Category: Politics and government

Egomania

I think all the presidents have been egomaniacs to some degree — Trump is perhaps a little more conspicuous than the others…the boastfulness, the strong opinions about everything and anything. But Obama too was something of an egomaniac…he was known for lecturing people like a professor in a quiet but very condescending way, i.e., he knew better than you or anyone else. Egomania is a kind of qualification for the job.

Therefore, it is best to judge presidents not on their personalities, which, like most of us, can be pretty strange, but solely on their actions.

“Chinese Virus”

Not Katrina

Why the stock market rallied yesterday — decisive national action. Just compare this to Katrina. No comparison. Doesn’t mean the country isn’t going to be whacked by the coronavirus — Trump isn’t god, but it does mean this administration is very responsive. Trump acts; he’s not frozen in the headlights like so many previous presidents on so many different crises. Another case in point is the terrible trade imbalance with China that has been going on now for decades due to punitive and protectionist tariffs imposed on imports by the Chinese. The last 3 presidents did absolute nothing about this and so we have this huge rust belt in the middle of the country and the middle class got hollowed out. But Trump acted — he retaliated with our own tariffs, which ultimately will lead to a negotiated and fairer trade agreement with China. The worst year for the trade imbalance with China was 800 billion. That’s with a B. That meant, bottom line, China was 800 billion richer and we were 800 billion poorer at the end of the year — because Chinese protective tariffs blocked most American products from their market. Trump is doing something about that — not previous presidents. Yes uncouth, but he acts.

Trump Takes Action

Trumped

Dems

Bernie Sanders needs to go back to the loonie bin — or perhaps Venezuela. Lots of socialists there. A millionaire with 3 homes who has never worked a day in his life but has nothing good to say about the country. This whole socialism thing is demolishing the Democratic Party, which is a shame. The Republicans are going to cream them, which is kind of scary that the Republican Party will have unfettered power in Washington.

Would be nice to have a new, third party that took the better, more practical ideas of the two established parties. Would love to see a flat tax imposed on all corporations, for instance, so that you don’t have billion dollar companies paying nothing because they have an army of tax attorneys gaming the system. A one-page tax code for corporations — only tax attorneys and corporate board rooms would object. And some kind of fiscal responsibility in the federal government that prevents you from perennially spending way more than you take in. A family can’t do that — why should the government? At some point in the future, that house of cards is going to come crashing down — that crisis is going to be one for the record books. Hopefully I’ll be long gone — what happens when your government itself is declared bankrupt? I don’t want to know.

But a new third-party — that’s probably just a pipedream. So the country will just lurch along as usual, until the next crisis.

Politics

In a nutshell, politics has always been — and will always be — about the conflict between the haves and the have-nots, from Roman times to the present and well into the foreseeable future.  The struggle between the Plebs and the Patricians is playing out today just as it played out in the distant past and as it will play out in the future.

My Story