Vivek Ramaswamy republican presidential candidate – Not A Good Choice, Nor Are Others…

Wow…!! 

Vivek would have been the first Indian American to hold the office of President of America (I still refuse to say “United States of America” due to all of the craziness taking place in this country, further dividing it) and I was thrilled to hear about something like this. Until I found out more of his background…

He wants to run on the platform of fighting ‘wokefulness’. He wants to have the states dictate, sorry – determine the fate of women who want to have abortions.

This guy also ‘apparently’ paid some Wikipedia editor to modify Ramaswamy’s profile, wait, let me put this snippet below:
“In May 2023, Forbes reported Ramaswamy had paid an editor to alter his Wikipedia page to appear more favorable to political conservatives before announcing his campaign. The paid editor removed references to his involvement with the Ohio COVID-19 Response Team and his Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans postgraduate fellowship (other editors later restored the removed content, citing the report). Paul and Daisy Soros are respectively the elder brother and sister-in-law of businessman and social activist George Soros, who has been the subject of numerous right-wing conspiracy theories.

Ramaswamy’s campaign confirmed that it had paid an editor, but denied it was trying to “scrub” his Wikipedia page. A campaign spokesperson said the edits were revisions of “factual distortions” and blamed a Ron DeSantis-aligned super PAC for amplifying the story.”

—- So, take what you desire from that info, AFTER you do your own research to corroborate the info above.

Moving on. This guy wants to remove America from the Ukraine / Russia situation.

Does he not know that if Russia is ‘not stopped’ that Putin WILL continue perpetuating mass murder, ignoring sovereign powers and authority, continual corruption and killing its own citizens for speaking up. Wait, did I mention dictatorial control of all Russians and hopefully of citizens in countries surrounding Russia…? Disallowing Russian citizens from having ‘free speech’ – forcing these citizens to listen to whitewashed Russian news (from Tass and Pravda – look up the meaning of Pravda for a chuckle of your own).

Stopping Russia will help restore some small amount of peace in the world. Look, this Ukraine/Russian engagement (war) has already united NATO, forging it into a stronger alliance for peace and democracy.

We, America, also have an alliance of friends for peace in Southeast Asia – a united front to stop China from trying to take control of that hemisphere – India, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, S. Korea and even the UK.

How does pulling back from the Ukraine / Russian war in order to protect America first work…?

Allowing Russia to gain control of Ukraine makes Russia stronger and gives them an enabling thought process of “hey, we took over Ukraine, who else can we take control of…?”  It is not just about fighting in Ukraine, it is also about the global economy with Russia trying to influence it, illegally. The FSB and SVR are known to have considerable influence via hacking or killing individuals around the globe. Whether these victims are Russian or another nationality. Go look up the stories on how Russian operatives:

• hacked the country of Georgia’s electrical grid – just because Russia could, then how
• operatives killed activists and journalists with Ricin poison – or throw acid liquids in their faces.

And note for Facebook, LinkedIn and Medium – this is NOT a bully paper against China and Russia. Besides, how does an individual impugn the story and historic knowledge of China and Russia, when it is known FACTUALLY that these two countries are either causing mass murder, detaining hundreds to tens of thousands of people against their will (Uighurs, Falun Gong, Russian activists, etc.).

So hey, if folks in America want to use their votes to vote for someone like Ramaswamy who wants America to turn inwards and THEN have the states dictate individual state laws such as abortion or getting rid of woke culture – go for it.

But, WE have a problem with that line of thought. How many Americans are there out there who learned history in high school and college and then forgot about it?  How many Americans are there who learned whitewashed history of America.  For basis, I know quite a few younger Americans and some of my own generation who learned history that was MISSING a great deal of history for which they discovered years or decades later what they missed in school because the school system failed them. Just look at Florida’s push to whitewash books in the school system and even rig colleges. Racism and the history of racial discrimination was not taught in MANY schools across this country.

How does one stop abhorrent, disgraceful activities if it is not taught in school so students can learn from it? Want to repeat those crimes, do you really want to repeat history? Well, if folks like Ramaswamy are elected into any kind of power, this is what is going to happen because he wishes to stop wokefullness.

Ramaswamy also wants to raise the voting age to 25. Will he also raise the enlistment age to join the military to 25…? Hmmm…. What he is stating is:
“unless a person serves the nation in the military or as a first responder or can pass the civics test immigrants take when becoming citizens.”

Then there are a couple more of actions that Ramaswamy wants to implement – removing the Department of Education and abolishing the IRS.  Sounds wonderful huh…?  Think about it if you agree with Ramaswamy, then think about it again, deeper this time.

Here may be something you have not heard, Ramaswamy considers Tucker Carlson ‘worthy’ of entering the Republican primary, believing that Carlson is a smart and sharp individual… Wow.

States will continue to devolve into individual fiefdoms, if more of us do NOT stand up and vote for the better candidate. We will return to states having inchoate, non-inclusive and discordant laws from those of its neighbors.

We will return to having (I pulled this from Wikipedia for a better description than what I could pass on here) Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, were all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in America that practiced a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation or violence. The term came from signs posted that “colored people” had to leave town by sundown.

And yeah, we will definitely make a return to back-alley abortions because of the conservative, religious groups who want to talk control of couples, specifically women, bodies.

This is if, IF, we allow individuals like Ramaswamy to consume the taste of power. Life will turn negative, for MANY of us in this country.

IF more people like Ramaswamy get into power because more Americans did not stand up and vote for better people (consider George Santos from New York) – America will devolve into a has been power, fading into the pages of history as a once glorious space where so many people from around the globe wanted to come to.

We will spiral down into a, ummm, haven of pathetic, tribal zones of autocratic, dictators. Dystopia anyone…. Whites only here. Blacks only here. Asians only here. Gays only here.  You know I could go on and on for that line of thinking.  But I am not.

You, YOU have to do some serious soul searching, deep, far reaching and heavy soul searching. And then talk about it with others, outside of your close hold circle – having CONVERSATIONS and not fighting arguments to see where things actually stand and ‘hopefully’ learn something better.

YOU will have to open your eyes and watch and listen to other news outlets for truth. I had a shocking moment with a co-worker a few months ago who made the comment of “oh, that communist news outlet.” Another co-worker and I were talking about CNN and this other co-worker with that salacious comment walked up, heard CNN, then made the comment.

Going back to Ramaswamy, he is a prime example of someone who is doing narrow thinking and not national and international thinking and extrapolating down the road, like, ohhh, say a decade or two.

So, consider the consequences of voting Ramaswamy into power.

• More, much more restrictive control over women’s bodies and back-alley abortion deaths because of possibly contaminated surgical environments, all because the women could not obtain a better environment legally.
• COMPLETELY whitewashed history of America being taught in all schools. With most of the schools having funds diverted to them because of, you know, racial skin tones instead of divvied up amongst all schools. Leaving many schools of people with, you know, skin tones of a different color. Educational deserts…
• Crime. Please. There will be even more heavy handed, jack boot thugs running around the country doing “law enforcement” work because they have a badge and a gun – and NO body cam to record their work.
• Here, chew on this one where Ramaswamy talks about discrimination and affirmative action:
  “If elected, Mr. Ramaswamy said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday (Feb 21, 2023), his first action would be to repeal Executive Order 11246, which has banned discrimination and required affirmative action for federal contractors since 1965.”

Talking about skin tone colors. Does many of the people in America NOT see that there will MORE racial diversity than ever as each year passes. More people are discovering that just because a person is of a different skin color, IT-DOES-NOT-MAKE them a hands-off creature of ill repute or repulsiveness. Diversity is a wonder and it is wonderful. Diversity can make the lives of so many people SO MUCH BETTER.  And improve those around them as that diversity spreads.

What matters is what is that other’s nature. The character of the person is EVERYTHING.

When it comes down to it SKIN COLOR IS NOTHING! It is what that person has in their heart, in their mind, in their character and in their ethics as you look into their eyes…

Personally, I prefer to be around “Woke” individuals who have open mindsets… What do we have to be fearful of?

• Gays? Worried about turning gay if you’re around an LGBTQ person?
• Race? Are you really worried about someone else’s skin color affecting you – or maybe changing ‘your’ skin color due to their presence…?
• Women in power? Really? Afraid of smarter women…..??

And yes, “ALL LIVES MATTER!” So again, start doing some heavy thinking and make better use of your voting power. Please pass on folks such as Ramaswamy. Or Trump. Or DeSantis. They only want to take us back, no, SET US BACK decades. All the gains we as a country have attained – it will all be for naught.

This is not naivety, just pragmatic thinking. 

Having ‘national’ standards is far better than having 20 – 30 wildly differing standards to adhere to in order to not go to jail in the state that is being offended…

Taiwan – Continuous Allies’ Training – Year ‘Round

Simple solution to China continually invading Taiwan’s sovereign air space ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) – implement a continuous (365 days / year) allied training mission on Taiwan, home of FREE Taiwanese individuals.

Have a combined – continual training mission for:

• Navy – landings and sorties
• Army / Marines – landings and guerrilla warfare
• Air Force – landings / takeoffs, mock strafing / bombing runs

Run these side-by-side training missions with the Taiwanese military/air force/navy with multiple Allies – taking turns on the island of FREE Taiwanese or in conjunction with multiple Allies at one time. Protect the Taiwanese ADIZ.

Make landing stages out of use of existing American bases of: South Korea, Japan, Hawaii & Okinawa and allied bases in Australia and even Vietnam…

The only way China, the Authoritarian/Totalitarian, Communist (wannabe Capitalist) country will continue to back down from Taiwan – continually show “very” strong ties with Taiwan, home of those FREE Taiwanese citizens.

What with all the corruption going on in China, far more than in American – many of us are surprised the Chinese economy has not collapsed already. Military and Political leadership, stealing billions of RMB and exporting it out of country, to a safer haven and then later, emigrating from China with their family members to enjoy that largess they stole from the Chinese people.

China is supposed to be a shared prosperity country, yet – only the wealthiest Chinese (military, civilian, political) are able to partake of that “shared prosperity”. The rest (vast majority of Chinese) are basically left to their own ends and suffering through daily life. Chinese government, federal and province and local city – all end up stealing land, sorry, conducting eminent domain and taking the land for a better use for China. This means, selling the land to meet their annual budget or to line their own pockets – the government members. (No need to even consider my making this up – search for this information – focus on Ghost Cities and the taking of generational / village land.)

CHINA’s POWER & CONTROL – Tiananmen Square, Uighurs, Taiwan, SCS

TL;DR / BLUF  (LinkedIn cleaner version)

Chinese government wants to control all of its citizens in everything they do; for everywhere they go; for anywhere they are. It does not matter what the average Chinese citizen wants, it is what the Chinese government wants. Control and power over everyone that they can get away with. And that even includes American citizens, of Chinese descent. At least Americans enjoy freedom of speech to say the “F U” phrase, even in a sentence aimed at the Chinese power grabbing Government”… Meanwhile, no mainland Chinese citizen who might want to expand their own personal, social, political knowledge will never see this post in mainland China due to the censoring Chinese firewall and the sycophants who work or volunteer to filter internet content.

NOTE: original post was blocked on LinkedIn because it was deemed BULLYING & Harassing (seriously, against the Chinese government… Had to remove the “F ” word and the word that rhymes with s p i-t). Additionally, there is no conspiracy content here, this is all factual content, a lot of it pulled from legitimate and transparent news / historical entities. And, there is nothing false here that would give cause to LinkedIn to believe there was Bullying & Harassment involved. Maybe folks like Rachel Maddow would weight in, or Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart or John Oliver and add their gold mine input… Original post here —> https://tinyurl.com/4mhvanh5

China, well, at minimum – the Chinese Government (Xi JinPing and others) wants to have complete control over EVERYTHING within 1,000 miles outside of its borders. Because that is what it appears they want to do – control as much as possible as far as possible with as tight a fist as possible. Ask India and the Nepalese about some of the ‘contact’ they’ve had with Chinese forces…

This really got my dander up, after seeing the latest news on Chinese officials arresting five people in Hong Kong for sedition, over children’s books. Here is just one article for your reference, please do your research and not rely solely on one article: Five arrested in Hong Kong for sedition over children’s book about sheep. While it is a series of children’s book, it talks about: “sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village”, the Chinese government found it enough to arrest these union members for sedition. (Reminds one of Russia in the good ole days, where the “dejournaya”, a Key person, or floor door watcher, normally an elderly woman who had the keys to the rooms on their floor, would report on non-comporting Communist loyalty and behavior or non-Russians in Russia.)

This Hong Kong arrest was a couple of days ago. The Chinese are still arresting people for writing non-good things about China and its leaders… such as China installing Chinese Communist leaders loyal to China to control Hong Kong (and Taiwan) citizens and quash any kind of democratic leanings and ONLY be good little Chinese and blindly follow everything coming out of Beijing’s communistic mouth (I wonder at times if that communistic mouth has turned rotten over the decades and become depraved as well).

Okay, if that is not enough to show you how totalitarian and/or dictatorially hungry the Chinese leadership is, what about several years ago when the Chinese came to New Jersey to “persuade” a Chinese American to come back to China, leaving a note in handwritten Mandarin Chinese on the guys’ door stating “if he is willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!”. In the instance of another target to bring back to China, these Chinese ‘officials’ brought this other ‘target’s’ elderly father as a persuasion tool. Chinese prosecutor indicted in U.S. case targeting extralegal ‘Fox Hunt’ operation — again, one reference to get you started on your own research.  Nine individuals (includes one American private investigator) were indicted this week for trying to “repatriate dissidents whom Chinese government officials wanted to lure back and punish”. The thing is, China does not give a crap at all about where the person they want is at, they will do what amounts to broad daylight kidnapping. Not being hypocritical about this, most governments do daylight grab jobs, but, heck, let me put more of the Post story here:

“carried out an illegal and clandestine campaign to harass and threaten targeted U.S. residents in order to force them to return to [China].”

Some of the targeted individuals might have violated financial laws and were legitimate targets of law enforcement investigations, officials have said. But many others were political rivals, dissidents or critics of the Chinese government. Rather than use established legal systems such as Interpol or request assistance from U.S. law enforcement, U.S. officials have said, the Chinese agents tried to intimidate people into returning to China.”

And of course, you remember Tiananmen Square right?  RIGHT?  The protests in Tiananmen Square, lasting from April 15 – Jun 4 1989, when a brave Chinese citizen stood up to the tank to make it stop while he was holding two bags of groceries – making the tank attempt to dance around the guy, who just kept getting in front of the tank.

This was actually called the “Tiananmen Square Massacre”, when the Chinese government wanted to do a bit of power control against its citizens who wanted to protest.  But the Chinese government wanted it to stop, at any cost – including killing protestors. Check out this one site: Chinese crackdown on protests leads to Tiananmen Square Massacre – remember, do your own research to satisfy your brain and then THINK about it, do your own analysis. A million protestors and the Chinese government killed thousands, indiscriminately shooting at people.

That is a helluva government – one that Donald Trump likes and admires.

You may be asking, “what were the protests about?” Here, let me put that snippet here for you as well: “protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive.”

See, the thing is, Chinese citizens cannot vote someone out, the individual in question would have to voluntarily resign. And you would think that with a million people coming out in protests that that would be a cause for resignations.  No, not in power controlling China.

And ever since 1989, China continues to white wash ANYTHING and EVERYTHING having to do with Tiananmen Square. They are attempting to delete/remove ALL content that they can from history books and web sites. BAD NEWS for Chinese leaders, there are many of us who will always remember the right of citizens to protest along with the killing and arresting of citizens by China’s government and military. We will remember this massacre forever and there are web sites that will memorialize it forever as well…

Do not get me going on Taiwan and the Chinese crackdown of forcing the Taiwanese to kowtow to everything Chinese and NOTHING Taiwanese.  It is all Communist (spit) China or you are locked up or better yet (so the Chinese leadership is thinking) – you are ‘disappeared’…

Then look at the South China Sea (SCS) where China wants complete control of that maritime area, even though other countries (Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, etc.) in the region have claims to the SCS as well and the United Nations agrees with those nations. China claims it has historical rights to the SCS as being under its Chinese sphere of control.

So. What does China do to help bolster their claim?  Why they built a man-made island and put a military installation on it – obvious solution right….???? And with that anchor point, it allows China to expand its Navy with a broader reach, expansion of China’s hegemony.

And do not forget about the Uighurs (Uyghurs). The Muslims of China.  Chinese government does not want them to exist – at all. If you are a Uyghur, hide, or you will be taken to a concentration camp or an “internment camp”, sorry, a “rehabilitation center” or a “re-education center” in Xinjiang. There are somewhere in the 1 – 3 million Uighurs in these camps/centers, likely many more.

Although, you have no choice of which one but there have been MULTIPLE camps built (the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) for this purpose, along with that fantastic razor wire at the top of those great, tall walls, with the Wall Tower Guards accessory built-in to watch over you so you do not sleep walk into the wrong area by mistake…  A camp where you will be forced to cut your hair and shave your beard. Damn. Sorry, I meant, you will be allowed to cut your hair and shave with the result being – if you choose not to, to have someone else do it for you.

You will be forced, sorry, allowed to speak Mandarin Chinese and not your own native tongue and not your predominantly Turkic language.

You have the choice of clothing, as long as it is one of the camp’s uniforms (think prison garb). Here, you do not get to practice archery or horse shoes or boating, no…  But you do get to become a factory worker to produce products (think sweat shop) for various Chinese companies throughout China.

At these camps, you must learn Mandarin, learn to become good CHINESE NON-Muslim citizens.  You must learn to kowtow to the Chinese government and obey it no matter what they dictate.  Think of it as a Marine Boot Camp but with FAR, FAR fewer choices… oh, and for a much longer re-education period of time.

In Xinjiang, the Chinese government-controlled areas, Uighurs must endure every single day of being observed by facial recognition cameras – on every street block, at every intersection and who knows where else. Uighurs must endure Chinese police checkpoints on every block (that is how many there are). But don’t be alarmed Uighurs, the Chinese police exists all throughout China, even in Beijing and Shenzhen and other cities, there are facial recognition cameras abounding in all their glory. China in totality is simply put, a Police State or a Surveillance State if they want something less incriminating…

Here is what the governor of Xinjian said in March 2019 in defense of these camps: directly dismissed comparisons to concentration camps, saying they were “the same as boarding schools.”

Then there is more that many global citizens are not aware of:

 China has made criminal many aspects of religious practice and culture in Xinjiang, including punishment for teaching Muslim texts to children and bans on parents giving their children Uighur names

Many women have come forward, after being finally released from these camps and stated (those brave enough to do so) that they were raped in these camps but the camp officials did not do anything about the crime.

Want one more thing on the Chinese government’s actions against Uighurs, the Chinese is committing genocide (sterilization) against the Uighurs. This is a tough one to prove but if there are multiple women stating this, it is likely a true situation. China wants to curtail the growth of any future Uighur population.

And for all you newly “re-educated” Uighurs, you have lots to look forward to in your new world of Chinese control and dictatorship but. But you cannot look forward to returning home, to your old stomping grounds. Why? Did you not know?

I am so sorry to inform you that when you do finally leave those wonderful “boarding schools” with all those fantastic learning opportunities and outdoor activities – the Chinese government decided it was best to force evacuate ALL Uighur towns and raze them to the ground, wiping out centuries of Uighur history and culture. Then clearing the grounds and rebuilding new structures so the Chinese Han bloodline can flourish.

None of this is new, this has been perpetuated for many years, go back to 2009 with the Chinese government incentivizing the Han Chinese to migrate to the XinJiang or 2017 when the camps were started being built to house the detained Uighurs.

Another source of info: China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

So, China – CONTROL. POWER. TOTALITARIAN. DICTATORIAL??? A lot of horse manure – they want to be a power house in the world of capitalism but it has to be Communistic Capitalism, imagine that.

Think about it – in China, you cannot:

• spit on public grounds for fear of being fined and public credit shaming
  • and if you do obtain too many public shaming points, you CAN be banned from flying or leaving the country for any reason…
• Jaywalk for the same fears above,
• Have the number of children you want
• Bad-mouth Chinese leaders
• Enjoy western practices and habits and styles and language because they MUST follow Chinese culture and styles – not do profanity (watch some Chinese movies like the MEG and see if you see any nudity or hear any profanity – many, MANY Chinese made movies must follow explicit Chinese dictates to make movies)

You HAVE to be puritanical in the Chinese government’s eyes – no nudity in movies, no profanity on t.v. or in the movies – imagine, all lily white Church level cleanness.  But I guarantee you that these same leaders do ‘NOT‘ practice both aspects in their offices and in their jobs.  It is the same old “do as I say and not as I do” horse manure…

There is so much more to discuss where it concerns China and its CONTROLLING government but this should be enough to whet your appetite for some, at least for now.

Is China the kind of country you want to live, one where you cannot enjoy liberties without fear of crossing some Chinese government red line…?

Is China deserving of being a power house on the world stage when it discriminates against some of its own citizens (Uighurs) and has a lock down on any true Progressive Democracy. For example the citizens of China cannot freely:

• roam the Internet from within the Chinese borders to see what is happening in the real world (unless they travel abroad) because of their great Chinese Firewall that filters, censors and blocks ANYTHING not pro-chinese or anything bad about its leaders like Honey Bear Xi Jinping (or is that Honey Poo…?)
• vote for the leadership they choose but must instead follow the pre-elected leadership that comes out of the Communist Chinese Party Politburo
• have their own choice, within limits of course,
  • can you imagine a Chinese citizen saying “F U” to police or government – in print or vocally….?
  • remember, I could not use the full descriptor on LinkedIn, even if it is protected speech…

Does ANY of you out there, living outside of China’s borders, who read this want China to be a global power house or gain further hemi-spheric control of any other country or water way?  It is bad enough they are part of the UN with veto power (just like Russia) and China vetoes ANYTHING that might jeopardize any road blocks or future growth regarding China’s path forward.

And yes, we (America) already have plenty of headaches of our own to try to get our heads around and improve (racial discrimination, gender inequality, political division, chaos & insecurity [conspiracy minded individuals’ – thanks even more to Trump], better infrastructure, better education – across all grade levels and in ALL communities, poverty, etc…) – but at least we recognize them and continue to work on them and not lock up (or kill) people who protest for honesty and transparent democracy or try to extort them into arrest….

Lunacy – Politics, Dictators (& Trump) and Race

It is now 2017 and we, as a global people, are facing more and more lunacy in the world.

In Turkey, we have Erdogan who constantly expands his political powers to where it is reaching dictatorial levels. When you:

• Modify the political system;
• Suppress journalists, military, educators, other political parties and
• Control the media
  

— you are a dictator.

In Venezuela, we have Maduro with his recent critically gained presidency. Currently he is an authoritarian (some of us prefer the term ‘dictator’). He appears to be on a track to continue absorbing more power – by rewriting their country’s constitution, even while it is reported that 98% of the country’s people rejected that idea. Approximately, 3.6 million people voted according to an independent analysis. Here are a few of the actions he, Maduro, has implemented or rather, allowed to take place:

• delayed elections,
• jailing of opposition leaders,
• increasing influence of the army, and
• efforts by the government-appointed courts to curtail the powers of the opposition-held national assembly.

Note, he has the backing of Russian and Cuban leadership…

In Iran, Hassan Rouhani, won the recent presidential election to continue holding office. One item he ran on was to include women in the cabinet. That, as it turns out, did not occur – it is an all-male cabinet…  That is not progress. He ran on the platform of being a reformist.

In Russia, well, actually, do we need to add anything more on him than what we already know of him (and Medvedev)…? When you:

• Control the political system (arrest opposition on false charges of embezzlement in order to label the person as a criminal, which under Russian laws, the person cannot run for certain offices);
• Control the country’s media (to spread whatever propaganda is desired); put in a VPN prohibition (so citizens cannot have secure & private communication with the outside world);
• Use your police force, your military & intelligence services to force how ‘protest rallies should be held (i.e. maximum of 250 people and constrained to protest only within a few block area)’; and
• Control state conglomerates in order to line the leadership’s pockets with BILLIONS of dollars (& Swiss Francs, Euros, British Pounds and even Bitcoins)

— if that is not dictatorial, not sure what else it could possibly be.

In China, we have a country that wants to be capitalistic but is still hugely communistic. This is a country that:

• Is also banning private citizen use of VPNs – sorry, correction, citizens can ‘apply’ for use of a VPN (but that means that citizen would have to provide a back door {or front door} into that VPN’s communication path…
• Has a Communist party with significant control over the country’s media – with an iron fist.
• HAS BUILT a man-made island in the South China Seas (Spratly Islands) in order to, ahhh what was it they stated (one reason) – to protect their sovereign rights and regional territories. Remember, that area is a hotly contested area for “centuries” by countries in the area (Taiwan, China, Vietnam, with Malaysia and the Philippines).
• Wants foreign investors (tech) to give up source code to ensure there is nothing hinky or spying related in order for those foreign firms to do business in China.
  
• Still has huge human rights issues (think Falun Gong and {two spellings} Uyghur & Uighur people of western China)
• Wants to completely take over Hong Kong despite what China promised in 1999 (freedom to continue progressing)
• Suppresses all (or as much as they can find) negative commentary regarding the country and the political leaders

In America, we have someone who may not be dictatorial but is clearly not of the right mettle (and state of mind) to run a country and grow.When we have:

• An EPA that is relaxing/eliminating rules/regulations left and right to allow toxins into the air and water, it is a very bad sign.
• A Dept of Education that believed that HBCUs were a wonderful alternative and is attempting to have more charter schools across the country AND not listening to the educators in her own Department – that is a bad sign for our children and future leaders.
• An Attorney General that should not have been appointed to being with (there are all kinds of reasons to choose from if you wish to do a little research and analysis of your own) – that is a bad sign for the country’s law enforcement system.
• A Commerce secretary who wants to relax rules and regulations (just recall the sweat shops and lack of workplace violations of yesterday) – we have a problem in that more business will start doing what they want to do without protecting their employees.
• A secretary of State who does not talk to his own senior leadership nor allow press conferences – that is a bad omen of things happening behind closed doors.

So, that list could have easily continued but many of you know the shortfalls of our current administration. We now come to our president – a choice that the electoral college should never have made when the popular national vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the other candidate. We have a president who:

• Listens to select individuals, who may not be qualified to provide those kinds of opinions
• Says whatever he wishes without ANY deep thoughts or consideration, from what we observe – he likes to gain information and content from Alex Jones
• Gives oversight and strategic control of the military to the generals – that is a bad idea (extrapolate down the road and into the future – you’ve got a big brain to do so)
• Is a completely bad and wrong role model for youth growing up, who aspire to be someone important – do we want that kind of leader sprouting up everywhere in 10-20 years…? He is definitely not a role model for many of us.
  
• Allegedly cooked the books for his Grand Hyatt hotel partnership in New York in the mid-80s (here is one link but please do your due diligence: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/trump-files-how-donald-screwed-over-new-york-city-his-tax-bill/) – Trump had ordered the Grant Hyatt to change its accounting methods to lower its reported profits. Check out what the city’s auditor general at the time (Karen Burstein) reported. And he, Trump, is well known for stiffing everyone he can, from lawyers to chefs in order to get out of paying for it.
• Barely raises an eyebrow at the Charlottesville, VA white supremacist rally where James Alex Fields Jr, allegedly killed, via a hit & run, a female pedestrian and injured 19 others (ala, an ISIS style vehicle attack). And if I’m not mistaken, he was on the stage behind  and on Trump’s right at some Trump rally late last year or earlier this year. Some media outlet should do a facial scan for this person in the archives – to see what kind of rally he and his friends were attending.  And also, no, Obama did not raise the white racist, supremacist, Nazi spectre when the idiot, Dylann Roof, shot the people in the church. But that was a different scenario – this time (Charlottesville) it was a massive gathering the day after a Tikki firelight march by, hmmmm, individuals of a certain color. The tension and hatred was already at a known and anticipated high level (witness the police and state trooper presence). The Charlottesville situation was not a surprise but our president only gave a rather tepid response for this mass gathering and protest that many people have likened to Hitler and his brown shirts…

The U.S. has a president that is causing this country to waste more money and time on stupidity and inane actions, not just domestically but globally, than we should have to. NOTHING is really getting done and please do not tell the rest of us that he is bringing back manufacturing jobs, those numbers are not significant, especially not for the long run.

 

So, with that list above – definitely not an all-encompassing list of lunatic actions around the globe but it seems to be a glide path for disaster if we do not somehow come together to make change happen. Selfish racial beliefs are not beneficial for a society as a whole – it should be societal belief of everyone helping everyone (no, I’m not intimating that we should be become a socialist society, sorry). We should be working, together, around the globe to make life better for everyone. We, the U.S. cannot even:

• Make health care affordable to everyone, from poor to middle class in this country when there are other countries who are making it work by using one form or another of Universal Health Care or a One Payer system.
• Improve our infrastructure system.
• Innovate and improve our educational system so that it is equitable for all, not just pockets of people scattered around the country.
• And for sure, we are still leap years behind where we should be where it comes to diversity and dropping discrimination of all forms (race, gender, age) to historic lows.

Instead, we, Americans, have a president that seems oblivious to who he has selected to help run the country – oblivious to what he is saying to the world (where he is a laughing stock, check it out) and oblivious to the image he projects to others outside of his base (which appears to be shrinking, finally).

We should still be the leader of the free world, but that may be gone now in no small part due to our leader. And without having that kind of leader status, we may be a contributing (not root) cause to the rise of lunacy in the world – in race, politics and pop-up dictators.