I’m still mostly ignoring news. I watched Maddow last night, and that was it. I couldn’t help but catch some headlines today, though. The Great Orange Moron has in fact directed the Department of the Interior to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in all official communications. Although maybe not all of it.
As such, within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior shall, consistent with 43 U.S.C. 364 through 364f, take all appropriate actions to rename as the “Gulf of America” the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico. The Secretary shall subsequently update the GNIS to reflect the renaming of the Gulf and remove all references to the Gulf of Mexico from the GNIS, consistent with applicable law.
I trust the rest of the world will continue to call the entire body of water the Gulf of Mexico. But I’m thinking of U.S. map and textbook publishers right now. I can see the staff putting together some el-hi social study series wondering if they have to scrap all the Western Hemisphere maps already. I’m betting they won’t, unless specific state editions (like Texas and Florida) require it. The California textbook board might object and want to keep Gulf of Mexico in California editions, though. This’ll be fun.
I also saw headlines saying that Trump was halting programs to lower prescription drug prices, especially for people on Medicare and Medicaid. Since I’m on Medicare and finally got on Medicaid too, this concerned me. I see that what happened is that Trump recalled a Biden directive to develop ways to lower prescription drug prices that hadn’t been fully put into effect yet, so for now there shouldn’t be any changes to current prices. What concerns me is that Trump and the wackadoo Congress will eliminate the government negotiation of drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act.
And as expected he is trying to end birthright citizenship by executive order. Several states and organizations have already filed lawsuits to stop that from going into effect.
Trump says he wants a 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico to go into effect on February 1, but I’m not sure he’s issued that directive yet. I’m sure Canada and Mexico are prepared to retaliate.
Did I mention that a one-dozen carton of store-brand eggs at the local ShopRite grocery was $6.49 today? If you wanted name brand, or anything “free range,” think $8 to $9 a dozen. And the bird flu is spreading, I understand.
And the January 6 pardons are an atrocity, of course. May they all get bird flu.
Trump reminds me of the Pharoh dealer in the movie Tombstone – the blowhard who Wyatt Earp bitch-slaps. He succeeded because he could get people to back down. Trump is giving Mexico and Canada ten days to roll over. He knows that if they retaliate with matching tariffs, the US will be the loser in the game. (I don't have the numbers, but I'd bet that TX will be the first to take the hit.) The question is what Trump wants from each country in exchange for Trump doing nothing. (No tariff.)
I think Trump has sold himself on the idea that other countries will pay taxes to the US and that the revenue can replace the income tax. Tariffs alone will drive up costs. Retaliatory tariffs will reduce US export and cost the US jobs. The combination spells recession. (That's without the economic impact of driving out the low-pay workforce harvesting crops in the US and providing manual labor in construction. If Trump was pro-union, and the low-pay jobs were replaced with higher-pay union workers, there would be some benefit. But Trump wants US workers to accept less pay in exchange for greater productivity – that's what the alliance with Musk means.
The high point if Trump's second term is behind him. The fun of issuing a flurry of executive orders and getting on the front page. Hurrah! People will soon be looking for results – lower prices and higher wages. I do not see that in the cards and consumers will notice when things get worse.