Jimmy

 Remembering Jimmy Carter.  

When honesty, integrity and ethics in the presidency mattered.

Stephen Miller Exposed

Convicted felon Trump has appointed Stephen Miller, the architect of the zero tolerance immigration policy that led to children being separated from their parents and being locked in holding cells, to the position of White House deputy chief of staff for policy. 

 

In 2019 while Miller was in the administration, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) did a comprehensive report on Miller’s affinity for white nationalism.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/11/12/stephen-millers-affinity-white-nationalism-revealed-leaked-emails

In leaked Miller emails SPLC found that Miller, inter alia, 

- backed immigration policies of Hitler

 

- shared white nationalist websites

- promoted white nationalist literature

 

- obsessed over the removal of Confederate flags

 

- reached out to anti-Muslim extremists

- assumed as fact various conspiracy theories about immigration

 

- had ties to white nationalist figures

 

- had a connection to an anti-immigrant think tank that promoted white nationalist writers

- linked immigration to violence in emails to Breitbart News

- equated Muslim refugees explicitly with acts of terrorism

- went against many Republicans when siding with white nationalists and other extremists on the issue of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

The SPLC exposé makes it clear that Miller, just like Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, is using his skills to demonize immigrants and promote white nationalism.  He will soon be in the position to implement policies of Nazi ideology. 

Groceries - Who Is To Blame

The high cost of groceries was a talking point in the presidential election and the uniformed, who failed to do their own research, blamed the Biden administration.  Yes, food prices rose over 28% in five years, however digging deeper into the facts explains why.  A review of a compilation of different reports as follows:

Fact #1:  High operating costs.

Beef is a good example, but can be applied to all commodities. Years of drought, high grain prices and rising interest rates made cattle farming so expensive that many U.S. farmers reduced the size of their herds to cut costs — and some got out of the business altogether. Now, the U.S. cattle inventory is the smallest it’s been since 1951. That huge drop in supply has pushed prices for beef to all-time highs.  The high operating costs are passed onto the consumer.

Fact #2:  Supply chain

Covid: Unavoidable events globally contribute to supply chain disruptions.  The Covid pandemic had a dramatic impact.  There was a surge in demand for groceries and supply slowed with production cuts. Prices for popular items surged.

Ukraine war:  Ukraine historically accounted for 9% of the global wheat market and 12% of the corn market, according to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.  As their production of grain and other foods ceased the losses had to be made up by other suppliers.

Bird flu:  A highly contagious and fatal bird flu resurfaced in 2022 and has been devastating for egg production and meat chickens. The flu is now transitioning into other livestock.

Fact #3: Corporate profits

Grocery stores’ profit margins increased in recent years, according to a March 2024 report by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC report notes that food and beverage retailers saw their revenues outpace their costs by more than 6% in 2021. That was a new high for that particular profit measure until 2023, when it reached 7%. 

Food manufacturers have also relied on price hikes and other tactics to maintain profitability, as well. When that happens, companies know they can’t keep raising prices without further impacting their sales volume. Instead, they make other product changes, like shrinking packages, giving you less product for the same price. That maneuver is known as shrinkflation.  Who among us actually notices when a grocery item is the same price or an even higher price but the package size shrunk?

As food costs have skyrocketed for Americans, some of the country’s biggest chains and grocery brands, including General Mills, PepsiCo, and Tyson, have blamed the price hikes on supply chain issues and economy wide inflation. But behind the scenes, these companies have expanded profits and quietly authorized billions of dollars in lucrative stock buyback programs and dividend payouts to shareholders.  Between 2020 and 2022, corporate profits rose by 75 percent—five times as fast as inflation; 41% of inflation was due solely to corporate-profit making.

__________________

Taking the time to do the research provides the facts about grocery prices, but passive voters who accept political rhetoric are simply gullible.  One thing is for certain - massive tariffs will do nothing to ease grocery prices and would have the opposite effect. Consumers who want to make a difference should start first with price gouging.

The Fourth Reich

America has voted, and directly or otherwise, have assented to a Fourth Reich in America.  The signals were clear that another Trump presidency will be a return to an even more dictatorial reign than the first.

Most profound is the fact that Trump is a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator, notwithstanding the absurd assertions that the juries were "rigged" thereby casting out the rule of law. Many of Trump's lawyers, advisers and business associates have been convicted of crimes.

 

 

With all this evidence how can so many Americans have been duped?  Are they ignorant of the facts or are they aware of the facts and disregard them, buying into Trump's rhetoric?  As perplexing as it is that so many of "reasonable intelligence" can be duped, one reason might be that Americans are simply lazy when it comes to history, especially that of Hitler and his Third Reich.

“Americans are extremely lazy about history.  As soon as anyone suggests that the past might be useful we say, ‘wait, it’s not exactly the same therefore I’m going to discard it.’  In that way in two or three seconds we give ourselves an excuse not to think about history. [Democratic republics have failed] and intelligent people no less intelligent than us experienced them and left a record for us to learn from.”  Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University and author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  George Santayana.  

Americans lazy about history have voted and are now condemned to repeat it on the way to another Fourth Reich. 

John Kelly vs. Fascism

(NPR) Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who was former President Donald Trump‘s longest-serving chief of staff, called Trump’s leadership style "dictatorial", "fascist" and lacking empathy in new interviews this week.

Kelly, the highest-profile Trump-era official to publicly criticize the former president, said in an interview with The New York Times that Trump "certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure."

“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that,” Kelly said in the interview, published on Tuesday.

Kelly — who has not endorsed Harris — also said Trump had been critical of those disabled, injured or killed while serving in the military.

Fire!

Corn fields around us are on fire.  It is dry and windy, causing more than one fire.  Fortunately because of the direction of the wind it went around us, however it is out of control.  Several area fire departments are trying to get a handle on the fires. 

Four hours and still out of control.

The fires are still burning into the night.  Through the haze you can see plumes of smoke and all the fire trucks still working to extinguish them.  Night winds are forecast to be 40-45 mph into tomorrow.

Harvest

 Fall has arrived and the nice neighbor farmer is harvesting corn.

This is a sure sign that winter is not far behind.  Cold and snow is not my favorite time of the year.  Other than the much needed moisture it brings there isn't much else to like about winter here on the farm. 

Harvest Moon:

Well, It Worked Once Before

Donald Trump participated in a Fox News town hall event on Tuesday in front of a female audience.

He told a bunch of lies.

Opinions on Roe v. Wade: Trump repeated his false claim that “everybody,” even “the Democrats” and “the liberals,” wanted the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision overturned and the power to set abortion policy left to individual states; he added, “Nobody wanted it to be in the federal government.”

It’s not even close to true that “everybody” wanted Roe overturned or that “the Democrats” did. A large majority of Americans and an overwhelming majority of Democrats wanted the Supreme Court to preserve Roe in 2022, according to numerous polls. Democratic support for Roe exceeded 80% in many polls and 90% in some polls.

Trump and in vitro fertilization (IVF): Trump declared that he is entirely in favor of IVF. But Trump also falsely claimed, “I’m the father of IVF.” This is just nonsense. The first child conceived through IVF was born in 1978; Trump, clearly, had nothing to do with it, and he said in this same town hall answer that he only recently had IVF explained to him by a Republican senator.

Harris’ border role: Trump, criticizing his election opponent Vice President Kamala Harris, repeated his false claim that President Joe Biden “made her border czar.” Biden never made Harris “border czar,” a label the White House has always emphasized is inaccurate. In reality, Biden gave Harris a more limited immigration-related assignment in 2021, asking her to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in an attempt to address the conditions that prompted their citizens to try to migrate to the United States.

Harris’ border visits: Trump, speaking about Harris and the border, repeated his false claim that “she never even went there.” Harris did go to the border as vice president, in Texas in mid-2021 and then again in Arizona last month; many Republicans had criticized Harris prior to the 2021 visit for not having gone, and some later argued that she didn’t go frequently enough, but the claim that she “never” went has not been true for more than three years.

An immigration chart and migration levels: Trump repeated his false claim that his favorite immigration chart – which he had fortunately turned his head to look at when a gunman tried to kill him at a campaign rally in July – shows that “the day I left office” had the lowest level of border crossings.

The chart doesn’t show that. In fact, the arrow on the chart that Trump keeps saying points to a record-low level of southern border crossings on the day or week he left office actually points to April 2020, when Trump still had more than eight months left in his term and global migration had slowed to a trickle because of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. After hitting a roughly three-year low (not an all-time low) in April 2020, migration numbers at the southern border increased each month through the end of Trump’s term.

The number of migrants: Trump, speaking about migration, repeated his false claim that “21 million people came in over the last three years, with them.” Through August, the country had recorded about 10.3 million nationwide “encounters” with migrants during the Biden-Harris administration, including millions who were rapidly expelled from the country; even adding in so-called “gotaways” who evaded detection, estimated by House Republicans as being roughly 2 million, there’s no way the total is “21 million.”

The border wall: Trump repeated his false claim that he built “571 miles of wall” on the southern border. That’s a significant exaggeration; official government data shows 458 miles were built under Trump – including both wall built where no barriers had existed before and wall built to replace previous barriers.

Immigration judges: Trump, criticizing the fact that asylum seekers who arrive at the border have access to a US legal process before they are deported, falsely claimed that “No other country has judges at the border.” In reality, the US is far from the only country to let asylum seekers make their case before judges or legal tribunals.

“This statement is patently false,” James Hathaway, then a law professor and Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at the University of Michigan, told this reporter during Trump’s presidency in response to a previous version of Trump’s claim. “It is completely routine in other countries that, like the U.S., have signed the UN refugee treaties for asylum-seekers to have access to the domestic legal system to make a protection claim (and to be allowed in while the claim is pending).”

The legal status of immigrants in Springfield, Ohio: Trump falsely claimed, “They just dropped 30,000 illegal aliens in Springfield, Ohio.”

This is false in more than one way. While we don’t know the immigration status of each and every Haitian immigrant in Springfield, the community is, on the whole, in the country lawfully. The Springfield city website says, “YES, Haitian immigrants are here legally, under the Immigration Parole Program. Once here, immigrants are then eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).” Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine wrote in a New York Times op-ed about Springfield in September that the Haitian immigrants “are there legally” and that, as a Trump-Vance supporter, he is “saddened” by the candidates’ disparagement of “the legal migrants living in Springfield.”

Second, nobody “dropped” the immigrants in Springfield; the city’s Haitian residents were not sent there by a government resettlement program. Rather, they independently decided to move to the city because of employment opportunities, affordable housing and the presence of a Haitian community, among other factors.

And while there is no official tally of the number of immigrants in Springfield, Trump’s “30,000” figure exceeds local estimates. The website for the city of Springfield says there are an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants in the county that includes Springfield, where the total population is about 138,000. Chris Cook, the county’s health commissioner, said in July that his team estimated the best number was 10,000 to 12,000 Haitian residents in the county.

Immigrations in Springfield: Trump claimed that immigrants in Springfield are on “probation,” and he added, “Probation is for prisoners.” This is false in two ways.

First, Trump got his terms wrong. Many Haitians came into the country under a Biden-Harris administration parole program – not “probation” – that gives permission to enter the US to vetted participants with US sponsors. And though the word “parole” is most commonly used in the context of criminal prisoners who are let out early on certain conditions, in the context of immigration policy, “parole” does not mean that someone was let out of prison or had ever been in prison.

Rather, as the federal government explains on its website, “The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows the secretary of homeland security to use their discretion to parole any noncitizen applying for admission into the United States temporarily for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” The government has used the parole authority in the past to grant entry to certain people fleeing crises in Cuba, Vietnam, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Lebanon and elsewhere.

Current inflation: Trump tried to dismiss the decline in inflation over the last two years, and he falsely said, “You know when they say, ‘Well, we’re stopping inflation cause it went down now to 4.5%.’ Well, 4.5% is very high, very high, meaning it’s going up. Because it was at 3.” The most recent available inflation rate at the time Trump spoke here was 2.4% in September, not 4.5%, and this was the slowest rate since February 2021, not a jump from a lower rate.

Cumulative inflation under Biden-Harris: Trump, speaking about total inflation under the Biden-Harris administration, said, “They say 21%, I think it’s 50%.” Trump’s “50%” figure is baseless; cumulative inflation during the Biden-Harris administration has indeed been about 21%.

Inflation records under Biden-Harris: Trump repeated his false claim that the US has all-time record inflation under the Biden-Harris administration, saying, “We had the worst – they say it’s in 48 years – I say ever. We had the worst inflation in the history of our country.”

The US inflation rate hit a 40-year high in June 2022, when it was 9.1%, but that was not close to the all-time record of 23.7%, set in 1920.

Trump’s tax cuts: Trump repeated his false claim that “I gave you the largest tax cuts in the history of our country.” Expert analyses have found that his 2017 tax cut law was not the largest in US history, either in percentage of gross domestic product or in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Oil from Venezuela: Trump, criticizing Venezuelan oil, repeated his false claim that “the only refinery that can do it is in Houston, Texas.” Various other refineries in the US refine Venezuelan oil.

Trump and US troops in Syria: Trump falsely claimed, “I got out of Syria.” Trump reduced the US military presence in Syria but kept a contingent of troops there throughout his presidency, even after he claimed US troops were “out” (other than to protect oil sites, he added). Two US troops died in vehicle rollovers in Syria in 2020, his last calendar year in office.

Trump and the defeat of ISIS: Trump, touting the defeat of the ISIS terror group, repeated his false claim that “it was supposed to take literally five years and I did it in a month.” Aside from the fact that Trump doesn’t merit sole credit, the ISIS “caliphate” was declared fully liberated more than two years into his presidency.

The US military presence in South Korea: Trump falsely claimed the US has “42,000 soldiers” in South Korea. Pentagon statistics show that Trump’s figure is a significant exaggeration; as of June 30, 2024, there were 27,076 US military personnel in South Korea, including civilians working for the Department of Defense.

South Korea’s payments for the US military presence: Trump, speaking again of the US military presence in South Korea, falsely claimed that “they” (South Korea) “don’t pay,” adding that Biden “said they don’t pay anymore.”

In fact, South Korea agreed under Biden and Harris to pay more for the US military presence than it had been paying during the Trump era. Completing the negotiations that began under Trump, South Korea agreed in March 2021 to a 2021 payment increase of 13.9% — meaning its payment that year would be about $1 billion — and then additional increases in 2022 through 2025 tied to increases in South Korea’s defense budget.

The two countries reached a tentative agreement early this month for another deal covering the period from 2026 to 2030, which would begin with an 8.3% increase over the 2025 payment.  (CNN)