QA问答：你是否同意托马斯·弗里德曼的说法“只有蠢货才会得罪盟友，还想着单挑中国”？

Henry R.
For Friedman it begins with it’s a numbers game and as he put it:
A nation of 340 million people (the USA) cannot beat a nation of 1.3 billion serious people (China) by itself. Further, “China and Russia always vote Trump because they know he cannot work with or build an alliance”. 
We have written on this subject and explored it on THE GREENFIELD REPORT with China experts including those living in China right now and they concur completely with Friedman. 
It is important for everyone who is not a mainland Chinese citizen and it comes down to that, that you cannot win against China without a coalition. And Trump according to Friedman and anyone else with even half a brain (as the Trump administration seems to only sext those with half or less of a brain as they can only seem to make stupid mistake after egregious dumb mistake), Trump can never work with anyone else. 

【回答】
弗里德曼的观点始于一个数字游戏，正如他所说：
一个3.4亿人口的国家（美国）单打独斗无法战胜一个拥有13亿认真人民的国家（中国）。此外，“中国和俄罗斯总是支持特朗普，因为他们知道他无法合作或建立联盟”。
我们曾就这一主题撰文，并在《格林菲尔德报告》中与包括目前居住在中国的专家在内的中国问题专家进行探讨，他们完全同意弗里德曼的看法。
这对所有非中国大陆公民的人来说都很重要，归根结底就是：没有联盟，你无法战胜中国。而根据弗里德曼以及任何稍有头脑的人的说法（因为特朗普政府似乎只选择那些只有一半或更少脑子的人，因为他们只会不断犯下愚蠢的错误），特朗普永远无法与任何人合作。

Stop for a moment and think about that all of you USA bashers. That fuck America, we are moving on, we hate you Americans, you are losers, ash heap of history, you have screwed us for the last time. Then put in any one of maybe 100 countries that you could put that little diatribe in or worse. Follow it with, we love you President Trump, we are going to give you more gifts we are going to kiss your ass so you leave us alone. 
LOSER STATEMENTS WILL NOT WIN AGAINST China AND THE USA CANNOT WIN AGAINST China BY ITSELF. 
We currently have some of the weakest worst leadership in modern history. Look around you, in the EU Von Der Leyen is universally despised. Merz in Germany is considered a loud blowhard, speaking of talk no action and an economy going in reverse how about Macron and France the poster child of doing nothing and spending the next gens money they don’t have. The UK has nothing to offer by itself and it deliberately exited the EU into irrelevance. The rest of Europe is either to small like the Netherlands or Denmark or to weak like Italy and Spain. 
But collectively they are or could be amazing. And Europe + UK, Australia combined with the USA which = 900 million of the richest smartest most productive people on the planet, now you have a rival to China. 
Then you add a 2nd tier of India and Singapore and Indonesia and the rest of ASEAN especially the Philippines which hates China and Japan and South Korea. Do you get the picture. Oh gee that sounds like Biden and the QUAD and the TPP from Obama and Biden again with the USA/Japan/S Korea alliance. 
You see that is the problem. No one has the cajones to walk in and tell the ‘moron’ as Friedman put it, to STFU and make alliances if he wants to beat China.

慢着，所有抨击美国的人都想想看。那些“去他妈的美国，我们继续前进，我们恨你们美国人，你们是失败者，历史的灰烬，你们最后一次坑了我们”的言论。然后把这种或更糟的激烈言辞套用到可能一百个国家中的任何一个。接着再说，“我们爱你，特朗普总统，我们会给你更多礼物，我们会拍你马屁，这样你就不会来烦我们了。”
这种失败者的言论无法战胜中国，美国单靠自己也无法战胜中国。
我们目前正经历现代史上最软弱、最糟糕的领导层。看看你周围，在欧盟，冯德莱恩普遍遭人厌恶。德国默茨就是个光说不练的吹牛大王，经济一路倒退；再看看法国马克龙，更是啥也不干、只会花下一代人的钱的典型。英国自己啥本事没有，还故意脱欧自绝于欧洲。其他欧洲国家要么太小，像荷兰丹麦；要么太弱，像意大利西班牙。
但集体行动的话，他们可以很强大。欧洲加上英国、澳大利亚，再与美国联合起来，这就等于9亿地球上最富有、最聪明、最高效的人，现在你就有能力与中国竞争了。
然后再加上第二梯队的印度、新加坡、印尼以及东盟其他国家，尤其是讨厌中国的菲律宾，还有日本和韩国。你明白了吗？哦，天哪，这听起来像是拜登和四方安全对话，以及奥巴马和拜登的跨太平洋伙伴关系协定，还有美日韩联盟。
你看，这就是问题所在。没人有胆量像弗里德曼说的那样，走进来告诉那个“白痴”闭嘴，如果他想战胜中国，就去建立联盟。

Russia? They don’t mean shit and everyone knows it but Trump. 
Call your Congressmen and tell them to please start thinking for a change. Please for all of us. And tell your EU reps to wake up and get their asses out of their endless committees and work with the USA. 
On finally, hey howdy Modi, wake up mate as you are going to be isolated as your bestie Putin is a loser and you are not ready to take on China either. 
Could you all please do that so that we don’t have to live in stupid land any more and have to hear the obvious from Thomas Friedman. I love Tommy but for christ sake, can’t someone other than Friedman be listened to? 
That is the question of the day.

俄罗斯？他们屁都不是，除了特朗普，所有人都知道这一点。
打电话给你的国会议员，告诉他们请开始动动脑子。为了我们所有人，拜托了。告诉你的欧盟代表们醒醒吧，别再没完没了地开会了，和美国合作吧。
最后，嘿，莫迪老兄，醒醒吧，你将会被孤立，因为你的好兄弟普京是个失败者，而你也没准备好应对中国。
拜托各位赶紧行动，别让我们再活在蠢蛋世界里，还得听托马斯·弗里德曼讲些明摆着的事。我喜欢汤米，但看在上帝的份上，难道除了弗里德曼，就不能听听别人的意见吗？
这就是今天的问题。

Adrian Qiu
Europe finds itself in a rather peculiar state. 
Take Germany, for example. Business operators, factory owners, and others involved in industry—essentially the social elites of (mostly) Germany—would, according to conventional capitalist logic, be expected to wield significant influence over the government. After all, in capitalist governments, those with wealth typically hold sway over elections. 
However, the reality in Germany and EU is quite different. 
In recent years, owners of wealth, factories, and technologies in Germany — traditionally viewed as the elites in a Capitalist society who are expected to shape public opinion within such a Capitalist frxwork — have increasingly sought collaboration with China, which has proven more beneficial for Germany's and EU’s economic operation. 
Meanwhile, for almost a decadeor even more, German and EU politicians have made every effort to distance themselves from China, resorting to slander and defamation, while simultaneously drawing closer to the United States in an attempt to lure these factory owners to America. It's as though they are blind and deaf, completely oblivious to the demands of the people. 
As is widely known, the American economy has become a bottomless pit that no amount of wealth can ever fill. Such a decision is harmful and offers no benefit to Germany and the European unx. 
Clearly, the governments, mainly after Merkel, both within the EU as a whole and in Germany itself, have not prioritized the interests of the countries or organizations they represent. Instead, they have prioritized the interests of the United States. In other words, these bureaucrats are essentially trading their official positions for the benefit of foreign interests, thereby securing personal gains for themselves. 
This reveals two critical issues. 

【回答】
欧洲现在的情况挺奇怪的。
比如德国吧，按说在资本主义逻辑下，那些企业家、工厂主这些社会精英（主要是德国的）应该对政府有很大影响力才对。毕竟在资本主义政府里，有钱人通常能左右选举。
但德国和欧盟的现实却完全不一样。
最近这些年，德国的财富拥有者、工厂主和技术方，这些在资本主义社会里本该是精英、能主导舆论的人，反而越来越想和中国合作，因为事实证明这对德国和欧盟的经济运行更有利。
可与此同时，德国和欧盟的政客们呢？近十年甚至更久以来，他们拼命疏远中国，各种污蔑诽谤，同时却使劲往美国身上贴，还想把这些工厂主也忽悠到美国去。他们简直像瞎了聋了一样，完全不管老百姓要什么。
谁都知道，美国经济现在就是个无底洞，多少钱都填不满。这种决定对德国和欧盟只有坏处没好处。
很明显，欧盟整体和德国自己（主要是默克尔之后）的这些政府，根本没把他们代表的国家或组织的利益放在第一位。他们优先考虑的是美国的利益。说白了，这些官僚就是在拿自己的官位换外国的好处，给自己谋私利。
这就暴露了两个关键问题：

First, these bureaucrats in Germany and the EU act as compradors — they rise to power through American influence rather than genuine democratic elections by Europeans or Germans. Even if there is a empty shell of something looks like democratic elections, they are already undermined, as politicians, as “democratic representatives”, do not uphold the interests they are supposed to symbolize. 
Second, this implies that Germany and the EU are, to a large extent, semi-colonies. An independent political entity would inherently prioritize its own interests above all else. Only a semi-colonial entity would sacrifice itself to sustain its colonizer. 
I mean, it is not even capitalism. 
This issue is not unique to Germany alone. Politicians in many European countries choose to sacrifice their own interests in favor of the United States, even when European and domestic interests are at stake like during the Greenland event or RussianUkraine war or even earilier, the COVID-19 epidemic situation and so. Even Switzerland, which had long claimed permanent neutrality even during WWs, chose to confiscate assets related to Russia and Venezuela, at the cost of sacrificing its credibility in the financial sector. Can you imagine? Despite the U.S. even claiming it would seize their territory and violate NATO rules, they continue to submit. Their bones are soft. 
In short, the only reason I can think of is that they are inherently part of the American interest system. They are NOT democratic representatives, and the European nations engaging in these actions fundamentally lack of democracy. 
Otherwise, taking the current opportunity presented by America's betrayal of NATO, politicians with democratic systems and representing the EU and its member states should have long since initiated changes based on the interests of its people.

第一，德国和欧盟的这些官僚其实就是买办，他们是靠美国扶持上位的，不是欧洲人或德国人真正民主选出来的。就算有个选举的空壳子，也早就烂透了，因为这些政客作为“民主代表”根本不维护他们该代表的利益。
第二，这说明德国和欧盟在很大程度上就是半殖民地。一个独立的政治实体天生会把自己的利益放在首位。只有半殖民地才会牺牲自己去供养殖民者。
要我说，这连资本主义都算不上。
这问题不只德国有。很多欧洲国家的政客都选择牺牲自己利益去讨好美国，哪怕涉及欧洲和本国利益的时候也一样，比如格陵兰事件、俄乌战争，甚至更早的新冠疫情时期。连瑞士这种二战都宣称永久中立的国家，居然都没收俄罗斯和委内瑞拉的资产，不惜毁掉自己在金融领域的信誉。你能想象吗？就算美国说要抢他们地盘、违反北约规则，他们还是跪着。骨头太软了。
总之，我能想到的唯一解释就是：他们本质上就是美国利益体系的一部分。他们根本不是民主代表，干这些事的欧洲国家也根本没有民主。
否则的话，趁着现在美国背叛北约的机会，那些有民主制度、代表欧盟及其成员国的政客，早该为了人民的利益开始改变了。

Paul Lee
Tom Friedman is a highly valued, 3X Pulitizer award winning writer and reporter. So, we must respect his opinions here. 
I will translate his statement into the common man vernacular: 
Trump, being a bully his entire life, has no friends but only collaborators to exploit others. He sees America’s long-entrenched allies as tools to further his personal gains and China as just another competitor without clearly understanding the strength and weakness of other countries or even those of the US. As he did so often as a boy, he’s kicking and punching at everyone insight to determine who and how far he can bully them. It's not until he gets knocked down or out by someone else that he learns otherwise. The problem now is that he's the President of the US, and it's Americans who will pay the price for his stupidity and recklessness. Thus, he will never learn to stop, for he’s not feeling the pain of his action. This is what America and Americans deserve for electing a convicted felon, habitual fraudster and insurrectiinist-leader to the highest public office in the land. It's much too late to cry about it now!

【回答】
汤姆·弗里德曼是一位备受推崇、三次获得普利策奖的作家和记者。因此，我们必须尊重他的观点。
我把他这段话翻译成大白话：
特朗普这辈子就是个恶霸，没有朋友，只有利用别人的合作者。他把美国长期以来的盟友当作谋取私利的工具，把中国当成又一个竞争对手，却根本不清楚其他国家的实力和弱点，甚至连美国的也不清楚。就像他小时候常干的那样，他现在对眼前所有人拳打脚踢，试探谁能欺负、能欺负到什么程度。除非被别人打趴下，否则他永远不会长记性。问题在于，他现在是美国总统，为他的愚蠢和鲁莽付出代价的将是美国人。所以他永远学不会收手，因为他自己感觉不到疼。这就是美国和美国人民选出一个有犯罪前科、惯于欺诈、煽动叛乱的人当国家最高领导人的报应。现在哭都来不及了！

Mark Jubelirer
I’m listening now to Trump’s economic speech in Detroit. 
Trump is disgusting. 
He lies and lies and lies. And doesn’t know what he’s talking about. 
He’s trying to be so funny. Yet he isn’t. 
He’s not finishing his sentences. Nothing new there. We’re supposed to guess at the meaning of his words; but you’ll drive yourself crazy if you do. After all- his words have no meaning. 
And Thomas Friedman is correct as always, now speaking about Trump- “only a moron….” 
Yes. Quite right, only a moron….

【回答】
我正在听特朗普在底特律的经济演讲。  
特朗普真让人恶心。谎话连篇，根本不知道自己在说什么，还想装幽默，却一点也不好笑。  
说话总是半句半句的，老样子了。我们还得猜他话里的意思，但真要猜的话，简直能把人逼疯。毕竟他的话本来就没什么意义。
托马斯·弗里德曼说得对，他评价特朗普时就说：“只有蠢货才会…”  
没错，说得太对了，只有蠢货才会…