The Commentariat -- February 26, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Benjamin Weiser & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled on Monday that federal civil rights law bars employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation. The case, which stemmed from the 2010 dismissal of a Long Island sky-diving instructor, was a setback for the Trump Justice Department, whose lawyers found themselves in the unusual position of arguing against government lawyers from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The E.E.O.C. had argued that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars workplace discrimination based on 'race, color, religion, sex or national origin,' protected gay employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. But the Trump Justice Department took the position that the law did not reach sexual orientation, and said the E.E.O.C. was 'not speaking for the United States.' The Justice Department and Altitude Express, the instructor's employer, could seek review of the decision by the United States Supreme Court, although neither party had any immediate comment on the ruling." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Kind of amazing what a retrograde bozo JeffBo is & how far he will push it. Let's hope this ruling is the end of the discussion.
A Hero in His Own Mind. Justin Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday claimed he would have run into a Florida high school to prevent a gunman from carrying out this month's mass shooting. 'I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon,' Trump told a gathering of governors at the White House. The president was doubling down on his criticism of an armed sheriff's deputy who did not confront the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School...."
"Playing the Daughter Card." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "NBC News's Peter Alexander asked Ivanka Trump in an interview airing Monday about accusations that her father engaged in multiple affairs a decade ago and that the women were effectively paid to keep quiet.... 'I think it's a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he's affirmatively stated there's no truth to it,' she said.... Trump is asking for special treatment simply by virtue of who she is.... If she were any other presidential adviser, the question would not have seemed out of bounds to anybody.... It's also hugely important to note that the interview was conducted while Ivanka Trump was on official business at the Olympics in South Korea -- during a trip, no less, in which the White House emphasized that she was acting as a diplomat rather than a daughter.... The White House also has been silent on this from the briefing room podium.... The president [himself] has also been unusually silent about this whole thing. Despite calling women who accused him of sexual harassment liars' in the past, Trump has been quieter about allegations from [porn actor Stormy] Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal."
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "With lawmakers poised next month to approve new priorities for agency funding for the first time since the president took office, the bureaucratic bloodletting can officially begin.... Dozens of long-standing programs are slated for termination, and every agency, large and small, has submitted a plan to the White House for reorganization.... Until now, the administration has been largely prevented from making such moves because the government has been operating under a series of continuing budget resolutions. Those generally require agencies to maintain funding for existing programs.... The ground is about to shift, however.... Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who met with House Republicans this month to discuss the restructuring efforts, said in an interview that he believes President Trump and his allies in Congress are prepared to fundamentally change the way government operates." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nothing good can come of anything Newt touches. Why isn't he in Rome? Please, Francis, make him a cardinal or something & give him a full-time job in the basement of the Vatican library.
Senate Race. Benjamin Hart of New York: "... Mitt Romney seemingly has a clear path to becoming Utah's next senator. But a hard-right faction within the state's Republican Party has taken a drastic step that could derail him. Over the weekend, the faction passed a bylaw that allows Utah Republicans to expel any candidate that qualifies for the ballot via signatures -- the route Romney plans to take. Utahpolicy.com reports that Utah Republican Party chairman Rob Anderson, a relative moderate, is attempting to fend off repeated challenges to his leadership by a group of aggressive right-wingers in the party's Central Committee.... And, the new bylaw says, if a candidate does follow that route to the ballot, they 'immediately' lose their membership. Romney wouldn't be the only Republican affected by this drastic measure; 56 other GOP candidates in the state, including the sitting Senate president, have also announced their intention to gather signatures."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Lee Fang & Nick Surgey of the Intercept: "In the backdrop of a chaotic first year of Donald Trump's presidency, the conservative Koch brothers have won victory after victory in their bid to reshape American government to their interests. Documents obtained by The Intercept and Documented show that the network of wealthy donors led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have taken credit for a laundry list of policy achievements extracted from the Trump administration and their allies in Congress. The donors have pumped campaign contributions not only to GOP lawmakers, but also to an array of third-party organizations that have pressured officials to act swiftly to roll back limits on pollution, approve new pipeline projects, and extend the largest set of upper-income tax breaks in generations." See also Juan Cole's article in truthdig on our super-corrupt government, linked below.
*****
** Supremes Trump Trump, for Now. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday declined to enter the national controversy over 'dreamers,' turning down the Trump administration's request to immediately review lower court decisions that keep in place the program that protects undocumented immigrants brought here as children from deportation.... Federal district judges in California and New York have issued nationwide injunctions against ending the program, siding with states and organizations challenging the administration's rescission. The court orders effectively block the Trump administration from ending the program on March 5, as planned." Thanks to Marvin S. for the lead. ...
... The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak, is here.
NEW. Sarah Jones of the New Republic: "It's a big day for labor at the Supreme Court. The Court will hear arguments in Janus v. AFSCME on Monday morning. As Rachel Cohen explained for The Intercept, the suit was originally filed by a public worker who objected to having union dues deducted from his paycheck. It is 'a case experts have long predicted could strike a mortal blow to public sector unions[.]'"
NEW. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "... Donald Trump's decision to punt the issue of whether Jared Kushner can keep his access to sensitive government secrets without a full security clearance to his chief of staff, John Kelly, has put him in a tricky position, stuck between the rules on one side and the president's family on the other. Trump's ad hoc decision not to intervene in the clearance process on behalf of his son-in-law and senior adviser in effect left Kelly and Kushner in limbo, prolonging an uncomfortable situation that White House aides say is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon."
All the Best People, Ctd. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The president's personal pilot is on the administration's short list to head the Federal Aviation Administration. Trump has told a host of administration officials and associates that he wants John Dunkin -- his longtime personal pilot ... -- to helm the agency, which has a budget in the billions and which oversees all civil aviation in the United States.... Dunkin has told people that when he used to fly Trump around on his private Boeing 757, they'd often find themselves stuck on the tarmac with delays. He'd tell Trump that none of this would happen if a pilot ran the FAA."
Jacqueline Thompsen of the Hill: "President Trump's ’s reelection campaign on Saturday used an image of a survivor of the recent Florida school shooting in an email asking for donations from its supporters. The email led with an image of Trump and first lady Melania at the bedside of Madeleine Wilford, 17, who was injured in the shooting. The same photo had been shared on Trump's official Instagram last week.... Toward the end of the email is a link to donate to the campaign." Mrs. McC: I'm not sure about this, but it seems to me the campaign would have had to get permissions from everyone in the photo before using it in a campaign ad. Maybe it did. ...
... MEANWHILE. Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "As conspiracy theorists accuse survivors of the Florida school shooting of being 'crisis actors,' President Trump on Saturday retweeted a fringe radio host who once used identical language to peddle hoaxes about the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in 2012. The host, Wayne Dupree, has also repeatedly attacked survivors of the high school massacre in Parkland, Fla., who are pushing for new gun laws after 17 of their schoolmates and teachers were killed with an AR-15 rifle last week. Trump's retweet of Dupree had nothing to do with guns. It was also four years old and didn't seem particularly relevant to anything in the news. 'It's ok 2 b black, conservative and love America and not vote Democrat!' Dupree posted in 2014.... 'The President of the United States is lifting up a voice that is smearing the survivors of the Parkland massacre,' the liberal news outlet ThinkProgress wrote as it dug up Dupree's history of fringe theories."
Stan Collender of Forbes: "In one of the most frightening stories I've read since the start of the Trump presidency, The New York Times reported on Saturday that the administration is seriously considering paying for the new U.S. embassy it wants to build in Jerusalem with funds provided by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.... Spending these funds would be a violation of the U.S. Constitution, a violation of federal law, an end run around Congress and a big step toward presidential anarchy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Benjamin Hart of New York: "A CNN poll released on Sunday showed that 70 percent of Americans now favor stricter gun laws, the highest level of support since 1993.... The caveat here is that such surges in opinion rarely last long. Still, the level of support shows a dramatic increase from even a few months ago. In the aftermath of the Las Vegas mass shooting, a CNN poll showed that only 52 percent of Americans favored new firearms restrictions[.]... The poll also showed that President Trump is at his lowest approval rating -- 35 percent -- since taking office. Separately, a USA Today/Suffolk poll also showed overwhelming support for new gun laws, but fierce, understandable skepticism that Congress would do anything about it."
Senate Race. Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "Senator Dianne Feinstein suffered a setback in her effort to win a sixth term representing California as the state Democratic Party declined this weekend to endorse her re-election bid. Ms. Feinstein is way ahead in most polls, and has a huge fund-raising advantage over her main opponent, Kevin de León, the California State Senate's Democratic leader. Still, the vote here, at a raucous and well-attended party convention, is the latest indication of disenchantment with Ms. Feinstein, 84, among the party's grass-roots advocates. A candidate must garner the support of 60 percent of the delegates to win the party's nomination. None of the candidates running for statewide election met that threshold. Still, Ms. Feinstein's showing was particularly stark given her status as Democratic institution. Mr. de León drew 54 percent of the vote, or 1,508 votes, compared with 37 percent, or 1,023 votes, for Ms. Feinstein." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Adam Shell of USA Today: In his annual letter to investors, Warren Buffett wrote that Berkshire Hathaway gained $29 billion last year as a result of the Republican tax heist. Mrs. McC: Since Trump & Congressional Republicans bill the law as a "middle-class tax cut," if you have a middle-ish income, you should probably check with your financial adviser to find out if your net worth went up by billions of dollars. And congratulations.
** Juan Cole in truthdig: "Top 10 Signs the U.S. Is the Most Corrupt Nation in the World." Just because you don't have to bribe the postman to deliver your mail ... Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Russian military spies hacked several hundred computers used by authorities at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, according to U.S. intelligence. They did so while trying to make it appear as though the intrusion was conducted by North Korea, what is known as a 'false-flag' operation, said two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Officials in PyeongChang acknowledged that the Games were hit by a cyberattack during the Feb. 9 Opening Ceremonies but had refused to confirm whether Russia was responsible. That evening there were disruptions to the Internet, broadcast systems and the Olympics website. Many attendees were unable to print their tickets for the ceremony, resulting in empty seats. Analysts surmise the disruption was retaliation against the International Olympic Committee for banning the Russian team from the Winter Games due to doping violations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, Russians did the same thing in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but they made it look as if "a 400-pound guy sitting on his bed in New Jersey" did it. (Paraphrase -- Trump's actual claim was ungrammatical.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Devon Ivie of Vulture: The Simpsons "correctly predicted that, one day, Team USA would take home a gold medal for curling at the Olympics.... This year America did win gold for the first time ever -- despite the team's long-suffering underdog status -- defeating Sweden in a wild match filled with tension and broom artistry. The February 2010 episode also predicted that the USA would win against Sweden, if you needed further proof of the show's writers being sorcerers."
Beyond the Beltway
Drew Harwell & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Republican state lawmakers in Florida called on Sunday for the suspension of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, accusing him of 'incompetence and neglect of duty' in the months before the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran and 73 Republican colleagues urged Gov. Rick Scott (R) to suspend Israel, a Democrat who was reelected in 2016 and has said he would not resign over his agency's handling of one of the country's deadliest school shootings.... Israel said before the letter's release that the agency had stumbled in its handling of red flags about the accused shooter, including multiple warnings that he could carry out such an attack, but that he should not be held personally responsible. 'I can only take responsibility for what I knew about,' Israel said Sunday morning in an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'I've given amazing leadership to this agency.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, well, that's fine. Then they all should fire themselves for "incompetence & neglect of duty" for Florida's invitation-to-mass-murder gun laws for which they voted. ...
... Marc Caputo of Politico: "Gov. Rick Scott asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the Broward Sheriff's Office response to the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland -- but he opted not to suspend the sheriff despite the urging of Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran and most of his GOP caucus." Mrs. McC: And thanks for your support for every pro-gun bill that came your way, guv.
Way Beyond
Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, already considered the country's most dominant since Mao Zedong, looks to have further cemented his grip on power after Beijing unveiled plans to scrap the presidency's two-term limit. China's official news agency, Xinhua, announced the dramatic news on Sunday in a bland 36-word dispatch. It paves the way for Xi to remain in power well into the next decade and perhaps even beyond." Mrs. McC: Expect Trump to dispense with presidential elections altogether. But he'll still campaign!
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Reader Comments (32)
Had this exchange with a conservative friend the other day. She commented on the Florida shooting, implying agency screw-ups were the problem, not the weapons. (After all guns don't kill people.....it's the bureaucrats.... or something.....)
As you can see I pulled my punch at the end of the swing.
Friend: "The local police failed; the school failed; the FBI failed."
I: "Yeah, a lotta people screwed up, big time. But since screw-ups are so predictably common, I guess that making weapons of such unimaginably destructive power so easily available in a society composed of the demonstrably fallible is just the very high price the wrong people pay for other peoples' freedom.
Naw. Not what I really think. But you know that."
It looks as if we're getting into the old tried and true pattern with the MSD shooting. They're changing the subject from the shooting to the response of law enforcement. With Gov Scott ordering an investigation into the Broward county sheriffs department the odds against gun legislation just jumped.
Bobby ... its Benghazi in Florida.
Patrick,
You mean it was Hillary’s fault?
Trey Gowdy and Darrel Issa will have to unretire. For the good of the country, of course.
You know, of course, if this Scott Israel guy was a Republican, they’d give him a medal, à la Devin Nunes, for doing the very best he could to defend freeedom. Then they’d have to find some pencil pusher or janitor who were Democrats, in the Broward County Sheriff’s office, to blame for shooting.
So Trump is giving us a 'doughnut' to run the FAA. No surprise.
Oh you guys––ya got it all wrong. According to Ricky Santorum it's "the fact that these kids [shooters] come from broken homes without dads." He thinks single mothers are just the pits––he actually said they "breed more criminals" and by george, if they don't acknowledge who the father is then they don't get any welfare AND democrats love single mothers because they vote democratic––-for all that money they get from welfare and such.
But Rick? what about the guns? what about these mother breeding criminals access to those nasty assault rifles?
Guns? he says, guns are NOT the problem––I just told you it's those homes without Dads and all those mothers who don't know how to bring up boys.
Case closed–-problem solved. Praise Jesus!
P.S. To start the week out Russian style, news of bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva who put out a photo on instagram of herself wearing a sweatshirt that said "I don't do doping" three days later failed the doping test. Dosvedanie to all that~~~~~~~~
PD,
I’d like to ask Santorum why, if the problem is kids from homes without dads, do all those kids make guns their weapon of choice? Why not knives or clubs or crossbows or ceremonial battle axes? Oh wait, maybe because you can kill a shitload more people using GUNS!
Did these people all graduate from Stupid School? Or maybe they think we did.
The answer to the cause of GUN violence is always D. Anything but GUNS.
It’s as if you were trying to determine what caused sunburn and the options were:
A. Broken homes
B. Cheap SPF 1 sunscreen peddled by Democrats
C. It’s really just a rash
D. The Broward County Sheriff
E. Anything but the sun
It really is that stupid.
One other thing that starts the week is Juan Cole's "Top 10 Signs the U.S. Is the Most Corrupt Nation In the World."
Yup–-and if that doesn't put some pizazz in your morning musings then..
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/top-ten-signs-u-s-corrupt-nation-world/
@AK: You bet––it really is THAT stupid!
And why is it that kids from broken homes in every other developed country aren't out shooting up their secondary schools? "Gun homicide rates are 25.2 times higher in the U.S. than in other high-income countries."
In the thousands of films & teevee cop shows I've seen, I can't recall ever seeing one where cops in street clothes rush a guy with a semi-automatic rifle.
Ken W. should ask his conservative friend if she thinks that's because, say, Norwegian sheriffs do such a better job than American sheriffs. And then he should politely tell her she's a fucking homicidal idiot & he'd be delighted to see her again after her brain transplant. It is not "conservative" to think gun deaths are excusable. It's stupid & irresponsible. C'mon, Ken, I speak from personal experience: being a rude jerk feels so good.
WaPo
BREAKING NEWS
Supreme Court declines to enter controversy over ‘dreamers’
I'm curious, does any Republican know that the purpose of a gun is to kill. That's it. Nothing else.
If John Dunkin becomes head of the FAA, I'm applying to head
up the USDA. After all, I grew some tomatoes and squash last
summer so that should be enough qualifications to convince this
president*, assuming there is still a USDA.
@forrest morris: Sorry, this would work only if you had grown the tomatoes atop Trump Tower. And if you loaded up your garden with pesticides. And if Trump ate vegies.
Bea says, ". It is not "conservative" to think gun deaths are excusable. It's stupid & irresponsible."
But it is. The present day equivalence between stupid and conservative has been part of the decades-long purification process the Republican Party has been undergoing. Smart ones out; dumb ones in.
Most interesting to me is what makes 'em dumb. In my friend's case, it's not mental capacity. It's fear, the details of which I will not go into, but fear and paranoia that render her incapable of objective thinking despite her measurable ability to perform it. A lot of these folks are hell on detail but see no big picture at all.
As the man said, we have nothing to fear.....and the Right darn well knows and uses it.
@Ken: I read your "decades long purification process of the
Republican party" as decades long putrification process.
There may not be such a word but rot and decay would fit nicely.
@ forrest Morris
I'm with you.
"Putrification," the experts say, is a "rare alternative spelling for "putrefaction." But while the spelling may be rare, the condition you identified surely isn't.
Sometimes misreading is a good, and in this case an entirely understandable error.
On another note: The anti-union Janus arguments on display today at the Supreme Court and their implications for the future frighten me far more than the NRA and its slavish followers. This is dire stuff.
Trump and the Numbers
I think I mentioned the other day that Trump and Wayne-O and the rest of the gun knobber slimeballs are using the school shooting issue as a cover. This gigantic debate about arming teachers and how to "harden schools" is a ruse.
I looked up a few statistics.
School shootings, as you would suspect, make up a very small percentage of gun deaths in this country. I've read that the number is between 15% and 3%. Even if we settle on a percentage somewhere in the middle, say 9%, that means over 90% of the children killed by gunfire are shot outside of schools. They're shot by parents, other kids, themselves, their mom's boyfriend, a stranger in a drive-by, or by accident.
You want to hear something incredible? And incredibly disgusting, for a country that considers itself civilized?
The Gun Violence Archive, which tracks gun incidents and deaths across the country lists, as of today, February 26, 8,256 such incidents in the US so far in 2018. Out of those there have been, just 57 days into the year, 2,247 deaths and 3,842 injuries. And don't think that the injuries, just because the victims lived, don't change lives for the worse. These injuries include loss of limbs, eyes, permanent damage, internal organ injuries, not to mention the long term psychological trauma involved.
Of the deaths and injuries recorded, 515 are infants, children, and teenagers from 0 to 17. Five hundred and fifteen. In 57 days. That's about 9 kids killed or injured every single day. (By the way, 17 Americans died by gunshot just yesterday. A slow day, I admit. Must give Wayne a sad.)
In any other truly civilized country of the world, those numbers, for the entire year, would be considered appalling. Not here. Here we've not yet begun to defile ourselves. Wait until July! In 2017, there were over 61,000 gun violence incidents and about 16,000 deaths.
Oh, and here's another vital stat. Remember how the little dictator promised to "end the carnage"? Remember how he said that crime would stop completely the second he was sworn in? Yeah. Sure. Here are the stats for 2016, pre-Trump:
Incidents: 58,854
Deaths: 15,095
Injuries: 30,625
Now 2017, Age of Trump:
Incidents: 61,525
Deaths: 15,595
Injuries: 31,185
Significant increases across the board, in every category. By the way, these stats do not include the roughly 22,000 suicides by gun per year.
Any day now, I guess, the "carnage" will stop. And don't overlook the fact that the rise in gun incidents and deaths could be attributable in large part to the fact that Trump and the Confederate gun lovers in Congress have made it easier for shooters to gain access to weapons.
This isn't just about schools, and this brouhaha about arming teachers is a misdirection play aimed at (correct choice of verb) quashing debate about the larger--much larger--issue of gun violence in general, aka The Carnage.
So let's see how little donald "ends the carnage" this year. He's off to a bang up (again) start. Bookmark the Gun Violence Archive and watch the Trump and Wayne numbers go up every day, faster than a speeding bullet.
Ken,
I think you are right on with the idea that fear is a major part of pro gun. You know, that guy from Texas who is afraid to shop at the supermarket unless he can carry an AK47.
Or more reasonably, 'Why do you keep a gun?' "In case my house is broken into." 'Has that ever happened in your neighborhood?' "No".
Ken,
Re: the Supremes, I was thinking the same thing. Their decision to let a lower court ruling stand regarding Trump's attempt to garrotte DACA is a nice win, but I sincerely doubt that Little Johnny and the Dwarfs (featuring newest dwarf, Gorsuch the Gruesome) will feel so kindly towards unions. In fact, killing unions would be a huge victory for the wingers on the court. A win for corporations and another kick in the ass to working men and women and their families. One more cobblestone on the road to national hell.
And apropos the fate of unions, here is the Daily Cholera cheerleading for Neil Gorsuch, whom they (probably correctly) hope will cast the deciding vote in favor of big business and against the little guy.
The Confederate Way.
Interestingly, the Cholera notes that the previous abiding decision of Court in favor of the existence of unions, Abood v Detroit Board of Education (1977) has been defended by past administrations of both parties, but not this one.
"The Trump administration will argue in support of Janus during the proceedings. The decision is something of a reversal for the Justice Department, which has consistently defended the Abood decision under presidents of both parties."
"Something of a reversal"? Yeah, I guess you could say that. You could also say a heart attack could put a crimp into a good day at the park.
Trump's (stolen) election, combined with treasonous actions by Mitch McConnell and senate Confederates who decided to deny a sitting president his choice for the court, will reap enormous benefits for the extremists on the right, long after the Orange Headed Baboon is writing his memoirs trying to convince everyone that his impeachment was illegal.
This article may explain a question I've been pondering, "If conservatives respect authority and rules more than liberals [conservatives tend to be more likely than liberals to accept or even embrace authority that is perceived to be legitimate. Conservatives tend to be more moralistic and more conventional than liberals. They tend to have a stronger need for order and control and stability and a greater dislike of change], why wouldn’t they demand gun control rather than gun rights?" Why Conservatives Are So Obsessed With Guns
With all the talk about the failure of law enforcement agencies to heed the warnings about the Florida school shooter, my question for the day is: How many credible warnings of school or other mass shootings get called in every day?
My first round with the google has not been fruitful. The only useful information I have gotten so far is an article about copycat warnings after the Florida shooting, which are being taken seriously.
I am inclined to believe the sheriff and the FBI didn't take the warnings seriously because they were just part of the constant noise of shooter warnings. And if that is the case, journalists are not doing their job conveying the fact that law enforcement agencies do not have the resources to follow up every frightening tip.
And if they do follow up, how many of those encounters end up like the innocent man shot in the "SWATting" episode a month or so ago?
He Fucks Up Everything
Trump isn't just a moron, he's an incredible moron. If the way to get out of a hole is to stop digging, he calls for more shovels. LOTS more shovels.
We are about to see how the ass-backwards Trump-Republican approach to the economy and essential misunderstanding of basic economics will affect the nation.
Trump inherited a great economy, low unemployment and increasing productivity. But to Trump, one number alone holds the key to whether or not Very Important People will see him as a Wharton economic genius, and that is the economic growth percentage. We've been hovering around 2% and to Trump, that is bad, bad, bad. So what to do?
Fuck it all up, that's what.
Macroeconomics says that in a slow economy, austerity is absolutely not the way to go. We had a bad economy under Bush, inherited by Obama. So what did they prescribe? You got it: austerity. Luckily we weren't, at that time, bound by the wishes and upside down demands of the Party of Stoopid. Obama was able to push through a stimulus package. It worked.
Now, however, the POS is in charge. But now, thanks to that horrible nee-groe, we have a strong economy. When the economy is working well, what's needed is NOT more stimulus. An overheated economy can quickly go bad.
"The Republican tax cuts that Trump championed and took effect Jan. 1 injected a large fiscal stimulus into the economy...But critics say the cuts actually come at the worst-possible time — when a near-record-long expansion has the nation at full employment.
Then this month Trump signed a two-year budget bill that adds even more stimulus by boosting spending roughly $400 billion more than planned.
The moves could get the economy revving too fast while swelling the already large federal budget deficit. That would lead to rising interest rates and higher inflation — twin developments that would slow economic growth by making it more difficult for consumers and businesses to borrow money while at the same time reducing that money’s buying power.
It’s all a recipe for recession and the reason investors have gotten anxious, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at research and analysis firm Moody’s Analytics.
'It’s as if someone picked up a macroeconomic textbook and decided to do just the opposite of what it told you to do,' said Zandi, a former advisor to Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign."
Another analyst puts it this way: "Whatever the arguments are in favor of tax reform in the U.S. (and there are many), this is probably the singularly most irresponsible macro-stimulus seen in U.S. history...To say it is ill-timed and ill-judged would be a massive understatement."
That's Trump all over. Three months late and a thousand dollars short.
Even worse, here's what happens next. Because Trump and the Republicans have massively expanded the deficit (that deficit they were all screaming about when Democrats were in charge, but now doesn't seem to matter at all), we will have to borrow hundreds of billions to try to pay it down. In an overheated economy, the Fed will have to boost rates making it a lot more expensive to borrow those billions. So now not only are we deficit spending, we're paying a ton of extra money to do it. Result? Recession.
NOW is the time for austerity. Instead, we get stimulus upon stimulus and a gigantic deficit to boot. It's like pouring kerosene on a grease fire then adding gasoline. But winger economists predict that this clusterfuck will finally get Trump the one percent increase in growth he promised. At the expense of the entire economy, because that spurt will be financed entirely by a gargantuan deficit.
Trump knows about as much economic theory as a cow. In fact, a cow is probably a better reader of the indexes that matter most to cows. He cares about how things look. And if he can wave around a 3% figure (I beat the nigger!), it doesn't matter if we fall into a recession. He'll declare victory and leave the field, as he always does, for someone else to clean up.
President* Ass Backwards. He fucks up everything.
Bea McCrab noted: A Hero in His Own Mind: "President Trump on Monday claimed to prevent a gunman from carrying out this month's mass shooting. 'I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon,' Trump told a gathering of governors at the White House.
DJT: I really believe that my poll numbers are the highest ever.
DJT: I really believe that the crowd at my inauguration was the largest ever.
DJT: I really believe that Putin means what he sez.
DJT: I really believe everything that Fox News says, especially Sean Hannity and Jeannine Pirro.
DJT: I really believe that Hillary is a crook, Comey was disloyal, Session or Sessions made the wrong move to recuse himself, that Rob Porter, Judge Roy Moore are all great guys - so unfair...
DJT: I really believe the stock market is UP because of my incredible economic policies.
DJT: I really believe the earth is flat.
Yeah, right. Cadet Bone Spur would single-handedly disarm the shooter with an Armelite Rifle while leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
P.S. re Rick Santorum, as Charles P. Pierce would say, "...have I mentioned what a colossal dick he is. "
The Downside to Trump rushing the shooter at the MSD school is that today we'd be talking about president Pence.
Longtime readers of RC know I have little love for The Rat, so I don't really care one way or the other if he gets to run for the senate out of Utah or not, but this new bit of subterfuge by the hard line winger extremists who don't see the Rom Bot as One With the Body demonstrates a peculiar habit evident on the right by these whiny wingers who have changed the rules to try to hamstring him.
Why?
It's what wingers do. If they can't get their way, if something is happening that doesn't have their blessing, if it looks like they might lose, they change the rules. That's what gerrymandering is all about. "We can't win legitimately in this state, so we'll cheat."
It's what the wingers on the Supreme Court have done in many instances. Precedence? What's that? Precedence only matters if it's it redounds to the greater glory of the Confederacy. It's what Trump tries to do constantly. It's what Gingrich always used to try to get away with. It's what McConnell does, and Ryan. Change the rules.
The sense of fairness, never mind decency or honesty, simply does not exist in Right Wing World. Fairness, for these guys, is whatever helps them win.
Bobby Lee,
Yeah, with a target that slow, fat, and stupid, even a drunk shooter couldn't miss.
Does this mean that the POS, cadet bone spurs doesn't need
secret service protection anymore? Think of the money saved, rent
at trump tower and mar-a-lago, and secret service runners to pick
up big macs and giant cokes. Whata guy. I bet school kids feel a
lot safer now with comic hero on the loose. (Sarcasm).
I don't think the man of steele could leap over a cat turd if he wanted to, much less "over tall buildings in a single bound."
There is a groundswell of anger from the rightist gun knobbers and haters about any kind of gun control.
"Gun control won't stop mass murderers!" they whine.
No. It won't. It never has. No controls can stop those who are committed to killing others as long as they don't mind being killed themselves.
But as I mentioned earlier today, mass murders, such as what we see at schools, make up a sliver of gun deaths each year.
But here's the thing. Those OTHER gun deaths CAN be effectively reduced with gun control.
And when idiots say "Prove it!" I point to the rest of the civilized world, and countries where gun controls have reduced gun deaths far below the level of deaths from home accidents.
Unluckily for us, with assholes like Trumpy and Wayne LaPierre, we don't count as members of the civilized world.
Here's an eloquent essay in Harper's Bazaar by Parkland student Emma Gonzalez.