The good news continues regarding our outdoor mailboxes. The city responded very quickly to reconstructing the mailbox island to the rear of the post office. The old concrete base was taken out and was replaced with fresh material. Four bollards were sunk to protect the boxes and were painted and stripped wit reflective tape. The city also stripped the pavement front and back so that it is now highly visible.

Postmaster Bill Thompson then replaced one of the two boxes, freshly painted. The Assistant Postmaster did not know when the second box is expected to be installed but I'm confident it will be soon.

This whole mailbox replacement undertaking has to go down as a model of Fillmore government efficiency. Kudos again to Fillmore City Manager David Rowlands and Postmaster Bill Thompson for a job well done!

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Just an up-date on the malfunctioning Parkview Apartment elevator. I'm told that it has finally been fixed, after a wait of two weeks. We'll see how long this fix lasts.

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I don't know how President Trump's move to place tariffs on steel and aluminum will work. Many people warn of trade wars and point to historical bad outcomes from tariffs. But the trade deficits for America have been absurdly high with China, especially since the U.S. conferred Most Favored Nation (MFN) status on China in 1980. "This exempted Chinese exports to the United States from the high tariff rates stipulated by the Smoot-Hawley Act of June 1930, a measure that was long used to distinguish friends from foes among U.S. trading partners."

When President Nixon decided that Communist China was no longer a foe, he officially ended the U.S. trade embargo on China in 1971. America's change of heart and mind concerning China was a typical liberal move, though instigated by a notoriously conservative Republican. For the past 40 years objective observers can see the catastrophic results.

Soft-headed politicians believed that freeing China from former embargos and tariffs would convert the Communists to democracy by showing them the blessings of democratic trade. Of course these liberal politicians didn't understand Mao's indelible, Godless Communist ideology. So, the Chinese, being an intelligent people, jumped at the opportunity, and, "while forty years ago China’s Gross National Product was only about 7 percent of that of the United States, in 2012 China exceeded the United States as the largest trading nation in the world..." (Quotes from Asia-Pacific Journal).

(Please see Pat Buchanan's recent column: Fatal Delusions of Western Man - March 1, 2018).

But, back to the tariffs. The American government, regardless of who is in power, has never understood what they are up against. Not only in China, but in Russia, Iran, North Korea, and all true Islamic nations under sharia law, the ideology is imperishable, except through war. These nations will never peacefully coexist with America or other democratic lands, and it is foolishness to believe otherwise. They trade peacefully as long as it is to their advantage in advancing their particular ideologies.

Germany, Japan, and Italy traded with us until their ideologies at that time demanded they attack. The only choice democratic nations had was to destroy our enemies, to the tune of hundreds of millions of deaths. Then of course China and Russia murdered hundreds of millions of their own people to strengthen their grip. Mao and Stalin were consummate killers. Nothing has changed except the stage of political opportunity for each of these ideologies. When they are satiated with sufficient western benefits they will attack - as always, in their attempts to conquer the world. Communism and fundamentalist Islam in particular have always aimed at that goal. That is the essence of their being. And deceit is a major tool for both.

China and Russia have been arming for war. Steel and aluminum are essential war materials. China makes more than 50 percent of the world's steel and continues to build steel works. It is using these stockpiled materials in their enormous effort to accumulate ships, planes, rockets, missiles, and in furthering research and development of new offensive weapons. This is not a secret, both Putin and Xi Jinping boast of their offensive military capabilities. Xi Jinping has just appointed himself, essentially, President for Life - in the mode of Mao Zedong, perhaps the greatest butcher of human life in human history. Vladimir Putin has also manipulated his place as President for Life in Russia.

Putin boasts he can destroy the U.S. Navy in a few hours. China now has the largest armed force in the world. Its attitude is clear in their hostile, absolute claims to the South China Sea.

I've wondered from the issue of tariffs, but the point is we trust these enemy nations at our absolute peril. China, in particular, produces steel far beyond their needs and has almost destroyed America's steel industry. Tariff away!

Incidentally, you hot earth people should know China builds new coal-fired steel plants every day.