Month: April 2026

Renewal of Tariff Money to Importers. Trump Returns the Money. 4 25 2026

~ nicholasjayboyes

Renewal of Tariff Money to Importers. Trump Returns the Money. 4 25 2026

We began getting used to the announcement of tariffs on social media by Donald Trump, often in the middle of the night on his website.  He used tariffs to punish or reward other countries, related to political actions, for instance when he imposed tariffs on Brazil due to the treatment of Jair Bolsonaro.

He later backed out of that one, but the system was yet intact for Trump to use tariffs to gain power in international relations and communication. 

“On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that tariffs imposed by the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unlawful. The Court affirmed that Congress, not the Executive Branch, holds the exclusive authority to impose tariffs. This decision invalidates roughly $166 billion in collected duties. “

Google tariffs supreme court

It was a pivotal decision by a court that in many people’s eyes was totally subordinate to Trump, as he appointed 3 of the justices when he was dictator, ruling without a majority.

This led shortly in time to the effort to get the money spent from tariffs back to companies who paid the tax.  

“April 20 (Reuters) – The refund system set up to allow companies to recover illegally collected tariffs from ​the U.S. government went live on Monday as thousands of companies rushed to file claims.”

Reuters Article continues

“Companies contacted by Reuters in recent ​days expressed concerns about the durability of the new system, created by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in response to a court order that it prepare to return up to $166 billion to importers.”

“”I’m ​relieved that the portal seems to be functioning properly,” said Cassie Abel, CEO of Idaho-based outerwear company Wild Rye. Abel had her customs broker make the submission, which she said cost her $250 for the first phase of the filing.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court in February struck down the tariffs President Donald Trump pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, handing the Republican president a stinging defeat.”

“In court filings, Customs officials said as ​of April 9, some 56,497 importers had completed the necessary steps to receive electronic refunds, an amount totaling $127 billion, or more than three-quarters of the total eligible to be refunded. More ​than 330,000 importers paid the tariffs at issue on 53 million shipments of imported goods.”

Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/business/tariff-refund-system-launches-thousands-companies-file-claims-2026-04-20/

The 166 billion dollars is not a small sum,  it comes from the surplus value.  

“Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts”… 

“DOGE’s latest figures on contract cuts ticked up to $54.2 billion in an update posted on Tuesday.

Politico https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/12/trump-doge-contract-claims-savings-inflation-00498178

Incidentally the chart on politico’s article is worth looking at when it comes to what really transpired. 

Anyhow the various sums involved, in the chart for instance Doge claims 145 billion saved due to terminations, is still less than what the state has to come up with to pay back the 166 billion dollars it wrongly took as tax from importers.

This money will have to be raised as taxes, unless we are to believe the government was holding it not spending it.  I haven’t heard of a special fund from the tariff money, a savings account.  Rather it will come from the surplus value, and in the end the consumer will have paid this 166 billion dollars, although some of the money was returned to the importer.

I guess the importer could attempt to reimburse the customer, but it has yet to specifically occur.  I think most importers are just feeling lucky to have gotten back some lost profit, which Trump’s tariffs had cost them.  

The commodities the consumers are consuming could be made to be worth less, if the importers would return the money to consumers.  But in reality, as said before, most likely the consumer will see little or no benefit from this return of tariff money to the importers. 

At best Trump could say it was easier to pay off the 166 billion dollars, as Doge had saved 145 billion dollars, and that was close to 166 billion dollars.  Well, about 11 billion dollars less, but whatever.  Perhaps this will be of some consolation to his bourgeoisie, who so fervently believed in Trump to keep non metric American production competitive with the rest of the world’s commodities with taxes on imports.  

 In the end this exercise shows that Congress raises taxes, not the president.   And Congress also decides how tax will be paid, as import taxes, tariffs, etc.  The Supreme Court made this argument when they took away Trump’s favorite tool, tariffs for political purposes.

It seems to be holding; Trump has not been threatening tariffs constantly after the Court ruling.  And the money the tariffs generated is being returned to the people who had to pay it, the  importers. In the end it is a rare case of justice being done, a victory of the workers. Trump now has to pay back the money he illegally extorted in his sorry adventure with tariffs.  

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

4 25 2026  

Another Middle Eastern War.

~ nicholasjayboyes

In respect to the conflict between Donald Trump. Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran, it remains to be seen what will come of it.  At this point it looks like a successful coup de tet, killing Ayatollah Khamenei, and many of his following who were in power.

But no territory was gained by Israel or America, indicating the lack of a clear victory. 

And there is yet to be talk about American capital flowing into Iran, to employ the conquered people, with the goal of making a profit for America.

So it is not a victory yet.  There is currently a cease fire agreement, but the American power is blockading Iran’s ports in the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for Iran stopping traffic there.

The strait carries massive quantities of oil to foreign markets, including all of Kuwait and Iraqi oil.  At best Trump bombed some industry there that was pumping oil in Iran, I  guess this looks  like victory?

Israel has yet to remove Hamas from Gaza, even with F35 aircraft the Americans gave them.  Hamas, with no air force, like Afghanistan, again shows the limitations of airplanes bombing cities.  It has been more than 2 years now, Israel has yet to declare victory.  

Yet Trump thought this same group was capable of easily conquering Iran, that  have  industry, and a population twice that of Iraq.

Clearly Trump picks winners.  The way we will know if he won if the oil becomes property of ExxonMobil, like it did in Iraq.  In which case, it brings home profit for the bourgeoisie, which says the adventure had a purpose rather than simple punishment with destruction of a developing world power.

It will be very difficult to secure the Strait of Hormuz if Iran decides to block it again,  as it recently did. You would almost have to remove Iran from the coast, where they could attack boats they didn’t want in the strait.  

And if the goal is simple destruction, it is too easy with a missile or grenade launcher to effectively stop the shipping companies from wasting their capital to traverse a dangerous strait when they can do business elsewhere without insurance needed for a trip through the passage,

OIl prices have almost doubled, and American industry is still building fossil fuel vehicles.  The non metric trucks from Detroit cost a small fortune to commute in.  They are feeling the pressure, as China continues to build electric cars, and the solar panels and wind power to recharge them.  By 2030 about a third of China’s energy will be produced by renewable energy.

I guess if they win they get the Standard Oil monopoly’s fields back. But that cannot stop climate change, driving the economy to renewable energy.  All the oil in the world cannot stop the fact that burning fossil fuels is damaging the ecology, causing the temperature to rise.  It causes freak storms, high temperatures for short periods up north.  It is a monster the likes of which no human has ever seen or had to live with. 

And there is no question that if Iran’s oil returns to the bourgeoisie they will  pump as much as possible, with little or no concern for ecology.  At best they  will create some surplus value for ExxonMobil, and it will  come home to America.

If it stops now it is hard to call it a victory.  They know that, and that is why more men are going there in the Army to fight.  Nothing has been gained financially from bombing Iran, if anything closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cost capitalists money; the shipping companies cannot sail the ships, oil has doubled in value, and rebuilding Iran will cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Trump looks like he has committed the young men to another endless war in the Middle East.  They just never stop.  Real estate there keeps motivating the bourgeoisie to attempt to conquer.  This is no different than Iraq or Afghanistan, and the latter should show us the limitations of this style or warfare they think will easily win with.

Nicholas Jay Boyes   

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic 

4 16 2026

Universal Suffrage. Fear of Milwaukee’s Workers. 4 5 2026

~ nicholasjayboyes

Universal Suffrage. Fear of Milwaukee’s Workers. 4 5 2026

If you want to talk about how much we are trusted, it should be obvious the conditions of what is called “democracy” should strike one immediately as an example of a bourgeoisie who distrusts its own citizens to make decisions regarding their own conditions.

The ownership structure of capitalism removes the worker from the chain of command, reducing his active output as a producer to that of a mere appendage of machinery he does not control.  The manager is chosen by the same forces that keep him subjugated, in wage labour producing surplus value for the capitalist.

Confronted with this he is supposed to take heart in a democratic government with fair suffrage.  In reality, he finds the Senate, president, and Supreme Court, all elected in ways that favor materially the bourgeoisie.

The Senate gets two votes a state or territory.  Alabama gets the same number of votes as Chicago, two for the state.  This mechanism easily allows for  large scale landowners to stay in power; they hold power in the less populated states, and rural areas that  comprise much of the country.

Who else but the bourgeoisie would settle on conquered land?  Naturally the settlers are in the pocket of the Republican bourgeoisie. So South Dakota, much of Wisconsin, Iowa, etc. all fairly recent settlements with rural populations have a different opinion of what reality is than the proletariat in the cities.

The proletariat is an urban phenomenon, comprised of workers producing commodities in industrial settings.  It is possible for the larger farms to have unions, but it is not there yet. Waiting for it to form on the large farms would prove to be something that could take generations. Compounding the problem is massive state subsidies of more than 50 billion dollars a year, divvied out by the state, controlled by the republican bourgeoisie.

When the  worker votes he is also confronted by the electoral college, that appoints presidents without a majority periodically.  His votes for a woman president are not heard, even if a majority in suffrage support her.  Instead he is supposed to be happy he got Donald Trump instead.

What does this show us but a small group of people in control scared of their own workers, with no intention of giving up power.

When our worker tries to go to legal means for emancipation, he gets Citizens United rulings.  The Supreme Court is appointed by the president, who does not have to control a majority to govern.  And to make it seem more legitimate, it is supported by the Senate, who rubber stamps the decision for Supreme Court Justices. 

Sometimes the more moderate liberal progressive bourgeoisie govern, but it is a miracle there is ever a Senate majority.  It favors the large landowners, who vote republican.

When you look at the demographics, clearly the cities all vote democrat.  The country votes republican; we see it every cycle of elections.  This is an indicator of the presence of large scale land ownership, and its dominance over the proletariat in the city. 

The answer is to nationalize the land. If large scale farming is so great, its benefits should be enjoyed by all of society, not a small group of families who control all the good land around the city.  Small farmers are a small part of modern farming already, at best they can inherit soil, which we should not tamper with. But make no mistake, small scale landowning in time will only produce the same results we have l already come to, dominance of capitalism and the demise of the small farmer. They will find a mechanism to retake their lands, and consolidate  ownership in no time without nationalization of large landownings.  Be it through inheritance, or other means, under capitalism there will always be an effort to concentrate ownership of land in a small aristocracy, who control the food production for the city.

This having been said, it is still imperative to take part in universal suffrage.  Local races in particular, such as the current struggle between Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor looks like landowners vs urban petty bourgeois; the latter more worldly, sometimes favoring the working class.  

Lazar is up against the Planned Parenthood woman.  She is against abortion, probably a Catholic.  And yes, a person’s religion can influence how they vote.

The proletariat has a duty to take part in all suffrage, regardless of how slanted toward management it becomes.  It is still one vote, one person, and numerically the proletariat outnumbers the owning class 10 to one.  It can happen.

As suffrage comes again for supreme court justice in Wisconsin, it is a real battle.  These small contests can attract the big money;  the last local elections brought Elon Musk and his big wealth here. This one no doubt will also bring big out of state money, due to fear of Milwaukee’s proletariat.  The election is in two days, a real test of equality.

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

4 5 2026