VAPolitics & Culture

South Korea and America make a deal to enrich both societies. Trump has made yet another deal with an Asian country. This time it's with South Korea. This is the country of Samsung, and it is our 7th largest trading partner.  What is important about the deal? South Koreans are going to dropping any trade barriers on American goods that are going into the country.  However, the most important part is that it will pressure China to make a deal with America. China is the big prize here. South Korea has going through much chaos since the attempted coup in December 2024. The President is at the moment attempting to try to claim that he stood up for South Korea but its clear that President Trump has brought South Korea to an agreement here that shows America's power on the world stage. China needs to understand America just did not have political will. China was able to play a nice game with us, fooling us with ideas of cooperation. America is now awakening, and China has to under...

 The YouTube Playlist is a great feature that is almost forgotten in this age. However, it is the best way to truly make YouTube personal again. How to use YouTube Playlists 1. Select any video you want to watch on YouTube. 2. There is a save button on the video which represents a ribbon. 3. Click on the Ribbon. It will save it to your most recent Playlist you used for such saving here. 4. You can also select the Playlists you want to put the video in by looking at the playlist menu 5. On YouTube Studio, you can alter your Playlists descriptions and permissions. 6. In YouTube studio, you can make a playlist public or private and also write a description for your playlists. 7. There is also a YouTube Analytics for your Playlists that you can use to see the traffic going to and from a site.

  How to become a Great YouTuber in Eight Easy Steps 1. Create a great Channel Page While YouTube does not have the customizable pages like it once did in the past, customizing your page can lead to more people discovering your channel and watching your content. My view is that your avatar is very important; you should understand it is like your personal identity on the site. 2. Comment on other people's videos. YouTube is the video castle of cyberspace. It is a like a mall with billions of people you can talk with. It is not simply a place to put videos on; a personal website can suffice for such usage. However, YouTube is a community not just a website. 3. Make great thumbnails for your videos Making thumbnails is equivalent to making the front cover for a book. While the contents are important, you need to get a hook to get people interested in what you have to say.  4. Make YouTube Playlists Playlists are underappreciated aspect of YouTube. While people may want to trust t...

Japan and America make a deal! America and Japan have made a historic deal with each other, and it is due to the incredible leadership of President Trump. According to multiple reports, Trump and Japan have managed to sign 550-billion-dollar deal which will greatly help the American economy. America has been allies with Japan since the 1940s when we occupied the country since World War 2. While one can say that it is relationship put in place by force, America and Japan have culturally interacting with one another for many years. Japan Will Buy 100 Boeing Planes, Boosting this Important Aviation Company One of the most important parts of the deal is that 100 Boeing Planes will be purchased by Japan. Boeing had a major strike before the 2024 Election and this deal will greatly lift the company back on the right path. Japan will hike defense spending with US companies to 17 billion Dollars. Japan has been one of America's tightest friends on the issue of military spending. They are g...

Why I love Winter in Northern Virginia   Winter is among one of my favorite seasons. Unlike Summer with its insects, Spring with its rains and Autumn with its inability to be resolutely chilly, Winter is well-defined and beautiful in its holistic nature. The winter in this region makes it magical. In the years since I have been in this region, I have seen the concrete jungle of Washington cross into many areas that were once decaying rural cultures that became rationalized by Information technology. This is a region known for more its corporations than its natural beauty. However, when it is winter, there is beauty that comes here that makes this rather business-oriented place have some hint of the rural charm it once had in the area.  The beauty of Northern Cardinal  nested on a branch in a Virginia Winter is amazing sight to see. Many people in our region tend to ignore nature. It is simply a place to pave over with cars and trucks. However, there is still beauty around...

  Outlander: Blood of My Blood is going to start in August, and it is clear the quality of the production is going to be high. The original Outlander series was rather boring for me, especially the beginning of the series but the costumes were great quality. As you can clearly see here, the show will have two timelines running at once. The original show's time traveler, Clarie Beecham had her parents perish in a car crash. Her parents(depicted above) are wearing the clothes of the 1910s here.  The two lovers of the 1710s era in the show are depicted above. Generally speaking, when you go to the pre-1920s era of clothing, women tend not to be depicted correctly. However, the Highlander character, while I am sure there are some inaccuracies with it, looks closer to how they dressed in that age. This show will be very interesting as it takes place in the year right before the 1st Jacobite Uprising.  The Jacobite struggle is one of those conflicts that was unknown in the Amer...

McDonalds is a titan in the fast-food industry. However, its menu has been shrinking in recent years. I have been a loyal customer to them, as I appreciate their ability to have low prices for reasonably priced meals.  Putting the Chicken Tenders into the sauce   The Snack Wrap in its glory A nice Coke.     

 American Protestant Churches are Charmingly Simple I consider myself to be a Roman Catholic but only nominally. I am Christian but my mentality is more Buddhist than Christian as I care more about self-purging and self-control over mercy. I have critiqued the simple architecture of Protestant churches many times. I want grandeur not simplicity. However, there is something beautiful in the simple nature of many American churches. In December 2024, I went to Manassas Pentacostal Church . It is along one of the main roads heading out of Manassas. It is a simple brick building, and it has steeple with a cross on the top. The light was just prefect for a photograph so here it is. Beauty is in the simple things.

  Armenia is leaving the orbit of Russia Armenia is a country that has a long and storied history. 2000 years ago, it was an empire that was able to rival the Roman Republic and Empire. Now it wants to join the EU in 20 years. I think that is a move that show that Russia can win on the battlefield but it needs allies that are realizable. Russia has failing to keep its allies happy. It wasn't able to help Assad after the Russia-Ukraine War and now it is under the control of an Islamist army.  Armenia was barely helped by Russia in their war with Azerbajian in 2020 and in spite of its peace efforts, Armenia is moving away from Russia to create its own path. Of course, the Prime Minister is probably just doing this for cynical, economic reasons. Russia is not going to provide his country with the goods needed to gets its economy going. Armenia has no ports and is basically a landlocked country. Russia is not giving him what he thinks Armenia needs right now. Russia has to underst...

Sending Offensive Weapons to Ukraine: Will it change the war? It is clear that Trump has no more patience with Vladmir Putin. I am generally more skeptical of America than I used to be in the past. I was one of those Americans who wanted to give Russia and Putin a fair chance, however, I have always been an American first but I wanted us not to waste our money on wars that we do not need to spending our time on. However, I am not idealist like those many citizens in the 1910s who believed in Woodrow Wilson's War to End All Wars. It is clear that man is too greedy or too ambitious to have peace with nations of the globe. Russia and Ukraine's war with each other has been going on for three years and it looks like there is no end in sight. Russia has concerns for sure on the issue of Ukraine. The country is filled to the brim with radicals and mercenaries. The government is unwavering and uses any tactic to attack Russians. The Russian government has been dragging its feet for yea...

  Regal Stadium 14 is the only theater in my local area until you get to Centreville. Ever since the Manassas movie theater closed this year, the Regal Stadium 14 at Virginia Gateway Promenade has been getting many customers. I have been in the theater many times on the Promenade. It is a special place for me as I watched many movies in there. As a Movie theater, it is unique among many modern establishments in the United States. Unlike most multiplexes in the United States, it located in a promenade. This is a place which lined with shops and restaurants. This gives the theater lots of synergy with other establishments; unlike the Manassas theater at Parkview Plaza, this one is going to be getting more prosperity in the future as many people are going there to watch films now. Warrenton does not have a movie theater neither does Manassas so everyone is going to be converging on Gainesville. Regal Stadium 14 was always crowded in comparison with the Manassas theater that was once t...

Ten Tips on How to save money and live better on less than 100,000 Dollars in Northern Virginia in 2025 Northern Virginia is among one of the most expensive places in America. It is home to three wealthy counties, Loudon, Fairfax and Arlington. These are the nerve centers of America's government and have transformed a sleepy region of family farms and small towns into an urban behemoth that is one of the leading areas in information technology. There are many great areas that offer reasonable public transit, which is quite an anomaly in the rest of the country outside the Northeast Corridor. They are also a variety of groceries stores such as H-Mart and Lotte in Korean enclaves such as Centreville. This makes the region more culturally interesting which differentiates from other parts of the country. While it can create a sense of alienation at times, the region has some strong ethnic enclaves that help to give people another perspective on how to organize their societies. However,...

  Hezbollah joined the war against Isreal on October 8th, 2023, just a day after Hamas' attacks on the government from the Gaza Strip. They did not full commit to the war however, deciding to spend their time firing missiles at the country but not sending troops into Northern Isreal. The organization spent the better of a whole year attacking the country with missiles.  In September 2024, Israel upped the ante and set off bombs by sending signals to pagers. Many Hezbollah commanders were killed by the bombs and the war escalated as Hezbollah sought to get reclaim the initiative here.  Hezbollah would fight vigorously as Israel invaded Lebanon in early October 2024. However, the damage caused by the pager attacks had been done. In November 2024, Hezbollah signed a ceasefire with the Israelis. Within days, President Bashar Al-Assad was overthrown in Syria and a terrorist commander known as Julani took power in the legendary city of Damascus.  Hezbollah's blood that it ...

Five Guys: Burger and Fries is a premium fast food burger restaurant that began in Arlington, Virginia in the 1990s. Northern Virginia is my home region, and I used to consider them to be one of the best burger restaurants that wasn't a mom and pop or an incredibly expensive hipster area. However, it is clear  that it is not healthy .  That is obvious. It is a great food if you are working a lot and burning calories right after eating but as a meal one could be a fan eating week after week, you need to be exercising caution. This is not a restaurant you should eating at weekly unless you cut down on the calories in your meals. The issue with Five Guys is simply that there is alot of grease with their meals. This is deliberate, helping give them a distinctive taste.  Five Guys  is more of a premium burger place but it's not like Shake Shack  where the focus is more on clean eats. This is a classic calorie-increasing burger joint, and they are not afraid of it. Ho...

Luckin Coffee and the Cashierless Experience: Will Starbucks Fall to greater Efficency?  Luckin Coffee is already offering cheaper coffees than Starbucks. How do they achieve this? By having a Cashierless experience. The Cashier job still has millions of positions across America. It had its modern beginnings in the late 19th Century with the invention of the cash register, allowing for store owners to have easy access to a machine to count the day's earnings in sales without needing to constantly keep track of everything. As time when on, they merged with the rising power and efficiency of integrated circuits, allowing for the creation of POS(Point of Sale) systems. Being a cashier had never been easier, except for many youths who were unable to count the change.  Luckin Coffee, much like many upscale retail experiences in China is being driven by the fact that China is young when it comes to selling Coffee. China for many centuries was a tea drinking civilization and coffee o...

  It seems that the Gaza War that began on October 7th, 2023 is going to coming to a conclusion. After almost two years of endless bombings, ambushes and attacks, the people of Gaza and Israel will now have some peace. That peace is of course fragile and we are not sure that it is going to hold here. We have seen this show before. We had the November 2023 Ceasefire under Biden, which broken down very quickly. We had the January to March 2025 ceasefire which broken down again.  Apparently, we are getting yet another ceasefire today on America's Fourth of July Holiday. The Qataris are urgently working with Hamas to get them to agree to the ceasefire and also release hostages. In exchange, many Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli detention centers. What awaits Hamas when there is actual peace in Gaza? Ideally in the Western view, they should disarm. However, considering that Isreal was still having men killed in the ground operation in Gaza in recent days. Hamas w...

Luckin Coffee has begun opening stores in America and there is one aspect that should leave Starbucks quacking in their boots; it is the cost of the coffee. According to CNA , Luckin Coffees can go for as little as 99 cents. The Cost of a Starbucks Coffee starts at around 3 to 4 dollars. However, many of their more premium coffees can cost around $10 dollars. You have seen that person, the one that overly customizes their coffee like they were buying an expensive house. Starbucks is a status symbol in America, or it used to be in the 1980s and 1990s. Now, its more of a cherry on top experience for the upper middle class who apparently who can afford to customize their coffees. Luckin is going to be providing value to Americans. Starbucks in some newspapers before 2000 used to call it "Designer Coffee". That is how many Chinese in Shanghai and Beijing used to think about it. Starbucks is too expensive and has diluted its brand by trying to be too many things. I admit, they mak...

 School Choice is better than no Choice When I went to public school, I just went to what was in my zip code. My parents generally did not pay attention to the specific school and just went along with what was in the area. If I had been in my parent's shoes, I would have been looking at the schools like a hawk and making the choice as to which one to choose for them. Some people in our country believe that we shouldn't be able to do so. They even dislike homeschooling even though this how people used to teach children before the Prussians imposed their short-sighted education system on the West. It is time for a change in country here. People should be allowed to pick what school their kids go to. If their kid has a desire for art, then they should be allowed to go to a particular school which focuses on that. Instead of forcing all these people together to stand in front of bureaucrats who are more there for a paycheck then to accomplish anything great, aspiring students will ...

 Serbia Protests: A Rural Country Aching for Change The images above represent a country on the precipice of change twice. Serbia on the left was changing as result of its independence from the Ottomans and becoming a Sovereign nation. That change was not as transformation as some of the modernizing elites in Belgrade may have wanted it to be.  The Serbian Protests that have been rocking the country since late 2024 have continued to grow. While many Russian websites are attempting to see if the Serbian President can stave off the situation by calling elections and then building support with his political parties in Serbia. Serbia seeks to sit on two chairs. The President is not able to fulfill the desires of the people. Many students, who are yearning for an entrance into greater Europe have had enough. Many Russians say that they are being propped up from outside; I agree with this somewhat. However, Serbia is currently having many issues trying to grow its economy. Many yout...