"Because we didn't want to, quote, provoke Vladimir Putin, by showing weakness, we provoked Vladimir Putin. We have to understand that Vladimir Putin's ambitions are the restoration of the old Russian empire." John McCain got itpic.twitter.com/xxlTXfHkgR

— Paul Massaro (@apmassaro3) December 28, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/opinion/china-united-states-trade-economy.html

In the grand tradition of Russia rejecting the West because it threatens the greatness of Russia, China will screw the world (and eventually themselves) to show how wonderful they are. In his article in the NYTimes, Thomas Friedman describes four ways they have been and are continuing to do this:

“Xi’s election to an unprecedented third term on a platform emphasizing Marxism and ideology over markets and pragmatism “shows me that the opening up of the Chinese economy is not going to continue. … We have to assume that China is setting itself apart from other countries and will build a countermodel to the liberal, market-oriented model of the West.”

“[In the] aftermath of Tiananmen Square in 1989, when the Chinese Communist Party leadership sought to dampen the democratic aspirations of China’s youth with a fire hose of hyper-nationalism.”

“a much more aggressive Chinese foreign policy that is trying to assert dominance across the whole South China Sea, frightening China’s key neighbors, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India and Taiwan.”

“Instead of importing effective Western-made vaccines to keep the pandemic at bay, China is relying on a “zero Covid” policy that uses lockdowns of whole cities as well as all the new tools of a surveillance state: drones, facial recognition, ubiquitous closed-circuit television cameras, cellphone tracking and even tracking of restaurant patrons, who must present a QR code to be scanned and recorded. It feels like a Xi strategy for preventing both Covid and freedom from breaking out.”

Without even mentioning the million or so Xighurs being forcibly reeducated by China, the article concludes:

What Xi fails to grasp is that all of the most advanced technologies of the 21st century — like semiconductors and mRNA vaccines — require big, complex global supply chains, because no country can be the best at each one of their increasingly sophisticated components. But such supply chains require a huge amount of collaboration and trust among partners, and that is exactly what Xi has squandered in the last decade.

when one-sixth of humanity makes a wrong turn in our still very connected world — China, for instance, still holds almost $1 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt — everyone will feel their pain.

This quote from the book was read during a Skullduggery podcast:

He [Trump] didn’t know anything about anything. He did not know Puerto Rico was part of the US. He did know if Columbia was in North or South America. Thought Finland was part of Russia. Mixed up the Baltics w/the Balkans. Was confused about how WWI started. Did not understand the basics of America’s vast nuclear arsenal. Did not grasp the concept of the US gov’s separation of powers. Did not understand how courts worked. “How do I declare war” he asked at one point to the alarm of his staff who realized that he was unaware that the constitution proscribes that role for congress.”

After reading this, one of the podcast’s hosts, Michael Isikoff observed,

It’s just staggering a guy who is essential an ignoramus was running the country for 4 years.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/24/desantis-trump-2024/?commentID=aff1707e-73b1-4a75-8a40-1df3542c0691

From a comment by Andrew G Bjelland in the Washington Post

MAGA-Fascist-Republicans like DeSantis know the psychological orientation of those who constitute a significant portion of their base. They act accordingly. They establish their own brutalist creds.

Social psychologists estimate that as high as 30% of a given population are of an authoritarian psychological disposition—a disposition that prizes tribal unity and is intolerant of cultural diversity and ethical complexity. People with this psychological predisposition are often cognitively and emotionally incapable of dealing with rapidly evolving circumstances. They are highly uncomfortable within a pluralistic and democratic society. 

Such individuals are inclined to follow a leader who projects an image of strength and energy; who identifies and targets the enemies of the tribe; who presents simplistic “solutions” in response to the complex problems of the day; and who sets tribal boundaries whereby the “outsiders” are readily identified, rejected and even violently persecuted.

The projection of strength and energy is often the psychological defense mechanism employed by narcissistic and insecure bully-boys.

DeSantis is effectively establishing his own brutalist creds. Is it any wonder that Trump, brutalisms past master, is increasingly irate?

Voting blue is the sole option for those who oppose authoritarianism and who value one-person-one-vote democracy