The Greatness of America. And a bit of post-Nov 5 stuff.

From my response to Facebook chats etcetera.

DEPENDS on how Americans (or the world) look at "greatness." 

       <>1898 or late 1890s, when the U.S. defeated the Spanish armada? <>1944, Bretton Woods when the U.S. basically started control of global financial life via the IMF and World Bank? The time the U.S. dollar became the global reserve currency? <>1945, bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki and the birth of the atomic bomb? <>1949, NATO's birth and Washington as boss of the global military (especially when the Warsaw Pact dissolved in 1991)? 

       <>Years before 1975 when the U.S. last had trade surplus and basically ruled manufacturing? Who can tell? As for me, the weakening of U.S. greatness started in 2000 or the 21st century when China began its trade expansionism. Which was also the beginning of the economic rise of the Asian "tigers," Russia cooled out from its apparatchik girth and (trade) diversified via its oil and natural gas mostly, and oil rich Middle East learned Western styled capitalism. And of course the advent of BRICS which balanced G7. And China's 5 banks basically diminished the lending mojo of the IMF. 

       So essentially because the rest of the world evolved into “little” powers as well albeit economically unlike how the West "won" the world at first, which was via military brinkmanship or outright colonization (sic). And this "weakening" is continually aided by the eerie divide within America. A huge divide (that'd rival the civil war of 1860s) that Howard Zinn predicted before he passed away in 2010. The only way that America could build back better is for its people to show semblance of unity and/or if China closes its door again.

       Yet the ignorance persists saying America isn't great anymore because of its sole doing? I don't think so. This: The rest of the world isn't dumb. They know how to achieve greatness as well but not via military arrogance. (Russia is an economic power regardless if it invaded Ukraine or not.) 🏛🗽🏛

I AM essentially a foreigner in America. I don't see a majority in regards Left/Right. I see a huge divide that I haven't seen in many countries, including in India and China. Whoever won the election. Still the same. Cracked.

       Facebook Friend: “My concerns are not based on Left or Right. My concerns are based on Trump’ss platform and rhetoric.”

       Platform and rhetoric are political truths. I can say all POTUSes, at the time that I started following Washington politics as a journalist and Leftist activist, had really huge talks. That was imperative though. Grandiose speeches are needed so the allied world continues to obey America and hate the "rogues." Etc etcetera. 

       So as I semi-retired around 2010 (I think) I stopped watching politicians and presidents talk. In fact, I stopped watching News on TV altogether. But my reading obsession has tripled. Print, internet. Old publications, new stuff. Left. Right. Center. All. US and the world. Meanwhile, I just follow the leadership "walk" and ignore the "talk." And I am not a fan of drama at all. 🗽🗽🗽

[Visual: Tufts. CTTO.]

The Overkill Marketing of Zombies.

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

OKAY, I love “The Walking Dead.” Many times I dig zombies more than I dig humans. But I am not discussing that at the moment... You see, I never favored all these what they call prequels. Although I watched all three prequels to “Star Wars,” I didn't really approve of the marketing crap. I mean, do you remember Sio Bibble and Jar Jar Binks? Okay. While AMC's “The Walking Dead” was lording it over Nielsen ratings, the producers came up with a talkie “Talking Dead” show right after episodes where crew and actors blah-blah about stuff. 

       Alongside that, you might wanna check out the spinoff Webisodes or web series, and motion comic or animated comic book version of the show—all these apart from the cast's festive in-person meet-ups with fans for photo-ops and free touches of Daryl Dixon's (Norman Reedus) chest. 

       And whoa! Producers aren't satisfied! They came up with “Fear the Walking Dead,” a “companion series” and prequel—six episodes on Season 1 and 15 on Season 2. Set in Los Angeles, the series follows a dysfunctional family at the onset of the zombie apocalypse. I am a sucker. So I watched Season 1 anyway since it's quite accessible on Netflix instant watch. Season 2 debuts on April 10. Okay.

       But then that's not the end of the overkill. Now, there's “Fear The Walking Dead: Flight 462,” a sixteen part mini series that features a group of survivors on a plane in the earliest moments of the outbreak. This release was done to help promote the second season of “Fear The Walking Dead” and Season 6 of “The Walking Dead.” Each episode will be released on Sunday, both online and during commercial breaks. I dearly and deeply hope that the producers of this show get devoured by zombies! 🧟‍♀️🧟🧟‍♂️

Photo: CNN.

Illegal Migrants and “White Supremacists.”

Response to a post in a Friend’s page. A meme that instead of deporting illegal aliens, the government should banish American-born “white supremacists.” 

<>MIGRANTS. There are enough rooms for immigrants. The problem in the U.S. (and EU via Schengen Area) is--on how the migrants off the southern border are obviously let in sans passport/visa, then how they are used per political caterwaul or convenience. Since these are record numbers of illegals or asylum seekers (since 2021), fiscal management of the issue has long been bankrupt. Budget from other agency allocations has to be slashed. Yet this is a long discussion. 🗽🏃‍♀️🏃

<>Supremacists and racists are facts or truths of America. I spent the majority of my US life in the South. I live here. With them. So I am exposed to them, work with them, eat with them. And I am non-white and non-black. Ergo, poke the hornet's nest or rile the yellowjacket? I learned how to go around that without swallowing the slur. First off, I need to lose my Left vs Right politics and stick to specific, individual issues. 

       "Rednecks" are no different from barrio people back home in terms of cultural sentiment or territorial overprotectiveness. White supremacists could be dangerous? Yes, but why engage them? Repeat: I live in the South and hang with folks in the woods. Meanwhile, I was a community organizer for various NGOs back home for years. I have long dropped my Leftist agenda or junked it during RJ/RA crap. Need I go to why I had quarrels with those guys in New York and why I chose Asheville as my community? Again, long discussion. 

       And my stance about issues stays in the middle. I am already this old and "been there done that" dude not to know how to duck on crossfire. Got nothing to do with Trump, Biden or Obama. I am Myself. ☮️☮️☮️

The IRELAND Story.

Posted on my Facebook page, years ago.

NEWS. “As Britain Turned Away From E.U., Northern Ireland Turned to Sinn Fein.” / “In a seismic election shift in Northern Ireland, the pro-unity Sinn Fein is winning (or wins).” May election results reflected the demoralization of unionist voters and the disarray of their leaders and an electorate with new priorities, reports New York Times. But adds that much of these can “…be traced to Brexit,” which I disagree with. But that’d be a lengthy discussion. 

       I am more interested (or concerned) with possible rekindling of bloody unrest/s between Catholics and Protestants a.k.a. The Troubles, which Sinn Fein figured in of course. Yet this Irish republican and democratic socialist political party, which is active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland—has evolved, changed, and transformed through the years, from its formation in 1905 during the Irish War of Independence.

       Sinn Fein, 2022. It is the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, having won the largest share of first-preference votes and the most seats in last month’s election. That’d be the first time Sinn Fein has done so. From 2007 to 2022 it was only the second-largest party in the Assembly, after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Meanwhile, in the U.K. House of Commons, Sinn Féin holds seven of Northern Ireland's seats.

       How would Britain’s Brexit impact on new leadership power in Northern Ireland (or Ireland per se) remains to be seen. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

SINN Fein could be in power but it also had to contend with schisms within, historically. From 1905, when its early members founded the First Dáil and the revolutionary Irish Republic during the Irish War, party split punctuated the organization. Post-civil war, two traditionally dominant parties of Irish politics: Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

       The current Sinn Féin party took shape in 1970 after another split, the other faction eventually becoming the Workers' Party. During the Troubles, Sinn Féin was associated with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

       The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England and mainland Europe.

       The conflict was primarily political and nationalistic, fueled by historical events. It also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension but despite use of the terms “Protestant” and “Catholic” to refer to the two sides, it was not a religious conflict. And so on and so forth.

       Yet from those years to current times, life and politics have hugely evolved. News: “Britain Moves Ahead With Plans to Scrap Trade Rules on Northern Ireland.” The action by the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to scuttle the post-Brexit trade arrangement risks a clash with the European Union and upsetting the United States.

       There you go. And since President Biden is currently high with his hawkish interventionist foreign policy, again—let’s see how Sinn Fein works around it, regardless (if ever) of Mr Boris. Especially that, on first reading, Sinn Fein seems cool with E.U. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

LOOK, I don’t pretend that I could offer a credible insight on “Northern Ireland going Sinn Fein” vis a vis Britain’s relaxing of trade rules on NI. First, we gotta see how that pans out as the region in general works around the Ukraine/Russia (per U.S. imposing shadow) tempest. G7 meets this month in Germany, by the way.

       Anyhow, Ireland imports most of its oil, 76 percent from the U.K., some from Norway and North and West Africa. Natural gas? Again, Dublin buys mainly from the U.K. via pipeline from Scotland, 53 percent. Would that mean, unlike other E.U./European nations, Ireland isn’t dependent on Moscow’s energy supplies. But Britain is obviously valuable.

       Ireland was (and maybe still is) a haven for FDIs due to its friendly 12.5 percent corporate tax. But that has long been upgraded to 15 percent in conformity with recent OECD agreement to impose a uniform tax rate, as previously proposed by President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

THE United States and U.K., (of course) are Ireland’s top trading partners, although China is moving up. In 2020, Beijing's direct investment totaled $1.1 billion, creating around 3,000 new jobs for the local public. Last year, goods traded between China and Ireland were valued at $22.9 billion, up 27 percent compared with the previous year.

       At this point, China is Ireland's fourth largest trading partner, the largest export market for Irish pork and the fifth largest market for Ireland's food and beverage exports. So how do we see this? If Ireland continues to emphasize economics as today’s Washington via President Biden sticks to his hawkish guns/politics, China could move up.

       Currently, among the fastest-growing economies in Europe, Ireland has become an information and communication technology powerhouse. Then we go to China's Belt and Road Initiative and its aim to improve connectivity between China and more than 70 countries through infrastructure investment and regional cooperation.

       That expansionism carries on faster as Washington turns to its old-school military bombast. How’d Ireland’s Sinn Fein philosophy fit in? Let’s see. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

Famous. And Other Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

FAMOUS SPORTS EVENTS. The Soviet Union beat the U.S. by 1 point, 51-50, in the 1972 Olympic men's basketball final in Munich, Germany. A controversial event in Olympic history. Team USA was then represented by college standouts. It was the first ever loss by the U.S. in the event. The final three seconds were played three times. Ivan Edeshko made the pass to Alexander Belov who made the basket. In 1992, NBA stars started to represent the U.S. in the Olympics. 🇺🇸🏀🇷🇺

GLOBAL HOLIDAYS. Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it follows the season of Advent (which begins four Sundays before) or the Nativity Fast, and initiates the season, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries. 🎁✝️🎊

FAMOUS PLACES. Baguio City is an urbanized city in the Philippines. Second home of my family. During American colonial years, Baguio was selected as summer capital, owing to its cool climate, located 4,810 feet above sea level. In 1901, the U.S. government expropriated lands in Baguio owned by the Ibalois, who were forced to sell their lands. When I was in grade school, we were fined 5-centavos for every Ilocano or Tagalog word we uttered; had to be in English. 🌄🇵🇭🌲

INTERESTING EVENTS. Zombie Bike Ride, a celebration of the bicycle in late October in Key West, Florida. Rock and roll, zombie bikes and costumes of all types and a one-mile leisurely ride along the Atlantic Ocean. The first event was created in 2009 by the local bike shop owners Marky Pierson, Evan Haskell, and Chris Needham. Participants wear everything from dead-like face and body-paint and gory zombie costumes to lively "walking dead" garb. 🧟‍♀️🧟🧟‍♂️

FAMOUS PUBLICATIONS. Life, published from 1883. I was addicted to it as a boy. During Life’s golden age in my youth, it was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest magazine known for the quality of its photography. As one of America’s most popular magazines, Life regularly reached one-quarter of the population. The magazine has been consigned as a mere online supplement in 2008. Life is currently owned by Dotdash Meredith, which owns Time Inc., among others. 📰🗞📰

FUN STUFF. People can’t get enough of Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas is You.” It still dominates the holiday charts. If anything about Ms Carey’s holiday hit song annoys you, best to avoid shopping malls now. Or the radio. Maybe music altogether, for that matter. The Christmas anthem has reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart the past four years in a row, and one expert predicts it will soon exceed $100 million in earnings. So calm down, okay. 🎁👩‍🎤🎊

FUN EVENTS. Dog Shows: The National Dog Show, AKC National Championship, and the Westminster Dog Show. All-breed benched conformation shows. A bench show is a show which requires dogs to be on display in an assigned location during the entirety of the show except when being shown in the ring, groomed for showing. The purpose is for spectators and breeders to have an opportunity to see all the entered dogs. Benched or unbenched, it’s all good. I love dogs! 🐕🐩🐕‍🦺

CULTURAL FESTIVALS. Hmong Spiritual New Year, mostly celebrated in November and December, recalls ancestral spirits while teaching traditions to new generations. Shamans send off their spirit guides to regenerate their energy for another season of healing. The Hmong people are an ethnic group believed to have come from the Yangtze river basin area in southern China. There are about 18 Hmong clans that are known in Laos and Thailand. 🏵🎎🏵

INTERESTING LAWS. Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. Corporations have the same rights as a natural person to hold property, enter into contracts, and to sue or be sued. The animal rights movement seeks animal personhood, as well. Ecuador and Bolivia are the only countries that mandate rights for nature. 🐘👩‍🦱🪴

MYSTERIES of LIFE. Black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light and other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The oldest black hole discovered dates back 470 million years after the Big Bang. Findings and theories suggest that supermassive black holes existed at the dawn of the universe. Given the universe is 13.7 billion years old, that puts the age of the first known black hole at 13.2 billion years. 🪐😞💫

Photo credits: Marca. Slate.

AGAIN, The Chinese.

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

THE Chinese work ethic and business sense continually mystifies me. They've been in the Philippines long before the Spaniards and Americans did. Although the old Astronesian natives have long traded business with China, the one Chinese dude that registered in Filipinos' psyche was a pirate named Lim Ah Hong. Probably Senor Espanol and Mr Smith thought it convenient to create a “pirate” image of the Chinese to sort of lessen competition? 

       Not sure... 

       But what's sure is, the Chinese have long upended the Spaniards and Americans in the Philippines even before Beijing entered WTO in early 90s, and evolved into the unparalleled manufacturing titan of global business.

       Historically, the Chinese work silently, yet effectively. They worked in railroad construction under the Vanderbilts, they sold silk and flip-flops in every little corner of any city in every little corner of the world, and they had pretty cool lo meins at Lim Ho Fook, as well, so says Warren Zevon, right? There was this barbershop banter in regards to Chinese business camaraderie that always fascinated me. 

       They say that when a diner goes to a Chinese restaurant and asks for a dish that happens to be missing in the menu folder, the waiter will say, “We have that, Sir!” and then he runs out by the backdoor and goes to another Chinese restaurant where the owner willingly gives him what the customer is asking. There! They collared a client, that's the bottomline.

       The Chinese don't compete with each other, they actually support each other. When they entered WTO and got factory deals from the West, the big boss Chinese dude gave out capital to smaller entrepreneurs in the provinces so they'd get all the job orders from the US and Europe and elsewhere. 

       Yup, the Chinese work ethic and business sense are very mystifying—and effective. 👲🇨🇳👩‍🦰

RECOMMENDED: Movie Collection. “Matrix Trilogy.”

“Matrix Trilogy.” The Matrix, 1999; The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both 2003. I am not interested with 2001’s The Matrix Resurrections. The first three were written and directed by The Wachowskis or the trans women sisters Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski. (“Resurrections” was directed by Lana.)

       “The Matrix” is a cyberpunk story of the technological fall of humanity, in which the creation of artificial intelligence led the way to a race of self-aware machines that imprisoned mankind in a virtual reality system to be farmed as a power source. The VR system is The Matrix.

       Year 2003 seems like three years ago but that’d be almost two decades ago. And so The Matrix’s truths has evolved really big time, and how! The resounding impact of comp tech to humanity (in the present time) amplifies the credence or veracity of Alvin Toffler’s words in 1970: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” How true?

       These Matrix guys have become more real: Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who battled odds to free humanity from its self-induced idiocy, LOL! Now we know who Agent Smith is, or the Agent Smiths. Though we can’t really tell if they are Left or Right, or just heckling. 

       Meanwhile, beyond ruminations on philosophy, religion, mythology, and spirituality, “The Matrix” gave us kickass Hong Kong styled martial arts c/o Yuen Woo-Ping. As fight coordinator, he also choreographed fight scenes in Quentin Tarantino's “Kill Bill.” You dig The Bride’s duel with Gogo Yubari? So check out “The Matrix.” I keep my DVD collection. 🎬🎭🎬

Visual: Collider.