Comments on: Trump’s China gambit

By: ymarsakar

ymarsakar — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 04:23:50 +0000

Whether anti trum or pro trum or Ymar neutral, none of that is going to stop me short of somebody landing a strategic weapon on me.

China believes in face and the strong horse. They just don’t call it the latter.

This is what YHVH, that well known sociopath in certain circles as he is known, had to say about kings of his people.

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle[c] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. 22 The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

Humans love kings. I see no problem when the people are loyal to the end to their kings. That is their choice not mine.

By: neo

neo — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 22:21:06 +0000

The Other Chuck:

It’s your decision, of course. But I, for one, urge you to continue commenting here. I value your opinion. No need to agree with the majority here to be a valuable contributor.

By: sdferr

sdferr — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 14:46:33 +0000

Perhaps as a matter of tradition, national pride, fundamental aesthetic, even sense of rational training, the Chinese may be better understood as players of what they call weiqi — we call go, the Japanese call igo, the Koreans baduk — a beautiful board game involving territory as object, wall-making as intention, and trades of position as means. Just a thought from a nominally eastern point of view.

By: The Other Chuck

The Other Chuck — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 13:36:44 +0000

Neo:

If this were any other president, Obama excluded, I would agree with you. But given the extreme egotism of this man, his seeming admiration for tin pot dictators and strong men like Putin, no.

If the tariffs were targeted only at China because of its history of economic theft now backed up with a growing military, there would be a plausible excuse. However, Trump has chosen to impose tariffs on friendly allies and neighbors which means he is indeed a protectionist.

What it boils down to is that Trump supporters are willing to excuse any, and I mean ANY action this man takes, if it can somehow be tied to national security. And if that’s a stretch, then he’s playing 3D chess.

This is my last post at this site. While I’ll continue to enjoy visiting and reading the non-political essays, my thoughts about Trump when expressed are falling into the troll category. You all hear enough of that on the nightly news. Best I keep quiet. Good luck to you all.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 05:29:17 +0000

neo on August 20, 2018 at 7:23 pm at 7:23 pm said:
The Other Chuck:

“Your comment at 7:12 PM doesn’t make sense to me. ALL presidents “negotiate with the money and livelihood of American citizens” every time they set economic policy or make a decision of any sort, actually. Sometimes they even bargain with their very lives (in wartime, for example, and in many foreign policy decisions)”

* * *
Indeed.

“Only for Trump would you say “as if he owned them.” But there’s no “as if he owned them.” That would be something like Maoist policy that ordered people out of cities to live in the country, or to go to re-education camps.”

Remember that the Left’s ideology fundamentally depends on the government “owning” the people, so of course they assume that’s what a conservative* thinks when he makes decisions.

*Well, Mr. Trump IS playing a conservative on TV, whether he checks all the boxes or not.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 05:25:33 +0000

Paul in Boston on August 20, 2018 at 3:49 pm at 3:49 pm said:
* *
Very interesting article, but how in the world do the Chinese get the pronunciation “Chuan” from “Trump”???

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 05:12:25 +0000

CapnRusty on August 20, 2018 at 11:46 am at 11:46 am said:
Proposition: It is a great advantage to act in such a way that your opponent underestimates you. Corollary: Those who see themselves as “the Elite” always underestimate those who they do not consider to be part of that elite. Result: Checkmate!
* * *
lol

By: Stubbs

Stubbs — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 04:14:26 +0000

Before he was an economist Kuttner worked for WBAI as a correspondent in New York. If you who are not old enough to remember the sixties, it was one of the radio stations in the Pacifica network. Their politics were way out in left field. I remember listening to him during the summer of ’67.

By: The Other Chuck

The Other Chuck — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 04:06:28 +0000

Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression, from Cato Institute, one page and worth the read:

https://www.cato.org/blog/smoot-hawley-tariff-great-depression

By: n.n

n.n — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 03:27:14 +0000

Trump plays checkers while the Chinese play chess. Advantage checkers.

There cannot be an equitable market in the presence of labor (e.g. slavery, insecurity) and environmental (i.e. indiscriminate recovery, production, and reclamation) arbitrage, which are effective tariffs or monopolistic practices. Globalists like it. The artificial Green blight likes it (i.e. out-of-sight and out-of-mind).

As for the stock market, artificial asset inflation will cause the customary decadal crash.