For the time being, I think what I’m going to do is cover both the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Trump ‘presidency’ moving forward. Ostensibly, I started this blog to cover the Thunder, but Durant and Draymond Green are expecting their first child, and America is trending towards going from the greatest democracy ever to a quasi dictatorship. So as an American, I have to admit in all candor, I’m spending much more time following Caligula Lite than I am the Thunder. But still I’ll do my recaps and maybe a little more here and there on the Thunder, but I think keeping an eye on our country right now has my primary focus.
Before I go any further, there’s two books I have to recommend to all Americans , especially if you’re one of the sixty million who said WTF and voted for our Village Idiot President. The first is Losers by Michael Lewis. Lewis of course is famous for writing Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, and The Big Short. But this little unknown book called Losers is a must read if you really want to know how America’s two party system devolved to the point where a reality television star con artist could actually become POTUS.
Lewis covered the 1996 presidential race from beginning to end, but with an emphasis on covering the GOP field. In case you’ve forgotten, Bill Clinton defeated Bob Dole and won the White House for a second term. Of course, not long after, the impeachment of Bill Clinton began despite the fact America was going through a period of seven straight budget surpluses and the greatest peacetime economic expansion in the history of the world. But as we all know, there was a blow job and from that point forward American politics devolved into two nations within one border and has remained that way since.
The second book is Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Election by Matt Taibbi. I just finished the book and historically it reads as if its the sequel to Losers. Taibbi’s narrative describes both parties as virtually lost and devolving even further into the abyss. Like Lewis did in ’96, Taibbi covered this election as a beat writer with a leaning on covering the massive GOP field of seventeen candidates, but taking the story to its conclusion on November 8th. Absolutely a page turning read. Taibbi can write his ass off and if you’re a history junkie like I am you’ll read it in two days.
Okay, now back to American Hitler. You’ll notice, I’ve pretty much narrowed my nicknames of Trump to three at this point…Caligula Lite, Village Idiot President, and American Hitler. Little Donald isn’t really mine, it’s Lawrence O’Donnell’s, so ignore this entry heading in that regard. I was just doing it for Lawrence and how much he’s made me laugh this week even though in reality I’ve been crying from what I’ve witnessed.
What a week. The TPP trade agreement is done, which in essence now allows China to do as it pleases in the geographical region of the world where economies are growing fastest. Who needs any of that because as you know—we’re building a wall, and paying for it ourselves. Trump is also wanting to shut down Obamacare even though all other GOP’ers admit they don’t have a replacement plan even though they’ve had since in essence the election of W in 2001 to get one in place. Always remember this about the GOP, it’s primarily the party of the Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist.
The mantra of the GOP is to make sure the highest marginal rate payers pay the lowest effective rate possible. The lowest marginal rate for U.S. wage earners is 15%, but consider when Mitt Romney ran for president his effective tax rate was 7% and Donald Trump’s was 0%. I just hope of the sixty million or so who voted for Trump they have effective tax rates somewhere between 0% to 7% or else they really appear pretty fucking stupid at this point with all that chanting and such. The cheer at those Trump rallies shouldn’t have ‘Build the Wall’ but rather ‘Zero to Seven’!
It’s a big week-end for Little Donald with his telephone chat with fellow dictator Vladimir Putin on tap. Hope he does better on this one than he did with Enrique Pena Nieto and Theresa May earlier this week. The whole Mexico thing is very sad, but the Theresa May meeting was horrible as well as she basically had to school Trump on NATO, European history post WW II, and how the Russian sanctions should be handled.
How much you want to bet Putin comes out of this week-end with the sanctions being not that really all that important to Little Donald.
Kudos to this young blogger, podcaster–he nailed it.