Joe Walsh, a crazed right wing talk radio bigot, is challenging Trump in a hoped for GOP primary. He follows Mark Stanford the Appalachian Ghost and Bill Weld former Governor of Massachusetts into the fray. These guys may be welcome but Walsh and Stanford are crazy and really can’t be taken seriously. In fact no Republican of any weight has had the balls to even speak ill of Trump so far. Has Trump really dissolved the Republican Party and turned them all into Retrumplicans? Will the whole thing fall apart and its members wash away into various sewers after Trump is kicked out of the White House?
Yes, it’s an “end of world” scenario for the GOP but still they surrender to their fear of Trump led primaries. None have the intestinal fortitude to challenge even the most insane of his ravings.
*****
All over the nation we are seeing adults of all sorts clinging to small furry beings. Security animals, mostly dogs and cats, have undergone a resurgence of rescue from the death threat of too much time in the pound and are being snatched up in groups by those driven to slobbering insecurity by the madman in the Oval Office. It’s Trump’s only humanitarian deed so far. He wouldn’t find homes here for immigrant children but his insanity has driven millions of Americans to fill the Trump driven need for something to hold onto amid the chaos, thereby saving the lives of thousands of furry little beings.
*****
I’m watching This Weekand I see Chris Christie, a very smart guy who I like despite many of his policies make the definitive statement of why the Republicans are wrong about almost everything and why they must lose the next election in all three parts of our government.
The panel was arguing about the Democratic candidates and Chris picked out Bernie Sanders and said, Bernie was killing his chances of getting elected by proposing a New Green Deal solution that was more expensive than even the original Green New Deal. That’s the killer!
There is no solution to climate that is too expensive. Climate is the most important, the only, problem that must be solved in the next election or there won’t be any other problems to worry about. If we don’t solve the climate, if we don’t save the planet, we won’t have any other problems because we will all be dead. It’s that simple. There is only one problem and it has no price tag, only a warning sign with a skull and crossbones.
That’s what the Retrumplicans don’t understand because all they’re interested in is making more money. The GOP is made up of a ruling class of men like Charles Koch and his late brother David, who were willing, nay eager, to poison the planet just so they could acquire more wealth. David died last week. What good is all that money doing him now?
But he did leave a legacy, a legacy of death and sickness that the acquisition of his wealth spread across the planet and this is what Chris Christie is touting in his argument. There is only one issue Chris, and we either solve it or we forget about everything and light up a joint.
*****
David McIntosh, President of the Club for Growth stated that Trump is governing like a free market conservative. McIntosh thereby proves that he is an ignorant asshole. This is a President that is issuing tariffs on everything except his daughter’s shoes. How the hell is that free market? McIntosh says that what Trump is doing is all explained in his book The Art of the Deal, but Trump didn’t actually write that book. Knowing his antipathy for the written word, didn’t probably didn’t even read it.
Then McIntosh tries to sell us that Trump made a great deal in replacing NAFTA, which hasn’t actually been replaced yet, mainly because the new version is almost exactly he same as the old one and those in congress who can read realize this. But McIntosh tells us “in the President’s eyes.” it’s a better deal. Of course it is! That egomaniac thinks everything he does is better even when it’s completely destructive.
Actually Trump has done nothing since he got in office, other than pass a tax deal that made the rich richer. McIntosh, just to prove he’s dumber than dirt, tells us that we have low unemployment. Retrumplicans keep repeating this even though they know that everyone now has to have two or three jobs just to make the same salary their father’s made fifty years ago. Why do we have to keep explaining that this is not an improvement?
McIntosh makes the definitive statement when he says, Trump is doing all the things he really isn’t doing to show that he has a vision for the second term. The Second term! He doesn’t even have a vision for what he’s going to do this afternoon. Trump does everything off the top of his head. He is completely without the ability to plan even to the end of a sentence.
McIntosh claims to be a conservative but he seems to think that Trump is and should be, planning for a new round of tax cuts. There already isn’t enough money in Trumps governmental plan to pay for what we aren’t doing, so that means an increase of the debt, which is already higher than at anytime in history. Is that conservatism? McIntosh just sits there with his, “who shit in my Easter Basket” grin and continues to babble his inane stupidity.
*****
Trump and his mindless factotums continue to sell that rotting chestnut about how well the economy is doing. So let’s look at a couple of real facts, on which to base an opinion on the truth of what he says.
1-Trump says: 2 million jobs were created between 4/18 and 4/19
Reality: 1.5 million jobs created -500,000 less than the big lie
2-Trump says: GDP up 3.0 % in 2018
Reality: GDP only 2.5% still okay but a lot less than stated. That half percent represents billions.
Estimate for 2019 2.3% and for 2020 2.1% No matter how you see it, it’s trending in the wrong direction.
3-Consumer sentiment, i.e. how the public feels about the economy. It dropped 6% from July to August this year, the lowest it’s been since January
4-Manufacturing has declined this August. It’s the first time it has shown a contraction in a decade. It went up all during Obama’s administration and only now have Trump’s dumb moves caught up with it. Wisconsin lost 3,000 jobs, Michigan lost 4,000 jibs and Pennsylvania lost 6,000 jobs. Those are the states that won the election for Trump. I wonder how they feel about it now?
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The big discussion around the Democrats right now is about who can beat Trump. It’s 15 months away from the election now and frankly the way things are going it looks like my cat can beat Trump and she’s been dead for a year. It isn’t even that any of the candidates are so magnificent or charismatic that we can’t resist them. It’s just that Trump is doing everything in his power to stab himself in the back. The Market was the one thing he had going for him and he has done everything in his power to sabotage it, so why think that he can recover?
More important is the various Democratic candidates and what they have to offer. The polls and a Biden ad tell us that he has the best chance to beat Trump, but is that really what we should be considering, especially this far from November 2020? Don’t get me wrong, that is, and will continue to be, the most important measuring stick, but we must also consider who will actually make the best president. It would appear that there are a number of candidates that can beat Trump, so it is also important to consider who is the best candidate and who will make the best president. And that’s where it gets messy.
If I have a problem with Biden it’s not that he sometimes stumbles or that he has some votes over a fifty-year political career that aren’t PC now. It’s that he seems to refer back more than he thinks forward. This may be natural for a guy his age. I know it is for me, but I’m not running for president.
Elizabeth Warren has the most complete plan for everything. Is she electable? Why not? Would you rather have Trump? She’s smarter than Trump, she has a better knowledge of what this country needs and how to get it than Trump does, and she has managed to elucidate that knowledge so that people know where she stands on everything. Her positions are clear and functional. I think she would make a very good president. And yes, I think she can beat Trump. The GOP will scream socialist and there are still people so ignorant that they don’t really understand that this is now a very socialist country. But there aren’t enough of them to make the difference so yes, I think Warren can beat Trump.
That brings Pete Buttigieg to the front. I think he would make an excellent president, maybe the best of all those running. He’s the smartest guy in the room wherever he is. He knows how to make an understandable point and he is able to explain all his positions because he understands all his positions, which is way more than most of those in the race can say. I think it’s an out bet that he would make the best president but can a gay man get elected in America today? That’s the billion- dollar question.
Bernie is Bernie and he is a great American but kind of a one trick pony. He’s made so much noise about his socialism that people actually believe him, and that will cost him a ton of votes. Don’t forget we’re still going after that middle ground between liberals and Trumpets. That’s where the votes are and I don’t think he can get as many of those as some of the others.
Kamala Harris is tough and smart but she doesn’t seem to be able to put a policy together that people can grab onto. I’m never quite clear where she is, maybe because she is too much of a politician and not enough of a human being.
Newark’s water problem has probably killed Corey Booker even though he is a strong candidate. He should stay in the Senate where he can do more good.
Julian Castro has such a long way to go that it doesn’t seem to matter what anyone thinks of his chances. He had the platform and couldn’t bring the boat home. The rest are not even worth considering except in the cases of those who aren’t even up to getting elected to the Senate, which is where they all should be concentrating their money and effort.
Bottom line, I would love to see Buttigieg win the primary which I think would be tougher for him than the actual election. He’s never going to get the far right, gay hating, Trump base anyway. No Democrat will, but if he wins the primary he will get all those black votes that are now going to Biden because they sure as hell aren’t going to vote for Trump and that along with the incoming youth vote and the votes of those who can actually think, will bury Trump and give us potentially the best president possible. Having Warren as a running mate wouldn’t hurt but one hates to take her away from the Senate.
*****
Watched as Larry Kudlow talked about how the new tariffs would only make a small difference to the American people. This from the mouth of a rich, greedy GOP liar. Sure it won’t make any difference to him. He’s a millionaire. But for the guy working three jobs for minimum wage with three kids, it’s a huge hit. It can be the difference between making out or failing. It can decide whether his kids get Christmas presents this year or a good meal every day. I know that means nothing to Kudlow. He’s just another rich punk who cares for nothing but his bottom line. That’s why he’s part of the Trump administration. If he worried about anyone but himself he would have quit long ago,
******
But there is hope. At a recent meeting of CEOs the conclusion was reached that there is something to consider besides stock yield, that a company’s relationship to the community in which it exists and to those who work for it are finally worthy of consideration. Let’s hope that these business leaders can move their fellow tycoons to finally do the right thing for a country that has nurtured them to their present positions of comfort and control.
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