I think Trump is trying to do anything to deflect his handling of the pandemic, economy and racial tension. Calling it the China virus, defending confederate flags, sending federal troops into cities are all his tactics to try to reverse the poll numbers. If he only works as hard at solving real problems as he does of dividing people and making people angry, the country would be better off.
Of course, China is going to retaliate every time Trump does something. They closed the American consulate in Chengdu. Is this going to be the end of confrontation? Not even close. As the election gets closer and Trump gets more desperate, he may try to provoke China into greater confrontations. I am afraid he is may try to provoke military actions, probably in the South China Sea, If China responds, which it will have to, it will be extremely dangerous. Trump may do this because when there is military conflict, the nation tends to rally behind its leader. He may try this in a desperate attempt to steal the election.
I think Trump and his supporters think that if they can blame China on the virus and other things, that it'll help him in the election. At least that is what it looks like to me. Almost every person associated with his administration that has been interviewed this past week or more has had something to say about China and how it covered up about the virus.
ReplyDeleteThey've been very deliberate on calling it Communist China, so maybe that's a talking point they are using so that they can argue that they're not talking about regular Chinese people or Chinese Americans. Unfortunately, it comes across as being racist still.
You might be right that if he is desperate enough that he'll start a war. I doubt that he'll do so with China. So maybe it'll be against a smaller nation or he'll send troops somewhere in the middle east. Too bad he is friends with Kim in N. Korea or else that would have been a prime location.
Did you see that Texas congressman who was an anti-mask guy got Covid? Instead of taking blame and owning up, he says that it's possible he got it from his mask that he's been wearing for the last week. Even though that's quite possibly one of the dumber things I've heard, he was filmed taking his mask off during meetings and talking to Barr without a mask on.
I also saw that in NYC that some cops grabbed a trans woman and put her in an unmarked van. How is this legal? I was shocked to see a bunch of cops surround the van in order to protect it too. There's something that doesn't add up with this whole thing. It'll be interesting to see what the mayor says about it because the explanation from the department was mixed.
Just read an article that said Trump was pausing TV spending here in Michigan. Many times, this means that the candidate is giving up on the state. To me, it's a little early to make a call and he's got an unlimited amount of money. I did see an ad today from some super PAC targeting Biden, so maybe Trump thinks he can save his money until we get closer to the election and let this super PAC spend money and go against Biden.
We should start seeing the Fed cops in Detroit soon. I have a feeling this will not go well. Though I wonder what would happen if protesters started marching in Grand Rapids, which is more conservative. Would the feds go there?
-LBOAYM
That crazy Congressman had said that if he got COVID he would wear a mask. Now that he got it, he blames the mask. If mask causes COVID, then wouldn't all of Asia be infected by now? Herman Cain died and I wonder how those people sitting next to him in Tulsa without a mask feel today? Trump is still touting some crazy doctors who advocate no mask and to take hydroxychloroquine. It is a crazy world but not a funny one.
ReplyDeleteIf protesters march in Grand Rapids, Trump will send in troops because he will say that the thugs from Detroit are the ones going there to destroy Grand Rapids. It would be interesting to see what the officials in Grand Rapid do in that case.
I don't think that if Trump starts a war against a small country, it would do any good for him. Even the GOP will think it is an obvious deflection as that country will be no threat to the U.S. It will have to be Iran or China. But he needs a retaliation from that country to get the country behind him. Iran did not respond much when Trump killed their top general. China would be more likely to respond. Even if China's response is measured, the country may get behind Trump because China is perceived as a much greater threat than anyone else beside Russia.
You know, he should just talk to his buddy Putin and start a fake war over in Ukraine. He could say that Russia is invading Ukraine and he will not stand up to the bully and send troops there. That would show that he is not afraid of Putin and the nation will get behind him. There is no way he could start a war in China. There would be too much backlash and it would be too difficult to invade a country like China with a big navy. The only thing he could do is send missiles from carriers and that is never a good idea.
ReplyDelete-LBOAYM
No, I don't mean that there would be full scale attack on China. What I think would be a possible scenario would be hitting a Chinese ship "accidentally" in the South China Sea. We have accident bombings before, like the time against a Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia. Everybody in this country believed it was an accident. China was not so sure but did not retaliate. This time it would be different. Half of the country will believe it was an accident. China will believe it was intentional and will hit one of our ships. Trump will use that as an excuse to send aircraft carriers to the area with multiple ships. Troops will be sent to Korea, Taiwan and Japan. And now you have a crisis and people in the country will back the president even if half of the population believe that Trump did this on purpose. He does not need a majority to believe him to cause a chaos for the election.
ReplyDeleteEventually both sides will stand down but if he attacks a week or two before the election, the stand down will not come before the election.
Hey, quit giving him ideas! If this would happen, he can do it in time for the election, so maybe the election should be moved up...haha!
ReplyDeleteI actually watched some NBA last night. I usually don't watch until the playoffs but with the way the season has gone, these games are actually pretty important. I had picked the Clippers at the beginning of the year and I won't change that. However, they'll have a hard time if they fall to the 4th seed. Even though they played the Lakers tough and without 2 of their players, they will have a hard time guarding Davis. They will need to somehow get him tired and in foul trouble. With the way he played, LeBron had the energy to finish at the end.
I didn't realize that the social sayings would take place of their names. I thought they were going to be patches. There are a few players I don't know and it was difficult to figure out who they were at times.
Speaking of shortened seasons, I am not following the NHL as much but baseball is a little interesting for me because of shortened season. This gives some teams an opportunity to make a move and injuries will play a bigger part now.
-LBOAYM
You can tell that Trump is preparing the nation to go into a crisis with China before the election. In the past couple of weeks, the U.S. has convinced the UK to ban Huawei even though the British had never found anything in Huawei's system that would be a national security threat. This after the U.S. had drummed up some crazy reason for Canada to hold Huawei's CFO under house arrest. Then we have the consulate closing last week. Tonight we learn that Trump is banning Tik Tok from the U.S. It seems all those dance videos are dangerous to Americans!
ReplyDeleteGiven all these actions, the trade war and calling it the China virus, I think it is clear that Trump is using China as his trump card for the election.
I guess we will have to see what course Biden takes in this. I can't imagine that he'd take a total opposite stance but I don't know if he can pile on the China stuff. Is there a reason why Biden is picking his running mate now? It seems to me that the announcement usually comes right before or right after the convention. I don't know if there's an advantage for him to announce it this upcoming week. Though of all the candidates for the job, I'm not very excited for any of them. He kind of painted himself in a corner when he said he was going to pick a woman. Hopefully this will help him, but I don't see a successor in this group. I know you've said that the VP choice doesn't make a big difference, so I will have to trust you on that. I just think that there could be a scenario that if he wins, the choice might have to take over at some point.
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Well, Biden will not advocate military action against China but he will not act to decrease tension during the election cycle. While he would not call it the China virus, he will criticize China for being slow in telling the world about the virus. He will call out China for human rights violations in Xinjing, Tibet and HK. After he is elected, there will still be tension and Asian Americans may still be vulnerable. Hopefully over time, things will calm down with a Biden administration.
ReplyDeleteThe question I have is: will China escalate things on purpose to help Trump get elected? It may be counterintuitive, but four more years of Trump will put the U.S. on a downhill slide which we may never recover from. This may actually help China become number one. Is this a risk Xi is willing to take?
The convention is in mid August so it is not that early. The pick is usually done right before the convention but if you are picking an unknown, you may want to do it earlier to see how she does in the hot seat before the convention.
If I said that the vp choice does not make a big difference, I meant it in terms of its affects on the election. I think most people do not remember who was Clinton's running mate 4 years ago. While geography was considered an important reason to pick someone, I can't think of a vp choice making a big difference in helping the top of the ticket since LBJ helped JFK win Texas.
The VP choice this time IS important. The one Biden picks can very well become the first woman president in history! Given Biden's age, that woman maybe president in less than 8 years. The announcement of a woman would not have been something I would have done but it is not too bad. It is not like there is a man out there who is an obvious choice. I don't know who would be able to take over in a heartbeat but Warren would probably be the best to able to do that. but she is white and old so it is unlikely Biden would pick her.
I didn't even consider China trying to get him elected, but in the long run, I think it's better for both countries to be allies than enemies. But if China gets Trump re-elected they could be looking at a trade war, which as I've said before, is not beneficial to either country.
ReplyDeleteI still think that Biden announcing that he would pick a woman so early on painted him into a corner. I mean, how do any of the women that are on the short list compare to male candidates that the Dems have? They all have their flaws but you could almost put Booker, Mayor Pete in there and they'd poll just as well. In my opinion, the woman that would probably be able to step in is Warren, but she can be too liberal and too old.
So who's your guess that Biden will pick? Harris seems like the most high profile one, there's a push for another Californian Karen Bass too. But they don't need to win California, so why not go with someone like Val Demmings who is respected by law enforcement and might be able to swing some votes in Florida? Keisha Lance Bottoms has been impressive and she can talk about her experience as a Covid-19 patient.
On a side note, I saw this article on Santa Barbara having a Chinatown that is now gone. Have you ever heard of this?
https://asamnews.com/2020/08/01/how-one-of-californias-chinatown-disappeared-into-distant-memory/?fbclid=IwAR0Ela9XJCJSaVyA5hbSs5ldKSjJ3tRPoLN70xf-vZPxj_x3FE6zqsaEv-I
-LBOAYM
I like Karen Bass. She is measured and even most Republicans who worked with her like her. I think Harris rubs people the wrong way. I don't know enough of the others to comment except I think Susan Rice is well qualified but I on't know if people like her. Tammy Duckworth is a really good story but being half Asian is not as helpful as being black.
ReplyDeleteMy wife does know about the Chinatown in Santa Barbara as people she works with there have told her. After the SF earthquake, a lot of Chinese started moving south and Santa Barbara was one of the places that was not discriminatory. I am not sure what happened to it. I imagine that all the rich people moving in pushed minorities out of the area.
I took my father to visit one of his friends many years ago in Santa Maria which is less than an hour north of Santa Barbara. It was mostly farm land then but his friend owned a Chinese restaurant there and there were others. So there are Chinese all over in unexpected places!
I keep hearing that Bass is the darkhorse candidate. But does picking someone from California help or if she is chosen, would Harris get mad? Maybe he can offer Harris the Attorney General job. I relly like Susan Rice, but no word on the street is that her involvement with Benghazi would not be a good look for Biden. Big fan of Duckworth, but I can't imagine that with the anti-China sentiment going on, it would be a good idea to pick her.
ReplyDeleteDid your dad's friend still own a restaurant in Santa Maria?
-LBOAYM
I agree with your assessment of vp candidates. It will be interesting whom he picks and how they spin it that she is the best candidate.
ReplyDeleteMy dad's friend passed away a few years ago. His widow moved to near Sacramento to be near one of their children. She still keeps in touch with dad periodically, he told me.
I read this article on VP candidates, though the emphasis is on the two Californians.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2020/08/02/politics/joe-biden-vice-presidential-running-mate/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2IugoC7k1k_YgTC891_LqXYMy_vHjVahg4DGAw_h9GJkf5XccNxvWrv0Y
-LBOAYM