First, the sanewashing needs to stop. Now. To do deals, you need your counterparties to regard you as a deal-keeper. Donald Trump demonstrates, every day, that he is not. Those sanewashing Donald...
“Those sanewashing inside the administration need to depose him and find a regent—as Howard Baker (and George Shultz) were in Reagan’s second term…”
I would agree, but everyone inside the administration was picked for fanatical loyalty to Donald Trump and Project 2025. The only person who seems close to being sane is Marco Rubio, but he flew too close to the sun and his spine melted.
This is very well said. But there is a level of insanity beyond the sanewashing that makes it even more absurd. Perhaps you did not have space to address it or perhaps it would have detracted from your main point.
Suppose, arguendo, that Trump really is the extraordinarily bold genius of Tett's fantasies. So what? The Bretton Woods monetary system was established in July 1944 and abandoned in August 1971. America did not want to give it up, but its hand was forced and it was not strong enough to overrule its partners. This was in the days when American relative power was at its apex; Europe, and Japan were rebuilding after a devastating war and China was a negligible economic factor.
But these are the new days. America's economy is now #3 by PPP, after those of China and Europe. Its military is probably still without peer in a short war, but the point of it was to maintain the world economic order to America's benefit. By abandoning that order, America turns an asset into an albatross.
It doesn't matter that there is no plan, and it doesn't matter that there is nobody who could execute a plan if they had one because there is no possible plan that would both benefit America relative to the status quo and which it could push through in the face of opposition.
"Such are the rewards bestowed on those who play ball and get themselves into the green bucket."
Going back to Dick Milhouse Nixon, my version of treating any Republican as a honest negotiator is "Play ball with us and we'll shove the bat up your ass."
Currently my restatement of any Republican statement is to substitute for "said," "lied."
e.g.
"Presented with evidence that innocent people who are not members of any gang were wrongly deported to a slave prison in El Salvador, Homan flatly insists that all of them were in fact gang members (but he's unwilling to detail any evidence showing it)"
"Presented with evidence that innocent people who are not members of any gang were wrongly deported to a slave prison in El Salvador, Homan flatly lied that all of them were in fact gang members (but he's unwilling to detail any evidence showing it)"
I do find interesting that the countries who got away lightly with the tariffs are South Korea, Japan, and Australia. The allies who got broad tariffs are Canada, Mexico, UK, and EU. Perhaps this is punishment and reward for those who will face off against China? Those who don’t take their national security seriously, and thus to face Russia alone?
“Those sanewashing inside the administration need to depose him and find a regent—as Howard Baker (and George Shultz) were in Reagan’s second term…”
I would agree, but everyone inside the administration was picked for fanatical loyalty to Donald Trump and Project 2025. The only person who seems close to being sane is Marco Rubio, but he flew too close to the sun and his spine melted.
This is very well said. But there is a level of insanity beyond the sanewashing that makes it even more absurd. Perhaps you did not have space to address it or perhaps it would have detracted from your main point.
Suppose, arguendo, that Trump really is the extraordinarily bold genius of Tett's fantasies. So what? The Bretton Woods monetary system was established in July 1944 and abandoned in August 1971. America did not want to give it up, but its hand was forced and it was not strong enough to overrule its partners. This was in the days when American relative power was at its apex; Europe, and Japan were rebuilding after a devastating war and China was a negligible economic factor.
But these are the new days. America's economy is now #3 by PPP, after those of China and Europe. Its military is probably still without peer in a short war, but the point of it was to maintain the world economic order to America's benefit. By abandoning that order, America turns an asset into an albatross.
It doesn't matter that there is no plan, and it doesn't matter that there is nobody who could execute a plan if they had one because there is no possible plan that would both benefit America relative to the status quo and which it could push through in the face of opposition.
"Such are the rewards bestowed on those who play ball and get themselves into the green bucket."
Going back to Dick Milhouse Nixon, my version of treating any Republican as a honest negotiator is "Play ball with us and we'll shove the bat up your ass."
Currently my restatement of any Republican statement is to substitute for "said," "lied."
e.g.
"Presented with evidence that innocent people who are not members of any gang were wrongly deported to a slave prison in El Salvador, Homan flatly insists that all of them were in fact gang members (but he's unwilling to detail any evidence showing it)"
"Presented with evidence that innocent people who are not members of any gang were wrongly deported to a slave prison in El Salvador, Homan flatly lied that all of them were in fact gang members (but he's unwilling to detail any evidence showing it)"
I do find interesting that the countries who got away lightly with the tariffs are South Korea, Japan, and Australia. The allies who got broad tariffs are Canada, Mexico, UK, and EU. Perhaps this is punishment and reward for those who will face off against China? Those who don’t take their national security seriously, and thus to face Russia alone?