30 Years of ‘Free Trade’ Brings 400% Trade Deficit With China

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There is much debate over the negative effects of massive trade deficits, and what the best strategy for correcting them might be, but it’s hard to deny the U.S. trade deficit with China is staggering in scale … and it got that way after just a few decades of old-school “free trade” orthodoxy.

Raul Amoros of HowMuch.net puts the issue in perspective:

The start couldn’t be more balanced: in 1985, the U.S. exported $3.9 billion to China, and imported goods and services for the exact same amount. But by 2015, there was a staggering imbalance, to China’s advantage, of $365.7 billion – an all-time record, not just for U.S.-China trade, but for any bilateral trade, ever.

It’s not that U.S. exports to China haven’t increased. They have, and by a lot. America exported an impressive $116.2 billion into China last year, 30 times more than in 1985. That makes China the U.S.’s third-biggest export market, nearly twice as important as Japan ($62.5 billion), in fourth place. But that’s still a lot less than U.S. exports to Canada ($280.3 billion) or Mexico ($236.4 billion). Meanwhile, Chinese exports to the U.S. have exploded. In 2015, China exported $481.9 billion to the U.S. – an amazing 123 times more than in 1985.

Amoros illustrated this with an animated GIF that shows billion-dollar blocks building into towers of trade for the U.S. and China. The American side of the graph rolls in and out like the tide a few times, while the Chinese tower climbs relentlessly upward to four times the American size. (Read more from “30 Years of ‘Free Trade’ Brings 400% Trade Deficit With China” HERE)

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Trump Made It PRETTY CLEAR Who’s to Blame for Lack of Mideast Peace

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Arab regimes, Western liberal politicians, the mainstream media – they all like to blame Israel for the lack of peace and stability in the Middle East.

But Donald Trump seems to see things a little more clearly, or at least he’s willing to tell the truth without regard for “political correctness.”

In an interview with The New York Times published over the weekend, Trump insisted that it was the Palestinian leadership, NOT Israel, that is to blame for the failure to reach a two-state solution.

“Basically, I support a two-state solution on Israel. But the Palestinian Authority has to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. …[and they] have to stop the terror, stop the attacks, stop the teaching of hatred,” he said. (Read more from “Trump Made It PRETTY CLEAR Who’s to Blame for Lack of Mideast Peace” HERE)

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North Korea Tells Citizens to Prepare Themselves for Famine [+video]

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North Korea instructed the country Monday to brace itself for possible famine and severe economic hardship — but not to despair, because “the road to revolution is long and arduous,” according to an editorial in the state-run newspaper.

The article, published in Rodong Sinmun — the print mouthpiece of the North Korean government — comes less than a month after the U.N. Security Council voted in favor of slapping the Hermit Kingdom with tougher sanctions, after the country teased its potential nuclear and military capabilities earlier this year. The editorial stated that hardships to come might evoke another “arduous march” — the term assigned to the famine that struck the country in the mid-1990s, killing as many as 3 million people, reports the Telegraph, a British newspaper.

“We may have to go on an arduous march, during which we will have to chew the roots of plants once again,” the editorial piece read. (Read more from “North Korea Tells Citizens to Prepare Themselves for Famine” HERE)

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Lawsuit: Obama Covers up American Prisoners in Cuba

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President Obama’s campaign to mainstream the communist regime of Cuba has included the removal of the island nation from a list of terror sponsors, visits there by Secretary of State John Kerry and the president, a commission to establish how the U.S. can promote “normalization” and agreements to share “science,” mail, flights and even law enforcement.

But it’s taking a lawsuit to pry out of the Obama administration details about American prisoners of war who “may have been held captive by Cuban government or military forces” there.

The lawsuit by Judical Watch seeks records “depicting the names, service branch, ranks, Military Occupational Specialty, and dates and locations of capture of all American servicemen believed to have been held captive by Cuban government or military forces on the island of Cuba since 1960.”

“The fact that we had to sue the Obama administration to get simple answers as to whether Cuba held and tortured American POWs strongly suggests that a cover-up is underway,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

“The Obama administration admires Castro’s Cuba so much that even the fate of the regime’s victims, even American POWs, is of little concern.” (Read more from “Lawsuit: Obama Covers up American Prisoners in Cuba” HERE)

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Fidel Castro Lashes out at Obama After Cuba Visit

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Fidel Castro rebuked President Obama in a lengthy diatribe Monday just days after the president’s historic visit to Cuba.

The former Cuban revolutionary leader published a letter in state-controlled media titled “Brother Obama,” in which he recalled the U.S.’s past efforts to overthrow his government.

“We do not need the empire to give us anything,” Castro wrote.

It was the elder Castro’s first response to Obama’s two-and-a-half-day visit last week, during which the president said he came to the country to bury the final vestige of the Cold War in the Western Hemisphere.

Obama met with Cuban leader Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother, but did not meet with the revolutionary leader, who is reportedly in poor health. Fidel Castro handed over power in 2008. (Read more from “Fidel Castro Lashes out at Obama After Cuba Visit” HERE)

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Beware: All Eyes on ISIS While Ergodan Seeks De Facto Sultanate

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Explosions rip through a group of protesters staging an anti-government peace rally in Ankara, October 2015, resulting in the worst ever single terror attack in Turkey’s modern history. The upsurge in violence helped propel President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) to a stronger showing in the November elections, but he did not receive enough votes to change the constitution.

Secular and liberal Turks sighed with premature relief when on June 7, 2015, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) lost its parliamentary majority in general elections for the first time since it came to power in November 2002. With 41 percent of the national vote (compared with 49.8 percent in the 2011 general elections), the AKP won eighteen fewer seats than necessary to form a single-party government in Turkey’s 550-member parliament. More importantly, its parliamentary seats fell widely short of the minimum number needed to rewrite the constitution in the way Erdogan wanted it so as to introduce an executive presidential system that would give him uncontrolled powers with few checks and balances, if any.

Undaunted by what looked like an election defeat, Erdogan chose to toss the dice again. At his instructions, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pretended to hold coalition negotiations with opposition parties while secretly laying the groundwork for snap elections. In Erdogan’s thinking, the loss of a few more seats would make no difference to AKP power, but re-winning a parliamentary majority would make the situation totally different. Then a terrible wave of violence gripped Turkey.

First, the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan, PKK), which had been fighting a guerrilla war from mountain hideouts in northern Iraq, declared an end to its unilateral ceasefire begun in 2013. Then on July 20, a Turkish suicide bomber killed more than thirty people at a pro-Kurdish gathering in the small town of Suruc. Claiming that the Turkish state had a secret role in the bombing, the PKK killed two policemen in the town of Ceylanpinar. The three-decades-old violence between the Turkish and Kurdish communities had suddenly roared back with a vengeance. In one of Turkey’s bloodiest summers ever, more than a thousand PKK fighters and Turkish security officials were killed. (Read more from “Beware: All Eyes on ISIS While Ergodan Seeks De Facto Sultanate” HERE)

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Trump Won’t Say If He’d Rule out War With China

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As part of an extensive interview with The New York Times posted Saturday, the GOP presidential front-runner [Donald Trump] was asked about China’s aggressive island-building in the South China Sea, and what the U.S. response should be . . .

“I would use trade to negotiate,” he added. “Would I go to war? Look, let me just tell you. There’s a question I wouldn’t want to answer. Because I don’t want to say I won’t or I will… That’s the problem with our country.”

“A politician would say, ‘Oh I would never go to war,’ or they’d say, ‘Oh I would go to war.’ I don’t want to say what I’d do because, again, we need unpredictability. You know, if I win, I don’t want to be in a position where I’ve said I would or I wouldn’t. I don’t want them to know what I’m thinking.” (Read more from “Trump Won’t Say If He’d Rule out War With China” HERE)

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Pakistani Park Suicide Bombing That Killed 65 Targeted Christians

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At least 65 people were killed and as many as 280 injured in an explosion at a park in the Pakistani city of Lahore, which, according to the BBC, were Christian families out for the Easter weekend. The bomb went off in the early evening when the park was crowded with families.

The Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has claimed responsibility for the attack. “The target were Christians,” a spokesman for the faction said in a statement. “We want to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore. He can do what he wants but he won’t be able to stop us. Our suicide bombers will continue these attacks” . . .

Facebook has apologized for sending out security check notifications to users across the world Sunday after the blast in Pakistan. The feature urges Facebook users to connect with friends and family during disasters to let them know they’re safe. The notification said, “Are you OK? It looks like you’re in the area affected by [the explosion]. Let friends know that you’re safe.” (Read more from “Pakistani Park Suicide Bombing That Killed 65 Targeted Christians” HERE)

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U.S. Marines Providing Artillery Fire to Support Advancing Iraqi Ground Troops

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Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Friday he’s “pleased” to see Iraqi security forces beginning their advance to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State terrorists, and he said they’re doing it with the help of U.S. Marines on the ground.

Those Marines are providing artillery firepower for the advancing Iraqi troops.

Just five days ago, on Monday, a U.S. military spokesman announced that a 200-strong Marine detachment had been sent to the Makhmour area of Iraq to protect the Americans who are advising the Iraqi troops for the coming battle in Mosul.

The Marines were there for “force protection.” It is not a “combat outpost,” Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters on Monday. But he admitted that could change — and apparently, it has.

On Friday, Carter said, “The U.S. Marines we’ve sent near Makhmour, where Staff Sgt. Carter gave his life, are now providing artillery fire at the request of the Iraqis to help support the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) advance against the enemy and protect their forces. (Read more from “U.S. Marines Providing Artillery Fire to Support Advancing Iraqi Ground Troops” HERE)

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ISIS Supporters Release Video With Exploding Eiffel Tower

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By Bridget Johnson. A new video posted online by ISIS supporters shows the Eiffel Tower exploding and crashing to the ground in stylized, video game animation.

The video begins with a river of blood pooling and dripping off a wooden table filled with stacks of American money, guns, knives and bullets.

It’s ripped from a video game, as betrayed by the name of a video game designer with a U.S. company carved in the wood of the animated table.

The video is titled “A message to the Western Kafir [Disbelievers] from the Supporters of the Caliphate.” It’s narrated in English and subtitled in Arabic, and was posted on YouTube and other file-sharing sites.

It included Defense Department footage related to strikes on the Islamic State and news footage of ISIS attacks. (Read more from “ISIS Supporters Release Video With Exploding Eiffel Tower” HERE)

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Belgium Fears Nuclear Plants Are Vulnerable

By Allisa J. Rubin and Milan Schreuer. As a dragnet aimed at Islamic State operatives spiraled across Brussels and into at least five European countries on Friday, the authorities were also focusing on a narrower but increasingly alarming threat: the vulnerability of Belgium’s nuclear installations.

The investigation into this week’s deadly attacks in Brussels has prompted worries that the Islamic State is seeking to attack, infiltrate or sabotage nuclear installations or obtain nuclear or radioactive material. This is especially worrying in a country with a history of security lapses at its nuclear facilities, a weak intelligence apparatus and a deeply rooted terrorist network.

On Friday, the authorities stripped security badges from several workers at one of two plants where all nonessential employees were sent home hours after the attacks at the Brussels airport and one of the city’s busiest subway stations three days earlier. Surveillance footage of a top official at another Belgian nuclear facility was discovered last year in the apartment of a suspected militant linked to the extremists who unleashed the horror in Paris in November. (Read more from “Belgium Fears Nuclear Plants Are Vulnerable” HERE)

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