Archives for July 2025

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

So asked the chess master Paul Morphy when playing someone. He didn’t just ask the question he jumped on the seat of a chair and pointed at the player.

I’m reminded of this story from the 1800s when I read Paul Krugman’s essay on Trump’s “deal” with the EU. Imagine being the EU leader and meeting with this buffoon. He comes into the room talking constantly. You try to follow what he is saying, but it doesn’t make sense. Then he says he’ll impose a 50% tariff unless you do something or other. But what he proposes doesn’t make sense because it’s a worse deal for him than what he already has. You nod your head and he smiles like he has won a big concession and says okay 15%. You nod again and that’s the deal. Of course, it’s a bad deal. Bad for both sides, but better than what he was threatening.

Paul Krugman had made fun of the deal and he said he got push back from folks asking, “Okay wise guy, what would you have done?” So he outlines what he would have done:

– tariffs to 1%

– balance of trade to 90%

– U.S. companies allowed to operate freely in Europe

– European corporations to invest $150 billion a year in the U.S. – not loans, investments.

Now, why does Krugman think he could pull this off when Trump didn’t?

Because that’s the deal we had before the buffoon walked into the room!

Like most things Trump has done, if he had done nothing we would have been better off.

Art of the deal!

People often wonder how Trump was able to bankrupt a casino, and every other business he touched. Well, look no further than his trade deal with Europe for the answer.

Oh and the deal with Japan? It’s not an investment it’s loans. Loans they would have probably given the U.S. regardless, but now Trump’s name is on them. Trump Loans! More art of the deal.

Oh My God. Save Us.

Meanwhile, there are reports that Russia is descending into anarchy. Apparently, 25% or 174,000 police jobs are vacant, in some area the percentage is 75%. People who would do police work are now going to fight in Ukraine. Returning soldiers might go into police work but many are becoming vigilantes enforcing laws and rules as they see fit. This leads to arrests with no trials. Yes, they may have started with good intentions, but such intentions co not last.

What may happen next is these groups could take on the government.

Monday, July 28, 2025

Following Trump’s stupid and semi-disastrous deal with Japan Donnie T. cut a deal with the European Union. Well, that’s what the headlines said. In truth? Well, he sat down with the head of the EU. A woman, and I’m guessing he thinks she’s hot. So, he cuts “a deal.” You’ll be shocked to know that it wasn’t a deal. It was, at best, a framework of a deal. Or maybe just a couple of talking points. But that’s good enough. He thinks he has a deal and that’s all that counts.

In medical news, a guy with no medical training wants to bring his cancer curing technique to the U.S. What exactly is it? Injecting bleach into cancer cells. Sounds like a winner to me. I think Bobby Jr should be first in line, then Trump, Vance, and Johnson. Oh and Laura Ingraham.

You know, if I think about what probably happened at the meeting between Trump and Ursula Von something or other. First off he probably thought she was “hot” because she’s white, well groomed and I’m guessing listened to him blather on. Then when he proposed something stupid she nodded and he thought he had a deal. The headlines said the EU averted disaster. The reality? By saying little or nothing they got the bully to forget his most outrageous stupidity – a 50% tariff.

Was it a deal? No. It was an agreement to agree on maybe doing something “in two weeks” is my guess. By that time he will have forgotten all about it and the EU can go on as it was.

Meanwhile, Canada and Mexico have agreed to a trade deal that cuts the U.S. out completely. What will this mean? Oh we will lose billions in trade. Art of the deal!

As children starve in Gaza, Africa, and throughout the world because we have a President who thinks that is showing strength we also have stopped AIDS medicine flowing to Africa, look for a new tide of infection. TB, measles, AIDS, Covid – all things we had eliminated or brought under control will resurface with a vengeance. But we’ve got the answer! Bleach! Injected directly. Yeah baby.

It’s sad, disgusting, horrible and we have another 3 and 1/2 years to go.

• Years ago, Malcom Forbes anchored his yacht in this harbor. He wanted to have the space at the end of the pier, but it was unavailable. What to do? Why put former Secretary of Defense, Kap Weineburger on it! He got the space the next year. I saw Kap once at the motel dining room seen in the far right of the picture. Small man, he didn’t seem happy. The Asticou Inn is located in Northeast Harbor, Mt. Desert, Maine.

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Trump announced his “deal” with Japan. Paul Krugman commented on it in two different posts. He pointed out that Trump proudly announced that Japan is contributing $400 billion to the U.S. economy. Not realizing that this is a direct increase in the National Debt. He has put a 15% tariff on Japanese goods, which is much higher than under Biden at 1.9%. This means that eventually we will have to pay more. Currently companies are selling off their inventory or absorbing the costs, but this won’t last.

If that isn’t stupid enough there is a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada for cars and steel, which means American built cars that use parts from Canada and Mexico will have to pay more than the same stuff from Japan. Art of deal!

And the stupidity keeps coming! Mike Johnson, parroting Trump, wants the Fed to lower interest rates, “because the economy is hot.” Did all these people fail Econ 101? Well, Trump may have signed up for such a class, but we know he didn’t attend many classes and had his older sister do his homework. He has demonstrated a remarkable ignorance about how economies, and the world in general, work.

Interest rates are used to tame economies when they get too hot (ie inflationary) by raising rates, and to goose an economy when things are dragging by raising rates. This is just the opposite of what Trump says he wants.

To reinforce these concepts: Guess how you make the economy improve if things are slow Mike? Guess. Come on. Why you lower interest rates. See if you lower rates then more people and companies will borrow money to do things and the economy will grow. So if you were to lower rates when the economy was hot then guess what? Prices would increase because more money was available. That, Mike, is called inflation. So then what happens. Why the price of everything goes up; the value of the dollar goes down and we have an economic crisis because prices have sky rocketed. Oh well. Who cares about facts? Or simple accounting? I mean when Japan puts money into the U.S. economy that is a direct increase in the national debt. It’s not a plot or leftist something or other. It’s called accounting. If a foreign power puts money into the U.S. that is a direct increase in U.S. debt.

No one has done more to increase the national debt than Donald Trump.

Gavin Newsome recently pointed out a fact. A fact? Weird, yeah I know. Did you know that 52 million jobs were created since The Cold War. Fifty million during Democratic administrations and 1.9 million during Republican administrations? So, if you like recessions and the economy going in the dumper vote Republican.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

I am a big fan of Paul Krugman. He’s an economist who can articulate economic ideas in understandable ways. Today he talked about how the right considers AI a liberal something or other.

And I like Jordon Kleeper of The Daily Show, especially when he is feeding back right wing talking points.

So I’m going to mash up Krugman and Kleeper’s latest for ya. What should I call it? Kleepman? 

Okay so Paul talked about AI and crypto. Apparently, many on the right consider AI to be liberal because when they (the right) ask it questions they get answers, which aren’t in line with their thinking. The problem is that AI regurgitates facts and the right is in denial and delusion. Apparently, Musk tried to fix his AI model called Grok and it started spitting out hateful anti-Jewish nonsense. What’s the problem? Isn’t that the logical outcome of the far right? 

I love Krugman’s analysis of AI. It’s a Large Language Model or LLM. Basically, he says it’s an extension of auto-correct. And there are a lot of jobs that put a shine on various things ie they auto-correct. So, yeah, there are a lot of jobs that might be able to be done by an LLM. 

Krugman goes on to talk about crypto. Now this is something the right and tech bros like. Crypto, Krugman writes, “Is a giant grift.”

So, why do the tech bros and the right think AI is liberal? Well, if they ask it questions like: “Is climate change real?” and “Do tax cuts pay for themselves?” AI will say, yes to climate change and no, to tax cuts. This is not what right wingers want to hear and so Krugman says anything to the left of their ideas is socialist or communist.

And he goes on the Republican party is extremist and fascist. anything to the left of that is considered Communist.

So now we get to the supposed blow up in MAGA world over the Epstein files. Lots of the loonies on the right including the two running the FBI have beat the drum that the deep-state was hiding the Epstein files and if they ever came to light they would show that Epstein was hanging out with lots of big name Democrats and that they were all in on the pedophilia. These folks were slobbering over “the big reveal.”

And now? No files, nothing to see, let’s move on. After years and years of deep state hiding the truth stuff they are now faced with one of their own hiding stuff and they have to conclude that he has become part of the deep state.

To which I say, “Yeah.”

What did you think Trump was going to release anything about Epstein? I refer you to Jordon Kleeper’s reporting on the Daily Show the other night (July 15) where he points out that not only did Trump ride on Jeff’s plane, but he meet Melania through Epstein and according to Epstein they first did it on his jet. Also, Jeff and Donnie were neighbors for ten years and Epstein (or was it Trump?) considered him his closest friend.

Here’s the link: (Link no workey from here go to youtube and look for

Jordan Klepper Charts Trump’s Long History With Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell | The Daily Show

which is youtube.com/

and this appended

watch?v=lPGBi6_G6i4

And then there’s that thing about “big name Democrats.” At the time Trump was “a big name Democrat.”

So the right wing neo-nazi fascist folks are losing their minds because they can’t get the red meat they want. But think about, if they do, they will have to eat one of their own, and not just any old MAGGOT. They have to gorge on the chief MAGGOT himself.

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Last night there was an article that we, The United States of America, had 550 tons of food that was to go to starving children and families all over the world. Instead, it sat in a warehouse where it expired and now “we” were going to pay $180,000 to have it burned up.

It’s not like the administration didn’t know about it. A reporter had been to South Sudan months ago and had told of the desperate need for food, and medicine that would keep clinics open and people from starving. He made the point of saying that he knew where this food was stored and begged Secretary of State Rubio to release it. He made the talk show circuit and identified two warehouses where food for these people was being held – rotting.

So why? What’s the point? Is it cruelty? 

Do you remember the book The Ugly American?

It was first published in 1958 and was a fictionalized account of U.S. blunders in SE Asia. The one that stuck with me was a story about the U.S. shipping bags of food and as they were being off loaded a fellow came up to each bag with a stencil and spray painted each bag with what the stencil said. It was in a language the people couldn’t read. What it said was “Gift from the people of North Vietnam” or the equivalent.

Wherever there is conflict there is starving and cruelty. And there is incompetence, greed, and stupidity.

We, Americans, use to push through all that and try to help. Now? This administration? I don’t know what to say. It is shameful. What happened to Marco Rubio? I watched him go from pretty rationale – although I disagreed on many of his stances – to some kind of robot who repeats cruel policies, and does so with a certain arrogance. US aid had been dispensed around the world through the aptly named USAID. It did a great job. Were there problems? Well, yeah. When you are shipping food and supplies to starving sick people who are in the middle of a war zone there are problems. People steal the supplies and sell them on the black market. That happens. But more often than not, the right people get the food and supplies.

This administration under the direction of Elon Musk and aided by Donald Trump repeated Russian propaganda points saying USAID was a Ponzi scheme. This is also the call of the far right and people like Stephen Miller. A guy whose life work seems to be to inflict as much pain and suffering as cruelly as possible.

So they shut down USAID and its functions were supposed to be taken over by The State Department. You can make the argument that aid is a function of diplomacy and therefore State should handle it. Okay, I get that, but they didn’t. As 550 tons of food rotting can attest to. 

I read my alumni magazine today and there was a small article announcing how the university was having to scale back its global health efforts that it did through its nonprofit affiliate. This work had been going on for fifty years. Improving health and saving lives around the world cut back 80% due to the termination of $800 million in USAID grants. This has resulted in the loss of 2,200 jobs and 1,975 positions in 44 countries and 247 positions in the U.S. Yeah. Tell me, how does this make America great?