The Week that Was ...

Ending Sunday, February 23, 2025

Feb 24, 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of The Week that Was, my rundown of what happened last week, curated, in the loosest sense of the word, for your reading pleasure, or displeasure.

Some of the lowlights include:

Photo of the Week;
The Real Logic Behind Tariffs;
Ukraine at Risk
Muskmail;
The Deafening Silence of the Lambs;
Gaza;
Governor Hochul Shows Some Fire and Mayor Adams Sues His Benefactor; and
Mexican Cartels Designated as Foreign Terrorists by the U.S. Department of Terror; and
Gold Gold Gold Where Is Our Gold?;
Anarcho-capitalist President Milei of Argentina Supports a Meme Coin from the Same Person Who Created Melania Trump’s Meme Coin (Both Tanked);
Donald Trump’s Favorite Movie: Citizen Kane; and
Bonus Video.

Some of the links below have paywalls. I’ve used more pay-wall free links than in the past, to facilitate your reading.

1. Photo of the Week

A Flag on the Side of El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, hung by National Park Employees in protest.

Credit: © Susan Meiselas

2. Tariffs Again

The Real Logic Behind the Trump Tariffs

Trump has now stated unequivocally that he will be levying tariffs on cars, electronic goods, and just about everything. The conventional wisdom is that is this is bad economics and shows a lack of understanding of economics, but there may be something more sinister than just old-fashioned mercantilism leavened with bigotry.

“It sounds too radical to even warrant a second thought. That President Donald Trump could force some of the US’s foreign creditors to swap their Treasuries into ultra long-term bonds to ease the country’s debt burden.
“Other elements of the plan include the creation of a sovereign wealth fund — which Trump has already set in motion — and forcing America’s allies to shoulder a larger share of security spending.”

And this had the advantage for Trump that he doesn’t have to go to Congress for tax increases—the president has the power to impose tariffs on his own.

In fact, tariff revenue can be used to finance tax cuts for the rich.

‘Mar-a-Lago Accord’ Chatter Is Getting Wall Street’s Attention

More detail, if you are interested:

“Required reading on this is an essay by Stephen Miran, a credentialled economist, asset manager and fellow of the Manhattan Institute, whom the president has nominated to chair the Council of Economic Advisers. In “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System,” Miran considers the options for “generational change in the international trade and financial systems.”

A Unified Economic Theory of Being a Bully

For a more revealing take, a view of the below-linked video from Yanis Varoufakis on Break Through News:

Trump, Europe’s Collapse & Why Liberals Keep Losing, w/ Yanis Varoufakis

Meanwhile, The PRC Is Planning

In response to the threat, I mean, promise, or U.S. tariffs, the PRC is making plans:

“’It is necessary to resolutely remove all kinds of obstacles to the equal use of production factors and fair participation in market competition,’ [PRC President] Xi told the entrepreneurs, according to Xinhua. Beijing should ‘continue to promote the fair opening of the competitive field of infrastructure to all kinds of business entities, and continue to make great efforts to solve the problem of difficult and expensive financing for private enterprises,’ Xi said.”

Xi Voices Support for Jack Ma, China Private Sector Chiefs

European Stocks Outperform U.S. Stocks Since Trump’s Election

Now this is surprising:

“European stocks have outpaced the US in the month since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, as hopes rise that the region might escape a worst-case scenario trade war.
“The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index has gained 5.2 per cent since January 17, the last trading day before Trump re-entered the White House, while on Wall Street the S&P 500 has risen 2.5 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has advanced 1.7 per cent.”

European stocks outpace Wall Street since Donald Trump took office

3. Ukrainian Games, or High Schoolers with Nuclear Weapons Playing Risk

First Trump is conciliatory.

“’He [President Zelensky] will be involved, yes,’ Trump said Sunday in response to reporters’ questions after attending the Daytona 500 car race in Florida.”

Trump Says Zelenskiy to Take Part in Peace Talks With Russia

Then Trump attacked Zelensky viciously, in a sort of dysfunctional family cycle of abuse:

“Why it matters: In the past 24 hours, Trump called Zelensky "a dictator without elections," falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia and said it ‘could have made a deal’ to end the fighting.”

Trump's "dictator" slam of Zelensky rocks Capitol Hill

Trump had a temper tantrum because President Zelensky voiced his viewpoints, probably because he felt unburdened after the extortion attempts.

“Feb. 12: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Zelensky in Kyiv to offer a proposal that would give the U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral rights in return for de facto U.S. protection. Trump later told reporters Zelensky was ‘rude’ and delayed his meeting with Bessent because he slept in.
“Feb. 14: At the Munich Security Conference, Vance and Rubio met Zelensky to get his approval for the mineral rights deal. But, the officials said, Zelensky surprised the Americans by saying he didn't have the authority to unilaterally approve it without parliament.
“Feb. 15: Zelensky publicly rejected the offer at the conference. White House sources noted that his remarks to reporters — that the deal was "not in the interests of a sovereign Ukraine" — were markedly different from more positive-sounding comments he'd made on X the day before.
“Feb. 18: As Rubio, Waltz and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff sat down with Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia to talk peace, Zelensky criticized the meeting for occurring without Ukraine at the table. An angry Trump then lashed out at Zelensky at a Mar-a-Lago press conference, falsely suggesting Zelensky had started the war with Russia and had an approval rating of only 4%.
“Feb. 19: Zelensky fired back, saying the U.S. president "lives in a disinformation space." Trump then ratcheted up the pressure by posting on Truth Social that Zelensky, a former actor, was a ‘modestly successful comedian’ who has become a ‘dictator without elections.’ Trump has refused to criticize Putin as a dictator.”

Zelensky's five moves that set off Trump

Greater Eastern Europe Co-Prosperity Sphere

In a move that is reminiscent of President’s Bush’s plans during the second Gulf War (that’s the Persian Gulf), Trump’s Treasury Secretary stated that our taking Ukraine’s mineral wealth was all about helping them become prosperous.

US says revenue from minerals deal will fuel Ukraine’s postwar growth

4. Muskmail and U.S. Governance

The Musk rat emailed all federal employees asking what they did in the week.

“’Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,’ Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.’
Shortly afterward, federal employees — including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials — received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”

Musk gives all federal workers 48 hours to explain what they did last week or face consequences

5. The Deafening Silence of the Lambs

Where Are the Leaders?

This is a photo collage that has been circulating on social media, portraits of the silent leaders.

Outrage Growing over Democratic Party Establishment’s Lack of Vigor

Persons who have voted for Democrats for Congress have become increasingly upset with the party’s establishment worse than anemic response to Trump.

This is a remarkable case of elite inaction sliding into elite failure.

“The phrase going around is, ‘The Democrats have brought a lectern to a social media war.’ Masses of enraged, terrified people are looking at the analog, slow-motion leadership of Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer and the zero-calorie rhetoric of House leader Hakeem Jeffries and want them replaced by people who know how to fight. As The Nation has reported, when Democratic politicians have shown up to protests, people aren’t cheering their presence. They are howling at them to do more. …
As Moira Donegan wrote in The Guardian, “Why are the Democrats so spineless?” The conventional wisdom is that they simply “don’t know how” to wage a social media and public-relations attack that can, to use one blaring example, define people like JD Vance as a Nazi-curious Manchurian Candidate.
“But we need to lose the theory that these Dems are ‘spineless’ and just don’t understand how to wage political war. We know they can be vicious because we’ve seen them execute that kind of operation against the left since Ralph Nader caught them sleeping in 2000. We have seen them do it maliciously during Senator Bernie Sanders’s two primary runs. [emphasis added] We saw Black and brown women stamped as “Bernie Bros” with enough, yes, ruthless, repetition to make it stick. We’ve seen President Barack Obama with all his rhetorical powers hector young Black men, but not aim his electric cadence at Musk and his Palo Alto brownshirts. It’s not that they cannot—they will not. When it was Sanders or an individual who demanded even a modest change in policy on Gaza, they brought out the knives. When it’s Musk and his apartheid army of incels, they wield sporks. Yet, as we keep seeing, spork fighting is demoralizing.

Why Democrats Won’t Throw a Real Punch

6. Meanwhile, Back at the Genocide

At the beginning of the week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that his government will continue with the idea of deporting Palestinian residents of Gaza to other Arab countries, as Rubio, to his credit, looked uncomfortable.

However, the Rubio showed how out of touch he was by stating on the “Clay and Buck Show” (a podcast):

“’If the Arab countries have a better plan, then that’s great,’ Rubio said Thursday on the ‘Clay and Buck Show.’
“But ‘Hamas has guns,’ he added. ‘Someone has to confront those guys. It’s not going to be American soldiers. And if the countries in the region can’t figure that piece out, then Israel is going to have to do it.’”
Hamas has guns.

Israel’s Netanyahu signals he’s moving ahead with Trump’s idea to transfer Palestinians from Gaza

7. Governor Hochul Shows Some Passion While Mayor Adams Decides to Sue His Benefactor

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York became incensed at the dichotomy of Trump’s invitation to Washington and Trump’s Attorney General stating that she was about file charges against Governor Hochul.

Gov. Hochul: "Are you going to slam handcuffs on my hands?"

And then Mayor Eric Adams sued Trump, the man who just lifted the indictment for bribery, for taking $80M from a New York City bank account, funds that were to be used to for immigration services. Thanks for growing a spine. Let’s hope it lasts.

Eric Adams sues Trump over missing $80M

8. Mexican Cartels Designated Terrorist Groups by the U.S. Department of Terror

Well, they did it. Terrorists pointing fingers at gangsters. Nice.

The below-linked article appeared in The Financial Times, from the word processor of Christine Murphy, so you know it’s well-distorted.

“I think Mexico is largely run by the cartels and that’s a sad thing to say, and if they wanted help with that, we’d give them help,” Trump said on Tuesday.”

Murray casually omitted that the evidence that Trump cited was from 2012, the case of Genero Garcia Luna, the Mexican Secretary of Public Security under President Felipe Calderon, PAN, from 2006 to 2012, over a dozen years ago.

“In recent years, the cartels have deepened their territorial control in Mexico, keeping murders and disappearances near record highs.”

Well, no, Ms. Murray, the murder rate is down.

“The decision comes amid growing reports of greater use of US reconnaissance drones over Mexico to gather intelligence on the groups. Experts say it also raises the possibility of US drone strikes on Mexican territory.”

Actually, these flights are known to the Mexican government. See below.

Donald Trump designates Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups

Mexico president says her government requested US surveillance drone flights

President Sheinbaum is aware of the surveillance flights.

“Sheinbaum on Wednesday presented a more detailed explanation.
“’These flights are part of the coordination … collaborations that have been going on for many years, between the United States government and the Mexican government,’ Sheinbaum said at her daily press briefing. ‘Every time it is at Mexico’s request for collaboration, for information to be able to attend to security conditions.’”

She said the information gathered was shared with Mexican authorities.

Meanwhile, in Mexico:

“Jose Angel Canobbio Inzunza was arrested in the city of Culiacán in northwest Mexico Wednesday, according to Omar Hamid García Harfuch, secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico.
“On Thursday, Mexico also arrested Kevin Alonso ‘N,’ in Culiacán, Sinaloa, according to Harfuch.”

Mexico announces arrests of alleged high ranking Sinaloa Cartel members

9. Gold Gold Gold Our Gold

Fort Knox

If he is to be believed, E__n M__k buys into the well-worn conspiracy that the gold held by the U.S.

What is Fort Knox, anyway? Well, this is Fort Knox:

Scene Camera Operator: John Coffman

It’s the National Bullion reserve.

What to know about Fort Knox's gold depository that Musk wants audited

10. Anarcho-Capitalist Argentinian President Javier Milei Touts Fraudulent Crypto Meme Coin $Libre

What Do President Milei and First Lady Milania Trump Have in Common? Hayden Davis, The Mastermind Behind Two Failed Meme Coins

On Friday, February 14 (that’s right, Valentine’s Day), anarcho-capitalist chain saw loving Argentinian President Javier Milei posted on the Argentinian Presidency X account a communication of the sort formerly known as a “tweet” promoting a “meme coin” called $Libre that turned out to be, not surprisingly, a gigantic fraud.

“The coin’s price soared almost immediately, pushing the market value for the project beyond $4 billion.

A few hours after launch, early holders of the coin started cashing out of the project and its price collapsed.

“Hayden Davis, a 28-year-old American crypto developer who said he’s an adviser to Milei and helped launch $LIBRA, has emerged as a central figure. Milei’s office said the government has no connection to Davis.
“In an interview with independent crypto journalist Stephen Findeisen, Davis said that meme coins are essentially a rigged game that benefit a small group of people at the expense of retail investors.

‘It is an insiders’ game. This is an unregulated casino,’ Davis said.
“Davis said the $LIBRA coin was not a rug pull but was supposed to be an experiment to show the power and utility of digital currency that’s consistent with Milei’s desire for Argentina to be a hub for innovation.

“Davis also said he was involved in the launch of Melania Trump’s meme coin. Launched just before her husband took office, that meme coin’s price underwent a similar trajectory as $LIBRA — quickly soaring upon launch and then dropping. The first lady’s office declined to comment.”

You read that right. Melania Trump used the same man to create her meme coin. And Melania bux were also a bust.

Below is a chart of the value of the Melania Trump meme coin.