Paul Krugman | Why Is Trump a Tariff Man?

08 December 19

---

Please Join Me in Keeping RSN Alive!

OK, tell the truth. Would you have read that extraordinary essay by Mumia Abu-Jamal about Huey Newton if you hadn't been reading rsn? Please join me in keeping rsn alive! We need it for our souls. And none of us can do this alone.

Sarah, RSN Reader-Supporter

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

Update My Monthly Donation

---

If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611

08 December 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News HOW RSN IS RESCUED BY THE FEW - Each day - somehow - RSN is is literally rescued by a handful of donors. Sometimes the are very small donors and sometimes much larger. But it’s always a “few people” that take a moment out of their day to lend their support. Join them, they can’t do it alone. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Paul Krugman | Why Is Trump a Tariff Man? Paul Krugman, The New York Times Krugman writes: "Almost exactly one year has passed since Donald Trump declared, 'I am a Tariff Man.' Uncharacteristically, he was telling the truth." EXCERPT: At this point I’ve lost count of how many times markets have rallied in the belief that Trump was winding down his trade war, only to face announcements that a much-anticipated deal wasn’t happening or that tariffs were being slapped on a new set of products or countries. Over the past week it happened again: Markets bet on an outbreak of trade peace between the U.S. and China, only to get body slammed by Trump’s declaration that there might be no deal before the election and by his new tariffs on Brazil and Argentina. So Trump really is a Tariff Man. But why? After all, the results of his trade war have been consistently bad, both economically and politically. READ MORE Lauren Bruner, a survivor of the USS Arizona which was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, died earlier in 2019 at the age of 98. (photo: Reed Saxon/AP) Pearl Harbor Remembers Victims of December 7 Attack, and Those of Earlier This Week Colby Itkowitz, The Washington Post Itkowitz writes: "At Pearl Harbor on Saturday, the bugle call of taps rang out as it has every Dec. 7, in ceremonies marking the Japanese attack of 1941. But this year, the memorial services took on an even more mournful tone, as those at the historic Navy base also stopped to remember two colleagues shot to death there days earlier." READ MORE House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images) House Judiciary Committee Releases Report Martin Pengelly, Guardian UK Pengelly writes: "The House judiciary committee released a report on the constitutional grounds for impeachment on Saturday. Shortly after that, Donald Trump once again insisted the whole thing was a 'witch hunt' and 'a total hoax.'" EXCERPTS: “The Framers[’] worst nightmare is what we are facing in this very moment,” the House judiciary chair, Jerry Nadler, tweeted on Saturday, after releasing the 52-page report. In contrast to the House intelligence committee’s 300-page blockbuster released this week, which summed up bombshell testimony delivered in private and public hearings, the judiciary report was written by Democratic staffers for use in the drawing up of articles of impeachment. It considered what those who wrote the US constitution in the 1780s meant when they provided for presidents to be removed. “President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security and corrupted our elections,” Nadler wrote on Twitter, “all for personal gain. The constitution details only one remedy for this misconduct: impeachment.” A vote on articles of impeachment against Trump is expected before the end of the year. Trump’s alleged attempts to obstruct the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in 2016, and links between Trump and Moscow, may also be considered. On Saturday the statistics website FiveThirtyEight.com put support for impeachment at 47.7%, to 43.8% against. Nadler’s committee will hold further public hearings next week. This week, it heard testimony from selected legal scholars. One, called by Republicans on the panel, said Trump should not be impeached. On Friday, over 500 more, from leading universities and law schools, signed an open letter on the matter. It began: “We, the undersigned legal scholars, have concluded that President Trump engaged in impeachable conduct. We do not reach this conclusion lightly.” Open letters from experts and former officials have become common in US politics under Trump. In this case, the scholars added: “We take no position on whether the president committed a crime. But conduct need not be criminal to be impeachable. The standard here is constitutional; it does not depend on what Congress has chosen to criminalize.” READ MORE Pete Buttigieg. (photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) Immigration Rights Groups Call on Buttigieg to Return McKinsey-Related Donations Jack Turman, CBS News Turman writes: "Four immigration rights organizations have written to Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to ask him to return any donations connected to the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, following a New York Times and Pro Publica report about how McKinsey helped Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 'accelerate the deportation process.' Among the recommendations McKinsey offered were cuts to spending on food and medical care for migrants." READ MORE Robocalls. (image: iStock) How Robocalls Became America's Most Prevalent Crime The Week Excerpt: "Today, half of all phone calls are automated scams. Is there any way to stop this incessant bombardment?" EXCERPT: Why so many robocalls? Automated telephone calls might be America's most prevalent form of lawbreaking, with more than 180 million such calls every day. A 2009 law that banned unsolicited, prerecorded telemarketing has failed to stem the explosion of calls seeking to steal information or scare people into scams. In 2017, about 4 percent of U.S. phone calls were spam. But now, thanks to cheap software allowing crooks to blast millions of calls from disguised numbers, roughly 50 percent of all calls are junk. Just the time wasted dealing with robocalls costs Americans $3 billion per year, the FCC estimates, on top of untold billions lost from businesses that depend on real phone calls; 70 percent of Americans don't answer calls from unfamiliar numbers anymore, according to Consumer Reports. October was the worst month on record, with an estimated 5.7 billion robocalls. Hunting robocallers is like playing Whack-a-Mole, said Janice Kopec, a staff attorney for the Federal Trade Commission. "We shut down an operation, and another one springs up almost instantaneously." READ MORE One of the red flags hanging outside homes in Samoa to indicate residents were not vaccinated against measles. Samoa has arrested an anti-vax campaigner amid the outbreak. (photo: Getty Images) Samoa Measles Outbreak: 100 New Cases as Anti-Vaccination Activist Charged Reuters and Guardian UK Excerpt: "Samoa has said nearly 90% of eligible people have been vaccinated against measles as it lifted a two-day curfew imposed amid an outbreak that has killed 65 in recent weeks." EXCERPTS: There were, however, 103 new cases of measles reported since Friday, Samoa’s health ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The measles virus has infected almost 4,500 people in the South Pacific nation of 200,000 since late October. Of those who died, 57 were under the age of four. Samoa has, meanwhile, arrested an anti-vaccination campaigner amid the outbreak. Edwin Tamasese was charged with incitement against a government order after he was detained on Thursday. The outbreak is in part blamed on people spreading false information, claiming vaccinations are dangerous. Samoa has declared a state of emergency and made vaccinations compulsory. The mandatory immunisation campaign aims to vaccinate 90% of the population, tripling Samoa’s coverage in just a few weeks. The government said a rate of 89% had been achieved as of Friday. The World Health Organisation said this week that measles infected nearly 10 million people in 2018 and killed 140,000, mostly children. The picture for 2019 is even worse, it said, with provisional data up to November showing a three-fold increase in case numbers compared with the same period in 2018. READ MORE Soil. (photo: Pexels) Soil: The Secret Weapon in the Fight Against Climate Change Claire O'Connor, Natural Resources Defense Council O'Connor writes: "Agriculture is on the front lines of climate change. Whether it's the a seven-year drought drying up fields in California, the devastating Midwest flooding in 2019, or hurricane after hurricane hitting the Eastern Shore, agriculture and rural communities are already feeling the effects of a changing climate." griculture is on the front lines of climate change. Whether it's the a seven-year drought drying up fields in California, the devastating Midwest flooding in 2019, or hurricane after hurricane hitting the Eastern Shore, agriculture and rural communities are already feeling the effects of a changing climate. Scientists expect climate change to make these extreme weather events both more frequent and more intense in coming years. Agriculture is also an important — in fact a necessary — partner in fighting climate change. The science is clear: We cannot stay beneath the most dangerous climate thresholds without sequestering a significant amount of carbon in our soils. Agricultural soils have the potential to sequester, relatively inexpensively, 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gasses annually — equivalent to the annual emissions of 64 coal fired power plants, according to National Academy of Sciences. But we can't get there without engaging farmers, turning a source of emissions into a carbon sink. Here are just a few of the ways the Natural Resources Defense Council works to encourage climate-friendly farming: Creating New Incentives for Cover Crops: Cover crops are planted in between growing seasons with the specific purpose of building soil health. Despite their multiple agronomic and environmental benefits, adoption is low — only about 7% of U.S. farmland uses cover crops. NRDC is working to scale up cover cropping through innovative incentives delivered through the largest federal farm subsidy: crop insurance. We've worked with partners in Iowa and Illinois to launch programs that give farmers who use cover crops $5/acre off of their crop insurance bill. And partners in Minnesota and Wisconsin are exploring similar options. While we're delighted at the benefit this program has for farmers in those individual states, we're even more excited about the potential to scale this program to the 350 million acres that utilize subsidized crop insurance nationwide. A recent study suggests that cover crops sequester an average of .79 tons of carbon per acre annually, making cover crops one of the pillars of climate-friendly farming systems. Supporting Carbon as a New "Agricultural Product": Championed by Senator Ron Wyden, the 2018 Farm Bill created a new program, the Soil Health Demonstration Trial, that encourages farmers to adopt practices that improve their soil health, and tracks and measures the outcomes. NRDC worked alongside our partners at E2 and a number of commodity groups, farmer organizations, and agribusinesses to secure passage of this provision. The Demonstration Trial will create a new, reliable income stream — farmers will get paid for the carbon they sequester regardless of how their crops turn out, and it builds the data needed for confidence in any future carbon markets. USDA recently announced the first round of awards under this new program, totaling over $13 million in investments to improve soil health. Senator Cory Booker has since drafted legislation that would increase funding for the program nearly 10-fold to $100 million annually; Representative Deb Haaland released a companion bill in the House. Scaling up Regenerative Agriculture: Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming that looks to work with nature to rebuild the overall health of the system. Regenerative farmers use a variety of tactics, including reduced chemical inputs, diverse crop and livestock rotations, incorporating compost into their systems, and agroforestry, among others. Our team is in the midst of interviewing regenerative farmers and ranchers to learn more about what's working for them and what challenges they've faced in their shift to a regenerative approach. We're planning to analyze our interview results and combine them with a literature review to identify what role NRDC could potentially play in helping to scale up regenerative farming and ranching systems. We'll also be sharing quotes and photos from our interviews on social media every Friday starting in January, so stay tuned for some inspiring farm footage! Supporting Organic Farmers: Organic agriculture by design reduces greenhouse gas emissions, sequesters carbon in the soil, does not rely on energy-intensive chemical inputs, and builds resiliency within our food system. Practices integrated into organic production will become increasingly more important in the face of a changing climate. NRDC supports organic farmers through policy initiatives like the Organic Farm-to-School program that was introduced in the California legislature last year. In the coming year, we'll continue to work to support organic farmers in California. Reducing Food Waste: Food waste generates nearly 3% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and NRDC is working hard to reduce that number, and improve soil health in the process. Some of our policy proposals include securing passage of date labelling legislation to eliminate confusion about whether food is still good to eat, working with cities to reduce waste and increase rescue of surplus food, and supporting efforts at all levels to increase composting of food scraps. Adding compost to soils improves their ability to sequester carbon, store nutrients, and retain water. Composting food scraps also helps to "close the loop" on organic matter and nutrients by returning them to the agricultural production cycle, rather than sending that organic material to landfills, where it generates methane (a powerful climate pollutant). Climate-friendly farming also offers a host of important co-benefits. For example, when farmers use complex crop rotations to break weed, pest, and disease cycles, they can reduce the amount of synthetic chemicals they need to use. When they use practices like cover crops, no-till, and adding compost to protect and restore the soil, they reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers that emit greenhouse gasses. And when farmers can reinvest the oppressive amount of money they had been previously spending on expensive, synthetic inputs into the additional labor required to carbon farm, they bring new jobs to economically-depressed rural areas. Farmers understand better than many of us the harsh realities of climate change, regardless of their opinions about what's causing those changes. And tight margins and trade wars make the potential of new value streams particularly attractive for farmers right now. By working alongside the farmers and farmworkers who tend the land, we can bring new allies into the fight against climate change, restore the health of our soil, and create a healthy, equitable, and resilient food system.

READ MORE

---

Contribute to RSN

Update My Monthly Donation