The Show That Never Ends

Not withstanding the fact that few will believe it, this is what will hopefully be my last long format post of the Trump era. I have been working hard to wean myself off commentary in this area, and am using the release of the Mueller Report as a point of exit. Whatever happens next, I wish my American friends and trolls all the best, despite any personal doubts I may have about the glorious future of that country.

Last Friday the infamous Mueller Report was released to the Trump appointed Attorney General William Barr.

Within 48 hours of receiving this report, which took two years to compile, the AG issued a summary which basically says that there was insufficient evidence of collusion but that Trump could not be completely exonerated.

This, of course, caused the White House to throw a “Free At Last” party, and will undoubtedly give Trump enough ammo for a couple weeks of insane tweeting.

There are just two sticking points for me.

1. Only one Trump appointee has actually seen the report and it’s highly doubtful that he could  have  read it completely.

2. The job description for any Trump appointee includes the willingness to lie for him as much as he lies to the American people.

In other words, there is still a lot of shit left in a large pile beside the fan that will inevitably hit.

In short, nobody, in the Congress, the Senate or the public has any first hand knowledge of what this report states than they ever had.

Trump is counting on his ability to keep telling people that there was no collusion, that the news is fake, that black is white and that he can make monkeys fly out his butt.

And so now this amazing, depressing circus moves to a new ring. And on and on it goes and where it stops nobody knows.

The Reality Of America

The aforementioned circus is not so much an event as it is a distraction.

And it is deliberate and strategic.

It’s designed to get people to focus on two things. First, How badly the poor president has been treated…worse than any president in the history of the country….And two, how great the economy has been under his administration, greater than any economy in the history of the universe.

OK so why has he been treated so badly?

This list is very long and here are some of the highlights. More than 7000 lies. Massive Deregulation, which is in the process of taking it’s toll on the environment. Failure to come up with a better health care system than Obamacare. Tacit support for hate and extremist groups. Alienation of allies around the world. Failure to develop programs to lessen the severity of the opioid crisis. Tacit support for dictators around the world. Failure to approve measures to counter Russian interference in elections. Climate change denial in the face of overwhelming reality. The promotion of outright hated of Democrats by Republicans. Failure to implement 21st century border security measures. Conflict of interest by using his office to promote his business. I could go on for fucking ever.

What this means is that while direct collusion with Russia may be a hard one to prove, failure to counter what he knew was happening amounts to tacit permission.

And, don’t forget there are still quite a few other investigations going on that could easily land him in jail if he loses in 2020.

But for now the die has been cast, Another fried egg slides off the back of Teflon Don.

Some Advice for Democrats and Independents

Registered Democrats and Independents outnumber Republicans in America by a ratio of more than 2 to 1.

They need to work together to find common ground. Develop a platform that will right the wrongs that Trump has done and will do over the next two years.

The only thing Trump can hang his hat on going forward is that the economy is doing well. But as the effect of the tariffs continue, as water and land in the US become more polluted, as climate change wreaks more havoc on the country, as the lobbyists continue to pour more money into the coffers of the politicians, and as relationships with other economic powers remains static or adversarial, things will, sooner or later, reach a breaking point.

My own investment advisors believe that things will start to go south for the US economy around the end of this year and into early 2020. And my intuition tells me that make sense.

Sadly, the United States is all about market capitalism…there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of political will to see the environment improve or for there to be more taxation for the rich or anything that would actually correct the imbalances that exist in that country.

I’m More Or Less Outta Here.

I have been observing this insanity for the last few years and commenting here and there. But I’m out of gas.

I grew up spending a lot of time in America and with Americans. I think that, by and large, they are great people. A lot like Canadians in many ways, good neighbours and good friends.

I don’t believe that the majority of Americans ever saw this coming, and really only want it to be over so that country can get back to dealing with the issues that really matter these days.

Because the bottom line for America, and for all countries for that matter, is that unless we get in synch with the bigger issues of corruption, climate change, immigration, addiction and the more equitable distribution of wealth…nothing is really going to change for the better.

And the world we leave our children will be a sorry-ass place indeed.

jim out.