#perspective 2018's first 12 days have been a rollercoaster of Trumpian reactive oxygen-sucking media cycles, ranging from the "i got a bigger nuke button" to @MichaelWolffNYC s Fire&Fury to the shithole controversy, to finish w/ Stormy Daniels 1/
Sober,rational analysts of our current feverish "moment" are few&far between- @RadioFreeTom @NoahCRothman @ianbremmer @umairh try to provide sustenance to who are interested in immediate&mid-long term consequences of the circus show started on the gold plated escalator in 2015 2/
Throwing my hat into the ring, some random observations to pierce the #Trumpian-media feedback loop (ICYMI @MattGertz's must-follow tweets) : Trump's #Outsourced Presidency could have lasting consequences as it paradoxically shows 2 facets 3/
a- an utterly uninformed/uninterested President does not prevent smart decisions to occur, esp. in foreign policy b- the inherent powers of WH pulpit within the separation of powers are actually quite feeble, esp. in the hands of someone who takes cues from @FoxandFriends 4/
NAFTA and its possible breakup will be a test of how much power the realists (#McMaster, #Mnuchin, #Cohn, #Kusher) have vs the fire breathers (#Miller) 5/
Just as with the Bush 43 era the US "brand" is taking a huge hit around the world (see @pewresearch pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/tar…) - but this could have a silver lining as the world inexorably needs to re-organize sans global hegemon 6/
Trump's shithole comment re Africa shows he is totally unaware that the continent is going thru an unprecedented growth phase and that a rising middle class is starting to buy foreign goods, just as happened in China and India a decade and a half ago. worldbank.org/en/news/press-… 7/
China's shrewd moves in Europe (buying Piraeus port) and in Africa take advantage of US myopia and Europe's bad rep. The Silk Project is getting too little coverage IMO, if built, it could remake global trade map and leave the US durably on the outs. newyorker.com/magazine/2018/… 8/
Europe, a 500 million-strong near-federation of advanced economies, is forced to rethink its role w/o a strong US backing and IMO this is for the better. dw.com/en/what-would-… 9/
Even though it cannot change its geographic location #Canada will also be forced to rethink the weight of the US in its economy and connect more deeply with Europe, Asia and Africa theglobeandmail.com/report-on-busi… 10/
has been documenting how wrongheaded the Anglosphere's path has gone in the past few years - the question remains how far in the abyss the US&UK need to go down before rebounding medium.com/bad-words/why-… 11/
as I wrote in 2015 there's a nagging resurgence of conspiracy theories that x or y is pulling all the strings worth pulling, my personal analysis: the world is rudderless and that is both scary and exhilarating, embrace it ! 12/ (end for now) medium.com/connecting-dot… 
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