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Feb 24, 2023Liked by Linh Dinh

Linh

Caught my old buddy Wolf Blitzer, CNN's Golden Jew, the other day. His guest was Doris Kearns Goodwin, the noted Harvard "historian".

She was featured many times in Ken Burns' epic "Baseball" documentary. She is always presented as down to earth, yet wise.

Now, she was comparing Joe Biden's lending of Billions of Dollars of cash & Military equipment to Zelensky & Ukraine to that of Franklin Roosevelt's keeping England and Russia afloat until the USA could officially enter WW2. The beady-eyed Blitzer staring in approval. I couldn't believe what I was hearing from the former Vietnam War protestor.

The world is definitely going mad, Linh.

Bill

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"It’s no howler, for they’re howling. The joke is on you."

In Soviet America, clowns laugh at you. Enjoy your capuccinos and cheap beer, Mr. Dihn. Southeast Asia might escape the whirlwind we are reaping in the former West.

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Feb 24, 2023·edited Feb 25, 2023

That 'hair salon' is in Siem Reap, I'm pretty certain. I know that alley and the salon even I think. I've spent many months in the town when I was eloping with my wife from Pakistan and had her parked there while I sorted visa into Australia.

No idea why people think they should get blockbuster productions about the great matters and people all the time. It is your mirroring of the ordinary which appeals to me. I'm empathic naturally and you feed the empathy part of my soul nourishment when it isn't always so easy to find in this fucked up world round here for a while now.

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A MILD REPROACH

Nothing to give me,

nobly wounded Saffron Cat,

writes Man with Strange Shoes.

And he gets rice with pork

from the Thin Lady.

Nothing to give me,

excellently toothed Saffron Cat,

and he eats rice with fried fish

PLUS soup with more fish.

Fish plus fish.

Yeo, I meekly lament,

You have absolutely

clearly undeniably

swear on mama’s grave

really nothing to give me.

Poor you.

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I KNEW IT! Cancel Culture is real! Linh Dinh, I mentioned you in an article on Asian names, just to see if it gets demoted and shadowbanned. IT DOES! We are living in the end game. In a couple of years, most humans may type anything into the Internet, sure; but it will never get seen by anyone but themselves and their own pity-party. It would be more "humane" and dignifying to just shoot us in the back of the head -Winston Smith 1984-style. Instead, they granted us the existence but took away the reach.

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One of the things I love about your writing is you often draw the big picture by focusing on small details that fill everyday life.

That is a technique that younger writers can't master. Young travel writers usually focus on "awesome" stories that show how awesome they are to be doing what they are doing. But the older I get, the more I realize that it is the small details that are most interesting and revelatory about a place.

Your descriptions of alleys showcase how so much of life in SE Asia, and especially North Vietnam I found, is lived on the streets. I spent 3 months in Eastern Europe 5 years ago. At first I found it was refreshing to walk outside and find order, calm and cleanliness. After 2 months I really started missing the 180 degree opposite in SE Asia.

When I lived in Mexico, I went back to the US for some errands and was struck by how much I missed the noise and commotion that got to be too much in Mexico. I even felt a twinge of nostalgia for the ice cream truck that parked underneath my window every day and blasted its annoying jingle for an hour. US suburbs with their single use zoning, high cost of starting business and endless chains seemed dead to me in comparison.

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Thanks, Al, and many thanks to all those who have left supportive messages. Evelyn Waugh says that each man remembers each insult, but kind words should weigh just as much, though not to the point to inflate our already grotesquely bloated heads! OK, I go back to my new article in progress. Fascinated by my typing, the little girl I've often photographed just dropped by to stare at my laptop! Several times, she has even banged away on my keypad...

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Not sure SEA is some haven from great reset. It is already full of NPC's and many in this region don't even need strong arming into compliance. The elites use these nations are prototypes for the type of compliant hive mindset that they will need in the future West with their smart cities requiring digital ID to access.

Countries like Japan and South Korea are still masking up on the regular in masses like it's March 2020 and they didn't need threat of job loss to get jew jabbed.

No idea where an escape is but to think it's in SEA just because the elites don't even need a war distraction/excuse to get what they need there is questionable.

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Feb 24, 2023·edited Feb 24, 2023Author

Hi Zep,

First of, Japan and South Korea aren't in Southeast Asia. As for SEA countries, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos experienced civil wars not that long ago, so these people are willing to fight and die over their disagreements, not exactly hive minded compliance. That tiresome cliche needs to be retired. As for Thailand, there has been a series of protests, sometimes violent, and no, they're not just color revolutions staged by Uncle Sam, though he's meddling in that country, as he does everywhere else.

If you want to speak hive mindedness, consider a country where citizens across the political spectrum think and speak in tiresome cliches and spout slogans nonstop, where they're routinely herded into voting for puppets, and where their culture is being openly mocked and destroyed right in front of their faces, and I'm not just talking about the US, but the UK, where you're at, as well as Australia and a bunch of other Western nations.

Southeast Asians don't tolerate their traditional values, religion, identity or history being dismantled. That's not having a hivemind but common sense and a backbone.

Linh

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Feb 24, 2023·edited Feb 24, 2023Author

P.S. Another SEA nation, Malaysia, had a prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who openly criticized Jewish power, something no Western "leader" dares to do.

Outside the protrasted West, we also have India reinforcing its friendship and alliance with Russia, and just days ago, the African Union kicked the Israeli ambassador from its meeting when she showed up uninvited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEjhMm2Mslk

Unlike Westerners, black Africans don't abjectly kiss Jewish asses, and they haven't lined up to be Jewjabbed either.

Culturally, the Muslim world has also resisted the decadent and Satanic agenda embraced by the West. Some of this poison seeps in, sure, but Muslim societies are essentially intact, unlike Western ones. Hiveminded and fearful, Westerners obey.

For arming Jewish controlled Ukraine, Western nations are also courting their own physical destruction.

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I don't deny that the UK has been invaded in all areas.

I am looking to leave the UK to be honest - possibly Albania - to try to escape this dire situation. I work as an English teacher so I could through my hat into Asia again somewhere like Vietnam if it goes down in all NATO nations. But my experience in Japan and what I hear about the mask/covid compliance there is a bit disturbing.

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Hi Zep,

The Japanese fondness for masks is disturbing and even comic. They are extremely orderly. Garbage must be sorted into at least a dozen categories. Much messier SE Asia is not anything like that, obviously, but the Thais and Malaysians are orderly enough.

Linh

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P.S. I love Albania and Albanians, but if the situation in Kossovo escalates, we'll have Russia backed Serbia vs US backed Albania.

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What are your thoughts on Poland?

Seems like a based country except for one achilles heel - their Russphobia. I believe this already quite potent hate is being stoked by uncle Sam so they can be used as a pawn. Baltics as well. But not sure what will happen. What do you think?

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I see. I lived in Japan for 9 years. It was like having a long bubble bath. Sure, relaxing enough but eventually you want to get out and do something rather than just lather yourself in comfort.

I had this yearning for something more earthy and 'real' than Japan. Singapore ain't that! Thailand and Malaysia a bit closer. Oh, I haven't actually been to Vietnam.

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founding

The Thai government is going after the mRNA manufacturers because of what the jab did to their princess. I know they are furious about the issue, but I haven't heard anything on this story since it came out a couple of weeks ago. But clearly the government and the royals are not 100% compliant with the Biosecurity State yet--a good sign.

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The scraps are way healthier than canned cat food for sure!

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Feed the kitty please!

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Hi Peggy,

He gets fish scraps and leftover from people in that alley. He's not eating well, but he's eating.

Linh

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