A pre-election silence hanging over the Mueller investigation likely ends this week. With Trump’s Congressional firewall destroyed, the ugly endgame is about to unfold. For the resistance, all the energy poured into the elections should now take a new direction. We should concentrate our attention on the financial foundations of the Trump/Republican machine.
Trump’s clumsy attempt to place a partisan hack in control of the Justice Department signals both his desperation and his continuing ineptitude. Outsmarting a force of Idiocrats won’t be much of a challenge. Our challenge will be containing the harm they are willing to inflict on their way down. Trump’s loyalists will burn everything in sight to protect themselves from justice. Limiting the damage probably depends on bringing pain early to the right power centers. Timeless wisdom from the film Trading Places should be our guide in the days ahead: “The best way to hurt rich people is to turn them into poor people.” Attack the money.
No one should feel like their donations to Trump or his Republican enablers will escape notice. Everyone should understand that they will be held publicly accountable for a decision to deliver financial support to America’s Fascists. As Trump and the Republicans scramble to escape the consequences of their crimes, we should ensure that this fight extends all the way to their bank accounts.
Start now by putting pressure on businesses. It is a common practice for big corporations to donate to both parties, sometimes even to both candidates in a single election. Under normal conditions, companies care less about who wins an election than they do about protecting their relationship to the winner. These are not normal conditions. We have tools at our disposal that can strip away the cover from this practice and make support for Republican candidates radioactive. Those tools were deployed with great success against Iowa Nazi Steve King, almost toppling him in an R+27 district.
Corporations do not like to publicly “own” their political contributions. They’d rather not be spending that money in the first place. It’s a practice that developed as a form of insurance, only because the public never saw or cared about these payments. Land O’Lakes wasn’t giving money to Steve King’s campaigns because of their enthusiasm for Steve King. They were paying protection money to a local power-broker as insurance. Nobody cared enough to make the practice inconvenient, which also meant that no one in the public would rush to their support if they took a stand. We can change both dynamics, making it dangerous for companies to continue these mindless donations and also providing financial protection for companies that put themselves at risk to do the right thing.
As you might imagine, companies really hate having their political spending discussed in public. Attack that pressure point.
Here are some simple steps to take now.
– First, get our heads straight. Every step we take should be focused as locally as possible. Find out which candidates your employer is supporting. Find out who is supporting the most obnoxious local Republicans in your area. Take the most prominent companies in your area and drill into their donations. Work your way to national impact from the precinct up.
– Get connected with Sleeping Giants on social media. Their campaign has written the book on commercial activism.
– Spend a little time learning to use OpenSecrets.com.
– Using Open Secrets, Sleeping Giants, and other resources, start identifying major local supporters of the Trump administration and of your local Republicans.
– Start calling out those companies (and individuals’) donations on social media. Sleeping Giants has some excellent templates for this kind of communications. Be persistent and make sure others locally see this information. Connect with others locally and more broadly to coordinate your efforts. A local campaign with a few dozen social media participants can be a serious nuisance to a local company or politician.
– Finally, take your politics to the store. Brands that fail to distance themselves from the Trump administration should be distanced from your money. Be obnoxious about it. Everyone should know why you’re wearing Nikes.
Let me share a dirty little secret from three decades of Republican politics. There is no Republican ground game. None. Republican candidates have no wellspring of public support either financially or at the volunteer level. That was all demolished during the Roosevelt years. Republicans thrive on political apathy.
Democrats’ ability to get people in the street and attract a mass of small-dollar donation has always been the envy of the GOP. The Tea Party was a multi-million project of the Koch Brothers that took almost a decade of work to gin up before collapsing in a heap of racist paranoia. Republican politics has always had a weak appeal among people with the talent and initiative to take local, grassroots, political action. That weakness translates into the marketplace with enormous force. The vast majority of America’s wealth is generated in deep blue states by Democratic voters. Use that power.
Without a discreet lifeline of largely reluctant corporate donors there is no Republican Party. A popular campaign to destroy the legitimacy of donations to Fascists won’t dry up all of the party’s money. There will still be wealthy coal barons, religious nuts or casino owners who will shell out millions to elect Nazis. What we can accomplish by attacking the money is to deny Republicans access to legitimate lines of support. This will make life extremely difficult for Republican collaborators at all levels of our system. The same campaign that dries up corporate support makes it very difficult for someone to place their Republican activism on a resume. Not so long ago, a stint as a staffer for Steve King might have been seen by a hiring director as simply as time spent in public service. We can make service to Republican candidates a black mark people have to explain the way you’d have to explain a DUI. If Republicans had to depend on Fascist true-believers for support, not just in financial terms, but also for campaign volunteers, staffers, PR professionals, and every other form of infrastructure, they would change course very quickly.
Here’s an object lesson in how to wage this war. A racist jerk showed up to a polling place in Mississippi wearing a Confederate flag t-shirt with a noose. Someone took a photo and shared it. That photo spread widely. Said jerk lost his job. That’s how you fight a civil war right now and win without firing a shot.
Attack the money. If you have followed this blog for any time, you know you’re your author is a huge fan of markets. Make bigotry expensive and it will recede from public life.
The most dangerous period of the Trump administration is about to unfold. Attacking the financial pillars of Republican support offers a peaceful way to weaken Trump’s movement while we still have time for peaceful methods.
Hi Chris,
Not sure if you monitor replies to old posts, but I’ve been pining for a website to provide information to trump resistors on companies (and their owners) who are financing the republican destruction machine. I was surprised that you did not list #grabyourwallet.org in this post on how to target the party financiall.
I was initially disappointed by #grabyourwallet’s limited list of targets which focused heavily on the trump crime family itself, but they seem to have honed in on organizations more broadly. I still happen to think they are under-utilizing their power to influence purchasing by the limited scope of their listings, the low-tech presentation/marketing of their actions. You know anyone with connections to the team there?
Ah, “regular order”…how we have missed ye. Imagine…public discussion and debate in committees, not in small rooms with six people in them. Sunlight is so important in conducting the people’s business – not so much when the party’s business is the priority.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/15/democrats-would-slow-down-floor-votes-require-committee-action-under-proposed-house-rules/?
All these changes would make a huge difference in the functioning of the House. They would ease gridlock and would ultimately improve the public’s perception of the House.
The rules that were put in place in 2010 were all designed to enable the Freedom Caucus to substantively control the House. That enabled them to tell the Speaker what they wanted, who would then tweak the legislation just enough to enable passing the legislation in accordance with the Hastert Rule and then twist arms to force the Republican members to vote for it. That also silenced the voices of moderate members. The moderates were afraid of speaking up because they might be primaried or lose key committee assignments.
All this will again introduce real debate and discussion into the functioning of the House. Unfortunately, because the R’s do not believe in debate, it will be amongst the Democrats themselves.
While O’Rourke’s surprisingly strong challenge to Cruz has inspired a new generation of activists and young leaders, Texas Republicans in reliably red Tarrant County have responded by… trying to oust a Muslim from party leadership?
Wut?
Snark aside, this is something that’s actually happening, and it has me asking a lot of questions. Is this a continuation of fissures forming in the Texas GOP? What does O’Rourke flipping Tarrant blue mean, and what does it signal for the party more broadly if counties like this trend into the Democratic column?
Whoops, forgot to post the link.
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article221605150.html
How silly, every bigot knows you gotta keep a token nearby so’s when the liberals say, “You’re a bigot!” you can point at your token and say, “If I am a bigot, why do I have this Muslim friend?”
This happened….along with 12 legislative seats being flipped from red to blue. Yeah, something’s happening in TX. Beto O’Rourke’s hard work got a progressive message out in places large and small. Sadly, he didn’t inspire “enough” Texans to vote for him (or vote period….a major problem in TX), but he explained issues people care about and got them to thinking. Change doesn’t always happen fast, but it is happening in TX.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/9/1811618/-On-Election-Day-19-black-women-made-history-in-Texas-by-winning-their-races-for-judicial-seats?detail=emailLL
I am getting more than a little tired of all this talk about compromise and bipartisanship at the Federal level. It is not possible since the Republican Party does not believe in BIPARTISANSHIP or COMPROMISE. They only understand power and what benefits the Republican Party; their basic attitude is “Our Way or the Highway”. They do not care about the nation, the Constitution or governance. In the age of Trump, one can substitute Trump for Republican Party.
This attitude has been very apparent during the last two years, and prior to that it was obvious during budgetary conflicts, during the ACA enactment process, during the effort to enact immigration reform in 2013 and other conflicts. The Republican party refused to participate in the debates, and then complained about lack of bipartisanship. That is an attitude that has been predominant in the Republican Party since the South was able to accomplish the takeover of the Republican Party. Going further back in history, it was the attitude that prevailed during 1861 when the slaveholders decided to secede from the Union because they could no longer control the Government and ensure that the Government supported slavery. They were unwilling to compromise despite numerous opportunities. The major serious proposal was the Crittenden Compromise which effectively legalized slavery in all present and future US territory south of 36.5 degrees in perpetuity. This was essentially not a compromise but subservience to the South’s position on slavery. Remember that the positions of the parties have switched in the intervening 150+ years. The Republicans are now like the Democrats in the Antebellum period and vice versa.
Ignoring the refusal to compromise by the Republicans is the basic error that many pundits make when considering the political environment in the U.S. Even The Economist (https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/11/08/democrats-need-to-see-immigration-as-a-campaign-issue) which generally objectively views the overall political environment in the U.S., misses this basic underlying foundation of the current U.S. political chaos in their latest issue. The unwillingness to compromise is partly driven in the Senate by McConnell and his iron-fisted control. In the House it is largely driven by the Freedom Caucus. In the next Congress, the Freedom Caucus will be controlling the position of the Republican Party. The leadership which will be controlled by the Freedom Caucus will instruct the members of the Republican Conference not to participate in the debate or to suggest other ideas. The remaining Republican moderates will not be given a voice and is perhaps one of the reasons so many retired. That has been the case for the Republican House moderates, for several years. There will be more debate in the House under Pelosi than has been the case since 2010. However, the entire debate will be within the Democratic Party. McConnell will continue to rule the Senate as if it is his personal fiefdom.
I’d love to see the Dems ditch the Hastert rule. Give the few remaining GOP moderates /sane conservatives a chance to be bipartisan, if they choose.
I do not believe the Hastert Rule is used by the Democrats when they have the majority. They would be more than willing to bring something to the floor, if the whip counts indicated there was majority bipartisan support but not necessarily a majority of the Democratic Conference. The problem is that the Republicans will not allow their members to vote for any Democratic proposal, for fear of being primaried during the next election or receiving significant internal discipline, such as being stripped of membership in committees, etc. That is a major tactic the Freedom Caucus and the leadership uses to maintain control.
I totally agree, TMerrit. Tired of this. Chris has stated again and again: Republicans will never play nice.
An interesting development, CNN is suing the WH over Acosta getting his accesss yanked, and trumpco is changing its excuse:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/13/white-house-is-changing-its-tune-why-it-yanked-jim-acostas-press-pass/?utm_term=.5d976663032e
So he wasn’t manhandling interns, but rather hogging all the question time. Damn I hope this goes to court, and even more I hope it’s televised. I’ve pay to see that arch-liar SHS have to testify under oath, but Donny2Scoops, bully and coward that he is, would probably settle first.
This farce of an administration will shift if the blowblack is intense enough. I think what they pin their hopes on is the fact that having to blowback on all their crap is mentally exhausting, but because they have no shame and no honor, lying and gaslighting and bullshitting are minimal effort on their part.
Check this out! Fox is backing CNN’s lawsuit!
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/416630-fox-news-backs-cnns-lawsuit-against-trump-administration?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
If you’ve lost the suckups at Fox……..
Fly – You made me laugh!
Tomorrow could be very interesting.
Lots of activity in Federal Court today, including Cohen showing up to testify (to whom?).
Drudge, Fox, Wikileaks and National Inquirer social media profiles have been silent for days. Matt Drudge deleted his Twitter account. Jerome Corsi claims his cooperation agreement has broken down and he expects to be arrested for perjury.
Tomorrow is basically federal Monday, as today was a holiday. First day back in gear. Smells like action.
Nope. Quiet morning.
Well, with such a mercurial attitude toward everything it’s not really useful extrapolating today’s behavior toward tomorrow’s, but it’s interesting to read this article in light of your predictions:
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-absent-20181113-story.html
…and imagine a dude who is basically trying hard not to show the world that he feels like fleeing.
Spoiled. Rotten. This is how bullies and spoiled children act who don’t get their way. Petulant. Pouty. Sullen. Someone needs to call Stormy and ask her to give potus another whuppin’.
…Well, that’s an image I certainly didn’t need in my mind again, Mary.
*cough*
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/12/665635832/democrats-say-their-first-bill-will-focus-on-strengthening-democracy-at-home
I think this emphasis is a good first step for the Ds, now that so many organizers across the country are intimately familiar with all the problems.
I’d like to see a firm pushback on religion in politics, especially religion’s money. I would like to see churches and denominations lose their tax-exempt status for violating the rules. I identify as some sort of Christian or other, and I welcome the rise of the “nones” as a force that can help the U.S. “build that wall” for real church-state separation. Right-wing religion has a money pipeline I’d love to see stoppered.
Well Chris, all I can say is I think you badly underestimate the competence and ruthlessness of the fascists. Given the incompetence of the Dem’s, there will be a lot of destruction and fire-walling before the new Congress gets sworn in. Very very effective fire-walling.
Case in point: The Dem running the Broward County election is an incompetent boob, and should have been ousted years ago. Now, she is going to be replaced by a stooge of Scott and DeSantis.
Should she be replaced? Of course. But the result is what we all know: The votes will not be counted. The fascists did not rig enough ballots, and will now be forced to simply not count the ones against them.
The upcoming lame duck session will go down in history as the one where the fascists make their most brazen attempt to wipe out democracy. You watch.
Have a drink. Take a walk. Chill out.
Watched Morning Joe this morning. Joe Scarborough made the same argument you did for why it is impossible to directly hack the overall election system in the country. State rights and a conglomerate of individual election systems at the county level has it’s good points. Even if we are watching messy recounts right now.
Also, play with your dog, Dins.
Also also, get a dog if you don’t have a dog.
So, recount may or may not have changed the result, but we will never know, because results were 2 minutes late and not counted.
But hey, you guys don’t believe this is banana republic stuff….sure.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/15/politics/broward-county-recount-didnt-count/index.html
Dins, I share your frustration and concern about our political quagmire, but even as there is so much that is bad, we should be encouraged by the breadth of the national repudiation given republicans.
At this point, we know only what we can see which is admittedly not all there is, but let’s give time a chance to work. We can be assured more damage will be done, but I think the people of an
America and the world are more aware than ever of the dangers out there and, more than ever, people are standing up to the selfish, ugly actions of this president and his republican enablers.
Read this as an illustration of what is happening.
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?
Do you think that he is skedaddling as we speak? Maybe not come back from his France trip? Or is that wishful thinking?
Nah, I think he’s on his way back. Too early I think. He probably still hopes that the moron he tried to install as AG will fix it.
Wishful thinking so far. Trump’s desperation in unconstitutionally ‘appointing’ Whitaker as Acting AG is proof that he somehow still thinks he can undercut Mueller.
Take a moment to appreciate how, even now, the Nimrod in Chief fails to appreciate just how many steps Mueller is ahead of him. Will dozens of sealed indictments change his mind on that? Not a bad bet to take.
https://observer.com/2018/11/mueller-holding-dozens-sealed-indictments-intel-source/
Though it’s going to be the breadth of those hitting Don Jr. and the rest of the Modern American Crime Family that’ll break Trump. Mueller’s almost certainly going to hit them with a vast array of federal and, most importantly, state crimes for which Dear Daddy can only stand by and watch.
Choices are going to have to be made very quickly as to whether to stick around and fight or hop on an airplane to lands unknown (Spoiler Alert: it rhymes with Prussia).
Oh, and the Democrats are coming too. #WallsClosingIn
Ryan – What if people don’t care about Don and company’s bad deeds? Is this really more about opening the door wider on trump’s activities and complicity? What can we expect to happen in the event that subpoenas are served and America yawns?
If you’re referring to polling showing a downtick in Mueller’s approval, there’s no real cause for alarm yet. In fact, it’s a sign of strength for him in that Trump’s barely been able to edge him out despite having an absolutely one-sided advantage. Don’t be surprised if you see Mueller shoot modestly over 60% (of course the Trump faithful will never change their mind) once his full report comes out and the indictments land.
Impeachment just isn’t going to happen, so we’re coming down to an effective battle of attrition so long as Dear Leader doesn’t hop a plane into exile. If all he has is his base going for him, Dems will carry a clear majority of the people and the political capital they’ll need to execute any follow-up while Mueller brings the hammer down.
I’ve had this idea in my head for a while, a way to demolish the ability for the NRA to raise funds and keep itself going as a lobbying organization. You do grassroots work to get people to ditch the NRA in its entirety and join local marksmanship organizations, or maybe even start such organizations yourself. Bleed the NRA dry through convincing people to use their freedom of association to not associate with what is essentially a lobbying group for arms manufacturers. Convincing gun owners to “go local” might be difficult, but it’s worth a try.
It’s actually a solid idea. Sara Robinson wrote a great piece along those lines.
http://sararobinson.net/a-well-regulated-militia/
To piggyback on this idea and the idea from your book. What if states required CHL type training and insurance to buy a firearm. We require a licence and insurance to drive a car. Compare the damage done by the terrorist truck attacks and the carnage in Las Vegas. Seems obvious that guns have at least a similar standard.
We let people with no training whatsoever buy assault rifles. I was in the DMZ in Korea and before we could stand down from a tour at JSA, we had to remove the magazine from our 45 and pointing into a barrel full of sand pull the trigger. Twice guys in my platoon a guys weapon fired. Once a guy from another was playing with his 45 and pretty much destroyed his right leg.
These were intelligent, well trained solders. How can we expect untrained dimwits to be responsible gun owners. It would take a deep blue state to do it, but it would be a step forward.
Not being content with bullying teen survivors of school shootings, the NRA declares that gun violence is of no concern to the medical profession:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/being-silenced-is-not-acceptable-doctors-express-outrage-after-nra-tells-them-to-stay-in-their-lane/2018/11/11/5a8beca0-e5d5-11e8-b8dc-66cca409c180_story.html?utm_term=.15c9ba94084a
They seem eager to assist in their own destruction. I’ll gladly accept the help.
Question: What do you expect the fascists to do between now and when the new blood takes over? What will they do to protect themselves, and entrench their position further?
First, I expect Trump and his allies to scramble around like chickens with their heads cut off, doing and saying a lot of idiotic things. They never expected to be held accountable. As the heat turns up their first response will be shock and terror. They have no plan for this, and they’re simply too incompetent to react effectively on the fly.
Then there will be some dramatic over-reaching moves, like attempts by the White House to fire people who perhaps aren’t even appointed (can’t be fired). I expect bizarre, Baghdad Bob-style declarations of things that aren’t real (“Jared has been cleared of wrong-doing”), and eventually a lot of crazy allegations directed at people who are criticizing the president.
I expect that rank and file Republicans who aren’t on the Kremlin payroll will continue to keep their heads down. They will stick with silence all the way through this. Meanwhile compromised figures like Lindsay Graham, Rubio, Nunes etc will ratchet up the irresponsible rhetoric to no effect.
When the shit hits the fan and key members of the president’s family start getting arrested, there will be a lot of angry tweets and no strategic response. Dominoes will fall quickly. A few Tea Party groups will make noises about protecting the president, but they won’t lift a finger. It will all happen too fast, the revelations about the president’s behavior will be too stunning, and the law enforcement response too overwhelming. I expect that the last act will be brief, a flurry of arrests and asset-seizures stretching over just a few days, followed by Trump boarding a jet and skeedaddling off to another country, probably Russia. That’ll be it for that phase.
The really nasty shit comes after Trump is gone. The most dangerous period of our lives may be the 18-24 months after the president has been removed from office. The far right will be in stunned shock, having been completely blindsided by the events that destroyed the Trump administration (since they had their heads up their asses the whole time). They will regroup. All the assumptions about legitimacy that keep people behaving civilly in public life will be ruined. It will be a naked, winner-take-all contest for power with the understanding that many of the losers will go to prison if they survive. That’s the period (probably 2020-2022) that will determine the shape of the next century.
“..followed by Trump boarding a jet and skeedaddling off to another country, probably Russia. ”
A question about that- given how deluded and incompetent he is, isn’t there a possibility that he waits too long? If he tries to go on Air Force One, and too much shit has hit the fan, could the pilots refuse orders to fly to Russia or wherever?
Yes. That is my worst fear and it might happen.
I think he’s actually pretty sensitive to the interests of his businesses, so there’s a good chance he’ll run to protect his money. Plus, I suspect that the SC will be reluctant to indict the president, meaning that his kids will be arrested first. That may be just enough of a warning to get to him to flee. And if you look at these scenarios down through history (and there are lots of them), these guys always run like hell. Some of them, like Gaddhafi and Ceausescu, don’t run fast enough, but they still run.
However, he’s an idiot. There’s a chance he freezes like a deer in the headlights and fails to use his escape hatch. If he stays after his kids are arrested and the asset seizures start, bad things will happen all around.
“If he stays after his kids are arrested and the asset seizures start, bad things will happen all around.”
Would the cynical opportunists like McConnell and Cruz and Granham and Nunes cut bait at that point (even though it could be too late for them)?
I doubt that he would use Air Force 1. The pilots are not under the Trump’s direct command. Unless they have gone roque, they will not take off unless a proper flight plan has been filed and they have commands through the properly constituted chain of command, i.e. through the Pentagon and the Air Force. Furthermore, the pilots have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and one can assume that they take it seriously unlike the President. Their loyalty is to the US not to Trump. Far more likely, that he will use Trump One. He would have more direct control over the pilots, who would be more likely to have loyalty to Trump.
The timing of 2020-2022 is very likely to be correct. The signs point towards the crisis coming to a head then. I continue to be amazed at how many similarities there are between our present period and the Antebellum period. The power struggles and attitudes are similar. During the late 1850’s the Southern elite were extremely terrified of the northern states taking control of the federal government, endangering slavery and thus threatening their basic way of life. Presently the extremely wealthy, right wing is terrified of the rise of the progressive urban areas and taking control of the government and actually governing of by and for the people. That would in turn threaten their way of life. In this era Trump fleeing to Moscow would be appropriate.
In some respects this election is similar to the election of 1858, when though the Democrats (the pro-slavery party with ethics and attitudes similar to present day Republicans) retained control of the Senate, the Presidency and the Supreme Court, the Republicans (similar to present day Democrats) took control of the House. Then in 1860, the Republicans took full control of the Congress and the Presidency, the hotheads decided to take action into their own hands, by seceding. The same thing is unlikely to happen, but there are similarities. 2020 would just happen to be 160 years following 1860, i.e. two 80 year cycles. 2022 also happens to be 80 years following 1942, when the Japanese were stopped in the Pacific and US & UK forces landed in North Africa.
>] “Would the cynical opportunists like McConnell and Cruz and Graham and Nunes cut bait at that point (even though it could be too late for them)?”
The extremely *college-educated* answer to that is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Look, we can make all the educated guesses we want right now, but the truth is is that there are going to be a *lot* of dynamics at play when the shit hits the fan, and anyone who tells you that they know how it’s all going to shake out is lying.
Wait and see just how far Mueller’s dug into Republicans’ Russian connections and just how far the rabbit hole goes first.
>] “The timing of 2020-2022 is very likely to be correct. The signs point towards the crisis coming to a head then. I continue to be amazed at how many similarities there are between our present period and the Antebellum period. The power struggles and attitudes are similar. During the late 1850’s the Southern elite were extremely terrified of the northern states taking control of the federal government, endangering slavery and thus threatening their basic way of life. Presently the extremely wealthy, right wing is terrified of the rise of the progressive urban areas and taking control of the government and actually governing of by and for the people. That would in turn threaten their way of life. In this era Trump fleeing to Moscow would be appropriate.”
One notable difference (and what really *could* be the worst-case scenario) is the economy. A lot of people on both sides seem to agree that it’s overheated and that the markets are warning of disaster. QE and low interest rates, according to some, have created a bubble that’s inevitably going to pop.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessecolombo/2018/09/05/disaster-is-inevitable-when-americas-stock-market-bubble-bursts/#29c6df741b82
That however, is only if we’re lucky enough to be the cause of our own troubles. If our Chinese friends’ financial recklessness finally catches up with them, not to mention their truly jaw-dropping housing bubble; well, I can’t think of anything in modern history that would be an equivalent for that, not even ’08. Do you?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-08/a-fifth-of-china-s-homes-are-empty-that-s-50-million-apartments
https://medium.com/swlh/the-great-depression-in-china-and-the-collapse-of-yuan-17f8184d7ad4
2020-2022 is a looong time for devious, powerful people to hold the reins of control over programs and regulations. We have seen t use Ex Oders to avoid regular order. Given the GOP concerted plans to install Uber- conservatives in the judiciary, even that thin blue line is threatened.
Constitutional changes may be necessary to narrow executive power given the absence of a responsible congress. With senate control, Republicans are not going to cede any source of remaining power.
Ryan’s comments regarding both the domestic economy and the situation in China are absolutely correct. I’ve been concerned regarding both issues for sometime, though I did not mention them in my comments. I have not read the articles you linked, and at this time I have too many other commitments to do much research. My partner still needs help and assistance (she is recovery very well) plus I have other activities. But I do follow global affairs and those are some of the factors that I had in mind in my comment that the 2020-2022 time frame is likely correct.
The U.S. economy is overheated and overdue for a recession. However, I expect that recession to begin during the next two years, prior to the 2020 election. The Trump tax cut and budget deficits are further inflating the bubble. But bubbles always burst.
My domestic concern is that the underlying causes of the 2008 crisis consisting of great inequity and the financialization of the Western economies have not been resolved. The earned income classes have done well economically in many years.
China’s leaders are in a desperate race to keep the situation there under control. Without getting into a long complicated dissertation, one can safely say that there are serious unresolved problems in China.
The modern global economies are extremely interlinked, more so than any other time in history. If both China and the US enter into major downturns simultaneously, it would be unprecedented. That would make 2008 look mild and would very likely be worse than the 1930’s, so yes I think we are in very dangerous times.
With our present administration resurrecting policies that were proven to be unrealistic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the stage is getting set for “some very interesting times”. That is the reason I largely concur with Chris’ assessment of the near future.
Above I wrote “The earned income classes ,,,, have done well ….” It should have been “have not done well ….”.
Chris-
It’s fun to think about seeing Trump and his family in orange jumpsuits doing perp walks, but I actually think the more realistic scenario is that before any indictments are handed out, the Dem leaders have a closed meeting with Trump (perhaps with McConnell and other R’s present as well), and lay out all the evidence they have, plus the hearings / investigations they plan to launch, and lay out in pretty stark terms what that means for his business empire, his funding sources, etc. And then give him two options: proceed down that road, go through with the hearings, the trials, and watch his entire business empire fall apart as his money laundering funding sources scatter before the first conviction ever hits, or resign the Presidency and go away quietly. I bet even the Republicans at that point would encourage him to take the latter option.
I realize this would be unsatisfying to many (including me), as it implies Trump will be able to keep most of his business intact, stay in the country, and probably even get a TV show on Fox afterwards :-), but the reality is, prosecuting a President and his immediate family while he’s still in power is uncharted territory, and the consequences are wildly unpredictable, even the legal outcomes, much less the political chaos. This is not a simple matter of making a case to a jury.
Given that uncertainty, accomplishing the #1 goal, removing him from power, is important enough to sacrifice the schadenfreude of seeing him and his family in financial ruin for what they’ve done.
“..or resign the Presidency and go away quietly…”
Since when has Trump EVER been able to keep his fool mouth shut? I’d rather he play the victim from thousands of miles away.
A better question is, what are “we” going to do to fight this scourge of humanity? (I refer to both potus and the GOP that has embraced and ignored him as convenient.
Instead, why don’t we respond this way.
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2018/01/12/good-people-dont-defend-bad-man/
Here here. The FB groups I participate in use of his tactic extremely well and regularly. They also utilize a converse approach to seek out and support likeminded people who are in business. Whether it’s an Uber or Lyft ride, a contractor or business, the question is asked and answered in the forum. Likewise, parties who are political adversaries are named and shunned. I cannot remember when I last went to chikfila, hobby life by or Cinemark. I try to avoid enriching those whose financial support is helping candidates and organizations adversarial to my values. Grab your wallet was an early on line activist and the two Chris lists are excellent tools to personally make ones point. Small steps but collectively- huge.
Used to be that I didn’t mix politics and business. I suppose I should kind of thank places like Hobby Lobby for making it glaringly obvious that they don’t deserve my business.
@tmerritt15. You noticed that there are 80 year cycles between the Civil War and WWII and between WWII and now. Did it occur to you to count 80ish years back from the Civil War? It occurred to Lincoln. “Fourscore and seven years ago…” And if you go back another 100 years from Washington’s inauguration, you arrive at the Glorious Revolution. This doesn’t ‘just happen to be.’ There is a very pronounced rhythm of 80 (used to be 100) year cycles at work in American history, influencing the timing not only of once a century crises, but also of the once a century awakenings that happen in between. Neil Howe and William Strauss have elaborated on this at length. In their 1991 book, Generations, they address the ‘Crisis of 2020’ and note that the early 2020s looked to be ‘fateful.’
Daniel, I believe we have discussed this previously. Generations by Howe & Strauss is the source for my thoughts on 80 year cycles. I frequently allude to them and existential crises in my comments on this blog. I am quite familiar with their work and have read a large portion of the their literature and Howe’s current thoughts, though I am not totally current.
Years ago I noticed a definite cycle in major great power wars. It began when I was a kid of 11-12 and I asked my dad whether major wars seemed to occur at 20 year intervals. That was in the late 1950s, WWI and WWII were still on people’s minds and we were in the midst of the Cold War. My early thoughts were specifically relating to US involvement. Whenever Europe was in a state of general war, the US has inevitably become involved even back to the early days of colonization. When Howe and Strauss wrote Generations, that was an obvious extension of my thought processes.
You will note that though Generations was written in 1991, the 2020s are looking to be “fateful” as you say. There does seem to be a correlation.
“Here’s an object lesson in how to wage this war. A racist jerk showed up to a polling place in Mississippi wearing a Confederate flag t-shirt with a noose. Someone took a photo and shared it. That photo spread widely. Said jerk lost his job. That’s how you fight a civil war right now and win without firing a shot.”
There’s also the recent drunk White lady who harrassed two Black ladies who were waiting to get a flat tire fixed. Her drunken, rude, racist rankings were captured on cell phone video and shared with the world. She got fired and evicted. She deserved it. These assholes need to be beaten over the head with the message that such behavior on public is not acceptable.
I also hope that the new Dem House will pass some transparency bills regarding political $ and where it comes from. I don’t expect the Senate to sign on, or the corrupt fool in the White House to do do either, but it’s a good way to set things up for 2020 with an anti-corruption stand.