Previously posted on my Facebook Page.
Time: “China Says It Doesn’t Want Conflict. Its Actions at Sea Suggest Otherwise.” From a journalism point of view, this coverage is one-sided. Let's look at the tally board. China has only 1 foreign military base, in Djibouti. True, the CCP has established a naval facility in Cambodia, Ream Naval Base. The U.S.? In addition to the potentially nine military bases in the Philippines, the Pentagon has 313 more in East Asia alone. Overall, 750 in 80 countries.
Currently, China has only one foreign military base located in Djibouti in East Africa. Building a naval facility capable of accommodating military vessels in the western region of the South China Sea would be a crucial step in China’s efforts to expand its influence in the area. Why would China focus on military grandiosity when it already rules the region’s economic roost. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Pacific has approximately 106,000 personnel, plus over 300 aircraft and five watercraft assigned throughout the AOR from Japan and Korea to Solomon Islands and to Alaska and Hawaii. 🇺🇸☮️🇨🇳
New York Times: “Chris Licht Is Out at CNN, Leaving Network at a Crossroads.” And adds: “Mr. Licht’s turbulent time running the 24-hour news organization lasted slightly more than a year.” I actually thought Mr Licht was fired already or few months ago when he criticized internal newsroom tact as one-sided, sort of. The real issue here is Fox or the Murdoch empire still rules the TV media planet, viewership or profit. CNN's viewer share is why below Fox and MSNBC for years now.
On a parallel vein per Fox, though the network is still #1, its ratings fell by around 50 percent since top draw Tucker Carlson left. Fox's audience among 25- to 54-year-olds had shrunk by two thirds. 💻📺🖥
New York Times: “Hundreds Were Mistakenly Told They Might Have Cancer, Test Company Says.” Many deaths could be prevented if the rate of misdiagnosis was not so high. Approximately 10 to 20 percent of all cases of cancer are misdiagnosed. One study found that about 28 percent of the mistakes made out of 583 cases were life threatening or life altering. I bet, the same with mental health. Bipolar diagnosis after two 1 hour sessions? Next: Prescription drugs. 🩺🩻🩺
New York Times: “Oklahoma Approves First Religious Charter School in the U.S.” And adds: “The school will offer online, Roman Catholic instruction funded by taxpayers. Its approval is certain to tee off a legal battle over the separation of church and state.” State and local governments provide an equal share of school funding, with the federal money covering less than 10 percent. Catholics also pay taxes. Why don’t we instead gear our sight on taxpayer money wasted in war? 📝✝️📝
New York Times: “Mississippi Is Offering Lessons for America on Education.” And adds: “The state shows that poverty is no excuse for failing to teach kids to read.” I concur. In my grade school days in the Philippines, we held classes under a mango tree since enrollments overflowed. And when typhoons flooded classrooms, we continued in churches. Etcetera. Still, teachers taught and we learned. Mississippi has the highest poverty rate among U.S. states at 19.58 percent. 📝✏️📝
Smithsonian: “Scientists Identify 12 Major Symptoms of Long Covid.” And adds: “The effort is a step toward accelerating research and finding treatments for the debilitating condition.” Long Covid symptoms: Chronic pain, brain fog, shortness of breath, chest pain, and intense fatigue. Five straight hours of “The Walking Dead,” while stoned and/or drunk, seated and intermittently responding to anti-Trump memes on FB, give people symptoms of “long indolence” as well.
News adds: “Long Covid, the condition where symptoms that surface after recovering from Covid-19 linger for weeks, months, or even years, is still a mystery to doctors and researchers.” Long Covid a.k.a. New Depression. At home, swallow Prozacs, get stoned, binge-watch on Netflix, and wait for Unemployment Benefit checks. Sarcasm, okay? 💉🥹💉
New York Times: “The United Arab Emirates Is Heading for the Asteroid Belt.” And adds: “After a successful mission to Mars, the Emirati space agency is planning a tour of the debris field between Mars and Jupiter.” All good. Spread the space knowledge out. Nations around the world spent a total of $92 billion on the "space sector" in 2021. I dig this. Yet the Ukraine war cost the global economy over $1.6 trillion. You dig? End the war! Let’s shake hands with extra-terrestrials!
The United States' space budget is far and away the largest on earth. With $62 billion of expenditure on its space programs last year, U.S. government spending outweighed that of all other governments combined ($41 billion). Second place: China $11.94b. Third: Japan $4.90b. Fourth: France $4.20b. And fifth, yes only fifth: Russia $3.42b. 🛰🛸🚀
New York Times: “Robert Kennedy Jr., With Musk, Pushes Right-Wing Ideas and Misinformation.” Mr. Kennedy said he wanted to close the Mexican border and attributed the rise of mass shootings to pharmaceutical drugs. I don’t see Right-wing (or Left-wing) “ideas or misinformation” behind closing borders (isn’t this no brainer?) or mass shootings are exacerbated by excessive drugs, legal or illegal. Although these require lengthier discussion.
NY Times adds: “Robert Kennedy Jr. is a long-shot Democratic presidential candidate with surprisingly high polling numbers.” 🏦🗽🏦
Time: “Volunteering May Boost Kids' Well-Being, Study Says.” Whatever happened to the young as humanity gets engulfed by 21st century’s bombastic computer technology? Cold, cool inertia (sic). Detained in their gadget? People aged 65–74 (58 percent) are the age group most likely to volunteer formally. The old. Next, 30-40 years bracket, 25 percent. Volunteer work out there should fix a spike in youth depression in recent years. They gotta get out and sweat the funk out. 👧✌️🧒
New York Times: “James Beard Foundation, Whose Awards Honor Chefs, Is Now Investigating Them.” And adds: “The group behind `the Oscars of the food world’ created a new process to weed out nominees with problematic pasts. But that process has troubles of its own.” A problematic past messes up an otherwise fine paella de mariscos, I guess. So all chefs who abided by the New Morality (whatever that is), then and now, qualify for an award? In cooking. 🍽🥣🍽
New York Times: “Bathroom Reading at Mar-a-Lago.” And adds: “Let’s Make America Great Again — by getting Trump out of politics.” I don’t think, seriously/sincerely, that Donald Trump is a focal reason why America isn’t great anymore, as the other extreme avers. But Trump is The Convenient Alibi. Perhaps if China opts to close its doors again and Russia goes back to world trade isolation unable to sell lotsa fuel, then America (maybe) loses competition and becomes great again. 🏦🗽🏦
No comments:
Post a Comment