America

The Trump administration just fired the first shot in the US-European currency, and thus trade, wars when Trump's top trade advisor Peter Navarro accused Germany of using a “grossly undervalued” euro to "exploit the US and its EU partners", the FT reported noting the comments are "likely to trigger alarm in Europe’s largest economy." News of the statement sent the EURUSD surging and the dollar tumbling to fresh 2 month lows.

In addition to creating mass chaos in America's airports and general confusion around the world, Trump's immigration ban is putting Saudi Arabia, a key ally in the middle-east, in a fairly awkward position.  Per the Wall Street Journal, Trump's immigration ban, which currently does not include Saudi Arabia, has put the country in the awkward position of having to manage a desire to pursue stronger ties with the U.S. at the risk of alienating key allies, like Yemen and Sudan, that will inevitably view such a move as abandoning Muslim neighbors.

What a difference a week makes.

On January 23, Reuters reported that dialing back the Volcker Rule which limits banks' ability to engage in speculative investments using their own balance sheet, has emerged a top priority for President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin.  In written responses to questions posed by members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Mnuchin said he would use his role as head of the interagency Financial Stability Oversight Council to give the Volcker Rule a stricter definition of proprietary trading.

President Trump fired Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday night for ‘treasonous’ acts against the United States.  The Acting Attorney General defied President Trump’s wishes to block potential terrorists from entering America by refusing to defend his controversial executive order in court. The firing comes after the Obama supporting Democrat told Trump that she would not defend his decision to temporarily halt immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries – warning him she would undermine and ignore all of his orders.

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

The mindlessness is unbearable.

Amnesty International tells us that we must “fight the Muslim ban” because Trump’s bigotry is wrecking lives.

 

Anthony Dimaggio at CounterPunch says Trump should be impeached because his Islamophobia is a threat to the Constitution.

This is not to single out these two as the mindlessness is everywhere among those whose worldview is defined by Identity Politics.