Here are three articles from the May 27 edition of The New York Times:
(1)
Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner
Now a lesson in logic. The post hoc fallacy occurs when one assumes that because event “A” preceded event “B” that event “A” caused event “B.” You know the argument: “Ever since man landed on the moon, we’ve had crazy hurricanes and tornadoes.”
So while we can’t say for a fact that greasing Trump’s palm moved him to pardon a fellow felon, it would take an ostrich hiding its head in the sand to deny the real possibility of that being the case in Trump’s transactional universe.*
(2)
She Sacrificed Everything to Reach the U.S. Under Trump, She Decided to Leave.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/world/americas/mother-self-deportation-trump.html
This is the story of Yessica Rojas, a Venezuelan mother, who, with her two small children, made the perilous journey from her South American homeland to seek a life of freedom in the United States. She eventually found a home in Branson, MO, where she worked two jobs to support her family. She was not a drug dealer or a member of a notorious gang and thus in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. Just a mother with kids.
It was as a mother with kids that Yessica decided to leave the United States, the country to which she had bravely ventured to seek refuge.
[T]he choice was clear. After less than two years in Missouri, she and her two children had to leave.
The reason, she said, were stories about Venezuelan mothers like her that had gone viral on social media. Ms. Rojas heard they had been deported to Venezuela while the American authorities held on to their children.
(3)
A Vermont Start-Up Was Close to Becoming Profitable. Then the Tariffs Hit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/business/trumps-china-tariffs-small-businesses.html
Carina Hamel and Robby Ringer are not Venezuelans and do not have small children who might be seized by the government, but are American citizens who are pursuing the American dream of running their own business. The couple designed a special water bottle and nozzle for serious bicyclists and put their house up as collateral to finance their company. The bottles were manufactured in China to the company’s specifications, and the product was catching on. The company was nearing profitability. But as the headline says, “Then the Tariffs Hit.”
Whether Trump is a liar or just plain stupid (you decide), his claim that foreign businesses pay the tariffs is bonkers. The cost is passed down the line to the American importers and then on to the consumer (the tariffs effectively acting as a sales tax).
For a small company like Bivo (the name of the water bottle company), having to put up the cost of the tariffs without the ability to raise their retail prices to recompense them is likely to force them out of business.
*
As interesting as Bivo’s story is, the comments of some readers is worth noting (the vast majority of which were favorable to Hamel and Ringer). But then there were the bigots and racists who spouted that the products, because they were made in China, were manufactured using slave and/or child labor. Of course, those morons gave no proof to support their wild claims. Just rants for rants’ sake.
Then there were the Economics Class Dropouts. They latched on to the fact that “Bivo pays roughly $8 per bottle, before tariffs, and sells them to wholesalers for around $20.” The cost to the consumer is $34 to $54.
“My God,” the ECDs exclaim, “Bivo is ripping everybody off! Charging $20 for an $8 product!” To these people, the material is all; apparently, the work of invention and design has no monetary value. Neither, also, is the need to compensate for transportation of the goods and their storage and workers’ wages. And much less, a bit left over as profit, so that the business can grow.**
*
I am reminded here of the time when, deep into photography, I took a picture of a fellow faculty member, which he loved so much that he entreated me to make some 8x10s for him. Which I did. He offered to pay me for my materials—the paper and the chemicals cost bupkis—as if that was what producing photographs was all about. Besides the other fixed costs—the enlarger, the trays, tongs, rubber gloves—there were the more important intangible qualities that went into the production of the photo—the esthetic sense, the talented eye, the judgment of when to press the shutter button, and so on. And the years of experience. Were they of no value?
***
* Trump has issued many other pardons and commutations recently. Can you find a common thread here?
“a supporter of Mr. Trump’s”
“In recent years, he has gone on television to defend Mr. Trump.”
“He endorsed Mr. Trump in October.”
“Mr. Zuberi donated more than $1.1 million to committees associated with Mr. Trump and the Republican Party”
And here are some of the things those spared by Trump were found guilty of:
“defraud[ing] investors of more than $28 million.”
“violating lobbying, campaign finance and tax laws, and obstructing an investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee.”
“help[ing] the chief executive of an Ohio-based lighting company manipulate the corporation’s stock value, make coordinated trades and defraud investors.”
“bribery and attempted extortion by a government official.”
“public corruption, including obstructing justice, conspiracy, falsifying documents relied on by federal regulators and other violations of campaign finance laws.”
“tax fraud and accepting bribes.”
“fail[ing] to report nearly $1 million in gross receipts and hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee wages from a Manhattan restaurant he had owned.”
“evading taxes and defrauding banks of more than $30 million to support their luxurious lifestyle.”
** How do consumer goods get priced? On this youtube video, Mike, the presenter, deals with the question: “Are luxury watches overpriced?”
While none of us may be in the market for a Rolex or a Cartier watch, the same pricing logic applies downstream as well. It’s worth a watch (no pun intended).
