POLITICS and OPINION

March 4, 2025
Trump's Tariffs --
Things Are About To Get Ugly

How ugly, America?   Well now....

Let's hear from the Canadians first.

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau:
"So today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they’re talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator.

Make that make sense."

It doesn't make sense, Mr. Trudeau...

except when you have a Russian asset in the White House now orchestrating the collapse of the United States of America.

Trudeau said that Canada would plaster retaliatory tariffs on more than $100 billion of American goods in response to Trump's tariffs on Candian goods.  

Well now...that's certain to be great for the American economy. 

And now, let's hear from Mexico.

Marcelo Ebrard, head of the Mexican Ministry of Economy, warned that these taxes would represent an approximate cost of $20.5 billion for about 89 million American families. He also warned of the possible inflationary impact on products such as computers, televisions, refrigerators, agricultural goods, auto parts, and vehicles.

Mexico is a key trading partner for the United States. Between January and November 2024, Mexican exports totaled $466.6 billion, while American exports reached $309.4 billion.

The automotive industry has shown significant regional integration under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). This agreement allows foreign companies that produce in Mexico or Canada and use locally sourced materials to export their products to the United States at low tax rates.

Trump is now violating the agreement that he pushed for and signed with our closest neighbors.

Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto,
U.S. president 
Donald Trump,
and Canadian prime minister 
Justin Trudeau 
signed the USMCA agreement during the 
G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
on November 30, 2018.

Mexico's National Auto Parts Industry has warned that the imposition of tariffs on Mexican imports will weaken trade, reduce competitiveness in the region, and affect economic stability

In a statement, it stressed that the automotive and auto parts sector is a pillar of North American exports, with the capacity to generate more than 11 million jobs in the USMCA countries. The association foresees that assemblers in Mexico could reduce production by as much as 1 million units this year due to the new taxes, which would affect product availability, job creation, and the supply chain.

88 percent of the pickups sold in the United States come from Mexico and are assembled by companies such as General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. The minister of economy emphasized that the tariffs would represent the United States shooting itself in the foot, as it would directly impact its own automotive companies, which depend on Mexican production to supply their domestic market.

The electronics and appliance sector will also be affected. In November 2024, Mexican exports of electrical and electronic equipment reached $8.9 billion, 89 percent of which was destined for the US. The production of these devices is concentrated in Baja California, Chihuahua, and Nuevo León, where thousands of jobs and assembly plants could be at risk.

Trump's tariffs will have significant implications for US consumers. An SEC study estimates that the additional levy would cost an extra $7.1 billion for 40 million families purchasing computers. Likewise, it is expected that around 32 million households would pay up to $2.4 million more when purchasing new monitors, and around 5 million families would assume an extra expense of $817 million when purchasing refrigerators.

An analysis by the US Congress warns that the unilateral imposition of these tariffs could violate the USMCA agreement, which would unleash a trade war with serious economic consequences for the countries involved. “The tariffs would be a violation of the USMCA, which would allow Mexico to file a trade dispute. This could affect US exports valued at billions of dollars,” the report states.

The impact will not only be seen in domestic spending, says Gutiérrez. “The US market buys many raw materials from Mexico. A product that is produced in the United States and that would not be affected by the tariffs directly, will see changes in its production price due to the cost increase in the supply chain.” She adds that Trump's tariff measures “jeopardize the production chain in North America, one of the most integrated at a global level. They threaten jobs and make us less efficient and resilient to compete with other economies, such as China.”

Economic analyst Roberto Aguilar told WIRED that Mexico will be the main loser, since the US strategy seeks to strengthen its local production. “The nearshoring is on hold and will wait until certainty returns, both externally and internally. A recession in the Mexican economy is highly probable, since, beyond the trade threat, the country began a downward trend last year due to the lack of certainty and investment,” he says. The consequences of a severe recession in Mexico will include increased instability and threaten the progress made by Mexico in the recent decade to retain its labor force.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-trumps-tariffs-will-disrupt-key-industries-in-mexico/

Well now...that's all certain to be great for the American economy. 

I'm with Mr. Trudeau on this one:  

"Make that make sense." 

[Plus, he's so dang hot, is he not?]

________________

March 1, 2025

What a mess you've created here
with your dog, Mr. Putin!
Bill Bramhall; New York Daily News, 2025.

___________
February 20, 2025

ONE MONTH DOWN... 47 TO GO
God help us!

Today marks one month since Donald Trump began his second term as president.
It’s been thirty one days of chaos, conflicts of interest and lawbreaking.

Deng Coy Miel, Singapore News

Thirty-one days of Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies moving fast and breaking things (in this case, the law, the Constitution and crucial government agencies), hoping that the American people will be so overwhelmed that they’ll simply tune them out.

So just to review what Trump has spent the last month doing:

  • He illegally fired 18 inspectors general, who worked in federal agencies to catch fraud, corruption and wrongdoing in the government.
  • He paused the disbursement, probably illegally, of federal funds authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
  • He illegally tried to end birthright citizenship, a constitutional right, by executive order.
  • He is trying to illegally reclassify non-partisan federal employees, apparently in order to fire them and replace them with political loyalists.
  • His Justice Department has fired dozens of career prosecutors and FBI agents, while also creating a new working group to probe officials who investigated his crimes.
  • He gave Elon Musk and DOGE virtually unlimited access to sensitive information and allowed them to offer a potentially illegal “buyout offer” to 2.3 million federal employees.
Join me
in supporting CREW
in their efforts to
halt the insanity!
_________________________

FAVORITE POLITICAL CARTOON
OF THE MONTH


Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News

February 15, 2025:

Two months ago,
Terry's
Political
Cartoons
I sent out a Christmas Card with a
self-designed political cartoon
in which I predicted
our Russian asset 
in the White House
would waste no time
giving Putin exactly what he wanted.

As much as I love it when I'm proven right,
this time I'm truly sad about it.

by Susan Glasser in The New Yorker Magazine

In my 2024 Christmas Card, I predicted that, just as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938 sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler in a foolish policy of appeasement, Trump would do the same to Ukraine and boast about being a peace-maker.   Glasser makes the same analogy.

I also love that she even concludes her essay with a final sentence that mirrors the title of my political cartoon I included in my 2024 Christmas card:
"Christmas came early for Putin this year."

___________

Recommended Jan. 28, 2025:

Heather Cox Richardson's essay,

Immigration & Deportations:
Under Biden, Under Trump

___________

January 20, 2025: 

My thoughts on a Megalomaniac's Inaugural 

AN EMBARRASSMENT

OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS

I hope one day
we're honest enough
to put this question 
on our students'
U.S. History Final Exam:


Question:


What could be more embarrassing than
what a U.S. President
and a mob of sore losers
did on January 6, 2021?

A Minute-by-Minute 
Historical Account of
The Events of Jan 6, 2021

Answer:
The same U.S. President
being returned to power
in order to
re-write that history
and pretend it never happened.
_____

Meet a U.S. Capitol Security Officer
who would prefer we didn't forget
Jan 6, 2021.

_____

We all know that a Vampire
can not see his reflection
in a mirror;

and, apparently,
a Devil
can not put his hand
on a Bible
when asked to swear
to defend the
Constitution of the United States of America.
_____

In case you still had doubts,
about where their allegiance lies -
there was this telling moment:
The wealthy industrialist,
& member of our nation's Fascist Party,
gave our new Fuhrer
the NAZI salute.

I suppose that this
is what's actually in store
for our U. S. History classrooms.


Farewell,
America the Beautiful.
__________

On a lighter note....

Look who raided the
Warner Bros. Cartoons'
wardrobe closet --
the hanger tagged "Villain"
Enough said
about January 20, 2025


And, behold,
a great Darkness fell over the land...
_____________________________________________

January 1, 2025:
Terry's
Favorite Quotes
of 2024:

“No, I don’t think I’m judge and jury. 
I’m just a little fed up.”

 Luigi Mangione, 26, reportedly wrote the line
in a notebook that expressed
'hostility towards the health insurance industry'
prior to shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO
Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan.

“They’re eating the dogs. 
They’re eating the cats.
They’re eating the pets
of the people who live there.” 

Donald Trump, revealing what happens
when you’ve stooped to believing
what’s reported on social media.

“Why not?  I paid for it.”
Elon Musk, ostensibly referring to
the reason he is currently crashing in
a small pad at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort
– although most believe
he was referring to much more.

“With my leadership women will be
happy, healthy, confident, and free
– no longer having to think about abortion
because it will now be decided for them,
with the States
where it always had to be.”

– Donald Trump,
long-time protector of women.

“Our war is not with the people of Gaza,
it’s with Hamas.”

– Benjamin Netanyahu,
Prime Minister of Israel,
speaking about the 15-month-old war
between Israel and Hamas in Gaza
where the death toll
has surpassed 44,000. 

“The word grocery. 
It’s a sorta simple word,
but it sorta means like
everything you eat.”

– Donald Trump, etymologist.
______________________

December 1, 2025:

Terry's New 
Political Cartoon Series

America's
Inglorious
Restoration


INTRODUCTION:
Welcome to my
"political commentary with humor" page. 

If we must put up with him for another 4 years
(and, let's face it, we'll be damn lucky if it is
just 4 years given his past behavior)

then I say let us not allow an opportunity
to laugh go to waste. 
Let's have some fun with it
(otherwise we'll go insane).

The Death of American Democracy
& the Rise of Trump

may not have been the future we envisioned
for our formerly well-educated society.  

But let's not pretend this outcome isn't one long ago predicted.  

The philosopher Aristotle warned us what would happen in a democracy where demagogues rose up and assumed immunity to the laws of that democracy.  

"For in democracies where the laws are not supreme, demagogues spring up. . . . Demagoguery is to a democracy . . . what tyranny is to other forms of monarchy. The spirit of both is the same, and they alike exercise a despotic rule over the better citizens. The decrees of the [demagogues] correspond to the edicts of the tyrant . . . . Such a democracy is fairly open to the objection that it is not a constitution at all; for where the laws are no longer applied to a privileged few, including the demagogue, there is no constitution. The law ought to be supreme over all . . . .when that is no longer true, a constitutional republic no longer exists."

[The Politics, Aristotle; 4th century B.C.]

And so, my friends, being delighted that I will have four years of material falling into my lap courtesy of
the emperor who wears no clothes,
I humbly present to you:

America's Inglorious Restoration
Volume 1

Vol 1; Issue 1 - Dec. 1, 2024
"It's Christmas in Moscow
"

Vol 1; Issue 2; Dec. 30, 2024
"The Inaugural" (8 panels)







_________

Terry's November Endorsement

Who do I support?
___________

Terry’s “Good Living” Guide:

Body:
Avoid the 3 PsBsSs
Processed Foods, Phthalates, Plastics;
Beef, Butter, Breads;
Sedentary activities, Sugars, Salt.
Trust me,
you’ll be feeling better in no time!

Mind & Spirit:
Avoid the 3 F’s
Manufactured in these mediums are
misinformation, fear, anger and hate!

JOIN ME IN ENSURING AN EDUCATED CITIZENRY!

JOIN ME IN ENSURING AN EDUCATED CITIZENRY!

___________

TERRY's ADVERTISEMENT:
I love coffee! 

I drink it morning through late afternoon.

Best Bean Ever!

While on vacation in Oregon I fell in love with the many varieties I discovered at Portland Coffee Roasters

I recommend both Morning (I love the milk chocolate and cherry finish.)

and Steel (Most popular blend. One taste and you’ll see why: it’s rich, smooth, and full of sweet toffee flavor. It tastes great as both a coffee or an espresso. An instant classic when introduced over 20 years ago.)

Since their founding in 1996, Portland Coffee Roasters has sourced their coffee directly from farmers while building sustainable relationships with them and the communities they support. 

Read more about their Mission & History

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