Over the previous couple of years the car insurance I pay has virtually doubled. That likely makes car insurance the worst driver of inflation in this country. I’ve attempted to figure out why this is happening. The replies I get from the insurance people I’ve talked to indicate the supply chain issues created by the COVID pandemic are at the heart of the increases. However, I personally suspect the issue of Climate change is also a driving force behind these increases. Many of the insurance companies have elected to move out of states like Florida, California, and other places where the costs of replacing damaged property caused by hurricanes or wildfires is exorbitant.

So, now with the tariffs initiated by Trump on cars and car parts coming from Canada, Mexico, and China (the tariff on China is 125%) I’m bracing myself. This will give State Farm (my insurance company) another excuse to increase my monthly car insurance bill. My wife and I have been with State Farm for over 25 years, but I finally decided to check around to see if I could save some money. Well, Progressive gave me a quote which was significantly better than what we had EXCEPT they wouldn’t insure our home – saying it was in a “wildfire” zone.

Our home is NOT in a “wildfire zone.” In fact, in the last year as I was going through the incredibly stupid process of getting a building permit to add 8 feet to our existing detached garage I discovered our home is actually right on the edge of a wetlands. With a little further questioning I was told the likely reason we couldn’t get a “bundle” with Progressive is because we live in a rural setting. My final question was are they (State Farm, and virtually all the other companies) increasing our rates because we’re …..old? As I suspected, the answer was …. yes. So, I’m not getting any younger and Trump’s tariffs are going to give State Farm another reason to “sock it to me.” Giving me another reason to believe Trump SUCKS!

I’m waiting in anticipation of tomorrow’s reaction to today’s over reaction to Trump’s “pausing” some of the tariffs. The reality is there are STILL enough tariffs in place to cause major DAMAGE to America’s economy. How soon will Trump back away (cave) from his outrageous tariffs on China? My wife and I are both retired teachers and we have friends in China who we met during a student exchange program (over a period of years) where we kept the teachers in our home for three or four weeks at a time. My wife even went to China to spend time with them. We love them very much and it really bothers me that Trump is potentially creating a problem which will be difficult (if not impossible) to recover from.

I’m not naive about the differences between China’s government and our government – in fact, it feels to me as if Trump is attempting to make our government worse than theirs. The reality, though, to me, is the Chinese people are wonderful people – at least the ones we’ve met. Initiating a “trade war” with China, Canada, Mexico, and the EU, to me, is among the STUPIDEST actions I’ve seen from any politician in my lifetime. Of course, most of “we the people” are figuring out we have a STUPID president who has brought a bunch of STUPID lackeys into his administration.

When Vladimir Putin first helped Trump “win” the presidential election in 2016 I realized I was going to need to read a lot of books about Trump because I was going to be writing a lot of rants while he was in office. (Little did I understand the rants would continue for nearly 10 years.) Here’s what has stuck out to me from many of those books I read (I donated almost all of them to a local bookstore a couple years ago). First, Trump has gone through BANKRUPTCY six times – with three of them from bungling the management of casinos. Yep, I guess that’s why his “base” believes he’s a business genius – or is it because they watched him in “The Apprentice” thinking he MUST be a good businessman to do reality TV?

But, let’s just focus on his record as our so-called TWICE IMPEACHED two time popular vote LOSING 34 times convicted FELON president – Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0. In his first administration Trump pulled off something no other president has managed to accomplish in history – the MOST net jobs LOST during his first administration in the history of the nation. Trump’s supporters (rightfully) blame the COVID pandemic, but the reality is his incompetence made the pandemic FAR worse than it should have been. To the tune of an estimated 200 – 300 THOUSAND lives. Plus Trump and Moscow Mitch called a democratic proposal which would have “crushed the virus” dead on arrival at the Senate. Apparently, that’s a “title” (the job loss “king”) he wants to surpass in his second administration. (The lost jobs – hopefully not the lost lives)

Musk/Trump and their DOGEshits are lopping off government jobs in record numbers, they’re going after Medicaid and Food Stamps in their budget proposal and, it appears, attempting to feed their fever dream of toppling Social Security and Medicare by attacking it from the inside out using Musk’s DOGE bros. They have no idea what they’re doing – but, they’re doing a good job of it. I predicted when Trump took office it would take him six months to destroy the economy – but, it’s looking like I was giving him too much credit. He’s not only taking a “wrecking ball” to the government’s bureaucracy, but in the past week or so, directly to Wall Street and the financial sector of our economy as well.

Now, I’m not one who judges how the economy is doing entirely based on the stock market and the other related markets – and, as I’ve said here before, I’m no economist – but, I do have the ability to observe and listen to those people who do understand how the markets work. Trump and his “beloved” tariffs have upended pretty much the entire system and, to me, the Trump characteristic which is likely to undermine America’s economy past the breaking point is his inability to admit a mistake. (not to mention his incompetence)

After about three days of accelerating sell offs in the stock market – followed by a sell off in the bond market (as I understand it, those two things aren’t supposed to go in the “same direction”) – Trump gave a “heads up” to his prime benefactors – who will likely remain anonymous because of our corrupt justice department – to “buy now” shortly before he rolled back (caved on) his so-called “reciprocal tariffs” leading to a spike upward in the stock exchanges. Of course, once investors realized most of the tariffs remain, the stock market tanked again the next day. Over the course of my life, when you see the large swings – both up and then down – in the market, it’s a bad sign. If we’re lucky it will just be a recession we’re facing – although worst case scenario could be a depression. (Trump is good at “worst case scenarios“)

Yes, I realize during economic downturns for those who still have a job it’s a recession, for those who lose their jobs it’s a depression. What is apparent is those in the Trump 2.0 administration have NO idea what they’re doing. It’s possible they don’t understand what the effect will be once they’ve torpedoed Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. We’re talking about HALF the nation’s people being very unhappy with Trump et al, but, worse yet, the SHOCK to the economy will be unimaginable. I really don’t think the Musk/Trump administration is thinking this through very well. (Full disclosure, I have a vested interest in each of the programs continuing – and, being strengthened)

So, here’s where I think we’re headed – and, of course, I hope I’m wrong. The logical conclusion of “we the people’s” brilliance in, along with Putin (of course), electing Trump 2.0 will be Trump BANKRUPTCY #7. Only this time the victim of his bankruptcy will be us. Or should I say the U.S. (Plus, the world) And, despite how STUPID this will be, the bottom line is the STUPID ones are “we the people.” We allowed a FELON who attempted a coup just four years earlier with a history of bankruptcies back into the “White House.” The first four years of incompetence wasn’t enough! We wanted an even worse case of his incompetence. Go figure.

Here’s what I’ve learned in the past week – stuff, which apparently is going right over Musk/Trump’s head. Bonds are the supposed “safe haven” where people put their money during times of recession or economic uncertainty. Like when the stock market is experiencing daily MAJOR fluctuations – with the general direction DOWN. So, when investors are selling BOTH stocks and bonds, at the SAME TIME, that could be signaling something really BAD. Apparently, the bonds which are considered the “safe haven” because they are protected by the “full faith and credit of the American government” are supposed to go up when the market is going down. It sounds to me as if there are investors feeling as if that “full faith and credit” is a bit dodgy with these republicans in charge.

Here’s another aspect of this. Trump is pushing things to the limit with China and China, from what I can figure out, has less motivation to “work things out” (ie “negotiate“) with the Trump administration than vice versa. In fact, MANY of those bonds are held by the Chinese government and, should they want to really “stick it to Trump” they could begin selling them. Not sure what that would do to the world economy, but it appears it would be “life changing” for the American economy – and, I don’t mean that in a good way. I’m just inferring what I can, but it doesn’t sound at all good to me. Maybe Trump is causing the world to “get along without” us now.

Combine that with at least half the country in economic peril once they accomplish their goal of destroying our social safety net and, I think you can see where this might go. Trump was protected from his SIX previous bankruptcies by an ability to use the courts to his advantage (surprise surprise) – he shielded himself from personal economic harm via the laws of incorporation – (Plus his daddy was funneling him HUNDREDS millions of dollars) – just like the corporate raiders like Mitt Romney over the years who’ve pilfered the assets from corporations they took over and then declared them to be bankrupt. I don’t think you can do that with a country – although I could be wrong. One thing’s for sure – it won’t be Trump bearing the brunt of his destroying America’s economy – it’s almost as if that’s the plan. Maybe he’ll fuel up his plane and fly to Russia once the job’s been completed. Who knows? Again, I hope I’m wrong.

Final Thought: Trump has succeeded in corrupting virtually EVERY department in our government with the most significant one being the Justice Department. I mean, who is Pam Bondi and the other Trump sycophants there going to investigate? They’re busy defending the yarding out of people around the country without “due process” – the founding “principle” of our nation’s government. This is the exact scenario our Founders attempted to prevent with our system of “checks and balances.” It’s been apparent for some time the Congress, now controlled by republicans, has completely ceded it’s role as an “equal branch of government” refusing to check Trump’s whims. But….

Sadly, the SCOTUS last year, in essence, created the problem we’re now facing when it not only knee capped its own role as a check on the government but left Trump with the impression (and, maybe correctly) that he can do “whatever the hell he wants.” The Trump Justice Department is, in essence, telling district court judges to “pound sand” as they are OBVIOUSLY ignoring court rulings. And, as I watch the SCOTUS, it appears to me they are uneasy on making clear rulings against the Trump administration because they’re worried Trump will tell them to go pound sand as well. And, then Project 2025 will be complete. Honestly, I keep thinking things couldn’t be worse – but, sadly I feel the “worst is yet to come.”

One more thing: There’s been a photo op which has really bothered me lately – almost as much as when Trump stood in front of a church outside the confines of the “White House” in Trump 1.0 and had his picture taken holding a bible upside down. Recently, Kristi Noem, one of the most incompetent of Trump’s appointees – the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – took the time to “one up” Trump with her picture in front of one of the cells in the El Salvadore prison (torture chamber?) where Trump’s “team” rushed out 260 or so “gang members” from Venezuela who were seeking asylum in America – many who WEREN’T gang members at all, while ignoring an order blocking the transfer by a judge in D.C. This is apparently where Trump thinks he can send ANYONE he doesn’t like while ignoring their “due process.”

I haven’t been able to get that photo out of my mind because it shows how many PEOPLE are held in each cell block – it’s “deplorable.” And, we KNOW there’s at least SEVEN people, and probably a lot more, who SHOULDN’T have been part of that “shipment” of PEOPLE to this “deplorable” prison. As Adam Serwer says in the book I’m reading, “The cruelty is the point.” One judge has ORDERED them (Trump et al) to bring a father from Maryland back and, so far, they are responding with “pound sand.” (They even have admitted in court this man was sent in “error”) By rights ALL 260+ PEOPLE sent to that prison should be sent back in order for them to be able to defend themselves in court. Musk/Trump/Vance et al don’t appear to believe in “due process.” Like the rest of the constitution, it’s an annoyance to them. To me, sending people to this prison is unquestionably “cruel and unusual punishment.” (Even for alleged “gang members.”)

Here’s the disgusting photon: And, from my vantage point in any other time in our nation’s post WW II history Ms. Noem would NEVER have been appointed to this office, or if she had, she’d be asked to resign. This photo op is – you guessed it, “deplorable!” Stay tuned!!!