Democrats don't believe America is the greatest

A recent poll showed that only 37% of Democrats believe America is the greatest country in the world. Perhaps if they stopped their own legislative and social stupidity, America could still be the greatest country in the world.  Then they'd have an opportunity to disbelieve it 'legitimately' rather than deliberately making it so themselves and then complaining about it.

Fallout from the U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq

Background: Following a recent air strike in Syria which targeted in response to deadly Hezbollah attacks;

The Pentagon said it was responding after the group fired more than 30 rockets at a US base in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Friday, killing an American civilian contractor.

In response, Iranian backed protesters attacked the US embassy in Baghdad in Iraq. President Trump then vowed that this would not be another Benghazi.

The next event in the sequence was that the United States conducted an airstrike in Iraq, killing an Iranian general forbidden from leaving Iraq, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. The U.S. embassy issued a warning to Americans in the region. President Trump tweeted the following moments ago:

....of PROTESTERS killed in Iran itself. While Iran will never be able to properly admit it, Soleimani was both hated and feared within the country. They are not nearly as saddened as the leaders will let the outside world believe. He should have been taken out many years ago!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2020

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Media fallout:  The media responded with craziness once again.  They are willing to overlook that the president did not inform Russia prior to the airstrikes as any good Putin puppet should.  Putin is clearly not happy about it by the way.  

The left who were freaking out over president Trump removing troops from Syria and Afghanistan are now, predictably calling him a rogue, war monger. I even saw a never-Trumper post implying that the president wants a war to ensure his re-election.

Many articles are saying that the president has fallen into Iran's trap and is being strategically outmaneuvered by the regime.

Geopolitical fallout:  This one is going to be harder to predict.  Iran is clearly suffering from the ratcheted up sanctions imposed by president Trump. Those seem to be the most logical next step for the president but with players like Russia and China (America's true geo-political foes) not on board 

with punishing Iran because it only helps the USA, there may not be much opportunity to increase sanctions more effectively.  The long game for president Trump would be to choke Iran economically into nuclear compliance. 

Don't expect Iran to sit complacently over the economic squeeze.  The problem for them is that they do not have much leverage themselves.  They can work through terrorist organizations they support to sting the USA.  Successful attacks could alter public support for the president.  Failure would only gird support for president Trump.  But if successful, president Trump would have few choices left other than to continue with more airstrikes. 

Many are claiming there will be a rapid escalation but I see this as a more drawn out slow burn just because any escalations take time to plot - Iran doesn't have many cards to play and the USA does not need to escalate anything at this point.

China's curious trade war salvo

Earlier this week I shared a video about China's neodymium near-monopoly.  Rare earth metals are a really important strategic asset for any advanced nation. I shared that because of the growing Trade War between China and America, and what China's options might be.

Guess what - China pulled the trigger on rare earth tariffs.

Interestingly this is probably a counter-productive move for China and probably good news for president Trump as rare earth processing used to be an American industry but has mostly disappeared.   A year from now bringing facilities on line will create jobs, and also help the trade imbalance with China.  That's not to mention that as a strategic resource, recreating a domestic industry for refining and processing will facilitate more domestic production and reduce reliance on a  hostile regime for that.

This indicates to me that China is very reluctant to pull the trigger on selling it's U.S. Treasuries.  I'm not sure president Trump needs to respond to this move because it will backfire on China in the long run.  Nut it will be interesting to see if he takes the opportunity to make more moves.  He probably will as not responding will appear to China as weakness.

Here Come the China Boys

From February 2008, this report from Gallup on China:




[UPDATE: The link may not load - you can view the video here: http://www.gallup.com/video/104476/Chinas-Economy-Rises-Americans-Eyes.aspx]

But Gallup in 2009 sees a changing sentiment, no doubt due in large part to the Great Leader's vision and hope and change leadership.

What's changed in the last year besides the Executive Image? The economics of the world have changed for the worse, but the US has been reduced to a recession while China has been reduced to 9% growth in GDP. All that's changed is perception. The problem of Chinese hegemony is still there. The American public is doing it's best head-in-the-sand on the issue of the rise of China. The reality is that in it's drift towards more government involvement in the economy (yes, that is socialism, even if arguably only by proxy), has hastened America's Europeanization in the sense that those once pre-eminent powers are now struggling to maintain their B class status. Why America would want to follow in those footsteps is beyond me.

China is a threat, socialism is a threat. Both need to be taken seriously. Luckily if the government were to unfetter capitalism and reduce socialism, it would take care of both problems. Capitalism and freedom forged America into the great superpower it became. There's no reason those two ideals can't be unleashed and allow the United States to maintain it's leadership role in the world. The current administration is seeking to keep those factors under wraps and temper American entrepreneurial spirit, thereby watering down it's greatness. Why? Because they believe in different ideals. They believe in a managed system. They believe in interventionism, and social engineering. By proxy it must be true that they are comfortable with European levels of unemployment, welfare, taxation and regulation.

The real question is twofold whether Americans are comfortable with that approach and secondly whether they are aware of the creeping death that awaits them by heading down the path of a command economy. Ironically China, while still communist, owes it's rising fortunes to the adaptation of a limited free market economy. Two powers, opposite directions, and divergent futures if they continue down the paths they are choosing.