In the 1970s I read an article about dominance of drivers with blue eyes in auto racing.  It asked:  Is blue eyes an advantage in auto racing?  It was not a subtle way of saying whites are better drivers.  In the years since, Italian, Brazilian, Argentine race champions make this blue eye argument absurd.  But it was not until Lewis Hamilton won the F1 championship that one can definitely say that no one race has a monopoly on driving skills.  That point was driven home again yesterday when Takuma Sato won the Indy 500.

I think most reasonable people would agree that chances of participation rather than genetic makeup is the prime reason some groups are more dominant than other groups in certain fields.  That is why I find it interesting John Hawkins wrote "We live in the strongest, most powerful, most prosperous nation in human history and if we are being honest, white men probably deserves 95% of the credit for that."  He did also say: "That may be unfair because women and black Americans weren't given the opportunity to significantly contribute for most of our nation's history, but it is true."

I think there is truth in the first statement by itself.  But the second statement makes the first statement absurd.  It would be like saying in 1960 that the NBA is by far the best basketball league in the world and white American players are responsible for that.  That statement would be true in itself  but it would be nonsense looking at it now.  So Hawkins' statement will be nonsense 50 years from now.  The rest of the world was way behind us in basketball in 1960 so that we did not need black players to win easily.  But can we say the same today?  We need the best players to beat the likes of Spain, Serbia, Croatia etc.  The same with our nation in general.  China was a sleeping giant in 1960.  Even Japan and Germany had not fully recovered from WWII.  But we need everybody in the country, regardless of race or gender if we are going to stay on top. 





So the race of the winner of Indy 500 is not important but the racial makeup of our politicians, scientists, generals etc are important.  So it is imperative that we let everybody have the opportunity to contribute or we are not going to stay top. 

By the way, VP Pence was at the race yesterday.  I wonder what his thoughts are as a Japanese driver win in his home state.  I wonder if he is worried that an openly gay driver will win in the near future?

While the Trump administration is embroiled with Russiagate last week, China quietly took over the international stage.  China hosted a summit on its $900 billion Belt and Road Initiative.   This creates a trade and infrastructure network that pass through south and central Asia to Africa and Europe.  Part of it traces through the old Silk Road trade route.  Third world countries such as from Pakistan to Kenya may benefit from this.  Of course, China is not doing this for pure benevolent reasons.  This will help China become the top trade partner with a number of countries.  It is also a way of building soft power that will make it eventually a super power opposing the U.S.

Of course, this may not work the way China wants it to.  Already there are grumbling about Chinese workers getting the jobs the locals need and want.  It is not clear that the railroads and ports that China is building will be profitable.  And when one ethnic or national group become a dominant force in a county, there is bound to be resentment toward the group.  So instead of the term ugly Americans, there will be a term of ugly Chinese soon enough.  But as a Trump administration looks inward, a Chinese push outward is going to help China in this attempt to catch up to the U.S. in the world stage.

Just finished reading a book called "No Wall Too High".  It is the story of Xu Hongci translated into English by Erling Hoh.  Xu was a young man who joined the communist party of China and was moving up the ranks and was sent to study medicine by the party.  He had thought that Mao Zedong and the communist party had fought well against Japan and will lead the country to prosperity.  But he became disenchanted by Mao's policies and spoke out.   Of course he found out Mao and others in the party do not want to hear this.  He was sentenced to hard labor.  He was accused of spreading false rumors regarding the regime.  After many years and several escape attempts, he eventually was able to escape to Mongolia.  It is a fascinating story of survival.  But it is also a fascinating illustration of how an authoritarian person and government can make life miserable for millions of people. 

Interestingly, Mao suppressed news that shed bad light on him and his policies.  He called these "false rumors" counterrevolutionary.  Sort of like some leader today calling news that reflect badly on him "fake news".  I am, of course, referring to the president of FIFA who said that the accusations of FIFA being corrupt and nontransparent are just fake news.  That is what every dictator in third world countries say.  Yeah, those dictators and the leader of the free world.

People are comparing to Trump's firing of FBI director Comey to the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973 when Nixon fired special prosecutor Cox.  I do not agree.  I think this is worse for the country.  For one thing, Watergate was about a failed attempt to influence a presidential election by Americans.  This investigation is about a successful attempt by a foreign government to influence a presidential election.  This has far more potential disaster for our democracy than Watergate.

The second thing that makes this worse is that when Nixon decided to fire Cox, his attorney general and deputy resigned instead of taking part in the firing.  Those two Republicans put the nation ahead of their party.  Jeff Session, on the other hand, signed on to the firing even though he has supposedly recused himself from the investigation.  Also so far, other than John McCain, no other prominent Republicans has come out and say this is outrageously wrong. 

The third thing is, as I have said before, Trump is a bully.  Beyond that now, I think Trump is acting like a dictator.  Why do you think he sings the praises of Kim, Duterte, Sisi and Putin.  Just like them, if you are against him, he is going to try to get rid of you.  At least so far he has not had anyone killed yet like those dictators.  But with his firing of Comey, I am afraid that we are going down that slippy slope taking us away from our democracy.  Think about it:  the president is being investigated for colluding with the Russians and he fires the man in charge of investigating him.  His party, which runs the government refuses to acknowledge that this firing is undemocratic.  The president's best foreign friends are dictators.  So yes, I think the situation is worse for the country than Watergate.

Last week the GOP was able to pass a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.  Interesting picture of Trump declaring victory with many GOP Congressmen behind him.  They were all white males.  I am sure the Democrats will use that picture in coming elections.  They will also use the yes votes of GOP incumbents in contested districts against them. 

There is no point in going over the bill at this point.  All I will say that almost all nonpartisan analysts believe this bill is worse than Obamacare.  Of course this won't become law.  The Senate will not pass a bill exactly like this.  The GOP majority in the Senate is a lot slimmer and there are higher percentage of centrists among senators.   If they can pass a bill, it will then go to a conference committee with the House.  Can the Senate and House hammer out a compromise then?  I don't know but if they do, I doubt that the final bill will pass both the House and Senate again.  So I don't see those same white males standing behind Trump and declare victory again on Trumpcare.

I see the FCC is investigating Stephen Colbert for his remarks about Putin and Trump.  I did not hear the "joke" but I can't see him getting censored.  The show is at 11:30 p.m., well pass kids' bed time.  I am sure the words are beeped out so I don't see censoring being appropriate.  I do think some of the jokes by all comedians regarding acts of sodomy, size of sex organs etc. are pedestrian.  I have more respect for comedians who don't go to those kinds of jokes.  Most of the time Colbert does a good job of roasting Trump and since this has helped him increase his rating, I don't see him stop using Trump as a punching bag.