China’s Trade Expansionism.

Response to a Facebook post. 

THE Belt and Road Initiative (a.k.a. New Silk Road) is a global project per China's trade expansionism. This brainstorm was actually first drafted right after Mao's death (1976) as Deng Xiaoping took over. Through the years, China has been buying lands and giving out loans and handing out FDIs all over the globe, except in the U.S. A game-changing review of Deng's playbook took place after the Tiananmen shudder in 1989, and the subsequent erasure of the hardliner Gang of Four. 

        But the real pump happened when Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin signed a trade pact in 2000 to signal the U.S. liberal brainchild "globalization." That's the CCP's long-awaited signal. The following year, China entered the WTO with a "most favored nation" status. 

        Maybe America’s 1 Percent didn't really mind because they obviously racked up gargantuan profits by moving factories to China and elsewhere + easy access to the dragon's pertinent minerals or raw materials. But China isn't dumb. As the U.S. and Europe got into eerie internal schisms, China took advantage. Beijing's 4 giant state-owned banks wobbled the monopoly of the IMF and World Bank, then BRICS was born in 2009 (still expanding). Then Asia/Pacific’s RCEP in 2020 (China as ad hoc chief), the largest trade bloc so far. Etc etcetera. 

        While America still wrestles with itself. 🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳

Mr Trump’s Gung-ho Mouth. The Reiners. Deaths in the world. And how the media cherry-picks for the click-bait.

From my responses to friends’ Facebook posts and my response to comments to my FB posts about the subject.

JOURNALISM has a professional (and moral) responsibility to report/write only those that would aid the people and community, narrow the divide, and not to project the contrary. Presidents and you and I say stuff but since heads of state and politicians' words affect public perception, it is a journalist's common sense to only type up what the people require towards a better coexistence with society. Sounds ideal-bullshit but that's my belief.

       We judge a leader by their overall leadership, not what comes out of their mouth; and as sane people, it is primal reflex to take in only the good and reject the bad. I mean, politicians are not gods and goddesses. I once worked (as media liaison) for senators and presidential bets in Asia. If I wrote everything that I heard or told me, I'd be a non-thinking tape recorder. Not a journalist.

WORDS matter. But "words," whether they are said truthfully/honestly or in jest or in sarcasm or even in anger, have to be processed (by the media) for the greater public good. 

       In the context of current America, the divide is eerily self-destructing (regardless of where, Left or Right, we are holding fort) and I blame the media a lot for these cracks. Mr Trump as he is, says it as he feels it. And many times, that'd be careless or the words are cherry-picked as click baits. This side of the divide is so alert for those quotes, of course. They're always ready to capture the grim highlights of Trump's mouth. 

       That's how the media covers Donald Trump. Accentuating his bad mouth and downplaying his POTUS work. As conventional journalism ups the mockery grade and Social Media picks up the dirt, late night TV raises the insult measure, afterwards. 

LEADERS say stuff. Amidst all the drama, I don't think a head of state maintains poise as though they are robots. No cuss words, no bad retorts, no "unfriendly" comment–when the tape recorder or camera isn't there? Nah ah. They are human and you and me. Yet many personalities and celebrities simply say things.

       But as a reporter/editor I must know what is "off the record" even if the speaker couldn't stop yapping. That differentiates the tabloid writer from the earnest beat reporter. At least that's what I learned in journalism school. I think, I don't just hear. 

       I repeat, reporters are not tape recorders; reporters think before they write. But since today's media is more hot on pulling the man down, so WTF, accentuate the quote, I guess? That is not my journalism.

DONALD Trump isn't really criticized for his POTUS work per se, instead he is being criticized for every word that comes out of his gung-ho mouth? 

       I never liked Mr Trump, pre-2017. Never. But I closely followed his POTUS work, policy per policy (especially his foreign affairs playbook), after his MOAB drop in April 2017. From that point, he suddenly became more dovish. I rate his performance better than most but I concur that his public speaking mojo is the worst ever by a POTUS. 

       But we are talking about the President of the world's most powerful nation. While the popular hate for him is obviously the reason for all the anti-Trump bombast, I can't judge a POTUS by his crass character. Mr Trump is a lot more than that.

       There is no way I could discuss a person's language or overall personality but I am always set and ready to debate the person. In the case of The D, his individual policies. In a parallel line, Barack Obama could be the coolest POTUS dude ever, saying only the nicest words. But I can rant anytime about all the lies that he said. The policies that sucked. (He is the last POTUS that I actually covered before I quit my journalism life.)

FROM what I pointed out somewhere here, we say words beyond normal perception of cool. You and me and POTUS. But someone's death somehow quiets us down. That's how I see death, let them RIP. I don't wish death to anyone, including my perceived enemies. 

       But then there's media that is only after public consumption of the product that they toss than anything else. The media should simply ignore "words" that don't make sense, let `em go. But they pick them up for obvious reasons--not per media's job to foster unity or narrow the cracks or optimism amidst all the hate but per media's clear intent to widen the divide by accentuating Trump's mouth over his POTUS work in its entirety. 

       They know Mr Trump will say something that amounts to controversy. Yet I don't think it is only Mr Trump who wields such a no-filter mojo among heads of state. But these are the times when quotes matter more to the media than information dissemination, in general, esp. because it's hate-Trump that rules the ink. Ergo, the Left-wing media is more interested in the dirt in his words than the output in his leadership. 🏛🗽🏛

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. ☮️☮️☮️

More Epstein Talk.

Response to Facebook posts by friends. 

FB Friend: As I think you know, young girls and women have been accusing Trump and Epstein of assault and sexual misconduct for years. FOR YEARS! Often they withdraw claims saying they have been threatened. Similar to how the White House has said "Helping Thomas Massie and Liberal Democrats with their attention-seeking, while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive file release effort from the oversight committee, would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration.” 

ME: So they are not "threatened" now? Considering the names of alleged powerful individuals in the so-called list? Talks about that "list" came out when Virginia Giuffre accused Prince Edward in 2019/2021. The "list" could be a figure of speech, not a physical list although wealthy/powerful clients of sex traffickers are a fact. 

       Uhh would there be a “list” or “crime logbook” that includes names of ex-U.S. presidents, UK royalty, super wealthy individuals etcetera? What, countersigned with corresponding photo-ops (with pimped women, men, child) as proofs? The thought of a physical Epstein clients list baffles me.  

I am thinking, do the new "victims" now have protection? Whether the names that they will name (verb) are guilty or not (that'd be tough) the end game are $settlements, regardless of the “Epstein documents.” 

       And Mr Epstein is dead; Ghislaine Maxwell is now in jail. Yet after Ms Giuffre settled (with the prince), she figured in a car crash then committed "suicide" this year. These are more truths than facts about whistleblowers and those who were brave enough to come out. But the word "settlement" is alluring to legal pursuits, of course. 

       Meanwhile, human trafficking stays as a lucrative criminal endeavor. What are we doing about all these? Amidst the Giuffre saga, a French nonprofit reported about a global trafficking ring that Jeffrey was allegedly connected with. Of course, he was. That is no brainer. Yet are we using this Epstein thriller against Mr Trump or are we pursuing those ghouls and hounds instead? 

       Otherwise, why only now that these victims came out? In 2021, they should have joined Virginia in her fight. They didn't. ⚖️😒⚖️

The RUSSIA and SOUTH AMERICA Story.

Past Facebook posts. Not updated.

MY TAKE on the NEWS. “A World Away From Ukraine, Russia Is Courting Latin America.” And adds: “The Ukraine crisis has revived a struggle over Latin America between the U.S. and Russia, as Vladimir V. Putin seeks greater influence in the region.” Pretty much like Asia, Latin America’s stand on the Ukraine crisis is ambivalent, if not diverse or vague. Yet no Latin/Asian country has shipped or vowed military aid to Kiev, unlike most European nations.

       Meantime, before all these blew up, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made an indirect threat that Russia could not rule out deploying military forces to its allies Venezuela and Cuba, as he highlighted Moscow’s clout in the Western Hemisphere. Yet even as violence carries on, most of Latin/South America stay generally neutral.

       Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro reiterates that his country is maintaining neutrality in the conflict. “We are not going to take sides. We are going to continue to be neutral and help however possible to find a solution,” he said. Brazil has deep economic ties with Moscow, mostly by way of oil and fertilizer.

       Mr Ryabkov’s dare wasn’t the first time that the Kremlin issued a warning. In 2008, during the conflict over Russia-backed separatists in Georgia, Russia first deployed Tu-160 nuclear-capable bombers to Venezuela, later followed by four warships. Russia sent its Tu-160 bombers back to the region again in 2013 as the United States and European Union pressured the country over its support of separatist forces in Ukraine.

       And as President Biden pounds on President Putin some more with a U.S. ban on Russian oil imports on Tuesday (3/8/2022), expect a more equally damning response from the Kremlin. Peace seems to be losing its mojo. 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇦🇷

DURING Donald Trump’s tenure at White House, Washington was able to regain lost ground in Venezuela without a bloody “regime change” following massive anti-Nicolas Maduro protests in Caracas. But that doesn’t mean the country with a massive oil reserve is all-American. Ideologically, Venezuela is still a Russian advocate. Hugo Chávez and his successor Maduro are Russia’s most reliable allies for projecting force into the region.

       Take note: Russia’s position in Venezuela is arguably among the largest and most strategically significant of its positions in the region. The two key axes of the Moscow/Caracas relationship have been arms sales and oil.

       With respect to arms, from 2006 through the death of Chávez in 2013, Russia sold over $11 billion in arms to Venezuela, including T-72 tanks, BMP-3 and BTR-80 armored vehicles, Su-30 fighters, Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters, and other military end items, making Venezuela by far Russia’s largest military partner in the region. The two countries also agreed to establish a rifle factory in Venezuela, although the project has suffered significant delays due to corruption and other problems.

       As the political and fiscal crisis of the Venezuelan regime deepened and its ability to pay its bills diminished, Russia’s military engagement shifted from the purchase of new end items to maintenance, upgrades, training, and other types of support.

       Enter petroleum. Chávez practically led Russia's oil giants with open arms: Gazprom, TNK, Lukoil, and Surgutneftegas, and later Rosneft. But as the Venezuelan economy collapsed under Maduro, most of Russia’s energy biggies left or lessened investments. 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇦🇷

NICARAGUA has long been one of Russia’s key partners in the region, with the relationship centered on the bond with leader Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista movement (FSLN), which the Soviet Union armed and helped bring to power in 1979.

       Ortega rekindled the relationship when he returned to office in 2007, and his government was the first in the region to diplomatically recognize the Russian-backed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia when they broke away from the Republic of Georgia in 2008.

       Over the next 14 years, Russian support for the Ortega regime grew from donations of buses and foodstuffs to Mi-17 helicopters, Yak-130 fighter trainers, An-26 medium transport aircraft, TIGR armored cars, T-72 tanks, ZU-23 anti aircraft guns, and an array of older Russian armored vehicles, as well as Mizrah patrol craft and Molina missile boats.

       Russian cooperation also included setting up a downlink facility for the Russian GLONASS satellite system, inaugurated in 2017, and a Russian regional training facility in Managua for the Russian counterdrug organization FSKN. The FSKN facility in Nicaragua offers Russian operatives the opportunity to interact with police officials from across Central America who would not normally send officers to Russia for training. 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇦🇷

CUBA. Russian military engagement with and arms sales to Cuba have been limited since the abrupt cutoff of Russian aid in 1993 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, Russian firms were still involved in the Cuban petroleum sector, in nickel mining, and in the transportation sector. Russia has sent 1000 minibuses and 50 trains to Cuba, and it sells Lada cars and Kamaz trucks to the island, among other goods.

       Peru. Russia has had a special relationship with the Peruvian military, and particularly its army, since the presidency of Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975), a left-wing general who seized power in a coup d’état. Alvarado followed through with a shipment of Soviet arms initially intended for the Chilean government of Salvador Allende. Older generation Peruvian arms included Mi-8, Mi-24, and later Mi-17 helicopters, and T-55 tanks. Peru also purchased Su-22 fighter bombers and Su-25 fixed-wing aircraft from the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which the country later used against Ecuador during the Cenepa War of 1995.

       Argentina. Russia’s role as a purchaser of Argentine grain and beef has opened a door in the relationship between the two countries, even under right-of-center and military governments. The left wing of the Peronist movement in Argentina, including former President and current Vice President Christina Fernández de Kirchner, has entertained military relations with Russia. Argentina has contemplated buying Russian fighter aircraft in both 2015 and again in 2021, including Mig-29s and Su-30s. Nonetheless, it has yet to consummate a major arms deal. 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇦🇷

OTHERS. Beyond those mentioned, other potential Russian partners in the region are Xiomara Castro in Honduras, Gabriel Boric in Chile, Luis Arce in Bolivia, and if former guerrilla Gustavo Petro wins in Colombia in the nation’s May 2022 elections.

       Chinese money remains an enabling factor in all these, as expected. Russia’s economy, with a gross domestic product of $1.48 trillion, is only a tenth of the size of China’s $14.7 trillion GDP. Moreover, Russia’s economy is far less diversified and more dependent on earnings from oil exports, which are subject to significant fluctuations. Correspondingly, Russia’s ability to provide significant quantities of military hardware or fund other projects on credit to partners in the region for an extended period is limited.

       And so Beijing comes in. Given Vladimir Putin’s resolve, at this point, to prolong his military operations in Ukraine, Xi Jinping stays conveniently here or there, but that is a classic CCP stance. And we know where Beijing’s allegiance is—although I see China favoring an end to hostilities, prolonged war means prolonged delay of work.

       Which goes to say, the most credible power that could convince Russia to end its aggression in Ukraine is China. We don’t want this mess to rub off in South America or elsewhere. Bad for business. 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇦🇷