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Recently Mr Foong Swee Fong made an interesting post on Facebook (reprinted in the box below for those interested). Foong is one of those few Singaporean writers that I follow. Not necessarily that I agree with everything he says but I like the topics raised and different views. This particular post has issues that are right down my alley so I like to confront. The gist of Foong's post is Singapore is disadvantaged in the US-SG FTA. Note that I am not critical of the messenger, just trying to add value to a discussion from my perspective. So I shall just stick to the facts, not the rhetoric. Claim #1: Most of the trade is just supply chain shuffling with little value added The claim made is yes, trade increased partly due to the FTA, but it's just parts moving between 2 countries taking advantage of free tariffs. There is no value-added and consumes resources. It  is meaningless for Singapore and it is economically wasteful. This looks like artificial trade. ...

The U.S. initiated a probe against more than 16 major economies, including Singapore, focused on alleged excess manufacturing capacity. This triggered the usual backlash of Trump-hate rhetorics with no one interested in seeking a proper understanding. Trump imposed blanket-wide tariffs on many countries under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). In the Learning Resources Inc Vs Trump case, the Supreme Court of U.S. struck down these tariffs on grounds the president has no authority to impose blanket tariffs on imported goods for economic reasons. It did not rule the Executive cannot impose tariff, just that the IEEPA framing is illegal. Chief Justice John Roberts actually alluded to the fact the president has other workaround means to reframe the tariffs legally. And here's to those who call Trump a fascist -- how do you call a fascist who's hands are bounded by the judiciary? Not a very good one, huh? The Office of the U.S....

In my preceding posts ( here and here ) I pried into what I term Blue Collar-wired and Elites-wired mindsets and how they view reality differently. People tend to talk over each when they see the world differently and that fundamentally causes societal schism. Blue Collar mindsets think operationally; Elite mindsets think procedurally. This is not about income and education, but people's exposure to consequences.  There are some wealthy business class folks who think like operators (Elon Musk definitely) while some working-class liberals think like process designers. When I map this onto Singapore politics in general, the reactions to some controversial local events suddenly become understandable and predictable.  Blue Collar mindsets value outcomes over narratives; prioritise enforcement over intention; trust experience over expertise; prefer clear boundaries and are tolerant of rough execution if it works. You are Blue Collar if at times you think like: "Stop talkin...

Why is it OK to show one video and not the other? The Wild Wild West of leftist media all happily laughed at the prank of lunatic comedienne Kathy Griffin holding the severed "head" of Trump with dripping blood, Democrat California Governor's Office posting the "pig" on X, but hearts bleed for the caricature of the Obamas in ape skins that was not even posted by Trump. As usual, the Singapore liberal crowd joined in the condemnation. All highly educated Singaporean Trump-haters jump into the bandwagon of Trump-bashing without a seconds thought of finding out what it's all about. A 60 seconds video about 2020 election fraud was posted on Trump's Truth Social media account by his publicity administrator. Unbeknownst to them, many viewers reported seeing a 2 second clip of the Obamas in ape skins at the end of the video. A few hours later that video was taken down and Trump explained he didn't see the end part so he wasn't aware of the Obama clip....