The second issue the AMA has waded into is gun control. Under pressure from gun-control activists, the AMA caved and endorsed a ban on so-called “assault weapons.” Outgoing AMA President David Barbe, who is a big advocate for gun control, stated, “The AMA must not back down from addressing gun violence.” Pointing out recent school attacks, Barbe further argued, “The fact that this problem continues to worsen has spurred a new sense of urgency in this house even while Congress fails to act.” AMA delegates also endorsed banning firearm possession for individuals under the age of 21.
               Here we have a clear example of two slippery slope issues on which the AMA has fallen for the emotional gambit rather than the rationally based facts. On the issue of physician-assisted suicide, the real ethical problem is two-fold. First, it puts a patient in a vulnerable position for risk of coercion, mistakes and even abuse (obviously with no opportunity for correction). Second, it has the potential to put a doctor on the hook legally speaking to perform a physician-assisted suicide even if they oppose the practice on ethical or religious grounds. Look no further than the controversy over providing services for same-sex weddings.
               Meanwhile, the AMA throwing its weight behind a ban on “assault weapons,” along with support for other limits to Americans’ Second Amendment rights, is a huge win for the anti-gun lobby. That’s especially true if the gun-grabbers can now make the argument that the AMA says guns are bad for one’s health. It’s this kind of weight that can move politicians and even public opinion, not based on any rational reasoning but simply based upon the academic status of a trusted organization.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56541?mailing_id=3545&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3545&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Responding to the latest greatest economic news about job creation and declining unemployment, Pulosi, who is doing everything she can to undermine the considerable economic achievements of the Trump administration, offered this spin: “Hip hip hurray, unemployment is down. What does that mean to me in my life? I need a bigger paycheck. … This isn’t just about the unemployment rate; it’s about wages rising in our country so that consumer confidence is restored.”
               As you recall, Pulosi insisted that Republican tax cuts would be “Armageddon” and then dismissed them as “crumbs.”
               For the record, headline unemployment dropped to 3.8%, the best since 2000. U-6 unemployment is at 7.6%, the lowest since 2001. Black unemployment hit a record low of 5.9%. Female unemployment is at 3.6%, the lowest since 1953.
               About wages and consumer confidence: Paychecks are growing at a record pace. Consumer confidence is at an 18-year high and small business optimism has been higher only one time since 1983.
               As for Pulosi’s comment, “I need a bigger paycheck,” she already draws almost $200,000 per year from taxpayers (on top of her enormous office budget), and Pulosi’s net worth is $29.35 million. But like most limo-liberals, abject hypocrisy is the most treasured character trait!
               While Pulosi’s comments help advance the conservative agenda, some Republicans just can’t get on board. One of those is my friend, scumbag-Bob Corker, a native to our hometown whom I have known for many years.
                scumbag-Bob started off strong in Congress, but with Donald Trump’s victory over liar-Hillary Clinton, he has repeatedly used his Senate standing as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations to malign Trump — and unfortunately, he’s also insulting grassroots Americans  across the nation.
               This week, scumbag-Corker observed of Trump supporters: “We’re in a strange place. I mean, it’s almost, you know, it’s becoming a cultish thing, isn’t it? And it’s not a good place for any party to end up with a cult-like situation as it relates to a president that happens to be purportedly of the same party.”
               It is unfortunate when capable political leaders get to Washington and, after drinking Potomac Kool-Aid every day, turn on their political base. Notably in scumbag-Bob’s case, he is not running for re-election this year because he would not have survived a primary challenge from a strong grassroots conservative, Rep. Marsha Blackburn. He has yet to endorse Blackburn as his replacement, and by all appearances, is siding with her inept Democrat opponent, a washed-up former governor, Phil Bredesen.   
~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/alexander/56560?mailing_id=3545&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3545&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Columnist Chris Pandolfo reveals exactly where Republicans stand on the issue. “Aside from a handful of stalwart holdouts, most of the Republican Party in Congress agrees that amnesty with citizenship will happen for DACA recipients,” he explains. “The split between moderates and conservatives seems to hang on whether an immigration compromise contains a ‘special pathway.’ Conservatives want to treat DACA recipients like normal immigrants, permitting them to use the current law to obtain citizenship, while moderates want to fast-track citizenship for them.”
               What makes the latter different from what Democrats want is anyone’s guess.
               Moreover, the GOP’s refusal to distinguish themselves from Democrats should surprise no one. The party that should be offering Americans a wholly different agenda is the one that made 2014 election promises to thwart Barack liar-nObama’s socialist and unconstitutional agenda — including his executive order on DACA — and then broke them. The 50-plus times the GOP-controlled House voted to repeal liar-nObamaCare, knowing liar-nObama could veto any attempt to do so, was also revealed as a fraudulent effort by their failure to kill it when they had complete control of Congress and the presidency. So was their promise to defund Planned Parenthood. And their passage of a massive, debt-filled omnibus bill revealed their assertions that they’re the party of fiscal responsibility are absurd.
               “This is a difficult issue,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told  reporters a week ago, following efforts to contain those in favor of a “discharge petition” that would have forced the House to engage in a floor vote on series of immigration bills. “We’re trying to figure out what the sweet spot is.”
               That petition, based on a “queen of the hill” rule would have set up votes on four immigration measures, with the one receiving the most votes above a simple majority prevailing. It was being pushed by the aforementioned moderate Republicans and was designed to bypass House leadership. Ryan managed to maneuver past it, but the House will bring a pair of immigration bills to the floor for a vote next week to “resolve the border security and immigration issues,” stated Ryan spokesperson AshLee Strong in an email.
               Nonetheless, those moderate Republicans remain  committed to working with Democrats, and amnesty coupled with a pathway to citizenship remains their primary objective.
               Why? “The latest push for an amnesty is being driven by business groups who oppose the modest wage raises that are happening in President Donald Trump’s high-pressure economy, which is forcing companies to bid up workers’ wages in a tight labor market,” reveals columnist Neil Munro.
               They are being led by the pro-amnesty billionaire Koch Brothers who are spending more than a million dollars in national television and digital ads pushing amnesty, despite its unpopularity among Republican voters. “Elected officials must stop thinking about this as a campaign issue,” insisted James Davis, president of the Koch Network’s PR firm. “This is an avoidable crisis; we’re only here because of Washington’s failure to act.”
               Davis is right in one respect. Immigration, both legal and illegal, is far more than a campaign issue. It is the ultimate dividing line between elitists who believe the nation-state is an anachronistic concept, and ordinary Americans who have borne the ravages of porous borders and decades of wage stagnation. Between those who champion sanctuary cities and a host of benefits like drivers’ licenses, in-state college tuition and health care benefits for illegal aliens, and those who believe in the Rule of Law and an end to illegal immigration, chain migration and anchor babies. It is between elitists who reap the “net plus” of a world economy, while the net minuses accrue in hollowed out American cities and towns in the middle of a nation the bicoastal elitists dismiss as “flyover country.”
               Tragically — and quite revealingly — less than half of one political party stands up for those ordinary Americans.
               “As Democrats have moved increasingly in the direction of an amnesty-only approach to illegal immigration, Republicans at the federal and state level have succeeded by promising voters real immigration enforcement,” columnist Ira Mehlman explains. “Running on that platform, Republicans captured both houses of Congress and the White House in 2016.”
               So why would they do a complete flip-flop and reward wholesale lawbreaking in 2018? There are two possible reasons. One is rank cynicism. When the choice in the midterms is between a socialist/Marxist Democrat Party that embraces overt hatred and hysteria as a political platform, and a Chamber of Commerce-beholden Republican Party that embraces rank hypocrisy and the routine betrayal of its core constituency, the lesser of two evils remains in play.
               The other possibility is far more chilling. It is quite possible that Democrats and Republicans showcase their differences solely for public consumption, and that America is run by a Ruling Class managing a singular, public-be-damned globalist agenda. Such a possibility goes a long way toward explaining why we have ever-increasing levels of debt, an increasingly amoral culture, a increasingly two-tiered “justice” system — and the ongoing march toward amnesty — regardless of which party controls Congress and the presidency.
               Where is the wall? Where is merit-based immigration? Where is E-verify? If they exist in any incarnation in the bills Republicans bring to the House floor next week, it is quite likely they’ll either be at the back of the line behind amnesty and a “pathway to citizenship,” or watered down to the point of virtual impotency — despite the fact that every poll showing Americans favor amnesty only if such requirements and other are met.
               Donald Trump was elected largely on his immigration agenda, which was many things. But first and foremost, it was a repudiation of a globalist status quo that dismissed anyone who stood against it as a “populist” — along with the subliminal message that such populism was akin to Nazism. It was a repudiation of the idea that Americans are just another nation of people in a world full of them, no more or less exceptional (and just as expendable) as any other — making it wholly unnecessary to address their needs above and before anyone else’s.
               And just as much as anything else, it was a repudiation of the insufferable political correctness used like a club to keep the burgeoning discontent in check.
               Ryan claims Trump backs a compromise immigration plan. So do a lot of Americans. But if rock-solid enforcement of the law and air-tight border security aren’t the primary parts of any plan, it is highly unlikely our “America First” president will eviscerate his own agenda. In a word, that would be “deplorable.”   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56552?mailing_id=3545&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3545&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             CNN host Wolf Blitzer protested quite a lot. “It’s one thing not to like the media,” he complained. “Everybody’s always criticizing us and not happy with our coverage. … But it’s another thing to say, ‘It’s not North Korea, it’s not Iran, it’s not Russia, it’s not China; it’s journalists … who are the enemy of the American people.’”
               Worse, Blitzer whined, “A lot of his supporters believe that we are ‘the enemy of the American people.’ And that is really, really an awful situation. We are not the enemy of the American people. We love the American people.” CNN has a funny way of showing it.
               The Patriot Post exists because Mark Alexander saw a need to counter the Leftmedia monopoly on public opinion and, in 1996, founded this publication to lead the countercharge. We still eschew any advertising, opting to remain solely dependent on the support of our readers — grassroots Patriots who want news analysis that doesn’t parrot Beltway groupthink and that isn’t dictated by corporate advertisers. In other words, the defenders of Liberty have a voice against its opponents.
               Trump’s point about “Fake News” being our country’s “biggest enemy” is broadly true. And CNN is among the worst offenders. Promoting themselves as objective news, CNN and other Leftmedia outlets instead push the leftist agenda, regularly distorting the truth to do it. So yes, when the mainstream media is nothing more than a propaganda arm of one party — a party that wants to “fundamentally transform” our nation into a socialist welfare state — that media has become the enemy of American Liberty.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56554?mailing_id=3545&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3545&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             But it wasn’t long before the original idea behind #MeToo was warped into a broader pro-feminist message decrying the supposed western patriarchy. In other words, to question the feminist assertion of the gender pay gap, for instance, is now to be interpreted in light of #MeToo — it’s indicative of the problem of men oppressing women. It’s a sneaky broadening and redefining of the movement’s original intent.
               How about the term “racism?” Here is yet another example of the Left taking a well-understood and defined term, which meant the prejudicial judgment of individuals based solely upon their race or ethnicity, and turning it into a term that conflates the neo-Marxist ideology of class warfare with race. For example, the new definition of racism preaches that the denial of the concept of “white privilege” is indicative of someone harboring racist sentiments. Or, on the flip side, that only members of the majority race and culture can truly be racist.
               They’ve done it with global warming, too. Once upon a time, that meant that the planet was getting warmer and government must step in to regulate a solution. Now, the all-purpose term “climate change” has expanded the debate to encompass any and all weather events and, of course, the need for government to do even more to limit our Liberty. In this, too, there are victims and oppressors.
               Why this constant grievance culture promoted by the Left? Why are they expressly looking for new ways to redefine various groups of the oppressed and oppressors? Well, for leftists, the revolution is never over. So long as there are instances of inequality, then there can be no “justice.” And the means of judging whether or not something is justice is based not upon the standard of equal opportunity and freedom of the individual but upon that flawed neo-Marxist paradigm of equality of outcome. It’s not an ethic born out of genuine concern for justice for the individual but out of communal sensitivities that sacrifice the rights and freedom of the individual for the sake of group identity. Truth is the first casualty of those promoting this ideology.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56508?mailing_id=3542&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3542&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             However, in recent months, illegal border crossings are on the rise. As reported by The Washington Post, “U.S. border agents made more than 50,000 arrests in May for the third month in a row.” The anti-Trump paper then informs us that’s “an indication that escalating enforcement tactics by the Trump administration … [have] not had an immediate deterrent effect.”
               However, it takes no leap of logic to discern this increase is due in no small part to efforts by Democrats to undermine America’s immigration laws and national security. Democrat-run cities claim “sanctuary city” status, actively undermining federal immigration law to the detriment of the safety and security of American citizens. Prospective immigrants know they only need to get to one of those cities.
               Look no further than a recent video of the mayor of Philadelphia literally dancing a jigin celebration of a federal court ruling preventing the Trump administration from withholding grants to the city due to its protection of illegal aliens. One can assume the families of Philadelphians killed, raped or assaulted by illegal aliens in the city were less celebratory.
               The Trump administration has shown its determination to secure the border and crack down on illegal aliens. That’s good news when 90% of those arrested for crimes already have criminal convictions. While Democrats have managed thus far to thwart efforts to build a border wall, President Trump is making full use of his executive powers in other areas.
               In a recent interview, Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded to a report on illegal alien crime statistics by arguing, “The illegal immigrant crime rate in this country should be zero. Every crime committed by an illegal alien is, by definition, a crime that should have been prevented. It is outrageous that tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year because of the drugs and violence brought over our borders illegally and that taxpayers have been forced, year after year, to pay millions of dollars to incarcerate tens of thousands of illegal aliens. … Today’s report is yet another reminder that we must continue this [zero tolerance] policy and help fulfill President Trump’s goals of restoring lawfulness to our immigration system and ensure that immigration serves the good of this country.”
               AG Sessions has announced a renewed push to shut down the flow of illegal aliens on multiple fronts.
               One is a narrowing of the criteria under which an alien can qualify for asylum. In a 31-page document issued Monday, Sessions declared, “Generally, claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum.” He further noted, “The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes — such as domestic violence or gang violence — or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim.” Asylum is still possible under these circumstances, but it’s not guaranteed.
               While Democrats decry this as a draconian action, the addition of domestic and gang violence as qualifying asylum criteria is new, only added in 2014.
               Democrats were embarrassed recently when a tweet by former Barack liar-nObama speechwriter Jon Favreau went viral, then backfired. The post showed pictures of illegal alien children sleeping in an ICE detention cell. Favreau blasted the practice of separating children from parents, blaming Trump. As it turns out, the picture was from 2014, during the liar-nObama presidency.
               Sessions addressed this issue specifically, noting that if parents do not want to be separated from their children, they should not attempt to cross the border illegally, and if they do attempt it, then the blame lies with the parents, not the U.S. government, which has a right to protect its territorial sovereignty and its citizens.
               Sessions declared, “If you cross the border unlawfully … we will prosecute you. … If you smuggle an illegal alien across the border, then we’ll prosecute you. … If you’re smuggling a child, then we’re going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law. If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally.” Whatever one thinks of this policy, Sessions clearly intends to deter people from attempting illegal crossings in the first place.
               The Trump Justice Department has also announced a crackdown on visa overstayers, who make up nearly half of all illegals in the U.S., and those who gained U.S. citizenship by fraudulent means.
               Lamentations by Democrats are cynical and duplicitous. Democrats, at least among leadership, care little about the plight of minority aliens beyond their usefulness as a political wedge issue to damage Republicans.
               This was evident from the fact they did nothing on the issue in 2009 and 2010 when they had supermajorities in the House and Senate. It was also evident this year when President Trump offered amnesty for three times as many aliens as had qualified under liar-nObama’s unconstitutional DACA program, in exchange for securing the border and ending chain migration and the visa lottery. Democrats refused. It was evident when Democrats shockingly defended the brutal, murderous Central American gang MS-13, which Trump called “animals.”
               While Sessions has been the hard-liner and Trump firm but willing to negotiate, this may be a bit of good cop/bad cop. Democrats are recalcitrant when it comes to securing the border and protecting American citizens, but with significant new pressure brought to bear by Sessions, Democrats may be forced to come to the table.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56523?mailing_id=3542&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3542&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             In 2015, historian and California native Victor Davis Hanson noted, “It is ironic to encourage millions of newcomers to settle in the state without first making commensurately liberal investments for them in water supplies and infrastructure. Sharp rises in population still would not have mattered much had state authorities just followed their forbearers’ advice to continually increase water storage.” Furthermore, he wrote, “They would never have envisioned in a state of 40 million using the reservoirs in a drought to release water year-round for environmental objectives such as aiding the delta smelt or reintroducing salmon in the San Joaquin River watershed.”
               Now the chickens are coming home to roost, and California residents are the ones suffering. Thanks to Gov. Brown, “There is a daily per-person 55-gallon limit ratcheting down to 50 gallons over the course of a decade, fines will be imposed upon violation, and, for at least some users, a reasonable-length shower and running the wash will put them over,” Inez Feltscher Stepman reports.
               These limitations would have the effect of making showering and doing laundry on the same day unattainable for some people — an observation that elicited false rebuttals from the usual suspects, including from the “fact-checker” website Snopes, which stated: “The laws do not render it illegal for Californians to do laundry and take showers on the same day.” Well, duh. The law doesn’t explicitly prohibit showers and laundry, but in some cases that will be the inevitable outcome.
               Snopes is conflating literal vs. figurative language here just like it did when it asserted that a California pro-LGBT assembly bill “does not seek to outlaw all religious or moral instruction regarding sexuality and sexual orientation, nor would it ban the sale or possession of generic religious texts such as the Bible.” Memo to Snopes: Read between the lines. Otherwise, stop pretending to be a fact-checker.  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56507?mailing_id=3542&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3542&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Some 600 Seattle employers would have been hit by the tax, which was supposed to fund income redistribution to address the city’s homeless crisis. Amazon and Starbucks led the charge to oppose it because, obviously, the tax would destroy jobs. (It’s worth noting that homeless people are generally jobless.) Amazon even halted construction on a new office tower in downtown Seattle. While Amazon’s billionaire chief, Jeff Bezos, is no friend of Liberty, he got this one right — even if he is a hypocrite. The final straw was likely Monday’s announcement that a business-supported group called No Tax on Jobs had already gained enough signatures to challenge the tax on the November ballot.
               Kshama Sawant, the socialist council member who pushed the tax in the first place, lamented, “I have a news flash for council members who capitulated to this in lightning speed: This was never going to be easy in the face of mass corporate misinformation. It’s a complete betrayal of working people.” Actually, the real economic fact is that repeal will save a lot of Seattle jobs.
               Mayor Jenny Durkan and the members of the council who reversed course didn’t exactly admit they were wrong, though. “It is clear that the ordinance will lead to a prolonged, expensive political fight over the next five months that will do nothing to tackle our urgent housing and homelessness crisis,” their statement said. “We heard you … [and will] repeal the current tax on large businesses to address the homelessness crisis.”
               In other words, you selfish jerks are ruining our redistribution scheme. But don’t worry; Seattle’s socialists will come up with another plan to confiscate money.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56530?mailing_id=3542&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3542&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Of course, America is still the most powerful country in the world. Our military remains the most technologically advanced and is funded well beyond the means of nearly any other nation. Our cultural influence outmatches that of any other country. Our economy remains the most dynamic and has the world’s richest consumer market. Every other country in the world desires to do business with the U.S.
               But do other countries still want America’s leadership? If you listen to the Never-Trumpers and the global elites after the powwow in Quebec, the answer would be no. They believe that Trump’s recent actions on trade, his domestic policy stances, his foreign policy views, and his existence in general are a drag on the leftist world order.
               And they’re right. Surely, the other members of the G7 would be more comfortable with American leadership if the U.S. was more closely aligned with European priorities. Germany, Great Britain, France and Canada in particular are happy with American leadership so long as America leads like they want us to. In other words, they really miss Barack liar-nObama.
                liar-nObama was tailor made for the global elite. He talked a great game but didn’t back it up with anything, and he didn’t ask anyone to make any hard choices (except when he expected Americans to forget about the Constitution and Congress and let him rule by his phone and pen). He was an internationalist, seeing the global “good” as more important than the needs of the country he was elected to serve. And that global good, defined by elites with no input from the people who elected them, has no room for the messy details of free markets, national pride and Liberty.
               Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau and their arrogant ilk look down their noses at Donald Trump and the American voters who elected him. This doesn’t trouble Trump, nor should it. Much of the world’s view of America is based on which party is occupying the White House. In the early 2000s, American popularity with global elitists was at a low point. In the early half of this decade, it was high. Now it’s low again. It doesn’t take a PhD in world politics to see the pattern.
               Our traditional allies in the G7 thought they had America right where they wanted us. During liar-nObama’s presidency, he came on board for the Paris Climate Accord, joined the international order at shaking its collective fist at Syria, and made a deal with Iran to curb certify its nuclear program.
               This was all a farce, and President Trump knew it to be so. Since taking offices, he’s gone about systematically undoing liar-nObama’s bad decisions. He pulled out of the Paris climate deal because it was unfair to American businesses and it was ineffective at its ostensible goal of combatting climate change. When proof was found that Syria used chemical weapons, Trump sent in the U.S. military to destroy Syrian chemical weapons facilities. He also exited the Iran agreement, recognizing that it was a terrible deal that never should have been made in the first place.
               Now Trump has sat down with Kim Jong-un to see what can be done about bringing North Korea to heel with its nuclear weapons program. Trump went in face to face without looking to traditional American allies to back him up. While there are concerns giving Kim that “legitimacy,” frankly, it’s probably better this way. America’s allies east and west — along with Kim’s nuclear puppet master China — have not done much to bring North Korea under control. Maybe the art of the deal should have a shot.
               The North Korea summit could still turn out to be a disaster. Or Kim could play nice now and double-cross the U.S. down the road. The odds are slim that this meeting will be a smashing success. And even if it is, Kim is a murderous dictator who will go back home still in charge of his family’s Hermit Kingdom.
               Leftists are not even remotely optimistic about the outcome. While they fell all over themselves to praise liar-nObama over the heap of lies he delivered on Iran, they labeled the Trump-Kim meeting a failure before it even took place. Only Trump Derangement Syndrome can explain this, since leftists always support any opportunity to meet with dictators and give them whatever they want.
               Perhaps the best example of America’s power is that the U.S. is the only country in the world that could sit down with North Korea and be taken seriously. The global elites may not have much respect or desire for American leadership, but everyone is still going to have to deal with it just the same.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56494?utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3539&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             The groundwork for future developments in North Korean denuclearization was laid, but it’s also important to note that there’s still a long way to go. On Tuesday, in Singapore, Trump and Kim Jong-un signed an agreement that essentially lays out four goals both agreed to pursue going forward:

1. The United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity
2. The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula
3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

               As with any negotiation, both sides conceded and received something out of this initial meeting. Obviously, Kim received a huge boost to his public image and perception on the world scene as a legitimate leader worthy of time with the American president. Yet, as many have noted, Kim is a brutal dictator, and all the positive optics at the summit featuring his meeting with Trump are unpleasant to say the least. However, if offering positive rhetoric and prestige motivates Kim to give up his nukes, then it is well worth it. (Whether it was worth it to cease military exercises with South Korea, as the North demanded and Trump granted, is up for debate.) For Kim, it is much more than presenting a good image; he’s desperate to hold on to power, and with his country on the brink of starvation, giving up his nukes and making nice with the U.S. may be his only option. His life quite literally could be on the line, depending on how this all goes down.
               For Trump, this is also a golden opportunity to do what no U.S. president has been able to accomplish in over 60 years — bring about an end to the long-running regional and global threat of North Korean militaristic aggression. Again, however, the concession is allowing Kim to retain his totalitarian rule. In fact, a deal further establishes that rule, so long as Kim continues to abide by his commitment to denuclearize. Such is the messy game of diplomacy, albeit without the $150 billion Barack liar-nObama gave Iran to make his deal.
               Finally, as noted earlier, this process is far from over, and there are bound to be some setbacks. But always keep in mind the endgame — a denuclearized North Korea. The big question is verifying that denuclearization. And don’t forget the biggest behind-the-scenes player in this whole drama is China. You can bet Trump hasn’t forgotten it.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56500?utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3539&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Trump caught everyone off guard by throwing out an unexpected proposal — “unexpected” in light of his recent implementation of tariffs on steel and aluminum. Trump suggested, “No tariffs, no barriers — that’s the way it should be. And no subsides. I even said no tariffs.” He added, “Ultimately that’s what you want. You want tariff-free, no barriers, and you want no subsides because you have some countries subsidizing industries and that’s not fair. So, you go tariff free, you go barrier free, you go subsidy free.”
               The G7 leaders were seemingly stunned, but it became increasingly obvious that this was not a direction they wished to go. Instead, Europe’s leaders saw the summit as an opportunity to hammer Trump’s trade policies. Trump was coming to their sandbox and they were there to scold him for failing to play by their elitist rules for their vision of globalism.
               However, even after all the tension, it appeared that the G7 summit would produce a jointly agreed upon “communique” — essentially a commitment to fight for a “rules-based international trading system and [to] continue to fight protectionism.” Trump agreed to sign the communique as he quickly dashed off to the much more important summit in Singapore with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
               All seemed well for a few hours … until Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s follow-up press conference. Trudeau referred to Trump’s tariffs as “insulting” and insisted that he would “move forward with retaliatory measures on July 1, applying equivalent tariffs to the ones that the Americans have unjustly applied to us.” Trump, on his way to Singapore, quickly announced that he was withdrawing his signature on the G7 communique: “Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” This was followed up by a series of messages in which Trump focused on his primary theme of America not getting a fair shake. Trump wrote, “Fair Trade is now to be called Fool Trade if it is not Reciprocal,” later adding, “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing, and that ends.”
               Europe’s leaders have clearly become increasingly frustrated with Trump’s seemingly unpredictable behavior. He, on the other hand, appears to have accomplished exactly what he intended — exposing the unfavorable trade imbalance between the U.S. and G7 nations.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56476?utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3537&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body