To be exact, a lot of China's foreign aid has been tied to projects where they get paid back and when--surprise, surprise--the poor recipient country defaults on the debt they come in and take over what they built. The U.S. at least seemed a bit better than that, though perhaps USAID (and the Peace Corps, next to go perhaps) were the las…
To be exact, a lot of China's foreign aid has been tied to projects where they get paid back and when--surprise, surprise--the poor recipient country defaults on the debt they come in and take over what they built. The U.S. at least seemed a bit better than that, though perhaps USAID (and the Peace Corps, next to go perhaps) were the last echoes of JFK's better vision for the world.
But look, any normal person who had such constant and serious criticism of his character and actions would at least ask himself if there might be something he could do to improve his image, if not his very being. Granted you have to have a pretty tough skin to be a national politician or a major CEO, but no human in touch with their feelings likes to be constantly told what is wrong with them. (Nor would they like to create endless trouble either. But maybe we elected Bart Simpson and his sidekick, Aladdin's evil enemy, Jafar.)
And to hear you-know-who talk about his imagined future for Gaza was like watching a train wreck. He presented it as a real estate deal, pure and simple. It reminded me a lot of the "urban renewal" projects of the 1950s and '60s when sustainable and culturally rich Black neighborhoods were destroyed and replaced with Interstates while the people were warehoused in unlivable apartment towers. They didn't matter, making profits off construction and easing the way for the wealthier (largely white) population was what counted.
In a sense this gang of overgrown Red Guard teenagers seems to be doing the same thing with the whole country. They are strip mining it for their own sick egos. And that is putting the best spin possible on their actions. After all the coming "Golden Age for America" might be one where those with the gold get still more of it.
"In the 1930s and 1940s, the major car companies bought bus lines, rail systems, trams, and subways in dozens of American towns, then proceeded to tear them down. One bus can eliminate 35 cars; one train can eliminate 1000 cars, so car companies have solid incentives to kill other modes of transport. Our government sat on the sidelines while the car companies transformed cheap and clean mass transit systems into costly and dirty traffic nightmares- a rape of the public interest. 1956 the government intervened by underwriting a massive highway construction program with $70 billion of public funds away from public transit. Every time the government passes a law or chooses to stay on the sidelines, it affects the dynamics of markets." I quote Julian Ninio's The Empire of Ignorance, Hypocrisy and Obedience.
I hear you doc and how right you are. One thing about us, we are so self absorbed that we don't know or care what is going on in the world.
You tipped us off about China. China is slowly taking over the part of the world that America neglects. They are even more exploitative than the west, but are not hamstrung by "morality" and ethics.
Russia too. China tells undeveloped countries that they can help them. Build a railroad, hiways, a port of course this infrastructure will transport raw materials to ports where they will be loaded on Chinese bound ships. And when the loans they make are not repaid,china swoops in and scoops up the project.
Russia uses it's mercenaries,who back all kinds of murderous, rampaging, raping, thugs, they back whatever force that will allow them to abscond with the resources of that country, be it gold, or rare earth minerals.
Meanwhile American "liberals" kvetch over our 800 military bases world wide, our MIC, our supposed imperialism. Ignoring the fact that each and every one of those bases are there with the consent of the nation, and a Status of Forces Agreement, which they can and have abrogated like Chad and Mali and which Iraq has been considering, except for the threat of ISIS, which is Sunni and considers Shia Iraq to be a heresy.
To be exact, a lot of China's foreign aid has been tied to projects where they get paid back and when--surprise, surprise--the poor recipient country defaults on the debt they come in and take over what they built. The U.S. at least seemed a bit better than that, though perhaps USAID (and the Peace Corps, next to go perhaps) were the last echoes of JFK's better vision for the world.
But look, any normal person who had such constant and serious criticism of his character and actions would at least ask himself if there might be something he could do to improve his image, if not his very being. Granted you have to have a pretty tough skin to be a national politician or a major CEO, but no human in touch with their feelings likes to be constantly told what is wrong with them. (Nor would they like to create endless trouble either. But maybe we elected Bart Simpson and his sidekick, Aladdin's evil enemy, Jafar.)
And to hear you-know-who talk about his imagined future for Gaza was like watching a train wreck. He presented it as a real estate deal, pure and simple. It reminded me a lot of the "urban renewal" projects of the 1950s and '60s when sustainable and culturally rich Black neighborhoods were destroyed and replaced with Interstates while the people were warehoused in unlivable apartment towers. They didn't matter, making profits off construction and easing the way for the wealthier (largely white) population was what counted.
In a sense this gang of overgrown Red Guard teenagers seems to be doing the same thing with the whole country. They are strip mining it for their own sick egos. And that is putting the best spin possible on their actions. After all the coming "Golden Age for America" might be one where those with the gold get still more of it.
"In the 1930s and 1940s, the major car companies bought bus lines, rail systems, trams, and subways in dozens of American towns, then proceeded to tear them down. One bus can eliminate 35 cars; one train can eliminate 1000 cars, so car companies have solid incentives to kill other modes of transport. Our government sat on the sidelines while the car companies transformed cheap and clean mass transit systems into costly and dirty traffic nightmares- a rape of the public interest. 1956 the government intervened by underwriting a massive highway construction program with $70 billion of public funds away from public transit. Every time the government passes a law or chooses to stay on the sidelines, it affects the dynamics of markets." I quote Julian Ninio's The Empire of Ignorance, Hypocrisy and Obedience.
I hear you doc and how right you are. One thing about us, we are so self absorbed that we don't know or care what is going on in the world.
You tipped us off about China. China is slowly taking over the part of the world that America neglects. They are even more exploitative than the west, but are not hamstrung by "morality" and ethics.
Russia too. China tells undeveloped countries that they can help them. Build a railroad, hiways, a port of course this infrastructure will transport raw materials to ports where they will be loaded on Chinese bound ships. And when the loans they make are not repaid,china swoops in and scoops up the project.
Russia uses it's mercenaries,who back all kinds of murderous, rampaging, raping, thugs, they back whatever force that will allow them to abscond with the resources of that country, be it gold, or rare earth minerals.
Meanwhile American "liberals" kvetch over our 800 military bases world wide, our MIC, our supposed imperialism. Ignoring the fact that each and every one of those bases are there with the consent of the nation, and a Status of Forces Agreement, which they can and have abrogated like Chad and Mali and which Iraq has been considering, except for the threat of ISIS, which is Sunni and considers Shia Iraq to be a heresy.