Alaska, free at last. Bye, bye some tariffs. Hegseth vs Kelly

Alaska, free at last. Bye, bye some tariffs. Hegseth vs Kelly

Alaska, free at last, free at last. Kudos to the Trump administration for freeing Alaska from the warm cuddly clutches of the left who have treated the state as its own personal national park. It was a no development, no extraction, no mining, no drilling, no nothing, just stay poor policy. Alaska’s vast stores of gas and oil will be liberated as well as the state’s minerals so desperately needed by US industry and the military. The hope is that all this will start to happen before the democrats come back into power. It makes no sense that we are dependent upon China for these minerals when we have them within our own borders. Are the democrats getting a cut from the Chinese and the Russians? 

If the administration is smart – and on this issue I think that they are – they will threaten to shut off the gas, oil and mineral spigot from Venezuela going to China. Then make the Chinese cool their aggression worldwide and especially to Taiwan. Yes I know that the weenies out there will say that all of this would threaten China and they would increase their belligerence rather than decrease it. I think that misses the point. The Chinese are used to being a bully with the might of its economic engine. But the Chinese economy is in trouble. Being export driven has screwed its people who are still poor. Chinese per capital income is a little more than $13,000 or 17 percent of the per capita income in the US. China’s mercantile policy is only good for the Chinese government not the Chinese consumer. If Trump thinks exports are great all he needs to do is look at China with its $1 trillion trade surplus and multitude of poor. As to the Russians, all Trump needs to do is to tell Putin that if he doesn’t stop his Ukraine folly and quit rattling his sword toward NATO that we will flood world markets with oil which would drive down its price and bankrupt Russia. Then the carrot: free trade agreements with both.

Furniture and pasta tariff retreats

Trump’s tariffs continue to change almost daily. After imposing a ridiculous 50% tariff on imported cabinets and vanities, 25% on upholstered furniture and 30% on wooden furniture, the president has delayed these for a year. Instead of protecting the US furniture industry – mainly in North Carolina and Mississippi – the results were threatening of the financial viability of the American companies while US furniture prices are increasing by almost 5 percent. The American firms buy many of their components from foreign sources that we don’t produce here. The tariffs caused their costs to increase. One North Carolina company CEO said that his tariff costs increased from $900,000 to over $3 million and for a full year may be $7 million. One company has actually said that it may be forced to move to Southeast Asia. I have previously pointed out that the tariffs would not cause manufacturing to move back into the states simply because skilled labor is not here anymore. These tariffs like so many more just were not well thought out and the unintended consequences are causing the administration to retreat.

The president also rolled back the announced increase in tariffs on Italian pasta. Buono! Here the tariffs were an unbelievable 92 percent (and I thought he liked Meloni) meaning that Italian pasta would disappear from American shelves. The administration said that Italian pasta was being dumped on the American market at artificially low prices that undercut U.S. manufacturers. The tariffs will now be 2.26 percent. Now we need someone in the administration to explain the logic of pricing at “artificially low” rates and how the Italian companies could profit from such an action. BTW, don’t “artificially low prices” benefit the American consumer?

Hegseth versus Mark Kelly

Defense Secretary Hegseth has decided to go after Arizona senator Mark Kelley. Kelly and a few others in Congress foolishly did a video urging members of the military to disobey orders they considered unlawful. Hegseth tweeted that “in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct — the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly, USN (Ret).” Kelly was sent a letter of censure and the administrative action which involves a reduction in rank and in his military pension. Kelly told Hegseth to pound sand saying “If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it.” “Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution – including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out. I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that.”

Again, I don’t know what would constitute an “unlawful act” and how an enlisted military person would know it. Also what are the consequences of disobeying a direct order? Kelly should know all of this and the impossible position that he is putting his fellow warriors in. I think Hegseth is right on this one and Kelly is wrong. As to his military pension he is obviously double dipping given his senate pay.