Tuesday, January 24, 2017

New Loyalties

Choosing Partners,

Political alliances are reorganizing fast, as President Trump wins over labor union support by ditching TPP, and vowing to renegotiate NAFTA.

Trump signs executive orders to renegotiate Keystone-XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. (I think this looks like something, more than it actually is something. Both negotiations mean back-to-the-drawing-board and hinge on complex financial and political relationships. Negotiations could go anywhere or nowhere. The headlines make an impression that something is happening.)

I was a bit baffled by President Trump's first visit after inauguration looking so fumbled. 
He went to the CIA HQ, to mend fences, was unpolished, griped about the news media, and made an oblique reference to "getting rid of the columns". Links to stories about that have been disappearing, but not this one on Russia Today. The nice talk to the workers was salted with a slap to the deep-state-bosses. "Fifth Column" refers to traitors in our government, doesn't it? Thanks Eleni.

The Protected, Privileged Establishment vs. the Working Class, Charles Hugh Smith looks more at who-lost-the-workers, and where that is going.
"What will it take to shift the balance of power decisively in favor of labor? My guess is the downward mobility of another 10 or 20 million people who currently reckon themselves "middle class" into the unprotected, disenfranchised ranks of the Working Class will do it."

Pat Buchanan, who ran for President himself, and served under Reagan, writes "Trump: America for the Americans" and calls the inauguration speech "Jacksonian" with a fair helping of FDR's second inaugural address, to boot. There are "two America's" described, and it's clearly time to choose sides. (Right populism can decay to overt fascism, as left populism can decay to communist totalitarianism. It depends on how the economy does, I think.)

China deploys highly advanced mobile ICBM system to target-position against the US. Just making a point...

China sends warships to Persian Gulf for first time in 7 years, too. This is Chinese national interest. They get critical oil here.

The headline here is that Asian nations try to salvage TPP after the US exits, but Japan needs to stay with the US. Australia is considering replacing the US with China in the deal, but that was never the deal, and Japan won't sign up, either. It's over and Australia feels exposed. Who will buy the output of Australian mines?

Brexit needs Parliamentary consultation and consent, and a lot of laws reformulated, and that will take awhile, before article-2 can be presented to the EU, if it still exists by then.

The EU ("Belgium" and we do not really know what that means.)  is the biggest holder of US Treasury debt, not China or Japan.

Don't want a self driving electric car and payment? IKEA comes out with a one-size-fits-most cargo bike with 2 speed automatic shifter, and a really good price this August. Taking orders online already.
ikea sladda utility bike for urban commuting
Choosing Pedals

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