“The canary in our mine has died,” the foreman reported.
“We’re not going to replace him,” the mine owner replied. “That bird was fraud, waste, and abuse. Never did anything but sit there in a cage. Useless. We’ll save hundreds of pennies by cutting that position.”
The next day, the foreman reported, “Three miners have died.”
“Good!” the mine owner enthused. “Look how much we’re saving on personnel costs. Keep up the good work.”
“All of the third shift are dead,” the foreman reported the next day. “There’s no mining going on today.”
The mine owner clapped his hand and cackled in glee. “That’s great news.”
The foreman stared at him. “How do you figure? Nothing’s being mined. Production is down.”
“Exactly,” the owner replied. “That’ll reduce supplies. With lower supplies, we can charge much more money per ton. In fact, go ahead and lay off everyone else. We’ll shut the mine down and save a fortune in overhead while we sign new deals.”
“Are you sure?” the foreman asked.
“Yes. We’ll be making so much money, you won’t believe it.” The owner’s orange face glowed with excitement. “Trust me, I’m a very stable genius. I know what I’m doing.”
IBM made news with the announcement of a ‘historic’ investment in manufacturing in the US. It made headlines and has the Trump Regime pretty excited.
Less coverage was given to IBM’s plan to ramp up operations in India. Working with new operations in Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Europe, and Australia was a large part of my work for several years while at IBM. This was part of their offshoring investments to reduce overhead and personnel costs.
In other IBM news, IBM announced the ‘layoffs’ of 9,000 US employees. Many are being replaced by AI. As noted by many experts, a return to manufacturing in the U.S. won’t automatically translate to better employment numbers.
And keep in mind: the same replacements by AI are being planned at Amazon, Dell, and other U.S. corporations.
The old joke used to be that companies often required employees to train their replacements before they were released. Now it looks like employees are building their replacements.
Trump is celebrating his first 100 days. Some of his most fanatical base are applauding and telling us and each other, “Look what he’s done!” Other Trump voters are saying, “Oh my god, look what he’s done!” Others of us are saying, “Damn it, look what he’s done!” Only that first base group seems real happy.
I’m part of the third group. After 100 days, I’m not better off. Nor is my wife. Or any of my family.
Chaos reigns. Pragmatically, inflation and high prices keep my wife and me from buying less. We go out less often because eating out is not cheap. Yes, that’s a first world blues complaint, isn’t it? Except that we share that frame of mind with many others. Lack of going out and eating affects others’ jobs and income. Affects the local tax revenues, and yes, our state of mind. With higher prices, it’s more of a struggle to donate to charities. It usually takes a second thought to convince ourselves because we worry about what will happen to the economy with Trump’s tariffs when the dominos begin falling.
Trump thinks it’s all swell. Experts and history disagree.
We’re not doing better after Trump’s first 100 days because he’s slashed through treaties, alliances, and agreements. His appeasement approach to Putin and Russia has undermined allies like Ukraine and encourages naked aggression. Traditional allies now don’t trust us. I fully understand that. Being isolated as a nation isn’t a safe stance in this complex and violent world. Trump shrugs that off like it doesn’t matter. History is not his strong suit.
Only strong suits for Trump are lying and conning people. Looking back on how this failed businessman made his money, it was by being corrupt, immoral, and dishonest. By not paying contractors. By gaming the bankruptcy systems and conning others into investing in his businesses. Then, doing a Trump good-bye, he slips away with the money and leaves others with the mess.
We’re not doing better because of what Trump did to government agencies in his first 100 days. Under the guise of cutting ‘fraud, waste, and abuse’, he empowered Elon Reeve Musk to have ‘DOGE’ go in and cut personnel and services. Laws and legal protections were shrugged off. So were Congressional mandates done years before. Trump didn’t agree with them or like them, so he just cut them. In effect, he became a one-man nation. Our previous votes and mandates were dismissed. He’s implemented the Project 2025 playbook after insisting all through his presidential campaign that he knew nothing about Project 2025. It’s totally in line with his reputation as a liar and conman.
On top of those traits, he’s proven to be cruel and lacking empathy. He demands and rewards personal loyalty and punishes whatever he perceives as criticism or disloyalty, to the detriment of our democracy and national welfare.
We’re not doing better after Trump’s first 100 days for what he’s done with our history and rights. As a deeply prejudiced, ignorant, and flawed individual, whatever he doesn’t understand or agree with is removed and locked out of sight. Included in this are women’s contributions to our advances. Women’s contributions and women’s rights. He rejects due process as though it’s a pizza topping choice and not a Constitutional-mandated requirement. He undermines our independent judiciary by railing against them, threatening violence, and rushing to the Roberts Court for ’emergency intervention’. Through it all, of course, he refuses to take responsibility when things go to shit, refuses to learn, and refuses to change.
More pragmatically and personally, we’re not doing better after Trump’s first 100 days because of what his behavior has done to the stock market. That directly translated to our retirement accounts. Our IRA and 401k’s. While our frugalness, savings, pensions, and investments have inured us to the impact on our retirement accounts, it takes its toll on our emotional and mental states. We worry more. We rethink our choices and decisions. We plan for the worse.
Others are not as fortunate as us. Trump has cut FEMA aid to communities recovering from natural disasters. He’s cut HeadStart, education funding, and food assistant programs for the poor, children, and the elderly. Thanks to his encouragement to not get vaccinated and his cuts to health and medical services, measles outbreaks are spreading. He’s cut grant programs for medical research.
His recklessness has us wondering and worrying, what next?
No, we are not doing better after Trump’s first 100 days. Were I grading this on a letter scale as we did in school, he’d get a big red F- for all that he’s done.
Thirstda is here! Thirstda is here! Yep, it’s finally Thirstda. If this is Thirstda, it must be May 1, 2025. Get ready to set your clocks back a little more under PINO Trump’s agenda.
Isn’t it special of Trump to make light of the potential pain people face with higher prices? Reducing the situation to a comparison of children’s dolls. “They’ll only have two instead of thirty.” So out of touch with reality and anyone below the wealthy class. It’s more like, they’ll only have one meal instead of two. Put less gas in the car. Go to bed hungry. Pass on eating to pay medication. Pause on buying needed medications to purchase the most needed medication. Make down with worn out clothes and shoes.
Sure, some are better off than that. But they’ll go out less often. Purchase less expensive meals. Perhaps skip desserts or drinks. Go to less expensive places. Drop some streaming services.
Trump doesn’t know. He lives in a bubble. Has for years. He’ll golf and make speeches and sign more unconstitutional E.O.s. Pretend that it’s all going great. And if it isn’t feed the continuing need to look good by passing on the buck. Blame others. Blame previous administrations. His cult slurp it up with a straw. Plastic, of course. Because he doesn’t think all that plastic in our bodies or in the ocean, all that plastic in landfills and killing animals, is a problem at all. He’s just too ignorant to know. But then again, more ignorant folks voted him in. He was going to ‘shake up the status quo’. He spoke to them. And many of them are still happy with him. They like the chaos. They enjoy how Trump takes it to the libs. They admire how he’s ‘making America strong again’ by wrecking the economy and thumbing his nose at the world.
Today’s music is “The Monster”. Yeah, that is Trump inspired. The Neurons are thinking of the offering by Eminem with Rhianna. “I’m friends with the monster under my bed. I’m friends with the monster that’s under my bed. Get along with the voices inside of my head. You’re tryin’ to save me, stop holding your breath. And you think I’m crazy, yeah, you think I’m crazy.”
That’s pegged with those people who shake their heads and tell me that I just can’t see how well Trump is doing. But I’ll see, they tell me. I’ll see when Trump announces new deals with all of those countries calling him and begging him for deals. I’ll see when we’re all swimming in wealth.
Yeah, we’ll see.
Here’s the mental morning music stream sound. Have a fresh day. I’m after a fresh cuppa coffee, myself. It’s clear, quiet and calm down here at the water’s edge. 54 F with a high of 66 F coming. Later, gators.
Sunshine has found us again. It’s Twosda, final Twosda of April, the 29th day of the month in the year of 2025. Next to last day of April. 49 F temp. Upper sixties will win the day.
My cynicism is running strong this morning. News that Amazon is going to show the true price and then show the added tariff amounts has Trump shouting, “Treason!” Just an itemized listing to me. You know, transparent. I see why Trump is shouting about it. Like many vermin, he prefers operating in darkness. Light and transparency are his enemies.
Trump is always claiming that tariff is a great word. A beauiful word. Why is against his beautiful word being on display?
Trump also loudly and repeatedly said that foreign governments pay the tariffs. So what if Amazon shows what foreign governments are paying. You see this repeated on several right wing sites. “Why are the Democrats (or Liberals) so upset about tariffs? Foreign governments pay it.” Right. So why your your prezzi be upset by that information being displayed? Unless — gasp! — the tariffs are paid by the importing company, who passes it on to the customers, which causes prices to rise and volume to drop, further causing greater scarcity and shortages, which result in empty shelves and low stock, further increasing prices.
No way, right? No way.
The other aspect to consider is the ‘treason’ part. Anything that is against Trump is labeled as nasty, corrupt, and treason. But it’s not against the nation; it’s against him. He thinks he is the state. Trying to make it so. And the GOTP is trying to shore him up.
“My Heads in Mississippi” by ZZ Top is in the morning mental music stream. As the Eagles sang, “I can’t tell you why.” I do have clues. Like reading news about Mississippi that had me head shaking. But then it got buried by other news and more information. That could be it.
One other thing I read about are the projected coffee price increases. I’ve stocked up and will stock up more. But every time I brew or buy a cup of coffee, I’ll remember why my coffee price is increasing. One, climate change. Which Trump disavows. Says it’s fake news. Won’t allow it to be said anywhere in ‘his government’. That doesn’t change facts. Climate change is happening. It’s affecting produce and products. Such as coffee. And he won’t do shit about that. Two, tariffs. They unnecessarily increased coffee prices. Because of Trump’s ignorance, the GOTP’s complicity and spinelessness, my morning fix will be more expensive.
On the other end of that, MAGA will blame Democrats for the tariffs, for the scarcity etc. Probably declare the ‘Deep State’ is behind the shortages and price increases. Will laugh to one another and talk about ‘owning the libs’. All they’re owning is one another.
On to my low price coffee. Hope your day works out well. Hope mine does as well. Let’s get rockin’. Cheers
Several CEOs met with O2. That’s the One Orange. Frequently living in Florida, he allows time off from his busy golf schedule to sign executive orders. Many of those EOs are about tariffs. That’s what has the preppers wringing their hands. The CEOs run big box stores. They’re retailers. They were warning Trump that the tariffs would soon cause empty shelves, falling sales, and failing consumer confidence so Trump needed to back off tariffs. Which, despite declaring that he never would, Trump did. Because the CEOs are wealthy O2 backers. If not for them, and other millionaires and billionaires, Trump may not have made it back into the White House to bless the world with chaos. Now, this chaos was completely predictable. Trump said he was going to tariff every jot and tittle entering the United States. So it is tres amusing that these big box stores are worried.
Stuff enters the U.S. through those ports. Port authorities, freight companies, and dock workers say the ports are gonna be ghost haunts. Nothing is expected in. As critically, little is getting shipped out from the United States. Thanks to sharp price increases caused by the tariffs, orders for U.S. goods are being cancelled. These cancelled orders and empty ships are causing a productivity slow down. People are being laid off or terminated.
Gee, that worked out swell, didn’t it, MAGA?
Sanity was the first casualty of Trump’s personal economic war.
Third are workers, soybean farmers, and truckers. All are facing layoffs, or increased costs and decreased profits, or business shutdowns. Trump did the same thing in his first term. Enjoying that experience so much, he’s turned the craziness up to eleven.
Yes, that is a Spinal Tapreference. Spinal Tap used Trump logic to explain why their music is louder.
The phrase was coined in a scene from the 1984 rock mockumentaryThis Is Spinal Tap by the character Nigel Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest. In this scene, Nigel gives the rockumentary’s director, Marty DiBergi, played by Rob Reiner, a tour of his stage equipment. While Nigel is showing Marty his Marshallguitar amplifiers, he points out a selection whose control knobs all have a highest setting of eleven, unlike standard amplifiers whose volume settings are typically numbered from 0 to 10. Believing that this numbering increases the highest volume of the amp, he explains, “It’s one louder, isn’t it?” When Marty asks why not simply make the 10 setting louder, Nigel hesitates before responding: “These go to eleven.”
Fortunately for truck drivers, the UAW, soybean farmers, Boeing, and big business in general, they supported Trump’s re-election campaign. He told them he would raise tariffs. They supported him and his positions and voted him into office. They now have what they wanted.
At 4:07 AM, the cat announced, “Let’s go!” Yes, he batted and chatted me awake enough to sleep walk to the door and release him back into the wild. He didn’t stay in the wild long. Cold, wind, and hunger drove him back in. “Not that wild, are you?” I asked him. He meowed back.
Thus began Twosda, April 22, 2025, much as many other days begin. Twosda and Thirstdas are the worse for me in this regard. My wife gets up early on Mun-Wen-Fri to attend exercise class. She deals with the cat between 6:30 and 8 AM on those days. But today has Papi testing the limits, in and out. I suspect he has two twins and they’re taking turns at this.
It was 39 F at 4:30 AM. If you trust Alexa. I asked it the temperature after Papi came back in. I was curious because it felt cold to my half-naked body. Like Sun & Mun, today features a clear blue-sky sauce and a glaze of sunshine with a tincture of wind and mild temperatures that lose their punch in the mid to upper sixties.
Trump continues to pile instability on instability, crazy on crazy, losses on losses. Like all great leaders, he sets ridiculous goals using ideologically-driven data, fails to take many details and factors into account, and then pretends it’s going great as everyone else prepares to get out the toilet plunger because this shit is overwhelming the crapper. He is consistently terrible and proud of it. Living in a Teflon-coated bubble, he’ll probably never recognize his insanity and the disastrous, negative impact he delivered to millions of people.
Unless, of course, his secret goal is to completely undermine and destroy the United States. That’s also possible. He could well be in collusion with Russian and oil oligarchs and are busy setting the table up to establish a powerful global cabal. Makes as much sense as any other shit he spreads.
They say that the Roberts Court is finally getting a backbone. “They’ll reign Trump in.” Ha. I think Trump is already smirking at the Roberts Court as he says, “Hold my Big Mac.” Harvard and other universities are suing the Trusk Regime. He doesn’t care. He’s already destabilized and disrupted our education systems and research programs. A third of the national NOAA weather offices have lost their leases. We’ll see what that does to the ability to warn about weather disasters. Then, Trump and Noem have been dismantling FEMA, so when these disaster squat on communities and drop a load, the state and community will struggle to recover and rebuild. Meanwhile, DOGE is raiding personal data and will probably weaponize that on behalf of Russia. He’s truncated international alliances and friendships that effectively worked for over half a century, isolating our nation. Besides all that, he’s been running due process over with a golf court.
And Trump and his supporters think this is just great. Anyway…onward.
When I first heard this Led Zeppelin song when I was thirteen, I thought, holy fucking shit. That was a startling development because I’d never sworn before that. That’s when I took up coffee, too. It all seemed to go together.
The song — “How Many More Times” — is in my morning mental music stream for reasons which The Neurons have sealed. They have better security than Kristi Noem and keep secrets more effectively than Pet (Pete) Hegseth. Not saying much, given how terrible and sloppy the Trump Regime has demonstrated itself to be, outside of the Musk-driven DOGE dogs.
Here is the music. When I listened to it today, my inner thirteen-year-old sat up and said, “Holy fucking shit.” This is a recording of a live show. Anyone familiar with Zep knows it’s gonna be a jam and will vary a bit from what was on the album.
Coffee has again insinuated itself into my body’s systems. I’m prepared to rock another day, at least until nap time later today. Hope your day is as purpose-filled as you need it. Carpe diem. Cheers
Some things catching my attention in the week’s news…
I enjoy Ali’s regular offering, Peace & Justice History. Posted every day on Scottie’s Playground, the post provides a high-level recap of the day in history in the realm of peace, law, and justice. I like it as a reminder of the history which has gone before. While there is sometimes a sinking sensation that history is part of a wash cycle, and we’re going through the spin and rinse once again, reading about others stands against war and for justice and human dignity can inspire and fuel my need for optimism.
Infidel753 provided a good overview of the Bond market and the huge implications for the U.S. when our bonds fall out of favor. As several have suggested, the bond market drop probably caused the pause in Trump’s wacky tariff scheme.
“The sale of Treasury bonds is how the US government borrows money. A bond’s value at maturity is fixed; its initial sale price is lower and is determined by supply and demand, with the difference between sale price and maturity value being the interest paid by the government to the investor. For example, if a bond is worth $100 at maturity, and you buy it for $95, then the $5 difference is the interest you get on the investment, effectively paid to you by the government. If you are less confident that the bond is a good investment, and you pay only $90, then your return is $10 when the bond matures, and the government is having to pay twice as much interest to borrow the money from you. In practice, the sale price of Treasury bonds is set by supply and demand and reflects investors’ collective level of confidence in the US economy at any given moment.“
“The reason this matters for the future of Trump’s befuddled trade and foreign policy is that huge quantities of US bonds are owned by foreign governments. Japan holds over a trillion dollars worth of them, China holds $760 billion, the UK holds $720 billion, Canada holds $380 billion, and many others also hold substantial amounts. Even by the standards of the US federal budget, these are very large amounts of money. And these governments have now learned that turmoil in the bond market can get Trump to back down even when nothing else can.“
Some hope was found that the Roberts Court finally,finally, took a stronger stance against the Trump Regime’s mass deportation scheme, the one that pretends that due process has no place in the U.S. no matter what the Constitution and legal precedence says. Jennifer Rubin at The Contrariangave a concise summary of the latest ruling. Now we all wait to see what happens next. I haven’t perused the news yet, but something else may have already happened. Whatever else, the Trump Regime is an evil and diabolical machine in its pursuit of unlawfully getting people out of the country.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin is coping with lead paint in its schools. The Biden administration was working with them to help them out of this mess. Isn’t working for the common welfare one reason for the Federal government’s existence? But under the Trump Regime, the CDC experts who were going to help Milwaukee have been fired. And, the Trump Regime told them that it’s declining their request for help. I’m sure that Milwaukee citizens are probably wondering, why the fuck are we paying taxes, then. I know that would be my reaction. Not sure how this fits, but Wisconsin was a swing state that went for Trump while Milwaukee went for Harris.
‘President Trump weighed in on the cost of eggs around the country, claiming Friday at the White House that the prices are “getting too low.”
‘Trump praised Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins for doing a “great” job and then asserted that egg prices are “down 87 percent, but nobody talks about that.”’
“Bullshit,” my wife said. “I just bought eggs. They’re not down ’87 percent’. If that’s right, why are they still so expensive in Oregon?”
Michael Seidel, writer 