On the surface, everything is fine. Beneath it, the war is a fiction, the courts are a obstacle course, the children are coughing, and the FBI director is missing his bourbon.
It would be profound to see a sketch of the parameters of the economy that IS booming, because all the evidence (and the stock market) suggests that it is. Only thing is: this economy is not the official economy, the one that is being drawn down to create the parallel one. BTW, I live forty minutes from a city of 120,000 people, many extraordinarily wealthy, that was long rumoured to have an openly hidden economy. One estimate was that 15 years ago half the regional economy came from under-the-table cannabis money. One problem with these arrangements is that official government finds it impossible to fix anything, because although the tools and smarts to do so are present, the money is not flowing through its channels. Right now, there are a lot of unknowns. One of those is "Who is profiting from insider information on oil futures?" and "Where is that money going?" and "What is it being used for there?" We don't know the actors, but the process is clear: someone is profiting, the money is flowing to them, and they're using it for something. This could apply to anyone from Kushner to Musk to Putin to Milei to who knows. It doesn't have to be one of them for the pattern to be clear, because it sure looks like we're dealing not just with an alternate economy but an alternate government. Why, it's like the day I went into a coffee shop in which the local leaders of the Hells Angels, who owned the shop, were gathered around the main table openly discussing, for all to hear, the day's price for cannabis and how they were going to deal with competitors undercutting that price. Quite the cappuccino I had that day.
Tax avoidance and lax enforcement of tax laws are the calling cards of MAGA politicians - why billionaires fund their campaigns and the anti-government propaganda industry.
Thank you for calling Mohammed bin Salman by his full name instead of "cool" initials. I am convinced the Trump regime (looking at you, Kushner) works hard to make names like Mohammed and bin ____ more palatable to MAGAts, just as those same Trumpers now use Obama's full name whenever possible.
Re bin Salman: oh, he's up to something, and I doubt it has anything to do with quelling the non-war. Either there's more at stake, or he's angling for something (money? control?), because in that regard he's just like Trump. Always "Me first."
Actually, I guess I do have a cool monogram moniker for him, as in this sentence: "I wouldn't trust that SOB as far as I could throw him."
Quite the laundry list today, for me the story of the snap redistricting in the Old South after the SCOTUS debacle is the most repugnant. This country will never, never be free of the rank stench of slavery because of concessions made to appease Southern oligarchs several hundred years ago. Pathetic.
I for one am pretty angry that us taxpayers had to fund an apology trip by Marco Rubio to smooth things over with the head of the Roman Catholic faith whose institution continues to work to hide child abuse crimes by its priests, lobbies in our government to deny women's reproductive rights, runs hospitals who jeopardize women's health and lives every day, pushes behind the scenes to acquire our public school funds to be sent to prop up Catholic schools.... I could go on. It find it highly ironic that Leo talks peace and pays no attention to the violence his institution has wrought historically and recently against women and children and gays. Right now the NY Archdiocese is asking Catholics to give money to bail it out of its financial woes from abuse lawsuits. This is not a non-violent institution! We should have never legitimized our relationship with the Vatican under Reagan, especially as a country who Constitutionally values and tries to protect separation of religion and government. I'm reading a book of letters between Jefferson and Adams, and they talked openly of their distrust and disgust over the Roman church and the Jesuits who had established a presence in America. They agreed that our new government had to extend equal toleration of religions, but they certainly would have never given the Vatican the kind of influence it has over our country now. They simply thought that the institution represented immorality that had caused the world great harm. It still does.
As a federal agent (not FBI) for 20 years and now retired, I never saw any director of any federal agency, hand out bottles of liquor. Challenge coins, mugs with the agency seal or similar items. None would ever be branded with the director's name or brand. He is a total embarrassment, especially for the agency which held itself above all others.
Pretty good catalogue of the damage Trump is doing. Pity that it's only the executive summary. I suspect that the incoming president in 2029 (I know, it's an assumption) will need the first four years just to find all the crime that needs to be prosecuted, the institutions that need to be repaired. You say Trump didn't create the debt crisis by himself, but I would suggest that he did, himself, turn a problem into a crisis. It's a pattern, as articulated in Lucky Loser by Beuttner & Craig - spend lavishly & assume revenues will cover it, then use the bankruptcy laws to dump accountability on somebody else when your strategy of hope doesn't materialize.
It would be profound to see a sketch of the parameters of the economy that IS booming, because all the evidence (and the stock market) suggests that it is. Only thing is: this economy is not the official economy, the one that is being drawn down to create the parallel one. BTW, I live forty minutes from a city of 120,000 people, many extraordinarily wealthy, that was long rumoured to have an openly hidden economy. One estimate was that 15 years ago half the regional economy came from under-the-table cannabis money. One problem with these arrangements is that official government finds it impossible to fix anything, because although the tools and smarts to do so are present, the money is not flowing through its channels. Right now, there are a lot of unknowns. One of those is "Who is profiting from insider information on oil futures?" and "Where is that money going?" and "What is it being used for there?" We don't know the actors, but the process is clear: someone is profiting, the money is flowing to them, and they're using it for something. This could apply to anyone from Kushner to Musk to Putin to Milei to who knows. It doesn't have to be one of them for the pattern to be clear, because it sure looks like we're dealing not just with an alternate economy but an alternate government. Why, it's like the day I went into a coffee shop in which the local leaders of the Hells Angels, who owned the shop, were gathered around the main table openly discussing, for all to hear, the day's price for cannabis and how they were going to deal with competitors undercutting that price. Quite the cappuccino I had that day.
Tax avoidance and lax enforcement of tax laws are the calling cards of MAGA politicians - why billionaires fund their campaigns and the anti-government propaganda industry.
Thank you for calling Mohammed bin Salman by his full name instead of "cool" initials. I am convinced the Trump regime (looking at you, Kushner) works hard to make names like Mohammed and bin ____ more palatable to MAGAts, just as those same Trumpers now use Obama's full name whenever possible.
Re bin Salman: oh, he's up to something, and I doubt it has anything to do with quelling the non-war. Either there's more at stake, or he's angling for something (money? control?), because in that regard he's just like Trump. Always "Me first."
Actually, I guess I do have a cool monogram moniker for him, as in this sentence: "I wouldn't trust that SOB as far as I could throw him."
Quite the laundry list today, for me the story of the snap redistricting in the Old South after the SCOTUS debacle is the most repugnant. This country will never, never be free of the rank stench of slavery because of concessions made to appease Southern oligarchs several hundred years ago. Pathetic.
I for one am pretty angry that us taxpayers had to fund an apology trip by Marco Rubio to smooth things over with the head of the Roman Catholic faith whose institution continues to work to hide child abuse crimes by its priests, lobbies in our government to deny women's reproductive rights, runs hospitals who jeopardize women's health and lives every day, pushes behind the scenes to acquire our public school funds to be sent to prop up Catholic schools.... I could go on. It find it highly ironic that Leo talks peace and pays no attention to the violence his institution has wrought historically and recently against women and children and gays. Right now the NY Archdiocese is asking Catholics to give money to bail it out of its financial woes from abuse lawsuits. This is not a non-violent institution! We should have never legitimized our relationship with the Vatican under Reagan, especially as a country who Constitutionally values and tries to protect separation of religion and government. I'm reading a book of letters between Jefferson and Adams, and they talked openly of their distrust and disgust over the Roman church and the Jesuits who had established a presence in America. They agreed that our new government had to extend equal toleration of religions, but they certainly would have never given the Vatican the kind of influence it has over our country now. They simply thought that the institution represented immorality that had caused the world great harm. It still does.
On the bright side he didn’t paint the reflecting pool gold!
"Damn you! God damn you all to hell!"
George Taylor (Charlton Heston)
Planet of the Apes
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6rzZ-4vXnqM
As a federal agent (not FBI) for 20 years and now retired, I never saw any director of any federal agency, hand out bottles of liquor. Challenge coins, mugs with the agency seal or similar items. None would ever be branded with the director's name or brand. He is a total embarrassment, especially for the agency which held itself above all others.
Pretty good catalogue of the damage Trump is doing. Pity that it's only the executive summary. I suspect that the incoming president in 2029 (I know, it's an assumption) will need the first four years just to find all the crime that needs to be prosecuted, the institutions that need to be repaired. You say Trump didn't create the debt crisis by himself, but I would suggest that he did, himself, turn a problem into a crisis. It's a pattern, as articulated in Lucky Loser by Beuttner & Craig - spend lavishly & assume revenues will cover it, then use the bankruptcy laws to dump accountability on somebody else when your strategy of hope doesn't materialize.