Change

More and more people are recognizing that Trump is not like other presidents. While he leans republican, he has no qualms about challenging the old guard and has changed the party. As they say its no longer your grandfather’s party. He is pro-business when it comes to regulations but puts pressure on business to act in the public good. He has told defense contractors to stop buying back stock, to slow down dividend payments and to get jobs done on time. He has told the pharmaceuticals to sell products in the US at the same price they sell overseas. He has called for a one-year cap of ten percent on credit card interest. He has tried to stop institutional investors like Blackstone from buying houses and renting them. He is pushing to have government subsidies paid directly to consumers instead of insurance companies. He told big oil companies to invest $100 billion in bringing Venezuela oil back on line. Instead of offering big companies loans he demands stock as collateral. He remains pro-business but demands responsible action on their part. He is equally tough on government spending starting with DOGE and then going after overruns in the defense department. His latest is investigating Medicaid fraud. All of these items are domestic policy and he is just as active in foreign policy. He is not only changing the republican party but the whole country and the whole world.

Shah

The son of the former Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, is planning on returning to power if the present government is overthrown. It is reported that his father left Iran with $2 billion and that has now gown into $8 billion. Regardless of the number, the son has lived a very comfortable life in a Washington DC suburb. He has a house with seven bedrooms, 7.5 baths, multiple fireplaces, a private library, a remodeled kitchen, and a recreation room. He got his money from Instead of a specific salary, a large allocation in the national budget was made for the "Supreme Leadership of State," which amounted to $43 million in 1976–77. Additionally, in 1976, another $1 billion was included in the budget for a revolving discretionary fund, which he controlled absolutely. Don’t know much about his leadership skills but he seems experienced at getting money from his position.

California

As California Governor Gavin Newsom emerges as a presidential contender, the news shifts to his state and what is found is disturbing. The San Pablo Bay Pipeline is closing because of regulatory hurdles while new laws forcing local gas stations to replace old storage tanks at a cost of $2 million dollars is closing hundreds of stations. Meanwhile refineries are shutting and major oil companies like Shell are closing their gas stations and replacing them with EV charging stations. All of this is in preparation of California banning gasoline cars by 2035. Regulations are slowing the rebuilding of houses lost in the big fire and after one year only 12 of the 22,500 houses lost are rebuilt. Leprino Foods, the worlds largest mozzarella maker is closing after 150 years of operation as Budweiser closes the Bay area plant, the largest brewery in the world after 50 years of operation. Many wealthy individuals, including billionaires, are leaving the state due to high taxes and business climate. For the first time in many years the state is losing general population because of high living cost. The state leads the nation in homelessness and number of illegal migrants and the budget deficit rises as free medical care is offered to migrants both legal and illegal. Estimates vary but total long-term debt, including pensions, approaches or exceeds one trillion dollars. The state has the highest income tax rate at 13.3% and is currently contemplating a wealth tax on super rich people and just thinking about it has cause a number of billionaires to leave.

Impeachment

Recently, the news has been filled with reports that if the democrats take control of the house, they will vote to impeach the president. While the congress can impeach with a majority vote, the senate needs a two-thirds vote (67) to convict. No president has ever been convicted and it is highly unlikely this time but impeachment has become a political tool used to discredit a president. Trump was impeached twice during his first term but each time his approval ratings went up and even after he was convicted of a felony his ratings did not change. Congress spent $13 million dollars and 24 months impeaching Trump and it appears they are ready to try for more.

Wouter

In these days it is hard to find a person who is able to see both sides of an issue. It is mindful of Washington Irving’s famous mayor Wouter Van Twiller for which it was said, He conceived every subject on so grand a scale that he had not room in his head to turn it over and examine both sides of it. The mayor’s problem was that he just wasn’t very bright but many smart people today are much like Wouter. Police say that different witnesses seeing the same video will describe situations which often times contradict and these are people who have no particular bias. When is comes to videos regarding political issues it should be expected that what is seen depends on who is seeing. It’s the old eye of the beholder idea. It appears that the more cameras on the scene the more controversy.

Income gap

Globalization, which was the economic strategy starting at the end of WW 2, continuing on through the cold war, came to an end in about 2010. The end was accelerated with the rise in nationalism associated with Trump and his Make America Great Again campaign. This was continued under Biden with the America First slogan and Trump has continued the trend in his second term. He has pushed his agenda by demanding that the EU pay more for their defense, that trade deals be fair, that the US quit paying for international organizations like the UN, WTO and WHO. He cancelled USAID. He is putting pressure on NATO countries to pay their fair share and his latest is withdrawing from 66 groups where the US has been paying a disproportionate share of the cost. There are many examples of how things changed and CEO pay is one. In the 1950’s the average CEO earned 20 times as much as the worker bees in the plants and today that ratio is 300 to one. Are the CEO’s of today 15 times more effective than in the past? Meanwhile real wages for those in the middle and bottom have stagnated and only in the past ten years have started to recover. The end of globalization is helping to stop the growth in the income gap but it is a slow process. As new manufacturing jobs return wages for working people will rise.

Federal vs state

A famous quote says, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and there is an example going on right now. James Buchanan was president just before Lincoln. During his term the southern states were concerned about the potential loss of slavery and began to defy the federal government and Buchanan, believing he lacked the authority stop them, failed to act decisively, leaving the crisis to his successor. During the Biden years many states became sanctuary states and refused to follow federal law. He did nothing and now the problem is in Trump’s lap. The problem is in two parts. First the Supremacy Clause of the constitution states that federal law overrides state law but the Tenth Amendment says that the feds can influence states through funding and regulation but cannot command states to enforce federal law. Second, states can’t block federal enforcement or enact conflicting laws and they are not required to help enforce the laws and the federal government must use its own resources to enforce the law. There are currently situations where the states are blocking federal agents and this is illegal. The states don’t have to arrest criminals and hold them for the feds, so they can release them into the general population and force the feds to find them but they cannot interfere with the feds. They can peacefully protest but they cannot actively interfere with the federal agents.