Operating nuclear power stations or super computers

Operating nuclear power stations or super computers plugged into the exchange trading systems incurs the same risk of self inflicted disaster when there is no where to run or hide

 

One Of The Biggest High Frequenecy Traders Warns Of Potential Market "Catastrophe"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2016 09:20 -0500

 

Here is part of an article in www.zerohedge.com that told of stupid men and women in charge and courting a catastrophe that they have no control over and did not know enough of. The high risks are obvious and well documented, but they stubbornly stick to a dangerous practice like they were bought and controlled by the high frequency traders to do what they want, freely, and risking a total system collapse.

This is like men and women flirting with the sexiness of operating nuclear power stations, knowing the risks and the inability to provide a failsafe system but ‘die die’ still want to have nuclear power stations. Should a country like Singapore go the nuclear road, would it be due to stupid men, clever men or too clever men’s recklessness or desperation?

Read this article to understand and know who are responsible to expose the ignorants to such high risk with little regards to protecting them from it. Look at how irresponsible men and women can be, how reckless they can be by turning the other way, not wanting to see the elephant in the room just to achieve their private interests.

 

….Below is part of an article in Back in April 2009, we wrote what may be the first seminal article predicting the failure of capital markets as a result of widespread predatory high frequency trading and fragmented market structure when we laid out "The Incredibly Shrinking Market Liquidity, Or The Upcoming Black Swan Of Black Swans." Several years later, and countless flash crashes, we have been proven right, however one thing is missing: "the catastrophe" that finally wakes up people to the dangers of all the individual things we have warned about over the years.

Today, we are one step closer to that day, when none other than the head of one of the biggest high-frequency trading companies, Mark Gorton of Tower Research,warned that there are several faultlines in the structure of increasingly electronic, automated financial markets that could lead to a “catastrophe” in the long run,according to the FT. 

To be sure, Mark Gorton, has a clear conflict of interest: being one of the largest HFT members himself, with his company dominating program trading on the NYSE with his Latour Trading subsiiary, the founder and head of Tower Research Capital argued that exchanges have become far more efficient with the advent of more computerised markets, but "cautioned that increasing complexity brought new dangers that needed to be mitigated."

In other words, don't blame the HFTs, blame the markets, which is to be expected from a person who will be out of a job if HFT is banned.

He further adds that "The recent evolution of markets from manual to electronic trading has had huge benefits and investors save money every day due to the lower cost of trading. But electronic trading brings with it a number of new risks, and we need to continue to strengthen the resiliency of electronic markets,"Mr Gorton told the Financial Times.

What keeps Gorton up at night? The short answer: the lack of safeguards at exchanges to prevent HFT firms like his from dragging the whole thing down:

The high-frequency trader is particularly concerned over the lack of risk controls at exchanges, which he said constituted a “large hole in the middle of the system that needs to be filled”....

 

Nonetheless, exchange-level risk controls remain “limited at best” and should assume there will inevitably be glitches, bugs and errant trading algorithms that could cause problems in the wider market, according to Mr Gorton.

Glitches from algorithms, he forgot to add, such as the one Tower uses each and every day to scalp and frontrun billions of trades in order flow.

However, his warning, conflicted as it is, is spot on: the market will crash again, it is only a matter of time, simply because the HFTs have captured market regulators so well, nobody has any idea what is going on any more: “We need a regulatory framework that assumes that any single system(can alsoread nuclear energy) in the market will fail and insures that we have multiple redundant levels of checks that can catch failures in other parts of the system,”he said.

What is Gorton's suggestion?

Mr Gorton highlighted in particular the lack of a centralised position-tracking mechanism for the US stock market, the need to refine and synchronise market circuit-breakers between highly correlated markets, such as cash equities and futures, and the absence of clarity over what it takes for trades to be declared invalid.

In other words, focus on the symptoms, shutting down markets when things go haywire, not the underlying cause, which as we have said since 2009 is simple: broken markets, designed to benefit just one group of traders….

Who would it benefit if Singapore goes nuclear?

Asean – Between the devil and the deep blue sea

Asean countries have been invited by Obama to Sunnylands estate in California for a retreat. The agenda has been crafted by the Americans for Asean to join the Empire to go knocking their heads against China, the top trading partners of many Asean countries.  According to Dr Tang Siew Mun from the Yusof Ishak Institute, ‘The US will pitch for explicit support for US actions in the South China Sea but Obama may leave Sunnylands disappointed.’ This is not the picture the western media like NYT, AFP etc are saying. Instead they reporting that the Asean countries are all living in fear of China and would join arms to fight China.

Asean are not the pieces on a chess board and the Americans are moving them together to form a united front against China like the socalled League of Nations 8 western powers invading China. Would the Asean countries be made to fight a war against China for the interests of the Empire? The heightened tension would be great opportunities for the Americans and their war industries to start selling weapons that the Asean countries would now need to defend against an enemy the China chose for them.

China is now the biggest trading partners to many Asean countries and investing heavily in them. Would Asean trade the economic benefits for war that would only lead to the destruction of their economies and the killing of their people?

In Sunnylands the Asean leaders would have to choose between a military super power and an economic super power, to chose between war and peace, to choose between economic growth or instability and destruction.

To the Americans, the best thing for Asean is tension and war with China. After 60 years of peace and stability, would Asean be foolish enough to want to court war and destruction for the benefits of the Americans and the Empire? Every summit, meeting, conference with the military power is about war. Every meeting with the economic power is about trade and investment.

It is not so right to say between the devil and the deep blue sea. It is more between war and peace, between destruction and construction, between wasting money in buying weapons or infrastructure development and trade.

Would Asean leaders be tempted by the devil to bring destruction to their countries and people?

Is there a need to treat children like adult criminals?

Below is a letter from a parent of a 13 year old boy who had to go through a similar ordeal like Benjamin a couple of years ago.  The article is posted in TRE. This is how the children are being treated by adults who are educators and law enforcing officers. As long as ‘god’ keeps quiet, it is a sign of approval that this is the right way to treat naughty children, like criminals. Children are very safe in this caring and compassionate in this nanny state run by goody priests and matrons. But it is also a sign of a kind of sickness in the head, people that think children should be treated this way. Don’t be deceived by people appearing normal when they are actually crazy inside the head.

Psychiatrist would have a lot of things to say about such people, sadist, masochist, deprived or abused childhood, maybe privileged childhood and lost the sense of compassion for children, megalomaniac or whatever, some may have personal grudges or agenda.

 

13-year-old boy locked up in detention cell with other offenders for alleged molest

After reading the letter from Benjamin Lim’s family on citizen online. I totally understand how they felt and would like to share my story to let Benjamin Lim’s parents know that I admire their strength and courage to speak up.
I’m really sorry that they had to lose a son, in order to have authorities listen to what they had to say.
On 26 February 2014, I had a similar incident happen to me.
At 2.23pm, I received a call on my mobile from my son’s school discipline master informing me that they will be calling the police. They informed me that it was due to an alleged outrage of modesty of a female teacher. I asked the discipline master if it could wait till I got to the school before they did that, and his reply was that they had no control of what the teacher wanted to do which was to call the police.
Later on, when I had a chance to speak to the principal and the discipline master, I asked for an explanation of this, I was told that as the principal of the school it was his job to protect his staff – the teacher. If the job of the school principal, is to protect his adult staff, who protects the 13-year-old child?
At 2.50pm I arrived at the school’s general office and requested to see my son, the Discipline Master came to bring me to a room where my son was. He was being questioned by a police officer and with another police officer taking the statement and three other police officers outside. Unlike Benjamin’s incident, these police officers were all in uniforms and the police cars were marked.
Upon entering the room, I saw my son with his head resting on his arm on the table crying. The amount of tissues next to him showed that he must have been crying quite a bit.
I was told that they were done taking my son’s statement and got him to sign for it in my absence.
If you were a 13-year-old and there were 5-6 police officers present, would you not be afraid and would have admitted to whatever the officers had suggested to you? (especially, when you had no one there to support you?) As an adult, I would be frightened and extremely intimidated let alone a 13-year-old. Why would one require this amount of police officers to pick up a 13-year-old boy from his school in two police cars?
To shorten the story, my son was brought to the police station in the police car handcuffed. ( I had to beg the Investigating officer not to handcuffed him in the school,  only when they got into the police car.) After many requests, I was finally allowed to post bail for my son at about 10 pm!! All this while, he was sitting with other offenders in the same cell even though he was only 13 years of age.
These are the facts* that led to the above incident which I managed to find out from my son when we finally made it home.
1.        My son was in the school canteen just after school hours at 1.50pm, rushing to buy lunch; he has a history of gastric and thus try to eat as soon as he has the opportunity before he starts to get gastric pains. As there was no queue, in front of the drinks stall, many students were jostling to get to the front to buy their drinks. There was some manoeuvering, slight pushing and shoving, as in any typical canteen scene after school at lunch time, particularly in an all-boys school.
2.        As he was jostling his way forward, the said teacher, was walking past (on his right side and just within an arm’s length). At the point, his hand having swung outwards due to the jostling brushed her buttocks accidentally with the back of his hand, because he was holding his wallet in the hand.  She turned around and asked him “Do you  know what you have done?”
3.        My son immediately apologised to the teacher explaining that it was accidental. However, the teacher said, “Even if you are sorry, it is an arrest-able offence, and sorry cannot make up for it.” She then informed him that she was going to report this to his Form Teacher, who subsequently arrived and escorted him to the Discipline Master’s office. Before long, the police arrived, questioned him and arrested my son.
4.        When asked why he had confessed to the statement he made, he said it was the manner it was suggested to him, and he didn’t have a choice.
5.        Subsequently, My son was given a warning letter for the offence he confessed to. This is after a few months of having to go to the police station to post bail.
Children have to be protected because they have no formal rights
1.        Schools need to captain young lives and not put them in jeopardy
2.        Schools should not protect staff above pupils, but to treat both fairly.
3.        The child will clearly be traumatized socially, and there is bound to be a lot of rebound in terms of re-socializing him. (We had to have a 14-year-old boy’s death to prove this point)
4.        There was no proper disciplinary evaluation of both teacher and student before the case was taken to the police?
5.        The school did nothing to champion the situation and I think this is something that our education system is unaware of and has no idea how to handle given the climate today where we live in a world of cyber bullying etc.
6.        I had written into Ministry of Education (MOE) to seek answers, only to have MOE ask me to give the principal of my son’s school a call. (My son had by that time moved to another school.) It is extremely frustrating to try to explain to a 13-year-old boy, that even though he had done something accidentally, by mistake he was not given a chance to be proven innocent, no benefit of a doubt. He lost all his childhood friends in the process of his moving school.
I’m very thankful that with support and conversations with my son he has not taken it as hard as Benjamin Lim. Whether this incident has any long-term repercussions on his relationships in the future is yet to be seen.
Yours truthfully,
A concerned parent

Whether or not he deliberately touched her does not warrant the teacher calling the police. If a teacher is not capable of managing a situation in school with a student by herself then she has failed as a teacher. To decide to get police involved instead of leaving matters to the disciplinary teacher is to disregard the welfare of her student, disregard the fact that students are minors in her care in need of guidance. Such a person is not suitable to be a teacher. Boys at the school will not trust nor look up to her and this accused boy will probably be so traumatized that when he grows up he may have difficulty making friends with women.
The Singapore Police is expert at extracting confessions. They should be more professional and do more leg work to gather evidence. Did the police question the teacher how did she know it was a deliberate touching amounting to molest. Did the police gather evidence from the other students at the canteen whether the touching was deliberate or accidental or they merely rely on the confession extracted from the boy?
The Law on molesting in Singapore is too strict. Almost everyday you read in the newspaper someone is found guilty of molesting. It appears that Singapore is a nation of molesters. If someone happens to brush against a woman he can be charged for molesting if the woman complains. The man is defenseless.

Why would China want to play ball with the Empire?

John Kerry visited Beijing last week with an edict from the Emperor that China must deal with the North Koreans or else. Behind the smile of the special envoy was a big stick. China must comply with the wishes of the Emperor or faced consequences. China on the other hand put up a brave front and pretended that relations with the Americans were good. Chinese media claimed that China US relations are improving.  Foreign Minister Wang Yi showed a big smile while he shook the hand of John Kerry. Kerry was also granted a meeting with Xi Jinping and the media were invited. The photo session gave an impression that it was a friendly visit, but nothing of that sort.

China has been trying to appease the pressure from the Empire to act as dictated by the Emperor. But China quietly refused to comply. China is not going to make an enemy out of North Korea. The envoy left Beijing still smiling. Over the weekend the Empire acted. It sailed two warships to within the 12 nm territorial limits of a Chinese island in the South China Sea.  This was the gravest provocation to date, an act of aggression that the Americans coded as an exercise on ‘freedom of navigation’. The Americans sailed across the Pacific Ocean to violate the territorial sovereignty of China and expect the Chinese to take it quietly with heads bent.

The Empire has been setting many conditions to tie the hands of China in trade and other peaceful enterprises and forcing China to take hostile actions against its allies. China is not allowed to sell fighter aircraft to Iran and weapons to many of its allies while the Americans are even selling to Taiwan, a renegade island that broke away after a civil war. The empire also signed a defence treaty to intervene in the civil war, to come to the defence of Taiwan.

Why would China want to play ball and be on the losing side of the Empire? Why would China allow the Empire to dictate terms and curb its peaceful activities with countries of the world? Why would China be forced to take responsibility when North Korea acted independently?  North Korea is an independent country unlike South Korea, a semi colony of the USA. China has no right to interfere with the actions of an independent country.

The latest provocation in the South China must be the last straw that broke the camel’s back. It is about time China stands up to the bullying of the Empire. China does not need to cooperate with the hostile and aggressive Empire. China should conduct its diplomacy in its own interest and in the way it likes. China should no longer cooperate with the Empire in the interest of the Empire.

It is about time China exerts itself as an independent country and a super power that would look straight in the eyes of the Empire. No more cooperation. The Empire can do as it pleases. China would do as it pleases. China must build up its military forces in the South China to avoid being attacked by the Empire.

The message of the Empire is simple and clear. China must come under the influence of the Empire to obey the dictates of the Empire. Refusal to do so would lead to war.  And it would be China’s fault for provoking a war with the ‘good’ Empire.  China must be prepared for war with the Empire. The Empire is banging at China’s door. China cannot hide behind the door and pretend everything is fine.  China must step out of the house to face the Empire squarely. Not doing so would encourage the Empire to misbehave and act wildly and war becomes a certainty.

Singapore is our country

Together we have sent a message that will echo from Wall Street to Washington, From Maine to California. And that is that the government of our great country belongs to all of the people, and not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors and their super PACs’.  Bernie Sanders, Democrat Presidential candidate

Does the above quote sounds eerily familiar? This was something that the people of Singapore should be shouting in the last GE but somehow it faded away. It changed tune with 69% of the voters shouting from Raffles Place to the Istana and from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands that Singapore belongs to them.

When would all the people of Singapore be shouting that our great island city state belongs to all the people of Singapore and not just a handful of wealthy politicians or to foreigners? Would this message be heard in the next GE? Or would this message be heard in the next GE that the position of the President of Singapore belongs to all the people of Singapore and not a few special people with purple blood?

The victory of an ordinary man, without the richest and glory, not a natural aristocrat, came as a surprise, that common people can become the president of the USA, (but not in Singapore).  Bernie Sanders won convincingly in New Hampshire. The Democrats were banking on Hillary Clinton’s political experience to carry the votes. But the voters voted a man that had lesser experience, no experience in running a town council to prove that he can fun a country as big as the USA to be their presidential candidate.

Republican candidate Trump also had a big win. According to NYT, both men ‘won significant support from voters who felt betrayed by their parties and were dissatisfied or angry with the federal government’. This would not happen in Singapore when the voters were satisfied and happy with the ruling govt. Sanders or Trump would not stand a chance with their lack of experience in political office if they were to run for the office of the Elected President. They may not even be qualified in the first place, to be eligible as a candidate.

What do you think?

The Singapore formula of the highest science

Now what is that? I also don’t understand what is the title all about. What is the highest science? Got such a thing meh? I briefly remembered Einstein calling political science the master science, because he could not find a theory or formula that is exact and unchanging, and predictable. All the variables are changing all the time. Now what is the highest science? I can’t give you a definition, but from what I am going to write below maybe you will get an idea of this out of the world kind of science.

Singapore has just appointed a very high level Constitutional Commission to recommend a formula to elect a president that will not be a rogue. It is like a system that will not fail in what it is set up to do, to produce an infallible man to be the Elected President of Singapore. Get the idea?

And to do this task, the PM has picked out a team comprising the most talented talents in the island, the top judges, top civil servant, top political scientist, top businessmen, top minority talent, top banker, top top of everything, the eminent men and woman of the island. Their combined talent and intelligent are likely to exceed any living genius on earth. You will need such a pool of intelligence to come out with a system that will not produce a rogue Elected President.

To understand the complex nature of this extraordinary task, you must understand a few things. One, it is a democratic election system where the people, the unthinking masses, are supposed to make the decision as a herd. Then there is the selection committee of equally fallible men and women, I can’t expect to say they are flawless unless they are godlike. And this team will, with their imperfect human nature, pick a man they think will not be a rogue.  And the person that is being picked is going to be truly godlike or may not be godlike but can pretend to be godlike during the selection process. And also presumably he will not fall to temptation and his life is so blessed, that his aspiration or appetite for more money or anything will be neutered. See, human nature is such that human beans are prone to temptation and their heads tend to grow bigger and bigger when they are put into position of power. So for such an infallible man to exist, to be the Elected President, is a daunting task, all temptations and desires must be castrated to prevent him from becoming a rogue.

Now our eminent team of men and woman is going to design a formula that would not fail, would not produce a rogue Elected President. Now you see, given the flawed nature of human beans, isn’t this the highest science?

Would it be more important to design a system that would not produce rogue MPs , Ministers and Prime Ministers? These elected representatives actually wield more power and carry more responsibilities than an Elected President. Should not this be the top priority? Never mind, let’s wait for this mission impossible, a system or formula to produce an infallible man in the Elected President that would not become a rogue. I will not add another condition, that it would not violate the rights of the citizens provided in the Constitution to be eligible to become an Elected President.

I wonder if there is a prize in this world good enough to award to this team if they could ever produce a scheme, system or formula to pick a flawless and infallible man. I know God failed in this task when he thought Noah was the perfect man and spared his life to be allowed to breed a flawless specie of human beans. But Noah proved just as fallible as any human bean, flawed.

What do you think? Can this team do it when God had failed? Can there be a perfect system that would not produce a rogue president?

PS. This is my piece for the weekend. I am taking a short break with my friends.

China hegemony, North Korea threat, rogue president

What have these phrases have in common? China hegemony? When was there a China hegemony? Anyone lived through it? What was it like or how was it like? We are living through 70 years of American hegemony. 

What about North Korean nuclear threat? They did not have the weapons yet. They cannot deliver the warheads yet. They have not threatened any country other than South Korea, Japan and the USA. These are the enemies of the North Koreans, threatening and provoking the North Koreans. The North Koreans are no threat to anyone else. Stop being silly to think the North Koreans will wake up one day in the future and fire their missiles all over the world, to Singapore, to Malaysia, to the Philippines, to Indonesia, to Myanmar, to India….. Stupidity knows no bounds. What is the fuzz all about? Why the ruckoos?

Then there is this great fear of a rogue president? Anyone seen one yet? What is a rogue president? What is the definition of a rogue president? Would anyone notice or recognize one when the rogue president is standing in front of him?

What is the common feature of these three devils? They are just someone’s hype, someone’s imaginations to create fear. These are the ghosts that are threatening everyone and must be exorcised. Let’s hide from them, let’s fight them. In reality they may not even exist. A China hegemony? What is that? Is it bad or can it be good, better than the American hegemony?

Why should it be bad? Because the Americans said so, because the western media have been saying so? The dumb just believed blindly. They don’t call them daft for nothing.

Who is the world’s Number One Menace?

The Americans have voted North Korea as the most serious nuclear threat with testimonies from their respectable intelligence services that provided the evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD. These agencies are now giving strong evidence to support their assertion that North Korea is the most dangerous country.

In a NYT report this is what the director of National Intelligence Agency, James Clapper, said to put North Korea at the top of his list of nuclear proliferation related threats…North Korea has expanded its uranium enrichment facility at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon and restarted a plutonium production reactor and could begin to recover plutonium from the reactor’s spent fuel within a matter of weeks or months.

Isn’t this the same as what Japan has done, in restarting the Fukushima plant? The possession of plutonium is ground to justify proliferation threat? How much plutonium have the Americans had in their possession?

The other result is trust. Clapper said, "we in the intelligence community are very much in the ‘distrust, and verify’ mode". Ah, the same agency that lied to the world about WMD is saying the North Koreans cannot be trusted but they can be trusted. Excuse me, what did you say about the evidence of WMD in Iraq? Can you be trusted? Did you verify your insidious condemnation report of Iraq that was used as an excuse to invade that country and to murder President Saddam Hussein whom you accused of possessing WMD and now proven to be a white lie?

Who is less trustworthy? Who is more menacing? Who is more dangerous, the liar or the once accused by the liar?

Why are the Americans patrolling the South China Sea? Why is it that the littoral states now must leave the islands alone, no construction, no military bases, because the Americans said so? The countries with construction and military bases in the South China Sea islands are China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia. Are the Americans taking over the South China Sea as part of the Empire? In the guise of getting other countries, the Philippines and now the Japs and Indians to conduct joint patrols, the Americans are the real mccoy patrolling the South China Sea for the Empire and all the countries in the region better back off. The Empire is here and taking over.

 

The Americans said they are in the South China Sea to lower tension. There was no tension after they were defeated in Vietnam and left until they returned with their pivot to Asia policy.

Animals left imprints on the hearts

10 Feb, the Mypaper devoted one full page to the animals that made the news last year with the heading, ‘Stories that left paw prints on hearts’. They were heart wrenching articles for people who felt deeply on the plight of cats and dogs that fell victims to the cruelties of human beans. These were yesteryear news.

Would the paper be writing about Benjamin Lim next year, the boy that made the news and breaking many people’s hearts? Would people remember Benjamin’s haunting last words, ‘They said I am guilty, so I am guilty lor’ to his mother? Would anyone remember Benjamin’s last meal, a cold bun he took for breakfast and no lunch?

Benjamin left with an empty stomach, no lunch, no water, devastated, did not know what was going to happen to him, a lonely boy left to fend for himself, without his papa and mama or an adult beside him to lend him some psychological support unlike the students of Tanjong Katong Primary. The last moments of Benjamin’s life were a terribly sad one. If only someone was there to hold his hand, put an arm around his shoulder and tell him, it’s ok, not to worry.

No words can give meaning to the torment going through this poor boy’s head. He faced the cruel world of adults all by himself. He cried in silence, waiting for help that was not there and ending it was the only choice he could think of.

RIP Benjamin. Your last words would be remembered deeply in the heats of many. Many would live in regret with the thought of the last cold bun you had in the last day of your life.

It is unlikely that anyone or any media will remember you like they remember the cats and dogs. You are also not in the news today, except in the social media. Would there be a One Cold Bun Day to remember you?

Benjamin Lim is a taboo name and not to be spoken for now.

USA – The menace in the South China Sea

The American again flew two B52 bombers over the Chinese islands in the South China Sea yesterday and all China did was to protest. This is making China looking helpless in the eyes of the international community and especially Asean countries that would think China is ripe for the whacking. China has not learnt the lesson from the Japanese invasion. Weakness is an invitation for war. The Japanese saw the weakness in Manchu China and invaded. The Americans are seeing the same weakness in China and getting bolder and are tempted to push China out of the South China Sea, even to attack China.

 

China has no choice. The policy of restraint advocated by Deng Xiaoping is not longer working in the face of a hostile aggressor like the Americans. Either China stands up and face the Americans squarely or be bullied and loses all respect in the eyes of Asean and the world. It would lead to the scattering of support and friendly countries to the American camp.

 

Though war is bad for China and it is trying its best to avoid an open conflict, China cannot keep sitting still and do nothing to the provocations. Even lame Australia thinks it is up to it to challenge China by trying to act as a deputy sheriff as well. There are many ways to deal with the Americans without going to war. There are economic, political and financial tools to apply the pressure where it hurts. There are many areas that China need not cooperate with the Americans where it matters most to the Americans. Let the North Koreans and the Iranian thump their chests at the Americans.  China can work more closely with the Russians in Syria by contributing to the war effort on the side of Assad and the Russians.  China can also support the indigenous people of North America and champion their cause to reclaim their land in the UN. Beat the drum hard in the UN and let it be heard. Keep the occupation of stolen land issue alive.

 

China must take the initiative, go on the offensive instead of sitting there and waiting for the Americans to come kicking down their door. No need to engage in military warfare unless forced to. Fight the Americans in areas that they are weak and sensitive about, hit them where it hurts.

 

Not doing anything is not an option.  The Syrian conflict is a good start to keep the Americans busy with American troops on the ground to drain their military resources and bog them down in an area away from China. Putin is doing a great job and if China can give him a helping hand, that would keep the Americans very busy there and got no time to provoke another theatre of war and create mischief in the South China Sea.

 

Give full support to the North Koreans and back them up. Do not be forced to act against the North Koreans to benefit the Americans. China must take the side of the North Koreans or lose an ally to benefit the Americans.

 

Remember, the Americans are broke and cannot sustain their military operations overseas for long. The Americans are upping their pressure, encouraging the Japanese, the Pinoys and the Indians to send their military ships to patrol the South China Sea. These provocative acts must be stopped before it got too big to manage and war becomes unavoidable.

Constitutional Commission for the Elected President appointed

Hsien Loong has appointed a Constitutional Commission to relook at the Elected President Scheme. The 9 members of the commission are:

• Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon
• Justice Tay Yong Kwang, Judge, Supreme Court
• Mr Eddie Teo, Chairman, Public Service Commission
• Mr Abdullah Tarmugi, Member, Presidential Council for Minority Rights
• Professor Chan Heng Chee, Chairman, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design
• Mr Chua Thian Poh, Chairman and CEO, Ho Bee Land
• Mr Philip Ng, CEO, Far East Organization
• Mr Peter Seah, Chairman, DBS Bank
• Mr Wong Ngit Liong, Chairman and CEO, Venture Corporation 

The terms of reference of the Commission include the qualifying process and the eligibility criteria for the Presidency candidates, the framework governing the exercise of the President’s custodial powers, including whether the views of the Council of Presidential Advisers can be given more weight, and recommendations to ensure that minorities have the chance to be periodically elected to the Office of the President.

The big question is whether these eminent men and woman will look at the Constitutional right of every citizen to be eligible as a candidate for the Presidency and the right to elect a president of their choice and not to elect one from a pre selected few candidates that belonged to the rich and powerful class of citizens and chosen by the natural aristocrats. It is not in the terms of reference of the Commission to look into and to protect these rights of the people. In this city, if it is not spoken specifically, it will not be addressed, just like the U turn sign. Only got U turn sign then can make U turn.

Why should the rich and powerful decide the first cut, have the first call on who is eligible and qualified to be a presidential candidate by virtue of his wealth and status in society, the natural aristocrat class, and not by virtue of his fundamental right as a citizen of this country, regardless of race, language and religion, money and social status? Is there a special class of citizens that have a special right to be qualified to be a presidential candidate and other classes of citizens do not have this right?

Is the right of the citizens protected by the Constitution or would this right be legislated away? Some are born more equal than others in this democratic society based on justice and equality?

Any MP, NCMP or politician thinks he/she has something to say about this? Or they know that they should not be saying anything at all, not the right thing to say, not the right time to open their mouths? It will be just another fait accompli by default? The non 'natural aristocrats', ie the commoners, are unfit to be president of the country? No right to be the Elected President of the country, a position with no executive power and not much different from being a ceremonial president? The only condition that rules out an American from running for the President of the USA, the most powerful man in the world, is to be born in the USA. Why is there a need to disqualify 99% of the population on the mythical notion of rogue potential? Commoners are more likely to be rogues and the natural aristocrats are not? Please do not insult the integrity of the commoners. They are the ones that elected the ruling party to power.

Whose interest would the changes in the Elected President Scheme served?

Four legs are good, two legs are better!

Age and Citizenship requirements - US Constitution, Article II, Section 1

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

Turning a Japanese lie into a glorious truth

How many of you heard of the Japanese Scientific Study on the whales? To conduct this Scientific Study, the Japanese must killed a few hundred whales every year and this will go on and on for perpetuity. How many did not know what this is all about?

Today a more serious lie is being used to justify the remilitarization of Japan.  Let me quote this Kyodo News report printed in the Today paper on 4 Feb 16.

‘Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday advocated amending par tof the war renouncing Article 9 of the country’s Constitution, saying there is a contradiction between the existence of the Self Defence Forces (SDF) article that stipulates japan never maintains land, sea and air forces…..Abe called for amendments of the second paragraph of the article that reads, “Land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained”…Abe told the House of Representatives Budget Committee…that “some parts (of it) do not fit into (the realities of) the current period”.

There is the view that (Japan should) address the situation in which 70 per cent of constitutional scholars suspect the SDF is in violation of the Constitution,” he said. “Given the view that we should change this with our own hands, the LDP has announced a draft revised Constitution.”’

They developed and built the SDF to be the biggest fighting force over so many years and today they said they suspect they were violating the pacifist Constitution. So instead of going back to the Constitution, they are going to amend the Constitution to fit the reality.

See how deceitful are the Japanese? Honourable samurai, warrior’s code? They created lies that were so huge that nothing can hide the lies any more. So conveniently they officially sanctioned the lies to quash the suspicion.

And the Americans are fully behind this big lie to the extent that they are compromising the safety of Americans by not talking about the Fukushima lie. The deadly radioactive material are still leaking and spreading across the Pacific Ocean to the east of North America. The Americans are now exposed to the radioactive contamination in their food chain but the American govt is keeping mum, not to offend their military partner to extend their world hegemony.

Anyone believe that the nuclear leak in Fukushima has been contained and now harmless?

New York Times endorses American presidential candidates

‘NEW YORK: The New York Times on Saturday (Jan 30) endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination and Ohio Governor John Kasich for that of the Republicans….

The Times editorial board opted for a front-runner and a moderate underdog in endorsing Clinton for the Democrats and Kasich for the Republicans.

"Voters have the chance to choose one of the most broadly and deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history," the newspaper said of Clinton, a former secretary of state, senator from New York and First Lady….

The Times credited Sanders with generating enthusiasm among Democratic voters, but in the end, it said, he "does not have the breadth of experience or policy ideas that Mrs Clinton offers."…

In assessing the Republican candidates, The Times appeared to have settled on Kasich through a process of elimination.

It rejected Donald Trump, who has dominated the Republican race thus far, as a populist "who invents his positions as he goes along." "Mr Trump has neither experience in nor interest in learning about national security, defence or global trade," it said….’

Would out local media be so bold or be allowed to endorse any presidential candidates in the PE, if there is going to be one? It is just unthinkable that the media will be given such a free hand.  On second thought they had actually been doing so without openly saying so, I think.  The local media would not dare to say they endorse so and so as the Elected President for sure.

There is another interesting angle to look at the US Presidential Election and the comments on endorsement by the NYT. It was based on the experience of the candidates.  This reminds me of the great number of very experience politicians in this island that would definitely be chosen by the NYT if they are Americans by birth. We have so many talented politicians with better qualities than Hillary or John Kasich, with a string of straight As that would make George Bush Jr blushed.

Unfortunately the American Constitution forbid any Tom, Dick and Harry that were not born in the US to become their President. Otherwise we could export our talents to the US to vie for the crown of the President of the USA. Then again, the pay may not be attractive enough to lure our political talents away. The only attraction is the use of Air Force One. At the pay the US President is getting, the Americans would never smell the goodness of our politicians. They would just give it a miss, not in the USA, not anywhere in this world, except Sin City that could afford to pay for such exquisite talents.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump can feel safe that they would not have to face the best of the best in their Presidential Election. Whew.

Petrodollar - The Colder War

The Colder War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bExhU1IGR1k
By Alex Vadim
13 Feb 2015

The Colder War is a new book by Canadian author Marin Katusa.  Watch the video on the future of petrol dollar.

Watch this short video, 11 minutes, to understand the value of the petrodollar and why it is so important to the USA as the world's Number One Superpower.

Why condemn North Korea for launching a rocket?

The Americans and its lackeys were all up in arms to condemn North Korea for testing a rocket it used to launch its own satellite in space. This is provocative? This is a test for a long range missile to the USA? This must be condemned?

Can a country like North Korea or any country that the Empire branded as evil, have the right to develop their own rockets to launch their own missiles? Have these countries the right to develop their own weapons systems to defend themselves? Why is this a provocative act and unacceptable when the USA and its allies possessed many many missiles that are more than enough to fire at all the countries in the world many times over?

How would this measure up to in terms of being provocative when compares to the Americans sailing their warships into Chinese territories, within the 12 nautical miles from the island provided by the UNCLOS? How provocative can it be for the Americans to sail all the way from across the Pacific Ocean to the South China Sea to show the PRC that they can violate Chinese territorial integrity and sovereignty?

Why was there no condemnation of such naked provocations and acts of aggression? The North Koreans were exercising their rights to develop their own rockets/missiles and defence system. What is wrong with that? Why is that provocative? Every country has a right to develop and build its own defence system to protect against being attacked, especially by an aggressive and war mongering evil Empire like the United States.

What about the amendment of a pacifist Constitution to forbid a war like country like Japan that launched the biggest invasion in Asia, invading every Asian country to go to war again? Japan is amending its pacifist Constitution to go to war again citing fear of China and North Korea when the aggressor that attacked these countries was Japan. Historically, Korea and China had never invaded Japan but Japan had did it many times. No one is condemning Japan as an aggressive and provocative nation when it tore away its pacifist Constitution and is now sailing its warships everywhere and engaging in military actions and threatening China and North Korea?

So the South Koreans would have to pay the price for this hype of a hostile North Korea, to pay for the multi billion dollar missile defence system, THAAD, and to allow the Americans to keep it as a semi colony for more good years.

It is so easy to mislead the daft countries of the world. Just hype up a threat and they would believe without thinking. North Korean missile test means a threat to the world. How many silly asses believe this is so? The threat to the world is the country that owns an arsenal of nuclear weapons that can wipe out every country in this world and would do it callously, wielding a big stick to whack anyone that refused to toe the line. The threat to world peace is when former invader of Asia decided to want to go to war, to be able to conduct war as it pleases. North Korea not only has no record of conducting aggression or military invasion of any country, it does not have the resources to do so.

Stop believing in the boy that cries wolf and expecting everyone to panic. North Korea wants to conquer the world? For what? It does not have the capability.

More photos of old Chinatown

The last pic is Chinatown MRT Station.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone

Below are some photos I took on Friday of people visiting Chinatown for some shopping and to enjoy the festive mood in this last post of old Singapore. It was just after an evening rain and the lighting was not too good for photography.

New hope for opposition parties

The performance of the opposition parties was anything but pathetic in the last GE. And the sad thing, they are running out of ideas. So I am here to give them a piece of good advice to win the next GE. They must be innovative, creative and think out of the box, what else can I add to make it sound even more ludicrous?

Ok, the plan is very simple. Prepare to bring in the foreign talents. Go West, go to the land that we admire most, the USA. Speak to Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Bush and a few more of the prominent American leaders. Tell them don’t waste time running for Presidency there. Invite them to Singapore, help them to apply for citizenship. This part sure no problem, sure pass one.

The next step, when they have become citizens, make them join the political parties, WP, SDP, or whatever Ps.  Promise them that at least they will become ministers, and promise them you will double, triple or quadruple their pay. And tell them, no need to work so hard. Singapore is not even a fraction of their smallest state, so the work is not that big. And if they still don’t bite, tell them they will be assisted by ministers of states and if not happy, appoint more ministers for the same ministry. I am sure they will find it attractive to become ministers here.

With such a line up of foreign talents making up of presidents, secretaries of states, can add some from the UK also, the opposition parties will be in the game. They will have the talents and experience to take on the formidable PAP political machine and stand a chance to win and to form the next govt.

There is still plenty of time before the next GE. Go for it. Don’t sleep. Bring in the best from the world to contest in the next GE before they tweaked the system to stop foreign talents to stand for election and become ministers.

Quick, quick, go West to go East. Just imagine a GRC with Obama anchoring it or Hillary Clinton as the anchor woman. No need to be frighten by PAP chut pattern anymore. But don’t bother with Donald Trump. He has too much money and money would not attract him here. And you even have Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a husband and wife team anchoring a GRC. Sure makan one.

Be creative man! Ma Ing-Jeou is also available. Oh, not to forget Modi also. The opposition camp can be very strong with the strongest candidates from the whole world coming here to represent the Ang Mo Kia, Punggolites, Queenstownians, Woodlanders, Pasirians….It would be so exhilarating to field Obama against Hsien Loong in Ang Mo Kio.

What do you think?

Lee Li Lian made the right choice

She was elected in a by election by the people of Punggol East to serve them. She served them well, with all her heart and soul. She was devoted to the people and wanted to do everything she could for them.

In the GE the people chose to vote for a PAP candidate instead of her. The people decided that they wanted Charles Chong and not Lee Li Lian. She got the message. She was not wanted. Without the people voting for her, what credibility has she to go to parliament? This is democracy, the people’s choice. What credibility does a defeated candidate rejected by the people has to represent them, to put on a show that he/she is the people’s candidate by choice? The people had spoken and it is best for the loser to step aside and let the elected representative to speak for them in Parliament, to represent them in the constituency.

Lee Li Lian is not going to pretend that she is elected by the people and go strutting around as the people’s elected representative. A reject is a reject. A NCMP is a reject by the people. The loser of an election is the reject of the people.

There is still some dignity and self respect in Lee Li Lian to say no to the offer. This does not imply that the other NCMPs do not have dignity or self respect for accepting the NCMP offer. It is part of an inordinary system to tell the rejects that they can still be in Parliament to show that there are opposition voices in Parliament. It is an acceptance of reluctance, to live with a contrived system of democracy when the rejects of the people can still speak in Parliament, like representing them but not representing anyone, cannot go cut ribbons, give scholarships to students using public funds, not invited to grace govt organized functions, no proper place to meet the people, no everything except to be in Parliament to give a semblance of opposition presence. They are just trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

This neither here nor there NCMP system must be abolished when the right time comes. It is an anomaly. It should not be there in the first place. It is not democracy, it is not elected by the people, of the people and for the people.

Lee Li Lian said something so loud that many people missed totally.