Trump may not be so bad for Thailand if he does win

One of his recent shockers was a claim that Obama founded ISIS. Well, there’s a declassified US Defence Intelligence Agency memo from 2012 which states that creating a “Salafist principality” in Eastern Syria was exactly what the US and its western and Arab allies wanted and the Syrian insurgency created favourable conditions for it, though the memo did warn that it would have dire consequences for Iraq.

It could also be argued that NATO lost its raison d’etre with the fall of the USSR and all it did since was to engage in wars in countries that posed no threat to NATO countries whatsoever (Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya). When it’s not busy doing that it creates tensions with Russia which it then uses to justify its continued existence. It certainly is a wrong tool to deal with current security problems in Europe. Most member countries do not contribute their share of its financing, obviously because they don’t think the expenditure is worthwhile. In light of all this it’s perfectly fair for Trump to ask why the US should pay for much of this.

Raising tariffs on Chinese goods is completely against consensus on how world economy should function but the current status quo where poor countries make cheap stuff, rich countries pay for it with money created by their central banks out of thin air, and most profits go to a handful of multinational corporations, is untenable and came under fire not only from Trump on the right but also from Sanders on the left. 

Despite upbeat government statistics on employment, US labour participation rate is at the level where it was in the 70s when it was perfectly normal for wives to stay at home and raise families on single income. Now one in seven Americans is forced to live on food stamps, never mind that mobile phones are cheap. Statistics show that all labour gains go to people in the oldest age bracket and it’s mostly low paying jobs like retail.

Personally, I don’t think Trump is the man to actually improve anything and his presidency might very well turn disastrous for America, but he is more likely to get off Thailand’s case and leave us alone, without forcing us to take sides between the US and China or start running democracy at any cost.

Stan G