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Trump’s gift to Japan and Korea and the USAID mess

Trump is imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. I am still not sure why. However, last year nearly 4 million cars and trucks were imported from the two countries which is about 22 percent of total US vehicle sales. What is weird is that the tariff is not a comprehensive one. Japan and Korea are not included meaning a likely shift by US consumers from Ford and GM to Honda and Hyundai. Only Trump apologists understand the logic behind such an action.

I again wonder why Trump created DOGE. It must have been to give Elon Musk something to do in his spare time because agency heads could have done the DOGE thing themselves. Trump could have instructed them to eliminate all spending that he and the heads deemed as wasteful. He could have instructed the heads to trim their workforce. Lastly he could have told them to request much smaller budgets for the next fiscal year. How come he didn’t do this and instead gave the hatchet to Musk?

The mess at USAID is only a mess because the administration deems it so. Yes it seems that there was some wasteful spending but it amounted to only a fraction of the agency’s budget. And it was the type of spending favored by the previous administration. This is sort of “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure” type of thing. The mission of USAID is to administer foreign aid and assist in economic development. The agency was created by President Kennedy and then codified into law in 1961 by Congress. This means that it can only be eliminated by Congress and not by the president. The likelihood of getting 60 votes in the Senate to eliminate the agency is zero meaning that a future administration could easily resuscitate USAID by restoring its funding. 

USAID sends aid to over 100 countries. I have long argued that US aid should always come with strings and should never go to our adversaries. Obviously that argument has been ignored. Trump has decided to shut down the agency and terminate its 10,000 employees and eliminate its $40 billion budget. I went to the agency’s website and it had been shut down. Musk has called USAID a “criminal organization.” Trump apparently agrees. The White House says “For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.” In fact, Senator Joni Ernst had been rebuffed in her efforts to get an accounting of USAID’s spending and efforts to audit the Agency, giving rise to indications of spending abuse. Trump has also said that “George Soros received $260,000,000.00 from USAID and used this money to spread chaos, change governments and personal gain in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, UK, and the US.” I don’t think Soros needed the money.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave examples of agency spending: that she said were emblematic of “the waste and abuse that has run “$1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia’s workplaces, $70,000 for production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru.” “I don’t know about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don’t want my dollars going toward this crap.”

Interestingly, only the grant to a Serbian LGBTQ advocacy group was from USAID’s budget. The rest were funded by Biden’s State Department. USAID justified the grant when its mission director in Serbia said “At USAID, we know that inclusive development is important for driving economic growth and also for creating a healthier democracy.” Wasn’t this part and parcel of the Biden agenda?

Funding for the other examples came from the State Department and not from USAID. But the Biden agenda did not consider these as wasteful. More importantly to me is that USAID assistance has also flowed to anti-Israeli terrorist-tied groups. Millions have gone to such groups. USAID gave $100,000 to a Palestinian group whose leaders supported the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group. Just six days before Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on Israel, USAID gave $900,000 to a charity in Gaza associated with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Biden’s head of USAID, Samantha Power is anti-Israel and openly hostile to that country. Some of the staff at USAID had advocated stopping arms sales to Israel. Again these actions are consistent with those that ran through the Biden State Department and administration. So the funding to terrorist linked organizations should come as no surprise.

What about “abuse and fraud”? These accusations will likely be supported by an audit of USAID. Senator Joni Ernst has accused the agency of funding sex traffickers and the Wuhan lab. She says “The government agencies coordinating aid efforts should be eager to share details about how they’re using taxpayers’ money to make the world a better place. Yet the U.S. Agency for International Development, entrusted with disbursing tens of billions of aid dollars to other nations annually, is a rogue bureaucracy. I’ve uncovered that the agency often acts at odds with our nation’s best interests and uses intimidation and shell games to hide where money is going, how it’s being spent and why.” Further, she says “the agency is allowing grantees to skim significant amounts of money, up to and even beyond half of the total, for themselves.” 

Ernst’s statements are supported by a memo from inspector general Paul Martin that states that the agency “does not maintain a comprehensive internal database of subawardees.” In other words, the foreign entities that work with a primary grantee on a USAID project often go unreported, impeding the ability of agency investigators to vet fraud allegations.”

What a mess. But don’t be surprised if the same sort of thing has been occurring throughout every agency in the Federal government. USAID’s budget accounted for less than 1% of the total federal budget and its actions could have easily gone unnoticed. I remember the words of the late senator Everett Dirksen who said “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you are talking about real money.”

Not surprisingly the democrats want to save the agency and are introducing a bill to prevent Trump from shutting it down. One sympathetic news source reported that the effort was to stop Trump reporting that “Hundreds of programs covering billions of dollars worth of lifesaving aid across the globe came to a grinding halt after Trump on January 20 ordered a freeze of most U.S. foreign aid.” Note the phrase “lifesaving aid.” However, some republicans are on board with eliminating USAID pointing out that much of the aid goes for useful and strategic purposes and Trump should not “throw out the baby with the bathwater.” Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) says “They were funding a lot of stupid stuff. That’s a fact, but they’re also doing a lot of good stuff, too.” Michael McCaul of Texas says that Elon Musk’s strategy of shutting the entire agency down is an overcorrection. “The problem with doing that with a lifesaving agency like USAID that administers lifesaving food and medications is that you’re putting on a stop-payment order that may have some unintended consequences”.

Once again what is one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. USAID expenditures were consistent with the policy objectives of the Biden Administration. I am certain that if the funding were left intact and now followed the priorities of the Trump Administration, that critics on the left would point to funding that would infuriate them. For me the more important issue is that of fraud. The observation that the grantees are allowed to rake off part of the grants for their own use, and presumably the use of their buddies point to fraud and abuse. To me this is an example of misuse of funds and not  that of sending a grant to help fund an LGBTQ program on integrating more gay Serbians into the workforce.

But, what a mess.

Trump at the Super Bowl

Rumor has it that Donald Trump was at the Super Bowl. I know that before the game he met with first responders and the families of victims in the Bourbon Street terrorist act prior to kickoff. Afterwards it was rumored that he sat in a skybox with Saints owner Gayle Benson, daughter Ivanka and Roger Goodell. Where was Melania? Trump was only on camera during the playing of the National Anthem. I did not see him another time during the game. Was he there for the entire game? Don’t you think that was a bit strange especially since the game was on Fox which is supposed to be Trump apologist network. I even saw Taylor Swift once. But not Donald Trump. How come?

What was interesting was to hear the left go ballistic over the cost of Trump being the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl. There was one headline that read “People are outraged at the potential taxpayer cost of Trump’s Super Bowl appearance.” It turns out that the cost was “millions”. Supposedly it costs a million dollars just to fly Air Force One. Then “federal agents meeting with state and local officials to secure the airspace around the location and coordinate with local law enforcement and emergency personnel to prepare for the possibility of an attack.” One website says that the total cost was $20 million and wondered where was Elon Musk and DOGE?

Isn’t it interesting that these folk are suddenly worried about government spending? I didn’t hear any outrage over the Chips Act, the “Inflation Reduction” Act, DEI or any of Biden’s extravagances. I didn’t hear these folk protesting the costs of Biden’s continuous vacations. How often did he go to Delaware? I guess that he never decided to go see his Delaware Blue Hens play football. Maybe he was concerned about the costs.

I don’t recall this fake brouhaha when Trump came to Atlanta in 2018 to see the Alabama – Georgia national championship game. That was the most painful loss in my life. Georgia should have won that game. We were leading at halftime 13-0 and Nick Saban decided to replace his struggling quarterback, Jalen Hurts – yes the same Jalen Hurts – with Tua Tagovailoa who proceeded to throw three touchdown passes. The game ended up tied and Alabama could have won it in regulation if their field goal kicker had made a short 37 yarder. He missed. Georgia then kicked a field goal in overtime and proceeded to sack Tagovailoa leaving a fourth down and a mile to go. The game was won! We were celebrating when Tua found Devonta Smith somehow behind the Georgia secondary for a winning 41 yard touchdown. Crestfallen doesn’t begin to describe how I felt then and how I feel five years later.

Trump was at the game. It was a rainy cold evening and we had to stand in line for over an hour because the Secret Service was handling security at the game. When we finally got into the game, Trump was on the field for the coin toss and the National Anthem. The crowd shouted USA! USA! When we got to our seats there was an extra layer of security with another medal detector that we had to go through. We were puzzled until we looked to our left and in the next section saw Trump come in with his entourage. BTW, I related this story at the Super Bowl dinner we attended and one of our friends said that if Trump sat in the section next to her, she would move. We didn’t. They were great seats.

The only outrage we felt was at Georgia’s secondary. No one complained about the cost. Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show probably cost as much as $20 million as did Trump’s visit. Although I consider that expenditure (on Lamar) a waste, I have been schooled by younger people on Lamar’s greatness. He may have a message but I can’t get past the noise to appreciate it. Lamar usually would have to pay for all the expenses if he were on tour but at the Super Bowl the NFL covers all the expenses. So why isn’t there an outrage from the left that the money could have been better spent sending condoms to the Taliban? 

BTW, the last time the Eagles won the Super Bowl was in 2018 when they beat New England. Nick Foles rather than Jalen Hurts was the quarterback. Many of the Eagles refused the invitation to visit the White House protesting Donald Trump who had criticized the NFL players for taking a knee during the National Anthem. The Eagles organization said that they might send a small group to represent the team. Trump then canceled the event saying “The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow. They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the national anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.” 

It will be interesting to see if the Eagles come to the White House this time, give Trump a Super Bowl jersey with the number one on it or will they decline the event partly because Trump predicted a Kansas City victory and wore a red tie?

Tiger Woods’ mother just died. Kultida Woods was 80. She was Thai making Tiger along with Kamala Harris and Marcus Freeman, Asian-Americans. She met Woods’ father Earl during the Viet Nam war. I had the pleasure of meeting her, talking with her and walking with her at a Masters.

When I was at Georgia and the Master’s golf tournament started, my friends would take off for Augusta. I stayed in Athens. I couldn’t go to Augusta because the only blacks allowed at the Masters’ were wearing white coats or meandering around with a mop or a broom. There were no black (or women) members and no black had ever played on the golf course – unless they sneaked on after hours.

The first black to play the Masters’ was Lee Elder in 1975. He missed the cut. I graduated from Georgia in 1966 to put some perspective on it. Elder was a trail blazer. He was the first black to become a PGA member in 1978. He lost in a playoff to Jack Nicklaus in one tournament. He, at the invitation of Gary Player, played in the South African PGA Championship. Mind you this was during white rule and apartheid. Nelson Mandela did not become South African president until 1994.

When Elder won a PGA tournament in 1974, he received an automatic invitation to play the Masters. Although Pete Brown and Charlie Sifford had won tournaments earlier, the Masters did not have automatic qualifying until after their prime. Likely this was intentional. Incidentally, Tiger Woods’ son is named Charlie after Sifford. So I was long gone from Georgia by the time Elder played. I was disappointed in his performance but elated that merit rather than color would be a deciding factor in the Masters choosing its participants.

Then came Tiger Woods. In 1995, apartheid had fallen and Nelson Mandela was president of South Africa and Woods played in his first Masters as an amateur. I had the luck and good fortune of being on Capitol Hill when Mandella first spoke to a joint session of Congress and was invited by the chairman of the Black Congressional Caucus to attend the speech. They sat me in the chairs leading up to the podium. President Mandela after he spoke then shook the hands of all those in those seats. I told him that I had just come back from bow hunting in the Limpopo province and he had a lovely country and a wonderful people. We talked for a few minutes before he was pulled away to go to more important events. My mother saw me on C-Span.

Woods won his first masters in 1997. When Woods had his sex scandal he dropped out of golf for a couple of years. When he came back it was at the Masters. At that time two young Georgia football players who were friends of my daughter her freshman and sophomore years had become the athletic director and associate AD at Georgia. The associate AD who is a dear friend, Arthur Johnson, knew I was at the family farm in Gray and called me saying “Do you want to join Damon (the AD) and me for the Masters’? I think I said “Hell yes!” “Well meet us at the Waffle House in Madison.” We arrived in Augusta and went to a reception at a large antebellum house and were taken by golf cart to the tournament. There we joined Tiger’s group of Phil Knight (Georgia is a Nike school), Tiger’s friends and his mother Kultida.  I walked the 18 holes with the group and spent some time talking with his mother. She was charming and likely her son’s biggest fan. At the ninth hole, a reporter from the Golf Channel shoved a microphone in my face and asked how was Tiger doing? I said that his approach was impressive especially the fade that he put on the ball and if he could keep playing like that he should finish in the top 10. His mother said “I didn’t think you played?” I told her that I didn’t but as a professor I could sound knowledgeable even when I wasn’t. My mother saw me on the Golf Channel.

It is not surprising that Woods has withdrawn from an upcoming tournament. I am sure that his mother would have wanted him to play. But the loss of a mother is hard to process. I actually started to cry when a random memory of my mom came unbidden the other day. So let’s let Tiger grieve. RIP Mrs Woods.

Thoughts on the Super Bowl

You know you are old when your son was born during the first Super Bowl. It was January 15, 1967. Green Bay beat Kansas City 35-10. January 15 is also Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday. Back in those days you did not know the sex of the baby. My son had the good timing to be born at halftime so I did not miss a play. You were not allowed in the delivery room and when the doctor walked into the waiting room, I said “Is it a boy or a girl?” He said “Tell me the score first.” “14-10 Green Bay.”” It’s a boy.”

At least it is easy to remember how old he is. Just subtract one from the Super Bowl number.

The MVP of the first game was Bart Starr. Green Bay had 10 players who were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Kansas City had four players although arguments can be made for Otis Taylor, Ed Budde, Jim Tyrer, Mike Garrett and Fred “The Hammer” Williamson. 

The halftime show was Grambling’s marching band. The Anaheim High School flag team and Al Hirt.

We’ve come a long way?

You know you are old if you hated the Super Bowl halftime show.

I actually could not take it and retreated into a friend’s kitchen to talk to him about Lady Vol’s basketball. I take back what I said when Tennessee fired Kellie Harper and hired Kim Caldwell. Caldwell has infused energy back into the program and although the Lady Vol’s are plagued by a series of close losses, the future looks bright.

We were guests of that dear friend and his wife along with three other couples. The food was outstanding and more than compensated for the game and halftime.

But back to the Super Bowl.

I had never heard of Kendrick Lamar.

Trump was at the game and this was the NFLs way of telling Trump what it thought of his slashing of DEI. Roger Goodell had said earlier that diversity would continue to be a priority for the league.

Was it because of Trump that the “End Racism” lettering was missing from the end zones? Instead “It takes all of us” and “Choose Love” were in the end zone. Some players had “Choose Love” on the back of their helmets. I am sure Jordan Love was flattered. 

Who are the NFL audience anyway – a bunch of young black kids with tattoos and baggy pants?

Must be unless white folk really do like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.

Of course earlier Super Bowl halftimes had Usher, Rihanna and somebody called Big Boi.

I guess Bruno Mars, Beyonce and Chris Brown are too old school.

I did see Shaboozey in a commercial and thought about how he and Kane Brown might have been an interesting halftime choice.

However, they even play rap/hip hop very loudly before and during the Georgia football games and all the young white kids are bopping up and down and singing along.

Although the biggest reaction at Georgia’s sing along was to Twisted Sister’s “We are not gonna take it” which of course is how I felt during Kendrick Lamar’s performance.

What was really disappointing is that the game was played in New Orleans and did not feature that city’s vibrant music scene. For us old folk, I would have loved seeing a tribute to the Neville Brothers and Dr John. I could even give them a pass if the hip hop/rappers were from New Orleans like Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh. Better yet why didn’t they showcase the wide variety of music in the city with its blues, hip hop, Zydeco, jazz and bluegrass? Way to drop the ball NFL.

A disappointing halftime.

A disappointing game – unless you were an Eagles fan. At least we didn’t get shown Taylor Swift after each Kansas City play. Was Travis Kelce even playing?

For me this Super Bowl failed on all fronts.

The Trump Doctrine and Palestinian Diaspora

Trump’s crazy talk (how my sainted mother would have characterized it) is producing results. He threatened Canada and Mexico with tariffs and they strengthened their border security. Mexico is trying to keep illegals and fentanyl out of the States while Canada is trying to keep US liberals from fleeing to Toronto and Montreal. What’s up with Canadian “bacon” anyway? Trump threatened Panama and they agreed to cut ties with the Hong Kong firm that operates Panama’s ports and has withdrawn from China’s Belt and Road infrastructure program. That program has 150 countries as members with 3,000 projects and around a trillion dollars pledged (so says China). Then there is Greenland. Trump wants to buy it from Denmark who says its not for sale. Has anyone asked the Greenlanders (Greenies?). The answer is yes. Sixty percent want to join the US, 37 percent do not while three percent were not certain what the US is.

Greenland is part of North America. It is closer to New York than it is to Copenhagen. A major problem in my mind is the premier of Greenland is called “Naalakkersuisut Siulittaasuat”. Hey, if Navajos can speak Dine bizaad (called the world’s most difficult language) then why not Greenlandic? Greenland has a population of around 58,000. Wyoming has 10 times that number so Greenland could not be the 51^st state. Maybe Greenland would have the same status as American Samoa with its 45,000 residents. (BTW, Christina Thompson’s Sea People tells the story of the amazing travels of the Polynesian peoples In the Pacific and is one of my all time favorite books). All Trump has to do is to threaten to impose tariffs on Carlsberg beer and the Danes will probably give us the island. Then we will all be saying Ukiortaami pilluarit  (good morning), Naak W.C-ii? (where is the bathroom?) and most importantly Sumi baaja ippa? (where is the beer?).

So maybe Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza is not so crazy after all. I thought all the reports said that Israel had devasted Hamas and wiped out most of their fighters? Well did you see the mob of masked Hamas fighters surrounding the release of the Israeli hostages? It looked like there were thousands of Hamas fighters present seeking to intimate (further) the Israeli women solders that were set free. Maybe Israel ought to rethink this so cease fire because Hamas certainly does not look destroyed to me. 

I can see why the Israelis embraced Trump’s idea of relocating the Palestinians and taking ownership of Gaza. Why should the Palestinians remain an existential threat to Israel by being their next door neighbor? Consider that Hamas governed Gaza. Its army then invaded Israel on October 7 inflicting the most Jewish casualties since World War II. Israel then invaded Gaza and by all accounts, Hamas lost. Why should they be allowed to remain on Israel’s doorstep? Yes I know the detractors will shout “ethnic cleansing” but so what? 

History is replete with the sometimes forcible relocation of ethnic peoples. There were over a million ethnic Poles who were evicted by the Russians after World War II. The Polish transfers were only a part of the total amount of 20 million ethnic peoples forced to leave their homes. Following agreements by Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt at Yalta in 1945, three million Sudeten Germans were expelled from their homes in Czechoslovakia to Germany. As many as 12 million German speaking residents of other European countries were forced to leave their countries and sent to Germany and Austria. Too date I have heard no one clamoring for the return of the Sudeten to their homelands.

In the case of Gaza the focus has been on sending the Palestinians to their next door neighbors in Jordan and Egypt – who clearly do not want them. Two million Palestinians are already in Jordan. But only 100,000 are in Egypt. There are an estimated 3 million in Gaza, 1.6 million in Israel and 3 million in the West Bank. Syria has less than 500,000. One can understand why countries would not want a vast number of Palestinian migrants flooding their borders. Going back to Trump’s idea, what would happen if all the Arab countries (excluding Jordan) agreed to take a percentage of the 3 million Palestinians from Gaza? UNESCO identifies 23 Arab countries. So if each of the remaining 22 Arab countries agreed to allow the immigration of 136,363 Palestinians, then no country would have an outsized burden for resettlement. I just see it now: Trump threatening the Arab world (except Jordan) with 100 percent tariffs unless they take in 136,363 Palestinian immigrants. Ethnic cleansing? Let’s call it ethnic displacement..

I’m confused – so what’s new?

Ok, I’m confused. The January jobs report showed that US employment slowed with an unemployment rate of 4 percent. CNN reported that the companies were acting as if the economy was in a recession. Forbes said “January Jobs Report Reveals Weaker Growth Than Predicted—Weakest Start to Year Since 2016.” The venerable Jasmine Crockett tweeted that the Trump economy was in the dumpster, “So it turns out when you DON’T go woke, you go broke. Trump’s New DEI? Dying Economy and Inflation. It’s only two weeks in and Trump is Making America Broke Again!” Huh? Doesn’t she realize that the January jobs report reflects the end of the Biden years and has nothing to do with Trump? Oops!

In the past, the White House would just shrug off such a tweet. But not this White House. Alex Pfeiffer, Deputy Advisor to the President, responded in kind, “Mazie Hirono is breathing a sigh of relief. Jasmine is officially the dumbest lawmaker on the Hill. This jobs report consists entirely of data from before President Trump took office. I guess I should thank you for pointing out the failure of Bidenomics.” Take that Jasmine! In one fell swoop the White House has dismissed Crockett as a light weight, even lighter than Hawaii’s Hirono who is generally classified as the dumbest legislator in DC. But all this reminds me of when I was in Washington and a midwest senator was called the dumbest man in the Senate. His response was “Well dumb people need representing too.”

The White House retort was likely in response to the visceral hatred that Crockett has for Trump. Crockett has said “Let me tell you: We have a thug in charge of the United States. And if we don’t wake up, we may not have a United States, because right now he has only been successful in being a divider in chief.” She continues “The problem is that Americans thought that it was OK to take a full-fledged criminal and make him the president of the United States, and then they want to act aghast when he does criminal things,” Come to think of it, in light of these comments, the White House reaction was pretty mild.

Isn’t it interesting that we have hardly heard a peep from AOC? It’s now Crockett leading the charge for the Squad. What happened? Those on the right could substitute “Biden” for “Trump” and completely agree with the statements. Also interesting is Crockett’s use of the word “thug.” Among blacks, them’s fighting words. Thug has become the nominally polite way of white folk using the N-word. As the great John McWhorther states, “When somebody talks about thugs ruining a place, it is almost impossible today that they are referring to somebody with blond hair. It is a sly way of saying there go those black people ruining things again. And so anybody who wonders whether thug is becoming the new N-word doesn’t need to. It most certainly is.” Crockett knows this so what is she really saying when she calls Trump a blond hair blue eyed thug?

Confusion part 2. A state representative in Michigan says that she got sterilized to avoid becoming pregnant while Trump is president. Huh? Laurie Pohutsky said “I refuse to let my body be treated as currency by an administration that only sees value in my ability to procreate.” If you see the logic in this please let me know. How does her not having a baby hurt Trump? Rather as one person commented “The gene pool breathes a sigh of relief!” Mind you, this is an elected state representative. What was that quote about dumb people needing representation too?

Confusion #3. Lastly, as I pointed out before, the California climate zealots are strangely quiet about the impact on the safety concerns of the blazing EVs and the lithium battery factory fire in Lost Angeles (formerly known as Los Angeles). There are over 400,000 EVs in LA metro and the lithium-ion battery factory was one of the world’s largest and burned to the ground. Given all the toxins spewed into the air, especially cobalt, one would think warnings would have been issued to the residents about possible contamination. But no. Soil tests show levels 580 times over the acceptable limit. Yet California’s EPA has issued no warnings about air quality threats. However, effects of lithium fires can cause pneumonia, irregular heartbeat, fluid buildup in the lungs and even death. According to a 2014 National Toxicology Program study, “Cobalt toxicity in humans can cause respiratory problems, including impaired lungs, asthma, interstitial lung disease, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. It can also affect the cardiovascular system. Danger for small animals, plants, and birds varies depending on other environmental factors, although extremely high levels can destroy healthy ecosystems by inhibiting plant growth or causing plant death.” We could be looking at our own Chernobyl. Is the California EPA being silent to protect its climate agenda?

So much to do. So little time.

Trump sure has been busy shaking things up both domestically and abroad. But there is so much to do and so little time. He is cracking eggs. Trump is an outsider. He is not the cautious politician or diplomat afraid to bruise feelings. Rather he is the opposite. He detests the status quo. He sees rot in the complacency and complicity of politics. He thinks out the box.

He has threatened our allies with tariffs shaking up the staid world of polite diplomacy. In fact it is difficult trying to find a country he has not threatened – maybe Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. He referred to Canada as the 51^st state although I for one don’t want them. He threatens to have the military seize the Panama Canal. Want to bet that the Panamanians won’t eventually give Trump whatever he wants in order to keep the canal? 

What career politician or diplomat would have come up with the idea of the US taking over Gaza, evicting the Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries and making Gaza the Riviera of the Middle East? The sheer audacity of the plan is stunning and completely off the wall. There is zero support for the idea in the Arab world. But some Israelis like the idea. Since Trump broached the idea during a meeting with Netanyahu I presume that he favors it too. First it would remove a swath of people who hate Isreal from its doorstep. Second, it would force its Arabs neighbors to have to deal with the Palestinians. Third, it would end the push for a two-state solution. Yes there is opposition but Trump doesn’t care. Forced expulsion of the Palestinians would be decried as ethnic cleansing. But Trump doesn’t care. It will be interesting what he suggests next. I am waiting for him to make some off-the-wall comment about ending the war in Ukraine. Given Ukraine’s wealth, I doubt if he will abandon the country and let NATO handle the problem alone. Don’t be shocked if he comes up with some crazy idea or just tell Putin to get lost.

Domestically, Trump sees the bureaucratic rot in the Federal government. The deep state resists change and is virtually all in the democratic camp. A poll revealed that most of the government would try to resist Trump’s policies. So it is no surprise that he and his appointees are moving quickly to purge the government of as many of the resistance as possible. They have fired vast swaths of officials at the FBI and HHS. They have offered an early out to government employees and more than 40,000 have agreed to leave. The government unions sued Trump successfully to slow down the exit process. But the process will continue albeit a bit slower due to the court order. At issue is whether the buyout order is legal. If it is not legal, then Trump will likely just resort to firing everyone and testing the legality of that action. Speaking of firing, one of the members of the Labor Relations Board is telling Trump to pound sand. Gwynne Wilcox was appointed by Biden and confirmed by the Senate to a term ending in 2028. Trump fired her. She is suing saying that the law states that she can only be fired for neglect or malfeasance. Watch this case carefully because if the courts uphold her firing then Trump might be emboldened to try to go after bigger fish. Did I hear anyone say Jay Powell?

Over at “Justice”, new AG Bondi is firing all those associated with the anti-Trump weaponization of the department under Garland. Thirty attorneys have already been terminated. I don’t know if I support this particular action. Those attorneys were doing their job as prescribed by their bosses. Isn’t that what attorneys do? I hope that Bondi interviewed them before their firing. HHS is rumored to be firing “thousands” of employees. Of course 80,000 people work for the agency. In fact, I think Trump or his peeps read my blog. Recall that I suggested that Trump instruct all the agencies to trim their workforce by a certain percent at each budget cycle. Five percent is not a bad number to start.

Then there is the mess at Education with the trans and DEI mandates. The mess at Energy with the natural gas moratorium. The mess at Interior with all the no drill policies off shore, in the Artic and on Federal lands. The mess at the Pentagon which turned into a social agency rather than a lethal force under Biden. The mess at the FAA of their policy of discouraging applications from whites to favor the placement of minorities. This is an awful scandal and prompts all the haters to question whether any minority hired during the Biden years in any position would be employed otherwise. What a bunch of messes. I wonder if there is any part of the federal government that isn’t a mess?

All the while the democrats are flailing in the wind protesting and voting against every Trump nominee. They have put a temporary hold on Kash Patel for the FBI. Patel scares the blazes out of them. They have resorted to yelling at the nominees at the confirmation hearings and trying to berate them – to no avail. Their latest embarrassing maneuver was to have every democrat senator issue a protest during the vote for Russ Vought’s confirmation as budget director. BTW, one of my Georgia classmates Jim Miller was Reagan’s budget chief. Ed Markey, for example said “For clean air and clean water I vote no.” Blumenthal said “For our veterans I vote no.” When has Blumenthal ever favored veterans? Elizabeth Warren shouted “BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!” After each vote, the presiding officer said to no avail “Pursuant to rule 12, no debate is permitted during a vote.” The dems were upset that during the first Trump administration Vought was the one who suggested using Schedule F to fire 50,000 federal employees. Vought was confirmed 53-47.

Go get ‘em Donald! So much to do. So much rot. So little time.

Why did Putin invade Ukraine?

I was wondering why Putin invaded Ukraine. It was obvious that he was going to do so. You don’t amass 200,000 troops on the Ukraine border just to have a parade. Putin made noises about annexing the two Russian speaking provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk and supporting their insurgents during the buildup. Putin was emboldened by Russia seizing Crimea in 2014 without hardly a peep from the West or resistance from Ukraine. Although some pointed to the seizure as a result of Crimean residents wanting to reunite with Russia, the main reason was to keep the Black Sea port of Sevastopol. This gave the Russian navy access to the Mediterranean. Some say that Russian invaded Ukraine to prevent it from joining NATO. If that were the case, then why didn’t it invade Finland? Some say that Putin was trying to reclaim the borders of the old Soviet Union. So why didn’t he annex Belarus? Others say that Russia considers Ukraine as part of Russia and not a separate country, yet the Ukrainians have a separate language and culture.

I have never believed any of this. I am an economist so I looked for economic reasons for Russian to invade Ukraine. If Russia annexed the Crimea for military reasons, then it likely wanted the rest of Ukraine for reasons other than unifying Russian speakers. First, they probably perceived that Ukraine was weak and they could annex it as easily as the Crimea. Second, they thought that the Russian-speakers would rebel against Ukraine. Third, they were greedy. 

Russia invaded because Ukraine is rich in agricultural and mineral resources. Ukraine is called the breadbasket of Europe – while Russia is simply a basket case. Ukraine has some of the world’s most fertile land and is one of the world’s largest exporters of grain. More than 70 percent of the country is agricultural. It is the world’s largest producer of sunflowers and sunflower oil. It is a major producer of barley, wheat, corn, rye, soybeans and potatoes. Obviously, the war has adversely affected food production with prices increasing for agricultural produce. However, isn’t it interesting that Russia has an agreement with Ukraine to keep the safe transport of produce out of Ukraine? If Russia had blockaded agricultural exports, experts said that there would have been a food crisis in much of Africa and parts of Asia. That would have turned those countries, some of whom are Russian allies, against the invasion.

Although, Ukraine as an agricultural giant is well known, less well known is that the country is rich in other resources. The country is a mineral superpower, home of some of the largest reserves of vital minerals. The US says that of 50 minerals that are vital to its national security, Ukraine has ample supplies of 22 of them. In fact, Ukraine has large reserves of 117 of the 120 most vital minerals in the world. Iron ore, graphite, shale gas, uranium, lithium, manganese and others are in Ukraine valued in excess of $26 trillion. Ukraine also has offshore hydrocarbon deposits, oil and natural gas. It has coal reserves valued over $20 trillion along with deposits of cobalt, copper, beryllium, nickel and tin. Russia wants these riches. 

I may be naïve with regard to foreign affairs but the agriculture, the minerals and the energy reserves are reasons enough for Russia to try to seize control of all of Ukraine. I wonder why this has been ignored in the press? Moreover, we keep hearing that we have no strategic interest in the Ukraine so why should we keep supplying them with weapons? One very strategic reason is not to let the country’s riches fall into the hands of the Russians.

Since we have supported Ukraine with over $200 billion in arms and supplies, I would be disappointed if Trump didn’t continue to support Ukraine and establish a significant trade agreement with it. Rather than continuing to be dependent upon China for rare earth materials, we could trade with Ukraine. In fact, Ukraine could replace China as the major source of minerals for green energy. That fact alone would be reason enough for the Russian invasion. Trump loves tariffs but a free trade agreement with Ukraine makes a lot of sense. It would be foolish if we didn’t seek to end this war with a trade agreement that would benefit America.

You know you are old if:

Your hair is growing in your ears and not on your head

Every artist you listen to is dead

The last movie you saw was “African Queen.”

Old ladies open the door for you.

Your socks don’t always match

You have a record collection

Your first new car cost $1,750 and your new 13” color TV cost $550.

You have to think about how to get up from the couch

You keep saying that the dog farted

Your son just retired

You can recognize the songs being played in department stores

You sign along to the songs in the elevator

You sleeep in your bathrobe

Your other half keeps introducing you as “the older black guy”

You were going on a Walk for Alzheimer’s but forgot where it was

You start calling your dog “dog”

You think Catfish Hunter is someone who lived in the Okefenokee swamp

You start liking brussels sprouts

You keep asking your other half to call you so you can find your phone

You put ranch dressing in your coffee and cream over your salad and couldn’t tell the difference.

You went to buy new corduroy trousers this winter and the clerks had no clue what you were talking about

Your eyebrows have dandruff

You have to tie a belt to the end of the bed to pull you up in the morning

You have started driving faster so you won’t forget where you were going

Your son is a grandfather

All your living heroes are dead

The president is younger than you

Your doctor hadn’t heard of the Supremes

Naps are now called senility snoozes

You thought Taylor Swift was a fast seamstress

Your car keys keep hiding from you

You need to add on to the bathroom sink to hold your prescriptions

You need to set off the alarm to find your car at the mall

The twinkle in her eye is from the reflection of the sun

They start putting one candle on your birthday cake because of the fire hazard

You think “atrophy” is what you won playing tennis

When they say “smoking hot body” you think of cremation

Farting is a walking aid

Your children are middle aged

All of your favorite TV shows are reruns

People come to visit and admire your antique furniture

The smoke alarm goes off when they light the candles on your birthday cake

I stopped my other half from cooking. She must have thought I was a god when she kept placing burnt offerings before me

Your love tattoo looks like a turnip

The smoke alarm battery needs changing and you go around your house spraying for crickets

You have been there and done that but can’t remember what that was

You enjoy Mondays

People say you are aging gracefully and they mean you are slowly looking worse

When Mao said that the longest journey begins with a single step I don’t think he meant going to the bathroom

Milk used to be delivered to your front door

You mother used to buy her chickens at live kill shops

Someone told me “Have a good weekend.” I thought it was Tuesday.

Your grandparents had an outhouse (with Sears Roebuck catalogs and corn cobs)

You remember when Joe Biden had hair plugs

When asked “How are you” you have to think before answering.

One great thing about having a partner your age is that she thinks you still look good

You remember when 17” was a big screen TV

You always take a nap after lunch

You remember when a refrigerator was called an ice box

You think a photographic memory means you can remember every photograph you have ever seen

The commercials on the TV shows you watch are mostly for EDs or hair loss

You remember when girl’s basketball was half court

When you get lost you can be found by a trail of used Kleenex.

You gave up golf because you could never remember where you hit the ball

Holes in the knees of your jeans used to mean you were poor

A night out means sitting on the front porch 

You need to remember things like “76 Trombones” or else you will forget your age

You remember when a gallon of gasoline cost 99 cents

You go looking for something and halfway there forget what you were looking for

You can remember the name of your first grade teacher but not that of your next door neighbor

One of your favorite singers last released a song 20 years ago

You have outlived your life expectancy

You suffer from CRS but can’t remember what that stands for 

Your parents’ grandparents were all slaves

Truly random thoughts #50

It is said that the sign of intelligence is learning from other people’s mistakes. If that is true then there are no intelligent socialists. 

It really is weird to be the same age as old people.

Those people who said that Trump is using tariffs as a bargaining cudgel were right in round one. Mexico and Canada have agreed to strengthen their borders and Trump has agreed to delay the tariff threat by one month. What happens then?

Trump is a bully. Even the Ontario prime minister called him that. Would Trump really plunge us into an international trade war if someone called his bluff? Probably.

Tofu is a food-like substance.

Trump’s press secretary really roiled things up by calling all illegals criminals.

I still say that Biden should have pardoned Trump.

BTW if an illegal commits a crime it seems strange to deport them rather than putting them in jail. Won’t they just sneak back in and commit more crimes?

Speaking of roiling things up, when the Army did not disclose the name of the third person on the Blackhawk helicopter that crashed into the American Airlines jet at Washington Reagan, speculation ran rampant that the person must have been a woman and that Trump would blame DEI. Indeed, the pilot was a woman and true to form Trump blamed DEI. He also blamed DEI for any air controller error. In so doing, he has caused large swaths of whites to assert DEI for any black or any woman in any position of authority. Surely, the women he appointed are not DEI hires. Sometimes I wish he would just shut up.

Speaking of DEI, I was once asked “How did you get to UT?” Of course I could have said “I drove.” But instead I said that I was walking down the street and was stopped by a guy claiming to be the business school dean who said “Can you spell “finance”?” I said yes and he said “Could you come teach it at UT?” And that’s how I got here.

What do you call a vegan gluten-free, no salt, fake meat burger? Compost.

Someone pointed out to me that in Oregon cocaine is legal but straws aren’t. I guess the junkies have now established a black market for straws.

It has always puzzled me that our institutions of higher learning have license plate holders that say “alumni”. I am always tempted to say to the driver, “I see that both you and your spouse went to the university.” The response is usually, “No, I went there. She went to Blah-Blah.” If that were then case then his license plate holder should say “alumnus” not “alumni”. The only schools that get this right are Morehouse alumnus and Spelman alumna. Isn’t it strange that only two HBCUs are the ones that know the correct Latin?

Trump is a bull in a china shop (boy I could get some milage out of that one). He proposed moving the Palestinians out of Gaza and into neighboring Arab countries. The Arabs went berserk. The Arabs have made it clear that they do not want them and all the problems that they bring. Egypt has barred them from entry. Jordan views them as destabilizing. Sad but there is really no place for them to go.

I told my students (yes I am back in the classroom after 13 years) that I don’t give multiple choice/true false exams even though this class is twice the size of any undergraduate class I taught in my 25 years at UT. I told them that because of that their grades were going to be lower but they will learn more and they if that bothered them to drop the course. Seven did. 

I found much to my surprise that I have missed teaching – although it will screw up my turkey hunting. However, I don’t miss it enough to do it again. This is a one off, Done as a favor to the department head. No way I could have done this is the fall and missed deer season. I said years ago that I would not be one of those doddering old coots wandering around college campuses because they had no life outside the university. Yet here I am.

Growing old at the university. When I first started, in response to something I said, students would say “My brother does that.” Later it was “My father does that.” Much later it was “My grandfather does that.” Now its “My grandfather did that when he was alive.”