Except for Bolton. He looks like he REALLY needs to make a head call.
Posted on 09/06/2019 4:53:13 AM PDT by EyesOfTX
Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends)
Are you ready for some football????? – We may be, but the NFL itself may not. The league’s season opened Thursday night with a snooze-fest 10-3 Green Bay win over da Bears. I don’t have time to go back through the entire major league baseball season, but I’d be willing to bet the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers have all played at least a dozen baseball games this year that ended with higher scores.
Of course, the NFL can’t juice up the ball the way MLB did this season, but still, c’mon, guys – if you want people to stay up late watching the game, there needs to be a game going on. Knowwhatimean?
In the “Are We Supposed to Care About That?” news, the Washington Post reports that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced on Thursday that he won’t be running for president. Ok, so, he’s just like Bill DeBlasio, Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro and Michael Bennett, then. Good to know.
If you wonder why German Chancellor Angela Merkel hates President Donald Trump, look no further than this article in Reuters: “Recession risks rise for Germany as industrial orders plunge”.
Here’s the first paragraph:
Weaker demand from abroad drove a bigger-than-expected drop in German industrial orders in July, suggesting that struggling manufacturers could tip Europe’s biggest economy into a recession in the third quarter.
And this:
Contracts for ‘Made in Germany’ goods fell 2.7% from the previous month in July, data showed on Thursday, driven by a big drop in bookings from non-euro zone countries, the economy ministry said. That undershot a Reuters consensus forecast for a 1.5% drop.
This economic dynamic is a direct result of President Trump’s trade war with China, which is the key to his efforts to reset U.S. global trade. After 74 years of U.S. wealth flowing to the rest of the world as we have stupidly allowed every other nation to place tariffs on our goods without responding in-kind, Mr. Trump’s new trade agreements and retaliatory trade policies are now beginning to bring wealth back into our country.
Germany’s big problem where industrial orders are concerned is that China has been one of the largest purchasers of German goods. But China’s ability to buy those imported goods has been reduced dramatically over the last 18 months, as it has responded to U.S. placement of tariffs on its own exports by devaluing its currency in a doomed-to-fail effort to keep its products price-competitive.
The combination of this devaluation and the slowing of the flow of U.S. dollars into its economy due to the tariffs and many businesses relocating to other countries means that China has less wealth of its own with which to purchase foreign goods. Bad news for Germany and Merkel.
Another excerpt from the Reuters story:
With its sales abroad hit by a worsening trade climate, a global economic slowdown and the increasingly chaotic run-up to Brexit, the bulk of Germany’s growth momentum is now being generated domestically – a dependency that leaves it exposed to any weakening of the jobs market.
So now Germany, which, along with Japan and China, has been one of the major benefactors of U.S. post-World War II largesse since 1945, is suddenly having to try to stand on its own economic feet, by generating growth domestically. Note how the leftist Reuters writer refers to this sudden, forced economic independence as “a dependency.” Globalism is a disease that distorts every facet of our lives, perhaps especially “news” reporting.
As I noted a couple of weeks ago, the post-WWII Marshall Plan was intended to be a temporary measure. It originally called for the U.S. to contribute about $12 billion in aid to help rebuild European economies after the great war came to an end. But then the Truman and subsequent presidential administrations and congresses started to see all sorts of strategic military and political advantages in extending and expanding the outflow of U.S. wealth to other parts of the world, ultimately turning a very limited plan for temporary rebuilding aid into a global social welfare program.
It should surprise no one that countries like Germany came to feel entitled to continue to receive this U.S. welfare into perpetuity. It became like a narcotic to their economic body. It should also come as no surprise that the leaders of these dependent nations resent the U.S. leader who is systematically forcing them to begin to fend for themselves in the world of global trade.
Everything you see happening vis a vis trade with China is simply Donald J. Trump keeping a major promise he repeatedly made throughout his 2016 presidential campaign. Everyone should understand that, once this global economic and trade reset has been completed with a new trade agreement with China, President Trump will next begin to draw down the 79-year-long U.S. military deployments in German, Japan and other parts of the world. Because he repeatedly promised to do that in 2016, too.
This President is unlike any other we have ever seen, mainly because the promises he made during his campaign are promises he has tirelessly worked to keep. There may be some short-term pain related to his trade war with China, but the long-term gain for America once it has resulted in a trade agreement will be enormous.
That is all.
Dane geld
Except for Bolton. He looks like he REALLY needs to make a head call.
I didn’t either, trying to win back the older crowd, I suppose, but she’s only 97 years, 7 months old.
BOOGER!
This what you get when you have a VERY Successful business Man as President.
So - after two World Wars and tens of millions of the murdered - we’re still paying Germany not to be aggressors?
You need to understand context in order to understand our post WWII policy.
WWII can be linked directly to the harsh terms imposed on Germany after WWI.
The thinking was (as I understand it) rather that kick them while they are down, help them rebuild their economy and remove the threat of another Hitler rising up.
Since the world has not seen another WW since then, you could say the policy worked.
However, it is long past time that the Europeans begin paying for their own defense and not the American taxpayers.
In this I support President Trump.
(I know it is much more complicated then this, but then this is just a quick post on a thread that will fade in memory before the day is over)
This is truly the issue. For over 60 years, Europe has been able to slough off their own national defense onto the backs of the US taxpayer through NATO. And then their social welfare spending increased as they knew the US would take care of their security - such spending made our leftists salivate with jealousy. Trump insisting EU nations spend to their agreed to minimal amounts has angered Europe’s welfare dependent leadership, and rightly hampered their economies.
Merkel's BFF got beaten by Trump.
There is a difference between the situation in Germany and Japan, I think. This is in part because Japan subsidizes our military presence there, and in part because for all practical purposes China is still our military enemy, so Japan acts as our forward base supporting our presence in the west Pacific, making it much for difficult for China to military expand its influence.
America’s wealth over the past many decades has been redistributed to many other countries. First off, we never get a thank you we just get more handout requests.
Second, we have many economic problems domestically that need to be addressed. Our own welfare programs have also siphoned billions from infrastructure. We have a crisis in our education system which also siphons off massive dollars for a poor education rife with liberal indoctrination.
This poor education allows children to grow up with no actual marketable skills and huge debt which ripples into the economy as well as kids can’t afford houses, two parent s must work so one can no longer help in their communities.
The inner cities are a near bankrupt war zone - nobody seems to care.
So with only a few of the bigger war criminals hanged for their atrocities, we rapidly switched to rebuilding and forgetting.
Nonetheless, the Nazi and Japanese regimes and the common cultures were really evil - worse, modern, state-of-the-art evil - and no one should ever assume the best of either of them.
P.S.; I an really glad the French or someone caught up with Joachim Peiper after we went easy on him.
I guess the NFL said close enough! :)
Bkmk
Germany by no stretch is a victim but they were screwed after WWI and the Allies after WWII gave an incredible deal to Stalin to stick it to Germany while subsequently giving the rise to Communism. That liberal rot is still devouring the world today even if the Soviet Union is no more. The European Union is Soviet lite and Germany has no identity and ironically has its own barbarians inside the gate in Muslims.
The old paradigm - U.S. stupidity props up China, which props up Germany, which props of Europe.
Trumps ploy with China is the real “reset” compared to Billary, Inc.’s “reset” with Moscow that never took place.
We have more than our share of muslims over here also. One day they will begin doing what muslims do best.
Glad to hear that my Pack beat da bears, but the NFL is dead to me.
Along with every other “virtue signaling entity”, like Walmart, Target, et al.
Some of the Marshall Plan monies were grants, some loans. Germany had repaid the loan parts by 1971. But I guess that does not fit the author's narrative.
Has Germany ever reimbursed the U.S. for its military presence? Has Germany ever reimbursed the U.S. for its on-way tariffs on U.S. goods? Does Germany pay its fair share for NATO? The UN?
Those loans amounted to a pittance, walking around money. But if you need something to bitch about, fine.
“Are you ready for some football????? – We may be, but the NFL itself may not. The league’s season opened Thursday night with a snooze-fest 10-3 Green Bay win over da Bears.”
Not a criticism of either team, but we’re are going to be in for a lot of poor play as many teams refuse to play their starters much if at all in preseason fearing injury. Stands to reason that the Week 1 games will be poorly played. Just wait until the league actually shortens the preseason followed by lengthening the regular season. Every team will need like 4 QB’s to be able to get to the end of that death march.
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