Bananas | Kevin Barrett's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Bananas’

Never Appease A Bully

Posted in Economics, Philosophy, Politics, tagged #47DonTheFelon, American Economy, American Politics, Bananas, Coffee, Colombia, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Crude Oil, Economics, Flowers, Gold, Philosophy, Tariffs, United States on January 27, 2025| 3 Comments »

IMHO: Colombian President Gustavo Petro made an error in capitulating to U.S. President Trump’s demand to allow the repatriation of Colombian migrants under the threat of imposed tariffs and sanctions. What he should have said was: “Bring it on!“

Approximately 20% of the coffee imported into the United States is from Colombia. Approximately 66% of Americans drink coffee everyday. President Trump’s threat was to raise the price of coffee for Americans (who would be paying the tariff) if Colombia didn’t agree to receive their citizens back.

Some of the main exports from Colombia to the United States are:
Crude Oil: This is the largest export, valued at around $6 billion annually.
Coffee: Colombia is one of the world’s top coffee producers, exporting nearly $1.8 billion worth of coffee to the U.S. each year.
Cut Flowers: Colombia is a major supplier of cut flowers, with exports totaling approximately $1.6 billion.
Gold: Precious metals, including gold, are also significant exports.
Bananas: Another important agricultural export.

All of these are essentially fungible goods on the world market – meaning they are completely replaceable by similar goods from other suppliers (countries) if there is a significant price hike. But when the price hike is only in one country, imposed on that country by its own government, the price hike need not cripple the tariffed country’s economy. They can still sell their goods to other countries.

Yes, there is no doubt tariffs would have a significant hit on Colombia’s exports to the United States. The counter to this is there would be little to no impact on Colombia’s exports to other countries who aren’t imposing a tax on their own citizens for your products. The price of crude oil (gasoline), coffee, flowers, gold and bananas would go up in the United States for the long term, but the effect on Colombia would be short term at worst. Columbia might have to reduce their prices – for other parts of the world – to maintain their economy / market share during the price stabilization fluctuation, but it is hard to believe this would be a long term hit (except to flowers and bananas due to spoilage which may cause the loss of profit for the majority of that season’s product).

The reality is that many (if not most) of the other countries involved in those markets / exports to the U.S. would also raise their prices to increase profit knowing the tariff will provide market-message protection for their price gouging. This is the nature of global capitalism… They don’t HAVE to increase their prices by the amount of the tariff, but I can easily see them increasing by 10-to-15% and laughing all the way to the bank.

This will result in a “mild” round of inflation in the United States and (potentially) an increase in the Federal interest rate to fight the inflation. So, who really, really gets hurt? The American consumer… when (if) our economy tanks!

President Petro should have called #47DonTheFelon’s bluff. The emperor has no clothes. The sooner some other global leader points this out, the better / safer the global economy will be.

Reality Check: Although the Colombian numbers above are in the billions of dollars, it should be pointed out they are “almost” insignificant for the overall U.S. economy which is $25+ Trillion per year. The issue is there is no way to know in advance when any given economic factor will (or is likely to) become a tipping point for the U.S. economy. President Trump’s “poker play” is that you are more afraid of damage to your economy than he is is of the damage to our economy.

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Click here (27 January) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Day 7 / Week 1 – Down 1lb (Down 7lbs & 1.5in To Date)

Posted in Diets, General Comments, Health, Juice/Blend Fasting, Walking, tagged 2023 Day 7 (365), 2023 Week 1 (365), Bananas, Beats Per Minute, Bloat, BPM, Celery, Diet, Fasting, Fluid Retention, General Comments, Health, Heart Rate, HR, Juicing, Naked "Green Machine" Drink, Shiva, Spinach, V8 Juice, Walking, Water Pills, White Onion on August 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »

It’s the end of Day 7 of my current “Juice / Blend” fast. …Early evening.

Diet: I woke up this morning feeling terrific! No bloat anywhere as near as I can tell (feel). I’ve skipped the water pill again today. I made up the “swamp-juice” for the next couple of days: small banana (4), spinach (2), celery (2), white onion (1), apple juice 128fl oz, V8 (low sodium) 46fl oz, V8 – Strawberry / banana 46fl oz, Naked “Green Machine” 64fl oz and approximately 48oz of ice cubes.

A lot more energy today. I’ve definitely started the “oily” skin transition between the “start” and “normal” period fast. From prior fasts, this transition can last from three to five days. After that, my skin should feel smooth without the “oily” sensation. It’s hard to describe. …Moist without being wet. A bit like you’ve just come out of the shower and you’ve toweled off, but you’re not 100% dry.

Shiva’s walk was mostly uneventful… Just a short walk around the corner and back home. She was bouncing / dancing, waiting to get the leash on and didn’t seem overly tired at the end. She stumbled three times, though. Once badly. I’m still carrying the lifting strap in case she goes down and can’t get back to her feet on her own.

I did my two laps (walking) around the block after we walked Shiva. My heart rate was higher on the max rate, the average and the duration of high. Today, it was 114bpm average (30bpm higher than yesterday) and a 152 max bpm (5bpm higher than yesterday). Not great news, but I didn’t feel bad (at all) during the walk. I still want to target an increase to 3 laps on Monday, but now I think I have to play it by ear and see how I am tomorrow (Sunday).

Day 7 : End of Week 1 – weight 365lbs (down 1lbs, down 7lbs total); today’s (muffin) waist 58 inches (down .5in, down 1.5in total).

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Click here (26 August) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.

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Day 37: Blended Not Juiced

Posted in Diets, Faith Family and Friends, Family and Friends, Health, tagged Bananas, Blending Fast, Colonoscopy, Day 37: Juice Fasting, Day-By-Day, Diet, Drama Queen, Goals, Health, Inaccurate Scales, Pinto Beans on September 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »

The end of day thirty-seven and the start of day thirty-eight…

Morning weight: 324lbs.
I am now down “49 / 56”. As in, 49lbs down from my fasting start weight: 373lbs, and 56lbs down from my highest weight ever (two days before I started the fast): 380lbs. Today’s weight is a 13lbs increase, up from 311lbs yesterday. And, the explanation follows…

I mentioned last week that on the day of my colonoscopy my weight was 330lbs at the hospital where I got the procedure. I also stated my weight was 309lbs at the doctor’s office earlier in the same week. Well, it turns out when I jumped on my scale this morning it said I’d gained 5lbs (316lbs) since yesterday (311lbs). Given that I didn’t go for my swim, had only in the low 22K for steps and drank some “low-sodium” broth and then a 32oz bottle of ice water before going to sleep, I expected it to be a plateau or slight gain. I did not expect a 5lbs gain…

I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to move my scales for a “reset”. Instead of having them on a sports mat, I have put the scales back on a concrete surface in a corner of the mats. I made sure to keep the lip of the scale from the edges of the mats. I then weighed myself in the various positions (toes off the edges, toes at “8” and “4”, toes at “0”). I did the positions both individually (by stepping off the scale in between) and together (transitioning from one to the next without stepping off). What I found was toes off the edges: 340lbs. Toes at “8” and “4”: 335lbs. Toes at “0”: 324lbs. I am assuming I haven’t gained any weight since the colonoscopy, and will, therefore, use the 324lbs going forward. I will also leave the scale off the mats for the duration and continue to use the “0” toes position for the duration.

This is a “terrible” psychological setback. Even though I KNOW I haven’t gained 13lbs, it “hurts” just looking at the scale. LOL (Aren’t I turning into a back-of-hand on forehead drama queen?) The practical effect of this is there is (in my head) far less incentive to go another week, let alone two weeks to try to reach 50 days. At 311lbs, two weeks would almost certainly have been enough time to get below 300lbs. It is almost impossible to get to 300lbs from 324lbs in that amount of time. And this is the problem of setting goals beyond “one more day, just one more day”.

A Blend Day: Hil bought a bunch of bananas and then wasn’t able to eat them all, so three started to go black. She didn’t want to waste them so she tossed them in a blender with some pinto beans and made me a “protein” smoothie. Bananas don’t juice well because they have a low fluid to fiber ratio, so “blending” is the best you can really do with them. Bananas are not considered a “juicy-fruit”. This is why they are not recommended for folks breaking a strict juice (or water) fast. They sit like a weight in your stomach and don’t “pass-through” easily. The taste and texture wasn’t much to speak of, so I added some apple and green “V8” juices to the mix. It slightly improved the taste, but it definitely made it drinkable (instead of frozen yogurt-like spoon-able).

Wrapping this up: I have to make my veggie juice and my ginger / mint tea. I’m then off to the pool for my swim. And it’s back to “day by day”.

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Click here (2 September) to see the posts of prior years. I started this blog in late 2009. Daily posting began in late January 2011. Not all of the days in the early years (2009-2010) will have posts.