monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Media Neglects To Mention NAFTA Deal, Mexico Will Pay For Border Wall
His negotiation is a major win for workers, which is probably the reason it’s being ignored by the media.

After months of work renegotiating the NAFTA agreement, teams of experts on international trade and law from the United States, Mexico, and Canada have successfully renegotiated 10 chapters of the original NAFTA deal.

On Thursday, however, they will tackle the contentious topic of whether or not they must support tariffs put in place by the United States, mirroring such tariffs against states that they do not have prior trade agreements with.

Mexico has signaled that it is willing to take such a step, rather than risk the loss of the NAFTA deal. It’s in their best interest to do so, after all; America is a nation of consumers, and Mexico is well-positioned to move its own products into the country.

In exchange for enforcing tariffs on metals put in place by President Donald Trump, the Mexican and Canadian governments hope to avoid facing the same tariffs the rest of the world does when trading with the United States. Under current trade agreements, they are both exempted from the tariffs.

The willingness of the Mexican and Canadian governments to enforce tariffs passed by the United States by mirroring them means that the nations will essentially be working to enforce American tariffs on products.

Three men have been found guilty of plotting to bomb Somali immigrants at a mosque and apartment complex in the US state of Kansas.

A federal jury in Wichita convicted Curtis Allen, 50, Gavin Wright, 49, and Patrick Eugene Stein, 49, who belonged to a militia called the Crusaders.

Armed with guns and explosives, the trio planned to strike a day after the November 2016 US elections.

But the Garden City plotters were infiltrated by an FBI informant.

The suspects, who planned to detonate four vehicles packed with explosives at the corners of the apartment complex, were arrested about a month before election day.

Following a four-week trial, the three were convicted on Wednesday of one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of conspiracy against civil rights.

The defendants' legal team acknowledged their clients had referred to Muslim as "cockroaches", but argued their plot was all talk.

However, Assistant US Attorney Anthony Mattivi, for the prosecution, said in court on Tuesday: "Their ultimate goal was to wake people up and to slaughter every man, woman and child in the building."

Allen, Wright and Stein face life in prison when sentenced in June.

So do criminals which, of course, is what Trump was referring to (using "breeding concept")

He can tell a story where it is readable and understandable.

Today’s Must-Watch: Watch Jordan Peele use AI to make Barack Obama deliver a PSA about fake news
Posted on April 18, 2018 8:23 am by Rick Hasen
If this doesn’t scare the hell out of you about the next election season, you are not paying attention.

Dick’s Sporting Goods plans to destroy the assault-style rifles and accessories it agreed to take off its shelves in February instead of returning them to manufacturers.

It is the latest action taken by the Pennsylvania retailer that agreed to ban the sale of assault-style rifles at its 35 Field & Stream stores, and to stop selling firearms and ammunition to anyone younger than 21.

A federal judge has found Kansas’s chief elections official, Kris Kobach — a Republican who helped lead the much-criticized commission set up by President Trump to investigate supposed voter fraud — in contempt of court in a sharply worded ruling that said Kobach acted “disingenuously,” and ordered him to pay damages for the opposing team’s attorney fees.

Alex Jones: Sandy Hook parents’ defamation lawsuit is part of globalist plot to assassinate me

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has withdrawn two libel lawsuits against BuzzFeed and private investigation firm Fusion GPS for the publishing of an alleged dossier detailing President Trump's dealings with Russia, Politico reports.

Why it matters: Dropping the libel cases allows him to avoid discovery and questioning from other attorneys, which could undermine the criminal case he's already in with files and documents already seized by the FBI.

Jonathan Chait
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Trump's supporters do know that Cohen flipping on Trump is only an issue if Trump committed crimes, right? http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/trumps-lawyer-cohen-forgets-to-pretend-trump-is-innocent.html …

Lawmakers from both parties expressed alarm Wednesday over President Trump’s plans to forge ahead with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, particularly in the absence of what they see as a viable strategy to secure American objectives there.

In a House hearing, members repeatedly challenged the State Department’s top officials on the Middle East and Russia to explain how the administration planned to reach its stated goals of defeating the Islamic State, building a stable Syria without President Bashar al-Assad, and keeping his Russian and Iranian backers from taking over.

“As tempting as it is to say ‘enough’ and retreat to our shores, smart, focused and determined engagement in the Middle East must be our approach,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward R. Royce (R-Calif.) said. “We need to talk strategy with the administration.”

I, unpopular though it is, agreed with the latest strike against Syria because of Assad use of chemical weapons on his own people.

Last weekend, dozens of people died in a suspected chemical attack on a Damascus suburb, prompting the United States, Britain and France to launch retaliatory strikes against Syrian targets early Saturday.

In addition, American-led forces have bombed the Islamic State in large patches of eastern Syria, in strikes believed to have left thousands dead.