On September 21, 1792, The National Convention abolished the French monarchy, thereby deposing King Louis XVI.
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King Louis XVI
Author: Redactor
If Donald Trump fails to re-take the White House in November (and then for real in early 2025), his legacy may quickly devolve into a matter for historians, not live politics. After people calm down and the culture war stuff recedes (once again, if allowed by events), what will be left to argue over are a half-dozen major issues, which include war, mass migration . . . and tariffs.
Tariffs have long been Mr. Trump’s major hobby horse; he gets excited about 100 percent levies. The whole business about the “bloodbath” quote was his insistence that American auto industry will be destroyed if Trump himself doesn’t get the chance to erect ultra-high tariffs against automobiles from Mexico.
Trump looks at tariffs on foreign goods as harming foreign nations and helping us, the Americans.
But it is worth noting that economists from Adam Smith and David Ricardo onward have regarded tariffs as chiefly harming consumers within the country that erects them.
At Reason you can read Veronique de Rugy make the classic free-trade case, anew, in “No, Trump-Style Tariffs Do Not Grow the Economy.” If Frédéric Bastiat didn’t convince you, maybe de Rugy will.
But something’s missing. Surrounding Trump’s talk against free trade in general and China in particular there was always another element that neither Bastiat nor de Rugy emphasize: free-trading with China helps Chinese and Americans, sure; gotcha — but it also helps the Chinese state, and its ruling Communist Party.
“Trump is an avowed restrictionist on both immigration and trade,” de Rugy writes. But both unchecked immigration and free trade present problems not economic so much as political. It’s about real bloodbaths, actual warfare, not metaphorical ones.
Even if Trump misdiagnosed the domestic economy, he saw problems with China perhaps more clearly than anyone else.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Le doute n’est pas un état bien agréable,
mais l’assurance est un état ridicule.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), Letter to Frederick William, Prince of Prussia (November 28, 1770). English: in S.G. Tallentyre (ed.), Voltaire in His Letters (1919), p. 232.
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Persians Defeated
On September 20, 480 BC, Greeks defeated Persian forces in the battle of Salamis.
Have you heard? It’s open season on disinformation.
Disinformation spewed by Hillary Clinton, that is.
Mrs. Clinton has escaped jail time for all her previous crimes, whether committed singly or in partnership with her husband. But now we are going to have a brand-new crime to charge her with. And boy, is she a serial offender!!!!!!
The irony is, we would not even be able to charge anybody with this new category of crime — if indeed we’ll be able to; there’s still some controversy about it — but for the contempt of Hillary Clinton and politicians like her for the First Amendment rights that a large minority of Americans hold so dear.
Hillary Clinton, on MSNBC: “I think it’s important to indict the Russians . . . who were engaged in direct election interference. . . . But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda, and whether they should be civilly or even in some cases criminally charged is something that would be a better deterrent.”
Yes, Hillary Clinton “got away with” everything else. But can she get away with all her lies and, let’s face it, downright disinformation, certainly heavily disseminated by her around election times?
Heck, even if the new category of criminal offense won’t be applicable retroactively, thus giving her a free pass for the last umpteen years, are we in any danger of running out of actionable Hillary disinformation going forward? Does a leopard change its spots?
Maybe she’s counting on selective enforcement.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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I’d rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.
Ken Kesey, as quoted in Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kook-Aid Acid Test (1968), Chapter One.
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First U.S. budget
On September 19, 1778, the Continental Congress passed the first budget of the United States.
Congress last passed a budget in 1997.
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Home of the Brave
Another incident of China’s militarized coast guard ramming a Filipino vessel in the South China Sea hundreds of miles from China . . . this time with 60 Minutes on board.
We are headed toward World War III. People deserve the truth from those who pretend to lead.
Years ago, I would have advocated bringing our troops home. Today, I think it’s too late. A military pullout by the United States would be disastrous for both Asia and us. And anything less will require standing up to China. Now or later.
Not to mention that ending the U.S. role in Asia is not even being discussed.
Which means that U.S. assets in the region will eventually be attacked. Already we see the harassment of Taiwan and the bullying of the Philippines and others in the South China Sea. The U.S. has treaty commitments to fight for Japan, South Korea and the Philippines — plus, through the Taiwan Relations Act, we have pledged to help Taiwan stay free.
I would therefore call for spending more on the military. On weapons of war. On military capabilities half a world away. (Hard to believe it myself.) And I would prepare the country for the horrific possibility of war.
I think that is the only way to back China down from its aggressions against just about every neighbor as well as the rule-based international order and, ultimately, us.
The best news on this front is that the U.S. is not having to beg and plead for support for an alliance to check China or to go it alone:
- Germany just sent warships through the Taiwan Strait for the first time in two decades.
- Taiwan has nearly doubled its defense spending.
- Japan is doubling its military spending and mending relationships in the region to form closer alliances.
- The Philippines has given the U.S. four bases in strategic territory.
- Even Vietnam has befriended the U.S.
Why? All fear China.
Right now what the world needs is an alliance of the free. And a leader . . . to be very brave.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Machiavelli?
Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.
Widely cited on the Internet as by Niccolò Machiavelli and from The Prince (16th Century), this very “Machiavellian” instruction is nowhere to be found in The Prince, but its very citation may qualify as Machiavellian.
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Cornerstone & Anti-Corn Law
On September 18, 1793, George Washington laid the cornerstone of the Capitol building.
It has grown, since.
On September 18, 1838, Richard Cobden established the Anti-Corn Law League, which proceeded to bring free trade to Britain.