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DJT energy and climate change policy as response to China getting away with 80 GW of new coal powered electricity plants for 2024 under Paris Agreement
01/31/2025
DJT Alaska policy to open up the natural gas potential in Alaska comes from the Republican position that the US should also get some allowance for its needs the way China did for 80 GW of coal powered electricity production in 2024 under Paris Agreement. This is the Republican argument as Senators Dan Borghum of North Dakota and Dan Sullivan of Alaska present it for DJT. DJT reasoning is that Paris Agreement is not fair to US needs. Seen in this way the DJT policy is much more nuanced than media present it- it is for Make America Great Again by using advantages such as Alaskan production and Shale while at the same time pursuing pristine environment and tackling climate change. As this theory goes the stronger economy would give US more resources to tackle climate change. Biden signed on to this approach in a small way when he let Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia put the same idea in his energy plans. Seen in this way DJT is not portrayed as trying to destroy climate change action plans.
Linked Articles
Opinion | Trump Lifts Sanctions on Alaska
WSJ 01/31/2025
China’s coal-fired power boom may be ending amid slowdown in permitsThe Guardian 01/31/2025
Why Trump plan to end tax on Social Security benefits is a fatal mistake
08/17/2024
Senator Larson says it is a fatal mistake as lost revenue is not made up leading to a Medicare insolvency in 2031, and Social Security insolvency in 2033. Social security benefits will then by law will be cut in 2033 by 25%., a dangerous step tragic for many on Social Security who are pushed into poverty.
Linked Articles
CNBC 08/17/2024
Donald Trump's Suggestion to End Taxation of Social Security Benefits | Committee for a Responsible Federal BudgetCommittee for a Responsible Federal Budget 08/17/2024
Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor "dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face" and the passage of $61 billion aid to Ukraine April 2024
04/26/2024
Mitch McConnell persuades 31 Republican Senators a majority of his caucus to support Ukraine's defense by joining Democrats, working "shoulder to shoulder" with Democrat Pat Schumer to get passage of Ukraine aid legislation in the vote 79 to 18 in April 2024. It comes at a critical moment of the defense of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, just 25 miles from the border as shown by NYT in April 24 coverage. It is part of the larger effort to secure a peace in Ukraine with the help of India and China as the war drags on for another year.
Linked Articles
Bucking G.O.P. Isolationists, McConnell Was Linchpin in Winning Ukraine Aid
NYTimes.com 04/24/2024
Senate Approves Aid for Ukraine and Israel, Sending It to Biden’s DeskNYTimes.com 04/24/2024
How the transition from the Soviet Union in 1985-1989 was mismanaged by Gorbachev leading to a 40% drop in GDP, 2000% inflation, drop in life expectancy , worse than the US Great Depression in the 1930's
09/03/2022
It is not commonly known in the US how bad the collapse was in Russia after 1989. An understanding of this in the US and Europe not just of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and its effect on Eastern Europe and West Germany, is needed to get a complete understanding of what happened and the events leading up to the war in Ukraine and threats to US and the EU. It also helps in framing solutions for the future that include lessons learned.
Linked Articles
Mikhail Gorbachev, Germany's most beloved Russian, has died | DW | 31.08.2022
DW.COM 08/31/2022
Opinion | Wonking Out: The Nightmare After GorbachevNYTimes.com 09/03/2022
Ashwini Bhide, 1995 IAS batch, tireless worker for the millions of Mumbai residents looking for better modern Rail
07/13/2022
Ashwini Bhide was the head of the Metro Rail project in Mumbai and the first woman to be profiled by WSJ in this way - as a tireless worker for getting modern Rail with the latest technology to Mumbai after decades in which millions of Mumbai residents had to put up with old, dilapidated, incomplete rail subway services. It is work that meets the aspirations of Young India and which would make Mohandas Gandhi proud a century later. It shows that India can deliver on the kind of infrastructure needed for making project Make in India work.
Linked Articles
Newsmaker | Fadnavis ensures pet Metro project on track, puts Ashwini Bhide back in driver’s seat
The Indian Express 07/13/2022
‘You Have to Actually Cut Open Mumbai’s Belly’—Inside One of the World’s Most Audacious Transit ProjectsWSJ 05/08/2023
De Klerk, Desmond Tutu, Mandela and the New South Africa
12/27/2021
South Africa's amazing transformation into a racially harmonious society, with people of black, white, Afrikaans, English Afrikaans, Indian, building a new South Africa owes a lot to the leadership, humility, and vision of De Klerk and Desmond Tutu, as well as Nelson Mandela. South Africa's experience offers a new sense of hope that no matter what the difficulties involved one can pull together people of different backgrounds and cultures into a united country. It is in keeping with the best ideals of Britain and of India's Mohandas Gandhi who started his work in Cape Town, South Africa.
Linked Articles
Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Who Helped End Apartheid, Dies
WSJ 12/26/2021
Legacy of FW de Klerk, South Africa's last leader under apartheid | DW | 11.11.2021DW.COM 11/11/2021
Biden's Address to Congress 2021
05/05/2021
Biden announces his $1.8 trillion Families Plan in his speech to Congress in April 2021. It is meant to help struggling families, women, workers and students.
Linked Articles
Biden’s Speech to Congress: Full Transcript
NYTimes.com 04/30/2021
Video: President Biden’s Joint Session AddressNYTimes.com 04/30/2021
A Tale of Two Italian Cities - Bergamo, Lombardy and Vo, Veneto- In the time of Coronavirus
04/12/2020
Bergamo in Lombardy, northern Italy, did not heed the warnings calling for strict quarantines, Vo in Veneto region did contact tracing and strict quarantines. This made all the difference. Bergamo turned into a disaster, Vo recovered quickly. Vo is 85 miles to the east of Bergamo. This is a warning to cities around the world, act late and without strict quarantine or lockdown and there is a huge disaster looming from the coronavirus spreading quickly, because it is in the words of Dr Birx "very, very contagious."
Linked Articles
Italy’s Slow Progress in Fighting Coronavirus Is a Warning to West
WSJ 03/27/2020
A tale of two provinces: mistakes that fuelled Italy’s coronavirus outbreakThe Times 03/26/2020
2016 U.S. presidential candidate Jeb Bush's Tax Plan that spells out details, and takes a shot at 4% growth for restoring lost social and economic mobility in the U.S.
09/09/2015
The efforts to wrestle with the deficit in 2011-2012 led to a vigorous debate on changing the tax code, yet political leaders failed to take up new ideas or spell out the details. Jeb Bush, with advisors Martin Feldstein and Kevin Warsh, takes the unconventional approach of putting in the details, and taking up ideas such as the idea of limiting itemized deductions to 2% of adjusted gross income proposed by Feldstein in that debate. On the $2.1 trillion in income held overseas by U.S. companies Bush proposes 8.75% tax paid over 10 years. On business investment he proposes capital investment be allowed to be deducted in full immediately. It is based on the idea that business investment can drive a vigorous recovery, that workers bear 50% of the burden of higer taxes through sluggish wage growth. It levels the playing field for debt and equity capital, removing "carried interest" provision, as a lesson from the excessive leverage taken by financial institutions in the past.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/10/2015
Jeb Bush Tax Plan Makes Forays Into PopulismNew York Times 09/09/2015
The other side of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Sunni extremist militia- a large money raising organization offering high salaries in a region with frustrated unemployed youth
06/11/2014
NYT indepth accounts of the ISIS and its money raising organization.
Linked Articles
Sunni Fighters Gain as They Battle 2 Governments, and Other Rebels
New York Times 06/11/2014
Iraq Insurgents Reaping Wealth as They AdvanceNew York Times 06/20/2014
A younger generation takes over in Italy- "we are worried that time is passing, and nothing is happening." (2)
02/12/2014
The IMF estimate shows that at the current pace of economic change Italy's growth rate would remain at 0.5% till 2018. Confindustria, Italy's business association, says it is worried that nothing is happening.
Linked Articles
Italian Premier’s Latest Challenge Comes From His Own Party
New York Times 02/12/2014
Italian Prime Minister to Resign, Clearing Path for RenziWall Street Journal 02/14/2014
Putin and the excessive cost of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia approaching $51 billion
11/05/2013
The need for infrastructure spending in other parts of Russia, for R&D development and making the transition away from dependence on oil revenues, as competing needs for capital. This also happens as currency values are declining for emerging markets and it is increasingly difficult to attract foreign investment in 2014, leading to slowing growth with high inflation.
Linked Articles
Putin's Olympian Construction Zone
Wall Street Journal 11/05/2013
Putin’s Olympic Fever DreamNew York Times 01/22/2014
Lenovo's effort to increase smartphone sales in China and emerging markets
08/14/2012
Lenovo is positioning itself to become the dominant smartphone company in China, second only to Samsung. It is creating a brand presence in China's rural areas for PC's and mobile devices which is likely to further enhance sales. This effort extends to other emerging markets in Asia such as India and Indonesia. Other strategic decisions include bringing in more manufactuing in-house compared to competitors HP and others in the PC industry.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 10/25/2012
HTC Beefs Up China Push as U.S., Europe LagWall Street Journal 08/14/2012
Kamala Harris tells America it is time to build an Opportunity Economy
08/17/2024
Creating opportunities for all and taking action on the Cost of Living concerns of ordinary Americans was the theme for Kamal Harris rally in North Carolina with president Biden. There she set out her economic plan to limit grocery costs, cut housing costs and cut pharmaceuticals costs, address child care, and pave the way for an Opportunity Economy, A New America Way Forward.
Linked Articles
Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Campaign Event in Raleigh, NC | The White House
The White House 08/17/2024
Harris vows to build ‘opportunity economy’ and attacks Trump on taxThe Guardian 08/16/2024
How Kamala Harris cut migration from Guatemala and other Central American states
07/31/2024
Katie Tobin deputy assistant to the president shows how Kamal Harris cut migration from Guatemala with her action to stabilize Guatemala after the destabilizing of the region by Reagan and Bush through wars started in the region. The achievements to get Guatemalans and Central Americans to stay home compares favorably with the wars and weapons sent to the region under Reagan-Bush that led to gangs taking over San Salvador and young people leaving. Consider $300 million in humanitarian assistance during COVID years, $5 billion in foreign investment lined up to create 250,000 jobs, pulling US AID and IDFC agencies for loans, and arranging for anti-corruption candidate to take over government in Guatemala following elections. It is an exceptional record achieved in a few months trying to undo decades of destabilizing Central America by Republicans Reagan and Bush. Reagan-Bush also destabilized the US with wars in the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan, because infrastructure in US was neglected, and manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas under failures of Reagan-Friedman economic theories destroying communities across the US over three decades.
Linked Articles
Opinion | Kamala Harris Made Progress on the Border Crisis
WSJ 07/29/2024
As Republicans Attack Harris on Immigration, Here’s What Her Record ShowsNYTimes.com 07/31/2024
America has forgotten it is American workers who built America
09/28/2023
American workers built the middle class and American workers built America with its factories. Biden joins a picket line at at GM plant in Beleville, Michigan, saying this with a bull horn. Shawn Fain directly elected by autoworkers says workers not billionaires run America. This happens as the UAW union rejects tiered wages. Entry level tier wages of younger workers at $17 an hour or $34,000 a year is below the Federal Poverty Level of $35000-$40000 for families with children. It would be seen as outrageous by both Lincoln and TR-FDR in a country where the Constitution starts with the line "We the People. Workers are forgotten in a world that is only waking up to this in 2024.
Linked Articles
Biden Joins Autoworkers on Picket Line in Michigan
NYTimes.com 09/27/2023
Trump’s pitch for autoworker votes in car heartland is short on autoworkersThe Guardian 09/28/2023
Softbank the epitome of massively distorted capital markets even as healthcare, childcare, manufacturing technolgies, infrastructure suffered severe lack of funding
08/08/2022
How Softbank became the epitome and poster child for the distorted capital markets of today is shown here in the WSJ. It is a sad story of how America and Europe failed to invest in its people with egregious harm to 900 million people as healthcare, childcare, manufacturing technologies and infrastructure were neglected.
Linked Articles
WSJ 08/08/2022
SoftBank Reports Record $23 Billion Quarterly Loss as Tech Downturn HitsWSJ 08/08/2022
Miscalculations by Putin's Russia and Neglect by Merkel and Bush-Obama- WSJ's Analysis of Events Leading to Ukraine war
04/03/2022
The highly detailed WSJ reports on events going back 20 years throw light on the failure of Merkel in Germany and Bush-Obama in the US to grasp the situation of Russia under Putin's nationalism and the miscalculations made by president Putin about the changing situation in Ukraine that had created a national identity. While Putin looked to history something different had emerged on the ground for the people of Ukraine that both German and Russian leaders failed to grasp as they continued to pursue economic integration. Business in Europe and the US had no clue what was happening, and how the situation was unraveling till the end. It is also leading to the unexpected effect of accelerating weaning western nations from fossil fuels, a goal of Glasgow's COP26 Climate Change Summit, the only constructive effect of the war.
Linked Articles
Vladimir Putin’s 20-Year March to War in Ukraine—and How the West Mishandled It
WSJ 04/01/2022
Russian Strategy in Ukraine Shifts After Setbacks, and a Lengthy War LoomsWSJ 04/01/2022
Vaccines that took 40 years to develop- vaccines for malaria and coronavirus
10/17/2021
In a world of short run startups it is important to remember that our lives truly depend on the work done by scientists over decades. The stories of the scientists who developed the vaccine for malaria and the vaccine for mRNA technologies embedded in Pfizer vaccine.
Linked Articles
The Vaccine That Took 40 Years to Make - The Journal. - WSJ Podcasts
WSJ 10/17/2021
Their coronavirus vaccine candidate has made them billionaires. This modest German Turkish couple doesn’t own a car.Washington Post 10/17/2021
Robert Lighthizer and the fight to make Made In America the new symbol of American revival
12/18/2020
Robert Lighthizer talks about the efforts under the Trump administration to bring American manufacturing back to where it was in the days after World War II, and restore the rights and dignity of American workers. For three decades the U.S. lost jobs and allowed its manufacturing to be outsourced hurting American workers and reducing the manufacturing base of the U.S. The efforts to ensure fairness in trade also protects American workers and manufacturing at home.
Linked Articles
How to Make Trade Work for Workers
Foreign Affairs 12/18/2020
We're proud of what we've done, says Trump's trade chiefBBC News 12/17/2020
The Chinese market in 2015 and pitfalls for Yum Brands and its KFC, Pizza Hut stores in China
10/21/2015
Rapid growth and then a public scare with media reports of falling quality standards hurt KFC outlets. Local Chinese and Taiwanese brands offer more options at the higher and lower ends of the price range. Other European competitors partnering with local Chinese companies offer better value and quality upscale hurting Pizza Hut stores. And suddenly the whole landscape has changed for Yum Brands in China. It shows the Chinese market is no place for the complacent, that the discriminating tastes of consumers and search for healthier alternatives is taking place in China, India and other developing countries, just as much as it is in the U.S.
Linked Articles
China Isn’t the Easy Market It Once Was for Fast-Food Chains
Wall Street Journal 10/21/2015
Yum Brands to Split Off China BusinessWall Street Journal 10/21/2015
Looking back at Hong Kong and China today and yesterday- China in 1842 and in 1945, nationalism and commercial interests of foreign powers
01/09/2015
A wariness with foreign powers in China stems from the influences left behind from the British commercial interests and the Japanese invasion of China. Compared to that period, the period of collaboration on an equal footing and playing field is is a short and recent one that has taken place for just three decades 1985-2015. Fears that the accelerated development in China could slow down without a strong central government, combine with the awareness of the need for western technology and open communications in today's global economy to accelerate the development, create in the Chinese mind a problem that needs to be tackled carefully to continue progress. Awareness of the huge inequalities and corruption in the rush towards modernization, need to tackle extensive contamination of air and water, and need for social security and healthcare for an aging population create a new urgency for careful policy making to sustain progress.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 01/12/2015
‘China 1945,’ by Richard BernsteinNew York Times 01/09/2015
The earliest indications of the lack of discipline and training in the Iraqi army officers ranks from Ali Nabhan and Bradley in May 2014, and the ensuing disaster in June with the fall of Mosul to ISIS
04/28/2014
Linked Articles
Washington Post 07/12/2014
Fledgling Iraqi Military Is Outmatched on BattlefieldWall Street Journal 04/28/2014
A deeply divided Thailand with political divisions between the northeast around Chiang Mai and the Bangkok region
12/03/2013
Yingluck and Thaksin Shinawatra are from the northeast of Thailand and get most of their support from this region. The Bangkok region, military, courts and business remain opposed to a transfer of power to the provinces and the policies of Shinawatra. SHinawatra's policies favor the rural areas and the newly emerging middle class in the north. The struggle is as much a social phenomenon from the economic progress of the last 2 decades in Thailand as it is a struggle for a sharing of power, say experts.
Linked Articles
Economic Realignment Fuels Regional Political Divisions in Thailand
New York Times 12/03/2013
Economic Realignment Fuels Regional Political Divisions in ThailandNew York Times 12/03/2013
The new Jinping-Keqiang leadership and reducing pharmaceutical and healthcare costs to help consumers in China (1)
10/03/2012
After a decade of decline in consumer spending in favor of infrastructure spending to where it is now only 35% of GDP, or half that in the U.S. as a percentage of GDP, China's leadership realizes the need to help consumers. It is seen as high on the list of priorities for the Party's survival. Ordinary Chinese, rural households and the elderly are seriously affected by the high cost of healthcare and the need to set aside a large portion of savings for medical emergencies (Orlik). This further depresses consumer after the impact of low savings rates. With a bursting of the property bubble the money depositors shifted to real estate is also at risk for middle class investors.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 10/03/2012
Politics Is a Bitter Pill for GlaxoWall Street Journal 07/25/2013
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