TRUMP DID NOT START THE TRADE WAR

   Donald Trump is a protectionist, virtually all agree, a menace to the international order whose America First stance threatens to launch trade wars and plunge the world into chaos. As decreed by pundits, economists and other experts throughout the world, a bizarro Trump inhabits “an alternate universe.”
   In truth, it is these critics who inhabit an alternate universe. They need to open their eyes and see the world as it really is — dominated by protectionists.
    Take automobiles, one of the world’s largest industries. American automakers selling into the European Union face a 10-per-cent tariff, four times that faced by European car makers selling into the U.S. American car makers selling into China face a 25-per-cent tariff. But these high tariff barriers are better, in a way, than the hurdles American automakers face when they sell into Japan, which has no tariff at all yet effectively shuts out U.S. exporters: Toyota sells more cars in a single California dealership than all U.S. automakers sell in Japan.
    Instead of tariff barriers, the highly disciplined, uniquely structured Japanese economy employs non-tariff barriers — a host of formal regulations and informal understandings. Korea likewise employs non-tariff barriers, despite (or perhaps, because of) KORUS, the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. As put last year by American Automotive Policy Council President Matt Blunt, “Clearly, KORUS has had mixed results for America’s automakers and it has failed to live up to expectations. 

AG SESSIONS GIVES FBI"S MCCABE THE BOOT

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions, acting on the recommendation of the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe Friday.
   By dismissing McCabe – who was set to retire at the end of the month – before Sunday, Sessions may have jeopardized McCabe’s ability to draw a pension. Speculation Sessions might make this move has stirred since the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report, which is yet to be publically disclosed, was reported to have recommend McCabe be fired over his handling of press disclosures during his investigation of the Clinton Foundation. The OPR, upon reviewing the IG’s report, issued a recommendation to fire McCabe.

DEMANDING MAXINE WATERS DENOUNCE LEFTIST HATE SPEECH

   The head of a coalition of black pastors says Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) must end their “partisan hypocrisy” and denounce “leftist hate speech” such as that proclaimed by anti-Semite and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
    Rep. Waters’ refusal to speak out against Farrakhan and other extremist hate speech is the perfect example of the hypocrisy and moral cowardice of the Congressional Black Caucus,” Owens says. “Rep. Waters lives in a multi-million dollar home, a stark contrast to the poor district she represents. She manipulates African American voters for her own gain. And she’s just one of many black leaders who have sold out our values.”
   In the meantime, Democratic policies reduced our inner cities to crumbling, crime-ridden, economic wastelands. And yet, we are supposed to continue on, not questioning the policies or politicians that brought us to this point? African American voters have had enough of the double standards and hypocrisy. There is a great hunger for moral leadership in this country. If the Congressional Black Caucus does not step up to meet that demand, they will find themselves in need of new jobs.

PM BACKS STEEL WORKERS; OIL WORKERS HEAR CRICKETS

    Rex Murphy, NP:  PM Trudeau tells steel workers he’s “got their backs,” . And good for him! That’s what a prime minister should do for a Canadian industry and the people who work in it.

     And it shows in his approach to it. There is to be no “feminist gender analysis” for steel. No talk of upstream and downstream emissions. No national steel tax. No weaning the steel industry off coal. And therefore, at one of Trump’s many flighty musings, the PM undertook a full emergency tour with all the apparatus of his office, attended by national and local press, to assure all he is fighting for steel and its jobs. As said, he’s got their backs.
    Does he have the Trans Mountain pipeline and the future of the oil industry’s back? Has the PM he gone to B.C. to state and insist on the national interest in completing the pipeline? Has he confuted the relentless propaganda of its permanent opponents? Has he ever argued with Greenpeace, Sierra Club, had one of his “conversations” with Aboriginal protestors where he made the case for the pipeline? Has he lived up to his deal with Rachel Notley? “No” to all these questions.

NDP UNPREPARED FOR SIKH INDEPENDENCE CONTROVERSY

    STAR:  Singh is a federal rookie whose only political experience prior to becoming NDP leader was in opposition at the provincial level. At the time of his first-ballot victory he may have been unaware of the heightened degree of media scrutiny that attends a national leadership position.
    But the NDP does not lack for seasoned strategists who would or should have known better. A minimum amount of due diligence in the aftermath of that initial CBC interview would likely have unearthed the time bombs that exploded in the party’s face this week.
    To be forewarned is to be prepared. Judging by the scrambling that attended the Globe and Mail revelations that Singh had — in recent years — attended international events that featured speakers who openly advocated advancing the Sikh cause by violence means, the NDP brain trust was as unprepared to manage the issue as it was on the week after he became party leader.

CAMPUS MOBS: MODERN DAY BOOK BURNERS

    Conservative speakers aren’t the only ones at risk of getting shouted down on college campuses.
   Last week, Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, a Democrat and self-described feminist, attempted to give a speech at Lewis &Clark Law School in Portland, Ore. She’s on the left side of the political spectrum but is willing to challenge some of its sacred cows. The pinned tweet on her Twitter profile reads, “Want to close wage gap? Step one: Change your major from feminist dance therapy to electrical engineering. #NationalOffendACollegeStudentDay”
     That was too much for some students. Nine student groups called her a “known fascist” and demanded the Federalist Society withdraw her invitation. Protesters interrupted her with songs and chants. Janet Steverson, the law school’s dean of diversity and inclusion, eventually asked Ms. Sommers to cut her remarks short and take student questions. So much for diversity of thought and inclusion.

MASSIVE LAYOFFS OF SHOCKINGLY USELESS MEDIA

       We will start with the Denver Post, which announced Thursday that, between April 9 and July 1, 30 jobs will be cut from its newsroom. That is a massive 30 percent cut of its current staff of 100 journalists.  Just 10 years ago according to the far-left Washington Post, the Denver Post employed 600 journalists. That is close to a 90 percent reduction in only a decade.
      On our cable dials, while Fox News and MSNBC are open about their respective biases and thrive, the far-left CNN is not only collapsing in the ratings but dealing with some massive layoffs of its own. Over the past few years, CNN, which continues its ludicrous pose as an objective news organization,  has been in a credibility death spiral, and that is finally starting to take a real tool on the anti-Trump cable channel
   Americans are tired of the media lying to them, misleading them, lecturing them… Today, there are plenty of alternative sources of news. No one needs to put up with what is called the MSM anymore.