Georgians recently elected a very pro-Moscow political party. Belarus could revolt but doesn’t. During Soviet rule, we had the example of the Hungarians whose little revolt was crushed quickly. They then fell back in line to Russian rule.

I’m confused, which bias is this story trying to exhibit?

1. What an amazing man, to subject himself to measles due out of his heroic care; or

2. What a dumb man to travel after having been near people with measles.

I mean, Chinese companies having loads of unsold inventory that they are trying to sell to locals at a deep loss does seem to be part of the tariff story.

Then what? Then you get the 1950’s - 1980’s in eastern Europe all over again, including an obvious level of stagnation when compared to those on the other side of the iron curtain.

I know this is going to be unpopular here but I will 100% tell you that there’s a lot of people now voting for the GOP because they are upset about pronoun politics. My dad has voted Democrat every election his entire life because he is in a Labor Union. This time him and most of his union buddies voted Trump. My neighbor is hispanic and employs a lot of hispanic contractors. Most of them voted with the GOP because they are upset about how the schools are presenting pronoun policy. There’s a lot of this out there. They can agree with the Democrat party in terms of healthcare, taxation, foreign policy, and a whole lot of other things but this one issue really drives at the core of what they think it means to be a human person … and they don’t like it.

They win wars. They bore of occupations.

Now they can do the most American thing of all: Ignore weather warnings.

I could be wrong but my impression was that this is how it already is for goods containing rare earths. That they are already manufactured largely in China and China exports them and that there’s no ban on finished products containing rare earths.

I’m pro-Europe but I also recognize that Europe is very dependent on the US for military technology and weapons. France is the only country that is resistant to the possibility of the US just turning everything off. European nations would do fine vs. Russia with American technology and weapons. I suspect that Russia could reconquer to Berlin if Europe was depraved of American military technology and weapons. Maybe I’m wrong, though.

China will have to become a net importer for that to happen and that’s very unlikely. The Euro has a better chance but I seriously think Trump would turn all of Europe over to Russia to stop that from happening.

China has to be careful because they are an export driven economy and there’s not a lot of wealthy customers out there. If they contribute to a serious recession in the US, it’ll carry consequences in China too. The key for them will be retaliation that carries a big political hit but not an economic hit.

From what I understand, China’s exports of rare earths have been largely a part of finished components and that’s not been suspended.

If you want a good video summary of her testimony, there’s this video. Facebook even tried to force her to lie to Congress.

A lot of the problem competing with China in heavy industry is they use a lot of coal for electricity generation vs. places like the US that use cleaner but more expensive natural gas China also has a government policy to subsidize industry through energy pricing schemes.

If the west insisted China maintain similar environmental rules, western industry would have been a lot more competitive.

Also, the post office is still issuing money order checks, so it isn’t like the government is getting out of the check business altogether. It is still a source of revenue for them.

More men for the meat grinder when his misguided leadership entices China to war. It is going to be ugly and it is entirely preventable. Our vices have blinded us, dulled our intellects and made Trump possible.

It may help with the car pollution but car infrastructure is also miles and miles of lanes that add to the heat island effect and force homes and business further apart, reducing density. The secondary and third order effects of car culture are significant.

Sounds like a repeat of the “Christian Exodus Movement,” a group who planned to move to South Carolina and declare independence, inspired by the Freestate Project whose Libertarian members sought similar aims in New Hampshire.

There’s only one scenario where any of this makes sense and that’s if the administration has really good evidence that China is going to war against the United States and the United States wants to pre-secure important naval corridors before the war begins. That’s the only way any of this makes sense. Tariffs, Greenland, Panama, distancing ourselves from Ukraine, etc. Is all this for a build-up to war or is something else afoot?

The UK might not be able to trust the US but they should be taking advantage of current events to leverage their relatively better trading position, compared to most other nations, to score some solid economic gains. Trump is likely to overlook the UK because the Pound isn’t a threat to Dollar supremacy like the Euro.