Wednesday, March 19, 2025

A Businessman and a Brilliant Strategist


Business schools and military schools borrow extensively from each other’s academic literature.  Although the workings of the boardroom and the battlefield might seem mismatched, there is considerable overlap.  Both require leaders capable of assessing assets and liabilities dispassionately, developing short-term strategies that complement long-term objectives, and comprehending an adversary’s point of view.  Both demand critical thinking.

Organizational theory, as a scholarly discipline, reflects the shared language of businesspeople and military planners.  Business executives “go to war” against rivals and cordon off associates in “war rooms” when their firms’ interests are “under attack.”  Military commanders seek to maximize “opportunity” and “leverage” while minimizing “loss.”  Allocating resources efficiently and avoiding waste are crucial for both vocations.  Just as an accountant is essential for a healthy business, a quartermaster is essential for a healthy army.  In business and war, technical knowhow, tactical skill, and logistical expertise separate winners from losers, victors from the vanquished.

What is striking about President Trump’s return to the White House is how completely he embodies this business-military mindset.  If a plan of action (a government program) is ineffective in achieving its goals, then the Trump administration terminates it immediately.  If government bureaucrats within the Executive Branch’s ranks serve no purpose or fail in their day-to-day missions, then they are relieved of their duties.  Just as fat, incompetent armies devour supplies and lose battles, bloated, incompetent bureaucracies devour resources and sabotage nations.  Military commanders have no time to worry about an individual soldier’s feelings when operational success and lives are on the line.  The chief executive of the United States has no time to worry about an individual bureaucrat’s feelings when the nation’s success and all Americans’ lives are at stake.

Anybody with a connection to the world of business or the armed forces recognizes in Trump certain qualities that successful CEOs and battle-hardened commanders often possess: a penchant for plain speaking, a no-nonsense attitude, and a steady focus on the larger mission.  Don’t get me wrong; President Trump might just be the funniest, most entertaining man to ever hold the office.  But he uses humor strategically.  With a single rhetorical jab, he lifts friends up and destroys enemies.  His humor is particularly effective because he pulls no punches.  He paints and demolishes targets in quick succession.  Before his opponents regain their balance, Trump has already changed directions and readied another attack.  As Democrats in Congress have slowly come to understand, it is very difficult to defend your position when you can’t even stay on your feet.

Trump’s no-holds-barred return to the presidency has taken the Democrat party by surprise.  Democrats have controlled the permanent administrative state for nearly a hundred years.  During this prolonged occupation, their Marxist colleagues in the State Department have steered the country’s foreign policy, and their ideological comrades in the courts have rewritten the Constitution to advance Democrats’ socialist policies.  Barack Obama and Joe Biden used the IRS and FBI to target political opponents.  They used the DOJ and regulatory bodies as weapons to force DIE, ESG, and other “woke” pathologies upon private businesses.  They directed the Intelligence Community to spy on and censor American citizens.  Because Democrats have controlled the permanent bureaucracy for so long, the Obama and Biden administrations received astonishingly little pushback against their efforts to complete America’s transformation into a one-party state.

From Democrats’ point of view, President Trump’s opening salvo against the administrative state is inexplicable and abhorrent because they have long labored under the delusion that only they may wield government power.  If you believe the unelected bureaucracy is a threat to the U.S. Constitution and the American Republic (as I do), then the war that the Democrats and their administrative state friends have waged against the American people this last century has been entirely one-sided.  They have been the only army occupying the battlefield, and no one has effectively contested their bureaucratic siege of the country.  

President Trump has only just begun to land blows on the Deep State blob, but the Democrat party is already losing what’s left of its collective mind.  Although Trump’s victory over the administrative state is far from certain, Democrats never expected anyone to fight back.  The unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy has advanced uncontested for so long that the mere arrival of an opposing commander willing to face it on the field of battle is unsettling.  The Trump administration’s clear preparation for the larger war to reclaim Executive Branch powers illegitimately seized by the Deep State has left Washington’s Establishment Class deeply afraid.

If the Democrat-controlled Deep State in America is struggling to defend itself from President Trump’s MAGA insurgency, foreign governments are faring no better.  

For eighty years, the United States has expended tremendous military resources in defending Canada and most of Europe.  At the same time, the U.S. has permitted Canada and the European Union to construct tariff walls that keep American exports out without imposing reciprocal tariffs of its own.  In effect, the U.S. has been subsidizing Canada’s and Europe’s economies since WWII, while paying for their collective defense.  Although this arrangement has kept Western allies united under America’s leadership, American households have borne a great cost in lost jobs and transferred wealth.  The arrangement — combined with international trade “deals” that only further accelerated the offshoring of American jobs — has severely diminished America’s once-formidable industrial and manufacturing self-sufficiency.

President Trump has thrown a whole hardware store’s worth of wrenches into this arrangement.  He is implementing reciprocal tariffs that help balance the economic playing field and is insisting that nations benefiting from America’s security umbrella pay for the privilege.  By the way Canadian and European politicians are freaking out over Trump’s demands, you’d think all these “proud and sovereign” nations believed they were entitled to American military protection and economic welfare.

In business and war, you cannot fight an opponent effectively without understanding that opponent’s motivations.  Fortunately for Europe and Canada, President Trump has been exceedingly clear: economic security is national security.  Therefore, the Trump administration will do whatever it must to rebuild America’s manufacturing and industrial strength.  Increasing the incentives for entrepreneurs to invest in the United States furthers this goal.  

Europe and Canada have made no effort to understand President Trump’s goals.  How do we know?  Because their politicians have done nothing but threaten new tariffs.  Tariffs are no threat, however, to a country that is blessed with abundant natural resources and striving to reclaim its self-sufficiency.  A “tariff war” exacerbated by European and Canadian politicians gives President Trump and his economic team what they want — an opportunity to fuel American investment and bring blue-collar jobs back to the United States.  

President Trump is a remarkably creative problem-solver who approaches obstacles from many different (and often unexpected) angles.  He intuitively puts into practice something President Eisenhower famously advised: When you run into a problem that you can’t solve, make it bigger.  Where Trump’s critics see chaos, business and military minds see brilliance. 

How do you rectify America’s industrial vulnerabilities as quickly as possible?  You set in motion tough-love trade battles that force American entrepreneurs to rebuild.  How do you prepare “Fortress America” for future conflicts in a multipolar world?  You re-energize the Monroe Doctrine by asserting American power north to the Arctic via Greenland and Canada and south to Central America via the Panama Canal.  How do you end an unnecessary nuclear standoff with Russia that consumes valuable military resources?  You expand economic cooperation agreements that turn old foes into unexpected business partners.  

Strategic minds solve problems by playing parts of the board that others don’t see.  His detractors will deny it, but President Trump is a master strategist.  That’s why he’s winning.



X22, And we Know, and more- March 19

 



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North Dakota jury finds Greenpeace liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages


While Greenpeace denied it played more than a peripheral role in the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the pipeline owner claimed the group organized a campaign of misinformation and direct training to the protesters.

By Kevin Killough   *   Published: March 19, 2025    *    Just the News

A North Dakota jury on Wednesday found Greenpeace liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages over its role in months-long protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017.

After two days of deliberation, the New York Times reported, the jury returned the verdict. Energy Transfer, the owner and operator of the pipeline, filed the lawsuit in North Dakota state court against Greenpeace and Red Warrior Camp, which Energy Transfer claimed was a front for Greenpeace, and three individuals. 

The lawsuit alleges that Greenpeace had engaged in a misinformation campaign with mass emails falsely claiming that the Dakota Access Pipeline would cross the sovereign land of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. In court filings, Energy Transfer claimed protesters engaged in a campaign of “militant direct action,” including trespassing on the company’s property, vandalizing construction equipment, and assaulting employees and contractors. 

In testimony at the trial, Greenpeace maintained that it played only a minor role in what were protests led by indigenous groups. The organization argues, CNN reported, that the lawsuit is an effort on the part of the company to violate Greenpeace’s free speech rights. 

“This is a test on our First Amendment rights during a very, very dangerous time in this country’s history,” Deepa Padmanabha, senior legal advisor for Greenpeace USA, told CNN. Padmanabha told the Associated Press, when asked if Greenpeace plans to appeal, that "this fight is not over." 

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/north-dakota-jury-finds-greenpeace-liable-hundreds-millions-dollars-damages


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Historical Events on March 19


Historical Events on March 19

  • 1227 Count Ugolino of Segna elected Pope Gregory IX
  • 1279 A Mongolian victory at the naval Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China
  • 1452 Frederick III of Hapsburg crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Nicholas V at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome -last Holy Emperor crowned in Rome
  • 1524 Giovanni de Varrazano, a Florentine explorer in the service of King Francis I of France, lands around area of Carolinas
  • 1540 Court of Holland names Amsterdam sheriff John Hubrechtsz a "heretic"
  • 1563 Peace of Amboise: Rights for Huguenots
  • 1571 Spanish troops occupy Manila
  • 1644 200 members of Peking imperial family and court commit suicide in loyalty to the Emperor
  • 1682 Assembly of the French clergy issues a declaration stating, among other things, that the power of the King is not subject to papal authority
  • 1687 Explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men
  • 1748 Naturalization Act passes granting Jews right to colonize North American colonies
  • 1775 4 people buried by avalanche for 37 days, 3 survive (Italy)
  • 1775 Poland & Prussia sign trade agreement
  • 1803 Friedrich Schiller's "Die Braut von Messina" premieres in Weimar
  • 1812 The first Spanish constitution is enacted, one of the earliest constitutions ever promulgated
  • 1831 1st US bank robbery, the City Bank in New York robbed of $245,000
  • 1861 The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand
  • 1863 Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, and medicines then valued over $1,000,000. Wreck discovered exactly 102 years later by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence.
  • 1864 Charles Gounod's opera "Mireille" premieres at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, France
  • 1865 Battle of Bentonville, Confederates retreat from Greenville North Carolina
  • 1866 Immigrant ship Monarch of the Seas sinks in Liverpool; 738 die
  • 1870 Antônio Carlos Gomes' opera "Il Guarany" premieres at La Scala Teatro in Milan, Kingdom of Italy
  • 1877 Australia beat England by 45 runs in very first Test match
  • 1892 3 brothers Hearne play in same Test Cricket England v South Africa (Cape Town)
  • 1895 Los Angeles Railway is established to provide streetcar service
  • 1907 18.8 cm precipitation at Lewer's Ranch, Nevada (state record)
  • 1911 1st International Women's Day sees over 1 million men and women attend rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Issues discussed included women's right to vote and to hold public office, the right to work, to vocational training and an end to discrimination on the job.
  • 1914 Stanley Cup, Arena Gardens, Toronto ON: Toronto HC (NHA) defeat Victoria Aristocrats (PCHA), 2-1 for a 3-0 series sweep; final series of the "challenge" era
  • 1915 Pluto photographed for 1st time (although unknown at the time)
  • 1915 VI Summer (Modern) Olympic Games: IOC President Pierre de Coubertin writes to Associated Press indicating 1916 Berlin Games won't take place because of WWI
  • 1917 US Supreme Court uphoelds 8-hr work day for railroad employees
  • 1917 Victor Herbert and Harry Blossom's operetta "Eileen", loosely based on a novel by Herbert's grandfather, premieres at Shubert Theater, New York City
  • 1918 S Potter becomes 1st US pilot to shoot down a German seaplane
  • 1918 US adopts Standard Time Act of 1918, also known as the Calder Act, a federal law implementing standard time (and daylight saving time) and defining five time zones for the United States
  • 1921 Italian Fascists shoot from the Parenzana train at a group of children in Strunjan (Slovenia): two children are killed, two mangled and three wounded
  • 1927 Bloody battles between communists & Nazis in Berlin
  • 1928 "Amos & Andy" debuts on radio (NBC Blue Network-WMAQ Chicago)
  • 1930 Nakagawa Soen accepted as a student of Katsube Keigaku Roshi
  • 1931 Nevada legalizes gambling
  • 1932 The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened in Sydney, Australia
  • 1937 Astronomer Fritz Zwicky publishes his research on stellar explosion in which he coins the term "supernova" and hypothesizes that they were the origin of cosmic rays
  • 1938 NHL Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Americans combine to score 8 goals in just under 5 minutes; Toronto wins game 8-5
  • 1940 Failed British air raid on German base at Sylt
  • 1941 Jimmy Dorsey & his Orchestra record "Green Eyes" and "Maria Elena", with vocals by Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly, in New York 
  • 1942 Thoroughbred Racing Association of US formed in Chicago
  • 1943 British 8th army opens assault on Mareth line, Tunisia
  • 1943 Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard
  • 1944 British composer Michael Tippett's oratorio "A Child of Our Time" premieres at the Adelphi Theatre in London, England
  • 1945 800 killed as Kamikaze attacked USS Franklin off Japan
  • 1945 British 36th division conquers Mogok (ruby mine)
  • 1945 US Task Force 58 attacks ships near Kobe/Kure
  • 1946 French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique & Reunion become overseas "departments" of France
  • 1946 Nikolai Mikhailovich Schwernik succeeds Kalinin as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
  • 1947 Belgian government of Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium Socialist Party) forms
  • 1947 Chinese Nationalist General Chiang Kai-shek conquers Jinan
  • 1948 Lee Savold KOs Gino Buonvino in 54 seconds at Madison Square Garden, NYC
  • 1949 1st museum devoted exclusively to atomic energy, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
  • 1950 City College of NY defeats Bradley to win the NIT
  • 1951 Herman Wouk's novel "The Caine Mutiny" published (Pulitzer Prize 1952)
  • 1954 1st color telecast of a prize fight, Giardello vs Troy in Madison Square Garden, NYC
  • 1954 1st rocket-driven sled on rails tested in Alamogordo, NM
  • 1956 Biggest NBA margin of victory - Minn Lakers-133, St Louis Hawks-75
  • 1957 Indians reject Boston's offer of $1 million for Herb Score
  • 1962 Archbishop Suenens of Mechelen-Brussels appointed cardinal
  • 1965 Indonesia nationalizes all foreign oil companies
  • 1965 Rembrandt's "Titus" sells for then record 7,770,000 guilders
  • 1965 Stoica becomes president & Ceausescu party leader of Romania
  • 1965 The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000, said to have been most powerful Confederate cruiser, discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction.
  • 1966 Belgium government of Vanden Boeynants begins
  • 1967 French Somaliland (Djibouti) votes to continue association with France
  • 1968 Howard University, Washington, D.C., students seize administration building
  • 1969 British invade Anguilla
  • 1969 Chicago 8 indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention
  • 1969 The 385 metre tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build- up.
  • 1970 W German chancellor & E German premier meet
  • 1971 Philadelphia 76ers outscore Cincinnati Royals 90-80 in 2nd half enroute to a 147-127 victory
  • 1972 1st AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Immaculata beats West Chester State 52-48 in Normal
  • 1972 India & Bangladesh sign friendship treaty
  • 1972 LA Lakers beat Golden State Warriors, 162-99, by then record 63 pts
  • 1974 Jefferson Starship begins their 1st tour
  • 1975 Pennsylvania is 1st state to allow girls to compete with boys in HS sports
  • 1977 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
  • 1977 Jevgeni Kulikov skates world record 1000m (1:15.33)
  • 1978 50,000 demonstrate in Amsterdam against neutron bomb
  • 1979 US House of Representatives begins live TV broadcasts via C-SPAN
  • 1981 2 workers killed in space shuttle Columbia accident
  • 1981 Buffalo Sabres beat Toronto Maple Leafs 14-4
  • 1982 Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the U.K.
  • 1982 National Guard jet tanker crashes killing 27
  • 1984 John J O'Connor named 8th archbishop of New York
  • 1984 KSD-AM in St Louis MO changes call letters to KUSA
  • 1984 Mobil oil tanker spills 200,000 gallons into Columbia River
  • 1984 STS 41-C vehicle moves to launch pad
  • 1985 "Spin Magazine" begins publishing
  • 1985 US Senate votes 55-45 to authorize production of the MX "Peacekeeper" intercontinental ballistic missile
  • 1987 Fred Currey acquires Greyhound Bus Company
  • 1987 Hassanali inaugurated as president of Trinidad & Tobago
  • 1988 Two British Army corporals are attacked during a funeral procession, beaten and shot dead by the Provisional IRA in Belfast, North Ireland
  • 1988 Yvonne van Gennip skates un-official world record 10 km (15:25.25)
  • 1989 Boeing V-22 Osprey VTOL aircraft makes maiden flight
  • 1989 Ice Dance Championship at Paris won by M Klimova & S Ponomarenko (USSR)
  • 1989 Ice Pairs World Championship at Paris won by Ekaterina Gordeeva & Sergei Grinkov (USSR)
  • 1989 Worlds Ladies' Figure Skating Champ in Paris won by Midori Ito (Japan)
  • 1990 1st world ice hockey tournament for women held (Ottawa)
  • 1991 Sacramento Kings set NBA record of 29 consecutive road loses
  • 1992 Britain's Prince Andrew & Sarah, Duchess of York, announce separation
  • 1993 Ice Dance Championship in Prague won by M Usova & A Zhulin (RUS)
  • 1993 Ice Pairs Championship in Prague won by I Brasseur & L Eisler (CAN)
  • 1993 US Supreme Court Justice Byron R White announced plans to retire
  • 1994 2,500 kilograms of cocaine intercepted in Zeewolde, Netherlands
  • 1994 Largest omelette (1,383sq ft) made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan
  • 1994 NJ Devils club record 41st win of the season
  • 1995 American Bonnie Blair skates female world record point total (156.450)
  • 1995 Arizona begins using new telephone area code 520, outside of Phoenix
  • 1995 Finnish Social Democratic Party wins parliamentary election
  • 1995 NBA NY Knicks beat NY Nets in 100th meeting (Knicks 53 Nets 47)
  • 1995 Neil Marshall skates world record 3 km (3:54.08)
  • 1997 Ice Pairs won by Mandy Woetzel & Ingo Steuer (GER)
  • 1997 Major League Baseball announces 5 year/$50M deal with Pepsi
  • 1997 US Supreme Court hears Internet indecency arguments
  • 2001 The Bank of Japan issued a monetary policy known as quantitative easing, which stimulated the Japanese economy after the burst of the dot-com bubble.
  • 2002 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities
  • 2004 A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian MiG-15 in the 1950s is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the crew are left in place, pending further investigations.
  • 2004 A truck and a bus crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. 24 people are killed and 13 injured.
  • 2004 Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20.
  • 2008 GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed
  • 2012 Wendy's overtakes Burger King to become the second best-selling hamburger chain
  • 2013 16 people are killed by mudslides in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 2013 27 people are killed and 14 are injured in a bus crash in Maharashtra, India
  • 2013 NASA's Mars rover Curiosity discovers further evidence of water-bearing minerals
  • 2014 Israel sends airforce against Syrian military units involved in an attack yesterday on an Israeli patrol in the Golan Heights
  • 2014 Russia captures the Ukrainian naval base in Sevastopol
  • 2018 Mississippi signs into law the US's strictest abortion laws, no termination after 15 weeks
  • 2018 World's last male northern white rhino, 45-year-old Sudan, dies in Kenya
  • 2019 "Superbloom" of poppies in Walker Canyon, southern California visible from space, after high rainfall
  • 2019 American Karen Uhlenbeck becomes the 1st woman to win mathematics Abel Prize
  • 2019 Houston Rockets guard James Harden becomes first player in NBA history to score at least 30 points against all 29 opponents in a single season with 31 in a 121-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks
  • 2019 Image of Australian rules footballer Tayla Harris attacked by internet trolls and controversially removed before being reinstated
  • 2019 Singer Sam Smith comes out as non-binary in interview on Jameela Jamil’s Instagram show
  • 2020 Italian death toll from COVID-19 at 3,405 surpasses China's official total (3,245) making it then the worst-affected country in the world
  • 2020 Professional football in England is further postponed until 'no earlier than 30 April' due to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • 2020 State of California with 910 cases of COVID-19 locks down and orders people to "stay at home"
  • 2021 Icelandic volcano Fagradalsfjall erupts for the first time in 800 years and after more than 50,000 earthquakes
  • 2023 UBS, Switzerland's largest bank agrees to buy its rival Credit Suisse (established 1856) for about $3.2 billion to help ease global financial panic, in deal brokered by Swiss government [1]
  • 2024 China launches Queqiao-2 relay satellite for the far side of the moon to support its Chang’e-6 lunar sample return mission [1]
  • 2024 Finland is ranked the happiest country in the world by the UN for the seventh year in a row, with Afghanistan the lowest ranked [1]
  • 2024 Hong Kong parliament passes tough new security law Article 23 focusing on sentences for external interference and insurrection [1]


The Danger of Going Hungry


I am in the middle of a five-day modified fast, so I am experiencing some hunger, just as I have several times before in my life: when I ran out of money as a college student, when I experienced the bare shelves of Eastern Europe during the communist era, and when I fasted for health reasons.

Although hunger is familiar to me, I was not surprised to learn that most Americans have not really experienced hunger.  According to the Census Bureau’s Household Survey, 88% of Americans feel “secure” about having enough food, and most of the remaining 12% could find adequate food through charities or government programs.

Throughout most of human history, however, hunger was far more common than it is today.  In a sense, it is “normal” to go without food at times, just as it is to experience heat and cold, though both hunger and exposure can be dangerous and even fatal for some persons.  Although many Americans wish to forget these harsh facts of life, it’s important that they do not.  It may seem as if we have gotten past the possibility of hunger or inadequate shelter, but history teaches that we have not.

Many populations still live with hunger today, and many over the past century have been thrust into terrible conditions.  It’s worth reading a book called Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945–1955 by Harald Jähner and Shaun Whiteside, because it provides a detailed description of conditions in Germany immediately after WWII.  Within a decade, the German population of 72 million (along with hundreds of millions in other European countries) went from relative well-being to almost universal hunger and need.  Tens of millions spent their days scrounging through the rubble in search of food and other necessities.  The bodies of the dead were stripped of clothes and footwear, hospitals and schools were plundered for supplies, bombed out hotels were occupied by groups of displaced persons, private homes were broken into, and former restaurants were looted for food.

That was eighty years ago, but something similar exists today among the lower 10% of the world’s population that lives in extreme poverty in countries like North Korea, Cuba, Haiti, and many in Africa.  Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Hunger in North Korea (2005) shows just how deliberate and “political” hunger can be in one country and almost certainly in others.  In 1932–33, Stalin intentionally starved the people of Ukraine, and the same tactic has been employed dozens if not hundreds of times since.  The average life expectancy in these countries is lower than in the West, as it is in Haiti (64 years), Burundi (64 years), and North Korea (72 years).

In parts of our own country, in states like Mississippi (72 years), life expectancy is no better, though not as a result of widespread food shortages.  Not since WWII has there been general food rationing in America, and Americans have grown used to the idea that food should be universally available and affordable.  That idea was tested during the Biden/Harris period of inflation as food prices rose some 23%, and many found it difficult to make ends meet.  But there is still the naïve expectation that food and shelter will always be there and that nothing can change this.  The reality is that things can change overnight.

Just as Germany followed the wrong course during the Nazi era, America could be reduced to poverty by war or fiscal imprudence.  During the Weimar period, Germans are said to have trucked wheelbarrows of worthless marks to the bakery just to purchase a loaf of bread.  The Biden inflation is just a taste of what could happen in America if deficit spending continues or if we enter a major war.  Only conservative policy can prevent this.

The hunger I am experiencing at this moment is voluntary and of little consequence, but what Germany went through after WWII and what many populations continue to experience today is not.  Nor would the condition of Americans during another economic depression or global war be voluntary or insignificant.

Food is the most basic of human needs, but there is no certainty that it will continue to be readily available.  During my two years in Eastern Europe, just before and after the end of the communist era, I saw desperate people climbing into trash dumpsters in search of food.  I remember one in particular: a young woman in rags with a baby in her left arm and a small bag on her shoulder, picking through the garbage for crusts of bread, bones with a bit of meat, and other edible items.  More than one third of Americans view socialism favorably, but they have never lived under socialism or communism.  Nor, I imagine, have they ever really experienced hunger.



Trump Agrees To Give Back Statue Of Liberty In Exchange For All The Land In France We Liberated In WWII

 Trump Agrees To Give Back Statue Of Liberty In Exchange For All The Land In France We Liberated In WWII

World·Mar 19, 2025 · BabylonBee.com
Noamgalai via shutterstock.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump has graciously agreed to France's request to return the Statue of Liberty, asking only in return for all of the land in France that America liberated in World War II.

"It's a fantastic deal," said Trump. "You can have your little statue back, and we'll just take whatever parts of France that we had to save for you. France can keep every square inch of land that you French didn't surrender to the Nazis. It's very generous, really a tremendous deal."

French politicians have responded to Trump's offer with outrage, saying that the terms would leave them without any land whatsoever. "That is so not fair," said French President Emmanuel Macron. "We tried really hard to not need America to rescue us. We fought for, like, a few weeks before totally surrendering. Give us a break."

Trump has adamantly stated he will not change the terms of the offer. "We could really make France into something nice," said Trump. "I never liked that statue much anyway, Lady Liberty, lots of people did, but not me. She wasn't my type. Very manly looking, with the robe and the crown, it's a very pointy crown, and her jaws - whoa! Have you ever seen a jaw that square on a woman?"

At publishing time, Trump had promised to turn the hellhole known as France into the "Riviera of Europe."