No one questioned that the US could hurt China. Did we forget that that isn't the point? So far the US has not gained anything from this.

Its going to happen. Right now China is on the brink of some massive starvation due to their hog epidemic. [1] Pork is their largest meat consumed. When they've slaughtered 90% of their herd, the price of pork will go through the roof across the globe. This will increase the cost of all agricultural goods.

When food becomes expensive for China what will their newly affluent middle-class do? What will the poorer people do?

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19823238

Just found the source of this epidemic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ9bP6wo8rA&list=WL&index=49...

My narrative about Trump is from listening to him speak and reading what he writes.

From this I get the impression of someone whose ignorance is far deeper than their stupidity, whilst being pretty damn stupid.

The one thing he does seem to know is some NLP techniques, of the kind employed at shady car dealerships, though he seems to be doing that more by rote rather than displaying any deep understanding.

edit - however I do like his assertion in a tweet recently that his first two years of governance have been a kind of German cake.

We're living in a world where neither the entire political machine of the oval office nor the very spell check on the device he is currently using to type can keep the commander in chief from admitting even to himself that he made a simple spelling mistake. Wow.

Hucksters never let you see how smart they are.

He is a sports-star of bullshit. He's not the best by a long shot, I have better in my own family, he's not got the vocabulary to play a wide field for one thing, but he is in the leagues.

edit - just reading the news this morning. He is perhaps further up the leagues than I thought.

German cake? Care to link?

I'd think that would be giving him too much credit. I think it's more of "a broken clock is still right twice a day".

Trump can declare tarriffs and fit the whole decleration in a tweet, it's instant gratification for his feedback loop and keeps all things Russia related further down the news feed.

Too bad that Mueller thing didn't have much Russia related.