The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
WND, Trump neutering the mainstream media
by Gina Loudon
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Is the End Near for NAFTA?
By Michael Swartz: Since being signed into law by Bill liar-Clinton in 1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement has been a political whipping boy for various interests. In particular, one group of Americans has never warmed up to the opportunities NAFTA could have provided.
That sting was felt by those who saw the maquiladoras lined up along the border between the United States and Mexico. These duty- and tariff-free assembly plants were a constant reminder to those whose livelihoods were being erased by a southward stampede of American manufacturing. Thanks to NAFTA, companies could now crank out products once made in the Rust Belt with a significant cost difference thanks to the cheaper labor in Mexico. Meanwhile, those fortunate enough to get a job in these factories could begin to make their way up Mexico's version of the economic ladder.
On the other hand, some estimates say NAFTA supports 14 million American jobs, and has generated $1 trillion in trade between the three nations.
A number of politicians over the years have attempted to curry favor with protectionists by running against NAFTA, but none were more forceful or outspoken while being successful than Donald Trump. There's little doubt that thousands of onetime laborers and factory workers took to heart Trump's promise to repeal or at least renegotiate the trade pact with more favorable terms for America, and those votes may have made the difference in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Promising to address the issue in his first 100 days and actually governing are two different things, though. Factor in Trump's tendency to shift positions on the fly, and you get what one Canadian trade group's director of government affairs called Trump's "typical way of doing things — saying completely unreasonable things as a negotiating posture." Thus, it was only a matter of a few hours — and conversations with both Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto — before the president's initial threat to drop NAFTA entirely softened to a vow to renegotiate the pact while reserving the right to withdraw and negotiate separate bilateral deals with each nation.
Having separate deals rather than one common market seems to be Trump's true preference anyway. Trump showed this by withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership. Then again, just Thursday he threatened to terminate a bilateral trade agreement with South Korea, calling it too "a horrible deal" that's left America "destroyed." So who knows.
As a deal struck in the days before more recent technical advances like iPhones, Google, and virtual retail, where even a tiny shop has the capability to sell products to far-flung corners of the world, there are many observers who believe a renegotiation of NAFTA could rejuvenate the free trade movement and enhance economic freedom. They also see it as an opportunity to make the deal more of a trade agreement, eliminating many of the sidebar issues negotiators insisted on including, such as environmental mandates or labor regulations.
On the other hand, there are those who feel that the U.S. should adopt a "Buy American, Hire American" stance on trade and immigration. Trump issued an executive order regarding that very thing last week. Others call that "dangerous nonsense" and argue it isn't a viable solution at the moment because (A) the last thing the world economy needs is a trade war that America starts, and (B) adopting a protectionist approach to trade and — to a lesser extent — immigration will only lead us in that direction. To lead in a market, one must first be able to compete in it. Companies that corner a domestic market often become complacent and lag far behind globally.
Yes, NAFTA has problems. Witness the recent Trump move to place tariffs on Canadian softwood because the administration argues our northern neighbor is subsidizing its industry at America's expense. For its part, Canada also puts its own tariff on American dairy products, so we aren't talking about a completely free trade zone here. Broad areas of commerce between the three nations, particularly in energy and technology, are exempted from NAFTA.
Whichever way the Trump administration eventually decides to go, the prevailing wisdom is that NAFTA isn't long for its present form. If he can master the art of this deal, Donald Trump may set the precedent for American prosperity in a global economy for the next couple generations. Because whether you agree with his trade positions or not, it's clear his message is "America first." ~The Patriot Post
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Senator Points To ‘Material Inconsistencies’
In Comey’s Statements On Trump Dossier
by Chuck Ross
{dailycaller.com} ~ Ahead of a highly anticipated Senate hearing later this week, FBI Director James Comey is being accused of making inconsistent statements about the bureau’s relationship with Christopher Steele... the ex-British spy behind the Trump dossier. “There appear to be material inconsistencies between the description of the FBI’s relationship with Mr. Steele that you did provide in your briefing and information contained in Justice Department documents made available to the Committee only after the briefing,” Grassley wrote to Comey. Grassley will have a chance to quiz Comey on the issue on Wednesday, when the FBI chief testifies before the Judiciary Committee in a routine oversight hearing...http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/01/senator-points-to-material-inconsistencies-in-comeys-statements-on-trump-dossier/
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HUD Watchdog Kept 14 Fraud
Reports Hidden From Public
by Ethan Barton
{dailycaller.com} ~ A government watchdog withheld at least 14 reports that revealed department-wide problems that allow fraud and waste at a cabinet-level agency... The Daily Caller News Foundation’s (TheDCNF) Investigative Group has learned. The reports concern issues plaguing the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including felons illegally living in federally-funded homes, tax fraud and millions of dollars sitting in unused bank accounts for years. The department’s 2017 budget is $48.9 billion and it has 8,375 employees. The HUD Inspector General (IG) posted its systemic implication reports – documents that reveal opportunities for fraud in agency programs – to its website. A comparison between that listing and another TheDCNF previously obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request showed 14 reports from 2011 through 2014 were excluded from the IG’s the website... http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/30/exclusive-hud-watchdog-kept-14-fraud-reports-hidden-from-public/
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MEF Sues DHS for Hiding Information
on Its Funding of Islamists
by The Middle East Forum
by The Middle East Forum
{meforum.org} ~ The Middle East Forum has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to secure the release of documents related to the liar-nObama administration's Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) grant program... The grant program, which began last year, is intended to assist "efforts at the community level to counter violent extremist recruitment and radicalization to violence," but MEF was concerned about U.S. Islamist groups – themselves radicals – receiving CVE funds. Indeed, grant recipients have included the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), an organization with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and a long history of sanitizing Islamist terrorism...
.Repeal and replace universities
by Lawrence Sellin PhD
{aim.org} ~ The political left has made a complete pig’s breakfast of our educational system. Safe Snowflake Schools for Socialism... Political intolerance is now the official policy at colleges and universities across the United States with violence or the threat thereof as the means of enforcing extreme leftist orthodoxy. Eric Clanton, a faculty member at California’s Diablo Valley College and alleged ANTIFA (self-proclaimed anti-fascist but in reality anti-First Amendment) activist, who spends “a lot of time thinking about REVOLUTION,” is the prime suspect in bloody attacks, where a bicycle lock was used as a weapon to assault free speech campaigners and Trump supporters. Clanton’s Diablo Valley College profile has now been scrubbed, but according to the WayBack Machine, he joined the faculty in 2015 and “His primary research interests are ethics and politics.” Got that? He teaches ethics in politics...http://www.aim.org/guest-column/repeal-and-replace-universities/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Email%20May-01-2017&utm_medium=email
.Glare of Corrine Brown’s One Door trial puts
unwelcome spotlight on Jacksonville nonprofit
{jacksonville.com} ~ Former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown’s fraud trial is training a harsh light on Jacksonville’s Community Rehabilitation Center and the politician who founded it, City Councilman Reginald Gaffney... During the first hour of Brown’s trial Wednesday, Gaffney and the Northside nonprofit were described by a prosecutor as sources of unreported income for the 12-term congresswoman before the sham organization, One Door for Education, became her cash cow...http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2017-04-29/glare-corrine-brown-s-one-door-trial-puts-unwelcome-spotlight-jacksonville
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by Gina Loudon
WND, Trump neutering the mainstream media
by Gina Loudon
{wnd.com} ~ Before Saturday night, it was unthinkable for a president to skip the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Although, don’t mistake a president’s attendance for enjoyment.
Presidents have always had two main reasons for attending this gathering of the out-of-touch media elite. One: They fear the media. Two: They desire the media’s adulation.
The thought of skipping the WHCD was previously unthinkable. To disrespect the all-powerful media in that way would start a war.
What Republicans in D.C. have never understood was that the war had already begun. There was no amount of cozying up to journalists at swanky dinners that would make the media love them.
Republican presidents in the past hoped their respectful treatment and capitulation in the war with the media would somehow result in them giving up or being nice.
President Bush’s tactic of never defending himself as the media bashed him only emboldened the elitists and allowed them to paint him as a bumbling idiot.
President Trump is taking the opposite approach and is dismantling the mainstream media a little bit every day. Day 100 of the Trump presidency just passed, and if the media keep up their war on the president, they may be unrecognizable before the end of his presidency.
On Fox Business this week, I likened the media to “the person with lung cancer that won’t quit smoking.”
On Saturday night, the WHCD was dedicated to trashing President Trump, but this wasn’t the first time that happened.
At the 2011 WHCD, when Donald Trump was reportedly contemplating a GOP primary run to challenge liar-nObama in 2012, Seth Meyers spent two-and-a-half minutes on Trump. Meyers famously joked, “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican … which is surprising, since I just assumed that he was running as a joke.”
An expressionless Donald Trump didn’t find it funny at all, and neither did anyone else outside of that room. Although President Trump denies it, you can almost see him deciding to run for president in that two-and-a-half minutes of bashing by Meyers.
The nasty treatment of Trump continued last night at the 2017 WHCD, and the media are so out of touch that they have no idea they are a laughingstock outside of their bubble in D.C. and New York City.
We weren’t laughing at the jokes told at the WHCD; we were laughing at the media who have become a joke.
Before Trump’s election, conservatives felt alone, and I was one of them. I, like many of you, would read a biased article or watch a slanted report on television and become so upset that some Americans out there could be falling prey to the media’s biased reporting.
With Trump’s election, voters in Middle America found out they weren’t alone, and we have a new view of the media.
Now, when we see a biased headline or a slanted TV news segment, we laugh!
We now know that we were never alone in our frustration and that there are countless millions out there who also recognized the fake news being spewed by the mainstream media.
The only ones being fooled now are the so-called journalists who believe they are still able to shape public opinion.
The media are only shooting themselves in the foot as they continue their overtly biased coverage, and we can only hope they keep it up.
WND has been on the forefront of exposing mainstream media bias, and it is an honor to be part of such a great organization.
This week, WND celebrates 20 years of reporting stories the mainstream media either ignored or distorted.
And it is great to have a president who is now fighting the media alongside us as WND begins its next 20 years taking on and providing an alternative to the lamestream mainstream media.
Congratulations to WND for an amazing 20 years!
Presidents have always had two main reasons for attending this gathering of the out-of-touch media elite. One: They fear the media. Two: They desire the media’s adulation.
The thought of skipping the WHCD was previously unthinkable. To disrespect the all-powerful media in that way would start a war.
What Republicans in D.C. have never understood was that the war had already begun. There was no amount of cozying up to journalists at swanky dinners that would make the media love them.
Republican presidents in the past hoped their respectful treatment and capitulation in the war with the media would somehow result in them giving up or being nice.
President Bush’s tactic of never defending himself as the media bashed him only emboldened the elitists and allowed them to paint him as a bumbling idiot.
President Trump is taking the opposite approach and is dismantling the mainstream media a little bit every day. Day 100 of the Trump presidency just passed, and if the media keep up their war on the president, they may be unrecognizable before the end of his presidency.
On Fox Business this week, I likened the media to “the person with lung cancer that won’t quit smoking.”
On Saturday night, the WHCD was dedicated to trashing President Trump, but this wasn’t the first time that happened.
At the 2011 WHCD, when Donald Trump was reportedly contemplating a GOP primary run to challenge liar-nObama in 2012, Seth Meyers spent two-and-a-half minutes on Trump. Meyers famously joked, “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican … which is surprising, since I just assumed that he was running as a joke.”
An expressionless Donald Trump didn’t find it funny at all, and neither did anyone else outside of that room. Although President Trump denies it, you can almost see him deciding to run for president in that two-and-a-half minutes of bashing by Meyers.
The nasty treatment of Trump continued last night at the 2017 WHCD, and the media are so out of touch that they have no idea they are a laughingstock outside of their bubble in D.C. and New York City.
We weren’t laughing at the jokes told at the WHCD; we were laughing at the media who have become a joke.
Before Trump’s election, conservatives felt alone, and I was one of them. I, like many of you, would read a biased article or watch a slanted report on television and become so upset that some Americans out there could be falling prey to the media’s biased reporting.
With Trump’s election, voters in Middle America found out they weren’t alone, and we have a new view of the media.
Now, when we see a biased headline or a slanted TV news segment, we laugh!
We now know that we were never alone in our frustration and that there are countless millions out there who also recognized the fake news being spewed by the mainstream media.
The only ones being fooled now are the so-called journalists who believe they are still able to shape public opinion.
The media are only shooting themselves in the foot as they continue their overtly biased coverage, and we can only hope they keep it up.
WND has been on the forefront of exposing mainstream media bias, and it is an honor to be part of such a great organization.
This week, WND celebrates 20 years of reporting stories the mainstream media either ignored or distorted.
And it is great to have a president who is now fighting the media alongside us as WND begins its next 20 years taking on and providing an alternative to the lamestream mainstream media.
Congratulations to WND for an amazing 20 years!
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