Gold Rush!

Just in case you’re interested in such things, Gold is booming. Its price has been on the rise for weeks now. Or to put it another way, the value of the US dollar has gone down in relation to the yellow metal.

Why? Well, now, isn’t it obvious? Trump and Musk and co. came along with their “reforms” and “cost cutting measures” and began the happy process of screwing up the American economy. Investors are fleeing currencies (particularly the dollar) and stocks (particularly American stocks) for gold, whose value is something you can count on.

Let’s stress that again. Gold. Not cryptocurrency. Not the dollar. Gold.

So, gee, thanks, Trumpsters. You’ve managed to bring home to us all where real value is to be found. And, guess what? It isn’t in Trumpcoin…or anything like it. 

 

4D Chess, Occam’s Razor, and the April Fool

So there was recently an interesting article in the Atlantic, The Wild Trump Theory Making the Rounds on Wall Street: QAnon for tariffs by Rogé Karma. In it, Mr. Karma notes that among Wall Street insiders, there is a weird conspiracy theory circulating that Trump’s apparently insane antics about tariffs are actually planned and highly rational. The idea is that Trump is using his clownish behavior to drive other nations toward an agreement by which America would profit greatly. 

Mr. Karma is not impressed by the theory and suspects that Trump’s clownishness is the result of his being just, well, a clown.

I tend to follow Karma’s lead on this. Though, you always do wonder, could there really be more here than meets the eye. Could Trump actually be a brilliant tactician who’s just playing the fool to lure his enemies to their doom? It is certainly what his supporters have said many times in the past. They imply that he’s playing 4D chess and simply looking like he’s a nutcase. And you have to admit, so far Trump’s been far more successful than he has any right to be.

Upon reflection, though, I think that we can dispense with the theory that he’s a genius in disguise. Occam’s Razor suggests that the simplest explanation is often the right one, and so if a person appears to be a raging, narcissistic idiot…well, then…that is probably what he is.

Or, to put it another way, this particular April Fool is just exactly that. I.e., a fool, in April or any other month.

But What Is Schumer For?

So I read in Axios that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has launched a charm campaign to regain the trust and respect of Democratic Voters everywhere. According to the article, Inside Chuck Schumer's March survival plan, by Hans Nichols and Stephen Neukam, Senator Schumer is reaching out to supporters and critics alike to prove to them that he is tough enough to take on Trump/Musk and really fight for the Party’s values.

The question is, why bother? First, that’s because very few will believe him. His failure to oppose the GOP-crafted funding bill looks incredibly bad to everyone. And it’s hard to think that he’ll somehow now take off the cufflinks and put on the brass knuckles.

Second, he really doesn’t need to do anything. According to the article, he is in no real danger of being removed from his position. Senate Democrats see no alternative to him. And, while Democrats nation-wide may be appalled at his failure to get into the ring and really fight it out, his constituents will probably vote for him again and again, regardless of what he does or doesn’t do.

But maybe that’s the real issue here. The average Democrat in the street is angry. He/she wants to see his/her party get out there and Stop Trump/Musk now! While there’s still time…and while we still have something like a democracy.

The fact that the Party’s leadership can and does remain inert when the times desperately call for action…and yet face no consequences…is terrifying.

Perhaps the single greatest lesson we can learn from this benighted age is that somehow… somehow!...the barriers between the voters and the Party Leadership must come down.

Or we will face dangers beyond imagining. 

Ms. Vivian Jenna Wilson…and America

I’m not normally a big reader of TeenVogue, but the most recent issue contains an article of real importance to us all, Vivian Jenna Wilson on Being Elon Musk’s Estranged Daughter, Protecting Trans Youth and Taking on the Right Online, by Ella Yurman with Photography by Andy Jackson. In it, Ms. Wilson comes across as an intelligent, thoughtful, assertive, and attractive young person of whom any normal dad would be proud. 

Except, of course, she is Elon Musk’s daughter, and Voorsitter (look it up) Musk is anything but a normal father. He has famously rejected her and says that she was “killed by the woke mind virus.”

One wonders how dreadfully hard it was (and is) to be his child. But there's a larger issue here, of course. Her Dad is now everyone’s Dad. That is, he is President or Co-President or CEO or Voorsitter or whatever for the whole country. Meaning that his attitudes and activities impact us all.

Which makes this article and interview with Ms. Wilson particularly important. It gives some insight into who Elon is and what he might do.

And, alas, unlike his daughter, we cannot fly to Japan to escape him.

Voorsitter Musk

Elon Musk is now either running the American government or trying very hard to do so. He seems to be calling the shots at the White House while his nominal boss heads out for another round of golf. 

But the question is, what do we call him? Co-President Musk? Prime Minister Musk? Grand High Poobah Musk? It’s a puzzle.

I, however, have a suggestion. Let’s call him Voorsitter Musk. That’s Afrikaans for “Chairman.” It’s from the Dutch voorzitter, which means the same thing.

I think Voorsitter would make a great title for our fearless leader. For one thing, Elon Musk is not of Afrikkans-descent, but he is of South African origin, and so there is a nice continuity there. And, besides, he just looks like a Voorsitter, don’t you think?

Oh, and if you added an “h” in just the right place…

Well, you get the point.

~mjt

Stagflation, the economy that dare not speak its name

 Here’s an interesting article on CNN’s website, So, what is stagflation, anyway, and why is it so scary?  by Elisabeth Buchwald. In it, Ms. Buchwald first defines “stagflation” – which is the dangerous condition that occurs when prices are increasing but the economy does not grow – and then explains why the Federal Reserve is trying very hard not to use the term. It seems that the markets are starting to show signs of stagflation (mostly because of Trump’s tariffs and other dumbass measures), but the Fed won’t use the terms for fear of spooking the markets even more than they are spooked already.

But, let us admit it. Stagflation is coming and it may be the new norm. That’s because under Trump, the public regulation of corporations is going to be largely jettisoned. That means that we’ll see more monopolies. Which means in turn that businesses will be able to increase prices without restraint while having no motivation to innovate or otherwise undertake the sort of investments that would grow the economy. In other words, all the conditions for permanent and universal Stagflation are present and obvious.

Thus, if we are honest and foresighted, we will say that despite the Fed’s best efforts, Stagflation is the future…whether the Fed says the word or not. And that’s because it is at the very heart of the Trump/billionaires’ program for the economy. And it is not an accident. 

Rather it, like the impoverishment of the middle class, is a goal. Part of the plan…

To extract all that can be extracted from our wallets. And giving ever less – eventually nothing – in return. 

Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker

Hegseth and the Big Lie

So, as everyone knows now, Trump’s Head of the DOD, Pete Hegseth, accidentally sent US war plans to a journalist at the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. 

What’s been interesting to me, though, is how the Administration, Hegseth, and their supporters are handling the situation. One of their responses is to claim that the incident did not occur. Hegseth said that “no one was texting war plans” and that Golberg is a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.” 

Meanwhile, on social media, I have seen postings from Trump supporters saying that the whole thing was a trap into which the liberal media promptly fell. (Though exactly what the trap was and how it worked is unclear to me.)

This looks like a strategy of overt falsehood. And, let’s face the grim reality, it could work. The Administration could just keep claiming that it didn’t happen, and, sure enough, the MAGAts of the nation will believe it. The Big Lie is a proven winner.

Of course, it may be that Hegseth will eventually be forced to resign. That would be a very good thing, indeed. But, in the end the real solution to the problem is teaching Americans to turn off Faux News and turn on their critical thinking.

Or, to put it another way, we are a nation desperately in need of civics classes in public schools everywhere and anywhere.  

"Who Will Protect Us From Our Protectors?"

Interesting article in the magazine Dissent, “Trump’s Antisocial State” by Melinda Cooper. In it, Ms. Cooper looks at the ways Trump and his minions are transforming the American government and comes to some distressing conclusions.

As everyone knows, or should know, the government of the mid-twentieth century (after FDR) at least tried to make things a bit better for the average American. It was redistributive, meaning it took a small percentage of the wealth of the very rich and injected that back into the society as a whole.

But, at the end of the twentieth century, a new generation of “libertarian” populists and conservatives reversed that, and we saw instead a system installed by which money was taken from the middle and working classes and transferred to the vastly wealthy.

Cooper argues that we are in the next phase of that process. Now, the systems and institutions that were originally set up to protect American citizens and immigrants have themselves been reversed. In the American Government v.2, those systems are meant to coerce and control the population, not keep it safe.

Thus we come to a new and fascinating phase in American history. This will be remembered as the age in which our guardians become, instead, our guards…and our nation a prison. 

Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker