Headlines

Trump adviser compares China’s handling of coronavirus to Chernobyl

Coronavirus live updates: Trump suspends travel from Brazil, Spain eases dining restrictions in major cities

‘Up to a dozen’ COVID-19 variants ...

China: On brink of ‘Cold War’with USA

Rick Scott says Bill of Rights trumps all

Main Street Lending Program to offer loans to mid-size companies, Boston Fed President says

Model predicts USA virus free by late September ...

Soros attacks Salvini, says he wants to get Italy out of the EU

Trump ‘has a point’ on WHO, German health minister says

Coronavirus pandemic will drive major changes to nursing home industry

Trump to conduct first nuclear test in decades?

Beijing now claims ‘open’ to identifying virus source ...

A Is for Angst

Angst — may well be the emotion that breeds much of the Trump-derangement feelings that infects our news media and, seemingly, half of the world  ... and causes instability in otherwise stable people (Mitt Romney?) President Donald Trump is unconventional to a fair-thee-well. When expected to do “A” he does  “B” and drives observers nuts. These people experience such strong anxiety over this unconventional behavior that it makes them angry. “Why can’t this man do what he is supposed to do?”

I’m certain that this quirky behavior drove his parents to pack him off to military school when he was young. Didn’t help. He thrived there (see: Washington Post Article) and this apparently set this behavior in concrete. After college he defied his father once again when he moved his family’s real estate operations to Manhattan and was a roaring success ... with some monumental setbacks .. but, in the end, he prevailed. And this told him that he should follow his gut ... which he has ever since done ... for better or worse.

We know why and who hates The Donald, So, who likes this man? For one, they must have a high tolerance for ambiguity. For two, they must believe that Trump has their best interest at heart. And for three, they must have confidence that this man can keep pulling rabbits out of his hat. His performance on the economy so far reinforces this confidence ... as does his survival of the Mueller witch-hunt. And the more the Democrats chew on this impeachment bone, the better he looks.

I can’t really say I “love” Trump, but I have bought into his agenda and admire his spunk. I believe he has shaken this country out of its winning-the-Cold-War-stupor, our anti-terrorism frenzy ... and made us realize that we were ignoring many serious problems. For this alone he deserves a marble monument. He probably won’t win all his current battles ... after all, half the world is biting at his heels. But he is likely to prevail in enough of them that Americans can wipe that big “L” off of our foreheads and get on with rebuilding our nation into what our destiny has manifested.

Uncle Sap

The U.S. has helped fight the world's hot wars with considerable cost in lives and treasure. We have poured resources into rebuilding the battlefield results thereof. We have fought and won the Cold War. We have mortgaged our future to be the policeman to the world. We have played along with this world-government charade which became nothing more than a feather bed for the world's bureaucrats ... accomplishing little.

We have become the world's reserve currency at the considerable competitive disadvantage t to our industry. We have entered into trade deals that emasculated our once-powerful mercantilism. We have been an extraordinary benefactor to the poorer nations of the world. We have been the leading innovative force for over a century only to see our rights to this innovation stolen. We have shown the world, when they have chosen to watch and listen, the superiority of a free capitalist society.  Many of our leaders have stood for virtue when many other world leaders have stood for vice. We have opened our borders to the refugees of the world often to be taken advantage of or even hated for this charity.

Now we have a leader who says we can no longer do all these things without the possible cost of our existence. And many who have gladly benefited from our past sacrifices pillory us for our current realism, lecture us, defame us, threaten us economically ... and, oh yes, forget to thank us for all that we have sacrificed for them.

Moreover, half of our dumbed-down citizenry agree with this callowness by much of the rest of the world. We truly are Uncle Sap.

Enter the Dragon

I am very far from being an expert on China. This usually doesn’t stop me from leaping in with my thoughts though. So, I will here offer a few naive views on this country … mainly because the rhetoric is beginning to climb elsewhere. Many believe that, because of its geographic size, massive population, exploding economy, high repository of native intelligence augmented by a good educational system, and apparent national energy, China is destined to dominate the world (economically) in a matter of only ten to twenty years (see the CNBC article ). This may be so but, according to many pundits in the 1980’s, wasn’t Japan also going to dominate things … remember "Japan Inc." Like Japan, China may also suffer a few hiccups on its way to world domination.

Let’s look at a few statistics. China’s land area is 3,696,100 square miles versus 1,656,425 for the United States. China’s population is over 1.6 billion people versus the U.S.’s only around 309 million. However, the U.S.’s GNP is close to $13.8 trillion, currently growing at about 1% per annum. China’s somewhat suspicious GNP numbers are $4.2 trillion, growing at around 10% per year. More interestingly the GNP per capita in China is about $870 whereas, in the U.S. it is over $33 thousand … quite a gap. But just imagine what China’s GNP would be if the per capita number was even $10,000.

There are a number of things that worry me about this Dragon of the East. They are:

1 - The possibility of another Cold War. China has, for a number of years been building up it military capabilities (see the Guardian article) including the recent boast that it will be able to take out (U.S.) aircraft carriers. It will not be too long before U.S. military strategists will need to respond to these threats with significantly increased defense spending on our part … probably post-Obama. This Cold War will (does) include China’s causing mischief with surrogate states like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela,

2 - At some point in the not too distant future, I would expect China to annex some additional territory (as they once did with Tibet) like parts of Mongolia or even Taiwan. I’m not sure that the United States (or Russia) knows exactly what we (it) will do when this circumstance presents itself.

3 - China’s one-baby-per-couple policy has caused the birth rate in China to be reduced. However, the ratio of male to female babies is now about 6 to 4. This presents a dangerous demographic situation when all these males reach maturity. Certainly domestic crime rates or even military adventures seem far more likely under such a situation (see my tongue-in-the-cheek blog on this subject, Another Modest Proposal).

4 - Walmart has greatly helped China keep its economy and employment growing. However, it won’t be too long before we in the United States stop stuffing our house with goods made in China. Here, I am not criticizing the quality of Chinese products. I am more criticizing the penchant of the American consumer to purchase things that they truly don’t need. I kid my wife that the next time she returns from the Christmas Tree Store with a bunch of discretionary stuff, our house is going to explode. When this U.S. consumer buying mania abates, China will have more difficulty (unless it has its own explosion of consumerism) keeping its population employed. This is a situation that will auger (poorly) for increased citizen unrest.

5 - To me, China’s fatal flaw is its lack of democracy and political freedom. I know that we, in this country, feel superior to China because of this national defect on its part. However, what will happen if they decide to shuck these chains? I would both feel good but then know that the days of U.S.’s world dominance are surely numbered.

And when was the last time you saw a bald eagle flying off with a dragon in its talons?