Dow Jones

Jenn and I took a long ride in the truck yesterday, to check out a pole vault pit in Northeastern Ohio.  Along the way we listened as the “old fashioned” indicator  of the stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell almost 1000 points.  Like almost everything else today, “1000 points ain’t what it used to be”.  I remember teaching about Black Monday and Tuesday in 1929, the beginning of the Great Depression.  The Dow lost over 60 points in two days, the mythical “jump out of the 40^th Floor window” time on Wall Street.  But 60 points was 23% of the market value back then.  That’s 9000 points on the Dow Jones today.

Thank goodness we aren’t there yet.  But the markets lost trillions of dollars in value yesterday, and that’s not a “good thing” for most people.  In our era, most Americans are directly or indirectly invested in the market.  Got a 401-k retirement plan at work?  You’re in the market.  Got a full pension plan?  You’re in the market.  Retired and collecting a government or teacher’s pension now?  A significant portion of the money “backing” your pension is in the market.  

We’ve been through market “disasters” before.  Less than five years ago, the Covid pandemic caused a market crash, dropping by over 10,000 points and losing a third of its value.  And many Americans remember the housing bubble crash of 2008, when the market lost half its value.  But this particular economic disaster today is fully man made.  And that man’s name is Donald Trump.

Biden’s Gift

Joe Biden handed Trump a booming economy.  The markets were at record breaking levels, with the Dow Jones over 45,000 (it closed yesterday at 38170, down 16% in just four months).  Unemployment was down to under 4%. And the bugaboo of the Biden administration, inflation, was finally back to under 3%.  Sure, prices skyrocketed for a while under Biden’s watch, the results of Covid supply issues and the Government programs that “carried” many Americans through the Covid employment crisis.  But prices not only stabilized, but were going back down on most goods.  And meanwhile, wages increased almost to match the “flow” of costs.

All Trump had to do was keep his hands off the economy, and let the “Covid recovery” continue.  Instead, to use a couple of worn out phrases, “he upset the apple cart”, and “threw the baby (the economy) out with the bath water”.  And he did so because he subscribes to an arcane theory of world economics, one that Trump acknowledges comes out of “America’s Gilded Age” of the 1880’s and ‘90’s.

The “Gilded Age” was really only “gilded” for industrialists.  It was the age of Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, JP Morgan, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.  They were men of enormous wealth and power, able to control both their industries and political actions.   It was an era of the “Titans of Industry”, or the “Robber Barons”, depending on perspective.   But for the average American worker, it wasn’t particularly gilded.  Labor was cheap, hours were long, conditions were dangerous.  Injury meant loss of income; there was no such thing as “workmen’s compensation”.   It was good time for industrialists, but bad for industrial workers.

Robber Barons

Trump sees America in a second “Gilded Age”, and surrounds himself with the “robber barons” of our current era:  Musk, Linda McMahon (who’d have thought “Big Time Wrestling” was a billion dollar business!), Burgham, Bessett, Lutnick and the rest.   To those folks, like their predecessors in the 1880’s; the absolute “freedom” to do what they want with their fortunes without government restriction is paramount.  That outlook is demonstrable in the Trump Administration’s widespread attack on government regulation.  All of that is “good for the billionaires”, but not so good for the rest of us.

The second “theory” lifted from the Gilded Age is Trump’s tariff policy.  In the 1880’s, the United States was a growing industrial competitor in the world, working to build industry under protection against foreign competition through tariffs.  Most products, from shoes to shirts to vehicles, were made here.  But the US wasn’t a “world leader” in anything in those days.

Today, the US has the most powerful economy in the world.  The US has 26% of the world’s gross production.  China is second with 16% and Germany third with 4%.  The world leader doesn’t need “protection”. Realistically, other economies need protection from the US.  So the tariff policy of the “Gilded Age” essentially puts the United States in the wrong role. We have the advantage right now, instead of other nations (like China) who are in the “up and coming” position. Ultimately, tariffs are likely to hurt our economy more than help.

Wrong Tariffs, Wrong Time

Meanwhile, the tariff policy completely disrupted the “Covid Recovery” economy of Joe Biden.  Instead of things continuing to improve for the average American, we now are looking at a looming recession, with prices and unemployment going up, and investments and retirements at risk.  The “gilded advisors” of Trump say we just have to “take the medicine”. But the resulting cure is likely to be good for them, not us.

Trump essentially won the Presidency on two issues; inflation and America’s changing culture.  His economic policy is going to give America more inflation, lower wages, and less economic security.  What it will do is help his billionaire friends.  There’s no better time to have money, then when no one else has it.  That’s how Joseph Kennedy, grandfather of the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, made his fortune.  The Great Depression made his millions worth even more.  But that didn’t help America’s regular folks, then, and it won’t now.  

They just get left holding the empty bag.

Attaining Balance

It’s Easter Sunday, 2025.   Surprisingly, for Ohio, it’s a beautiful spring day, a “Hallmark” Easter.  The grass is growing (too fast), and the air is quickly warming: Happy Easter, and Passover!! But the spiral ham won’t go into the smoker until 1pm. There’s plenty of time for a “lesson” on the United States Constitution.  In particular, those powers prohibited to the United States government by the Constitution.

The authors of the Constitution were trying to strike a balance.  They rebelled against the heavy-handed administration of the British Crown a decade before. And they demanded a fair say in their own governance, and admonished the King for failing to give the colonists the “rights of Englishmen”.   But the original national government, the Continental Congress organized under the Articles of Confederation, went too far.  It weakened national powers.  

The phrase, “A sovereign nation of sovereign states” missed the mark on this first government.   The several states (the old colonies) had considerably more individual power than the national government.   It was a nation of thirteen rivals, rather than one.  So the Constitution tried to re-balance those powers, giving the national government specific areas of influence.  Other powers were given to the states, the people themselves, or prohibited all-together. 

Powers of Congress

We see the President of the United States claiming unprecedented powers today. Those original Constitutional authors placed most of those powers in the legislature, the Congress; not the executive.   The power to set tariffs, to regulate commerce, to set rules of naturalization, to declare war; all are Congress’s power, not the President’s.

Those powers are outlined in Article I (the Congress), Section 8.   There are eighteen sub-sections defining the powers of Congress, including the famous last section, the “elastic clause”. It gives Congress the power to make all laws “necessary and proper” to carry out the other powers.

Limits

But the less discussed Article I, Section 9  is what we will examine today. That specifically sets the legal limitations on the powers of Congress, and therefore, the national government.  Section 9 is best known for one of the “enslavement compromises”.  The first sub-section prohibits the national government from interfering with slave importation  to the United States for twenty years (it does allow an “import duty” of up to $10).  

And it also contains the “emoluments clause”, preventing any “officer of the United States” from receiving a gift, payment or other benefit from any “King, Prince, or foreign state” without the consent of Congress.   That raises serious questions about Donald Trump profiting from literal Princes of Saudi Arabia, or banks controlled by Russian oligarchs.

Also, Section 9 clearly states the following legal prohibition on Congress:

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.

No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

There is a separate essay on “habeas corpus” (Holding the Body) from last week.   So today, let’s look at the more obscure prohibition on passing laws of “bill of attainder” or “ex post facto”.  

Thus “beginneth” our Easter lesson.

Ex Post Facto

“Ex post facto” is Latin for after the fact.   Congress cannot “post-date” an action as against the law, that, prior to Congress’s action, was legal.  A great example of this is from the drug trade, where a law against a drug is actually against a particular chemical compound.  So Congress  can make a law against a particular hallucinogen formulation, but if chemists can slightly alter the formula; it’s legal until Congress makes another law against the “new” formulation.  

Or, for another example:  if it was legal for a permanent resident non-US citizen, to speak out against an action of the President’s administration, then neither Congress, nor certainly not the President without any authority at all; can make that against the law.   They could pass a new law with that restriction, but that law cannot be retroactive.  If what Mahmoud Khalil did was legal when he did it, then it cannot later be made illegal, “after the fact” (ex post facto). 

Bill of Attainder

Finally, a “bill of attainder” is a law that makes it illegal to have membership in a group.   For example, being a “card carrying member” (do they have memberships cards?) of the Ku Klux Klan is NOT against the law.  What is against the law?  Taking actions:  burning crosses on people’s lawns, kidnapping, lynching, or conspiring to do so; all are illegal.  But just being a member is not, and by the Constitution, cannot be.

So what about being a member of the “Tren de Aragua”, the infamous Venezuelan gang?   They certainly don’t carry cards, instead, their membership is emblazoned by tattoos on their bodies.  How is it that “migrants” are rounded up based on vague accusations of membership, without any claim of actual criminal actions?  Isn’t that the very definition of a “bill of attainder”, specifically prohibited under Article I, Section 9?

About a decade after the Constitution was ratified, Congress passed a law called the “Alien Act”.   That law allowed the President to detain and even deport an “alien” (non-US Citizen) who posed a danger to the national interest in time of war.  In America’s declared wars: the War of 1812, and the First and Second World Wars, aliens of enemy nations were rounded up and imprisoned.  In fact, during World War II the President claimed even greater powers, and imprisoned American citizens of Japanese descent.  They called it “re-location”, but they were behind barbed wire fences by soldiers with guns.  

Unconstitutional

But all of those actions under the Alien Act were in time of war, a power that ONLY Congress has under Article I, Section 8.   And while Donald Trump can “declare war” on “Tren de Aragua” or “MS-13”, calling them “terrorist organizations”; his statements do not make it so.  In fact, Trump is issuing a bill of attainder, something that neither the President, or the Congress for that matter, can do.  

We are beyond the Constitution. It is up to the Congress, and the Supreme Court, to exercise their own powers to “check and balance” executive branch over-reach, and unconstitutionality.   I wish I had more faith that they will be so.  But we live in a nation where the US Supreme Court has never even explicitly overruled Korematsu v United States, the 1944 case that allowed the re-location of US citizens to continue (though several Justices in dissent called it “gravely wrong”).  

We have “arrived” at the  Constitutional crisis, the one we’ve been fearing since the first election of Donald Trump.   Our individual rights, and our Constitutional balance, are at stake.  That may  sound “apocalyptic”.   That’s because it is.

A Wider View

There’s a lot of catastrophe in our lives today.  We fear:  fear for the loss of freedom, fear for a future of financial disruption, fear for our fellow humans thrust into inhumane conditions.  And we fear that our world will never be the place we thought it was, or could be.  There is no easy way out, no election “tomorrow” to change leadership (maybe the British Parliament has it right after all).  We are, as truckers say, in “for the long haul”.  By the narrowest of margins our electoral fate was decided, and now, we must “pay the piper”.

Perhaps we need to take a wider view of our universe.  And what better place to do that from, then the James Webb Space Telescope, orbiting a central location (called L2), literally a million miles away between the earth and the sun.  The Webb is much more than just the telescope like we had in the backyard as kids.  It can measure all sorts of wavelengths beyond the “visual range”, and see far into the universe.

K2-18b

One of its targets is an “exo-planet” (a planet not orbiting our sun) called K2-18b.   It’s about six times bigger than earth and it orbits a smaller red sun 124 light years away (the 700 trillion miles – now that’s a “wider view”).  And the Webb Space Telescope can not only find K2-18b, but it can measure the infra-red radiation of the red sunlight passing through its atmosphere. 

We know that our oceans are filled with small living organisms like plankton.  There are the basic building block of the food chain, smaller living things (and giant whales) eat the plankton, bigger living things eat the smaller things:  we can all now sing “The Circle of Life” from the Lion King.  And that plankton gives off two gases into the atmosphere: dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS).  (For those of us who slept through biology class – hang on for just another paragraph!!!).

When the infra-red light of K2-18b’s sun passes through its atmosphere, it reveals the presence of DMS and DMDS.  The Webb Telescope can detect that light.  What all that might mean, is there is a planet, 700 trillion miles away, that has the presence of biological life as we know it.

Certainty

At least, that’s what some scientists think.  Others aren’t absolutely sure.  And, they are doing exactly what scientists should do:  raising questions, developing other possibilities, and looking for more evidence.  Is it possible that an atmosphere might have DMS and DMDS without the plankton producing the gases?  And, after 124 years of travel (remember, 124 light years means that the spectrum Webb is seeing actually left K2-18b in 1901 on our calendar), are we certain what we are seeing?

The scientists making the claim of life are hedging their bets as well.  They are only 99.7% sure they’re right.  For “scientific certainty” they need to reach 99.99999% (five decimal points) certain.  That will require at least two more years of data. 

So what?

We have a lot of work to do here on earth.  And it seems, that in our era, that work is becoming much harder.  For many of us, the basic building blocks of our government and our rights, are suddenly called into question.  We wonder how we can help our fellow citizens, and our fellow humans.  We no longer feel our democracy is inevitable.   It is, and always was, a work in progress, and one that needs fierce defending.  And if defending our ideals isn’t enough incentive, here’s another reason.

There might be life on a planet “far, far, away”, called K2-18b.  It might just be plankton, but where there’s plankton, there might be more.  And if we can find life on one planet in the universe, it’s likely out of the millions of planets “out there”, there’s more life to find.  Don’t we want to know, don’t we want to “…boldly go where no one has gone before”?   And if not us, shouldn’t we want our children or grandchildren to have such an opportunity?  Remember, in 1901, when the infra-red light left K2-18b, the Wright Brothers were just bicycle mechanics with an “interest” in gliders.  The Wright Flyer was still two years in the future.  

Stand on our Shoulders

Who can say how far our children can go, in the next 124 years?  Sure, we might not be able to “see” how interstellar space travel could work.  But my twenty-one year old grandfather in 1901, didn’t see how air travel would work, or even that his own son would make a living working in an electronic medium called television.  We need to give our children a chance to change even more than “just the world”. 

But to do all that, we need to get our own house in order.  If not for freedom, if not for the Constitution, if not for our “American dream”, then for our children.  We need to fix our problems so they can stand on our shoulders, and look even farther than the Webb Space Telescope can see.  

It’s up to us.

Disclosures

Full Disclosure:  I am not of the Jewish faith.   I was raised and confirmed into the Episcopal Church of the United States.  I lapsed from that faith in the mid-1970’s, and profess no organized religion today.  However, my father was Jewish, and while he didn’t practice most of his life, it was a Rabbi that officiated at his funeral.  (Mom was ex-communicated from the  Catholic Church for marrying Dad, and an Episcopal minister officiated her final service.  Dad’s funeral was handled by a Jewish Funeral home, Mom’s by a Catholic one.  We were children of a ”mixed marriage”).  

But as the son of a Jewish man, I learned a lot about Judaism growing up.    And as that son, it was often assumed by others that I was Jewish.   When I did the “Ancestry.com” genetics, my DNA was identified as 54% Jewish, 45% English/Irish/Scottish, and 1% “Mediterranean”.  That extra 4% of Jewish marked a family revelation.  Only 50% came from my Dad’s side, where was the extra 4% on Mom’s side?  My oldest sister did the research to find that ancestor, about four generations back.

So I’m “Jewish” by genetics, and often “Jewish” by cultural identification.  I’m more than just a “George Santos – Jew-ish”.   That’s worked both ways in my life.  Looking back, I think I got more first job in a Congressional office because they wanted a “Jewish kid”.  And on the other hand, I’m also aware that my “assumed” Jewishness was insulted behind my back, and sometimes even to my face.  I never used my “trump card” to get out of that – in many ways I accepted the social distinction of being Jewish.  It was, literally, part of me.

Hear O Israel

And like many American Jews, I struggled with the issues of Israelis and Palestinians.   I grew up with the almost mythical story of the Jews in Israel, literally rising from the ashes of the Holocaust to build their own nation.  The Biblical “David and Goliath” story of Israel, a small band of Jews standing against the millions of the Arab world who wanted them in the sea, was deeply engrained in my brain and soul.  (Need a refresher – watch the movie Exodus with Paul Newman). 

And like most Jews, I accepted the story that many of the Palestinians who lived in greater-Israel left at the urging of the Islamic leaders.   They were told to evacuate so that the Arab Armies could clear the Israelis out in 1948.  They could return after victory.  And that “story” is, in part, true.

But there was no Arab victory, in 1948, or 1956, or 1967, or 1973.   The Arabs kept the Palestinians encamped on the Israeli border, political pawns to use against Israel in world politics.  When Palestinians tried to assimilate into Jordan and Egypt, they were rejected.  Only in Lebanon did they find somewhat of a “home”.  And those camps, now almost eighty years later, have become the center of Palestinian resistance.  The idea of returning “home” to Israel is passed from generation to generation.  The sacrifices, some made by suicide bombers, are venerated in the family lore.  

Two State Solution

There is a “theory of revolution”, that states that revolt only happens after hope is given, then snatched away.   In the early 2000’s, there seemed to be some hope for a reconciliation between the Palestinians and Israel.  But the political party of “the two state solution” lost power in Israel, and the hard liners, willing to do almost anything to insure Israeli supremacy in the entire old Palestine, took over.  

Israel, a nation founded on the ashes of genocide, is perilously close to committing the same crime.   The results of the heinous and desperate Hamas October 7^th attack on Israeli citizens, gave license to the current Israeli government to do anything and everything to the Palestinians in Gaza.  The terrorism of October 7^thwas horrific, but the responding deaths of 50,000 Palestinians are no less awful.  

The hostages still held by surviving remnants of Hamas seem to be “inconvenient”  for both sides.   The Israeli government is still slightly restrained by their existence.  And Hamas can’t let them go, because of the horrific consequences Israel might levy on the remaining Palestinian people. 

Which Side 

For Jews in the America, it is a divisive issue.   Are they the traditional folks who fight for the oppressed, the “under-dog”, or are they in lock-step with the Netanyahu destruction of Gaza? Last year, there were Jewish college students on the sidewalks protesting against the Palestinian actions.  And there were Jewish college students having seder supper in tents in the pro-Palestinian protestors campgrounds.  (As I look back on my essays about October 7^th, I can see my own evolution from firm Israeli support, to questioning, to deep, deep concern about Israeli actions). 

Was there anti-Semitism on some college campuses?  Of course there was.  Were Jewish students at risk?  Some absolutely  were.  

But to say  that all of the protestors who couldn’t “stomach” the outrages of the Israeli attacks on Gaza were anti-Semitic is ridiculous.   They were anti-Netanyahu, anti-bombing Gaza hospitals, anti-starvation and destruction of civilians.  

Anti-Intellectual

And here’s the real “rub”.  The Trump Administration is using this watch-word of Anti-Semitism as a cudgel to beat American colleges.   They are withholding government grants and funding unless the college kowtow to the Trump’s demands.  Columbia folded, the price of their principles was $400 million.  Harvard, and other institutions, are still standing firm.

But the determination of “Anti-Semitism” isn’t the purview of Donald Trump and his minions.   It is up to the “Semites”, American Jews, to determine what is anti and what is not.  It’s not up to Trump to punish the universities.  It’s up to American Jews, many of whom are benefactors to those same universities, to make that decision.

Trump and his group are using the “Jewish issue” to pursue their own agenda of retribution against America’s colleges.   But their real issue isn’t Anti-Semitism, it’s anti-intellectualism.  Their issue isn’t what colleges “aren’t doing” for Jewish students, it’s that Trump doesn’t like open, intellectual, sometimes fiery, discussion of ideas.  The protests of last spring were against Trump’s “buddy” Netanyahu, and Trump is getting “paybacks” for him.

Trump promised to be America’s retribution in the 2024 campaign.   And, so far, he’s living up to that promise.  But don’t use “the Jews” as an excuser to muzzle colleges when it’s really about silencing America’s intellectuals.   

To plagiarize the old cartoon “Pogo”, “Them is us”.  

Guardrails

When Donald Trump was first elected President in 2016, there was a lot of talk about “guardrails”.   Those guardrails were supposed to keep the “rookie” President Trump from getting too far out of the “norm” of the American Presidency.  First, there was the “grow in the job” historic theory, that held that the responsibilities of the Presidency would “make the man”.  Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman were the examples,  “common” men who became powerful Presidents, almost by accident.   

Second, there were the people surrounding Trump.  They were highly qualified and successful on their own. There were folks like Generals Mattis, Kelly, Milley and McMasters, and men of their own power like Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus, Steve Mnuchin CEO of  One West, and Gary Cohn, CEO of Goldman Sachs.   Even normally obeisant Vice President Mike Pence, was a former state governor and Congressman.  They were independently “qualified” for their roles in the Presidency, with their own “power bases”.  

Institutional Balance

Third, there was a Congress willing to stand against the President if necessary, even those in the Republican Party.   John McCain was the “poster boy” for those “renegades”, who stopped many of the extremes of the first Trump Administration.  And by the second half of Trump’s first term, there was a House controlled by the Democrats, led by the formidable Nancy Pelosi, who not only curbed the President, but even impeached him, twice.

Then there were the “accepted norms” of what a President would or would not do.   These were the “traditions” that Americans expect of their President, a series of precedents that started with George Washington and come down to the present day.  They are not “written rules”, not statutory laws, but rather traditions that every President has honored.

And finally there was a Supreme Court, narrowly divided between the “liberals” and the “conservatives”.   For most of Trump’s first term in office; there was Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Roberts on the “right”, and Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan and Ginsburg or the “left”, with Justice Kennedy straddling the middle.  

Extremes

So whatever extreme advice the Stephen Miller’s  and Rudy Giuliani’s were giving the President, there were more cautious voices inside the room.   And while the Trump first term was still controversial and disruptive, the extremes were muted by all of those “guardrails”.

The final days of the first Trump Presidency showed the strain.   Most of the “voices of reason”, Mattis, Kelly, McMasters, Priebus, and Cohn were gone.  John McCain was dead, and other Republican Senators willing to stand up to the President out-of-office (Jeff Flake of Arizona, Bob Corker from Tennessee).  The Supreme Court balance shifted with the resignation of Kennedy and the death of Ginsburg, replaced by Kavanaugh and Barrett, both “on the right”.  

And Trump proved that  “norms” no longer mattered.   His repeated unfounded claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him and undermined American confidence in the electoral system.  Trump “sowed the winds” of insurrection, and reaped the whirlwind of January 6^th.  It was by a narrow margin that Congress held the institutional line.  Only the courageous decisions of the leadership of both parties, including Mike Pence, kept the Constitutional process intact.  

Biden

President Joe Biden, well aware of his slim margin of victory, tried to return to “normalcy”.  Biden wanted a Presidency of achievement, not one of crisis.  So his response to the Trump years was that “it’s over, let’s move on”.   But, of course, it wasn’t over at all.  Trump continued to undermine American confidence in institutions, and for a long time was not even held accountable for his actions.  When the Biden Administration was finally forced (by the January 6^th Committee) to reckon with Trump’s actions, it was too late.

Whatever you think of the Trump legal team (and after reading their Court filings, I don’t think much of them), they were incredibly successful at one thing.   They were the masters of delay.  When the cases involving the then-former President finally reached the Courts, we were perilously close to the 2024 election.  At that point, his attorneys argued that instead of “trial”, the decisions about Trump should be “put to the American people” on the ballot.

But it was the US Supreme Court itself that removed the final guardrail to Trump hegemony.   And they did it with purpose, and intent.  They made the President of the United States immune from criminal prosecution for any “official” action they might take in office.  Total immunity:  the President could act without regard for legal consequences, either in office or in the future.  And the author of that decision was Chief Justice John Roberts.

Today

Trump learned a lot from his first term experience.  He had already proved that “norms” were not a problem.   If they weren’t laws, they could be ignored.  And this time, he didn’t pick “independent” leaders to serve in his administration.  Clearly, the primary qualification to serve as a Trump advisor today is, to misquote an old Monty Python line, “Fanatical devotion to the President”.  Look at his cabinet, second-rate leaders at best, from Pete Hegseth to Bobby Kennedy to Pam Bondi to JD Vance.  But they all have one thing in common:  sycophancy.  Even Secretary of State Marco Rubio, once a man who could stand on his own, “kisses” the Trump ring.

Congress also “drinks the Kool-Aid”.    Few Republicans stand up to Trump, because of his total control of the Republican primary base and Republican fundraising.  To vote against Trump is to invite defeat in the next primary election.  And since Republicans hold narrow margins of control in both Houses, Congress itself is now on the sidelines.  Impeachment, even for “high crimes and misdemeanors”, is not even a consideration.

Immunity

So Trump makes every decision an “executive order”, what in other forms of government would be called an “edict” or “decree”.   That’s not an accident:  if every act is “official” Trump is guaranteed by the Supreme Court to be immune from legal responsibility.  So when he ignores a Supreme Court ruling, as he is doing today, there can be no legal consequences.  And if the Court determines to enforce its order on lesser officials, Trump has the ultimate “Trump card”.  He has the absolute power of pardon:  any underling who follows Trump’s orders and runs afoul of the Courts is “safe”.

And finally, Trump has surrounded himself with extremists.   Not only are his “official advisors” beholden to him, personally, but they are signed onto an extreme agenda.  We were warned about it during the 2024 election campaign:  Project 2025.  Trump denied any knowledge of it at the time, but that Plan is now the blueprint for many of his administrative actions.  

Chief Justice Roberts, the critical vote granting Presidential immunity, may have thought he was putting Trump “behind us”.   It might have been his mistaken attempt to “return to normalcy”, avoiding an “out of the norm” trial of a former President.  That may be too charitable.  Regardless, what Roberts did was to remove one of the last guardrails restricting executive action. He created a Presidency that resembles something so far out of American norms, it might not even be a democracy.  

Yesterday, Trump and his minions sat with the dictator of El Salvador, discussing how they would ignore the Supreme Court.   It was a President sitting with a dictator. But it might foreshadow what the American Presidency is becoming:  the once elected dictator of the United States.  In large part, that scenario is John Robert’s fault.  He created this monster.

Facts and Figures

The State of Ohio has an annual budget of $98 Billion.  Need to put that into perspective?   The US Government budget is close to $7 Trillion, so Ohio’s budget is about 1½ percent the size.   And out of the Ohio total budget, $13.42 Billion is spent on education, about 14%.  That’s important:  Education is one of the things that the state has primary control over in the “government” world.  In contrast, the Federal Department of Education only spends $97 Billion a year (not including student loans) for the entire country, and Ohio only gets a small part of that, about $2.3 Billion.  

Also in Ohio, local school districts more than share the cost of education with the state. They individually raise about $13.6 Billion in local taxes.   So to wrap it up, the average K-12 School Districts in Ohio get about 46% of their annual budget from local taxes, another 46% from the State, and about 8% from the Federal government.  

Belt Tightening

Every school district in Ohio, from the top economic areas like Upper Arlington, Wyoming, or Beachwood; to the lowest in Vinton or Morgan Counties or Portsmouth: all run on tight budgets.  They spend their money to pay for teachers, and buildings, and buses, and all of the things we hope schools can do for our kids.   There’s always trade-offs:  new equipment or worn out stuff, hire more teachers or over-crowded classrooms; sponsor athletics, make parents pay huge costs or cut them all together.

In every, single, district, losing 2% of their funding means a lot more than just “belt tightening”.  It means some kind of sacrifice, something “lost” to the education program.   The more affluent districts might be able to “absorb” better than the poorer ones, but it impacts every district in some way.

The Constitution

Ohio Constitution – Article VI, Section 2

The General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation, or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state; but no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.

The plain meaning of this phrase of Ohio’s Constitution is clear:  “…No religious or other sect shall have any exclusive right to, or control over, any part of the school funds…”.  But we know that “plain meaning” is lost on our “Radical Republican” state legislature.  Four percent of the state school funds are, in fact, in control of private religious and other “sects”.  

While that doesn’t seem like so much, in fact it equates to a two percent cut to every public school district in the state; two percent of “school funds” NOT given to “…secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools”. And it’s worse, not only is four percent of state funds, $475 million, going to finance private education for individual students. That number is growing, as the overall state financial support for public education is shrinking.  In 2025, it’s likely to be more than $1 Billion, even as the Legislature looks to cut other education funding.

Backpack Funding

It’s called “vouchers”, or “backpack funding”.  Instead of following the state constitution and “securing a thorough and efficient system of common schools”, the state of Ohio is abrogating its responsibility.  All a parent has to do today is apply, and a voucher is symbolically placed in their child’s backpack, to use at any private school in the state.  

It’s a very seductive argument:  “Parents pay for schools, so parents should be able to use their tax money for their own child’s education”.  That’s even if that education is in a private school, a religious school, or a school with an ideological agenda.  Even if that school meets the clear language of the Constitution, a “religious or other sect”.  And even if the parent is financially well able to afford to pay themselves for private school.

Religious Education

What’s the problem with that?  First, the state has a legal obligation to the public (the “common”) schools. Funding in education is difficult at best, using a growing part of that funding to pay for private schools is syphoning money away from the public schools.   

Second, many of those school vouchers are used by religious schools, placing them in direct violation of state constitution.   In fact, the greatest use of the Ohio school voucher program is by the schools run by the Roman Catholic Church.  They even made it a point to direct their parents to the school voucher system.

I don’t have a problem with parents choosing to send their kids to private or religious schools.  “School choice” has always been allowed in Ohio, and there’s no reason to change it.   But “we the people” of the state of Ohio shouldn’t be obligated to pay for their choice.  If parents make that choice, then they are also making the choice to pay for it.  The State of Ohio does not have a legal obligation to help.  In fact, the real legal obligation of the state is clear:  a thorough and efficient system of common schools.  

Ohio – the Wild, Wild, West

Ohio is described as the “Wild West of universal vouchers” (Ohio Capital Journal).   It is the “leading edge” of public funding of private education in the nation.  And before vouchers, Ohio was the “leading edge” of private and online schooling, so leading that the largest digital school in the state, ECOT, bilked the state government of $117 million (Ohio Capital Journal).  But private and religious schools regrouped from that debacle, and found legislators to continue their funding.

And what’s that about?   It’s about money; financial support to the radical politicians who make up the majority of the Ohio Legislature.  And, beyond that, those legislators are committed to an education that reflects their own personal values, regardless of their legal mandate to public education.  They even banned “controversial” issues from discussions in Ohio’s public colleges (Ohio Capital Journal). 

So what happens to our public schools?   As the state puts more and more money into private education, the increased burden of public education falls to the local communities.  The regular folks all over Ohio pay more in local taxes for their public schools, and then have to pay for other people’s kids to go to private schools.  And the legislators continue to get more money from  their private education supporters. 

That’s unconstitutional by any plain reading of the words.  And, more importantly, it’s not fair.

History Lesson

Here’s a brief Latin class.   “Habeas” is the Latin verb for to hold or to have.  “Corpus” is pretty obvious, because it’s the “root word” for the English word, corpse.  It simply means a body, but not necessarily dead.   Put them together and it means “to hold (have) a body”.  In old English law, where our American system has its roots, asking for a “Writ of Habeas Corpus” was asking the government (the King) to explain why he is “holding a body”, simply, why is someone in custody.

It is an old English right, established even before the foundation of England’s “liberties” with the Magna Carta of 1215.   And it is engrained in the highest American law, the United States Constitution.   In Article I, Section 9, Clause 2: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Everyone in America, under the Constitution, has the right to ask why they are in custody.   Not only do they have the right to ask for the “writ”. The government is required to give a legally acceptable answer, in front of a Court of Law.  We know this, because on every cop show on TV we hear that a suspect can only be held for so long, 48 to 72 hours, without being charged.  The “Charge” is, the writ of Habeas Corpus.  That is the government’s answer for “holding the body”.   It is made in front of a court, and the court needs to accept that there is “probable cause” that the person in custody has indeed committed a crime, and can be held.

Who’s an American

“Everyone” is a “term of art” in the law.   Who is an American?  In “normal” times, everyone who is physically “in” the United States is granted legal rights.  That includes “born” US citizens, naturalized US Citizens, legal immigrants; green card, long and short term visa holders. And even migrants who are in the US without permission have rights.   (That phrase leads to the ethnic insult, someone who is “Without Papers”, a “WOP”).  

In American history there were two groups who did NOT originally have rights.   First, and most famously, were the enslaved people brought into America.  There was a difference between those who were enslaved, owned by someone forever, and those who were indentured, or contracted to work for a term of time.  The indentured still had some rights.  

The enslaved had none.  And secondly, there were the Native Americans, who were treated as “foreigners” (on their own land).   As they were born to a different “nationality”, a Native American tribe, they weren’t considered American.  Everyone else at least had basic rights.

 Among those rights are criminal rights, including the writ of habeas corpus, and right to a jury trial, and the other rights granted under the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Amendments. The Courts have even recognized those rights that weren’t criminal, including the famous five freedoms of the First Amendment:  religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition the government for redress of grievances.  The ONLY times all of those Constitutional rights can be “suspended” is during War, Rebellion, Invasion or when public safety is threatened.

This was put to the test in the early years of the American Constitutional experiment.  

John Adams

In the late 1790’s, there was a lot of pressure on President, John Adams.    The new United States was still tied to Great Britain economically, but allied to France politically.   France was in the middle of their Revolution, using much of the same rhetoric of the American rebellion.  Adams and his Federalist Party were more aligned with Britain (New England was a center of trade). The opposition party of Thomas Jefferson, “the Democratic-Republicans” were, like their leader, more aligned with France.

Adams and his Federalists passed the Insurrection Act in 1792, and the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798.   These allowed the Federal government to intervene, both in domestic insurrection, and against criticism from “foreigners” living in the United States. The Alien Act allowed the President to determine that an alien was acting against the US interest and could be jailed or deported, and the Sedition Act allowed the President to punish Americans criticizing the Government.  

The Sedition Act expired in 1801, and was never tested in Court.  The Alien Act was used to control enemy aliens during America’s declared wars, the War of 1812, and World Wars I and II.   In fact, it served as the foundation for one of the United States’ most ignominious actions.  During World War II, Americans of Japanese descent, even “natural born” American citizens, were rounded up and  “relocated” to internment camps guarded by the Army.

Civil War

And the Insurrection Act was invoked by President Lincoln during the Civil War.   He suspended writ of habeas corpus both in the areas of rebellion, and in cases where the safety of the Union war effort was involved.   This included imprisoning politicians who were opposed to the Civil War, One of those was former Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham.  

The Congressman led a pro-slavery, anti-war group called the “Copperheads”, and gave a speech  in Mt. Vernon, Ohio in 1863, far from the battlefields.   The military arrested him, and tried him by military court martial.  Vallandigham’s lawyer demanded a writ of habeas corpus, to bring the trial into civilian court. But the Supreme Court ruled that the court martial was an exercise of the President’s war powers (Ex parte Vallandigham, 68 U.S. (1 Wall.) 243).  

Vallandigham ended up exiled in Canada, where he ran for Ohio Governor “in-absentia” that fall and failed.   He did manage to get almost 40% of the votes.  Even then, Ohio was divided.

Declaring Emergencies

The key to these “extra” Presidential powers is an emergency; a war, or an insurrection.   That’s why President Trump has “declared” that the border crisis, the fentanyl crisis, and trade imbalance crises are all “emergencies”.  That claim might grant the President authority to act under Presidential decree (executive order) rather than wait on Congress to actually debate and pass laws.  And, President Trump now claims that it gives him the power to deport folks out of the country: without hearing, without legal representation, without even the writ of habeas corpus.

It’s an emergency, an “invasion” of Venezuelan gang members.  So he invokes the 1798 Alien Act.   It’s an emergency, a glut of Chinese created fentanyl coming in.  So he puts prohibitive tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada.  It’s an emergency; folks are marching in the streets, parading and speaking out against the other emergencies.  Will the President invoke the Insurrection Act, and send the US military to enforce his will?  We will know soon enough, as the Trump Administration continues to refuse to explain their actions to the world.

Why are they holding those bodies, even those bodies of innocent people?   Key your “eyes on the prize”.  If the President doesn’t have to allow for the writ of habeas corpus, he can do almost anything, without check or balance.  

It’s the signal:  our Democracy is at risk.

Teaching Government

Look, I was a government teacher for decades.  I know how confusing the American government systems can be.   After all, we have three levels of government; local, state, and federal.  And we have three branches of government at each of those levels; legislative, executive, and judicial. With all of those permutations of government, it’s no wonder kids have a tough time keeping everything straight.  

That’s not talking about the parts that aren’t even in English:  from habeas corpus to ex post facto.   Then there’s those weird, almost spooky references; to a “bill of attainder” or “corruption of blood”.  And there’s the President of the Senate whose not the President of the United States but the Vice President, unless, of course, the Vice President isn’t there, then it’s the President Pro Tempore, — whew!!

But when a person IS the President of the United States (not of the Senate and, unfortunately, not Pro Tempore) a fundamental requirement should be to understand the “terms of art” of the government.   A President is responsible for the entire government. He has, as Teddy Roosevelt put it, “the Bully Pulpit” to explain things to the Nation.  So the President, one of only forty-five to hold the honor, should have it together. (*I know, he’s the 47^th President, but he shares the “honor” of being both 45^th  and 47^th. It’s just like Grover Cleveland was 22^nd and 24^th.  We’ll get to that 23^rd President  in the middle here in just a few paragraphs).

Government Debt

So it was a surprise to me that Donald Trump doesn’t understand the governmental use of the term, deficit.   And please, please, do not argue that “…he’s not a career politician, he’s a business man.”  He’s in his second term as President, and, judging from his business practices including six bankruptcies, he ought to have a clear idea of what a deficit is.  

The United States Government spends more money than it brings in.   It can do that, by selling bonds, essentially by borrowing money and then paying it back with interest.  Each year that the government runs a “deficit” (spends more than it brings in) it adds to the National Debt.  Add decades of deficit spending, and we, The People of the United States, end up with a colossal debt.  It’s about $36 Trillion right now.

How do we fix that debt?  Well, as the old saying goes, if you want to get out of a hole, STOP DIGGING.   The US government continues to spend more than it brings in, this year, $1.9 Trillion more.  

Interesting Interest

The second question is, what impact does the debt have on our government?  Like my Mastercard, every year the government “carries” the debt, they have to pay interest on it.   There is a famous “debt clock” posted online by the US Treasury. It runs like a high speed fan, the figures ticking away at almost unreadable speed.  The US gets a great rate on the debt, financed at only 3.37% (as compared to my Mastercard, at 17.24%).  But multiply 36 trillion by .0337, and the annual interest to be paid on the debt is $1.2 Trillion.   

Lots of big numbers – but here’s the deal.   The total US Budget in 2025 is around $7 Trillion, so 17% of the budget is going to maintain the debt.  It’s not buying Abrams Tanks or F-35 Fighters, and it’s not curing cancer or protecting Yosemite National Park.  It’s not even supporting Elon Musk’s SpaceX.  And it’s not paying  the debt down. The Government is just maintaining the total debt – which of course is still increasing every year.

Trade Deficits

That’s the government deficit and debt.   And that has little to do with the “trade deficit”, one of the issues that President Trump is trying to “fix” with all of these tariffs.  A trade deficit is NOT a government deficit, even though President Trump seems to be confused between the two.  A trade deficit is simple:  people in the United States buy more stuff from China (in terms of dollars) then China buys from us.  It’s not the US (or the Chinese) government directly, it’s the businesses and consumers in the two countries that create the “sales”.  

Trump is trying to change that trade deficit by putting higher taxes on imported Chinese goods.  The theory is, that Americans will stop buying as much Chinese stuff if it costs more.  And, in the meantime, if they don’t, the extra money the US folks pay for the tax, the tariff, will go into the government coffers.  So, maybe, that might be used to reduce the US Government deficit, just like all taxes on the American people do.  

But to say, as President Trump did on Monday, that we have a “deficit with China  that’s killing us, and we need to lower the deficit so we don’t have to pay so much interest”, is conflating two very different things.   A government deficit and a trade deficit are not the same.  He got confused about that.  If Joe Biden had done that, the world would be screaming about his senility.  But, of course, Trump gets a pass.

Tariff Warning

Now what about the 23^rd President, Ohio’s own Benjamin Harrison?   Like the current President, Harrison believed in the “powers of tariffs”.  He invoked the “McKinley Tariffs” (named after Congressman William McKinley, also of Ohio, and a future President) which put a blanket 50% tariff on all imported goods.  

Harrison didn’t put those tariffs on to raise revenue (taxes).   What he wanted was Americans to buy American made goods, instead of imported goods.  He wanted to support American industrialization in the 1880’s, the beginning of the age of factories.  Americans were moving off of their farms and into the cities to take jobs “on the line”, making everything from candy bars to shoes to shirts to weapons.  And for those factories to be successful, other Americans needed to buy those products.  

Other industrial countries were able to make the same products cheaper. So in order to “level the field” (we’ve heard that used a lot recently) Harrison dumped the McKinley tariffs on them all.  Leveling the field really meant, making Americans pay more for the goods they wanted, by raising the price of European goods.  And the government “took” the difference in revenue, tax money.  Buy foreign or buy American, to the average “Joe”, costs went up.

Rhyming the Past

The stock market gradually fell by 22%. That would be equal to a 9000 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average today – it’s only down 4000 so far.   And in political terms, it cost Harrison both the Congress and ultimately, the Presidency. The 22^nd President Grover Cleveland (of New York) came back to win a second term in 1892.  Regular folks back then, just like now, realized that protective tariffs ending up costing them more.

I don’t think Joe Biden is coming back in 2028.  I hope that we still have a Democratic Republic where the vote of the people can make a difference, both in the Congressional election of 2026 and in 2028.   But I do know something that Donald Trump doesn’t, and now, so do you.  A government deficit isn’t a trade deficit, and, as Mark Twain said,  “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”.

Liberation Day

On Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day”, the President gave America the “formula” for imposing tariffs ( sanctions) on most of the nations of the world.  And the fact that he put the formula up is really all we need to know.  One of my earliest professional mentors was Pete Nix, then principal at Watkins Memorial High School and later superintendent of the school district.  If you wanted to “lose” a proposal to Pete, you’d surround it with all sorts of mathematical formulae and arcane percentages.  Pete would look at you and drawl in his Dixieland accent, “Figures lie, and liars figure”. 

I have friends who can interpret the “tariff formula”.  But for the vast majority of us, Greek letters in an equation becomes a “black box”, or as Churchill would say; “It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…”.  Who knows what it means?   For most Americans, it’s the Administration telling us, “You’re too stupid to understand what we’re doing, so just ‘trust us’. Move along, Move along.”

Pax Americana

After World War II, the United States was the leader of the free world.  The international alliances, from the United Nations to NATO to CENTO to SEATO to the more recent AUKUS; maintained general peace, a peace that  the US led, mostly through cooperation.  America provided military and economic assistance.  America promoted democracy.  And American policy made a safer and better world economically and socially.  For almost eighty years, America worked to maintain a world progression, a “Pax Americana” where worldwide conflicts, on the scale of World Wars I or II, and nuclear destruction were avoided.

Like any leader, the US made some mistakes.  We can name them:  Vietnam and Afghanistan, and other lesser failures.  And like any “good” leader, the United States made sacrifices. The US spent a lot of American dollars to keep the world safer.  And it also recognized that a worldwide economic “web” made a safer world, giving everyone a stake in prosperity.  So America took a leading role, even accepting some losses, like the increased environmental standards of the Kyoto and Paris Accords. The US did so in order to encourage other nations to do the same.  America had the best economy in the world – and used that to help the whole world.  Wealth was spent on others to preserve peace and make life better.

Rogue Elephant

But there always was a different choice.  Since the United States was the most powerful, both economically and militarily, America could choose to be the biggest “bully”.  But that’s only if the “biggest kid on the playground” was “unencumbered” by alliances.  As long as all of the interactions were one-on-one (bilateral in political science-ese); then the US would always have the advantage.  

And that’s what the Trump Administration is doing.  They are negotiating with Russia over Ukraine, often without Ukrainian involvement.  That’s what a “bully” does, changes your life and tells you to “like it”.  They are fracturing NATO, not only demanding that our allies pay more  into the alliance, but even questioning the basic premise of Article Five – that every NATO nation will defend each member as themselves.  

And now with the “Tariff Formula”, the Trump Administration is treating each nation as a “bilateral” rival.  The “Greek letter figuring” allows them to be the “Bully”, one-on-one, towards every nation from Canada to Fiji.  But a bully can’t be a leader as well.  So the United States under Donald Trump abrogates our leadership role in the world.  We are going “rogue”, acting with apparent impunity to the needs of other nations in the world, and the American populace as well.  The United States is now a rogue elephant in the room, out of control and trashing everything.  If that sounds a lot like Russia or China, it should.   

The Biggest Bully

The “Tariff Formula” is a simple outgrowth of the overall theory of the Trump Administration.  The United States is the biggest, strongest, most powerful Nation, perhaps in world history.  It is our option, to use that advantage against every other nation.  The world is a “zero-sum” game, every nation is either a winner or a loser.  And America will win, at the expense of every other nation, even our neighbors, and even our friends. In the words of Darth Vader in Star Wars, “It is our destiny”. 

The United States of America is no longer the leader of a world coalition.  Instead, Trump sees us as Imperial America.  It’s no surprise that the terms of the 19^th century are returning to our language: like  “manifest destiny” and “protective tariffs”.  And it’s inevitable that the Star Wars terms (after fifty years of influencing American life) are now those of the “Empire”, not the “Rebel Alliance”.  The US  is no longer the leader of a cooperative world.  Instead,  the US is the rogue elephant, the biggest bully on the playground.  That’s the world Donald Trump is giving us.  

We can read that formula.

 Tariffs

What are the “usual” purposes for tax on imports into a country – the “magic word” – tariff?   Tariffs have three different functions.  One is to raise money for the nation imposing the tax; a revenue tariff.  These are common and often help cover the costs of border inspections and the infrastructure required for ports and shipping.  At the beginning of the United States tariffs were a major source of Federal government income.  In fact, Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary, established a “navy” to help control imports, called the Coast Guard.  They guarded against smuggling goods into the new nation.

The second reason for tariffs is to protect native manufacturing from “unfair” competition by foreign nations.   So, for example, if soccer balls made in Afghanistan are sewed together by $2.00-a-day child laborers, and we don’t like child labor and folks working for slave wages, we could put a tax on those soccer balls to make then cost as much as if they were made in the USA.  Then, US balls could fairly compete in the market with Afghanistan balls.  Those are called Protective tariffs.

And finally, tariffs are used to drive other issues among nations.  If, for example, we want China to stop allowing cheap fentanyl (illegally) imported to the US, we could use tariffs on Chinese goods to “punish” the Chinese.  The same “cudgel” is applied to Mexico, because they aren’t “doing enough” to stop migrant traffic through their country to the US Border.

Liberation Day

But what President of the United States Donald Trump did on his so-called “Liberation Day”, April 2^nd, 2025, was none of those things.   Trump, avowedly, tried to re-set the world economic order, all in one fell swoop.   He placed import tariffs against goods from almost every nation in the world, everything from Canadian fentanyl to Fiji water.  It’s an economic policy that harkens back to the late 19^th century, when international trade was limited to certain commodities and manufactured goods.  Most agricultural products and “day-to-day” goods in that time were made at home.

Here in the United States it was the hey-day of the vast monopolies.  Standard Oil (Rockefeller) controlled the petroleum industry and US Steel (Carnegie) controlled manufacturing and transport of steel.   US Shoe (Stern), American Sugar Refining (Havemeyer – Domino Sugar), and the New York Central Railroad (Vanderbilt), all dominated their respective industries.  As these “tycoons” maintained control of their areas, they certainly didn’t want competition from international providers.  So they used their political power to institute tariffs to assure their hegemony over American goods.  

Last Gasp

The monopolies were ultimately broken up by (Republican) Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. The United States moved to a more international trading model.   The First World War generated even more trade, and the US was a major player by 1929, and the beginning of the world economic crash.

The last historic gasp of American tariff protectionism was in the depths of the Great Depression.   The Smoot-Hawley Act tariffs of 1930 raised American imports tariff by 20% on almost every other country, with the idea that it would increase American employment.  (Smoot-Hawley is now the third largest protective tariff in US History, along with Andrew Jackson’s tariff of 1828, and Trump’s actions this week). The problem was, that world retaliation ultimately reduced American exports 61% by 1933, deepening unemployment and the impact of the Depression. 

Foreign Made

Today’s economic models are very different from the 1890’s, or even the 1920’s.   Today, the United States is in a world economic market.  They are few shoes manufactured in the country, not many T-shirts,  almost no “minor” electronics (plugs and cords) made here today.  All of those, along with those soccer balls, are made in places where labor costs are much lower.  Not one item I’m wearing right now was made in the USA:   LL Bean flannel shirt (Sri Lanka),  Santa Barbara bar T-Shirt (Honduras), Sketchers shoes (Vietnam), Hanes underwear (Dominican Republic) and Land’s End blue jeans (China). Even my “reader” glasses are from China.

The United States participates in a world market.   All of the tariffs instituted by the President results directly in increased prices to the American consumer.  Conservatively, if the President’s tariffs remain in effect, it will cost the average family about $5000 a year more.

So tariffs are a tax.   But the tax is paid by the consumer, not by the manufacturer, who reasonably passes the costs on.  And, since there are few “Made in America” alternatives for many of these common goods, then it is Americans who will pay the cost of Mr. Trump’s “Liberation Day”.  

Trump Tax Increase

The President just increased American taxes by $5000.   And, reasonably, American companies that do export goods are waiting for “the other shoe (made in Cambodia) to drop”.  Because if the US raises tariffs, other nations will respond with tariffs of their own on American goods.  And they will likely cause overseas sales to go down.  The stock market is reflecting that likelihood; it’s fallen by more than 5% just in the last two days.  Americans with long-term investments, like retirement 401-k accounts, are seeing losses as well.

So what’s the point?  Why does Mr. Trump want these tariff battles?   Well, here’s my theory. First of all, the President expects an addition $3 to $5 Trillion dollars in tariff tax revenue to the US Government. That will fuel his desire to reduce income taxes.  So the tariff taxes on everyone will offset a reduction of corporate and “rich people” income taxes.  And, to be fair, maybe Trump will be able to come through with his “no tip tax” program.   But the “no tip tax” savings would be more than offset by the increased (by the tariffs) costs on everyday goods.  

Artificial Workers

The President came to this strategy, in part,  by the authors of Project 2025.  In this case, it might better be named Project 1925, because this is the policy of Herbert Hoover.  And we all know where that ended up.  It was called the “Great Depression”.

Trump wants America to be self-sufficient.   If only we could make all of the cars, and car parts, back here in the good old USA.  Then all of those 1950’s “working man” jobs would be back.  And, frankly, if this tariff policy continued for the next couple of decades, that might well happen.  Except for one major proviso.  

Today’s manufacturing, particularly new manufacturing, is highly automated.  The job of “tightening the third nut on the left wheel” as the car goes by on an assembly line doesn’t exist anymore.   A robot does that, and new artificial intelligence is going to do even more.  So even if those car manufacturing plants return to the USA, they won’t be employing Americans, at least, not human Americans.  They might be employing robots, made by robots, here in America.  But that won’t feed a family, even an artificial one.

Where our government came from.

Declaration of Independence

We all know – Jefferson’s “self-evident truths” – life, liberty, pursuit of happiness (happiness included property and work)

John Locke  (late 1600’s)- “all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, or possessions.”

Adam Smith – (contemporary of Jefferson) – liberty includes the right to choose how to work and to own property

Where Jefferson took those “truths”

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,

What we remember less is the “grievances” of Jefferson against the King, and more globally, against the Government of Britain

• Refused assent to laws necessary for public good
• Forbidden Governors to pass laws 
• Refused to pass laws unless Americans give up their right of Representation
• Made legislatures go far from their capitals
• Dissolved local legislatures
• Refused to allow local elections
• Obstructed laws of naturalization *
• Obstructed the Courts from administering justice *
• Made Justices totally dependent on him
• Erected a “multitude of offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out of their substance” * (DOGE)
• Kept standing armies in time of peace * (ICE)
• Made the military independent of civil power (ICE)
• Quartered troops
• Protected troops from local justice (Boston Massacre)
• Restricted trade * 
• Imposed taxes without consent (NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION) * Tariffs
• Deprived us of trial by jury * ICE
• Taken away the free system of English Laws – (martial law)

*If some of those sound familiar – they should

American Revolution was a war against a “strong executive” – the King.  And it was a war for economic independence – for greater trade and land expansion

The “United States” government was established under the Articles of Confederation

• Weak (the “opposite of the King)
• The thirteen colonies – “now” states – had greater power – especially over taxation
• The central government had lesser powers – could not raise own funds
• Required nine of 13 to pass a resolution
• There was no chief executive – just the “President of the Congress” but not a true executive (the Revolution was run by “committee” – the whole Continental Congress)
• Delegated strategic and tactical command to G. Washington

The Articles were in effect from 1781 – 1787 

• It was clear that the differences among the states could not be resolved and that the US was too weak to survive – prosper  (protection of the borders without a standing army – both from Native Americans and from British, Spanish Expansion
• Not Surprising that the “Founding Fathers” determined to have a “do-over.
• So they spent the long-hot Summer of 1787 meeting in secret in Philadelphia
• They were “extra-legal”.  No one from the Congress authorized them to write a new document
• How secret?  They nailed the windows shut so no one could eavesdrop on the discussions

Who was there:

• George Washington – President
• James Madison  – Virginia
• Alexander Hamilton – New York
• John Jay  – New York
• Benjamin Franklin – Pennsylvania (81 years old)

What did they come up with: the politics of Constitutionalism

• The Great Compromise (big state v small state)
• The 3/5’s Compromise  (non-slave dependent state v slave dependent state)
• Electoral College Compromise  (direct democracy versus representative democracy)
• Slave Importation Compromise (north v south)
• The Ratification Compromise (the Bill of Rights) (Trust or Trust but verify) 

A three part sovereignty (power of the state) – 

• limited Federal power,
• limited State power,
• unlimited citizen power

A three part government structure – Legislative, Executive, Judicial (at all levels)

• Legislature writes the law 
• Executive “executes” the law 
• Court determines how law is applied (and ultimately what is Constitutional)

A commitment to a “Democratic Republic” – popular election of ½ of the Legislative body

A commitment to a “gap” between the “people” (the “mob”) and parts of the government

• State Legislatures (popularly elected) chose Senators
• Electors chosen by legislatures chose the President 
• A division of power in the levels of government

Legislative – had the “primary power”  established the laws regarding:

Taxes, Money and Debt

• Laying and collecting taxes (duties, imposts, excises)
• Pay government debts (provide for common defense and general welfare)

• All taxes must be “fairly” shared throughout the US
• Borrow Money

Commerce and Trade

• Regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the states, and with the Indian tribes
• Rules of Naturalization, and Rules for Bankruptcies
• Coin Money, Regulate value, fix standards of weights and measures (a pound is a pound)
• Punish counterfeiting
• Establish Post Offices and post ROADs
• Set up Patents and Copyrights

Law and Order

• Set up Article III Courts under the Supreme Court
• Punish piracy and offenses of the high seas and against the Laws of Nations
• Declare War (grant letters of marque and reprisal, make rules for captured men and property)
• Raise Armies (but only fund the for two years at a time)
• Create and maintain a Navy
• Create Rules for the military
• Call forth (state) militias to execute federal laws, suppress insurrection, repel invasion
• Organizing the militia – pay for using the state militia for federal purposes

• States appoint the officers
• Training and discipline “prescribed by Congress”

Federal District

• Set up a Federal District (the Capitol) 
• Exercise authority over other Federal areas (Forts, Dock yards, Arsenals, 

Elastic Clause (necessary and proper)

“To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

Article I

The House – 

• two year term
• 25 years old
• US citizen for 7 years
• live in the state
• direct election by the people
• Specific power over the purse – money bill must start here

The Senate – 

• six year term, 
• 30 years old, 
• 9 year citizen,
• inhabitant of state
• chosen by state legislature (17^th Amendment)

Specific power over foreign treaties, Presidential advisors and appointments, Co-Equal – but with different powers

• Must agree with each other in detail to “pass a law”

What States Cannot Do

• No treaties, alliances or confederation (US Civil War??)
• Grant letters of marque or reprisal
• Coin money or bills of credit
• Make anything other than gold or silver as legal tender
• No bill of attainders or ex post facto laws
• No titles of nobility (What about Kentucky Colonels or Ohio Commodores)
• No imposts or excises on exports or imports
• Keep troops or ships in time of peace
• Make alliances or contracts with other states or foreign power to wage war

            (still allowed for state militias)

Article II Powers – the President

THE EXECUTIVE POWER – THE POWER TO EXECUTE THE POWERS OF THE UNITED STATES (as designated by the Congress – mostly)

Qualifications – 

• Natural Born US Citizen 
• 14 Year US resident
• 35 years old
• 4 Year Term (limited to two terms (22^nd Amendment)

Elections

• Electoral College – chosen originally by state legislature – today by state vote
• Electors = total number of House Members (435 today), Total Number of Senators (100 today) 3 for the District of Columbia (23^rd Amendment)  – total 538 – magic number 270
• All but two states are winner-take-all – win Georgia by 10,000 – get all Georgia’s votes
  • Nebraska and Maine are winner-take all by Congressional District – state wide winner  – Gets the other “2” votes

A Vice President is chosen the same way – must be eligible to be President

Constitutional Powers of the President

• Commander in chief of the Army and Navy
• May require principal in executive departments to report opinions
• Grant reprieves and pardons

With “advise and consent of Senate” (might require 2/3 of Senate, or a simple majority)

• Make treaties
• Appoint ambassadors, public ministers and consuls 
• Heads of Departments
• Judges to Supreme Court and lesser Federal Courts
• All other officers of the United States 
• (Congress can vest the power to appoint lesser officials in the President alone)

Fill vacancies in “Senate confirmed” offices while the Senate is in recess

So where does the President get “all the power”

One person making a decision versus 535

Congressionally delegated powers (tariffs)

Foreign Policy Powers – treaties

Commander in Chief Powers – military

WHAT ABOUT IMPEACHMENT

Final note – no President has been removed from Office – Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment (part of his deal with the House and Senate Democratic and Republican leaders)

Note two – The Ford pardon was not “part of the deal” – 

What about the “Unitary Executive” theory?

A current theory which stands that the President acting as “Chief Executive” puts him in direct command and control of every part of the executive department.  It flies against the “independence” of agencies like the Department of Justice, the National Institute of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Reserve, the SEC and the like

What would Washington do?? – He was “the leader” – but the leader against the King of England – so there’s that.

Article III – Judiciary

Judges both on the Supreme Court and “inferior Courts” serve for life

Jurisdiction

• All cases in law (statutory law)
• All cases of equity (civil cases)
• Under the Constitution, Federal Law, Treaties
• Federal Ministers, Ambassadors, Consuls
• The United States is a party
• Between two or more states
• A state and citizens of a different state
• Citizens of different states

Supreme Court – Original versus Appellate Jurisdiction

 Original – state v ambassador or other “public consul”,  Cases where a state is a party

 Appellate – all other cases (statutory and civil) unless Congress makes an exception

All Criminal Trials are by jury – in the state where the crime is committed  

What is vague?

• Appellate Courts (District, Appellate, “specialty courts” (FISA, Immigration, Tax)
• Constitutional authority (not “clarified” until Marbury v Madison
• Supremacy of Federal over State Authority(not “clarified” until McCullough v Maryland)
• WHO ENFORCES THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISIONS??????
• Number of Justices – established by Congress – ranged from 5 to 10, set at 9 in 1869
•             (part of the Andrew Johnson v Congress – impeachment stuff)

          FDR – court packing – failed to pass (influenced the Court anyway)

Corporate Life

I guess my childhood was kind of typical for the 1960’s, business world.   Dad was moving up the “corporate ladder” in the television industry.  He started out as a salesman for TV station WLW-T in Cincinnati owned by Crosley Broadcasting.  Then  he jumped to a “syndication” company called the Ziv Corporation.  Ziv made television shows in the 1950’s and early 60’s, and Dad’s job was to go to individual TV stations and sell those shows.  

You need to be an “older Boomer” to remember, but they were well known at the time.  There were shows like, The Cisco Kid, Highway Patrol (with Broderick Crawford, growling “10-4” into the microphone), Ripcord, The Everglades, and my favorite Sea Hunt (with Lloyd Bridges).  Dad almost drowned signing a big contract for Sea Hunt at the bottom of a swimming pool.  It takes more than just a thirty second scuba lesson to get comfortable, I guess.

To be closer to his sales “territory”, we moved from Cincinnati (and Mom’s favorite house on Belsaw Place) to Bloomfield Village, a suburb of Detroit.   But this was also the era when the big networks, NBC, ABC, and CBS began to make their own shows.  With two or three TV stations in a town, there was only so much on-air time, and network contracts required them to show their prime time lineup.  So even though Dad was a “super salesman”, it was tough to make the deal.

Kettering

Dad left Ziv to go back to Crosley and became sales manager at WLW-D in Dayton.  We moved back to the Belsaw house in Cincinnati for a couple of years, but the grind of the hundred-mile daily commute was tough.   And then, Dad became the Station Manager, and we moved to Kettering, a suburb south of Dayton. 

Kettering in those days, was working class.  General Motors had a Delco plant, and Frigidaire had a huge assembly plant on the “other side” of the South Dixie Highway.   So I went from a suburban Detroit school, to an urban Cincinnati school, to a very white, working class Kettering school.  One of the things I learned in all those changes, was the importance of a name.

One of my fourth grade classmates in Southdale Elementary School, was a kid named RT.    As we progressed through fifth and sixth grades and onto Van Buren Junior High, it became a school “tradition” as teachers tried to figure out what to call RT. You see, his parents were straight from the mountains of Kentucky. They came to Dayton for the jobs, and RT himself had a very “mountain” accent.  New teachers were required to parse both the enigma of a student with a first name of two initials, and the echoes of the Kentucky “criks and hollars”.  

First days were fun, if you weren’t the teacher or RT.    Teachers would call the roll, working down to the RT’s name.  Then it was a long pause, and they’d call his last name.  He’d answer “He-ear”.  “What’s your first name?”.   He’d answer “Arrr-Teee!”.  Inevitably the teacher would say, “What’s the RT stand for?”.  And RT would get a little louder, like he was talking to someone hard of hearing: “ARRR-TEEEE”. 

Branded

This could go on for minutes. An exasperated teacher tried to tease out the meaning of RT. And the poor kid was unwilling to explain that his parents gave him a two-lettered first name.   Of course, being his classmate, we enjoyed the teacher’s discomfort, even though it was at RT’s expense. 

In fact, RT and I hung out together with friends in his neighborhood.   That finally came to an end when they decided the way to prove friendship was to “brand” ourselves on the shoulder with a red hot hand warmer.  I decided that, while I liked RT, the price of being branded for life was too high. (I’m sure the TV show Branded, on NBC with Chuck Connors, was popular back then).

RT’s name identified him, his culture, his background.   It was a whole statement of “him”, even at ten years old.  But as the “teacher culture” of the time tried to deal with it, they wanted to “standardize” RT into something they were familiar with: Robert, or Richard, or Ralph.  But RT would have none of it – he was “ARRR-TEE”.

My Name, Your Name, Their Name

Kettering did manage to change my name.   My mother always used the formal “Martin” (in a British accent – “Maahr-tin”) but the Scoutmaster of Troop 229 found that too burdensome.  So I became “Marty” at the Scout meetings, and that stuck, ultimately for life.  Today, if someone calls me “Martin” (even better, with a formal English accent) I think I’m in trouble.

All of that is a long way to go to talk about what the state of Ohio is now requiring teachers to do.  In my years in education (1978-2017), I’d call a kid whatever they wanted me to.  After all, it was their name, expressing their personhood.  Shouldn’t they be able to decide how the rest of the world, and their teachers, see them, and speak of them?  The state of Ohio now says a loud “NO” to that.  You are addressed by your birth name, no matter what.   That William James has been called “BJ” for his whole life, or that little Bobby has grown into Roberta, doesn’t matter.  It’s the LAW: like Chuck Connors and RT’s buddies, you are “Branded” for life.

And like those teachers of the 60’s, the state is determined to push “round peg” kids through a “square hole”.  Everyone is required to meet the State standard of culture, or gender, or life.  If that doesn’t sound like a violation of the First Amendment, the freedom of expression not to be “abridged” by the government (represented by the teacher, employed by the state), I don’t really know what is.

And, of course, that’s the problem.   Ohio, and a lot of America, is trying to “go back” to the “good old days” that really weren’t so good.  In trying to stem the tide of change, they are abandoning our foundational rights.  Highway Patrol’s Broderick Crawford should be growling into the microphone; “10-33 emergency, clear all traffic”.  

We’ve lost our way.