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No I don't watch tv news much mm. But that doesn't make me ill informed. Disregarding the boob tube just makes me old fashioned. I assure you the printed word surpasses tv in terms of clear analysis in many cases.

I may start offering up new clips for folks as old fashioned as I am about the printed word vrs the boob tube. Might surprise you what they have to say.

Yes I read a lot. Our teachers from Immaculate Conception grade school would be proud of me.

And by the way the new york times and other leading papers have been quite blunt about criticizing Biden, as well as Trump, though belatedly. I believe you are doing a bit of cherry picking with that clip you offered - although I agree it's quite damning in terms of playing favorites instead of being more fairminded and analytical. But that's an isolated case. They (the times) ran a particularly blunt (if belated) series of articles about how Biden insisted on running for another term in spite of his obvious struggle with senility.

Anyway in defense of reading as just as good a source of information as tv, here's a pretty good recent analysis of this dangerous game Trump is taking with the trade deficit deal.

It's an interesting column in today's New York Times. Enjoy.

Donald Trump is not known for doing his homework — he’s more of a go-with-my-gut kind of guy. What I find most terrifying about what Trump is doing today is that he seems to be largely relying on his gut to bet that he can radically overturn how America’s institutions have operated and the way the nation relates to both its allies and enemies — and get it all right. As in, America will become stronger and more prosperous, while the rest of the world will just adjust. Next question.

Well, what are the odds that Trump can get all of these complex issues right — based on trusting his gut — when on the same day that he was announcing his huge tariff increases on imports from the world over, he invited into the Oval Office Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist who believes that Sept. 11 was an “inside” job. She was there, my Times colleagues reported, to lecture Trump about how disloyal key members of the National Security Council staff were. Trump subsequently fired at least six of them. (No wonder so many Chinese asked me in Beijing last week if we were having a Mao-like “cultural revolution.” More on that later.)

Yes, what are the odds that such a president, seemingly ready to act on foreign policy on the advice of a conspiracy theorist, got all this trade theory right? I’d say they’re long.

What is it that Trump, with his grievance-filled gut, doesn’t understand? The time we live in today, though far from perfect or equal, is nevertheless widely viewed by historians as one of the most relatively peaceful and prosperous in history. We are benefiting from this pacific era in large part because of a tightening web of globalization and trade, and also because of the world’s domination by a uniquely benign and generous hegemon called the United States of America that is at peace and economically interwoven with its biggest rival, China.

In other words, the world has been the way the world has been these past 80 years because America was the way America was: a superpower ready to let other countries take some advantage of it in trade, because previous presidents understood that if the world grew steadily richer and more peaceful, and if the United States just continued to get the same slice of global G.D.P. — about 25 percent — it would still prosper handsomely because the total pie would grow steadily larger. Which is exactly what happened.

The world has been the way the world has been because China brought more people out of poverty faster than any other country in history, largely on the back of a giant, relentless export engine that took advantage of the U.S.-engineered global free trade system.

The world has been the way the world has been because the United States had the good fortune to be bordered by two friendly democracies, Canada and Mexico. Together the three nations wove a network of supply chains that made them all richer, no matter that many goods manufactured in North America could have a label saying, “Made by America, Mexico and Canada together.”

The world has been the way the world has been thanks to the alliance between the United States and both the other members of NATO and the European Union, which, with U.S. help, have kept the peace in Europe from the end of World War II right up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This vast, prosperous trans-Atlantic partnership has been a pillar of global growth and security.

The world has been the way the world has been because America had the government work force it had, with its expertise, incorruptibility and funding of scientific research that was the envy of the world.

Trump is now betting that the world will stay the way the world was — growing more prosperous and peaceful — even if he converts the United States into a predatory power ready to seize territory, like Greenland and even if he sends the message to aspiring talented legal immigrants that if you do come here, be very, very careful what you say.

If Trump turns out to be right — that we’ll still enjoy the economic benefits and stability we’ve had for nearly a century even if America suddenly shifts from a benign hegemon to a predator, from the world’s most important proponent of free trade to a global tariffing giant, from the protector of the European Union to telling Europe it’s on its own and from a defender of science to a country that forces out a top vaccine specialist like Dr. Peter Marks for refusing to go along with quack medicine — I will stand corrected.

But if Trump turns out to be wrong, he will have sown the wind, and we as a nation will reap the whirlwind. But so, too, will the rest of the world. And I can tell you, the world is worried.

When I was in China last week, more than a few people asked me if Trump was launching a “cultural revolution” the way that Mao did. Mao’s lasted 10 years — from 1966 to 1976 — and it wrecked the whole economy after he instructed his party’s youth to destroy the bureaucrats that he thought were opposing him.

This question was so much on the mind of one retired senior Chinese official that he emailed me last week, with a warning: Mao sent his young party cadres to attack “anyone who could think — ruling elites such as Deng Xiaoping, college professors, engineers, writers and journalists, doctors, etc. He wanted to dumb down the entire population so that he could rule easily and forever,” the former official wrote. “Sounds a bit similar with what is going on in the U.S.? I hope not.”

04/03/25 08:44 PM

#15361

Anne Devaney (Wilcheck)

Good God I just saw aMEGA person spit on the street!!

04/03/25 09:24 PM

#15362

AND THEN THERE'S THIS!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

You know where I'm gonna be tomorrow. At the wine store, stocking up, that's where!!!

"The last few decades have been a glorious time for wine lovers in the United States. Consumers have had access to an unparalleled diversity of choices from around the world.

This golden era may soon end as President Trump’s new tariffs take effect, raising prices on virtually all wines, foreign and domestic.

Beginning this month, wines and all other products imported from the European Union will be subject to 20 percent tariffs. Products from other popular sources for wine like Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand will face 10 percent tariffs. The tariff on South African products will be 30 percent, and on Israeli products 17 percent.

The prices for all these wines will rise. How much depends on whether the chain of importers, distributors, retailers and restaurants absorbs any of the additional cost."

04/03/25 10:21 PM

#15363

(https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/us/politics/trump-tariffs-global-trade.html?smid=nytcore-android-share.

We are in deep trouble when the opinion section of the Wall Street Journal (not known for its liberal tendencies) calls the Trump tariffs “the stupidest trade war in history”.

Trump’s claim that the U.S. is being exploited and impoverished by our trading partners is yet another one of his monstrous lies. Tariffs across different countries and products vary widely but according to the World Trade Organization the United States had a trade-weighted average tariff rate of 2.2 percent in 2023, compared with 2.7 percent for the European Union, 1.9 percent for Japan, 3.4 percent for Canada, 3 percent for China and 1.7 percent for Switzerland:

So our tariffs are a bit lower or a bit higher than those of other advanced nations but the differences, on average, are tiny.

The U.S. is by far the richest major nation in the world (a few tiny countries, primarily tax havens like Monaco and the Cayman Islands, are richer). As an example, in 2023 GDP per capita in the U.S. was $90,000 compared to $58,000 in Germany ($45,000 for the entire EU), $56,000 in Canada, and $36,000 in Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

And the wealth gap between the U.S. and other advanced nations has consistently widened over the last two decades - our economy is pulling away from the rest of the world.

There is no question that large numbers of Americans are unable to make ends meet (not just those below the poverty line - half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck) but that is not caused by other nations ripping us off. The reason is that we have unconscionable levels of income inequality and providing tax cuts that overwhelmingly favor the wealthy is not the answer.

A part of me is happy that the spectaclar stupidity (channeling the WSJ) of the Trump tariffs will ensure the failure of his crazy agenda (and his disastrous Presidency) but there's a real chance it may tank the U. S. economy - these tariffs are even higher than the ones that prevailed at the start of the Great Depression in the 1930's. And, assuming smarter heads eventually prevail, it may take a generation to repair our standing in the world so that we are not viewed as a rogue nation that attempts to screw everyone else for our own selfish benefit.

And getting back to MM’s recent post about Biden – I’ll take a diminished Biden over a deranged Trump any day.

04/04/25 11:08 AM

#15364

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Something I heard this morning, provided a moment of self-reflection....."we can be preoccupied with many issues in this world, such as tariffs and the price of eggs, that have nothing to do with our eternal salvation". Just a thought.

04/04/25 04:41 PM

#15365

Economists across the political spectrum have long known the adverse effects of tarriffs. Ranging anywhere from merely ineffective to downright disasterous. But this guy is a misguided, self-centered moron who is all about bringing attention on himself - especially through his power of retribution .

I would lay odds that many of his insiders (including his two sons) sold (I meant Bought Puts - or Sold "Calls") on stock market Options last week and are manking a killing these days over the huge market drop.

He and I also differ on another matter - geography. I myself have actually heard of Lesothu. I went to Catholic schools where they (used) to teach Geography - as opposed to "Social Sciences". My kids generation knows precious little Geograaphy.

Lesothu - one of the poorest nations in the world will get hammered for their production of denim - for our Blue Jeans production.

Nice going big strong America. Let's crush the little poor countries trying to find a legitimate way to survive!

Maybe if this will go on long enough, those benevolent "saints" from Peking willl step in witht some cash to save them.

Sure wish a few of those (my) cowardly Republicans who hide out under their desks in the Senate would come out with the truth about their disagreement on these tarriffs.

04/04/25 10:08 PM

#15366

Joe: would that make a crazy european a megelomaniac?

04/04/25 11:10 PM

#15367

Joseph D. McCarthy

Mike think carefully. If MAGA is supposed to mean Make America Great Again.

MEGA should mean Make Europe Great Again.

04/05/25 12:36 AM

#15368

omg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ESXs9ePoaA

04/05/25 09:29 AM

#15369

During daytime programming yesterday, Fox News suddenly removed its “Dow Watch” stock ticker box from the bottom of the screen. I wonder why?

04/05/25 08:31 PM

#15370

CORRECTION:

In my post #15365, I meant to use the opposite wording - now corrected.

I meant "BOUGHT PUTS" (or SOLD CALLS) a trade based on expected losses.

I used to play in that market in a small way, but I no longer have the nerve - it's highly risky stuff. Bought some Apple "CALLS" a few years ago, expecting it to go up. It did so and saved my lucky little behind. I don't play in that league anymore.

But my point was, many of these guys knew damn well what the effect would be on the stock market. At least in the short term. And it only takes a few hours to make (or break) a fortune.

04/05/25 09:23 PM

#15371

Here's part of a fun one from the "book in progress".

I'll break it into short parts for easier reading

VOLUNTEER CIVILIAN MEDICAL TOURS - My Dad Shows Up!

One afternoon about six months into my first tour, I was sitting in our Scout Hooch, opening my mail. I get this letter from home telling me that my dad is coming to Vietnam. Of course I was shocked. But the letter went on to explain that he was not coming to my base in Vinh Long. He was headed for Tay Ninh a bit northwest of Saigon - quite a distance from Vinh Long. The AMA (American Medical Association) Civilian Volunteer Medical tours were (either) six or eight-week tours to help staff some of the many medical hospitals and clinics that our military maintained throughout Viet Nam. They assisted the military doctors. These doctors were mostly older, and all voluntary - all at their own expense, and on their own time.

It was only about a week later that we were coming back onto the airfield at the end of a day’s mission. It was late afternoon. I was parking my Loach in the revetment (walled parking space) and shutting down my aircraft. As usual, there was a large truck - a deuce-and-a-half waiting to pick up pilots and crews for the long ride off the flight line and back to our hooches. But just beyond my revetment was one of our two Company jeeps, parked, with one of our Company clerks sitting at the wheel and looking intently at me.

I thought to myself - Is he here for me? Then, as the noise of my engine, and rotor head subsided a little, I could hear him saying something like “Old Man to see you.” I had one thought. Am I in trouble with the Old Man (a common but respectful term for the Commanding Officer in any military unit). But as my engine and rotor noise finally quieted, he yelled again, “Your Old Man is here to see you.” I was shocked! This couldn’t be real, I thought. But he was there to drive me separately around the fixed-wing runway and back to my hooch.

We reached our Scout platoon hooch, and the driver dropped me at the door. I walked into our tiny “day room” and there was my dad sitting there, waiting for me.

I was dumb struck!

I introduced Dad to the guys in my platoon and a few others. We visited for a few hours before I took him to the “O-club” for dinner. I was half excited and thrilled, yet somewhat embarrassed. I felt a sense of undeserved privilege. I should have taken him over to meet my CO and take some pictures with the guys, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. Dad slept the night in the bunk above me. The next morning, I flew him back down to Can Tho (“can toe”) to get his flight back to Saigon and then on to his base from there.

TBC

04/06/25 08:41 AM

#15372

Dave:

I'll start by saying you don't need it. You're a natural - and you have a helluva story to tell. But if you ever do need any help let me know. my best gmail is: mcleod.michael1@gmail.com.

And speaking of help and just for the helluvit, here's a minor suggestion.

You could make the sentence in this latest section of your vietnam memoir that you shared with us just a bit more resonant by tinkering just a bit with the timing/punctuation.

Here is how it reads right now:

These doctors were mostly older, and all voluntary - all at their own expense, and on their own time.

What if, you wrote, instead:

"These doctors were mostly older, all voluntary, and all there at their own expense and on their own time."

I know it's a teeny thing. Maybe I'm being too fussy. And seriously, if nothing else, take it as a compliment that you drew me in and engaged me as a reader so much that my fellow-craftsman tinkering impulse kicked in. The joy of finding a way to instill drama on the printed page via timing and craftsmanship will never leave me and I hope it never leaves you, And if u don't like the suggestion screw you. In all seriousness you're the boss here and it's damn good stuff, better than mine because I've never had the personal raw material, relating to a national and individual trauma, that you are working with here. I'd be honored to be of any asssistance. I lost track of your number or i would have just called.

In terms of this particular and touching passage: damn! you never told me your dad came to your base! that is so incredibly poignant. I assume you were surprised. I love the - I love the notion -- it almost sounds like the boy in you went: "dad's here. am I in trouble?" Nothing more relatable and intimate than a father son bond under these conditions.

Anywayconsider the sugge stion above as a tiny shift in punctation to create a dramatic pause on the page for the sake of added resonance. "God is in the details," as they say. Always loved that quote. It's attributed to a famous architect.

04/06/25 12:30 PM

#15373

had to share. reading a story about how to handle chronic lightheadedness and regard it as a potential danger sign. it's not the story so much as this dude's trainwreck of a name, plus equally longwinded title, that compelled me to share this paragraph from the story. As a journalist quoting authorities as I had to do I was often bemused by longwinded names and titles. never ran into one this long though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ESXs9ePoaA

you're wellllllllllcooooommmmmmmeeee.

Know this: The majority of people who have passed out are absolutely fine, says Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy, M.B.B.S., clinical epidemiologist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. As for the rest, an underlying health condition could be to blame, and that could mean potentially serious health concerns down the road.

04/06/25 12:36 PM

#15374

ps:

thanks for egging us on, mm

04/06/25 01:34 PM

#15375

Mike,

Thanks for the compliment. I like your re-write on that line. I will update my text. Note; I re-read my stuff over and over and still find changes to be made.

I intend to add couple more fun thougths to complete that chapter, but i realized I accidentally cut that off a few paragraphs too early. I'll just add it here and then add the other fun parts of the story later.

---------

As I sat there with my dad, the other 7 guys in my platoon (who had ridden the slower truck back from the flight line) began popping in the screen door and throwing their revolver belts and helmet bags on their bunks. As they joined Dad and I there were introductions, greetings, and comments back and forth - and a few shocked looks on the guys faces also.

I had been writing letters home about some ficticious safe mission that I flew, but an occasional letter to dad at his office about what I was really doing - the idea being to lesson my mother's worries. As we sat in the hooch with the guys meeting dad and conversations going on around us about things that had just happened that day on our mission, I think Dad was grasping the reality of the risks we took in our "Hunter/Killer" searches. It was starting to sink in that I had not been exagerating and Dad's face turned sort of twisted. He looked directly at me and said "Dave, this sounds like suicide."

Before i could answer, one of the guys shot back "Naah. It's just an airborne game of chicken."

Like I have said many times, we used large helpings of denial and sarcasm.

04/06/25 08:23 PM

#15376

Continued from

VOLUNTEER CIVILIAN MEDICAL TOURS - My Dad Shows Up!

While he was with us, he (dad) shared a crazy story from his trip through Saigon, down to Can Tho, and back up to Vinh Long.

A little background - I should point out that Dad was an eleven-year-old kid in, Columbus, Ohio in 1922, playing in the construction of the “new” football stadium - the now famous Ohio State University “Horseshoe”. Dad and a buddy would ride their bikes down to the construction site, grab a few frogs along the riverbank, and sneak through the construction barriers, (after the workers left) up into the large open arches of the (finished) southwest tower, and drop their frogs out over the wide opening. Then they ran down the steps to see if they had “smushed” on the pavement below.

By now, Dad was part way through his forty plus years as head of the Allergy Department in the OSU medical school. As a result, I had grown up with his free “faculty” tickets to any athletic event I wanted to see. I believe I missed one home football game from about 4^th grade through high school - about 1957 through 1966. And I saw almost every home basketball game for three years with the greats, Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, and Mel Nowell.

So, it was now 1969, and Ohio State was planning to put down Astroturf on the football field. But there was some delay, and it was decided that they would wait a year, rather than try to lay the new field in mid-season, in case something went wrong with the installation. (In fact, I believe it was two years for whatever reason). As a result, someone in Columbus had created a silly bumper sticker to mark the event. It said something like,

“EVEN ON THE GRASS, WE’LL STILL BEAT THEIR ASS - GO BUCKS”

So, Dad is changing planes at the huge Tan Sa Nhut airport in Saigon - a very crowded busy place. As he sat waiting for his flight - crowds milling past in both directions, he notices a guy approaching who looks like an American businessman, wearing a button-down shirt and tie, with a briefcase. As he passes close by Dad, Dad sees the bumper sticker on the guy’s briefcase - you guessed it - “EVEN ON THE GRASS, WE’LL STILL BEAT THEIR ASS - GO BUCKS”.

Dad jumped up and chased the guy. The two of them introduced themselves to one another. The guy (a man named Dick Pendell) was an insurance salesman from Columbus. He and his wife and six kids spent about eight or ten summers doing missionary work for some Presbyterian mission in Kon Tum up in the Central Highlands.

The guys loved Dad’s story.

TBC

04/07/25 11:21 AM

#15377

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

grammar notes and a story

dave. great material as always. minor grammar note. should be "dad and me"

don't ask me why.

something about objective and subjective case.

i used to teach various classes in writing but my main career was just doing it. so i know how to do it but explaining the grammar behind it not so much. it's something about pronouns that are doing the acting take the nominative case, and pronouns that are being acted upon takes what i think they call the objective case - maybe because they are the objects being acted upon.

and thanks for taking my anal retentive suggestion in stride. orr hell, disregard it completely. what's more important is that you have great stories to tell and an innate story-telling voice. i'm a worker bee by comparison. writing about people like you who had stories to tell was always a privilege a thrill.

04/07/25 04:17 PM

#15378

It would be good for the world if we could Make America Great Again AND Make Europe Great Again.

04/07/25 09:04 PM

#15379

MM, America and Europe were getting along great together until Trump decided to stick his finger in Europe’s eye. Why are we burning bridges with all our long-time friends and allies? It makes no sense.

Musk made news in the last day by saying he hoped this whole tariff brouhaha would lead to a free trade (zero tariff) zone between the U.S and Europe. But we already nearly had this – trade-weighted (average) tariffs between the U.S and Europe were less than 2% (both ways). Why re-invent the wheel?

04/08/25 09:51 AM

#15380

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/04/trump-tariffs-hegemony-decline/682323/?gift=jAA80jn3JldMB6Q5XYLsBDJntbNSSgDTlSgN-0ZaZ2E&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Here’s a quote from an article in The Atlantic on the disastrous effects of Trump’s tariffs:

“American families, companies, and investors will pay a price for this, as many commentators have noted. But the repercussions don’t end there. The tariff regime is also destroying a pillar of American global power, and it will further isolate the country at a moment when others stand ready to fill the vacuum”

Below is a “gift” link so you should be able to read the article even if you’re not a subscriber:

04/08/25 11:57 AM

#15381

I must be missing something. I thought America already was great.

04/08/25 12:58 PM

#15382

Here's another good link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/business/trump-tariffs-cars-auto-industry.html

Even before reading up on this my gut reaction was: do you really want to tamper with the equilibrium of something like this? Do you really wanna poke that hornet's nest with a stick, no matter how long that stick may be?

Hats off to the atlantic and thanks for the link. they get straight to the point. scariest lead paragraph I've read in a while. gonna be a bumpy ride. I fear the outcome of this will be, well, to pick just the right word, depressing - if you know what I mean and I think that you do.

Meanwhile Here's a good line to give you instant indigestion:

By one estimate, tariffs could hike the price of a top-end iPhone to $2,300.

ps to dave:

the older I get the more I appreciate it.

the country, that is.

I'm not being sentimental.

I'm more keenly appreciative in part because I'm seeing it abused. From the top. And that displeases me.

04/08/25 02:02 PM

#15383