Atop the Slide into the Abyss

These are the times that try men's souls. - Thomas Paine

This statement was true in 1776, and scarily enough it is true today as well, almost 250 years later. 

We are facing half-truths, lies, and the outright trampling of the basic rights protected in the Constitution.

The latest "I can't believe they said that," revolves around the right to due process.

I read a statement from a congressman which (this is paraphrased) If they are here illegally they should be deported. 

Marco Rubio our Secretary of State suggested, on Sunday, that illegal immigrants can be deported outside of the protections of the Constitution. He said that immigration law requires deportation and that they are not entitled to due process, I'm guessing, because he feels immigration law supersedes the Constitution. 

“Once you come into our country illegally, it triggers all kinds of rights that can keep you here indefinitely. That’s why we were being flooded at the border, and we’ve ended that,” Rubio said.  

We've ended that--and "that" is the Constitutional right to due process. The Constitution applies to EVERYONE within the borders of the U.S. and territories--no matter how they've managed to get here. That fundamental principle is what has made America Great! And now it is being cheapened and we are becoming a laughing stock.

What happened to "innocent until proven guilty?"

We have begun the slippery slide into the abyss of authoritarian chaos where even the Constitution is subject to reinterpretation. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL 

Can't Be Bought

 I was encouraged about Harvard University's response to Trump. No--we won't be bought. 

According to Reuters:

April 14 (Reuters) - Harvard on Monday rejected numerous demands from the Trump administration that it said would cede control of the school to a conservative government that portrays universities as dangerously leftist.

Within hours of Harvard taking its stand, the administration of President Donald Trump announced it was freezing $2.3 billion in federal funding to the school.

What the Trump-led Executive Branch is doing to private educational institutions is wrong! Using the power of money to stifle freedom of education goes against the very core of what makes us Americans--education free from political dogma to foster diversity of thought. 

Freedom of education is what made America great. Yes. we may not agree with everything being taught, but that is a good thing because being exposed to diversity of thought helps us better understand and appreciate the freedoms that we have especially when we see such freedoms stifled in other countries.

Maybe money can't buy everyone?

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Do we have to do it all over again?

 

Chaos and confusion. That pretty well sums up the week we just managed to live through. 

It is apparent that there is no master plan, the White House is just throwing stuff against the wall and hoping it will stick. And if it doesn't, they are denying that it happened.

One of the most concerning occurrences this past week was the refusal, in court, to correct the injustice done to the Maryland father illegally sent to El Salvador AND the continued refusal to find a way to allow those deported to the prison in El Salvador their due process. 

Wait--destroying the world trade markets without a cogent plan--or any plan is a close second. 

One writer sums up some of the week's happenings as follows:

On Friday, China imposed 125% tariffs on goods from the U.S. A spokesperson for the Chinese Finance Ministry said that Trump’s tariff machinations “will become a joke in the history of the world economy.” At 9:20 a.m. President Trump posted: “We are doing really well on our TARIFF POLICY. Very exciting for America, and the World!!! It is moving along quickly. DJT.” The new tariffs had badly threatened Apple Inc., and at 10:36 p.m. the U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted a notice that various electronics, including smartphone and computer monitors, are exempt from the tariffs.

When economist Justin Wolfers commented: “I just want to tip my hat to the crack team of White House economists who were able to discover—in just a few short days—that the U.S. is dependent on China for smartphones, computers and semiconductors.” Dr. Soumya Rangarajan noted that “a basic medicine we use 1000x per day in the hospital, heparin, is also dependent on China, and people will die without it.” As Sabrina Malhi of the Washington Post explained, about 12 million people hospitalized in the U.S. need heparin every year, and it is only one of the many medications that will be affected by Trump’s tariffs on goods from China.

(Letters from an American)

It is clear that there is no plan and that we are living at the whim if a president who has visions of grandeur, but has no comprehension of the second and third order effects from whipsawing leadership. 

Sadly, the week ahead looks to be as turbulent and unconstrained as the week past. Maybe the Easter holiday will bring redemption and sanity. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Bait and Switch

Hands-off Day Protest Sign
April 5, 2025

American voters been duped by a classic Bait & Switch.

The chaos and confusion we are experiencing and which has now expanded to include nearly the entire world was born out of the election lies told by Trump. 

That may be harsh, but I clearly remember his promise that on day 1 he would lower prices and reduce inflation for working families. That is far from what is actually happening. 

Trump claims a mandate from the voters--but he misunderstands the mandate he had which was to reduce living expenses for working families. He did not have a mandate to destroy the economic system of the entire world while pushing the limits of democracy in America. Yes, he said he was in love with tariffs, but targeted tariffs which have been used by nearly every president are very different from what we are experiencing now. 

I fear that destroying the strongest economic system in the world is designed to allow the uber-rich to swoop in and buy companies when the stock is down and thereby further pad their fortunes. This is, of course, at the expense of those of us who have worked and saved for years and invested our retirement accounts as the government advised through 401Ks and the TSP. 

We have been duped!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Programming Note: Because tomorrow is a travel day, Monday Musings will not be published. Hopefully there will be an update from the highway.

Chaos, Confusion, Disaster

 There is so much happening in the U.S. right now that it is almost impossible to remember events are underway around the world. 

I maintain that a myopic, inwardly focused view is unhealthy as it provides fertile ground for strategic surprise. We are so busy dealing with the day-to-day crises that we don't have time to consider the effect of our actions on the other countries and for that matter, to consider how what is happening in places like Turkey potentially affect our country. 

And then there is Signal-gate. How many supposedly brilliant people does it take to realize that admitting to a problem and fixing it is smarter than doubling down. And that begs the question--how many other Signal-chats are there out there which present a clear and present danger to the United States? 

Did I mention that the stock market, which holds not only my retirement savings but many other people's, is falling like a rock due to the insane application of tariffs and the lack of strategic fiscal vision in the White House?

Why do we need a trade war with the world? That is going to help us, how? 

I wonder which billionaire owns stock in bicycle companies since cars are going to be priced out of existence. 

Why are the things Trump was elected to do being left undone?

I'm really looking forward to not paying federal income tax on my Social Security benefits--no wait, am I actually going to continue receiving benefits? But Musk said I would get more! And lower food prices--where are they?

What about Musk?

My thought is he has too much money and no political smarts.

This morning [yesterday], Wisconsin Democrats issued a press release noting that Musk had “committed a blatant felony,” directly violating the Wisconsin law that prohibits offering anyone anything worth more than $1 to get them to “vote or refrain from voting.” Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler said that if Schimel “does not immediately call on Musk to end this criminal activity, we can only assume he is complicit.” (Letters from an American)

And then consider the Presidential Oath of Office. I reread it this morning and I have questions as to whether the oath has been and is being violated. And I don't even mean the part about supporting the Constitution. It is the faithfully part, because it sure seems to me that everything being done right now will improve the financial bottom line of the president while harming the citizens. To me, that does not seem to be faithfully executing the Office of the President. 

How is sending people being evicted for the country to a prison in a country not their own without due process and no prospects for redress a deportation? Doesn't deporting a person mean sending them back to their country of citizenship? And furthermore, if there is no due process who is making the decision to deport? That people, is unconstitutional. Everyone setting foot on American soil has rights despite what certain people would have us believe. The Constitution and our laws do not differentiate between citizens and non-citizens. We are on a very slippery slope.

Finally, I am tired of hearing how much money DOGE is supposedly saving the country, because too much of it is at the expense of the citizens. If they save $1 trillion, but we are left with no healthcare, no research, a broken education system, and a defense industry in tatters I am not sure that is better. And if DOGE is saving so much money, why do we have a looming debt ceiling crisis?

Some much to ponder and so little time. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Neophytes in Government

 I was appalled when I read that senior government officials planned the March 15th Houthi attack using a tool called Signal and invited a reporter from The Atlantic to be part of the process. 

The story in the New York Times starts as follows:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed war plans in an encrypted group chat that included a journalist two hours before U.S. troops launched attacks against the Houthi militia in Yemen, the White House said on Monday, confirming an account in the magazine The Atlantic.

The editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote in an article published on Monday that he was mistakenly added to the text chat on the commercial messaging app Signal by Michael Waltz, the national security adviser.

It was an extraordinary breach of American national security intelligence. Not only was the journalist inadvertently included in the group, but the conversation also took place outside the secure government channels that would normally be used for classified and highly sensitive war planning. (New York Times)

I remember when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was accused of possessing sensitive material on an unsecured phone. Trump wanted her jailed. Why is it that he is so quick to move against others, but never take responsibility for himself or his people? I wonder what the results of this incident will be? 

And accidentally including a reporter? Nothing is an accident. The whole incident smells of neophytes who do not begin to grasp the importance of operations security and the proper use of secured communications. Additionally, it seems obvious that they believe that rules are made for others and not themselves. 

The Washington Post version of the story additionally has the following:

Senior Trump administration officials have warned in recent days that they will investigate unauthorized leaks to journalists, citing reporting in a number of publications. Several of them also for years criticized the handling of classified information by Democrats in other cases. (The Washington Post)

I'm waiting for the spin doctors to move in on this one. I am sure they will blame the entire incident on Biden. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Saturday--is the week really over?

 It was a bit of a rollercoaster ride this week.

It is clear to me that neither the president nor vice-president understand the Constitution and the role of the judiciary. When the Vice President makes the statement that: “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,”  (NY Times) It is clear that he does not understand that it is the judiciary which gets to decide what are legitimate powers!

Talk about either trying to confuse the issue or being ignorant of the Constitution.

And then the president called for impeaching a federal judge because a ruling didn't go his way. I loved Justice Roberts' response: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” he said in a statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” (The New Republic)

I am greatly concerned about the deportation of Venezuelans without due process. And the president and vice president think this is OK. The 4th Amendment to the Constitution is pretty clear--this can't be done. And the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 probably does not apply in this case and even if it does, there are other requirements. One discussion, from the Brennan Center for Justice is as follows:

The president may invoke the Alien Enemies Act in times of “declared war” or when a foreign government threatens or undertakes an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” against U.S. territory. The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war, so the president must wait for democratic debate and a congressional vote to invoke the Alien Enemies Act based on a declared war. But the president need not wait for Congress to invoke the law based on a threatened or ongoing invasion or predatory incursion. The president has inherent authority to repel these kinds of sudden attacks — an authority that necessarily implies the discretion to decide when an invasion or predatory incursion is underway.

As the Supreme Court and past presidents have acknowledged, the Alien Enemies Act is a wartime authority enacted and implemented under the war power. When the Fifth Congress passed the law and the Wilson administration defended it in court during World War I, they did so on the understanding that noncitizens with connections to a foreign belligerent could be “treated as prisoners of war” under the “rules of war under the law of nations.” In the Constitution and other late-1700s statutes, the term invasion is used literally, typically to refer to large-scale attacks. The term predatory incursion is also used literally in writings of that period to refer to slightly smaller attacks like the 1781 Raid on Richmond led by American defector Benedict Arnold.

I think, and this is my opinion, that given the sense from Town Halls around the country that the electorate believes that Trump was elected to do something different than what he is doing and that the "mandate" he believes he has was far more limited that he understands. I believe that those who voted for him wanted him to lower prices and inflation and not start a global trade war, or withdraw support our allies around the world, or even cozy up to Putin. And as for reducing the Federal Government--I don't think mass firings instigated by a non-elected and not confirmed by the Senate billionaire were in the mandate. 

And don't get me started on where our support for medical research is headed and the fact that there won't be a likely viable flu vaccine next year. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

I Saw Them

Winn-Dixie
Hobe Sound, FL
March 12, 2025

 
Shopping yesterday in a local market I saw, for the first time, eggs marked at $10 per dozen.

I actually could not believe it.

There was a deal on a dozen-and-a-half at $13.89, which works out to $9.26/dz.

Winn-Dixie
Hobe Sound, FL
March 12, 2025

We did not buy the eggs.

That along with so many other things just highlights the disastrous times in which we live. And this administration is not yet two months old!

There is so much happening that I can only shake my head at. 

A measles outbreak in Texas--we had that disease beaten and now children are dying, again.

What is next? The return of polio? Smallpox, the sequel?

And shutting off grants to hospitals which are on the forefront of research is going to make America healthy again? 

We are not headed for the Golden Age of America--this is the stuff of the Dark Ages when much of the accumulated knowledge in Europe was lost and had to be rediscovered during the Renaissance. 

Here is how one writer characterized what is happening:

The wholesale destruction of the U.S.A.’s advanced medical research, especially cancer research, by firing scientists, canceling grants, banning communications and collaboration, and stopping travel is also radical and seems unlikely to leave Americans healthier than before.

Yesterday, news broke that the administration canceled $800 million worth of grants to Johns Hopkins University, one of the nation’s top research universities in science and medicine. Meanwhile, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cast doubt on the safe, effective measles vaccine as the disease continues to spread across the Southwest. (Letters from an American)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared to suggest getting measles is the best defense against the disease, as a Texas outbreak spreads across the U.S. (The Daily Beast)

I remember having the measles--I have never been sicker in my entire life. I vividly remember hallucinating  and running a really high fever. It is no joke. 

And don't get me started on the stock market.

We are mere pawns in a great money grab the likes of which have not been seen, ever. Our lives and fortunes are in play for the rich and unscrupulous to take.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

As Nero Played

 Something about yesterday's stock market downturn and the fable about Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned hit me when I read: 

“We’re seeing a strong divergence between animal spirits of the stock market and what we’re actually seeing unfold from businesses and business leaders,” said the official, who was granted anonymity, according to CNBC. “The latter is obviously more meaningful than the former on what’s in store for the economy in the medium to long term.”  (The Daily Beast)

It has become clear that The White House does not want to be confused with the facts. Just wait until the March employment and inflation numbers come out in April--I'm not sure how that is going to be blamed on Biden. 

I have written my Congressman about the impact of federal firings on veterans, maybe he will finally stop towing the party line. 

We can only watch from the sidelines.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL 

And it Rambled

 I felt that it was my civic duty to listen to the President's address to the joint session of Congress last night. 

All of it, to the end. 

It was long--far too long. And rambling.

I was appalled to see a member of the Congress removed for doing the same thing that Marjorie Taylor Green did to President Biden during his last address. Where is evenness? 

I was saddened to see that the small-minded man with the frail ego who was speaking could not get over blaming everything on the last president, but took credit for some things the last president accomplished. 

And as for the economy--his blatant lies that he was handed a sack of feces are just not true, but it plays well to the bandwagon followers. 

It is politics after all. 

But my stomach turned when it was revealed that American citizenship could be bought! Really? People die to get here to become Americans the old-fashioned way--but rich people can just buy their way in? That is wrong!

And the confirmation that Musk is, in fact, in charge of DOGE was interesting considering the recent court case where the DOJ assured the court that he was not in charge. It is all very confusing and it is clear that no one can keep the story straight. 

But at least the news can keep the story straight. I usrge a reading of the Fact Check of last night's address. 

I am worried that someone so out of touch with truth and reality is trying to run the country. 

It all reminded me of an old joke: "How can you tell a politician is lying? Their lips are moving."

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, MD

Keeping Focus

 There are so many distractions, especially in the news. It can be hard in this era of chaos and confusion to keep an eye on the important stuff. 

Usurping peoples rights constitutes important stuff. 

Leading America into a Middle East quagmire in order to gain personal wealth is important. 

The transgender Executive Order is an example of people rallying to usurp individual rights. It has become a holy war because thousands of young boys are lining up to have gender affirming surgery so they can play girls sports, right? 

This is one of those "common sense" things that is just plain wrong. Someone needed to get the facts.

In truth, according to the NCAA president, ". . . there are ‘less than 10’ transgender athletes in college sports."

". . . Gillian Branstetter, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who told Newsweek that Save Women’s Sports, a leading voice in the bid to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports, identified only five transgender athletes competing on girls’ teams in school sports for grades K through 12." (The Pink News)

I do not know how this became both an important campaign issue and now an Executive Order, but it certainly is distracting and has successfully obfuscated important issues.

For instance--

How many American citizens have been illegally detained or deported during ICE operations? We should be concerned about that. 

Who came up with the idea that America should rebuild Gaze, relocate almost 2 million people and let the Trump crime family develop the area into another Atlantic City?

And what about the multitudes of Federal Workers being dismissed without due process. Who is protecting their rights? 

And Congress remains silent.  

But, now our leaders can clap themselves on the back and pretend they actually did something to make life better in American. Except, did they? 

Whose rights will be taken away next?

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL 

On the Waterfront

Pelican Duo
Blowing Rocks Marina
Tequesta, FL
February 4, 2024

 With daytime highs in the low 80s, South Florida is perhaps the best place to be living in the whole nation. Chris and I joined friends at our favorite watering hole last night for Happy Hour. It adjoins a marina where there always seems to be a lot of activity. 

Last evening in addition to people, pelicans were monitoring the comings and goings at the marina. They were magnificently perched atop some of the pilings and with the color of the reflected sunset adorning the sky, I could not help myself but to snap an image. 

By way of an update:

My truck has returned from the repair shop with two more tires, a four wheel alignment, stainless steel muffler and pipes, and new back brakes. Hopefully, it is ready for another 100,000 miles! We took out the resonators that were on the tailpipes and the truck has a bit more throaty sound--which I like. 

And in the news:

Is anyone else concerned that the fox is in the henhouse with Elon having access to the entire U.S. payment system? 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Allies don't do that to Allies

 I have been reading to and listening to the president-elect's desires to invade the Panama Canal and Greenland, and annex Canada. 

Are we crazy?

Do we not remember that the U.S. is the cornerstone of NATO and that Article 5 stipulates that an attack on one is an attack on all? That article had been employed only once in history--after 9-11 when our good friends and NATO allies supported the U.S.

What is our president-elect thinking? If he takes Greenland by force, as he has suggested, he would make the U.S. one of the worldwide oppressors and the NATO allies would have to defend Denmark employing Article 5. 

Even a tariff war could be considered an attack--an economic attack. 

And then . . . 

Annexing Canada? Really? We invaded Canada once (War of 1812) and lost. We have no business annexing Canada.

And then there is the Panama Canal. Treaties were written and signed. It is estimated that the U.S. has broken more than 370 Treaties over time. It might be construed that our word is not our bond.

Allies don't do this kind of stuff to allies. 

Invading Greenland would make us the same as Russia in Ukraine and China in the South China Sea. 

I don't think this is the mandate that Trump was given. How is he planning to lower gas and grocery prices? I'm not hearing much about those campaign promises from the guy who said he would keep every promise. 

-- Bob Doan, Odenton, MD

2025, Day 2

 

Newly Opened US-1 Bridge
Jupiter, FL
January 1, 2025
Photo by Carola Frantzen

Apparently craziness is how 2025 will start off.

Terrorist attacks complete with exploding cyber-trucks and security concerns surrounding the College Football Playoffs were in the news as the year began. 

But, in really fantastic news, the US-1 Bridge over the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter, FL, partially reopened. We have been suffering with congested traffic since March 2023 when the existing bridge was closed for demolition and reconstruction. We are excited to have one more lane each way because that increased the number of available lanes to cross the river from 2 to 3 and removed an excruciating detour. Maybe traffic will moderate a bit. I am anxious to drive over the bridge. The completed bridge will have a nice bike lane, and I am looking forward to biking across the bridge. 

A special thanks to Carola for taking the picture of the newly opened bridge while caught in traffic.

-- Bob Doan, Odenton, MD

Worrisome Choices

 One of the biggest concerns that I had about the president-elect was who would he surround himself with as advisors and cabinet leaders. 

I think the answer is coming in fairly clearly: patsies. 

He is not willing to find experts or even people with experience to run important departments such as defense, justice, and the interior. He is selecting, in at least two cases, people with no experience but who will do his bidding. 

Is anyone else concerned about this? 

On top of unqualified appointees, Trump may be planning to subvert the advice and consent of the Senate by trying for recess appointments--there is something just wrong about that, and also skipping security vetting from the FBI. 

About the announcement for DNI, Director of National Intelligence:

As former Illinois representative Joe Walsh wrote: “Donald Trump just picked someone to oversee our intelligence who, herself, couldn’t pass a security clearance check. She couldn’t get security clearance. She couldn’t get a job in our intelligence community. Because she’s too compromised by Russia. Yet Trump picked her to run the whole thing.” (Letters from an American)

What is happening? Trump seems to be knee-capping Defense, Justice, and the Intelligence Community. 

I saw this coming.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Information Warfare

 It seemingly has become a way of life in America. False news and disinformation are everywhere. The recent election demonstrated the effectiveness of the false news agencies in convincing Americans that we, as a country and a society, are bottom barrel and trash. 

If a majority believe it, it must be true--right? Not so. It remains not true, but the following information does demonstrate how disinformation affected the election outcome.

There is data from a Reuters/Ipsos poll in October that shows just how damaging the information gap is. People who are in possession of truthful, accurate information voted overwhelmingly for Harris. In other words, if you believed violent crime in major American cities was at an all-time high—which is not true—you were far more likely to vote Republican. Voters who knew that inflation had declined over the last year and was close to historic averages were +53 Democratic votes. Perhaps most disturbingly, people who did not have truthful information about undocumented people crossing the southern border were more likely to vote Republican.

(Civil Discourse)

If Americans were making decisions based upon disinformation then who won the election? Well, that does not change, but America will change. 

I am a bit frightened because our president-elect has stated that he will fulfill every promise he made. 

We can't afford them. And I thought Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility?

Figure 1 summarizes Trump’s campaign promises and their corresponding revenue estimates (collected by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget).

(Forbes)

And so it begins. The sad thing is that the people who elected him will be the ones who may suffer most. BTW, I heard him say something like that in a campaign speech.

Almost every economic policy Trump proposes would, at best, do little for the middle and working classes and, at worst, outright harm them. To take one example, among the random suggestions Trump has made is to make car insurance interest tax deductible. But that would only benefit you if you already itemize your deductions, and only 10% of taxpayers itemize, most of whom are wealthier. The rest of us take the standard deduction, which was significantly increased in that 2017 tax cut Trump wants to extend.  (MSNBC)

Well, the ride into misty future has already begun.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

The Economics of Tariffs

They say the election is about the economy.  

If it is then looking forward, rather than backward, Americans should be concerned about the impact of tariffs on the economy. One specific area of concern relates to Tech products. 

The CTA predicts [PDF] that the increased cost of importation, and retaliatory tariffs from other countries, would raise the cost of a laptop by 46 percent, a gaming console by 40 percent, and smartphone prices would be 26 percent more expensive. As a result, the association expects demand to fall 54, 57, and 44 percent, respectively.

"At their core, these proposals are tools for the US government to grab as much tax revenue as possible from the American people," said CTA CEO Gary Shapiro. "The proposed tariffs will not create more employment or manufacturing in the US. In fact, the opposite may happen where our productivity decreases and jobs may be lost over time when workers and businesses have less affordable access to technology."

The report points out that, for example, in the case of smartphones, there is virtually no manufacturing capability in the US, beyond a few refurbishing companies. (The Register)

Tariffs broadly applied will likely cause a major disaster in the economy. 

And here is a fun fact: 3 of the last 4 presidents faced economies on the brink of recession when they took office. Which president did not? Trump. 

Obama handed Trump a thriving economy for which Trump takes all of the credit. Important note, the inflation rate for Trump's term was 1.9%, but under Obama it was only 1.4%. The inflation rate during Biden's term, so far, has been 5.2%.  (Investopedia)

Trump, it must be remembered, handed Biden an economy on the brink of disaster AND a pandemic which saw, it is estimated, over 600,000 Americans die needlessly due to Trump's negligence.The Biden team pulled off a never before seen soft landing for the economy which was able to lower inflation from a high of 9.1% to just above 2% without spawning a recession. 

How do tariffs raise inflation: 

"The prices of all domestic goods will rise because they won't have foreign competition, at least some service prices will rise too," she said. "So you have the secondary price effect on domestic prices, which we've seen before with the open aluminum tariffs, with tariffs on washing machines, with tariffs on some of the things that were coming from China." (The Register)

Tariff Realities: Trump claims that foreign countries like China pay for the tariffs, and therefore they're subsidizing us. Well, that's wrong. And no, foreign countries are not going to pay for Social Security, childcare, or anything else. In the first round of the Trump tariffs, a lot of the effects were born by the intermediaries--wholesalers, retailers, distributors, et cetera. These intermediaries absorbed some of the cost of tariffs through lower profit markups. They also avoided the tariffs by shifting their sourcing to countries without tariffs. So, the United States didn't really see a big increase in consumer prices. But new tariffs, especially if they're large and they're applied to all imports like Trump suggests, so that firms couldn't escape them, would be much more likely to push up prices for consumers.  (American University)

If Trump gets elected, buy your tech items before he is sworn in, else wait 4 years. Oh yea, and get ready for the recession that Biden's team avoided.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Vote, please

Kayaks on the Loxahatchee
Tequesta, FL
October 26, 2024

 Many of us are burned out with the election and cannot wait until it is over. 

But, we still need to do our part--VOTE. 

This election cycle has been going on, it seems, forever. We are in the home stretch and finally, We the People get to make the decision on our future. 

There have been many sensational revelations during the past few weeks. Yet, many Americans still seem to be clinging to the idea that they were better off four years ago. 

That is bunk!

We were in the middle of the pandemic, which was made worse by the denials of the then president. Stores were empty of critical supplies, the world was grinding down. Because of Trump's head-in-the-sand approach it is estimated that 600,000 Americans died needlessly. 

Oh but, inflation was under control. Right--until it wasn't because of Trump's disastrous decisions. Biden takes the heat for it, just like Trump takes credit for the fantastic economy that Obama presented him with. Trump's job was not to screw it up--and he failed. But like so much in Trump's career he has managed to foist his failure onto others. 

So many are looking backwards hoping for the good old days, but here again Trump is hoping to take credit Biden's success restoring the economy without a recession. The economy is great. Anyone who believes prices are going to go back to 2020 is living in a fantasy land. In fact, the tariffs are going to make prices jump. 

Also, has anyone else noted that Trump is a terrible judge of character? So many people he hired calling them the best ever and great suddenly became terrible people and stupid when they departed from service to Trump. And there are a lot. I'm have not heard of anyone departing service to Harris or Biden that way. 

I believe the difference is clear--

Chaos or Sanity

Retribution or Governing

Looking Behind or Moving Forward

I voted for Harris/Walz -- Because our future depends on it

Cancer Society 300-mile Challenge Update:

I rode 6.76 miles yesterday. The ride was short because I rode into a rainstorm and decided to go home rather than get soaked. I have ridden 326.8 miles and fully met the 300-mile goal.

Programming Note: Monday Musings will not be published tomorrow because Chris and I will be traveling

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL