Look at me everybody–I am great and powerful

Our supercilious head twit gave a speech yesterday at the United Nations so that  representatives of most of the countries in the world could see what a jerk he is. As usual, it was all about him. He began bye lying about his accomplishments in his first eight months of office, both domestically and internationally. He then rambled around talking about why the US paid a disproportionate amount of the UN budget and was not getting in his opinion a reasonable return on investment. He discussed that there were underway some indefinite plans to restructure and revitalize the United Nations and that that showed great promise. He decried the bureaucracy of the United Nations and generally dismissed multinational organizations as being ineffective and impractical, and that went for trade agreements as well. It is not clear what he thinks the United Nations actually is. What is clear is that he envisions a future when the United Nations does what he tells it to do.

He discussed North Korea. He did not say that North Korea's belligerent statements and actions could lead to  catastrophe in the far east causing millions to die. Instead, in one of the most callous statements probably ever heard, he said that should North Korea either start armed conflict or otherwise seriously provoke the United States he would totally destroy it. He has elevated stupid reckless demagoguery to hitherto unknown heights. The death of millions of people apparently he considers some sort of negative externality.

He then turned to Iran. This weeks" worst deal he has ever seen" is the agreement with Iran that he appears to think was a bilateral agreement. It doesn't occurred to him that if he could make a deal like that with North Korea he would be universally applauded. He seemed to threaten Iran with armed conflict. Other than Bebe Netanyahu, and the cheerleaders Trump brought with him, there was mostly silence. I suppose he expects the United Nations to take action at his direction against Iran but it is more than clear that our European allies and Russia and China are not going to.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about this is that it is clear from his brief appearances today that he thinks he was a smash hit. He does not appear to be doing the single most important thing he could which is to work comprehensively with China on many fronts including North Korea because it is in China's interest to have a stable North Korea but one that ceases its belligerent and provocative actions. We appear to be in a metaphorical perfect storm. We have  incredibly difficult problems to solve and simultaneously have the most ignorant arrogant incompetent lying President ever and a Congress mired in political ideology and totally uninterested in solving problems in a reasonable fashion.

Sarah Huckleberry says Trump should be fired

Rumor has it that Sarah Huckleberry, White House designated truth denier and dissembler, has privately said that pres. Trump should be fired because of his recent re-tweet showing him hitting a golf ball into the rear end of Hillary Clinton." If he had done that on ESPN sports center, they surely would have fired him, she is reported as saying." We are trying to create the illusion that the White House is a serious place where are important things are discussed and done. In fact we are trying to create an illusion that it is a very very serious place where very very significant things are planned and done. Things like this make that difficult. On an ordinary day the White House would remind one Love this scene in the circus where the little car pulls into the center ring and a bunch of clowns jump out running around intuiting horns. In other words, it's always bad enough.

And think of me. Every day I have to go out there and explain that what Trump has said doesn't mean what he actually said but something different. Then I have to use various excuses not to answer questions other than to say that pres. Trump remains committed (which I sometimes think he should be) to his agenda of making America great again for all those benighted souls that voted for him. Do you think that's a fun job? Well it's not. I look forward to the day, sometime in the future, what I can appear on TV like Sean Spicer did at the Emmy awards and show what I really think of all this crap.

Big winds blowing

We had over a week of all the networks presenting nonstop reporting over hurricanes Harvey and Irma. It started with predictions of their impacts and ended with the reality of those impacts. There was some hyping at the predicting stage but that's probably not a bad idea. It's a lot better than understating the potential. The reality of those impacts was grim. FEMA will pay for infrastructure repair but it does not pay for the repair or replacement of private properties to any great extent. Flood insurance, for those lucky to have it, maxes out at $250,000. The reaction to this devastation is that we as a country and states and municipalities need to act collectively to help the people who bore the brunt of these storms. There is a certain irony in the fact that Gov. Rick Scott of Florida has been a climate change denier and even instructed State government employees not to use any such terminology. Despite his private enterprise bias, he will be groveling for state and federal tax dollars.

What would happen if the major networks spent a week with nearly nonstop coverage of the plight of those in this country who live at or near the poverty level. We could see the struggles they have for food, clothing and housing and how it affects the ability of their children to get educations. Would there be a similar reaction calling for collective action at the national and state level to help these people with tax dollars?

Speaking of big winds, we are getting more of Trump now again. He continues to contradict himself, make up facts, and generally concentrating on how to make all issues and problems to be about him. Trump will deliver an address at the United Nations this week. You may recall his disparaging remarks about the United Nations on the campaign trail. Will he now say things are improved, probably because of his remarks? We can bet he will say that other countries are not doing enough and that the United States is unfairly burdened and gets nothing in return. We can also expect him to say that Isis is very very bad, and terrorism is very very bad, and North Korea is very very bad and a very very serious problem, and Iran is a very very serious problem, and we have to do something about Iraq and Syria because it is a very very serious problem and there are very very evil people there. This will of course be revelatory to the other countries represented at the United Nations because none of these things have ever occured to them. We do not expect Trump to be very very specific about what should be done.

We cannot expect Trump to say anything intelligent about holloween need to deal with China and what are the real issues there because it is highly complicated and Trump cannot even deal with simple problems rationally. He seems unable to understand why China does not adopt an America first policy. He also remains fixated on trade deficits. Apparently no one has told him that trade deficits results from the fact that our country collectively does not save enough. We cannot expect any great improvement arising from the fact that Trump now wants to do stupid things in a bipartisan way because he gets better press.

Bipartisanship

You may remember this term. It gets tossed around in Washington from time to time. For instance shortly after President Obama was elected in 2008, Mitch McConnell used the term. At a retreat for Republican senators, under the direction of Mitch the Republicans adopted the agenda that their primary responsibility was to defeat resident Obama in 2012 and to that end there would not be a bipartisan Senate(too bad Mitch). Now Donnie wants bipartisanship but he pretty clearly has a confuse notion of what that is. It doesn't occur to him that the Democrats should have any role in input or design of legislation. Bipartisanship means that Democrats vote for whatever pleases you know who. The Republican Congress seems to agree with that as they apparently will allow the Democrats no role in drafting what they laughingly call tax" reform". No doubt the leaders in Congress will be calling for the Trump type of bipartisanship from the Democrats forgetting that after the Republicans gained control of Congress in 2010 they became the knights who say "Knicht" and blocked everything Obama tried to do that required legislation. For Republicans, the trouble with Democrats largely stems from the fact that they do not understand that tax cuts for the wealthy is pretty much the answer to all problems.

Our fearless leader is heading back to Texas today for round two of his personal flood relief efforts. Round one largely consisted of his self-congratulatory remarks that under his leadership the greatest relief program ever was occurring. This is to be his sympathy and empathy trip where actually meets a real live flood victim. His wife will once again accompany him. Last time he treated her really shabbily. He forced her to wear a black baseball cap that said in capital letters FLOTSAM. I think comparing her to debris floating in the water was incredibly ungentlemanly and I hope he doesn't do it again.

Is this the apocalypse?

It is looking like the Book of Revelations  has come to life. California and the northwest through Canada is ablaze. The southeastern United States is underwater. It will be a miraculous if there are not outbreaks of cholera or at least dysentery. Reckless stupid leaders are playing chicken with nuclear weapons. The Beast walks the earth.

And speaking of Donald Trump, after his usual stumbling  attempts to show concern and compassion for the victims in southeastern United States , he is back talking about ending DACA and legislating tax cuts for the top 1%. He is pursuing his nonsensical notion that giving tax cuts to, for example, Corporation that have so much cash that they use it to buy back stock, will trickle down to the disadvantaged. Today he sent out for a briefing some person named Tom Bossert to talk about the relief effort in Texas and Louisiana. This character gave long often unintelligible answers to questions and fatuously suggested not to worry there is plenty of money notwithstanding that Trump wants to decrease the budget for FEMA. It doesn't appear that the top members of the administration, and I do not include the Director of FEMA who seems to know what he is doing, have no realistic concepcion of the cost that would necessarily be incurred to rebuild the lives and property of the affected citizens. Their homes will be at least required to be taken down to the studs been rebuilt. Their possessions are gone. Many will still be on the hook to pay mortgages for their uninhabitable homes and obviously many of lost their jobs. At best there will be massive bankruptcies displaced persons..

We can safely expect Trump to engage in some sort of fantasy that there will be private public partnerships rebuilding levees, canals, roads, schools, other infrastructures and homes. We remember the larceny that took place in the use of federal funds after Katrina. But hey, there's a buck to be made here. And, of course, we need to continue the dismantling of the EPA.

The first concern has to be providing food and shelter for the displaced. They will need sanctuary somewhere. Probably they will  need to be sent to other cities. We could call them" sanctuary cities" but not tell Jeff Sessions about it. About the only thing that one can be certain of is this : what ever the Trump administration does they will screw it up.

Fake News Flash

Unconfirmed information from an unreliable source says that Pres. Trump has been impressed by the amount of volunteer relief assistance given by private individuals and companies in Texas. It was brought to his attention that not only citizens individually using their boats have rescued people but that business entities such as furniture stores have open their doors to refugees and donated things like blankets and mattresses. Other individuals and businesses have opened their doors to provide emergency quarters for flood victims. Impressed with this, Pres. Trump has been heard to say:" as you know I am not only the president of the United States but I am a billionaire. I have made many billions of dollars because of the very very incredible and fantastic deals I have made over my career. I can tell you that they are the most fantastic, incredible deals I have ever seen. You can see that for yourself by looking at my tax returns, I mean my financial statements, Tax returns are irrelevant. Because I have billions of dollars I want to participate as a private individual in this effort to provide relief for these victims. Accordingly, I am going to open up as relief centers all of my golf resorts, including Mal de Mer in Florida. I have asked for those who have booked reservations to cancel them and am requesting current occupants to cut short their stays. I have also asked my son Donald, who runs my businesses about which I know nothing other than that they're making a lot of money, to make an infusion of $100 million into the Trump foundation to be used for flood relief at the discretion of local authorities. I know that sounds like a lot of money but I'm a billionaire and I can afford it. Somebody told me that my new hotel in Washington DC is making money hand over fist and that the Trump White House boutique is doing well. I am going to provide my private fleet of planes and helicopters, the ones that say TRUMP in huge letters to fly flood victims to my resorts."

"I have instructed all federal agencies to provide whatever help and assistance as needed for the flood victims. I am also announcing this afternoon my new tax reform programs, without any detail of course, that will sharply reduce the amount of taxes paid by our citizens and companies, and revenues received by our government. I am told that somehow this all works and that it will be huge, leading to at least 7% per annum GDP growth. The details of this will be provided by somebody sometime. With all due modesty, I have already been told that might administration under my guidance has made the greatest emergency relief and rescue program ever. This will come as no surprise to those who have witnessed the incredible accomplishments of my administration under my clothes and careful management."

Real Tax Reform(it will not happen)

Fresh off what Donnie calls the most successful first six months in presidential history, Donnie will turn to tax reform. It is an odds on proposition that he will not know or care what would be in the legislation as long as it is entitled Tax Reform and maybe has his name in the title. That means it is likely to be the sort of taxing budgetary Fantasy that Paul Ryan as offered in the past. That consists of tax cuts for people and entities that already have more money than they know what to do with coupled with cuts in programs needed by the disadvantaged in our society. Probably with the help of Mick Mulvaney, that will be some" dynamic scoring" Love the kind that nonpartisan economists have consistently called" implausible" to  purport to make it revenue neutral and thus needing only 50 votes.

The current situation in the southeastern United States is going to be a real budget buster and make Ryan's fantasies even more difficult. We will see legislators from Texas, including Ted Cruz, who voted against relief in New York and New Jersey for the victims of Sandy urging the preparations for Texas and maybe Louisiana. In the past, people like then Congressman Mike Pence and congressman Mick Mulvaney wanted budget cuts elsewhere to offset any relief funds. If that happens this time, guess who will bear the brunt of it. The only thing certain is that Ryan and Mulvaney Will be turning somersaults in the dynamic scoring exercise.

We do need tax law changes and I have a few modest proposals. First, raise the tax level on passive income including capital gains to the same level as those who work for a living pay. Also make that revenues subject to the Medicare tax. Second, raise the tax levels incrementally for those having taxable incomes of $250,000 and more up to a maximum of 70%. Third, eliminate unjustifiable provisions in the tax code that favor selected industries or individuals. Fourth, pass a provision allowing repatriation of funds residing overseas by US corporations at a favorable rate but require those entities to use those monies for capital expansion and/or wage increases for their employees and not to buy back stock or engage in acquisitions. Use the tax revenue received by the Federal government from this to finance infrastructure projects.

The need for the federal government to assist in problems such as those being experienced In Texas and Louisiana serve to demonstrate that the government needs more tax revenue, not less. In a society as complex and large as ours, it should be obvious that more functions, such as healthcare, need to be financed at a national level. The democrats need to carry this message and point out to the former Democrat voters in Pennsylvania Ohio Wisconsin and Michigan that they have been duped and they better change their allegiance.