Thoughts for the Day, April 14, 2025: Gut Wrenching and Stomach Churning
Gut wrenching and stomach churning
Today. Leah and I took a ride to Boyne Highlands in Harbor Springs. The devastation of the ice storm was gut wrenching, stomach churning, and overwhelming. It is no wonder many of the people in that area are still without power.
As Leah described, it was like driving through a neighborhood during Christmas season instead of oohing and awing about the Christmas lights, we were moaning and groaning about the devastation that we could see. The amount of tree damage was overwhelming. It is no wonder that Boyne has delayed the opening of the golf course for one week to May 2. I cannot imagine the cost and time required for clean-up.
As of last night, Great Lakes Energy still had over 2,000 customers without power in rural areas. They have replaced over 2,500 utility poles, when in a normal year they only replace 800.
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Uncertainty matters
Per the Detroit News: Economists predict a spending pullback by U.S. consumers because their sentiment fell for a fourth consecutive month, plunging to its second-lowest level in more than 70 years, as back-and-forth, on-again, off-again tariffs whipsaw Americans.
The 11% decrease from March in the preliminary results for April of the University of Michigan's Survey of Consumers shows that expectations for this year have been upended, said Joanne Hsu, the survey's director. It comes as increased tariffs, pauses and delays have marked President Donald Trump's first months in office. Facing difficulty navigating their financial planning as a result, Hsu said, consumers are feeling less confident about the future, which could threaten economic growth — especially in tariff-vulnerable Michigan.
From Heather Cox Richardson on Sunday: This level of consumer sentiment is the second lowest since the index began in 1952. Chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics Samuel Tombs told the Wall Street Journal’s Harriet Torry: “Consumers have spiraled from anxious to petrified.” James Knightley, the chief international economist at the multinational banking and financial services company ING, noted that consumers appear to blame Trump for their concerns. While in January 44% of respondents told researchers that the government was doing a poor job of managing inflation and unemployment, now 67% say so.
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Should we be suspicious?
With Trump’s tariff pause, stocks jumped upward in one of the biggest single-day gains since World War II. Hedge fund manager Spencer Hakimian posted a graph showing that Nasdaq call volume—bets that stock values would rise—spiked minutes before Trump’s announcement. He commented: “Not a good look at all.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reposted Hakimian’s post and added: “Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now. I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor. Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things. It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress.”
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As if we didn’t have enough to be concerned about.
Per The Guarding, paper receipts from major retailers in the US are so laden with bisphenol S that holding one for 10 seconds can cause the skin to absorb enough of the highly toxic chemical to violate California’s safety threshold.
The findings are being used as evidence in legal action aimed at pressuring retailers to stop using receipt paper treated with bisphenol S, or BPS, which is linked to cancer and reproductive problems.
The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) non-profit has sent violation notices to about 50 major retailers alerting them to the exceedance of California’s Proposition 65 limits for BPS.
Among the companies to which notices were sent for the allegedly illegal levels of BPS in their receipts are Burger King, Chanel, Dollar General, AMC Theaters, GameStop, Subway, Foot Locker and Ace Hardware.
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The Save Act
I have never had an issue with the requirement that people should provide some form of identification as part of the process to register to vote. If they cannot provide proof, then they must sign an affidavit indicating they are eligible to vote and they are who they say they are, which will be punishable as a felony if proven otherwise.
I also believe that we should make registration to vote something that is convenient and easy, such as when you renew a driver's license, or apply for a passport. I have no problem with on-line registration or mail-in registration, especially when it is for someone who has already been registered.
I also believe that we should make voting as easy as possible for those who are registered to vote, including in-person over multiple days that include the weekend, absentee voting, and on-line voting.
As we learned in the 2020 presidential election, voter fraud is a story that was made up by Trump and his cronies because Trump lost. Sixty-two of sixty-three court cases cannot be wrong. Note: there was little concern about voter fraud coming from his campaign when he won in 2024.
For all these reasons, I am appalled by the House’s passage of the Save Act which rather than making it easier to vote, it attempts to make it harder to register to vote, including for any married person who has taken on the last name of their spouse.
Per Joyce Vance, If the SAVE Act becomes law, all Americans will have to provide a birth certificate, a passport, or one of a limited number of documents, such as certain (but not all) military ID cards, every time they register or reregister to vote.
It seems innocuous enough, the idea that you have to prove you’re a citizen, but at least 21 million Americans don’t have that kind of proof readily available. Only 51 percent of Americans have passports, which cost adults applying for the first time a $165.00 fee, not to mention assembling the documents you need, getting a photograph of yourself, and making it to an appointment.
The bill would end registration by mail and online because it requires voters to show proof of citizenship to election officials “in person” when they register. That would also make it difficult, if not impossible, to conduct voter registration drives, say, at churches or schools. States that automatically register voters when they turn 18 would no longer be able to do so. And if you move or need to re-register for any reason, a passport or original birth certificate in for inspection is required every time. Americans would no longer be able to register online, by mail, or through voter registration drives, which accounted for 50 million registrations between 2018 and 2022, compared with 12 million in-person.
Millions of Americans don’t have access to their citizenship documents, and it’s worse for Americans of color. Approximately 8% of white people and 11% of people of color have neither a copy of their birth certificate nor a passport, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
An estimated 13 million Americans can’t put their hands on their birth certificates. Getting a replacement is cumbersome, time-consuming, and often costly, depending on the state.
About half of American adults do not have a passport. It is even more difficult and more expensive ($165) than getting a birth certificate, which, by the way, first-time applicants need. And the Elon Musk-led “efficiency” operation hasn’t made cuts at the State Department yet; I’m guessing obtaining a passport will be harder and take longer in the months to come.
And that’s not even the worst of it. One’s birth certificate must match their legal name. That will be a problem for the 70 million American women who changed their last name when they married.
“In the 105-year history of my organization, the League of Women Voters, this may be the most brazen, sweeping attack on American women’s voting rights we have ever seen,” wrote Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, in a Teen Vogue op-ed.
Under the Save Act, a person who has been married for fifty years and has been voting for fifty years with their spouse’s last name, will need to re-register to vote if they move. Since they took on their spouse’s last name at the time of marriage, their birth certificate will not match their last name. Thus, they must show some other form of identity such as a current passport or a marriage certificate with the last name of the spouse whose name they have taken.
Over a fifty-year marriage, with multiple moves, documents get damaged and lost. Furthermore, it is costly to obtain records from municipalities that are fifty years old. When you are mine and Leah’s age, birth certificates and marriage licenses don’t mean a lot. It was so long ago that those things happened.
Under the Save Act, if Leah and I move again, Leah will need to jump through a bunch of hoops to vote again, even though she has been doing it for over fifty years.
The Save Act as written is a disgrace to all married people who have taken their spouse’s last name. It is a disgrace to those with limited financial means, those with disabilities, older Americans, and those in rural areas to register to vote.
Speak up and speak out. Make sure the Senate does not pass this law and send it to Trump for signature.
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Where is the sense of right from wrong? Where is compassion? Where is empathy?
Long before Trump decided to run for president, I had no use for the man. I saw him as the second coming of PT Barnum. I saw Trump as a narcissist with no moral compass. Zero, nada.
When normal people realize they have made a mistake, they apologize and then try to make it right. Not Trump. Instead, when something goes wrong, he doubles down by denying he made a mistake and blames everyone else, including those who have been loyal to him.
In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Trump’s Justice Department attorney admitted Garcia was wrongly deported, Trump and his team are doubling down by ignoring court orders including one from the Supreme Court. Trump and his team are hiding behind the separation of powers. Trump’s team believes the courts have no say in foreign policy. Trump is also saying that he has no power over what the President of El Salvador does in his country. Trump wants us to believe that he has no power over a president who he is paying $6 million to hold the prisoners. Trump, who prides himself as the “king of the deal”, is telling us that he has no power to make a deal with the president of the such a “world power” as El Salvador.
It doesn’t matter to Trump and his team that they made a mistake that was admitted in court. It doesn’t matter that multiple courts have ordered Trump and his team to facilitate the return of Garcia. It doesn’t matter that Garcia was illegally removed from his family. It will never matter because, Trump has no compassion and no empathy.
It will never matter because Trump has surrounded himself with team members who will not pushback on him to do the right thing. If there is by chance a member of his team who does have compassion and empathy, the person will never speak up because they saw what happened to the Justice Department attorney who admitted that deporting Garcia was a mistake. The attorney was fired within 48 hours.
The meeting in the Oval Office today with the president of El Salvador was the clearest example yet that Trump had no intention of returning Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Per the NY Times, President Trump was beaming as President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador rejected any notion that he would help return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported, to the United States and insulted reporters pressing on the administration’s compliance with the court order. Trump is clearly pleased with Bukele’s performance.
It should be no surprise to anyone that Trump is acting this way. This is who he is, this who he always was, this is who he always will be. He is surrounded by people who will not stand up to him. He has a Republican Congress who will not provide the guardrails and not protect the country from a narcissist with no moral compass and no compassion or empathy.
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Quote of the Day: “In the 105-year history of my organization, the League of Women Voters, this may be the most brazen, sweeping attack on American women’s voting rights we have ever seen,” Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, in a Teen Vogue op-ed.
Orchid of the Day: The Western Michigan Men’s Hockey Team for winning the NCAA Division I Hockey Championship on Saturday with a 6-2 victory over perennial powerhouse Boston University. It was only the third national championship for a Mid-American Conference school. See my Video of the Day
Onion of the Day: The Republican lead House for passing the SAVE Act.
Lyrics of the Day: Oh, I could hide 'neath the wings Of the bluebird as she sings. The six o'clock alarm would never ring.
But six rings and I rise. Wipe the sleep out of my eyes. My shavin' razor's cold and it stings
Answer to Lyrics of the Day for April 10, 2025: Hit Me with Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar
Question of the Day: WMU is the third Mid-American Conference team to win a NCAA division one national championship. What are the other two schools and it what sport?
Video of the Day: (761) Western Michigan vs Boston University | NCAA Hockey Frozen Four Final | Highlights - April 12, 2025 - YouTube
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