What Trump’s actions show is that globalization is over.... Nations must form empires again and secure their strategic space and resources. The world has woken up and is preparing for this new age. If you do not possess a resource at home, or lack direct access to it and the military capability to defend that access and the transport routes then you are dependent on the goodwill of others. The so-called “free and open market” no longer exists. The global Walmart cop has retired. Free, secure, reliable, and cheap global transport may soon be a thing of the past. The world is wide awake and adapting. Europe, meanwhile, reacts with one-sided moral outrage. Geopolitical actions are still interpreted through the outdated ideology of the unipolar moment, judged morally by whether one likes or dislikes the regime being changed. Europe needs to wake up from its liberal, post-political slumber. We are no longer an isolated island between two blocs. We are no longer an economic eunuch living as an adorable pet in the golden cage of a Pax Americana. But the current elites refuse to wake up. They want to become the world police themsevles now - a globocop without a gun. When they speak belligerently about “defending Europe,” they do not mean defending European peoples, national identities, or national interests. They mean defending liberal universalism. They are fanatics of a cargo cult. They are incapable of responding to modern challenges or operating in a de-globalized world. They hate Trump and Putin primarily but because they think they shattered their beautiful dream of globalization out of bad will. They were just reading the signs earlier and rugpulled the unipolar world with imperial politics. Now our elites want to make it the White European man’s burden to rebuild a utopia that never existed in the first place. To get us in line they copy paste a few Vril-Edits, beat their chests and clamor about the "evil" rest of the world. I stand by my words. The real enemy is within. The greatest threat to national survival and European sovereignty is our current rotten, imbecile, unattractiv and stupid elite. Every day they are in power longer, they're losing more European soil, resources, power, lives, and ethnocultural heritage. They must go. Only then can we consolidate, build a Fortress Europe, begin remigration, and return as a sovereign player in the great game. PS: This edits are our culture, not your costume.show more

We are already at war. Not with rifles or... tanks, but with replacement. This is conquest by other means, through the slow erasure of a people who no longer recognize they are being conquered. That is why I write—to remind my people that we are not living in peace, but in the midst of a war waged without banners. The invasion is not declared with armies but with flights and boats, birthrates and welfare rolls. It is demographic warfare, calculated, continuous, and increasingly irreversible. A people, and a civilization, does not need to be burned to the ground to fall. It only needs to be replaced. Throughout the Western world, we are witnessing not mere immigration but a deliberate population transformation, one that has been rationalized by moral cowardice and enforced by political elites who have long since abandoned the idea that their nations belong to their people. What you mock as conquest is already underway, and unlike the conquests of old, it comes with the full consent of those in power. But I do not write in surrender. I write as a warning, as an act of resistance. My writing is meant to exhort and to enliven, to reawaken what has been buried beneath shame and silence. It is a summons to remember, to reclaim, and to rebuild. We are in an existential struggle, not only for our land, but for our survival, and thus for the future itself. Those who sneer at the loss will one day find there is nothing left to sneer at. A people who forget that they exist will be replaced by those who do not. You may call this natural. So be it. Then let nature return, red in tooth and claw, and let the sons of Europe remember who they are.show more

The West is not dying. It is being killed,... and the names of the traitors are known. They occupy our capitals, infest our courts, pollute our newsrooms, and preach in our churches. They open the gates, kneel before the foreigner, and smirk as their own blood is driven from the land. They mock the fallen, defile the heroic, and spit on the blood that raised every city worth defending. They are not misguided. They are not mistaken. They are the enemy. They must be treated as such. For too long, we have been ruled by cowards, “men without chests,” by merchants loyal to nothing but the dollar, by liars who speak of progress while presiding over decay. A new generation now rises, armed not with apologies but with the fire of remembrance, with the memory of what we once were and the will to become greater still. We do not ask permission. We do not seek approval. We will reclaim what is ours, because no one else will. Victory will not come through debate. It will come through discipline, through will, through the unbreakable decision to endure, to outlast, and to return to the excellence and greatness that befit our people. We do not need millions. We require only a vanguard: men of loyalty, endurance, and resolve, hardened by truth and unmoved by fear. I say this not for approval, nor is it offered in hope of a reply, but in the spirit of doing what must be done. It is a promise made in full knowledge of what must come. The time of submission draws to a close. The age of reconquest begins. Let the traitors tremble. Let the weak, the feckless, and the unworthy fall away. The future belongs to those with the strength and the daring to seize it.show more

The Australian government does not deserve our trust, or... our respect. Today, Minister Penny Wong sat back in her chair grappling for words, desperately looking for the right lie to tell. It is worse than dishonest - it is an absolute lack of care. Penny Wong came to this country when she was 8 years old. She came to a country that afforded her the ability to become who she is, and she is now doing her part to destroy it. Back in the 70’s, when she came, Australia was a fair-minded place and a great place to be. Yet here she is... Here in Australia. Undermining our country and lying to our faces. Because she can’t tell the truth. Because if she did, it would destroy any semblance of care for Australia tied to her old party’s Labor brand. It would say the quiet part out loud. The truth. The truth that the Albanese government is more interested in the fortunes of the ISIS brides, women who chose to leave this country to go and fight against our people, than those of us that can’t find or afford a place to live here at home. I am tired of being told how to think by people that completely lack morals and couldn’t care less. People that are elected and paid to operate in the national interest but always put their twisted ethics and back pockets ahead of our nation and our people. I don’t know when Labor stopped caring about Australian workers or worse, when they started hating Australia, but they have and they do. The absolute lack of opposition, the lack of authentic choice has pushed us into a place where these absolute traitors to the interests of the people who pay them - goes entirely unchecked. We are careening out of control, unchecked migration, an energy grid that is just about to collapse, no industry to speak of, and no good reason to start or maintain a business in this place. It happened fast, but those of us who pay our taxes and take risks to make Australia a better place, are being undermined and white-anted by our politicians. The people we are forced to trust, and must pretend to respect, because they have the force of law on their side. Not because they are any good at their jobs. Not because they have earned our affection. No. Simply because they are in charge and there is little to nothing that can be done about it. It is becoming apparent that the two party system has outlived its useful life. Too much corruption, too many words too carefully chosen in a pantomime between to political forces that don’t really want to change anything. They just want to have their go, to have their turn to jam their grubby hands into the till. Surely with this major and catastrophic failure by the so-called Honourable Minister Senator Wong, the people will be able to see through the veil and into the absolute and irresponsible lack of care at the heart of this deceitful Labor government. They lie about everything, and they can, because they don’t have an opposition worthy of the title. I am growing more confident by the day that the only solution to our woes is a new political force, a fresh, Australia first force, that will act in the national interest and put all these corrupt and useless used-car salesmen red and blue in the dustbin of history. It can’t come soon enough. Time is short. I just want Australia back.show more

This is what men with low self esteem who... are not confident in their sexuality do in their free time. They are so scared of being called "gay" or are not sure if they might be that they have to prove to the world and themselves that they are not. This is not a turn-on for women by the way. At least not any I have ever met.show more

Every day it becomes more apparent that Europe is... being ☪️onquered. Turkish immigrants in Europe have long been underestimated. They are a political force. Make no mistake: Turkey is not “moderate”. They just delivered drones and electronic warfare systems to Islamist TERR0RISTS in Sudan which is a direct THREAT to Europe. Muslim immigrants in the West support this. They are NOT loyal to us. This warmongering exacerbates the greatest displacement crisis in the world. We are at risk of importing more Jihadists. Did you know about the Turkish lobby?show more

Our female warriors do not ask for "equality", they... demand victory. From the borders of the south to the thickets of the north, they are the watchers on the towers and the thunder in the field. They have traded the comfort of home for the grit of the front lines, proving that the soul of a Jewish warrior knows no gender only duty. In the Middle East, our enemies view women as property to be hidden or trophies to be taken. In Israel, we view them as the shield of the nation. They are the daughters of Deborah and the heirs of Yael, standing between our children and the savages who wish us gone. To the world, they are soldiers. To us, they are the heartbeat of our survival. If you want to know why we are invincible, look at the women who carry the weight of an entire nation on their backs without blinking. STOP SCROLLING AND SALUTE THE LIONESSES OF THE IDF! SHARE THIS TO SHOW THE WORLD THAT THE DAUGHTERS OF ISRAEL ARE BRAVER, STRONGER, AND MORE DEFIANT THAN THE ENEMY COULD EVER IMAGINE. AM YISRAEL CHAI! 🇮🇱🦁🔥show more

🚨 BREAKING: Secretary of State of Marco Rubio has... just stunned the world, launching a plan to DESTROY the International Criminal Court (ICC) threats to American sovereignty Marco just confirmed it: NO GLOBALIST JUDGE HAS ANY AUTHORITY OVER AMERICANS, "international law" has NO EFFECT in the USA 🇺🇸 "As we speak, the ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes and compacts and the force of so-called international law!" "They believe that they should be in charge of YOUR laws, of YOUR country, YOUR life, and they don't care whether or not you agree." "Halfway across the world, there's an institution that calls itself the International Criminal Court. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't. The chances are you don't know the names of its judges, of its prosecutors, or its president!" "It was a global tribunal staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claimed their power is almost unlimited. The danger of this global court has only continued to grow." "It threatens every aspect of our political and legal system. Border Patrol agents removing violent criminals from our country, American Marines risking their lives to defend our homeland, prosecutors working to dismantle terrorist plots to attack and kill Americans." "If we stand idle, all of them would be at the mercy of foreign judges thousands of miles away facing the constant risk of prosecution and even imprisonment for the so-called crime of defending their own country." "The American people never agreed to any of this, and they never will. Read the words of our Declaration of Independence. We fought a revolution against a foreign power transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses!" "Independence is our birthright. We will never let foreign bureaucrats take that away from us. This administration will not sit by as the ICC and its allies seek to threaten our people." "If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty, we will teach them the full meaning of American resolve." BASED.show more

This isn’t about praying. This is a deliberate show... of power and dominance. They don’t do this shit in their home countries. They don’t block streets to pray in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, or anywhere else in the Muslim world. They know better. They only pull this in Western countries they see as weak and ripe for the taking Canada, the UK, Australia, and the USA. They know our politicians and police are too spineless and too busy virtue signalling to stop them. So they test the limits. They block roads, take over public spaces, and demand special treatment while the rest of us are told to shut up and accept it. This isn’t integration. This is a slow, calculated takeover and our leaders are holding the door wide open for them!show more

For over 40 days, the regime’s mouthpieces and their... apologists have been screaming "war crime," desperate to convince the world that a girls' school in Minab was targeted by us and Israel. They want you to picture shattered classrooms. They want you to see them as victims. Now look at the actual footage. A citizen from the occupied coast of Minab just clawed through forty six days of an absolute internet blackout to smuggle this out. Look at what is looming right over the courtyard of the Shajareh Tayyebeh school. That is a military guard tower. That is an IRGC Navy installation built directly into the perimeter of a playground. These cowards did not build a school. They built a military garrison and wrapped it in the flesh of our daughters. They planted their armed watchtowers directly over the heads of innocent girls, intentionally turning children into human shields to protect their occupying syndicate. You want to talk about war crimes? The true crime is an occupying army hiding its weapons behind the bodies of little girls because they are terrified of the fire they started. They can cry to the international cameras all they want. We see exactly what they are doing. We know exactly what they are hiding behind, and we are going to tear it down to the dirt.show more

This is the day america underwent a coup, and... ever since, every administration has refused to release the documents detailing what really happened and the true scale of CIA involvement. Now lets speculate for a moment. What do you think happens if those documents are released and it confirms exactly what people have said for decades? What would this mean for the american empire? It would invalidate and bring question upon every single presidency that came after, and suggest they are involved directly in the coup and it's cover up. I think they understand this danger, and is one of the major underlying reasons why they are so desperate to smear Robert F. Kennedy Jr . He's their greatest threat, and if they kill a 3rd Kennedy, there will no longer be any doubt that there is a deep state CIA death cult killing kennedys for going after them and trying to end their power. As much as we all want to know the truth of JFK assassination, we must also remember that if those documents are released, all our lives and the world will be changed forever. Something to think about.show more

We are not equals. We are not peers. We... are the heirs of conquerors, builders, and visionaries. The blood of the West forged every high form in history. Without us, there is no science, no state, no art, no order. No modern world itself! The most pathetic truth our enemies refuse to confront is that, even at their peak, they will never be us. Not in mind, not in form, not in spirit. They will never know the glory carried in the veins of even the lowest-born White man. That knowledge haunts them. It drives their hatred. It fuels their every act of sabotage and subversion. This is not about grievance or fairness. It is about superiority. Theirs is not critique; it is resentment—impotent, envious, and utterly, and pathetically servile. And we must not merely ignore it. We must crush it. We must disabuse them of the lie that they can stand beside us, replace us, or rule over us. No more tolerance for those who seek to destroy what they can never create. No more patience for those who gnash their teeth at beauty, strength, and excellence. The age of apology is over. The age of reckoning begins. Hail Victory.show more

⚠️ LEAKED FOOTAGE OF THE FIRST REAL MEDBED UNIT... ⚠️ THE TECHNOLOGY THEY HID FROM HUMANITY FOR DECADES IS NO LONGER IN THE DARK. THIS DEVICE WAS RESERVED ONLY FOR ELITES, BLACK PROJECT OPERATIVES, AND BILLIONAIRE FAMILIES — WHILE THE WORLD SUFFERED. THEY USED IT TO REGENERATE ORGANS. THEY USED IT TO ERASE DISEASE. THEY USED IT TO EXTEND THEIR LIVES. AND THEY NEVER INTENDED TO SHARE IT WITH YOU. BUT THAT ERA IS OVER. THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FORCED OPEN THE CLASSIFIED PROGRAMS, BROKE THE CONTRACTS OF BIG PHARMA, AND EXPOSED THE TECHNOLOGY DESIGNED TO HEAL THE WORLD. WHAT YOU SEE IN THIS VIDEO IS NOT A CONCEPT — IT IS A WORKING MEDBED. A QUANTUM HEALING PLATFORM CAPABLE OF CELL REPAIR, DNA RESTORATION, AND FULL-BODY REGENERATION AT THE ATOMIC LEVEL. THIS IS THE TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL END THE AGE OF DISEASE. THIS IS THE MOMENT HUMANITY TAKES BACK WHAT WAS STOLEN. THE MEDBED ERA BEGINS NOW. RESERVATIONS ARE OPEN FOR THE FIRST PUBLIC ACCESS WINDOW. ENTER THE GRID BELOW TO SECURE YOUR POSITION: 👉 THE FUTURE OF HEALING IS NO LONGER SECRET. IT IS YOURS. #MEDBED #QUANTUMHEALING #TERAHERTZ #SCALARTECH #DNAREPAIR #ENDOFBIGPHARMA #TRUMP2025 #HUMANITYRISING #HEALINGREVOLUTION #THEGREATREVEALshow more

Keir Starmer announced a “Coalition of the Willing &... promises boots on the ground and planes in the air” Where have we heard that before? Been saying it for days..GET AHEAD OF THIS NOW EVERYONE IN TRUMPS CIRCLE. This is a ruse..they are attempting to escalate and cause issues & distractions for President Trump to prevent him from continuing his mission here at home in returning the power of the republic to the people. This should have been obvious when Zelensky sabotaged the deal in the Oval on camera. They are trying to remove the power from Trump’s control. Trump has started taking power back in America from THE MACHINE. Now they are pivoting and consolidating their efforts in Europe. The EU/UK is the last bastion of the NWO, they don’t want anyone looking into Ukraine financials. The politician are owned by their masters over there & WANT BOOTS ON THE GROUND FOR A REICHSTAG FIRE like event. They will false flag us right into WW3. They are trying to box him in with a promise to defend the “coalition” NO TROOPS. NO PLANES. If they want to go destroy Russia themselves on that continent go do it yourselves. We have America to caretake. “America goes not abroad …in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all” - John Q Adamsshow more

Dear Nigerians, "Patriotism means to stand by the country.... It does not mean to stand by the president." ~Theodore Roosevelt On this national scale, if the mass number of Nigerians are suffering, their lives and properties in jeopardy, it is okay to speak up, call a spade a spade and stop this gov from leading us astray. Now more than ever, we must unite. We must unite against the ruiners of Nigeria before they bury what is left of her. Organization is the first primary weapon of the oppressed. This is the only weapon we are yet to explore, and we can not explore this until we unite. The oppressed Nigerians must organize to form a force against the ruiners of Nigeria and take back our country to have a system that is for the benefit of the Nigerian people and not a few in the position of power. President will come and go, only the people will remain. Don't give those in power today to play politics with your future. Let's unite, not necessary as one but as a team. A team with different skills, languages culture, religion and tradition, but one CAUSE regardless of our tribal differences to stand against the common enemy who have now shown to be a curse on our very own existence as an amazing people of this great nation. ~OIA✊🏿show more

Pauline Hanson is now the preferred Prime Minister, as... the establishment reels in shock. They did it to themselves. First the Liberals, and now Labor. They followed each other down the path to oblivion. There’s an old saying, “you have two ears and one mouth”, a sign that you should listen twice as much as you speak. But instead, the establishment just preached at us. They shamed and attacked us. They forgot us, and worse, ignored us completely. They gave each other jobs and titles as they pretended we admired them as much as they admire themselves. The establishment misread the rise of the Teals as a total rejection of social conservativism and personal ambition. Of a detest for masculinity and the total embrace of the politics of climate and mass immigration. But it wasn’t that. It was a frustration with the status-quo; an anger at the captured Liberal establishment, which made them almost indistinguishable from Labor. Albanese’s great appeal was that he was not Morrison, and Dutton actually looked somehow less prepared. But it was never a great embrace. It was more of a, “well I guess it’s you then”. Labor don’t really have a mandate for change, but they are convinced that Australians are a bunch of jealous fools that are too stupid to see the total erosion of our freedoms and way of life. Those in power are too blind to notice that everything they talk about and touch has set us backwards. But we see them. Albanese is just about the most inarticulate and incompetent Prime Minister we’ve ever had, and his vision for Australia does not extend beyond his comfortable, taxpayer funded retirement on the beach. The self-interest of the establishment is at record levels, and rather than listen, adapt and fix the problems they've caused, they just double down. And double down again. Both sides have grown transactional and prefer to shoot their messengers. They expel and slander those who have tried to do the right thing over the last decade, and now both sides are left with a talentless pool of transactional twits. There is not a capable government to be formed between them, and their time is up. I don’t think it will matter what Pauline Hanson says or does between now and the election, her popularity will continue to climb as she looks less and less like them… and they panic their way into helping her do that. The public have had enough, and Hanson is their pathway to showing the world that the Australian establishment is done. This is the beginning of a long journey to a more informed electorate and a better government. It has begun. We are going to get Australia back.show more

The political establishment in Australia is not entirely stupid,... they just think you are. As they lament the rise of One Nation, they pretend they don't understand it. Because if they showed us that they understand the resons, they then have to make a major admission. Hanson's rise is all their fault. Because the major parties and the faux independents have been on a unity ticket on all of the big problems they have jointly caused for decades. They can’t hide from the messes they have caused, so now they want to blame everyone else but themselves. Today, on ABC’s Insiders, Annabel Crab belled the cat, as Karvelas did the two step crab walk. Annabel correctly diagnoses the political situation here right now. It is not a love for Hanson, or One Nation that is causing the surge, but a total lack of faith in the other offerings. It almost does not matter what Hanson says or does, because her greatest strengths are that she is there, and she is not one of them. Those are enduring traits and the more the major parties hit her, the more the media carry on about her, and the more the establishment present her as a “deplorable”, the more people they will push in her direction. It is like they are in quicksand... the more they struggle, the deeper they sink. People are growing ready for wild political change. A worsening economy and a growing collapse in social cohesion has put the nation on edge. The big end of town want to pretend everything will be fine when the latest special envoy delivers their newest report, but nothing changes. Nothing changes because nothing is supposed to change. Because the government, the opposition and their Green Teal cheer squads want things just the way they are. They didn’t just pass all of the enabling legislation for no reason. There are real beneficiaries of these things, it is just that none of the beneficiaries are the Australian people. Australians have broadly been the target of the changes made to benefit foreign interests, the political class and major corporations. We have been targeted for so long it is impossible not to feel the cross-hairs of the scope resting on our forehead. Hanson and her team simply have to talk about that feeling... they don’t even have to have a solution. Because when the establishment continues to pretend the problems don't exist, just acknowledging the pain is enough to earn a vote. Annabel nails this sentiment in just a few words. Right as Karvelas changes the subject, because it is not that this isn’t obvious, it is because Karvelas is there to cover it up, and hit Hanson’s credibility again. Fuelling the vicious cycle of the rise of the outsider. Unless something significant changes in the establishment, and I don’t expect it will, there will be major upheaval at the next election. Most people will not be voting for their favourite party or person, they will primarily be voting against the status quo, because in their minds, it could not possibly be worse than what we have experienced for decades... but it just might be a little bit better. And that is a risk worth taking. After all most of us like a punt. I just want Australia back.show more

Message to Kurds Around the World As you know,... this new Syria regime is a terrorist regime. It is allied with ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and it is not a professional army that understands the meaning of a ceasefire or human rights. They attack whenever they need money from Turkey. The war against us is fully coordinated by Turkey. Jolani is a puppet of Turkey with no power. There are 105,000 fighters who are Turkey’s proxy terrorists from 19 countries in Syria. They are attacking us day and night with the help of the Turkish army and drones. There is a continuous, nonstop war. Join us on the front line.show more

They started with 50. Now they say they’re 18,000... In 1996 there were fewer than 50 of them. Today, according to the organizers, up to 18,000 walked through Copenhagen. From Dronning Louises Bro to the Imam Ali Mosque. Look at the curve. This is how it happens. First a handful. Then a few hundred. Then it fills a bridge, a district, a capital. A little at a time, until it is no longer a little. And let me be fair, because fairness is the point. There is nothing strange about them holding this mourning procession. They have done it as part of their faith for more than a thousand years. It is theirs, and they believe in it. There is nothing strange about that at all. What should stop us is the other half. There is nothing strange about Europe allowing it either, and that is exactly the problem. Europe allows it because Europe has forgotten who it is. A people that remembers what it stands for does not need to ban anything, it simply knows where its own line runs. We have lost that. And so the issue was never them. The issue is us. Now look at what actually moved through the streets. Men in front. Women in the second row. That is not a detail, that is the whole point. It is a view of women set into a system and marched out into the public square, in a city where generations fought for women and men to stand as equals. The real question is not whether people may believe what they want. They may. The question is why our capital should cultivate a political law-religion that commemorates a 7th-century power struggle by dividing people by sex on Nørrebrogade. One of the organizers is the Imam Ali Mosque, repeatedly described as the Iranian regime’s extended arm in Denmark. The same regime that hangs women and young men from cranes. We are not importing culture. We are importing a system. And we let it grow, not because they are strong, but because we forgot why we were. First a little. Then a lot. Then too late.show more

Today I was visiting the exceptionally beautiful Plantin-Moretus Museum... in Antwerp, Belgium (one of the only museums in the world that is itself listed as UNESCO World Heritage), which is one of the oldest printing shops in Europe, with the oldest surviving printing presses in the world. I stumbled upon an old 16th century atlas - written in Old French - and I was pretty amused to read their understanding of China at the time, which was surprisingly accurate, maybe even more than today's! A translation of some of the most interesting passages: - They call it "China" in French (it's now called "Chine") and they write that the locals call it "Tangis", which probably refers to the Tang dynasty but which is strange given that by the 16th century the dynasty had already ended for about 600 years - They write that to its North China is bordered by "tartares" (which I guess means Mongols) whom they describe as "very warlike people from whom it is separated by a wall made by hand" - The Chinese work ethic was already legendary: "those who live there are not at all lazy but devoted to labor and work, because it is there a shameful thing to be idle" - They share a number which must have seemed astonishing at the time: "in the city of Canton, one of the smallest in the entire country, some ten or twelve thousand ducks are eaten daily at table". And then they marvel during a good proportion of the text about the abundance of food in the country, which probably made a big impression on travelers at the time. - They write that "there are in this kingdom two hundred and forty famous cities, whose names end in this syllable FU which means a city: like Cantonfu, Panquifu: the small towns, which are in great number, end in CHEU [undoubtedly refers to "zhou"]. There are infinite villages, heavily populated, because of the continuous agriculture." - China's infrastructure and engineering capabilities were also already legendary at the time: "The city gates have entrances magnificently and marvelously well made, the streets are made level, not sloping this way or that, but following their straight line. They are so wide that ten or fifteen men on horseback can march abreast and are everywhere marked and separated by triumphal arches that marvelously ornament the cities. Portuguese say they saw in the city of Fuchco [probably Fuzhou] a tower set on forty solid marble pillars, the height of which was forty palms (masonry measure) and the width twelve: that this work is so grand, so exquisitely made, so beautiful to see, so sumptuous and so pleasing that it far surpasses all the magnificent buildings of all Europe." - Already at the time, China was very wary of safeguarding its sovereignty: ""[The Chinese] rarely or never leave their country and do not easily let foreigners enter it, especially into the interior of the province, unless they first have safe conduct from the king." - On moral and cultural habits: "They put adulterers to death. There are no brothels in the cities, all manner of prostitutes being sent to the suburbs. They celebrate their weddings at the time of the new moon and around the month of March which is their first day of the new year, and they make these celebrations, like us, very magnificently. They show themselves valiant in banquets and entertainments, in which they owe nothing to the Flemings or the Germans. They eat at tables like us in Europe, on chairs or on benches, and not on the ground as other peoples of Asia do." - On justice: "Bandits and murderers are kept in perpetual prison. Theft, which is a very odious crime, is punished by whip strokes in this manner: they put a man belly down, tie his hands behind him, striking him on the fleshy part of the legs with a whip made of reeds or canes." - On China's naval capabilities at the time: "This kingdom has an infinite number of ships, galleys and vessels of all sorts, with which they cross the seas and rivers. So much so that when they want to show through vainglory the power of their king, they are accustomed to say in a common proverb that he can make a bridge of ships joined together, which can reach and extend from China to Malacca, which is a distance of five hundred leagues and more." - On the emperor and China not being warlike (already back then): "All this region is subject to a single king, like a monarch; whom they call lord of the world and son of the sun. He holds court at Paquin [Beijing], which is a city toward Tartary. He never leaves it, except in time of war. It is said that when he makes war on the Tartars he leads an army of three hundred thousand soldiers and two hundred thousand horses, although it is also said that this nation is not very warlike. This king has under him fifteen very large provinces, which they call governments, and he alone surpasses in power all the other neighboring princes of Asia; and his annual revenues exceed all the riches of Europe. Antonio Pigafetta [the chronicler of Magellan's voyage] calls this king the most powerful of all the universal earth and says that the royal city is fortified and ramparted with seven walls, having ten thousand soldiers for the guard, and that the king commands seventy other crowns of the royal diadem [likely refering to the tributary state system]." Reading these passages, it seems that the further we've come in our ability to know China, the more obscured our vision seems to have become. These 16th century observers, working with fragments brought back by explorers, merchants and missionaries, managed to capture the essential - the industriousness, the engineering mastery, the administrative sophistication, the careful sovereignty. They approached their subject with the humility of the genuinely curious. They had no framework to force China into, no predetermined narrative to fulfill. They simply watched, counted ducks in Canton, measured city walls, and wrote it down. Their errors were errors of transmission - a dynasty name lingering centuries past its time, numbers perhaps inflated through retelling - but the spirit was one of simply describing unknown territory, not to convince anyone of anything. Today however, drowning in information, we're somehow seeing less of what's there and more of what we expect to find. Each observation must fit into existing narratives, serve predetermined conclusions, advance familiar arguments. So much so that we must ask ourselves: have we actually moved backward from those 16th chroniclers? Maybe we need to re-learn to approach China - and others in general - like those old cartographers, pen in hand, ready to be surprised? What might we discover if we stopped explaining and started counting ducks again?show more

Whether they stay or go, the Islamic Republic has... a scorched earth policy. See video. The important thing here is how the regime reacts to threats. As this regime comes to an end, the promise to leave the people of Iran nothing but a barren wasteland is very real. No question they would love the US administration to carry out what they were planning on doing to themselves anyway. The tragedy here is the regime plan to survive even at the cost of whatever happens to their citizens. It matters little if the country burns so long as they stay in power. Human life, prosperity and the future of a nation are all expendable in service of the ideology they perpetuate and seek to export. What is wholly unacceptable is with bombs and missiles overhead, IRGC officials being picked off one by one, that even in these apocalyptic circumstances the regime is STIIL arresting and STILL torturing and STILL executing its own citizens. That should tell you all you need to know. The world cannot afford complacency. This regime must be confronted and dismantled with urgency.show more