We can do a deal if Canada respects America’s growth industries (CNN)

The newly announced preliminary trade deal with Mexico is a welcome breakthrough in the Trump administration’s trade strategy. It should benefit workers and consumers in both countries and should provide needed stability to the Mexican economy.

But where is our ally, Canada, in all these negotiations? Will Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau be the odd man out?

It’s a somewhat shocking turn of events that the Trump administration is closer to finalizing a trade deal with Mexico than with Canada. The newly elected Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has leftist leanings, but he wanted this deal confirmed. Ostensibly, he understands that Mexico needs access to the American consumer market for the economy to grow and for wages to rise as promised. [Read More]

Jon Kyl, Former Senator, Will Replace McCain in Arizona (NYT)

Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona on Tuesday appointed former Senator Jon Kyl to fill the seat left open by John McCain’s death, elevating a well-liked former Republican lawmaker who is acceptable to both Mr. McCain’s admirers and forces loyal to President Trump.

Mr. Kyl, who served three terms in the Senate, spoke at a service honoring Mr. McCain in the Arizona State Capitol last week, but he has also been shepherding Brett M. Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, through the Senate. [Read More]

Virginia apartment complex threatens to evict pastor for holding Bible study (FOX 5 DC)

A battle is brewing at a Virginia apartment complex over a semi-retired pastor’s Bible study group

The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg reported Friday that the complex’s owner has threatened to evict Kenneth Hauge if he continues hosting the Bible studies.

Residents received a letter notifying residents that the complex was banning religious activities in the community center. [Read More]

Lying About Brett Kavanaugh’s Civil Rights Record (PJ Media)

Over the coming days, foes of Brett Kavanaugh will attempt to portray him as hostile to civil rights. By now, these types of attacks have evolved into background noise, like the chirping of birds before sunrise. Whenever a conservative is nominated for anything, the chirping begins — that thus and such nominee is hostile to civil rights, voting rights, minorities, and on and on.

The background noise has become so familiar, so tiresome, so worn out that you wonder why anyone bothers with it anymore.

And there you’d be mistaken. Chicken Little always sells papers. Or at least it sells copies of the New York Times, where headlines about Brett Kavanaugh become laugh lines. The New York Times published an op-ed by the permanently unhinged alarmist Ari Berman entitled: “Does Brett Kavanaugh Spell the End of Voting Rights?” [Read More]

The Rats Are Taking Over DC! (Washingtonian)

Will Crane hands me a plastic garbage bag, the kind you buy at grocery stores, careful to have me grasp it by the top. The bottom hangs low and limp. I think I know what’s inside. I don’t think I want to look, and I definitely don’t want to smell. I’m not even sure I want to tell you about it—at least not if you’re reading this over lunch.

“Nine,” Crane says. “There’s nine in the bag. And that’s all from last night.”

Crane is talking about rats. Dead ones, to be precise. For weeks, I’ve been immersing myself in Washington’s War on Rats—not the metaphorical ones scurrying around Capitol Hill, har har, but the real, four-legged deal. Rattus norvegicus.The Norway rat. Better known as the street rat, the sewer rat, the wharf rat, the city rat. The brown, furry insurgents that gobble our trash, burrow under our parks and yards, scurry through the shadows of our streets and nightmares like bewhiskered little movie monsters and generally provoke a yuck-at-first-sight desire to burn down your entire house upon seeing one of them anywhere in its vicinity. [Read More]

Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency (The Washington Post)

John Dowd was convinced that President Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. So, on Jan. 27, the president’s then-personal attorney staged a practice session to try to make his point.

In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the president eventually lost his cool.

“This thing’s a goddamn hoax,” Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying, “I don’t really want to testify.” [Read More]