April Madness!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We got a big dump of rain (all precipitation from April through October is defined as rain!) midweek, so I had the snowblower out again on Thursday to clear the driveway. It was very wet and hard to work with, but the subsequent warm weather has Spring in the air once again. Travel, even around town, was compromised to the extent that our choir practice was cancelled on Thursday. Otherwise, it's been pretty much the routine weekly activities. That ended on Wednesday as the Madness of the Orange Felon was again on display. He announced tariffs against pretty much the whole world with the remarkable exceptions of Russia, Belarus and North Korea! He did put a tariff against Ukraine. You need to ask yourself—If he was a Russian agent how would he act any differently? CBC did an excellent exposé of the false, fake and fraudulent tariff program he announced. This precipitated a world-wide economic shock as folks were expecting tariffs, but no one foresaw anything this insane. The markets sank by devastating amounts. Trump now holds the distinction of presiding over the eight biggest daily drops in DOW history. The TrumpSlump had me sold out of my usual trading vehicles, and the impending TrumpCession has me wondering about my buy & hold dividend payers. USA indices are now down 9% in just the four trading days this month. Our first hope is that enough GOP House members come to their senses to put a stop to this madness. The Senate has already voted against him, but we've only heard of one GOP in the House who is willing to buck him and we need half a dozen. In the world of sports, basketball is playing out the final four. In a remarkable performance for me, I managed to pick three of the final four, but only one of the finalists. My pick, Florida, is ready to win on Monday. Men's Curling has occupied a lot of my TV watching this week. Jacobs has represented us well, ending the round robin in first place and now in the medal playoffs, but sadly it won't be the gold medal game. They'll play China for the bronze. Other qualifiers were Scotland, Sweden, China, Norway and Switzerland; Scotland will play Switzerland for the gold. Blue Jays have opened the MLB season well, and I'm enjoying that. The NHL is playing out the last handful of games in the regular season and many playoff spots are still up for grabs. My Oilers are struggling as their two biggest stars have suffered injuries, but we're told they should be back for the playoffs. Leafs are in good position to win their division. Penguins continue to entertain—they should have played like this all season! 

Erica writes, "We started the week in Caronport, enjoying Liam play a bad guy in the Esther story. He was booed by the crowd, so he must have done a good job. Mercedes did a beautiful job playing Esther, and one young lady near us was very concerned that she would be killed. Fortunately, she survived (spoiler alert). The rest of the week has been busy. I’ve been working late into the evenings and Eric is fitting in hockey games in my absence. Today, we got news that Eric is now approved to deliver EMDR Therapy. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a form of psychotherapy designed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, he can really fix me!"

Erin and Kristian are digging out from a late snowstorm on the prairies and enjoying the arrival of Spring. They are still waiting to hear about Kristian's acceptance into Sask PolyTech for the Fall. We are hoping for that as well. Erin is following the Basketball championships, but she has Duke and Auburn picked for the final! 

Travis and Joanna also had a pretty normal week of activities. Andrew is working from home on his practicum assignments. We enjoyed a lovely pasta supper at their place this evening. Then, we played some FastTrack and watched some hockey. 

And that's enough for this week. 

LION x LION

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown, and although this is technically Spring, we have suffered snow storms at each end of the week! After March came in like a Lion, it is leaving like a Lion as well! It's LION²! I was hoping that my snowblower was retired for the season, but... not so fast! Wendy completed and delivered her accounting project. She was quite busy with Sweet Adelines business this week. Then, we had choir practice on Thursday morning.

Two Sad Dogs

Kali was in for surgery on Thursday morning, so the activity level has been pretty low the rest of the week. Wendy is struggling to keep her away from the incision site, but for a small dog, she's quite a busy customer! The Orange Felon was out with more tariff threats this week. Now, he's saying that the construction industry, already facing record prices for copper, will have to pay even more! You can't make this stuff up! After a recent conference with Trump, our PM announced the end of an era and a pivot toward friends who actually are practicing democracies. Of course this irritated Trump and he yelled that we and Europe would pay for it! He has scheduled a big reciprocal tariff (whatever that means!) day for next Wednesday, and folks are bracing to see what he'll actually do. As it is, we're practically one quarter into the year, and only TSX is in the green, and that not by much. S&P500 is down over 5%, and the Nasdaq down over 10%. Meanwhile, in the USA, inflation is rising and unemployment is a concern. 

We miss you, Uncle Joe!

In the world of sports, we are well into March Madness with the Final Four being determined this weekend. My final 4 picks are still alive, which indicates there have not been many Cinderella stories this time around. The NHL is into the final handful of games. My Oilers are floundering with significant injuries and weak performances. Penguins are just playing out the string, but playing better than the Oilers. Leafs are well-positioned and still in the run for top spot in their division. The MLB season has begun, so I'm back to monitoring the Blue Jays and hoping for a good season. #1-Homan won the Women's Curling Championship on Sunday and now the Men's Curling Championship has begun in Moose Jaw. #3-Jacobs is the Canadian Champ, but perennial powerhouses #13-Edin, #1-Mouat, #4-Schwaller and #12-Retornaz are there as well, along with up and coming teams #11-Dropkin and #8-Muskatewitz. Jacobs opened with a win over Japan, and I expect him to be around next weekend. 

Eric writes, "Erica had a regular work week, which means long days for her in busy season. Her band had two performances this week at old folks' homes. They appreciate some of the older songs the group does. Eric had a regular work week which did not include the same amount of extra hours. He is practicing his guitalele a lot and having fun. Liam is busy this weekend with RU as they premiere their new dance “Esther”. Haaken continues with his work and creative works on his own time. Greg and Kiersten are in Kenora doing life as usual." 

Erin and Kristian have suffered through another snow storm in Regina that eventually arrived here—no thanks! Erin picked up a batch of new LED pot lights, while Kristian reports that another of the old ones downstairs is showing signs of failure. Soon, he will be doing LEGO in the dark! He got his high school transcript delivered to Sask Polytech, so we look forward to an email of his acceptance into the program there starting in August. Erica’s working on their taxes. Lucy and Elly are happy😸!

Travis and Joanna remain busy. They've been sharing illness lately, and that has interfered with productivity. Marigold is over her surgery, and the boys are doing fine, and holding down the cushions well. Andrew is home for a practicum assignment. It is good to see him again. This week, their dishwasher displayed an error code, so we worked on that. It seems that it was some crud in the drainage pump, and once we got that cleared away it went back to work! 

And that's about it for this week. 

March and other Madness

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been mild, but some days have had significant wind, so that's not so comfortable. The snow has pretty much disappeared from our lawns except where we piled it up off the driveway. Kali enjoys getting out for walks; Granny still tries to clean her up after she has investigated all the puddles! No particular action on any of our projects, but I'm starting to think about getting out to the shop once again. We only have six weeks left before our Spring Concert so choir practices are getting serious every Thursday morning! Wendy adds her Sweet Adelines practices and performances to her weekly routine. She has completed input of all the data on the accounting project, so she's just polishing up the details. The markets continue to struggle under the chaotic Trump regime. He's back to his tariff threats, which he's now scheduling to begin April 2nd. We are heartened to see the legal system and Republican voters coming out against him, but we need congress to develop some courage and put a stop to his lawlessness. As it stands now, democracy is over in the USA, and we live in the shadow of his threats to destroy our country. It's an easy segue to March Madness! My team, KU, has already lost out, and my bracket is showing serious gaps! I have Florida picked to win it all over Duke and at least those are still alive. The hockey season is down to the last dozen or so games. My Oilers have suffered high profile injuries with McDavid and Draisaitl both out, but they won tonight. Toronto is in good position, and the Penguins keep winning when they should be tanking to get a better draft position! Spring Training is ending and the baseball season has already begun—a week early if you ask me! The Women's World Curling championship has occupied a lot of my time this week despite the crazy broadcast timing out of Korea—good thing I have a PVR. Our team, Homan, has advanced to the gold medal game against Switzerland, which is scheduled for very early tomorrow morning—and the winner, and STILL champions of the world: Canada! Homan took control late to beat Tirinzoni 7-3. Next weekend the men's championship begins in Moose Jaw. 

TrumpCession Underway

Erica writes, "Monday night we enjoyed the Irish Rovers in Saskatoon. Tuesday was my birthday. I took the day off and enjoyed some spa treatments. We had a quiet night at home and enjoyed birthday cupcakes. The rest of the week was pretty normal. But this weekend Liam is home. We celebrated with birthday cake on Friday and today we had a local gala to attend. Sunday is a special mission Sunday service and Liam is speaking on RU and playing drums. Nothing more to add from Greg & Kiersten or Haaken."

Erin writes, "I had a great week—almost relaxing! I was able to catch up on a bunch of paperwork. And, finally, the weather is getting better. I went outside this morning to work on shoveling the backyard drift so I can rock in the egg swing but the snow wouldn’t budge—concrete! This week is supposed to be positive temperatures so, hopefully, that will help me out. Kristian applied to Sask Polytech and got a reply about attending an accessibility workshop. I wonder what they offer. I’m hoping they have FM systems set up for his hearing."

Cat Fight: L-Luci, R-Elly

Travis and Joanna hosted us for Wendy's birthday supper on Sunday. We enjoyed volumes of Chinese food (and had enough leftovers to last a few more meals)! Joanna had made a birthday cake—delicious, and we kept enjoying that for most of the week as well. Marigold was back in full participation in shenanigans, so Kali came along and the dogs celebrated the evening as well. Then, we watched Moana2 together—a very good evening! 

Happy Birthday, Wendy! 

And that's enough for this week. 

Beware the Ides of March

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been lovely, so Kali and I have been able to get out for walks every day. Kali does not appreciate that Granny wants to give her a bath on our return! We had surprising thunderstorms yesterday and today, but it's sunny and +10° this afternoon, so Kali and I are walking again. Wendy has kept busy with her accounting contract and has moved into November—the end is in sight! We have been celebrating her birthday all week—we began by selecting a new Prime Minister on her birthday, while the cards and letters just keep on coming! We crowned our Men's Brier champion on her birthday as well as #3-Jacobs took down #2-Dunstone in the final. He will contest the world championship in Moose Jaw later this month. #1-Homan is in Korea for the world women's championship. She opened with a win and a loss, a tad below our expectations. The Jayhawks played in the conference championship this week, but lost at the quarterfinal level. Now, we wait for their placement in March Madness and we hope for better things in the second season! Spring training games are pretty much a daily feature at this point as we await the opening of the MLB season at the end of the month. The Jays are doing pretty well. The NHL is in the closing stretch of the regular season. Leafs are near the top of the league, but my Oilers have fallen off the pace. Pens are doing too well for a team that is looking for a better draft position. They had several teams within reach, but then they started winning!

TrumpCession Underway

Meanwhile, the Orange Menace continues to drive the USA economy into the ground, and threatens the rest of us. The markets are down over 10% from their recent highs as he has taken the strong economy passed along by Uncle Joe, and keeps making one mistake after another. You have to think he knows better and is just lying to us, but it rattles the markets to see such an unsteady hand at the top. Everyone knows when you want to buy something that has a tariff against it, you have to pay extra, but Trump insists that someone else pays that! He seems confused about the relative size of our population and expresses chagrin that Canada doesn't buy as much stuff as the ten times larger USA! Our new PM is an economist; will he be able to enlighten him? Sadly, Trump doesn't show much capacity for learning. 

Erica writes, "Eric saw the eye specialist on Monday. There has been a very minute change in one eye, so the specialist is saying it looks like they are settled and Eric can now get his glasses prescription updated for his new eyes. He has to come back in a year. If there is any significant change then, they will try the procedure again. If that doesn’t work, he will need a corneal transplant. We are hoping we are at the end of the journey rather than the start of another. We have continued with wrapping my arms each night and wearing compression during the day. Both arms are progressing, but the right is more swollen and taking longer than the left. Mystery Train had another gig last night at a women’s conference. As we were packing up we had several requests for contact information, so I think we did well! Liam got his car back this week, thanks to Mercedes' Mom who drove them to Regina to pick it up. The problem was a hole in a hose, which the warning light was warning of. The cost was minimal and we are thankful for that! (Thanks Erin for the friends and family discount!) Liam will be up for a visit next weekend! Greg’s health has been steadily improving since the second stent was put in. He is up to 4 full shifts per week and will be up to 5 in April. We had a quick call with Haaken and everything is great!"

Erin writes, "It’s been pretty gross here—freezing rain, snow, but I had a good week at work :) It was quiet upstairs so I got everything done more efficiently than usual. Earlier in the week, Kristian emailed Patti about helping apply for school, but she hasn’t replied. They might only help with employment—we’ll wait to hear. The TV stopped working a couple days ago and they suggested changing the HDMI cable, so Kristian did that yesterday. That wasn’t the problem. I need tech support, and I called a few times, but no one answered. I will try again. For now though, no baseball, no F1, no March Madness unless it gets fixed before it all starts. I printed off a bracket to fill out anyway. I should just cancel TV and go with a sports app. Just this morning I booked a week of holidays in May. Kristian wants to visit his friend Jeff in Calgary, and taking him to West Edmonton Mall is on my bucket list. I have really good memories from when I was a kid of Fantasyland, water park, Bourbon Street for me, Lego store for him. So that’s this year’s big holiday plan. Apparently, there are hotels right across the street from the Mall that offer mall attraction passes and money vouchers so you end up getting all your money back in a way."

Travis and Joanna had another busy week. After the family weekend and a hockey game in Toronto, they returned to TBay on Monday. Marigold was in for surgery (spaying) on Tuesday, and remains somewhat subdued at the weekend. They had planned Wendy's birthday party on Thursday night, but it has been postponed until Sunday so Kali can come along and play with Marigold. Anyway, we're looking forward to that. 

And that's about it for this week. 

Orange is the New Red!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my home town. The weather has been mild, albeit with too much wind some days, and we're seeing melting temperatures. It does make things more comfortable and we've enjoyed our second BBQ of the year already. We've seen some electrical issues here as the carriage lights I've installed on the house and garage are failing. My activity has been constrained by the Brier where the expected teams have risen to the top, and my guy was unable to reach the playoffs. Now we're down to the final three: #1-Dunstone, #2-Jacobs, #4-Gushue. They will complete the tournament tomorrow. Hockey just went through the trading deadline as contending teams attempted to add that missing piece that will push them to a Stanley Cup championship! In league play, my Oilers are floundering, but still in playoff position. They put up a solid effort to beat the Stars tonight. The Pens have given up and were selling off assets leading up to the trade deadline in hopes of building a better team for next season. The Leafs continue to achieve well and are near the top of the league standings. Here at home, life continues much as usual. Wendy's accounting work has progressed to October, so just a few more months to work through. Our choir work continues to engage us through each week. The unranked Jayhawks finished off the regular season in style, beating the ranked Arizona team. Now, it's on to March Madness—Rock Chalk Jayhawks! My business remains problematic as His Orangeness continues his chaotic ways. Tariffs on, tariffs off, partial tariffs, tariffs paused... the markets hate the instability of the man. We've now seen a steady decline since he took office with February completely red, and March red so far. The economy is still doing okay, but not so well as it was under the steady hand of Uncle Joe. The FED is now predicting that the USA will drop into recession next quarter—sigh! And he keeps on with his phoney border security complaints—surely he realizes that who and what enters the USA is entirely the responsibility of the USA. 

Erica writes, "This week I added a CPAP machine to my old woman routine. It’s pretty funny—every night Eric wraps up my arms, and then I put on my face mask and try to sleep. Liam has been having trouble with the Jetta. The main problem is how busy and short staffed the VW dealer is. You’d think that being the nephew of one of the big wigs would mean expedited service, but you’d be wrong. We are hoping to find out next week what the problem is. Eric has been watching the hockey trades with the NHL trade deadline. It’s almost as crazy as watching the on again off again trade war. We ended the week with a hockey game. Our local team, the PA Raiders, is in the playoffs. The game was standing room only. Fortunately, I got some tickets through work so we had seats."

Erin, Kristian and I worked through another electrical problem in their downstairs. It seems their LED pot lights are failing. I replaced one last summer, and they have now disconnected two more that were failing and flickering annoyingly. Things did not pan out at Erin's work as the lady selected for the job refused since she wanted more pay! So, Erin keeps doing both jobs and is getting tired of that! 

Travis and Joanna had busyness as usual this week, but today they flew off to Toronto for a family weekend. Andrew and Rosie are going to school there. Gemma and Jonas flew out from Vancouver to join the fun. We have Marigold here—Kali is glad of that. The boys are out at a boarding kennel they have used before. We're expecting Trav and Joanna back Monday evening. 

And that's enough for this week. 

Why the Orange Tariffs

With thanks to Paul Krugman, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

Trade policy mavens sometimes use numeric shorthand that refers to relevant parts of the Trade Act of 1974, which spells out situations in which the president has the right to impose tariffs. There’s Section 201, giving temporary relief to an industry that is being hurt by an import surge. There’s Section 232, protecting an industry vital to national security. There’s Section 301, responding to subsidies or other practices that give foreign producers an unfair advantage. The tariffs Donald Trump just imposed on Canada and Mexico—nations with whom he himself signed a free trade agreement—don’t fit any of these categories. Maybe they’re Section 000, meaning that the president has simply lost his mind. Or maybe they’re Section 666: he’s just evil.

The newspapers this morning all contain analysis pieces trying to explain why Trump is imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico. You can see the writers struggling, because this is a profoundly self-destructive move—it will impose huge, possibly devastating costs on U.S. manufacturing, while significantly raising the cost of living—without any visible justification. Yet the conventions of mainstream journalism make it hard to say directly that the president’s actions are just vindictive and senseless. To its credit, the New York Times analysis comes closest, acknowledging that for some reason Trump personally loathes Canada, a nation most of the world stereotypes as “nice.” Obviously, not every Canadian is a nice person. But Canadians are relatively courteous on average, and the country’s social and economic policies are relatively decent by international standards. And it seems clear to me that Trump hates them for their decency.

To be fair, there are some efforts to explain what’s happening that go beyond Trump’s personal pathology. Some Canadians think Trump covets their mineral wealth. And there’s always the possibility that Trump knows how big Canada looks on standard maps, unaware both of the way that its land area is exaggerated by the Mercator projection and the fact that much of it is tundra, and thinks, “Real estate!”

Trump also goes on about Canada’s trade surplus with the United States, which he keeps saying is $200 billion a year—it’s actually less than a third that size. And nobody has offered a coherent justification for his claim that when Canada sells us cheap oil and electricity, we are somehow subsidizing them. In any case, efforts to find some kind of economic justification for Trump’s Canada-hatred have the feeling of desperate efforts to avoid the obvious. Canada is a pretty decent place, as nations go. And Trump, whom nobody would describe as a decent person, dislikes and maybe even fears people who are. I mean, look at the people Trump has chosen to play prominent roles in his administration. I guess if you search hard enough you can find officials without a sex scandal, a financial scandal, a history of anti-semitism or racism, or a record of substance abuse in a senior position. But it isn’t easy. It really looks as if being vile is a fundamental job qualification.

And so we’re having a trade war. Trump appears to believe that we don’t need anything from Canada. Automobile manufacturers who rely on Canadian parts, Midwestern oil refineries that rely on Canadian oil, builders who rely on Canadian lumber, households that rely on Canadian hydropower for their electricity will soon learn otherwise. Trump may imagine that he can bully Canada into submission. But he can’t; Canadians of all political persuasions are furious. Doug Ford, the conservative premier of Ontario, has the right attitude: he has threatened to cut off U.S. electricity “with a smile on my face.” And remember that Canada can’t concede to U.S. demands, even if it were in a mood to do so (which it very much isn’t), because there aren’t any coherent U.S. demands; Canada has done nothing wrong!

So I don’t know how this ends. But U.S. voters will soon be feeling real pain, and I very much doubt that it will end in a Trump victory.

Betrayal

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my home town. The weather continues quite mild, but we got another dump of snow on Thursday, so we were digging out yesterday. Wendy is making good progress on her accounting contract—she's now working on the September records. She also has her Sweet Adelines treasurer work and singing. We both had choir on Thursday morning, and then served at Urban Abbey for their lunch offering for homeless folks. My main hockey team, the Oilers were on a losing streak—reaching five games—but finally won tonight! Penguins are also not winning much, but at least the Leafs are performing well. Curling remains my main sporting preoccupation again this week. The Scotties ended on Sunday, with the prohibitive favourite, Homan, beating my gal, Einarson, in the final. Homan will now represent us at the World Championships in South Korea. The Brier got underway yesterday in Kelowna and my usual favourite is there, #9-Koe. As you can tell from the ranking he's not having a great season. The favourites are #1-Dunstone, #2-Jacobs, #3-McEwen, #4-Gushue. I expect them to all make the playoffs, and I'm just hoping Koe can join them. The unranked Jayhawks are playing out the string on the regular season and hoping to get it together for the playoffs and a decent performance in March Madness. It has been a heart-wrenching month watching Trump destroy most of what USA has stood for over the years. He keeps breaking laws, treaties and the norms of morality. There is a very long list of items; just a few examples: we see food rotting in warehouses that should be feeding African children. That same food was provided under contract by farmers who are seeing those contracts broken and their livelihood threatened. The Canada/Mexico/USA trade treaty is in tatters as Trump threatens illegal tariffs against the very trade agreement he negotiated and described as the greatest trade treaty ever! In 1994, the USA, UK and Russia signed a treaty to respect the borders of Ukraine. Russia broke that ten years ago, and the USA led a world-wide response to punish them for it, but now Trump is trying to back out of that treaty. This week was the low-point of USA performance in foreign affairs as he brought Zelenskyy into the Oval Office, invited the Russian media in to document his brutalizing of his treaty partner on behalf of Putin. I won't bother to describe his economic malfeasance; it is enough to say that in the USA inflation is higher, employment is lower, and GDP is now projected to fall into recession. 

Erica writes, "On Sunday, Tina and I took a series of trains and buses to her friend’s place just outside of Essen. We enjoyed meeting new old friends over traditional German food and a mix of poor German, better English and hand signs. We stayed overnight and they were kind enough to drive us to Dusseldorf where we had a very early flight on Tuesday. I took advantage of the accessibility support for post surgery, so I didn’t have to stand in long lines. We landed in Saskatoon on Tuesday night where Guido and Eric brought us back to our homes! The evenings since then, I have been sleeping as I continue to heal. But Friday was filled with fun as our band had a gig at the local Army and Navy. Eric has no news, but he was super helpful in getting me home, making me rest and taking care of me at the gig."

Kristian continues to look forward to returning to school in the Fall. He has had no progress on finding work. He also continues with his electrical training as he has another pot light failing downstairs. We may attack that problem this weekend. Erin is making good progress at work, although she brought the laptop home this weekend, so that's not ideal!! Anyway, they have completed the search and offered the accounting clerk job, so that should provide a lot of relief for her. We'll see how that turns out. 

Travis and Joanna continue to be very busy both with the business and with Joanna's work. They keep having photoshoots while continuing to expect it to end soon as hockey seasons come to an end. As a result, we haven't been having our games nights so often, but they do have us over for supper and we love that! 

And that's enough for this week.