Osler's Razor

Our relationship with China in general.

They are expanding their scope of influence in the waters of the South China Sea and Indian Ocean and in various African nations. They tolerate/encourage North Korea (And why not... it certainly keeps us tied up!). They continuously reject democratic principles and basic human rights. They are a major source of world pollution. They have a modern and massive military, with the economic force to sustain a major military campaign.

Our new economic dispute threatens to sever the one key that almost always guarantees peace between opposing nations: mutual economic benefit. We don’t need them as a trade partner because we can get a few more bucks for steel. We need them as a trade partner because we need them to need us. We want friends, not enemies. And if not friends, at least an acquaintance who understands helping us is in their interest, and opposing us can be very detrimental to their national stability.

I fear we are creating a new Cold War, this time with a China replacing the USSR.



 

Choosing one story, or even two, is really tough. My contenders are:

1. The opioid crisis at home, because this strains so many facets of day-to-day life and budgets: law enforcement, health care, employee productivity and employment in general, mental health, schools, decimation of (often) already declining towns and cities, to name a few.

2. China, yes, but in the immediate future I'd say Syria. Since there's a proxy war going on, whatever we do in Syria will have implications for the U.S.'s already precarious relationships with Russia, Iran, Turkey, and many other countries. I heard a Russian commentator on NPR say this morning that a US armed conflict with Russia is a real possibility--and in any other news cycle, THAT would be huge news, but it was almost a throwaway comment.

 

I suffer from a bad case of Trump whiplash. Prioritizing the importance I should be giving to the number of issues you mention is virtually impossible, because as we speak (or rather type) the narrative has already changed. I hope that by the end of our mad king’s reign we emerge with a lesson learned.
 

Within the opioid crisis, there needs to be better attention paid to how to help people deal with chronic pain. That's often how this starts. I have a friend who found himself slipping into addiction to hydrocodone, and this is someone who doesn't drink alcohol much less abuse drugs. But it's a cycle, and he's caught, and all he knows is the doctors won't give him any more hydrocodone.
 

So domestically I believe the Opioid Crisis should be a big concern but it is is hard for me to give it focus when I, to the best of my knowledge, have not been personally impacted by it.

I would say for me Immigration (not borders) is my biggest domestic concern. My family members were immigrants less than 100 years ago. They did not come here for a government hand out, they came for a chance of a better life. That doesn't always appear in the first generation of the family but in the second generation. But immigration impacts us all with regard to our food supply. People who immigrate here are starting at the bottom; picking crops, digging ditches, doing jobs that even unemployed Americans are unwilling to do because they are low paying, dirty and back breaking. If anything I think we should be limiting the number of immigrants who come here on work visas for higher paying technical jobs. I am also concerned about DACA and by the aggressiveness of our ICE agents and how they cherry pick people during vulnerable times in their daily living.

I want Mueller to do his job. I think our "fearless leader" is guilty of many things in his business dealings and campaign but I think his subordinates will be found guilty of many more things. The GOO is sly like a fox but poor Michael Cohen will be hung out to dry. I hope our Congress actually does something to protect the Mueller investigation because we deserve to know what was or was not going on.

Globally, my concerns lean toward Syria and the China Trade War, followed by climate change (weather and climate are two different animals).

I think Scott Pruitt is a creep who needs to go but for the most part the rest is more distraction.
 

The economy. Specifically, whether the economy will produce jobs (and livelihoods) sufficient to maintain an expansive middle class, or rather continue on its current trajectory of outsourcing everything but technology and professional services jobs, producing historic wealth but increasingly isolating that wealth in a shirking subset of the population. Much of our present-day social and political angst, including the election of Donald Trump, stem from this. Domestic issues like the opiod crisis are traceable directly to this problem, as are international issues like our trade tensions with China. I am not an economic nationalist by any means (that is, I generally support free trade), but the local externalities of a global economy must be addressed. The alternative is bleak, even for the very wealthy.
 

CTL-- I have argued that for a while. In fact, my favorite thing about DJT is that he seems to at least get that this is an issue.
 

To the concerns regarding the economy--let me add my concern over our long-term national
debt. If the GOP refuses to take taxes and spending and sustainability seriously, who will? Answer: No one. Ignoring this issue equals bad policy.