Monday January 27, 2025

– Balsamic Moon Phase – release, transform, healing, forgiveness, prepare for the new

– Retrogrades in 2024 – 

• Mars – December 6 – February 23
• Uranus – September 6 – February 3
• Jupiter – October 9 – February 4

– Moon in CAPRICORN –

– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) January – 26th – – Castrate Farm Animals, Mow to Slow Growth, Potty Train, Prune Trees, Wean

– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – January 26th – 27th – Good planting days for root crops where climate permits.

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Year: – 20 ARIES: a young girl feeding birds in winter

– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): – Kali – The Destroyer

– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Seth, God of the North, God of Enlightenment

– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in CAPRICORN SUN/MOON – – 10 CAPRICORN: an albatross feeding from the hand of a sailor (EARTH – 10 GEMINI: an airplane performing a nose dive)

SUN – 08 AQUARIUS: beautifully gowned wax figures on display

EARTH – 08 LEO: a communist activist spreading his revolutionary ideals

Happy Monday! Stay Strong, Be Brave, Love Hard and True.

I Hate Tariff’s

Not a great headline, I admit. NOr is it a great place to start a conversation. It’s a “Who gives a flying fuck” subject. Most people have no clue what they are, nor care a wink about them.

I really do not recall in the past 50 odd years of my existence when any President talked about them . . . until Trump. So I would like to take a few minutes to talk about them.

First let’s ask. What the hell are they? I will defer to the brilliant writers on Wikipedia:

A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and policy that taxes foreign products to encourage or safeguard domestic industry. Protective tariffs are among the most widely used instruments of protectionism . . .

So, breaking it down:

• Tax on goods
• Revenue for a government
• form of regulation on foreign trade
• Used to encourage or safeguard domestic industry

So, thinking about this, why do I care? My economic libertarianism believes in as little to no government involvement in free trade. I like to believe that in the freest of economies, we are all better off without it. So, we are America. The land of the free. We should be all about free trade . . . but are we really?

Trade wise, you have to ask yourself how free we are vs how free everyone else is. Do you have any idea????

• In general, US tariff rates are less than 2%
• Highest tariffs are charged by Third World countries – 10-40%
• The UK in general is less than 1% (The royals get their money elsewhere heehee)
• China imposes tariffs based on product categories anywhere between 2% and 35%
• Europe and the Royal Empire got away from “tariff’s” with free trade agreements. They now add what they call a VAT or Value Added Tax to all imported goods. This 20% tax IS a tariff. But since it is called something else they think it is OK

I list these mainly because most people have no idea about them. And do not care. So long as we are getting cheap imports from the far east, we are happy (forget entirely that in these far eastern countries, the people work as slaves).

Boring Boring Boring! But . . .

So boring, in fact that we all do not pay attention to it. Until Trump that is.

I believe that the “factor” that Trump brought to the Presidency of the United States was that he was not afraid of a fight. And when he does fight, he intends to win. And will use any weapon he may have at his disposal.

Previous to this, tariffs by definition were for: 1) revenue generation and 2) encourage or safeguard domestic industry.

Given the strength of the US economy vs the rest of the world, we by and large have not used them for these reasons much (well some industries like agriculture we protect pretty assiduously).

During the Trump 45 term, he changed that. He attacked China with tariffs. And the reason was not for either of those reasons. In this case, it was a punishment. One against their protective tariffs against US made goods. But more importantly, due to their theft of intellectual property – specifically stealing patents. In China, the government owns EVERYTHING. Therefor a Chinese firm that forms a partnership with an American company is effectively stealing away trade secrets that are then shared with competing industries.

They did this too many times in the automotive and tech industries. So, Trump declared war. Imposed Tariff’s as a “cease and desist” tactic. China accepted the tariffs and refused to admit what everyone knows they are doing.

When Trump did this, the democrat party and its lapdogs in the media lost their minds. Funny thing though. When they stole the Presidency in 2020, they didn’t change anything. They took the money. Even though that was never the point.

A Much Bigger Fight Today

We still see the same fight today, though on a slightly different battlefield. This is the center of the fight with TikTok. China’s TikTok app allows unlawful surveillance of users. And since the Chinese government basically owns ByteDance, they can surveil anyone using the App. Big Brother is here.

For this reason, the law was passed that the app would be outlawed unless the company is sold outside of Chinese control.

But for using Tariff’s differently, look at what has happened in Colombia over the weekend. The US tried to send some of those pesky criminal illegal aliens back to Colombia, where they had been released from prison and sent across our open southern border. Colombia’s President (a Marxist BTW). denied the flight entry. Trumps response:

• Initial 25 percent tariffs, increasing to 50 percent within a week
• Visa restrictions on Colombian government officials
• Enhanced customs inspections

This is how he fights. And the message is that this is how he will fight.

And the funny part is that as he enters into the battle, where does he receive the biggest blowback? The American Left. I am still howling over Alexandria Ocasio Cortez opining about how this is going to cause the price of coffee to go up. This is a simple diversion. The price of coffee or any other good and collecting the tariff have nothing to do with it.

This is Economic warfare. The US demands that other countries do what we ask. If they do not comply, we have the power to force it without firing a single shot. That cost to Colombia will be too high. And in the end, Colombia did as asked and accepted the illegals back.

And what an amazing win this is across the world. The message is clear. Do not fuck with us. We will attack back. Bombs are not necessary.

The tariff’s being imposed (or more likely just threatened) are not for revenue directly. It is about fairness on an already unfair playing field. It is about a leader here in the US who will not be allow us to be beaten.

We must stay strong. We must be brave.