Showing all posts tagged Trump

In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, March 12, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

Scott Walker is self-destructing and may not win a third term. It began in his bid for the presidency when his campaign imploded. Initially, he over-reached. He was too much good for Wisconsin too fast and he wasn’t prepared to take on the wolves. Given the sudden spotlight, he aimed for the presidency. Now, he’s talking like George HW Bush when he reneged on his “read my lips, no new taxes” speech, then said he needed to raise taxes to get along with Democrats toward the end of his first—and hence final—term. If Walker doesn’t lose, then there either aren’t any good Republican or Democratic candidates in Wisconsin or history has decided to stop delivering justice upon those who don’t learn from it.

SpaceX is proving the benefits of both public funding and privatization. Surely both Liberals and Conservatives will want the claim. The US government paved the way for space exploration, but Elon Musk made the stage-one booster return to the landing pad. The world has not seen a breakthrough of this magnitude since Lincoln regulated the first transcontinental railroad through the government while it was built by competing private companies.

Californian idealists, whether right or wrong, are distracted. If they truly believe in their ideals to stand against the Federal government, they will need to stop ballyhooing sanctuary city talking points and repeal their anti-gun laws. Right now, California’s best friend is not social media, but the Second Amendment, specifically the part about a State-regulated militia. Many claim that the National Guard is the militia, but that idea has not been fully tested and vetted and it also has many categorical questions. Calling the national guard to stand against the US military might not work, though it’s a good guess the idea has been tossed around at least one conference room in the bowls of California’s state capitol. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, March 5, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

Everything happening in Washington news right now means absolutely nothing.

Gun legislation means nothing—bills will get passed, but the public hasn’t heard about those bills yet. There just hasn’t been enough time to draft and debate them.

Security clearances get adjusted all the time. Politicians meet and talk all the time—a president who has actual negotiation experience, however, might seem a little surprising to people who don’t understand Trump. But, none of it is news and none of it will go anywhere. It’s all one big, giant distraction for what is actually developing, which we should see in the coming weeks and months.

The only thing that happened of significance was the US Senate’s unanimous passage of the “Taiwan Travel Act”, which would basically allow Trump to visit Taiwan and vice versa, as well as many other officials, and, of course, irritate the Chinese. Unanimous passage of a Senate bill? Why didn’t that make headlines from a press obsessed with “bipartisan cooperation”?

It didn’t make headlines because everything happening, this week anyway, is just a distraction from what’s really going on, whatever “else” that may be, in addition to Asia.

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In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, February 26, 2018

Author The EditorPosted on

It’s hitting the fan. China is homing-up and the US is “posseing” up. CFIUS is expanding its scope and China just required Apple to send its iCloud encryption keys to servers on the mainland. Both moves are more about caution than provocation. The US is stepping up patrols to enforce the trade block on North Korea. China just started the process of amending its Constitution to remove terms limits on its President.

The change to China’s Constitution is often mis-portrayed. It affects both the President and Vice President. It does not install a President for life, but simply allows it. More importantly, the Constitution is being updated to include the “Xi Thought”, mainly that all ethic groups of China are equal and that helping the entire world is part of China’s responsibility.

Many in the West will jump to presume Xi is making a grab for power. While it does increase his power, the more accurate interpretation is that Xi’s plans go for the long term, specifically after Trump’s term. Without this change, Xi would leave office by 2023. China is thinking in terms of long-term, global strategy. That’s hardly a “grab”, but more of a “waltz”.

This is a significant change. Both the US and China clearly mean business. With a shift toward the long-term, and with China publishing its view that the whole world is part of its responsibility, we are in a different political atmosphere than in years past.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, February 12, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

The budget deal in Congress declares two myths, one from time travel budgeting, the other from silence. When the “experts” project a deficit based on the current spending plan, 1. none of the money has been spent yet and 2. none of the spending tax money has come in yet. They aren’t only counting chickens before they hatch, they already have them buttered on the Christmas dinner table.

The spending projection assumes the previous year’s tax income. If tax rates drop, so does the projected income drop, proportionately. There is some “trickle down” account for the assumption that consumers may spend more and employers hire more since they have the funds not taxed, but they don’t consider synergy. They don’t use AI simulations to project the slew of companies who haven’t announced—but will anyway do—investment within the market. New companies will be capable of coming into being which weren’t able to without the new financial ecosystem. Those aren’t accounted for because they can’t be predicted. The forecast we have is based not on synergistic outcomes—AKA reality—but on comparing last years results against this year’s new methods—AKA time travel.

The second myth comes from silence, namely renegotiating trade agreements. Adjustments making the US market part of a two-way street will also bring new revenue sources—rather than a one-way street that screws the US economy into the ground. These are part of separate agreements already promised, already underway, but largely unfinished and unreported. Budget forecast about those factors are simply silent.

The budget forecast isn’t any accurate prediction of the future, but a kind of comparison for number geeks in black-tie offices. What actually happens is never known until it happens.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, February 5, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

Machines are trying to take over. They aren’t winning. And, they aren’t mechanical machines made of steel and iron alloys—or in GM’s case also aluminum. These are machines of “big money”. Some of them are political, some of them are from the entertainment industry, others are in the business world.

Ultimately, the machines run round and round by creating problems, then solving them.

Nestle has been taking water from Springhill in Osceola County, Michigan for nearly two decades. Locals have battled with the water-relocating giant almost as long; the State often comes to Nestle’s defense. We’ll see how much longer that lasts. The current battle seems to include no third-party scientific research, only claims by locals that water levels are lowering vs claims by Nestle that Nestle isn’t hurting anything and that local water costs would rise without Nestle—which is at the same time accused of causing the water shortage in the first place. It’s almost a self-inditing argument in Nestle’s defense. Now, Nestle wants to take more water.

Then, there’s Uma. Perhaps “Kill Bill” should have been renamed to include something about a guy named “Harvey”, at least if the title reflected the emotions of “what the movie advertisements called a ‘roaring rampage of revenge'” from what happened on set and behind the scenes. To this point, Symphony has not focused on Weinstein stories because, so far, they didn’t seem to include news. Uma’s story in the New York Times, however, introduces the video of her injury during a stunt she was intimidated into doing. After 15 years, she finally got her hands on the video. Uma just might mark the beginning of Vol. 2 in brining down scandal-filled Hollywood.

Then, there’s the machine that’s after Trump. According to the president, it’s a disgrace, people should be ashamed, and Congress will do what Congress will do, which is fine. Bias against Trump is “yuge”. In one man-on-the-street video by Campus Reform, people react negatively to State of the Union comments—until they realize they were made by Obama. Democrats and the mainstream media can’t halt the assault against Trump as long as that widespread bias against Trump exists in such a large segment of the voting population. But, that bias is driving the anti-Trump machine to uncover more and more dirt—not on Trump, but dirt—on Democrats.

While Nestle seems to solve problems it causes, the Left caused the problems it’s solving. As for Hollywood, the movies describe it best.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 29, 2018

Author SymphonyPosted on

The biggest problem with analyzing Trump’s next move is speculation. Talk is talk, nothing more. America seems to be obsessed with talk far before action can confirm, acquit, deny, indite, prove, or disprove. We don’t know what Trump will sign into law on Immigration until he signs it. But, he seems to be wise to America’s priorities where talk and action are concerned. Once again, he plays the rhetoric-obsessed section of society like a harp. He makes an offer, he sends a Tweet, he proposes a bill, and everyone gets up and sings in concert.

Take the removal of Taiwan’s “ROC” flag from the US government website as an expanded example. By not having any flag there, the flag can’t be wrong. The original ROC flag has the symbol of the KMT-Nationalist party in the upper corner—the same party that lost both the presidency and the legislature for the first time in history during the last general election. Many have called for the flag to change. So, removing the flag from the website could mean that the US no longer supports the KMT-Nationalists. If Taiwan were to declare independence from the mainland, the US government wouldn’t have the “wrong” flag on the website, nor if China were to attempt an invasion. While China may be thrilled and Taiwan may be angry, much more was involved by replacing the flag with pure white. Maybe “surrender” was the message, though it remains unclear to whom the word would be directed, even if that was the direction. What does remain clear is that the US government website is more important than anything else.

Once again, this time in the international sphere, the Trump administration won the war of words, this time without using any. What will happen, however, always remains yet to be seen until it happens.

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