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Americans go everywhere - sometimes so do American ideas, even bad ones [1]

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Date: 2023-02-10  

“We” are apparently Everywhere

So, I am sitting at the house of an upper-middle-class family in Carcar City CEBU right now. I will be flying back to the US next week.

John David has a birthday, so there is a LeChon roast and lots of food, and his friends from college coming to enjoy it with us.

And of course, being the Philippines they have set up a big screen tv and huge speakers for karaoke on the big marble tiled porch.

Seconds before the first of his friends arrived - what do you think came on the broadcast that runs until you start pulling up songs to sing?

I’ll tell you, CATO-style American propaganda attacking taxes and supporting trickle-down economics as the only solution for a healthy economy. How do I know it was American propaganda, beyond the American accents? Well, the example they used to prove this was Tennessee having a 2 billion surplus at some point, they didn’t mention the year - just that Tennessee had very low taxes and “somehow” produced that surplus.

I was appalled beyond words. It showed. One of the guests said that it was a paid ad, which I realize it was, but not paid by a Pinoy political group, no, funded it would appear right out of America.

Tone deaf? Yes. Played in a country where families like JD’s give away food in large quantities and care for as many people as they can. In fact, JD’s family feeds the kids during the months they have break from school throughout their area at a chapel they fully support and maintain, so that all the kids eat every day. They also hold a Christmas festival at their home where every kid gets presents and money and food and the families take home food that they can cook. How do I know how much they do? I was here this Christmas. The picture is from this Christmas. They do it every year, they even managed it last year, after Oddette.

Beyond tone deaf? In a country where poverty is so evident? Yes. I’ve been here for five months, we rented a house in Sibonga where we spent most of our time, but JD wanted me to finish bonding with his family and I had a medical problem that scared him, so he wanted me here for the final week and a half. Regardless, when we went shopping, there were often beggars, and we always gave them something (unlike many Americans who come here, I’m not afraid of the local people, even the poor ones.)

What bothers me most though is that this was an American commercial, broadcast with American money from somewhere, in a poor country where most of the people revere Americans and are not well educated in economics or American politics. I am truly appalled and if I can find out where the money came from, I will report it here.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/10/2152215/-Americans-go-everywhere-sometimes-so-do-American-ideas-even-bad-ones

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