US Midterms Proxy War

Last Update loaded on late November 9.

Election Results at 06:00 CET on November 7, 2018 Democrats won over the House with a remarkable majority but lost further seats in the Senate to the Republicans instead of winning. Such results underline how deeply divided the United States are at present. As expected, Donald Trump declared a "tremendous success", supposedly referring to the effect of his personal support for Republican candidates during the competition. An astonishing aspect of the 2018 midterms is the fact that so many educated women prevailed in the elections. Furthermore the midterms brought about many fresh personalities who challenged the Republican establishment, only to mention the Democrat Beto O'Rourke who closely lost against the Republican Senator Ted Cruz. O'Rourke, the Democratic newcomer in Republican Texas, made a really good job against his well-known opponent. Even though the Senate has fallen to the Republicans, the signals are set for a change because the Democratic majority in the House enables control of new law projects and government financing and, what is more important, the ability to start public investigations into supposed misbehaviour of Trump, his financial background which is up to now unclear, or Trump's immigration politics. 美国中期的选举达到结果。民主党获得众议员的多数 但是失去些位参议员，民主党最新当选的众议员都有 才能的，也包括很多女人。在选举的后来民主党在 众议院可能阻击特朗普总统的新法规，也可检查 特朗普的报税。 Some article from the Australian Financial Magazine (Nov. 9 edition) you should have read: There is no GOP now, just Trump, so buckle in for a wild ride 9日11月澳大利亚金融杂志写了美国总统控制起来共和党，如果新众议院把特朗普逼入困境，他一个人可能成为更多极端的。从中期选举到2020的总统选举特朗普的治理可能相似狂怒的骑马。

"A Disturbance in the Force of the Dark Side"




The above quoted top tweet of mine has remarks from Donald Trump and ex-President Obama. While Trump acknowledged that the House of Representatives might go to the Democrats, Obama expressed his wish that all voters (whatever their political inclination might be) should take to the poll stations.

This most recent tweet, published in the Chinese language on November 5, reached more than 500 separate views within 24 hours and triggered about 3.5 % of media interaction. Statistics being still on the rise, the number of views even reached about 730 (4% interaction) in the evening of November 7. And there is evidence of further increase.



Of course I cannot claim that my readers came from the abundant Chinese community in the US and whose ancestors once participated in the construction of the first coast-to-coast railway line in 19th century. They could come from anywhere. However, such visitor statistics for a rather tiny tweet are proving the tremendous public interest that is being generated by the US midterm elections of 2018. - And in fact there is so much at stake .....




A maximum of 1550 US visits was finally reached on November 10 and
which is adding to some 170 visitors whose origin remained unidentified.

The American Dream Machine Is Broken

An update on US Midterm Elections
was added on November 4/5, 2018.



Nameless painting by Weronika Gęsicka from her series "Traces" (2017), adopted by
the French paper "Le Monde Diplomatique" for their article published in August 2018


Why Donald Trump seduced the popular electorate

The Anatomy of Rightist Anger

In a very poor American state like Louisiana, stained by oil spills, a majority of the population votes for Republican candidates hostile to social benefits and environmental protection.

Sociologist, leftist woman, Arlie Hochschild investigated this paradox. A few months later, Donald Trump won the day in Louisiana.

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The dream machine is out of order.

Among the images of black people rooted in the spirit of the people I met, one was missing: that of a woman or a man who, like them [i.e the underprivileged white people], was just waiting for their efforts. The deep story told by whites, Christians, the elderly or the reactionaries of Louisiana nonetheless responded to a real trauma. On the one hand, the national ideal of the American dream, that is to say of progress. On the other, a growing difficulty to progress.

For the "lower" population, nine out of ten Americans, the dream machine installed on the invisible side of the hill no longer works, decommissioned by automation, offshoring and the exorbitant power of multinationals over their workforce . Within this very large group, competition between whites and non-whites has become increasingly fierce - whether for employment, for a place in society or for allowances.

The failure of the dream machine dates back to 1950. People born before that date saw their incomes grow as they grew older. For those born later, it is the opposite.

The article reprinted by "Le Monde Diplomatique" in August 2018 was originally written by Arlie Hochschild, sociologist at the University of California in Berkely.

The quoted article compares different pictures of the American society taken at different moments in modern history, each of them describing the prevailing way of social identification within a certain group of the American workforce.

Such pictures reflect a continuous loss of speed in the economic and social progress for an essential part of the white population until that progress finally stopped to give way to a continuous deterioration of life conditions. Simultaneously, all hope for a decent life has melted away from one generation to the next.

In other words, the American Dream Machine has come to a grinding halt for the underprivileged members of America's working class who lack a higher education and, as a result, lost any chance to improve their situation, those who now see themselves being overtaken by all kinds of "free riders", i.e. coloured shooting stars like Obama and his clan, Latino immigrants or the gay who are now competing with the traditional model of a heterosexual family.

Now, this underprivileged group has found their Messiah in a rough and uneducated man who seems to be one of them as he addresses their problems in a rude manner that each of his followers would have liked to copy but never dared.

This man, named Donald Trump, is attracting his followers even more by his posture as an extremely successful businessman who never lost his common sense, such presenting himself as an ideal leader of the chanceless and underprivileged "true" Americans and, therefore, as a personified symbol for the American Dream.

This, however, is a fake. In fact, Donald Trump was born with a golden spoon in his mouth and which made him immune against the challenges of earning his living with some hard work while competing with others who might be more talented.

All he needs to ensure his well-being is to care that his father's money is not too fast melted away by whatever foolish enterprise he might have in mind. Unable to compete with more successful members of the "millionaire class" because of his lack of education and/or experience in the real struggle for economic survival, he remains a loser within his own class of the American society, - a man you are now being asked to support in the midterm elections where so much is at stake for your country.

- Ulysses 2018 -

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A real simple guide to the US mid-term elections by BBC News

美国2018年中期选举选什么? 选举重点提前看 [人民网11月5日]




[Global News, Canada, on November 4, 2018]


In their article published on October 22, 2018, "USA Today" came to the estimation that poorest federal states have Republican legislatures and richest have Democratic ones and which is to be seen as the result of a historic development. Such development already began decades ago when just the contrary was true.

Seen in the frame of the above quoted evaluation by a Berkeley sociologist, it seems that political orientation never changed while degradation of life was taking place for the white majority, and the idea of the American Dream turned from a realistic personal challenge into a far distant "sugar candy mountain".

In addition, a changing demography brought about the increasing influence of national minorities who are now claiming their right to vote, thus endangering the local political establishment with their tendency to vote for a Democratic legislature.

That seems to be why local Republican authorities are trying to do their best to purge colored citizens from election rolls, a fact that surfaced, once again, in the 2018 midterms and is being reported by international media [i.e. Al-Jazeera on November 5].

Top Tweets Targeting Trump

Here are some top tweets of mine dealing with US president Donald Trump. An update for latest Twitter Analytics Data was included on November 4, proving that most visitor impressions shown below are still on the rise !




Donald Trump - Taking Over the Union - What's the difference between
the killer and the person who poisoned his brain ? You tell me !



Latest tweet published about 20 hours ago. It is based on Chinese media
news and referring to what Donald Trump told a reporter the day before.

Top Tweet Analytics for August 2018 when allegations about personal misbehaviour
and evidence of criminal activity within Trump's inner circle made it into the news:
(Visitor impressions by November 3)



Top Tweet Analytics for July 2018 related to earlier tweets about Donald Trump:
(Visitor impressions by November 4)

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Finished

Last Update: October 24





Pictures are provided by the administrative office
for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge project.



Hong Kong citizens celebrating the opening of the new connection with Macao and Zhuhai.
Traffic being restricted on this sea bridge, most Chinese have to use regular bus services.



10 Mega Projects in China by 2018.

China Blaming US Over-Estimation

In the frame of Sino-US relations rapidly getting worse, here comes another bad joke from Washington DC.

Only recently, in a speech held at the Hudson Institute, US vice-president Mike Pence told the world that " America is rebuilding China ".

Anybody gifted with some common sense and who has a basic knowledge about China's history could imagine such US ambitions as being far from realistic. Even though some bad habits of early capitalism already swapped into China since the times of Deng Xiao Ping and which could be classified as America's "cultural contribution" to China's development, the Chinese people are generally reputed for their affinity to hard work and their efficiency while doing business, as long as they are not hampered by any state doctrine or law. The idea of America rebuilding China therefore remains mere wishful thinking.

I recently met with some Chinese saying of unknown origin and which goes :
" The Chinese make it with their engineers, the Americans with their lawyers. "




张文宗：“美国重建中国”？美国人自己都不信

Zhang WenZong: " America rebuilding China " ?
The Americans themselves don't believe it.

Zhang WenZong is a director of the Department of US Political
Affairs at the China Institute of Modern International Relations.

…………

“重建”通常和战争之后的经济快速复兴联系在一起。如果说美国内战后的重建靠的是美国人 自己，第二次世界大战后欧洲和日本的经济重建离不开美国的帮助，大体还是符合历史事实 的。近十多年里，美国在南亚、中东和北非先后发动和参与了几场战争，但至今也没能帮助 被战火和动荡蹂躏过的阿富汗、伊拉克和利比亚完成战后重建，甚至已经公开放弃重建的 目标。美国尚没能力“重建”只有几千万人口的国家，何况十几亿人口的中国，“重建中国” 说可谓大言不惭、自作多情。

"Rebuilding" is often associated with a fast revival of economy after a war.

While reconstruction after America's Civil War relied on the Americans themselves, the economic reconstruction of Europe and Japan after World War II could not be separated from the help of the United States, and which is generally consistent with historical facts.

During the past ten years (and even longer), the United States have launched and participated in several wars, following each other in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. However, [the US] have not been able up to now to help Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, when ridden by the flames of war and unrest, to complete post-war reconstruction. [The US] even more officially abandoned their goal of reconstruction.

The United States are [therefore obviously] unable to "rebuild" a country of only some ten million inhabitants, let alone China with its around one billion inhabitants.

To speak of "rebuilding China" [therefore] means making big words without shame out of an over-estimation of oneself.

[SINA economy 新浪财经 on October 15, 2018]


A similar article on that subject was printed today by People's Daily 人民日报:



“重建中国”？美国迷之自信

"Rebuilding China" ? America's exaggerated self-confidence.




A brandnew painting in the White House fitting to the subject:
The Republican Club by Andy Thomas
showing Donald Trump in a meeting with former US presidents.



Some Arabic guy posted another version on Twitter and which could be named:
魔鬼的约会 Meeting of the Demons اللقاء من الأباليس
A masterpiece of post-modern realism !

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Chicago visitor to "blueprint news" reminding of Donald Trump's pecularity of calling names.



Separate visitor statistics are available for another and much older website of mine where an entry into "blueprint news" was created on the main page from the very beginning of that news blog.

Such statistics are far more professional than those offered for free by the blog provider of "blueprint news". As visitors to that older site can be expected to enter the latest posts on "blueprint news" rather than any old stuff already published years ago, the statistics for that access page might serve as an additional indicator who is really visiting "blueprint news".

Between October 1st and October 17, 2018, such additional statistics still recorded some thousand hits, many coming from Russian servers like *.ru and *.su (for the former Soviet Union and still existing !) and from the USA as well (28 hits alone from Washington servers including one from Capitol Heights).

Visitors from China came about with several hundred page hits in the same period of time. Chinese server access was detected from 15 destinations like Beijing, Chaoyang, Guizhou, Harbin, Shanghai, and Wuhan, delivering a total of 546 page hits.

New national laws on the protection of private data and an increasing trend among internet users to anonymize their appearance on the web make it steadily harder to detect the origin of visitors. As such detection is only intended to present the variety of visitors to "blueprint news" without getting too personal and without financial interest, anonymization can lead to the simple result that I lose interest in the translation of high-quality news and comments from Chinese and Arabic sources, and this would mean a loss of diversity on the web.

China Navy Blockbuster

Breaking News on China's Cyber Warfare added below ! ...................... Last Update: October 12



Operation Red Sea - 红海行动

最新的中文战争电影，中国香港导演林超贤：
帮助商船在反对海盗以后中国海军舰的特种部队帮助中国人离开一个非洲的国家，这个国家的政府倒塌了， 外国人要怕伊斯兰教恐怖分子，恐怖分子想用脏弹含有从铀矿物制造的黄饼。这不是海战，这是地面战争在摩洛哥的山地 …………

In February 2018 a brandnew Chinese language blockbuster was released by film director Dante Lam. The plot of "Operation Red Sea" is essentially based on a military coup staged in some fictive North-African country and which leads to the need to evacuate Chinese citizens together with some other foreigners who are now endangered by militant Islamic terrorists decided to drive the world into chaos with a dirty bomb. The radioactive product needed for the bomb should be provided by the responsible person of some globally connected mining company and who has fallen into the hands of the terrorists.

The plot is related to a famous rescue operation carried out by China's navy in Yemen when a bloody conflict escalated between Yemen's national government and Houthy rebels in March 2015. Here now some remarks on the making of China's latest blockbuster:






Some key scenes were taken at Ait Ben Haddou, Morocco. As I happened to visit that location only some months before, I am able to provide pictures of the original place, an ancient fortified Kasbah that was erected at a place where the Atlas mountains open into the desert. While the Kasbah and the mountain fortress are original, the gate to be seen in the movie is a fake. It was built to serve as the background for another blockbuster movie.

电影在摩洛哥山地的旧村拍摄了，拍摄工作难堪在热度很高的天气。






Temperatures in 2017 were unusually high in that area, i.e. surpassing 40°C in September, and should have been still around 30°C in autumn. When I crossed the dried up valley and climbed to the upper terrace of the Kasbah, it came to my mind that acting in a film right in font of this site must be a murderous job.

Even more, acting in full combat gear would add to the hardships, let alone the need to undergo some basic weapons training before the compulsory combat stunts while acting under the merciless desert sun. No wonder that one of the female stars was wounded twice during some especially rough scenes. The Chinese involved must therefore be a tough species.




For the necessary infrastructure of filming there are studios at Ouarzazate, only some miles away.

Special Effects applied in Operation Red Sea.

电影特技在红海行动










The final sequence of Operation Red Sea might nourish some second thoughts about Chinese imperialism regarding the South China Sea problem. In fact, it's nothing more than what we got used from similar US productions in the blood and honor style. A call of patriotism wrapped into a gripping plot and enhanced with many special effects. Still worth to be watched even if you don't agree with the Chinese, however, up to now only available in the original Chinese version with English subtitles.














Historic rescue operation realized by China's navy in 2015.

Operation Red Sea is being presented to Chinese audiences as a gift for the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army PLA and is dedicated to the 19th National Congress of China's Communist Party. This film is regarded as China's first modern naval film. The film has already become a 579 million US$ success. It was selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.




US source reporting: China's hypersonic missile test and
a rare insight into China's South China Sea activities.

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Breaking News on China's Cyber Warfare:

On October 5, 2018, the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC came about with the following news:

Tensions between the United States and China have been rising, but the worst may be ahead.

The disclosure by Bloomberg Businessweek that the Chinese military allegedly implanted microchips onto thousands of motherboards used by the US government and major businesses is the most damning evidence to date of a massive Chinese espionage campaign. Shortly after the revelations were published, Vice President Mike Pence stated, “China is meddling in America’s democracy.”

This, on the heels of new tariffs and an “unsafe” military confrontation in the South China Sea.

For years, the US intelligence and national-security communities have warned that the Chinese Communist Party might interfere with electronics manufactured in China. Last year, the Defense Science Board went so far as to state that China’s offensive cyber capabilities “exceed the United States’ ability to defend key critical infrastructures.”

But Thursday’s revelations provide the first public evidence of extensive interference in both civilian and military supply chains.

The Chinese military allegedly inserted tiny microchips onto motherboards manufactured in China for Super Micro Computer Inc., based in San Jose, Calif. These chips were designed to evade detection and to create a backdoor for entry into sensitive systems. According to reports, thousands of motherboards were sent to 30 separate companies and the US government, where they were used by organizations ranging from Apple and Amazon to the Defense Department.

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The Risks of " Buying Cheap ".




US scholar: China became a veritable rival to America
and already surpassed the US in terms of GDP in 2014.

美国学者：在2014年中国经济超过了美国经济。

The Trump Apocalypse - It's Loyalty or Disaster

Latest News: The Trump Organization's finance boss, Allen Weisselberg, has reportedly been granted legal immunity in the probe into Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's longtime former lawyer. Mr Weisselberg is reportedly mentioned on a tape secretly recorded by Cohen in 2016 in which a hush money payment to an alleged lover of Mr Trump is discussed. On Thursday August 21, it emerged that David Pecker, head of the company that publishes the National Enquirer tabloid, was also given immunity. BBC - Al-Jazeera - US media on August 24, 2018.

After Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen admitted in court his participation in the paying out of two playmates on behalf of his boss, Trump could do nothing else but officially state that such paying out was made with his own money and not with funds intended for his election campaign. While Cohen is now on the doorsteps of jail after having pleaded guilty on different charges regarding illegal financial behaviour and false statement, walls are further closing in on Trump whose former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been equally found guilty of illegal financial action. Cohen who paid off to the state attorney and Manafort who kept silent on Trump's involvement are differently treated in the president's public statements. While Manafort could even hope for Trump's personal support, Cohen is being described by his longstanding employer as a corrupt and treacherous liar and which raises the question why he has survived as an important member of Trump's inner circle for such a long time. At least some personal "qualities" of Cohen should have been of value for Trump.

Now, when the word goes about an impeachment process that could be started after the Democrats won enough additional seats in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, Trump is threatening, both, opponents and followers with the cruel scenario of an economic breakdown. Such disaster should certainly follow as Trump, according to his own evaluation, has " made such a good job ".




Here now tomorrow's news on the impeachment subject :




Trump’s Strong-Dollar Weakness published on August 22, 2018, by Project Syndicate :

The Trump administration would like us to believe that the dollar’s rise reflects faster economic growth, driven by deregulation, tax cuts, and expanded defense spending. But, if anything, Trump's economic agenda is creating inflationary pressure and undercutting the "exorbitant privilege" that the dollar has long conferred on the US.

..........

After all, a strengthening dollar increases the price of exports abroad and lowers the domestic cost of imports, thus discouraging the former and encouraging the latter. That is directly at odds with Trump’s stated goal of reducing the US trade deficit.

Trump’s obsession with the trade deficit has led him to impose import tariffs on steel, aluminum, and a wide range of products from China. But, ironically, more expensive imports will also put upward pressure on the domestic inflation rate, which could force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even faster than planned. That, in turn, would produce still more dollar appreciation and even bigger trade deficits, as happened under Reagan and Bush.

[Project Syndicate: An organization providing high-quality commentaries written by prominent political leaders, policymakers, scholars, business leaders, and civic activists from around the world.]

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" From Russia with Love " - A recent Moscow visitor to " blueprint news ".

Trump Revives Star Wars Scenario

After US vice-president Mike Pence and some time later president Donald Trump announced an increase in spendings for the modernization of US weapon systems, an almost forgotten project of the Reagan era is being seen to surface again in US military plannings: Some kind of a "Star Wars Scenario" where a newly formed "US military space unit" should ensure US domination of space, - a provocation to all other nations peacefully engaged in space research.




美国是要统治太空吗？

America Claims Domination of Space ?

“星球大战计划2.0版？”法国国际广播电台发出惊呼。报道称， 上世纪80年代冷战后期，美国里根政府曾推出“星球大战计划”， 近40年后，一向将里根时代标榜为自己榜样的特朗普， 今年多次表达“立即组建一支美国太空军队”的想法。

8月9日，在彭斯发表演讲后，特朗普随后在推特上发文称：“将太空军队进行到底。”

" Star War Plannings 2.0 ? ", France International Radio cried out in alarm, reporting that in the 1980ies, the final period of the cold war, America's Reagan administration had promoted their "star war plannings". About 40 years later, what was consistently boosted during the Reagan era becomes Trump's own model [to follow]. It has become the idea of an "immediately formed US military space unit", already voiced many times this year.

On August 9, after the development was made public by Pence, Trump soon afterwards came about with the message: "May the military space unit advance to [accomplishment]."

The Chinese source is, as well, quoting a German and a Russian news source.

[Zhejiang online浙江在线 quoting People's Daily foreign edition on August 15, 2018]




Quoted from News Corp Australia Network 澳大利亚新闻网 on August 15, 2018

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As PR China's internet can be complicated, it needs a Chinese provider
for web hosting and data transfer between China and US based servers.