UPDATED BELOW:

We all heard Trump’s inane ranting this week from calling himself the “chosen one” to him saying he’s going to cut payroll taxes (never mind) to escalating his trade war with China that was doomed from the start.  The outrage of the week, though, after China retaliated by slapping a 5% tariff on crude oil (crushing US oil prices), Trump appointed himself “Emperor of All Commerce” and tweeted out:

“Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.”

The response on Twitter was EXACTLY what you’d expect:  Republicans ran for the exits and were virtually radio silent, and Democrats as well as Trump critics pounced, and #iherebyorder started trending.  Adam Schiff tweeted:

“As long as we are claiming constitutional powers we don’t have, I hereby order the President to stop tweeting.”

George Conway got into the act, hilariously tweeting:

“I hereby order everyone on Twitter to hereby order something. #Iherebyorder” and “I hereby order Republicans to get real about Trump’s mental state.”

The hashtag is extremely entertaining, but let’s be clear – President of the United States is president, not king, emperor, or dictator.  It’s the most powerful position in the world (I shuddered as I typed that), but it’s limited.  He can’t order private business to do ANYTHING. That’s why they call it the private sector.  What he could do, though, is lead by example, and get his own goddam businesses out of China.  Both he and Ivanka’s cheesy crap is made in China as well as his 2020 campaign banners.

Trump is completely off the rails, driving the global economy in the ditch with his idiotic trade war.  His latest tantrum is only an attempt to control what he has no authority over, and I expect this to get worse and worse.  Think about it – when he was campaigning, he said over and over that only HE could fix what was “wrong” with America (even though the economy was fine, thank you very much). He also repeated that he knew more about the economy, warfare, ISIS, technology, and trade than ANYONE when, in fact, he didn’t know shit about any of those things.  All Trump knows about is reality television and that’s how he’s running the government, with his daily episodes of out of control tweeting and stupefying chaos.

We’re in this pickle because a huge portion of the electorate is stupid.  That’s a given.  However, we remain in this pickle because the Congress is broken.  Over the years it has ceded its Constitutional authority over to the Executive branch.  Trade policy is the Congress’s, not the president’s.  Trump is using national security as his reason for driving his personal vendetta against allies and trading partners, and Mitch McConnell is sitting on his fat ass letting it happen. McConnell has blocked every effort to stop the wrecking of the US and global economies and for this reason, is actually worse than Trump, since he actually DOES know better.

Enough of this is enough.  Get off your ass, Mitch, and do your goddam job.  Either do that, or get out of the way and let someone else do it.

UPDATE:  Trump asserted on Twitter early this am that he indeed CAN order companies to leave China.  He quoted the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 as his authority, but, of course, he’s wrong.  This law was passed to provide a framework for dealing with criminal regimes and terrorists organizations and was enacted to LIMIT a president’s authority to unilaterally act without proper declarations of emergencies that affect immediate national security.  It has NEVER been used for commercial trade disputes.  My feeling is that, per usual, Trump shot off his Twitter and some law library rat has been scurrying around trying to find some legal thread to tie it to, just like the Muslim ban and his “zero tolerance” policy that has created one of the largest human rights crisis in US history at the southern border.

This one, like all the others, won’t end well for either Trump or the US’ standing in the international community.

In the furor over the Mueller report in April, many Americans, included yours truly, missed Turtleneck McConnell rolling out the Republicans’ new campaign slogan for 2020 on Fox Noise.  Was it his overseer’s idiotic Make America Great Again mantra? Nope. It’s worse.  A lot worse.  When asked if the American people were going to get Medicare for all, McConnell said, “Not as long as I’m majority leader.  It ought to be called Medicare for NONE.”  And there you have it…not only do the Republicans want to kick millions of Americans off of the ACA, they want to kick another 58 million, 50 million of whom are over 65, off of Medicare.  Let’s think about that a minute.  Before the ACA, there were about 44 million Americans without healthcare.  That number today is about 27 million, not lower because of the GOP’s sabotage of the plan in the states.  That’s not good enough for McConnell, though.  He wants to take healthcare away from all those people and the 58 million on Medicare.  Doing that would cost millions of lives and untold billions of dollars.

Let’s be blunt – The GOP is now fully under the control of criminals, political radicals, and the profoundly corrupt.  They already have lifetime control of our only safety only net, the judicial branch; because of this, voters simply cannot allow them to control both houses of Congress and the WH again.   Believe it or not, McConnell is more dangerous than Trump for two reasons – he has zero regard for the Constitution, rule of law, or common decency, and he’s using Trump as a blunt instrument to reshape America into his radical vision of every person for themselves and his social program, Fuck the Poor.

So, while you’re hyperventilating over Trump’s latest outrage, keep in mind the real goals of McConnell and the rest of the Republicans – destroying the US as we know it.  Also remember their new campaign slogan –

GOP 2020 – Medicare for NONE

Earlier this week I asked why in the hell Trump would be so stupid as to nominate such a horrible candidate for the Supreme Court.  As his nomination to the highest court staggers toward a vote in the Senate, I ask, why in the hell would said horrible candidate publish an op-ed in the WSJ essentially apologizing for his horrible behavior in a nationally televised Judiciary Committee meeting?  The pretty certain answer is that he and Trumpland are now desperate.  Despite a mountain of evidence, coast to coast protests, mounting opposition by the ACLU, the American Bar Association, Yale Law, over a thousand law professors, and millions of Americans,  Senate Fascist Mitch McConnell is pushing ahead for a confirmation vote.  The backlash from the sparse FBI investigation whitewash is only making matters worse.

McConnell’s problem, though?  He doesn’t have the votes.  Axios is reporting that Republicans don’t have 50 and that senators are “walking on quicksand”.  At least 4 senators are undecided, but they’re not the only ones.  Polls are now beginning to move against senators for supporting Kavanaugh, so the Repubs (and Joe Manchin) face the classic politician’s dilemma: be an asshole to protect your seat, or do the right thing.

I don’t believe it’s as solid as Herr McConnell is making it out to be.

As we’ve all heard, the latest iteration of the GOP’s “Appeal and Replace”, better known as “Search and Destroy”, died last night when two conservative senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, said they couldn’t vote for the bill because it didn’t wreak enough havoc or kill enough Americans to suit them.  Later in the evening, TurtleNeck McConnell predictably announced that the Senate would then just vote to repeal with no replacement so even MORE people would die.  That idiotic notion died a sudden death today when less insane Republicans said no to that.  So what is left of this issue, Donald Trump’s biggest promise to his red-capped mobs who voted for him?  This:

For the Republicans, who are hell-bent on erasing Barack Obama from the history books to satisfy their mouth breather base, they can only offer Kabuki, or highly stylized and exaggerated staging, like signing ceremonies for letters, executive orders, and silly truck shows on the White House lawn to make it look like they’re really doing something when they’re not.

In these days of clowns, carnival barkers, and totalitarians infesting the White House, I’ll certainly take nothing over something, which is what the Congress is producing, at least so far.

Interesting posts on my Facebook feed this morning.  There are articles one after the other about how BOTH major political parties are on the ropes.  I give you the headlines:

‘Trump is What Happens When a Political Party Abandons Ideas’ – Politico

and right after it –

Sen. Bernie Sanders – “Democratic Brand is Pretty Bad” – CNN

In recent days, talkers from both sides have been bemoaning the condition of their own parties.  Some are going after their party leaders; some are blaming everyone from the Russians to their political rivals.  For the first time in over a decade, Nancy Pelosi’s job is in jeopardy.  After the Dems were skunked in the recent special elections, younger Dems are publicly talking about new party leadership in the House. Republican senators are openly refusing to support Mitch McConnell’s plan to destroy the US healthcare system.  The only oddity that continues is that the Republicans remain terrified of Trump and his Twitter fingers.

Are we finally reaching a crossroads in political party life?  Deep inside, the Repubs certainly recognize the smoldering ruin of their party after Trumpzilla rampaged through in 2016.  But it’s worse than that – to cling to power, the GOP has abandoned common decency and common sense, appealing to the worst instincts of the ignorant base.  That’s their problem.

The problem on the Dem side is more subtle.  Party leadership is fossilized.  It’s not adapted to the new normal.  Although the vast majority of creative thinkers and visualizers are Democrats, the party has remarkably failed to engage them in dragging the party out of the 1990’s.  The Dems don’t stand for anything – not to say they don’t have the interests of workers, families, and the disadvantaged – they can’t articulate it.  That was Hillary’s well documented problem…she couldn’t connect on that level.  Senate and House leadership now has the same problem.  While the GOP is in smoldering ruins, instead of taking advantage of that weakness, the Dems are arranging furniture and counting noses – no one is leading.

Maybe the voices of the younger generation will get loud enough for the geriatric leadership of both parties to get the message and get out of the way.  Can you imagine what America would be if we had youthful enthusiasm involved?  Can you imagine if political leadership was 50/50 men to women, inclusive of all faiths and ethnicities?

We’re a long way from that, but I can still dream.

Last night, during debate on the nomination of well known racist, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Elizabeth Warren was reading the actual letter from Coretta Scott King to the Senate in 1986 urging the rejection of him for a federal judgeship.  The letter, where King outlined in detail Sessions long record (even back then) of voter suppression and indifference to civil rights violations as a US Attorney, weighed heavily on the Senate which eventually rejected his nomination.  While Warren was reading from the well of the Senate, Turtle Neck McConnell objected to the reading based on Rule 19 of the Senate which prohibits the disparagement of a Senator by another (more…)