Trump

Day 974  We are Getting Screwed

Friday September 6, 2019

425 Days until the 2020 election and 507 days until the Inauguration

The administration has rolled back regulations on light bulbs. That will cost us billions in extra energy.

The president has taken in millions from the payday loan folks via his Miami golf course. What do they get in return? Why the agency that was going after them for their 300% annual loans no longer does. They get to make millions by screwing over the poorest of the poor in this country.

The administration and the president being an equal opportunity screwer of the people is stealing money from every state, in violation of the law, to put money into building his wall. So far he has built zero. The only stuff that has been built was approved by Obama. It’s all replacement stuff.

As long as we are talking about breaking the law someone altered a weather map showing where Hurricane Dorian was going. Most people think it was the president who took his Sharpie to the map. This is a Federal crime to “knowingly” alter a weather forecast. I guess he can claim he didn’t know.

On gun control the president is waiting on Congress and the Senate is waiting on the president. The House passed a gun control bill as one of their first orders of business. Mr. McConnell won’t bring it to the Senate floor for a vote. So all that needs to be done is for Donnie to tell Mitchie that he likes the House bill. Boom. Done. That ain’t happening.

Speaking of not happening. Why hasn’t the State of Alabama asked for hurricane disaster relief funds? Hell, if the president said the hurricane was coming to my state, and I was governor, I’d put in for it. That could make up for the money he took for the wall.

And speaking of trite and petty, the governor of North Carolina asked for disaster relief funds for Hurricane Dorian. By law he’s the only one that can ask. What does Donnie do? Well, see the governor of North Carolina is a Democrat. So Don says he’s releasing the funds because Tom Tillis the Republican senator asked him for it. Yeah. Right. 

Meanwhile, there have been some great retouching of photographs with a Sharpie. I like the one of the stick figures drawn in over top of the empty spaces at the Trump Inauguration.

Meanwhile the Bahamas is in ruins. We’ve sent helicopters. I don’t know what else we’ve sent but dammit. We should be sending the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, the Hope, everything we’ve got.

Looking for the best place to send money. I can do that.

. . .

I just sent it to the Red Cross for Hurricane Dorian Relief.

 

 425 Days until the 2020 election and 507 days until the Inauguration

Day 972 – Whatcha Gonna Do?

Wednesday September 4, 2019

427 Days until the 2020 election and 509 days until the Inauguration

Three Things:

– A Chart on the Economy, that says it all

– The Three Cs

– The Bahamas

Let’s start with the Bahamas. They are wiped out. They don’t have the capacity to rebuild. Their economy is based on rum drinks and diving trips. If we don’t get in there and help them big time, the devastation, death, and suffering will increase exponentially.

Let’s move on to the Three Cs. In a new book out by Jim Mattis and Bing West (Don’t ya love that name? Bing West.) in which they talk about leadership they mention The Three Cs:

– Competence

– Caring

– Conviction

Keep that in mind and apply it to this president and his administration in everything they do.

Now let’s go to the economy. Here’s a chart. Remember Trump ran on the fact that he was going to greatly increase the economy and that Obama had done such a horrible job, and that he, Donald Trump, was the great negotiator and deal maker and that he would fix it all. 

Hey guess what? Obama’s numbers are better than Trump’s? How did that happen? (Hint: I refer you to the Three Cs above.)

Not only are Obama’s numbers better; Trump’s are going down. Like “MayDay! MayDay! Dive! Dive!”  bad.

The economic experts (What do they know?) say it’s pretty easy to figure out. Every time Trump slaps on tariffs the economy slows down.

Now this might be hard for some folks to understand but here’s a little tidbit of micro-economic thinking, in an example. See if you can figure it out. If you slap tariffs on steel then steel from outside the country will cost more. Got it? Okay good. Now if that steel goes into say American built cars what will happen to the cost of those cars? Why, and this is incredibly hard to understand for the president and his administration, the price of American cars goes up! Wow. Who knew? I can hear Donnie now, “When I put tariffs on steel the price of cars made in the U.S.A. went up, who knew? Did you know that?” (Yes, knucklehead anyone who didn’t sleep through econ 101 knew that. Oh? You didn’t even bother to attend? Got it.)

So now let’s review the effect of Trump’s meandering economic policy, if we can even call it a policy. U.S. goods made with raw materials, like steel, that come from outside the United States will cost more. This will in turn mean people will buy less of U.S. made goods and the economy will slow down.

Trump has put tariffs on all sorts of things coming from China. I guess this means he will have to pay more for his MAGA hats. China has slapped tariffs on the stuff we send to them. This means the Chinese will buy less of our stuff. Got it? Hey, but guess what else China is doing? They are lowering the price of goods from other countries. Guess what that means? It means the Chinese will buy stuff from other countries and not from us. Good going Mr. president. 

For some reason farmers are pissed off at Trump. I guess having their crops rotting in warehouses because they no longer have anywhere to sell has something to do with it. Here, have a MAGA hat. By the way it’ll cost a bit more, like 30%. But that’s the cost of winning.

In other news, there have been multiple reports on Trump’s foreign policies. The adjectives pretty much say it all: absent, mercurial, random, non-existent. In other words, there is no policy.

Odd thing is that’s kind of the same thing that comes up based on gun control.

Or anything else with this guy.

So whether it’s the economy, foreign policy, or anything else, ask yourself this:

“Is he competent?”

“Does he care?”

“Does he have conviction?”

I say he comes up empty on all three.

427 Days until the 2020 election and 509 days until the Inauguration

PS Sweet dreams are made of this. The ferry at Flores, Guatemala. 

Day 969 Really? Do you ever check what you post?

Standing up to Right Wing Propaganda

Sunday September 1, 2019

430 Days until the 2020 election and 512 days until the Inauguration

This past week I have:

Told a family member that Beto O’Rourke did not say to throw away the elderly and disabled vets like she posted,

Told a grade school friend that: 

The headline she posted that Obama separated 89,000 children from their parents and Trump only did 1,800 is not true. The 89,000 is made up. The Trump number is true, but on the low end.

That Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not want “a massive taxpayer funded pay raise.” Yes, there was a pay raise bill of $4500 based on a 1989 law that Congress people haven’t taken since then but really? Why not throw in Republican names as they are behind it too?

And  those are just the ones I remember.

The worst part about it is that these kind of made up or slanted viewpoint headlines are obstructing the truth and the facts, or even worse, these people don’t know the facts, and don’t care to know.

The reality is hitting home for some people. Farmers are not able to sell their crops. Why? Trump’s trade policies. 

I heard an interview the other day with the head of the company that makes Lincoln Logs. (I know. It was on NPR. One of those public radio programs Rush Limbaugh wants to get rid of because they give facts he doesn’t like.) The Lincoln Logs man was asked about Trump’s tariffs with China. It was instructive what he said. Ninety percent of their products are made in China. Why? China for the last thirty years has been building up an infrastructure to allow such products to be made. 

Why not move somewhere else? He said that Vietnam is one place mentioned. If you moved 5% of China’s capacity to Vietnam you would tap out that country. Besides they don’t have the infrastructure.

India? Lots of people,

no infrastructure. Could they develop it? Yes. It would take at least fifteen to twenty years.

How about the U.S.? Who’s going to make the product? Trump has cut the immigrants and the U.S. labor force is tapped out.

In short, the company has no plans to move it’s production because there is no where to move it.

What are you going to do about the tariffs? 

First off, they are trying to figure out what the tariffs are and what they will mean to their business, but the consensus is that the American consumer will be paying 15% to 30% more for goods made in China.

Good job Mr. president. Is this what winning looks like?

430 Days until the 2020 election and 512 days until the Inauguration

PS Alex and Sophie competing at iFly Virginia Beach

Day 968 Nuke the Cane!

 Stand with Trump on stopping Hurricanes

Saturday August 31, 2019

431 Days until the 2020 election and 513 days until the Inauguration

“Mr. president, we have triangulated coordinates that would be best to explode a thermo-nuclear device in the advancement of Hurricane Dorian.”

“Fantastic. What are you waiting for?”

“You have to give the word, sir.”

“Do it.”

“Yes sir.”

“Where exactly are you going to explode it?”

“We have the coordinates here sir.”

“Is it out in the ocean?”

“No sir, it’s on land.   Palm Beach, sir. 1100 South Ocean Boulevard.”

“That sound familiar.”

“Yes sir. It should.”

“Why?”

It’s the address of the old Merriweather Post estate, sir.”

“Mar-a-Lago?”

“Yes sir.”

“I own that!”

“Yes you do sir.”

“Will it be hurt?”

“No sir. It will be utterly destroyed. There won’t be any sign it was ever there.”

“Is that all?”

“No sir. The detonation will do nothing to stop the hurricane, which will continue it’s advancement, but now it will be loaded with radioactivity, which it will spread up the coast of Florida into Georgia and South Carolina.”

“Is that bad?”

“It will make that area unlivable for 10,000 years sir.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t do it.”

“Yes, sir. We’ll hold off, sir.”

“Excuse me Mr. president, Have you seen the news today?”

“No.”

“Oh boy*”

(* Sorry John.)

“What?”

“Remember you’re telling the reporters about those phone calls you got from China?”

“No. Yes. What about it?”

“Well, China says it never happened.”

“Bad connection.”

“And then the press core said you didn’t attend a meeting on climate change.”

“I remember. I said it hadn’t happened yet.”

“But it had, and your press team said you missed the meeting because you were in talks with India and Germany.”

“Bi-lateral talks. Isn’t that what you call it?”

“Yes sir. Only problem is that the meeting on climate change that was being held at the same time your press team told the press corp that you were in meetings with Germany and India shows your chair empty and the heads of those two countries in the meeting on climate change.”

“So?”

“So if you’re going to lie, or your press team is going to lie for you, it is suggested that you don’t lie in such a way that you can be caught in the lie with a single photo. Sir.”

“Is that all?”

“No sir. The impeachment proceedings.”

“No Collusion!”

“Yes sir. It has been revealed that you committed more impeachable offenses in the past week than the three presidents before you who faced impeachment proceeding committed combined.”

“Is that a record?”

“Yes sir, and apparently they might just stop writing down all your offenses and go with what they’ve got.”

“So?”

“So your strategy of committing more crimes out in the open every week then they can invesitage is falling apart.”

“That wasn’t a strategy.”

“Oh.”

“There was no collusion.” 

“Yes. sir.”

431 Days until the 2020 election and 513 days until the Inauguration

PS Don’t Tread on Me! (You’ll stub your toe.)