Week End Wrap Up & Hump Day Report

More Cabinet Picks & Crazy Stuff Incoming

I’ve been busy this past week and weekend helping my wife with her stuff, and applying for SNAP. Thankfully, I’ve been approved for SNAP, so we won’t starve for the next 6 months. This put a bit of a dent in my writing, so today we’re going to combine our normal Hump Day Report and the Week End Wrap Up into a single report. Please subscribe, and pledge an amount that you think would be good for the value my publication provides you. Pledges won’t be monetized until I reach a number of subscribers that justifies turning on billing; in the meantime, all the basic weekly articles will continue to be free forever; if I can make a living doing this, then I’ll add special content for paying subscribers. Thanks again for reading!

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Trump continues to add to his cabinet nominations, selecting Brooke Rollins for Secretary of Agriculture, Pete Hoekstra Ambassador to Canada, and John Phelan for Secretary of the Navy. Many, if not all are either inexperienced in the areas they will be responsible, are there to destroy the areas, or both. You can access my “TrumpAdministrationReportCard” spreadsheet (click the link to download from the Resistance Radio Google Drive). I’ll continue updating this as a resource for anyone who wants to get a bird’s eye view of how the government is doing, and the impacts it has on “we the people.” The spreadsheet has several tabs: a cabinet tab, a report card tab, and a Trump Bingo tab. More to follow as the new year begins!

Trump is making statements about policy actions he will take in his first week in office, most recently vowing to set 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada, and 35% against China. He said he is holding Mexico and Canada responsible for the fentanyl and illegal aliens: “stop this Invasion of our Country!” Canada’s Trudeau indicated he already had a “good call” with Trump to “lay out the facts.” For her part, the newly election President of Mexico responded by saying Mexico would respond with their own tariffs against the USA, if Trump takes such action. We are already seeing prices on certain items start to move up, as manufacturers hedge against tariffs by preordering parts and materials before they go into affect. For example, different types of metals are becoming scarce since fabricators are buying it up, and that scarcity is driving up those material costs on a daily basis for everyone who needs metal. This has also impacted workers, as manufacturers spend the spare cash they have on hand on materials, and inform their workers that bonuses will be frozen or not be possible this holiday season.

Meanwhile, as to Trump’s campaign promise to ‘Drill Baby Drill’ for oil, executives at oil companies say that is not likely given the need to focus on capital and economic discipline. They do expect to see growth to 2030, but slow and steady, rather than unbridled growth. Given the advances already made in renewable energy on the grid, and growth of EVs and Hybrid automobiles vs. lower growth in Gas powered vehicles, demand for energy growth just isn’t what it used to be. That being said, there is increased demand, just at a very low rate when compared to a decade ago.

Finally, from the “I couldn’t make this up if I tried” department: the new Trump Administration, when not in-fighting, has had a number of Cabinet Picks targeted with swatting attacks and bomb threats. Thankfully no one was hurt.