The POLAND Story

TWO things that come to my mind when Poland is the subject of talk. Start of World War II when Adolf Hitler’s troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. And “kielbasa,” the catch-all term for any Polish sausage. History and food. Meanwhile, Poland remains as a chief background take-off of political intrigues in Central Europe, especially between the United States, European Union, and Russia.

       Although Washington maintains its 32nd Air Base and 600 to 800 troops in Poland, the U.S. is not a chief economic partner. Major partners for exports are Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France and Italy and for imports: Germany, China, Russian Federation, Italy and Netherlands. Which means, Berlin is Warsaw’s top trade buddy, regardless of what went down in World War II.

       Chief industries: Agriculture, manufacturing and mining. Even though agriculture and manufacturing still play a significant role in the country's future, they are slowly losing their positions to the newly emerging industries. Which brings us to China.

       Chinese-Polish economic relations revolve around areas such as finance, agricultural technology, copper industry and coal mining. This also includes new areas like high technology, clean energy, labor, service and infrastructure. 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱

CONTACTS between Polish and Chinese people date back several centuries, especially in the mid-17th century when mutual trade was very active from 1950s to 1990s. Relations though soured a bit in 2019 when Huawei employee Wang Weijing was arrested in Poland on charges of spying for China. Business, however, carries on.

       China continues to import more Polish agricultural and food products and other high-quality goods. Xi Jinping continually encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest in Poland, adding that he believes Poland will provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises.

       In February this year, China also reiterated its mutual work with Poland to establish a China-Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) wholesale market for agricultural products in Poland and make it a flagship project of China-CEEC cooperation.

       Meanwhile, the United States and Poland have enjoyed warm bilateral relations since 1989. Every post-1989 Polish government has been a strong supporter of continued American military and economic presence in Europe, and Poland is one of the most stable allies of Washington. 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱

MY THOUGHTS About News and Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

Associated Press: “Wagner Group's leader will move to Belarus after his rebellious march challenged Putin, Russia says.” But Moscow, it seems, won’t punish Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin. Although known as “loyal” to Kremlin, Wagner Group is a private security contractor just like Erik Prince’s Academi/Blackwater or China’s DeWe Security or Huaxin Zhong An. Whoever offers good money, contract is signed. Wagner got a deal from somewhere and then backed out? 

       Kremlin announced that Prigozhin's troops who joined him in the uprising will not face prosecution and those who did not will be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry. The deal is obviously meant to defuse rebellion tensions. Would have been a big win, propaganda or otherwise, to Kyiv and its Western benefactors. But it didn’t happen. 🇷🇺🇧🇾🇷🇺

Time: “What to Know About India's Ties With Russia Ahead of Modi's U.S. Visit.” / New York Times: “How India Profits From Its Neutrality in the Ukraine War.” India could be a U.S. “critical security partner” but India is also Russia’s BRICS partner so no brainer. And business is business. Since the outbreak of the war, India has been importing Russian crude oil on a massive scale at low cost, refining it, and then selling it globally, including to E.U. Sanctions? 

       Fact: GDP Growth of India for the 2022-23 fiscal year is 7.2 percent, highest among large economies. In other NY Times news: “Biden Seeks to Bolster Ties With Modi While Soft-Pedaling Differences.” And adds: “At the White House, the president emphasized common ground with India’s prime minister and announced joint initiatives without making progress in enlisting help against Russian aggression.” 🇮🇳🇷🇺🇺🇸

New York Times: “Millennials Are Not an Exception. They’ve Moved to the Right.” Over the last decade, almost every cohort of voters under 50 has shifted rightward, says The Times. As for me, I find it difficult to figure out today’s young. Baby boomer to Generation X was easy. But Gen X to millennials? Ideological paradigms got blurry. Millennials to Generation Z? I don’t know. But the young decide the future of America (and the world) in elections next year, and next. Fact. 👩‍🦰🧑‍🦰👉

New York Times: “What Happened When a Brooklyn Neighborhood Policed Itself for Five Days.” On a two-block stretch of Brownsville in April, the police stepped aside and let residents respond to 911 calls. A bold experiment that “...some believe could redefine law-enforcement in New York City.” I thought of the Philippines’ “barangay tanod” or a village brigade of civilian volunteers, created to assist law enforcement. But no guns. "Tanod" won't work in America due to the obvious.

       What barangay tanods had as “weapons” are wooden sticks or “arnis.” Some of these dudes and dudettes are trained in martial arts as well. In the U.S., 120 guns per 100 + the huge political divide etcetera. We gotta fix that first before "citizen neighborhood police" could work. 👮‍♀️🗽👮

New York Times: “Quiet, Please: You Are Not Alone in Your Garden.” And adds: “There’s a multicultural world outdoors — and even the gentlest gardeners often disrupt it. Here’s how to avoid that.” Here’s how to avoid those? We should not disturb the “multicultural world outdoors,” uh huh? Plants and critters. The writer of this yarn is on shrooms? Me, I am wary of pissing off yellowjackets and I wish they groundhogs leave my greenery alone. Gardening, you know. ☘️🪴🍃

New York Times: “As Trump Battles Charges, Biden Focuses on the Business of Governing.” Washington must end the Trump drama, whichever way. Just end it. Meanwhile, I concur with State Secretary Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing as a door to a possible Biden/Xi meeting. Then the reopening of talks with Iran per nuclear deal. China is integral as a peace path to Moscow and Tehran, and other critical areas that Washington now finds difficult to navigate. 

       News adds: “The past week appears to provide a blueprint for the way the White House wants to handle the politically touchy subject of former President Donald J. Trump’s legal troubles.” 🏦🗽🏦

New York Times: “In Rush to Arm Ukraine, Weapons Are Bought but Not Delivered, or Too Broken to Use.” This war is fast gaining notoriety for magnificent question marks. The United States and European Union should stop handing Kyiv more weapons. Sit and negotiate peace. Focus on reconstruction from war ruins. Resume people’s lives. Then push Volodymyr Zelensky to submit an accounting of how aid was spent. That’d be $150 billion, by end of 2022. 

       News adds: “Some of the weapons sent to Ukraine by other countries have been unusable, and hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts paid up front have yet to be fulfilled.” 🇺🇦☮️🇺🇦

New York Times: “N.Y. Democrats, at Odds Over Tenant Protections, Fail to Reach Housing Deal.” State lawmakers leave Albany, N.Y. “...without passing any housing policies, sparking a new round of finger-pointing among Democrats.” A topsy-turvy leadership. Mayor Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul, and where is AOC’s megaphone? Messy handling of the homeless and messier handling of overflowing migrants. Etcetera. To think that NY has the 2nd largest budget. 🗽😭🗽

New York Times: “Stuyvesant High School Admitted 762 New Students. Only 7 Are Black.” And adds: “New York City’s specialized high schools represent perhaps the highest-profile symbol of segregation in the nation’s largest school system.” The pitch is, of course, racism. And it gets annoying. Numbers: For 2023, Stuyvesant admitted 489 Asian students and only 158 white students. Racism? Total minority enrollment is 82 percent; 48 percent are economically disadvantaged. ✏️📝✏️

Time: “Climate Change Is Threatening Ketchup. AI Could Help Save It.” AI again. The Savior? By 2050, heat-related manufacturing losses could equal more than $47 billion. In extremes, high temperatures won't just impact productivity — they'll also put workers at risk. That is why China pumps up its FDIs over manufacturing. Same with Saudi Arabia, whose income greatly relies on petroleum, now diversifies heavily. With or without AI. 🌬🥄☀️

Democratic Republic of Congo.

Past Facebook Post.

“Anti-U.N. Protests in Congo Leave 15 Dead, Including 3 Peacekeepers.” And adds: “Demonstrators have accused international forces of failing to deter armed groups responsible for a wave of deadly attacks.” Mayhem seems to shroud Africa the most these days. Congo is no different. Too bad for its 90 million, who are hungry, poor, and beleaguered by nonstop violence and ailment.

       Yet the fact/s: DRC could be the world’s richest country when it comes to natural resources, with massive untapped deposits of minerals including cobalt, copper, diamonds and gold amounting to approximately $24 trillion. Add ample coltan, zinc, tin, and tungsten. Congo also possesses extensive rainforest reserves and boasts one of the highest hydroelectric power capacities in Africa and globally.

        Other chief industries are consumer products (including textiles, plastics, footwear, cigarettes, processed foods, beverages), metal products, lumber, cement, and commercial ship repair. Sadly, most people in DRC have not benefited from this wealth.

        The DRC's main trading partners are the European Union, chiefly Belgium and France, followed by China, South Africa and the United States. 🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩

GDP growth rate rebounded from 1.7 percent last year to this year’s 6.2 percent this year, which is well above the 4.5 percent rate in sub-Saharan Africa. To cash in on this trend, Congo’s leadership has to stop the violence, which exacerbates the not so good 5.4 percent unemployment rate.

       What confounds me is—why despite DRC’s rich promise of economic goodness, the country doesn’t attract U.S. investments. After a peak in 2014, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa from the United States dropped to $44.81 billion in 2020, yet it slightly picked up in 2021. Africa receives lower FDI inflows than any other region, although China seems interested to put some money.

       As ever, Washington’s interest in Africa is political than economic. Yet relations with Congo have always been shaky since the country’s most radical Congolese-Marxist period, 1965–77. The U.S. Embassy reopened in 1977 with the restoration of relations, which remained distant until the end of the socialist era.

       The most that the U.S. could do is a recent additional aid of $13 million, in addition to its current election support of $10.65 million, to support transparent, credible, and inclusive political processes in the country. That amount is simply spare change to what other allies get, which are in the billion$ range. 🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩

THE United States doesn’t care much though. But China is. (Remember, Beijing’s only overseas military base is in Africa, in Djibouti).

      During the souring of U.S./Congo relations due primarily to the latter’s socialist leanings then, China quietly entered. Diplomatic and economic relations started in 1971, although ties go back to 1887, Congo Free State established contacts with the Qing dynasty then ruling China.

       The DRC upholds the One-China policy, as it recognizes the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China rather than the ROC/Taiwan.

       In the 21st century, Chinese investment in the DRC and Congolese exports to China have grown rapidly. The DRC joined the Belt and Road Initiative in 2021. That year, the two countries sat down to talk about a $6 billion deal that’d allow a consortium of Chinese companies to invest in mining in mining and infrastructure projects in DRC.

       In 2000, a Sino-Congolese telecommunications company (China-Congo Telecom) was set up. Trade between China and the DRC greatly increased between 2002 and 2008. This is largely due to massive growth in the DRC's exports of raw materials to China, especially cobalt, copper ore and hard woods.

       What concerns the U.S., of course, is China’s commitment in providing assistance for Congo’s military. That’d be another story. 🇨🇩🇨🇩🇨🇩

MY THOUGHTS About News and Stuff. Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

Time: “Why Brittney Griner Will Stand for the National Anthem.” She has to. Her transgression, “tiny” infraction yet carelessly clueless while a political firestorm brews between Russia and the U.S., pressured Washington to trade a feared arms dealer for her freedom. Meanwhile, her cause-oriented pursuit stays. A hallmark of American democracy. But this time, she has to stand for the anthem. The flag is America’s spirit but not necessarily its current government. 🇺🇸👩‍🦰🇺🇸

New York Times: “Naked Stand-Up Comedy: Everything You Imagine, but Oh So Much More.” And adds: “Do you wear shoes onstage? What’s it like to bomb while nude? And, ahem, where do you keep your notes? But the shows often sell out.” There’s also a Naked Poetry Reading. Naked Bike Ride. Naked Gardening. Naked and Afraid. Whatever those nekkidness seem to profess, symbolize, or subliminally suggest? It’s all bare bodies to me. And that’s all I see and (perhaps) enjoy. 😏😞😟

Smithsonian: “Glasgow Subway Ad Censored for Featuring Michelangelo’s ‘David’.” And adds: “Citing modesty concerns, an ad firm rejected a poster depicting the Renaissance sculpture.” Stuff. Stuff that many anchor their angst. The beholder doesn't always agree with Art. Art pleases but art also offends. Example, erotica films by Catherine Breillat. Songs with “explicit lyrics” advisory. Movies are rated R, Triple X, Unrated etc. So we can’t say “No, not PG for this classic art?” 🙂🙃😉

New York Times: “A University Fired 2 Employees for Including Their Pronouns in Emails.” And adds: “The firings set off a debate at Houghton University, a small Christian institution in western New York, which said its decision was not based only on the pronoun listings.” Might as well invent a new language. And those who prefer English as is, use them. Done. Almost certain that a few years from now the battle for legality in U.S. states would be: Pronouns. 😏😒😞

New York Times: “White House and G.O.P. Strike Debt Limit Deal to Avert Default.” / Time: “Biden and GOP Reach Debt-Ceiling Deal. Now Congress Must Approve It.” The bipartisan deal would raise the debt limit for two years while cutting and capping some government spending. Not yet there though. The President and Speaker Kevin McCarthy will still have to sell it to lawmakers. By then, billion$ worth of F-16s have already been shipped to Kyiv. Or am I just being clueless? 💰💸💰

New York Times: “A Loud G.O.P. Minority Pledges to Make Trouble on Ukraine Military Aid.” I concur with these “loud” GOPs. Yet confounding. Despite lessons of past “proxy wars,” there’s still widespread support among Americans, 65 percent says Gallup, for aiding and arming Ukraine. Pew reveals the same: Some 51 percent believe the U.S. is giving the right amount or "not enough" support to Ukraine. $113 billion Congress approved and $70 billion already given? Not enough? ☮️☮️☮️

Smithsonian: “See the House Engineers Built From Dirty Diapers.” And adds: “Using concrete and mortar made with shredded diapers could address issues like plastic waste and sand shortages, per a new study.” Recycling was cool until it evolved into a huge money industry. The global waste and recycling services market had a total size of $60.41 billion last year; profit is exponentially rising. We even pay to recycle. Remedy: Less manufacturing stuff. Or reuse as is. 👶🧰👶

Time: “How Extreme Heat Impacts Your Mental Health.” Of course, heat does rile people. I was born into and grew up amidst scorching summer heat. Average heat this year in the Philippines is 36.2 36.2 degrees Celsius (or 97.16 degrees fahrenheit). Other cities went 40+ temp. In 2006, and it was October even, the record temperature was 41.5 °C (or 106.7 here in the U.S.) Filipinos get used to it though. Fun amidst typhoon floods, fun amidst heatwaves. 🩻☀️🩻

New York Times: “For These Veterans, ‘Free’ Health Care Is a 5-Hour Flight Away.” And adds: “Citizens of three Pacific Island nations, eligible to serve in the U.S. military, find it hard to make use of the health benefits they have earned.” At home in America, it’s no different. While only 1.7 percent of veterans were excluded from VA health care in the World War II era, today 6.5 percent are denied care. Washington Post: “They turned their mental and physical well-being over to their country, and the federal government turned its back on them.” 

       A Lockheed Martin F-16 Block fighter plane is worth $64 million to $124 million. Other F-16s cost $12 million to $35 million. A bestfriend’s boyfriend, who served two military tours of duty in Afghanistan, died two days ago. Unable to obtain proper health care from the government. Yet F-16s are bound to Ukraine meant to destroy more, kill more–and prolong a war that should be dealt with via diplomatic means towards negotiated peace. Broken soldiers who survive a war should be compensated not just with a salute of respect on memorial days but free health care, across the board. ☮️☮️☮️

New York Times: “Microsoft Says New A.I. Shows Signs of Human Reasoning.” And adds: “Microsoft claims A.I. shows the ability to understand the way people do. Critics say those scientists are kidding themselves.” Years ago, I read Daphne du Maurier’s “The Breakthrough” (written 1966), which touches on humanity’s tangled relationship with technology, in which we want to both create and be part of “the machine.” Now a “reality” or Big Tech has gone insane? 

       Also:In his 1909 short story “The Machine Stops,” E. M. Forster predicts the internet, and its dominance over us. Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock” (1970) is an understatement. 👥🤖👥

MY THOUGHTS About News and Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

New York Times: “Drug Shortages Near an All-Time High, Leading to Rationing.” And adds: “A worrisome scarcity of cancer drugs has heightened concerns about the troubled generic drug industry. Congress and the White House are seeking ways to address widespread supply problems.” Before the finished product drug, there is Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient or API. Top API exporter is China, then India. 

       Technically, India is the #1 API exporter but most of what it ships abroad are imports from China, almost 70 percent of global share annually. India exports most of its pharma API to Bangladesh, Turkey and Brazil. Take note: Petroleum products that India sells overseas came from Russian oil, especially since the start of Ukraine War. India, China, Russia, and Brazil (with South Africa) are BRICS partners, the counterweight to G7. 🩺💊🩻

Time: “The U.S. Tech Industry Needs China.” Let’s zoom in on Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world's largest technology manufacturer. The company has 12 factories in China, more than in any other country, the largest factory is located in Shenzhen. Foxconn's biggest customers are U.S. big tech, #1 is Apple. Talk about semi conductors? Top mineral ingredient is silicon. China is the world's largest silicon producer. The second largest producer: Russia.

       Other top American technology companies that deals business with Foxconn: Amazon, Cisco, Dell, Google, Fisker, Hewlett-Packard, InFocus, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Vizio etcetera. 🇺🇸💾🇨🇳

Smithsonian: “Climate Activists Turn Water in Rome’s Trevi Fountain Black.” And adds: “The action was a protest against public subsidies for fossil fuels and called attention to the deadly floods occurring in northern Italy.” Juvenile tantrum, child’s fit. Smearing classic art, vandalizing statues, tagging cars etcetera. Theatrics. Won’t achieve public support. BTW, the Trevi Fountain is an 18th-century fountain that served as the terminal point that supplied water to ancient Rome. 😒👎😾

New York Times: “China and Russia, Targets at G7 Summit, Draw Closer to Fend Off West.” And adds: “Beijing and Moscow are holding visits as alarm grows in China that Western countries backing Ukraine are turning their attention to Asia.” G7 or the West’s stance on Ukraine, adding fire over pursuing peace, is so frustrating. I don’t get it that Japan is a member. G7 in Hiroshima? What irony! Japan’s Constitution renounces war since 1947. And this? ☮️☮️☮️

New York Times: “U.S.-Made Technology Is Flowing to Russian Airlines, Despite Sanctions.” And adds: “Russian customs data shows that millions of dollars of aircraft parts made by Boeing, Airbus and others were sent to Russia last year.” Fact is, despite extensive sanctions on Moscow, plenty of Russian goods continue to enter the U.S. legally, worth more than $1 billion a month. Tops: Wood imports + groats, weightlifting shoes, crypto-mining gear, even pillows etcetera. 

       A year ago, President Biden imposed trade restrictions on Russian commodities such as vodka, diamonds and gasoline in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. However, hundreds of other types of unsanctioned goods, including those found on the ship bound for Baltimore from St. Petersburg, Russia continue to flow into U.S. ports. Meanwhile, petroleum products made out of Russian oil are continually manufactured or processed in India, which then enter the U.S. India exported petroleum products worth $86.21 billion during the first 11 months of the current financial year ending March 2023, which accounts for more than 21 per cent of India's total commodity exports. And, of course, EU is still buying fuel from Russia. 🇺🇸🚢🇷🇺

New York Times: “World Health Organization Warns Against Using Artificial Sweeteners.” And adds: “Continued consumption doesn’t reduce weight and could increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and mortality in adults.” Don’t we know this already? Trans fats, sodium nitrite, MSG, food coloring, aspartame etc etcetera. I do swallow some. Mark Twain: “Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” 

       Nearly 4,000 food additives showed that 64 percent of these foods/drinks had had no research showing they were safe for people to eat or drink. Yet these are in stores in town, not banned. We’d rather spend energy on “banned books” debate over “banned foods” advocacy. 🥯🩺🥯

New York Times: “America’s Semiconductor Boom Faces a Challenge: Not Enough Workers.” And adds: “Strengthened by billions of federal dollars, semiconductor companies plan to create thousands of jobs. But officials say there might not be enough people to fill them.” Reason why fortifying the wall and improving border patrols are a political cum economic issue? Some 10,000 migrants cross the southern border on a daily basis. Like, they simply stride in? Need for cheap labor?  💾🖱💾

New York Times: “What We Lose When We Push Our Kids to ‘Achieve’.” And adds: “The sense of happiness that comes from absorption in a thing we are truly drawn to can be discovered but not taught.” Problem: The words “push” and “achieve” have taken a new slant or significance in these times of correctness overreach or ideological purity. Parents employ tactics and strategies to motivate kids to pursue a road to success. Then, that’s it. These days, it is a discourse complexity. 👧👶🧒

New York Times: “One Secret to a Latin American Party’s Dominance: Buying Votes.” News claims, “...On Election Day, the Colorado Party rounds up Indigenous people and pays them for their votes.” New president Santiago Peña is an economist and nationalist conservative. When a Rightist wins, that person is demonized. I believe, majority of people vote via the gut, not by way of how academia frames ideological extremes. Fact: Paraguay’s unemployment rate is 7.11 percent.

       No brainer? Santiago Peña opposes the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage. In the campaign, he promised to create 500,000 jobs and ruled out raising taxes. Bottomline, the issue is economics. Meanwhile, inflation is continuing to recede while the Central Bank of Paraguay maintains a moderately tight monetary policy stance. The medium-term economic outlook remains favorable, but there are risks from a worsening global outlook and extreme weather events.The real Paraguayan issue: Almost 90 percent of the land belongs to just 5 percent of landowners. The rural-urban economic gap is the result of large-scale agriculture steadily monopolizing the market in Paraguay. By the way, the outgoing president of the country, Mario Abdo Benítez, is also a Conservative or member of the Colorado Party.  👈🇵🇾👉

New York Times: “Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has taken a tough line on migrants as he turns around the country’s economy.” Via Schengen Area, the E.U. abolished all types of border control in 1995. Until the migrant crisis ensued in 2015 as Europe wrestled with 2008 recession. Then came 2020-2021 Covid years, and the current fuel/energy backlash of the Ukraine War. Economy is shot. Yet a strict immigration policy is still stereotyped as Right-wing. 

       Greece currently hosts approximately 50,000 refugees, most of whom will remain in the country. Economic activity is expected to grow by a mere 2.4 percent in 2023. Unemployment: 10.90 percent. New refugees pose gargantuan economic problems yet looking back, E.U. was lenient with border entries. Until hardships ensued. 👈🇬🇷👉

MY THOUGHTS About News and Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

New York Times: “After a Show-Stopping Entrance at the G7, Zelensky Pleads for More Aid.” And adds: “He urged his supporters to stay the course and tried to convince fence sitters like India and Brazil that there is no middle ground.” Mr Zelensky tried to convince India and Brazil? These giant economies are buddies of Russia and China (and South Africa) in BRICS. And India, with a 6+ percent GDP growth, refines most of Moscow’s oil since the war started. Volo is so clueless. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

New York Times: “Managing Screen Time Is a Family Matter.” And adds: “Parents must help their children live healthier digital lives.” Average daily screen time among tweens (ages 8 to 12): 5 hours and 33 minutes; teens (ages 13 to 18): 8 hours and 39 minutes. Adults? Six hours and 58 minutes. Let’s do the math: 24 hrs - 8 for sleep = 16. Minus 8 for work = 8. Minus 6 for internet = 2. What can you do in 2 hours? Gardening and plays with dog. Or stare at the ceiling. ⏰👨‍👩‍👦‍👦⏰

Time: “Why Body Neutrality Works Better Than Body Positivity.” Body neutrality: A shift in perspective, from body hatred, disgust, and dislike, to body appreciation and respect. Body positivity: A social movement that advocates for the acceptance of all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender or physical abilities. All these “mind calisthenics” comes with market economics. Yet it’s all common sense. Just do it. All I know is, if my thin/fat body feels sick, then I am sick. 😏😒😟

New York Times: “It’s Time for Biden to Out-Trump Trump on Immigration.” And adds: “The only way to have a rational discussion about immigration is to do everything possible to secure the southern border.” Trump’s wall: $12 billion, tops. The Trump administration built 52 miles of wall where no barrier previously existed, costing taxpayers $46 million per mile or less than $3 billion. The U.S. has sent $46 billion of military aid to Ukraine in one year, in a war that can never be won. 🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♂️

       Washington approved $133 billion in aid (or taxpayer money) for Ukraine, so far. Some $75 billion, excluding upcoming F-16 warplanes, have already been handed to Kyiv. Yet the southern border wall’s projected $12 billion budget was a huge issue. Confounding. 🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♂️

New York Times: “To Counter China, G7 Countries Borrow Its Economic Playbook.” And adds: “Wealthy democracies rev up an effort to spend trillions on a new climate-friendly energy economy, while stealing away some of China’s manufacturing power.” The West’s best bet is India. The world’s second largest labor force (476,670,000, 2021 data) behind China (China: 791,383,000). Provided G7 could work around Narendra Modi and his BRICS buddies, which of course, includes China.

       The world’s 3rd largest work humanity is in the U.S. but labor laws and high (yes!) wages + benefits bring us back to “cheaper” manufacturing spots elsewhere. There’s #4 Indonesia but Jakarta’s top trading partner is already China. Other massive concentrations of workers are located beyond the West: Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, Bangladesh, Japan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Mexico, Philippines, Thailand. Germany and the U.K. are #15 and #17. Japan is G7, and regardless of hosting America’s largest number of troops overseas, Beijing is also Tokyo’s top business BFF.  🏢🇨🇳🏢

New York Times: “Trinidad and Tobago is the #2 exporter of liquefied natural gas in the Americas. Its output has been falling, but it remains committed to fossil fuels.” Of course. Poor countries like South Sudan, Congo, and Gabon, despite being small producers, rely on oil/gas production to survive. Blame the impoverished? What about rich countries? They vow to end oil and gas production by 2034. Really. Yet they refuse to end the war in Ukraine. Why? Oil and natural gas. 🚗🚕🚙

Time: “Are Teens Really Having Less Sex—Or Do They Just Define It Differently?” Data needs deeper analysis. CDC study: Among teen females aged 15-19, 42 percent said they had sex, and among teen males, 44 percent. These percentages have gradually declined since 1988, 51 percent of female had sex; male, 60 percent. Now, were they asked to define what sex is? Oral sex, sexting, mutual genital stimulation, some “kids” even say sex with condom is not sex Sex. 🤨😒😏

Rolling Stone: “Anti-Fascist. Armed to the Teeth.” And adds: “The far right brings guns to drag shows. Now, the left is showing up with weapons, too.” Based on my experience elsewhere–Martial Law, coup d’etats, countryside wars, narcos hits–I haven’t experienced such blatant showtime of civilian military aggro as what's going these days in the U.S. Props of dominance? Showtime? Why the eerie frequency of mass shootings stays largely unchecked? Because these are all video games? 👎👎👎

Time: “More Than 70 percent of Americans Feel Failed by the Health Care System.” Government press release says the number of people with health insurance in the U.S. was over 300 million in 2021, about 92 percent of the population. But another media data says an estimated 112 million or 44 percent of American adults are struggling to pay for healthcare, and more than double that number or 93 percent feel that what they do pay is not worth the cost. 🩺💊🩺