USA - What a beautiful sight!

 

Trump supporters clash with police in Washington. Photo credit Reuters

WASHINGTON: Supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday (Jan 6) in a bid to overturn his election defeat, forcing Congress to postpone a session that would have certified President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

With drawn guns and tear gas, police evacuated lawmakers and sought to clear the Capitol Building of protesters, who surged through the halls of Congress in shocking scenes broadcast across the globe.

One protester occupied the Senate dais and yelled: "Trump won that election".

Protesters overturned barricades and clashed with police as thousands descended on the Capitol grounds.

Police declared the Capitol building secure shortly after 5.30pm (6.30am Singapore time), more than three hours after it was breached.

Video showed the Trump supporters breaking windows and police deploying tear gas inside the building. Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said members of the crowd used chemical irritants to attack police and several had been injured. One civilian died after being shot during the mayhem, local media said. The FBI said it had disarmed two suspected explosive devices....

The former vice president said that for demonstrators to storm the Capitol, smash windows, occupy offices, invade Congress and threaten the safety of duly elected officials: "It's not a protest, it's insurrection".

 Congress under siege with Trump supporters breaking into Capitol Building. 

Rioters hit by tear gas

Rioters facing police inside Capitol Hill Building

Rioters inside Capitol Hill Building gallery
All photo credits to Reuters

The above Reuters article and photos were published in CNA.  A nation of lies and gangsters showing their best violence to the world.  America needs more domestic violence to keep them busy from exporting their violence to the world and killing other innocent people.  Let them kill themselves and burn their own America. American Democrazy at work.

Trump was reported to be scheming to fabricate a false flag incident with Israel attacking American forces and putting the blame on Iran to start a war.  The generals in the Pentagon are in a state of horror, not knowing what to do, to take orders from this deranged President to fight a war for fake reasons and to keep the mad President in the White House or to disobey him, a sort of mutiny. They have been notified of this horrific scheme and are at odds with themselves and the coming crimes against Iranian people and the people of America as many would die in due cause from this tragedy in the making.

The world has been given notice on this evil scheme of Trump.

Trump is desperately trying to steal the election from Biden but accusing Biden of stealing the election from him. This is classic sick American tactic practised all over the world for decades, now being applied in their home ground.

Bilahari Kausikan - Live streaming of Parliamentary session is not 'genuine transparency'

 

Singapore — Barely minutes into the first livestream of a Parliamentary session on Monday (Jan 4), a former Singapore diplomat criticized the move, calling it “a mistake”.

In a Facebook post on his own page, Bilahari Kausikan wrote that the move “is a mistake. It will undoubtedly be hailed as a step in the direction of ‘transparency’. But the real effect will not be genuine transparency”....

 In his post, Mr Kausikan said that the immediate effect of having the sessions livestreamed “will be to promote playing to the gallery”.

“To think that playing to the gallery will be recognised as such by the general public, is to expect far too much of human nature. In the long run, it will change the political dynamic in such a way as to incentivise a certain sort of personality to enter politics and not the kind who ought to be a political leader”, he added.

The above is reported in theindependent. 

Why is live streaming of Parliamentary session not 'genuine transparency'? According to Bilahari, the MPs would be playing to the gallery, meaning they would become actors and actresses in Parliament, trying to put up a fake picture of themselves? This is the assumption of Bilahari, that MPs, including ministers, would think playing to the gallery is more important than presenting what is real, what is the truth?

I think there is another way to look at this. The MPs and ministers would be more conscious and would want to put up their best front, to prove that they are good by being more thorough in their presentations. There would be no room to make mistakes or talk nonsense, as the public would be looking at them and judging them. Would not this for the better than to assume that they would fake to look good?

To simply make an assumption that MPs and ministers would play to the gallery is being too simplistic and a weak argument to claim that this would make Parliamentary session not genuine, not transparent.

Then what is genuine transparency? Have closed sessions like before then edit the parts that are good to be shown to the public? Speaking not in full view of the public would lead to genuine transparency?

I think putting the MPs and ministers under the spotlight is a much better way to ensure that they put on their best and behave in the best way they could and also would impose on them to be accurate and telling the truth.

What do you think?

Here Comes China - snippets

 

Ten Predictions for 2021

1. GDP expands 10%. Western experts predict GDP will expand by 8% and, since they are always 25% low, expect 10%–a $2.4 trillion addition to the economy and the fastest growth ever. Bonus Predictions: Wages  rise 12%, the EU signs the Investment Agreement, the EEU merges with the RCEP.
2. Most Fortune 500 companies are Chinese. More than 140 Chinese companies and fewer than 120 US companies will make the Fortune list. 80% of the Chinese companies will be State Owned Enterprises.
3. Five new billionaires created weekly, following four a week in 2020. .
4. Extreme poverty, homelessness vanish. There will be more drug addicts, suicides and executions, more homeless, poor, hungry and imprisoned people in America than in China by this time next year. 99% of the bottom half of Chinese society will own a home and have an income, plenty of food and clothes, safe streets, health insurance, a pension, and old age care.
5. Gini gap narrows. Inequality has been Xi’s pet project since 2012 and will become a priority through 2035. The gap is already narrower than Europe’s: Luxembourgeois are 50 times richer than Moldavans, while Beijingers are 5-6 times richer than folks in Gansu, and Gansu is richer than Armenia, Ukraine and Moldova.
6. Urban life revolutionized. China has constructed the equivalent of San Francisco’s entire housing stock every month since 1950 and Xiong'An New Area, south of Beijing, embodies everything they have learned. Most of it will be woods and wetlands, the loudest sound will birds twittering, and it will be fully automated, with infrastructure underground. Increased productivity will repay its capital cost in 30 years.
7. The first exascale computer. Top supercomputers  nowsolve problems at the petascale—a quadrillion calculations/second. Exascale computers, at a quintillion calculations/second, will more realistically simulate the processes involved in precision medicine, regional climate, additive manufacturing, the physics in materials discovery and design, the fundamental forces of the universe, and more.
8. Another quantum surprise to match its recent boson sampling achievement. China outspends the US 4:1 in R&D and its Taoist worldview accommodates quantum physics’ ‘both-and’ paradigm better than the Western ‘either-or’ tradition.
9. Chinese outlive Americans. US deaths will rise 15% 3.2 million and life expectancy will fall by three years. China’s life expectancy was on track to match America’s by 2028, but thanks to Healthy China 2030, it may maintain its 2021 lead permanently. 
10. Chinese vaccines protect the world. Sixty percent of the world's people will be protected by Chinese vaccines (and The WHO will reveal India as the source of the Covid-19 virus.

Opposition MP Meet The People Session - Showcase of a third world country

 

Above photo of WP MP Raeesah Khan meeting residents at the void deck of HDB flats in their Meet The People Session. Picture credit to theindependent.sg/

This is the most pathetic and shameful sight in Singapore politics. What would the world be saying looking at our opposition MPs in such a ridiculous position while trying to do their jobs to help their residents.

All MPs, whether they are opposition party MPs or ruling party MPs, are the people's elected representatives and must be treated with equal respect and decorum. And they must be provided with decent facilities to conduct their meetings with the people, to solve the people's problems in proper office space, not haphazard void decks or some street corners.

The govt should set aside funds for such purposes so that all MPs should be accorded due respect as the people's elected representatives and can perform their roles as MPs in proper offices. This is not just about respecting the MPs, opposition or ruling, but also the people, the residents. 

When I look at the above picture, it reminds me of third world countries in Africa or some corners of Asia, not in super rich Singapore.

This unsightly policy must be stopped and changed for the better. Every govt officer and the lowest level officers are provided with decent office space to perform their work, why not an MP. An opposition MP is not an enemy, not an outcast, not a beggar. An opposition MP is also part of the govt, sits in the Parliament to discuss national issues and participate in law making. Why can't they be given a little respect and provide with decent office space to serve the people? These are important works of every MP. The British treated David Marshall in the same way in the past, a table in the corridor of Parliament House.

So much money have been spent on dogs and cats, on foreigners and their children, why not provide a decent office for the opposition MPs and ruling party MPs as well? Unless meeting the people to help solving their problems is not important, unnecessary work, not worth doing, not an MP's job? What is the priority?  To me this is unacceptable practice. A total disrespect to the office of a Member of Parliament.

21st Century, 55 years post independence, can opposition MPs be treated more decently?

Trump's stupidity continues to bankrupt Americans

 

The NYSE on Thursday said it would delist China Mobile Ltd, China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd and China Telecom Corp Ltd following President Donald Trump's move in November to bar U.S. investment in 31 firms that Washington says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military. Yahoo News

Trump thought he was very smart to delist Chinese companies in NYSE. He does not know what he is doing, only cares about image, that he is tough with his anti China antics to show the daft Americans that America can kick China at will. America is more powerful than China! America can bully China!

Trump does not care about the monies, the dollars the ordinary American investors and funds paid for these shares. The 3 Chinese companies have already collected the money from the American investors. They would be most happy to let these shares become worthless to the American investors. They could now walk away with money in their pockets and tell the Americans that lost money from the delisting to go ask Trump for it.  They can ask Trump, 'Where's My Money?'

Singapore also had many bad experience like this when Mahathir practically delisted Malaysia stocks from CLOB. The result was that the shares became worthless in many cases and Singapore investors lost their pants. Similarly when red chips got delisted, many investors again lost their pants. But in Singapore's case, the cause was external if we do not take into consideration the decision to let foreign stocks listed here and scooted.

In America's case, they allowed the Chinese stocks to be listed, allowed Americans to pour in their savings into them, then delist the stocks and throw the water and baby out.

This is simply 'genius' Trump. Making Americans Grieve Again! the Americans do not need any enemies with Trump as president.

Well done Trump.

PS.

The New York Stock Exchange said it no longer plans to delist three Chinese telecommunications giants. (4 Jan 21)

In a late Monday statement, the NYSE said it dropped the plans after “further consultation with relevant regulatory authorities in connection with Office of Foreign Assets Control.”