K.J. Cartmell's Blog, page 2
September 18, 2022
The Pregnant Teen Show
There’s a show on TLC about pregnant teens. My wife watches it sometimes. Because it’s on, I end up watching, too, but it always makes me angry.
TLC has a whole slate of Reality TV shows about people in crisis: In one, a hoarder is buried in junk; in another, someone is grossly overweight to the point that they are in danger of dying; in a third, a couple who has no business getting married is rushing towards matrimony, blowing past stop signs and red flags as they go. We can all see that disaster is imminent, and we sit and watch the slow motion train wreck.
By the time the cameras have arrived in the living room of the pregnant teen, the family is in crisis. The girl is only 14. The stress of the pregnancy has already put her relationship with her boyfriend in jeopardy. He gets some camera time, but there is reasonable doubt in our minds whether the kid will stick around long. The girl’s relationship with her mother is likewise strained.
To call her immature is unfair. She is 14 - in many ways still a kid. She is in no way prepared for what’s coming at her. The next several years will be very hard. Any dreams or aspirations she may have had, dreams that my own daughters had at her age, will have to be deferred, for years if not forever.
As the camera pans back, we see that the girl’s 16 year old sister has a toddler, so she must have become pregnant at 14 as well. The mother, too, is barely 30. This is a generational issue. The complacency and fatalism of these relatives infuriates me. They act like this girl’s pregnancy was completely unforeseeable. There was nothing anyone could have done to stop it, and there’s nothing to do now but to watch this girl’s teen years unravel.
Despite having a mother and a sister who ended up in the same straits, the girl is just as surprised as anyone how this happened. She says to the camera, “Maybe you think I’m dumb, but I didn’t know you could get pregnant the first time you had sex.”
“No, you’re not dumb,” I want to tell her. “You’re uneducated. That’s our fault, not yours.” The adults in her family and in her community have let her down.
I’m not specifically thinking here that the girl should have an abortion. That should be a personal choice, though it’s likely the girl is living in a part of the country where abortion services were scarce even before the recent Supreme Court decision upending Roe v Wade. But, why wasn’t she on the pill? The parents failed to be proactive when their first kid ended up a teen mom. Why wasn’t that a wake-up call? “Let’s get this one on the pill now. Sure, she’s only twelve, but stranger things have happened, right?”
But of course, the states that have restricted abortion services have also driven out all the women’s health clinics, where this child may have received access to birth control pills, and the frank, honest, science-based sex ed she obviously wasn’t getting elsewhere.
And that’s when it really sunk in for me. What happened to this girl was not an accident. It’s by design.
The Right to Life movement has long held a central contradiction: How can you be for life and for the death penalty? How can you be opposing bans on assault rifles? Why aren’t you pushing for universal health coverage?
The answer has been in front of us all along: this has never been about life. The aim of conservatives in this country is to trap working class white girls, and girls of color generally, into cycles of poverty. They don’t want these girls to be upwardly mobile, to have the same aspirations that kids from wealthier families have.
If this young girl had taken initiative and control over her life by insisting her boyfriend use condoms, or by getting on pills herself, or having an abortion when she did get pregnant, think of what else she could accomplish? She might have become an active and educated voter, pushing for change to give other girls like her a fair shot at life. She might have led a drive to unionize her place of employment, or even run for office!
That’s the last thing Republicans want. They want girls like the one on the TLC show to get pregnant early and keep having babies: sons for the factories, the coal mines, and the army; and daughters to become one more baby-making machine.
TLC has a whole slate of Reality TV shows about people in crisis: In one, a hoarder is buried in junk; in another, someone is grossly overweight to the point that they are in danger of dying; in a third, a couple who has no business getting married is rushing towards matrimony, blowing past stop signs and red flags as they go. We can all see that disaster is imminent, and we sit and watch the slow motion train wreck.
By the time the cameras have arrived in the living room of the pregnant teen, the family is in crisis. The girl is only 14. The stress of the pregnancy has already put her relationship with her boyfriend in jeopardy. He gets some camera time, but there is reasonable doubt in our minds whether the kid will stick around long. The girl’s relationship with her mother is likewise strained.
To call her immature is unfair. She is 14 - in many ways still a kid. She is in no way prepared for what’s coming at her. The next several years will be very hard. Any dreams or aspirations she may have had, dreams that my own daughters had at her age, will have to be deferred, for years if not forever.
As the camera pans back, we see that the girl’s 16 year old sister has a toddler, so she must have become pregnant at 14 as well. The mother, too, is barely 30. This is a generational issue. The complacency and fatalism of these relatives infuriates me. They act like this girl’s pregnancy was completely unforeseeable. There was nothing anyone could have done to stop it, and there’s nothing to do now but to watch this girl’s teen years unravel.
Despite having a mother and a sister who ended up in the same straits, the girl is just as surprised as anyone how this happened. She says to the camera, “Maybe you think I’m dumb, but I didn’t know you could get pregnant the first time you had sex.”
“No, you’re not dumb,” I want to tell her. “You’re uneducated. That’s our fault, not yours.” The adults in her family and in her community have let her down.
I’m not specifically thinking here that the girl should have an abortion. That should be a personal choice, though it’s likely the girl is living in a part of the country where abortion services were scarce even before the recent Supreme Court decision upending Roe v Wade. But, why wasn’t she on the pill? The parents failed to be proactive when their first kid ended up a teen mom. Why wasn’t that a wake-up call? “Let’s get this one on the pill now. Sure, she’s only twelve, but stranger things have happened, right?”
But of course, the states that have restricted abortion services have also driven out all the women’s health clinics, where this child may have received access to birth control pills, and the frank, honest, science-based sex ed she obviously wasn’t getting elsewhere.
And that’s when it really sunk in for me. What happened to this girl was not an accident. It’s by design.
The Right to Life movement has long held a central contradiction: How can you be for life and for the death penalty? How can you be opposing bans on assault rifles? Why aren’t you pushing for universal health coverage?
The answer has been in front of us all along: this has never been about life. The aim of conservatives in this country is to trap working class white girls, and girls of color generally, into cycles of poverty. They don’t want these girls to be upwardly mobile, to have the same aspirations that kids from wealthier families have.
If this young girl had taken initiative and control over her life by insisting her boyfriend use condoms, or by getting on pills herself, or having an abortion when she did get pregnant, think of what else she could accomplish? She might have become an active and educated voter, pushing for change to give other girls like her a fair shot at life. She might have led a drive to unionize her place of employment, or even run for office!
That’s the last thing Republicans want. They want girls like the one on the TLC show to get pregnant early and keep having babies: sons for the factories, the coal mines, and the army; and daughters to become one more baby-making machine.
September 11, 2022
Conspiracy Theory "B"
The Right has all the fun conspiracy theories: Jewish Space Lasers, Pedophile Pizza Parlors, the secret evils found on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
I want a conspiracy theory of my own. The letter Q is taken, so I’ll call mine Conspiracy Theory “B.” That’s “B” as in Billionaire. It goes like this: Every vexing problem facing the United States today can be traced back to billionaires and their insatiable hunger for money. Here’s an example.
Why is there such dysfunction in Washington? Why is it so hard to get anything done? Dig down into the swamp and you’ll find the root of the problem is billionaires. Billionaires control all of the Republican party and enough Democrats to make a mess of things. Why is nothing getting done? Because, if you’re at the top, change is bad. Change means you get less. Change means you pay more in taxes and get smaller yachts. Gum up the works, feed the partisan fires, and you keep making money hand over fist.
Why do we have both the most expensive and the most dysfunctional health care system on the planet? Because billionaires are profiting off of people getting sick. Why did the opioid crisis get so out of control? Because billionaires, controlling politicians with their campaign contributions, let it happen. They were making profits and dividends off of all those pills.
Now, let’s change just one word and see what happens: Why did the gun crisis get so out of control? Because the billionaires are making profits off of all those guns.
Isn’t this fun? Let’s do it again: Why can’t we make progress on climate change? Because the billionaires are making profits by polluting.
Are you mad about your low pay? Did your last raise not keep up with the pace of inflation? That’s because corporations are shelling out billions of dollars on dividends and stock buybacks, benefits that go primarily to billionaires.
Can’t find help when you go into a store? Mad that there are only six in a pack when there used to be eight? Billionaires are at the bottom of it. This really is the theory that explains everything.
The Right loves to point out the left wing bias of the news media. The truth of the matter is, the news has been moving rightward since the nineties. Why? Because all the channels have been consolidated into big media conglomerates. And at the top of each of those conglomerates are billionaires.
You think you can get away from them? Go online and get your news, maybe from an underground website like Breitbart? Sorry to break it to you, but Breitbart is owned by a couple of billionaires. When Steve Bannon rails against entitlements, it’s because his boss, Robert Mercer, would rather not pay more taxes so that peons like us can have Social Security and Medicare.
So, how do we fix this? It won’t be easy. The rightward tilt of the Supreme Court makes it unlikely that they will overturn Citizens United, the decision that allowed billionaires to corrupt our political system.
We have to do things the hard way, by paying attention and voting. Did your Congressperson vote against lowering prescription drug prices and desperately needed climate change legislation because the bill also included a tax on stock buybacks? That person is not working for you. Next time, pick someone else.
I want a conspiracy theory of my own. The letter Q is taken, so I’ll call mine Conspiracy Theory “B.” That’s “B” as in Billionaire. It goes like this: Every vexing problem facing the United States today can be traced back to billionaires and their insatiable hunger for money. Here’s an example.
Why is there such dysfunction in Washington? Why is it so hard to get anything done? Dig down into the swamp and you’ll find the root of the problem is billionaires. Billionaires control all of the Republican party and enough Democrats to make a mess of things. Why is nothing getting done? Because, if you’re at the top, change is bad. Change means you get less. Change means you pay more in taxes and get smaller yachts. Gum up the works, feed the partisan fires, and you keep making money hand over fist.
Why do we have both the most expensive and the most dysfunctional health care system on the planet? Because billionaires are profiting off of people getting sick. Why did the opioid crisis get so out of control? Because billionaires, controlling politicians with their campaign contributions, let it happen. They were making profits and dividends off of all those pills.
Now, let’s change just one word and see what happens: Why did the gun crisis get so out of control? Because the billionaires are making profits off of all those guns.
Isn’t this fun? Let’s do it again: Why can’t we make progress on climate change? Because the billionaires are making profits by polluting.
Are you mad about your low pay? Did your last raise not keep up with the pace of inflation? That’s because corporations are shelling out billions of dollars on dividends and stock buybacks, benefits that go primarily to billionaires.
Can’t find help when you go into a store? Mad that there are only six in a pack when there used to be eight? Billionaires are at the bottom of it. This really is the theory that explains everything.
The Right loves to point out the left wing bias of the news media. The truth of the matter is, the news has been moving rightward since the nineties. Why? Because all the channels have been consolidated into big media conglomerates. And at the top of each of those conglomerates are billionaires.
You think you can get away from them? Go online and get your news, maybe from an underground website like Breitbart? Sorry to break it to you, but Breitbart is owned by a couple of billionaires. When Steve Bannon rails against entitlements, it’s because his boss, Robert Mercer, would rather not pay more taxes so that peons like us can have Social Security and Medicare.
So, how do we fix this? It won’t be easy. The rightward tilt of the Supreme Court makes it unlikely that they will overturn Citizens United, the decision that allowed billionaires to corrupt our political system.
We have to do things the hard way, by paying attention and voting. Did your Congressperson vote against lowering prescription drug prices and desperately needed climate change legislation because the bill also included a tax on stock buybacks? That person is not working for you. Next time, pick someone else.
November 8, 2020
The Biden Presidency
Yesterday at 8:30 in the morning, I got the news that Joe Biden had won Pennsylvania and thus had become President-elect. Our senator, Kamala Harris will be Vice President. My wife and I are proud and extremely relieved. I had flown the US flag on Election Day. When I heard the news, I put it back out. It’s flying again today.
74.5 million people (and counting!) voted for Biden, the most voters of any presidential election in our history. Widespread access to early voting and mail-in voting drove up participation. Barack Obama pulled in 69.5 million votes in 2008. Biden beat that mark by 5 million votes.
We must also applaud President Trump for turning out the vote. I did not think Trump had grown his base at all. If anything, I thought it had shrunk slightly. I was completely wrong. 70.3 million people voted for Trump in this election, seven million more than voted for him in 2016. It was truly a remarkable effort.
The Senate is still in doubt. If the Republicans maintain control, which seems to be quite likely, the Democrats need to adjust their expectations. Medicare for all, gun control, court packing will all be off the table.
When Biden sets his agenda, I would like to see some thought given to those 70.3 million Trump voters. To badly paraphrase the Rolling Stones, we can’t give them everything they want, but we must give them what they need. Lowering healthcare costs and building an economy that helps everyone, not just those at the top - policies like this will help the Trump voter as much as the Biden voter. The Democratic leadership needs to go on Fox News and make their case directly to the Trump voters and explain how the proposed legislation will benefit them.
Biden will put us back in the Paris Climate Accord, and he can reinstate the emission standards and pollution controls Trump abandoned. With McConnell in the Senate, an ambitious Green New Deal won’t be possible, but we must make some steps towards green energy. Biden should work with oil majors like Chevron who are already investing in next generation energy solutions.
A more coherent foreign policy would help stabilize the Middle East. Trump’s team made some small steps of progress with Israel's deal with the UAE, but we can do more. I’d like to see Turkey reigned in again, and send some aid to our jilted allies, the Kurds. We should pressure Saudi Arabia to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.
Let’s see if we can get back into the Iran nuclear deal. We need to stop punishing the Iranian middle class with sanctions. They are our potential allies in that country, and we have made ourselves their enemy. We need to work with Russia, Turkey and our European allies to stabilize and rebuild Syria.
All these concerns are for another day. Today, let’s celebrate and be hopeful for a better tomorrow.
74.5 million people (and counting!) voted for Biden, the most voters of any presidential election in our history. Widespread access to early voting and mail-in voting drove up participation. Barack Obama pulled in 69.5 million votes in 2008. Biden beat that mark by 5 million votes.
We must also applaud President Trump for turning out the vote. I did not think Trump had grown his base at all. If anything, I thought it had shrunk slightly. I was completely wrong. 70.3 million people voted for Trump in this election, seven million more than voted for him in 2016. It was truly a remarkable effort.
The Senate is still in doubt. If the Republicans maintain control, which seems to be quite likely, the Democrats need to adjust their expectations. Medicare for all, gun control, court packing will all be off the table.
When Biden sets his agenda, I would like to see some thought given to those 70.3 million Trump voters. To badly paraphrase the Rolling Stones, we can’t give them everything they want, but we must give them what they need. Lowering healthcare costs and building an economy that helps everyone, not just those at the top - policies like this will help the Trump voter as much as the Biden voter. The Democratic leadership needs to go on Fox News and make their case directly to the Trump voters and explain how the proposed legislation will benefit them.
Biden will put us back in the Paris Climate Accord, and he can reinstate the emission standards and pollution controls Trump abandoned. With McConnell in the Senate, an ambitious Green New Deal won’t be possible, but we must make some steps towards green energy. Biden should work with oil majors like Chevron who are already investing in next generation energy solutions.
A more coherent foreign policy would help stabilize the Middle East. Trump’s team made some small steps of progress with Israel's deal with the UAE, but we can do more. I’d like to see Turkey reigned in again, and send some aid to our jilted allies, the Kurds. We should pressure Saudi Arabia to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.
Let’s see if we can get back into the Iran nuclear deal. We need to stop punishing the Iranian middle class with sanctions. They are our potential allies in that country, and we have made ourselves their enemy. We need to work with Russia, Turkey and our European allies to stabilize and rebuild Syria.
All these concerns are for another day. Today, let’s celebrate and be hopeful for a better tomorrow.
November 1, 2020
The Race to 270
The Election is Tuesday. Votes have been pouring in all over the country, but right now we can only guess if those are votes for Joe Biden or for Donald Trump. The teams have been playing, but we won’t see the score until Tuesday night, and that score won’t even be the final totals.
This is a good time for a quick refresher on the Electoral College. The United States does not elect Presidential candidates directly. We vote for slates of electors who are pledged to one candidate or another. The number of electors each state gets is equal to their number of representatives in the House plus their two senators. California has 55 electors, the most of any state. States with the smallest populations, Wyoming, South Dakota, plus the District of Columbia, get 3 each.
Most states have a “winner take all” rule. That means, the winning candidate gets all the electors, no matter if the victory was large or small. The exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which give electors to the overall winner, plus an elector for each congressional district won. In a tight race, those district electors could be decisive.
There are 538 electors in all. It takes 270 to win.
California, the biggest prize on election night, is expected to go to Biden. So is New York with its 29 electors, and Illinois with its 20. Texas, second to California with 38 electors, has been reliably Republican for years. Other big prizes are Florida with 29 electors and Pennsylvania with 20.
Trump’s path to an electoral college victory is extremely challenging. He’s behind in the polls in states like Florida and Pennsylvania that he simply must win. Biden has challenged Trump in North Carolina, Georgia and Texas as well. If Biden wins any of these five states, he will win the election.
Florida’s elections are often very close. In 2000, George W. Bush beat Al Gore in Florida by just over 500 votes. If the race is close again this year, we may not know Floriday’s results Tuesday night, or even Wednesday night.
Pennsylvania, meanwhile, has been collecting early votes for two weeks now, but they won’t start counting those votes until Tuesday morning. We’re not likely to know how that race is going until Wednesday, either.
I’m intrigued that Texas’ early voting has already exceeded their totals from 2016. Texas is changing, but I’m not getting my hopes up that Biden will flip the Lone Star State this year.
Bottom line: If you haven’t voted yet, get on it, especially if you live in a swing state, which, according to CNN, are Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
Don’t rely on the USPS to get your ballot back in time. If your ballot arrives after Election Day, the Republicans will do everything in their power to have it not count. Take it to an official drop box or to your polling place on election day.
By the end of the week, we should have a winner. Next weekend, I’ll give some final thoughts about where we go from here.
Thanks for reading! Please remember to like, comment and follow!
This is a good time for a quick refresher on the Electoral College. The United States does not elect Presidential candidates directly. We vote for slates of electors who are pledged to one candidate or another. The number of electors each state gets is equal to their number of representatives in the House plus their two senators. California has 55 electors, the most of any state. States with the smallest populations, Wyoming, South Dakota, plus the District of Columbia, get 3 each.
Most states have a “winner take all” rule. That means, the winning candidate gets all the electors, no matter if the victory was large or small. The exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which give electors to the overall winner, plus an elector for each congressional district won. In a tight race, those district electors could be decisive.
There are 538 electors in all. It takes 270 to win.
California, the biggest prize on election night, is expected to go to Biden. So is New York with its 29 electors, and Illinois with its 20. Texas, second to California with 38 electors, has been reliably Republican for years. Other big prizes are Florida with 29 electors and Pennsylvania with 20.
Trump’s path to an electoral college victory is extremely challenging. He’s behind in the polls in states like Florida and Pennsylvania that he simply must win. Biden has challenged Trump in North Carolina, Georgia and Texas as well. If Biden wins any of these five states, he will win the election.
Florida’s elections are often very close. In 2000, George W. Bush beat Al Gore in Florida by just over 500 votes. If the race is close again this year, we may not know Floriday’s results Tuesday night, or even Wednesday night.
Pennsylvania, meanwhile, has been collecting early votes for two weeks now, but they won’t start counting those votes until Tuesday morning. We’re not likely to know how that race is going until Wednesday, either.
I’m intrigued that Texas’ early voting has already exceeded their totals from 2016. Texas is changing, but I’m not getting my hopes up that Biden will flip the Lone Star State this year.
Bottom line: If you haven’t voted yet, get on it, especially if you live in a swing state, which, according to CNN, are Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
Don’t rely on the USPS to get your ballot back in time. If your ballot arrives after Election Day, the Republicans will do everything in their power to have it not count. Take it to an official drop box or to your polling place on election day.
By the end of the week, we should have a winner. Next weekend, I’ll give some final thoughts about where we go from here.
Thanks for reading! Please remember to like, comment and follow!
October 25, 2020
Dispatches from the Trump Circus
The Trump Administration has been such a circus, with outrages following scandals in quick succession, that it’s easy to lose track of some storylines. Here are three worth remembering:
The 545
According to reports this week, there are 545 children separated from their parents at the border who are still in U.S. custody. Due to the barbarism and callous ineptness of the Administration, their parents were deported without first being reunited with their children. Over two years has passed since the policy ended, yet the children have still not been reunited with their parents.
If you want to grow a terrorist, someone who hates the United States with a passion, you could hardly do better than to start with forcibly separating this person from his mother as a child. Remember, this policy was not done in the name of Trump, but in the name of the United States of America. Whatever evil comes from this, it will fall on all of us.
The Fake Witch Hunt
The President, trailing in the polls both nationally and in key swing states, is desperate for an October Surprise, like the one Jim Comey handed him late in the 2016 race. Comey’s announcement that he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server knocked the wind out of her sails and allowed Trump to sweep past her.
Trump was hoping that digging into the origins of the Mueller Investigation would reveal some wrongdoings on the part of Obama and Biden. Those hopes were dashed earlier this month when the investigation by US Attorney John Durham was quietly shuttered. Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, verified everything that was in the Mueller Report and added a few details besides.
As I argued in my June 2019 blog, “Manafort the Spy,” the Mueller Investigation was no witch hunt. It was, in Trump’s words, a “fake witch hunt,” that is, a real investigation, leading to some warranted convictions.
The Long Arm of Cyrus Vance
The President, desperate to stay in power, has tried unsuccessfully in recent weeks to muddy the name of Joe Biden, and to attack the former Vice President via son Hunter. The Biden camp has gathered lawyers, expecting Trump to fight in court any election result that does not have him as the winner.
One reason for Trump’s desperation: the long arm of the law is slowly closing in on him. Trump has fought subpoenas from Southern District of New York prosecutor Cyrus Vance for over a year. The battle reached the Supreme Court for the second time earlier this month. The arguments that Trump’s lawyers have made have been rejected at every level.
The New York Times has obtained some glimpses into Trump’s taxes and pointed out areas of potential criminality. These include Trump paying his daughter Ivanka both as an employee and as a contractor, presumably to avoid payroll taxes. Documents held at Mazars could point to further areas of guilt or make the case for intent to commit tax fraud.
I expect the Supreme Court will decline to hear the case again, forcing the president’s accounting firm, Mazars, to hand over the paperwork Vance is requesting. But Chief Justice Roberts, keen to keep the court out of presidential politics, will wait until after the election to give his verdict.
//
Thanks for reading! Remember to like and comment! See you next week!
The 545
According to reports this week, there are 545 children separated from their parents at the border who are still in U.S. custody. Due to the barbarism and callous ineptness of the Administration, their parents were deported without first being reunited with their children. Over two years has passed since the policy ended, yet the children have still not been reunited with their parents.
If you want to grow a terrorist, someone who hates the United States with a passion, you could hardly do better than to start with forcibly separating this person from his mother as a child. Remember, this policy was not done in the name of Trump, but in the name of the United States of America. Whatever evil comes from this, it will fall on all of us.
The Fake Witch Hunt
The President, trailing in the polls both nationally and in key swing states, is desperate for an October Surprise, like the one Jim Comey handed him late in the 2016 race. Comey’s announcement that he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server knocked the wind out of her sails and allowed Trump to sweep past her.
Trump was hoping that digging into the origins of the Mueller Investigation would reveal some wrongdoings on the part of Obama and Biden. Those hopes were dashed earlier this month when the investigation by US Attorney John Durham was quietly shuttered. Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, verified everything that was in the Mueller Report and added a few details besides.
As I argued in my June 2019 blog, “Manafort the Spy,” the Mueller Investigation was no witch hunt. It was, in Trump’s words, a “fake witch hunt,” that is, a real investigation, leading to some warranted convictions.
The Long Arm of Cyrus Vance
The President, desperate to stay in power, has tried unsuccessfully in recent weeks to muddy the name of Joe Biden, and to attack the former Vice President via son Hunter. The Biden camp has gathered lawyers, expecting Trump to fight in court any election result that does not have him as the winner.
One reason for Trump’s desperation: the long arm of the law is slowly closing in on him. Trump has fought subpoenas from Southern District of New York prosecutor Cyrus Vance for over a year. The battle reached the Supreme Court for the second time earlier this month. The arguments that Trump’s lawyers have made have been rejected at every level.
The New York Times has obtained some glimpses into Trump’s taxes and pointed out areas of potential criminality. These include Trump paying his daughter Ivanka both as an employee and as a contractor, presumably to avoid payroll taxes. Documents held at Mazars could point to further areas of guilt or make the case for intent to commit tax fraud.
I expect the Supreme Court will decline to hear the case again, forcing the president’s accounting firm, Mazars, to hand over the paperwork Vance is requesting. But Chief Justice Roberts, keen to keep the court out of presidential politics, will wait until after the election to give his verdict.
//
Thanks for reading! Remember to like and comment! See you next week!
October 18, 2020
The Race so Far
I saw earlier this week that #TrumpLandslide2020 was trending on Twitter. I hope that is just tribal cheerleading, similar to rooting for one’s football team. Trump could still win, but him winning in a landslide is the least likely option on the roulette wheel of 2020.
Biden holds a significant lead in national polling, and he consistently leads in most of the swing states. One prognosticator I saw rated Biden’s chances at 86%. In 2016, undecided voters broke for Trump in large numbers. That does not appear to be happening this year.
The Senate Republicans don’t believe Trump will win. That’s the whole point of rushing Amy Coney Barrett through confirmation. If they were confident of a Trump victory, they could take their time and still put her on the bench. They think he will lose, and they fear that he’s taking them down with him, so they must act right now.
Trump’s base seems solid, but even there the President is bleeding supporters. Older voters in particular are going over to Biden. They may have been uncomfortable voting for a woman to be President, but they also know what leadership looks like. Now they know Trump isn’t it.
Meanwhile, around 2 million young people have become eligible and have registered to vote. They are overwhelmingly progressive in their politics. To them, Biden may seem too conservative. I’m hoping they turn out and vote for him anyway.
The debates have not helped Trump close his gap with Biden. He went for the knock-out in the first debate and failed. His poll numbers worsened afterwards. Yet, he can’t stand there and talk policy with Biden for ninety minutes, either. That would play to Biden’s strength. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump cancelled the last debate and did a rally instead.
Trump may be hoping for an October surprise, like the one Jim Comey provided in 2016. The recent New York Post story didn’t do the trick. The major news sources didn’t pick it up, except to say they thought it was suspicious or even Russian propaganda.
Trump is also running out of time. People are already voting. My wife and I voted last weekend and dropped our ballots in an official election drop box. Thanks to Ballottrax, I can say with confidence that our ballots were received and accepted, and they will be counted.
I worry what will happen if Trump pulls out another Electoral College victory while losing the popular vote again, this time by an even larger number. There will be protests in the street if that happens again.
I also worry about if Biden wins, how Trump and his supporters will react. Trump will fight any loss in court, even if the loss is significant. A narrow victory for Biden will leave some doubt in people’s minds that Trump can exploit, whereas if Biden wins big, Trump’s complaining will seem like sour grapes. But what about the people who truly believe Trump will win in a landslide? What will they do if he doesn’t?
Biden holds a significant lead in national polling, and he consistently leads in most of the swing states. One prognosticator I saw rated Biden’s chances at 86%. In 2016, undecided voters broke for Trump in large numbers. That does not appear to be happening this year.
The Senate Republicans don’t believe Trump will win. That’s the whole point of rushing Amy Coney Barrett through confirmation. If they were confident of a Trump victory, they could take their time and still put her on the bench. They think he will lose, and they fear that he’s taking them down with him, so they must act right now.
Trump’s base seems solid, but even there the President is bleeding supporters. Older voters in particular are going over to Biden. They may have been uncomfortable voting for a woman to be President, but they also know what leadership looks like. Now they know Trump isn’t it.
Meanwhile, around 2 million young people have become eligible and have registered to vote. They are overwhelmingly progressive in their politics. To them, Biden may seem too conservative. I’m hoping they turn out and vote for him anyway.
The debates have not helped Trump close his gap with Biden. He went for the knock-out in the first debate and failed. His poll numbers worsened afterwards. Yet, he can’t stand there and talk policy with Biden for ninety minutes, either. That would play to Biden’s strength. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump cancelled the last debate and did a rally instead.
Trump may be hoping for an October surprise, like the one Jim Comey provided in 2016. The recent New York Post story didn’t do the trick. The major news sources didn’t pick it up, except to say they thought it was suspicious or even Russian propaganda.
Trump is also running out of time. People are already voting. My wife and I voted last weekend and dropped our ballots in an official election drop box. Thanks to Ballottrax, I can say with confidence that our ballots were received and accepted, and they will be counted.
I worry what will happen if Trump pulls out another Electoral College victory while losing the popular vote again, this time by an even larger number. There will be protests in the street if that happens again.
I also worry about if Biden wins, how Trump and his supporters will react. Trump will fight any loss in court, even if the loss is significant. A narrow victory for Biden will leave some doubt in people’s minds that Trump can exploit, whereas if Biden wins big, Trump’s complaining will seem like sour grapes. But what about the people who truly believe Trump will win in a landslide? What will they do if he doesn’t?
October 11, 2020
The Path Forward
Last week, I talked about the outsized influence that billionaires have on our entire society. They control the messages coming from our politicians, the media, even from our churches. How do we break their control and make our society more equitable? How can we make the American ethos, that anyone can be successful if they work hard, a reality?
The first step is to have an engaged and energized electorate who is paying attention and who are willing to punish politicians that work against their interests. I’m pleased to say, we’re getting there. Young voters especially are more active and involved in issues than in years past. The trick will be to keep going in the face of inevitable setbacks.
During the recent debate, Biden said, if elected President, he would raise taxes on people making more than $400,000 a year. Republicans say this will kill jobs and ruin the economy, but (again) the facts are not on their side. California raised taxes a few years ago, and our economy got stronger. We not only raised income tax on wealthy residents, but we forced Amazon to start charging sales tax for purchases from California residents. That extra money went to salaries for nurses, police, firefighters and teachers which in turn became houses, cars, and other goods, strengthening the economy of the entire state. We also built up a huge reserve that helped us get through the COVD-19 crisis.
Assuming Biden wins the upcoming election and the Democrats take back the Senate (neither is guaranteed to happen), his tax increase will be one of the first items on the agenda. It’s important that we use that money wisely. We need to start infrastructure projects that bring high paying construction jobs to millions of Americans. Many of those jobs should be in Red States. We need to break down barriers in our country and start bringing people together. One way to do that is to help the people who are most opposed to what we are doing.
Biden is going to want to improve the Affordable Care Act, which he worked hard to pass, rather than replace it. If that’s the direction we go in, we need to emphasize the word Affordable this time. We need a serious drop in premiums and in the cost of prescription drugs. This should free up money that can be spent energizing other parts of the economy. And again, this will help Red States as much as Blue ones.
Higher wages and lower expenses will put more money into people’s pockets. We need to change our spending habits, also. We need to be paying farmers properly for the food that we’re eating. There’s no reason a farmer feeding the nation and the world should take a loss on a crop of produce. People in other parts of the world are living in poverty while sewing our clothes and growing our coffee and chocolate. We need to do our part to lift those people up as well.
I expect Republicans and the Right Wing media machine to attack any and all of the changes I’m suggesting. We need to override their objections and do it anyway. If, instead of the sky falling, these policies bring about widespread prosperity, people may have their faith in government renewed. They may also lose faith in the media sources that have poisoned our discourse and held our country back for so long.
Thanks for reading! Please like, follow and comment!
The first step is to have an engaged and energized electorate who is paying attention and who are willing to punish politicians that work against their interests. I’m pleased to say, we’re getting there. Young voters especially are more active and involved in issues than in years past. The trick will be to keep going in the face of inevitable setbacks.
During the recent debate, Biden said, if elected President, he would raise taxes on people making more than $400,000 a year. Republicans say this will kill jobs and ruin the economy, but (again) the facts are not on their side. California raised taxes a few years ago, and our economy got stronger. We not only raised income tax on wealthy residents, but we forced Amazon to start charging sales tax for purchases from California residents. That extra money went to salaries for nurses, police, firefighters and teachers which in turn became houses, cars, and other goods, strengthening the economy of the entire state. We also built up a huge reserve that helped us get through the COVD-19 crisis.
Assuming Biden wins the upcoming election and the Democrats take back the Senate (neither is guaranteed to happen), his tax increase will be one of the first items on the agenda. It’s important that we use that money wisely. We need to start infrastructure projects that bring high paying construction jobs to millions of Americans. Many of those jobs should be in Red States. We need to break down barriers in our country and start bringing people together. One way to do that is to help the people who are most opposed to what we are doing.
Biden is going to want to improve the Affordable Care Act, which he worked hard to pass, rather than replace it. If that’s the direction we go in, we need to emphasize the word Affordable this time. We need a serious drop in premiums and in the cost of prescription drugs. This should free up money that can be spent energizing other parts of the economy. And again, this will help Red States as much as Blue ones.
Higher wages and lower expenses will put more money into people’s pockets. We need to change our spending habits, also. We need to be paying farmers properly for the food that we’re eating. There’s no reason a farmer feeding the nation and the world should take a loss on a crop of produce. People in other parts of the world are living in poverty while sewing our clothes and growing our coffee and chocolate. We need to do our part to lift those people up as well.
I expect Republicans and the Right Wing media machine to attack any and all of the changes I’m suggesting. We need to override their objections and do it anyway. If, instead of the sky falling, these policies bring about widespread prosperity, people may have their faith in government renewed. They may also lose faith in the media sources that have poisoned our discourse and held our country back for so long.
Thanks for reading! Please like, follow and comment!
October 4, 2020
The Root of All Evil
Since I’m writing this on a Sunday, it seems fitting to start off with a Bible verse. This is from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to his disciple, Timothy. The verse is well known, but I want to write it out as it appears in the New International Version:
“People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
I will resist using this verse to attack the President, who as of this writing is in Walter Reed Hospital in Maryland, being treated for COVID-19. Instead, I want to speak about the corrupting influence of money in our society as a whole.
We live in a capitalist society in which money is the main driver of activity. (Disclosure: In my own day job, I work in sales with a variable comp plan that rewards me for hitting certain targets.) The mad lust for money and its harmful effects on individuals and society is something we all need to be alert for.
Money, and the interests of the super-wealthy, have great sway in the United States, thanks to the Supreme Court case known as Citizens United. This decision equated political donations with free speech. In the years since that decision, money from corporations and billionaires flooded Washington, making running for office more expensive. Now, politicians of both parties spend much of their time in office fundraising. Even Congresspeople in safe seats fundraise to help others in their party.
This hurts our ability to reform our system. Whether we want to see greater regulations of Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry or the energy sector, we hit the same barriers. Lobbyists flush with corporate campaign money can stop any regulation that will harm the corporate bottom line.
Though I just said “corporations and billionaires,” please realize that I’m really talking about one group, not two. Our billionaire class are major shareholders in blue chip stocks. They control these companies and sometimes even force company leadership into doing things which benefit the shareholders but are detrimental to the company as a whole.
How often have you heard in the business news about two companies merging? Sometimes it goes well, but other times, the remaining company is weaker after the merger than before. It takes on too much debt in order to buy its rival, leading to layoffs and even bankruptcy. Workers, consumers, local communities are all harmed, but the shareholders made a big profit.
Another corporate practice that, until the pandemic, occurred regularly without question is the stock buy-back. Corporations with extra cash buy back some of the stock that’s in the marketplace, to the tune of billions of dollars each year. Money that could have been used for salaries and benefits, research and development, or charity, flowed instead to the billionaire shareholders. Only when the economy slowed dramatically did corporate leaders think it prudent to suspend buy-backs.
Thanks to Citizens United, these same shareholders completely control the Republican Party. The tax cut, one of the few legislative accomplishments our President can speak to, was in response to a demand from billionaire donors. As I pointed out at the time, it was not something we could afford to do. Think of how more robust our response to coronavirus could have been had we not given trillions of dollars to the people who were already the richest among us!
The Democratic Party is only slightly more independent. Bernie Sanders showed his fellow Democrats how to fund a multi-million dollar campaign with hundreds of thousands of small donations. But billionaires and corporate lobbyists still hold many Demmocratic officials in their sway.
That’s not all that this group controls. Corporations (and thus, billionaire shareholders) now own America’s media outlets from top to bottom: Newspapers, magazines, books, music, television and movies are now under the collective control of giant media conglomerates.
This consolidation has led many to seek out news sources that are “independent of the system.” Yet, some of those new sources of information, like Breitbart, are also owned by billionaires, and push the same pro-business, anti-everything-else agenda.
Billionaires’ influence stretches to our universities, where they fund foundations and business departments that push their low tax, low regulation vision.
They even control our churches with their charitable donations. How many working pastors are willing to give a sermon like this one? By attacking the wealthiest of their congregation, pastors threaten tithes that run programs and pay their own salaries.
If the wealth and influence of billionaires in our society are so overpowering, what can we do about it? I’ll cover that topic next week.
Thanks for reading. Remember to like, comment and follow!
KJ
“People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
I will resist using this verse to attack the President, who as of this writing is in Walter Reed Hospital in Maryland, being treated for COVID-19. Instead, I want to speak about the corrupting influence of money in our society as a whole.
We live in a capitalist society in which money is the main driver of activity. (Disclosure: In my own day job, I work in sales with a variable comp plan that rewards me for hitting certain targets.) The mad lust for money and its harmful effects on individuals and society is something we all need to be alert for.
Money, and the interests of the super-wealthy, have great sway in the United States, thanks to the Supreme Court case known as Citizens United. This decision equated political donations with free speech. In the years since that decision, money from corporations and billionaires flooded Washington, making running for office more expensive. Now, politicians of both parties spend much of their time in office fundraising. Even Congresspeople in safe seats fundraise to help others in their party.
This hurts our ability to reform our system. Whether we want to see greater regulations of Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry or the energy sector, we hit the same barriers. Lobbyists flush with corporate campaign money can stop any regulation that will harm the corporate bottom line.
Though I just said “corporations and billionaires,” please realize that I’m really talking about one group, not two. Our billionaire class are major shareholders in blue chip stocks. They control these companies and sometimes even force company leadership into doing things which benefit the shareholders but are detrimental to the company as a whole.
How often have you heard in the business news about two companies merging? Sometimes it goes well, but other times, the remaining company is weaker after the merger than before. It takes on too much debt in order to buy its rival, leading to layoffs and even bankruptcy. Workers, consumers, local communities are all harmed, but the shareholders made a big profit.
Another corporate practice that, until the pandemic, occurred regularly without question is the stock buy-back. Corporations with extra cash buy back some of the stock that’s in the marketplace, to the tune of billions of dollars each year. Money that could have been used for salaries and benefits, research and development, or charity, flowed instead to the billionaire shareholders. Only when the economy slowed dramatically did corporate leaders think it prudent to suspend buy-backs.
Thanks to Citizens United, these same shareholders completely control the Republican Party. The tax cut, one of the few legislative accomplishments our President can speak to, was in response to a demand from billionaire donors. As I pointed out at the time, it was not something we could afford to do. Think of how more robust our response to coronavirus could have been had we not given trillions of dollars to the people who were already the richest among us!
The Democratic Party is only slightly more independent. Bernie Sanders showed his fellow Democrats how to fund a multi-million dollar campaign with hundreds of thousands of small donations. But billionaires and corporate lobbyists still hold many Demmocratic officials in their sway.
That’s not all that this group controls. Corporations (and thus, billionaire shareholders) now own America’s media outlets from top to bottom: Newspapers, magazines, books, music, television and movies are now under the collective control of giant media conglomerates.
This consolidation has led many to seek out news sources that are “independent of the system.” Yet, some of those new sources of information, like Breitbart, are also owned by billionaires, and push the same pro-business, anti-everything-else agenda.
Billionaires’ influence stretches to our universities, where they fund foundations and business departments that push their low tax, low regulation vision.
They even control our churches with their charitable donations. How many working pastors are willing to give a sermon like this one? By attacking the wealthiest of their congregation, pastors threaten tithes that run programs and pay their own salaries.
If the wealth and influence of billionaires in our society are so overpowering, what can we do about it? I’ll cover that topic next week.
Thanks for reading. Remember to like, comment and follow!
KJ
September 27, 2020
Injustice
The night that Ruth Bader Gisberg died, I re-read my blog from October of 2016 entitled “The True Prize.” https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
I imagined Hillary Clinton’s presidency foiling Mitch McConnell’s “Garland Gambit” and building up a 6-3 progressive majority on the Supreme Court. This would have put abortion rights and the rights of LGBT+ to marry out of reach for decades. It would have also given us a shot at overturning Citizens United, the disastrously misguided decision which deems corporate and billionaire campaign cash donations as “free speech.”
Instead, four years later we have the nightmare mirror image of that hopeful vision. Not only was McConnell successful in trading Merrick Garland for Neil Gorsuch, but he swapped centrist Anthony Kennedy for right wing partisan Bret Kavanaugh. Now for the hat trick, he can replace the notorious RBG for her judicial polar opposite, Amy Coney Barrett.
Making matters worse, McConnell had blockaded hundreds of federal court nominations which opened during President Obama’s tenure. During these last four years, he and President Trump have been stocking the judicial branch all over the country with extremist judges, some who had never even tried a case prior to being made a judge.
All of these judges are lifetime appointments, and most of them are young enough that they are expected to serve for several decades. McConnell’s intentions are clear. He knows that his views are not widely held, that only gerrymandering and the peculiarities of the Senate and the Electoral College keep the Republicans in power.
McConnell is attempting to impose his will onto the American people, not for the next four years, but for the next forty. Long after both he and Trump have passed, these judges will be on the bench, holding back our nation’s progress. Even from the grave, McConnell will be dictating to our country what we can and cannot do.
What does this mean in real terms? Womens’ access to abortion services, and health services in general, will be severely threatened in the coming years, even if the Supreme Court does not outright overturn Roe v Wade. Obergefell, the decision which gave gays and lesbians the right to marry, may also be imperiled.
You want to pass an assault weapons ban? There are judges up and down the Federal court system now who can stop it, and a Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority will be no help. How about a wealth tax? Climate change legislation? Voting rights? Racial justice? Workers rights? These judges are in position to block the entire progressive agenda.
If we go through regular channels, it will take decades to undo McConnell’s poisoning of the judiciary. The problem is, we don’t have the time. The needs of our country, of our planet, are urgent. We won’t be able to wait forty years to begin to address them. A measured approach will not be sufficient to undo the damage, but I fear what drastic action will do to our already polarized nation.
I imagined Hillary Clinton’s presidency foiling Mitch McConnell’s “Garland Gambit” and building up a 6-3 progressive majority on the Supreme Court. This would have put abortion rights and the rights of LGBT+ to marry out of reach for decades. It would have also given us a shot at overturning Citizens United, the disastrously misguided decision which deems corporate and billionaire campaign cash donations as “free speech.”
Instead, four years later we have the nightmare mirror image of that hopeful vision. Not only was McConnell successful in trading Merrick Garland for Neil Gorsuch, but he swapped centrist Anthony Kennedy for right wing partisan Bret Kavanaugh. Now for the hat trick, he can replace the notorious RBG for her judicial polar opposite, Amy Coney Barrett.
Making matters worse, McConnell had blockaded hundreds of federal court nominations which opened during President Obama’s tenure. During these last four years, he and President Trump have been stocking the judicial branch all over the country with extremist judges, some who had never even tried a case prior to being made a judge.
All of these judges are lifetime appointments, and most of them are young enough that they are expected to serve for several decades. McConnell’s intentions are clear. He knows that his views are not widely held, that only gerrymandering and the peculiarities of the Senate and the Electoral College keep the Republicans in power.
McConnell is attempting to impose his will onto the American people, not for the next four years, but for the next forty. Long after both he and Trump have passed, these judges will be on the bench, holding back our nation’s progress. Even from the grave, McConnell will be dictating to our country what we can and cannot do.
What does this mean in real terms? Womens’ access to abortion services, and health services in general, will be severely threatened in the coming years, even if the Supreme Court does not outright overturn Roe v Wade. Obergefell, the decision which gave gays and lesbians the right to marry, may also be imperiled.
You want to pass an assault weapons ban? There are judges up and down the Federal court system now who can stop it, and a Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority will be no help. How about a wealth tax? Climate change legislation? Voting rights? Racial justice? Workers rights? These judges are in position to block the entire progressive agenda.
If we go through regular channels, it will take decades to undo McConnell’s poisoning of the judiciary. The problem is, we don’t have the time. The needs of our country, of our planet, are urgent. We won’t be able to wait forty years to begin to address them. A measured approach will not be sufficient to undo the damage, but I fear what drastic action will do to our already polarized nation.
September 20, 2020
What if Trump were Competent?
President Trump has frightening fascist and authoritarian instincts, leading by executive fiat rather than by working with Congress to pass laws. He threatens to withhold aid to states with Democratic governors and ruthlessly punishes anyone who speaks out against him. Trump can lie earnestly to your face about things you know aren’t true. He’s shamelessly corrupt, driving out whistleblowers and stripping oversight boards of members and budgets while pumping Federal money into his network of hotels. He’s fighting tooth and nail to keep his finances hidden from the public, which only encourages speculation about secret deals with Russian mobsters.
His main flaw, however, is that, while he enjoys being in power, he takes no interest in actually governing. In the words of political commentator Ian Bremmer, Trump is “the least competent president in my lifetime.”
But, what if Trump were competent? Still corrupt, still sexist, still racist, but a leader who governed our country with an average level of competence? What would that look like? Here’s how the last four years could have gone. Think of it as a playbook for the next authoritarian fascist President to consider.
Competent Trump would have the emotional fortitude to acknowledge, in January of 2017, that he was unpopular with most of the country. He failed to win the popular vote, and his Electoral College victory was actually quite narrow. He would recognize that his crowd size was smaller than Obama’s. It would sting, and he would want to fix it, but he wouldn’t deny the obvious.
He would also recognize that he has no knowledge of policy and nothing in the way of relevant experience to prepare him for the role of President of the United States. Instead of surrounding himself with people as corrupt and incompetent as he was, as the Real Donald Trump did, Competent Trump would bring in the A-Team. They would all be white men, of course, but at that first cabinet meeting, there would be very fine people on both sides of the table.
Competent Trump: Okay boys, let’s get started. I wanna be popular. Not Kristen Chenoweth popular, mind you. I wanna be Ronald f-ing Reagan popular, get it? Now, I don’t know anything about any of this sh-t. I’m trusting you to give me good advice. If I do what you say and it goes well for me, that will be very good for you. If it goes badly, that will be very, very bad. Got it? Now, what’s the first thing on the agenda?
Competent Chief of Staff: Repealing and replacing Obama-care.
CT: Great! Let’s do it.
Chief: There’s a problem, Mr. President. There isn’t votes in the Senate to pass this bill.
CT: What’s wrong with it?
Polling Guy: The Republican’s plan will kick millions of people off the insurance rolls. That will make you very unpopular.
CT: We can’t have that. What do we do?
Chief: We could work with Democrats and Moderate Republicans to modify the Affordable Care Act.
Polling Guy: If we could lower premiums and cut pharmaceutical costs, that would be extremely popular.
CT: Let’s do it. We’ll call it Trump Care!
Chief: It wouldn’t be a true repeal and replace.
CT: Don’t worry about that. I’ll just go on Hannity and say, “Repealed! Replaced! Promise kept!” They’ll buy it. Believe me.
Chief: OK. Next item. The Republicans want to do a tax cut.
CT: I like tax cuts. What do you say, Polling Guy?
Polling Guy: Tax cuts are very popular with Republican donors, but not popular with anyone else.
Money Guy: And, it will blow a giant hole in the deficit!
CT: Nobody cares about that, Money Guy. But if it doesn’t make me popular, we’re not doing it.
Chief: The Republicans really want to do this.
CT: Who is the f-ing President, here? I am. Besides, I’m Competent Trump. I’m an actual billionaire. My hotel in DC is making a fortune right now with all these foreigners coming to town, wanting influence. I don’t need a tax cut. Next!
Chief: We could do infrastructure.
CT: Building stuff! That’s very good for the brand. Money Guy, what do you think?
Money Guy: Money invested in infrastructure will stimulate the economy, putting upward pressure on wages and lead to broad prosperity.
Polling Guy: We can target infrastructure projects to help Republican districts that might flip to the Democrats in 2018. We’ll hold the House, expand our lead in the Senate, and you’ll be extremely popular!
CT: Let’s do it.
Competent Trump still obstructs the Mueller investigation, still leans on Ukraine, but because he doesn’t loses the House, he’s never impeached. When the pandemic comes along, he listens to the experts and follows their advice. He even does Public Service Announcements about social distancing and mask wearing.
CT: Be good, folks! Stay six feet apart, and wear those masks! We’ll have the economy going again soon. And remember, you can order family packs of my “America is Great!” face masks from my website. All the proceeds go to my charitable foundation!
Thanks for reading! Remember to like, follow and comment! See you next week!
His main flaw, however, is that, while he enjoys being in power, he takes no interest in actually governing. In the words of political commentator Ian Bremmer, Trump is “the least competent president in my lifetime.”
But, what if Trump were competent? Still corrupt, still sexist, still racist, but a leader who governed our country with an average level of competence? What would that look like? Here’s how the last four years could have gone. Think of it as a playbook for the next authoritarian fascist President to consider.
Competent Trump would have the emotional fortitude to acknowledge, in January of 2017, that he was unpopular with most of the country. He failed to win the popular vote, and his Electoral College victory was actually quite narrow. He would recognize that his crowd size was smaller than Obama’s. It would sting, and he would want to fix it, but he wouldn’t deny the obvious.
He would also recognize that he has no knowledge of policy and nothing in the way of relevant experience to prepare him for the role of President of the United States. Instead of surrounding himself with people as corrupt and incompetent as he was, as the Real Donald Trump did, Competent Trump would bring in the A-Team. They would all be white men, of course, but at that first cabinet meeting, there would be very fine people on both sides of the table.
Competent Trump: Okay boys, let’s get started. I wanna be popular. Not Kristen Chenoweth popular, mind you. I wanna be Ronald f-ing Reagan popular, get it? Now, I don’t know anything about any of this sh-t. I’m trusting you to give me good advice. If I do what you say and it goes well for me, that will be very good for you. If it goes badly, that will be very, very bad. Got it? Now, what’s the first thing on the agenda?
Competent Chief of Staff: Repealing and replacing Obama-care.
CT: Great! Let’s do it.
Chief: There’s a problem, Mr. President. There isn’t votes in the Senate to pass this bill.
CT: What’s wrong with it?
Polling Guy: The Republican’s plan will kick millions of people off the insurance rolls. That will make you very unpopular.
CT: We can’t have that. What do we do?
Chief: We could work with Democrats and Moderate Republicans to modify the Affordable Care Act.
Polling Guy: If we could lower premiums and cut pharmaceutical costs, that would be extremely popular.
CT: Let’s do it. We’ll call it Trump Care!
Chief: It wouldn’t be a true repeal and replace.
CT: Don’t worry about that. I’ll just go on Hannity and say, “Repealed! Replaced! Promise kept!” They’ll buy it. Believe me.
Chief: OK. Next item. The Republicans want to do a tax cut.
CT: I like tax cuts. What do you say, Polling Guy?
Polling Guy: Tax cuts are very popular with Republican donors, but not popular with anyone else.
Money Guy: And, it will blow a giant hole in the deficit!
CT: Nobody cares about that, Money Guy. But if it doesn’t make me popular, we’re not doing it.
Chief: The Republicans really want to do this.
CT: Who is the f-ing President, here? I am. Besides, I’m Competent Trump. I’m an actual billionaire. My hotel in DC is making a fortune right now with all these foreigners coming to town, wanting influence. I don’t need a tax cut. Next!
Chief: We could do infrastructure.
CT: Building stuff! That’s very good for the brand. Money Guy, what do you think?
Money Guy: Money invested in infrastructure will stimulate the economy, putting upward pressure on wages and lead to broad prosperity.
Polling Guy: We can target infrastructure projects to help Republican districts that might flip to the Democrats in 2018. We’ll hold the House, expand our lead in the Senate, and you’ll be extremely popular!
CT: Let’s do it.
Competent Trump still obstructs the Mueller investigation, still leans on Ukraine, but because he doesn’t loses the House, he’s never impeached. When the pandemic comes along, he listens to the experts and follows their advice. He even does Public Service Announcements about social distancing and mask wearing.
CT: Be good, folks! Stay six feet apart, and wear those masks! We’ll have the economy going again soon. And remember, you can order family packs of my “America is Great!” face masks from my website. All the proceeds go to my charitable foundation!
Thanks for reading! Remember to like, follow and comment! See you next week!
