Living and dying by the lie

       If the Judge in the New York state fraud trial against tRump rules as expected today, the disgraced, twice impeached, quadruply indicted former president may have to start selling assets in order to pay the expected hundreds of millions in penalties that will be imposed.   In addition, tRump will probably be barred from operating his business in New York.

      tRump has operated his entire adult life by lying his ass off to customers, banks, regulators and anyone involved in his businesses.   He has refused to admit any culpability, which has led to an $83 million judgement in favor of E. Jean Carroll.  Schadenfreude is all well and good, so relax with a bowl of popcorn tonight and enjoy!

January gloom and doom

      It's that time of year again in New York's north country.  Cloudy and cold with occasional snow showers almost every day is the forecast for the week.  I think SAD ( seasonal affective Disorder) is rampant among residents, making for short tempers and lugubrious outlooks on life.  At least the Divine Mrs. M and I can look forward to a trip to Southern Italy in early April.  Most of our fellow residents will just have to put up with winter for at least 3 more months.  Ugh!

The Cult is strong

          An exit poll taken during the New Hampshire primary asked GOP primary voters if they felt tRump was qualified to be president even if he was convicted of a crime and a majority answered yes.   That's about as damning an indictment of the Republican party as can be imagined.   

        Of course, it's hard to blame the average Republican Joe for his belief that Cheeto Jesus can do no wrong.   After all, he probably uses FOX news as his major source for information and virtually every GOP elected official has endorsed the orange savior.  Leaders of political parties are supposed to help their rank and file members make informed choices in local and national elections.  Instead, they allow and even endorse the lies tRump tells every time he opens his mouth.  The GOP is a broken party which has been hijacked by a cult leader with the complicity of its erstwhile leaders.  

The new normal

       The normalizing of tRump and by extension the Republican party is on the minds of many pundits as Cheeto Jesus continues to consolidate his candidacy for the GOP's presidential nomination.  Corruption, lies, racism, proto-fascism and misogyny have been either ignored or in some corners of the media, celebrated.  

       The 2024 elections are still 9 months away and I am already exhausted by the outrage and ennui this candidacy inspires.  

Participation trophies

       The headlines in my local fish wrap today concerned the political fortunes of two prominent Republican women;  Nikki Haley and Elise Stefanik.   The stories were mainly a rehash of Haley's presidential run following the New Hampshire primary and Stefanik's not so subtle campaign to be chosen as tRump's running mate in the 2024 election cycle. 

      Haley's campaign is apparently running on fumes and wealthy donor money as the primary sweepstakes shifts to South Carolina where you would expect her to have a political advantage as a former governor.  Not so.   The state is tRump country and he has used a combination of threats and promises of rewards to line up nearly 150 endorsements, including both senators and the present governor.  As one Democratic official put it, "she is going to get creamed" in the February 24 primary unless she is blessed with the hamburger from heaven event.

     Meanwhile, the shame of NY-23, Stefanik, continues her shameless kissing of the disgraced, indicted former president's backside in an effort to be named the VP candidate.   Love her or hate her, she has some serious political skills and no conscience whatsoever.   The adjectives, repulsive and despicable were used by her Democratic predecessor to describe her politics.   tRumps' advisors are probably telling him she brings nothing to the table except complete subservience.  However, for cheeto Jesus, that may be enough.

Owning the Libs is the point

          Aside from giving them the green light to hate religious and ethnic minorities, the enduring popularity of tRump rests on his ability to own the libs.   The haters who attend his rallies look forward to his ritual humiliation of the reporters sent to cover him.  beyond that, they love his promise of "retribution'' against their perceived enemies.   In many cases, it's not blue collar folks who cheer on and venerate Cheeto Jesus.  It's comfortable middle class jerks who seem to have been looking for an avatar of hate whose infantile insults against liberals and intellectuals touch some primal need to pull down those they perceive as their betters.

     For some reason, pundits of all ideological stripes avoid calling out the 25 to 30% of the electorate who would as soon burn down American democracy as save it.  Hillary Clinton euphemistically called the "basket of deplorables" and was roundly criticized for it.  These are people who fly the confederate battle flag at rallies and consider the end of slavery a tragedy.  They were probably Democrats in the pre civil rights era, but switched parties in the 70s and 80s as the GOP devolved into  the party of white racial grievance.  

    So, here we are, watching people who should know better (looking at you, Elise Stefanik) embarrass themselves by worshipping at the altar of tRump, hoping once more to own the libs. 

Ronnie, we hardly knew ye...

          Goodbye and good riddance to Meatball Ron and his campaign.    As his donors found out, they could have used the couple of hundred million they invested in the Florida governor if they had donated it to homeless shelters to burn for heat.

        DeSantis was hailed by pundits as tRump without the baggage.   The trouble was he was an unlikable a--hole who believed without evidence he was the smartest man in the room.  To top it all off, he pledged fealty to Cheeto Jesus despite or maybe because of the humiliation visited upon him by the latter's campaign.   Move over Scott Walker, you now have company at the losers' banquet.

Break out the torches and pitchforks

      According to wage income data provided by the Social Security Administration, the average wage for the bottom 90% of earners has increased (in 2022 adjusted dollars) from a little over $30,000 in 1979 to a little over $40,000 in 2022.   That's less than 1%/year.  the 90-99th percent did better, averaging about 3% per year.  The real winners were the top 1% who tripled their income over the last 40 years..  The biggest winners of all were the top .1% .  Their income soared 344% during that period.  The billionaire class today can now afford to buy senators and supreme court justices whose legislation and judicial rulings will keep this new aristocracy in power for the forseeable future.  The last time such glaring inequality was sanctioned was in France, just before the Revolution.   Pitchforks anyone...

Of snickers bars and blowhards

      In today's NYT, the chief economist for UBS wealth management argues the average consumer should place less emphasis on the price of snickers bars and more on the price of wide screen TVs.  Prices of so called durable consumer goods have fallen precipitously over the past year.  Unfortunately for Joe Biden, the price of snickers bars remains higher than last year.  Hence, consumer malaise.

     This is another BS argument.   A couple of months ago it was the price of gasoline which was spooking the American consumer.   Now that gas is below $3.00/gallon in many places, economists need another whipping boy.  On to the snickers theory of economic precarity.  The simple fact is right wing media has led a relentless drumbeat of misleading, cherrypicked data showing the economy in the worst possible light.   Meanwhile, if you asked these same, mostly republican consumers about their own situation, most are satisfied.   Coming next week, the toilet paper theory of consumer confidence!

Who are these people?

        50,000 or so Iowans created or sustained the candidacy of a disgraced, indicted libertine former president and fed a media firestorm which supposed that somehow this tiny minority of idiots should somehow have an influence over a nation of nearly 350.,000,000 people.

        Most of tRump's supporters in Iowa seem to be low information, poorly educated evangelical  self professed "christians" with an ideology more proto-fascist than biblical.  While there may be a few true believers among them, the majority embraces the white supremacist view that America was chosen by god to be the redoubt for white, European protestants.    Other religions, ethnic groups and especially blacks need not apply.

      Fortunately, evangelicals play an outsize role in the nominating process, but due to attrition, they make up a smaller slice of the electorate each year.  Hopefully after a conviction or two, tRump may start to lose  some of his luster with women and young people of faith.   There will be little or no drop off in support among his core supporters; old, white men.  They need to go to their reward as quickly as possible.

Trust

       Like many in my generation, I know government statistics are compiled and charted by an apolitical bureaucratic (in a good way) system.   Regardless of the political party in power in the executive, the stats are collected and documented in a non-partisan manner, without fear or favor.  Remarkably, these numbers track very closely to the perception of most of us when asked about our personal economic situation.

      Problems develop when people are asked to opine about the national economy.   A majority of us, influenced in no small part by right wing media scare stories, tell pollsters things are terrible for other people. 

      Despite overwhelmingly positive stats about the economy, Joe Biden has polled as low as 33% in a recent nationwide survey.   If nothing else, it proves that relentless negative propaganda works.

Perspective

      I was a high school junior on April 4, 1968,   That was the day Martin Luthor King jr. was assasinated in Memphis.   I really can't remember anything about the day.  Yet, I vividly remember the day JFK was killed in 1963,   Perhaps it was the difference in news coverage of the events.  the killing of a sitting US president would generate far more coverage than the murder of a civil rights leader.   But it is more than that.

      We lived in a far more racist society in the 60's than we do today.  It was understood in our small towns on eastern Long Island that "negros" were farm laborers for the most part and were grudgingly accepted by most whites as long as they understood that they were second class citizens.  We were a world away from the civil rights movement and most of us, myself included were not about to put our lower  middle class identity at risk to fight for equal rights for blacks.  

       Today's high school juniors are as far removed from MLK's death as my class was from the first world war.   For many, today is a respite from the rigors of academia.  For a few, there will be brief acknowledgement of how far we have yet to go in the matter of racial equality. As 1968 slides further into the rear view mirror of history, I hope future generations will join MLK on the mountain top and see into the promised land.   

Immigration and economics

      The title of this blog post could easily be expanded into a very boring book, but it can be boiled down to a couple of paragraphs and still be cogent and coherent.

      The simple reason behind most illegal border crossing is people's desire for a better life for themselves and their children.   In many cases, their mission coincides with corporate America's search for cheap labor.   When the economy is growing, the need for labor which would otherwise result in higher wages is supplied by the stream of immigrants who are illegally hired by corporations who look the other way at forged documents.

     There are laws on the books with penalties for hiring illegals.  If the government enforced the laws and applied the appropriate penalties, illegal border crossings would plummet as word got out that there were no jobs to be had without proper documents.  It is that simple, but both Democrats and Republicans refuse to demand the laws on the books be enforced.

How great thou art

       There has been an abundance of thinkpieces dedicated to exploring the unholy alliance of tRumpism and evangelical protestentism.   Mostly the pundits who write these essays opt for branding evangelicals as cynical hypocrites who have sold the proposition that Cheeto Jesus was sent by their god to champion the return to some imagined earthly paradise which exists only in their fever dreams.

     I think there is another interpretation of evangelicals attraction to a twice impeached sexual assaulter and serial adulterer.  At least some of the aforementioned community believes an all knowing and loving god bestows both good and bad ''blessings" upon the faithful.  

     The Divine Mrs M keeps a subscription to a book which features 365 daily devotions.  A rotating cast of evangelicals attempt to reconcile earthly tribulations with a divine plan.  Today's musing was how despite the manifest horror of the covid pandemic, somehow we must see this as a blessing from god.   It is only a short step from that proposition to believing the Creator sent us tRump as a manifestation of his love for us.  

Stormy weather

      While I was clearing my driveway this morning of 4 inches of heavy, wet snow, i was listening to the Nice Polite Republican on NPR.  I was somewhat shocked when their media reporter opined that the present gloomy public sentiment regarding the economy was at least partially driven by negative reporting from mainstream media as well as the usual suspects on the right.

      Despite the overwhelmingly good numbers on unemployment and falling inflation along with strong consumer spending, a majority of Americans are seemingly willing to tell anyone who will listen they are unhappy with the national economy.    Of course most of the doomsayers also say their own situation is good.  The tsunami of bad economic stories coming out of midwest diners blame Joe Biden for the fact that eggs are not 50 cents a dozen like in the halcyon days of yore.  

      Meanwhile, winter is making up for lost time in the north country.  We have had two storms in the last few days and more is on the way.

Deforming the system

        Suggesting a Supreme Court justice will "do the right thing" regarding a ruling on an active case is just the latest example of the deforming effect tRump's candidacy for the Republican nomination to the presidency is having on America.

      Paul Krugman in today's NYT speculates that any move by the Federal Reserve to cut rates will be met by howls of outrage by MAGA world.  tRump and his minions would prefer a recession hit the country in the run up to the 2024 elections.  the GOP, a wholly owned subsidiary of tRump will project his own desire to manipulate interest rates onto Joe Biden in an effort to game the system to his advantage.

    Other areas of America's intellectual infrastructure, including the press are deforming under the relentless corruption of the disgraced, indicted former president.  

total embarrassment

       Once again i feel the need to apologize to my fellow Americans for the behavior of my Congressional representative.  Elise Stefanik was obviously auditioning to be on tRump's short list of candidates for his running mates when she appeared on Meet the Press and responded to a question about whether the January 6 insurrectionists should be held to account by saying she was "concerned about the January 6 hostages".

      Stefanik has gone from a center right Republican who bragged she could work with Democrats to an extreme MAGA superfan who licks any body part tRump exposes in an effort to advance her career.  She should realize that short of major plastic surgery, the somewhat dumpy and unlovely representative from NY will only see the VP's residence in DC as a tourist.

He is the disease

        My argument this morning is tRump is the disease afflicting the Republican party, not a symptom of its decline from legitimate political party to a cult of personality.  Most media pundits seem to be of the opinion that if Cheeto Jesus did not exist, someone else would have stepped up as the standard bearer of a party devoted to sham social issues that mask its slavish devotion to the priorities of the 1%.

       I'm here to tell you it is virtually impossible to contain all the above contradictions in a single candidate.   Just look at Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.   Meatball Ron's downfall started with his war on the "woke" Disney corporation.  there is no way tRump would have picked that fight.  The same with Haley and her non denial that slavery was the chief cause of the Civil War.  In both cases, the disgraced, indicted former President would have vomited some word salad which would have appeased the public and confounded his critics.  Reagan may have been the teflon president.  tRump is the nonsense president.

     The peculiar sociopathic skill set which both energizes his deplorable base and confuses his critics is not easily duplicated.   A rational mind cannot contain the contradictions.  tRump is truly a once in a generation talent.  I'm not saying the GOP will regain its collective sanity when the Orange Julius fades from the scene.  Too many wannabes will want to try their own mix of despicable social and political policies, but as Haley and DeSantis are finding out, it's impossible to out trump tRump.    It will take several electoral disasters for the party to regain its status as a viable alternative.

Behind every silver lining

       After extolling the economic recovery in Paul Krugman's sunny column yesterday, the NYT had to muddy the waters with a partly cloudy '"news" article designed to rain on Krugman's parade.  Although, in all honesty, even the cherry picked data the reporter used was pretty weak.  About halfway through the story, the reporter all but admitted deflation was as much a possibility as inflation in 2024.   If you managed to read all the way to the end, you can read her pet economist assert there are "risks'' to the economy on the horizon.  Meanwhile, we wonder why many people are pessimistic about said economy.

Happy Days...

        According to most if not all economic indicators, we are in happy days are here again territory.  Employment remains strong, workforce participation is high and consumer confidence is surging.  

        Despite all the good news, right wing "news" outlets and the MAGA enthusiasts who listen to the drumbeat of an economic hellscape would have us believe the next great depression is happening as i write this.   Of course, denying the evidence of your lying eyes is par for the course in today's GOP.  When your electoral prospects depend on pacifying the lowest common denominator in your party, that's what you do.

       Fortunately, the Democrats' and Biden's poll numbers are beginning to reflect most Americans lived experience.