I just watched a breathtaking exchange on Meet the Press Daily where Mike Rounds, conservative Republican Senator from South Dakota cried uncle to Trump’s trade war.  He said that farmers and ranchers in his state are getting killed by backing out of the TPP and the escalating trade war with China and (former) friends of the US.  US Soybean prices have plummeted and Russia has stepped into US farmers’ shoes exporting to China.  That’s right, kids…the winner so far of the trade war with China is RUSSIA.  What a coinkydink! Oh, BTW, we’ve designed a new MAGA hat for South Dakota farmers:

Anyway, I digress.  Rounds roundly (no pun intended) condemned Trump’s trade war, saying his constituents are loudly complaining.  Is this finally a crack in Trump’s wall?  Are the GOP invertebrates in congress finally growing spines?  We’re a long way from that, but at least we know that Repubs are not all in a coma.

Today, the US Chamber of Commerce, who actively worked to get Donald Trump elected in 2016, turned on him after he did EXACTLY what he said he was going to do – start a trade war.  So many business people, including the Chamber, hated Hillary Clinton so much that they were willing to roll the bones on Trump, and EVERYONE is losing.  His erratic behavior, shooting from the hip, and idiotic neocon economic and defense policy has turned our world on its ear.  When it started hitting Chamber members in the wallet, they woke up.

The business community’s support of Trump was idiotic, and everyone who was paying the slightest bit of attention knew that.  But since most business people watch Trump News Network, they believed his bullshit and have now followed him right over the cliff without a second thought; that is, until they hit the ground.

The result is that the stock market is now in negative territory FOR THE YEAR, manufacturers are fleeing the US for foreign shores (taking the jobs with them), debt to GDP has now exceeded our debt level at the end of WWII, the dollar is being displaced by the Renminbi for global trading, Trump has pissed off all of our trading partners and handed our export markets over to both former allies and competitors, and all this has been done while french kissing Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un to our political and economic disadvantage.

I’m personally staggered by how much damage to our country one lunatic can do.  When we finally rid ourselves of this infestation, (and have cleaned out Congress) we’ll have to develop an entire set of new statutes that will prevent this kind of tragedy from ever happening again.  More on that at a future date.

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

UPDATE: The Cato Institute, founded and funded by the Koch Brothers, is now opposing Trump’s trade wars, calling them “incoherent, angry and misguided”.  Cato is well known for its libertarian approach to policy and politics, and the Kochs often use it as a blunt force weapon to attack everything from regulations to climate change.  If you’re not familiar with how global trade works, this is actually a pretty good primer; because of that, it’s a very effective argument against the irrationality of Trump’s trade policies tweets.  This article explains the idiocy and inconsistency of Trump’s America First policy where he and his moronic trade staff have fabricated policy based on the “I win, you lose” myth of trade.  No actual trade expert promotes this zero sum game.  Win-win is the only policy that leads to economic growth and stability.

Since the beginning of this dumpster fire, I’ve been amazed how Trump’s cabinet and advisors have sold their souls for their titles.  Some, like Betsy DeVos, you would expect to be incompetent.  But others, like billionaire Wilbur Ross, are shocking.  Ross is well known in business circles as a smart turn-around guy and shrewd businessman.  As Commerce Secretary, he has backed Trump’s idiocy, defending his trade war even to rejecting a market crash as enough reason to stop it.  These statements can only communicate one of two things about Ross:  Either he is a dumbass and just been lucky in business all these years, or he’s pandering to Trump for some unknown reason (which could be some legal entanglement in one of his “deals”).  I’ll take Door Number Two, Alex.

The mass shooting at the Capital Gazette office in Maryland yesterday was the result of the longstanding obsession of a lunatic with the staff of the paper.  His obsession with the paper started in 2011 after he had pleaded guilty to criminal harassment of a former Facebook friend.  The Gazette reported the story.  The shooter, who will remain unnamed, sued the paper for defamation.  The case was dismissed.  He appealed.  The case was dismissed again.  Then the threats started.  On social media and personally, the shooter threatened violence against the staff of the Gazette for SEVEN years.  Yesterday, he carried out those threats by murdering 5 people at their desks.  He’s being described on national media this morning as an “angry person” and an “injustice collector”, perpetually aggrieved about something, but obsessed with the Gazette.

There are two lessons to be learned here, in my view.  First, Trump relentlessly attacks the press,  even calling it the “enemy of the people” as recently as Tuesday in one of his self-worshipping rallies.  He regularly vilifies reporters, creating a hostile environment for members of the 4th estate just doing their jobs of bringing the news to the People.  This toxic rhetoric inspires violence, and is irresponsible coming from anyone, much less the President of the United States.

The second lesson?  How weak gun laws allow someone like this guy access to any firearms. He has threatened people for years.  He pleaded guilty to harassment.  His record of years of threats was well known to police, but didn’t cross the line, because the line is simply too high.  Criminals often plead felonies down to misdemeanors.  Misdemeanors generally don’t disqualify people from buying guns, even though those who are guilty are often dangerous.  Even if misdemeanors did disqualify, the loopholes to buy guns through private sales is gigantic.

These deaths, like tens of thousands a year, were completely preventable.  In a civilized society, there is no excuse for this kind of violence.  None.  Yet, the invertebrates in Congress and state houses all over the country take money from the NRA and bend to a small handful of gun nuts to not do their damn jobs.  I wish that just ONCE that Congressman would show the kind of anger against gun advocates that they showed against the good people of the FBI yesterday.  Just once would be refreshing.

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

Yesterday, Trump tweeted the official White House statement on the passing of Barbara Bush.  As usual, there was no proofreader on duty, probably because there aren’t any.  Have a look:

An odd piece of clothing for men developed in England and France during the late Middle Ages and on into the Renaissance period called the codpiece.  The codpiece was designed to cover and protect a man’s…uh…equipment, and is thought to have been developed originally to provide freedom of movement when tight hosiery was the in-thing fashion which covered the legs.  During this period of time, men’s jackets, or doublets, were made shorter and shorter making the codpiece an essential equipment-covering garment. During this period of time, virility was considered mandatory to be a successful warrior, so metal codpieces were made that exaggerated the size of…the equipment.  Then came Edward IV of England, who set the pace for exaggeration.  He made very short doublets de rigueur in merry Old England, enlarging the codpieces to greatly emphasize a man’s…equipment, as well as sparing no expense for the sometimes jewel-encrusted pieces.  Even though a man’s…equipment could not be mentioned by name, it seems it was very popular during the times to put the Renaissance version of a neon sign on it.  Here are a couple of examples:

Henry VIII was well known for the size and elaborate designs of his codpieces, but the odd garment disappeared by 1600 after the blousy pantaloons made popular by French nobility swept the English fashion world as well.

Since the codpiece became unfashionable 500 years ago, why in the world am I talking about it now?  Well, I’m talking about it because in very recent times it has re-emerged, this time in 21st century America, and here it is:

The AR-15, and its variants, have become the codpiece of the 21st century, normally carried by men/boys attempting to exaggerate their masculinity by carrying their firearm in front of their…equipment, or in place of it.  Putting aside the danger it poses to everyone near them, the black steel codpieces of today usually elicit giggles or gasps from normal people, probably not unlike the reactions of people to the more traditional codpieces made popular by hosiery-wearing nobility way back in the day, trying to bolster their own manhood.

Today’s codpieces look even more silly than those in the 16th century, but they are a hell of a lot more dangerous.  One can only hope that this codpiece ends up in the dustbin of history, much like its predecessor.