Starship Rocket Booster Re-Caught by Musk's Chopsticks

               (Staff article from the ABC NEWS AUS on 14 October 2024.)

SpaceX's mechanical 'arms' successfully catch Starship rocket booster back at launch pad, marking engineering milestone: Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully managed to "catch" the booster rocket from its Starship spacecraft back on the launching pad about seven minutes after take-off.

Recycling the booster rockets for SpaceX's smaller Falcon 9 rockets has saved the company millions. What's next? NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade, and SpaceX eventually intends to use it to send people to Mars.

SpaceX pulled off its boldest test flight yet of the enormous Starship rocket on Sunday, catching the returning booster back at the launch pad with mechanical arms. Towering almost 121 metres tall, the empty Starship blasted off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas near the US-Mexican border.

Cut-5-Cuts: China Blockading MNDAA the Kokang-Army!

 (Concise translation of Thuta Zaw’s article from MYANMAR NOW on 4 October 2024.)

MNDAA the Kokang Army has recently declared, as the obivious response to China’s relentless pressure, that its members are now being prohibited from travelling to the Western Nations especially the US, and the ASEAN nations. The MNDAA also prohibited all their members from meeting or discussing the crucial matters with those nations.

That is in addition to its declaration stopping all collaboration, either politics or military, with US-aligned NUG (NLD’s exile National Unity Government based in US) or any international organization that opposed China, in early September this year. But China wants more than those written assurances from seemingly recalcitrant MNDAA. China wants the Kokang Army to withdraw from the prized Lashio City they captured from Myanmar Army this year on July 25.

To force MNDAA to meet that impossible demand China has been severely blockading the Kokang Territory as their so-called Cut-5-Cuts Operation along the Chinese Border since last September. Strictly No Electricity, No Water, No Internet, No crucial supplies such as rice, fuel, medicines, and essential-consumables, and No Cross-border Movement. The whole Kokang-China border has been tight shut by a division of PLA, the People Liberation Army.

War in Arakan (Yakhine) State: 2023-2024,OCT

 (Based on the AA’s WIKIPEDIA Page and IRRAWADDY’s Yakhine War Video.)

The Arakan Army (AA) and its civilian wing the United League of Arakan (UAL) were founded in 2009 and quickly became one of Myanmar's strongest rebel groups. They fought against Myanmar Army and gained territory in northern Rakhine State and Paletwa Township in southern Chin State by 2020.

The Arakan Army then announced a unilateral ceasefire in November 2020 to facilitate voting in the 2020 general election. After the resurgence of civil war by 2021 Coup, the Arakan Army focused more on expanding their administrative capabilities. However, over the 2022 monsoon season, the ceasefire broke down. With the military's attention diverted to the increasing resistance elsewhere and increasing popular support for an alliance with the NUG, the AA sought to expand its influence into southern Rakhine.

On 26 November 2022, the Arakan Army and the Myanmar junta agreed to a temporary ceasefire brokered by Yōhei Sasakawa of the Nippon Foundation. Arakan Army spokespeople maintained that they agreed to the ceasefire for humanitarian reasons, as opposed to international pressure. The Arakan Army did not withdraw from fortifications held at the time of the ceasefire.

‘Two lions in a cave’: Divisions in Chin State

 (Angshuman Choudhury’s article from The FRONTIER MYANMAR on 28 Aug 2024.)

‘Two lions in a cave’: Revolutionary divisions in Chin State: The Chin resistance has split into two rival coalitions, one of which has the backing of the powerful Arakan Army, while both are keen to engage Indian authorities across the border.

Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, Chin State has emerged as a key battleground in the countrywide armed struggle against the junta. The Chin National Front, formed in 1988, was one of the earliest groups to join the war against the military regime. Numerous Chinland Defence Forces – reflecting not only different townships but also the various ethno-linguistic groups that make up the broader Chin population – also emerged to join the fight.

In recent months, however, the Chin resistance has taken on a new shape, as latent fault lines between various factions have come to the surface. Until late last year, a common Chin front had been fighting the junta under the dual ambit of the Interim Chin National Consultative Council and Chinland Joint Defence Committee , both formed in 2021.

Proxy Israel Liquified Hezbollah Leadership For US?

 (Based on staff articles from the ABC NEWS AUS and The DAILY MAIL UK.)

On October 23, 1983, Hezbollah killed 241 U.S. military personnel, including 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers in a terrorist bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.  Minutes later, a second suicide bomber killed 58 French paratroopers.  Six innocent Lebanese civilians also lost their lives. 

The abhorrent and shocking attack on the Beirut barracks remains to this day the single deadliest day for the U.S. Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima. On October-23 last year United States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in the press statement that “Today, forty years later, we mourn those service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon lost in both attacks and we honor their legacy.  We think of their families and friends, who continue to feel the painful absence of loved ones.”

Almost a year later on 27 September this year, US-Proxy Israel, with the use of more than 80 American-made 2,000-pound bombs widely known as the Bunker-Busters provided free-and-abundant by the US to Israel, blew up (or liquified) a multi-storied apartment building 60 ft above the massive underground bunker being used as the Hezbollah Command-and-Control Centre in the Suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut the Capital City of Lebanon.

Mandalay-PDF & TNLA Struggling To Liberate Mandalay

             (Andrew Nachemsons article from the AL JAZEERA on 23 September 2024.)

TNLA Chief & Mandalay-PDF Commanders.

Myanmar anti-coup forces target Mandalay in struggle to oust military: Trained and guided by ethnic armed groups, Myanmar’s volunteer fighting forces are challenging the generals’ grip. Myanmar’s second-biggest city is beginning to feel like a city under siege. But while armed groups might be at the gates of Mandalay, most residents do not consider them the enemy.

“I’ve lived in Singu since I was born and we’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Tun, a 47-year-old resident of a small town in the Mandalay region, roughly 80km (50 miles) north of the city. He asked to be identified by only part of his name for security reasons. “At first, most residents didn’t flee from the town because we had no experience with war. When the fighting got more intense near the town, we understood we couldn’t stay here.”

While Myanmar’s borderlands, home to many of the country’s ethnic minorities, have been ravaged by conflict for decades, the mostly Bamar areas in the heart of the country had not seen conflict since World War II. That all changed when the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in 2021, plunging the country into a political crisis and civil war.

Big Caring Government to The Evil Socialism!

     (Extracts from Milton Friedman’s “TYRANNY OF THE STATUS QUO” in 1981.)

We have documented the drastic increase over the past fifty years in the role of the government, especially the federal government. Special interest or single-issue politics are a frequent explanation for the growth in government.

A government program, particularly at the federal level, almost always confers substantial benefits on a relatively small group while at the same time spreading costs widely (and hence thinly) over the population at large.

As a result, the few have a strong incentive to lobby intensively for the program. The many don’t bother even to inform themselves about it, let alone to devote money and effort to opposing it. A legislator who believes that the program on net harms the public is caught in an impossible position. A vote against such a program generates concentrated opposition from the few who will benefit from it, but at best only weak and diffused support from the many who will pay for it.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180)

(Whatever happens at all happens as it should; thou wilt find this true, if thou shouldst watch narrowly)

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) known as the "Philosopher King" was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. Aurelius reigned from 161 CE to 180 CE.

He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors, who wisely sought out suitable heirs rather than automatically naming their own offspring, and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD.

He led the Roman people through the utter devastation brought on by the Antonine plague, the Parthian War and ongoing battles with the German tribes. He was well-loved by the people. Aurelius was also known for being a student of stoicism, an ancient Greek and Roman philosophy that encouraged using reason and logic to guide one's perception. Virtue and duty received particular emphasis. Its founder, Zeno of Citium, studied at Plato's Academy.

Stock Markets will Crash if Kamala Harris Wins!

           (Nicholas McEntyre’s article from the NEW YORK POST on 19 September 2024.)

Billionaire expects stock market crash, recession if Kamala Harris wins election: Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson says he'll pull his money from the market if Kamala Harris wins the US election.

Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson has threatened to remove his money from the US markets if Vice President Kamala Harris defeats former President Donald Trump in November’s presidential election. The Paulson & Co. founder — also a Trump megadonor — made the shocking revelation during an appearance on Fox Business on Tuesday.

“It depends on the policy, if Harris is elected I would pull my money from the market,” Paulson said. “I’d go into cash and I’d go into gold because I think the uncertainty regarding the plans they outlined would create a lot of uncertainty in the markets and likely lower markets.”