Keeping up With the Trumps, Vol I-2

Greetings and Welcome to Volume I:2 of Keeping Up With The Trumps

Our false King has been very busy holding his Castle together from the many attacks from the rebels.  When he invited a true war hero and former ally to the Trump Castle last week, King Trump and his Consort J.D. Vance  double teamed  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, yelling at him, bullying him to such a degree that many inside and outside the castle walls were appalled.  But the King's Royal Court of Partisans and Sycophants'  cheered him on. The rest of the world watched in disbelief and despair.   

Ukraine  has fought major super-power Russia to a standstill for 3-years and counting.  Russian Czar Vladimir Putin must have called King Trump and ordered him to do his job as a Russian plant or stand there quietly as the world watches the Czar's personal collection of videos. That is a sure fire way to encourage the people to overthrow the King and not un-similar to the videos themselves, but in a less graphic manner. That must be why our false King went on the attack in the meeting. 

Trump and Vance berated President Zelensky in the usual manner of overbearing, loud, obnoxious, and humiliating words and pushy body language.  President Zelensky, a gentleman,  did not tell King Trump or his consort JD Vance to take all those cards they are holding and shove them up their royal arses. Shame on that, just for the sporting satisfaction we could have all received.

King Trump has demanded the Ukraine pay him back with all their minerals for our support.   The meeting, which was scheduled so that Zelensky could sign a bad agreement with a bully, was so egregious that the good President left in embarrassment and did not sign it.  Never should he either.

Then today, false King Trump and his top wall-flowering white males ordered the United States to cease all support for Ukraine.  If palace walls could talk they'd tell you that our King will soon withdraw all U.S. forces from NATO while aligning our once great country with the "axis of evil", as once described by former President George Bush: Russia, Iran, North Korea.  But not China. False King Trump has never seen Shen Yun.

Yesterday, Trump's Lord of War Pete Hegseth, announced that the United States would no longer monitor the comings and goings of Russians with computers.   "Hack away Russia on our enemies, you are our dear, dear friend," said Lord Hegseth, according to his bartender.   "We suggest you hack our enemies- Canada, Mexico, Europe, and those dirty little Central American countries, like Panama." 

Meanwhile the Palace Treasury was informed that False King Trump is going to purchase something mysterious and magical, crypto currency. We are not certain how he can afford this, and still send out 8000 gold coins to each of his subjects. 

When deciding on which currencies to purchase, His Royal Highness asked his senior advisor, Royal Regent David Sacks, Minister of Blind Faith, what currency shall the Kingdom own?  

"My Liege,  I have invested heavily in these three currencies:  Ripple, Solana, and Cardano.  I breakfast lightly with Ripple, sweet and sensual. I lunch with Solana, delectable fruit so sumptuous, then a romantic dinner with Cardano, passionate and divine." replied the Regent.

   After hearing this, false King Trump, jumped up excitedly, "I  want my breakfast, lunch , dinner.  and then I want more.   We will create a Crypto Strategic Reserve.  We will enjoy those same commodities whenever we like, invite all three at once.  It will be like a beauty pageant in Russia!"   

When reminded by a King's aide that this purchase will enrich the Regent as well on his current holdings, creating a Conflict of Interest, false King Trump  smiled at the Tass Agency Royal Press and proclaimed, "Here is proof that I am already Making America Great Again by making this very wise, wealthy Regent become even richer."

This was witnessed by the King's diet soda servant, kneeling before the King, with a long straw at the ready, so that the King might drink a diet cola at his leisure.

Meanwhile on the West side of the Castle, Prince Musk issued a "Wall of Receipts" to be read in every public square and pasted to every Community Board.   Then he removed the first five line items after the royal press suggested the those items were either not factual or not correctly totaled.  Then he adjusted it again and if our sources are correct, he will have to do it again and again.  He may not have saved enough wasted gold to pay each subject even 80 gold pieces.  One Palace watcher whispered in our ear, "Prince Musk appears to be a very inefficient efficiency expert."

Royal Court News:

A Lesser Royal Judge has ruled that our false King has illegally fired his employed subjects, and then reminded the world that the Federal Marshalls always get their man, with no royal exceptions, possibly setting up a showdown between the Marshalls and the Royal Guard should Court Orders require the Marshalls Service to deliver them, or to arrest a royal for Contempt of Court.  Some Court watchers suggested that Timothy Olyphant may be available to assist the courts, if needed.  He isn't a real Marshall but he played one on T.V.

That's all for today from around the Kingdom. 

- The Castle Reporter

Mineral Quest: Trump's Copper Dog and Pony Show

 

Photo: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0

Reader Alert:  This may be the most boring article you've ever read. It's about copper.

On February 25, 2025 President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on that wholesome mineral we all love to talk about around the dinner table: Copper.

 According to President Trump, under Section 1, Policy:

Copper is a critical material essential to National Security, economic strength, and industrial resilience of the United States.

The Executive Order  goes further by stating that a single producer accounts for over fifty percent of  refining capacity in the world, but does not identify the country.  We'll clue you in- it's China.  So now we will deep dive into the world of Copper, the Threat.  

Trump is not wrong about the implications for National Security.  We use refined copper/copper end products  in electric vehicles and in tons of military equipment.  We use refined copper in communication systems.  Heck, I bet your computer is using electricity transported on electrical wiring of refined copper.  When an old house is foreclosed on, it is not unusual for thieves to break in and strip the house of it's electrical wiring and cut out all the exposed plumbing they can reach.  Thieves want the copper.

But the minerals industry has many facets, many hands in the pie, from the mines, the transportation, the refinement, the commodities trading to the shipping and delivery of the refined goods.   The copper industry is a reflection of the free market system, sloppy, unreliable, demand driven. and subject to political interference.

United States is blessed with several, large copper mines - mostly in Utah and Arizona. We've got plenty of copper in the ground, and large mining companies to extract it.  And that would be awesome news if we had the refining capacity to match.  We don't.  We're not even close. 

 In 2024, the United States smelted/refined  865,000 tons of copper.   By comparison,  the Guixi Plant in China had a total refining capacity in 2024 of 1,100,00 tons smelted/refined. China has 9 of the top 20 plants with over 5,575,000 tons of refined capacity in 2024.  The United States refines 15.5% of the copper that China refines in a single year. How did we get to such a disparity?

In the past 5 years, China has invested heavily in building  copper smelters/refineries and their market share has increased from 20% to over 50% of the world market. In 2017, the U.S., under some guy named Trump, adopted a policy on  surpassing China in refining copper. That policy failed to accomplish any of its goals, with one exception, we are the world leader in recycling copper.  We k now how to strip foreclosed homes. 

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Copper, Refined

Copper that is cast into ingots or ingot-bars for re-melting (e.g., for alloying purposes) or into wire bars, slabs for roll­ing, billets (including those of circular cross ­section) and similar forms for rolling, ex­truding, drawing or forging into plates, sheets, strip, wire, tubes and other semi-wrought products.

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Because Trump's 2017 policy was not successful, China now has us over the copper barrel.  They have leverage and we now face two significant problems:  

1. In a time of conflict with China, we could see shortages of refined copper and end products such a car parts and batteries.  When a part breaks on a military vehicle, and replacement parts are "in shipment" or not available, we cannot maintain our vehicles and equipment.  Our troop readiness is placed at risk.

2. A 25% Trump tariff on copper imports, as proposed,  would have an immediate impact on the cost of manufacturing say, a Tesla.  Likewise, the countries we export raw copper to, like say, Canada, the number one importer of raw copper from the United States, will retaliate with tariffs on our copper exports, again increasing the costs for transportation, refinement, and end product manufacturing.  Higher costs means higher prices and higher prices means inflation and reduced sales. Lower sales means lower earnings, lower profits, lower stock prices, unhappy shareholders and a market downturn.   The copper knee bone is connected to the copper thigh bone.

Since we spent three days researching copper with AI Gemini assist, we were able to identify the issue and can propose a way forward to resolve this copper crisis. However, instead of implementing a nuanced and balanced approach to the copper conundrum as we will suggest in a moment, Trump orders a full investigation involving multiple agencies, with nine line items of required investigatory humping across several Federal Departments- some of which Elon Musk recently decimated with dismissals based upon "what have you done this past week?"  Who do they expect to perform these studies after laying off thousands of the professionals qualified to research?  Someone ask AI Gemini that question.

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Global leading copper refineries 2024, by capacity

Published by 

Madhumitha Jaganmohan,

 Oct 25, 2024

The Guixi refinery, property of Jiangxi Copper Corporation in China, 

was ranked as the number one copper refinery in the world based on capacity 

as of August 2024. The refining capacity of the Guixi refinery amounted to some

 1.1 million metric tons of refined product annually at that time. By comparison, 

the second and third largest copper refineries in the world were 

Shandong Fangyuan Jinchuan Gansu, both with a capacity of 700 

thousand metric tons. Almost half of the largest copper refineries worldwide are located in China.

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Trump's Executive Order could  have been simplified to this: Commerce (dog)  meet the ponies  (Energy, Defense, Interior).  Now please put on a show for us 270 days from February 25th.

The issue is tariffs, China dominance of refining/smelting, and Elon Musk.  Trump cannot stab Elon in the back with 25% tariffs on the products Elon needs to build his cars after all Elon has done for Trump with DOGE.  But Trump also cannot back down from China, Canada, and Mexico. And we all know Trump when faced with facts that are inconvenient to his fable, doubles down on his decisions.  Someone should measure how thin his skin really is.

China claimed dominance over copper  in just 5 years.  In the United States experts estimate 10-15 years to simply obtain the approvals, then another 3-5 years to build a plant.  It can take 20 years in our great nation to build one plant. By then the technology is outdated.  We can't get ahead when we walk backwards towards our goal

And now, a proposed solution in a single paragraph:

Waive environmental regulations or expedite reviews.  find industrial partners,  provide government financial assistance (billions of dollars) to the companies assuming the risk, really educate the public to gain their support, and then build, baby, build. In the meantime. no tariffs on the import of copper and copper-related products.  

The only way we regain dominance in the copper market is to build enough plants to refine and smelt the copper we quarry out of our ground. We need to meet domestically the increasing demand for copper products. 

We don't need an investigation.  We need action.  

Find more statistics at Statista

 

Do Not Kiss the Ring, Do Not Bend a Knee to the False King

Your country is invaded by a ruthless dictator.  His goal is to erase your national identity from the history of the world.  Your country is a democracy, built upon the same foundation as the great United States of America.  Freedom and liberty for all.  This dictator publicly declares he will wipe you off the face of the Earth in three days.  He makes clear to the world he won't stop there, he won't stop until the he has control of every country that was under his umbrella and then lost when the walls of Berlin fell.

You fight back. For three years you fight back.  The United States of America and the European Union provide weapons and training to you so you can fight this repressive ruler.  His name is Putin.  You' ve lost ground during those three years,  you've lost thousands of lives. Putin has turned your cities into rubble.

He has bombed your schools, your hospitals, your theaters, your shelters, your infrastructure, homes, apartments, playgrounds, and churches.  The definition for this is clear: genocide.

The people of the United States elect for the second time, a man who wants to be King, does not respect the rule of law, not does respect freedom and democracy- he only respects one thing: power.  He sends goons into every Federal agency to disrupt, and destroy their purpose.  He hires a billionaire to fire hundreds of thousands of workers in a slash and burn campaign of terror.  He celebrates his cruelty with a mock Times Magazine cover where he is depicted as King.  The definition of his actions is clear:  political genocide.

You visit the King, to sign an agreement on your natural resources, basically giving away a large portion of your natural resources that he never wanted, he simply demanded this from you because he could.  HIs name is Donald Trump and he is asking for the impossible and expecting a refusal.  Instead you negotiate a deal which is not what he ever wanted.  

You visit Trump and during a photo op, he attacks you, his vice president attacks you.  A kiss-ass reporter attacks your choice of clothing.  You are double-teamed and it is at this point you know for certain, the President of the United States is an asset for Putin, the dictator.   You are double-teamed, yelled at, questioned about your character- and you are the hero for your country.  

Fear not, President Zelensky.  Fight on, President Zelensky. The American people know what real sacrifice is,  we know what needs to be done.   We have deposed Monarchs before and we will do it again.  Thank you for not bending your knee to a false King. Thank you for not kissing his ring.  

We stand with Ukraine.

You Can't Sew a Riff with Words - The Stitch is in the Details

Last weekend phones across the country blew up Elon Musk, Executive Director for the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), sent an email to every Federal employee.  Mr. Musk wanted each employee to provide information on the work they had done the previous week. Failure to provide would be considered a resignation. On the military side of the fence, soldiers, and civilian employees were ordered to email DOGE by midnight Sunday or resign their position.  Then came the counter-orders from Central Command-  do not respond, do not reply, do not engage Mr. Musk concerning his request.  Do not comply. 

When the midnight deadline passed, non-compliance with the DOGE order had spread across the several Federal agencies, from the military to the Department of Justice.  The irresistible force had met the unmovable rock.

The most recent DOGE Executive Order issued by President Trump includes a Section on Exemption that waives the heartless requirements on employees, contracts, and even credit cards, under  a  microscope made by a South African billionaire and designed to find waste where there is none,  find laziness where hard work thrives,  and end public service to communities because this government does not know how to govern efficiently.  They don't want to govern at all actually.  

This administration wants to hire UFC fighters to train our FBI agents,  they want to embarrass the Democratic leader because he did not bend a knee and kiss the President's ring.   They want to align with the dark and evil forces of the world while they "dismantle the deep state."  

This poorly-mannered bully of a President, has skin so thin, it's transparent.  We can see right through him.  He will respond to protests with violence, he will respond to criticism with arrests and detainment, and he will never, ever accept the blame when this country falls.  There has never been a more despicable person in charge of the U.S. government since Andrew Jackson was President.  We must be prepared to stand up, to fight if necessary, and to defeat this administration and his cult of worshippers.

And as for this the Executive Order, the Exemption Section simply shows that the monkeys in his tree are already fighting over the bananas.  Be proud.  You most likely are reading this article in English, the official language of the United States, according to our Muslim-hating, Putin-kissing  Embarrassment in Chief,  Donald Trump.

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Budget Time in Washington! Hazzah!

 

House of Representatives Passage of Trump Budget/ Photo: C-SPAN

By Rick Fisher, Retired Town Manager,

When I was younger, I called myself a Blue Dog Democrat- strong on defense, supporting critical community services to serve the poor, the disabled, and our seniors, infrastructure improvements, support for our allies overseas, and all within a balanced budget.

In my experience in local government, our focus was often on roads maintenance, road improvements, storm-water controls, vehicle and equipment maintenance and replacement, and infrastructure improvements. We would donate to local non-profit community-based organizations, maintain our municipal structures,  serve the people, respond to their complaints, and find solutions to community problems.  We also had to deal with storms, floods, snow and ice, and the occasional natural disaster.

And we had to either get the job done within the approved budget, or have retained earnings to carry over in case next year is the natural disaster year.  If we couldn't make a budget that worked, costs too high, revenue dipping, we would have to raise taxes.   We could not run a deficit.  That is why preparing the budget was my favorite challenge.   And I succeeded over six years, in two different towns in two different states, to propose a balanced budget each year, with no new taxes, receive budget approval and then proceed to collect taxes that met expectations and run the government within the budget.

The citizens or their representatives in my communities could have taken it a step further and propose tax reductions.  But that requires a leap in human nature,  we don't want to trust our appointed officials that much and then end up holding an empty boot and an I.O.U. if they are wrong.  It is difficult for elected officials to stand up in front of their neighbors and admit they made a mistake on a critical line item.  That is why the challenge was so much fun and the result so rewarding.  

Budget numbers are not facts, but rather an estimate based upon factual expense data from previous years. They include an estimate of what the future needs might cost, and what new stuff we are planning to add to the budget. So we create 5 and 10-year plans for each area of expense, roads more elaborate than office administration.  Our elected officials cannot vote to raise the debt ceiling.

The citizens get involved as we hold public meetings on the budget.  The refrain No New Taxes dominated the meetings, and the request for more community services could also be heard.  Two competing forces, kind of like we see on the National stage between Democrats and Republicans.

Since I enjoy preparing budgets like some folks enjoy vanilla ice cream cones, I am going to take a deeper dive into the budget proposed by President Trump and approved by the  House of Representatives and share my budget thoughts with all of you.  I think it will be revealing, revolting, reviled, refreshing, and potentially something I can relieve myself upon.

Donald and the 5 Million Dollar Golden Ticket

 

Last night  President Donald Trump  announced his proposal to establish a Gold Card for immigration.  For the low, low cost of five million dollars an immigrant will have a path to citizenship.  

Because as we all know, five million dollars is a low bar, nearly every American has at least that much in the bank.  Why wouldn't a refugee, fleeing persecution in his own country,  living in a tent, no home, very little to eat,  also be in possession of five million dollars?  

The rising billionaire class wants a path to citizenship for their wealthy friends and Donald Trump, man of the rich people, is going to give it to them.  The question is can he legally do that?  Under the current law, he actually can do this, most likely through an Executive Order to his Attorney General but there is a catch.  The United States would have to give it back upon the Alien's permanent departure from the United States, with interest.

Under Title 8,  Chapter 12, SubChapter II states that an otherwise inadmissible alien can be admitted into our fine country if they provide a bond or other surety to the satisfaction of the Attorney General of the United States.  However, once a naturalized citizen, or permanently departed from either the country or life itself, the bond or other surety must be returned.  Oh, I don't think President Trump will be happy with that.  I think he wants to keep the five million dollars.

Here is the current and prevailing law on the matter: 

§1183. Admission of aliens on giving bond or undertaking; return upon permanent departure

An alien inadmissible under paragraph (4) of section 1182(a) of this title may, if otherwise admissible, be admitted in the discretion of the Attorney General (subject to the affidavit of support requirement and attribution of sponsor's income and resources under section 1183a of this title) upon the giving of a suitable and proper bond or undertaking approved by the Attorney General, in such amount and containing such conditions as he may prescribe, to the United States, and to all States, territories, counties, towns, municipalities, and districts thereof holding the United States and all States, territories, counties, towns, municipalities, and districts thereof harmless against such alien becoming a public charge. Such bond or undertaking shall terminate upon the permanent departure from the United States, the naturalization, or the death of such alien, and any sums or other security held to secure performance thereof, except to the extent forfeited for violation of the terms thereof, shall be returned to the person by whom furnished, or to his legal representatives. Suit may be brought thereon in the name and by the proper law officers of the United States for the use of the United States, or of any State, territory, district, county, town, or municipality in which such alien becomes a public charge, irrespective of whether a demand for payment of public expenses has been made.

(June 27, 1952, ch. 477, title II, ch. 2, §213, 66 Stat. 188 ; Pub. L. 91–313, §1, July 10, 1970, 84 Stat. 413 ; Pub. L. 101–649, title VI, §603(a)(8), Nov. 29, 1990, 104 Stat. 5083 ; Pub. L. 104–208, div. C, title III, §308(d)(3)(A), title V, §564(f), Sept. 30, 1996, 110 Stat. 3009–617 , 3009-684.)

President Trump will either have to change Federal Law, or simply ignore the law and continue on his lawless quest to establish a monarchy.  The entrance fee to his Majesty's Kingdom?  Five million dollars.

Honey, go get my piggy bank.            

Federal Law Violation: Trump and Musk Have Violated The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, As Amended

 

Elon Musk Wields Chain Saw at Recent CPAC Conference/Reuters

The argument we most often hear from Trump supporters and his Republican congress is that the President should have the authority to make whatever changes necessary to cut fraud and waste of the agencies under his executive branch of government  The argument sounds plausible, even practical, and lots of Trump supporters have been callously cheering Elon Musk as he takes an axe to the executive branch.  

Elon Musk paraded around with a chainsaw at the CPAC Convention, an image that reinforces his slash and burn  policy of gutting agencies that provide assistance to the poor, the young, and the elderly here and abroad.  His I dare you to stop me attitude resonates poorly with many citizens, but is President Trump and by extension Elon Musk and his DOGE violating  Federal Law?  

The answer is YES, YES, and YES again if the DOGE Checks Elon Musk has promised every U.S. citizen are mailed out- those checks also violate Federal Law and by accepting those checks each of us would be complicit in that violation and could be required by Court Order to pay it back.  Here is why:

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 has been amended several times, as recently as December of 2024. Not long after being sworn in, President Trump, created DOGE for Elon Musk who then gutted several Federal Agencies, including USAID and fired thousands of USAID employees, and USAID falls under the jurisdiction of The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended.

While the Act of 1961, as amended does provide the President with wide authority on funding hundreds of specific  programs stated within the law, from on how to fund those programs to the authority to transfer funding to other programs authorized under the Act. But the law prohibits the President from removing that money that has been appropriated by Congress without proper Notice and without Justification (highlights/underline are my emphasis).

SEC. 634A. ø22 U.S.C. 2394–1¿ NOTIFICATION OF PROGRAM CHANGES.—(a) None of the funds appropriated to carry out the purposes of this Act (except for programs under title III or title IV of chapter 2 of part I, chapter 5 of part I, and programs of disaster relief and rehabilitation) or the Arms Export Control Act may be obligated for any activities, programs, projects, types of material assistance, countries, or other operations not justified, or in excess of the amount justified, to the Congress for obligation under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act for any fiscal year unless the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Appropriations of each House of the Congress are notified fifteen days in advance of such obligation. Whenever a proposed reprogramming exceeds $1,000,000 and the total amount proposed for obligation for a country under this Act in a fiscal year exceeds by more than $5,000,000 the amount specified for that country in the report required by section 653(a) of this Act, notifications of such proposed reprogrammings shall specify— (1) the nature and purpose of such proposed obligation, and (2) to the extent possible at the time of the proposed obligation, the country for which such funds would otherwise have been obligated. (b) The notification requirement of this section does not apply to the reprogramming— (1) of funds to be used for an activity, program, or project under chapter 1 of part I if the amounts to be obligated for that activity, program, or project for that fiscal year do not exceed by more than 10 percent the amount justified to the Congress for that activity, program, or project for that fiscal year;

President Trump and Elon Musk failed to provide timely notice to Congress in violation of the Act.

While notification under Section 634A is a violation, it is Section 643 that identifies the true depth Administration's violation of this Act. Under Section 643 Savings Provisions, Federal law clearly states, 

Acts not named in that subsection. SEC. 643. ø22 U.S.C. 2402¿ SAVING PROVISIONS.—(a) Except as may be expressly provided to the contrary in this Act, all determinations, authorizations, regulations, orders, contracts, agreements, and other actions issued, undertaken, or entered into under authority of any provision of law repealed by section 642(a) and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969 shall continue in full force and effect until modified by appropriate authority. (b) Wherever provisions of this Act establish conditions which must be complied with before use may be made of authority contained in, or funds authorized by, this Act, compliance with, or satisfaction of, substantially similar conditions under Acts listed in section 642(a) and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969 or Acts repealed by those Acts shall be deemed to constitute compliance with the conditions established by this Act. (c) Funds made available pursuant to provisions of law repealed by section 642(a)(2) and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969 shall, unless otherwise authorized or provided by law, remain available for their original purposes in accordance with the provisions of law originally applicable thereto, or in accordance with the provisions of law currently applicable to those purposes. 

The Trump/Musk team violated Section 643A (a)(c) with an unauthorized removal of funds that was appropriated by Congress.  The Trump Administration will violate the law further if they send DOGE checks to every U.S. Citizen.  The funding they stripped from these programs, according to the Act, must be used for purposes in accordance with the provision of the law that the funds were originally proposed for or the current law in place for the proposed use.   

If we accept  DOGE checks from Elon Musk, we are may also be violating the Act, since we are not using the funds in accordance with the Act.  Each citizen that accepts the money may have to pay it back, with interest.  I doubt that would actually happen but who knows, anything is possible in this insane environment where the President violates the Federal law he was elected to enforce.

SourceThe Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, As Amended