During the election, when Trump was still just an annoyance, the obvious way to cut him off at the pass was to co-opt his issues. This is a tried and true way for establishments to neutralize outside challengers in electoral politics. In the case of Republicans, they just needed their guys to take immigration and trade seriously. A guy like Kasich was perfect, as he had been fairly good on both issues in his career. He could have been the reasonable guy and stolen both issues.
That did not happen, of course. Instead, all of the candidates went the exact opposite direction, thinking that their ticket to the winner’s circle was to be the most over-the-top anti-Trump loon on the ballot. It was a crazy thing to watch. No matter the reason, the decision has turned out to be a big one. In the fullness of time, it will be looked upon as one of those small decisions that had world changing consequences, and not just for Americans. News brings word that Mexico is looking for a Trump of their own.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s campaign rhetoric can make him sound like a Mexican Donald Trump.
The left-leaning front-runner in Mexico’s presidential race is overtly nationalistic, pushes “Mexican people first” policies and peppers his speeches with anti-establishment slogans that thrill the working-class Mexicans who flock to his rallies.
But while his style might be distinctly Trumpian, his policy prescriptions could not be more different. Indeed, the election of the former mayor of Mexico City could be disastrous for Trump and his administration, creating an even more charged relationship between the two countries that could reduce cooperation on border security, trade and immigration.
That worries U.S. politicians and business leaders, including House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas), who was not shy about expressing his disdain for López Obrador at an event last fall hosted by the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce.
“I do not want to see President [López] Obrador take office next year,” McCaul said, adding he fears the Trump administration could increase those chances if it mishandles talks on revamping the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada.
We live in a time when every event will be cast as bad news for Trump, every Trump move will be bad news for us and all the good news will be pitched as bad news in the long run. This was the pattern in the Reagan years. The booming economy was always bracketed by stories about the homeless and stories about middle-aged men working at fast food joints. That is what we see here. Mexico electing a nationalist may or may not be bad news for Mexico, but it is unquestionably good news for Trump and America.
The one card the globalists have to play against the nationalists is that globalism promotes peace and cooperation among national elites. The rulers of European countries meet over cocktails and wildly expensive appetizers, rather than on the battlefield. Cooperation, between Mexican elites and American elites, means cordial relations between the two countries on issues like trade, drugs and migration. If every country is going for nationalists leaders all of a sudden, the globalists no longer have that card to play.
In the case of Mexico, their elites are so corrupt they make our elites look like good government idealists by comparison. As Steve Sailer is fond of pointing out, Mexico has been run by an organized crime family for generations. The Bush family is monstrous, but they are nowhere near as toxic as the Salinas family. That said, populism in that part of the world tends to mean crazy Marxists and deranged academics, who also happen to be Marxists. Making Mexico Venezuela is the most likely result of populism.
Still, the right answer for Americans is for our rulers to put pressure on Mexican elites to stem the flow of drugs and migrants into America. The dirty little secret is that the migrants coming over the border are not Mexicans. These are Central Americans given safe passage and aid by the Mexican government. The same is true of the drug trade, which is a key source of revenue for the Mexican ruling class. It is not an accident that Mexican Donald Trump is promising to amnesty drug war criminals.
The bigger issue though is a tough talking Mexican president would crystallize support in America for a hard line with Mexico. Americans may have doubts about Trump, but they will rally to his side in a dispute with a foreign leader. With a booming economy, fear of economic repercussions loses its bite. That and good times give American presidents more room to maneuver on the world stage. The last thing the Mexican ruling class needs right now is a head of state who is going to be a foil to Donald Trump.
The truth is the Mexican ruling class needs to be on good terms with America. If the cost of doing that is reining in their criminal element, that is good for the people of both countries. Mexico does not have to be Afghanistan, where warlords run the countryside, living off criminal enterprises. If Trump’s rhetoric helps put pressure on the Mexican political system, forcing a degree of responsible government on them, that is good for Mexicans and Americans. if not, then we just need to build a big wall on the border.
john kasich is a flaming asshole with no redeeming qualities. Just set aside for a second that he was a managing director at Lehman when it augered into the ground in the early days of the great recession. You’ll also have to set aside how he voted for bill and hillary clinton’s gun ban in the 1990’s after going on Gordon Liddy’s show to talk up how pro gun he was. And he voted for every gun control bill that came up for a vote. Or his well known history going back more than 2 decades of frequently going on… Read more »
Kasich has proven time and time again that he is the very definition of a two-faced political A-Hole.
Kasich did wonders for Ohio’s financial well-being.
John Kasich lobbied state pension funds for Lehman Bros.
http://plunderbund.com/2010/05/12/john-kasich-lobbied-state-pension-funds-for-lehman-bros/
Lehman holdings cost Ohio pensions $480M
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2010/04/21/lehman-holdings-cost-ohio-pensions-480m.html
“This was the pattern in the Reagan years.The booming economy was always bracketed by stories about the homeless and stories about middle-aged men working at fast food joints. ” Yet during the Obummer years where we had the worst economic recovery ever, the state media suspended the homeless narrative and cooed about great it was that McDonald’s and other fast food places were hiring. Now that economy is getting 3% plus growth that the media said would about never happen again, the homeless stories are reappearing and the old schtick about “burger flipping jobs” is making a comeback. Except the… Read more »
except this time the homeless stories always point out the failure of democrat governance. when you think homeless, you think dem run place.
Totally agree for people like you and I, but for the low-info-mofo, they see a story about homeless on CNN, they make the association that since Trump is POTUS, he is the reason there is homeless on the streets suffering. It’s the same old liberal playbook trick from back in the day. However they don’t realize there are 10,000 Karl McHungus out there giving the facts about Democrats and their policies have run most of the major cities into the ground. So the effect the liberals are trying to pull off is not as damaging as it was pre-internet /… Read more »
“Mexico has been run by an organized crime family for generations.”
Ha Ha ! We again beat Mexico by miles! The US has been run by at least FOUR organized crime families for generations: Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush and Clinton!
Take that, Mexico!
No nation should be denied the right to use deadly force to protect their borders against threats like terrorists, or drug smugglers. The U.S. thinks Mexicans are harmless, just folks looking for a better life. If our border patrol kills the illegals, not many would die before they got the idea that it is safer to stay in Mexico, and apply for legal immigration rather than illegally cross the border. Cruel? Not if you are Katie Steinlie’s family. In the meantime, citizens are protected, which is the point of borders in the first place. Fences make good neighbors. Landmines and… Read more »
Lived in Mexico (Sinaloa, 20 years ago) for a year and that was enough. My take then was that the place is a powder-keg waiting to blow. The USA has effectively forgotten the Monroe Doctrine (videlicet Venezuela, Cuba, etc.) while wasting US citizens’ lives, treasure, futures on places (e.g. Israel and environs) that matter far less than Mexico to US domestic issues and security. Neglecting one’s own “back yard” while granting endless concessions to a distant and hostile (yes, Israel is not an ally but rather a passive-aggressive non-ally at the least) is simply stupid. A leftist and hostile Mexico… Read more »
Mexico has been and will be a basket case regardless of who becomes their president or which party takes power. Don’t know why they can never get out of their own way, but they just don’t . The USA just needs to build that damn wall, stop illegal immigration and implement economic agreements with Mexico that benefits the USA. Obviously, Mexico will agree to what benefits them; what else is new. This talk about who will be the next Mexican president is a waste of time; it’s meaningless. They will elect whomever they want and there is nothing the USA… Read more »
Fred Reeds says the wall is just “Sound and the Fury: And Not Much Else,” which the president is using to “excite his rubes while not actually doing much about immigration” https://tinyurl.com/yd2x2ccu
Let me guess. Fred lives… where?
In the barrio, too, I’m sure.
I am in favor of a wall, but I am not sure how effective it will be. A future president Obama can simply open the gates, leave key sections undefended, and expand work/ travel visas and not enforce their expiration dates. I believe a national e-verify system making it a felony for anyone to hire an illegal would be far more effective. Company executives will not violate the law no matter who the president is, even if he indicates it will not be enforced, because in four years they could be in prison.
“Company executives will not violate the law no matter who the president is”. Oh, really? The US would be even less prosperous than it is (and prosperity is relative) if “businessmen” didn’t constantly find ways to circumvent the “law”. My brother-in-law owns his own company. He made his wife majority owner so they could take advantage of various regulations, taxes and grants since they are now a “woman owned” business. I’m pretty sure there is going to be some kind of compromise on DACA. There will always be compromise between politicians and businessmen and it will be facilitated by lawyers… Read more »
” A future president Obama can simply open the gates…”
Or a future president OPRAH.
Yet again I beseech the Great Heavens for ThaGreatest Kwanzaa Mirableau!
Please let Oprah run for office!
I’m in tears laughing just typing it.
I thought the same thing when Obama ran.
The experience in California with prison building is instructive. The private prison contractors and the prison guard unions lobby Sacramental like crazy to increase the number of laws on the books, to increase sentences and so forth. Crime is good business. I suspect the border wall will become something similar. States on the border will get pressure from local contractors to spend on wall maintenance. Border patrol unions will lobby for more people and even better fencing.
The wall is mostly a symbol, but symbols are important. This one could also become an industry.
The wall is a symbol of power. Look at what the Berlin Wall came to represent in the 1980s.
The wall is a symbol of our power, and if built, a symbol of the left’s impotence. As such, as an expression of our will, it is much more important than the practical purpose it is ostensibly intended for.
Once the wall is built and the border secured, hopefully it will not one day be that which ironically prevents people from fleeing the U.S., like when President Oprah confiscates all property and businesses to re-distribute to People of Color while whites are persecuted and killed like South Africans.
The Berlin Wall did a pretty good job of stopping movement across it, and the Israeli wall is working pretty well here in the present. If the Ebola virus was coming across the Southern border, the Feds would stop all traffic in a heart beat. It can be done. It isn’t because of power politics and nothing else.
Those two worked, as well as the N/S Korea, but the wall isn’t the reason. The armed guards willing to shoot trespassers are. We could start out with warning signs, advance to rubber bullets, progress to deadly force.
Why oh why can’t we do like Israel does?! Netanyahu announces ‘mission’ to expel all illegal African migrants from Israel https://www.rt.com/news/415000-israel-african-migrants-jail/ “Illegal African migrants found still living in Israel by April could face indefinite imprisonment if they don’t leave voluntarily. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expel remaining ‘illegal infiltrators’ from Africa. “‘We have expelled about 20,000 and now the mission is to get the rest out,’ Netanyahu said on Wednesday in public remarks at a cabinet meeting that approved the scheme. Some 60,000 Africans, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, entered Israel before it erected a fence along its… Read more »
The prison guard union is one of the fattest and most powerful unions here in California. Unfettered illegal immigration really fills up the prison cells here, which means “more, more, more” for the prison guards. Follow the money.
Here in California, the people voted for trickily-worded laws that decriminalize crime (I did not fall for it and voted “NO”). So now, for example, when some fine upstanding person burgles a home, if they steal less than $950 worth of goods, it’s a misdemeanor. As a result, we’re seeing many more burglaries in my neighborhood, some of them downright brazen in full daylight. Armed robberies are up as well, guys with guns stopping people walking down the sidewalk and stealing their purse or duffel bag full of stuff. The police understandably do not have the time or resources to… Read more »
“I believe a national e-verify system making it a felony for anyone to hire an illegal would be far more effective.”
I think the failure of the GOP to implement mandatory E-Verify, and the failure of Trump to shove it down Congress’s throat lends credence to the idea that Trump’s immigation agenda/wall talk is just political kabuki theater. In this day and age if computers implementing mandatory E-Verify cannot be that difficult.
The E-Verify poster in our lunch room includes the statement “In most cases, your employer cannot require you to be a U.S. citizen or verified legal resident.” What?
Yes, and why isn’t technology implemented that makes it impossible to use Social Security Numbers of deceased people? That’s rhetorical, of course. It’s because there is no will to do so.
I still subscribe to the FT, I am not sure why. It is interesting how every article, from fashion to travel to food, somehow brings Trump into the conversation. He is in their heads, 24/7.
As to Mexico, go for it, amigos. It is about time the US and Mexico had a frank discussion about each country’s perceived best interests. So much better than the “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” relationship we have had all these years.
I was stationed on the border at Fort Bliss (with a worthless air defense artillery outfit) and even though we weren’t allowed to jump the border, I went to Juarez and found it was scarier than Baghdad. Something like five times as many people die per day there than per year on the American side of the border. The crime rate in Northern Mexico means it’s more dangerous than some of the countries on Trump’s “Muslim Ban” list. If Cambridge was on the Rio Grande, this wouldn’t be tolerated for five minutes. Noam Chomsky would go from anarchist to Minuteman… Read more »
New England is already becoming a 3rd World cesspool, thanks Haiti and MS13 (Matrucha Salvadora). People are fleeing Conneticut due to “high taxes”, heh.
They’ll just move to North Carolina so they can reform the Jim Crow racists.
Living in the south, in close proximity to many diverse individuals, I think applied contact theory is indeed the key to expanding the consciousness of our insulated northern friends. I would be all for spending the money designated for the wall to award significant federal grants to all the northeast liberal white states/enclaves for the purpose of building affordable housing exclusively for occupation by minorities. This would be accomplished in concert with a grant program to relocate any black people who care to move to these states and occupy this housing. To encourage people to take advantage of these opportunities… Read more »
And all refugees America accepts should be sent to Hawaii, preferably to the island that the 9th Circuit’s Judge Watson lives on.
Yes, yes! And grants to ensure they have access to the finest education!
Flip Obama’s Affordable Housing Act invasion back on his fanbase instead of some poor farmers in Resume Speed, Iowa. Love it.
Responsible government cannot be forced upon any country. Responsible government must come from within. Some cultures and nations are unable to govern responsibly. There is not much the U.S. can do about it, except tighten U.S. national security, including borders, and cut-off markets that fuel corruption and violence.
Pirate to Alexander:
The pirate continued, “You and I are doing the same thing. We are leading exactly the same kind of life, only I am doing it in a very small measure. I may rob a few individuals and trading boats here and there, but you are doing it on a wide scale. How many countries you have conquered! How many lives you have needlessly destroyed! How many valuable treasures you and your soldiers have plundered! I tell you, it is you who should be ashamed, not I!”
Big difference between the pirate and Alexander: Alexander incorporated the civilizing factors of Greek thinking and philosophy into those populations he overcame through force, eventually leaving the locals and their offspring far better than he found them!
The pirate? Not so much!
Recall that scene in Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” when the local Judean revolutionaries asked each other, “What have the Romans done for us?” then, sheepishly proceed to outline all the benefits they received as a result of Roman conquest….TOO Funny!
“Alexander incorporated the civilizing factors of Greek thinking and philosophy into those populations he overcame through force, eventually leaving the locals and their offspring far better than he found them!” And how did that benefit the Greek/Macedonian people? And how civilized did “those populations he overcame” become? And how were the “locals and their offspring far better than he found them”? I think he just imposed a different type of slavery on the majority of those in the subsequent divisions of his empire. The conceit that Greek thinking and philosophy was better for a people that had never developed it… Read more »
So we should have never given them coloreds flush toilets?
The British idea of “British Indians” did passing fair. That’s the glue holding that country together right now, keeping it from backsliding into unopposed street shitting.
Either we lift them up or we put them down. You wanna My Fair Lady, or ya wanna Old Yeller?
No, there is a third more viable option. Observe, but don’t interfere. You see, by giving them “flush toilets” and other White juju, we have given them the means to reproduce without consequences. This has led to migration to the West. Eventually, if not stopped, we will end up as prisoners in the lands our fathers created. Positing compassion for other groups that results in your own demise is not compassion for your own people. Charity begins at home.
That’s too leaf eating to be viable long term, your points are all valid but kick the can. To succeed you must make the way forward by enabling your heirs Time. Time for advanced innovations, discovery, etc. Dangers and advancements that you secure and cement now are proverbial rungs in the ladder, like Pournelles and Nivens moties. If you do not address the savages then your heirs will have to spend time doing it.
A salvage operation, of natural resources and suitable geno-stock.
I honestly don’t know how your statement that “Either we lift them up or we put them down” applies if this is what you really believe. We owe them nothing and we should have strong border controls. Anything else leads to a slippery slope. British policy was just greed and force with a velvet glove. We do not have to have anything these 3rd world cesspools possess. If we find that Negrostan has some rare earth mineral in abundance, it doesn’t benefit the entire country for some company to get it more cheaply. It is primarily the upper echelons of… Read more »
As a Brit once told me, “and he did it all with a spear!”
Alexander said the pirate was right and gave him money.
Trump is right.
Jailing Americans isn’t the answer.
That’s another power that will be abused, another out-of-control agency working for political donors
One example? Illegals in our prisons benefit the prison industry. No wonder so many are there, what profitable volume (that you pay for).
Ending government immigration programs and magnets is quicker, safer, cheaper, and more legitimate.
Immigrants are the senior problem.
American cheating is the junior problem.
No immigrants, no problem.
Get Obrador in on the Fence IPO, and he’ll be on it like Republicans were on privatised prison ‘investment’ (with their friend Clinton signing mandatory minimums to guarantee 8 years of revenue per bed). In the election before Nieto, Obrador had his unionistas- guys who usually just march with red Lenin flags every May Day- throwing grenades in the Capitol and mobbing the Congress hall to beat the shit out of the congressmen. This, where it’s not uncommon to do a drive-by on candidates. A friend’s nephew had his door yanked open by a masked antifa on a motorcycle; the… Read more »
Nice pic of the Israeli border wall with Palestine.
Say, there’s an idea for the right contractor!
I read that headline and kept reading to find out how this was bad for America. Never found it.
I love watching the Left flipflop on every single one of their so-called “principles.” This is what it must’ve been like when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. If the Left still believed anything at all, they’d be all for both the “Mexican Donald Trump” *and* the big beautiful Wall. As you say, a Mexican populist looks like Hugo Chavez and the Wall would keep the imperialistos above the Rio del Norte…. which we’ve been told for going on 100 years now is the only way to achieve true justice in Latin America. (Have you read The Guide to the Perfect… Read more »
That “left-leaning front runner”, AMLO, “is approaching politics with a distinctly socialist bent, having helped found Mexico’s leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution”. So, AMLO is a communist quasi-revolutionary who plans to establish his totalitarian regime, at least in part, through the popularity contests of electoral politics. And like a good little Fascist, he’s “overtly” manipulating nationalist sentiment. It’s evident that if AMLO comes to power, Mexico will have no such thing as a Mexican Trump. Rather, it will have a criminal who is more like a Mexican Mussolini. Maybe the new Mussolini will even have a triumphal March on… Read more »
AMLO is indeed Venezuela on the Rio Grande.
“Another failure of capitalism!”, no doubt.
I can see Carlos Saleem (Slim) writing the NYTimes headlines right now.
Then he’ll roll out an expose on his secret love affair with President Kamala Harris.
The folks running the maquiladoras on the border will not let this happen.
The wall’s a bad idea. The illegals are daring the desert and criminal element to get into America now; a wall can be defeated by a strong man, a grapple and a rope – and if there are no consequences for defeating it once they are over it, they will just keep coming. All a wall will do is let phony politicians pretend to be doing something about illegal immigration and will like as not become a big pork barrel for the swamp monsters to stuff themselves at. Existing laws need to be enforced. There has to be a meaningful… Read more »
When they are done with me, friend, they will come for you.
The wall’s a bad idea because it’s just not needed. Hell, the NSA can read the renewal date on your license tag if they want to with satellite technology I’m not advocating for taking out illegals at the border with space based lasers, but that’s within the realm of possibility too. And a wall is really just a big, expensive target to figure out ways to get around. Why not start with a couple of 12 foot hurricane fences separated by say 50 yards, with the space in between occupied by murderous pitbulls and border patrol guys driving back and… Read more »
Califa (California) here-
Better a wall than a train to nowhere.
Our Bullet Train is another Solyndra-style boondoggle to launder Cartel cash and tax plunder.
It’s “reining in”, as in “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer”. Close but no cigar, Mister Z. “Reigning” is what kings do.
Actually it’s rein in, as in to control your horse or or other animal by pulling on its rein. You must be a city slicker.
I think Hell for these people will be eternity reading posts without grammar or spelling irregularities.
Zie will waturbored zim mit foenaetik and oelde Anglfh fpellingf.
I love the term ‘sperg’.
Been waiting for a chance to use it.
Use of the wrong word is an error of diction, not grammar. (Ducks)