It should be obvious even to the most optimistic free trader that China is a special and dangerous situation that does not fit into the free trade dream. China has intentions that go beyond wanting to be a partner in trade. China is intent on domination and beating the west at its own game. So far so good for China. China is drilling American oil off Cuba, dominates the Panama Canal, stroking Chavez and institutionalizing itself in the Americas. China is not about fair trade or fair play or fair anything. China is out to win and is doing a very respectable job at it. Here is just another not too subtle example:
________________
China warns ExxonMobil: Drop deal with Vietnam
By MarketWatch
July 20, 2008
HONG KONG (AFP) -- China has warned U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil Corp.to drop an exploration deal in the seas off Vietnam and said the project could threaten any future mainland contracts, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday.
Diplomats in Washington have contacted senior figures in the world's largest oil firm to protest the deal, which they say could be a breach of Chinese sovereignty, the Sunday Morning Post reported citing unnamed sources close to the U.S. firm.
"If it was simply a legal question it would be easy," one of the sources told the newspaper.
"Vietnam would probably prevail in international mediation. But it's political, too. China's concerns make the situation much more complicated for a company like Exxon ... China is a very important player in the international oil industry."
The dispute involves a preliminary co-operation agreement between state oil firm PetroVietnam and ExxonMobil covering exploration in the South China Sea off Vietnam's south and central coasts, the report said.
The Chinese protests are based on Beijing's historical claim to huge swathes of the South China Sea, the report said.
Last year, China criticized a joint deal between Vietnam and U.K. energy giant BP PLC near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, saying the area has been an "indisputable part of Chinese territory since ancient times."
The report quoted Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung saying it needed to be "clearly asserted" that Hanoi's dealings with foreign oil partners fell entirely within Vietnam's legal rights and sovereignty.
China and Vietnam - who in 1979 fought a short border war after Vietnam expelled the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge from Cambodia - also fought a brief naval battle in 1988 near the Spratly Islands.
Who is leaning towards whom?
And we're too damn stupid to drill on what's already ours.
ReplyDeleteI love the lawsuit that says it will contribute to global warming, Teddy Bears Demise, etc.
As though burning Saudi Oil doesn't.
(assuming global warming as a conversational aide)
NY Times had an article yesterday about firms making kiss-ass advertisements for China and the Olympics.
ReplyDeleteDidn't read it.
...just get mad.
The newspaper said passengers at Shanghai South Railway Station will go through a luggage check before entering the station, and only passengers will be allowed on the platforms.
ReplyDeleteWork to install surveillance systems on every subway train has started, but it's not clear how long it will take, Shao Weizhong, a deputy manager of Shanghai Metro Operation Co., told Shanghai Daily.
Shanghai will host nine men's football matches and three women's matches, and more than 440,000 tickets have been sold so far, Vice Mayor Zhao Wen told the state-run Xinhua News Agency in a report Sunday.
Games Near
Man o man, trish is on vacation and the General stopped by.
ReplyDeleteMust not have been much happenin' in Bogata, yesterday.
As to Exxon Mobil and the Pacific discussions over the ownership of those islands...
If the exploration is so easily intimidated, what's to keep the developed wells from being either siezed or quarantined by the Chinese? A risky endevour for EM, it would seem.
It's a mystery to me, Rat, that you suffer such bitter envy and resentment.
ReplyDeleteanger, much more than envy, at the way the miltary has mismanaged a couple of wars against border bandits and part time militiamen.
ReplyDeleteresentment that those that boon-doggled the operations are still feted in foreign capitals, and DC for that matter.
General Casey, to name but one of the most prominent.
When thousands of armed men are demonstrating in the streets of Pakistan, as in 2002 or 03 and the coverage is live via CNN, well that looked like live actionable intel, to me. But the enemy in the open was not targeted.
It was not a lack of intel that allowed Pakistan to become a sanctuary for aQ.
To have it portrayed as such, lies in the face of reality. That some get renumerated for propagating such fallacy, annoying.
Especially when I'm paying them.
It was not a lack of intel that allowed Pakistan to become a sanctuary for aQ.
ReplyDelete- Rat
Okay, then. What was it?
A lack of will.
ReplyDeleteRat.
ReplyDeleteYou are just off your fucking rocker.
Truly.
But what was surprising to me reading the article was how cautious the Bush administration was in its handling of Pakistan, in contrast to its pre-invasion approach to Iraq.
ReplyDeleteThe hunt for al Qaeda in Pakistan, the newspaper says, ”was often undermined by bitter disagreements within the Bush administration and within the C.I.A., including about whether American commandos should launch ground raids inside the tribal areas”.
Rather than send in ground troops, the Counterterrorist Center at C.I.A. headquarters preferred to carry out raids remotely, usiing missile strikes by Predator drones.
Most surprising, perhaps, was a story of how former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, criticised for his hawkishness on Iraq, refused to authorise a Special Operations mission in 2005 to capture Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy. Though the plan to send in more than 100 U.S. commandos — what the newspaper says would have been the most aggressive use of American ground troops inside Pakistan — had the support of the C.I.A. director and the Special Operations commander, “the mission was aborted after Mr. Rumsfeld refused to give his approval for it”.
The lack of will, exemplified.
Pakistan: Now or Never?
It's not funny, Doug, following jackasses.
ReplyDeleteUnless.
Tellingly, the New York Times says those in favour of ground operations argue that the only way to catch bin Laden would be to capture some of his senior lieutenants alive. And that cannot be done by a drone.
ReplyDeleteBack to General Franks not dispatching a loyal and true blocking force to Tora Bora.
ReplyDeleteYou worshipped that guy, Rat.
ReplyDeleteYou had a feel for him that was utterly wrong.
ReplyDeleteWhich guy was that?
ReplyDeleteRummy or Bush
General Franks, the man who drove to Baghdad and walked away?
I thought Rumsfeld's plan to downsize, while improving the quality of, the overall force to be a good idea. Still do.
That the President allowed for him to have such an active role in Operations, another indication of a lack of will, to get the job done.
A lack of will to even define the job. "Osama Dead or Alive", was said, long ago, in the start of the police chase.
Complete with "Wanted Posters".
That Goal, dicarded.
Discarded like the objective of defeating the Iraqi tribal leaders, to diminish their role in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteWe did fight for that, for two years, under Mr Bremer's leadership.
But never defeated them, never diminished them, in fact we are now allied with them.
It's now called success.
As to worship, I took issue with Rummy when he refused to call the Iraqi insurgents, well, insurgents.
ReplyDeleteSo by that time I knew that messiah Rumsfeld had feet of clay.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWill, the lack there of, in Afghanistan where the Taliban had gathered for a funeral.
ReplyDeleteNow I'll grant the arguement that they were on sacred ground, and deserved sanctuary, there.
But they were going to leave that cemetary, eventually. When they did, they still were not targeted, but allowed to disperse, unimpeded.
Another example of a lack of will to take the fight to the enemy.
China is drilling American oil off Cuba...
ReplyDeleteIts 90 miles to Cuba from Key West, and China is drilling 50 miles from Key West, and 90 divided by 2 is 45, so China is drilling Cuban oil.
It is American oil in that it is a strategic asset in the Americas. Monroe Doctrine still stands, enforced or not.
ReplyDelete"When thousands of armed men are demonstrating in the streets of Pakistan, as in 2002 or 03 and the coverage is live via CNN, well that looked like live actionable intel, to me. But the enemy in the open was not targeted.
ReplyDeleteIt was not a lack of intel that allowed Pakistan to become a sanctuary for aQ.
To have it portrayed as such, lies in the face of reality. That some get renumerated for propagating such fallacy, annoying.
Especially when I'm paying them.
--------------------------------
Mon Jul 21, 04:30:00 AM EDT
trish said...
It was not a lack of intel that allowed Pakistan to become a sanctuary for aQ.
- Rat
Okay, then. What was it?
Mon Jul 21, 04:43:00 AM EDT
--------------------------------
desert rat said...
A lack of will.
"
----------------------------------
Trish,
You resort to ad-hominem instead of responding to specifics.
'Rat cites CNN in Pakistan.
I cite ABC News in 2003 w/videotape of AQ Training Camps and AQ Raids.
You respond w/jargon about what is a targetable package, or whatever.
Gay men talk of packages too, but doesn't really distract me from the FACT that we had innumerable opportunities to
"kill the motherfuckers"
(in your words)
in Waziristan and, in 'Rat's eyes, in Pakistan.
So I guess I am a fellow Ass.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA fellow Ass following the Jackass.
ReplyDelete"Osama Dead or Alive", was said, long ago, in the start of the police chase.
ReplyDeleteComplete with
"Wanted Posters"."
---
Sure was satisfying to get behind that, until we found out we had a Wuss's behind (the decider) to follow.
"Now I'll grant the arguement that they were on sacred ground, and deserved sanctuary, there."
ReplyDelete---
I, being a Chickenshit, ruthless mofo, woulda had them bombed in place.
...a mere shadow of our ruthlessness in the firebombing of Tokyo.
...and I'll take Michelle Wie over Immam fuckmymom,
ReplyDeleteanyday.
Hey! She's Korean, not Jap.
ReplyDeleteStill a beautiful piece of work.
You got your Hollywood Moms
ReplyDeleteand your Seoul Moms, ...and Dads.
(should liberate her to a nice old guy like me.
Me and Wie)
Dottie Pepper wrote an article, although it seemed more like a letter to Michelle Wie's parents, asking them to please back off.
Pepper wrote that it was outrageous for Wie's parents to have purchased a home near Stanford so they can be close to Michelle.
Pepper wrote:
"This is utter rubbish and it has to stop.
Michelle has already sacrificed her childhood, and now her college experience is in jeopardy as well.
Let Michelle grow up and make her own decisions.
Her play might or might not rebound. But what's happening right now goes way beyond birdies, bogeys and bank accounts.
It's stifling the person as well as her game."
Pepper writes she doesn't think Michelle has had a lesson in months.
On that topic, rumors are flying that David Leadbetter may quit as Wie's coach, if for no other reason that to not be fired.
In "Golf Observer" they were taking a look into 2008. It will be very interesting to see what happens with Wie. Not only has her agent Greg Nared resigned on the anniversary of her first manager resigning after last year's Samsung, but she has gone through five different caddies and finished the season with her dad B.J. on the bag.
It even looks like her teacher David Leadbetter could be thinking of a change or at least protecting himself from getting fired as he told Lorne Rubenstein in this article on the Toronto Globe and Mail
"Now with Greg Nared leaving, you feel like this is the Titanic."
...the World is always in balance:
ReplyDeleteIf Wie tried that w/our son...
Actually, we would never try.
Kinda Sad.
2164th: It is American oil in that it is a strategic asset in the Americas. Monroe Doctrine still stands, enforced or not.
ReplyDeleteThe KKK goes around whipping black dudes for going out with "our" white women, who are a strategic asset, demographically. They don't ask the women what they want, and likewise we're not asking Cuba what they want.
Have you thot of rejecting us again?
ReplyDeleteJust Curious.
(care to compare the KKK inflicted death on blacks with the black on black mayhem?
...or the newly arrived Hispanic Ethnic Cleansing?)
Are you really as stupid and warped as you present yourself to be?
ReplyDelete...good to know we'll be paying your retirement.
ReplyDeleteteresita said...
ReplyDeleteThe KKK goes around whipping black dudes for going out with "our" white women, who are a strategic asset, demographically. They don't ask the women what they want, and likewise we're not asking Cuba what they want.
This is so wrong on so many levels.....
I get the idea that teresita likes and wants black penis for all women, and yet i thought teresita was a lesbian?
So how the heck does teresita KNOW what a woman that LIKES a penis want?
A for Cuba, since when do the PEOPLE of Cuba get a say in what their government does?
As for the KKK whipping black "dudes", last time I checked the majority of crimes against black "dudes" was black generated and that the GENERAL population of America in no way shape or form supports the concept of the Kluckers disciplining black "dudes" for ruining all our our PRIME white broads...
And JUST for the record, I a Jooos, HAVE stolen a white women, a strategic asset, demographically to BREED my liitle JOOOS kids with...
and if the KLAN wants to whip my "jew ass" they can try, but I warn you, I dealth with the Klan 30 years ago in Texas and they dont like me much...
Something about "disproportionate response" and not nice and fair, since after they burned a cross on MY lawn...
I guess those Kluckers dont like it when THEIR lawns go up in smoke at 3am.....
Never piss off a Texas JewBoy......
Everbody's favorite Texas Jewboy
ReplyDelete2164th said...
ReplyDeleteEverbody's favorite Texas Jewboy
Yes... He's the NEW cloth that we are CUT from...
Truly a wonderful role model!
I WILL teach my son.........
nothing beats a boot in the ass of a jackass to make your point.......