It’s happening right before our eyes.  When His Orangeness was elected by the slimmest of electoral margins in 2016, normal people cringed, understanding that this chapter in our history was going to be a complete disaster.  Trump has certainly met that expectation; his erratic reality television show behavior has destroyed everything from 100 year-old international alliances to entire industries.  His tariff war has cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in economic value; his withdrawal from the TPP handed international trade dominance to China and Australia; his idiotic rantings on twitter have roiled the markets and destabilized politics in the US.  The entire world is either laughing at us, or worse, preparing for the lunatic in the White House to declare World War III over some fabricated crisis.

Up until now, the markets have shrugged off Trump’s insanity, primarily because they’ve enjoyed the trillion dollars he’s pumped into the economy with unneeded tax cuts causing skyrocketing deficits.  The result was overheating the economy which caused inflation to raise its ugly head, forcing the Fed to act by raising bank rates.  His shutdown of the federal government over his idiotic wall is the last nail in the coffin of the 2018 economy.  The Dow has plummeted 4,000 points from its highs; this is the worst December since the Great Depression.  The market the last 2 years has now returned only 4% per year, barely beating inflation.

Instead of trying to understand what the hell he’s doing, Trump bumbles around, attacking everything that moves; he spent Christmas Eve savaging the Fed for the inflation HE PERSONALLY CAUSED.  Even worse, the Fed is now the only agency standing in the way of this hair-weaved moron from pushing the entire country into the abyss.  He has never grasped that the POTUS is supposed to CALM the markets, not burn them down; this narcissist is playing with matches while standing knee-deep in gasoline, complaining that he doesn’t have a blow torch.  On top of that, of course, the invertebrates in Congress have fled DC to celebrate the holidays in hiding while the economy burns down around our ears and almost a million federal employees go without paychecks at Christmastime.

This is the worst disaster I’ve witnessed, including the last disaster started by GWB ten years ago.  The difference?  GWB was just a dumbass who surrounded himself with evil neocons and Darth Cheney, but at least he wasn’t nuts.  Trump, a loose cannon, is singularly the most corrupt, narcissistic, and insane POTUS in the modern era, including Nixon.  He’s run off all the adults who tried to restrain his worst instincts.  And, as Mueller gets closer, he gets more dangerous and erratic; finally, after almost 2 years of complete chaos, the markets are now destabilized and plummeting.  This one won’t end well.

Merry Christmas.

It’s just getting worse for Trump.  As his Trumpist base calcifies into fact-free paralysis, normal Americans have grown weary of the reality show that has played 24/7 since His Orangeness rode down the escalator at Individual 1 Tower alongside his third wife, the nude model from Slovenia.  Are we finally reaching the point where America has had enough of this train wreck?  Perhaps.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 62% of respondents believe that Trump is not telling the truth about Russian interference in the 2016 elections.  Additionally, they also want congressional Dems to take control to correct the course our country is taking.  Only 10% believe Trump got the message in the 2018 election, and 56% believe the US is on the wrong track.

We’re finally seeing cracks in Trump’s big beautiful wall of bullshit.  While his base remains sycophantic, normal people are turning against him.  This presidency will end badly, and insiders acknowledge that, besides all of Trump’s bloviating and bluster, he now fears impeachment.

Good.

CNN is reporting that unknown attorneys argued yesterday in a locked courtroom before a three judge federal appeals court panel over a challenged subpoena to Mueller’s grand jury.  This is the third such hearing, but this time, the entire fifth floor of the courthouse was cleared of all press and observers but for a few judiciary clerks.  The lawyers, who remain unidentified, arrived and left the courthouse under cover.  About 10 minutes after the hubbub on the fifth floor ceased, a black car carrying two of the Mueller team were seen entering the building where Mueller’s team resides.

Very interesting.  With all the secrecy, this witness is clearly highly placed.  My guess it’s a Trump family member; Jr.? Ivanka? Kushner?  This will make a great study in governance after this is all over.

Trump tweeted this morning that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is out.  This is the…I’ve lost count now…umpteenth  one of Trump’s cronies out on the street and under DOJ investigation.  Zinke has been rushing to burn down the Interior Department ever since he infested the office in early 2017.  Recall that Zinke is the one who approved a tiny two man electrical contractor from Montana to rebuild the entire Puerto Rican electrical grid that was destroyed during Hurricane Maria.  The company, Whitefish Energy, once employed Zinke’s son.  That contract, of course, ended in incompetence and scandal.  Since that disaster, Zinke has been running roughshod over the country’s federal lands, slashing budgets at the US Forest Service, BLM, and other critical agencies under the authority of the department.  He has attempted to undo decades of environmental protections and putt our nation’s resources up for sale.

Zinke is now the subject of at least six federal investigations for ethical misconduct and policy violations.  One, thought to be related to a shady land deal Zinke did with Halliburton’s CEO, has been referred to the Justice Department as a criminal case.  What a nice guy.

Zinke is now going the way of the many before him, his reputation destroyed by being touched by Donald Trump.

And, in the words of Sonny and Cher, “The beat goes on.”

Randy Rainbow strikes again.