Beijing Butt-Kisser Extraordinaire, Sideshow Steve Harper, has slithered back into public view to praise what he predicts will be Donald Trump's hostility to China.
Harper says Trump will erase the past 70 years of American foreign policy and, to him, that's a good thing.
"Trump is going to reverse the cornerstone of American foreign policy," Harper said. "He is going to reject and reverse the idea that the U.S. has an overreaching responsibility for global affairs. The U.S. will cease to view the rise of China as essentially benign."
The former prime minister also said he thinks large, multilateral trade deals are "dead."
He said Trump's position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership makes it a "certainty" that the 12 country trade pact — which his government negotiated — will not see the light of day.
Oh, Steve, spare us the false modesty. You have much, much more in common with Donald Trump than you let on.
13 comments:
Ew!
Yeah, Chris, you're right. I went too far.
"Harper says Trump will erase the past 70 years of American foreign policy and, to him, that's a good thing."
To me it would be a good thing too.
Just read @BBC juicy piece of mud-wrestling:
"An impostor, a [political] conman and a would-be dictator," is the verdict of billionaire investor George Soros on Donald Trump.
On a side note, why folks are so critical of Drumpf while their anger should be directed at the cabal of banksters&neocons. That very cabal destroyed real democracy and enabled rise of Trump to power.
My friendly bet is that cabal intentionally stokes anger and resentment towards Trump so folks (like you Mound)would give them a break.
A..non
A..non
A..non, please. How many Goldman Sachs honchos are in Trump's cabinet? How many others are billionaires? Just take a peak at his labour secretary. If it's banksters and neocons you're after just tune in to the Senate confirmation hearings. Give them a break? Hell they're already on the inside only it seems you haven't noticed.
"He is going to reject and reverse the idea that the U.S. has an overreaching responsibility for global affairs." Disagree - Trump's ego wants to 'make Amerika great' again... can't do that if you're sitting on the sidelines.
How long until the Berlusconi comparisons start?
Bunga! Bunga! Grab her PUSSY !!
Harper said, unlike Canadians who were broadly supportive of his government's push to pen more free trade deals because there was a widely held belief they stood to gain from such policy moves.
"widely held belief" my ass. No poll from that era supports that statement - not surprised slithering Steve in trying to shape his legacy, but this is just so wrong.
Fair enough, Mound. The tentacles of banksters&neocons are nearly everywhere. However, my diagnosis stands: said cabal is the cause of the problem and Drumpf is just the symptom. Treatment of symptoms seldom leads to the cure...
A..non
I wonder how much they paid Harper for that pantload of crap. "You may be surprised to know I'm not entirely unsympathetic to Mr. Trump's view on this." Yeah, right Steve. I sure didn't hear Steve badmouthing the TPP, CETA, NAFTA or any other trade deal when in office.
Cap
Well ... ONE good thing comes from the election of master tRump:
The utter confusion and ideological-aphasia of our former CON PM is laid bare for all to see.
Cap, let's bear in mind that Trump is a loyal adherent to neoliberalism. He's all for trade deals just not the multinational pacts. His view is that bilateral trade agreements will allow America to increase its relative advantage over other parties and in that way dominate global trade. His idea is that he can restore America to the lofty position it enjoyed in the aftermath of WWII while devastated rivals took from 20 to 30 years and more to fully recover their industrial capacity and another decade or two to overcome America's competitive dominance.
In that half-century, American prosperity allowed that nation to pick up some bad habits that have haunted it ever since. Part of that was the transition to a FIRE economy, a financialized economy. America stopped producing what anyone else wanted to buy especially as its competitors outpaced it in quality and innovation.
Trump can't resurrect the dead. His real approach, in my view, is to engineer an ersatz recovery by squeezing further concessions from America's trading partners. He's hoping to take them on one at a time but he just might find they unify so that America is isolated.
America needs other nations to pick up its tab, to buy US government debt instruments necessary to cover its balance of trade, balance of payments and fiscal deficits. I can still remember the days when the US exhorted its citizens to buy government savings bonds. Foreigners now fill that job.
We won't know how thuggish Trumpland will be but I expect we won't be long in the waiting. Let's hope our prime minister can grow a pair in time.
The real test for me Mound, will be when the power elite of the deep state will sit Trump down and explain to him that they are the ones with the power and they are the ones who are politically, militarly and economically in charge domestically and globally including in the oval office.
I agree with you that essentially he is a neoliberal and I would add to that an Imperialist,so he for the most part agrees with these neocons, just look at the neocons he has appointed so far.
He will be told that even a slight deviation from domestic and foreign policy he will want to do will not be allowed by the power elite.
This elite group is ruthless and are not prepared to compromise one inch from the money they are getting from having total power. This is especially so of the companies that manufacture and sell weapons. The financial elite will also reign Trump in.
Trump however will concede because he's already 90% in agreement with these elites.He is also a man who does not have the strength to stand on principle. He has no principles.
You're right that we won't have to wait too long to see Trump's thugishness. As to our prime minister growing a pair, Trudeau needs to already have a pair in order to grow them. It won't happen.
What troubles me as much as anything when it comes to Trump is his lack of any coherent ideology reflected in some integrated policy approach. He wants to "do deals" with other countries as though international relations/foreign policy was ultimately transactional. What is foreign policy from which diplomacy is excised? It certainly isn't a foundational approach, an ongoing process of building bonds and relationships. It's essentially chaotic, impulsive, reactionary and those drawbacks weaken it horribly and can leave America and its allies (if it can retain them) with needless vulnerability.
In Europe, America's loss will be Putin's gain and it's the same story for Beijing across Asia. The America that European leaders and their Asian-Pacific counterparts relied on is no longer reliable. That's a great way to deflate America's spheres of influence. Trump has little grasp of the value of that influence or how difficult it can be to restore once it is lost.
It's that line about people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. America's sexual deviant in chief falls squarely into that profile.
We seem to be voting ,to power, those that take a complicated world and try to simplify it.
This is fine and dandy for the voters but a nightmare for those that have to deal with the intricacies of the world.
Adding to the confusion is that Canada, the UK, the USA have no viable opposition! All parties subscribe to the same neoliberal agenda , only the recipients of the take( taxpayer monies) differentiate the parties.
TB
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