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Garlic, ginger, turmeric and similar products are vital for healthy living and healthy food. So it is surprising that so little has been done before the Trump tariffs on Chinese food dumped in the U.S. This BBC report by Pamela Parker says 1994 was when the U.S. confirmed dumping by China of garlic yet the tariff that was placed was of an ineffective type that could be circumvented. As a result the U.S. producers such as Vessey in California that produced garlic for 100 years and 5 generations decided to not produce it beside cauliflower and cabbage. Of the surviving producers one producer today in California produces 100 million pounds of this product that has value way beyond the actual dollars as vital for healthy food supplies in the U.S. In fact after reports of contaminated water supplies in China imports of ginger and other such food products have been shifted away from China.  It is well known that the industrial revolution in China came too quickly and at a large cost to the environment after 1990 including contamination of the water, rivers. For this reason it is stunning that the people setting trade policy in Washington could have ignored the vital need of U.S. meeting food needs for healthy living out of its own soil and trusted farming community. To not have done so and let producers of garlic or ginger or other such vital food products to sustain health to go out of business is nothing less than a part of the growing calamity of self inflicted wounds that have happened so far. At no time more compelling an issue as today in the pandemic. The truth is that when it comes to healthy food supplies it is vitally important, as important as national security. And local supplies grown in one's own state or country particularly for vegetables, herbs, and fruit, are very critical. There is no way to even compare product grown locally to product grown in any country where water supplies may be contaminated by rapid industrial growth. ...

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The Journal's editorial calls on the military in Egypt to help an orderly transition to representative government.

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On Canada's Justin Trudeau- looking back at his 10 years 2015-2025 mostly inherited the work of his father. He tackled Covid, improved childcare, tackled the renegotiation of trade with Republicans in the US, but lacked the major achievement of the 1970's of Pierre Trudeau setting up Canada as an independent state. The Washington Post looks at the political career of Justin Trudeau. He is the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, a politician from Quebec, who was prime minister from 1968 to 1984 except for one year in 1979-1980. During that period Pierre Trudeau a lawyer practicing labour law in Montreal and educated at the University of Montreal had three significant accomplishments. Canada Act of 1982 passed into law by Queen Elizabeth and the British Parliament, set up Canada as a sovereign state. Prior to this only the British Parliament could amend the Canadian Constitution under the Dominion Act of 1867 under Queen Victoria. As a Quebeker Pierre Trudeau succeeded highly respected Lester Pearson as head of the Liberal Party, and held off the Party Quebecois's effort for separatism in the early 1980's. By 1981 the Canadian Supreme Court 9-0 rejected the Party Quebecois bills that conflicted with the Charter of Rights set up under the Canada Act which protected minorities in Quebec having education in English.   ...

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How Petraeus won support in Congress and with public opinion, while at the same time changing the nature of the effort in Iraq. His struggles with General Fallon even though he reported directly to President Bush, who wished to disengage too quickly to make adifference in the failing effort to bring security. The first effort was to bring security with the surge in troops, then to build the Iraqi forces. To keep public opinion informed about tangible achievements of modest goals such as security for ordinary Iraqis, and fewer American casualties, rather than some beacon of democracy goal for the Middle East. A detailed account by the Washington Post of how this played out in the words of key players like Petraeus, Fallon, Ambassador Crocker and others, and what it may tell one about the lessons for another very different effort in a rural mountainous backward country like Afghanistan. One that emerges is to set modest goals like security, try new approaches but with a clear eye on the field, put in younger leaders who can bing flexibility and imagination and intellect, but disengage on favorable terms that achieves these modest objectives....

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Anna Fifield says in this Washington Post report that the North Korea of 1998 with famine, and the North Korea of 2008 seeking stabilization when poverty and malnutrition were shared across the country, is not the same as the North Korea of 2018. For one thing more than half the people in North Korea work in what is essentially a market economy and most of the other half are involved in some way with private enterprise. Contacts with the outside world are also to be seen and the country is not as isolated any more. Kim Jong Un is also a leader who likes to have contacts with the outside world compared to previous leaders. 

This leaves room for change says Ana Fifield, change that could help the vast majority of North Koreans.

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India's prime minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress on June 8, 2016. The close ties between India and the U.S. were enhanced by the good personal relationship between U.S. president Obama and Modi. With a change in administration in 2017 both sides are eager to secure the foundations of the relationship, with India's agreement to the Climate Change Agreement, and other steps.

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This report in the Washington Post uses Frequently Asked Questions to give readers an understanding of the India China border conflict. The roots of the conflict lie in  China's claim to Tibet based on Chinese troops going to aid Tibet in 1792. This based on the Qing dynasty sending troops to aid Tibet after a Nepalese invasion of Tibet. Tibet and Nepal are neighboring countries in the Himalayan mountains,  Nepal has a border with Indian state of Bihar, and Tibet is north and northeast of Nepal, all in close proximity of several hundred kilometres from India but four thousand kilometres from Beijing near Korea and Japan. The Sino Nepalese war, called the Gurkha war in Chinese, was the result of a dispute between Nepal and Tibet over debased silver coinage supplied by Nepal to Tibet and Tibet's demand for compensation, as well as a dispute about salt supplied by Tibet to Nepal. Chinese forces were repelled by  the Nepalese Gorkhas, and eventually the conflict was settled with a peace treaty between Nepal and Tibet with Chinese mediation for the Tibetan side. When the British East India company intervened in the region in 1815 China was not present, and when Nepal and Tibet had another war in 1855 China was not present.  For the first half of the twentieth century Tibet printed its own stamps and was an independent country negotiating treaties with Britain. China's brief intervention in 1792 is the fact cited by China for its claim to Tibet. Crossing the high mountains to get to Tibet from China's western frontier was for most of history and during this 1792 intervention, a journey that took 3 or 4 months with yaks and mules. Because of the sheer logistics China was present only in a symbolic way in Tibet or Nepal, both regions far more autonomous and remote from China than say a Finland near Russia. It takes 5 hours to go from Helsinki to St Petersburg in Russia. This is about the distance between the border with Nepal in Bihar, India, to Tibetan border with Nepal. By contrast it takes four thousand kilometres journey from Beijing to Tibet and over steep mountain ranges and rivers which would took months of journey with mules and yaks all the way into the twentieth century.  Finland was part of Sweden till 1809 when it became part of Russian Empire, till 1917 when it became an independent country. The Soviet Union invaded Finland one more time before World War II and was repelled, but this is attributed to Russian fears that Finland could be used as a base for an invasion of Russia. Tibet was a buffer between the British Empire and China. Chinese Nationalists party and Communist party thinking may have changed after Japan's invasion of China in the thirties, making extending China's western frontiers to the borders of India as part of the new nationalist idea.  How else can one see Beijing in East Asia throughout its history suddenly at the border with India after its takeover of Tibet in 1950. The period in 1950 when India was just coming out of the partition and tackling millions of refugees on the border with newly created Pakistan.      ...

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Damian Paletta of the Washington Post says that credit goes to Gary Cohn a former Goldman Sachs president, and head of the president's National Economic Council for the way he has quietly built up a group of leading experts on major initiatives of the Trump administration such as tax reform, infrastructure plans. Compared to the infighting and other problems in the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, Cohn is credited with building a core of ideas and experts that bring Trump more to the centre and with the prospect of winning Democratic party support. He has helped shift the president to set up a more balanced approach, less confrontational with China and not calling China a currency manipulator, getting support for the Export Import Bank, and more receptive to the Federal Reserve led by Janet Yellen. This report says an alliance of moderates is centering around Adviser Jared Kushner, Cohn, and in other reports Tillerson in foreign affairs is seen as being part of this group. On NAFTA the president has moved to a less confrontational approach with Mexico, which has helped the Mexican peso recover and improved prospects for the Mexican economy.  On infrastructure new ideas to find financing are needed and a plan to tax carbon emissions is intended to draw Democratic support as well as provide some of the funding. About $200 billion in taxpayer money and $800 billion from private investors is being discussed at the National Economic Council. This report says Cohn suffered from dyslexia in childhood, graduated from American University, and joined Goldman Sachs in an unconventional way. He shares a passion for deal making with president Trump, yet at the same time values the views of experts he has brought to formulate concrete plans for the way ahead. About 25 experts with extensive experience in government helped put together new tax changes, infrastructure plans, and international trade deal plans. His predecessor at the NEC, Gene Sperling, gives him credit for quietly pulling together the experts and doing the planning that the Trump administration now depends on. ...

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The new price of the Leaf is $35,200 for the 2012 model year as more features were made standard by Nissan. The Leaf will now cost $27,700 after a $7,500 federal tax credit in the U.S. The higher price also reflects the stronger yen as the Leaf is made in Japan. Every Leaf is sold from a waiting list, with sales in only some states- including Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Nissan's marketing chief, Brian Carolin, says about 1000 vehicles a month will be sold for the remainder of 2011. The average customer of the Leaf drives the car with an all electric range of 75 miles, for 30 miles each day and charges it for 3 hours a day. Average household income is $140,000. The 2012 standard model comes with a cold weather package, heated seats, battery warmer and steering wheel, and a fast charging arrangement that gets it recharged in 30 minutes, instead of the 8 hours.

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The cultural identity of the Nation that has existed since the founders Washington and Jefferson, and since it's second beginning Lincoln and then TR and FDR,  was seen to be at risk in 2024, yet no party has put forward the need for Cultural Literacy as a Nation as part of national classroom education, a plea by E.D.Hirsch Jr. of University of Virginia, and others, from the 1980's onwards. Kash Patel is a public defender from New York, who worked in the NSC staff in the first Trump term. He is of Gujarati East Africa origin who studied at University of Richmond for history and Pace University for his JD. He actively defended DJT in what is known as the Nunes memo for the Mueller investigation into links with Russia. He also faced opposition after Defense Secretary Esper was replaced and he served as assistant to the new Defense Secretary, in appointment to the FBI, by then Attorney General William Barr. Kash Patel actively campaigned for DJT during the 2024 campaign. In addition to cost of living crisis for middle and working class families, unease about migration and the lack of Democrats sensitivity and urgency to serious issues raised by fentanyl flows and migrants crossing the border, the pressure on Border Patrol, were major issues in western, southern and midwestern states, leading to a Republicans gaining the White House, the Senate and the House in 2024.  The cultural identity of the Nation that has existed since the founders Washington and Jefferson, and since it's second beginning Lincoln and then TR and FDR,  was seen to be at risk, yet no party has put forward the need for Cultural Literacy as a Nation as part of national classroom education, a plea by E. D. Hirsch Jr. of University of Virginia, and others, from the 1980's onwards. Other issues were transgender and the dilution of morals and religion in the national life since the European settlement of the continent, the sense of losing identity as a Nation.  ...

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As Washington Post writer points out from personal experience- he is one of those who put up 15% to buy ahome inDenver at the top of the market and now has negative equity as prices drop- negative equity is one of the most serious problems facing the US economy. It has the potential to undo many of the encouraging things from the stimulus, as rising foreclosures continue to act as adrag on the overall economy. As he says about one fourth of Americans with home mortgages, or about 11-15 million people, owe more money on their homes than the market value of their homes. As Hoffman says the administration's approach has been a Band-Aid at best for a serious injury. The Obama administration set aside only $75 billion to get banks to modify loans and also made this voluntary for banks to modify loans. Treasury Secretary Geithner testified in Congress: "This is a conscious choice we made, not to start with principal reduction. We thought it would be dramatically more expensive for the American taxpayer, harder to justify, create much greater risk of unfairness." But making it voluntary means very little of this $75 billion has gone to help achieve modifications- banks had no incentives to do this. Only 31,000 permanent loan modifications have been made. Of the 750,000 temporary loan modifications made as of Dec 2009 only 4% of homeowners signing up have qualified for permanent federal relief. See the links to Martin Feldstein's proposals for this on the pages of the Wall Street Journal in 2008 and 2009 which called for aggressive program of relief for the sake of the economy. With 2.4 million Americans likely to lose their homes in 2009 according to Moody's Economy.com estimates, following the 2 million in 2009 and 1.7 million in 2008, this may be a serious mistake of the Obama administration and drag out this recovery....

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John Podesta's emails were hacked and then released through WikiLeaks to the media and public during the 2016 presidential election campaign. Stone commented at that time about the Wikileaks revealing damaging information about the Clinton campaign. Here Podesta gives his version of events in the Washington Post on the day of the arrest of Roger Stone in Florida by FBI agents acting in the Mueller investigation.

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Leon Panetta, former Defense Secretary in Obama's first term, and president Clinton's chief of staff, says president Obama made a series of poor decisions for Iraq and Syria. Not following up on the "red line" of use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime has damaged U.S. credibility, says Panetta. The failure to lead in budget fights, on health care, is seen in foreign policy for Iraq. There Panetta points out Obama failed to lead to ensure that Maliki had to agree to a residual troop presence in Iraq, for without this the hard won gains under the previous Republican administration could easily be allowed to slip away. Sectarian tensions, and rise of ISIS could have been controlled by having U.S. troop presence, according to Panetta. White House centralized power under Tom Donilon, chief of staff, and John Brennan, counter terrorism advisor, to th detriment of input from the Defense Secretary and the Secretary of State, says Panetta. Panetta says Obama lacks fire and too often does not take the lead as a president should. A similiar complaint is made by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, who covered Nixon and Watergate, after observing Obama's dealings with the Republicans and Congress up close in the first term....

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As the related article in The Washington Post points out the narrative inside India relates more to the the sense that terrorism has been a persistent problem for India and the public's sense that action was needed. Most of the issues in South Asia relate to development, roads, dams, bridges, airports and housing that need to be built, healthcare, sanitation and education on a massive scale. This is an area where India can show the way forward for South Asia, and be the real test for Mr. Modi after the many projects that he has initiated in India in the first term. It is only ordinary Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, and other people in South Asia that are paying the price for neglect of development and infrastructure as China, South Korea and other nations have forged ahead. A focus on development is the right sphere for competition both for Mr. Modi and for people in the region.

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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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 U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, views China's response in trade negotiations as one of conducting extended negotiations that lead to little change. This has continued says Lighthizer for over a decade putting the U.S. at a serious disadvantage in trade. At a White House meeting in August 2017 Lighthizer convinced president Trump that China was in his words "tap, tap, tapping us along."  This confirmed president Trump's own instincts about the U.S. trading relationship with China. Lighthizer is a veteran of trade negotiations, having experience in the Reagan administration as the Deputy Trade Representative in 1983 in negotiations with Japan, when Japan was in a similar situation that China is today. At the time trade negotiations with Japan were getting nowhere. Lighthizer is said to have turned one Japanese response in negotiations into a paper plane and sent it flying right back. Lighthizer does not seek the limelight but is serious about his role having published op-eds in the NYT and WSJ since 2000 about how U.S. trading relationships were putting the U.S. and U.S. workers at an unfair advantage. Many of these op-eds are in the Lyrarc archive and a Search with the term "Lighthizer" would bring up these articles. This report in NYT shows how the role of Lighthizer was not anticipated by China when it sent Liu He to Washington in November 2017 to negotiate with the U.S. President Trump made certain Liu He and other Chinese leaders would have to talk to Lighthizer first. In a session with president Jinping laid out U.S. views that the past negotiations had accomplished little and new negotiations had to be undertaken very differently from negotiations in the past. Earlier in July trade negotiations conducted by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were "shut down" by president Trump because China continued to repackage earleir offers which meant little to the U.S. As a lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher LLP Lighhizer represented steel industry clients hurt by subsidized Chinese steel industry imports. Mr. Trump and Lighhizer have bonded well because their instincts have been the same- that the U.S. had not been well represented in earlier negotiations by lawyers who saw themselves as speaking for American exporters.  Lighthizer is also a seasoned trade negotiator and has waited for the right time and situation to tackle the unbalanced trading relationship with China. For 30 years Lighhizer represented American manufacturers as he practiced trade law at the Skadden law firm. His strategy has been to get the administration to unite behind a clear trade strategy. He says "I try to be friendly in trade negotiations. I am not the theatrical type. The art of persuasion is about knowing where the leverage is." At this time the leverage lies in the huge trade surplus of about $300 billion China has with the U.S. The U.S. goal is to bring this down by $100 billion through this new negotiating strategy as earlier negotiations have failed. ...

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Job prospects for college graduates in 2011 are showing significant improvement from the previous year. About 19% more graduates will be hired in 2011 compared to 2010, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. For college seniors, the survey shows 41% having an offer in 2011 compared to 38% in 2010. But the situation remains difficult for students who graduated in 2009 and 2010. Ernst & Young hired 2800 graduates in 2011- up 22% from 2010. The jobless rate for college graduates in the age group 20-24 is 6.4% in April 2011, coming down from 7.1% in the prior year, according to the Labor Department. In April 2007 the unemployment rate was 3.5%. The situation is uneven, with better prospects for graduates in computer science, engineering, accounting and economics, and most of the jobs in the private sector.

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The inaction of the first President Bush during the Shia revolt in Iraq in 1991 is deeply embedded in the Shia psyche in Iraq. It is seen by the Iraqi Shiites as the original event of the Arab Spring, ten years before before the democracy movement in Tunisia. What is less known is that the revolt in Benghazi, Libya, faced the same fate of inaction by President Obama, and his administration. It was saved only by the decisive and early action of France and Britain, with French president Sarkozy leading the way. Only when the tide began to turn after the French-British action did the Americans reluctantly follow the Europeans. Germany did not participate in the NATO action and worked to slow NATO action.

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France's response to the Paris attacks in Nov. 2015 was to invoke the Lisbon Treaty for aid from other states in the European Union, and not to invoke a clause in the NATO agreement because this would be seen differently by Russia. Another reason is that by avoiding invoking the NATO Article 5 clause France decided not to ask for something that was not going to happen considering president Obama's reluctance to intervene in the Syrian conflict, say French diplomats. President Hollande plans a visit to Washington and Moscow for coordinated action against terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. Strobe Talbott, former deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration (1994-2001), and president of the Brookings Institution, one of America's most respected diplomats, says Russia has still to prove that it is a part of the solution as the talk does not match its actions on the ground. President Obama is deeply skeptical as he points to Russia's initial incursion into Syria as creating the problems taking place there....

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The New York Times reports from the comments of current and former members of the Chase Chief Investment Office (CIO), that risk officers at Chase were ignored when they raised issues about the complex trades made by trader Iksil. Iksil's trades had the support of his manager Mr. Macris, and Ms. Drew who was in charge of CIO. The comments also indicate that at one point Mr. Macris brought in a Risk Officer with whom he had worked closely for many years. Risk Officers are supposed to be independent and their concerns seriously heard, with the authority to halt trades that pose excessive risks. Which made this kind of cozy behaviour in the CIO trading offices in London cause for alarm. These reports also say Mr. Braunstein, the new CFO at JP Morgan Chase, did not strengthen controls after he assumed office in 2010. Bank officials disputed this. The New York offices did not fully grasp the complex trades being made in the CIO London offices, and upper management let the CIO operate pretty much on its own, especially with CEO Jamie Dimon's confidence in Ms. Drew's management of the CIO. This led to another gap in the process of risk management. Dimon had other priorities and distractions, from problem mortgages coming with the acquisition of Washington Mutual, pushing back aginst financial regulation after the 2008 crisis, stress tests and others. At the same time the U.S. Federal Reserve, regulators, and Treasury's coordinated effort to merge failing banks with other larger banks- because of the lack of the process of unwinding failed banks provided later under Dodd-Frank legislation- created mega financial banks. Unlike what the U.S. under Treasury Secretary Rubin pushed for in the case of S. Korea during a banking crisis in 1997, Treasury under Geithner and Fed officials did not push for unwinding of failed financial institutions such as Countrywide and Washington Mutual in 2008-2009 Chase's own portfolio of assets under the CIO, increased by an astounding amount from $76 billion in 2007 to $356 billion in 2011. Even if Ms Drew had managed CIO well before, managing a portfolio of this size is most likely to have presented a whole set of new challenges and problems for which the CIO office was not prepared. Similiar concerns were raised by other Fed officials such as Fed governors, Hoenig and Fisher, who raised the issue that such mega-banks posed unacceptable risks and were too big to manage. Pressures to increase investing profits, growing complacency, relaxing risk management controls, led to the situation where a single trader Mr. Iksil, who had only joined the bank in 2007 according to other reports, could create large losses. This follows a situation at UBSin 2011, where a novice trader made bets that resulted in large losses....

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Efforts to impeach two previous presidents including Democrat Clinton failed in the Senate where the vote requires a two thirds majority. The first impeachment vote against Mr. Trump failed in the Senate. In the House of Representatives only a simple majority is required. Majority Leader McConnell says he will not reconvene the Senate before president Biden takes office. Vice President Pence has refused to invoke the 25th Amendment. House Democrats have moved ahead to vote for impeachment of president Trump for the storming of the Capitol offices in Washington D.C. Their impeachment statement says president Trump's remarks that his supporters had to fight like hell or they would not have a country, constituted incitement of supporters. President Trump won 74 million votes in the last election more than in the 2016 election and lost with Mr. Biden winning 81 million votes after polarization of the country. With such a large portion of the country voting for Mr. Trump Mr. Biden risks his agenda of fighting the pandemic, and other parts of his program, becoming immersed in partisan infighting. This would also result in continuing the division of the country, and continue polarization.  About 5 House Republicans are expected to support impeachment. In the Senate some Republicans say there are impeachable offenses yet only Mr. McConnell and the senator from Utah, Mr. Mitt Romney, favor impeachment.  Mr. Trump's style of governing was controversial from the beginning of his campaign in 2016, strident and taking on critics. He governed through relative moderation compared to his aggressive posture towards critics. For instance on Mexico his remarks offended critics, yet he negotiated a new trade agreement with Mexico replacing NAFTA to ensure worker protections in Mexico, and worker jobs and wages in the U.S. Negotiations with China on trade were conducted by a seasoned veteran, Mr Lighthizer,  who was deputy Trade Representative under Reagan, and negotiated the trade agreement with Japan that worked to reduce Japanese trade surplus in the eighties. On the economy before the pandemic hit in March president Trump made significant progress reducing unemployment.      ...