Oof.

It’s about that, too.

This is exactly how my meth head sister raised my nephew.

Freak out and punish him, assign him chores to “get out of it,” and then let him off the hook when she wanted to fight with her husband. But always kept the threat of punishment looming.

Cool.

I think some of you guys are reading way too much into this.

Trump is having a dick measuring contest while Xi is letting him fuck himself.

We rely on China more than they rely on us. Think about how obsessed we are with low prices. Trade with China brings our average prices on goods way down. China also trades with the rest of the world, and they know they can weather a trade war with the US.

China is the next world leader unless the West can somehow right the ship. WW3 is going to be about who becomes the next Economy and de-facto world leader.

For anyone who needs to hear it: Authoritarian states do not think like people, they think like empires. If you were an empire, would you take advantage of the current climate?

Disclaimer: Both China and the US are authoritarian states, strictly speaking. But the State is not unified under Trump currently, so we’re seeing a combination of thinking like a state and thinking like a person coming from the US, depending on the source.