Category: All Posts

King Midas in Reverse

Trump, the greatest of all con men, wrecks everything he touches. He’s always been a hopeless disaster who talks big and leaves a big mess.

In less than a year, Trump erased 12 years of solvency for the trust fund that pays for Medicare Part A
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/less-trump-erased-12-years-195408202.html

Trump wants to turn Greenland into his personal Greedland. He lied about Greenland’s people not receiving medical care, and claimed to be sending a hospital ship, the USNS Mercy. “It’s on the way!!!”

Greenland has free medical care, so the strange offer was rejected. At that same time, Denmark was called in to evacuate an American in need of medical attention from a submarine. The sailor was transported to a hospital in Greenland. Ouch.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/no-thanks-greenland-denmark-reject-151251400.html

Making Trump look even more ridiculous, the USNS Mercy isn’t on its way. It’s in dry dock. As someone who is close to me said about this turn of events, “I’m not fond of political theater games that end up backfiring.”

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2675291924/

It would be one thing if Trump were merely incompetent. For all of George W. Bush’s limitations, his intentions were, I believe, mostly good. Dick Cheney’s were not.

Trump is an evil, destructive narcissist. I have no sympathy, at all, for anyone who now regrets having voted for him in 2024.

Trump Calls for Bank Regulation … Without Knowing It

The Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s capricious tariffs, so he announces a 10% across-the-board tariff. No, wait. Make that 15%. What will it be tomorrow?

The King of Chaos, who declared business bankruptcy six times, is seething over being “debanked” after January 6, 2021. He should take his case to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Oh, right. He destroyed the CFPB.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/business/jpmorgan-trump-debanking.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OFA.mQAE.Amgw2Wc3uv3S&smid=url-share

Snowman

The winter of 2015 had a late start, but once it got going it was the worst ever. This year’s winter isn’t that bad yet, but since with the 22″ storm we had, it’s been heading in that direction.

Right now there are several inches of super heavy, wet snow to be cleared. The kind of snow that would have had much more accumulation if it hadn’t been so wet. Snow the snowblower can’t handle, so shovels it will be.

Tomorrow’s forecast places me in the 10″-16″ zone. I hope it isn’t the heavy, wet stuff.

Today’s small victory. The heavy, wet snow turned out to be very amenable to the snowblower’s tender mercies.

“Everybody in the Trump Administration is a Thug”

Paul Krugman has started a YouTube channel. He seems uncertain about keeping it going, but what he says here about the Trump administration’s response to a report from the New York Federal Reserve is worthy of a debut video.

Based on LG’s pre-tariff sale price for my new washer and dryer, I estimate I paid at least $50 more per unit than I would have a year ago. Something else that’s happening at the Fed is, in contrast, undoubtedly welcomed by Trump’s people. The easing of mortgage regulations.

The decline in banks issuing mortgages was a reason why I moved most of my retirement money out of the bank where it had been. As a savings bank, it was dropped by the Depositor’s Insurance Fund, which guarantees accounts above the FDIC limit of $250,000. The bank wasn’t in any sort of legal trouble, it had simply grown too big to remain within the DIF’s “too small to fail” limit.

Home mortgages and small business loans are the life blood of that bank. I became concerned that the economic changes resulting from the Financial Crisis of 2008 — conditions that should have favored small community banks — and later the Covid pandemic, could reverse that bank’s growth. If it were ever to run into financial trouble, my retirement money would be at risk. So, being cautious (my definition of conservative) with my money, I moved more of it to another Massachusetts chartered savings bank that is still a DIF member.