But that's the wrong way to think about American today. Everything becomes clear if you think of it as a "System".
Puppet Masters
But that's the wrong way to think about American today. Everything becomes clear if you think of it as a "System".
© The Free Thought Project
In the weeks since the tragic shooting occurred in Parkland, Florida, we have learned that cops cowered outside instead of helping, the police and FBI were all warned on multiple occasions that the alleged shooter, Nikolas Cruz, told people he was going to shoot up the school, nearly two dozen people reported Cruz for death threats, and first responders were told to stand down. Now, we are finding out that the surveillance footage from the school - which the public has a right to see - is being deliberately kept secret by the Broward county sheriff - which many say is illegal.
Broward county sheriff Scott Israel, who has already been caught contradicting the official story, is claiming that the surveillance footage must remain secret.
© CNN.com
As the United States, Canada and Mexico head into the seventh round of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, there is a question increasingly looming over the talks: Why hasn't Donald Trump pulled the plug already?
The president has made no secret of his loathing for NAFTA, calling it during the campaign "the worst trade deal in history." He came very close to ending it nearly a year ago, in April 2017, but reportedly was talked down at the last minute by personal calls from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Throughout the year, as the negotiations dragged past their original end-of-2017 deadline with no progress in sight, Trump continued to threaten withdrawal. As recently as the last round in Montreal in January, Canadian officials were telling reporters in advance that they were certain Trump was on the verge of pulling the U.S. out of NAFTA.
And yet, even with the president's top trade negotiator acknowledging last month after the Montreal round that the talks are "progressing very slowly," Trump now looks increasingly unlikely to leave the table. He told the Wall Street Journal that he was "leaving it a little bit flexible," and acknowledged that it would be hard to conclude a new NAFTA prior to Mexico's general election on July 1. "There's no rush," he added. That could mean the talks will now drag on until 2019, since the new Mexican president will not even take office until December.
Comment: The buck stops here...and big bucks as well, if negotiated honorably and structured fairly. Trump can't make up for yesterday's financial decisions and deficits.
© Axios
"We must protect our country and our workers. Our steel industry is in bad shape," Trump tweeted Friday morning. "IF YOU DON'T HAVE STEEL, YOU DON'T HAVE A COUNTRY!"
On Thursday, Trump said import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum would be announced next week. The New York Stock Exchange reacted badly, with the Dow Jones index dropping 420 points the same day.
Comment: A $566B trade deficit is a significant loss to the US economy.
Blue Ridge reports:
Trump's decision to seek steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports has provoked rarely seen urgency among Republicans, now scrambling to convince the president that he would spark a trade war that could stall the economy's recent gains if he doesn't reverse course.See also:
The issue pits Trump's populist promises to his voters against the party's free trade orthodoxy and the interests of business leaders. Unlike recent immigration and gun policy changes that require legislation, Trump can alter trade policy by executive action. That intensifies the pressure on Republican lawmakers to change his mind before he gives his final approval for the penalties as early as this coming week.
Trump on Saturday showed no sign of backing away, threatening on Twitter to impose a tax on cars made in Europe if the European Union responds to the tariffs by taxing American goods. He also railed about "very stupid" trade deals by earlier administrations and said other countries "laugh at what fools our leaders have been. No more!"
- Trump slaps steel imports with 25% tariff to boost US industry
- European Union gears up for trade war in face of Trump steel tariffs
- Beijing newspaper warns of retaliation if Trump takes swing at Chinese steel
© unknown
"If the US finally holds joint military exercises while keeping sanctions on the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea], the DPRK will counter the US by its own mode of counteraction and the US will be made to own all responsibilities for the ensuing consequences," North Korea's official KCNA news agency said in a commentary on Saturday. "The US should clearly understand this and exercise prudence."The US is due to begin joint exercises with Seoul in early April, a South Korean presidential security adviser said earlier this week, as quoted by Yonhap news agency. The plan has angered North Korea, which has long seen joint drills as a threat.
The KCNA commentary referred to the scheduled drills as an intention by America "to bring dark clouds of a war to hang over the Korean Peninsula." It also called for the US to be denounced by the international community, accusing Washington of aiming to "aggravate the situation on the Korean peninsula at any cost."
Pyongyang also said on Saturday that it is willing to have talks with the US, but that it rejects Washington's demands that it must first demonstrate willingness to denuclearize.
Comment: North Korea is being emboldened by Washington to a new level of reactivity. Trump is 'pushing the envelope', a strategy of escalating risks.
The US National Reconnaissance Office patch
President Vladimir Putin's two-hour long address yesterday to the Federal Assembly, a joint session of both houses of Russia's bicameral legislature - plus large numbers of Russia's cultural, business and other elites - constituted his platform for the upcoming presidential election on March 18. This, in lieu of participation in the televised debates on all federal television channels in which other seven candidates are busy these days.
But as is the case with many of Vladimir Putin's major presentations, the speech yesterday was addressed to a far broader audience than the Russian electorate. Many of the estimated 700 journalists invited to attend were foreign correspondents. Indeed, one might reasonably argue that the speech was directed abroad, precisely to the United States.
The final third of the address, devoted to defense and presenting for the first time several major new and technically unparalleled offensive nuclear weapons systems, established Russia's claim to full nuclear parity with the United States, overturning the country's withdrawal from superpower status dating from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. Some Russian commentators, in a burst of national pride, claimed that the power of the Soviet Union had now been restored and the wrongs of the 1990s were finally undone.
© Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT via Getty Images
George P Bush with son Prescott, turns out for a primary election in Fort Worth, Texas, in March 2014.
George P Bush with son Prescott, turns out for a primary election in Fort Worth, Texas, in March 2014.
When he was elected Texas land commissioner four years ago, that background gave him a significant advantage as a fledgling Republican candidate seemingly on a fast track to stardom. Now, with conservative politics turned on its head by Trumpism, Bush is facing a tough primary election that threatens to doom his political career - and with it, bring to a close his family's 70-year political dynasty.
The land commissioner job - which manages state-owned land - was perceived to be a stepping stone to higher office, but the evisceration of his father, Jeb, in the 2016 Republican presidential primary showed that as it lurched to the right and was seduced by sound and fury, the GOP was no longer in the market for a quiet moderate named Bush.
© Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump is "interested in in improving" background checks on Friday.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump is "interested in in improving" background checks on Friday.
Trump made no promises to NRA leaders during a Thursday night Oval Office meeting, but vowed to "continue to support the Second Amendment," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Sanders sought to tame expectations after Trump's wide array of promises and proposals, made in the wake of the country's latest school shooting, on gun-related legislation.
© Grigory Dukor/European Press Association
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Russian ice hockey player and gold medalist of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games Ivan Telegin during an award ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, Feb. 28, 2018.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Russian ice hockey player and gold medalist of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games Ivan Telegin during an award ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, Feb. 28, 2018.
An International Olympic Committee statement said the body was lifting the suspension of Russia's national Olympic committee with immediate effect, after the final anti-doping samples from Russian athletes at Pyeongchang Olympics came back negative.
News of the decision to reinstate Russia came just as athletes were gathering for the award ceremony at the Kremlin, where it was met with evident satisfaction. Putin feted the athletes, toasting champagne with them after pinning Russian state honors on the medal-winners.
© Fox News
Sen. Chuck Schumer (L) Marvin Quattlebaum (R)
Sen. Chuck Schumer (L) Marvin Quattlebaum (R)
Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Wednesday that the nomination of Marvin Quattlebaum, a white lawyer who is a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Greenville, S.C., "speaks to the overall lack of diversity in President Trump's selections for the federal judiciary."
Sen. Chuck Schumer on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration's nomination of Marvin Quattlebaum because he's white. Schumer argued the nomination "speaks to the overall lack of diversity in President Trump's selections for the federal judiciary."
He complained that many of Trump's nominees have been white males. He also complained that Republicans previously held up two black judges nominated under the Obama administration for the position -- which The Post and Courier notes has long been vacant.
Comment: A strange commonality.
- Court orders release of body cam videos in Vegas shooting but not casino surveillance footage
- FBI admits MGM keeping Paddock weapons footage secret
Perhaps media pressure will prevail in this case, but then one has to wonder:Why does the media care more about the Parkland shooting than it ever did about Las Vegas?