Threats and Sanctions Everywhere – Trump’s Vision Of Greatness

59162Peter Koenig – 5-15-2019

As of May 10, Mr. Trump has arbitrarily increased tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the US, valued at about 200 billion dollars, from 10 % to 25%. It is an action without any foundation. An action that makes no sense at all, as China can and will retaliate – and retaliate much stronger than what the impact of the US’s new “sanctions” bear – because these arbitrary tariffs are nothing else but sanctions. There is hardly any sane economist in this world who would favor these tariffs in international trade against a nation not at war with us. All that such sanctions do is push a partner away. In this case it’s not just any partner; China is a key trading partner of the United States.

The new tariffs will hardly impact the American consumer. There are huge profit margins by US middlemen and importers of Chinese goods. They are competing with each other within the US – and the consumer may not even notice a thing. However, the US economy will likely suffer from Chinese retaliatory actions.

If Trump, a spoiled child, doesn’t get his way, he goes into a tantrum, not quite knowing what he is doing, and knowing even less what it may cost in return. Mr. Trump himself, has not only reached a level of incompetence and ignorance which is scary, he has also surrounded himself with preposterous people like Pence, Bolton and Pompeo, who, it appears, have no other means left than to run around the world amok, dishing out threats left and right, spending billions on moving aircraft carriers around the globe to make sure people are afraid of the United States of America.

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Back to trading with China. China has ways to retaliate. China can devalue her currency vis-à-vis the dollar, or China can dump some of their almost 3 trillion dollars in reserves on the money market. Just take a wild guess what that would do to the hegemony of the US dollar which is already in dire straits – with ever more countries departing from the use of dollars for trade.

And just hypothetically, China could stop altogether exporting all that Walmart junk that American consumers love so much – just for a while. Or China could stop making iPhones for the US market. Guess what kind of an uproar that would trigger in the US? Or China could of course, levy high tariffs on US imports, or stop US imports altogether. China being part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – actually the co-founder of it – has many alternatives to cover her trade demand. No need to depend on the west.

Let’s not forget, the SCO which also counts as its members, Russia, India, Pakistan, most of Central Asia, and Iran poised to become a full-fledged member – covers about half of the world population and a third of the world’s economic output, or GDP. No need to look to the west for ‘survival’ – those times are long gone.

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But more importantly, what all this looks like to me – is the desperate thrashing around of a dying beast, in this case the US.

Look at the US and Venezuela – threats after threats after threats – Maduro must go, or more sanctions. Indeed, according to a study by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), these horrifying, totally insane sanctions or blockages of imports, most of them already paid for by Venezuela, have killed some 40,000 people in Venezuela. Of course, Washington doesn’t care about illegality and killing (also typical for a fading empirer) – no respect for law and order, no respect for human rights and human lives. One only has to see what type of psychopaths are occupying the tasks of “Foreign Minister” and of “National Security Advisor” or of Vice President, or of President, for that matter – they are all sick; very sick and dangerous people.

Well, in Venezuela “regime change,” with US-picked Juan Guaidó, hasn’t worked out so far. Pompeo has been clearly told off by Mr. Lavrov (Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs) during their recent get-together in Helsinki; and China still supports the government of Nicolas Maduro.

Next – Iran. Attacking Iran has been a dream of Bolton’s ever since the US 2003 “Shock and Awe” invasion of Iraq. Bolton and Pompeo are of the same revolting kind: They want wars, conflicts, or if they don’t get wars, they want to sow fear. They enjoy seeing people scared. They want suffering. Now they haven’t succeeded thus far with Venezuela, so let’s try Iran. Pompeo – “Iran has done irregular things” – not saying what in particular he means – so Iran has to be punished, with yet more sanctions. And any invented reason will suffice.

The entire world knows, including the Vienna-base UN Economic Energy Commission, and has acknowledged umpteen times that Iran has fully adhered to the conditions of the Nuclear Deal from which the US exited a year ago. Of course, no secret here either, this at the demand of Trump’s Big Friend Bibi Netanyahu. The European Union vassals may actually turn for their own business interests, not for political ethics, but pure and simple self-interest – towards respecting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Nuclear Deal. China and Russia are already holding on to the Deal, and they are not impressed by Washington’s threats. So, there is very little Trump and his minions can do, other than saber rattling.

Therefore, the nefarious Pence-Pompeo-Bolton trio must invent another warning: if Iran or any proxy of Iran shall attack an ally of the US, Iran will be devastated. In fact, they consider the Houthis in Yemen who fight for their sheer survival against the US-UK-France – and NATO supported Saudis, as a proxy for Iran. So, the US could start bombing Iran already today. Why don’t they?

Maybe they are afraid – afraid Iran could lock down the Strait of Hormuz, where 60% of US oil imports have to sail through. What a disaster that would be, not just for the US but also for the rest of the world. Oil prices could skyrocket. Would Washington want to risk a war over their Zionist-driven stupidity? Maybe Mr. Halfwit Trump might. Maybe Trump’s mentor Netenyahu would.  But I doubt that the US deep-state agents of world billionaires would. They know what’s at stake for them and the world. But they let nutty Trump and his mad dog Zionist friends play their games for now.

Moving the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, loaded with war planes, close to Iranian waters costs hundreds of million$ or billion$. Just to showcase a threat. A show-off. Bolton and Pompeo gloat in their sadism, enjoying seeing scared people. But the cost of war doesn’t matter – it’s just more debt, and as we know, the US never, but never, pays back its debt.

Next, or simultaneously, is China. The trade war with China that started last year, then had a respite to the point of the recent joint negotiations – and suddenly the Trumpians are veering off again. They must smash China, wanting to appear superior. But why? The world knows that the US is no longer superior – not by a long shot, and hasn’t been for the last several years. China surpassed the US in economic strength, measured by PPP = Purchasing Power Parity – which is the only parity or exchange rate that has any real meaning.

Guess what! – All these three cases have one common denominator: The dollar as a chief instrument for world hegemony. Venezuela and Iran have already stopped using the dollar for their hydrocarbon and other international trading. And so did China and Russia. China’s strong currency, the Yuan, is rapidly taking over the US-dollar’s reserve position in the world – thanks to Trump-and-company’s nutty warmongering. Sanctioning China with insane tariffs was supposed to weaken the Yuan; but it won’t.

All of these three countries, China, Iran and Venezuela are threatening the US dollar’s world hegemony – and without that the US economy is dead, literally. The dollar is based on thin air, and on fraud – the dollar system used around the globe is nothing but a huge, a very big and monstrous Ponzi-scheme, that one day must come crashing down.

That’s what’s at stake. New FED Board member, Herman Cain, for example, is pledging for a new gold standard. But none of these last resort US measures will work, not a new gold standard, not a trade and tariff war, and not threats of wars and destruction and “regime change”. The nations around the world know what’s going on, they know the US is in her last breath; though they don’t quite dare say so – but they know it, and are waiting for the downfall to continue. The world is waiting for the grand fiesta, dancing in the streets, when the empire falls or becomes irrelevant.

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