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President Obama in an interview with Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio says that blue collar men, the white working class, have suffered in the last decade, and Trump is exploiting their fears and anxieties. Yet he made no mention of the large parts of the middle class with low levels of assets, and the extreme inequality discussed by Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen at a Boston Fed conference on inequality in October 2014. Obama addresses the war in Syria and Iraq in a similiar manner by not mentioning the millions of refugees in that region and the million that have created a refugee crisis in Europe. He attributes the problem more to media pursuing ratings than any errors of the administration in this interview with NPR, including some of it directed by pockets in the Republican Party. This ignores the many editorials and op-ed pieces on the subject from both sides of the spectrum, the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

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A year long study by the Washington Post of all shootings by the the police in incidents of law enforcement in the U.S. shows only about 4% of the incidents involve police killing unarmed black persons. Yet a disproprotionate number of unarmed men shot are black or Hispanic- 3 of 5 people. The large majority of incidents involved people who were mentally troubled most of whom carried a weapon, persons carrying a weapon, or persons running from the police when asked to stop. The WP has compiled every police shooting in its database for analysis, something even the FBI does not have and is only now starting to put together. For police the hard part is when to know a certain behaviour such as reaching into the pocket after a police chase was harmless or risking the officer's life, as shown in a video carried by officer Lisa Mearkle in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, for one of the shootings. Mearkle was acquitted by the jury.

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Friedman describes the difficult life of U.S. air force personnel after visiting air bases in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. He talks to the pilot of a F-22 stealth fighter operating missions in Syria, a C-130 woman pilot from the Minnesota Air National Guard flying into Baghdad, a Luteran chaplain at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, and other air force men operating Reaper missions by remote control from the U.S. He sees the stress, the courage and the effort to give their best in the defense of American interests in the Middle East, and reflects on the need for similar spirit in the U.S. capital. For some years Americans had forgotten about the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and this was felt by armed forces personnel as forgetting the sacrifices that were made in the long wars.  The vacuum created by U.S. withdrawal, and the spread of terrorism as a consequence of the withdrawal, has again led to the American public having a better understanding of the importance of these missions and the courage and service of the Air Force personnel.  ...

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What is the right retirement age for health is an important question. Dana Smith points out that the number 65 that started with the system of social security started in US  by Bismarck in Germany in 1889 and Social Security in the US in 1935 by president Franklin Roosevelt has no basis on the grounds of health of the population and longevity. Since that time people live much longer to about 74 years and for 45% of the people in the US who are in the knowledge based work the ability to work continues past 65 or 67 years.  For the remaining people who are in professions involving physical work such as construction or in the restaurant industry the situation is quite different, requiring a category based retirement age that takes this into account. For these people health outcomes would deteriorate if they continued to work in stressful work for longer. Another factor to be considered is to ask what this means as a national goal. Would a nation aspire to give its citizens an opportunity to travel, broaden their minds and engage in other activities they would like to do which they could not do while working full time. In this situation these years after retirement could give people a chance to live happier lives. It is not to be taken lightly as the current protests in France show. Age discrimination in France also plays a part as there may be fewer years of work opportunity if employers stay away from people over 50 years or discriminate against women. With childcare and care for elderly, part time jobs, women work longer for smaller pensions than men, leading to a sense of unfairness. French protests show that the outcomes need to be weighed carefully from a health and national goal standpoint and the retirement age set accordingly with flexibility for harder work.  Following the pandemic years and the cost of living crisis the protests in France show the need to develop a national consensus on the issue of retirement age, and rules plus culture change in industry that ban age discrimination for workers. Special provisions for women and people in construction so that the system is seen as fair to all parts of the workforce. ...

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This is an highly important interview by the BBC with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. We have followed the path breaking work of Mr. Lighthizer at Lyrarc.com over 10 years, and have great respect for his effort on behalf of the American people and American workers. Here are some of the remarks he made at the end of the term of the Trump administration. Lighthizer says the objective of trade is not just efficiency, it must be working men and women. This is the shift that Mr. Trump has made. It will be a lasting change as leaders in both parties see this as important, says Lighthizer. There are companies that immediately want to go back to the way things were but Lighthizer says members of both parties will prevent this. This will be a lasting change. Democrats in particular could soon face strident criticism that they have let down the working class from within their party, increasing the risks of the party to represent large parts of the American population. Lighthizer says its not accurate that we started a lot of trade wars, we have simply enforced our laws and insisted on fairness for American workers. There was really no trade war in the improved NAFTA deal in the interests of American workers, which also enhanced worker protections in Mexico, for a win-win on both sides of two neighbors. "We want strong communities in the U.S. and if that means T-shirts will cost another nickel, they will cost another nickel," sums up the way Lighthizer sees it, and the way all of America would see it if one regained the idea of government for the people, of the people and with the people. "We are proud of what we have done to reorient American trade towards working people in the U.S. and less towards outsourcing and corporations," says Lighthizer. And he says that was important to do. Lighthizer only highly underestimates what he has done for America and American workers.  A lot remains to be done. The about $800 billion in overall trade deficit the U.S. has with China, Germany and the rest of the world is not sustainable, he says. The job only gets harder now that the direction is clear.    ...

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Isaacson's new book on Musk says Musk's story is a cautionary tale. The compulsion to be drama magnet or mean are not prized traits, say others.  More sinister (the hell) is celebrating a culture that does not respect the need for worklife balance, of respect for nutrition and exercize for good health. Musk's methods which he calls "algorithm", a word known more for obscurity than meaning, are nothing new. For years as the US, Japan and China, now India have innovated there is a focus on simplifying things, and to do this questioning the existing way of doing things by breaking down the existing method into pieces and reorganizing the pieces of the puzzle leaving out unneeded pieces. What is the key to his success as it was for Jobs at Apple is creating a culture in which people would invest in and take risks for innovation at the high end of the price spectrum. Jobs used design and new stuff like the iPod and iPad, iPhone to do this. Musk does this through playing the role of a social media icon but a dangerous one that does not respect worklife balance and good health habits of nutrition, exercize and mindfulness. In processes this can give you a process that takes less time and money- how India's moon mission and rover Chandrayan 3 was done for $78 million showing these work practices of Musk are nothing new, and universally adopted by successful companies and nations. Newer ask your employees to do what you would not do, is also adopted by the best managers. By turning it into a mantra it obscures the fact that America today is a country of massive inequalities where two thirds of 4th graders cannot pass ACT reading test and half of retirees have zero savings, working people and families face a cost of living and health crisis and are badly neglected. How does it help to role model as an icon and popularize a culture that tolerates and accepts such conditions that would leave men deeply troubled, including America's leaders Washington, Lincoln and FDR if they were alive today. ...

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What has happened that makes it so hard for Democrats Biden who stood on a picket line for the UAW autoworkers union, Harris fighting for workers, that they cannot easily convince workers that they are on their side? It is because compared to 1980 not the lowest income groups but the "downwardly mobile" white and other groups without college degrees have taken the brunt of the loss of manufacturing jobs. It is why the "zero-sum" stories of the former president have appeal to some workers who have lost the most from deindustrialization of the US. Even though Biden, and Harris, have fought hard and are putting in place the policies for the fight to reindustrialize America by taking old plants and modernizing them one by one across the country. No one has ever done this before including years in which the former president was in office. In these visual graphs it is easy to see the sharp decline in incomes and status in society of workers without college degrees as the economy changed after 1980 sending steel, auto and other industries to Asia. By 2024 these workers lives had been upended by the loss of these industries and the hope for income and place in society that existed in 1980. Every US president from Reagan through Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump had failed to address this. Biden was the first president to take this up but too much has happened with to reverse this in 4 years, the pandemic, inflation from loss of supply chains to Asia, and wages not keeping up with cost of living.  NYT's Badger, Gebeloff and Bhatia show analysis of the economy, incomes and jobs in 1980 vs the economy, incomes and jobs in 2024 for persons with a college degree and without a college degree.It shows the sharp differences in the eastern Midwestern states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania over 4 decades of job losses, loss of income status and self worth for men without college degrees. With their jobs in manufacturing disappearing also disappearing was the middle class lifestyle- of owning a house, having a cottage or boat in the countryside, and sending kids to college. ...

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Jack Draper of Britain joins the ranks of inspiring British sports athletes such as Brayshaw of the British women's Olympic rowing team who had suffered injuries in an accident to come back for the gold medal. Draper after suffering hip pain flareup and much preparation, hard work, gets to the finals of the Indian Wells Open to bean Rune of Denmark. Draper had no sign of nerves throughout his game. He had struggled in pre-season with flareups of hip pain. “I felt like I deserve it, in all honesty. The amount of adversity I’ve been through, the amount of sacrifices and time all the people around me have put in and the hard work, it’s an emotional feeling to know how much you’ve gone through and put in. To be here now and say I’m going to be No 7 in the world, honestly I can’t tell you how much that means to me.” Draper acknowledged the efforts of his team in a picture shown here in The Times. About his own effort Draper says- “I wasn’t expecting this. I put in a lot of work over time. I am just so grateful and so happy to be out there and able to play with my body feeling healthy and my mind feeling great. Just all the work I have done in the last few years, it feels like it is coming together on the big stage." In 2022 a new player 19 year old Carlos Alacaraz of Spain burst into the top ten by winning the US Open over 23 year old Casper Ruud of Norway. In 2025  23 year old Jack Draper of Britain beat Alcaraz and 21 year old Rune of Denmark to win the finals 6-2, 6-2 of the Indian Wells US tennis championship. There is now a generational shift in tennis. And not just men's tennis. The women's tennis final was won by 17 year old Mira Andreeva of Russia after losing the first set to Sabalenka 6-1, she maintained composure after a toilet break to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. ...

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  A look at European history shows even in the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants France took the Protestant side when it was in its national interest. Other European nations also did the same in the Thirty Years War 1618-1648. China shifted out of the Soviet Bloc in the 1970's. There is no monolithic way in foreign policy. US sees it in its interest to get a European population Russian on its side or separate from China in meeting the challenge from China. After 3 years of war in which the US relations with Russia deteriorated because of the Ukraine war and US supplying Ukraine under the Biden administration, DJT reverses US policy to improve relations with Russia. The goal is to improve US-Russia relations. Because this also involves ending the Ukraine war that is destroying a whole generation of young men in Russia and Ukraine, US is exploring ways to end that war through early discussions to get a sense of Russian perceptions.This is why the US does not need the Europeans or the Ukrainians at the table. Ways in which US will restore relations-Restore staffing levels at embassies and consulates. Find ways to cooperate on economy and foreign policy issues.   ...

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The efforts of Syrian fighters to prevent the Assad regime from using the Abu ad Duhur base for airstrikes around Aleppo. At least 3 MIG aircraft were destroyed. The Syria Free Army fighters are young, lack training, and poorly armed compared to the artillery, tanks and aircraft used by the Assad regime. With sheer determination and using groundcover Jamal Marouf and other men of the Free Syria Army have cut the road from Aleppo to Damascus. Before the war Marouf, 37, from the village of Deir Sonbul, near Jebel al Zawiya, was a construction contractor in Lebanon. The Assad regime responds with artillery attacks on the civilian population in neighboring towns. The Lakhdar Brahimi UN-Arab League mission seems remote to these people on the ground and has made no difference to the scale and violence on civilian populations in Syria. Without the leadership provided by France and Britain in a similar struggle in Libya, and the Obama administration on the sidelines, the young people of Syria are left to fight on their own....

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Minnesotan Franz Gastler sets up a soccer league for girls in the less developed northeastern Indian state of Jharkhand. It is called Yuwa, the Hindi word for youth. He put up some of his own money to pay for uniforms, equipment, and travel for the matches. Gastler got the idea while working for Krishi Gram Vikas Kendra, a nongovernmental organization focussed on economic development in Jharkhand. One day a girl told Gastler she wanted to learn to play soccer. Gastler thought this was an opportunity to teach young girls in a grass roots manner about things that would help them lead productive lives, and give them a sense of being able to accomplish things, build teamwork, confidence and a feeling of equality with men. It did not start out this way. Gastler, a 29 year old Boston University graduate, started out working for the Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi, as a consultant in corporate responsibility, but after 6 months decided to join Krishi Gram Vikas Kendra.

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The 25-30 fishing vessels and tugboats that have supplied Misurata by sea, act as an essential lifeline to the city besieged by Ghadafi. The boats operating under cover of darkness carry both humanitarian supplies and war needs for defence of the city. Libyan volunteers staff these boats, volunteers who believe that the people have finally found their voice against the Arab strongmen who have run countries in their region for decades. The defence of Misurata has another passion for these people, men like Saif Nasser who runs the tugboat Al Iradah 6- and this is to prove to the world that the Libyan people's struggle is not a sectarian struggle which should end with a partition of the country's east from the west. Misrata is a coastal city only 130 miles from Tripoli's coast. If the city is being defended against all odds, it tells the world that this is a popular struggle to build a new democratic Libya with civil rights and civil society, and a voice in their government, similiar to the struggles in Syria, Egypt and Tunisia....

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Didi Kirsten Tatlow describes the experience of Angel Feng, a 26 year old Chinese graduate from a business school in France, fluent in English, French, Japanese and Chinese. She intervews with Chinese companies in 2010, who always ask a last question about whether she is planning to have a baby and refuse to believe her when she says she does not plan this for five years. Her first job is with a company promoting Chinese brands, which turns out to be bad as the company fires people immediately to slash costs, maintains long working hours and does not respect basic rights. One woman has a miscarraige and is ordered back to work in three days. The socialist era structures have been removed in China and this includes some of the protections for women, and the old ideas are returning in force. Angel decides to work for a semi-state organization run by the Ministry of Education. Women's rights are better protected in state sector companies. The pay of $625 a month is abit lower but it has benefits, including lunch at the canteen, housing allowance, and hours are 8.30 to 5 pm for 5 days a week. Her employer, China Education Association for International Exchange, covers childbirth with employees given at least 90 days maternity leave with full pay....

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This excellent article by Peta Bee looks at how we can do anti-ageing efforts to keep our immune systems strong as we become older. She looks at work by an expert in immune cell biology, Janet Lord, who is head of the Institute for Inflammation and Ageing at Birmingham University. It is now proven that the link between ageing and immune systems can be guided in constructive ways. At sixty and seventy years age one can have the immune system of a 30 year old by doing a couple of simple things which are covered here from taking 10,000 steps a day, high intensity interval training on some days each month, occasional fasting on some days, high fibre diet and vitamin D. Walking, running or other forms of exercize affect a particular form of immune function called neutrophil movement in positive ways. Neutrophil movement because these cells are the main defense against the forms of bacteria that cause pneumonia. Neutrophils in older adults behaved in ways similar to that found in 30 year olds when doing 10,000 steps a day of exercize. Dr. Lord and other researchers have found. Dr. Jenna Macciochi, a lecturer in immunology at the University of Sussex, says about 70% of our immune system resides in our gut, making gut health very important for our immunity. Macciochi is the author of Immunity: The Science of Staying Well. Important for gut or gastrointestinal health is the eating of food that has prebiotic and probiotic effect. This helps reverse the decline of immunity coming with ageing.When we chew down on fibre in vegetables, fruit, beans or lentils we have beneficial byproducts called postbiotics that act as an interface between diet and immunity, that change the personalities of cells and circulate in our blood for regulation of immune system, says Dr. Macciochi. Postbiotics from eating dietary fibre tune up specific virus fighting cells that help us fight infections from flu and viruses, studies show says this report in The Times. Women in the UK get only 17g per day, men 20 mg per day of fibre. We need 30 mg per day of fibre and to do this we need to increase our intake of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds and pulses. Also important is avoiding the inflammation that comes with ageing called inflammageing, says Dr. Macciochi. To do this do resistance training, weights, or using body weight such as lunges, push ups, squats. When our muscles move we produce hormones called myokines that help our immune cells function and keep inflammation down. She believes strength work is an absolute essential to rejuvenate our immune age. ...

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Who will take up the difficult work in American childcare centers at $10-$15 per hour when retailers such as Amazon and Target are paying $20-$25 an hour during labor shortages in the US in 2021. As a result thousands of childcare centers in the US are closing and others are operating at a fourth or fifth part of their capacity. The result- less childcare and fewer women able to return to the workforce. Fewer men who can go back to work if caring for a child. This leads to further labor shortages. For a long time retailers like Amazon and Target were faulted for paying wages that made it difficult for workers to support their families. With the increase in inflation of about 5% in 2020-2021 it is even more difficult to pay for essential food and clothing. Another problem that America and Europe have lived through under different administrations in the last 2 decades is now getting even worse. Left to markets alone the whole system breaks down when one by one essential services such as healthcare, sanitation, childcare, transportation, cannot be provided. The US is facing an existential crisis not just in climate change but also in childcare, healthcare services. Both are caused by same source, a lack of emphasis on the right and essential national priorities. The causes go back to faulty capital allocation in America and Europe. $390 billion is allocated for childcare in Biden's plan in October, yet the Biden Families and Workers plan faces resistance. Gradually many of president Biden's programs for women including paid leave, child care and others are being shriveled into smaller and smaller amounts and the $3.9 trillion in spending for the workers and families plan is down now to $2 trillion.  The US and Europe face splits in society with one more urban and from the professional classes and the other more rural and in smaller urban communities and from the less educated classes each having different priorities. Only a clear resolution in the proper direction can bring relief for women, children and all segments of society, needed for a good society. ...

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Fast food that is not fast food. Environments at McDonalds that invite customers to linger a while longer and enjoy coffee at Starbucks prices. A feng shui master designed McDonalds environment for a store in Hacienda Heights, California, which is 36% Asian and 38% Latino. Changing marketing strategies to compete better and raise revenues at McDonalds.

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BBC looks at Bo Xilai and other officials in the years of the capitalist experiment under Deng, Zemin and Jintao, who ignored China's history and sacrifices of the thirties and forties fighting Japanese invasion and the struggles for modernization. And who attempted to personally gain advantage from the two decade experiment with capitalism to take China in a different and unknown direction. This may have shaped Xi Jinping's ideas for the new directions needed to continue the progress made.

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This look at China and leaders Mao, Chou-en-lai, Deng, Xi Jinping through the lens of the Hoover Institution series on authoritarianism "The Party's Interest Come First," by Hoover research fellow Turgian makes the same errors as is evident from expert at Oxford University/ Kennedy School Rana Shantasil Mitter of Indian descent. Which is to see China as an academic, not by immersing oneself in China of 1890- 1950 into the lives of China's millions of ordinary people. And how is one to immerse oneself into these lives. One can do this through the eyes of General Stilwell who loved and immersed himself in China like it could be said no other American of that period in Barbara Tuchman's well researched account of this China of 1890-1950.  One clue to this is also that Tuchman unlike Torgian or Mitter by a long shot is the only writer who met Mao in Beijing in the 1970's. In 1971 she met Mao and made observations on the lives of the people in "Notes from China- If Mao had met Roosevelt in 1945." As a result of Tuchman's account of Stilwell's personal experience of China since 1900's being lost to most Americans, there is no concept of what China had experienced with the gradual collapse of China's economy and politcal structures, its defense as China, like India, and Asia as a whole failed to experience the opening up to science and technology and modern ways of thought since 1600. The results were catastrophic for the Chinese people and for the people of India leading to economic destruction on a scale unknown in history and lives shortened and reduced by poverty.  ...

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Donald Trump's economic advisory team includes in addition to Harold Hamm, shale energy billionaire, Steven Mnuchin, CEO of hedge fund Dune Capital Management, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, Dan DiMicco, CEO of steelmaker Nucor, bankers Stephen Calk, and Andy Beal, tax expert Stephen Moore, and David Malpass, a columnist for the WSJ. The team is headed by Stephen Miller, an aide to Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. The Washington Post points out that the selection of the team with many hedge fund businessmen including John Paulson, who bet against faulty mortgages before the 2008 financial crisis, is at odds with his criticism of Hillary Clinton for her contacts with Wall Street and his message of not having any connections with Wall Street so that he could better represent the interests of ordinary Americans- people hurt by the 2008 financial crisis with the high jobless rate for older white men. In the 2008 election both candidates John McCain and Barrack Obama were shown in media articles to have connections to lobbyists for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the 2012 election Mitt Romney as a private equity executive at Bain, was a part of the financial industry. This time in 2016- after all the noise and tumult about who represents Main Street- is no different for Trump and Clinton's connections to the financial industry. Only Clinton has to respond to the movement within her party from Bernie Sanders for providing a genuine example, and breaking with the past. The team of economic advisors put together by Jeb Bush led by Glenn Hubbard may be little different in substance than the one put together by Trump in its connections to the financial and real estate industry. The only person who took on the financial industry to fight for homeowners interests shown in Lyrarc since 2008 is Sheila Bair of the FDIC, a Kansas Republican. She could truly represent the interests of working class and ordinary Americans simply from a notion of fairness that  is so much a part of the American experience. Yet she has said running for office and fund raising in the way it is practiced today makes the thought too difficult to accept. Recent developments do not offer encouragement. Yet ordinary Americans ought not to forget, and ought not to let anger affect a discerning view of things. ...