Friends, today I bring you a few articles of note. The first is more confirmation that China's economy is hurting, and it's President Trump who is delivering some of the pain via our ongoing trade war. This is good news -- the more the Chinese leadership sees its economy as vulnerable, the more they will be disposed to make concessions and meet US negotiators halfway. My biggest fear is a fig-leaf agreement that allows the US and China to declare victory, but leaves our unhealthy and unbalanced trading relationship essentially untouched.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-pmi-manufacturing-offic/china-factory-activity-shrinks-for-first-time-in-over-two-years-2019-looks-tougher-idUSKCN1OU01C
In other news, there are strange rumblings from the Bernie Sanders camp about alleged sexual harassment during his 2016 presidential campaign. The upshot of it is that #MeToo elements are trying to prospectively assert control over the dynamics that prevail in the Sanders campaign going into 2020. What transpired in 2016? Who knows. But look for more self-inflicted wounds on the Left as the presidential primary season gets underway. Every Democrat will be playing the race card, the gender card, and any other card that they can get their hands on. The results could be ugly in the extreme.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bernie-sanders-staffers-seek-to-address-predatory-culture-during-2016-campaign
Lastly, check out this intriguing proposal from Lindsey Graham about how to resolve the government shutdown and get President Trump the $5 billion he needs to build the southern border wall. Graham suggests that DACA protections for some young illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children could be enshrined in the law, in return for wall funding. It's an elegant solution, especially as all sides agree that DACA recipients should be given some path to legal status, and, theoretically at least, all sides agree that we need a secure border. A compromise ought to be possible -- but as I've observed before this debate isn't really about the border at all. I suspect many Democrats would happily betray DACA "kids" if it meant harming Trump. To put it simply, the main reason Democrats don't want a "wall" is because Trump does. That's how childish our politics have become.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lindsey-graham-floats-trading-daca-tps-protections-for-5-billion-in-wall-funding-to-end-shutdown/
Dr. Waddy: Fully agree that the children brought by their illegal immigrant parents be afforded a path to citizenship but ONLY in exchange for a Wall and a secure, lawfully confirmed and "well regulated" border.
ReplyDeleteHow satisfying it would be to see the Dems rend themselves asunder because of political correctness. Go, go - "Me Too". Do task Bernie (and probably Biden too, for unforgiveable existential heresy - established the day they were born). Empower confirmed Native American Liz Warren, "Spartacus" or California Kamala, oh please do. The real America, which has not wavered in its support for the President, is ready. Bring it on!
Your observation that the Dems would willingly betray the children of illegal immigrants to deny President Trump a success is spot on. Their minds and hearts snapped shut when he was elected. They are the very definition of fanaticism, which requires of those who embrace it, visceral bigotry. They "know" justice, by their lights, and their crusade to effect it precludes compromise.
Well said, Jack -- but nonetheless I think a few Democrats must understand that the country needs to be governed, and eventually the shutdown will end with a mutually satisfactory deal. Whether the purist Democrats will put up with the pragmatic Democrats is another question, however. The internecine fighting we both saw coming after the midterms may yet arrive, and when it does it may be quite a show!
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