Donald Trump lives in a swirl of anger, retribution and economic fantasies. IOW- Trump is crazy!

Opinion letter published in the Northhampton Daily Hampshire Gazette, by Stephen Armstrong, in Hadley.

In my January letter to the editor, I promised I would not write another Trump letter for four years if he or she would publish that one. But, since then, I have sent two others. The Gazette is forcing me to consider whether I am a habitual liar. Oh, well. Perhaps I am, but nowhere near our 100-day super-president. 

Today, I am thinking about the “real” effects of this man’s economic fantasies, his vaunted worldwide tariffs. We will feel them at the end of May, because by then the number of ships of Chinese goods in American ports will have declined by 30%-40%.

Trump laughs and says that American kids can make do with two dolls, not 30; and isn’t it too bad that American parents will have to spend $2 more per doll❓ (It won’t be $2, by the way: the tariffs- if Trump returns to his fantasy, will be 154% of the value of the doll❗ So much for Barbie.) 

What goads Trump’s fantasies❓ His mental life is simple: he wants to stomp, crush, defile, and run under his feet anyone whom he does not like. Unfortunately, Trump dislikes most of the American public — certainly those who voted against him — many women, most immigrants, and above all China, as impossible as this seems. Trump requires fealty, and China’s only gift of homage to him was Covid, both a personal case where he thought he was Superman to have survived, and a pandemic which claimed 1.1 million Americans, who did not survive.

Anger, aggression, never-ending grievance, and repetitive delusions about his “deal-making” capabilities — these are the powers behind his economic fantasies. In his childish way Trump thinks his fantasies are the “truth.” 

Trump does not care what a doll costs, or how many dolls an American child might want. He thinks of us as though we are over-indulged children, and thus we deserve his lies and contempt.

From Steven Armstrong in Hadley (at least, the name he uses to write letters to the editor)

General Mark Milley: "My loyalty to this nation, its people and the constitution....will never change...."

Transcript - Thank you! General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified about his calls with China over concerns about Donald Trump during September 28, 2021, hearing. 

Read the transcript testimony https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/gen-mark-milley-testimony-on-calls-with-china-transcript?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=transcript-digest&utm_content=10-01-2021

A video posted on the PBS YouTube channel is at this link here.

General Milley: 
Thank you chairman, and if I could, I know that there’s some issues in the media that are of deep concern to many members on the committee and with your permission, I’d like to address those for a minute or two. Again, I’ve submitted memoranda for the committee to take a look at.

Chairman: 
You may proceed.

General Milley: 
Mr. Chairman, I’ve served this nation for 42 years. I’ve spent years in combat and I’ve buried a lot of my troops who died while defending this country. 

My loyalty to this nation, its people and the constitution, hasn’t changed and will never change as long as I have a breath to give. 

My loyalty is absolute and I will not turn my back on the fallen. With respect to the Chinese calls, I routinely communicated with my counterpart, General Lee, with the knowledge and coordination of civilian oversight. 

I am specifically directed to communicate with the Chinese by Department of Defense guidance, the policy dialogue system.

General Milley: 
These military to military communications at the highest level are critical to the security of the United States in order to deconflict military actions, manage crisis and prevent war between great powers that are armed with the world’s most deadliest weapons. 

The calls on 30 October and 8 January were coordinated before and after with Secretary Esper and acting secretary Miller’s staffs and the inter agency.

General Milley: 
The specific purpose of the October and January calls were to generate, or were generated, by concerning intelligence, which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States. I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese and it is my directed responsibility, and it was my directed responsibility by the Secretary, to convey that intent to the Chinese. My task at that time was to deescalate.

General Milley: 
My message again, was consistent. Stay calm, steady, and deescalate. We are not going to attack you. At Secretary of Defense Esper’s direction, I made a call to General Lee on 30 October. Eight people sat in that call with me and I read out the call within 30 minutes of the call ending. On 31 December, the Chinese requested another call with me. The deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia Pacific policy helped coordinate my call, which was then scheduled for 8 January and he made a preliminary call on 6 January.

General Milley: 
11 people attended that call with me and readouts of this call were distributed to the inter agency that same day. 

Shortly after my call ended with General Lee, I personally informed both Secretary of State Pompeo and White House Chief of Staff Meadows about the call among other topics. Soon after that, I attended a meeting with acting secretary Miller, where I briefed him on the call.

General Milley: 
Later that same day on 8 January, Speaker of the House Pelosi called me to inquire about the President’s ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process. She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the President. I explained to her that the President is the nuclear launch authority and he doesn’t launch them alone and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the President of the United States.

General Milley: 
There are processes, protocols and procedures in place, and I repeatedly assured her that there was no chance of an illegal, unauthorized or accidental launch. By presidential directive and secretary of defense directives, the Chairman is part of the process to ensure the president is fully informed when determining the use of the world’s deadliest weapons. By law, I am not in the chain of command and I know that. However, by presidential directive and DOD instruction, I am in the chain of communication to fulfill my legal statutory role as the President’s primary military advisor.

General Milley: 
After the speaker Pelosi call, I convened a short meeting in my office with key members of my staff to refresh all of us on the procedures, which we practiced daily at the action officer level. Additionally, I immediately informed acting secretary of defense Miller of speaker Pelosi’s phone call. 

At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority or insert myself in the chain of command, but I am expected, I am required to give my advice and ensure that the President is fully informed on military matters.

General Milley: 
I am submitting for the record, a more detailed unclassified memorandum that I believe you all now have, although late. And I welcome a thorough walkthrough on every single one of these events, and I’d be happy in a classified session to talk in detail about the intelligence that drove these calls. I’m also happy to make available any email, phone logs, memoranda, witnesses, or anything else you need to understand these events.

General Milley: 
My oath is to support the constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic and I will never turn my back on at oath. I firmly believe in civilian control of the military as a bedrock principle, essential to the health of this Republic and I’m committed to ensuring that the military stays clear of domestic politics.

General Milley: 
I look forward to your questions and thank you, Chairman, for the extra time.

Chairman: 
Thank you, General-

Donald Trump test of the day - explain how tariffs really work

Donald Trump hasn’t made a convincing argument about #TRUMP_tariffs.  Echo editorial published in The Baltimore Sun.

Instead, he’s been wholly dishonest with the public. Over and over again, he’s deliberately misrepresented how tariffs work, going so far as to suggest the Chinese government cuts a check to the U.S. Treasury. And when his chief economic adviser goes on TV, as Larry Kudlow, and explains that the latest tariff increase affecting $200 billion in Chinese goods will cause the U.S. economy to suffer in the short term? President Trump will have none of it, tweeting, instead, that U.S. GDP was boosted by “Tariffs from China” and that there is “no reason for the U.S. Consumer to pay the Tariffs.” (MaineWriter: OMG.....and we will build a wall and Mexico will pay for it....!)

There can be a case made for imposing tariffs. Those taxes paid on imports raise prices, making those goods less attractive to consumers and, theoretically, giving an advantage to domestic producers. Just as importantly, they give a country leverage on its trading partner. Raise barriers to our exports? We’ll do the same to your imports. With China, there’s an argument to be made that curbing that nation’s worst trade policies (its failure to enforce intellectual property rights and its unwillingness to fully embrace a free market economy among them) requires this level of sacrifice from the American public or the biggest U.S. trade partner won’t change its ways.

Even if Chinese companies partially lower their prices to offset tariffs, consumers are bound to feel the pinch. And as for writing a check to the U.S. Treasury for tariffs? That doesn’t happen. Ever.

American companies buying the goods are the people writing the checks. And they pass along the cost in the former of higher prices to consumers, who ultimately bear the brunt. That’s how it works. That’s how it’s supposed to work. It’s this added cost — this disincentive to buy imported goods — that’s supposed to drive policy change. Meanwhile, China announced Monday that it will impose higher tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods. That’s what Trump trade policy has actually wrought so far.

And while there’s an argument that “both sides pay” in a tariff war — another point made by Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, — but Donald Trump won’t even go that far. His position on tariffs has been consistent — consistently misleading. Now, perhaps this can be ascribed to the usual Trump salesmanship that overstates arguments much in the manner of a high-pressure real estate salesman whose idea of a “fixer upper” is a candidate for condemnation to the rest of us. But what’s especially noteworthy here is that Americans might actually rally around a straight talk description of what’s going on. 

In fact, even those American soybean farmers who have been hit so hard by Chinese retaliatory tariffs might support the White House’s position on China trade out of sheer patriotism, if Trump administration claims bore some resemblance to reality. 

Instead, farmers are getting angry — and increasingly desperate.

It’s one thing to sacrifice for a country that claims to need your sacrifice, it’s quite another to sacrifice to a White House that claims everything is going swell. Add the financial losses of exporters like those farmers with the high cost to consumers (the last round of tariffs having cost $1.4 billion a month, the new round probably much more, according to experts) and you aren’t talking about chump change. Does Mr. Trump think the country won’t notice or that they’ll just take his word for it? What happens when Walmart shoppers notice that prices are much higher? Is he counting on them not putting two and two together?

Make no mistake, we weren’t impressed with this tariff strategy from the beginning. While there is an intellectually honest argument for tariffs, we believe the counter-argument generally holds more weight in an increasingly interconnected global economy. And this White House appears to be especially ill-equipped for a complex and protracted trade war that requires study, patience and a clear strategy, which is hardly the modus operandi of a (failed) leader...Trumpzi.... who makes stuff up as he goes along. Trump is certainly capable of hurting China, but to what end? What would victory even look like? Certainly, a better fair trade enforcement mechanism than China has offered in the past would be great, but what else? We don’t know, but whatever the outcome, this latest escalation is unlikely to bring a swift end to a trade war between two economic powers, neither of which can boast a head of state known for his honesty or willingness to be scrutinized.

Fact checks lies about tarrifs and corporate tax cuts - echo analysis

This report was published in the Vanity Fair report titled "The Hive", reported by Bess Levin. 

Chinese say (translated for tRump to read) - "bring it on".

Donald Trump's stupid trade war with China just went from his ill conceived "easy to win", to "5,000 years of hell"....an opinion essay published in The Hive, a feature column in Vanity Fair.

While Donald Trump previously appeared to view tariffs as a negotiating tactic, he now seems to believe they should be permanent. The Chinese say “bring it on.”

The president’s decision last year to slap tariffs on goods from countries around the world and drag the U.S. into a trade war with China hasn’t gone super well for America. 

In fact, the farmers whose profits have been destroyed as a result know this. The manufacturers who have had to lay off employees and move production overseas know this. The consumers who paid $3 billion a month last year to finance the tariffs know it, too. One person who doesn’t? Donald Trump, who lives in his own alternative reality and still thinks this whole thing is going great. On Tuesday, after China responded to the latest round of tariffs with fresh punitive measures of its own, the president claimed that “Tariffs have rebuilt our Steel Industry” (fact-check: false); that “Our great Patriot Farmers will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of what is happening now” (fact-check: false, and weirdly Soviet); and that we will be “moving jobs back to the USA” (fact-check: false again!).

In tweets and other public utterances in recent days, Trump has hailed his tariffs, claiming they have helped power U.S. economic growth, and repeated over and over again that other countries such as China foot the bill, a view even his own economic advisers are uncomfortable defending. 

Moreover, Trump is also displaying a preference for his tariffs over his own deals. Among the major hurdles to a congressional vote to ratify his renegotiated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement are the steel and aluminum tariffs that Trump imposed on products coming from Canada and Mexico.

Those tariffs have invited retaliation against U.S. agricultural exports, such as corn and pork, that [is] hurting U.S. farmers. They also have caused senior Republicans like Chuck Grassley,the powerful head of the Senate Finance Committee, to say they will block any vote for Trump’s rebranded NAFTA, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. But Trump has refused to bend unless Canada and Mexico agree to other trade restraints with new investment in domestic steel mills and aluminum smelters, one of the benefits of Trump’s trade wars the president is most eager to tout.

While an obsession with tariffs certainly hurts the U.S. economy—Moody‘s analysts predictTrump’s threat to hit virtually all Chinese goods with a 25 percent levy “would slash U.S. real G.D.P. by 2.6 percentage points”—experts say the never-ending counterattacks would likely be detrimental to the global economy, too, causing a painful economic slowdown that could tip the country into a recession.  

“I’m with most economists and I think tariffs and a reduction in free trade are going to be a bad outcome for all involved,’’ Stephen Gallagher, chief U.S. economist at Societe Generale SA, told Bloomberg. Gary Hufbauer, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, noted that while it might be easy—if not entirely misguided—to slap tariffs on imports from other countries, it’s a lot harder to take them off, pointing to a tariff that was introduced in the 1960s to protect U.S. light trucks from foreign competition and has never been removed.

Meanwhile, China appears to be in this thing for the long haul. On Tuesday, its state media released a clip effectively saying the country’s been through a lot worse than some bloated real-estate developer with a Twitter addiction.

In a clip from state broadcaster CCTV that went viral, an anchor asks, “After 5,000 years of trials and tribulations, what kind of battle have the Chinese not been through?”

The video, which has been viewed more than 3.3 billion times, underscores how China wants to portray itself as playing the long game in the trade battle in contrast with President Trump, whose re-election next year could be at risk if voters perceive the trade war negatively. Meanwhile, the People’s Daily, the official newspaper for China’s Communist Party, posted a photo captioned, “This, is China’s attitude!” CNBC’s translation of the Chinese phrases in the image reads: “Negotiate—we can! Fight—bring it on! Bully us—YOU WISH!”

And WAIT~ there's even more!

AT&T has cut more than 23,000 jobs since receiving a big tax cut at the end of 2017, despite lobbying heavily for the tax cut by claiming that it would create thousands of jobs. AT&T in November 2017 pushed for the corporate tax cut by promising to invest an additional $1 billion in 2018, with C.E.O. Randall Stephenson saying that “every billion dollars AT&T invests is 7,000 hard-hat jobs. These are not entry-level jobs. These are 7,000 jobs of people putting fiber in ground, hard-hat jobs that make $70,000 to $80,000 per year.”

The corporate tax cut was subsequently passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump on December 22, 2017. The tax cut reportedly gave AT&T an extra $3 billion in cash in 2018. But AT&T cut capital spending and kept laying people off after the tax cut. A union analysis of AT&T’s publicly available financial statements “shows the telecom company eliminated 23,328 jobs since the Tax Cut and Jobs Act passed in late 2017, including nearly 6,000 in the first quarter of 2019,” the Communications Workers of America (C.W.A.) said yesterday.

In 2019, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that, contrary to the administration’s claims that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had resulted in “big bonuses” for American workers, employees had received, on average, an increase of a penny, which they hopefully haven’t spent all in one place.

Fact check summary - Fake Economic Trumpzi propaganda!