This is a good day.
Let's start briefly with Comp Sci. Our efforts with Be continue. We've got the app basically where we want it, code honed etc, and now we need only to do a few final things.
We want to eliminate most of the code in Info.plist. This is the code that sets file types, connects them with configurations, and couples extensions with types. This is to be replaced with a few generic templates, with the ability for the user to add other templates as desired. It's the implementation that has us balking.
We want to do this 'unobtrusively', without adding anything, what can be seen at first glance, to the menu system. This app should not look like the cockpit of a jumbo jet. (No app should.)
We have to provide for selection of an existing template to start a new file, the ability to save a configuration as a new template, and the ability to prune the overall selection of templates.
This seems rather straightforward, but we're a bit on the fence regarding how to best do that.
Anyway: that's where we are programmatically. Note that this Be is, for us, more of a way to start a conversation, so to speak. It's an attempt to resume a dialogue on how applications should look in the future. Whether Be becomes a 'killer app' is immaterial, and we don't expect that at all. The idea is to just start the ball rolling.
There was also a brief but tabled discussion on whether the app's name should be changed to 'B' in honour of Ken Thompson, and whether the code should at this point be forked into another project with that name.
But let's move on. To what makes today a good day.
A Good Day
The big news today of course was that Xi landed in Moscow. That was big.
What was so great about it? Ask Alex and Alexander.
What was so great about it was that it happened. Don't sweat the details. You needn't bother at this point. It happened, OK? And that brings us to a watershed moment.
It's possible that the Rumble version may have more detail, but Rumble doesn't embed well yet.
Note as well that Xi and Putin published articles in their counterpart media. Again, the contents isn't that big a deal etc.
But watch this exposition by the Greeks - it's an epiphany.
There's finally a hint of a military aspect.
Kirby goes ballistic and falls into a childishly simple and obvious trap. Xi and Putin may have wanted Kirby to do this.
Peace is unacceptable, Kirby? Wait until the other nations hear that!
China and Russia will stand guard over international law. And who will stop them? No one.
The US should not have said a thing.
China did not come with a peace plan per se, only general ideas. But the mere hint…
Note that Alexander, for perhaps the first time, not unlike historian Michael Parenti, stresses that this is not about the citizenry of the US but only the Washington neocons. This tends to indicate that the game is mostly over.
The Chinese can now broadcast, as a reminder, that neither they nor the Russians are causing the conflict in the Ukraine. What a PR disaster for the neocons. China baited them. But even the Chinese couldn't have expected the US to fall into such an obvious trap.
Alex points out a very salient fact here, namely that even Trump has commented on the matter. Which shows once again that, for all intents and purposes, this 'global war' is the entire world not against the US per se but against the neocons, the 'Uniparty'.
Donald Trump is 'streets ahead of all the others', says Alexander. And this, Alexander continues, is why he's seen as such a threat.
A & A then move on to discuss the EU's 'own goal' with their ridiculous ICC blunder. The EU and the UK once again walked straight into a China trap.
'It's an astonishing situation', says Alexander, 'and once again it points to the incompetence and arrogance of western leaders that they're falling into these traps that the Chinese are so skillfully laying for them.'
China and Russia will lead the new multipolar system, says Alex. 'That's the purpose of this summit.'
'This is the break that we're seeing', says Alex.
'To the world as a whole', Alexander points out.
'We are on your side' is the message sent to the Global South. And that's a powerful message.
'An incredibly attractive package.'
'THE UNITED STATES IS BOGGED DOWN IN UKRAINE', comments Alex. And there you have it. This mess started by Brandon and the neocons trying to force Russia into a corner and then poking and poking to provoke a conflict - and look how things have gone topsy-turvy instead.
That makes for 'A Good Day'.
Xi goes home to meet for five days with people from Brazil. Saudi Arabia reopen their consulate in Syria and they're inviting dignitaries from Iran. And, meanwhile, the US is stuck sending more billions to Zelensky?
The Russian 'Mir' (Мир) card is now going to Cuba and Iran. And then there’s UnionPay which dominates in the far east.
The Chinese must be rubbing their hands, says Alexander. This is turning out so easy for them. Everyone is on the same page about the Brandon administration, including India.
Saudi Arabia has issued an official invitation to Iran.
Alexander:
'The west is going to be marginalised in a way that I think most people in the west just don't understand.'
What To Do?
What to do? Что делать, as Tolstoy famously asked? Specifically for those of us in the west? The answer is simple.
Use the words of a grounded Canadian singer-songwriter.
'Get back to the land and set your soul free.'
That's where it's at.
Also In The News
Let's have fun for once with Russian news sources.
As you probably know by now, the west tried to block news from the east. They didn't do too good a job. They blocked RT and Sputnik on satellite. Oh how impressive. The big news out of Russia comes instead from RIA. For this you need an auto-translate web browser. Derivatives of Chromium would be OK, but we'd recommend you steer clear of Google's own. Brave might be a viable choice, although we haven't tried it.
Go for auto-translation and minimising Google snooping. Use some kind of Internet monitor (we have GD and Xframe) to see what's going out.
Sputnik is a kind of tabloid version of RT mostly staffed by hacks from the west rather than the east. Journalism on RT is very good, although you may not be interested in all they cover, as it's about their side of the planet.
But quality control is generally very good. They're very careful about publishing at RT. They know the west would be after them anyway. So news generally has to wait before getting to their site - unlike CNN, for example. CNN seem to publish any rubbish they can get their hands on.
And, as luminaries like Eva Bartlett have testified, there is zero interference once you're hired. (They have one bona-fide doofus there right now. People are undoubtedly waiting for that person to move the F on.)
Rachel Blevins from Texas is currently on staff, does news presenting, and seems to be doing nicely in spite of the climate. Rachel's also got personal channels on YT and IG so you can follow her adventures.
Usually she does a live feed from her Moscow flat on Sunday evenings at 20:00 her time, although things seem to have been held up for a fortnight now, perhaps due to her scheduling.
The sites with the real news from Russia include RIA, LENTA, SMOTRIM, and KP. It's been said that KP is Putin's favourite news site, although that's only what's been said. Then again, they sometimes have excellent coverage.
But the biggie is RIA.
What we know, RIA, RT, and Sputnik are all part of the same conglomerate.
Here's a great piece from RIA, called 'Off the Rails', about all the train derailments in the US. Just as a teaser. The stats they provide will astound you.
https://ria.ru/20230321/amerika-1859306308.html
'From 1990 to 2021 in the US, 54,539 derailments of railway trains were recorded, or 1,700 per year or 4 per day.' (Russia has ~100 derailments per year.)
'Inside the United States, an average of four train derailments occur every day, excluding other incidents. This indicates the presence of complex and long-standing problems.'
Live from Portugal?
Is it true that Clayton and Natali are in Portugal? Here's some of their latest. Lots of these clips now begin with 'OH SH*T', not to say of course that they've waxed scatological.
Oh SH*T, Fauci just got CONFRONTED with facts and logic
The US CANNOT hide this in Ukraine anymore
There's a Redacted channel on Rumble which for now is guaranteed not to be censored (unlike YT).
Here's what China's officially saying about things. (GT's their official organ.)
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202303/1287726.shtml
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202303/1287694.shtml
A KP video of the protocol of the Xi-Putin meet. (Should go full-screen.)
https://www.kp.ru/video/embed/922064/
KP's full coverage of the meet. Note that Xi has now extended a formal invitation to Putin to visit China later this year.
https://www.kp.ru/daily/27480/4736805/
'Yesterday I officially invited President Putin to pay a visit to China at a convenient time this year.'
Again, you need a translating web browser, but none of these sites are blocked by the west.