Six Flags Washington

Welcome to Six Flags Washington where the new roller coaster is more exciting than El Toro, Nitro, The Riddler’s Revenge, or Superman: Ultimate Flight. Climb aboard Trump Tariff II, where the thrills and spills are part of the experience. It’s a bumpy ride and it will cost you.

Six Flags Washington, Trump Tariff II

Some see Donald Trump as clever. Others see him as a buffoon. I see him as a clever buffoon. His cleverness is in his unpredictability and his buffoonery is also in his unpredictability. The cleverness of unpredictability is that it keeps your enemies off-guard not knowing which way you’ll jump next. It is also the Theatre of the Absurd, a nostalgic look back at that theatrical movement of the 1950s that explored the idea that life is meaningless, and humans are powerless to control their fate.

Some say Trump is predictable because he follows through on his promises. That observation is made unimportant when you realize that he has done what he said, and its exact opposite, often within days, sometimes within hours. He told us that tariffs would make America great again.

Trump loves President McKinley who was known as the “Napoléon of Protection.” If Donald Trump studied history, he might rethink the McKinley tariff approach. The 1890 Tariff Act, aka The McKinley Tariff, raised import duties to nearly 50% to protect American industries but resulted in higher consumer prices, retaliatory tariffs, and a Democratic win in the 1890 midterm elections.

William McKinley, 25th President of United States
“Napoléon of Protection”

Americans might not understand the intricacies of economic theory, but higher prices on consumer goods they do understand. That’s when they realize that all that talk about protecting American industry with simple tariffs, was nothing more than a shift of the tax burden from the wealthy to middle and lower-income Americans. Tariffs sort of take the GREAT out of MAGA.

Trump signed his order, tariff dates were set, tariffs were put in place, the stock market dropped, there was an outcry from the Big Three automakers, a newscaster stood in front of a Dodge Ram truck stating that this $80,000 vehicle would now cost $100,000, consumers were confused, and then Trump reversed himself and put a pause on some goods until April 2nd. I guess pausing until April 1st, April Fool’s Day, would have been too much to ask.

So, climb aboard the Trump Tariff II thrill ride. Make sure your safety-harness is securely in place, your affairs are in order, keep your arms and hands inside the car, and don’t get too upset when everything comes off the rails. This ride was thoroughly inspected by the same team who launched the massive SpaceX Starship. That was the largest rocket ever created. The fact that it spun out of control shortly after launch and rained fiery debris over island nations in the Caribbean should be of little concern.

The Trump Hospital

 

An otherwise healthy 25-year-old is involved in an accident. Suffering from a broken leg, a sprained wrist, and facial lacerations, that patient is brought to the Trump Hospital. The Emergency Room Trauma Team is led by Elon Musk and a group of intelligent young people. None have any medical training. In fact, there are no licensed doctors or trained medical personnel at this hospital.

The closest thing to someone with “medical training” at this facility is the head administrator, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has experience as a drug addict who successfully gave himself heroin injections for 14 years. He also claimed that his parasitic brain worms cleared on their own. Possibly they overdosed on heroin or maybe they were “just in his head.”

Once in the ER, the decision is made to amputate the fractured leg at the knee and to amputate the arm with the sprained wrist just above the elbow. The leg is quickly removed by Mr. Musk using his favorite instrument, the chainsaw. Another team member removes the patient’s arm when they realize the arm they removed, was the healthy arm with no injury. The decision is made to try to reattach the arm that was removed by mistake. They decide to do this before addressing the facial lacerations with the only process they know, amputation.

The patient is still bleeding heavily as efforts are underway to apply tourniquets. They quickly run out of tourniquets as all monies to buy new supplies have been frozen in a cost cutting effort. All surgery was done without anesthesia as their fentanyl supplies from Mexico were stopped at the border.

The situation described above is not unlike what is happening to our country. We are relatively young, had some serious injuries, but were otherwise healthy. Now, we are in serious condition and the outlook is bleak. We have alienated our neighbors, pissed off all of Europe, and the only people who seem to be happy are Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and of course Trump and his fellow billionaires.

The stock market is suffering and becoming more volatile, and inflation was never seriously on the Trump agenda. Unemployment is on the rise with thousands of layoffs of federal employees and the job losses that will occur in the private sector from the trickle down from those cuts. The effects of imposed tariffs have not yet happened but will surely hit consumers soon.

The long-term effects from the loss of medical and scientific research will be decades in the making. The loss of personnel at our National Parks will soon be seen. It may take a few natural disasters before losses at other federal agencies really are felt. We can only hope that recent changes at the CIA, FBI, and Pentagon will not place our nation in serious danger. One can only wonder how long it will be before Trump supporters realize that they chose the wrong “hospital” to cure their ills.

 

 

 

 

 

The Business of Government; Full Astern

 

Since Donald Trump views all government policy, diplomacy, and strategies as business deals, we should analyze them accordingly. This does not mean our government should be run like a business, but acknowledges his perspective.

FULL ASTERN

Our government has slowly evolved over the past two and a half centuries. The current two-party system was never part of our Constitution, it too has evolved over time as a matter of customs and rules. Party names and ideologies have evolved, not revolutionized, since our nation's inception. Similarly, our international relationships have undergone similar gradual changes.

Even with presidential changes every several years, the track of American policy could shift course somewhat, but it never issued the order, “Full astern.” In nautical terminology that command is to move a ship in reverse at full speed. That would normally be a bad sign for ships or governments, and a strong indicator of serious problems for any business. Who would want to do business or have a relationship with an entity that would make such radical changes every four years?

Republicans and Democrats have consistently viewed Russia as an adversary. Although their methods vary, both parties oppose Russia's expansionist plans in Europe, rooted in post-WWII alliances and cold war policies.

Our decades-long commitment to NATO and alliances with our European friends transcended party politics in America. That was until a “businessman” with unclear government motivations, but with thinly-veiled personal business motives, yelled, “Full astern.”