COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Hype Over Foiled Iranian Hit on Saudi Arabian Diplomat


The Saudi Hit on The United States of America. That was Terrorism.

Federal agents have foiled a plot by Iranian officials seeking to recruit a Mexican drug cartel to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. in a bombing in a Washington restaurant, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Tuesday.

I can't get too excited over this one. It seems that weekly, we hit someone somewhere with a drone missile, often with disastrous results to those unfortunate enough to be around the target or when we hit the wrong target. I am sure the intended targets are worthy of being killed, but you can't expect the government to be always wrong on some things and then always right on others. Both the US and Israel routinely kill enemies of the state where they find them, Pakistan, Italy, Yemen or Holland.

The proposed target in this case was a royal highness, a blessed prince and ambassador  of one of the more detestable countries on the planet, Saudi Arabia. Hillary Clinton is very upset about the proposed attack by members of Iran's special-forces unit, the Quds, charged with orchestrating the plot. One of the duo, Manssor Arbabsiar, has been arrested and appeared in New York Federal court last night. Gholam Shakuri, is still at large.

The allegations will dramatically ratchet-up tension between the US and Tehran.

Now, let's put this in perspective. Eighteen of the nineteen 911 murderers were Saudis. The Saudi attack on the US killed three thousand Americans and caused one trillion in damage. For some reason we attacked Iraq, the sworn enemy of Iran and did nothing to Saudi Arabia. Nothing. As I said, I can't get too excited over this one. Neither should anyone else.

67 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm not so sure that the depth of the US infiltration of the cartels should go unheralded,

    One would assume that the Iranians used their Hugo Chavez connection, to find that cartel contact.

    Who we owned.

    Exemplifying the real depth of US dominance in our region of the whirled.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That dominance in the real whirled, well, it raises some other questions.

    These are the times that try men souls.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I missed the debate, but heard the "best" line.

    Huntsman: I thought Cain 9-9-9 plan was "price of pizza"

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mr Perry wants to send the US military into Mexico, to interdict cartels that are run by proxies of the Federales and the DEA.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Today's headlines and the title to this post is merely an effort on the Obama Admin's part to put Holder in a better light after his Fast and Furious debacle.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Another example of why we should have secured the border, especially after 9-11.
    Warning indicator number two.

    A third might result in a very loud alarm.

    Huntsman is a putz.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Novel....

    Oh Wait! It IS (sorta)!

    "A terrorist bombing in Pakistan wipes out Max Moore’s entire CIA team. As the only survivor, the former Navy SEAL plunges deeper into the treacherous tribal lands to find the terrorist cell, but what he discovers there leads him to a much darker conspiracy in an unexpected part of the globe—the US/Mexico border.

    Here a drug war rages between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels. The landscape is strewn with bodies, innocents and drug dealers alike, but is there an even deadlier enemy lurking in background? Into this deadly brew, Moore leads a group of specially selected agents whose daring actions reveal shocking answers and uncover an unholy plan—a strike against the very heart of America. "

    ReplyDelete
  9. Quirk: Topeka Decides to Decriminalize Domestic Violence

    They'' probably go back to the original "Rule of Thumb" which said a husband could smack his wife around with a stick as long as it was no bigger than his thumb. What's next, female genital mutilation?

    Asher: a strike against the very heart of America

    The heart of America better be on this side of the Hudson or I won't buy that book. That's the new Mason-Dixon Line.

    Gag Reflex said... Today's headlines and the title to this post is merely an effort on the Obama Admin's part to put Holder in a better light after his Fast and Furious debacle.

    That's what I'm hearing from my Peeps on Twitter too, but who cares, as long as they get the bad guys?

    --
    Sign on St. Catherine Episcopal Church:

    "Governor Rick Perry, God here. The voice in your head is not Me. Take your meds."

    ReplyDelete
  10. Another sign of the lack of "change" in Egypt.



    CAIRO: Less than a day after Egyptian Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi announced his resignation in protest over the killing of Coptic Christian protesters on Sunday evening in central Cairo, the military rulers forced him to reverse the decision.

    Beblawi, on Wednesday morning, apparently reversed his decision to quit after the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) asked him to stay, ending a confusing day that saw rumor upon rumor over alleged resignations.

    “It’s more logical for me to stay on,” Beblawi said in a telephone interview on Wednesday with Bloomberg

    ReplyDelete
  11. ... there is a great quote for those frustrated, at times, by the new technological world:

    “Perhaps these Americans were so hypnotized by their technology that not even a shoulder-fired missile launch right beside them would be enough to pry them away from their apps and games…After all, they strolled through shopping malls like zombies, staring blankly into the tiny screens clutched in their hands, never looking up…”

    ReplyDelete
  12. It might be time for Tom Clancy to retire.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What's the back story, Deuce?



    (Reuters) - The Harrisburg, Pa., city council passed a resolution on Tuesday night authorizing a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, a city official said on Wednesday.

    ReplyDelete
  14. 15. Stan

    At the Presser announcing it Holder was presiding until a questioner asked about Fast and Furious:

    Holder said they were complying (with doc requests etc…) but that he now had to continue the IMPORTANT business of investigating these foreign plots and summarily walked off without taking anymore questions.

    My question to Holder is: Given the framing of his response are we to understand he does not think that a DOJ program to put illegal firearms into circulation that resulted in dead Americans and many dead Mexicans is NOT IMPORTANT enough to investigate?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Mr Holder knows what went on, in Fast & Furious. There is little need for him or his cohort to "investigate" that operation.

    They "Know" the deal. They did it.

    The miscreants in the ATF have been reassigned, not fired.
    They are now out of the reach of State issued subpenas.

    If there is to be an investigation of Fast & Furious, it is not for Holder and his crew to pursue.
    As they are the suspects.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I've always looked at stuff like this with a jaundiced eye, because, since the Iraq war started, the policy only made sense if there was subsequently war with Iran. Iraq was doable because "deficits didn't matter" and Social Security was taking in more than it paid out. But now? Maybe turn FICA into a war tax and end Social Security?

    Going back a little further, when war with Afghanistan started, the Shiite Iranians were helping us against the Sunni Taliban. So, it made no sense to me to include Iran in the axis of evil at that time, even if it was true. I think they were marketing war, even back then.

    What the war in Iraq accomplished was to knock out the Sunni Saddam, an Iranian national security threat, and place into power a Sunni government more friendly to Iran. Do you see any red blooded neocon comfortable with spending a trillion dollars, and 4500+ troops to neutralize an Iranian national security threat? I don't. I never thought the Middle East war was intended to end with Iraq. Instead, I think there was a serious miscalculation, in that they truly believed that their cakewalk war would take perhaps 6 days, or 6 weeks, but doubtful it would take 6 months. On the eve of the Iraq war, I saw Richard Pearl advocating simultaneous invasion of Syria. I think at the onset of the Iraq war, that these neocons thought they could get Iraq wrapped up lickety-split and move on to Iran. Once Iraq bogged down, I think Abu Ghraib happened to get the war back on track.

    So, I've been looking for a pretext to start a war with Iran. Whether we can accept this on face value or not is up in the air, but we don't have a very good track record on rationalizations for war, particularly Iraq or Vietnam.

    ReplyDelete
  17. An era of decline and disappointment for bankers may not end for years, according to interviews with more than two dozen executives and investors. Blaming government interference and persecution, they say there isn’t enough global stability, leverage or risk appetite to triumph in the current slump.

    “I don’t think it’s a time to make money -- this is a time to rig for survival,” said Charles Stevenson, 64, president of hedge fund Navigator Group Inc. and head of the co-op board at 740 Park Ave. The building, home to Blackstone Group LP Chairman Stephen Schwarzman and CIT Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer John Thain, was among those picketed by protesters yesterday. “The future is not going to be like a past we knew,” he said. “There’s no exit from this morass.”

    An anemic global economy, the European sovereign debt crisis, U.S. unemployment stuck above 9 percent and swooning stock markets have sapped the euphoria that swept Wall Street in 2009 as it rebounded to record profits after the credit crisis. The benefits of a $700 billion taxpayer bailout and $1.2 trillion in emergency funding from the Federal Reserve have faded. Next week Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) may report its second quarterly loss per share since going public in 1999, according to the average estimate of 26 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Not everyone is worried about the banks.

    “I wouldn’t shed too many tears for Wall Street,” Neil Barofsky, 41, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program who is now teaching a class on the financial crisis at New York University School of Law, wrote in an e-mail. “The systemic advantage that the too-big-to-fail banks enjoyed in the lead-up to the financial crisis may be diminished in the near term, but the structure is still essentially the same and will almost certainly help catapult them to record profits and bonuses once the good times return.”

    Ross, 73, the billionaire chairman of New York-based WL Ross & Co., said Wall Street’s “inherent ingenuity” shouldn’t be discounted and that “the history of the investment community shows that it will find ways to profiteer.”

    ReplyDelete
  19. Obama forced banks that didn't need it take TARP money, and the same Occupy Wall Street morons who are calling for the heads of these banks are calling for Obama's re-election. No one is accusing these cop-car-crappers of being smart.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  21. The demonstrators are smarter than you think, Ms T.

    The problem is not Obama, but the System. The System that is drawing its' lifeblood from Wall Street and the Bankers.

    The demonstrators know that the politicians are merely servants of the bankers and military industrialists.

    To personalize the example:
    Obama is not the cause of the core challenge, but an effect of it.

    Lester Crown is the cause.
    Combining the interests of General Dynamics and First National Bank of Chi-town, in a single man.
    His interests are expressed in Obama's policies and proposals.

    That's the reality of the situation across the political landscape, despite protestations of Newt to the contrary.

    While the Koch brothers attempt to balance the scales of power. Buying what influences they can.

    ReplyDelete
  22. If there were no Lester Crown, we'd have never heard of Barack Obama.

    That's the reality of it.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Herman Cain is a black American businessman, who had no use for the Democrap party and its presumptions of victimhood. For its presumption that blacks are born Democrap.

    For that, Harry "Banana Boat" Belafonte calls Cain a "bad apple"

    He may be the GOP flavor of the week, but right now I hope he makes it.

    --
    In other news, the brand name in Chinese for Sprite is "shui bi". which translates to "vagina water"

    ReplyDelete
  24. Mr Cain would be an interesting choice, for the VP spot.

    Romney-Cain

    Better to campaign across the country than

    Romney-Christie

    ReplyDelete



  25. The self-satisfied, enthralled with the Occupy Wall Street crowd, have had to wrestle with an obvious contradiction. They first called Tea Partiers racists because so few blacks went to Tea Party rallies. Hardly any blacks are occupying Wall Street either.

    What’s a Jamaica Plain recycler to make of that?

    ... Cain has climbed to second behind Mitt Romney in national polls and so gets to stand beside “Mittens,” as some detractors now call our beatific former governor, the Wall Street turnaround guy. Alas, Romney’s now facing the Main Street turnaround guy, Herman Cain, he of the booming baritone and the all-American rise from Pillsbury to Burger King to pizza tycoon.

    Plus, the Hermanator, as he likes to call himself, has also just been nominated for the Robert Goulet Memorial Award given annually to the American who best-represents the mustached community.

    Clearly, the Hermanator is on a roll.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Tapis Crude (Singapore) closed this morning at $121.49

    ReplyDelete
  27. Louisiana Light Sweet is selling for $114.39

    ReplyDelete
  28. The closer you get to China, the higher the price for Crude Oil.

    That $85.00 WTI will get to the Ocean if they have to put it on the back of Mexican Mules, and carry it there.

    BTW, that whole XL Pipeline deal isn't about getting oil to the U.S.; it's about getting it to the Gulf Coast, and OUT of North America.

    ReplyDelete
  29. That oil, rufus, guess it is not considered a part of the "National Heritage" of the United States.

    Wonder why?

    ReplyDelete



  30. Washington (CNN) -- A 47-year-old Syrian-born naturalized American has been charged for his alleged role in spying on Syrian protesters in the United States, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

    Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid of Leesburg, Virginia has been charged in a conspiracy to collect video and audio recordings and other information about people "in the United States and Syria who were protesting the government of Syria and to provide these materials to Syrian intelligence agencies in order to silence, intimidate and potentially harm the protestors."

    A federal grand jury charged Soueid October 5 in a six-count indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia and he was arrested on Tuesday. He will make an initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate Wednesday afternoon.

    ReplyDelete




  31. We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.


    Theodore Roosevelt

    ReplyDelete
  32. Probably, because it's "Canadian" Oil?

    Of course, since we import 9 Million Barrels of Oil, and Products/day, that oil won't actually leave the U.S. It'll just get sold for the same price as Louisiana Light (A Bonus of about $26.00 bbl.)

    Great for the drillers in the Bakkens, and Canada; not so hot for Rufus, who buys gasoline (even in his E85) that comes from Cushing.

    ReplyDelete
  33. .

    The Volker Rule and other stuff:

    ...Meanwhile, a council of regulators charged with monitoring risks to the nation’s financial stability released new details Tuesday on how it plans to determine which large, non-bank financial firms should be subject to heightened regulation.

    Firms eventually deemed “systemically important” would join a handful of the nation’s banks in facing more scrutiny from federal regulators. They also would have to create “living wills,” or detailed plans about how their businesses could be wound down in an orderly manner without wreaking havoc on the economy...


    New Financial Rules Coming. Do They Go Far Enough?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  34. .

    Bring Back The Wolves.

    Antelope Attacks Cyclist

    (Also Jay Leno points out the absurdity of the two Americans getting the Nobel Prize for Economy.)

    Antelopes Run Amok

    .

    ReplyDelete
  35. I saw the antelope on CBS and the idiot reporter said the antelope has vision problem. The antelope saw that bike charging and those handlebars down in ramming position and nailed broadsided him..

    ReplyDelete
  36. Christy is considered a conservative in NJ. He's largely a liberal everywhere else. Pun intended.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Attacks on American soil against ANY NATIONAL are an act of war and should be treated as such. A complete flattening of the regimes ability to wage war will be in order. Democracy doesn't have a chance in hell in a majority muslim country, whether Shia or sunni or whatever.
    You see, democracy will come in clear contradiction of "islamic laws", then you will have unrest because the muslims will feel like they are being oppressed when they are being treated just like everyone else. This is why 57 "muslim majority" countries and not one viable democracy amongst them.
    Indonesia would be the closest to such thing, but in fact it is far from it, muslims leaving islam get thrown in jail and tortured, what is democracy without the freedom of belief and thought? forget about the oppressed christians in that crap-hole I wont even mention them.
    Democracy and islam can not mix they are in clear contradiction of one another.
    although, I would like to see iran go back to its zoroastrian roots, a much more logical bunch they were.

    ReplyDelete
  38. This whole thing has a strong whiff of bullshit to me. It does not add up. Iran would never take such a risk in Washington DC to kill the Saudi Ambassador, for some very practical reasons, not the least being the possibility that anyplace where the ambassador would be eating would also have other high ranking US officials. There is no upside benefit to such folly and tremendous downside. It is bullshit. The Iranians are a lot of things but they are not stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Of course the US brain trust in congress has other ideas:
    In the wake of a disrupted Iranian plot to assassinate a top Saudi diplomat that top House Republicans are calling an “act of war,” House Speaker John Boehner says that the Obama administration should respond by holding the Iranian government’s “feet to the fire,” although he declined to outline specific steps.

    ReplyDelete
  40. .

    Despite the fact that about $400 billion will be cut from the military in the next ten years, we will still be paying about $900 billion for the military in 2021, $160 billion per year more than we are this year.

    (By the way that $740 billion for this year is actually closer to $1 trillion when you factor in off-budget items such as black ops as well as costs picked up by other agencies than DOD such as disability benefits for veterans.)

    Despite this, Romney says he has to be elected to reverse Obamas downgrading of our military (in fact the military budget has grown each of the 3 years of the Obama presidency.)

    It makes little difference who is elected in 2012. The military and their suppliers will still get their money.

    Eisenhower said it best: "“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

    Priorities. Priorities. Priorities.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  41. Thanks for pointing out the Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attack but I think that 15 of the attackers were Saudi's . None were Iranian, and none were Iraqi's. But our politicians fabricated reasons with lies, to attack IRAQ. And now 10 years on, a new fabrication on IRAN by the CIA . I wonder if fellow Americans will buy this latest propaganda against IRAN an 5,000 year old civilization. They probably will . I am one American who won't.

    ReplyDelete
  42. .

    Seeking a motive in Iran’s alleged murder plot

    Have a close look at this morning’s coverage of the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, and you might come away with a not insignificant question: Why would the Iranian government try it?

    The criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday against the alleged conspirators in the case, Mansour Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, sheds little light on Iran’s possible motives. And U.S. officials have so far presented relatively scarce evidence about why they believe the alleged plot was actually directed by factions of the Iranian government.

    Officials have said that they will be detailing the allegations to allies, and the United States is also weighing whether to take up the matter at the U.N. Security Council, according to Reuters news agency.

    On Wednesday morning, Vice President Biden told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the “first thing we do is make sure the entire world and all the capitals of the world understand exactly what the Iranians had in mind.”

    For now, however, the allegations risk leaving the United States vulnerable in the court of opinion...


    Why Would Iran Do It?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  43. .

    While we wait to hear the reasons for the Iranian assassination attempt, they say they are waiting to figure out why the us is lying about it. And while the US prepares to take their case to the UN, Iran has already taken theirs.

    Iran says US claims of an assassination plot are an attempt to divert attention from domestic politics

    AN aide to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denied US allegations that the Islamic republic was involved in a plot to kill the Saudi envoy to Washington.

    "This is a prefabricated scenario to turn public attention away from domestic problems within the United States," Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the president's press adviser, told AFP.

    "The US government and the CIA have a lot of experience in diverting public attention from domestic problems in the United States. We have to wait now to know the details of this prefabricated scenario to know the US government's objectives," he said...


    Iran Denies Charge

    Iran Complains to UN

    .

    ReplyDelete
  44. They always rant and rave, but

    "decline to outline specific steps"

    ReplyDelete
  45. Did Eric Holder pull this out of his ass to possibly save it?

    ReplyDelete
  46. The Federales would do what they could, to be "helpful".

    ReplyDelete
  47. They can hold the fellow for two years, more, before the Federals have to "make their case" in open court.

    ReplyDelete
  48. The Rat says:



    Lester Crown is the cause.
    Combining the interests of General Dynamics and First National Bank of Chi-town, in a single man.
    His interests are expressed in Obama's policies and proposals.




    Translation: It's the Jews....

    The Jews...

    The Jews...

    The Jews...

    and finally,

    The Jews....

    ReplyDelete
  49. If the truth hurts, Story, then the truth hurts.

    Certainly your pain does not make it less true, that Barack Obama is a creation of Lester Crown's political machine and finances.

    If the truth hurts, learn to live with it. For the truth is never slander, nor libel.

    Both of which, you are more than familiar with using, when the truth fails you, Story of "o".

    ReplyDelete
  50. Notice readers, that the Story does not deny the truth of Mr Crown's involvement with Barack Obama's career.

    Indeed, that involvement is undeniable.

    ReplyDelete
  51. The only one to mention Mr Crown's religion, the culturally schizophrenic and obsessed fellow.

    The religion of Mr Crown, not part of the issue, as it is also not an issue, the religion of the Koch brothers.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Or should Lester Crown get a free pass, 'cause he is one of the chosen folks?

    A 1%, to be sure.

    Like an outlaw biker, no?

    ReplyDelete
  53. The Koch brothers, also 1%ers.

    That financial 1%, like outlaw bikers, split into various factions.

    Mongols v Hells Angels, so to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  54. The announcement is purely political. The WH is so desperate for good press, good PR, any type of a "WIN", so intent on distraction from what matters. Miraculously we have a foiled Iran terror plot. Wow, lets see... Eric Holder's rear end is in a sling with the Fast & Furious debacle and he may very well have to go before the Congressional Committee again within the next week or so. And then, what are the odds that an Iranian terror plot is exposed just days before Holder has to face the choir for his incompetence(?) in the gun running scandal and Holder himself is the person at the podium telling us how the plot was exposed and how brilliant he and the DOJ are? Talk about a charmed life, talk about unbelievable timing, actually let's not talk. Let's think for a while. It's all too convenient. It's all so magical, like a magician honing his craft. POOF!!!!

    ReplyDelete



  55. WASHINGTON - A day after the US Senate passed legislation to punish China for its alleged currency manipulation, House Speaker John Boehner signaled Wednesday he would block the bill to prevent a "trade war.


    Party On!

    ReplyDelete
  56. Not only would Lester Brown be considered a traitor but so would President Barack Obama for putting the alleged interests of Israel before those of the U.S. of A., as well as for all the lies about Iran’s nuclear capabilities that he told the public. And not to forget the bigwigs in MSM who would have conveyor-belted Mr. President’s message to us.

    ReplyDelete



  57. The Federal Open Market Committee voted at the end of a two-day meeting in September to begin a new effort to reduce long-term interest rates, allowing businesses and consumers to borrow more cheaply.

    The Fed disclosed at the time that three members of the 10-person board had voted against the decision. The minutes released Wednesday record that on the other side, two members wanted the Fed to take even stronger action.

    The internal divisions were partly the product of a lack of clarity about the health of the economy. In its predictions since the end of the recession, the Fed has repeatedly overestimated the pace of economic growth, and the minutes report that the board does not understand why it has been wrong.

    “It was again noted that the cyclical impetus to economic expansion appeared to be weaker than in past recoveries, but that the reasons for the weakness were unclear,” the minutes said.

    ReplyDelete
  58. US policy towards Israel seems remarkably unchanged, since Obama took over the White House.

    The Two State Solution, Mr Bush's policy initiative, continued.

    I doubt that Mr Crown is a traitor, just a fellow expressing his own self-interests.
    Using his money and power, as he thinks best for the United States.

    The President and Congress, agree.

    As do the Supremes.

    Regarding both Mr Crown and the Koch brothers.

    Patriots all, they're job creators, you know.

    ReplyDelete
  59. rat says...

    If the truth hurts, learn to live with it. For the truth is never slander, nor libel.

    Both of which, you are more than familiar with using, when the truth fails you, Story of "o".



    And yet he uses slander by calling me Story of "o"

    Properly ID'ing Rat's obsession with Jews is not libel or slander...

    Pointing out Rat's obsession with Jewish bankers is not libel or slander...

    But calling me by the name of a porno movie is slander...

    ReplyDelete
  60. Rat states: desert rat said...
    Notice readers, that the Story does not deny the truth of Mr Crown's involvement with Barack Obama's career.

    Indeed, that involvement is undeniable.





    The involvement of a person is not the issue. It your obsession with Jews that is...

    Nice attempt at changing the issue..

    ReplyDelete
  61. I am not changing the subject, you did.

    I was discussing the interests of bankers and military industrialists upon the Federals.

    Mr Crown has been both, a banker and a military industrialist.

    He created the career of Barack Obama
    Undeniable.

    That he happens to be jewish, not mentioned by me, but by you.

    It is you, amigo, that made religion an issue, not me.

    It is you who is the bigot, playing the Jew card, not me.

    ReplyDelete
  62. .

    Actually doing something about China’s cheating makes some people nervous. Not doing something makes me nervous. We are warned that we might precipitate a trade war. Really? China is selling us $273 billion per year more than America is selling China — why would it possibly want a trade war?


    Good point from Mr. Romney.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  63. .

    Many people argue with this point, but I agree with Mr. Romney.


    Some argue that access to quality goods at low prices are good for our consumers. But like the predatory pricing prohibited under our antitrust laws, China’s underpriced products lead to an undesirable and inefficient elimination of competing businesses, with serious long-term consequences.

    And in this case, the businesses killed are often our own.

    Meanwhile, American companies do not even get the supposed benefit of the free-trade bargain: When they try to do business in the Chinese market, they find policies designed to shut them out.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  64. .

    Mr. Romney seems to recognize the real problem with our trade with China.


    China is a case in point. Having embraced free enterprise to some degree, the Chinese government and Chinese companies have quickly divined the benefits of ignoring the rules followed by others. China seeks advantage through systematic exploitation of other economies. It misappropriates intellectual property by coercing “technology transfers” as a condition of market access; enables theft of intellectual property, including patents, designs and know-how; hacks into foreign commercial and government computers; favors and subsidizes domestic producers over foreign competitors; and manipulates its currency to artificially reduce the price of its goods and services abroad.

    The result is that China sells high-quality products to the United States at low prices. But too often the source of that high quality is American innovations stolen by Chinese companies. And the source of those low prices is too often subsidies from the Chinese government or manipulation of the Chinese currency.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  65. .

    Mr. Romney has a plan:


    If I am fortunate enough to be elected president, I will work to fundamentally alter our economic relationship with China. As I describe in my economic plan, I will begin on Day One by designating China as the currency manipulator it is.

    More important, I will take a holistic approach to addressing all of China’s abuses. That includes unilateral actions such as increased enforcement of U.S. trade laws, punitive measures targeting products and industries that rely on misappropriations of our intellectual property, reciprocity in government procurement, and countervailing duties against currency manipulation. It also includes multilateral actions to block technology transfers into China and to create a trading bloc open only for nations genuinely committed to free trade...


    China Mitt


    The only problem is we've seen numerous plans before. Does anyone believe he will be able to achieve his plan?

    There is also the fact that he has said many things before and then reversed himself. How committed is he?

    Worse, what can one man do? Can he convince his party to actually do something most of them disagree with?

    He has the words and the music but I still remain a little skeptical.

    .

    ReplyDelete