DONALD TRUMP: The Great American Scapegoat.

Reacting on a commondreams.org article: “How Corporate Democrats Made Trump Possible: A 10-Year Timeline.” Posted on Facebook. 

I SAY, 25-year timeline. From 2000, Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin's game-changing trade pact that paved the way for China's entry to the WTO the following year. The Democratic Party called it "globalization." Next, the U.S. 1 Percent got magnificently richer but (probably) they didn't foresee that that Washington template would make China's global trade expansionism more real. 

       Looking back, China quietly started its “new journey” right after Mao Zedong died (1976). Deng Xiaoping took over. The CCP’s “open door” policy snuck off the Great Wall, late-1970s. At that point, China started buying lands all over the globe (not in the U.S. where they own only below 1 percent of foreign-owned land). 

And then in 2009, BRIC(S) was born to challenge G7; already, China's 4 state-owned banks "balanced" the loans scale that the IMF and World Bank used to monopolize. Etc etcetera. 

       The Dems (politics or corporate) didn't make Donald Trump. The “new” Left of America failed to see China's ascent but it is Mr Trump who knows how to keep the swing to favor the U.S. How? By playing China's trade game, not "counter-playing" Beijing's very fluid playbook. All this as Europe insists on a stubborn hawkish agenda via NATO expansion, which is clearly countered by BRICS' trade expansion. The narrative says The D weakens America yet he only took over and had to improvise from the Democratic Party's blunder in miscalculating the Chinese. 🏛🗽🏛

Compilation of my short MORNING THOUGHTS.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

Political/economic memes are angled at influencing the narrative. Yet we need to dig up the veracity of data. Truths and facts. Example: Unemployment at 3.6 percent or recent addition of 7.9 million jobs, which could be a 1st year record. Check as well that at least 4 million workers resigned each month in the second half of 2021. They are returning to work due to the obvious 8.6 percent inflation rate. Hence the spike in job numbers. Still, the economy is in crisis. ⚒🧰🛠

Avid watcher of sports, me. Knew the #1s. These days, due to politics, #1 is “Who?!?” Tennis: Ex #1 Novak Djokovic was barred from the Australian Open. So #1 is Daniil Medvedev. Novak just won Wimbledon but may be banned again for the U.S. Open. Unvaxxed. Russian Daniil wasn’t in Wimby. Without the best from the world, why call it world’s #1? But MLB is called the World Series. The only “other people” that I see there are Japanese, Koreans, and South Americans? 🎾🥇🎾

The algorithm doesn’t analyze “facts.” Such as two massively shared memes that deal with gasoline prices in the U.S. and Europe, and another that talks about U.S. GDP etcetera—to justify that President Biden is doing fine managing the economy. Nope. For starters: Inflation rate at 8.6 percent is the largest 12-month increase since 1981. Public debt is $30.49 trillion, up from last year's $2.3 trillion. Foreign debt: $7.7 trillion, up by $1.5 trillion from last year. 🇺🇸👀🗽

A “globalized” universe means economics has been balanced between West and East. Political affairs and trade leverages aren't the exclusive power base of Europe and the U.S. anymore. Higher education has been spread out. Asians and Arabs don’t need to leave their comfort zone to study Western capitalism. What I learned in Manila’s schools are no different from what is taught in New York. Interfaces between cultures have blurred the “supreme race” narcissism.☮️💝☯️

First Amendment: Speak up against those who spoke on the contrary. But things don’t end with Social Media disparagement. People lose jobs, stripped of achievements, outed forever. Words that they said/wrote 10 years or 100 years ago are “recalled” to shame their memory. This is a New Morality that far exceeds the boundaries of any religious good or bad, political bad or good. Shinzo Abe, ex PM of “gun-less” Japan, wasn’t killed by a gun; he was assassinated by hate.☮️💝☯️

Only when you are a years-long BFF, I talk and talk and talk. But I am not a talker per se. I don’t dig talking at all. I’d rather write all my thoughts down. Always. While in a family/kin gathering or friends in a crowd, I am the quiet clam in a corner. Watching, listening. Not a good responder unless it is one on one conversation, in person. Not a telephone guy either. I don’t stop on the street to talk stuff like you got awesome hair or how’s your Brandon? Nope. 🗣👥👀

President Biden refuses to play China’s trade game. Yet he engages Russia via Vladimir Putin’ arena, military. Yet as Russia controls armed hostilities in Ukraine, Putin wins globally on economics. Kremlin’s Elvira Nabiullina pummels White House economic team. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping keeps on beating Joe Biden: RCEP/Asia Pacific, Nov 2020; Iran $400 oil deal, March 2021; Solomon Islands pact, May 2022. Etcetera. Joe needs to redo his foreign policy playbook. 

       Already, the American public is paying too much for the costly war. Almost $50 billion in aid to Kyiv, mostly military, since Feb this year. Etcetera. Fantastic gas pump prices + 8.6 percent inflation. War as rationale for economic ruin--so 1 Percent corporations assure profit margins--ain't gonna fool the world this long. 🇺🇸🇷🇺🇨🇳

Fascinating that many (in America) are so protective of their dogs from fireworks or thunder. I understand. The manner in which dogs are petted here is similar to how children are guarded. In the Pacific islands where I emanated from, dogs are also integral members of the family—although they mostly stay outdoors, inside a gated house, as guard dogs. They warn of intruders and strangers, and since they could “feel” a coming storm—they remind us to prepare. 🌬🐕💨

Happy July 4th to Americans who love their country! A week or so before today, the majority of what I read on my Homepage are scorn, displeasure, and hate of America. Which I fail to find sense. I grew up or evolved as a Leftist activist back home in the Philippines because I love my country. So I protested leadership corruption and foreign intervention. Hence I don’t get it that Americans who disapprove of how the United States is governed by politicians also hate the country.☮️🇺🇸🗽

Superpower #1 is all geopolitical narcissism. Already, the United States of America is the world’s #1 corporation. Number 1 economy, #1 consumer market, #1 oil producer/consumer, #1 prescription drug taker, #1 in military spending, #1 in drug industry, #1 in kickass sports shoes, and many others at #1. America loves being #1, so any perceived #1 threat from China or Russia is taken seriously. Fact is, Beijing and Moscow just want to stay #1 in noodles and vodka. 🇺🇸🥇🇺🇸

The Venezuela Drama Thriller.

Response to a Facebook post. 

<>Venezuela, clearly not a U.S. ally, offers alternative transit routes for drug cartel shipments–after the usual route at Darien Pass and Rio Grande (and Gulf of Mexico) are now blocked by both Mexican and U.S.  troops. I believe that. 

       Venezuela's territory includes major bodies of water such as the Orinoco River, Lake Maracaibo, the Gulf of Venezuela, and access to the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It also contains numerous smaller rivers, lakes, and islands, including Laguna de la Restinga, Laguna de Mucubaji, and the Apure and Arauca rivers. 

       Meanwhile, cartel hook-ups always happen. Not so hard to believe this: Mexican and Colombian drug cartels “arrangement” with Venezuela's Cartel De Los Soles ("cartel of the suns") and Tren de Aragua. ELN and FARC remnants took over the vacuum that Medellin (Escobar) and the Cali (Rodriguez Orejuela bros) cartels in Colombia as well and now they collectively ply the route on Venezuela/Colombia pass. Eastern European human traffickers and the Asian Triad hooked up as well. 

       Fact: The U.S. is the undisputed top destination for drug contraband and smuggled human market in the world. <>If the U.S. or President Trump wants to “regime-change” (verb) Nicolas Maduro or Venezuela, he could have done it in 2019. Why didn't he? Nic agreed to let U.S. oil refineries and oil companies back in after the Chavez/Maduro tandem kicked them out (the last that was sent out was Helmerich & Payne around 2010). And so Chevron is back in Caracas as Valero and Citgo's shipment partnership with the US was restored. 

       <>The other important matter: China is Venezuela's top oil buyer. Ergo, Mr Trump's first trade pact with China took place in 2020. Current life: 2025. Trump's trade talks with China is doing fine so far as POTUS relaxed tariffs and buys Chinese rare earths as China did the same with tariffs and resumes buying U.S. soybeans + there is that Nvidia silicon deal with China, which the U.S. per Trump's brokering gets a cut (from Nvidia profit). And after The D shook hands with Japan, SoftBank and Nvidia talked business. 

       Ergo: Donald Trump's trade playbook will suffer if he negates Venezuela's oil as he lures FDIs to the US. Regardless of the fact that the U.S. is the world’s top oil producer, Trump needs more oil for obvious reasons. But he is also intent on weeding cartel power in America. Note that cartels took advantage of the laxity in border controls in the Biden years (record number of illegal crossings in 4 years, some instances, 4,000 to 6,000 a day!) No way these massive breaches would happen without cartel facilitation and narcopolitics in Mexico (before Claudia Sheinbaum sat). Also, Biden abolished the US/Mexico et al anti-smuggling coop Merida Initiative in 2021. Hey, cartels operate like how a corporate giant does. 

       <>The media isn't giving the people the lowdown for obvious reasons. 🇺🇸☮️🇻🇪

ALL ABOUT ZOHRAN.

From my Facebook Page. 

ZOHRAN Mamdani’s win as New York City Mayor is a no-brainer. His opposition is very weak. Voters had to pin hopes on an idealistic newbie over a disgraced ex-Governor, Andrew Cuomo. You see, even if the incumbent Eric Adams, another disgraced Dem, decided to try another run, he’d surely lose even to The Penguin. Now NYC faces an intriguing (political) coexistence. The Big Apple is home to the world’s most number of billionaires, who of course “controls” the here and there. With Zohran’s overreaching socialist ruminations? Let’s see. 

       How’d Z wade in and around Gotham City’s power brokers and power movers? The Jewish. NY receives a Top 3 federal budget, so let’s see how New Yorker Donald Trump (who endorsed Mr Cuomo as Independent) responds. Also, an effective anti-crime playbook is a pertinent work-sheet in the city, and current police chief Jessica Tisch is doing fine, so far. Jessica of the powerful Tisch, the Jewish family that is NYU Tisch School of the Arts? Let’s see.     

       Mr M’s positions reflect many of Bernie Sanders' socialist ideals but Bern is Old Left, more into the gut’s woes --compared with Zohran’s New Left's high-horse purity. So it’d be so interesting how'd the new Mayor run the roost as he butts heads with those who essentially light up the Big Apple as the top haven for global investors. How would the scandalously wealthy overlords coexist with the ideologically overreaching dreamer? That answer to imbalance: Batman. 

       My analogy: When the popular "sociopolitical hallucination" called Occupy Wall Street (2011) "occupied" a park owned by the wealthy and allowed to stay and hold “theaters of the spaced-out” as they dined quarterpounders, checked emails and posted stuff, called mom and dad for money, used the bathroom of McDonald's across the street. The 1 Percenter eatery opened 24 hours as directed by the super rich Mayor (Mike Bloomberg). So as summer warm ended and cold ensued as Fall arrived, the fiesta was over. Occupiers went home as undocumented migrants cleaned the mess at Zuccotti Park. Get my drift? 🏛🗽🏛

ISSUE: “U.S. Revokes Wole Soyinka's Visa.” And my thoughts.

Response to a Facebook post. 

WOLE Soyinka is 91 years old. He has nothing to prove anymore. If I am that age and a Nobel winner, I will just spend the rest of my life in a quiet idyll in my country with my family and grandkids. Meanwhile, I am not really young. I have seen and experienced life yet I am cool with my imperfect journey. 

       The worst years that I lived in America were during the first term of Barack Obama's leadership. I had to hire new immigration lawyers in Las Vegas as Mr Obama sent home a record 400,000 average each year; the highest number since 1954's removals (Dwight Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback). ICE did pounce on illegal migrants in President Obama's first 4 years but the media wasn't as loud as these days (Donald Trump removed less than 200,000 so far after Joe Biden let in record numbers of undocumented migrants from 2021 to early 2024 via the southern border). 

       Also in Obama I, recession hit hard. And I reeled as did many. The worst economic downturn since the 1970s or Great Depression. Mr Trump? Current economy? I am cool. Resilience is an understatement. Anyhow, The D ended the Afghanistan war that Jimmy Carter fueled (via Operation Cyclone) and Barack prolonged it to 20 years and $2 trillion of taxpayer money wasted. Mr Trump just forged a ceasefire in Gaza and is working hard to end the tempest in Ukraine. I have been anti-war all my life and I haven't known a POTUS who worked this hard to end these wars in favor of trade handshakes. 

       Those who are against Trump’s funding cuts and shake-ups? Drug proliferation and crime? (I live in Asheville NC and I will tell you as a former newspaper publisher here how crime spiked from 2000 to these days.) Corruption seems not a fact in America? Think again. I covered those as a journalist. Etc etcetera. Back home I protested USAID. Why? Figure that one out. (Long discussion. I favor fair trade treatment over foreign aid vis a vis quid pro quo that invites government and NGO corruption.) 

       Anyhow, if Trump deports me for some reason, I don't care as long as he ends more wars. Then I will die happy in my own country. BTW, how many Filipinos here are illegals or visa overstays? Around 4 million. Why are many not sent home the way the Latino are? Hint: Asians are the top household earners in America and the most educated (legal or illegal), and obedient of the law. That'd be more than whites. 🏛🗽🏛

Facebook Friend's Post/Meme: The Charlie Kirk story is probably “managed.”

Response to an FB Friend’s post.

I DON’T think the apt word is "managed." But by whom? I believe this is how things are in these days of internet communication's bombast (and confusion), that is easily reinforced by the current eerie divide. I didn't know or never paid attention to Charlie Kirk (though I read more than a dozen news sources on a daily basis). Then he was shot! Now I know. 

       At least on my homepage, the Left's reaction was a lot louder than the Right right after the fact. Almost all my feeds were Left-wing applause. Of course, the Right also has their own "influencers" who took advantage of the ruckus. Boom! Clicks there, shares here; Jimmy Kimmel by instinct swallowed the feed as a primetime TV magnet (as he asked for a larger ABC payday). I mean, I wouldn't know Mr Kirk if not for this frenzy. Now he is the Right-wing poster boy. 

       Of course, (traditional) politics will ride that wave like a slick surfer. Charlie got this "significance" because of that noise not really because of him (alive) as a MAGA guy. Honestly, if you ask me what side really upped his "stature," no brainer. The always-boisterous Left. 

       Who "managed" this? The same power that continually stokes the classic “divide and rule” pitch. I guess. Yet the Left bit it more than the Right. I may disagree with them a lot but the Right is traditionally solid as a transparent ball. But the Left today? I don't really know. I feel alienated by the same group that I was part of most of my adult life. They actually don't know that they have been self-destructing. They are not even in one page on the subject of war. They rally more as 1 in regards Luigi’s lone-wolf crime or Mr Kimmel’s “firing” or the hate rabble-rouse per Charlie than the end of Israeli obliteration of Gaza or the end of the Ukraine war. They even call me MAGA because I don't hop in the hate-Trump cool. What ignorance! ☮️☮️☮️

Visual credit: Youth Today.

Compilation of my short MORNING THOUGHTS.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

I get stereotyped as “political.” Or all I talk/write about is politics. I am drawn to politics because political facts define how we exist in society. But then my “politics” is mostly a writing activity. Fact is, In person, I am a light, easy dude. I joke a lot, frequently silly, juvenile jokes. When conversations turn into political arguments, I don’t engage. I don’t lecture political activism. In my younger/active years, I “walked” my activism more than I wrote/spoke about it. 👈👅👉

The Junior is the new President of the Philippines. I spent most of my life helping bring down Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s 20-year dictatorship. I almost died doing so. But the past is the past. I have healed from wounds incurred in those days. These days are for my children, grandchildren, and yours. Optimism in light is pro-active fun; pessimism in the dark is doomsday inertia. But positivity right here, right now—doesn’t mean you’d ignore yesterday’s blood on today’s tracks. 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

Student loan forgiveness. Most Asians avoid college loans and just pay up. In case they are broke, they take 3 to 4 jobs and save up (for college). Cultural truth that is widely accepted by my people: A college degree generally boosts an individual's earnings over their lifetime. This: Any broad-based forgiveness would cost billions of dollars. All taxpayers, not just those who have a college degree, would be contributing to the cost of cancellation. Not fair. Just saying. 📚💰📚

What is NFT? “Non-fungible token.” A unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain etc etcetera. Whatever. Critical Race Theory. Sensitivity Editor. Cultural Appropriation. Affirmative Action. And so on and so forth. Academia invent/s these kickass words, terms, and blah when all the world needs is straight-through communication and gut-level messages. Or they just want to force-feed the value of googling? 🤨👉📱

Post-election: Philippines. I sat with a think-tank that ran the presidential bid of (the late) Sen. Raul Roco in late 1990s. We lost to an inebriated clown. I was young, naïve, and idealistically gullible—but I learned through the years. The Marcos family is back. So be it. Campaign/runup to election day is different from leadership performance as is. Pre-proclamation are all “walk” and “talk.” Time to judge the “work,” not forgetting blood on the tracks (of the past). 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

Looks like the new President of the Philippines is Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Many are frustrated. But I am easy. My romantic idealism has been superseded by pragmatic cool. If your calling is political activism or Congress lobby? Fiscalize, advocate—in pursuit of socioeconomic change. An accountant, “taho” vendor, or schoolteacher? Don’t stress by hurling murk 24/7. Be a good accountant, “taho” vendor, or schoolteacher. You are serving the people, not the government. 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

The bond that connects a child to the mother. Forged right in her womb and carried there for nine long months, then ushered to earth with fresh blood and sweet pain? When the umbilical cord is cut, that streak of tears running down her face as the baby screams the first cry of life. Magic! That is love, that is the world. How am I supposed to experience that? It’s beyond me, beyond my limitations as a man. [--From my essay, “Mother.” Written in 2005, on the day my mom passed away.]❤️👱‍♀️💖

Happy Mother’s Day to mothers of the world! I mean, moms who gave birth to another life. Not figurative-moms, okay? Otherwise, everybody will claim to be a “mother” as well. And please, lose the drama of “…my mom never loved me” or “…my mom betrayed me the moment she voted Trump!” Everybody has a mother. We ain’t here on earth if mom wasn’t here first. It wasn’t the father who nurtured us within her for nine months and shed blood to give us life. It was Mom! 👶👩‍💓👱‍♀️

No brainer. Johnny Depp can be abusive when drunk or drugged. Cliché among the rich and famous. So wife Amber Heard sought divorce in 2016. Ms Heard received a $7 million settlement, which she vowed to donate to an L.A. Children's Hospital and ACLU. But only fraction/s of the donation were given. Anyhow, the court advised Depp and Heard to move on. Amber didn’t. She should have. Now she’s about to lose in a $50 million defamation case filed by Depp. 🎭🎬🎭

Anti-war is the activism ideal that feeds my existence, youth to old age. I was an anti U.S. military bases activist till Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base left the Philippines in 1991. But I am not anti-military; I am anti-war. Yet I don’t get it that many colleagues who supposedly shared my advocacy now support NATO or militarism per se—mainly due to their partisan politics. For me, whether you call yourself Right or Left, as long as you are anti-war, I am with you. ☮️☮️☮️