Blog: If I understand this

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” — John Lennon

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About that image of the Wild West:  Historian W. Eugene Hollon told the Independent Institute that the Wild West “was a far more civilized, more peaceful and a safer place than American society today.” – Yeah, and Tombstone, AZ had more gun control then than anyplace in AZ does now.

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Didja know Dept.: The popular perception of the Battle of the Alamo is that settlers fought for Texas’s freedom. The reality is that Texans fought to keep their slaves. Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829, and Mexican soldiers were encouraged to free slaves when they went to Texas (which was Mexican territory at the time).  You could also say that many of the defenders of the Alamo were illegal immigrants, since to settle in Texas, they were supposed to declare loyalty to Mexico!

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Robert Reich 04/02/2025 says:

“The richest man in the world is taking a sledgehammer to Social Security, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, and other programs that Americans need and want. Why? So, the president can cut taxes for the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations in America. It’s that simple.”  — or, perhaps:  “Steal from the poor and give to the rich.”

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A new book says this about the last election: “He (Obama) didn’t think that she (Harris) was the best choice for Democrats,” Allen (the author) explained. “And he worked really behind the scenes for a long time to try to have a mini primary or an open convention or mini primary leading to an open convention. Did not have faith in her ability to win the election.”

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Opinion From The Atlantic:  No Tariff Exemptions for American Farmers — they voted for the tariffs when they voted for Trump.

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A convicted drug dealer who had his sentence commuted by President Donald Trump in 2021 was arrested again on Saturday after being accused of shoving a 3-year-old boy on Long Island, New York. The incident marks the man’s fourth arrest in all. – The article said the guy had known Jared Kushner.

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Huffpost:  Elon Musk Accused of Failing to Pay Millions to Canvassers in Class-Action Lawsuit

No wonder he and Trump are buddies; not paying workers is Trump’s favorite thing!  Just ask his former chauffeur in New York; or that family-owned cabinet maker biz he cheated when he built his first casino.  Ever wonder why Trump has been sued thousands of times?

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Update 04/02:  So, Trumpy waited until 4:00 p.m. Eastern today to reveal his new tariff plan.  Gee, just after the stock market closed for the day . . . the futures market, which I don’t know much about, is down, but I guess we’ll see in the morning the full effect.  Robert Reich just posted this: “What are the consequences? It’s a colossally stupid move that will drive up prices for American consumers and manufacturers while eliciting retaliation from other nations. Stock and bond markets continue to slide.”

I guess he means those “futures.”

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From an economist on MSNBC:  Trump inherited a growing (if imperfect) economy that just 10 weeks later is facing collapsing consumer confidence, paralyzed business investment, rising prices, deepening job losses and a cratering stock market. Business cycles will inevitably bring occasional downturns, but this economic decline has the rare attribute of being entirely self-inflicted by the current president.

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Useless fact of the day:  Owls Can Rotate Their Heads 270 Degrees

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As You Might Expect Dept.:  Russia is not on Trump’s tariff list.

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Hope you like inspecting your own food sources and testing new drugs, because:  Senior Food and Drug Administration leaders are planning for cutbacks to the number of routine food and drug inspections conducted by the agency, multiple officials say, due to steep layoffs this week in support staff.  — CBS News.

Yeah, we doan need no stinkin’ guv-mint help!

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In a John Cassidy article in the New Yorker, about Trump’s new tariffs:  Daniel Roeska, an analyst at Bernstein, has estimated that they could raise costs for automakers, who rely on parts made abroad, by sixty-seven hundred dollars per vehicle sold.  Maybe that helps Tesla? Somehow?

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Odd Fact Dept.:  Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president who was born in a hospital.

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From ABC News:  The political environment is uncertain, and the public’s appetite for steep budget cuts is being tested in real time, with Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency headed by billionaire Elon Musk blazing through federal offices, firing thousands of workers and shuttering long-running government mainstays — from scientific research projects on diseases, to educational services for schoolchildren, to offices that help with Social Security, tax filing and the weather.

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Several economists say this:  The formula the White House produced to justify its wildly aggressive tariffs depends on a fundamental misunderstanding of how trade works.

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Par for the Trump Course:  WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump skipped the return of the remains of four soldiers who died in a training exercise to Dover Air Force Base on Friday and instead spent millions of taxpayer dollars to attend a dinner for one of his business interests and to play golf. – Well, he did say troops were “suckers and losers.”

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Basketball fans:  Are you as tired as I am of hearing players and others use the term “score the ball?”  This was in an article today:  “He’s their star player. He wants to score the ball.” – I thought you scored points, but whadda I know?  And of course, officially, when you do “score the ball,” you are making a “field goal.”

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This, from Dan Rather, about Trump: “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king — the palace instead becomes a circus. — Turkish proverb.”

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I have read this more than once, about tariffs:  “Even if it’s made in the USA, they will jack up the price and blame it on tariffs.”

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Tweet I saw online:  “The cats own this house. That’s why the word homeowner has the word ‘meow’ in it.”

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In case you missed it, too much Vitamin A can make you very sick (thanks, RFK Jr.).

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And this:  Books on the Holocaust, histories of feminism, civil rights and racism, and Maya Angelou’s famous autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” were among the nearly 400 volumes removed from the U.S. Naval Academy’s library this week after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office ordered the school to get rid of ones that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.  Gee, so nothing about the WWII black fighter pilots, or Jackie Robinson in the army, etc.?  Should they pretend the armed forces were NOT segregated in WWII?

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All for today – take care,

Kevin