Day: June 30, 2025

What If Mississippi Was A Nation?

Note:  This scenario could be any state that leaves the union….

From time to time I post about the doings in my state of Mississippi….basically to let my readers know what goes on here for a lot of people probably could not find my state on a map.

Back during the years of the Obama admin there was lost of talk about Texas seceding from the union and forming their own nation….there even other states that were thinking along their lines most of them red states and their dislike for anything democratic.

Back then I thought what if Mississippi acted along those lines….then I would smile and think not a chance…..why?  Mississippi depends too heavily on the federal budget for their own state budget….but it was still something to think about….

And Pierre Lemieux did just that….

Mississippi would be a poor country relative to the United States.  (ya think since it is the poorest state I cannot see much changing) The average hourly wage in Mississippi is $23.91, compared to $38.41 in California (Bureau of Labor Statistics, data for May 2024). On average, wages are thus 38% lower in Mississippi than in California. For the whole (current) USA, the average wage is $32.66, which means that Mississippian wages are on average (about) 27% lower than in the rest of the United States. As a newly sovereign country, Mississippi would be much poorer than the US, although still wealthier than, say, Vietnam or China.

Voices would be raised in the (remaining) United States to claim that American businesses cannot compete against their Mississippian counterparts given the latter’s “unfair” wage advantage. “We need fair trade, an equal playing field, with Mississippi,” American lobbyists and politicians would proclaim.

After the first national-account system in Mississippi is set up and its customs authorities have become effective enough at measuring trade flows, the new data would lead to further conflict. By virtue of a frontier having been drawn on the map, the trade deficit would suddenly become a politically contentious issue. It is likely that Mississippi currently has a trade deficit with the rest of the US, although it cannot be measured in the absence of border surveillance and control. After independence, many Mississippian lobbyists and politicians would get all pumped up about the trade deficit.

From a liberal-individualist viewpoint, nothing would have really changed: it would still be individual Mississippians and their private organizations trading with Americans and the latter’s private organizations. Many variables, including a few new ones, would adjust between the poorer traders in Mississippi and the richer traders in the US: the terms of trade and (if Mississippi had its own currency) currency exchange rates; interest rates; foreign investment flows; public policy and government intervention, etc.

It should be obvious that few individuals would become richer if the American state imposed tariffs on imports from Mississippi, or if the Mississippian state imposed tariffs on goods imported from the US. It would be the contrary: most people on both sides of the border would become poorer—and probably to a greater extent on the Mississippian side because of the relative size of the two economies. Nobody would become richer except for government favorites and cronies.

If Mississippi Became a Sovereign Country

Until Mississippi moves past the ‘good ol’ boys’ mindset it will be the poorest whether a state or its own country.

Hopefully you read about my state….kinda boring at times but it does have its points.

I Reade. I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCOTUS: Political Hacks

This past session of the all powerful SCOTUS I believe that they have proved my point that they are nothing but political hacks.

But the one ruling that meant the most was their neutering the lower courts….

President Trump quickly celebrated Friday’s ruling by the Supreme Court that drastically limits the power of federal judges to impose national injunctions on his policies. The case in question involved his executive order to undo birthright citizenship—the idea that anyone born in the US is automatically a citizen—but Trump suggested at a news conference that he would press his advantage on a range of issues:

  • He mentioned funding for sanctuary cities, bans on the use of federal money for transgender surgeries, and the suspension of refugee settlement programs, reports the Washington Post. “We have so many of them,” Trump said. “I have a whole list.”
  • Trump said he would “promptly file” to advance other issues that have been blocked in similar fashion, per the AP.
  • To be clear, the court didn’t rule directly on Trump’s plan to undo birthright citizenship, but it found that federal judges who imposed nationwide bans on the policies in the interim went too far. Such bans should only apply to their jurisdictions, the court ruled. The upshot is that Trump “opponents will have to jump through additional hoops to try to shut down policies on a nationwide basis,” per CNN.
  • Trump called the ruling “giant,” adding, “Our country should be very proud of the Supreme Court today,” per the New York Times. He lavished particular praise on Justice Amy Coney Barrett, author of the majority opinion. “I just have great respect for her,” he said when asked about criticism of her by some of his supporters. “I always have. And her decision was brilliantly written today—from all accounts.”
  • Attorney General Pam Bondi also praised the court for ruling against what she called “lawless injunctions” imposed by federal judges: “They turned district courts into the imperial judiciary.” Bondi also expressed confidence the court would eventually rule in favor of ending birthright citizenship as well, probably in October.

The criminals on the Court are assisting in the destruction of the whole checks and balances thing that has proved needed for this country to progress.

The Roberts court has driven one of the last nails in the coffin that use to be a thriving republic…..to them it appears that the Constitution means nothing….only political ideology.

…

John Roberts has spent his fundamentally hypocritical career bleating to the press about how much he values the Court’s reputation and seeks to protect it, all while making shambolically corrupt rulings proving it to be a legally and morally illegitimate institution. He was advertised to us by the Very Serious people during the Bush Administration as a Very Serious man we should be excited about who won’t let the Court go off the rails, then Roberts let some of the most corrupt people to ever exist in Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas serve as his North Stars. Roberts’ entire legal doctrine is “whatever daddy Trump wants,” proving him to be more unserious than Trump in many ways, as there is at least a cynical honesty to Trump’s politics that Roberts is too much of a duplicitous coward to admit to.

But perhaps now he is admitting to his and the conservatives’ staggeringly cynical worldview that the Constitution enshrined Trump’s id above the Bill of Rights. From the moment Roberts gave Trump immunity, it has become clearer and clearer with each ruling that the Roberts Court does not seek to rein Trump in, but to torch the Constitution and replace it with Trump as King. The Roberts Court’s entire theory of jurisprudence is antithetical to the intellectual Constitutional framework that at least attempts to provide a legal foundation for its depraved views on the worth of Black people. The Roberts Court is just naked authoritarianism that even doesn’t pretend to be anything else. These six hacks are out here contradicting themselves from a year ago, plainly showing the entire world what kind of people they are and what they truly value and how little the law actually means to them.

Trump has completely usurped Congress’s power (which the Republicans were happy to abdicate, because the lone commonality among the GOP is abandoning all your principles and personal ambitions to get in line to lick dear leader’s boot), and the Roberts Court is now helping him do it to the judiciary. It’s clear as day that if Trump asks Roberts to start repealing Amendments, Roberts simply would ask how many his master would like.

https://www.splinter.com/republicans-have-turned-the-supreme-court-into-an-illegitimate-institution

The elimination of any opposition the court has given Donny the power to do as he wants and the country can go get screwed.

“I agree, Judge Sotomayor, no right is safe under the new regime, not even the ones clearly guaranteed under our Constitution.”

I am so proud what the voters have done to this country (sarcasm in case you missed it)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Game Is This?

We all know that US assaulted Iranian nuke sites recently and the whole affair ended in a tentative ceasefire….but as with most things within Donny’s foreign policy world there are questions….

It was reported shortly after the US airstrikes that Iran had been alerted….time enough to move their enrichment process.

The after strike assessment run the gambit of BS….Donny says the sites were ‘obliterated then US intel disputed that claim and then everyone fell in line with Donny, whatever pressure he used, and the story now is they were heavily effected.

The Iran retaliated by an attack on the US base in Qatar….the report is that it was an ineffective attack….

Donny has stated that Iran warned the US before the attack….

President Trump said Monday the Iranian government offered “early notice” about a series of missile strikes that targeted the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, downplaying Iran’s response to the U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend as “very weak.”

“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The president did not specify how much early warning Iran gave or how the warning was delivered. But Mr. Trump’s message seemed to confirm speculation that Iran could telegraph its plans for retaliation in advance, giving the United States a chance to minimize the damage and avoid an escalation.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-iran-early-notice-qatar-attacks-us-base/

It is said that Iran told Qatar of the impending airstrike knowing the Qatari government would tell their good friend about it.

To me it was just a way for the Iranians to save face after all the harsh rhetoric they had uttered.

What is going on in US foreign policy?

Iran was warned then Iran warmed of their intentions….what page is this from in the foreign policy handbook?

After looking over the reports all I can say is WTF?

Is this the new foreign policy….tough talk and then behind the scenes making nice with however we are at odds with?

At least all of Israel’s efforts and those US airstrikes have stopped Iran’s nuke program…..or did it?

President Trump is not going to like the new interview from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Speaking to Face the Nation on CBS News, Rafael Grossi downplayed the damage done to Iran’s nuclear sites by US bombs.

  • Iran could start enriching uranium again, at least to a small degree, in a “matter of months,” said Grossi, per the BBC.
  • In his interview with Margaret Brennan, Grossi said it’s “clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage.” What’s more, “Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”
  • Gross’s comments sync with a leaked preliminary assessment by US intelligence, though the assessment’s conclusions have been aggressively disputed by Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump most recently asserted that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back years, if not “decades.” But Grossi’s contention is that diplomacy, not military strikes, is the only way to get a permanent solution.

Sitting and shaking my head.

Then there is the intercepted call on the damage….

Intercepted conversations among top Iranian officials indicate that the recent US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites caused less damage than the officials expected, contradicting President Trump’s claims of “obliteration.” Four people familiar with the intercepted Iranian communications anonymously shared the information with the Washington Post, prompting pushback from the Trump administration. “It’s shameful that the Washington Post is helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”

The intercepted communications revealed surprise that the US strikes were less damaging than anticipated, with speculation about why the attacks did not inflict greater destruction on nuclear sites, the sources say. The debate over just how much damage was truly inflicted continues to rage; another Trump administration official said the intercepted communication was incorrect because the US destroyed critical elements of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, including a key metal conversion facility, which officials claim will take years to rebuild. CIA Director John Ratcliffe told lawmakers the same thing during a classified briefing last week, sources tell the AP.

Apparently Donny’s definition of the term ‘obliterated’ and mine are different.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”