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Trump: The Art of the Shakedown

What is this pay-for-play capitalism that Trump is engaging in? Is he trying to take full advantage of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity by engaging in what looks like bribes and kickbacks in his shakedowns of countries and businesses. The media is now calling this State Capitalism. Of course, I named it American Socialism. Again it is anti-market and is used to enhance the power of the executive. I wonder if Trump got any tips from Chairman Xi? Consider the following:

1. In the trade deal with Japan Trump said that Japan will invest $550 billion into the United States and that U.S. will “receive 90% of the profits.” Of course Trump will decide on how the 90 percent will be distributed. BTW, this “deal” has got to be with funds from the Japanese government because no company would agree to these outrageous terms.
2. Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have agreed to give Trump 15% of their AI chip sales to China. Mind you this is on sales and not profits. After extorting this agreement, Trump then announced that tech companies that invest in the US would be exempt from his 100% tariffs on chips. Note that the agreement allows Nvidia to sell to China its Hopper chip and not its more advanced Blackwell chip. The chip isn’t advanced enough to quickly train large language AI models, “but is useful for inference functions, or the processes by which models that have already been trained can draw conclusions from new data.”
3. Don’t forget the so-called “golden share” of US Steel as a condition for Trump agreeing to allow Nippon Steel to acquire US Steel. This gives the president the power to appoint a board member and have a say in company decisions that affect domestic steel production and competition with overseas producers. So Trump is making the CEO of US Steel get his approval for operations?
4. Trump has gone after the CEO of Intel demanding his resignation. The Chips Act gifted Intel with $8.5 billion giving Trump the leverage to try to run this company as well.
5. Then there is the $1.5 trillion that has been extorted in the trade deals in monies supposed to come to the US as investments that Trump himself will personally direct their use.
6. In a push for rare earth minerals the Treasury department is taking a 15% share in a rare earth mining company MP Materials. Does Trump get a board seat here too?
7. Trump has used executive orders, the “Justice” Department and regulatory powers against media companies, banks, law firms and companies he doesn’t like, while rewarding those who toe the line. Don’t you think that this is fertile ground for kickbacks and bribes? No wonder Don Jr and the family are raking it in. What about the Big Guy? Oh, he is immune from prosecution.
8. Trump has said that the “investments” allow countries to “buy down” their tariffs. Trump told CNBC “They [The European Union] bought down the tariffs from 30% to 15%. That’s a gift, not a loan” adding he could invest in anything he wants. Quote: “The details are $600 billion to invest in anything I want.” Anything.

Congress did not give Trump this power to use trillions of dollars as he sees fit. No treaties were negotiated. These are handshake agreements that can be changed on a moments notice as Trump sees fit. None of this is legally binding. Again, this is further evidence that Trump is anti-market saying that he is determines where the “investments” go rather than the market. I don’t know if this is illegal but it sure is shaky with bad optics. Do you think that our gutless congress will tell Trump to stop this nonsense? Fat chance.

Gerrymandering: What hath Texas wroth?

With Texas emulating states like Illinois in gerrymandering its congressional districts, other states like California have threatened to redistrict to get more democrat seats. Two can play this game. But first a bit of history. Eldridge Gerry was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts and was a founding father and James Madison’s vice president. Marblehead’s place in history is recounted in the wonderful Indispensables, Patrick O’Donnell’s thrilling history of its sailors and their role in rowing Washington across the Delaware at the battle of Trenton. Gerry signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. Initially he refused to sign the Constitution because it did not contain a bill of rights. When he was governor of Massachusetts Gerry approved a revision of the state’s voting districts that benefitted his own party. Hence the name gerrymandering. Incidentally, Gerry pronounced his name “Gary” and he lost his race for re-election.

Texas is going to get five new republican seats. Currently there are 25 republicans and 13 democrats. The new map is slated to produce 30 republicans and 8 democrats. This follows the gerrymandering of California with 52 congressional seats while only 9 are republican. The Texas democrats fled to Illinois to avoid a quorum. Illinois only recently gerrymandered its districts to eliminate two republican seats resulting in only 3 republican seats out of 17. California’s Gavin Newsom has threatened to overturn the state’s committee entrusted with mapping congressional districts to generate 5 new democrat seats. Illinois is threatening to gerrymander even more to get rid of both republican seats. New York has said that it might do so as well. Almost comically, Massachusetts governor Maura Healey, who is a few fries short of a happy meal, said that she might too gerrymander. Then someone reminded her that her state already is 8-0 democrat.

On the other hand, the republican controlled states of Missouri, Ohio, Florida and Indiana could get rid of democrat seats. In all, the political pundits say that the democrat controlled states might squeeze out another seat or two but essentially they have tapped out. Republicans on the other hand have not, meaning that republicans are likely to win the gerrymandering wars.

Along with the redrawing of congressional maps, the topic of the census inevitably arises. The census counts people and not citizens. Trump tried to get the census changed in his first term and failed. Now he has issued an executive order to have the census count only citizens. Look for a barrage of lawsuits from the democrats. Why? The republicans contend that one of the reasons why Biden left the border open was to attract more illegals which would then be counted in the census. The democrats must agree or else they would not sue. Vice President Vance has said that California “has way more House seats than it should, because they have such a high population of illegal aliens. So they get rewarded for welcoming illegal aliens into their state, giving them federal benefits, actually asking the taxpayers of states like Ohio to give subsidize them, and then those same taxpayers in Ohio and Indiana and elsewhere, they have fewer congressional representatives, because of what California has allowed to happen.” Vance says that while 17 percent of the California delegation is republican, the party gets 40 percent of the votes in the state. Vance contends that because the census counts people if it only counted citizens the republicans would have 10 more seats. Some others have gone as far as contending that the democrats have 22 more seats In the House by taking the number in a congressional district (761,000) and dividing that into the number of illegals supposed to be in the country, 16.8 million. 

Far be it for me to question the math prowess of our vice president since he went to the Ohio State University but he just might be overstating the issue. First, illegals cannot vote in federal elections. Yes I know there can be shenanigans but bear with me. Let us assume that a certain number of citizens move out of a California district to Texas and are replaced one for one with illegals. Although it is possible that California would keep the same number of seats, there is no guarantee since Texas would be gaining population both from citizens moving from California and illegals who reside in the state. So Texas by increasing its population while California’s is stagnant would result in California losing a seat and Texas gaining one. Second, statistics like republicans get 40 percent of the vote so they should have 40 percent of the seats doesn’t make any sense. Suppose the republicans are concentrated in only a few select districts? Or suppose they are scattered equally around the state and lose each district being outvoted 60% to 40% which in politics is a landslide. Then they would win 40 percent of the vote and have zero seats. That was the case with Louisiana where the courts ordered a racial gerrymandering to create a second majority minority district. More on that later. Third, Vance and others like him are assuming that the illegals migrate predominately to democrat run states like California, Illinois and New York. But what about Florida and Texas? Also, ATTENTION JD: 39 of California’s 52 congressional districts are majority minority. That is 75 percent. Yet whites make up 44% of the California population. Have California whites been racially gerrymandered? Shouldn’t whites have 44 percent of the seats (23) rather than the 25% (13) they have now? Aren’t the whites in California being denied adequate representation based on race? Hum?

How can one tell if the illegals are affecting congressional seats? One would have to look at each congressional district while maintaining the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. The Pew Research Center did that type of analysis and said of the 2020 census that if illegals were excluded then there would be a shift in three seats. California, Texas and Florida would lose a seat while Alabama, Ohio and Minnesota would gain a seat.  So if the republicans were to win all the seats, they would only increase their count by three not 22. By the way, the Cato Institute – a libertarian think tank – found that illegal migration has benefitted republican controlled states more than democrat ones between 2019 and 2023 with 1.2 million going to republican states and 72,000 to democrat states. Oops. Maybe the republicans should have looked at the numbers before they started their whining.

I think what is more significant than the gerrymandering brouhaha is something that few are reporting on. That is the Supreme Court case of Louisiana v. Callais, reported in passing by Jeffrey Blehar in his National Review piece “Liberation Day Comes to Washington, D.C.” 

https://www.nationalreview.com/carnival-of-fools/liberation-day-comes-to-washington-d-c/

The court has put this on its docket for September. This is a case of racial gerrymandering in the state of Louisiana to create a majority minority district giving the state two based on race rather than one. Previously in Robinson vs Landry a state district court ruled that having only one majority minority district in the state violated Section 2 of the Voters Rights Act. Needless to say the district is anything but compact and uniform. It literally runs diagonally through the state to get enough blacks to make the new district majority minority. The redrawing resulted in the defeat of the white republican congressman by a black democrat. The losing congressman and his white constituents sued claiming that redistricting solely on the basis of race is unconstitutional and violated the Equal Protection clause and is a racial gerrymander. If the Supreme Court were to rule with the plaintiffs it would overturn Section 2 of the Voter Rights Act and imperil democrat seats in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. Ruling Section 2 unconstitutional would be an earthquake would be an understatement. Such a ruling would result in demonstrations throughout the country, likely on an unprecedented scale. I am not a lawyer but it seems to me that a colorblind reading of the Constitution may be at odds with the Court’s prior interpretation of the enforcement of the 14^thand 15^th Amendments. But then, maybe not. I am anxious to see what happens in this case.

Finally, if the courts only intervene in racial but not political gerrymandering, then couldn’t it be argued that blacks are not being racially gerrymandered since 90+ percent of them are democrats? Just saying.

Trump: Vengeance is mine!

Remember the interview that Trump had with Fox’s Bret Baier? When asked if he would be seeking retribution if elected, Trump replied “our ultimate retribution is success.” Trump then said “I’m not going to have time for retribution. We’re going to make this country so successful again, I’m not going to have time for it.” Well he lied. Knowing Trump and his proclivities I think few if any of us believed him. In fact, retribution began almost from the first day in the White House when he revoked the security clearances of those 50 former intelligence officers who showed “misleading and inappropriate political coordination” with Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. 

That was only the beginning. He then had his AG Pam (Blondie) Bondi “to seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who oppose him and sue him in court. This includes immigration lawyers. This has forced several law firms to end their relationships with illegal immigrant groups trying to defend illegals against deportation. The “Justice” department even started going after small independent lawyers who had defended illegals. One legal expert said “Would DOJ, under normal circumstances, move for sanctions against a lawyer who sought to protect their client from removal in this kind of a context? I don’t think so.”

To say that this has a chilling effect is an understatement. Small lawyers can not stand up to DOJ. Even the large law firms cannot meaning that the illegals lose legal representation because of the might of the Department of “Justice”. I know some Trump defenders will argue that the illegals should not have legal counsel but I strongly disagree. I am of the let them have the best defense possible before we deport them camp.

Trump then started going after law firms that had litigated cases against him. he issued an executive order regarding the firm Perkins Cole that had filed lawsuits against the administration. The order said that the federal government was barred from working with the firm or using contractors who work for it. Employees at the firm—including 1,200 lawyers and 2,500 workers who are not involved in Perkins Coie’s legal cases—would also be barred from entering federal buildings and their security clearances would be suspended. Talk about chilling! Of course a federal judge almost immediately issued a temporary restraining order halting Trump’s penalties, which she said were retaliatory. Trump’s order even barred Perkins Cole’s clients with government contracts from working with the firm. Vengeance is mine!

Then there are the actions taken by the “Justice” Department against New York attorney general Letitia James and California senator Adam Schiff. This is just an opening salvo. James is being investigated for trying to throw Trump in jail over trumped up charges whose stature of limitations had expired. Trump now says that her office violated his rights by bringing a civil lawsuit against him and his business. Do tell? This is a federal offense? Schiff is accused of mortgage fraud by claiming a home in Maryland as his primary residence in order to get a favorable mortgage rate. But we know the real reason is that Schiff chaired the House Intelligence Committee when it investigated Trump’s Russian hoax charges and was a member of a House committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021 “insurrection.” Schiff used his notoriety to get elected to the senate and now Trump aims to get him. Trump would also like to go after Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney and the entire January 6^thcommittee, but Biden gave them all immunity before he left office.

Do you think that Tulsi Gabbard’s release of the Russia hoax documents implicating Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, James Comey, James Clapper, Jack Smith, Peter Strzok , Lisa Page was anything but a personal vendetta and retribution?  They are just an ever growing cast of thousands that Trump is out to get. It extends to the multitude of federal workers who have been terminated as Trump exacts his vengeance against the Deep State. But what about Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg or Michael Cohen? They are probably next. 

Yep, Pam (Blondie) Bondi has enough to keep her busy for the rest of Trump’s term.

Can Trump “bend the Fed to his will?”

When Fed governor Kugler resigned the Wall Street Journal which should know better had the headline “Trump Just Got a Fresh Shot at Bending the Fed to His Will.” No such thing, Wall Street Journal. Trump currently have two appointees, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman both of whom apparently want to be named chairman which induced them to vote for a cut in the Fed funds rate at the last Open Market Committee Meeting. Bowman has since gone public and says that she will vote for again for a cut at the September meeting. Expect Waller to do so too. Trump just named his Council of Economic Advisors chief Stephen Miran to fill Kugler’s term. But he likely bwill not be confirmed in time for the September meeting and may not even be confirmed by the time Kugler’s term expires in January if the senate democrats keep dragging their feet on Trump’s nominees.

But Miran may be an indicator of what type of person that Trump will ultimately chose although I think it is a mistake to nominate someone now and have to nominate some other person later. Miran is all in on Trump’s tariffs which landed him the job at the Council of Economic Advisors. Miran also feels that the reserve status of the dollar keeps it overvalued leading to trade imbalances. Of course, this argument would only apply to large developed countries that are trading partners and not to places like Syria and Myanmar. So Miran wants to devalue the dollar so as to weaken its status as a reserve currency. He has also advocated putting a tax on foreign holdings of Treasury securities. I am not going to dissect all this except to say that I thought Trump liked the dollar’s reserve status which allows the US to borrow at lower rates. Trump has also threatened to impose punitive tariffs on the BRICS nations if they attempt to counter the US dollar. That seems contrary to Miran’s positions.

But will a new fed governor allow Trump to “bend the Fed at his will?” Not hardly. The Journal must have been inflicted by the President’s poor math. Another appointee gives him three seats on the Open Market Committee. The committee has twelve members, the seven governors, the president of the New York Fed and four rotating reserve bank presidents. So even if the three appointees bend to Trump’s demands they will be outvoted 9-3. Also, I bet that after Trump names his choice for chairman that Bowman and Waller will again assert their independence from the president. 

I know the Fed. If somehow Trump were to install a lackey who had no independence from the president, I almost could guarantee that that person would face open resistance from the rest of the committee. Now that should really shake up markets! The president may then try to fire the other governors. But he will fail – just see the decision on the National Credit Union Administration board members. He could try to fire the reserve bank presidents. However, the authority to remove them rests with each reserve bank’s board of directors or with the Board of Governors itself. Neither would be likely.

So the Journal’s headline is misleading and is indicative of the growing sloppiness and inaccuracy in reporting of that once venerable newspaper.

Kugler, TDS and Recognize Palestine?

I posted earlier that Fed governor Adriana Kugler’s term was ending in January. This would give Trump the opportunity to nominate someone who could then be nominated as chairman when Powell’s term as chair ends in May 2026. Well Kugler may have read my post – which I doubt – and has decided to resign effective August 8 to return to Georgetown University as vice provost. Dr Kugler’s PhD is from Berkeley and she was once the US executive director of the World Bank, a position that President Carter had intended to nominate me had he been reelected. Despite that I voted for Reagan. All of the news wags are saying that Kugler is stepping down early in order to give Trump the opportunity to shape the central bank. In her resignation note, she gave no reason for departing early. But Trump being Trump said without proof that she resigned over a disagreement with Powell on interest rates. If that were true, wouldn’t she have dissented along with the two Trump appointees? Actually being an academic I know why Kugler is leaving now. It is because the academic year is beginning and she wants to be at the university when it starts. I did the same thing, as did many other academics serving in government positions.

Hate Trump? Get a Life!

I have an old dear friend of going on 50 years who is not just a liberal, she calls herself a socialist. Of course she vehemently hates Donald Trump. She read my Linkedin comment on the reinstatement of the fired NCUA Board members and asked “Still happy with the administration?” I responded “Huh?Read my blog and then think about that last sentence. See what I have said from the beginning about the firings. And the tariffs. I am no Trump apologist and never have been if you had been paying attention.” She doesn’t read my blog because much of it is too painful for her sensitivities. But if she had, she wouldn’t have made such a silly statement. But then I told her that despite all that Trump has wroth, that given the choice between Kamala Harris and Trump, I still would vote for Trump. I think she might have then had a minor heart attack. Going forward, we will revert to our nonpolitical conversations. When I said she had Trump Derangement Syndrone she said TDS did not exist because everything Trump did was destructive and evil.

One of my other yellow dog hate Trump democrat told me that TDS did exist but it was among the MAGAverse defending Trump no matter what. He said he hated the Big Beautiful Bill. I surprised him when I said that I hated it too. He hated it because it trashed all of Biden’s initiatives. I hated it because it did not reduce spending. I have said all along that what I care about is for the Federal budget not only to be constrained but to be on a path that reduces its rate of growth. Unlike my democrat friend, at my core I don’t care how it is spent. They can give the entire trillions to me. They can give it all to the military. They can give it all to seniors. Seriously. constrain the budget to grow at no more than the previous year’s increase in GDP. I would have the president’s cabinet submit their budgets to the House (those budgets would sum up to the total allowed) and then let the House tinker around with them but send out a bill that cannot exceed that mandated. I know that it may sound weird that I care how much is spent rather than how it is spent. But I do. I figure that businesses and consumers are smart enough to adapt to whatever nonsense comes out of the congress. 

Palestine, Oh Palestine, wherefore art thou?

What’s with England, Canada, France and Malta (Malta?) all saying they will recognize a Palestinian state (provided they can find it)? Did you know that currently 147 countries officially recognize a “state” of Palestine? They envision a country likely made up of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war. Does anyone really think that Israel will evict its citizens from their settlements on the West Bank and the Golan Heights like they did in 2005 when they demolished 21 settlements in Gaza? Do you think that Israel wants another Arab enemy state as a next door neighbor? I think a forced resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza like Trump has suggested and I elaborated in an earlier blog is more likely. Trump seemed irritated with the French announcement. I am surprised he didn’t threaten to double their tariffs. Tu as perdu la tête ? Macron?

Random Thoughts #65

My posting on Syndey Sweeney has blown up my text messages and emails. Most of the comments, save Larry, Drummer and sometimes druhead are not made on my blog, which is perfectly fine if others don’t want to share them with the public. I would prefer that they are on the blog to generate more conversation and thought. There are still those who contend in all seriousness that the pun on genes was out of malice. Personally, I pun all the time, sometimes considered not in good taste but always in good fun. Get a life, ya’ll!

OK all the brouhaha made me look at the ads. What I noticed was that all the jeans had wide legs eschewing the super tight look. Does this mean we are going to have a recession? Or does it just mean that I am really old if the first thing I noticed were the wide legs?

Some so-called expert said that the most intelligent dog was the Border collie. Obviously, that person never owned a German shorthaired pointer.

OK so Trump can’t do math. Recall that he is going to make the drug companies reduce their prices by 1,500 percent? But what of the democrats who had this poster displayed at a hearing?

Who’s afraid of AI? I read where AI will create massive unemployment. Where have we heard that before? Seems like every shift in technology brings out the same dire warnings. The agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the invention of the automobile assembly line, the mainframe computer (remember HAL or the Terminator’s Skynet?), the desktop computer and now AI all are (or were) forecast to bring poverty rather than prosperity. To have people wandering aimlessly in the streets. To force governments to have guaranteed annual incomes and augmented welfare programs. Give me a break. How many of us are toiling in the fields or sweating in factories or doing back breaking work? Yet we are employed and better off than previous generations. I am optimistic for my grandchildren’s future. So why aren’t you? BTW, a friend of mine kept wondering why was everyone getting upset over a steak sauce.

Australia is having Mitsubishi build their naval frigates amid efforts to build back their navy. Why can’t we do the same?

The Chinese are limiting the shipment of their rare earths to our military. Can’t say I blame them. Isn’t this tit for tat since we have banned certain chips being sold to the Chinese?

I am a deer hunter. The enduring value of Gore-tex is to allow hunters to hunt in all weather comfortably. The Swedish manufacturer Polarn has done the same for children’s outerwear. Now it is exiting the US because of Trump’s tariffs. They make their clothing in China and the tariffs on their merino wool clothing and insulated outerwear have gotten prohibitive. It won’t be the last to exit because of the tariffs (see my posting on Lesotho). Like the Canadians who drive their RVs into the states to fill them up on gas so they can siphon them off into their autos due to the high Canadian gas prices, I am wondering if we are going to see little kids coming through customs looking like the Michelin Man or the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

I was writing weeks ago that Fed governor Kugler’s expiring term offered Trump an opportunity to put his nominee (er, lackey) for chairman at the Fed starting in January. Now Kugler has resigned an lo and behold the media has discovered the same thing. I was once asked how is it that I can write something and soon thereafter it gets reported elsewhere. I guess that some things are so obvious because I know that all those folk are not reading my blog and Knoxville Focus articles.

The president has said that he is nominating Council of Economics head Stephan Miran to fill Kugler’s expiring term while he looks for a permanent person. That means that Miran will only be at the Fed until January. Then someone else will have to go through senate hearings. Pardon me if I don’t understand. Miran is no slam dunk given the democrats propensity to lobby against and delay all Trump nominees. He has to go through the confirmation process. Why do this a second time with someone else? It is bad sign – to me – that Trump did not have a permanent person already vetted and in place. Word is now that he is considering Judy Shelton again. He nominated her in 2019 but her nomination was withdrawn by Biden. Will the second time be the charm? Dr Shelton would be a superb governor. She is actually an expert on monetary processes and a staunch advocate of a return to a commodity standard like gold. She is a leading critic of the Fed. Her nomination would be consistent with Trump putting people in place at agencies at which they are critics.

Am I the only one tired of the president injecting himself into everything, no matter how trivial? Examples include extolling Mexican Coke (oops Mexican Coca-Cola) even though he drinks Diet Coke, threatening to withhold stadium funding for the Commanders unless they change their name back to the Redskins, saying ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’ because she endorsed Kamala Harris, then saying Syndney Sweeney was the HOTTEST!, firing obscure boards, terminating people left and right, firing Puerto Rico’s finance oversight board, putting on tariffs on every country in the world regardless of trade status, threatening to invade Panama and Greenland and so much more.

So what hath Trump wroth? Only total chaos in economics, world order, supply chains, national and international security, international relations, partisan politics, local, state, national and international governance, legal systems both home and abroad, and the daily news. That’s all.

Biden’s family got rich off of old Joe. Now Trump’s family is getting richer too. Hum, maybe side deals with tariffs?

So Lara Trump has decided not to run for the senate from North Carolina. She is a Trump by marriage and was born in Wrightsville Beach and went to NC State. I don’t know anything about if she would have been a good candidate or a good senator but that bar is very low. I do know one thing if her name were still Lara Yunaska she wouldn’t have even have a chance of being considered as a possibility.

Speaking of Trump-by-marriage rather than by birth. Tiger Woods is dating Vanessa Trump. Again this is a pseudo-Trump having been married once to Don, Jr. Vanessa was smart to keep the name Trump (as opposed to my ex and many like her who reverted to their family names). Hey would you want to be known as Vanessa Kay Pergolizzi? I think Trump likes this romance so that Tiger can help him with his golf game. Right now his swing reminds me of Charles Barkley.

Did Trump really cheat at golf in Scotland?

Our math challenged president just might be a Bernie bro

Donald Trump is not just a RINO, he might be a socialist. What! Well Trump just came out of the socialist closet. Not a Bernie Sanders socialist but an American socialist. I wrote in the Knoxville Focus (knoxfocus.com) on September 23, 2023 about the American brand of socialism. “In American Socialism, the means of production remain in private hands. The government determines winners and losers through subsidization and taxation. Since the means of production are still in private hands, American socialism requires a partnership between big government and big business, big media, big tech, big pharma and big retail. American Socialism manifested itself under Trump’s reaction to COVID. The first panicked response was to lock down the economy except for big business. Over 600,000 small businesses failed for no reason other than the government deemed them nonessential. Big businesses stayed open and had fewer competitors.”

Now Trump had abandoned free trade. He is anti-market and pro big business. No self respecting republican would erect trade barriers and start threatening the economic viability of our trading partners. And now he is trying to tell big pharna to lower their prices by 1,500 percent. I am not joking. Trump says that they must reduce their prices within the next 60 days. What? A republican sounding like Bernie Sanders? Did we elect Bernie president? Here is what Trump says “This is something that nobody else can do. We’re gonna get the drug prices down. Not 30 or 40% which would be great, not 50 or 60, no. We’re gonna get ‘em down 1,000%, 600%, 500%, 1,500%.” Well he was right about that one, this is something that nobody else can do, not even Trump. Some wags called his math befuddling. That is kind. He then doubled down saying “We will have reduced drug prices by 1,100, 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 700, 600; not 30 or 40 or 50% but numbers the likes of which you’ve never even dreamed of before.” Hey, I thought the new math was only taught in today’s elementary schools. Remember 2 plus 2 is whatever little Johnnie wants it to be because we do not want to damage his self esteem. Karoline Levitt, his press secretary, reported this with a straight face. Maybe she has kids trying to learn math. Personally, I think she is as bad as Karine Jean-Pierre. Bring back Tony Snow!

So let me see. If Trump reduces a $30 drug by 300 percent, then the drug company will pay us $120 to “buy” it. Sweet! Sign me up! Trump sent letters to pharmaceutical manufacturers including AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron and Sanofi.  The letters listed steps to reduce the prices of prescription drugs in the U.S. “to match the lowest price offered in other developed nations (known as the most-favored-nation, or MFN, price).”  Trump warned that if steps weren’t taken the federal government “will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices.” Yep, sounds like ole Bernie to me.

Americans do pay significantly more for name brand drugs that most other countries. As a matter of fact those prices are often three times more. However, most American prescription drugs are of the generic variety and American generics are priced similar to those around the world. Even with the name brand drugs, Americans seldom see the full price given copays and insurance. It is well documented that other countries restrict high priced drugs that are available only to Americans – see the British and Canadian systems. Also our VA has less drugs available than you can get from your family doctor. I am reminded of the joke in which a guy walks into a gas station and says “Why are you charging $3.09 for regular? The station on the next block charges $2.89? The gas station guy says “Well why don’t you go over there?” “He’s out.” “Well when I’m out I also charge $2.89.”

The drug companies have talked about how much their R&D costs are and how much it costs to develop, go through the approval process and get a new designer drug to market. On average it takes from $1 – $2 billion to bring the drug to market and 10 to 15 years to go from development to approval. If Trump gets the drug companies to bend to his demands then look for all this to grind to a screeching halt. Yes we will still have drugs but the designer drugs developed to treat rare diseases will grind to a halt. But would you stay in business if you had to pay customers to take your product? What is Trump going to do next? Nationalize the drug companies?

Consider that the FDA approved the drug ipilimumab for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Its cost is $120,000 for 4 doses. We see it advertised all over the place as Yervoy which works to activate the immune system by targeting CTLA-4, a protein receptor that downregulates the immune system. The commercial talks about “asking your doctor” and that the drug allows you to “live longer”. Now there are ads saying to link it with Opdivo with Yervoy is a combination of two chemo-free immunotherapy treatments and is “intended to treat adults who have been newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer.”  What I want to know is if the drug is available through the Canadian and British health systems, what are the requirements for use and how much is the cost. I found the following regarding Canada, “One Canadian patient (Patient 7) accessed the combination therapy off-label through self-pay with 20% reimbursement through a Special Access Program, which resulted in approximately CA$100,000 in out-of-pocket fees. Five patients (Patients 3, 6, 9, 10, 11), all residents of the USA, were prescribed the combination therapy and received coverage from their private health insurance plan. Patient 14, a U.S. resident, was prescribed the combination therapy while it was still in phase 2 trials. Initially, his insurance provider denied coverage. However, after significant advocacy by his oncologist, full coverage for nivolumab and ipilimumab was eventually approved.” So much for free health care!

Click to access PC0396_Opdivo_Yervoy_Patient_Clinician_Input.pdf

Quiz: What’s the difference between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders? Is it just the hair? Well Trump supporters say that Sanders is a communist while Sanders’ supporters say that Trump is a Nazi. But Nazi stands for the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party which actually sounds communist to me. So does this mean that Bernie is a Nazi? 

Trump’s tariffs – a wee bit of mischief perhaps?

When Trump hit the Swiss with a stunning 39 percent tariff, one official bemoaned that he guessed that is the price the Swiss pay for independence. If they were in the EU their tariff would “only” be 15%. Trump said the 39% was because of a REALLY BIG DEFICIT, which happens to be a paltry $39 billion. I’m sure it is just a coincidence that their tariff equals their deficit. Hey, we know that Trump is not exactly a math whiz. Another Swiss official said that if every Swiss started drinking whiskey every day and bought a Harley, they would still be running a deficit. You just got to stop making Americans from buying Swiss goods Donald. Maybe they can become the 51^st state. Or maybe they could move their watch, precision tool and chocolate companies to the US. Then they can export their products back to Switzerland. But the chocolate won’t taste as good.

Pity poor Lesotho a country with a GDP of only $2.3 billion – not trillion but billion. Mind you there are over 600 American companies with revenues over $2 billion that are doing business with China. Needless to say Lesotho is perhaps the poorest country in the world. Trump’s initial tariff was an astounding 50%. This devastated the country’s textile industry with garment exporters shutting down and laying off workers. The country declared a state of emergency. The country had been benefitting from the 25-year-old American trade program that granted duty-free access to the U.S. market to dozens of African countries. Their textile industry was supplying garments to Reebok, Levis and to Walmart. With the tariffs, the orders went away, factories shut down and workers were laid off. Trump had derisively called Lesotho the “country that nobody had ever heard of.” Trump has announced that Lesotho’s tariffs will now be 15% and it will be interesting to see if business will come back even at that lower rate. Before Lesotho benefited from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which allows 32 African countries to sell some 1,800 products in the U.S. duty-free. The law expires this year and it is doubtful if Trump’s republican controlled congress will renew it. Lesotho’s textile plants pay about $168 a month and if there is no work there is no pay. One factory produces 90 percent of its output for the US market. It is shut down and may not reopen even with the lower tariff. But Trump doesn’t seem to care that his tariffs will increase the misery of some of the poorest people in the poorest countries of the world. By the way, Lesotho’s trade deficit with the US was only $234 million not exactly a REALLY BIG DEFICIT. Trump should be ashamed.

There are plenty of problems with the tariffs not the least being the seemingly randomness of it all. Trump once threatened a universal tariff of 10% and then it changed to 15 percent. Yet every one of the 193 countries could negotiate for a different tariff. This opens the door to all sorts of mischief. It seems that these numbers change almost daily, the tariffs range from 10% (UK) to 50% (Brazil). Countries like Laos, Myramar, and Syria are at 40%. India was at 25% but Trump has threatened to double it if they don’t stop buying Russian oil. Of course, within the tariffs are higher ones like those on aluminum and steel.

If there is one positive thing, and maybe the only positive thing, about the tariffs is that it will greatly simplify the accounting. Currently it is a nightmare. Go to the Harmonized Tariff book at where you will see a specific tariff dor each product imported from a specific country for every country in the world. Last year we imported over $4 trillion in goods from abroad.

 https://hts.usitc.gov.

The schedule comprises about 5,000 commodity groups, each identified by a six-digit code, arranged in a legal and logical structure, and supported by well-defined rules to achieve uniform classification. The system is used by more than 200 countries and economies as a basis for their customs tariffs and for the collection of international trade statistics. More than 98 percent of the merchandise in international trade is classified in terms of the HS.  The HS nomenclature is updated every five years, with the most recent update in 2017. Whew!

But negotiating with every country with differential tariffs has got to lead to all sorts of mischief and even briberies, wouldn’t you think? Right now there are already dozens of carve outs. I wonder why? I want to know the logic – if any. I also wonder if Don Jr. and other members of the family are doing a Hunter Biden and doing some negotiations with side deals getting kickbacks for themselves and the Big Guy. Just saying. If Trump wanted to keep things simple then he would have simply imposed a flat tariff on all imports from all countries with which we run a deficit – say 10 percent – and none on those with a surplus. Now 10 percent of $4 trillion is $400 billion, a nice chunk of change. But he didn’t keep them simple. They are convoluted, complicated, confusing and without logic. 

The deals are not even legally binding. There is no treaty. There is only a handshake so they can be modified either up or down on a whim – and Trump is pretty whimsical. Take for example, Denmark. Although that country is a member of the EU with 15% tariffs, Trump has levied a 54% tariff on selected Danish products. Actually, I am surprised. I thought Trump would put a 1,000 percent tariff on Denmark unless they relinquished Greenland to the US. Why hasn’t he done this? The same is true with Panama whose tariff is only 14 percent. Trump wants the canal back in US hands, so why doesn’t he hit Panama with a 1,000 percent tariff until they say uncle and give it back to us? If Trump can put a 50% tariff on Brazil – a country that we have a surplus – because he wants them to stop the prosecution of one of his buddies, then why doesn’t he do the same with Denmark and Panama?

Lastly, I wonder if the tariffs will cause a rift in the EU? Several nationalist leaders oppose being ripped off. Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Rally party, which is favored to win the presidential election in 2027, has called the EU deal a “political, economic and moral fiasco.” And that is an understatement. What is the French equivalent of Brexit? Adieu EU!

There they go again.

Once again, democrats in the Texas legislature have fled the state in order to deny republicans a quorum. At issue is the redrawing of congressional seats aimed at giving the republicans five new seats. Since this is not a census year, the redrawing is strictly for partisan reasons. The republicans are not denying it either. One legislator says “I’m not beating around the bush. I’m telling you that we have five new districts and these five new districts are based on political performance.” To create the five new Republican seats, the new map puts more Democrats into already Democratic-held districts and moves around Republican voters from red districts into Democratic districts. The redrawing will force some incumbent democrats to run against each other, put others into majority republican districts and was drawn in such a way to put Jasmine Crockett’s home residence into another district. I am sure that was just a coincidence. 

The democrats responded by fleeing to Illinois to be under the protective very fat wing of billionaire Governor Pritzker. Texas governor Abbott can levy fines of $500 a day or try to remove them from office. But Texas democrats running away is nothing new. In 2021 they fled to Washington, D.C., in an effort to block a bill on voting-by-mail rules. In 2003 the democrats again tried to block republicans from redrawing congressional districts. This time they fled to Oklahoma and New Mexico. In each instance, the democrats eventually came back with tails tucked between their legs and the legislation passed. This time will be no different. Why they went to Springfield, Illinois is anyone’s guess. Couldn’t they pick a better place – say Cancun? It is closer to home. Anyway, Illinois is a bad look. Don’t the Texas dems know that Illinois gerrymandered the republicans out of 2 seats four years ago?

The Texas republicans are saying that they are redrawing districts that make more sense geographically (wink wink) with them having more equal population. It merges two democrat districts in Austin and shifts the volatile Al (Full of Fire) Green into a republican-majority Hispanic district in Houston. I am sure that too was just a coincidence. Jasmine Crockett in her own immutable style says “They have decided that the only way that they can bring about this white supremacy agenda is by diluting the voices of people of color. And so what we have seen is, again, this rogue Department of Justice going out to do the bidding of this Temu Hitler. To the extent that he says, listen, the only way that I can ensure that I will have no checks on me is if I can sure that those voices of color do not have representation.” Temu Hitler? Now that is a new one. Isn’t Temu that online Chinese rival to Amazon? Well in street slang – of which Crockett is proficient – Temu “refers to the action of intentionally ignoring someone’s message. It is used in a dismissive or disrespectful manner when someone doesn’t want to acknowledge or engage with another person’s attempt to communicate.” Who knew? Also, advancing white supremacy by moving Green into a majority brown district? Well that’s novel.

Here is what Crockett said about Al (Full of Fire) Green “And so this is why we see Al Green…who has been a loud and proud voice of dissent against this administration, literally to his face at the State of the Union. And then again, by having the audacity to do what a lot of people had called for, which was to try to initiate the impeachment process. And so Al Green, who has served in Congress for over two decades at this point, is now at risk of losing his seat because those people of color in that particular district, they may now be broken out and parsed apart so that they don’t have this consolidation and this ability to elect Al Green.” Again, isn’t brown a color?

As to her district Crockett claimed that she was asked to verify her address alongside other incumbent Democratic members of Congress. She seemed puzzled by the request stating that she didn’t know why she was being asked because plenty of members (see Maxine Waters) did not live in the district that they represent. Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution states that a representative must be at least 25 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for seven years, and, at the time of the election, be an “Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.” The key detail is that a representative must live in the state they represent and not the specific congressional district. Crockett is a lawyer and should know this. Accordingly, instead of being puzzled she should have just told the questioner to go pound sand. BTW, since the Constitution says “he” does that mean that all the women in the congress are there illegally? Just a thought. Of course the Declaration of Independence says “All men are created equal.” Does this imply that all women aren’t? I guess even then they realized there was a difference between Beyonce and Nancy Pelosi.  

Is the American Eagle nonsense due to TDS?

I don’t understand this American Eagle brouhaha. First I had never heard of American Eagle which is probably why they started their ad campaign which has gotten them billions of free advertising with their stock price surging 25 percent. I bet it made every business green with envy. The story even made the front page of the Wall Street Journal’s business section. Second I have never heard of Sydney Sweeney. From what I gather, the ad campaign is about blue jeans and Sweeney is provocative. Maybe to some but to us old folk its just another big busted blond selling stuff. 

Are some people upset that good looking women are used to sell stuff to other women? One really dumb comment was “Why is American Eagle using Sydney Sweeney to attract the male gaze when she’s wearing jeans for WOMEN?” Well then explain to me Victoria Secret you grouch. Surely they can’t be selling that racy lacy stuff to only trans people. By the way, Sweeney looks human – even if part of her may be enhanced – which is more than I can say for those Victoria Secret models which must be AI generated. In my 80 years, I have never seen a real live woman who looks even remotely like a Victoria Secret model. Have you? 

The Journal’s article says “American Eagle Confuses with Ads.” Huh? Confuses who? One person whined “It harkens to a dated sexuality that was common in ads of the past.” I guess the past was yesterday? Ok I get it. We have been going through the cancel culture period of wokeness in which sexuality was neutered. Boys were being made ashamed of being male. Target selling anti-male children’s clothing. Even Walmart has a trans section on its website. Yet I can see why some people may be offended. There are the men who wish their other halves (if they are women) looked a bit like Sweeney. And then there are the women who are just plain jealous. Sweeney is probably laughing all the way to the bank (probably wearing American Eagle jeans and a top open to her navel). But dated sexuality? Haven’t these people been near a college campus the past two years? Most of the coeds are in tights, short tennis type skirts or super short short running shorts. The guys are wearing baggy shorts. So the college women are flaunting their sexuality while the men are hiding theirs. I remember my other half commenting once “Don’t you think her shorts are a bit too short?” I demurred. Do you think any of the college crowd are offended by Sweeney? No. It’s the whining wimps on the left that wished they looked as good as Sweeney. 

I actually think that all the brushback is another symptom of TDS. Trump said that Sweeney was HOT and that the ad was the HOTTEST out there. “It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are ‘flying off the shelves.’ Go get ‘em Sydney!” I guess Trump has first hand knowledge of hot big busted blonds (BBB) doesn’t he? I wonder what Melania had to say about that? Also Trump noted that Sweeney was a registered republican. Well she certainly couldn’t be a democrat looking like that could she? Sweeney is certainly no Dylan Mulvaney – who is probably a democrat. 

Would you believe that “The ad triggered backlash from critics on social media who felt the ad comes close to promoting eugenics, implying Sweeney’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed genes are more desirable than other traits?” Yes you would and indeed the media went out there and find some pseudo-expert to opine that “American Eagle was aligning themselves with a white nationalist, MAGA-friendly identity.” I’m serious. Sounds like Jasmine Crockett (who by the way has “straight” hair) but was instead some professor of anthropology at Northwestern. Anthropology? Give me a break. Apparently, this “expert” found offensive the line “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans”. I wish they showed a picture of the anthropology professor. I also wish that American Eagle had been smart enough to run a set of companion ads featuring Beyonce. Now that woman has got some genes! On second thought, is that her real hair? Who cares?

When I was growing up, a lot of black people wanted to look like white people. The paragons of feminine beauty were Billy Holiday, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Vanessa Williams and other light skinned beauties with straight hair. Black women were straightening their hair and putting stuff on their skin to lighten them up. Meanwhile the men were getting their hair processed. Some even tried wearing Nehru suits but I don’t think many tried going sockless in Bass Weejuns.

 Many of the big entertainers like James Brown, Jackie Wilson and BB King also straightened their hair. So did the famous vocal groups both men and women. The Black is Beautiful movement changed all that and you could look like Cicely Tyson then or Lupita Nyong’o and Adut Akech now and be acknowledged as beautiful. Blacks started wearing Afros and getting their hair braided. I went for several years without a haircut being on a graduate student’s stipend and married with two small children. In order to keep the hair somewhat manageable sometimes the whole family would be in braids. And this was in the 1960’s! I wish we had a picture taken of us four. Maybe one surfaced and is why the University of Florida threatened to deny me promotion and tenure. But that is a story for another day. Still though, I bet if you googled “The most beautiful black women” that the vast majority of them will have “straight” hair. Blame our white genetics or the women’s hairdressers but Rihanna would look good even with her head shaved.

BTW, this would have been my Mother’s 107th birthday. Happy birthday Mom. i sure do miss you.