Robot Jazz

  As I am sure everyone has heard, Donald Trump, the losiest loser of all time, has lost yet again: A Supreme Court decision on Friday striking down President Trump’s sweeping global tariffs dealt a major blow to his economic agenda and brought new uncertainty to global markets struggling to adapt to his whipsawing trade policies. The court, in a 6-to-3 decision written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., ruled that Mr. Trump had exceeded his authority when he imposed tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner last year.  Trump, a man who is cognitively unable to stop digging when he digs himself into a deep hole, couldn't wait to rush to the cameras and give one of his now-famously incoherent addresses where, amongst other things, he assured the nation he could read: "I read the paragraphs...I read very well.  Great comprehension. I read everything there is to read." Of course, this is a lie. As now disgraced journalist and Epstein associate Michael Wolff recounted :...

  I'm one of those annoying people who takes pride in enjoying entertainment from other shores.  I don't do it just for some sense of cultural superiority - okay, maybe a bit of that - but because I find much of American entertainment to be juvenile. And I don't mean actually juvenile in the way that Michael Bay's endless Transformer  flicks are targeted at a young, after-school audience, but in how even serious filmmakers tackle adult topics with a juvenile mentality. Be that as it may, I am always on the lookout for a new experience from beyond America's shores. Recently, a friend of mine who knows my love of British television ( Inside No. 9  is a recent favorite of this Twilight Zone  fan!) recommended Fawlty Towers  to me. I heard of this classic bit of late 20th-century British television before but had never gotten around to watching it. Seeing how most of the episodes were available on YouTube , I sat down this past weekend to watch it.  I love...

  We've all been talking about tariffs lately, but much of that conversation is often centered around the impact that Trump's insane trade war is having on larger business concerns, such as big agriculture or corporate manufacturing concerns. What is often overlooked, though, is the effect on the many "mom and pop" small businesses being ground underneath the jackboot of this MAGA administration.  This was painfully brought to mind when I received an email from GMT Games , a purveyor of niche board games that often deal with military and historical themes. It is no exaggeration to say that over its more than thirty-five years  of operation, GMT Games  has become a pillar of the wargame hobbyist community due to its high-quality products, and friendly and honest service. And now, due to Trump's incoherent trade policy, that might be at an end.  Below is an excerpt from the email sent by 'Gene', GMT's proprietor. It is heartbreaking to read, and a remind...

  It is a beautifully rainy day today, in other words, perfect blogging weather. Happily, or unhappily, depending on your POV, the news cycle has calmed down since Sir Brave Trump courageously ran away from his tariffs, both claiming that they were the right thing to do as well as declaring that rolling them back was also the right thing to do. Such is the way of MAGA.  After all, you don't have to make sense when your most ardent fans are the type of people who repeatedly respond to 'Nigerian Prince' email scams. Don't believe me? Check out this YouTube video where a beekeeper voted for Trump a third time despite getting burned by Trump's tariffs during Trump 1.0: Yeah, these people are kinda stupid. Of course, Team Trump, looking like the cavalcade of clowns and cretins that they most assuredly are, had to do something to save face, so they announced that the tariffs on China will reach 145% for...reasons, I guess? In response, China, because they can, has announ...

  Like a whipped dog forced to crawl on his belly to his masters, Trump has announced a 90-day pause on his insane tariff policy. As CNN reports: Trump announces 90-day pause on ‘reciprocal’ tariffs with exception of China President Donald Trump announced a complete three-month pause on all the “reciprocal” tariffs that went into effect at midnight, with the exception of China, a stunning reversal from a president who had insisted historically high tariffs were here to stay. But enormous tariffs will remain on China, the world’s second-largest economy. In fact, Trump said they will be increased to 125% from 104% after China announced additional retaliatory tariffs against the United States earlier Wednesday. All other countries that were subjected to reciprocal tariff rates Wednesday will see rates go back down to the universal 10% rate, he said. Remember that this announcement was made via a social media post, not as part of a formal announcement at the White House. I suspect this...

  I was too lazy today to use AI to generate an image, so here is an apropos editorial cartoon I found on Musk's dumpster fire.  God bless editorial cartoonists, some of whom have resigned from their jobs  because of censorship in this dark age of ignorance and intolerance.  Mark Twain, back in 1873, published a book for these times. It was called The Gilded Age  and dealt with the political corruption and materialism of Feurer Trump's favorite American period, the late 19th Century. Twain's legendary wit is on display from the title itself - a "gilded age" being a fraudulent substitute for an authentic golden age.   As Trump is so fond of repeating, the late 19th Century was a time when the US government was funded by tariffs on international trade. It wasn't until the early 20th Century that America switched to a progressive income tax to fund the government with the ratification of the 16th Amendment. But why the switch? Simply, tariffs are a tax on...

  In the late 1920s, two Republicans, Senator Reed Smoot of Utah and Representative Willis C. Hawley of Oregon decided that they had the solution to America's worsening economic situation due to what would become known as The Great Depression. Their answer was simple: tariffs. America would tax its way to prosperity - a tariff being nothing more than a tax on imported goods paid by the consumer.  Anyone with a high school education in either history or politics knows the results: an economic disaster that only worsened the depression. As  Wikipedia relates: Some countries protested and others also retaliated with trade restrictions and tariffs. American exports to the protesters fell 18% and exports to those who retaliated fell 31%.[18] Threats of retaliation by other countries began long before the bill was enacted into law in June 1930. As the House of Representatives passed it in May 1929, boycotts broke out, and foreign governments moved to increase rates against Amer...