Trump sent a wild six page screed to Nancy Pelosi today raging about his well deserved impeachment, accusing her and the Dems of everything from treason to shredding the Constitution. It’s all 100% bullshit, of course, the ravings of a guilty criminal. Factcheck has posted an annotated copy of the letter, outlining all of his lies. You have to hold your nose to read the letter. The smell is overwhelmingly revolting.
To all salon customers, I just got an update from Bubba. He is improving and feeling better, Juanita Jean is also feeling better, but still pretty banged up. They hope to be home sometime tomorrow.
Keep those positive thoughts flowing towards Austin.
Jefe
I’ve heard for years that the Democratic Party has been steadily moving to the right as Republicans have gone extreme right. That belief has become an article of faith among Dems, but Five Thirty Eight has published a data study that this belief is not true and that the opposite has been occurring for 30 years. Pretty interesting and recommended reading.
Do you think Ted Cruz sounds like a delusional lunatic? Do you, like me, sit slack jawed while listening to the nonsensical tirades of Screwy Louie Gohmert? Well, I’ve got a piece that will help you understand how we got here.
This is actually from last year, but I re-read this piece from the Washington Monthly and thought it would be a good reminder of how ultra-conservative ideologues went crazy, destroying politics in the US as we knew it. Most interesting? They did it by adopting tactics used by the Communists in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. The result is that they have now vilified you, me, and everyone else with whom they disagree, using ever more desperate tactics as demographics and common decency move more and more against them.
We often focus on the obvious about Trump: Thin-skinned narcissist, cheesy reality television star, criminal, schoolyard bully, prolific liar, lazy spray painted hair-weaved fake, skirt chasing philanderer, welsher, and pretty much all-round shitbag. But that’s not all. Except for disassembling our government and packing the courts with incompetent ideologues, Trump really doesn’t do anything. His trade wars are circular and have only accomplished 3 things – bankrupting US farmers and businesses, costing the American people hundreds of billions of dollars, and finally, handing global trade dominance to the Chinese.
But there is something else he does that almost no one focuses on; he roils the markets with his sudden proclamations. It goes something like this:
Trump runs a never ending cycle in almost everything he does while never really accomplishing anything. Without warning, he slaps tariffs on selected imports, crashing the markets, then he starts making off the cuff comments about some kind of “deal” that increases with time. The market rallies, nothing with trade changes, then he attacks China (or whatever country du jour), crashes the markets again. Rinse and repeat. He uses the same tactic with not only trade talks, but in negotiations with allies, foes, and actually dangerous countries like North Korea. Part of his tactic includes spouting bullshit on national television while standing in front of his helicopter with turbine engines screaming in the background, called by Stephen Colbert “Chopper Talk”.
But it’s more nefarious than that. Every time Trump shoots off his mouth and moves the markets, somebody makes a lot of money while somebody else loses a lot of money. I have always believe he does this on purpose, especially when markets are sagging due to his trade wars or other idiocy. In fact, one of his buddies, aging corporate raider Carl Icahn, saved millions when he dumped $31 million in shares of steel industry stocks just days before Trump announced steep China import tariffs. But it gets worse – in October, Vanity Fair published an article documenting very suspicious trades in the S&P futures markets timed precisely to make hundreds of millions of dollars when a Trump proclamation moves the markets. We know Trump intentionally manipulates markets with lies. One well documented case was last August when Trump blatantly lied at the G7 summit that he was talking to top officials in China when there were no talks occurring. The markets rallied at the lie, only to trade off when nothing happened – again.
Trump has always gotten away with questionable, if not outright illegal activity. It’s engrained in his DNA. He’s not constrained by rules and laws normal people follow, and it would not be in the slightest bit surprising that, in addition to his random lying, he (or someone close to him) was actually signaling to associates when he was going to make some big proclamation so they could get on the right side of a particular trade to rake in cash. It certainly looks like it. As one of Vanity Fair’s trading sources said, “There is definitely some hanky panky going on.”
Boris Johnson picked up 88 seats in Parliament yesterday assuring that Britain will leave the EU. Scotland may very well secede from the UK and stay in the Union. It’s a disaster for the Labour party and I believe a disaster for Britain, a move which could easily kick off a widespread recession. Indeed the British pound is off today from both the US dollar and the Euro.
Beyond the economics and politics of Britain, are there any lessons for the US and our upcoming elections in 2020? My answer is yes, and it’s a really serious lesson. The Labour party, lead by Jeremy Corbyn, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, got slaughtered. This is the worst result for Labour since 1935, and could easily set up a minority for them for a decade. Boris Johnson sold smaller government, spouted anti-European rhetoric pitting Europe against England. He also favors killing the National Health Service and privatizing virtually everything. In short, he’s just a slightly less childish and offensive Donald Trump. Did the Russians help? Certainly, but Labour was its own worst enemy. Corbyn is a terrible leader. He and his colleagues are hard left and tone deaf. While the voting populace was being bombarded with images of scary dark-skinned people and a long list of grievances, Corbyn stuck to his playbook of vilifying Britain’s colonial past and focusing on social issues (gender, social justice) and was self righteously pious, acting as if everyone who disagreed was somehow morally flawed. The result was predictable – Labour lost voters in traditionally labour areas. Corbyn got Trumped by Johnson (pun intended).
The lesson here is for the Dems to avoid the same mistakes. They need to focus 2020 on one goal, and one goal only – beating Donald Trump. Many of my Dem friends are having deep, thoughtful discussions comparing Warren’s and Sanders healthcare programs to Buttigieg’s and Klobuchar’s. They dither over free college education and college debt forgiveness. That’s just plain stupid and tone deaf. Don’t get me wrong – these are all important issues that we need to deal with, but they don’t mean a goddam thing right now. The Dems need a candidate that can win Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. That candidate needs to be competitive in Florida and Ohio. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. Period.
Warren and Sanders are Jeremy Corbyns’ doppelgängers. They are losers in the general because Trump will beat them in the swing states. Klobuchar could be a good VP candidate because of her midwest appeal. Like Warren and Sanders, Buttigieg is also a national loser, but for different reasons. He needs to go home and win a statewide election in Indiana and comeback in 2028. The Dems need to focus on winning, and stop focusing on their navels and esoteric policy questions. The policy questions should be left for January 21, 2021. The British Labour party got their asses kicked by Boris and his thugs while Corbyn dithered over policy and social issues. This is not the time, and Corbyn proved it.
Many of you will hurl insults for this, but in my mind there is one prime candidate who can win the general, and that’s Joe Biden. Bloomberg is interesting, but he has the billionaire baggage that I’m not sure he can shed. Biden is the choice, especially with a strong VP who also has broad appeal. Everyone else needs to go home.
OK, ignore the lessons of yesterday and reach for the torches and pitchforks. Ready, set, go…