The U.S.-China trade war is not new, and it's not going away

Hunker down, this trade war is not going away.  In fact, it's been around for a long time already.  China became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001 and while getting the benefits from being a member (indeed special consideration as a result of being classified a developing country), they have hardly played by the rules - unfairly protecting their markets, stealing intellectual property and manipulating their currency.  They have become rich not only at the expense of America but of many countries around the world.  They've leveraged that growth to expand their hegemony at home and abroad.

For decades no one stood up to them.  Abroad no country had the strength to do it alone, and without leadership from America, why would they try?  But prior presidents - Clinton, Bush or Obama - either ignored or outright facilitated China's rise.

China's government is communist. They are not good guys.  They are evil. They are preying upon foreign weakness and hoping to not have to deal with an America that stands up to them.  Enter Donald Trump.  He's breaking the Chinese domination model like a fever that has gone on for too long.  

It won't be easy.  It would have been a lot easier 5, 10 or 20 years ago but nothing was done.  President Trump is the literal bull in the China shop.  He's making the tough decisions about things like banning Huawei , which is clearly an espionage agent for the Chinese government.  He's in it for America for the long haul instead of a managed decline and ceding international superpower leadership to the Chinese.

Yes, tariffs hurt American consumers and producers.  They do the same in China.  But in the long run they help fairer trade and prevent China from breaking all the rules and not being called out for it.

I say that last part because I think even if president Trump gets a really good trade deal for America, China is going to cheat.  They're cheaters and they have been doing so since the communists took power.

The fact the the New York Times, South Korea and Breitbart all seem to be landing on the same page really says something important.  It says that this is a generational issue that really needs to be met head on, and now.   It's no time to be weak, because with each passing day that nothing is done, it gets harder to confront the Chinese government effectively.

The trade war, even if a deal gets signed and appeases the stock market, will continue.  It will continue as a cold economic war because it has to.  To not confront it is to abdicate our responsibility and to abdicate the future to a totalitarian, aggressive and corrupt China.

California's festival of fetid debris

California is a liberal Utopia.  Sanctuary cities, high taxes, and some of the most liberal laws in the country.  California is the envy of the world.  Right? Of course...but MAYBE:

and...



Two of the crown jewels of California are really only worthy of third world dictatorship city status.

Here's another take:

The E.U.'s "secret" strategy on Brexit

This is actually not so secret. The E.U. wants to make this hard for the U.K., which is ironic since Theresa May seems to have the U.K. making it hard on itself anyway.

AOC targets Pelosi

Impeach Trump.  That's the goal of the ultra-fringe wing of the Democratic Party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is demanding it, along with many others in the party.  But Nancy Pelosi for all her ineptitude, knows politics.  She understands proceeding with impeachment will virtually ensure president Trump's re-election, and worse (for her) probably return Republicans to control of the House of Congress.

When voters see a party blindly pursuing a political goal in place of actual policy, and ultimately doing nothing for the country (even after Mueller report exonerated the president and everyone else of collusion and clearly indicated no obstruction), the Democrats are going to be toast. Burnt toast.  Let's hope they proceed with an attempted, and failed impeachment.

U.K vs. E.U. on Brexit

European Union insider footage that shows their disdain for Brexit, the U.K. and anything not E.U. friendly.  

Milo reputation repair with Jordan Peterson

Jordan Peterson interviews Milo Yiannopoulos, a (former) conservative provocateur who was lambasted publicly for comments that he made in 2017 that unfortunately were exposed after some editing done to deliberately destroy his reputation and value as a conservative speaker. It would seem that it was done by the establishment Republican / anti-Trump faction of the conservative universe. Other conservatives did not come to his defense and the liberal media, obsessed with victimhood, did not treat him like they would other 'victims'. Milo, did not even see himself as a victim, he refused. Unfortunately as a result of this combination of factors, he became a media pariah.

Jordan Peterson, never one to shy away from controversy, interviews Milo in a way that almost is like a therapy session. The conversation is revealing and might actually help repair Milo's reputation. Peterson prefaces the interview with this:

I should start by saying that Milo is definitely now on the list of those who no one acceptable socially should ever speak to, which I suppose is one of the reasons why I’m talking to him. I want to know what happened to him over the last few years, in his words, and I don’t really give a damn if that’s politically incorrect. I also plan to post clips directly from this discussion on Facebook this week. We'll all see (all who are interested) what happens when that occurs.

Milo's a hard man to categorize. Part journalist, part performance artist, part agent provocateur, part comedian and wit, Yiannopoulos is a man of immense and complex self contradiction. He’s half-Greek and half-Irish, but is know as an Englishman to the Americans with whom he has communicated extensively. He’s gay, and Jewish by descent. He married to his long-term boyfriend, an African-American man, in Hawaii, in 2017, but faces frequent accusations of racism. He is—or was—strangely attractive to young American Republicans, and completed a successful and controversy-ridden tour of US universities in 2016-2017. For at least two years, he was one of the most well-known internet celebrities, let’s say, on the political front, and caused more uproar than any other single person that I can think of.

In my view, for what it’s worth, Milo was such a figure of inner contradiction and outer controversy that I believed his time was numbered. Nonetheless, the circumstances of his demise were unpredictable, I would say (and that’s in keeping with his apparent destiny). After revealing details of his early sexual experiences at the hands of a decades older priest, whom he refused to name, he stated that he was an active participant in the events, and that such occurrences were far more common (and far more consensual) than people were willing to admit. I don’t think he ever recovered from the controversy that those comments generated.

In case it has to be said, and no doubt it does, I believe that what happened to him was absolutely unforgivable, and it would seem that he has come to share that opinion. Our conversation centered mostly around these issues, which I believe to be of wide general relevance. Hence the video.

Cummings and goings on - an ethics complaint

An ethics complaint has been filed with the IRS against Democrat Rep. Cummings and his wife. Via OAN:

Violent milkshakes? Really?

An addendum to my previous post on the mainstream left calling for an escalation of violence - here's Tim Pool once again, talking about Nigel Farage getting milkshaked.

Why is this a thing?  It's beyond stupid.

Mainstream leftists encourage escalation of violence

Violence gets encouraged.  Tim Pool, left-leaning libertarian, calls them out.

Are polls useful anymore?

In 2018 pundits were predicting a Democrat wave in the midterm elections. Didn't happen. In 2016 they predicted a Hillary Clinton landslide over Donald Trump for the presidency. Didn't happen. In the U.K. that same year they predicted that Britons would vote to stay in the European Union during the Brexit vote. Didn't happen.  Later in 2017, Theresa May, leader of the conservative party in the U.K. had called a snap election to capitalize on the Brexit vote and was expected to win an expanded majority in parliament. Didn't happen. And most recently, this week the Trump supporting Australian Prime Minister won a re-election no one thought he had a chance of winning. He was supposed to be trounced by the Labor Party.  Didn't happen.

Are polls useful anymore?  True there is an argument that polls can be used to direct a narrative  - voters can be asked leading questions, they can be oversampled from Democrat-leaning populations  and they can just be deliberately misinterpreted.  But there are other issues less sinister.  With the increase in mobile phone usage and a decline in landline phones, there are potential issues with how samples are drawn. Polling methodologies seem to be not working.

While pollsters need to rethink their methodologies, the broader lesson for voters, is to ignore the polls and just vote.  Voting after all, is what really matters.

Sunday verse

Saturday Learning Series - Defending Capitalism (Part 8b)

Continuing with the idea that socialism is evil, let's look at why it fails.

Ben Shapiro explains why socialism fails every time.



He also explains why it fails at being fair and moral:



Follow Ben's logic and you cannot help but conclude that socialism is serfdom.

Reason TV also explains that socialism fails where it is tried:



And yes, it is evil.


And Steven Crowder explains why democratic socialism is still socialism, in case you were tricked by their renaming it (like they did with global warming):


And oh ya, it still doesn't work: