrow one from the house next door.

I have no idea how Chiến survived in Oklahoma, but he made enough money to revisit Vũng Tàu at least once.

Vung Tau, 11/5/25

Worst To Be Safest — Nov 05, 2025.

Two days ago, I told Mrs. Seven I was headed to my grocer to get some cucumbers. Immediately, she handed me 10K (38 cents) so I could buy her the same. Hating to go anywhere, that’s mostly how she shops. Another time, she asked me to get her mosquito repellent lotion. Years ago, she risked going to those five-story buildings where many Russians lived. Somebody there sold killer sausages, she’s told. On the way back, Mrs. Seven got seriously lost, so never again.

She’s “hai lúa,” or “two harvests.” That’s a slang for hicks. They don’t know anything beyond their two harvests. And yet, a much younger Mrs. Seven went as far north as Hanoi and crossed into Cambodia to dance. Once she had to perform outside a theater filled with corpses, freshly butchered by the Khmer Rouge. Many were decapitated. When Mrs. Seven was a star at the Palace Hotel, a Taiwanese and a Frenchman fell in love with her. Others, too.

Linh Dinh Part 1 by DW Shumway

Interview with the Vietnamese-American dissident, university lecturer and banned writer

Linh Dinh – part 2 by DW Shumway

2 of 2

Even lives not so eventful are filled with turmoil, perhaps more than usual. No life is boring if properly recounted. Though I’ve talked much shit about the painter at Ông Bầu, his story is astounding, so let me sketch Mr. Đại, as he did me today.

His father is from Cẩm Giang, a village in Bắc Ninh, a thousand miles north of Vũng Tàu. In 1883, they converted en masse to Catholicism. During the First Indochina War, it was occupied by the Việt Minh, however. From there, they shelled French troops around 1950, so Cẩm Giang was in danger of being wiped out by French bombs. Them Frogs had planes. Since Đại’s dad was about the only one who could speak some French, he was tasked with saving his village. Approaching them with a white flag, he shouted, “We’re all Catholics! We’re not Communists!”

When the Việt Minh occupied Cẩm Giang, they forced each house to display a portrait of Hồ Chí Minh. Now, those were put away. In their places were crucifixes and portraits of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Seeing these, the French were satisfied these villagers were indeed Catholics, so they didn’t bomb, rape or steal. They paid for every chicken, duck or pig. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stay. When the Việt Minh returned, Đại’s dad was in deep shit, so he had to flee way south, alone. Left behind was his wife and oldest son. Dead, he would have been useless anyway.

Ending up in Huế, 430 miles south, he joined the army of Bảo Đại, Vietnam’s last emperor. With a steady salary, he decided to remarry, but suddenly, his wife and son showed up. Hearing this from Đại, I protested, “What’s the chance of that?! How did your mom end up in Huế? Plus, it’s a huge city, even then. What were the odds of her running into your dad?”

“But she did,” he shrugged. “They were still in debt to each other.” It’s a Vietnamese expression meaning intertwining fates haven’t finished their courses.

In Huế, then, a second son was born, then his parents came to Vũng Tàu. Here, Đại appeared. Except for a dozen years in a New Economic Zone, he’s never lived anywhere else. As a city dweller thrust into the jungles, Đại didn’t have an easy time, obviously.

“I had been in the Boy Scouts, so that helped. Plus, I was befriended by a peasant from Quảng Ngãi. He showed me what to do. I also got help from an ARVN who spent years in jungles.”

Most incredibly, Đại still had his art supplies. In the middle of nowhere, he kept drawing with charcoal and pastels. Though Đại had no idea when his ordeal would end, and he had no audience, art kept him going.

In the late 80’s when most Vietnamese were still abjectly poor, Đại somehow went to China. He’s also been to Cambodia.

(L): Vung Tau, 11/5/25 ; (R): Saigon, 10/30/25

Had Đại been exposed to oil masterpieces over decades, he would likely have become a much better painter. Even most Americans have never seen an actual Manet, Vermeer, Hopper or Lucian Freud, etc. In the entire USA, there’s just one Da Vinci. Though books could be had anywhere, few bother to read even the best their culture has produced. Belligerently, defiantly and gleefully savage, millions march towards their Golden Age.

Finishing this at Ông Bầu, I see Morose at her laptop. Two days ago, I told her about La Gi, a town just 60 miles north. She’d never heard of it. “Go to Bình Châu, have lunch, then head to La Gi. It’s fascinating!”

Everywhere, everyone and everything is, but you’re not going to catch much if you’re always glued to a screen, masked and earplugged. Landing in Saigon after a three-hour flight from Guangzhou six days ago, I photographed one such man. From Chicago, he’s always well protected. It’s worst to be safest.

Vung Tau. (L): 11/8/25 ; (R): $3.65 on 11/10/25

Cecil Hotel in LA? — Nov 10, 2025.

This morning, I bought four cucumbers, four tomatoes, ten brown eggs and three fistfuls of shiitake mushrooms. Charging me $3.65, my grocer was apologetic, “Produce prices have gone up. There have been all these storms and floods.” Days ago, the tomato crab soup lady, Mrs. Tím, also lamented about prices. As with nearly everywhere else, Vietnam is increasingly slammed by natural catastrophes, with Hội An, its best preserved historical city, deluged with a record 42 inches of rain in 24 hours just two weeks ago. Huế, a capital city in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, suffered the same. Most horrible are houses or boats destroyed. Many thousands of people simply lost everything.

Several climate engineering techniques were tested, refined or perfected during the Vietnam War. Chemical weapons, too. Agent Orange is still deforming babies and killing people here, plus in Laos and Cambodia. Though made in the USA, Uncle Sam has always denied any responsibility. That’s just how he is. Boastful, bombastic and gleefully genocidal, Trump is the perfect personification of Uncle Sam. Those who love Trump aren’t ignoring his worst traits. They admire and envy his sadism, selfishness, shamelessness, vulgarity and infantilism. They wish they were Trump. MAGA men who must lie nightly next to aging wives can only fantasize about grabbing underaged pussies. Life isn’t fair.

A barista at NaLi Beach has just died from complications of Agent Orange. Telling me this at Coffee Seven, Sơn said he was surprised to find out this man was 36-years-old. He was so stunted. As NaLi Beach’s security guard, Sơn saw him each day until two weeks ago. Even gravely sick, he couldn’t afford to quit. Since he served me just once, I can barely visualize this man.

Bet you’ve never heard of Agent Purple, Agent Blue, Agent Pink, Agent Green or Agent White? Only God knows what else Sam sprayed here so liberally. What cute names, almost like a child’s crayon set.

Typing this at Ông Bầu, I notice another customer, in her late 40’s, clipping her toenails. A feeble young man with slender, easily breakable fingers is texting. Đại the painter was here sketching. Two days ago, he brought his four-year-old granddaughter. Sitting very still, she drew birds, cats, the sun, a cloud and a tree.

When I complained about everyone staring at phones, Đại said his wife has a 20-year-old nephew who’s so addicted to the small screen, he barely eats and has no actual friends. Responding to TikTok challenges, he taped his face, then genitals. He’s now on medications.

Just now, a man in his 60’s walked in with a retarded girl of about nine. Like me, they’re sitting in Ông Bầu’s small courtyard. Their low table is just a circular board resting on two truck tires. It’s so sweet to see this old man so patient and gentle towards his granddaughter. She’s eating a pretty good looking bánh mì. On her back is a cartoon cat. Now that she’s settled and enjoying herself, he starts focusing on his cellphone.

Coffee Seven is no more! Mrs. Seven has just been evicted by her half sister. Let’s call her Lanh. Though Wikitionary only defines it as fast or quick, shiftiness is implied. Devious and ambitious, Lanh is at least 20 times richer than Mrs. Seven. When her mom and stepdad got old and messy, she maintained social distancing, all right. It was Mrs. Seven who had to wash their asses thousands of times. Instead of thanking or reimbursing Mrs. Seven, Lanh is showing her the door. In months, that property will be converted into another mini hotel. Vũng Tàu already has hundreds.

Knowing she was leaving, the neighborhood loanshark came by to embarrass Mrs. Seven. Like many people up and down this street, she still owes him some money. This 68-year-old with a pot belly exuded smugness. Speaking loudly so all could hear, Pot Belly smirkingly said Mrs. Seven wouldn’t be able to close her eyes at death. This ugliest curse, he repeated several times.

Finally, he turned to Liệt, the retired teacher, to talk about Trump. Without the Donald, China would have swallowed up Vietnam already, Pot Belly sneered. This idiot with a third grade education was only drafted into South Vietnam’s Regional Forces near the end of the war, so saw no fighting. He wasn’t reeducated in any prison camp.

His first break came when his daughter married an old Aussie, then his son wedded an ethnic Chinese with some means. From his kids, then, he got enough cash to become a loanshark.

With her two dogs, Nọng and Milk Cow, Mrs. Seven has moved into her older daughter’s house half a mile away. I kept urging her to set up a sidewalk café on Đồ Chiểu, but who knows if I will ever see her again. Sơn, too, must find a new morning spot.

Left behind is a tree her dad planted decades ago. It wasn’t even on his land, but across the street. “It’s still your tree,” I joked, “so cut it down to sell the lumber!” As a parting gift, I gave Mrs. Seven some Nepali green and black tea.

Seriously thinking about returning to the US to take care of some business, I’ve looked into hotel prices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and El Paso. I’ve even considered staying in Juarez, across a short bridge from El Paso. In LA, the only reasonable priced hotels are around Skid Row. Stay on Main where Melissa Lam was found dead in a rooftop watertank is now called Cecil. That’s affordable. For weeks, its water tasted funny. We still don’t know what happened to Melissa.

In that fabulous land, there are no truths, only fairy tales about Lincoln, Roosevelt, JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, Moon Landings and 9/11, etc. Nothing ever said about it is remotely true, except when uttered, tweeted or pontificated by that radiant and anointed being who’s always right about everything.

Trump, Miller, Schumer and Dinh — Nov 11, 2025.

The sadistic mastermind behind ICE is Stephen Miller, a Jew whose real name is Glosser. He’s greenlit masked thugs to attack even citizens in broad daylight. There’s no transparency about the thousands kidnapped. Many were plucked from inside courthouses as they obeyed American laws. Racial profiling is rampant. Trump and Miller creamed their pants Christening one concentration camp “Alligator Alcatraz.” Judeo Christianity rules! I’d not be surprised if many victims have been tortured or murdered. Not realizing they may be next, MAGA morons cheer. In the meantime, they’re just bankrupted or starved.

Trump’s Democratic opposition is led by Chuck Schumer, the highest ranking Jew ever in the US government. Though enjoying a surge of support due to revulsion to Degenerate Donald, Schumer’s Dems have given up fighting for affordable healthcare. Us vs. Dem in US politics is always smoke and mirror.

Trumpers, though, will laugh off street protests or online outrage.

Darth Shredder, “Dems literally had NO REASON to cave… They had the polls in their favor… huge election wins to solidify it and momentum on their side. Republicans were seen as the villains, trump was losing support and getting desperate by taking away SNAP. What was the frickin point of even shutting it down in the first place? They not only got nothing… they lost the narrative and shifted all the blame to them. I’m done.”

Love One Another, “Chuck Schumer orchestrated this Kabuki Theater. He’s a lying TRAITOR! WE WILL PRIMARY YOU, CHUCK. MAGA NOT DEMOCRAT. HOW DARE YOU! Chuck just killed over 50,000 of us each year, who can’t stay alive without medical care.”

SkyP1e, “I started dialysis this year the cost comes to about $80,000 annually. I’m on disability and my private insurance dropped me right after the dialysis started so I applied for Medicaid. I eventually got approved but it took about six weeks of constant attention from me to get there. Chuck might have just killed me tonight. Thanks a lot scumbag.”

Seriously, though, how can you take people who call themselves SkyP12, Love One Another or Darth Shredder seriously? They’re no more real than Catdompa, Gigolo Joe, Mister Charlie PhD, Trinity or Arbeit Macht Frei, etc. Passing impotent gas, pseudonymous commenting perpetuates tyranny.

Genocides and economic collapse must go on.

Trump’s lead negotiator in the Middle East is Steve Witkoff. This Jew misled the Iranians into thinking the US was negotiating in good faith, but Trump colluded with Jews to attack, before bombing them himself. Though holding no official position, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner has just met with Netanyahu to sort out what to do with the remaining Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli real estate firm Harey Zahav cheerfully chirps, “Wake up, a beach house is not a dream!” Jews are salivating at moving into a Gaza free of Arabs. Trump envisions his golden statue, hotel and casino lording over them. How many prepubescent shiksas will be imported? Pain is their ultimate aim. Trump’s fingers still work, at least. Dumpster diving MAGA morons can follow the action on Truth Social or TikTok. Since they can’t afford to fly an hour to see dying grandma, they won’t be anywhere near Trump Gaza. Jews don’t care to see such vulgar red caps or T-shirts anyway.

“JESUS IS MY SAVIOR. TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT.” “GOD, GUNS AND TRUMP.” “Liberty Guns Beer Trump” for LGBT. “IT’S GONNA TAKE A FELON AND A HILLBILLY TO FIX THIS.” Show up with any of these in Tel Aviv to be spat on.

Speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition on 10/31/25, Lindsey Graham proudly declared, “I feel good about the Republican Party and where we’re going as a nation. We’re killing all the right people and we’re cutting your taxes. Trump is my favorite president. We’ve run out of bombs. We didn’t run out of bombs in WWII.” Graham has been a senator for 22 years. Before that, he was a congressman for eight years. Though usually less crude, most US senior politicians have exactly the same posture, ass up, that is, towards Jews.

Last Sunday, Trump appeared at a Commanders vs. Lions game. Though he was loudly booed or given the finger by nearly everyone present, a White House video of this humiliating incident shows Epstein’s best buddy given a hero’s welcome. It begins with Air Force One flying slowly over Northwest Stadium. A football with “TRUMP—COMMANDER IN CHIEF” and a jersey with “TRUMP” are shown. The latter, framed, is presented to him by the team’s owner, Josh Harris. This Jew with a shady business history has had much dealing with Jared Kushner.

It’s a nation of scams, lies and spins. Still thinking about a brief visit back, I checked Las Vegas hotel prices. With delight, I discovered 14 nights at Excalibur, right on the Strip, was on sale for just $359.74. The normal cost is $1,269.33. In small print, though, there’s this easy to miss bit, “Not included in price (collected by the property): Resort Fee (Pay at property) USA 714.28.” How many foreign visitors only discover this when checking in? No other country tries to pull off such a stunt, but then, again, no other nation is ruled by Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner and Bibi Netanyahu.

Yesterday, I also got this email:

Though a bit long-winded, it sounded exactly like Trump, so of course, I immediately sent all my savings to The Donald via PayPal.

Forget San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, El Paso or Las Vegas, I will fly straight from Saigon to Dulles Airport, then take a limousine to the White House. To its swarthy driver, I’ll bark, “Trump has me covered. I’m his Official White House Advisor, so step on the gas, motherfucker! Any delay and I’ll have you deported. Where are you from anyway? Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen? Go back to where you came from, dickhead. Crawl back into your Bin Laden cave!”

Since it’s nearly freezing in DC, I will need to buy a cashmere coat, for the occasion, you know. In this tropical climate, a Binori or Canali would be very tough to find. Plus, I just sent all my cash to Trump. Enthusiasm, fanaticism or just stupidity can even lead to suicide, or at least death by a thousand cuts.

Vung Tau, 11/12/25

22,630 Days — Nov 12, 2025.

On my 62^nd birthday, I’ve allowed myself to go mad, or, rather, to revert to a madder, more irresponsible self. At 9:35AM, I’m on my second BeerLao, though the first was somewhat shared with Như. She hardly drank her iced glass. Now, I’m sitting outside a liquor store that has maybe 30 types of beer. Four feet from me is a masked crone no taller than 4’9”. Across the street is Mrs. Tím, the crab noodle soup lady. Under her conical hat, she’s cleaning up and putting her tables and chairs away.

Until a minute ago there was a recorded song from inside the licker joint. It’s played for the owner’s 21-month-old daughter. I first heard it nearly 60 years ago. It’s about some frog sobbing in a corner. Tagged on stanzas include a dog, monkey and other animals. There’s an obscene version of a girl pissing in a corner.

Come out here, what’s that sitting in the corner?
Only her back is shown. Oh, it’s a girl!
It’s a girl pissing, with only her back shown.
Oh, she’s a bad girl!

That didn’t just leave a profound impression on me at age 8 or 9, it has defined my entire life, I’m sure. Without this ditty, I could have been a venture capitalist, five-star general or president of the United States of America. Now, I’m permanently traumatized.

A couple months ago, I challenged Như to finish her book in a year. It’s coming along. Two weeks ago, I said I’d give her a serious spanking if it’s not done on schedule. I was born to coach, mentor or just be an asshole.

This morning, I told Như about Raymond Carver and Harold Brodkey. Over decades, details may slip. Recently, I insisted to D.W. Shumway my Mariners lost to the A’s by identical score, 6-0, on consecutive days in 1976. Problem is D.W. was at the fuckin’ first game! I only heard it on the radio in Salem, Oregon. It was the Angels, and not A’s.

Me this morning, “Carver wrote about being in some Yakima laundromat and feeling rather sorry for himself. That really resonated with me. I was living in Grays Ferry, this shitty neighborhood in Philly. Though I didn’t know it at the time, Grays Ferry kids, these Irish, Catholic boys, were selling soiled underwear to this creep, Uncle Eddie. He lived in Center City’s best neighborhood, Rittenhouse Square. Just the name alone, you can tell. Though he was a UPenn graduate and had a wife, Uncle Eddie was a closet faggot, with a shit fetish. Lying under a glass table, he enjoyed staring at shit oozing from these boys’ assholes.”

I’m not sure Như wanted to hear all that around 7AM. I did have a point. Uncle Eddie had a vision, which he followed. He was more artist than most artists. If eating shit is intrinsic to who you are, don’t overmask it.

Me on Brodkey, “This guy was so heavily promoted, and he was excellent. His prose is much better than Carver’s. Brodkey has the most amazing passage about pussy licking, and it went on for four or five pages! He seemed so honest and candid, but it turned out Brodkey was a queer. He had to admit this because he got AIDS.”

Như, “Queers can be amazing at pussy licking because they don’t like penetration. They must focus on that!”

“You must write about that, too!”

Như said that as a child, she was always screaming inside her head. As a kid, all I wanted was to grow up as quickly as possible, so I could escape.

“We’re all helpless children,” I said. “You’re not really in your 30’s.”

“I feel like I’m 23.”

“Bullshit! You’re about 8-years-old, at most. I’m 4 or 5.”

Of course, writing is one way of dressing yourself up, to sound more intelligent and in control, you know, but if your baby, malformed or monkey self cannot seep out, you’re a waste of time, if not a criminal.

“We’re always dressed up.”

“Even when naked, we’re dressed up.” She’s trying to outdo me!

Not willing to concede defeat, I cited Andre Dworkin’s Intercourse, “She has some of the most amazing insights into being naked I’ve ever read.”

At age 70 or so, poet Stephen Berg pulled down his pants at a gathering of maybe six people. “Look at that,” he shouted. I wasn’t there, though. Versions of this story must be circulating around Philly, at least. “Why did he do that?” I asked Như. “What’s the symbolism of that?” Berg’s infant or beast got loose, and not for the first time. This time, he wanted to be caught.

Như talked about sabotaging every relationship. Having turned away from everyone, she felt a perplexing guilt.

“But you’re not going to change.”

“I’m not going to change.”

“You’re getting even.”

Like me, Như decided early on to never have children. We can’t justify passing on our despair, resentment and horrors. Unhappy children are most trapped.

Without that frog song, I could have been a Vince Lombardi or, at least, a Pete Carrol, but instead, I’m just a canceled, wrinkled toddler drinking a $1.50 large bottle of BeerLao in perfect weather. Imbibing nothing but perfectly content, at least in appearance, that masked mummy keeps turning her vigilant skull with its murky eyeballs back and forth, as if there’s much to look at on this drowsy, terribly boring street.

All week, I thought about returning briefly to the States, but my US banking and Vietnam residency issues have mostly been solved. A visit to Guam, the first US territory I entered way back in 1975, is still a possibility. As the native land of the Chamorros, all of the Marianas should be one nation, I’d think. Instead, Guam will likely be the first territory to be completely wiped out during the next nuclear war. The Chinese DF-26 missile is even nicknamed “Guam Express” or “Guam Killer.”

The rest of the Marianas would be uninhabitable, but that’s probably true of everywhere else, too.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks

Slices ov da Trumpocalypse, #5

Par : AHH — 9 novembre 2025 à 12:43

“Belligerently, defiantly and gleefully savage, millions march towards their Golden Age.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Leavitt for President! — Nov 07, 2025.

Trump on 11/6/25, “2025 Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25% lower than 2024 Thanksgiving dinner under Biden, according to Walmart. My cost are lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the Democrats ‘affordability’ issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!”

White man in his 30’s, “We’re now at the point of, you can finance your food. Like, people are so poor that you can actually finance your food! We went from being able to finance a house to financing a burrito. That’s insane! […] The unemployment rate is 4.2% or 4.9%. Like, give me a break! […] There’s no chance that 96% of people are employed right now [….] Most of my college friends are either vastly underemployed or unemployed now, so that number is just completely wrong.”

Sobbing white woman in her 60’s, sitting in a car, “I don’t even know where to go anymore. All I keep doing is driving back and forth on highways. We spend all our time in the car. I can’t even cook for him anymore, because it’s getting colder outside. I try to do my best, but where am I going? Where am I going? I’m either driving to a friend’s cabin, which is three hours away, or I’m driving to a campground, which is $38 a night and has a shower. Either way, I’m spending money […] Working decades, you think retirement is a time of peace and quiet, you’re rewarded for all your hard work. For so many, it has become a complete nightmare […] There are so many people right now that are one rent, one medical bill and one bad month of being homeless out on the streets.”

She had started a new business, but it flopped, like thousands across the USA just this year, then she and her husband were evicted. Her property taxes were jacked up, like her utility and grocery bills. Even with jobs, millions of Americans can no longer afford to live.

Those employed are overworked and underpaid. Thousands of nurses and teachers are quitting. The latter must deal with increasingly stupid, distracted and belligerent students with their minds and emotions wrecked by screen addiction. The moronic and deranged are easier to steer and cow. Just look at MAGA fanatics.

Nurse, “It got to the point where I was crying on my way to work every day. My mental health was just so bad, I knew I needed to leave, so I did. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life and it took me a long time to finally find the courage to leave. I had studied nursing and worked in healthcare since I was 17 years old.” If native nurses can’t hack it, there’s an endless supply from the Philippines, India, Mexico and Africa to replace them. All speak enough English. They’ve been bringing them in for decades. Ditto, Trump. A diseased oligarch, he can’t help but squeeze hardest from the bottom. Biden sniffs and squeezes. Trump grabs. Nearing the end, he’s squeezing and grabbing even harder. Melania flinches. She got hers.

Trump on 11/5/25, “Our Economy is BOOMING, and Costs are coming way down. Affordability is our goal. Love to the American People!”

– Linh Dinh

Since all these panicking Americans are saying the opposite of Trump, they must be lying. Chaos at American airports are fake news or deep fakes. Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is really 25% lower. So what if this year’s Walmart version only has 15 items instead of 21, with a smaller turkey. No one will miss the Southern pecan pie, sweet potatoes or cranberry sauce, etc.

This morning at Coffee Seven, I said to Liệt, the retired teacher, “Obama was excellent at lying. Trump is just naked. He has no shame!”

Liệt just laughed.

In a new video, Trump depicts himself as a rising sun, crowned king, the pope and a muscle man holding a laser sword. His approval rating still stands at 37%.

Trump has birthed a new YouTube genre, FAFO, for “fuck around and find out.” MAGA farmers, welfare queens and truckers, etc., are mocked when they suddenly find themselves broke or starving. Especially ridiculed are the browns, blacks and yellows who voted for someone who clearly hates them. I, for one, don’t think Trump’s cabinet is MAGA enough. It should only be filled with well stacked blondes. Don’t you think Karen Leavitt would look fantastic as your next president? Sure beats Hillary, Ocasio-Cortez or Pocahontas. I’d fly back just to vote for Leavitt.

Meanwhile, they moan, and not orgasmically.

El Pais on 11/5/25, “‘I’m angry with my president:’ Trump voters in Florida confront the fallout of his policies a year before the midterms—Reeling from aid cuts, the immigration agenda and a government shutdown with no end in sight, those who supported the Republican in the 2024 elections feel a mixture of guilt, anger and bewilderment.”

Suck it up! And suck it good.

Vung Tau. (L): $47.35 on 11/7/25 ; (R): 11/8/25

Intergalactic Trillionaires — Nov 08, 2025.

Petronius, “So the little man suffers, while those grinders of the poor never stop celebrating.” They do it often enough at Mar-a-Lago. This 126-room property on 17 acres was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post, the richest woman in the USA, just before the Great Depression.

In The Satyricon, Trimalchio leaves his feast to take a dump. In Fellini’s version, this is even announced, “Vado al vaso,” to heighten the obscenity of the entire scene. The fat man needs help from two near naked slaves just to get up. Later, he cracks a lame joke, “What’s a poor man?” Still, his guests laugh. They’re elaborately, almost grotesquely made up, with their blueish or grayish faces ghoulish in that dark, orange walled room.

– Linh Dinh

At least Trump’s Great Gatsby Halloween bash was well lit, and he didn’t need to leave his chair to go al vaso. Remarkably, MAGA morons still think Trump’s jokes, including those on them, are hilarious. He’s still fighting a court order to feed starving Americans.

In Vung Tau, even that Cambodian who sleeps outside Ông Bầu each night isn’t starving, and neither is Hùng the cyclo driver who’s been homeless for four decades. With the weather always warm, they’re also in no danger of freezing to death.

Having lost much weight in two years, I’m still a fat American, figuratively speaking. Yesterday, my shopping at Lotte Mart cost $47.35. I bought three jars of Cucina and Amore spaghetti sauce from Italy, two bags of frozen dumplings from South Korea, three Black Angus burger patties from Australia, cream cheese from the USA, wasabi paste from Japan, five small boxes of Vietnamese chocolate, 100 bags of Phúc Long green teas, 30 frozen meat balls and a tray of ready-to-eat tuna with mayo kimbap. Had this haul been in the USA, all the imported stuff would have been slapped with Trumpian tariffs. I would have had to pay twice as much. For basics like cucumbers, tomatoes, okras, hot peppers and eggs, I go to a neighborhood grocer, where I rarely spend more than $3!

Having lived here and there, my diet is eclectic, but even Viets who haven’t traveled are becoming fond of foreign dishes. Kids now demand donuts, hot dogs, spaghetti with red sauce or sushi for breakfast. Poorer ones, though, must stick with sticky rice with peanuts, lotus seeds, coconut shavings or pork floss, etc.

For Americans, peak eating occurred during the 80’s and 90’s. In the 70’s, they were still tricked into ingesting Wonderbread, American cheese, Tang, Yoo Hoo, Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, Miracle Whip, Chef Boyardee, Oreos, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Country Crock of Shit and Pop Tarts, etc. Their ancestors’ culinary heritages were nearly wiped out, so words such as prosciutto, chorizo, pecorino and terrine, etc., hadn’t just disappeared, but considered pretentious, nearly obscene, unlike Funyuns, Lachoy, Koogle or Mountain Dew. This was bizarre. Empires are supposed to gather the best from all over. Americans mostly ate garbage.

Working in DC in the 80’s, I would get Greek rice or moussaka at a food court off Farragut West. Immigrants and refugees from all over enriched the local food scene. Ethiopian cuisine was hot. In Santa Clara, CA, my father opened a Japanese restaurant.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall collapsed. In 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved. America wasn’t just on top, but seemingly the only solution to everything. Offshoring had already started, however. As always, profits had to be maximized.

Vung Tau, 11/7/25

Those grinders of the poor need that separation, that contrast, to be as stark as possible. Subsidized by chumps like you over decades, Elon Musk is now a trillionaire. Trump family’s net worth has more than doubled since his reentry into the White House. Though he’s parlayed this penetration into 3 billion bucks, he won’t dispense just $188 per SNAP recipient, and it’s not even his money, but yours!

At Walmart, a loaf of Wonderbread is just over $3, with taxes. Two slices, though, will give you as much calcium as an 8 oz glass of milk! Since each loaf has 26 slices, four a day, equal to two glasses of milk, will keep you going for 6.5 days. Just keep eating Wonderbread, then, as you wait for Elon Musk to rocket you into heaven. The genius, “With AI and robotics, you can actually increase the global economy by a factor of 10, or 100. There’s not, like, an obvious limit.”

There’s no ceiling to your imminent wealth. You, too, will be a multi-trillionaire, and an intergalactic one! Stop thinking so small. Those penny counting days are over. No more Ramen Pride! On Mars, Saturn or wherever, there will be so much of everything, filet mignons and lobster tails, plus underaged tails, too, everything your massas are enjoying. Why shouldn’t you live like Soros or Trump?

(L): The Gold Office’s Golden Calf ; (R): still from Fellini’s Satyricon

Naked Degeneracy — Nov 09, 2025.

Netanyahu’s paternal grandfather was Nathan Mileikowsky. The Argentinian president is Javier Gerardo Milei.

At a Miami synagogue in 2024, a kippah wearing Milei or Mileikowsky spoke about his grandfather. Only near death did he find out he was Jewish, Milei claimed. Still, “He was very close to his mother and his grandfather was also a rabbi. That is to say, all the education he had received from them was deeply linked to Judaism and all the values he transmitted to me were Jewish.”

All the values, mind you, so Milei was either pandering or lying. John Kerry, too, said he only knew he wasn’t Irish, but Jewish, late in life. His real name is Cohen.

Though a supposed Catholic, Milei has a personal rabbi, Shimon Axel Wahnish, with whom he’s studied the Torah. At the Western Wall in 2024, Milei didn’t just pray but sob. Following Trump, Milei plans to move Argentina’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, just to say fuck you to Arabs. He also fully supports Jews butchering Palestinians in Gaza or wherever.

After visiting the Miami synagogue, Milei flew to Texas to meet Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed “aspirational Jew.”

Since 10/7/23, the US has given Israel at least $16.3 billion to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Last month, Trump’s regime gave Milei’s Argentina 20 billion bucks, with 20 billion more coming “from sovereign funds and the private sector.” Sovereign funds are just American tax money invested.

In what other country could a leader be so generous with his citizens’ cash? Trump is also starving millions of Americans while forcing millions more to work without pay. Limp, stinking and near death, Degenerate Donald really enjoys twisting that knife.

The world notices. Times of India on 11/3/25, “Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Halloween party, featuring half-naked dancers in a giant martini glass, drew sharp criticism as millions lost food aid during the government shut down […] Internet compared the scene to ‘Epstein Island,’ as, just like the late paedophile, the party also seemed to have similar vibes of wealth, secrecy, and moral decay.”

Of course, Trump won’t tone it down. A Conservative Political Action Conference bash at Mar-a-Lago had guests gushing over its seafood spread, ice sculpture and even majestic bathrooms. Entire families can comfortably sleep in there, even on the floor. A $64,000 beach vacation in Thailand was auctioned. An opera singer is dressed like a belly dancer. The highlight, though, was Milei doing a Trumpian, stiff white man dance to roars and cheers. His 55-year-old, undiapered hips did sway, though, unlike Trump’s burdened behind. With a $40 billion bailout, why shouldn’t Milei be giddy?

(R): hot singer Halsey

Daily, grotesque displays pile up. Most emblematic, though, is Trump standing stiffly at the Resolute Desk, staring ahead and not giving a shit while just feet away lies a collapsed man. Everyone else, alarmed, is showing concern. Not seen is Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for he has run off. That, too, is emblematic.

Trump pulling out a chair for Netanyahu will be also be remembered. With so many days left before Donald drops dead or is assassinated, for real, we can count on many more lowlights. In a decade, perhaps, there will be a traveling exhibit of such photos. This is what America has become.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks

Slices of Life, #14

Par : AHH — 4 novembre 2025 à 13:25

“I walked past a McDonald’s, Starbucks, 7-11 and Kentucky Fried Chicken, all lined up, cheek to cheek. America’s icons will survive its collapse.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Kathmandu. (L): 10/29/25 ; (R): 10/28/25

Go There! — Oct 29, 2025.

Walking a couple miles, I got a last look at everything, that square with the serene stupa and Tibetan temple, KTM Burger, Fire Café, Bueno Burrito, the early morning chai place that made me feel so at home on my first morning, 4 Square with Sumitra mopping the steps, the Indian beggar in his NIKE knit cap, Saroj’s store, founded in 1943 by his grandad, where I bought more treats and yak cheese. I passed too many gorgeous neighborhood temples to count. I moved too fast for stray dogs to say goodbye or curse me for leaving them.

With plenty of time before my flight, I asked the taxi driver to leave me outside the airport’s gate. Thirty-seven years old, he’s been driving 15 years. Though his village is only 100 kilometers away, he doesn’t have to go there since his parents are dead. Only his 55-year-old brother remains.

“Does he want to come here? To work?”

“He was here.”

“No job!”

“No job.”

“At his age, it’s better he stays in the village. When you’re over 45 or so, no one will hire you for anything. They don’t want experience, only young, strong bodies.”

He chuckled in agreement.

“In Vietnam, too, it’s like that.”

“It’s like that everywhere.”

“For women, it’s even worse. They only want young, pretty women in the restaurants and cafés. Hey, how come your English is so good?”

“I practice.”

“No classes?”

“Four classes!” he chuckled.

That’s all he could afford, obviously. He pays 15,000 rupees ($106) a month for rent. His taxi costs 3,000 a day. That’s also the monthly tuition for his five-year-old-son. Since his other son is only 1 ½, his wife must stay home to take care of this baby. Food for four costs 20,000 per month.

“I have no savings,” he said. “Sometimes, I take out loans.”

“But the interests are so high!”

“There are no jobs.”

“Too many people from the villages, and not enough tourists. I’m very surprised.”

“They’re scared.”

Kathmandu, 10/21/25

“But that was what, six or seven weeks ago? It’s perfectly safe here. Even then, there was no danger. If you see a protest, you just walk the other way! Did you see anything?”

“No, just on the mobile,” he chuckled.

“The protests were in a tiny area. Tourists, though, are always nervous. In Kathmandu, they stay inside a tiny area, where they can eat burgers and pizzas!” I laughed. I didn’t confess to pigging out at Bueno Burrito several times. Vung Tau has no Tex-Mex.

Just now, a guy about 50 looked over my shoulder to see what I was typing. We smiled. I’m sitting outside a cheerful and perfectly skanky eatery with dirty dishes on the concrete floor. Waiting to explode, an old gas canister lies on its side. The young waitress looked very nervous when I said, “Chai,” or when I threw up an index finger, meaning one more. Smartly dressed in his school uniform of button-up shirt, neck tie, creased shorts and dress shoes, a boy of eight eyed me as he walked past. Ten feet away, blue and red plastic bags of food garbage lean against each other. All I smell, though, is the curry being cooked. Since I don’t feel like sweating in agony, I’m not going to order anything. Tall bottles of Gorkha are certainly tempting.

This time tomorrow, I’ll be on my last leg to Saigon. Suddenly, I’ll be in balmy weather again. Snow is expected across Nepal within 48 hours. “4,982 escapees are still on the run,” announces the Himalayan on its front page. Also, Cameroon has just elected a 92-year-old president. Since Trump is just 79, Americans should expect 15 more years, at least, of winning big, no inflation and having so much money, they won’t know what to do. Unlike Elvis, Trump won’t ever leave the building.

At 10:16AM, I’ve cleared immigration and security check. There was a long line to just enter the airport. With boarding still an hour away, I rewarded myself with a 500 ml can of Nepal Ice. With its licker content at 6.1%, I’ll be groovy on that plane. Maybe I’ll sing Elvis.

Already, I miss Shree Gha Vihar, but here’s a deep, original thought. You can’t be everywhere at once! I should have been a hash pushing guru. It’s never too late. That’s what they all say, even as they’re lowered into the ground.

That thought just now is but a limp riff on what my long lost buddy, Aziz Vargha, said. When I visited Aziz on the 8^th floor of Pennsylvania Hospital, America’s oldest, he lamented, “You know what’s funny, man? You can’t just be somewhere, you must go there! That takes time.”

Born in Iran, Aziz was raised in Germany then the UK before ending up in the USA. He had “MADE IN USA” tattooed on his forehead, back when tatts anywhere was still rare. Sitting in McGlinchey’s among whites, Aziz shouted, “I’m white, man, just like you!” Soon after, he said to a table of blacks, “I’m black, just like you!”

One snowless Christmas, we headed to Kensington to get lots of the white stuff. Doing lines, we laughed so hard. If alive, Aziz would not being do well, I’m sorry to say. He was already a mess four decades ago.

Just sitting still takes time. That’s all we have. Even if it’s just a hundred yards, I’d rather go there.

After my laptop went dead, I rushed to a charging station. Seeing my heavy machine, a woman in her mid 50’s asked in a Germanic or Dutch accent, “Do you want to sit here?”

“No, no, I just need to charge my laptop. Thank you!’

Immediately I thought of an old woman on the Rome subway from 26 years ago. “Chi vuole scendered?” she said in the gentlest voice imaginable. She even smiled slightly.

Such sweetness or civility is what we live for. OK, must run now. Boarding time. I must go there!

Guangzhou, 10/29/25

Too Heavenly for Words — Oct 30, 2025.

If still in Nepal, I would have been in bed by the time I landed in China. Though exhausted, I was also elated at finally entering China, so I headed into town. Getting a transit visa was relatively painless and not too time consuming. After changing $100 into yuans, I found my way to the Metro. Though I had visited Macau and Hong Kong, and saw Chinese streets from across a thin river in Lào Cai, only now was I inside!

Having no Google Maps, I didn’t know which station to get off. One that connected to two other lines sounded like a transportation hub, so must be busy at street level? Outside, there were just vendors selling assorted sausages on sticks, mostly, taxis and motorbike taxis. No stores or cafes were within walking distance. This was Guangzhou at its grubbiest. The station, though, was well appointed. After ten minutes, I headed back in.

Guangzhou, 10/29/25

Since the ticket machine didn’t accept my 100 yuan bill, a uniformed employee went out of her way to get me change. She also suggested a more lively station. This young lady couldn’t have been nicer.

On the train, all but a very old, tiny woman were looking at phones. Whether in Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand or China, Asian subways are new, safe, clean and on time. The squeaking horror shows that still chug along in NYC or Philly are certainly cinematic. Since DC’s Metro must serve swamp dwellers, lobbyists, lawyers and Pentagon staffers, it’s cleaner and safer, though still dark and almost spooky in its cavernous design. DC go-go bars have nicer dancers, too, and they show everything. No coquettish peekaboo. Powerful old creeps don’t have time for subtleties.

Of course I forgot the recommended station, so got off at another drab neighborhood, but this one had stores and restaurants. I walked past a McDonald’s, Starbucks, 7-11 and Kentucky Fried Chicken, all lined up, cheek to cheek. America’s icons will survive its collapse. 7-Eleven has long been owned by the Japanese. Sears, once a symbol of America’s abundance, is mostly dead at home. There are three in Mexico City. I ran into one.

Standing outside McDonald’s, I heard John Denver’s “Take Me Home,” though sung in Cantonese, with only bits of English. “Country roads take me home, to the place I belong. West Virginia, mountain momma. Take me home, country roads.” Arriving in the US in 1975, this was one of the first songs I could almost sing.

Further on was a local fried chicken joint where sat three Chinese and an African. I noticed two pizzarie and several convenience stores. At a bright stand selling lottery tickets, a young female employee slept with her head slumped on a table. I entered a lit up Cantonese restaurant with uncleared tables and beer cans on the floor. To compensate for my suffering, I ordered too much food. I was nearly comatose. Grabbing a takeaway container, I then exited to look for a taxi. Before leaving, I did notice adds for prostitutes inside the toilet. In London, they lined phone booths, with exotic chicks from Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Scandinavia and Brazil, etc., especially popular. Dom leather, water sports, pussy licking, uniforms, toys and spanking were all available.

At Kathmandu’s airport, there were about 30 English high school kids. I heard one say, “I’d be very sad if you were to die on the way back.” Deadpan Brit humor. My favorite is what an Englishman says to his wife after their very first night, “I sure hope you’re pregnant, dear, because I don’t want to go through all those ridiculous motions again.”

Reentering Guangzhou’s airport, I knew my can of Nepal Ice, saved for Sơn in Vũng Tàu, would likely be confiscated, but there’s no way I could drink it myself. I had a can of clam sauce taken in Philly, a bottle of wine snatched somewhere and a jar of confit nearly filched from me at Heathrow. Global madness amplified after 9/11, the Anthrax scare then the Shoe Bomber, all hoaxes. In case you haven’t figured it out, Covid was an American bio attack on China, then Iran. Already a totalitarian state, China didn’t need a fake virus to paralyze itself. It was real enough for them to way overreact. Trump’s economic war against China should also be seen in this context. Xi, and Putin, too, certainly knows who’s his main enemy.

Exhausted and irritated, I made a beeline for those sleeping pods I had seen two weeks earlier. At just 138 yuans ($19.44) for three hours, it was absurdly cheap. Inside, there was a comfy seat that could be reclined nearly flat, lights that could be dimmed, a quiet fan and a TV. I assumed when my three hours were up, some alarm would go off or there would be knocks on the locked door, but nothing happened. I slept two extra hours. This, I only realized after emerging outside. Last night’s employee was asleep at her counter.

Since it wasn’t quite 6AM, restaurants were just setting up. Arabica, though, was open. A latte was just what I needed. Even before my first sip, I took photos of this elegant café. Their baguette sandwiches seemed proper. Nearly all Asian and European airports are more comfortable, better organized and civilized than American ones. At Guangzhou’s, hot or cold water is available for free, and you can sleep well enough even outside those pods. There are also free shower stalls. Even today, you cannot take a train from JFK to Manhattan.

At Mi Cang, I ordered rice gruel with just bits of minced pork and century egg, a peasant breakfast much beloved by my buddy John, an ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. It’s his ultimate comfort food, what his mama must have made often. It’s akin to oatmeal for many Americans. In Macau, I met a Chinese-American transplant who was delighted to find a store selling oatmeal. He needed it to feel at home

At $5.92, Mi Cang’s rice gruel was much fancier, for it came with four Japanese fried dumplings. On the menu were also Vietnamese phở, Japanese ramen with tonkatsu and a burger combo that looked pretty good, but they all do in photos. Eating my grub, I thought of a Nam Cao story where a woman feeds slop meant for pigs to her kids. Her calling it chè, a sweet, cold soup eaten as snacks, doesn’t fool them.

Looking up, I noticed a line at my gate, earlier than expected. Joining it, I asked a young white man if this was for Ho Chi Minh City, but he didn’t answer. Overhearing me, a Chinese said, “Yes, Ho Chi Minh.” The other couldn’t hear because he had earbuds on. To block out the foreign, many tourists must listen to familiar songs and check, constantly, websites from home.

With Guangzhou’s airport so vast, you must often take a shuttle to your plane. Getting on, I immediately looked for Vietnamese faces, but there was none. I also strained to hear Vietnamese, without success. Two weeks earlier, the flight from Saigon to Guangzhou had few Vietnamese. It’s that human or animal instinct to identify your own. Forever, life and death could depend on it.

Guangzhou, 10/29 – 30/25

With more money, and many more people, Chinese are much more visible everywhere. With increasing economic and political might, Chinese tourists and immigrants will be even more ubiquitous. JD Vance’s characterization of them as peasants exposes his hickishness. In Canada and Australia, rich Chinese have made real estate prices in many cities unaffordable for native peasants, workers and even the middle class.

After failing repeatedly to log on to Yahoo! Mail or my SubStack, I realized they were blocked. Everything Yahoo! is inaccessible there. Same with Google, Wikipedia, New York Times and Washington Post, etc. China doesn’t want any American information or disinformation for its citizens.

Rejecting most American products, it’s also prepared to ditch the American consumer. That righteous and pushy slob has been buying on credit for decades, from China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and, literally, every country you can think of.

Landing in Saigon, I will leap immediately onto a mini bus for Vung Tau. Failing to bring Sơn a Nepalese beer, I thought of getting him a Chinese one, but busy writing, I never got round to it. Those remaining yuans I’ll use, hopefully, on a proper trip to China.

Cloudy paths, zap me home! To that place, I sorta belong! Ocean mamas, they’re singing and dancing, all right. It’s enough to steal glimpses of them every so often. Why should they sing to me?

On the Kathmandu to Guangzhou leg, two babies on my row screamed or cried often. Others elsewhere did the same. Now, I only hear the slurping of noodles from the guy two seats away. Since there’s no broth, I’m not sure how he does that. Behind me is a well masked American from Chicago. Risking death or long Covid, he did manage to take it off to eat.

I finish this at 6:58PM in Vung Tau. It’s as if I never left. This is Như’s last day at Ông Bầu Coffee, she just told me.

“Where will you go next?”

“I don’t know.”

I don’t either. At some point, I should return to the US to experience, at least for a couple weeks, its Golden Age. I must catch Honolulu, El Paso or San Francisco before it becomes too heavenly for words. As for Philly, I won’t even recognize it, I’m sure.

Guangzhou, 10/30/25

Shrinking Brains and Dwellings — Oct 31, 2025.

On 5/29/25, a garbage truck stopped a Kings Park, NY middle school to empty its dumpster. There, a school janitor saw an injured, garbage draped man trying to climb from the truck. After it emptied its load, another was discovered, but well dead. Since this happened at the back of the school, no student witnessed the horror. Learnt of it from television news, how many thought this could ever happen to them? Much more likely, they envisioned their future as a president, astronaut, NBA star, Hollywood actress, trophy wife, rapper or, at the very least, YouTube influencer. On that date, the low was only 55, so these unfortunates or human garbage had slept inside the dumpster not for warmth, but to be safe. This was conditional on them getting up before the arrival of the garbage truck.

In Santa Monica, bums, especially female ones, dwell inside locked toilets. Further north, you can rent a tent pitched on someone’s backyard. Storage units are more solid, but illegal. Still, thousands of Americans must be dwelling in them. So loaded, they don’t know what to do with their heaps of cash. Those who freeze outside in the winter must be alcoholics or drug addicts, according to conventional wisdom. Don’t say it’s too funny a word in Trumplandia.

Sleeping quite well in my tiny pod at Guangzhou’s airport, I thought these compact solutions should be scattered everywhere. Herding American peasants into cities, huge parks were built to give these factory slaves imitations of their lost landscapes. Thus, we have Central Park in NYC, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Fairmount Park in Philly and Grant Park in Chicago, all built in the 19^th century. Now, all these and more can be filled with sleeping pods, imported from China. Spinning in his grave, Frederick Law Olmsted will appreciate the exercise.

Convicted of any crime, the offender’s sleeping pod can just be locked. With bread sticks tossed in daily, he won’t starve. His shit and piss can be eased out through a hole. Capital punishment will be applied quickly and cheaply by denying him of bread sticks. After the stinking corpse is extracted, his sleeping pod will be sold at a slight discount, after a few sprays of disinfectant.

Just a few hours in China yielded so many solutions. Must be in the air.

In China, porn is banned. In the West, it’s freely available as the last bastion of free speech. Since jerking or stroking nearly nonstop is the best means of social control, it must be made mandatory. TVs inside sleeping pods must show only porn. Wouldn’t this lead to more rapes? Quite the opposite. Men who’ve shot their wad several times a day can only grab, at most. Most Americans are already fine with this, at least in principle. It’s also egalitarian. Why should bottom dwellers be denied some Trumpian perks? “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” MAGA chicks are turned on.

Guangzhou, 10/30/25

The last photo I took in Guangzhou was of a white enough man in a LAS VEGAS hoodie. Next to him was his exhausted wife. Bent over, she held her head. His or her wrinkled, white haired mom looked stunned. On 5/26/25, more than 8,800 flights were delayed in the USA alone. The next day, nearly 7,000.

Flying from Chicago to Frankfurt on 10/28/25, a 28-year-old Indian stabbed two sleeping American teens with a metal fork. He then slapped a woman and a crew member. One teen told investigators he had only exchanged pleasantries with the Indian. This non-immigrant had just finished his studies at Moody Theological Seminary.

Since 42 million Americans will lose food aid tomorrow, proactive cops across the USA have increased patrols around grocery stores, convenience stores and shopping centers. America’s Golden Age has just begun.

Yesterday at Saigon’s airport, I joked with the immigration officer, “Coming back, I’m just waiting to die!”

“You’re not that old, uncle,” she smiled slightly.

“I’m exhausted.”

On the minibus to Vung Tau, we passed a young man with this on his hoodie, “SMILE! IT WILL ONLY GET MUCH WORSE.” His helmet said, “WE WILL ROCK YOU!”

The young lady next to me wore a Covid mask and earbuds. When not dozing off, she stared at her cellphone. Born into universal madness, she’s well lost. After she dropped one earbud, we all helped her to find it. When it was discovered, there was universal jubilation inside that mini bus.

Ông Bầu Coffee’s evening barista just gave me a free glass of hot tea. In a minute, I will head home to eat some yak cheese with Nepali biscuits. This morning, I was too pooped to show up at Coffee Seven before 5AM. Tomorrow, then, I will see Mrs. Seven, Sơn, Liệt, Nọng and Milk Cow.

Vung Tau, 11/1/25

Fish in Teapots — Nov 01, 2025.

At Ông Bầu Coffee, one barista is a rather morose 20-year-old I first talked to only yesterday. It turned out she’s a third year student in logistics. With lots of shipping through Vũng Tàu, she’ll get a job easily, she believes. AI won’t bump her into any dumpster.

Though born after the Boat People crisis, Morose knows about corpses being washed up regularly on Vũng Tàu beaches. She also knows about Vietnamese trying to enter the US illegally during the Biden years. Someone approached her family to propose this. $70,000 per head was all it took, he said, and you’d make that back within two years, working in a nail salon, as if the US wasn’t oversaturated with these Vietnamese businesses. As a clumsy newbie whose English or Ebonics wasn’t good enough to interact with customers, who would hire you?

After eight years, you could return to Vietnam loaded with cash. He didn’t say anything about crossing seven countries before reaching the Promised Land. After entering Panama from Colombia, you would be an illegal for over 3,000 miles while being transported by criminals from various nations.

“What’s stopping them from robbing, raping or killing you?” I said. “People who could afford to fly to South America were rich! They sold everything here, thinking they’d never come back. Now, they’re being deported by Trump!”

Morose has never been outside Vietnam. She didn’t even know you could easily reach Cambodia by bus.

Village explainer, “You can go from Saigon to Bavet in just two hours! Cambodia opens all these casinos for Vietnamese. They want as many to come as possible, so go to Bavet, but without entering the casinos! You’ll just lose all your money! Phnom Penh is much more interesting, but it takes six hours to get there. Go to Bavet first, just to get a taste, then go to Phnom Penh later.”

Here three years, Morose started out making 18K, or 68 cents an hour. Now, she earns 23K. Working 200 hours a month, she takes home $129, though the shifty owner often deducts $27 for unexplained reasons.

Morose never protests. When business is slow, she just stares at her phone, like right now.

Morose lives with her parents just two doors down. At least her school is six miles away. She does visit occasionally a married sister in Saigon and has gone as far north as Nha Trang.

Fancying himself a painter, the owner has set up an easel right at the café. He’s so vapid and timid, you can’t talk to him about anything. It took me less than a minute to find out.

Before me, Như tried to mentor Morose, but it’s useless, she said. This girl is just incurious.

“She never had a chance!” I protested. To invigorate her, I will nudge and shove Morose some more, give her a few kicks in the ass.

Once, I overheard Như telling Morose about a new café that paid better. I’m not sure she applied. Begging for acceptance is always intimidating and dispiriting.

Ông Bầu Coffee has a new regular. A Siamese fighting fish is living, all alone, inside a teapot. Its diameter is four times the length of the fish’s body. There are pebbles at the bottom. Though it’s always lidded, I’ve been reassured there’s enough oxygen for this displaced creature. It could be much worse. Next to this teapot is a glazed ceramic planter with a cartoon cat and “cute” above its head. Taking frequent breaks, Morose would sit next to these exiled beasts.

In the next room, someone is strumming a guitar and singing. Surrounded by kitschy paintings, he and his listeners are soaked in an artistic environment.

Out collecting plastic bottles, that homeless Cambodian will return in the evening. He uses Ông Bầu’s bathroom and sleeps each night just feet from where I’m sitting. Lately, he’s refrained from disturbing that garish altar to the goddess beneath a banyan tree across the street. As long as he doesn’t go berserk, he belongs here at least as much as that fish.

Splotchy and discolored, he’s a piss poor representative of his species. With any residual self-respect, he should be deeply ashamed of himself, but I shouldn’t talk. My dorsal, pectoral, pelvic and anal fins are sad and feeble enough. Still, they’re sufficient to propel me home. After paying for my cappuccini, I’ll swiftly swim outta here.

That yak cheese is nearly gone. That cheerful, repetitive hymn to Ganesh I heard dozens of times daily so recently has faded. Soon enough, I’ll remember nothing.

(L): Vung Tau, 11/1/25 ; (R): Trump’s Golden Lincoln Bathroom

Bloodbaths and Bashes — Nov 02, 2025.

Too much excitement this morning at Ông Bầu. Using her thin jacket, a woman swatted at a bee in mid flight, then stepped on this buzzer after he had dropped to the floor. His squashed body now oozes whatever. His stiff, broken wings are stuck up. No one knows what he could have accomplished. He might have been a great bee poet. For this gratuitous display of unfathomable viciousness, she’ll be reincarnated as a bee, wasp, fly or mosquito, I’m sure. Placid, Morose inspected the fleeting carnage. As she walked by, I had to refrain from expressing my entirely justified indignation. I only thought, “What were the odds of the innocent, intelligent looking bee stinging that smug, still smiling broad in the fuckin’ twat?!” Oblivious, she’s yakking away. She does have a melodious voice.

Before Ông Bầu, I stopped at Mrs. Tím’s stand for a $1.52 bowl of crab noodle soup. As I slurped away, a security guard on a motorbike stopped to ask for a 95 cent bowl. After he left, I said, “You still make a profit with that, no?”

“No, but what was I supposed to do?”

“Does he come by often?”

“Only rarely.”

“A security guard’s salary isn’t too bad.”

“But he also has a wife and children. What was I supposed to do?” Mrs. Tím, then, makes nothing selling to this man. Her name means Purple, by the way. One of her two sons is nearly always in drug rehab. This widow has maybe four front teeth left.

Worst are those who stuff some change into their bra or up their long sleeve, then say Mrs. Tím has short changed them!

“They have so many tricks. When you sell stuff, you see everything.” She said this without rancor, only a touch of amusement.

Before Mrs. Tím’s food stand, I was at Coffee Seven. Today, Sơn told me more about his experiences in Cambodia. I had asked Sơn about soldiers who freaked out. Of course, that happened. Losing their minds, some even shot at their comrades.

On a lighter note, Sơn told me about Vietnamese troops visiting Cambodian whorehouses. They were dim and sordid, and the girls were so poor, their panties were pitifully or laughably threadbare. Worst were Viet soldiers who refused to pay after service. “They’d leave a hand grenade on the floor to chase the girls away.”

made in Thailand jeans and T-shirts

Even Viet officers barely had cash. Some sold used artillery shells, illegally, of course. With this profit, they could buy made in Thailand jeans or T-shirts. Both were highly prized back in Vietnam. Even in 1998, I had some rural guy touch my Levi’s with something like awe. They were called cow pants, quần bò, short for cowboy pants.

Underfed Viet soldiers stole chickens, ducks and pigs from Cambodian peasants. Like American, Australian or South Korean soldiers here, they raped. Unchecked aggression or rage is intrinsic to every war, as is wetting or soiling your pants from ungodly terror. Clean uniforms and impeccable discipline are only meant for parades, to fool civilians, draftees and recruits.

Last night, I finally bought a new phone. With a sim card, it cost me just $125. Don’t even know what brand it is. Last phone I bought before this was in Albania four years ago. I need this gadget to take care of some business.

Last night, I also went shopping at Lotte Mart, Vũng Tàu’s fanciest mall. Viets who can afford it treat it like an amusement park, almost. Better dressed kids run around screaming. With burgers, pizzas and fried chicken available in futuristic settings, they’re in the USA of their imagination. KFC Vietnam has a new dish, Migaxuxi. It’s slices of hotdog in an overly sweet red sauce on too soft spaghetti. On KFC’s wall was a nearly life-sized Colonel Sanders, with that first KFC in Harland, KY in the background. Most Viets think this America still exists.

When the entire White House is destroyed, replicas will appear across Asia, I’m sure. Even if all of the USA becomes like Gaza, its highlights will be preserved in the East. There’s nothing to worry about, man! Thousands of Statues of Liberty will sprout, just not in America.

In each Oriental burger, pizza or fried chicken joint, wholesome white families as wax figures will be installed to give yellow diners the impression they’re practically in Sacramento, Cincinnati or Youngstown. In fancier diners, waitresses with their hair already dyed blonde can wear white masks and speak in a cute, flirty English they’ve learnt from movies like American Pie or Grease.

For a while, Michael Bordenaro has done an excellent job of tracking America’s collapse. Three days ago, he said, “As of September, employers have announced over 1 million job cuts, which is the largest number that we’ve seen since the pandemic in 2020 […] So this job market collapse is getting real.” Walmart, Amazon, Ford, Microsoft, Target, Starbucks and McDonald’s, etc., are all firing thousands of workers this year.

When Bordenaro asked his viewers about how they’re coping with this new grim reality, they’re saying they’re buying less or inferior food, driving less, selling more to pawn shops, delaying or avoiding medical care, saving less or nothing, using less energy, including taking cold showers, not traveling or seeing distant relatives, not going to restaurants or movies and, perhaps, most depressingly, having to move back home after decades of living independently.

One man, “I’m 45 living in my parents’ basement again, not because I’m irresponsible, but because of the economy.” Over 57% of Americans between 18 and 24 are living with their folks. You’d have to go back decades to find a higher percentage. Millions of Americans are also side hustling. One, “I’m doing DoorDash after my full-time job just to keep up. I’m exhausted and still falling behind.”

Another, “I barely leave the house anymore because I can’t afford gas to drive to work and see my family.”

All these testimonies, though, must be fake news disseminated, or rather, jerked off, by far-left agitators.

As Trump cut off food aid to over 40 million Americans, he hosted a Great Gatsby themed Halloween bash at Mar-a-Lago called, “A little party never killed nobody.” So cute, the bad English. Shows his common touch.

Posting photos of his glitzed up shitter on 11/1/25, Trump crowed, “The Refurbished Lincoln Bathroom in the White House—Highly polished, Statuary marble!” Let them eat shit is right.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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Lula-Trump Mediation: 5 Key Breakthroughs in Brazil–US Talks Amid Venezuela Tensions

Par : amarynth — 26 octobre 2025 à 17:53

Lula-Trump mediation discussed in Malaysia as both leaders commit to easing trade frictions and exploring dialogue between the US and Venezuela.

On Sunday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Donald Trump met on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur.

At the center of this meeting was Lula-Trump mediation — Brazil’s strategic proposal to act as a bridge between Washington and Caracas, easing the confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela.

A “Constructive” Dialogue: Lula and Trump Reopen Bilateral Channels

External source: ASEAN Summit Statements by Telesur

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira described the meeting as open and direct. “President Lula began by saying there were no forbidden topics,” Vieira told the press. He noted Lula presented a Brazilian request to suspend U.S.-imposed tariffs on exports for a negotiation period, alongside review of the Magnitsky Act sanctions targeting Brazilian officials.

According to Vieira, Trump’s response was positive. The U.S. President agreed to initiate “a bilateral negotiation process starting immediately,” aimed at resolving trade disputes “within a short time.” Both leaders agreed that their teams would begin technical discussions “today,” signaling renewed cooperation.

This pragmatic tone reflects Lula Trump mediation efforts not only on commerce but also in restoring mutual confidence after years of friction.

Brazil as a Regional Peacemaker in Latin America

External source: Telesur report on Lula’s stance toward U.S. actions in Venezuela

Beyond trade, Lula reaffirmed Brazil’s geopolitical strategy: to act as a mediator in Latin America, particularly in the Venezuelan crisis. “Yes, President Lula raised the topic [of Venezuela],” confirmed Vieira. “He said Latin America and South America, specifically, are regions of peace, and he offered to be a contact and interlocutor, as he once was, to find solutions that are mutually acceptable and fair.”

This statement cements Brazil’s role as a diplomatic bridge between Washington and Caracas at a time of heightened tension. By positioning itself as a conciliatory power, Brazil seeks to stabilize hemispheric relations and reclaim its historic influence in regional diplomacy through the Lula Trump mediation approach.

Political Climate and Symbolism

During the meeting, the atmosphere was cordial and relaxed. Vieira emphasized that Trump “expressed admiration for President Lula’s political career,” a reference to Lula’s imprisonment and subsequent acquittal. Both leaders agreed to reciprocal visits — Trump voiced his intention to visit Brazil soon, while Lula accepted a future U.S. invitation.

“The president said he admires Brazil, that he loves Brazil and its people immensely,” Vieira noted. The statements were widely interpreted as a goodwill gesture signaling a shift in the White House’s posture toward Brasília.

These gestures reinforce the image of Lula Trump mediation as anchored not only in policy pragmatism but also in personal diplomacy aimed at rebuilding trust.

From Bolsonaro to Lula: Trump’s Subtle Recalibration

A revealing moment came when Trump was asked about former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, his past ally. “I’ve always liked President Bolsonaro, he went through a lot, but that’s not our concern,” Trump said. The remark suggested a clean break from ideological affiliations, focusing instead on current cooperation with Lula.

The Lula Trump mediation framework, therefore, represents a calculated realignment: pragmatic engagement over partisan loyalty, seeking tangible outcomes in economic recovery and regional stability.

Broader Geopolitical Context

This rapprochement between the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere arrives amid shifting global alignments. The United States faces diplomatic competition from China and Russia in Latin America, while Brazil aspires to strengthen its strategic autonomy and leadership in multilateral forums such as BRICS and ASEAN.

Analysts see Lula Trump mediation as a balancing move — giving Brazil leverage in negotiations with both Washington and Beijing. By promoting dialogue with Venezuela, Lula also aims to reduce militarization in the Caribbean, counteracting U.S.-led interventions that Brazil views as destabilizing.

This repositioning underscores Latin America’s growing assertiveness: regional actors using diplomacy over dependence to define their role in the emerging multipolar world.

Statements and Social Media

Following the meeting, Lula summarized on social media platform X:

“We addressed the bilateral economic and trade agenda openly and constructively. We agreed that our teams would meet immediately to seek solutions on tariffs and sanctions.”

This message encapsulated the spirit of Lula Trump mediation — transparent dialogue, shared interests, and step-by-step restoration of ties.

Slices of Life, #13

Par : AHH — 16 octobre 2025 à 17:38

What matters is Thầy Thím’s perseverance against tyranny and misfortune.

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Vung Tau, 10/8/25

Holy Water Puddles — Oct 11, 2025.

I’m typing my first words at 6:03PM. Yesterday, I ate beef wrapped in piper lolot leaves dipped in a fermented fish sauce, mắm nêm, which is very salty. This morning I woke up with a headache it took all day to recover from. My system can no longer forgive even small indiscretions. Today, I ate just spaghetti with olive oil, black pepper and cayenne pepper. At age 19 or so, I read about DuChamp eating just spaghetti with butter near the end of his life, and he wasn’t poor.

I had come to Ông Bầu hoping to run into Như, but she’s not around. This afternoon, I did send her an eBook version of my Postcards from the End of America. I have no hard copies. Since she did study anthropology, my book would be of interest. For more than four years, I took trains and buses all over the United States or, more often, just around the Philly area, to simply look and listen.

Just shut up and nearly everyone will tell you nearly everything.

Of course, they’re not likely to open up about their abject yearnings or weird lusts, though clues may seep out. Jerking and stroking their secrets to the last, the old finally croak, relieved at having never been found out.

Some, though, are exposed. Just look at your Dear Leader, suicidal soybean and corn farmers! As an extra fuck you, he just sent twenty billion of your “In God We Trust” greenbacks to Argentina! Since you laughed off his puckering sickness slobbering over virginal white flesh, you’re complicit in the raping of your own children! Be proud in your red hat. Unlike those coastal elite creeps, you’re the heart and soul of America!

Had I more money, I would have stayed longer in distant cities. I spent just one night in Portland or Cheyenne, none in Youngstown, Salt Lake City or Charleston. Too often I slept on buses and trains. I slept at the bus station in Kansas City, Denver and Pasco. You do what you must with what you have.

In Boston, I met Katie, who tried to avoid sleeping indoors. This was outright dangerous for a young woman. Even in Alaska, she had curled up outside. Katie also walked everywhere, for hundreds of miles, sometimes, over days. Though most people would dismiss her as foolish, if not mad, Katie had to act this way to recover something essential in herself. Last I checked, Katie had become more fixed and cozy.

Since the lesser known is always caricatured, many Westerners believe Orientals are conformists incapable of creativity. Don’t let me dissuade you. To Như, though, I would point out Vietnam has never lacked for individualists or eccentrics.

Just 12 miles from Vung Tau is Long Sơn, the realm of an anti-French fighter turned holyman, Lê Văn Mưu (1855-1935). His followers still adhere to unusual practices, such as being buried within 24 hours in unmarked graves, with no funeral to speak of. They don’t look for auspicious days for weddings. They don’t set up altars to divers gods. Lê Văn Mưu is simply called Ông Trần, or Mister Bare (head and feet). Live most simply was his message.

Sixty miles north is a holy couple, Thầy Thím, or Master and Mistress. Unjustly persecuted by King Gia Long (1762-1820), they had to flee to this remote region. Tigers still abounded. Among their miracles was the appearance overnight of an elaborate village hall. Of course, it’s nonsense. Those villagers, like Borges’ Yahoos, had to have built it themselves. What matters is Thầy Thím’s perseverance against tyranny and misfortune.

Just now, Như showed up, so I ranted on about Ông Trần and Thầy Thím, plus the Coconut Monk of Mỹ Tho. There are so many of these weirdos across Vietnam, throughout history. I also talked about poets Bùi Giáng (1926-1998) and Nguyễn Đức Sơn (1937-2020). Here’s a Sơn poem:

Holy Water Puddle

I will come who knows when
mouth parched nirvana path distant
oh one night bush like a body coiled
you haven’t pissed yet my soul is wet

Educated in the US since grade 9^th, Như never knew about these figures. I cite them to show she’s not alone.

Vung Tau, 10/9/25

Before the Fall of Saigon, Nguyễn Đức Sơn was a teacher. From 1979 until his death, he, his wife and nine children barely survived in remote Lâm Đồng. A third Saigon eccentric poet, Phạm Công Thiện, fared much better. From 1970 to 2011, he lived in Israel, Germany, France and the US. In Toulouse, he taught Western Philosophy. In Los Angeles, he lectured at the College for Buddhist Studies. At age 23, Phạm Công Thiện did have a nervous breakdown. He recovered at Nha Trang’s Hải Đức Pagoda.

Since Ông Bầu closed at 9PM, I had to run to Coffee Seven, where I was ecstatically greeted by Nọng and Milk Cow.

“Where were you this morning?” Mrs. Seven asked.

“I woke up with a headache, so couldn’t get here.”

With Mrs. Seven’s bedtime at 10PM, I only managed a couple hundred words before moving on. Now, I’m back at Ông Bầu. Sitting in the dark outside, I can still use its wifi.

That homeless Cambodian guy is going on, “I was too slow to be hired by the fishermen. They wouldn’t let me onto their boats. My brother carried bricks [back in Trà Vinh]. For a hundred bricks, he made 100K ($3.80). I just couldn’t do it. My legs nearly fell off. My father yelled at me and beat me up. I just couldn’t do it.”

With his pillow and a thin blanket, he wanders away. He’s been told to stop sleeping right outside Ông Bầu. He had on a newish navy blue polo shirt, “HAVANA COFFEE.”

These words, then, are what I’ve salvaged from a day I thought wasted. Now, I will head home. Như has fascinating stories I’ve urged her to write down. “Try to be as honest as you can,” I said, but she already knew that. There are so many layers. Don’t just park your fat ass so smugly on the surface.

Image Psychosis Detoxification — Oct 13, 2025.

According to the Harris Poll, 41% of Americans under 44-years-old, or Gen Z/Millennials, would consider hiring witches, astrologers, etc., for major life planning decisions. 63% of Gen Zers and 52% of millennials are also thinking about getting the fuck out. The youngest Americans, then, are the most disenchanted about the American Dream.

If you must stay, it’s past time to research which witch doctors are most reputable in your area. There must be a Djinn Wolf, Rebecca Nurse, Higuayagua Taino, Karen Rose, John Proctor, Martha Carrier or Juliet Diaz within driving distance? Going to the wrong one, just like voting at all, will have you standing on a chair sporting a clumsily knotted noose. Kicking it, the last sound you’ll hear are four or five pennies jangling in your pocket. Since there’s nothing in your small, large or whatever the fuck intestine, nothing will squirt out, so your underwear will be clean, at least.

Wisconsinitos, a white woman in her 40’s, shares, “My husband and I were sitting on the porch this morning, and we were just discussing the culture in the United States, and how there’s always this undercurrent of violence and hostility, and it’s everywhere all the time, and you feel very vulnerable to it.” Is it that bad? You tell me.

Wisconsinitos, “When you go to a movie theater, do you assess who’s in the room, and who might be a threat, and who might be hiding something in their coat, and what you would do if they stood up and started shooting? How are you going to get out of the room?”

I’d say she’s a bit too paranoid, but even without anyone ready to shoot you in seconds, it’s bad enough to feel simmering hostility or insecurity all the time. It’s a natural byproduct of being hyper self-conscious. From infancy, Americans are conditioned to carefully curate their self-image, and to read, immediately, anything that’s off about anyone. Any US eight-year-old can detect, from clear across any room, the wrong dot, stripe, sneakers or haircut. Although its brand has been severely tarnished by Trump, Hegseth, Vance, Biden and Harris, etc., image is still America’s best selling commodity. With even its “rebels” minutely calibrated, it’s the most image psychotic culture ever.

Noticing this yearning to escape among America’s youngest, its future, 30-ish Zach Abroad asks, “Who’s going to be left in the country if all the young people want to go somewhere else?” Trumpers, Bernie Bros, Hillary-bots, AOC freaks, Groypers, Christian nationalists and all the hardcore illegal immigrant criminals ICE cowards are too scared to track down?

They’re a lot harder to gang tackle than septuagenarian grocers or schoolgirls with braces. If you can’t even grab their pussies, Trumpian fashion, what’s the point? Still, with such a promising foundation, why would anyone want to leave?

Zach Abroad, “Where do these people want to go, you might ask? Well, the top five countries that they want to move to are Canada, the UK, Australia, France, and Italy.” I’d say those nations must soon erect barriers for blue passport holders.

Would you want a guy like this? Adam.c, “I move to Sweden I can’t wait I’m disabled and I’m 25 with 4pets and my partner I’m so exited I figured Sweden would b a great fit BC of prices rent and grocies and the country and ppl stick to themswlf witch is what I like [blue heart].” A man so disrespectful of his own language can’t be expected to give a flying fuck about any foreign one, or its culture, so good luck to Sweden, with its affordable “grocies.”

Witches breed witch hunters. With 99.999% of Americans now functionally illiterate, contemporary Cotton Mathers must appear in YouTube videos or TikTok skits. Audio books, too, overtax shriveled heads, and shit like this must be updated, “They which lie, must go to their father, the devil, into everlasting burning […] When they bed and pray in hell fire, God will not forgive them,” and you can’t use words like “impudent,” “scurrilous” or “wicked,” bitch!

Keep it simple. Hairless hoo ha hopheads must have their hoses slowly hacked. Did you know the most popular Netflix movie ever is K-pop Demon Hunters? Yo masters are way ahead.

Who’s the most awesome witch alive? With the answer so obvious, you’ll get no heart shaped or fly imprinted fentanyl cookies! Who’s bewitching millions, if not billions?

Sitting at Ông Bầu, I’ve just been approached by an old head who said he wanted to draw my face. He’s sitting with another trauma survivor who, twenty minutes ago, was strumming on a guitar. To not be rude, I will go talk to them, so will cut this short.

Mrs. Tim’s crab noodle stand this morning

Yesterday, Như let me sniff some leaves that smelled like root beer. Not everything is fake. The Vietnamese name for root beer, xá xị, is exactly what they call the cinnamomum parthenoxylon. Keeping it simple will increase your chance of survival.

Walking to Ông Bầu, I passed Mrs. Tím’s crab noodle soup stand. With a light rain coming down, she had the crudest canopy propped up with three thin branches against the splotchy yellow wall right behind her. White smoke rose from a wooden fire. At home, I still have a small bottle of BeerLao. I should drink it before heading to Kathmandu.

Vung Tau, 10/14/25

Amor Fati or Else! — Oct 14, 2025.

Centuries ago or just yesterday, Mrs. Seven almost went to Japan with her dance troupe. All the girls were warned to not get an abortion in the land of salarymen, too often drunk. Dental care would also be too expensive. With minders always watchful, their chances of getting pregnant with a broken tooth, to boot, was nearly nil. Still, one had to warn these gorgeous and nimble girls on a very rare trip overseas, but it didn’t happen anyway.

Hearing about my trip to Nepal, Mrs. Seven told me this amusing tale. Since men can also get pregnant, as we all know, I should plan for a possible abortion in Kathmandu, though how this can happen without my having sex is a mystery, or conundrum, I’ll address on another day. When is sex not a conundrum, whatever that means?

The exercise music at Morning Star Kindergarten is nearly loud enough to cause brain damage. Stumbling about, trapped toddlers half lift their limbs. Looking lost, they sway. Smiling brightly, their teachers break out moves.

On the way to Coffee Seven, I noticed the homeless Cambodian was still sleeping outside Ông Bầu, his usual spot. His dark feet stuck out, corpse like, from his clean Tweety Bird blanket.

Inside Ông Bầu, there’s a new exhibition of paintings, all terrible. The artist is a man in his 60’s with a pony tail, wire framed glasses and pensive expression. Duly artistic in appearance, he’s devoted his entire life to these pointless canvases. Getting a preview last night, I told Như about Jim Shaw and his thrift store paintings. Those are interesting because they reveal the goofy or even bizarre personalities behind them. The ones at Ông Bầu betray nothing.

Vung Tau, 10/14/25

Not even funny some dog with a flowing scarf on a motorbike or a timid odalisque with hazy Islamic domes in the background.

“These are bad not because of poor technique, but because he sees very poorly. Hands, breasts, water, boat, everything he paints is very poorly observed!”

Ears are rarely painted well, but there are no reasons for breasts to be so ugly! Their shapes aren’t overly complicated. If a man can’t appreciate specific breasts, or their variety, he’s legally blind.

The homeless Cambodian needs his spot outside Ông Bầu to feel anchored. Just now, I checked with satisfaction the score between my Mariners and the damned Blue Jays. That I should care at all is entirely irrational. When the homeplate umpire cheated Logan Gilbert on two clear strikes, as graphed on my screen, I was outraged. Arriving in Kennewick, WA years ago, I was cheered and calmed by the Seahawks pennants on the walls of the first bar I entered. I had recovered a portion of my childhood. For over a century in the USA, team loyalty has mostly replaced a genuine sense of community. It also patches over divisions within each.

Toronto’s defeat of the New York Yankees in this year’s playoffs must have deeply satisfied all Canadians. They’re sick of the endless insults from Trump. The Blue Jays do have a Canadian star, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.. Of Dominican ancestry, he’s born in Montreal.

In Kennewick, I found out about Thai farm laborers imported into the US, for they were even cheaper than Mexicans, and also easier to abuse. MAGA farmers didn’t vote for Trump because they wanted to replace dirt cheap illegal immigrants with Americans. Wake up, man! Even American employers don’t want American workers.

MAGA farmers believed Trump would bring them virtual slaves, in the form of legal immigrants, through the little scrutinized H-2A visas. If mistreated, illegals can just walk away. Legal ones are trapped on farms, to be underpaid, overworked and abused, even sexually. Your Heartland farmers aren’t these Norman Rockwell sweeties, but slave drivers. Promising them slaves, Trump delivers bankruptcies and suicides, so he does have a sense of humor after all.

In Cairo and West Jerusalem, Trump just delivered two rambling, self-centered speeches. The second is wrily described by Al Jazeera as “stream-of-consciousness,” with the diapered fool having the “the time of his life,” since he was showered “with applause, laughs and too many standing ovations to count” from Knesset members. Jews consider genocides orgasmic celebrations.

As for the fake ceasefire that, to my surprise, even Kevin Barrett terms a “crushing victory for the Resistance,” Jews are just taking a much needed breather before resuming their assaults on Palestinians, Lebanese and Iranians. The ethnic cleansing of Gaza will continue. Sending at least 200 American soldiers to Israel, Trump still envisions Trump towers, plus a giant golden statue of himself, in Palestinian-free Gaza. Lounging by a pool next to another aging blob, Trump will sip some mocktail not quite blood red.

[ “… Initially, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent about 33,000 American military personnel to Vietnam, primarily as non-combat advisors to assist the South Vietnamese Army…”]

During five years in power, Trump has waged wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Iran and Venezuela. Plus, he’s threatened Canada, Mexico, Panama and Greenland. Still, Trump expected a Nobel peace prize! Most pathetically, nearly half of Americans shared his delusion. When Trump confused Albania with Armenia, or said Iran borders Qatar, most Americans didn’t flinch either. It is an insular society mired in self-infatuation.

Today, I cleared out my fridge. For breakfast, I ate a tomato, onion, cucumber and egg salad. I finally drank that small BeerLao. Even though too many BeerLaos in Pakse edged me closer to the precipice, I remember with fondness my several months there. The café across my Pakse hotel was called Amor Fati, or Love Your Fate.

Before Laos became a fabled drug destination, it was Nepal. Within walking distance of Hotel Pristine, where I’ll be staying, is Freak Street. Two of my closest high school friends, Phil Brenner and Brian Robertson, were freaks. Brian, though, became a hardcore Republican, and even served under Trump.

Married to an anti LGBTQ crusader, MAGA Mike Johnson has just been exposed as a Tinder cruiser who loves to be butt plugged! Almost nothing is as it seems.

With still hours left before I must board that van for Saigon’s airport, I might just go for another BeerLao. The Mariners up 2 games to 0 will be my excuse. Another reason is the demise of Sammy Davis Clemens. That outstanding author didn’t even last two weeks! Canceling me again, gazillionaire Jeff Bezos also stiffed me of 50 measly bucks. Making no rules, we can only watch, so watch it well, you hear?

Kathmandu, 10/15/25

Back Home in Kathmandu — Oct 16, 2025.

Around midnight, I woke up knowing I was in Kathmandu. Still, it was surprising to open my eyes to see a completely strange room, and it was cold, too. I hadn’t had to use my blanket in a long time. Going back to sleep, I woke up around 3AM, my usual time, so was out on the street shortly after. Of course, I had no map and no phone, but if you keep walking in circles, you’ll end up inside your childhood home in no time. With the earth so small and your life so short, it’s impossible to get lost.

Coming from the airport yesterday, I had two phrases, “Chhetrpati Chowk” and “Hotel Pristine.” I hadn’t even learnt downtown Kathmandu is called Hamel. Though my taxi driver spoke minimal English, he got me where I needed. With clipped sentences, we still had a meaningful conversation.

“How long have you been driving, taxi?”

“Twenty-eight years.”

“Do you live inside city?”

“Yes.”

“Where is your village?”

“Three hours.”

“Three hours away! Very far!”

Twice a year during festivals, he goes home to see his parents. His wife and kids are here. He won’t celebrate the next festival, however, because a relative died less than a year ago. A Hindu, he must mourn for a year, he said.

Of course, he assumed I was Chinese. There are many here. “Vietnam,” I told him. Then, “Have you been outside?”

“No, I am poor man.”

“Not even to India,” so close.

“Only border, not inside,” so technically, he’s been outside.

Though his brother runs organized tours, he, too, is poor. Everyone and his grandma run trekking tours here.

My room is on the 5^th floor, so trekking up and down several times a day is equivalent to climbing Mount Everest, I’m sure. Let’s not overdramatize every little gesture, OK? Sherpa guides my ass. I must contact the Guinness Book of World Records to tell those losers about my superhuman feat.

Getting out of the taxi, I was exhausted, but also exhilarated. Despite all the burger or fried chicken joints I had seen on the ride, plus English language schools, I was in a new universe. Before this, I had spent just a month in South Asia, in Bengaluru and Chennai. Nepalese, though, are more varied in appearances than southern Indians. There are folks who look almost like me.

Without wandering cows to piss and shit all over, Nepal is certainly cleaner than its southern neighbor, and much less congested, too. Sadly, perhaps, pot is now legal only one day a year. Though I myself have never inhaled, snorted or dropped anything too unusual, people should be free to unwind with natural enough assistance.

Failing to find an atmospheric café to get my bearings, I settled for GHR Pizzeria and Coffee House. Despite its indifferent name and sterile appearance, it introduced me to an excellent ruby lager, Gorkha, and a fantastic plate of buffalo meat momos. My grand prize, though, was the presence of a radiant waitress whose constant smiles made me so happy, I couldn’t help but tell her, though this made this angel so self conscious, she stopped smiling so much. Worse, she retreated to the next room for a while.

Guangzhou, 10/15/25

On the layover in Guangzhou, there was a psycho security lady who barked one word commands to all passengers. Her English was so bad, it wouldn’t have helped much had she spoken more slowly and calmly. There was no reason for her not to smile, though. “Very strange, that lady,” I said to a South Asian man. “Mentally ill!”

Since he only smiled back, he may not have understood. He may have been Nepalese. Already, I can tell English is not as widespread here as in India, but this country was never colonized by the Brits.

So in the dark this morning, I wandered into the unknown, past small temples, wooden balconies, ancient wells and even graves. Pedaled by a skeletal man in the dark, a bicycle rickshaw rolled past. Another, just as bony, used a broom with too short a handle to sweep the street. Having done this for decades, he’s folded nearly in half, so that must be his preferred posture. Since this was still Asia, I had no fear of being mugged. Seeing a small group huddled at a tiny store, I headed over to ask for chai.

“Cha?” the old lady answered. In her sari, she was sitting with folded legs behind a portable gas stove, on which rested an aluminum pot and a huge tin kettle, with its spout like an elephant trunk, so charming. There were only three other customers. With my hot glass, I was at home. Soon, a Korean looking man showed up, but he was no tourist. Speaking fluently to the lady, he settled snugly into his usual spot.

The tiny store had instant noodles, eggs, candies, cookies, salt, MSG and Lay’s potato chips, so rush here when the bombs go off before everything runs out. You can never have too much of Smoky Popping Candies or Monaco Biscuits, especially in pizza flavor. Suddenly, there was a tallish Oriental who called to two dogs in the middle of the street. Surprisingly, they came. After petting them, I headed to our, notice how naturally I say that, neighborhood café to sit right next to me. Together, we represented Chinese imperialists, perhaps, ready to overwhelm Nepal. Though its Maoist government has just been deposed, we, notice how naturally I say that, have backup plans.

Paying 60 rupees or 43 cents for my two glasses, I headed off again, so am now sitting at KTM Burgers, with my fourth cup of cappuccino. On the way, I passed all these Chinese restaurants and hotels catered to Chinese. I also noticed a Japanese restaurant and a South Korean flag outside a nightclub. With so many Oriental men here, there must be prostitutes, of course. I spotted a thick thighed one in a skirt not quite mini.

Entering KTM, I saw an old black dog lying near an uneaten momo, so he’s not starving. At a nearby table, a young man listened to rap. Typing this, I was interrupted by a beggar who squatted at my feet. In exchange for a photo, I gave him 70 rupees or 50 cents, which made him very happy. Smiling, nearly laughing, he waved those bills at the waiters as he walked out. Had I given him too much, it would have pissed off the waiters, for they must work hard for their daily momos and kati rolls. Although he had a scab on his grimy knee, the beggar’s teeth were better than mine ever were.

Kathmandu (L): 10/15/25 ; (R): 10/16/25

Wanting nothing, the half dead dog approached to see how I was doing. His phlemy eyes clearly said, “I’ve seen it all, too, motherfucker.”

A white bearded man with weary eyes and an earring stirred his coffee with a hand too soft to have ever been familiar with a hammer, screwdriver or rifle. He would head home to write more poems no one will ever read, I’m sure. Just burn those batches, bitch. Don’t even try to publish them on Amazon or Kobo.

I finish this at The Nook. Walking between cafés allowed thoughts to surface. Yesterday’s Gorkha was so good, I actually thought, too many BeerLaos nearly killed me in Pakse, so maybe I’ll die in Kathmandu, more than happy, clutching a bottle of Gorkha.

All the recent unrest in South and Southeast Asia made me think Uncle Sam must be up to his tricks again. This isn’t to downplay local dissatisfactions or outrages. “All political parties here are bad,” someone has already told me.

At 7:38AM, I will wrap this up. Though paying just $9.40 a night, I get free breakfast, so will head back to Hotel Pristine, if I can find it before the Second Coming. My Rapture Sit Rep has also been rejected by Kobo, by the way, so my disappearance continues. Chattering in the background, the waiters and baristas sound cheerful, but laughter is actually much more common outside the angry USA, believe it or not. They’re chuckling now.

Smiling, I will reenter a familiar enough street whose name I don’t even know.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks

Slices ov da Trumpocalypse, #4

Par : AHH — 10 octobre 2025 à 20:24

“To regain a few brain cells, turn everything off and listen to insects, wind, memories, ghosts, regrets and God. Lie on the hardest ground to stare up at the darkest leaves and branches, or the moon with its nimbus.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Vung Tau, 10/7/25. (L): altar to the goddess at the base of a banyan tree ; (R): Ông Bầu Coffee

Social Orphans Not Quite Lost — Oct 08, 2025.

Just three hundred yards from Coffee Seven, Ông Bầu Coffee is an entirely different universe. Mrs. Seven has no familiarity with any of the weird and wonderful breeds festering here. There’s a homeless Cambodian from Trà Vinh who last night, again, desecrated an altar to the goddess at the base of a banyan tree. The two ceramic tigers guarding her were useless. Picking up plates containing fruit offerings, he flung them onto the street, so this morning, Như, Ông Bầu’s manager, had to tell me to put on my sandals to not step on shards.

It’s useless to buy him a bus ticket back to Trà Vinh. He makes enough selling scrounged cans and bottles to drink coffee at Ông Bầu. Sometimes he wanders behind the counter while one of the Gen Z girls is working. Just off South Street in Philly around 2016, a barista was raped by a homeless man.

For at least a year, Ông Bầu also hosted a homeless cat. After not seeing him for a while, I thought he had been snatched by drug addicts roaming through the night on a motorbike. Selling him to a “little tiger” restaurant would gross $8. The most common drug here is meth, with heroin also a problem.

Halfway between Ông Bầu and Coffee Seven is Mrs. Tím’s crab noodle soup stand. It only operates in the morning. Selling a bowl for just $1.52, she still makes enough to support a son in drug rehab. A new term for such inmates is “student.” The blind, mù, is now called “khiếm thị,” or sight deficient. The old, già, is rebirthed as “cao tuổi,” which is, literally, tall or abundant in age.

Ông Bầu Coffee in Vung Tau. (L): 10/7/25 ; (R): 6/26/25

The cat, it turned out, had a family just down the street. Finally realizing he had moved just houses away, they brought him home, to his dismay, I’m sure. There’s a good reason he left in the first place. At Ông Bầu, he was fed well enough. His favorite spot here was on its roof, accessible through a deck up the stairs. I used to pet this tabby.

Sitting right behind me, some idiot is listening to a moronic tune on TikTok. Now, there are sounds of fighting. A supposedly comic voice then relates an unfunny story. I must move.

Như shares my distress. Her septuagenarian grandma cannot peel her cloudy eyes and abundant wrinkles from TikTok skits. We’ve talked about how babies won’t eat unless they have retarded songs played on a tiny screen in front of them. Across the globe, everyone goes to sleep to internet noises. Lullabies and pillow talks die.

The magazines at Ông Bầu are displayed by Như. No one reads them but me. I was literally the first to pick up even one. Today, I gave her a signed copy of my Thơ Nước Trong, a collection of poems written during my time in Dak Lak. Though working in a recycling plant was brutal, it was only one year. Billions endure such a grind forever until they drop dead.

Asking for a small advance, a worker in her 50’s said, “I must go to a wedding, so must buy something. Food I can go without, but I must go to this wedding.”

Ngọc Tước Book Café in Vũng Tàu on 10/8/25

In the States, Như studied anthropology and religion. She’s always done what she wanted. Though in Vung Tau just six months, she knows that when seas are stormy, fishermen can’t sail, what a quaint word, so some take recreational drugs. There are also many fewer fish. We’re running out of everything but idiocy.

To regain a few brain cells, turn everything off and listen to insects, wind, memories, ghosts, regrets and God. Lie on the hardest ground to stare up at the darkest leaves and branches, or the moon with its nimbus. Its pronoun is she, of course. The moon is that eternal woman suspended, all alone, in the sky. That frightened man running across her face is you, buddy. Raglike cirri unflutteringly droop.

It is the next day. After my pre dawn session at Coffee Seven, I’m back at Ông Bầu. On the table in front of me are two books by Nguyễn Vĩnh Nguyên. Như didn’t just recommend this writer, but left these books for me. She’s as displaced as I am. With social orphans scattered all over, it’s very rare for just two to stumble onto each other.

Checking their tables of contents, I see that Nguyễn Vĩnh Nguyên has written about toothpicks, television, Italo Calvino, Borges, sidewalk cafés and a blossoming genre of music, nhạc chế, that focuses on the day-to-day struggles of the most hounded, pressured and ignored.

As an abundant-in-age village explainer, I told Như about Duras, Hồ Xuân Hương, Hồ Biểu Chánh and Mở Miệng. Orwell she’s already a fan of. His non-fiction deserves much more attention. I told Như about Jack London’s The People of the Abyss. Without it, Orwell would have been a lesser man.

“Orwell noticed everything. He’d describe the furniture in the poor households he visited, how small these spaces were, and how far people had to walk to use the communal toilets. Keep in mind England was the world’s greatest power! William Blake had already talked about small kids being forced to sweep chimneys.”

After being ditched by real publishers in 2018, I self-published 28 books on Amazon, starting in 2024. Two weeks ago, Jeff Bezos’ outfit also canceled me, so I had no choice but to be reborn as Sammy Davis Clemens. More handsome than ever, I smuggled myself back in. When Clemens’ Rapture Sit Rep had failed to appear after 48 hours, much longer than usual, I thought he had been detected and aborted. What a pleasant surprise, then, to wake up this morning to the debut of Sammy Davis Clemens! Let’s see how long he’ll last.

New York. (L): 10/6/11 ; (R): 10/30/17

Checking in on Carey in NYC — Oct 09, 2025.

How long have you been in NYC? Where are you exactly? How much rent are you paying? What about your neighbors?

-I moved to NY in 1995 to go to college because I knew I wanted a career in theatre and it seemed like a no-brainer to live in NYC. I moved around to various boroughs after graduating, but I’ve lived in Hell’s Kitchen (midtown west) for most of my adult life. I got lucky and landed the lease on a studio apartment in a rent-stabilized building for $1050/month 16 years ago. I was doing some volunteer work for one of the landlord’s daughters who was convalescing from an injury and she insisted I should live in one of her dad’s buildings and she put in a word for me—that’s how I got the lease. Her dad was incredibly kind to me and didn’t raise the rent—even though he legally could have- for several years after I moved in. Then when he finally did raise it, he was profusely apologetic and raised it a whopping $50/month (which is a mercifully scant rent increase by NYC standards). He (my landlord) was an Israeli Jew who I considered one of my guardian angels up until he died in 2020—and honestly sometimes I think he still is. He was also a retired airline pilot and a great lover of opera. One time when a neighbor asked when his birthday was in front of me and he said it was in October, I teased, “Oh, Barry, you’re a Scorpio—I can never date you,” and he blushed crimson. He was probably about 85 years old at the time. Right after his passing, some lame excuse for a management company took over the building and raised the rent right away. Now it’s ~$1400/month, which is still such a good deal for where I live that I rarely tell my friends or mention it in public because I don’t want to give anyone incentive to murder me. My neighbors in the building may have slightly better or less-good deals depending on whether they moved in before or after I did. People who live in neighboring market-rate buildings are likely paying $3K/month, or substantially more for a 1-bedroom.

Who are your neighbors? How often do you eat or drink out? Here in Vung Tau, I pay 38 cents for a black coffee or $1.33 for a cappuccino or avocado smoothie, so I’m always in cafes. How much do you pay for coffee when out? How about for a beer or two at a local bar? How bad are prices in general?

-My neighbors are all kinds of people—retired senior citizens scraping a living off of social security, Broadway actors, hedge fund guys, techies, waitresses & bartenders, freelance performance artists, a professional magician, etc. I probably eat out or get takeout at least twice/week, sometimes as often as 3 or 4, depending on how social I am that week. There are still some places in the city where you can get a basic black coffee for $2.50 or $3. But a fancy coffee like a cappuccino, etc. will cost upwards of $5. Sometimes up to $9 if you ask for non-dairy milk or a second shot of espresso, etc. A beer might cost anywhere from $4-12, depending on how fancy of a place and how fancy of a beer. A glass of wine might cost anywhere from $10-25 at a casual nice restaurant. Smoothies cost around $10 if they’re the good kind (made w/plant-base; not dairy milk, for example). Groceries have definitely increased in prices a lot in the past few years. Avocadoes are ~$3 each—more for organic. I often order from an online discount market which doesn’t reflect NYC prices, but it’s only good for dry goods; not produce. Occasionally I spring for a $3 avocado.

Taxi rides have become insanely expensive. I somehow ridiculously managed to fracture my foot last week by simply stepping off the curb and am on crutches for a couple months, so I am experiencing the full force of inflation in cab fare. Just going a couple of blocks can cost $12-15. I’m currently just staying home if I can. Luckily I work remotely.

New York. (L): 2/15/17 ; (R): 10/3/17

I understand you’re trying to get out of not just NYC but the USA. Why?

-When I left NYC in 2021, it was largely prompted by Nancy Hochul’s threats to put the unjabbed into FEMA camps. [01][02] I’m feeling less urgent about getting out of the country since the Convid craziness has (mostly) settled down. But the reason I moved here in the first place was for a career in ‘show-biz’, and my mojo to continue investing time and energy into that industry has evaporated to fumes since 2020. I love doing theatre and really any project with good writing and good people. But a lot of the bread-and-butter pay for many actors comes from doing commercials, and about 90% of commercials are pushing pharmaceuticals… you know where this is going… And I agree with you that at the moment the future for the US is not looking bright. And I think it would be good for me to start fresh someplace new since I have lived in NYC for so long. But my parents are both here in the US and getting older, so I want to be able to get back without too much hassle. I am very open to relocating, but honestly I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking for. I would definitely want community and to be able to work from wherever I am.

When I met you in Kep, you seemed quite comfortable traveling through Cambodia. You had already been in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Battambang and Kampot. To live in Cambodia is another matter? What would prevent you relocating there?

-I was invited to Cambodia by a Cambodian friend, with whom I traveled throughout my time there (with the exception of the afternoon I took a tuktuk to Kep to meet you). [03][04] She speaks Cambodian and has family there. Being part of her entourage helped me feel comfortable. And some of her family there speak English so I was able to have a meaningful visit with them. Actually, lots of Cambodians speak English very well! (A far higher percentage of Cambodians speak English well than French in France do!) But if I were on my own there, I think I might feel nervous that I know so little of the language. Although perhaps it wouldn’t be a problem at all. I don’t see myself moving there. I could probably spend a happy year or more in Siem Reap, as it has a very international population and so much culture and beauty to enjoy.

New York. (L): 10/31/17 ; (R): 9/4/10

What’s your ideal country to move to? Why?

-I’m not sure. I’m extremely curious to visit Russia, as I have never been and it seems their future has the potential to be very bright. I fantasize about getting hired to teach Shakespeare in English there to university drama students, as I think that’s the thing of most value I could offer them. (If anyone has any leads of this sort, please let me know! Or in Japan, another place I’ve never been.) I also consider Mexico, Brazil, and various countries in South America, but I haven’t gotten serious about any of the logistics. I’m currently dating a Frenchman who lives in France so I’ve been spending a good amount of time there. He loves it, although he hates the government and knows the country is sliding with all of the immigration. So it’s probably not a good long-term plan destination. But it is beautiful. Visited Greece for the first time over the summer and also loved it. I could happily live in so many different places for long stretches of time. What matters to me most is the company. But of course we all love good prices, and the West is the worst for those.

For what it’s worth, for all of the places I have ever visited including several ‘third-world’ countries where I often travel solo as a petite white woman (rather than in the form of my inner alter-ego identity as the character Jim who sings ‘Ol’ Man River’ in Show Boat;-), I have only ever had one ‘bad’ thing happen to me. It was in Cuzco, Peru. I stayed out at a bar on a date until the place closed at 1am on a Saturday night/Sunday morning and then attempted to walk the few blocks to my Airbnb alone. But I got attacked and stabbed in the upper thigh by a local young man with a broken beer bottle. Not sure if he hoped to rob me. As soon as I saw him wielding the bottle above his head like a weapon, I locked eyes with him and screamed like a banshee nonstop. I’m not sure why he gave up so quickly, but I guess I was giving him more trouble than he anticipated. There were 2 other guys who just stood and watched, and then another guy came running and they all ran off together.

The most efficient thing I ever witnessed in South America was later that night at the ER when a cop tried to take an official statement while a doctor was stitching up my thigh while my pants were around my ankles. Less efficient was the several hours I spent at the touristic police station being finger-printed and repeatedly giving my statement in my crappy Spanish. They took me back up to the scene of the crime and asked me to re-enact it for them to see if any surrounding cameras might have caught the incident on film. (They didn’t). They never found the guy. Months later when I was back in the US, they sent an email saying they were closing the case due to lack of evidence. They also had my nationality listed as Chilean, despite having copied my passport several times. Who knows? At least it’s a good story.

Vung Tau, 10/9/25

Enough of Fake Assassinations! — Oct 09, 2025.

When Trump half challenged, half threatened those cornered generals to walk out of his speech, shouldn’t at least one or two have done so? Giving up his salaries and pension to make a statement, he’d have become an instant hero. To be maligned on Fox News would only have increased his stature.

What if all the generals did? There’s no way Trump could have fired them all. The US military wasn’t in danger of collapsing.

If all you care about is money and status, you’re worse than a whore, for most whores don’t have a choice. How much money have you earned fighting for Jews and the military industrial complex in Iraq, Afghanistan and/or Somalia, etc.?

Vung Tau, 10/9/25

The highest ranking Vietnamese-American in Trump’s administration is Hung Cao. Outraged at Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, this retired navy captain entered politics. After Cao failed to become a congressman or senator, Trump assigned him United States Under Secretary of the Navy.

In a TV ad while running for senate, the crew cut 53-year-old appears in great shape in his olive green T-shirt. Very spartan and military, a no nonsense kind of dude, Cao’s not a career politician. That’s the message. Dramatically lit against a black background, Cao bangs ominously thrice on a table, then states:

This is the scariest sound you will hear when you live in a communist country. This is the last sound my parents heard when their fathers were taken away in the middle of the night and they never saw their loved ones again. That’s the sound of losing your freedom.

The sound of always living in fear. That’s my family’s real life story. We escaped from Vietnam just days before Saigon fell to communists.

We were given a new life in the most generous country on earth. America saved my life. I graduated from the United States Naval Academy.

I earned a master’s in physics and fellowships at MIT and Harvard before the left replaced merit with racial quotas. I spent my life trying to repay my debt to America. My country.

Our country. With 25 years of service in Navy special operations, combat in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. But now our country has taken a dark turn.

That’s Joe Biden’s Justice Department sending two dozen armed agents to arrest a pro-life activist in front of his family. That’s Joe Biden’s IRS raiding a gun shop and seizing thousands of records from law-abiding gun owners. Our names, our addresses, our social security numbers.

Like most Americans, Cao has always misframed and misanalysed everything. He’s fought in all the wrong wars. First off, Uncle Sam was an ally of Stalin, the worst Communist ever, and after he’s done with Vietnam, he moved nearly all his factories to Communist China. Since normalizing relations with Vietnam, every US president has traveled to Hanoi to make deals and to take photos beneath a huge bust of Ho Chi Minh. Vietnam, too, is only Communist in name, just as Trump is not, shouldn’t it be obvious by now, America first! Are you going to be suckered by a baseball cap?

As for knocking on doors in the middle of night, Trump’s masked goons aren’t just doing that, but also breaking them down, to drag even naked, screaming children onto the street. They’re gang tackling elderly American citizens in full view of horrified bystanders. Laughing, they shot pepper balls at a praying priest. They break car windows. They stopped and arrested a US Army veteran as this man drove to work. His only crime was his brown skin. Storming into a Hyundai factory, they round up, most humiliatingly, 300 South Koreans who were legally in the US to train and give jobs to Americans. These Koreans they jailed for a week as Trump said nothing.

As for seizing all sorts of private information from Americans, even Hung Cao must have heard, by now, of Elon Musk’s DOGE and Peter Thiel’s Palantir? With a master’s in physics, Cao isn’t a dummy, so, to protect his career, Cao is purposely blind, like every other American with social standing. Covering your ass, you’re all blind whores with every orifice endlessly plugged.

Vung Tau, 10/9/25

All you’ve done, Hung Cao, was help America to terrorize the rest of the world and, now, even Americans. This is also true of those 800 generals and admirals. Serving Jewish interests and transnational oligarchs, they’ve assisted in wrecking America.

Hearing about that meeting in Quantico, I thought it would be staged deep underground, for security reasons. Even morons like Trump and Hegseth wouldn’t think of presenting such a tempting target to America’s adversaries, yet nothing happened. They dodged several fire-and-forget missiles!

Egypt’s Anwar Sadat was assassinated during a military parade. Sprayed bullets towards the grandstand killed ten others and injured 28. Five assassins were executed. One, 27-year-old Khalid al-Islambuli, was hailed as a martyr across the Islamic world and had a street named after him in Tehran. Facing near certain death, al-Islambuli wasn’t afraid to do what he had to do. Neither did his conspirators. [05][06]

Only the clueless think Trump is an irrelevant puppet not worth killing or dissecting. As a symbol of America’s arrogance, stupidity, crassness and lawlessness, he’s already most powerful. His assassination would have a profound effect. If symbolic assassinations don’t matter, they wouldn’t have bothered to knock off Charlie Kirk, a mere gadfly. Since Trump’s policies also reflect his own quirks and perversions, he’s much more than a symbol, but is there any Khalid al-Islambuli left in the USA? Surely, there aren’t just career mercenaries like Hung Cao or angry white pussies who are terrified of doxing themselves.

As with 9/11 or the Bin Laden “assassination” with zero evidence, symbolic acts of violence do matter. They can galvanize and effect sea changes. Spilling the brains of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel or Larry Fink, etc., would also dissolve that miasma of defeatism permeating not just the USA, but much of the West. Only those with access can do this. Long ago, I suggested the next genuine American hero would be a nanny, driver or cook. Enough of assassinations staged by Jews, to be followed by preposterous stories. Each has only benefited Jews.

Bangkok, Thailand

Resettling those Genocide Entitled — Oct 10, 2025.

The last time I was in Bangkok, in January of 2023, everything seemed fine. Khaosan Road was jumping nightly. Ubon Ratchatani and Khon Kaen later that year seemed normal too. In 2025, there are all these YouTube videos about the collapse of tourism in Thailand, however. They’re letting in too many wrong tourists.

In one video, Philip James, [07] an American in his 50’s, asks a Thai hotel manager about what’s wrong? He answers, “The tourism is very easy. Some of the Europeans don’t like Russians. Some of the people don’t like Chinese. Some people don’t like Indians. And that is too much.”

But who are the worst, James presses. Without hesitation, the Thai blurts, “Oh, mostly Israelis!” Because they want everything for free.

Not happy with this, James suggests Indians? They’re bad, too, the manager agrees, because they’re too bossy towards his staff.

Seconds later, James relays this encounter to another white tourist, “He said people are wanting to avoid Indians and Russians and Chinese.” A good, obedient goy, James has edited out any criticism of Jews.

Even Paul Theroux has said something about Israeli tourists, but as a well praised, heavily promoted writer, he’s not going to speak his mind entirely. A Google search of “Paul Theroux Israeli tourists” yields only this AI summary, “There are no reliable search results indicating that the American travel writer Paul Theroux has written or commented specifically on Israeli tourists […]” Yeah, right.

Consider these 2025 headlines. Times of Israel, “As war-weary Israeli reservists head to Thailand, poor behavior could spoil relations.” Thai Times, “Israeli Embassy Issues Conduct Guidelines for Nationals in Thailand Following Community Concerns.” The Diplomat, “Unruly Israeli Visitors, Thai Resentment, and Potential Dangers.” Ynet Global, “Israel scrambles to defuse tensions with Thailand over behavior of its tourists.” Globe, “Surge in Unruly Israelis in Mae Hong Son Sparks Local Alarm.” Travel and Tour World, “Thailand Tightens Rules For Israeli Travelers Amid Rising Concerns Over Tourist Behavior And Legal Violations.” You can imagine how many more exist in Thai, and what Thais are saying among themselves.

Thailand: (L): Bangkok, 1/28/23 ; (R): Khon Kaen, 7/12/23

Let’s hear from one very well-traveled American who’s not censoring himself, Michael Yon, “I have personally witnessed terrible Israeli behavior countless times in Nepal, India, Thailand, and beyond. The dangerous weight of consequences of their behavior continue to accumulate. Constantly talking down to local taxi drivers, waitresses, and most anyone they outnumber or look down upon.” Such is “Normal behavior. And has been for generations. Predatory, professional victims with galactic-sized sense of entitlement.”

After Jews went berserk and attacked locals in Amsterdam in November of 2024, the Dutch king had to apologize, to Jews!

Traveling with two New York Jews in 1995, I overheard an Israeli, sitting at the next table, say very loudly how much he hated Vietnam, and how he couldn’t wait to reach China. Perhaps this young man had a similar vitriol upon leaving China? Mitch Epstein, Susan Bell and I just looked at each other and smiled.

Not too amusing, though, is what to do with Jews when many more are forced to flee Israel. They’re already causing havoc in Cyprus. Ynet on 7/4/25, “Wave of antisemitic rhetoric hits Cyprus over Israeli real estate purchases—Cyprus leftist leader warns of a ‘wider plan’; Israel’s envoy condemns antisemitism, as viral clips claim ‘Cyprus was promised to the Jews.’”

Khon Kaen, 7/11/23

Gaby Keren comments, “Israeli schools ought to teach the concept of ‘Derech Eretz’ and consideration for people who are different. Behaving civilly when they are a guests in a different country could be part of the curriculum.” Jack Levi, “Israelis are like that: complete disregard for other cultures. But God-forbid someone should disrespect Jewish or Israeli culture…”

Such lovely, peace loving people. Ynet on 9/15/25, “A massive brawl broke out overnight Sunday to Monday during a flight from Tel Aviv to Bucharest, Romania’s capital. The Romanian news agency Mediafax first reported that about 30 passengers were involved and that several were detained by police after landing and taken in for questioning […] Romania’s border police said the reason for the fight was a ‘spontaneous dispute’ among several Israeli passengers.”

Ynet on 10/9/25, “The war will end, but antisemitism won’t.” That’s because Jews sow wars, chaos and divisions endlessly. They corrupt and degrade every host society. So genocide entitled, they commit the worst crimes in front of the entire world without flinching. In the end, it won’t be about who’s right or wrong, but who has more balls, missiles and bullets. As long as defeated Jews don’t come to Vietnam, I’m happy.

If there’s justice, their most abject servants will welcome them. What’s left of the USA can become Greatest and Bestest Israel. Red heifers are now kept at a secret location in Jew-occupied West Bank. Should these die, from an Iranian missile or just a knife, there are many more to be had in Texas, so all the remaining Jews can move there. Mix ashes of burnt cows with juju water and swing squawking chickens over your yarmulked heads all you want in Houston or Dallas. Just leave the rest of us the fuck alone.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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Today’s Technofascism

Par : AHH — 8 octobre 2025 à 14:22

Current events in America gallop towards the dark.

with appreciation to Dr. Karl at karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium.

Most Gym readers are familiar with Orwell’s 1984 and how he envisioned the role of technology in controlling the masses. Much of what he described is now reality, although some are unaware that your “smart” TV is capable of watching you. We have security cams placed with high densities inside cities, and almost every store starting with banks has a video surveillance system. Facial recognition is now a norm. Cellular phones have tracking devices within them so you can be targeted and bombed. Computer chips have backdoors allowing the so-called security agencies to discover what you’re doing. The GPS system in your car can also be a tracking beacon. I recall what the Supreme Court ruled years ago on the issue of privacy—you essentially have none. Highly tuned “ears” can hear what you say to your partner as you take a walk in the woods. Walls can now be seen and heard through. The eye way up in space can read the license plate on your car. The resolution’s so good that your lips can be read as you talk. With the age of the semiconductor and microchip, Big Brother arrived in ways only imagined by Sci-Fi authors and Mr. Orwell.

All this has become very important because it’s now being made into a threat to what freedom Americans have remaining. It’s not just ICE. It’s the fact that an enemy needed to be invented for ICE to be deployed—the dreaded immigrant, or what the Scorpions called The Alien Nation. Once upon a time it was Communists and Socialists, Labor Union organizers, and the workers themselves, all of which remain to be resurrected when needed. But the main instigator is the intrusion of Zionist control of the federal government and its need to control American public opinion. And here I defer to the awesome work done by the team at The Grayzone—Max Blumenthal and his comrades. What began as an investigation into the clear political assassination of Charlie Kirk has become an investigation into the deep subversive activities of Zionist-American Billionaires aimed at controlling—distorting if you will—American public opinion of Zionism and Occupied Palestine: The state committing Genocide with the active complicity of the US Government beginning with Biden and continuing with Trump that in reality began in 1948 with the first Nakba. The presentation of evidence by Mr. Blumenthal to Judge Napolitano during this 40-minute chat is an absolute must see if you want to know how your freedom and children’s future are threatened. I highly suggest watching it before continuing to read this article.

Now that you’ve seen and understood the insidiousness of what’s planned and grasped the fact that it will be close to impossible to halt, I suggest you stop and take the time to notify your close circle of what you’ve learned and where they can also learn what you now know. This isn’t about immigrants anymore; this is about the ability of Americans to be free from undo influence, to not be propagandized, to be left alone, and certainly not to be goaded into doing something that’s actually very un-Christian. They are trying to get commonfolk to support Genocide; to somehow see benevolence in Zionist actions. They’re going to track you via your phone so they can further harass you with propaganda, and who knows what else they’ll do to you. Look at what they did to innocent Lebanese with their pager and cellphone terrorist devices. And they laughed and applauded. Occupied Palestine is a land populated by a people lacking morals of any sort.

There are other presentations of evidence by other people that have examined the ways and means of the Head Genocidal Zionist Netanyahu. One of them is the retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson who revealed a great deal in his chat today with Nima of Dialog Works that complements what Blumenthal revealed. Previous revelations by others have detailed the extent of Big Brother infiltration into American lives and those of the entire planet. Much was provided by Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Indeed, Wikileaks still provides a great deal of information the US government would rather you not know. Reading Snowden’s Saga is highly educational. Now the big issue is AI, which the Zionists employ in their Genocide and assassination programs. Recent US Supreme Court rulings have okayed racial profiling despite the fact that there’s only one Human Race. Given what the Outlaws are doing and getting away with, the Constitution is now what George W. Bush called it: Just A God Damned Piece of Paper. The Enemy Nation must constantly be reinvented. Trump now calls everyone who disagrees with him a terrorist, including members of Congress and judges.

What can citizens do now that they know they’re being targeted? The only real way to defend ourselves is to form community groups based on the neighborhood watch format while making it clear what the aim of the group is—to protect our Civil and Legal Rights from a federal government gone rogue. And it must be made clear that the D Party is just as complicit in this behavior as the R Party since both are controlled by AIPAC and Zionist Billionaire monies—Team Biden supported the Genocide just as much if not more than Team Trump. I’m not advocating going around with firearms. Just being in solidarity with your neighbors and community is enough, while also informing local government what you’re all about. Adopting a name like Citizen Civil & Legal Rights Brigade says what you’re all about to whoever you meet. Read the Second Amendment—being well armed begins with being well informed. Know that the military and almost all government officials at every level of federalism swears an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Implore those people to obey their oath, local police especially since they’re the ones your Brigade will come into contact with. I did, and I consider what I’m doing part of my neverending duty. One of our oddities here in America is that Naturalized Citizens must also take that oath but not native-born citizens. The Declaration of Independence says the duty of the citizen when confronted by Tyranny is to rebel to secure what were seen as Natural Rights.

IMO, it’s imperative you watch the talk between Max Blumenthal and Judge Napolitano and share the link with everyone you know. The only way to beat the foes we face is to act collectively, and that means everyone as every conceivable group is being targeted except Zionists and Billionaires.

Slices ov da Trumpocalypse, #3

Par : AHH — 7 octobre 2025 à 22:08

“Trapped inside a psychotic labyrinth with ten thousand maddening turns, Americans are reduced to worshiping slobbering child rapists who don’t even try to make sense.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

WikiJew Steven Pruitt

White Nations Scattered Across Ruins? — Oct 04, 2025.

For two days, I mostly slept. After my predawn session at Coffee Seven, I’d usually go to Cóc Cóc, Pato’s Bingsu or, lately, Ông Bầu to continue writing, or get another piece going. Yesterday at Ông Bầu, I mostly leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes. Returning to DC HomeStay as Mrs. Hà was still cleaning my room, I slumped on a chair and shut my eyes. The domesticity of it all was soothing, I must admit, and I also caught furtive glances at the 51-year-old as she changed my sheet and mopped. I had thoughts.

This pre dawn, I managed to reach Coffee Seven at 3:04AM, so only slightly later than usual. On the way, I thought about megalomania. A while back, my buddy Chuck Orloski had online conversations with Gary Corseri. From a Corseri preface, “It used to be that correspondence between authors did not appear in print until one or both of the authors had shuffled off this mortal coil. Reading the letters of Keats or Bernard Shaw or Rilke, I gleaned insights into the spirit of their times—the Zeitgeist—which made their work clearer for me, and better attuned me to our own rollicking World Ghost!” He obviously implied his exchange with Chuck wasn’t just Zeitgeistyish but only slightly lesser, if that, than the letters of Keats, Shaw or Rilke.

(L): Phnom Penh on 3/3/23 ; (R): Busan on 3/22/20

Orloski, “I will tell you something which some may find an exaggeration, but I experienced an epiphany almost every time I read a Leonard Cirino poem. Yes—its [sic] a church word, but I do mean epipahny [sic]!” Chuck is only interesting as a chronicler of working class life in long suffering Scranton, PA, but even in these prose accounts, Chuck can get very sloppy or even fudgy. Still, there are always revealing tidbits. Before becoming a schoolbus driver, Chuck cleaned up chemical spills and suicide sites. After someone got hit by a train, for example, Chuck had to find every last chunk of meat or broken tooth, even if flung a football field away. I dug these details out of Chuck from many conversations. I’m his biographer. Since converting to MAGA in 2016, Chuck has stopped writing realistic stories. Like millions of Americans, Chuck has entered a fantasy realm.

Since I will be interviewed by Kevin Barrett tonight, I better get my mind humming. Kevin’s last article is about the coming Civil War, so we can talk about that. One hopeful prospect is the breakup of the Long Disunited States, with Hawaii and Puerto Rico becoming, at last, independent states. All those illegals who had made these islands unaffordable for natives should be kicked out, no?

Neat maps in just seven or eight colors with clear borders disguise how fragmented the world actually is. Nations are fought into being. If Israel has a right to exist, then so do East Turkestan, South Ossetia, Assam, Kamtapur, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Zogam, Sikkim, Tipraland, Taniland, Aceh, Kokang, Nagaland, Shan Republic, Zale’n-gam, Zogam, Kirat, Pasundan, Kalimantan, Greater Minahasa, South Maluku, Al-Ahwaz, Turkmeneli, ChaoFa Hmong, Johor and Kelantan, etc. Actually, all those much more so, but how many of you have heard of just one?

The Zomi Revolutionary Army, United Liberation Front of Asom, Alliance for Independent Madhesh or Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar, etc., are like apemen when it comes to the information war. Unlike Jews, they can’t control any aspect of the mainstream, dissident or online media.

Barrett, “WikiJew Steven Pruitt Has Made 6 Million Edits on Wikipedia (and is behind 1/3 of all English language articles).” A photo of the morbidly obese Pruitt shows him with an American flag button, so anyone who doubts his America first credentials must be anti-Semitic. With his serene smile, Pruitt is certainly more photogenic than another fatso, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director. Please, President Trump, give Pruitt some swell post, or at least the Presidential Medal of Honor.

(L): Don Det, Laos on 3/25/23 ; (R): Bangkok, 10/12/22

Return to the Land has established five all-white communities in the Ozarks and Appalachia. From its website, “Return to the Land is a private membership association (PMA) for individuals and families with traditional views and common continental ancestry. We hold events and conferences, and we help groups of our members form European heritage communities.” Can a Maga Nation be built from these? What about several white nations scattered across the ruins of the USA? Perhaps the newly established Puerto Rican Navy will annex Nueva York? Much more likely is Southern Florida voting to join Cuba.

Wisconsin will become an Islamic Republic with Kevin Barrett as first president, to ease the transition towards Sharia Laws. A landlocked Christian Nationalist state making up of chunks of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky can have Nick Fuentes as prophet and dictator for life. Jewjab faithfuls will have a tiny enclave north of San Francisco. Its President in Absentia will be Albert Bourla, of course, so Ron Unz will have to run everything as Head Maven. Each week, every resident, including the newborn, will be injected with an entirely new and completely untested mRNA vaccine. Since this ensures its population will be reduced to zero in no time, fresh morons must be recruited from increasingly distant territories. It’s not a problem. Ron Unz himself will pay for each one-way ticket to Jewjablandia. With the world’s lowest life expectancy, its motto will be, BETTER TO LIVE SAFELY FOR MERE SECONDS.

Why shouldn’t Orange County become a Vietnamese exclave. When that happens, maybe I’ll get a job teaching American literature at UC Irvine or Chapman University.

“Once upon a time, those people could read, write and even produce world class literature. Over decades, they sank, quite gleefully though with outbursts of misdirected rage, into idiocy. With Biden and Trump, American English became, to put it most kindly, a vomitus of catch phrases, slogans, slurs, insults or just outright gibberish.”

WATCH: Trump Trolls Hakeem Jeffries With Sombrero Meme on Truth Social. pic.twitter.com/LSxluRCOZL

— Kristin Sokoloff (@ksoklower48) October 1, 2025

Trump has just posted an AI generated video of himself tossing a TRUMP 2028 hat at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The Hill, “The video depicts Trump, seated behind his desk in the Oval Office, throwing the hat in slow-motion before it lands on Jeffries’s head. The video concludes with Trump pointing and laughing, all while Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” perhaps the Trump political campaign’s signature tune, plays in the background.”

That man child isn’t just 79 years old but the president of United States of America. Millions of Americans still see nothing wrong.

Good Ol’ Whiggers Like Us! — Oct 04, 2025.

Only in two countries are soldiers attacking unarmed men, women and children in front of the entire world with an undisguised sexual sadism. Though many citizens of each are understandably horrified, millions still cheer. Last night, ICE agents dragged naked children from a Chicago apartment building at 3AM. Since they didn’t shoot these kids in the genitals, they haven’t yet become honorary Jews. Serving a serial child rapist, they’re getting there.

So this is what it means to have a Christ is King or Christian Nationalist nation? American Christians have long bankrupted themselves, morally too, so Jews can commit genocides! They volunteer to mass murder for Jews! They wear red hats to support a Jewjerked white Satanist who has raped countless white children! When Jews executed most publicly a Jewish lackey named Charlie Kirk for disobedience, whites vowed revenge on other whites, just as Jews intended. This level of mass idiocy will be scrutinized for centuries by black, brown and yellow intellectuals. Symposia in Caracas, Lagos, Beirut, Dhaka and Shanghai will be titled, “White Suicide—A Postmortem,” “From Shakespeare to JD Vance—An Intellectual Journey,” “Fearful of Self-Doxing, They Died,” “Icepicked and Pickaxed by ICE” and “Six Million Gassed Their Mantra.”

During my six months in Albania, I traveled all over. One day, I took a mini bus from Tirana to Durres. If not for Covid, there would have been ferries to Ancona, Bari and Trieste. You don’t know how much I love Italy, and Albania, too. Of the two, much maligned Albania has a better future, I’m afraid, simply because it’s never attracted many outsiders, and none during the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. Though it suffered terribly during Communism, a Jewish ideology, it never had a Jewish community. Despite its nominal adherence to Islam, Albania is still its timeless self.

Despite being the most bombed country ever, Laos, too, is still itself. Vientiane, though, must stop the massive recent influx of Chinese.

Even more than genetics, a nation is its culture, built up over millennia. If you can’t read your greatest writers, or even know who they are, you have mud in your mouth and dirt under your eyelids. If you live in fear of those who think your God should be dunk in human shit, you’re worse off than doo doo.

When I pointed out how even Nick Fuentes is coming off as a whigger, to gain street cred among his whigger followers, some white, undoubtedly elderly reader objected. Whigger culture is limited to urban areas, he claimed. I suspect this fogey has never heard of Forgiato Blow, MAGA rap, Tyson James, Servant Zero or even Eminem. I’d bet his knowledge of the USA comes mostly from Fox News, and not Greyhound trips. I doubt he knows how whigger infested are all the rural white towns within an hour drive of his television.

Long blonde haired JJ Lawhorn released Original Good Ol’ Boy in 2013, then Good Ol’ Boy Like Us in 2014. Lawhorn has gotten the most attention, though, with a recent lynching song, “Good Vs. Evil,” recorded with whigger rapper, Forgiato Blow. Trump himself has taken photos with Blow, as well as Kanye West.

Along with their land, destiny and unity, white Americans have mostly lost their culture, especially its wise, sane and beautiful portions. Hysterical ugliness is about all that remains.

Barrett’s last article mentions John Brown. One may argue Brown didn’t risk his life for his nation but an ideal. Still, it’s better than not risking anything for anything. The last American who did so is arguably Gonzalo Lira, but not only is his killer unpunished, but rewarded. Jewish Vladimir Zelensky might be richer than Trump at this point.

Though tricked into fighting for Jews and the military industrial complex, Pat Tillman also risked his life for his nation. As Tillman wised up, Uncle Sam blew his brains out. Unlike Chuck Cuck, Tillman never had a five hour memorial service on TV.

Trapped inside a psychotic labyrinth with ten thousand maddening turns, Americans are reduced to worshiping slobbering child rapists who don’t even try to make sense.

Many of us who do are starting to suspect we’re not just against Satanic forces, figuratively. Vigilant Citizen has just pointed out how the 1998 movie, Snake Eyes, as directed by Brian de Palma, has an assassination of one Charles Kirkland on September 10^th. He’s also shot in the neck. The movie begins with a billboard featuring a boxer, “Executioner Tyler.” Meanwhile, Tyler Robinson awaits his day of injustice for not shooting Chuck Cuck in the neck. Let’s hope they won’t suicide him.

Introducing Sammy Davis Clemens — Oct 06, 2025.

You, too, should look forward to the debut of Sammy Davis Clemens. Canceled, deplatformed, shunned and chased, this minor league freak is still kicking. Even if he sucks ass, at least it’s not Chosen. By any other tag, Yew, Yoo or Juice, it’s still righteous, vengeful and deft, so stop dodging.

Before Jewjacked Chuck Cuck was shot by Jews, he pointed out an obvious fact. Open border was defended and funded by Jews, above all. Cuck stopped short of saying they did this to dilute and ruin his still white majority nation.

Jews then ushered in girl goy raping Trump to reverse open border, but only as a smoke screen to war against all Americans, including MAGA dupes, for they, too, will be bankrupted by Jew baited and blackmailed Trump. It wasn’t hard. His puckering mouth has always honed in on the softest targets. He fears firm adults. As they’ve often done, Jews create a problem which they then pretend to solve.

As MAGA doofuses swoon, ill trained and cowardly ICE goons are committing crimes against legal residents and citizens also. Chaos on American streets is normalized. City by city, Trump is turning the US into a war zone. Americans, though, have long been conditioned to seeing robocops or armed soldiers in public. The Jew staged 9/11 then Jew orchestrated War on Terror enabled all this. Gen Z have never experienced anything else.

American soldiers on JAKEGTV, “We die for the Chosen People! Let’s go! We shouldn’t be here!” Now, they’re ready to kill each other for those Self Chosen, just like Slavs have been doing in Ukraine since 2014. So Jewscrewed, most whites don’t even dare to call themselves nationalists. At best, they’re just patriots, some sheepishly claim.

Orientals don’t have that problem. Nation Above All, Tổ Quốc Trên Hết, was a South Vietnamese motto. Among its generals, none was more respected than Ngô Quang Trưởng. At Coffee Seven just yesterday, Liệt, the retired teacher, and I talked about General Trưởng. After the Fall of Saigon, he relocated to Northern Virginia, where he ran a small restaurant. Many Viets who came in were embarrassed to be waited on by this famed general. Though I briefly lived on the same street, New Hope, I never saw him, unfortunately. Before General Trưởng died in 2007, he asked his family to scatter his ashes from Hải Vân Pass, for he belonged to Vietnam. He had to go home. If I’m not mistaken, even NVA General Trần Quý Hai praised the man. Each didn’t just fight for his nation, but was willing to suffer whatever pain, or to die, for it.

Typing this, I keep checking to see if Sammy Davis Clemens has appeared, but with “Killed by Jews, a Jewish Tool Becomes Greatest Christian Saint” among his essays, he might never make it. So be it.

I still have a week before leaving for Nepal. A novel setting will perk me up, I’m sure. I’ve been so exhausted. Yesterday was another one spent mostly in bed. Half dead, I did catch an enlightening Singaporean documentary, Inside the Illegal ‘Dunki’ Route Migrants Take From India To The US. Even with Trump in power, many still think they can sneak into paradise.

Most online commenters are derisive. Raksin12, “Only one word can describe this—Narcissism. These guys feel like—I deserve the flashy life that I see on Instagram, because, I am somehow special. If you can spend 100K [USD] for dunki [human traffickers], you for sure can spend the same amount to create a good life for yourself in India.” Ace 1000ks, “Living in the US isn’t like what you saw on a 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s television show. The reality isn’t like that at all.” SHYAM B, “Why am I not shedding a drop of tear for these guys! Totally despicable. I only feel for their poor parents who worked so hard in the fields for so many years to have a decent living, only to be ruined by their children and their fantasies [sad face].”

Only on his fourth try did a 21-year-old from Punjab make it into the USA, but all he saw was a Border Patrol truck. Though his two weeks in heaven were spent in prison, he’s willing to do it again, “It was my dream to go to America. If I left home, it had to be for America. I have never even considered any other country.”

Just like the MAGA folks who despise him, Inderjeet Singh can’t let go of a fantasy he’s invested so much in. Also, he can’t stand to think he was wrong all along. Despite all evidence, America is the greatest place to be, they must believe.

Whatever happens, Sammy Davis Clemens will be around to snoop, jot and parse, for he’s as dogged as they come.

Jericó, Colombia

Boomers Slaughtered, Comatose Women at Birthing Centers and China as Beacon — Oct 07, 2025.

Note: among my friends, none is as well traveled as Jonathan. Yesterday, I conducted a quickie, spontaneous interview with this 45-year-old American. He’s in Colombia.

I’m about to go to Nepal, to see what’s up with the Gen Z protest. Do you, like me, suspect Uncle Sam has a hand in this? There are anti-Chinese protests even in South Korea. Sure seems like the USA is intent on wresting all these countries from the Chinese orbit.

-Nepal is an interesting place. We stayed in the Patan neighborhood for two weeks. I would recommend it. Really dense with temples and rich with traditional life: various artisan shops, holy wells, crumbing old buildings. Lots of pigeons. Much better than Thamel, the area the backpackers stay…

Thomas Bell’s Kathmandu is a well done memoir about Patan. No idea if the protestors have fucked it up.

I am excited to finally see a true generational revolt, as opposed to a tepid, managed rebellion along arbitrary Red/Blue political lines. Rich Boomers should be slaughtered, both in Nepal, and the US (and anywhere an American carrier docks). French pensioners earn more per year than 35 year old lawyers in Paris. British coots are sunning themselves in Marbella while their aimless chav progeny fight roadmen for a paltry share of county line coke distro routes. There are entire cities in Majorca filled with oiled-up, naked German Rentners fighting over sun lounges while their children get raped by hajjis back in Stuttgart.

There is literally no hope, no future, for anyone under 35 in the West. Boomers are the last remaining slaves to the Jews and are the Ur-Parasite of the West. Liquidating them quickly and painlessly (what I thought Covid was initially) would be the single greatest mitzvah for the youth. Real-estate prices would crater. Do nothing middle-management and corporate deadstock would disappear overnight. Pension obligations would evaporate—capital could be reallocated for infrastructure. The young people could finally demand a living wage that keeps pace with inflation while luxuriating in an affordable three bedroom suburban house. Abandoned parks would fill with the sound of children playing again. We would no longer need endless Jeets to keep the whole Ponzi going.

But, as we both know, there will be no revolt in the West. We are in the stage of managed decline. Asset stripping and elite exodus are the name of the game. As a member of the elite, at least in terms of assets, I too have no real desire to return to once gorgeous cities mired in human slop. Paris, Milan, London are some of the filthiest, most depressing places on Earth. Teeming with cousin-sired military-aged males, kebab shops in the forecourt of cathedrals, graffiti covering the walls outside the cast-iron Victorian train stations. It’s a humiliation ritual forced on the Goys: to walk past these monuments to beauty, forced to keep your eyes down, avoiding the blank, dark eyes everywhere, sizing you up for plunder.

(L): Just outside Santiago, Chile ; (R): Jonathan, “Deep in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Near where they faked all the Mars Rover shots.”

Why are you in Colombia? Are there still Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians and Africans flying there, so they can cross the Darien Gap, on their way to the Promised Land?

-We’re wrapping up 5 months in South America. We’ll fly to Rome in a week and immediately rent a car and drive deep into Molise. In Italy, the only way to avoid the African purse vendors and fat RyanAir peasants is to go places that the trains do not reach. You must rent a car. The cities with train stations are mostly lost.

After Italy we fly back to China for a month, before spending the rest of the winter in Japan. China remains the last great hope for the planet—for a decent way of life for the middle class. I hope they can hold it together before they age out. I think they’ll figure out the low birthrate problem. Placing 10 million women in a coma and holding them in artificial breeding centers while they pump out a child every 11 months could fix some of their population issues. That’s an additional 100+ million consumers in 10 years! And that is not taking into account advances in artificial wombs. I think China will be fine. Sadly, they will rule over a planet of 4 billion Africans and 1.5 billion Jeets. A literal mountain of shit.

I didn’t see a ton of Chinese in Latin America—they’re mostly in the obvious places: running the tiendas and restaurants in Peru and Argentina. The Koreans run the garment trade in Brazil. There are still tons of Japanese half-breeds running around Sao Paulo, but with diminished, native IQs, they have been bred out of relevance.

Driving around rural Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina I couldn’t help but note how EMPTY and gorgeous the whole continent is. Jaw-dropping view after jaw-dropping view, beaches and hills that should be absolutely covered by multi-million dollar homes—teeming with life and businesses—were completely barren. Cities that should be charming tourist destinations still had dirt roads and power cuts. In terms of development, most of South America feels more like a high-end Africa than a tropical Europe. A few isolated pockets of wealth and relatively high HDI surrounded by untouched nature, brutally exploited resource zones, depressing squalor, and lots of frumpy mid-rise cities with enormous potential.

A mass wave of 50 million high-IQ Chinese men, with their capital, culture, and capacity would be, literally, the best thing to ever happen to Latin America. They don’t need to cross the Darien Gap to become American debt slaves when they could build paradise on Earth in the coffee country south of Medellin. 75 degrees year round!

So there you have it from cosmopolitan Jonathan. Boomers must be slaughtered to free up resources and, I must add, make this world more beautiful. Their exposed flesh is blighting every beach. Their faces alone depress restaurants, cafes and sidewalks. Still empty South America will be invigorated by a huge influx of nerdy and hardworking Chinese. As humanity’s brightest beacon, China must make more Chinese, simple as that, so millions of comatose women at breeding centers are ideal solutions. As for the bitter and barely employed incels of the West, there’s no hope, no future and no revolt, so Trump’s masked goons won’t even have many bodies to shoot at. Cowering in basements, they’ll just die after their stash of crackers runs out. That can of Aldi baked beans will be a distant memory, when life was still relatively good. It’s, who can doubt it, America’s Golden Age.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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Slices ov da Trumpocalypse

Par : AHH — 1 octobre 2025 à 14:41

“… solitary, untraveled men overburdened by practical worries don’t have time to look deeply into anything. As survivors, though, they’ll likely outlast you or me.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

(L): Vung Tau, 9/25/25 ; (R): Portland, OR, USA, 6/30/14

End of the World Sit Rep — Sep 28, 2025.

After Coffee Seven, I dropped into Cà Phê Cà Pháo with a collection of Sơn Nam stories. Last week, I caught its owner reading a Phùng Quán novel meant for teens. I already knew this 30-something mother of two was a fan of Nguyễn Nhật Ánh. This doofus writes exclusively for mildly retarded young adults.

Failing to find her, I went to Lotte Supermarket, on the back of Dzũng’s motorbike. We’ve established a routine of talking about global politics on each ride. I do the same with his brother, Bình. These solitary, untraveled men overburdened by practical worries don’t have time to look deeply into anything. Still, they’ve seen plenty.

When I told Bình there’s a widespread wish for this world to end, he answered wearily, “I feel it, too.”

“You want this world to end?!”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It’s too unjust.”

Getting his news from TikTok, Bình believed Iranians had strapped a captured Israeli tank commander to a missile, before firing it at Tel Aviv. Recently, he thought the Eiffel Tower was on fire.

Not so gullible, Dzũng is also worn out. As survivors, though, they’ll likely outlast you or me.

Among items bought at Lotte was a Russian salad, which I had for breakfast. Long live that great, long suffering nation!

Leaving my room, I decided, with some reservation, to revisit Salt Water, that temple to narcissism where the beautiful enough come to take endless selfies. Opening the door, I saw no unclaimed seat, so it’s back to Pato’s Bingsu. Hobbling here, I grinned and snapped my fingers at a hobbling dog, but he didn’t dare come near. Unlike Turkish ones, Vietnamese strays tend to flee from humans. Around 2AM, two others had fled from me. We were but three dark forms caught on a trafficless, thus silent, street, with nothing else stirring for at least a hundred yards in any direction. Large puddles from a recent rain reflected on this universe and life in general.

There’s beaucoup trouble all over. Trouble in mind, you’re blue, but you ain’t seen nothing yet! If dem blues don’t leave yo ass, best rock away from dere. After threatening Chicago, New Orleans and Memphis, Trump is sending troops to Portland, Oregon. Though infested with Antifa types, it’s not crime ridden, much less “war ravaged.” Its bohemian reputation is enough to elicit hatred from MAGA, so they’re elated. These Israel First Christians can’t wait for Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Boulder, Austin and even Carrboro, NC to be invaded too. Saint Kirk’s murder must be avenged.

Portland must be strong armed because Trump’s masked ICE goons with assault weapons, his private army, are being bullied by limp wristed pussies with neon colored hair and braless aging hippies gasping for breath. Sounds about right.

This morning, I got a very personal message from some guy named Dan Patrick, “Radical left Democrat policies in blue states foster attacks against ICE and all law enforcement. The men and women of law enforcement risk their lives daily to keep our state and country safe; hostility and violence toward them will not be tolerated.”

The Lieutenant Governor of Texas is a News Max regular. Not familiar? Its CEO is Christopher Ruddy. Though a goy, Ruddy studied in Jerusalem and goes often to Occupied Palestine.

Let’s hear, now, from an actual Portlander. Parkrose Permaculture’s Angela Parker, “First of all, there’s one little ICE building on McAdam Avenue. There’s nothing going on. There’s nothing fucking going on in that building or outside of that building as of right now,” at 3PM. “I understand there are some prayer vigils and nonviolent marches and assemblies that are planned over the next couple of days.” So just people exercising their First Amendment rights. “There’s no terrorist organizations operating in Portland unless you consider the American Gestapo known as ICE to be a terrorist organization.”

Senator Jeff Merkley, “Trump is sending troops to Portland with a goal of ‘doing a number on the city.’ We know what this means. He wants to stoke fear and chaos and trigger violent interactions and riots to justify expanded authoritarian control.”

Before Trump’s illegal order, Portland cops already said under oath that ICE agents were the ones instigating confrontations with peaceful protesters.

Who would you rather believe? People whose lives are directly affected by whatever happens in Portland, or some sleazebag, to borrow one of Trump’s favorite terms, like Dan Patrick?

Patrick on 10/8/23, “Our prayers for Israel. I visited several years ago and met with Prime Minister Netanyahu who declared a state of war today. I visited an Israeli city on the Gaza Strip in the area attacked. Even the playgrounds have bomb shelters in case of an attack […] Texans stand unequivocally with Israel.”

Patrick on 10/31/23, “Today, we are witnessing the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Sadly, we are also seeing a rise in anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses and around the world.” To show his support for the genocidal state, Patrick bought another $3 million Israeli bonds, but how much have Jews paid him?

Portland, OR, USA: (L): 7/1/14 ; (R): 6/30/14

When Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations on 9/26/25, dozens of delegates walked out. The American contingent, however, could be seen applauding like trained seals throughout this convicted war criminal’s speech.

I returned to Salt Water. It’s much less busy after the morning rush. In two weeks, I’ll have to leave Vietnam for another visa run. Half dead, I should keep it simple. With so much weird shit going on, I might be compelled to go somewhere unexpected. We’ll know in a few days. The crappy jazz they’re playing is another sure sign the world is ready to end.

When the Philadelphia Orchestra visited Saigon in 2001, I asked a friend traveling with them to bring me Django Reinhardt, Billie Holiday and Lester Young CDs. On a Vietnam Airlines flight several years earlier, there was even Blossom Dearie among the jazz choices. That’s actually her real name! Chet Baker’s childish singing also charms. In some Brooklyn bar in 2016, I started to sob when Billie Holiday and Lester Young came on. Certain poems, too, should make you bawl, with snot dripping from your nose. Those are healthy and sweet kinds of tears.

Suddenly, the jazz got much better! Sounds like Jerry Mulligan. It’s time, though, to step outside.

(L): Vung Tau, 9/24/25

If Only for Seconds or Minutes Somewhere — Sep 28, 2025.

Kissinger, “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” Pursuing such, America also has no coherent ideology. It’s never been about freedom or democracy as absolutes, but only in ways to advance the interests of its elites. Jewjacked USA, then, pursues Jewish interests.

Politicians also have no permanent friends or enemies. Trump bashing Marco Rubio and JD Vance are now Trump’s footstools, but they’re only there to advance their interests. Many assume Trump needed JD Vance to hoodwink Busch swilling rednecks, but that’s only secondary. Vance is the cabana boy of Peter Thiel, the founder and chairman of Palantir, that total surveillance behemoth having marathon kinky sex with the CIA and the Israel Defense Force. Thiel’s net worth is at least $26.1 billion, so nearly four times Trump’s measly $7 billion. Who’s more powerful in this oligarchy?

Thinking about such shit before 4AM hurts my head, man, but do we have a choice? Waking up at 1AM, I read that Trump is sending “all necessary troops” into “War ravaged Portland” to fight “Antifa, and other domestic terrorists” with “Full Force, if necessary.”

It’s amazing how quickly Americans have adapted to this new horror, with millions even cheering.

Saner citizens are simply ignored. They’re not even static on the internet. Dougmarkham5113, “Americans attacking Americans for no damned good reason. Bondi, treason awaits you.” xxxxMidKnightxxxx, “Portland is not ‘war ravaged.’ Perhaps if Trump wasn’t a draft dodger, then he’d know what ‘war ravaged’ looks like.” Tone D Farkas, “He’s a domestic terrorist! WTF???? Why can’t something be done about this…!!! This is America [American flag] What the FUCK…!!! [angry face] Why would our military even follow such a unconstitutional order from a Goddamn draft dodger… This make me furious! [angry face/scale of justice/angry face] Where the hell is justice when you need it…!!!”

Much worse horror is just around the corner. Washington Post on 9/25/25, “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice—and without a stated reason—at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year.”

Kevin Barrett offers the best case scenario, “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has called the entire top American military leadership to assemble in Quantico, Virginia next Tuesday, from whence they will all be raptured straight up to heaven—while America’s enemies and allies, as well as civilians of all nations, enlisted men, and officers up to the rank of colonel will be nuked, die slowly of starvation and radiation poisoning, and finally be dragged off by the Devil to burn in hell.”

It appears thousands will be fired during the upcoming government shutdown. Thanks to AI, tech giants are already letting go of as many. Remember when they kept steering us towards eating bugs? After Jewjabs, that’s no longer talked about. With war as universal hygiene, to paraphrase Futurist poet Marinetti, there’s no need to coax anyone into eating anything. The dead are eaten, and only briefly.

Visiting Tokyo in 2018, I saw its Olympics stadium being built, but Covid, a US bioweapon, fucked up the entire world for three years, so Japan lost tons of money. With Trump overcharging or blocking foreigners from entering the US, its status as co-host of the next World Cup is sabotaged. Many matches will likely be moved to Canada and Mexico.

For decades, I’d cool down my overheated brain with gallons of beer. After being whacked by mother fuckin’ nature two years ago in Ubon Ratchathani, I’ve had to cut that shit out. Just days ago, though, I sneaked a small bottle of BeerLao into my system. The resulting calmness was most welcomed, but there was also an unexpected sadness, for so many memories were stirred, if only dimly. Rimbaud, “Once, if I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed.” Though mine wasn’t nearly that sweet, it still contained plenty of conversations, meaningful looks, embraces and kisses during an era that was less menacing and absurd. Just in case you think I was just some innocent goofball who didn’t know no better, I was born into a war, motherfucker, and was in refugee camps before I was 12. Shit, man, maybe it’s time for another BeerLao.

This morning at Coffee Seven, Sơn talked to another man, 67-years-old, who also fought in Cambodia. Since I’ve never fired a gun outside a shooting range, I felt like the world’s biggest pussy, all right. Even Mrs. Seven had to dance outside a theater, since it was filled with corpses butchered by the Khmer Rouge. Speaking of which, Sơn has a niece who must sneak past the morgue with her newborn because she couldn’t afford to pay $10 or so to the hospital. Out the back door, she fled.

It wasn’t all horror in Cambodia. To relax, Sơn and his fellow soldiers smoked lots of pot, though rolled in newspaper. Dancing in a remote Vietnamese village, Mrs. Seven also had to smoke pot, to mask the hellish smell of a primitive latrine. Like Bill Clinton, she did it just once. Unlike that lying child rapist and war criminal—is there any other kind?—Mrs. Seven did inhale.

“I got so high, I could barely pull up my pants afterwards.”

Leaving Coffee Seven, you’ll see within seconds a golden Buddha on a mountain. Most soothingly, though, are just people going about their business. Since it’s Sunday, the kindergarten is quiet. Every other morning, angels would be half dancing, half exercising, as if this earth was some sort of heaven, if only for seconds or minutes, somewhere.

(L): Susan Wojcicki

Implausible Denials — Sep 29, 2025.

Before the JewJab genocide, you could click the thumbs down button on YouTube. With so many people complaining about Jewjabs killing and maiming, and advising against being suckered into harming yourself or, even worse, allowing your children to be injured or murdered, YouTube disabled thumbs down buttons, though they’re still there. Now, if a video has a thousand thumbs ups, it’s still meaningless, because you don’t know how many thumbs downs it would have gotten.

Coincidentally, YouTube’s CEO through the Jewjab genocide was Susan Wojcicki, a Jew. America’s top health official was Rochelle Walensky, another Jew. Jewjabs were greenlit by Donald Trump, a child raping goy entrapped by Jews. The Epstein files are threatening to expose not just how sick, corrupt goyim are ruining white countries, but how they’re controlled by Jews.

Sitting at Coffee Seven at 5AM, I just overheard a 67-year-old man say, “It takes just minutes for foreign cops to show up for anything! They’re not like our cops.” He’s another Vietnamese who thinks everything is better outside Vietnam.

Pausing my typing, I said, “You know that incident in Israel? It took them six hours to show up, even as their people were being killed! That country is so small, you can fly from one end to the other on a helicopter in minutes, yet it took them six hours! During that time, you can take a nap and eat several times! They allowed that to happen so they could go in there to kill Arabs!”

To not confuse him further, I avoided saying Gaza. I’m sure he’s never heard of Netanyahu.

Staring at his face for the first time, I saw that it was thin, gloomy and dessicated, with no sparks or glints in the eyes. It’s almost the face of a long dead mummy, like the one I saw inside its half rotted coffin at Philly’s University Museum.

“Jews are smart,” was his only response. I’ve heard this from so many Vietnamese.

“Smart my ass! That’s what they would like you to believe. They’re cruel!”

“All I know is that they’re smart and Muslim.”

Shortly after, he turned his dead face away, so I’m back to writing about YouTube. Despite its flaws, there are gems and nuggets. These are especially valuable for a guy like me. Living in Vietnam, I can still hear testimonies from so many ignored Americans.

Consider, “Hi there, my name is Tyler. Even though I work between 50 and 60 hours every single week, I am homeless living here in my car because of inflation. There wasn’t any help to keep me in my apartment even though I paid my rent on time for three years.

“I got behind just two weeks because I lost my job for reasons outside of my control. I called the city, I called the county, I called the state, I called charitable organizations like Salvation Army and churches, and I was told time and time again that there was no help for me. The most that was given to me was being put on a seven-year wait list for possible affordable housing.

“I believe that this is wrong. There’s hard, so many hardworking people like myself, tens of thousands of hardworking Americans that are out here trying to survive, but we can’t afford a place to live anymore and we’re being forced to live in our cars. I believe that is wrong.”

There are thousands like Tyler on YouTube. Most surprising, though, is Jakegtv, a channel I just discovered. With outrageous hilarity, this fake TV station contains more real news than CNN, Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, Newsmax, Politico, Democracy Now, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and The Economist combined.

Forget thumbs up or down, the responses are almost uniformly positive, and ecstatically so, as if obvious insights, long repressed and suppressed, are finally aired with bitter, indignant humor, not deforming hatred.

Some examples, “BEST CONTENT ON INTERNETS,” “Omg. This is actually the real news,” “This channel is gold [two laughing to tears emojis],” “truly unbelievable content,” “God dammit this is fantastic,” “JAKEGTV is making America great again.”

Whether talking about Gaza, Epstein child raping ring, JFK assassination, Charlie Kirk’s assassination or weather modification, JAKEGTV indicts Jews.

Here’s a description of one video. Male TV host, “Breaking news! It turns out that the people carpet bombing the innocent are actually the good guys. Just kidding, that would be retarded. Let’s go live to Steinberg.”

Goy reporter, “So you’re saying they have weapons of mass destruction, again?!”

Bug eyed, kippah wearing Steinberg with images of deadly drones and a Star of David behind him, “Exactly! It’s the same excuse we’ve used since the Towers fell. Not much has changed.”

American soldier among smoldering ruins of an Arab city, “Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna get PTSD from hurting the innocent, then we die for the Chosen People.”

Five American soldiers, “We die for the Chosen People! Let’s go! We shouldn’t be here!”

Perfectly coiffed reporter in body armor among ruins next to a terrified Arab, “This Non-Chosen Sand Person lost his home and family just hours ago, but Israeli military officials say this is God’s plan, and questioning it is Antiseptic!”

Arab, “Please stop!” That’s his only utterance.

Stunning female IDF soldier with burning city in background, “I hear they’re building a new restaurant in Tel Aviv. The chef prepares an amazing foreskin salad.”

Hook nosed chef with a Star of David on his apron, “This is where I will cook my foreskins. Imported directly from the adrenochrome factory.” Behind him among burning buildings is a sooty Arab man holding a boy. At least they’re still alive.

TV hostess, “I’ve never tried the foreskin salad.”

TV host, “Sounds Satanic.”

TV hostess, “Right! Probably part of their Talmudic beliefs.”

There’s more. Obviously, you must watch the video itself, to catch the many embedded subtexts. All their videos are superbly done.

The man behind this is a white American with some Oriental blood living in Fullerton, CA. Though Jakeg’s YouTube channel has been around a decade, his Jew focused contents only appeared two months ago. How long before he’s canceled? The most conspiracy minded may even conclude this is just another Jewish ploy for goyim to let off some steam, like, say, the Unz Review, without changing anything. You tell me.

Paying for my two black coffees at Coffee Seven, I noticed Mrs. Seven was watching Lisa, the K-pop star.

“You haven’t gotten sick of her!”

“No, no, no.” Then, “I hear this group, BTS, is coming to the city,” meaning Saigon.

“Tickets will be gone in half an hour.”

“They’re very expensive.”

“It doesn’t matter. They’re world famous. It’s funny you’re so into K-pop!”

“Young people know all about these stars.”

“Plus an old lady!”

“Yes, plus an old lady,” she chuckled.

Leaving Mrs. Seven with her two dogs, I walked away past all these eateries, food stands, basketball courts, a disused hospital and the horse and greyhound racing tracks, with its grandstand, long empty. Never assume you know enough about anything.

(L): Vung Tau, 9/28/25 ; (R): Jeff Koons’ Jeff and Ilona (Made in Heaven), 1990

Biggest, Bestest and Longest Jewish Joke Ever — Sep 30, 2025.

Crimes committed by Vietnamese in Japan are getting impossible to ignore. Viets make up nearly 80% of all foreigners arrested. In the UK, Viets are known for wrecking flats and stealing electricity to grow pot, for sale. During a visit to Laos in 2019, I heard no loud voices until I board a van to return to Vietnam. On it, a Viet was talking very aggressively, with plenty of cursing. Of course, most Vietnamese passengers were fine. Crossing the border, I immediately saw all fields busy with workers. There’s a correlation. In Laos, much land is left uncultivated. In Don Det, Laos in 2023, I even asked a man why he only grew ten tomato plants instead of 20, 30 or a hundred? Why he raised only one chicken? In Don Sang, I stayed with a family who had no chickens at all and just one pig, though they had more than enough land. Each night, their scrawny kids ate rice with almost no protein.

A while back, I lost a black reader for mentioning, in passing, black crimes in the USA, but I’ve written about this in depth. Any Philadelphian would have to be brain damaged to not know about black crimes in the City of Brotherly Love. In North Charleston, I drank at an Indian owned bar serving black patrons, but only those over 35. Young ones caused too much trouble. On South Street in Philly, a struggling Vietnamese bar owner decided to switch his music from white to black. It worked. Soon enough, his place was filled with black revelers, but then, fights broke out. A murder right outside closed his business.

Of course, we’re not all the same. Blacks in South Africa aren’t like those in Namibia. Of course, there are also distinctions among the Ovambo, Kavango, Herero, Damara, Nama and Caprivian. Sometimes, to not see differences may kill you. I had a friend whose mixed race daughter, raised on we’re all the same jive, was murdered by her black boyfriend from Detroit. Fatherless, he had dropped out of school and, even in photos, looked violent.

The poorer an American neighborhood, the blacker everyone must act, whatever his race. It’s curious that Nick Fuentes, raised in an upper middle class, nearly all white Chicago suburb, has adopted a whigger persona, even as he attacks, most aggressively, black behavior. It gives Fuentes street cred among his increasingly impoverished whigger followers. Fuentes is friends with Kanye West, plays rap on his website and says nigga comfortably. Another pasty softie, Justin Bieber, gained his ghetto credentials by being buggered by Diddly, but that’s only his baptism. To make it public, Bieber joined boxer Floyd Mayweather on every ring walk. Should have learned how to do the cakewalk, nigga! Diddly himself got his earliest boost from Clive Davis’ dick. No shame in that. Sucking Jewish cocks to gain entertainment fame is a hallowed American tradition.

In 2013, Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend, Rachel Jeantel, famously explained to Piers Morgan the difference between “nigga” and “nigger.” In 2017, some clueless white pussy protested when I wrote about “Flavor Flav and his in-your-face nigger ostentation.” All niggas would agree that Flavor Flav, as pushed on TV, was a nigger in the worst, most damaging way, but who controls the media? Vietnamese? Blacks? Mexicans?

There’s this Jewish joke. Seeing a Jewish woman with two toddlers, a man asked, “How old are they?”

“The doctor is two, and the lawyer is three!”

She could have easily said, “The banker is two, and the record producer is three.”

Guess what’s the biggest selling rap group ever? No, it’s not Public Enemy or Run DMC, nigga, but three New York Jews! No whiggers, these were privileged kids. Mike D grew up on the Upper West Side in a house filled with artworks, including pieces by Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Willem de Kooning. Ad-Rock’s dad, Israel Horovitz, was a playwright and his sister is a film producer. I did buy a Beastie Boys cassette. Around the same time, I heard a lecture by Jeff Koons in Philly and saw one of his shows in NYC. Before becoming one of the hottest, most heavily promoted artists ever, Jewish Koons was a Wall Street banker. It’s a different world, man.

How many MAGA farmers going bankrupt are Jewish, do you think? Jewish blackmailed Trump screwing white MAGA morons on behalf of Jews is the biggest, bestest and longest Jewish joke ever. After selling their family farms to Jewish owned Black Rock, they’ll still have their red hats, however. Squeezed into freezing cars without wifi, they won’t be able to follow Trump on Truth Social, however, or rewatch that spectacular memorial to Saint Chuck Cuck.

Jews didn’t kill him, man. Some white dork with a trans boyfriend managed a one shot, one kill from another zip code or maybe Wyoming. That’s something to be proud of. White boys can still shoot, at each other, mostly, or in the foot. Gotta give it to them libs! Netflix is already filming the the Proud Boys vs. Antifa Civil War, I’d bet.

Vung Tau, 1/3/24

Trump, Hegseth and All Generals Blown to Bits? — Sep 30, 2025.

With two articles done plus lunch before 11AM, I felt unusually expansive, democratic, insane and optimistic, as if nothing bad has ever happened to anybody.

At the corner of Lê Quý Đôn and Lê Lợi, I remembered with hilarity one of Tank Top’s more preposterous statements. As he gushed over some sexy singer, my bitter, asshole self had to inject, “She’ll wilt soon enough.”

“No, she’ll never wilt! People like her fly around everywhere, so they stay young forever, uncle. Only you wilt!” Tank Top had seen me walk all over.

I haven’t seen that guy in over a year. A single father, Tank Top doted on his video game addicted son, Chí. To stay sane, Tank Top had to be loudly garrulous. Sometimes he snapped.

After Coffee Seven, I went to Ông Bầu. Now, I’m at Pato’s Bingsu. Passing that old security guard outside Coffee House, I joked, “I go barefoot to keep my sandals from wearing out.”

“But then your feet wear out!”

“They wear out anyway. Near death, why should I worry?”

“It is good for your nerves. I go barefoot too,” but only after work.

In less than 12 hours, 800 US generals and admirals will be confined in one space in Quantico, VA, with that drunk TV host and the child raping blowhard. What can go wrong? To launch its attack on Iran last year, Israel had sleeper cells in Tehran aim rockets at dozens of residential buildings. How many enemy sleeper cells are in the USA? Should that building blow up, who do you blame? Uncle Sam has so many foes.

Fox News tomorrow, “Kash Valhalla Patel has just announced that, as anyone with half a brain already knew, it is a transsexual who has blown to bits President Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the entire leadership of the Pentagon. With freakish valor, Patel himself killed this cross-dressing monster by just staring at him. Within seconds, you’d scream too. We don’t know, then, if China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Qatar, Mexico, Canada, Israel or Obama is behind this. What does it matter? Declaring herself Interim Dictator, Kristi Noem will steer America through this collective trauma as the rest of the world celebrates. Even in London, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin, they’re dancing in the streets. Latin America, Africa and Asia are quaking. Sexier than ever, Noem is already live streaming from behind, under and on top of that Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Subscribe to her OnlyFans to see everything.”

To take orders from two preening pussies must chafe if not enrage career military men. Nothing good will come of this, but nothing has from this farcical regime.

At 12:52PM, I am wilting. Up since 1AM, I will now crawl home to nap. Once outside, I may perk up again, so a quick dip in DC HomeStay’s pool is not out of the question. Nearly always, I’m the only one in that body of water. Small trees surround it. Looking up at that leaf fringed sky is soothing.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks

Slices of Life, #11

Par : AHH — 20 septembre 2025 à 16:40

I can’t think of any country more disunited. So appropriately, it’s ruled or at least fronted by a master divider. The self-adoring psycho is enjoying every second.

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

MAGA Situation Report — Sep 08, 2025.

First off, I want to thank Ling Ding Dong for allowing me to come on here to counter, point by point, his endless bullshit. As a free subscriber to this asshole’s SubStack, I haven’t read most of his articles in full, but his name alone is enough of a clue. This motherfucker also lives in Communistic Vietnam, when he’s not panhandling in South Africa, India or Albania. He’s obviously too broke to travel to any First World or white country.

Rejected by America, he’s missing out on President Trump’s Golden Age. This explains his seething bitterness. This lost loser is too poor to fly back, not that we want him. Landing at Philadelphia International Airport, he’d be arrested within five seconds, then placed on the next flight to South Sudan, where he could mingle forever with other savages of color.

Just now, he’s gloating over the supposed collapse of Las Vegas. Foreign tourists are boycotting it, he claimed. Fact is, we don’t want Chinks, Japs, Gooks, Dotheads, Ragheads and Spics to ruin that beautiful city. Shit, man, we don’t need Frogs, Krauts and Puckheads either. Europeans are freeloaders and Canadians have stupidly refused to become our 51^st state. Shunning California, Florida, Arizona and Las Vegas, they’ll just freeze their nuts of.

More good news: Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, British Airways, Air Canada, Emirates and Qantas have all cut back flights to our beautiful country, thus making it even more gorgeous. Nothing is more breathtaking than empty streets with boarded up stores, such as we’ve seen for decades in Normal Rockwell type burgs across America. Soon enough, Las Vegas will look like Welch, West Virginia.

Having never flown, I didn’t even know there were more than ten airlines, but why, you ask, should we celebrate fewer British Airway flights? Doesn’t MAGA Land need many more white people? Each flight from London is packed with child raping dotheads, who the Brits call Asian groomers. No, thanks.

Any second now, Ling Ding Dong will announce Vietnam Airlines has stopped direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to San Francisco! Until a minute ago, I didn’t even know there were such outrages. Kenyan Obama must have greenlit that human trafficking pipeline!

Our country is already overrun by Viet Cong run nail salons and dogmeat pho joints. You can’t pay me to even sniff a fuckin’ bowl. What’s wrong with a $12 Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese Combo at some ghetto McDonald’s? Haven’t had one in a while, I must admit. We have a family of four. A hearty eater, my wife must have her $24 Classic Big Mac Pack. Two more bucks for a large Coke. Don’t even try to steal one of her fries. Can’t complain. More cushion for the pushin’, my daddy always said.

Having chased most of the yellow, brown and black tourists away, we must do a better job at keeping them out of our colleges. All the Chinese kids are spies anyway. With President Trump flipping off China for years, slitty eyed nerds are no longer so numerous at Ivy League schools, MIT or even Georgia Tech, so that’s a start. These schools have tried to replace them with Indians and even Nigerians, however. That’s seriously fucked up.

Since each Chinese student spent twice as much as an Indian, and thrice as a Nigerian, many more of these savages must be brought in to replace the Chinks!

Where are the white students?! There must be enough who can handle plasma physics, molecular biology, rapid prototyping, neuro science, ordinary differential equations, computational linear algebra, combinatorial analysis and advanced applied probability courses? I have no idea what any of those words means, not one! Gave me a fuckin’ headache just typing them. In 12^th grade, I did get a C- in geometry.

Under President Trump’s firm and erect leadership, this previously flaccid nation is finally ejaculating in the right direction. Don’t let pussies like Ling Ding Dong tell you otherwise. One last bit of good news: our corn, soybean and wheat farmers are all in deep shit. Thanks to ICE, their Spic laborers have disappeared, and those Chinks ain’t buying. This is fine, actually.

Like President Trump wisely pointed out, farm work is for black, brown and yellow peasants. Even fat face JD Vance knows this. Us whites have no business growing food or raising animals. With trillions flooding in from Trump’s tariffs, we can just cash our dividend checks.

Didn’t our greatest president ever say, “We’re going to become so rich, you’re not gonna know where to spend all that money. I’m telling you—just watch!”

Freezing my white ass off in a used RV after losing my fuckin’ farm founded by my great, great, great grandfather, a passenger on the Mayflower, I’m watching away, daddy!

Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (L): Coffee Seven on 8/25/25 ; (R): 9/4/25

Lovable Messes! — Sep 08, 2025.

Matthew Rossman is beyond nauseated by my Trump coverage. Having escaped North America, he doesn’t want to hear about that monster. A long time resident of Vietnam, Matthew worked for years in Saigon, and is now in Vung Tau. Typing at Cóc Cóc, I would see him ride by on his motorbike, sometimes with his teenaged daughter. I think she takes violin lessons, and is also in a badminton club.

Vietnamese kids in blue martial art uniforms are studying Vovinam. When still fighting in a boxing ring, MMA star Cung Le would use its signature scissor kick takedown.

Anyway, as a Canadian Matthew is especially disgusted by Trump. To spare him further pain, I will now talk about some Vung Tau characters. Since Matthew isn’t Vietnamese, his access to this culture must be limited. Though I’m not working in this economy, and can’t even ride a motorbike, I can dig out stories Matthew can’t. Plus, I’m a lurker. Even if I wasn’t a writer and photographer, I would still lurk.

For at least two weeks, Mrs. Seven has been obsessed with the K-pop singer Lisa. Since most YouTube videos on this Thai-born singer are in English, Mrs. Seven must sometimes ask me to translate a caption, such as, “Lisa’s sad and tearful moment back home.”

Seeing this 28-year-old chick crying on stage in Bangkok, I couldn’t help but blurt, “Look at her! She’s faking it!”

Wrong, wrong, wrong! Sixty-seven-year-old Mrs. Seven walked away, looking hurt. Her beloved Lisa can’t be a phony! Even her obviously fake nose must be real!

Other times, Mrs. Seven can be very tough. Yesterday, she decided one of her two dogs needed the hair around his asshole trimmed. Since Milk Cow had gone through this routine, he was cowering under a table. Holding her scissors, Mrs. Seven shouted for him to come out. As she clipped away, I observed, “You’re not even an inch from his balls! Click, click, click, click! He’s traumatized for life!” She thought it was hilarious.

I’ve already told you about Mrs. Seven cutting the tail off all her puppies and kittens, just after they’re born.

Just as important as hygiene is obedience. When her younger daughter was in the 12^th grade, she came home near midnight once, so was caned three times on her ass while lying face down in bed, sobbing. When her older daughter, already 21-years-old, came home in the morning after a night out, she was slapped, hard, three times at the door. When Mrs. Seven was told her husband was seen with some slut, she went looking for them with a barber’s razor. As an organist playing at restaurants and nightclubs where booze was served, he must have had many chances.

Telling me these stories, Mrs. Seven boasted, “I’ll knock you out, send you flying with a kick.” As a girl, she practiced her punches on her dad’s heavy bag. Even today, there’s a five-foot-long hard plastic pipe she keeps by the door, just in case there’s trouble.

This morning, Lisa was again mentioned. Mrs. Seven does concede K-pop stars are all sliced up and reconfigured, every single one of them but her Lisa. Like most people, she knows South Korea leads the world in plastic surgeries. To my surprise, she added, “But if you need to fix things down there, you must go to Thailand! They can cut if off and give you a hole. They can go the other way, too.”

“But it won’t work!” I retorted.

“Of course, it will work.”

I turned to Sơn the security guard, “How does Mrs. Seven know so much about this?”

He just grinned.

In five months, NaLi Beach’s lease will run out. Though Sơn could be assigned somewhere else, he will likely work for his son-in-law as a manager at a construction site. Sounds like a better gig. When Sơn showed up in Vung Tau in 1991, he didn’t even have a thousand đồng [three pennies]. His first job here was at a lumber mill. Though Sơn earned next to nothing, he somehow got married soon after to a woman not so destitute.

“How did you manage that, brother?”

“Technique,” he smiled.

“Did you hear that, Mrs. Seven?! Brother Sơn has technique!”

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t tried.”

In just six hours, I will see those two again, plus Nọng, of course. She’s always ecstatic to see me. Sometimes this bitch disappears into the kitchen, way in the back, to lie quietly in a dark hovel. Like everyone, she’s more complex than we can imagine, so preoccupied, each of us, with our laughable, or lovable, if you will, mess.

(L): Manila, 4/19/25 ; (R): Vung Tau, 9/4/25

Nation of United Races?! — Sep 09, 2025.

In late 2019, I showed up in Vung Tau to stay for a month, then disappeared for 2 1/2 years. From mid 2022 until now, I’ve spent two more years here, so I’ve had a chance to see Vung Tau change. There are many more itinerant sellers of lottery tickets and recent rural transplants wandering around peddling food or dirt cheap items. Most alarmingly, some beggars have reappeared. From 1975 to 2000, there were so many. During that span, I spent nearly three years in Vietnam, with trips to very remote areas of both north and south, so I saw these beggars. I’m not speaking from statistics.

Last night at Cóc Cóc, I gave money to a woman in her mid 40’s. There’s something off about her. The young barista sensed this too.

This is the seventh month of the lunar calendar. In Southeast Asia, it’s calculated from the year of Buddha’s death, so we’re in 2568. (Basically, I’m living 543 years ahead of you.) This is when dead souls are allowed by Yanluo Wang, the ruler of hell or just the afterlife, to return to their old haunts. Setting up altars with food offered to these spirits, many businesses also give food to the living. This attracts scammers. Mrs. Seven, for example, saw a woman who kept changing blouses and hats so she could return to the same charity line as a different person. Another woman she knew went all over Vung Tau to collect food, then bragged about how much she got. This goes against the spirit of neighbors helping neighbors or the truly destitute.

Last night’s beggar complained the bills I gave her were too old. Overhearing this, the young barista suggested I stop giving her money again.

“Have you seen her before?” I asked.

“Just once.”

“She’s weird, but who knows? Maybe she’s really hungry.”

At Cóc Cóc recently, some guy was caught on camera stealing its plastic plant pot. I can’t imagine it selling for more than 10,000 đồng, or 38 cents. This is enough, though, to buy sticky rice with mung beans, lotus seeds, peanuts, gấc or even pork floss. Six years ago in Dak Lak, I would get shit faced with three other guys on just 10,000 đồng’s worth of moonshine. No longer sipping socially, I can’t recommend any rice wine that may kill you for next to nothing, but you can certainly feel fine after work for five or six days on just two bucks, or just 10,000 đồng a day. Turn off your TV, then, and scour your neighborhood for plant or flower pots, even huge, ornate ones. What’s the worst that can happen? Running from bullets is great exercise. Ding dong ditching is for kids.

“You don’t know how bad it was 25 years ago. You weren’t even born!”

“I wasn’t, uncle.” She smiled.

“Look at these.” I then showed her five photos on my laptop. “Just look carefully at each.”

She stared at people, including children, sleeping on sidewalks. One image had a pantless boy standing next to a woman in a beatup wheelchair.

“Where do you think this is?” I asked.

“Africa?”

“Africa?! Look at them! They look like us.”

To many Vietnamese, a Cambodian is black enough, so he’s just black. Those images, though, were of Manila. Sleeping on sidewalks for months or even years would darken your skin, too, so the barista thought she was looking at Africa. Ignoring their hair, eyes and lips, she only saw skin color. For millennia, we were conditioned to detect the smallest differences, for life and death might depend on it. Even before he could open his mouth, we could tell he wasn’t from our tribe. Even today, many Vietnamese will insist they can differentiate, by sight alone, a Mekong Delta native from a Red River one. Genetics, climate, food, history and culture must leave clues, often obvious.

Working at least 360 days a year, the barista hasn’t traveled anywhere, so you can’t really blame her for confusing a Southeast Asian nation for Africa. Africans rarely show up in Vung Tau. If he’s tall and well dressed enough, most Vietnamese would just call him a Westerner, ông Tây.

As a child, I still heard the USA referred to as Hiệp Chủng Quốc. Derived from the Japanese 合衆国, it’s supposed to be a translation of United States, but 衆 is clearly mass or crowd. Hiệp Chủng Quốc or 合衆国, then, is literally United Crowd Nation.

Smart asses will point out that 衆 is really chúng, and not chủng, which means race and not mass. What we have then, is a Japanese mistranslation further mistranslated, at least colloquially, by the South Vietnamese, perhaps willfully. Dimwit South Vietnamese like me imagined the United States as the Nation of United Races.

Speaking of race and crowds, South Korea just beat the US in soccer by 2 to zero in metro New York. At MetLife Stadium, South Korean fans far outnumbered US fans. It was the visiting Orientals who had home field advantage. For decades, this has also been true of Mexico vs. US on American soil. Who cares, you say, but the world cares more about soccer than just about anything else!

Roger Bennett, “South Korea, Bong Junho, BTS, New Jeans just turned the US men’s national team into Bibimbap!” Just a decade ago, so many Korean references strung together would have been impossible. There is indeed a cultural shift.

This game came right after that ICE raid in Georgia where over 300 South Koreans were arrested. Even when foreigners bring jobs to Americans, they’re treated like enemies.

On the same day in the same city, Trump was loudly booed at the US Open tennis final, and this blustery clown is a New Yorker! This June, Trump was also booed at the Kennedy Center, the nation’s premier space for the performing arts. He’s also despised in LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and just about every other American city. His only remaining supporters are the farmers he’s bankrupting and depressed blue collar types who think wearing a red hat will transform their lives.

I can’t think of any country more disunited than this Nation of United Races. As its economy collapses further, this seething hatred between Americans so divided by race, national origin, class or favorite TV station can only get much worse. So appropriately, it’s ruled or at least fronted by a master divider. The self-adoring psycho is enjoying every second.

Such absolute self-love leaves no room for affection or just basic awareness of anything else. Nothing means anything unless it serves him immediately. Fortunately, madness so pure and public doesn’t plague every nation.

(L): Chuck Workman’s Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990) ; (R): Mickey Rourke as Charles Bukowski in Barbet Schroeder’s Barfly (1987)

Post Siesta Thoughts on Global Cultural Collapse — Sep 10, 2025.

In hot countries, taking a nap in the afternoon is most natural, as is getting much done early in the morning, even before dawn, when it’s coolest.

Finished with an article by 10AM, I walked around a bit, cooked, ate, washed dishes, gathered news, thought about this and that, then fell asleep. Getting up much later than usual, I didn’t leave my room again until past 5PM. Just getting dressed, I thought about Chuck Workman’s Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol and Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, a film based on Raymond Carver’s short stories. These flicks I saw in theaters more than three decades ago. For some reasons, they made me think of Barfly, a 1987 film about Charles Bukowski I never saw, and Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. I did catch that in 1985. Still in college, I had a classmate, a black girl, who was a Mishima freak. Another girl, a Canadian, turned me on to Andrei Tarkovsky.

Walking to Cóc Cóc, I thought about Nguyễn Huy Thiệp’s 1986 short story, “Tướng về hưu.” In my translation as “The Retired General,” it was published in the American Poetry Review, then Crossing The River. Twenty-three years after publication, this Curbstone book has but nine reviews on Amazon. A JD Vance sideway fart generates more critical attention, including PhD dissertations.

With increasing excitement, but also rage, I thought about the Tennessee Williams stories made into movies, and of his drunken interview with David Frost in 1974. Despite all its problems, hypocrisy and violence, that was America’s Golden Age. Those plopped into Biden’s wokedom then MAGA’s cesspool have no ideas.

As led by the USA, our global cultural collapse occurred over decades. Within 24 hours of arriving in Hanoi in 1995, I had a heated discussion with strangers about Nguyễn Huy Thiệp at a random café. Granted, most of them were only familiar with his fiction through film versions, just as Americans could watch Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Rose Tattoo (1955), Baby Doll (1956), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Summer and Smoke (1961), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) The Night of the Iguana (1964), and two versions of The Glass Menagerie (1950 and 1987). Now, most people would prefer a lethal injection over being stuck on a comfortable chair in an air conditioned room next to a tub of popcorn to endure over two hours of any film made from a serious work of literature. That’s infinitely worse than death by a thousand cuts!

Ashland, Oregon was famous for a Shakespeare Festival where MAGA types would pay to get their perfunctory dose of high culture. Once a lifetime ain’t so bad. It spared them from driving five hours to Portland just to sidestep Antifa freaks, either panhandling, bent over from heroin or dead from Fentanyl, lying weirdly on the sidewalk. Maybe those plays in incomprehensible English are still being staged? At least the costumes are cool. Getting fucked up beforehand also helps.

Before Warhol, there was Salvador Dali, but the Spaniard did paint. Warhol mass produced his art in studios he called, most tellingly, The Factory. Having assistants do most of his work allowed the artist to spend nearly all his time just looking cool. Warhol’s main task was self-promotion. With his magazine, Interview, Warhol also made money by turning whoever into superstars, at least for 15 minutes. Before dropping dead, Warhol lent lotsa shine to Jean Michel Basquiat. With his black face often white with coke, Basquiat actually died from smack at age 27. His Whitney retrospective in 1992 was mostly financed by Madonna! Basquiat was the last American artist to receive any sort of general recognition.

In fiction, Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho (1991) hit the big screen in 2000. By then, movie theaters were barely hanging on. Denis Johnson’s excellent 1992 collection of short stories, Jesus’ Son, hardly made a splash as a film in 1999.

I can’t claim to be a huge fan of Raymond Carver, but he’s heavily promoted when I was just learning to write, so I read pretty much all his stories. I even endured fiction by his pusher, Gordon Lish. When Short Cuts came out, I immediately went to the Theater of the Living Arts on South Street to see it. What struck me then was how all the female stars had to be frontally nude at some point, so porn was used to sell literature. Hollywood as a sexist whorehouse couldn’t have been more naked. Only in 2017, though, was serial rapist Harvey Weinstein arrested.

(L): Bùi Cường as Chí Phèo in Phạm Văn Khoa’s Làng Vũ Đại ngày ấy (1982) ; (R): Ken Ogata as Mishima in Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

Arriving at Cóc Cóc, I saw only one customer, a man in his 50’s I had talked to several times. Let’s call him Tuấn. After the army, Tuấn went to the Soviet Union to study, then work. This northerner has traveled a bit. Now he works at Vung Tau’s small airport. Helicopters to oil rigs and Côn Đảo take off from there.

Already frothed up, I started to rant about cultural collapse, including in Vietnam. I mentioned how in nearly three years in Vung Tau, I saw just one person with a serious book, a collection of Nam Cao short stories, how in Dak Lak, I quoted a Hồ Xuân Hương line, “Spread me to three points, there’s not enough skin,” only to have it not understood, much less recognized. It’s a vagina talking. I mentioned how a motorbike taxi guy had never heard of Nguyễn Du. He’s only Vietnam’s greatest poet, with schools and streets named after him all over. In Phnom Penh, there’s even a Nguyen Du Aesthetics Plastic Surgery Center.

Sitting outside the Walt Whitman house in Camden, NJ one July 4^th, I talked to a panhandler who claimed he did odd jobs for “Mr. Whitman.” His grave in the same city is nearly as forlorn as Ivana Trump’s.

Understanding me perfectly, Tuấn agreed something must be done. He mentioned how cultured Putin sounded when interviewed by Tucker Carlson. We laughed at Trump’s illiteracy.

We discussed the Philippines. “They have a slave mentality,” Tuấn actually said. Their English proficiency is actually a mark of this. Minalonan born Carlos Bulosan’s best known work is America is in the Heart, written in English. Manila native Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters is about Manila, but in English. Their national hero José Rizal’s Noli Me Tángere is in Spanish. F. Sionil José wrote in English but had a Manila bookstore with a Spanish name, Solidaridad.

Of course, there’s also a Saigon chump who wrote about his native city in English. Worse, he has four books with America in the title, but massa, I was airlifted to Guam as a chide. Growing up on your bountiful and beauteous plantation, I gorged on Shirley Temple, Leave it to Beaver, Donny and Mary, Happy Days and The Gong Show. I wrote a fan letter to Slick Watts. Please don’t whip me, massa, though I gone bad!

“You know, I used to sit at Ca Dao.” The name means folk poetry. “The music played is from Saigon before 1975, plus some songs from Hanoi before 1954. Over half of their songs, though, are American, so what’s being evoked here? Almost none of their customers can understand a word, so they’re in there only to relive American occupied Saigon! Most Saigonese at the time had no interest in American culture, however. Only bargirls listened to American music, because they had to. Yes, there were a few bands influenced by American music, but most people ignored it. Growing up in Saigon before 1975, I didn’t even know what a hot dog or a pizza was, I never ate fried chicken, and my dad wasn’t poor! No one wore a hoodie. That’s for a much cooler climate. It’s so hot here!”

As Tuấn’s eyes glazed over, I waved at the stores in front of us, “Look at the English!” Actually, it’s much worse further on Ba Cu. “Our kids make all these mistakes,” in Vietnamese, I meant, “and their vocabulary has shrunk! Whenever I’m in the library, I’m the only one in there!”

I did shut up long enough to hear Tuấn talk about the importance of national pride, with respect and love for one’s culture a key component.

“What Vung Tau needs,” I ranted on, “is for its writers, painters and musicians to be recognized by people living here, and for them to write, paint and sing about being here.”

Though Tuấn agreed, I suspect he doubted it could ever happen. We’re too far gone.

In days, my three Vietnamese books will arrive in the mail. Each has a print run of 200, more than I need, but 100 would have cost only slightly less.

Emailing Saigon poet Lý Đợi, I said, “I don’t see how I can give so many books away. Those boxes will go into my coffin then,” not that I’ll have a coffin.

We’re not too far gone. Since respect for one’s language, history and land, for one’s nation, in short, is essential for having a meaningful life, it must be cultivated continuously. If eroded over centuries or raped away overnight, it must be recovered.

The second half of this piece was written the morning after, at Coffee Seven. At 5:36AM, the sun is up. This morning, the sky has a pale pink tint. Across the street, Morning Star Kindergarten’s gate is open, but no kid has arrived. In an alley, someone is sweeping.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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Slices of Life, #10

Par : AHH — 19 septembre 2025 à 17:39

it’s all about sticking it to your political enemy even as your nation is imploded and you go bankrupt. Over a century of professional sports has conditioned the American mind for such fanaticism.

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Images of America’s Golden Age — Sep 06, 2025.

The Smithsonian or any other major museum should mount a monster exhibition to chronicle how Trump is depicted, by himself, his admirers and his detractors. Never before has anyone exerted so much energy in crafting his own image. This, in turn, has provoked a fierce backlash, so there’s a dizzying array of Trump images online. Being virtual, they’ll disappear unless printed out then preserved. A thick coffee table book would do, too.

The White House’s TikTok account’s images of Trump are weird and provocative enough. Standing at a podium next to an unguardedly smiling young woman, Trump with his puckering mouth and scanning, leering eyes doesn’t spell wholesomeness, I don’t think.

There’s Trump, in a McDonald’s uniform, waving from a drive through window, Trump in a hard hat at a construction site, Trump looking very serious, even menacing, from the passenger seat of a heavy truck. All these images are meant to convey how down to earth and close to the working man is this silver spooned lover of virgin flesh and gold leafed cherubim. Jackie Parker comments, “I voted for this. Trump 2028 [bookended by two flags].” So a third term is in order. Screw the Constitution! Clanker has Trump laughing over a red map of the USA, “PLACES WHERE TRUMP IS STILL YOUR PRESIDENT AFTER ALL OF YOUR PROTESTING.”

At Amazon, there are all these “WOKE TEARS” or “LIBERAL TEARS” mugs for sale, so it’s all about sticking it to your political enemy even as your nation is imploded and you go bankrupt. Over a century of professional sports has conditioned the American mind for such fanaticism. Nothing feels better than backing your team, especially when it’s winning.

For just $19.99, you can get your MAGA grandpa a tumbler with Trump’s face, plus this mess, “YOU ARE A REALLY, REALLY GREAT GRANDPA. THE BEST, REALLY TERRIFIC. JUST FANTASTIC. OTHER GRANDPAS? LOSERS! TOTAL DISASTERS, EVERYONE AGREES [three stars] YOU ARE THE BEST [three stars] BELIEVE ME.” Trump’s bombastic style spreads.

His praises are generic and disingenuous. His insults are more creative yet prepubescent. They’re not even juvenile. Trump is reshaping American English. Mocking Trump, Gavin Newsom is outtrumping Trump.

In 1858, Lincoln debated Stephen A. Douglas seven times. Each lasted about three hours, in front of crowds averaging 13 thousand people. Of course, there were no microphones, so manly voices had to carry. With no YouTube videos to rewatch later, everyone had to pay closest attention. In November of 2024, Trump mimicked giving a microphone holder a blow job as his fans laughed and cheered. He’s praised the size of Arnold Palmer’s penis. Even gayer than Obama, he’s obsessed with interior decorating.

Most comments at TikTok are intensely negative, with many accompanied by a computer generated image. One shows Trump, Weinstein, Epstein, Bill Cosby and Diddy on “Mount Rapemore.” Another has Trump as “The Lying King.” An X-ray of his head shows a minuscule brain. On that preposterous banner at the US Department of Labor with Trump’s “big beautiful face,” Epstein is added. Behind this Satanic child rapist, then, lurks his Jewish pimp.

Meant to hype the Trump cult, the White House’s TikTok account has become a survey of how much he’s despised. The Mount Rapemore response has 1,930 likes, more than any other on that thread.

With everything a joke, it’s often hard to detect irony, but perhaps there’s none in a “MAGA DYNASTY” image showing Vance, Rubio and Hegseth as presidents after Trump.

Billions across the globe are astounded that Trump’s approval rating is still at 41%, as of 9/6/25 according to The Economist, hardly a left wing or liberal bastion. It’s a damning indictment of the American brain. At TikTok, there’s a fine image of five MAGA cultists licking Trump’s boots as he stands on stage. Obscured by his legs is the US flag.

Before I had published my first poem, story or article, I posed as an art critic. I published reviews at the now defunct New Art Examiner, out of Chicago. I curated a show, Toys and Incense, at Philadelphia’s Moore College of Art. I was critic in residence at Art in General in New York City.

Sitting ugly in Vung Tau, I await that urgent call from the Smithsonian, so I can start assembling that blockbuster show of Trump images. After DC, it will travel to New York, LA, Paris, London, Rome, Tokyo, Shanghai and Sydney. Jostling crowds will laugh their nuts off.

(L): Madison Zhao ; (R): International Kid

Flexing Fools — Sep 05, 2025.

Yesterday, I ran into Dzuy, that habitual liar. I met him just days after moving into DC HomeStay in January of 2024. A housepainter, Dzuy told me was a retired highschool teacher. The girlfriend he was staying with, he introduced as his wife. Working in Germany, she comes back for a couple months each year.

When Dzuy told me he had just returned from Germany, I said bullshit! “Let’s go for a cup of coffee,” I suggested, “so you can tell me all about Germany.”

As we sat at this leafy sidewalk joint on Nguyễn Tri Phương, Dzuy couldn’t say anything.

“You must have taken some photos in Germany?”

“Many!”

“So show me a few.”

Cornered, Dzuy put his phone away. Months ago, he said he had visited Cambodia. When asked, Dzuy couldn’t even name that town or city. Always boasting, Dzuy claims women look for him because he can last over an hour. I know who you’re thinking of, but unlike that frantic chest thumper, Dzuy doesn’t have 500 bucks to his name, and he’s not stinking up each room with his loaded diaper.

Having claimed Trump as thinker is more influential in Vietnam than Confucius, Laozi and maybe even Buddha, I must clarify. Confucius stresses temperance in action and modesty in speech, so the exact opposite of Trump’s behavior. In the Orient as elsewhere, boasting has become so easy thanks to the internet, but there’s a twist. Nearly always, yellow flexers flaunt how ultra Western they’ve become. There’s no Confucianism, Taoism or Buddhism in any of this.

Consider, for example, just two famous Chinese influencers, Madison Zhao and International Kid. Their names alone say much. In appearance, too, they’re straining to be not Oriental. Madison’s hair, eyes, nose, lips and even skin are desperately Occidental, and she only wears the most expensive Western brands. International Kid is the same. To mostly swooning audiences, they crow nonstop.

Judge for yourself. Madison Zhao in a typical TikTok video:

Here’s a breakdown of all the money I made and spent in a day as a public company CEO and content creator. On this day, I started work at 8AM and worked for 16 hours. My hourly rate is $5,000 per hour, so I made $80,000 for my main job.

I mean, this is kind of ridiculous because I get paid the same rate even I work overtime, while everyone else in my company gets paid 1.5 times more. Can you believe that? But luckily, I made around $1.3 million from the stock market today, so it kind of offset my underpaid salary. Now, let’s talk about the money I made from my side hustles.

I made $719 from one video on TikTok and $1,587 from my course. My lunch was around $900 and my dinner was around $1,000 because that’s usually how much it costs when we dine out, even though it was the worst dinner I ever had in my life. Literally tastes like shit!

Then I went shopping and spent around $500,000 in the LV store. But here comes my biggest expense slash investment of the year. I ordered a $2.5 million Richard Mille Watch that only have 50 pieces in the world, but my shareholders paid for it, so the total for that was zero.

So I made $1,380,000 and I spent $502,000, which leaves me a positive $878,000 for the day.

Even worse, International Kid sounds like parody:

My name is Jay Ma, and I’m the richest international student at NYU. This is how we spend our break time between classes. I need to buy new gym clothes, so I went to shop on everyone’s favorite fitness brand, Celine.

I bought this nice track jacket, but they did not have the matching track pants in my size. Next, I need the new headphones, because the AirPod Max is too basic for me. How’s everybody supposed to know my music is more expensive than yours?

Snack time. I rent out the whole restaurant for me and my friend, to keep me as safe from the people with a low credit score, so I can enjoy a black caviar in peace. I go to Gentle Monster to buy new sunglasses, but there’s no time left to try them on, so I just asked them to ship it all to my penthouse at 432 Park Avenue.

Vung Tau, 9/4/25

At “my friend,” there’s a brief shot of a white girl. She never reappears. In Japan, there are host and hostess bars where fake boyfriends and girlfriends can be had. Fake families can also be rented in Japan. Having modernized much later, Chinese aren’t quite as lonely, but they’re catching up fast, I’m sure.

Last week, I sneaked into Salt Water in Vung Tau. Those preening girls I encountered were but silly hicks compared to Madison Zhao.

Of course, Vietnam also has internet flexers, including AI ones. E.M ƠI [roughly O.H. HONEY] promotes domestic fashion brand, Môi Điên [Crazy Lips]. From its English only website, “Môi Điên Studio was founded in the heart of Saigon, Vietnam in 2016 by Tom Trandt Minh Đạo—a Parsons graduate […]” Trần, or Chang in Chinese, is now vaguely Germanic. I’m sorry, but fick dich, Trandt!

Those who flex or worship flexers, then, are Trumpian in spirit. Luckily, most Vietnamese can only afford the cheapest T-shirts or pyjamas ridiculously emblazoned with Channel, Gucci or Dolce n Gabbana, etc.

Impotently, old heads mourn. This morning at Coffee Seven, I talked for the first time with an actual retired highschool teacher. We lamented the deterioration of our language, including comical misuses of common words. We also noticed the disappearance of eyes from boat prows and phoenix flowers from school yards. Also, fruit bearing trees are no longer planted at schools because wimpy, fried chicken fattened boys might fall climbing them. Hard to believe their forefathers defeated the Chinese, Mongols, French and Americans.

Boats needed eyes to scare away sea monsters, by the way. Viet fishermen also forbade all women, including their wives and daughters, from stepping on their vessels. With amusement, the teacher recalled when a famous actress, Thẩm Thúy Hằng, showed up in Vung Tau around 1960 for a photo shoot. Every local hick chased her from his boat, however.

“Some progress is necessary,” he concluded.

Soon enough, such appalling or amusing tales will be forgotten or whitewashed, here, there and everywhere.

Child Rape Privilege — Sep 06, 2025.

In 2008, a 76-year-old Saigon professor, Nguyễn Văn Ân, was put on trial for marrying a 15-year-old. Then as now, Vietnam’s age of marriage for a female is 18. Though this is often ignored among Highland tribes, this case occurred right in Vietnam’s biggest city. Of course, what made it sensational was their enormous age difference. Plus, the professor was fairly well known.

The old creep said he had taken her in a year earlier to be his housekeeper, and to keep him company. With her family so poor, this was also an act of charity, more or less. How could he be blamed if this peasant girl fell in love with such a towering Saigon intellectual who spoke several languages? It was she who suggested marriage, Ân claimed.

The girl’s mom had a different story. So destitute, she had agreed to sell her daughter to Ân for 50 million đồng, or less than $3,000, to be payable in two installments. After paying her 30 million, he returned the daughter, and refused to pay the rest, so he stiffed her, she declared with justifiable outrage. Both sides concurred this marriage was never consummated, since the professor’s crane no longer lifted, but what is sex, really?

Decades ago, I read Kawabata’s House of the Sleeping Beauties. In it, old men pay to sleep next to a drugged woman, so there’s no interaction. I don’t remember any description of fondling or molestation, though, you’d think, it has to happen. When the protagonist is assigned a different beauty on a visit, he balks by saying, “I’m not so promiscuous as that!” Something like that, I sold that book long ago.

With Ân so feeble, the court showed mercy by not jailing him, and the girl, it is said, betrayed no trauma. Returned to her village, she was training to be a makeup artist for brides.

This case reminded literate Vietnamese of Nguyễn Công Trứ (1778-1858). This poet, mandarin and general had 13 wives. The last was a 17-year-old he married at age 73. Clearly proud of this fact, he celebrated and even joked about it in a poem, “Marrying in Old Age.” Its best two lines:

Bride asks groom, How old are you?
Fifty years ago, I was just 23.

Its last line is still repeated in conversations, “The older the more pliable and long lasting!” Càng già càng dẻo càng dai! Most who do it has no idea it comes from this poem.

Like Ân’s bride, this unnamed 17-year-old had to be destitute, for why else would she want to be the 13^th wife of an old man?

Nguyễn Công Trứ died at age 80. Trump is 79. Melania is just 55, so 24 years younger. If alive, Trump’s first wife Ivana would be 76. Dead three years, she’s buried in a pitiful, minimal grave at a forgotten corner of Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, NJ. A typical Vietnamese peasant is interred with more dignity.

It’s horrible enough for any teenager to be in bed with someone old enough to be her grandfather. It’s much worse when she’s raped.

(R): Ivana Trump’s grave in Bedminster, NJ

Three weeks ago, I mentioned testimonies on 6/3/25 by Israeli girls raped and tortured by some of the most powerful men in that society, including members of the Knesset. On 9/3/25, victims of the Jewish pimp and blackmailer Jeffrey Epstein appeared in Washington DC to demand, finally, transparency into that evil network.

Though deeply involved, Trump declared this Epstein scandal was “a Democrat hoax that never ends.”

Victim Haley Robson countered, “It feels like you just want to explode inside because nobody again is understanding that this is a real situation. These women are real. We’re here in person.” This registered Republican has offered to meet Trump to hash everything out. I wouldn’t bet on it happening.

Another victim, Jena-Lisa Jones, said, “I’m a Republican. I voted for him. I voted for Trump. For him to say what he’s saying is beyond me. Because I put my hope in him, and he’s supposed to protect us. And for him to say that this is a joke…”

Victim Chauntae Davies, “Epstein surrounded himself, I’m sorry, with the most powerful leaders of our country and the world. He abused not only me but countless others, and everyone seemed to look away. The truth is, Epstein had a free pass. He bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president, Donald Trump. It was his biggest brag, actually.”

Everywhere throughout time, old men near death have fantasized about sleeping with beauties decades younger, but most don’t act on it, especially with force. When they do, there should be severe consequences. The more corrupt or Satanic a society, the more they can get away with this. Trump just might. Many have.

Trumpocalypse Now! — Sep 07, 2025.

Before, Mrs. Seven opened around 4AM, with her first customer, nearly always, Mr. Sơn the security guard at NaLi Beach. He rarely arrived before 4:30, however. Since she had wifi, I started to show up as early as 3:10AM. Sitting in the dark on her only bench, I would read the news, do some research and think about that day’s article.

Sniffing my scent, one of her two dogs, Nọng, would go berserk inside Mrs. Seven’s bedroom. Having no choice but to get up earlier, she now opens around 3:30AM, just to serve me a 38-cent glass of black coffee, plus free hot tea. Some days, though, I may not arrive at all.

Sitting in a lit up Coffee Seven, Nọng would look anxiously down Lê Ngọc Hân Street. Behind her display case with its cigarettes, soft drinks and talismans, Mrs. Seven also waits.

Though I didn’t disappoint Nọng or Mrs. Seven this morning, I couldn’t get anything started, so left early.

“I’m still so sleepy.”

“So go home and sleep!”

Moseying home, I passed a baby girl in the cheapest stroller. As I smiled at her, her grandma said, “Behave yourself or grandpa will yell at you!” This was said in a gentle, playful way. The baby simply stared at me.

“Who’s so pretty? Who’s so well behaved?” To not alarm her, I only touched her shoulder lightly. The Vietnamese adjective for well behaved is ngoan.

“She’s very ngoan,” the old lady said. “Now greet grandpa!”

A child greeting an old person should fold her arms and bow slightly. This gesture is called ạ. As a kid, I did this all the time. It’s rarely seen these days. So ngoan, this baby ạ me properly.

“So pretty! So well behaved!” Smiling, I walked away. I had never seen them before, and may never see them again.

(R): Vung Tau, 9/7/25

Turning left on Thủ Khoa Huân, I noticed a snail in the road, so picked him up to place under a tree. He would have been crushed within an hour or two. Since it was only 6:25AM, cocky bastard thought he was immortal. Just days earlier, I had run into another snail on the same street. If the same one, he’s dumber than me.

Resisting the French, Thủ Khoa Huân was exiled to Cayenne, French Guiana, where he spent five years. Released, he resumed his guerilla activities, so was finally decapitated in 1875 at age 45. Vietnamese history is filled with such fearless nationalists.

Before leaving Coffee Seven, I did have a quick chat with that retired highschool teacher.

“What do you make of this?” I asked while showing him a Truth Social post by Donald Trump.

It flaunts this draft dodger in shades and a black cavalry hat with its crossed sabers. Behind him is the Chicago skyline, five Vietnam era helicopters and flames, suggesting war. “I love the smell of deportations in the morning…” it says at the top, then “Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the department of WAR.” Three cartoony choppers serve as exclamations. “Chipocalypse Now,” it says at the bottom.

Few Vietnamese have seen Apocalypse Now. Those who have would have laughed hysterically at Coppola’s declaration, “My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.” Based on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and filmed in the Philippines, there’s no Vietnam in that flick, but don’t let any Vietnamese persuade you. Americans know best.

Though the retired teacher could read English, he couldn’t decipher any of the referents, so I had to explain, “There’s this famous film, Apocalypse Now. In it, there’s this famous line, ‘I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.’ It’s written by a Jew. Americans think it’s funny. Trump is using Vietnam War imagery to threaten an American city!”

We also talked briefly about Trump’s decision to kill 11 Venezuelan fishermen while claiming they’re drug traffickers. Nothing about it makes sense. Even if true, it’s illegal, but what do you expect from a child raping supporter of Jewish genocides?

Just now, Trump’s masked assholes also raided a Huyndai plant in Georgia. Most of those arrested were South Koreans. With short term visas, they only came to the USA to bring jobs to Americans, but whatever, man. Trump is pretty much at war against the entire world, including Americans. Even white tourists are staying away.

South Koreans are appalled at photos of their businessmen treated like gangbangers or drug dealers. Cheering MAGA cultists don’t realize their nation, under Trump, is committing suicide. They’ll find out soon enough.

Finishing this at Pato’s Bingsu, I’m surrounded by screaming children, running around. They’re just having a good time. At nearby Triangle Park, the ladies are dancing to upbeat music. The sights of people doing anything together always cheer me. Only those addicted to idiocy on tiny screens are depressing.

“Stop running around and stop screaming!” a woman says, but these kids can’t stop. Life is just too exciting. Of course it is, but only if you’re swimming in it. Knowing this, grandpa will now run outside.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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Slices of Life, #9

Par : AHH — 17 septembre 2025 à 20:02

I never thought I’d hobble into that sunset so limp.

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Nuisances and Genociders’ Last Gasp — Sep 02, 2025.

American Dale James West after his arrest in Da Nang on 8/27/25

In South Korea, American Ramsey Khalid Ismael, better known as Johnny Somali, has been stuck for a year, awaiting his conviction, after committing a series of crimes, including playing obscene audios near children at a theme park, fondling a Comfort Woman statue, disseminating an AI video of himself with a Korean woman whom he claimed was his girlfriend, terrorizing an old employee at a convenience store, on and on, for the guy’s a famous “nuisance streamer,” an American specialty.

In Manila, another American nuisance streamer, Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, has been jailed for five months. With the Filipino legal system moving quite leisurely, he won’t see a courtroom for a while. Like Somali, Vitaly can count on many years of free room and board in an exotic locale, not that he’ll see much. In dreams, they’ll return often to Florida and Arizona. Wearing their MAGA hats, it will be just like before, but suddenly, they’re fucked from behind by a new foreign friend. Before his arrest, Vitaly joked his asshole was ready. It will speak fluent Tagalog by the time he’s released. You’d think Somali is too ugly to demand much erotic attention behind bars, but he, too, will get his share of prison love. Lighter, humbler and grayer, each will stumble out to a much changed world.

For decades, Westerners have considered East Asia to be a place to find cheap, unusual fun, you know, like little brown fucking machines, even underaged. After fucking little girls in Cambodia, Glam rocker Gary Glitter showed up in Vung Tau, where he was finally arrested. His rented house is within a 20 minute walk of where I’m sitting.

An American sexpat living for decades in Chiangmai claimed he had never heard of “little brown fucking machines.” He also thought Trump was a great president. Perhaps “irritable farmer” or “western lands” is that innocent.

Not so innocent is Dale James West. Here’s Dân Trí on 8/31/25”

On the evening 8/26, Dale James West (29 years old, a foreign citizen), masked, wearing a Grab uniform and a helmet, attacked a security guard with an iron pipe then barged into PNJ store (455 Núi Thành, Đà Nẵng) to smash a glass case with a hammer to steal gold and diamond jewelry worth 833 đồng [$31,619].

After his crime, the suspect escaped on a motorbike. On the morning of 8/27, the police captured James, along with all the incriminating evidence.

It took less than 12 hours for Vietnamese cops to snag this American. If convicted, a near certainty, he’ll spend from 18 years to life in prison. Since that’s the standard penalty for such a violent crime, let’s hope the Vietnamese authorities won’t show any leniency just because he’s an American.

A video posted by the New York Post shows bystanders on a busy street trying to block his escape, but this tallish armed man proved too intimidating. Violent crimes are extremely rare in Vietnam. The Post also states he’s only 26 years old, and from California.

The West has long exported its degeneracy to the East. With economic collapse, this trend has only accelerated. Here’s news.com.au on 4/28/25:

A wannabe Aussie influencer has been slammed online after “desecrating” a grave in Aokigahara, also known as Japan’s suicide forest.

Sydney man Lochie Jones posted a clip earlier this month titled “Suicide Forest Japan Pt 2 Graveyard Flip”, showing himself entering a burial site on the outskirts of the notorious forest.

“So it looks like there’s a cemetery here with a whole bunch of dead people,” he told his camera.

After climbing into the cemetery he can be seen touching graves, saying: “I wonder how many of them died in the forest.”

He then approaches a headstone with a can of popular Japanese beer Kirin on top of it.

“Look at this guy,” he laughs.

“A whole can of Kirin. Should I drink it?”

“What do we reckon?,” he asks himself.

After setting his phone up against the headstone he decides to do a coin flip to “leave it up to chance.”

More insidious are “educators” like Mark Ashwill in Hanoi who spreads his globalist and woke ideology. Marxism itself is a Western poison still being detoxed by the East.

Nationalism has sustained Oriental nations for millennia. Just below it is Confucianism, then Buddhism, but mixed with assorted folk beliefs. Though Orientals have learned much from the West, they must stop looking towards it for standards.

At Coffee Seven where I’m sitting, there’s an octagonal Taoist mirror over the entrance, a money frog biting a coin, a small golden plate showing a Thai woman kneeling over two fish and a Japanese Maneki-neko cat waving in customers. Of course, Mrs. Seven can’t explain any of these, but her confusion is harmless. In her bedroom, there’s a crucifix and a photo of Father Trương Bửu Diệp. Her late husband was a Catholic. Though converted, she never attended church regularly, and hasn’t been in one in over a decade.

I used to be bothered by Vietnam’s cultural confusion, its mindless hodgepodge, but it’s exactly this ideological inconsistency that’s its saving grace. Vietnamese are too incoherent to be fanatical. I don’t suggest this would work anywhere else. I only think it’s fine for Vietnam.

Walking towards Coffee Seven in the dark, I paused to ask BlueTooth, “If you could live in another country forever, which would it be?”

Though I fully expected him to say USA or, much less likely, Australia or Canada, he answered, “Nowhere. I love it here!”

“Every interesting. You’re unusual! How about if you could spend two weeks in another country? Where would that be?”

“Nowhere. I love it here!”

Last time I heard that was in Lebanon. Ali, my regular driver, said he loved Lebanon too much to go anywhere. Even better was some guy Paul Theroux met in Sicily. When Theroux said he was a traveler, this guy declared that he, too, traveled, then he rattled off all the towns he’d visited. They were all in Sicily. Goofball had never even been to the Italian mainland.

After several delays, it appears my three thickish books in Vietnamese will be published, albeit privately. All I need are 50 copies of each, so some will survive, if only for a few years, my exit. It’s less vanity than the need to complete what I’ve started. After becoming a real homeboy, I’ll give a reading somewhere in Saigon, to a handful of people and, hopefully, two or three dogs, a dozen geckos and one attentive frog.

Ghosts all, we must strive to not be nuisances while barely alive.

Halo Evans

Cool Missiles Bursting in Air! — Sep 03, 2025.

Yesterday, Vietnam held a monstrous military parade in Hanoi. Watching bits of it on YouTube, I couldn’t help but think, What if just one of these impressive looking young men and women falls down? Worse, what if an AK toting soldier needs to use the bathroom? It wouldn’t do to perform a quick number two in front of the whole world, just as you’re passing a grandstand filled with big shots. Some old lady next to General Secretary Tô Lâm licked her lips rather obscenely. At least she didn’t fall asleep.

Off camera, even generals crap in their pants from a too-close explosion. War is all about being acutely aware of your animality, of how meatlike and shit filled you are. It’s anything but an inspiring display of unity made for television. In Beijing, there will be an even more asskicking parade today. Moscow just had one. Such military flexing is designed to steel pussified civilians for the escalation of war, no?

One glaring exception was Trump’s joke parade in DC. As the rest of the world hardens, Americans become self-mocking clowns, with the only tough guys those masked assholes in unmarked cars kidnapping busboys, gardeners, shoppers, grandmas and retarded schoolkids.

Just now, Mrs. Seven showed me a photo of her daughter in a national flag T-shirt, saluting. Behind her is a patriotic sign with soldiers. There’s also a video of about 12 young women, all employees of Shinhan Beauty, looking ready for a military parade, at least. They’d soil their panties at the first incoming.

Buying groceries at Lotte Supermarket, I was given a nylon flag with a plastic stem worth 19 cents. It’s sticking from my never watched TV.

It’s amazing this patriotic eruption across Vietnam, as shown on clothing, cars and at private businesses. To amuse Mrs. Seven, I shared with her a video of a cheeky and boobilicious American waving the Stars and Stripes, as the Star-Spangled Banner plays. Bitch means business.

With “the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,” war is, again, reduced to an inspiring spectacle. One can argue that this is absolutely necessary. Without such manipulation, nations are lost.

As Trump crows of how hot and rich the USA has become, we get entirely different accounts from ordinary Americans.

The Functional Melancholic’s “The United States of Collapse: The End of Empire” begins, “Have you noticed this feeling in the air? A lowgrade tension like the faint smell of smoke in a building where the fire alarm never quite goes off, or maybe the subtle smell of rot under the bed perfume. You walk down any major street in the US and you’ll see it in the eyes of the people pretending not to notice the growing tent cities pitched under the overpasses. And you’ll hear it in the way conversations have basically turned into shouting matches about whose version of the facts are true. You’ll taste it in the food that somehow costs twice as much while containing half as much food and even less nutrition. The roads crack your suspension. The bridges look like relics from civilization long gone. And it’s not just the cracks in the sidewalk, it’s the cracks in the soul.”

After 24 hours, it got over 2,250 comments, with nearly all offering their versions of how the US has collapsed. Also viral is a poem-like declaration from Halo Evans. I’ve inserted linebreaks:

I’m an American.
I pay $1,600 for a flat that has no bedroom.
That’s 2/3 of my income.

I’m an American.
I work 50 hours a week.
I don’t have health insurance.

I’m an American.
I couldn't afford to have a child
Even if I wanted to.
I’m $7,000 in debt.

I’m an American.
My health is declining because
I can’t afford Whole Foods, because
That’s too expensive for my life.
I am very overqualified for my job,
But no one else is hiring.

I’m an American.
I make my boss hundreds of thousands,
If not millions of dollars, while I can
Barely keep myself alive.

I’m an American.
I have never been out of the States.
I have never been on a vacation.

I’m an American.
I make 20 some dollars an hour.
A livable wage here is, like, 30 some. Yet,
I don’t qualify for government assistance
Whatsoever. On the days I don’t work,
I’m so tired I just sleep all day.

I’m an American.
My electric bill is so expensive,
I sit outside in the heat because
I can’t afford to turn the AC on
In the damned house.

I’m an American, and I fear
I’m just an average American.
I’m living the American dream.

Since her Instagram page is filled with self-adoring portraits of herself looking cute, one may wonder how depressed she really is, economically or psychologically? What’s really important is that millions of Americans are seeing themselves in Evan’s self portrait. They’re also overworked, broke and have never taken a vacation.

Unfortunately, it’s not just an image war. Trump just posted, “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.”

This lawless psycho is attacking another nation on false pretexts. Battered by so much madness daily, it’s nearly impossible to grasp how fast your society is imploding, especially when you must deliberate forever before buying a loaf of bread or a dozen eggs.

Phoenix in Flames at Haunted Hotel — Sep 03, 2025.

Having been a semi-regular at Coffee Seven for nearly a year, I had assumed until this morning Mrs. Seven lived alone with her two dogs. Whoever else I had seen coming out of her house I thought was a visiting relative. Now, I know she has a sister and a nephew living upstairs, but they never talk. Her sister was a heroin addict, bad enough to be jailed. Now, she just drinks herself stupid, as much as her tiny budget allows.

Her 38-year-old nephew was a gang member who was never sober. So messed up, he had a stroke nearly a decade ago, so is now bedridden and in a diaper. From the government, he receives 1.5 million [$57] a month, and his mom gets 500K [$19] to take care of him. Even in cheap Vietnam, such stipends are jokes, but luckily, the nephew gets an additional 3 million [$114] a month from his gang leader, the notorious Vũ Cách Mạng. Just typing his name made me tremble, I’m such a pussy. Sure hope I won’t run into Revolutionary Vũ any time soon!

“If you come by in the afternoon, you’ll catch my sister. She’ll be sitting right there, drinking beer.”

Sure sounds like my kind of gal, except I only drink black coffee, cappuccini, soursop smoothies and avocado smoothies these days. I never thought I’d hobble into that sunset so limp. Just three years ago, I could still knock them down for 12 hours straight while blathering about Nguyễn Huy Thiệp, Hồ Biểu Chánh, Max Beckmann and Walt Whitman. Now, I just look forlorn while scratching my deflated balls.

“I had this cat,” Mrs. Seven continued. “My sister was always complaining about it, then one day, she just picked it up, right in front of me, and rode away! I couldn’t react quick enough. She just tossed that cat somewhere! It still hurts me to think of how it must have starved and suffered.”

A chick that hard up for drinking money must have sold the cat to one of these “mini tiger” restaurants, I thought immediately, but said nothing. Though pets are generally safe in southern Vietnamese cities, you still have these drug addicts riding around at night, hoping to catch anything.

Also today, I found out her house is worth at least 300K in US Dollars. Four years ago, it could have been sold for half a million. Though so run down, it’s still very close to the ocean, in a city not far from Saigon. With five siblings, all proceeds must be divided by six, so Mrs. Seven has to get by on selling 38 cent black coffee to the least fashionable crowd. With condensed milk, it’s up to 57 cents! Everyone gets free hot tea.

This old broad never complains, however. Yes, there are hints of regrets, such as when she talks about being lusted over by all these foreign men, Taiwanese and Westerners, when she was a star dancer at the Palace Hotel. Since she couldn’t talk to these white guys, she had no idea if they were Russian, Polish, German or whatever. She’s mourning, just a bit, her lost youth.

Sitting at Cóc Cóc, I look up to see too many fat thighs riding by. Most Viets are still thin, though, which is great. Not so great is the replacement of newspapers, books and conversations by smart phones. Covid lockdowns heightened this addiction. Passing through nine countries during that hysteria, I was never quarantined. For 2 ½ years, I lived as normally as possible.

Bringing me my avocado smoothie, Nga is masked. Thảo the receptionist at DC HomeStay is also always masked. Both young, they’re already half dead. If you fear oxygen, you ain’t open to anything.

Done with this article, I will leisurely browse through 300 Years of Poetry About Ba Ria-Vung Tau. I’ve had this for a while. Every city in the world must have a similar anthology, and one for fiction, too. Though this leaves out some key poets, it’s still an invaluable document. Many eyes and souls have experienced these very streets, alleys and buildings.

Done with my reading, I will trek through Vung Tau for miles. Just five minutes away is the Victory Hotel, where Mrs. Seven’s dad worked as a chef. One of his creations was Phoenix in Flames. It was just some wok tossed chicken. Still looking fine on the outside, Victory smells bad, apparently, and might even be haunted. I don’t doubt Mrs. Seven’s dad is still in the kitchen, cooking away late into the night.

Wherever you are, there must be an infinity of stories to be dug up, to dig, dig, dig away! You’ll feel saner, for sure.

So Rich, Smart, Powerful and Ripe — Sep 04, 2025.

Influenced by China, Vietnam had imperial examinations. Any educated boy’s goal in life was to pass this exam so he can become a mandarin, thus gaining social status, wealth and the ability to help his entire family. Like China, Vietnam also had four social classes. From top to bottom were intellectuals, farmers, craftsmen then, finally, merchants. Though a shopkeeper may be much richer than, say, a medicine man, the latter was considered an intellectual, so technically held in higher esteem. If you’re a mandarin, however, you had everything.

To pass the imperial examination, one had to master classic Chinese literature. Mandarins, then, were super literary. This had its drawback. A bookish nerd may not make the best administrator. This glitch in the system bred a bureaucracy that couldn’t stand up to the West. It was also corrupt, since each mandarin’s extended family had to be taken care of.

Even after imperial examinations were abolished, dumb peasants still expected top officials to be intellectuals, so both Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, for example, posed as poets. So crude, Mao would say to his female underlings, “How were your bowel movements this morning?” He also said, “If you must fart, fart! If you must shit, shit!” That is Confucius wise, I must say. The sage did advise, “When you enter a room, raise your voice and lower your eyes,” so whoever is in there can stop masturbating or farting, I suppose. Gandhi was also very concerned with clean assholes, especially among his female followers.

These thoughts I have this morning because even in Vietnam, there are Trump worshipers. How can they not admire this wealthy chief mandarin of the world’s most powerful nation?

At Viet bookstores, there are translations of Trump’s The Art of the Deal, Think Big and Kick Ass: in Business and in Life, Never Give Up, How to Get Rich, Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate and Life, Trump 101: The Way to Success and Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich—And Why Most Don’t, the last co-written with another famed hustler, Robert Kiyosaki. There’s also Michael D’Antonio’s Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump has become Vietnam’s leading thinker! His wisdom is more valued here than Confucius’, Laozi’s and maybe even Buddha’s! Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough: How my Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man is also available, but only in English, so its readership is minuscule.

Countering this mass psychosis, I tell people, “Trump loves to fuck little girls. He’s a degenerate. There’s this Jewish guy who had an island where Trump, and other top Americans, went to fuck kids. With everything recorded, these politicians must do whatever they’re told by Jews. Other foreign leaders are also trapped this way. Let’s say you’re invited to some party in New York or Washington. They’ll have these girls there. Just leaning into one and you’re fucked! You don’t even need to fuck them. I have an American friend, a white guy, who attended these parties in NYC. He told me, ‘You don’t know how degenerate these guys are!’ His boss used to go to that Jewish guy’s island. When his name appeared in that guy’s black book, a friend of my friend emailed him, ‘Hey, your boss went to that fuckin’ island!’ Though my friend didn’t say anything, he got fired, but his boss also gave him six million bucks! Now, he just travels. In Bangkok, I asked my friend, ‘Did your boss fire you directly?’ ‘No, he had somebody do it,’ he answered. ‘How close were you to your boss?’ I then asked. ‘We fucked girls in the same room!’ he answered.”

Even now, there are millions of Americans who think Trump’s Epstein connection is fake news or an Obama plot. That’s how degenerate the US has become. Even most of those who are outraged don’t dare to call it a Jewish blackmail operation. Very few have spoken up.

On 9/3/25, Kevin Barrett reminded us “the media has studiously avoided the most important aspect of the Epstein story: That the disgraced pimp and his accomplices, starting with Maxwell, were Israeli spies tasked with blackmailing the American political and financial elite.”

This sinister setup enables genocides. Barrett, “Given that Trump is the most abject slave of Israel ever to occupy the Oval Office, and that Epstein (Trump’s best friend for ten years) was a Mossad blackmailer, the world has been practically invited to connect the dots: We are witnessing what historians will describe as the Jeffrey Epstein Genocide, in which the only power that can stop Netanyahu from exterminating hundreds of thousands of innocents—the American executive branch—refuses to do so because its chief officer has viciously raped teenage virgins in front of Israeli spy cameras.”

Vung Tau, 9/3/25

Complicity with Jewish crimes hasn’t just destroyed most Western nations morally but economically. Endless genocides are expensive. Angry white pussies who are terrified of doxing themselves deserve no less. Same with white nationalists who worship Jew sucking Trump. Outside the sinking West, dumbshits who swoon over Trump or devour his books don’t really matter. Ignoring that farcical white jester and all others, their leaders are coalescing.

Done at 6:29AM, I will get some breakfast then stroll towards the ocean. It’s delightful to see people exercising or just daydreaming. Though Trump’s immense stench has wafted to all corners of the world, it’s much less intense here. Pity if you’re not so lucky.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian’s Regular Press Conference on September 15, 2025

Par : amarynth — 16 septembre 2025 à 23:11

Xinhua News Agency: The U.S. has asked the G7 and NATO to impose additional tariffs on Chinese imports over China’s purchases of Russian oil to facilitate China’s effort in ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict. What is China’s comment?

Lin Jian: It is fully legitimate and lawful for China to carry out normal economic, trade and energy cooperation with all countries, including Russia. What the U.S. has done is a typical move of unilateralism, bullying and economic coercion. It seriously disrupts the international trade rules and threatens the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains. Facts have proven that coercion and pressure win no hearts and minds, still less will they solve anything.

China’s position on the Ukraine crisis is consistent and clear. Dialogue and negotiation is the only viable way out of the crisis. China has, since day one, held an objective and just position and promoted talks for peace.

China firmly opposes relevant party directing the issue at China and abusing illicit unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction against China. If China’s legitimate rights and interests are harmed, China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard our sovereignty, security and development interests.

China-Arab TV: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari pledged on Sunday stronger cooperation with China on defense production. The strikes in Qatar exposed problems of the U.S.’s security commitment. Will more countries consider and seek stronger connection with China on defense production and security cooperation as a way of international cooperation with more respect and different from the U.S.’s way?

Lin Jian: China advocates the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. We stand ready to work with all parties to jointly implement the Global Security Initiative, strengthen international security cooperation, uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, safeguard the international order based on international law, and build a world of lasting peace and universal security.

CCTV: During his recent visit to the U.S., Chiu Chui-Cheng, head of the Mainland Affairs Council of China’s Taiwan region, met with both Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. Congress and delivered a speech at the U.S. think tank the Heritage Foundation. Chiu said, “Mainland China has become the greatest threat to the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” and sought to play up the possibility of Taiwan being taken over by the Mainland by force. He also thanked the U.S. for the reaffirmation of its commitment to Taiwan. What is your comment?

Lin Jian: There is but one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. This is the true status quo regarding the Taiwan Strait. The greatest threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait comes from the separatist activities of “Taiwan independence” forces and the external connivance and support they receive. China firmly opposes any form of U.S.-Taiwan official interactions and military contacts, and firmly safeguards our nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We urge the U.S. to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, and stop sending wrong messages to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces. No matter how the DPP authorities peddle the “mainland threat” narrative, hype up tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and squander the taxpayers’ money in exchange for external support for their “independence” agenda, they cannot change the fact that both sides of the Strait belong to one and the same China. Still less can they stop the inevitability of China’s reunification.

Our message to Chiu Chui-Cheng and his kind: To hustle national interests for “Taiwan independence” brings only shame and contempt. Their attempts are doomed to fail.

AFP: According to some media reports, Chinese leader has invited his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to visit China this year, but the U.S. side has not responded due to disagreements over trade and fentanyl. Would the Foreign Ministry like to comment on this? Is a leader summit in China by the end of the year something the Chinese delegation in Madrid for the ongoing talks will raise with the U.S. side?

Lin Jian: China and the U.S. have open channels of communication. On your specific question, I have no information to share.

China News Service: It’s reported that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the U.S. stands with its Philippine ally in rejecting China’s destabilizing plans to establish a “national nature reserve” at Scarborough Reef. He said this is yet another coercive attempt to advance territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors. He called upon China to abide by the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal’s decision. What’s China’s comment?

Lin Jian: China made its position clear on that issue last week, and made a serious protest to the U.S. today over the wrongful remarks. Huangyan Dao has always been China’s territory. It is China’s sovereign right to create a national nature reserve for the island, which is legitimate, lawful, and beyond reproach.

With the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, the South China Sea has been generally stable. The U.S. is not a party to the South China Sea issue, but has repeatedly made irresponsible remarks, caused problems and meddled in the maritime issues between countries concerned. The U.S. has also brought in individual countries to sow discord and fear and disrupt the South China Sea which has otherwise been tranquil all along. The “arbitration” that you mentioned is nothing but a political farce orchestrated by the U.S. masqueraded as a legal process. The so-called “decision” is illegal, null and void, and is not binding. China does not accept or recognize it. Who’s committed to defending the international rule of law and a peaceful and stable South China Sea, and who’s been a disruptor and troublemaker? The answer is quite clear.

The U.S. should keep its hands off the South China Sea, the hands that have been the source of disinformation, tension and confrontation, and give the South China Sea its tranquility back. China will continue to work with ASEAN countries to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, actively move forward consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and jointly build the South China Sea into a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.

Reuters: U.S. Democrats have asked the Trump administration to press China to curb overproduction, saying any bilateral trade deal should include “binding requirements” on Beijing to reduce industrial overcapacity. This was seen in a letter from members of the House Select Committee on China. What is China’s response to this?

Lin Jian: We’ve stated more than once that the so-called “China’s overcapacity” narrative has no basis in fact or economic laws. It is just a false pretext for protectionism, and its real aim is to hold back China’s high-quality development. We firmly oppose it.

CCTV: It’s reported by the ROK media that ROK Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will visit China this week. Could the Foreign Ministry confirm that?

Lin Jian: At the invitation of Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, ROK Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will visit China on September 17.

The Paper: We noted that the opening ceremony of the 2025 Cybersecurity Week was held this morning in Kunming. What does China hope to achieve through the Cybersecurity Week and what’s China’s stance on dealing with the common challenge of cybersecurity?

Lin Jian: The nationwide events of Cybersecurity Week held annually in China aim to raise public awareness on cybersecurity, help internet users become more capable of ensuring online security, foster a healthy and positive environment in cyberspace, and promote global cybersecurity governance and cooperation.

Cybersecurity threats are the common challenge faced by all countries and upholding cybersecurity is the shared responsibility of the international community. China actively advocates a peaceful, safe and secure, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace. We are committed to promoting a community with a shared future in cyberspace, and will continue to work with the international community to jointly uphold cybersecurity, so that the internet can deliver more benefits to people from all countries.

AFP: On the U.S.-China trade talks in Madrid, is China considering the option of allowing ByteDance to sell its controlling stake in TikTok, something that the U.S. side has demanded before the app could be banned in the U.S. after Wednesday if there is no solution?

Lin Jian: China has stated its position on issues related to TikTok on multiple occasions.

Global Times: It’s reported that since August this year, under the excuse of cracking down on drug cartels in Latin America, the U.S. deployed warships and a nuclear-powered submarine to the Caribbean and waters off the coast of Venezuela. Venezuela recently said that a U.S. destroyer illegally intercepted, boarded and detained a Venezuelan fishing boat in the country’s EEZ. What’s China’s comment?

Lin Jian: Recently, in the name of combating drug trafficking, the U.S. has deployed forces in the waters of the Caribbean sea off Venezuela, and claimed to have sunk a Venezuelan vessel, shot dead sailors, and intercepted and detained a Venezuelan fishing boat, resulting in continued tensions in the region. The U.S.’s moves threaten regional peace and security, severely infringe upon other countries’ sovereignty, security and lawful rights and interests, and seriously violate international law.

China supports the effort of cracking down on transnational crimes through stronger international cooperation, opposes the unilateral abuse of force and is against external interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs under any pretext. We urge the U.S. to stop undermining countries’ safety of navigation and their freedoms and rights enjoyed under international law, and stop disrupting regional peace and stability under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.

Reuters: The American Institute in Taiwan said in a statement that mainland China intentionally mischaracterizes documents from the World War II era, including the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, and the Treaty of San Francisco, to try to support its campaign against Taiwan. They also said that Beijing’s narratives are “simply false, and none of these documents determined Taiwan’s ultimate political status.” What is the Foreign Ministry’s comment to this?

Lin Jian: The statement of relevant U.S. institution seeks to distort the facts and mislead the public. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this.

The restoration of Taiwan to China is an important part of the outcomes of WWII victory and post-war international order. A series of instruments with legal effect under international law, including the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, have all clearly affirmed China’s sovereignty over Taiwan. The question regarding the status of Taiwan has already been completely settled following the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1945. The so-called Treaty of San Francisco is a document that is illegal, null and void, and issued by the U.S. and some countries after WWII, excluding the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union, to seek a separate peace deal with Japan.

Let me stress that there is but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. This is an undeniable historical and legal fact, which no one or force can change. We urge the U.S. to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, and stop abetting and aiding “Taiwan independence” separatist forces in any form.

Beijing Daily: The China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) concluded in Beijing yesterday. Foreign media commented that over the past 13 years since its launch, CIFTIS has realized extraordinary transformation as China’s trade in services continued to grow. This year’s CIFTIS not only offers a window displaying global trade in services, but also highlights China’s dynamism of opening up and innovation influence in the global economic landscape, demonstrating China’s firm commitment to high-standard opening up. What is your comment?

Lin Jian: The China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which was launched 13 years ago, is an important platform provided by China for wider opening up, deeper cooperation and greater innovation. This year’s CIFTIS attracted close to 2,000 companies to exhibit on-site, over 20 percent of which are international companies, covering 26 countries and regions that are among the top 30 in terms of services trade, and displayed 198 new products and outcomes. As scientific and technological development and industrial transformation in the world accelerates, the annual CIFTIS effectively meets the urgent needs of countries for developing high-quality services trade.

Recently we also successfully held the World Smart Industry Expo 2025, the 25th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, and other expos and fairs, sending a clear message of China enhancing innovation cooperation and jointly responding to challenges with other countries. China will, as always, act as a promoter of economic globalization, a defender of the multilateral trading system, and a contributor to stable and unimpeded industrial and supply chains, share the long-term benefits of greater institutional opening up with other countries, and provide stability and new impetus for the world economy.

Reuters: A question about U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent’s comments that came out just now. About the trade talks happening in Madrid, he has said that China has come to them with a very aggressive ask and that the U.S. is not willing to sacrifice national security. Could we clarify what the aggressive ask is? And another point that he made is on the TikTok deal, he said that the talks are really close to resolving the issue. Can we confirm that?

Lin Jian: With regard to the trade talks between China and the U.S. in Madrid, I have no information to share at the moment. You may continue following the talks. On TikTok, China has stated its principled position on multiple occasions.

Ukrinform News Agency: U.S. President’s Special Envoy for Ukraine General Keith Kellogg, speaking at a security forum in Kyiv last Saturday, said that if China stopped supporting Russia, first of all economically, it would lead to a very quick end to Russian aggressive war against Ukraine. Would the Foreign Ministry like to comment on this?

Lin Jian: On the Ukraine crisis, China holds an objective and just position, and has worked actively to promote peace talks. Most countries, including the U.S. and those in Europe, continue to trade with Russia. The normal exchange and cooperation between Chinese and Russian companies are in line with WTO rules and market principles. They don’t target any third party and should not be interfered or affected.

Beijing Youth Daily: China held another successful China-Africa Youth Festival last week, which is the 9th consecutive edition of the event. Can you give us more details?

Lin Jian: The China-Africa Youth Festival is a flagship project for youth exchanges under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). With the joint support from both sides and active participation of youngsters, we’ve staged nine successful editions of the China-Africa Youth Festival. This year’s events were held in Beijing and Qinghai from September 8 to 13. A total of 59 young representatives from countries including African member countries of the FOCAC made field trips and attended exchange events to gain first-hand experience of the achievements in China’s modernization drive and an eco-friendly and culturally rich China where all ethnic groups co-exist in harmony and people live a better life. The experience has made participating youngsters more committed to China and Africa jointly pursuing modernization.

Cultural and people-to-people exchange is an important part of China-Africa cooperation in the new era. Such exchanges are conducive to deepening mutual understanding between Chinese and African people, and carrying forward traditional friendship between China and Africa. Through this year’s festival, China stands ready to further consolidate solidarity and friendship between Chinese and African youth and inject new impetus from the youngsters to the effort of building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.

AFP: Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum last week said that there will be talks with China this week about planned tariffs of up to 50 percent on Chinese goods. Does the Foreign Ministry have an update on those talks? When and where they will take place and who will take part?

Lin Jian: China advocates a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. We stand against all forms of unilateralism, protectionism and discriminatory and exclusionary measures. China firmly opposes moves taken under coercion to impose restrictions on China or hurt China’s legitimate rights and interests under whatever pretext. China will firmly defend its rights and interests in light of the developments of the situation.

China and Mexico are both important members of the Global South and our economic and trade cooperation is win-win in nature. China values its relations with Mexico and hopes that Mexico will work with China to jointly uphold a sound global trade environment.

Slices of orange Kirks

Par : AHH — 15 septembre 2025 à 21:25

musings on the ritual sacrifice of Captain Kirk … “.. rest now, Brother. We have the Watch and I’ll see you in Valhalla.”

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

Busan, South Korea, 3/30/20

World Leader in Political Violence — Sep 11, 2025.

On 9/5/25, so six days before he was shot, Charlie Kirk was the star speaker at Build Up Korea 2025. To a “USA! USA!” chanting crowd, Kirk boasted of having “brought Trump to victory.”

Then, “The phenomenon of young people, especially men, turning conservative is occurring simultaneously across multiple continents. It is not unique to the U.S., which is why it deserves more attention. That is why I chose South Korea as my first Asian destination.”

One day before, Trump’s masked goons arrested more than 300 South Koreans in Georgia, although none of them, as we’ve found out, were in the USA illegally. They came to bring jobs to Americans. Despite this outrage, Trump never apologized.

Eleven days before, the South Korean president was at the White House. By saying he looked forward to a Trump Tower in North Korea, he pleased the American moron immensely. Without irony, Lee Jae Myung also promised to help the USA build ships, in a program called “Make America Shipbuilding Great Again.” Let that sink in.

On 9/9/25 in Long Beach, more than 60 shipping containers fell off a cargo ship, Mississippi, into the ocean, for no apparent reasons. Even when American ships ain’t moving, shit happens.

Busan, SK: (L): 3/30/20 ; (R): 7/29/20

What they’re still proficient at is killing foreign fishermen. After the US Navy zapped 11 Venezuelans on 9/3/25, J.D. Vance tweeted, “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.” When Brian Krassenstein countered that “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime,” Vance snapped, “I don’t give a shit what you call it.” That has become the American political discourse at the highest level. Bitchy Trump leads the way. Gay men who act like that usually do so in jest. Trump is too stupid for camp.

Just hours after Kirk was assassinated, Trump delivered a four-minute speech. Though short enough, it was interrupted by several commercials at Trump’s Truth Social. Donald never wastes a chance to make a few extra bucks.

Trump calls Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth.” Never been, mind you! Any half-educated man should be able to write down at least a hundred names within four or five minutes without checking the internet.

Trump, “It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree, day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.” Such a self-portrait approaches Van Gogh’s!

Plus, America has long been a world leader in political violence. Under Trump, it’s unleashed on Palestinians, Lebanese and Iranians, most obviously, but also Ukranians and Russians. Despite his peace pose, Trump is still arming Zelensky. Unctuous, cosplaying grifters understand each other only too well.

After citing that fishy incident in Butler that sanctified him to MAGA morons, Trump mentioned “attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a health care executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.” Pointedly left out is an incident, just three months ago, that killed a Democratic legislator and her husband in Minnesota.

Shaky videos of what happened in Orem, Utah show the crowd scattering in panic. Interestingly, that didn’t happen in Butler. Instead, we have a video of photographers being ushered, or stage managed, to make sure everyone got great photos of the Jesus saved Trump.

(L): Belgrade, Serbia, 8/5/20 ; (R): Amman, Jordan, 7/15/25

As of this writing 18 hours later, no one has been caught or shot by FBI agents, and no ID has been dropped on the ground. Usually, the shooter or terrorist’s photos and bio are provided to the public within hours. His clear motive is then dissected by talking heads on every news program.

Alive, the frankly obnoxious Kirk hurt Trump even more than he helped. Dead, he’s become a saint while giving the Donald fresh ammunition to go after “the radical left,” which, in this child rapist’s mind, is anyone who opposes his anti-Constitution, anti-American, anti-humanity, anti-God and Jew sucking way.

Good job, Charlie Kirk, and congratulations to that professional sniper. One shot, one kill is still inferior to that Jewish slogan or practice, “One shot, two kills!”

Visiting the White House in 2023, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol sucked up to Biden and all Americans by singing “American Pie.” He’s now in jail for illegally imposing martial law. He may be put to death.

With a weaker democracy, dumber populace and even more corrupt establishment, Trump shows no fear.

Right now in Seoul, sane Koreans are protesting outside the US embassy. Only Trump sucking ones are still chanting, “USA! USA!”

(L): Pattaya, Thailand, 1/18/23 ; (R): Manila, Philippines, 4/18/25

Nasty Old Men — Sep 12, 2025.

Ông Tây, literally Mr. Westerner, can be applied to any foreigner, of whatever color. I myself have been called ông Tây, but not recently. In Hà Tiên, a remote city on the border of Cambodia, I was called thằng Tây just eight months ago, but only once in four days. Thinking I couldn’t understand her, the owner of a phở joint used that term, which is very rude, actually. Thằng is not mister.

This morning, I heard Mrs. Seven talk about a long-disappeared ông Tây. After watching her dance at the Palace Hotel, he invited her, through an interpreter, to dinner. Knowing what he was after, she showed up with two friends, including a male one. As the Westerner enjoyed steak frites, the Vietnamese went to town on an elaborate seafood hot pot and young chow fried rice. Though this Frenchman spoke English well, only one of the Vietnamese, the male one, could manage a few mangled phrases. Mrs. Seven just grinned, giggled and ate.

Amazingly, it wasn’t a one shot deal. This ông Tây invited her out again, and, again, she showed up with two friends. This patient ông Tây endured four such dinner dates. One afternoon, he showed up on a cyclo right outside her house. Mrs. Seven did wave and her dad did invite him inside. Awkward small talk ensued. That’s as close as this dude ever got inside her billowing pants.

Other ông Tây merely gazed at her, with a few asking for a souvenir photo. One handsome dude made sure she knew he was a pilot.

“What’s his nationality?”

“I think he’s American.” Her old face didn’t look convinced. I can’t imagine any US pilot hanging out in Vung Tau in the mid 90’s.

With mirth, Mrs. Seven told me about one mysterious Taiwanese.

“After a show, a Vietnamese asked four girls to come out again. ‘My boss would like to see you,’ he said, so we came out. One after another, the other three girls were sent away. The Taiwanese didn’t like them.”

“What was he like? Was he old?”

“There was a whole table of Taiwanese. I couldn’t really see.”

“But one guy chose?! That’s amazing.”

“He asked me to sing a song, but I wasn’t a singer. I said if he would come on stage, I’d dance with him.”

I had to laugh. “So did you dance?”

“No, he wouldn’t come on stage, so I danced with the interpreter!” The Taiwanese did tip well.

“He’s probably too old to dance! So you never saw his face?”

“No. Later, he offered me money to come to Saigon, but I said no. I told the interpreter I still had my parents here. The Taiwanese said it wasn’t a problem. He would take care of them, too.”

“Did he give you a figure?”

“Yes, thousands of dollars.”

“Just to lure you to Saigon! No one would have seen you again! You lucked out saying no. If he had to hide, something was seriously wrong. He wasn’t just old. This Taiwanese was probably missing an arm, a leg and half blind.”

“As long as he wasn’t blind down there.”

I’d never heard anyone put it that way. “I’m sure he was blind down there, too.” Then, “You know, I’ve been to Taiwan. Marrying a Taiwanese, these girls think they’ll live in some dazzling city, but many end up on the 6^th or 7^th floor of a dreary apartment building, in some depressing town, and they’re not just stuck with an old husband, but his parents, too. Suddenly, they end up taking care of three old people!”

Mrs. Seven told me about another ông Tây, this one married to a neighbor. “She didn’t go anywhere. He bought her a house, then she got another house on Trương Công Định.”

“He gave her enough money for two houses?!”

“Apparently. This second house she’s renting out. She has a son with him, but this boy looks entirely Vietnamese.”

“So that’s not his son!”

As a fan of Michael Jackson, Mrs. Seven isn’t sure about this. If a black man can have blonde haired, blue eyed children, why shouldn’t this ông Tây have a Vietnamese son?

“He loves this boy. He told his wife he’ll leave him a lot of money.”

“That’s fine, but that’s not his son.”

“She did have all these boyfriends, Vietnamese ones, and handsome, too.”

“So she wasn’t happy with this ông Tây.”

“Maybe his thing didn’t work.”

“He’s also the dumbest man ever. Are they still together?”

“I haven’t seen him in years.”

“Maybe she dumped him. She had extracted enough. How old is she?”

“She was born in 1979, so…”

As she fumbled with the calculator on her cellphone, I said, “She’s 46, so she’s getting up there. No more handsome boyfriends!”

In 2019, I met a 75-year-old Australian at Ned Kelly, an expat hangout by Front Beach. He had two children with a Vietnamese wife, whom he had met at a bar on his 10^th day here. At his house lived a man he claimed was his brother-in-law. What this man did for a living, the Aussie had no idea. What he was doing at home as we were talking, he also had no idea.

In Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” one waiter says to another, “And you? You have no fear of going home before your usual hour?” Impatient to get rid of an old drunk, the latter has said, “An old man is a nasty thing.” Reading those lines before I was 20, I was more amused than startled.

Before leaving Coffee Seven, I also talked to the retired highschool teacher. Like me, he thought every last detail about the Charlie Kirk assassination absurd. Same with Trump’s ear nick incident. Though only an ARVN reservist before 1975, he knows enough about rifles.

We laughed hard over all the bullshit. “You can’t get too upset,” he said. “There’s just so much bullshit.”

“There’s almost nothing but bullshit.”

Next time, I’ll show the ex-teacher that video of Trump tackling Vince McMahon. As an actor, he’s differently gifted from Obama, but both are outstanding.

Only $49.99 for a Charlie Kirk Yarmulke! — Sep 13, 2025.

Mass media began with the printing press, then came the telegraph, telephone, radio, television and internet. Information for exhausted, groggy and barely educated chumps delivered instantly across vast spaces has culminated, most gloriously, with Donald Trump’s Truth Social. It don’t get no better.

With each invention, there’s the promise, or hope, that the common man can, finally, arrive at knowledge directly, thus bypassing brainwashing from the Vatican, London or Washington, etc. The most powerful, though, will always deploy each tool or weapon more efficiently, deviously and ruthlessly than you.

After provoking and baiting Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor, which FDR had full foreknowledge of, this genial president declared on a 12/9/41 Fireside Chat:

My Fellow Americans:

The sudden criminal attacks perpetrated by the Japanese in the Pacific provide the climax of a decade of international immorality.

Powerful and resourceful gangsters have banded together to make war upon the whole human race. Their challenge has now been flung at the United States of America. The Japanese have treacherously violated the longstanding peace between us. Many American soldiers and sailors have been killed by enemy action. American ships have been sunk; American airplanes have been destroyed.

[…]

I can say with utmost confidence that no Americans today or a thousand years hence, need feel anything but pride in our patience and in our efforts through all the years toward achieving a peace in the Pacific which would be fair and honorable to every nation, large or small.

Even now, most Americans believe in the sneak attack and unprovoked fairy tale, as they do the six million Jews gassed for no reason by a diabolic Hitler, 9/11, the Bin Laden assassination, Putin as the new Hitler and Israel as a peaceful nation constantly hounded by deranged, terroristic Muslims.

FDR calling the Japanese “powerful and resourceful gangsters” is no different from Trump branding the Venezuelan President as head of a drug cartel, with even a $50 million reward for info leading to his arrest. Who’s the gangster here? FDR calling the Japanese “resourceful” after imposing an oil embargo on them is also ironic, but, as noted by Oscar Wilde, such shit always flies way above dumbshits’ heads.

After pointing out, just hours after his assassination, that Charlie Kirk serves Trump better in death than in life, and his assassin is almost certainly a pro, I received this email from one “Charles Burgess”:

I used to enjoy your humor and your frank descriptions of life in America. I guess we part ways now. Please stay in Vietnam. By the way, the Navy did not kill any Venezuelan “fishermen.” I worked in counter-narcotics in Latin America for years. The boat that was destroyed was filled with cocaine and piloted by Venezuelan narco scumbags. Clear as day. Fishing boats don’t have four high power Merc outboards, douchebag. One thing about Americans, we don’t lose too much sleep over such things.

Your despicable words about Charlies Kirk (I myself never paid much attention to him) turn my stomach. God how your fellow Vietnamese must hate you, such a total asshole. Fuck off.

You can’t sink a boat then claim it’s filled with cocaine and piloted by narco scumbags, or that it’s outfitted with powerful outboards, as if that proves anything. It’s clear as day, though, to this Charles Burgess.

Since there’s no evidence of anything, that boat might have carried condoms for Hamas or sex change kits for kindergarteners. It’s captained by a bulldyke mermaid with labia minora piercings and Michelle Obama’s Becoming in her back pocket.

Burgess’ email is just more proof of how idiotic and gullible Americans have become. There are millions like him who believe, in full, whatever bullshit they’re fed.

If this doofus was really a drug agent in Latin America for years, Uncle Sam had a recruiting problem. This has gotten much worse under Trump. The Donald is determined to hire only the dumbest and most incompetent for every government agency. He’s not just purposely destroying the American economy.

As Trump, his minions and Israel politically exploit the Kirk hit to the fullest, wise analyses are barely heard. Again, mass media serves powerful assholes best.

Though Kevin Barrett’s masterful “Charlie Kirk and the Cult of Human Sacrifice” will only be seen by a few, its existence is invaluable for future generations. Even if humanity continues on its trajectory towards ever more ghastly idiocy, there will be a few in a hundred years, we must hope, who can appreciate this passage:

It’s suggestively mythic, though perhaps coincidental, that Kirk was felled by a shot to the throat. JFK, too, was initially struck in the throat, shortly before his brains were blown out the back of his head. Ritual sacrifice victims are commonly killed by throat-cuts, which sometimes extend into complete beheadings. Symbolically, cutting the victim’s throat can send a message about silencing the victim—as, for example, when freemasons ritually slash the throat of a moser who has spilled unspeakable secrets.

I used to give Barrett shit for always saying Zionists instead of Jews. With Jewish crimes and genocidal mindset ever more naked, Barrett is no longer so Jew shy:

They have been conjuring up false or exaggerated images of outsiders (goyim) supposedly plotting to kill Jews, as an excuse for Jews to rise and kill the goyim first, for millennia. As I tire of repeating: The old joke that every Jewish holiday is the same—“they tried to kill us, we killed them first, let’s eat”—suggests that the “they tried to kill us” part is highly dubious. Pharaoh’s plot to kill every Jewish firstborn, Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews of Persia, Amalek’s nebulous designs on killing Jews, Hitler’s plot to throw all the Jews in gas chambers, the Kazakhstanis’ plot to throw the Jew down the well (recounted in The Book of Borat) and of course the Palestinians’ alleged effort to throw the Jews in the sea all fail to pass the smell test.

Just read it in full, man, and Laurent Guyenot’s “Who killed Charlie Kirk?”

Kirk went from a rabid defender of Jews to a doubter of some Jewish bullshit. To prevent Kirk from probing further, he had to be shot. Pat Tillman gave up a NFL career to fight in Afghanistan. When Tillman started to doubt 9/11 and the War on Terror, he, too, was shot. As an outspoken American in Ukraine who called total bullshit on the official narrative, Gonzalo Lira was tortured then killed.

As a barely heard voice in Morocco, Barrett is safe. That’s one benefit of being chased from the USA. There are so many others. I, too, know them well.

For occult reasons, I’ve sometimes been accused by psychotic Jews and others of being an anti Shemite. This can’t be true, for I’m wearing, right this second, a $49.99 Charlie Kirk Memorial Kippah.

Keep in mind an excellent lunch can be had in Vietnam for less than two bucks, but one shouldn’t fret over shekles when supporting genocidal Israel. You, too, must buy several of these humanistic hats. The Forward on 9/12/25:

Charlie Kirk’s face now adorns a yarmulke.

Almost immediately after the news that the conservative activist was shot during an event in Utah, pro-Israel voices prayed for him. Now, some are mourning him as a champion of Israel and, in the words of one Chabad rabbi, “the Abraham of our time.”

Joining the chorus is the clothing brand JDRIP, which is now taking preorders for a Charlie Kirk Memorial Kippah, selling at $49.99. The company says all the proceeds will be donated to “Jewish or pro-Israel causes, or those promoting free speech and debate in the United States.”

Just as with Jewjabs, they can’t resist making money from your destruction or even death.

Artistically Staged and Perfectly Executed — Sep 15, 2025.

Trump must be the greatest genius ever, with his most transcendent masterpiece, so far, the Charlie Kirk assassination. The timing is perfect. On the eve of 9/11, another Jewish hit on America, Trump’s most charismatic and best-looking supporter had to be shot right in the neck, a symbolic warning to those who dare to use their voice box to fling any shit in Israel’s direction. That it may have been a ricochet is even more spectacular. You know how hard it is to aim at Kirk’s body armor to have the bullet bounce right into his neck? One shot, one kill, there was neither hesitation nor doubt. Done, that geeky assassin just sashayed away most calmly.

How many MAGA deer hunting dorks are having transgender sex nightly in Mormon Utah, do you think? I’d say there might be just one in the entire world, and yet Trump, even senile and with a constantly loaded diaper, was able to locate Tyler Robinson! They must slither in the same circle, perhaps at some Salt Lake City MAGA crossdressing bar known only to initiates. Trump’s sexual taste would freak out the most drugged up Burner. A genital connoisseur, Trump appreciates Arnold Palmer’s impressive prick no less than prepubescent vaginas. He’s just artistic.

Conspiracy theorists are puzzling over Charlie Kirk’s father’s role in building Trump Tower, which is just three feet short of being 666 feet tall! I say we should look much closer at where Kirk was shot. From the air, those grassy tiers clearly formed a menorah, with Kirk sitting right where the Star of David would be. Such a configuration is rare enough. To have this “lion-hearted friend of Israel,” to quote Netanyahu, sacrificed so publicly right on it, on that exact day, no less, and by a MAGA lover of transgender sex, required almost supernatural coordination.

Robinson’s MAGA deer hunting background is red meat to liberals, progressives and Commies. His sexual dysphoria proves to conservatives leftists are just psychos at war with apple pies, Cracker Barrel and white grandmas rocking gently on porches hundreds of miles from murderers and rapists of color. Even there, though, they may not be safe, thanks to traitors like Tyler Robinson. Only a historical genius like Trump can dish up an assassin to enrage and satisfy everyone across the political spectrum.

Nutcases have pointed out that all photos of Robinson, purportedly going to or from his shooting position, show no rifle, yet one was found in the woods. Something that long couldn’t have been stuffed into his pants, and there was no time to disassemble it, only to assemble it again for Kash Patel’s FBI to find. Could photos of me or you just wandering around, minding our own business, last week or last year, be proof of our having shot anybody?

Let’s not sweat the details. Trump, “I am very proud of the FBI. Kash—and everyone else—they have done a great job.” Poetically inspired, Patel addressed Kirk, “I’ll see you in Valhalla!” Who says either one can squeeze sideways though some backdoor into any kind or heaven, but if child-raping Trump can make it, they certainly have a chance.

Delivering a televised speech about her husband’s death, Erika Kirk didn’t have one but two white baseball caps with 47 in gold displayed on a desk. What a way to thank a man who had, at the very least, exploited to the fullest Charlie’s assassination.

Trump doesn’t want people talking about Charlie Kirk. He wants them talking about HIM and his new Ballroom where people can watch him dance via TV and social media like they watch him play golf. Haven’t you noticed?
Life is all about HIM!

— The White Lady (@NephilimWatcher) September 12, 2025

Two days later, Trump was asked by a reporter, “Condolences on loss of your friend Charlie. How are you holding up?”

Trump, “I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the trucks. They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they’ve been trying to get for about 150 years. And it’s gonna be a beauty. It’ll be an absolutely magnificent structure.” That night, he was seen dancing with his hands at Yankee Stadium. The next day, he golfed, of course. With Kirk’s assassination so flawlessly executed, why not celebrate? When Trump won in 2024, Charlie Kirk sobbed.

It’s 7:23PM in Vung Tau. Today didn’t start out well. Waking up, I got a notice that my next self-published book at Amazon has been blocked, because of “a disappointing customer experience” after “a review of [my] catalog.” Makes no sense. Except for two dishonest reviews from “western lands,” a MAGA sexpat living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I’ve gotten a bunch of five star reviews, plus one four star one.

Without warnings or recourses, Kevin Barrett was demonetized at SubStack a while back, so people like him, me and a bunch of others can be crippled or disappeared at any time. Whatever, man.

My Vietnamese books, though, are definitely coming out. Though congested Saigon drives me nuts, it will be good to see some friendly, appreciative faces when I head down that way for a reading. Haven’t done that in a long time. Used to be paid to do so across the USA, plus Toronto, Paris, Berlin, Reykjavík, Tokyo and Singapore. The reading in London, I did for free.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks

New World Order

Par : AHH — 5 septembre 2025 à 20:35

Infantile clowns are mocked or shunned. As Trump dozed off somewhere, world leaders met in Tianjin.

with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.

New World Order — Sep 05, 2025.

On 6/16/25, the Hindustan Times reported, “US President Donald Trump was apparently seen dozing off during a military parade as he celebrated his 79th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the US Army.” Notice birthday before anniversary of army’s founding. Some guy named Washington, I think, was first Commander in Chief. Move over on Mount Rushmore, George, or better yet, Donald’s big beautiful face should just be chiseled right into yours.

Creaking tanks and soldiers strolling out of sync, with one grunt holding up a drone, couldn’t hold this bone spurred chicken hawk’s attention for too long. It’s still hurting him.

Trump’s buddy Kim Jung Un had his state TV report, “The capitalist pigs of America held a gaudy and vainglorious display of their dwindling military might this past weekend […] Their inferior leader, pictured here, looking old, confused and tired, sat next to an expensive prostitute and a drunk television host for the duration of the parade.”

Infantile clowns are mocked or shunned. The Telegraph on 8/26/25, “Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, has reportedly ignored four phone calls from Donald Trump amid escalating tariff tensions.”

Seven months into Trump’s second reign, the US is more despised and irrelevant than ever. As Trump dozed off somewhere, world leaders met in Tianjin. Modi’s first visit to China in seven years triggered this tantrum by Peter Navarro, “It is a shame to see Modi getting in bed with Xi Jinping and Putin. I’m not sure what he’s thinking.”

As Senior Counselor to the President for Trade and Manufacturing, Navarro has managed to reduce significantly both trade and manufacturing in the USA, so his face must be added, in miniature, to the back of Mount Rushmore?

The Guardian on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, “They stood together like old friends, heads thrown back in jovial laughter, clutching one another’s hands affectionately. Except this was no ordinary gathering of three men, but a meeting of three of the most powerful non-western leaders: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi.” With the West already so limp, that modifier “non-western” is superfluous.

Meanwhile in DC, rumors swirled that Trump was even more comatose. Appearing higher than Hunter Biden, Donald Junior had to tell News Max, “I called my father over the weekend to be like, ‘Hey, just want to make sure you’re not dead.’”

Following the Tianjin summit, there’s a monstrous military parade in Beijing, so China had four days to flex its muscles. India Global Today, “This is China displaying weapons, Russia showing resilience, North Korea showing loyalty and India showing independence. Together they projected an image that challenges decades of American dominance. So is this the moment where America loses its grip on world leadership and China takes its place as the new superpower?” Together they projected is correct.

Sidelined, Trump yelped at Xi, “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”

Xi, “The Chinese nation is a great nation that is never intimidated by any bullies and always values independence and forges ahead. In the past, when faced with critical struggles between good and evil, light and darkness, progress and reaction, the Chinese people rallied together to defy the enemy. They fought for the survival of the country, for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and for justice of the whole humanity. Today, humanity again has to choose between peace and war, dialogue and confrontation, win-win cooperation and zero-sum game. The Chinese people firmly stand on the right side of history and the progress of human civilization.”

Xi’s key point here is “survival of the country.” Like Putin, he’s a nationalist. Defense of national interests is how Xi and the Chinese Communist Party can maintain legitimacy and support from ordinary Chinese. His “justice of the whole humanity” is just an old timey Commie tic or flourish and, frankly, sounds too much like Uncle Sam at his most righteous and hypocritical. Indifferent to that, Chinese chests only swelled at this reassurance, “The Chinese nation is a great nation that is never intimidated by any bullies.”

How does one square the Chinese state’s manly display with Chinese freaks like Madison Zhao and International Kid? Western influenced pop culture must be countered by sober policies as directed by sane leaders. Xi, Putin and others are doing that. It is an ongoing battle.

In the US, however, you have blackmailed, avaricious, mendacious and cynical leaders who are warring against their own population. Confused, disunited and, yes, cowardly, Americans appear hopeless against an internal enemy most can’t even identify.

The only European nations that came to Beijing were Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary and Turkey. Serbia was bombed by NATO in 1999, Slovakia’s prime minister was nearly killed last year, Hungary’s Orban is often dubbed a Fascist (for being a nationalist) and Turkey’s Erdogan is just a weasel. As fringe Europeans, they’re actually in better shape than Germany, France or the UK, thanks to their nationalism and demographic coherence. Riots in Belgrade, likely instigated by the USA, is a real danger, though, as they are in Jakarta. Until it croaks, the Empire of Chaos is always busy.

Trump’s trade war is bankrupting American farmers, businesses and just ordinary consumers. With trade deficits against all nations, Uncle Sam has long been a deadbeat. If only he would just lie down, like Trump, and wheeze out with a dozen or so peaceful farts. With so many nukes, he won’t go quietly, though.

About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):

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AI is the New Empire

Par : AHH — 23 juillet 2025 à 13:49

Exploring the dystopian technofeudalism at heart of the western A.I. race

The unnamed book EMPIRE OF AI is mine, based on 300+ interviews, 7 yrs covering AI, & my time as the first reporter who got extensive access to OpenAI. I sought OpenAI’s perspective throughout. For months they said it was coming. It never did. Pre-order: https://t.co/i5rNJ45fNo. https://t.co/Drr8Gzv7vW pic.twitter.com/0aJpF9P26U

— Karen Hao (@_KarenHao) April 4, 2025

The A.I. Religious Cult: “Just like empires of the past were competing against one another, so are these tech giants. There was this aggressive race of we, the French Empire, are better than the British Empire. We, the British Empire, are better than the Dutch Empire.

And we need to continue to relentlessly race and be number one because we’re the ones that have the right civilizing mission to bring modernity and progress to all of humanity.

And where their missions might have once been about scientific exploration and transparency, they are now about profit, which has resulted in a landscape where they are just scaling at all costs.”

this is about controlling “the civilizational transformation” of the “one global village.” “Our collective attention is their Manifest Destiny.” From Maggie’s “there is no society” to now, “Culture is just what is Next on your phone — and that is A.I.”

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

“Superhumans” on the March

Par : AHH — 20 juillet 2025 à 16:08

What’s emerging in America is not a retreat from hegemony, but a reformatting of it.

By Artyom Lukin on Russia in Global Affairs.

[Ed.: this is a machine translation]

Where does the threat to the world come from, or Superhumans again on the march.

For half a thousand years, the West has been the dominant civilization in the world. Recently, this dominance has weakened, but has not completely disappeared. The West – and above all the United States of America as its core – is still the most powerful subject in world politics and economy. The colossal power of the West can be both a creative force and a source of existential threats to the rest of the world.

Today, in the West, primarily in the United States, a new ideology is being built, under certain circumstances no less dangerous than fascism and Nazism a hundred years ago. The second term of President Donald Trump could be a turning point when America will be under the control of ambiguous people and ideas.

The emerging ideology of the “new America” is still heterogeneous and represented by at least four key groups. The first is Trump himself and those his entourage, who professes views borrowed from the era of classical great-power imperialism and economic nationalism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The second is politicians and media figures, which can be attributed to right-wing populists. The third is Silicon Valley, committed to libertarian hypercapitalism and the cult of technology. Fourth, intellectuals who generate and promote the ideas of the “dark Enlightenment.”

If the views of the first two groups are not new to the American political landscape, then the last two are the phenomenon of the 21st century.

[1] Good old imperialism?

Trump’s ideology is in many ways a classic inconclusive imperialism on the “right of the strong.” Already in his inaugural speech, he openly declared the desire for territorial acquisitions: “The United States will again become a growing nation – increasing its wealth, expanding its territory, building its cities…”[1] Here, Trump speaks of America as an “exceptional nation” and “the greatest civilization in the history of mankind.” America’s geopolitical ambitions and exclusivity will be backed up by “the most powerful military force ever seen by the world.”

Claims to exclusivity, the desire for territorial expansion, military-force domination are essential signs of imperialism.

It is no coincidence that in the same inaugural speech, Trump approvingly mentions William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, presidents who have introduced the United States to the club of imperialist powers.

[2] Right-Populist Conservatism

This ideological faction includes figures such as Vice-President JD Vance, political strategist Steve Bannon and journalist Tucker Carlson. Their main slogan is America First. They act from the standpoint of the cultural and value traditionalism of the deep American people and the hostility to the liberal-cosmopolitan elite, which concentrates on the east and west coasts, position themselves as defenders of the working class, advocate tough economic protectionism for the revival of American industry, and in the sphere of foreign policy gravitate towards isolationism.

[3] Libertarian Techno-Capitalism

This trend of the new American ideology is represented by technillionaires – mainly immigrants from Silicon Valley. The most famous, of course, is Elon Musk, who from January to May 2025 served as head of the Department of Efficiency of the Government [DOGE] in the Trump administration. However, the level of publicity does not always correspond to the degree of political influence. The notorious venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (the creator of the first mass Internet browser Netscape) may have had an influence on the White House initially, being an unofficial adviser and helping Trump recruit to key posts. [2] Until recently, Andreessen was a supporter of the Democratic Party, but in 2024 he supported Trump – in part because Andreessen did not arrange the Biden administration’s course of tighter regulation of the crypto industry and artificial intelligence.

Andreessen, like Musk, advocates maximum freedom of business activity and minimize state interference in private business.

In 2023. Andreessen has published the Techno-optimistic Manifesto. The main idea is simple: scientific and technological progress is the greatest benefit and the key to solving the problems of mankind, but only free markets, coupled with the elimination of burdensome restrictions and barriers, will ensure the development of a high-tech economy. Andreessen advocates for “accelerationism” – the spurring of technological development, which should accelerate progress to unprecedented speeds. This is the literal way of the word “undisper” acceleration will be achieved through the synthesis of technological innovation and the capitalist economy (techno – capital machine), the term that Andreessen borrowed from the British philosopher Nick Land. Artificial Intelligence: “We believe that artificial intelligence is our alchemy, our Philosopher’s Stone… We believe that artificial intelligence should be approached as a universal solution to problems. [3]

However, in the optimistic picture drawn by Andreessen there are semantic nuances. With a clear reference to Frederick Nietzsche, whose name is mentioned in the manifesto in the list of the most respected Andreessen thinkers, the techno-billionaire sings the upcoming “technological supermen”: “We are not victims, we are the conquerors… We are the strongest predator on top of the food chain (apex predator).”

When Andreessen, talking about “technological superhumans”, uses a predator metaphor, is it not a typical Freud clause? At the top of the food chain, by definition, there can be only a few, the strongest predators, while the rest of the creatures have a different role. The Andreessen Manifesto contains a response to who is supposed to be the main predator: “We believe that America and its allies should be strong, not weak. We believe that the national power of liberal democracies is derived from their economic power (financial force), cultural power (soft power) and military power (hard force). Economic, cultural and military power stem from technological. Technologically powerful America is the power of good in a dangerous world. Technologically powerful liberal democracies guarantee freedom and peace. Technologically, weak liberal democracies are losing to their authoritarian rivals.

In the extensive list of “sacraments-patrons of techno-optimism” and Andreessen are Filippo Marinetti, the founder of futurism and one of the ideologues of Italian fascism. The last act of Marinetti was a voyage as part of the Italian expeditionary corps to the Eastern Front, where he was wounded near Stalingrad.

The most politically influential techno-billionaire is apparently the founder of Paypal Peter Thiel. It is probably not a mistake to call it the second most important ideologist of the “new America” after Trump himself. Although Thiel has never held official political posts, he is the key figure that unites Silicon Valley, intellectual right conservatism and Trump populism.

Thiel became the first of the most authoritative figures of Silicon Valley who openly supported Trump and became a donor to his presidential campaign back in 2016. However, Thiel’s most successful political investment was not Trump, but the current vice president (and, quite likely, the future president) J. D. Vance, for whom Thiel became a mentor and employer (Vance was at one time an employee of the Thiel Mithril Capital Investment Fund). Subsequently, Thiel donated $15 million to Vance’s election campaign in the U.S. Senate from Ohio and presented a young promising politician to Trump.

As befits a businessman, Thiel diversifies political investment. Simultaneously with Vance, he sponsored another young and promising politician (also his student and former employee) – Blake Masters, who was given $20 million for the Senate elections from Arizona (unlike Vance, Masters lost the election).

Thiel calls himself a Christian and often quotes the Bible, although he is an open homosexual (in 2017 he married in Vienna with his partner Matt Dunzesen, an investment banker). The techno-billionaire is known as a philosopher and thinker, being very widely read and himself being a prolific author of books and essays. Unlike Musk and Andreessen, who give away the expositions and memes designed for the public, Thiel’s target audience is an educated elite. He categorically quotes such difficult political philosophers as Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss, is a fan of the ideas of anthropologist René Girard. Thiel positions himself as a libertarian, but does not hide that he has long believed in liberal democracy, as well as in democracy at all: “I no longer think that freedom is compatible with democracy”. [4]

It is significant that Thiel compares today’s America with Germany on the eve of Hitler’s arrival:

“There are undoubted parallels between the United States of the 2020’s and Germany of the 1920’s in the sense that liberalism has exhausted itself. It can be argued that democracy … has exhausted itself and we will have to ask ourselves a number of questions that go very far beyond the window of Overton. [5]

Thiel’s Libertarianism did not prevent him from founding Palantir Technologies, which is engaged in developments in the field of artificial intelligence in the interests of the Pentagon and intelligence services. He also acts as a major investor in young billionaire Palmer Lucky Anduril Industries, who creates drones and other autonomous weapons systems.

Thiel believes that in recent decades, America has plunged into the abyss of degradation and stagnation. We need a leap to new heights and great goals. Like his billionaire counterparts from the valley, Thiel is convinced that the formulation and achievement of ambitious scientific and technological goals should be the main priority of society and the state. His personal favorite is transhumanism technologies associated with the improvement of the human body, the prolongation of life and, potentially, the achievement of immortality. One of Thiel’s current projects is the organization of the alternative “Enhanced Games”, where doping control will be weakened and athletes will allow the use of biohacking methods. One of the co-organizers of Enhanced Games is the son of President Donald Trump Jr.

Of all the billionaire libertarians close to the current government, it is Thiel who has the most articulated views on foreign policy. Its geopolitical concept is quite simple and boils down to the fact that the main external threat to the United States is China.

Unlike a friend and former business partner Elon Musk, who is considered a Pro-Chinese figure, Thiel is a supporter on Beijing’s firm deterrence policy, including by forming a broad anti-Chinese coalition led by Washington. The US should go for an economic divorce from China and put pressure on other countries so that they also minimize ties with Beijing. Thiel believes that the Trump supertariffs on Chinese goods are a step in the right direction. Back in November 2022, he declared: “I believe in free trade, I am not a supporter of tariffs, but I would make an exception for our major geopolitical and ideological rival.”[8] Thiel is one of the most synophobic figures in the highest echelon of the current ruling elite. He calls China “semi-fascist, semi-communist gerontocracy,” accusing Beijing of “nationalism,” “racism,” and “xenophobia. [9]

Thiel treats Russia without sympathy, but much more calmly – he does not see it as dangerous as China as a geopolitical adversary, but perhaps also because Russia is racially and culturally much closer to the West. Thiel believes that the West should not push Moscow into Beijing’s embrace.

Thiel has repeatedly spoken out in support of Israel, and Palantir Technologies supplies AI technology to the Israeli military. Chance or not, the Trump administration’s foreign policy is still almost identical with Thiel’s views.

[4] Theorists of the “Dark Enlightenment”

Finally, the fourth group of representatives of the new American ideology is the intellectual provocateurs that create narratives of the Dark Enlightenment. Also called the “neo-reactionary movement” (NRx), it is an intellectual and philosophical current that denies many ideals of classical Enlightenment, was formed in the late 2000’s – early 2010’s, mainly in the countries of the Anglosphere.

One of the fathers of the “dark Enlightenment” and the author of the term itself is the British philosopher and writer Nick Land, now living in Shanghai, mentioned in Andreessen. At the beginning of the academic career in the 1990s, Land, who then taught at the University of Warwick, held leftist views, but then swung sharply to the right. [10] Land believes in the onset of a singularity – a moment when artificial intelligence and other technologies will surpass a person and get out of control, which will mark the beginning of a “post-human” era. Land draws inspiration from the aesthetics of cyberpunk, predicting the arrival of hyper-capitalist techno-authoritarian systems that are controlled by technology and markets, not traditional politics. Such systems, in his view, are much more effective than classical liberalism and democracy. In the spirit of Techno-Social Darwinism, Land predicts the emergence of post-human beings, which, thanks to the merger with super-technologies, will dominate the new world.

Land rejects anthropocentrism, arguing that human values and morality are insignificant in the face of much larger and impersonal forces such as capital and technology. In his philosophy, humanity is nothing more than a temporary stage in a more significant evolutionary process that is driven by machine and economic systems.

Another intellectual father of the Dark Enlightenment is the American programmer and blogger Curtis Yarvin, also known under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug. Unlike Land, Yarvin is directly involved in the political process. He is friends with Thiel and is well acquainted with a number of politicians and officials from the Trump entourage. Yarvin is in favor of replacing a more effective political system in the form of an autocratic monarchy or a business corporation where the sole governing body has absolute powers. One idea is the creation of a system of numerous corporate-controlled sovereign entities (Patchwork), within which it will be possible to freely experiment with laws, rules and technologies.

Like most of the ideologues of the “new America”, in the sphere of foreign policy, Yarvin advocated the dismantling of the “liberal international order” that developed after 1945, where the United States played the role of a world police officer and a guarantor of security. Yarvin advocates the withdrawal of the United States even from Europe, although it is stipulated that Great Britain, being an Anglo-Saxon country, should remain under the protection of America.[11] Yarvin will have nothing against if, for example, Turkey and Greece begin to fight each other. This is exclusively their business, not America’s problem. Unlike his billionaire friend Thiel, Yarvin calmly and even with restrained admiration speaks of modern China.

Yarvin, whose Jewish ancestors emigrated from Odessa during the Russian Empire, holds an unorthodox view of World War II. In his opinion, Hitler did not thirst for world domination. He wanted “only” to recognize his domination in continental Europe by using European Jews as hostages for negotiations with the US and Britain. If Roosevelt had agreed to a deal with Hitler, the World War and the Holocaust, it might have been possible to avoid. [12]

Land, Yarvin and other “dark Enlightenment” intellectuals can, at first glance, seem much less significant figures compared to billionaires Musk and Thiel. But one of the main capitalists of Germany, Gustav Krupp, who supported Hitler, or the brilliant political philosopher and subsequently the chief lawyer of the Third Reich, Karl Schmitt (by the way, like to quote Yarvin and Thiel), who developed the theory of the “exceptional case” and later, by the way, by which in 1933 the Reichstag was adopted?

American hegemony – end or reformatting?

The emerging ideology of the “new America” is heterogeneous and it has different scenarios. It is not necessary that it materializes into something malignant, reminiscent of the Third Reich or the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. But in the ideas and meanings circulating today in America and other countries of the English sphere, there are many things that can not but alarm.

This is the desire for the cultivation of either “technological superhumans”, or “super-predators”, or “post-human beings” and rationalization proposals to delegate absolute power to the “single executive body”.

Although the ideologues of the “new America” are contemptuous of the liberal international order “rules” that for many years has been considered the sacred cow’s global hegemony of United States , this does not mean that they want to see America only one of the sovereign subjects of the multipolar world. American legions can be withdrawn from Europe, the Middle East or South Korea, but there will be more sophisticated and “technological” ways to control and dominate the bodies and souls. The main concept permeating the writings of Curtis Yarvin is “power”. Peter Thiel’s favorite book, a man who wants to live forever, is The Lord of the Rings.

Author: Artem Lukin, Professor of the Department of International Relations of the Eastern Institute of the Far Eastern Federal University.

[this is the RT (A.I.-abbreviated) version]

The ideology behind the ‘New America’ is more dangerous than it looks

The superhumans are coming – and so is the danger

By Artyom Lukin, an associate professor of international relations at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia

For the past 500 years, the West has reigned as the world’s dominant civilization. Though its grip has loosened in recent years, the West – especially the United States – remains the most powerful force in global politics and the international economy. This power, while capable of building plenty, also carries the potential to destroy a lot.

Today, a new ideology is taking shape in the West, particularly in the US. Under the right conditions, it could prove as dangerous to humanity as fascism and Nazism were in the last century. The reelection of Donald Trump may mark a decisive turning point, transferring power to people and ideas that are, at best, deeply ambiguous.

This ‘New America’ is not driven by a single worldview, but rather by a convergence of four ideological factions.

[1] The Imperial Restorationists

At the center stands Trump himself and his allies – throwbacks to the era of great-power imperialism. Trump’s inaugural speech to launch his second term left little doubt: He called for territorial expansion, industrial growth, and a resurgent military. America, he declared, is “the greatest civilization in the history of mankind.” He spoke approvingly of President William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, both architects of American imperialism.

The vision is unmistakable: American exceptionalism, enforced by military might and driven by the logic of conquest. It is the language of empire.

[2] The Nationalist Conservatives

Then there are the right-wing populists – figures like Vice President J.D. Vance, strategist Steve Bannon, and journalist Tucker Carlson. Their rallying cry is ‘America First’. They champion traditional values, claim to speak for the working class, and disdain the liberal elite concentrated in coastal cities.

They oppose globalism, support trade protectionism, and promote isolationism in foreign policy. This faction is not particularly new in American politics, but its influence has deepened, especially under Trump’s patronage.

[3-A] The Techno-Libertarian Billionaires

A newer – and perhaps more unsettling – element of America’s emerging ideology is represented by Silicon Valley billionaires. Elon Musk is the most visible figure, briefly heading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency in early 2025. But the more influential actor may be Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist and early internet pioneer who became an informal adviser to Trump.

Andreessen’s political turn followed his frustration with Biden-era regulations on crypto and artificial intelligence. In 2023, he published a manifesto called ‘The Techno-Optimist’, a document that preaches unrestrained technological acceleration. In his view, scientific innovation and free markets can solve all of humanity’s problems – if only government gets out of the way.

Andreessen quotes Nietzsche and invokes the image of the ‘apex predator’ – a new breed of technological superman who sits atop the food chain. He writes, “We are not victims, we are conquerors… the strongest predator at the top of the food chain.”

Such language might seem metaphorical, but it is revealing. Andreessen’s list of intellectual inspirations includes Filippo Marinetti, the Futurist who helped lay the aesthetic groundwork for Italian fascism and died fighting the Red Army at Stalingrad.

[3-B] The Philosopher-Kingmaker

The most intellectually developed thinker of the techno-libertarian camp is Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and the data surveillance firm Palantir Technologies. Thiel is no longer a marginal figure – he is now arguably the second most important ideologue of the New America, after Trump himself.

Thiel is also a master strategist. He personally mentored and funded Vance, now vice president and possibly Trump’s heir apparent. At the same time, he backed Blake Masters in Arizona, although that bet didn’t pay off. Thiel reads the Bible, quotes Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss, and speaks openly about the limits of democracy. “Freedom is no longer compatible with democracy,” he has said.

He has compared modern America to Weimar Germany, arguing that liberalism is exhausted, and a new system must rise. Despite his libertarian leanings, Thiel’s companies develop AI tools for the Pentagon and fund next-generation weapons systems through firms like Anduril.

Thiel believes that America has entered a long decline – and that radical technological leaps are needed to reverse it. One of his pet projects is the ‘Enhanced Games’, a competition where doping and biohacking are allowed. Co-organized with Donald Trump Jr., the event reflects Thiel’s obsession with transhumanism and human enhancement.

In foreign policy, Thiel views China as America’s primary enemy. He has called it a “semi-fascist, semi-communist gerontocracy” and pushed for complete economic decoupling. Interestingly, Thiel is far less hostile to Russia, which he sees as culturally closer to the West. In his view, pushing Moscow into Beijing’s arms is a strategic mistake.

[4] The Dark Enlightenment

The final group behind the New America are the theorists of the ‘Dark Enlightenment’, or neo-reactionary movement. These intellectual provocateurs reject the Enlightenment values that once defined the West.

Nick Land, a British philosopher living in Shanghai, is among the founding thinkers of this school. He predicts the end of humanity as we know it and the rise of posthuman, techno-authoritarian systems governed by capital and machines. For Land, morality is irrelevant; what matters is efficiency, evolution, and raw power.

Curtis Yarvin (aka Mencius Moldbug), an American programmer, is another central figure. A friend of Thiel and an insider in Trump’s intellectual circle, Yarvin advocates replacing democracy with a corporate-style monarchy. He imagines a future of sovereign city-states run like companies, where experimentation with laws and technologies is unrestricted.

Yarvin is clear in his rejection of American global leadership. He believes the US should withdraw from Europe and let regional powers settle their own disputes. He speaks warmly of China, and his views on World War II are unorthodox to say the least – suggesting Hitler was motivated by strategic calculation rather than genocidal ambition.

Curtis Yarvin

What comes next?

Many of these ideas may seem fringe. But fringe ideas have power – especially when they echo through the corridors of political and technological influence. Carl Schmitt’s legal theories enabled Hitler to seize dictatorial powers in 1933. Today, the intellectual allies of Trump and Thiel are crafting their own narratives of ‘emergency’, ‘decadence’, and ‘reawakening’.

What’s emerging in America is not a retreat from hegemony, but a reformatting of it. The liberal international order is no longer seen as sacred – even by the country that built it. The new American elite may be withdrawing troops from Europe, the Middle East, and Korea, but their ambitions have not shrunk. They are turning instead to subtler methods of control: AI, cyber dominance, ideological warfare, and technological superiority.

Their goal is not a multipolar world, but a redesigned unipolar one – run not by diplomats and treaties, but by algorithms, monopolies, and machines.

The threat to the world is not just political anymore. It is civilizational. The superhumans are on the march.

This article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs, translated and edited by the RT team

Anglo-Zionist Savagery is Relentless

Par : AHH — 18 juillet 2025 à 03:31

Leader of Ansar Allah, Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, on the developments of the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the latest regional and international updates – 22 Muharram 1447 AH, July 17, 2025:

The Israeli enemy continues the genocide against the Palestinian people and seeks to accumulate its criminal record.

The Israeli enemy persists in the comprehensive destruction and total uprooting of cities and residential neighborhoods, cutting off the Gaza Strip and demolishing all elements of life.
The genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is a clear objective of the Israeli enemy, and its daily criminal behavior reveals this truth.
The genocide is a joint Israeli-American goal, and the criminal practices affect the entire society in Gaza.
The Israeli enemy has annihilated entire families, erasing them from civil registries, and the birth rate this year has dropped by 41% compared to the previous year.
The overall population in the Gaza Strip has decreased by 10%, which is a very serious result that reveals the extent of Israeli atrocities.

The Israeli enemy is using American bombs intensively, perhaps even more than firing bullets, and the Americans supply them in continuous shipments.

The significant momentum in American support for these bombs and other military equipment, as well as the daily bombings, relies on substantial funding.
It is very unfortunate that Arab funds are among the main sources of financing for bombs when they go to the Americans in trillions under the title of investments.
For Arab money to be a key contributor and one of the most important sources of funding for the killing of the Palestinian people is a very dangerous participation in shedding Palestinian blood.

The aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza is almost an American aggression before it is Israeli, with the Israeli role being that of execution.

America provides open support and participates in planning and intelligence, as well as supplying military equipment under a clear political cover.
The American position in the Security Council yesterday confirmed the continuation of support for the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.
One form of American support for the Israeli enemy is pressuring many countries to remain silent or even to provide various types of support to the Israeli enemy.
The genocide against the Palestinian people and what happened in Lebanon and other Arab countries, including Syria, was with American participation.
The American role is not merely a matter of the harsh character of an American president or a temporary or tactical action.
Everything the Israeli enemy does is adopted, supported, and shared by the Americans.

The Americans endorse everything the Israeli enemy does and support and share it because they both operate based on the belief in the Zionist agenda.

The Americans and Israelis operate based on the literature of the Zionist plan and its aggressive ideas and visions toward the nation.
The Americans and Israelis are working to confiscate the freedom of the nation, its independence, its sacred sites, to erase its identity, and to occupy its lands.

The view towards the Americans should be based on insight and awareness grounded in the Holy Quran and clear, established facts.

The American behavior is aggressive to the extent of fully endorsing what the Israeli enemy does, providing all forms of support and participation.
The true and ongoing American approach towards the nation has been aggressive at a strategic level, not merely tactical.
The American position stems from a clear and declared belief in the Zionist ideology, and they operate on the basis of implementing the Zionist agenda.

The prevailing attitude among Arab and Islamic regimes, as well as in most media outlets, is to present the Americans in a different light, as if there is still hope for them to change their position.

Some people bet on the possibility that the American stance may change in favor of the nation, thus leading them to resort to the Americans and lean into their embrace.
If the criminal and aggressive American behavior is not clear enough to understand the nature of its approach and the basis of that approach, that is indeed very unfortunate.
Failing to recognize the truths about the Americans and the real backgrounds of their position towards the nation signifies a severe confusion and extreme ignorance.
The ambiguity in categorizing the enemy as a friend in matters that are crystal clear is a foolishness that has very dangerous and devastating consequences for many in the nation.

The Israelis and Americans have no regard for human life, which, in their view, is permissible for the sake of desire or interest.

The indifference of peoples and nations to what the Israelis and Americans are doing is a disregard for human life and a bankruptcy of values and human emotions.
If a person reaches a point where the crimes committed by the Israeli enemy do not move their feelings, it means they have lost their human value.
Human value lies in what God has bestowed upon humanity in their nature, including values, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and the ability to distinguish between good and evil.
Anyone who accepts what the Israeli enemy, with American partnership, is doing against the Palestinian people is consenting to the dominance of criminal behavior in our region.

The Israeli enemy targets Gaza’s inhabitants by depriving them of water and turns the issue of obtaining drinking water into an adventure.

The Israeli enemy prevents the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip, which the Palestinian people need to provide drinking water, operate wells, and run hospitals.
The Israeli enemy continues all means of extermination and killing.
The Israeli enemy keeps cutting off the Gaza Strip, and this week it opened a new front and a path that separates the eastern part of Khan Younis from the western part.
The Israeli enemy continues to sever the region and separate one area from another while continuously destroying and leveling land.
The Israeli enemy has even brought in contractors to complete the demolition of what remains of buildings and homes, while the Americans continuously supply them with shipments of bulldozers.

The policy of pushing towards loyalty to the American side and relying on it leads to significant distortions in orientations, morals, and values at the expense of the principles of Islam.

One of the most atrocious and foolish forms of ignorance is to turn a blind eye to clear facts, as is the case with American aggression.
Engineering hunger and traps of extermination are aggressive activities, but under American and Israeli terminology, they are labeled as humanitarian activities.
The staggering numbers of martyrs, wounded, and missing persons in the Gaza Strip exceed 200,000 human beings over the course of 643 days.
The scene of Israeli aggression in Gaza is unparalleled and represents the most severe forms of injustice.

Many of the people of our Islamic Ummah, more than other nations, behave as if they are deaf, dumb, and blind to what is happening in the Gaza Strip.

The condition of the Ummah regarding what is happening in Gaza reflects a death of consciences and human feelings, as well as a loss of values, morals, and faith.
What the Israeli enemy is doing in Gaza — completely violating human lives — is a crime against the human community.
The Jews are excessive even in shedding blood, and the world sees them without restraint; they do not adhere to any controls or respect international law established by the West.
The Jews do not give any regard to the United Nations charters that recognized them, which is one of its greatest crimes.
The Israeli enemy denies the sacred law, values, ethics, and customs, and does not adhere to any of the moral values or regulatory frameworks.

How to fact-check Techno-Feudalism?

Par : AHH — 10 juin 2025 à 21:45

There are auspicious signs on the other side of dystopia. And right here in Russia.

By Pepe Escobar at the Strategic Culture Foundation.

The Global Digital Forum last week in delightful Nizhny Novgorod represented a landmark in the quest for a more equitable media landscape across the whole Global South.

Pride of place was taken by a new ambitious association, the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN). The last session of the forum was focused essentially on how to fight all the toxic declinations imposed by the post-truth anti-cultural ambiance – as in fact-checking an avalanche of fake news coming in most cases from states and official institutions.

Guest of honor was superstar Russian Foreign Minister spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, relaxed, in great spirits, who went full Deng Xiaoping by urging everyone to “fight for the truth and seek out the facts”.

By a twist of fate, the timeline left me with only two minutes to somehow wrap up our quite enlightening discussion. So I went hardcore and quoted Nietzsche: “There are no facts, only interpretations”. Later on, I was surprised at how that had struck a nerve especially among African delegates.

The key point is that in the artificially fabricated post-truth environment, not only facts are only facts if we say so; most of all, only one interpretation is allowed – be it from the Empire of Chaos, whoever may be in power, or from a Kafkaesque mechanism such as the European Union (EU)/European Commission (EC).

If you deviate from the official interpretation, they will come after you. That has led, for instance, in Europe, to journalists/EU citizens being prevented even from traveling to their own nation-states, and having their accounts frozen, or EU citizens being prevented from covering a supposedly democratic election (in Romania), and immediately deported (outside of the EU).

A startling essay on Nietzsche amplifies the diagnostic of Europe’s current cultural suicide. Nietzsche was an “untimely” outsider, a steppenwolf, pledging allegiance to no one and nothing, silently grappling with “the flat exhaustion of bourgeois modernity”, and searching, in vain, for “silhouettes among shadows”.

Nietzsche, in the late 19^th century, was already a symbol of Resistance. Resistance as we see it today – from the Axis of Resistance in West Asia to Orthodox Christian military batallions fighting for the freedom of Novorossiya. No ceremony ever greeted Nitzsche: he was always alone. He shattered illusion after illusion as his solitude “became liturgy” and “his body turned into protest.” He impersonated “the ghost of nobility”. A species in extinction – indeed.

Tech visionaries want it all

That crystal clear Nietzsche intuition – arguably the best definition of truth in the history of philosophy – may be our guide in the labyrinth of post-truth where, to quote post-modernist masterpiece Twin Peaks, “the owls are not what they seem”.

Errol Musk, Elon’s father, showed up early this week in Moscow for the Future 2050 forum. Daddy Musk effusively showered praise on Russia as Ancient Rome 2.0 and Moscow itself as the “capital of the world”. Quite on point – in both cases.

But what really matters is why Daddy Musk is in Russia. That may align with a strategy of luring powerful sectors of Silicon Valley into doing business with Russia. Main actors/participants would be tech visionaries which used to be part of the notorious PayPal Mafia: Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.

That may pose a series of serious problems. Martin Armstrong has been instrumental in portraying this band of tech visionaries as a ubiquitous new oligarchy: active in social media, biotech, space, the surveillance industry, engineering policies and influencing monetary systems with their hardcore brand of venture capitalism, and not to mention shaping worldwide-interfering narratives.

The new tech elite shines brightly via the Trump-Musk love affair turned staged catfight. But its tentacles reach much further. J.D. Vance is Peter Thiel’s perfectly positioned candidate to become the next POTUS. Palantir, controlled by Thiel and totalitarian Alex Karp, have been awarded a massive contract to design a U.S. federally centralized database using very sophisticated AI models.

Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is heavy on AI – including a 10-year moratorium during which any U.S. state and local government cannot regulate AI. This will allow free reign for deepfakes and Big Tech doing whatever they feel like to manipulate unsuspecting consumers.

So that’s the key question. How to fact-check the tech elite? How to counterpunch multiple instances of techno-feudalism – when tech companies feed intel to governments, commit unlimited funds to political operations, and set up censorship platforms disguised as “democracy”, drenched in AI-generated fake news?

Go East, to Siberia, young man

At least there are auspicious signs on the other side of dystopia. And right here in Russia. This is a mesmerizing interview by Nora Hoppe and Tariq Marzbaan with legendary Prof. Sergey Karaganov, Honorary Chairman of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy (Russia’s leading public foreign policy organisation) and academic supervisor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

Welcome to a magic carpet ride through the really deep origins of Russia’s heritage. Starting with the Scythians: “Now we are rediscovering within ourselves these roots that unites us with the peoples of Eurasia.”

All the way to Byzantium: “The Russian princes, who baptized Russia, chose Byzantium ― at that time the richest, the most developed and intellectually flourishing country in Central Eurasia, much more developed than Europe was (…) The Russian princes’ astute choice of Byzantium largely predetermined Russian culture, Russian architecture, and, of course, Russian religion, that is, our Orthodoxy.”

And then reaching Pax Mongolica: “The Mongol Empire left a deep mark on Russian history also, because it was multicultural and very tolerant religiously, and this is where I think (although there is no complete agreement amongst historians on this matter) the Russians ― the dominant people in the former Russian Empire and the USSR ― inherited their unique cultural, religious, and national openness.”

Karaganov forcefully proposes that everything positive about Pax Mongolica should be re-examined to “substantiate the unity of Eurasia.” And “we must rely just as much on the heritage of the Scythians, who were the forefathers of so many peoples in Greater Central Eurasia.”

This is the essence of a true multipolar Russia in action – leading to the fascinating concept of “Siberianization”: a “spiritual, cultural, political, and economic development of Russia in the eastern direction to the Urals and Siberia. The western direction of our policy and economic ties has bleak prospects.”

Karaganov, whose analyses are deeply appreciated by President Putin, is adamant: it all amounts to a “civilizational struggle against techno-barbarism and techno-paganism”, and “against dehumanization”. Against, essentially, techno-feudalism.

The Istanbul Kabuki — decoded

Par : AHH — 17 mai 2025 à 14:57

The endgame is clear: the US losing the entire Eurasian land mass. Ukraine, under these immense geopolitical imperatives, is only a sovereign-deprived pawn in the (Great) Game.

By Pepe Escobar at the Strategic Culture Foundation.

Did President Putin really change the game by proposing the resumption of negotiations on the proxy war in Ukraine in Istanbul – over three years after the first ones were scotched by NATO?

It’s complicated. And depends on which “game” we’re talking about.

What the Russian move instantly accomplished was to throw into total disarray the European warmongering Three Stooges (Starmer, BlackRock chancellor, Le Petit Roi) Cocaine Express.

Irrelevant Europe was not even at the table in Istanbul – except via extensive previous briefing of the low-rent, shabby-dressed Ukrainian delegation. That was compounded by the noisy barking threat in the sidelines advocating “more sanctions” to “pressure Russia”.

In March 2022 in Istanbul, Kiev could have stopped the war. Every one of us who were in Istanbul at the time could foresee that Kiev would eventually have to be forced to the table all over again.

So in essence we are back to the same negotiation – with the same top Russian negotiator, competent historian Vladimir Medinsky, heading a delegation composed by pros, but with Ukraine now facing over a million dead; deprived of at least four regions – more on the way; what’s left of its mineral wealth de facto controlled by the US; and a horrendous black hole that passes for an “economy”. We are talking about country 404 territory.

During the negotiations on Friday, Medinsky went straight to the point:

“We don’t want war, but we are ready to fight for a year, two, three – as long as it takes. We fought with Sweden for 21 years [the Great Northern War, 1700-1721, as it is known in Russia]. How long are you ready to fight?”

That’s the geopolitical/military state of things for Kiev and their “to the last Ukrainian” warmongering backers: either you capitulate, or we’re going to hurt you even more.

What’s the point of these negotiations?

Turkiye under uber-opportunist Sultan Erdogan in fact hosted a P.R. meeting between Moscow, Kiev and itself – with the Ukrainians unleashing a blitzkrieg of infantile tantrums only designed to influence global public opinion. In sharp contrast, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, did his best to put a positive spin on the proceedings.

Istanbul 2.0, Dmitriev asserted, achieved a large exchange of prisoners (1,000 on each side); ceasefire options to be presented by both sides; and a continuation of dialogue.

That’s not much. Well, at least they discussed in the same language: Russian. Nothing was lost in translation.

A serious case can be made that to propose the resumption of these negotiations, under this format, was meaningless. There’s no evidence in the horizon both parties might touch the fundamental issue anytime soon: the whole geopolitical strategic equation in Eastern Europe, from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea and beyond – leading to an “indivisibility of security” new deal with global repercussions.

That implies that whatever track these negotiations may follow further on down the road, they are an objective impossibility. Meanwhile, the proxy war in Ukraine – and the SMO – will go on.

That would also suggest that the Moscow security establishment considers the neo-nazi instrumentalized goons in Kiev at best as a re-enactment of the 6^th Army of Paulus, with which you negotiate the end of a battle, but not the end of the war.

Even NATO semi-realists as retired Commodore Steven Jermy have been forced to admit that “Russia is in the driving seat” and clueless Europeans “appear to believe that the losers should dictate the terms of ceasefire or surrender.”

All the barking by the – European – chihuahuas of war cannot disguise the fundamental geopolitical/military fact: a massive NATO humiliation. Trump’s humongous problem is that he has to manage it – and sell it to domestic public opinion and the global public opinion as some sort of “deal” he struck with Putin.

It’s enlightening once again to go back to Grandmaster Lavrov, always the uber-realist, back in September 2024: “In April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached agreement in Istanbul. If that agreement had been observed, Ukraine would have preserved part of Donbass. But every time another agreement, always accepted by Russia, is broken, Ukraine shrinks in size.”

The (Great) Game, revisited

Now back to the (Great) Game. Kiev negotiators eventually admitting Ukrainian capitulation means a NATO capitulation and an Empire of Chaos capitulation. That’s the ultimate anathema for the US ruling classes. Even an ultra-negotiated, carefully managed Ukrainian surrender will be an impossible sell – not to mention Washington under Narcissus Drowned Trump acknowledging a strategic defeat.

Because that will mean the Empire of Chaos losing Eurasia for good: the ultimate Mackinder/Brzezinski nightmare. Coupled with the consequential solidification of the multi-nodal, multipolar world.

The Russia-China stategic partnership is very much aware of every nook and cranny in this larger-than-life process. Beyond the current Turkish kabuki, they clearly understand the Big Eurasia Equation.

Beijing is fully aware NATO’s real goal was always to confront it via Russia. Ukraine was NATO’s pawn to take down Russia then get to China from the West. The goal of the US ruling elites as they configured their thalassocratic empire remains to blockade China from the West by land and sea, using Russia; then use Taiwan as a staging area to blockade China from the East by sea. No wonder control of Taiwan is a Chinese strategic imperative.

Enter Mackinder panic – all over again: the China-Russia strategic partnership can beat NATO hands down – and Russia, by itself, is already doing it. Xi and Putin once again discussed the chessboard in detail, in person, prior to the Victory Day parade last week in Moscow.

The endgame, once again, is clear: the US losing the entire Eurasian land mass. Ukraine, under these immense geopolitical imperatives, is only a sovereign-deprived pawn in the (Great) Game.

As for the tantrum-addicted clown in Kiev, he is merely an actor with no authority whatsoever, negotiations included. He is completely dominated by Ukrainian neo-Nazis who will kill him if and when the war is over. He merely fronts for them and gets paid off. And that’s why – enthusiastically supported by inconsequential London, Paris and Berlin – he’s obsessed to continue a Forever War destroying the very nation he claims to represent.

The United Global South Front against the Tariff Paper Tiger

Par : AHH — 23 avril 2025 à 13:09

An excellent wide ranging discussion and follow-up on the Spirit of Shanghai article.

coalescence of new Primakov Triangle with all three at once under the Orange devil-storm
Yanquis about to be submerged in their own Century of Humiliation
BRICS regain focus with urgency, propelled by ASEAN and China
can Lula & Brazil deliver in three months at the mid-summer BRICS Summit?

The Brutal and Deliberately Forgotten Korean War

Par : AHH — 6 avril 2025 à 22:51

“Unrestricted submarine warfare, unrestricted air bombing . . . this is total war. Time and the ocean and some guiding star and High Cabal have made us what we are.”

By Professor Dr. Syed Mujahid Kamran at Daily Pakistan.

The Korean War fought between Communist forces of North Korea, the U.S. puppet regime of the South and eventually involving the U.S. through the U.N. and the People’s Republic of China, was a brutal genocidal war, which has been consigned to well-thought-out oblivion by the Anglo-American Establishment. The Korean war broke out on the night of June 24 and 25, 1950 when the forces of Kim Il Sung attempted to unify Korea within one month. They almost succeeded. U.S. intervention, backed by the UN, eventually stopped and reversed the tide. The Chinese then entered the war against the advice of Stalin. The war ended on 27 July 1953 with an armistice. The South Koreans (ROK – Republic of Korea) never signed a treaty with the North Koreans (DPRK Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).

Were it not for the U.S. intelligence officer Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, nobody would have known that the Korean and Vietnam wars were planned during the dying days of WWII. It was Prouty who first wrote about Churchill’s extremely important statement regarding the High Cabal. Prouty narrates that at the height of WWII, Churchill, upon hearing of the bombing of Rotterdam, remarked: “Unrestricted submarine warfare, unrestricted air bombing . . . this is total war. Time and the ocean and some guiding star and High Cabal have made us what we are.” The High Cabal is a set of the wealthiest families on the planet that operate in complete and sinister secrecy and anonymity, and who have amassed their huge wealth through instigated wars and usurious lending to warring nations. Churchill knew of the High Cabal because he was their asset. It was the High Cabal that had planned the Korean and Vietnam wars in the dying days of WWII. The great bloodshed of WWII had not yet ended when they had begun planning the next one.

Despite enormous damage done to Japan by aerial bombardment, invasion of Japan was considered essential to secure “unconditional” surrender. Thus when the island of Okinawa became available as a launching pad for such an invasion, supplies and equipment for half a million men was piled up in Okinawa. The use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki secured unconditional Japanese surrender rendering the piles of equipment on Okinawa Island redundant. Prouty happened to be on Okinawa Island on the date of the Japanese surrender. He narrates “Almost immediately, U.S. Navy transport vessels began to show up in Naha Harbor, Okinawa. This vast load of war material was reloaded onto those ships.”

During some business at the harbor, Prouty casually asked the harbormaster if the material was being loaded for return to the United States. He writes that he was surprised by the direct response of the harbormaster: “Hell, no! They ain’t never goin’ to see it again. One-half of this stuff, enough to equip and support at least a hundred and fifty thousand men, is going to Korea, and the other half is going to Indochina.” Prouty notes: “In 1945, none of us had any idea that the first battles of the Cold War were going to be fought by U.S. military units in these regions beginning in 1950 and 1965 – yet that is precisely what had been planned, and it is precisely what happened.” The natural question that arises is who decided that the equipment be sent to these regions? Prouty asks: “Who made that decision back in 1943-45? Who selected Syngman Rhee and Ho Chi Minh to be our new allies as early as mid-1945?” Referring to the High Cabal as the power elite Prouty writes: “This is another one of those windows that permits us to see that some decision had to have been made in some detail by the power elite, yet there is absolutely no record of who made the decisions and for what purpose.” The information provided by Col. Prouty must never be lost sight of when discussing the Korean and Vietnam wars and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The High Cabal considers the entire globe with all its resources as “real estate”, meant to be captured by force or otherwise, and to be put to use for their profits. The High Cabal also believes in a Malthusian philosophy. In the words of Col. Prouty: “The Malthusian theory thus provides a rationalization for the necessity of somehow getting rid of large numbers of people, any people, in any way – even genocide.” The High Cabal has an argument that runs as follows: “Earth will never be able to support the progeny of so many anyhow. From this point of view, genocide – then as now – is accepted as all but inevitable. Who cares and why be concerned?” Finally the High Cabal has a Darwinian mindset. Those who survive and dominate are the “fittest” and have the right to kill off all other races.

The Korean and Vietnam wars reflect the genocidal, Malthusian and Darwinian mindset of the High Cabal. The same is true of the post 9/11 wars in the Middle East.

On the day after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Rockefeller agent John J. McCloy in the War Department held a meeting with Truman’s foreign policy advisor Dean Acheson and Charles Bonesteel of Pentagon to discuss the division of Korea which had been under Japanese occupation. They chose the 38th Parallel as the dividing line because it included the city of Seoul. The Soviet troops entered North Korea on August 8 and seem to have accepted the 38th Parallel as the dividing line. As a result Korean occupation by Japan was replaced by occupation by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The U.S. forces entered South Korea on September 8, 1945 and soon occupied it south of the 38th Parallel.

The United States established a military government in South Korea. Its intelligence agents picked up several hundred Koreans, who had been Japanese collaborators, to aid the U.S. in running South Korea. The occupation of Korea by the Soviet Union and the United States was occupation of a country that was not a belligerent. Korea was not at war with the Allies or any other party. Thus the end of WWII resulted in the replacement of Japanese occupation of Korea by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. It also resulted in a division of Korea along the 38th Parallel.

Bruce Cummings writes in his book The Korean War that within three weeks of the start of the war a Chinese military intelligence group arrived in Pyongyang. Further, as early as August 4, Chairman Mao decided that if the Americans were to invade the North, China must come to the aid of the North in the name of a volunteer army. When, in mid-September 1950, General MacArthur masterminded the Inchon amphibious landing employing 270 ships, a high level North Korean officer requested Chinese help. On October 1, 1950, Kim Il Sung met the Chinese ambassador to request that the 13th Army Corps of the PLA come to their aid by crossing the Yalu River. Stalin opposed a major Chinese involvement fearing wider war, but Mao went ahead, much to Stalin’s surprise, and sent twelve infantry divisions to help the North Koreans. Stalin, however, backed off from a promise of air cover and that paved the way for aerial genocide of Koreans by the USAF. Apparently the October 1, 1950 crossing of the 38th parallel by the Chinese caused Mao a sleepless night, but he went ahead and informed Stalin the next day. Mao’s decision to back Kim ll Sung was based upon Mao’s straightforward determination that if the Korean struggle faltered, China was bound to support the Korean Communists in view of their great sacrifices during the Chinese revolution and their resistance against the Japanese.

As early as October 1950, General George Stratemeyer of USAF sought permission to attack a provincial capital Sinuiju. The city of Sinuiju had a population of around 60,000 and Strtaemeyer wanted to bomb “over the widest area of the city, without warning, by burning and high explosive”.

Such was the inhuman and genocidal mindset of the American establishment.

Gen. MacArthur denied this request initially. However, on November 3, 1950, MacArthur agreed to a firebombing campaign, accepting Stratemeyer’s request to burn Kanggye: “Burn it if you so desire. Not only that, Strat, but burn and destroy as a lesson to any other of those towns that you consider of military value to the enemy.” The firebombing of Sinuiju was also approved on November 3, 1950. The instructions were noted in summary in Stratemeyer’s diary as follows: “Every installation, facility, and village in North Korea now becomes a military and tactical target.” Stratemeyer gave the following inhuman orders to his bombers: “[D]estroy every means of communications and every installation, factory, city, and village”. Two days later, on November 5, Stratemeyer ordered the destruction of “all other targets including all buildings capable of affording shelter.” On that day, 75% of the city of Kanggye was destroyed by USAF bombers! These massive war crimes against civilian populations of North Korea were committed by the U.S. with impunity. North Koreans have done well not to forget this inhumanity.

The Allied forces had discovered during WWII that it was easier to burn down a city than to blow it up. Thermite sticks bundled together in millions supplemented by mixtures of benzene, phosphorous and other things were employed to set cities on fire. The resulting firebombs could set cities ablze and incinerate them in minutes. On March 16, 1945, the city of Wurzburg was burnt in a mere seventeen minutes!

The development of firebombing represents perhaps the most painful, inhuman and sadistic development in aerial warfare.

When Dresden was firebombed one eye witness who survived described “young women carrying babies running up and down the streets, their dresses and hair on fire, screaming until they fell down, or collapsing buildings fell on top of them.” Firebombing was conceived and developed by the brutal and utterly inhuman Anglo-American alliance. It burns innocent civilians and is a war crime of the highest magnitude.

The American military leaders decided to repeat the firebombing of WWII in North Korea. Germans had an air force and effective anti-aircraft fire that caused significant losses to Allied forces. But North Korea did not have any air force and thus had no air cover. Under these circumstances the bombing and firebombing of North Korea was a one sided affair. Not only was it one sided, the Americans dropped more bombs on North Korea in less than three years than the bombs used in the Pacific theater during the entire WWII. In the Pacific theater the Allies dropped 503,000 tons of bombs during WWII. The U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on North Korea and an additional 32,557 tons of napalm! Please note that napalm burns at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1200 degree Centigrade. It burns longer than gasoline and adheres to its targets making death much more painful for the victims.

The USAF seemed to have a penchant for napalm bombs because they inflicted the greatest possible pain on their unfortunate victims. General Ridgeway wanted heavier and better napalm bombs. He desired thousand pound versions to be dropped on targets in 1951. The object was to “wipe out all life in tactical locality and save the life of our soldiers.” On one occasion when American soldiers fell victim to “friendly” fire of napalm, their suffering was described by a witness James Ransome. His men rolled in agony in the snow and begged him to shoot them because the burning of their skin by napalm was unbearable. Their skin burned and peeled back “like fried potato chips”. This was the wonder weapon of the USAF!

Gen. Curtis LeMay, who, in the humble opinion of this author was too trigger happy and brutal to be entrusted with serious responsibility, and who may have played a minor role in the Kennedy assassination, wanted to burn down the big cities of North Korea at the very beginning of the war. The Pentagon ruled that “it’s too horrible”. Yet, in an oral history record, LeMay stated that over a three year period “We burned down every town in North Korea, and South Korea too . . . Now over a three year period this is palatable, but to kill a few people to stop this from happening – a lot of people can’t stomach it.” Such was the nature of attacks on the cities and towns of Korea that no sane person can stomach it. On July 11, 1952 a total of 1,264 air sorties over Pyongyang were carried out by B 29 bombers during daytime, followed by 54 sorties at night. Imagine what the residents of this city went though. Imagine the inhumanity of the Anglo-American Establishment, the champions of human rights, democracy and all that crap. The attack on Pyongyang was to be followed by similar attacks on thirty other cities and industrial centers as part of operation “Pressure Pump”.

Col. Fletcher Prouty has noted: “There had been a Malthusian movement, concealed at all times from the public, to uproot and destroy the existing and traditional system of communal society in many parts of the world. The activists of this movement fear the strength of the peasant and the ways of peasant life. They much prefer a society of dependent consumers. Indochina and Korea were the prime targets during the post-World War II decades.” Bruce Cummings has noted: “Korea recapitulated the air force’s mantra from World War II, that firebombing would erode enemy morale and end the war sooner, but the interior intent was to destroy Korean society down to the individual constituents.”

In May 1952, the great Suiho Dam on Yalu river was attacked. It was second only to the Hoover dam in the entire world. However, for fear of provoking the Chinese and Russians it was not demolished. In order to deprive the North Korean population of the 250,000 tons of rice that was to be harvested the USAF targeted its dams. In May 1953, soon after rice had been planted, three dams were hit by the USAF bombers. These were the Tukson, Chasan and Kuwonga dams. These were major dams. On May 13, 1953 fifty-nine bombers were used to breach the high wall of Toksan dam. The first breach at Toksan “scooped clean twenty-seven miles of river valley, and sent water gushing into Pyongyang.” The breach in Toksan generated a flood of onrushing water that destroyed “six miles of railway, five bridges, two miles of high way and five square miles of rice paddies.” After the war it took “200,000 man-days of labor to reconstruct the reservoir.”

Gen. William F. Dean was the highest ranking military officer (Major Gen.) to be captured by the North Koreans. When he was released from captivity he narrated that “the town of Huichon amazed me. The city I’d seen before – two-storied buildings, a prominent main street – wasn’t there any more.” Gen. Dean described “unocuupied shells” of “town after town, and villages where rubble or ‘snowy open spaces’ were all that remained.” The destruction caused by US. Bombing was total and ubiquitous. The Hungarian writer Tibor Meray told a Thames TV team: “I saw destruction and horrible things committed by American forces.” As he said:”Everything that moved in North Korea was a military target, peasants in the fields were often machine gunned by pilots who, this was my impression, amused themselves to shoot the targets which moved.” Such was the scale and nature of inhumanity of the Americans.

In his book Bruce Cummings has cited Meray, who arrived in Korea in August 1951 to witness “a complete devastation between the Yalu River and the capital” {Pyongyang). Meray states that there were just “no more cities in North Korea.” Because of continual bombing their party was compelled to travel by night. Meray states: “We traveled in moonlight, so my impression was that I am traveling on the moon, because there was only devastation . . . every city was a collection of chimneys. I don’t know why houses collapsed and chimneys did not, but I went through a city of 200,000 inhabitants and I saw thousands of chimneys and that – that was all.”

The absolute and inhuman and criminal destruction of North Korean cities has been concealed from the world and the insouciant U.S. public.

Such was the scale of barbarity and brutality of the U.S. forces that eighteen out of twenty two major cities of North Korea were obliterated. A partial table has been provided by Cumings. The percentage of destruction of seven cities has been given as follows: Pyongyang 75%, Chongjin 65%, Hamhung 80%, Hungnam 85%, Sinanju 100%, Sariwon 95%, and Wonsan 80%. Cumings quotes an official American history source: “So, we killed civilians, friendly civilians, and bombed their homes, fired whole villages with the occupants – women and children, and ten times as many hidden Communist soldiers – under showers of napalm, and the pilots came back to their ships stinking of vomit twisted from their vitals by the shock of what they had to do.”

On March 10, 1951 Gen. Douglas MacArthur requested “’D’ Day atomic capability” to retain air superiority in the war. The request was made in view of intelligence information that the Soviet Union was ready to move its air divisions into Manchuria, in the vicinity of Korea, coupled with the massing of huge Chinese forces near the Korean border . These Soviet air divisions could strike, not just targets in Korea, but also U.S. bases in Okinawa. By the end of March 1951, atomic bomb loading capabilities an air base in Okinawa wee operational. Around this time Gen. MacArthur was removed and in the ensuing confusion, an April 6 order of President Truman, ordering use of atomic weapons against Korean and Chinese targets was never transmitted! Reviewing A.B. Abram’s 2024 book Surviving the Unipolar Era, Richard C. Cook writes: “During the war, U.S. commander Douglas MacArthur recommended nuclear strikes against 26 Korean and Chinese targets. These were deterred by the Soviet Union’s possession of a nuclear strike capability that could be used against American East Asian bases. The Korean War also led China to believe it needed a nuclear deterrent against the U.S.”

Operation Hudson Harbor sought to establish the capability of using nuclear weapons in the battlefield in Korea. As late as September and October 1951 B-29 bombers were sent over Korea simulating atomic bomb runs. These planes were loaded with dummy A bombs or heavy TNT bombs. Thus, in 1951, the possibility of use of nuclear weapons in Korea was serious. The project seemed to indicate that nuclear weapons might not be useful simpy because timely identification of large numbers of enemy troops was extremely rare.

Cummings notes: ”But one can imagine the steel nerves required of leaders in Pyongyang, observing a lone B-29 simulating the attack lines that had resulted in the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki just six years earlier, each time unsure whether the bomb was real or dummy.”

In 1950 the total population of Korea was around 31.1 million. Of this 20 million resided in South Korea and the remaining 11.1 million in North Korea. A B Abrams pointsout that “Altogether, three to four million North Koreans died in the war, a number declared by many observers to be genocidal.” Additionally about six million became homeless. Thus about one third of the Korean population was either killed or became homeless. This massive human tragedy was caused by a power drunk, Malthusian and inhuman U.S. Establishment. The Anglo-American Establishment, working for the international banking families, is the greatest criminal and genocidal force in the entire annals of human history. Their crimes by far surpass any crimes against humanity committed by any other force in history.

The North Koreans have never bowed before the United States. They have survived the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, followed by disasters, likely US manipulated, that brought it to the brink of starvation. It has been a at war with the US and its lackeys for 75 years now because there never was a peace treaty and a state of war persists. Faced by persistent U.S. attempts to destroy it North Korea has developed massive underground fortifications and a deterrent capability of dropping H bombs on U.S. mainland. It has thus forced the U.S. to back down in its attempt to attack North Korea. Hats off to the leadership and people of North Korea.

Nomination de Barnier : faites rentrer les pop-corns !

Par : Régis de Castelnau — 7 septembre 2024 à 12:15

Bon un petit récapitulatif pour essayer de comprendre la tacataquetique de Jean-Luc Mélenchon depuis le 9 juin dernier : • 9 juin résultat des élections européennes. Le RN est largement en tête, faisant deux fois plus de voix que le… Lire la suite →

Le Parti socialiste entre défaites et trahisons

Par : Régis de Castelnau — 18 juin 2024 à 09:36

La question du clivage politique entre la droite et gauche est une auberge espagnole où chacun vient avec ses objectifs, ses préjugés, et ses arrière-pensées. Le concept recouvre des réalités complètement différentes en fonction du lieu où il est énoncé.… Lire la suite →

Exit l’agrément d’Anticor : Castex manœuvrier habile ?

Par : Régis de Castelnau — 20 novembre 2023 à 12:45

La décision de la juridiction administrative, en l’occurrence la Cour d’appel de Paris est tombée, le jugement du Tribunal annulant l’agrément donné par le gouvernement Castex à l’association Anticor pour lui permettre de jouer le rôle d’un parquet privé au… Lire la suite →

Annulation de l’agrément d’Anticor : Jean Castex faux naïf ?

Par : Régis de Castelnau — 23 juin 2023 à 18:26

La décision de la juridiction administrative est tombée, l’agrément de l’association Anticor a été annulé. Immédiatement et comme d’habitude incendie sur les réseaux où l’ignorance des faits et l’analphabétisme juridique s’en donne à cœur joie. Immédiat levée de boucliers de… Continue Reading →

Mise en examen d’Agnès Buzyn : la double faute des magistrats instructeurs

Par : Régis de Castelnau — 26 janvier 2023 à 07:18

La mise en examen de Madame Agnès Buzyn par la Cour de Justice de la République (CJR) sous les acclamations de la foule était une mauvaise action. D’abord c’était une décision illégale et ensuite c’était une façon de clouer un… Continue Reading →

Justice : Éric Dupond-Moretti se met au déstockage

Par : Régis de Castelnau — 15 novembre 2022 à 08:10

L’État français serait-il en voie de désintégration ? Pointer l’affaiblissement drastique de l’exercice des fonctions régaliennes est devenu une banalité. Justice, police, ordre public, sécurité, diplomatie et affaires étrangères, défense, finances, donnent un sentiment de dégradation et d’abandon. Mais c’est… Continue Reading →