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. 💋🏋️‍♀️💄

The Divide that we Widen.

Response to a friend's Facebook post.

SO much (self-destructive) division in America. Eerie. I didn't realize this until I lived here (yup, I wasn't “born and bred” in these parts). No wonder the US isn't as powerful anymore as it was. "Divided we fall." The perfect alibi is Donald Trump. His 4 years didn't see taxpayer money tossed to wars and he had a better handle of the economy. 

       Mr Trump's crass personality is the ideal excuse for the wide crack in US society, not the mirror in front of us. I came from a country which is almost 90 percent Catholic though there are dozens of Christian denominations with diverse, even contrary practices. A major island is Muslim. 

       Yet I didn't experience this kind of American animosity between/among creeds. It is VERY offensive and disrespectful to slur any religion. In my band our lead vocalist was Muslim (who wore the burqa, dad is an Imam). We had Jehovah's and Mormons in a Catholic school where they are allowed to observe their Faith (like no attendance in flag ceremonies, no ROTC, served their choice of food in the school cantina etc). No argument. 

       I also lived in Japan where Shinto is the majority. The friendliest people. My devout Catholic aunt (actually 3 aunts and 5 cousins) are married to Shinto. No problem. They observe their religions or interface them inside the house. Home. 

       My cousin works/lives in Qatar. Arab Muslim yet majority of the people are expatriates or non-Qatari; they coexist and work together to make Qatar the richest or 2nd richest nation (behind Luxembourg) per capita. 

       America is obviously rich as evidenced not just by many benefits and relatively better way of life but as proven by billions$ spent in wars and bailouts to giant corporations etc. 

REASON why we fight or slur Christians in our midst? We are so bored in comfort we implode in hate? So America popped pills with alcohol to sustain the anger till it explodes out there in deadly hate? 

       I used to organize many fun events to gather a diversity of people in music, dancing, and food. Not anymore. I am afraid that the convergence that I create may be used as a platform of hate and with 120.5 ownership of guns per 100 Americans? Nope. 

       

I ENJOY America for its joy, privileges and beauty. Mere fact that my two (women) BFFs are both Conservatives yet who practice diverse Christian rituals and way of life--while I am a longtime Leftist with strong political beliefs and a Margii who prays and meditates with a Bible in my room (my huge family here and back home and elsewhere are Church going Catholics)--means peace is possible in friendships and family with diverse gods or goddesses. 

       How would I fall into boredom and start slurring people with contrary thoughts and views when there's much to enjoy? Streaming TV, land for gardening, dogs and cats, nonstop Bee Gees. I eat dinner with my housemates twice a week and pray before eating. I mean 15 seconds of praying when I used to pray a much longer and redundant Rosary with grandma twice a day and I used to group meditate with Margiis in India thrice a day (before we mass-fed in poor villages of Hindus and Muslims). 

       Cool or peace or the freedom to attain them is indeed a huge political caterwaul in America. 🏛🗽🏛

All About Ships.

Response to a friend's Facebook post.

WHAT matters is what or who produces the raw materials to build ships. Aluminum: China, India, Russia. Steel: China, India, Japan, US, Russia. Brass: Italy, South Korea, Germany, China. 

       Obviously, China has all these and they also build as a priority over exporting the materials. Same case with topmost "ingredients" per "green economy." China has a lot of lithium (for EV manufacture) and silicon (for microchips). So China is #1 in EVs (BYD over Tesla, although Elon Musk buys lithium in China via his factory in Shanghai).

       Meanwhile, China has already solidified its trade partnership (per silicon/semiconductors) with Taiwan. No brainer: They are blood kin, the One-China rhetoric is just political blah sideshow. Sure, Joe Biden is worried that China will clog the global market of "green economy" exports after the US sank $6.6 billion and $6.4 billion investment with Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung for factories in Texas + huge ass tax incentives and bailouts to local/US manufacturers. 

       But Joe employs an annoying hawkish tact to break the Chinese though he also sent Treasury chief Janet Yellen and State secretary Antony Blinken to Beijing to confer or negotiate. How can Janet and Antony deal with stuff when their boss keeps on derailing talks with his dirty mouth and "security threat" intrigues. 

       And now the Philippines is expectedly dragged as a pawn in that pissing drama in the South China Sea. That is Washington's brinkmanship playbook at work, for them. Not us, Filipinos. 

       The Chinese are not that stupid to bite the bait. Check, why would the US hand Taiwan military aid (most recently, packaged with aid to Ukraine and Israel)? First, Taiwan is rich. It doesn't need aid. But hey why not, they now got a factory in Texas. The Chinese (China or Taiwan): It's all business. No war. Refer to Sun Tzu. His art of war is about defeating the "enemy," without fighting. 🛳⛴🚢

TAXES and Stuff.

Response to a friend's Facebook posts.

I ALWAYS come across anti-rich memes that talk about “taxing the rich” as though they don't pay taxes at all. Clearly, the message refers to “wealth tax” or tax specifically imposed on the upper 1 percent in the income bracket.

       Fact is, majority of countries, rich or poor, don't impose wealth tax. Some in Europe impose very low as in 1 percent or 0.7 percent.        

       The highest wealth tax is excised by Luxembourg (7.18 percent over tax revenue) and Switzerland (4.77 percent). All others impose tax per personal income tax. Russia, 13 percent. U.S., 10 to 37 percent. China, 3 to 45 percent. 

       Corporate tax: U.S., 21 percent. Europe, 21.3 percent. Asia average, 19.80 percent. China, 25 percent. Saudi Arabia, 20 percent. 

       Anyhow, high tax or low tax, what matters is how a government uses taxes. The U.S. spends too much taxpayer money on military spending: $825 billion (750 military bases abroad) versus China's $231.4 billion (1 military base, in Djibouti) and Russia's $109 billion (21 military bases). 🏛🗽🏛

Trump Theater.

THE wild circus that is American politics, as currently curated by Joe Biden per the New Left's hate Trump plotpoint. More courtroom episodes are upcoming as we near November.

       For the meantime, let’s talk about the salacious kind: Extramarital shenanigan. 

       What is worse per married men's gallivanting dicks that qualifies as presidential courtroom drama? “Hush money” to a sex worker or oral sex royale in the Oval Office? My pragmatic take: Sex workers deserve pay as a job transaction to quiet them or as bonus fee for exemplary service. Convicted! 

       Yet "obstruction of justice" to prosecute sexual shenanigans inside a White House room? I guess, American law forgives that kind of mischief? Not a crime? Wasn't the case of then young Monica Lewinsky an example of blatant abuse of presidential power? 

       And what about Ted Kennedy in 1969’s fatal Chappaquidick accident? A young woman died. A mistress? Or the Kennedy boys' many sexual, extramarital bad?  

NEW York justice? This: 1990. Imelda Marcos, the widow of the former Philippine President, was acquitted of charges that she raided the country's treasury and invested the money in the United States. 

       I am a Filipino. The Marcos family dictatorship was 20 years. Must I enumerate their crimes? I’d say laundering taxpayer money in New York City structures is simply at the bottom of their evil heap. Yet, America’s jury system said she wasn’t guilty? 

MEANWHILE, what is so hot and high on cheating presidents! Or gallivanting politicians? Were we born yesterday? LOL! 

       Sure, we know the U.S. Constitution doesn’t bar felons or those convicted of a crime (even if they are actually jailed) from running as President of the United States. Two previous candidates, Eugene V. Debs in 1920, and Lyndon LaRouche in 1992, both ran from prison. 

       The cold fact that scares Mr Trump’s enemies: He leads the run up polls to Nov. No way that Mr Biden, who failed in all counts of Potus leadership, can win this coming election. 

       True, after the Stormy conviction, Joe slightly edged Don in a Yahoo!News survey. But I don't think that'd hold. Mr Biden's failures are too accentuated to ignore.

EXPECTEDLY, there will be more court gigs thrown at Donald Trump apart from those that are ongoing. Crime? Maybe. I am no Constitution expert or legal whatever. Yet the political intentions are not so hard not to believe.

       The ex-president's foreign policy was fine albeit unorthodox. He scored some victories while Joe Biden keeps on failing.

       The bigger issue, however? Donald Trump is vehemently anti NATO. He is understandably hated by most hawkish Western leaders.

THE U.S. and European Union have upgraded military aid to Ukraine, hoping a longer war would deplete Russia's resources. Which is a terribly bad calculation. 

       As we speak, E.U. biggies are still buying natural gas from Gazprom and the U.S., Russian oil out India etcetera. Also, there’ s the expanded BRICS to back Moscow up. Including their allies, that is already a huge market. 

       Israel and Gaza? Bibi Netanyahu is friendlier to Vladimir Putin than with Joe Biden; Mr Trump is friendly to Mr Putin. That could be explored to end the deadly tempest in Gaza. Add that The D is cool with Saudi Arabia, de facto leader of the Arab League  and who is now friends of Iran. That could be explored to cool out Tehran and Syria. 

       And of course Trump doesn't dig "arms for oil" bilateral deals over peace talks by way of economics. Yes, a leader with a dirty mouth favors peace; a leader who feigns coolness tosses billions$ of taxpayer money to be wasted in war's destruction and deaths.   

       Economy? Donald Trump's score amid pandemic was a lot better than Joe's average output in 3.5 years. Do I give a hoot to presidential extramarital mischief as they run a nation? Nope. That is the wife's case. Divorce the dude.

But hey POTUS is supposedly the leader of the free world. So end the damn Ukraine war and killing of Palestinians. American can stop those. But the country is too eerily divided to offer a majority stand. Donald Trump Showtime is more interesting to many, it seems. 🏛🗽🏛

Joe Biden's Presidential Tact.

WEIRD thing about President Biden's foreign policy playbook: He threatens China if it aids Russia (vs Ukraine) by (recently) meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and warns of a partnership in the region to "counter China." At least, no fist-bump was exchanged.

       Didn't Potus know that the top 2 buyers of Moscow's oil since the start of the war (in Ukraine) are China and India, who are BRICS buddies with Russia? 

       Meanwhile, since he couldn't convince Taiwan to diss China or he failed to goad China to invade Taiwan, he instead offers $6.6 billion in federal money to Taipei's TSMC to build a microchip factory in Phoenix. (Another $6.4 billion is handed to South Korea’s Samsung for a plant, also in Texas.) 

       But of course chips need silicon. So Joe (separately) sent both State secretary Antony Blinken (his third?) and Treasury chief Janet Yellen (her second trip) to China to ask Xi Jinping to take it easy with exports of silicon to other competitors. And suggest to sell them instead to the U.S. Or to TSMC, which is already being supplied by China, in the first place.

       All these as Mr Biden keeps on trumpeting the "Chinese danger." Of course, his stance in Israel follows the playbook. He castigates Bibi yet he pressures Congress to speed up shipment of new fighter planes to Israel. And warns of a widened war which is geared at Iran. The eventual, expected rationale of pumped-up military aid to Tel Aviv. Weird, wild world. 🏛🗽🏛