likaay

Father,Husband,MSc of biochemicals and molecular biology,Studying Functional Genomics,Explicit Atheist,Shanghai,Nannin,Guilin,China.

[𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 @OopsGuess]

The EU has mastered one trick:
When it wins, it calls it free trade.
When China wins, it calls it overdependence.

For decades, European cars, appliances, luxury goods, chemicals, machinery, and high-end consumer products entered the Chinese market. China did not cry that Europe was “distorting” its market or creating “dependency.”

China competed.
China learned.
China upgraded.

But the moment Chinese industries became competitive, Europe suddenly discovered “strategic risk.”

Solar panels?
Europe blocked and punished Chinese solar for years with tariffs and trade barriers. Did that revive Europe’s own solar industry? No. It only made Europe’s energy transition more expensive until it eventually had to reopen the door.

Huawei and ZTE?
Europe followed Washington’s pressure campaign, ripped out Chinese telecom infrastructure it had already deployed, spent more money, delayed its own networks, and called that “security.”

Energy?
Europe chose geopolitical obedience, cut itself off from cheap Russian energy, raised its own industrial costs, became more dependent on the U.S., and then watched its companies move across the Atlantic under American subsidies and tariffs.

But somehow the problem is still China.

Please.

Europe’s crisis was not created by Chinese overcapacity.
It was created by European complacency, American dependency, ideological industrial policy, expensive energy, and decades of mistaking moral lectures for competitiveness.

Now Chinese industries are faster, cheaper, more integrated, and more efficient — from EVs to batteries, solar, electronics, ports, logistics, and manufacturing ecosystems.

So Europe invents new language:
“Diversification.”
“De-risking.”
“Overdependence.”
“Fair competition.”

But strip away the diplomatic costume, and it is just protectionism with Brussels paperwork.

China did not force Europe to deindustrialize itself.
Europe made its choices.

It followed Washington.
It sanctioned its own energy base.
It taxed its own consumers.
It slowed its own innovation.
It lectured China while China built.

And now it wants China to pay for Europe’s failure to compete.

No.

China-EU trade is not a charity program for declining European industries.
If Europe wants competitiveness, it should build it.
Not rename protectionism as “diversification” and expect China to applaud.

[Shayan Sardarizadeh @Shayan86]

According to the latest figures by the US-based human rights group @HRANA_English, 1,168 Iranian civilians, including 194 children, have so far been killed since the beginning of the US and Israel war with Iran on Saturday.

[likaay @likaay]

25日，在记者会上，有记者问特朗普：“北约秘书长吕特，他是你的朋友，他之前叫你爸爸。你会把你的北约盟友当自己的孩子吗？”对此，特朗普回应说：“不会，他喜欢我，我觉得他喜欢我。如果他不喜欢我，我会告诉你，我会回来狠狠地揍他一顿。他确实叫了，他确实叫了，非常亲热地说‘爸爸，你是我的爸爸’。

[Martin Sonneborn @MartinSonneborn]

Hm. Fahre gerade in einem Zug von Peking nach Hongkong, pünktliche Abfahrt, 2439 Kilometer in 8 h 10, draußen 38 Grad, drinnen angenehme 25. Stewardessen servieren Tee und putzen nach jedem Halt den Boden feucht. Knabbere gesalzene Erbsen, während mein Büroleiter sich per App chines. Essen für den nächsten Halt bestellt hat. Wird frisch am Platz serviert. Wir verlieren langsam den Kontakt zur Realität…

[likaay @likaay]

自1978年以来，美国核管理委员会仅批准了五个新反应堆，其中只有两个实际建成。相比之下，1954年至1978年间，美国曾批准部署135个民用核反应堆。而自2017年以来，全球安装的核反应堆中有87%采用俄罗斯或中国技术。中国政府计划在2020年至2035年间至少建造150座新反应堆。

[likaay @likaay]

托马斯·弗里德曼（Thomas Friedman）毫不客气地点名批评了特朗普政府中的多名关键内阁成员：“首席蠢材（chief knucklehead）”——商务部长卢特尼克、“助理首席蠢材（assistant chief knucklehead）”——财政部长贝森特，以及“副助理首席蠢材（deputy assistant chief knucklehead）”——贸易顾问纳瓦罗。

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

BREAKING: Clothing stores like Fabletics now have a Tariff Surcharge Line Item.

This is the new norm in the Trump economy.

I commend any companies who do this. Transparency is good and at least we know why our prices went up.

[likaay @likaay]

年度笑话前三

[Department of War 🇺🇸 @DeptofWar]

We have not forgotten. The bravery of those who fought on Iwo Jima—American and Japanese alike—endures in history, in sacred ground, and the bonds between our nations. Their valor will never fade.

[Alternative News @AlternatNews]

On Croatian Television channel 4. Vladimir Putin was allowed to speak.

He addressed the Europeans: "Russia has never been and will never be your enemy!

We do not want European raw materials and wealth, we have our own raw materials and wealth, we absolutely do not need your raw materials. Russia is the richest country in the world in terms of raw materials.

We do not want your land or your territory. Look at how wide Russia is on the map. Russia is twice the size of the whole of Europe in one place. What would we need your land for, what do we do with it?

Why do you think Russia is an enemy of Europe? What damage has Russia done to you?

Have we sold you gas and raw materials at lower prices than the prices at which your "friends" are currently selling you? YES

Did Russia sacrifice 20 million people in World War II to get rid of the Nazis? YES

Was Russia the first country to help Europe during the Covid pandemic? YES

Did we help Europe when there were fires and natural disasters? YES

What has Russia done to you that you hate it so much?

Russia is not your enemy; your real enemies are your leaders, those who lead you!”

[🎸 Rock History 🎸 @historyrock_]

Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence (1965)

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is another great illustration of China's development, even in its poorest rural regions.

We've just arrived at the train station of Yabuli, a small rural town with a population of 50k and a ski station in Heilongjiang province, which is the second poorest province in the country by GDP per capita.

And look at this place: it looks better - certainly more modern and cleaner - than the immense majority of train stations in Europe.

That's what many people don't realize: they still view the Chinese countryside as this hopelessly backward and undeveloped place but it's largely not true anymore. For sure you can still find some poorer villages and towns, but more and more the prosperity of China overall is reaching every spot in the country.

[likaay @likaay]

欧盟援助乌克兰唱双簧，匈牙利的欧尔班和斯洛伐克的菲佐负责唱黑脸，踩刹车。最新的一次大会上，由于匈牙利和斯洛伐克的反对，欧盟“被迫”暂停了拟对乌克兰追加 200 亿欧元军事援助的计划。最近这三年，一些惊天动地的援乌议题，全靠匈牙利一票否决了。

[likaay @likaay]

据统计，整个99分钟的演讲中，共和党议员共起立鼓掌了110多次，最密集的时候，大约十五秒就得来一次。光统计前17分钟，他们就有32次鼓掌，其中超过25次是全体共和党整齐划一的起立鼓掌。最低不少于十秒，最长的鼓掌将近一分钟。

[likaay @likaay]

“两个值得深思的关键信号：1、 美国对乌克兰的支持明确从意识形态上的“盟友责任”转向现实主义的“利益交换”；2、 乌克兰已经无法在道义上左右特朗普政府的援助政策，这不只是特朗普和万斯对泽连斯基感到厌倦，而是整个美国社会对乌克兰战争感到厌倦。”https://t.co/xYPJGhxPNz

[张鹤慈 @zhangheci]

演员的三大错。不同意矿产协议，就不应该去华盛顿，在乌克兰争取不到的，到美国同样争取不到。 想讨价还价就只能私下谈，迷恋聚光灯下去让川普对他认错 只能是痴心妄想。直系军阀捧红的角，等奉系军阀占领北京后，还不知道收敛，活该被怼自以为是棋手的棋子可笑可怜

[likaay @likaay]

看到这不禁笑出声來/俄外交部发言人扎哈罗娃则表示，“特朗普和副总统万斯在争吵中能克制住自己没有对泽连斯基动手，简直是个奇迹”。

[Max Blumenthal @MaxBlumenthal]

Why was I questioned by the Feds?

As I approached the customs line at Dulles International Airport early on the morning of February 24, a man called out to me, “Mr. Blumenthal?” He identified himself as an officer with Customs and Border Protection, and led me into a cavernous secondary screening room, where he treated me to a strange and disconcerting questioning session. I had just returned from a leisurely trip to Nicaragua with my family during which I participated in no political activities. But the agent’s line of questioning suggested federal authorities had little interest in my visit to Nicaragua, a country that happens to be controlled by a socialist-oriented government on Washington’s hit list.

As my family and I followed the agent down a long hallway, he turned to me and said, “I caught your latest appearance on Judge Napolito [sic].” He was referring to Andrew Napolitano, a former Fox News host and jurist who hosts a daily livestream featuring former military and intelligence officials as well as journalists like me who dissent from official national security narratives. Nearly all of my appearances on Napolitano’s program, Judging Freedom, have focused on Israel’s blood-soaked wars in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond throughout the past 16 months. When I asked the agent how he liked my interview with the Judge, he shrugged and declined to volunteer an opinion. Was he simply trying to warm me up for our own question and answer session, or darkly signaling to me that Big Brother was watching? “This is just a friendly exchange,” he insisted as we entered the cavernous secondary screening room. “You’re not a target or anything.”

Standing across from me at a metal desk, the agent asked me to fill out a questionnaire with my personal info and details of my trip. As soon as I completed the form, he flipped it over and displayed a hand-written list containing several names. “Do you know any of these people?” he asked.

Two of those listed were Anglo names: Nicole Smith and Susan Benjamin. The other three were extremely common Muslims names. Because the agent would not allow me to photograph the list, I was only able to commit one to memory: Muhammad Khan. I could not recall any people I knew with those names. And the only Nicole Smith I could think of was the late model who died under strange circumstances at age 39. I therefore told the agent the names were unfamiliar to me.

To be sure, I would not have assisted the officer even if I had a personal connection with one of the names on the list. I’ve learned from activists and journalists who’ve experienced similar probing that federal agents often deploy inane or disingenuous questions to get their subject talking, then attempt to manipulate or entrap them so they can implicate them in a crime. In fact, the US Supreme Court has ruled that police are allowed to lie to elicit confessions from suspects. If government agents want to subject American citizens like me to extended questioning, they must follow constitutional procedures and allow us to have a lawyer present.

After spending several minutes inside a small office, the agent returned to inform us we were free to go. As we exited the screening room and headed toward the baggage claim area, an airport worker from West Africa pulled up to me on a ride-on floor scrubber, shook my hand and asked for a selfie. Like the federal agent, he was apparently aware of my journalistic output, but viewed it in a much more favorable light.

While waiting for our luggage, my wife, Anya Parampil, had a disturbing realization. She had been googling the names on the list the officer presented to me and discovered that Susan Benjamin was the birth name of our friend, Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Code Pink and one of the most widely recognized antiwar activists on the planet.

The following day, I informed Medea about my encounter at Dulles and asked if she had experienced anything similar. She told me there was a period when she was harassed by federal authorities each time she traveled out of the country. The FBI once dispatched an officer to meet her at an airport upon her return from a foreign trip, and called her on several occasions in an unsuccessful attempt to solicit a “meeting.” She said the harassment stopped after she filed a series of complaints, but my experience has led her to believe it will begin again.

While I was allowed to return to my country after a fairly brief question-and-answer session with a polite federal officer, the interaction felt like an act of political harassment, and seemed to signal an escalation against journalists and activists who’ve expressed antiwar, anti-Zionist views. I can only speculate on what the Feds’ ultimate objective was, however, I know of several antiwar activists who have had FBI agents appear at their doors over the past several months asking questions about Iran and individuals with Muslim or Arab names. Just down the road from Dulles, the FBI raided the home of a Palestinian American family whose daughter is a Palestine solidarity activist at George Mason University.

Within the broader realm of Five Eyes, in European vassal states without the same free speech protections Americans enjoy, journalists like Ali Abunimah, Asa Winstanley, and Richard Medhurst have been subjected to police raids, imprisonment, and even criminal prosecution for the opinions they’ve expressed on Israel-Palestine. My colleague at The Grayzone, Kit Klarenberg, was detained by British counter-terror cops and grilled for hours about his journalism on London’s machinations in Ukraine and beyond. Another one of our contributors, Jeremy Loffredo, spent several days in an Israeli prison and was ordered to self-deport after authorities falsely accused him of “assisting an enemy during wartime” for his journalism inside the country’s occupied frontiers. In Canada, activist Yves Engler was just released from five days in jail after a fanatical Zionist activist, Dahlia Kurtz, accused him of “hate speech” for branding her a “fascist.” Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels freely from Berlin to Washington DC despite an ICC warrant for his arrest for authorizing ghastly war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip.

My experience at Dulles International Airport paled in comparison to what a growing number of journalists and activists have endured in NATO states under Zionist management. Nonetheless, it is important to document encounters like these, and to prepare for future interactions that might not be as “friendly.”

[likaay @likaay]

指甲都卡到肉里了。

[Cindy愛貓咪🐱 @cindylovecats69]

这鱼好会吃👍跟人嗑瓜子似的😁

[飯 @shiningmrfan]

已经参访过的唐宋时期木构建筑。两点体会：1.山西行很值。2.任重道远。#山西漫记