“President Trump and the Americans tell the world that if I slap you in in the face, don't slap me back.” – Victor Gao, Vice President of Center for China and Globalization

 

It’s pretty hard to escape the news on the current “trade war” between the USA and China these days. Turning to a news channel inevitably means listening to some little bitch whine about how its wrong to “retaliate” and I end up becoming more and more convinced these days that the problem with life in general is that we’ve brought up our kids to be “anti-violent.”

It's not that I am a proponent of violence and its important to teach our kids the importance of solving things through other means. However, I do believe its important to let our kids, especially our little boys get into a fist fight or two and being able to throw a punch should be on the curriculum for every little boy on the planet.

My reason for saying all of that is simple. As anyone who has been a fight knows, everyone gets hurt. Violence may sometimes be necessary. However, as anyone who has been in a fist fight will testify, everyone gets hurt. This is true, even when you’re physically more imposing (says someone who wants had to contend with a violent ex who was significantly smaller). If you throw a punch, you got to expect the other guy to throw one back. If he or she doesn’t, you’ll need to watch your back because the other fellow will undoubtedly have people willing to deliver payback.

So, every time you listen to a Trump Administration whine about how this and that country is retaliating, you can’t help but get the idea that this is an administration run by whiney b***** who never threw a real punch before and are totally stunned when other people hit back. This point was brought home by Victor Gao, Vice President of the Centre for China and Globalization, when he said that it was not logical to slap people and then expect them not to slap back:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DId5uZ-OUsz/

 

While the USA is the proverbial African Bull Elephant in the proverbial jungle and most likely to win (based on size being a decider in fights), its very clear that vast segments of the American population will get hurt and the American economy will not go unscathed. China, the other elephant, may be smaller but it has certain strengths and it has not been afraid to use them.

One can only pray that this trade war doesn’t blow into another kind of war. One also has to lament the fact that “trade war” was and continues to be a celebration of stupidity and incompetence of the highest order. America has, ever since the end of the Second World War, been the global leader because it’s been a creator of greater prosperity and fairness in the world. That’s now gone. Thanks to the talk about forcefully taking over Canada and Greenland (part of Denmark, which is an EU State), traditional allies like Canada and the EU have found a very reasonable alternative in the shape of China, which in most circumstances, doesn’t have a reputation of playing fair in trade. Its now no longer a case of the USA against China, but the USA against every major economy.

Then, there’s the fact that tariffs are a tool that was once used in the 1930s. As that great voice of Lefty Ideals, Ronald Regan, pointed out – tariffs are one of the best ways to screw yourself:

https://bsky.app/profile/brettolmsted.bsky.social/post/3llwdt2xwm224

 

 

Mr. Regan, who, after his death became a “icon” of the “Liberal Left” through his free-market policies and shrinking of government, explained that the problem with keeping foreign competition out of the market was that is enabled local monopolies to screw consumers with overpriced and inferior goods:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEtSN-dV6q0

 

 So, even if the USA emerges “victorious” in the current trade war, it will end up screwing itself royally as local monopolies rise up and screw over the American consumer.

All of this could have been avoided if Mr. Trump really understood what makes America great, namely its openness to the world and its amazing capability to develop brain power. Think about it this way, seven out of ten of the world’s top universities are American. Whatever America doesn’t make, it makes up for in what it educates, designs and innovates. Sure, China sells more goods to America but can American universities are filled with students from China, dying for prestige of having an American degree. American students are not rushing to spend their student days in China, unless you’re talking about those of exchange courses to learn Mandarin.

American power and prosperity has grown in conjunction with the growth of “rivals.” The America of today is richer than in the 1940s, an era where Germany and Japan barely made a dent in anything.

This is something Mr. Trump and his gang of whiney b****** don’t understand. They have managed to toss out years of goodwill and ironically, they have handed it over to China. Whatever they win out of this trade war will be cheap compared to what they could have had if only they focused on what made America so great – creating the future, something which China seems to have understood.