Saturday, July 12, 2025

Canadian Fentanyl- Another Trump Lie to defend nonsensical tariffs- taxes on us, the consumers

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/trumps-new-tariffs-canada/story?id=123678621&user_id=679307ab35583deffc103d70

Trump announces 35% tariffs on Canada, cites 2 reasons:

1. fentanyl imports to U.S.

2. Canada imposing retaliatory tariffs

3 ridiculous parts of this-

The tax is on U.S. consumers- we - U.S. citizens/consumers face an increase in taxes of 35% because of these non-valid reasons.

All of the folks that think Trump is lowering taxes- he is- for the wealthiest and for corporations. For the average person, these tariffs raise prices. They are in reality regressive taxes, hurting the poor and middle class much more than the wealthy.

The fentanyl imports reason- just plain stupid. Does Trump not know only 1% of fentanyl comes through Canada? If not, how can he not know after using it as a ridiculous rationale for months now? Do none of his advisors want to point out that his assessment of fentanyl coming through Canada is completely unmoored from reality? Why do they let him cite it as a reason? Even if he is ignorant of reality, his advisors are either choosing to remain ignorant themselves, or are willing to flat out lie. Just plain stupid. We have to pay a tax of 35% on imports to support his ignorance and/or dishonesty in his negotiations with Canada?

Retaliatory tariffs- this is simply another bully tactic by a terrible negotiator. We are imposing tariffs unilaterally against an economic and security partner using questionable rationales. In other words, we declare economic war against one of our most important economic partners. And he for some reason expects them to just take it. "Surrender or else" is his negotiating position. How dare they respond with tariffs on U.S. products/imports? The problem is, Canada is really doing everything they can relative to fentanyl- it isn't a real problem, so how can they fix something that isn't broken? Expecting them to also not respond on the economic front doesn't reflect any understanding that they have their own equities and that they will defend those equities. Trump is trying to tell a sovereign country that he is allowed to levy tariffs (which is really Congress' power, but the Republicans have handed that power to the executive branch)- but that Canada, as a sovereign country, can't respond in kind. Additionally, the "they have been ripping us off economically" argument is just absurd. Show the evidence. The only thing close are some protectionary tariffs. There are some, but don't pretend they are economically significant, that we don't already have a trade agreement with Canada, and that we don't have protectionary tariffs ourselves. Just plain stupid.

On this whole tariffs topic, Trump is either completely ignorant, completely corrupt, or some combination of the 2. His rationale make no sense and have no real ties to reality. That is a problem. The bigger problem are his enablers in the administration and Congress, and followers that refuse to see that what he is doing is against their own best interests and the interests of our country as a whole.



Thursday, July 10, 2025

James Miller's "Can Democracy Work?"

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37941741-can-democracy-work

At the risk of having James Miller contact me and tell me I'm violating copyrights, I wanted to share a portion of this book that spoke to me:

from pages 242 and 243:

IN THE VIEW of Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident who helped guide his nation through its deliberately nonviolent transition to free institutions after the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the very difficulties facing modern liberal democracies will episodically lead to a temptation: people will conclude that political life, viewed realistically, "is chiefly the manipulation of power and public opinion, and that morality has no place in it."

This literally de-moralized view of politics would mean, according to Havel, losing "the idea that the world might actually be changed by the force of truth, the power of a truthful word, the strength of a free spirit, conscience and responsibility--with no guns, no lust for power, no political wheeling and dealing." If we abandon a virtue like truthfulness, we put at risk a public sphere created, in part, by acknowledging a shared reality, and a handful of core, common values, over and above (p243)  the "hall of mirrors" constructed by competing political parties and the rival worldviews they propagate.

....we will never build a democratic state based on rule of law if we do not at the same time build a state that is--regardless of how unscientific this may sound to the ears of a political scientist-- humane, moral, intellectual and spiritual, and cultural. The best laws and best-conceived democratic mechanisms will not in themselves guarantee legality or freedom or human rights.... 

....I feel that the dormant goodwill in people needs to be stirred. People need to hear that it makes sense to behave decently or to help others, to place common interests above their own, to respect the elementary rules of human coexistence."


************

This is exactly why I have found the current administration and enablers so distressing. The current felon in chief has been completely unbound by morals, ethics, truth, etc in pursuit of power, money and all manner of corrupt activity. Someone who cries "they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs" in smearing immigrants to unite his followers in hatred, when that claim is demonstrably false, does tremendous damage to a democracy that relies on people acting in good faith. We can't police ourselves to compliance to laws, with leaders that believe they are above the law and sneer at those who think that acting for the greater good rather than self-interest is what should be done. A dishonorable man cannot  make America great, but following him can greatly diminish the health of our democracy.

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Cruelty is the point

 A group of folks like to argue they aren't "anti-immigration," they just want folks to do it legally.

Then, when there are ways for folks to come to the U.S. legally, that same group of folks then decides to revoke the legal status that allowed them to be in the U.S. legally.

This isn't about preventing "the insane, the criminals, the rapists" and those "eating the cats and the dogs."

This is about an "us versus them" attitude, and as much as it might hurt some feelings, racism.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-lets-trump-end-program-500k-cubans-nicaraguans-haitians-venezuelans/?user_id=679307ab35583deffc103d70

Party of values? If one values cruelty.

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

How You Know They're Not Proud of It- schedule a 1am session

"Big Beautiful Bill" cuts taxes for the very wealthy, cuts benefits for the poor. The party of fiscal conservatism looks to pass a bill that significantly increases debt load (because of tax breaks for wealthy, despite all the cuts to benefits for the poor). 

So let's schedule our meetings about it at 1am.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-tax-cut-bill-faces-rare-overnight-stress-test-with-us-house-republicans-2025-05-21/


Saturday, May 17, 2025

James: A Novel, by Percival Everett

Really enjoyed reading this book. 

 A portion of the text that I wanted to save as it has been relevant to my experiences of the past 10 years or so involves some dialogue between Jim and Huck on page 126:

Jim: ..."But dey was stealin' from dem folk. Tellin' lies lak dey was".... 
Huck: "Yes, but them people liked it, Jim. Did you see their faces? They had to know them was lies, but they wanted to believe. What do you make of that?" 
Jim: "Folks be funny lak dat. Dey takes the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares 'em." 

Nutshells my current views on the dynamics of Trump/MAGA and religion.