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. 🏛🗽🏛

South China Sea. And Stuff.

Response to: “South China Sea issue, a global concern, says Japan.” 

OF course, the South China Sea is a global concern. Always is. Trillion$ worth of commercial/maritime shipping passed through it, for starters. These days as trade works in/around China, India, Japan, South Korea et al, SCS could be more valuable globally than the Persian Gulf, Suez Canal, Strait of Hormuz, or Baltic Sea. 

       Ergo, if a Gaza/Ukraine level war explodes in South China Sea, who benefits? The U.S. and Europe (or E.U.) or G7. Who gets derailed? China and India or BRICS. (The "odd man out" in both? Japan, who is also a member of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. 

       The RCEP free trade agreement gathers 15 Asia-Pacific nations, led by China and including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore. These nations account for about 30 percent of the world's population and 30 percent of global GDP, making it the largest trade bloc in history. 

       Obviously, or clearly, we should know what powers benefit per current wars in Gaza (think reactivation of "arms for oil" in West/Middle East bilateral deals, think disruption of economic activities of new BRICS members from the region) and Ukraine (think NATO expansion, think natural gas, think Baltic Sea).    

      This neverending drama in South China Sea stays as that, drama. But the drama ups U.S. military aid mojo in the region. Already, Japan and South Korea are #1 and #3 top hosts of U.S. troops overseas. 

       However, per obvious reasons, China will not bite the Joe Biden dare. Potus' current rat trap is Taiwan but Taiwan's top trade partner is China, its kin. Stupid to fight bro. If ever China responds militarily? It would be via North Korea. Pyongyang can easily paralyze Asia by damaging nuclear plants in SK and Japan, while targeting U.S. military there. 

       Yet all Kim Jong-un does is counter bullying the West. Of course. In all, if war does indeed happen? Who get hit? Asians. America and Europe stay relatively safe and comfortable. China is formidable as a Wall (think Boxer Rebellion of yore as historical basis).

       However, Beijing or CCP isn't that dumb to wage war in Asia, with its investments scattered all over the region and its cultural bloodline imprinted all over. ☮️☮️☮️

Visual: U.S. Naval Institute.

GAZA DISCUSSION.

Just talking about stuff. Response friends’ post on Facebook, slightly edited. 

THE usual words of many ex-soldiers or current soldiers in the U.S. when they talk of their “tour of duty” in war: "We fought in (Afghanistan etcetera) to keep Americans safe." They carry the valiant declaration as "badge of honor." They really believe those words deeply. By pummeling other countries to destruction and deaths, they “protect” America. When you tell them that they actually protect American corporations' interests and geopolitical narcissism (which go hand in hand), they'd get angry. Never in their mind as well that for every civilian abroad that they take out, another prospective terrorist is recruited, and that would endanger Americans more.

       Many soldiers that I know came home with PTSD, many are homeless drunks and incoherent junkies, walking-dead in denial, rotting in guilt. Yet Washington (and the European Union) never see/s all these. Western powers continue to waste taxpayer money on military aid and "defense" budget so its giant 1 Percent corporations will continue to rule the world. (Which, of course, they did for centuries till the 21st.) 

FOR a start, per Ukraine war (which President Joe Biden goaded) the U.S. is now #1 natural gas exporter. It was Russia before the invasion in February 2022. Thing is, I believe, Russia doesn't really care if it is #2 or #3 as long as BRICS bros China and India buy from Gazprom Moscow. And so American energy giantsnow run Kyiv's Naftogaz as pawned by Volodymyr Zelensky.

       Meanwhile, I incessantly wondered out loud: What power really pushed Oct 7 to happen? Before that day, Mideast powers Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and UAE (+ Ethiopia and Argentina) were set to join BRICS. Saudi Arabia and Iran shook hands on China's intercession. Syria was taken back by the Arab League. And Israel was set to sit with Saudi Arabia to discuss peace. 

       In fact, Israel even ignored Mr Biden's call to send arms or military aid to Ukraine. Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah et al are known Iran "foot soldiers" so it's no brainer. Rail Iran, war is back. “Arms for oil" has always been the crux of the West’s bilateral deals with oil-rich Arab nations since discovery of oil in the desert in the 1940s (and Israel's birth in 1948). But since the Arab Spring of 2011, Arab nations have been wanting to run their life and trade with less Washington and Brussels interference. Hence "arms for oil" lost traction. Should be. 

       This now-super rich region of MENA has been diversifying business so war isn't needed. Golf in Riyadh, fashion shows in Abu Dhabi, car races in Dubai, concerts in Qatar etc etcetera. Then war happened. President Biden though was unsuccessful in goading China over Taiwan in South China Sea but you know that story isn't done yet. ☮️☮️☮️