Will Trump Trump Reagan

Posted: 7/28/2018  Updated: 9/8/2018; 9/7/2018

Update Of 9/8/2018 & 9/7/2018

Perhaps, I should have added a list of President Trump’s accomplishments that would qualify him to to be on par with or trump President Reagan (in no particular order or ranking; probably I forgot something):

1. Major tax reform to lower taxes (e.g. dramatically lowering corporate income taxation)
2. Move of U.S. embassy to Jerusalem (finally a U.S. president who does not shirk)
3. Withdrawal from the horrible Paris Agreement
4. Withdrawal from the horrible Iran nuclear agreement (stupid Europeans helped to sign and still defend)
5. Ends funding for UNRWA (for decades overdue; this and Jerusalem embassy might be the opening for a more realistic peace agreement to end the 70 year long Israel-Arab war)
6. Ends ObamaCare (somewhat incomplete; the GOP failed the president on this subject, e.g. late Senator McCain)
7. Demands European NATO members pay more for their defense in no uncertain terms (too many U.S. presidents wavered on this)
8. Review of Obama’s many National Monument designations under the Antiquities Act of 1906 (Such a review was long overdue! Presidential vanity and posterity has led e.g. Obama to use the Antiquities Act excessively! In my opinion, the Antiquities Act should be repealed)
9. Cancellation of quasi automatic pay raises for federal employees (according to a number of studies, federal employees are very well compensated, often better compensated than comparable private sector employees plus incredible job security)
10. Issued Executive Orders to ease firing of federal employees (long overdue; but opposed by federal courts. Why did federal courts not prevent the incredible dismissal protections of federal employees?)
11. Revoked Obama’s harsh CAFE standards and proposes reform of CAFE standards (First of all, CAFE is an utterly unconstitutional act, which SCOTUS failed to nullify! CAFE is pure socialist central planning!)

To me this is already a very impressive list of achievements!

Wild Speculation Into The Wide Blue Yonder

Some speculation on the significance of the current U.S. President Donald J Trump on the history of the U.S. and beyond.

If President Trump continues at this pace and produces more achievements of the kind we have already seen, then Trump could easily become the greatest U.S. president since Ronald Reagan. Of course this depends on many factors e.g.:

1. Winning the upcoming midterm elections
2. Seeking and winning reelection in 2020
3. Prevailing in all the (mostly trumped up) legal charges against him or persons affiliated with him

If Trump succeeds in further making progress towards a much needed much smaller and limited federal government in the U.S., then Trump will become the new standard or frame of reference of presidents who lived up to the dreams of the Founders!

Obama’s Watergate II

If it turns out to be true that under President Obama’s watch a Watergate II was perpetrated against a presidential contender that was then even masterfully prolonged by the Deep State into the current president’s term, then Obama’s already awful legacy is blackened toast! It is has been highly disturbing that the former President Obama seems totally oblivious to the possibility of a Watergate II. A man with character (Obama never had character) would have already publicly supported to have this matter thoroughly investigated just to clear his name!

Most Leftist U.S. Court Of Appeals Decides In Favor Of 2nd Amendment

In a recent, stunning decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed en banc that hat the Second Amendment protects a right to openly carry loaded firearms in public for self-defense and that a restriction to one’s home only is unconstitutional. Individual liberty triumphed that day!

The Trump era is having already effects beyond wildest imagination! :-)

Road To Canossa

Just these days the EU President Juncker made his Road to Canossa (ahm travelled to the White House) to concede to Trump’s demands of more free trade between the U.S. and the European Union.

I think, the global reverberations of this very astonishing outcome in the trade spat between EU and the U.S. have not yet been seen.

The Totally Unhinged Opposition To President Trump

This incredible political theater against Trump is a sure sign that President Trump is doing something right. Finally, a non career politician and businessman fights back against the rampant and pervasive Socialism spread and constantly expanded by big government in the U.S.

Fascinating Human Fascial System

Posted:

Trigger

Just watched this outstanding documentary about the fascial system on YouTube. My jaw dropped. I had no clue about the overall importance of this head to toe connective tissue that permeates the whole body.

Relevance

Caveat:

1. I am not a doctor. This is still very preliminary information. This topic is still under research by me.
2. At the time of this writing, I still have not been able to obtain a concise history of research done or description on the fascia system. I have even emailed the Fascia Research Society and Professor Carla Stecco (the author of the Functional Atlas of the Human Fascial System), but have not gotten any responses yet. Still hopeful though!

The fasciae are part of the connective tissue and are an important part of the locomotive and muscular skeletal system. “Fascia is the soft tissue component of the connective tissue system that permeates the human body. It forms a whole-body [head to toe] continuous three-dimensional matrix of structural support. Fascia interpenetrates and surrounds all organs, muscles, bones and nerve fibers, creating a unique environment for body systems functioning. ” (Source 3)

Dr. Carla Stecco appears to be one of the foremost living experts on the fascial system that permeates our entire body from head to toe. She is reported to be the first to explain the various fasciae and their connections with muscles, joints, bones, organs, vessels, and nerves. The atlas of the human fascial system she published in 2015 is the first accurate and comprehensive description.

Terra Incognita In Medicine

It appears as though the medical profession & science has for several centuries ignored or neglected to research the significance of the fascia system. To err is science!

The excuses or rationalizations given why this extraordinary neglect and lack of understanding lasted for centuries are scarcely convincing, fascia is everywhere and could not be localized or it was cut away to study bones, muscles, tendons etc.

In 1543, Vesalius published his famous human anatomy book De Humani Corporis Fabrica. Only in 2014 was perhaps the first atlas of the human fascial system published. This is absolutely shocking!

The quantity of medical publications about the fascia system is still rather disappointing. Pubmed lists under 20,000 publications between 1789 and 7/23/2018 when searching for the term fascia ; over 365,000 for breast cancer; and more than 23,000 for erectile dysfunction. In recent years about 900 per annum for fascia; about 19,000 per annum for breast cancer; and about 900 per annum for erectile dysfunction.

The brief and superficial english language article in Wikipedia gives you also the impression that the the fascial system has been widely ignored (Source 2).

Sources:

1. Functional Atlas of the Human Fascial System (behind a paywall)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascia
3. https://web.archive.org/web/20081119150323/http://www.fasciacongress.org/2007/about.htm
4. https://fasciaresearchsociety.org/sites/default/files/frc/still-100yrs-findley.pdf
5. http://www.cmbm.unipd.it/members/pages/stecco.html
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=fascia

Plastophobia Is A Serious Disease

Posted: 7/22/2018  Updated: 5/4/2019, 2/17/2019, 12/22/2018

Update Of 5/4/2019

This could be a breakthrough we have been waiting for!

Here is the article: New family of polymers can be easily recycled and even upcycled (published by the Royal Society of Chemistry on 4/29/2019)

Quote (emphasis added): “A team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, US, has developed a new family of polymers that brings us closer to ... closed-loop, zero-waste plastics. ... they used a family of molecules called polydiketoenamines, held together by dynamic covalent bonds that, while very strong, can be easily broken down using small amounts of acid.”

Update Of 2/17/2019

Just read the abstract of this research article Use of Supercritical Water for the Liquefaction of Polypropylene into Oil (Here is the MIT Technology Review article about it). Human ingenuity is already taking care of this manufactured plastic crisis.

Some salient quotes (emphasis added):

1. “Synopsis: We develop efficient methods to convert polypropylene waste to oils, which can be used as feedstocks for fuels or other chemicals.”
2. “About five billion tons of plastic waste have accumulated in landfills and the natural environment over the past 50 years. Polypropylene (PP) waste accounts for about 23% of the total plastic waste”

Update Of 12/22/2018

Just read this article Mumbai’s Plastic Ban (12/19/2018), which featured under subject “Pollution”: “In June 2018, Mumbai became the largest Indian city to impose a ban on single-use plastics.”

It seems more this ban has less to do with pollution and much more with political incompetence. What do incompetent or inept politicians do when they cannot handle a situation? They reach for simplistic, drastic solutions like prohibition.

Original Post

Same Script Every Time

The pandemic of plastophobia is spreading rapidly in the Western World. This is just the latest of dozens environmental scares and demagogueries I have been subjected to and had to suffer through in my five decades living on planet earth. Again humans are caught up in tremendous irrational folly and superstition. Our elected representatives follow right along passing one stupid measures after the other (e.g. ban on plastic straws, bags etc.)

Previously, it was e.g. smoking; conventional candescent light bulbs; genetically modified organisms; global cooling/warming and many more …

Human Ingenuity & Individual Liberty

When will humans finally have more trust in human ingenuity and their fellow humans to take care of these issues without resorting to irrational, statist, paternalistic measures? It may take another several centuries if history is any guide.

Pleading With The Powers That Be

God have mercy on humans!

Women Who Dared Succeeded In History

Posted: 7/22/2018

Prologue

This blog post is more of a draft or brief summary. I hope to add the names of many such women as time goes by or will add posts on some of these women here on my blog.

Trigger

Just watched on YouTube an excellent BBC documentary on queen Elizabeth I. A four part series hosted by David Starkey, who wrote a book on Elizabeth I (watch part I here). This story reminded me that many women played a very significant role in human history unlike e.g. feminists have been wanting us to believe for almost a century.

Historical Perspective

History is actually full of women who became very successful or who were very influential in their time and beyond. Anyone who cares will find the stories of these women in all epochs, in many fields of human activity, most geographical regions, and basically all cultures on this planet.

In many cases, contemporary men were extremely cognizant and supportive of those women who dared, were talented, and were competent.

YouTube Annoyances

Posted: 7/20/2018  Updated: 10/1/2019, 8/30/2018, 8/22/2018

Update Of 10/1/2019

5. Annoyance: Why the heck is YouTube constantly turning on the autoplay feature, although I have turned it off several dozens of times. I hate this! Grrrr!

Update Of 8/30/2018

4. Annoyance: Recently, YouTube decided to add new videos to the Watch Later list at the end instead of the beginning of the list as was customary for a long time. This is terribly annoying!

If you want to watch something you have recently added to your Watch Later list you have to scroll down all the way. This is painful as you can only scroll down 100 videos at a time!

Update Of 8/22/2018

3. Annoyance: If you have already commented on a video you previously watched, the YouTube does not show or indicate that you have already commented or not commented on a previously watched video.

Terribly annoying!

Original Annoyances

1. Annoyance

Why is YouTube suggesting the same videos over and over again although I have either already watched that video before or that video is already on my Watch Later list

Terribly annoying!!!!

2. Annoyance

I have probably dozens of videos in my lists that are marked as deleted or have changed their status to private etc. Why is there no function to delete those videos from my various lists?

The Real Trade War Of EU Against U.S.

Posted: 7/18/2018  Updated: 7/20/2018

These days we saw following headlines in the news:

1. EU Commision is going to investigate AirBnB
2. Much worse, the EU just fined Google over $5 billion and this is subsequent to another fine of $2.4 billion in Summer of 2017 (a total of $7.4 billion). We hope that Google has the spine to persevere and go after the EU. Hope, President Trump will respond to that as well

That is not all:

1. Qualcomm was fined $1 billion in January 2018
2. In 2017, the European Commission has ordered Ireland to collect up to €13 billion ($14.5 billion) from Apple, plus interest
3. Microsoft fined over $0.5 billion in 2013
4. Intel fined over $1 billion in 2009
5. Microsoft fined over $0.9 billion in 2007
6. Microsoft fined about $0.5 billion in 2004

This is a habitual and serial highway robbery by the European Union! The charges against these U.S. companies appear to be rather trumped up (no pun intended). It is high time the EU and its members lower their excessive taxes on businesses and individuals!

Facebook Annoyances

Posted: 7/17/2018  Updated: 9/11/2018, 9/5/2018, 8/7/2018

Update Of 9/11/2018

Have you ever seen this added to your Facebook page:

This is so ridiculous and aggravating! Once this is presented, you cannot see more, older postings!

Update Of 9/5/2018

Today, I noticed for the second time in about one week that some commenters duplicate their comment/sub comment often with the same exact words and Facebook does not automatically delete these duplicate comments/sub comments added to the same post or comment.

Update Of 8/7/2018

Today, I noticed following: It appears when a Facebook friend possibly retracts/deletes his or her post that appeared on your Facebook home page to which you then have added comments and to which you reacted, then your own activities are also deleted from your Facebook Activity Log.

One proposal to deal with this would be to indicate in the log that the original posting was deleted, but your activities should still be listed in the log.

Very annoying!

The Facebook Activity Log should have a time stamp for each and every activity, but it does not making it needlessly difficult for me to find a particular activity!

Very annoying!

Original Post

Restricted Number Of Posts In News Feed

Since today, Facebook shows me only about 20-30 posts in my News Feed, then it asks me again and again:

“Do you want to see more posts?

The more friends you add, the more posts, photos and videos you'll see in News Feed.”

Since I have liked several dozens of news sources etc., this is incredible!

Totally absurd!

Reagan’s A Time For Choosing Speech

Posted: 7/14/2018

I don’t think I have ever heard or watched the entire about 30 minutes long speech by Reagan before today. I probably have heard or read excerpt of it before. Thanks to YouTube and the Reagan Foundation I finally watched the entirety of this original recording of his famous speech here.

Perhaps one of Reagan's very best speeches! Goldwater most likely would have been a much better president than LBJ.

Reagan's speech is still so true today it is almost scary and it is a sad state of affairs in the U.S. Even the probably best U.S. president since President Calvin Coolidge could not reverse Big Government and the expanding socialism in this country as he had described it so vividly in his excellent speech of 1964.

Western Colonialism Debunked

Posted: 7/14/2018

A Popular, But False Stereotype

Colonialism stands for oppression, domination, dependency, and conquest.

For Marxists, colonialism was systematic exploitation. They called it imperialism and saw it as the final phase or stage of capitalism. How wrong they were! However, this false, simplistic narrative is still regurgitated and widely disseminated and believed by contemporaries.

It is like painting in black and white only.

Introduction

Nothing makes history more exciting than to introduce some biography of extraordinary individuals that made a significant positive difference. Following are a selected few and, so far, these examples are predominantly from the British colonial past. These individuals are presented in no particular order. Some of these British individuals surely could be called eccentrics, for which the UK is so famous for.

I am sure there were similar individuals from other European countries, e.g. Belgium, Netherlands, Germany etc., but I did not have the time to research more.

Richard Francis Burton

His many adventures and exploits during his life are mind boggling. He was a polyglot extraordinaire!

“Burton defied many aspects of the pervasive British ethnocentrism of his day, relishing personal contact with human cultures in all their variety. His works and letters extensively criticized colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career. … Burton was a captain in the army of the East India Company, serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this, he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by locals and was the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika. In later life, he served as British consul in Fernando Pó, Santos, Damascus [modern day Syria] ...” (emphasis added)

“His studies of Hindu culture had progressed to such an extent that "my Hindu teacher officially allowed me to wear the Janeu (Brahmanical Thread)",... although the truth of this has been questioned … Burton's interest (and active participation) in the cultures and religions of India was considered peculiar by some of his fellow soldiers who accused him of "going native" and called him "the White Nigger". ... Burton had many peculiar habits that set him apart from other soldiers. While in the army, he kept a large menagerie of tame monkeys [holy animals in India] in the hopes of learning their language.” (emphasis added)

“... him to attempt a Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca and, in this case, Medina). It was this journey, undertaken in 1853, which first made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst traveling disguised among the Muslims of Sindh, and had laboriously prepared for the adventure by study and practice (including undergoing the Muslim tradition of circumcision to further lower the risk of being discovered)” (incredible; emphasis added)

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton

Allan Octavian Hume

“Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS (6 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a member of the Imperial Civil Service (later the Indian Civil Service), a political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, a political party that was later to lead in the Indian independence movement.” (emphasis added)

Yes, you read this right this British civil service member was on of the cofounders of the Indian National Congress. I do not remember, I have ever learnt this before.

“As an administrator of Etawah [a city in Uttar Pradesh], he saw the Indian Rebellion of 1857 as a result of misgovernance and made great efforts to improve the lives of the common people. The district of Etawah was among the first to be returned to normality and over the next few years Hume's reforms led to the district being considered a model of development. ” (emphasis added)

“... like his father Joseph Hume, the radical MP, he was bold and outspoken in questioning British policies in India. He rose in 1871 to the position of secretary to the Department of Revenue, Agriculture, and Commerce under Lord Mayo” (great example of British exceptionalism; emphasis added)

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Octavian_Hume

Major General Charles ‘Hindoo’ Stuart

I tend to believe, this British gentleman was an eccentric in the best sense of the word.

Charles Stuart (1758 - 1828) was an officer in the East India Company Army and is well known for being one of the few British officers to embrace Hindu culture while stationed there, earning the nickname Hindoo Stuart. What were his fellow soldiers in the military thinking?

In his teens, Stuart left Ireland for India, where he remained for the rest of his life. Starting as a cadet, he rose through the ranks to become a Major-General. His last command was the Saugor Field Force.

He "had studied the language, manners and customs of the natives of this country with so much enthusiasm, his intimacy with them ... obtained for him the name of Hindoo Stuart”.

He published his letters extolling the virtues of "elegant, simple, sensible, and sensual" Indian saris vis-a-vis "the prodigious structural engineering European women strapped themselves into in order to hold their bellies in, project their breasts out and allow their dresses to balloon grandly up and over towards the floor".

In his book Vindication of the Hindoos (1808), Stuart criticised the work of European missionaries in India, claiming that:

1. "Hinduism little needs the meliorating hand of Christianity to render its votaries a sufficiently correct and moral people for all the useful purposes of a civilised society."
2. "Wherever I look around me, in the vast ocean of Hindu mythology, I discover Piety....Morality...and as far as I can rely on my judgement, it appears the most complete and ample system of Moral Allegory that the world has ever produced."
3. Throughout this book Stuart warns of the dangers of the "obnoxious" missionaries and of attempts to convert Indians to Christianity, a process he describes as "impolitic, inexpedient, dangerous, unwise and insane". He asks "if their religion is insulted what confidence can we repose in the fidelity of our Hindu soldiers?" presaging, it is said, some of the causes of the very fateful Mutiny of 1857.

Stuart was buried with his idols at the South Park Street Cemetery in Calcutta, in a tomb which took the form of a Hindu temple. Looks quite impressive even today.

His remarkable collection of antiquities forms the basis of the British Museum's ancient Hindu and Buddhist sculpture collection from the Indian Subcontinent, now known as the Bridge Collection. “Stuart was a collector of Indian sculpture principally from Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and Central India. He opened the collections in his house in Wood Street, Calcutta, to the public. It contained weaponry, costume, prints, natural history specimens and a library. …  He was a student of Indian culture and a vocal champion of Indian values during the pamphlet controversy of the early nineteenth century from which he acquired the name 'Hindoo Stuart'.”

As an aside: It appears that the famous Encyclopedia Britannica does not have an entry on this gentleman (as of 11/1/2017). Very Disappointing!

Sources:

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stuart_(East_India_Company_officer)
3. British Museum: Major General Charles Stuart (Biographical details)

John James Cowperthwaite

Many years I read about this extraordinary colonial civil service officer and how he made Hong Kong into a truly astonishing free market success story. For a long time, I did not know there were many others before him.

Since his story is well and widely known, I will not repeat it here.

Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Cowperthwaite

Jindal, Nehru, And Gandhi

Where were the first, new leaders of an independent Indian subcontinent educated? What did they learn from the British?

Since Independence, India is the largest, successful democracy on earth with all its wrinkles and failures! If this is not an awe inspiring British colonial success, what is?

More Sources:

1. Michael Wood’s documentary Story of India