Free Republic

Move over, Smoot and Hawley. President Trump has anointed himself America’s greatest protectionist, and he’s launching a global trade war to prove it. On Wednesday, Trump slapped a minimum 10 percent tariff on all imports, plus additional “reciprocal” tariffs on 60 other countries that have the temerity to sell us things we want to buy. He dubbed it “Liberation Day” to mark the freeing of Americans from the supposedly oppressive burden of trading with others.

As President Trump and Congressional Republicans use their slim majorities to try to foist a radical regime change on America, Democrats need to reckon with why they’re watching helplessly from the sidelines. Having lost control of both the White House and Congress, and with Republicans marching in lockstep, there is little they can do to stop Trump’s drive to monopolize political power and rule by diktat. Only the courts are putting speed bumps in his way. Democrats, yoked to the status quo, are extraordinarily unpopular. Less than a third of Americans view the party favorably, while 57 percent disapprove. Independents...

Clinton's 'Good War' ......... by Diana Johnstone For U.S. politicians, if all wars are good, some are better than others. Democrats prefer Clinton wars and Republicans prefer Bush wars. But in the end, they almost unanimously come together to support all wars. The differences concern the choice of official rationale. To suggest subtle criticism of the Republican war against Iraq, while making it clear that they are by no means opposed to war as such, the 2004 Democratic election campaigners can be expected to glorify the Kosovo war. The prominence of General Wesley Clark in the Democratic camp makes that...

Kerry’s Dogs of War By M. Bozinovich Recent Albanian violence against the Serbs in Kosovo appears to have been a screaming success. Aside that UNMIK has made no convictions of the arrested Albanian suspects, the fact that NATO inflicted no reprisal to counter its exposed military impotence leaves the Albanian militants in a confident position that, if repeated again, the violence will drive NATO out of Kosovo. In fact, it appears that the Albanian militants have also set the NATO drive-out date. "I'm not a fan of setting dates,” said Hasim Taci, the leader of the Albanian paramilitary in Kosovo...