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Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning economist points out an astonishing fact about the 2016 U.S. presidential election- U.S. television networks nightly news devoted only 32 minutes in 2016 to all policy issues combined. And these networks devoted 100 minutes to Clinton emails. He calls this "disgraceful."  For weeks at a time in September and October the main television networks lacked the integrity and courage to ask questions and persist on the major questions facing the country of the economy, correcting income distribution that has been skewed away from the middle and working class, infrastructure rebuilding, education and healthcare, and what the policy proposals of each candidate would do for the country. Krugman does not mention this but the media devoted hardly any time to the economic plan devised by Trump that respected economists and economic analysis showed would increase the deficit by $5.3 trillion, and lead to a short term temporary increase in growth followed by a sharp decline. The worst thing that could happen to middle and working class families struggling to recover from the blow to their finances from the last recession.  The cyber hacking of a U.S. presidential election by a foreign power never received the unanimous rejection that it deserved from the television networks, not just Fox News as Krugman points out, but by all the networks. The future landscape of the media needs assessment to bring in new ideas and new entrants to bring constructive improvements, and for older media organizations to rebuild after the loss of confidence among young people. Only about a quarter of young people in the U.S. have confidence in the large media organizations news coverage according to surveys done recently. There are other pressures coming from the tech world that make it imperative to do this. Many experts point to the destructive effect of social media in spreading rumors or information disguised as facts, which are spread instantly by Twitter and Facebook, without any obligation to check the facts. This is also dangerous with a public that is now divided between better educated and less educated along political lines, older more settled in their views people, and younger people quicker in looking for the facts and checking things out before believing them. ...

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Current responses to China's different posture in international relations obscure the huge investments made by US and European Union business in China that lead to about $1 trillion in exports from China to US and EU in 2021. This could not happen without the hyper investment in China by business in the US and EU that not only neglected manufacturing technologies in the home country but did this on a immense scale that would end up shipping almost the whole of the manufacturing supply chains to China from the US and EU. Done as a carefully planned shift of some manufacturing operations it could have benefitted both China and the US and EU. In what way was this hyper move in pace and scale damaging? China's water, air and land was contaminated at a rapid pace never before seen in history, seen as early as 2005. And the hyper shift by 2015 and in 2020 is now showing the severe effects of climate change with droughts, floods and fires all over the world. The German Environment Ministry today counts the cost at 90 times in the use of coal and fossil fuels over time. On the scale that this massive and fast shift was done of manufacturing to China even more so- a hugely imprudent response of US and EU business management and executives. Instead of tackling and confronting head on the challenging problems of quality control and cost in the 1990's through 2000 and beyond at home, management at Apple and other companies simply shifted all manufacturing to China. The other ill effect of the imprudent response of American business was in the massive and wholesale shift of supply chain to China by offshoring practically the entire manufacturing base. It was to lead to the massive losses that workers, families  and communities in the US and EU that countries could not cope with as it moved on an accelerated hyper level and pace. The result was to lead to intense criticism of China and a level of rancor that has poisoned the relations with China. Some of this counsel to China was given to leaders of the Communist party who had little knowledge of American capitalism operating within constraints of social democracy in 1990. Some of that counsel was self interested given by investment banks to Chinese officials- investment bankers that have now disappeared from view- who themselves lacked an understanding of the social constraints of American and European democracies. It is that rancor that is now leading to China and the US disconnecting the supply chains leading to questions one is certain within China about how this will affect unemployment in China in the years to come. The pandemic simply accelerated this realization on both sides of this untenable situation. Still a trillion dollars in exports are taking place even as the political situation is now totally adrift -as the situation in Taiwan in August 2022 shows- the political and trading relationships at opposite ends and seemingly at war with each other. ...

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Election of Democratic governors in two southern states could mark a shift as white voters shift back to Biden and Democrats. One year before presidential elections 2 Governors races in Kentucky and Mississippi, mayoral elections in Philadelphia, assembly elections in Virginia, and  an effort to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution in Ohio, offer insights into voter sentiment. In Kentucky  a popular Democratic governor faces a challenge from a candidate endorsed by Mr. Trump, and in Mississippi a scandal affects the reelection of a Republican governor who faces a challenge from a cousin of singer Elvis Presley. In Philadelphia a Democrat is nearly assured of a win as mayor. Republicans are looking to gain the assembly in Virginia.

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BBC video on the handshake between the two presidents in Anchorage, Alaska, in neighborly style, that restored some of the trust that had diminished over the years. Alaska is where US and Russia meet with the Bering Strait only 57 miles of sea separating the two nations.

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This WSJ report looks at the efforts of sugarly cola companies such as Pepsico under a new CEO to push their cola products aggressively with advertising, and modern logistics. It cites Barry Popkin, nutrition professor at the University of North Carolin School of Public Health that they are making products that are killing us more slowly. With less sugar than before but still at a time of dangerously high obesity levels in the world just as dangerous or more dangerous to humans, because they are not as healthy as previous generations. The pandemic proved the danger of higher obesity levels. The numbers say it all-1% of children 5-19 years obese in 1975 going up by 8% to 9% in 2020, and doubling to 19% in 2035, says the WSJ. That is doubling by 2035 to 19%-  simply astounding. Popkin says the fact that Americans are living more years with disabilities, and fewer disability free years, is very much linked to the food intake. On The Guardian's pages was an article about a surgeon who has a startup in Austin, Dr. Attia of Early Medical, that promotes "healthspan." It focuses on getting healthy living habits  through better nutrition, exercize, to start at an early age as being critical for a healthy life span. It is not the same starting at an early age with good food and exercize habits vs starting later in life as this means fewer disability free years when starting later in life.  ...

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Developing monopolies in AI on Apple similar to Apple Google deal on Search on Apple devices for which Apple gets $20 billion from Google. Google pays more than $20 billion a year to be the default search provider on Safari browser. This kind of deal violates the spirit of the anti-monoply laws and the US Justice Department has taken action.

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The role of human behaviour not lockdown restrictions alone that help prevent spread of coronavirus variant.

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The Editorial Board of the WSJ questions the lack of debate on the frequent lockdowns and the quashing by public health officials Fauci and Collins of an alternative point of view on lockdowns. That point of view by epidemiologists at three universities Oxford, Harvard and Stanford favored a policy of "focused protection" of high risk populations instead of snap response of blanket lockdowns. It cites statement by Dr. Fauci that people who criticize him are "really criticizing science, because I represent science. That's dangerous." And questions the idea that one man can by himself represent science, saying scientific debate over pandemic policy was and still is in the public interest. In some ways the Biden administration has adopted some of these ideas on a new pandemic policy that does respond with focused and selective lockdowns. Today shuttered businesses, lost livelihoods, untreated illnesses, mental illness, isolation effects are all taken into account in decisions throughout the US, and other countries in Europe, in Asia and the rest of the world. Some of the emails mentioned in this WSJ editorial were in October 2020 at the height of the first wave and second waves before the vaccination drive in 2021, when the fear of the coronavirus was the dominant response. Yet a spirited public scientific debate could have prevented some of the rancor and division that has led to high vaccine resistance in the US with fully vaccinated stalling at about 62% of the American population at the beginning of 2022. It did'nt have to be that way. America could have done a lot better with sincere scientific and public debate. ...

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Chile and the dilemma of copper exports taking up 57.8% of exports in 2009, from 54.4% in 2005, making 15.5% of GDP. With the surge in China's growth Latin America remains as tied to commodities exports as it has been for decades, facing boom and bust cycles and not able to diversify into value added and industrial products. A regional economic commission says in a report, that Latin American and Caribean exports were over 50% in raw materials in 1980 and declined to 27% in 1999, and back up to 39% in 2009.

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Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon leave the Tories and the Scottish Nationalist Party weaker than before providing Labour an advantage in England and Scotland after ten years of austerity and Scottish nationalist policies. Labour's loss of Scotland to the SNP made it hard for the party to win a parliamentary majority in elections. Boris Johnson appealed to Labour's base in the north of England without any significant policy accomplishments to back it up. All this is changing with Labour sweeping the local elections recently.

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With more women getting higher education and pursuing careers, young Chinese women now prefer to be independent and postpone marraige. This has important consequences including smaller households and lower demand for some products. Women now make up more than half of all undergraduate students and half of graduate students in China. Beyond pursuing a career many women also see the importance of a loving relationship before marraige as opposed to being introduced to someone and finding a partner to go through life.

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Autism therapy billing WSJ investigation showing everything that is wrong in America's healthcare system- greed, questionable billing one out of network child getting billed over $900,000. This WSJ report says only needed is a high school diploma to start a autism therapy center and easier than setting up a child care center. Therapy costing $20 an hour billed to insurance companies at $89 an hour. Until health care abuses are checked and criminal penalties imposed for abuses in healthcare to clean up the entire system,  this only goes to show thatany universal healthcare system would be loaded up with such costs making it too costly for the government to implement. This also includes the way people take care of themselves, their nutrition, their eating habits, their lifestyles, if these are not healthy, this has to be transformed before any universal healthcare system can take place as it would be loaded up with costs that should be taken care of by prevention, by healthy lifestyles, nutrition. Doing this creates a healthy people, and there can be no happiness without health and healthy nutrition, healthy lifestyles, healthy living. It is also the first job of government to create a healthy environment, to encourage and promote the literacy that enables positive health outcomes, enables cost effective delivery of health services. ...

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Rightly seen the reality in China, says Li Yuan in NYT is not about the tallest bridge at Guizhou, or the acceleration of an AGI race with China, but that enormous debt finances that bridge, pensioners live on $20 a month in that Chinese province. Doctors, lawyers and accountants provide the $1.50 ride share in that province suggesting that all is not right when it comes to the living standards of the people the ultimate test. When it comes to AGI and AI China is simply integrating it into processes and work for general efficiency, nothing strategic about it, merely routinely integrating a technology. There are deep structural flaws in China's development says Li Yuan, when there are enduring strengths in the US. It may be that Silicon Valley is more of a problem in the US as it seeks to divert more of the resources that should go into people benefitting infrastructure in the US. Ultimately the US must seeks its own path built on the expansion of frontiers in the US since 1787, followed by industrialization in the 1870's and again in 1940's and 1960's in a government of the people, for the people and by the people. ...

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Two leading funds Jana Partners and the Cal State Teachers Retirement System raise questions about the iPhone addiction among young people turning into a health crisis. The Wall Street Journal asks readers to comment on the issue how to respond, what teachers and parents need to do, what Apple needs to do. Many teachers say the drift is towards shorter and shorter attention spans for children, and children lacking the essential ability to delve deeper into learning topics. One teacher says the iPhone does not belong in high schools. One response is that it is the responsibility of parents, yet another response says parents are getting exhausted in the process. This parent calls it like playing a game of whack--a-mole from hell. Take away the iPhone and the same thing goes on in the computer, then on smart TV, finally the parent has to return the laptop because lessons are done online.

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Two statements by Republican leaders in Congress show the seriousness with which they are approaching the issue of hacking by Russia during the U.S. presidential election of 2016. Senator Mitch McConell: "The Russians are not our friends, we need to approach all these on the assumption the Russians do not wish us well," strongly condemning the hacking. Rep. Paul Ryan: "As I've said before, any foreign intervention in our elections is entirely unacceptable. And any intervention by Russia is especially problematic because, under President Putin, Russia has been an aggressor and undermines American interests."

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The surprise is the DJT Senate bill cuts to about 75% of the solar and wind subsidies in the Biden 2022 IRA Act for $843 billion in investments that were going to Republican districts. New rules in the Senate version of 3B Tax Cuts Bill require US renewable solar to disentangle supply chain from China by 2027 or face an excise import tax. All renewable subsidies will also be phased out earlier by 2027 instead of 2032 set by the Biden administration in the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 with subsidies, tax credits for renewables solar and wind led to $843 billion in planned solar and wind investments. Suddenly much of this is placed in doubt. Instead of 2032 phase out the date is moved up to end of 2027 for 30% subsidies and to end of 2028. The result is confusion in the renewables industry and opposition to the excise tax for not disentangling from China supply chain by end of 2027 spreading to the US Chamber of Commerce. ...