Today is Columbus Day, of course. Columbus is the last dead white male to have a national holiday named for him; so the Leftist Whackos have been active during the last decade to efface his memory. Columbus also brought Western Civilization and Culture to the Americas, which is another reason he's despised by fake Indians like Pocahontas Warren and other members of the Cigar Store Tribe.
One of the greatest innovations that Europeans brought to America was Agricultural Science. As primitive as it was in the late 15th Century, it was still a vast improvement over the hunter-gather systems practiced by the natives. But even today, agriculture is a significant economic pursuit of the American Indians. In fact, agriculture has been expanding quite rapidly over the last decade; and will probably expand even further as the Trump Administration has expanded Indian lands and begun infrastructure reform on Reservations. According to the USDA's last Agricultural Census (2012), American Indians owned nearly 40,000 farms totaling around 51,000,000 acres producing nearly $2 billion in agricultural goods annually.
Indian farmers---as well as farmers generally---received a huge boon just before the Columbus Day Holiday when President Trump and Chinese Vice-President Liu announced a massive agricultural trade-deal which will expand American exports to China some 500 to 600 percent. According to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, this agricultural deal exceeds the largest one in history by 250%.
Thus, while the Chinese will be consuming more American beef and pork, the Corporate Media and other Leftist poltroons are eating crow. So much for all their talk about 'Trade Wars' with China---which was never anything but a myth anyway. Just as we predicted too, the threatened tariffs will not happen. Neither side really wants a Trade War; tariffs are something like the economic equivalent of Mutually-Assured Destruction. The fact that both countries can wipe out each others' economies insures negotiations.
Stung by all of these developments, the Media Jackals tried to divert attention from them at the Press Conference with questions like:
"Mr. President, on that point, can you assure that American people that you did not bring up Joe Biden in these negotiations; that you have not brought up that with the Chinese?"
"Mr. President, how do you assure the American people that this deal, over the next three, four, five weeks, won’t fall apart as it’s being papered?"
"Did you tell them anything about the impeachment process and how that might affect your ability to complete this deal?"
Somehow, though, with the Agricultural Sector expanding at an exponential rate, it's doubtful that the media pea-shooting is going to amount to much with American farmers. Or, for that matter with American Indians. With Trump, the Indians get economic boosts, crime and pollution cleaned up on Indian lands, and better infrastructure. With the Liberals, they get 'Indigenous Peoples' Day' on the calendar. There is a difference.
There's nothing like exceeding expectations and President Trump has done it again. On the eve of the APEC Summit, we were expecting that some good trade news and some cooperation in fighting the Opioid Epidemic would be the highlights of Trump's visit to China. Instead, the Chinese Media is announcing the biggest trade deal in Sino-US history: worth over a quarter trillion dollars and mutually benefiting both countries.
An unbelievable 34 trade treaties were signed. Here are the top five, as reported by The Global Times:
1. US microchip manufacturer Qualcomm agreed to a $12 billion contract to provide advanced chips to three Chinese smart-phone manufacturers. Besides being an economic boost for our Tech Sector; China has long sought to ease American export restrictions on sophisticated microchip technologies. At the last CED meeting, China stressed these restrictions as a major obstacle to fair trade. Trump is reversing apparently this policy---first put in by the Clintons---which was really designed to protect US cellphone manufacturers (who were outsourcing anyway) from competition with Chinese firms.
2. China agreed to lift restrictions on US soybean exports---representing a $5 billion gain to American agriculture.
3. America's largest aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, has agreed to sell 300 passenger jets to China's airline system. This is a $37 billion gain for the US Aerospace Industry. Obama had foolishly held up sales of these jets to China over his peacocking 'Pivot to Asia'.
4. The China Energy Investment Corporation pulled the biggest surprise by agreeing to invest a whopping $84 billion in upgrading American shale gas and chemical refineries in West Virginia. This is the very kind of trade deal we've needed from China. The benefit to US Coal producers is going to be huge and likely will turn the economy completely around in North Appalachian regions.
5. China also agreed to invest $43 billion in a joint Sino-US effort to produce gasoline from the Arctic and Alaskan regions. This is another brilliant move by the two presidents. Currently, Russia is the dominant power in oil and gas production in the Arctic. The US fell behind under the last three administrations, while China has only recently begun Arctic exploration. Working together, the two countries can represent a major force in the Petroleum Industry again. It should be noted that both the US and China have independent agreements with Canada for exploring Canadian resources. An economic cooperation between the three countries will put us in a position to challenge Russian and Arabian oil production.
The hyenas in the US Media were naturally downplaying these achievements: ridiculously claiming that Trump was selling out to the Chinese and other such things. These assertions were held up to well-deserved laughter in the Chinese press. Who would have thought that a year after the Election that America would be exporting goods to China and that Chinese companies wanted to outsource to the US?
There were other achievements at the Summit as well. True to his promise, President Trump also secured Xi's cooperation in establishing an anti-Opioid Task Force.
Is anyone still sorry that Hilary lost last year?
Attorney-General Jeff Sessions announced today a major blow against imported opioid smugglers. Two Chinese nationals were indicted for manufacturing and distributing Fenatyl in Chinese factories; and their distribution networks in the US and Canada broken up.
Several months ago, the Chinese Ministry of Health banned Fenatyl as a prescription drug. The surpluses and production capabilities, however, have found their ways onto the Black Market. In light of the Chinese crackdown and higher prices and greater demand in North America; organized crime in China has turned to the US market.
Jian Zhang, also known as 'Hong Kong Zaron' is a specimen of such gangsters. He's believed to have shipped "thousands" of opioids through a money-laundering and postal fraud front based in Canada. DOJ official Rod Rosenthal stated that an 18 year-old's overdose death in North Dakota led investigators to a local pusher who was purchasing the Chinese-made narcotics over the Internet using Bitcoin. The FBI now knows that Zhang's tentacles spread across at least 11 states, employing American and Canadian crooks. Eight of the ringleaders of the Zhang group---all Americans---were rounded up today and jailed.
Xiobing Yan operated two known pill-mills in China under a variety of aliases and false-fronts. He was also trafficking other narcotics into the US, disguising the packages as containing spices, perfumes, etc. Yan's activities were uncovered after a local distribution ring was dismantled in Mississippi. His companies, via the so-called Dark Web, were pushing Fenatyl directly to US distributors. According to the DOJ, Yan's mills can produce "ton quantities" of the drug and that agents have seized "enough Fenatyl for thousands of lethal doses."
The FBI also seized "about 100 distributors involved in Yan's network." And investigations are ongoing.
How much of the Opioid traffic was disrupted by today's actions is impossible to calculate, but it is significant. How much damage Yan, Zhang, and their confederates were responsible for is also extensive. Sessions and Rosenthal both noted that several Opioid overdose deaths have been traced to products these two gangsters turned out.
China---which is also suffering from an Opioid problem---agreed at a recent CED Summit to cooperate with the US in fighting this scourge. The Chinese authorities face some unique problems of their own; but Sessions commended them today for their assistance in upsetting this network---clearly a menace to both countries.
Six months have now elapsed since President Trump took office in late January. The US Media and the phony 'Resistance' has done its best to cloud as many issues as possible. But what about an objective assessment of things?
For those of us who had some reservations about Trump's character during the Election, the Administration has turned out to be a pleasant surprise. In general, Trump has done exceptionally well on domestic and social issues. Economic issues are being stalled by RINOs in Congress, but are going in the right direction. Foreign policy has been problematic. Still, that's a 66% improvement over the last four Administrations combined.
Even in Foreign Policy, it would be wrong to say that Trump has been a failure. Though he's made several mistakes, he seems to be learning from them. He won major trade agreements with Mexico and with China that will boost enormously US agriculture. Setting up the CED Summits with China was a diplomatic master-stroke. His greatest challenge in the future vis-à-vis other countries will come from the Neocons and Cultural Imperialists within his own party.
On domestic issues, we've seen great strides, with several new commissions set up to address specific problems. At the beginning of last month, we wrote of an advisory board commissioned to advice on rebuilding our space program. We concluded with an article reviewing another commission's report on fighting the Opioid Epidemic. Those are two examples of national issues that our past leaders long ignored.
'Swamp Draining' is making some definite progress. Except in the State Department, CIA, and Pentagon, the Administration has been sweeping out useless bureaucrats and jailing corrupt ones at a fairly respectable rate. And among the general public, criminal gangs have been getting ferreted out---especially foreign-run ones like MS-13 and Al-Qaeda. Medicare, VA, and Social Security fraud are facing crackdowns. Several shady NGOs---some funded by arch-criminal George Soros---have had their government subsidies and contracts suspended.
An area that still need some work is in Public Education. Betsey DeVos has some good ideas, but we've really seen little activity from the Department of Education.
On economic issues, most of these like repealing Obamacare, tax reform, and rebuilding infrastructure are moving forward, but slowly. This isn't wholly the Administration's fault: the Congress controls spending and the RINOs have been blocking reform. One thing that Administration should be doing in the meantime is curbing inflation by strengthening the dollar. That's been happening to an extent, but the dollar needs to rise substantially and sustainably.
The Pentagon is still a disaster-area. This is probably really going to take a new Defense Secretary who has the innovation and courage to reform the Military. The TG ban was a good start.
The Trump Administration also deserves credit for raising public awareness on a number of issues---most notably exposing the true character of the Mainstream Media. He's also brought attention to issues like international Christian persecution, and the social crimes of euthanasia and abortion.
It's difficult to gauge accurately the public mood because of Media bias. However, there has been a noticeable rise in confidence among working-class Americans, both blue and white collar. This is the group that really matters.
Finally, a word should be said for MAWGA. Melania, Ivanka, and Tiffany have been making femininity chic again. The atmosphere around White House women is refreshing to see again---after years of having feminism and rainbow-flags shoved in our faces. Again, because of media bias, it's hard to gauge their influence. But Melania has gained a very large popular following in North America and Europe. Ivanka is very popular in Asia; especially in China where she's gained celebrity status among young Chinese women.
Definitely, things have improved since 2016. The Elites, the permanent malcontents on the Far Left, and the four-flushers on the Whacko Right will continue to stir up problems. We're not out of the woods yet, by any means. But things are looking up for a change. We need to stay the course and keep pushing forward.
Less than 24 hours after American fake-news outlets pronounced the first US-China Economic Summit a 'failure'; Chinese officials announced today that they are lifting a near two-decade long ban on American rice imports.
"This is a tremendous leap forward to selling US rice in China." said Brian King, chairman of USA Rice, a rice-growers association, "Today's announcement ends a decade of effort by the American rice industry to open the world's largest rice importer. President Trump's focus on reducing our trade deficit with China put the rice industry back in the spotlight; and USDA Secretary Perdue told us he'd get this done and he did. We are thankful for the Administrations commitment---from the President on down---to American rice farmers and marketers."
When the Clinton Administration entered the WTO, China offered to purchase American rice, on the condition that our rice met their country's import health and safety protocols. The Bush and Obama Administrations did nothing about the protocols; except to file complaints with the WTO which China ignored. Trump and Perdue solved the problem in less than a week by allowing Chinese inspectors to deal directly with the rice industry; bypassing the hapless bureaucrats.
Rice industry spokesmen said that they are already producing a plan to upgrade mills and facilities to meet Chinese import standards. The jobs and opportunities created by this move are enormous. Chinese demand for rice is so high that it could consume the current US annual rice output in less than a month.
The US was once a major rice exporter, both to Asia and the Middle East but has been stagnated recently because of Deep State trade embargoes with Arab countries and crumbling US infrastructure. Opening China to the US rice market can't help but expand and revive the industry.
But don't look for the Corporate Media to announce positive developments. The headline writers today are hoping that a White House spokesman's resignation is a sign that the Administration is collapsing. Collapsing like our rice industry was until today.
As a direct consequence of President Trump's participation at the G-20 Summit earlier this month, two major foreign policy achievements came to fruition today---involving Russia and China, respectively.
The first win was the announcement that the CIA black-budget operations in Syria are terminated. The US will no longer arm and train terrorists---or, as Obama called them, moderate rebels. Russia welcomed the move.
Obama and his Deep-State henchmen wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on this stupid and counter- productive program. Besides the fact that they were responsible for protracting the war, they also destabilized much of the region as these weapons often ended up on the Black Market. The growing realization by Trump that he had been lied to about the character of the Syrian government is reflected in the move.
Russia and Syria weren't the only countries relieved by Trump's decision. Relations with Turkey and Iraq were also strained by the policy. The arrogant Obama made the situation even worse by treating Turkey and Iraq as though they were US vassalages who had to support the policy however detrimental to their own interests. Hopefully, the next move will be restoration of diplomatic ties with Syria and an end to the embargo.
The second diplomatic success came with the conclusion of the first Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (CED). This was a bilateral summit set up by the US and China and the G-20. The CED will hold regular meetings to work out long-standing issues between the two countries. The US was represented by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Ross. Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang represented his country.
Lu Kang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said today, "The most significant achievement of the economic dialogue is acknowledging a common direction for Sino-US economic cooperation. Both sides regard win-win cooperation as the underlying principle in developing stronger bilateral ties."
Both sides agreed that the Trade Deficit was a major problem. China indicated interest in importing more American goods---especially in technology and agriculture. Many of these commodities are restricted by US export laws. The two countries agreed to a draft proposal for a Comprehensive Economic Plan.
The Summit was held in Washington; but the boorish behavior of the American Media led both sides to cancel the press conference scheduled afterwards. The Media has been putting out fake-news about the summit, and their coverage and conduct was universally criticized by the Chinese press. America's media is truly becoming an international embarrassment.
Similarly, the Media was howling outrage over the new Syrian Policy. But time will prove all these Deep State dunces wrong and today was a major forward step in draining the diplomatic swamp.
