The Children in the Room vs the Rest of World of Adults Pushing Back

  

The Children in the Room vs the Rest of World of Adults’ Pushing Back

Team Trump on a Course of Irreversible Rampage

"As members of Nato, we are committed to strengthening Arctic security as a shared transatlantic interest. The pre-coordinated Danish exercise Arctic Endurance conducted with Allies, responds to this necessity. It poses no threat to anyone… Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. We will continue to stand united and coordinated in our response. We are committed to upholding our sovereignty." 

Joint statement from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland, nations participating in joint military exercises in Greenland.

“We choose fair trade over tariffs. We choose a productive long-term partnership over isolation.”

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen after the EU and the South America’s Mercosur members close a massive free trade agreement, covering an aggregate 700 million people, including Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and Brazil, a huge workaround the US.

“We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.

This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”

 Canadian PM, Mark Carney at Davos

Why does Trump seem to hate Europe, treating Western countries on that continent worse than nations that are clear enemies? Perhaps, it is because in reaction to dictator Hitler’s brutal devastation of that continent and its people, Europe created the polar-opposite political system: elevating civil rights to the pinnacle of priorities, providing medical care and the protection of ordinary Europeans against corporate greed and rightwing politicians, hell-bent on ending democracy, as essentials… while embracing diversity, equality and inclusion as the implementing path. The ascension of these values has not been smooth, as the autocracy of Hungary’s Victor Orban illustrates, but as Trump has ramped up his attacks and absurd tariffs against our traditional allies, somehow that vast majority of Europe began to end the infighting, rallied to counter Trump’s attacks, not with naked resistance… but with reasoned and effective counter-measures.

Simply put, Europe represents an elite “woke” liberal modernity to Trumpers, while Trump stands for 18th and 19th century colonial barbarism and brute force. As Fareed Zacharia pointed out in his January 18th Global Public Square program on CNN, recent polls across Europe confirm that a bare 18% of Europeans still consider the United States as an ally… or even trustworthy. Others have noted mostly empty flights from Europe to the United States with photographs of the sparse jet cabins that were once packed to the gills.

Even as multiple polls for Trump show 58% of American categorize Trump’s second term to date as a failure, and 75% of Americans strongly disapprove of his effort to annex Greenland at all costs, Trump no longer seems to care what his sheep think. Punishing countries supporting Greenland’s independence as a Danish territory with increased American tariffs is equally reviled by these polls. In addition to a 1951 treaty guaranteeing the US unlimited access for US bases and soldiers, Denmark has repeated that the US remains able and welcome to expand its military footprint in Greenland. Denmark and the allies, noted in the above quote, have also agreed to assist the US in protecting national security. If US forces the takeover of Greenland, NATO would end, the real hit to American national security. Before Dems gloat over the unpopularity of Trump’s policies, such polls also show the Democratic Party leadership at an ugly 72% negative.

For those who believe that the decapitation of Venezuela’s president and declaration that “acting Venezuelan President” Donald Trump’s taking over of that nation’s oil and her oil fields will generate cheap oil, thus representing his contribution to “affordability” (the “Democrat’s hoax” according to Trump)… well not exactly. The challenge to rebuild Venezuela’s decimated petroleum industry infrastructure within the current oil glut would require US taxpayers to subsidize BIG OIL, something that is not popular with most Americans. Put another way, because Venezuelan crude is thick and heavy, it costs $80/barrel (and the dollar continues to depreciate) to refine what currently sells for $60/barrel. In short, there is no economic model that extracts Venezuelan oil at a price that benefits the American marketplace… unless there are taxpayer subsidies.

What’s worse, Trump’s tariffs have produced a reduction in US manufacturing jobs, hardly what he predicted. The big winner in all this appears to be China, signaling even Russia – its main supplier of electrical power – that they will no longer pay premium prices for energy products that can be substituted from other markets combined with China’s massive commitment to alternative energy. China just signed an agreement with European nations to allow a tariff free trade in automative products, where China totally dominates the EV market. Writing for the January 18th Associated Press, Paul Wiseman, explains how the US is losing traction almost everywhere with its economic bully tactics:

“Canada broke with the United States on Friday [1/16], slashing its 100% import tax on Chinese electric vehicles in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, particularly canola seeds… ‘It’s a huge declaration of realignment in Canada’s economic relations,’ said Edward Alden, who studies trade issues as senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘The economic threat from the United States is now perceived by Canadians as far bigger than the economic threat from China. So this is a big deal.’…

“[The] Trump administration, favoring fossil fuels over green energy, ‘is actively hostile to EV production in North America,’ said economist Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. America’s opposition ‘threatens to make the North American [auto] industry obsolete in the future, as China moves ahead with rapid quality improvements in batteries and electronics for EVs.’…

“China, pounded by U.S. tariffs since Trump’s first term, has diversified its exports away from the world’s biggest economy to markets such as Europe and Southeast Asia. It seems to be working. China’s trade surplus with the rest of the world surged to a record $1.2 trillion last year, the Chinese government reported Wednesday [1/14], despite tumbling exports to the U.S.

“Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has overturned seven decades of U.S. policy toward ever-freer trade. He’s imposed double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country as well as singling out specific industries, such as steel and autos, for levies of their own… The president’s use of import taxes often has been arbitrary and unpredictable.”

Further, Wall Street and corporate America have sent an unsubtle rejection of Trump efforts to unseat Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, and marginalize the Fed’s independence. As the market fell after this Trump assault began, economists may have convinced Trump that his efforts might undermine the dollar into endless inflationary freefall. A recent judicial motion by the DOJ to reject efforts to impose a court-appointed monitor to supervise the release of the Epstein papers combined with inept Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s clumsy failure to convince most Americans that sweet, little blonde homemaker, Renee Good (RIP) was a “domestic terrorist” who deserved to be shot by ICE… have painted an ugly-on-uglier picture of Trump’s presidency.

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless Congress, the Courts and the voters do not put up fierce resistance to virtually of Trump’s 2.0 policies, and slam shut his efforts to rig elections, future life in the United States will unravel to a level most Americans have never seen and will truly hate.