The Wall Street Journal editorial board weighs in on Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico:
I can’t get past the subscription paywall to read the whole thing, but I trust the headline is a reasonable summation.
WSJ as part of the Rupert Muroch media empire did a lot to make Donald Trump the most powerful man in the world. Are they surprised at what he’s doing? Did they not notice he’s a moron?
Case in point: Some time Thursday Trump ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to open the dams to two California reservoirs. Why? He got it in his head that the water would somehow flow down to Los Angeles and help with the firefighting. And he did this on very short notice without consulting with state authorities.
Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California. Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago – There would have been no fire! pic.twitter.com/Oaz92ZeiTh
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2025
Except the water won’t magically flow south to Los Angeles, and there’s no readily available way to encourage it to do so. Trump just dumped water that will probably be needed for agriculture this summer, for no good reason. Billions of gallons. The New York Times:
Trump administration officials began releasing significant amounts of water from two dams in California’s Central Valley on Friday in a move that seemed intended to make a political point as President Trump continued to falsely blame the Los Angeles wildfires on water policies in the Democratic-run state.
The releases, as ordered, have sent water toward low-lying land in the Central Valley, and none of it will reach Southern California, water experts said. Nonetheless, President Trump said on Friday that the same action would have prevented the Los Angeles wildfires on the other side of mountain ranges over which that water has no way of traveling.
“Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California,” President Trump posted on Friday on social media in an apparent reference to the dam releases. “Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago — There would have been no fire!”
Experts expressed dismay on Friday that releasing so much water now served little use for farmers, who typically have higher irrigation needs in the spring and summer months when agricultural fields are abundant. …
... Alarmed, local water managers rushed Thursday to prepare for an abrupt onslaught of water they had not asked for, according to county officials. In an email to the Kings County Board of Supervisors, Jim Henderson, the county’s public works director, said that the water authorities had reached out with “serious concerns” before a flurry of calls to local Republican members of Congress dramatically slowed the flows.
And Elon Musk isn’t much brighter.
“They” didn’t keep the water from the people of California. Trump just took it away from the people of California. If there’s a drought in California this summer it’s going to hit California agriculture really, really hard. A publication dedicated to San Joaquin Valley water issues totally blasted the water release.
“Every drop belongs to someone,” said Kaweah River Watermaster Victor Hernandez. “The reservoir may belong to the federal government, but the water is ours. If someone’s playing political games with this water, it’s wrong.”
It was no game on Thursday when area water managers were given about an hour’s notice that the Army Corps planned to release water up to “channel capacity,” the top amount rivers can handle, immediately.
The Army Corps later agreed to more measured releases, alleviating a mad scramble to alert first responders and have crews on standby in case river banks were breached and levees overtopped, as happened during the 2023 floods.
See also:
Politico, Trump says he opened California’s water. Local officials say he nearly flooded them.
Daily Kos, For the Sake of a Photo Op, Trump Tries to Ruin CA Farmers that Probably Voted for Him
Digby, Hullabaloo, Make It Stop
There are a several big reservoirs in the Ozarks and Appalachia, mostly built during the New Deal to provide hydroelectric power. If you’ve lived near one, you appreciate that the people who schedule the release of water need to know what they are doing.
So, yes, this is really stupid. And speaking of Elon Musk and the California fires, see Federal firefighters fought L.A.’s blazes. Then came resignation offers.by Daniel Wu at WaPo. It begins,
Justin Brown had done a grueling stint at the perimeter of the Hughes Fire, battling last week to keep the blaze from spilling into towns in northern Los Angeles County. He was still sore Tuesday when an email from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management arrived in his inbox, warning of upcoming cuts to the civil service and presenting an offer to resign from his job
“It was a slap in the face,” Brown said.
The article goes on to say that the letter was a huge blow to morale for the firefighters.
Speaking more of Musk, he now indeed has full access to the government payment system.
And back to the tariffs, Trump did indeed sign executive orders imposing 25% tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada, a 10% tariff on Canadian oil exports, and a 10% tariff on goods from China. Nobody who knows anything about economics thinks this makes any sense. See Paul Krugman, The End of North America and Why Has Trump Gone Soft on China and Hard on Canada?
Trump is directing his "presidency" like a reality TV show. Ya' just mix a little truth with a lot of fiction and deny the real consequences (which there are in politics, but almost not in TV-land.) "Fake News" will work fine for almost everyone who voted for Trump, regarding the release of water in N. California that Trump claims solved all the problems in S. California. It will work for the funding freeze because Trump reversed it before the consequences bit voters on the butt.
Trump imposed a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on imports from China. In a very short time, we will see price increases. Even Trump concedes the possibility of a "little pain." Somebody in Trump's inner circle had the chutzpa to tell Trump that tariffs can work against the economy, drive up costs, and fuel unemployment. Trump, I'm sure believes that if inflation starts to drive down his already-weak popularity, he will claim victory and remove the tariffs.
The problem is: the economy has inertia. If it's headed up, it will continue up even after conditions change. It's even more true if the economy is in a tailspin. If Wall Street is pulling back and laying off employees, there's a tendency for everyone to pull back from spending. Which feeds the cycle. A lot of other policies may be adding to market uncertainty. What may be interesting is how Trump rewrites how employment numbers and inflation is calculated. But the BS of fake numbers from the administration won't convince a laid-off autoworker that things are fine.
Hopefully the federal courts will weigh in with orders to stop some of the illegal stuff. But we shall see.
Utterly pathetic. The emperor lacks nobility and more. Much more. Most of all he lacks a court jester. His humors seem to have run amok in a serious manner.
Markets will start to react tonight and tomorrow when tomorrow gets here. It has always been said that the business of America is business. I am not sure who replaces General Motors but "So goes Gerneral Motors, so goes the nation" seemed to always go with it. For most of us the oligarchs seem to be getting their way and the rest of us are expected to just pay taxes and put up with their whims. We may have come full circle like the snake eating its own tail. It is a new lunar year of the snake you know. Probably a coincidence but possibly an omen of our destiny. I'm not much for omens but we are headed for a destiny of some kind or another. The Gurus will start reading world markets soon.
Is it not silly that we could have done nothing and ended up where we started. I'm going to have a spot of tea and get in a party mood. If you hear someone on horseback this evening yelling the British are coming, just tell him who cares, we surrender. In the long run we end up where we started as our destiny is a circle. We get taxation without representation eventually anyway. It is our inevitable destiny… pending the results of the tea leaves and the markets. Sometimes destiny is a bit fickle…
Hahaha, the ignoble Emperor is Elon and his court jester is the Orange Man!
The GOP has always been a criminal gang, tricky Disck was tricky, Ollie sold crack to buy weapons for the enemy, and both Bushes went to war in Iraq for, um, the reasons and these are just the headline crimes.
Yep, taxation without representation. I am sure the vindictive Maga creeps want to rescind the income tax (like the 19th century when the Feds ran the budget off of tariffs and duties) and put the funding burden on the working class. Then the ownership class and the tech bros will set and enforce the rules. Taxation without representation.
We all walk with the ghost of Tom Joad, now.
I would argue that Gulf War I was justified to drive Iraq out of Kuwait, in the sense of "if we let people conquer countries, everyone will want to!"
Obviously, though, if we were to ask "is *that* an actual American value, or just something that sounds good at the time?" we'd look over at Ukraine, and say, "nope, not an actual American value – now, it's 'divisive' to help invaded nations!"
So if you want to bust on both Gulf Wars, you have my qualified support.
There's an anecdote from… I can't remember when, that comes to mind. An old guy walking his dog past a school baseball field stopped to watch the kids play. The team at bat was scoring run after run. An outfielder was near enough he could ask, "What's the score?" The kid answered "157 to nothing." Tha old man suggested "Maybe you (the losing team) should just go home. "No WAY! We haven't had our turn at bat yet."
Team Trump has been "at bat" for two weeks. It's been horrific. But we have a lot of legal opposition – they are filing suits all over, and getting stays on some of the orders. Others have not been heard. Some of the cases will go to the USSC. Others are not worth their time, I think. They will just let the lower court's ruling stand.
We are back to the beginning – re-evaluating the most fundamental principle of our form of government. Are we going to be ruled by laws or by people? DJT is a lawless person – he's almost always been able to avoid being judged like regular criminals. A lot of money buys a lot of court and bureaucratic deference. Trump has taken that a step further. Not only is he immune to the laws lesser persons may be held to – he IS the law. Effectively, a king.
The issue will be settled by the USSC. To uphold Trump's supreme status, the High Court has to violate their oath to the US Constitution, and several of them have no problem with that, it seems. But is a majority of the court willing to dissolve the Union and hand total power to a total idiot?
Damn if this ain't the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers.
We are now in what is called "the bezzle." That is the point in time where the mark does not know they have been conned, and is still happy thinking that they got a good deal, and the con-man has their cash. I suspect that the bezzle will last a good 2 years or more for the maga zombies. By that time the con man will be on to a new con and it will be impossible to claw back what was lost. There is trouble in River City!
The purchase and delivery of six more yachts will solve the problem of the USSC.
In a stunning article in the NYT which includes a map of the country with risk areas noted, the American dream is on the line. Abrahm Lustgarten is the author.
As if times are not weird enough, this reality throws a real knuckleball at many Americans. Insurance on homes in certain areas is on an upswing.
Yes, upending the American dream, for those who can sleep at all in this era of king Runamuck. Yes, lots of Texas is high risk with a high denial quotient to boot. A DQ takes account for the interaction effect of dumb and a tendency to deny.
Opinion | The New Evidence Climate Change Will Upend American Homeownership – The New York Times
TX and FL are very high-risk, the two biggest red states. "God doth have a sense of humor" Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman…
What if God's whimsy in the next four years calls down calamity to Miami and Houston, both vulnerable to hurricanes, after Trump has defunded FEMA, which opens the door to human suffering due to a lame federal response. Insurance companies fold and/or pull out of both states. BTW, both states are not far from being purple.
Or maybe God is a fascist and there will be no disasters in red states
It seems to me that is a disaster to real estate prices right now in these high-risk areas. The American dream has become the American nightmare for many. These people are making higher payments toward a shelter that is decreasing in value because of climate chaos risks which are getting worse year by year. Leverage is great until it starts working against you.
Larger and larger climate events mean larger and larger insurance premiums for dwellings. That is the trend we are in. Those in these high-risk areas get the inflation the worst. while we all get hit for more taxes when the federal government has to do a bail out. We know how that works, they print money, and most of us then suffer from inflation for years after. We are years after the Covid bail out and no one seems to notice that debt is not close to paid off yet. We have not even gotten a full estimate on the California fire cost yet. The blue tarp has become the dominate roofing material in some areas of Louisiana it seems. It is good they have football to divert our attention elsewhere. Like the blue tarp, it will work for a little while.
Taking everything Trump is doing into account, I believe Trump's overarching goal is to destroy the governments ability to be effective. From firing the FAA director and air traffic safety board members to harassing federal workers in ever agency, to taking over the Treasury's payment system, and the effect tariffs will have on the economy (and I don't buy the argument at this point Trump still doesn't know that consumers pay the tariffs). Trump has intentionally introduced instability in the entire federal government. The people he says he wants in government to replace career civil servants would be like soviet-style apparatchiks, there not to replace those who he feels did not support him in order to do their jobs, but to serve in rote fashion, the wishes of Trump. This also fits the scope of Trump's vengeance, as it is not just on politicians and government officials, but also the American people. He apparently doesn't care that cruelty and suffering will be visited upon his own supporters, and its not collateral damage but they are directly targeted as poor and working people. That’s what Trump admires in the dictators he sees as allies, that their people fear them. Trump wants to be feared.
Trump is waging a class war, and he's there to turn over control of government, explicitly and directly, to his class. Yes, he wants to "own the libs" but he also knows they can't be owned without some collateral damage of his own people, and he's fine with it. Unfortunately so are some of his supporters who would be affected. Trump has said and demonstrated many times before, he hates his supporters.
"The people he says he wants in government to replace career civil servants would be like soviet-style apparatchiks, there not to replace those who he feels did not support him in order to do their jobs, but to serve in rote fashion, the wishes of Trump."
Yes…and Kash Patel is on record as saying that anyone in the government who doesn't comply with the King's wishes should be prosecuted. Doesn't get much more fascistic than that, does it?
Trump backetd down on tariffs with Mexico. Naturally, he's claiming victory but IMO, Trump blinked. But not with Canada? Why? There is no "invasion" of migrants from Canada, no influx of drugs.
The claim by President Dumb-ass that there's a 200 Bn trade deficit with Canada has economists shaking their heads. If Canada stops selling us oil, the US has a trade surplus. And if Canada does that, oil prices in the US will go up slightly. So the argument that the US is getting "ripped off" by Canada is BS.
So why did the Idiot-in-Chief leave tariffs in place? The only remaining hint I can see is in a Trump-tweet that if Canada becomes the 51st state, there would be no tariffs. SO it looks – other opinions welcome – like it's extortion by TFG to get Canada to join the US.
Irrelevant note: Canada has about 10% of the population of the US. If they joined, a good argument could be made that they should be FIVE states. This would really change the balance of power, especially on health care and propaganda issues.
Trump backed down to Canada as well for a token "border security" agreement. I wonder what he is gonna do after all his hype dies down and the daily grind starts. His headline policies are, um, flimsy in execution and dumb to begin with so I suspect when a small emergency occurs it will turn into a disaster.
Thanks. You are right. As I read more today, I see the "concessions" by both Mexico and Canada were promises to do what they agreed to do LAST YEAR! I also read that Johnson proposed that revenue from tariffs be considered in internal (GOP to Freedom Caucus) negotiations as real revenue. The reconciliation process will NOT include possible tariff revenue. But now the phony suggestion that piles of money are available from tariffs has evaporated. The Freedom Caucus won't even nibble at the proposal that tariffs will be the answer.
So voting on the budget bill is delayed indefinitely, I read. In the near future the House "majority" will shrink to one when Stevanik leaves for a post in the administration.
The press needs to stop covering Trump and his statements to seek out Musk for his decrees. Trump would axe Musk in a week.
Sheesh, the winter of 2025 feels to me like the winter of 2008 where the weird news just keeps pouring out at an astounding pace. It is like 2008 mixed in with 1991, news dump Fridays. The oligarchs take over and the middle class is gutted.
This big change I have been watching for some time now:
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/02/the-crazy-wyoming-version
"When Small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set."
– Lin Yutang
Heh, perhaps it is a weird Groundhog Day where we get to see how far the power of propaganda goes to convince the drones that the tall shadow is not an illusion on the cave wall. Fox "news" is already calling the trade fiasco "the art of the deal" when the rest of the world is noting that his orangeness got played because the policies that were agreed to were already in place before his ascendancy.
We are not screwed because of the orange man's narcissism or racism, we are screwed because Musk and his orangeness are being played by (or are directed by) foreign intel ops.