Trade War

 

In the history of Homo sapien, there is warfare. The "reasons" include, but  are not limited to power, the reinforcement from advisors, exterminating and enslaving the enemy, acquiring land, property, materials, and so forth. However, do the following statistics suggest that man is becoming more civilized?  For example, in the early agricultural societies ,wars accounted for about 15% of human deaths; in the 20th century about 5% and today about 1%. But ,about 175 years ago in 1846, the United States invaded Mexico, conquered California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and Oklahoma. .And by doing so, it added 888,000 mi.² which totals more than the combined size of France, Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Today we have a catastrophic Trade War affecting the planet.  The " reasons " include but are not limited to power; support and reinforcement from a trade "advisor" ;the leader loves the word tariff, perpetrating stress, economic hardship on the Republic and world ; for trade renegotiation purposes; raise revenue,  to build industry; to reduce trade deficit, to give favor to certain industries  and so forth.

According to Elizabeth Warren, a tariff can be appropriate if used wisely.  The senator gave an example of an important industry, such as pharmaceuticals for national security.  Let's assume the products are manufactured in India which gets the ingredients from China.  This might place  our country in jeopardy.  So, provide incentives  to the pharmaceutical industry like a tariff so 

the products are manufactured and sold  in our country.

On the other hand, Milton Friedman, Reagan's economic guru, provided an example of  the importance and necessity for free trade.  He used a pencil as an example. He said a pencil was really composed of various parts that come from all over the world.  He said that we have that low cost pencil only because of free trade.

 A few excerpts taken from the "news."  1.  $11 trillion has been lost, thrown out the window according to Rahm Emanuel on the Daily Show April 7  2.  Musk has had a $100 billion loss  3 Navarro, the advisor, created a fictional character in his  book promoting the efficacy of Tariff'’s.  4.  Musk called Navarro dumber than a sack of bricks.

In part because of executive functioning in the cerebral cortex , man  is able to create great stories that are fictional, contradictory ,double talk, irrational , exciting, captivating, persuasive, distort subjective experience ,and crazy making  .In other words, man lies in order  to manipulate  and only to please their master .

 George Orwell , in 1984 had it right when he stated "ignorance is strength .The following are  stories from the opposite camp on April 7 and before 1.  According to Trump-"don't be weak, don't be stupid; only the week will fail."  If Kamala wins the election, there will be an economic crash in 1929 style depression."  "Negotiation reduces the trade balance."  Tariffs give us great power to negotiate."  Tariffs could be permanent, or not.  Both can be true, Tariffs  can become negotiations."  2.  According to the others.  "Don't panic, calm down.  Everything's going to be okay."  "I wouldn't worry at all."  Don't look at your stock portfolio."  "I don't really care about my 401(k)."  "Everyone loses money, it costs you nothing."  3.  The president made it clear it's not a negotiation 4.  Trillions of dollars of factories are going to be built.  Millions of human beings are going to screw in bolts into the iPhone,  mechanics to fix robotics and that's what's coming to America.  5.  stock market  reference "we had a record volume on Friday.  Everything is working very smoothly.  6.  Don't panic, we have a president that understands  business.

Other stories: 1.   from "The Art of the Deal."  In chapter 9.  In reference to the Atlantic City casino.  Trump said I'm a business genius.. That casino was bulldozed.  There is no casino today and Trump has gone bankrupt six times.  2.  Japan has the number one foreign investment in the United States.  3.  China was isolated from the world as a result of its lousy policies.  Now we are isolated.  We gave China a get out of jail card.  We've become the problem.  4.  Trump is a terrible negotiator.  China never bought anything, they took him to the cleaners.  He had a deal with Canada and Mexico and just blew that up.  In eight weeks he destroyed America's reputation that it took America 80 years to build.

The Smoot Holly tariff act of 1930, increased import tariffs by about 20%.  Kicking off a global trade war that contributed to the Great Depression that was signed into law by Pres. Herbert Hoover. 

I don't know if that 95 years later were going to have the same outcome.  However, I do know that this sadistic crazy criminal is perpetuating tremendous emotional, physical and economic harm on this Republic.  

PS

War,huh, yeah  , What is it good for ?  Absolutely nothing, The song sung by Edwin Starr 

References

Harari, Yuval Noah.  21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

TV news April 7, 2025