A U.S. businessman friend of mine who works in China remarked to me recently that Donald Trump is not the American president America deserves, but he sure is the American president China deserves.
Trump’s instinct that America needs to rebalance its trade relationship with Beijing — before China gets too big to compromise — is correct. And it took a human wrecking ball like Trump to get China’s attention. But now that we have it, both countries need to recognize just how pivotal this moment is.
The original U.S.-China opening back in the 1970s defined our restored trade ties, which were limited. When we let China join the World Trade Organization in 2001, it propelled China into a trading powerhouse under rules that still gave China lots of concessions as a developing economy
This new negotiation will define how the U.S. and China relate as economic peers, competing for the same 21st-century industries, at a time when our markets are totally intertwined. So this is no ordinary trade dispute. This is the big one.
Prominent NYT free trade / globalism evangelist Tom Friedman has praised Trump for confronting China for China’s unfair trade practices.
I wonder how Trump will spin a significant endorsement like this. He’s spent the last few years saying that journalists are the ” enemy of the people ” and that the NYT is only in the business of churning out ” fake news ”
Confronting a predatory China on trade (and on Chinese imperialist activity in the South Asian seas ) is good policy. Presidents since Carter have have looked away from what’s been going on, Trump has knocked over the negotiating table.
We’d prosecute this dispute better with the open support of western allies, the same allies that the president has gone well out of his way to alienate.
Still, he is right on this one. Everyone should say so. More power to him in fighting a battle that must be fought.
British Steel is on its uppers, with 5000 jobs about to go. Thanks to the last Labour government’s Climate Change Act, which many noted at the time would be the most expensive piece of legislation ever, energy costs are killing many firms. It’s this bad, thanks to eco-loons, bureaucrats, politicians and lobbyists who fill their pockets while the working man suffers. –
Europe as a whole is suffering from uncompetitive energy prices. International Energy Agency figures show that average European industrial consumers pay twice as much for their power as their counterparts in the United States.
The situation for the UK is even more concerning. Out of all EU member states, the UK’s energy intensive industries face the highest electricity prices.
Why are UK electricity costs so uncompetitive?
A series of energy and climate measures have added to the cost of electricity for industrial users. This includes costs of schemes such as the EU-wide ETS but also the costs of the Government’s unilateral CPF, which currently sets a price of carbon that is four times the level of the EU price. The costs of climate measures are expected to grow for industry, and by 2030 the impact of these policies will collectively add 66% to the costs of electricity for industrial users, according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change.
UK steelmakers are typically paying around £80-90/MWh for their electricity – of this £14/MWh is attributable to the cost of carbon (EU ETS and the CPF) and £20/MWh to the cost of renewable subsidies.
I told that they’d launch everything at Sir Nigel Farage and The Brexit Party. Last week the Electoral Commission gave them a clean bill of health, declaring that the party is compliant with electoral law. Then Gordon Brown made ludicrous accusations, the media piled in, and the corrupt, pro-EU Electoral Commission stepped up to make a song and dance about investigating the party which, a few days ago, it cleared.
Nigel Farage has accused the Electoral Commission of being "absolutely full of Remainers" as the watchdog visited the Brexit Party's headquarters amid a review into its donations system. pic.twitter.com/OPop18vSDD
And the European Parliament is launching a barrage, claiming to investigate Sir Nigel too. They are not just scared of the The Brexit Party; they are absolutely terrified. They have seen the polls and they foresee the end of their cozy, two-party corrupt state.
We will not have our British sense of fair play wounded, especially not by Johnny Continental. Not only will this not turn one voter against The Brexit Party, it will recruit thousands more. Remember, this is about way more than Brexit. It’s about ending an openly corrupt and anti-democratic political establishment. I know that we go into Thursday’s elections with the best wishes of everyone connected to ATW.
It’s always futile to hope that the Left doesn’t resort to violence. It has no arguments on its side, so violence is always close to the surface. After Tommy Robinson and Carl Benjamin had milkshakes thrown over them, Sir Nigel Farage becomes the latest patriot to likewise be targeted.
The culprit is a 32 year old Labour supporter, Remainer, and man-boy (check the adolescent t-shirt). This is becoming tedious now. Before you say it, chucking a milkshake over someone is a common assault. If you think otherwise then do it to a copper and see what happens to you. And next time it’s a chemical. Then it’s a brick. Then a knife. All because losers on the extreme-left cannot accept losing a vote.
Every day conservatives and patriots are censored, no-platformed, banned from social media, harrassed, shouted down and attacked. Anti-EU politicians are now on the end of it daily while campaigning for this week’s European Parliament elections.
The Right believes in free speech and the open of opinions. The Left is in the grip of an authoritarian mania which stifles any opinion not in total accord with its orthodoxy. The Left needs to step back and look at itself.
“A huge international news story broke last week, but I doubt you will hear about it anywhere else. It seems very likely that the decision we, France and the USA made in April 2018 to bomb Syria was based on a mistake as big as the fictional weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international body which examines alleged incidents of the use of poison gas, has just confirmed to me that a devastating leaked document from its Dutch HQ is genuine.
The document, written by one of the OPCW’s most experienced investigators, shows that it is highly unlikely that gas canisters found at the scene of an alleged poison gas attack in Douma, Syria were actually dropped from helicopters – as has been widely believed and claimed. The claim is crucial to the case for bombing Syria.”
That’s Peter Hitchens in today’s Mail. The report is here. If the report is genuine then those attacks on Syria were launched on lies. The media – which was all over the chlorine attacks, the allegations that Assad’s regime was responsible and that force must be used against it – appears to have entirely missed this rather important development.
Another week done at the coalface of capitalism. Are we all set for a Eurovision weekend? I bet we are, and how exciting it is. Just think of the fun those Hamas fans will be missing out on with their boycotts. I dunno, politics is everything to some people. Whatever tomorrow brings, and goodness knows what musical horrors wonders lie in wait, I doubt that anything will be as groovy as this.
As always, feel free to share your fav sounds down below –
The Iranians have deployed cruise missiles on their ships in the Gulf. Cruise Missiles with Russian and French guidance systems. We have intel from an ally in the region that they were planing a strike on one of our Aircraft Carriers.
The Sanctions on Iran are having a Heavy Toll, and we’ve just added more. We have also started Sanctions on their supplier nations.
We have added to our Armada. There is more American Firepower in the region as we speak than we had at the Battle of Midway. Yet this is no Gulf of Tonkin or any “False Flag” operation. This is a setup up for an overwhelming force response.
Not one shot will be fired without us being fired on first.
Things are escalating, Iran has ordered all Islamic groups in the ME to prepare for all out war. They are firing barrages of missiles into both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Now we wait and see if they are stupid enough to fire their cruise missiles.
I send this to the Mad Mullahs of Persia….. We’re Here!
President Trump is sending his usual mixed messages. He does not want war with Iran. And he does. My suggestion if he tries to incite a war everyone just claims they have bone spurs. It worked for him when he wanted to avoid serving in Vietnam. Bone spurs requires a simple diagnosis of joint deformity. Now i know joint deformity might throw a scare into Snoop Dog, Willie Nelson and Grateful Dead fans, but it isnt as bad as it sounds. People with bone spurs can live rather fruitful lives: play golf, grab pussy and host reality television shows.
The President’s National Security Advisor John Bolton seems to be taking the bad cop role, as he pushes for war. Bolton of course joined the national guard to avoid the draft cause he didnt want to die in a rice patty in Vietnam. Not sure that makes him the most sympathetic character to beat the war drums now. Somewhere Michael Bolton is walking into a county clerk’s office to change his last name.
Torn between his slavish devotion to Israel and his slavish devotion to the polls poor Trump has taken his usual incoherent course. Hopefully he tries to use Twitter instead of the 82nd Airborne to attack the mullahs. And maybe he can remember that Bolton isn’t President and reign him in.
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