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Back in class, Global Media and does Bill Clinton, the first black president, smoke Kools?

I will bet anyone $5 that Trump will wear out his welcome and that the democrats will take back the House in 2 years and that JD Vance will not be president following Trump.

After 13 years I am back in the classroom as a favor to the Finance department head, one of my many coauthors. The person that teaches the senior level class in Financial Markets and Institutions is on leave and I was asked to teach one section of the course. At first I said no but after talking with the department head I finally acquiesced. I thought it would be a mistake since I am so out of touch with this generation (see my posting on the Academy Awards). Looking at the textbook there are only two new topics, cryptocurrency and fintech firms. I have kept current on all other issues so it was not going to be an issue with knowledge but one with age. My great grandmother died when I was six. She was a slave. None of the students were born when Bill Clinton was president. Now that is an age/cultural divide that may be difficult to overcome. 

I mentioned that the Wealth of Nations was published in 1776 and asked what was the significance of that date, only one student knew. No one had heard of Milton Friedman. They are finance majors but couldn’t define basis point. All are on Tik Tok – I thought tick tock was how a clock sounds. The technology in the classroom is daunting. I needed someone to come in the first two sessions to show me how to operate it and then how to mirror my laptop to it. In order to use the whiteboard (in my day they were blackboards – racist?) I have to turn off the overheads, the screen rises. Then I have to turn back on the overheads so the screen lowers. Why in the world did they put the screen in front of the whiteboard is baffling.

Have you heard of the US Agency for Global Media? Neither had I until Trump nominated Brent Bozell to head it. He also nominated the perpetual loser and destroyer of the Arizona republican party Kari Lake to head Voice of America – which I did not think was still in existence. I went to the agency’s website and here is what it says:

“USAGM oversees six entities: two federal organizations — the Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and TV Martí — and five non-profit organizations — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the Open Technology Fund, and the Frontline Media Fund — which receive grants from USAGM.”

 “Its mission to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”

Look for Kari Lake to screw this one up too. So it is a propaganda arm of the US government. I wonder what they were broadcasting the past four years? Do we really need a radio free Europe? This is something that DOGE should take a look at. Its budget is $950 million.

Trump is obviously after the gay vote by having the FDA withdraw its proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. According to the CDC, 36% of LGBT smokers smoke menthol cigarettes compared to 29% of straight smokers. Tobacco companies advertise at LGBT events, contribute to HIV/AIDS organizations and sponsor gay pride festivals. But all the brouhaha surrounding the ban has been focused on blacks where 85% of smokers smoke mentholated cigarettes.

The FDA proposed the ban in 2022 and for a while it looked like a slam dunk. However, the White House did not issue a final ban due to intense pressure from these “marginalized” groups who raised holy hell. HHS Secretary Becerra said the proposed ban elicited “an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement.”  The criminal justice movement? Is there really such a thing? There were comments on the ban that it would fuel a black market and worsen criminal justice inequities, I guess because the cops would target black and gay communities. Naturally, dropping the ban elicited a hue and cry from the usual suspects. One health advocacy group said “This decision prioritizes politics over lives, especially black lives”. (They left out the gays). But Al Sharpton opposed the ban putting him for at least one instance on the same side as Trump and having those on the left saying that he sold out to the tobacco industry. No word from Jessee Jackson. I wonder what brand of cigarettes does he smoke?

Here are the nominations for the 2025 Academy Awards

I don’t go to movies so I have not seen any of the movies nominated for the Academy Awards.. I have only heard of Demi Moore and Ralph Feinnes.  I have not even heard any of the songs either. I wager that Eilia Perez will run away with the awards simply because its star Karla Sofia Gascón is transgender nominated for best actress. Hollywood loves to be politically correct. But if Gascón is transgender should he/she be nominated for both best actor and best actress?

Best picture

• “Anora” (Neon)
• “The Brutalist” (A24)
• “A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight)
• “Conclave” (Focus)
• “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
• “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix)
• “I’m Still Here” (Sony Classics)
• “Nickel Boys” (Amazon/MGM)
• “The Substance” (Mubi)
• “Wicked” (Universal)

Best director

• Sean Baker, “Anora”
• Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”
• James Mangold, “A Complete Unknown”
• Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”
• Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”

Best actress

• Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked”
• Karla Sofia Gascón, “Emilia Pérez”
• Mikey Madison, “Anora”
• Demi Moore, “The Substance”
• Fernanda Torres, “I’m Still Here”

Best actor

• Adrian Brody, “The Brutalist”
• Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”
• Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”
• Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”
• Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”

Best supporting actress

• Monica Barbaro, “A Complete Unknown”
• Ariana Grande, “Wicked”
• Felicity Jones, “The Brutalist”
• Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave”
• Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez”

Best supporting actor

• Yura Borisov, “Anora”
• Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
• Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown”
• Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”
• Jeremy Strong, “The Apprentice”

Best international feature

• “I’m Still Here,” Walter Salles (Brazil)
• “The Girl with the Needle,” Magnus von Horn (Denmark)
• “Emilia Pérez,” Jacques Audiard (France)
• “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Mohammad Rasoulof (Germany)
• “Flow,” Miguel Gomes (Latvia)

Best documentary feature

• “Black Box Diaries,” Shiori Itō (MTV)
• “No Other Land,” Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor (No distributor)
• “Porcelain War,” Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev (Picturehouse)
• “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” Johan Grimonprez (Kino Lorber)
• “Sugarcane,” Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie (Nat Geo)

Best animated feature

• “Flow” (Janus Films/Sideshow)
• “Inside Out 2” (Disney/Pixar)
• “Memoir of a Snail” (IFC Films)
• “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” (Aardman/Netflix)
• “The Wild Robot” (Dreamworks/Universal)

Best original song

• “Never Too Late,” “Elton John: Never Too Late” (Elton John & Brandi Carlile)
• “El Mal,” “Emilia Pérez” (Clement Ducol, Camille & Jacques Audiard)
• “Mi Camino,” “Emilia Pérez” (Clement Ducol & Camille)
• “Like a Bird,” “Sing Sing” (Adrian Quesada & Abraham Alexander)
• “The Journey,” “The Six Triple Eight” (Diane Warren)

I was driving behind a Centas van that had the inscription “The Uniform People.” Well when the two guys in the truck didn’t look anything alike.

I try to keep references to AOC at a minimum but last week she had a couple of rants. One was on the House bill to stop trans “women” from women’s sports and locker room facilities. She said “The majority right now says there’s no place in this bill that says it opens up for genital examinations. Well, here’s the thing, there’s no enforcement mechanism in this bill. And when there is no enforcement mechanism, you open the door to every enforcement mechanism!” Kamala Harris would be proud of that word salad.

Then she went off on Tik Tok for their being grateful to “President Trump” for keeping them in business. AOC was furious stating that Trump was a private citizen and not president (this was three days before he took office). I doubt if AOC says “Mr” Obama or “Mr” Clinton and they are private citizens too. I wonder if she went off Biden called Harris, “President Harris”?

Speaking of which, why is AOC so widely covered in the media? She is one of 435 members of the House, the vast majority of whom are faceless and unknown to the public. Sure she is loud and outrageous but so is Jasmine Crockett who said of Tom Homan (Trumps immigration czar) “We have someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing. You have Trump that goes out there, him and his minions, who say things like ‘you know what, ‘We’re only get rid of the bad ones,’ right?”  “There will be a rude awakening on both sides.” Homan hit back saying “Look, I don’t know who this lady is. Apparently, she’s not real smart, but she can say what she wants.” Then there was the House hearing dustup between Crockett and Nancy Mace when Crockett said “I can see that somebody’s campaign coffers really are struggling right now. So [Mace] is gonna keep saying ‘trans, trans, trans, trans’ so that people will feel threatened, and child, listen —.” Mace cut her off and said “I am no child, do not call me a child, I am no child. If you want to take it outside, we can do that.”

If those comments were made by AOC, the world would know all about it. With Crockett not so much. AOC has over a million followers on Bluesky and 13.5 million on X. Some say its because AOC is cute. But Crockett is much better looking. So what is it?

Both Biden and Harris seem to think that there is a 28^th Amendment and it is the Equal Rights Amendment. Please tell Joe and Kamala that there is no 28^th Amendment. We knew that Biden was addled and I guess it must have rubbed off on Harris – perhaps when Joe was smelling her hair. Here is Biden’s statement:

“I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.”

The ERA expired 40 years ago. 

Here is Harris’

Equality is a fundamental promise of our democracy. That is why the Equal Rights Amendment belongs in our Constitution. It makes our nation stronger, and it is the law of the land because the American people have spoken in states across our nation.

Harris is a champion of women and girls? Harris has been an aggressive supported to trans “rights” including surgeries for minors. Harris has thrown women and girls under the bus to push the agenda of a miniscule number of confused people. Champion? Hardly.

Did Biden issue a preemptive pardon for Fauci because of his lying about funding gain of function research at the Wuhan lab? Rand Paul was relentless in his questioning of Fauci and Fauci vehemently denied it. Well the deputy director of the National Institutes of Health finally admitted that the NIH had funded gain of function research at the lab prior to the outbreak of Covid 19. Recall that Fauci testified that NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” He lied and if I am not mistaken lying to congress is a federal offense (although the congress itself is exempt).

Why did Biden also pardon everyone associated with the J 6 committee? All committee members, the staff, and all the police officers who testified before the committee were pardoned? Pardoned for what? Was it Liz Cheney’s tampering with a witness? Was it the destroying of documents? Were the cops lying? Who knows but this really smells.

Biden also preemptively pardoned his family. No not just his wayward son but also his sister Valarie Biden Owens, his brother James B. Biden and his wife, Sara Jones Biden; his sister, and her husband, John T. Owens; and his brother, Francis W. Biden. Now Hunter has already been under indictment and tried for some of his crimes but the rest of the family? The family pardons were “for any nonviolent offenses against the United States which they may have committed or taken part of during the period of January 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon. Maybe I missed it but I was not aware that any family member was under investigation or had been indicted for a crime. Biden’s pardon prevents any of that from occurring. 

Here is the statement from James Comer, House Oversight Committee chair:

“President Biden’s preemptive pardons for the Biden Crime Family serve as a confession of their corruption as they sold out the American people to enrich themselves. Our investigation revealed that at least ten members of the Biden Crime Family and their associates raked in over $30 million by selling Joe Biden’s influence to corrupt foreign entities and individuals in China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan. The legacy media should be ashamed of themselves for covering up Joe Biden and his family’s abuse of power, corruption, and obstruction. The American people have seen through the legacy media’s coverup and the Bidens’ lies, and they know the truth: President Biden abused his public office to create a slush fund for his family. President Biden will go down as the most corrupt president in U.S. history, and our investigation will be remembered as one of the most successful ever conducted by Congress.”

Don Corleone would be proud.

Marcus Garvey: Free at Last

Marcus Garvey was one of Joe Biden’s last minute pardons. Garvey is a towering historical figure who preached black independence and self-help and is largely overlooked in white-authored textbooks. This brief bio is from Milton Sernett’s “African American Religious History.”

“Garvey came to the United States from Jamaica in 1916, a year after the death of Booker T. Washington. (He was born in Jamaica in 1887). W. E. B. DuBois and others in the NAACP who subscribed to the notion of “the talented tenth” had not inspired the black masses. Garvey did. His “Back to Africa” movement included the Black Star Line, steamships intended to make triangular voyages between New York City, the West Indies, and Africa. But this scheme failed, and Garvey was arrested in 1923 on charges of mail fraud. He had many critics, some of whom imputed to him the aim of creating a black Ku Klux Klan. Others accused him of being a supreme egotist, while DuBois and the NAACP warred with his separatist philosophy. Convicted in 1925, Garvey remained in prison (in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary) until President Coolidge commuted his sentence in 1927 and had him deported to Jamaica. He died in 1940 in London, and was largely forgotten until the revival of interest in black nationalism during the 1960s”.

Martin Luther King, Jr said of Garvey “He was the first man, on a mass scale and level” to give millions of black people “a sense of dignity and destiny.” Eric Holder said Garvey “raised the hopes of Black people at a particularly difficult time in America and was deemed a threat by the racist establishment – including J. Edgar Hoover. The power of his words, actions and beliefs have endured and inspired generations that followed. As a black man — as a proud American — I am deeply indebted to the work of this great man.” 

Garvey saw no future for blacks in America and wanted blacks to emigrate to Liberia which was founded as a refuge for free American blacks in 1822 and became a nation in 1847. However, despite Garvey’s best efforts, blacks preferred staying in America perhaps because they were Americans not Africans.

Garvey’s prophesy about the fate of blacks in America as reflected in his own words proved to be false – thank goodness. Sernett’s book in its chapter “Garvey tells his own story” has the following last paragraph:

“White men who have struggled for and built up their countries and theirown civilizations are not disposed to hand them over to the Negro, or any other race, without let or hindrance. It would be unreasonable to expect this. Hence any vain assumption on the part of the Negro to imagine that he will one day become President of the Nation, Governor of the State, or Mayor of the City in the countries of white men, is like waiting on the devil and his angels to take up their residence in the Realm on high and direct there the affairs of Paradise.”

Well of course blacks have become “President of the Nation, Governor of the State, or Mayor of the City in the countries of white men.” This quote is at the root of my disagreement with many prominent blacks. I once remarked in a gathering of black intellectuals that one of my passions was to tour Civil War battlefields. I would take a GPS reading of important locations on the battlefield and stand there to let the importance of place roll over me. I would then go to the Union cemetery and thank those soldiers for their sacrifice in making me free. The reaction from the other blacks would typically be to scoff, saying that the white Union soldier did not die to free blacks and was probably a racist. I said that it did not matter. What mattered was that we became free because of their sacrifice.

I then said that in that same vein, whites had to give up some of their power so that blacks (and women) could have power. It was white men who emancipated blacks. It was white men who gave women the vote. It was white men who voided separate but equal, mandated the integration of schools, passed voter rights laws, enacted Public Accommodations and granted all the equal rights under the law to blacks and women. I then encountered a barrage of arguments that white men did not cede power willingly and were forced to give up their power. Of course, this is ridiculous. Forced by whom? Certainly they could have resisted by force if necessary any uprisings on the part of blacks. Maybe an effort to deny sexual favors by white women could have had a marginal but doubtful effect. Perhaps pressure from their mothers might have carried some weight but in the end it was white men who ultimately made the decision to cede some of their power. What motivated them? I think it was the uniqueness of the American experience and adherence to the Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”

Amen.

BTW, remember the Fifth Dimension’s “Declaration” from the great album “Portrait”? It was the Declaration of Independence put to song. It was released in 1970 and was banned from the radio and from Armed Forces radio as being subversive!

Trump is back in the White House and many if not all of his 200 executive orders were to reverse actions taken by the Biden Administration. It is tit for tat. When Biden came into office the first thing that he did was to issue 42 executive orders reversing Trump’s actions. I guess that the process will repeat itself in four years. I fully expect the House to flip to the democrats in two years and that JD Vance will not be president in four years. BTW the last president with a beard was William Taft.

Here are some of his executive orders in his being dictator for a day.

Trump changed Denali back to Mount McKinley, I guess because McKinley was pro-tariff. Denali was the mountain’s Koyukon name, but the mountain is also in Dena’ina territory who call it Dghelay Ka’a. So is it Denali or Dghelay Ka’a? Regardless, both Alaska’s senators oppose the change. Lisa Murkowski said “I strongly disagree with the President’s decision on Denali. Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial.” Sen. Dan Sullivan said he “prefers the name that the very tough, very strong, very patriotic Athabaskan people gave the mountain thousands of years ago.”

I guess Trump will reinstitute the confederate names of military bases which I strongly oppose. When the names changed, I was disappointed that they did not pick names like Ridgeway, Patton, Chamberlain, Sheridan, Thomas and Sheridan. There never should have been a Fort Benning, Bragg, Gordon, Hood, Pickett, Polk or Rucker (I don’t mind Lee).

Trump also ordered that the “Gulf of Mexico” be called the “Gulf of America.”  It’ll be interesting to see if maps are changed to bear the names of Mt McKinley and the Gulf of America. Personally I prefer Denali and the Gulf of Mexico. I wonder why he didn’t try to rename California and New York while he was at it.

What happened to the inaugural protests? I thought thousands of lefties were going to show up and shut down DC? 

How come there is not more written on the pollution caused by the LA wirefire and the battery plant fire in Los Angeles spewing pollutants into the atmosphere? There harmful toxins and particulates spewing into the air and not a peep from the greenie weenies.

Urban fires torch transformers which contain PCBs. There’s copper piping, asbestos, electrical wires coated in toxic polyvinyl chloride, EVs with lithium-ion batteries, furniture full of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and household products made with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Household and business hazardous substances such as paint, gasoline, cleaning products, pesticides, compressed gas cylinders and chemicals burned and their toxins have been released into the atmosphere. There were over 450,000 EVs in the Los Angeles MSA and they and their home battery storage systems add to the toxic mix. The battery plant facility that burned to the ground was the world’s largest battery storage facility and released hazardous gas emissions causing an evacuation of 1,500 local residents. Of course, lithium batteries are notorious for being unsafe, inherently dangerous, prone to catching on fire and exploding.

What’s up with Melania’s hat?

Trump ended the global tax deal that imposed a minimum effective tax rate of 15% on multinational firm profits. The purpose of the tax was to discourage firms from sheltering their profits in tax havens such as Ireland. Trump objected to it because tax policy on American firms should be governed by America rather than a bunch of foreigners. The tax originated at the OECD with 140 countries signed on to it.

Trump, being a mercantilist, is obsessed by trade deficits and ordered that the U.S. Trade Representative “investigate the causes of our country’s large and persistent annual trade deficits in goods, as well as the economic and national security implications and risks resulting from such deficits, and recommend appropriate measures, such as a global supplemental tariff or other policies, to remedy such deficits.” Again, trade deficits are more often good for a nation rather than bad. For example, consider that I have a trade deficit with Sam’s Club. Why is that a bad thing?

Trump, thank goodness also ordered withdrawing all areas of the Outer Continental Shelf from new or renewed offshore wind leasing agreements. Wind turbines should be banned. If they were not the darlings of the greenies, they would have been banned long ago.

Trump withdrew (again) from the Paris Accord. 

Trump ordered a regulatory freeze instructing all executive departments and agencies to not propose or issue new regulations until they can be reviewed. In Trump’s first year in office his administration added 61,308 new pages to the Federal Register. That may sound like a lot but that page total was 42 percent lower than Obama’s last year in office. Mind you Biden added over 95,000 pages in his final year!

Trump ordered resuming building the wall, ending catch and release and reinstituting stay in Mexico. He also ended Biden’s migrant parole programs that allowed over 500,000 aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the country. 

Speaking of which, did you notice that we are back to calling the illegal aliens, illegal aliens? What happened to “undocumented migrants”?

Trump revoked 67 executive orders and 11 “Presidential” memoranda covering gender identity, the climate “crisis” and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.” 

He reinstituted Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism which Biden had just ended. 

He liberated the political hostages from the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

He ordered a “One Flag Policy” mandating that U.S. facilities at home and abroad not fly a flag other than the US flag. You mean no more flying of pride and Black Lives Matter flags over U.S. government buildings?

Trump signed a declaration of a national energy emergency to expand energy production and oil drilling.

There is an order to “protect women from radical gender ideology” and that the government would only recognize the two sexes rather than the 72 or so “genders”.

He rolled back regulations targeting home appliances and gas cars. What about small engines and pizza ovens?

He ordered that all disbursement of funds under the Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Act be ended. Recall the stories of how government officials were rushing to allocate billions to “green” programs before Biden left town for good.

He rescinded Biden’s dictate that EVs must constitute 50 percent of all new vehicle sales by 2032.

Trump also ended California’s waiver that  gave them the power to limit the sales of gasoline powered vehicles. This also applies to the 17 states that have foolishly decided to follow California’s Air Resources Board’s zero emissions vehicles regulations. Because of these rules, one large RV manufacturer shut down their California manufacturing facility. I presume that California’s rules on diesel trucks and Class A RVs are also rescinded.

He ended Biden’s pause on permitting for liquefied natural gas export projects.

Trump ended automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children of immigrants in the country illegally. Not surprisingly the democrat attorneys general from 22 states have sued the order. That the 14^thAmendment says that 

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

The legal question revolves around the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”.

The 14^th Amendment settled the question as to the citizenship of American born US slaves reversing the putrid Dred Scott decision of 1857 that ruled that the U.S. Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African descent, and therefore they could not enjoy the rights and privileges the Constitution conferred upon American citizens.

There has been one test of the 14^th Amendment. In 1898, the US Supreme Court affirmed that birthright citizenship applies to the children of immigrants in the case of Wong Kim Ark v United States.Wong was born in the US to parents who were not naturalized citizens. However, the question is whether Wong’s parents were illegals because Trump’s order states that only children born to illegals would not be conferred citizenship. It says children born in the U.S. are not citizens if their “mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth,” or if the mother was in the U.S. on a “lawful but temporary” basis—like a student, tourist or work visa—and the father isn’t a citizen or “lawful permanent resident.”

I’m not a lawyer – thank goodness – but this seems that birthright citizenship will once again be resolved by the Supreme Court. Stay tuned.

Trump and MLK, Jr

Trump was inaugurated on Martin Luther King, Jr Day. The next time that a presidential inauguration is on MLK,Jr day will be 2053. Somehow it is appropriate that a republican president’s inauguration and MLK day coincide. While the democrats favored keeping slavery, Abraham Lincoln, the republican led the charge to abolish it. The southerners knew this and opted to secede from the Union. Lincoln first fought to reunite the Union and did not issue the Emancipation Proclamation until January 1, 1863. The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam allowed Lincoln to issue the proclamation which then led to the enlistment of over 100,000 black soldiers in the Union army.

While MLK, Jr Day is on the third Monday in January, King’s birthday is January 15 (which is also my son’s birthday). After King was assassinated in 1968, there was a campaign for a holiday on the federal level led by Rep. John Conyers. The first vote was in 1979 and failed by five votes in the House. Jimmy Carter was president and although the democrats had congressional majorities, he could not get the bill passed. Many southern democrats were opposed in the House and Jesse Helms and John East – both North Carolina republicans – led the opposition in the Senate. Although Helms was characterized as a racist, he had black staff members, supported my nomination to the National Credit Union Administration Board (I was on the Chapel Hill faculty at the time), and hosted my parents at my installation giving my father an American flag that was flown over the Capitol. He was courteous, courtly, called my parents as “sir” and “ma’am” and told them of how proud that I was a North Carolinian. The irony is that he always rallied about the “communists in Chapel Hill”.

There was pressure on Carter to get the bill passed. Stevie Wonder’s song “Happy Birthday” kept the campaign in the public’s eye. But Carter failed to get the southerners on board. Finally when Ronald Reagan became president he pressured the republicans to back the bill. They did and Reagan signed it into law in 1983. The holiday was first observed January 20, 1986. The holiday got a bumpy reception in the states. Arizona’s passage was particularly contentious with the NFL threatening to move its Super Bowl from Glendale in 1993 if the state had not adopted the holiday. New Hampshire did not pass the holiday until 2000.

I know that someone somewhere is probably decrying that Trump was inaugurated on MLKJr Day given the mantra that Trump is a homophobe xenophobe sexist and racist. But yet it is somewhat fitting given that his support in minority communities surpasses that of all republican presidents since Eisenhower in 1956.

How will Trump govern in this his second term? My friends on the right say that with Biden’s exit our national nightmare has ended. My friends on the left say that with the advent of Trump, our national nightmare is just beginning. I have a suspicion that they both may be right.

Happy Birthday

Stevie Wonder

You know it doesn’t make much sense 
There ought to be a law against 
Anyone who takes offense 
At a day in your celebration ’cause we all know in our minds

That there ought to be a time 
That we can set aside 
To show just how much we love you 
And I’m sure you would agree 
What could fit more perfectly 
Than to have a world party on the day you came to be

Happy birthday to you 

I just never understood 
How a man who died for good 
Could not have a day that would 
Be set aside for his recognition

Because it should never be 
Just because some cannot see 
The dream as clear as he 
That they should make it become an illusion

And we all know everything 
That he stood for time will bring 
For in peace, our hearts will sing 
Thanks to Martin Luther King

Happy birthday to you 

Why has there never been a holiday 
Where peace is celebrated 
All throughout the world

The time is overdue 
For people like me and you 
Who know the way to truth 
Is love and unity to all God’s children

It should be a great event 
And the whole day should be spent 
In full remembrance 
Of those who lived and died for the oneness of all people

So let us all begin 
We know that love can win 
Let it out, don’t hold it in 
Sing it loud as you can

Happy birthday

We know the key to unity of all people 
Is in the dream that you had so long ago 
That lives in all of the hearts of people 
That believe in unity 
We’ll make the dream become a reality 
I know we will 
Because our hearts tell us so

Happy birthday 

Does Trump read my blog? For years I have been writing the following:

1. Drian the swamp by moving the Federal agencies out of DC. I even made suggestions as to where they could go. Now Joni Ernst has proposed the same thing only she says that at a minimum 30 percent of each agency’s workforce should leave DC. Why 30 percent?
2. I like Kash Patel’s idea of shutting down the DC headquarters of the FBI and moving all agents into the field. No wonder Patel scares the swamp denizens to death.
3. I also suggested that if a new regulation were enacted then an old one should be eliminated. Trump is now talking about a 10 to 1 ratio. Great idea.
4. I suggested limiting the number of pages in the federal register. Biden added over 90,000 pages last year which is obscene. I would enact a law either putting on an absolute limit of pages or saying that the number of new pages cannot grow by more than a certain percent. This would in and of itself limit the number of new regulations.

I wonder how many new regulations, especially environmental regulations have been enacted by Biden’s administration? I would bet that the number is in the thousands. Just in the environment alone I found the following: clean fuel regulations, emissions cap for certain sectors (oil, gas, aviation, railways), coal phase-outs, new energy efficiency rules for building (old and new), performance mandates for natural gas plants, regulatory hurdles to liquified natural gas exports, new and tighter vehicle fuel economy standards, subsidies to ethanol productions, electric vehicle mandates, subsidies to electric vehicles, subsidies to battery makers, carbon sequestration mandates, government purchases of electric vehicles. 

Luckily the president has an autopen to do all the signing.

Yes Trump has a lot to do. He says that he has 100 executive orders to be signed on Day 1. Only 100? He probably needs to sign several thousand to begin to undo all the damage done by Biden. There’s the environment, energy, DEI, trans, inflation, out of control spending, disastrous foreign policy. Get signing Donald!

Trump obviously hates Canada. I have no clue why. His tariffs on Canadian goods makes no sense. His excuse that illegals and fentanyl flow over the border is lame since 99 percent of both come across the southern border. Trudeau hastily put together a $1.2 billion border security plan but Trump has ignored it. Apparently, the border security excuse is just a ruse.

Canada is our largest trading partner and tariffs will likely plunge that economy into recession and significantly raise the price of energy, dairy, energy, steel and lumber to American citizens. So what does Trump really want – other than to humiliate the Canadian government? We import around $450 billion in goods from Canada while we export around $350 billion. That’s 77 percent of Canadian exports and 63 percent of all Canadian imports. Obviously, tariffs will severely hurt the Canadians. 

Surely Trump isn’t trying to balance the trade budget, is he? That would be even more stupid than the tariffs since Canada is much smaller than the US, being not that much larger in population than California. But no one ever claimed rationality for Trump. In fact he has said “We’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. Why should we have a $200-billion deficit?” Of course, the trade deficit is $100 billion but hey what’s a $100 billion among friends?  Trump says that we do not need Canadian automobiles, lumber or dairy products. Trump also said “They make 20 percent of our cars. We don’t need that. I’d rather make them in Detroit.” 

Note that he left out the major good we import from Canada – oil. A tariff on oil would raise the price of energy in the US. Didn’t I say once about tariffs throwing Trump supporters under the bus? Also Ontario Premier Doug Ford has threatened to cut off the electricity exports to the northern tier of US states in the Eastern interconnection power grid. Once again, an imposition of tariffs would violate Trump’s own trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Trump apparently doesn’t care – and neither should anyone else who has to deal with him.

For the democrats the climate is the existential threat. For the rest of us it is China. China, like Russia, is a bully. Both countries are poor, third world with bravado stemming from an inferiority complex. China, like Russia, would rather squander its resources trying to buy and/or curry favors throughout the world than tend to its own domestic problems. Both countries fund foreign terror cells, academic think tanks, student radicals, political organizations, politicians, environmental zealots, other dissident groups and social misfits around the globe. Their objective is to sow discontent and social upheaval with no objective other than being destabilizing. Although the money could be better spent dealing with problems at home, both the Russians and the Chinese would rather run their own economies into the ground, oppress their own people if it means sowing discord abroad. Russia is a Potemkin village and now we are seeing that China is one also.

The Chinese economy is a mess. It is currently in the throes of a deflation. The economic planners stimulated the economy by massive amounts of spending. Keynes would be proud. The result is a vastly overbuilt economy with ghost cities full of crumbling estates and 80 million vacant housing units. China’s population is contracting as a result of its inane one child policy and its not allowing workers from the rural areas to bring their families into the cities. Those workers are also denied full rights as citizens as well. The result is a shrinking of population even in the rural areas as adults do not want their children raised by relatives left behind. Those children have lower social status than children living with their parents. China’s population is projected to decline by half by 2100.

China’s real estate mess is compounded by its price controls. Officials have put price floors on apartments and new homes and will not allow developers to offer lower prices. The government is afraid that loosening price controls will cause the bottom to fall out of the housing market precipitating a larger crisis. This crisis is only part of the failure of China’s industrial policy – that America’s left loves so much. The CHIPS bill throws $50 billion of our dollars at semiconductor manufacturers to better compete with China while China is busily throwing billions of yuan at their industries to churn out more and more manufactured goods for export. So the Chinese throw their money at their firms and we counter by throwing money at our firms. Genius. It seems to me that if China wants to waste its resources and bankrupt itself we should let it. If China is headed over a cliff the question is why do we want to follow them?

China is saddled with the wrong leader who is threatened by the forces that have moved China from an economic backwater to a third world standard of living. Those in the west who want to emulate China are misguided. What is there to admire? Certainly not innovation. The Chinese are notorious for stealing technology rather than innovating. On the Global Innovation Index, China ranks twelfth. The United States is third (Switzerland is first and Sweden is second). China’s track record does not demonstrate that government industrial policy works better than one of relative laissez-faire. Rather it shows the opposite. China spends in excess of 5 percent of its GDP on inefficient state run industries, on cronies and wasteful ventures.

Yes China is a world leader in electric vehicles. However, it is manufacturing too many vehicles. Some estimates are that half of the cars produced go unsold and are being dumped into foreign markets. It is also producing too many goods period and has resorted dumping them at a considerable loss. Yes, it is the world leader in the rare earth minerals used in batteries, solar panels and other components of “green energy.” It should not therefore be surprising that the Chinese uses its financial resources to ensure that western competitors are crippled in their efforts to compete by funding organizations like environmental groups and even federal government agencies. China’s dominance in “renewables” would vanish were it not for the green energy mandates of western governments. Those governments bray that the climate change is an existential threat. I wonder how many are in reality mainly influenced by Chinese money flowing into their coffers? 

If the Chinese are really behind the West’s push for “green” energy, then they are succeeding beyond their wildest dreams. Germany seems on the verge of collapse. Its automakers forced to make unprofitable vehicles are contracting. Germany energy costs are three times that of America. The government has just collapsed. They have shut down coal and nuclear plants and are dependent upon costly and erratic energy from “renewables”. American automobile makers are also losing billions of dollars. Energy costs are up. All this in the name of climate change. The Chinese in the meanwhile keep building coal plants and laughing at the foolish West that is intent on destroying itself to save the planet. Does anyone not think that the Chinese are aiding the process by spreading around a few billion dollars to Western politicians and environmental activists?

But China’s bullying is leading to some countries reducing their exposure to China. Production is moving out of China and into Viet Nam, Thailand, the Philippines and India. Some in the US and other countries are actively seeking to rein in China and to limit its acquisition of technology and components that it needs to fuel its manufacturing sector. As economic indicators in China have worsened the Chinese have resorted to hiding the data. They simply stopped publishing bad economic statistics, perhaps in hopes that the bad news would not scare off new investment. However, any company foolish enough to invest in China deserves whatever it gets. As one businessman said “worsening transparency in data and policy-making in China “adds another layer of risk” to investing in the world’s second-largest economy”. China’s economic statistics show high rates of youth unemployment, slow or no economic growth, low foreign investment, and falling consumer prices. The government remedy is to do more of what got it in the mess in the first place, more government spending and interest rate cuts from the Bank of China. Currently debt is 300% of GDP and growing.

China shows the folly of being a mercantilist country – something Donald Trump should heed. Here are the words of Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations: 

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer. …. But in the mercantile system, the interest of the consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer; and it seems to consider production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end and object of all industry and commerce.

China ignores these words but more importantly so do Trump and his cohorts. Trump with his tariffs is seeking to isolate China but at the expense of the American consumer. However, that China is becoming more and more isolated due to its own policies. China’s president Xi has shown to be more interested in ideological control than in economic growth. He has emphasized military growth at the expense of economic wellbeing. I don’t think that there is any doubt that Xi is scared of his own people, Around the world, the Chinese are the capitalist innovative entrepreneurial class everywhere but in China. Getting rid of Communism would unleash this giant that would easily surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy. But this will never happen with Xi in power. The question is whether Xi will try to salvage his failures by becoming more aggressive militarily. 

Crazy Mazie, Diesel (my bad) and Our Food

The confirmation hearings thus far have featured the democrats more obsessed with sex than with how the nominees will manage their agencies and how they would address their problem areas. Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono begins every hearing with “As part of my responsibilities to ensure the fitness of nominees before any of the committees on which I sit, I ask the following two initial questions. First is, since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature?” I guess she does not want another Bill Clinton or Doug Emhoff overseeing a federal agency. But if I were a resident of Hawaii I would be embarrassed to have her as my senator.

I would like to apologize to all owners of diesel vehicles. I have noticed my entire life that I must be responsible for certain happenings. I have mentioned that if I like a product, it will be discontinued. So I apologize to everyone who used to buy them as well. Before I bought my first diesel pickup, diesel prices were 20 cents a gallon less than regular. Then I bought my truck and the following week, diesel prices went to 20 cents above regular. Every time I buy a new truck, the differential between diesel and regular prices widen. Surely, this is no coincidence.

The FDA finally got around to banning red dye #3. Now if they would ban all artificial colorings from food. I guess the red dye #3 lobby lost their clout. Weren’t they paying enough in bribes? Guess not. I read labels. I buy very few process foods. I will not buy anything with artificial colors. I will not buy anything with high fructose sugar either. When RFK, jr pointed out the difference between Canadian Fruit Loops and Froot Loops sold in the States, he may have struck a cord with the public. I know that his hearing will be particularly contentious. But it will be interesting. Sure he has some opinions that make him seem like a kook but he is right on when it comes to food. 

Why is it that Canadians and Europeans live longer than Americans? Some on the left argue that it is because of the health systems. But the Canadian and British systems suck. I think it is because of the food. American food is loaded with artificial ingredients, high fructose sugar and hydrogenated oils. Consider the following products (none of which I eat).

One real issue is that the junk version is more expensive than the more healthy version. If food were made healthier would this mean that the poor would be worse – rather than better – off? I eat cereal free from artificial colors, processed oils, high fructose sugars and it is twice as expensive as the junk food cereals. One cereal I buy is Nutrail nut granola. It is expensive – $10.29 at Sams Club for 22 ounces. Here are the ingredients

         Nutrail Cinnamon pecan granola

Ingredients: Sunflower Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Coconut, Almonds, Pecans, Erythritol, Butter (Pasteurized Cream, Natural Flavor), Dried Blueberries, Cinnamon, Salt, Monk Fruit Extract.

I could have bought Quaker Simply granola which is really cheap. The name would imply a healthy cereal. Here are the ingredients.

Ingredients: Whole grain oats, whole grain wheat, sugar, dried sweetened cranberries (sugar, dried cranberries, glycerin, sunflower oil), canola oil, almonds, dried apples, inulin, whey, nonfat dry milk, molasses, whey protein concentrate, honey, sunflower oil, natural flavor, tocopherols (to preserve freshness).

While it is healthier than Froot Loops, sugar is the third ingredient and has 17 grams per serving. It also has sunflower oil which is unhealthy if cooked above a certain temperature. Why can’t they ditch the sugar and the sunflower oil? I actually tried it once and ended up tossing it in the trash.

Can we get rid of this junk out of our processed foods? Soybeans, corn sugar and other agriculture products are heavily subsidized and have powerful lobbies. These ingredients are then cheaper than more nutritious versions. You can bet that the lobbies will fight RFJ, Jr in the Congress to preserve (no pun intended) their place in the American diet. 

When I saw Biden’s statement on dropping the state sponsor of terror designation from Cuba I thought I was reading a parody from the Babylon Bee. It said: 

(i)The Government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding 6-month period; and

(ii) The Government of Cuba has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future.

Is this serious? Cuba has not acted up in the past six months and promises not to be bad in the future? Wow, that is reassuring.

When he was in his eighties, my Dad once said to me to tell him if he had become a fool. The indicator would be if he started giving in to all the scams that are directed toward the elderly. Dad never became a fool. But Joe, you just fell for a scam so now officially you are a fool.

Seth Moulton is gutless. Moulton who is a congressman from Massachusetts went against the democrats trans narrative when he said that as the father of two young girls, he did not want boys in their locker room. The dems exploded and the mayor in one of his towns threatened to primary him. Well he voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Initially when I saw that all the democrats but two voted against the act, I assumed that Moulton was one of them. But no. Both of the democrats who voted “no” were from Texas, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. Cuellar had previously voiced the same sentiments of Moulton’s. He actually was primaried by the democrats but won reelection. Not Moulton who claimed he had not changed his views but the legislation was “extreme”. Moulton said “Because it fails to distinguish between children and adults and different levels of athletics, school-aged kids who simply want to play recreational sports and build camaraderie like everybody else could be targeted by the federal government. My kids play co-ed sports today just as I did when I was their age.” Then he said he did not want children “subjected to the invasive violations of personal privacy this bill allows.” This is the strawman that the democrats erected – that girls would be subject to genital inspections. In reality, if a child claimed to be trans then the authorities would rely on a birth certificate rather than a physical inspection. This is the same point that was the subject of AOC’s hysterical rant that “trans girls are girls!” No AOC, ”trans” girls are boys. Girls are girls. Does Moulton really think that republicans would want their girls subjected to a genital inspection in order to play volleyball? Of course not but it gives Moulton a reason to bow to the radicals in his party. I repeat, Seth Moulton is gutless.

Speaking of hysterical rants, did you see any of the Hegseth confirmation hearings? All the democrats were in hysterics. Tim Kaine was obsessed with sex. Mazie Hirono again demonstrated why she is called the dumbest senator. Kristen Guillibrand, Jeanne Shaheen, Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth all quizzed Hegseth on his views of women in combat. Duckworth was a helicopter pilot and lost both her legs in Iraq. However, there was little substance in the hearing. The republicans tossed him softballs like what is the caliber of an M1 rifle and whether Hegseth favored building more ships and airplanes.

None of the questions had much to do with Hegseth’s views and positions on issues of importance. So I was wondering what does the secretary of defense do other than overseeing the military and reporting to the president? Well the secretary is charged with crafting US national defense policy, managing the Pentagon, coordinating intelligence operations and reporting its findings to the National Security Council. The secretary sets priorities and oversees a budget of almost $2 trillion and a workforce of over 3.5 million people. It is a big job, seemingly too big to rest on one person’s shoulders. All Hegseth emphasized was returning the military to its mission of being a lethal force and purging it of woke. I guess that means no more drag shows. What about all the rest because I could get rid of the drag shows. It is important that his deputy play an outsized role in running the Pentagon. Yet the deputy designee, Stephen Feinberg of Cerebus Capital Management has no military experience or experience at large enterprise management. Hegseth will likely be confirmed because the one republican skeptic on the committee Joni Ernst has voiced support for him. Whether Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell or John Curtis do will await the full senate vote.