Yes, it's an extreme viewpoint to take, but examining all that's transpired in the past few weeks it appears to be the only logical conclusion, as I will show. That is, that no Democratic presidential candidate alone will be sufficient to knock Trump out of office no matter what policy proposals are put forward - so long as the economy continues chugging along - bestowing an unwarranted advantage on the Dotard.
There is little dispute that since Robert Mueller punted on his Report, it's been a case of Trump Unchained. He's now been emboldened to go all out on his plan to turn the U.S. into his own autocracy, even as he stonewalls all efforts of the House Dems to check him at every turn. Worse, the soaring economy - as reported in The Denver Post Saturday - is almost ensuring that he will get re-elected, unless.....well, unless the economy collapses before the 2020 general election. This means a stock market crash, recession or both.
Extreme medicine? Not at all, What the Post indicates is robustly reinforced by a Financial Times piece yesterday ('US Economic Strength Poses Challenge For Democrats In 2020'), noting:
"With unemployment at a half -century low and steady wage growth, Democratic contenders in the 2020 race face a conundrum: how to challenge Donald Trump on the economy"
Adding:
"I'll be running on the economy", Trump told reporters on Friday."
Then we beheld the ominous note sounded (ibid.) by Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a center left think tank: "The only issue where Trump is remotely competitive with the Democrats is on the economy."
Swiping away all nebulous fantasies of finally removing this orange fungus from the White House, it means unless the economy tanks - and badly - the same putrid essence is in like Flynn for another 4 years. And it won't matter much how much charisma any Dem candidate has, or what his or her remedy for the country may be. Because at the end of the day all most voters will care about is the share value of their mutual funds or stocks.
Bill Maher's hysterical Friday night Real Time New Rules rant about being in a "fetal position":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPi2QcQVCuY
Echoed Janice's own hopeless feelings that "Trump seems to be winning at every turn" and this is basically spot on. Not surprisingly also, nearly a year ago Maher had openly hoped for the economic crash to finally mark Trump's end, e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuIp5DYf8Lc
As expected, at the time most of the red state yahoos (offering youtube versions) and mainstream corporate media went into a tailspin at the "outrageous" suggestion - perhaps believing then (a year ago) there was still a chance to oust Trump normally. And hey, Bob Mueller was still on it! But no more. That mask, that veneer, has been ripped off once and for all. Only an extreme solution will save this nation from the likes of Trump and his traitorous enablers. It is true the Great Recession WAS a "terrible event" to quote the Daily Beast, but it was also "a survivable one" to use Maher's words. A Fascist dictatorship is not. Ask the Germans who lived in 1933, friends.
Why has this desire intensified now? The bad guys and fascists are in the ascendant and feel empowered to treat congress like errant school boys rather than a co-equal branch of gov't according to Article I of the Constitution. Mueller, bless his heart and pardon his lack of testicular fortitude, basically blew it and handed these reptiles a loaded weapon which they will use with impunity over the next 18 months. Beyond that the plan is simple: to utterly eviscerate all the post-Watergate checks since enacted on the rise of executive power. Paving the way for a proto-dictatorship, by you guessed it -Trump.
Scared? If you're not you're already brain dead or nearly so, unaware that the takeover of a nation happens in increments like the proverbial (but erroneous) trope of the frog being slowly boiled in water.
Even worse, these crypto-fascists have mounted a deadly serious program of co-opting or controlling every branch of government, now including the DOJ - as well as Supreme Court and Senate - even as they render the Demo congress toothless in terms of oversight power. Perhaps one of the best perspectives on what's happening was offered by former House Oversight Committee adviser Kurt Bardella in a recent NBC Think piece ('Trump's Obstruction Has Fractured The Constitution's System of Checks and Balances') As he notes:
"Thursday, May 2nd, 2019, felt like the end of checks and balances in America. It was a day that Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee stood by and supported the executive branch's decision to ignore a lawful subpoena issued by the legislative branch. At this moment in time we no longer have co-equal branches of government. And without this system created with care by the Founding Fathers we edge ever closer to a dictatorship.
This executive branch is flagrantly undermining the legislative branch and it clearly thinks it can get away with it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPi2QcQVCuY
Echoed Janice's own hopeless feelings that "Trump seems to be winning at every turn" and this is basically spot on. Not surprisingly also, nearly a year ago Maher had openly hoped for the economic crash to finally mark Trump's end, e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuIp5DYf8Lc
As expected, at the time most of the red state yahoos (offering youtube versions) and mainstream corporate media went into a tailspin at the "outrageous" suggestion - perhaps believing then (a year ago) there was still a chance to oust Trump normally. And hey, Bob Mueller was still on it! But no more. That mask, that veneer, has been ripped off once and for all. Only an extreme solution will save this nation from the likes of Trump and his traitorous enablers. It is true the Great Recession WAS a "terrible event" to quote the Daily Beast, but it was also "a survivable one" to use Maher's words. A Fascist dictatorship is not. Ask the Germans who lived in 1933, friends.
Why has this desire intensified now? The bad guys and fascists are in the ascendant and feel empowered to treat congress like errant school boys rather than a co-equal branch of gov't according to Article I of the Constitution. Mueller, bless his heart and pardon his lack of testicular fortitude, basically blew it and handed these reptiles a loaded weapon which they will use with impunity over the next 18 months. Beyond that the plan is simple: to utterly eviscerate all the post-Watergate checks since enacted on the rise of executive power. Paving the way for a proto-dictatorship, by you guessed it -Trump.
Scared? If you're not you're already brain dead or nearly so, unaware that the takeover of a nation happens in increments like the proverbial (but erroneous) trope of the frog being slowly boiled in water.
Even worse, these crypto-fascists have mounted a deadly serious program of co-opting or controlling every branch of government, now including the DOJ - as well as Supreme Court and Senate - even as they render the Demo congress toothless in terms of oversight power. Perhaps one of the best perspectives on what's happening was offered by former House Oversight Committee adviser Kurt Bardella in a recent NBC Think piece ('Trump's Obstruction Has Fractured The Constitution's System of Checks and Balances') As he notes:
"Thursday, May 2nd, 2019, felt like the end of checks and balances in America. It was a day that Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee stood by and supported the executive branch's decision to ignore a lawful subpoena issued by the legislative branch. At this moment in time we no longer have co-equal branches of government. And without this system created with care by the Founding Fathers we edge ever closer to a dictatorship.
This executive branch is flagrantly undermining the legislative branch and it clearly thinks it can get away with it."
In a discussion on the piece this a.m. ('Morning Joe') Bardella emphasized this is "no longer a theoretical - if an executive decided to ignore congress- it's happening".
Bardella went on to say that when he served (during the Obama years) on the GOP House Oversight committed he always "believed that we were co equal. We didn't believe that he (Obama) didn't respect the authority, the autonomy on what the oversight powers were - even if we disagreed. At the end of the day they would show up for hearings and produce documents because they respected that authority. That's no longer the case and now meets the situation described in The Washington Post where 'democracy dies in daylight'"
However, Post columnist Ruth Marcus responded that it was "too early to declare the end of checks and balances" and Bardella's take was "too dire". This is given the Dems are "asserting themselves" and the issues will eventually go before the courts. However, as Bardella pointed out to her, if the court decisions are made a year or more down the road and not in real time, they are of no use - and Trump wins by running out the clock. This is exactly what's going on now and the source of Maher's and others' frustrations and rage that he could even get away with it.
This is why the collapse of the economy may be our democracy's only salvation.
Note that although the Post story (see image clip) focused on how Trump's fortunes (tied to the economy) are currently rolling along they don't mention how he's also attempting to push the Federal Reserve into lowering rates to jazz up the markets even more Let us carefully note here the Fed is not part of the federal government per se but was founded as an act of congress in 1913 and as 12 separate private banking corporations. (James Livingstone ('Origins of the Federal Reserve System- Money, Class and Corporate Capitalism, 1890-1913 ).
In Friday's WSJ one read ('White House Escalates Row With Fed', p. A1):
"It isn't unprecedented for politicians to lean on the Fed to cut interest rates and give the economy the kind of jolt that voters reward at the polls...But it is rare for the White House to take on the Fed so openly analysts said.
'It not only breaks the norms, it shatters them', said Laurence Meyer a former Fed governor. 'It's just amazing."
Amazing indeed, and worrying. Because if at any point the Fed does cave in to Trump's ravings it will mean the need for an economic crash is amplified. Any boost, especially artificial - which acts like a coke hit for a junkie - will require a powerful antidote. We need that antidote by next year to ensure Trump is not re-elected, especially if he keeps winning these political battles.
The latest is running out the clock to keep the Dems locked up in court challenges as they issue subpoenas and try to make headway with oversight (cf. 'Trump Team Resists Oversight; Dems Dig In', Denver Post, May 5, p. 4A). Thus:
"They're talking about jailing people at the Capitol. Imposing steep fines. All sorts of extraordinary, if longshot, measures to force the White House to comply with lawmakers' requests for information about President Donald J. Trump stemming from the special counsel's Russia investigation."
And we learn the reason for these extreme proposals, see e.g.
Is that congressional Democrats have been "stunned by the administration's refusal to allow officials to testify or to respond to document requests."
Again, go back to Kurt Bardella's NBC Think piece on these continuing refusals and ongoing obstructions and what they mean for constitutional checks and balances.
Truly, everyone who knows an ounce about the U.S. Constitution or who has ever taken a high school Government class, ought to be stunned, if not shocked. Because what is happening is that one sector of government is maliciously obstructing another co-equal branch from fulfilling its oversight role. In other words, the entire thrust of checks and balances at the core of our system of governance is being spat on and turned on its head. Indeed, recent news releases indicate the Nazi Trumpers are no so emboldened by Mueller's punt they are prepared to "investigate the investigators". The vermin Trump bunch has also dispatched Nosferatu Giuliani to the Ukraine to try to dig up dirt on Joe Biden's deceased son, Beau - to use against Biden if he becomes the nominee.
And this is just the beginning. If indeed Trump gets another four years the lawless, renegade behavior and flouting of norms and laws we see now will be like a walk in the park compared to what will then unfold.
This is why in my opinion there is no issue or question on it: We need this economy to crash - utterly and completely - to spare the nation and its people from an even more terrible fate. No, an economic crash would not "guarantee" an end to radical Trumpism and his efforts to subvert our nation - but it would enhance the probability of disinfecting the country immensely. These are desperate times and desperate measures are needed if the USA is to be in even recognizable form in 4 years.
See also:
Trump’s Diabolical Plan to Blow up Democracy, Get Reelected and Avoid Jail Just Might Work
And:
by Chris Hedges | May 6, 2019 - 6:04am | permalink
And:
Bardella went on to say that when he served (during the Obama years) on the GOP House Oversight committed he always "believed that we were co equal. We didn't believe that he (Obama) didn't respect the authority, the autonomy on what the oversight powers were - even if we disagreed. At the end of the day they would show up for hearings and produce documents because they respected that authority. That's no longer the case and now meets the situation described in The Washington Post where 'democracy dies in daylight'"
However, Post columnist Ruth Marcus responded that it was "too early to declare the end of checks and balances" and Bardella's take was "too dire". This is given the Dems are "asserting themselves" and the issues will eventually go before the courts. However, as Bardella pointed out to her, if the court decisions are made a year or more down the road and not in real time, they are of no use - and Trump wins by running out the clock. This is exactly what's going on now and the source of Maher's and others' frustrations and rage that he could even get away with it.
This is why the collapse of the economy may be our democracy's only salvation.
Note that although the Post story (see image clip) focused on how Trump's fortunes (tied to the economy) are currently rolling along they don't mention how he's also attempting to push the Federal Reserve into lowering rates to jazz up the markets even more Let us carefully note here the Fed is not part of the federal government per se but was founded as an act of congress in 1913 and as 12 separate private banking corporations. (James Livingstone ('Origins of the Federal Reserve System- Money, Class and Corporate Capitalism, 1890-1913 ).
In Friday's WSJ one read ('White House Escalates Row With Fed', p. A1):
"It isn't unprecedented for politicians to lean on the Fed to cut interest rates and give the economy the kind of jolt that voters reward at the polls...But it is rare for the White House to take on the Fed so openly analysts said.
'It not only breaks the norms, it shatters them', said Laurence Meyer a former Fed governor. 'It's just amazing."
Amazing indeed, and worrying. Because if at any point the Fed does cave in to Trump's ravings it will mean the need for an economic crash is amplified. Any boost, especially artificial - which acts like a coke hit for a junkie - will require a powerful antidote. We need that antidote by next year to ensure Trump is not re-elected, especially if he keeps winning these political battles.
The latest is running out the clock to keep the Dems locked up in court challenges as they issue subpoenas and try to make headway with oversight (cf. 'Trump Team Resists Oversight; Dems Dig In', Denver Post, May 5, p. 4A). Thus:
"They're talking about jailing people at the Capitol. Imposing steep fines. All sorts of extraordinary, if longshot, measures to force the White House to comply with lawmakers' requests for information about President Donald J. Trump stemming from the special counsel's Russia investigation."
And we learn the reason for these extreme proposals, see e.g.
Is that congressional Democrats have been "stunned by the administration's refusal to allow officials to testify or to respond to document requests."
Again, go back to Kurt Bardella's NBC Think piece on these continuing refusals and ongoing obstructions and what they mean for constitutional checks and balances.
Truly, everyone who knows an ounce about the U.S. Constitution or who has ever taken a high school Government class, ought to be stunned, if not shocked. Because what is happening is that one sector of government is maliciously obstructing another co-equal branch from fulfilling its oversight role. In other words, the entire thrust of checks and balances at the core of our system of governance is being spat on and turned on its head. Indeed, recent news releases indicate the Nazi Trumpers are no so emboldened by Mueller's punt they are prepared to "investigate the investigators". The vermin Trump bunch has also dispatched Nosferatu Giuliani to the Ukraine to try to dig up dirt on Joe Biden's deceased son, Beau - to use against Biden if he becomes the nominee.
And this is just the beginning. If indeed Trump gets another four years the lawless, renegade behavior and flouting of norms and laws we see now will be like a walk in the park compared to what will then unfold.
This is why in my opinion there is no issue or question on it: We need this economy to crash - utterly and completely - to spare the nation and its people from an even more terrible fate. No, an economic crash would not "guarantee" an end to radical Trumpism and his efforts to subvert our nation - but it would enhance the probability of disinfecting the country immensely. These are desperate times and desperate measures are needed if the USA is to be in even recognizable form in 4 years.
See also:
Trump’s Diabolical Plan to Blow up Democracy, Get Reelected and Avoid Jail Just Might Work
And:
by Chris Hedges | May 6, 2019 - 6:04am | permalink
And:
No comments:
Post a Comment