Northumberland County Democratic Committee

NCDC member Bill Krist, former Assistant Trade Representative for Presidents Reagan and Carter, authored the OpEd This trade war will crush Virginia’s farmers – Ninety percent of potash needed for fertilizer is imported, mostly from Canada, and this will now face a 10% duty., published in Cardinal News April 9. It is re-published below.

Our takeaway: That Congressmen Rob Wittman (CD1) stand up for Virginia’s farmers. He should do this by urging House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican members of the House to take back the power that is Constitutionally that of Congress as Krist describes so well. Contact Rep. Rob Wittman by calling (202) 225-4261.

This trade war will crush Virginia’s farmers – Ninety percent of potash needed for fertilizer is imported, mostly from Canada, and this will now face a 10% duty.

President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would impose higher tariffs than we have had since the end of World War II has precipitated a dangerous trade war. American companies and consumers will be affected, but farmers are particularly in the crosshairs.

On April 5, a 10% tariff went into effect across the board on virtually all U.S. imports, and on April 9, “reciprocal” tariffs will go into effect on some 60 nations. China will be hit with a 34% “reciprocal” tariff in addition to existing tariffs already in place, while the European Union faces an additional 20% duty, and close allies like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan face additional tariffs of 24% to 32%. Even extremely poor countries like Madagascar (47%) and Botswana (37%) are impacted.

China and Canada have not wasted time in retaliating. Canada has imposed a 25% tariff on $155 billion imports from the U.S., and China has imposed an additional 15% tariff on American chicken, corn and other farm products and a 10% tariff on soybeans and fruit. The European Union has an extensive list of prospective tariffs on imports from America, including many agricultural items, that it plans to impose.

Farmers will also be hurt by some of the tariffs we are levying on our trade partners. Ninety percent of potash needed for fertilizer is imported, mostly from Canada, and this will now face a 10% duty. Craft brewers often rely on imported hops and barley.

Farmers will also be impacted by the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which purchased $5 billion worth of agricultural goods to distribute in food aid to impoverished countries, including wheat, corn and vegetable oil. 

Our farmers contribute some $70 billion to our state’s economy and agriculture is one of the most important sectors in Virginia. Agriculture also employs over 300,000 people.

Farmers need some certainty about tariffs and trade rules as they get ready to plant. Unfortunately, as things stand now, it is unlikely that the trade war with China, Canada and most other countries will be resolved soon.

However, there is a way to restore sanity to the chaotic trade situation. Under our Constitution, Congress has authority for trade policy. Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, … to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.” Further, it says, “The Congress shall have the power to … regulate commerce with foreign nations.” 

President Trump is claiming unilateral authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which authorized action in times of national emergency. Before President Trump imposed these tariffs, however, there clearly was no national emergency.

It is now way past time for Congress to reclaim its rightful constitutional powers. A number of Republicans in the Senate are standing up to this obligation. Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell supported the recent bill by Sen. Tim Kaine to end the tariffs on our northern neighbor and good ally, Canada. And Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican from Iowa, has introduced legislation that would require tariffs to expire unless explicitly approved by Congress within 60 days.

These bills will go to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson has threatened that they will never see the light of day. Virginia’s Republican Congressmen could work across party lines and bring these bills to a vote where they would likely pass.

It is now time for Congressmen Rob Wittman (CD1), Jen Kiggins (CD2), John McGuire (CD5), Ben Cline (CD6) and Morgan Griffith (CD9) to stand up for Virginia’s farmers.

William Krist served as assistant trade representative in the White House trade office under Presidents Reagan and Carter. He has also worked on trade issues as a legislative aide in both the House and the Senate, and he is the author of “Globalization and America’s Trade Agreements,” published by Johns Hopkins University Press. He also served as senior vice president for a leading high-tech industry association and has led consulting projects in a number of African nations related to economic development. He splits his time between Fairfax County and the Northern Neck.

NNK Democrats:

• Saturday, March 1, 2025
• From 11:00 -1:00
• At the Masonic Lodge, 1434 Good Luck Road, Kilmarnock, VA 22482.

This is the 2025 schedule for Virginia elections

Good morning:

PROJECT 2025:  What is it?  Here it is:

TRUMP ALLIES’ 920 PAGE PLAN TO GIVE TRUMP MORE POWER OVER YOUR DAILY LIFE, GUT DEMOCRATIC CHECKS AND BALANCES, AND CONSOLIDATE POWER IN THE OVAL OFFICE.

Project 2025 is the plan by Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican allies to give Trump more power over your daily life, gut democratic checks and balances, and consolidate power in the Oval Office if he wins. Trump’s campaign advisors and close allies wrote it – and are doing everything they can to elect him so he can execute their playbook immediately.

Here is a taste of Trump’s Project 2025:

• Takes Away Reproductive Freedom Nationwide
• Uses the Presidency for Revenge on Trump’s Political and Personal Enemies
• Terminates the Constitution
• Consolidates Power in the Oval Office
• Guts Democratic Checks and Balances on Presidential Power
• Gives Handouts to the Ultra Wealthy Paid for by Working Families
• And Much, Much, Much More

Where did Project 2025 come from? The highest levels of the MAGA Trump elite wrote Project 2025 as a blueprint for Trump to implement if he wins a second term. This same group of advisors and allies got Trump to adopt most of their agenda in 2017, but this time their Project 2025 agenda is even more extreme and dives into almost every aspect of Americans’ daily life. And they’ll be able to accomplish it by firing civil servants and installing loyalists into the federal government to do their bidding. Fortunately, we have access to it in time to warn America and stop their power grab.

Don’t believe us? Check out the 920-page Project 2025 report on their website and read it in their own words.

On Wednesday, June 19, 2024, we observed the Juneteenth Holiday.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about Juneteenth.  The short version is that, at the end of the Civil War, word of the end of the war and of emancipation of enslaved people spread slowly through the US.  The last area to learn of the war’s end and emancipation of enslaved people was Texas where, on June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation at the end of the American Civil War.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

In 1902, American poet James Weldon Johnson was trying to compose an appropriate message to observe Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  However, Johnson decided to write a poem which was themed around the struggles of African Americans following the Reconstruction era (including the passage of Jim Crow laws in the South). “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was first recited by a group of 500 students in 1900. His brother J. Rosamond Johnson would later set the poem to music.

Here is a link to the hymn being sung by the Spelman College Glee Club.  (There may be a 5-second ad at the link.)

Here is the James Weldon Johnson’s poem, which also is the lyrics to the song.

Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chastening rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,

Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who hast by Thy might

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand.

True to our God,

True to our native land.

 

When the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is performed, it is traditional to stand.  Please do stand in unity with all who stand for the right.