Day 566 Wednesday August 8, 2018 1,012 Days to Go
It’s time to clear up a few questions many of the pundits have had, and I suspect many of you have had as well.
A.
1. Is Don Jr. in trouble? Did he commit a crime?
Answer: Yes, and No, and Yes yes.
Yes, Don Jr. is in trouble. No, he did not commit a crime; he committed many crimes.
2. Will Don Jr. go to jail?
Answer: Yes.
3. Will his Dad pardon him?
Answer: Yes, if he can, that is if he is still in office.
You don’t have to be much of a legal beagle to figure this out. Don Jr. met with Russians for the purpose of getting something of value from them to help his father win the election. That is against the law. He lied about it. That is against the law. He tried to cover it up. That is against the law.
Next.
B.
1. Are the Republicans in trouble?
Yes and Yes.
Why two yeses? They are in trouble politically in terms of the upcoming election. The chance of them holding onto the House is 29%. Therefore the chance of Dems taking the House is 71%. They only need 23 seats. The chance of the Dems picking up a lot more seats, like 45, is 50%.
If yesterday’s special election in Ohio’s 12th Congressional district is any indication, the chance of the Dems picking up more that 45 seats is better than 50%.
Ohio’s 12th has been Republican for decades. In the last redistricting the Republicans gerrymandered it so they’d be guaranteed to win the seat. The Democratic challenger has come within 1% of taking the seat, and he may still win it. This with little or no help from the Democratic National Committee, while his challenger got millions of dollars of support from the Republican National Committee and from the president and vice president.
The Republicans won’t be able to spend that much time, money and effort in November when that seat comes up again and the same two guys will be running against each other.
That takes care of one of my “yeses” in terms of whether the Republicans are in trouble. The second yes refers to the complete moral and patriotic failure of these elected officials.
They have stood placidly by as the president has done one dangerous and stupid thing after another. They are complacent in the destruction of our democracy.
The one thing they weakly mention is that the economy is doing well. To which I ask, “Is it?”
Have wages gone up? NO.
Do people feel economically more secure? Not that I’ve heard or seen.
So if the economy is doing so great why aren’t people seeing it?
I think this comes back to economics 101.
The president and the Republicans in Congress have passed a massive tax cut for the rich. Not that the rich needed this, or really asked for it. A lot of money got freed up in companies and for rich individuals. The Republican economic types (not economists, but those in the Republican party who claim to know something about economics) claim that when money is freed up it will be invested in new equipment and buildings. This is called “capital investment.” This is not true (of course.) Money is put into capital investment when there is a need to do so, called in economic terms “demand.” If there is demand for a product or service and there isn’t enough of that stuff then, hopefully, someone will invest in the equipment and materials to make more of whatever it is. This has not happened as far as I know. There is no more demand, or very little. So what do you do if you have a wad of money and no need to invest it in capital improvements? You either hold onto it or you put it in the stock market. If you are a company you can buy back some of your stock that is on the open market. If you’ve been given a trillion dollars, like the president and this Congress has done then you’ll see the price of stocks go up, and that is what has been happening.
For the average person? The economy is still suckey (technical term.)
There is another problem for Republicans – the complete abdication of their Constitutional authority to be a check on the Executive branch. We’ll get to that in the next segment.
C. What about the Russian probe? Is Donald Sr. in trouble? Why the big deal over Paul Manafort?
Despite what Donald says, tweets, etc. The fact that people on his campaign staff were talking with Russians os a problem. No other campaign has ever had communication with Russians, let alone met with them. Is Trump Sr in trouble? You bet. He’s been taking money from Russians for years, and laundering it. That is what Manafort was doing too. Yeah, they’re dirty.
What I find surprising, and many other people do to, is the degree to which Republicans in Congress have gone along with it.
1,012 Days to Go
PS Sisal drying (to make rope)
Thank you Rick for your insightful writings. Thoughts that people read know as basic truths. How can we breakthrough the lie wall constructed by the Republicans and Fox news. There is an alt reality. When in truth the true facts are the only facts. How do you change stupid?