Blackrock et al and the corporate giant in U.S. elections.

From my response to Facebook chats etcetera.

BLACKROCK, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Apple Inc. etc etcetera. All billionaires or giant corporations, including foreign giants, give to PACs. Since Barack Obama days, the Democratic Party has been out-PAC'ing the Republican Party, presidential and midterm elections. In 2020, Joe Biden raised a record $1+ billion, which Kamala Harris surpassed weeks or a month ago before November 5. 

Yet does it really matter to ID who these wealthy people or giant companies are? What we know, there are two ongoing wars right now. The Middle East tempest keeps on escalating. As anti war activists or peace advocates, we need to help stop these wars. Are we trying to stop wars or are we, in fact, trying to push a political party or presidential candidate over the other?

Facebook Friend: “They are two wings of the same bird and share most of the same donors. Elon musk is Trump's biggest donor. They're all a bunch of `fine’ people aren't they? We absolutely have to try to overcome this evil but I'm sad to say we're outpowered by the domination of big money buying everything and everyone. We lost our government and democracy a long time ago. Elections now are wishful thinking unfortunately, in my view. In another kind of world, it would be markedly different. But we're not there until we complete the shift.” 

       Shift? This is America. I don't think America ever changed from money money money at least since the U.S. defeated the Spanish armada in late 1890s or when the U.S. dollar became the world's reserve currency as the IMF and World Bank were born in 1944 Bretton Woods. America: The world's #1 economy, #1 consumer market, #1 producer of oil and natural gas etcetera. (But also #1 in military spending per shooting of others and frequency of mass shootings of its own.) 

       Meanwhile, I don't get it why we heap blame on America's rich (800+ billionaires) and private industries (as opposed to China, India, Russia and oil rich Middle East, where major industries are state-owned; except Big Tech in China is privately owned)--over blame on our government's obvious complicity in this gargantuan discrepancy in social status. The rich of America (or the world) will continue to get richer and we can't do much about it. But we can alter leadership or elect leaders who could lessen the wide Rich/Poor gap. 

       Or cut the massive so-called "defense" budget to fix FEMA's budget deficit, for example. Yes, regardless that politicians receive huge-ass campaign money from the rich per quid pro quo deals. Tough, isn't it. So in my older age, from my life of mostly Left-wing idealism, I blurred my paradigm line. My advocacy is focused on helping to end wars, whoever sits as POTUS or as a majority in Congress. And less violence in the streets. 

       But with the super wide divide in America, tough tough "ambition." But I ain't gonna lose sleep over it as long as I have a turntable to play endless Bee Gees, LOL! Life in America is a blessing to many like me and my kin. It's just that we are so damn dramatic or sentimental sometimes. We whine a lot and ignore the pleasures of the Bee Gees. But hey there's Prozac and Zoloft and lots of beers and whiskey, streaming TV, and Amazon and Temu boxes for my cats, Chewy for my dog. 🏛🗽🏛

Facebook Friend: “Things are shifting dramatically. If you leave the headlines and look at the people around you. People are changing dramatically and their attitudes are about coming together in amazing ways just to help and care about each other. Nothing changes unless we do. I cannot depend on the government to be what we want them to be. But we can come together and build in a new way. Perhaps you don't believe that? Seeing the love, just here in Asheville, gives me hope again.”

       After Hurricane Helene? I don't think so. The community grief was overpowered by the election run-up. Whether we read headlines, Facebook, or go to a store, it wasn't like the year 2000 anymore. But again, as I said, there are blessings but NOT what I am experiencing since the day I stopped my newspaper and events. I can't even start a grownup talk with longtime friends without that name tossed in the middle and here we go again with the hate. 

       There are clear reasons why depression is up among the young and mass shootings stay high (after the 1999 Columbine, at least). It was so different when Asheville still had Bele Chere and I could easily make friends at Malaprops, Vincent's Ear or Pritchard Park. Easily, people stereotype me as this and that these days. I mean, liberals even think I am so clueless about U.S. politics because I came "from a Third World" country. How ignorant that is! 

       But I repeat, I may sound dramatic, but I am cool. I just wait for the end of Tuesday (November 5) and carry on, whoever wins. If I am still young, and my personal circumstances are different, I'd easily fly back home (I will still do that, I don't wish to die here). I asked my housemate who is older than me, a white American, if this was America then. I know. It wasn't. But if I say what she thinks, she'd easily be profiled as well as this Right or this Left. No way to really know people if you are already "figured out" in the first sentence. 

       Asheville isn't even like the year 2000, as I said. And the sad thing? The blame is heaped on one man who I believe professes an ideal that for so long I hoped America's foreign policy would be. Anti-war or anti-NATO. He isn't maybe that old man in truth and he has reasons. But a day, just a day, rest from bombings and shootings elsewhere means a lot. 🏛🗽🏛

Post-election. Mr Trump's mouth. And stuff.

From my response to Facebook chats etcetera.

SANS his obnoxious mouth, I do believe the American people chose wisely in reflecting Donald Trump. Internal matters (mostly economic) and especially external matters (look out BRICS has been making G7 nervous), the U.S. needs a new set of policies. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris failed. 

COMPARISON to Adolf Hitler? Again, revisit of History 101 is necessary for an attempt to comparatively analyze Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump. The Nazi fuhrer ordered the burning (to death) of millions; the GOP prez wants to end wars. Do we need to reread books? My granddaughters know these already. 

       Many Don's haters actually believe his obnoxious mouth has the power to fatally take out millions? 

       Meanwhile, I don't understand German, maybe beyond guten tag, danke, and guud so I don't understand what Adolf said in his speeches. (BTW, I recommend the German series "Kleo" on Netflix. You see. I don't listen to Donald talk about stuff and things but just seeing his photos makes me think he was cursing in Tagalog? LOL! ☮️☮️☮️

A FRIEND says “'di ko feel” the result of the U.S. election. Or he's not feeling it. So I said I can feel it. Because I “feel” many Americans’ disgust upon knowing the taxes that they handed to the government are wasted in wars.

       Because that's how I feel about life. I am a lifetime anti war activist. Anti U.S. bases in the Philippines;" anti military aid in the U.S. And I wasn't just sitting and typing up words. I was out there. Philippines or America. So I am consistent. 

       Mr Trump's dirty mouth doesn't drop bombs (at least after his MOAB drops in April 2017 in Afghanistan and Syria). But he evolved into an anti-NATO expansion dude. But still with a dirty mouth, LOL! I don't care. Donald had two peace talks; Joe/Kamala had two ongoing wars. 

       (Meanwhile, I don't really mind "dirty" mouths. I was trained by Joe Burgos, LOL! Filipino journalists know Joe.) 

       Also, can't we rest the "feeling cool" and immaculately correct girth sometimes and just read the writings on the wall as is? Spade is spade + my personal economics from 2016 to 2020, regardless of Covid were the best--in all my three decades in America and I am not even a billionaire, LOL! 🏛🗽🏛

A FILIPINO (or Filipinx) issue.

Leni/BBM is not Kamala/Trump. This is a long discussion. Meanwhile, leadership of a nation is not a gender issue. And the Philippines is hardly the United States. The comparative analogy doesn't fit at all.

       There was a Dilma Rousseff or Park Geun-hye or Gloria Arroyo as there was a Petro Poroshenko or Idi Amin or Ferdinand Marcos as there was a Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel and dudes who led just fine. Many variables played out in leadership life. However, I believe, woman/man/gender based policies could work at local (government) levels. I was part of an NGO research that led to the Local Government Code in the Philippines in Corazon Aquino’s time from late 1980s to the 1990s. I wonder what happened to that Law. Yet I saw it (probably) worked in disaster management in communities? People-based initiatiaves? ☮️☮️☮️

WHEN we get older and seen enough, heard enough, Donald Trump's mouth or seemingly crass demeanors don't matter anymore to the point that it’d ruin your 24 hours. Anyhow, Mr Trump is POTUS, leader of the world’s most powerful nation. He is not my dad, uncle, or housemate. So I simply live by what his stewardship of a government does to life. Economics mostly.

       And since I am a lifetime anti-war advocate, I side with his take on NATO military aid.Never in my lifetime have I known a U.S. President who didn't favor military solutions to global issues. The closest was Jimmy Carter but he was so ineffective in handling the economy. Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s political pragmatism and business shrewdness is unmistakable. He doesn't have an ideology, in fact. Just a leader who deals with spade as spade. 

       He knew how to deal with Russia, Saudi Arabia, or China. He had a trade pact with China but Joe Biden (continually) failed to break China after several times sending (State secretary) Antony Blinken and (Treasury chief) Janet Yellen to Beijing, on separate occasions. Mr Trump ended the Afghanistan war, the U.S.’s longest and costliest war, which Mr Biden messed up. Donald had a peace talk with North Korea, too. Joe has two2 ongoing wars; the Middle East tempest has weirdly escalated in just months. Donald Trump has the ability to end these wars. Let’s see. His foreign policy playbook is clearly the antithesis of Joe Biden’s or most POTUSes. 

       Ukraine is no brainer. Vladimir Putin wants to end this shit. Economically hobbled E.U. needs (.04 percent growth) Moscow’s is oil and natural gas. The D can easily deal with Vladn. MENA? Don plays golf with MBS and so Saudi Arabia and the Arab League won't add more fire to the conflagration, hopefully. The region doesn't need a long war as investments spike (top FDI China and India or BRICS). Look at how Saudi Arabia diversifies in the area of fun (sports, rock concerts etc). Meanwhile, Mr Trump talks to China (promises trade pact 2) and so China talks to Iran. Beijing is Tehran's top economic savior and Iran desperately needs China to keep buying its oil and natural gas. Etc etcetera. All these negate the filth in Donald Trump's mouth. LOL! But I gotta see how things happen, or don’t happen. 🏛🗽🏛

Minorities. CEO pay. Politics and money, and stuff.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s.

WHEN they say "minorities," would that mean those who are non-whites? The poorest would be either the Native Americans or blacks. Or would that be the illegal migrants whose presence doesn't really affect the U.S. economy more than they heighten partisanship squabbles in the legislature? 

       Anyhow, the highest income group per household are the Asian Americans, not the whites. Meanwhile, the problem area/s aren't really the CEO/boss pay compared with the lowly employee. 

       First, the economic well-being of America is based on its political structure or governmental system (also, corporations are private entities as opposed to state-owned etcetera). Second, an elected leadership and a bipartisan Congress can actually fix that rich/poor discrepancy, narrow it at least. But they don't. 

       Then we go to how the rich fund the PAC campaign money of presidential or political candidates. True, the richest man (Elon Musk) supports Donald Trump but weeks or 2 months ago (?) Kamala Harris has already raised her campaign fund to over $1+ billion, breaking Joe Biden's PAC dough in 2020. Of course that money came from the rich, mostly. So we talk of quid pro quo and then we go to why the boss's salary exponentially spikes while the minimum wage stays $7.25. 🏛🗽🏛

Undocumented Migrants, and other stories.

My share in Facebook banters. In Friends’ Page/s.

THERE is a deluge of "immigrant" memes lately that infer a misleading advocacy. I am an immigrant but not someone who crossed the border without a passport and visa. Whether I was poor or not where I came from is beside the point. We kept that fact in us as we headed abroad to America. But we get here respecting America's border or immigration law, regardless that my country was forcibly claimed or colonized by the United States centuries ago. 

       My vision was clear: We are here to seek a better life and the only way to gain that is to play "fair." Find a job legally as we seek a higher education (irrelevant that most of us are already college graduates back home), and then get a better pay. These days, Asians are the most (college) educated and highest paid household per ethnic grouping in America, more than Whites. 

       Meanwhile, letting illegal immigrants in (because America should welcome anyone) doesn't help them at all. They are technically enslaved by landowners or farm owners and factory owners (in exchange for "staying") or paid half the minimum wage and no benefits, housed in trailer homes, 8 to 10 people in a house for 3. Many are used by drug cartels as couriers and mules. 

       The new wave of (undocumented) migrants also fear racial discrimination yet they are a convenient tool for partisanship caterwaul. And since record numbers (4,000 to 8,000) have been crossing since early 2021, fiscal management of the asylum system has been bankrupt. So they are ferried here and there like cows. We don't even know how many of them died when hurricane Helene hit; they are not counted. Etc etcetera. 

       The story in Mexico or Central America and their political and economic relationship with the U.S. vis a vis the migrant crisis is another huge discussion subject. 🗽🏃‍♀️🏃

THE immigration issue has gone whacked to super whacked. However, by digging deeper into the issue, we can connect dots per several factors. 

       Drug cartels and narcopolitics that date back to 1980s, bribes from street cops to presidents, NAFTA economics, business convenience to U.S. factories and farms, and how the migrant issue evolved as a tool for Washington partisanship intramurals. 

       Yet the amazing record number of crossings from 2021, 5000 to around 10,000 a day, is unbelievably massive. And confusingly unabated. Towards the border, cartels facilitate their "trek," don't we know that already? Of course migrants get “help,” that in itself is a huge story. How the illegal drug infrastructure runs and operates in the U.S. market is similar to how giant corporations run.

MIGRANTS carry out jobs for cartels. They had to. Gotta do it or their families that they leave behind are dead. Sure, they also take advantage of the various benefits and privileges that they get from the U.S. government. Etc etcetera. Sure, our government is aware of this. 

       How much did Donald Trump ask to strengthen the walls and upgrade border enforcement? Spare change compared with the taxpayer money tossed to Ukraine in its lost war vs Russia. 

       Now the media paints Mr Trump as a Nazi for securing the border? In fact, it is more inhuman to let this staggering number of migrants in. They are heading to an uncertain life in America despite the government dolouts. Remember, Mexico and Central America are not Gaza or Beirut. Their government can do something but not doing anything seems to be the most convenient “recourse.” 

       Mexico's economy gets pumped up somehow with cartel activity. As leadership's personal coffers get fed. Meanwhile, I am not against asylum but the number has exponentially spiked in just 4 years! No way to backtrack because each day the number increases. Immigration fiscal management has been bankrupt for years now. Etc etcetera. 🗽🏃‍♀️🏃

U.S. Aid to Other Countries / Guns Guns Guns.

My share in Facebook banters. In Friends’ Page/s.

<>U.S. Aid to Other Countries. 

“GAVE it all to foreigners" requires some elaboration. 

<>Foreign aid or USAid. Each time a development aid is handed out, an economic quid pro quo ensues. Zoom in on bilateral talks priorities, import/export. Etcetera. Military aid is meant to protect US corporate interests in a region in competition with a rival superpower or trade bloc. In most cases, "aid" only favors the leadership in a recipient country as stipulated in the quid pro quo, though not divulged to the public. Aid doesn't really benefit the people. <>Record number of migrants who almost randomly cross/ed the border. Asylum approval is fine but the massive border breaches are now a huge budget crisis. These undocumented migrants gain benefits, true. But the powers that reap gargantuan benefits are usually ignored in favor of partisanship politics. <>In all it is all about how the U.S. government deals with foreign policy and immigration, which could change, per change in leadership. 🏛🗽🏛

<>Guns Guns Guns. 

I WAS exposed to kin who were war veterans and law enforcement officers when I was younger. An uncle taught me how to use guns, especially .45 pistol and Armalite rifle. Yet I grew up and old not wanting one in my hand or ownership. As a young journalist, I covered narcos raids, gang violence (crime beat), countryside wars, and coup d'etats. I saw deaths, buried some, and mourned many. I don't like guns because I experienced what firearms are capable of. Yet I am not against arms per se as a defensive weapon, obtained strictly and safely kept at home. 

       But in America, especially with a high level of mental health ailments and heightened degree of hate, 120.5 ownership per 100 is just too much. This is an American cancer with seemingly no cure because, like others crisis areas, it is tackled as a Left vs. Right wrestle more than it is a danger zone for all of us. ☮️☮️☮️

MY THOUGHTS About The News.

Previously posted on my Facebook page. 

New York Times: “What Does African Rejection Mean for the U.S.?” And adds: “The U.S. is losing its terror-fighting presence in Africa. That’s not a bad thing if Washington uses the development to help African governments deliver more to their citizens.” The issue in Africa isn’t terror but economic opportunity. Which the U.S. lost in the last few years. Top FDI country or investor in Africa is China; 16 percent. The U.S. and France hold eight percent each. ☮️☮️☮️

New York Times: “Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right?” And adds: “Anti-immigration parties with fascist roots — and an uncertain commitment to democracy — are now mainstream.” What is really dangerous? Media stereotyping of the shift of people-power in Europe. By perennially aligning a populist call for immigration reforms amidst economic freefall, the issue is driven as solely a political tempest, not an economic fact. 👉👉👋

Smithsonian: “Can Anger Affect Your Heart Health? Scientists Find the Strong Emotion Impacts How Blood Vessels Function.” Can anger affect mental health? I mean, don’t we know this already? Plus blood pressure, of course. No need for hugely-funded new medical study or scientific research. But then this is an effective rationale to issue more drugs after shrink visits. Be angry as long as you have your pills at your hand’s reach. But are we really fixing it? 😠🫀😡

NY Times: “Israel and Saudi Arabia Are Trading Places.” Thomas L. Friedman adds: “Netanyahu is making his nation more like the worst of the old kingdom, and the crown prince is making his kingdom more like the best of the old Jewish state.” Even before the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Israel’s leadership was already in shambles. Bosschief America was busy with the Ukraine war. While Saudi Arabia played golf, hosted concerts, and joined BRICS. 🇮🇱☮️🇸🇦

NY Times: “Campus Protests Give Russia, China and Iran Fuel to Exploit U.S. Divide.” And adds: “America’s adversaries have mounted online campaigns to amplify the social and political conflicts over Gaza flaring at universities.” I don’t think U.S. rivals care that much about the social or political. It’s all trade deals. As America gets embroiled in a student storm, Trump theater, and Israel on Gaza, BRICS gains. Meantime, check China’s new economic high. 🇮🇱✊🇵🇸

New York Times: “Soldiers exposed to thousands of low-level blasts from firing weapons like mortars say that they wind up with debilitating symptoms of traumatic brain injury — but no diagnosis.” Besides the physical damage, the mental beat-down is harder to fix. But sadly, these don't shake the masters of war. With A.I., now they create weapons that soldiers need not hold at all. Robots or computer screens will do that from a great distance. One click, 1 thousand dead. ☮️☮️☮️

AP: “An AI-powered fighter jet took the Air Force’s leader for a historic ride. Here's what that means for war.” A.I. helps direct drones to their targets. No person needs to hold the trigger or make the final decision to detonate. The development of lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) or A.I.-equipped drones is on the rise. DARPA* works on making swarms of 250 A.I. drones available to the U.S. military. The future of wars. Deadly detachment. Video game killings. (*DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.) 🦿🤖🦾

Smithsonian: “How Artificial Intelligence Is Making 2,000-Year-Old Scrolls Readable Again.” Am I interested in reading a centuries-old manuscript? Maybe. But would the universe benefit from such a fix? I don't think so. This A.I. madness negates humanity's primal reflex, struggles in imperfection, and pursuit of happiness. My existence is anchored on seeking answers and finding ways to survive. I don’t want these handed to me in an Amazon box. 🦿🤖🦾

Rolling Stone: “Randy Travis's New Song Recreates His Voice With AI Technology.” Travis, who lost his speech after suffering a stroke in 2013, used an AI voice clone on “Where That Came From.” So are we up to Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, and Janis Joplin A.I. records? Well, they already had John Lennon sing in a “new” Beatles song. As for me, they are already dead but I still play their songs–before the was A.I. Just my reality. 🎼🤖🎼

Smithsonian: “World's First Race of A.I.-Driven Cars Was Filled With Spins, Swerves and Stops.” Everything will be obsolete, I guess. Driving means a remote control via your cellphone. And NASCAR are “drivers” controlling and manipulating their cars to win from afar. Do we still call this driving? Nope. I guess, baristas and checkout cashiers and bank tellers etc etcetera will all be A.I. robots. Would I want to live or coexist in that future nightmare? Nope. 🦿🤖🦾

MY THOUGHTS About The News.

Previously posted in my Facebook page. 

New York Times: “Trump Sues ABC and Stephanopoulos, Saying They Defamed Him.” And adds: “The lawsuit stems from the anchor’s recent contentious interview with Representative Nancy Mace.” Today’s media earn/s huge-ass profit by defaming, shaming, and insulting whoever they deem super-baits for nonstop clicks. So Mr Trump was fined millions$ for his nasty mouth; holier-than-thou talk show hosts didn’t. So Donald hits back. This is showtime politics of the moneyed! 🏛🗽🏛

New York Times: “Mayor Adams Is Accused of Sexually Assaulting a Colleague in 1993.” And adds: “In a lawsuit, a former police colleague of Eric Adams said that he demanded oral sex in exchange for career help in 1993 and assaulted her when she refused.” Ain’t we getting tired of Mr Adams’ shenanigans and ineptitude? It’s not like Conservative media is solely policing him; liberal papers such as NY Times relentlessly cover and expose his dirt. 🗽👎🗽

New York Times: “It’s Not You: Dating Apps Are Getting Worse.” And adds: “Hinge, Tinder, Bumble: They used to be free and maybe too good to be true. Now paid versions and fatigue are making dating apps worse — and expensive.” I can’t relate. Must be that I aged? Been there, done those. The dating game. Yet it’d be cool to meet a female friend, post-Covid and amidst all the hate, essentially as a conversation partner. Is that even a possibility these days? 👩‍🦰❤️‍🔥👱‍♂️

New York Times: “How Trump’s Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation.” / “Trump Says Some Migrants Are ‘Not People’ and Predicts a ‘Blood Bath’ if He Loses.” Except with the New York Sun, most news sources that I read are known liberals. I don’t know the extent of similar silly mudslinging that “conservative” papers hurl at Joe Biden. All I know is NY Times et al toss hate-Trump shitbombs as though their readers are all partisan idiots. 🏛🗽🏛

New York Times: “What Trump’s TikTok Flip-Flop Tells America.” And adds: “On yet another issue, Trump sides with a foreign adversary over America.” Ah media rabblerouse. Why would China be a “foreign adversary” when top U.S. giants do business out there, for decades! Apple Inc., General Motors, Microsoft etc etcetera. Yet any hot chili that comes out of The Donald’s mouth offers distorted think-tank ideas for his political foes as we head to November. 📱🗽📲

New York Times: “Nicole Shanahan Emerges as a Top Candidate to Be R.F.K. Jr.’s Running Mate.” The Bay Area lawyer and investor was the primary financial backer behind Mr. Kennedy’s Super Bowl ad. Uh huh. Bobby Junior considered NFL’s Aaron Rodgers and now, who? Tell me, do top Super PAC donors qualify as kickass political running mates? Then why aren’t Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, George Soros, or Bob Perry not in any party’s shortlist? 🏛🗽🏛

New York Times: “Why a Native American Nation Is Challenging the U.S. Over a 1794 Treaty.” The Onondaga asked an international commission to find that the U.S. violated a treaty guaranteeing the nation 2.5 million acres of land. The first U.S. treaty with an American Indian tribe was ratified in 1778. A total of 374 treaties were ratified from that point. Yet almost all have been violated by the U.S. government. So this new one is met with resigned skepticism (sic). 🗿🗽🗿

New York Times: “Food Experts Predict ‘Imminent’ Famine in Northern Gaza.” And adds: “The warning came amid an Israeli raid on Al-Shifa Hospital. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also agreed to send military and humanitarian officials to Washington to hear the Biden administration’s concerns.” This ensued following President Biden’s phone chat with PM Netanyahu. So Bibi’s people are flying to DC to hear what they already know? Wild, wild world indeed. 🇮🇱☮️🇵🇸

Rolling Stone: “The Inventor of Karaoke Has Died, But His Legacy Is Louder Than Ever.” I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy! Same reverence that I gave Mr Momofuku Ando, the inventor of Cup-a-Noodle ramens. Karaoke is a very popular pastime for Filipinos. Some would literally die for it. On one sad night, a microphone hugging Pinoy was shot dead for singing the longest song ever on the karaoke list: Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” The perp couldn’t wait for his turn. True story. 👩‍🎤🎼🧑‍🎤

Time: “Why You Shouldn’t Wear Makeup When Exercising.” I wondered out loud, as well, when I strode in a gym in Los Angeles years ago–to see an instructor friend though I didn’t ask. Some of the women had make-ups. Lipstick, eyeliners, mascara? I guess, the same reason as why many women basketball players wear false eyelashes? To look good? Lookin’ good is good. No argument. But “experts” say don’t wear makeup when on a treadmill. Google and read the quoted line. 💋🏋️‍♀️💄