... and grandmother gave birth

I am not revealing anything new if I state - as I have already written many times - that we are not only going through, but also dragging along, one of the moments of least or worst quality, political capacity and leadership of our founding fathers or top leaders, both individually for nations of weight and substance, and at the helm of the main international organizations.

It seems incredible that in an era in which Artificial Intelligence and its benefits are booming and developing, at a time when we are in a position to reap the benefits and learn from global catastrophes such as the recent pandemic and in clear situations of globalization and open and liberal trade, we have been able to reach this chaotic and senseless moment.

We knew Donald Trump well and his many apparent whims and eccentricities; we knew that he was not willing to let his repeated and even tiresome warnings on issues of substance and transcendence such as emigration, free and fair trade without major imbalances and, above all, individual and collective security and defense, go unheeded. 

No one paid any attention to him at the time, nor did they even slightly fear the consequences of his second visit to the White House. We thought that those eccentric billionaires he had surrounded himself with during his election campaign and from the moment he set foot in the Oval Office were just that, capricious and strange characters who would ultimately have little or no influence on a person who, with his oddities and strange things, during his previous term in office, he had more than demonstrated to the world his ability to lead the world's leading nation and that he would continue the role assigned to his country for eight decades: a role that consisted, neither more nor less, of fighting wherever and against whomever necessary in the defense of democracy against abuses, dictatorships and excessive autocracies.

But no. It turns out that, at least initially and apparently, it has forgotten its assigned role in and for the international community for decades. In a matter of hours it left Zelenski at the mercy of the horses. In just three months, everything has been blown sky high, its contributions to long-standing and ongoing initiatives have vanished or disappeared; everything is being questioned, including the International Courts of Justice, climate change, the role of Russia and China on the world stage and the functions and very existence of international organizations as necessary as the UN and even NATO itself.

The American hurricane has once again caught the world with its pants down, as they say. No one, not even money itself (the banks and the stock markets) or any intelligence service or quality political analysis has been able to detect the great or total seismic movement that was approaching.

All it took was the appearance of a table - poorly made and worthy of a children's entertainment game - for billions of euros or dollars to be lost on stock markets around the world, for the industry to begin to truly tremble and for the countries or organizations that collect and coordinate them to urgently and relentlessly get to work in search of measures and countermeasures with which to try to alleviate, in some way, the tear and the hole where they were or could be found.

The majority of the anchored or extended and never sincere security and defense expenses of many countries have begun to take on a prominence and urgency that was unusual until very recently. In most European countries, there is a growing urgency to urgently and powerfully discuss the advisability of increasing the number of troops and improving their weaponry and other more complex or sophisticated means. 

All are dusting off their industries in the sector and those with dual use in a fight to conquer a market - until now reserved mainly for the USA - in anticipation that, even if in an unplanned and uncoordinated way, orders for their products could increase a lot in a short time.

Tariff countermeasures to try to balance the large trade imbalances with the US have been unable to mitigate the pernicious effects of the abrupt US initiative and major industrial and economic setbacks were already anticipated. 

Even some central banks, such as the Spanish one, through the mouths of their top officials, had already added fuel to the fire of fear and uncertainty. In just three days, panic had spread; even, strangely, the price of gold, oil and even bitcoin fell. Apparently, there was nowhere left where the fearful could hide their money.

Fortunately, some kind soul or a do-gooder, in view of the unraveling that Trump's measures were causing in the economy, industry, world life, but also in that of the Americans and given the deterioration of relations between his members of the government or direct advisors; as a way out and waiting for things to get back on track, Yesterday Trump announced a 90-day moratorium on the definitive application of the tariffs, if they are maintained as they were announced to the world on the self-named 'day of freedom'. Of this manoeuvre of decomposition only the USA and China remain and even in more serious discord.

But before these changes happened, just yesterday, in the midst of all the chaos and panic described and experienced, overnight, the 'savior' appeared again, our president Sánchez; who, in a matter of hours, once again brought out some aid that, in reality, is not really aid at all, but mostly loans and guarantees.

The same or similar loans and guarantees that were recently offered to alleviate the effects of the Dana and even for the never recognized or accepted national 'rearmament'.

A saducean maneuver with which it can give food or drink to the very cafeteros and keep the troops happy for the capacity of a government - self-proclaimed progressive - that does not need to approve a general budget for years, to face, with great nerve and total ease, all kinds of unforeseen events, no matter how multimillionaire and ostentatious they may be. 

Not content with this customary salve of fierabrás, in the midst of the world crisis, in the midst of the fierce struggle between the US and China; with an EU that is poorly led and somewhat, or rather very, clueless and disorganized, Sánchez embarks on his second trip to China with an intermediate stopover in Vietnam with his 'plenipotentiary ambassador' R. Zapatero; the all-purpose go-to guy for all things past or recent and more than accustomed to splashing around in the most fetid and putrid puddles where the cream of tyrannies, autocracies, prohibitionists, exacerbated controllers and persecutors of all kinds dwell, swarm or inhabit at a local and global level.

It is well known that these state visits are not planned or finalized in a matter of days; it takes a certain amount of time to finalize agendas and establish programs. But once again, Spain's foreign policy and the figure of its prime minister have shown their clumsiness, their bad timing and their lack of tact. With how 'well we are currently doing in our relations with the US', this huge stumbling block was all we needed.

It was as embarrassing as could be, to see the pursuer of Franco, the gravedigger of Francoism and someone who is willing to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his death with hundreds of events, show his highest degree of respect and quasi-humiliation before the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, one of the most important tyrants and responsible for millions of crimes and executions in that part of Asia.

We still don't know what we will get in return, or if these talks will be productive for Spain. Talks and acts, encouraged or promoted by the man who was going to dedicate himself to 'counting clouds' in the Leon sky when he left office and now he and his family are full of business deals in the aforementioned countries that have become the most stinking swamps. 

Sánchez begins his tour of China, which is going to make Trump and his government even more angry. This will undoubtedly have repercussions on our economic and market relationship with the Americans. 

Stay tuned, because the chapter of humiliations can undoubtedly increase, given that China is not a country with an excess of democracy and is very full of the opposite. 

His previous visit was not well received in the EU and I very much fear that this time, they have already put on the blindfold before he lands on their soil, making it very clear that this gentleman is a spontaneous, often inappropriate, and that he does not speak on behalf of the EU. We shall see.