i have argued for many years that, although US trade policy and lack of industrial policy with respect to China has been an absolute catastrophe for the US, one should not blame China, because these were US choices at every step. www.interfluidity.com/v2/71.html www.interfluidity.com/v2/540.html 1/

i am right on the merits, but my case has not won the public argument, not among elites, nor among the broad public. everyone blames China. 2/

it is right on the merits that acceding to the Iran War was Trump's choice and responsibility — America's, not Israel's — regardless of any attempts at persuasion mounted by Israel's unlikable leadership. 3/

nevertheless, i think this right-on-the-merits argument has even less chance of succeeding, at public or even elite levels, than my decades-old pleas with respect to China. 4/

it has become less pleasant, less easy, to be Chinese in the United States than it was 15 years ago. that is reprehensible but it is nevertheless a fact. i don't know why we wouldn't expect an analogous turn of events with respect to people the public and also elites associate with Israel. /fin