Democrats–what the hell are you doing?

I admit of no superior when it comes to being revolted by Donald Trump. So go ahead and launch investigations but more importantly do something else for those who elected you. For instance, pass a tax bill that illiminates the Trump administrations giveaway to the wealthy and replaces that with tax breaks for those who really need them. Pass an infrastructure spending bill that concentrates on rebuilding the Midwest. Pass tax incentives for companies that build new industrial facilities in the Midwest to produce the sort of things that we need such as pollution control devices windmills, solar panels, and maybe appliances. Pass a bill that increases the upper limit on payments into FICA. Increase the percentage of the Medicare tax.

Attack the Republicans for adopting an economic strategy that will eventually bankrupt the Government and thus endanger Social Security and Medicare. Talk about Grover Norquist and the Koch brothers. Brand Donald Trump as essentially a stooge for these people. Compare what he said on the campaign trail about a new cheaper better Health system, tax breaks for the middle and lower classes and that his tax program would cause people like him to pay greater taxes not less. Talk about how he is done just the opposite. Talk about how his tax programs  eliminates the taxation of largest esstates such as he claims to have period

Freely use the term kleptocracy. Talk about the Republicans program to eliminate workplace safety rules, clean air regulations and clean water regulations. Talk about the Republicans being climate change deniers. Ask the general public to look around them at the floods fires tornadoes etc. that occur with greater frequency. Talk about how Mitch McConnell runs the United States Senate as if it were a fiefdom.

If the Democrats in the House passed the type of legislation I have proposed it will be stalled or defeated in the Senate more than likely. Then the Democrats can blame the Republicans for thwarting all efforts to improve the lot of the working class.

Remember, Trump and the Republicans will lie. Be prepared for that. Publish a daily list of Trump's and the Republicans lies including lies of the Trump surrogates on FOXNews. Don't be modest and measured.ATTACK! If you don't you're going to losing 2020.

The Presidential shock collar

I have friends who have a large unfenced yard. They purchased a dog which they wish to roam their yard but did not want to build a fence. So they put a kind of the the electronic fence around the yard and put a shock collar on the dog. In true Pavlovian fashion, the dog learned not to venture into the electronic fence.

Now rumor has it that Donnie lies rather promiscuously. So can we use the methods of behavioral psychology to curb that tendency? What I have is a small collar that can be placed around Donnie's neck. It could certainly nestle in the fat folds and not be terribly visible. Because of the frequency of his lies, electric shocks could be problematic, particularly to a man of his age and obvious poor physical condition. What could be done is that a small chip be part of the collar loaded with the type of lies he typically makes. In addition, we know the subject matter he typically deals in such as the economy, foreign-policy, the military and of course the media. The chip could be loaded with actual facts about those subject matters. Then, when he tells a lie, not an electric shock but a bell could tingle. We could call it a his tinkerbell. Another possibility, other than a tingling bell could be a loud sort of farting sound. I am sure that this would be highly therapeutic and perhaps curb his tendency to play fast and loose with facts and truth. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn't effectively combat his delusions .

It might also be useful a to equip Sarah and Kellyanne and such other apologists as he might send forth with similar devices.

It seems the very least these people could do for us as provide some amusement from time to time.

Our new unwitting strawman

Hallelujah, our new savior has announced himself. It is Howard Schultz who will bring order out of chaos and convince everyone to follow him Tuesday wonderful world devoid of selfishness, partisanship, biases and ignorance. Of course, two lunches crusade he has to use the phraseology of all of those with messianic afflictions. Thus he says" the system is broken". He all that says" I am the only one who can fix it". Gee, I'm trying to remember who was the last one who said that.

In short, he is the most recent purveyor of dystopic bullshit and redemptive fantasies. The system isn't broken. Our institutions are still in place, we just have unfortunately the wrong people in important places, particularly our ignorant, incompetent, delusional buffoon of the president. We also have a Senate majority leader who is impressed with his own importance and power. If any system needs to be changed, it is the rules of the United States Senate. They are self-inflicted and can be changed by the next elected Senate.

Schultz somehow believes that 40% of the population is thoughtful and reasonable and has awaited only his arrival. This is delusional and utter nonsense. There are center right voters and centerleft voters but they are primarily left and right. The right believes in less government lower taxes and less regulation; the left believes in higher taxes for the wealthy more government programs and not dismantling the regulatory framework. Now the talking bobble heads on 24 hour TV argue whether he will take more votes from the right or the left. He has been a Democrat and his tendencies will be centerleft, he will attract more support from the left than the right. It will not nearly be enough to elect him but it could have the effect of allowing our resident idiot to be reelected. It is in this respect that he is an unwitting strawman for the Trump supporters. He is a perfect strawman because it appears that he is overwhelmed by his own visions and totally unable to see reality.

He is also an unwitting strawman for the radical right, The Koch brothers, Grover Norquist and the rest. Their message is that the system is broken and not repairable. Government needs to be shrunk down to practically nothing and allow the forces of the market to cleanse the systems. This is approximately what Andrew Mellon said in 1929-32.

It is entirely possible that Schultz, in combination with some  dumb things democrats will say about each other in the primaries will be enough to allow Trump to be reelected. Democrats have to have a single focus and that is to ensure that Trump is not reelected. That means they need a candidate who can run well in Michigan Wisconsin Ohio Pennsylvania. It also means this nitwit Schultz needs to get out of the way.

"Ann you ignorant slut"

Fans of Saturday Night Live Will remember the sort of point counterpoint exchanges between Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin. Dan's opening line was always" Jane you ignorant slut". Ann Coulter, of course, was one of the trio at Pravda, A.k.a. FOXNews, that caused this shutdown by scaring poor little Donnie that he looked week and foolish.

Now that the, to use a word that Donnie wants light," carnage" has become more than apparent and a clear political liability, Donnie has agreed to reopen the government until February 15. During that time a brother more permanent set of agreements and budgetary measures will, one hopes, be passed. Apparently believing she has not caused enough problems, dear little Annie is now again calling Donnie a wimp.

Annie is a symptom of something that has become a virus in our political body. And that is the hidebound ideologue. Although most of the discussion lately has been about partisanship, Republicans versus Democrats, that is not the real problem. If the disputes were between political parties as they have traditionally existed, they are resolvable. In the final analysis, political parties may have certain identifiable characteristics but they are ultimately pragmatic in nature. This is not true of ideologues. Ideologues on the right are not Republicans, and they are not really conservatives in the traditional sense. They are individuals and groups of individuals adopting radical in severe positions that are uncompromisable. They have a sense of certainty that admits of no contradictory opinion, No matter the amount of evidence supporting that contradictory opinion. The most prominent these days are on the radical right but they could just as easily be on the radical left. Either way, they have no place in government which needs to be a practical pragmatic institution.

Donnie is not an ideologue. He is simply an ignorant and incompetent, probably delusional buffoon who is easily manipulated. It is unclear to me with whether the" tea party" republicans are really ideologues or merely opportunists. I tend to favor the latter. The villainous Mitch McConnell it appears to be primarily someone overwhelmed by his robust perception of himself. He is also an example of what happens when elected officials are in government too long and accrete to much power. We have two necessities in the 2020 election. Donnie has to go and we need to elect reasonable experienced but not calcified congressmen, Senators and a president.

Who benefits from the government shutdown?

The talking bobble heads on the 24 hour news channels endless panels ceaselessly discuss this issue. Apparently the qualification to be a member of these groups is to have a firm grasp of the obvious–although this is not imperative–and be willing to say the same things day after day in a manner suggesting they have just come from an exclusive visit with the Oracle at Delphi.

This discussion is usually discussed in terms of partisan politics and whether the Republicans or the Democrats seem to be enjoying the high ground at any particular moment. There is one group that is almost in a no lose position and that is the radical right of the republican party and beyond, the various organizations and spokesman for groups like the Koch brothers,, people such as Grover Norquest. Their goal relentlessly pursued is to continually shrink the public sphere, returning ultimately to something like the constitutional norm of substantive due process that existed in the early 1930s. It also includes people such as Paul Ryan and Rand Paul who perceive tax cuts and elimination of all regulations ,the shrinking of social programs and the privatization of benefits such as Social Security, Medicare and the like. Donald Trump is a witting or  unwitting ally, with him I always opt for unwitting.

During the shutdown, federal revenues are diminishing, economic growth is shrinking_-we're going at least temporarily negative- and the federal workforce is shrinking. The radical right will use this to say that it is government that caused this problem and that if we had fewer federal workers, less federal projects and less regulation we would be far better off. The present situation will be stated to prove that we don't need this many workers and would be far better off with a diminished public-sector. It is clear that the current situation will cause many of our citizens to be even more distrustful of government which of course plays into the hands of the radical right.

As well described by Nancy McLean in her book" Democracy in Chains" as well as in " Dark Money" by Jane Mayer the adherents of Ludwig Von Mises have been relentlessly pursuing their agenda for sometime. They control the economic departments of universities such as George Mason and Utah State University and probably many others. This movement is anonymously well-funded and has co-opted the feckless" tea party movement" as their ground troops. You'll notice that they are saying very little during this shutdown, just watching it play out in their interest. There is no reason to think that it won't, particularly as the Democrats appear to believe that their success is ensured in 2020. They are probably overplaying their hand.

The State of the Union address

There seems to be some question if and when Little Donnie Will give the State of the Union address and where. Luckily, I have obtained an advance copy which I will share with you .

"My fellow Americans and particularly you low information voters who are susceptible to bullshit. Stated simply, the the state of the union is that it is partially shut down and generally not functioning. This is because Congress, or at least the House of Representatives, have the temerity not too yield to one of my tantrums. Because I cannot do much to that mean woman in charge of the House, I am going to punish the entire country but particularly federal workers as most of them are Democrats anyway. I am obtaining protection from the Senate and particularly Mitch McConnell who will not allow any of the legislation passed by the house to come to a vote in the Senate where it might be passed thus causing me the embarrassment of having to veto it. But important parts of the government are certainly working just fine. I have all kinds of lackeys at the White House and have no problem getting late hour cheeseburgers. Moreover, I still have a helicopter and a great big jet plane, although they will not let me replace the United States of America decal with one that says Trump. Moreover,Melania still has the use of Government airplanes in her ever more frequent trips to get away from me. The economy is doing great. I know this because I am getting all kinds of revenue from my hotels and resorts, particularly by foreign leaders who wish to suck up to me. Some people are complaining about something called an emolument but I don't even know what that is. I have of course signed Paul Ryan's tax plan. I don't know exactly what was in it but I do know that it certainly lowered my taxes as well as those of my rich friends. What could be wrong with that? Some of these people with fancy economic degrees are saying that that tax cuts will not improve growth over any long period, talking about something called marginal consumption rates. They are also complaining about large deficits. Well, so what? I'm getting mine now. Our foreign-policy remains right on track. I have been able to demonstrate to our long-term allies that they cannot have trust or confidence in the United States. It's about time these freeloaders did something on their own. Meanwhile, I have close personal friendships with various totalitarian rulers of countries like North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia and now Turkey. I had a great conversation with Erdogen who said he would take care of Isis, which I have personally defeated anyway. General Mattis quit but he was kind of a pain in the butt anyway. More and more I am surrounded by advisers who don't pretend to have knowledge or information but instead tell me I am right. What a great bunch of guys. In conclusion, all you have to know about the state of the union is that I am in charge. If that doesn't cause you to feel comfort and security I can't imagine what would. Now, I am going back to the White House for a well-deserved snack of KFC, Cheeseburgers and a large pizza. Good night.

Declare an Emergency Donnie

For the moment, Donnie has chosen not to declare an emergency. However, his decisions have a remarkably short half-life and began to decay immediately. In fact, there is an emergency but it is not the fabricated crisis on the southern border. Our emergency is that we have an ignorant incompetent delusional buffoon as president. But I digress.

If I do the mental equivalent in these circumstances of a double backflip with three twists, I can envision an optimistic result. Should Donnie declare an emergency and state that he is going to build a wall, that should allow his handlers on the Fox network to declare he has powerfully defeated the cowardly and unpatriotic Democrats and will build a wall as promised. That would allow Donnie to tell Mitch McConnell that he will sign legislation getting the government open and running again.

And Of course there will be litigation filed claiming that Donnie has exceeded his Powers under the 1976 act. Assuming that litigation rolls along, we will determine whether the federal courts are willing to look at the substance of the claims constituting an emergency or whether they will give extreme deference to presidential executive orders. There has been an increasing tendency of presidents to claim ever broader executive powers. During the George W. Bush administration W's Iago, Dick Cheney, or was it Cheney the dick, and his lawyer David Addison advanced the concept of a unitary presidency with broad executive powers. One of the results was the a large number of" signing orders". It is a fair statement that subsequent presidents became enamored of broad executive power. Typically, the political party whose man is not the president claims the current occupant is exceeding executive powers and that party whose man is occupying the White House finds it in their heart to approve broad executive power.

Perhaps if the courts were to rule that Trump's flimsy arguments were sufficient to invoke emergency powers, Congress might find the courage to repeal the 76 act and maybe the War Powers Act as well.

What the hell, a guy can dream. Before I forget, Mitch McConnell is a truly despicable jerk.

Democrats, concentrate on beating trump

The most important chore the Democrats have is beating Trump in 2020. So far, the polls on Democrat Front runners to challenge Trump in 2020 are off the mark. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Beto O'Rourke are the wrong choices. Beto might be a good vice president candidate but not the right person for the top job.

Democrats can beat Trump if they can win the majority of Pennsylvania Ohio Michigan and Wisconsin. They need a candidate who can when the disaffected workers in those states. It is true that Bernie Sanders in Elizabeth Warren have messages that should play well there but so did Hillary Clinton. She did a lousy job of delivering her message. Bernie Sanders is too extreme and he will be labeled a socialist. That is not what those Midwesterners want. Elizabeth Warren is simply not a likable and does not really speak the language of the Midwest. By far the most likely candidate, and one who is not getting much attention is Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio. His economic policies– Anti-free-trade, anti-NAFTA and pro social welfare programs is what those Midwesterners want. Trump talked a good game but didn't deliver. His tax cuts went to the wealthy and his job creation bullshit never happened.

The Democrats need to focus on winning the election and not on whom they like the best themselves. They lost in 2016 by screwing up in the Midwest. They can't afford to do it again.