Stormy Daniels. Image Reuters via nytimes.com
Don’t know why there’s no sun up in the sky
Stormy (Daniels) Weather
Since Donald Trump and I’ve been together
Keeps raining all the time.
The howling winds, ice-laced downed branches and big, fat raindrops and snowflakes of back-to-back nor’easters are nothing compared to the bomb cyclone that is Trump-et. The man who says he loves chaos – thinking it is somehow the same as a constructive exchange of differing ideas – has plenty of it these days. He’s got porn star Stormy Daniels suing him over the nondisclosure agreement she says he never signed, thus freeing her to show and tell about her relationship with The Donald. (I’m all for Ms. Daniels’ remaining a thorn in Trumpet’s side, but do we really want these visuals?)
Then there’s the psychodrama of Trump’s tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, which are only going to hurt everyone except in those industries. That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? You have a sector of the American economy that’s been dragging us down for 40 years, so, of course, the solution is to make life miserable for the rest of us. It’s like a school in which some kids aren’t doing well, so you fail the straight-A students. For those who think this view is exaggerated, like Trump Commerce Secretary and apologist Wilbur Ross, I call attention to the “PBS NewsHour” interview with Paul Czachor, CEO of the American Keg Co., the only domestic manufacturer of steel kegs. Its customers are craft breweries, cideries and wineries. But for how much longer is a question that disturbs Czachor, who looked like he just lost his best friend during the interview.
“Well, today, our domestic-made kegs are priced higher than several imports, mainly from China,” he told the “NewsHour’s” Hari Sreenivasen. “And if these tariffs go through, domestic steel will continue to increase in price, but all of the import kegs will still use the low-cost steel from offshore, and those prices will stay the same. Therefore, the delta will be even higher to purchase an American-made keg….the concern we have is for the downstream products, such as stainless steel beer kegs. That’s not going to help any downstream products.”
And, as Jason Ware – chief economist and CIO at Albion Financial – pointed out on PBS’ “Nightly Business Report,” there are far more people like Czachor who are employed in steel and aluminum-related and export industries than there are people employed in the steel and aluminum industries themselves.
But Trump and company don’t care. They’re not going to listen to the Czachors of the country any more than they’re going to talk with California Gov. Jerry Brown about the plight of nonviolent illegal immigrants and the sanctuary cities in his state and others that refuse to do the federal government’s job and arrest them. Brown told “PBS NewsHour” anchor Judy Woodruff that he’s willing to talk with the president about practical immigration reform. So far, the president hasn’t called.
It’s almost as if Trumpet thinks Brown, Czachor and the rest of us are like Daniels – people he can use and pay off to keep quiet.
Apparently, she won’t.
And we won’t either.