Enough of the nightmare, where is the dream?

I am tired of writing about Trump and the Republicans.

Let it be stipulated that I think Trump is a dangerous and childish nitwit.

Let it be stipulated that I think Republicans have turned into uncaring and often cruel ideologs.

Let is be stipulated that I think the Democrats are over-reacting to the Republican fierce independence by becoming fierce advocates of entitlement.

Let it be stipulated that I think the right wing nutcases have overtaken the Republican Party, much to the detriment of the Republican Party and our Republic.

Let is be stipulated that the left wing nutcases are threatening to overtake the Democratic Party and our Democracy, but are not yet in control of the Dems.

Let it be stipulated that an unfortunately large percentage of conservatives are in the thrall of the right wing propaganda bubble and have sadly turned their backs on actual news.

Let it be stipulated that even though I fully endorsed our military invasion of Iraq I now see it as the biggest mistake our country has made, even more than the disastrous war in Viet Nam, because we have increased, not decreased jihadist threats in the world by doing it.

Let it be stipulated that the country and the world is in an unprecedented state of upheaval and both the Republican and Democratic Parties are trotting out worn out dogmas that address times long gone by, not today's chaos.

I look at WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War and I am extraordinarily grateful that we do not have hundreds of thousands and millions of our children dying overseas.  

Let it be stipulated that pretty much everything I can think of to make the world a better place probably isn't going to work, because I keep thinking in terms of politics, but politics itself is broken and becoming useless in the face of today's chaos.

The world is in a crisis - a political crisis - an economic crisis - an intellectual crisis - but mostly a spiritual crisis.

I can understand why the Muslims and the Christians are trying to answer this spiritual crisis by retreating to fundamentalist teachings of their dogmas, the dogmas of the past, both of which are moves to harsh and punishing crack downs on the perceived sins of the modern world, and a return to an imagined glorious past of a world of purity and piousness. 

But... the future is not to be found in the past.  I wish I had a better handle on how to bring the brilliant and loving and caring and abundant future that I am certain is waiting for us into existence.  

So far, I have mostly only been able to illuminate the nightmarish mistakes that are relentlessly before us.

I do not despair.  I choose hope and trust that our nation wide and world wide spiritual crisis is moving toward emotional, intellectual, political, and spiritual resolutions - to a world that both the Right and the Left, that both Christians and Muslims, that both sophisticated and unsophisticated are dreaming of.   

It is being created as the old is being destroyed.  I hope I can start writing about the New rather than just register my disgust of the nightmare before us all.

Trump initiates and escalates a trade war

Our president, who seems to be willfully ignorant of the history of the link between protectionism, tariffs, and trade wars as triggers to the Great Depression, has decided to escalate the trade war he started by imposing more tariffs on China.

One of the terrible problems with a grandiose ego is that it is a bottomless pit that can never be filled.  I am sure that this little man can only see retaliatory tariffs imposed by China as some sort of challenge to his manhood, so he is compelled to escalate – playing a game of chicken – with the U.S. and world economy.

When he imposes tariffs on goods coming into the country, that is just a tax on those goods that we consumers pay for.  Republicans are so proud of their disastrous tax cut, and then their fearless leader adds taxes to goods in the form of tariffs.

Plus, of course, the tit for tat tariffs being placed by China on our exports will shrink those exports and hurt those industries – mostly those in the areas of the country that voted for Trump.

But, the Trumpster cult will support anything this guy does.  ???? 

Just another day in Trumpland.

Stormy Daniels photos? of what?

Stormy Daniels says that the non-disclosure agreement she signed is void because Donald Trump didn't sign it.  Reading an article by a lawyer with some experience in such cases, Jay Michaelson in The Daily Beast, says:

"I’ve reviewed dozens, if not hundreds, of non-disclosure agreements in my life. Pretty much all of them become voided once the confidential information becomes widely known. That’s true even of agreements like this one, which is unusually constructed, outrageously slanted toward one party (guess which one) and intended to keep Daniels silent throughout all eternity and the entire universe no matter what. In this case, when the Wall Street Journal revealed the details of the contract on January 12, 2018, that information stopped being confidential." 

So, the contract is already void.

He goes on to speculate that the reason for the particular strategy that her lawyer is using is to let Donald Trump (aka "David Dennison" or D.D." in the NDA document) know that she has photos or other evidence of their sex. (You can read the legal reasoning by clicking through to his article)

Is it just me, or has anyone else noted that the name used to identify her in this NDA is "Peggy Peterson" - whose initials are P.P.?  (remember the alleged sex tapes that the opposition research man referred to in his infamous dossier?)  Does she have the same Trump secret that the Russians do?  

I am  noticing that Trump never says a bad thing about Putin, or Daniels, aka P.P.

Doesn't bother me much, but it apparently bothers "D.D."

Trump's disgusting cruelty

Seems that every day Trump sets a new low in behavior.  A couple of days ago he fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe 24 hours before his retirement, stripping him of his earned full pension.  Just a disgusting cruelty. Decency demands allowing the man his pension before firing him.  Decency? Trump? Two words that cannot fit side by side.

I understand that Trump wants to discredit the Mueller investigation by discrediting one of the investigators and witnesses, Mr. McCabe.  But this is just sadistic.  I suppose his fans see Mr Trump as being Strong by being cruel.  But I think he is just showing his weakness and sickness by being cruel.  

We have many examples of Trump's cruelty.  His endless humiliation and demeaning of almost all of his staff and cabinet, trying to drive them out rather than manning up and talking to them directly or firing them face to face.  He shows himself to be cowardly and very unmanly in my opinion.

The first time I was shocked by Trump's astonishingly personal cruelty was when The Daily Beast published an article reporting that his first wife had claimed he had raped her in a fury when he blamed her for a bad result on a hair transplant surgery.  His attack dog lawyer, Michael Cohen sent this unbelievable threat to the reporter:

“I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we’re in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don’t have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know,” Cohen said. “So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?”

“You write a story that has Mr. Trump’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up… for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet… you’re going to have judgments against you, so much money, you’ll never know how to get out from underneath it,” he added."

To add some credibility to this threat of personal destruction he also said:

"Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen bragged to the Daily Beast about the time he “destroy[ed]” Monnin’s life. Attempting to intimidate a Beast reporter, Cohen said: “Do you want to destroy your life? It’s going to be my privilege to serve it to you on a silver platter like I did that idiot from Pennsylvania in Miss USA.”

Cohen was referring to a $5 million lawsuit against a beauty contestant that complained that the contest was rigged - an amount a normal person like her, Sheena Monnin, had no chance of paying in her lifetime.

This guy thinks he is in a Godfather movie - The Godfather Goes to Washington. 

Someday Republican lawmakers are going to have enough of this and throw him out - but they will first have to know that he is hurting them personally.  It can't come soon enough.

Russia hacks U.S. power plants

Homeland Security and the FBI report that Russia has hacked U.S. power plants and other critical infrastructure. 

In addition, Russia cyber warfare hacked the voting systems of seven states in 2016.

This is pretty serious stuff. Russia is simply waging war against the U.S. and the West.  

There is simply no doubt that Russia did its best to influence the presidential election to benefit Trump.  Every U.S. intelligence source affirms this.  Using their "active measures" on social media to attack candidates and enhance others, using social media to inflame the tensions of polarization, using cyber warfare to infiltrate and perhaps disable or destroy power plants - there are essentially acts of war.

Too bad our president is being controlled by Russia.  He is their best weapon against the United States of America.

I hope that Republicans start waking up to this obvious fact.

Trade deficits explained by actual conservative economists

George Schultz, who served under Nixon and Reagan, and Martin Feldstein, notable conservative economist, explained everything you need to know about trade deficits a while back, before our ignorant president decided to do something stupid.  They explain it in 70 words.  Here it is in its entirety:

If a country consumes more than it produces, it must import more than it exports. That’s not a rip-off; that’s arithmetic.

If we manage to negotiate a reduction in the Chinese trade surplus with the United States, we will have an increased trade deficit with some other country.

Federal deficit spending, a massive and continuing act of dissaving, is the culprit. Control that spending and you will control trade deficits.

The only solution to trade deficits is to reduce the budget deficit.  But, of course, this president and his Republican Congress just massively increased the budget deficit with their tax bill which cut taxes on corporations and the plutocracy in order to be able to throw up their hands in alarm next year and claim they have no choice but to cut "entitlements" - i.e. medicaid, medicare, and social security - in order to reduce the budget deficit.  Their hostility toward the middle class and the poor is limitless, especially the people of color.

Trade war?

Our president has decided to do all that he can to hurt the American economy. He is putting tariffs on steel and aluminum. Will this spark a trade war?  Will other countries retaliate?  Smoot-Hawley?  Plunge the country into recession?  Depression?

Does he think there are steel and aluminum plants just ready to start producing? What happens to the price of goods made of steel and aluminum?  

Which exports will be killed in retaliation?  How many jobs will be lost?

Ignorant man does an ignorant thing in order to keep an ignorant campaign promise made to ignorant people. 

Oh well. he and his base will just blame liberals, or Obama, or Hillary.

Four sensible gun laws that would have an effect

Scientific American published an article that research shows actually reduces gun violence.  Here is a summary of the article:

1. Require permits to purchase - rather than background checks, which are done by sellers and aren't really complied with, this would require in person applications for a permit with local law enforcement.  10 states do this and it resulted in a 68% reduced risk of guns being diverted to criminals.
2. Ban individuals convicted of any violent crime from gun purchase.  Not just domestic abuse convictions, but all violent crime convictions would ban you from buying guns for life.
3. Make all serious domestic violence offenders surrender firearms.  Apparently, the current law only asks offenders to voluntarily surrender their guns.  A study showed that relinquishment laws are 50% more effective than non-relinquishment laws.  Tempers flare in domestic situations, and if guns are available...
4. Temporarily ban active alcohol abusers from firearms.  Research says that DUI offenders are 4 - 5 times more likely to violent crime than those with no criminal record.  The suggestion is no guns allowed for those with two or more DUIs in the last five years.

These are specific and targeted gun laws that would focus on high risk gun buyers and be of no threat to Second Amendment advocates who are afraid that a tyrannical government is out to confiscate their guns and establish a totalitarian police state.

I think these are well thought out.  Too bad they won't be considered by the NRA and their Republicans elected officials afraid of NRA condemnation.
 

Mueller indicts the Russians

Friday was a very important day in the history of American democracy. Robert Mueller and the Justice Department indicted Russians for interfering with United States elections, including the 2016 presidential election in opposition to Hillary, and in favor of Trump and Sanders. 

This confirms what our intelligence agencies have been saying for well over a year. This is a very big step toward stopping Russian interference in our democracy. 

Our president immediately tweeted that he was vindicated and that there was no collusion between him and Russia. 

Right. 

Wouldn’t it be nice if our administration was actually leading the efforts to stop Russian influence on our elections rather than helping cover up Russia’s attack on America?

By his actions you shall know him...

Donald Trump is apparently refusing to release the Democratic rebuttal to the Nunes memo.  The Nunes memo was supposed to totally discredit the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in our 2016 election, but failed pathetically.  The notion of that memo was that the investigation was based upon former MI5 intelligence officer Steel's dosier, which was paid for by the Hillary campaign, was actually initiated by anti-Trump conservatives during the primary season.  But, the memo itself recounted that the investigation had started earlier when Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos drunkenly told an Australian diplomat that the Russians had dirt on Hillary.  That diplomat was so distressed at the interference into the U.S. election process that they informed U.S. intelligence.  And the investigation began into Russian interference.  

So - Nunes memo - dud.

The outraged Democrats claimed that the Nunes memo was cherry picked and distorted and just a political hit job to protect Trump.  So, they called for a vote to release a Democratic memo rebuttal.  Trump won't release it.  Why? Forget the silly, transparent excuses.  It is obvious why.  Trump wants only one story out there, his story that the Mueller probe is a political hit job against him.

An innocent president would have immediately been outraged when all 14 intelligence agencies concluded that a hostile foreign power, Russia, had interfered with the American election.  An innocent president would have done everything in his or her power to investigate the Russian interference and prosecute the guilty regardless of who would fall.  An innocent president would have put in place a very formidable governmental effort to stop them from doing it again, and from doing it now - which they are doing now. 

A guilty president would have denied that there was any interference from the Russians.  A guilty president would have done everything he could to stop the investigation into Russian interference.  A guilty president would have obstructed justice by firing the head of the FBI in charge of that investigation. A guilty president would have the same party committee chairman issue a false memo to invalidate the investigation.  A guilty president would fire the man at the FBI that is in charge of the Mueller investigation.  A guilty president would fire Mueller.

A guilty president would force his own impeachment.
 

Donnie wants a Big Parade

Oh my goodness.  What a child the Republican elected president is. Donnie wants a really big military parade.  Like the French do on Bastille Day. 

Congress is fighting tooth and nail over a budget, with how much money to spend on the military being a very contentious issue, and this little boy in the White House wants to spend millions of military budget on…a parade.

I guess that is better than nuking North Korea, and maybe if he can get his Big Powerful Military Leader feelings by looking at a parade rather than starting WWIII we should all be grateful.

Evidence of Trump - Russia conspiriacy

By his behavior you can understand.  Trump just refused to implement sanctions against Russia passed by both the House and the Senate almost unanimously as a punishment for Russian interference in the elections of 2016.  This is a violation of his executive duties. Congress is the Legislative Branch - they write the laws - and the President leads the Executive Branch - he executes the laws.  Except, this tyrant in training has decided he doesn't have to.  

Why?

Pretty straightforward, it seems to me - because Trump can't impose sanctions on Russia because Russia and Trump have conspired in the Russian interference in the election of 2016, and Russia owns Trump - some form of blackmail that Russia has on him, or they can bankrupt him or cost him billions by demanding payment on massive debts he owes Russia or Russians.  

Where is the Republican Party?  Where is the Republican controlled Congress?  Have they no decency? no honor? no conscience? no outrage at the usurpation of their own powers? Our democracy is crumbling and the elected Republicans are complicit.  

The United State is supposed to be about the rule of law, not the rule of tyrants.  The Republican Party has lost its way.

The astonishing thing to me is that some of my conservative friends voted for Trump because they thought Hillary was too corrupt.  But the depths of depraved corruption of this nitwit has never been seen before in my lifetime, and I am pretty old.

 

They don't play well together, part 2

The Republican controlled government is about to shut down.  What a surprise!  This group is about as cooperative and collaborative as their Great Leader - Mr Trump. They only reach across the isle to give the other side the finger. 

Pretty discouraging.

They don’t play well together

One thing you can certainly say about the fiercely independent/pull yourself up by your bootstraps/you’re on your own/don’t expect any help from me/I did it my way/I don’t owe anything to anybody/good luck to you but get out of my way conservatives is if they do not play well together.  How could they? Their highest value is the individual. Cooperation is barely in their consciousness. 

It is particularly pleasant to watch Bannon and Trump and Mercer and McConnell and a number of conservatives and Republicans attack each other over the revelations of Trump’s pathetic infantilism of the Wolff book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump Whitehouse”.

They all deserve each other. And America deserves better.

Trump vs Obama stock market comparison

Trump supporters, and semi-supporters, tout the stock market growth of the last year as proof that Trump is a pretty good president after all.  Because, you know, you can say all kinds of stuff about what a demented goof ball this guy is, but just look at what's really important - the NUMBERS.

OK.  Here are the numbers:

S&P 500 progress:

•  1/1/09 - 865.98 - Obama's comes into office
•  1/1/10 - 1123.58 - a growth of 29.7% - Obama's first year
  
•  1/1/11 - 1282.62 - a growth of 14.2%
•  1/1/12 - 1300.58 - a growth of 01.4%
•  1/1/13 - 1480.40 - a growth of 13.8%
•  1/1/14 - 1822.36 - a growth of 23.1%
•  1/1/15 - 2028.15 - a growth of 11.3%
•  1/1/16 - 1918.60 - a loss of 05.4%
•  1/1/17 - 2275.12 - a growth of 18.6%
•  1/1/18 - 2689.15 - a growth of 18.2% - Trump's first year in office

So, the S&P grew at almost the exact the same rate in Trump's first year as Obama's last year, and grew by significantly less than Obama's first year.  

I think that Obama's handling of the terrible financial crash of 2008 is responsible for the excellent stock market performance the first year and over the course of his eight years - a total growth of the S&P of 162.7%.  I am sure that this significantly outperforms those countries who panicked and instigated austerity rather than stimulus in response to the Great Recession.

Trump thrills some conservatives with his attacks on safety, environmental, and health regulations.  And these conservatives seem to believe that the way to grow the market is to attack these regulations.  The data don't support that belief.  And Trump and the Republicans are failing in their duty to protect the people of this nation.

Trump ratings compared to previous presidents after one year

We all know Trump is the least popular president in recent times at this point in his administration.  Here are the numbers:

CNN POLL
Presidential Approval Rating
Dec of First Year

Bush, 2001 86%
Kennedy, 1961 77%
Bush, 1989 71%
Eisenhower, 1953 69%
Nixon, 1969 59%
Carter, 1977 57%
Obama, 2009 54%
Clinton, 1993 54%
Reagan, 1981 49%
Trump, now 35%

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 19, 2017

 I wonder how long the Republicans will put up with him now that they have achieved their most desired decades long dream of cutting taxes on the rich?  Any time they want him gone he should be easy to impeach on a number of grounds, from violation of the emoluments and bribery clauses of the constitution, to aiding a hostile foreign country to undermine U.S. elections, to obstruction of justice trying to prevent investigations into Russian interference, to....whatever his latest authoritarian disregard for the rule of law happens to be an any given day.

The Bridge over the River Kwai Tax Bill

The award winning 1957 movie, "The Bridge Over the River Kwai", tells the WWII story of captured British soldiers forced to build a bridge in Burma that would aid the Japanese war effort.  After refusing to cooperate, eventually the lead character played brilliantly by Alec Guinness decides that his pride as a British officer and engineer dictated that they do an outstanding job as a testimony to British expertise.  At the end of the movie, he comes out of his trance as a captured and coerced man and manages to blow up the bridge at the last moment.

I think the Republican tax plan is similar to this.  The Republican Congress is passing a tax plan that has been coerced from them by tyrannical plutocratic donors and a tyrannical president.  They are in some kind of trance under the spell of tyrants and have built and are passing a tax plan that is essentially an abomination - not just to liberals but to decades of conservative thinking that has laid out numerous approaches to tax reform - almost none of which are in this plan.

Is there a chance that a Republican Senator can, like Alec Guinness in the movie, suddenly come to and throw themselves on the "plunger of the detonator" and blow up this disastrous legislation?

Probably not.  That would take courage and honor. 

Trump the "bark beetle"

I watched the final episode of the TV series "Longmire" last night, and it had an interesting line of dialogue.  A Native American older woman told Longmire that he had nice trees around his home, but if a bark beetle got into them he would end up with just a lot of dead wood around his home.  And that was what a certain malevolent character in the story was to her tribe - a bark beetle that was taking the life out of her tribe.  And, the trouble with bark beetles is they multiply and take over everything.

I thought that was an apt metaphor for our current president.  He is a toxic bark beetle, and he has called the nation of bark beetles to come forth and chew the life out of America.  Toxic man who enables too many toxins in the country. 

By the way, I really enjoyed the Netflix Longmire series.  Wyoming sheriff being and doing good.

Bannon and Trump defeated in Alabama

The morally reprehensible Republican Roy Moore was defeated by his Democratic opponent Doug Jones in Alabama despite the avid support of Steve Bannon of Breitbart and president Donald Trump.

America dodged a bullet.

Very grateful.

Ryan confirms the Republican goal of gutting entitlements by increasiing the deficit

Paul Ryan proved my contention of a few days ago that the purpose of the tax cuts was to increase the deficit so the Republicans will have the excuse they need to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all social safety net programs.  

“We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,” Ryan said during an appearance on Ross Kaminsky's talk radio show. "... Frankly, it's the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the health care entitlements — because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking.”

And, of course, the deficit will be increased by raising taxes on most middle and lower class people and dramatically lowering taxes on the wealthy and super wealthy.  As I wrote earlier, the Confederate Oligarchy has taken over the country, and their "business model" has always been plantation - a weak and dependent work force that accepts low wages and obeys the bosses.  They have never seen the world in any other terms.  Only now, everybody is to be their "slaves", not only African Americans.

Funny how it's always things that help the middle and lower classes that the Reps want to cut, never things like the military. Good for bidness, don'cha know...

I hope my conservative friends are paying attention. 

Trump distracts us from the Russian probe by blowing up the Israeli Palestinian conflict

I guess we should be grateful that Trump didn't decide that the way to distract us from the Russian conspiracy probe would be by nuking North Korea.  He is only planning to recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel. 

Of course, this is throwing gasoline on the Israeli Palestinian long burning fires.  And, of course, many people will die.  BUT....

Always remember that the only motivation that Donald Trump ever has is what will benefit Donald Trump. His narcissism is pathological.  He kills others if he thinks it will benefit him.

And he needs different headlines than the endless stream of Russia probe headlines. The noose is tightening on him, and the case of Russian conspiracy with the Trump campaign and Trump administration is moving inexorably forward.  This is not something that those trapped inside the right wing media bubble are aware of, but the reporting is consistent and solid that Mueller is closing in.  

So Trump needs bigger headlines. 

How about an Israeli Palestinian war?  That should take over the headlines for a while.  I suppose this move satisfies some right wing nutcases, but America has long recognized that Jerusalem is claimed by both sides and to declare for one side is likely to cause violent bloodshed.

Only the Republicans can stop this man. Only the Republicans can impeach this man.  Will they ever elevate their own motivations beyond using this loose canon in the White House in order to get evangelical judges to take over the judiciary and in order to eviscerate the New Deal and the Great Society programs of the last many decades?   Will they ever find a conscience that sees the well being of the country and the world is more important than their partisan obsessions?

I wish I had more faith in my Republican politicians and my Republican friends.  But they seem willing to put up with amazingly disgusting and destructive moves by Trump and the extremist right wing.

America is much better than this. I am waiting.  I am hopeful. This can't continue forever.

Trump tax plan screws Trumpsters

The Senate passed a tax plan that will transfer wealth from the middle class and lower classes to the very wealthy.  Mark Shields lays out the basic numbers:

"This is a tax bill that is written solely for the deserving rich. And it also, at the same time, manages to soak the poor. Just the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office indicates that, by 2027, by 2027, Americans earning the princely sum of between $40,000 and $50,000 will, collectively combined, pay $5.3 trillion — trillion — more in taxes. Americans earning over $1 million, by the same study, will receive $5.7 trillion in tax cuts."

But, there is much more.  As I wrote before, the point of the tax cuts is to balloon the deficit so the wealthy can cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all "entitilements." You know, weaken the work force so they will work for less money and benefits.  Turn all of America into a Southern Plantation, only now it's not just Africans who will be the slaves.  How long until we see see bathrooms marked "For Plutocrats Only"?

In other words, the Trumpsters who put Trump in power are getting screwed.  

But, so what?  As long as he says politically incorrect things and pisses off liberals they will love him.

Brainiacs.