The Westminster Dog Show and a few random thoughts 

The Westminster Dog Show and a few random thoughts 

Penny, a Doberman pinscher, won the Westminster Dog Show — the first of her breed to receive the best in show honor since 1989. Well it is about time a real dog won best of show! Apologies to all those poodle owners but that poodle cut is awful and must be embarrassing to the dog. I favor the German Shorthaired pointers first and Scottish Terriers second. There is no better looking dog than a GSP.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons just broke ranks with other US medical groups by recommending that gender altering surgeries be delayed until a patient is at least 19 years old. Hallelujah! The statement applies to facial, chest, and genital procedures performed for “transgender” and “nonbinary” patients. The ASPS report says that 23,000 people aged 19 and under received some sort of plastic surgery in 2024 while between 2016 and 2020 only about 4,000 people total received any gender altering surgery. Something to ponder.

Another one of Trump’s tariff deals was just announced with India. Trump says that India will stop buying Russian oil and its tariffs will be magnanimously reduced from 50% to “only” 18 percent. But the Indian government has not confirmed that and the details have not been released. With Russian oil being embargoed India rushed in to fill the void buying Russian oil at a significant discount from world prices. If they really stop buying it, they will be forced to pay about $7 a barrel more for oil. They currently import 1.1 million barrels a day from Russia. Trump says they will buy US oil but not so fast my friends. India’s refineries process Russian heavy crude not American light and would have to be retooled. Moreover, it takes twice as long to transport American oil than Russian oil. Trump issued the customary ransom note saying that India will “‘BUY AMERICAN’, at a much higher level, in addition to over $500 BILLION DOLLARS of U.S. Energy, Technology, Agricultural, Coal, and many other products”. I wonder how much of that $500 billion will go into his businesses or businesses headed by his buddies? Meanwhile, we await the fine print. But I guess that China could step up and buy the Russian oil instead.

Remember when the president was demanding a $200 million ransom from Harvard? Well since that haven’t forked over the money, Trump is now demanding $1 billion and is going to sic his “Justice” Department on them tweeting “This should be a Criminal, not Civil, event, and Harvard will have to live with the consequences of their wrongdoings.”  I guess the $1 billion would go into his personal account. Of course, Harvard will eventually have to cut a deal since Trump is threatening to cut off federal funding and ban foreign students, both of which are vital parts of the university. Apparently, Harvard is willing to spend more on certain programs and projects but does not want to make a direct payment to the president, er government, which is what Trump is demanding.

While Trump has threatened to have the Census Bureau count only citizens, the state of Missouri has sued to make it so. The state has filed suit against the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau to end the counting of illegal aliens. Interestingly, the state is also seeking a recount of the 2020 Census and 2021 apportionment. Recall that the census count is used to dole out federal handouts to the states and importantly to determine congressional seats. Missouri has 6 republicans and 2 democrats in its congressional delegation. Maybe they are trying to get rid of the two dems. Since democrat states may lose up to 10 seats in the 2030 census due to outmigration of illegals from the US and legal residents to republican run states, this would mean an additional decrease in the number of seats in democrat-controlled states.

Finally, I had earlier reported on Trump ending several wind projects in democrat states. Well federal judges have overturned his edit for all five projects. Of course the president who hates windmills (as do I) used the justification that the windmills were a threat to national security. The courts are not convinced and have allowed the projects to continue while the cases are being appealed.