Have we put Cousin Eddie in charge?

I feel sorry for my conservative friends who are trying to divert attention away from President Trump and focus instead on what they think is a reasonable agenda.  They articulate something worthy of debate, and then the President dumps on their message with his regular 2 am stream of brain dysentery.

Our politicians all combined couldn't lead a 2-car funeral procession out of a parking lot.  Our healthcare situation is a mess.  The Democrat's answer was ObamaCare, and the best the Republicans can come up with is their ScrewYouAmericaCare.  That's it....Plan 1, ObamaCare; or Plan 2, ScrewYouAmericaCare.  

Where's Plan 3?  "Oh, there isn't a Plan 3" they tell us.  That's because we don't have leaders who can count beyond 2!  What they've proposed amounts to putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound.  Not only can't they think outside the box, they can't even find the damn box!

Of course we need to control our borders.  Every country does.  But proposing a 21st Century "Maginot Line"-like wall to keep the "murdering, raping Mexicans" out, and then expecting the murdering, raping Mexicans to pay for it is about the most ridiculous thing I've ever head of.  Somebody please enroll Donnie John in a Dale Carnegie How To Win Friends And Influence People course.

Trade agreements need to be beneficial to all involved, but over time they sometime lose their fairness.  Calling all parties to sit down together and negotiate a mid-course re-alignment is reasonable, but that won't work if our Negotiator In Chief is slinging personal insults and threats at the other participants.  Make that a remedial How To Win Friends And Influence People course!

With the end of the Cold War many of our NATO partners let their guard down.  With just a few exceptions they spent their tax dollars on everything but their own national security, thinking America always had their back.  Asking them to step up now and contribute more to the alliance is reasonable, but it should be done in respectful negotiations, not by lining up our allies and lambasting them in public. That was cringe-worthy.

We have many serious issues that need attention requiring a top notch team.  So who does President Trump choose to be on his team?  Gen. James Mattis at Defense....OK, he got that one right.  And Rex Tillerson at State....I must say he's doing much better than I expected (although reports are he's about ready to throw in the towel.)  But the rest of them aren't worth shooting.  Steve Mnuchin at Treasury?  Remember the big economic meltdown back in 2008?  Then we had a team of outstanding economic minds who, together, pulled us through.  Mnuchin was one of those who got us INTO that mess, and certainly not one who has the credentials to get us out of the next one.  God help us!   

Beauregard Sessions as AG?   Does anyone think he'll last the year?  And how about Tom Price, the architect of that great healthcare reform plan that enjoys the support of a whopping 17% of the people?  And last but not least, Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary only because her family is a mega-$$$$$ Republican contributor.  Of all the possible excellent talent he had to choose from, President Trump chose these? *sigh*

As I said, conservatives deserve to have their agenda fairly heard and debated, just as liberals do.  But where are today's composed, articulate leaders like Kennedy and Reagan, leaders who were respected if not always agreed with?  Even hardcore Republicans who have been chewing on their tongues for months trying to defend Trump are beginning to turn on him.  He's an embarrassment!

It isn't necessarily the message*, but Trump as the messenger that is threatening to send the Republicans into the political abyss, to join Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats who have already made themselves at home there. 

I feel like we're living one of those movies where both pilots have flatlined and left the plane, and the passengers, to fend for themselves.   You think Air Traffic Control will be able to talk us down?

S

* Well OK, maybe some of it is the message. ;)

Things we should be thanking Donald Trump for....

....besides some of the best Saturday Night Live skits ever!

Yes, The Donald has had much ridicule heaped on him this election season for his....umm....unusual ideas.  But he has also brought into the light some issues that had been largely underground for years.  You might have to look deep, but he's done us all a service and maybe secured for himself a worthwhile legacy in the process.  To wit:

TRADE AGREEMENTS  Most Americans don't understand trade deals.  We give a little, they give a little, we both get what we want....win/win, right?  Hardly!

Trade deals are driven by what's in the best interest of business, and not necessarily (rarely, actually) in the best interest of the American workers.  Why do you think millions of well-paying American jobs have have moved beyond our borders, and too much of what we've gotten in return are much-lower-paying warehousing and delivery jobs?  Because businesses can make more $$$$ doing business that way.  Screw US!

American businesses used to have America's interests at heart, but for decades now all they've cared about is making money for themselves, however/wherever they can.  If Carrier Corp hands out 1,000 pink slips in Indiana and hires a like number in Mexico, or Indonesia, etc, they don't care!  There's rarely even a passing thought of good 'ol America's best interest.  Their quarterly profits are up, their executive bonuses are up, their shareholders (many of them foreign investors) are happy, the job-gaining country is happy....the big losers are the 1,000 laid-off American workers.  

We need trade.  We can produce much more than we can consume ourselves.  I'm all for trade, if done fairly, but what we've negotiated recently are simply BAD DEALS!

OUR F___KED UP TAX CODE  Most of us only know "we" pay too much, and "the rich" pay too little.  That's all we ever hear.  It's hard to wrap our arms around that opaque concept.  Donald Trump put a real-world number on it.  How many of us had ever heard of a "loss carry forward" before Donald Trump's $936,000,000 business boo-boo?  That sweetheart tax deal has helped him (and many other of his uber-rich buddies) to avoid paying hundreds of millions (billions?) of dollars in taxes.  

That has led us to take a deeper look at our ridiculously complex 75,000 page +/- tax code, a code that got that way due to special favors granted by lawmakers to wealthy special interests in exchange for.....?
  

The rich usually deserve to be rich....they work hard, they work smart, they take risks....more power to them.  But when they can take their hard-earned gains and, with the signing of a piece of tax legislation, see their wealth explode with little additional effort on their part, that's just WRONG!  That's what "income inequality" is all about.  That, more than anything else, is what is killing our middle class! 

You're likely to ride off into the sunset next month, Donald, to take up company with Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, John Kerry, and all those other historical footnotes, but if your spotlight can somehow enable us to fix our tax code and trade policies, you'll at least have that as a legacy you can be proud of.

S

In the long run we are all dead.

"Many people have grown tired of waiting for the benefits of a vastly interconnected world to trickle down. As the world whizzes by them, their wages remain flat and jobs become scarcer. Then it becomes convenient to blame their straits on the immigrant speaking a strange tongue and taking their employment opportunities."

"These people are not studying demographic charts and complex economic models to understand why their country needs immigrants in the long run, nor are they lying awake at night fretting over a Moody's [credit] downgrade. The more sophisticated rhetoric they hear about the benefits to come — and the fewer benefits they actually see — the more distrustful they become. As John Maynard Keynes said, '"In the long run we are all dead.'"  Stratfor analysis, 6/28/16

You thought this was referring to Donald Trump supporters, didn't you? You were wrong.  This was what the "experts" said as they tried to explain why the UK voted to exit the European Union.  It would be an easy mistake to make as there is a strong correlation with what's happening in the US this election season.

The status quo is difficult to sell today.  The "interconnected world" is not trickling down for many people, particularly middle-aged white guys....and young people who are concerned about their future (hello Bernie Sanders supporters).  

Trade agreements between first-world countries (who want to buy cheap stuff) and poor countries (who have willing, cheap labor) are increasingly difficult to sell to Americans, and apparently to Brits, too, as by nature trade agreements are "equalizers".  The people in poor countries see their incomes rise, while the people in wealthy countries see their incomes fall (or at least become stagnant) until eventually an equilibrium is reached.  In the rich countries (the UK, the US, etc) a select few (the 1%) do very well, while everyone else is left in the dust wondering what happened to the long term benefits they were promised.  

The 60-year-old Trump supporters today were the ones who bought into that when they were 40-somethings, and they're still waiting.  The 20-something Sanders supporters today look at their parents and wonder if that will be their fate, too.

The status quo, ironically now represented by the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton, is being squeezed from both sides.  They might splinter the vote enough for Clinton to be elected President, but then IMO she's going to have a tough time bringing these two different demographics together to govern effectively.

I'm thinking dysfunction might be here to stay.  "Long term plans" might need to be re-defined to mean anything not to exceed 90 days in the future.  If you disagree, please 'splain yourself.  I hope you're right.

 Personally, I'm no longer buying green bananas.  *wink*

S

We really need to stop gnawing on lead painted window sills

Like most people I have many reservations about presidential candidate Donald Trump, but I must concede that he has brought some much needed attention to issues that have been quietly ignored for years.  

Specifically I'm talking about the trade agreements we have with other countries that are loaded with one-way concessions....they win, we lose.  Too often we're just opening our wallets and saying, "Here, take what you want."  Are we dopes or what?

Example:  The US has signed many "open skies" agreements with other countries, allowing airlines to fly to and from cities in the US from cities in the other airline's host country (British Airways/London-NY-London, Air France/Paris-Atlanta-Paris, Delta/Washington-Amsterdam-Washington, etc).  One requirement is a rather vague statement that says the airlines involved "stipulate certain degrees of labor protections".  This should theoretically stimulate fair competition, which is a good thing.

Enter Norwegian Airlines.  They are already a "low cost carrier" similar to Southwest and JetBlue....no harm in that, I say.  But now Norwegian has set up an ultra-low-cost subsidiary (Norwegian Shuttle) in Ireland *RED FLAG* that will be using Asian (most likely Thai) flight crews on flights in and out of the US.  

Norwegian's rationale in simple: Ireland is a low-corporate-tax nation, and they have very liberal labor laws that allow using foreign employees who will work for much lower wages.  This is a loophole that you could drive....er....fly, a 737 through!  And our trade negotiators couldn't see this coming?  DOH!

There are two ways to look at this:  If you're a squeaky cheap traveler wanting to get to Europe and back as cheaply as possible, you'll have no problem with the idea of bare bones flights with bargain basement crews, but if you're a US airline employee, you know the pressure will soon be on you to work cheaper if you want to keep your job.

Haven't we learned already that sending jobs overseas will help corporate bottom lines, but at devastating expense to American workers?  Sure, Walmart prices are cheap, which is good since that's about all formerly well paid US workers can now afford.  If we keep making stupid deals like this, we'll all eventually do nothing but flip burgers and give each other haircuts.

No, I don't want to overpay for jeans or a flashlight or an air conditioner, but I'm willing to pay a bit more to not have to throw American workers under the bus.  Trade agreements that will competitively open up markets for US and other countries products are good.  But trade agreements that are rigged from the get-go against us, HELL NO!

To me this isn't a liberal / conservative, Democrat / Republican issue, but just common sense.

S