Remembering Reagan's Zero Option: How Trump's "Tariff War" Resembles the Last Battle of the Cold War

As critics within as without the United States voice incomprehension about America's brand-new tariffs all the while raving and ranting about the move as a "war" started by Donald Trump, it is far from inappropriate to recall one of the last "battles" of the Cold War.

During the 1980s, outrage erupted all over the West as Ronald Reagan went ahead with plans (pre-dating his election) to install medium-range nuclear weapons in Western Europe.

Ronald Reagan, of course, was another heinous and brainless Republican duly detested across the globe not to mention another fascist or (neo-)Nazi who was willing to start the Third World War in addition to being the latest Adolf Hitler. (Spasibo za InstaGiperssylku, tovarich Sarah.)

And leftists everywhere, from America to Europe West as well as East, took to the streets to protest against the deranged "Hollywood actor" and the Pershing II missiles which would, but of course, start World War III.

But here a question arises: Why was Washington (not to mention its Western European allies) in favor of alleged escalation in the first place and insistent on installing nuclear-capable theater-level weapons in (Western) Europe?

For one major reason. Because the Soviet Union had started a policy of installing nuclear-capable theater-level weapons in (Eastern) Europe. Indeed, hundreds of the USSR's SS-20s were already installed throughout the countries of the Warsaw Pact when NATO's decision went through to reestablish military balance between East and West.

But nobody ever protested the Kremlin's SS-20s. Certainly nobody in the East, but nobody in the West either.

In fact, I recall one demonstration in Paris. When one single solitary pacifist decided that he would add one single solitary sign against the SS-20s to the hundreds if not thousands of signs against Uncle Sam's Pershings, the sign was torn to pieces and the guy may even have been beaten up. (Some pacifism!)

As François Mitterrand famously said, despite being a Socialist pressured to sympathize with Moscow's communists while decoupling from Washington's capitalists, "I too am against the Euromissiles. However, I do notice some simple truths: The pacifists are in the West, while the missiles are in the East." Another Socialist, Germany's Helmut Schmidt, also went along with the deployment (before being replaced by Helmut Kohl).

Among the useful idiots was my girlfriend's sister who insisted that "Vi vil ikke forsvares med atomvåben" ("we do not want to be protected by nuclear weapons", which is akin to saying we do not want to be protected by guns, only with knives, no matter what weapons the other side has) — to the ire of the elder members of her family, some of whom had lived through the Germans' occupation of Denmark in the 1940s.

Naïve Danes wanted the country to exit the NATO structure; then, they insisted, the Russians would not invade even if they attacked the rest of the NATO countries. After the Warsaw Pact broke up, Polish and other Eastern European officers divulged Soviet military plans to the West, and needless to say, the Scandinavian country, aka the door to the Baltic Sea, would be invaded and occupied no matter what its neutrality status. Indeed, military plans allowed for half a dozen atomic bombs (or missiles) to be dropped on the country immediately as the war broke out — started unilaterally by the USSR (whose motivations the pacifists kept telling us we had to try and understand).

Between 1983 and 1985, the Pershing IIs started being installed in Western Europe. Previously, Reagan had given voice to the Zero Option, whereby no Pershings would arrive in Europe if the Kremlin removed its SS20s from the continent.

With Mikhail Gorbachev getting the top job in Moscow ("I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together", said Margaret Thatcher), the message got through to the Soviets that if they removed their SS20s from Eastern Europe, the Pershings would disappear as well. That is what eventually happened: Reagan's Zero Option had come around full circle and had led to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987.

Congratulations, Ronald Reagan. (Even if — to its ever-lasting shame — the Nobel Prize Committee awarded its peace prize only to Gorbachev, leaving Reagan out to dry.)

What leftists and other useful idiots called outrageous behavior and an insane step towards World War III turned out to be the exact opposite and, indeed, a win-win situation.

Isn't this similar to what, 40 years later, is behind Donald Trump's "tariff war"?

Related: "Brutal Americans"? The issue is that we've never been brutal enough — with the evil of the world or with those who would take advantage of us, as a nation or as taxpayers

Bullying Deepfakes: Believe It or Not, Fake Pornography Shots Powered by AI and Meant to Harass Teens Has One Exceptionally Positive Side

Teens "falling victim" to fake pornography?! Over at Fox News (skip the blockquote below to go straight to the meat of the matter), Nikolas Lanum reports on 

A troubling trend [that] has emerged in schools across the United States, with young students falling victim to the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered "nudify" apps that have the power to create fake pornography of classmates.

"Nudify" is an umbrella term referring to a plethora of widely available apps and websites that allow users to alter photos of full-dressed individuals and virtually undress them. Some apps can create nude images with just a headshot of the victim. 

Don Austin, the superintendent of the Palo Alto Unified School District, told Fox News Digital that this type of online harassment can be more relentless compared to traditional in-person bullying.

"It used to be that a bully had to come over and push you. Palo Alto is not a community where people are going to come push anybody into a locker. That doesn't happen. But it's not immune from online bullying," Austin said.

"The differences, I think, are worse. Now your bully can be completely anonymous. You don't even know where it's coming from," he continued.

 … "We're at a place now where you can be doing nothing and stories and pictures about you are posted online. They're fabricated. They're completely made up through AI and it can have your voice or face. That's a whole other world," he told Fox News Digital.

Seriously?! Am I the only person that sees the benefits of this "troubling trend" of online bullying?!

Think about it. 

Blackmail is now a thing of the past.

That's it.

It's over.

Whether you are a teen or an adult, whether the photos are real or not, you can simply pass all of them off — indeed, you can do so nonchalantly — as fakes or deepfakes. To your classmates, to your spouse, to your constituents. Who will know whether you are fibbing or telling the truth? (Maybe you hardly know yourself…)

(In a totally different context, of course, that is exactly what Joe Biden's White House did…) 

As it happens, a considerable size of the audience for these sex photos/videos — maybe far more than half — will already be assuming that they're fakes… (Thanks for the Instalink, Sarah.)

Depression at 16? Suicide at 17? Why fear sextortion at this point? Compliment instead the (anonymous) photo/video creators for doing a good job — for doing an outstanding job.

On my phone I keep receiving photos of Donald Trump tenderly cuddling with Joe Biden or Vladimir Putin or Stormy Daniels. Lots of apps now make you "repair" snapshots that are decades or (over) a century old, colorize them, and make them into mini-movies (the latest one I saw delighted me as it involved Civil War daguerreotypes from the 1860s).

I also keep receiving AI ads where, by combining a couple of photos of myself and of any girl (someone I know and am perhaps infatuated with or some rock or movie star or someone — Marilyn Monroe? Rudolph Valentino? Che Guevara? Queen Victoria? — who has been dead for decades) I can make myself hug or kiss that person — hungrily — on the mouth.

Years ago (long before AI), I was writing a TV script imagining a politician who was on national television and who was all of a sudden ambushed with private photos of him in a compromising position (with a woman other than his wife, with a man, with many women, with many men, at an orgy, in a BDSM cave, with a money shot, whatever…). Talk of falling victim; talk of bullying; talk of harassment (justified or otherwise)!

How should he react?

Ignore the content. And, with an admiring voice, let out a whistle and praise the work: "Wow, that's well done!"

"What do you mean?!" interrupts the TV presenter, visibly frustrated. "No no no! Don't tell me you are claiming they're fake?! We have proof that you were seen at—"

Again, this was before AI, needless to say, which only made the politician's next words even more startling: "It is so how admirable the degree to which studios have made progress with special effects!"

In my story, the politician went on to taking the photos he was in and replacing himself with Woodrow Wilson. Thereafter, he deliberately and openly creating a number of (in his case, fake) photos of other politicians — and even himself — involved in ridiculous positions (an appropriate word in more ways than one), such as with a midget, with a gorilla, and with (a young) Greta Garbo. 

Imagine if photos of Barack Obama servicing Chicago gentlemen were to appear now? 44 knows he has nothing to fret about.