Monday, April 14, 2025
D+159/85
1536 King Henry VIII expropriated minor monasteries
1865 Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre
1973 Acting FBI director L. Patrick Gray resigned after admitting that he destroyed evidence in the Watergate scandal
1983 President Ronald Reagan signed $165 billion Social Security rescue
1986 Desmond Tutu was elected Anglican Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa
1989 In the Iran-Contra trial, Oliver North's case went to the jury
2003 The Human Genome Project was completed with 99%
2020, Donald Trump froze funding for the World Health Organization pending a review for mistakes in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and for being "China-centric."
2021 President Biden said, "It's time to end America's longest war," confirming his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by Sept 11
In bed at 9, awake at 5, and up at 5:15.
Prednison, day 359; 3 mg., day 18/21; Kevzara, day 13/14; CGM, day 12/15; Trulicity, day 3/7. 2 mg. of prednisone at 5:25 a.m. and 1 mg. at 5:30 p.m. Other meds at 7:40 a.m.
How to Be a Happy 85-Year-Old (Like Me) by Roger Rosenblatt in this morning's New York Times:
It took me 85 years to learn these things, but I believe they’re applicable at any age.
1. Nobody’s thinking about you. It was true 25 years ago, and it’s true today. Nobody is thinking about you. Nobody ever will. Not your teacher, not your minister, not your colleagues, not your shrink, not a soul. It can be a bummer of a thought. But it’s also liberating. That time you fell on your butt in public? That dumb comment you made at dinner last week? That brilliant book you wrote? No one is thinking about it. Others are thinking about themselves. Just like you.
2. Make young friends
3. Try to see fewer than five doctors. . . . It’s not the doctors I dislike; rather, it’s the debilitating feeling of moving from one to another to another like an automobile on an assembly line. If the end product were a Lamborghini, I’d be fine. But I’m a Studebaker. I know all these doctor visits are prudent and inevitable. But when one’s social life consists of Marie, who takes my blood, and an M.R.I. technician named Lou, it’s hardly a good sign.
4. Get a dog.
5. Don’t hear the cheers.
6. Everyone’s in pain. If you didn’t know that before, you know it now. People you meet casually, those you’ve known all your life, the ones you’ll never see — everyone’s in pain. If you need an excuse for being kind, start with that.
7. Listen for Bob Marley.
8. Join a gang. This advice is meant for men more than women, because women are always part of one group or another. The value of socializing comes to women naturally, which is why the world would be better if women ran it. They know how to get along in groups. Men, on the other hand, are solitary, static things. Generals without wars, astride iron horses. They don’t band together naturally, but they ought to, especially when too much solitude leads to self-conscious gloom. Join a gang — that’s what I say. I do not mean a motorcycle gang, simply a group of guys who share an interest. Joining a gang also serves society at large. It keeps us off the streets.
9. On regrets. They’re part of life. Learn to live with them.
10. Start and end every day by listening to Louis Armstrong.
Trump's tariff goals. According to Jeff Stein in his lead article in the Washington Post, "What President Trump’s team wants from the rest of the world".
More natural gas purchases from American firms. Fewer tariffs on U.S. exports. Lower taxes on Silicon Valley tech giants. Pledges to stop China from using other nations to ship its products to the United States. . . . But substantial fuzziness remains about exactly what these deals could look like, in part because of uncertainty about the president’s objectives. Even some of Trump’s advisers privately acknowledge that they lack clarity about the goals, two of the people said.
Fareed Zaksria provides the most probably correct answer to what Trump wants in his WaPo article and "Here's My Take' segment of his GPS television program: "Trump’s tariffs will lead to a cascade of corruption."
THE U.S. ECONOMY IS FOR SALE
It was the flip-flop hailed around the world. After insisting that he would not budge on his tariffs and branding anyone who urged him to do so as a “PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!),” President Donald Trump reversed course and paused his massive reciprocal tariffs for 90 days (except on China) while he negotiates deals with other countries.
But sighs of relief might be premature. For one, America’s tariffs are still at a 100-plus year high by one measure, according to the Yale Budget Lab, which will cost Americans dearly. Even more important, these tariff negotiations will inevitably result in a cascade of corruption. The American economy is being transformed from the leading free market in the world to the leading example of crony capitalism. . . .
[T]he greater the complexity (of a tariff system) , the greater the corruption. With tariffs come tariff waivers, often granted by the hundreds to specific industries, companies, even products. In 2018 and 2019, the Trump administration announced an assortment of tariffs, including 25 percent on steel, and also a program of waivers; they got around 500,000 applications. This week, when asked how he would determine these exemptions, Trump replied, “instinctively.” Studies show that politicians’ instincts usually favor their contributors, which then encourages pervasive corruption.
As his booking photo reminds us, Trump, a convicted criminal, now has within his sole control the power to impose or not impose a substantial tax, i.e., the tariff, on the importation of every physical product needed or wanted in the United States. Other taxes, most notably the income tax, are within Congress's power, but Congress has given to the president almost all of its constitutional power over tariffs, and Trump, probably our most amoral, immoral, and corrupt president, is using that delegated power to line his own pockets with 'voluntary' contributions from individuals, corporations, and lobbyists seeking relief from tariffs. Tariff regulations will become similar to the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations, chock-full of special provisions favoring special interest contributors to congressmen and senators, especially those on the Senate Finance Committee and the House Committee on Ways and Means. I daresay almost, perhaps all, congressmen and senators covet an assignment to those tax-writing committees because such an assignment guarantees lobbyists lining up at their doors with contribution checks to their campaign committees (and more). Trump is simply playing Congress's game with his tariff taxes. Suddenly, it all makes sense.
Trump’s Exceptional Tariff Weekend: His Customs office announced tariff-rate exceptions on electronics on Friday that he renounced on Sunday.
Mr. Trump first makes U.S. companies less competitive, then he and his Administration pick exceptions worthy of help to remain competitive. Politicians, not success in the marketplace, pick business winners and losers.
Exemptions would also undermine the Administration’s legal justification that his tariffs are needed to meet a national “emergency.” Imports of glassware and umbrellas from China are an emergency but imports of electronics aren’t?
All of this exposes the political nature of tariffs. Some industries benefit but others don’t. Too bad if you make shoes, or clothing, or thousands of other consumer products that must pay the tariffs but lack the political or market clout to win exemptions. Too bad, too, if you’re a small manufacturer that relies on a component from China but can’t afford a K Street lobbyist. Welcome to the new tariff economy, where you still pay onerous taxes, endure punishing regulation, and now must also navigate the political minefield of arbitrary tariffs.
Big day at 9581. First, Geri's CPM machine was picked up. Then, the tree removal team showed up to take down the tall, dead spruce tree on the northeast corner of our lot. Then the new dryer was delivered from Best Buy and the old one removed. In between I worked on my current painting, working on her nose and the fan.
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