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- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 5
No. of Recommendations: 12
Wonderful. It's America against the world. And we will loose. Thanks Trump.
No. of Recommendations: 1
And China, like other Blue States (Soviet Union, Vietnam) in history KNOWS it can count on Club 401K Liberals ....to give them aid and comfort.
Russia should toss Putin, put another Communist in there who will mouth off to Trump.
Then Russia could be in Club 401K's good graces again like they were during the Cold War and the 80's.
PS: Dont knock it till you tried it. Now I like doing the same thing :) I just love when on a foreign forum I get all sorts of bombast in response.
No. of Recommendations: 1
And China, like other Blue States (Soviet Union, Vietnam) in history KNOWS it can count on Club 401K Liberals ....to give them aid and comfort.
Russia should toss Putin, put another Communist in there who will mouth off to Trump.
Then Russia could be in Club 401K's good graces again like they were during the Cold War
Yup.
The left would hand China this power and more to force the world to orbit around them...all just to spite us.
“Passionate hatreds can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. These people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance.”
― Eric Hoffer
My new favorite quote. Sums up many of our board mates to a T.
No. of Recommendations: 21
The left would hand China this power and more to force the world to orbit around them...all just to spite us.
Damn, now I have to buy another irony meter.
Whether it is putting an incompetent drunk (who posts military secrets in a public app on his personal phone) in charge of our military, or implementing tariff policies (which change more often than my 6-month old grandson’s diaper) that have destroyed the trust between us and our nation’s allies (decades to build, days to destroy), EVERY action that Trump takes has strengthened China’s position in the world and weakened ours.
Meanwhile, “the left” handed Trump the strongest economy in the world, just to spite us.
No. of Recommendations: 1
EVERY action that Trump takes has strengthened China’s position in the world and weakened ours.
Oh? Did Trump give them Most Favored Nation status?
Hand them rocket technology?
Enable literally trillions of US dollars to flow their way for decades?
Turn a blind eye to blatant IP theft?
Turn a blind eye to blatant currency manipulation?
Nope to all!
Years of bad policy has created a monster in Asia. It's time to face it.
No. of Recommendations: 26
Oh? Did Trump give them Most Favored Nation status?
Hand them rocket technology?
Enable literally trillions of US dollars to flow their way for decades?
Turn a blind eye to blatant IP theft?
Turn a blind eye to blatant currency manipulation?
He didn't say that every action that strengthened China's position in the world was taken by Trump.
He said that every action taken by Trump has strengthened China's position in the world.
Let's face it - this latest climbdown by Trump is a really bad sign if a major goal of the tariffs was to try to isolate and contain China. He blinked really fast on all the other global tariffs, but with China Trump has been pretty clear that he was insisting that China make the first overture to start trade negotiations before there would be any forward progress.
China, having spent around a decade preparing for such a confrontation, did not do that. Trump, having spent barely a few weeks preparing the U.S. for this confrontation, couldn't hold his position.
Whatever the goals of this tariff policy may have been, the execution has been abysmal. Rather than isolating and weakening China, the early stages have only strengthened their position on the world stage relative to the U.S. They've shown they're the stronger player in the trade fight so far, demonstrated that they have significant levers over the U.S., used the chaos to strengthen their relationship with other trading partners, and seen the U.S. voluntarily drive a wedge between itself and almost all of the other major global players - and the regionally important countries in eastern Asia that we need to contain China.
Just a thoughtless and hasty ill-conceived plan, based on the naive assumption that everyone in the world needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs everyone in the rest of the world. But now that push has come to shove, Trump can't handle the impacts that "decoupling" would have - so his threat to decouple having been revealed as a bluff, we're in far worse shape than ever.
Trump's deal-making style just doesn't fit with many the deals he needs to cut as President. It works okay when dealing with much weaker players who have no choice but to accept your terms, but it doesn't work with stronger players who have options other than taking the bad deal you're offering them. Rather than adapt his style, though, we're just back to bad Presidenting again.
No. of Recommendations: 0
He didn't say that every action that strengthened China's position in the world was taken by Trump.
He said that every action taken by Trump has strengthened China's position in the world.
He made a sarcastic post so I responded in kind.
You've made these points and I understand your perspective. I don't actually disagree with you on a lot of it.
However, the status quo isn't acceptable by any measure *especially* if one is concerned about
-the rate of growth of China's military
-their stated position of wanted Taiwan under their flag
-their repeated demonstration of bad behavior in the South China Sea
-their ruthless exploitation of other nations in service of their broader strategy
Yes, Trump's approach is too broad brush and likely a big gamble. However, we should withhold judgement until we see if anything comes from the first round of negotiations. Vance just announced that India and the US agreed to a new framework, for example.
What this board needs to understand is that Europe's "Sophistication" on nuance diplomacy...those days are long gone. We can't count on them as a forward thinking partner any longer (and haven't been able to for at least a decade).
No. of Recommendations: 6
Trump's deal-making style just doesn't fit with many the deals he needs to cut as President. It works okay when dealing with much weaker players who have no choice but to accept your terms, but it doesn't work with stronger players who have options other than taking the bad deal you're offering them. Rather than adapt his style, though, we're just back to bad Presidenting again.
Makes sense. Bullies pick on people weaker than them, or those they think are weaker than them. Then they pick on the kid that knows krav maga, and get a black eye and bloody nose.
As you say, China wasn't as weak as he expected. I haven't been a fan of China for a long time, seeing them as they enemy that they always have been (well, since at least Chiang). We've made them stronger over the years, allowing them to expand greatly their military. And now we have a psychopath (I suspect), and incompetent moron (I'm certain), making matters worse with every move he makes.
At least he hasn't -yet- abandoned Taiwan or the Philippines (actually installing new anti-ship missiles in the latter).
Just musing here...I wonder if he'll realize that recognizing Taiwan would annoy Xi, and therefore actually do it. I'm not sure what the ramifications of that would be, quite honestly. If it wouldn't automatically trigger a shooting war (I don't know), I'd probably favor that move. But not just to annoy the PRC.
No. of Recommendations: 11
However, the status quo isn't acceptable by any measure *especially* if one is concerned about
-the rate of growth of China's military
-their stated position of wanted Taiwan under their flag
-their repeated demonstration of bad behavior in the South China Sea
-their ruthless exploitation of other nations in service of their broader strategy
Thus the Asian pivot by Obama, which you chose to ignore, and the TPP, which was abandoned by Trump in a very bad move which strengthened China. The TPP got renegotiated without the US present due to Trump.
However, we should withhold judgemen
This is just evasion, Trump is fucking over the US badly on the world stage and you're saying - wait and see - screw that Fess up, Trump is acting like a major loser.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Thus the Asian pivot by Obama, which you chose to ignore,
What "Asian pivot"? Cite some actual examples of things he did. While you're at it overlay the trade deficit we had with China over those years.
I'll grant you this: Whoever controlled the autopen during Biden's term actually tried some amount of outreach to some of the Pacific Nations -and- some forward construction was started on some airstrips that dated back to WW2. But shipbuilding? Supply chains?
This is just evasion,
No, it's called letting the scenario play out without peeing my pants. Judging by the puddles around this board I'd say a bunch of you need to double-bag your Depends.
No. of Recommendations: 0
Years of bad policy has created a monster in Asia. It's time to face it.
Ah, you are a BIG Tricky-Dicky fan, then.
