Who knew?

Lord knows we all need a little humor these days. We got some yesterday courtesy of the twit Meister himself. He was apparently shocked and dismayed because as he stated," nobody knew that healthcare was so complicated." Now, undoubtedly what he meant to say was" I guess I was the only one in this country that didn't know healthcare was so complicated."

You will recall that this is the same Oracle who has been stating that Obamacare is a total disaster and he has a plan that will provide better healthcare for everyone in the country and at a lower cost. Let's see it big guy. At least give us a hint. It is clearly not the plan that the House of Representatives has sketched out. Maybe in his speech tonight, and I for one can hardly wait, he'll give us at least a hint of how this is going to work.

Rumor has it that Trump is also thinking that maybe he needs a" Compromise" immigration plan.  The Republicans who are so solicitous and respectful of state and local governments, at least when they are shoving down costs,  have been at war against quotation mark sanctuary cities ." Apparently they don't trust states and cities to decide for themselves if they want the immigrants within their boundaries to stay because they are decent useful citizens. Is the Donald going to change and respect local opinions?

The networks are endlessly chattering and speculating about what Trump will say tonight. One thing is for sure, whatever plans and proposals he unveils  will be fantastic, tremendous, unbelievable and the greatest ever presented to the American public. Also, he will receive the loudest and most sustained applause ever given to an American president addressing Congress and the listening audience not only in this country but around the world will be the biggest ever. Hold onto your hats.

CPAC or TPAC

Bless her heart, kellyanne got one right. At what used to be the CPAC Convention she correctly stated it was now the TPAC. Watching what was going on there,including Rhinoceros Proboscis and Steve Bannon holding hands and cooing at each other , it was clear that we were in Trump land. Recall that he was booed at this event in 2015 and didn't attend last year cause he was not wanted.

According to polls released by the despicable fake media, an overwhelming percentage of Republicans, including one presumes conservatives, give him a favorable rating after one month. Now, I always thought conservatives were for fiscal responsibility and smaller government that was less intrusive. If trumps proposed budget is anything remotely like the extravagant promises he has made, it will not be fiscally responsible much less conservative. I don't think what Republican conservatives had in mind for a smaller government was a totalitarian state. Last year, the other republican candidates and most of the main stream Republicans stated accurately that Trump was not even a Republican, much less a conservative. Apparently the Republicans have all drunk the Kool-Aid and had an epiphany. Trump continues his assault on news organizations that have the temerity to point out his lies and stupid remarks. That is clearly a part of his a emerging strategy. There are murmurings that his economic team have been tasked to find ways to manipulate numbers to create the results he wants to accomplish such as a 3 to 4% GDP. When those meddlesome fact checkers demonstrate this he will simply say it's fake news and they are liars. Similarly, he will bury the fiscal irresponsibility of his promises by using fake projections. Oddly enough, this puts him in the same camp as Paul Ryan with the implausible growth projections claimed for his tax cuts. It will be interesting to see if Mick Mulvany, an actual fiscal conservative, retains his integrity at CBO. He will be under a lot of pressure starting with the CBO analysis of Trump's proposed budget.

What is 2+2?

Our resident panjandrum held another of his show and tell meetings today. He had a room full of fortune 500 executives plus what passes for his brain trust. I didn't watch because clearly all that would happen the probably each person identifying himself and his company, as if everybody didn't know that, and then Trump talking about how he is moving forward swiftly and improving the economy. Nothing can happen of any use in such a meeting but when the president summons usiness executives to the White House they pretty much have to go. As usual, Trump is creating the appearance of progress as opposed to real progress.

There is an old joke about a businessman hiring a new head accountant. He asks each of the interviewees what 2+2 equals. They all dutifully say four. The last prospect, before answering, gets up, closes the door, comes back to the desk and says" what would you like it to be." He is immediately hired. I bring this up because of recent statements by Steve the munchkin, the new secretary of the treasury. Projections of most economists show the economy growing over some period of time prospectively at about 1.8%. The munchkin says they are going to use their own projections which will be somehow about 3% or so. He also has said that the unemployment rate numbers are wrong and that the administration will offer new ones. We know that Trump is incapable of excepting any numbers that are inconsistent with his fantasies. We also know that he makes extravagant claims about everything he does and its follows that no matter what most people's view of reality might be, Trump will succeeded in producing number showing magnificent, remarkable, fantastic increases in the economy. The only way to measure change is to consistently apply the same methodology to the same databases. When the Trump administration starts rolling out this nonsense, it will be incumbent upon academics and economists at places such as the IMF to provide an independent analysis consistent with practices that have been used

Many of trumps supporters say they base their support upon the fact that he was a highly successful businessman. Is there any real evidence of that? We know that one year or his businesses lost approximately $1 billion. We know that the lenders had to bail him out when he went bankrupt in the casino business. We know that his businesses now basically consist of licensing his name. We have no idea how much these businesses are leveraged and whether they actually turn a profit. The notion that he is successful is largely based upon the lavish lifestyle he leads. Ever hear of Bernie Maddox? Is there any reason to Think that Donald Trump is not a total fraud in everything he does?

Democrat Follies

You may recall that in the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, the Republicans engaged in soul-searching. The demographics were turning against them yeah that seemed they needed some sort of intellectual revival if they wish to be in the running for the 2016 presidential spot. They have a kind of Asian the hole because with the 2010 redistricting that they largely controlled there majority in the House of Representatives was pretty much bulletproof. What the Republicans came up with was the notion they needed to tell their story better. In other words, put some lipstick on that pig. Did that work? Was that how they one the 20 16th presidential race. No! The Republicans didn't win in 2016, Donald Trump did and he was not delivering a Republican message. Trump promised more of everything to everyone including tax cuts. There would continue to be Medicare, Medicaid, social security, better and less costly healthcare, increased military spending, new infrastructure and jobs for everyone. He would revive manufacturing in the Midwest and the coal industry among other things. He also promised sweeping changes in Washington and have the luxury of running against an unpopular candidate who had a badly managed campaign. What he promised was preposterous but it was a winning strategy. The Democrat who raised enthusiasm was not Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders who also made extravagant promises that were more than somewhat impractical in the short or medium term.

Now the Democrats are engaged in soul-searching. Right now they seem to be concentrating I'm choosing a chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Just do it. Get a bullshit artist to be done with it. Then, if you want to start winning again adopt large parts of the Trump strategy. Trump is not going to be able to deliver anything close to what he promised and the Democrats need to be harping on this. The Democrats also need to have their own tax reform program. The Republicans will come up with some mixture of tax cuts for the wealthy and a" border strategy" which is somewhat similar to a VAT tax in many respects. The hallmark of the border strategy is no taxation of goods exported. There would be a tax credit to the exporters. It will claim that this will increase exports which it will not. In its simplest form it doesn't decrease the price of exported goods, only the profits at home. The Democrats should propose that any tax cuts at the top, including corporations, he accompanied by a requirement of increased capital expenditures, hiring and research and development. There should be restrictions on stock buybacks and acquisitions. To revive the Midwest, the government should support and subsidize the building of new manufacturing plants in that area to manufacture such things as electric cars, solar panels, wind turbines and the like. They should also adopt Milton Friedman's proposals of sometime ago of a negative income tax for those below certain levels. In other words, they should focus on putting money in the hands of those at the bottom to increase aggregate demand. They should propose robust plans of government private partnerships to create apprenticeships and internships to provide new skills to displaced workers. The Democrats also need to concentrate on progress at the state legislature and Statehouse level looking towards 2010 redistricting. They also need to eliminate the bridge between low middle income blacks and white sthat the Republicans have exploited.

In other words, the Democrats need to quit focusing on why they lost and think about how they can win.

Presidents day

Today is Presidents' Day.

Gee, I wish we had one.

The Trump Follies

There is something irresistible about the truly bizarre. It is somehow compelling and difficult to turn away from, even as it becomes painful. During the last two days, President, you should excuse the expression, Trump gave two performance art shows. The first  began with a list of his imaginary accomplishments, which in reality consist of his demonstrating he can actually write his own name, followed by some imaginary and magical thinking and ending with him introducing his new personna, the American version of Robespierre, head of the committee on public safety. Sitting in the first row was Kellyanne, a sort of Mme. Defarge character knitting the names of those who would be placed in a trumbril and carted to the guillotine. He then answered questions having nothing to do with the last election by falsely stating his margins of victory and also stated his administration was running like a well oiled machine, much to the astonishment of those assembled. It was announced that there would be no new Saturday Night Live broadcast which I assumed  was because they could just run this press conference. Also sitting in the front row was Steve Bannon, AKA Rasputin to mix metaphors. Speculation is that he was a prime player in the decision not to allow Rex Tillotson the right to choose Elliot Abrams as his chief Deputy as Rex had wished. Rex has been showing dangerous signs of competence lately and has to be reigned in.

Then, yesterday Trump by way of groveling for affection kicked off his 2020 campaign. He again adopted his Robespierre role in which he is defending the people of United States against the forces of evil, also known as the free press. He again reassured those assembled that unless they hear it from him it ain't true. The crowd went wild and it was according to Trump the largest crowd ever to gather in an air plane hanger in Florida.

Many of us have been watching the devastation in California caused by torrential rains and flooding. Apparently this is not come to Trump's attention as he is said nothing about it. An unverified rumor from an undisclosed source who knows a guy said that when this situation was brought to Trumps attention his response was" California, I actuallywon California in the election notwithstanding what the fake news said. The fake news gave her several million more votes but there is no doubt that there were more illegal votes for her than that number, whatever it was." When asked whether he intended to take any presidential action to alleviate the problem he suggested an executive order be prepared for his signature preventing any more rain and flooding.

Trump saves millions of jobs

Donald Trump announced in a hastily called pressed conference in the lavish, Tremendous, fantastic restroom of his Florida resort that recent actions of his have saved millions of jobs. He said he had been in contact with groups representing agriculture in the United States and that thousands of wheat, corn, soybean and other farmers had agreed to cancel their plans to move their farms overseas, probably to Asia. Some had been worried about climatological change's which he assured them do not exist. Don't believe what you are experiencing he said,believe what I tell you. There is so much fake news out there.

He also announced a program to end scientific and technological advances in the United States." Those advances create what are called labor saving devices which eliminate good paying jobs. Have you seen a modern car manufacturing plant? There are machines in there that do the work formally done buy many more workers. This has got to stop. Also, it has come to my attention that coal mining is largely accomplished with huge machinery in open pits. We have got to get those coal miners back in the tunnels with shovels and picks. That will create not only many more mining jobs but also an increased demand for medical services, particularly in the area of heart and lung care.

Trump also announced he has learned that more than 60% of GDP–whatever that is, probably some concept invented by the tremendously deceitful press–is consumer and retail based.We have got to stop those jobs from leaving the country. Other countries, particularly China, Bangladesh Vietnam and other southeast Asian countries are taking unfair advantage of the United States, by witness of the fact that their standards of living are so much higher than ours. Trump noted for instance as an example the increasing number of KFC franchises in China. This migration has got to stop he stated. Trump also noted that Asia is very peculiar and does things backwards. For instance, he said he had learned that the prime minister of Japan's name was Shinzu Abe. That, he said it was ridiculous. His name should be Abe Shinzu. Abe is a first name and if it was good enough for Lincoln it ought be good enough for this guy. Also  he said the premier of Canada has a French name that sounds like dresses designed by his daughter Ivanka." Are you kidding me, he said?"

Trump did not take questions because the restroom was starting to fill up by people there for reasons other than his press conference. He did state that it had been a fantastic, a tremendous press conference with the largest crowd ever to attend a press conference in a public restroom.

Creative leaking

According to he whose name should not be spoken, we have entered into new and unexplored realms of leaking. There has apparently been real leaks of false facts. This is a hard concept to get one,s head around. How can one leak something that doesn't exist? One may  create false facts and spread false facts but how can one leak false facts?  The trumpeter seems to be saying that the leaks about contacts with the Russians by Mike Flynn, AKA Jack D Ripper, we're leaks about something that never happened. What would be the motivation of" leaking" that which is nonexistent? Of course it is obvious that the contacts in question did occur. It now seems of that Flynn was cashiered because he lied to Mike Pence by failing to tell him about something that didn't happen. Even for the deranged mind of Donald, this gets curiouser and curiouser.

Trump also seems to be borrowing a power from the Pope, and that is in fallibility. Under Catholic doctrine, when the Pope speaks about the church or religion he speaks ex cathedra and  is infallible. The T man seems to be claiming this power universally.At the very least, anyone who disagrees with him, particularly the press is irrebutably wrong. This is particularly true if it is demonstrable that what the D man has said is false. In a recent letter to the New York Times a medical professor who authored the description of narcissism in the DSM stated that Trump does not fit that description. Certain characteristics that those truly mentally ill with narcissism exhibit and experience he does not. On television, the doctor went on to explain that Trump was basically a lying, bullying unrepentant egoist. Basically he is just a bad bad person. It is for that reason unfair to the mentally ill to compare them to him. I have to tell you, that pretty much made my day.

Make America great again

HEY TRUMP

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN

ITS EASY

RESIGN

PUT AMERICA FIRST,NOT YOURSELF

Who spilled the beans?

The head twit is very very mad because something very very serious matters of incredibly tremendous magnitude occurred. This problem was occasioned by more revelations in the very very unfair and very very false press of more contact between Flynn and the Ruskies during the campaign. You may recall that Flynn was cashiered by the twit meister because he lied to the administration and had lost their trust. That would make anyone unhappy. But what Trump appears to be livid about is not that Flynn lied but that this behavior was disclosed to the public by the very very dishonest and very very false press. Trump also stated that the very very dishonest and very very unfair press had been very very unfair to Flynn. Apparently this unfairness consisted of reporting why Flynn had been fired.

Now, in all fairness if one were the head of an organization demonstrating the consistent incompetence and total disarray of the current administration, one would like that hidden as completely as possible. There has been some speculation that information is leaked by long time loyal Federal employees because of their dismay at the lying of Trump and his people. That's possible. I suppose the irony of some of this, understanding that the concept of irony is way beyond Donald Trump, is in his persistent praising of WikiLeaks during the campaign.

Even some Republicans are now stating there needs to be an investigation of the Flynn/Russia imbroglio. However, they are circling the wagons in that the investigation should be done within existing congressional committees. The Republicans, of course, control what goes into the hearings and what comes out. Any investigation is not likely to be considered robust. Remember that just a few days ago the Republicans in Congress blocked an attempt to cause Trump to release his tax returns. The Republican Ministry of concealment and disinformation has its work cut out. My guess is that they will be up to it.

Chopped

As of yesterday, former  NSA Mike Flynn, who seemed like the reincarnation of Curtis Lemay, is gone. There seems to be some confusion as to whether he resigned or was booted out. Yesterday, Dear little Kellyanne, speaking on behalf of the president, said the president had full confidence in Flynn. Apparently something happened overnight, based on information the White House had had for 18 days, that caused that trust to disappear. Today Kellyanne said that Flynn had resigned. Just now, in his daily hilarious monologue, also known as the white house briefing, Sean Spicer stated that in so many words he had been fired. We don't know exactly what transpired but in my mind what occurred was something like this–" Flynn, you have breached our trust by lying to us. Your job was to lie to the public and Congress not us. For that reason, we had to chop you."

Speaking of Kellyanne, a new primary spokesman for the president  appeared on TV yesterday who makes one sort of wistful for Kellyanne and Kaylee and Sean and Jeffrey who tried to dance around Trump's bullshit and put a good face on it, inventing such devices as alternative facts and stating you are only listening to his words. This guy, Steven Miller is a sort of Kamakasi pilot of a surrogate or spokesperson. According to Miller, the president has absolute power over immigration, unchecked by the Constitution and exempt from judicial review, everything he says it is absolutely true, and there is evidence of massive voter fraud, just as Trump says. This guy is part of the Bannon team and he clearly fits in, at the hitman level.

Trump is also upset because the White House pandemonium is being disclosed. It is understandable why Trump would not want what is going on in that madhouse disclosed.

Finally, the governor of New Jersey whose name is Krispy Kreme or something like that is having lunch with the president today. What this presages is anyone's guess.

A certain ambivalence

I have been out of the country, in Belize, for a week. During that time I did not receive my normal Quotidien portion of the antics of our head twit. I was able to see the highlights from time to time of his antics but not the steady drip that is normal. I suppose that should've been a total respite but oddly enough I found myself missing it. Now, I am not disabused of the notion that he  has the potential, which he seems to be actualizing, to provide a great harm to the country including the environment the educational system the reasonable balance of expectations of a cross section of citizens and the general economy, not to mention foreign relations. I do take this seriously. But what I realized is I miss the daily humor provided by his relentless buffoonery. There is a tremendous entertainment value in watching him solemnly make banal and stupid statements as he pauses dramatically. It really is funny. In fact, our best hope may be that the general citizenry eventually dismisses him as a total phony clown, without too much rigorous analysis of the ridiculousness of his policies. It is hilarious as he signed his executive orders and hold them up, proudly displaying the fact that he can write his name in big letters. Each executive order is more fantastic, more incredible, more tremendous, more unbelievable than the last. I have this new fantasy that he is going to announce a new special presidential aid for superlatives. He will solemnly state that this new aid will only add to the tremendous accomplishments buy using more and better superlatives. I can just see him saying you'll be hearing more quintessential's and paradigmatic's and other truly tremendously unbelievably fantastic superlatives.

It has been clear and is becoming more clear that his extreme egocentric nature cannot cope with loss or disappointment. So, let's hope that he keeps getting whacked like he did this week and that more and more people make fun of him. He is a truly risible semi human being.

Mafia America

Some of the speculation about Donald Trump is whether he sees himself as the president of a Constitutional Republic or the CEO of some sort of enterprise. It seems to me that the latter is most close to the reality but that the Enterprise is not some sort of normal Corporation. His tactics actually appear to be of the kind that should cause us to call him Don Trump. At least as legend has it, and there is no doubt that there is truth to this, mafia families would extract tributes from businesses in their sphere of influence in order that those businesses would be allowed to operate. This appears to be what Don Trump is up to as far as the global economic system is concerned. He is going to extract tributes from our trading partners as a condition of doing business. To justify this he harps about the unfairness visited upon the United States. This unfair system which he deplores has allowed the United States to become the most richest , successful and powerful nation on earth. If our GDP was distributed somewhat more equitably everyone in this country could have a decent education , decent housing and a job, increasingly in the service industry, that would allow everyone to have a good life. It would also increase aggregate demand to the benefit of the economyThis is the system he wishes to dismantle.

His program is not about America first. It is about ME first. He continues to demonstrate his pathetic need to convince everyone that he, not Mohammad Ali, is the greatest and can do things that no one else ever could or ever would be able to. Now, make no mistake about it. He is wielding enough power to push most other countries around. He may well be able to claim short term positive results as far as increasing America's share of the pie is concerned. But no one can gage the collateral and long-term effects of this sort of behavior. He has surrounded himself with a circle of sycophants with an extreme ideological bent. The new visible member of this group, Sebastian Gorka,  appears well suited for the role of Luca Brazi.

One wonders if we should be flying the American flag upside down.