Day: April 4, 2025

“All Along The Watch Tower”

I am old now and have never wavered from my love of Jimi Hendrix after seeing him live in Mass in 1967….one of my favorite tunes was the one below…

I  give you the music as a prelude to and article written by Pete Bach using the words of the song to make points….

There must be some way out of here…

Before Ukraine declared it was ready to agree to a proposed 30-day ceasefire after the US said it would resume giving weapons, a talented friend living in London texted me last week:: ‘I met three Englishmen who are joining the reserves because they want to offer their support. All late-50s, early 60s, useless in war, but all well-off and feel they need to make a stand.’ So what is going on here, I was left thinking? Has Trump created a European Frankenstein which soon will have his number? Do these no doubt upstanding citizens who are joining the reserves see themselves as knights in shining armour? Even Sabrina Carpenter at the BRIT (British Record Industry Trust) Awards was playfully performing on stage with dancing soldiers in bright lollipop-red uniforms and bearskins.

…said the joker to the thief

Who knows what happens next but we do now know that Polish leader Donald Tusk across the Channel was about to announce military training for all Polish men. Was this before or after we learned that Trump was now considering redeploying US military personnel from Germany to his and Russia’s close friend Hungary? There were even growing German fears that F-35 jets bought for the German army can be ‘turned off’ remotely by Washington.

There’s too much confusion…

At the same time, unverified word was coming in on social media that Putin ‘regrets’ triggering a full-scale war in Ukraine costing hundreds of thousands of lives. This was according to Putin pal and Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Odd, I was thinking. That doesn’t sound like Putin. Had I not once heard this before? We are sold so many whoppers—from both sides of the equation—that it gets harder to tell them apart. ‘Putin didn’t expect it would turn into such a war,’ added Lukashenko, with peculiar meekness, not to mention an accompanying loud silence greeting Russia’s continued rolling advance, an advance thanks in part to the incentivisation of the US pausing its intelligence and satellite imagery for Ukraine. (The UK incidentally was continuing its own weapon supplying, intelligence, and ‘help on the cyber front,’ as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster—head of the Cabinet Office—Pat McFadden phrased it at the weekend.)

Read on…it is very creative and interesting…..

Hopefully you read his entire article…..it is very clever….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Liberation Day”: Part Deux

A tariff on penguin crap?

Today the results of Donny’s “Liberation Day” has taken full effect….

The stock market opened on Thursday exactly as predicted—with a thud. Investors seemed rattled as they continued to digest the implications of President Trump’s bigger-than-expected tariffs, reports the Street.

  • The Dow fell more than 1,100 points, or 2.7%.
  • The S&P 500 fell 187 points, or 3.3%. The benchmark index is on track to have its worst day since September 2022, notes CNBC.
  • The Nasdaq, focused on tech stocks, plunged 790 points, or 4.3%.
  • Global markets also sank, and the US dollar fell to its lowest level of the year, per the Wall Street Journal. The dollar weakened more than 2% against the euro, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen, among others. Part of the reason is that “foreign investors are losing confidence in US investments that have come to dominate global portfolios,” per the story.

The ‘stable genius’ has done it again…screwed everything up.

Then when looking at his new round of tariffs we find a bizarre turn…..the McDonald Islands.

The unveiling of President Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday had White House journalists reaching for their atlases—or at least Google. On the list of penalized nations is one that’s actually an Australian territory in the Antarctic called Heard Island and McDonald Islands. Its inclusion is a bit of a puzzler:

  • Remote: The islands are about as remote as you can get, explains Wired. No humans live there, with the main inhabitants being penguins. It takes about two weeks to get there by boat from the Australian mainland. Combined, the islands are about the size of Philadelphia.
  • Zero trade: The islands were hit with the baseline tariff of 10%, the same as mainland Australia. Their trade with the US is $0, thus making the new penalty “somewhat moot,” notes the Washington Post.
  • Another island: The US imposed an even bigger tariff, 29%, on another remote Antarctic territory managed by Australia—Norfolk Island, per the Guardian. It has about 2,000 people and does conduct some trade with the US, with the big export being about $400,000 worth of leather footwear, according to stats from the Observatory of Economic Complexity. However, officials from the territory and Australia dispute those figures and voiced disbelief.
  • Leader vents: “Norfolk Island has got a 29% tariff,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the United States, but that just shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on Earth is safe from this.”

There is a possibility of making a case against Norfolk Island….but what do the penguins on McDonald Islands produce that we import?

Penguin crap.

Have you ever considered where Donny got his idea for all these tariffs?

Here it is.

This is the formula that Trump's team says was used to calculate reciprocal tariffs. (Source: Office of the United States Trade Representative)

The formula shown uses a country’s trade surplus as the numerator — with “x” representing total exports for a given nation and “m” representing total imports.

That was then divided by total exports. In the below formula “ε” represents price elasticity for import demand and was set at 4. Meanwhile, “φ” represents the elasticity of import prices and was set to 0.25 — effectively canceling each other out.

Does that sound like Greek to you….well is because it is bullsh*t.  As much bullsh*t as the Laffer Curve theory (think trickledown economics)….this math is embarrassing….the reciprocal tariffs turned out not to be based on actual levies imposed by other countries. Instead, they’re based on a formula made up by the White House ― and widely mocked by experts.Instead of strategically imposing tariffs, Trump has chosen to “give the country the most massive tax increase in its history, possibly exceeding $1 trillion on an annual basis, which comes to $7,000 per household,” warned Center for Economic and Policy Research co-founder and senior economist Dean Baker. “And this tax hike will primarily hit moderate and middle-income families. Trump’s taxes go easy on the rich, who spend a smaller share of their income on imported goods.”You do realize that all this stupid game will cost you and your family heavily, right?  Can you now see how utterly moronic all these tariffs and such have become?’Stable genius’ my ass!

At what point do Americans start seeing the utter stupidity of this group of thugs in DC?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

China Response In Kind

Just a few days ago I wrote about the US master plan of prepping for conflict with China….here is that post….

WHOLLY SH*T! More War Prep?

Then there is the massive build-up of the US war machine in the South China Sea region….

A significant amount of US military power has been on the move over this past week, including several B-2 strategic bombers which have landed at the US military base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean just over 2,000 miles southeast of Iran. According to press reports this is the most significant B-2 presence on the Island in nearly half a decade. In addition flight trackers are showing increased activity by at least nine KC-135R refueling aircraft in the region. Several C-17 cargo planes have also been spotted by satellites on the Island.

(antiwar.com)

Now with all the threatening rhetoric China has reciprocated….with more threatening rhetoric….

The People’s Liberation Army will respond to any “dangerous provocations” by the US military in the waters and airspace near China, Beijing said on Thursday after a bilateral maritime security meeting in Shanghai.
“The reconnaissance, survey, and high-intensity drills conducted by US warships and aircraft in the sea and airspace near China are highly likely to cause misjudgment, jeopardising China’s sovereignty and military security,” the PLA Navy said.
This situation is getting close to being out-of-hand…..everyday the possibility of an incident occurring in the South China Sea area more and more possible.
This has the stench of war all around these plans…..
So is the US president elected with the promise to end wars rather than start them ready to launch a war against the modern, technologically-advanced nation of 90 million with an extremely complicated terrain, advanced military capabilities, and a newly-signed strategic partnership treaty with Russia?
Looks like yet another lameass promise of Little Donny was a LIE!
It is time for someone to pull the US from the brink of war that we are approaching….maybe Little Marco at State ….hahahaha he does not have the nuts to get into this debate he must wait for Little Donny to tell him what he is to do.
“When we ever learn”?
In closing song from Pete Seeger…..please listen closely….very informative.
Thoughts?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”