The administration’s sycophancy in Beijing is embarrassing, but its domestic industrial sabotage is fatal. Anyone observing global markets, or simply walking the streets outside the United States, recognizes a glaring reality: the American automotive industry is on its deathbed, rapidly eclipsed by the meteoric rise of Chinese brands. The impending China-Canada agreement will go down as the decisive, final nail in US car manufacturing's coffin. Instead of competing, the Trump administration has actively dismantled the American electric vehicle sector, deliberately crippling the exact innovation required to survive. It is a wonderful irony that Elon Musk is reduced to playing the role of a cheering supplicant in Beijing while the American E-car industry is systematically gutted by the very president he trails behind.
When the impending global economic contraction fully materializes, this administration will inevitably find itself backed into a corner, forced to execute yet another humiliating, taxpayer-funded bailout of legacy auto manufacturers that it explicitly set up for failure. The torch of global leadership is not being forcefully seized by a rising Chinese superpower; it is being eagerly handed over by an American administration that traded the future of domestic manufacturing for hollow photo ops, because this is what you get when you empower the least competent human on the planet.
Lately, the president's most fervent supporters have taken to flying commemorative "America: 1776–2026" flags, entirely oblivious to the irony flapping in the wind. Given this administration's eager, comprehensive surrender of our geopolitical and industrial supremacy, one has to wonder if they realize what message they are actually broadcasting. Those dates no longer read as a celebration of endurance. They read lmuch more ike a tombstone, and I giggle every time I see one.
Excellent commemt and this line is perfect "this is what you get when you empower the least competent human on the planet "...... I shall use this one!!
Bill: "Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that a confidential U.S. government intelligence analysis produced this week for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “details how China is exploiting the war in Iran to maximize its advantage over the United States across military, economic, diplomatic and other fields.”"
Does anybody think Trump cares about this? Or Hegseth? Or the GOP leadership in the House and Senate?
They care about power, and they would rather have a weakened United States with them in power than a stronger United States with a divided government. And in the case of Trump, all he cares about is adding zeros to his net worth. Everything else is noise.
I doubt trump ever even saw a one sentence summary. The biggest outcome of this trip will be the inclusion of groups of flag waving children, gleefully hopping on cue for every future Presidential event.
There should be a political metric: a power to corruption ratio. It seems to me that while Xi is as powerful as Trump--and, within China, more powerful than Trump is here--Trump and his offspring are many times more corrupt.
We may not approve of their system of government, but China is a serious country with serious people, and their system of centralized control gets things done. We are a country that elected a racist gameshow host, and then, after he tried to overthrow the government, instead of throwing him in jail, we reelected that racist gameshow host.
How can we expect to be a hegemon when this is who we are? In China, Trump wouldn't be a leader, he would be a clown flattened on the pavement adorned with tank treadmarks. We are a country that can't even enact popular reforms because we're in thrall to a minoritarian tyranny led by the worst of us, the people who would have resisted Reconstruction and faux-populist robber barons who have more wealth than any greedy bastard in history but none of the charity or gratitude for the governing structures that made them.
We deserve to get our lunch eaten by China. All we do here is rest on our laurels, and tell everyone how great we are while we refuse to do any of the work necessary to maintain our former greatness. We're just a big Capitalist dumpster fire where voters vote to transfer their money and their freedom to the wealthiest people because they think they're screwing some other guy worse than they're screwing themselves.
Perhaps, if we don't rule the world anymore, we don't have to give $1.5 TRILLION to the military. We can take some of that money and make America safer, healthier, and freer, and put the rest toward reducing our deficit. Maybe we can focus on getting rid of the pervasive corruption in this country that has spread into every branch and agency of government. Right now, we have to work very hard to ensure that we still have free elections. The entire Republican Party has decided that lying, cheating, and stealing, in every way possible, is the only way they can stay in power. So far, they are succeeding.
But you have to keep voting for Republicans because they're so superior on spending and reining in the deficit! I would love it if we would have a sane, progressive tax policy, spend far less on defense and spend more instead to fortify the safety net and ensure healthcare, but to ever get there we need voters to unplug from Facebook, turn off Fox, and I don't know, do a one week detox where they just sit there and watch MSNOW. I think it would probably change a lot of lives if they could oversome the cognitive dissonance.
“There are those that say this is maybe the biggest summit ever. They can never remember anything like it. I can say in the United States people aren’t talking about anything else.”
Same old routine. Definitely in the Fat Elvis phase.
Is nobody else shocked that Xi didn't meet Trump at the airport? Isn't that the diplomatic equivalent of a raised middle figure? Wasn't it a declaration of how Xi sees Trump and the China-US relationship?
Compare and contrast Trump greeting Putin in Alaska last year.
Man, that picture of Xi and Trump together at the top of this story: Our president looks like he's deteriorating by the second! If he'd looked that bad during the 2024 campaign against Biden, almost any third party candidate would be president now.
To be fair, he's been subsisting on very little sleep, and what he does get is not quality REM sleep. He's too busy to sleep, other than brief shuteye during WH evernts. He's constantly working for the American people, the Country, and the world! (Yanno...bleating weird insults and threats, and posting AI slop all night - that's what "we" voted for, right? Right??)
No, I'm certain he takes his working Executive Time very seriously, using it to plan out his nightly (and daily) bleats, keeping in mind which of them will best help the Country regain its former Greatness as soon as possible. This has nuthin' to do with his advanced age, presumably poor health, and lifelong narcissism - and everything to do with doing the business of everyday people. Not that I'm bitter or terrified or anything.
The hunchback of Mar-a-la-Gone strikes again, with the best "summit" ever. I mean really the guy looks like the old men at the assisted living place that I am working at. Shuffling along, looking lost, trying to act like a dictator in front of a real one. What a fucking joke the morons in fly over county voted into office. Higher gas prices, higher food costs, lower standing in the world community, are you tired of winning you fucking idiots. Even W would have been better then this Bronx loser.
The idea that Dems were soft on America goes back long before Trump but heated up when Obama was in office. The entire GOP edifice of communication from Fox News to memes passed around on FB created the notion that Obama had gone on an apology tour. For the average GOP voter, this has become something that is internalized so not easy to counter. Similar to the notion that Dems spend - also internalized even when the GOP has racked up debt.
The words Trump used to suck up to China are an utter embarrassment but even still when a GOP voter goes into the voting booth they likely still see Dems as soft.
It is impossible to know what Trump believes. What comes out of his mouth describes a world in which he, Xi, Putin, and MBS own all the oil and run the world as equals. Since none of the others has to care about what the population of their country thinks, Trump doesn't care either. Trump seems to be living in a fantasy in which everyone believes what he says and that he can do no wrong.
What is more disturbing is that all but three Republicans are trying to act as if they live in that world. Instead of trying to save the country, they are trying to corrupt the election, castrate the Congress, and let the slave holders rule.
They are all acting like there's no tomorrow and simply living for today. That's an ok strategy for some common folk, but not shameless lying grifters spending our money and abusing our world influence for their own personal influence and gain.
The only reason Donny didn't get down on his hands and knees and kiss Xi's shoes is because in his decrepit physical condition there's a good chance he wouldn't be able to get back up again!
I don't know, but maybe someone who's in the Epstein files thousands of times shouldn't be commenting on how beautiful a group of children are.
But he’s an expert!
with the best words!
He should ask Xi how many vaccines they were given at birth. It might change Trump's mind about that since he reveres Xi so much.
He's thinking he will have the same performance at his next rally: all white kids, dressed in red white and blue.
And a line of brown kids, all dressed like jockeys, all bowing.
It IS telling that that's the first thing he thought to comment on.
Funny, that was my first thought too.
I am astounded that Trump doesn't realize every autocrat thinks he is a joke, and every leader of a democracy thinks he is a moron.
The autocrats give him presents and talk nice about him. That's 100% of what he wants in life.
He needs his personal participation trophies.
Everybody is in on it but him.
I'm not astounded at all. Trump's eyes look in one direction: inward.
The other autocrats also think he’s a moron, but they will use flattery to manipulate him rather than directly standing up to him.
Way too much cognitive dissonance for him. Best to just suck up and act sycophantic
The administration’s sycophancy in Beijing is embarrassing, but its domestic industrial sabotage is fatal. Anyone observing global markets, or simply walking the streets outside the United States, recognizes a glaring reality: the American automotive industry is on its deathbed, rapidly eclipsed by the meteoric rise of Chinese brands. The impending China-Canada agreement will go down as the decisive, final nail in US car manufacturing's coffin. Instead of competing, the Trump administration has actively dismantled the American electric vehicle sector, deliberately crippling the exact innovation required to survive. It is a wonderful irony that Elon Musk is reduced to playing the role of a cheering supplicant in Beijing while the American E-car industry is systematically gutted by the very president he trails behind.
When the impending global economic contraction fully materializes, this administration will inevitably find itself backed into a corner, forced to execute yet another humiliating, taxpayer-funded bailout of legacy auto manufacturers that it explicitly set up for failure. The torch of global leadership is not being forcefully seized by a rising Chinese superpower; it is being eagerly handed over by an American administration that traded the future of domestic manufacturing for hollow photo ops, because this is what you get when you empower the least competent human on the planet.
Lately, the president's most fervent supporters have taken to flying commemorative "America: 1776–2026" flags, entirely oblivious to the irony flapping in the wind. Given this administration's eager, comprehensive surrender of our geopolitical and industrial supremacy, one has to wonder if they realize what message they are actually broadcasting. Those dates no longer read as a celebration of endurance. They read lmuch more ike a tombstone, and I giggle every time I see one.
Excellent commemt and this line is perfect "this is what you get when you empower the least competent human on the planet "...... I shall use this one!!
Beginning of the end of the US as preeminent if the MAGA movement stays in power. Unknowingly they are their own worst enemy.
Bill: "Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that a confidential U.S. government intelligence analysis produced this week for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “details how China is exploiting the war in Iran to maximize its advantage over the United States across military, economic, diplomatic and other fields.”"
Does anybody think Trump cares about this? Or Hegseth? Or the GOP leadership in the House and Senate?
They care about power, and they would rather have a weakened United States with them in power than a stronger United States with a divided government. And in the case of Trump, all he cares about is adding zeros to his net worth. Everything else is noise.
I doubt trump ever even saw a one sentence summary. The biggest outcome of this trip will be the inclusion of groups of flag waving children, gleefully hopping on cue for every future Presidential event.
It was odd hearing him speak in a tone of voice that wasn't his usual cross between a bray and a snarl.
“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”
Trump & money is his central locus of focus. Always!
There should be a political metric: a power to corruption ratio. It seems to me that while Xi is as powerful as Trump--and, within China, more powerful than Trump is here--Trump and his offspring are many times more corrupt.
We may not approve of their system of government, but China is a serious country with serious people, and their system of centralized control gets things done. We are a country that elected a racist gameshow host, and then, after he tried to overthrow the government, instead of throwing him in jail, we reelected that racist gameshow host.
How can we expect to be a hegemon when this is who we are? In China, Trump wouldn't be a leader, he would be a clown flattened on the pavement adorned with tank treadmarks. We are a country that can't even enact popular reforms because we're in thrall to a minoritarian tyranny led by the worst of us, the people who would have resisted Reconstruction and faux-populist robber barons who have more wealth than any greedy bastard in history but none of the charity or gratitude for the governing structures that made them.
We deserve to get our lunch eaten by China. All we do here is rest on our laurels, and tell everyone how great we are while we refuse to do any of the work necessary to maintain our former greatness. We're just a big Capitalist dumpster fire where voters vote to transfer their money and their freedom to the wealthiest people because they think they're screwing some other guy worse than they're screwing themselves.
Perhaps, if we don't rule the world anymore, we don't have to give $1.5 TRILLION to the military. We can take some of that money and make America safer, healthier, and freer, and put the rest toward reducing our deficit. Maybe we can focus on getting rid of the pervasive corruption in this country that has spread into every branch and agency of government. Right now, we have to work very hard to ensure that we still have free elections. The entire Republican Party has decided that lying, cheating, and stealing, in every way possible, is the only way they can stay in power. So far, they are succeeding.
But you have to keep voting for Republicans because they're so superior on spending and reining in the deficit! I would love it if we would have a sane, progressive tax policy, spend far less on defense and spend more instead to fortify the safety net and ensure healthcare, but to ever get there we need voters to unplug from Facebook, turn off Fox, and I don't know, do a one week detox where they just sit there and watch MSNOW. I think it would probably change a lot of lives if they could oversome the cognitive dissonance.
It's not so much of giving money to the military as giving money to defense contractors. 😀
Succinct.
“There are those that say this is maybe the biggest summit ever. They can never remember anything like it. I can say in the United States people aren’t talking about anything else.”
Same old routine. Definitely in the Fat Elvis phase.
Fat Elvis after the drugs.
Oh off the top of my head, Nixon going to China, and Gorbachev and Reagan in Iceland seem more likely to stand the test of time in importance.
The body language says it all. If he had a tail, it would be between his legs. And the facial expression. Does he even know where he is?
Across the ocean?
Is nobody else shocked that Xi didn't meet Trump at the airport? Isn't that the diplomatic equivalent of a raised middle figure? Wasn't it a declaration of how Xi sees Trump and the China-US relationship?
Compare and contrast Trump greeting Putin in Alaska last year.
Trump rolled out the red carpet and stood at the bottom of the steps waiting for Putin.
Xi managed to work Trump into his schedule after breakfast was over.
Man, that picture of Xi and Trump together at the top of this story: Our president looks like he's deteriorating by the second! If he'd looked that bad during the 2024 campaign against Biden, almost any third party candidate would be president now.
He looks like a lizard. At some point he’s going to peel off the skin to reveal his true form. When will MAGA learn their emperor has no clothes.
To be fair, he's been subsisting on very little sleep, and what he does get is not quality REM sleep. He's too busy to sleep, other than brief shuteye during WH evernts. He's constantly working for the American people, the Country, and the world! (Yanno...bleating weird insults and threats, and posting AI slop all night - that's what "we" voted for, right? Right??)
One could call that work, though seems like a constant state of sundowning.
No, I'm certain he takes his working Executive Time very seriously, using it to plan out his nightly (and daily) bleats, keeping in mind which of them will best help the Country regain its former Greatness as soon as possible. This has nuthin' to do with his advanced age, presumably poor health, and lifelong narcissism - and everything to do with doing the business of everyday people. Not that I'm bitter or terrified or anything.
Trump’s looking really rough.
Being an evil piece of shit tends to do that to people.
Tell me something new.
No "Portrait of Dorian Grey" here.
The hunchback of Mar-a-la-Gone strikes again, with the best "summit" ever. I mean really the guy looks like the old men at the assisted living place that I am working at. Shuffling along, looking lost, trying to act like a dictator in front of a real one. What a fucking joke the morons in fly over county voted into office. Higher gas prices, higher food costs, lower standing in the world community, are you tired of winning you fucking idiots. Even W would have been better then this Bronx loser.
Next time don't pull your punches!
The idea that Dems were soft on America goes back long before Trump but heated up when Obama was in office. The entire GOP edifice of communication from Fox News to memes passed around on FB created the notion that Obama had gone on an apology tour. For the average GOP voter, this has become something that is internalized so not easy to counter. Similar to the notion that Dems spend - also internalized even when the GOP has racked up debt.
The words Trump used to suck up to China are an utter embarrassment but even still when a GOP voter goes into the voting booth they likely still see Dems as soft.
If Trump knelt before Xi, I doubt his head was on the ground.
Kneel?!? I’d love to see the footage of him floundering to get up after trying that. Those creaky old knees couldn’t take the weight.
He couldn't ever get up.
Maybe it was, though, if he bent over before Xi.
Donad....a joke or a typo? No nad(s), sure! But I can't figure out Do nad
Rhymes with gonad.
Xi should just offer Trump A BILLION DOLLARS to stop defending Taiwan. It works for the Saudis and their interests.
It is impossible to know what Trump believes. What comes out of his mouth describes a world in which he, Xi, Putin, and MBS own all the oil and run the world as equals. Since none of the others has to care about what the population of their country thinks, Trump doesn't care either. Trump seems to be living in a fantasy in which everyone believes what he says and that he can do no wrong.
What is more disturbing is that all but three Republicans are trying to act as if they live in that world. Instead of trying to save the country, they are trying to corrupt the election, castrate the Congress, and let the slave holders rule.
They are all acting like there's no tomorrow and simply living for today. That's an ok strategy for some common folk, but not shameless lying grifters spending our money and abusing our world influence for their own personal influence and gain.
The only reason Donny didn't get down on his hands and knees and kiss Xi's shoes is because in his decrepit physical condition there's a good chance he wouldn't be able to get back up again!
Trump kneels for nobody! For that one, specific reason.
Yahtzee!