Don't-gooder
Joined November 2013
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Lula should consider giving a direct presidential or legislative pardon to Bolsonaro Sr with conditions eg not being able to engage in politics for a certain period. So he can focus on governance and show magnanimity.
BREAKING: Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wins an unprecedented fourth term, narrowly defeating conservative Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro in a closely contested runoff election.
Bolsonaro entered the runoff after leading the first round of voting, but Lula's strong support in northeastern Brazil helps secure his victory.
The result puts Brazil at odds with the rightward shift seen elsewhere in the region, underscoring a deep political divide over the country's future.
See what makes Brazil's political landscape different and what the outcome could mean for Latin America: foxnews.com/world/conservati…
This is missing one column: IMF projection at this same time of 2025 GDP.
In emerging market and developing economies, growth is projected to slow to 3.7% in 2026 before recovering to 4.4% in 2027, with prospects shaped by commodity dependence, sensitivity to financial conditions, policy frameworks, and position in the global technology value chain. imf.org/en/publications/weo/…
Greater than 50% chance that this will be the case
Bro… China could riddle a Filipino naval boat with bullets, set the thing ablaze with flamethrowers, string up the charred corpses on crucifixes…
… and US Navy lawyers will work overtime to figure out why that does not constitute a violation of the Mutual Defence Treaty.
Don’t be a cuck, bro. The US Navy has repeatedly hung y’all’s out to dry.
China should sanction only Filipino politicians, not Maltese politicians.
"E di i-sanction nila."
Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. hits back at China over its alleged sanctions against Filipino politicians, dismissing the move as a possible distraction from Beijing’s real objectives. | via @darylle_marie
Geopolitical equivalent of conspicuous consumption. Maybe they thought intervening in Yemen was no different from buying an Hermes bag.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should recognise that their foreign adventurism along the Red Sea threatens their own interests. Register to read why (it’s free) bit.ly/4spGcIo
Illustration: Lincoln Agnew/Getty Images
Guess who will be the first European to abandon Ukraine and follow the Trump line? Ursula von der Leyen of course.
There are no or few really fake PWD cards. It's the indiscriminate issuance of them, all legit, that's the problem. The definition of PWD is so broad that almost all Filipinos can qualify to be PWD (exag kaunti 😆). Wrong analysis, wrong solutions.
stravinsky retweeted
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Raffy Tulfo on Wednesday called for stricter action against fake identification cards for persons with disabilities (PWDs)
stravinsky retweeted
WHEN WILL SOMEONE tell the U.S. public the truth about datacenters?
The false story Americans are being force-fed says the power-gobbling tech centers are necessary to beat China, and may provide an economic boost.
An AP report on the topic was typical, referring to “a potential jobs and economic bonanza, while helping the U.S. thwart China in the geopolitical race for technological supremacy”.
What’s missing is the comparative number.
It is missing deliberately.
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THE MISSING NUMBER
That’s because it would reveal to readers that the United States has 5,427 data centers, while China has only 449 data centers, according to the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. (The Chinese aren’t racing, focused on building good power infrastructure instead.)
The numbers show that there is no race.
The US already has an unassailable lead.
So why do they really want US citizens to give up their greenbelt? The difference is whether US “wins” by having 12 times as many datacenters as China, or “wins” by having 13 times as many as China: it is meaningless.
If the US public knew that, they would not give up their greenbelt land areas, nor their supplies of electricity and water.
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RACE AGAINST THE WORLD
While we are looking at numbers, there’s something else to notice. At current rates of building, the US will soon have more datacenters than ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD PUT TOGETHER. (A recent survey showed the US had 46 percent and rising.)
So if there’s a race at all, it’s a race between the US broligarchs and humanity itself. Think about that for a moment.
Meanwhile, the public is being thrown off the trail by being told that any opposition comes from China and Russia. (They can use this post as evidence, as the writer lives in China.)
But this is obviously false. Websites like datacenterwatch .org show that the opposition comes from US citizens themselves, from all sides of the political spectrum.
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WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING
Here’s what’s really happening. The members of the wealthy elite in the US, long advantaged by their country being globally dominant, now know that the situation is changing: the growth of a multipolar world is inevitable.
But they came up with a plan. “If the world is becoming an AI tech dystopia, what if we had more AI tech power than every other country in the planet put together! We would still be in charge!” AI Planet!
Who would want to live there?
Let me end with a line attributed to Sun Tzu. It doesn’t actually appear in his famous book, but can be seen as a summary of his philosophy, which is think strategically to minimize harm to people and property:
“A bad man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.”
.
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This is why the Philippines needs an external "enemy"
₱55-M FARM-TO-MARKET ROAD, PERO SA KARAGATAN NG BRUNEI NAKA-PLOT ANG COORDINATES
A budget watchdog has flagged ₱190 billion worth of infrastructure projects allegedly inserted by the House of Representatives into the Department of Agriculture’s proposed 2027 budget, citing questionable project locations and missing public documents.
According to the People’s Budget Coalition (PBC), some farm-to-market road projects were mapped in bodies of water far from their intended locations—including areas near Benham Rise, Indonesia, and Brunei.
The coalition is urging the Senate, the executive branch, and the DA to review the 7,054 projects and make supporting documents publicly available for scrutiny.
PBC warned that the lack of transparency could raise concerns over the proper use of public funds, stressing the need for stronger oversight of projects intended to support farmers and improve food security.
🎥 Senate of the Philippines
What is the @EUCouncil 's position on Ukrainians whom Kyiv considers deserters but are now seeking asylum in the EU? Does support for Ukraine means denying them asylum?
What's so surprising about what the US is doing to Zelensky (whatever it is the US is actually doing)? The US did worse to Ngo Dinh Diem.
stravinsky retweeted
Although China’s current account surplus has grown explosively in the past few years, this is not necessarily because of Beijing’s industrial subsidies, Nicholas Lardy writes in response to @MikeFroman in @ForeignAffairs. The growth of China’s surplus, beginning in 2024, he writes, is more likely explained by a rise in the imbalance between domestic savings & investment. foreignaffairs.com/guest-pas…
Could the US make Zelensky follow the fate of Ngo Dinh Diem who became inconvenient to the US or so it thought? 🤔
stravinsky retweeted
Why France is protesting:
— Debt is 119% of GDP (similar to Greece in the 2009 crisis)
— Deficit spending is almost 6% of GDP (wider than Italy’s in 2011 crisis)
— Record poverty rate of 15.4%
— Consistent inflation, exacerbated by Ukraine war and now accelerating due to Iran war
— Interest rate explosion due to the Iran war (now pays more than Greece)
— Privatisation of public assets
— Crumbling public services & infrastructure
— Poor condition of public schools & lack of teachers
— Corruption, cronyism & elite self-dealing
— Special tax arrangements for elites and mega corporations who invest abroad
— Rising living costs & low stagnant wages (€2k median)
— Loss of African territories and exploitation schemes
— Police brutality & protest repression
— Comedians and journalists censored
Quality of life is evaporating in France while the elites loot everything and become more overtly corrupt and repressive as it becomes more clear to the common public how dire the situation is. Macron now has an 82% disapproval rate…
The Ukraine and Iran war are the straws on the camel’s back, skyrocketing both inflation and interest rates on debt. Europe simply cannot survive this.
stravinsky retweeted
🚨 🇺🇸 The US is now paying more than $1.05 trillion in interest on its debt every year even as the economy continues to perform relatively well.
📊 In fiscal 2026, net interest payments on federal debt reached $1.05 trillion, up from $970 billion in 2025. Nearly 20% of federal revenue now goes exclusively toward paying creditors⚠️. Meanwhile, the federal deficit is approaching $2 trillion (roughly 6.2% of GDP) while gross federal debt has surpassed $40 trillion. We're talking about a country running enormous deficits despite not being in a major recession.
📈 Over the past five years, the average interest rate paid on marketable Treasury securities has risen from 1.47% to 3.52% while 10-year Treasury yields are now hovering around 5%. This is particularly problematic because the US must continuously refinance its outstanding debt as bonds mature. Debt issued several years ago at 1.5% may now need to be replaced with new borrowing at 4% or 5%. The process is gradual but even without an acceleration in government spending, interest costs could continue rising for years.
⚠️ However, debt sustainability also depends on nominal economic growth. When nominal GDP grows faster than the effective interest rate, growth helps reduce the debt burden relative to GDP, all else being equal. In Q2 2026, US nominal GDP was still growing by 6.3% year over year, compared with an average interest cost of 3.52% on marketable debt at the end of September. That's one reason why I don't believe a fiscal crisis is imminent but the US is also running a primary deficit of nearly $940 billion, meaning a deficit before even accounting for interest payments. The US continues to spend significantly more than it collects, even before servicing its debt.
➡️ The Trump administration is placing considerable faith in AI to improve this equation through productivity gains. I find that optimism risky, as investing hundreds of billions of dollars in data centers does not guarantee enough additional growth or tax revenue to stabilize the debt. The Congressional Budget Office projected in February that federal debt held by the public would reach 120% of GDP by 2036, while annual net interest payments could exceed $2 trillion. This situation could also keep long-term bond yields elevated even if the Fed gradually cuts short-term interest rates.
I don't believe the United States is on the brink of a financial crisis, but I do believe it is gradually losing its ability to respond to the next economic crisis. If the US is already running an annual deficit of nearly $2 trillion while its economy remains strong, what happens when the next real recession hits?
*Bloomberg link: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
stravinsky retweeted
Ambassador Jing Quan Made Strong Demarches to Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Theresa Lazaro over the Philippine Anti-China Politicians’ Smear and Slander Against China
On October 19, 2026, Ambassador Jing Quan met with Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro at request, making strong demarches over the recent remarks of Philippine officials and politicians which take things out of context and constitute smear and slander against the Chinese side.
Ambassador Jing said that, recently, I have been invited to the Second Diliman Dialogue and delivered a key-note speech. During the coffee break, I took an ambush interview by the local media. My key point is “separate” regarding the handling of China-Philippines relations. That means, adopt a differentiated approach to handle the problems of various sectors, based on their own merits instead of linking one to another. We should enhance dialogue, manage differences and deepen cooperation, create more good stories, good news. Let the good aspects prevail over bad ones. Otherwise we may easily fall into the situation of countermeasures and retaliation.
The DFA statement claims that my remarks seem to convey a thinly veiled “threat”. I cannot agree. What is threat? If you don’t follow me, I will hurt you. This is threat. But my point is despite our capacity, we don’t have the intention to use force. Because we are friends and close neighbors. There is no need to resort to force.
Peace is hard-won in this region. We should cherish the peace. This is not called “threat”, but the effort to uphold peace. On maritime disputes, China has exercised great restraint. However, the Philippines should not take it as weakness, and further challenge our patience regardless of boundary and bottom line. We hope the Philippine side will fully and accurately understand our position and views, and avoid selective quotation, over-interpretation and over-reaction.
The Chinese side fully agrees that “the business of diplomacy requires tact and restraint in order to create space for discourse, dialogue and engagement.” However, when DND Secretary Gibo Teodoro cut off the communication channel between our two militaries for 3 years, and announce loudly that he has no intention to restore; when he stormed into the factory with armed forces to arrest innocent Chinese workers; when he joined foreign forces to attack and smear Chinese-language education and forced 180 teachers to leave the Philippines; when he accused China as “troublemaker” in the region, is that what you call “diplomacy, prudence, and restraint”?
When some anti-China politicians and officials deliberately smear and attack China and Chinese leaders; when anti-China forces sent 5 coffins to our Embassy and Chinatown; when the uniformed Philippine personnel claim China as “the biggest threat”, has the Philippines shown any basic respect to your close neighbor with millennium-friendship?
When the Philippine side has carried out at least 10 infringement activities and provocations at sea in the recent one month, which was more than doubled; when some anti-China politicians keep threatening to declare me “persona non grata” and push through anti-China resolutions, we do not see any “professionalism” and “restrain”.
The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests. Recently, the Philippine side has continued to make negative moves on Taiwan-related issues. The Chinese side is highly concerned and has lodged solemn representations over this. If the Philippine side does not respect China’s core concerns, how can it expect the reciprocal respect from China?
Secretary Teodoro, Jay Tarriela, as well as some senators and congressmen/congresswomen, have blatantly launched waves of campaigns to attack and smear China. They are either government officials or elected legislators, can the DFA argue that they do not represent the Philippine government’s position? The Philippine side has expressed the wish to reset our bilateral relations several times. What’s exactly the China policy of the Philippines? What has been done on the Philippine side? When bad things keep occurring and really hurting China-Philippines relations, where is the diplomatic manner the Philippines keeps talking about?
Ambassador Jing stressed that mutual respect and win-win cooperation is a two-way lane. The Chinese Embassy serves as a bridge for promoting friendship and cooperation between the two countries, and also as a fortress in safeguarding China’s national interests and dignity. No one should expect the Chinese Embassy to keep silent in the face of smear and attack against China. Our bilateral relations are at a very sensitive and complicated juncture. We urge the Philippine side to earnestly respect China’s core interests and concerns, take necessary measures immediately to restrain those anti-China politicians and ill-intentioned forces from dragging our bilateral relations into the dangerous situation of confrontation.