Susan Miller
A look at California’s illegal voter-registration problem. There are 3.5 million more people on U.S. election rolls than are eligible to vote.
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KQED radio held the one and only debate between Gavin Newsom and John Cox. Listen to it at this link.
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As if you thought the notorious nanny state couldn't get any more intrusive. Water and milk only allowed on California kids' menus.
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Trump’s Triumphs: Dismantling NAFTA.
One of the president’s campaign promises was to renegotiate NAFTA. His administration did so as of August 31, and the new deal could be approved by Congress in early 2019.
So what IS NAFTA, and why is it a good thing that the Emperor-God has taken a machete to it? Moreover, why are swamp dwellers hypocrites for opposing the rewrite?
The North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement is a 1994 product of the Clinton administration. As one might expect, it’s complicated and varied; and its effects far reaching and often subtle. “Negotiated behind closed doors with hundreds of official corporate advisors, NAFTA was radically different than past trade deals that focused on traditional trade matters, like cutting border taxes. Instead, most of NAFTA's provisions grant new powers and privileges to multinational corporations.” (citizen.org) In short, NAFTA incentivizes US corporations to leave the country, taking jobs with them (1 million American jobs lost to date), and guts pro-America, pro-worker policies, like one requiring the US government to spend tax dollars on American-made goods.
The end result, over 25 years, lowered US wages, hurt US manufacturing and agriculture, and increased the US trade deficit. Critics says NAFTA destroyed the Mexican economy and drove millions from their homes (and into the US.)
To be fair, a 2013 New York Times articles sings NAFTA’s praises, claiming “Nafta was not about the net creation or destruction of U.S. jobs; it was about better jobs and lower costs.” “Better jobs for whom?” one might ask after realizing the restorative impact of the Trump administration’s common sense changes to the agreement. (A full list can be found at the ustr.gov site below.)
The new agreement requires:
1) Mexico to guarantee workers the right to secret ballot votes on their own unions and contracts. Who knew that Mexico has fake “protection” unions which approve low-wage contracts before work at a new plant even commences? If Mexican workers protest the $2 per hour wages at a plant that would pay $20 to $25 per hour to make the same product in the US, the Mexicans are fired for violating their phony “contract.” The secret-ballot vote requirement could help end that exploitation. (prospect.org)
2) the razing of NAFTA’s investor-state dispute settlement tribunals. ISDS is a system through which investors (that is, multi-national corporations) can sue countries for alleged discriminatory practices, grabbing compensation from taxpayers after attacking environmental and health policies that they claim undermine NAFTA investor rights.
3) a lift in the share of a good’s value that must be made in North America to 75 percent from 62.5 percent, a rule of origin widely criticized as allowing NAFTA benefits for goods comprised of parts made in China and other countries outside of North America.
Though it’s probably inaccurate to pin all of today’s political woes on NAFTA specifically, it does seems as if it laid the ground work for many of them: loss of work in the factory and farm towns of fly-over country, massive influx of illegals from Mexico, and the general dismantling of borders in favor of multi-national corporations. Think about it: if multi-national corporations can negotiate US trade deals, they run Washington… and much of the world. So, if Donald Trump was elected to drain the swamp, NAFTA is what made the swamp a particularly good home for alligators. No wonder the swamp wants to keep it. Politicians have spent 25 years getting rich off it. The Left abandoned the American worker and took up identity politics in part because of it.
By undoing NAFTA, the president is not only putting America first, he’s incentivizing Mexico and Canada to look after their own. He’s restoring a healthy sense of competition between businesses, and keeping politicians away from the national and international trough. He’s raising the standard of living for Mexico and helping ensure its citizens can make a home in their home country honestly, instead of risking life and limb to make one in the US illegally. And that in turn defends American workers. So, overhauling NAFTA is good for everybody, well, except globalists, corporatists and lobbyists. And it’s another brilliant strategic move by President Trump, the master of four dimensional chess, to make America great again.
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Trump’s Triumphs - A Tale of Two Dictators
Trump Tower was built in 1979. In 1988, according to the New York Times and Fortune Magazine, 75% of construction in NYC was still controlled by gangsters. Therefore, it’s likely that both President Trump and his builder father dealt with the mob. Whether they dealt directly or indirectly, to survive and succeed, they had to understand how the ruthless think, feel, and operate. Having built luxury buildings all over the world, the president understands the ruthless on an international scale.
Yet, after Singapore, he was chided for not ironing out details with Kim. And, after Helsinki, the president was criticized by the Main Stream Media for appearing too conciliatory to Putin.
But actions speak louder than words. When Trump criticized Angela Merkel for making an oil deal with Russia, he reminded the world that he’s not just building up the US as an energy supplier, he’s threatening Russia’s economy. With nuclear weapons alone giving Russia cache on the world stage, Russia eeks out a GDP of $8,733 per capita, compared to the US GDP of $57,467. In short, Russia can’t afford to lose business. By expanding Obama era sanctions against Russia, the president limits Russian access to technology and, according to Bloomberg, threatens to decrease the Russian economy by 10%. So, with the pressure on, Mr. Putin openly agreed at the Helsinki press conference to Trump’s demands regarding Syria. Success.
Why does Syria matter, aside from protecting Israel? According to Breitbart’s Carol Glick, “North Korea…would interpret Iranian deployment along the Syrian border as a sign of American weakness, and U.S. allies around the world would once again lose confidence in America’s protection, as they did under…Obama.”
Plus better relations with Russia speaks loudly to China. “According to Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, ‘For the Chinese… Mr Trump’s sycophantic press conference …in Helsinki had a strategic purpose. They see it as Henry Kissinger in reverse. In 1972, the US nudged China off the Soviet axis in order to put pressure on its real rival, the Soviet Union.' Today, Mr Trump is reaching out to Russia in order to isolate China.”
Kim, with his faux marble palaces and starving populace, may appear more as a nuke obsessed James Bond villain than the leader of a country. But by wooing him, President Trump not only begins to dismantle the DMZ - the Asian equivalent to the Berlin wall - he brings a feeling of peace to Americans whose relatives fought and died there. True, Kim may not be dismantling his nukes, but he has stopped testing. And, by sending back American remains, the dictator is reaching out. That alone is of historical importance.
But perhaps the purpose of courting Kim is not just to reign him in; perhaps it’s to further isolate China. As Leonard’s Asian contacts report: “Look at how [Trump] handled North Korea…He got Xi Jinping to agree to UN sanctions [half a dozen] times, creating an economic stranglehold on the country. China almost turned North Korea into a sworn enemy of the country…[The Chinese] describe [Trump] as a master tactician, focusing on one issue at a time, and extracting as many concessions as he can. But they also see him as a strategist, willing to declare a truce in each area when there are no more concessions to be had, and then start again with a new front.”
So, perhaps the president didn’t push for exact details with North Korea because the word of madman Kim can’t be trusted anyway. Therefore, the document is symbolic and operable agreements were probably not the goal. And perhaps Trump conciliated to Putin in public because doing so would make the dictator look (and feel) good after having conceded on hard issues in private.
What do foreign affairs have to do with ’70’s gangsters? While communication, technology and trade are gently, peacefully creating an educated class in Russia and China (and India and everywhere) who hold mores much in common with the American way of life, the governments of these countries reflect their bloody histories. Sure, the US has its dark side; but in Russia and China, human life is still fairly cheap.
In The Art of the Deal, Mr. Trump depicts his younger self collecting rent for his father in the New York of Charles Bronson’s Death Wish. He learns to stand to the side in case delinquent renters shoot through the door. The president learned young to dodge a bullet and get crooks to pay up at the same time. So, why wouldn’t Mr. Trump know how to handle two international leaders known for assassinating enemies? Perhaps a president who has confronted the darkest side of humanity will be the guy to bring us world peace.
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Jerry Brown vetoes Democrats' effort to avoid effect of Trump tax cuts.
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California is considering requiring high schols to take an ethnic studies course as a requirement for graduation.
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Suspected Islamic State member accused of killing police officer in Iraq arrested in Sacramento, where he settled as a refugee.
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These screenshots show show how Google shadowbans conservative and pro-Trump content.
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California’s aspiring new Socialists have already run out of other people’s money.
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