This time, Trump Threatens to Sue China for Coronavirus Damages.
But the threats do not stop with lawsuits. Trump also blames Wuhan lab for coronavirus, threatens China tariffs.
Trump said he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing over the origins of the deadly disease.
I am Confident too!
I am confident the origin “may” be bats, the CIA “may” have had a hand in manufacturing it, the virus “may” actually have started in Italy, and hundreds of other “may” have happened scenarios.
Of all the possible scenarios, one of them is guaranteed to have happened.
Trump did not mince words at a White House event on Thursday, when asked if he had seen evidence that gave him a “high degree of confidence” the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Yes, yes I have,” he said, declining to give specifics. “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.“
Shhh. It’s a Secret
Trump’s statement above is of course a direct lie. He has to power to declassify anything.
There is no one telling Trump what to do or say, and by now that ought to be painfully clear.
Default via Tariffs
Asked about reports he could cancel US debt obligations to China in the row over the origins of the coronavirus, Trump said he “can do it with tariffs.”
The Tariff notion is ridiculous irony. US consumers pay tariffs not China.
How dumb can you get?
Much Respect for Xi said Trump on march 27
Unintended Consequences
https://twitter.com/exis10tial/status/1255922409007468546?s=20
Rare Move
The Wall Street Journal reports In Rare Move, U.S. Intelligence Agencies Confirm Investigating if Coronavirus Emerged From Lab Accident.
In an unusual public statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, also said that U.S. intelligence agencies concur with the broad scientific consensus that “the Covid-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.”
But ODNI, which coordinates the work of 17 U.S. spy agencies, said U.S. intelligence “will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
U.S. intelligence agencies rarely discuss their work or conclusions publicly, and the ODNI statement marked a break from that pattern.
Unusual Public Statement
The proper conclusion is Trump asked for the unusual statement because he wanted to blame China.
Mr. Trump—asked Thursday whether he agrees with the intelligence community’s conclusion that the virus was not manmade or genetically modified—said he hadn’t seen the report on the matter.
Not Seen the Report? Really?
Please recall the above statements:
Trump did not mince words at a White House event on Thursday, when asked if he had seen evidence that gave him a “high degree of confidence” the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Yes, yes I have,” he said, declining to give specifics. “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
Trump spreads so many lies he cannot keep track of them all for hours, let alone days.
It is no wonder his support is crashing.
Note that Trump is Losing to Biden in Latest Texas and Ohio Polls and even his own team believes he is behind.
Mish
trump was threatening to sue his campaign manager the other day because he didn’t like the latest poll. The president is a litigious little crybaby.
It is highly plausible that it was just coincidence the lab was working on that exact virus and the outbreak was nearby. Nothing to see here, move along…
China is our advisory not our friend. We have impoverished the US working class to make billionaires in China and the US. China’s goal is now world domination, and the Democratic party is on board as comrades in communism. Remember back when the Democrats were in love with the Soviet Union? That was before they collapsed and admitted communism was a failed policy and abandoned it. Now the Democratic party hates Russia for its abandonment of communism. If Trump wants to cut trade with China and rebuild the US jobs base and manufacturing, I am all for it.
If you still see corruption and the upward transfer of wealth in red/blue terms, you’re not paying attention.
I see it in China vs USA terms, and the Democrats are now firmly in China’s wheelhouse. Just ask Mish, he supports China at every turn as he is bashing Trump for holding them accountable…..
Maybe Trump can explain why his campaign signs and banners are made in China? The only creatures who believe his lies are his zombie cult members.
“Globalization” assumes that every country wants to be a “friendly competitor” in the “world markets”. Anyone looking at just the US can see that wealthy and powerful Corporations NEVER want to have “friendly competition”. They NEVER want to have ANY competition at all and will do ANYTHING they can to eliminate competition and monopolize their market(s). Countries want to operate the same way as Corporations because Corporations / Banks ultimately control Countries. Because whether Corporations or Countries, they are all headed by the most sociopathic/psychopathic of their populations.
“Because whether Corporations or Countries, they are all headed by the most sociopathic/psychopathic of their populations.”
Truth.
But hey, the BLUE/RED game is so much fun. Let’s keep playing.
“
“Globalization” assumes that every country wants to be a “friendly competitor” in the “world markets”.
“
No, it specifically does not.
All it assumes, is that resources are more efficiently allocated by free markets, than by totalitarian dictat.
As long as that is the case, anyone trying to be “bad,” by restricting freedom, will inevitably be disadvantaged competitively. Hence ultimately be rendered first poorer, then destitute, then extinct.
It is, trivially, a logical fallacy, to simultaneously claim that 1)”free markets” are economically superior to totalitarian dictat, and 2)those who practice the latter, will somehow gain an advantage by doing so, over those who practice the former.
In practice, the important part is always to make your own country freer. If your own country suffers economically, it is ALWAYS on account of not being free enough. NEVER because it is too free.
IOW, noone ever “suffered from too much freedom.”
I’m talking about the fact that any country that has outsourced many/most/all of its critical commodities is in a world of hurt if the other countries simply stop making those commodities available to it.
RE: “suffered from too much freedom.”
Plenty of people have suffered from “too much freedom” as when employers are free to deal with employees any way they please because they have the “freedom” to do so. Greed and hunger for power left unchecked in an environment of “absolute freedom” invariably leads to suffering.
Freedom without limits is anarchy … Freedom without limits is too much freedom … Freedom without limits means widespread suffering …
Employers are never able to deal with employees in ways employees object to, in free countries. Since employees will then simply walk.
While, in free countries, taking all their knowledge and skills with them, setting up shop exactly next door.
What allows employers to treat employees as if captive, is specifically employees’ lack of freedom to do the latter completely unrestrained. Because of nonsensical “IP ” “laws”, zoning/land use “laws”, permits, “non-compete” nonsense, tax-privileged “health insurance” benefits and what have you.
Left entirely alone, any employer attempting to extract a penny more profit from the work of others, than what any possible other organization could, would be left without qualified employees almost immediately.
Freedom, and the unfettered competition it facilitates, works no differently at pulling the wages and benefits of employers UP, than it does at bringing the cost of outputs DOWN. Inefficiencies, of which all profits above the absolute minimum is but an example, are weeded out in both cases.
As for freedom without limits being anarchy… that’s a feature. Not a bug.
Everything in your post sounds like theory rather than reality.
RE: “Employers are never able to deal with employees in ways employees object to, in free countries. Since employees will then simply walk.”
Walk to where? Your assumption that there will always be another employer available who will deal with employees in ways employees do not object to is just that … Your assumption that there is even another employer to walk to is just that.
RE: “Left entirely alone, any employer attempting to extract a penny more profit from the work of others, than what any possible other organization could, would be left without qualified employees almost immediately.”
Again you assume the existence of another employer … in an environment of absolute freedom companies would tend toward monopolization even more than they do under anti-trust (not much enforced anymore) laws.
RE: “Freedom, and the unfettered competition it facilitate”
Wrong, freedom of the kind you speak of facilitates monopolization because that is the fundamental tendency of business under capitalism … the accumulation of more and more capital (and associated power) into fewer and fewer hands.
Your entire post completely ignores the very fundamentals of human nature for which absolute freedom becomes license without responsibility.
The exact same competitive pressures which contribute to driving the cost of goods down in free markets, work, by the exact same mechanisms, to drive labor costs up. There is complete symmetry between the two. (technically, what competitive pressures do, is not “lower” this or “raise” that, but more generally reduce spreads. AKA, squeezing rents (in the general economic sense) lower.)
Resulting in goods being priced as cheap as it is possible to make them, otherwise someone else will pop up offering them cheaper. While wages will set as close to a worker’s potential value add as possible, lest either someone else will poach him, or he’ll break out on his own. All this is in the “long run”, meaning at equilibrium. Which we will never 100.{infinite zeros}% get to, but is always moving towards.
Even if there was only one team in the NBA, anyone trying to get away with paying Michael Jordan $10/year, would see him walk to start a second NBA team. And not because Michael Jordan is some sort of magician (although he sure looked like one at times). But simply because that is what free people do when they are not paid what they know they are worth.
If your blurb about human nature being “monopolies” were true, the emancipation following the civil war, would have had no effect at all. It’s not as if there already existed employers for the newly freed slaves to go to.
All this presupposes free people, hence free markets, though. Once you no longer have that, all spoils simply goes to the ones closest to the ruling Junta. With the rest being right back to living 20 to a shack picking cotton on Antebellum plantations.
RE: “Resulting in goods being priced as cheap as it is possible to make them, otherwise someone else will pop up offering them cheaper.”
And when someone pops up offering them cheaper there is almost always one of two outcomes (1) highly capitalized Wal-Mart pops up in communities low-balling all local stores, drives them out of business, then raises its own prices (capture market share and drive out competitors) Amazon has done something similar (2) startup company comes up with great new product or low prices on existing product, presents serious competition to the very few, if not one, entrenched large companies, one of which decides to buy out the upstart annoying competitor. M&A always comes to dominate when anti-trust becomes toothless.
RE: “Even if there was only one team in the NBA, anyone trying to get away with paying Michael Jordan $10/year, would see him walk to start a second NBA team. “
The NBA doesn’t necessarily allow Michael Jordan’s new team to enter the league. Maybe he then starts a new league if he’s independently wealthy enough. Maybe the new league offers higher player salaries. Maybe it even puts the old NBA out of business … or maybe it gets bought out by the old NBA before it can really take off. Look at sports history in the US …
How many professional baseball leagues are there? MLB How many professional football leagues are there? NFL (the AFL was the only successful challenger and was eventually “absorbed”) (3) How many professional hockey/basketball leagues? NHL/NBA
Totally free unfettered capitalism says in theory that it thrives on competition but in reality abhors it. That’s why anti-trust laws come into existence … then are eventually rendered toothless by the power of the companies that abhor it and the politicians they have bought.
RE: “If your blurb about human nature being “monopolies” were true”
My point is not that human nature is “monopolies” … my point is that all of history shows that there is always a collection of highly motivated and skilled sociopaths/psychopaths who desire wealth and power and who couldn’t care less about anyone else, and within any kind of “absolute freedom” society they will come to dominate, they will despise competition, and they will tend toward monopolizing whatever they can get away with.
And the same will hold true even in a society of laws that try to hold that sort of behavior in check, because “one dollar one vote” eventually comes to overwhelm “one person one vote” because of human nature … it’s often just as easy to buy votes, to “buy people”, as it is to buy companies and commodities.
“highly capitalized Wal-Mart pops up in communities low-balling all local stores, drives them out of business, then raises its own prices”
“Highly capitalized Walmart” can only do this, because the Junta is banning people from setting up stalls in, or next to, their parking lot undercutting them. In places where there are no such restrictions, “highly capitalized Walmarts” are not competitive with mom-and-pop vendors hustling.
Walmart is efficient, sure, but in very few instances as efficient as someone hawking stereos out the back of a van in their parking lot would be, if left alone to do so. Nor some local Mexican dude selling corn in from of their entrance, if he was left alone. Which, of course, neither of them are. And that , not freedom, is why Walmart, like other BigCorps, are putting everyone else out of business.
Walmart isn’t the greatest example of inefficiencies, as they’re already very efficient per current US standards. But look instead at housing. Specifically in Pac Heights, San Francisco, but aside from perhaps sheer scale, it’s the same story everywhere: If people were free to build what they wanted where they wanted, as in, if people retained some basic freedoms period (can’t really get more basic than putting a roof over ones head), do you really believe the “highly capitalized” people owning places there, would be able to overcharge an increasingly homeless population to the extent they do today?
If you really do believe that, I’m at a loss….. There’s probably no hope.
But assuming not: As long as some guy figures he can get more back out, in rent, from slapping an additional story on top of his house there, than he has to pay dudes outside Home Depot to slap it up for him; the slapping up will continue. Adding to supply. Of housing, in an area where prices very much indicate demand is very high and supply is lagging.
Furthermore, that adding-to-supply will continue all the way up until rent prices there have dropped sufficiently, to no longer make slapping another story up, worthwhile. (That’s how free people on the market always maximizes efficiency of resource utilization, and drives out unearned usury rent. And why the leeches living off such unearned rent, never get tired of “managing” people and banning them from acting freely, instead of leaving them free.)
This mechanism inevitably , and efficiently, cannot help but massively alleviating, in practice solving, housing shortages, and hence largely homelessness. All in an area where both are endemic, and where, as everywhere, the “highly capitalized” and the “Massa Gommiment is needed to look out for the pooooooor” clown army, keeps arranging taxpayer funded conferences for themselves pondering “what to do about ‘our’ housing shortage.” Just as they do about “The Walmart Problem.” Of course, they can be guaranteed never to find a solution to the problem, since the problem is specifically them. The problem is always them.
RE: “If people were free to build what they wanted where they wanted”
And what happens when several people want the exactly same “where”? “First come first served”? … “Whoever has the biggest weapon”? … “Whoever can buy off the others with something else they want more”?
What planet / what society do you see operating this way except in your theoretical fantasy world?
Certainly not this planet inhabited by human beings … In the real world sooner or later one person’s assertion of “absolute freedom” comes into conflict with another person’s assertion of “absolute freedom” and the usual means of preventing the annihilation of one or the other or both is LIMITATIONS on that illusory “absolute freedom”
“Trump is back to China bashing again.”
…
Administration level effort.
A week ago Sec of State Pompeo used “bullying” to describe China. Earlier this week US Navy practiced ‘freedom of navigation’ in South China Seas … on back to back days. China gets ticked anytime US conducts operation.
“It is no wonder his support is crashing.”
His support is NOT crashing according to Real Clear Politics and Nate Silver.
RCP has The Dumpster® at 44.1 approval.
Nate shows 43.3
You are looking at “core support” . If Trump screwed a pooch they would not care. Useless measure.
Polls in the battleground states is what matters.
“Trump spreads so many lies he cannot keep track of them all for hours, let alone days.”
That is a easy bet to win! Keeping track of one lie is so difficult I have come to the conclusion that honesty is indeed the best policy since it has only one version. You do not have to remember what you said earlier. You have to state it as it is! By that measure life should be difficult for Trump. But then he has the ability to brazen it out unlike me!
When the OrangeMan is in panic, he will do anything. His only concern is the reelection, so he is panicking because polls show that more and more Americans start to realize that this is more a TrumpPlague than anything else.
So China and Immigration it is!