T is for Tuesday, and Trump
There’s always so much to work from… the man does make our job so much easier. Where to start?
How about bird flu? H5N1 is the one we are looking at now. The only realistic way to deal with it is slaughtering the birds – not the infected ones only, but the entire farm/flock/whatever. Most countries we export to will not allow the entry of vaccinated birds, so we can’t just vaccinate ’em. And in this day of mega-poultry operations, we’re not talking a few hundred family owned birds. Try more like 148,000,000 so far. Lot of USDA cluckers there, for you C.W. McCall fans.
Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Biden administration and the Department of Agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore lack of egg supply, which is leading to a shortage.”
But per Jodi Rollins, a professor at Emory:
“But it is, and always has been a policy across administrations, with the USDA, that this is how they handle infections like this among poultry. And as we’ve seen bird flu move [across] species, it becomes even more important to try to contain that infection in the flocks that it’s in, so that we don’t continue to see spread.” CBS News
SOP to kill off the birds…and was in the previous Trump administration. Trying to hang on your predecessors what your prior administration did too? Reminds me of the Clintons blaming Bush for everything, and who wants to be compared to them?
And as long as consumers are feeling the pain, how about them tariffs? 25% on Canadian and Mexican imports, 10% on Chinese. (Thought China was our big worry?) Seems to have had a salutary effect on Mexico as of Monday, but Canada is jumping right on the retaliatory tariff bandwagon.
“If prices go up, it’s because of other people’s reactions to America’s laws,” his homeland secretary, Kristi Noem, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Pretty simple here – if Canadian companies are forced to incur a 25% tariff, they up their prices to reflect increased costs, right? Same as any company would do. (If you do know of a company which would just grin and suck it up, do let me know.)
“WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!),” Trump said in a social media post. “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”
Translated: It’s for your own good.
Pull the other one.
Luckily it’s only 10% on oil and energy imports – since 60% of the crude, and 25% of our oil consumed daily comes from Canada. Remember Trump’s last administration when gas reached below $2.00/gallon? I wouldn’t hold your breath looking for that again any time soon.
Canada does have a $75,000,000,000 trade surplus with the US, prompting:
Trump contended that without that surplus, “Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State.AP
One state, across 6 times zones, with as many leftist voters as California, many of them beholden mostly to France, not England or the US, probably at least 50 electoral votes. Sounds like a GREAT plan. Bring that baby in!
Do we mention the Gulf of America? About 3540 miles of shoreline, of which about 1631 are US. Both numbers are a lot higher if you count coves, inlets, etc. but the proportions are about right. It has been called the Gulf of Mexico since about 1550, The Gulf of America about two weeks since the Inauguration. Seriously?
How about DEI practices he blames for the tragic crash last week?
While reading through a Fox News article on live television, Trump listed conditions that he implied would disqualify people from being air traffic controllers: “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.” Jalopnik
Moreover, the FAA under Trump in 2019 launched a program to hire controllers using the very criteria he decried at his news conference.
“FAA Provides Aviation Careers to People with Disabilities,” the agency announced on April 11, 2019. The pilot program, the announcement said, would “identify specific opportunities for people with targeted disabilities, empower them and facilitate their entry into a more diverse and inclusive workforce.” Washington Post
The program sets quotas and according to many, one of the factors in the ATC shortage is that so many slots were set aside for DEI hires that many less challenged folks couldn’t get in.
But Trump, in his first term, left the policy in place, leading to a class-action lawsuit filed in 2019 by Mountain States Legal Foundation. The case was due to go to trial this year.Washington Post
So his administration not only left the policy in place, in 2019 they DEFEND it.
Been a long column…the next one is just tacky. After the aforementioned crash, Trump was asked whether he would visit the crash site (as I recall, probably 15 minutes from the White House?)
When asked about his plans to visit the crash site, he replied: “I have a plan to visit, not the site. Because you tell me, what’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?” The Independent
Just stupid, insensitive, and more stupid.
Category: 2024 Election, Trump!
