Elections Have Consequences

It has been a few years since I have been inspired to write again. I found myself in a couple of debates via texting, which seems always a bad idea when talking about important things, and I found it would be best to put into print details that get lost on a texting stream. Of course this is about politics, but more importantly it’s about the future security and prosperity of our country. I am passionate about the future my children and grandchildren will be living in. There is so much happening, I do not believe I can cover all of it.

On the economic front, tariffs have taken the strongest economy in the world and are propelling us into economic disaster. Estimates on the cost of the tariffs on families is an additional $1700 in 2025. We can see the effects of tariffs in the sharp increases of bankruptcies across the board. Small business bankruptcies up 40%, commercial bankruptcies up 78%, foreclosures up 35% since taking office, auto loan defaults the highest they have been in 15 years since the 2008 crisis, energy costs up 12%, food staples up 16%, farm bankruptcies have more than doubled after falling 37% under Biden, and there are job losses and rising unemployment. Manufacturing alone has lost 77000 jobs. The economy is contracting. Consumer confidence is in the tank. Tourism is down 6% with revenue losses of 24 billion. Housing sales are at a 30-year low. Inflation is rising. Changing the data used to calculate inflation doesn’t change reality. The value of the dollar is down 10%. Canada will no longer trade in dollars. Iran will allow oil to flow, but not in USA dollars. The end of the GCC, dollar based oil, will further undermine the power of the dollar around the world. The Supreme Court has ruled Trumps’ tariffs to be unconstitutional.

Trump has broken every trade agreement we’ve had. He threatened to make Canada a 51st state. He acted on his impulse by demanding Canada submit to his 5-point plan which would essentially take control of all Canada’s resources. Canada said no. Canada, our once closest friend, an ally, now consider the USA their largest threat as does the rest of the world. Canada’s response is complex, measured, and penetrating with 800 billion in trade on the table. Canadian wheat, which is essential to processing our wheats has found new customers leaving USA processors with shortfalls that translate into higher prices.

They summoned the World Trade Organization and pointed to Article 21 of the USMCA trade agreement, Trump’s very own “new NAFTA”, and put the USA on notice that the threats to sovereignty, political threats and economic coercion violate the agreement and nullifies Canada’s obligation to stay in it. They are still “participating” for 6 months while they reassess what they will do moving forward. They have made new written and contractually obligated trade deals with China, Japan, the EU and other countries reallocating their resources as exports to other countries. If you didn’t know, Canada is our #1 importer of oil.

A 75-billion-dollar binational Canada/ USA infrastructure investment blew up when Trump again used his habit of trying to shake down its trading partner. Their airspace is no longer “free” for fly overs. This disrupts international travel as well as travel to Alaska. This affects freight via railways. Did you know the CPKC and CN freight trains are from Canada? The Northwest Passage maritime route connects the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific ocean. Canada provided all the infrastructure and owns all rights to it. It is open for business for all countries, except for the USA because of Trump’s threats. It cuts travel time and is worth billions in savings for businesses. If Trump thought he could threaten Canada into submission, he was wrong. Leaked documents show Trump was warned not to start a war with Carney. He didn’t listen.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is in a super class of finance and economic expertise. He secretly created a five-nation alliance called the Sovern Democratic Alliance (SDA) with France, Germany, Japan, and the UK in preparation for defense against the predictable threats Trump would use to take control of their resources. Greenland was never just a passing thought for Trump. If he thought he could take it, he would and in his words, “the easy way or the hard way”. Trump’s “America First” is truly going to leave us “America Alone”. Canada has joined the EU via the Security and Defense Partnership signed in 2025 and the SAFE initiative. Japan, South Korea, and Austria are in line to do the same. Alliances are being redrawn, and the new ones do not include the USA. There is a new 40 nation trade agreement that does not include the USA. The tech industry had awarded contracts for CHIP manufacturing that were earmarked for US production to Canada instead.

Where did he go wrong with oil? Trump took billions in profits from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) that were to be used to replenish our supplies. He knew he was going to attack Iran and failed to prepare and replenish our oil reserves. He eliminated the export limits on oil, and we now have to compete for our own oil with the rest of the world. He over promised what we can produce in his “deals” to other countries. What does that leave for us? He gave the oil companies 172 million barrels from SPR for free to sell on the open market. He has shut down renewable energy projects at a time when we need all the energy we can get, with solar and wind being the cheapest energy sources. What is the worst thing? He removed sanctions on Russia, the same people who are helping Iran target our troops.

The war of choice. We have been given many different reasons why Trump has started a war with Iran. Ayatollah was a bad man, his proxies have killed our men fighting in foreign wars, they have nuclear weapons, regime change, they say “death to America”, they are backers of terrorist groups. While most of them are true and no one is sad the Ayatollah is dead, there is no evidence they were even close to a nuclear weapon. Trump said he “obliterated” their nuclear plans in the last attack. It is widely understood that a war with Iran cannot be won. There is no way to keep the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for oil and trade, open. It threatens global economies, including ours. So why did we choose to threaten our own economy, spend money we don’t have, and risk the lives of our troops? Everyone has a guess, but clearly there was no plan beyond bombing them. They blew up a school and killed 175 children. Unsupervised AI targeting has its’ murderous casualties. Trump is begging the world to help him out of this mess. The same people he has been threatening. There may be no choice for any of them as the world’s economies are pushed into a recession. And why remove your mine sweepers from the Strait of Hormuz when you are about to start a war with a country that has over 5000 mines to deploy?

The Middle East countries thought having USA air bases would protect them, but instead they learned they won’t protect them, especially from Israel as they push to expand their land borders. The USA is instead a liability to their safety. Anger is consuming the surrounding countries, and we can expect a request to remove US bases from their lands. We are an aggressor with little concern for the damage we cause to others. On a market note, Arab countries are considering pulling out of US investments, specifically AI. If this occurs, it will surely burst the bubble that has been holding up the markets. Interdependency around the world stops wars because the pain is endured by all, but no one shared that information with Trump. The debt that is caused, the loss of jobs, the loss of retirements savings, the loss of property and the rise in taxes will all be shouldered by the working class.

The banks are in trouble. Blackrock, the world’s largest financial institution, is putting limits on withdrawals. Banks have been quietly bailed out since October 2025. They are cashed strapped with all the loan failures and bankruptcies. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and others are restricting lending and withdrawals from investments. Private lending has been packaging risky Commercial Backed Securities much like the 2008 Mortgage-Backed Securities that cause the crash in 2008.

The Constitutional breakdown under Trump as he pushes to acquire more power is staggering. He has taken away the power of the purse from Congress. He has given himself 10 billion dollars of taxpayer money under his complete private control. He deposed another bad man in Venezuela and is extorting its new leader to stay in power. The money goes to a bank in Qatar, not the US treasury. Trump threatens private industry. He has control over mergers, and their businesses. He has taken a US stake in several companies with Trump having control over their business. He threatens anyone in the media who says unfavorable things about him. Trump threatens to take control of property rights from companies. Unconstitutional decisions are being made with no accountability.

His ICE people do not use judicial warrants to break into people’s property. They have abandoned probable cause and arrest at will. US citizens have been jailed; the brutality and murder have been witnessed for all to see. 4000 cases have been thrown out by judges because of lack of evidence and outright lying in their prosecutions. No matter where you stand on immigration, it cannot be denied that they are responsible for decreasing our debt by 14.5 trillion dollars and their integral effect on our economy cannot be underestimated. The shear cost of deporting, imprisonment, and the loss of taxes will further damage our economy. Does anyone know why ICE would need missile guided warheads?

On a national security point, he has fired teams of security people. Those who specialize in Iran, cyber security, and anti-terrorism. It has been a decimation of the national security infrastructure. Over 60000 civilian roles at the Deptartment of Defense fired. He has fired top military leaders seen as obstructionists to his agenda, most recently over the war with Iran. Over 300,000 have left various security departments leaving an expertise and knowledge vacuum. He has weakened our traditional alliances internationally. They have refused to participate in the illegal war with Iran.

We could go into the abortion debate at length, but I prefer to keep this topic short. When you are going to force a 10-year-old rape victim to have a baby, you are simply morally bankrupt. When you are going to force women into deadly consequences from pregnancies that have become life threatening, you are morally bankrupt. Females are not disposable incubators. Using pregnancy as a means of control is dehumanizing. White Christian Nationalists are spread throughout this administration, and they have stated that women belong in the home and should not have the right to vote. Patriarchy is by definition oppressive. Racism is another form of oppression. I reject White Christian Nationalism and certainly do not want them running our country. Why, if you don’t want abortions, do you make getting birth control more difficult?

Our reliability and credibility have been obliterated. Our economy is treading into dangerous territory. We have entered a war we will lose. We have a fiscal time bomb with our debt is about to explode. We have a president who will do anything to win the midterms including confiscating ballots and voting machines and declare fraud without evidence. Wow…. This all sounds pretty shitty, doesn’t it? As I have said many times, it has to hurt our country so bad that we never forget and we reject Trumpism and its enablers for generations to come.  It will take us all to find a better way forward.