How are all you The Voice readers this week? Enjoying the 18.9% across-the-board average price increases brought on by the new tariffs? The increases in grocery prices or the $50 or more added on to the cost of major appliances? It’s enough to make you long for the good old days of Donald Trump 1.0…not! I guess when Trumpty Dumpty promised to lower the cost of everyday goods we probably misheard him. It’s all our fault.
Once again, it’s worth repeating: Tariffs are paid for by us, not by foreign manufacturers. Trump’s tariffs are definitely raising prices, no matter what Bela “Wild Bill” Suhayda may write in his humorous The Voice pieces. TVs, cars, and coffee are up. (My breakfast is coming up if I think about this much longer.) Steel is up 16% this year. Even Karl Rove criticized Trump because of his belief that anything not made in America is a ‘national security threat.’ Yoo-hoo, 25th Amendment, where are you hiding?
So who gives a rat’s patoot? Not the rich. The truth is, if the rich, who are now getting richer due to humongous tax cuts, can keep the poor from having a better education, it is easier to feed them MAGA-type propaganda about being the greatest country in the world. It’s easier to tell them lies and have them believe it, such as liberals and Latino immigrants are the source of all the problems. Make them the enemy like Hitler did with the Jews. And in the U.S. if you aren’t a wealthy, highly-paid writer like I am and want a better education, you have to allow yourself to be crushed by debt to get one. So you’re just exchanging one method of control, lack of education, for another; crushing debt.
America is ranked 31st in education. A knowledgeable professor, when asked how so many average Americans could have voted for Trump, he replied, “I assure you I’m empathetic… it was desperation paired with a lacking education.” Trump’s cuts to education and science, such as the $584 million in grants to UCLA, are long-term threats to knowledge and research. Trump is using education funding as a weapon to make universities bend to his wishes while top educators leave for other countries where their leaders aren’t dumb as lug nuts.
Trump was recently asked on Meet the Press if he believed he had to uphold the U.S. Constitution. He replied, “I don’t know.” He’s the only president in history who ever said that. He was probably dreaming about a Big Mac when he was being sworn in. “Stupid people don’t understand my genius.” Right. He also said since he’s the president, “I can do whatever I want.” That must include the years of frolicking with Jeffrey Epstein and friends. No one except Trump is above the law obviously.
South Korean president Lee Jae Myung got in a good one on Trump in the Oval Office. Trump walked right into it. Trump was ready to pounce on Lee before he even showed up. Lee did the customary gushing, currently employed by other world leaders, adding Trump’s brilliance dealing with Kim Jong-un, then hit the easily-manipulated Trump with his barb about Trump soon to be staying at a Trump Hotel in North Korea and playing golf with Kim on a Trump golf course. Trump had no retort and just sat with a stupid grin on his face. It was the exact stupid grin I’d seen on his face when David Letterman caught him lying about his support of American manufacturers and proceeded to pull out pieces of Trump’s new clothing line, each manufactured in a different foreign country. It must have been fake news or maybe I just imagined seeing it (ala Orwell’s 1984).
Too much Trump. My head will explode. Don’t worry, Wild Bill Suhayda. I’ll get back to outing your fake news soon.
Economically speaking, did you hear that Claire’s is going into bankruptcy and closing 235 stores in the U.S. due to consumers’ Amazon shopping? Claire’s was always the place to go for young girls in need of some earrings and other frufru to decorate themselves. It’s so sad that now teens will only be able to get their ears pierced online.
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