The Trump Mahal. More TACO. Cruisin’. Illegal tariffs, redux.
How much for the Trump Mahal – er ballroom?
Donald Trump who sic-ed his “Justice” department on the Fed’s Jay Powell, ostensively for a cost overrun of $500 million dollars should be ashamed. The ballroom which the president said would cost $200 million went to $400 million. Trump said that it would be built with private funds. Now the republicans on the senate judiciary committee want to spend $1 billion in public funds for security enhancements to the ballroom. Predictably the democrats are outraged. “Republicans are on a different planet than American families,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote “Republicans looked at families drowning in bills and decided what they really needed was more raids and a Trump ballroom.” The democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee responded with an AI-generated image of Trump as Marie Antoinette, who lived at the Palace of Versailles, captioning it, “$1 BILLION for ballroom funding? Marie Antoinette would be proud.” Hey, if Trump can sue his “Justice” Department then maybe he needs to get his “Justice” Department investigate himself.
LET THEM EAT CAKE!!!
Trump’s Iran War – more TACO?
Would someone kindly explain to me what is going on in Trump’s head? The president boldly announced that the navy institute an escort service for vessels through the Strait of Hormuz and if attacked by Iran then all hell would fall down on them bombing “at a much higher level and intensity than it was before”. He called this “Project Freedom” for some reason. I think the navy took two ships through before the president for reasons only known to himself stopped the escort service without “raining hell down on the Iranians”. What’s up with that? I guess the president’s detractors will say this is another instance of “TACO” – Trump always chickens out. BTW, those ships have been stuck in the Persian Gulf for a month. Why haven’t problems of feeding them and sanitation been covered?
Also please tell me why Trump declared that Iran’s bombing the United Arab Emirates was not a ceasefire violation? Some friend we are! So what is the end game? What terms are we going to accept? It will have to do with Iran’s nuclear program. But what about its armaments? What about its proxies? What about its funding of terrorism? What about regime change? Huh?
Trump’s illegal tariffs are again ruled illegal
When the president lost his tariff fight in the Supreme Court, he immediately rushed to reimpose them under Section 122 which allowed tariffs for 150 days under certain conditions. Trump doubled down and raised those tariffs to 15 percent and just recently raised them on European automobiles to 25 percent. Well the U.S Court of International Trade (CIT) just ruled that the 10 percent “global tariff” is also illegal. I thought this would happen and had posted earlier that Section 122 applied in order to address deficits in the “balance of payments.” However, the balance of payments is not in deficit. Rather one of its components – the balance of trade – is what is in deficit. The court ruled that the president cannot impose tariffs under Section 122 without that prerequisite (which does not exist). In the words of the court “Nowhere does [Trump’s executive order imposing the tariffs] identify balance-of-payments deficits within the meaning of Section 122 as it was enacted in 1974.” Because of that, the executive order “is invalid, and the tariffs imposed on Plaintiffs are unauthorized by law.”
This is the fifth straight defeat for the president in the courts. Where does he go from here because surely the “tariff man” will not give up easily. Indeed, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has launched “investigations” into dozens of countries under a separate authority – Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 -in order to conjure up some more tariffs this summer.
Cruisin’
I have several friends who love to cruise. I question their sanity. Cruise ships are floating petri dishes and the latest two incidence just confirm it. First, a hantavirus outbreak has occurred on the Dutch cruise ship. MV Hondius. Three people have died and the ship has been diverted to the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa. I guess the PR people will call this a bonus cruise stop at no extra charge. Investigators suspect a Dutch couple may have first contracted the virus while on a bird-watching trip before they boarded the ship in Argentina on April 1. Once the ship reaches Tenerife, passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only once their repatriation flights are ready to take them. The United States and Britain have agreed to send planes to Tenerife to pick up their citizens. Other governments, provided they can find the island on a map, have not yet indicated what they will do regarding their citizens. Hantavirus is from rodents and humans can contract the disease when they come into contact with infected rodents or their saliva, urine, and droppings. Medical authorities say that human to human transmission is rare but undoubtedly occurred in this instance.
Second, over 100 people were sickened by a norovirus outbreak aboard the Caribbean Princess cruise ship. The CDC reported that 102 of 3,116 passengers and 13 of 1,131 crew members were reported ill with symptoms including diarrhea and vomiting. Hey, but it is only a mild gastrointestinal illness. Nothing as serious as the hantavirus. Just a little diarrhea and throwing up – what we used to call in my childhood the GATs (green apple trots). You may love to cruise, but the only cruising that I want to do is told by Smokey Robinson and it isn’t on a boat with three thousand of my closest friends. So do you still want to cruise?
haroldblackphd.com 