US policy update.

Gavin Newsom calls for Americans to stand up to Trump. Where are Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries? Hiding under their desks? And why does John Fetterman fret about appearing to defend the moral low-ground by standing up for hard-working immigrants? Is lower than Trump’s illegal use of the military?

This “liberation” event will live in infamy. Decades from now, people will gawk at videos of it, completely dumbfounded at how such a stupid man could become president and how an advanced nation could inflict such a giant gratuitous wound on itself.

These tariffs are not just a tax on foreign goods. American companies will also charge more, and corporate execs will give themselves bonuses from the extra profits. So money moves from your pocket to theirs.

How to know if you are a MAGA flying monkey:

You suddenly started believing Canada is the cause of fentanyl deaths in the US.

You believe in US election fraud conspiracy theories.

You think immigrants are a big cause of crime in the US.

You are not among the wealthiest, but you expect a tax cut.

The Trump Plan: hey engineers for the CHIPs act, we’re cancelling that but there is a job for you in the broom factory being relocated from Mexico. Females, you can just stay home and make babies and feed the chickens. Gilded Age here we come!

I live in a liberal bubble. But, it’s objective that the US is alienating long-time allies with tariffs and a heel turn on foreign policy. Trump is repeating an offense for which he was already impeached: withholding congressional approved aid for Ukraine. Watching Repubs condone it makes me sick.

Hope springs eternal. The snowdrops have been out about a week. I just noticed the crocuses today.

The cowards of congress, Republican fingerpuppets like Susan Collins, don’t object to Trump firing Inspectors General in violation of Congress. Why? Pure cowardice. We will all pay the price so that they can cling to their privileged position of doing nothing for the people they represent.

When Dems inevitably retake the government, I hope they impose a 99% marginal tax rate on the top 1% of earners. A 100% tax rate on Elon Musk. And that corporate dividends get taxed at a higher rate than the average wage earner.

Today I heard one of the leaders of a lawless, repressive regime, JD Vance, condescendingly lecturing Europeans about freedom. Nothing about working together or shared values. I live in Germany and have only this to say: go home and don’t come back.

Is it not possible to enact laws that require CEOs to give fair treatment to stakeholders? Having their compensation based on stock options distorts this duty in favor of shareholders. Perhaps corporate Boards should have employee representation.

Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package was approved by shareholders. Something is broken with that. If you had, for instance, a workers’ council with some amount of Board representation, it would make this kind of excessive pay less likely to be approved.

Corporate execs are incentivized to favor shareholders over stakeholders. It’s not equitable or decent that, thanks to stock options, they actually get paid more if they pay workers less. It would be equally beneficial, if not more, if workers earned a living wage and shareholders and execs got less

Repair monopolies? Car companies don’t fully sell you a car; they only lease the software to make it work. They use the repair monopoly to extract greater profits and give bigger bonuses to execs and shareholders. The workers pay more for car repairs so their bosses can get bigger bonuses.