this writer will pull back the curtain just a little bit on things around the edges of hurricane trump's 'struggles' with china and show you things you may not have noticed;

The change in the relationship between the two leading world powers (the USA and China) is a key factor in the situation, not just in the Indo-Pacific, but in the world as a whole.

The answer to the main question – the nature of that relationship in (at least) the first half of the 21st Century – was already more or less clear by the end of the 1990s. Back then, perceptive observers were already predicting that China would be the USA’s main global rival by the end of the 2010s.

The attempts made in the first half of the 2000s by one section of the US establishment to incorporate China into a US-centred world order ended in failure. The “turn towards Asia” in US foreign policy was one result of this failure. The first written record of this sea change was a much-discussed article by Hillary Clinton, published at the end of 2011 in the Foreign Policy journal.

In reality, the first visible sign of this change occurred at the beginning of the 2000s, after US president Bill Clinton’s visit to India. That country was already being seen as a possible counterweight to China.

The rivalry in the global arena between the USA and China has been developing continuously for the last 20 years. At the beginning of his second term in office, Barak Obama initiated G2 meetings between the two countries, in an attempt to put an end to that dangerous trend, but without success.

Fundamentally, despite all the developments in relations between the USA and China over the last few months, nothing has really changed. What is noteworthy, however, is the sheer number of significant events and meetings that have taken place in that short period of time.

The most important of these (a step which, right up to the last minute, the present author was sure would never be taken) was the decision to by the US to impose tariffs totaling 200 billion dollars, representing 40% of imports from China. Another 50 billion dollars should be added to that figure, to represent China’s potential losses from earlier tariffs. In total, China’s exports to the USA are likely to halve.

That is a long way from the proposals to “sort things out before it’s too late” – even without counting the sabre waving and fencing-style challenges. It is an aggressive thrust, resulting in a serious hit. China was forced, naturally, to respond with a counter-thrust, which also hit home. Not as serious a hit, but a hit nevertheless.
https://journal-neo.org/2018/10/21/the-latest-developments-in-relations-between-the-usa-and-china/

https://journal-neo.org/2018/10/21/the-latest-developments-in-relations-between-the-usa-and-china/

youtube of an hour and ten minutes sent by a friend. just twenty minutes in and so far lots of stuff that adds up when compared to many other items i've been surfing around. you may wish to spend at least a few minutes deciding if you wish to see the whole thing, which i intend to do;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbD2j84L7OM&feature=youtu.be

if you are one of those who believe the latest president will be different than the previous one whichever you choose to be your savior probably won't be as good as you suspect which bill bonner will show you bits of in this article;

 The Foxes Are in Charge of The Swamp
Bill Bonner
HAMILTON, BERMUDA – Hmmm… The plot thickens.

The Trump team came into office with what might have been a historic opportunity to drain the Swamp and take the feds down a peg. Mr. Trump even said he would eliminate the national debt in eight years.

Instead, he teamed up with Democrats to crash through the debt ceiling, gave the big spenders at the Pentagon even more money, cut taxes, and made the Swamp even deeper.

Predictably, tax revenues declined and the deficit rose. And the national debt went up by more than $1 trillion over the last 12 months.

From The New York Times:

Personal tax receipts are up on their own, but corporate tax receipts are down by about a third from a year ago.

That overall drop looks worse when you consider inflation. A dollar today buys about 2 percent less than it did a year ago, according to the inflation index used by the Federal Reserve to set monetary policy. So the government brought in slightly less money year over year, and that money was worth less than the equivalent amount a year ago…

Get Rid of the Fat

And now… what to do? Reuters is on the story:

U.S. President Donald Trump, faced with a budget deficit at a six-year high, on Wednesday told his Cabinet to come up with proposals to cut spending by their agencies by 5 percent, but he suggested the military would be largely spared.

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.18/swamp.html

there are very few things i've seen on the tv news for so many years i can't remember, that i thought to be reported as they actually are, that i believe worth following. the russians did it crap is a big bit of that crap i have no faith in, and here caitlin writes about it;

In a new article titled “Mueller report PSA: Prepare for disappointment“, Politico cites information provided by defense attorneys and “more than 15 former government officials with investigation experience spanning Watergate to the 2016 election case” to warn everyone who’s been lighting candles at their Saint Mueller altars that their hopes of Trump being removed from office are about to be dashed to the floor.
“While [Mueller is] under no deadline to complete his work, several sources tracking the investigation say the special counsel and his team appear eager to wrap up,” Politico reports.
“The public, they say, shouldn’t expect a comprehensive and presidency-wrecking account of Kremlin meddling and alleged obstruction of justice by Trump — not to mention an explanation of the myriad subplots that have bedeviled lawmakers, journalists and amateur Mueller sleuths,” the report also says, adding that details of the investigation may never even see the light of day.


https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/10/20/politico-report-says-russiagaters-should-prepare-to-kiss-my-ass/

being a long time mencken fan any time i see a quote of his leading an article i have to explore it further. here you will find someone speaking of their once full avoidance of anything they didn't already 'believe' and where they have gone from there;

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.’ — H. L. Mencken

‘Only the small secrets need to be protected. The large ones are kept secret by public incredulity.’ — Marshall McLuha

I just participated in a podcast interview with Andrew Carrington Hitchcock, and I’m told it will be released in a couple of weeks. Hitchcock and I spent some time talking about strategies and tactics for spreading our messages to others. In the interview, I described myself as a reformed “pajama person,” which is someone who goes through life asleep to the realities of the world around them.
I awakened five years ago and have traveled down many rabbit holes to learn as much as I possibly could. I explained to Hitchcock that I view my website, Winter Watch, as a resource for others who are in various stages of awakening and from which to garner topic surveys and talking points. If this were “Lord of the Rings,” we would be the ones wandering through Middle Earth having to deal with Orcs and the rest. The pajama people are those back home in the Shire.

https://www.winterwatch.net/2018/10/a-word-about-authoritarian-followers-and-dealing-with-pajama-people/

 here is a short journey thru the latest 'burning issue' you may wish to consider;

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump said Friday that he finds “credible” the bald-faced and ridiculous lies the Saudi government came up with to explain the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He thereby signaled his intention of sweeping the affair under the table for the sake of Saudi arms sales. His position is no surprise, given his own criminal discourse toward journalists and his entire disregard for the rule of law.
The lawless and fascist discourse of US president Donald Trump is not without consequences in world affairs. Part of what a superpower does is tell its client states ‘no’ when they propose some atrocity. The superpower does not do this out of the milk of human kindness. But where a powerful state has allies and clients it wants to be able to deploy them effectively to accomplish policy goals, which often requires that they be credible to other allies.
Europe already had the severest misgivings about Trump’s attempt to establish an economic blockade of Iran, deploying an Israeli-Saudi axis in the region to do so. The European Union is more invested in an international rule of law than the US, and so takes a dim view of Israel’s illegal relocation of hundreds of thousands of Israelis onto Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank, and realizes that Israel is a liability rather than an asset in Middle East diplomacy.

https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/enabled-journalist-khashoggi.html

this writer will tell you a bit of why we're collectively on the railway to hell with no turns available;


We’re getting close to the end now. Can you feel it?  I do.  It’s in the news, on the streets, and in your face every day. You can’t tune it out anymore, even if you wanted to.
Where once there was civil debate in the court of public opinion, we now have censorship, monopoly, screaming, insults, demonization, and, finally, the use of force to silence the opposition. There is no turning back now. The political extremes are going to war, and you will be dragged into it even if you consider yourself apolitical.
There are great pivot points in history, and we’ve arrived at one. The United States, ruptured by a thousand grievance groups, torn by shadowy agencies drunk on a gross excess of power, robbed blind by oligarchs and their treasonous henchmen and decimated by frivolous wars of choice, has finally come to a point where the end begins in earnest. The center isn’t holding… indeed, finding a center is no longer even conceivable. We are the schizophrenic nation, bound by no societal norms, constrained by no religion, with no shared sense of history, myth, language, art, philosophy, music, or culture, rushing toward an uncertain future fueled by nothing more than easy money, hubris, and sheer momentum.
There comes a time when hard choices must be made…when it is no longer possible to remain aloof or amused, because the barbarians have arrived at the gate. Indeed, they are here now, and they often look a whole lot like deracinated, conflicted, yet bellicose fellow Americans, certain of only one thing, and that is that they possess “rights”, even though they could scarcely form an intelligible sentence explaining exactly what those rights secure or how they came into being. But that isn’t necessary, from their point of view, you see. All they need is a “voice” and membership in an approved victim class to enrich themselves at someone else’s expense. If you are thinking to yourself right now that this does not describe you, then guess what? The joke’s on you, and you are going to be expected to pay the bill…that “someone else” is you.





https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/10/no_author/the-united-states-of-empire/