By now everyone has heard the stories of America’s bombing of small boats in the Caribbean and off the coast of South America in the Pacific. The justification behind this according to the Trump administration is that these boats are carrying drugs that will harm Americans. No evidence, proof, or explanation is provided. At the same time president Trump has suddenly pardoned the ex president of Honduras who had been convicted of supplying 400 tons of cocaine to America. He was tried and convicted with the help of Trump’s attorneys to and sentenced to 45 years in prison. These 400 tons of cocaine (street value @ nearly a trillion dollars) represent over 7 million cocaine “hits” and no doubt have caused many Americans to lose their lives, their income, their jobs and/or their families over the past several years. Someone explain to me how we can justify killing what may be honest fisherman trying to feed their families and at the same time free a man who may have cost thousands of American their lives over the past several years.
ON THE RELATED BOAT BOMBINGS…
Congress is about to interview Admiral Bradley–the man in charge during the reported murder of 2 survivors of the September 2 boat attack. If he gave the order to fire the second “tap” he clearly committed a war crime. If he says Secretary Hegseth specifically ordered him to kill those 2 survivors both men and anyone else in the firing process are guilty of a war crime. The latest BS now being spread by Trump is that the killings of the 2 survivors was justified because they were getting back into the destroyed boat and calling for help on a radio. This is buffoonery at the highest level and shows how desperate Trump, Hegseth and his merry men are. We predict that Bradley will accept the responsibility, be minimally reprimanded, be re-assigned to a desk and quietly retire. The only other realistic alternative is for Bradley to accept the full blame, be jailed for a short time and then pardoned by Trump and retire with full military pension benefits. After all, if you can pardon a drug king pin, what’s to stop you from pardoning an American Admiral who mis-interpreted his orders? Either way, Hegseth remains unscathed and ready to continue his screw-ups–with Trump’s backing, of course.
THE FEDERAL OPEN MARKET COMMITTEE MEETING
On December 8th and 9th the Federal Reserve System, headed by Chairman Powell, will conduct the next Federal Open Market committee meeting. Many businessmen anticipate a 1/4% rate cut. If this cut occurs it will do more damage and provide no help to the American economy. Chairman Powell is simply caving in to the Trump pressure.
TARIFFS AS WEAPONS
President Trump has learned that specific tariffs for individual companies or countries can be used effectively as weapons to achieve his objectives. He has tried to reinstate Bolsenaro, a convicted dictator in Brazil, to the presidency and thus imposed a super tariff on all Brazilian products. (Eventually he removed this tariff when he realized that the people of Brazil were not going to cave in.) He is using the tariffs in specific product cases to enrich his mega donors by improving their profit picture on specific items where American made products cannot begin to compete with those made by foreign companies. You will note(1)that these tariffs have nothing to do with the American economy in general; (2) president Trump– according to the US Constitution– has no right or authority to impose tariffs whether specific to a country or to a product line. This “specific product/industry” tariff threat is how he forces businesses to cave to his demands. He just received a $6.5 billion gift from Michael Dell to be used o fund Trump “newborn” investment accounts. Do you really think Mr. Dell loves Trump so much that he willingly gave away $6.5 billion UNLESS HE WAS COERCED?
THE MONEY SHOUTS AGAIN
If you have been a consistent reader of this blog you know that we predicted that the American PGA golf tour would never merge with the Saudi tour also known as the Liv tour. Recently Rory McIlroy a staunch defender of the American PGA Tour has indicated that there is little hope that these tours will ever merge. The Saudi tour is funded by the Saudi Wealth Fund which has nearly a trillion dollars at its disposal. American advertisers cannot match these LIV tour prize money purses and so the American tour will remain a poor cousin to the LIV tour indefinitely. As a result of this money difference, the American golf tour is shortening its schedule to match the number of events on the Saudi tour. The American PGA hopes to be able to increase ad revenue with fewer TV events. This won’t work and gradually more and more American professional golfers will defect to the Saudi/LIV tour. They are justifiably reasoning that they can win more money and spend more time with their families–so why fight the switch from the American tour? Stay tuned for future defections. But the real question remains: why do the Saudi’s want to develop a golf tour? Golf is not popular in their countries and the cost of golf is prohibitive to the average citizen. What’s the point of sponsoring world class golf if it can’t be available to the masses?
THE AMERICAN ECONOMY SINKS
Unemployment, inflation and manufacturing slowdowns are increasing. Consumer confidence is falling. New job creation is anemic. Trump is busy filling government coffers with tariff money paid by American consumers–$30 billion/month. In 10 short months, the percentage of manufacturing in our economy has dropped from 13% to 10%. Major layoffs have been announced and explained by the Trump Administration as caused by the evolution of Artificial Intelligence. This is bunk. It’s designed to cover the failures of the tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. As mentioned above, Chairman Powell of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee will not “save us” with interest rate reductions. High prices will reduce sales and slower sales mean full warehouses of unsold merchandise. Lowering interest rates will not help as long as prices are high. We are headed for a recession–at best. And keep in mind that all the while this is happening Trump is favoring his billionaire buddies with special tariff treatment and tax reductions. Also, remember that this financial disaster was caused by tariffs that were never necessary.
TRUMP: THE HAND PUPPET
Let’s admit it…Trump is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. His exploits have been strategically placed to accomplish someone’s goals. We believe that Stephen Miller and John Durham are the puppet masters. Listen to how Trump responds to questions. He spouts lies routinely and–when cornered–he insults either the questioner or the question. He is shallow and has no understanding of any issue that a president should have thorough knowledge of.
THE OIL INDUSTRY
We mentioned in previous posts that Trump has single-handedly wrecked the American oil industry. His original intention was to re-pay the big oil owners and executives for their campaign support. But his friendship with the murderous Saudis has created a world-wide oil crisis. As Trump expands drilling rights in this country, the Saudis also increased production in OPEC countries that resulted a world price of oil less than $60/barrel. At that price, American oil companies cannot make money. So to appease them Trump has now lowered the standards on mileage for American made cars. He thinks that by allowing American cars to pollute our air he will be reducing the prices on cars made here and make them more competitive. In other words, he’s trading our health to keep the oil industry moguls happy. Do you see how one mistake leads to a series of blunders that ultimately cost the average American? Everyone except billionaires will suffer under the Trump reign.
TRUMP COMMENT FEEDBACK
Your blog editor joins in with many internet conversation strings–mostly on political issues. Over the last 10 months, we have seen a major decline in blowback comments that try to defend the actions of our president. As each new low is achieved by the Trump Administration–and there are new and frightening developments every day–once staunch defenders of the total fraud we call “president” are slowly but surely jumping off the raft. We tell “Trumpers” that it will become increasingly tougher to defend Trump and his Cabinet menagerie and the vast majority of replies agrees with our critique. How do you defend taking food money from the poor while enriching billionaires? How do you justify killing citizens of other countries because they might be carrying drugs and, at the same time, pardon the most notorious drug king ever to destroy American lives? The list goes on…The 2026 election does not bode well for the GOP and we think both the voters and the elected officials are beginning to see that stark message.
NEXT TIME…
Each year–ending about December 7th, individuals have a decision to make regarding their medical plan coverage for themselves and their families. Insurance companies set and communicate premiums for the following calendar year along with their menu of benefit provisions (what they cover and the basis for their payments) and any procedural rules that require plan participants to follow in order to maximize their re-imbursements/payments to doctors , hospitals, labs, etc.
TO SET THE STAGE..
In 1993 a book was published entitled “CODE BLUE: HEALTH CARE N CRISIS”. The book by Edward Annis MD was published in 1993 and has some very interesting facts about the American health care system. Although somewhat dated, it provides very consistent observations with the current system. Your blog editor (who worked in this field for nearly 40 years) was fortunate to have talked at length with Dr. Annis and will provide a focused examination of our current health care industry and its costs. We think you will find the comments both interesting and informative.
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