ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE

A Mexican Senator is introducing a bill which would allow the Mexican Government to expropriate American companies, operating in Mexico, to compensate for levies made upon Mexico for the construction of a proposed wall.  Considering that it is American companies, that take advantage of lower costs, by operating in Mexico, that have the most assets at stake in any dispute of this nature, it just may not be very prudent for the U.S. to get involved in such a game.

OF WALLS AND MIGHTY EMPIRES

In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte is alleged to have said, "China? There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! For when he wakes he will move the world."  Perhaps, Napoleon was mindful of the fact that a few centuries before, China was the sole hyperpower in the world, much as the United States is today.

In the 16th Century, China began to build a virtual wall, around China, to seal themselves off from foreign influences.  By the 19th Century, relatively small European powers, using technologies, many of which originated in China, but refined in the rest of the world, were able to force the establishment of enclaves, in mainland China, where their laws prevailed and not those of China, to the humiliation of the Chinese people.

In history, walls have usually marked the limits of the power of a nation, not something that made a nation great.

GUEST POST

New post on The Octogenarians

The Run-up to the Presidential Debates by daedal2207 The Donald purports to be reaching for black voters saying that he will ensure their not getting shot down in their own streets."What do you have to lose" he bawls.To Hispanics he promises to reconsider his deportation position.His official platform has not shifted but the shape shifters are at work selling a more palatable image(Connoly,Ailles,Archer,Bannon)The media are consumed by presenting contrasting images of Clinton vs Trump,helping us to be myopic about the crippling issue of increasing inequity in the face of national refusal to act on tax and immigration reform, drug cost abuse,undermining of "affordable care"through the issuance of relatively inexpensive catastrophic policies depleting the eligible pool of payers,corporation inversion etc.Free enterprise cannot be unrestricted because greed cannot be limited.Hillary's tight and unappealing legalisms attract media attention but her program plans on view at her website do not. When will the serious conversation begin? daedal2207 |

DON'T GET ME WRONG

Hillary Clinton gave a sad speech, in Nevada, yesterday, detailing how a fringe group, taking advantage of the weakness of the Republican Party, was taking it over.  Don't get me wrong.  It was a great speech, but the sad part is that it had to come from a candidate and not from investigative journalism expected from a vibrant free Press.  For me, it demonstrates how weak the Press has become since the Reagan Administration allowed the consolidation of the media to fall into the hands of a small number of people.

WHAT CAME AS A SURPRISE TO ME

It comes as no particular surprise that Donald Trump is marching towards the center on immigration.  There is a post, in this, blog written months ago, that he would.  The flabbergasting surprize is that the etch-a-sketching is coming before Labor Day and not after.

DONALD'S FLEXIBILITY

Now that Trump has fully embraced Jeb Bush's position on immigration, which he so viciously attacked during the primary campaign, why can't Jeb finally endorse him?  After all, Trump has proven his flexibility, with this change, and I'm sure that Trump can find it in his heart, to forgive Bush for having been his adversary, once, of course, Jeb gives his endorsement.

NO INTEREST IN ANY OTHER TYPE OF INFORMATION

During the Primaries, the Press began to clamor, almost incessantly for Hillary to release transcripts of her speeches to business groups, saying, "why not just release the transcripts if you don't have anything to hide".  Their requests for the transcripts came to an almost immediate halt when Hillary agreed to release the transcripts if Trump released his speeches before the same type of audiences.  There seemed to be no interest, on the part of the media, for Trump's transcripts, but only Hillary's.

The same media seems to have tired, quickly, in requesting Trump's tax returns, after he claimed that they were under audit and he could not release them, nor have they shown the same enthusiasm and intensity, to obtain them, now that we have learned that Trump will not release any of his tax returns, even those that have been audited.  I have yet to hear a single media organization ask Trump why he felt the need to lie about the reason for not releasing his tax returns.  I have yet to hear a single question asked of Trump, or his organization, as to the report of his son claiming that Trump would be foolish, to release his tax returns.

Wouldn't it be foolish for anyone not to take his campaign's words and actions as prima facie evidence that he certainly does have something to hide?  Why isn't the same question, "if you don't have anything to hide, why don't you release your tax returns?", with the same frequency and intensity as was asked of Hillary about her speech transcripts?

The answer, seems to be, that they have Hillary's tax returns and there's nothing there to use to attack her, and they really have no interest in any other type of information.