EVEN KILLING MUSLIMS DOESN'T HELP?:

TRUMPONOMICS:

The result has been disastrous. Trade relations between the US and its major international partners are now fraught. The global growth rates of both trade and GDP have fallen sharply, and growth projections are being downgraded as further evidence of the economic damage caused by US trade policies comes to light.

One early step by the Trump administration was to impose a 25% tariff on imported steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum. This policy hurt Canada, the European Union, Mexico, and Japan - all US friends or allies - but not China, which accounted for only 2% of US steel imports at the time. It is estimated that the metal tariffs have cost Americans $900,000 per year per job "saved." Worse, US employment in steelmaking has continued to decline, and US steel exports have remained flat since the tariffs were introduced in early 2018.

Since then, Trump bullied Canada and Mexico into renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has now been replaced by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The revised deal tightens US regulations on imports of automobiles and auto parts, and requires that 40-45% of Mexican auto workers be paid at least $16 per hour by 2023. For comparison, that is tantamount to introducing a pay floor for US autoworkers of more than $75 per hour - obviously an unthinkable proposition.

The Trump administration has also forced a "renegotiation" of the South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, with the main result being to restrict imports of steel from South Korea and to prolong a US tariff on imported light trucks.

And then there is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the Obama administration negotiated with 11 other Pacific Rim countries (excluding China) and signed on February 4, 2016. Immediately upon taking office, Trump withdrew America from the TPP, leaving the remaining signatories to salvage the deal, which they have done under Japanese leadership. As a result, US exports to those countries are now subject to much higher tariffs than is trade among the remaining 11 members.

Then came Trump's trade war against China, which has both undercut global trade and brought the bilateral relationship to its lowest point since the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Even with the "phase one" agreement that has just been signed, the average US tariff on imports from China will be around 19%, up from 3% before the trade war. Worse, the US has gained little from the process. Yes, the latest deal includes a Chinese commitment to import more US agricultural and other products. But to represent a "gain," those additional purchases would have to be great enough to compensate for the lost exports of 2018-19.

DONALD WHO?:

Fans of free-market capitalism, you have reason to rejoice. Break out those green Adam Smith neckties hanging in the back of your closet. Party like it's 1999 -- or, even better, 2000 when the internet-fueled Nasdaq hit a record high of 5000 and the U.S. normalized trade relations with China.

The cause for celebration today is President Trump signing a "phase one" trade deal with China. After two years of back-and-forth tariffs that marked the world's worst trade conflict in a century, Beijing and Washington have reached a historic agreement that accomplishes ... not so much, really. It doesn't create balanced trade between the United States and China. It doesn't disentangle the two mega-economies. And it doesn't force China to alter its "state capitalist" economic model built on central planning and subsidies. China doesn't even concede that it has a history of forcing American firms to hand over their technology.

But "not so much" isn't nothing. The singular achievement of President Trump's protectionist experiment is to vividly demonstrate on a global stage that protectionism doesn't work. And for that welcome-if-unintentional result, free marketeers should be delighted -- though not really surprised. After all, Trump's fundamental economic observation about trade is flat-out wrong. 

THE LAST FOUNDERS:

In 1911, Harriet Tubman moved into a home she had never imagined she would need herself: the Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes. The famed abolitionist had created the haven to lift up the poor and aging in her community. She hadn't necessarily planned to spend her own final years there. But after a lifetime of seizures, headaches and narcoleptic attacks as a result of a childhood head trauma, she'd become increasingly frail at nearly 90 years of age.

Tubman, who was born into slavery, is famous for guiding hundreds of slaves to safer ground through the Underground Railroad in the 1800s following her own escape from bondage. But many of her numerous post-Civil War accomplishments to fight for the poor and vulnerable remain obscured. In addition to being an outspoken suffragist and co-founder of the NACW -- the National Association of Colored Women -- Tubman opened what some historians say was the first nursing home for aging Black people.

Located in Auburn, New York, the Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes formally opened in 1908 but had been a project years in the making. She created a place for former slaves to receive housing and health care that would enable them to age in dignity and decency, says Karen V. Hill, president and CEO of Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. "This is the culmination of her life's work" in freedom, says Kimberly Szewczyk, a park ranger and senior interpretive specialist at the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park.

THE ISRAELI/PLO ALLIANCE:

Once again, the name of Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader who is serving life sentences in Israeli prisons, has returned to the Palestinian political arena. This comes after the revelation that Hamas is exchanging messages with him regarding the upcoming elections, to ally with him, which causes President Mahmoud Abbas fearful of announcing the date of the election.

While Fatah circles confirmed that Abbas sent one of his advisers to meet Barghouti in the Israeli prison, asking him to give up his upcoming candidacy for the presidential elections, in exchange for his appointment as head of the Fatah list in the legislative elections, but the latter rejected the proposal because his eye is on running in the presidential elections.

It is clear that the PA is afraid to announce the elections because of the strength of Hamas on the one hand, and the possibility of its alliance with other Fatah leaders on the other, namely Barghouti, who Israel has so far refused to release as part of a prisoner exchange deal that it may reach with Hamas. This is despite regional and international mediators held separate talks with Hamas and Israel to prepare for a prisoner exchange deal, in which Hamas secures Barghouti's release.

NATIONALIST/ANTINATALIST:

The Trump administration has a new target on the immigration front -- pregnant women visiting from other countries -- with plans as early as this week to roll out a new rule cracking down on "birth tourism," three administration officials told Axios.

DEFENDING THE REPUBLIC:

The policing methods for protests have certainly been under the spotlight in recent months with the Compagnies républicaines de sécurité (CRS), the specialist unit that deals with crowd control, singled out for harsh criticism.

The months of 'yellow vest' protests saw violence from both sides, but dozens of protesters were seriously injured, with several losing a hand or an eye from the controversial Flash Ball riot guns used by French police.

The subject of police brutality became an extra strand to the 'yellow vest' campaign and there have been several demonstrations on the subject, with marchers holding up pictures of the gruesome mutilations suffered by some participants in demonstrations.