President Trump posts on TruthSocial: When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct. Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!
President Xi was not referring to the incredible rise that the United States has displayed to the world during the 16 spectacular months of the Trump Administration, which includes all-time high stock markets and 401K’s, military victory and thriving relationship in Venezuela, the military decimation of Iran (to be continued!) — Strongest military on earth by far, economic powerhouse again, with a record 18 trillion dollars being invested into the United States by others, best U.S. job market in history, with more people working in the United States right now than ever before, ending country destroying DEI, and so many other things that it would be impossible to readily list. In fact, President Xi congratulated me on so many tremendous successes in such a short period of time.
Two years ago, we were, in fact, a Nation in decline. On that, I fully agree with President Xi! But now, the United States is the hottest Nation anywhere in the world, and hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!
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"We did a great job... Let's protect home."
After a thrilling Game 5 victory on the road, Cleveland is one win away from the East Finals!
🍿 Pistons/Cavs Game 6
📺 Friday, 7:00pm/et on Prime
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A thrilling OT victory for Cleveland in Game 5!
Down 9 with 3 minutes remaining in Q4.
9-0 run to force OT.
Outscored DET 14-10 in OT to win.
Cavs take a 3-2 series lead in the East Semis 🍿
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The Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Kevin Warsh as chairman of the Federal Reserve, marking a victory for President Trump, who has clashed with outgoing Fed chief Jerome Powell repeatedly and urged the central bank to slash interest rates.
The vote was 54-45, with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania joining all Republicans in support of Warsh's confirmation.
Warsh's four-year term as Fed chair will begin Friday. Powell has said he will remain a rank-and-file Fed board member for the time being.
Warsh previously served on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011. He then worked as a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and a partner at billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller's personal investment office.
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Everyone knows about the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.
Almost nothing they know is the full story.
Start with the number. There weren't 300 Greeks at that pass. There were around 7,000. Spartans, Thespians, Thebans, Phocians, Locrians, Arcadians, Corinthians. Citizen-soldiers from across Greece who marched north knowing they'd be facing the largest army the ancient world had ever assembled.
The 300 is just the headline. The ones who stayed to the end.
Now the men themselves. King Leonidas wasn't some chiseled 30-year-old. He was roughly 60 years old when he led that march. And the 300 he picked weren't his strongest warriors. They were specifically men who already had living sons. Spartan law demanded it. Leonidas wasn't choosing an army. He was choosing men whose bloodlines could survive their deaths. Every one of them knew what that meant before they ever saw a Persian.
They marched anyway.
And they didn't march alone in the way movies suggest. Each Spartan citizen-soldier was accompanied by helots, the enslaved underclass that propped up the entire Spartan economy, outnumbering their masters roughly seven to one. Hundreds of helots fought and died at Thermopylae too. They get no statues. No films. No name on the monument.
The pass itself was barely 15 meters wide in 480 BC (it's silted up now and looks nothing like it did then). That bottleneck is the only reason a few thousand men could hold off a Persian force modern historians estimate at 70,000 to 300,000. Herodotus said 1.7 million. He was lying, or possibly counting cooks, slaves, and camp followers, but even the conservative number is staggering.
For two days, they held. Wave after wave broken against bronze and discipline. Xerxes reportedly leapt from his throne three times in fury watching his men die. He sent in the Immortals, his elite personal guard, supposedly invincible. They weren't. Not in that pass.
Then the Greeks were betrayed.
A local man named Ephialtes, whose name still means "nightmare" in modern Greek, sold the Persians a goat path through the mountains that flanked the pass. The Phocians assigned to guard it scattered when the Immortals appeared in the dawn fog. Leonidas knew by morning he was surrounded.
He dismissed most of the allied Greek forces. Saved their lives. But here's what almost nobody talks about: roughly 700 Thespians, led by a man named Demophilus, refused to leave. They were citizen-farmers from a small town that knew Persia was coming for them next no matter what. They chose to die beside the Spartans rather than run. About 400 Thebans stayed too, though their motives were murkier and many surrendered when the end came.
So the "last stand of the 300" was actually closer to 1,500 men. The Thespians died to the last. Their town was burned to the ground by the Persians weeks later anyway. They're a footnote in a story that should bear their name.
The final fight happened on a small hill called Kolonos. Spears shattered. Swords broken. Herodotus says they fought with hands and teeth at the end. Leonidas fell early, and the Spartans fought four times over his body to keep the Persians from taking it.
They lost.
Xerxes had Leonidas decapitated and his body crucified, a violation of Persian custom so extreme it tells you exactly how badly that old man had humiliated the king of kings. Forty years later, Sparta sent a delegation to recover his bones and bring him home.
Two Spartans survived the battle. One, Aristodemus, had been sent away with an eye infection. He returned to Sparta and was treated as a coward, shunned, refused fire, refused conversation, until he threw himself into the front line at Plataea a year later and died seeking redemption. The other survivor, Pantites, was sent on a diplomatic errand and missed the fight. He hanged himself from the shame.
That's the world they lived in.
The epitaph carved at the site doesn't brag. It doesn't even mention victory, because there wasn't one. Roughly translated, it just asks the traveler to tell Sparta that her sons died here, obedient to her laws.
A small group of farmers, an old king, an enslaved underclass written out of history, and a town that vanished from the map. Together, for three days in August of 480 BC, they did the math on freedom and decided the price was worth it.
We remember 300 of them.
There were always more.
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Lately it’s been that “couldn’t get enough, so I had to release another one” kind of vibe! 🌟
My first new Goddess of Victory: Nikke photobook is finally here >"<
That’s right—it’s Nayuta! 🔥
This time for PF, I’ve prepared two brand-new books again~
I just want to make sure everyone gets fully satisfied all at once! 🥰
And before PF, I’ll also be heading to WCS first!
There will be exclusive limited merch there that will only be available at WCS ✨
Honestly, I just want to bring the best and most irresistible goodies to every event(笑)
Make sure to come find me and say hi~ 🥰
最近是出不過癮又再出一次的節奏!🌟
第一本妮姬新刊終於來啦 >"<
沒錯,就是娜由塔!🔥
這次PF一樣準備了兩本新書~
就是想讓大家一次大大滿足!🥰
而且PF前一週我還會先去WCS!
現場也會有只有WCS才會出現的限定週邊哦✨
真的每一場都想把最香的都帶給大家(笑)
記得一定要來找我玩哦~🥰
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It’s been a while since I last did a bridal-themed cosplay ❤️
Let’s all do our best this Monday! ✨
好久都沒拍婚紗的角色了❤️
大家明天週一加油!✨
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A computer can do anything provided you learn to tell it how.
Very recently, this has become vastly easier to do.
Chalk up another victory for Carmack’s Law:
FM Wang Yi: The future of China-Japan relations hinges on Japan’s choice. Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In such a special year, Japan should have deeply repented of the wrong path it chose, including its brutal invasion and colonization of Taiwan. Yet the current Japanese leader claimed that a Taiwan contingency could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, under which Japan may exercise its so-called “right of collective self-defense.”
It’s well-known that the right of self-defense shall be invoked only when a country has come under armed attack. One would ask: Since Taiwan affairs are purely China’s internal affairs, what gives Japan the right to interfere with them? Why is Japan entitled to invoke self-defense if anything happens in China’s Taiwan region? Is exercising the “right of collective self-defense” simply a way to hollow out Japan’s pacifist Constitution, which renounces the right of belligerency? Given that Japanese militarists had used “survival-threatening situation” as pretext for launching aggression, such rhetoric can only make the people in China and the rest of Asia alert and deeply worried: Where exactly is Japan headed?
This year also marks another significant 80th anniversary—that of the opening of the Tokyo Trials. Eighty years ago, judges from 11 countries commenced proceedings that would span two and a half years, reviewed a mountain of irrefutable evidence, and laid bare the innumerable crimes of Japanese militarists. Eighty years on today, Japan is given another opportunity for serious soul-searching.
We hope the Japanese people will keep their eyes wide open and never allow anyone foolish enough to tread the same disastrous path today. China is already a strong country. The 1.4 billion people of China will never allow anyone to justify colonialism or reverse history’s verdict on aggression.
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