February has been keeping me busy with snow and ice removal. Three snowfalls in one week are predicted. And the day job has been hectic. But I’ve managed to write several thousand words on my story this week which is pretty good. I follow as best I can in the news how Trump is doing in his epic assault on the “managerial state.” We’ve reached the point in the dance where various Obama-appointed federal judges will veto everything he does. It’ll be interesting to see if he honors the decisions or just ignores them. I rather hope he just goes full speed ahead and deals with the consequences later. It would be so much quicker to just make the changes and let the Deep State deal with a fait accompli.
I didn’t see the game but I watched a few minutes of post-Super Bowl celebrations going on in Philadelphia. A mob of inebriated cretinous goons combined their strength to yank a traffic light pole out of the ground, smash it with their hands and feet and then throw into the back of an enormous dump truck that they somehow got their hands on. Unfortunately, it fell out of the truck and onto several of their fellow rioters. But obviously a good time was had by all. Ah, the transformative energy of sports. I’m sure the City of Brotherly Love will rise to new heights on the spiritual boost this championship will provide. Well, anyway, the rioting, looting and arson probably won’t continue much past Monday.
The world situation grows more chaotic by the week. The Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange seems to be wobbling and the Ukraine war grinds brutally on. Trump’s latest tariff project seems to involve imports of aluminum and steel. I believe we get a lot of aluminum from Canada. The hydroelectricity in Quebec makes Canadian aluminum competitive with any other world producers. I’m not sure if Trump is taking another slap at Trudeau. I think a lot of the steel comes out of China. I wonder if Trump is serious about that. It would be a real shot across the bow of Xi Jinping’s economy. We’ll see.
I’m curious to see if Trump will give a speech where he lays out his big plan for the changes he’s making to government spending. I mean, it’s great that he’s shutting down the patronage and pork at USAID and other left-wing fronts. And reducing the federal payroll by as much as possible is also admirable. But I tend to think that he has some bigger, more comprehensive program in the works. Now maybe he wants to wait until he’s put out some of these fires like the judges blocking his executive orders. And maybe he’s working with the Congressional Republicans to push forward some large bill that contains a lot of the items he intends to use to transform the economy. But right now, it’s very hard to tell what’s going forward and what’s been halted.
I guess I’ll have to be patient for a few more weeks. After all he hasn’t been in office even a month yet. It just seems longer because of all the activity he’s produced. I’m impatiently waiting for Patel, Kennedy and Gabbard to get their votes in the Senate. I feel like that’s dragging. But that’s not Trump’s fault. The Senate Republicans are a sorry looking lot and can barely keep from tripping over their own feet. But one thing I’d like to hear about is how many generals Pete Hegseth has fired this week. I think maybe that’s the metric I would use to gauge the effectiveness of the Trump administration. Yep that’s the one.
“We’ve reached the point in the dance where various Obama-appointed federal judges will veto everything he does. It’ll be interesting to see if he honors the decisions or just ignores them. I rather hope he just goes full speed ahead and deals with the consequences later.”
If memory serves, Biden just ignored any court decisions, up to and including Supreme Court decisions, without a trace of negative consequences.
I think a primary function of the court system is to protect us from a rogue government but what mechanism is in place to protect us from a rogue court system?
The only constitutional remedy is impeachment. But that requires a super majority in Congress. Of course if the Supreme Court was accommodating they could quickly overrule these judges.
Aluminum and steel are strategic materials.
There is no reason we should be importing them, especially from China!
Tax the imports to the point where US steel is a deal.
If I have to pay a bit more for things, I will.
Things will cost more. But people will have better paying jobs. And the stuff we’ll buy will be made by people who are accountable to Americans. But the Harbor Freight customers will be pissed.