PufPuf93 » Thu May 21, 2020 2:14 pm wrote:What I can see is trade war where China and other nations look to physically, economically, and politically choke the USA out of world trade markets. This is already at a slow boil.
"World trade markets" are essentially an extension of the American, British and European economies. Those trades are denominated in USD and lubricated by the eurodollar, a polite euphemism for formalized & legally protected money laundering at scale. OBOR was collapsing even before the nCoV shock hit, and China has a major debt crisis incoming. The only area where China is likely to achieve success is Hong Kong, which will come at great cost to them, and the South Seas, which will come very easily for them.
At least until they find out about our new weapons.
PufPuf93 » Thu May 21, 2020 2:14 pm wrote:If a major hot war was to occur, the war would be initiated by stupid people in the USA.
Too bad we spend so much on military and that military is so imbedded in our national culture.
Here, I disagree. The Chinese are even more obstinate than the Americans and would go to war simply to save face.
What we see domestically in the US is rival factions: one of them, the actual establishment, has little interest in actually fighting China and indeed, most of them are compromised by them. We're currently in the same situation we were prior to WWII, where major corporations and banks are essentially engaged with treason in their efforts to sell china weapons systems, technology, and finance their growth in exchange for access to their markets and their money.
They own the media, they own the banks and they own most of the nonprofit opinion-making institutions.
The other rival US faction, a handful of generals, longtime critics of China in journalism and academia, and Steve "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" Bannon, are agitating for the US to flex their economic might to push back on China. There are many means to do this. Just the same, I think, with Bannon especially, this is a disingenuous stance, because they know full well where these early soft power measures will lead: to a more direct confrontation. We're already seeing sabotage attacks and assassinations on both sides.
This faction owns very little in the way of platforms, depending upon friendly websites and Bannon's own "podcast" news rants from the Brietbart Embassy in DC.
However, consider China. There, you're seeing Bannon-level rhetoric coming not from the fringes of their political system, but directly from their diplomatic corps, their military establishment and the party itself. There is no idle talk, no open debate there. This is the party line, and they are preparing their population for war.