Writers Dilemma

 How do I write anything as horrifying or ridiculous as reality? When we tell stories we want to interest you. We fear the trite and banal. 

There was a child, Shane Tamura, who played football in high school. Later he decided that resultant brain injury had ruined his life. Being an American he got a rifle to shoot up NFL headquarters. But he got confused and shot up the wrong office. Did he laugh before he killed himself? Was he careful not to shoot his head?

Another child, Dick Cheney, decided he wasn’t cut out for lineman, academics or the law and went into government. He successfully supported executive expansion only to see the clown become president. The irony only apparent to him at the end of his life.

Charlie Kirk, a debate me bro raised prodigious money argued that we must have guns and being consistent, that meant that people would be killed for their opinions.  A fan agreed with him.

The worst court decision ever made. Supreme Court has decided that the president can have the court, themselves, killed. Even if it is legal, why would you say it?

Steve Miller, a red diaper baby caught in leftist divisions rejecting neo liberal reforms that perpetuate empire comes to the accelerationist view that you must make things worse to bring the revolution.

A nation so enamored of its entertainment and inured to obfuscation that it builds homes resembling stage sets and identifies with ridiculous protagonists. It’s bad enough that we completely miss the message of movies, adaptations of books purposely mislead for marketability. The point of The Natural was that everyone sells out. When the movie had a happy ending it reinforced the message of the book. If the movie had been faithful, it would have been a refutation. Likewise, the newest adaptation of Wuthering Heights can’t have a dark-skinned protagonist. By failing the movies are perversely faithful to the original works. Just as everyone should have the experience of firing a gun, everyone should attempt to write a story and realize that authors are playing dolls with characters they may actively dislike.

Just as Stephen Douglas brought on the Civil War, Hilary Clinton savagely defeated the socialists then sponsored the clown in a Manichean scheme to destroy the Republican party. She may succeed at the expense of the empire she professed to support.  

Is managed trade or unitary executive justification for physical correction?

All grist to the mill, you might say. But how far can reality stretch credulity?

Financial Value Revisited

 In my book Conspiracy 101 I criticize Marx for not realizing until after his book Capital was written that capital is not only the means of production; producing earnings, but it also has the amazing quality of expanding financially. You can borrow on capital. Once financial instruments are created based on future values they multiply, they are traded and speculated on. When understanding events, this financial value is far more impactful than simple earnings.

Recent events have reminded me that capital can also collapse. The value of assets is aspirational. Even with earnings people can perceive that the future value will not justify the investment. Oil is an excellent current example. Even with oil earnings you can see that people aren’t anxious to invest. US is not building new refineries to process our light crude. Canada builds pipelines but again a refinery is too much. Venezuela bought US refineries but even with its huge reserves no one wants to invest in a new Venezuelan refinery. China is throttling its oil consumption. US has turned the southwest into a bursting toxic dump draining the shale. We have an oil glut. One of the reasons for the dollar’s fall is the drop in oil value.

In Conspiracy 101, I suggest that oil has taken the place of gold. That we could divide through by the price of oil as we would gold to get true value. Currently this assertion is wrong. The US policy to make the petrodollar a universal currency is failing. So far, gold is the measure of value. Perhaps one day there will be a gold glut.

Under the gold standard there were large financial gyrations. These were caused by financial speculation and competition for wages. Culminating with Franklin Roosevelt a grand bargain was struck:

Immigration became stricter. Before this, waves of immigrants entered the nation at will. Now there are two classes of immigrants: documented and undocumented. The undocumented set the base rate, they are our cheapest labor cushioning market forces replacing the slave labor we used to have. The documented are more expensive providing competition for higher priced labor.

Labor unions agreed to collective bargaining, gave up the wildcat strike and the boycott.

Just as Adam Smith described, managed trade assuaged the prerogatives of manufacturers.

The Federal Reserve in response to government bond auctions raises or lowers interest rates which controls small business formation which compete on wages.

 Social Security ameliorates workers fear of retirement.

Income Tax favors owners over employees.

These are controls on wage inflation; there is nothing restraining capital inflation. Diddling Doddering Doofus first term severely mismanaged wage inflation. Kids in cages pissed off the Mexican undocumented and they quit coming. Since the parents were often refugees, keeping the children created orphans when the parents were forced to return. Fruit rotted on the ground. Stores closed on Mondays. More citizens got hired. The various parking lot worker markets were empty. When the Covid shocks hit the undocumented weren’t around to provide their cushion.

In desperation, Biden let in a lot of documented. They were papered coming through the door. There was some dumb glitch with work permits. I don’t know how the inflation would have been if Biden hadn’t acted. Problem is that documented don’t set the base rate, so it took a lot more. The Federal Reserve still had to raise interest rates to sell T-Bills making our debt more expensive. Second term closed the border to documented refugees who may someday vote, and let the undocumented back: fruit is harvested, stores are open, there is more unemployment, the parking lot hiring has returned. Wage inflation will subside.

The inflation shock called dollar’s value into question. If US can’t even manage our labor market, why is anything else working? Just like unitary executive, managed trade gets a horse laugh. Without stability, what advantage is there to American Empire?

US has demonstrated our ability to control the frequent wage inflation cycles. What we lack is the mechanisms to control the severe capital inflation cycles. Holding wages in check makes capital more volatile. Thomas Piketty in Capital in the 21^st Century wants to tax capital as we tax real estate.  If the tax is fair, it won’t be effective. Capital exists as relative advantage. After tax, everyone will be in the same position as before.

Reagan got rid of the capital gains deduction as a reform. This should have been a step on removing the advantages owners have over employees. Instead, it was used to excuse tax cuts and then lost to a concerted lobbying effort by Bill Gates. 

As my brother says we shouldn’t have two classes of taxpayers. Currently we are taxed on our income. If companies were also taxed on income rather than earnings maybe that would be sweeping and radical enough that it could not be easily changed back. Initially this should lead to much lower tax rates. My fear is that inevitably the tax rates would creep up. This should be more than offset by removing the tax advantage of corporations. Rather than taxing the assessed capital asset we should remove the tax value of corporate assets.

Personality vs Materialism

 

Historian’s emphasis on leadership and the decisions leaders make ignores the ordinary material facts surrounding those decisions. These histories of leadership over circumstance are favored by those in power and their subordinates. Material conditions are ignored in favor of personalities. This personification obscures the obvious. But there are moments in history where individuals made the difference. Here are some possibilities:

Another obscured area is who the decision makers are. The Hamilton musical based on Ron Chernow’s biography attempts to redress this by giving glory to a functionary. But ignores that Alexander Hamilton was working for Robert Morris. Hamilton was on Washington’s staff, representing Morris. Thank heavens he was there to summon Morris when Washington, scared of heading south, was about to attack New York rather than Yorktown. Morris paid to transport Washingtons army to Yorktown. Imagine how the French would have felt if we hadn’t supported them at Yorktown. Washington was the Virginia general in the north. Benjamin Lincoln was the Massachusetts general in the south and Lincoln got his butt handed to him by the English General Henry Clinton.

Washington had a penchant for losing battles. The Patriots victories were usually under other commands or despite Washington. Washington was the last American General who understood attrition. Having worked for the English, Washington was properly terrified that they would send over the thug who would arm slaves in the south and burn granaries in the north. Washington wanted to keep the English generals he had. The English learned from this colonial rebellion and were far more ruthless in later conflicts. If you doubt the English could have won the American Rebellion, I give you South Africa, India, China, Ireland, and the Napoleonic Wars.

There are financial reasons for the American Rebellion and eventual victory. But the reason the British were soaking their colonies was to pay for the Seven Years War that Washington started. The British feared that colonial greed would lead to slave insurrection, indigenous uprising, and further international conflicts.

Another example of leadership making the difference is the succession of Roosevelt by Truman. Wars are decided after the battles. The loss of Roosevelt changed history. Truman took responsibility for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But Truman was a reluctant warrior compared to Roosevelt.  Why drop atomic bombs to just turn around and accept the surrender that Japan had been offering for months?

Japan wanted to keep its emperor and Parliament:

-screw our nation, emperor comes first.

Roosevelt wasn’t interested. Roosevelt wanted unconditional surrender. When Truman got disgusted and took the deal, he proclaimed it as unconditional, it wasn’t. Roosevelt would have dropped the third bomb that was on its way, used the nerve gas we had stockpiled, invited in the Russians, and then invaded. Roosevelt may have even provided the Russians with transport.

Just as in partitioned Europe, when the waves got going of Japanese choosing who they were surrendering to, our casualties would have been a lot smaller than currently estimated. Imagine the emperor deciding which way he was running.

A partitioned Japan may have distracted Russia from Korea. Or Roosevelt may have also turned over Korea. It is said that dropping the bombs was a warning to Russia. Americans were far more disgusted with England. Britain dragged us into two world wars and obviously couldn’t manage Europe. That was our fault as well, but it couldn’t be US, must be the British. Demonstrating the fate of an indomitable island fortress in modern warfare might convince England to pack that empire up.

Roosvelt would not have allowed the French back in Indochina. Using our offshore carriers and bases in China, USA had just bombed Vietnam into starvation in support of communist Ho Chi Minh. Ho wanted Vietnam to be the Yugoslavia of Indochina, an ally of Russia and the US, a bulwark against China. The influential Nationalists running Taiwan were not impressed.  Ho Chi Minh was another in a long line of American stooges who turned against us.

Eisenhower can be seen as a return to Roosevelt’s policies ending European empire. Eisenhower stopped Israel, France and England from seizing the Suez. Israel wouldn’t exist without Truman. Roosevelt would have seen Israel as a British puppet.  

Historians fail to understand how large financial value is, as against revenue, when considering material conditions. It is difficult to appreciate how vulnerable individuals are to influence. Usually, by the time of decision the choice is obvious. Yet there are moments when we surprise ourselves. 

We don’t seem to appreciate how serious a boob president is. We have had worse presidents. Many of them had intellectual or personality faults. But no president has such an overwhelming ignorance of propriety. It is difficult to find a particular affront that is outside our history.  But they are affronts, one after another.

US empire, as all empires before us, survives on sufferance. A sort of show me better. If you are a leader or an investor at some point you will be insulted and decisions will be made. I hate the neo-neos: neocons, neolibs defending our empire, but it would be nice to dismantle things politely, instead of bringing it crashing down.

HFBD

Someday you’ll die

Someday you’ll die

No need to cry

All gonna die

 

One year more

Till the last

Never know

When it's past

 

Enjoy the day

Might as well

Laugh and play

Meet in hell

 

On your birthday

Have your fun

One more year

Till you’re done

 

Throw your body

In the lake

Put up a plaque

You know is fake

 

Throw your body

In the ground

Somewhere it

Can not be found

 

Throw your body

Incinerator

Lose the ashes

Sooner or later

 

No one remembers

Who you were

Why it mattered

What you wore

 

The past is taken

Without its sense

Memory lost

In present tense

 

Did it matter

Did it count

Just a little

Any amount?

 

How much harm

Did you do?

Would it help

If you knew?

 

Did you increase

Population?

Create more bodies for

Conflagration

 

Pulled it off

Took the fall

Ripped them off

Lost it all

 

Were you dull?

Did you amuse?

Why would we

Search for clues?

 

If you weren't

The world goes on

Happy birthday

Enjoy the song

 

Cha cha cha 

Betty Mooney MacDonald

 

I have wasted so much time on this goofy JFK assassination. If you are a serious person with a meaningful life, read no further. One obvious issue is the Warren Commission files. Almost every presidential candidate assures the public they will release the files. Once they are elected, they, or some person reviews the files and refuses. What could be so embarrassing, silly, or whatever that no one wants to reveal it decades later? Chances are if you or I reviewed the files we wouldn’t want it released either. Bad Babbling Babar is purported to have said this. Oswald, returned Russian defector, shot the president. Would nearly blowing up the world be sufficient embarrassment? Even with the latest vast dump, there are unreleased documents.

There was a Dallas comedian who talked about the Onassis love triangle. If you marry the guy, it is romance not pornography. It is always the spouse, but I don’t think Jackie was in on the assassination. She had good reason to debrief. Jackie might have felt guilt about that. When her second husband, got abusive, she might have got some help as payback. Would that do it? Whatever theory you come to; one criterion must be that it is intensely embarrassing.

Up till now I have confined these speculations behind a paywall, books: How to Replace a Kitchen Faucet and Conspiracy 101. I won’t drag you through all that. It is not proof of conspiracy but there are a lot of unidentified other guys:

·      Another guy with Oswald shooting at Walker.

·      Other guy with Oswald meetings with Cubans.

·      Other guy with Oswald at the gun range.

·      Two other guys with Oswald in Mexico City.

·      Maybe another guy at the depository.

·      Maybe a woman on the stair at the depository.

·      Shooter on top of the depository.

·      Possibility of the shooter in the other building across the way.

·      Two of the three hobos.

·      Maybe one or two other guys when Tippit is shot.

·      Maybe an Oswald lookalike at the cinema.

Why not release the list of everyone who bought that Carcano rifle from the mail order? How many could it be? I would be looking for a purchase of 5 or 10 after Hidell bought his. They were only twenty dollars each. Police would hate this because there is coincidence. Someone might be checking that it could reach, how consistent the bullet markings are, they could repack the rounds, use a better scope, fragmenting bullets, add a suppressor.

I have personally seen the grassy knoll. There is no way you can squeeze trainyard workers on the bridge, Zapruder and an unremarked sniper on that tiny grassy knoll. Fuck the grassy knoll.

-If it won’t fit, you must acquit.

Too bad, I had some dialogue for the shooters. If there was a fourth shot it was the Secret Service firing a tumbling AR15 from the following car, finishing off (or missing) Kennedy as courtesy, malice or accident. The Secret Service had some rough humor after the Reagan shooting.

I suppose you could put the three hoboes behind the wall, giving each other cover. One of them pops the rifle for a moment and shoots down on the motorcade while everyone is looking at Kennedy. Then a car comes by and gets the rifle. Would you plan like that? No witness has said there was anyone behind the wall. A more reasonable possibility is that all these people were intended as security, flooding the zone for Kennedy and embarrassed that it failed.

If there were other snipers you are going to have to squeeze them in somewhere else and they were shooting at each other with suppressors. Say they had tested the customized rifle but when it was fired the round didn’t make it out the barrel. Maybe they successfully shot the opposing assassin in the building across the way. Maybe they just tried to shoot him. That would have pissed him off. A CIA double cross? I must be mistaken. Maybe they shot the mobster on the roof of the depository. Maybe they tried to shoot Oswald. I really wanted Johnson to have Connally shot first.

The RFK mob prosecutions could have just been a mob layoff, a generational change. I had thought the mob was cleaning up and shot Oswald. I am attached to the idea that the mob shook down the Russians and LBJ for the cleanup. Since it looks like the mob, must be the FBI. Maybe Johnson didn’t trust the mob. Even if Oswald was on his own, Johnson might have wanted him killed to avoid him running his mouth. Jack Ruby was a night club owner and FBI informant. Imagine the mob and the government told you to do something. I hate all these theories that deny Oswald agency. Let Oswald shoot somebody.

They can’t even agree on how many bullets are in Kennedy’s head. I think Oswald shot Tippit because he was having trouble getting the diffident officer to arrest him and then realized that trying to convince Tippit gave himself away.

Dallas deserves more inquiry. Maybe if you could find the right person and ask the right question. As an example: I used to be a programmer at Wards Insurance, over the store on State in Chicago. An actuary had taken up programming for himself. His program had broken and he was carrying his abnormal end listing around asking for help. I was working and ignored him. After a day or so he came to me and described his debugging effort:

Me-Let me see the source listing.

A-There’s nothing wrong with the source.

He returned with the source.

Me-You didn’t code this parameter.

A-You don’t have to code that.

He came back later:

A-Why didn’t you tell me?

Me-You didn’t ask.

Dallas itself is sick of this. There’s a Lee Harvey bar, a Jack Ruby bar (no dancers), and Pegasus brewery offers 6^th floor beer. Is there someone in Dallas who would know or might they direct you to the right person if you were polite? It might be dangerous. Maybe because it’s embarrassing. There have been some events. Send Geraldo. If someone were to tell us, would we believe them?

If you are down In Dallas anyway look up the MacDonald lady, or whatever her name was. I defy you to find one documented fact about her. She doesn’t fit in anything. She smells operational. Why give an alibi for that poor schnook even if it is true? I’m guessing it has something to do with going overboard with the FBI clean up. A bookend to Marylin Monroe. If I must guess, and I guess I do, MacDonald might be another FBI informant. FBI got mad at her interfering with their operation. Since they knew her, they knew it was likely she would kill herself when she was locked up.

I think the JFK assassination started as a Kennedy stunt that got hijacked, would that be enough embarrassment? Everyone is considering the idea that the attempts on our Elephant Emperor were stunts to get more votes. Cutting his own ear could be a wrestlers move. Melania wanted to know why the police couldn’t do their job and get a child they had twice reported into a car. Police threw me and my friends in a car just fine. The Secret Service sniper team was premature and unexpected. They were supposed to be brought in after the nomination. Secret Service had a tip. Times have changed. Even if the Tufted Tyrants shootings were stunts, that didn’t change many votes. Even if I could have proven they were stunts it wouldn’t have changed many votes. 

It is hard to believe how we used to fear shame.

Conspiracy seems untenable without Kennedy involvement. With all the other guys around Oswald, at least one of them was a plant, which means there was a control. Hijacking the Kennedy stunt would be natural as well as the control collecting from South Vietnam through Nixon and Johnson through the CIA.

Sorry I dragged you into this. Hope I didn’t endanger anyone.

Condescending Saviors

 

I wrote this shortly after the Democratic Convention:

This recent convention solidified five deficiencies of the Democratic Party. Rather than addressing these well-known criticisms, the liberal elite, the party owned them with a nice helping of Jingo.

One is their use of the term middle class. Looking down from the upper I suppose what they see is the middle class. I wrote about class in my book, Another Data Processing Book. In US land we have nine classes, a tic tac toe board, upper, middle and lower both ways:

Upper upper	Middle upper	Lower upper
Upper middle	Middle middle	Lower middle
Upper lower	Middle lower	Lower lower

 

Most of us are middle-lower and lower-lower. There is a big bulb at the bottom with a long tail stretching out into the distance. Somewhere on that tail you can parse out a small segment that contains the population middle-middle. We aren’t in it, and we know that. I haven’t found the middle class all that amenable to my company and I’m okay with that. Democrats use the term middle class as aspiration. Perhaps they are squeamish, if there is a middle, then there must be an upper and lower, but those terms are too offensive. It is disorienting to use the word middle without lower and upper. The disposition of wealth does not fall into a bell curve and that should be an advantage to Democrats. The middle-class votes for Orange Jesus.

Second is the use of the term workers. When we think of workers, we think of unions. For most of us, unions mean we can’t get jobs. We aren’t in the 11%. To raise wages, you must reduce hiring. Occasionally we get sucked into organizing efforts that end disastrously. Boycotts, wildcats and new trade unions are illegal. Companies are fined and unions imprisoned. Again, Democrats aspire; we live here. Union people are often middle class.

Third is the argument that we should do it for mom. MAGA base hates its mom. I’m not saying they are wrong. Mom didn’t think much of them. When mom doesn’t make you special, you find other justification.

Fourth is the subsidies. I’m not talking about services but subsidies. If everyone got something, no one got it. Mortgage interest deduction is a good example. The deduction means banks charge homeowners more interest. As Adam Smith explained, if ministers get free tuition, there will be too many ministers for churches to hire. Subsidizing home buying makes housing more expensive. If tips were tax free, we would tip our lawyers. If everyone has a college degree, it is not a distinction. We all know this.

Fifth, we need to end our empire. It’s too great a sacrifice and too expensive. Take Gaza, please. US and Qatar interest in Gaza is preventing the development of Gaza Marine, Thirteen something trillion something cubic something times whatever. Qatar is now our junior partner selling natural gas to Europe and neither of us want a large gas field selling to our market. Texas is giving natural gas away and Europe is buying. That is why the US is recovering so well. That is why we blew up the pipeline.  US and Qatar favor any policy that delays development. Stooge is a subset of chump. It is cunning, it is also dumb. US produces the most oil, we won, we’re the OPEC. Why should it be US ruining the world to make a buck? All empires fall. Let’s go out with more style. If you don’t share, no one will play with you.

This doesn’t mean we should hire an idiot to run the country. The first time the babbling baboon ran they didn’t bother with a platform. Since there were no stated objectives and who would want to work for him, they just made a mess. The Project 2025 document begins by acknowledging the mess. This time Republicans created a ridiculous and defensive platform, they hate immigrants, trans and poor people. Republicans hire the undocumented. They put on a big show, but they hate the documented immigrants who will someday vote. Abortion is only illegal for poor people in stupid states. Republicans know that they are so hateful that people become trans to avoid being gay. Hateful and rich doesn’t make it legitimate. Republicans don’t understand they are giving away the game. You can’t govern without legitimacy.

Bobs court is an embarrassment. Each decision is worse, with no pretense of sense or justification. Cleaning up this mess will require constitutional amendments. Most idiotic in the history of courts is giving the president free reign. Mealy mouthed as it was, the court did not write an opinion to restrain the president. The decision provides a silly framework to justify any executive decision. In principle, our president could order Bobs killed. Bobs is corrupt, it’s in the national interest and it’s an official act.

There was a US citizen running around Yemen running his mouth. The president ordered him killed. Then we killed his sixteen-year-old son. The first two were killed with missiles. Then the next president ordered a ground operation to kill his five-year-old daughter and the family taking care of her. Presidents have little fear of prosecution. There is no reason to make that official.

Government is all in the wrist. It almost doesn’t matter what the policy is if it is executed well and conversely how good it is if executed poorly. Democrats mean well, or at least profess good intentions. A president must come in with about four thousand people or at least 400 who can each bring ten. Even if fat and furious made sense, he doesn’t have the people. Would you work for him? Look what happened to the ones that did. Six months doesn’t give much pension. Do you want Island of Misfit Toys on your resume?

Obama handled three epidemics. El Pompadour couldn’t get an appropriation for the vaccines. Instead, they drained the government research budget. Government research is where the future comes from. That set us back at least ten years.

Troll in chief privatized government intelligence. Our government intelligence is temps.

When someone announces they are an idiot, they are a one issue voter, or undecided they give away the argument and they can’t state their true reasons. Hope they are not registered. There is nothing wrong with being either liberal or elite if you deliver. If only more poor people voted. If only more poor people voted in the primaries. The harder it is to vote, the more it matters.

Voting for the gibbering gibbon won’t keep black people out of your neighborhood. You know that. Persecuting poor women in stupid states doesn’t stop abortion. This is a democracy. Eventually abortion will be unequivocally legal; we’re sick of your shit. Ending abortion doesn’t stop women working. No one wants to marry your stupid ugly kid. You know that too. You are not going to bring down the American empire. The American empire will end when it’s good and ready and it won’t be because of losers like you. All you have done is make another mess that everyone else will have to clean up, just like every time before.

Rock is dead.

Kind of fun. But then I wonder if I was telling you anything. Would this have any effect? Would it be positive?

It is yet another vestige of slavery that such a small plurality, less than 2,500,000 votes, produces so dramatic an advantage. There were only about 6 million registered voters that didn’t vote.

When training a police officer or prison guard someone has the responsibility of explaining to them that if they are taken hostage, it is possible that they will be the first target of the police sniper. This policy became obvious at the Attica Prison uprising. This minimizes casualties. Porky’s 47 cracks about Hannibal Lecter are a juvenile reference to the Isreal Hannibal directive that informed the Israeli people that they are all prison guards. Juvenile slyness targets a demographic.

Incels affect a depraved exploitative homosexuality. Orange Julius fellatio references was for their benefit.

There is no reasoning with MAGA. Biden cut bait in Afghanistan, not Don John. Big Greasy jailing children and sending their parents back to die insulted the Mexican undocumented and they quit coming. The fruit rotted, stores closed on Mondays and there are more jobs. That combined with Double O zero raising oil prices and Covid supply shocks without the undocumented to cushion them, brought inflation. Admittedly Mexico doesn’t seem to have street gutters, and they use adobe not brick, wait till they are arguing in front of the Supreme Court. It is wrong to let Cubans run Catholic charities. East Orthodox handled their federal money. We haven’t quite made it, but if we can survive the Irish, we can survive anything. Except for 9/11 Muslims are Irish lite.

MAGA likes undocumented. The undocumented work for MAGA. MAGA is not going to round up and deport its own undocumented. It is the people in the system, paying taxes, workmen’s comp, social security, that will someday vote who MAGA targets. Whatever rationalization MAGA offers, it ends with voting for His Hugeness.

MAGA doesn’t care about any of this. They don’t care about the price of eggs. They hate women, blacks, and themselves. Whatever talking point they throw, there is no way that Rumbo will deliver, except for keeping a woman out of the White House.

You can’t change people’s minds. What you can do is bring in new constituencies. My mom helped win an aldermanic by registering students in 1959. Big Cheeto’s success in 2016 was bringing his audience into the Republican party. Kind of like converting the King of the Khazars.  Jews quit proselytizing after that. Bidens victory was due to the Democratic snap back, more new Democrats registered than Republicans. Each election registered more voters. This election the Republicans found incels and enough women want their pussy grabbed. Besides running a woman, the Democratic mistake was concentrating all that resource on the existing voting base rather than registering more voters. Taylor Swift and Beyonce can’t overwhelm the incels by themselves. Someday we may run out of unregistered, but for now even Democrats should have found constituencies amongst the more than 80 million. Showing voter registration should be obligatory at concerts, events, demonstrations and family gatherings.

The Business School at University of Chicago just made the argument that we vote for Democrats when times are bad and Republicans when we feel prosperous. This is in line with Adam Smith’s view of the constant cycle between ruination and salvation in democracies. It was said that Democrats must be bought, and Republicans are already there. Everybody is bought. The difference is that Democrats seek consensus, and Republicans think they are right.

It is almost impossible to believe that “can you get me 11,000 votes” and electric Musk didn’t steal the election. There is the Adamowski argument. Adamowski was the Cook County States Attorney in 1959. Daley got Republicans to trade him away for Nixon votes. Since the States Attorney is supposed to police elections, if he can’t do his job he doesn’t get to keep it. If the election is stolen from incumbents, they are incompetent. Again, Democrat incumbents want an obvious plurality. Democrats are hurt that misogyny beats ability.

As to registered voters. I am going to state the obvious. During an election voters have power. The voters are deciding who to hire. We used to go door to door canvassing precincts to determine how people are going to vote. There is a quantum problem. Someone might say:

-I was going to vote for your candidate.

Canvassers should be short, elderly, and like your pet. One tactic is to ask people if they want to volunteer.  They don’t, but if they looked guilty, they were probably a plus. Once we contacted you and determined your preference, we did not contact you until election day. If you hadn’t voted we would helpfully remind you. If you were a minus or a zero, we didn’t want to remind you to vote. If you were a plus any further contact might change your mind.

Once we had experience in the precinct, we didn’t have to canvass everybody. There was the legendary Mrs. Isenberg of East Hyde Park who had five precincts. Voters knew when she was available to ask her how to vote if they weren’t sure. She may have occasionally canvassed if it was expected.

As I explained in an earlier post, I vote against anyone who robocalls me. Once you know I am voting for Harris and I am not donating money, any further contact may discourage me, even texts. The message Harris gave is that her campaign did not know who I am and has too much money. Just because I am voting for you doesn’t mean I should be pestered. Harris is the first candidate who wanted my donation more than my vote. Would you solicit money on a job interview? I would like to see a list of donors who did not vote.

The Democratic Party did fine out of this, everybody made money. Now they can stand back, and watch Republicans make another stinking mess. Grifter in Chief is already shaking the tariff money tree, looking for his taste, just as before with a wider scope. Please don’t ever say managed trade again. We need the free trade amendment. Put that on the list with ending the presidential pardon, abortion is legal amendment, dropping the second amendment, ERA, making federal election law an amendment, ending the Department of Labor, legalize drugs… The Democrats expect to come roaring back. After Big Bill Thompson Chicago is a Democratic city. Assuming there is another election. Mr. Microphone and the right wing Yippees denying legitimacy while owning the oil market invites a coup.

How Hillary Lost

 A ridiculous amount of effort is spent criticizing Hillary Clinton’s character. When elections are that close, every infraction is magnified. There is a much simpler material explanation.

It is pathetic how cheap Congress is. Most of their time is spent on phone banks raising money. There was a moment when it looked like Chicago’s alderman Vrdolyak would be sent to Congress. Imagine:

-This is a billion-dollar appropriation? I get more than this for a zoning variance.

Occasionally money rains on Washington. World War II was cost plus. Johnson unleashed Taiwan. When Nixon made the China deal, they had so much cash they were shoving it into filing cabinets. Reaganauts were Nixon wannabes. Bush Sr. held up the Saudis for Kuwait. Hillary Clinton was queen. She shook down healthcare so hard their teeth rattled. Everyone in Washington should love Hillary Clinton. The Saudis had to sit down, and Ross Perot complained about the service. Insurance and Pharmacy were in a bidding war to see who could shut it down fastest.

Healthcare was not going to allow Hillary the presidency, either time. Obama, lawyer that he is, crafted a compromise that has held. Healthcare was still frightened of Clinton. Who could they pay? Orange Julius is unreliable. Would you give money to Rumbo? Healthcare paid Putin. Healthcare didn’t have to report it. Putin used the marketing tactics we taught him for His Hugeness:

-Oh, we wouldn’t interfere in your elections.

Cambridge Analytica had a pass because they were doing god’s work. Everyone looked the other way while Cambridge Analytica, a creature of England’s security service, violated privacy protection. Cambridge Analytica was identifying the goofs. If a goof was heading to Syria say, we would know who they were. When Bannon’s boyfriend, Mercer, got hold of Cambridge Analytica he said:

-Show them where the polls are.

Cambridge Analytica shared lists with the Russians. The Russian problem was that they had no one reliable to coordinate with. Would you work for El Pompadour? Fat and Furious had to shout over the top.

It was just enough. As Joe Kennedy said:

-I’m not paying for a landslide.

I have an entry in this blog on Brexit where I speculate that healthcare paid Putin for that.

The Supreme Court is going to twist constructionist into a pretzel arguing that the 14th amendment is unconstitutional.  How can you argue original intent if you won’t respect the letter of the law? They just ignored the 9^th amendment in their “argument” against abortion. The Supremes took that original intent from the inquisition. The definition of fascism is ignoring the law in favor of popular will. Given that the law is so brazenly flaunted, our only hope is crossing over to vote for Haley in the primary.

14th Amendment

 Back when Chicago had winters, I once dragged myself through the slush into a travel agency and said:

-Get me out of here.

I hate to travel. There is some remarkable geology. In Lacrosse Wisconsin there are bluffs. There is a fun mix of prosaic and profane seeing people living on and around the bluffs.

There are also the plaques. In Pennsylvania there is mention of Jumonville. George Washington at the age of twenty murdered Jumonville causing the French and Indian War which lead to the Seven Years’ War, which lead to our revolution. The revolution was not popular, ask the Tories, who respected the king, paid their debts, and opposed slavery. 

The Evanston Illinois light house, built in 1873 after the North was freed of the South’s hatred of boondoggle. Why of all the stretches of sand along Lake Michigan was the light house built here? The light house was an emotional reaction to the sinking of the Lady Elgin in 1860. In Milwaukee there is a wonderful plaque explaining that the Irish on the Lady Elgin had it coming. The Germans wanted to secede from the Union in opposition to slavery. The Irish wanted to stay in.

The site of Pickett’s Charge in Gettysburg.

I hate the St. Louis Arch. They try to warn you: claustrophobia, acrophobia, and ochlophobia. They tell you don’t go up there. Due to construction we had to buy tickets in the museum. There was a plaque there explaining that there weren’t many Blacks in St Louis before the Civil War. The Irish were taking the work. It was cheaper to hire an Irishman for a day than keep a slave for life. Dred Scott was pissed that his owners were sending him out to find jobs.

When the Supreme Court uses arguments like natural law or constructionism, they are saying they don’t have anything else. This wasn’t the case with slavery. All stupid Taney had to say was that slavery was in the Constitution. It would have been nice if Taney had ruled that if you didn’t have work, you were no longer a slave. Taney would have been discovering a right under the 9^th amendment. The 9^th is kind of a fun meta-amendment. When the Supreme Court argues that a right isn’t covered under the Constitution, they are ignoring the 9^th. We fought a war to remove slavery from the Constitution.

The slave breeding border states would have hated such a decision. They made money selling slaves south.

Keeping the Union was not popular. It was not the peoples will. Lincoln got in on a three way, another example of the Voters Paradox. After the putative end of the war, Republicans dragged the army up to vote and dumped the territories into the count. Fortunately, the Southern raids infuriated the border states. The Democratic platform was to concede the war to the South. The South didn’t vote, we had won by force of arms and freeing the slaves. When the Southern property walked off, their financial value collapsed. The Northern banks were furious with Lincoln, they thought they were going to collect on their loans. McClellan got 45% of the vote in the North.

Rather than lining the rebels against a wall and shooting them as a sovereign nation ought, goofy Johnson followed Ceasar’s advice and pardoned them. Even so, the 14^th amendment said the rebels could no longer run for office. There was no folderol about process, popular will or which office. A sovereign state should not allow traitors to hold office, regardless of the peoples will. If you want to change the Constitution, we have process for that. Please don’t argue that an amendment is unconstitutional.

I despise the 2^nd amendment. It is ambiguous and confusing. The Supreme court shouldn’t rule against it. We should amend the Constitution to explicitly return that power to the states.

The first amendment was too mealy mouthed about government supporting religion. It seems obvious that tax money should not go to religions. Stop faith-based grants. Faith-based worked fine when it is Greek Orthodox taking care of Ukrainians. It shamelessly falls to pieces when it is Catholics serving Venezuelans. The Cruz and DeSantos Catholics are happy with undocumented immigrants. Undocumented don’t get Social Security, Minimum Wage, Unemployment, or Workmen’s Compensation. MAGA is opposed to refugees, people with status who don’t do as they are told, and who may someday vote.

Catholic “charities” is also taking tax money to oppose the rights of equality and privacy.  

MAGA isn’t fascist. Fascists had ideals. Maga is a pseudo nihilist, sometimes antiimperialist, pro-Russian belief in slavery and forced pregnancy. Maga wants crippled orphan children working 12-hour shifts in packing plants.

Popular will overriding the law is a fascist argument.

The only way individual Democrats can fight for Reconstruction is to crossover to the Republican primaries and vote for Haley. At least Haley hasn't shipped immigrants.

Refugees

 Venezuela has the largest oil reserves of any country in the world. We don’t yet know about the artic circle, Somalia, or the Philippines. In spite of their resources, history and wealth, the US sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba have succeeded. The refugees are proof. It is silly to blame those governments because they couldn’t effectively fight the US. The only thing holding up those nations is their own desperate need for sovereignty. Maybe Venezuelans should install a Saudi prince.

Everyone has noticed that the United States absorbed the Ukrainians and Venezuelans are on the street. The Ukrainians flee war. The Venezuelans flee poverty. Ukrainians got here first. There are more Ukrainian refugees. Venezuelans have more skills, that is why they came. As far as the initial brunt of refugees, the Orthodox take care of their own and Catholics don’t.

The pope finally popped the Texas bishop. I don’t know how much say that bishop had, but he was representing his constituency. Texas “Ted Cruz” Catholics are more concerned with their MAGA points, wasting federal money, than taking care of business. The Texas Catholics handed out airline tickets dropping people wherever with no coordination. Try dropping into a city without a reservation, it may work.

Whatever the disjunct, Catholic “charities” proves the failure of funding faith based.

Dismissing Racist Explanation

 

Recently there has been some fluff that we couldn’t find American workers to build a new integrated circuit plant. Our workers say it is because they are not getting enough money. Boomers bemoan:

-Our kids are too dumb to get the jobs we used to have.

Depend on Americans to find the racist reason even when it is against us. Foreign workers may get less than citizens, but that is not enough for a business decision, particularly on a subsidized plant.

As I explain in this blog in Income Disparity and Bribes, in 1969 America removed discretionary fund as an accounting entry. This has several consequences. Companies moved the amount in that entry to executive compensation, so it is now after tax. Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century has a graph showing executive compensation on an upward diagonal from 1970 on. CEOs used to get ten times base earnings. Take the difference then apply the tax rate gives us the total compensation, for the bribes and kickbacks required for business. Moving kickbacks out of sales and into management has dramatically increased right-wing fund raising. Politics provides cover for payments.

This has also impacted hiring. Arthur Anderson would come in over the top, but most hiring is decided at middle management. It looks odd for the CEO of a large temp or placement company to directly solicit managers. Foreign companies with the accounting discretionary fund entry have advantage in the American market. As Trump says:

-Foreigners can bribe us; Americans can’t bribe them.

You would think that American ingenuity could overcome this pettifoggery. Simply pass the money to sales. Such practice cements the clique. Without the accounting subordinates take advantage and abuse their position.

Alfred Doolittle Gets SNAP

Small segments can have disproportionate influence in politics. Lenin’s conscious cadre works. The reality TV segment awakened the fascist segment and the Russians. Brexit and Trump satisfy the agenda of ending their respective empires.

Republicans threatened to use the debt ceiling to bring down the empire. Because they were upset that Alfred Doolittle, the undeserving poor, was in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Republicans were mad at all sorts of things, they coalesced on their antipathy towards Doolittle. As Doolittle points out in My Fair Lady, being poor doesn’t improve character. We all have a Doolittle in the family. Our families Doolittle hates welfare. He qualified for disability. He has Multiple Sclerosis from dealing crack. So, he can’t work, except for the side job disassembling cars. You can’t live on just disability. Doolittle is a good son; he got his parents on disability as well.

Take Ella. This was a while ago. Ella started as Ella Fitzgerald, born in Chicago. Her man threw her down the stairs and she became Ella Mae, born in Mississippi. Ella wanted to work; you can’t live on just welfare. There was no day care, so Ella Mae checked her children into school early. She told the school she didn’t have birth certificates for them because they had been born in Mississippi. The dumb school believed her. The school put the children into EMH, Educational Mentally Handicapped because they were obviously immature. Years later, the school figured it out, but that damage was done.

Ella would wait until after the checker had totaled her groceries to pull out her food stamps. Food stamps only paid for food. The poor checker would have to pull all the groceries back and separate them while Ella would holler:

-I need those.

Ella considered herself an activist. President Nixon liked her and used her as an example of the working poor.

The Doolittle’s and Ellas are Trump supporters. They have no comprehension of altruism or solidarity.

In their defense, they are not boing-boing or lock-head.  Doolittle and Ella didn’t drop planes, blow up Challenger, or start wars. Another issue for Republicans is that they are worried the IRS is going to make them pay taxes.

Don’t be too concerned. Some people will be cut but the Doolittle’s and Ellas will qualify for SNAP, agriculture wants SNAP. Rich people will avoid taxes. The war machine will get its money. The British have an annual ceremony where they make a big show of knocking on the door. US’ns like to have more drama.

This drama undercuts legitimacy. Rather than geographical remnant of slavery our two legislative bodies should divide on popularly elected representatives of function. One body should decide our international functions: trade, empire, mineral rights, military… the other should be domestic. We could put national plebiscite in charge of approving the budget, that the two bodies came to.

Calling It for Inflation

 Inflation wins. We have already had severe capital inflation. Eventually, when rich people spend money, it impacts wage earners. Trickle down becomes a torrent of prices. The pressure for wage inflation was held in check by undocumented immigrant labor, destruction of unions, imports and, until recently, interest rates.

Then DJT and Steven Miller terrorized the undocumented immigrants. Terror works, particularly institutional terror. Mexicans love their kids and they quit coming. Fruit rots on the ground. Stores are closed on Monday. We still get immigrants, but they are refugees, and they have status. Undocumented immigrants set the marginal wage rate low. A documented immigrant is less likely to endanger their status by driving the truck or recycling shipping containers. Without our slaves we have to be more rational and that is expensive. There have been multiple economic shocks and we are no longer as cushioned.

There is also demographic. A lot of us are retired and indexed. We will pay our mortgages and student loans out of social security.

Inflation makes more sense when you distinguish between capital inflation and wage inflation. The dirty secret of the Federal Reserve was that raising interest lowered wage inflation and increased capital inflation. But manufacturers and any other interest sensitive companies were sacrificed in 2008 to the finance industry. Companies that survived are less likely to feel the rise in interest rate and will keep hiring. So now the Federal Reserve is yanking on a loose lever, employment is no longer as dependent on interest rate.

Banks depend on interest rates. I am shocked that Silicon Valley Bank went under. It is fun to see everyone dancing around rescuing SVB clients. SVB was supposed to be the smart ones. Bankers are dumb, but SVB was playing by the rules, admittedly rules they lobbied for, but the same across their midrange sector. SVB going under means that all banks are in danger. The Fed rapidly cranked interest rate. When SVB clients realized they could get better return, SVB was holding onto paper paying the earlier low interest rate and cashing out lost the bank money. If this isn’t a failure of Federal Reserve regulation, then it has to be a failure of Federal Reserve policy.

Please don’t mention reserves. There is no reserve requirement. Capital requirements are thinly veiled silliness. You can’t expect banks to hold cash.

Raising interest rate this quickly will crash more banks, long before it impacts employment. The Fed can crash as many banks as it wants, it can nationalize the banks, the fight against wage inflation is lost.

Inflation

One proof of the market is that economics is obscure. Because of patronage there is no advantage stating the simple obvious. As I am not getting a grant, I can be direct.

Inflation is manifest differently in each of its many components. My parents bought their house for almost $12,000 in 1959. That was about twice my father’s yearly salary. Today the house is almost half a million in Zillow which would be about ten times the salary of a comparable position, give or take. There are some equivalents. Maybe there is a correspondence between a year’s college tuition and a new car. The social security cutoff seems to be about what it takes to comfortably support an upper middle-class family of four.

Inflation has two classes: wage inflation and capital inflation. There is no government control of capital inflation. Wage inflation is controlled by four government agencies. The Department of Labor supervises unions. Immigration is restricted. Commerce allows imports. The Federal Reserve controls interest rates, at its simplest by buying and selling bonds. Raising interest cost chokes off small business, the business which competes for labor.

This time, the Federal Reserve was slow to raise interest rates because they failed to recognize a structural change to wage inflation. Terror works, particularly institutional terror. Unlike many, Mexicans care about their kids; they didn’t want Immigrations daycare program. Immigration and Naturalization determines who is legal. It is the illegal immigrants who set the marginal cost of labor. Without our slaves the United States has to rationalize our markets, which is more expensive.

In earlier times if shipping containers were piling up at the ports someone would have told Jose to recycle them. Joe will refuse. It’s not enough money to risk jail.

When you see crews hired out of 7-11 again, you will know that “inflation” is declining. Without marginal competition, the Fed is pulling a busted lever.

Worst President

1. Kennedy nearly blew up the world. Eisenhower had been waving the bomb around but now there was reprisal. Berlin, Bay of Pigs, Missile Crisis, Assassination, it was called brinkmanship.
2. Reagan was just running his mouth, but middle management on both sides was listening. Brave Petrov, Able Archer, Fleetex, KAL 007, Reagan calmed down after he was shot. Both Irishmen believed they had a special relationship with the Soviet Union.
3. Jefferson unleashed Napoleon on Europe. The only real consequence of the Louisiana Purchase was funding Napoleon. Jefferson said he expected Napoleon to attack the British, but the French direction was clear after the Seven Years’ War.   Napoleon was a general not an admiral. Dropping guns in Haiti, backstabbing Washington on the loan, stopping the tobacco deal, don’t say it turned out for the best. We don’t know what would have happened. Jefferson was slime.
4. Wilson’s intervention in World War I led to World War II.
5. Teddy Roosevelt was our most popular president. Roosevelt picked the next two presidents. He campaigned for our World War I intervention in support of the British. Roosevelt’s island by island suppression of the Philippines was an example to Japan. Japan and Germany were United States wannabes.
6. Eisenhower was a great general. His selection from the ranks as head of the European theater was a miracle. Unfortunately Eisenhower was a great general. Countless successful interventions of small forces, guns and money throughout the world murdered the idealists and frustrated sovereignty leading to disaster that Eisenhower was no longer around to manage.  He was embarrassed in Indonesia. Eisenhower put out the fires without clearing the underbrush. The SOCOM fantasy persists to this day.
7. Jackson, westward expansion and the associated atrocities seem inevitable. But Jackson left us with no shred of decency or self-respect.   There was also his financial manipulation in support of the overseas Dutch. Jackson and Van Buren established the Democratic Party which eventually gave us the Civil War.
8. Nixon, Cambodia will suffice.
9. Bush Jr. the MBA chump who fell for Bin-Laden’s provocation. Lead the US out of prosperity and into ruin.
10. Tyler joined the Confederacy.
11. Washington started the Seven Years War. He skimmed the French funds meant for his starving troops. He did keep the British occupied until France could win the Revolution. Without the benefit of gunpowder. If you don’t believe the British could have won, let me refer you to India, China and South Africa. Fortunately the British didn’t send the bad boy who would have dropped guns in the South and burned granaries in the North. Washington’s great mistake as president was sending Jefferson to France. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Jefferson’s job in France was to get the tobacco deal; instead he went to the other side. Jefferson was probably tipped by the Turks. Without the tobacco deal we had Shay’s rebellion. When it was clear that the French weren’t giving the loan in part because of Washington’s even handed policy, Washington was told to grab his hat and not let the door hit him on the way out.
12. Don John is the piñata for the ecological disaster.
13. Buchanan, pro slavery president just before the Civil War.
14. Andrew Johnson obstructed Reconstruction.
15. Lyndon Johnson got the China Lobby to support his social programs in exchange for the Vietnam War.  Johnson is the reason people are terrified of a socialist president. Obama holds him up as the example of change without consensus. And Indonesia.
16. John Adams got the loan from the Dutch and sold out to the British, but his fundamental function was to hold off Jefferson. Only managed one term.
17. Hoover tightened up standards and enforced prohibition before he was elected president; disrupting business arrangements which helped bring on the Depression. Hoover and his cronies supported the Germans. In Hoover’s case because he had worked for the British.
18. Fillmore opened up Japan. That worked out well.
19. Cleveland was such a stinker.  The death knell of reconstruction.
20. James Monroe supported Jefferson.

Best President

1. Franklin Roosevelt, you may question his character and policies, but Roosevelt led us through the Great Depression and the Second World War. His appointment of George C. Marshal was great. As was Henry Wallace and Eleanor Roosevelt.
2. Lincoln won the election of 1864. McClellan would have been victory for the South.
3. Ford, modern presidents have the advantage of greater disaster and recovery. I have a soft spot for goodhearted insider conservatives. We could have had John Connally.
4. James Madison wrote the Constitution. Conciliated with Britain. We could have lost the war of 1812. Held on to Maine. Wasn’t named Jimmy.
5. Carter, insufferable sanctimony worsened by being right. Carter creeps up in the rankings. I see why Rosalyn beats him.
6. Truman, someone finally fired McArthur. Held off Dewey.
7. Bush Sr. Adam Smith bemoans the constant cycle of wastrels and saviors in politics. Republicans hold this as their fundamental tenet, the Santa Claus Presidency and opposition to socialism. Bush Sr. was the statesman who lied and saved the Republic. Clinton was smart enough to keep his policies. I would rate Bush Sr. higher except hijacking Carter’s Iran operation in support of Reagan. Also participating in the shooting of two other presidents.
8. Obama should also rate higher. His legacy will forever be marred by his successor.  The Department of Justice did not prevent Republicans from fixing the election.
9. John Quincy Adams failed to hold off Jackson, always right, never enough.

There are a number of dynasty, bookend, adversary and conjoined presidents. Did we always elect the wrong one? The various scandals look quaint. Rights usually mean right to have slaves or suppress unions. Empire is judged by atrocity. I have a new respect for meh presidents, who didn’t embarrass us, get caught, or mess up.

Taxes

Milton Friedman made his living arguing that the Federal Reserve caused the 1929 stock market crash and thus the Great Depression by jacking around discount rates.  Economic argument is difficult. We cannot even prove that the stock market crash caused the Great Depression. But his point that the Fed should be considerate, respectful and measured is well taken. As any driver can tell you, when you don’t know what you are doing, it is better to do it slowly.

Fiscal policy should be deliberate as well.  When there is uncertainty it is difficult to plan or invest. The new tax law dumps everything into the chipper. People keep talking about individual effect or ethic. The real problem is that we have no idea what the cumulative impact will be. That is bad. What will be the systemic impact on America? This law assumes instability. It was passed in the belief that many issues will be addressed in subsequent legislation. What a wonderful fetcher, how can Congress not shake that money tree? We have no idea as to impact or what the law will be a year from now. Previous tax law represented all the various interests that lead to it. Those interests remain. They will demand satisfaction.

There is a recent example. Ronald Reagan, a Hollywood actor, was incensed that he paid taxes at 90%. Obviously there were ways for him to reduce that burden. He invested in real estate and took advantage of depreciation and all the rest. What upset him was that his employers, the studio owners, had the capital gains deduction. When they bought and sold the studios to each other they then started from 50% times 90% or 45%. It wasn’t fair that he had to start higher because he did the work. When he was elected he got the maximum down to 28% from 70% and eliminated the capital gains deduction.

Since everyone started from 28% a lot less tax was collected. This combined with the savings and loan fiasco left George HW Bush with a hot steaming mess. Fortunately class tells and Bush, the statesman, lied and saved our country. He wasn’t reelected, but Clinton was smart enough to keep things as Bush left them. The Clinton recovery began under Bush. Bush really had a 12 year term. Of course once Bill Gates wanted to sell his stock, the capital gains deduction was restored in 1997. The new maximum tax rate is at 37% down from 39%.

I despise tax deductions. Just as we shouldn’t tell people how to invest, we shouldn’t tell them how to live either. The state real estate tax deduction is the worst. It is wrong to subsidize social segregation. But this reform has already led to a state tax windfall soon to be followed by a state tax drought.

It appears that Republicans want to end everything Obama, including the recovery. I hesitate to ascribe motive to anything so mindless, but everyone wants to sell out.  What opportunity is driving this smash and grab? It must be China.

The tax bill will fail in the courts. As venal as Republicans are they have left an out. Double taxation on earnings and income is forbidden. This is fundamental tax law and is used to justify foreign tax credits.  Including state income tax in the tax cap will be changed. It would be reasonable for the courts to simply specify that state income tax is a separate deduction and is not capped. Perhaps the adults will create the tax form that way. Then the states will move taxes from real estate and sales to income. The change in state policy could be beneficent, one might expect state legislatures to more fairly apportion services. More likely we will become southern, charter schemes and vouchers. The Supreme Court has two principle values: expediency and privilege. Faced with a difficult law that threatens privilege the court will remove the cap. Then they will throw out the whole law to give themselves cover. It will be a close decision but judges own houses.

This is a cruel charade to shake down investors who want to own Chinese assembly plants. Can Senators look investors in the eye and claim that they don’t understand double taxation of income?

If you wind up paying 37% in taxes, you should throw a party. You have more money than you know what to do with. Most people know what to do with their money. The current idea is that you should have about 120,000 in walking around money. If you need more than that you should check in and make use of the medical deduction. The rest of your money should be in a corporation, profit or nonprofit, stock or pass through. Just as every poor person needs a church every rich person should have a business. There’s a lot of ways these things are structured but the point of the tax law is to limit your spending money and keep you invested.

Stump Treatment

The slush piles are brimming with Trump stories. If I were a reader I would filter out anything with Trump in it, just as I do click bait. The premise for this one is that the Russians are disgusted with the lack of return on their investment. Envision Putin ranting. Not sure who to cast for Putin. Perhaps a computer generated image. He could sue but the argument is that his persona is in the public domain. Do the same thing with Trump. The lawsuit would be good publicity. If we can’t say Trump, say Stump, Putin; Putting. The joke is that Putin is speaking extremely vulgar Russian, or even breaking into heavily accented English but the sub titles are very proper. Maybe this will keep a PG rating. The title is rolling while Putin screams obscenities. 

-We can’t even get his fucking briefing books.

-There’s no actionable intelligence.

-We have the briefing books.

-You ugly ass wipe, that’s not the point. That fat shit can’t read.

-What use is he, if he can’t read?

I’m on it.

-You know what you’re on? I’ll tell you what you’re on…

Next scene is the Jefferson Memorial. Spies always meet at the memorial, typical Russian agent speaking to his American asset. The Russian sounds Russian; the American has a strong regional accent.

RA-We need a school teacher.

AA-What?

RA-Reading, they have to be able to teach anyone to read.

AA-I’ll ask around.

Scene of school teacher in second grade, things are going poorly. I see her as black. Get some teacher focus groups, opportunity for school teacher jokes, reading jokes, ADHD jokes, dyslexia jokes, spy jokes, Russian jokes, and harassment jokes.

School teacher walks into a bar:

ST-I’ll have a martini. I’ll have a martini with an olive in it. I’ll have a martini with gin and vermouth.

The American Asset hands her an envelope.

AA - Ten thousand, cash.

She puts the envelope in her bra.

ST - Just you?

AA-I work for the Russian government, we need a school teacher. Trump has to read.

ST - This all I get?

AA - One hundred thousand when you are done.

ST-You can get me in the White House?

AA - No problem. When do you start?

ST-I’ll get to Washington tomorrow, I don’t usually educate adults.

AA-Issue?

ST-No.

School teacher walks into principal’s office.

ST - Taking three weeks’ vacation starting tomorrow.

P- You can’t.

ST – Four weeks.

P-Who will sub?

ST - You?

P-I’ll get you. You won’t have a job when you get back.

ST - Fuck the job.

P-What about the kids?

ST - Fuck the kids.

School teacher talking to her class:

-I am going to miss all of you beautiful children, but it’s only for a short time, while I learn to be a better teacher for you. Meanwhile you will have the principal teaching you. He knows so much. I know you will be just as considerate of him as you are of me. It has been a few years since he has had the joy of actually teaching a class so you will have to help him in the beginning. This will be so much fun for you.

WH scene:

The WH aide is describing the atmosphere of harassment.

ST-I’ve taught eighth grade.

Oval Office:

ST - Give me your alphabet.

Trump: This is bullshit, look how far I’ve gotten without it.

ST-alphabet.

T-singsong alphabet.

ST-vowels.

T-AEIOU

ST-and?

T?

ST-sometimes Y.

T-I before e except after c.

ST-That’s right. What’s this? Here read this speech.

T-I just put it in Word and it reads it to me.

ST-You have a good memory. Read it for me.

T-The words fall apart.

ST - Look out the window.

T-What?

ST – Look out the window, tell me what you see.

T- Bushes, somebodies head, the fence, columns.

Trump loses interest starts looking around the room.

ST-What do you see in the room?

T-My desk, what’s the point?

ST - Look at the window again.

T- Still bushes.

ST-Don’t look out the window.

Trump looks out the window.

ST-Don’t look at your speech.

T- The purpose of this speech is to…

ST- That’s good. Look away when you lose it; then look back.

T - Explain our position in Iran. This is a stupid speech.

ST – It is stupid.  Keep at it.

Trump looks away at every word.

T- The…United…States…Must…Show… a…firm…resolve…I can’t keep doing this.

ST-This is how you start. It isn’t easy, keep at it.

T- To ensure that Iran does not return to the nuclear option. Together…This is our policy? The whole thing is just a shakedown of Saudi Arabia.

ST-Isn’t this easier than remembering?

T-I’m not going to say this shit.

ST - well no. You’ve made some progress. I’m leaving this book here. I got it from your library, it belonged to Kennedy.

T-What is it?

ST-What does it say?

T- Hornblower? Ship of the line.

ST-I don’t want you reading this until tomorrow. You might hurt your eyes. Wait for me and we will look at it together. OK?

Or maybe do product placement on dyslexia software, or the Russians can bring in an optometrist.

Melania talking to a man with his feet up on a desk:

MT-He’s reading a book.

Man-He’s not tweeting.

MT yells-He’s reading a book.

Man-I’ll get on it.

Develop Melania Trump, show her running White House, deciding policy.

School Teacher walks into Oval Office holding another book.

ST-Let’s start on Hornblower.

T- Read it.

ST-Did not. How did it end?

T-He got captured.

ST-You read the end.

T-He isn’t much of a hero.

ST- Whoa, comprehension? No he isn’t.

T-They give this to kids?

ST-More in the library, it’s a series.

T on the computer-It wants a password, I already logged on.

ST looks over his shoulder- Try your logon password. Washington?

T-What’s this?

ST-A PDF, must’ve scanned something.

T-What is this?

ST- Handwriting.

T- How do you read it?

ST- Write something for me.

Trump prints Fuck You.

ST- Do it again, but don’t raise your pencil.

Trump does it; then reads the screen – I had no idea it would come to this. I just wanted to save my plantation. Before you judge, you are now in the same predicament.

Trump has trouble with predicament - I’m reading out loud.

ST-That’s how you memorize. When you want to remember, read it aloud.

T-I don’t want to memorize all of it.

T keeps reading – Washington is an asshole.

ST- Got another book from the library. Jefferson owned this.

T-What is it?

ST-What does it say?

T-Wealth of Nations, what’s it about?

ST- about 700 pages, economics.

T- I’m reading this first.

ST-OK

School teacher at Jefferson memorial with white house aide:

WHA-He’s tweeting about presidents, Washington asshole, Adams stooge, Jefferson back stabbing SOB.

ST-He’s reading something they each left for the next presidents, in handwriting.

WHA- Here’s your 100,000 check.

ST putting it in her bra-Should be a million.

WHA-Stick around, I’ll ask.

ST- Maybe I’ll give him Black Like Me.

WHA - Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

ST- Not Malcolm X.

WHA- Mockingbird.

Two suits, one is fiddling with an Epipen:

-Why do the Russians want him to read?

-Commies are into that.

-They’re not commies.

-Whatever.

School teacher walks into the Oval Office:

T-Eisenhower was smart.

ST-No progress with Smith?

T-They had corn in England?

ST-Corn means cheapest grain, horse feed, like gasoline today.

T-He’s talking about inflation?

ST-Yes

T- 300 years ago.

ST-Yes

T-Isn’t this just the market place is great?

ST-You haven’t read it. He wasn’t stupid.

T-Briefing books suck. Eisenhower said they were stupid. What’s after Smith?

ST-Marx

T- Commie?

ST- Yes, you already kind of know his stuff.

T- After that?

ST- Keynes. Then Samuelson’s textbook.

T- Problems?

ST - Well yeah.

T-That’s it?

ST- Mandelbrot, I guess. He wrote a short one about finance. Graham and Dodd

T-Why should I know economics?

ST-So they don’t game you.

T-Everybody’s bluffing.

ST-Yes

T-I thought you’d bring in Mockingbird.

ST-Couldn’t find it in your library. I don’t think knowledge cures racism.

T-Thank you

ST-You’re welcome. Are we done?

T-I think I need to see you for a while.  This network doesn’t have much.

ST - Really?

T-They want me to install something.

ST-You have to trust them.

T-Why wasn’t it installed already?

ST-Don’t know.

T-You didn’t start me with the first Hornblower.

ST- No

T-I got it from the library.

ST-good

Include bits where the teacher tries to give socialization training. Anne Frank’s Diary, Huckleberry Finn, University of Pennsylvania joke

Have a late night host do a bit on Trumps tweets about the presidents. Give them script credit.

There is a big argument in a White House corridor. People are gathering to watch. The school teacher is rubber necking on the edge of the crowd. A suit swings at the school teacher with the Epipen.  The teacher sees it, grabs his hand before he hits her, stamps on his instep with her high heel, switches hands on her grip, and hits him in the elbow twisting his arm as she kicks out his knee. The teacher grabs the Epipen and stabs the suit with it, walking off holding the pen. People start to notice the man collapsed behind them.

School Teacher talking to White House Aide at the aides’ desk:

WHA- Colyer had a heart attack.

ST drops the Epipen in the aides’ trash-I was supposed to have one.

WHA-You took Colyer? He’s NSA.

ST - Playground duty. Trump wants me to hang out. Million?

WHA-It’s approved. Up to you when you leave

Bit about Trump telling secrets and no one believes him.

Oval Office, Trump alone. Obama’s voice comes on background. Maybe Obama would do it, now that the letter is public. It would be fun to have Bush senior give advice to Clinton; maybe he would do his own.  Doubt you could get Carter. Bush junior started doing this publicly, my guess is that it goes all the way back.

O-reads his letter.

T tweets- What a prig.

School Teacher walks in.

T-Obama is a prig.

ST-He’s a good student

T-What I said. I found a cool directory.

ST-They want you to know something.

T- Not sure.

ST-What will you write to your successors?

T- Something short.

ST-I think you have a lot to say.

T- Tell them to read Eisenhower, FDR; Hoover. Teach you’re fired. I’m very grateful to you. My time is valuable. You have a nice figure.

The school teacher leaves.

School Teacher at White House Aides’ desk:

T- Fired.

WHA hands ST envelope, ST looks at it and puts it in her bra.

ST walking down White House hall. Secret Service agent takes out pistol and shoots her in the head. Checks her pulse, puts down the gun as people come out of their offices.

SSA- Ohmigod, it just went off. I was just checking my gun.

News show, talking heads:

-A school teacher was killed by accident today at the White House.

-Was she working there?

-Advisory position.

-Conspiracy?

-Conspiracy to kill a school teacher?

In the television series the school teacher would live, giving a different lesson each episode. In the musical this would be a crescendo. Merchandising includes flashcards.

Jefferson Memorial, White House Aide is sobbing, comforted by Russian Agent.

RA-It’s not our first school teacher.

Trump is talking at a rally:

T-Kennedy Killing? Everybody knows that…

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