A bad time to be a friend of America

If Netanyahu thinks Israel has a friend in the White House, after 17% tariffs were imposed he needs to worry about the way the White House is treating its friends

The most extraordinary thing about the Trump Tariffs is not the sometimes eyewatering uplifts in the cost of importing goods into America, it’s the rationale.
At a time when America is telling allies they needs to pull its own weight and that the rest of the world is on its own, the USA seeks to widen and deepen its hegemony in other ways, including using the tariff sledgehammer. The rationale for the tariffs includes a striking, shocking detail:

“Countries… have pursued policies that suppress the domestic consumption power of their own citizens to artificially boost the competitiveness of their export products. Such policies include regressive tax systems, low or unenforced penalties for environmental degradation, and policies intended to suppress worker wages relative to productivity.”

Let that sink in. Countries that tax at a higher rate so that they can deliver better communal services, create a better communal environment are actually preventing their citizens from spending money on stuff. And that is not acceptable. They must buy more stuff. Fill their lives with stuff.. Deplete the earth’s resources creating stuff. They are behaving in an anti-capitalist way, which now means an Anti-American way. It is no longer acceptable for people in countries around the world to choose their own model, which might include public services and infrastructure. That is not acceptable anymore.

Tie that in with JD Vance’s attack on European countries at the Munich Conference for stifling free speech and it is clear this is about the imposition of an American political and social model. Europe has free speech, but it is not the American model of free speech so it is unacceptable and intolerable.

The example he gave was of Scotland where prayer meetings outside medical facilities which conduct abortions are banned. To Vance it’s a breach of fundamental rights to free speech enshrined in Article 1 of the American constitution and freedom of religious expression which is a foundation of the American ideal. To Europeans it is preventing the intimidation of women exercising their own rights.

And then there are the threats to invade Canada and Greenland; in pursuit of economic benefit.

America 2025 is a country shrinking from its global responsibility as the most powerful and successful state in human history, a duty to lead on stability and security, and instead is seeking to impose its will on those, previously aligned nations, which it feels able to dominate, in a mission of political and economic hegemony.

So much for the free world.