Month: November 2019

It kind of depends on the alternative, doesn’t it?  If Trump were removed from office we’d get President Mike Pence.  That would be an acceptable outcome to a lot of people.  But the Democratic nominee in 2020 isn’t going to be anything like Mike Pence.  It will be the most radical nominee in American history.

So, yeah, maybe a guy wanted Trump impeached.  That doesn’t mean this guy would voter for any of these people who hate America, and may hate him.

But it’s hard to get someone to vote for a person they don’t like, and a lot of people don’t like Trump.  But nobody liked Nixon, and he got 61% of the vote and 49 states.  President Trump would settle for that.

Congress is either a national joke or a national disgrace, depending on your point of view.  It can make a perfect straw man for Presidential candidates.  Harry Truman wasn’t supposed to win in 1948, but “Give ’em hell Harry” ran against not just Republican Dewey, but a “do nothing Congress.”

It was hard to attack Dewey, a widely respected, cautious and courteous man.  But Congress was easy to go after.  Whenever you take on Congress you’re in a target rich environment.  It’s like, where do you begin?

The House just passed a CR to keep the government open for a couple more months.  This is nothing new. At 538.com they have a nifty chart showing “20 years of Budget Procrastination.”  Since 1977 Congress has passed an average of 4.6 CR’s every fiscal year.

So instead of writing a budget (the one thing every legislature has to do every year) they screw around with public spectacles they call hearings.  Accomplishing nothing, but giving members a chance to strut their stuff.

Politicians want to be movie stars, movie stars want to be politicians.  It doesn’t work, either way.  Let me put it kindly.  Most Congressmen suffer from public exposure.

Everybody’s sick of Congress.  Galljup says they’re at 20% approval.  They haven’t been over 30% for 10 years.

So I think Trump takes a page out of Harry Truman’s playbook, and runs against Congress, as well as the Democrat.  But he won’t call it a “do nothing Congress.”  He’ll come up with something better.

Trump is impervious to the attacks against him.  They have no effect on him.  He has the hide of a rhinoceros.  And since they aren’t going to be able to impeach him, as President he is legally untouchable.  Given the economy, and the field against him, he fully expects to win a second term, and only a fool would bet against him.

The only way they can get to him is through his family.  He’s admitted that impeachment is taking its toll on some in his family.  More likely than not, he means his wife and young son.  But it won’t kill them.  It will only make them stronger, and bring them closer together.

The impeachment story started out as sensational.  It’s become boring.  Before long it will be a laughingstock.

Donald J. Trump, the only President who drove his opponents stark raving mad.

You really should go see Midway.  But not for the plot.  If you’re familiar with the Battle of Midway you know the plot.  This movie follows the historical record with amazing accuracy.  In fact, I have never seen a film that is as accurate historically as Midway.  Some stories don’t need to be embellished, and this is one of them.  It’s a brilliant achievement, where every scene, and every word, rings true.

History is full of stories like Midway.  The battle of Yorktown, which won the American Revolution is one of them.  I can imagine a film treatment, done with the talent and reverence for the truth that director Roland Emmerich demonstrated in Midway.  He may be German, and he may be gay, and he may be politically correct, but Emmerich uses his art to tell a true story in a new way:  the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  I hope he does another one.

Here’s an advantage of a movie about Yorktown.  It can be politically correct, and entirely accurate.  Some of the heroes of Yorktown were free blacks serving under Washington.  As many as 20% of the Americans who marched south for the battle were black.  The war had gone on for five years, and most of the whites had long since gone home.  Washington needed troops, and the blacks were willing to serve.

The bad guys in Midway were Japanese, and the good guys were Chinese.  When Doolittle’s Raiders landed in China, they were saved by the locals.  In retaliation, the Japanese slaughtered 250,000 of them.  We lost 290,000 in all of World War Two.

No wonder the Chinese came up with the money to make Midway.

 

$23 trillion in debt.  2019 interest on that debt:  $479 billion.  Divided by the number of working Americans, 158 million, and you get $3,000 that the average working American is liable for.  Just the interest.  No principle.

So if you’re 21 and looking forward to paying income taxes throughout your working life (40 years) you’ll pay $120,000, in 2019 dollars.  And every time the debt goes up by a trillion (something both Republicans and Democrats have a recent history of doing) you’ll owe an extra $75 a year.

The young people of this country are getting ripped off.  It’s a huge wealth transfer, from  the young and poor to the old and rich.  Ass backwards, in other words.

Maybe if they realized what was happening they’d want to do something about it  That’s what the Reagan Project is all about.  There is something they can do.

I plan on sharing this message with some Young Republicans at Cal.  We’ll see what happens.