Related: Trump Makes Peace With Mexico
They are now twisting the miscommunication between Mattis and Trump regarding the war games to make it seem like Mattis was not being insubordinate.
Stocks rise again as technology companies and Amazon jump
US economy grew at a brisk 4.2 percent annual rate last quarter
Article was placed at the bottom of page B12, presumably because the economy inevitably tanks.
"Canada and US meet as pressure builds to reach trade accord" by Ana Swanson and Alan Rappeport August 29, 2018
The United States and Canada are moving closer to resolving their trade differences and could reach a deal by the end of the week that keeps the three-country North American Free Trade Agreement intact.
Both countries are under pressure to find a way to keep NAFTA intact and to avoid the United States and Mexico from moving ahead without Canada, as President Trump has threatened. Republican lawmakers are warning the White House that a bilateral agreement will not pass congressional muster, while industry groups said a NAFTA without Canada would take a significant economic toll.
Just yesterday the Globe's Quick $tudy it shouldn't have that big an impact.
WTF?
In an appearance in front of reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said that he was optimistic that the Canadians would soon become a part of an expanded deal made earlier in the week with Mexico.
In what he indicated was a hint to the country’s willingness to join into new trade deal, Trump said he had spoken to Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, by phone the night before. “Hey, he called me,” the president said. “I didn’t call him.”
On Wednesday, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, expressed optimism that the talks were moving in a positive direction and said that Canadian and American officials were working intensely to try and resolve remaining differences.
“Mexico has made some significant concessions which will be really good for Canadian workers,” Freeland told reporters outside the office of the US trade representative. “On that basis, we are optimistic about having some really good productive conversations this week.”
Asked if the negotiations were nearing completion, Freeland said: “You’re tempting me to say something Churchillian — is this the end of the beginning, is this the beginning of the end? Let me just say a lot has been accomplished.”
The agreement appears to be giving the United States much of what it has been demanding over the past year.
It's all about the auto industry, and Trump wins again.
The intense negotiations come as relations between Canada and the United States have declined to their lowest point in recent memory. In June, Trump berated Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak” following a contentious Group of Seven summit. Later that month, Freeland angered some in the White House when she suggested in a speech that the United States under the Trump administration was turning its back on the democratic values that it once championed, but the Trump administration may be more willing to strike a deal with Canada given blowback from Congress — which has the ultimate legal authority over trade agreements.
White House officials have been attempting to sell the agreement it reached with Mexico as one that Canada cannot refuse, but several issues still remain to be worked out between the United States and its Northern neighbor — including Canada’s dairy tariffs and a legal framework for settling trade disputes.
Legal experts remain divided about what would happen to the US-Canada trading relationship if they are no longer knit together through NAFTA. Relations between Canada and Mexico would likely be governed by the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the countries are likely to approve early next year, but that pact excludes the United States and the relationship could wind up reverting to the rules of an earlier US-Canada free trade agreement.....
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"Rights groups to Google: No censored search in China" by Tony Romm Washington Post August 29, 2018
President Trump signaled that the White House isn’t looking to regulate Google and the way it displays search results, a day after his administration said it was exploring whether to set new rules in response to charges that the tech giant is biased against conservatives.
See: Early Morning Cla$$
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump repeated his belief that Google and its tech peers mistreat users whose politics hew to the right and ‘‘silence a very large part of this country.’’ Asked whether his solution to the problem entailed new regulation, Trump first said, ‘‘We’re just going to see.” He then added: ‘‘You know what we want? Not regulation. Fairness.’’
Trump touched off controversy on Tuesday after he sent predawn tweets accusing Google of manipulating search results, apparently responding to a Fox News report.
Yeah, and your point?
Even as he sent mixed signals on regulation, however, Trump still continued attacking Google and other Silicon Valley giants on Wednesday. ‘‘It’s not right, it’s not fair, it may not be legal,’’ he told reporters.
Then, Trump tweeted out a video accusing Google of giving preferential treatment to former president Barack Obama by highlighting his annual State of the Union addresses on its search page while not doing the same for Trump. The origin of the video is unclear, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.....
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It's just a political rallying cry for GOP voters.
"Tariffs on imported newsprint nixed in win for US newspapers" by Kevin Freking Associated Press August 29, 2018
WASHINGTON — In a victory for the American newspaper industry, the US International Trade Commission on Wednesday blocked tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported newsprint, finding that American producers weren’t harmed by imports from Canadian paper mills.
So that's where the trees are being cut down so I can have a Globe.
The newspaper industry had complained that the rising cost of newsprint, typically their second-biggest expense, made it harder to operate.
Then the price better not go up anymore.
In July, lawmakers testified before the ITC that the tariffs were hurting the very paper industry they were supposed to protect. That’s because publishers were responding to the additional costs by reducing the number of pages in their newspapers, thus dampening demand for newsprint, the paper used to make newspapers, books, and advertising inserts. Others testified that the higher cost of newsprint had led newspapers to cut staffing and the number of local events that they cover.
That damn Trump!
‘‘These tariffs were extremely harmful to our regional papers — the lifeblood of our local communities,’’ Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, tweeted. ‘‘ITC made exactly the right decision to completely eliminate them. I will remain vigilant to make sure that they never return.’’
Well, you see who he serves.
No wonder the pre$$ is so political.
The Commerce Department had imposed the tariffs in response to a complaint from a hedge-fund-owned paper producer in Washington state that argued that its Canadian competitors took advantage of government subsidies to sell their product at unfairly low prices.
The department had revised the tariffs lower in a decision earlier this month, though newsprint buyers still would have been hit with an anti-dumping levy of up to 16.88 percent and anti-subsidy duties of up to 9.81 percent, but under US law, the two-part process for making the tariffs permanent also requires the ITC to find that the US paper industry was harmed or threatened by the imports from Canada. The commission unanimously determined that no injury is occurring.
Just to your soul if you read one.
Members of a coalition of printers and publishers hailed the ruling, calling it ‘‘a great day for American journalism.’’
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So how are things in that pressroom anyway?
Hi, Neighbor!
"It’s a beautiful day in Vt.: ‘Mister Chris’ revives ‘Neighborhood’ feel, philosophy at PBS" by Emily Williams, Globe Correspondent August 30, 2018
BURLINGTON, Vt. — A tall, lanky man wearing a navy blue shirt with a heart stitched on its front pocket started to sing a bouncy tune to the children and parents gathered along the Lake Champlain waterfront at Burlington’s ECHO Center. Members of his band and a trio of guest musicians played and sang alongside him as the children bounced and twirled.
His name is Mister Chris, a character with the same gentle demeanor as his creator, Chris Dorman, a 35-year-old musician and father of two who writes and stars in “Mister Chris and Friends,” a new program set to air online and on Vermont PBS this November.
Dorman first made a name for himself among Vermont parents with Music for Sprouts, a music and movement class for parents and children. The idea for the PBS show was hatched when a producer whose daughter attends weekly “Mister Chris” shows went to Holly Groschner, Vermont PBS’s president.
“He told me, ‘You’ve got to get this guy to do a show,’ ” Groschner said.
And despite the challenges of funding an original children’s program as a PBS affiliate, Groschner said she “didn’t know of any opportunity that could match it.”
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Beautiful day, isn't it?
EVENING UPDATE:
Calif. man charged with threatening to kill Globe employees he called ‘enemy of the people’
Well, I pretty much called that even as I tried to prevent the waste of time. Smells like a self-serving pos to me, but I'll let you be the judge.
