“President” Trump doesn’t seem to understand how tariffs work. He consistently states that imposing tariffs on imported Chinese products means that China will be paying the U.S. billions of dollars. It appears he thinks that the 10% in effect today and the possible 15% additional tomorrow is paid by China. How wrong he is.

In theory putting tariffs on other nations products will force that nation to lower prices to be more competitive. This has not happened with China. Let’s take a look at a common product imported from China, engineered hardwood flooring. Say I am an importer and I purchase a product for $2.00 per square foot from China. I then re-sell the product to U.S. consumers for $2.40 per square foot. Now add the tariffs. If the additional tariffs go into effect tomorrow then I will have to pay China the original $2.00 but also have to pay the tariff (import tax) of $0.50 to the U.S. government. Now my cost is $2.50 per square foot. Using the same profit margin I now sell to U.S. consumers for $3.00 per square foot. China still gets the same price, I still make my margin, the U.S. gets their tax and the consumer gets screwed. Or I have to lower my margins and take less profit. That means less pay to my employees which again screws the U.S. consumer (see a trend here?).

In addition China has put retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products from fish to soybeans. But instead of continuing to import from the U.S. to China they are now importing from other nations to bypass the additional cost of importing. Who does that hurt? Once again the U.S. consumer. Why? Because U.S. producers are losing business, laying off employees, defaulting on loans, etc..

I hope our “president” reads this or at the very least listens to someone who can explain it to him. Maybe it needs to be presented in an even a more simplified form. Maybe cartoon drawings with bright colors, big letters and very, very short words!

Don’t get me wrong, I think China needs to change their policies to make trade practices fair to both countries. But tariffs are not working and will not work with China. China can dictate to their consumers what nations can import to China. The U.S. is more open (and should be).

Then there’s the problem of capacity. Let’s go back to flooring. Waterproof vinyl flooring is the hottest product on the market right now. Almost every single square foot of WPC and SPC flooring is made in China. If tariffs make it feasible to manufacture in the U.S. then factories will be built. However the flooring industry has estimated that it would take approximately 1 decade to build out the infrastructure necessary to produce the quantity of flooring made in China today.

I would love to see us buy only U.S. made products but that is not feasible. Today’s market is global. If we buy only U.S. then why would any country import from us? Technology has made it so that any reasonably stable nation can build out the infrastructure and produce their own goods. At this point in history we need more cooperation with the people that share this world not less.

Politics is a Christian white man’s game. Always has been. Lately we have seen a trend but look at our history. Until Barack Obama we’ve never had anything but a Christian (at least outwardly), white male president. Of course for many years only white men could vote. So scared were the Christian white men that they had to keep women, people of color, even Native Americans from voting lest they lose their power.

Obama changed all that. And that scared the shit of them. In November of 2007, when Obama became president elect, the country was ready for a new future. Journalists raved on about how the United States had become a post-racial society. All was rosy. Except for one little problem. The quiet non-voting public had been scared. The white nationalists began at that time to start working on the destruction of the Obama presidency. They were afraid the people of color were taking over the country. That could not continue. Their stated objective was to make sure that Obama was a one term president. That did not happen. Was that because Americans wanted Obama more than Mitt Romney? Only fourteen men (notice the gender) have been elected to two terms and served both terms. Three other men (again) were elected to second terms but did not serve out those second terms.

Our nation is a nation of racists. We were conceived out of racism. Our constitution may say “all men are created equal” but that was written by men of whom many were slave owners! We as a people have never given equal rights to people of color, people of religion other than Christianity, women or LGBT+. Therefore our country is scared.

How many African Americans have been killed by police since Obama took office? How many hate crimes have there been against blacks, Hispanics, women, Native Americans, LGBT+? Too many to list here! On June 17, 2015 a young white man convinced a bible study group to allow him to attend their meeting. After the meeting was over he pulled out a gun and shot nine people to their death. Exclaiming at the time (reportedly) “I have to do this, you people are raping our women and taking over our country”! As you know this was an African American church group. Listen to how Trump talks about women, immigrants, women of color, the disabled. You have all heard it before! His supporters are like hyenas at a kill, yelping and chowing down on the carcass.

The vote in 2016 proved that that quiet non-voting public had shown up. They came out in support of the racist man that became our “president”. Listen to the rallies, listen to the supporters, listen the words of the man himself. Fear of the non-white man saturates his rhetoric and his followers become lemmings. The Trumpers are no longer afraid to show that they are racist, misogynistic, anti LGBT+. They have a leader that has given them courage to be who they are. And who they are, who a good portion of Americans are, is scary to those reasonable people in this country. The right is scared of the left and the left scared of the right.

All of this and more is due to Barack Obama. If he hadn’t become president that quiet non-voting public may have stayed in their caves and under their rocks. Of course if he hadn’t been black and his name was John Smith then every thing would have been okay too.

The bottom line is Barack Obama is what Americans fear and therefore hate. A well educated, well spoken, powerful and admired black man. There is nothing that strikes more fear into the old, white, Christian power base (and their followers) than someone like this.

Now we have to work so hard to turn the country around again. We need to look to the future and we have to teach those who hate that fear is not the answer. Anytime we face our fears we find a better life on the other side.

The “president” has now said for the second time that Paul Manafort’s outcome proves there is no collusion. He cites both judges as proof. Saying that they said there was no collusion. Now Manafort’s lawyer comes out and says the judge said there was no collusion. So the “president” is now in the clear, out of the woods, free sailing.

Only one little problem (or actually two). Neither judge said there wasn’t collusion. They both said collusion wasn’t part of the trial! That is quite a difference.

The “president’s” base will believe what he says and go on the repeat the lies. How do we get it through their heads that this man isn’t on their side? He is destroying the credibility of our entire government and justice department.

On a side note Ethiopia will not turn over the black box from the Boeing 737 Max 8 that crashed to the NTSB. Citing uneasiness concerning undue influence by American experts over the outcome of the investigation. They would prefer to work with the U.K’s AAIB. Coincidence?