it would seem that the empire is getting a bit too big for its 'britches;

The details of last week's Royal Navy HMS Defender incident near Crimea in the Black Sea which saw "warning shots" fired by the Russian side continue to be shrouded in mystery and accusations and counter-accusations between the Kremlin and the West.

On Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin inserted a new bombshell allegation regarding the dangerous June 23 encounter which could have sparked open conflict. During a live call-in news show, an annual tradition where the Russian leader fields ordinary citizens' direct questions, Putin said that a US reconnaissance aircraft was present during the incident...........read and watch more.....

 the current state of affairs in short, here in the empire;

 mr peters speaks here about the cult of safety found in the empire and where it leads;

It didn’t just happen that a majority of the populace bought into the hysteria manufactured about a virus that doesn’t kill 99.8-something percent of the otherwise healthy population. They were primed to buy into it – by decades of programming about saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety being the single most important thing in life. Even to the extent of stifling the expression of life.

It goes back generations and has many facets but the most obvious antecedent is the ululation chorus regarding the Danger of Speed – defined by the ululators as any speed beyond that posted on a sign standing by the side of the road. Such speed killed, they said.

Or rather, asserted..........read more.......

 a short video presenting the case about our current reality in a clip from 'my dinner with andre' in 1981;

https://twitter.com/i/status/1409872863885148160

 a bit of info you may wish to be aware of;

 think of this as a companion post with the previous one about the world of 'african americans';

Robbers held up a television crew at gunpoint during an interview with the director of violence prevention in Oakland amid the city’s huge wave of violence, police have said.

The attack took place outside City Hall on Monday just hours after the police chief blasted his city’s decision to defund its police department by $18.5million despite a 90 per cent increase in murders.

The NBC Bay Area news crew was interviewing Guillermo Cespedes at around 3pm when two armed men tried to take their camera, the Oakland Police Department said.

A scuffle broke out and a private security guard who was contracted by the news agency, pulled out a gun and told the robbers to leave.

The suspects fled without the camera and no one was hurt, police said, but the two attempted robbers have not been arrested.

Hours earlier, police chief LeRonne Armstrong decried a decision made by city leaders in a 6-2 vote to divert a proposed $18.5million increase from the Oakland Police Department’s budget over the next two years despite a rise in violent crime and shootings.

He said: ‘I’ll start off today by saying that I’m challenged by the decisions that were made on Thursday around the budget for the City of Oakland particularly for the Oakland Police Department

‘I first want to say that I believe strongly that Mayor (Libby) Shaft put forward a budget that was designed to preserve public safety for the entire city both law enforcement and violence prevention. These are not two separate things

‘We work together we’ve always worked together and the success of this city will not be just law enforcement it won’t be just the Oakland police department..........read more......

i was, in part, raised by a black man and spent time in social situations in which i was one of a few whites involved but in recent years the following info seems to be more of the reality and it will be a large problem in the few cases where it ain't so far;

 The 2011 documentary Empire of Dust follows Lao Yang, a Chinese Railway Engineering Company employee stationed in the Congo. The movie is a comedy of errors, verging on the absurd, as Mr. Yang can’t find Africans capable of doing anything right. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong, because of corruption, stupidity, misunderstanding, or some combination. At one point, Mr. Yang laments: “It’s all so tiresome.”..........watch more........