If A Butterfly In Washington

We have to start off with apologies for vanishing for a couple of days.  Between a sudden bit of bad news and a burst of activity, this week became reallly busy really fast.

I don't know if it is the Trump Effect or just first-of-the-year budgets, but work has picked up dramatically in the opening weeks of 2017.  I've booked more hours in two weeks than I did for all of the fourth quarter of 2016, and I've been living out of the back of an Uber.  I leave the house at just before 6a, and don't get home again until 8:30p.

Not that I'm complaining.  Last year was a complete wash out.  As I look back on it, I've come the suspect that the world was seemingly resigned to a Clinton administration and was prepared for the worst economically.  However, the Trump election appears to have kicked everyone in the butt, either in anticipation of economic renewal, or out of sheer panic that old markets are drying up.

In my lifetime of just over half a century, I do not recall such a major shift in social, political and economic winds.  I might compare it to the 1980s, right after Reagan was elected and there was a bump in excitement after the Democratic Carter administration, that also nearly ran the world into economic ruin.

One thing I will say about Democrats is that they are masters at killing business.  But I guess that's to be expected from a party that vehemently defended slavery, gave the world a central banking system, introduced the personal income tax, and expanded two regional European conflicts into global catastrophes.  Someone really should put those bastards out of our misery.

If you're Republican, don't feel too smug.  Your party is only a hair's breadth better because occasionally you manage to get a candidate that lowers taxes and deregulates everything, which kicks entrepreneurs like myself into gear.  I think it's more by accident than design, since nothing having to do with government is for the betterment of us real people.

To see just how demented and slimy the Republicans can be, just look at John McCain.

Whatever Trump is achieving, even in these past few weeks before officially taking office, is re-introducing a peculiarly American form of mercantilistic capitalism that has got the Chinese literally shitting their britches.  Folks in the States may be a bit distracted to see clearly see what's going on, but here in Asia it is readily apparent.

The US swung suddenly and violently from literally kowtowing to Chinese dominance, to the polar opposite of not taking any guff off the kids in Beijing.  Even something as seemingly benign as Trump taking a phone call from the president of Taiwan has set off a fire-storm of panic in the gilded halls of the Forbidden City.  In short, the Socialists are profoundly spooked at the re-emergence of Fascism.

Lest the reader be confused at this point, one would do well to poke back into our archives, where we talk extensively about the basic philosophical similarities between Socialism and Fascism, with the differences being little more than who gets to sit closest to the salt at the Bildergerg dinners.  The bit that looks like Capitalism is where government deregulates the playing field so the little guy has much more equal footing with the massive global corporate interests.

In any case, the Chinese are quickly asserting themselves to get as much damage control in place as they can before the Trump Era begins.  They have been sailing their warships all over the South China Sea in a geopolitical form of flexing on the beach.  They have overtly threatened the US if anyone so much as breathes in the general direction of the One-China Policy.  They have signaled their "desire" to participate in any infrastructure rebuilding in the States.  They have also been calling Putin daily to invite him for some chow at the palace, desperately afraid that Russia will start moving in a Westerly direction, since they clearly know that Russia is only their buddy because the US has been such a bunch of horse's patoots for the past two decades.

At any rate, gotta run.  I'ts 4:30a and time to shower up and order Uber.  I will get back on schedule next week, when I have the weekend to get my posts prepared.  In the meantime, be sure and follow our Twitter feed @RadioFarSide for dispatches on important headlines affecting the Sino-American situation and thanks for your kind patience.

And to my beloved sister, who passes away suddenly in her sleep, I am happy that your pain is ended and that your passing was without unnecessary drama, but your absence is sorely felt and your laughter will be profoundly missed.  Slan agus beannach mo dheirfiúr.