Month: November 2025

Kill

On Friday President Trump announced that: “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect….” https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115629010097815862

Rather than evaluating each Presidential order and rescinding those that are inconsistent with Trump’s policy objectives (whatever those might be), Trump rescinds them all if not signed personally by former President Biden.

This reflects Trumps use of his position to attack anyone who disagrees with him—his enemies. Rather than explaining why a policy is bad, Trump simply condemns the work of his “enemies.”

When six democratic congressmen posted a video reminding solders of their legal obligation to refuse to execute illegal orders, Trump exploded.  “The president said lawmakers who appeared in a video committed “seditious behavior” and should be arrested and put on trial for treason.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/20/trump-democrats-seditious-behavior/

A prime example of such an illegal order was Secretary Hegseth’s order to bomb boats in the Caribbean he thought were bringing illegal drugs to the US and to kill all aboard. “Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all” https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/28/hegseth-kill-them-all-survivors-boat-strike/

Hegseth’s order was illegal under both US and international law. SEAL Team 6, which committed these murders, executed an illegal order, thus violating their pledge to uphold the constitution.

President Trump also violated the law by directing the Justice Department to pursue those who criticize him—his enemies. From universities and law firms to former FBI head James Comey, and former national security advisor John Bolton, Trump has threatened to withhold Federal funds from universities that do not bow to his demands or try his enemies for one thing or other. Bolton’s crime is the same as Donald Trump’s – the improper handling of secret government documents. And of course, anything Biden did is condemned as the cause of anything wrong.

Trump’s masked ICE teams arresting and deported supposedly illegal immigrants has been a lawless disaster—occasionally arresting legal American citizen and embarrassing the whole effort to strengthen the enforcement of immigration rules.

Trump’s haphazard announcements of Tariffs, (hopefully) soon to be declared illegal by the Supreme Court, followed none of the rules of the World Trade Organization, which are designed to promote economic efficiency and thus maximize world incomes. They were deployed to bully individual countries to agree to whatever was in Trump’s interest, an interest rarely compatible with American interests.

I am all for downsizing the government, but on the basis of careful reviews of what functions are needed and desirable and the required staff to carry them out efficiently. Elon Musk’s led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took a chainsaw approach that led Trump appointed department heads to object.

This, of course, is not how a mature adult would govern in a constitutional republic. Trump and many of his appointees are not such people. Living together peacefully and productively requires civil discussion of issues and cooperation and compromise—not bullying.

Those breaking the law or issuing illegal orders should be removed from their positions and tried for the crimes they have committed.

The drums of war

The drums of war are beating for Venezuela.  Since the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon next door, we have bombed Afghanistan, Iraq, Libia, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Niger and Mali, and boats in the Caribbean and Pacific oceans. With the approach of each war, I suspect that most American’s never knew or have forgotten what war is really like. If they did they surely would oppose them and increase our reliance on and capacity for diplomacy. Last evening’s viewing of The Killing Fields provided a good reminder. War inflicts horrors beyond most of our imaginations. It should be ruled out other than for defense when we are actually attacked.

Law and Order

Every evening when we are not hosting or attending a dinner party, attending a play, concert, or conference, we lie down in bed and watch a movie or a few episodes of a TV series. Ito pushes a button and our large TV screen rises just beyond the end of our bed. Over the last few months, we have watched over 200 episodes for the original Law and Order show, starting for some reason with season 5 (1995). I want to explain why we have found this show so interesting.

The first half of each show follows the search by the police (two regulars) for the perpetrator of a crime (usually a murder). The second half presents the trial to convict the accused perpetrator conducted by two regular justice department characters. The stories themselves can be quite intriguing and the crimes and the issues around them explore every conceivable social issue in America today (e.g., affirmative action, gangs, capital punishment, same sex marriage, abortion, race and sexual discrimination, treatment of minors).

The regulars in the show—police and prosecutors –are “real” people, i.e. flawed but honestly trying to do their best. Aside from the acting being superb, what impresses me most is that for each controversial issue the arguments on both sides are strongly presented. To say the episodes are thought provoking would be an understatement. I don’t always understand the bases on which the judge allows or disallows evidence but we do learn a lot about what the law says and how it is applied. The show is still being produced and is now in its 25th season. To last that long, it must be good. We have many episodes to go and will eagerly watch them all.

Trade

Without trade each household/family would have to be self-sufficient, i.e., would only have to consume what they themselves could make, grow or do. No one would doubt the dire poverty the world would endure. Even trade limited to your neighborhood, with each household specializing in a few things to trade with other families specializing in other needs or wants would significantly increase everyone’s income. The wider the range of trade the greater the degree of specialization and increased income possible.

Expanding the potential for trade requires the ability to transport goods and serves over longer distances. The benefits of such connectedness extend well beyond higher incomes. Quoting from George Will’s wonderful book The Conservative Sensibility: Referring to the:

“Erie Canal. [Dewitt] Clinton [the sixth governor of New York] saw this project as a means of preventing states in the West from detaching themselves from the Union. The canal would “bind the union together by indissoluble ties” because the people would be “habituated to frequent intercourse and beneficial inter-communication,” and all Americans would be “bound together by the golden ties of commerce and the adamantine chains of interest.” The canal also, and inadvertently, helped to bring down the old order in Europe. By bringing cheap wheat from America’s Great Plains, the canal struck at the roots of Europe’s landed aristocracy.”

Implicit in the above is private ownership of one’s production. People work hard for their own benefit but to benefit from trade they must take account of the needs and wants of others. Trade must be win-win or it will not take place. I benefit from selling my production and you benefit from buying it. Communism—communal production—lacks the personal (selfish) incentive to work hard and has broadly failed as a system. Also from George Will: “In China, once collective farms were disbanded in 1978 under the leadership of the reformer Deng Xiaoping, agriculture output doubled in the space of just four years.”

The topic of trade keeps returning and I have written about it often. Rather than repeat myself, yet again, I will share some of those earlier blogs:

Econ 101—Trade in very simple terms
The politics of Trade
Econ 101: Tony Judt on Trade