Biden’s Bloodbath: The $1 Trillion Trade Deficit With The World Has Never Been Worse

Robert Romano (below) means well but he is exaggerating the trade problem. The deficit itself is not a big problem. It simply means that foreigners are accepting greenbacks in return for real goods -- such as cars and avocados. It costs about nothing to print greenbacks so America is getting a very good deal out of it

But there is a problem if the situation affects American jobs. But that is not an immediate problem. Unemployment at the moment is very low and just about anyone who wants a job can get one.

The real problem is strategic. Does America want to lose the abiity to make a lot of things? Is it, for instance, wise for America to stop making cars? Is the immediate capacity to make cars important to Americans strategicaly?

It was in WWII. Thanks to a Mr H. Ford, America had a huge range of automobile factories for their mass market in cars and those factories could easily be switched to making military aircraft. Automobile motors and aircraft motors were basically the same. By comparison, Germany made some nice cars but only for their elites and Toyota was making bicycles

But it is different today. Car factories could be switched from making cars to making armoured personnel carriers and maybe tanks but that is not going to win any wars. The Ukraine has shown us that. They have completely wiped out Russia's tanks with just a few relatively cheap drones and missiles. They have even decimated the Russian navy and airforce,

So the stretegic argument for trade barriers has never been weaker. What will win wars now is smart technology. We are back to foot soldiering so what we can do to protect and equip our troops is the issue. And that requires brains not manufacturing. If America was exporting its Jews there might be a problem but there is not much sign of that. They certainly would not want to go to Russia and Chinese is too hard to learn. And we know about Israel at the moment.

But there can be real sociological problems from trade at times. If China wiped out the American automobile indistry with its cheaper cars, that could throw whole communities out of a job, with recovery from that being slow and difficult. And that is what Trump is talking about. He protected American steel manufacture for similar reasons when he was President. So using trade barriers to slow down social change is entirely legitimate where the change looks like being very disruptive.

“Now, if I don't get elected, it's going be a bloodbath for the whole — that's going to bet the least of it — it's going be a bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it.”

That was former President Donald Trump at a campaign stop in Dayton, Ohio on March 16, describing the impact of Chinese dumping cars into U.S. markets via Mexican manufacturing plants.

Trump said he would not allow China to enter the U.S. auto industry and to attempt to take advantage of the U.S., Mexico and Canada (USMCA) trade agreement, “They think that they're going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border. Let me tell you something to China. If you're listening President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal: Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you're building in Mexico right now, and you think you're going to get that, you're going to not hire Americans and you're going to sell the cars to us — no.”

Instead, Trump promised to put a 100 percent tariff on any Chinese cars: “We're going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you're not going to be able to sell those guys, if I get elected!”

Trump then warned that if he wasn’t elected, it would be a “bloodbath” on trade. He’s not wrong.

In fact, the U.S. trade in goods deficit with the world has never been greater according to U.S. Census data, ballooning to $1.07 trillion in 2021, $1.18 trillion in 2022 and $1.063 trillion in 2023, much of which can be attributed to the higher rates of inflation experienced after close to $7 trillion was printed, borrowed and spent into existence during and after the 2020 Covid pandemic.

As a result, the cost of everything including cars, apparel, oil and other goods and commodities imported has increased, widening the trade gap even as U.S. exports similarly increased in prices. And it came even as the trade deficit with China sank to $279 billion in 2023 after big spikes to $352.8 billion in 2021 and $382.3 billion in 2022 amid slower growth there and an overall drop in exports by China worldwide in 2023.

For comparison, the trade deficit with the world was $792.4 billion in 2017, $870.4 billion in 2018, $845.8. billion in 2019 and $901.5 billion in 2020. And with China it was $375.2 billion in 2017, $418.2 billion 2018, $342.6 billion in 2019 and $307.96 billion in 2020.

While in office, Trump had raised the tariff level on imports from China to 30 percent for goods and 15 percent for the other basket of goods, levels that Biden has not reduced, more or less leaving the Trump trade policy with China in effect. Now, Trump warns China is trying to get around those tariffs by manufacturing in Mexico instead.

In fact, Mexico is one of the main drivers of the trade deficit increasing in recent years according to U.S. Census data, going from $105 billion in 2021, to $130.5 billion in 2022, to $152.3 billion in 2023. For comparison, it was $69 billion in 2017, $77.7 billion in 2018, $99.4 billion in 2019 and $110.9 billion in 2020.

Overall, imports from Mexico have increased from $312 billion in 2017 to $475 billion 2023, a record.

And he warns it could be a “bloodbath” economically if Chinese capital into Mexico is not averted. Naturally, Biden seized on his opponent’s colorful language rather than talk about trade policy, with Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer stating the trade commentary had something to do with “political violence”: “This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence.”

Are we even having the same conversation in this country anymore? When Ross Perot warned of a “giant sucking sound” from Mexico in 1992, he did not mean that there was a physical, giant vacuum cleaner being set up on the border by Mexico. He was talking figuratively about jobs that would go to Mexico in the wake of the then-North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was being proposed.

Something that Trump is warning will get worse if China is allowed to set up manufacturing within the USMCA trade zone, noting that additional tariffs will be needed as China adapts to the stronger trade posture the U.S. set up after Trump was elected in the first place in 2016, promising to get tough on trade.

It might suit Trump just fine for Biden to ignore the trade issue, as Democrats did in 2016 as they pushed the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump rejected, with the only figurative bloodbath that might occur being at the polls when the American people vote in November.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited G

https://dailytorch.com/2024/03/bidens-bloodbath-the-1-trillion-trade-deficit-with-the-world-has-never-been-worse

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‘My four-year-old could pass’: Police fitness test mocked

A US police force has been accused of lowering its fitness standards in a bid to recruit more women, after footage of its revised “agility test” went viral online.

Tennessee’s Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) in 2021 signed up to the 30X30 Initiative, which sets a goal of US police departments increasing their representation of women to 30 per cent by 2030.

A report last week by local news station WSMV 4 outlined steps the department had taken to achieve that target, after the number of female officers rose from 11 per cent last year to 13 per cent as of February this year.

“I think we’re definitely growing so if we can just keep that momentum going I think it is definitely attainable,” MNPD’s first female director of training, Commander Tiffany Gibson, told the outlet.

“We still have some time, and we’re just going to keep working really hard to keep making sure that we get there, at least very close to it.”

Ms Gibson said one of the biggest changes the department had made to attract recruits, especially women, was replacing physical “ability tests” with “agility tests”, designed to mirror tasks in the field.

MNPD has also added lactation rooms for nursing mothers and more flexible schedules in bid to attract more recruits. That’s in addition to already existing paid maternity and sick leave.

“We’re trying to get going, possibly help sponsor our own childcare facility, I think that would be really helpful for females,” Ms Gibson added.

MNPD trainee Kaitlyn Dalena told the broadcaster, “It’s a male-dominated profession. So women are scared to take that step maybe thinking that they’re not able to do it, but you can do it if you have that right mindset.”

But footage of the MNPD’s new physical test was slammed by Daily Wire host Matt Walsh.

Departmental video showed a woman demonstrating various elements of the test, including the “chain link fence climb”, “solid wall climb”, “99 yard agility run” and “rescue simulation”.

“It looks like an obstacle course set up for third graders at recess,” the conservative commentator wrote on X.

“My four-year-old daughter could pass this test. As a resident of Nashville I can only hope that the only people committing crimes in this city are 600 pounds and have no legs. But even then they could probably roll away fast enough to escape.”

He added, “Do you think this woman would be able to run down and incapacitate any male suspect who is in even vaguely good physical shape?”

Tesla and X owner Elon Musk also weighed in. “Physical fitness tests have been lowered for the military too,” he wrote.

Speaking on his podcast, Walsh said the old “ability test” required police recruits to complete sit-ups, a 300-metre sprint and a 1.5-mile run.

“Even those standards were not all that demanding,” he said.

“If anything, in a sane world we would be talking about raising those standards. But instead we’re going in the opposite direction.”

Walsh said while some people might hear “chain link fence climb” and “solid wall climb” and think it sounded “somewhat challenging”, “what they don’t tell you is the wall and the fence are like three-and-a-half-feet high”.

“You don’t have to climb them so much as sort of skip over them,” he said.

“It’s effectively a test to make sure you’re not in a wheelchair. It’s like a parody of a physical fitness test.”

Walsh argued that “30 per cent by 2030” were “two completely arbitrary numbers that no one ever attempts to explain or justify”, even though more than 200 US law enforcement agencies had signed the pledge.

“Supposedly according to the 30X30 Initiative, women are better cops because they ‘use less force and less excessive force, and they’re named in fewer complaints and lawsuits and they’re perceived by communities as being more honest and compassionate’,” he said.

But Walsh claimed “female officers almost without exception are much less capable of doing their jobs effectively”, before playing several video clips of officers struggling to physically detain suspects.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/my-fouryearold-could-pass-police-fitness-test-mocked/news-story/31659030f9d95d02e4053ddc5b3955a8

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Salt Deficiency Could Be Life-Threatening; Here Are the Lesser-Known Dangers

Excess salt intake is normally excreted so for non-hypertensive individuals and those without cardiovascular health issues, you should be able to use as much salt as you want. I use it liberally and my blood pressure is uniformly in the healthy range for my age-- usually 140/65

We are constantly reminded of the dangers of consuming too much salt. However, some people may be unknowingly deficient in salt while simultaneously trying to reduce their salt intake—which could be as harmful as overconsumption.

The Importance of Salt

Salt has been used since ancient times for food preservation and seasoning. Ancient people obtained salt by boiling spring water rich in minerals. In fact, some of the world’s oldest known salt mines can be traced back to around 6,000 BC.

The term “salary” originates from the Latin word “salarium,” which referred to the allowance given to Roman soldiers to purchase salt, reflecting the importance of salt in daily life. Throughout human history, certain wars and the rise and fall of cities have been closely linked to salt.

However, when it comes to salt, our immediate thoughts are often, “I shouldn’t consume too much,” “It causes high blood pressure,” or “It is bad for my heart.” In reality, salt is indispensable for our life functions.

The scientific name for table salt is sodium chloride, the primary sodium source in the diet.

“Sodium is really what we need to maintain our life functions,” Cindy Chan Phillips, a registered dietitian, told The Epoch Times. “Sodium is one of the electrolytes. Without that, we will die.”

As an essential nutrient in the human body, sodium regulates the balance of fluids and electrolytes, keeping blood pressure within a healthy range. Ms. Phillips described sodium as a sponge that can absorb and carry water. “Where sodium goes, water goes,” she said.

Sodium is also responsible for the transmission of signals in muscle and nerve cells. “Without the adequate level of sodium, our nerve cells will fail to fire,” explained Ms. Phillips. Sodium also allows our muscles to contract when we need them to contract and relax when we need them to relax. “Our heart and our lungs are also muscles, too. For a heart to pulse, it also needs to know when to contract and relax by itself.”

The chloride ions in table salt are essential components of stomach acid. In other words, the secretion of digestive fluids also requires salt.

The mean sodium content in an adult male is 92 grams, half of which (46 grams) is found in the extracellular fluid (including plasma and blood). Approximately 11 grams is located in the intracellular fluid, and the remaining 35 grams is found in the skeleton.

Who Is Prone to Salt Deficiency?

“To say salt deficiency is rare is simply not looking at the data or looking at the people suffering around us,” James DiNicolantonio, a cardiovascular research scientist and doctor of pharmacy at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and author of “The Salt Fix,” told The Epoch Times.

For many years, Mr. DiNicolantonio has studied the impact of salt on the human body. Since 2013, he has published 15 research papers on salt in academic journals. He explained that the misconception that people do not lack salt is due to few people undergoing proper salt deficiency testing. Low sodium levels in the blood are the most common electrolyte abnormality among hospitalized patients. He also stated that in the United States, millions of people are diagnosed with hyponatremia every year. Additionally, millions are hospitalized due to hypovolemia, “many times due to lack of salt.”

Hyponatremia occurs when the sodium level in the blood is abnormally low. It is a common electrolyte abnormality among both outpatient and hospitalized patients. Low salt intake is considered one possible cause of hyponatremia; according to an earlier study, low salt intake and high water intake led to the hospitalization of 5,259 people in England between 2006 and 2007.

Hypovolemia refers to a decrease in extracellular fluid volume when the loss of salt and liquid exceeds intake. Salt plays a crucial role in maintaining adequate blood volume, ensuring that our tissues are filled with oxygen-carrying blood and nutrients.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine conducted a study in which they measured plasma specific gravity in over 300 individuals, including young adults, retirees, and older patients sent to the emergency room. Among the older emergency room patients, nearly 40 percent had probable or confirmed hypovolemia. Even among young adults and older individuals who did not report any abnormalities, 5 percent and 8 percent had hypovolemia, respectively.

Hypovolemia may also be related to insufficient water intake. “Older people are prone to volume depletion, as they have blunted thirst mechanisms and, therefore, may not realize they are getting insufficient salt and water,” Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist specializing in Type 2 diabetes, told The Epoch Times. He also mentioned that dementia could affect the diet and drinking habits of older people, leading to inadequate blood volume.

However, he also noted that salt deficiency is not common in most parts of the world because salt is cheap and widely used, often added to food for flavor enhancement.

Ms. Phillips stated that while salt-deficient patients seeking consultation with her are rare, salt deficiency in the population cannot be dismissed. She added, “In epidemiology, sometimes a low incidence could also be due to inadequate diagnosis.”

Older adults living in care facilities or hospitals may have insufficient sodium levels in their blood due to medication use or certain health conditions such as heart disease, kidney disease, or cancer. Additionally, excessive vomiting, diarrhea, and sweating can result in significant salt loss from the body.

Mr. DiNicolantonio pointed out that excessive caffeine intake, high temperatures, sleep apnea, diuretic use, excessive consumption of plain water, low-carbohydrate diets, and fasting can all lead to salt loss. He also mentioned that individuals with hypothyroidism are prone to salt deficiency, as thyroid hormones play a role in regulating sodium reabsorption in the kidneys.

Salt Deficiency Can Damage the Heart and Increase Mortality

Despite some dietary guidelines that recommend limiting salt intake for the general population to a relatively low level (less than 1 teaspoon), numerous studies have shown that for non-hypertensive individuals and those without cardiovascular health issues, maintaining salt intake at 1 to 2 teaspoons per day is healthier. Salt intake that is too low may actually lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality.

One teaspoon of salt is approximately 5 grams, of which 2.3 grams is sodium.

A study published in the European Heart Journal in 2020 examined sodium intake and life expectancy in 181 countries and found that sodium intake was positively correlated with life expectancy and inversely correlated with all-cause mortality. The study concluded that dietary sodium intake is not the culprit in shortening lifespan or a risk factor for premature death. However, it also emphasized that “these data are observational and should not be used as a base for nutritional interventions.”

The detrimental effects of high salt intake on the heart are undeniable, but surprisingly, consuming too little salt can also increase the risk of heart disease.

A prospective cohort study published in The Lancet in 2018 involving nearly 10,000 individuals from 18 countries over a median follow-up of eight years revealed that the risk of cardiovascular events significantly increased for participants in the highest tertile of sodium intake (more than 5 grams per day). However, the risk of cardiovascular events also increased considerably for participants in the lowest tertile of sodium intake (less than 4.5 grams per day).

A review published in Nutrients in 2021 suggested that the optimal sodium intake for the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality is between 3 grams and 5 grams per day. The researchers called it the “sweet spot.” Both higher and lower intake levels were associated with increased adverse health outcomes.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/salt-deficiency-could-be-life-threatening-here-are-the-lesser-known-dangers-5589960

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Australia: Feminist lawyers a danger to justice

It was a riveting moment. Here was Tasha Smithies, a lawyer for Channel 10, appearing as a witness in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation action.

This is the lawyer who advised television celebrity Lisa Wilkinson to go ahead with the disastrous Logie Speech praising Brittany Higgins for her “unwavering courage,” which ended up delaying the criminal trial for four months.

It was advice that clearly left Justice Michael Lee unimpressed.

“It is inconceivable to me that any legally qualified person could have given [such] advice,” he told the court, describing the advice as “inadvisable and inappropriate” and suggesting this was something that “someone who did a first-year criminal law course” should have known.

So, what was it that inspired this bizarre action from Ms. Smithies, the senior litigation counsel for one of Australia’s largest media organisations?

She told the court that she greenlit the speech because she felt it was important for Ms. Wilkinson to show she was not “wavering” in her support for Ms. Higgins.

“It was my view that from the time after the broadcast of the story, Ms. Wilkinson was inextricably intertwined with Ms. Higgins,” she said.

Even when she was grilled about the damage caused by that advice, she was unapologetic.

“I am not professionally or personally embarrassed by the advice I gave Ms. Wilkinson,” she said.

It was astonishing watching this woman, eyes shining as she proudly proclaimed that it was more important to support the celebrity journalist in her believe-the-victim crusade than to give appropriate, lawyerly advice that would not prejudice the fair trial of an accused person.

Bruce Lehrmann has made a complaint to New South Wales (NSW) Legal Services Commissioner, stating that Ms. Smithies has “displayed legal conduct that is wholly inadequate, deceptive, unacceptable and that breaches her obligations as an officer of the court to uphold the fundamental principles of the rule of law.”

Activism Over Professionalism

This appears to be the latest in a new breed of female lawyers.

Women who make no effort to disguise their feminist goals, from blatantly discriminating against men in the workplace, to flagrantly ignoring important principles in our criminal justice.

Thank goodness they are a small minority. But with women comprising the bulk of law graduates for the last 30 years, there’s been a huge wave of female lawyers flooding into every sector of the legal system.

Many are excellent, extremely competent, and appropriately focussed simply on doing their job in the best possible way. But examples keep popping up of feminist lawyers exploiting the legal system with all sorts of antics which show where their real commitment lies.

These are just the ones we hear about—heaven only knows what chaos such women are creating behind the scenes.

Remember Annette Kimmitt, CEO of Australia’s largest law firm Minter Ellison, who was fired after sending out an email to staff saying she felt “triggered” by the company’s decision to act for then Attorney-General Christian Porter after he was subject to a historic rape allegation?

Ms. Kimmitt emailed 2,500 staff expressing her displeasure that a senior partner was acting for Mr. Porter.

In her email, Ms. Kimmitt said the matter “has certainly triggered hurt for me. I know that for many of you it may be a tough day and I want to apologise for the pain you may be experiencing.”

She claimed the decision to act for Mr. Porter should have been considered “through the lens of our Purposes and Values.”

Ms. Kimmitt apparently had substantial support from young members of the firm, who obviously also support these “Values”; values which happily ditch the principles that everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence and legal representation.

Then there was Emma Covacevich, Clayton Utz’s first female chief executive partner, who announced when first appointed that she had firm views about how to achieve gender parity.
“It’s about more women coming in and more men going out,” she explained.

What about the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC, who had a melt-down when District Court judge Robert Newlinds claimed her office was taking a “lazy and perhaps politically expedient” approach to rape cases by failing to interrogate complainants’ allegations and sometimes putting hopeless cases before the court.

(His comments occurred in relation to a case where a man had spent eight months on remand in jail—and the jury took one hour to throw the case out. Then it turned out the woman had made similar allegations against about eight other men.)

Three other judges had made similar comments last year about unmeritorious cases being pushed through into court.

Then, a few weeks ago, another District Court judge, Peter Whitford really went to town, pointing out that pushing through such cases risks “drawing the criminal justice system into disrepute.”

Ms. Dowling’s response was once again an emotional attack on Mr. Whitford, before she finally backed down and announced an audit of all NSW sexual assault cases committed for trial.

Women Over Men

Female lawyers have been out in force publicly celebrating the demolition job Labor inflicted on our Family Law Act.

Canberra family lawyer Debra Parker was quoted in a local online paper praising the “overdue” and “transformative” overhaul of family law. She proudly proclaims that the move takes the law back to 1976—when the “best interests of the child principle” was central.

Oh yes, those were the glory days of uniform maternal custody, before parliament was convinced into thinking dads actually matter.

The only time fathers rate a mention in Ms. Parker’s comments is through posing a risk of exposing children to family violence, as she justifies the new laws that toss out the assumption of shared parental responsibility, let alone equal shared time.

Perhaps ironically, given the historical underpinnings of feminism, what most of these women have in common is a disdain for the principle of equality before the law.

Their goals appear to be primarily about promoting and protecting women’s rights at the expense of men’s rights. Their priorities are to do everything they can to protect and cosset women, believing their every story.

Too often, the effect of their actions is to undermine long-standing and legitimate legal safeguards. Safeguards that are designed to ensure that innocent men are not convicted.

There are very good reasons for men to be nervous about the increasing power of feminist lawyers.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/beware-the-latest-wave-of-feminism-5607078

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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