Smithsonian and History

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Heather Cox Richardson gives a good summary of the issue of rewriting history through control of the record.  It’s her post for August 20, here.  There is much, much more to say.  Stay tuned, if you are an occasional visitor.  I’ll likely not publicize this till Labor Day or after, and I’ll be hoping for comments.

Her August 23rd post expands on the recent American History theme.  It is well worth your time.

August 25, 2025: Today is first day of teacher workshop for teachers in my school district.  The day after Labor Day is the first day of the 2025-26 school year.  That is generally the calendar for Minnesota public schools.

This is also the day that war is being declared on democracy, bringing arms to the national guard in Washington DC, and threats to do the same in Chicago.  I was just watching Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzger on the issues.

I planned to hold on this post, and the accompanying one, for posting right before Labor Day.  Now is the time.

This is in OUR court, not somebody else’s.  Don’t be a spectator.   Each of you have different levers you can pull.  I won’t endeavor to get unanimity on what to do, except, get to doing, and don’t quit.  We have been watching the evolution of a dictatorship.  Yes, it can happen here, and it will if we watch it as a tv show.

The second post I’ve been holding, The Days Ahead,  is here.

The Days Ahead

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People don’t like to hear bad news.  The phrase “See no evil; speak no evil, .hear no evil,” comes to mind.

In the current day, when it comes to political conversation, people choose what they want to believe, and self-censor their own access to other opinions.  It is a dangerous situation

Occcasionally I come across thoughts that deserve the time, and following are some recent ones.

It up to you to choose to take the time to read and really think about how the present applies to you, personally, in these very troubled times.

The Big Picture for August 21st from Jay Kuo on “Sadopopulism and the Fascist MAGA ethos”

Robert Reich on August 7 wrote an insightful piece of  “What you can do now“.

The Weekly Sift  for August 25 gives some important inservice education.

Get in action.

August 26: Robert Reich on Trump’s Downfall

August 26, Heather Cox Richardson Letter from an American.  Also August 28.

Wednesday, August 27: This morning a solitary killer murdered two young people at Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis.  Additionally there were 17 injured, most of whom were young students in their first week  of school year.  Tonight was the first vigil, which I watched on TV.  Flags around the country are at half staff.  The story is newsworthy – but it is almost commonplace.  It is a tragedy, multiplied over and over and over in our country awash in guns, which make killing so easy.

Ironically, the previous day, August 26,  I met with my son from Littleton Co, and gave him two items of clothing to give to his daughter, my granddaughter Lindsay.

The clothing was significant.  They were the shirt and trousers I wore on a sad day in April, 1999, when Lindsay, her parents, and I were among those who slowly walked up what had been dubbed “Cross Hill” in memory of those killed at Columbine High School in the massacre there a week or so earlier.  I was in Littleton by coincidence: I had booked a stopover in Denver enroute home from hiking in Utah with a brother and sister.  Before my flight to Utah from Minneapolis, on a car radio, I first heard about the massacre at Columbine High School.  I didn’t know where the school was.  It turned out to be about a mile from where my family lived.  Lindsay, then a middle schooler, was 12.

Columbine was an unprecedented disaster 26 years ago.  It seems to have become almost commonplace.  The list of mass murders is now very long.

Also yesterday came a photo of grandson Spencer, just promoted to Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Marines.  Thirteen years ago – Dec 14, 2012 – I was at a suburban mall where Spencer’s Middle School Band was doing a concert.  I think he was 8th grade at the time.  Enroute home from that concert came another announcement on the car radio about another school massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown CT.

Will we ever take action against largely unregulated weapons of war awash in todays United States?  I don’t know.  But I hope we keep trying to bring sanity back.

August 28, 2025: This mornings Minnesota Star Tribune is pretty clear.

Minnesota Star Tribune August 28, 2025

Leaving the Health Center after my morning walk today, the tune playing was the Bruce Springsteen anthem “Born in the USA”(1984).  Listen to it.  It has a lesson for citizens today.  Let’s continue the conversation….

POSTNOTE August 29, 2025:  Today’s Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the police “have recovered 116 rifle rounds from the church“, and that the death and injury count is now up to 20.  The topic of Guns is no stranger to this blog: a search just now shows reference to “Guns” in 101 posts over the last 16 years.

Minnesota Star Tribune page 1 Aug. 29, 2025

POSTNOTE August 30, 2025: son Tom and family were near neighbors to the Columbine tragedy in April, 1999.  On the ten year anniversary of Columbine, I reprinted Tom’s memories of that awful time period.  You can read it here.  The post is from April 20, 2009.

Forward

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Our country is lurching towards the hoped for 250th anniversary of the American experiment in representative democracy.

For all of these years. till now, in our own imperfect way, we’ve exercised the right of “we, the people” to select our representatives and abide by a rule of law which acknowledges and accommodates differences of opinion.  In the last many months we have been witnessing the conscious efforts to overthrow democracy,and replace it with autocracy.

By our vote (including our non-vote) we have selected, and therefore are the ones accountable for, the results we may see in the coming months.  Our tradition is to blame somebody else.  Most everybody does it, including and especially the high and mighty.  It’s called “identify a scapegoat”; we “kick the can down the road”.

But the ball is totally in our court, we citizens  one action (or non-action) at a time.  It isn’t rocket science.

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Where from here, for you…and me…and everyone?

One of my gurus on the topic of organizing is Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, and very well known in the academic and commerce communities.  On August 7 he published a post with his generalized ideas for people in the body politic – like myself.  Here is the August 7 column, well worth the time to read and incorporate into your own life.  I recommend subscribing to Dr. Reich, along with others I’ve mentioned before, and will again.

I’ve mentioned the group, Indivisible, before.  It is worth getting to know it and getting involved in it where you live.  Here’s the latest communique, from August 14, 2025. Sign up here to get Indivisible’s actions in your email every week.

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Plans for myself till Labor Day is ‘family time’ in a real sense.  Probably one or two dozen will ‘swarm’ into this area for a little family time, including my siblings and my kids and grandkids.  The excuse is an upcoming 80th birthday for one of our members,  The actual birthday is in mid-November in the snow belt.  You know how these things evolve!

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Back to the reason for this post, a little restatement of who I am politically, which is no news to anybody who knows me at all well.

For years, here, I’ve described myself as “a moderate pragmatic Democrat who speaks from his heart in matters of family, justice and peace.”  Within this definition I could easily have been a progressive Republican – indeed, my informal political mentor was a Republican Governor and business leader.  (He’s long deceased, and by now would have been excommunicated from his lifelong party, and likely would be horrified by the state of the former Republican Party as it now operates).

More to the point, specifically, I live in a state Senate District which has to have a special election Nov. 4 to elect a new State Senator.

Minnesota Senate Districts include roughly 70,000 citizens each.  On Tuesday of this week, I was among 51 DFL (Democrat) delegates assembled to endorse a candidate for the special election which will include a primary and the election itself on November 4.  (Those who attended the Tuesday meeting were those who had previously been elected as delegates prior to the 2024 general election.)

I suppose, being among the 51 at the Tuesday meeting makes me part of the “political elite”.  All it meant to me, and probably to the others in attendance on Tuesday, is that we had been, and remained willing to show up as part of our obligation as citizens.  There are millions of us out there in the world.  I never tire of Margaret Mead’s quotation: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has“.

We endorsed our candidate on Tuesday, and if she prevails, there will be yet another special election to replace her…this is what democracy looks like.

Get involved.

Personally, I hope to be “radio silent” from now till Labor Day

POSTNOTE: When I composed this post I was not aware that the meeting between Putin and Trump was happening in Alaska today.  It seems pertinent to add a short commentary from Remi Roy, which I published here on August 6,  a thumbnail history of his Germans-from-Russia ancestors home country which is the general area of Odessa Ukraine and eastern Romania.  You can read it here: Roy 3 Destruction of the Old Country.

POSTNOTE 2 August 16: According to History.com, the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) came into existence Dec 30, 1922, and collapsed in 1991

COMMENTS (more at end)

from Lawrence: And don’t forget that the state of Rus’, begun in 862, quickly absorbed Kiev.  More to the modern point, the Russians who live in the Donbas have as much right under international law to refuse to be ruled by Kiev and the Ukranians as the Albanian Kosovars had to refuse to be ruled by Belgrade, or in common parlance, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

from Judy: Thank you Dick for your thoughtful pieces……….I turned off the TV after I saw Putin and Trump get in the same car without helpers……..very dangerous!  Judy

from Brian: Thanks so much for posting.   And Putin?   Another Hitler.  Ciao!

POSTNOTE August 21: I have been following somewhat caually the ongoing events in re Russian and Ukraine.  I have no particular additional comment about the Alaska red carpet treatment for Putin.

The White House meeting with Zelenskyy was fascinating.  It reminded me of an intervention where a group and the subject sit in a circle, the object to articulate a problem, say drugs or alcohol.  In this instance, the occupant of the Oval Office was surrounded by Zelenskyy and his European peers.  No bully behavior this time from he or his minions, as happened earlier.

There is still a long road to resolution of any kind.  This is a conflict with a long history.  In a sense, it reminds me of how the United States came to be in its early years, a collection of acquisitions, including Alaska and Hawaii, and the subjugation of the native Americans and the defeat of the English and the French and the Spanish for particular piece of real estate.

No country is with clean hands, especially in the colonial period.

But we are no longer in the colonial period.  This requires some sorting out.  We are one world of, currently, 194 separate and distinct parts.  Lawrence talks about the Bus absorbing Kiev in 862.  If memory serves Kiev (Ukraine) existed before Moscow and the huge piece of real estate that is Eurasia was basically a wilderness until much more recent history.  I’ve long believed that the definition of “history” in a particular conflict depends on when the story-teller decides to begin the story, and how the subsequent chapters unfolded.  “Slava Ukraini” (glory to Ukraine) is how I see the current issue.

 

August 9, 2025

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PRENOTE: Overnight came a post from Heather Cox Richardson that deserves your time, and is about Russia/Ukraine/U.S. You can read it here.

Earlier this summer my cousin, Remi Roy, took a trip back to the home area of his German-from-Russia ancestors in the Odessa Ukraine and Romania area.  His post is here.

Saturday we went to Garrison Keillor Birthday Party at the Fitzgerald in St. Paul.  August 4 he made his report on the evening.  You can read it here (scroll to end of Garrison Keillor section)..

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Today, August 9, 2025,  is the 80th anniversary of the second atomic bomb in war, Nagasaki.  The bomb exploded at 11:01 a.m. August 9, Nagasaki time.  My computer says that the exact same time here would have been 9:01 p.m. August 8.

Hiroshima 2025 Minn Star Tribune is the article in the August 7 Minnesota Star Tribune (a snip of the article is below)

The two events were horrendous.  Nobody knows with any certainty the deaths August 6 and 9, 1945.  Here’s a source that seems thoughtful on the issue.

The events at the end of WWII will be debated forever.  The tendency is to try to simplify what is an extremely complicated history. The horror of WWII has been documented, and all that is left is what have we learned for the present day and the future.  That is up to us, of course.  We know what happened before.  Have we learned anything that will help prevent a repeat?

My ‘witness’ this year to WWII was to watch the two hour American Experience program on PBS: “Victory in the Pacific”.

The good news is that the atom bombs were used only twice in combat, both by the United States, 80 years ago.  The bomb and even more powerful successors have not been used in combat since.  Their effect was the best argument against their use.  But they continue to exist, and they are constantly in the dark minds of despots, including our own.  The campaign against them has to continue.

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In the August 6 post this year I took a slightly different tack on the issue.  You can read Peter’s comment  here.

For today, August 9, I want to recall a powerful two day workshop I attended in early February, 2005, at the University of Minnesota titled “Paths to Sustainable Peace: Accountability, Reconciliation and Problem Solving“.  My recollection is that the workshop had a specific connection to the 10 year anniversary of the Rwanda genocide of 1994. It was co-sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program partners — the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Pubic Affairs, the U of M Human Rights Center and the U of M Law School.

Included here is some of the content of the two days, specifically my now-20 years old personal commentary at the time of the conference.  It is simply my writing at the time, and I think it may help the reader to clarify his/her own notions on a most complicated topic: Sustainable Peace Feb 2005 UofM

I’ve participated in one way or another in hundreds of this kind of event over the years, and this is one of the very rare ones where I kept the file.

We are doomed if we fail to learn from the past.

(The workshop was 20 years ago.  We had been entangled in the Iraq War since 2003.  Twenty-two years later we, and the world, continue to be awash in very serious problems: Israel/Gaza, Ukraine/Russia, our own Civil War in the United States….  Resolution – sustainable peace – is up to us, not somebody else.  Your choice whether to open and read what I said 20 years ago.  I hope you do, and that the attachments give you some food for personal thought and motivation to action.)

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from Brian:  Thanks for posting!   As a pre-teen kid I remember asking my Momma about why we nuked civilians in Japan’s cities?    She hugged, hugged and hugged me and said “Brian they attacked us in Pearl Harbor and Might Makes Right dear.”   Oh Scheiße!

I just went to a great anti-nuke parade where Brooklyn For Peacers like me participated.  I LOVED it!

from Marion: Thanks much, Dick. Just  finished reading Erik Larson’s, best seller, In the Garden of Beasts–pre-WWII Berlin, mostly from perspective of Ambassador Dodd.from Sandy: Thanks Dick!  I will read this because you always post great information! Hope you are doing well

from Sandy: Thanks Dick!  I will read this because you always post great information! Hope you are doing well

from Fred:

Friend Bill sent [the below]. It’s the best discussion on the 1945 use of the A bombs I’ve heard.
The great WW2 US Naval historian, Jonathan Parshall, is a Minnesotan. He often shows up at the WW2 roundtable in St. Paul, regularly.
He methodically examines all factors concerning both sides in the decision to use atomic weapons. Great maps, talking points, casualty estimates. Parshall is also quite good looking, something else Bill points out.


from Bill:

I’m just getting into Episode #438 (!!! how could one ever catch up?)
of the “Unauthorized History of the Pacific War” project, which features Jon Parshall’s presentation on “War Termination Scenarios and the Numbers Behind Them” that he gives to those attending his tours of Hiroshima/Nagasaki.  (It will have occurred to you by this time that you and he are dead ringers, with your beards and high foreheads.)   Anyway, it’s shaping up to be an outstanding segment, and I thought I’d pass on the link before I forget to do it.
from Dick in response:  Episode #438, which I did watch (worth your time), prompts me to send the column I did which was printed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune on the 60th anniversary:  Atomic Bomb 60 years after 1945.

When I wrote that column, I didn’t know that a cousin of my Mom and Uncle George was a Captain in the Marines and was involved in the battles at Okinawa and other islands, and in fact was on Okinawa when the atom bombs were dropped.  I also didn’t know at the time that a cousin of mine, about my same age, was killed during the horrific liberation of Manila in Feb-Mar 1945.  She would have been 4 or 5 and died in her mother’s arms when hit by shrapnel from someones shell.  In the genealogy, there is no specific date of death.  Her father was a POW in the Santo Tomas Prison at Manila at the time her death.  I also didn’t know at the time, that a cousin of my Dad – in fact the best man at Dad and Mom’s wedding – was a field-promoted Army Colonel and at the end of the war briefly served as the occupying Governor of one of Japan’s prefectures.

War is hell.


from SAK:

Interesting, thanks.

Makes one wonder is man wired for war or maybe not?

Looking around & to the past, it might seem that wars are inevitable.

The anthropologist Douglas P. Fry initially thought so but then changed his mind as mentioned in the BBC 3-part series about this question.

It seems the west has to change its mind as well!

 

Maintaining Peaceful Societies w/ Douglas Fry

I remember when I first hit upon your website Mr Bernard it was all about Peace & Justice & you addressed your readers as P&Jers!

Perhaps both are possible in spite of the current wars, increasing military budgets & loud mouths here & there.

Germans from Russia 2

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PRENOTE: Today is the 80th anniversary of the first use of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan.   I wonder what centuries of war and destruction have taught humanity, if anything.   Today, and on August 9 (Nagasaki) are items directly related to the whole business of peace.  They are notes ‘off the beaten path’.  I hope you take time to take a look.

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In late May, 2025, my cousin Remi Roy gave a preview of a planned trip to the area of his mothers ancestors in what is today southern Ukraine and easter Romania.  The post is here.

Remi and group subsequently made the trip earlier this summer and in the last few days he sent his summary in three pdf’s which are shared here.  These three items are not lengthy, include photos and are very interesting, as was the originating post in May.  They speak for themselves.

 A RETURN TO CARAMURAT;  Destruction of the Old Country;   postcards

POSTNOTE FROM DICK:  Remi and I tend to highlight the diversity of North America.  Our great-grandfathers were French-Canadian who travelled together with most of their family to the United States from Quebec in the 1860s.  They both married French-Caanadians in what became the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and from their respective unions were born our grandmothers, who would have been first cousins.

Remi’s great grandparents moved from North Dakota to southern Manitoba (Morris-Ste Elisabeth) in the early 1900s.  His French-Canadian grandmother married her French-Canadian grandfather and they took up farming in Lampman Saskatchewan, north of Portal North Dakota.  My grandmother married a French-Canadian from Quebec, and they lived a long life in Grafton ND.

Remi’s maternal parent was part of the large German from Russian population in southern Saskatchewan.  It is her family that originated in the Black Sea area and ultimately were forced to move during revolution times in Russia.

My maternal parent was 100% German ancestry, whose roots were in northwest Germany.

Remi is lifelong Canadian; I’m lifelong U.S.  All that separates us is the border.

North America is really a nation of immigrants.

War

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PRE-NOTE:  Take a moment: There are three comments to the Tariff post, here.  Yesterday I did a brief post on three items, here.  Last week, Fred sent along a forward from a friend about Ukraine and Russia weapons.  The friends comment to Fred and by extension to us: “long, worth reading, worrisome“.

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This week is the 80th commemoration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki August 6 and 9.

Longtime great friend, Peter,  from New Hampshire, weighed in after the recent post about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  (That post, with details of scheduled events is here.  That post is largely about Twin Cities events, but check out what might be said or happening in your own local area.)

My local PBS station has at least three related programs: Tuesday Aug 5 8p.m. Channel 2 American Experience “Victory in the Pacific”; 11 p.m.; repeated Thursday Channel 17.  11 p.m August 5 Channel 2,  “Atomic Echoes: Untold Stories from WWII”.  I was five years old when WWII ended, and of course all of my life mentors were directly a part of the history of this country from the Great Depression to Pearl Harbor, thru WWII and Korea and the ensuing Cold War.  Uncle George Busch was Lieutenant on a destroyer in the Pacific 1943 through the end of the war; his neighbor and first cousin from the next farm over, Marine Captain August Berning, was in the midst of the action on Okinawa, and other island conflicts. (See letter from August to George Aug 10 1945 here.)

I’m a Vet and my preference is peace, but I also recognize that this is a terribly difficult question, and with each generation becoming more complicated, such as weapons of war.  My first post on Drones was at this space on May 12, 2009, 16 years ago.  You can read it here.  As with anything I write, it is my personal opinion at a particular point in time.  I did something on the topic of drones, my word search indicates, 20 other times since.

Peter’s comment speaks for itself, and it follows:

Dear old friend,
Happy to see your notes about the Hiroshima/Nagasaki observances. However, what it brings to mind is not so happy, except that there is a groundswell of resistance now…
The VFP (Veterans for Peace) convention last weekend in Las Vegas included several Hibakusha (Hiroshima/Nagasaki survivors), who spoke at a symposium following the main event. There are many activists in Japan uncovering long-suppressed information, including a recent video on the illegal, secret storage and training program with nuclear weapons at hundreds of Japanese bases designed decades ago, for a war on China. PFAS forever chemicals are deeply interrelated because of the massive leaks from every US military base on Earth. The stuff is used in fire fighting foam, and ends up in the water supply, as it did this year in Maine a mile from my brother’s home. Don’t eat any Maine seafood.

VFP is also supporting the Gaza flotilla, which includes Ann Wright, and Greta Thunberg among other wonderful leaders.

My Vets for Peace working group has been very active on this, as our focus is uranium weapons (here)  and the terrible suppression of the real jeopardy we’re in.

The radiation risk model created just after the first atomic bombings (the actual first was on American soil, and we’re still suffering from it) is flawed. The short version is: dose per unit mass is like standing by a fire to warm yourself, versus eating a hot coal: the dose per unit mass is the same! And now the nuclear industry is ramping up a 2 trillion dollar “modernization” program that will dump yet more poison on the already deadly sites from the Manhattan Project, and raising the level of exposure considered “safe.”
No exposure to radiation is safe.
Did you know there are 500 unmitigated uranium mines on indigenous lands? Had you heard of the Church Rock Spill, where a tailings dam broke, and washed an entire watershed with hundreds of tons of highly radioactive sludge? The tribes there have held a vigil for 46 years without any response from government. This goes on and on…
The ionizing radiation from “depleted” uranium has been causing horrendous birth anomalies since Kosovo and Fallujah and many other war zones. It is almost certainly contaminating Lebanon and Gaza as well, and definitely Ukraine. Here’s the truth our government refuses to make public, despite “Gulf War Syndrome” and so many terribly injured vets, coming home to cancers and tragically impaired childbirths: Although DU is an alpha emitter, it also decays within six months of processing, producing thorium and protactinium beta and gamma emitters. Together it becomes over 60% as radioactive as the original uranium. Yet officially it is declared safe!

 

Peter’s Dad protesting the Vietnam War, Philadelphia area

Melvin, Garrison, Dayton

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A while back I wrote about the unexpected death of my friend Melvin Giles.  The post is here.  I went to the celebration of Melvin’s life on Saturday.  Several hundred people were in attendance and it was a joyful gathering.  Melvin was a wonderful addition to any community of which he was part. Judging by his audience, his witness will continue.  The proceedings were filmed, and if/when they are on-line I’ll pass on notice.

At Melvin’s celebration of life August 2, 2025, Como Park HS St. Paul.

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Also I gave notice about a new book about the genealogy and history of over 100 French-Canadian residents of the Minneapolis suburban community of Dayton, on the Mississippi River.  That post is here.

Earlier Saturday I picked up the 475 page volume.  Anyone with any interest in French-Canadians in the midwest, especially, of course, the descendants of the 100+ families presented in the book, will find this volume not only interesting, but a wealth of information helping to spur further research.  Information about receiving a copy is in the link of the preceding post.  I would guess there are several hundred photos from the originating families and other sources.  Take a look.

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Finally, Saturday night was the celebration of the 83rd birthday of Garrison Keillor.  (His actual 83rd birthday is August 7).

The Fitzgerald Theatre was basically sold out, and the program was excellent.  My photo (below) doesn’t pass muster, but the two apparitions are Garrison and Heather Masse, backed by pianist Rich Dworsky and three other musicians.  The audience was mostly old-timers, long time fans.  If you miss Garrison, check out his substack.com presence.  I subscribe.  I’m glad I do.  BONUS: In April, 1979,  I took a photo of Garrison crossing a street at St. John’s University at the then-Swayed Pines Festival.  He started his career with PHC about 1975 on then KSJN-Radio which had been founded about that time at St. Johns U.  That was 50 years ago.

Put the words Garrison Keillor in the search feature of this blog, and you will find many references, if you wish.  I have been a fan for years.

A quick internet search yielded this writing by Garrison in 2010. Garrison Keillor on his birthday 8 4 25 is Garrison’s review of the show on Aug. 2.  (It’s his post for August 4, 2025).

Garrison Keillor and group August 2, 2025

Garrison Keillor at St. John’s University Swayed Pines Festival April, 1979

Tariff Day

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Sue forwarded Robert Reich’s latest column today.  I think you can access it here.  It is worth your time: “Be warned, the financial bubble will soon burst” is the title.  Also from Dr. Reich Friday, Trump destroys our source of information about jobs.

Of course, whatever one’s special interest is unique.  So some will say ignore Reich’s alarms.  I don’t.

Enjoy the remaining days of Summer (which for us informally end with Labor Day on Sept 1.).  But now is the time to be vigilant and cautious.

I remember so well September, 2008, when the bottom very nearly fell out of the U.S. economy.  It was a true emergency.  Reality intruded on fanciful thinking then, too.  That was 17 years ago, and it was a man-made catastrophe.  If you’re reading this, you remember….

I thought Covid-19 catastrophe would teach us a permanent lesson in 2020-21.  Not so.

Here we are.

The usual ‘rose-colored glasses’ predictions: like claiming that tariffs are not taxes, when on the contrary the least well-off are the unwitting targets, since tariffs trickle down to everyone who purchases anything..

Tariffs are taxes on consumers, period, and hurt worst the millions of folks who live paycheck to paycheck (and hurt least the billionaires who already have more money than they’ll ever need.).

The bad news will trickle down, and intentionally timed to hit home after the next election.

Watch your reality day-to-day, more so than rose-colored predictions.

The victims, always, the ones least in a position to defend themselves.

POSTNOTE August 2, 2025.

The Reign of King Donald I: 

It is impossible to stay ahead of the flood of indicators that show we are no longer a democracy.  You may be the only person who reads this.  Thank you.  What follows is not carefully fact-checked.  I go only by news I have seen on the traditional media (as opposed to social media which I avoid.)

In no particular order, and by no means an exhaustive list: Ghislein Maxwell (Jeffrey Epstein) is being transferred from a Florida prison to a Texas country club lockup, pretty obviously to take the spotlight off of sex trafficking and the King and his castle in Florida.  The gift of an imperial 747 from Qatar to the President is apparently being readied for a billion dollar renovation – a bow to stern redoing.  Plans are being announced for a massive imperial ballroom to become a new East Wing of the White House.  I doubt that the peasant class will be welcome if/when….   The Smithsonian has apparently decreased by one the four presidents who were listed as having been impeached in U.S. history.  You know which one is being taken off.  The firing of the chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics has become big news.  On and on.

King Donald is 79 years old.  I am six years his senior, so the odds are he has a few years.  As elders know, the exit sign is closer and closer, and you have no idea how or when you’ll get the boot.

Behind King Donald are those in waiting.  My favorite photo from recent history was Donald’s victory swagger over Iran – the “obliteration” speech.  What makes it my favorite is who was behind him that day: my recollection, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth.  There was also a vacant place.  I think it was Tulsi Gabbard’s and I think the reason was that she had accidentally and not properly spewed the party line.  None of them inspire confidence.

The peasant class which is the overwhelming vast majority of us has to get over the tendency to feel powerless.  We have all the power, but only if we exercise it one action at a time constantly.

Monarch’s come and go.  Hitler died in his mid-50s, a little short of reaching his objective of a thousand year Reich.

COMMENTS

from Claude:  Thanks, Dick. I always use the term Tariff Tax (because it’s a flat tax that doesn’t affect rich people much, only the poor. I use this term because it irritates the people who play along with the cover story that it’s not a tax.

Covering up bad news will not make it go away. Same with climate, the planet doesn’t care what we think or if we think about it at all. It will try to balance the earth solar energy imbalance by moving it to cooler spots, and raising the temperature, for centuries if not millennia.


from Lois:

After reading your blog, I read about tariffs for most of a day…as it seems to be of more importance than most of the other areas you mentioned.

My conclusion is that Congress, under Democratic leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, succeeded in passing an amendment to the Trade Act of 1934 thereby doing their job of oversight and now President Trump is doing his duty in reviewing the tariff rates for every country of the world to ensure we are treated fairly.  I think we were “asleep at the wheel” in the past 20 years regarding the growth of world economy changes and this is overdue action.

Both the Presidential Memorandum and the Wolff articles enlightened me.   I hope you will see value in them also.

NOTE from Dick: Lois also includes to April 2, 2025 Executive order, here, as well as an article without link about, “The 50th anniversary of the Trade Act of 1974 by Adam Wm. Wolf (Oct. 2024)”.

I appreciate any comments.  When I say something here, I go on record. Most certainly I am (and no one I know is) no export on world trade, so as with many things I try to rely on people with informed opinions, and knowledge of history. Tariff is a Tax, period, and it affects all sides to an agreement.  That is why tariffs result from negotiations which often take years to conclude, and require mutual agreement and understanding.  What matters here, I think, is the long term effect of snap decisions affecting not only our economy but the global economy of which we are only a part.  Best I can gather from experts on the other side is that we are courting long term disaster especially for those who are not ‘wealthy’ in any sense of the word.

There’s an old saying, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”.  That will apply here, ultimately, as the average citizen comes to grip with the decisions that come with higher prices for goods because of tariffs passed down the line to the little folks.

more from Lois.  I gather that the basic source for her information is the Wikipedia article on 2008.  I wrote back after receiving the below : “PS: 2008 was the only time I’ve felt close to the edge of financial ruin, and it was in September when the Bush White House validated my concern.  I don’t have that much money – for sure, we’re middle class, but not big ticket in any way.  A specific move I made was with the 401-k, which I transferred into a much larger and conservative and stable financial products company.  The other holder was someone I knew nothing about and was small, and I worried about that specifically.  Most everything I did, I did in September and October that year.”

Lots of interesting info popped up on trade, so I am sharing…..Lois
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