Dumbf***s in disarray: whiplash foreign-policy reversals & unreliability with the triumph of impulses over institutions, & what we learn from the Ukraine arms-shipment reversal...
"Chaos-monkeys" reminds me of Suskind's quip about Bush's (W) team and their disdain for the "reality based community." I think of that reality based community (of which I'm a part) as those who prefer to conceive of the human race as a going concern.
"The Law authorizes the Executive Branch in coordination with the private sector “to adopt countermeasures in the form of restrictions on imports of goods and services or measures to suspend trade concessions, investments, and obligations relating to intellectual property rights, and measures to suspend other obligations provided for in any of the country’s trade agreements”.
Intellectual property rights are our FDI of previous decades. Don't nationalize an oil field, steal intellectual property.
Lula has stated a few hours ago Brazil will respond with "reciprocity".
The chief chaos-monkey may have given BRICS an opening to attack where it will hurt.
You get Trump right and keep adding nuance to your portrait. The one thing I wonder is whether chaos monkeys are inherently narcissistic. Because he's a narcissist as much as he's a pot-stirrer, as you always note. So, "narcissist chaos monkey"? Good post. (And meanwhile people in Ukraine and Africa are very literally dying.)
I pretty much agree with Brad, but his piece is specific to foreign policy. Foreign policy continuity is important, and most administrations feel bound by the policies of previous administrations, even if they don't like them. (Trump is not "most administrations.") However, reversals in domestic policy are much more legitimate--they sort of underlie the notion of democracy.
Sorry, my clumsiness sent the earlier post unfinished…But you get my point. Some of us need clearheaded reminders like you provide of what Trump is about and what he is not.
Thank you for this. Trump, besides sowing chaos, has the salesman’s gift of raising (false) hope of possible benefit embedded in a lan behind the chaos.
"Chaos-monkeys" reminds me of Suskind's quip about Bush's (W) team and their disdain for the "reality based community." I think of that reality based community (of which I'm a part) as those who prefer to conceive of the human race as a going concern.
Within that frame, this morning I discovered that Brazil had, earlier this year, adopted an Economic Reciprocity Law: https://sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/brazilian-economic-reciprocity-law-is-published-to-safeguard-brazilian-interests-against-unilateral-measures-adopted-by-other-countries-or-economic-blocs/
"The Law authorizes the Executive Branch in coordination with the private sector “to adopt countermeasures in the form of restrictions on imports of goods and services or measures to suspend trade concessions, investments, and obligations relating to intellectual property rights, and measures to suspend other obligations provided for in any of the country’s trade agreements”.
Intellectual property rights are our FDI of previous decades. Don't nationalize an oil field, steal intellectual property.
Lula has stated a few hours ago Brazil will respond with "reciprocity".
The chief chaos-monkey may have given BRICS an opening to attack where it will hurt.
Looks like chaos from here, but inside this regime is the behavioral logic of organized crime.
You get Trump right and keep adding nuance to your portrait. The one thing I wonder is whether chaos monkeys are inherently narcissistic. Because he's a narcissist as much as he's a pot-stirrer, as you always note. So, "narcissist chaos monkey"? Good post. (And meanwhile people in Ukraine and Africa are very literally dying.)
I pretty much agree with Brad, but his piece is specific to foreign policy. Foreign policy continuity is important, and most administrations feel bound by the policies of previous administrations, even if they don't like them. (Trump is not "most administrations.") However, reversals in domestic policy are much more legitimate--they sort of underlie the notion of democracy.
Sorry, my clumsiness sent the earlier post unfinished…But you get my point. Some of us need clearheaded reminders like you provide of what Trump is about and what he is not.
Thank you for this. Trump, besides sowing chaos, has the salesman’s gift of raising (false) hope of possible benefit embedded in a lan behind the chaos.