Trade Wars

I don't understand what people are referring to when they say that Trump has started a second front in Mexico with the trade war on China. It's not a second front: it's more like the fifth or sixth or seventh front. We already have a trade war going on with Russia and Iran.

Then there are economic sanctions with North Korea, and a slew of other smaller countries: the Balkans, Belarus, Burma, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Liberia, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe.

Face it, we have a fractious president who likes to fire people... or push them to resign. Furthermore, he doesn't have a clue about how to conduct diplomacy with other countries, even those who have long been allies.

Trump has been burning up any good will towards the U.S. that remains in the world (what was left, that is, after all the many murderous interventions in other countries) with his war on trade and immigrants. The increasingly isolated position of the U.S. is not just a result of Trump and his policies, and ill-advised aggression towards people and countries, although he's rapidly accelerated the process. The U.S. is a country which has lost its way, and gone off the tracks.

If the U.S. has truly been an economic empire, it's end days are fast approaching, because international trade is the foundation of that empire, and our global economy, based on vulture capitalism, is increasingly fragile. Of course, it's an economic empire that has been enforced by a very active military. Between threatening and bribing other countries, the U.S. has been able to get away with murder.

Frankly, we need a new economic system that doesn't exploit people and the environment. And the military needs to be wound down, and converted to peaceful purposes, such as assisting with crisis management in natural disasters. A long healing process needs to begin, with justice and reparations made by corporations and individuals and families who have profiteered on the wars that the U.S. has waged.

However, I'd like to see a transition phase where we gradually change to a better system. I don't want to see the global economy crash and burn, and I don't want to see the U.S. come apart at the seams either.