The war with China is becoming the war with Russia and China, it’s economic, it’s culminating, and Britain is double-involved.
Since the strike on Syria, Russia is angry and thumping the drums. They promised retaliation before. After, they really promised really retaliation next time. It almost seems that Trump is testing Russian and Chinese leadership—and North Korea and Republican and Democrat—and has called their bluff. That’s coming at the US via Europe. But, Germany is also taking rhetorical shots at China, bringing Europe back into the Pacific conflict.
Britain is in contemplating trade talks with Taiwan. The UK is already involved in the Pacific conflict with Hong Kong’s exit status—that China will have no involvement in Hong Kong matters for fifty years as a condition of Hong Kong not being British. With Britain “friending” up to Taiwan, we see more involvement from the Crown.
But, the main fuel in the Pacific conflict is economics. US sanctions are successfully driving Kim to the table; China is eager to work with Japan before a Kim-Trump talk disarms the North. So, the US sanctions are also driving China and Japan to do at least something.
Then, there’s China’s own economics. Germany is angry about Chinese investments in Europe. More news stories this week talk of Chinese using money as a hostile takeover tool in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. China’s ability to stand against a US trade war goes back to US Treasury bonds and the direct devaluing of China’s own currency. While different “experts” have differing opinions, money is the talk—everywhere.
General Michael Flynn has earned a purple heart. The corruption against him indicated by text messages is scandalous. The public will rally to his defense more and more.
Trump allows Mueller to continue, indicating strength not weakness. Trump is letting Mueller proverbially “hang himself”, or to be “Biblical”, build his own Haman scaffold. Lashing out at Mueller on Twitter comes from Trump’s “social nose” telling him to wait for public support so that when—not if—Trump fies Mueller, the public demands more investigations of the draining swamp, which still will not satisfy the public outcry against corruption.
By not yet taking so much action as demanded, Trump opponents will see him as moderate and his support could even increase in the 2020 election—already likely to increase since the normal mid-term losses long predicted by Symphony will only rouse Trumpists to get out the vote even more.
The Facebook scandal involving the said-to-be-dubious research group Cambridge Analytica neither indites Democrats nor Republicans since the group is likened to “mercenaries” who will work for anyone’s pay. It does raise questions about Facebook’s inside baseball, though at most Facebook’s involvement seems to have been not caring enough or not having policies prepared to handle what Cambridge Analytica was doing, but we’ll have to wait and see. Nonetheless, Facebook will end up being more regulated by Congress, something quite easily done through FTC regulations—Facebook is a company with publicly traded stock. We could see legislation imposing a kind of “fairness and privacy doctrine” on public social media companies. Facebook is becoming a de facto utility, a status clearly proven by how important it was to Cambridge Analytica.
The STOP, School Violence Act of 2018 sponsored by Orrin Hatch has due bipartisan support. It also contains provisions for training, something suggested by Symphony just after the Florida Valentine’s Day Massacre. Democrats naturally want more, but are supportive.
Now, North Korea may have biological weapons. Every week, the news is worse and worse. Eventually, a conflict with North Korea will feel more like a relief to the public than an outrage, just from fatigue of bad news overdose. That level of fatigue is—or at least should be—part of military logistics calculation. However, that doesn’t indicate whether the US plans a strike, only that increasing public support for action is yet another metaphoric “cannon” aimed at the Korean Peninsula. While the Kim Dynasty may not wise up to the mounting forces at its doorstep, Russia and China know that public support from the US shouldn’t be ignored.
China, however is strengthening its long-term ambitions. The incumbent president, Xi Jinping, has been named and received honorary titles that place him above past presidents. There is talk of him becoming a “Chairman”, thus equating him to Mao. Don’t underestimate the power of a “mere title” in Chinese culture. Even with no written authority behind a title, Chinese culture is and always will be stronger than any law it writes to keep the “legalists” satisfied. Such a long-time leader retaining power compares him to the seemingly lifetime leader in Russia, Putin.
North Korea is a strategic linchpin for the China-Russia powers. Militarily, they cannot allow a united Korea. But, logistically, they may not be able to stop it either. Just as war games often do, propping up a Communist Dynasty may have backfired. That’s a lesson to everyone, the US included. The US might not heed warnings when the balance temporarily tips in its favor. Meddling is always a bad idea, whether you win or lose, this time.
China is taking a turn for the better over North Korea’s “Rocket Man”. Stronger sanctions, limits on trade, cutting off oil, halting banking—it was all a wise move on China’s part.
At the United Nations, North Korea made no new friends. They made no indications of any change of heart. North Korea shares the same view of President Trump as the American Left: that he is crazy and irrational and should be called the types of names expected on an elementary school playground.
Even China’s new best buddy, Russia, is concerned for stability in the region. It’s not a threat. It doesn’t sound like a threat. Russia is genuinely concerned. Conflict with North Korea is, indeed, a nosedive and it does affect all Koreans, both North and South, as well as Japan, Russia, and, of course, China. Ending trade is the best bet.
Keeping North Korea alive and kicking as a China-Russia buddy is no longer a reasonable “hopeful”. Now, it’s about damage control. China is being urged to consider cleaning up the dismembered parts of a soon-to-be-former North Korea to avoid other problems.
Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is expected to call an election. There’s no better time to get re-elected than when the backyard “Rocket Man” is firing missiles over your country and Russia and China won’t do anything about anything except cut off trade with “Rocket Man”. So, from this week’s ongoing drama with North Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Abe is likely to remain in office and China got more involved.
Jared Kushner was fined $200 for being late in a financial statement filing, and it’s apparently news. Investigators, including the Leftist publication, The Nation, have determined that Russianewsgategate is nonsense. And, someone wrote a think piece for inside baseball at Google and was fired shortly thereafter.
The so-dubbed “Google Manifesto” is a critical thinking piece, carefully defining terms, using many qualifications so there is no doubt that it is not stereotypical and that the author is willing to listen and evaluate his own ideas. The opening clearly states that nothing is intended to be discriminatory, no “blamer-mode” language is used. Shortly after it was released, he was fired. The CEO’s response included reservations about the term “Neuroticism”. When the “Google Manifesto’s” author used the term, it was linked to a Wikipedia article and used in a thoughtful and academic way, not in a name-calling or “categorical” way.
Now, that “Google Manifesto” is being reported as having support from niche, idiosyncratic, “alt-right” political groups. But, agreement with the “Google Manifesto” is anything but a minority. On the other hand, as much as many would like to think the author was fired for his ideology, his primary crime was making waves in “corporate America”.
Never stir discussion that the boss didn’t invent. Never question rank and file conformity in “the company”. Never outshine the de facto emperor best known as “the boss”. Never make waves.
That was the crime of the “Google Manifesto” by corporate standards. The author’s punishment is to be immediately fired so that the company doesn’t have to “deal with the wave-maker” anymore. But this time, that firing backfired. Google has now been seen as a bureaucratic thug that doesn’t want “necessary disrupters” propelling the company forward. This is the public beginning of the end for Google. It’s coming: “Sell, sell, sell.”
Corporate wave-making was his first crime, in the corporate world. Now, he’s a martyr. His second crime was committed against the public: He exercised “critical thinking” use of words.
In “critical thinking” conversation, people speak objectively about problems in order to understand and solve those problems. But, people who only “blame” when they consider a problem don’t know about “critical thinking” conversation. Hearing a critical thinker, they say, “How dare he mention a problem! He’s only complaining because that’s what I do when I talk about problems!”
How dare the writer of the “Google Manifesto” think carefully to solve a problem! How dare he even suggest that our first knee-jerk reaction isn’t the best and only solution! How dare he say ideas that haven’t been said already! He’s just trying to sound clever to sell us into a pyramid scheme! He’s really just a “big meanie face”.
That was the crime of the “Google Manifesto” by blamer-mode group-think standards. The problem is that problems don’t go away without critical thinking. So, this author of the “Google Manifesto” will actually be able to solve his problems. But, people who find fault with “critical thinking” conversation won’t solve their problems, including no-brain, all-bureaucracy “corporate America”.
And, to think that people are worried Google will be able to create “artificial intelligence”! Actually, AI will more likely be invented by misunderstood people like the author of the “Google Manifesto”. It takes critical thinking to develop software that can think critically.
For a while, “critical-thinking”, backbone Americans executed that “quick to listen, slow to judge” ethic they learned from the Bible. They were fair with people they disagreed with. They heard-out their political opposites more than enough, then continued listening. But, being heard only emboldened the talking blamers. They thought being heard meant they didn’t need to listen themselves. They talked more and more and more. And now, they have over-talked.
Racism and slavery in America grew in the South, where the first British colonies began. The Pilgrims landed in the North on Plymouth Rock, the part of the country that fought to end slavery. They taught their children to read so they could read the Bible. They taught their children to think on their own so they could think about the Bible without dogma. Consequentially, the first constitution attempted to ban slavery, but the England empire-influenced South wouldn’t have it. The North had to pry the South away from British imperial values a century later in a Civil War, while those evil values continued yet another century in segregationist laws. Pilgrim-valued America has fought against that same “British supremacy” culture since its founding, yet the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock have been blamed for it.
America can no more be blamed for bigotry than an Ebola victim can be blamed for having Ebola. The true, Bible-believing, Pilgrim-founded, northern-value heart of America is no longer only in the north; it is fighting the problem throughout the nation, not causing it. It was the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock who taught “critical thinking” in America and it was the “critical thinkers”, both in the North and the underground in the South, who defeated slavery.
America’s problem is neither Black people nor White people, but anyone who doesn’t love his neighbor as himself. There are demographic ratios to be seen in anything, but when searching for the cause, demographics only fix stereotypes; demographics don’t fix problems.
Constant and misplaced blaming isn’t helping. To the blamers, nothing is good enough; apologizing and changing is evidence of further guilt, not something to be welcomed. A compliment is an insult only in the minds of people who hate themselves, hate others, and only give compliments to serve their own dubious, selfish goals.
“How dare you say I look good!” is the motto of insecurity. Such people would have us bloat our language with politically correct disclaimers at every line of every paragraph so that no one needs to learn to not feel offended. They expect the rest of the world to change so that victims don’t need to heal. Such are people who fix nothing except blame.
There are two Americas: Those who thoughtfully listen and those who thoughtlessly blame. The blamers aren’t entirely wrong, no one is, but their blaming has over-reached and it is becoming clear that they never wanted a conversation. The stress is snapping.
The listeners of America are taking the long, deep breath, just as they did with Pearl Harbor on 12/7/1941 and New York on 9/11/2001. They are looking at the the manner of firings, scandals, investigations, and reporting in business and government. They see that “political correctness” is an attack against themselves in their own situations across the nation.
We are witnessing the culmination of a century of propaganda efforts coming to a head and it’s about to change history. The listeners are about to tune out the blamers entirely. When they do, they will work and they won’t stop. They will create infrastructure without limits and justice without borders. They will take on both the corporate-bureaucrat giants and the blamer-mode masses and they will succeed for the sole reason that they have “critical thinking”.
Revelations this week about the Russians’ involvement indited Putin more than anyone. This occurred along side more sanctions against Russia and Putin seriously diminishing Moscow-DC ties. If Putin wanted Trump, he isn’t acting like it. But, what Putin did want can only be conjecture for anything beyond expansion of Russia and chaos in the West to get it. That’s what they got.
This hopeless-from-the-beginning investigation into Russian collusion was mere grandstanding from a defeated political party—the Democrats. Their foreseen-fruitless pursuit has now resulted in revelations that have escalated the very conflict they campaign on preventing. But, since when have keeping campaign platform promises ever mattered in reelection for either main political party?
Bill Browder’s testimony to the Senate was blocked by Democrats. When he finally testified, many Democrats didn’t show up, nor their media entourage. The information he brings to the table is vast. So far, his testimony and understanding into Russia’s meddling in the US is the most extensive. Russia wasn’t just trying to get one politician elected, but to create chaos in America altogether, to lobby for certain laws, and to distract Americans with things that never actually happened. No one has cooperated with that effort as well as the media—wittingly or otherwise.
To date, reports include that the document James Comey had as evidence against Trump—the infamous Trump dossier—was a known fake. The FBI knew it was made by a former MI6 member and has zero evidence to back it. If the MI6 member could find evidence, the FBI was ready to pay $50k. The FBI did get a FISA warrant with the very dossier that they knew was so phony that they wouldn’t pay the $50k for. This was the same dossier Comey took to Trump as evidence against him. Trump knew Comey was using fake evidence.
Now, the question arises: Why did Comey and the media push so hard for an investigation into something completely made up with Russian money? If there was Russian meddling and US cooperation, the most likely suspects to investigate are leaders in the US media and Comey himself, though Comey would never get a fair trial.
Comey has helped these Russian efforts greatly, whether he intended to or not. If an FBI director’s help of Russian meddling turned out to be intentional, the US government would never let that be made known to the public. But, the swamp is being drained.
