Author: CS Admin

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Accountability free trade & free markets international affairs

Reciprocal Rip-Offs?

Trump, free trade, protectionism, tariffs,

Making sense of the U.S. president’s trade-deal talk has always been difficult.

What is he really up to?

Most of the time President Trump talks protectionist, like a high-tariff man. Other times, he seems to be demanding reciprocal free trade.

Now, the classic free-market economics position is that unilateral free trade is better than managed, high-tariff trading regimes. But Trump never sounds forthright like an actual free trader.

Instead, he says stuff like “Canada has been ripping us off for years.” Classic protectionist jibber-jabber. When we buy and they sell, and vice versa, barring fraud, it is not a rip-off. 

Mr. Trump posted the “rip-off” comment Tuesday. While using the word “reciprocity,” he is talking about government procurement programs, claiming that “what many do not realize is that the Canadian Government, including Canadian Provinces, have banned American Small Businesses and Companies from selling into their Government Procurement Markets. This is the case even though Canada gets broad access into the massive American Government Procurement Market, including those of our States. That is not reciprocity, it is a Canadian Trade Scam. From now on, NO RECIPROCITY — NO ACCESS!”

This was to announce a new retaliatory effort after ongoing trade negotiations broke down, both sides having immediately erected tariff barriers — and worse (the U.S. forbidding one Canadian airplane company from selling in the U.S. at all). “President Donald Trump directed the General Services Administration (GSA) on Tuesday to take steps to remove Canadian-origin products from a Multiple Award Schedule that accounts for more than $50 billion a year in transactions,” The Epoch Times explains.

This is not the reciprocity we were looking for.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Today

Labor Day 2026

Labor Day, communism, May Day

Celebrating work and laborers in late summer, rather than — as anti-capitalist radicals did — on May First, was a big win when in 1894 Congress made, the first Monday of September “Labor’s Holiday.” This small win over communism and murderous anarchism alone is worth a “Happy Labor Day” greeting!

Categories
Common Sense defense & war general freedom Today

Last Monday of May

memorial day, 2026, war, foreign policy, freedom

Once called Decoration Day, this last Monday of May is a federally designated holiday set aside from the normal course of days for solemn reflection on the sacrifices made by soldiers — many with their very lives — in past wars of the United States of America.

In past episodes of Common Sense with Paul Jacob, you can find

“In Memory of the Fallen” — May 25, 2025 — “Don’t we owe them our freedom? I certainly believe we owe it to the fallen to keep that freedom alive.”

“Memorial Day Questions” — May 25, 2015 — War in the time of President Obama. “Vets deserve, and we all need, more (not fewer) questions of presidential candidates, such as the hypothetical inquiry of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Iraq, and the hypothetical Libya question Sen. Rand Paul suggests should be posed to Mrs. Clinton.”

“Disneyland vs. Politicians” — May 30, 2016 — “Do congressmen wait months to get a medical appointment? No. Then why not close the VA and give veterans the same healthcare coverage as our (pardon the term) representatives?” 

“Of Horror and Honor” — May 25, 2020 — “Last year, when the public relations wing of the U.S. Army asked, on Twitter, “How has serving impacted you?” the bulk of the responses were not what was hoped for. What came like tear drops and bursts of rage were thousands of horrific tales, expressions of sorrow, bitterness and despair.”

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meme too much government

“I’ve Got a Plan for That.”

Elizabeth Warren, plan, central plan, nanny state, control, puppet,

“If you start from a belief that the most knowledgeable person on earth does not have even one percent of the total knowledge on earth, that shoots down social engineering, economic central planning, judicial activism, and innumerable other ambitious notions favored by the political left. “

—Thomas Sowell

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meme Popular

Are You Truly Free?

truly free, Bernie Sanders, socialism
Categories
meme

Guess Which is Real.

communism, New York Times, Nazism,

NOTE: 100 million human beings were killed by communist ideologues in the 20th century.

Categories
general freedom national politics & policies Popular The Draft

No Need

“So, my bottom line is there is no need to continue to register people for a draft that will not come; no need to fight the battle over registering women, and no military need to retain the MSSA.”

The MSSA is the Military Selective Service Act. It authorizes the Selective Service System (SSS) to register young men for a possible draft and, should conscription resume, manage that process. The law allows the government to imprison those who do not register.* I know, I violated the Act 38 years ago by refusing to sign my name on a draft registration form.

But the quoted statement, above, wasn’t mine. No sirree. That was testimony from Dr. Bernard Rostker, the director of Selective Service back in 1980, when President Carter re-instituted mandatory registration. 

Rostker made two cogent points at yesterday’s National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service hearing:

  • First, the modern military neither needs nor wants a massive manpower infusion, which would only dilute the quality of the All-Volunteer Force. 
  • Second, the list of young men registered with SSS is woefully inadequate, “systematically lack[ing] large segments of the eligible male population and for those that are included, the currency of information contained is questionable.”

Come some future emergency, the former director contends that a draft could be instituted just as quickly without this ongoing registration program. Sure, but that misses the bigger picture: This country has never needed conscription to raise an army. Americans — from Pearl Harbor to 911 — have always stepped up voluntarily.

Mr. Rostker advises “suspending draft registration.”

He took the words right out of my mouth — though I prefer “abolish.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* The maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but no one has been prosecuted for decades. Most of the enforcement effort comes in denying driver’s licenses, college loans and government jobs to men who don’t register. Commission Chairman Joe Heck explained at yesterday’s hearing that 75 percent of registrants do so in order to complete a license or college application.

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meme Popular

Green New Extremism

Bernie Sanders, climate change, global warming, extremism

Citation is here.

And here.

Categories
meme The Draft

Ronald Reagan on the Draft

draft, selective service, registration, slavery, servitude, Ronald Reagan
Categories
meme Popular

Why Do You Want People to Starve?

In the 20th century, 100 million people were killed by “caring” socialist ideologues who were certain they knew exactly what everybody else “deserved” and who were eager to use government violence to enforce those opinions.

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