Storm clouds on the horizon for Trump, business and consumer interests, and Elon Musk update 12/14/2024

 Trump faces storm clouds on the horizon as he faces pressure from business interests and Elon Musk. Business interests may be the only guardrails Trump will face challenging his priorities. To Trump, what matters to him is what the stock market is doing.  If that begins to tank due to inflation rising again, maybe he might begin to see the folly of high tariffs and immigration policies causing a labor shortage as he tries to live up to his campaign policies to mess with both. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/19/business/guardrails-trump-economy-stock-market-bonds     He is already fudging on his promises to lower grocery prices. 

An excellent  article on Trump's threatened tariffs on Chinese imports, from the business/investor viewpoint. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/china-has-been-stockpiling-a-key-us-crop-before-trump-takes-office

Update 12/14/2024 .If there was one issue that tipped the election to Trump, it was his promise to lower grocery prices. He made a big deal of it in his campaign, he promised he would, polls confirmed that was the reason he won, and now he is already admitting he will have a hard time rolling back grocery prices. In fact, the likelihood that grocery prices will inflate will be due to his tariffs on imports from Mexico and a labor shortage from farm to processing caused by mass deportations. https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-already-walked-back-221600205.html

Trump says it will be 'hard' to bring grocery prices down. Here's why. Already, Trump is blaming Biden, not COVID-19, not supply chain mess-ups, empty shelves, or stimulus checks causing more demand than supply. As Biden leaves office, grocery price inflation had been near zero for the past year. However, if grocery prices go south, tariffs and immigration will be to blame,. The message must be more than "we told you so," but to tie it to Trump's own actions and deserved blame for whatever happened on his watch. 

The other issue that motivated some to vote for Trump was the price of gas at the pump and his promise to make that cheaper.  That one will not happen either. Drill baby drill might make oil patch oligarchs righer, but not the rest of us:

 Another reason why drill baby drill will not reduce prices at the pump. Gist of the article: supply and demand are set internationally so that even producing more oil will not affect prices at American pumps..  The US does not control oil supply and demand and any extra oil we produce may be offset by less drilling in another country. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/why-trump-s-plan-to-drill-baby-drill-is-unlikely-to-cut-gas-prices-and-fix-inflation/ar-AA1vTbWR?

There are other reasons drill baby drill will not reduce prices at the pump:  We do not have a shortage of crude oil, but oil patch already has leases with oil for the next 40 years. What they really want is to remove environmental restraints so they can increase their profit margins, but that will not20 affect gas at the pump either.  MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: The BS of "drill baby drill"; makes unnecessary

Update 12/20/2024:  Wonder why the EU was left out of the Trump threat to raise tariffs on imports? It was rumored the EU threatened to block energy/gas imports from the US as a retaliation to tariffs on their exports to the US, setting off the US gas industry. Trump listened.  This is how Trump couched it in terms of a trade-off to bring down the trade imbalance and make him look like the ultimatum was his ultimatum tat is as advantage to the US.. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/20/trump-says-european-union-must-buy-us-oil-and-gas-in-trade-ultimatum.html     Here is how the spin is being positionedby Trump for the benefit of his MAGA's ears . Donald Trump Threatens Europe With Tariffs - Newsweek    Unknown if there will be any impact on the US consumer in righting a trade imbalance, but they will avoid having high tariffs passed on to them for European imports.  Medicinal and pharmaceutical products, motor cars and motor vehicles are the major items US imports from Europe.  

EU-US trade - Consilium.europa.eu

Consilium.europa.eu

This section regarding billionaires and oligarchs is moved to a separate posting: MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Musk's return on investment in Trump has just begun

Anti maskers and anti vaccination advocates are cut from the same dangerous cloth

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/05/29/mapping-covid-19s-spread-from-blue-to-red-america/ Highest pro Trump 2016 counties have the highest rate of COID19 infections.  COVID goes where there irresponsible adults who drank the and swallowed the Trump propaganda.  Anti maskers and anti-vaccination advocates are cut from the same dangerous cloth. The argument is the same whether it is about anti-vaxxers (anti-vaccinations) and anti maskers. At issue:; personal rights vs the impact on others. Both are anti-science and both are about being responsible for ourselves and our health and society. If the goal to kill the COVID-19 virus is for 60% of the population to become immune, either having and surviving the virus and/or getting vaccinated, then we should. get vaccinated. once there is an effective and safe vaccine. I will not make my decision based upon some ideological devotion to a theoretical concept. but I do appreciate the ability to have a choice based upon science...not some misplaced reliance solely on libertarianism rights and unsubstantiated beliefs. Trump's push to hurry up to get a vaccination is harmful if it shortcuts the scientific research and trial studies. We owe it to ourselves and others to get vaccinated. We are so far away from that percentage, we will not get there alone with those infected by surviving the virus they caught without vaccinations. .For those who refuse to get vaccinations or wear masks, they are unwittingly or uncaring enough to keep from spreading it to others. It is a matter of responsibility to society versus personal beliefs..and science.. I come down on the side being responsible to society and also to myself. Those values are not in conflict. My view comes from being aware of my self-interest, too.: I consider anti maskers a public health threat to my well-being especially since I am a senior over 80 years old. Scientific evidence is overwhelming that masks do cut down on the amount of spreading of the disease. I consider anti-vaxxers a threat to my great-grandchildren since all of my children and grandchildren have been vaccinated. against DPT and polio, and measles, and have never died from those diseases. Whooping cough is on the rise because of such anti-vaxxers..There is a correlation between the rates of mortality of children and the advent of vaccinations of over a century, as well., that cannot be ignored. .There are plenty of studies showing that learning disabilities are not caused by vaccinations but by many other factors, including heredity. My daughter is a teacher and she must have boosters and shots against DPT and measles as a requirement to teach and to protect herself from the anti-vaxxers in her classroom.. I will follow the science on both accounts...science provided by evidence of scientific studies and experts who know because of their education. Whether I get vaccinated against the virus will depend on how the scientific trials now going on provide evidence they are effective and safe. I will not make my decision based upon some ideological devotion to a theoretical concept. but I do appreciate the ability to have a choice based upon science...not some misplaced reliance solely on libertarianism rights or everything not supplied by mother nature or God is bad or some far fetched conspiracy theory .lacking evidence.