MANILA -- A leading South Korean shipbuilder will construct a Philippine production hub for floating offshore wind power platforms with U.S. private equity group Cerberus Capital Management.
Under a strategic partnership announced Wednesday, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering will lease part of a Subic Bay shipyard from Cerberus in a multiyear deal.
A dry dock will be converted for the production of offshore wind platforms, eyeing growing demand for renewable energy.
Subic Bay, on the west coast of the island of Luzon, is strategically important for its access to the South China Sea. It was formerly a major repair and supply base for the U.S. Navy and is now home to a Philippine naval facility.
The Philippines has designated the area a special economic zone to promote its development.
The Subic shipyard was built in 2006 by a unit of South Korea's Hanjin Group, but closed in 2019 amid a downturn in maritime shipping. Cerberus acquired the more than 300-hectare site from a local Hanjin unit in 2022.
The lease deal is the latest move by HD Korea Shipbuilding, part of the HD Hyundai group, to expand in offshore wind power, a field it sees as a driver for growth. In April, the company signed a memorandum of understanding for floating offshore wind projects in Scotland.
HD Korea Shipbuilding plans to export platforms from the Subic facility to Japan, Taiwan, Australia and Southeast Asia.
The company plans to set up a new ship repair facility at the Subic yard as well. It had established a logistics hub there in 2022 to support maintenance and repairs for Philippine naval vessels.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with executives from both companies in Manila on Tuesday.
"We welcome HD Hyundai's investment that will not only open new doors for our offshore wind industry, but will also bring maritime manufacturing back to Subic, and eventually restore the glory days of shipbuilding ... to our shores," he said

Since 1970 the value of the dollar has steadily declined. The lower 80% of Americans have lost income and purchasing power, largely due to the exodus of manufacturing by global corporations. As a result, the wealth gap between the global rich and the rest has widened.
From 2007-2016 the net worth of the richest Americans increased by 20% while the lower 80% decreased by the same percentage, widening the wealth gap considerably. The Federal Reserve sparked this change using quantitative easing to boost the sagging stock market. The rich could invest in this wealth explosion but the rest could not as much.
Increasingly wealthy globalists pressured the government and now the top 1% own over half of U.S. wealth while the top quintile owns about 94% of the wealth. The bottom 80% have their wealth tied up in their homes or vehicles and most suffer from chronic debt.
Not only does the Fed-backed stock market favor the super-rich, but the U.S. tax system does too. The average American pays an effective tax rate of 13% while the very rich pay 18%. But when wealth gains are included, the effective tax rate on the very wealthy averages a mere 4.8%.
While the wealth gap concentrates ownership in a small group of people so it does to industry. More and more large corporations dominate most sectors at the expense of small businesses. As small companies suffer and are saddled with increasing regulations, larger corporations benefit from monopoly power, less competition, and the ability to set prices artificially high.
The wider the wealth gap goes, the more our social and political fabric will deteriorate. According to the Great Gatsby Curve, increased inequality will result in less upward advancement from one generation to the next. This is precisely the conditions that exist when a democracy is overtaken by authoritarian rule.

The Triple “I” Curse

The wealth gap is widening faster than ever thanks to Biden's three-pronged Triple “I” Curse: Inflation, Immigration, and an Inflated stock market.
Inflation: Since 2021, government spending has ballooned. National debt has climbed to $35 trillion, increasing $1 trillion every 100 days, causing incredible inflation and the dollar to lose 23% of its value. The wealthy can withstand inflation to a certain extent, but most households in the lower 80% cannot. Nearly two-thirds of households do not have enough savings to cover three months out.
In a weak attempt to control inflation, the Federal Reserve tried to raise interest rates. This just made purchasing a house prohibitive and forced regional banks to lose value on the Treasury notes they held.
Immigration: The current policy of open borders delivers cheaper labor for globalists and more votes for Democrats. Available jobs are going to foreign-born workers and not American citizens in what is called the 'displacement theory,' resulting in even lower wages and purchasing power for many Americans.
Inflated Stock Market: Despite inflation and higher interest rates, the Fed still prints cheap money to boost the stock market and benefit the rich. But job and GDP growth result from massive government spending as company productivity and consumer demand slide. Not only does government spending spur inflation, but increasing government regulation hampers supply, making fewer goods cost more. This combined effect of inflation and lower demand creates stagflation. So why is the stock market soaring? The Fed's policy of printing cheap dollars. (It might be argued that such market chicanery will eventually lead to a crash, destroying much of the elite’s wealth, but by then the damage will be done.)

The Wealth Gap Lets the Super-Rich Wokize America

Concentration of wealth in both people and industry harms society. For the super-rich it is not as much about money as power. Thus both corporations and the super-wealthy buy influence, especially in education, environmentalism, and politics, all three of which have damaged American society. Education has turned from transmitting knowledge to racist indoctrination. Environmentalism has become a weapon against industrial productivity and prosperity. And politics has become a uniparty of frivolous spenders.
Their contributions have led to the wokization of American culture, society, and institutions. Based largely on racism, wokism is a neo-Marxist narrative that all Western white society is structured to oppress all non-whites. Billionaires, corporations, and their foundations augment government funding of woke activities including Critical Race Theory, transgenderism, Diversity-Equity-Inclusion, drag queens, illegal immigration, climate change, reduction in law enforcement, and more.
Just 10 billionaires have pledged over $135 billion to focus on education, politics, and the environment. Three foundations mold the K-12 education system as they and others spend over $4 billion annually to engineer their Marxist vision of the future. Likewise charitable contributions to higher education exceeded $58 billion in 2023.
The average member of Congress receives 93% of his or her contributions from big, often out-of-state, donors, including dark money from unrevealed sources and PACs. Similarly, billionaire spending to members of Congress increased to over $1 billion in 2022 and will mount much further this year. Add this to the 12,000 Washington lobbyists who spent $4.3 billion in 2023 and understand why the recent $1.2 trillion omnibus bill included millions of dollars of woke earmarks.
Concentration has also hit charities. They used to have many small donors but now rely on a few super-rich who control the media and woke globalist narrative. Over two-fifths of their pledges gets rerouted to foundations they control and not actual charities. Thus billionaires “use philanthropy as a taxpayer-subsidized extension of their private power and influence,” making average U.S. taxpayers subsidize billionaire charity.

What Happens If It All Comes Apart?

The Triple “I” Curse has created an unstable U.S. economy to benefit the super-rich. In just three years, the wealth of the top 1 percent has risen from $30 trillion to nearly $45 trillion.

But what if it were to come crashing down?

Although the stock market is highly inflated, the super-rich must cling to it. Their other main sources of wealth are real estate and private-held businesses. While real-estate values rose slightly, privately held businesses declined, leaving stocks to generate their wealth for the past three years. Biden's latest brainstorm is to levy a 20% tax on unrealized stock market gains, forcing Americans to pay taxes on their annual gains on all assets, including stocks.
It's a distinct possibility that government spending and insurmountable national debt will ultimately collapse the dollar. National debt already affects credibility and purchasing power of the dollar. This emboldens the China-led BRICS countries to pursue a gold-backed currency to replace the dollar as the world's currency. If that happens, the dollar will hyper-inflate, causing a huge dollar crash and devastation to all Americans.
The cumulative effect of expanding the wealth gap through the Biden-globalist Triple “I” Curse is to make the United States a borderless part of a nationless world, which of course countries like China and Russia will never endorse. The curse is a recipe to create a permanent underclass, controlled by an authoritarian cartel of business and government, a key ingredient of the globalist new world order and made possible by an ever-widening wealth gap.
Ironically, by crippling the U.S. economy, the super-rich may capitulate to the China-Russia cabal while arranging their own demise – and taking us all with them.

MAY 15th, 2024~Advancing Scandium Use in Metal Alloys for U.S. Weapon System Production and Sustainment

Advancing Scandium Use in Metal Alloys for U.S. Weapon System Production and Sustainment SBIR.gov
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OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Advanced Materials

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws.

OBJECTIVE: The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) seeks to promote responsive, best value supplies of related materials, components, and systems to Department of Defense (DoD) customers and other DoD stakeholders. DLA investigates advancements in technologies and business processes for new and improved materials, more efficient means of their production, and competitive domestic supply chains which will lead to greater innovation in current and future defense systems combined with benefits to other commercial and government applications.
DLA is interested in exploring future defense industrial base uses for scandium (Sc) because of its unique properties as a pure metal and, as an alloying agent, to significantly increase the performance of traditional aluminum (Al) alloys, and therefore expand the use of Al alloys. Further benefits include, substituting aluminum-scandium (Al-Sc) alloys for incumbent expensive materials (e.g., titanium) and/or replacing material forms that are both costly and difficult to source (e.g., forging, complex machined parts, and extrusions), as Al-Sc alloys are highly compatible with additive manufacturing techniques.
Scandium can impart high strength properties to Al alloys which allows for reduced weight designs (compared to traditional Al alloy) and components for a wide range of defense platforms and other military items. Al-Sc alloys exhibit increased resistance to high temperature and corrosion when compared to common Al alloys. Of further interest, is the high weldability of Al-Sc alloy. Alloys with high weldability can reduce manufacturing labor and other costs associated with joining components and structures. Al-Sc alloy can be especially useful when used as a powder or wire in additive manufacturing. Potential DoD applications for Al-Sc alloy include the production and sustainment of missiles, aircraft, space launch vehicles, satellites, solider systems, military ground vehicles, marine applications, and other weapon systems (e.g., small arms and artillery).
While Sc metal has many attractive material characteristics, its cost is frequently considered prohibitive for Al alloying purposes compared to other alloying elements. In addition, the supply of Sc metal and compounds is limited and highly concentrated in a small number of foreign countries including China and Russia. As such, there is reluctance to develop wide scale uses for Al-Sc alloys for many applications including DoD weapon systems and large-scale non-defense applications (e.g., commercial aviation and automotive manufacturing).

In the United States mining operations for Sc ore are being planned and developed to feed a domestic supply chain and, recently, new sources of Sc now exist in Canada (an important member country of DoD’s National Technology Industrial Base). There are also established defense industrial base companies and other businesses in both countries that can significantly contribute to development and commercialization of Al-Sc supply chains for both military and commercial applications.

Given the important properties of Sc, and in anticipation of increased affordable domestic supply, DLA is interested in engaging small businesses with the capability to develop and expand expertise and industrial base production capacity of Sc-containing materials, especially in areas relevant to the supply of Al-Sc alloy components for DoD end-uses.

Specific materials, processing and manufacturing areas of interest include:

• Raw material refining
• High purity Sc metals, compounds, and alloys
• Additive manufacturing feedstock
• Additively manufactured DoD systems prototype parts

Research and Development (R&D) efforts selected under this topic shall demonstrate and involve a degree of risk where the technical feasibility of the proposed work has not been fully established. Further, proposed efforts must be judged to be at a Technology and/or Manufacturing Readiness Level (TRL/MRL) 6 or less, but greater than TRL/MRL 3 to receive funding consideration.

TRL 3. (Analytical and Experimental Critical Function and/or Characteristic Proof of Concept)
TRL 6. (System/Subsystem Model or Prototype Demonstration in a Relevant Environment)

DESCRIPTION: DLA seeks SBIR project opportunities in new and innovative materials, processing, and manufacturing of Sc compounds, Sc metal, Al-Sc alloy and master alloys, and related areas of additive manufacturing. While Al and Sc are the primary metals of interest for this solicitation, it is anticipated that additional alloying elements may be included to tailor the final alloy properties. Specific areas of interest include:

• Processing mining ores (and/or scrap waste streams) into high purity Sc compounds (ex., Sc-oxide) feedstock for production of pure Sc metal, Al-Sc alloy, master alloys, etc.
• Commercial production of high purity Sc metal (domestic feedstock preferred)
• Commercial production of Al-Sc alloy powder and wire for additive manufacturing
• Demonstrating additively manufactured Al-Sc alloy parts for DoD weapon systems.

DLA seeks opportunities that include strong industry supply chain collaboration with established materials companies relevant to the above areas of interest in Sc materials processing, as well as strong collaboration with traditional or non-traditional DoD weapon systems suppliers. DLA similarly desires SBIR opportunities that include collaboration with interested DoD weapon system program offices and/or relevant DoD RDT&E organizations.

PROJECT DURATION and COST: Proposals exceeding these limits will not be evaluated.
PHASE I: Not to exceed a duration of 12 months and cost of $100,000.
PHASE II: Not to exceed a duration of 24 months and cost of $1,000,000.

PHASE I: Phase I will demonstrate proof of concept in one or more of the above areas of interest in scandium materials and processing. A technology development and commercialization roadmap will be produced along with a preliminary business case analysis for transition and industrial scale up. Strong industry supply chain collaboration with established materials companies relevant to the above areas of interest in scandium materials and processing is expected, along with involvement of one or more traditional or non-traditional DoD weapon systems suppliers. Strong support from one or more interested DoD weapon system program offices and/or relevant DoD RDT&E organization required.

PHASE II: Depending on Phase I results, Phase II will consist of establishing pilot scale or low-rate production of technologies that are successfully demonstrated in Phase I. Additional activities may include further materials and processing testing, characterization, and data base development of related materials and processes that can be used by future producers of scandium materials of interest (e.g., compounds, metals, alloys, and master alloys as well as related additive manufacturing powders and wire, and fabricators of aluminum scandium end-items). Development of a detailed business case analysis and commercialization plan will be required.

Strong industry supply chain collaboration with established materials companies relevant to the above areas of interest in scandium materials and processing, along with involvement from traditional and/or non-traditional DoD weapon systems suppliers, is required, along with strong support from interested DoD weapon system program offices and/or relevant DoD RDT&E organizations.

Innovative materials and processes, and commercially viable sources of their supply, shall be developed with the goal to readily transition to production in support of DoD and its supply chains.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Phase III is any proposal that derives from, extends or completes a transition from a Phase I or II project. Phase III proposals will be accepted after the completion of Phase I and or Phase II projects.
There is no specific funding associated with Phase III, except Phase III is not allowed to use SBISTTR coded funding. Any other type of funding is allowed.
Phase III proposal Submission. Phase III proposals are emailed directly to DLA SBIR2@dla.mil. The PMO team will set up evaluations and coordinate the funding and contracting actions depending on the outcome of the evaluations. A Phase III proposal should follow the same format as Phase II for the content and format. There are, however, no limitations to the amount of funding requested, or the period of performance. All other guidelines apply.

Transition Plan

1. Period of Performance: TBD
2. Budget: $ TBD

This Phase of the project should include:

1. Delivery of a production level product to J68 ready for integration into the overall DLA Enterprise system.
   
2. Develop a sustainment plan to support the delivered system for the lifetime of the program.
   

REFERENCES:

1. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey

Jones, R.; Peng, D.; Ang, A.; Aston, R.W.; Schoenborn, N.D.; Phan, N.D. A Comparison of the Damage Tolerance of AA7075-T6, AA2024-T3, and Boeing Space, Intelligence, and Weapons Systems AM-Built LPBF Scalmalloy. Aerospace 2023, 10, 733.

https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10080733

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1. Conclusions Noting that AA7075-T6 is widely used by both fixed- and rotary-wing military aircraft, as well as in space structures, the initial objective of this study was to directly compare crack growth in identical AA7075-T6 and Scalmalloy specimens tested in the same servohydraulic facility under the same stresses and by the same operators. The experimental data reveal that Boeing Space, Intelligence, and Weapons Systems AM-built Scalmalloy appears to be more damage tolerant than the conventionally built aluminium alloy AA7075-T6. As a result, Boeing Space, Intelligence, and Weapons Systems printed Scalmalloy would appear to be particularly attractive for use on a range of military aircraft, as well as for space applications. It also highlights the potential for Boeing Space, Intelligence, and Weapons Systems Scalmalloy to be used to extend the operational lives of military aircraft through the on-demand printing of limited life Scalmalloy replacement parts. The results of this initial test program have led to the hypothesis that the da/dN versus ∆K curves associated with Scalmalloy and conventionally built AA2024-T3 should be similar. This hypothesis was, subsequently, validated by comparison to AA2024-T3 da/dN versus ∆K curves taken from the Nasgro database. This observation subsequently led to the conjecture that the small crack da/dN versus ∆K curves associated with Scalmalloy and AA2024-T3, which are needed for a durability analysis, should be similar. If this hypothesis can be confirmed, then given that: (i) Scalmalloy has a yield stress significantly greater than that of AA2024-T3; (ii) AA2024-T3 is widely used in both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft; (iii) MIL-STD-1530D mandates that there must be no yield at 100% DLL and the US Joint Services Structural Guidelines JSSG2006 states that there should be no yield at 115% DLL, the use of Scalmalloy for both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, and drones would appear to be very attractive. As such, the next stage in the study will involve the determination of valid upper bound da/dN versus ∆K curves for the growth of short cracks in AA2024-T3.

GIVEN ONCE FINANCED:

ON Sept. 28, 2023~ NioCorp ANNOUNCES Plans to Produce Made-in-USA Scandium Master Alloy to Supply Lightweight Parts to Vehicles

NioCorp Plans to Produce Made-in-USA Scandium Master Alloy to Supply Lightweight Parts to Vehicles NioCorp Developments Ltd.
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NioCorp Now Working With Automakers To Develop Aluminum-Scandium Vehicle Parts That Are Stronger, Lighter, Higher-Performing, and Fully Recyclable
Prototype Aluminum-Scandium Alloy Parts Have Dual Uses in Commercial and Military Applications
EV/Hybrid Sales Forecasts Predict Tens of Millions of Units Globally By 2030^\1]), Underscoring the Importance of Bringing New Sources of Non-Chinese and Non-Russian Scandium Supply Online, NioCorp Says
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (August 14, 2023) – A phased program to establish U.S. commercial production of aluminum-scandium (“AlSc”) master alloy took another step forward recently as NioCorp Developments Ltd. (“NioCorp” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:NB) (TSX:NB) and its development partner Nanoscale Powders LLC (“Nanoscale”) successfully produced scandium metal at pilot-scale at a facility owned and operated by Creative Engineers in Pennsylvania.
The next step in the pilot-scale program is to produce kilogram-sized ingots of AlSc master alloy for independent testing and commercial product samples. The first of these AlSc master alloy ingots is expected to be produced in the coming weeks.

Three-Phase Commercialization Program

NioCorp and Nanoscale are pursuing a three-phased development plan for commercial production of AlSc master alloy. The goal of this program is to achieve full-scale AlSc master alloy production at approximately the same time as the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project (the “Elk Creek Project”) achieves commercial operation and planned production of approximately 100 tonnes per year of scandium oxide.

1. Pilot scale batch production of 10 kilogram master alloy ingots**. Master alloy produced will be fully analyzed (metals and gases) at independent test facilities. Ingot samples will be available for third-party examination and prospective customer testing / sampling.**
2. Commercial demonstration production of 100 kg ingots**. NioCorp expects to perform this work at a third-party ingot casting facility, which is expected to significantly reduce development timelines and cost as well as leverage existing facility permits and operator experience. The objective of this stage will be to optimize the production process and operating conditions.**
3. Full scale commercial production of master alloy**. Assuming successful results at the pilot scale and commercial demonstration stages, and once project financing is obtained, NioCorp intends to secure an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contractor to construct, start up, and commission a full-scale production facility with the capacity to consume up to the Elk Creek Project’s projected scandium production of approximately 100 tonnes (Sc metal contained in master alloy) per year. NioCorp intends to co-locate the full-scale production facility with the Elk Creek Project in Nebraska in order to take advantage of the infrastructure (i.e., low-cost power, water, and natural gas) that will be in place for mining operations.**

NioCorp and Nanoscale also plan to develop recycling approaches for scrap alloy, including work-in-process material and post-production scrap.
Qualified Persons:
Scott Honan, M.Sc., SME-RM, COO of NioCorp Developments Ltd., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information and verified the data contained in this news release.

***SEE RESPONSES FROM NIOCORP/JIM SIMS FROM AUGUST 14, 2023 ~Good morning - Jim!

While waiting for Niocorp’s 2023 F.S. Release… The announcement for Scandium Alloy Production & Scandium alloy funding are most welcome!

Leading me to add to my line of questions regarding Scandium & (Niocorp).

A) Would Niocorp qualify for a portion of this recent funding once approved by Congress? Moving forward.
RESPONSE:

"This funding was placed in the FY24 DoD Appropriations bill at the request of Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, for the purpose of helping to fund NioCorp's effort to establish domestic commercial production of AlSc master alloy. There is always a process within the DoD to select appropriate projects with funding provided to it by Congress. In this case, however, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees provided additional guidance to DoD on this topic in their respective National Defense Authorization bills, including prioritizing domestic production of such materials. "

Next Question ~ For context:

(Imperial mining, CleanTech, & Scandium International all have patents on Scandium & Sc aluminum alloy products. Rio Tinto has established a North American domestic supply(@15 tons/year with expansion capabilities) & has established a working relationship with Boeing.
Niocorp has produced Scandium aluminum with both IBC (under Chris Huskamp now with Jabil) & with Ames Lab, but has yet to patent any process or materials.
Niocorp has established a working relationship with Nanoscale to produce patentable Scandium Aluminum products in the years ahead…)
Jim-
B) How Does/will Niocorp’s expected Scandium production & future patentable Scandium materials be utilized by management moving forward? Once realized…. ; and How do/would they compare to those materials & alloys already developed or patented?
RESPONSE:

"Latent markets for scandium oxide and aluminum-scandium master alloy – both commercial and military -- are quite large, and we are working with a number of potential scandium consumers and related technology companies interested in scandium. We will make announcements in this area as developments require. In general, we don’t comment on detailed commercial business strategies except in the course of necessary announcements and/or public filings. "

C) In addition to Niocorp’s collaboration with NanoScale. Is Niocorp currently working/engaged with other entities such as (Ames Lab, DoD, DoE, Chris Huskamp/Jabil & others) on Scandium Materials/patents?
Or on Niobium, Titanium, or Rare Earth future products (Oxides, Magnets…)
Please comment where possible.
RESPONSE:

"There are multiple such engagements ongoing now for each product in our planned product offering. In general, we don’t comment on commercial business strategies except in the course of necessary announcements and/or public filings. "

D) Are other Entities besides EXIM Bank and Stellantis still interested as possible Debt/Equity finance or Anchor Investos partners moving foward?
Leading to a Final Elk Creek Finance package?
RESPONSE:

"YES!"

FOLLOWING THE TRAIL....

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NIOBIUM, TITANIUM, SCANDIUM & RARE EARTH MINERALS: ~H.R. 2670 - NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024~ The urgent need to diversify the United States Defense Industrial base to advance domestic capability, production, modernization, and resilience!

CRPT-118hrpt125.pdf (govinfo.gov)

Page #251~Secure Supply of Niobium Oxide

Page # 232 & 233 ~Extraction and Processing Methods of Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals

Page # 223 -224 Aquisition of Titanium

Page # 225-26 ~Aluminum-Scandium Master Alloy Production

The committee recognizes that China is a major producer of high-purity scandium oxide, which has many powerful applications in defense technologies, including strengthening and light-weighting defense and commercial aviation systems. As scandium oxide pro-duction is established in the United States, a missing supply chain component is the conversion of scandium from its oxide form to aluminum-scandium (AlSc) master alloy. This process step is required for utilization of U.S.-mined scandium by many defense applications. At present, production capacity of AlSc master alloy is limited to one facility in the United States. The committee recognizes that the United States may soon become a major producer of highpurity scandium oxide by virtue of a proposed mine and mineral processing project in Nebraska. The committee recognizes the defense-wide importance of a vertical domestic supply chain for both Scandium Oxide and AlSc master alloy and the critical importance of both materials for the production of air-, land-, and sea-based combat systems.
NIOBIUM, TITANIUM, SCANDIUM & RARE EARTH MINERALS: ~H.R. 2670 - NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024~ The urgent need to diversify the United States Defense Industrial base to advance domestic capability, production, modernization, and resilience!
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AUGUST 9, 2023 ~Nebraska’s U.S. Senator Deb Fischer and Congressman Don Bacon Secure $10 Million in Federal Funding for U.S. Aluminum-Scandium Master Alloy Production~

Nebraska’s U.S. Senator Deb Fischer and Congressman Don Bacon Secure $10 Million in Federal Funding for U.S. Aluminum-Scandium Master Alloy Production NioCorp Developments Ltd.
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FORM YOUR OWN OPINIONS & CONCLUSIONS ABOVE:

IMHO- "I think the DoD is still interested! plus...."

All the above BODES WELL FOR NIOCORP & for all the Goodies they will produce -(The Critical Minerals Niobium, Scandium, Titanium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Praseodymium, Neodymium, {lus BYPRODUCTS ~CaCO3, MgCO3 & some IRON STUFF~) should Financing be achieved.... !

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FULL STEAM AHEAD NIOCORP! Waiting with many....

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Chico

​
Philip Fox La Follette, 34th President of the United States.
Administration:
Vice President: Michael A. Musmanno
Secretary of Peace: Douglas MacArthur (1951-1952 (interim)), Clarence Dill (1952-1953)
Secretary of State: Douglas MacArthur (1949-1951 (Department placed under Peace))
Secretary of War: Ralph Immell (1949-1951 (Department placed under Peace))
Secretary of the Navy: Francis P. Matthews (1949-1951 (Department placed under Peace))
Secretary of the Air Force: Charles Lindbergh (1949-1951 (Department placed under Peace))
Secretary of Production: Ralph Immell (1952-1953)
Secretary of the Treasury: Rexford Tugwell (1949-1951 (resigned to assume office as Governor of New York)), Harold Lord Varney (1951 (interim)), Ralph Immell (1951-1952 (department placed under Production))
Secretary of the Interior: Mildred H. McAfee (1949-1952 (department placed under Production))
Secretary of Energy: Floyd Dominy (1950-1952 (department placed under Production))
Secretary of Agriculture: Gerald Nye (1949-1952 (department placed under Production))
Secretary of Labor: George Meany (1949-1952 (department placed under Production))
Secretary of Science and Technology: Karl T. Compton (1949-1952 (department placed under Production))
Secretary of Prosperity: Francois Duvalier (1952-1953)
Attorney General: David Lilienthal (1949-1952 (department placed under Prosperity))
Secretary of Health: Francois Duvalier (1949-1952 (department placed under Prosperity))
Postmaster General: Gerald T. Boileau (1949-1952 (department placed under Prosperity))
Secretary of Education: Sara Gibson Blanding (1949-1952 (department placed under Prosperity)
President La Follette would announce a major reorganization of cabinet departments following his 1951 impeachment, uniting the Air Force, Navy, War, and State Departments into one grand “Department of Peace,” despite opposition from both military leadership and Secretary of State MacArthur, who would depart from the Administration at the commencement of 1952 and be replaced by Farmer-Labor doyen Clarence Dill. The President has framed the move as embodying the national seal of an eagle carrying both arrows and an olive branch, while promoting centralization to improve efficiency while avoiding involving the United States in entangling alliances, an effort that has led to the end of the effort to unite American allies on both sides of the Pacific into a mutual defense pact. First Lady Isen La Follette, personally notably introverted, has been brought before the public as the chief public campaigner for the Department of Peace.
With the centralization of foreign and military policy in full swing at the executive level despite the opposition of Congress, the spring of 1952 would see a second round of mass centralization, with longtime ally Ralph Immell appointed as the head of a new Department of Production, devised by Texas’s Lyndon B. Johnson, to supervise the old Treasury, Interior, Energy, Agriculture, Labor, and Science and Technology Departments, while Dr. Francois Duvalier has been appointed to lead the centralization of the Justice, Health, Education, and Post Office Departments into a united Department of Prosperity and Human Services, commonly referred to only by the former. As in the case of the Department of Peace, the former departments are slated to remain at a sub-cabinet level, and the efforts of opposition forces have successfully left the proposed integrations largely on paper for the time being.
On the level of sub-cabinet departments, the Bureau of Investigation has been merged with the Office of Strategic Services to form the National Security Agency (NSA), an intelligence agency combining the foreign and domestic. Meanwhile, an executive order would begin the National Aeronautics and Space Administration with former President Charles Lindbergh appointed as its first head, however, Lindbergh would soon be dismissed as a part of the executive’s compromise with congress’s impeachers, with businessman Howard Hughes taking his place.
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Opposition Representative Richard Nixon shakes hands with Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie during the Emperor's visit to the United States, where President La Follette would emphasize American support for non-communist anti-colonial movements.
Foreign Policy:
-President La Follette has found rare common ground with the opposition on matters of foreign policy towards the Soviet Union, echoing Arthur Vandenberg’s declaration that “politics ends at the water’s edge.” The Administration has secured funding for the rebuilding of Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea under social democratic anti-communist governments, with President La Follette describing the initiatives as building an “iron curtain” against communism.
-President La Follette’s term would see the death of two of the world’s premier foreign leaders: Marshall Philippe Petain of France and Chinese General Feng Yuxiang. President La Follette would visit Paris in 1951 for the funeral of Petain after nearly four decades in power, having hailed the French publicly as future allies in the battle with communism. Yet, already suspicious of the new government of Petain protege Charles De Gaulle after the leaking of America’s role in Smedley Butler’s assassination by Ambassador Gaston-Henry Haye, La Follette would find himself increasingly disenchanted with the French, with private reports indicating his horror at the mass deportation of Flemish, Germans, and Catalans into the French Congo from areas in Europe newly annexed into France.
-However, the President would nonetheless side with the French-supported Roman Legion rebelling against Greece in 1951, marking the creation of the Republic of the Pindus as the first state for the Aromanian people in world history. However, the new state has been accused of engaging in the ethnic cleansing of the Greek population.
-Meanwhile, touring China after the death of Feng Yuxiang, La Follette would become increasingly worried about the possible alignment of the nation towards the Soviet Union and controversially refuse to return the island of Taiwan to China until the election of a successor to Feng. With Communist leader Zhou Enlai rising in popularity and an election planned, American support would be thrown behind former warlord Yan Xishan, who would be selected President by the National Assembly in January of 1951 and promptly announce an indefinite delay on elections. Despite rising tensions with China’s Bolshevik-backed Communist Party, La Follette would sign a treaty of return in February of 1952 relinquishing Taiwan to Chinese control. However, after six decades of intense Japanization under colonial authorities, Taiwan has found itself culturally isolated from the rest of China, speaking almost entirely Japanese and Hokkien rather than Mandarin.
-A similar issue has emerged on the formerly Japanese territories of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Owing to their close location to the Soviet Union, La Follette has authorized it as the site of dozens of American nuclear tests throughout his term and refused to cede sovereignty, with China, Japan, and Russia all harboring alternate claims to the islands.
-The President has impounded funds from the 1950 and 1951 budgets passed by Congress to distribute for the reconstruction of American allies and occupied regions in the Third Pacific War, enacting the MacArthur Plan without the authorization of Congress and repeating to Chinese Premier Yan Xishan his famous remark that “vermin are infesting and polluting democratic organizations and the government itself.”
-Working with the Latin American and East Asian nations in the American sphere of influence in the aftermath of the Franco-British Conflict, the President has moved the United States into the new Parliament of Nations headquartered in Rome, sending New Hampshire Progressive Senator Robert P. Bass as the first United States Representative to the largely powerless global body intended to facilitate global cooperation. Notably, however, the La Follette Administration has resisted efforts to include communist-aligned nations into the fold despite the membership of many French-aligned authoritarian regimes and absolute monarchies such as the Ethiopian Empire or the Caliphate.
-1951 would see the formalization of the Treaty of San Diego, officially ending the United States occupation of Japan, and with it La Follette's rule by decree of the islands, while maintaining an American military presence on the island chain and transferring to American control the Ryukyu Islands, Iwo Jima, Samoa, and the Japanese stake in the Nicaraguan Canal shared with Argentina, where former Milford W. Howard associate Harold Lord Varney has been appointed as High Commissioner.
-President La Follette held a summit with Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, and Madagascar Prime Minister Joseph Raseta in 1951 to commemorate the longstanding American support for independent nations in Africa, hosting, among others, independence activists Seretse Khama of Botswana, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, and Hastings Banda of Nyasaland. Further, American jazz artist Andy Razaf has taken the throne as King of Madagascar following the lack of an heir apparent to deceased Queen Marie-Louise, however, unfamiliar with the island of his ancestors, the newly-crowned Andriamanantena I has been sidelined by Prime Minister Raseta.
-With rumors of Lazar Kaganovich planning Bolshevik expansion into Central Asia abounding, President La Follette and Secretary of Peace Dill would issue a joint statement in January of 1952 promising American opposition “by any means necessary” to “one more inch” of Bolshevik expansion, with Dill describing Kaganovich’s policy towards France and the United States as “trying to play both sides against the middle.”
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Destiny launches off the coast of Puerto Rico, inaugurating a new era in human history,
Domestic Policy:
-”Our attainments in space are a major element in the competition between the Soviet system and our own, they are part of the battle,” so would declare James E. Webb, Deputy Administrator of NASA, on October 4th, 1951, mere weeks after the failure of the impeachment of President La Follette, as he, former President Lindbergh, and gasping crowds of onlookers watched Destiny take flight, the first manmade satellite in human history to orbit the Earth. President La Follette would tout the achievement as the administration having begun the conquest of “the final frontier.”
-Working with Japanese scientists in the aftermath of the occupation, space policy has reached the fore as La Follette launches an aggressive series of follow-up satellites, beginning with Lewis and Clark and most recently including Stagecoach. However, rumors hold that the French have begun construction on their own site for space rocket launches.
-Staring down the barrel of Speaker Joseph McCarthy’s aggression and Senator Estes Kefauver’s investigation into the assassination of Smedley Butler, La Follette turned away from Congress in 1949 to fulfill his promise to “win the peace.” Acting first in April of 1949 shortly after the arrest of John L. Lewis, La Follette would issue Executive Orders 15092 and 15093, authorizing the building of an interstate highway system and national system of hydroelectric plants to be overseen by General Lucius D. Clay and the Army Corps of Engineers under the supervision of the Department of the Interior for the former and Department of Science and Technology for the latter, while authorizing the creation of a new Department of Energy, operating entirely on impounded funds and largely focusing on research on the utilization of nuclear energy.
-In the latter effort, the President has found the support of prominent opposition financier Lewis Strauss, who has nonetheless argued that the development of nuclear energy is hampered by New State bureaucratic centralization.
-Opposition politician Joseph Alioto has criticized the interstate highway system, pointing to the funding of La Follette’s campaign by the Firestone Tire Company and arguing that road dependent companies have colluded to impede the further expansion of rail infrastructure.
-Most controversially would be Executive Order 15097, issued in June of 1951 and seen as largely the brainchild of Secretary of the Treasury Rexford Tugwell, declaring the complete and total nationalization of the healthcare industry and authorizing the establishment of a National Healthcare Service (NHS) in the United States under the Department of Health. Although implementation has been plagued by legal challenges and billions in funding from healthcare providers to opposition candidates, the President has utilized impounded funds to subsidize healthcare for the elderly and impoverished.
-Executive Order 15102 in December of 1951 would establish under the Department of Labor an employers’ syndicate led by former General Electric CEO Gerald Swope called the Business Council, leading to denunciations from across Farmer-Labor despite the low participation in the attempted employers’ union.
-However, the 1946 executive orders declaring a national moratoria on the payment of mortgages and enacting wage and price controls were ended soon after the 1948 election.
-In the face of a rapidly growing economy, La Follette has worked with new Federal Reserve Chairman Bernard Baruch to digress on the expansionist monetary policy that characterized his first term, with interest rates quadrupling to 15% in an effort that has successfully brought inflation from 13% to a mere 3% annually. Unemployment has fallen to 3.2% as the GDP as a whole has grown nearly 9% over La Follette’s second term, an economic boom fueled by mass exportation to Europe and newly decolonized nations elsewhere. While the President has continued to voice support for the nationalization of the Federal Reserve, the issue has remained on the backburner.
-An executive order in January of 1952 has set the new national minimum wage to $7.00 an hour from a previous $3.25, causing mass business outcry despite the President’s argument that the increase is necessary to guarantee a “living wage” after post-war inflation. The Department of Justice has been authorized to prosecute offenders, however, critics have argued that businesses aligned with the President’s political opposition have been unfairly targeted.
-Rufus B. von KleinSmid of the Un-American Activities Board, appointed by the President to monitor journalism for seditious content, would attempt to suppress the release of an account by actress Frances Farmer of her forced confinement to a mental institution in 1948, where she was sterilized under La Follette’s Executive Order 14768 from 1946, authorizing the mass sterilization of the mentally ill and those with “criminal tendencies.” Further investigations into the ramifications of the order have led to staggering revelations of up to 200,000 sterilizations performed annually since 1946, largely under duress, on Americans in prison and mental institutions as well as former criminals. The President has defended the policy while authorizing a Department of Justice investigation into abuses by low level doctors.
-The President would support the prosecution of a half dozen prison wardens accused of citing Executive Order 14767, establishing cooperatives for prisoners to work without pay on natural beautification projects, to turn prisoners into de facto slave laborers working 18 hour shifts as contract labor on farms. While the President has argued that the system itself has brought boons to the environment and American agriculture, critics have claimed that abuse remains widespread.
-While delaying and, in some cases, entirely pausing the implementation of his executive orders in the wake of the promises of moderation amidst the impeachment trial that rescued his presidency from the brink of collapse, fascist Blackshirts and radical Mormon Destroying Angels have become increasingly violent in the months since impeachment, with headlines telling tales of opposition presses raided and armed men watching poll stations. Another conspiracy theory has held that the death of Committee for the Preservation of the Republic chairman Thomas Schall in a motor accident over the winter of 1951 was the result of an intentional Blackshirt hit-and-run.
-While many have blamed the fiery speeches of Vice President Musmanno for encouraging Blackshirts, President La Follette and his brother in the Senate have fiercely denounced all violence on behalf of their movement, appealing to supporters for calm as they call for the speedy prosecution of the allegedly Blackshirt bombthrowers that took the life of elderly comedian Will Rogers. Nonetheless, fear of political violence has led to the cancellation of the 1952 Progressive-Federalist presidential primary in favor of a convention held in tandem with the Liberty League under the auspices of the Committee for the Preservation of the Republic.
-Meanwhile, Washington Senate candidate Marion Zioncheck would throw himself off a building while campaigning to succeed Clarence Dill. In a coma, Zioncheck’s supporters have accused the administration alternately of reigniting his documented mental health issues and being behind the attempted murder themselves.
-September 14, 1951, the height of Blackshirt violence in Philadelphia, St. Louis, and New York City, has been labeled the “Knight of the Long Knives” by opposition critic Styles Bridges. Vice President Musmanno has stood alone in the administration in defending the actions publicly despite condemnation from President La Follette that has carried into the authorization of NSA prosecutions of Blackshirt perpetrators. Representative Richard Nixon, the lead impeachment manager in the La Follette trial, has credited J. Edgar Hoover with the investigations rather than La Follette and accused the administration of only condoning them under pressure from his brother.
-”People of America, wake up!” The last words of House Minority Leader Eduardo Chibas, broadcast into a million homes seconds before his suicide on live radio, has fueled the creation of local opposition organizing groups calling themselves “Wide-Awakes” and aiming to bridge opposition interests against the La Follette Administration.
-The President has made a half a dozen speeches across the nation under the banner of his loyal National Progressives of America calling for the ratification of a 20th Amendment to shift to the president the powers of Congress, restricting the republic’s legislative branch to a mere veto power, while arguing that the need for a strong legislature would be replaced with a 21st Amendment establishing a process for national referendums. Although not passed by Congress, several state legislatures, including those of Alabama and Washington, have passed resolutions indicating a willingness to ratify the amendment.
-The President further floated the concept of reforming the legislature into a “Chamber of Corporations” balancing representatives from the General Trades Union and Business Council.
-With the arrest of CIO leaders John L. Lewis and Tony Boyle, leadership of the nation’s chief opposition union has fallen to Walter Reuther and Jimmy Hoffa, representing the left and right of the organization. With widespread prosecutions against members and supporters such as Fulgencio Batista, however, Reuther and Hoffa have found themselves fighting to prevent the CIO’s collapse. Nonetheless, the CIO would hold a 1950 celebration of the life of former Vice President Lena Morrow Lewis, with President Alf Landon hailing her role in the opposition and using the funeral as a means to rally anti-La Follette sentiment.
-Following a career in national politics spanning nearly seven decades, former President William Randolph Hearst would stop the presses for a final time on August 14th of 1951, passing away at the age of 88 in his castle in San Simeon, California. Having been alternately king and kingmaker in American politics for a half century, Hearst’s funeral would leave the streets around the Grace Cathedral full for blocks, with his son and heir William Randolph Hearst Jr. managing proceedings. Yet, in light of Hearst’s turn to the opposition and support for Fulgencio Batista, President La Follette would be notably absent from the funeral of the man who once coronated him the Farmer-Labor Party’s nominee for the presidency.
-President La Follette would push for the statehood of the territory of Tannenbaum, initially in a tandem effort with Territorial Representative Ernest Gruening’s push for Jewish colonization of the region as an alternative to the increasingly violent Palestine. However, with public sentiment against statehood riled up by Father Charles Coughlin in a campaign tinged by anti-semitism, Senator Henrik Shipstead would filibuster the statehood bill, prompting the Administration to declare a moratoria on statehood efforts and a reconsideration of whether statehood stands in line with national security interest.
-At the urging of singer turned Tennessee Governor Roy Acuff, a group of anti-La Follette Hollywood stars have formed The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, including Jane Russell, Ronald Reagan, Zasu Pitts, Gloria Swanson, June Allyson, Pat Buttram, Orson Welles, and Shirley Temple.
-Senator John Horne Blackmore has proposed an additional tax on chain stores to encourage the development of small business, while he, former New York Governor Ezra Pound, and publisher James Laughlin have called for the revival of the American social credit movement.
-Alabama and Illinois have established themselves as the fastest growing states in the nation, demonstrating success in Single Taxer Paul Douglas’s new “Illinois Model” as well as the continued prosperity of Alabama in the wake of Milford W. Howard’s fascist “Alabama Model” that has inspired emulation globally.
-Farmer-Laborite Maine Senator Benjamin Bubar’s investigation of Hollywood has led to the firing or blacklisting of several dozen actors on charges of alleged homosexuality, with the Administration attempting to tie the issue to support for the President’s political opposition, citing the blacklisting of Greta Garbo and Tennessee Williams as precedent for the firing of longtime members of the foreign service on charges of possible homosexual activities.
-Notable inventions and scientific breakthroughs during President La Follette’s term include the discovery of DNA by scientist Rosalind Franklin; the hydrogen bomb, newly tested on the island of Sakhalin; the first successful kidney transplant; and a revolutionary new vaccine for polio invented by University of Alabama doctor Jonas Salk.
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In John L. Lewis's stead, dynamic young Jimmy Hoffa has led the independent labor movement.
The Supreme Court:
-Justice Thomas C. O’Brien, appointed in 1939 as a part of President Lindbergh’s takeover of the court, would die in November of 1951 at the age of 64. With the Presidency still reeling from impeachment, La Follette would nominate Michigan Supreme Court Justice Evo DeConcini to the position. However, the hostile Senate would overwhelmingly refuse to confirm the appointment, with Progressive-Federalist Leader George Pritchard vowing to oppose any La Follette nominee. With neither side budging, the position has remained vacant.
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Map of the world as of 1952.
World Events:
-After 9 years of prolonged conflict, the Franco-British War would conclude in August of 1950 with the Treaty of Amsterdam signed by Marshal Petain and British Prime Minister Oliver Baldwin, largely ceding French colonies to the British Empire, with the exception of the Congo, on the time table for independence, and Guiana and Algeria, incorporated directly into metropolitan France. Meanwhile, French dominion has been de facto recognized over most of Western Europe, with the west bank of the Rhine, Catalonia, Luxembourg, and Belgium directly incorporated into France while Germany has been divided into a series of puppet states.
-Although the Spanish Republic has survived, the French-influenced, Catholic monarchist CEDA led by José María Valiente Soriano has received significant funding in challenging Prime Minister Jose Ortega y Gasset, with a similar situation emerging in Italy following the democratization of the nation by former dictator Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who has been succeeded by the pro-French Achille Lauro.
-Alongside the neutral Netherlands, Portugal has stood outside of the French bloc, as fascist leader Francisco Rolão Preto has held onto power while courting the support of both Bolshevik Russia and the United States, explicitly citing Milford W. Howard as his model for rule.
-In what the French government has labeled “le épuration de la frontière,” (the border purification), a forced exodus has occurred from newly annexed territories, driving millions from their communities and largely to French Africa, where the government has resettled hundreds of thousands each of Catalans, Germans, Greeks, Flemish Belgians, Italians, and the Occitan as French settlers claim their former homes.
-Meanwhile, the international process of decolonization has sped up rapidly, with a proposal by Choudhary Rahmat Ali being adopted by the British to partition the former Raj and form the states of India and Pakistan, alongside a Christian state in the far east.
-Mexican Prime Minister Manuel Gomez Morin has emerged as the primary center of power in the Empire after the crowning of 8 year old Maximiliano II as Emperor.
-Under the leadership of Prime Minister George Drew, the Progressive-Conservatives have won yet another Canadian election, yet the rise of the Social Credit Party in Quebec has driven them to status as the nation’s official opposition. Drew has hosted an Anglo-American Summit alongside President La Follette and Newfoundland Prime Minister Joey Smallwood.
-With Bolshevik Russia as the senior partner, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has been established as an alliance between Russia and its satellite states in Kazakhstan and the Caucasus.
-The Hashemite Caliphate has experienced increased unrest in both Palestine, where radical Jewish and Muslim militias have clashed, and the majority Christian regions of Mount Lebanon and newly annexed Nubia, where order has been nearly impossible to enforce.
-Following the death of Jorge Carlos Mariategui after two decades at the helm of Peru, Jorge del Prado Chavez has succeeded him, shifting the nation further towards Bolshevik Russia and ending all possibility of Peru entering a Pacific defense pact.
-The National Party’s oppressive regime of white rule in South Africa has been used as a model by a growing movement for a white minority government among the displaced, largely German white population in the French Congo, slated for independence within the decade.
-Social Democrat Mohammed Mossadegh has been elected President of the Republic of Iran, bringing the Georgist nation closer to Bolshevik Russia geopolitically as a counterweight to fiercely pro-British Caliph Abdullah and pro- French Turkish President Celâl Bayar.
-Greek dictator Konstantinos Logothetopoulos would be deposed in a 1952 revolution following the successful secession of the Aromanians, with communist Markos Vafeiadis leading a Provisional Democratic People’s Government with Bolshevik support. However, prominent author Nikos Kazantzakis has emerged at the fore of an anti-Vafeiadis protest movement for democratic socialism influenced by Georges Sorel.
-Adopted throughout the Habsburg Realm, Soviet Union, and among many Jews in Palestine and Europeans in the Congo, the Esperanto language has gained nearly 50,000,000 speakers and become the official language of diplomacy for the newly founded Republic of Korea.
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Bolshevik Russia's \"Iron Lazar\" Kaganovich.
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Colonel James M. Gavin shifted uncomfortably in his seat at the War Department and closed his eyes tightly to block out the pressure he felt building up in his head. Opening them, he continued to read the newspaper sprawled out on his mahogany desk:
PRESIDENT LA FOLLETTE ACQUITTED IN IMPEACHMENT TRIAL
RUMORS OF SHAKE-UP WITHIN ADMINISTRATION AND MORE OPPOSITION ARRESTS ABOUND
In a rare moment of outward fury for the normally stoic soldier, Gavin crumpled the newspaper and threw it across his Pentagon staff office. He had already read the thing twice over to make sure he hadn’t missed anything the first time. To read it again would just be an exercise in making himself even more depressed. Colonel Gavin stood up and walked to the office window and looked out. Summer was rapidly dying and Fall was taking root, already some of the leaves on the trees were turning to new, vibrant colors. His office with the Strategic Plans Department was on the Eastern side of the Pentagon and offered him a view of the gently flowing Potomac River and into Washington DC itself. On clear days, such as today, he could even see the needle of the Washington Monument sticking triumphantly high into the sky. On other days the view might have filled him with pride, but today all he felt was dread. Looking over the Potomac he tried to make out where the White House would be. What was going on in there right now? Was the President and his gang of fascist jackals working out their next plan to strip away American democracy or disappear another political opponent at this very moment? Was this what he had fought for? What so many of his comrades in arms had died for?
He thought back. Gavin had always wanted to be a soldier. He was not born into some political dynasty or with a silver spoon in his mouth, no, he had to work for everything he wanted. He had been an orphan and whatever free time he had was devoted to work. Whether as a paperboy or a barbers assistant caring for the miners in his poor Pennsylvania town, he was always working. He knew he had to get out. Listening to his school teachers' lectures about the Civil War and the stories of discharged veterans from the Canadian front opened his eyes to the world outside coal mining and poverty. He knew had to be a soldier. The Americans who went off to fight in these wars were heroes to him, they did not fight for riches, they fought for what was good, decent, honorable, and righteous. Democracy. The thought was the only thing that kept him going when he had to get up before the crack of dawn, when he had to give up on making friends, and when his adoptive father forced him to drop out of school in 8th grade to work full time. He had his break when the Revolution began in 1921 and at only 15 years old he ran from home to join an anti-communist militia marching off to liberate New York City. Gavin was filled with pride as they marched off to battle and sang old marching tunes as well as praises for the newly inaugurated President Lejeune. Wearing a shabby, worn-out uniform a kind Sergeant had given to him, and using an old hunting rifle, he fought through the streets of the Big Apple alongside Patton’s regulars and the collaborationist bastard Hugh Johnson. The irony of the fact he had been fighting against Benjamin Gitlow, who now seemed to have been the last best hope of democracy in the United States, did not escape Colonel Gavin.
Federal troops enter the Bronx Soviet in May 1922. A young Gavin first saw combat here in the brutal urban warfare of the Revolution while fighting in an anti-communist militia
He had proved himself in the Revolution, enough to stay in with the Pennsylvania National Guard as a Corporal and fight the insurrectionist remnants with distinction until 1924 when one of his superior officers decided he might cut it as an officer and got him an appointment to West Point. The Academy was hard, but he was used to dealing with challenges so he was up at 4:30 every morning to try and catch up on the basic education he had been forced out of as a boy. After graduation, he got to serve on the far frontiers of American global reach where he witnessed brutality not seen since the Revolution, except this time it was not undisciplined militias or renegade Japanese collaborators, but regular United States Federal troops. Confronted by the reality of the crimes committed by a few notable Caribbean officers in the Moroland shook his faith in what he was fighting for, but still, he persisted. Those men were in the minority and their actions brought shame to the military as a whole, even as the politicians back home lauded them or helped to cover it up. It was then he first began to notice the uneasy glances shared between servicemen as they read the newspapers or talked about the events in hushed tones. At the time they were few, and no one was outspoken, but still, Gavin had noticed. When a new Pacific War broke out, all of that was forgotten as the Army of the Free marched off once more to battle. Good god, Guadalcanal had been so hot and the Japanese had been so fierce. As one of the masterminds behind the Airborne Corps, it was only right that he once more serve on the frontlines with his men and so he made every combat jump the 82nd Airborne conducted during the war. Gavin had fought in every major battle and watched as the men around him were maimed, mutilated, and murdered by a vicious enemy in a war of aggression he was beginning to lose faith in.
Theater-Ranked Brigadier General Gavin preparing to make a combat jump into Guadalcanal in late 1942 with his beloved \"All-American\" 82nd Airborne Division
He was off the coast of Iwo Jima, on board an aircraft carrier for a planning conference on the invasion of Japan, when the room suddenly turned white with the flash of the nuclear bomb. In an instant, 75,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands were vaporized by the deadliest weapon known to mankind. A follow-up attack on Guam was just as bad. What had they died for? Democracy. It had to be something as just and noble as that. To spread democracy and bring peace to the Pacific. Right? The atomic bombings of Japan followed soon after.
Because of the nature of the Japanese defeat, the collapsed central government was unable to stop the raging fires, set up food distribution, or stop the roaming bandits in large swathes of the country. To counter this, an immediate American occupation was needed to restore order, end the famine, and set up a provisional government. The planning for the airborne contingent of this action, entitled Operation Eastern Wind, was left in the capable hands of theater-ranked Major General James Gavin. Eastern Wind would include massive amphibious landings across the Japanese Isles, preluded by the largest airborne drop the war had seen pinpointed outside major cities to secure vital infrastructure as the seaborne troops and equipment arrived. In a personal victory during planning, Gavin had used the loss of personnel on Iwo Jima and Guam to argue for the integration of all-black paratroop units into the rest of the Airborne Corps to bolster numbers before the big jump. Then in early September 1945, the skies over Japan were once again filled with the roaring sounds of American engines as thousands of paratroopers jumped from their transports to begin the occupation of Japan. Jumping into the icy vacuum one more time, Gavin landed on the outskirts of Tokyo and was the highest-ranking American officer in Japan for about two hours before the rest of the Army hit the beaches. As he and whatever men landed near him advanced on a railroad depot where he planned to set up his headquarters, they were horrified to find it had become an open-air hospital and mass grave for Japanese civilians caught in the Tokyo atomic bombing. The horrific stench of rotting corpses and gangrenous infected innocents permeated the air and Gavin’s first instinct was to vomit and shield his eyes. But as a soldier, and especially a soldier who was good, decent, honorable, and righteous, he instead directed the creation of an aid station along with an operational headquarters to assist the beleaguered Japanese doctors and nurses. Over the next few months in Japan, Gavin saw the extent of the destruction wrought in the name of ‘democracy’. When the final tally of over 2.5 million civilian casualties, was released he believed it. The Japanese people had suffered greatly, so he could only hope that peace would hold out when he received new orders to head the innovative Strategic Plans Department back in Washington DC at the end of 1946.
Operation Eastern Wind, directed by Theater-Ranked Major General Gavin, would see the largest airborne drop of the war as the American military began its occupation of Japan. The landings would meet no formal Japanese resistance and allowed for the quick seizure of vital infrastructure across the country. American troops encountered firsthand the effects of the nuclear attacks, the subsequent famine, wildfires, and governmental collapse.
Bumped back down to a peacetime rank, Gavin continued to climb the ladder arguing for the modernization and integration of the armed forces. He tried to readjust to peacetime service and revert to how he had served all the other presidential administrations, but something was different about La Follette. Gavin had initially viewed him positively, seeing as he had been a soldier in the Pacific before rising to the highest office, but that quickly changed with the appointment of MacArthur as Secretary of State and the dictatorial nature of the Administration in occupied Japan. As the years passed, Gavin noticed a rise in the uneasy glances he had not seen since the Moroland warcrimes had been revealed. Officers reading their newspapers would shoot a look at their comrades before receiving a knowing and acknowledging look back. Pre-briefing meetings often took an off-topic turn as someone would bring up current events and the whispers and hushed voices began. Perhaps someone would bring up the actions of the Black Shirts and reminisce about their actions during the Revolution and how the revolutionary militias and extremist fascists seemed awfully similar. Sometimes the room would go silent when an Administration appointee or outwardly supportive serviceman would walk in and the huddled soldiers would quickly and quietly disperse. Still, it was business as usual in the Pentagon and on all the bases that Gavin would visit on tours. Then the chaos of the 1948 Farmer-Labor Convention happened, followed by the streetfighting, followed by the reelection of the President, the arrests of political opponents, and the revelations preceding the impeachment attempt. Slowly but surely the number of disaffected servicemen rose with each incident and some commanders were beginning to give uncomfortable, but necessary, reminders to their men on the apolitical nature of the military and its members, even if they were beginning to lose faith in that too.
The Pentagon was abuzz with quiet discontent. Even if it was unconfirmed it was clear to most servicemen that Lindbergh and La Follette had murdered General Smedley Butler or were at the very least deeply involved in the cover-up. Once again paramilitary forces were roaming the streets of America. Once again opponents of a political philosophy were in real, mortal danger. Once again American democracy was under threat from the inside. Gavin’s generation of servicemen had marched off to war to fight for something that the La Follette administration did not care about. The current Officer Corps of the United States Military idolized Smedley Butler and John Lejeune and every affront against their names and legacies was duly, but as of yet silently, noted. The Lower Enlisted and especially Non-Commissioned Officer Corps also looked on at the proceedings with great interest as it seemed that their sacrifices in the Revolution and Pacific War were being forgotten and their authority handed over to a bunch of undisciplined and hyper-partisan Black Shirts. The uneasy glances abounded in the War Department. Outspoken fascists and La Follette supporters who seemed to have forgotten their oaths were increasingly shunned and effectively exiled by their comrades and superior officers.
James M. Gavin took a step back from the window and sneered. I cannot believe that disgrace Batista came in second he thought. Looking out at the skyline of the home of sacred American democracy, it very suddenly became very clear that the union was approaching a precipice. It was quite possible that the Administration might call upon the military to enforce its will should they take a step to alter the very fabric of the United States. If and when that time comes… what would the military’s response be? Not the reaction from the higher-ups, the ones appointed by the politicians, but the reaction from the men? The Officers and Enlisted who had watched their buddies die overseas as they fought for some vague notion of advancing the cause of freedom? The Officers and Enlisted who had set out to defend America during the Revolution? Personally, Gavin knew what he would do, and he had a general feeling about what the rest of the men of the military might do. But the revelation had forced the thought into his mind and he knew he would never be able to shake it again. He sat down at his desk once again and began to outline a list of names. Once he had finished, he looked it over again, committed it to memory, took out his lighter, and burned the paper. He would set about doing what he did best. Organizing and planning. He wasn’t sure just how paranoid the Administration was, but he would leave no paper trail, only speak to those he was absolutely sure he knew the sentiments of, and take every precaution as he made feelers. Too much was at risk. Too many had died. Too many had sacrificed. Too many who naively believed that their bloodshed would not be in vain and that their superiors in the government were also good, decent, honorable, and righteous. James M. Gavin would do whatever he could to remind Washington that there were still patriots willing to fight for a worthy cause. And if necessary, die for it. Democracy.
Washington's Last Patriot: James M. Gavin

Tea is drunk always and everywhere: at breakfast and before bed, in summer and winter, with sugar and lemon. But how much do we know about him? Why is black tea not black at all in a mug, but green tea has different shades from amber to gold? How is it grown and when is it harvested? And most importantly, how to drink and brew tea correctly? Together with Time Tea, we have compiled a tea guide and answered the main questions about the most popular drink in the world.
1. How tea is grown and harvested
White, green, black, oolong – despite the fact that there are many different teas in the world, they are all made from the same plant. It is called Camellia sinensis, or Chinese camellia. This is a small bush about a meter high, although closer to the south the plant becomes taller, stronger, branchier and more reminiscent of a tree. The first harvest is harvested five years after planting, but it is believed that the leaves gain maximum weight by the age of 50 (for this, the crop must be harvested regularly). Every year the bushes are pruned, and only the youngest, softest and juiciest leaves are selected for tea.
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2. Where are tea leaves collected?
Tea grows in more than 30 countries. Although it was originally cultivated in China, the country still ranks first in terms of yield. It is followed by India and Sri Lanka – the British brought tea there in the 19th century, so these places are famous for their black varieties. Depending on where it is grown, the leaves differ in taste and color. Thus, African varieties have a reddish tint – all due to the fact that there is a lot of copper in the soil. Thanks to the ideal climate, the best varieties of tea grow in China, India, Sri Lanka and Kenya – they are used in TimeTea
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3.What kind of tea is there?
In addition to the regions of growth, tea is divided according to the method of processing. There are six types in total – white, green, yellow, oolong, black and pu-erh. They differ mainly in the degree of fermentation. White is almost never fermented – the young buds just wither in the sun. Green is steamed, dried or fried. Black tea has the longest chain: dried leaves are rolled into plates, from which the juice is released. They are laid out on special trays, where the processes of oxidation, fermentation and fermentation take place – almost like wine production. It is at this point that the tea leaves turn dark in color.
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4. How to tell if the tea is of high quality
The criteria differ depending on the variety, but there are several general principles. Examine the leaves – they should be approximately the same color and size. Make sure there are no twigs or dust in the package, and no foreign odors. When you have brewed the tea leaves, look at the water – it should be clear, even if it is strong pu-erh. The aroma of the drink should be light and the taste rich. If your green tea turns out bitter, it may be not only the poor quality of the leaves, but also the wrong water temperature or the wrong number of leaves.
5. How to brew the perfect cup of tea
The first thing you need is fresh, high-quality tea. The second is soft water. It should not contain minerals, salt or chlorine – use a filter or bottled water. For one cup you will need a teaspoon of tea. Remember that water should not boil for a long time: the taste of the drink depends on the oxygen content, which decreases with long boiling. The brewing time depends on the variety: black tea needs at least five minutes, while white tea needs less than a minute. After this, the tea leaves must be removed from the teapot or cup.
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Discover the exquisite world of tea with Time Tea. Our selection of high-quality teas, including black, green, oolong, and more, is sourced from the finest regions worldwide. Whether you’re a connoisseur or just starting your tea journey, our premium teas promise an exceptional experience in every cup.

Ever since the rise of Japanese influence within the Pacific, seeking to stake early claims as European eyes increasingly sought out to mark out their own territorial ambitions as had happened to the likes of Africa or China, the Kingdom of Hawai’i found itself under the Japanese thumb for decades. Reduced to a mere vassal until being annexed outright and placed under the direct rule of Tokyo, life for Hawaiians living in the country became as much as one would expect to a territory seen as on the imperial periphery of the Rising Sun’s ambitions for the broader Pacific at large. Crackdowns on dissenters and supposed enemies, and increased deployment of Japanese soldiers to the island territory to keep order.
Whilst the process technically began when Hawai’i was a vassal state, following annexation, the policy of forced Japanification of the island chain’s populace ramped up. Involving the stifling of the Hawaiian language and customs whilst enforcing the Japanese language at the intentional expense of the locals regardless of origin prior to Japanese annexation. Such a system would prompt a slow migration out of the island chain, mostly by Hawaiian-Americans to the United States following the turn of the 20th Century with some of the more notable examples being the likes of Hiram Bingham III who’d go on to serve in the Rocky Mountain War, and later as US Senator for the Solidarity Party.
This status quo would exist unchanged until 1934, which would see the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. The United States under President John Dewey expressed support for Russia, vowing to deliver aid to the battered Russian army only to be stymied in Congress by Isolationist Social Democrats, something that’d later go on to be a precursor to the larger schism that’d take place in the party years later. In response to the American pledge for aid, the Japanese presence in Hawai’i increased with the stationing of more troops and especially the arrival of Kempeitai agents to be on the lookout for suspected spies for the United States, as military commanders in Tokyo now started to contemplate the prospect that the US and Japan may come to blows against each other in the relatively near future.
Japanese Imperial soldiers conducting exercises on Hawaiian coast. Circa 1936.
Such an anti-American sentiment would increase the Hawaiian-American drive for those who didn’t feel secure within the country to leave to the United States, something that’d continue up until the summer of 1939 following the declaration of war upon Japan by the US under the Hayes administration.
What followed was the effective declaration of martial law in the islands. Civilian movement in or out of the chain was strictly forbidden unless given permission to do so by the local government, and American-Hawaiians meanwhile, were to be rounded up and placed in internment camps until the war was over. This however would be changed as Japanese military commanders would rightfully suspect American military plans would depend on taking the islands, and the bombings at San Diego and in general along the West Coast were mere delay tactics. Thus, the use of forced labor would begin to be used in Hawai’i, at first by convicts but later would be drawn in to include inturned American-Hawaiians, local native Hawaiians and migrants to the territory to erect military fortifications with the full intent of making the Americans bleed for every inch of the island chain.
The suspicions of the Japanese commanders would be proven right during the battle for Midway in 1943, to Hawai’i’s northwest. Whilst the battle was inconclusive, and Japanese forces took it as a sign that Hawai’i’s defenses were practically impenetrable, it did still linger in the backs of their minds of the prospect of an American invasion of, potentially, an encirclement.
Needless to say, the conditions that many had found themselves to work in by force had led to a dramatic decline in the quality of life for many as the forced labor resulted in many dying for a variety of reasons. To replace the dead, the Japanese would start bringing in captured civilians from occupied territories or POWs. One of these surviving POWs would be US navy pilot George H. W. Bush, who’d go on to recount to Congress his experience as a slave on Hawai’i in 1948.
“I was with a small group of other people. We were tired, barely eaten and constantly being yelled at. Not like I, or anyone else I was with could understand much of what was verbally bombarded at us. We could barely understand each other, considering I was an American stuck with a Filipino, three Chinese men, a Mexican, two guys from India and a German. But we all understood one thing.
Do as they gestured for you to do, or they’d shoot you. Saw it happen more times than I could count.
It was bad enough that we weren’t armed, but they also made sure to try and starve us. To exhaust us. Break out will of even looking at them funny.”
Photograph of early forced labor being used in Hawai'i.
Once the war swung decisively against the Japanese and Hawai’i found itself navally encircled, the Imperial army’s mindset of never surrendering kicked in. Slavery on the island expanded from the construction of military fortifications, now with the full intent of fighting for every last inch of Hawai’i from all sides, but to also farm and mine for raw materials to sustain operations for as long as possible. The nearly four remaining years of the war would go on to be the darkest in the modern history of Hawai'i.
The situation in the islands up until Japan’s surrender in 1947 matched the ferocity and desperation to never surrender at gunpoint, with the remaining IJA forces clamping down harder and harder upon the territory. Even the most wealthy landed Hawaiians who were previously exempt from the Japanese wrath started to feel the heat. Mass executions for the most minor of crimes took place as famine started to creep in thanks to the agricultural efforts happening in soil that lacked fertility due to the influence of Hawai’i’s elite to make sure their properties were untouched.
It would only be until the broadcast of Japanese surrender broadly by the Emperor himself that’d get the majority of IJA troops in Hawai’i to stand down and also accept surrender. Following this, Hawai’i found itself under military occupation by the United States, who was tasked with first stabilizing the situation as by this point, the islands had fallen under a litany of crises that tested the capacity of the occupied government greatly as the chain was on the cusp of entering a famine with looters out on the streets of major cities, medical supplies scarce in the face of disease outbreaks of Black Death and ultimately, an inability to provide more housing than it currently could.
Tasked with the responsibility of overseeing Hawai’i was the newly promoted lieutenant general; William Howard Arnold. Starting off as a humble division leader, Arnold would find himself moving up the ranks of leadership over the course of the war until being promoted to Lt. General to serve as Allied Commander of Hawai’i.
William Howard Arnold; Allied Commander of Hawai'i.
First order of business upon arriving in Honolulu was securing the logistical situation on the island. While food and medical imports started arriving to Hawai’i shortly after surrender, Arnold discovered the rate was woefully insufficient. Fortunately he didn’t have to look far as the US army would organize the distribution of relief across much of the Pacific. Making use of America’s economy still being in a state of war-time production, Arnold and his men would ensure the stabilization of Hawai’i’s medical crisis and risk of famine through 1947 to 1949. It’d be during this time too when those forcefully taken to Hawai’i during the war to serve as slave labor would be brought back to their nations of origin. Often, this would involve Arnold’s staffers needing to make several dozen phone calls a day to ambassadors of the various nations that these prisoners came from to help organize their return.
As the worst excesses of Hawai’i’s troubles was being resolved, now came the matter of governance and the creation of a provisional government. With no real royal family left, and under orders from the White House, Arnold agreed to ensure the establishment of a republican government. The orders to establish an independent Hawai’ian republic came from President Alvin York himself, following the same principles that led to the independence of Taiwan, Indonesia, Manchuria, the Philippines, and Korea in an attempt to keep the perspective of America being an anti-colonialist liberator, rather than a conqueror.
To serve as the president of this provisional government, Arnold would meet with Samuel Wilder King. King was a former member of the Honolulu City Council, upon the Board of Supervisors and also representative for Honolulu within the local territorial government, but would find himself forced to resign and later placed under house arrest for objecting to the usage of forced labor and unlawful violence against prisoners of war for the duration of the war until the arrival of American GIs shortly after Japan’s surrender.
Samuel Wilder King; President of Hawai'i.
King would accept the proposal, but would also go on to point out to Arnold that the island was majority populated by Japanese, native and other Asian-Hawaiians and whilst he may have been a native, it was on the grounds of being mixed with an American-Hawaiian father. If the role of president in Hawai’i, following the model seen in other republics, is to purely be ceremonial and the real power would be expected to be in the Prime Minister, getting a man from one of these majority populations would work better in bridging the gap.
Given the difficulties facing the people living in Hawai’i, King suggested crossing the ideological aisle and attempting to convince Koji Ariyoshi to perhaps serve as Prime Minister. Ariyoshi for his part was a labor activist, and later served as an anti-war dissident that’d have him partake in forced labor for a brief period of time. Arnold however, had different plans. Viewing Ariyoshi with suspicion and frankly unsure if York would’ve even accepted a socialist becoming the first Prime Minister of Hawai’i, he instead turned to Pai’ea Chung-Hoon. Chung-Hoon himself was a relatively low profile individual who served in the Imperial Japanese Navy, often being used as more of a propaganda piece for the Japanese empire on the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Chung-Hoon resented the position but found it difficult to leave and it has been something that has hung over him since the end of the war.
Pai’ea Chung-Hoon; Prime Minister of Hawai'i.
When Arnold arrived to meet him, Chung-Hoon had fully expected that he'd potentially be placed on trial, only to be surprised when offered the role of Prime Minister of a provisional government though quickly accepted upon Arnold’s insistence. By the start of the 1948 summer season, Hawai’i had a head of state and head of government. Drafting the constitution of Hawai’i would take the rest of the summer, seeing the remodeling or outright bulldozing of Hawai’ian government institutions to make way for the government.
However, there was another aspect that York, although gone by this point, had insisted with President Merriam also insisting to Arnold. Hawai’i must tolerate an American military presence on the grounds of overall Pacific security. Meeting again with King and Chung-Hoon, the two men and Arnold would come to a deal in allowing the presence of American forces in the country, however it’d come on the grounds that the US navy gets to use Pearl Harbor as a major naval installation for its Pacific fleet, and effectively handing over the island of Kaho‘olawe to serve as a military base for the Americans, under a legally binding lease that would last over eighty years and under the expectations that the Americans would be the ones paying for the installations.
Pearl Harbor for its part was a major port before the war, and would be at times home to fleets of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Kaho‘olawe meanwhile, being entirely uninhabited, was used as a munitions testing ground and target practice for training naval crews at Hawai’i.
Photograph taken of Japanese munitions testing on the island.
Whilst President Merriam and Congress would sign off on this agreement with the 1948 Treaty of Honolulu, the move back in Hawai’i was met with mixed reception. The loss of an uninhabited island and a major port being repurposed for another power for eighty years wasn’t the most shocking, yet it seemingly did question the legitimacy of the claim that America was liberating the Pacific, yet taking an entire island for itself to have a practically for many, permanent troop garrison in the country.
Koji Ariyoshi himself, becoming a writer for the Honolulu Record, an effective mouthpiece for the newly formed Hawaiian Labor Party, would write critical essays, calling the United States hypocritical in his pledges when such demands could’ve been sorted through treating Hawai’i as an equal and not a subordinate. This however wouldn’t stop either Hawai’ian legislature from giving their approval of the treaty.
Come the turn of the new year in January of 1949, Arnold would resign his position as the Allied Commander of Hawai’i following King’s proclamation declaring the new republic’s independence to join the leagues of newly created nations that had sprung up in the post-war springtime of nations across much of the Asia-Pacific region. With the pledge of a general election to be held in August of 1951, what happens to Hawai’i shall be up to its voters to ultimately decide.
Flag of the Republic of Hawai'i.

Contax has such a bad reputation for somewhat unreliable cameras due to all their electronic flaws and it’s really a shame, the build quality of their lenses was always superb but the cameras couldn’t quite keep up. The image above is a test card that would come in the original box of the older west German Contax Zeiss lenses, which is hand stamped and hand signed for each lens. The criteria from top to bottom reads: -Image quality -flange distance -aperture settings -aperture function -mechanical flange distance -cleanliness of optical components -cleanliness of mechanical components
These are all followed by a check stamp and a signature of the technician and I think it adds a nice touch to know that each one of these lenses was checked by hand to guarantee a high quality standard. I own 2 west German Zeiss lenses, a 85mm Sonnar f2.8 and a 25mm Distagon f2.8 in near mint condition and these lenses have been used a lot, they just don’t really wear down under good care. The finish is what impressed me most, you can tell on the mounts that they have been through a lot but the rest of the lens looks brand new. I own a 50mm f1.4 as well (which was only ever manufactured in Japan and never in Germany) and while the image quality is just as good the build quality feels a bit worse. The finish on the metal is worn, the text and the markings on the lens are fading and it just looks worse for wear, but it still works as it should. It’s not really the point of this post but I’d like to hear what you think about German and Japanese made Contax lenses? But please be civil about it, I’ve seen this debate go off the rails in a couple of forums before and while it’s always pretty funny to look at people arguing I don’t think it’s necessary 😂

I've been using Unity for a long, long time. I used it in college. I used it professionally for work and I used it a lot for a hobby. I truly think it's the best game engine right now, but it will not stand the test of time so I do not want to spend time with it. Because it doesn't matter which engine is better, but which one makes more money. It's well-known that unreal engine is more popular for triple-a games.The main exporter being China. The chinese company tencent owns a large stake in the unreal engine and they will even pay you to make games with it. even if unity made a killer feature, unreal engine would just copy it for a fraction of the development cost
The only use for the unity engine will be for national security purposes.
Try telling someone in California to sit behind a desk for 14 hours a day, when they could just dilute unity share count and take a vacation on a sunny beach. Meanwhile, china is polluted as hell and there is not enough women for every man. You tell me, who is gonna be more motivated to make profitable video games? In fact, I wouldn't even want my kids to sit behind a desk all day when they could be outside or doing something socially.
I know this post won't be popular, but if it just saves 1 person it'll be worth. Don't let sunk cost fallacy, ruin your life.
I would love to be wrong on this. Please share why you disagree.