monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

"We do not believe that the U.S. has significant flexibility to increase domestic smelting capacity in the near term, and that it will therefore have little choice but to continue to import Canadian produced material, paying the 10% higher import duty and passing on that cost to the consumer,"

Quote:

"You now pay more for healthcare, it's ok, tax-cut."
"You now pay more for everything with steel in it, it's ok, tax-cut."
"You now pay more for everything with aluminium in it, it's ok, tax-cut."

All of it keeps Americans working. That is an unpardonable sin, right?

that any economic gains that we may expect to see are wiped out too huh?

Plenty of presidential candidates have talked about parlaying unsuccessful campaigns into powerful political operations, but only one has pulled it off in a meaningful way: radical TV preacher Pat Robertson.

As we discussed last summer, Robertson cultivated an enormous donor list during his 1988 bid, filled with politically engaged evangelicals, and he turned that list into a potent force fairly quickly. As the religious right movement grew into one of the dominant factions in Republican politics, Robertson took full advantage of the opportunity -- cultivating a mini-empire featuring an activist organization (the Christian Coalition), a college (Regent University), an annual political gathering (the Christian Coalition's "Road to Victory" conference), and a broadcast presence (the Christian Broadcasting Network).

But Robertson also wanted a legal group intended to serve as a right-wing rival to the ACLU, so the televangelist created the ACLJ -- the American Center for Law and Justice -- and hired Jay Sekulow to lead the group and to advance the religious right's agenda in the courts.

What few could've predicted is that the ACLJ would become the heart of Donald Trump's legal defense in the Russia scandal...

in the Russia scandal...

BEIJING — A secretive meeting between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and China’s Xi Jinping this week showcased enduring bonds between the two countries, highlighting the diplomatic challenge facing President Trump.

Kim, making what was believed to be his first foreign trip as leader, chugged into Beijing aboard an armored train on Monday and met with Xi and other senior Chinese officials, according to North Korean and Chinese media.

The “unofficial” visit, which was not announced until after Kim left China, came just weeks before the North Korean leader is scheduled to see South Korea President Moon Jae-in, followed by a planned summit with Trump. 

The Beijing meeting, analysts said, was staged to show that North Korea-China ties are back on track, as underscored by photographs of energetic handshakes and an account of a heartfelt toast from Kim.

The message to the United States: Any moves on North Korea must go through Xi.

Trump showcased China’s gatekeeper role in a tweet Wednesday, saying Xi told him that plans for a U.S.-North Korea summit appear on track.

“Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me,” Trump wrote. “In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!”

“Beijing is reasserting itself and looking to shape the agenda for the upcoming summits,” said Adam Mount, a senior fellow and director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists.

“Divisions between Beijing and Pyongyang were a major asset to Trump’s pressure campaign,” he said. Reinforcing their ties would weaken “Trump’s hand in negotiations and diminish further the effectiveness of U.S. military threats,” Mount added.

Ni Lexiong, a military expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said Kim was using conflict between China and the United States to “obtain benefits from both sides.”

In international press coverage, Kim is often portrayed as irrational madman, more of a punchline than a person, let alone a leader. Trump has referred to him as “little rocket man” in tweets.

Kim’s diplomatic debut will make it harder to dismiss him outright, experts said.

“We’re seeing a carefully crafted North Korean strategy on diplomacy unfold on the world stage, starting with Beijing,” Jean H. Lee, a North Korea expert and fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, said in an email.

“Shutting China out and ramping up the rhetoric with the United States gave [Kim] the space and justification he needed to expedite the building of nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles,” she wrote. “Now, with a program he feels confident is a proven threat, he feels emboldened to force the region’s leaders to treat him as an equal, not as the young son of a dictator who inherited power.”

China’s Xi may take issue with “equal.” There have been few signs that Xi is fond of Kim. 

Only two years into his reign, Kim had his uncle, who was North Korea’s main liaison with China, executed for building his own power base. 

Then, in 2016, as Xi was hosting a Group of 20 summit on his home turf, Kim presided over the launch of three medium-range ballistic missiles, stealing the spotlight. The South Korean military called the move an act of “armed protest” against Xi.

When Xi sent a top official to Pyongyang last year, Kim did not even see him.

Successive American administrations have called on China to use its economic leverage over North Korea to exert control. But analysts say that China's main priority has always been stability, and it does not want to do anything that could cause the collapse of the Kim regime, which could bring millions of hungry refu­gees — and, it fears, U.S. troops — to its door.

Amid increasing talk of military options from the Trump administration, China seemed more willing to act. It has been more carefully enforcing sanctions, conducting intrusive inspections of cargo and cutting off key North Korean exports, including seafood and workers, for instance. 

Those efforts helped bring Kim back to the table. “Amid the tightened sanctions, rapprochement with China has become a practical need of great urgency for North Korea,” said Cheong Seong-chang, an expert on North Korea’s leadership at the Sejong Institute near Seoul.

In the short term, experts see the meeting as a sign that the Trump summit will likely go ahead. Kim can now enter those talks with more confidence.

“The visit is a breakthrough of the diplomatic isolation imposed on North Korea,” said Cai Jian, executive director of the Center for Korean Studies at Shanghai’s Fundan University.

Having shaken hands with Xi, young Kim heads into the negotiating room with “more useful bargaining chips, or a more advantageous position to negotiate with the West.”

A poll released this morning by CNBC’s All America Economic Survey, conducted by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies in mid-March, found that only a third of the Americans have noticed more money in their paychecks because of $1.5 trillion Trump tax cuts. More than half — 52 percent — say they’ve seen no change at all.

The extra take home pay is so inconsequential to most people that, of the minority who says they’ve noticed the extra funds, a little less than 40 percent say it’s improved their finances “a great deal” or “a fair amount,” with the remainder saying it the money either helps a small amount or not at all.

Having shaken hands with Xi, young Kim heads into the negotiating room with “more useful bargaining chips, or a more advantageous position to negotiate with the West.”

The extra take home pay is so inconsequential

Did Obama do one thing to solve this problem with NK?

The condescending Left is enough to make anyone vote against them...