Let’s not ignore the tariff deal with Japan

The New Neo Posted on by

Yesterday this was in the news, although it was easy to miss in the huge flurry of stories about Russiagate 2.0:

U.S. President Donald Trump struck a trade deal with Japan that lowers tariffs on auto imports and spares Tokyo from punishing new levies on other goods in exchange for a $550 billion package of U.S.-bound investment and loans.

It is the most significant of a clutch of agreements that Trump has bagged since unveiling sweeping global levies in April though, like other deals, exact details remained unclear. …

“I just signed the largest TRADE DEAL in history with Japan,” Trump said in announcing the deal on social media.

On Wednesday he said Japan and Indonesia were opening their markets to the U.S. “I will only lower tariffs if a country agrees to open its market,” Trump wrote.

The article mentions that US automakers are criticizing the deal because the tariff on Japan’s autos will be 15%, whereas US autos made in Mexico and Canada have tariffs of 25%. More here:

“American Automakers still need to review the details of the U.S.-Japan agreement, but any deal that charges a lower tariff for Japanese imports with virtually no U.S. content than it does North American-built vehicles with high U.S. content is a bad deal for the U.S. industry and U.S. auto workers,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the American companies Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

“High US content” means, I assume, that some parts are made in the US but the vehicles are assembled in Mexico and Canada? Clearly, Trump wants them to bring the entire operation back to the US:

Though the White House has argued the tariffs will help the U.S. build more cars at home, domestic automakers have also taken a hit from the duties, due to the integrated nature of North American auto supply chains. U.S. companies rely on Mexico and Canada to help build cars and supply parts, particularly after Trump renegotiated a North American trade deal lowering duties between the countries. To ease some of the pain, the White House has offered a complicated rebate scheme for portions of certain North American-made cars’ sales value over the next two years, but automakers are still struggling.

I don’t think Trump is interested in harming the US auto industry, but I don’t know the details of what this really means, or how easy or difficult it would be to bring the manufacture of US cars wholly back to the US.

Commerce Secretary Lutnick said the following:

“Come on, there’s no tariff if you build it in America,” he said. “American manufacturers are going to do extremely well in America — as long as they build it in America. You build it in America, you’re good,” he said.

Easier said than done, but perhaps necessary.

Do we still call it “Russiagate”?

The New Neo Posted on by

I think it needs a new name, because the evidence of conspiracy is growing bigger and bigger by the day, and now includes Hillary Clinton’s alleged health problems. The story has acquired so many moving parts that I haven’t familiarized myself with them all, which would probably take the reading of several books that haven’t yet been written.

I’m not going to be the one writing those books, either.

So this is not a comprehensive post on the subject; it’ll take me some time to digest the information out there. But in the meantime, I’d suggest reading this article, which is more thorough than most.

NOTE: For the new name: “Russiagate 2.0”? I’d wager you can improve on that.

It occurs to me …

The New Neo Posted on by

… that one of the biggest reasons the left didn’t want Trump re-elected – and were willing to do almost anything to stop it from happening – was what an energized and enraged Trump, with aides fully on board, would be able to reveal about the left’s perfidy.

Biden’s unaccompanied minor hotline went cold

The New Neo Posted on by

Why does this not surprise me?:

“So you’re telling this committee that the Biden administration, while they were letting all of these unaccompanied minors into the country—and as we’ve talked about today, they weren’t keeping track of them—they issued these kids a hotline that they could call if they had trouble with the sponsor family they were placed with, and you’re saying that 65,000 calls to this hotline, designated to protect these kids, went unanswered. Is that what you’re telling this committee?”

Her response: “Yes, sir.”

It strikes me, not for the first time, that Democrat governance is a facade protecting their power and grift, and the MSM is their willing mouthpiece. Trump was the one, supposedly, who didn’t care about “migrant” children and families – separating them, putting them in cages, with AOC in tears about the cruelty. This was all propaganda for the stupid voters who believed the left and the MSM and didn’t go into the “why” of things – the need to make sure that unaccompanied minors weren’t being trafficked. The idea was that it was the Democrats who cared. The reality was completely different.

How many Democrats will actually watch or read about the above exchange? Vanishingly few, I think, and most of those will be able to discount it in some way. A mind is a difficult thing to change.

West Bank church arson: who’s the perp?

The New Neo Posted on by

I’m very very tired of the MSM reporting anti-Israel news from Palestinians as though it’s the obvious truth, when it’s a lie that’s gotten halfway round the world very very quickly.

It happens too many times to be an MSM error, either. They must want to do this, as part of the anti-Israeli propaganda they have decided to spread. I probably don’t have to give you examples, but the best one was on October 17, 2023, when the MSM immediately reported a hospital strike and 500 dead at the hands of Israel – a strike that actually was a Hamas rocket falling short into a hospital parking lot and killing about 25-50 people without damaging the hospital at all. But the MSM couldn’t wait for facts; the fiction was just too useful.

Now we have reports such as this:

Claims that extremist local Jewish West Bank residents set fire to a 1,500-year-old Church of St. George in the Palestinian village of Taybeh may have been inaccurate, the Press Service of Israel (TPS) revealed in an independent investigation published on Sunday.

Taybeh, a Palestinian Christian town, is situated just north of Ramallah in the West Bank.

TPS said it found evidence that local Jewish residents were fighting the fire; however, the investigation was inconclusive as to who the perpetrators of the fire were.

Last Monday, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who was a leading candidate for the papacy, along with diplomats from 20 different countries, visited the church.

“Radical Israelis from nearby settlements intentionally set fire near the town cemetery and the church of St. George,” Theophilos III alleged. He said that it was a “targeted attack on a community that has long been a symbol of coexistence and peace.”

I wouldn’t sit on a hot stove till Theophilos III issues a retraction.

More:

In footage viewed by TPS, young men from a nearby farm were seen running up the hill with fire extinguishing equipment and reflective vests, attempting to put out the flames. Footage on social media, posted by pro-Palestinian accounts that claimed the individual was an arsonist, showed a young man with a compressed air blower, usually used to help control and extinguish brush fires, according to TPS.

A shepherd involved in the incident, who is a minor, told the news site that while he was tending to his animals in the field, he saw a fire break out. He called the farmer to report the fire and attempted to smother the flames with his shirt. While doing this, he saw several Palestinians leaving the inflamed church cemetery, shouting and throwing objects at him.

When in doubt, blame the Jews.

Roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) An Obama spokesman responds to the accusations about his involvement in Russiagate with the usual claptrap:

Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.”

“These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” Obama’s spokesman continued. “Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.”

I guess there was no Russiagate then, and Obama’s hands are completely clean.

(2) CBS may be paying 20 million more dollars to Trump in settlement of his lawsuit. I doubt that would put much of a dent in their holdings, however.

(3) No love lost between Hunter Biden and Democrat bigwigs. No doubt they wish he’d just shut up:

WASHINGTON — Democrats ripped former first son Hunter Biden over a pair of podcast interviews released Monday in which he ranted against party leaders and high-profile donors for forcing his dad out of the 2024 race while misrepresenting the “shady” facts of his own criminal trials.

“My stomach churns. At seeing a foul-mouthed Hunter Biden attack the world,” ex-Bill Clinton adviser Mark Penn posted on X after the 55-year-old Biden scion went scorched earth on the Democratic establishment.

“Hunter Biden continues to personify loss in a way that mainly helps Republicans,” a well-positioned Democratic source told The Post Tuesday. “It’s a sad fact we should move on from instead of trying to troubleshoot.”

How can you “move on” without troubleshooting, if you want to try to solve the problem? As Stephen Green notes, some of Hunter’s points were well-taken:

Sure, Biden indulged in plenty of CYA and excuse-mongering, which is exactly what you’d expect from someone whose increasingly senescent father was sidelined out of his reelection campaign by senior members of his own party. But Biden also told some hard truths that no other Democrat would or could.

Here are three:

On Hollywood phonies: “I agree with Quentin Tarantino. George Clooney is not a f***ing actor. He is a f***ing, I don’t know what he is, he’s a brand.”
On aging Clinton and Obama hands: “James Carville—who hasn’t run a race in 40 f***ing years—and David Axelrod, who had one success in his political life, and that was Barack Obama. And that was because of Barack Obama—not because of f***ing David Axelrod.”
On the Dems who defenestrated his dad: “What they proved, what the Democratic Party proved is they have no guts.”

(4) The House Oversight Committee is subpoenaing Ghislaine Maxell to testify in a deposition.

(5) Ozzy Osbourne of the band Black Sabbath has died at the age of 76. RIP. I can’t say I followed his career, but some of you probably did.

One of those days

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve been having one of those days.

Oh, the weather’s fine. But I’ve been dealing with the health problems of a friend – my ex-husband, to be exact, because I’m the only relative (ex-relative?) nearby. I’ve gotten the usual run-around from various doctors, offers for appointments a year from now – you know the drill. I did finally get him an appointment for about 2 weeks from now with a doctor who might be able to expedite matters a bit, so there’s that. But it’s been very stressful and frustrating and makes me think that, at least in my area of the country, the health care system is more broken than ever.

And then I had some computer problems.

And now, here I am! Greetings, earthlings.

Meanwhile, Hamas has decisions to make

The New Neo Posted on by

The story:

Hamas is no longer a cohesive organization with a clear chain of command and a formidable armed wing. It lacks an agreed-upon policy for the near future and encounters major difficulties in trying to chart a new course. Rival groups around Khaled Mash’al and Khalil al-Hayeh squabble fiercely among themselves, seeking to fill the vacuum created by the demise of well-entrenched leaders. The organization is at a crossroads.

The article goes on to explain that the split is between those who think October 7 and especially its aftermath has been a disaster, and those who don’t. Note that no one seems to think it was wrong on moral grounds; the disagreements are merely tactical.

More:

These ongoing controversies among Hamas leaders, primarily those residing in Qatar, affect their decision-making in the current negotiations over a ceasefire and release of the remaining Israeli hostages (in exchange for Palestinian prisoners convicted of acts of terrorism). The split between “pragmatists,” who are prepared to accept a phased process of IDF withdrawal, and “radicals,” who insist on the IDF’s complete withdrawal, has produced frequent obstacles in the bargaining and caused shifts in Hamas positions and tactics.

The more moderate wing (although their moderation is relative) believes in cutting losses, cooperating somewhat, and living to fight another day when the time is right. The more radical wing believes it can leverage the remaining hostages into victory:

[The latter group argues] that playing the “hostages card” smartly will allow Hamas to achieve the full withdrawal of the IDF and ultimately to maintain its exclusive control over Gaza. They believe that Qatar, Turkey and many non-governmental donors will devise ways to provide significant aid to them, with Iran doing its best to help. Furthermore, they say that the Palestinian Authority is very fragile and there is no benefit in accommodating it.

Is this true? It’s probably close to it; it makes intuitive sense. Nothing indicates any basic change in the goals, however: to achieve power and to destroy Israel.

Seems like only yesterday …

The New Neo Posted on by

… but it was exactly a year ago that Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. Actually, he was forced out. Democrats ended up being defeated anyway, because – as they had known all along – Kamala Harris was a poor politician who just couldn’t pull in the votes.

Could Biden have done any better had he stayed in? I doubt it, because not only was his presidency disastrous but his infirmities had become obvious no matter how hard the MSM tried to cover them up.

The whole thing is still amazing to contemplate.