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.

our gullibility referendum

It now appears likely that Congress will pass an, you should excuse the expression," tax reform bill". The main components of that bill have become fairly clear. What is also more than clear is that this bill will have precious little to do about the tax code. It is almost entirely the implementation of congressman Ryan's trickle down economic fantasies. The tax changes, if looked at over the ten yearperiod of the bill rewards  those who have capital–corporations including sub - S corporations–and wealthy individuals. It has nothing to do with " reform" and change is very few provisions of the tax code. For instance, it doesn't even do away with the indefensible carried interest treatment given to such people as hedge fund managers. It simply changes a few tax rates, eliminates some deductions that the middle-class uses, allows businesses to expense capital expenditures rather than depreciate them over time which really only affects cash flows.

Ryan has been proposing schemes such as this since approximately 2008. At that time his proposals were created by economists at the heritage foundation. The analysis was published and deemed by impartial economists at Academic institutions, the IMF and the like as being" implausible". They deal with the deficits created by positing ridiculous multipliers of GDP from the tax cuts and claiming that this will increase tax revenues. That is what Pres. Reagan claimed and it didn't happen. He created deficits that had to be erased by the Clinton administration. Ryan's former proposals we're based on multipliers 5 to 7 times greater that had ever been observed. . The  deficit shrinking mechanism that will become mandatory will be  cuts in programs such as Medicare, Headstart, Food stamps and the like. These cuts were also part of Ryan's former proposals. People with incomes under $100,000 will over the period of 10 years actually pay more taxes, and also lose benefits. The series of articles by Dave Leonhardt in the New York Times lays all this out quite thoroughly.

The other quite nonsensical part of the claims of Ryan and his merry band of tax cutters is that giving tax cuts to corporate businesses will lead to capital expenditures and increased wages. Won't happen. The Democrats proposed an amendment that would take away tax cuts from businesses which do not increase wages. That went nowhere. There is no historical evidence to support the fact that corporations give wage increases when they do not have to. What corporate managers consistently say is that their job is to increase returns to shareholders. That is not done by increasing wages. On the capital expenditure side, White House economic adviser Gary Cohen asked a group of corporate CEOs if they would increase Capital expenditures if they received tax cuts. Practically none of them said they would much to Cohen's consternation.

So, the information is out there if the voters, particularly in the Midwest, care to think about it. It requires some effort. Will those voters be gullible enough to actually believe this bill is about tax relief for the middle-class? That is the referendum we face. Regrettably, I am not optimistic.

Ka-B00M

Everybody's favorite draft dodger is in the far east or maybe it's the Far West if you come from the other direction. In Japan, and by the way he has learned that the presidents last name is actually Abe, not Shinzou, is back on his bellicose soap box, threatening war with North Korea. He also explained that the massacre in Texas had really nothing to do would guns. No doubt he is an Aristotelian and considers guns only an efficient cause and certainly not the final cause. He puts the massacre down to mental illness. Oddly enough he said nothing about the need for better health care for the mentally ill, the availability of which he diminished by his recent cutting back on federal assistance under the affordable care act. We can assume that if he begins a war with North Korea it will be about his mental health, not conventional or nuclear weapons. Who can argue against the notion that he is mentally disturbed.

Then he went to Korea where he said it was time to play " let's make a deal". He does, you may recall consider himself the ultimate dealmaker. Actually you can see that by looking at his tax returns which would describe great deals he is made in the footnotes. Oh, son of a gun, I forgot that he refuses to show his tax returns, doubtless because of his excess modesty. Of course he doesn't describe or even hint at what kind of a deal he has in mind. Here's one. Make a deal it that if North Korea will halt it's program of development of nuclear weapons and missiles the United States we'll not only ease sanctions but also send lots of food, particularly wheat and corn. We have a lot of that you know and it would be helpful to the agricultural Industry.

. It would cost a lot less than some of our military expenditures which appear of a doubtful utility.

The most discouraging development in the administration lately has been the diminishing stature of Gen. Kelly, formerly thought to be one of the adults in the white House. He has become another apologist for you know who and is in a close contest with kellyanne and Sarah in the dumbest explanation of the week Contest. At this point, they basically merge into one–Kellyanne Kelly Huckleberry. There is no further need to distinguish among or between them.

On the bright side, the Democrats actually won elections. Just don't let it go to your heads.

Who is the greatest evil?

I am reading the book" the Devils bargain" about Steve Bannan and Donald Trump. I also just read an extensive article in the New Yorker by Jane Mayer about Mike Spence. So I have been pondering between the two of them, who is the more dangerous and evil.

Starting with Steve Bannon, He has stood for and advanced despicable agendas. In common with many prior "Populists" he uses race baiting and preaches hey divisive agenda. Prior populists, for instance father Coughlin during the depression, focused on being anti-semetic. In those days, blacks and Hispanics we're not seen as taking things from the white majority, which is not to say that they were not despised. Bannon has also advance the theme of Wall Street and corporate America as villains, not to mention globalism, the modern equivalent of Smoot – Hawly. His nativism is reminiscent of Lindbergh and the America first party.

Spence, or as I call him" spot", because of the fawning way he follows trump around, gazing adoringly at him, appears much more duplicitous. He is a combination of sanctimonious claptrap and relentless self-aggrandizement and opportunism.(To many in Utah, a familiar profile.) Jane Mayer is a pretty good investigative journalist and if she it is right pants would be and eager tool of those such as the Koch brothers who seek to control the electoral process through the uses of dark money. So with Spence, you would get the combination of sanctimonious social, particularly religious, pseudo conservatism and dark money. Now for my money, which isn't dark or extensive, that makes him worse than Bannon. Notwithstanding Spence's feigned adoration of Donald Trump, there is no question in my mind that he sees Trump as an impediment and the sooner he's gone the better.

Which brings me I guess to Donald Trump. Is a truly despicable person. He is arrogant,incompetent and also lies a lot although it is sometimes hard to tell if he is merrily lying or totally delusional. But of the three, he is the least dangerous and evil. As far as domestic policy is concerned, he has none.All he wants to do's sign bills without reading them and claim victory, rather like George W. Bush on the deck of the aircraft carrier. His danger is in foreign-policy given the extensive powers of the presidency. But remember, he considers himself the ultimate" dealmaker". And as he explained in his book" the art of the lie", or something like that , robust bullshitting is the way to go. Granted, he makes us nervous but he probably thinks he's just being clever and will make some great deals. If he did order an attack against North Korea, millions would die probably and he would likely consider it a negative externality. We would of course prevail. But, should China intervene in an armed conflict, all bets are off. That is the danger. I have to believe he would not order an attack if he sought to do so he would be restrained and probably impeached. But he is a clear and present danger.

So the question is, are we better off with Trump or either Bannon or Spence in control. The fact that we even have to consider such a question is a disgrace to all of us collectively.

TheTrump Pledge of Allegiance

You may recall an earlier cabinet meeting at which in a nauseating display of obsequious behavior Donnie required that each in sequence around the table sing their version of" How Great Thou Art". You may have noticed that Donnie has had a burst of patriotism lately, mainly taking the form of criticizing black football players whose opinions with which he disagrees. Overcome by this feeling of patriotism, an unconfirmed rumor from an unreliable source surfaced saying that Donnie required a Pledge of Allegiance at the outset of today's cabinet meeting. This was, of course, a Pledge he particularly designed himself. It went as follows:

"I pledge allegiance solely to Donnie and to him alone, and not to the country which he, you should excuse the expression, leads or its citizens. I acknowledge that no competent president would remotely consider putting me in the cabinet post I know hold. I owe this nifty job and the appearance that I am a really big deal solely to Donnie and to him I pledge my undying loyalty with no expectation of reciprocity from him."

At the close of the cabinet meeting, Donnie told them to go out and say or do something that makes him look good,  unconstrained by reality or truth. To that remark was heard a hearty" Here Here".

In other news recently, Sen. Lindsey Graham perhaps unwittingly confessed to something we all knew anyway. Graham said that the Republicans had to pass a tax plan without discussing what that plan should be. He said that the Republicans had to do it, not because it was good for the country, but if they did not pass a tax plan they might not be reelected. What would such a plan be? Obviously Donnie doesn't care as long as it is referred to as" reform". He won't care what is in it. In all fairness, how could he since he never reads them.

Drum had a press conference today in which he pretty much lied in answering any question put to him.

Of course today the reporters and moderators on the news channels and their ubiquitous panels will be seriously parsing these remarks. You may recall a song called Louie Louie. There was once a radio station that played it for 24 hours straight. What the news channels should do is for 24 hours have nothing on the screen other than a continually looping sentence which reads" Trump is an ignorant ,incompetent liar and Congress cares nothing about anything other than being reelected". Really, is there anything else that needs to be said?

Natural and Unatural disasters

The citizens of this country, including those who live in the Caribbean, have experienced an unprecedented amount of natural disasters. Probably the worst of all, not to discount what has occurred in Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands, are the forest fires now ravaging California. The deaths and destruction there is nearly unimaginable. There is little that can be done to prevent  occurrences like this, at least in the near future . The amount of funds and effort necessary to combat these occurrences from year-to-year is not predictable which means that state and particularly the federal government needs contingency plans. It is pretty clear that both the forest service and FEMA are under funded.

Which brings me to unnatural disasters. We have collectively elected president man so incompetent unprepared and he'll fitted for the job that even most of the responsible members of the party that nominated him considered him unfit. You may recall the obsequious visit of the chairman of the RNC to New York to ask this buffoon to sign a pledge that he would claim to be a Republican. What has become apparent is that his ignorance and incompetence are not our worst problems. The biggest problem is that he cares for nothing but himself. He doesn't care about the country or its citizens. You may have noticed he has said nothing about the California disaster that is occurring. Why? Because they didn't vote for him. He has no interest in the long term problems of Puerto Rico because they didn't praise him for his feeble efforts. Yesterday he cavalierly ended the subsidies of the cost-sharing provisions that are a necessary part of the affordable care act falsely claiming they only benefited the insurance companies. In fact the insurance companies are only intermediaries and the effect of this loss will be felt by those people buying Insurance on the exchanges who do not receive direct subsidies because the insurance companies will have to raise premiums which they will have to absorb. He doesn't care. He is only interested in being able to claim, Falsely, that he is a brilliant" negotiator" and can do things no one else can do. On this latter point he is correct, no other person I can think of could fuck up the country like he is. His conception of himself and his abilities is extravagantly delusional. He is a disaster.

At present, our first line of defense against him is Congress, controlled by the party that put him in there (with some help by the ineptitude of the Democratic Party and their candidate). They need to fence him in by first passing legislation that would prevent him from using nuclear weapons absent a declaration of war by Congress. They then need to work on a bipartisan basis to pass legislation. Were they to do so, he would sign it saying it's a result of his brilliant negotiating tactics.

If the Republican Congress will not act responsibly, they need to be voted out of control of the House and Senate in 2018. Any republican senator or congressman who refuses to admit that Trump is a disaster needs to be attacked on that basis. The Democrats also need to come up with some good candidates and some reasonable ideas for legislation such as repatriating overseas corporate profits and using the proceeds to build infrastructure. Will this happen? One feels in the grip of terminal cynicism at this point.

Shit! He is still president

Having been out of the country for two weeks, it was almost possible to fantasize that it is all been a bad dream. Nope, he is still lurking about. One wonders if he is beginning to dimly realize that he is totally inept at being president. Unfortunately, he was pretty good at being a candidate and he seems to have now reverted to running for office again by retreating to the positions that worked. For instance, today "the wall" which we have learned from his discussions with the president of Mexico was only a campaign ploy has emerged as a necessary ingredient of any immigration plan, including one concerning the dreamers for whom he has expressed such care and concern. He is back to advocating a solution in search of a problem. He is also pitching to the social conservative base preaching a restoration of religious liberty, which is never been lost, and repealing EPA regulations in order to bolster the coal market which will not come back because of competitive market forces.

It is well known that Donnie watches a lot of TV. One wonders if perhaps in flipping through the channels he started watching the movie West side story, and particularly the song "everything is free and America" and thought it was a documentary. That might explain some is thoughtless and stupid remarks about the problems in Puerto Rico, even though it has been brought to his attention that the people there are American citizens.

I and the people I was with did view with horror what happened in Las Vegas. That was so horrific that even the NRA is now saying that there needs to be some" regulation" but not congressional action against the sale of bump stops. A Trump administration regulation would probably limit ownership of them to four or five.

There are tiny rays of hope based upon reports of flashes of insight by both Congress and the Trump administration. Rex Tillotson does not deny he called Donnie a moron. He certainly acts like one. Sen. Corker has been saying in one way or another that Donnie is a dangerous incompetent. Congressman Dent is saying pretty much the same thing. Neither is running for reelection and are enjoying, in the words of the immortal Bobby McGee, "freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose". Each says that many of their colleagues are saying the same thing privately but apparently think being reelected is more important and saving the country. Of course, when one is running for election it is easy to convince oneself that the most important thing for the country is that persons election.