2/5/25 – The international relations and economics, topics near and dear to us, is so bad. You don’t treat people or other countries like this. The US did need to take a tougher approach with allies (to a lesser degree) and foes about some things, but this is not how you do it. The implementation is terrible. It is so disrespectful, belligerent and irrational. “Owning” Gaza…. What is that? It gets worse every day. We need to take a break. We’re going to read the Bible, some fiction, etc. We’ll be back after a break to talk about other things because this is just too depressing.
2/5/25 – We hope everybody’s read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, from St. Paul, MN. Bloomberg makes a keen reference to it. The problem with rich people who break things is that they don’t end up paying the price for the damage they inflict. Therefore, they don’t learn anything. The rest of us are left paying the price and cleaning up the mess.
Trump and Musk Are Vandalizing the World
2/4/25 – Liberals are too generous and permissive. Conservatives are too stingy and heavy-handed. It’s like Goldilocks with governance. Can we just have a balanced and thoughtful approach to governance?
2/4/25 – MAGA might enjoy mistreating people and countries, in other words, making enemies, but it is a foolish approach. We’re one country. Our enemies, many of whom might have once been our friends, can team up against us, and we won’t be able to defeat them. Setting aside how unwise this approach is in terms of national security, it’s also just not how a great country becomes greater. You can get what you want with firm diplomacy and honest dialogue about what we find unfair. Continue like this, and we’re basically inviting an attack. And it would all have been completely unnecessary.
2/4/25 – Once we’ve lost our friends and trading partners, our government is destroyed and our country is poorer and less secure, then what do we do? This is definitely not going well, not that anybody who didn’t vote for him expected it to go well. It’s a matter of exactly how much damage will be done and if it can even be repaired.
2/4/25 – The temptation is to let the current administration get everything it wants and not say anything. Let them and their voters learn a good lesson. The problem is that this would be immoral….
2/4/25 – Canada is a great neighbor and friend, and any talk of making it the 51st state is deeply disrespectful and goes contrary to American values and international law. We respect and truly appreciate our Canadian friends. (We also love their maple syrup.) The American people have no interest in violating Canada’s sovereignty, and our leaders need to stop with these belligerent messages. We also do not understand the tariffs for Canada. Does anybody understand the goal with any of this? If there is personal animus towards Justin Trudeau, that’s a personal problem. Don’t make it the American people’s problem. Americans didn’t elect people to office to enact their personal vendettas. Our representatives need to serve the American people and our interests.
2/4/25 – There are many times non-white people might feel furious at white people for all of the unnecessary suffering they have brought on others. We might not always be charitable, and that is understandable. However, we need to remember that most of the people who suffered under white people were other white people. We need to remember that the vast majority of the people who fought in the Union Army in our bloodiest war, the Civil War, during which an estimated three-quarters of a million souls were lost in total, were white people. The same race that oppressed helped liberate. Not only can this fact help us moderate our justified anger, but it gives us hope.
2/4/25 – We, no matter our race or ethnicity, including white people, rise and fall together, all of us as a nation and as a world. We have to stand up for each other in the face of injustice, or evil will win. Let’s have healthy, respectful competition and cooperation between nations. Let’s have healthy, respectful competition and cooperation between individuals. Yes, we often want to win, but ultimately, the goal is to bring out the best in each other.
2/4/25 – An excerpt from Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste and a quote from one of the most intelligent men in human history, Albert Einstein, “‘The separation of the races is not a disease of the colored people,’ Einstein told the graduates at commencement [at the historically black college], ‘but a disease of the white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it.’ He became a passionate ally of the people consigned to the bottom. ‘He hates race prejudice,’ W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, ‘because as a Jew he knows what it is.’”
2/4/25 – The Republican Party seems to work from the assumption that public school teachers and principals are inferior to private school teachers and principals. Our public schools have award-winning teachers and principals who are able to teach a diverse student body with a variety of needs beyond academics. These schools often educate poor students facing a host of challenges. It is simply more challenging…but also more rewarding. It’s easier to teach students who are coming from economically stable, supportive families. It’s much harder to teach to a whole person who needs a lot of additional care and support. If we lose the talent that many of our public school teachers and principals bring to the classroom, it will make the country less competitive.
2/3/25 – The new administration should continue with Biden’s approach of using industrial policy to develop the industries of the future in the USA. This is decidedly not a neoconservative economic approach, but it will help make our country more competitive.
2/3/25 – The thing to know about David Frum is that he is consistently an arrogant a—hole. He has a lot of sympathy for the Jewish people, his own people, but he doesn’t give a s—t about the injustices other people have faced. F—k him.
2/3/25 – Maybe The Atlantic’s David Frum can keep his asinine, ignorant criticisms of India to himself. He wasn’t involved in the liberation of a country from approximately 200 years of British barbarism and exploitation (almost as long as we’ve existed as a nation), knows absolutely nothing of the country’s cultural, economic or political history, and has no knowledge of the many problems the country had to deal with post-colonialization, including the decimation of the economy by the British. Frum has also been indoctrinated by western neoconservative economic views and is simply regurgitating them in a vitriolic manner because that’s what he does.
2/3/25 – To Russia: There have been many “great” empires: Greek, Roman, Golden Horde, British, etc. Where are they now? The world does not do imperialism anymore for a good reason. In the long-run, it fails. The country loses materially and morally. Only fools use failed methods. If you want to dominate, you have to be willing to compete with the current rules of engagement: Be the country that can contribute the best and the most to the world.
2/3/25 – There is a difference between asserting American power and simply disrespecting other nations. Remember: Some of these countries, such as India and China, are proud ancient civilizations. They have been on the world stage for thousands of years. We have been on it for a few hundred years. This is a big difference. Naturally, these other countries do not take kindly to disrespect. Also, in the case of India and China, although they have had much friction over millennia, they are both Asian countries and share many cultural values. So, one would be wise to be careful about the relationships they are burning and to consider the consequences they may have with respect to the new alliances those countries might make.
2/3/25 – We know that many people are scared, but this is actually an exciting time to be alive. Never before has international interactions been so robust. America has gotten complacent and decadent. We can’t have this. We can’t have the most diverse group of people ever assembled become content with mediocrity. We need to be excellent. To be our best, we need great opponents, and we have them. India and China are worthy competitors. They are filled with ambitious people hungry for the prize. Africa is on its way. We respect all of our competitors. We intend to play and win fairly. We are Americans, after all. We have this question for American Gen Z and younger parents: Are your kids going to be able to compete? Maybe you should send them to school…. Let the games begin.
2/3/25 – In general, the diversification of trading partners, agreements and blocs is good for the world and international trade. From the perspective of any one nation, this might not seem beneficial. A country might want to “freeze” international trade when it dominates it, but this is not only impossible but ultimately brittle for it and for other nations. The pandemic taught the world some hard lessons, and it seems to have learned that it needs to diversify its economic relationships. This is good for all of us.
2/3/25 – Even after reading numerous articles on this topic, we’re not clear on what the new administration’s logic is regarding tariffs. That said, it might be that they would like to substitute internal revenue, taxes, which is a progressive tax system, with external revenue, tariffs, which would be a regressive form of revenue. The main difference between taxes and tariffs in this respect is that the residents of a nation are required to comply with its tax laws. Sovereign nations are not required to comply with tariffs. They can simply walk away from those trading relationships. They have this right and will exercise it to find the best trading deals that they can. Therefore, not only will exporters and consumers be hurt by tariffs, but the revenue base, both internal and external, will also shrink. As we said before, in economics and in life, there is no free lunch. Where everyone tends to make mistakes as it relates to designing policy is that they do not account for all of the ramifications of their policies, especially ones that they are predisposed to not seeing because of their biases, which we all have.
2/3/25 – India: Get the reparations. The Indian people deserve the reparations. They deserve justice.
2/3/25 – The reason India has been an economic powerhouse for all of human civilization (with the exception of British exploitation, which wasn’t India’s fault – see the reparations demanded below) is because of…(drumroll) trade. No other country in the world has this proud legacy. While Europeans were living in caves or whatnot, the Indus Valley Civilization (India) had elaborate, relatively egalitarian cities with plumbing and public baths and was exporting various goods to Mesopotamia and the ancient world. With the stated exception, India has had strong relationships with its trading partners. If a country loses its relationships with its trading partners, it will become less rich. There is no doubt about this. Although there are certainly benefits to autarky, and it should always be a consideration, one of the most important things a country can do is build mutually beneficial and respectful relationships with other countries. So, think long and hard. We’d like the American people, especially our farmers, manufacturers, and other exporters, to have a voice in where we go as a country. They deserve that. What do you think, America?
2/2/25 – Let’s speak of JUSTICE on this Sunday, shall we. Of the three great contemporaneous ancient civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilization (India), the former two having been historical trading partners with India, the only one that has remained an economic and cultural force throughout civilization is India. Egypt still exists but not as it once did.
If it hadn’t been for the British’s unprecedented exploitation of the country, it is entirely possible that India would have the most dominant economy in the world. Even after this extreme exploitation, India still has a powerful economy.
The genetic degenerates pretending to have some privileged lineage, the British monarchy, aka the inbred sociopaths, needs to be dissolved, and India needs to be repaid the estimated 43 TRILLION dollars in wealth that was stolen from her.
The Unmaking of India: How the British Impoverished the World’s Richest Country
2/2/25 – Indians: Instead of fighting about who’s more Indian, a total waste of time and energy, focus on getting well-deserved and long overdue reparations.
2/2/25 – From the New York Times, a voter says, “A lot of the time, he said, Republicans seem to support policies that hurt people. When Democrats have bad ideas, as he sees it, ‘They’re not trying to hurt people, they’re just stupid.’” The American people are so smart. From Mark Twain, the cruelty of I didn’t think. Happy Sunday!
2/2/25 – Let’s keep having the debate. A review of some other tensions: freedom/innovation and law/order (see below); and from some time back: free will (prochoice) and justice (death penalty) and sanctity of life (prolife and anti-death penalty). We generally honor sanctity of life but make some exceptions to allow for both abortion and the death penalty. We almost never take an all or nothing position, and immigration is no different. We don’t care if we are disappointing everyone. We are not here to be your friend. We are here to tell you the truth.
As it relates to mercy for migrants “versus” rule of law (it’s actually not either/or), mercy and compassion for migrants is not sinful. It is incorrect to describe it as such. However, mercy can be sinful. The Catholic Church and other Christian institutions should have taken a much tougher stance with child sex abuse. Their “mercifulness” was sinful because the acts were extremely sinful. Whether mercy is sinful or not depends on the context. It is not sinful in the context of migrants because they naturally want to flee their home countries for many good reasons. Fleeing one’s country, even when breaking the laws of another country, by definition is not sinful because it is not immoral. Their actions are motivated by fear and a survival instinct, and that’s understandable. Sinfulness isn’t determined by laws. It’s determined by morality, which may or may not overlap with laws.
However, the Biden administration did not adequately prioritize the rule of law for our own country. The open border policy was terrible governance. It created all kinds of problems: practical ones for our nation and moral ones. Our own country’s safety, stability and economics are always important. How do we house that many people coming in that fast? We couldn’t, and one could literally see it, even in northern states. Equity for migrants is also important. We can’t take in the whole world, so we need to have a system that is fair. Venezuelans making up 60% or Latin Americans making up 80% of TPS recipients is not fair to TPS seekers of other nations. What we see is that Latin Americans have too much advocacy and others do not have enough. It needs to be more balanced.
What would Jesus say? We don’t know, but we know what he said. He said all of the things people quote him on about mercy and compassion, but he also said “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s,” meaning follow our worldly laws. (We expect Republicans to follow the law and pay their taxes.) As we said before, we can’t cherry-pick which laws we follow. That is a surefire way to destroy our country. If you don’t like a law, you can try to get Congress – and Congress alone – to change it, but the law is the law. All people, including and especially the current administration, are expected to follow the law. As it relates to migrants, we provided what we think is a balanced approach before. (See below.) We need to continue to accept immigrants and migrants, such as refugees and asylum seekers, but the system needs an overhaul. We need comprehensive immigration reform. We need to properly absorb them at a quantity and pace that is manageable for our country, while maintaining our enviable assimilation process and taking an equitable approach. We also need to do soft power: helping their home countries strengthen their law enforcement capabilities and more Peace Corps. (Again, see below.)
Empathy for immigrants sounds like Christianity 101. Here’s why some say it’s a sin.
2/1/25 – To start Black History Month, let’s say this. If anybody thinks black people are inferior, they are out of their mind. They are an incredibly beautiful, talented, smart and viable group of people. Africa is rising.
2/1/25 – Skin color is arguably the worst indication of a person’s “race.” (Hint: Most people are mixed.) In any case, skin color is highly deceptive. One of the strange things about many white people is that they can get extremely brown, as tan or tanner than many naturally brown people. Many fair brown people are genetically less “white” than darker people if you analyze their DNA. You have to look at a variety of factors: indigenous groups, migratory patterns, wars and conquests, anthropology, religion, culture, linguistics, DNA and biological features (hair type, facial features, etc.) You’re putting together a puzzle of human migration and growth, which involves many factors. So, everyone can stop with their skin color obsession, whether lighter or darker. It’s practically meaningless.
2/1/25 – The British were primarily Anglo Saxon, white people, not Caucasians. (See below for the distinction.) The Aryans (Iranians) were not Anglo Saxon, so rest easy, not related to the colonizers. The Aryans were also not Arabs, Turks or Mongols (Genghis Khan). Mughals were Turks/Mongols. The Aryans were Iranians (Persian), a different ethnic group from Arabs, Turks and Mongols, and the Persians’ language is Farsi, which is still spoken in South Asia today. Farsi is not a Semitic language. It’s an Indo-European, specifically Indo-Iranian language. The Aryan/Dravidian “divide” is manmade. It is possible that South Indians might be more “original to the land” to some degree; however, Indians, north and south, have varying genetic markers of the Aryan migration, which occurred several thousand (about 4,000) years ago. Almost all Indians are mixed with it. Many Indians also likely have genetic markers of the Mughals. Stop having ridiculous blood and soil debates. You’re not winning anything, and you’re losing social cohesion.
2/1/25 – The Republican Party would be wise to be the Party of Lincoln. Racism and hatred of other ethnicities will do long-term damage to a party that has a venerable origin.
2/1/25 – Were the American people deceived by the Biden administration and the liberal legacy media for the past four years?
2/1/25 – Did the liberal legacy media deceive the American people not only about Biden’s infirmity but also on the scale, scope and composition of his administration’s open border policy? The American people deserve answers.
2/1/25 – Among many other answers, the American people deserve answers from the Biden administration as to 1) who was actually running the country because Biden seemed too infirm to do much quality decision-making and 2) who made the decision to give almost 2/3 (60%) of TPS (based on the list below) to Venezuelans. Remember: this is the same administration that had a disastrous pull out from Afghanistan. Why not the Afghanis who helped us? With a world on fire, why not more distributed across the many regions in the world that had people with legitimate claims for TPS?
2/1/25 – There were over 711,000 Venezuelans who received Temporary Protected Status (TPS) between 2021 and 2023. That is an extremely high amount. It is more than all of the other countries on the list combined. The American people deserve to get an answer from the previous administration as to why Venezuelans got preferential treatment. Was it because of a special interest group?
How Temporary Protected Status has expanded under the Biden administration