Saturday, April 12, 2025
This is corruption and meddling with people's personal data and lives--
Washington Post: Trump admin over rode staff to declare living people dead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/12/trump-immigrants-dead-social-security/
So they're the ones who listed living people as dead and then screamed Social Sec. was being given to dead people.
Not to mention wrongly-listed people losing benefits, having to drive miles and stand in line to prove they are still alive
while DOGE or DODGE is firing staff so there are not enough people to answer phones and do the work.
This is all unbelievable--but it's good T and M are at each other's throats.
Stay tuned and WOKE--
WOKE or AwAKE is not a bad thing.
It's a Good Thing.
It's Awareness. Buddhist Awareness.
Heard on Substack a few days ago: Interviewer asks former Republican, "So what did the Kool Aid taste like?"
Like one woman asking another, "What did Brad Pitt smell like?"
Apologies to Brad Pitt--wrong analogy.
k
4-12-2025
HA! It's Burmese New Year--Water Festival--and people have not been in a festive mood since 2021.
Manuscript page of Dante's The Divine Comedy. He wrote in a vernacular of 2 local dialects which became Italian.
David Scott Mathieson--Capitalizing on Calamity and Chaos in Myanmar
https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guest-column/capitalizing-on-calamity-and-chaos-in-myanmar.html
Mathieson should have said, "Since the Cyclone USAID aid of 1970s," junta has taken supplies itself immediately--e.g. Ne Win's "historian" 3rd and 5th wife Ni Ni Myint--and the token divorce.
Inside sources say Stanford Chain,Karen/Kayin scholar wrote all of NNM's papers in which she helped her husband re-write Burmese history.
end
A must see --from Lawrence O'Donnell--Trump vs Musk--and Milton Friedman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyI8OZVmgbc
Besides the two inflated egos,bruising against each other that make conflict inevitable,
in this case Musk is right--it's the free market and free movement of labor that leads to high GDP and a high standard of living, but labor needs to have its rights too--and there can be tariffs on things like liquor and cigarettes which are not good for people to consume
and someone in the WH just can't say whatever he wants and shake up the world on the basis of pride, misguided and wrong ideas and whatever he feels like.
"Tongues don't have bones."
When these two titans clash, as we say in Burmese, when two water buffalo tussle,
the grass gets trampled.
--very sad--that Congress is so spinelss and maga is so clueless and self-serving--
but it seems to me a great revolution is brewing.
Believe it or not, when the 2021 coup took place, peaceful resistance lasted only a few days--then 2 young women were shot by government snipers, and the people rose up--first with 1776-style muskets that the British had allowed the Chin, on the border with India, to
have.
Then they copied these muskets at home by hand.
Now they have drones and 3 D printers.
Remember when, Zelensky was asking for a no fly zone and to join NATO.
Yesterday, Western European countries announced billions for Ukraine--
World War III is already upon us--and this time USA is not strong, it's in fact weak.
China will not knuckle under--why should it? It's the 2nd largest economy in the world.
Japan and China too have started selling the US Treasury Bills they have been holding--Of course they will--yields have been going up which means prices are down, and why wouldn't these countries sell the bonds of a country that is failing and flailing and will decline more in future?
DJT likes to say he has "common sense" but he doesn't, nor does he understand--"how a pencil is made."
Wow--my two to five or six favorite mentors are now dead too--but wouldn't they be sad to see this.
As they are gone already, I will list them here in order of their appearance in my academic life.
Dr.Aye Hlaing--Economic historian--The Growth of the Burmese economy during the colonial period.
Dr.Ronald E.Findlay--International Trade Theory.
Dr. Hla Myint, co-founder with Arthur Lewis of Development Ecos. (I wasn't his student as I was a year too young, and Ne Win deported him back to UK)
Dr. Khin Maung Kyi--(I was never in his class either, as he was in the Commerce Department--but he wrote about centralized bureaucracies)
At the Univ of Pensylvania.
Dissertation chair--Dr Henry Teune--political scientist, systems.
Prof.Herbert Levine, Disstn Committee Chair-Economist, specialist on Russia and China.
My external examiner, whom I first went to see in 1984.
Dr. Josef Silverstein, Political Scientist,Burma expert.
He actually knew my father U Kaung, but he didn't tell me till long after I had gotten my degree. He had a business card he gave me--on which my father apologized for not being able to see him--My father died from injuries after a car accident in Calcutta. I should be better at keeping these things.
Your true mentors are those who have a lasting influence on you, and "taught you how to think.
I should also add my mother was one of the earliest economics graduates in Burma and she persuaded me to study economics, and of course I don't regret it, but between us, my true love is writing--and "making things."
Kyi May Kaung.
4-12-2025.
Kaung--oil on canvas--Crawling to Democracy.
Friday, April 11, 2025
From Prince Sakhumband Paribatra wiki
Political career
Sukhumbhand started his political career in the short-lived Nam Thai Party of which he was a founding member in 1994. He soon switched over to the Democrat Party. He was elected member of parliament for Bangkok in 1996 and 2001.
In 1999, when he was deputy foreign minister, he volunteered with a couple other Thai officials to take the place of 82 hostages taken at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok by armed gunmen from the "Virulent Burmese Student Warriors". All of the hostages were released unhurt because Sukhumbhand went in the helicopter with the gunmen so they would release all the hostages.[4]
2 prominant Thai princes exiled in 1930s-
AI Overview
Learn more
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Prince_Damrong_Rajanubhab.jpg/220px-Prince_Damrong_Rajanubhab.jpg
Two prominent Thai princes were exiled in the 1930s: Damrong Rajanubhab and Paribatra Sukhumbandhu. Damrong was exiled to Penang in 1932 after the revolution that established a constitutional monarchy. Paribatra was exiled to Bandung in 1932 as well, due to his influence in the old government.
US--foods to stock up due to tariffs--
https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/12-foods-editors-stocking-tariffs-190000845.html
The writer of this is in the white and or upper income bracket--but bc I ran out of tumeric, I bought a large bag yesterday--spices mostly imported from India and maybe Indonesia.
Another Trump sycophant--Rudy Guiliani--AI overview--
Disbarment. In June 2021, Giuliani had his license to practice law suspended in the state of New York, pending an investigation related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. On July 2, 2024, he was disbarred in the state of New York.
Rudy Giuliani - Wikipedia
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Rudy_Giuliani
Thursday, April 10, 2025
American Eagle near accident--Reagan National--DC-
https://www.aol.com/hydrogen-fuel-cell-trucks-hit-100059588.html
Notoriously shoddy airline--never fly on it.
Myanmar junta orders quake-smashed "govt" offices to open while housed in infernally hot tents.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-orders-ministries-to-reopen-in-quake-smashed-naypyitaw.html
NPT is known for its high heat index--
called Nay Poo Taw--Infernally hot royal place by Burmese.
It's directly over the Sagaing Fault and in the heartland Dry Zone.
*
Billionaire Space X customer flies into DC on private jet to head NASA.
https://futurism.com/jared-isaacman-flies-dc-head-nasa
Space is a billionaire plaything at taxpayer expense.
Junta airstrikes continue despite earthquake--70 aftershocks, 92 attacks--NUG data. Everywhere except Yangon (Rangoon).
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-airstrikes-continue-despite-quake.html
And the 2021 coup perpetrator is setting up elections.
One was the Nargis (Cyclone) referendum in the recent past.
Wednesday, April 09, 2025
AI overview of Great Depression--copied and pasted.
The Great Depression, a severe global economic downturn, began in the United States with the stock market crash of October 1929, often referred to as "Black Thursday," and quickly spread worldwide, marked by bank failures, high unemployment, and a decline in global trade.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Stock Market Crash (October 1929):
The rapid expansion of the stock market during the 1920s, fueled by speculation and buying on margin (borrowing money to invest), led to an unsustainable bubble. When the bubble burst, stock prices plummeted, wiping out billions of dollars in investments and triggering a wave of panic.
Banking Panics:
The stock market crash exposed weaknesses in the financial system, leading to banking panics as people rushed to withdraw their money from banks.
Global Economic Contraction:
The US was the largest economy in the world at the time, and its economic downturn had a ripple effect on other countries, particularly those reliant on US trade and loans.
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930):
This act, which imposed high tariffs on imported goods, further exacerbated the global economic crisis by hindering international trade.
Gold Standard:
The adherence to the gold standard, where currencies were pegged to gold, meant that countries had to raise interest rates to maintain their currency's value, further depressing economic activity.
Other Factors:
Other factors that contributed to the Great Depression included overproduction in agriculture, mounting consumer debt, and decreased industrial production.
Great Depression - Wikipedia
The economic contagion began in 1929 in the United States, the largest economy in the world, with the devastating Wall Street stoc...
Wikipedia
The Great Depression - Federal Reserve History
The Great Depression began in August 1929, when the economic expansion of the Roaring Twenties came to an end. A series of financi...
Federal Reserve History
Great Depression Facts - FDR Presidential Library & Museum
The beginning ofAmerica's "Great Depression" is often cited as the dramatic crash of the stock market on "Black Thursday," October...
FDR Presidential Library & Museum
Show all
Generative AI is experimental.
The Burmese version of "Gulf of America"--don't call it Sagaing Earthquake--
How about calling it NPT Quake--NPT or Kings' Royal City is junta capital in the quake prone heartland and quake also means quake with fear.
Fiery Girdle--Ring of Fire from US Geologcal Survey
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/dont-call-it-the-sagaing-quake-warns-superstitious-myanmar-junta.html
But this article is a bit off--as regards the linguistics.
San kyarzan are rice noodles
san=rice
kyarsan=vermicelli or noodles.
What junta is doing by "please donate san kyarzar to monasteries" is based on superstitious practice or yadaya or magic charms to negate bad things.
san kyar zan is a pun for kyar kyar san=reign long.
junta wants to be kings.
So--got it now?
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/dont-call-it-the-sagaing-quake-warns-superstitious-myanmar-junta.html
So reign long among the ruins
while it rains cats and dogs
making rescue operations difficult
while it's doubtful Russia and China
will help rebuild Myanamar and
NaypyiTaw.
It's amazing how trump is so like
the myanmar generals.
kmk
4-9-2025
Trump has just upped the ante from 34%
by slapping 104% tariffs on imports from China.
I'm pretty sure Trump and his family
and his golf courses and Mar a Lago
are using a lot of Chinese products
"Chinese" according to Trumpies including Taiwan.
Meanwhile, we all need to eat and
a lot of food and consumer durables
not to say raw materials come from
Southeast and South India,including India,
China, Taiwan, Vietnam, even poor Myanmar. And Mexico.
Boo hoo hoo
Trump is wrecking the US and World Economy.
It's very different from the post WW II
Marshal Plan.
More later.
Tuesday, April 08, 2025
Private American field hospital sets up in NPT, tourist visas suspended, Resistance victories etc.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/lives-updates-quake-death-toll-rises-to-3600-junta-suspends-tourist-visa-after-quake-private-us-field-hospital-in-naypyitaw-and-more.html
NPT is junta stronghold--earlier reports that rescuers had to follow junta orders.
Tourist visas stopped bc they don't want reporters coming in.
Famous quote--First they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up--
The Quote
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
This quote is attributed to the prominent German pastor Martin Niemöller. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a poem.
Majdanek, Poland--I visited in 1968-9.
Michigan auto industry and Michigan State fist victims of Trump trade wars
https://www.wsj.com/economy/the-first-victim-of-trumps-trade-war-michigans-economy-ea6ff8b2?mod=trending_now_news_2
This article says 20% of Michigan's economy is the automotive industry.
Nobel Economist Paul Krugman just said to Mehdi Hassan on Substack--
"there are no truly US made cars" (from scratch)--parts are imported.
March 30, 2025--"The Day I got Kash Patel's phone number from the President"
She found it in the National Archives--The way they treat sensitive information is incredible.
https://sashaingber.substack.com/p/that-time-i-got-fbi-director-kash
Monday, April 07, 2025
One Act of Kindness a Day-List.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/rewind-and-be-kind-what-happens-if-you-do-one-act-of-kindness-every-day?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
My partial list:
1. As they had the farewell party for me as I was leaving on a scholarship, the then rector of the Ecos Inst in Rangoon said,"Let her go. Don't obstruct her, you will get your chance too."
It turned out he was wrong--bc the door closed, again after opening a crack, as in Wole Soyinka's play, Death and the King's Horseman, but it changed my life.
2.I was walking slowly around NY city behind my "student"who had not actually been my student, MT, but was the age of a student and of course younger and taller.
As he whizzed ahead, he took me and a HS student to the Frick Collection, he said, "You know Sayama (Female Teacher), it's getting very racist in Burma. They have a law now that you have to prove your ancestors were in Burma bf 1886 to prove you are native.
When I was mulling to stay or return after the 1988 clampdown by the junta on the nationwide pro-democracy movement in Burma, my professor and life mentor said to me on the phone, "Which way are you inclining?"
He once wrote on my exam paper "A superb performance." I kept the paper, but I don't know what happened to it.
He wrote 2 job recommendations for me and one asylum recommendation, which my lawyer and the personel in the places I was working and intending to work,told me about later.
A Transportation Ecos. professor told me how to move laterally to Pol.Sci while still on my Fulbright at Penn--and how to find a Pol.Sci, professor to be my dissertation chair.
The foreign student advisor helped me and my late friend continue to live in student housing, when our grants were stopped, "but the bills will keep coming."
The disstn chair looked at my topic with one click of his mouse, and said, "It hasn't been done before. It will be a best seller--do it."
and many more, as to how to live in NE DC "where, the subway swings from Connecticutt Av to Wisconsin."
--
On a bus trip to Keukenhof Gardens in Amsterdam in 2019, the "spare" or bus conductor smiled at me--and on the way out, an Arab woman in a head scarf, gestured to me at the colorful lines of tulips in bloom.
I showed someone an orchid hidden under a leaf at Ars Botanica.
Someone paid for my subway ticket in New York City.
A couple let me take the only taxi left a 2 AM in DC Union Station.
A young man with earphones on called a Lyft for me when my app did not work at Ars Botanica, and I came out on the wrong side of the road.
Daniel, then at American Univ, maybe this will find you. I gave him the 10 $$.
Thank you.
Kyi May Kaung
4-7-2025
Kaung--My crochet and wearable art --Lakeside Shawl--made to Fiber Spider design. 1922.
Sunday, April 06, 2025
Saturday, April 05, 2025
Burmese saying--It hurts when it touches my flesh (and blood.)
Ah thar htii hma
nar te.
istock royalty free image.
OMG--Instead of helping, Trump fires three US Aid workers on the ground in Myanmar helping rescue efforts.
They were fired while they were helping earthquake victims on the ground, Aaron Parnas reports.
Please follow Aaron Parnas, The Parnas Perspective on Substack.
https://aaronparnas.substack.com/
Trump has crossed the line.
He's also firing many workers at IRS--Internal Revenue Service.
Right now, Parnas is at the Washington Monument live.
I highly recommend Parnas--who's even better than Democracy Now. And that's saying something.
Donate to Parnas. Almost hourly updates.
Karenni State leader Khun Bedu offers to help earthquake victims--relocate to Karenni State near border. Signal Number to send funds provided.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/video/we-will-provide-shelter-for-earthquake-victims.html
He says--"Aid should not benefit the junta."
With US aid promised by Trump not arrived yet--and junta continuing air strikes, and not helping at all, if you wish to donate this is a better option.
Ethnic states are more rural and less built up and closer to border and further from the epi-center.
Also, and I've written about this before, historically since Daw Ni Ni Myint, 3rd and 5th wife of Ne Win, the dictators have taken all aid.
Cyclone aid in 1970s.
Nargis Cyclone aid--even Commander of USS Essex complained.
Meanwhile, Min Aye Hlaing is in Bangkok at BIMSTEC.
Survivors interviewed by Irrawaddy and others--say instead of helping, soldiers did nothing and rounded up the rescuers.
Use your hard earned money wisely.
Please repost this on your social media--most Burmese use Facebook.
Thank you.
Friday, April 04, 2025
From AP--
Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles, Waltz and Sergio Gor, director of the Presidential Personnel Office, also took part in the meeting with Loomer, the people said.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-waltz-laura-loomer-national-security-council-959b718b04b240c5c8ba3736b4d8aa62
The Presidential Personnel Office has fired at least three senior NSC officials and multiple lower-ranking aides since Wednesday’s meeting with Loomer, according to the people familiar with the situation.
The NSC officials fired include Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence; Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs; and David Feith, a senior director for technology and national security, according two people familiar with the matter.
“Laura Loomer is a very good patriot. She is a very strong person,” said Trump, who described his talks with the far-right activist as “constructive.”
Trump acknowledged that Loomer “recommended certain people for jobs.”
Pl check Google News--and Burma sites such a Irrawaddy.com,Mizzima, Myanmar Now and DVB on a daily basis.
Much is happening in the world hourly. If you don't pay attention, you willbe unable to cope and won't survive.
From Dr. Miemie Wynn-Byrd in Irrawaddy magazine--
Min Aung Hlaing is not a head of state. He is a mass murderer. Under his command, the military junta has shut down over 20 hospitals by targeting Civil Disobedience Movement doctors and healthcare workers. As a result, communities have been left with no trauma care, no doctors, and no medical infrastructure, even in the wake of a devastating natural disaster.
Offers of help have been turned away. Taiwan—home to one of the world’s top disaster rescue teams—offered immediate support, but the junta rejected it. Foreign journalists have been barred from entering the country to document the scale of the devastation, preventing accurate reporting and global accountability.
Worse still, the junta continues to use its aircraft not for rescue or aid delivery but for destruction. Military planes and helicopters that could be saving lives are instead being used to drop bombs on villages, even in the aftermath of the earthquake. The regime has prioritized military operations over humanitarian response, using state resources to terrorize rather than protect.
The regime hasn’t stopped there. It is now targeting local volunteers—ordinary citizens who stepped up to help their neighbors when the government would not. Some have been arrested, harassed, or disappeared. Others have been forcibly conscripted by the military, pulled away from rescue efforts, and forced to serve the regime against their will.
This is not the behavior of a government. This is the behavior of a criminal gang.
From BIMSTEC wiki
BIMSTEC
Article
Talk
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Appearance
Text
Small
Standard
Large
Width
Standard
Wide
Color (beta)
Automatic
Light
Dark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
(in other languages)
BIMSTEC
Flag of BIMSTEC
Flag[2]
Emblem[1] of BIMSTEC
Emblem[1]
Location of BIMSTEC in Asia
Location of BIMSTEC in Asia
Secretariat Dhaka, Bangladesh[3]
Official language English
Membership
Bangladesh
Bhutan
India
Myanmar
Nepal
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Leaders
• Chairmanship
Thailand (since March 2022)[4]
• Secretary General
India (since 2023)[5]
Establishment 6 June 1997; 27 years ago
Area
• Total
4,876,941 km2 (1,882,997 sq mi) (7th)
Population
• 2020 estimate
1,723,388,648[6]
• Density
353.37/km2 (915.2/sq mi)
GDP (PPP) estimate
• Total
Increase US$18.582 trillion[7] (3rd)
GDP (nominal) 2023 estimate
• Total
Increase $5.225 trillion[7] (4th)
Website
bimstec.org
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations, housing 1.73 billion people and having a combined gross domestic product of US$5.2 trillion (2023).[8][9] The BIMSTEC member states – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand[10] – are among the countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal.
Fourteen priority sectors of cooperation have been identified and several BIMSTEC centres have been established to focus on those sectors.[8][11] A BIMSTEC free trade agreement is under negotiation (c. 2018), referred to as similar to SAARC.
Leadership is rotated in alphabetical order of country names. The permanent secretariat is in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Background
On 6 June 1997, a new sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok under the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation).[12][13] Following the inclusion of Myanmar on 22 December 1997 during a special Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, the Group was renamed 'BIMST-EC' (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). In 1998, Nepal became an observer. In February 2004, Nepal and Bhutan became full members.
On 31 July 2004, in the first Summit the grouping was renamed as BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.[14]
Objective
Irrawaddy: How long can Min Aung Hlaing withstand earthquake pressure--+ BIMSTEC
https://www.irrawaddy.com/video/how-long-can-min-aung-hlaing-stand-the-quake-pressure.html
My 2 cents:
It's not set up that way,but in past--Pol Pot's fall came when Vietnam invaded.
In 2008, a Cambodian woman told me at a writers' conference at Berlin, House of World Culture, that "the Vietnamese came and then they never left."
When I was in Seam Reap, I could see even in Angkor "3 star hotel" there were plastic fruit on the breakfast table.
Chinese already have boots on ground in Myanmar
Disguised as "protecting their investments"--ports, Bay of Bengal --Yunnan, Shwe Gas Pipeline.
BIMSTEC ASEAN is not weak--economically--it can flex some military muscle.
As for asking NUG--National Unity gov--its status itself is uncertain under Trump 2.00. Its DC based but I don't have contact with them.
In a way Trump's 44 % tariff--By the way Trump's table and numbers are batshit--Paul Krugman has written about it.--the 44 % tariif can be seen as a form of sanctions--
As for asking for international help--they are busy attempting to deal with Trump tariffs -yesterday's 1700 Dow slump is largest since Covid crisis.
Even after Cyclone Nargis, USS Essex commander himself was dismayed to find that he had to surrender all supplies to a junta trucks which just drove away.
Europe has its own problems,needs its own army (see what Zelensky said in the Oval.)
My poor Burmese people--haveto go it alone--again and again.
MAH continues bombing--he'll probably flee to Moscow where a 4 star "monasterey" awaits him--headed by racist monk Sitagu "Thee--ta gu"
What Yeni said about failed state--it's been a failed state since 2021 coup.
Private enterprises which boomed during so-called transittion period--are stopped or struggling--
GDP growth rate will soon be minus 2 digits.
MAH looks always on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
There are now "drone fighting" Buddha images.
Monks modeling different robe styles on catwalks
Monasteries with their own militias--I am told.
Too bad bad the junta built Nay Pyi Taw "Kings' Royal City" smack on top of Sagaing Fault in 2005-6.
Irrawaddy video mentions presidential palace was damaged itself.
I'm not quite sure if there are Russian or Belarusian rescue teams--
Burmese saying--a nah paw doke kya
A stick falls on an open wound.
Now many sticks fall on a major wound that literally slices through Burma north to south --along the Irrawaddy River, which itself runs in the Fault area.
Burmese Resistance should put out rumors that nats gods/spirits are angry.
They are mostly victims of the kings and thousands of years old.
Read Maurice Collis'She was a Queen--about Queen Saw--and when the Chinese--ie Yuan Dynasty of Kublai Khan--raided Bagan--(used tobe spelled Pagan.)
Tayok/Tarok pyay min--King who ran from the Chinese--ie Mongol Dynasty--was forced to eat his favorite liver dish laced with poison as he fled down the Irrawaddy--
Queen Saw--saw that he ate it.
Fin. There's a paperback reprint.
Read my yet unpublished play Shaman-about sex abuse, "immigration"/emigration, nats/spirits. It was a Pew Finalist script. I am open to Zoom readings on Substack
Kyi May Kaung
4-4-2025
Death of the Buddha--Javanese.
Thursday, April 03, 2025
Meanwhile--look at the cherries peaking--it's 79F--there's Presdt Obama--walking around--something the
most powerful man and the richest man cannot do--
Photo from Washington Post.
US officials object to European push to buy weapons locally--
Well--what did T.Admin expect??
e.g. if aid to Ukraine cut off,why would they buy American?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-officials-object-european-push-buy-weapons-locally-2025-04-02/
Military industrial complex will suffer and will blame T.
Why is that so difficult to understand?
Zelensky said this after his Oval Office humiliation--
"Europe needs its own army."
So does Japan--so would it seems each US State.
At least maybe Red states and Blue States will divide.
Meanwhile as cynical "reciprocal symbol of friendship" Trump slaps 24% tariff on Japan.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/04/d5f352983d39-update2-trump-unveils-mix-of-universal-reciprocal-tariffs.html
Amazing that any Economic 101 student knows,Mr. does not know.
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Cheese-head--definition--
ns from Oxford Languages · Learn more
cheese·head
/ˈCHēzˌhed/
noun
noun: cheesehead; plural noun: cheeseheads
1.
informal
a resident of Wisconsin, especially a fan of the Green Bay Packers football team.
"Cheeseheads celebrated that day, as Green Bay walked away with a 35-10 win"
2.
informal
a blockhead; an idiot.
"quiet, you cheesehead, you'll wake up the neighborhood"
Myanmar junta admits firing on Chinese rescue convoy, continues bombings, has Thingyan Festival and prioritises
temple cleanup over relief--and more shit--see Irrawaddy.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-admits-firing-on-chinese-quake-relief-convoy.html?__cf_chl_tk=UVCTExYP2BHP7uQkt.cCjYDHfESwnrIydzDinRGfI_w-1743607382-1.0.1.1-WMGAswK_EoYdBbOd_pjUSFLo2oVEd585jy5L8AsEeNk
m a h is a known extremely superstitious "businessman."
*
photo--Burmese pancake.
Tuesday, April 01, 2025
Don Lemon was fired by CNN in 2023--looks like he's doing very well.
After several on-air controversies and reports of alleged decades-long instances of misogyny, he was fired by CNN in April 2023.
Don Lemon - Wikipedia
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Don_Lemon
What is short selling?
AI Overview
Learn more
Short selling is a strategy where investors profit from a decline in the price of a security (like a stock) by borrowing shares, selling them, and then buying them back at a lower price to return to the lender.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Borrowing and Selling:
Investors who believe a stock's price will fall borrow shares from a broker, sell them in the market, and then hope the price drops.
Buying Back and Profiting:
If the price drops as expected, the investor can buy back the shares at a lower price, return them to the broker, and keep the difference as profit.
Potential for Unlimited Losses:
Unlike traditional investing where potential losses are limited to the investment amount, short selling has the potential for unlimited losses because the price of a stock can theoretically rise indefinitely.
Example:
Imagine you borrow 100 shares of a stock at $50 per share, sell them for $5,000, and then the price drops to $40 per share. You can buy back the shares for $4,000, return them, and pocket the $1,000 difference.
Risk:
If the stock price rises instead of falling, the investor will have to buy back the shares at a higher price, resulting in a loss.
Margin Account:
Short selling requires a margin account, which allows investors to borrow money or securities from their broker to finance their trades.
Short Position:
When an investor sells a stock they don't own, they are said to have a "short position" in that stock.
Short Selling: How It Works - Investopedia
Nov 20, 2024 — Short selling is a strategy where traders profit from a decline in the price of an asset, often a stock. In a short sa...
Investopedia
Short Selling: 5 Steps for Shorting a Stock - NerdWallet
Mar 18, 2025 — Short selling is when a trader borrows shares and sells them, hoping the price will fall after so they can buy them ba...
NerdWallet
The Short of It: Answers About Short Selling - Charles Schwab
Sep 25, 2024 — Short selling involves the sale of borrowed shares in the hope of profiting from a decline in the stock price. ... To ...
Charles Schwab
Show all
Generative AI is experimental. For financial advice, consult a professional.
Export
Save
Warning --highly disturbing--smells too--Mandalay rescue efforts hampered at every turn.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/rescue-efforts-at-myanmar-earthquakes-epicenter-hampered-at-every-turn.html
There's going to be contaminated water and cholero etc too.
It's the original title of my unpublished novel
I Weep for You my Native Land.
I wrote it in mid-1990s in Philadelphia.
I was inspired by Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry,_the_Beloved_Country
Paton was the warden of a prison when he wrote it.
It starts with a lovely description of the landscape--and his (narrator's sister) leaving for the city
where she "does not have s husband, but rather she has many husbands."
Something is happening to me again, with this double or triple or quadruple shocks and I am going back into dissertation writing mode.
I'll be doing what my friend Nita told me about 4 years ago:
"If the dishe pile up in the sink, that's what they are supposed to do. Don't even read. WRITE."
It's maybe time to check the news late at night when I have done my cooking after 8 PM and had my dinner and done my writing quota for the day.
People think writing is so glamourus and it come so easy.
Not that easy--painful.
I cry a lot.
I just cried for Virginia Giuffre.
First Reader down under cries when she reads the death scenes.
One ninny said, "But Aunty, your writing is full of dead bodies.
I was just re-reading a book by Stan Sesser, Lands of Charm and Cruelty: Travels in Southeast Asia.
So am I supposed to write cute things?
I think not.
Copyright Kyi May Kaung
Including images and titles of unpublished manuscripts.
4-1-2025
Kaung--Sagaing before 2021. Needlepoint.
Kaung needlpoint abstract--Sagaing village after bombing--I enhanced the colors--really was very grey--based in photo in Irrawaddy magazine. Thanks to editors, Ko Aung Zaw and Ko Yeni.
Monday, March 31, 2025
Virginia Giuffre--major Epstein, Prince Andrew accuser--given 4 more days to live.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/31/virginia-giuffre-jeffrey-epstein-prince-andrew
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Giuffre
PLEASE--pay her the tribute of writing her full name--
She was abused by rich and powerful men, when she was still a teenager.
She managed to make a new life for herself.
She took them to court.
The rich pimp woman, Epstein's accomplice, went to prison.
Epstein committed suicide in prison.
Andrew has been disowned by Brit Royals.
WTF--the woman is dying! WRITE HER FULL NAME. VIRGINIA GIUFFRE.
Myanmar earthquake wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Myanmar_earthquake
_video ofcouple and male chaperone --rooftop pool--Bangkok
-RFA Burmese site still open--as of 3-28-2025.
Sunday, March 30, 2025
Movie--The Reluctant Debutante--Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall, Sandra Dee--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXUstcWLY9Q
1958 Burma (now"Myanmar") we were dealing with Ne Win's first coup.
Two beautiful movies--Barefoot and Dare to be Wild--free on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eZ7R6Sn3wE&list=PLoRABtYY-maK6GZytfhYy7ZAjMiMbk_tq&index=38
Lots of movies and books/novels too, are categorized as "rom com"--
But in my humble opinion,"romantic" is hard to define, and some are not funny either, in fact,the best are about death and dying--one unforgettable one on Amazon Prime--or maybe 2
or 3
involve--terminal cancer and the young doctor who falls in love with this woman, and "loves her through her death process."
A young man, rich, with a castle, who becomes quadroplegic, and his parents hire a goofy young woman to persuade him to live--but --
Barefoot is about a
dissolute young man--who is from a rich but uptight family. He is in debt, frequents bars with pole dancers and is often arrested. On probation, he's assigned to mop floors at a mental health facility--maybe like Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest--but I only read the book, 2 times.
Some things are too horrible to see as movies. e.g.Silence of the Lambs.
Back to Barefoot--a bipolar woman, barefoot, runs after the handsome floor mopper--and he takes her to his brother's wedding.
Don't do spoilers here.
Dare to be Wild is about a wildflower garden designer,Mary Reynolds, the Chelsea Flower Show--her gold medal and Ethiopia--greening the desert.
Oddly enough, I'd never heard of her before,though I know Andy Godsworthy's stone work and ephemeral art.
I recommend both and Ken Kesey's novel highly.
Since I'm not well enough to go see the cherries in bloom, the Ubers would cost too much, and I'm too tired and forever running late--these 2 movies transported me cost free to beautiful things to restore my faith in humanity
and clear my head of earthquake, trump-quake and junta-quake.
Cheers
Don't abandon truth, hope and your own beliefs.
What else do we jolly well have to live for.
My best friend across the pond sent me good wishes, 4 shots of the partial eclipse and
I also sketched out the bride jumping out of a Bradford pear tree--That tree is blooming right now in front of the Italian restaurant slap next to my building--but I never eat/ate there except 2 times with a play going group--when they discussed Death and the King's Horseman, by Wole Soyinka.
Food and atnosphere there--minus 3--plus watery spaghetti sauce--can't eat too much carbs anyway.
Susan Tepper, thanks for poem about bride jumping out of wedding cake, which inspired my painting--I think I'll do the wedding cake (building) too--on 12 x 24"canvas.
Sorry,images later.
Have to eat dinner and do the dishes.
Always time to do the donuts.
Also, van Gogh's birthday--Aries too.
Kyi May Kaung
3-30-2025
Poetry reading long time ago--when Dennis Brutus died, Busboys and Poets.
Too sad to bring this to you--as foreign rescue teams arrive--junta continues to bomb Sagaing--UNBELIEVABLE.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/world/live-updates-death-toll-rises-foreign-rescue-teams-arrive-nug-announces-military-pause-and-more.html
Among at least 1644 dead so far--560 at least Muslims in Mandalay Mosques, several former army officers in NPT ministries, while at ministerial level meetings at noon.
A Karen/Kayin Christian said: The Gods are angry.
It's just the Sagaing Fault--the junta fault.
Many videos on Irrawaddy site.
Many injured will die who were either rescued or are still in rubble.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Hegseth brought his wife--formerly Fox News--to sensitive meetings with foreign military leaders.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/hegseth-brought-his-wife-to-sensitive-meetings-with-foreign-military-officials-c16db0ea?mod=trending_now_news_1
Great--Hegseth brings wife
VP brings wife.
Musk brings X.
Jim Acosta talks to Substack founder Chris Bess on Substack--where else?
https://jimacosta.substack.com/p/jim-acosta-and-substacks-chris-best
Amazing--but Acosta is an experienced journalist with a big rollodex.
Very happy for him.
Current construction at Tidal Basin.
Friday, March 28, 2025
Thitinan Pongsudhirak on New New World Order--
https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guest-column/the-tyranny-of-anarchy-and-how-asean-states-should-respond.html
He may be right, with this 50 year cycle theory--but I am 80 already, and can't wait for the next 50 years.
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Law enforcement officials and domestic extremism experts say they have found no evidence that a series of attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships are coordinated despite such claims from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.6 days ago
No evidence of coordinated vandalism of Teslas despite Musk ...
NBC News
https://www.nbcnews.com › tech › elon-musk › tesla-va...
Historic loss--CNN--gang member escaped US justice by being deported to El Slavador--Trump deal
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/24/politics/ms-13-leader-deported-el-salvador-boasberg-order/index.html
Like drug kingpins living inRangoon/Yangon, running major businesses.
Al Jazeera English--The complete Signalgate transcript--much more than has come out in Hearings
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/27/full-transcript-of-trump-teams-yemen-attack-plan-that-was-shared-on-signal
I suggest you read this very carefully.
It starts earlier (March 13) and Vance and one other express their timing related reservation, while H says--in effect--"It will keep but--T. wants."
Knowing Trump's extreme vindictictiveness, he's sure to note these remarks and take action--fire--At the very least attack by Tweet or attack verbally--that's just what he does.
WH is very rattled and rattlesnakes don't trust each other.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)