Friday, February 28, 2025
Zelensky on Fox News declines to apologize--good.
"President Trump and his administration continue to embarrass America on the world stage," said House Minority Leader Hakeen Jeffries, D-N.Y., in a statement. "Today’s White House meeting with the President of Ukraine was appalling and will only serve to further embolden Vladimir Putin, a brutal dictator. The United States must not reward Russian aggression and continue to appease Putin.
"For three years, President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people have stood on the side of democracy, freedom and truth," Jeffries continued. "Their success is in the national security interests of the United States. We should stand with Ukraine until victory is won."
https://www.aol.com/news/zelenskyy-declines-apologize-trump-heated-010848777.html
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
Mass subscription drop--again--to Wapo--after --(despite fee reduction to $29 p a) $2,175,000
More than 75,000 digital subscribers to The Washington Post have cancelled since its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced on Wednesday that he would radically overhaul the paper's opinion pages to reflect libertarian priorities and to exclude opposing points of view.
Wednesday's announcement led to the immediate resignation of Opinions Editor David Shipley. He had vainly sought to persuade Bezos to drop the plans, according to a person with direct knowledge. Shipley did not respond to requests for comment.
Bezos' decision also prompted an outcry from longtime Post figures, including Associate Editor David Maraniss and former Executive Editor Marty Baron. Baron called the move "craven" and told Zeteo News that Bezos, whom he praised extensively in his 2023 memoir, was "basically fearful" of President Trump.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/28/nx-s1-5312819/washington-post-bezos-subscriptions-cancellations
Yeah Zelensky--so now"his shirt" and "not grateful enough" are problems?
--trump didn't make Zelensky--Biden helped Ukraine.
This is what Zelensky always wears--he's Commander in Chief-- a real one, not like bone spurs.
--trump and vance were extorting--for something they did not do--
CNN--live
here:https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-zelensky-news-02-28-25/index.html
Meanwhile trump musk are firing weathermen and attacking SSA.
Highly disturbing--One Chinese man died said BGF, while awaiting repatriation to China--
Nearly 5,000 Chinese citizens have been freed from scam centers in Myawaddy town, Shwe Kokko and KK Park during the crackdown, but China has only accepted 621 of them so far, said Naing Maung Zaw.
“We cannot treat them like prisoners or confine them. Over time, they have become more demanding, asking when they will be sent back and causing disruptions for the security personnel. There have also been frequent fights among them. They are in a state of considerable agitation and security personnel have to be very careful.”
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/chinese-man-dies-awaiting-repatriation-after-release-from-myanmar-scam-center-bgf.html
--
Warn young people and old, not to get pulled in by these fake job offer or romance scams.
From Irrawaddy--Myanmar junta boss MAH has well-documented ties to scam centers--by Maung Kavi--with photos.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-boss-has-well-documented-ties-to-cyber-scam-kingpins.html
In 2018, the Myanmar Investment Commission of the since ousted National League for Democracy government approved the first phase of the Shwe Kokko New City project. However, construction activity expanded well beyond the agreed limits, leading to a government probe and suspension of the project.
At that time, Thailand shut off power and telecom services to Shwe Kokko. However, power and internet services were switched back on just weeks after the 2021 coup.
After the crackdown on scam gangs in Kokang in northern Shan near the Chinese border, they relocated to the Thai-Myanmar border, finally developing into a scam hub with protection from the regime and BGF.
They are said to be a lucrative revenue source for the Myanmar military, which collects some 50 percent of the US$192 million earned by the BGF annually from the Shwe Kokko project, according to a report by United States Institute of Peace.
Saw Chit Thu has donated cash to Sitagu Sayadaw, one of the favorite monks of Min Aung Hlaing and his family. He and She Zhijiang donated cash to Sitagu Sayadaw in 2019 in Shwe Kokko.
. . .The regime has not arrested any BGF officials, including Saw Chit Thu, and Thailand has not yet issued any arrest warrants for them either, though it said it plans to do so.
From Irrawaddy--Uighers forcibly deported to China by Thailand--
Thailand forcibly deported 109 Uyghurs to China in 2015, drawing a stern rebuke from Washington and the UN, but had repeatedly denied the existence of plans for a new round of deportations.
International condemnation was swift Thursday.
“There is a complete prohibition in cases where there is a real risk of torture, ill-treatment, or other irreparable harm upon their return,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed Thailand, an ally.
Special Post--Eulogy for U Myo Myunt by Khin Pwint Oo--
By Khin Pwint Oo
Edited by Kyi May Kaung.
Eulogy for
Dr. Myo Nyunt
(1937 – 2024)
I would never be able to excuse myself if I failed to share my memories about a man whose country of birth was forever embedded in his heart until his last breath.
He is none other than Dr. Myo Nyunt, former Senior Lecturer of the Economics Department, the Institute of Economics, Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), a Government State Scholar who was awarded a Rangoon-Chicago Fellowship in 1960 to continue post-graduate studies in Economics in the US. He completed successfully his Ph.D. dissertation: “Farm size, farm land transfers and ownership changes in Six Wisconsin Dairy counties, 1950-1965” and gained his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, USA in 1966.
https://www.wisc.edu/
This university is noted for its liberal ideas.
We his students remember him fondly as Bo Myo or Saya Myo. Saya means Teacher for a man, and Sayama is the term for a woman.
We add gyi or “Great” for an older, more respected person, as in “Sayagyi U Aye Hlaing.”
I so remember the day I ran into him on the first steps of the stairway leading up to our Economics Department on the 3rd floor.
He was holding a wet folded umbrella in his hand, his longyi (sarong) quite wet.
He smiled at me and did not seem uncomfortable or embarrassed at all.
At that time, I had no idea who he was. Certainly, I did not know he was an economist and a senior lecturer because I was only a fresher at that time in the academic year 1969-70.
Days passed.
I ran into him often in the corridors, in the library, always holding a large stack of books in his arms, always with a cheerful smile on his face.
When I reached my third year at the university we were required to choose an elective major.
I chose Agricultural Economics.
U Myo Nyunt was always close to his students, treating them as family members, sometimes allowing those from far flung places to stay at his home.
He also helped many people.
He was the primary supervisor for my Master’s Thesis, but the time to part with my mentor eventually came when he emigrated in December 1979.
I and my completed thesis were handed over to Daw Kyi May Kaung (then a Senior Lecturer, who later went to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship and received a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning and Political Science from the Ivy League, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
https://www.upenn.edu/
Saya knowingly entrusted me to her, because he knew her to be impartial, and he had also been Sayama’s Economics Tutor when she was also in the 3rd year of college.
*
Even in my days as a student majoring in Agricultural Economics I am glad I was able to participate in Saya’s research activities visiting many rural communities with him and our teams in all kinds of weather and all over the country, but mostly in the Dry Zone of Central Burma.
Saya urged me to do research on a village study for my Master’s Thesis.
I went to the 2 villages that Manning Nash, the anthropologist, author of The Golden Road to Modernity, went to. The Golden Road was published in 1965, and you can buy it online.
http://www.amazon.com
My thesis, like Nash’s book was much more descriptive than the modelling approach fashionable at the time--but Sayama Kyi May also liked my finished thesis and stoutly helped me defend it in the first of 2 oral exams.
For the 2nd defence, she advised me to take Nash’s book as my companion, saying she did not need to accompany me, I must learn to defend my own ideas by myself.
Hindsight has shown that these 2 villages, living symbiotically side by side, economically linked with each other, is the best way to be. She says this shows that Burma was meant to be a plural economy, such as that described by J.S.Furnivall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sydenham_Furnivall
Also, she says, “Villages, as you (KPO) and Saya Myo Nyunt thought of it, indeed idealized it, are the building blocks of the socio-economic system and the traditional and time-tested way to go.”
She says, “One of my family friends, Burma’s first Western-trained journalists, who later worked at the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, said he cried when he saw Singapore the first time.”
Sayama says she cried when she saw the product differentiation and abundance of food and other items in a super mart even in the poorest of neighborhoods around the University of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia, where street crime is prevalent, and people still get shot with AK 47s on the street.
She says, “In America, I now live in a village—an urban village--on the East Coast in a county with the highest percentage of people with higher education in the USA.”
*
Saya Myo used to push me to undergo further study abroad and not to be satisfied with my Master’s degree here in Yangon.
Later, he sent me a brochure on a master’s program in Australia.
At first, I hesitated as my father had just passed away and I did not want to leave my mother alone as my siblings were with their own families.
Saya then urged me to think of distance learning.
Finally, I made up my mind to fulfil my indebtedness to him, receiving a Master’s degree in Development Studies from Edith Cowan University, West Australia.
I was proud when told I was the first Burmese scholar pursuing a Master’s degree at ECU and Saya also told me he was the first Burmese scholar, to receive a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
My mother gave me her consent to go to ECU for my graduation ceremony.
As she could not accompany me there, Saya and Daw Khin Myo Myint and my ECU mentor Dr. Nancy Hudson-Rodd attended my graduation.
I was invited to stay at Saya’s house, but I stayed for a month only, even though I was granted a visa to stay 3 months in Australia.
*
On receiving the sad news of Saya’s death, I shared that news with my close friends, including one Economics student of the younger generation.
He sent back an email saying this was truly a great loss for Myanmar’s economics community.
He also wrote that he met Dr Myo Nyunt in the Economics library in Yangon, when he was there for a short visit in 2017.
*
I am very fortunate to have met Saya, a person with great heart and someone who never dwelt on the difficulties of life, never complained.
Daw Khin Myo Myint and his sons tell me his ashes will be scattered in the Rangoon River, from Botahtaung Jetty, in accordance with his last wish.
His last Will and Testament stated that his remains be taken back to his country of birth - Burma, which indeed was also his parents’ homeland.
Bo Myo will be missed fondly by all of us, his former students.
As a Buddhist, I do not doubt that he is gone to A Place of Peace and Tranquillity.
In his life he valued Peace the most.
Rest in Peace dear Saya Myo.
Khin Pwint Oo.
Date: 7th December, 2024.
Biography: Khin Pwint Oo
She received Bachelor Degree in Economics, majoring in Agricultural Economics, from the Institute of Economics, Rangoon in 1973 and Masters in Economics, from the same Institute in 1982; and M. Social Science in Development Studies, from Edith Cowan University, W. Australia, in 2004.
She worked in different capacities as a field researcher, working in collaboration with the Institute - where she learned and earned as an academic; as a field project staff, as the United Nation’s National UNV Volunteer in different UN Field Projects and Missions, and on short assignments abroad.
Her experience in the field has led her to Community Development Programs in her home country.
She also undertakes project assignments as a freelance consultant.
*
If every single one of us did not buy anything for 24 hours--
340.1m X $43=max of 14624.3 m
but not everyone would have heard of boycott, and they'd
have to buy their needs the next day--
but will it make a difference--I think it will--it will send a message.
e,g. in mid-1990s I asked my friend who wrote to New York Times if she was still doing activism.
she said,"I've given up. It won't make a difference one person doing something."
I soldiered on and in 2020-to Feb 2021 we had the start of at least almost 10 years of a quasi democracy--until, you guessed it, the junta staged a coup.
so much so the people are still risking their lives in the Resistance.
In early 2021 they started with homemade muskets.
It's unbelieveable. My friend who died of cancer--not the same as YYCM mentioned above, DawTaw Myo Myint was so weak in 2005, CA-based friends of hers had a tribute for her. She was a member of the last royal family. She was dressed all in white. She said in a weak voice --"I will support Daw Aung San Suu Kyi till the day I die." She said this three times. Rest in Protest--dear Taw Myo Myint. kmk 2-28-2025
Right--now that Canadians don't want him, if he angers trump--what will he do?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/canadians-elon-musk-not-one-170503385.html
When our Burmese MIS Khin Nyunt and his entire coterie of 40 families were purged in 2004,
NED person asked "When will he make a comeback?"
Minister for N and S America, NCGUB UBHT and I stared at BJ: "Never."
U Bo added, "We almost feel sorry for his human rights.
Few days ago I heard KN now lives in Singapore. I knew before he has a Singaporean daughter in law.
Tayar ya sayar--makes you believe in (the law of) Impermanence, as we say in Burmese.
BTW, very small mammals who burrowed underground survived the meteor hit--so we are all descended from mice and rats.
kmk
2-28-2025
Cassandra says--Historically, from dinosaurs, to the Roman Empire, to Bayinnaung, to Exxon, to Hitler and so on
nothing is too big to fail.
In fact, the larger something is, the harder is is to grow say 8% p a on such a large base--so--
growth will level off.
It's called progression towards the mean--as mean in average
not mean as in evil.
Cassandra
2-28-2025
From BBC--2023--
The company has two major outlays. The first is its staffing bill. Musk has cut X to the bone already, laying off thousands.
The second is servicing the loans Musk took out to buy Twitter, totalling about $13bn. Reuters has reported that the company now has to pay $1.2bn or so in interest payments every year.
If the company cannot service the interest on its loans or afford to pay staff then, yes, X really could go bankrupt.
But that would be an extreme scenario that Musk would surely want to avoid.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67599937
From Florence wikipedia
The Florentine dialect forms the base of standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy[10] due to the prestige of the masterpieces by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini.
The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Florence a World Heritage Site in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments.[11] The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.[12] Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, Forbes ranked it as one of the most beautiful cities in the world in 2010.[13]
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Oi--I should not have Googled the ending of The Good Wife--TV series--
https://www.npr.org/2016/05/09/477330290/7-years-later-good-wife-ends-as-it-began-with-betrayal-and-uncertainty#:~:text=Over%20the%20years%2C%20Peter%20and,stunning%20Good%20Wife%20plot%20twist.
In my own full lenth fiction, I've already killed off 2 of my male leads, one published, one still in progress.
And I didn't like the ending of The Idea of You, nor the movie version either--for diffrerent reasons, though it was the frst rom com I ever read. Before that I only read one Daniele Steel a very long time ago--4 decades ago.
You just have to decide for yourself.
Generally, I do both at the same time.
For Lonesome Dove and North and South, the books and the TV series were just as good.
It depends. It also depends on my budget, and how much I like the sample.
I do miss movies in theaters, but they have all been torn down, and old age coincides with less mobility, but also more entertainment and writing.
I just like the feeling of having lived many different lives, which I have--about
2 per decade, which is about true of my real life too. Every 5 years it changes, not so much in Burma to age 40.
Kyi May Kaung
2-26-2025
trump says he will sell Green Cards for $5 m each--
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5308649/trump-green-card-gold-card-immigration
Like former 1 m Hong Kong Green Cards to USA. HK China reunification
21 DOGE staffers resign, saying they won't help dismantle public services--partial copy and paste below
Among the 40 who were terminated earlier this month was Jonathan Kamens, a DOGE engineer who said he believes he was targeted for publicly endorsing Kamala Harris for president.
"The U.S. Digital Service spent more than a decade making government better to serve normal, everyday people," Kamens told NPR. "Elon Musk doesn't care about any of that. All he cares about is seizing power and making his obscene fortune even larger."
Musk did not return NPR's request for comment.
On Jan. 21, according to the letter, Musk's lieutenants, some wearing White House visitor badges, refused to identify themselves and asked the staffers questions about their political loyalties and technical skills. "This process created significant security risks," the group wrote in the letter.
Have information you want to share about the ongoing changes across the federal government? Bobby Allyn is available via the encrypted messaging app Signal at ballyn.77
More Stories From NPR
President Trump delivers remarks during a joint news conference in the East Room at the White House on February 24.
Politics
CNN--From June 2021--Nathan Maung released and back in DC area.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/15/media/myanmar-nathan-maung-released-intl-hnk/index.html
From 2021--Nathan Maung interviewed by Democratic Voice of Burma, in Burmese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjdF-Dkpidw
Informal summary. Nathan Maung, independent journalist imprisoned after Min Aung Hlaing's coup, describes what he noticed while in prison.
His interrogaters hate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for going to ICJ and testifying as regards the Rohingya.
About the 2 books published by SAC after the coup, he said they tried to justify their coup,by saying Aung San Suu Kyi was plotting against the junta.
*
Highly depressing, their usual modus operandi, like 1962 and The Burmese Way to Socialism.
2-26-2025
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
VladimirTismaneanu--Romanian-American Political Scientist--Stalinism for all Seasons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Tism%C4%83neanu#cite_note-tapalaga-10
I attended a talk by him on Penn Campus in 1989.
People sell off stock in any company if they 1. lose confidence 2. think price has maxed out 3. think stock will fall further 4 .don't like the CEO.
I doubt anyone reading this has stock--but you can vote with your feet, again "walking out" if you are a millionaire, or "voting with your mouse or your mouth"
or moving from red state to blue state
or staying in place and trying to change system from within.
In any case, as I advised in Jan.--tighten your belt, reduce impulse buying and/or big ticket items--go into "Burmese" survival mode.
The Resistance against trump/musk is just beginning.
Find fellow democrats or unhappy republicans wherever you are.
Men like them make many enemies.
Watch movie The Last Days of Hitler--also book by Hugh Trevor Roper
also real footage of last days/hours of Ceausescu.
Robin Gibb's funeral--classiest life ever--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOMMytOeU1g
James Michener wrote that after a near miss in a plane accident close to the end of WWII--he decided he'd live life--"like a great man."
I was very fortunate to see Allen Ginsberg read at Annenberg center in the 1990s. The house manager got me in. I was wearing my house manager's uniform with Penn tie.
I asked him which was his best poem and he said,"Kaddish"--definitely Kaddish. I still have his signature in an anthology as I didn't have a separate volume of Kaddish.
In 1997 my first trip to Conference on International Affairs in Boulder, CO., got me to Allen Ginsberg's funeral service at Naropa Institute. He was a Buddhist.
My Boulder hostess, not Mrs.Sargent took me there.
A recording of him reading his poetry was read and a photo of him ceremonially burned.
It was very moving.
Search result--can a baritone sing bass?
Can a baritone sing bass?
In choral music, 'bass' just means the lower male part, and 'tenor' means the higher one. Since most baritones don't have vocal ranges high enough to sing tenor parts, they generally sing bass in choirs. Now you know why community choirs usually have more 'basses' than 'tenors' - it's because most men are baritones!
Baritone | Definition, Types & Vocal Range - Lesson - Study.com
Secession is not allowed in the US Constitution--search results
Section 1 of Article III of the current State Constitution provides that California “is an inseparable part of the United States of America.” The State Constitution provides that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. U.S. Constitution Does Not Provide for Secession.
Changes in California's relationship with the United States of ...
Legislative Analyst’s Office (.gov)
https://lao.ca.gov › BallotAnalysis › Initiative
Make sure you read the news daily--don't sit in 1. "meditation"
2. in your own cubyhole, comfort zone, groupism, navel gazing.
3. don't be like my good-natured enough friends who say they don't read the news.
4.those kinds of people end up living under juntas or dictatorships like trump musk.
5. don't take things lying down.
Getty image: Birds fly near the Pentagon.
JAG--they are lawyers who work for armed forces of USA--(AI generated)
Judge Advocate General's Corps
A group of lawyers who serve in the U.S. military
Each branch of the military has its own JAG Corps
JAGs represent the military in legal matters, such as civil litigation, criminal defense, and contract law
JAGs are commissioned officers who receive a base salary and benefits
JAGs work in a variety of locations around the world.
--Maddow describes them as "the most even keeled"
--asks--see below, of trump musk targetting them as a group.
Rachel Maddow sounds out on MSNBC shakeups--directly linked to trump attacks.
https://www.aol.com/entertainment/rachel-maddow-sounds-off-major-033946991.html
The super racist called MSNBC"racist"
Monday, February 24, 2025
Looks like the battle between trump and musk has just begun--
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/24/politics/email-elon-musk-federal-employees/index.html
BTW--(fake) photo of trump kissing musk's toes show "Musk" with 2 identical L feet.
So far no one seems to have noticed.
Canadian lawmaker tears apart trump "Put a sock in it"--(his mouth)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/put-sock-canadian-lawmaker-tears-122845946.html
Angus — a member of the left-leaning New Democratic Party who serves in the Canadian Parliament — reacted to Trump calling Zelenskyy a “dictator,” an attack that stunned European allies and led to pushback from some Republicans as the U.S. looks to negotiate talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“To attack a leader like Zelenskyy, who has more moral fiber in his little toe than Donald Trump has in his entire body and his entire cabinet, is outrageous,” said Angus in an interview with Ben Meiselas of the MeidasTouch Network.
“Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shown the world what democracy means, Donald Trump is a convicted felon and a sexual pervert. Those two men shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence.”
Angus, who slammed Trump’s love for “gangster” Russian President Vladimir Putin, later referred to what an unnamed Eastern European colleague told him in response to Trump calling for a regime change in Ukraine.
“She said to me, ‘The Ukrainian people survived the Holodomor. The Ukrainian people survived Stalin. The Ukrainian people survived Chernobyl. They’ve survived Putin. Do you think that Donald Trump is going to break the Ukranian people?’” recalled Angus.
“So Donald, just put a sock in it for now.”
He continued by warning that Trump is going to do “enormous damage to democracy,” impacting both U.S. allies and the rest of the world as he tries to help his “criminal buddy” Putin.
“And the world will be forced, now, to treat America the way we treat Putin, and we are going to all have to pick up our game dramatically to defend democracy whether it’s in Ukraine or whether it’s in our own countries,” said Angus, who has previously knocked Trump over histariff threats.
Check out more of Angus’ interview with the MeidasTouch Network below.
Related...
Woman Accused Of Stealing $800K Worth Of Trump Crypto Token From Ex
Trump Continues Lying About Russian Invasion Of Ukraine Before Pro-Putin CPAC Crowd Trump Fires Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff
Bloodbath of non-white anchors at MSNBC following Joy Reid being forced out-racist trump--musk
The changes also signals MSNBC’s desire to lean into its progressive voice for its older viewers (its viewers’ median age is 70, according to The Wall Street Journal), even as Lazarus has reportedly wanted to appeal to more Republicans. The network has seen its primetime audience grow 77 percent since Trump’s inauguration last month after a nosedive following the election, and many of its programs have punched back at the Trump administration’s policies.
Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, called this "pre-emptive obedience."
From Irrawaddy--Myanmar junta signs raft of agreements with Russia--Dawei (Tavoy) SEZ.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/business/russian-economic-delegation-signs-raft-of-agreements-with-myanmar-junta.html
The Russian Ministry of Economic Development’s press release stated an agreement was signed to invest in the Dawei SEZ in Tanintharyi Region in southern Myanmar. The agreement includes Russian investment in construction of a port and an oil refinery in the SEZ, as reported by the Russian ministry and news agencies. This information was noticeably absent from the junta media reports.
At the meeting, Kan Zaw mentioned that Myanmar-Russia trade and investment partnerships have increased by leaps and bounds since the coup. He highlighted the opportunities for Myanmar to enter the European market by cooperating with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and for Russia to expand further into the Asian market. The EAEU is an economic bloc that includes five post-Soviet states: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
He invited Russian investors to collaborate in modernizing the transportation and manufacturing sectors,
. . .
Last month, a high-level delegation from Belarus, led by Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenknov and including business leaders, held economic discussions with coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and junta ministers. They discussed investment opportunities in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone, trade, and cooperation in other special economic zones. Belarus is one of the junta’s few allies along with Myanmar’s neighbors India and China, which are funding the regime with their investments and mega-projects in Myanmar.
end post/quote
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Rachel Maddow--PO shld not be political--3 days ago.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
WE fought so hard to keep our local PO then.
PO was saved by Amazon deliveries and now after Covid, everyone buys online--but Amazon Prime has its own trucks. Including friend of a friend who does Amazon delivery in his Mercedes--It's real. Reliable source.
Wonder what will happen now.
Much better--I can tell from the first few notes--Igmar Bergman movie The Magic Flute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufQxByt7dNM
Lovely Birdcatcher Papageno--
This is like a 12 out of 10,by a world famous director, staging and production of Mozart and Schikenedar's masterpiece, The Magic Flute.
I especially love "the walk through fire and water" near the end, which is like Tamino and Pamina going through Dante's Seven Layers of Hell--here only two.
Just beautiful, what more can I say.
Kyi May Kaung
2-23-2025
Joy Reid and Alex Wagner axed from MSNBC in major shakeup--
https://www.aol.com/entertainment/msnbc-chief-plans-evening-shake-100000715.html
Alex's grandparents were U Thant Gyi (not related to former UN Sec Gen U Thant) and Daw Mya Mya Thant Gyi, who Alex wrote in her bio was "racist".
Many Burmese are anti-Black--but not me.
km
How to prevent Google News from bringing up anything related to Trump or Musk
I wouldn't do tht, bc we need to know what monsters are doing but--
https://support.google.com/googlenews/thread/190097148/how-do-i-eliminate-any-mention-of-trump-or-musk-from-my-google-news?hl=en
Musk reveals 2 assassination attempts--hard to get through--2 nut jobs talking--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eaqlIkyKR4
didn't get to point where he supposedly revealed 2 assassination attempts--
Copied and pasted from Musk wiki--does not say much for his "trump loyalty."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Views_of_Elon_Musk
Elon Musk is the owner of multiple companies, the wealthiest individual in the world, and a special government employee. Having rejected the conservative label, Musk has described himself as a political moderate; his views have become more right-wing over time, and have been characterized as libertarian and far-right.[a] As the owner of Twitter, he has suppressed critics, and after his involvement in European politics, his views have received criticism from some world leaders. Musk has also expressed his opinion on topics from science and technology to religion and philosophy.
Within the context of American politics, Musk voted for Democratic candidates from 2008 until 2020, before switching to Republican candidates in 2022, and supporting Donald Trump in 2024 who he previously feuded with. He has identified as a "free speech absolutist" and has expressed support for universal basic income, gun rights, a tax on carbon emissions, and H-1B visas. Musk has been a critic of wealth tax, short-selling, government subsidies and Wikipedia, and expressed concern about the perceived dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change. He has criticized public transportation and transit systems, rejected labor unions, and is a pronatalist. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Musk defied lockdowns, describing them as "fascist", supported the Canada convoy protest against vaccine mandates, and made contentious epidemiological claims.
Musk has promoted conspiracy theories and made controversial statements that have led to accusations of sexism, antisemitism, transphobia, disseminating misinformation and disinformation, and support of white pride. While describing himself as a "pro-Semite", his comments regarding George Soros and Jewish communities have led to condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League and the White House. As an immigrant himself, Musk blames immigration policy for illegal immigration, has been described as anti-immigration, and has engaged in promoting misleading narratives regarding voter fraud.
Politics and elections
Musk has been described as being closely associated with techno-libertarians,[12][13] ideologically a libertarian authoritarian,[14][7] and has more recently been described as far-right in regards to European politics.[15]
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Quote from Time Magazine--
These are just the first ripples in a massive antigovernment wave. Budgets will be hacked. Valuable programs will be eliminated. Career civil servants will be purged, replaced with political appointees whose primary qualification is apparent fealty to the President. This is the course the electorate chose. And to many, the idea of one of the world’s most accomplished entrepreneurs attacking a sprawling, sclerotic federal bureaucracy with the same velocity and determination he brought to his car startup or rocket company is cause for celebration, not alarm. “The federal government is so big that there are surely significant opportunities for saving and efficiency,” says Robert Doar, president of the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank. “The fact that the President and his team is giving this a lot of attention is a good thing.”
Tis likely to end sooner rather than later, w M skewering T for good.
These are zero-sum players with absolutely no limits whatsover.
Their personalities are too similar and sensitive for it to be otherwise.
Excerpt copied and pasted from Irrawaddy--Probable 3 way alliance--scam centers, BGF and Junta--
https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/analysis/myanmar-juntas-hands-are-tied-in-scam-center-crackdown.html
To make matters worse, the KNU and People’s Defense Forces have captured Thingan Nyinaung operational command base and three battalions as well as hills near Myawaddy, effectively encircling the town. Junta units and administrative mechanisms in Myawaddy town have survived thanks to protection from Saw Chit Thu’s Karen BGF, but without it they will fall.
The Karen BGF has at least 8,000 troops including 2,000-3,000 in Myawaddy and Shwe Kokko. The regime is not in a position to confront them. It would lose Myawaddy if it came into conflict with Saw Chit Thu.
All the regime can do is admit to China and Thailand that it does not have control over Myawaddy. It may well be nervous that its murky dealings with Saw Chit Thu would he and the other BGF leaders are arrested.
Yet the scam problem cannot be resolved unless action is taken against Saw Chit Thu and the Karen BGF.
An estimated 100,000 people are involved in scam operations in Myawaddy alone. China wants to root out the compounds, but its stance on the Myanmar junta is inconsistent. It will be interesting to see whether China will insist on completely eliminating the fraud syndicates at the Myawaddy border or if it will be satisfied by a partial crackdown.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has so far only told state and regional chief ministers to take action against scam syndicates in their respective areas, but no concrete action has been seen.
Even after the Thai government suspended the two senior police officers, the regime remained silent and took no action against military and civilian officials in Myawaddy.
China, having witnessed the involvement of senior military and civilian administration officials in scam hubs in Laukkai near its border, will find it hard to believe that military and civilian officials are not involved.
Friday, February 21, 2025
Opinion--key illusions about Myanmar--
https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/commentary/reality-check-dispelling-some-key-illusions-about-myanmar.html
We don't even know if Aung San Suu Kyi is still alive.
Junta means to kill her with neglect/
Thriller--good--The Contractor--international hit man--former marine discharged for drug use
for knee injury.
4.5 out of 5 stars--my rating.
plot twist in the middle.
kmk
2-21-2025
One of the most serious recommendations, seen on Atlantic Council website, is that a "peninsula"
be made of Gaza rubble to "house" Palestinians.
1,600 Montgomery County, Prince George'sCounty layoffs in private sector due to trump musk
https://wjla.com/news/local/private-sector-federal-layoffs-doge-maryland-montgomery-county-job-loss-prince-goerges-dai-warn-workforce-adjustment-notification-contractors-livelihood-usaid
Strikes are continuing into March--incld e-purchase co-ordinated strikes.
AFP--China's sprawling rail projects across Asia
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/asia/chinas-sprawling-rail-projects-around-asia.html
In the 1970s my uncle U Shwe Shane worked for ECAFE/ESCAP in charge of Asia rail projects and it was sadness of his life that then Burma was not included.
Now it's again excluded.
At the beginning of WW II he was almost sent to the River Kwai by the Japanese (invasion).
kaung 2-21-2025
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Maurice--can only read the intro here.
https://archive.org/details/mauricenovel0000fors/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater
Wrote it but only published after his death.
Movie--Maurice--based on novel by E M Forster--homosexuality, British high society--
quite sad, but beautifully written,acting superb, as well as casting.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Movie+Muarice--yiutube#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:8bba179c,vid:5e9Mdy73jH0,st:0
Free on Youtube.
Reminds me of so many things I have heard.
Better than the cowboy movie based on the short story by E Annie Proulx.
EAP said she wrote her story after she saw a gay couple in a bar.
kmk
2-21-2025
New Sci fi--
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Garden/6DwWEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA2&printsec=frontcover
This one a bit too slow for me.
This one (5) below better.
https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Apocalypse-Romance-After-Plague/dp/B08KJQCPXG?asin=B08KJQCPXG&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1
Myanmar Thai Border scam centers--Yeni interviews Jason Tower.
But those BGF leaders need access to the Thai border, and it would basically cut off their ability to go across the border. And I imagine at some point Interpol could become involved. It could be a new source of potential tensions between the Myanmar military and the Thai government.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/in-person/interview/how-the-game-is-changing-for-scam-centers-on-the-myanmar-thai-border.html
I think he said systemically,not systematically.
Border Guard Forces are the problem and junta is probably getting a cut too.
It's like 2004 when Khin Nyunt and coterie were purged, involvement with the Northern opium warlords.
It's like the Burmese saying, The monkey you put on a pedestal is scaring you now.
kmk
2-20-2025
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Roman Polanski movie--very sad--The Ghost Writer--International intrigue, war crimes,
CIA, FBI, academics (faux) murders--why does it feel so familiar.
Actor, Pierce Brosnan.
She's written 3 novels besides holding down these high profile jobs and had a baby at 51.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolle_Wallace#:~:text=Wallace%20married%20American%20businessman%2C%20former,and%20Mark%20divorced%20in%202019.
I actually know a Burmese woman who had a baby via donor sperm, after her fiance married someone else on racial grounds.
I have known 3 couples who broke up, 2 of the 3 on racial or religious grounds.
But there was also an international couple, at first of different religions as well as nationalities, who married till death did them part.
I thought I married someone similar to me, but in the end we were quite different.
--Except for my own life,which I can chop up into fiction any way I wish,I abandoned the other cases in fiction as I don't really write non-fiction, and the role models became cases in failure.
But I also know a former Jesuit priest and a nursing sister who had to apply for dispensation from the Pope to marry and are still together--
This story I may write someday, transposing them to Burma, Sagaing region.
This couple acted as my surrogate family when I had no job,no money, no country and no passport and my scholarship was cut off in 1988.
So all of you out there who think yourselves qualified to criticize me, think again.
"You know nothing,John Snow," said the girl from the North of the Wall, whom the bastard Snow was in love with in Game of Thrones by GRR Martin--
https://www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Song-Fire-Book/dp/0553386794
I like about the first 3 books--after that the story gets too"spread out," too many characters--
I like the "ice"portions,the "water"portions less.
kmk
2-19-2025
Old Burmese saying--The monkey you yourself put on a pedestal
will come back surely to haunt you.
Ko hmyauk te myauk
koe pyan chauk.
Translation copyright
Kyi May Kaung.
Monkey Mandala--free image from Pixabay
2-19-2025
Hopefully trump musk will break up soon--
https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-says-unfair-us-if-musk-builds-factory-india-2025-02-19/
Musk's son X reportedly shouted "Close your mouth" at trump in the oval office, according to The Independent.
TNLA says Chinese brokered talks have failed, after only 2 days during which junta continued to bomb--
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/politics/tnla-peace-talks-with-myanmar-junta-have-failed.html
The Chinese point man himself shut down the talks.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy--brilliant politician, world leader, strategist, commander in chief.
WE WISH HIM LONG LIFE and an equally brilliant future and peace for his country on Ukraine terms.
There's going to be a world-wide economic depression,increased poverty, dangerous virsuses while research and vaccine development by NIH is cut off--Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid cuts.
Who will benefit--the very rich--
There will probably be widespread violence such as wars and revolutions.
My friend was always Wharton,Wharton,Wharton--
but she wasn't really interested in Commerce or Business-she was interested in Women's Studies and Islam.
I am and was interested in Political Science, economics and after my Ph.D. in Creative Writing--
I moved my subject matter in secret. I am happy were I am.
Oddly enough, all 3 of them attended Univ of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Ecos.
But I was in School of Arts and Science.
My friend who went to Wharton did not get her Ph.D.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Good Reads competitor--Story Graph--worth a try.
I've never used Good Reads.
I Google my books and movies.
Google is owned by Sundar Pichai
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/16/goodreads-amazon-nadia-odunayo-the-storygraph
Monday, February 17, 2025
Depressing movie, based on real life, called All the Good Things--should be called All the Bad Things--
New York real estate family,murders.
Dissemble, dissent, divest, divert, take a deep dive--take your lessons from
the Resistance against Hitler and Mussolini, the present Burmese Resistance.
Don't swallow lies whole.
In the end, who won?
Myan junta criticizes Argentina arrest warrant--
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/world/myanmar-junta-criticizes-argentina-arrest-warrant.html
Htin Kyaw and Daw AungSan Suu Kyi also included in the warrant.
m a h co. will have nowhere to run to.
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Aung San Suu Kyi in Bath? UK - in days before 1988 - from her supporter on Internet. Our Petition is now at 73 signatures. Please help us r...
