Understanding US thread-III

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 23 Apr 2017 17:48

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-com ... t-syndrome

THE PERSISTENCE OF TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME
By Adam Gopnik April 21, 2017

With Donald Trump as President, we owe it to our country and to our sanity to refuse to succumb to the urge to turn politics into a series of set responses.

We’re told by many wise and well-meaning people that it is a huge and even fatal mistake for liberals (and for constitutional conservatives) to respond negatively to every Trump initiative, every Trump policy, and every Trump idea. There are bound to be—in an Administration staffed not by orcs and ogres but for the most part by the usual run of military people and professional politicians—acceptable actions, even admirable initiatives, and we would do ourselves and our country a huge disservice by simply responding to them all with the same reflexive hatred. This may be especially true if that reflexive hatred, however unconsciously, mirrors and mimics the reflexive hatreds of the Trump White House itself. We owe it to our country and to our sanity to go on a case-by-case basis, empirically evaluating each action as it takes place, and refusing to succumb to the urge to turn politics into a series of set responses—exactly the habit, after all, that we so often deplore in Trump and the people around him.

This is a perfectly reasonable assertion, and one that would count for a lot in pretty much any semi-normal circumstance. The problem is that it refuses to see, or to entirely register, the actual nature of Trump and his actions. Our problem is not Trump Derangement Syndrome; our problem is Deranged Trump Self-Delusion. This is the habit of willfully substituting, as a motive for Trump’s latest action, a conventional political or geostrategic ambition, rather than recognizing the action as the daily spasm of narcissistic gratification and episodic vanity that it truly is.

The bombing of Syria, for instance, was not a sudden lurch either in the direction of liberal interventionism, à la Bill Clinton in the lands that were once Yugoslavia, nor was it a sudden reassertion of a neo-con version of American power, à la both Bushes in Iraq. It was, as best as anyone can understand, simply a reaction to an image, turned into a self-obsessed lashing out that involved the lives and deaths of many people. It was a detached gesture, unconnected to anything resembling a sequence of other actions, much less an ideology. Nothing followed from it, and no “doctrine” or even a single speech justified it. There is no credible evidence that Trump’s humanity was outraged by the act of poisoning children, only that Trump’s vanity was wounded by the seeming insult to America and, by extension, to him.

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 23 Apr 2017 18:52

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/ ... nk-highway
The Economic Lessons of the Stink Highway
Companies that research and manufacture odor-elimination products cluster along Interstate 95—and show why innovation really matters.

Ten miles up the road from I.F.F. is the factory that produces Power Stick, a low-cost deodorant sold in bargain stores like Dollar General and Family Dollar. Fred Horowitz, the C.E.O., showed me around the plant, where dozens of workers combine ingredients—silicon, scent, aluminum sesquichlorohydrate—and operate a machine that squirts the mixture into plastic containers. I wondered why this plant, where a cheap, lightweight commodity is produced by workers who require no advanced education, was in the U.S.; this is the kind of manufacturing more often done in China or Mexico. If retailers are selling Power Stick for a dollar, Horowitz can’t be making much more than a penny or so per stick. I asked if he thought he could increase profits by moving to a country where wages are lower. “No,” he answered. “I’m in the center of all the innovation. It’s all happening here in New Jersey.”

Major scent companies, as well as logistics managers, branding consultants, and firms developing new packaging and production techniques, pitch their innovations to Horowitz and the many other cosmetic manufacturers nearby. This constant interaction led Horowitz to adopt a technique called microencapsulation, a deodorant breakthrough in which microscopic balloons filled with scent melt at specific temperatures or after a certain amount of time. By staying in New Jersey, Horowitz has access to this fast-moving consumer-goods network. It’s an advantage that outweighs, at least for now, the savings he would achieve by moving to a different country.

Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, applied the term “cluster” to phenomena like the stink highway: agglomerations of businesses that find it profitable to stay close to one another. There are famous industry clusters, such as Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street. But there are many others. Warsaw, Indiana, has a cluster focused on orthopedic devices; Wichita, Kansas, is big on aircraft.

Clusters can be delicate things that grow slowly, even accidentally, over decades. If Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett hadn’t become friends at Stanford, in 1934, Silicon Valley would likely not exist some eighty years later. But, while clusters can’t be built quickly, they can be destroyed with surprising rapidity. A decade ago, I reported on the disappearance of one cluster—sock manufacturing in Fort Payne, Alabama—much of which leaped to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. What struck me was how a minor price differential—about a penny per sock—caused an entrenched industry to uproot itself.

Most American low-wage manufacturing clusters are gone and won’t return. The clusters that remain are more like those along the stink highway. They stay in the U.S. for one reason: innovation. Innovation has become an overused word, but, for businesspeople like Fred Horowitz, it has a real monetary value.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 23 Apr 2017 19:10

We’re told by many wise and well-meaning people that it is a huge and even fatal mistake for liberals (and for constitutional conservatives) to respond negatively to every Trump initiative, every Trump policy, and every Trump idea.

But we are thick-skulled and none of this advice permeates in.

The bombing of Syria, for instance, was not a .. nor was it a sudden ... It was, as best as anyone {typically extrapolating one's own idiocy to Global Idiocy as usual} can understand, .. simply a reaction..detached gesture, unconnected to .. sequence of other actions, much less an ideology. Nothing followed.. no “doctrine” or even a single speech.. no credible evidence that Trump’s humanity was outraged by the act of poisoning children, only that Trump’s vanity was wounded by the seeming insult to America and, by extension, to him.

And so we lurch on to our idiotic "expert opinion" on the Carrier Group SNAFU with the same same smug complacency about "our" own vast expertise in all matters and the idiocy of those who were smart enough to be in positions of power.

The Syrian antic and the Carrier antic taken together make one very different and increasingly consistent possibility: That those in the WHOTUS are calm, deliberate and cunning, same qualities that won them the election. The Syria attack is now (I hope!) seen as exactly what some of us here HOPED it was: a show. Perhaps 6 Syrians died, perhaps no one died. Perhaps 24 Syrian airplanes were destroyed, perhaps only 4, and that all ancient jalopies that badly needed replacement. Most of the rest had evacuated to Hyenim well in time, I don't see why anyone would be sitting in SAM radar huts waiting for the missiles. So why was it done? Simple: it shut up the barking, and now those who barked are sitting looking like the idiots that they are as the evidence pours in that the chem attack was a false flag attack.

At the same time, it leaves the WHOTUS free to collaborate with the Russians in hitting ISIS.

Same MO in Korea. For once, a good understanding that NoKo is a PRC puppet. The PRC's 11 makes a grand visit, talks etc. Goes back chest-thumping. Carrier Group scam pulled, leaves PRC with egg on face, and US calmly going about preparing for a missile war against NoKo, PRC and NoKo scrambling in sheer panic.

But oh, no! The Brilliant Ones are

that WW3 hasn't been started, there was no "Destruction of the Entire SYAF" that KSA Agent Hillary demanded hysterically on TV. Seoul is not in flames. Both in Syria and in NoKo, sanity is winning. And the yapping dogs are

So to summarize:
1. HiC turns victory into abject defeat in election from a seemingly massive advantage. FLUKE!! RUSSIAN HACKING!

2. Syria: ISIS still getting slapped. No war with Russia. ATROCITY!!!

3. NoKo: Both NoKo and PRC on the run, with not a shot fired. CONFUSION!!

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 23 Apr 2017 19:32

And so we lurch on to our idiotic "expert opinion" on the Carrier Group SNAFU with the same same smug complacency about "our" own vast expertise in all matters and the idiocy of those who were smart enough to be in positions of power

Agreed. What follows the quote above shows the same symptoms.

In the meantime, the Humorists agree: from the Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/article/trump-a ... s-ca-55725

WASHINGTON—Amid concerns that a U.S. attack on a Syrian government air base would only escalate the ongoing conflict in the region, President Trump assured Americans Friday that his decision to order a missile strike came only after carefully considering every one of his passing whims. “I want to make it perfectly clear that the decision to launch a military intervention in Syria was the result of meticulously reviewing each fleeting impulse that I felt over the last 48 hours,” said Trump, adding that after learning of chemical weapons used by Bashar al-Assad’s forces to kill innocent Syrian civilians, he gathered his top military aides to pore over dozens of his sudden knee-jerk reactions to the situation. “I examined many different options that whirled through my mind in the moment, including authorizing drone strikes, deploying U.S. troops to Syria, sending in SEAL Team Six to take out Assad, getting up and grabbing a snack from the kitchen, doing nothing, and dropping all our nuclear bombs on Damascus at once. Ultimately, I concluded that an airstrike was the best option at that particular second.” Trump went on to say that if the Assad regime’s behavior continues, he will not hesitate to order further military action if he hasn’t already completely forgotten about Syria by then.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 23 Apr 2017 20:24

In their 2011-2012 Economic Outlook for Arizona, Eller College economists note the "enormous inventory of vacant housing," which would take years to fill even at boom-time population growth rates. The housing glut is evident in Maricopa, where, beyond the empty lots, you'll find dozens of three- or four-bedroom homes, most only five or six years old, listed for prices -- $60,000-$70,000 -- that wouldn't have bought you an empty lot a few years back. More than half the houses in Nevada and Arizona are "upside down," meaning their value is lower than what is owed on them, and even the most optimistic forecasts say that prices could continue to fall for the next two years.

wonder how situation is now 5-6 years after this. House values has recovered in many places..except some places like the above which did not have sustainable demand based on local strengths (stable jobs, growing economy etc)..

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 23 Apr 2017 21:02

Basically, DT punked fat Kim.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 23 Apr 2017 21:14

The thing is that these critics haven't cottoned on to the fact that ultra-modern technology and Decision Optimization are used in arriving at these Calibrated Responses of an Authoritative President.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 23 Apr 2017 22:06

Meanwhile, biggest news on SeeEnnEnn is which of Talking Heads is suing/whining about how and why they were recruited.
Wonder what the environment is like at CNN -- those Anchors seem smart enough to be hired for their smarts rather than for their

??

amritk · Post by **amritk** » 24 Apr 2017 00:03

A_Gupta, can't resist mentioning that the first time I heard of microencapsulation was its application to keep flavour fresh in Limca.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 24 Apr 2017 01:43

Everyone has that clever by half friend who basically explains away everything as 'that was my plan all along. You won't understand'.

The types who slip and fall and then say they ducked something and others are stupid not to see what he saw

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 24 Apr 2017 02:01

US accuses TCS, Infosys of unfair practice in H-1B visa lottery draw
http://www.hindustantimes.com/business- ... 8bROP.html

In the clearest signal yet on the target of the US crackdown on alleged abuse of the H-1B temporary visa programme for foreign workers, senior Trump administration officials named Indian tech firms during a briefing on the president’s executive order issued last week.

“You may know their names well, but like the top recipients of the H-1B visa are companies like Tata, Infosys, Cognizant -- they will apply for a very large number of visas, more than they get, by putting extra tickets in the lottery raffle, if you will, and then they’ll get the lion’s share of visas,” an official had said.

Asked why only three companies were named, the official had said, “These are the top three recipients of H-1B visas. And those three companies are companies that have an average wage for H-1B visas between $60,000 and $65,000. By contrast, the median Silicon Valley software engineer’s wage is probably around $150,000. So it just illustrates the point that I was walking you through about how H-1B visas are awarded.”

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 24 Apr 2017 02:03

A full scale syrian war did not happen because the staunchest of Trump's supporters opposed it. Except the establishment, none was in favour of the syrian war and they dared not do it.

Trump buckled and did an about turn on almost everything because his billions are at stake. If he goes against the deep state, he will end up a pauper.

Sorry folks, he is not fighting any Islamic terrorism.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 24 Apr 2017 03:13

Would you happen to have any data in support of these assertions, hanumaduji? I was under the impression based on Unidentified Insiders Who Spoke On Condition of Anoonymity Because They are Not Allowed to Speak To The Media, that the assault on Syria was ended because Ivanka's buddy Svetlana from Romania told her that the parrots picked the wrong cards, and the crystal ball was echoing: "Don't Attack Syria!"

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 24 Apr 2017 03:37

I will provide data for my assertions once you start providing for yours.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 24 Apr 2017 03:41

Gus wrote:
In their 2011-2012 Economic Outlook for Arizona, Eller College economists note the "enormous inventory of vacant housing," which would take years to fill even at boom-time population growth rates. The housing glut is evident in Maricopa, where, beyond the empty lots, you'll find dozens of three- or four-bedroom homes, most only five or six years old, listed for prices -- $60,000-$70,000 -- that wouldn't have bought you an empty lot a few years back. More than half the houses in Nevada and Arizona are "upside down," meaning their value is lower than what is owed on them, and even the most optimistic forecasts say that prices could continue to fall for the next two years.
wonder how situation is now 5-6 years after this. House values has recovered in many places..except some places like the above which did not have sustainable demand based on local strengths (stable jobs, growing economy etc)..

My cousin's house which he bought almost 10 years ago in New Jersey is still 100K under. And NJ is not the boondocks either.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 24 Apr 2017 03:45

The US President said Mr Xi then explained the history of China and Korea to him.

"After listening for 10 minutes, I realised it's not so easy," Mr Trump said.

oh people are confused alright...like "is this real" kinda confused..

But what do they know. It is all part of this secret deliberate strategy.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Apr 2017 05:01

KJo wrote:US accuses TCS, Infosys of unfair practice in H-1B visa lottery draw
http://www.hindustantimes.com/business- ... 8bROP.html

In the clearest signal yet on the target of the US crackdown on alleged abuse of the H-1B temporary visa programme for foreign workers, senior Trump administration officials named Indian tech firms during a briefing on the president’s executive order issued last week.

“You may know their names well, but like the top recipients of the H-1B visa are companies like Tata, Infosys, Cognizant -- they will apply for a very large number of visas, more than they get, by putting extra tickets in the lottery raffle, if you will, and then they’ll get the lion’s share of visas,” an official had said.

Asked why only three companies were named, the official had said, “These are the top three recipients of H-1B visas. And those three companies are companies that have an average wage for H-1B visas between $60,000 and $65,000. By contrast, the median Silicon Valley software engineer’s wage is probably around $150,000. So it just illustrates the point that I was walking you through about how H-1B visas are awarded.”

This is entirely correct. Many of these H-1B people are underpaid and TCS, Cognizant and Infosys will have to increase pay. They need a living wage.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 24 Apr 2017 05:25

hanumadu wrote:I will provide data for my assertions once you start providing for yours.

Ah! I thought so. A loooong wait that would be.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 24 Apr 2017 05:28

"probably around $150K". IMO, that is BS. Is it really that high, and what are they counting in that figure? The fringe benefits such as employer contrib to healthcare? Retirement plan contributions by employer? Averaged stock option values?
I would have thought that the right comparison figure is maybe around 80 to 90 max - plus some 10% total benefits. If not, US companies are pricing themselves out of the market.

In fact the USBureauOfLabor says Median is $102,500. May area may be $10K higher.

The median annual wage for software developers, applications was $100,080 in May 2016.
The median annual wage for software developers, systems software was $106,860 in May 2016.

Software Engineer Salaries Updated Apr 20, 2017
National Avg $95,195
Min $67k Max$132k
Ulan Bator Area Avg $72,693

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Apr 2017 08:45

UB,

He did say Silcon Valley area (SFO Bay Area), so $150K there is peanuts which you can't live on. I know of TCS senior being payed between $65K-$70K in places like Ulan Bator area.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Apr 2017 08:52

a simple sorting based on pay will give the cos who pay more a clear advantage.

the lottery had this fatal flaw of being gamed with filing more applications to increase probability....and since applic fee is returned...its only filing fees of lawyer thats lost...perhaps the swarm has some in-house lawyers on a salary so no per-file charges. its not a complex process to file for h1.

its not violation of any law, just gaming the current system. if company X pays only 100k to a h1 with family in SV, they are surely extracting 150k from the client. so each one through the door with a valid h1 is a cash cow.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 24 Apr 2017 10:23

Gus wrote:Everyone has that clever by half friend who basically explains away everything as 'that was my plan all along. You won't understand'.

The types who slip and fall and then say they ducked something and others are stupid not to see what he saw

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 24 Apr 2017 10:32

UlanBatori wrote:
hanumadu wrote:I will provide data for my assertions once you start providing for yours.
Ah! I thought so. A loooong wait that would be.

You want data but won't give any.

Yagnasri · Post by **Yagnasri** » 24 Apr 2017 10:43

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... butor.html

One wonders why this sudden allegation on Fox people. After Bill, they are going after Sean? or both are like that? Fox earlier boss is also kicked about due to this kind of allegations. If there is this culture in Fox, then there is something seriously wrong with the management itself which is allowing these things to happen.

What is this idea "I was feeling very weird" etc? Being a man I do not know about it but heard many females speaking about this ( not due to me

) in the office. This allegation at book signature event seems to be not correct.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Apr 2017 14:45

http://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/t ... aKkdO.html

please follow link to read in full. I am posting a small excerpt here

Trump’s H-1B tweaks to Aussie visa: India’s middle class must reinvent itself, again
The great Indian middle class must now reconcile to the fact that ‘globalisation as we know it’ is dead. The global workplace has delivered a blow to the job seeker from India.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 24 Apr 2017 16:34

Yagnasri wrote:http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... butor.html

One wonders why this sudden allegation on Fox people. After Bill, they are going after Sean? or both are like that? Fox earlier boss is also kicked about due to this kind of allegations. If there is this culture in Fox, then there is something seriously wrong with the management itself which is allowing these things to happen.

What is this idea "I was feeling very weird" etc? Being a man I do not know about it but heard many females speaking about this ( not due to me ) in the office. This allegation at book signature event seems to be not correct.

The accuser in this case, just like the accuser who is a CNN Anchor, was not some teenager in her first job trying to take a paycheck home to feed her orphaned siblings.

First let's take the case of the CNN Anchor. This was a megabucks News Anchor at Fox and now at CNN. Her

, if you read carefully, came when she went to her boss demanding "More Opportunities". IOW, ways of stabbing her colleagues in the back. Apparently she didn't get immediate satisfaction, hence all the other cra*. Whether the Boss was in the habit of immediately doing hootchie-kootchie with his underlings is not clear. He DID expect underlings to toe the FOX/Murdoch line, which as far as I can is what he demanded.

There are mechanisms at all companies to file harassment charges. And if they didn't act on those, she could have gone public. THEN.

Not years later. All this person does is to make most people panic about mentoring any junior colleague (male or female). First time you have to tell them they need to improve on something, they can go and declare "sexual harassment!!!" and since there is no way of proving either way, the mud sticks. The accuser can lie all they want.

Particularly, sitting in a competing channel's anchor job, what this person has done is utter abuse of position. So if she is willing to do that, what credibility does she have in anything? Her declarations about "that's not my idea of journalism" are

We ARE talking about a CNN anchor, hain?

Overall it speaks to the ethics of CNN far more than of FOX which is known to not have any.
*************
Now about this latest accuser: Clearly this is a long-running feud, and this S.H. claim is merely the first step in the use of WMD. I think if he actually does sue, and demand proof from her, she is facing a slight problem onlee. In the UK that would be a slam-dunk with costs awarded in addition to damages.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 24 Apr 2017 16:55

Singha wrote:http://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/t ... aKkdO.html.

Singhaji, anytime one reaches 60% market share in anything, one can expect changes in the rules. Indian Govt does not believe in acting in a pro-active manner, instead milking these things until the customers are driven into a corner and abandon all pretense of "fairness".

As I read in the US thing, the Indian companies were "playing the system" by stacking the lottery with vast numbers. The lottery is of course a terrible idea put out by the GOTUS.

Isn't this similar to the practice of desi "Consolidators" buying up reservations for airline tickets in bulk, so that people who go to the airline itself can't find a single ticket? Then at the last minute the Consos would force the passenger to scramble around trying to pay for the ticket, have it FedExed, rush to the airline office minutes before the flight, etc etc. I used to curse those sh1ts back in the 1980s before I decided to pay a premium and deal directly with the airline only, damn the Consolidators.

Same basic ethics followed by Indian corporate HR types (I keep resisting the temptation to post stories here), and these Lottery-stacking types.

The solution is and always has been, for the the US/Australia/UK to go to a merit-based system where they look out for their own interests first. Whatever rationale demanded a lottery, it is now dead.

The much better solution would be for Indian govt and companies to try acquiring a reputation for honest, sensible practices. Then they would have much more credibility in demanding the same from the US insurance companies, healthcare scams, weapon scams, oil scams grain scame, WTO scams, Patent scams etc etc.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 24 Apr 2017 17:12

yeah Bill O'Reilly is wrongfully accused ..

never mind about the millions of dollars spent by fox, BEFORE all this came out in public. That surely explains

One wonders why this sudden allegation on Fox people

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 24 Apr 2017 17:27

If anyone is discomfited by Bill O'Reilly's departure, yaaay!

In the meantime Mexico plans to play the China card.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... ge/521451/

Let’s pause to consider the illogic. Trump says that China is a grave threat, both militarily and economically. He has accused China of “rap[ing] our country.” That’s not the way most analysts would put it, but a fairly broad bipartisan consensus holds that China’s expansionism should be contained and its mercantilism checked. Barack Obama’s vaunted “pivot” to Asia tried to keep China’s neighbors from succumbing to its gravitational pull. Thanks to Donald Trump, China is now better positioned to execute the most difficult maneuver in its own, North American pivot—pushing the U.S. and Mexico further apart.

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 24 Apr 2017 17:34

If there was a real American deep state, it would have kept Trump out of the Presidency.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 24 Apr 2017 19:06

Singha wrote:http://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/t ... aKkdO.html

please follow link to read in full. I am posting a small excerpt here

Trump’s H-1B tweaks to Aussie visa: India’s middle class must reinvent itself, again
The great Indian middle class must now reconcile to the fact that ‘globalisation as we know it’ is dead. The global workplace has delivered a blow to the job seeker from India.

This seems like a catastrophe, and there will be some pain but I look at this as a "correction" like there is for the stock market every now and then. This is healthy and needed for long term growth. What we see now is not sustainable for both countries. US cannot keep outsourcing everything and survive. India cannot depend on the US for middle class jobs. I hope more people start companies in India and employ people instead of depending on the US and other countries.

Nehru was right only at least one thing - self sufficiency.

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 24 Apr 2017 19:30

George Friedman on Bloomberg radio, commenting on the news of the type:

Trump's sweetening the pot, offering China better trade terms if the Asian powerhouse takes steps to put North Korea's provocative behavior to rest. {from CNN}

(paraphrase): this policy has always been in place, all US Presidents have followed this policy, it is just that Trump is the first POTUS to talk about this policy in public. In my opinion, China is playing the USA; whenever a trade issue with China comes up, North Korea starts acting up; the US asks China for help, and China says, we're helping with North Korea, why are you bringing up less important trade issues? And the US makes trade concessions to China.

----

So much for Trump having outplayed China.

Yayavar · Post by **Yayavar** » 25 Apr 2017 00:05

It seems like same-old same-old onlee.

All that 'oh! but he had that carl vinson not there but there chaddi-utraring of Eleven... ' or sessions 'amazing that a judge on an island..' (is it not a state of USA btw).. are sounding like the justifications for crazywal. No one knows if that is what was implied/meant by the speaker but people are finding one meaning or exact opposite based on their own ideology or hope. Time will tell if it is all Krazywalitis or real, state down mariana-trench or just deep.

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 25 Apr 2017 06:50

http://www.realclearworld.com/video/201 ... me_is.html

Moving on to China, he said: "For a very long time I have seen [China] facing demands from the U.S. for shifts in their trade policy, or shifts in currency."

"What has constantly happened is that some time in those negotiations, the North Koreans do something insane. We feel we have to respond, we immediately run to the Chinese and ask them to help us out. They do, and the North Koreans calm down. We go back the negotiations, and they say: 'Hey guys, we just helped you out, now you're going to push us on trade?' The interesting thing about Donald Trump is that he has admitted that this is a game. Admitted this is a game that has been played for many years. But he said: 'I'll trade Trade for North Korea.'"

"It has this much help: It takes the obvious and makes it believable... Now the president has simply said this is the game the Chinese are playing. It sets up his future move, however: To say that we've been blackmailed on North Korea, let's get back to trade. But he has made it clear that if they help [with north Korea] this time, he is going to cut them a better deal [on currency manipulation]."

"I've never seen a politician do this," Friedman said laughing. "In the open, simply admit what the game is.

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 25 Apr 2017 06:54

A Pre-Trump article (2013) by George Friedman:

https://finance.townhall.com/columnists ... p-n1574088

Beijing has used the various North Korean crises to its own advantage, offering to mediate talks in return for political concessions from the United States or South Korea, playing a very similar game as it did during the colonial era by simultaneously asserting a special relationship with North Korea and denying responsibility for North Korean actions. For China's leaders, this once served as a very useful way of managing regional relations and countering U.S. challenges to Chinese policies, such as currency manipulation. But for China, too, the policy is beginning to lose efficacy, and Washington is increasingly calling on China to either assert itself in dealing with Pyongyang or be sidelined. Washington may even be seeking to circumvent China, turning to India and Mongolia as potential interlocutors.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 25 Apr 2017 07:04

The Mongolian Air Fauj stands ready to "take out" the NoKo nuko.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 25 Apr 2017 07:14

In the open, simply admit what the game is.

That's one way to call their bluff. But does it mean that he is going to put up with the blackmail again? Or has he told the military to devise the strategy to call the bluff completely?

The whole problem is the so-called Six-Party Talks hosted/presided over by PRC. PRC lords it over that gathering and reduces the US and NoKo to the same level as tantrum-throwing toddlers while the PRC is the Statesmanlike Big Brother.

Time to call their bluff.

IMO China is not ready for war, and will suffer a huge defeat if the US simply pulls an Ossirak and wipes out the missile bases without waiting. And makes clear that if those are repaired, they will be taken out again. "Clear and Present Danger" to the CONUS etc.

if the US waits and waits, China may prepare for something much worse, like Taiwan/Spratlys/Phillippines takeovers. But a sudden US moves, maybe even accompanied by Aus-based Marines landing on those islands with V-22/ carrier cover, will essentially wipe out Chinese gains of the past 50 years in 3 days.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 25 Apr 2017 09:34

KJo wrote:
Singha wrote:http://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/t ... aKkdO.html

please follow link to read in full. I am posting a small excerpt here

Trump’s H-1B tweaks to Aussie visa: India’s middle class must reinvent itself, again
The great Indian middle class must now reconcile to the fact that ‘globalisation as we know it’ is dead. The global workplace has delivered a blow to the job seeker from India.
This seems like a catastrophe, and there will be some pain but I look at this as a "correction" like there is for the stock market every now and then. This is healthy and needed for long term growth. What we see now is not sustainable for both countries. US cannot keep outsourcing everything and survive. India cannot depend on the US for middle class jobs. I hope more people start companies in India and employ people instead of depending on the US and other countries.

Nehru was right only at least one thing - self sufficiency.

some sections within india who are deeply into running off to the US quickly by any means possible will be in deep disarray

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 25 Apr 2017 11:32

To be blamed on Modi....

Bheeshma · Post by **Bheeshma** » 25 Apr 2017 11:42

The shift has already started in India. Not too worried about it. But I doubt american ability to survive without cheap labor from mexico and cheap goods from china.