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This week, oil fell through the price floor of $60 a barrel and gas at my local filling station was $2.26 a gallon. That’s great news for commuters and almost every business, but wonderfully bad news for our ugliest enemies. If oil prices remain low through next year, the effect on rogue governments, from the Russian Federation to Venezuela, will go from damaging to devastating. But Western economies (and China’s) stand to benefit, with cheap oil possibly tickling Europe’s snoozing markets awake. Even most underdeveloped states will get a welcome break.

The fact remains that Main Street is in trouble. The nation requires an economy in which new businesses are created and existing ones can afford to expand. That is not happening The U.S. was the world’s number one economy prior to World War II, but it took off bigtime after the war and there has not been a day of my long life in which we were not number one—until now. The International Monetary Fund recently released its calculations regarding the world’s economy and concluded that China is the number one economy, producing $17.6 trillion in terms of goods and...

NANJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday that denial of the Nanjing Massacre will not be allowed by the Chinese people or peace-loving people anywhere in the world. The Nanjing Massacre, committed by Japanese aggressors, was one of three major massacres during WWII. It was an atrocious anti-human crime and a dark page in the history of humanity, Xi said while addressing a state ceremony for China's first National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims. "Anyone who tries to deny the massacre will not be allowed by history, the souls of the 300,000 deceased victims, the...

Among the familiar hucksters who sought to capitalize on the troubles in Ferguson, Missouri, came a new face: Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and self-styled heir to the non-existent royal houses of Iraq and Syria. “I am deeply concerned,” Prince Zeid said in a press release, about “institutionalized discrimination” in America, and “I urge the U.S. authorities” to conduct “in-depth examinations” of racial justice. Notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence that Michael Brown’s death resulted from the criminal acts he engaged in before and during his encounter with officer Darren Wilson, Zeid’s Human Rights Council...

Russian media has reported that China's latest indigenous Type 1130 close-in weapon system can fire 10,000 rounds per minute and destroy 90% of hypersonic missiles traveling at a speed four times the speed of sound, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily. The system, which is the third-generation of the close-in weapon system developed by China, was recently spotted being installed on a PLA Type 054A frigate. Compared to its seven-barreled Type 730 predecessor, the Type 1130's Gatling-type gun has the same 30 mm caliber but the number of barrels increased to 11. While the Type 730 has only one...

BEIJING (AFP) - China on Wednesday urged the United States to "correct its ways" after a damning US Senate report detailed use of torture by the CIA. "China has consistently opposed torture," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing. "We believe the US side should reflect upon itself, correct its ways and earnestly respect and abide by the rules of international conventions." Rights groups say China's own justice system is riddled with abuses and that it is not uncommon for confessions to be extracted through torture. Beijing says it attaches great importance to human rights and that...

A former Connecticut resident and Chinese citizen who allegedly worked on the F135 engine was charged with trying to take sensitive documents about military technology to China, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday. Yu Long was en route to China in November via Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey where customs officers found proprietary documents in his luggage that included equations and test results used to develop titanium for U.S. military aircraft, prosecutors said. Between 2008 and earlier this year, Yu Long worked as a senior engineer for a Connecticut defense contractor. He had said he worked...

“China has surpassed America” is a headline that didn't make the front page of many US newspapers, but the IMF made it official that an economic output in China this year will be $17.6 trillion and $17.4 trillion for us.Even if we stick to old-fashioned GDP measures, China is only a few years away from the top spot.By 2020, they will have erected so many amazing skyscrapers, many which will surpass the new Freedom Tower, knocking it off the top-ten list.I realize China posted some ugly economic data overnight, and recently launched into a money printing scheme to pump up...

Defense Threat: China conducts its third test in a year of a hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade our missile and other defense systems, including the Aegis defense system guarding our carrier battle groups. As we downsize our military, scale back weapons procurement and development, China proceeds at top speed towards weapons designed to counter our once-huge technical advantage and qualitative superiority. Case in point is the third flight test of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, following earlier tests on Jan. 9 and Aug. 7 of this year. The U.S. Navy is particularly concerned,...

BEIJING — China's new stealth fighter could certainly "take down" its opponent in the sky, the president of China's top aircraft maker said on Tuesday, referring to its U.S.-made counterpart. Lin Zuoming, president of Aviation Industry Corp of China (Avic), which developed the J-31 stealth fighter, made the remarks in an interview on state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). "When it takes to the sky, it can definitely take it down," he said, in a reference to the U.S.-made F-35. "That's a certainty." Lin also emphasized the company's desire to compete with the United States in new markets, particularly countries...

My children of light you have arrived for you abide in My presence in Zion yet many remain earthbound in distractions. Therefore throw off these hindrances "yeah" fast the earth for though I am coming I have already arrived in "you" My Zion on earth. You see as you strip your wellspring of earthly desires Heaven arises in you in all the fullness of The Godhead and it is then My will "is" done. Let there be freedom for My Spirit to "speak" to you of new things and allow Me to bless you through your obedience to My Voice...

Mike Bird December 9, 2014 Chinese stocks just saw a colossal sell-off late in trading, sending the Shanghai Composite index from a small increase to a 5.43% crash, the biggest in five years. Here's how it looked:(snip)

There’s much worrywarting over the new figures from the IMF IMF telling us the fact that China is now the world’s number one economy in terms of size. The truth is though that, other than for collectors of statistical trivia, this really isn’t important. Perhaps on a par with wondering how Lady Gaga is going to dress next but no more than that. Because the whole idea of “an economy” as defined by the borders of a nation state is pretty arbitrary anyway and further, it matters a great deal more how many people that economy is spread over than...

China's trade surplus climbed to a record in November after an unexpected decline in imports (CNFRIMPY) on lower crude oil and other commodity prices. (please see link for full article)

It’s just about a week since Russia and China, in a rare joint action, vetoed a European-sponsored resolution that “strongly condemns the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by Syrian authorities.” The only thing strong about this defense of civilians was the use of the word “strongly.” And, as Colum Lynch reported in The Washington Post, the resolution demanded that Damascus “cease the use of force against civilians” and grant “fundamental freedoms” to prisoners.

Password guessing The U.S. intelligence community has launched a multi-year research project to develop a superconducting computer, awarding its first contracts to three major technology companies.IBM, Raytheon BBN and Northrop Grumman won the contracts, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity said Wednesday, without disclosing financial details.If it works, the Cryogenic Computer Complexity (C3) program could lead to a new generation of superconducting supercomputers."The energy demands of today's high-performance computers have become a critical challenge for the Intelligence Community that the C3 program aims to address," IARPA said in a statement. Such computers use massive amounts of energy.Competition from Europe, Japan...

For the first time in decades, the U.S. is no longer the largest economy in the world, and China has become number one, the International Monetary Fund says. The IMF recently released the latest numbers for the world economy, stating that China will produce $17.6 trillion in terms of goods and services-- compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S. Just 14 years ago, the U.S. produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese, Dow Jones’ MarketWatch reported. But each country reports its data in its own currency, according to the IMF website. In order to compare data, each country's...

For the first time in decades, the U.S. is no longer the largest economy in the world, and China has become number one, the International Monetary Fund says. The IMF recently released the latest numbers for the world economy, stating that China will produce $17.6 trillion in terms of goods and services-- compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S. Just 14 years ago, the U.S. produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese, Dow Jones’ MarketWatch reported. But each country reports its data in its own currency, according to the IMF website. In order to compare data, each country's...

Four decades after the 1971 India-Pakistan war, India's intelligence agencies are once again scanning a stretch of coastline in southern Bangladesh. Cox's Bazar was rocketed and strafed by INS Vikrant's fighter aircraft to cut off the enemy's retreat into the Bay of Bengal. Today, 43 years later, it sets the stage for China's dramatic entry into India's eastern seaboard. Assessments from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and naval intelligence say the Bangladesh Navy will station two ex-Chinese Ming-class submarines on bases that are less than 1,000 km away from Visakhapatnam, home to the Indian Navy's nuclear powered submarine fleet...

The People's Liberation Army conducted a third flight test of a new hypersonic missile this week after the weapon's second test failed in August, according to a US report. The hypersonic glide vehicle, dubbed the "Wu-14" by the United States, was spotted by US intelligence agencies on Tuesday during a flight test in western China, US-based online newspaper the Washington Free Beacon reported, citing US defence officials. The US officials said the test was part of China's strategic nuclear programme and efforts to develop delivery vehicles capable of penetrating US defences. The tests indicated that China's development of a strike...