End of the GOP

With or without Trump, the Republican Party is finished on the national level.

Without Trump, they lack the energy and appeal ( indeed the mania) to bring out the masses needed to win elections for an otherwise minority party.

No other Republicans have sufficient charisma , for ill or good.

The Trumpkins, who hate establishment Republicans, will abandon them .

With Trump, the GOP will be a pariah party. Adding to the growing Democratic base and natural constituency will be thoughtful decent Conservatives and moderate sensible Republicans  who are repelled by Trump and his GOP sycophants.

Either way the GOP as a party is toast.


Eric

Disappointing jobs news for Trump

No this isn’t a misprint .

The jobs report was positive and that doesn’t help Trump’s campaign tactics.

Given the nature of his base ,Trump understands that good news isn’t very exciting to them.  He knows they’d rather be frightened and driven by hate.

If the jobs report was bad, he could  blame it on the scary prospect of a  “blue wave” of Democrats taking over the Congress and plunging the economy back into the abyss with skyrocketing jobs losses, plunging stock market losses, destroying 401k and so on. You get the picture.

Now that would have been more to Trump’s liking. He knows how to exploit that scenario. 

Good news? Meh

Eric

The Real Media Bias

Trump and his supporters are constantly complaining about media bias against Trump in comparison to Obama's media coverage.

 

As to reporting on the economy however, the opposite in fact has been true. Sadly a large part of the blame can be attributed to Sanders/ Warrens and the Progressives.

 

By every measure - GDP, jobs created, unemployment, wages, and the stock  market - the Obama economy was at least comparable to what's been  happening since Trump took office.

 

Yet we are told that the economy is now at last roaring and that things have gotten so much better economically, all thanks to Trump.

 

Trump says it so, the GOP says "amen", and the media reports it as gospel.

 

Part of the blame belongs to Sanders, Warren and the other Progressives . Notwithstanding the strong recovery under Obama, they still focused on the fact that wages had not increased much. The media also  emphasized this one negative.

 

Well guess what, they haven't gone up much under Trump either, but that hasn't stopped the GOP from bragging the great economy.

 

Even Obama himself is partly to blame, at least when it came to the stock market. He refused to tout, let alone take credit for, the skyrocketing stock market under his tenure.

 He apparently bought into the Progressives' argument that the stock market only benefited rich people, and that it would unseemly to tout its success.

Trump and the GOP have no such inhibitions, and it turns out most Americans apparently agree with them given their 401k, pension funds, mutual funds etc. have done well.

Notwithstanding the real facts, the Trump and GOP narrative is that things are so much better now than under the disastrous Obama administration.

It's just not true, and the media has been relatively quiet about that. Now that's what I call media bias.

Lie-gate

Adam Schiff coined this perfect decription of everything Donald Trump.
Now the phrase Lie-gate needs to go viral.

Whoever may read this , pass it on.

Let’s hoist Trump on his own petard .

Russia Probe- Back to Basics

The Russian investigation is about Russian Illegal interference in our Presidential election.  

Let’s not forget that is the basic inquiry. 

Not collusion, not obstruction of justice - those are follow on matters. 

The basic Russian investigation therefore is not a witch hunt or a hoax.

Trump is trying to obfuscate this basic issue with this repeated assertions of “no collusion “.  That’s not the basic issue of the investigation. 

Trump objects to the entire Russian investigation in our election because it put the legitimacy of his election into doubt. 

He’s right; his election was not legitimate. 

Whatever happens with Mueller probe, that conclusion will not change no matter what Trump claims. 

Eric

Words and Meanings - Korean Style

Once again I exam the differences in words and meanings - this time with respect to Korea and nuclear weapons.

US policy and President Trump demand that Korea give up its nuclear weapons .

Kim Jung Un is reported to say he’s in favor of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula .

According to Trump that was a big win for his aggressive, indeed bellicose , policies and rhetoric regarding North Korea. He touted that, at long last , North Korea was considering giving up its nuclear weapons program.

Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.

What Kim means by denuclearization is not the removal of nuclear weapons from the entire Korean Peninsula, but also the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea and the end of the US South Korean alliance and protection of South Korea. His use of " denuclearization" is nothing new. His father and grandfather has called for that for decades.

Given that American support includes potential use our nuclear weapons in Korea ( our nuclear umbrella), that’s his definition of denuclearization.

Wow, talk about a big difference in words and meanings. Of course Trump doesn't care, and may not even know this, and his supporters think he's accomplishing great things. 

It will be interesting to see what,if anything,happens.

Korean War Peace Treaty- "Only Nixon Could Go To China"

 North Korea has played Trump beautifully, and could possibly end up with its ultimate goal of preserving  its regime and recognition of its legitimacy internationally, in exchange for freezing or even eliminating its nuclear weapons capacity through a peace treaty ending the Korean War.

 Remember, conveniently, we are still at war since hostilities have only ceased under an armistice. 

 Such a peace treaty is best choice for North Korea.  It doesn’t really care about attacking the US or even South Korea. What it really wants is its own security. What else would it want to do with its nuclear weapons ? North Korea doesn't want to conquer or attack the US or even South Korea.

 The “easy” way to do it is to end the Korean War with a formal internationally recognized peace treaty between US and South Korea and North Korea.

 No Democrat could ever even propose such a peace treaty. The Republicans and Conservatives would “crucify” a Democratic President as surrendering to evil North Korea.

 

 But,  just as “only Nixon could go to China”, so to  only Trump could agree to such a peace treaty with North Korea .

 He’d tout it as a win by eliminating the North Korean nuclear threat ( true enough, perhaps)  but in reality it would be the successful conclusion of North Korea’s existential goals; at a very acceptable cost.

 No regime change and international recognition of its legitimacy. This has been North Korea’s one and only goal.

 No Democrat could give it to them, but Trump could.

 Trump gets a win, the world breathes a sigh of relief , but North Korea is the real big winner.

 Mission Accomplished, Kim Jung-Un.