THE DANGEROUS DONALD

Are His Disruptions Worth the Risk?

In the last decade, I worked for a media maven who was highly successful at creating wealth from good ideas or simply through his reputation. He once issued a motivational piece for the workers of his large radio broadcast division where he urged us to be “disruptors.” I got its surface meaning, but let’s look beyond the buzz word. The meaning of the word includes, “something that interrupts an event, activity, or process by causing a disturbance or problem.” Not all disturbances are good for a group or individual and when you have a smart collection of problem solvers, why would you be giving them something that would move them into disruption? I used to say, with great sarcasm and irony, you better hope that whatever you disrupt is a big success or you’ll be blamed for the problem you created and be the first to go.

This brings us to Donald Trump, who was outraged by Robert Mueller’s public comments and then displayed his anger on the north lawn of the White House. It’s clear that Trump must “punch back” when someone gets in his way, but when did punching ever bring a long-term solution to any problem? Trump would make a horrible poker player because he shows his next move so clearly. While he was putting down Robert Mueller, he announced that he would have a major announcement on the border. By putting those together, he was telegraphing that he would soon be lashing out at another someone or something.

So, late last night, Trump announced “On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied…” And now we will see reactions in the world markets because Trump’s disruption is a holy trade war, not a well-developed plan to make trade work better for the US.

While the financial “news” networks give large slices of airtime to discussions about American entities like Uber, Tesla and Beyond Meat, there are thousands of our major companies that depend on parts, resources and services from firms around the world. To ignore the reality of a world market is not rational on any level. But Donald Trump is being disruptive with his ignorance in tow.

There was a time I worked on the campaign of a politician who would occasionally come late to the brainstorming meetings of the staff. One particular time we had worked up dozens of ideas on the white board and we all were excited about giving him input. He strode late into the meeting, glanced at the board, then said, “Yeah, we aren’t going to do any of that; here’s the plan.” I walked away from the campaign that night with little respect for the politician and had a feeling of retribution when he lost the election. What I learned is that disruption from the top, when it doesn’t work, means the big guy gets all the blame.

We have many people in America who make a lot of money analyzing and predicting our collective financial futures. And some of the more honest of those folks admit that there are instances when they can‘t explain why the market did this or that. Deep down inside, most Americans know the global economy is the reason we lost much of our manufacturing base. Seriously disruptive waves must be met with adjustment, not bucking the tide and standing ground. Executing a stand-still strategy often leads to failure and disaster under water.

If you are drowning in your own personal debt, you will generally swing away at every other possible cause before you look at yourself and determine the real cause of debt is simply spending more money than you have. Doh! After running businesses with tons of debt and using the bankruptcy escape hatch more than most well-managed corporations, it’s disingenuous when Donald Trump froths at his small pie hole about how everyone else is screwing America. Dangerous Donald is running up the debt in America because the military, border walls and pork for rich people are more important to him than stable governance.

Trump is more stubborn than smart. He’s like a snapping turtle who doesn’t quite understand that holding firmly on the stick isn’t going to keep him alive. Wood is not food and trying to win a battle with a decaying object won’t work. Yes, I am comparing the actions of a reptile to the President of the United States of America, who in most cases uses his reptilian brain rather than the logic circuits of his frontal lobes. Perhaps they died from atrophy.

The citizens of this country may feel good about the strength of the turtle and admire his will to fight, but those who worship the man in the White House must connect the dots to see that the head disruptor is messing up things more and more with each misinformed move. First, and most importantly, after you negotiate a deal you cannot change it. Trump’s moves will blow up the USMCA, which was supposed to fix the “bad” NAFTA trading agreement. NAFTA might not have been perfect, but the USMCA probably has just as many restrictions and weaknesses, but Trump wanted to keep his promise.

The real problems with the migration of people to the US may be greater than our laws. According to the Washington Post, “Migrants say they are coming to the United States because droughts are frying Central American harvests, they can’t pay their bills, and gangs are recruiting children.” Trump ignores the warnings of Climate Change, so how can he possibly apply creative solutions to complex issues?

In the end, the disruptions of the Daft Donald will move us backward. The lack of respect for a deal maker whose word means nothing will haunt America for years to come. Put yourself in the shoes of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or the new Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. These leaders spent time in good faith negotiating a new deal, only to have it ignored by a moody US President. Yes, the immigration problem is real, but reverse it. What if thousands of Americas were leaving our soil for Mexico? We would expect Mexico to stop us from entering, not stop us from leaving. Trump is putting our economic system at risk over things that could and should have been solved at the negotiation table. Sadly, the art of the deal is just more mistruth from the lie master. We need to start to ask, WWPPD, “What would President Pence do?”

BRAND NEW BOOK ON AMERICA

Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs shows how we’ve wasted our GOLD on bad wars and corruption. While GOD is there for many people as a spiritual enrichment and the provider of glowing feelings, the truth is just praying and believing will not change our major arc. We don’t determine who gets a GUN. We aren’t sure if we have paramilitary groups ready to storm the White House or a White Castle. There is no control of weapons. The GOOFBALLS with the power constantly try to manipulate us into spending more money on bombs and tanks and wars. When all of our institutions are infected with neglect and fall in disrepair, we will only have ourselves to blame. This book is not an antidote for the left or right, it’s an accelerant to move the middle off their collective asses to go do something positive for America.

Get the Kindle Version HERE. Or order your paperback edition HERE.

MUELLER KNOWS TRUMP

Are US Presidents Above the Law?

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has finally spoken. His words were exact and well-chosen. He specifically said that his team could not indict a sitting president, period. He also said they would have exonerated him if they could have. They didn’t.

Congress is the only court of law in which a president can be charged. Specifically, the remedy for presidential misconduct is impeachment. It starts in the House of Representatives and courses through a trial in the Senate in which the Chief Justice presides and the members of the Senate are the jury. A two-thirds vote, which is 67 members is necessary to convict and remove a President from office.

We don’t know the procedure after a conviction because impeachment of a US President has never gone that far. One would hope that the person convicted would go honorably, as Richard Nixon did when he was on the precipice of impeachment. That being said, we don’t know what Donald Trump would do. Some say the Congressional Sergeant at Arms would physically remove the president from government property, but that is just an opinion.

Robert Mueller may go down as the most potent silent person in government. He states that he has spoken in the more than 400 pages of his report. If you read the report, you will see that Donald Trump is a paranoid power-hungry crook. Robert Mueller told us what Trump did and urges you to read his work and not bother him with politics.

What we learned today is a special prosecutor and special counsel can’t arrest a president. Being an employee of the Justice Department, a prosecutor or special counsel must follow the guidelines and rules of that department, which were designed to keep an out-of-control prosecutor from unnecessarily hindering the Executive Branch.

Throughout Donald Trump’s life he has thumbed his nose at the law. He’s not a person you would trust in business because he would likely do something illegal and get you entangled in a lawsuit that you will ultimately pay for. It’s a Trump common practice which is both legendary and extremely troubling. It speaks to a real lack of character.

The American taxpayer shelled out more than $25 million to find out that their president has, at least, obstructed justice and weakened our election security. Mueller was very clear, Russian operatives attempted to change our election results. He said that the Russian effort favored a certain candidate (TRUMP) and expressed the truth that if he could have cleared Donald Trump, he would have. This is not a gordian knot but rather clear and specific legal code for “he’s guilty,” and Congress now has the power to do something righteous for the country.

Were Robert Mueller given a truth serum, he would tell you exactly what he thinks of Donald Trump and his minions. I’m sure he probably has a low regard for the president and those around him in the administration, as well as for the Congressmen and women who refuse to focus on the real danger of this president. Trump doesn’t take foreign interference in our elections seriously. Mueller knows that, despite his warm and fuzzy feeling for Attorney General William Barr, that man’s independence is in question. Barr’s statements and actions are driven by his rank and President Trump’s authority over everything he says and does. Mueller knows that Barr is not an independent agent of justice.

The events of this corrupt presidency should be a positive motivation for legislation on several important fronts. First, we need to mandate and codify transparency in the Executive Branch. After fifty-years of the tradition of presidential candidates and presidents releasing their income tax returns, this practice should become part of US law. The refusal of the Treasury Department to release Trump’s tax returns to the Ways and Means Committee in the House means we need a stronger law requiring every major candidate and office holder to make public their tax returns.

Congress should pass a law that commands all political campaigns to disclose to the FBI any communication with a foreign person or government that offers information or “dirt” on another US candidate. Withholding such information should be against the law.

Perhaps the biggest foible in all of this is the fact that a president cannot be charged with a crime while he or she is in office. The legal logic makes sense on the surface, but it weakens the notion that no person is above the law. If a president murdered someone and there was clear proof that he did so, how can this not be a punishable crime in the normal judicial process? If Congress is not the Judicial Branch, can they truly be above the partisan swamp? Can they give a true verdict when they are willing to look the other way for their personal gains and preservation of their elected positions?

We have a lot of work to do and most of it has been caused by a President who cares little for the “normal order” of government, law or fair play. Whether he likes it or not, Donald Trump will soon inherit his own classification of concepts such as “Tea Pot Dome,” “Watergate” and “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

Trump is an inept political operative with too much money to understand the pain of the middle class. He’s above the law in his own mind and Robert Mueller knows it. Trump keeps saying that “he’s the most transparent president in history,” making us wonder why he didn’t sit for an interview with Robert Mueller. Maybe Trump’s just afraid of him. Why doesn’t Trump release his tax returns? Maybe he’s afraid of what we would learn.

Trump must be impeached, or he will think he can do anything. Without impeachment, this country has just elevated a president to King. And the king has no pants.

BRAND NEW BOOK ON AMERICA

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THE TRUTH WILL PREVAIL

Discombobulated Donald’s Dilemma

If we were sitting around the BBQ pit on Memorial Day ten years ago and I was to tell you that a future US President will be glowingly supportive of the leader of North Korea, the President of Russia or the murderous policies of the Saudi Royal Family, you would have said I was crazy. Donald Trump would rather be a friend of dictators than a beacon of democracy around the world. He’s a shameful representative of American values. Maybe it’s jetlag, but more likely stupidity, that causes our president to invariably say stupid things when he’s on foreign soil.

This routine of doing the opposite of what any other mature and thoughtful leader would do is getting worn-out. The truth will eventual prevail that Donald Trump’s mind is a perverse instrument of disregard and self-serving. The confusing disruption to our well-designed foreign relationships with allies is more than baffling. The President of the United States began his time in Japan by insulting his host with whines about unfair trade. It was insulting and embarrassing. Trump doesn’t remember that it was the US that constructed the plan to rebuild Japan after we blew it up. The President is impudent of historical context. Our helping hand assisted with more than seventy-five years of peace in the region.

One real dilemma the Donald faces is that people are not as dumb as he believes. Kim is laughing. Putin is laughing. The EU thinks Trump is foolish. I am sure that the leader of Japan, Shinzō Abe, is wondering why Trump would brush off North Korea’s launching rockets into the sky over Japan. We were told by Donald Trump the missiles from “rocket man” had stopped because of Don and Kim’s love affair. I guess tough love sometimes doesn’t work. Trump’s lackadaisical attitude regarding Kim Jung-Un is disturbing to the world. He’s merely trying to save face from his failure to get anything substantial from Chairman Kim, a ruthless dictator. Trump never listens to anyone and continually gets played by these people.

The farmers are smart and work the math. They know that they are getting financially killed by the tariffs that Trump chucked on the heartland of this country. Let’s see if we can put this into a picture.

When products are imported into the US, a tariff is placed on the goods by our customs agents. Something that originally cost $100 might get a tariff of $25. The importer will pay the $25 to the treasury. While this may seem like profit taken in by the treasury, it’s just a tax that will be quickly matched by the country we slam with tariffs. In this case, it’s China. So, US soybeans worth $100 will now be sold in China at $125. If another country can beat the price, our farmers will suffer from a total loss of business to a competitor. No one buys more soybeans from America than China.

Now, you may think it ends there, but it doesn’t. The item that was $100 is now $125, and the extra $25 is paid by you, the consumer. The importer simply increases your price tag to offset their increased cost-of-doing-business. In a sense, Mr. and Mrs. America, it’s like the US government just taxed you $25.00. Why are they doing that? Why would they give you a tax cut and then take back more than they gave you?

Because the farmers in America are suffering, the US Department of Agriculture will give them relief in the form of a “socialistic” loan, a form of redistributing the wealth to a class of workers who need it. Plain and simple, it’s a bailout, the kind of handout conservative Republicans have rallied against for years. You might ask, who pays for that? Well, we do, the taxpayers!

So, you see, we pay for the increase in cost of each item to give money to the government. Then the USDA moves money around to pay for this economic misstep. To balance the scales, they might spend less on meat inspections. Does that keep America safe? There’s nothing wrong with helping farmers, but what about the family of four buying clothing made in China? They have no bail out. This whole mess is caused by a bad trade policy and no matter how many TV experts explain it, Trump will never understand how it works.

Look at this diagram and observe that China pays no money into the US Treasury. Likewise, the US will pay no money into the Chinese treasury. It’s just a war that the little people fund with price increases that hurt the average American. Even if US manufacturers could supplant the imported items, there is no guarantee that the cost of those goods would ever be cheaper than goods coming from China, with or without tariffs.

TRUMP’S TRADE WAR is just another stupid idea from a clueless, uninformed leader with too much power. Perhaps the responsibility and care of trade should be in the hands of the less than popular Congressional branch. At least Congress would make fewer mistakes because they move in slow but calculated ways. America will pay more for everything during the next five years. Why is this good for us? No one has successfully debated this issue with Trump and his dogma is so entrenched that he no longer believes anyone but himself. The discombobulated frontal lobes of the man in the White House will never see things the ways they are, only the way he wants to view them. When the trade war fails, it will totally be his fault. Remember that, voters!

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Get the Kindle Version HERE. Or order your paperback edition HERE.

OLD WHITE PEOPLE

What’s wrong with Donald Trump?

I just turned 70-years old so I get to say things that younger people cannot. Some might think that I have become a curmudgeon of monumental proportions, and to those ageists, and in the spirit of age equals wisdom, I say, “Go F yourself.”

This last week, we saw some extremely funny reality TV, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi taking pot shots at the President of the United States. The fool in the White House seized the bait and attempted to console himself with his sophomoric retorts. What is rather remarkable is these people oversee billions of our tax dollars and the defense of our country — scary old white people are running things.

In their back and forth, each older leader claimed the other is not mentally right. Now age doesn’t necessarily mean that you lose your faculties but judging by his comments a case could be made that the leader of the free world has some mental problems. Our president says he hasn’t changed, and that might be true, but that doesn’t mean he’s fit to be president.

Donald Trump is a pathological liar. Anyone who has observed his routines over the years would agree he has a major problem telling the truth. He forces those he hires to lie at his command. We saw that in the Roosevelt Room when he asked his team to claim he was calm during the three-minute monologue he used to abort a planned meeting on US infrastructure. Of course, his minions said what he wanted them to say, and Nancy Pelosi’s description of his temperament and tone was certainly shaped to advance her agenda. That aside, more than six Democratic leaders came to the White House for a meeting, and I have to believe they attended in the hope of getting some things accomplished. Trump then walked to the Rose Garden and barked about how badly the meeting went. On display was a prepared sign outlining the Mueller report. I’m not sure what the sign had to do with the subject of the meeting, infrastructure. Why would any mature adult need a fabricated interpretation of RUDE? Trump walked out of the meeting and he admitted that Pelosi’s comments were the reason.

Let’s face it. Donald Trump is a fucking, spoiled brat. He has no logic circuitry in his conspiracy ridden brain. It’s time that we get beyond this polite protocol and treat him like the child he is. First, we need some discipline, and if that doesn’t work, a shrink.

For grins, let’s assume Trump has a few good ideas. If those ideas are beneficial to America and our people, why is there always an air of despair about things being unfair, sad and a disgrace? Why does he always need to put down the other party or the former president, which makes half of America feel badly when he’s pitching an idea? Any good communicator knows that you don’t implant negatives when seeking acceptance.

Trump loves to slip a giant turd into the punch bowl before dancing around the party lauding the tasty libation. He tries to convince the attendees that Obama and the Democrats put gin in the punch. Huh? More than half of the country doesn’t trust him, and I suspect most world leaders clearly see his lack of credibility. I may be old, but I’m not stupid. Trump is worse than Nixon.

Research and poll results are important to Americans. We always want to know what people are thinking. We crave knowledge and truth. When Trump says he’s the most transparent president ever, any thinking person will laugh. He requires and exists on lies and secrets. He won’t show his tax returns, when every other president for the past 50 years has disclosed the details of their wealth. What could be so wrong with his taxes that he fights so hard to keep them from being revealed?

Could it simply be that he isn’t rich? Yes, it could. His ego is fragile, his skin is thin and he’s highly vulnerable to shame. Did you notice that he almost crumbled when Pelosi suggested that an intervention should take place? The highest-ranking member of the House just said out loud that she thinks Trump is nuts, causing Trump to repeat his “very stable genius” sales pitch. Who says shit like that?

I think the researchers need a new model. We don’t need to know if people approve of the job he’s doing or whether they support the old white guy. We need to get down in the dirt and dig up the true feelings of our people. And by the way, pollsters should feel free to use this suggestion to gather feelings about anyone running for office, Congress or the Supreme Court. I call it the DOUGLAS SCALE, and this metric will help us understand the real feelings of the America voters and citizens.

How would you describe your true feelings about Donald Trump? (choose one):

1. He’s worse than what my body feels after Chemotherapy.
2. He’s a total loser and I hate him with all my heart.
3. He’s a despicable human being with no redeeming qualities.
4. He’s a pathological liar who should seek professional help.
5. He’s only in this thing for himself and will do the wrong things for his ego.
6. He means well but lacks the ability to be understood.
7. He’s got some good ideas, but everyone is against him.
8. He’s a remarkable President who will change America forever.
9. He’s really doing God’s work, the American God.
10. He’s the best and should be made President for life.

It would be interesting to see the percentage of people who truly hate the guy. I’ve presented a more American grading scale. We are not a polite people and, since Trump has become president, we have become a more open and direct populace. He’s a dangerous President who needs to be taken out of office, either by impeachment or voting. Trump is an unstable menace to our mental health.

BRAND NEW BOOK ON AMERICA

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TARRIFS ARE TAXES, STUPID!

Trump’s Egomaniacal Economics

If someone asked you if it’s possible to solve an economic problem by creating a trade war with another country, you might have to ask, “Can such a war be won?” and, of course, “How much would that war cost?” These are things that we elect our representatives in Congress to investigate and debate.

I found a very well written web site, Council on Foreign Relations. They state clearly, “A tariff is a tax imposed on goods imported from a foreign country. Tariffs are paid by an importing business to its home country’s government, most commonly as a fixed percentage of the value of the imports. Tariffs can serve several goals. Like all taxes, they provide a modest source of government revenue. Several countries have also used tariffs to help their infant industries at home, hoping to shelter local firms from foreign competitors. Some tariffs are also meant to address unfair practices that other countries have used to make their exports artificially cheap.”

Let’s consider a real-life scenario. You want to buy a brand-new iPhone. The cost of the iPhone XS Max has a suggested retail price of $1,099. Now if a 25% tariff is placed on the item, the Ajax importer company will have to pay $274.75 to the treasury for each phone it brings into the US. Most importers will cover themselves by increasing the unit price of phone they sell. So, the Sprint store will have to give the importer more than $1300.00 for each phone, and the local tax a consumer might pay will drive the price even higher. In New York state, you would have to pay $114 in taxes. Yes, the treasury gets the tariff, but at what cost to the consumer? The Trade war with China makes you pay $1400 for a phone that cost $1100 last month. In most cases, higher prices also mean fewer phones will be ordered.

When soybeans were shipped to China by American farmers at $13.83 per bushel in November of 2012, their profit margins were tight. Now, in April 2019, the price of soybeans has sunk to $8.59 per bushel. Why would the price go down? President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum caused the Chinese to retaliate and charge US farmers a tariff. The price of soybeans went down because China found cheaper suppliers in the world and much of the US crops that were to be sent to China now sits in warehouses. This lowered demand for soybeans. To help the farmers, the Trump administration is giving farmers a $6 billion bailout so they can weather his trade war, but wasn’t there a better way to achieve a workable trade deal with China?

Trump, along with a lot of blowhard politicians, said that the TPP agreement the US was in the middle of negotiation with many Pacific Rim countries was a bad idea. This agreement was an attempt to protect smaller nations like New Zealand and to check China’s more aggressive trade activities. The TPP was set to become the world’s largest free trade deal, covering 40 percent of the global economy. It was opposed by China and Trump declared it a bad deal because Obama was involved, but I’m fairly sure he never read the agreement and has no idea what it would have done. Most people in the world who were against it saw it as a way for the US to broaden its trade efficiency. I’m not sure why Trump opposed it.

If a candidate for President of the United States promised that under their administration prices on most goods imported into America would cost 10 to 25% more, hardly anyone would vote for him or her. That is exactly what happened with Trump. If you are trying to comprehend how much money you did or didn’t get back in your 2018 tax return, you need to factor in the rising costs of many goods. It’s likely that whatever you gained by the tax cut will not cover the increases coming to your budget shortly.

The New York Times reported today (5-20-2019) that “Anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog.” Trump is suing that same bank to keep them from releasing financial information about his companies and business interests. One must ask if he is attempting to game the system by being nice to Russian loan suppliers and covering up ethical and legal misdeeds with banks.

We know that one of the key elements of the Trump Doctrine is eliminating regulations to the detriment of valuable oversight that, as investors, we all appreciate. We don’t want banks to launder or manipulate money, we want them to be legal players and honest brokers.

The Department of Labor’s “Conflict of Interest” rule stated that advisers had to give conflict-free advice on retirement accounts, putting their clients’ needs ahead of their own potential income. It was eliminated in June of 2018. WHY? What sense does it make to remove a law that declares money managers must put your interest above theirs? This is so wrong in so many ways, but it’s a true reflection of who Trump is.

This person sitting in the White House doesn’t care about you paying more for things just so he can look tough. He isn’t smart enough to know that a country with the power of the USA can get things done in trade without hurting our own economy. The Donald doesn’t really care if a stockbroker cheats you out of money. By blowing away the “Conflict of Interest” rule, Trump has just paved the way for the next Bernie Madoff. I am totally convinced the man knows nothing about global economies. The conflicts Trump creates are all for his own benefit. He has no long-term planning.

Tariffs are taxes and Trump is toxic.

BRAND NEW BOOK ON AMERICA

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ALABAMA GETAWAY

Trump’s Conspiracy Against Women

I grew up in a home with a very strong and opinuated woman. My mother was not ahead of her time, but she had a certain way of showing me the many ways that women and girls are equal to men and boys. We have arrived in a strange time when TV dramas depicting the stripping of women’s rights just might be more predictive than fantasy. See: The Handmaiden’s Tale.

25 white men in Alabama’s state government have now decided how all the women in the state should manage their bodies. The morality of the Alabama’s ruling class is built on a foundation of stupidity. They don’t understand that more unwanted children in their state will only increase the tax burden on the very people they are attempting to appease with this highly political ploy to reverse Roe vs. Wade. If this sounds a bit racist, I must remind the reader that statistics don’t lie. According to AL.com, “The poverty rate for Hispanic or Latino Alabamians is highest, at nearly 34 percent, compared with 31 percent for blacks and 14 percent for whites. Alabama’s median household income of $44,833 is nearly $11,000 less than the national median of $55,775. The difference grows starker when comparing black and white households, however. According to the report, white Alabamians earn $50,402 a year on average, compared with black Alabamians’ average of $29,180.” This study was done by Alabama Possible.

So, here’s my question. Why would the state government want to exacerbate the problem of income inequality, while driving more poor white state residents to depend on more services because of more children than they can afford?

Alabama’s draconian law, if it is ever applied, will force talented medical professionals away from the state. Smart doctors won’t take the chance of something going wrong in their operating room leading to a life sentence in prison. The quality of medical care will decline and medical insurance will skyrocket.

While discussing the Alabama ruling with some firm Trump supporters in another southern state, they voiced their distress because of non-exclusions for rape and incest victims. They said that was going too far. I agreed, and then one of the guys said, “That’s why they should leave this whole matter up to the states.” I raised my voice, “That’s the problem not the solution!” You see, once a snapping turtle latches on to a talking point, the brain’s logic circuitry no longer functions. The only force to stop this terrible law is the Supreme Court. If they reverse Roe Vs. Wade, they will once again MAKE LAW, not interpret it.

Now I have another question. Can a woman sue a rapist for child support in the state of Alabama? If not, then the Governor of Alabama has failed women by signing the bill before having a moral backstop law in place. They’re all confused. If a woman can’t seek any monetary retribution, then she’s been legally downgraded to three-fifths a person. Why does that sound familiar? With statues of limitations and overprotective male judges getting in the way of justice, it’s hard enough for a rape victim to get a conviction against her assailant,. Why are we adding an extra burden on women and awarding fatherhood to rapists? This is counter to every civil liberty women have fought so hard to gain.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t extend to my readers the courtesy of placing blame. Trump went on and on about why evangelicals and right-to-life people should vote for him. He clearly stated that he was going to stack the court with ultra-conservative judges who would overturn Roe vs. Wade. Even moderate Republican women voted for him. He did what he said he would do, even though seven out of ten American women, regardless of their political affiliations, do NOT want Roe vs Wade to be overturned. Of course, this doesn’t matter to Donald Trump. He has never respected women or minorities.

Trump believes that by trampling women’s rights he will be able to get re-elected, not once, but forever. If you think I am joking, you are a fool. We have a problem and there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop this insanity. Trump and Pence want all women to be controlled as they were in the old Testament of the Bible, casting America back to the stone age. If you think this can’t happen, remember that a loud minority of people were able to bring us prohibition for 13 years. How many women will die before more logical minds prevail in the fight of Right to Life vs. Freedom of Choice? Why would we create a medical police state? Why would someone, who no doubt paid for many abortions, be against a procedure that is in common practice and legal? We can only believe that he was taught that his own mother didn’t count. Notice, he never talks about her.

BRAND NEW BOOK ON AMERICA

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TRUMP’S TRADE WAR

Did He Really Need to Do This?

If you review the dogma of Donald Trump, you will see a picture of the administration’s complete lack of intelligent design. If you wanted to bring together many nations to curb Chinese manipulation of world trade, you would sign an TTP agreement. Trump walked away from it. After NAFTA achieved years of strong economic development in the US, Canadian and Mexico, Trump tore it up.

If you want to keep track of the nuclear ambitions of Iran, you make them sign an agreement with many nations. Trump walked away from it. If you want to motivate the countries of the world to establish reasonable pollution control and climate change curtailment, you sign a Paris Accord. Trump walked away from it.

And now, Trump believes that the way to get the world’s economy under the control of American money is to slap tariffs on products from all the top economies of the world. What is a tariff? It’s a tax on imports or exports between sovereign states. It is a means to regulate international trade by taxing foreign products to encourage or safeguard domestic industry. Basically, we add taxes to products so that another country cannot undercut US products with a price advantage. This was first done by Alexander Hamilton to protect new companies from harsh competition.

Consider this. You bought a case of wine in France and tucked it into your luggage as you returned to the US. A customs inspector discovers your cache and analyzes it. Let’s say you bought a case of 36 bottles for two dollars a bottle. So, the value of your case is $72 and the tariff (really a fine in this case) is $8 per bottle or $288 for the case. Now, let’s further say you were bringing the case into America for a friend. Instead of charging your friend $72, you now must charge your drinking buddy $360 for the contraband you delivered. If we apply this to a real-world business situation, one might also have to charge the friend federal and state taxes on the goods, which would raise the cost even more. Yes, the treasury got the $288 in fees, but the tariff was paid by the importer, and the consumer reimbursed the importer for their costs. The money was a tax paid by the consumer and deposited into the treasury.

Now, if France got wind of this tariff and matched the tariff on something coming the other way, let’s say, a John Deere tractor, then their consumers would have to pay an increased price on the US-made tractor. But what if the French refused to pay the tariff and bought a Kubota tractor from Japan? That would mean the US manufacturer would lose the sale and the trade war would damage that company’s bottom-line. These complex layers of global trade are a great pitch to rabid political rally goers, but the consequences of knee jerk trade policies become highly problematic for our producers.

Idiot-in-Chief Trump has a fantasy dream that all the rustbelt states will bring back major manufacturing facilities and we will return to the calmer economy of American in post-war 1950s. This might sound like a great idea on the surface, but it took more than 70 years for these former US industries to be eliminated by sellers importing cheaper goods from other countries and that’s not a clock easily turned back.

Sure, the US could have been a protectionist economic force in the last 50 years, but the rest of the world wouldn’t have bought our expensive goods. Large markets such as China, India and Southeasts Asia would have simply bought items and sold products such as steel and aluminum to and from other nations. Our industries might have collapsed faster.

Instead of trying to bring back those high polluting industries, with no guarantee that we could even produce cheaper products, we need to look toward products of the future. To borrow a sports metaphor from famous hall of fame hockey star Wayne Gretzky, success is “not skating to where the puck was but skating to where the puck is going to be.” And that is precisely what we must do with our industrial developments and plans.

The world is migrating toward wind and sun energy. Why can’t we be the #1 producer of the gear to lead the planet to renewable energy? If the earth is all about technology, why aren’t we investing in education and finding the brightest and smartest inventors for the future? It’s a better investment than cranking up the coal burning power plants. Even investment in nuclear power plants makes more sense then putting money into old technology. We can produce without killing the world markets.

Most smart investors and economists understand how things work, but remember, they are never 100% correct. We have a president who thinks he knows everything about money and how to make billions, yet in his life he lost more than a BILLION dollars and paid no taxes for more than a decade. Sadly, his followers don’t care about the past. They don’t even care about the Mueller report. The reality is we all will lose money because of Donald Trump. WHY DO WE HAVE TO PAY FOR HIS MISTAKES? Hey, maybe that’s a good tag line for a political opponent’s commercial in 2020!

BRAND NEW BOOK ON AMERICA

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TRUMPARENCY VS TRANSPARENCY

Executive and White Privilege

Until 2009, there was no Supreme Court in Great Britain. Before then, all weighty legal decisions were made in the House of Lords, a body composed of church Bishops, a ruling class who could hand their seats down to their male offspring along with a few people who managed to attain appointments through an arcane selection process.

I point this out because our founders saw the flaw in the British form of law and improved it dramatically. The idea of taxation without representation drove not only the disagreement, but a revolution. Americans cast off the notion of royalty and privilege. Status was not determined by birth, but by how hard one worked and what they accomplished. Well, except if you were a woman or an African slave. The most hypocritical aspect of these newly formed United States was that our founding fathers talked a good game, but allowed only white land owners to vote. They, in fact, created a privileged white male class. It took 89 years to free the slaves and 144 years for women, no matter what their color, to be “awarded” the gift of the vote.

Now let’s talk about Donald Trump’s claim that he has the most transparent administration in the history of America. That’s a rather funny statement when, in the same paragraph, he blocks past and present White House personnel from testifying to Congress. The Washington Post has documented more than 10,000 lies the President has created since he took office. Telling a lie is the opposite of being transparent; it’s being deceptive.

We unintentionally promote certain classes and people to a status above common man. Statistics don’t reflect the notion that no man is above the law in America. African-Americans make up more than 35% of our prison population, even though they represent only 12.5% of the general population. One might want to argue that African-Americans are more likely to commit crimes, but that would mean that there is something inherently wrong with our society and the Black community. We should always ask why any group of Americans are not doing as well as others and find ways to help make America a better place for them.

This brings us to an invented privilege built into our system of law. Does it surprise you that “executive privilege” is not in the Constitution? This privilege, claimed by the president for the executive branch of the US government, allows the withholding information in the public interest. So, we have one person, the president, deciding that a lack of transparency can actually be in the public interest. Huh?

Presidents Washington and Jefferson, both refused to provide certain documents to Congress and this set up a more clearly defined defense of NON compliance during the Eisenhower administration. In 1954, when an out of control Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, was getting too close to the Oval Office with his investigation of possible Communist involvement in the Army, President Eisenhower drew a “line” in the sand.” He said that “provision of any data about internal conversations, meetings, or written communication among White House staffers, with no exception to topics or people” should be privileged and not given to Congress. This clear separation of powers debate was ended with the case against Richard Nixon during Watergate. The Supreme Court ruled that “executive privilege” is a valid concept, but that a president cannot block evidence needed in a criminal case. Remember, Mueller brought no criminal case against the White House in his report.

In today’s world, the expression “white privilege” stains common sense and is extremely disparaging to all Americans. There is no built-in advantage for being born white in this country. So we now return to the difference between law in Great Britain and how we manage our affairs here in the US, where no one should have privilege because of the color of their skin. One could argue that the President of the United States believes in “white privilege” and uses “executive privilege” to give him an advantage in the transparency game.

When history is written and most of the documents, rulings and conversations of the Donald are exposed by time, we might all learn that Trump’s biggest lie was his claim of being the most transparent president of all time. The braggadocio and bravado of this buffoonish little man may excite raw nerves in his followers’ brains but bears no resemblance to truth. Perhaps those neurological tingles are simply a form of white privilege that Trump sycophants believe is baked into their “heritage.” Wouldn’t that make them racists?

The biggest problem with Donald Trump is that he lies. The second biggest problem with the 45^th President is that he doesn’t govern for all the people in America. He has, with his comments, tweets and policies, created two Americas. He has never graduated from slimy politician to presidential leadership. And he never will.

Mueller should testify because he failed to clarify his findings with an indictment of Donald Trump. If he believed Trump had conspired with Russians to affect our elections, then he would have been forced to make a call on criminal activity. But do we know that for sure? The only way to close the book on this matter is to have Mueller testify so that America hears from him. Without Special Counsel transparency, we will be hurt by this Trumparency. Trump’s lies have upset the respect of America in the world. Beyond the party animosities, America is drowning in ignorance.

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CAINE, MOORE & MONEY

Congress: All about the “Benjamins”

Herman Caine has never appeared to be anything but a partisan carnival barker with some of the most asinine ideas coming out of his pie hole. In his 2016 campaign, Caine introduced the memorable tag line “9-9-9” for a tax reform. The idea was to replace all current taxes (including the payroll tax, the capital gains tax and the estate tax) with a 9% personal income tax, a 9% federal sales tax, and a 9% corporate tax. The concept caught people’s attention, but Caine neglected to do the math. And many people didn’t look at the plan’s details, which would have added harsh sales and “value added” taxes while ending all deductions. Some “real economists” believed that the plan would have increased the deficit by billions. Huh?

Now if Herman a clown, Stephen Moore, the other guy Trump nominated for the Federal Reserve Board, is a buffoon. He started a group called Club For Growth in 2004, worked for the Heritage Foundation and has a Master’s Degree of Arts in economics, but professionals in the field feel he has no credibility. CNN hired this idiot to be a balancing act, presenting right winger viewpoints on discussion shows. From my perspective, TV networks putting fools on the air is how we got Trump in the first place. Yes, I blame you NBC.

As our not-so-great leader and part-time president Donald Trump said, “It’s easy to be a critic.” That’s exactly what Moore has been over the years. A plug-in personality to put down people who have power or respect in the financial arena. Unfortunately for Stephen Moore, when he veered out of his imaginary lane and tried to expose thoughts on any other topic, he exposed himself as a total asshole. This self-confessed male chauvinist pig’s latest harangue is that the real problem with the US economy is male wages are not rising fast enough. He goes on to call men the “real bread earners” in the family. He must be from 1945.

When both clowns were nominated by Trump to push Jerome Powell at the “Fed” to lower interest rates, I calmly told many of my friends, “Don’t worry, they will never get on the Federal Reserve Board.” Why did I think that? Because Republicans, especially those in the Senate, care far more about their freaking money than they care about Trump, or America for that matter. And so, it has come to pass that Mr. Caine and Mr. Moore have been obliterated from the Fed board confirmation hearing process. Trump will have to be more careful next time. You know, apply some real VETTING.

If you would enjoy an interesting day of research, look at the financial realities of those who sit in the Senate. Lindsey Graham is ranked 84th in Senate wealth at $489,009. Mitch McConnell is ranked 11th in the Senate with a net worth of $26,927,535. Rand Paul is ranked 66th in the Senate with an estimated net worth of $1,335,018. Mr. Sheldon Whitehouse ranked 21st in the Senate with $8,883,112 in 2010. Richard C Shelby at 22nd had a net worth of $10,963,007. Charles E Schumer ranked 73rd in the Senate with an estimated net worth of $948,522. Unless stated otherwise, all figures are from 2015 and posted on OpenSecrets.org. Mitt Romney, not on their site since 2010, is allegedly worth more than $300 million and is clearly the richest member of the Senate.

The House of Representatives is not much better. Nancy Pelosi is ranked 6th in the House with an estimated net worth of $100,643,521. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) is worth $330,050,015, Jared Polis (D-Colo) clocks in at $313,556,221, Mark Warner (D-Va) is worth $238,157,630, John K Delaney (D-Md) comes in at $232,816,089, Dave Trott (R-Mich) banks $177,149,145 and Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla) is worth $115,534,558. These figures are also from the same site and year, 2015. Just imagine how much more these folks have made with this great economy and why they are so very careful as they cast their votes.

Consider this from NPR. “Russian aluminum company Rusal announced Monday it plans to invest in a new Kentucky aluminum mill to be built near Ashland in eastern Kentucky. The $200 million investment in Braidy Industries is Rusal’s first U.S. project since the Trump administration lifted U.S. sanctions placed against the company. Rusal had been sanctioned by the U.S. government because its major controller, Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, faces accusations of “a range of malign activity around the globe” by Russia, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Those actions include interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and meddling in neighboring Ukraine.” You see, this helps Mitch McConnell’s state and Steve Mnuchin lifted sanctions against this one specific company. Can you say, Quid Pro Quo? They have no souls.

It’s clear to me that smart politicians, economists and business people are not going to let Trump foolishness get in the way of their money. Many of the Republicans who blindly follow Trump into indefensible domestic and global misadventures allow him to make many mistakes if they don’t jeopardize their wealth. With the most recent jobs report showing more than 263,000 jobs added in April 2019, and unemployment dropping to 3.6%, the path is cleared for a great Trump campaign in 2020 and possible reelection. If the Democrats have a chance of taking back seats in the Senate and the White House, they must convince all Americans what they propose is something better than what we see right now. Good luck.

It would be disheartening to the left wingers if a candidate said, “I wouldn’t change a thing.” It would be equally insane for a Presidential candidate to say that they would like to spend more money than Trump spent in his first two years.

Might we remind the public here what Forbes magazine said, “Trump has talked loudly but delivered little real results when it comes to impacting trade. Under his watch the trade deficit has grown over $100 billion, going from $502 billion in 2016 to $621 billion in 2018, an increase of 19%. The deficit for Goods has increased $140 billion from $751 billion to $891 billion. At its current pace, the Goods deficit could also hit $1 trillion in 2020.”

It’s clear that Trump lies about everything, more than 10,000 times since he’s been elected. Why would economic issues be any different? How can we trust him to be a good steward of the economy when he goes too far in everything he does to feed his insatiable need for personal winning? He just can’t smile and move to the next thing. He must rub someone’s face in it. He walks around believing that he’ll figure out the debt later. No planning, No blame. That is the way he ran his companies, and that’s the way he’s managing the nation. HE SPENDS TOO MUCH MONEY ON STUPID THINGS. We just might have a storm on the horizon, but ego won’t let him think he could ever make a mistake. Another credit downgrade of America on the world’s financial stage will hurt us all. We hope it doesn’t happen, but would you loan money to someone who owes $1 trillion? I don’t even know who we owe it to, do you?

BRAND NEW BOOK ON AMERICA

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