The Daily Dose/February 3, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
HERE WE GO AGAIN: We elected pettiness, vindictiveness, and ignorance, so it’s hardly the Upset of the Year that President Trump has shown these qualities since his presidency resumed on Jan 20.
Dry, Technical Matter: President Trump’s latest tariffs are all of these things. They are going to cause inflation, retribution, bad will, and general havoc. They are senseless. They are not, of course, a surprise, because President Trump has been talking senselessness since he announced his candidacy nine years ago.
Whew…At Least There’s That: At least Trump is not spreading that gobbledygook he spread during his first term about tariffs causing foreign countries to write checks to the US treasury. Even he knows that’s false. Here’s how the tariffs will work, and you do not have to be Adam Smith to understand it.
Econ 101: Let’s say you own Company A. Or, better yet, let’s say you buy widgets from Company A, widgets that are imported from Canada. The tariff will add 25% to the cost of the widget for Company A, a tax that Company A will pay to the US treasury, not Canada. This is merely another business expense for Company A and they will pass it on to us consumers. This means we will be paying more for our widgets, making the tariff merely another tax on us.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: We’re taxed enough. The tariffs are a barrier to the free trade that should be the hallmark of our American economy. It will wreak havoc on economies the world over, and you and me – we the people – will be stuck paying the bill.
The Bottom Line: We elected this, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves. We knew nonsense like this would happen, and we elected it anyway. Now, midterm elections are next year and there are only 1,447 days remaining in this administration, but that isn’t doing us any good in our battle with today’s witlessness. The American Century is long over and if we’re not paying attention to our democracy, the American Experiment will be over soon enough, too.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow has three instances of big news to report. Today’s Diary.
The big news is we are shaving our head again…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1961 – Man lands on – as opposed to crashing into – the lunar surface for the first time when the Soviet Union’s Luna 9 lands around the lunar equator on what be the far left side looking from Earth. The spacecraft transmitted man’s first pictures and video from another heavenly bodyand Luna 9 utilized an airbag to land, and touched down at a speed of 14 mph. The first pictures were released by scientists at an English observatory, who pirated the signals. Contact with Luna 9 was lost on Feb 6 when its batteries died.
In 1924 – Canada wins the Olympic ice hockey gold medal, defeating the US 6-1 in the final game of the final round. It was second of a record nine Olympic hockey gold medals for Canada and was the second of a record eight silver medals for the US, to go along with two titles. Great Britain earned the bronze medal. Ice hockey had first been contested at the Olympics at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games.
In 1968 – The Lemon Pipers are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the only week with Green Tambourine. It was the first of three chart singles for the group and remains their only Top 40 hit. The song also peaked at #7 in Great Britain and was Billboard’s 47th-biggest song of the year. The band formed in Oxford, Ohio in 1966 and disbanded in 1969.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Everyman achieved his own greatness by reaching out beyond himself, and so it is with nations…Only when a nation means something to itself can it mean something to others.
Werner Von Braun
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.
Paul Coffey of the Edmonton Oilers holds the NHL record for most goals in a season by a defenseman with 48 in 1985-86.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What countries have participated in the most Olympics without winning an ice hockey medal? – Answer next time!