That’s exactly right. McCain’s outbreaks of nonpartisan principle are like a manmade transuranic element: a half-life measured in days and rapid decay into stable toxicity. But Rubio’s little half-hearted Twitter forays into principled behavior are more like the ones that are theorized but elude creation.
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Tillerson and his links to Exxon is a detail of a bigger, more important picture: Trump’s inexplicable de-leveraging of the US national interest in favor of a lose-win rapprochement with Putin. I’m repeating an earlier post, but in this fog of political war, you need to keep your bearings.
A Putin-Trump axis gains Russia everything, at enormous cost to the US and its global leverage: (1) sanctions lifted; (2) carte blanche in Syria; (3) destabilization of NATO; (4) an end to the US human rights critique; (5) a destruction of the US’s global brand as a place of “freedom” and democracy; (6) a pass on Russia’s attempted (and possibly effective) subversion of the US election.
What does the US gain? Maybe some kind permission to wage a war with Iran? Unlikely. And war with Iran would be a catastrophe in any case. The return of Snowden? Chickenfeed.
This total asymmetry ONLY makes sense if the question is posed: what does TRUMP gain. We can only speculate, since we have no access to Trump’s finances. But given everything we know about him(compulsive grifter; narcissist who views his business and financial standing as pure ego-objects) we can quite confidently suggest: cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars of debts owed to Russian banks; further varieties of personal enrichment and kickbacks; and finally, the professed personal admiration and friendship of Putin.
Now surely even the GOP hacks are getting the picture. My sense is that McCain, who sees himself as a man history and has just secured a 6-year term, may sense that destiny is calling here. And I also have to believe that the CIA will contain true patriots who understand that they are not the president’s personal employees and that their duty is serve the country, not President Trumputin. I feel like something big will emerge before long–although the window of opportunity may be small, given that Trump assumes power in 6 weeks.
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Skeptical but easily led…
Can’t recommend this post highly enough.
Corollary to to what you say is that Trump is, and is surrounded by, the kind of idiots who sneer at “soft power” as Chamberlainesque appeasement and all moonbeam fantasy. The kind of idiots who believe American power is entirely military because there is no kind of power other than military power.
The western alliance system, and the habits of thought and shared democratic values (even while ignoring the presence of the odd torturing dictatorship among the alliance members from time to time) so slowly and painfully constructed from the ashes of World War II, is the foundation of American power and influence. Even our economic power depends upon it.
But for the collection of sociopaths, cretins and crooks in the coming Trumpzi regime–and Bolton is the posterboy-- all of that stuff is, quite literally, worthless, laughable, a bad joke. They’re like dimwitted MBA’s who focus on cost to the exclusion of quality and who do things to increase market share that damage the brand because goodwill is too abstract for them. In their minds, whatever they get from Putin, it will be a win because what they’re trading him for it is, from their perspective, utterly worthless.
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Agreed: a possible perceived benefit is that the US and Russia form an axis of authoritarian global power. The US could become a Dark Lord, as per Bolton’s dream. But even in that scenario, it leaves the USA with a terrible deal–unless the plan is to attack Iran, which I doubt Russia would permit. I can’t think of any other foreign policy objectives that would be served, although I imagine some kind of Russian-US squeeze on China could be attempted. But again, what would the US gain from that, bearing in mind the enormous trade and security costs?
[quote=“nemo, post:25, topic:48330”]
can’t think of any other foreign policy objectives that would be served, although I imagine some kind of Russian-US squeeze on China could be attempted. But again, what would the US gain from that, bearing in mind the enormous trade and security costs?
[/quote]And if that was attempted, would China call in the U.S. debt it holds? That, added to the concurrent trade costs, would do wonders for the economy.
Yes, you’re right. And it would be more doable for China, because (1) USA would be the aggressor; and (2) the Chinese public would accept the resulting economic distress more readily (or fatalistically) than the US public would.
We’re in for a rough ride. All bets are off.
The debt China holds—about 16% of the total US debt—is in the form of T-bills, which have specific maturity dates.
They can’t be “called in” before they mature.
Well, that’s a (partial) relief.
You can sell T-bills before the maturity date, though. I’m not sure that the US bond market/economy would thrive if China dumped a trillion bucks worth of T-bills. And the loss to the Chinese would be mitigated by the fact that interest rates are probably going up in any case.
Not saying it’s going to happen, thought.
Selling them doesn’t affect the US economy in any way.
If China dumps the bonds on the market, it will only drive down the price China would get paid for the bonds.
OK–that’s good to know!
Meanwhile, those who aren’t batshit insane or dumber than a fencepost grasp that Russia’s GDP is smaller than that of South Korea. It’s smaller than that of California, France, India, Italy, Brazil, Texas, Canada, and New York.
The idea that it would be worth it to trash our alliance with Japan, Germany, the UK, France and Italy, nations with double or double or triple Russia’s GDP to unite against China, a nation with whom Russia is aligned at the moment is, of course, as stupid and insane as every other thing these cretins, crooks and crazies are contemplating.
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But … Putin said Trump was brilliant - or dazzling, or sparkly, depending on the translation.
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