90 Miles From Tyranny

Sunday, March 11, 2018

On Trade, Trump Is Acting in the Best Interest of the USA

On Thursday, President Trump, surrounded by steel workers in the Oval Office, signed a memo imposing tariffs on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%) that are imported to the United States.

He carved out two exceptions to the tariffs:

Canada and Mexico would be temporarily exempted from the tariffs, pending the outcome of the ongoing renegotiation of NAFTA. The U.S. will likely insist that products imported tariff-free into the U.S. use steel produced within NAFTA.
He directed USTR (U.S. trade representative) Robert C. Lighthizer to negotiate with those military allies that want to be excluded from the tariffs, but such exclusions would require trade reciprocity. The Trump administration is expert at using economic leverage to produce negotiated outcomes that benefit the United States.

This announcement marks a victory for the trade deficit hawks in President Trump's inner circle of economic advisers, including Wilbur Ross, Trump's secretary of commerce, and University of California at Irvine economics professor Peter Navarro, who was recently elevated to the ranks of the president's top-level advisers.

The economic recovery being produced by President Trump's tax cuts and deregulation is at stake. During the fourth quarter of 2017, real GDP grew at a 2.5% clip, which is good compared to growth rates during the Obama years, but it could have been much better. Here are the contributions to growth during the fourth quarter:

Contributor to GDP	Resulting Growth
Consumption	2.6%
Fixed Investment	1.3%
Change in Inventories	-0.7%
Government Purchases	0.5%
Net Exports	-1.3%
Total	2.5%

The reduction of inventories by 0.7% is not of concern. It simply means that business inventories declined by 0.7% of our GDP, probably because businesses were selling more than they had anticipated. The concerning factor is the worsening net exports (i.e., trade balance), which reduced GDP growth by 1.3% of our GDP. If not for the worsening trade balance, GDP growth would have been an outstanding 3.8% during the fourth quarter.

Critics point out that the tariffs will raise the price of products fabricated with steel or aluminum. But the existing low prices of iron and steel and aluminum are at the expense of American producers in those industries. American consumers should not be favored at the expense of American wage-earners.

The reality is that the same countries that produced the most steel in the world produced the largest trade deficits in the United States (deficits shown as negative trade balances):

Country	Steel Production millions of tonnes	U.S. Trade Balance millions of dollars
China	808.4	-316,273
Japan	104.8	-58,286
India	95.6	-19,455
United States	78.5	-----
Russia	70.8	*-10,016
South Korea	68.6	-18,977
Germany	42.1	-52,886
Turkey	33.2	*330
Brazil	31.3	6,322
Ukraine	24.2	*809
Italy	23.4	-27,061
Taiwan	21.8	-14,739
Mexico	18.8	-59,286
Iran	17.9	*75
France	14.4	-12,454
Spain	13.6	*-4,646
Canada	12.6	-13,765
Total	1629.6	-568,400
*goods only, does not include services

The biggest steel-producing country in the world in 2016 was China, which accounted for about half of the world's steel production and more than half of the U.S. trade deficit. Imposing tariffs on such products is a way to balance trade.

What of fears of a trade war? Most of the above countries are already participating in a trade war with the United States, except that the United States has not been fighting back. The governments of these countries have been manipulating the terms of trade to enhance their exports to the United States and keep out U.S. products. As a result, we get debt, and they get...

An investigation by the Sunday Mirror has revealed Britain’s worst ever grooming scandal, which saw authorities paralysed for 40 years by fears of “racism” accusations as grooming gangs victimised up to a thousand girls in Telford.

The left-leaning newspaper claims its 18-month investigation found “abuse on unprecedented levels”, with three women being killed when abuser Azhar Ali Mehmood burned down their home with them inside and two others dying in connection with the scandal.

Social workers reportedly knew of the abuse, which saw girls as young as 11 targeted, from the 1990s, but police took ten years to launch an investigation and the authorities failed to keep tabs on suspects and perpetrators from the South Asian community fearing “racism” accusations.

Victims told the Sunday Mirror that the abuse — which is said to have begun in the 1980s — carries on to this day, and notes that police failed to investigate one recent case five times before a Member of Parliament directly intervened.

The newspaper claims to have uncovered previously unseen files showing council staff chose to view girls being abused, trafficked, and even sold as “prostitutes” rather than victims.

Telford is a relatively small city, with a population of 170,000, making this scandal the most extensive and long-running in the country.

The number of victims in Rotherham was slightly higher at 1,500, but Rotherham is a significantly larger city with a population of around 260,000.

“I hated what was happening and my abusers made my skin crawl but I was told that if I said a word to anyone they’d come for my little sisters and tell my mum I was a prostitute,” said one 14-year-old victim, whose phone number had been sold to paedophiles.

“Night after night, I was forced to have sex with multiple men in disgusting takeaways and filthy houses.

“I must have been getting the morning after pill from a local clinic at least twice a week but no one asked any questions.

“I fell pregnant twice and had two abortions. Hours after my second termination, I was taken by one of my abusers to...

Another Trump Economic Record: More People Now Working Than Any Other Time In American History

Why do Mr. Trump’s enemies want to destroy him so much?

Because he’s making America stronger. That’s the last thing the globalists want.

A war is brewing...@TRobinsonNewEra & his camerawoman were viciously attacked by masked #Antifa Soros terrorists

No Surprise, Jihadi Mayor Khan, who defended 9/11 Terrorists, Hates Gays, Jews & calls "Moderates", 'Uncle Toms' had his police do NOTHNG! https://t.co/Ty0SiHesYT pic.twitter.com/azwHta9sge
— Amy Mek (@AmyMek) March 11, 2018

Outrage: ‘No Whites Allowed’ Magazine Launches on Campus

Talk about hypocrisy — 'giving so much power to hatred completely masks creativity and transforms the idea of tolerance,' notes author

Students at the University of Texas in San Antonio sparked controversy with the launch of a new magazine entitled “No Whites Allowed.”

The publication is the brainchild of a group of students whose objective is to highlight people of color — more specifically, “queer” people of color.

While the magazine didn’t receive the university’s approval or authorization, flyers were still disseminated announcing the launch of “No Whites Allowed.”

Representatives for the publication responded to widespread backlash by saying white people and straight people were welcome to attend the launch party, but neither are required for success. While some students feel ostracized simply for being white, others are more combative.

Launching a magazine titled “No Whites Allowed” is far from being all-inclusive and tolerant. No one wants to see something this ridiculous in circulation.

There would be protests and talk show appearances nationwide if a “No Blacks Allowed” magazine were launched. Students would be suspended and heads would roll.

There’s no doubt students have become adept at marketing and using social media for attention to a cause. Rather than focus on the positive, these students attached negativity to the title of their publication for shock value just to create buzz.

They’ve effectively cast a dark cloud over their publication.

What sort of content can be found inside a magazine called “No Whites Allowed”?

There are plenty of ways to focus on...

A woman identifying as a Virginia social worker took to social media Friday evening to vent about being fired from her job for being a concealed carry permit holder.

Storm Durham, a former Department of Virginia Social Services employee who describes herself as a “22 year old blonde who is 5’2 and about 140 pounds who loves everything Disney, pink, and basic,” asserts that she was escorted out of her office by three Roanoke, Va., police officers after she was canned. She was, according to a post on Facebook, not even allowed to use the bathroom due to “serious safety concerns to the building.”

“I was fired today due to having a concealed carry permit,” Durham wrote on Facebook. “Was my gun on me? No. Has it ever been on me during my job, or visits, or anything related to work? No. When I told them that it has never been on me during work, what did they say? ‘How do we know that.'”

“I got my concealed carry because I am woman, and y’all have seen the news, it’s kind of crazy,” she said on a Facebook Live video. In her post, she described herself as a “survivor or sexual assault.”

“I have a concealed carry permit. I own guns. I hunt. I target shoot. I represent Women hunters and outdoorswomen,” she wrote on Facebook. “Does that make me a criminal? Does that make me a safety risk to others? A big enough safety risk to be escorted by three Roanoke City Police officers? So scary and threatening that I need to be treated like a criminal? To be humiliated and looked down upon for owning a gun? For legally having a gun, registering...

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Florida Lawmakers Vote To Stay In Daylight Savings Time All Year Round...

Hot Pick Of The Late Night

Girls With Guns

(CNN)Lawmakers in Florida are tired of the whole "fall back" and "spring forward" rigamarole. So they've approved a bill to keep Daylight Saving Time going throughout the year in their state.

It took the state Senate less than a minute Tuesday to pass the "Sunshine Protection Act." There were only two dissenters. (The House passed it 103-11 on February 14.)

The bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Rick Scott -- but it's far from a done deal after that, Even if the governor approves, a change like this will literally take an act of Congress.

But if all is approved, Floridians -- who'll set their clocks ahead one hour this Sunday when Daylight Saving Time begins -- won't have to mess with it ever again.

Florida will then join Hawaii and most of Arizona, the two places that are exempt from the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The Act established the system of uniform Daylight Saving Time throughout the US.

A time whose time has passed?

Efforts to kill off daylight saving time are nearly as old as the time shift itself. And many of the commonly offered rationales for daylight saving time (yes, it's "saving," not "savings") no longer hold true.

For instance, one reason Congress used in enacting daylight saving time is that it saves energy.

A 2008 US Department of Energy study reported that daylight saving time reduces annual energy use by only about 0.03%. And a study that same year from the University of California-Santa Barbara found it might even increase energy consumption.
Another study found the clock changes can raise the risk of accidents by sleep-deprived motorists.

Eight House Democrats have met with notorious racist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan during their time in Congress
Four of those House Democrats now refuse to denounce Farrakhan (and two others have misled the public about their prior relationships with him)
Farrakahn’s close ties to the Democratic Party have re-emerged as a political issue after he was revealed to have been closer with several House Democrats than they let on.

Four House Democrats revealed to have met with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan during their time in Congress are now refusing Jewish civil rights groups’ pleas to denounce him.

Farrakhan is a notorious racist and anti-Semite whose closeness with the Democratic Party has re-emerged as a political issue due to three recent developments.

First, a Nation of Islam photographer revealed a 13-year-old photo of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama smiling with Farrakhan at a Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) meeting in 2005. The CBC asked him to suppress the photo’s publication in order to protect Obama’s presidential aspirations, the photographer said. Twenty-one current House Democrats were in the CBC when Farrakhan had his meeting with the caucus.

Second, Women’s March leaders have come out in support Farrakhan gave a rabidly anti-Semitic speech in February with Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory in attendance. The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization, slammed Mallory and other Women’s March leaders for their closeness with Farrakhan. Mallory had already faced public scrutiny over her relationship with Farrakhan. When she faced a backlash from attending Farrakhan’s speech, Mallory suggested that Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism made him like Jesus. As of this article, neither Mallory nor the Women’s March has denounced Farrakhan.

Third, new reporting revealed that several House Democrats had closer relationships with Farrakhan than the public had been led to believe. That includes Democratic National Committee (DNC) deputy chair Keith Ellison, who led the public to believe that his relationship with Farrakhan ended in 2006. In fact, Ellison attended multiple meetings with Farrakhan during...

Less than an hour after Florida Governor Rick Scott — who also happens to be running for the US Senate — signed the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act” into law yesterday, the National Rifle Association announced that they had filed suit against the state over the one of the law’s provisions.

There’s much in the new bill — legislation the NRA’s Florida lobbyist calls “political eyewash” — that gun rights supporters will find anathema, among them:

– A ban on bump fire stocks

– A three-day waiting period on long gun purchases

– The creation of “extreme risk protection orders” to seize guns from suspect individuals

But the provision of the new law that the NRA chose to challenge in court is the new prohibition on long gun sales to anyone under 21 years old. While wait periods, equipment bans and ERPOs are already law in a variety of other states, arbitrarily denying Second Amendment rights to adults of a certain age would seem to be the most promising target for a constitutional challenge.

Here’s the NRA-ILA’s press release announcing the suit:

FAIRFAX, Va. – The National Rifle Association today announced that it has filed a lawsuit challenging the State of Florida’s newly-enacted ban on the purchase of firearms by young adults between the ages of 18-21.

Florida’s ban is an affront to the Second Amendment, as it totally eviscerates the right of law-abiding adults between the ages of 18 and 21 to keep and bear arms. The ban is particularly offensive with respect to young women, as women between the ages of 18 and 21 are much less likely to engage in violent crime than older members of the general population who are unaffected by the ban. Despite this fact, the State of Florida has enacted a sweeping law banning all young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 from purchasing any firearm from any source. Chris Cox, the Executive Director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, stated, “Swift action is needed to prevent young adults in Florida from being treated as second-class citizens when it comes to the right to keep and bear arms.

We are confident that the courts will vindicate our view that Florida’s ban is a blatant violation of the Second Amendment.” The case is National Rifle Association of America, Inc. v. Bondi, and it has been filed in the United States District Court for...

People vote their pocketbooks. That’s the old saw. The more money they have, and the better the economy appears, the better it will be for the party in power.

If you’re a stereotypical member of the mainstream media, that means you received some terrible news today. The jobs numbers came in, they’re very, very strong, and it’s almost impossible to make a non-ridiculous argument that they’re not directly related to Trump’s presidency. Oh sure, there are a few talking heads who are still trying to claim this is all Obama’s doing, but they sound more and more asinine by the second.

If you’re a major media figure who was desperately hoping for a “blue wave,” today’s report is nothing short of a disaster.

Maybe that’s why, when betrothed co-host Joe Scarborough reports the data, Mika Brzezinski looks like someone shot her dog…

...And maybe that’s why CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Christine Romans look so down in the dumps.

The fact is, if we continue to see these sorts of numbers, the “blue wave” (which is already in danger of being nothing more than a ripple) is going to turn into an undertow.

Democrats and their media allies have railed against every one of Trump’s economic policies. November is a long way away but, if they’re still fighting this success when the midterms...

When the Russians bribed a nuclear transport company in an effort to influence the sale of the U.S. uranium mine, their operatives were put on trial. As it happened, the evidence was discounted. The Russians got a deal. The case was quietly dispatched with a delayed announcement and little media fanfare.

It was at the time of the Uranium One sale, the one that brought riches to the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton’s pocket.

It was also part of Obama’s Russian reset.

The probe into the Clinton Foundation does continue. Perhaps this will come up.

The Clinton Foundation Probe Continues

The FBI informant William Douglas Campbell spent six years collecting information on the Russians and their bribery/extortion/money laundering operation. For his efforts, the FBI ignored his documentation, videos, and other evidence, and, instead, gave a deal to the corrupt Russians.

At the same time, the U.S. uranium mine and its many assets were being sold to a Canadian company who then sold it to the Russians.

The Russian bribery/extortion deal was part of the Russian effort to force the sale of the uranium mine and assets.

Everyone knew of the connections between the bribery case and the sale. The Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton and the FBI, all knew they were tied but the sale went through anyway.

The Clinton Foundation became $145 million richer from the firm whose stock went up when the sale went through. Bill Clinton also received a half-million dollar speaking fee in Russia from a Russia-tied bank.

There is an open investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

THERE IS PROSECUTABLE EVIDENCE OF QUID PRO QUO

A recent memo by Democrats claimed the FBI informant offered no evidence Clinton was involved. His testimony was a nothing burger, it said, and she is absolved.

Democrats lied according to Victoria Toensing, the informant’s attorney.

According to Campbell’s testimony, Russians bragged repeatedly about the influence they had with the Clintons. They were so confident of the sale that they opened up an office 10 months before the CIFIUS approval.

The Russians told the informant that APCO was given $3 million to do work for the Clinton Foundation. APCO had been hired by the Russians.

Victoria Toensing said that alone is proof of quid pro quo, enough to prosecute....

“According to the plea agreement, Sayyed told people he wanted to attack police stations or the Redstone Arsenal military installation in Huntsville.”

These jihadis aren’t always going to be caught before they succeed in carrying out their jihad massacre. The Islamic State (ISIS) continues to inspire some Muslims, even in the United States, to try to kill unbelievers in the name of Islam. There is going to be more jihad murder in the U.S., even as the mainstream media is consumed with finding incidences of “islamophobia.”

“Alabama man pleads guilty to trying to help ISIS,” Associated Press, March 9, 2018 (thanks to RN):

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama man pleaded guilty to terrorism charges Thursday, admitting that be bought bomb-making materials and had hoped to conduct attacks at a military installation or police stations.

In federal court in Birmingham, Aziz Sayyed, 23, of Huntsville, entered the plea to charges that he sought to aid a foreign terrorist organization.

Federal prosecutors said that, after watching videos from the Islamic State terrorist group earlier this year, Sayyed purchased ingredients to make an explosive and told others about his hope to use it in a car bomb or explosive belt. Sayyed also shared the videos and expressed his support for the terrorism organization and terrorist attacks.

According to the plea agreement, Sayyed told people he wanted to attack police stations or the Redstone Arsenal military installation in Huntsville. He was arrested after discussing his plans with...

WATCH — Tommy Robinson Knocks Out Migrant Trying to Attack His Cameraman in Rome

Citizen journalist and former leader of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson has released a video of himselfdefending his camera crew against an attempted attack by a migrant in Italy.

Robinson — who was in the country covering the Italian elections — explains in his video that he wanted to document the area in which journalist Francesca Parisella of Matrix Channel 5 was attacked live on air in early 2017.

“I tried to start digging deeper into Italy’s spate of high-profile, migrant attacks,” he tells the camera, before sharing the footage of what happened to him in the neighbourhood around Rome’s Central Station.

The video shows an altercation between Robinson and a migrant man who protests his presence in the area.

“I’ll get him,” the man is heard to say about Robinson’s cameraman, to which Robinson replies, “I’ll put you to sleep”.

Several minutes later, the pair are still arguing on the street, when the man approaches Robinson — who has his back turned — with his arms raised, shouting.

At that point, Robinson cycles around landing a right hook to the man’s cheek, sending him sprawling on the bonnet of a car.

Asked for comment, Robinson told Breitbart London: “While I was filming a report in a no go zone a group of migrants tried to attack my camera crew. They were screaming...

The Democratic Party in the United States is looking to capture a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. But as many as half of their new representatives will be former CIA and other intelligence operatives.

The potential flood of military-intelligence personnel into the American legislature has no precedent in US political history.

According to a bombshell new report from the World Socialist Web Site, tweeted by WikiLeaks founder Julien Assange, former intelligence and military operatives from the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Council and State Department are seeking nomination as Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections.

The US House of Representatives is currently controlled by the Republicans, with a majority of 238 compared to 193 Democrats. To obtain a majority of 218 seats in the next Congress, Democrats must win over 24 seats.

It has been predicted that the Democrats will capture a majority in the House of Representatives on November 6. In this case, the US military-intelligence apparatus will comprise as many as half of the new Democratic members of Congress and they will hold the balance of power in the lower chamber of Congress.

One such a candidate is Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA operative who worked as Iraq director for the National Security Council in the Obama White House.

Her areas of responsibility include drone warfare, “homeland defense” and cyber warfare when she later worked at the Pentagon as a principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has listed Slotkin as one of their top candidates.

“One quarter of all the Democratic challengers in competitive House districts have military-intelligence, State Department or NSC backgrounds. This is by far the largest subcategory of Democratic candidates,” the website noted.

“National security operatives (57) outnumber state and local government officials (45), lawyers (35), corporate executives, businessmen and wealthy individuals (30) and other professionals (19) among the candidates for Democratic congressional nominations.”

Military-intelligence candidates are disproportionately favored by the party and encouraged to run in borderline districts.

The DCCC has designated 102 seats as priority or competitive, including 22 seats where the incumbents will not be running again and 80 seats where Republican incumbents could be defeated.

They have almost unlimited funding for their campaigns too, to counter any potential rivals.

Federal Election Commission reports filed by all the Democratic candidates in these 102 competitive districts at the end of last year, showed that these hopefuls had raised at least...