The World Cup has started.  Before it started, there has been controversies regarding Qatar hosting the competition.  Western media have accused Qatar of bribing to be the host.  This, of course, has been debated over 12 years.  But add human rights issues, including the bad treatment of foreign workers, and you have critics and defenders of the country going at each other.  The head of FIFA said that given Western countries' human rights record in the past, they have no right to complain about others.  He was then being criticized for "what aboutism".  In other words, defending someone by accusing others of doing the same in the past.  So here is my take.

Regarding bribes, I think it is pretty well-known that money and favors are exchanged in deciding the host of every major sporting event.  Salt Lake City was accused of that in securing the Winter Olympics.  Even if no money directly changed hands, there are always direct or indirect favors secured for the votes.  Members of the committee to decide the host are wined and dined at every candidate city.  They are all rich people with perhaps business deals in the backburner.  Qatar, I am sure bribed.  But the whole system was installed by Western powers with most of the powerful positions controlled by Western countries.  So the Western media should attack those people and countries, not candidate cities who are only playing the game the way it was set up.

Qatar was not the only host country in a major sports events who was accused of human rights abuses.  But it is the only country I think of that is actually created by Western powers, especially the UK.  It was an UK "protectorate" until 1971 when it was given independence.  Basically, the British and Americans chose a monarch that was on their side and promised free flow of oil.  The UK set up the government for Qatar.  The Western powers all know that this government is not democratic nor would it uphold human rights.  But they did not care.  Even today, they get more angry with the decrease production of oil from OPEC than their human rights abuse.  It is like the police letting the mafia run the city and is benefitting from that arrangement and yet pretend to be shocked that the mafia is extorting money!  This is not about "what aboutism", but about hypocrisy.

 Almost all midterm election results are in.  I think by now everybody knows that the Democrats are retaining the Senate while the Republicans are likely to win the House with a slim majority.  The results are much better than the Democrats expected.  So here are some winners and losers from Tuesday.

The biggest loser is Trump.  His endorsed candidates, most of them deniers of the 2020 election results, lost in most cases in competitive states.  These candidates, most of them incompetent, may have been the reason that the GOP lost the Senate again and did much worse than expected in the House.  This shows again the Trump is bad for the Republicans.  But that was obvious even in 2020 and many still followed him.  Will this finally convince the GOP to get rid of Trump?

The big winner was Ron DeSantis who is also one of the reason that Trump is a big loser.  DeSantis did not pledge allegiance to Trump and won big.  His victory margin was impressive and may make him the front runner for the GOP in 2024.

Mitch McConnell is a loser.  Even though not his fault, by not winning the Senate, many in the Republican party want to oust him as minority leader.  I don't like McConnell but he has done a great job serving GOP interests in the Senate and it would be a mistake for them to oust him.

Kevin McCarthy was a winner and a loser.  He most likely will become Speaker.  But he will not have the majority he needs to push his agenda through without the Tea party extremists.  So his hands are tied and he may have to seek compromise with the Democrats to pass relatively moderate agenda.  But if he compromises with the Democrats, he will likely to have his leadership position challenged by the extremists in his party.  He may even lose his leadership position.  But given McConnell and McCarthy are both spineless, I don't feel sorry for either one.

One who did not lose but may lose influence is Joe Manchin.  If Warnock beats Walker in the runoff, the Democrats will have an extra vote in the Senate and may not need to kowtow to Manchin in many issues.  He may lose his position as the most powerful man in the Senate.

A possible winner is our democracy.  By defeating most election result deniers and not having much controversies in this election, hopefully our democracy is more stable than any time since Trump was elected in 2016.

 Rishi Sunak is the new prime minister of the UK.  The first person of color tapped for this job, it is an important milestone.  There are also celebrations in India as Sunak is of Indian descent.  But as in the case of Kamala Harris, Sunak is brown on the outside and white on the inside.  Even more than Harris because he is one of the richest person in the UK and is the leader of the Conservative party.  So his policies are likely pro corporations and the wealthy.   He was the equivalent of the Secretary of Treasury under Boris Johnson and so it is unlikely that his policies will be much different those of Johnson and Truss.  Those policies have not been working so I doubt that Sunak will be able to get the UK out of the financial crisis any time soon.

I understand that the parliamentary system means that the leader of the party with the most members of parliament becomes prime minister.  But there has not been any election since Boris Johnson led his party to victory.  So basically Truss and Sunak are not elected by the majority of the people but by just members of the Conservative party.  This is democracy?

Trevor Noah showed someone calling in a show in England who said that as a white country it makes no sense that an Indian guy becomes the leader.  He said it would be like him going to Pakistan or Saudi Arabia and become their leader.  Hmm!  I think that has been done before.  But the white guys in those situations used guns and bombs to gain power.  Sunak won by voting, even if it is just by the members of the Conservative party which are mostly white.

 Trump recently made racist remarks about Elaine Chao, his former Transportation secretary.  Chao is married to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.  When asked about Trump's racist remarks, McConnell had no comment.  Is he so spineless that he cannot defend his wife against racism?  Interestingly, Chao also had no comment.  Is she so hateful of her Chinese ancestry that she did not think the comments were racist?  Or is she keeping quiet because she is being accused of helping her family's business while in office?  So maybe these two terrible people deserve each other!

 Just returned from a trip to Detroit.  It was a good trip for my nephew's wedding and seeing my family.  The return back to LA area was not pleasant, however.  The flight out of Detroit was supposed to be 9:45 p.m.  At around 7:30 there was an announcement that the pilot was not going to make it on time and the flight had been pushed back to 10:30.  Around 8, the gate agent brought a cart full of snacks and drinks for us.  I told my wife that it is never a good sign when they are offering snacks at the gate.  Sure enough, it was followed by announcement that the pilot had just been cleared to take off from New York.  The flight will be delayed until 11:30.  I didn't have a good feeling about that since it is not known how long the pilot had been stranded in New York and if he is in shape to fly to LA when his plane lands in Detroit.  Sure enough, just around 10:45 it was announced that the pilot does not feel he is in shape to fly to LA when he lands in Detroit.  So the flight was canceled and rescheduled to 7 a.m. next morning.

We had then stand in line to get vouchers for hotel and food.  We were among the first in line but still took 15 minutes to get the vouchers.  We then had to make reservation for the hotel and find the shuttle to that hotel.  Since the hotel did not anticipate a sudden surge in business, it had to get the shuttle out to the airport and that took about 20 minutes.  When we got to the hotel, there was one clerk who had to work the system of vouchers.  It took another 20 minutes to get our room.  So it was well past midnight when we got to bed.  We had to get up at 4:30 to catch the plane.  Thankfully we made it and the plane took off as scheduled.

When we got to LAX, we had to get an Uber or Lyft.  We were jammed into a bus to take us from the arrival area to the rideshare parking lot.  The bus was jammed with people.  The drive to the parking lot took 20 minutes even though the lot is less than a mile from LAX!  The parking lot was jammed with buses.  People were wandering off the bus to find where Uber, Lyft and taxis were located.  Massive amount of people from buses with luggage.  We looked like bunch of refugees.  Once getting in our ride, it was an hour and half through LA traffic to get home.  

So for someone who hates to travel, it was not a fun experience.  I am sure a lot of people had experienced much worse than this.  But that is my point.  The airlines had no back up plans.  The airports are horrible, although DTW is a lot better than LAX.  Traffic everywhere and no good public transportation.  LAX has been under renovation for years and I doubt it will improve much after renovation is completed.  And it will still have no train going in and out of the airport then!

I also want to rant about the gas prices here in California.  It is again over $6.  The official word is that Saudi Arabia raised the price of oil to the U.S. and that there are several refineries in California  undergoing maintenance and are offline.  Well, the refineries were being maintained a few months ago when the price surged.  Do we have such ancient refineries that we have to maintain them every few months?  The price of gas jumped almost a dollar in the one week I left LA.  The price of a barrel of oil from Saudi Arabia went up 20 cents.  Since a barrel of oil can produce about 20 gallons of gasoline, that means each gallon should only go up a penny!  Someone need to explain the math to me here!

 Just returned from a vacation to visit my 7 months old grandson.  It was a lot of fun to see and play with him.  But back to reality.  I just saw this article in CNN where the life expectancy of the U.S. has declined by more than two and a half years since the pandemic started.   To put into perspective, a change of a few tenths in a year is very unusual.  The current life expectancy of Americans stand at 76 years, the lowest since 1996.

Half of the decline is due to COVID.  The second largest cause of the decline in drugs.  The sad thing is that both of these causes could have been mitigated.  They are both unforce errors by us and the leaders of our government.  While American Indians had the worst decline among all ethnic groups, no group is spared.  Whites, for example, had the least decline in 2020 but had the second highest decline in 2021, worse than Blacks and Hispanics.  I think this is because Whites had the best health care and got in line first for the vaccines so they did better in the beginning.  But in the past year, Whites are among the worst of the anti-vaxxers.  They are also the most likely to call for freedom of not wearing masks in crowded public places and opening up of everything.  Advantages forfeited.

I have always said that the first freedom, in my opinion, is the freedom to be alive.  No freedom if you are six feet under.  Asian Americans did the best among the ethnic groups in these past two years.  I think many Asian Americans came from countries where individual freedom is not as important as the well being of the whole society.  I think if you live in Idaho or Wyoming, it may not make much difference what you do.  But if you live in crowded places like LA or NY, I think there is a responsibility to make it safer for each other.  I won't waste my breath here ranting about the ineptitude of our government in the pandemic, opioid crisis and mass gun shootings.  Too many unforced errors to talk about!

 The FBI raided Trump's Mar-A-Lago estate.  Supposedly, there were documents that Trump took from the White House that should not be taken out.  I don't know if they can find any of these since Trump would have had plenty of warning that the Justice department was looking for these things and he could have disposed of them before the raid.  Maybe down the toilet?  But in any case, the justice department felt it was important enough to get warrant for the raid and they did carry it out.

Of course, Trump and the GOP are up at arms over the raid.  Saying this is all political and the Justice department and the FBI are doing the work of the Democrats.  But the judge who signed the warrant was appointed by Trump.  The director of the FBI was also appointed by Trump.  So it is absurd to say this is just the work of Trump's enemy.  Of course this argument doesn't prevent the GOP from calling for defunding the FBI!  Who is against law enforcement now/

During a deposition, Trump answered only one question:  his name.  He pleaded the Fifth to every other question.  What was that he said about those who plead the Fifth?  Oh right, must be guilty otherwise why would one has to plead the Fifth?

 Now that Nancy Pelosi has left Taiwan, here is some of my takes on the subject.

I still don't know why she decided to go after being warned by the military and Biden that this was a very bad idea.  You don't become a leader in the U.S. government without being pragmatic.  Certainly human rights issue is not consider a pragmatic part of our foreign policy.  Witness Biden kowtowing to the Saudis.  Even if she is really concerned about human rights, going to Taiwan is not going to help the democracy of the Taiwanese people.

Some people say that she is going to distract the problems of her husband and that they have investments in semiconductors which is dominated by Taiwan's TSMC.  I don't think her trip is helping in regarding to both.  Certainly if it provokes China, the semiconductor business throughout the world will be affected.  Prices may go up initially but if war breaks out TSMC will be destroyed and the whole industry will be decimated, as will all of tech sectors because the reliance on chips in the world.

I do think that like all politicians in the U.S., she is beholden to the military industrial complex.  Just tension from the possibility of war is enough to help the industry earn more profit.  So there is call in both sides of the aisle to support Taiwan like Ukraine.  No regard for the fact that by pushing Putin into war, Ukraine will be destroyed even if the war is a stalemate.  Same thing will happen to Taiwan.  No American troops will go into Taiwan if war breaks out.  Taiwanese and Chinese people will die.  But that is not the concern of American hawks and their industry benefactors.

Propaganda is already all over Western media.  CNN had a retired admiral who said that 70% of Taiwanese want independence.  True fact is that only 10% want independence now.  Overwhelming majority want the status quo.  I can guaranteed practically nobody in Taiwan want to fight a war to gain independence.  Certainly not those who are eligible to be drafted into the military.

Also propaganda is that Pelosi can go anywhere she wants.  Taiwan is a separate country.  Newt Gringrich went to Taiwan as Speaker 25 years ago.  But Taiwan is not a separate country.  This fact is recognized by 180 countries, including the U.S.  It would be like the third ranking Chinese leader go to Texas and meet with the people who want to secede from the U.S.  Newt was member of the opposing party to then President Clinton.  So his visit is not considered an official position of the U.S. government.  Coming after the Biden gaffe that the U.S. will protect Taiwan from attack, you can see that this visit is a provocation to China and goes against the Shanghai Communique.

So what is the response from China.  It would seem that Xi is losing face by doing nothing except military exercises.  I certainly did not believe that China would shoot down the plane or force it to land.  That would start a war.  Xi has to be measured in his response.  If you look at  the plans for the military exercises, they are planned to surround all sides of Taiwan.  It is a demonstration that at any time Taiwan can be blockaded.  As an island, Taiwan depends on lots of imports.  So any blockade would be problematic.  China does not need to invade.  Now, is the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan going into the same area during the exercise?  That would be more tension and more danger.  Accidents happen during training and adversaries being close together is making accidents more likely.

Even if Xi loses face because the people in China believe the response is not strong enough, he will get his third term.  Being a one party country, China can look at long term.  Eventually China will catch up to the U.S. and Taiwan will be reunified with the motherland.  This is Xi and others' thinking.  So this will not hurt them too much.  

Pelosi and the Democrats just committed an unforced error.  By telegraphing she is going, she had no choice but to go because the GOP already said that if she does not go, it shows weakness.  But having gone, Trump already accused Pelosi of causing chaos.  Same with Tucker Carlson.  I am sure even those who egged her on to go will not say the trip is stupid and that Biden cannot control his own party.  So even politically, I think it is a loss for Pelosi and the Democrats.

So it was a stupid thing to do and I don't know what Pelosi is thinking.  Nobody wins except for the military industrial complex.  The only good thing is that WWIII did not happen.

 The country of Sri Lanka is in an economic crisis.  I am no economist and I can't explain how the situation got so dire for Sri Lanka.  But after some research, I can say for sure the Western narrative of the China debt trap is too blame is bogus.

The critics of China say that after loaning money to Sri Lanka and building its port and airport, China now owns the port and may eventually turn it into a military base!   But the debt Sri Lanka owed to China for the constructions are very small amount of its total international debt.  In fact the total amount Sri Lanka owes China is only about 10% of its total debt.  Japan is also owed 10%.  Most of the other 80% are owed to banks affiliated with the IMF, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.  The first two are controlled by the U.S. and Europe.  The ADB is controlled by Japan and the U.S.  So to say that China is using debt to control Sri Lanka is laughable.

The deal that Sri Lanka made with China during the crisis is that 70% of the port will be leased to China for 99 years and 30% to be kept by Sri Lanka.  In exchange China gives Sri Lanka 1.12 billion dollars which was used to service debt to other foreign banks.  Before the port was built, feasibility studies were done by Canadian and Dutch firms.  So it is believed that it can be profitable.  If the Chinese company that takes over now can produce profits, it will get 70% and Sri Lanka gets 30%.  Will it work?  Too early to tell but in 99 years the port will revert to Sri Lanka control.  Sort of like the British deal with Hong Kong.  Except China gives money to get the deal and not use gunboats to force the deal.

So Sri Lanka has not lost its port to China.  Certainly no military base is being built.  If 90% of the debt in owed by someone other than China, why is China being accused of a debt trap.? As I said about the accusation of Chinese debt traps in Africa, if the Western countries are so concern then just give these countries a better deal than China.  These countries are not stupid. They won't take the worse deal.

By the way, I think I wrote this before.  The only high finance guy on Wall Street who was convicted of fraud during the last economic disaster in 2008 was from Sri Lanka.  I found it hard to believe then that he was the only guilty person during the financial meltdown.  Now I find it hard to believe that no Western financial institution has anything to do with the Sri Lanka meltdown.

 Watched the hearings last night because I thought it was the finale and they will give the final conclusion.  Well, this is a few things I learned:

There will be a sequel in September!  With new witnesses and facts.  So stay tuned.

It was almost all Republicans who testified against Trump.  Those people will be attacked.  Some was already last night.  

They should have people like Hannity testify why they advised Trump to stop the riot when it was going on.  They have been silenced since and even accused the Committee as a witch hunt.  They seem to believe it was a disaster when it was happening but no big deal now.  Last night FOX didn't even air the hearing.

Trump told McCarthy that it was Antifa that was rioting, not his supporters.  If that is the case, I would think he would have ordered the military to stop it quickly.  But he let it go on.  McCarthy and Trump got into a swearing contest.  But McCarthy is kissing Trump's butt today.

Trump looked stupid and weak while trying to make videos to address the nation.  I am surprised these tapes were kept.

Pence's Secret Service people were fearing for their lives.  These people were supposedly brave enough to die to save the person they were guarding.  But the texts from Trump's Secret Service details were erased, and looks to be done so after they were asked for.  It is hard to believe that the texts were erased accidentally.  Lots of theories out there.  I believe that some of the agents were either supportive of the rioters or some of them did not want to protect Trump because he is a traitor to the country.  Either case, it shows the danger our democracy is in.