Disgustus slinks off
into a corner, tail between his legs, whimpering the whelp of a
beaten cur. After imposing, with great braggadocio, tariffs against
products—in this case aluminum and steel—from our closest allies
Mexico and Canada, Disgustus announced our withdrawal from the North
America Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA), pending renegotiation. This
week, after concluding a new agreement that critics have dubbed NAFTA
1.1, he announced that the two countries no longer posed a threat to
national security and lifted the tariffs.
As usual our Disgustus, returning from Ottawa with
little to show, is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It is
more than likely that pressure from American farmers who are
suffering most from the trade wars, as well as what is left of our
heavy industries—not to mention the stock-jobbers on Wall
Street—are bringing pressure to bear upon the collective ignorance
presently in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
It would be laughable
if it weren't so serious, for Disgustus has surrounded himself with
advisers that have, arguably, only a marginally better understanding
of the issues than he. Narcissism is a severely limiting disorder
for it prevents those suffering from the mental disease from seeking
those with greater knowledge or ability. If one must be Mr.
Know-It-All, then one must
surround oneself with those who know it less. Enter Lawrence Kudlow,
late of Fox News as
his newly appointed economics adviser; and top trade adviser Peter
Navarro discovered on Amazon
as Jared Kushner, tasked with finding a suitable authority on the
subject went surfing the internet to find someone who agrees with
Disgustus on the subject.
You see, “Virtually
no well-known mainstream economist agrees with Trump, or his top
trade adviser Peter Navarro and trade representative Robert
Lighthizer, that America's trade deficits are the result of unfair
practices by other countries. Martin Feldstein, the former chairman
of Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, has pointed out that
America's global trade deficit is due to the fact that its
consumption outweighs its domestic production. Imposing tariffs on
low-cost Chinese goods [for
example] will not rectify this structural feature, but will
serve only to make many essential goods less affordable to ordinary
Americans.” (1)
That's right, as many economists have been quick to
point out, tariffs are a tax upon the citizens of the United States,
not upon the producing countries and only work if there are domestic
industries standing idle waiting to meet the demand. The fact that
these industries—machine tool, textiles and garments, toys, auto
parts, electronics...ad nauseum—have been packed up and shipped out
of the country is lost on these fools. And so while China, for
instance, finds new suppliers for soybeans and other American
products. American retailers must now scour the globe to find new
foreign producers not subject to punitive tariffs.
This, by degrees, leads to reports this week that two
Brazilian nationals, the Batista Brothers, who are convicted felons
and cannot leave their own country, have received $62 million in U.S.
farm subsides. They run a multi-national agricultural enterprise and
evidently qualify for part of tRUMP's bail-out campaign as he
struggles to shore up support in places like Iowa and Wisconsin, so
crucial to any hope of re-election.
You see, none of this
means anything to our Caesar Disgustus and his knuckle-dragging
minions who while seizing upon bumper-sticker slogans and
simplistic solutions, appeal to the xenophobic paranoid narcissism
that has long lurked just beneath the veneer of American
exceptionalism.
Such is the madness coursing through the corridors of
power, for tRUMP and those who surround him understand none of this,
understand nothing and find themselves searching for demons lurking
behind every door, under every bed. This is what happens when
simplicity is imposed upon complexity; when willful ignorance is
substituted for determined understanding.
An' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh
Impeach and Imprison
__________________
1. Mahbubani, Kishore.
“What China Threat? How the United States and China can
avoid war”. Harper's Magazine. Vol.
338 No. 2025. February 2019. Page 42
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