Trump's economic illiteracy

Trump posted on X today, “On Trade, I have decided, for purposes of Fairness, that I will charge a RECIPROCAL Tariff meaning, whatever Countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them - No more, no less!

For purposes of this United States Policy, we will consider Countries that use the VAT System, which is far more punitive than a Tariff, to be similar to that of a Tariff. Sending merchandise, product, or anything by any other name through another Country, for purposes of unfairly harming America, will not be accepted. In addition, we will make provision for subsidies provided by Countries in order to take Economic advantage of the United States. Likewise, provisions will be made for Nonmonetary Tariffs and Trade Barriers that some Countries charge in order to keep our product out of their domain or, if they do not even let U.S. businesses operate. We are able to accurately determine the cost of these Nonmonetary Trade Barriers. It is fair to all, no other Country can complain and, in some cases, if a Country feels that the United States would be getting too high a Tariff, all they have to do is reduce or terminate their Tariff against us. There are no Tariffs if you manufacture or build your product in the United States.

For many years, the U.S. has been treated unfairly by other Countries, both friend and foe. This System will immediately bring Fairness and Prosperity back into the previously complex and unfair System of Trade. America has helped many Countries throughout the years, at great financial cost. It is now time that these Countries remember this, and treat us fairly – A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR AMERICAN WORKERS. I have instructed my Secretary of State, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of the Treasury, and United States Trade Representative (USTR) to do all work necessary to deliver RECIPROCITY to our System of Trade!”

Because Trump is an economic illiterate, he has no clue how destructive his plan will be. Tariffs will no longer be in the 10-25% range, but in the 40-45% range. Trump still does not understand that other countries don’t pay the tariffs, but U.S. consumers! Inflation is certain to go up, likely exceeding the 9.5% reached briefly during the Biden administration. Add to this the DOGE cuts coming to Social Security and Medicare in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, and the only growth industry in the U.S. will be soup kitchens. 

Kennedy is a dangerous pick

 Robert Kennedy, Jr., was confirmed this week as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). He is a dangerous choice for the job as he has advocated a number of bizarre conspiracy theories over the last three decades. 

Perhaps the most troubling conspiracy theory that Robert Kennedy, Jr., has advanced is that vaccines are linked to autism. This debunked theory did not start with Kennedy, but in the aftermath of a small study conducted by Dr. Anthony Wakefield in the United Kingdom. His 1998 study, published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, concluded that vaccines were connected to autism. A later investigation called the findings of Wakefield’s study into question, and the study was retracted by The Lancet. But that did not deter the growing anti-vaccination crowd. Kennedy joined the anti-vaxx bandwagon by claiming that the vaccine preservative thimerosal was linked to the autism. Further, Kennedy charged that the government knew of the link by “knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children.” Research by a number of centers, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) could find no link between vaccines or their preservatives and autism. 

Kennedy has been a major promoter of “raw milk” – unpasteurized milk that can contain the same nutrition as pasteurized milk, but contains dangerous germs as well. Kennedy has charged that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) engages in “aggressive suppression” of products “that advance human health and can't be patented by” the pharmaceutical industry. Towards that end, Kennedy has announced that he will seek a ban on pharmaceutical advertising. 

Kennedy is very much against the fluoridation of water. Fluoride has been added to the public water system since the 1960s to prevent tooth decay. He tweeted on November 2, 2024, that “fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.” He based his views on a 2024 report that linked high levels of fluoride to lower IQ scores in children. But the levels of fluoride used in fluoridation programs is much lower than the levels in the 2024 report. Further, research over the last 60 years has shown the used of fluoride in water to be safe. 

Kennedy also has suggested that Wifi and 5G technologies cause health problems. He claimed on a June 2024 Joe Rogan podcast that Wifi “radiation” will “open you blood brain barrier” to toxins. His charge runs counter to considerable research that demonstrates that neither Wifi nor 5G is linked to any illnesses. 

Kennedy has promoted other conspiracies, such as AIDS is not caused by HIV or that mass shootings are linked to anti-depressants such as Prozac. But perhaps the most controversial recent conspiracy has been that Kennedy proposed in a 2023 video where he declared that “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” The health community pushed back hard on Kennedy, stating “The claims of Robert F Kennedy Jr are very damaging given they do not follow scientific evidence.” Research clearly demonstrates that differences in COVID infections among ethnic groups is related to inequalities. 

What is remarkable is that even one of these bizarre medical beliefs should have disqualified Kennedy from even being Secretary of HHS. Instead, he was narrowly confirmed. It’s going to be a dangerous time in health care.

Vance is a fool and a hypocrite

 I had to take a bit of time off from blogging because watching the various effects of the nonviolent coup occurring in this country has been hard to keep up with. But yesterday's disgusting speech by J.D.Vance at the Munich Security Conference was too much to ignore.

For one thing, Vance claimed that the real danger to Europe is not Russia or China, but threats from within. That is just a stunningly DUMB remark. Russia invaded a sovereign European country (Ukraine) three years ago, and China threatens Europe economically. Beyond that, Vance is vice-president to a president that led an insurrection against this country in January 2021 because he did not want to leave office. It should be noted that the same president is musing about running for a third term even though doing so would be unconstitutional. When Vance criticizes Europe for being anti-democratic in its opposition to Neo-Nazi parties, he is being incredibly hypocritical.

Vance, as he often does, issued statements with no basis in reality. He criticized Scotland for banning prayer in safe zones at abortion clinics, asserting that the law would criminal private prayer at home. That is not even close to being the truth. The ban on activities applies only to the safe access zone around abortion clinics so that patients will not feel intimidated and threatened. 

Vance also condemned the cancellation of the election in Romania because of Russian interference in its election. Not only is it the height of arrogance for the U.S. to comment on other countries' elections when there is so much disinformation and voter suppression that goes on in ours, but we don't support other countries' interference in our own elections! 

It should be noted that Vance had an unintentionally ironic line when he presented an example of a journalist being jailed when in this country the Associated Press has been banned from the White House for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. It was equally ironic that Vance decried shutting people out of the political process where MAGA has done that with voter suppression laws and gerrymandering.

In short, Vance's speech was an embarrassment, and, as German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius observed, the comparison of European democracies to authoritarian regimes was "unacceptable."

How unqualified MAGA Cabinet candidates look good

I have been struck by two things in watching the confirmation hearings of Pete Hegseth (for Secretary of Defense) and Pam Bondi (for Attorney General). First, neither candidate should be confirmed - Hegseth for his lack of qualifications and personal flaws; Bondi for her refusal to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 election for the presidency. 

The second thing I noticed is that both nominees received high praise for their performances, despite their refusing to answer direct questions, or providing mendacious answers. Why? Because they decided a good defense was a strident offense. 

For example, whenever Hegseth was asked questions about sexually assaulting women or being drunk in the workplace, he responded loudly and angrily, "those are anonymous smears." Of course, there are a couple of problems with that response. First, the people who made those charges are not anonymous. The reporters know who they are. Plus there are legitimate reasons for their anonymity. The employees at Fox who charged Hegseth with having a drinking problem likely did not want to lose their jobs by going public. They likely were lower level employees, such as production assistants placing a microphone on Hegseth and smelling his alcohol-laced breath.

The other folks who engaged in "anonymous smears" were individual women who had signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in return for compensation. Again, these women are not truly anonymous. Hegseth and the reporters know who they are, but they are prohibited from going public. Remember, Hegseth refused a request to release the women from their NDAs. 

As for Bondi, she refused to answer many questions, either claiming the questions were "hypotheticals" or she did not have enough information about them (including Trump's comments about going after certain individuals such as Lynne Cheney). Instead, she went on the attack against Schiff, reminding the committee that Schiff was censored by a Republican House.

So, by refusing to give answers, and by doing so aggressively, Hegseth and Bondi likely will get jobs they absolutely do not deserve.

Candace does it again

Candace Owens is at it again. On her Friday podcast (Episode 130 on YouTube), Owens revived her allegation that Brigitte Macron was born a man, and transitioned to becoming female around the time that she was 30. She also suggested Brigitte Macron was guilty of the statutory rape of her former student Emmanuel Macron, who is now the President of France. 

The trigger for her new rant was her supposed receipt of a letter from the Macrons "threatening" her from publishing an expose proving Brigitte Macron was born a man. The letter also purportedly stated that Owens should not publicize its contents. Owens pushed back, stating that was an attempt to curb her rights to free speech.

Owens is playing with legal fire here. First, nothing happened between the Macrons until he was 15, the age of consent in France. Yes, Brigitte was 40, meaning that there was a 25-year age gap. But, Emmanuel Macron first declared he was going to marry Brigitte when he was 17, and finally did marry her when he was 29, so the age gap was not an issue. What was unusual was that the woman in the relationship was 25 years older, rather than the far more common situation of men being that much older than their wives (like Donald Trump being 24 years older than his wife Melania).

Second, the issue about Brigitte Macron's biological origins has already been litigated this year. In France, two female commentators were sued by the French First Lady and her brother for libel over this issue, and lost. Owens can ignore what happened in her pursuit of smearing the Macrons, but she does so at her own peril. 

Beyond that, it shows that Owens is way out of touch with reality.

Musk v. Starmer

Thanks to Elon Musk, it's been a long week for Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Great Britain. Musk has been attacking Starmer over the "grooming gangs scandal" where gangs of men, often Pakistani, targeted young girls (usually from poor backgrounds) to rape and torture. The gangs operated in a number of towns over a four-decade period. Musk has charged that Starmer did not do enough against the gangs when he was the chief prosecutor of England and Wales from 2008-2013. Musk has called on Starmer to be investigated as he was "complicit in the crimes." 

At a press conference on Monday, Starmer was asked by a reporter if he would take legal action against Musk for libel. Starmer replied: "My record is open. Every single case. prosecuted went to court, was looked at by a judge. I was overseen by the Attorney General, which for three of the five years was a Tory Attorney General.

Starmer then shifted the focus of the discussion to what the controversy means for British political culture: It is something about the nature of our politics. Because once we lose the anchor that truth matters in the robust debate we must have, then we're on a very slippery slope.

And when politicians who sat in government for many years are casual about honesty, decency, truth and the rule of law, calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far right, then that affects politics. Because a robust debate can only be based on the true facts.

And that's why this is actually an important point about our politics. It's not about what anyone may or may not say on Twitter.

That actually is the main issue. The main issue is what are politicians over here doing to stand up for the things that matter for our democracy and the way we have robust debate.

That's why I want to call it out. Because I think it really matters. It matters not just to me, to the Labour Party. It ought to matter, it used to matter, to all political parties. And it is a sign of where the Tory party have got to that we're even having this debate.

Then on Wednesday, the Parliament voted down an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing And Schools Bill that would have required another national inquiry into grooming gangs. The vote was 364-111. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch charged that failing to approve the probe amounted to a cover up. 

Meanwhile, Musk is meeting with opposition leaders to figure out ways to replace Starmer soon. Stay tuned.

Candace Owens' libel

To say that Candace is a fringe voice on the right is an understatement. Once a darling of the MAGA -- a featured speaker at Turning Point USA events and part of the Daily Caller media group -- her increasingly extreme positions are losing her support. In fact, the Daily Caller cut ties with her last spring.

One example of her far-out views is her claim that a number of world leaders, including former U.S. president Barack Obama,  Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, are all gay -- which must come as a surprise to their wives. 

But, the most outrageous claim by Owens is that Brigitte Macron -- wife of French president Emmanuel Macron -- is transgender. Owens' fantasy depicts Brigitte as actually being her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, and that she transitioned into being Brigitte. Owens also charges that Brigitte committed the statutory rape of Macron because he was 15 and she was "47" when they met (Note; Brigitte was 40). 

Brigitte Macron and her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux sued two French online conspiracy theorists this year and, in September, were both awarded damages ($8000 for Macron and $5000 for her brother). Interestingly, Owens has dramatically toned down her rhetoric about Brigitte Macron being a man. She clearly is afraid that if she was sued for libel, she would clearly lose. 

Fortunately for Candace Owens, there are dozens of other conspiracy theories that she engages in, and enough gullible followers out there, so she will have plenty to do.