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Asked about it yesterday January 16 DJT tells the press outside the White House after a meeting announcing his Great Healthcare Plan, it is a good thing that Canada has signed a trade deal with China. It reflects the new view not clearly understood or told in the press what US trade policy is about. US trade policy in 2026 is about bringing investment and jobs back to the US to rebuild communities and towns across 51 states- once destroyed by the foolish trade policies of the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama 3 destructive policy decades. Supplementing this with the investment favorable policy of instant depreciation for investments in plant and equipment in the Big Beautiful Bill of 2025. Using tariffs to level the playing field and ensure fairness in business practices by industries and nations towards America after over 3 decades all else has failed. All the time protecting Rural America, and communities and towns across the US devastated by outshoring. Using Tariffs to make certain that drug and migrant trafficking, and hostile unelected governments in the western Hemisphere cannot take place with direct and  indirect intervention in the western hemisphere by foreign powers. To do this with the Monroe Doctrine Corollary set by Teddy Rooosevelt in his Annual Message to Congress of 1905- "A great free people owes it to itself and to all mankind not to sink into helplessness before the powers of evil." Under such a policy Canada can pursue trade deals with China as the US has done. The clear rationale for the US policy is nowhere evident in the press today, how trade and domestic policy and foreign policy converge to protect all Americans, even though this was something that was pursued under the Biden administration with mistakes made in handing the Border management to Mayorkas and Harris incompetence. In the use of Tariffs doing this in such a way that US economic interest, investments, capital and stock markets are protected by carving out areas of exemptions in the policy. This has given the US an highly advantageous use of Tariff policy in ways not reflected in the press version of Tariffs. As TR pointed out, as Lincoln pointed out over a century ago, the interests of both Labor and of Capital are both legitimate and vital for the Nation. It is time to see this as one whole and not separate to rebuild America.   ...

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The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a non partisan nonprofit organization formed in 1981 by Connecticut Democrat Giamo and Oklahoma Senator Bellmon of the US Congress, senior members of House and Senate Budget Committtee. To educate the American public on issues related to the US Budgets, where money went and how it is spent. It's estimate for Kamala Harris plan for $6000 child tax credit is $10 billion a year. The existing $3600 a child tax credit in 2021 is estimated to cost $110 billion a year. Lyrarc estimate this will be offset by savings in Medicare of $36 billion a year from Medicare negotiation with Pharma as indicated by president Biden, and by $40 billion a year in billionaires paying 25% instead of 8.2% as a minimum tax per Biden, additional savings coming from very high income earners earning above $10 million. This would bring the cost of helping children in the first crucial years of life to below $44 billion a year. And making a huge investment in children at a time when everything has gone up in price from diapers, to baby food, to childcare and early childhood learning crucial for the future of America. We believe it is imperative to invest in children after the pandemic has cost 1 million lives and left for each dead person 8-9 persons in precarious situations financially. Educationally it has left children behind from missing crucial school years. These gaps will need to be filled and this is only one investment in the right place to correct this problem to prevent America from being handicapped forever by these problems and gaps in education in early years.  ...

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US Business has considerable apprehension about the former president in 2024 compared to its willingness to consider Trump in 2016. At the time executives from investment bank Goldman Sachs and heads of oil companies joined the Trump administration. This time US business and corporate interests are apprehensive about becoming the target of a tweet they might find the next morning under a Trump administration. They are not supportive of student loan forgiveness, but when it comes to the CHIPS and Science Act they see president Biden as effective and helping industry. Business leaders have a negative view on the Trump effort through appointment of 3 Supreme Court Justices of overturning decades old rights of women on abortion, and on this issue alone many will support Harris-Walz, overriding other concerns they might have. The visions of Harris and Trump are so vastly different with one calling climate change a hoax and hyping up social issues and infrastructure needs without any record of delivery when in office, and the other a strong position on climate change, wages and income, delivering on infrastructure and CHIPS that US Business. The result is that it leaves US Business with no better option in 2024 than to support the vision  that takes America forward. There are different sections of the business community which have different priorities.  Silicon Valley, and oil, pharmaceuticals because it profits most from light regulation which brings with it social costs is a special issue not addressed here. Other business, banking, automobiles, and a range of other industries have other priorities yet also see the need for the economy and the US to move forward with a different vision than one that simply ignores climate change, and fails to address child care, child poverty, wide disparities in wealth, and other issues facing of wages, cost of living facing most Americans.  ...

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iCET Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies is a new program that was agreed to between president Biden and prime minister Modi at the Quad Summit in May 2022. It has the focus of building the US relationship with India for advanced and emerging technologies in the competition with China, and also as a way to expand India's role in the US and EU supply chain arrangement. Its first inaugural dialogue happened this week between Jake Sullivan NSA for the US and Ajit Doval NSA for India. The goals of iCET are To seek to build supply chains which increase co-production and co-development between the countries  To increase linkages between the countries startup ecosystems To broaden defense innovation and technology cooperation To build resilient semiconductor supply chains  Space cooperation STEM talent Next generation 5G and 6G telecommunications cooperation The US will speed up approval of GE Engines making of engines in India for light combat aircraft manufactured in India. ...

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Bill Clinton, a former president, is no longer a popular figure in the Democratic Party in 2025. A new generation of leaders in the Democrats seek to put Clinton in the past. Clinton's main achievement are the peace accords in Ireland and in the Balkans with Serbia and Croatia, Bosnia. In domestic policy Clinton did little to anticipate the problems of getting health insurance for all, outshoring, and increasing jobs and wages for factory workers. He was involved in the scandal with an intern that led to efforts to impeach him and resulted in much of the second term being wasted in the process. It was under his successor Bush that the egregious provision that removed the power of Medicare to negotiate prices of drugs with manufacturers was passed. Bush was pushed into the war in the Middle East after 9/11 attacks by Middle East terrorists and havens in Afghanistan, that led to a two decades war in Afghanistan. Withdrawal happened under DJT and Biden consuming resources and time leading to the affordability crisis, outshoring of jobs and lower wages for factory workers. No one talks now about Clinton, Bush, Obama, because of these wars and the loss of America's leadership in manufacturing, squandered resources of attention, time and money that would have created new infrastructure and health insurance for all, inshoring. ...

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In getting the support of an overwhelming majority of Senators to support Ukraine aid Mitch McConnell plays a key role. His remarks on the floor of the US Senate underscored the gravity of this moment in the Congress: "Make no mistake: Delay in providing Ukraine the weapons to defend itself has strained the prospects of defeating Russian aggression. Dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face. Today’s action is overdue, but our work does not end here. Trust in American resolve is not rebuilt overnight. Expanding and restocking the arsenal of democracy doesn’t just happen by magic.” President Biden's effort will be remembered. It is similar to what happened when Harry Truman had to persuade a war weary country and the US Congress in 1948 to pass bill for aid to Greece and Turkey to prevent an imminent Communist takeover with support from the Soviet bloc. McConnell will be remembered for his action, so will Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Schumer and other Republicans, Democrats that worked hard to get a decisive vote for Ukraine aid of 79 For to 18 Against, with 15 Republicans and 3 Democrats voting against. Alabama Senator shifted to a yes vote saying most of that $61 billion of aid to Ukraine will be spent in the US to hire American workers in defense industries. A $10 billion loan provision with forgiveness included was a way to get the former president to support it. On the third try America's Congress gets it through in a decisive manner with overwhelming support. This is not unlike the efforts before, when Aid to Greece and Turkey had to be passed through Congress under president Harry Truman in 1948 with both countries facing a danger of Communist takeover supported by the Soviet bloc with only US support keeping democracy in both Greece and Turkey. Even in 1948 to a war weary country Harry Truman had to persist and get the support he did from the US Congress as president Biden did today April 23, 2024. ...

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Decriminalizing hard drugs led to all sorts of problems in Portland Oregon and citizens feeling unsafe with and increase in homelessness and increase in drug activity. Mike Baker talks to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler about how a Proposition Measure 110 in 2020 decriminalized drugs with three fourths of Portland supporting it. Not anymore as most people still feel unsafe. Governor Gina Kotek has reimposed criminal penalties for possession of drugs. And Wheeler now supports expanding the police force. It is a three year experiment that went wrong also creating a sense that there a personal safety problem for ordinary residents of the city. The lack of behavioural facilities to help people affected added to the problem. This has lessons for all parts of the country, Wheeler also says the politics also went awry. Safe streets, safe neighborhoods is part of the infrastructure that America is building across the country under the Biden administration, safety and ease of living are what infrastructure and rebuilding America is about. And the perception of the need for good law enforcement and safe neighborhoods, safe transportation is now embraced across America. ...

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Five of eight unions in the German Confederation of Trade Unions DGB have increased membership. There is a shift to younger members as older workers retire. Membership is more engaged than ever before. More unions are taking up the issue of wage increases after workers were accomodative during the pandemic and Ukraine war. DW.com shows graphs of German workers having lost 18 days due to strikes coming ninth in the developed economies compared to 92 days in France, Canada 78, and the US 9 days. Cost of living action is seen as needed by workers for fair wages. There are 1.8 million open jobs and workers are now getting more confident to ask for better working conditions and higher pay, say experts. This is also happening in the US with president Biden's support. The problem is that only 50% of jobs in Germany are covered by collective bargaining agreements designed to ensure that companies pay decent wages. The EU directive in 2022 set a target of 80% for collective bargaining agreements. This makes it harder for unions yet the unions and workers are taking up the work with enthusiasm.   ...

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The needs of AI where the energy to power a city the size of Manhattan is needed leaves America short of meeting such supply with renewable solar, wind and natural gas. Nuclear had become dormant as the cost of natural gas and solar produced energy declined. With increasing need for clean energy the Biden administration considered reviving nuclear energy and included funds for this in its legislation.  In the last year Constellation which owns the Three Mile Plant in decommissioning status changed its plans under CEO Dominguez after attending AI meetings realizing that this was an opportunity. Dominguez had research done to match energy projects in the US with the demand including AI data centers to be convinced it made sense to invest, and meetings with Governor Shapiro. It is moving forward with $1.6 billion investment after a deal with Microsoft for energy from Three Mile Nuclear plant, delivery in 2028, at $115 per megawatt hour. It costs $142 per megawatt hour for new nuclear energy construction.  State and federal regulatory approvals are needed, and the risk of underestimating the cost of restoring nuclear at decommissioned plants are high. ...

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Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party wins election for president in South Korea 2025- 49% to 41% for Kim Moon-soo for the conservative candidate. South Korea's election was the result of the ouster of conservative president Yoon, who was a former prosecutor who split South Korean politics with a hardline stance and was ousted recently. Lee is a factory woker who seeks to keep South Korea firmly with the US in Asia, yet also seeks to balance this with good realtions with key trading partner China.

Biden invited Yoon to the White House as he sought to bring South Korea and Japan as firm partners in the Asia Pacific only to see Yoon ousted over losing support within his own conservative party for conspiracy theories and declaring martial law, lack of flexibility. The election of Lee offers an opportunity to bring South Korea back to moderation and unity in its internal affairs.

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French 2025 Bayrou budget compromise deficit of 5.4% target is a fragile one. Le Monde says PM Bayrou is dependent on the goodwill of his opponents the RN National Rally and the Partie Socialiste PS. Cutting the budget slightly is not popular with RN or PS and it remains a compromise to avoid the worst of not passing the budget for 2025, a responsibility the public places on all politicians and parties. As in Germany France with fragile coalitions and lack of clear voter support for one program, is not able to invest in its economy as Biden and Trump have done in the US, slowing growth in the European Union.

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In a sign that the trade negotiations with China are stalled even as negotiators met for talks, president Trump said China was slowing talks down in the hope of talking to ELizabeth Warren or Joe Biden, Democratic candidates for the elections in the U.S. in 2020.  President Trump also said China has not come through the way it said on agricultural imports from the U.S. He tweeted "that is the problem with China they just don't come through." Mr. Trump also took credit for the slowing down of China's economy from the tariffs war. Mr. Trump took credit for China's weakening economy, making some companies leave, the tariffs he has imposed on $250 billion of Chinese products causing enormous pressure. Chinese exports to the U.S. have dropped by 8.5% and exports to other countries up slightly. China's infrastructure investments are cushioning part of the shock from the tariffs war. No major stimulus is planned in China because it would worsen the debt already accumulated after the over stimulus conducted in response to the financial crisis of 2009. Both sides are willing to wait it out.   ...

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Biden's ultimate faith in the fairness of the American cause and the American people gets him two big wins with the $280 billion semiconductor bill, and the $369 billion climate change action bill. Biden says about this when many had given up hope- "The work of government can be slow and frustrating, and sometimes even infuriating. Then the hard work of hours, days and months from people who refuse to give up pays off. History is made. Lives are changed." With Europe at war and struggling to get through the winter with gas rationing it was up to America to lead the way as the world faces ever increasing floods, fires and heat waves that affect food supply and environment. And Schumer? The New York Democrat asked about the effort quoted his father who passed away last year. "As my late father said: you need to persist. God will reward you." For months Mr. Manchin a critical vote in the US Senate had opposed the Democrats proposed bills. Then Senators Mark Warner of Virginia, Chris Coons of Delaware, John Hickenlooper of Colorado took a different approach. They did not openly criticize Mr. Manchin, and appealed to his sense of history, his zeal for playing a leading role in a high stakes legislative deal. Schumer and Biden were willing to make some concessions for fossil energy now that with the war in Ukraine the US needed to export LNG to Europe to replace Russian supplies. China and India were still going to be using fossil fuels after COP26 and after the pandemic induced lower growth. The US had to find a different approach some fossil fuel concessions would make it possible to use it as abridge towards the larger goal of getting ahead on renewable energy in a big way. This opened the way for a deal that centrists could support.  ...

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This is the biggest climate bill in history. The NYT looks at the $369 billion Biden Climate bill to show how it will cut carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 over 2005 levels.

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February 2024 talks between Biden and Speaker Mike Johnson that revived the effort to pass the bill for $61.5 billion aid to Ukraine. This included the efforts of Mitch McConnell to persuade Mike Johnson on the vital necessity of aid to Ukraine. See the adjoining articles on Mitch McConnell and his critical role on what might be similar to what Harry Truman did to assist Greece and Turkey in 1948 to fend off a communist takeover supported by Soviet bloc. Aid was passed through US Congress in 1948 weeks before Greece's democracy was likely to collapse.

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President Biden made the decision to allow about half a million Venezuelan migrants who cannot be deported because US has no diplomatic relations with that country, to work legally. In New York half of the 100,000 migrants who arrived there in 2023 are putting too much pressure on the social safety net, a crisis for the school's shelter system, schools and budget. New York Democrats lobbied heavily for a change in the system. Mr.Biden made the decision to allow the Venezuelan migrants to be able to work legally. NY Mayor Adams and NY Governor Kathy Hochul lobbied heavily. The city had to house 60,000 migrants and it imposed a strain on the system. It was estimated to cost $12 billion for the city over a number of years. In the long run it will help New York State and the US with shortages of workers, yet in the short run the Republicans and immigration skeptics are protesting the arrival of migrants. Migrants arriving here after August will not be covered to not increase migration over the Mexican border.  ...

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The Republican party has split shows the New Hampshire and Iowa Republican  primaries says WSJ in this video that is essential to understand 2024. Demographic expert that the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) talked to in this video say Donald Trump has brought in working class voters into the Republican party, no question about that. Yet in doing so and with his style he has alienated what are suburban Republican voters, higher educated with college degrees, the country club type that was long been associated with the Republican party since 1900. Taking the Iowa and New Hampshire voters the WSJ shows in visual dynamic graphs that half of voters in both states did not vote for Trump. There are no differences between Republican voters who voted for Trump and who voted against Trump when it comes to gender, age, they are evenly divided for gender and age. Difference is in education and suburban. Higher educated, suburban Republican voters acted to vote against Trump. This means says WSJ is that the Republican party has now effectively split up. Immigration is not as important to these Republicans who voted against Trump, foreign policy is also important which is not so for Trump voters. Ukraine matters for these voters who voted against Trump. Abortion also matters and the economy matters for these Republican voters who did not vote for Trump. In the backdrop of all this is the advisers who surround the president, the chief of whom may be Jake Sullivan, not just for foreign policy but also on issues such as immigration. Where Michael Shear of the NYT who has covered the White House for 30 years shows Jake Sullivan actively pushing to close down the asylum and parole avenues that are surging migrant flows, and to get Biden to close the US Mexico border under a bipartisan deal worked out by Lindsay Graham and Chuck Schumer in the US Senate. Sullivan, Michael Burns and other thoughtful, careful advisers are helping the Biden administration navigate the Israel Palestinian conflict and the Ukraine Russian conflict. The Middle East is what tripped Jimmy Carter with the Iran hostage crisis, leading to the Reagan period and Reagan economic culture that is unwinding today with huge gaps in incomes and educational opportunities that never existed before in the US. What also tripped Jimmy Carter was the split with the party that John Kennedy and LBJ built on the foundations of the FDR Truman period, and his handling of the Kennedys that effectively split the Democratic party. This is the situation that is now happening in the Republican party as the Reagan era and its culture of extremes comes to a close. Of extremes not seen since the Great Depression of a working family struggling to live on wages near the poverty level in a automobile factory in Michigan before the UAW settlement that Biden was on the picket lines for, and the $55.8 billion pay package that was put forward for Mr. Musk at Tesla. ...

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The CDU has the nost popularity at 34% yet Merz himself. a private equity executive with Black Rock Germany, is not personally popular with the German public. His popularity is at about 25%. Boris Pistorius, the Defene Minister in the Scholz SPD and Greens government is the most popular politician in Germany today. Elections are only 4 months away in February 2025, a short time but also a long time with all the changes going on today. In the past CDU and SPD have worked together. Past CDU approaches may not work as Germany badly needs to invest in its economy as the US has done under president Biden. The experience of Britain shows that simply making deals and counting on free trade deals doesn't work, and cuts to public services to budgets including on basic services including water and transportation, climate, do not work either. Are their good leaders and policies that fit the times is a question that will be persistent for many nations.

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The Biden vaccination target of 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated with one dose by July 4, 2021 remains elusive as vaccination rates have dropped. From a high of 2 million a day vaccinations have dropped to 400,000 a day during the first week of June 2021. Vaccination skepticism particularly in the south and western part of the US is making it harder to vaccinate the rest of the US population. This poses increasing risks as the new variants of the virus such as the Delta variant found in India, and now the most widely prevalent strain of virus in the UK, remain a serious problem. The unvaccinated population in the US is too large for any degree of safety in numbers vaccinated. Consider that at the press briefing given by the White House on June 3, 2021, only 28 states out of 51 states have fully vaccinated 50% or more of their population. There is a large variation between different states with states in the south such as Mississippi as low as 34% at least one dose and a similar situation in Alabama. In Arkansas, Georgia, Carolinas, and Louisiana  it is higher at about 50% with at least one dose. Even these figures are deceiving as in some parishes in Louisiana only 20% have even one dose. Studies show that only after the second dose are enough antibodies released to protect well against coronavirus. This is why vaccine experts at Baylor College of Medicine cited in NYT foresee a second wave in the southern US because of the South so underachieving in the case of vaccination.  ...

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The tech boom bust since 2000 that has hurt America and Europe and which also laid the foundations for the loss of manufacturing and technology to China, ceding American leadership and critical advantage, is shown here in the WSJ. The role of the finance sector  is explained here. That has added one more factor to the factor of endless wars in the Middle East, where American and European investment in healthcare, education and new infrastructure was somehow diverted away, and much of America's and Europe's resources wasted- or not turned to the benefit of the people of America or Europe.  One financial firm that rode the tech boom to the hilt finds itself with unacceptable losses except in a severe recession. Tiger Global Management was using tens of billions of dollars from pensions, endowments and rich clients riding on some of Silicon Valley's hottest stocks.  With the plunge in tech stock values including startups in which Tiger pushed into aggressively now facing large losses after hyper valuations, Tiger's hedge fund which managed $23 billion at the end of 2021 was down 52% in 2022. Another of its funds that managed $11 billion has lost 62%. WSJ says this wiped out two thirds of the gains Tiger has made in the tech stocks since its founding. In addition large writedowns are expected on its venture funds valued at $64 billion at the end of 2021, says WSJ.  WSJ says cheap money (money somehow diverted from infrastructure and funding manufacturing in China instead of the US now goes by the misnomer cheap money) reshaped Silicon Valley in the last decade, as pension funds, rich investors and celebrities turned to well connected money managers such as Tiger to put money in tech stocks and startups. This WSJ report says compared to Sequoia Capital and an earlier generation of venture companies Tiger Global is simply not interested in management of companies it invests in, taking a broad brush approach, using Bain Capital for research, and trying to haul in a large load of fish like trawlers at sea hoping for some companies to make big gains. Many pension funds such as Calpers California's public pension fund invest in Tiger with a $400 million investment. WSJ also reports that Tiger Global's venture funds do not reflect the realities of the tech business as venture stocks will reflect the drop over 2022 and 2023, including its ByteDance Chinese tech investment which will need larger writedowns. Tiger has also not hesitated to get into cryptocurrency which has loss of about $1.5 trillion dollars. It is of interest to note that Julian Robertson, hedge fund manager of the 2000 period (when Clinton-Bush were US presidents) who ran Tiger Management provided the impetus for Mr. Coleman, then 25 years old, for the start of Tiger Global. Julian Robertson closed his fund in 2000 during the dot com bust. Coleman hired a Blackstone analyst and started on the next cycle of tech with social media platform Facebook now Meta, followed by China's JD.com as investments in a new China boom were started. The end result is that during a period of Middle East wars under Bush and Obama, and building dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies under Schroeder and Merkel, China was the gainer as the US and EU lost much of its manufacturing and technology to China. During this period US and Europe neglected investment in infrastructure that would benefit the people of America in ease of living and quality of life. Just as money was wasted in wars much of the tech investment was wasted. The companies that added value over time were started long before and relied on sales growth and new products that revolutionized their field such as Apple with smartphones that started well before the nineteen eighties, Amazon with logistics and its own style of management, Microsoft from an even earlier era. Tech monopolies Facebook, Google, and others would not be missed much in terms of real progress for the people of America. The cost is many decades of ceding manufacturing and technology advantage to China by US and the EU led by Germany. China 2030 and the war in Ukraine with China's support have shown how fragile the foundations have been with weak political leadership and a finance sector running backwards in terms of America's and Europe's strengths in new infrastructure, better healthcare, services and education for the people of America and Europe. Leaving it to the Biden administration and a new coalition of Greens and Scholz in Germany to begin the task of rebuilding America and Europe on strong foundations, including the dignity of the workers and families, that makes who we are and what we believe in, and why the free world believes in us. ...

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A big win for the US and a win-win for the European Union in the sense that it brings stability to the trade relationship. For the US it brings a level playing field in world trade that had suffered fo far too long from unfair advantages taken by Japan, Canada, European Union and other nations, in addition to the serious distortions of the world trade system with China's state version of capitalism financing an export model. So the first step was to straighten out the situation with partners and allies the US has supported in the past 75 years. US European Union Trade Agreement is reached July 27, 2025, at meeting between Von Der Leyen of Eu and DJT of the US in Scotland. It includes $750 billion EU purchases over 3 years of US oil and gas, LNG, nuclear fuel, semiconductors, etc and $650 billion in investments in US, including military purchases. It puts a 15% tariff on all products from the EU entering the US, replaces the tariff of about 5% under Biden. On Pharmaceuticals it is what the US president decides says Leyen, though for now it is included.  The EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefovic says- “I think that what was most important for us was to make sure we would have this predictability and we would have stability for our businesses." ...

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Senior Republicans Wicker and McConnell both push for the putting pieces of the defense puzzle in place so that American can offer leadership to the world in the 21st century. Biden has put pieces of the puzzle on the economic front, these are the pieces in defense and security. On D-Day 80 senior Republican leader Mitch McConnell cautions against the lethargy of so called left parties and the isolationist tendencies of so called right parties. He says America should put preparedness first, that the better part of valor is to build credible defenses before they are necessary so that American leadership is not doubted further as it has been before. He commends the plan put forward by Roger Wicker in the US Congress Senate Armed Services Committee. The plan calls for raising defense spending to about 5% from 2.9% now over 5-7 years, with $55 billion more in 2025. Wicker says the military has a backlog of $180 billion just for maintenance. For the Navy 357 new ships by 2035, for the Air Force 340 additional fighters. This in light of China's additions and in light of the Russian economy being put into a position for a long term conflict with NATO over Ukraine.  ...

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What a change DJT's first 100 Days and actions on immigration and tariffs , Ukraine and Russia, have made in China's and World relations in Asia, and in Europe - all for the better, significantly better relations worldwide.  China has worked out a peace settlement in Ladakh frontier with India. It has come together in Tokyo with Japanese prime minister Ishiba and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi holding hands, and South Korea joining, all three nations vowing to remember history and work together. In Europe Russia is being brought back into the community of nations for big power cooperation with the US after 3 years of war in Ukraine. And Germany has removed its constitutional brake on spending that frees up $1 trillion in funding for infrastructure to replace much of its rail and other infrastructure built in 1900. One would not know this reading the NYT on democracy or the WSJ on tariffs or the Washington Post on assault on federal workforce, or the Atlantic, Politico, DW.com or FR24, Der Spiegel, nor Le Monde, much of the world media slanted on way or another. One does not hear about military exercises so often as the world realizes that so called large economies China, Germany, Japan and India all depend on American goodwill and willingness to give rather than take for most of the post war period since 1950. For the last 6 years in the latter half of the Trump administration and the 4 years of the Biden administration during the pandemic relations between China and the US deteriorated and China first retreated into its own then opened up a bit. The initial idea that it could manage the DJT trade actions evaporated as Biden continued the DJT first round of tariffs. Now Navarro, Lighhizer, and his deputy Jamieson are all back advising DJT for anew round of reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China for not stopping fentanyl flows.  In 2022 in eastern Ladakh China's PLA had a big standoff with Indian forces in eastern Ladakh at Galwan and Pangong Lake. The Quad was active with Australia India and the US in Indo Pacific and China conducted military exercises close to Taiwan.      ...

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Governor Newsom and the LA riots as events unfold in immigration enforcement of the nation's laws under the mandate received by the president in 2025. Newsom as governor is playing to the politics of standing up to a president seeking to fulfill a mandate that has received support in most parts of the country including California, to make all immigration legal. 

California's sanctuary laws set it up in a collision course with the Nation's immigration law enforcement. This is also true of other states. No matter how it is presented, including peaceful protests, the policies under Obama and the deterioration with open borders under Obama appointed Mayorkas and Biden's egregious lack of proper oversight in 2023 with the largest flow of 2.3 million illegal migrants across the border, have created problems for the Nation that will take time and patience to correct.

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On major issues- her pledge to sign into law the Lankford Biden bipartisan Immigration and Border Bill after Trump blocked it in Congress for electoral advantage,  Cost of Living going up under Trump with his tariff plan, on abortion restrictions, the BBC says what Harris says is True.  Lyrarc has done its own fact check with effort for broad understanding of how her vision differs from Trump's- "As a prosecutor, when I had a case, I charged it not in the name of the victim. But in the name of. “The People.” For a simple reason. In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us." Every day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and said five words: “Kamala Harris, for the People.” And to be clear: My entire career, I have only had one client. The People This is True. It is also most revealing about this candidate regardless of sex, creed, color or race. It tells so much about this person and the influence that Gandhi and the struggles of India for independence have influenced her views on life through the influence of her mother and her grandfather who had great influence on her life and work- mother Shyamala Gopalan and P.V. Gopalan Shyamala's father a senior Indian Civil Service head for India's Department of Labor 1954 who lived and worked with the ideas an ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. On Immigration she makes a pledge to sign the Lankford Biden immigration law the first in four decades that closes the Border with Mexico and fixes asylum policy. "But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign. So he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal. Well, I refuse to play politics with our security. Here is my pledge to you: As President, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed. And I will sign it into law." Trump blocked it for personal advantage at the elections to use this as an issue which has blocked a permanent solution. Confirming this is a month old interview in NYT by Republican Senator Lankford saying the legislation he drafted would have passed Congress in December 2023 and signed into law by Biden. It came up in Congress in February by this time Trump was made nominee of the party and he blocked it so that he could use the issue in an election. This says a lot about character and more than mere fact checks shifts focus on the characters of the two people running. Steve Kerr coach of the men's basketball Olympic team says decency humility, values and character, a clear authenticity are essential in a leader. People ask yourselves what you would have done in this situation, and what would Kamala have done, would she have blocked a bill that would permanently fix the Border and change US asylum policy?  Biden went on to do this by executive action bringing migrant flow numbers down to where they were under Trump and Obama, and more than that put together a bipartisan bill with Republican Senator Lankford that Kamala can now sign into law.    ...