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The following is a KSCO commentary.  Here is Kay Zwerling:

          I wrote this in June 2008, and it is in my book. 

As we think about China, and how she has so rapidly become a world presence, we may remember Napoleon’s description “Let China sleep for when she awakens, she will shake the world”.  

Today, China is not only awake, but because of her enormous population, she is – or will become – arguably the greatest force in the world.

So, despite what our sophisticated Wall Street types have to say, China is getting richer and stronger, and we are becoming weaker.  Ironically, China’s funds are so invested in America, that if she removes those possible billions and trades them into Euros, our economy may collapse.

But, the Pandora’s box is now open, and will never close.  

Why did we allow this inequity to happen?  Wouldn’t fair trade have been better than free trade?   Fair trade means that I give you 50%, and you give me 50%.

Recently, I read a most intriguing article, with regard to China, who is much more aware and aggressive than we are about acquiring the world’s dwindling raw materials.  

China is now engaged in Africa, specifically the sub-Saharan countries like Mozambique which supplies lumber, and Zambia which supplies copper.  The Congo has a wide range of minerals, and equatorial Guinea has oil.  China, at a frantic pace, is swooping up the copper, timber, natural gas, zinc, cobalt, and you name it.  

Because China can see that in the foreseeable future – factoring in the recent luxury needs of China and India, plus all of Europe, Asia, and the United States – there will be a shortage of these raw materials.  The awakened giant is now buying up everything that the poor sub-Saharan countries are willing sell her.

Evidently we are either too timid, or not looking ahead, asleep at the wheel, or maybe too obsessed with corrupt American politics.   

In fact, our Country is involved in the sub-Saharan countries, but not in the aggressive way that China is.  

We should wisely remember the forgotten work of Thomas Malthus, who said some two centuries ago “The power of population is infinitively greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for all mankind.”   In other words, there may not be enough of the raw materials to serve all mankind.  

Like China, shouldn’t we be more aggressive about obtaining the raw materials while they are still available?

For KSCO, this is Kay Zwerling.

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The following is a KSCO commentary.  Here is Kay Zwerling:

          I wrote this in March 2005, eight years ago, and it is in my book.

This is about forgiveness and irony. 

I learned long ago that to forgive feels good.  If you can forgive unconditionally, it is like God is patting you on the head saying “That’s good.” 

And, now about irony.  For years, China was called The Sleeping Giant.  In 1979, The Sleeping Giant was awakened when the U.S. went to China to complete arrangements to initiate economic relations.  

My husband and I happened to be visiting there at that exact time.  We were part of a group of Americans permitted to visit that Communist country, and it was memorable.   As a result of the U.S.  visit, we saw the Chinese people dancing and rejoicing in the streets of the city that was then called Peking, now known as Beijing. 

Led by English-speaking tour guides, we observed people only on bicycles.  They all wore the same black cotton uniforms and they withstood the winter cold by wearing layers and layers of cotton.  

Wherever we were taken, people gathered intrigued by our white skin and especially by our Polaroid cameras. 

The tour guides were curious about us, and asked many questions, like, why are there so many divorces in America, and how come people have so many children.   Chinese couples were allowed only one child, preferably a boy.  And, that was 1979.  

Let’s fast forward now to 2013 – 34 years later.   China is a booming economy with Big Mac burgers and all the other trappings of capitalism.    

Now comes the irony. 

From China, the U.S. imports enormous quantities of manufactured goods including millions of artificial Christmas trees.   These trees are made to look more authentic with real wood trunks made from unclean Chinese wood which houses Chinese brown fir beetles. 

And now, Chinese mercury is polluting our environment.   The very pollution that our country sought to eliminate by sending most of our manufacturing industry to China and other countries because we wanted to focus more on clean service industries and electronic industries, has made us globally dependent and is polluting our own land in ways we never dreamed of. 

In other words, in order to meet our manufacturing needs, China now has over 6000 factories or more using coal burning furnaces. 

With her newfound prosperity, China is learning ways to obtain electronic information from us to compete with us in the world markets.  Have we helped to create a clever, maybe unbeatable monster?   

For KSCO, this is Kay Zwerling.

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The following is a KSCO commentary.  Here is Kay Zwerling:

          My good friend Michael Olson gave me this recent Wall Street Journal editorial. 

          This is speech from Senator Barack Obama on the Senate floor on 3-16-2006 –   

          Mr. President, I arrive today to talk about America’s debt problem.  The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.

          It is a sign that the government cannot pay its own bills.  It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. 

          Over the past five years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 Trillion to $8.6 Trillion.   That is Trillion with a T. 

          That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund, borrowed from China and Japan, and borrowed from American taxpayers. 

          And, over the next five years the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 Trillion (again with a T). 

          Numbers that large are sometimes hard to understand.  Some people may wonder why they matter.  Well, here is why they matter: 

          This year the federal government will spend $220 Billion on interest.  That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans’ benefits combined.

          Our debt also matters internationally.   My friend, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, likes to remind us that it took 42 Presidents 224 years to run up only $3 Trillion of foreign-held debt.

          This administration did more than that in just five years. 

          Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries, but we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours. 

          Increasingly, America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. 

          Leadership means that the buck stops here.   Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. 

          America has a debt problem, and a failure of leadership!   Americans deserve better! 

          So, my friends, clearly Barack Obama’s views on this subject have changed since he has become President Obama.

For KSCO, this is Kay Zwerling.

© copyright 2013

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The following is a KSCO commentary.  Here is Kay Zwerling:

          I wrote this in April 2006, and it is in my book, and it is about illegal immigration. 

Weighing in on the present immigration mess – first close the borders, ignore the marchers who wish to undermine our laws, those here illegally must obey the laws, must learn English, apply for citizenship, and wait the same amount of time as those who come in legally. 

No drivers’ license, no voting rights until they become legal citizens. 

That is what I think.  No more amnesty.  Furthermore, no more voting ballots in any language other than English – it is idiotic.  No more pandering to foreign newcomers. 

All of these related troubles stem from weakling leaders in both political parties whose main concern is, and has always been, re-election and vying for newcomers’ votes. 

Those leaders willingly left the borders open.   Both political parties for over two decades are responsible for the 11 million illegals here.   Actually, now, seven years later, there are even more than 11 million illegals here. 

Thank you President Ford, thank you George Herbert Walker Bush, thank you President Clinton, and George W., for your deliberate failures!  

Since the word felon has been used so loosely, and then crossed out, I submit it is our delinquent leaders, Presidents, and Congress, who by their inaction in upholding the laws of our land, are the real felons.   

And, another thing – the tail must stop wagging the dog.   About the UCSC student protest to the military recruiters being on campus – the students should be expelled for leaving their classes and We the People should withdraw our public funds helping them. 

They are in school to learn their subject matter and not to make policy for the university and the Country.   

And, the wimpy delinquent faculty better shape up, or they should be fired!  And, that the Regents who approve the enormous salaries and bonuses to upper employees while denying raises to the lowest employees who keep the university functioning – that is wrong!  The Regents should be replaced! 

Better still maybe the public universities which We the People support who have 85% liberal professors brainwashing our children should be closed. 

For KSCO, this is Kay Zwerling.

© copyright 2013

Transcription compliments & courtesy of:  http://xcription.home.comcast.net  or  http://home.comcast.net/~xcription     I ♥ Referrals!