Editorial -- Supply Chain Disruptions

On Saturday, Radio Iowa reported that economic growth has slowed in Iowa and in the Midwest during August. Hiring has dropped, and a new poll of supply managers found that 58.6% said their biggest concern was supply chain disruptions. Labor shortage was named by 24.1%, and inflation was named by 10.4%.

While gas prices have tapered off from recent all time highs, food prices are still too high, and inflation remains at above 6%, far too high. Confidence levels in 2022 are at the worst since the 2008-2009 recession, which is a worrying sign.

But instead of taking concrete steps to stop the supply chain disruptions, addressing inflation, and rallying the country behind a common purpose, Joe Biden shows by his own actions that he doesn’t care. He’s continuing to pursue his vendetta against Russia at the cost of Ukrainian lives, continuing to humor Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her vendetta against China, and he’s not doing one thing to address these issues. He’s printing the money to arm Taiwan and Ukraine instead of trying to repair critical infrastructure at home, and he’s expecting us not to notice. And then he wonders why nobody likes him.

But I suppose it’s a lot easier for politicians like Joe Biden to try and solve other countries’ problems than it is to solve our own here at home.

And if Nancy Pelosi gets her way and gets her war with China, then these supply chain disruptions will be much, much worse. Not that it matters to someone like her. People like Nancy Pelosi have gotten too powerful. That is why we need turn limits in this country.

Editorial -- Joe Biden Prints Money for Taiwan Arms

The path towards a four front war continues. On Friday, the Biden Administration formally notified Congress of their intent to sell radars, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles to Taiwan worth $1.1 billion. Some of that money would have come in awfully handy for fixing our pothole infested roads here in Northwest Missouri. 

And instead of doing the hard work needed to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, the politicians in Washington are looking at ways of making it easier to deliver such weapons to Ukraine and Taiwan. This is a tragedy waiting to happen. In the 1980's, the US sent weapons to Afghanistan in an effort to drive the USSR out and to overthrow the government there. Those weapons were later used on us, and some of the very allies we were helping attacked our country on 9/11. But I suppose it's a lot easier for the politicians in Washington to solve other peoples' problems than it is to solve our own.

The safeguards regarding weapons deliveries to foreign entities were put in place for a reason. How do we know that the weapons that Joe Biden is printing money for won't fall into the wrong hands? How do we know that Taiwan won't suddenly become the enemy down the road, like Osama Bin Laden? How do we know that these weapons won't fall into the hands of the Chinese when we decide 20 years down the road that propping up the regime in Taiwan is no longer sustainable?

And Joe Biden offers no way to pay for these new weapons shipments. And I didn't get a bill from the IRS. So apparently, he is just going to print the money to pay for it, no questions asked. 

Editorial -- More Evidence Pelosi Acting as President

Even if Nancy Pelosi’s stunt in visiting Taiwan doesn’t trigger war with China, the New York Times reported on August 3rd that it seriously risks undermining the Biden Administration’s efforts to protect its allies in Asia. We don’t object to the Biden Administration protecting its allies in NATO and in Asia. We do object to the kind of provocations they have engaged in with regards to China and Taiwan, which open the door to someone like the Speaker of the House harboring delusions that she is the Commander in Chief.

Experts that the Times talked to note that it was poor judgement on Speaker Pelosi’s part because it allowed China to showcase their military might. American allies were not consulted. For instance, Penny Wong, Foreign Minister of Australia, one of America’s strongest allies in the Pacific, was quoted as saying in the Times, “All parties should consider how they best contribute to deescalating the current tensions, and we all want peace and stability in the Taiwan Straight.”

Good luck with that. China has already announced military exercises in the area, which could be a precursor to an invasion. Even if they are not, a misunderstanding or miscalculation could turn an already tense situation into a shooting war. Or some hotheaded individual that wants to see the US and China at war over Taiwan.

Even Japan, which is totally onboard with the US protecting Taiwan, was not onboard with Pelosi’s political stunt. As quoted in the Times, Ryo Sahashi, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, said that the key was to keep the region stable so that the US and Japan can enhance their security partnership with Taiwan.

Not that it matters to the Neocons who have taken over at Daily Kos. Notwithstanding Joe Biden’s plan to stick it to the Russians by escalating the war between it and Ukraine, they were fawning over Speaker Pelosi’s visit. Here, at last, was the Democrats’ answer to the Republicans posturing as being tough on defense. Let us only hope that this doesn’t cost thousands or millions of lives. They never bothered to consider that the worst case scenario would involve dragging the US into a two front war with Russia and China, one that they cannot win. Germany was regarded as the world’s strongest military during World War II, but even they couldn’t win a two front war.

Australia has done the sensible thing with China, ending a two year diplomatic freeze and has gone out of their way to say that China is not an enemy. They have been increasing trade. All this will do is undermine the hard work that America’s allies are doing to ease tensions. In Australia, the criticism of Pelosi’s visit is unanimous, while for them, they see Joe Biden as a weak leader, given that he either could not or would not persuade Speaker Pelosi to cancel.

Or maybe the President didn’t want her to cancel. Maybe he wants to lure China into a protracted war with Taiwan, which would double the profits of the Military Industrial Complex while making him look tough on defense. This would be par for the course for US foreign policy, given that they lured Russia into a protracted conflict in Afghanistan in 1979 and in Ukraine this year.

Of course, gas and oil prices would skyrocket, as would everything else. Even if it didn’t turn into a shooting war between the US and China. The supply chain issues that would result would dwarf the ones that were created by the COVID pandemic. Good luck getting anything we need or want at the store. There is a very real risk that the economy would enter into a depression, since spending would drop to a standstill. 

Editorial -- Nancy Pelosi Wants War With China

So apparently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now thinks she is the President. As part of a tour of Asia – something that normally presidents do – CNN reports as of Monday afternoon that she is expected to visit Taiwan, along with four other congresspeople. The Wall Street Journal reported this as well.

If Russia is the clear and present danger to Europe that Putin’s biggest critics charge, then what is Speaker Pelosi doing throwing gas on an already tense situation between the US and China, two nuclear powers, over Taiwan, a place that the US acknowledges is part of China? All this does is risk dragging the US into a two front war between the US, Russia, and China, one that they cannot win. And it could turn into a four front war if Iran and North Korea decide to take advantage of the situation. Or maybe Speaker Pelosi, who has access to classified intelligence that we don’t, knows something we don’t. Maybe the threat from Russia has been blown completely out of proportion.

Those who point to parallels between now and the late 1930’s, when Nazi Germany was threatening to unleash war, miss a key difference – the US, Russia, and China are all nuclear powers. Nobody would win such a war. We’d all burn. That is why the US and Russia, back when saner heads were in power, got together in 1987 and agreed that such a war must never be fought. Putin is a bully, but he is not suicidal.

And this illustrates the wrongheadedness of Joe Biden’s policy of sticking it to the Russians and simultaneously escalating tensions with China, Iran, and North Korea. Even if he wouldn’t personally start a war between the US and any of these countries, the next President might. For instance, Hillary Clinton (D) and John Bolton (R) never met a war they didn’t like. And there are always wanna-be presidents like Speaker Pelosi who are more than happy to escalate already high tensions between the US and China. In 1914, it took one hotheaded person to plunge Europe into war.