I bow (in case you were wondering) to no one in my loathing for the Clintons, the Establishment, the Beltway Insulates, political correctness, BLM, radical feminists, the controlled media, Obama, Wall Street, neocons, Social-Justice Look-at-Mes, and the New York Oligarchs. After the election, I figured, having no choice anyway, to see what Trump actually did. I have seen. America elected a dangerous curiosity.
Listen to Trump’s Secretary of State Tillerson, his representative, addressing Congress and ordering China around like a misbehaving twelve-year-old: “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and, second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”
This amounts to “Do what I say, or else.” It is an ultimatum, a thing to be used gingerly among big powers. The only “else” is war. Yes, he was speaking unofficially, but his interventions are clear.
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Ultimata are dangerous. They are insulting. They leave no room for preservation of dignity by compromise, by finding a way to give in without seeming to. They are a way to look for a fight. A Secretary of State who casually issues ultimata to huge and nuclear powers is a symptom of an executive branch utterly out of control.
Tillerson’s combativeness is not a fluke. Vice President Bannon in The Independent “We’re going to war in the South China Sea in five to 10 years, aren’t we?” Mr Bannon said on his radio show in March 2016. “There’s no doubt about that.”
It also shows the danger of a President with no restrictions on his power to make war. In this respect, current Presidents are as autonomous as Roman emperors, having established that they can wage war at will. Whether the country wants to go to war makes no difference.
FoxNews The US is officially putting Iran “on notice” after its missile test.
The same truculence. The same sense of entitlement. Another war coming up. We would find out about it the day after it began.
A point apparently lost on the President is that we do not live in 1955. Then, it was a bully’s world. The carriers could easily have prevented sampans from going to islands and China had no hope of attacking the US navy or engaging in nuclear war. Today it can do both. While the US would “win” a conventional war, assuming that it remained conventional, the consequences would be unpredictable and the economic effects catastrophic.
Trump is extremely combative, erratic, apparently a bully, and responds to resistance by doubling down. To many of us, including me, this was immensely satisfying when he told the press to bugger off, defied the Clinton-Wall Street-Beltway elites, and talked of putting the interests of America before those of big business. The campaign was fine entertainment. Because so many were sick of the elites, he is President. Fun as a candidate, but in a President?
The same psychology of the gas-station lout appears in his approach to Mexico, where I live. In particular his insistence that Mexico pay for his wall is insulting, and deliberately so. He very evidently does not like Mexico.
Why?
He got screwed in a business deal in Mexico and has been hostile to the country ever since. Time published a list of Trump’s tweets on Mexico, a remarkable number of which expressed personal anger. For example, here he conflates foreign policy and his personal affairs:
✔@realDonaldTrump I have a lawsuit in Mexico’s corrupt court system that I won but so far can’t collect. Don’t do business with Mexico!
Or:
@realDonaldTrump “The Mexican legal system is corrupt, as is much of Mexico. Pay me the money that is owed me now – and stop sending criminals over our border.”
Note the order of the demands.
This sounds like the pique–I won’t say “hissyfit”–of a man who does not respond well to not getting his way. And his relentless hostility to Mexico looks a lot like a quest for revenge.
The desire to humiliate and punish Mexico plays well with Americans angry at immigration and themselves hostile to Latinos. Personal vendettas do not seem a desirable basis for foreign policy.
More of his hostility seems to spring from failed developments in Mexico, the Trump Ocean Resort Baja California, in which purchasers of expensive apartments lost large down payments when the developments were not built.
“All told, two years of aggressive marketing yielded $32.5 million in buyer deposits, every bit of it spent by the time Trump and his partners abandoned the project in early 2009 as the global economy was reeling. Most of the buyers sued them for fraud.”
Whether the reason for the failure was incompetence or a deliberate scam depends on who you talk to.
There was also Punta Arrecifes Resort that he wanted to build in Cozumel. It was to be a very high-dollar, exclusive place with airport, golf couture, and the like and, among other things, would have devastated an ecologically protected zone. Protests erupted, the mayor wanted an excessive bribe, and he didn’t get his way.
“Para “acelerar” los trámites, el alcalde panista les pidió un “moche” de 20 millones de dólares. Directo, sin rodeos, el alcalde panista les indicó que ese era el precio para lograr el cambio de uso de suelo, pese a las protestas de los grupos ambientalistas.”
“To speed up” the paperwork, the Panista mayor tasked them for a bribe of $20 million. Directly, without beating around the bush, the mayor indicated that this was the price for changing the use of the land despite the protests of environmentalists.” My translation.
The bribe was more than Trump was willing to play. He took his football and went home. He is not above fraud or corruption, but didn’t like the price.
Wall Street Journal: “Trump settles fraud case against Trump University for $25M”
His blaming these failures on Mexican corruption doesn’t hold water. The corruption exists, yet countless American firms successfully do business in Mexico.
Petulant, self-interested, and childish. Much of what he says is adolescent. Over and over he speaks of Mexico sending criminals to America. How precisely does Mexico send criminals? By “Mexico” he presumably means the Mexican government, as who else might he mean? Does Presidente Peña Nieto go to a penitentiary and say, “You, Pepe, and Kike and, yeah, you, Luis, take these bus tickets, you criminal bastardos, and go to the United States and wreak havoc”? Is there a cabinet-level body to send criminals? El Departamento de Empaquetamiento de Cabrones? Perhaps “Mexico” puts stamps on criminals and drops them off at the post office.
The repeated assertion that Mexico is cheating the US, exploiting it, being unfair, (Oh! Poor widdle Colossus of the North) is either garishly ignorant, personally vindictive or, more likely, both. Mexico is governmentally weak, corrupt, and utterly under the thumb of the United States. Is NAFTA a Mexican plot against the US? Actually it forced Mexican farmers into competition with hopelessly superior American agriculture and drove them into the cities, where there are no jobs. Along the border American maquiladoras pay poor Mexicans miserably low wages. Mexico crawls with DEA agents forced on it from the north and loses countless lives fighting Americal’ls drug war. On and on.
We seem to have as President an unpredictable warlike draft dodger with a history of fraud suits who cannot distinguish between his personal grudges and foreign policy. Is this going to work?
I take it Reed doesn’t like Trump very much.
I’m starting to think one of the best things about the wall is that fred reed will be on the other side of it.
Star,that’s the best comment I’ve ever read of your’s.
Let’s remember, Fred is now a Mexican.
I like Fred, for the same reason I like Karl Denninger, but they both have their blind spots for Trump. They look at him on the surface the same way the media does, only without the liberal bias.
Trump is a negotiator, and is very good at it. These commentators approach these things like the other side has nothing to lose, and they will just start lobbing missiles at us because they don’t get all of what they have gotten for 2 decades.
We have been screwed for YEARS by these countries because NOBODY until now has had the balls to tell them NO MORE. It is not like we are just a defenseless skinny kid in the corner of the playground just waiting to be beat up with no defense. Now that we are standing up for ourselves to the bloodsuckers, Fred thinks that Trump is acting wrong?
Not a chance. The only thing these leaches are going to understand is someone like Trump telling them that the theft is over, and there is a new Sheriff in town.
China does not want Nuclear war anymore than we do, and they will lose far more economically than we will in a trade war. If leadership would have been in the White house about 10 years ago, China would not have the money or resources to build those islands in the first place, nor their nuclear weapons. That money would have stayed here in our citizens hands. There are consequences for selling out to a COMMUNIST regime for the sake of environmental and labor arbitrage. And now those chickens are coming home to roost.
Mexico, well, they are Mexico. What are they going to do? Send troops over? Do they even have Troops, or just a bunch of drug lords. THAT is what the wall is for.
This is like when Reagan threatened to fire all of the Air Traffic controllers. Everyone gnashed their teeth that “oh he can’t do that”. Well, he did it, and we would be even better off if Trump would do the same thing to the Government unions now.
So far, Trump is spot on and I look forward greatly to the next bloodsucker that he takes on. Hint: Pharma.
Yes, I agree. If Trump actually goes to war in either of these places, he has lost his mind. IMO, that ain’t going to happen. Furthermore, I think neither the South China Sea nor Iran is any of our business. Let Bibi wreck his own country if he wants…..Tillerson just needed to get confirmed, as did Mattis, so they hopefully were preaching to the choir.
I think President Trumps policies are a reflection of Regans and the presidencys before Carter, where American might was a given and when she spoke people listened. Fast forwarding to today and the previous 8 years of Obama leading from behind, I believe we need a strong voice to counter the “you didn’t build that” and “red line? What red line?” statements of our previous president. A president as forceful as Trump is eminently needed to re establish we are a force to be reckoned with. I am concerned with how far this can go, as we are living in troubling times within our borders as well as without. Civil war is looming on the horizon (and may already be here) that other world powers may look at as a chance to strike, as well as the fact the the next war may not start with a bang, but with the strange silence of a grid going down. Still, I would rather put my hopes in a true leader as opposed to one who was consumed with himself with no regard to the nation he was elected to preside over.
Ol’ Fred, a protege` of Joe Bageant, refuses to accept any reality outside his own narrative.
He is getting nervous about being a Gringo in Mexico during the reign of Trump. As he should be. Good luck with your immediate future in Mexico, Fred. MAGA, baby.
Why am I reading this shit and who the hell is Fred Reed?! I might as well listen to a NeCon diatribe or a BLM pisshead…give me a break loser. …really!!!
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/02/02/sarah-silverman-calls-for-military-to-overthrow-president-trump.html
Hilarious and delusional. From what I have heard from guys who are currently *in* the military, the rank-and-file are thrilled by their new Commander-In-Chief.
Sarah Silverman the skank should keep her cock-holster shut.
EC- Thirteen days in and the shit is flying faster than a pole dancer in full spin. I don’t know where this is going but there are 87 loooooong days left JUST TO GET TO 100.
May the best mafia win.
Bea, were you anticipating my comment? Fred’s main point is that there is no diplomacy in Trump.
I have come to the same conclusions without reading Fred.
You see this shit and you know these fuckers are pikers, small-time scammers playing in the big leagues. They are an Archie Bunker caricature of an effective leader reminiscent of Tammany Hall. At least Nixon was worried about his legacy and even tried to project an image of a statesman. Trump comes across as a heavy-handed juice man and will never achieve that status.
Scarface was a movie about a rube who hit the big time. He played by his own rules and fucked everybody around him. Just about everybody around him and close to him ended up dead.
However, do not let me stop the tards and imbeciles who keep cheering Trump’s creeping dictatorship. God, I’m dreading another dressing down from HF. Yet, who shall I believe, HF or my lyin’ eyes? (For you morans that don’t get it, the girl’s lyin’ eyes saw the truth clearly.)
“Ultimata are dangerous. They are insulting. They leave no room for preservation of dignity by compromise, by finding a way to give in without seeming to.”
But we were all brought up to think they were fine when FDR issued them.
Among George W Bush’s biggest errors (besides the Medicare drug benefit) was always using the word “must”. X country “must” not do such-and-such. Y country “must” do so-and-so. Yeah, well, what if they don’t? It easy to drop bombs. Then what? We can’t even pacify a country of 20 million goat-fuckers. Not permanently, anyway. Whenever we leave, it goes right back to what it was before – or worse.
I don’t care whether Trump embarrasses Mexico or not. We’ll build our wall and extract most of the reimbursement from them. Whatever.
I am getting nervous about the recent belligerence. Tillerson on China. General Ben Hodges firing off tanks in the night in Poland to “send Russia a message”, Mike Flynn “putting Iran on notice”. It’s like McCain won. I’ve been as pro-Trump as anyone, but walking us into a war over these things is what I’d expected Hillary to do. It’s called the South China Sea, not the South United States of America Sea. We don’t want a war against a country with 300 million angry young men who can’t get any pussy because the females of their generation were mostly aborted. We should send our fat chicks to China. China’s already proven the ability to shoot down military satellites. I don’t have any friends or family in Ukraine, they’re NOT a NATO member and we have NO treaty obligation to defend them. Half the people there speak Russian and it’s none of our goddamned business. The line that Iran is the “biggest sponsor of terrorism” is 100% bullshit. Iran can’t hold a candle to Saudi Arabia.
I hope this is all because Trump doesn’t want to seem like Putin’s bitch, but they need to tread carefully. Big wars get started over “honor” and bullshit like that..
Iska,
You are absolutely correct!!
I have nothing to add. Great comment.
Iska Warren-Don’t get nervous now Nelly, you wanted the thrill of having a reality show government so pop the popcorn and enjoy the show. Tilly can stir up the Chinks while Flynn does the deed for NutterYahoo.
Iska, welcome to the club. You have effectively stepped out of the closet, my friend. How are you going to appease the Trump tards now? You can’t walk it back.
You can doubt the existence of god and your cool but doubt Trump and your a fucking hell-bound lib-tard.
https://youtu.be/g3GYUvsFPpM
That’s definitely the thing I don’t like about Trump, his foreign policy. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
But let’s hope that Tillerson was just pandering to McCain and Lindsey Graham.
Tillerson’s comments about China rather startled me. Foolish in the extreme. I agree with Fred’s assessment of the comments. Given Tillerson’s past record of dealings in Russia, I didn’t expect hostility against China insofar as use of the military.
I can easily see why Fred made the comments about Trump mixing personal and political in the comments about Mexico. “The Wall” strikes me as one of the sillier ideas among Trump’s various notions of what-to-do. Seems to me that merely enforcing existing law would remove the economic incentives for the illegals to remain here. (And end their welfare benefits, of course, as to new legislation.)
We’ve gone over this before. At the very latest, Trump’s last full day in office will be January 19, 2025. As soon as we get a democrat president (and probably even a different republicon president) this “enforcing existing law” stuff would be over. Done. Finito. Fertig. 2/3 of the Repubs and ALL of the Dems want a wide open border and continued illegal immigration. The next president would jump-start that if he/she could. They probably wouldn’t have the chutzpah to tear down an already-existing wall, though, because that’s too obvious.
Besides, we need to do some silly shit just for the fuck of it. Usually that means a war. Better a wall than a war. It’s only $20 billion or so (2 days’ federal spending).
Yeah, a wall really saved Tony Montana.
Wall around Obama’s DC mansion, good; wall to keep illegal aliens out, bad.
Got it.
Desertrat, removing the incentives is good, no question. But it does nothing to stop the flow of drugs. And if we bring back industry from Mexico, stop the flow of remittances and narcotics, Mexico becomes a failed state. The wall is a must. I believe Trump intends to shake the corruption out of Mexico . Just like DC, the shock therapy is cut the corrupt flows of money
“(Fred Reed) is getting nervous about being a Gringo in Mexico during the reign of Trump.”
—-Vodka
Correct. Lots of other unhinged comments in the thread. That wasn’t one of them.
That’s right Fred. Get ready for war. What is new about that? The Chinese gov’t has said many times that there would be no avoiding war to the hilt with the USA.
Blessings:-}
DING DING DING ^^^^
The Chinese are ALL TALK. They know damn good and well, they have entire cities that are empty, and a billion people to keep employed so they don’t riot. The only war they will see if their economy takes a dump (which is almost inevitable if not for the command and control structure and ass kissing of their industry by us for corporate monetary gain) is within their own borders.
See, if they talk tough, it appeases the local populations, which are still majority communist. Good talking points for government run TV. The younger generations are coming around, but by and large the older folks (those still in ruling class)are still mostly communist.
China, even though they are working toward a competing currency, is NOT EVEN CLOSE to a viable alternative yet. Most of the grandstanding on this is by Chinese officials, Gold bugs and end of America carnival barkers. They have FAR more to lose if they call Trumps bluff. He knows it, and importantly, they know it. Just look at the Billions in FX reserves they have had to use by selling treasuries JUST to keep their currency afloat. Countries that are viable against a world reserve do not need the illusion of stability maintained by huge manipulation of the currency. Our Fed has been doing that as well, however WE still are the world reserve currency. Does not make it right, or economical, but helps us with leverage against China at this point in time.
I voted against Hitlery because, like all of our antagonist behavior for the last 40 years or so, everything she would have done would be for the benefit of a few Washington assholes and their defense contractor lackeys. Getting our kids killed for their benefit. Now the antagonizing I am seeing has an end game that could actually benefit our country. That is fine with me. Trump said in his inauguration that we are not looking for a fight, however we also will not back down if there is a threat. China has been a threat to us for years. See Chinese firms stealing our trade secrets, cyber security threats, corporate espionage, wholesale stealing of classified programs research etc. Politicians have just been looking the other way because it benefited their corporate donors. It is just now that we are actually doing something about it in real terms. The problem has been there all along, it just now looks dangerous because we are realizing how far we have gone and how much of a foothold WE HAVE ALLOWED China to get. It does not mean we should not do it. We are in the first stages of sobriety – acceptance we have a problem, and doing something about it.
Huge strikeout for Freddie.
But, I still like him because of the first paragraph … he hates all the people I do.
But, he lives in Mexico and is married to a Mexican. So that changes everything. Ha! Self interest! What’s in it for me?! In that regard, he is no different than most any of us. It’s almost ALWAYS about ME ME ME ME ME first. The human condition.
Except me, of course. Did I get all hot and bothered by that Z-Joo anti-German screed from yesterday? Fuck no. Water off a ducks back.
But, if Trump said he supports total open borders with Mexico … there would be Freddie Jizz all over his keyboard! In other words, the real problem with Freddie is the worst problem a blogger can have …. he’s becoming very very predictable.
Yes, but from the little light we get in this cave, diplomacy in the Trump era looks like this:
Fred referred to Trump having a “hissyfit”–of a man who does not respond well to not getting his way” but meant to say what’s-his-name Obama, the petulant man-child.
What Fred (and some here) don’t realize is that Trump et al are not pounding the war drums. If they were, McCain & Graham would be BFFs with the Trump admin.
OMG I want to play poker with most commenters on here. You noobs have sero social skills much less negotiating skills. You negotiate from a starting position of strength. I know i know we had a pussywhipped 90 pound wannabe as a president for 8 years that had neither. He was so used to getting beat he did not even try to negotiate. Ya’ll are just too used to a sissy in charge. We now have a real man with testosterone and balls. You see you never heard about all the chinese or russian testosterone or balls and how they beat the obummer cause media pansies never reported. Again, get ready to win and win so much you shall tire if winning..winning may be foreign to you now due to obummer, but once you taste a win you will want more. Watch china sink that pretty sandbox in the sea and iran crawl back into a cave and russia want to trade with us again. We will need to show we are serious and maybe a mighty show like a few hours in iraq, that sure shut the commies up for a few decades huh? China has one aircraft carrier….we have reagans star wars shield so nothing hits us and they know it….they are scared shitless but the media will never tell you, they need to feed you fear, those pricks. Sit back and watch, enjoy. For once in 25 years.
Tawknoshit, What Star Wars shield are you talking about? Have you been in a coma for 30+ years? Didn’t you read about our drug using missile dicks getting wasted in the bunkers?