Tag: perpetual war

Decoupling from China is worth the price

Say what you want about trade deficits, national debt, sovereignty, financial markets, the U.S. dollar, executive authority, etc. There are a variety of good-faith opinions about how to structure the trade practices that would put the United States in the best position to succeed in the near and long term.

However, the future of America’s relationship with China must be based on reality before ideology. China is, in fact, “ripping us off” six ways from Sunday. For decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), despite how one may feel about its core political ideology, has not operated in good faith in its relationship with the United States, choosing to commit blatant fraud, outright cheating, and routine deception.

I’ve been one of those annoying people on social media this week insisting that, yes, the stock market is indeed a significant component of the U.S. economy, despite the claims of some over-reminiscent protectionist maximalists in government and the media. I’ve come to the defense of the free market advocates who rightly point out that shocking the markets too ferociously will result in negative consequences for Americans.

However, when it comes to China, Wall Street cannot be allowed to dictate the terms of America’s relationship with the CCP. They are too fixated on quarterly reports and short-term interests to support a long-term pivot away from China and towards America’s allies abroad. Moreover, too many Wall Street firms and banks have been corrupted by Beijing’s influence, and they don’t have the independence to act in America’s best interests in a way that the White House can in this situation.

Beyond its promotion and advancement of domestic and global tyranny, the CCP steals, lies, and cheats, and it refuses to reform.

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Trump authorizes military to take control of federal land along southern border

President Trump issued a memorandum Friday authorizing the military to take control of federal lands along the southern border to combat illegal immigration and drug smuggling. 

“Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats. The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past,” Trump wrote in the memo issued to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Trump directed his Cabinet members to “take all appropriate actions” to “provide for the use and jurisdiction by the Department of Defense” over federal lands “that are reasonably necessary to enable military activities directed in this memorandum.” 

The president listed “border-barrier construction and emplacement of detection and monitoring equipment” as the activities that the military will engage in along the US-Mexico border but later noted that Hegseth “may determine those military activities that are reasonably necessary and appropriate to accomplish the mission assigned.” 

The mission is to “defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the US, as detailed in Trump’s Day One executive order on border security. 

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Trump Considering Buying Foreign Ships To Make Up Gap With China

Upset by the pace of domestic shipbuilding, President Donald Trump said he may look to foreign companies to produce vessels for the U.S. His comments came after his sweeping executive order seeking to revamp the American shipbuilding industry that pales in comparison to China’s, which has been assessed to have a whopping 200-times larger capacity than the United States. Trump didn’t spell out whether he was talking about commercial ships, naval vessels or both. However, this makes particular sense for expanding the U.S. Navy and is an option we have repeatedly highlighted in the past, given the litany of issues the service is facing.

“We may order, would have to go to Congress for this, but we may buy some ships from other countries that we’re close to and do great jobs with ships,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.  “But we’re going to start the process of rebuilding. We don’t really essentially build ships anymore, which is ridiculous. It’s going to be very big business for us in the not-too-distant future. But in the meantime, we have countries that do very well at building ships, and we’ll be dealing with those countries. So we may be ordering top-of-the-line ships from those countries. And within a fairly short period of time, we’ll be building our own ships. So we’ll probably have to go to Congress for that, but we’re not going to have a problem.”

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Kiev broke energy ceasefire five times in 24 hours – Moscow

Ukrainian forces have launched five separate attacks against Russian energy infrastructure in 24 hours, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Friday. The strikes are the latest breach by Kiev of a US-mediated ceasefire on such attacks, the ministry said.

The listed incidents included shelling against elements of the Russian power grid and a drone strike against a transformer station, all causing disruptions in electricity supply, according to the ministry.

A partial ceasefire was announced by Russia on March 18, after President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with his US counterpart, Donald Trump. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has publicly supported the idea, but also complained that Russia wouldn’t agree to a full ceasefire. Putin cited difficulties with monitoring violations along the lengthy front line and the potential for Kiev to use the pause for military build-up, explaining his concerns about a full truce. Russia continues to honor the ceasefire on energy strikes despite Ukrainian breaches, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

The Russian military has reported Ukrainian attacks breaching the moratorium on a daily basis, some of them involving long-range kamikaze drones targeting major energy facilities on Russian soil. The Defense Ministry has described the incidents as demonstrating Kiev’s duplicity.

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The United States Can and Should Reduce Its Defense Spending

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended his first NATO foreign ministers’ meeting and was more concerned about European sensibilities than American interests. Unfortunately, Rubio embraced the past rather than promoted the future. It would be tragic if the MAGA revolution resulted in more of the same.

Rubio sought to reassure European officials who have begun to do more in their own defense because they have been discomfited by both Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Rather than intensify European fears that the Trump administration finally meant business, the secretary disclaimed any intention to leave the alliance: “The United States is as active in NATO as it has ever been,” he insisted. While speaking next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Rubio added: “Some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about NATO is unwarranted.” 

Indeed, Rubio suggested that Trump was apparently a secret alliance enthusiast: “We want NATO to be stronger, we want NATO to be more visible and the only way NATO can get stronger, more visible is if our partners, the nation states that comprise this important alliance, have more capability.” That doesn’t sound like the Trump that most of us know, but the new U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matt Whitaker, similarly opined that “under President Trump’s leadership, NATO will be stronger and more effective than ever before, and I believe that a robust NATO can continue to serve as a bedrock of peace and prosperity.”

In short, per the president’s aides, America plans on sticking around to protect the Europeans. Rubio insisted, “President Trump has made clear he supports NATO. We’re going to remain in NATO.” What the latter dislikes, Rubio explained, is states which lack the capabilities to fulfill their obligations. This is the same message that Joe Biden, both as vice president and president, routinely brought to the continent. Indeed, he spent years actively discouraging the Europeans from doing more on their own behalf.

In contrast, during his first term Trump reportedly told aides he wanted to withdraw from the alliance. His failure to act during the first few weeks of this presidency doesn’t mean he has grown to love what he once sought to delete. Of course, Rubio still echoes his boss in pushing other NATO member governments to do more. But without ill consequences for their failure to act, enthusiasm for reform is likely to quickly wane. After all, President Barack Obama’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, excoriated the Europeans for their lackadaisical attitude, but his message was drowned out by Biden singing a European variant of Bobby McFerrin’s hit tune “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” 

Nevertheless, the secretary has a tough sales job. Reported Deutsche Welle, “Rubio’s task of putting fellow NATO members at ease was made even harder on Wednesday when Trump announced tariffs that many fear could kick off global trade war. A 10 percent levy now applies to virtually all goods imported into the U.S. Goods from the European Union, which includes 23 of the 31 NATO member states, face tariffs of 20 percent.” The U.S. and Europe are struggling to remain friends, but just as in any other busted romance, Uncle Sam obviously no longer respects his partner. An unnamed European diplomat told the Associated Press, “We need to preempt a rapid retreat, but we’ve had nothing precise from the U.S. yet.” 

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Responsible For Millions Of Deaths, Blinken Tries To Attack Trump Ukraine Policy Of Ending War

Former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was one of the chief architects of the disastrous policy of pushing for Ukrainian NATO membership in 2022 and bears partial direct responsibility for the millions of dead and wounded in the Ukraine War, which commenced after then Vice President Kamala Harris declared in Europe Ukraine would join the alliance.

The ghoulish former American official tried to attack Trump’s policy of ending the war and criticized Trump’s accurate description of the Zelenskiy regime’s refusal to work to end the conflict, in an interview with CNBC.

Blinken is part of a group of ‘Neocons’ who pushed for NATO expansion which they knew would cause a kinetic conflict with the Russian Federation.

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Trump Must Cut the Ukraine Albatross Loose

President Trump should avoid a snare of his own making and extricate the United States from the war between Russia and Ukraine.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly indicated that he expected the war between Ukraine and Russia to end quickly once he entered the oval office. He even boasted that he could bring a halt to the fighting within 24 hours. Trump has not been able to achieve his objective. Indeed, he has not been able to secure even a comprehensive ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow. The most significant accomplishments to date are the agreements between the warring parties to refrain from attacks on infrastructure and to allow some consumer maritime traffic in the Black Sea to resume. Even those limited agreements are marked by numerous alleged violations by both sides.

Trump’s hopes for a wider ceasefire, much less a formal peace agreement, are fading fast, and his level of frustration is beginning to soar. His annoyance with Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelensky has been apparent on several occasions, most notably during the infamous White House confrontation between Zelensky and both Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance on February 28, 2025. Recently, however, Trump’s irritation with Vladimir Putin also has increased. On one occasion, the president expressed extreme anger at the Russian leader for dragging his feet on a more comprehensive ceasefire. Other administration officials also stated that it was time for Putin to make up his mind about whether or not he wants a peace accord.

Trump seemingly has wandered into a trap of his own making. Moreover, it is a snare that resembles the one that kept the United States entangled militarily in Afghanistan throughout most of his first term, despite his rhetoric during the 2016 presidential campaign about quickly extracting U.S. military forces from that quagmire. Once in office, Trump allowed hawkish advisers, such as Secretary of Defense James Mattis, to talk him into abandoning his own instincts and following the advice of “experts” who had mired the United States in the interminable Afghan conflict.  In the case of Ukraine, there are troubling signs that Trump may be responding favorably to hawks in both the United States and Europe who insist that failing to back Kyiv’s unrealistic position would amount to a shameful betrayal of a beleaguered democracy.

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Protest at Travis AFB Against US Weapons for Israeli Genocide

At 7:30 a.m. on April 9, the heavy traffic flow into California’s Travis Air Force Base came to a sudden stop.  As they have done numerous times, the “People’s Arms Embargo” blocked the main road into the base. The action this time commemorated the recently deceased long-time peace advocate David Hartsough, one of the co-founders of the Peoples Arms Embargo.

With traffic into the base stopped, one angry airman jumped out of his pickup truck and threatened to assault the peaceful protestors. He finally thought better of it and returned to his truck. Other waiting airmen and airwomen were patient and a few indicated support for the protest. One lowered his window and said, “Palestine will be free!” In the workout gym in an adjacent plaza, many people on their workout machines waved and jumped up and down in support.

At the blockade on the six-lane divided highway, about forty police officers were quickly on the scene. They broadcast a recorded message in English and Spanish that anyone blocking traffic would be arrested. Twelve protesters were arrested and cited with the crime.

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Trump White House holds Hamas ‘entirely responsible’ for Israeli execution of Palestinian medics

The Trump administration has doubled down on its position that Hamas is to blame for Israeli troops executing 15 Palestinian medical workers in Gaza, even after a video showed that the Israeli military was lying about the incident.

The Israeli army initially claimed its forces opened fire on vehicles that were advancing “suspiciously” and had no headlights or flashing emergency lights. But a video recorded by one of the executed paramedic’s phone showed the ambulances they were driving had emergency lights on when the Israeli army opened fire.

“Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose. To help people,” said Palestinian medic Refaat Radwan moments before he was killed.

The Israeli soldiers tried to cover up the crime by burying the 15 medics and their ambulances in a shallow grave. The army has since changed its story, acknowledging the lights were flashing and that they opened fire on unarmed men but claiming six of them were linked to Hamas while offering no evidence.

Despite the clear evidence of a war crime, the US is still backing the Israeli army’s conduct. “Hamas uses ambulances and more broadly human shields for terrorism,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told Reuters. “President Trump understands the impossible situation this tactic creates for Israel and holds Hamas entirely responsible.”

Before the video came out, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce was asked about the executions and also said that Hamas was to blame. “Every single thing that is happening in Gaza is happening because of Hamas. Every single dynamic,” she said.

On Monday, Hamas responded to Hughes’s statement and denied that it uses ambulances for military purposes. Hamas wrote on Telegram that the statement represents “a horrific example of unethical solidarity with the Nazis of our time, in their brutal war against innocent civilians and humanitarian organizations.”

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Trump administration weighs drone strikes on Mexican cartels

The Trump administration is considering launching drone strikes on drug cartels in Mexico as part of an ambitious effort to combat criminal gangs trafficking narcotics across the southern border, according to six current and former U.S. military, law enforcement and intelligence officials with knowledge of the matter.

Discussions among White House, Defense Department and intelligence officials, which are still at an early stage, have included possible drone strikes against cartel figures and their logistical networks in Mexico with the cooperation of Mexico’s government, the sources said.

Still, the administration has made no final decision and reached no definitive agreement about countering the cartels. And unilateral covert action, without Mexico’s consent, has not been ruled out and could be an option of last resort, the sources said. It is unclear whether American officials have floated the possibility of drone strikes to the Mexican government.

If Mexico and the United States proceed together with drone strikes or other action, it would not be the first time they have launched a joint effort to take on the cartels, nor would it be the first time that American military and intelligence worked in concert with Mexico’s law enforcement and army.

But what the Trump administration is contemplating could be unprecedented both in the number of U.S. personnel involved and in the use of American unmanned aircraft to bomb cartel personnel and assets.

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