Ahead of Xi’s meeting with Trump, China holds back rare earth shipments.
Geopolitical Worries
Reuters reports China Rare Earth Firms Halt Some US Shipments Over Geopolitical Worries.
Some Chinese rare earth suppliers are declining to ship to the U.S. for fear of repercussions from Beijing, three sources said, underscoring how access to the materials remains an issue for the U.S. weeks before President Xi Jinping visits Washington.
U.S. officials have repeatedly asked China to stick to commitments made in Busan and Beijing over the past year to ensure the smooth flow of rare earth export licences. The persistence of the problem has put it on the U.S. planning agenda ahead of Xi’s September 24 visit, a source familiar with the work said.
A handful of Chinese suppliers have refused to ship rare earths to U.S. companies since early August when China imposed sanctions on the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), a U.S. supply chain monitor, a separate source with direct knowledge of the situation said.
With China deploying its own trade compliance weapons, the companies were wary of punishment from Beijing for complying with the due diligence framework of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI), a global mineral supply chain audit programme connected with the RBA, the source said.
Other Chinese rare earths companies had already stopped shipments to the U.S. to avoid entanglement in geopolitics in recent months, two other sources familiar with the trade said. One cited four instances where Chinese firms declined to send material for fear it could be resold to banned users.
Tight Supply
While exports of many rare earths or related magnets have rebounded since China imposed restrictions in April 2025, the prices of certain rare earths and critical materials like yttrium, indium phosphide and tungsten that have military applications or are used in sensitive industries including aerospace or chipmaking remain near record highs with tight supply.
Other industries affected by licence delays include medical devices and energy.
Exports to the U.S. of yttrium have risen this year but are still only about half 2024 levels despite large shipments to other countries, Chinese customs data shows. Some U.S. companies have been waiting more than six months for mineral licences, said two of the sources, declining to identify them.“China has been very effective in using rare earth export controls to impose restraint on the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security,” said Reva Goujon, a geopolitical strategist at Rhodium Group, referring to the U.S. agency responsible for various restrictions targeting China.
“Supply chain chokepoints will come into focus, but I would expect Beijing to loosen up critical raw material controls a bit around the summit to deflate U.S. allegations that Beijing is not upholding the Busan truce,” Goujon added.
Beijing said its August decision to sanction the RBA and other U.S. auditing firms was a response to a series of FCC restrictions since December targeting Chinese electronics testing labs, drones, consumer routers, submarine cables, advanced robotics equipment and power inverters.
When U.S. officials have raised the rare earths issue in meetings, Chinese officials countered by saying the FCC actions were a violation of the Busan truce, said one of the sources who was briefed on the interaction.
Japan’s Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa has previously said Japanese companies have faced delays in permits and prolonged customs inspections for critical minerals including rare earths. His ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
China exported no terbium to Japan between January and August of this year, from 20 tons over the same months last year. Gallium shipments were 65% down in the same period, while yttrium was down 98%, Chinese customs data showed. Gallium and terbium are used in small amounts to make high performance rare earth magnets.
Economic Noose on Whom?
Stories like the above put a spotlight on which countries have a genuine economic noose.
Trump announced Economic D-Day on Iran, including sanctions on any country trading with Iran.
However, China said it would not honor Trump’s demand.
What’s Trump going to do about that besides nothing?
The U.S. Pressure Campaign
- Economic D-Day: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a severe financial push against Iran in August 2026.
- Secondary Sanctions: The U.S. threatened economic punishments for any nation, bank, or business that continues to trade with Iran.
- The Goal: Washington wants to completely cut off Iranian oil money and force Tehran to surrender.
China’s Official Response
- Rejection: Beijing condemned the American actions as illegal unilateral sanctions that lack support from international law.
- Vow to Fight Back: Chinese foreign ministry officials stated that trade with Iran is normal and lawful, warning that China will take all necessary steps to protect its rights.
- Call for Diplomacy: China urged the U.S. to stop economic pressure and solve the crisis through political talks instead. Detailed coverage of Beijing’s pushback can be found via the
China Isn’t Scared of Trump’s Squeeze on Iran
The Washington Institute reports China Isn’t Scared of Trump’s Squeeze on Iran
here’s a fatal flaw to the Trump administration’s recently announced “economic D-Day” against Iran. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared that the new U.S. sanctions and pressure campaign was designed to “sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime” in Iran. But Iran’s single greatest lifeline, China, went unnamed.
China has long been the largest buyer of Iranian oil, with some estimates claiming that about 90 percent of Iran’s oil is shipped there through a network of “shadow fleets.” China also offers access to the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) that facilitates bank transfers outside of the U.S. dollar system, and through which volumes have gone up from 680 billion renminbi (RMB) per day to 790 billion RMB since the Iran war was launched. Thus, if the United States actually wanted to seriously harm Iran economically, it would have to go after China.
And yet, Beijing is hardly quivering in its boots. When the secretary was asked repeatedly at a press conference if “Operation Economic Outcast” would target Beijing, he demurred, without mentioning China directly: “No one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions.” And when pressed on why the Treasury Department is issuing a threat rather than just imposing the sanctions, Bessent simply said, “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?”
Judging by the lackluster Chinese response, Beijing doesn’t seem too concerned by the new U.S. steps. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson condemned the announcement as “illegal” but went little further. One Chinese analyst writing on the China Internet Information Center, a State Council news outlet, described Bessent’s announcement as an “act of helplessness” that has more to do with addressing American frustration at home than with pressuring Iran. One private Chinese media outlet also pointed out how vague and slow-moving the new U.S. sanctions are.
Nevertheless, China has already said publicly that it would retaliate if the U.S. goes after its companies, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping knows it has the power to do so. So do at least some people in the Trump administration.
Beijing has recently armed itself with a legal framework for retaliation. In May, China invoked its new policy of “blocking rules” for the first time in response to U.S. sanctions against several of its biggest independent oil refineries. These rules effectively constitute a legal prohibition on any companies inside or outside China complying with the U.S. sanctions on Iran. So far, China has chosen not to enforce this rule, but it continues to signal to the United States that it is ready to do so if needed.
Most importantly, China knows it has an ace in the hole. Beyond its ability to take simple retaliatory measures, Beijing can also escalate its competition with Washington. Among its most powerful tools is a ban on the export of rare earths, which China knows that it can impose again. Freezing exports of rare earths to the U.S. last year brought some sectors of U.S. manufacturing to a standstill, particularly in the defense sector, and forced a rapid climbdown by Trump on Chinese tariffs.
This dynamic may ultimately benefit Iran. If the U.S. is unwilling or unable to bring to bear serious, concerted economic pressure on Iran’s chief economic lifeline, it will have to hope that its continued blockade of Iranian ports and military pressure is enough—despite decades of Iranian resilience to this kind of pressure. The U.S. seems to recognize that squeezing Iran depends on squeezing China. But so long as the Trump administration would rather avoid another trade war and another rare earths embargo, that squeeze will remain at best a half-hearted one.
Iran’s Primary Goal
The pressure on Iran is real, but China provides a bit of a lifeline. Regardless sanctions have never forced a country into political surrender.
I said in March that Iran’s primary goal is to inflict as much pain as possible on Trump.
By that measure, Iran has been more successful than Trump.
Diesel New Record High
On September 3, I commented The Price of Diesel Hit a New Record on Gas Buddy, AAA Tomorrow
Diesel jumped nearly 10 cents today after 5 cents yesterday.
Sure enough, AAA reported a new record high a day later. This move is not over. See above link for reasons why.
Classified Document Leak
Note that a Classified Document Leak Shows US Is Militarily Overextended in Iran
The truth is out. Hegseth has seriously messed up the war in Iran.
Is it Idiotic to Fight a War Over Something Worthless in Two Years?
Finally, please consider Is it Idiotic to Fight a War Over Something Worthless in Two Years?
My vote is yes, but that’s what Bessent says we are doing.
I think Trump does not have all the cards but is too egotistic to admit it. I am beginning to think Trump had little if anything to do with writing “The Art of the Deal”, it was probably a ghost writer. What a mess.
There has been more huffing/puffing/blow-house-down crap from TrumpCO. “Small Potatoes.” That sort of this is unbecoming of a Trump.
Not unexpected economic chess as US playing checkers.
What is funny is how y’all know what Trump should have done in America’s interests but you also know that he is in it for his own wealth, power and glorification.
A Putin or Xi “attaboy” means more to him than any policy.
Taco is probably stock piling them to sell to the US government.
the entire department of war and MICC has been the 2nd greatest grifters in the world. after the NYFED and the boys at nyc banks.
The ‘art of the deal’ boils down to the free world’s loudest blowhard bungling yet another dumpster‑tier agreement
‘Small Potatoes.’: Trump Dismisses 18 American Deaths In Iran War
On Friday, he downplayed the seemingly endless war and its costs as “small potatoes for us” and “not a big thing.”
What a sick, twisted POS.
of course trump and his nihilist pals consider those suckers as just useful idiots.
Radiation in rare earth mining and refining is the reason we don’t have security. We sold our security for artificially cheap prices and the environment. Mountain Pass Mine in California at one time produced 15% of the rare earth minerals. It was shut down because of environmental concerns and along with it went the refining capacity. They are now mining but not refining. We are shipping the minerals to China. We don’t refine rare earth minerals because of radium and thorium. China does not care if they contaminate the environment. 90% of well water is contaminated by US standards.
Trump did not cause this issue. Trump has made strides toward fixing this with investments in multiple countries and in US refining through US Defense department. Refining is the key to controlling rare earths. Rare earths are not rare; they are just in low concentrations along with radiative material. If you want to fix the issue, have the defense department make Mountain Pass a military base and start refining. The problem is we are going to have to make a desert a wasteland. Security has tradeoffs.
So go volunteer yourself as reactor shielding if you love empire so much.
“China does not care if they contaminate the environment.”
Then mathematically, financially, and economically, America will never be able to compete with China. It’s irrelevant what Trump/Bessent do. Case closed.
Best to let China trash its lands, have its people pay to subsidize goods sent here and then live happily ever after. Case in point, BYD and other China cars are already taking over the world. Americans could have $20k cars instead of $40k and be able to afford housing and food with the difference but ‘Murica jobs…whah whah whah!’
I’m not sure you are correct about pollution in China, I think they are making great effort to clean up. Their streets in cities look much better than US and a lot of their factories are spotless.
China is kicking American ass in manufacturing, maybe we could learn some lessons but our leaders are actors and lawyers, until that changes we will never catch them.
Cities are not the places where mining and refining take place but yes China cities seem a lot cleaner that most American cities. The infrastructure is 10x better too.
In a way, President Trump and the Chinese have done us a big favor by bringing this issue to a head now. It was idiotic for leaders in the recent past to be so dazzled by the ideas of economic efficiency and growth of the world economy that they allowed industries vital to military competitiveness to wither away in the West and be transferred to China.
There is an old line about the times bringing forth the man. Hopefully the times have brought forth President Trump in the nick of time to save us from a Chinese world empire in the short term. That will still leave us the task of driving the Chinese race back to China.
I sympathize with you people on Trump but…observe that the entire political establishment is doing nothing to stop him. They’re on board. Ever since the “pivot to China” nearly 15 years ago, the Warshington hostility towards Beijing rose. More bases, more tariffs, more propaganda smearing the yellow menace.
Search for “The Coming War on China” by John Pilger. Made around 10nyears ago.
What exactly is the opposition supposed to do without house and Senate? Again, more defeatist bellyaching with zero substance or even logic. I hate the Democrats as much as the next guy but this mindset of “ooohhh don’t vote! It’s not worth voting!!!” reeks of someone who doesn’t want things to change.
The leadership class of both parties are in the grip of AIPAC, Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. It’s why we have such a hawkish foreign policy, despite voters’ disgust with endless wars. Democratic Party votes on War Resolutions (and much besides) seem to be mostly performative displays. Dems allowed Covid-era expanded safety nets to expire (SNAP, ACA subsidies, Child Tax credit, expanded Medicaid eligibility) just before the 2024 election, and here we are. 😫
Now this is entirely true, but that’s why it’s so important to vote in good candidates instead of letting it rot, throwing your hands up, and never voting again. The DSA has performed where “just vote libertarian bro!” is a wasted vote that helps GOP idiocy get further.
People will bitch and balk but there’s literally no shot for a third party this election or any time soon until corruption gets cleaned out. Nobody’s voting green party, nobody’s voting libertarian, they don’t win elections. It’s just driving to a polling station to waste your time. I don’t understand the aversion to trying to fix parties when Trump showed a popular movement can easily throw the old guard out.
“there’s literally no shot for a third party this election or any time soon”
Third party candidates occasionally win statewide elections, even this century. Here are some you may have heard of.
Governors
Lincoln Chafee — Rhode Island, 2010
Bill Walker — Alaska, 2014
US Senate
Bernie Sanders — Vermont Senate
Angus King — Maine Senate
it has nothing to do with the red or blue parties. it has to do with the actual amerikan people being warmongering assholes. who elect warmongering assholes. very simple. the ancient greeks explained it long ago. so did many others along the way. democracy works. don’t be an asshole.
It’s not worth voting for Democrats <> It’s not worth voting.
If you do not exit their control loop, your vote merely advertises to the oligarchs that their tricks still work well enough.
Start researching how to qualify as an independent in your area. Volunteer yourself or a neighbor. Go door to door. Do not spend time following “d vs r” political theater.
run for local office. it works. democracy. i have in multiple jurisdictions. get involved. don’t vote for assholes for us congress or potus. a vote for a libertarian or green is better than just wanting to win by voting for a war mongering asshole.
Did you watch the documentary? I think it was fairly well done. You might even like it.
The part you don’t seem to get in this and other posts is that not voting for the Uniparty does not mean giving up on voting. For some reason you can’t even comprehend the idea of voting for a third party.
I.e. wasting your vote voting libertarian. Want your vote to matter? Vote in a DSA Democrat, take control of the party instead of letting the rancid two party system rip you off. The difference is that the DSA has gotten results, I’d love you to point me to a third party that can say the same so I can vote for them, but it’s not there.
Ah, the wasted vote fallacy. The idea that if your candidate has low odds of winning, then you are wasting your vote.
First, if you are a Republican who lives in a blue state like California or Hawaii, would you throw up your hands and not vote in the statewide election? If you are a Democrat in Florida or Utah, do you simply give up and not vote? Because NEWS FLASH your candidate for President, Governor, or US Senator has no chance.
Second, the REALITY in every election is that your vote is completely irrelevant unless your vote is the deciding vote (i.e., the outcome is a tie and your vote changes the election from one party to the other). Unless this happens, the result will be exactly the same regardless of whether you voted or not (i.e., your vote was meaningless).
Third, the reason that today third party candidates rarely win is because of people like you who believe it is a waste of one’s vote to vote for the best candidate unless that candidate is a Uniparty member. Are you happy with the two ‘choices’ the Uniparty allows? If not, then take responsibility for making your life better by voting for the best candidate. If everyone did that we would all be better off.
‘Wasting your vote’ is voting for a candidate you don’t believe in.
correct. but only half way to reality of our evil warmongering world wide empire. we are an empire of assholes. start with first principles. democracy works. the assholes in usa will do asshole things.
Vote or not, things won’t change. Don’t you know any recent history or do you live in dreamland? You have the uniparty which has no need to do anything to help you because you’ll vote for one of them anyway.
The Republicans could get rid of trump if they had any balls but they are probably getting rich thanks to his brilliant policy reversals.
It is a testament to the indecisiveness of tbe Chinese leadership that they did not do this long ago.
They simply want to be able to sell things and make money.
The United States, by contrast, cares only about power, domination and control.
Sorry. That is way off base. China’s leadership has restricted rare earths exports many times in the last 2 years. Six times globally, and 3 times specifically to the US. This is the fourth time for the US.
They do it in response to sanctions placed on them, or when other irritants (political, or trade) crop up.
How else do you think they got Trump to back off his 150% tariffs on China earlier this year.
And this new restriction will keep Bessent from targeting China with his economic squeeze on Iran. Which means the squeeze becomes more of a “hug”.
The reality is that China’s leadership is very tactical, compared to Trump’s “bull in a China shop” mentality.
Do you disagree with the statement above — “The United States, by contrast, cares only about power, domination and control.”
To me, this statement is obvious. China is basically reacting. They would prefer open trade with the U.S. China’s growth to become a peer power is partly to China’s credit and partly U.S.’s fault. The U.S. investor class moved U.S. manufacturing to China in droves ever since China joined the WTO. You can’t fault China for having a better business model and for the U.S.’s craven political class.
China’s leadership is strategic as well as tactical. Trump’s is “Fire, ready, aim”. He consistently misses. When he re-aims, he misses the target again by even more, and then TACOs.
If China and Russia were to plant a Manchurian candidate in the White House, Trump would fit the role perfectly.
Yes to your first half and no to the second. This new regime rolled up Syria and Venezuela with little additional investment. Sorry to say but their evil is fairly effective. Seems to me people underestimate evil too often.
Actually what you are saying about the investor class moving to China is part and parcel of America’s nearly unfettered capitalism. To change it looks like we will need to move to a hybrid capitalist system. But that would require leaders that are actually FOR the people, not the billionaires. AI may change everything for everyone, the near future may get quite interesting.
But the Chinese leadership doesn’t make the ban stick.
They don’t want to fight and consequently they fold.
By contrast, the United States is absolutely spoiling for a conflict. Force is the only language that the thugs who run America understand. These half measures just convince the Americans that China is a pushover.
The bans don’t stick because we back down, not the other way around.
How is the US folding?
Well, I suppose that depends on what you choose believe. Trump earned the monica TACO for reasons eluding you.
China is not folding to US pressure, not sure why you think that?
When the US says that anyone who engages in commerce with Iran (e.g., by buying their oil) will face the full might of the US in the form of sanctions, China just yawns and buys more Iranian oil. Russia yawns and sells Iran more weapons systems. Even Pakistan(!) has come out openly saying it will not stop trading with Iran, in full defiance of Bessent and Trump.
And what secondary sanctions have been issued to those who trade with Iran? The only one I’m aware of is to an Egyptian bank that has branches in the UAE. They didn’t even sanction the main bank, only its UAE branches! Bessent and Trump are being laughed at all around the world!
Why should they make the ban stick? They resume rare earth shipments once they have achieved their goal.
They fight to win. And once they have won, they stop.
They don’t “fight” for the sake of fighting. That’s what Trump does to rile up his cult followers. Even if continued fighting hurts America.
amerikans have been freely voting for nonstop warfare around the globe for many generations. representative democracy always works. assholes elect assholes to do asshole things. most amerikans are self absorbed assholes who only care about how many shekels they have or can make and some sportsball. it’s a nihilist empire of nitwits who love to make war. very sick fucks. once the empire crumbles it will take a generation or two for the old geezers to die off and be replaced by more peaceful folks who want to trade with the world and not bomb them.
Bull in a China shop is a perfect metaphor for the whole administration.
The east-west confrontation is no longer at Checkpoint Charlie. It’s at Chokepoint Cojones (testicles).
There is no east-west confrontation, except in the mind of Chokepoint Bonespurs and his sycophants.
Who announced “pivot to Asia” and what did it mean?
The imperialism is entirely bipartisan.
Imagine losing a war to a country with a military budget 1/128 the size of the US Empire’s military budget. Even after starting the war with a sucker-punch Pearl-Harbor-like surprise, killing all their leaders and their families.
That’s an insult to Pearl Harbor because unlike the US, the Japanese planned for more than an hour or two before deciding to get into a war.
Nonsense. The United States has been dreaming for decades of this war. “Real Men go to Tehran…” and all that.
This wasn’t the one they planned though. That’s what hurts. They had fifty years to plan a war out. And plan they did, but Trumpstein needed a distraction quick and building up your military is for chumps. Why not just rob ammo stockpiles from other theaters and throw junk ships at it? Fifty years of careful planning was replaced by an ego the size of Jupiter and nothing else.
That is a different question. But let’s not pretend that Trump thought it up all by his lonesome.
Note that Team D is not denouncing the latest war of aggression, but bitching from the sidelines about how they could do it ao much better, rainbow flags.
Drooling support for the military is a common feature in third world countries.
Team D wants to find an offramp that isn’t America getting cornholed in epic fashion in front of the whole world, of course they aren’t going to say anything. Anyone who’s not an utter moron would do the same because there’s really no way to tell what to do until the election is over and damage assessment can be done. In an ideal world we quietly agree to pay Iran for damages somehow while returning the illusion of free navigation (tolled) so Iran can win and America can piss back off.
And a rat about to be trapped in the Epstein files.
As well as “7 countries in 5 years”, also decades ago.
They were behind schedule but still successful until recently. They might still win this one, at higher cost. But they profit from war. They dont personally lose by continuing another forever war.
Most people don’t know that the Pearl Harbor attack was in large part a response to the economic sanctions the US placed on Japan
https://www.independent.org/article/2006/05/01/how-u-s-economic-warfare-provoked-japans-attack-on-pearl-harbor/
Amen, Quatloo! All during the months before the oil embargo, Japan’s peace-oriented Prime Minister made repeated efforts to negotiate with FDR and was rudely ignored, causing his administration to be replaced by the more militaristic one that attacked. The embargo and stealing Japanese stuff in the US were acts of war. FDR wanted into WWII in the worst possible way:
“…Stimson confided to his diary after a meeting of [FDR’s] cabinet on November 25, “The question was how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.”[
Why were they being embargoed again Brutus? You bring this up every time but can’t ever seem to answer this simple question.
Pure envy and racism. The Japanese Empire at that time was a veritable fount of human kindness, spreading love and joy among it’s neighbors, much like the United States of today!
lol
The ostensible reason was that the Japanese were expanding their regional empire (on the other side of the globe from us). And killing people to do it, much like the US killed 5 or 600,000 Filipinos to subdue that expansion of the US empire after the Spanish American War. Nothing Japan did could touch the horror of what Stalin had done, and FDR was at that moment massively aiding Stalin.
But equally important probably: The profoundly devious FDR recognized that getting the US into the war would allow him to run for a 4th term.
he had the recent immigrants in cities on the warpath, but the more rural and more generational old amerikans didn’t want to fight in old europe. as you stated, cutting off japan access to oil was an obvious act of war and an attack was guaranteed. kind of like project for the new amerikan century in mid 90s after fall of ussr. we needed a new enemy and we needed a new pearl harbor. the bush crime family let the back gate unlocked and provoked a stunning attack by hijackers with balls and brains and a few razor blades. easily the greatest military maneuver in centuries.
and those ferocious school girls
The US has still not admitted responsibility for its Tomahawk missile double-tap incineration of 168 girls and teachers at the school. It has been ‘investigating’ for 6 months now.
Iran needs to stage fake weddings with plenty of kid sized mannequins WWII ghost army style.Will 100% deceive current America’s military leadership over and over again.
Didn’t Bessent assure us a year ago that we’d be refining our own rare earths in a year?
The greater the shortage, the higher the prices for when the Trump family rare earth investments in central Asia start yielding results.
And he assured that his stock financial machinations will achieve just that.
We don’t have much leverage with China but we have some. In the mountains east of Phoenix a joint venture between BHP and Rio Tinto called the Resolution Copper Project is developing a large underground copper deposit. After many years of delay the project is finally getting started.with mining expected to commence in the mid 2030’s. The copper will be milled into copper concentrate (about 30% copper,) but where the final step of smelting will occur is unclear. There are only two operating copper smelters in the US and no new ones are planned for this project or any other one.
The two largest shareholders of RIo Tinto are Bank of China Ltd., and Aluminum Corporation of China, Ltd. Although Rio Tinto owns Kennecott Copper which operates one of the smelters in Utah, there are capacity and cost constraints that may limit smelting all of the Resolution Copper concentrate. It’s highly likely that some or all of the concentrate will be shipped to China and smelted there, the resultant copper becoming input to China’s industry. Even if the concentrate is smelted in the US what industrial giant will be buying most of the raw copper, just like they do today with the output of Utah’s smelter?
So, to the question of what leverage do we have with China over Rare Earth Metals? If Trump was interested in negotiating with China instead of fluffing Xi, copper supply would be one place to start.
https://www.resolutionmineeis.us/project-overview
Yes, KJZZ is a left-leaning public radio station but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong.
https://www.kjzz.org/tribal-natural-resources/2025-10-20/from-utah-to-china-where-in-the-world-could-arizona-copper-sitting-under-an-apache-holy-site-go
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
So you’re suggesting more acts of piracy. As to why anyone would invest in such a rogue lawless regime is left to the imagination, but Trump sure demands foreign investment.
kjzz had great informative shows when i lived in the valley of the sun over a decade ago. i see the truth i type has finally some fellow believers. democracy works. always has. our empire has morons that keep voting in morons to do moron things. democracy works. amerikans hate that truth.
“Economic noose” couldn’t be more accurate. It’s something the West put around its neck when it began trade with China and was completely avoidable. Western capitalists and elected officials threw national security (and potentially sovereignty) to the wind. Consumers abandoned delayed gratification, which later turned into an addiction. The threat of having to do with less or none interferes with fixing the problem since nobody wants to sacrifices short term pain for long term gain.
Or the “west”, and by the west I mean America, could just have continued to be a not-batshit-insane business partner who pursued mutually beneficial business deals among allies and enemies alike. But no, obviously it’s the fact that consumers expected their government not to be pants on head retarded, that’s the problem here! We should all just tighten our belts and cut China off for daring to expect a trade partner that isn’t currently sucking on their own toes at the negotiating table.
I hate to agree with Bmcc/yippee, but this is exactly what he means by “retards put retards in office by nature of democracy”. Never again will any nation see America as a trustworthy and reliable trading partner, and that is entirely the fault of Donald J. Trump and every single moron who ever voted for him. A world hegemony, flushed down the toilet by an idiocracy. Incredible.
Yes, as said, democracy works – Trump has the ability to “dumb down” to appeal to various voter angers (of which there were a lot of, in 2024).
The rise of the Internet has made some countries smarter, and some countries stupider. You’re living in a stupider one.
Let this be a learning experience for the nation then: no more TV stars in office. Reagan was a moron and his successor is Nero himself.
What Reagan & Trump have in common, is a vision of the US that is decades old.
why do you hate to agree with someone who just tells the ancient and timeless, truth and wisdom about democracy ?
It arose from post-Soviet globalism, which began during the Clinton admin.
And it arose from the widening availability of consumer credit.
We got our self in this rare earth mess/extortion by exporting essential extraction and processing over the last half a century. It’s the U.S. own fault for allowing it to happen.
China is brilliantly leveraging flaws in the US model of predatory capitalism to its advantage. Rare earth metals are the latest example, notable due to the desperation of the US military industrial complex to obtain these materials.
Since the Clinton Administration granted China most favored nation trading status, US corporations have abandoned manufacturing, research and development, technological expertise, and long-range planning, and substituted financialization and short-term rent extraction; preying on the income and assets of what was once the largest, wealthiest middle-class in world history.
Mining and processing rare earths is a long-term, capital intensive industry. US capitalism rejects this type of endeavor. Short-term, its just so much easier to lend US consumers credit card debt at 25%, and to package and trade derivatives of this debt.
General Electric, managed by the revered Jack Welch is the perfect example. Taking a company that was the pinnacle of innovation, engineering, and manufacturing and almost bankrupting it by changing its business model to rent extraction, lending money to consumers at exorbitant rates, then packaging and trading the loans. GE went from being an asset for the US economy to a parasite.
As long as it was only the US middle class that was getting screwed the media barely noticed. Now that the military industrial complex is affected it becomes a crisis. This is a pretty clear example of the priorities of the US elite.
And I’d like to personally thank Ronald Reagan for declaring that companies should never face pesky “laws” and “investigations” for this crap sandwich. “No, go ahead! Offshore a little! I don’t mind!” But the grandkids do!
An excellent succinct summarization of the financialization of the US economy over the last 50 years. Prior to 1980, corporations seemed to focus on selling physical goods and non-financial services with priorities of long-term growth, capital investment, and worker retention. That changed to a focus on profits from financial operations, credit extensions, and asset trading, with prioritization of shareholder value, stock buybacks, and cost minimization (via transfer of operations and knowledge to China). GE is a perfect example of this–it went from being a powerhouse maufacturer to being a credit card company. GM is another one–the focus went from building cars to financing cars via GMAC. The best college engineering degrees were no longer electrical, mechanical, civil, etc. but rather “Financial Engineering” became the degree of choice. Don’t get me wrong, finance has an important role to play, but at the end of the day, finance itself never built anything.
Agree. The ideal business used to be one in which the company, its employees, suppliers, investors, and customers all were happy with the way it was run, and how much it charged customers. Profits were generally used for R&D and capital expenses, reinvesting in the business. There used to be many of these companies!
Nowadays, the aim is to take one of these well-run businesses and use and abuse it by reducing services to customers, paying fewer employees less, and squeezing suppliers, all with the goal of banking as much money as possible. Of course, part of this equation involves locking in customers by making it extremely painful to go elsewhere. This is done by acquiring competitors, lobbying the government for favorable legislation and regulation, ruthless screwing of suppliers, and endless lawsuits against competitors. Cory Doctorow’s excellent short book Surveillance Capitalism does a great job of explaining how this has been done in the technology space.
It’s funny to watch Trump and his lackeys talk tough and then wimp out over and over again.
The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them. China has been doing that and winning. So has Iran. And now, Canada.
Yes, any confrontation hurts both sides. But that is the price you have to pay to make the bully stop.
It is stunning to watch Trump burn through our military weapons, while China cuts off rate earths and restrict our ability to produce replacement weapons.
He is also burning through our SPR.
Just as it is stunning to watch Trump attempt to bully all our allies, partners and friends. He is turning America into an isolationist nation. The long term impacts will be profound.
Daddy’s burning the family furniture and taking the credit card to the casino. Musk needn’t worry as he’ll be on an orbiting platform getting replacement organs installed, and implanting drone chicks.
“It’s funny to watch Trump and his lackeys talk tough and then wimp out over and over again”
This is where the nickname TACO came from. The world is on to Trump’s endless bluffing. America’s credibility is almost gone. Those who would invest in America are pulling back, because there is no assurance at all that the rules on the ground won’t change tomorrow.
America is an unreliable trading partner. The effects of this will cause it immense damage.
Not isolationist, but isolated.
Trump is isolationist in that he threatens to stop trade with the rest of the world. And his cult lap it up. Hard to be more isolationist than that.
Hard to be dumber than trump and his cult.
Well said.
Its interesting and eye opening to watch the coordinated effort by world economies to squeeze the US before the midterms. Focused squeezing of trumps nuggets to cause him and his supporters severe pain, while trying not to alienate the whole US citizenry longer term. Examples like the iran slow bleed war strategy, farmering inputs, MIC inputs (rare earths), US treasury yields, to name a few. Its not necessarily coordinated, but The Conald through his total ignorance has actually enabled it.
This would not have been possible 10 years ago and just shows that the empire is losing its dominance. Hopefully the US accepts it in a peaceful manner
30 percent of the populace is not going to accept anything in a peaceful manner. That is not their algorithm, regardless of circumstances. They are out to bust some ass.
I would say 60-70% of the feline and also human population are burning with a white hot incandescent rage..and justifiably so.
The establishment should thank their stars for Trump and his doltishness. What they should fear is a Huey P. Long, a man who was determined in the face of an opposition not shy about bribes, blackmail and outright violence, and who delivered results. As in concrete material benefits, not “pronouns” or “triggering the libs”.
Not many know that Huey P Newton, one of the founders of the Black Panther Party, was named after Huey P Long
trump and bessent, ARE the perfect representative, leaders for the people of pax dumbfuckistan. long live the pederast president epstein and his breast feeding, pillow biter, sec of treasury, alas, all idiot empires crumble. not if. just when.
I see all the pedophiles who support the Chief Pedophile of the United States downvote you. Like all the good Christian pedophiles of Texas supporting Ken Paxton. You were crying for the Epstein files until you discovered your cult leader is implicated over a million times. Worthless white trash scum!
very true
Remember the good ole’ days of the Tea Party???
You mean the lovely Ted Cruise?
yup. i attended the first tea parties in state of AZ. too bad the koch bros etc. took it over and turned into regular warmongering corporate republicans.