It’s Time to ‘Pay the Piper’

 

The residents of New Orleans continually brag about the ‘unique culture’ of their city with its wonderful cafes and restaurants, it second line parades, Mardi Gras celebration, and its myriad of music and food festivals.  However, what many fail to acknowledge is that New Orleans has always been a ward of the federal government.  Most of the development and improvement projects that occur in the city are totally dependent upon such funds, and unfortunately, when these funds expire, these projects fail into disrepair because the city can’t afford to maintain them.  So they wait until they get more federal funds to redo these projects again, and this cycle has been repeated over and over throughout the years.  Just look at how many times Louie Armstrong Park has been restored.

Sadly, New Orleans residents have never paid their fair share to live there, and now it is time to “pay the piper.”  For various reasons the Federal Funds are no longer flowing as they use to. Some involve limiting new funding based upon the lack of accountability about how these funds were utilized in the past, and others involve a drastic change by the present administration’s desire to not fund projects in cities that are considered running counter to their MAGA agenda.

Whatever the reasons, one thing is clear, New Orleans has run out of money to pay city operational costs for the remainder of this year and is facing a $160 million deficit for next year.  And the reality is clear, either New Orleans residents assume the actual operational costs of their city, or, if they can’t afford that, they will have to leave. 

The ‘city that care forgot’ is at a reality crossroads and it is up to its residents to decide if they are willing to finally pay for the future of that ‘unique culture.’

Such Hypocrisy about Making America Great Again

 

While President Trump basks in the praises he is receiving worldwide for brokering a cease fire in the Israeli /Hamas war occurring in Palestine, with the possibility of a lasting peace, one has to wonder why he doesn’t care about brokering such peace in his own country.    We may not have bombs killing people and destroying our homes and infrastructure, but we do have the destruction of peoples’ livelihoods and the disruption of crucial services impacting all with the prolonged shutdown of the Federal government.  But Trump doesn’t seem interested or care about using any of his purported negotiation skills in solving this present political war in his quest to Make America Great Again.

In fact, he has given his full support to Speaker of the House, Johnson’s   refusal to call the House of Representatives back into session.  Consequentially, your representatives remain home collecting their pay while almost all Federal workers receive none.  If they don’t even show up, how can any negotiations occur?   And President Trump seems perfectly satisfied with Speaker Johnson’ response that, “there is nothing to negotiate,” when questioned about why the House is not in session.

So, my question is this, why so little concern about negotiating a peaceful solution in your own country as opposed to a foreign conflict?  Is it all about the glamour and fame of the whole world stage?

Why allow the present philosophy of ‘its’s my way or the highway’ to be the rallying call of both political parties?   President Trump needs to show that he really cares about the unity of our country, for he has the power to do so by bringing both political sides together and negotiating a peace deal.  But instead, he has refused to initiate such a meeting and continues to add gasoline to the fire by announcing permanent layoffs in Federal agencies that, to use his own words, “are favored by the Democrats.”

These acts of retribution are further proof that forming a peace agreement in the United States is simply not on President Trump’s radar.   So again, I ask, why, for he only has to negotiate with two opposing entities as opposed to three in the Israeli /Hamas war.  So, it should be a lot easier.

But then again, our political peace negotiation comes with no worldwide accolades, or fame and it wouldn’t help towards getting the Nobel Peace Prize, one of his highest priorities.

President Trump is Outright Lying to Americans

You may not have noticed, but recently you have to do more and more of your own research to determine the actual facts that exist about issues impacting our country today.  As a commentary writer, who is retired, I have the time to do this, and am somewhat sensitive to quoted statistics that don’t make sense.

One recently quoted statistic by President Trump just got my full my attention. In a recent news conference celebrating the destroying of Venezuelan ships allegedly carrying drugs, the president stated that drugs “killed 300,000 in our country last year.”  Obviously, this was another swipe at the supposedly out of control societal ales which occurred under the Biden administration.

It wasn’t hard to check last year’s drug deaths since it is readily available from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. They reported the following:  “In the United States, in 2024, there were an estimated 80,391 deaths due to drug overdoses, which includes deaths from illicit drug use. This figure represents a significant decrease of about 27% from the approximately 110,037 overdose deaths estimated in 2023. The decline in overdose deaths is notable as it is projected to be the lowest annual total since 2019. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl remain the primary driver behind most of these deaths, although deaths from these substances also decreased substantially during 2024.”

Almost a quarter of million error in reporting this information to the American people.  Why do that?  Just for personal embellishment?  And how many more statistical falsehoods are being fed to Americans by the present administration for the same reason?  I have found many.

Rightfully so, most Americans simply accept these doled out statistics as factual because they are coming from the highest office in the United States government. So why would anyone in their wildest imagination assume they might be false?  And to make matters worse, the news media has been so successfully brow beaten by the ‘fake news’ label that they no longer even bother to question or correct these outlandish espoused statistics.

As someone degreed in statistical research, with a love for stats, I am abhorred at what is now taking place. But, obviously there is no end in sight to this foolishness, and it is now possibly to the point that no one should believe any statistics espoused by our government leaders.

Frightfully, I am talking about a very dangerous situation, the alteration of facts by government officials to comply with their agenda.  And we are not talking about some minor overemphasis just to prove at point, but major statistical atrocities.

So do your own fact checking if you really want to know the truth about important issues facing our country, because your research is the only one you can now trust.

It's Time to Stop the Perpetual Divisiveness

When a tragedy occurs in the magnitude of the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk one should take pause and remind themselves of the reality of what occurred; a sole heinous act of violence committed by a mentally disturbed individual.

However, apparently our society has moved beyond such logic, for instead of using such an event as a time for healing and bringing folks together, it leaders have chosen to politicize it and create yet more animosity and divisiveness among us as a nation.

Here is what President Trump said after the shooting:  “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the worst mass murders and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.” He then promised to find “each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone who brings order to our country.”  Trump cited the attacks on Rep. Steve Scalise, in 2017, and the attack on himself as examples of what he termed the Left radicalization against Republicans.

However, what he conveniently failed to mention were any attacks against Democrats, the most recent being the murders of Melissa Hortman, her husband, and dog.

Additionally, many conservatives have also inferred that there has been a nationwide war declared on the Republican Party and blame Democrats for Kirk's death.  Fox News host Jesse Watters called the death a "turning point," and MAGA architect Steve Bannon saying on his War Room podcast, "Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We are at war in this country."

Several other political commentators have echoed similar rhetoric.  For example Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, said on X: "The Left (Democrats) owns what happened yesterday." Elon Musk wrote on X: "The Left is the party of murder." Actor and conservative activist James Woods wrote on X: "It's not gun violence, it's Democrat violence."

 

For the record, the shooter had no declared political party affiliation, but did come from a family of Republicans, and the Trump shooter was a registered Republican. All of which further illustrates the foolishness and intentional divisiveness fueled by these radical comments trying to link this shooting to a political ideology.

 

Former President Barack Obama said on X:  "We don't yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie's family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children."

 

Now, of all the responses I have cited, which one is the only one that promotes a healing and bringing together of our country rather than polarizing and dividing it further?  And which one doesn’t serve as a violent call to arms?

 

Obviously some folks just need to get a grip and stop the political grandstanding foolishness, before it’s too late to bring our country back from more violence, more divisiveness and more hatred of one another.

 

Charlie Kirk was a son, a husband, and a father who was senselessly killed by a mentally disturbed individual who apparently felt distain and animosity for his political agenda.  And sadly, we now have leaders who want to further sow more distain and animosity.

Let's hold everyone responsible

The horrific death of 12 year old Bryan Vasquez by an alligator attack was a tragedy that quite possibly could have been prevented.  And interestingly the media has chosen to focus its headline news on the past abuses the boy received from his caretaker.  The harsh reality is this young man was failed by the New Orleans Police Department, the Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.  And none seem to be the center of media’s investigative reporting surrounding this child’s death.   Why the protective cover for these departments?   I believe if this child had not been disabled, of Mexican dissent, and from an economically challenged family, the coverage of this incident might have been entirely different.

The NOPD’s delayed response to the reporting of the missing child was inexcusable, and employee repercussions need to be issued.  Additionally, a review of the child’s suffering abuses over the years provides no plausible reason for why the child was ever returned to the custody of his caretaker by the Department of Child and Family Services. And, after several previous complaints regarding alligator sightings in the lake where the boy was attacked, apparently the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries took little to no action.

This poor young child simply didn’t have a chance with all this stacked against him.

So when will the media take off the kid’s gloves and hold everyone accountable for their respective roles in this young child’s death, and stop using the child’s caretaker as the scapegoat?

Conspiracy theorists dash hopes for cancer vaccines

When I was just in my early to mid-twenties, I remember President Nixon promising to find a cure for cancer during his term as President.  Sadly, some 56 years later that promise has yet to come to fruition, and my departed wife was a testimony to that. There have been many conspiracy theories circulated about why this hasn’t occurred. The most prominent one being that drug companies do not wish to find a cure or prevention because that would kill their ‘golden goose’ of the tremendous profits they reap from the cost of their cancer treatment drugs.  And added to that theory is the fact that some of the recent ground breaking research regarding the treatment of cancer comes mainly from foreign countries.

However, recently there had been a new ray of hope in the prevention of cancer, but it too has most likely been doomed to failure by conspiracy theorists. The COVID epidemic lead to a new way of developing vaccines.  It is known as the mRNA technology.  Basically in the past, immune responses to diseases were created in our bodies through the use of vaccines putting a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. The first step of this procedure involved the actual growing of the disease in the lab, which was time consuming.  However, under ideal conditions this type of vaccine triggered our body’s immune system to develop a resistance to this disease, resulting in a total prevention or a less severe case.

In contrast, mRNA vaccines use a genetic code to tell the body’s cells to produce proteins that train the immune system to produce protection.  mRNA technology allows researchers to develop vaccines quickly since labs don't have to initially grow copies of the virus. It is important to note that both procedures involve the process of injecting a foreign substance into the body.

However, since the mRNA substance was not naturally grown, but instead manufactured in a lab, the conspiracy folks have had a field day.  Without going into a lengthy debate about the safety and total lack of understanding these folks had about the mRNA technology used in the development of the COVID vaccines, one simply needs to look at the data from Israel. They vaccinated early on more people with all versions of these vaccines than any country, and carefully monitored these folks.  Additionally, these new vaccines were used world-wide. According to the World Health Organization,13.64 billion people or 67% world-wide were initially vaccinated. This is far more extensive than any use in the U.S. and  provides significantly more data regarding their safety. They were safe, but of course some did experience side effects as do some with conventionally developed vaccines, but these side effects never received the same sensationalized media coverage that the mRNA side effects did.

However, one of the greatest benefits of this emerging mRNA technology was that it could finally lead to the development of cancer preventing vaccines.  But, sadly we can forget about that dream, because the present administration has just cut all funding for mRNA vaccines research.  Half a billion dollars had already been spent on this research development at various laboratories and universities, and now that background work has been thrown out and shut down.  However, ironically, China has increased support for this technology.

So hooray for the anti-vax, conspiracy theorists that President Trump has now infiltrated into the Department of Health and Human Services, along with Louisiana congressman Bill Cassidy and other Trump political loyalists, for they have successfully insured the continual survival of cancer in the U.S.  And you would think, of all loyalists, Rep. Steve Scalise would know better. Thanks ‘For Making America Great Again.’

A Time for Worry?

Should I be concerned? Two recent media reports that were pretty much glossed over started me thinking about what might be really happening in our country.  Last week the Smithsonian Institute removed from its display about the history of American Presidents all references to Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings that occurred in 2019 and 2021. The impeachment proceedings reporting for former presidents Bill Clinton and Andrew Jackson were left in place. To make matters worse, some of the text elsewhere in the exhibit still mentions that 3 U.S. Presidents went through impeachment proceedings, but the factual historical information detailing who they were now includes only two.

So are we now to the point of countries like China and Russian who forbid the mentioning of any historical events that run counter to the image the ruling power wishes to advocate.  China did this when it removed all references to its 2019 slaughter of pro-democratic demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.  All references to this incident are forbidden and lead to immediate arrest if mentioned publicly.  Additionally, in Russia, officials who opposed Joseph Stalin’s agenda were not only removed from their government positions but also from all photographs and history books.  And others just quietly disappeared entirely.

While Smithsonian Officials have denied that they received any pressure from the White House to make this change, Trump’s officials do control the funding for this institution, and in March, the US president signed an executive order to remove “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution’s properties and deny funding for exhibits that “degrade shared American values.”   Whatever that means!

The other media reporting that caught my eye was the abrupt firing of the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after her reporting of the latest monthly job figures.  These figures indicated, contrary to what the present administration has been advocating, that the economy is back sliding, not flourishing.  This information comes from surveys returned by actual employers. The commissioner simply reports the numbers tabulated from these surveys, and contrary to what the present administration would like us to believe they are not simply pulled out of thin air. There is a factual paper trail. And often the previous month’s figures are revised due to the late submission of the employers’ surveys.  The commissioner has little control over this. So the fact that the two previous months’ job figures were revised downwards further showing continued back sliding doesn’t support the excuse that the commissioner was fired due to previous errors made because she changed the figures.   No errors were made, just 3 months of backsliding after late submissions were included.

I can only guess this was just too much for the present administration to bear, so as is usually the ‘persecuted soul ‘ game plan, Trump called the figures ‘fake news’ and ‘politically motivated’ just to make him look bad, and sought to remedy the situation by putting someone in there that will issue (manufacture) the "correct" positive ones that support  his claims.

In closing, should I be concerned that more and more instances of dictatorial, authoritarian tactics are being implemented by our President on our American institutions? After all, just look what has happened to my beloved "Sesame Street."

Senator Doctor Bill Cassidy will be missed

Everyone just needs to stop picking on our Senator Dr. Bill Cassidy for his support of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.  It should be obvious to everyone that Cassidy’s endorsement of Kennedy was a political decision made by a politician, not a professional decision made by a knowledgeable physician.  Ever since Cassidy’s support of impeachment of President Trump, during his first term, resulting in his censorship by the Louisiana GOP, Cassidy has been on the chopping block as far as his re-election desires are concerned. 

However, Sen. Bill Cassidy was offered a ‘political golden goose’ when Kennedy was vetted by Cassidy’s Senatorial committee for appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Apparently from Cassidy’s perspective this was his chance for redemption in the eyes of the Republican Party and Trump, in particular. We learned later that if Cassidy had not given his approval, two or three other Republican committee members would have gone along with him and the Kennedy appointment would have failed.

However, the reality of this scenario was, it really didn’t matter how Bill Cassidy voted; he was already finished as a Louisiana senator. If there is one principle which President Trump does stand for, it is 'never forget or forgive.'  Cross him and you are done for!

Senator Cassidy has done more for our state than Rep. Johnson, Sens. Scalise and Kennedy combined, but he crossed Trump and that’s all that matters in today’s politics. It’s no longer about being a competent legislator serving your constituents in positive ways, but instead about unconditional, blind loyalty.

If one looks at Cassidy’s legislative track record, he has served Louisiana well, and he will be missed.  It is just a shame that he didn’t seal his legacy by protecting the health of our nation, by blocking the Kennedy, Jr.  appointment.

Budget smoke and mirrors

Am I missing something, or do President Trump and Elon Musk just think I am stupid, along with the rest of the public? With all this rhetoric about government waste and the need to decrease the out of control government spending, all of which is attributed to the Democrats, I am confused about recent budgetary developments within the Pentagon, specifically the Department of Defense, headed by Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth pushed out thousands of civilian workers, is reducing the ranks of top generals, and consolidating various commands all under the guise of saving money by eliminating what he deems as waste.  However, under Trump’s “one big and beautiful budget” the Pentagon will now receive a funding increase of $150 billion, for a grand total budget funding of over $900 billion.  Where is the savings in that plan? 

Additionally, while Elon Musk promised saving the government as much as $2 trillion, with President Trump claiming that even more than that figure would be saved by waste elimination through the DOGE program, the final figures don’t support either claim. The harsh reality is, according to Musk’s own testimony at an April Cabinet meeting, the savings would amount to $150 billion during the present fiscal year.  And that figure has just been wiped out by the proposed increased spending for the Pentagon.

And this fiscal smoke and mirrors game doesn’t just stop there, for the ‘one big and beautiful budget’ is now estimated, by the Congressional Budget Office, to increase the national debt by $3.8 trillion, peaking to $7.75 trillion by 2035.  This being the latest action from a party whose mantra has always been focused on reducing the escalated national debt caused by the Democrats.

Talk is cheap, but when it comes to tackling the runaway national debt, any actions to do so thus far has simply been composed of those peddling ‘snake oil’ to the U.S citizens.  Just how dumb do all these folks think we are, and when will we stand up and prove them wrong?

Empty Trump promise

The pledge:  “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods. They’ll come down fast.”

The reality:  America has become less affordable, prices for goods went up, and went up fast.  

The reason:  Trump imposed steep tariffs on consumer goods-claiming tariffs one of “the most beautiful words I ever heard.”

If President Trump had done a little historical research instead of blindly bulldozing ahead, he would have discovered that some 50 years ago President Nixon, a Republican, also imposed tariffs as a solution to our trade imbalance, and his implementation was successful.

Nixon’s primary goal was, to quote from EV Magazine, “not to protect US industries but to force key trading partners—such as Japan and West Germany—to revalue their currencies against the US dollar.  At the time, America's trade balance had shifted from surplus to deficit, raising alarms about global competitiveness. Nixon's tariffs, though temporary, had a lasting impact. They pressured major economies to abandon the fixed exchange rates under the Bretton Woods system, leading to the Smithsonian Agreement in December, 1971. The agreement allowed key currencies to appreciate against the dollar, making US exports more competitive."  Nixon's tariff plan was specific, actionable and transparent."

The key words in this description being “specific”, “actionable”, and “transparent.”  Trump has placed tariffs on almost all countries, the specificity varying from country to country.  The timetable for the length of the tariffs is unspecified. The transparency is questionable in that from one day to the next they are randomly reduced by executive order according to the push back from leading corporations and manufactures in the U.S.  And their action of implementation is one of brinkmanship, like someone involved in a poker game; betting on who will fold first.  This style has led to severe disruption in global trade, creating significant supply chain upheavals, as companies adjust to higher costs, which will be passed down to the consumer.

One might conclude from all this that President Trump and his advisors don’t have a clue as to what they are doing. I certainly hope that isn’t the case, but so far things are leaning in that direction.

So while many may think I am just picking on our President because he is dealing with illegal immigrants in our country and government waste, which by the way, according to Musk's own figures published on his social media  platform 'X' totals about $160 billion in savings rather than the $2 trillion Musk initially claimed he would find, I am more focused upon how my retirement check is impacted.  To me both pale in comparison to the cost of living issue.  And I admit that I want immediate gratification because I am advanced in age, on a fixed income, and desperately need some financial relief now.  

Additionally, I don’t have the patience to rely on some pie in the sky promise from Trump Republicans that this will all work out in two years or so, and that for now we need "to buy less dolls for our children."  There is simply no plan B if this doesn’t occur, and we all know how politicians lie.  My beef with President Trump is simple; just deliver on your campaign promise “on day one” regarding my cost of living.

Americans don't want the jobs Trump wants to bring back

In doing some research on a future commentary about the US economy, I came across some statistics that once again indicate the wide disconnect between the MAGA agenda and societal reality.  They centered on the battle cry of what our esteem president leader espouses, namely, “bringing back jobs to American factories.”  On the surface who would argue with such a noble idea?  In fact, in a recent poll, conducted by Cato Institute, some 80% of the respondents felt that the U.S. might benefit from this.

However, among this same group only 25% felt they would be better off working a factory job.   And only a slim 36% responded that they would be interested in pursuing such employment.

According to Fortune Magazine there are more than half a million factory jobs available.  However, while President Trump and his supporters seek to increase American factory jobs, in reality, facts indicate that there is presently no workforce interested in seeking such employment, with the exception of immigrants.  Over twenty-three percent of immigrants presently work these jobs.  And from this poll’s results, it is obvious that the Republican battle cry that immigrants are stealing factory jobs from native-born American workers is, to coin one of their favorite slogans, “fake news.” Good old Americans simply don’t want these jobs.

However, further complicating this issue, is the fact that 66% feel that the biggest boost to the American economy lies with international trade as opposed to increasing the number of factory jobs, and retaliatory tariffs hinder this. 

I am presently 80 years old, only two years older than President Donald Trump, and I am willing to admit that I have no business serving as president because I am ‘out of touch’ with our current society.  And while I might like to have a time machine so that I could go back to earlier times that I better understood, and thus give me a greater sense of security, I realize that this is just not possible. And it’s past the time for President Donald Trump and his supporters to realize that all the executive orders in the world (over 200 and counting) will also never be able to do this, for as the famous Bob Dylan song title so aptly puts it “The Times They Are A- Changin’.”

Sometimes reality is very scary because it breeds insecurity, and many attempt to regain their security by denying its existence and returning to the past.  And therein lays the present problem.

The Hypocrisy of our Esteemed Governor

Apparently Governor Landry talks out of both sides of his mouth in a hypocritical fashion. When his recent push for amendment changes, particularly Amendment two, failed he was very upset.  He attributed the loss to national outsiders such as political activist, George Soros, and liberals who had spent money on media advertisements and used strong arm tactics to influence voters. He emphatically stated that national groups had no business messing with our local politics and wanted it to cease. While this theory sounded good in the press, the amendments' failures were not due to outsiders' interference.  

However, now that a national outside group known as Club For Growth has started a media campaign and is using strong arm tactics to push his LA Gator Scholarship Program, our esteemed governor’s lips are sealed.  These outsiders are planning to run media ads encouraging voters to call their state representatives and tell them to support the governor’s requested funding for this initiative. Ads will air in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, and Lake Charles.  This national organization will be spending some big bucks in Louisiana.

For review, the governor’s LA Gator Scholarship Program is basically a private school bailout endeavor using taxpayers’ money to fund tuition and school supplies for parents who send their children to private schools.  Additionally, it funds home schooling expenses like computers and tutoring.  By last count 40 thousand have applied, and Governor Landry wants $93.5 million this year to fund it.  Guess you public teachers and paraprofessionals can kiss that permanent raise goodbye.

Furthermore, it is predicted by many that within 5 years, as more and more apply, this program will bankrupt the state.  And what is odd is that this program being pushed by Landry, who prides himself as a conservative Republican, runs counter to his party’s mantra of fiscal accountability and budget restraint.

And let’s not even talk about strong arm techniques as it relates to these outsiders’ push for this program.  Last year the president of Club for Growth issued the following warning for any legislator bucking their agendas, “Make no mistake-if you call yourself a Republican and oppose school freedom, you should expect to lose your next primary.” 

Well, there you have it, Governor Landry’s blind eye and silence to outsider interference in our state politics when it advocates for his agenda.  Hypocrisy?  Judge for yourself.

Genius or Fool? - You Decide

Well, while many are calling President Trump’s latest 90 day tariff pause, which did not apply to China, a victory lap indicating a true sign of masterful deal making; after what happened last Wednesday it is anything but a victory. Quietly, and without fanfare, President Trump permanently exempted 20 product categories from the 125% tariff imposed by him on Chinese imports and the 10% baseline tariff on imports from other countries.  Included in this list were all computers, laptops, disc drives, automatic data processing equipment, semiconductor devices, memory chips, solar panels, flat panel displays, smart phones, and other consumer electronics.  Most made in China.

The U.S. electronics market serviced by these devices is estimated to be worth $510 billion, so how is the lost tariff revenue on these products, with Trump’s latest stroke of a pen, a victory?  It is in fact a complete capitulation on the very premise given for imposing the tariffs, namely, increased income for the U.S. economy, and the bringing back of manufacturing jobs to the U. S.

And true to form Fox News gave this latest tariff retreat a rather bizarre spin as they reported, “The bottom line is Donald Trump is back!” Fox Business cast the president as some sort of ingenious chess player, who was a prudent and heroic figure who had saved the world from an economic disaster; the very one he had created by his initial tariff plans. Fox also stated that, “and just when you think the hope is lost, that we’re going to go into a recession, that we’re going to have months, if not years, of down markets, something like this happens!” Again the only reason for the predicted recession and down markets was due to President Trump’s tariff plans.

So, I remain confused as to why this retaliatory tariff plan was initiated in the first place since now one of its biggest sources of income, the foreign made electronics industry tariff has been rescinded, and one of the largest manufacturing industries, again the electronics industry, no longer has any incentive to be brought back to the U.S.

I seriously question this being a plan by some master genius who fully understands how the world economy works.  But then again if one looks at some of President Trump’s other business failures, namely, Trump casinos, Trump resorts, Trump’s failed university, his failed airline, failed mortgage company, failed Trump steaks, failed Trump vodka, failed Trump magazine, etc., maybe one can get a better understanding of the present situation.  And ironically, Forbes Magazine predicts that Trump would be over $400 billion richer today without all his past failures. Now I understand what happened.

Governor Landry Has Little Respect for Voters

I hope all the Republican voters in our state caught the insult regarding their voting intelligence that Governor Landry recently subtly attributed to them.  With all four of the proposed amendments being soundly rejected by over 60% of the voters, our esteemed governor blamed the defeats on outsiders and state liberals.  He claimed this was particularly true for the defeat of Amendment #2.  However, the facts of the matter refute both claims for apparently many Republicans voted against these measures.

I guess Governor Landry feels that only he knows what is best for our state and that Republican voters in our state should just be little minions and follow his directives.  He also apparently thinks they possess no intellectual abilities to objectively judge the merits of legislative proposals which might directly impact them, nor does he feel they should have the right to make such judgments.  He seems to confuse the citizens in Louisiana with his sycophants in our state legislature.

Additionally, did you catch the insult the Governor paid to our state as a whole; the one he governs?  He stated, “We realize how hard positive change can be to implement in a state that is conditioned to failure.”   He just characterized our entire state as promoting “failure.”  That’s the kind of lashing out one might expect from some spoiled brat child when they don't get their way, but certainly not from the governor of our state.   Maybe he is just too immersed in the “white horse syndrome,” where the hero swoops in on a magnificent white stallion and saves the day; in his mind, from our state’s “conditioned to failure.”  And apparently he feels only he can do this, so everyone in the state must religiously follow his orders without question.  Sound familiar?

Sadly, our governor and legislators need to come to accept the realization that their present slew of proposed legislative amendments didn’t align with the wishes of their constituents, and they need to lose the defensiveness and get on board.  Party affiliation had little to do with these defeats, for without bipartisan support this would not have occurred.

Is Democracy at a Turning Point?

During our most recent presidential election Democrats chose to label the Republican candidate as “a threat to democracy.”  I, like many others, considered that to be rather an over the top and ridiculous statement to make for our country is a solid democracy.  It involves free elections whereby we elect representatives to govern us.  However, our democracy involves more than the just right of free elections. A major part of it also involves the three established branches of government, the executive, the legislative and the judicial branch, all of which operate within a system of checks and balances.

The legislative branch (Congress) proposes laws and funds various aspects of our government and is held in check by the executive branch (President) which has the final say in such legislation by the power of approval, signing it into law, or veto, refusing to sign it into law.   However, a built in democratic over-ride procedure afforded to the legislative branch can over turn the executive branch’s veto and still put the laws into effect.  The same holds true for funding allocations for various parts of the government.  Additionally the approved laws can be brought before the judicial branch (Supreme Court) to determine, if in fact, they are legal according to the laws of the land. This branch of government has the power to remove laws put in place by the other two branches.  And these laws can also be challenged in a lower courts system in the U.S. before they reach the Supreme Court. So as you can see the founding fathers put in place a finely honed democratic system allowing each branch to operate in a power-balanced fashion.

However, what I have suddenly realized is if one of the branches decides to not abide by the established rules of this democratic process, there really isn’t any immediate power the other branches of government have to constrain this aberrant behavior.  The recent actions by the executive branch involving the mass deportation of Venezuelans have made this flaw in the democratic process design quite evident. 

For example, if an average citizen disobeys a judge’s order they can be found in contempt of court and immediately jailed. However, this doesn’t hold true for the executive branch (President) of our country.  Standing presidents cannot have charges brought against them by courts of law while in office.  And as has been recently demonstrated by President Donald Trump, he and his administration can ignore federal judges' court rulings and there are NO consequences.   And by extension, this also applies to rulings by the judicial branch (Supreme Court) of the federal government.   Even the highest court in the nation has no real power to make the executive branch conform to its rulings. 

Please remember that the previously established accepted and followed democratic procedure for disagreeing with any judge’s ruling is filing an appeal in court to get the ruling over turned.  But obviously, as recently demonstrated by the present administration,  that no longer applies to the executive branch of the federal government.   Their approach, the President can just ignore it.

In fact, the response by the present governing administration is that federal judges shouldn’t have the power of the courts to overrule the orders of the President, and such judges should be impeached for they “seek to impede the power of the President.”

So far, by over 120 presidential executive orders in as many days, the democratic funding powers of the legislative branch of the U.S. government have been ignored by the president with no consequences, and now the democratic judicial powers are also being ignored.  Are we already witnessing a preemptive threat to democracy?    Should the executive branch (President) of U.S. government be able to ignore the orders of the courts, one of the major foundations of the democratic process , when you can’t?  Please pause, take a moment, and think about it.

Where's My Day One Money?

I was anxiously awaiting President Trump’s State of the Union speech since I am retired and on a fixed income, and desperately need some out of pocket spending relief.  After his address I was still anxious about finding such relief because surprisingly, there was little mention of actual plans for solutions to the cost of health care, prescription drugs, gasoline, food prices at the supermarket, housing affordability, or the out of control auto and home owners’ insurance costs.

Instead, he referenced annexing I Greenland three times, five mentions of how the U.S. needs to own the Panama Canal, and discussed the “Gulf of America” twice.   In all fairness, he did talk about his actions regarding the roundup of illegal immigrants, the stepped up enforcement of illegal border crossings and the implementation of tariffs as a solution to bringing jobs back to America and limiting drug trafficking.

However, Trump still seems to be obsessed with the election he lost to Joe Biden for he mentioned him 13 times in rhetoric that resembled more of a campaign speech rather than a State of the Union speech that looks to the future.  Joe Biden is gone, time to move on.

President Trump’s speech also dedicated 7 minutes to Elon Musk and his newly created DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), and its success in going after government’s waste of taxpayers’ money.  Ironically, according to Musk’s DOGE budget page on the social media platform X, he initially saved on some items approximately $620 billion, which upon fact checking was actually only $620 million.  In fact, many of his purported billions in savings upon further review have been deleted or reduced on the X budget page due to such gross errors.

Sadly, even when President Trump pointed out his own example of government waste by giving the example of the U.S. government spending, and I quote, “$8 million for making mice transgender. This is real,” he got it all wrong.  The reality of this spending was to create TRANSGENIC mice which are lab altered to make them more similar to humans in their response to diseases. These mice are used in medical research for treating and preventing diseases such as cancer, diabetes, etc., and such research would not exist without them.  It has nothing to do with transgender folks except for containing the word “trans.”

I guess for some folks the speech was uplifting if you weren’t that concerned about the depletion of your hard earned cash. But for me I am still in the dark about how implementing tariffs, the rounding up of immigrants, the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, annexing Canada, owning Greenland and the Panama Canal, cutting off aid to Ukraine, and the plethora of executive orders (more than 70 in 100 days) are impacting my wallet immediately even though he promised to deal with that “on day one.”  

Prices are continuing to rise.  Where and what is the plan? Maybe I just need more patience; a quality I am not very good at.

The Big Lie About Tariffs

 If you believe all the hoop-la about how the policies of tariffs are going to force American companies to move their total production of goods back to the good old USA, you might need a reality check. Big companies are NOT going to let even President Trump interfere with their profit margins.

President Trump has set March 1^st as the time line when a 25% tariff will be assessed on goods coming from Canada and Mexico. In addition, he is assessing another 10% on Chinese imports on top of already imposed tariffs which could elevate the total to as much as 60%. If you are worried about how much your pocketbook depletes now in today’s economy, you ain’t seen nothing yet since I don’t know of one non-food item that doesn’t contain a Chinese part, including many of our life saving medicines.

However, while consumer prices will rise, the big corporation profits will also rise due to some slick maneuvers.  Some U.S. Companies’ fearful of a Trump re-election, with his propensity for tariffs as the all-encompassing solution for the American economy, devised a corporate plan. They had begun shifting away from China, Canada and Mexico, to India, already home to the call centers for many U.S. companies.

As recently reported by Trading Economics exports to the U.S. from India, increased to over $91 billion in 2024, up from approximately $54 billion in 2020.  Companies like Apple, Fed Ex, Foxconn, Walmart, Micron Technology, Boeing, Siemens, GE, and Samsung Electronics have already committed to the India cheaper labor plan. And the list continues to grow daily.

Those companies that didn’t plan for the Trump agenda will be forced to raise their prices. The automobile industry is a good example. GM has one of their Buick models made totally in China, and those tariff prices will be passed on to consumers. As will all the other auto manufacturers who import vehicles and parts from Canada and Mexico.

However, what I fear even more is that companies that have out-slicked President Trump, by moving their production operations to India, will raise their prices to match those that didn’t and who are now impacted by the tariffs. These companies will reap even bigger profits at the consumers’ expense.

Now how all this present government economic plan to bring production back to the U.S.A. will work remains a mystery to me. Maybe our country will just keep imposing tariffs on more and more countries. But I am sure of one thing; more money is going to be drained from my pocketbook with this present plan.

Louisiana cowards are alive and well in D.C.

One has to wonder why Louisiana‘s Republican members of Congress are so fearful of President Trump that they refuse to correct some of the misinformation that he espouses to the American people.   The absurdity of this fear was on full display in a new survey conducted by the media outlet, The Atlantic.

In a recent news conference President Trump accused Ukraine of starting the Ukraine/ Russia war, and also refused to label Vladimir Putin a dictator when directly asked by the press.

The Atlantic decided to set the record straight with input from the Republican members of Congress as to both falsehoods espoused by the President. They asked all 271 Republican Congressional members two questions; Did Russia start the war with Ukraine and Is Putin a dictator?  Simple enough, just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

But shockingly, only 12 of the Republican members directly responded to the questions with a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’

However, the Louisiana delegation really shined in the spotlight.  Senators Bill Cassidy, and John Kennedy provided no answers.  Representatives Steve Scalise, Clay Higgins, and Julia Letlow also provided no response to the questions.  Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, had a spokesperson send over the recent comments he made during last week’s GOP leadership press conference about Trump’s deal making skills and his desire for peace in Ukraine, but DID NOT answer either question directly.  Additionally, 247 other Republican Congressional members chose to provide no answers.

Interestingly, both questions are supported by many factual references and are an easy ‘yes.’

With all the years of rhetoric about “Fake News” why would the party who adopted that as their battle cry be so reluctant to correct the President’s misinformation and set the record straight?  Especially the refusal to do so by our Louisiana Congressional members, who two of which, namely, Johnson and Scalise, who presently hold the highest ranking positions in the House of Representatives.

Just how far our esteemed Louisiana Republican members of Congress’ code of silence will extend will indeed be interesting to follow for the next four years.   Where will they draw the line? Perhaps they never will out of political fear.  Just look at what our senator, Bill Cassidy, has already done by his endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Pathetic beyond belief.

Real Government Waste

 

With all this rhetoric about cutting waste at the Federal level, I say we cut to the chase and get rid of one of the biggest wastes of federal tax dollars, namely, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, commonly referred to as Congress.

According to the U.S. Government website, “To ensure a separation of powers, the U.S. Federal Government is made up of three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. To ensure the government is effective and citizens’ rights are protected, each branch has its own powers and responsibilities, including working with the other branches. The legislative branch is made up of the House and Senate, known collectively as the Congress. Among other powers, the legislative branch makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies. The Constitution puts Congress in charge of the budget, granting it the power to collect taxes, borrow money, and approve spending.”  In other words, it has “the power of the purse”

With President Trump’s establishment of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) headed by billionaire, Elon Musk, it is obvious that “the power of the purse” no longer resides with Congress. Now by a series of executive orders Congress spending mandates are being altered, and in some cases completely cancelled.

I am sure the authors of the U.S Constitution are turning over in their graves with this present Executive Branch (President) grasp of power, for they probably never imagined that such an action would, or could occur.  But, now thanks to a legislative gimmick known collectively as ‘executive orders,’ Congress’ control of spending allocations has evaporated. DOGE now has “the power of the purse” and makes the decisions about what agencies and departments of the U.S. government get funded and how much monies they receive.

Again, something never imagined by our Constitution authors. And, apparently our esteemed Republican government leaders in control of Congress have no problems with abdicating this power; quite possibly due to the lack of a spine to resist.

However, as a work colleague once told me when I was promoted to a supervisory position, once you give away power, you can never get it back.  So the future repercussions of this spineless action are yet to be known.

I rest my case. Let’s just send every member of Congress the same letter as other Federal employees are receiving which begins with, “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.” 

 

Elimination by Executive Order

 

With the stroke of a pen President Donald Trump has apparently attempted to wipe out the existence of an entire subculture in U.S. society, LGBTQ + folks.  His latest executive orders have banned any such reference or discussion of these individuals in all federal documents and online government websites. Last Friday, if one tried to view certain online government general information sites, they were greeted with the message “temporarily unavailable” across their respective screens.

These orders are consistent with Trump's election campaign, in which he pledged to "protect children” from, and I quote, “the left wing gender insanity.” 

He has further declared that there are only two sexes, males and females. Anything else no longer exists.

President Trump has also targeted the doctor/patient relationship regarding the health care for transgender youth by an executive order that any clinician who provides what he terms ‘trans heath care’ to these youth will be struck from the Medicare and Medicaid benefits system.

Trump also proposes enacting an executive order that would cut federal funding for any school which he deems as “pushing” any content for children which references gay or transgender individuals.

As is usually the case with our esteemed leader, these executive orders are legally vague and contain subjective terminology, which most likely will result in drawn out legal battles.

However, while all this wiping out of a subculture may be applauded and seem long overdue to many of his supporters, the facts of the matter are, according to the latest Gallup Poll, there are approximately 8 percent of these ‘banned’ folks in the U.S. population. They function in all walks of life in our society, from health care workers to auto mechanics, and the population continues to thrive and grow successfully.

So those of you, who want to facilitate the adoption of wearing horse blinders and pretend that by executive orders these folks have suddenly been exterminated from our society, need to get a grip because they ain’t going nowheres, in spite of your denial.  They deserve to be respected and loved.

Dubbed by Louisiana Legislators

Well folks I hope you don’t pass out when you get your next cable bill or video streaming service bill.

Apparently, Louisiana residents have been hooked winked by our Governor and legislators. The problem is I can’t figure out if it was deliberate or the result of 'mass confusion.'  During the last special legislative session our esteemed legislators, in an effort to fund Governor Landry’s so called ‘Louisiana Tax Overhaul,’ voted not only to keep the about to expire state 4.75% tax rate in place, but to increase it to 5% along with increasing the number of entities eligible for this taxation. 

Included in the increased taxation mix were video cable services like Cox, Spectrum, AT&T, etc., and streaming services like HBO Max, Disney, Netflix, Peacock, Paramount +, Amazon Prime, etc.

Something happen during the final passage of the legislation that resulted in specifying that these services be taxed at an additional 5%.  So instead of taxing these services at 5% as specified in the initial tax plan that included just more eligible items, the video services ended up being slapped with an additional 5% resulting in double taxation at a 10% rate.

The extent of this confusion was clearly on display when I called the Louisiana Department of Revenue and asked what the tax rate was on these services.  The initial reply by employees was 5%, the same figure as initially specified in the bill increasing the state sales tax from 4.75% to %5.

However, after I hung up the phone, I received an apologetic email saying that they misspoke because “upon further investigation” it was, in fact 10%.

I contacted, for obvious reasons, a nameless legislator’s office and was emphatically told the tax for the services in question was 5%. I then contacted my local rep, who was also surprised that streaming customers were paying a 10% sales tax rate

So, did Governor Landry cleverly plan this ‘bait and switch’ and hooked winked everyone in Baton Rouge, or were our esteem leaders simply ‘remiss’ for not knowing what was included in the Tax Reform legislative packages they were passing?

Guess it doesn’t really matter because their constituents have all been greatly harmed by their actions, resulting in double taxation on TV streaming services.  Good luck with