Who knew?  We did.  Normal people did.  Many of us felt like we were standing in front of a train hurtling towards a cliff screaming, “STOP! STOP!” while it sped up as it reached the edge.  Well, we’re reaching the edge, and it is virtually 100% Trump induced. When he got his gigantic tax cut rammed through, the business community cheered.  When he started his trade war, the business community was concerned, but his base cheered.  Then he pissed off our closest allies and estranged us from NATO while cozying up to Putin.  He’s now pushing lifting sanctions against Russia.  And worse?  We’re now in our 32nd day of an unprecedented government shutdown, Trump holding a gun to the head of 800,000 workers and the entire US economy.

As this disaster drags on, adults in the room have gone from reluctant questioning to full fledged alarm.  Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan says a long shutdown could wipe out the entire first quarter of economic growth.  Worse, some economists are worrying about a global slowdown, especially since China is also suffering from the trade war (even though their trade surplus with us has exploded since Trump started his idiotic trade war).  The invertebrates in DC, led by Ol’ Scratch McConnell, do nothing but make fundraising calls for re-election.

And the American people are helpless to do anything.  Representatives’ and Senators’ voicemail boxes are full, no one is taking calls, and emails get canned responses.  Trumpists cheer as Rome burns.

And the real problem?  You can’t negotiate with kidnappers.  If the Dems cave to Trump’s demands, this will become his normal negotiating tactic.  He’ll skip congress all together and just shut down the government every time he can’t get what he wants.  The result is that, unfortunately,  this is a game of chicken that the Dems can’t lose.

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.