18 Comments
Jan 13, 2022·edited Jan 13, 2022

I'm a subscriber and share your content regularly. I notice one thing though, while the articles should be generating more reach and engagement, they aren't. Part of the issue I am certain that would help is better imagery. Some of your post pictures leaves most people scratching their heads, myself included, and are not anyway related to the content. I get the gymnast balancing and the title but that image flies right over most folks heads my friend. If you want to reach a wider audience, maybe you should try using better imagery, something that pops out and makes readers interested. Most people today don't bother to read much less listen, but pictures can speak 1,000 words.

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Excellent article, and supports what I’ve been saying for over 20 years. We ignore the consequences at our own peril. This influence can bring the end of the U.S., much more effectively and efficiently than any ol’ shooting war.

And it would only take a few months.

Trump’s trade “policies” included tariffs, one of the worst mistakes in the U.S. history. Tariffs hurt everyone, and send other countries to other countries for trade, and not to the U.S. Policy-making should include only the threat of tariffs, not actual implementation. Once implemented, the horse is out of the barn, and there’s nothing left to bargain with.

And there is the theory, as yet unproven, that all or most of Chinese electronic equipment sold to the U.S. can be shut down with the click of a button. In reality, likely not, but a scary thought, and not beyond the Cheating Chinese.

And beware of the international or just national internet shutdown. That will do it, too. And it will happen, unless we do more to protect ourselves. But we aren’t. This shutdown will make Pearl Harbor, WW 2, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, & 9-11 combined look like a picnic. People will wind up killing each other for a glass of water. It can happen here.

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If you don’t have the alarm clock, who does?

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In the late 90's I had a carabiner that I kept my keys on. The carabiner was painted black and read "USMC" (United States Marine Corps), painted in white. This carabiner came straight from the recruiting center. Ironically, "MADE IN CHINA" was stamped into the steel on the reverse side. I believe Joseph Heller made these.

In any event, one can only assume forge beats paint in any rock-paper-scissors contest. We need to get our shit together...

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Great article Mr Hartmann. Everything you said is true, but I would like to add some thoughts.

The Democratic party still has a lot of neoliberal tendencies. I think that both Hillary Clinton and her husband were (are?) enthusiastic supporters of neoliberalism. The Democratic party should acknowledge this and disown this part of its past. I have never heard Bill Clinton express remorse that he let China into the WTO or give PNTR to China.

As for Trump, I voted against him both times he ran. But one important thing that he accomplished was to start the US rift with China. Perhaps it's like Nixon going to China, only a Republican could do it.

The only other major candidate as focused on China was Sanders. But even if he had been elected, his efforts regarding China would have been destroyed by the Republicans screaming Socialist!

Since Trump is a (nominal) Republican, his own party was obliged to support him. Thus the biggest obstacle to movement on China was nullified. I didn't even hear the hysterical cries of Smoot-Hawley that were so predictable when anyone mentioned tarrifs.

Perhaps Trump was right when he said "only I can fix it," at least when it comes to China.

We paid a huge price for this singular good act of Trump. I pray that we can recover from the hundreds of horrible things that he did.

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China is one of the subjects I have read about for years. I love some of their movies; "Seventeen Years" is an excellent one. I think I love the people as much as I hate their government.

Nixon went there in 1972, and they opened up in 1974. Now, less than 50 years later, they think they are equipped to run the world's economy. And, they love to bring infrastructure to some struggling countries to get a foothold there.

Who wouldn't agree that we should not have become dependent on their product? On the other hand that is what they do, produce---after they appropriate or outright steal the tech. Tienanmen Square, the internet, and unemployed young people still scares the government of China. They need to worry about their national security too. Inventive ideas are not the only ones we are good at exporting.

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.@SenatorSinema is a total fraud. Watch her take on the filibuster from 2010:

https://twitter.com/mackattack408/status/1481686973546827779?s=20

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