Gandhi. MLK. And Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook page. Or written years ago, unedited/not updated.

SOMETHING tells me or asks me, what if Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King or any of the venerated human beings that we love to anchor goodness and greatness--are alive today and then running for political office? Would people be praising them? Or do we also diss and ridicule them in social media just like politicians and personalities these days? In my time, saying bad things about superiors, leaders or plain neighbors was subject to reprimand. 

       Many times, I was a witness to many gatherings in a cafe or community hall where some people acted a little too intensely and started cussing at whoever is on the mic, so they are kicked out automatically and later banned from entering the premises again. 

       Yet in social media people openly and blatantly say whatever they wanna say and make fun of those they apparently don't like and even post incorrect info that malign individuals and groups, ideologies, religion and cultures. And when some are suspended etc they howl in protest. "A basic human right has been violated!" Back then, it wasn't easy to get published. Even a "mere" letter to the editor or 2-minute spot on live radio had to be screened/edited and/or prearranged. 

       These days we are blessed by a wonderful privilege to speak our mind out about stuff and things short or long. We can also freely share new birthday photos of our dog and cat and whatever we had for dinner, side by side with our opinion about a city Mayor's program or a new blockbuster movie--without going through tedious processes. One click, done. Yet we abuse it. We are such spoiled brats. ☮️🗽☮️

Trump Walks The Talk.

Responses to Facebook chats.

I DON’T listen to Donald Trump talk (or only twice during Covid). Or I must say, I don't watch news on TV anymore. But I read the news more than I did in the past. Maybe three times more, due to internet accessibility though I still read the old-school “paper.” 

       Clear areas in President Trump’s playbook that differ with Joe's policies: <>The D doesn't goad China to a war in South China Sea or intrigue Taiwan to anger the CCP; Don deals tariff cards as trade negotiating moves, on the table. Chess moves. <>Donald works hard to end the war in Ukraine as the EU/NATO stays supporting Kyiv via military aid (regardless of the fact that Europe is still hobbling economically at below 1 percent pace). Meanwhile, Joe led in arming Ukraine. <>Israel? Israel is tough. While Bibi Netanyahu stays annihilating Gaza, Mr Trump turns his attention at drawing the Arab League to more trade deals over military response to Tel Aviv. Syria is contained via a handshake. (Saudi Arabia and Qatar paid Syria's debts.) 

       Others. <>The U.S. and Iran's new moderate leadership has found a way to stop another Tehran sanction. They are talking but I am sure, Iran's top oil buyer China is in the background (Iran is a factor in US/China trade talks). Iran is the only power that could stop the Houthis from messing in the Red Sea. <>The India/Pakistan tempest subsided as the US and Middle East powers worked to help broker a ceasefire. 

       My Bottomline: I am old. I don't pay attention to "coolness or uncoolness" in personalities or characters anymore. I just put more attention to the walk over the talk. And I am anti war, whoever POTUS sits. Also, my family or dad and mom and brothers worked in Saudi Arabia and many relatives in the ME. A nephew and niece and their families currently live in Qatar and UAE etc. Great life, they said. They are devout Catholics. So I somehow know how day to day life is out there, beyond the news. Anti women or human rights violations? Let us instead look at ourselves in the mirror, while that brinkmanship mirror is elsewhere in the world and then count how many bombs fell and trillions$ in taxpayer money wasted. 🏛🗽🏛

Donald Trump: The Convenient Excuse for America’s Guilt.

Responses to Facebook chats.

I AM endlessly baffled how America (or this side of the eerie divide) has turned Donald Trump into a convenient excuse for anything bad or flawed about this country. He knew he can't really rewrite the traditional hawkish Washington foreign policy playbook or cut Israel Lobby's influence per arms aid to Israel since its birth in 1948 (Barack Obama even spiked the $3 billion annual military aid with the 10-year $38 billion add in 2016). But he is trying mighty hard. 

       Meanwhile, Mr Trump isn't a dumb entrepreneur not to know that he can't battle China per manufacturing or trade after Bill Clinton struck a deal with China in 2000 that paved the way for Beijing to enter the WTO and in a few years, and gained massive leverage globally. Add AIIB and the 5 state owned banks that waylaid the IMF, the BRICS hookup vs G7, and the more recent RCEP trade bloc. But he has to please his voters and so he shows some MAGA moves to bring US factories back. Not gonna happen due to the obvious. These companies may even expand to India and Indonesia, BRICS partners. 

       Sure, he will attract some FDIs, why not. Early takers: Hyundai, TSMC and SoftBank. U.S. titans Ford or GM can build more factories here, sure--but without closing their plants in China (or Mexico). Trump can sweeten the deal with incentives etc etcetera. At least he isn't daring the CCP to a silly military quarrel in the South China Sea via Taiwan that Joe Biden/Antony Blinken failed to provoke (as they did with Vlad, yet tell me who won in Ukraine). 🏛🗽🏛

I DON”T know how'd the US and Europe (or America's trade pact with Canada and Mexico) be able to stop China's expansionism or BRICS's challenge of G7. Sure, the war in the Middle East helps them contain the region as China sank massive FDIs in MENA. (Nope, they ignore the warnings of the Arab Spring.) Take note: As Biden employed Washington's military brinkmanship, Egypt, UAE and Iran joined BRICS and of course just 2 weeks after Nov 2020, China gathered 14 economies in Asia Pacific to form RCEP. Biden tried to drag Taiwan vs China but these two Chinas are now top trade partners. Refer to Foxconn and TSMC's supply of silicon. 

       Meanwhile, in Europe, they haven't yet really recovered from the debt crisis when Covid hit. And then as EU's chief Angela Merkel ended her leadership of the region, her successor Scholz wasted no time in heeding Biden's call to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia. Not thinking that the EU's economy is super dependent on Russia's oil and natural gas. 

       The region's economy is still at negative 1 percent. Angela Merkel played her cards well with China and Russia although the rest of the biggies such as UK and France stayed wrestling internally. British leadership was an eerie succession of failures since Theresa May; France is hobbling. The current leadership has a shaky partnership with Emmanuel Macron and no matter how they isolate Marine Le Pen, her populist Right minions are still loud. Yet the West insists on wars or hawkishness. And continues to demonize Trump; Trump hasn't even flexed his anti-NATO swagger yet. 🏛🗽🏛

Donald Trump and his 4-year “bring manufacturing back” goal. And other stuff.

Responses to Facebook chats.

PRESIDENT Trump's 4-year goal: Bring manufacturing back. The last year the United States had a trade surplus was in 1975. Yet the year that many U.S. companies started to really move, build or partner (in) factories in China (and elsewhere) was in 2001 when China was accepted into the WTO as an MFN. That was a year after Bill Clinton signed a trade pact with Jiang Zemin. A few years later, China gained leverage per tariffs. Thus, globalization took off as a neo-liberal pitch.

       Note: China owns the largest labor force ($4/a week pay, something) and massive deposits of pertinent raw materials as they scattered loans and investments (FDIs) in many countries. Actually, they started buying lands overseas in the 1970s in Deng Xiaoping's years. Fast forward, 2009: the BRICS "emerging economies" trade bloc was born.  And in 2012, Russia entered the WTO. 

       These wobbled G7's global economic domination. And as the U.S. focused on wars (Afghanistan then Ukraine and Gaza) and a widening divide internally, BRICS expanded to gain more members in the Middle East (+ Ethiopia and Indonesia) and China's BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) solidify China's global trade expansionism (more money tossed in MENA). 

       Right now, there are 8,619 American companies in China. Luring them back can be hard as China matches Mr Trump's tariffs. More importantly, China's cheap but coherent labor and ample natural minerals like silicon and lithium and APIs to drugs. Or those U.S. companies may just move across the border to India and Indonesia. 🇺🇸☮️🇨🇳

HENCE, Donald Trump looks for instead. America is still #1 consumer market and top marketing showroom with superstar endorsers. And the US dollar is still the global legal tender. Recently, South Korea's Hyundai, Taiwan's TSMC and Japan's SoftBank expressed willingness to invest in the U.S. (Japan is top investor in the US; Canada owns 33 percent of foreign-owned lands here). 

       Question: Labor. Joe Biden's $6 billion to TSMC in Texas didn't work because workers are unskilled to make semiconductors. (Note: Joe let in migrants in record numbers. Figure out why.) But now TSMC offers to train with its own money. Concessions? Yet still silicon etc come from China, Russia, India and other BRICS partners. 

       China also gathered 14 economies in Asia Pacific in 2020 to form the RCEP, the largest trade bloc so far. Etc etcetera. The D may run out of time so I see an end game before 2028. His second trade pact with Xi Jinping.    

       Anyhow, hawks in Washington believe that the only way to break China is to provoke it into a war in the South China Sea. But Mr Trump doesn't dig that playbook. I don't either. China doesn't like wars. Bad for their massive global business and BRI construction. Trump (and RFK Jr and JD and Musk) also see military brinkmanship as a waste of taxpayer money. 🏛🗽🏛

FOR the meantime, Mr Trump dares Iran to go to war. It's a bluff, I believe. POTUS is applying the pressure on Tehran because Iran's hardliners back the Houthis in Yemen. The Houthis are still making a mess in the Red Sea. Mr Trump wants the leader of the Houthis taken out. Remember, he erased ISIS’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and General Qasem Soleimani in his first 4 years. 

       Note: Iran's top oil buyer is China, the world's #1 oil importer. Infuriating the CCP by derailing Tehran's oil shipment to China is not a cool tactical move to bring the Chinese to the negotiating table as what Mr Trump did in early 2020. He knows he's not done talking because he lost the election in that year.

       Complex, isn't it? Ah. All the rest are simply doomsday pitch by the media, which are essentially owned by corporations. Panic buy, you know. Profit grade. 🏛🗽🏛