[The Soup Nazi]

From https://fareedzakaria.com/2017/03/17...aton-to-china/ :

Trump prepares to pass the world leadership baton to China
By Fareed Zakaria

We do not yet have the official agenda for next month's meeting in Florida between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. But after 75 years of U.S. leadership on the world stage, the Mar-a-Lago summit might mark the beginning of a handover of power from the United States to China. Trump has embraced a policy of retreat from the world, opening a space that will be eagerly filled by the Communist Party of China.

Trump railed against China on the campaign trail, bellowing that it was "raping" the United States. He vowed to label it a currency manipulator on his first day in office. But in his first interaction with Beijing, he caved. Weeks after his election, Trump speculated that he might upgrade relations with Taiwan. In response, Xi froze all contacts between Beijing and Washington on all issues, demanding that Trump reverse himself — which is exactly what happened. (Perhaps just coincidentally, a few weeks later, the Chinese government granted the Trump Organization dozens of trademark rights in China, with a speed and on a scale that surprised many experts.)

The Trump administration's vision for disengagement from the world is a godsend for China. Look at Trump's proposed budget, which would cut spending on "soft power" — diplomacy, foreign aid, international organizations — by 28 percent. Beijing, by contrast, has quadrupled the budget of its foreign ministry in the past decade. And that doesn't include its massive spending on aid and development across Asia and Africa. Just tallying some of Beijing's key development commitments, George Washington University's David Shambaugh estimates the total at $1.4 trillion, compared with the Marshall Plan, which in today’s dollars would cost about $100 billion.

China's growing diplomatic strength matters. An Asian head of government recently told me that at every regional conference, "Washington sends a couple of diplomats, whereas Beijing sends dozens. The Chinese are there at every committee meeting, and you are not." The result, he said, is that Beijing is increasingly setting the Asian agenda.

The Trump administration wants to skimp on U.S. funding for the United Nations. This is music to Chinese ears. Beijing has been trying to gain influence in the global body for years. It has increased its funding for the U.N. across the board and would likely be delighted to pick up the slack as the United States withdraws. As Foreign Policy magazine's Colum Lynch observes, China has already become the second-largest funder of U.N. peacekeeping and has more peacekeepers than the other four permanent Security Council members combined. Of course, in return for this, China will gain increased influence, from key appointments to shifts in policy throughout the U.N. system.

The first major act of the Trump administration was to pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a treaty that would have opened up long-closed economies such as Japan and Vietnam, but also would have created a bloc that could stand up to China's increasing domination of trade in Asia. The TPP was, in Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's words, "a litmus test" of U.S. credibility in Asia. With Washington's withdrawal, even staunchly pro-American allies such as Australia are hedging their bets. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has raised the possibility of China joining the TPP, essentially turning a group that was meant to be a deterrent against China into one more arm of Chinese influence.

The United States' global role has always meant being at the cutting edge in science, education and culture. Here again, Washington is scaling back while Beijing is ramping up. In Trump's proposed budget, the National Institutes of Health, NASA and the national laboratories face crippling cuts, as do many exchange programs that have brought generations of young leaders to be trained in the United States and exposed to American values. Beijing, meanwhile, has continued to expand "Confucius Institutes" around the world and now offers 20,000 scholarships for foreign students to go to China. Its funding for big science rises every year. The world's largest telescope is in China, not the United States.

The Trump administration does want a bigger military. But that has never been how China has sought to compete with U.S. power. Chinese leaders have pointed out to me that this was the Soviet strategy during the Cold War, one that failed miserably. The implication was: Let Washington waste resources on the Pentagon, while Beijing would focus on economics, technology and soft power.

Trump's new national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, once remarked that trying to fight the United States symmetrically — tank for tank — was "stupid." The smart strategy would be an asymmetrical one. The Chinese seem to understand this.

(c) 2017, Washington Post Writers Group

[Severian]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

well anyone can do the math for sure, but did you have the date marked on your birthday calendar? lol. i sure didnt. but i can subtract 2017 from 1967. happy birthday something or another! it's march 19 and something is turning 50! something else, 100! but look! something else is 49 today and i must wait another year... oh yeah i'll wait! you just wait!

Mmmmmmurphmumble...

No I didn't have the date marked on my calendar. BUT, because I did indeed buy the 45th anniversary editions, the 50th has been in the back of my mind since 2017 started. Also, I read some stuff leading up to it that reminded me that VU&N's 50th was coming. And I posted a celebratory "Huzzah!" on social media that morning, and read stuff on the day. In short, it was fresh in my mind, if not marked on my calendar. That's it the kind of thing I'd mark on a calendar anyway, soooo...

Anyhoo. Trump!

[ilduclo]

Marks & Spencer pulls Google ads

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39325916

[ilduclo]

watch this, Adam Schiff's open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcMa7H2eK7A

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

So that's what Rexxon Tillerson said. And to you this is... what, exactly. "Yay nuclear holocaust!"? You're beyond fucking redemption. Time for some Political Science:

other than just being an contrary internet bully, why must you (and the others in your little board bully pack) constantly attribute my approval of something simply because I posted a quote, Nazi? other than being an INTERNET BULLY, Nazi, why would you attribute my endorsement of nuclear attacks on the US because I posted a quote?

Since, Nazi, you're assuming I'm pro Tillerson, who is antiNorth Korea, I guess I have no choice but to conclude that you are pro-North Korea and not improbably a paid plant by North Korean intelligence. Only someone from North Korea with no cultural background could really think any kind of nazi was in any way funny or acceptable (unless you're Mel Brooks or an autistic sociopath).

There are forces at work who want to shut down this board, and because Nazis hate truth, they are usually behind most of this kind of shit.

[!@#$%!]

all publicity is good publicity so don't preted that your parroting of random lines is not read as an endorsement.

and instead of answering the question you accuse someone of being a commie pawn. lolololol.

listen: you are the nazi. you are the nazi. you are the nazi.

anyway how you don't see that you are the nazi i cannot comprehend.

like, your being visited by dusky youths when you enter the corner store.

[The Real McCoy]

I've been immensely amused over the pyschological meltdown of the (neo-nazi?) anti- democratic, delusional liberals​ who, since Brexit and Trump's victory, have done nothing but pathologically complain and, especially, insidiously slander everyone who have freer minds and think oppositely to their black, Orwellian doctrines in the most pantomimic and ridiculous fashion.

[ilduclo]

Dip into your book of adjectives deeper, dipshit

[The Real McCoy]

Apparently Putin rigged Brexit and the US elections. What next? The Eurovision Song Contest?

[Severian]

Originally Posted by ilduclo

Dip into your book of adjectives deeper, dipshit

No, don't ask him to do that. He might do if! That would really suck.

[tesla69]

patriots are already assuming Trump has fucked them over.

http://investmentwatchblog.com/state...ts-on-arrival/

[ilduclo]

trumpcare withdrawn before vote. Wasn't making the freedumb caucus happy

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by ilduclo

trumpcare withdrawn before vote. Wasn't making the freedumb caucus happy

The best part is that Trumpo blew his wad too soon with his dumb threats

[The Real McCoy]

These Trump obsessives are really boring.

[!@#$%!]

 

[evollove]

Anyone else listen to POD SAVE AMERICA? Funny shit.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

Anyone else listen to POD SAVE AMERICA? Funny shit.

not yet but i like the premise

This is a political podcast for people not yet ready to give up or go insane...

speaking of not giving up or going insane, went to see a friend the other day and the night before i had watched john oliver for like the first time in ages, and i was frustrated with john oliver's criticism of you-know-who because it seemed to be.... aesthetic, language-based, and ultimately irrelevant--in other words just a bitch session among people who already agree, commiserating with each other

but then surprise, on my friend's coffee table a recent copy of the nation, and i just picked it up to browse and lo and behold, actual discussion of policies, and their impact on labor, and so on...

i used to subscribe to the nation ages and ages ago, and while i eventually sorta went away from them ideologically, it was refreshing to see the other day an actual criticism of voldemort who wasn't based on taste and his use of words and how much we dont like him. instead, actual shit. so good! i want more. i need the nation in my life again

[ilduclo]

I'm a Nation subsciber since forever, Harper's has had some excellent articles, too.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by ilduclo

I'm a Nation subsciber since forever, Harper's has had some excellent articles, too.

yeah! and the digital subscription is cheep. $19/yr!

check out this. ah, so refreshing to see some SENSE!

https://www.thenation.com/article/th...-class-battle/

that is the language that speaks to me. dammit. my brain is having a yoga session this morning. at last, something i wanna read! it's been so long hahaha

[Severian]

This is the closest I've been to happy since Nov. 8.

Ok, that's an exaggeration, and I wouldn't say the feeling is "happy" exactly, but holy fuck what a win.

Meanwhile, Trump is basically saying "this is going to be disastrous, and I could help but I won't because people deserve it now, so people will have to suffer until they come crawling to help." Which doesn't sound great, no matter how you slice it.