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Chris Bray's avatar

See also the speech from new Secretary of the Navy at the same maritime conference, with the observation that "China constructed more ships last year alone than we have since World War II."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zHJtOiaPCE

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Karl Humungus's avatar

It’s almost like someone should try and restore our industrial capacity that we offshored to China.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

So obvious that was hilarious. Gotta love dry humor

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K2's avatar

LOLOLOL!

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Kaycee's avatar

BUT ORANGE CHEETO HITLER MAN IS BAD BAD BAD. And it all started on January 20, 2025! Everything was running smoothly until then and now it is ORANGE MAN BAD!!!!

🤣🤣🤣

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Hugh Wayne Black's avatar

Maybe China can sell us some of their ships. After all, why do they need so many? I can pretty much guarantee that they’re all equipped with the same technology they stole (or our politicians/Pentagon sold to them) from us.

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Patrick J. Santucci's avatar

I’m sorry to say my dad went to China in the 1990’s to help teach them how to build commercial aircraft. Including avionics, which was his area of expertise. This was just a few years after Tiananmen Square. He went at the behest of his company, as part of an attempt to “promote the Westernization” of China. The unspoken reason, of course, was so China could start supplying his company with parts for less cost. And now look where we are.

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suannee's avatar

Not denigrating your father at all, but that sounds like the old missionaries trying to convert the heathens throughout Christianity.

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c Anderson's avatar

Your father was part of Nixon’s decision to “normalize diplomatic relations” with China. Interesting how Trump is normalizing diplomatic relations with Russia. Talk about the other side of the coin! https://www.dailyhistory.org/How_did_Richard_Nixon_normalize_diplomatic_relations_with_China_in_1972

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David's avatar

I believed than as I do now that the gentrification and upward mobility of the Chinese people would result in an expanse of democratic impulses against the top down communist central gov't.

I still believe this. MAGA is happening in China right now, but strictly mdia concealed by the ever fading top down gov't.

Trump's tariff gambit will force this to the front.

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Patrick J. Santucci's avatar

I hope you’re right!

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Gail Schuermann's avatar

Absolutely right- makes me nauseous but doesn’t seem to bother our Congressmen at all- or Congresswomen so we don’t have a discussion about language.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Why would it? Thats where they've been pillaging where nobody is looking, while they throw us tidbits of their plunder.

And because we've become fat, dumb and lazy that allowed the grifter industrial complex to become global.

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Randy Farnum's avatar

I live in Delaware so we only have one representative but we have both genders covered with they/them.

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Michael L's avatar

BOTH? There are more than two genders, Nazi!

/s

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Gail Schuermann's avatar

LOL

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Bob's avatar

It’s Congress_critter_.

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VMG's avatar

After World War II, America became Flouder from Animal House. We've become fat, drunk, and stupid, which, as we know, is no way to go through life.

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Tardigrade's avatar

Just curious. Is the Secretary of the Navy blaming Orange Man Bad for these problems?

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Smokin' hot, Chris. Rand Paul is right, unfortunately that's not the current paradigm.

I don't think Trump gets enough credit for being flexible. Now that doesn't mean he'll ever admit a mistake. But that doesn't mean they're mutually exclusive.

I think what many see as "chaos" is just a way for Trump to create options where none exist in the current paradigm, or where the options would take too long to implement to effectuate any meaningful change. In other words, he's trying to create an entirely new paradigm; one in which he determines the new "rules".

I have thought all along (and have said so from the beginning) that what Trump was trying to do is isolate China by bringing all the other US trade partners to the table, all at the same time, instead of "puddle-jumping" from one country to another, so he can play both ends against the middle, with maximum leverage to accelerate the process. In this way he gets other countries to obliquely do his dirty work vis-à-vis China. I actually think that's safer than an all out economic warfare with China. China will end up with no choice to capitulate because their economy, if you strip it naked, is a ponzi scheme. I think in this way we we head off any kinetic confrontation. Because, make no mistake, if China invades Taiwan that's just the opening act. I take them for their word, and I think every action they've taken in the last 20 years telegraphs that assertion.

I'm not saying that the 90 day pause was deliberate, although I could make the argument that that was the point. But that's not the point. The point is he gave himself that option that he would've not had otherwise if he didn't start the way he did.

And that's why Trump is a Rorschach Test; he creates chaos to create options that he can control and pivot from.

Some see it as 5D chess, and some see it as a Barnum and Bailey circus with dancing werewolf-boys and various other side show entertainers.

This is why i don't mind Trump; he's not an ideologue and just wants to get shit done.

More than i can say about any of our other leaders since Reagan. And let's admit Trump and all his shameless buffoonery was exactly the right medicine at the right time.

If not him, who else?

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Lon Guyland's avatar

As they teach in business school, and is evident from Wall Street, options have value. And one thing Trump has a talent for is recognizing and creating value.

I share your views. The last thing getting this country out of its dire situation needs is plodding predictability.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Yeah. Well said. It seems that straightforward to me.

I don't think Trump had any grand vision with how all the tactics would be deployed, other than to shake it up to create options by starting with the end in mind. He creates his strategy by reconnaissance through battle. In other words, his strategy is to get other parties to reveal their hand. Political aikido...push and then see the reaction.

The more options you have, the better you're able to negotiate. By taking this to the street on a grand scale he has created options/leverage with individual trade partners, but more importantly to create options/ leverage for the US between all trade partners. In this way he controls the knobs and levers because everyone else will have to reveal their hand.

I do think Bessent and Lutnick are good guardrails tho

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Rather Curmudgeonly's avatar

Exactly, the system has devolved into utter stasis. Would I like someone other than Trump to be administering the shock therapy - absolutely. Who else was offering?

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Exactly. And sometimes you just have to get started to figure it out along the way.

That takes cojones

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c Anderson's avatar

Inertia was purposeful and intended to shore up Wall Street while controlling Main Street. Trump is the most creative economist that has ever been in existence! The problem is that Rand Paul believes that tariffs are a tax. Trump’s genius has exposed tariffs for what they truly are—a tool to be employed for economic growth and stability. May we never ever again ignore the opportunity in seeing beyond the limitations of what we are told to be fact. Thank you President Trump! 🙏

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Rather Curmudgeonly's avatar

Tariffs are a tax, that's why the Constitution required Congress to set them - until of course Congress punted that (un-constitutionally) to the Executive (supposedly only under national emergencies or for national security). No nation ever taxed its way into prosperity (to borrow from Churchill).

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c Anderson's avatar

Trump has redefined tariffs. You can deny that, but everything is being redefined. Look at the definition of vaccine and pandemic. They totally revamped them. I don’t like it, but we are at a turning point in history. A tariff is a fee to do business. If John Roberts can call Obama Care a tax, we can call tariffs a fee to do business.

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Rather Curmudgeonly's avatar

Peter Navarro, is that you?

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c Anderson's avatar

Just a dumb farm girl. 😉

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Bingo

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Heidi Kulcheski's avatar

You nailed it!

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EK MtnTime's avatar

Well stated!

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Brandon is not your bro's avatar

Agree RG

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John Anthony's avatar

Great analysis tonight, Ryan.

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Bill Lacey's avatar

I can't remember where I saw them, but there were several articles / editorials detailing how Congress no longer even writes the legislation they vote on. The writing of our laws is delegated to the lobbyists who are paying good money to their Congressional representatives for their votes. "Lazy" doesn't begin to describe this disfunctional group.

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Hugh Wayne Black's avatar

👍 How else would you explain dumbasses like AOC, Omar, or Crockett surviving? Fake it till you make it!

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Tardigrade's avatar

To be fair, the Congresspeople are too busy fundraising for their next campaign to waste their time on fiddly details like legislation.

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Brian Nelson's avatar

Remember the short story "The Lottery"? Bucolic little town that apparently sacrifices one of their own each year for the harvest. Totally blindsides you when you first read it--I must have been a sophomore in high school, maybe junior, but even then it smashed me in the solar plexus.

This might be what we should do for the next Congress. Fire everyone, and make it a lottery. Some restrictions--same age restrictions, maybe proof of voting for 2-4 election cycles, proof of paying taxes, no felonies...

Then one day you open your mail box to "Dear Mr Bray: Report to your local MEPS for your two year conscription into the 120th Congress. You will be processed, given a physical, a hair cut, a uniform, OCIE or CIF or whatever your basic sleeping bag, uniforms, canteen, LCE is called these days. You will billet with the other men of the 120th Congress at Ft Dix or Ft Belvoir or some other WWII type barracks..."

Make it painful, so the Congress just wants to get the job done and return home as soon as possible. No glory. We give exceptions:

Congress will:

1. Reduce number of laws by 1/4 in the next biennium.

2. Reduce budget by 1/4 each year.

3. Produce balanced budget

OR: Congress will be put into Leavenworth...

bsn

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Ringmaster's avatar

24/7 mainstream media frothing about the Bad Orange Man has almost transformed my mild distrust to Trump evangelism. Good job! 🙄

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Mike Means's avatar

We need to repeal the 17th amendment. Put the Senators back to being elected and responsive to the state legislature. They are too insulated right now and thus in the state you described.

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John R. Grout's avatar

Excuse me... they were NOT responsive to their state legislatures. They bought their office and paid no attention to their state legislature afterward. Sam Clemens said that the pre-17th Amendment Senate was "America's only established criminal class".

We could only go back to that model if the corruption problems were overcome.

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Mike Means's avatar

Agreed but in today's modern social media, electronic age, I guarantee they would be responsive. IMHO, I believe in some states we would see attempts to remove/change Senators every few months because of their legislatures fickleness and modern media frenzy.

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John R. Grout's avatar

Watching Barbara Boxer do nothing for 24 years doesn't exactly fill me with optimism. Before her last term, both the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle refused to endorse her candidacy; They instead endorsed no one. Six years later, the new primary process drove her into retirement, because she knew that if she did happen to get second place in the first multi-candidate primary, she would be utterly buried by the first place candidate in the run-off. She'd done nothing, and had absolutely nothing to offer to anyone except her orthodoxy.

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CB's avatar

Nothing? I suspect she took great care of her net worth.

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John R. Grout's avatar

I will concede that. Ha, ha!

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Peter Darcy's avatar

Absolutely great commentary. A lesser man would not embrace the challenge, but Trump is taking it head on. Putin is out there now saying our attempts to challenge China for global hegemony are "too little, too late" and it remains to be seen. Either way, Trump will be remembered well by history.

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NanaW's avatar

Putin is not our friend, but if things go the way I hope and pray they will, I think he will see the wisdom of aligning with Trump over Xi.

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The Ungovernable's avatar

Congress can't even agree on a budget. You expect them to do all those other things? Man, that shit hard!

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Steponbugs's avatar

Love him or hate him, Trump is playing Calvinball. Republicans played by the rules for 50 years, and got their asses handed to them one way or another, every time (or they were cosplaying the opposition party for most of that time, got invited to all the swell parties, and got their retirements bankrolled, but I digress…). Heads are exploding everywhere b/c Trump has unilaterally determined that the DC rules are BS, and that only losers play by the rules there. He’s flipping over tables, and when they start to rearrange things, he’ll show up with a leaf blower. He’s setting the table for a massive recalibration of how things work in DC, and it’s never going to be “business as usual” in DC again.

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Michael L's avatar

I wish I was as confident that it was never going to be business as usual, but it will at least take a while for entropy to return.

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Madjack's avatar

We have so very many failed institutions in our country. There is a lot of rot. I would encourage everyone that loves their country to try to make their house, their street, their community great again. We are all responsible.

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Kate Finis's avatar

Yes... while the DC waters are being roiled bigly, each of us in our communities can make a big difference by participating in local affairs. The grassroots of America is where things begin - so let's make it all GOOD things by becoming a PC, running for town council or school board, volunteering at a local food bank... We've rightly lost respect for Congress for being self-interested do-nothings. But what are we if we, too, sit back and put the onus on others to improve our lives? MAGA starts at home!

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Steve Campbell's avatar

When was the last real budget created? The 90’s. Congress operates on CR’s and emergency funding. It creates laws that are indecipherable. 5000 pages of lawyerspeak with no substance. Every law is so cluttered with amendments that they cannot be deciphered by the Supreme Court as to their validity and Constitutional authority.

The Administrative branch is awash in worthless departments doing worthless things authorized by the Congress named above.

The third branch, the Judiciary has become a self appointed administrative body ruling on behalf of whatever party they favor, not the law

Then we have the fourth estate who selectively decides who will be the preferred leader and what policy they should follow. They do not hold truth to power but manipulate the truth to sell more crap and make lots of money. We would be better served by a town crier telling us what had happened every night.

Put this all together and you have our ruling class.

Trump and Doge are the first ones to attempt to do something about this mess. More power to them, may they succeed, even a little. It can’t get worse.

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Angela's avatar

I’m old enough to remember Rand Paul’s grandstanding about Fauci; he did not even try to hold the Dr. accountable. Now Rand is doing the same about tariffs and remember also that he refused to endorse Trump because of some problem he had with his Border policy. Now he’s trying to attach himself to RFK, Jr.’s suggested policies about the food supply. In my opinion, he’s another useless, attention seeking RINO too enamored with himself.

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Rather Curmudgeonly's avatar

Everything, every SINGLE thing, in the federal government is DESIGNED to slough off responsibility and accountability.

Congress is just the best at that.

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CB's avatar

I'm also often disappointed in Senator Paul's lack of bite, but referring Fauci to Merritt Garland for prosecution would be as useful as reporting Michael Corleone to the Godfather.

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Kirk Susong's avatar

What do you think he should do? He has no power to act alone, other than to try to persuade people as loudly as he can (ie, ‘attention seeking’).

Chris, if you’re reading this, here is a good example of my critique of the electorate. They want what they want and they want it now. But in a curious twist of public choice theory, that simply empowers firebrands (who talk a big talk but are unable to compromise or build coalitions) to get elected over and over again. Net result: voters demand change and vote for candidates promising it, thereby guaranteeing nothing will change. Ain’t political theory grand?

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Michael L's avatar

Exactly: so long as there's a problem, fixing it can be an issue to run on. Failure to fix it can be blamed on "the other side." But keep voting for me, because I'm fighting to fix it.

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Hugh Wayne Black's avatar

Trey Gaudy, reboot.

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Alan's avatar

I like Rand Paul and Tom Massie, but I have total contempt for the purity spiral they are both on. We are in a fight against the globalists and their fellow travelers in the deep state who have been trying to bankrupt America and drag us into a nuclear war with Russia. It’s either sovereignty for America, or serfdom under the heel of the globalists. Get over yourselves and get with the program you two libertarian twits and join the fight.

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NanaW's avatar

“But muh principles” is a losing proposition at this point. Get out of your ivory towers and get down in the mud where the real work to turn the tide is happening.

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Steenroid's avatar

Is there any group of people that are as ignorant as out Congress. All they care about is grifting taxpayers to line their own pockets. And getting reelected.

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George Bredestege's avatar

Yes, Congress has evolved to its pinnacle state: Inmates in charge of the Asylum

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Rather Curmudgeonly's avatar

And who is to blame for that? Voters my friend - the foundation of democracy is a bunch of people in love with bread and circuses.

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jim's avatar

The average age is 100…a cabal of boomer cons that just read sound bites written by there unpaid aides, and pay money men to execute all there inside trades. It’s a pack of complete useless scum save a handful.

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EK MtnTime's avatar

Pretty much nailed the landing with this one. I think the chaos Trump creates is very necessary because it puts everyone off kilter. He truly couldn’t get anything done if he operated in a straight forward manner from the beginning. The chaos facilitates the negotiation process where the other countries come in discombobulated and Trump is firmly in the drivers seat, working the art of the deal. It’s a rather beautiful thing to observe.

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Hugh Wayne Black's avatar

If Joe Biden was still President, congress wouldn’t have granted him this kind of totalitarian dictatorial power….

Oh, wait…inflation reduction act, student loan forgiveness, $billions to Ukraine without approval etc. Never mind…

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