The False Premise Behind Trump's Trade Wars
The False Premise Behind Trump’s Trade Wars
Junious
Ricardo Stanton
Donald
Trump ran on a platform of peace, economic revitalization, prosperity, secure
borders, domestic tranquility and order. He won in a landslide because people
were thirsty for a so-called “America First” common-sense program. However, in
three months Trump has only delivered on the border security issue while his
domestic, foreign and trade policies are creating undo anxiety and chaos with
the potential for humongous blowback and repercussions at home and abroad.
When he ran
in 2016 Trump falsely claimed the world was ripping America off and that he was
going to make things right. He immediately embarked upon trade wars with Mexico,
Canada, the EU and China, claiming he was going to renegotiate better deals and
a better position for the US. Trump railed against NAFT and said he was going
to renegotiate that agreement which he did but the end result wasn’t much
different from the original deal.
Trump
reiterated the same claims in 2024, he said China was ripping the US off, that
the world was taking unfair advantage of the US and he was going to right the
ship. Just like in 2016 he picked fights with Mexico, Canada, the EU and China only
this time he went hog-wild threatening to impost tariffs of 20% or more on all
of them. Then he doubled down and imposes a universal tariff on all countries!
The blowback
was swift and immediate. The Stock Market tumbled, people lost trillions of
dollars in their 401Ks, Pension Fund principle, meanwhile the world responded vociferously
to his actions, so he had to back down or as he said “delay” for ninety-days.
His actions made him look wishy-washy; but in this case his delay demonstrated good
sense and prevented additional hemorrhaging and blowback.
The major problem
with Trump’s assertions the world was ripping America off is, it is false! If
anyone ripped America off it was the Owners and Controllers of Global Financialized
Capital (OCGFC). They were the ones who decided to shut down US
manufacturing, shutter American industry, transfer capital, jobs, technology
overseas and transform the American economy into a service economy employing
gig workers, part timers in a hollowed-out deindustrialized economy. These are
the same people who caused the 2008 financial implosion with their derivatives
Ponzi schemes.
This is the real cause of America’s
decline as a manufacturing giant, Sad to say, because of globalization and capital
flight these jobs and industries are not coming back to the US. Even if a few
do return, they will be fully automated, robotized using AI and very few
humans.
Trump’s ire was and still is
directed at China but it was not the Chinese leaders who sold American workers
out. All the Chinese leaders did was change their philosophy to allow direct
foreign investment, accept US technology and capital to help transform their
society from a poor subsistence agrarian economy into a manufacturing and
technological behemoth.
The Chinese Communist leaders
benefitted from being admitted into the World Trade Organization, given Most
Favored Nation Status by the OCGFC and their globalist minions like Richard
Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, the Bushes
and Obama. China would not be America’s prime rival in the world today if it
had not been for these people! Trump’s indignation is misdirected.
On top of this, Trump’s misunderstanding
of the role of tariffs may prove to be his undoing. Tariffs are a means of
protectionism. A country imposes tariffs to protect its domestic markets and
businesses from foreign competition. Tariffs are a way for the home country to
provide itself with an advantage over its’ foreign competitors. Tariffs are
also a way to raise funds.
Trump may see this but he fails to
see the larger picture, there can be a downside to tariff wars. Historically trade, currency and tariff
disputes often lead to shooting wars and the US is in no position to wage war
against adversaries like China, Russia and Iran! The US doesn’t have the
industry, manufacturing, money (the US is bankrupt teetering on the brink of default)
or the technology to fight modern warfare against the nations it is currently
provoking, neither does Europe/NATO!
Trump’s bluster, saber rattling and bombast
are bluffs. But in this modern era, bluffing against people who are not afraid
of you who can go tit for tat and better against you may not work. Look at how US sanctions against Russia failed
over the years. Russia and China have the BRICS+ alliance as trading partners
and much of the Global South wants in. China has its Belt and Road Initiative
which it is aggressively pursuing all over the world.
Thanks to Trump’s tariffs and trade wars, who
can the US count on other than Israel? Yes, loss of US markets will be a major
blow to China but the Chinese personality will not allow them to lose face, be
defeated or disgraced. They will do everything in their power not to allow this
to happen so don’t expect China to capitulate, bow down or kowtow to Trump ever.
Ther is an old adage, “never let your
mouth write a check your behind can’t cash.” I say Amen to that.
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Trump's Anti-Populist Agenda
Trump’s
Anti-Populist Agenda
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Since his
inauguration as the forty-seventh president of the United States three months
ago, Donald Trump has embarked upon a whirlwind agenda that has/is completely
disrupting the status quo in the sense he has smashed the illusions he is a
populist and opened the floodgates of massive governmental disruption. Trump
campaigned on peace yet he totally supports the Israeli genocide in Gaza, he’s
escalated the war against the Houthis, and is now threatening war with Iran. Trump
promised he would end the war in Ukraine but in many ways his intervention has
exacerbated the conflict and Europe seems hellbent on continuing the war
despite anything Trump says. His actions are serving the agenda of the military
industrial complex and the Deep State the two entities Trump is supposedly
trying to reign in.
Trump campaigned on government
efficiency and reorganization but he continues to spend money and increase the government
debt and deficits! He is giving Israel funding to continue its atrocities against
the Palestinians and wage war against Lebanon and Syria. Trump is even saber
rattling against Iran a nation that poses no threat whatsoever to the United
States or it neighbors in the region.
Isreal has been screaming for decades without
evidence that Iran poses an existential threat to them; yet it is Israel who
wages constant warfare and conflict against its neighbors, illegally expropriating
land and territory under the guise of a religious mandate from their concept of
God. Look at any map of Israel from 1948 to now and see for yourself. Yet
Donald Trump seems all in on this land grab genocide which is a potential
trigger for a regional; or worse global conflagration. This despite the fact
the Israelis of today are no genetic relation whatsoever to the Hebrew
Israelites of the Bible so their claims to the land are totally bogus.
While threatening to cut spending
in social programs using the rationale he is going after “waste fraud and abuse”
aka bipartisan corruption, Trump is simultaneously increasing the US military and
war making capabilities. The Military Industrial Complex is the genuine sacred
cow of America. Since the end of WWII, the US has been on a permanent war
footing, inventing enemies where none exist and creating conflicts and war that
have nothing to do with “spreading freedom and democracy”!
If Donald Trump was truly about peace,
he would conduct a full audit and review of US Defense and Foreign policy then formulate
ways to curtail the lowball weapons design and cost proposals and the subsequent
deliberate cost overruns, waste, fraud and abuse in the military contracting
process and come up with a new foreign policy that emphasizes peace over imperialism.
But this is highly unlikely to happen even with DOGE, the Deep State is too
firmly entrenched.
Governance
wise, Trump has used executive orders a presidential executive prerogative to
get things done thus bypassing Congress. He is actively shutting down the US Department
of Education which only an act of Congress can do, so in effect Trump is
operating beyond the scope of his constitutional authority. Not only that, he
is defying judicial orders and engaging in actions that may, and the operative
word here is may, soon be deemed
unconstitutional by the higher courts. These
actions are making the critics who predicted Trump would be a dictator
prescient and spot on.
Trump loves
the limelight. His on again, off again tariff threats are keeping him in the spotlight
and he loves it The problem is, he is causing undo anxiety on Wall Street, Main
Street and throughout the world. Tariffs are a form of protectionism a country uses
to protect its’ domestic markets. However, Trump’s motives for the tariffs are totally
disingenuous. The US has no major manufacturing to protect, it has all been
offshored thanks to his predecessors in collusion with multinational
corporations and global capital/finance.
Even if a few companies do relocate
to the US, most of the labor will be done by robots, automation and AI! (Speaking
of disingenuousness, notice how all the car commercials show human laborers working
in the factories there are no scenes with robots or automation in them. This is
a lie to help drum up sales and keep us ignorant about what is really going on.)
There is no rush to capitalize new factories here in the US and it probability
will not be any time soon!
Trump’s actions caused major harm
to investors, people’s 401 Ks, pensions and savings have been significantly
diminished. His actions are not in the best short-term interests of the US
economy. This will not lower the humongous deficits or the US debt to GDP
ratio.
This is not what his acolytes voted
for. Trump has betrayed his MAGA
followers and the people who wanted a real change, most of whom have no idea
how Trump has sold them out. Donald Trump is dancing to the tunes of those who
paid the piper, the billionaire tech giants, the financiers, the Zionist lobby,
“defense” contractors, Big Pharma and the media who contributed hundreds of
millions of dollars to his 2024 political campaign.
Remember how during his first term the press
vilified him? Now they support him, except for MSNBC. This of course will
embolden him to do more of the oligarchy’s bidding. But who benefits from this?
From what we’ve seen early on it will not be us.
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Dark Enlightement
Dark
Enlightenment
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Just
when I thought things couldn’t get more Orwellian I came across a new term and
movement called Dark Enlightenment. What is that you ask? Dark
Enlightenment aside from being an oxymoron, a contradictory set of words, is
defined as: an anti-democratic,
anti-egalitarian, reactionary philosophy founded by Curtis Yarvin, an American
software engineer and blogger under the pen name “Mencius Moldbug,”
and developed further by English philosopher Nick Land.
Why is Dark Enlightenment so important, you
ask? Because this philosophy is catching on and is being espoused by prominent
influencers, billionaire oligarchs and policy makers like Elon Musk, Peter
Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Steve Bannon, US Vice President J.D. Vance and a host
of others.
We can see
the real time consequences of this sociopolitical philosophy in the current
Trump administration. Dark Enlightenment espouses elitist authoritarianism as
opposed to populist people empowerment, they promote a decline in government
services and influence to be replaced by executive and corporate sovereignty
and power. This is the idea behind DOGE replacing government civil servants,
and dismantling D.E.I. DOGE even if it were a legitimate governmental
department rather than an advisory group is not about cost cutting,
governmental efficiency and reducing the government debt, it is about
restructuring the whole system!
Remember at its core Dark Enlightenment admits
to being anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian favoring whiteness and male hierarchical
patriarchy. Proponents of Dark Enlightenment (DE) offer a unique form of
eugenics which is why it is so popular with white males in the alt-right
movement. DE proponents are not knuckle dragging oafs or Neanderthals. They
tend to be highly educated, extremely financially well off, deeply involved in
technology, investment finance and highly critical of the status quo.
Devotees of Dark Enlightenment reject modernity
and progressive movements. They are very critical of the decline of Western
civilization blaming the philosophical foundations of The Enlightenment
and the move away from strict authoritarianism such a monarchy and hierarchal feudalism
for its demise. They are against society wide personal liberties,
egalitarianism and there is a tinge of racism in their rants as they envision a
society run by elites within a highly rigid hierarchical and neofuedal like structure
augmented by and effectively operated using advanced technology, what some call
technocracy, the Fourth Industrial Revolution or algocracy (rule by algorithm).
The leaders of this movement eschew notions of
feminism, multiculturalism and egalitarianism. They say they are not racists
but adhere to a notion of “racial realism”, believing biology and genetics
provide differing gifts and abilities to each ethnic group which in turn
determines their social status and outcomes within society. This notion
attempts to obfuscate the role and history of state sanctioned oppression,
violence and color caste deprivation.
DE adherents are not futurists in the sense
they daydream and wax poetic about their New World Order, they actually have
the means and influence to make things happen as we see with their impact on
Donald Trump via their huge contributions to his presidential campaigns and
their direct input into his administration. J.D. Vance is in his position as
Vice President because of the influence of a key DE proponent and billionaire
named Peter Theil.
These are
not the philosophical rants of sci-fi futurist philosophers no, they are the
giants of the tech world, influencers and shot callers within the global order
and members of globalist organizations like the World Economic Forum and the
Bilderberg Group. What is extremely
alarming is the sway and influence these billionaires currently have in the
Trump Administration.
While Elon Musk does not publicly or openly align
himself with DE, his actions demonstrate a kinship with their ideology. He,
like them, believes in strong executive action augmented by ever expanding technology.
In his role at DOGE Musk is an unelected unaccountable (other than to Donald
Trump) autocrat making decisions without any oversight of the Congress. This is
how the DE devotees want to roll and their role unless it is checked by
Congress (which is unlikely) or the courts will grow even more aggressive.
DE is an underground movement but it is
extremely powerful and gaining more and more traction not only within the Trump
administration but globally. Keep you
eyes open on this.
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