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Donald Trump Declares Trade “War” On European Union, Canada, Mexico: Suicidal For Consumers, Workers, Corporations

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Donald Trump has declared a trade “war” on the 28 nations of the European Union, as well as Canada and Mexico.

This protectionist binge will be suicidal for consumers, workers, and corporations.

It will cause rapidly rising inflation in consumer prices; loss of employment in many industries and agriculture; and add billions of dollars in costs to corporations, which will lead to price increases and worker layoffs.

Along with the massive backtracking on the Dodd-Frank Act regulating Wall Street banks after the Great Recession of 2007-2009, it will bring about another Great Recession in the next year, and possibly worse, a return of the conditions of 1929 under Herbert Hoover, leading to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, and a great worsening of the Great Depression that affected America for an entire decade.

It will also cause the NATO alliance to fray at its edges, as the European allies, and particularly the major ones–Great Britain, France, Germany–will retaliate against the nation that they used to look to as their leader.

And our relations with our neighbors–Canada and Mexico–will be the worst in a century, and undermine global security and stability.

And the Republican Party, while complaining privately, will show no ability to stand up to Donald Trump, and fight him, and their party will be permanently damaged by their cowardice!

Mixed Messages: Scuttling The Iran Deal, But Cozying Up To North Korea, Meanwhile Alienating Our Traditional Allies In Foreign Policy

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Donald Trump is schizophrenic in so many ways.

And in foreign policy, that is particularly dangerous.

Trump has scuttled the Iran deal, and made eventual war against that nation more likely.

At the same time, despite his cancellation of the summit with North Korea, already Donald Trump is changing his mind, and it now seems that the summit with Kim Jong Un might take place, but with unreasonable, irrational expectations.

To believe that North Korea will give up its nuclear program entirely is to believe in fantasy, as Kim Jong Un has now seen how unstable Donald Trump is. If Trump is ready to scuttle the nuclear deal with Iran and threaten them, what would make North Korea comfortable and confident enough that their regime would be left alone if they gave up their nuclear weapons?

Instead of saying can North Korea be trusted, how about whether the United States government under Donald Trump can be trusted to keep any agreement?

And in the meantime, Donald Trump has alienated our traditional allies in foreign policy, the NATO nations (and particularly Great Britain, France and Germany), and also South Korea and Japan, along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Why should South Korea feel safe with an unstable, mercurial American leader who is fighting with their government over trade policy at a time when that nation could be decimated by a nuclear or conventional war with its neighbor?

One could say that American foreign policy in 2018 is the most unstable, unpredictable policy ever seen in American history since the end of World War II, and no sign of the return of any stability anytime in the near or long term future, as long as Donald Trump is President.

Donald Trump Not Only Manipulated By Russia, But Also By Other Foreign Nations, And It Undermines America

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Donald Trump is clearly not very bright, and does not understand how other nations’s leaders have figured out how to humor and flatter him to get their way, and appeal to his vanity and narcissism.

It is not just Russia and Vladimir Putin.

It is China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey. Qatar. the United Arab Emirates, Israel, the Philippines, and India.

These nations, with the exception of Israel, and India, are all authoritarian dictatorship, who stroke Trump’s ego, and show him on the surface respect and adulation, when he visits, particularly evident in China and Saudi Arabia. And they make deals that benefit their nations, without Trump realizing the United States has been taken advantage of in a major way.

Trump is more interested in business and real estate dealings than protecting the national interest and security, which explains his erratic, often contradictory behavior, and constant change of mind.

But meanwhile, he has created frustration among our allies which are democracies, including Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Tariffs And Republican Depressions: Benjamin Harrison, Herbert Hoover, Now Donald Trump?

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Protective tariffs made sense in the time of Alexander Hamilton and the time of Henry Clay.

But in the late 19th century, big business corporations were able to create higher tariffs that were detrimental to the American worker, consumer, and economy, with the assistance of the corrupt Republican Party of the period.

In 1890, under Republican President Benjamin Harrison, we saw the passage of the McKinley Tariff, named after the future President, and it undermined the economy and contributed to the disastrous Panic of 1893, which affected the nation until 1898.

In 1930, months after the Stock Market Crash, Republican President Herbert Hoover, ignoring the pleas of hundreds of economists, signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which caused a great worsening of the developing Great Depression.

As the decades went by, most Republicans and intelligent Democrats realized that high tariffs were not good, and free trade agreements developed in the 1990s.

Some far left liberals and some far right conservatives joined forces to fight this, and now Donald Trump has declared the inception of “Tariff Wars”, which will bring down the American economy, harm consumers and farmers, and cause unemployment to rise.

Trump is alienating the whole world–including China, Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and more–and instead will destroy the economic lives of millions of his own supporters, if he is not stopped from his crazy, lunatic actions!

Assuming we cannot stop what he is doing, the Republicans will suffer a blood bath, that will put the Republican Party in the dustbin of history.

It is time for Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in Congress to show some “cajones”, and turn against Trump before he totally destroys the nation economically, and takes unto World War III against North Korea, who would be helped by China, and Iran, who would be helped by Russia.

The Outrageous Statement Of Donald Trump On Wanting To Be President For Life, As The President Of China: NO WAY EVER!

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Over this past weekend, Donald Trump went one step further, a big step further, in his destruction of the traditions and accomplishments of America’s previous 43 Presidents.

Trump stated how much he admires the President Of China for becoming a person who did not have to gain approval anymore, and had declared himself President for life, effectively a totalitarian dictator, in the vein of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung. Trump has already praised the leaders of the Philippines, Turkey, Egypt, and China earlier, and has not a word of criticism against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who has clearly undermined our election system, a declaration of war by means of technology.

Trump envisions himself in this manner, and yet the Republican leadership in Congress, which should have reacted in denunciation immediately, has remained silent, making them guilty of collusion with a person who clearly has Fascist tendencies, and is a danger to all civilized nations, as well as the American people.

This is a man who, by starting a trade war with tariffs against the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea, is likely to lead us to another Great Depression, vastly increasing consumer prices, and destroying the ability of our nation to export goods overseas.

At the same time, he is clearly on the way to war with North Korea, including the possibility of nuclear war, which would kill millions, not only in North Korea, but in our allies, South Korea and Japan. And his goal to go to war against iran was emphasized today by visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu, who like Trump, is power hungry and corrupt to the extreme, and in danger of being removed, as much as Trump is.

So we could have two wars at the same time, against North Korea and Iran, and Trump’s Russian collusion is getting clearer, and means our national security is threatened.

Trump is a man that is unhinged and unstable to the extreme, and is capable of declaring martial law, and suspending the Constitution.

Trump has already violated human rights of immigrants, racial minorities, women, and gays and lesbians, and has destroyed consumer and worker rights, and done great damage to the environment, and he has no limits in his attack on the entire American tradition and accomplishments of presidents of both parties from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama.

Trump is a clear and present danger to all of us, including his irrational, clueless followers, and he MUST be removed from office rapidly, as the American people and nation are under direct threat from his maniacal behavior and actions.

Mass demonstrations and marches are now required, or else the history of this nation will be permanently damaged, and we have not survived the Civil War, Great Depression, Cold War, and some failed Presidents, and some dangerous Presidents such as Richard Nixon, to sit back and accept the dissolution of the American nation, the best hope of freedom loving people everywhere!

The Extreme Right, Fox News Channel, And Evangelicals Care Only About Fetuses, But Not Those Born: A Mockery To Say They Are Pro Life!

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In the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the extreme Right conservatives, including on Talk Radio, Fox News Channel, and supposedly devout Evangelicals, rushed to the defense of the National Rifle Association, and had the gall to claim that the articulate students who are promoting national and state action are “out of line” and in many cases are “actors”!

This is the same argument used against parents at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, after 20 young children and six teachers were massacred in December 2012, that they were “actors”, and that those victims are imaginary.

Face the facts: the extreme Right including so called “religious people” care only about money and profits and not about life, with so many schools being victimized by mass shootings.

They claim to be “Pro Life”, while the only lives they are concerned about are fetuses not yet born, and once they are born, and often in families with poverty and mental health issues, then they are on their own, as government sets out to cut any support for such children.

They are massive hypocrites of the tallest order, and it is time to declare war on these people who have no concern, unless and until their own children were to be, unfortunately, victims.

There is no excuse for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and innumerable other Republicans and conservatives, to show lack of concern or commitment to change the laws in the midst of this constant crisis of violence on campuses.

And it is not just schools, but movie theaters, shopping malls, outdoor concerts, churches and all other public places that have seen mass bloodshed, more than any nation in the world, with the difference being that other nations–Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Japan–had experienced such bloodshed and passed strict laws after, and the violence has abated to very few such incidents of tragedy.

So the Right Wing must be combated with all the massive activism of students, parents, and all decent people across America, who value life over guns!

A Year Of Donald Trump: A Horror And A Nightmare!

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I published on Sunday a summary article on the first year of Donald Trump at History News Network–historynewsnetwork.org. I have published regularly on Donald Trump on History News Network, and some of those articles have been picked up also by Time Magazine and Newsweek Magazine, and all of those articles are on the right side of my blog.

A day before the anniversary of the inauguration, I will summarize here the points that I made in that article:

Donald Trump has been a nightmare, and his unpredictability, and the refusal of the Republican Party to come to grips with it, has created a constitutional crisis greater than the Watergate Scandal under Richard Nixon 45 years ago.

Donald Trump has demonstrated clear authoritarian leanings that endanger all Americans and their basic freedoms and national security.

Donald Trump has undermined the judicial branch of government. with his attacks on an independent judiciary, and his appointments of unqualified people to lifetime positions on the federal district courts and federal circuit courts.

Donald Trump has assaulted the Bill of Rights, and is a threat to the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, women, gay and transgender Americans, and members of the news media who dare to investigate and question his white supremacist, nativist, racist, and misogynistic utterances and policies.

He has connected himself to dictators and authoritarians in nations like Russia, China, Turkey, Egypt, and the Philippines, and in the tradition of such past regimes as Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy, and the Soviet Union.

Donald Trump has pursued policies that threaten and undermine the domestic reforms of Presidents from both political parties from the time of Theodore Roosevelt onward, endangering the Social Safety Network of Social Security. Medicare, and Medicaid, and government regulation of industry and big business, and oversight of key problems involving the environment, consumer safety, labor protections, health care, and science and education.

Donald Trump has given us the most corrupt and incompetent cabinet and advisers , making the shortcomings of Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, and Richard Nixon pale in comparison. There is no sense of ethics, commitment, scruples, or compassion on the part of Trump and his team, but only with the advancement of the top one percent, over the needs of millions of ordinary people.

Trump’s family has become in one year more controversial, and lacking in ethics and morals, than any Presidential family in history, with the aim seeming to be a family dynasty with no limit on their lust for money and power.

Donald Trump has undermined foreign policy and international relations, alienating our allies, and consorting with dictators all over the world. He has declared war on the diplomatic community, the national security apparatus, and the intelligence agencies that are out to protect American national security. He has been reckless in his dealings with North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, and with the Middle East cauldron. He has alienated our allies, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea with his weird, unpredictable behavior.

Donald Trump’s narcissism, ignorance of history and science, obnoxious behavior and incessant lying make him a terrible model for the future generation of Americans, who used to be able to look up the President of the United States as someone they could respect.

These reasons are justification for action to remove Donald Trump from the Presidency, whether by impeachment, use of the 25th Amendment, or forced resignation after indictments of family members and top advisers by Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Donald Trump Goes Bonkers, Unleashes Twitter Storm Against Three Nuclear Powers (North Korea, Iran, Pakistan) And Palestinians

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Since the New Year of 2018 began, Donald Trump has gone totally bonkers, unleashing a Twitter storm against three nuclear powers–North Korea, Iran, Pakistan–and also further caused massive disarray in the Middle East by attacking the Palestinian Authority.

He has threatened cutoff of aid to Pakistan and the Palestinians, not understanding what damage that will do in the fight against terrorism.

Trump has demonstrated his willingness to threaten nuclear war against Kim Jong Un of North Korea, while also making clear he will destroy the Iran Nuclear Agreement, not realizing that North Korea will have no desire to negotiate when they see that the US is ready to rip up an agreement that five other nations still wish to enforce with Iran.

Why would any nation take the US seriously on negotiations, when Trump is so inconsistent?

And for Trump to talk about the size of his nuclear “button” as compared to that of North Korea, is to make Trump look like a bully on a school playground making himself look like a total jerk!

And declaring Jerusalem to be the Israeli capital, and taking that issue off the table with the Palestinians, and then threatening cutoff of aid for the people who are living under such horrible circumstances in the Palestinian held territories, only convinces the Palestinians that no negotiations with Israel are possible, insuring further bloodshed and violence in the Middle East.

Starting to antagonize Pakistan only insures further troubles as America continues a war in Afghanistan with no end game, and makes for tilting too far toward India, and the India-Pakistan tensions, as both are nuclear powers, is only encouraged by Trump threatening cut off of aid to Pakistan.

Trump is destroying American foreign policy in a manner which will take decades to recover, and our once strong allies in Western Europe, as well as Canada, Australia, Mexico, Japan and South Korea are exasperated over what Donald Trump has wrought.

The Urgency Of Gun Control Legislation To Stop “War Zone” Syndrome, And Save Multitude Of Lives, While Preserving Reasonable Gun Rights

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The shock of the Las Vegas Massacre, following the Orlando Pulse Massacre, the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre, and so many others, demands the attention of Congress, as the urgency of gun control legislation presents itself.

We must stop the “War Zone” Syndrome that has led to more deaths by domestic terrorists than on September 11, if one counts all the death since 2001.

No one is saying that the Second Amendment should be destroyed, although it is clear that the Founding Fathers did not intend for all citizens to have firearms, as the amendment discusses a “well regulated militia”, and not the concept of everyone carrying firearms, even those who are mentally ill or have had criminal convictions.

But to demand a return of the Brady Bill, named after Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary, James Brady, permanently disabled by the Assassination attempt against Reagan in 1981, but not renewed under George W. Bush in 2004, is not to ask too much.

To demand that background checks be done on gun purchasers; that loopholes that allow people to buy weapons online and at Walmarts and at gun shows without any search about their backgrounds be ended; that mentally disturbed people not be allowed to purchase weapons; and that the concept of allowing the expansion of gun silencers legislation, allowing gun owners to be able to fire at will without any sound being made for the potential victims to be aware of the sounds so they could duck or evade; or other reasonable measures, should be seen as sensible.

We have the highest gun violence rate of any Western civilized nation, comparing to Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and we must work to lower the death rate from suicide as well as violence against innocent civilians.

This should not be a partisan issue, as the Republicans, as well as the Democrats, need to see the issue of public safety as their major responsibility, and the National Rifle Association and its despicable leadership including Wayne La Pierre, who only are concerned with profits, must be defeated in their effect on our government policies.

All kinds of activities are licensed in our society, and guns need to be regulated in a responsible manner.

Constitution Day: 230 Years And In Danger From Donald Trump In 2017, But The Constitution Will Survive!

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Tomorrow, September 17, is the 230th Anniversary of the signing of the Constitution by 39 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

The so called “Founding Fathers” brought about a document that was not perfect, but has survived through the crises of the Civil War; the Great Depression; the two World Wars; the Watergate Crisis; and now faces the challenge of the most dangerous Chief Executive in American history bar none!

By comparison to Donald Trump, Richard Nixon was a choirboy, dangerous in many ways, but also accomplished in many ways.

Nixon contributed some real positive developments in his five and a half years as President from January 20, 1969 to August 9, 1974, while Donald Trump has accomplished essentially nothing, other than the adding of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

Trump has threatened constitutional norms, with his attacks on civil rights, civil liberties, the news media, the judiciary, the intelligence community, and the basic institutions of government, including the government agencies themselves, which he is trying to decimate in their effectiveness and even in their numbers, when more is needed in a growing nation with 325 million people.

Trump has threatened the security and safety of millions of Americans of minority religious and racial groups, and he has had the support of white supremacists, Neo Nazis, Neo Confederates, and the Ku Klux Klan, which he tries to equate with those opposed to these groups.

Trump has undermined our relations with our allies in Europe and Asia, and the tensions with North Korea have been increased by his reckless tweets and rhetoric, and the same goes for Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, adding to the potential for military intervention everywhere.

Our relations with our direct neighbors, Mexico and Canada, are at the worst in many decades, and our closest ally, the United Kingdom (Great Britain), is becoming more exasperated by Trump’s utterances. The same situation exists with Germany, France, South Korea, and Japan, and our major rivals, China and Russia are perplexed with Trump as well.France

There is great concern that Trump might use nuclear weapons, which no official other than the Secretary of State can even discuss with him directly under present policy, and Trump has the final say on that.

There is also concern that Trump could attempt to declare martial law if there was another September 11 type of attack by terrorists, suspending the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

And to top it off, Trump seems to many to have a form of dementia, maybe Alzheimers, or just mental instability that is often a problem with aging seniors, but having him in a position which could provoke world wide war and disaster is an alarming circumstance of massive proportions.

Trump is a danger, but we must have confidence that the Constitution will survive his threat, but we must all be vigilant, and be ready to react if any threat seems evident as imminent.

The worst thing we could all do is trust Donald Trump, and sit back and just accept whatever he does, so thank goodness for the free, independent news media!