BLINKED: South Korea and US Stopped Military Exercises for Fear of NK Reaction

South Korean and US forces "postponed" their military exercises in light of Pyongyang's threats of total war and Beijing's call for calm. Lee Myung-bak and his US handlers blinked, yet again.

Debt-ridden USA to Bail Out EU

the broke bailing out the more broke. What's wrong with this picture? Huh, anybody?!

Jiefang Jun Wanshui!

Happily waiting for the PLA to liberate AmeriKKKa.

Jonathan Fairbank Declares May 10 "Flag Wear" Day

In support of the four heroic students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, CA, Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Fairbank declares Monday, May 10 "Flag Wear" Day. Patriots are encouraged to wear shirts displaying the Flag of the United States of America. Staff of the Fairbank Group are REQUIRED to wear the aforementioned attire.

China's Renminbi to be People's Currency Worldwide?

China pushing yuan as global currency

By Hari Sud
Column: Abroad View
Source: http://www.upiasia.com/Economics/2009/08/07/china_pushing_yuan_as_global_currency/9984/

Published: August 07, 2009

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Toronto, ON, Canada, — China and the United States held talks on strategic and economic matters in Washington on July 27 and 28, which both sides declared a success. However, such talks are pointless unless the basic issues of balanced trade and the value of the Chinese yuan are on the agenda.

Now might be a good time for China to push its currency, the yuan, as a global currency. It has US$2 trillion in reserves in the United States, making the powerful nation its debtor. It also has a list of other debtors that includes Europe. China holds all the cards to be a powerful global power.

The United States and Europe have dug their own graves with their financial excesses, an emphasis on globalization and an unnecessary war in Iraq. If it pushed hard, China could make the yuan the gobal currency.

While the United States and Europe were busy showing off their wealth and power for the last 20 years, China was taking away all the Western world’s manufacturing. This resulted in the West importing everything from socks to desktops from China – which imported next to nothing.

When the United States and Europe were struck by the financial meltdown in 2008, they turned to China for cash.

China’s trade surplus rose from a mere US$18 billion in 1999 to a staggering US$297 billion in 2008, thanks to its low-value currency. Its trade has made China the world’s manufacturing giant and its strong cash reserves have given it power to manipulate world opinion.

In 2007 China hinted at its intention to promote the yuan as an alternate reserve currency. And at last month’s G-8 Summit in Italy China pushed for enhanced status for the yuan. While Russia endorsed the idea, there was lukewarm support from both India and Brazil.

Although high-ranking U.S. government officials have visited Beijing to discuss the issue, President Barack Obama’s administration has been more engaged with domestic issues like the recession and rising unemployment than Beijing’s ambition to promote its currency.

Due to the global recession, the gross domestic product of the West is predicted to drop by 3 to 4 percent. In comparison, although China’s GDP has also been hit by the recession, its manufacturing sector and US$2 trillion in cash reserves – mostly loaned out to other countries –place it in a commanding position. China’s growing military might also places it in a more dominant position in the world.

The next two years will be a period of “rest and recovery” for the United States and other world economies. Although China has suffered on the export front, its economy is still humming at the rate of 6-7 percent annually. It has put its unemployed to work with its own version of a stimulus package, and surplus goods that could not be exported have been diverted for local consumption.

Since the end of World War II the West has been arrogant and overconfident. Western countries have ignored talk of reducing the role of the dollar and giving a greater role to the yuan or any other currency. But with almost all Anglo-Saxon economies in bad shape, they may have no choice.

China recently signed currency swap deals – in which dues are settled in yuan instead of the U.S. dollar – with Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Brazil and Russia. These countries support the idea of reducing the U.S. dollar’s dominance in world finance and business. This is the first in a series of steps China plans to upgrade the yuan and make it fully convertible in global financial markets.

The rise of the dollar was Europe’s gift to the new world after World Wars I and II. Until then the British pound was the world currency for trade, commerce and international transactions. When the British position began to erode after the wars, the United States outmaneuvered Britain into transferring international banking transactions to the United States. As a result its military power began to grow by leaps and bounds.

Then came the Cold War. Europe submitted to U.S. machinations and yielded all power. The value of the dollar rose and it maintained its lofty position until about 1990, with massive U.S. government support. The whole world recognized it and every nation, including oil producers, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India and China, began maintaining U.S. dollar accounts.

Then China emerged on the world economic stage. The United States did not anticipate that China would take away its entire manufacturing sector in such a short time. Initially, the United States transferred its labor-intensive smokestack manufacturing to China. But once the floodgates opened, there was no stopping China.

U.S. President Bill Clinton assisted this process, calling it prosperity. Unfortunately that was only on paper, with financial gains in stocks, bonds and other speculative markets proving worthless in 2008.

Next, after the 9/11 terror attacks former President George W. Bush’s administration got busy fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, putting the economy into a low-priority lane. The country’s surplus cash – which actually belonged to oil producers, China, India and Japan – was made available to domestic consumers by way of cut-rate mortgages. Within eight years post-9/11, the U.S. economy and its mighty dollar suffered catastrophic losses.

Now China is in a position to take the yuan to the world stage, similar to the U.S. dollar. When the yuan becomes fully convertible it will move into the world league.

However, there is an inherent weakness in the Chinese economy that may muddy the water. Its exports depend on the goodwill of the West. If those markets close, China’s economy could fall flat. The rest of the world cannot absorb Chinese exports the way the United States does. Also, the West may opt to rebuild and redevelop its manufacturing base, like India, Indonesia and Brazil, which will be a big setback for the yuan. Although China may resist such moves, this would not help its cause in the face of a determined effort by the West.

Chinese exports have benefited from the low value of the yuan, which has not been revalued in the last ten years to reflect the current status of China’s economy. If it is revalued upward by 15 to 20 percent, then 30 percent of Chinese exports will become pricey. Demand will drop and so will exports.

In such a scenario, other countries may step in to fill the void. India is in line, with massive cash at its disposal; it had US$40 billion from foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investors, and another US$40 billion in remittances from abroad in 2008. India could build a manufacturing base as fast as China did in the last 20 years. There is only one drawback in this scenario: the West has not fully realized the implications of China’s moves.

China will eventually move to displace the dollar and replace it with the yuan as the world currency. Such a move could deal a painful blow to the United States unless it starts moving manufacturing back from China and revisits the yuan-dollar relationship.

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(Hari Sud is a retired vice president of C-I-L Inc., a former investment strategies analyst and international relations manager. A graduate of Punjab University and the University of Missouri, he has lived in Canada for the past 34 years. ©Copyright Hari Sud.)

"Mighty" Amerikkka Held Hostage by Stick-Figure Somali Pirates

Another piece of evidence of America's precipitous decline. Just like Rome in AD 476 and Britain after 1914...

The Shoe Incident: Does America Have No Pride?!

I know the left-leaning MSM in the United States hate George W. Bush. But when a putative Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at the President of the United States on foreign soil, it is more than just a personal attack on Mr. Bush himself. It is an attack on the Office of the President of the United States of America and indeed on America itself.

Had this pathetic incident been directed against Her Majesty the Queen, the British press would have rallied behind their head of state and demanded an apology from the Iraqi government. Yet, the American MSM are silent -- perhaps even gleefully giddy -- over this attack on the Office of the President.

Shame on you MSM. Leave your personal animosity against Mr. Bush aside, and defend the reputation and pride of your country!!!

United States Code 1325

ENFORCE THE LAW, DAMN IT!

(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection;
     misrepresentation and concealment of facts

     Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States
   at any time or place other than as designated by immigration
   officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration
   officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United
   States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the
   willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first
   commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or
   imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent
   commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or
   imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
   (b) Improper time or place; civil penalties
     Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to
   enter) the United States at a time or place other than as
   designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil
   penalty of -
       (1) at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or
     attempted entry); or
       (2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of
     an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under
     this subsection.

   Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not
   in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be
   imposed.
   (c) Marriage fraud
     Any individual who knowingly enters into a marriage for the
   purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws shall be
   imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or fined not more than
   $250,000, or both.
   (d) Immigration-related entrepreneurship fraud
     Any individual who knowingly establishes a commercial enterprise
   for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws
   shall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, fined in accordance
   with title 18, or both.

Handing Out Green Cards Like Bottles of Water

Photo: Google Image, generic

By Bian-lian Huang

A Taiwanese friend of mine inquired about getting an American green card. He said he had a friend who got her US green card after she flashed her mid-sized boobs at an immigration officer while on a trip to Los Angeles. “She didn’t even have to ‘go all the way,’” per my friend.

The government is so lax and thus by implication places no value on American citizenship that it routinely hands out green cards like bottles of water all over the world. According to one source, there are about 65 million people who have the right of abode in the United States because they hold US green cards. This means that the United States has to feed, house and care for these 65 million people should they decide to exercise their RIGHT to enter the United States. Of these 65 million, many are rich bastards who make their blood money through corruption, the illicit trades or outright swindles, and thus their wealth are safely hidden and unreported.

The thought of housing, educating and feeding 65 million rich bastards makes me nauseous.

Of the 65 million referenced above, 13 million are from Hong Kong and Taiwan alone! In other words, half of the people in Taiwan and Hong Kong hold US green cards.

Your government and (devalued) tax dollars at work!

America's First Muslim President?

Source: Drudge Report, 2/25/08

It has only been 7 years since 9/11. (In fact, the event is so vivid in my mind that it is as if it took place only hours ago). And we are now poised to have the first Muslim president in the person of Barak Hussein Osama (BO).

Will he promulgate sharia law? Will he force womyn to wear burkas?

Weakened Western Powers Plead for China’s Assistance in Darfur

Putatively, Steven Spielberg’s withdrawal from the Chinese Olympics Organizing Committee as an artistic consultant stems from China’s reluctance “to do more” against the civil war in Darfur, the Sudan. The truth is that this second-rate American director has been overshadowed by the legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou, who heads the production of the opening and closing ceremonies. Zhang Yimou’s eye for colour and acrobatics and his inimitable grasp of story-telling spook the bearded American. So the little American took his small marbles and went home.

More interestingly, this episode has underscored China’s position as the pre-eminent global power. The West is so weak militarily and economically that it has to solicit the People’s Republic’s assistance in order to quell the civil war in Darfur.

Mao was right; China has stood up. Qi lai!