Nice to have a few fellow memo readers who read and agree with what I write. I have two who are always in disagreement. One just e mailed me that former Sec. of State Albright is who Trump should listen to. She was not half bright when in office and probably age has taken a further toll.
Dear Dick,
As per usual I find your most recent comments to be spot on. Of late I have been reading the Federalist Papers and have found most interesting the attention our founding fathers gave to and the measures they built into the constitution to safeguard freedom from tyranny. Thus, I think the founding fathers would be horrified at the size and power of today's administrative state in federal government. Hopefully Trump can cut through the administration's Gordian Knot that hogties our freedoms since the legislative and judiciary branches have failed to do so. I also concur with your view that the fourth estate has lost its way in providing objective reporting.
Keep up the good fight.
With best regards,
S------
Excellent summary and discussion.
Trump is right and the liberal swamp is wrong (as usual). Retaliating toward our attacks from Japan and Germany in WW ll was short-term pain too, but aren't we better off for our stance now? It had to be done. There were doubters then too. Off-springs of Chamberlain by proxy. Wrong then and wrong now. Maybe a sizable part of it is cowardice along with a blind hate of Trump. I have no patience for either.
RF
Right on Boss.
A---
I read this Op Ed after I wrote and sent my own about Trump and Trade Memo. At least there are some who agree with me or me with them.
It is fairly evident the mass media hate Trump . However, he will be gone in 3 or 7 years but their knee jerk antipathy towards America, their willingness to sell America short is something I find totally loathsome and I see no end.
When it comes to the mass media they are unwilling to give Trump and/or even America the benefit of doubt. (See 1 below.)
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The FBI continues to give the finger to Congress and thus, to America. (See 2 below.)
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Putin over matched? https://www.realclearworld.
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Welcome to America Zuckerberg.
In a few days you will learn about America of today. Many politicians, who are on investigation committees, will pose before cameras and spread their peacock feathers as they grill you. After you have been thoroughly grilled and made to look guilty and/or stupid they may craft legislation which various agencies will enforce in ways that were never intended,
This will be billed as protecting American citizens from your organization's intemperate behaviour. Possibly this restrictive legislation will make you less competitive and it certainly will cost you a lot more in administrative expenses. You will have to file more documents and you will constantly be under more government bureaucratic scrutiny than ever before.
This is the consequence of getting big and successful, becoming powerful, failing to monitor yourself in ways that proved harmful both to your customers and to the government's desire to control. You may even find out you are now deemed a threat to national security.
As you testify, you must be contrite as the various congresspersons, who know probably very little about the technical aspects of your business model, pound on you in order to look like they are protecting the nation. Much of these investigations are simply a charade, some actually ferret out wrongdoing and pass legislation that works for a while but then is allowed to go beyond its intended scope because agency bureaucrats, as I have noted in previous memos, believe they are the final arbiters and want to expand their reach so they can ask for more budgetary funding.
As government gets larger, remains distant from the people and expands its reach America is slowly being crushed, initiatives discouraged and our competitiveness reduced. To offset this pattern, those who can afford the extra cost hire lobbyists who plea their case and become a conduit for funneling/laundering money for a multitude of campaigns so everyone is allowed/gets a piece of the pie.
I have no doubt Mr. Zuckerberg already understands how the system works and is prepared to cough up but what he probably has yet to learn is how contrite he must be to escape with an Oscar.
Stay tuned as Facebook and Zuckerberg get reamed by Democrats and Republicans with either the same or disparate agendas.
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Dick
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1)
Trump’s Trade Tactic Might Work
Americans should not be too quick to sell their own side short
By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
Right now a bargaining game is under way that could leave the world trading system better off, with China cheating less. Not the least benefit, this would strengthen the political sustainability of trade in the U.S. and other Western nations—an outcome of high strategic value even to China.
Both sides are in the crotch-grabbing phase at the moment. They want their threats to be treated as credible even if they aren’t.
So eager are some Americans for a Donald Trump failure, though, they rush to convince the world that Americans can’t tolerate the slightest risk of pain or loss in a good cause. U.S. soybeans are on China’s target list, but let us calm ourselves. If China buys Brazilian soybeans, the world doesn’t end. Brazil’s customers would buy U.S. soybeans. The net effect would be only slightly damaging to all concerned, except for the rail and shipping companies that would benefit from the world opting for second-best logistics in getting the global soybean crop to market.
Ditto Boeing . Its jets are on China’s retaliation list too, but a reality check is in order. Boeing and Airbus have backlogs stretching out almost a decade. If a Chinese carrier cancels a delivery for next year, it can’t just cut the Airbus line, at least not without paying through the nose for another customer’s delivery slot. Or it could settle for an older, secondhand aircraft, knowing it would pay a penalty in fuel efficiency, passenger amenities and maintenance downtime that could be the difference between a successful service and a money-losing one.
Donald Trump’s rhetoric often fails to notice that trade is a win-win, but the peanut gallery should not lose sight of the same basic context in today’s trade fight: Both sides are putting guns to their own heads and saying, “Give me what I want or the idiot gets it.”
Such incentives strongly favor the parties reaching a deal and declaring victory for the benefit of the home fans. Both know the U.S.-China trade relationship is too important not to put it on a sounder basis.
So the real question is, “Do we have confidence in the wisdom and perspicacity of the Chinese and U.S. administrations?” Mr. Trump is not a child. He has been in negotiations all his life. It’s the one skill he brought to office that can’t be gainsaid.
What’s more, Mr. Trump is not a bridge burner, whatever you think of his Twitter habits. He is always ready to be best friends tomorrow with whomever he’s at war with today. His relationship with the “failing New York Times” is the cognoscenti case in point. No news organization has been so relentlessly denounced and yet so relentlessly courted by Mr. Trump. He can’t give up. He is not likely to lead us down a path of permanent hostility with China (or anybody else) from which there is no return.
The Chinese deny it but they know the U.S. has legitimate gripes, especially with respect to Beijing shaking down U.S. companies for their trade secrets as a price for getting access to the Chinese consumer.
China has gotten by with claiming it’s a poor, backward country, but such excuses no longer suit its own idea of itself. Look for a settlement in which Beijing insists it never engaged in technology theft and now will stop. It will launch new laws and courts to hear complaints of its foreign partners. Sure, these reforms you wouldn’t take to the bank right away. But, long term, China’s interest in profiting from its own intellectual property should propel it in the right direction.
Americans, though, have to be ready to accept some risk if they want China to change its behavior. Danger can always be avoided by bending over for whatever China wants. Happily, the U.S. economy is strong right now, verging on a labor shortage as rising wages can’t lure the Obama-discouraged back into the workforce fast enough.
Stock markets will never be happy with uncertainty, and you might wish to put your portfolio in a medically induced coma for the duration. But it pays not to sell America short, given its inherent, deeply rooted strengths. These strengths are admired by others, including China. They were apparent even on President Obama’s watch, with all its dreary regulatory and antibusiness overkill. His tenure will still be remembered, if dimly, as the time when America’s frackers revolutionized the world energy scene.
Mr. Trump is not the idiot his detractors say, and nobody says the Chinese are idiots. The omens are propitious for a major advance in trade relations. But the Chinese should remember one thing: Mr. Trump is a teetotaler, so the eventual congratulatory toasts should be nonalcoholic.
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2) A Broken FBI Promise
A week after the bureau promised cooperation, it’s back to obstruction.
By The Editorial Board
At issue is a memo related to the opening of a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties with Russia in 2016. Such information is crucial for Congress to get an accurate picture of how Justice and the FBI handled this investigation. House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) has written to both Director Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein asking for an unredacted version for all committee members to see. The bureau says it will not provide the material because it is too sensitive.
Mr. Nunes notes this is ridiculous, given that the document “is not highly classified.” More to the point, if an Intelligence Committee made up of elected representatives of the American people is not qualified to see such material, no one is.
Mr. Nunes says he’s willing to go to federal court to enforce his subpoena. We are further told that the House leadership supports this and other efforts to compel cooperation from Justice and the FBI.
In a better world Mr. Wray and Mr. Rosenstein would have worked out a good faith solution. In the apparent absence of that good faith, we hope Congress is willing to use all its powers, including contempt and impeachment if necessary, to persuade Mr. Wray and Mr. Rosenstein it is in their interests to make good on the FBI’s promise of transparency and responsiveness.
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