The Fed Warns Of Economic Calamity If People Don't Change Behaviors - And Dotard Retweets Idiot Quacks

"I know it's true, what that Stella Immanuel said about demons! And I'm gonna retweet it! And yeah, I am a very stable genius!"

"I was probably the healthiest person you ever met. No pre-existing conditions, ski seventy to one hundred days a year.  But I got Covid, had sepsis, had MRSA, had a collapsed lung, and on a ventilator for thirty -one days. Hospitalized for sixty. Loss of blood pressure caused me to lose several fingers. I was on my death bed. This thing is for real, This virus is no joke,"      Greg Garfield,, Covid survivor, this morning on CBS

"It's so fundamental we can't say it enough. Until the virus is contained  the labor market won't be able to fully recover, leaving people in need of support. The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus."  - Fed Chair Jay Powell, WSJ, 'Business & Investing', p. B12. today.

As we learned this morning that the GDP shrank by 32.9 percent in the previous quarter (see WaPo link at bottom), we are now on notice that we had best change behaviors - or NO  part of the economy is coming back.  The news backed up  Federal Reserve  notices and interviews (over the past 4 weeks)  that if Americans don't collectively get on board in dealing with the virus, we are all for the economic high jump ('Fed's Outlook Grows Gloomier', WSJ, July 28, p. A2).    As noted therein:

"Officials have warned this month in speeches and interviews that the economy faces a deeper downturn and more difficult recovery if the country doesn't take more effective action to slow the spread of infection."

Boston  Fed President Eric Rosengren was even more blunt in his assessment:(ibid.):

"This economy will face severe economic consequences if the public health response doesn't improve."

Adding:

"The Fed's policy response is not going to be able to offset all the losses if we continue to make serious public health mistakes."

This was endorsed by Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan:

"How well we follow the health care protocols from here is going to be the primary economic tool we have.left."

In other words, the Fed is out of miracle moves to rescue the economy, and this is the crux of the problem - as so eloquently stated by Jay Powell (see top quote). . It's now up to U.S. citizens to get their act together and work together to alter the course of the virus in the U.S.  This instead of engaging in endless mask wars and other self defeating idiocy while buying into fake notions of personal liberty.  We have to understand in this moment of peril our personal freedom has to be sacrificed for the greater communal good.  If we don't grasp that, if we don't act accordingly, you could as well write our epitaph - and not just for the economy.  In addition, the economic disaster coming will almost surely be compounded if a new huge Covid benefits package  (HEROES ACT) isn't passed, and I mean by TODAY!  If that $600/week unemployment extra benefit isn't in the package you can pretty well kiss the GDP and economy goodbye.  GDP depends on spending, and little or none will be done without the enhanced unemployment benefit.  As  financial contributor Jill Schlesinger said on CBS this morning:

"That extra $600 a week was spent in the economy. So without a new package I think we are going to see the economy flatten out." 

Alas, any change in behaviors for the 1 in 4 Americans who think it's all a "plandemic" or "hoax" may be a long way off.  This is given we have a  leader who is totally incompetent in his response to the pandemic, and done everything -including sidelining top medical experts - to ensure the death toll hits hundreds of thousands by November.  Worse, he has now started pandering to a classic crackpot and spreading her idiocy with his retweets.

Maybe Trump  sings the praises of Stella Immanuel -  a Houston pediatrician and demon believer -

because he senses her IQ is as low as his.   Immanuel, leader of Fire Power Ministries,  believes endometriosis and other potentially dangerous gynecological conditions are the residue of sexual intercourse with demons.  Incredibly,  this quack based at  the Rehoboth Medical Center in Houston, also has claimed "alien DNA"  has been used in medical treatments.  (I do hope in none of my prostate cancer treatments, including cryo-freezing of cancer cells back in 2017.  Were these replaced by 'alien DNA'?  Inquiring minds want to know!)

This crackpot quack Immanuel also teaches that demons, known as “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives”, once walked the Earth in physical form. After they drowned in Noah’s flood, however, they carried on only in non-corporeal form. They visit humans in sexy dreams, which aren’t dreams after all but spirit spouses making a booty call. This is almost as cracked as one "minister" (Contessa Adams) once claiming incubi and succubi inhabited sex toys and could possess the humans using them, see e.g.

• BEWARE! Of Sexual Congress with Succubi!

By contrast, Immanuel's  demons are responsible not only for diseases of the female reproductive system but also for male impotence, most financial troubles, marital discord and spiritual malaise.

No, folks, you cannot make this bullshit up.  But this is the sort of irredeemable crappola our  great leader wastes his time tweeting and retweeting.  As well as watching on the tube.  Don't believe it?  You can find Immanuel on Trump’s Twitter feed, where she testifies to the power of hydroxychloroquine - the magic snake oil Dotard and his ass clowns have been humping for months now.   Sadly, millions of Americans heard or saw her advice, thanks in part to the Dotard's amplifying effect,  this before Facebook took down her page and the video (after 20 million views).

Earlier Twitter took down the offending video because (WSJ, July 29, p. A6):

 "It violated its Covid 19 misinformation policy which prohibits misleading claims asserted as fact to influence others' behavior."

In the wake of that a Trump spokesman fulminated (ibid.):

"It is beyond the pale for Twitter to silence the views of medical professionals who happen to dissent from the establishment's anti-hydroxychloroquine  narrative."

But those weren't "medical professionals" but a gaggle of medical quacks and associated hare-brained imbeciles, like Stella Immanuel.  As for the anti-hydroxychloroquine narrative, that is pure bollocks.  The malaria drug has already caused a number of deaths from inappropriate use and the FDA rightly revoked its emergency use authorization.

The most gratuitously odious event from Tuesday's show news conference? Trump asserting Dr. Anthony Fauci "had misled the public"  and also "Fauci and the Democrats perpetuated Covid deaths to hurt Trump."

Fauci fired back squashing the Trump claim.  As far as hurting Trump, the only one who's done that is the Dotard himself, because of his colossally incompetent response to the pandemic.  Tweeting his numskull conspiracy ideations and watching Trump TV when he ought to have been doing all he could to protect American lives.

The Reeptards, including two Colorado idiots now filing a lawsuit  in Fort Collins, to claim masks are "unconstitutional"  and are "political speech" - ought to be forced to see an image of an intubated Herman Cain - before he croaked from Covid.


 Cain, recall, posted a photo of himself at the Trump Tulsa rally, hamming it up with other unmasked goobers.


A pity this lot didn't see Greg Ip's WSJ piece today (p. A2) noting the death rate from Covid 19 is "5 to 40 times deadlier than seasonal flu."

Not that it would have made much difference.  It seldom does to those on the lower end of the IQ (Bell) curve.

See also:

Economy shrinks at fastest quarterly rate on record

And:

Conservatives and the Right | Covid-19

Disease-denying Propaganda Spews a Pandemic of Pandemonium!

by Robert Becker | August 3, 2020 - 6:19am | permalink

And:

Covid-19 | Donald Trump

Trump Storms out after CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Puts Him to Shame for Promoting a Quack Doctor

And:

Covid-19 | Economic Policy | Media

Health Vs. The Economy? It Was Always a Bogus Choice, but the Media Helped Spread It

And:

Covid-19 | European Union

The Pandemic Reveals a Europe More United than the United States

IS Trump Using Tariffs To "Strong Arm" The Fed Into Cutting Rates? The Nasty Meme (And Truth) Is Now Afoot

On Thursday Trump squealed in a deranged tweet:

"One would think I would be thrilled with our very strong dollar. I am not!  The Fed's high interest rate level, in comparison to other countries, is keeping the dollar high, making it more difficult for our great manufacturers to compete."

Anyone who knows the extent of Trump's chronic derangement knows he'd be all too happy to pursue a sordid policy of dollar debasement to try to get a few market brownie points.  Also, they'd know what's making life more difficult for manufacturers - as well as farmers (and soon U.S. consumers) - are Trump's idiotic tariffs, which are really a tax on domestic interests.  But the malicious buffoon is savvy enough - in a twisted sense- to grasp he can use tariffs to pressure the Fed to lower rates.

It's a fair bet that few,  if any,  citizens are aware of the appalling degree to which American farmers are being put through the economic wringer for Trump.  The tariffs he's now increased on China - causing it to retaliate- will have devastating consequences on farmers as they are unable to sell hogs to the biggest pork consumers, or soybeans.

Less likely is that many would have seen what I read a few days ago in the Business & Finance section of The Wall Street Journal (p. B14,  Aug. 7) i.e.  that many economics experts and finance mavens now believe our nutso occupant of the Oval Office is using tariffs to "strongarm the Fed"  into cutting interest rates.

Look, we already know Tyrant Trump has been on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's case the past year to cut rates.  We know the swine has berated the Fed incessantly about lowering rates,  going so far as  to try to tilt the Federal Reserve Board with two unqualified lackeys: Herman Cain and Stephen Moore.  Fortunately, after much media heat centered on their woeful and clown -like backgrounds both backed out. 

But Donnie Dumpsterfire  never let up on his Fed attacks and search for leverage so pushed a new toady - Judy Shelton  (see photo above)- who, wait for it:   Yearns for the resurrection of the gold standard.   As a recent (July 3rd) Reuters report  described her:

"She has long advocated a return to the gold standard for the U.S. dollar, something most economists regard as a deflationary regime that would curb the Fed’s ability to respond to an economic downturn. She has also criticized the central bank’s post-crisis policies of zero interest rates and bond buying.

She has changed her tune in recent weeks, arguing that the Fed should be cutting rates to allow the administration’s tax cuts and deregulation to benefit the economy. That seems expedient, perhaps indicating that Shelton will in fact reflect the president’s views at the Fed."

Well, we all ought to worry if she succeeds in getting  a place on the Federal Reserve board, especially if this vapid virago still believes the gold standard is an answer. And also if she practices the financial philosophy of "political winds' directions", i.e. criticizing Fed near zero interest rates when Obama was president, but now ready to go against them with Dotard having seized the office with the Russkies' help and an archaic Electoral college. 

But the percipient will see her as yet another Trump pawn to try to push the Fed to fulfill his will, i.e. to lower interest rates to try to stimulate the economy when it doesn't need it. The increased tariffs (up to 10 % on all Chinese goods now)  are an even more potent force in this direction, because they tend to create weakened economic conditions for the U.S. which need addressing and for which few other options exist. The problem is that they are destroying the livelihood and  financial stability of the nation's ordinary (non-corporate) farmers. See e.g.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/10/trump-is-ruining-our-markets-farmers-lose-a-huge-customer-to-trade-war----china.html


Key takeaways from the piece:

• U.S. farmers lost their fourth largest customer this week after China officially cancelled all purchases of U.S. agricultural products, a retaliatory move following President Donald Trump’s pledge to slap 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports.
• China’s exit piles on to a devastating year for farmers, who’ve struggled through record flooding and droughts that destroyed crop yields, and trade war escalations that have lowered prices and profits this year.
• “It’s really, really getting bad out here,” Bob Kuylen, a farmer of 35 years in North Dakota, told CNBC.
• “There’s no incentive to keep farming, except that I’ve invested everything I have in farming, and it’s hard to walk away.”

Process that, and then the meme that Trump is using tariffs to strong arm the Fed.  They are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, in the WSJ Op-ed 'A Fed Reversal Will Store Up Trouble' (July 30, p. A17) we learned:

"The escalating U.S. - China trade war had led bond markets to price almost three rate cuts by the end of 2019 at one point, signaling the Federal Reserve will do whatever it takes to maintain GDP growth"

This after already observing (ibid.), the action has been spawned by "Trump's increasing criticism and calling for rate cuts and another round of quantitative easing."    Put the two together and what do you get?  Well,  that Trump is stoking the trade war with his escalating tariffs and will continue to do so to try to strong arm Powell's Fed into giving rate cuts.    But as the authors (Danny Yong and Nikhil Srinivasan)  also warn:

"By folding to these external pressures and cutting interest rates while U.S. equity markets are at all time highs and unemployment is at multi-decade lows the Fed is putting its credibility at stake."

Worse, the meme is out that a prime Trump Toady, Peter Navarro, in league with Trump, will trigger another recession with this madness. (cf.  WSJ, 'A Navarro Recession?',  Aug. 8, p. A14).  The Journal editors had a clear warning for Trump, writing:

"The irony, and a dangerous one, is that Mr. Trump doesn't seem to understand that his trade policy is contributing to exchange rate instability and a rising dollar."

Which is interesting given that Dotard - from his tweeting rant (see top quote)- accused the Fed and Powell of the rising dollar.  It's clear even the WSJ perceives he really is the dumbass we all suspected, certainly  in terms of  his inane  economic policies. The editors go on:

"When he slaps tariffs on China he reduces the demand for Chinese yuan. He also encourages capital flight to safe havens like the dollar, which encourages more capital into dollar instruments and the U.S."

In other words, Trump is acting the part of a mentally deficient kid playing with matches near a gas stove. The moron has no conception of cause and effect- i.e. between his tariffs and the flight to the dollar (raising the greenback's value).  As the editors conclude:

"If Mr. Trump can't strike  a broader trade deal with China before the election, he should at least call a trade truce to reduce the damage...Trump's willy-nilly trade offensive could be the mistake that turns a slow down into the Navarro recession'"

Let's also note that in an earlier editorial ('The Confusing Federal Reserve', July 30, p. A16) the WSJ editors were alarmed enough by the Fed's quixotic moves re: rate cuts that they noted: "This contributes to the suspicion in markets that the Fed is really trying to accommodate Mr. Trump's public demand for rate cuts."

In other words, Powell and the Fed have shown - and likely will further show  - even with rate cuts into negative interest territory they they are at the beck and call of the narcissistic autocrat in the White House.

This elicits the question: Does Powell even know that he and his compadres are being strong armed into rate cuts?   To quote the WSJ editors (ibid.):

"We'd like to think that's not true and it's dangerous for the Fed's credibility if it is.  But as long as the Fed bounces from tightening to easing based on inconsistent logic, the suspicion will persist."


See also:

China | Donald Trump | Trade

Trump’s Sudden Surrender in His Trade War with China Shows He Still Has No Idea What He’s Doing

Powell's Fed Has NO Business Propping Up Trump Or The Markets - With Interest Rate Cuts

"Cripes, I don't know how to control this stupid asshole! I guess I'll just give in."


Barely 4 days ago, I was unable to believe my eyes as I read:

Web results

Fed Begins Debate on Whether to Cut Rate as Soon as June - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/.../fed-faces-challenging-rate-decision-at-june-meeting-115598337...

Web resultThis was not a headline designed to inspire confidence among ordinary citizens - especially dedicated savers  not prepared to gamble their money in Maul Street's casinos.  Thus, we were not encouraged on reading (ibid.)Barel"A month ago, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell played down speculation of a rate cut this summer. Now officials at the central bank face a darker economic outlook and heightened trade tensions, making a rate cut possible—if not at their meeting on June 18-19, then in July or later."

"A month ago, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell played down speculation of a rate cut this summer. Now officials at the central bank face a darker economic outlook and heightened trade tensions, making a rate cut possible—if not at their meeting on June 18-19, then in July or later."

This was appalling news especially for dedicated savers. Worse, it portends an ill financial wind for all Americans if it helps to accelerate the economy toward recession rather than improve it. That happens as the Fed seeks to stimulate an economy already over leveraged (deeply in debt) and with employment near full capacity.   But the word is that Powell and others on the Fed Board are "puzzled as to why inflation hasn't risen more".  (Rising inflation would signal a need to raise interest rates.)  Well, there are two reasons: 1)Wages remain stagnant so the usual inflation driver of higher wages in flush times isn't there, and 2) The Fed continues to use an inflation index that's out of date, not factoring in food price increases or medical inflation, especially for meds.

 Barely two weeks earlier, one read ('Investors Expect Rates Cuts By Year's End Despite Data', WSJ, May 16, p. B 10):

"Federal funds futures suggest investors are more convinced than ever that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates multiple times by the end of the year. Economic data suggest that is too drastic a bet."

Adding:

"Fed future data show the market pricing in a 26 percent chance of the Fed lowering rates twice by the end of 2019 and a 7.5 percent chance of the Fed doing it three times. That is up from 6.7%  and 0.3 % a month ago.

The numbers seems to stand at odds with economic data which overall have shown a strong labor market, inflation expectations that are tame, and modest profit growth well into the economic expansion.  After all, the last time the Fed cut rates was in 2008 - when policy makers were in the midst of grappling with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and financial markets were tumbling..

And more recently (June 10) our memories were refreshed (WSJ, 'Business and Finance', p. B8):  

"Then there was the Fed rate cut in September, 2007, which gave the DOW Jones Industrial Average its biggest one day percentage gain since 2003.  Fast forward one year and the U.S. was in the teeth of the financial crisis."


All of which shows me the Fed may be tempted to hit the 'chicken switch' before it's necessary and trigger what it's trying to avoid. Indeed, digging an unnecessary rate hole that may well be needed  (i.e. to really lower rates) if and when a recession does hit - as something like 70 percent of economists are forecasting now - by next year. 

Indeed, signs we're hurtling toward recession were amplified in the more recent article  ('Sluggish Jobs Data Push Treasury Yields Toward 2 Percent', WSJ,  June 8, p. A2) which ominously reported:

"Worries span the globe. The yield on 10 year German government debt Friday declined to record lows below negative  0.2 %.  Japanese government bonds of the same maturity traded below negative 0.1 %.  About $11 trillion of bonds around the world, concentrated in Europe and Japan, carry negative yields now accounting for about 20 percent of all debt world -wide according of Torsten Slok - chief economist at Deutsche Bank Securities."

This debt bogeyman is for real and people would do well not to minimize it.  Indeed, as far back as two years ago The Financial Times reported on the IMF's growing concern about exploding global debt (April 17, ('IMF Sounds Alarm On Excessive Global Borrowing') :

"The world's $164 trillion debt pile is bigger than at the height of the financial crisis a decade ago, the IMF has warned, sounding the alarm on excessive global borrowing.  The fund said the private and public sectors urgently need to cut debt levels to improve the resilience of the global economy, and provide greater firefighting ability it things go wrong.

Fiscal stimulus to support demand  is no longer the priority the IMF said Wednesday in a report published at its spring meetings in Washington. "


But instead of heeding that warning, the Fed appears hell bent on ignoring it to placate and feed investors' addictions to the already senescent BULL market while appeasing Trump.  This is the swine who's berated the Fed incessantly about lowering rates,  going so far as  to try to tilt the Federal Reserve Board with two unqualified lackeys: Herman Cain and Stephen Moore.  Fortunately, after much media heat centered on their woeful and clown -like backgrounds both backed out. But Dotard never let up on his Fed attacks, and in previous posts I worried about Fed Chairman Jerome Powell bending to the fake Fuhrer's will.  

We also are well aware here - as Trump likely is - the only way we may see the end of this orange fungal infection is if the economy crashes. It's now on the verge of doing that (via a potential recession) but any Fed intervention will try to interfere to halt that.  Will the Fed deliberately be trying to help Trump stay in office? Not likely, because there's no way in hell Powell is eager to take 4 more years of Trump's temper tantrums than the rest of us. No, he'd likely want to try to avert a recession - with the best of intentions - except that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

However,  the very act of the Fed interjecting with  lower rates may well preordain two hellish consequences: 1) a Trump re-election,  and 2) Ultimately a much worse recession especially if a re-elected Trump  returns to his tariff terrorism - which has already wrought untold havoc. (See e.g. today's lead WSJ Editorial, 'Paying for  Mexico's Wall', noting: "Trump's use of tariffs as a bludgeon on migrants has economic costs. The threat of 25 % tariffs on Mexican exports is gone for now, but businesses can't be sure it won't come back."  )

Never mind the last minute phony end to the Mexican tariffs.  Which we now know Mexico had agreed to months ago, so Dotard manufactured this latest tariff crisis on his own. As usual,  employing chaos and threats to advance his feral agenda, while keeping businesses and American consumers off balance.  Former Obama CIA official Ned Price has this scum pegged perfectly, noting in a recent (June 9)  NY Times piece:

 "He manufactures a crisis, galvanizes his base around the challenge, leaves the definition of success undefined, pretends to play hardball and, lo and behold, finds a solution that entails little more than window-dressing, if that. For Trump, it’s a win-win. But the loser tends to be the American people, oftentimes Trump’s base first and foremost,” 

Why doesn't Trump's base see they are his tackling dummies, used for sport whenever he feels the urge?  Well, because they believe they are "in on the secret" and hence accept whatever drubbing he delivers so long as they might get to see the 'snowflakes'  cry.   Call it schadenfreude but with a nasty blowback.

As for the stock market, Powell wouldn't be doing it or investors any favors by jazzing it up with a rate cut. While it will temporarily boost share prices, it will he at the expense of a mammoth asset bubble. Also, an asset bubble leveraged into being by massive debt, creating an even more unstable financial system.

To fix ideas, let's note here that "support demand" (see FT  quote) refers to support of  "aggregate demand", i.e. getting citizens to spend more - which was the basis for the Trump-GOP tax cuts. This was an incredibly bad play given how much the tax cuts have already added to the debt, and the deficits going forward.

Economist and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Reich warned on 'All In' Friday:

"With all the ancillary damage from these tariffs, and threatened tariffs (against Mexico) you could find the economy in recession before the election."

Chris Hayes then asked if the threats are large enough to knock us from an expansion into a recession, i.e. what's the case if it could.  To which Reich responded:

"Well, it's the interaction between the tariffs and the slowdown that's almost inevitable given how long this recovery has gone.  I mean recoveries don't go forever, they eventually slow down. Also American companies and American individuals are deep in debt, which is another thing that's not talked about very much.

But that debt is also a problem. Then, you have that tax cut for big corporations and for the very wealthy that did not trickle down. it just added two trillion dollars over the next ten years to our debt.

Now put all of that together and you get an economy that is very, very vulnerable."


Reinforcing this take, as The Denver Post noted (June 9. p. A):

"Recessions typically result when the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy to cool an overheating economy. ..The past two recessions came on the heels of financial excesses, a massive stock market bubble in the early 2000s and an unprecedented housing bubble that triggered the financial crisis in 2008."

Yet now Jerome Powell's Fed seems intent on producing an even bigger bubble, by juicing stocks using interest rate cuts.  Has he been intimidated by Trump into choosing this unwise route? We don't know but the signs are not good. Following the track of the last eight months - and Trump's numerous eruptions - it really does look like Powell has caved. Both to greedy Maul Street investors pressing for more cheap money crack,  and to Dotard.

The questions then become: a) Is it better to cut rates now and in so doing create an asset and debt bubble with even worse effects later, or b)  allow financial destiny to unfold as it will, which may mean a recession - but it will effectively help get rid of the disease called Trump.  I vote for the latter out of plain common sense.

I mean, as NY Times columnist Michelle Goldberg put it on the same 'All In' show, how much more can we take?  Millions of citizens are already tuning out, and despairing that nothing can remove the national disease emanating from the White House.  This is especially after Trump's despicable and dishonorable performance for the D-Day commemoration on Thursday (insulting a real warrior, former Marine Robert Mueller, as well as disparaging Nancy Pelosi - in the shadow of the grave markers at Normandy. This from a coward who used 'bone spurs' to escape from the draft at least 5 times.)

And then we learned in the aftermath that this preening orange, 2-legged maggot wants to insinuate himself into the Independence Day celebrations!  Where does it end? Has Dotard not yet learned Presidents are to be seen and only occasionally heard - generally in their State of the Union spiels?  Four more years of this fuck-turd! Give me a recession anytime!  We need a total disinfection and fumigation of the country. 

So no,  Fed chairman Powell, no rate cuts! Stay your hand and allow the course of history to do what it will. If it means Trump's lone re-election benefit has evaporated, so be it. If it means investors are crying in their beer, we can live with that.  


See also:

P.M. Carpenter

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Donald Trump | Mexico | Trade

Trump's Mexico/Tariff Scam

And:

Economic Policy | Foreign Policy | Trade

Trump’s Mexico Tariffs Are About White Nationalism, Not Trade

Why Would An African American Choose To Live On The Conservative "Plantation"?

.
"Yes, Massahs! I will say whatever it take to get ya to like a black man!"

An ongoing enigma in the political- economic sphere is why any American black would labor in the service of the GOP, or conservatives in general.  This includes fronting as a conservo columnist a la Tom Sowell,  regurgitating tropes and canards in line with standard conservative balderdash and ideology - when that same ideology has helped to keep the blacks in real and metaphorical chains for hundreds of years. Thus, the enigma of a "black Republican" or "black conservative" is often as head-scratching as seeing a pro-Nazi Jew, or a pro-Custer native American. It doesn't add up, and elicits much cognitive dissonance..

But why does it happen in the first place? Why do black men (and some black females)  make common cause with an organization, political party or ideology that through history has never had their best interests at heart?

Offhand, the history-savvy researcher can offer a couple of plausible reasons:

1) The black person lacks a deep knowledge of history, especially the specifics of how conservative thought has underscored slavery and exploitation of labor as well as engendered general racial discrimination (in terms of withholding services to blacks- including invention of the term "welfare queen" for poor female blacks on welfare), and voter suppression. (The GOP response to Obama getting re-elected by large numbers of sane African -Americans who realized they'd literally be "plowing the fields" under a Mitt Romney administration.)

This is actually the potential leading reason for a black to join up with any conservative group or cause: Ignorance. Plain, unadulterated, and unfiltered.  It also helps explain the choice. Clearly if the African American columnist or politician isn't aware of how his race has been exploited by radical Right adherents, he will not be motivated to avoid them, or castigate them.

This brings us to the next reason:

2) The black person is fully aware of the historical transgressions as well as exploitation of his race by Right extremists, but is prepared to either overlook them or forgive them.

This type of reaction would be expected from a highly religious black like Ben Carson- especially if a solid Christian conservative. While these types of sects favor moral absolutism they also place a high priority on forgiveness, as Yeshua would have done. Thus, the seed to forgive those who persecute would already be embedded in their consciousness and predispose them to absolve "Massah". Having done that it'd be just a small step to get aligned with the 'program'. I.e. to help Massah neutralize Demo blacks and render them either no impact (by vote suppression) or his mental slaves (by ingesting propaganda from conservo zombie blacks)

A side laugher: Wingnuts often portray progressives as "wanting to keep blacks on the Dem plantation" - but in fact, the converse is true. It is wingnuts who are deathly afraid of losing their small retinue of token blacks - like Herman Cain, Ben Carson, Tom Sowell et al. because these guys actually provide cover for their racism and Obama hate.  If there were no token blacks to hold up as "models" the full vile racism would be exposed - no "tokens" to help hide it.

Perhaps one of the most controversial reasons offered for political alignments of minorities with dominant white groups is that of "black appeasement of the white master" first put forward more than 35 years ago by Political Science Prof. Ralph Gonsalves - then at the University of the West Indies.

Gonsalves' theory likened the capitalist system (especially in the Caribbean) to a plantation, and just as slaves might compete for prominence in a sugar plantation so also many would do so in the capitalist plantation system. Those who got ahead, reaped the most benefits -- did so by ingratiating themselves with the power holders, CEOs and owners of capital. They often provided the PR to support the company or support the takeover aims, to increase profits.

In this regard, a columnist like Thomas Sowell would perfectly fit in with the profile of a propagandist for the white corporatists. His many columns reflect such support and at the same time show disdain for his struggling brothers. E.g.



Many right wingers often whine that the use of the term "Uncle Tom" (especially applied to one of their token blacks)  is a "racist" term which is really choice, given they like to depict Obama as a witch doctor.

In truth, the term "Uncle Tom" is quite legitimate, especially as applied to any African American who deliberately and knowingly undermines the advancement of his own race, as Thomas Sowell has consistently done via his endless columns on behalf of Wall Street oligarchs, rich White CEOs and the WHITE Neoliberal Overclass elites of this country.

When you churn out propaganda piece after propaganda piece, with no thought how it undermines your own race you are an Uncle Tom!

The sad fact here is the 'Uncle Tom" sobriquet fully applies because it is abundantly clear Sowell is "the Man's" house slave, doing his bidding to undermine his fellow blacks - with whom he no longer sees any affinity or common bond. I mean he's getting paid to write this drivel for "the Man" in the same way a house slave before the Civil War might have received perks (e.g. reading -writing privileges) for ratting on the field slaves!In that sense he's also little different from a past miscreant black repuke candidate named Herman Cain. But at least, in the latter case, that Uncle Tom's probability of becoming president  (like "Uncle Ben" Carson) is barely more than the probability of Martians landing at the Capitol  to abduct all the Repukes - sparing us their terrorist debt ceiling extortion and ongoing House Speaker drama!

During Hitler's Holocaust, Traitor Jews called "Sonderkommando" were used by the Nazis to sweet talk Jewish arrivals to the Concentration camps into disrobing for "showers" when they knew it was to allow more rapid passage into the gas chambers.

Today, we have an African -American contingent of 'Konservo-kommando'  who, while they don't expedite physical termination for their brothers, do work for their economic marginalization and "termination" (of voting franchise.).

How The Hell Can ANY Vet Be For Ben Carson - When He Wants To Eliminate the Dept. Of Veterans Affairs?

This is a real head scratching question, and it frankly boggles my mind. It has been known for some time that the new right wing token African American "Messiah" - Ben Carson - wants to eliminate the Veterans Administration, on which many vets depend for their health care. It even got headlines in the 'Military Times', e.g.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2015/08/28/carson-dump-va-reaction/71312038/


So why the hell would any sane and sensible vet even remotely cater to this fool, or indicate a remote support? I don't get it. (Although again, it may be to drag out the token wingnut black again, like they did with Herman Cain in 2012, to try to paint Lefties as "Nazis" or "Klavern types from the KKK".  But it doesn't wash this time because the VA ought to be a precious benefit to every red-blooded vet and cause them to get rid of any notions that "Uncle Ben" is their bosom pal.

According to the Military Times:

"Presidential hopeful Ben Carson’s comments suggesting the  Veterans Affairs Department should be eliminated drew quick condemnation from multiple veterans groups, who called the idea short-sighted and ill-informed.

On a national radio show Thursday, Carson said that the country need to re-examine how it cares for veterans but also how to cut back on government bureaucracy.

“There is a lot of stuff we’re doing that doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “We don’t need a Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs should be folded in under the Department of Defense.”

Carson said he wants to provide all veterans with health savings accounts to pay for private-sector medical care and reserve defense-run veterans clinics for highly specialized care, like traumatic brain injury treatment and limb replacements.

Just a few hours after the remarks, leaders from the Veterans of Foreign Wars blasted the proposals as harmful to veterans.

“To suggest that disabled veterans could be sent out into the economy with a health savings account card overlooks the fact that civilian health care has waiting lists of their own … and presupposes that civilian doctors have the same skill sets as VA doctors, who see veterans of every age and malady every day,” VFW National Commander John Biedrzyck said in a statement.

“(VA) provides an irreplaceable service to the nation’s wounded, ill and injured veterans, and my organization will not let any candidate for any office suggest anything otherwise.”

Officials at Wounded Warrior Project said they will not endorse or condemn any candidates, but said Carson’s proposal “would not constitute a good path forward” for veterans."

I confess I am at a loss to grasp the Wounded Warriors tepid reaction. If they had any sense and were really for wounded warriors, they'd excoriate this candidate in no uncertain terms.

As I have related to family vets, the benefit they have via the VA is like having another $150k or more saved that the rest of us don't. So why would you support a doofus who wants to take it away?

Trump, aka "the Donna", may be many things - including a spineless, xenophobic demagogue-  but at least he doesn't want to take Vets' VA benefits away!

Not Being Expected To Tip At A Restaurant: More Americans Need to Experience It

Onwe

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Split scene at Panorama Restaurant at the Fortress HohenSalzburg in Austria

One of the terrific aspects of travel in Germany and Austria was a firm 'Nein!' on any expectation of having to tip. Wherever we went, whether in Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Zugspitze, Innsbruck or the HohenSalzburg Panorama Restaurant in Salzburg - see image- there was zero expectation of customer gratuity.

Our last night with long time German friends Elli and Reinhart we spent at the  Bräustüberl  Restaurant (actually located in old Garmisch, http://www.braeustueberl-garmisch.de/ ) I asked Reinhart the reasons for the absence of gratuities for servers in Germany. He laughed over a tall brew of Krönig Ludwig and replied: "It's because we believe in paying them real wages here that they can live off!"

He explained that the wage scales were such that health insurance was provided for as well as vacation time and pension benefits. There was simply no need to task a customer to come up with extra dough which, as he knew (from several visits to the States) was merely customer subsidy - letting the employer off the hook. He insisted: "If your restuarants in the States even raised their prices barely a dollar across the board they could afford to pay more decent wage instead of expecting the customer to do what the employer ought to."

He had a point. The system in the U.S. then is really a very poor one, where wait staff basically sign on as indentured servants whose miserly scale pay, at $2.13 /hr. is usually quickly snatched up by the employer to pay whatever "expenses" he can think of, with the employee then scrambling to make enough in tips to pay the rent, or just groceries.  Worse and worse, I wager none of the wait staff in the U.S. get anywhere near the two full weeks vacation that wait staff get in Germany, Austria. I told Reinhart that they were more or less stuck with the "Herman Cain" model of restaurant compensation, reflected in their experiencing triple the poverty rate  of the general U.S. workforce.

Fortunately, a new light seems to have emerged at the proverbial end of the U.S. Miserly Tunnel. Well, at least at one New York City venue: Sushi Yasuda, an upscale place in midtown Manhattan, has opted to provide its staff with a decent salary and benefits package that includes vacation days, sick leave and health insurance. Instead of a tip line, the restaurant notifies their patrons at the bottom of the check:

“Following the custom in Japan, Sushi Yasuda’s service staff are fully compensated by their salary. Therefore gratuities are not accepted.”

Hey! Sounds an awful lot like the custom in most of Germany and Austria!

Of course, inevitably, some customers will always be so conditioned that they give tips whatever the new policy. But at Sushi Yasuda,  any tips the staff does receive goes straight to the house, rather than staff. Meanwhile, food prices have been raised an extra 15 percent to compensate wages, but there’s been no apparent change in customer volume.

Sushi Yasuda’s Co-owner, Scott Rosenberg, told The Price Hike

“The risk is that your prices appear to be high on the menu. But if you have faith in what you’re serving, and how you’re serving it, you know that when your customers have a good meal and look at their final tally it’s going to be around the same.”

Hey, now there's a novel thought! Have faith in what you're serving, then set ther prices accordingly - to meet the goal of providing a living wage for your staff! If your grub is in any good, people will come! They sure do in Germany, and over there the prices are marked in euros with one euro equivalent to about $1.30 U.S.  The meal I had at  Bräustüberl  featured roast duck and potatoes, salad with a dark German beer and ditto for Janice. It came to some 54 euros (27 euro each) or $70.20 U.S. And worth every cent by the way. Besides the server so enjoyed our table we each received a free round of Schnapps.

I would wager a similar model could be employed here in the U.S. say at place like Applebees or Olive Garden and with lower prices relative to what we paid in Europe. For example, Olive Gardens in Denver currently have a special 3-course special Italian dinner for $12.95. I am willing to bet that this might be offered instead at $15.95 and customers will still come and buy it if it's that good. The extra money can then be used to pay real server wages.

Alas, this is perhaps more a pipe dream than realistic. The chains - chain restaurants are more likely committed to the 'Herman Cain' model of meager wage and scrambling for tips - especially if the competition doesn't change but sticks to low dinner costs. This means a large portion of the U.S. work force will never really be able to improve its lot and Americans - perpetually anticipating low food prices - will come to expect restaurants deliver them as is their wont.