Yes Virginia, there is a Grinch

The person that is sometimes called the Grinch, and his republican cohorts, have been telling you that he's not really a Grinch, not a" mean one ". Don't you believe it. Remember that the Grinch comes to put coal in your stockings. Now the Grinch is signing orders allowing coal to be put in free running streams. He also has ordered his evil elf Pruitt to allow more coal to be burned in order to pollute the air. You know your little friend, Freddie, the one with asthma. He has trouble often times breathing the air. The Grinch and his people are promoting dirty air and dirty water so that their friends and supporters can make more money. Freddie's problem is going to get worse.

You know how your mommy and daddy always tell you not to say mean things about people. The Grinch calls people stupid, liars, short, lazy and doesn't like people he thinks are not pretty enough. The Grinch also spends most of his time lying about everything. He thinks that people are gullible enough that he can get away with practically anything.

The Grinch says that he has himself has brought back Christmas which didn't exist. But we know that it did and that people were much happier and kinder to each other before him. The Grinch says he has brought everyone a big present for Christmas but he is going to come back and take them away from most people. Also, you know that your grandma and grandpa live on Social Security and need Medicare. The Grinch is going to take much of that away from them. He is also going to take away much of Medicare, food stamps and other things that people depend upon.

So, Virginia, don't you worry. As long as there are selfish lying people we will always have the Grinch.

Grover Norquist's wet dream

Paul Ryan's budget and economic scheme using the tax code it as an enabling mechanism is all but done.His proposed budget already demonstrated  his desire to cut back on Medicare, Medicaid, food stamp programs and any other federal program designed to help out the underprivileged. Now with the tax cuts he has justification. But that is only the start of it. Ryan has always had this naïve belief in magical growth solving all problems that would result from tax cuts to corporations and wealthy people. But he probably believes it . The person really licking his chops right now is Grover Norquist. You remember him and his organization called something like" The Club for Greed". He wanted to shrink the Federal government to a size where it could be drowned in a bathtub. This harebrained budget and tax bill is perfect for him. The first thing that is going to happen is a massive reduction of federal tax revenues in 2018. It will probably be worse than those  accompanying Reagan's 1981 tax cuts. That will require even more Federal spending cuts and you know upon whom those will be inflected. There will be further cuts in things like Government sponsored research which  has already shrunk dismally, much-needed infrastructure spending and diminish Federal programs generally including things like the CDC. The effect of that will be reduced aggregate demand , which will in turn lead to diminished Capital expenditures, research and development and wages and hiring. This will delight Grover Norquest who is sort of a latter day Andrew Mellon and who just wants a smaller federal government, whatever the consequences.

This is the worst time for tax cuts for the well-off. It is as thoughtless as the Bush administration tax cuts. One does not cut taxes when the economy is rolling along well. One should not be so foolish as to think that cutting the taxes of corporations and wealthy people who already have more money than they know what to do with is going to create stimulus. In fact, what is highly likely is that in the next two or three years we are going to have a recession because of these stupid policies. In the face of the recession one of the corrective measures is a tax cut which is now been squandered. Another wasteful byproduct of this tax bill is that the one off tax revenues from corporate affiliates of US companies held overseas will not be used for infrastructure building but for these ridiculous tax cuts. The Republicans also don't seem to realize that government sponsored research has led to innovations which have spurred private enterprise innovations that can drive the economy. Think of Google Amazon etc. and the earlier private development caused by innovations in the space program years ago. We are going to be collectively left with an aging infrastructure and a diminished capacity for innovation. The economic future of this company is going to be largely dependent upon innovation leading to greater productivity and economic growth. With this ignorant administration and Congress we are shooting ourselves in the kneecap.

ROLL TIDE

Tomorrow our fellow citizens in the state of Alabama will elect a new senator. There is no need to discuss the two candidates because anyone who doesn't know everything they need to know about each spend a lot of time hiding in basements, which more and more seems like a pretty good pastime. Old witch hunt, fake news, is endorsing Roy Moore. Well of course he is. They have a lot in common. Each has been accused by multiple women with credible stories of sexual assaults. Trump on TV has basically admitted it. Each appears to be anti-Muslim. Each professors conservative, Religious values. Having watched Trump, and seeing his changes of position over the years, I have no doubt that with him it is opportunistic bullshit. Similarly, my experience and my intuition tell me that Roy Moore is also a fraud in this respect. It was interesting to note that he and his wife have some foundation promoting what they call "moral law" and interestingly enough make money on this gig. Are you watching Elmer Gantry question ?



So who will win and does it make any difference? As to whether it makes a difference, the answer is yes and no. No because if Jones wins the Republicans will still have the majority in the Senate and a republican will be elected to replace Jones the next time he runs. Yes, because after Trump's robust endorsement should Moore lose that might indicate a crack in Trump's base. Maybe more Republicans would feel safe in outright criticism of Trump. On the other hand, should Moore win, the meager criticism of Trump by his Republican colleagues will doubtless dry up.

So who will win? If this election had taken place in 2015 or before, my money would be on Jones. However, after the 2016 elections, my guess is Moore.

You probably have noticed that the Trump White House lead by old fake news is trying to create a narrative that will allow Trump to fire Bob Mueller and end the investigation. His propaganda machine at FOXNews has their guns blazing on this one. Will it happen? If Roy Moore wins I would say it is almost certain and that the Republicans will meekly accept it. Even if Jones wins, I wouldn't bet against Mueller being fired. And on that cheery note endeth  my sermon.

Dope Soup

Rufus T Firefly–AKA Donald Harumph-blew into Salt Lake City today. It appears his primary purpose was to get a can of tuna at the welfare kitchen and praise and endorse sen. Hatch who apparently will be seeking a seventh term in the United States Senate. While he was here, he also signed proclamations drastically reducing the size of the Bears National Monument and the Grand Escalante Staircase National Monument. Unfortunately, Trump is not nearly as humorous as Groucho Marx, At least not intentionally. He talked about his discussing  this proposal with all those he knew were in favor of reducing the size of the monuments and they all said yes indeed we are. He did not bother to talk with any of the majority of the people in this part of the country who oppose this action.

Trump explained that his actions would allow people in this part of the country to hunt and fish and graze cattle on the affected property. He apparently was unaware that those things can be done on a national monument as well. He talked about preserving the sacred beautiful lands for the people, apparently by allowing mining, drilling and fracking as well as the necessary infrastructure for those activities. He also said that control over these lands should be taken away from agencies in Washington, apparently not knowing that the BLM was a federal agency with headquarters in Washington DC .

It is good to be able to see this nitwit up close because sometimes at long-distance it's hard to believe he is really as ignorant, incompetent and arrogant as he really is. Well folks, we have seen him up close and he is as ridiculous as he seems. He also had his secretary of the interior looming in the background who didn't say anything. Maybe he was playing  the Harpo Marx character. Hail Fredonia.