Myanmar’s Resistance Defying Horrid Chinese Pressure

            (Jason Tower’s post from The U.S. PEACE INSTUTUTE on 5 December 2024.)

Myanmar’s Resistance Manages to Defy Chinese Pressure — For Now: Since August, China has tried to weaken Myanmar’s resistance forces while offering legitimacy to the junta. Many elements of the resistance are defying Chinese demands, but tension and instability are rising. Myanmar may become a test case for more robust Chinese security involvement overseas.

In early August, resistance forces in northern Myanmar delivered yet another historic defeat to the Myanmar military. After just 35 days of fighting, resistance actors toppled the Myanmar army’s northeastern command, bringing expansive amounts of territories across northern Shan State under their control. These developments rippled through Myanmar and reinvigorated the resistance — but also triggered a dramatic response from the Chinese Communist government.

Since August, China has unleashed punitive measures targeting key resistance groups, greenlit military airstrikes across northern Myanmar to push ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) out of newly captured territories, and showered Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing with unprecedented levels of legitimacy.

NYC CEO Killing: Anger and Danger for Health Insurers

                (Brad Ryan’s post from ABC NEWS AUS on 7 December 2024.)

Killing of the healthcare CEO in New York highlights anger and danger for US health insurers: As he walked a footpath in central Manhattan just before the sun rose over New York, Brian Thompson suddenly fell victim to a deadly ambush.

The father-of-two had travelled from Minnesota to attend a conference for UnitedHealthcare — a huge health insurance company where he was the CEO. Its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, is America's fourth largest money-maker, after Walmart, Amazon and Apple. It was set to present investors with a revenue forecast for the coming year of $US450 billion (A$705 billion).

CCTV shows Thompson, 50, approaching the doorway of the conference venue, the Midtown Hilton hotel, at 6:45am. Suddenly, a man wearing a black hoodie appears in the corner of the frame. He raises a gun, which appears to be fitted with a hitman-style silencer, aims at Thompson and fires two rounds.

‘Killing the weeds’: Village warfare in Myingyan

              (Hein Thar’s post from the FRONTIER MYANMAR on 2 July 2024.)

Son Village near Myingyan burning.

The post-coup conflict in Myanmar’s Dry Zone has pitted villages against each other, while the junta’s boosting of allied militias has deepened the cycle of violence: 

Ko Tin was so exhausted from staying up late to fill out paperwork that he slept through the sound of explosions that roused the rest of the town. When he went out for his morning walk, he noticed people gathering at a pagoda on a hilltop, from where they were watching a plume of smoke rising about two miles away.

“Some village was burned down this morning,” someone in the crowd explained to him when he reached the top. The 38-year-old regime-appointed administrator of Si Mee Khon town was also looking down at Son village, a small settlement in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan Township.

Thidar Yumon: Myin-Gyan Pyu-saw-htee Boss!

                (Based on Myanmar Media posts from 2022 to 2024-Nov.)

Pyu-saw-htee was a legendary king of Pagan Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar), who according to the Burmese chronicles supposedly reigned from 167 to 242 CE. The chronicles down to the 18th century had reported that Pyusawhti, a descendant of a solar spirit and a dragon princess, was the founder of Pagan—hence, Burmese monarchy.

However Mhan-nan Yazawin-dawgyi, the Royal Chronicle of Kone-baung Dynasty proclaimed in 1832 that he was actually a scion of Tagaung Kingdom and traced his lineage all the way to Maha Sammata, the first king of the world in Buddhist mythology.

Scholarship conjectures that Pyusawhti the historical figure likely existed in the mid-to-late 8th century, who perhaps came over from the Nanzhao Kingdom as part of the Nanzhao raids of the Irrawaddy valley during the period.

Pyu-saw-htee was considered by the Burmese populace as a mythical superhero from the ancient history of Burma. And during the 1950s and 60s the ruling AFPLF (Pha-Sa-Pa-La) Government’s civilian militia was called the Pyu-saw-htee Militia.

The evolution of warfare in Myanmar

     (David Scott Mathieson’s post from the MYANMAR NOW on 11 November 2024.)

Femal soldiers of Arakan Army (AA).

The evolution of warfare in Myanmar: Nearly four years of post-coup conflict have transformed the way Myanmar’s military and its many enemies wage war against each other.

One year after the launch of Operation 1027 and the escalation of armed conflict throughout Myanmar, and nearing four years of repressive rule by the State Administration Council (SAC), how much has the nature of warfare changed in Myanmar?

The answer is—dramatically and in multiple ways, and for varied reasons. There has been military adaptation and innovation in all three branches of the Myanmar armed forces—the army, air force, and navy—and by ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and other resistance forces under the general title of People’s Defence Forces (PDFs), in ways that have transformed the shape of fighting.

Trump Loyalist Kash Patel Nominated FBI Director!

            (Andrea Margolis’s post from the FOX NEWS on 30 November 2024.)

President-elect Donald Trump has named longtime ally Kashyap "Kash" Patel, who has been a frequent and harsh critic of the FBI, to serve as the bureau's next director in the new administration.

Patel, 44, is an attorney with experience in national security, intelligence and counterterrorism and helped uncover the bureau's surveillance of the Trump campaign and first term. He has been a member of Trump’s transition team, advising the administration on other appointments.

Trump announced Patel’s appointment in a Truth Social post on Saturday. "Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People," Trump's statement read.

The Age of Cloud Capital: Capitalism is Finished!

            (Staff post from the PERSUASION COMMUNITY on 30 April 2024.)

The Age of Cloud Capital: Capitalism is finished. What's replaced it is even worse. Extracts from “Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism” by Yanis Varoufakis.

Capitalism is now dead, in the sense that its dynamics no longer govern our economies. In that role it has been replaced by something fundamentally different, which I call technofeudalism. At the heart of my thesis is an irony that may sound confusing at first but which I contend makes perfect sense: the thing that has killed capitalism is… capital itself.

Not capital as we have known it since the dawn of the industrial era, but a new form of capital, a mutation of it that has arisen in the last two decades, so much more powerful than its predecessor that like a stupid, overzealous virus it has killed off its host.

Making Sense of the Mess in Myanmar’s Shan State

          (Bertil Lintner’s post from The IRRAWADDY MEDIA on 9 September 2024.)

The simplistic version of what is happening in northern Shan State is that a united front of Bamar and non-Bamar resistance armies has liberated huge swathes of territory. The Myanmar army is on the defensive after being forced to abandon numerous small as well as major outposts and is about to lose the war.

A more down-to-earth look at the situation, however, reveals a much more complex picture. It is correct that the Brotherhood Alliance, which brings together the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA), has taken over large tracts of land in northern Shan State, including several towns and highways between them.

But the bitter reality is that the resistance forces are not always entirely welcome in the areas they now control. Uniformed men from the TNLA, a Palaung group, patrol Shan-dominated towns like Hsipaw and Kyaukme as well as Kachin-inhabited areas around Namhpakka and Kutkai.

Riss and Rise of TNLA The Mighty Pa-laung Army!

        (Staff article from the International Crisis Group (ICG) on 04 September 2023.)

Treading a Rocky Path: The Ta’ang Army Expands in Myanmar’s Shan State. With Myanmar’s military fighting on other fronts, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army is firming up its foothold in the country’s north. Clashes with other ethnic armed groups are possible. The Ta’ang group should focus on improving governance in its areas, in conjunction with civil society.

What’s new? The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) has used Myanmar’s post-2021 coup crisis to expand its territory in northern Shan State, recruit fighters and strengthen its parallel administration. Although it has quietly supported anti-coup resistance forces, it has clashed with the military only rarely and has met with regime representatives.

Why does it matter? The TNLA’s expansion has created tensions with other ethnic armed groups and non-Ta’ang communities in northern Shan State. The group’s ambiguous political positioning since the coup reflects the complex environment in which ethnic armed groups operate. It also helps explain why building a countrywide anti-regime alliance has proven so difficult.

Gangland Public Execution in Sydney’s Surry Hills?

         (Laurence Karacsony’s post from the SKYNEWS AUS on 24 November 2024.)

Underworld figure Niddal Acherkouk identified as fatal shooting victim in Sydney as more details emerge after grizzly hit: The victim of the fatal Surry Hills shooting has been identified as an underworld figure with links to a notorious bikie gang, as more details emerge after Niddal Acherkouk was shot dead in the middle of a busy Sydney intersection.

New South Wales Police have met with the press to address the fatal overnight shooting taking place in the Sydney suburb Surry Hills. The man who fell prey to an “outrageous” shooting in a busy Surry Hills Street in Sydney has been identified as underworld figure Niddal Acherkouk who had links to a notorious bikie gang and was known to police.

Acherkouk, who was aged in his 30s, was shot multiple times in his car by balaclava-clad assassins at Surry Hills BP before running from his pursuers and collapsing at the busy intersection of Crown and Cleveland streets a short time before 8pm on Friday.

Chinese Troops in Kyauk-Phyu to Protect Xi's Interests

               (Based on Burmese media reports on 22-23 November 2024.)

Very first batch of 5.000 Chinese-Security-Battalion troops out of planned 50,000 Chinese troops accepted by that Motherfucker Dictator Min Aung Hlaing at Kumming Summit recently has already landed at Kyauk-Phyu port on mostly Chinese PLAN landing ships and some long-range troop carrier jets direct from Kumming, Yunan.

Crazy Myanmar Dictator now stuck in the middle Burma like a mad dog trapped in the corner has taken the Xi Jinpeng’s Chinese-Slavery-Package including the one billion Yuan cash (US$ 184 millions) and shamelessly sold his nation to the motherfucking Chinese.

Chinese troops are now guarding the Kyauk-Phyu SEZ as agreed to between Myanmar and China last month. They are now busily installing advanced drone jammers and laying personal land mines all around the SEZ and flying spy drones constantly to monitor the movements of AA the Arakan Army troops.

Myanmar Civil War: New Season, New Breakthroughs?

(Antonio Graceffo’s post from the GEOPOLITICAL MONITOR on 14 November 2024.)

As of late October, pro-democracy resistance fighters in Myanmar had advanced to within a few kilometers of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.

This marks a significant shift in the Myanmar civil war, a conflict that has hitherto been concentrated in the jungles and mountains of ethnic states, where groups like the Karen National Liberation Army, Karenni Army, and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) initially focused on reclaiming territory in and around their ancestral homelands.

The scope of the fighting expanded dramatically in October 2023, when several major ethnic armies joined together to recapture sweeping tracts of the Myanmar countryside, gradually narrowing the zone of Tatmadaw control to major urban centers.

The approach on Mandalay represents a new phase of the Myanmar civil war. For one it sends a powerful message to the ruling State Administration Council (SAC) that the rebels remain united and determined to take the fight to the country’s economic and political heartland.

China Has kidnapped Kokang-Army Chief Pheung Daxun!

     (Based on staff article from the MYANMAR NOW MEDIA on 18 November 2024.)

Chinese Communist Government has kidnapped MNDAA the Kokang Army Chief Pheung Daxun during his informal visit to China. He was on the trip to meet Deng Xijun the China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs.

The 59-years-old Kokang-General was summarily arrested and placed under house arrest for refusing to withdraw from the Shan-North Capital City Lashio and return the city to fascist Myanmar Army.

He was summoned to Kuming the Yunan State Capital on September-10 and then kept under house arrest at his Likyang house in Yunan, after meeting with China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs Deng Xijun and the UWSA leaders on the border. He wasn’t allowed to go out freely but still allowed to communicate with his Kokang Army comrades.

KIA’s Capture of Mines Disrupts Rare-Earth Markets!

               (K. Warner’s article from the METAL TECH NEWS on 12 November 2024.)

Myanmar REE mining halts, prices soar: Half the world's heavy rare earth production grinds to a halt amidst civil war. Myanmar's top exports have long been oil and natural gas, followed by fruits and vegetables, wood, fish, clothing, and rubber. Its main export partnerships are with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

Today, this small country has found itself to be an essential source of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), vital ingredients for the magnets used in electric vehicles and renewable energy wind turbines worldwide.

With countries scouring their own backyards for resources, Myanmar's geological wealth has caught the eye of battery-producing world powers; as much as 50% of the global heavy rare earths supply has come from the small country's mines directly to China, controlling almost 90% of global rare earth processing, backed by 60% of global production.

Pete Hegseth: Trump’s Defense Pick Shocks Pentagon!

              (Leo Shane’s article from the ARMY TIMES on 13 November 2024.)

The Axe-thrower with Jerusalem Cross tattoo.

Trump picks Fox commentator Pete Hegseth as his next Defense Secretary: President-elect Donald Trump announced he will nominate Army veteran and conservative commentator Pete Hegseth (born in 1980: just 44 years old) as his next Secretary of Defense, saying the appointment will help strengthen America’s military.

“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our military will be great again, and America will never back down,” Trump wrote in a statement Tuesday evening. “Nobody fights harder for the troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘peace through strength’ policy.”

Hegseth, 44, has been a FOX News host for eight years and a strong backer of Trump. He previously led the conservative veterans advocacy groups Vets For Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America, pushing for fewer restrictions on using Veterans Affairs funding for private health care.

Mass Deportation USA: Tom Homan The Border Czar!

           (Jennie Taer’s article from the NEW YORK POST on 11 November 2024.)

Trump’s new border czar Tom Homan vows that sanctuary cities will not stop him from deporting migrant criminals: ‘We’re coming’. President-elect Donald Trump’s new “border czar” Tom Homan has a message for New York City and other sanctuary jurisdictions: Nothing will stop us from deporting migrant criminals.

“If we can’t get assistance from New York City, we may have to double the number of agents we send to New York City,” he said on Fox & Friends on Monday. “Because we’re going to do the job with you or without you.”

Homan — whom Trump tasked with both securing the border and carrying out the deportation of millions of migrants who are in the US illegally — told The Post that he wants his boss to put maximum pressure on the leaders of New York and other sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with efforts to lock up and deport migrants who commit crimes in the US.

Revolution: Drain The Swamp, Destroy The Deep State?

            (Nick Bryant’s article from the ABC NEWS AUS on 10 November 2024.)

Trump triumphant: How his White House will be different this time. After fours years in the wilderness, Donald Trump’s restoration presidency also threatens to be a retribution presidency. In January 2017, when Donald Trump delivered his first inaugural address, passages read like a declaration of war on Washington.

“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another,” he intoned, as his insurgent presidential campaign reached its triumphant fruition, “we are transferring power from Washington DC and giving it back to you, the American people.” From the outset, however, there was the suspicion that America’s 45th president wanted power to be vested primarily in an American personage: Donald J. Trump. His boast, after all, at the 2016 Republican convention had been: “I alone can fix it.”

In the planning of those inaugural festivities, Trump had revealed a penchant for authoritarian flourishes. “Make it look like North Korea,” he reportedly declared at one of the planning sessions, “tanks and choppers.” Afterwards, he tried to create the false sense that record-breaking crowds had listened to his inaugural address, even though aerial photographs showed Barack Obama had attracted a larger throng.

Elon Musk All-in for Trump’s Election Victory!

                 (Elon Musk’s interview with Tucker Carlson on 6 November 2024.) 

Visit Myanmar (The Juice Media)

 (New Tourism Promotion Video from the Military-controlled Fascist Republic of Myanmar.)

UN Envoy Julie Bishop Met Mad-Myanmar-Dictator

               (Simion Lewis’s article from the REUTERS on 30 October 2024.)

UN envoy says she met Myanmar army chief, calls for end to violence: United Nations Special Envoy Julie Bishop visited Myanmar's capital and met with the head of the country's military junta, she told a U.N. meeting on Tuesday, adding that actors in Myanmar had to move past what she called a "zero-sum mentality" to move toward a resolution of the Southeast Asian country's grinding conflict.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the army chief Min Aung Hlaing led a coup and arrested members of an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's on Feb. 1, 2021. Bishop, a former Australian foreign minister appointed to the Myanmar role in April, said any pathway to reconciliation required an end to violence, accountability and access for the U.N. and aid groups.

The U.N. says more than 3.1 million people have been displaced by the ensuing civil war between the military and a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebels and an armed resistance movement spawned out of the junta's bloody crackdown on anti-coup protests. "I have visited Naypyitaw and met with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and I will return," Bishop said of the previously undisclosed visit, without giving more details of the meeting.

Na-Pa-Kha Has Fallen: Ann Town Is Liberated?

(Translated staff article from the KHIT THIT MEDIA on 29 October 2024.)

Communications between the War Office at Nay-pyi-daw and Na-Pa-Kha the Western Military Command at Ann town has been cut-off, and the rumours are that Na-Pa-Kha has fallen, and AA the Arakan Army has liberated Ann the fortified military town in the Arakan State of Burma.

The concerned parents of a young Army-Sergeant-Clerk serving at the Na-Pa-Kha in Ann told Khit Thit Media that they had daily email and telephone contacts with their son till October-25, but on October-26 and 27 it was extremely difficult, and then on October-28 it was completely cut-off, and  when they contacted the Nay-pyi-daw War Office they were simply denied access.

Na-Pa-Kha at Ann has been under-siege for nearly four months and the Divisional CO Major-General Kyaw Zwar Oo seems to have fled to Sittwe where the Arakan State Chief-Minister Htein Lin has been taking refuge since the current AA offensive started last year. AA has now taken twelve townships out of all seventeen townships in Arakan State.

China Blockading KIA the Kachin Independence Army

 (Translated staff article from the MYANMAR NOW MEDIA on 18 October 2024.)

PLA shutdown Panwar Gate.

China has declared to completely shut down the border between the Kachin State and China due to KIA’s refusal to obey China’s order to stop the hostile actions against seriously weakened Myanmar Army. The border closure begins today on October-18.

On October-17, China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs Deng Xijun and his team of Chinese diplomats had an emergency meeting with KIO/KIA Chairman General Gam Shaung at Yin Kyang City in Yunan Province. Deng Xijun basically ordered KIA to stop capturing Kachin towns immediately, otherwise, KIA would face dire consequences from China’s stern actions for disobedience like the MNDAA the Kokang Army is now facing.

Apparently, KIA completely ignored China’s orders and went ahead with its plan to capture the crucial town of Pan-war and then Kan-pike-tee Pass. And Chian immediately blockaded Kachin-China Broder and sent in a PLA division to stop the Kachin people crossing the border.

Last Frontier in Arakan-War: Kyauk-Phyu Town?

(Based on a staff article from the MYANMAR AMERICAN NEWS on 20 October 2024.)

Out of seventeen townships in Arakan, twelve townships are now liberated by the Arakan Army (AA), while other five townships are on the verge of collapse. The liberated townships are Kyauk-Taw, Myauk-oo, Pauk-Taw, Min-Byar, Myae-Bone, Ponnar-Kyun, Yathe-Taung, Buthee-Taung, Mayng-Daw, Than-Dwe, Man-Aung and Yam-Byae. Other five townships sill under Myanmar Army’s control are Sit-Tway, Ann, Taung-Koke, Gwa, and Kyauk-Phyu.

One of those five townships, Kyauk-Phyu is the most important one for there are Chinese projects worth nearly twenty billion US$ in Kyauk-Phyu Town alone. Trans-Burma Crude Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines alone is worth more than five billion US$, the Kyauk-Phyu Deep Sea Port Project is worth nearly four billion US$, and the Kyauk-Phyu Special-Economic-Zone (SEZ) Project is worth more than seven billion US$.

According to the China’s China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs, Deng Xijun, those three large and strategically important projects, invested-and-owned wholly by China, is the one worry keeping Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wan Yi awake at nights.

Donald Trump Surges Ahead of Kamala Harris

           (Jesus Mesa’s article from the NEWS WEEK on 18 October 2024.)     

Donald Trump Surges Ahead of Kamala Harris in Nate Silver's Forecast: Former President Donald Trump received a boost from polling guru Nate Silver, whose presidential model, which tracks polling data and electoral trends, now favors the Republican to win the election.

The latest projections from the Silver Bulletin model show Trump holding a slight edge in the Electoral College, with a 50.2 percent chance of winning compared to Vice President Kamala Harris' 49.5 percent, despite Harris leading significantly in the popular vote probability at 75 percent. It is Trump's first lead in the model since September 19.

The slight edge in the Electoral College probability means that in more simulations, Trump is winning enough battleground states to secure a majority of electoral votes, even though Harris may win the popular vote or a narrow majority of electoral votes in other simulations.

Kamala’s Momentum Is Gone: Democrats Freaking Out

          (Alex Shephard’s article from THE NEW REPUBLIC on 17 October 2024.)  

Harris had opportunities to break away from Trump. She squandered them: On Monday, Donald Trump’s brain broke. After medical emergencies in the crowd cut short his town hall in suburban Philadelphia, the former president decided he didn’t want to leave the stage.

Instead, for half an hour, he swayed as the loudspeaker blasted a playlist of his favorite songs—among them “Ave Maria,” “Nothing Compares 2 U,” and “November Rain”—and his increasingly confused supporters streamed out.

Trump’s abnormal behavior is central to his political appeal, but this was something different. He did not seem well. As has been increasingly true, he looked old and diminished and more than a little confused.

At the same time, Trump is more extreme than ever. Before the aforementioned town hall detoured into a zombie dance-off, Trump said of migrants, “So they’re coming in, many are coming in from jails and prisons and mental institutions and stay-in asylums … and they’re coming as terrorists.… It is an invasion like we’ve never seen before.”

Myanmar Army’s Addict Soldiers: Captive Ya-Ba Market

(Translated staff article from the KHIT THIT MEDIA on 18 October 2024.)

Myanmar Army officers have been forcing newly conscripted soldiers to take Ya-ba pills (Meth or Ice tablets) by telling them that the pills will relieve exhaustion from the lack of sleep at the frontline facing the rebel ethnic armies. Ya-Ba is a Thai word: Ya is pill or medicine, and Ba is crazy or mad. So, Ya-Ba is the Crazy Pill in Thai.

Khit Thit Media was contacted by many draftee soldiers, from the First Batch of National Conscription Program, with bitter complaints of being forced into drug addiction in the Myanmar Army. Following is a typical complaint from one 18-year-old Myanmar soldier now being stationed at Pin-long Town in Shan State South nearly overrun by TNLA the Pa-laung Army.

His Army Company CO, a Captain has encouraged him to take Meth-emphetamine pills (widely known as the Ya-ba pills) so that they will be alert and active all the time. He also taught his new soldiers how to use and enjoy the expensive pills provided on credit.

Surrendered Myanmar Army Soldiers and Their Families?

(Translated staff article from the MNDAA’s KOKANG NEWS on 17 October 2024.)

Surrendered War-dogs: Officers at the front row.

After the Lashio City was liberated in last August by MNDAA the Kokang Army, thousands and thousands of Myanmar Army soldiers and their families had laid down their arms and surrendered to the MNDAA.

In accordance with MNDAA’s strict policy of treating the enemy soldiers, either captured or surrendered, with respect and dignity (even though they all are undeserving Myanmar Army war-dogs) our MNDAA has kindly returned most of the surrendered and their respective families to wherever they wanted to return.

Since August-6, MNDAA has steadily released most of them and sent them to secure places of their choice. But some families are still refusing to leave Lashio as their husbands or sons are still being detained as the POWs here in Lashio.

Elon Musk: Trump’s Secretary of Cost Cutting?

(Annabella Rosciglione’s article from the WASHINGTON EXAMINER on 13 Oct 2024.)

Trump to put Musk in charge of trimming bureaucratic fat: ‘Secretary of cost cutting’: Former President Donald Trump said he would informally make tech mogul Elon Musk his “Secretary of Cost Cutting.”

Speaking with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, Bartiromo asked Trump about the looming national debt in the context of Trump’s various tax proposals, which he said would be addressed with “growth.”

She then asked him which federal agencies would be on the chopping block in a second Trump turn, to which Trump said Musk would be better suited to answer the question. “You’ve also said that there’s a lot of fat in government that you would want to part of,” Bartiromo said. “So, what agencies would you want to shut down?”

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.”

Burmese Are Chindians: Nehru’s .303s To Xi’s Type-81s

CHINDIAN is the popular term used for mixed-race children of the Indian-Chinese couples in Australia, the rich-nation well acknowledged globally as the most successful multi-cultural and multi-racial society on the planet. In Malaysia and Singapore nowadays the Chindians are so numerous that they are to become an official race group like Chinese and Malays and Indians there as Singapore already has officialised the Eurasians.

In modern Australia the Indian and Chinese migrants are noticeably more numerous than any other migrants from any other nations. That fact is absolutely undeniable as both India and China are the most populous nations on Earth and both countries are so close to Australia. Both have more than 1.4 billion human population each, and given a chance they will mate and cross-breed like rabbits.

And when the immigrants from the Oppressive-Communist-China and the Class-Restricted-Hindu-India landed in easy-going and free-wheeling democratic nation like Australia and are given the chance to mingle freely they tend to cross-breed easily. And the visible result is the new race of Chindians all over the places especially in Sydney and Melbourne.

Indian Visa-Mills in Australia: Fraudulent Colleges

             (Staff article from The ABC NEWS AUS - 7:30 REPORT on 17 Sept 2024.)

Scams shattering Indian students' dreams of studying in Australia: Like millions of people in India, Prinjal dreamt of migrating to Australia in search of a better life. The 19-year-old had made up her mind about it when she was just a girl, taken by the country's freedom, education system and potential to earn money.

So she was thrilled when she received her enrolment certificate for Willows Institute, a private college in Adelaide last December. "Everyone here was expecting me to leave any day. They even bought bags so I could start packing," she told 7.30.

Prinjal hails from Seedpur, a small village in Haryana's northern state. Her family turned to a migration agency, World Visa Advisors, located in Chandigarh, about two hours away. The agency assured them that all necessary paperwork was completed: She had passed her English exam, proven her genuine student status, cleared her medical test, and paid all the required fees into the agency's accounts.

Burmese Hitler: Dragging Down Burma into HELL?

        (Based on Staff artices from The MYANMAR NOW on 18 July 2024)

Myanmar Mad-Little-Dictator General Min Aung Hlaing has appointed himself (illegally of-course) as the President of the Union of Myanmar on July-23. In both Myanmar history and world history MAH is now well known as the most brutal and the dumbest dictator ever.

He is even putting his own respected seniors, the six influential former senior-generals of Myanmar Army, under a very tight House-Arrest in Naypyidaw. The SIX are former Dictator Than Shwe, former Deputy-Dictator Maung Aye, former President Thein Sein, former Vice-Presidnet Tin Aung Myint Oo, former Federal Parliament Speaker Shwe Man, and former Election Commision Chairman Tin Aye.

Their six Naypyidaw-residents widely-known as the Six-Mansions-Row are now collectively behind a 3-meters-high-barbed-wire-fence and also surrounded by an army battalion and no one is allowed in-or-out without MAH’s personal permission. The Mother-fucker has learned a bitter lesson from letting former President Thein Sein go to China and come back with Chinese Ultimatum for him to step down and let Thein Sein form an interim government.