Author: haroldblackphd

Comey: Another day, another indictment. Bye, Bye Dr. Makary. The Reflecting Pool.

Comey: Another day, another indictment

The former FBI director, one of many on the president’s hit list, has been hit with another indictment. This time for the silly “86-47” seashell photo from a trip to the beach. I haven’t heard the argument that the shells just randomly arranged themselves that way, but I wouldn’t be shocked if that were not forthcoming. The seashell photo appeared over a year ago but I guess Trump’s acting attorney general Todd Blanche knows that if he wants to get the job then he must aggressively pursue Trump’s enemies, no matter how flimsy or absurd the charges. Comey, you may recall, was the FBI director who as had overseen the early investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the presidential election – aka the Russia hoax.

The number “86” may be interpreted as “eliminate” and “47” refers to Trump – the 47^th president. The indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and willfully” making a threat to “take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the president and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.” I predict the outcome will be Comey 2 Trump 0.

Bye bye Dr. Marty Makary

The president professes to hate the Wall Street Journal. He sued the paper and its owner Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion over an article saying that he sent a letter to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 that featured the drawing of a nude woman. The president said “We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal.” The suit – not surprisingly – was dismissed.

Well if the president hates the Journal then why did he fire Homeland Secretary Kristi (ex-border Barbie) soon after it ran a hit piece on her relationship with Corey Lewandowski and her excessive spending on self-promotion? Not to mention the disaster that unfolded with ICE in Minneapolis. One day he was praising her. The next day she was gone.

Well it has happened again. The Journal does not like Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA commissioner – take a number. It has been relentless in attacking him in a series of articles. The articles, mention that first the president was angry at Makary for moving slowly to authorize the approval of flavored vapes and nicotine products. Makary was reluctant to do so because of the impact on young people and refused to approve menthol, mango and blueberry vape flavors from Los Angeles manufacturer Glas. The president, on the other hand, wanted the flavors approved precisely to help gain the favor (flavor?) of young MAGA voters. Makary folded and the flavors were approved. Don’t you think that an inquiring press would have looked into the relationship between Glas and the Trump family? Where are the headlines “TRUMP WANT YOUTH HOOKED ON NICOTINE”?

Once upon a time the administration was full of praise for Makary releasing a statement saying “The only factor guiding the Trump administration’s health policymaking is Gold Standard Science, and the FDA under Commissioner Makary’s trailblazing leadership will continue to make evidence-based decisions that rectify the Biden administration’s missteps and that are in the best interest of the American people.” A White House official said the president had confidence in Makary and was “thrilled with his accomplishments.”

But then came the critical articles. I reported on Dr. Makary’s rejection of rare disease drugs. He and the FDA’s former biologics chief Dr. Vinay Prasad rejected a promising melanoma drug among others. The Journal said “The rejection will have a chilling effect on drug development by signaling that the FDA is slamming the door on accelerated approvals and requiring a level of evidence of efficacy that fewer cancer drugs could meet. Congress ought to haul in Drs. Makary and Prasad for questioning. And President Trump might ask why his choice for FDA Commissioner and the mess with Dr. Prasad have undermined his desire for faster cures.”

Makary has also been roundly criticized on personnel decisions with firings and leavings of key personnel. The latest piece in the Journal appeared on May 3 entitled “President’s Trump Marty Makary problem” by Allysia Finley. In it she asks “Has any Trump administration official caused more political headaches for the president than Marty Makary? His Food and Drug Administration has turned into a soap opera, with real lives hanging in the balance.” She mentions the melanoma therapy rejection and says “Dr. Makary decided patients shouldn’t have the right to try the drug. Ditto a gene therapy by UniQure for the brutal neurodegenerative Huntington’s Disease, which slowed progression by 75% in a clinical trial.” Congress has started investigating complaints from FDA staff and Makary is making the president’s life more difficult as the midterms are approaching. After listing complaint after complain Finley concludes “It’s time for Mr. Trump to pull the plug on the Makary show.”

And it seems that he has. The leader of this disaster at the FDA (and the CDC) is the MAHA guru Robert Kennedy jr. I really don’t know how Kennedy has somehow avoided the wrath of the president. But it is only a matter of time.

Trump’s reflecting pool

Its probably no big deal but Washington’s reflecting pool is being painted blue. The firm Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded a no-bid $6.8 million contract to do the job. Just coincidentally, the company renovated a pool at the president’s Virginia golf course. The president said “You’re going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, the way it’s supposed to be. Much better than it ever was actually.” The president said “I know a guy.” Actually he said “I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools. He looked at it. He

called me up. He said, ‘Sir, we can do something on it.’” One critic said that under Trump he renovations and changes had “become a secretive project where the friends and business associates of the president are being rewarded with no public scrutiny”.

No kidding. I just wonder if the reflecting pool will still reflect? Well some group instantly appeared to sue to stop the blue paint job. The complaint filed by the Cultural Landscape Foundation says “The vivid blue coating will fundamentally alter the visual and experiential character of the pool and the broader Lincoln Memorial Grounds landscape, The new coloration will cause the pool to resemble a large swimming pool rather than the reflective civic landscape it was designed to be, distorting the experience of the site for the millions of visitors who come to it each year.”

Yep, I think that says that the Reflecting Pool won’t reflect.

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?

Who that?

From my early childhood to this very day I have been a fan of science fiction. I think I might have every John Carter of Mars paperback – albeit old and rag tailed. I read Asimov, Heinlein, Delany, Niven, Clarke, Bradbury, Dick, Le Guin, Herbert, Zelazny, Anderson, Silverberg, Pohl, McCaffrey, Ellison, and Norton. Maybe the golden age of science fiction was in my youth. Today’s writers are generally less gifted. I ended my subscriptions to Asimov’s and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction because the stories tend to be dismal, antibusiness and leftist. Oh for another Robert Heinlein!  Today’s authors that I do read include Joe Haldeman, Neil Gaiman (you must read Stardust), John Scalzi, the late Octavia Butler and Andy Weir (although I did not care for Artemis). I am also a fan of fantasy and Gaiman, Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Le Guin are in that category too along with Anne McCaffrey, J.R.R. Tolkein, Nnedi Okorafor and J. K. Rowling. I really like Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing despite all the foul language and explicit sex. The other two, Iron Flame and Onyx Storm are disappointing. 

So given my love for science fiction and fantasy it probably comes as a surprise that I could care less about aliens (please no snide remarks about Appalachians) and UFOs. Given the vastness of the universe it would almost defy the odds if we were the only intelligent (?) life out here. Currently scientists are searching the stars to find life that is carbon based, on the same building blocks as ours. That may just be for convenience sake and is the easiest way to define intelligent lifeforms. We may find aliens – or more than likely they will find us. They may be benign as the first Vulcans who landed and encountered Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek. Or they may be Kanamits in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone episode whose book To Serve Man turned out to be a cookbook.

But I really just don’t care. So when the Department of Defense released the long awaited UFO files and videos on government knowledge of extraterrestrial phenomena it was really a nothing burger. Just looked like a bunch of dots to me. Remember when former President Barack Obama told a podcaster that aliens were real and Fox’s Peter Doocy asked President Trump directly about the existence of aliens? Trump said of Obama “He gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that. I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can tell you, he gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that – he made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.” So there must be something there – right? Roswell anyone?

Here is Trump’s statement on the release of the information: “Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

My congressman Tim Burchett has in particular seemed obsessed with UFOs (no snide remarks about Appalachians remember). I wonder if he has read Jonesborough’s Tom Deaderick’s Lost Cove series?  Burchett has been a vocal voice on Capitol Hill about investigating unidentified flying objects (UFOs), unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and outer space activity. He said I’ve been briefed by just about every alphabet agency there is. And, I’ll just say this, if they were to release the things that I’ve seen, you’d be up at night, worrying about, thinking about this stuff.” Burchett said he was briefed on an issue that “would have set the Earth” on fire if revealed. “This country would’ve come unglued, I think, if they [the public] would’ve heard all that I heard. They would demand answers.”

People magazine’s article said that “Burchett alleged that the reason why information fails to be made public is that those who are briefed on the situation go missing or die, referencing Newsmax’s report about multiple defense scientists who have reportedly vanished or died in the last year. Burchett then shared, “For the record, I’m not suicidal.”

https://people.com/congressman-alien-briefings-youd-be-up-at-night-11941777

I can just hear the Twilight Zone’s music in my ears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSRm80WzZk&list=RDXVSRm80WzZk&start_radio=1

In the end, I remember my sainted mother remarking on a group of scientists sending radio signals into space to see if they could get a return message. The nearest galaxy is the Andromeda galaxy which is 2.5 million light years away. The closest dwarf galaxy is the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal galaxy which is 70,000 light years away. Mom said “It will take a million years for them to get a message from us saying “who that?” Then it will take another million years for us to get their answer, “who that that wants to know who that?””

Happy Mother’s Day

Dumb Trump poll. No Fetterman. Maine: No outrage?

A dumb Trump poll

The media hates Donald Trump. Again and again fake news stories appear to misinform the public. An example is a recent poll conducted by two of Trump’s media favorites, the Washington Post and ABC News. The mainstream media  trumpets the following headline or some variant – here is the one from Politico: “Most Americans say Trump is mentally, physically unfit to serve effectively: Poll.” “The Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 59 percent of U.S. respondents indicated Trump does not have the mental sharpness it takes to lead the country. Comparatively, 55 percent of surveyed U.S. adults said Trump is not in good enough physical health to serve as president.” “More than half of respondents, 54 percent, said they do not believe the president is a strong leader.” Most? The poll was conducted online April 24-28 among 2,560 U.S. adults nationwide. Note that the conclusion from asking two thousand people (political affiliation?) a set of questions (not revealed) is “most Americans….” Pardon me but this is a crock.

I have said that Trump’s rants, rages and chaotic behavior have called into question his mental fitness – although I have friends who brush them off as “only for show.” But not in good enough physical health? Not a strong leader? They must have been thinking of Joe Biden instead. Don’t they remember during the campaign when Trump said he was “working his a— off” while Biden was convalescing in his basement? Biden was the weak leader. Certainly the same cannot be said of Donald Trump. I could list a lot of characteristics of Trump but “not a strong leader” is not one of them. This must have been a “Trump poll for dummies.”

Fetterman is not a republican (thank goodness)

Once again, totally uniformed folk are agitating for John Fetterman to switch parties. Say it isn’t so! Fetterman’s voting record would make him by far the most liberal republican senator, making Collins and Murkowski look like Marsha Blackburn. Fetterman votes with Trump only 28 percent of the time. Although that is by far the most by any democrat senator, it certainly makes him no conservative. In fact, Fetterman is one of the most liberal senate democrats albeit it a sane one – which seems to keep getting rarer and rarer these days (see Graham Platner). He is a throwback to democrats like Scoop Jackson, Jack Kennedy or even Tip O’Neil. If Fetterman were a republican he would drive most of republicans of all stripes crazy. Let him keep making his fellow democrats crazy instead. Fetterman’s liberalism is shown in his Freedom Index score which is an abysmal 6. Compare that to Susan Collins whose 39 is the lowest among the republican senators. BTW, Fetterman’s score is lower than that of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders! Warren’s score is a 14. Even Bernie scores a 26. The lowest is Alex Padilla’s 1. The highest is Rand Paul’s 96. I wonder if those wanting Fetterman to flip parties are aware of the entirety of his voting record?

https://freedomindex.us/us/legislators/session/14/chamber/S

Trade agreement? What trade agreement?

Donald Trump has just trashed his own trade agreement with the EU. He had negotiated an agreement where there would be a 15 percent tariff on their stuff coming to the US (which we consumers pay) versus no tariff on our stuff going over there. Then out of the blue, he reneged and said that the tariff on European autos will be 25 percent. In one fell swoop, the president has shown that his word is worthless. If an agreement can be changed on a whim, then why have an agreement in the first place? Businesses on both sides of the Atlantic cannot plan with any certainty. Maybe this is Trump’s way of paying back our (once) European allies for not participating in his Iran war. He has also said that he is pulling a 5,000 troops out of Germany. I think that will leave only 30,000. I am certain that the Europeans are not just going to take it and will probably revisit any agreements that they had with Trump. This is actually just a continuation of the distain that Trump has for Europe, Europeans and virtually every leader including his former friend Giorgia Meloni. Trump has hardly any friends left in Europe now that his buddy Viktor Orban has been ousted.

Maine: Why no outrage?

In the democrat primary in Maine for senate, the governor Janet Mills was running against a 41 year old oyster farmer named Graham Platner. BTW, you farm oysters? Should be a piece of cake for Mills, right? Wrong. Despite being endorsed by Chuck Schumer, the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee and establishment democrats, Mills dropped out of the race. Shockingly, she was behind in the polls by double digits and her campaign was running out of money. The oyster farmer had garnered the endorsements of the far left of the party including Bernie Sanders, AOC and Elizabeth Warren.

Platner is a marine corps veteran, a Maine native and a college dropout whose platform focuses on issues near and dear to the hearts of the left: housing affordability, universal health care, labor unions, anti billionaires and ending U.S. involvement in “pointless” wars. Ah, sweet music to the ears of the left. However, Platner has no business being the candidate from a major party much less a US senator. He has a nazi death camp tattoo on his chest. Oops! He has also told raped women they were at fault, “has become a communist,” said all police were “bastards”, called rural people “racist and stupid”, supported Hamas, called Maine lobstermen “pieces of s—t”, among other niceties.

Now you would think the media would be outraged and would be running negative piece after piece attacking Platner. The tattoo would be reason enough especially because Platner had lied about it, saying that he didn’t know it was a nazi tattoo when in fact in 2019 he referred to it as “totenkopf” – “death head” commonly associated with nazi Germany. Oops again. 

The lack of outrage is of course because Platner is a progressive democrat. If he were a republican, he would have been run out of the race. But no. He is a democrat whose antisemitism seems to be the flavor of the month for the left. So what if he is a communist? Didn’t Bernie honeymoon in Russia? What about the other statements? Other than the comment about raped women, they are aligned with those on the democrats’ far left. The democrats may rage about Trump as Hitler but they are full of it and they know it. However, here is a real life nazi-sympathizer in their midst and they endorse him for the US Senate.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren has called Platner “her kind of man”. When asked about the tattoo she responded “So, as you rightly point out, he has apologized. He’s out meeting with the people of Maine every single day so they can evaluate not who Graham Platner was, but who Graham Platner is today.” Then she said “I want us to be the party that actually delivers on lowering costs and that expands opportunities. And that’s what Graham Platner wants to do. And I’m there to stand with him and to help in that fight.”

So I guess if you are a democrat, the past doesn’t matter – only what you say today is important. Of course, that applies only to the left. I could cite dozens of examples of elected republicans run out of office for statements and/or actions from the past. Remember Trent Lott? Remember the different treatment for Virginia’s Ralph Northam whose photo in blackface while in college surfaced? The same is true for Platner. No outrage from the media. No outrage from the democrats. Just getting an antisemitic leftwing kook elected is all that matters. Do you seriously want these people in charge of the country?

Ted Turner 

Ted Turner (1938-2026)

Ted Turner just died. He was 87 and suffered from Lewy body dementia. Here is what the Dementia Society of America tells us: “Lewy body disease is one of the most common causes of Dementia in the elderly. Lewy body disease happens when abnormal structures, called Lewy bodies, build up in areas of the brain. The disease may cause a wide range of symptoms, including changes in alertness and attention, hallucinations, problems with movement and posture, muscle stiffness, and confusion.” That sounds perfectly awful.

Turner’s family business was highway billboards and he roamed the state selling advertising space. I remember the billboards along the highway with “Turner” on the bottom of them. Turner will be remembered for many things: CNN and the 24 hour news media, a bison steakhouse, marriage to Jane Fonda and a host of other ventures. But I am from Atlanta and I remember him for WTBS – the predecessor of the networks TBS and TNT. In 1976 Turner bought an independent television station that had no network. Back in those days, the three broadcast networks NBC, CBS and ABC were dominant. WTBS had virtually no original programming and ran reruns of the Beverley Hillbillies and other fare 24/7. Turner bought the Atlanta Braves which at the time was one of the worse teams in baseball (67-94) to broadcast their games.  He even installed himself (briefly) as manager. About the same time he bought the Atlanta Hawks to add to his sports programming.

Turner was a visionary and decided to put WTBS up on the new broadcast satellites circling the earth. So he went to his bank and asked for a loan to become a superstation broadcasting to a national market rather than just in the Atlanta area. Going to the bank and saying that he wanted financing to put his station broadcasting the Beverley Hillbillies and the woeful Atlanta Braves to Pocatello, Idaho and beyond was met by derision. So he went to a hedge fund – Bass Brothers – to get the money needed to go nationwide. Thus, Turner was the pioneer that started the rise of cable TV and the loss of market share of the three broadcast giants. He also founded the Cartoon Network – although some might say that was redundant with CNN and the Weather Channel (my brother’s favorite station). Who would have thought that anyone (other than my brother who was a pilot) would want to watch the weather 24/7? But if Jim Cantore shows up at your airport, you know you are in trouble.

Turner founded the Goodwill Games and was an accomplished yachtsman defending the America’s Cup on the Courageous, defeating Australia in 1977.

I know that Turner will be called “brash” but I call him “visionary.” We are all better off because of Ted Turner.

RIP

Tennessee moves to disenfranchise its democrats

“Too much of American politics is decided by efforts to restrict who votes or, as in gerrymandering, to manipulate the weight those votes hold. A more democratic system won’t end polarization, but it will create a healthier form of competition.”
― Ezra Klein

In light of the Supreme Court decision on Callais, Tennessee is joining other southern states to redrawing its congressional districts in order to eliminate its majority minority districts. I have written before about gerrymandering where Massachusetts has no republican congressman and Virginia is trying to have 10 democrats and only one republican. California and Texas recently redrew their congressional districts. More will likely follow. Callais says that racial gerrymandering is illegal. But isn’t the elimination of majority minority districts racial gerrymandering?

Tennessee with its trifecta republican majority (both state houses and governor) has already gerrymandered Nashville to dilute its black vote – oops I mean democrat vote by slicing it up into three districts. Now they are talking about doing the same to Memphis to get rid of the state’s sole democrat representative who happens to be white (Steve Cohen) elected in a majority minority district since 2007. Marsha Backburn who is running for governor is leading the charge. “I urge our state legislature to reconvene to redistrict another Republican seat in Memphis,” Blackburn tweeted. “It’s essential to cement @realDonaldTrump’s agenda and the Golden Age of America. I’ve vowed to keep Tennessee a red state, and as Governor, I’ll do everything I can to make this map a reality.” Good grief. I just might have to sit out the election of the governor this time.

So Gov. Bill Lee, shamelessly, has called a special session of the legislature to gerrymander Memphis. Personally, I miss the steady hand of Harold Ford, Jr and find Steve Cohen to be an almost cartoonish figure. But I am reminded of what one senator once said when called the dumbest senator in Washington – he said “dumb people need representation too.” 

Currently there are 9 congressional districts in Tennessee. Memphis is in the 9^th district with about 750,000 people. The city of Memphis itself has a population of 610,000. As mentioned, Nashville which has 704,000 was carved up and split among three congressional districts to get rid of its democrat congressman Jim Cooper. I think both Memphis and Nashville should wholly be each in a compact congressional district. If that means two or more democrats, then so be it.

Yes, I know the democrat states with the trifecta government gerrymander leading to tit-for-tat from the republicans. I think that it is shameful. However, I do not buy the argument that if a state has a certain percent of democrats (or republicans) or particular minority groups, that they should have proportionate representation (the reasoning behind Louisiana’s second minority majority district). I just think that districts should be drawn that are compact and make sense. I think that they should not split counties into separate districts either. How about setting forth some criteria and let AI draw the districts for each state? Then all this disenfranchisement can stop. 

Here is map proposed by Tennessee’s House and Senate Republicans. It splits Memphis into three districts and the Nashville area into five. The new map splits the 9th Congressional District, which has been Tennessee’s last remaining Democratic stronghold, into three separate seats, carving up the state’s only majority-black congressional seat. Aside from District 1, the map would make Eldridge Gerry proud. 

I asked my good friend Chad who is conversant in Claude to draw a Tennessee congressional map with nine districts that did not cross county lines with approximately equal population and was geographically compact. Here is that map.

So there it is, a totally apolitical congressional map. One could then see how many democrat counties and how many republican counties and project the composition of the congressional delegation. The only factor that would change would be shifts in population. Each district has approximately 800,000 residents as is the case now. To keep that number going forward some counties might have to be added or subtracted from a district. Regardless, I prefer Claude’s map to the one from the Tennessee republicans. What say you?

The UAE leaves OPEC

Economics tells us that cartels are fragile things because a member can leave and become more profitable if facing an elastic demand curve. Such is true with the United Arab Emirates announcing that it is leaving OPEC. The UAE has been unhappy for a while with its oil and gas output throttled by OPEC – primarily Saudi Arabia. The U.A.E. has 4.8 million barrels a day of capacity but currently is capped at around 3.4 million barrels a day under OPEC’s quota system and not surprisingly it wishes to increase that production. While the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the UAE does have a pipeline from Habshan in Abu Dhabi to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman that carries up to 1.8 million barrels a day. It is expected to invest heavily in additional pipelines to lessen even more its dependence on the strait.

The UAE is the most diversified of the Gulf states and is the financial center of the Gulf with its cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Obviously, leaving OPEC will give the UAE freedom that it currently does not have. Moreover, the relationship between the UAE and Saudi Arabia has always been tenuous at best with the UAE often chafing over the Saudis influence and demands. 

Well before the announcement of its pending withdrawal from OPEC I knew something was up. Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the United States had a remarkable letter in the Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-u-a-e-stands-up-to-iran-ec229761

In it he says too that Iran has fired more missiles and drones at the UAE than at any country including Israel. They have intercepted 95 percent of them saying “We have one of the world’s most effective defense shields” – thanks to the US. Obviously they believed that Iran would attack them. By why so vociferously? He said “We knew we would be Iran’s first choice of targets. Not only because we are so near, but because we are so different. The U.A.E. is a modern, progressive, prosperous Muslim society that delivers for its people. We empower women and welcome all faiths. The U.A.E. is the argument Iran can’t win, the idea it can’t accept.” He then goes on to say “The U.A.E. will endure. We will absorb this shock and accelerate economic diversification with new initiatives in artificial intelligence, renewable energy, life sciences and tourism. This includes the world’s largest data center complex, a new Guggenheim Museum and the Middle East’s first Disney theme park.” He concludes “We want Iran as a normal neighbor. It can be reclusive and even unwelcoming, but it can’t attack its neighbors, blockade international waters, or export extremism. Building a fence around the problem and wishing it goes away isn’t the answer. It would simply defer the next crisis.”  

The UAE is a low cost producer of oil and will be able to dramatically increase its revenues by leaving OPEC. This is what we mean by an elastic demand curve – a lower price yields greater revenues. This may be the beginning of the end for OPEC as other states can see that if they leave the cartel, they too can profit from it.

The UAE also left OPEC+ which includes Russia or as they say in Hindi

यूएई ने अचानक मचाई हलचल — OPEC और OPEC+ को छोड़ा

What will Warsh do?

The next Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting is June 16-17. Kevin Warsh should be in place and preside over this meeting. He may find himself in an interesting dilemma. The entire world will be expecting him to push for lower rates and he may surprise those expectations. The economy may not oblige and neither may other members of the committee. At April’s meeting, in its implementation note, the committee said “The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System voted unanimously to maintain the interest rate paid on reserve balances at 3.65 percent, effective April 30, 2026.”

However, the headlines in the media did not convey this message. USA Today said “Fed holds rates steady amid dissents” saying “A divided Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on April 29.” “For the first time since 1992, four of 12 voting members dissented from the decision. Fed Governor Stephen Miran preferred to lower the target range by a quarter-point, as he has at previous meetings. Committee members Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari, and Lorie Logan supported the rate decision, but opposed the inclusion of language in the statement that might imply they are leaning toward future rate cuts.” FAKE NEWS!!!

One press report actually said that the vote was 8-4 yet the Fed release said that it was unanimous. Miran always votes for lower rates regardless. Miran is a place holder for Warsh. Miran’s term ended in January but has stayed on until Warsh is confirmed. Also Miran resigned from the Council of Economic Advisors to stay on the Fed past the designated term. People talk about Trump wanting to appoint more governors in order to get control of the Fed. However, those folk forget that he has appointed four of the seven members (Miran, Waller, Bowman and Powell). Of course, Miran is the only one that will do Trump’s bidding. But still Miran voted with the majority to hold.

Note that the three members who are said to have dissented were only opposed at the forward guidance regarding future rate cuts. Warsh also opposes forward guidance and will discontinue the practice once in place. So at best the actually vote might have been 11-1 but the final recorded vote was 12-0. Apparently, the media is trying to gin up a controversy at the Fed where there is none. Of course there are disagreements. Of the twelve, at least two members favor full employment over price stability, at least two members are middle of the road and at least four are inflation hawks. Unless Warsh has had an epiphany, I expect him to be on the fight inflation side. 

It is noteworthy that as usual, the dissention is mostly at the reserve banks which are less political than the Washington based Board of Governors. That is why Trump has indicated that he wants more control in naming the reserve bank presidents. But currently, that task is solely in the hands of the reserve banks’ board of directors which are made up of three classes of directors. Class A directors are bankers elected by the Fed member banks in that region. Class B directors cannot be an officer or employee of a bank but are nominated by the banks in the region. Class C directors represent the public and are appointed by the Board of Governors and cannot be affiliated with any bank or financial institution. I was a Class C director. The chairman of the reserve bank can only be a Class C director. I served a term as chair of Atlanta’s Nashville branch board. At most, the president could hope for is to influence the decision by the Board of Governors to renew the term of a reserve bank president. Possible but very doubtful.

Class A directors – the bank representatives – are prohibited from participating in the selection of a new reserve bank president and first vice presidents. They are also prohibited in participating in performance reviews and compensation decisions. So if President Trump – or any president – wanted to have a say in the appointment of a new reserve bank president, there would have to be a change in the law, which is highly unlikely. Also there is some confusion out there regarding Fed member banks that must hold shares in the Fed regional reserve bank. Those are nonvoting shares that are paid a very small dividend totally unrelated to the earnings on the Fed’s balance sheet. The only voice those banks have on the reserve bank is through their Class A and B directors.

At April’s meeting, there was discussion about whether to raise rates – which is why those three reserve bank presidents dissented in the language of the press release. To no one’s surprise, inflation is rising and rising rapidly. The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, said to be the one favored by the Fed rose an astonishing 8.3 percent annualized rate in March. It was 4.6 percent the month before. Wherefore art thou oh 2 percent? With the price effects of the tariffs coupled with the spike in energy prices the Fed might be tempted to raise rates if it thought the inflation would be prolonged. Speaking of energy prices, its price index grew 11.6 percent in March. That rate is certainly not sustainable. Of course, energy prices will fall albeit slowly when the crisis in the Middle East abates but the core inflation absent energy prices remains high – in the 3.6 percent range. The implication is that inflation is going to be persistent and with us a while. The question will be “what will Warsh do?”

Another surgeon general nominee and some Trumpisms

Casey Means out as surgeon general

The president has dropped Casey Means as surgeon general nominee and picked radiologist Dr. Nicole Saphier who like his original choice Dr. Janette Nesheiwat is a Fox News contributor. What’s with these Fox News people? Dr Means, as I have detailed before is a nonpracticing, noncertified doctor who went to Stanford’s medical school but never was admitted to practice. She is a close associate of Robert Kennedy, Jr, is firmly in the MAHA camp and practices holistic medicine. Even the republicans balked at Means’s nomination which was also opposed by Trump’s first surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams. Nonetheless, Saphier shares some commonalities with the MAHA movement, including an interest in personal wellness and a skepticism of vaccine mandates.

Trump tweeted “Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments. She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans.

“Dr. Nicole Saphier will do great things for our Country, and help, ‘MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN.’ Congratulations Nicole, our Country has long been waiting for you!”

As the New York Post reported “Earlier, Trump said that Bill Cassidy (R-LA) — chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee — “has stood in the way” of Means’ nomination and called on Louisiana voters to boot Cassidy out of office in next month’s Republican primary, calling the lawmaker “a very disloyal person whose ‘TRUMP’ Endorsement got him elected, but voted to impeach Trump on what has now proven to be a total Hoax and Scam.”

The president added that “despite Senator Cassidy’s intransigence and political games, Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country, such as the rising childhood disease epidemic, increased autism rates, poor nutrition, over-medicalization, and researching the root causes of infertility, and many other difficult medical problems.”

Now given the opposition of other republican senators, Trump has decided to move on with Dr. Saphier.

And now some Trumpisms

𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗱 𝗝. 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝟬𝟳:𝟰𝟱 𝗣𝗠 𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝟬𝟰.𝟮𝟭.𝟮𝟲

“Wacko James Carville, a so-called Democrat “strategist,” wants the Democrats to make D.C. and Puerto Rico States and, most importantly, pack the Supreme Court, putting 13 Justices on the Court. Other Dems want 21 Justices. If they pull off adding these two States, these Country Destroying Sleazebags will dominate politics in America, if we even have a Nation left, for 100 years (TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!). They are already doing great with the Supreme Court, however. The Democrat Justices stick together like glue, totally loyal to the people and ideology that got them there. They are an immovable force, and there is nothing that can be done to change that. Frankly, I respect that, a lot! Certain Republican Appointees let the Democrats push them around, always wanting to be popular, politically correct, or even worse, wanting to show how “independent” they are, with very little loyalty to the man who appointed them or, more importantly, the ideology from which they came to be Nominated and Confirmed. Everyone knows that, as an example, Birthright Citizenship, which is Unconditional and Absent from any other developed or successful Country, is a disaster for the United States of America. No Country can be successful with such an anchor wrapped firmly around its neck but, based on the questioning by Republican Nominated Justices that I watched firsthand in the Court, we lose. As another example, if the Supreme Court put in one sentence stating that any money paid in Tariffs to the United States of America, to this point, does not have to be returned (to many people who hate our Country!), they would have saved American Taxpayers a minimum of $159 Billion Dollars. All they had to do was read the Dissent, written by Justice Kavanaugh, it was a close call, it wasn’t a 9-0 decision — What a difference it would have made for our Country. I put certain people on the United States Supreme Court who totally misrepresented who they were, and the true ideology for which they stand! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Trump complaining that while “the Democrat Justices stick together like glue, totally loyal to the people and ideology that got them there, certain Republican Appointees” have shown “very little loyalty to the man who appointed them” seems to have forgotten that the justices are supposed to be loyal to the Constitution and not to the president (certain leftist justices excluded)

𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗱 𝗝. 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝟬𝟵:𝟯𝟳 𝗔𝗠 𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝟬𝟰.𝟮𝟭.𝟮𝟲

The president who is fond of calling everyone that disagrees with him – except the Pope – “low IQ” is at it again.

“Never allow the Traitor Democrats like Low IQ person Hakeem Jeffries, or Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, or the totally corrupt Fake News Media such as the phony and decaying Wall Street Journal, the Failing New York Times (Subscriptions way down!), or dying “60 Minutes,” to demean or criticize Operation Midnight Hammer, which totally obliterated the Nuclear Dust locations to the point where bloodthirsty Iran has been unable to get to it, or dig it out. Space Force has cameras on every inch of the 3 sites that were so brilliantly hit last June! Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT”

Well House Minority Leader Hakeem Heffries took exception and challenged the president over who had the lowest (or is it the highest) IQ? 

“If Donald Trump wants to debate me anytime, any place, in the Oval Office, publicly, on camera, I’d be happy to do it. We’ll see who’s intellectually superior.” I believe this is called as “race to the bottom.”

A blinking president?

The president seemed to have blinked two times recently. First, he unilaterally extended the Iran ceasefire one day before his self-imposed deadline that threatened to bomb them back to the Stone Age without any concessions from the Iranians. The president essentially said that he was extending the deadline awaiting the Iranians to get their act together and figure out who was in charge. From all accounts it seems that the diplomats aren’t. Neither does the younger Khamenei. Rather it looks like the Revolutionary guard is calling the shots (pun intended). 

The second blinking was Judge Jeanine Pirro dropping the silly investigation of the Fed’s Jerome Powell that was holding up the confirmation of Kevin Warsh. Pirro said she asked the Fed inspector general (IG) to investigate Powell and the bank’s renovations and would be closing the witch hunt against Powell launched by order of the president in December. “Accordingly, I have directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry. Note well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.” Thom Tillis (R-NC) lifted his hold on Warsh’s nomination after praising him at his confirmation hearing. Tillis is retiring and that has had him grow a spine that is missing from the other republicans in the Senate (save Rand Paul and the moderates Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski). But if the republicans lose both the House and the Senate at the midterms, the  president will find that he will have few friends on either side of the aisle.

Powell is staying on at the Fed until the investigation is dead and gone. I think he knows that if he resigns and becomes a private citizen, Trump is likely to bring back the investigation because of his hatred of Powell and Powell wants to keep the security of being at the Fed.

What are your songs?

On Shaka Mitchell’s substack, he asked two questions “What song you love that most people wouldn’t expect from you and “what song would you want to be remembered by?”

https://shakamitchell.substack.com/p/what-song-would-you-want-to-be-remembered?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=2282143&post_id=195896991&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_gif&r=4x19mj&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Shaka is a Nashville based attorney and advocate for education reform. He is a senior fellow for the American Federation for Children. He and I served together on the Tennessee State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

That got me thinking. The first song that I recall falling in love with was Ruby and the Romantics “Our day will come.” I was struggling to survive my first quarter at Georgia and my girlfriend back in Atlanta said it was “our song.” The first album I ever bought was John Lewis’ “Wonderful world of jazz” recorded in 1960. Today I still play both “Our day will come” and that album of Lewis’ which had personnel different from his Modern Jazz Quartet. My other half for the past 31 years would insist on a Keb Mo song. At a concert, she actually asked him to sing one for me. And he did.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u7Q6m5tHws&list=RD7u7Q6m5tHws&start_radio=1

So what song would most people not expect from me? It would be Kane Brown’s “Homesick” – and I am not a country fan.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukHikH_10CA&list=RDukHikH_10CA&start_radio=1

What song would I like to be remembered by? I listen to jazz, R&B, blues and classical solo piano. It is tough for me to pick but it is got to be Teddy Pendergrass’ “My Father’s Child.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sUwnjBhNKc&list=RD2sUwnjBhNKc&start_radio=1

What about you? What are your songs?