There are fairy tales and legends where evil madmen accidentally become rulers and destroy their kingdoms ... This is now reality. The world is hostage to a venomous, cretinous lunatic. In all this, perhaps the biggest threat of all, the climate crisis, has been completely forgotten. This guy could take us all down with him ... and I'm pretty sure the only thing he would feel is pride at bagging the starring role in the history books.
I think you’ve summed it up pretty well. All he cares about is dominating. He doesn’t care about trade deficit per se, it’s what his policy looks like in the news & how it brow beats other countries. He’s like a mad bull ripping, snorting, plowing ahead, to hell with everyone & everything. Musk said empathy has caused the downfall of western civilization. No clearer indications are needed to show that both of these power hungry reactionaries are sociopathic.
Thank you for mentioning the climate crisis. It's like it's disappeared into thin air. Trump has sucked up all the oxygen in the room. It's rank insanity. If only Kim Stanley Robinson (author of The Ministry for the Future) was US President!
Stephen Colbert pointed out to John Bolton that it was quite naive of him to believe that he could control Trump's policies, to which Bolton replied ' I don't like you calling me naive.' Well, I agree with Colbert here.
Excellent summation. A few more comments about Scott Bessent: 1) His first public act for Trump was to go to Ukraine and present a extortionist contract (not a proposal!) to Zelenskii and demanded he sign. No one paid much attention but I certainly did; 2) he is a failed hedge fund guy. His main fund went from $5.1 billion in 2017 (with a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros!) to $577 million in 2023, with the number of institutional investors declining from 180 to 20 over the same time period; and I will reiterate that he is a hedge fund guy who essentially focuses on high-risk trading strategies. I never understood why people thought he would be the adult in the room with Trump. Trump demands absolute loyalty, which was screamingly obvious. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him because he is worried about his reputation now? Geez...
I agree with you, Henrietta ... my impression is that to all-too-many if not most of the financial 'geniuses' on Wall Street who trained as elite business schools (Wharton, Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, etc.) the point of a deal is to "put something over on the buyer". In other words, to run a successful con. I, too, have always been baffled by the way Bessant was 'anointed' by so many as the 'adult' who would restrain Trump. From what I've read of him, he's cut off the same bolt of cloth. And his comments over the last few days have done nothing but reinforce that opinion. I suspect that part of the 'slack' that reporters cut him was because he was one of Trump's DEI hires: the (married) gay guy that no one would dare criticize for fear of appearing to be homophobic.
Wall Street types do not understand politics. Which also means they are bad at measuring a key component of risk. Which means they are bad at their jobs.
As Deep Throat says in All the President’s Men, “Forget the myths the media created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”
Agreed there are no adults in the room to constrain him. Luckily there are other rooms: the legislative branch and the judicial branch. Constraints will have to come from one or both of those. And of course both of those branches will act (slowly, slowly) based on changes in public opinion.
IMO those of us who are rooting for a return of sanity should be glad that Trump is tanking the markets right now. Not many things will grab the attention of middle America faster than the destruction of their 401(k) values.
Only dominance display, hoping all counter parties will concede and negotiate whatever they can get from Trump.
He was shocked the Chinese responded by announcing tariffs. Any analysis & plan would have foreseen this. The Chinese recognized that even sitting down to negotiate under these terms would be a mistake.
Not being required to analyze and plan enables Trump to move at breakneck speed. Move fast and you’re likely to break things.
It’s time to demand that Trump show his work. Where’s the analysis? Where are the plans?
It's important to realize and accept that MAGA is just like Trump, and they will outlast him. US politics will be insane for as long as MAGA will be on the scene. Expect other countries to act accordingly. The break is not a blip.
Interesting to see the Wall Street Journal this morning going very much against Trump. It’s as if the core of the American economy (as opposed to its parasites) actually care about economic policy.
They literally endorsed the candidate who made these exact promises, and it was only 4 months ago. Then they all showed up for his inauguration, in which he repeated the promises.
The American business community is responsible for putting Trump in power, they have no right to complain now or ever. They deserve to be boycotted and bankrupted, then mocked eternally alongside Ozymandias and Icarus.
The tRump regime has and will continue to richly validate one of the more famous and immutable observations of human and organizational behavior: *Murphy's Law*, which simply and succinctly states that if "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.". We are seeing this played out virtually daily, and as a invaluable corollary, we must add to Murphy's Law the epigram, "Everything tRump touches, dies".
Combining the two, one arrives at a cogent and compelling expression to neatly sum up tRump 2.0...QED.
The wee peabrain was trying to absorb your post but the story of Sampson and the destruction of the temple and the philistines got in the way. "Let Me Die With The Economy!!!"
Surely presidents and prime ministers only propose what the whole of parliament, senate have approved. Scince when has one person been able to control totally their will on whole nations without consultation.
Lord, how many stories & opinion pieces & podcasts warned the electorate over & over again that in his 1st term, Trump was stopped over & over from taking inane/illegal/immoral actions by the “adults in the room”. Those advisors wrote books & editorials telling us he was a moron with no understanding of history & fascist to the core. Literally their words.
No one listened. Not to them, not to the 1000s of national security experts from both parties signing dire letters warning of the existential danger this man posed to the country. They were either ignored or dismissed as Trump haters.
We KNEW he had been constrained in his first presidency & those “adults” had been replaced by a collection of cabinet officials, dutifully confirmed by this complicit Senate, that should be living on The Island of Misfit Toys.
If voters had paid even the slightest bit of attention, or perhaps if they had been able to bring themselves to vote for a woman, our country would not be in this peril.
A serious nation that was repeatedly warned & ignored every warning and fact and reality would never have elected this man. This was not a failure of imagination; it was a deliberate choice by a nation who aren’t wise enough for self governance.
There are fairy tales and legends where evil madmen accidentally become rulers and destroy their kingdoms ... This is now reality. The world is hostage to a venomous, cretinous lunatic. In all this, perhaps the biggest threat of all, the climate crisis, has been completely forgotten. This guy could take us all down with him ... and I'm pretty sure the only thing he would feel is pride at bagging the starring role in the history books.
I think you’ve summed it up pretty well. All he cares about is dominating. He doesn’t care about trade deficit per se, it’s what his policy looks like in the news & how it brow beats other countries. He’s like a mad bull ripping, snorting, plowing ahead, to hell with everyone & everything. Musk said empathy has caused the downfall of western civilization. No clearer indications are needed to show that both of these power hungry reactionaries are sociopathic.
Thank you for mentioning the climate crisis. It's like it's disappeared into thin air. Trump has sucked up all the oxygen in the room. It's rank insanity. If only Kim Stanley Robinson (author of The Ministry for the Future) was US President!
Stephen Colbert pointed out to John Bolton that it was quite naive of him to believe that he could control Trump's policies, to which Bolton replied ' I don't like you calling me naive.' Well, I agree with Colbert here.
Excellent summation. A few more comments about Scott Bessent: 1) His first public act for Trump was to go to Ukraine and present a extortionist contract (not a proposal!) to Zelenskii and demanded he sign. No one paid much attention but I certainly did; 2) he is a failed hedge fund guy. His main fund went from $5.1 billion in 2017 (with a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros!) to $577 million in 2023, with the number of institutional investors declining from 180 to 20 over the same time period; and I will reiterate that he is a hedge fund guy who essentially focuses on high-risk trading strategies. I never understood why people thought he would be the adult in the room with Trump. Trump demands absolute loyalty, which was screamingly obvious. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him because he is worried about his reputation now? Geez...
I agree with you, Henrietta ... my impression is that to all-too-many if not most of the financial 'geniuses' on Wall Street who trained as elite business schools (Wharton, Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, etc.) the point of a deal is to "put something over on the buyer". In other words, to run a successful con. I, too, have always been baffled by the way Bessant was 'anointed' by so many as the 'adult' who would restrain Trump. From what I've read of him, he's cut off the same bolt of cloth. And his comments over the last few days have done nothing but reinforce that opinion. I suspect that part of the 'slack' that reporters cut him was because he was one of Trump's DEI hires: the (married) gay guy that no one would dare criticize for fear of appearing to be homophobic.
NAILED IT‼️‼️
Exactly right. There is madness and no method. Just destruction.
Wall Street types do not understand politics. Which also means they are bad at measuring a key component of risk. Which means they are bad at their jobs.
As Deep Throat says in All the President’s Men, “Forget the myths the media created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”
Agreed there are no adults in the room to constrain him. Luckily there are other rooms: the legislative branch and the judicial branch. Constraints will have to come from one or both of those. And of course both of those branches will act (slowly, slowly) based on changes in public opinion.
IMO those of us who are rooting for a return of sanity should be glad that Trump is tanking the markets right now. Not many things will grab the attention of middle America faster than the destruction of their 401(k) values.
I "liked" this, DD, but I wish there was an "Ugh" button, because that's my substantive reaction.
There is no analysis, no plan.
Only dominance display, hoping all counter parties will concede and negotiate whatever they can get from Trump.
He was shocked the Chinese responded by announcing tariffs. Any analysis & plan would have foreseen this. The Chinese recognized that even sitting down to negotiate under these terms would be a mistake.
Not being required to analyze and plan enables Trump to move at breakneck speed. Move fast and you’re likely to break things.
It’s time to demand that Trump show his work. Where’s the analysis? Where are the plans?
It's important to realize and accept that MAGA is just like Trump, and they will outlast him. US politics will be insane for as long as MAGA will be on the scene. Expect other countries to act accordingly. The break is not a blip.
Interesting to see the Wall Street Journal this morning going very much against Trump. It’s as if the core of the American economy (as opposed to its parasites) actually care about economic policy.
They literally endorsed the candidate who made these exact promises, and it was only 4 months ago. Then they all showed up for his inauguration, in which he repeated the promises.
The American business community is responsible for putting Trump in power, they have no right to complain now or ever. They deserve to be boycotted and bankrupted, then mocked eternally alongside Ozymandias and Icarus.
They like Trump’s tax cuts and were hoping he wouldn’t go through with the tariffs.
The tRump regime has and will continue to richly validate one of the more famous and immutable observations of human and organizational behavior: *Murphy's Law*, which simply and succinctly states that if "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.". We are seeing this played out virtually daily, and as a invaluable corollary, we must add to Murphy's Law the epigram, "Everything tRump touches, dies".
Combining the two, one arrives at a cogent and compelling expression to neatly sum up tRump 2.0...QED.
The wee peabrain was trying to absorb your post but the story of Sampson and the destruction of the temple and the philistines got in the way. "Let Me Die With The Economy!!!"
Surely presidents and prime ministers only propose what the whole of parliament, senate have approved. Scince when has one person been able to control totally their will on whole nations without consultation.
Lord, how many stories & opinion pieces & podcasts warned the electorate over & over again that in his 1st term, Trump was stopped over & over from taking inane/illegal/immoral actions by the “adults in the room”. Those advisors wrote books & editorials telling us he was a moron with no understanding of history & fascist to the core. Literally their words.
No one listened. Not to them, not to the 1000s of national security experts from both parties signing dire letters warning of the existential danger this man posed to the country. They were either ignored or dismissed as Trump haters.
We KNEW he had been constrained in his first presidency & those “adults” had been replaced by a collection of cabinet officials, dutifully confirmed by this complicit Senate, that should be living on The Island of Misfit Toys.
If voters had paid even the slightest bit of attention, or perhaps if they had been able to bring themselves to vote for a woman, our country would not be in this peril.
A serious nation that was repeatedly warned & ignored every warning and fact and reality would never have elected this man. This was not a failure of imagination; it was a deliberate choice by a nation who aren’t wise enough for self governance.