Tim Alberta Got Nothin' On Rick Wilson

Tim Alberta wrote about the Republican Party vis-à-vis Donald Trump. In "American Carnage" Tim interviews lots of prominent Republicans a la an investigative reporter.

Rick Wilson wrote "Every Thing Trump Touches Dies". He took a different approach.

Rick approaches the topic differently - more a la Gallagher.

Tim prefers using a dental pick, magnifying glasses, and oral lamp in his inquiries.

He goes straight to the horse's mouth to get his material and make his case.

Rick takes a risible "release the Kraken" approach.

Rick really doesn't like Donald Trump - ergo the title he used for his book. Rick also has a really big bone to pick with the Republican Party.

Rick is angry with Republicans for betraying Conservatism.

Rick is a Conservative ideologue. I don't believe he would agree with me on that. I think he would say he's a real Conservative.

It doesn't matter. Rick takes apart Trump and those who surround Trump. He is the ultimate sports caster giving moment to moment reports on Trump's demolition derby - the farce that's been masquerading as our Executive Branch.

Ironically, I watched "Hitler's Circle Of Evil" on Netflix while I was finishing Rick's book. This docudrama has a lot in common with ETTD.

I recommend both Alberta's and Wilson's books. I also recommend the above mentioned docudrama. There's a lot of insightful information in all three. Equally important for me, all three raise the issues of morality and ethics.

Rick goes after Trump with gusto. He has a large vocabulary and is skilled in artful/entertaining critiques. I don't often get to laugh when I read about Trump. Thank you Rick.

Holy Moly!

It's 2008 All Over Again In Fast Forward

Coming into 2008, every stupid trick in the book was being used to prop up a dying economy.

I first became aware of the fact that the economy was crashing when they lowered the interest rates and everybody began refinancing.

Refinancing allowed people to take false equity out of their homes and created the illusion of value.

The money they suddenly used to buy big ticket items was paper backed by smoke.

When that failed, the market crashed. Even the controlled crash - inhibited by the market's automatic circuit breakers - was devastating.

All of this took place over a matter of months. Today it's taking place in a matter of a week.

Last week they lowered the interest rates, but there was no way to refinance and delay the inevitable with an influx of bogus cash.

Today, the market closed upon opening. The Dow dropped 1,900 points.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/09/813619387/dow-dives-1-900-points-nyse-halts-trading-as-stock-indexes-plummet

I'm not an economist. I've never had as much as a penny in the stock market. I'm just gazing eyes wide open across the landscape.

Unlike 2008, this is all happening with a pandemic in the background.

George W. was not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but he was a decent human being at heart. He wasn't evil, but he was under some evil influences.

Donny is pure evil and he's calling the shots now. He's a world class moron who's surrounded himself with mindless sycophant's. We b fucked.

The piper is at the door and we got nothin' for him except the futures of our children and our country.

Holy Moly!

PEP Talk

Gimme a P! Yep, Gimme a P for Pandemic! COVID-19 is coming to get us.

This is one nasty MF of a bug and it's coming to get us along with everyone else on the planet.

In the United State, we've been blindsided. If you think 9/11 was bad, think again.

Our current Commander-In-Chaos is downplaying the threat it poses to our health and lying to us about its lethality.

We don't have adequate test kits. Plus, 2 years ago Trump got rid of the pandemic response team that Obama took pains to put in place. Trump has also called for cuts to the CDC's budget. Last, but not least, he appointed Mike Pence to head up our response team - Mike Pence, who as Governor of Indiana, failed to act in response to an HIV outbreak.

Gimme an E! Yep, Gimme a E for Economy! Seems like the stock market balloon is finally bursting.

Forbes is not very encouraging on this.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2020/03/05/crash-or-correction-what-next-for-the-us-stock-market/#5c94cc0f663b

Not to worry - the Fed voted to drop interest rates by .5% Yep, in a totally futile gesture that cannot help but make matters worse, the Fed has pandered to the demands of our Commander-In-Chaos and dropped interest rates. Let's give it up for Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell.

We have finite resources with which to protect our economy. Tax breaks for the wealthy .1% that add 1.5 trillion to our national debt, insane tariffs that destroy our agricultural and manufacturing industries and market manipulations that give the illusion of growth are the nails in our economic coffin.

Gimme a P! Yep, Gimme a P for Politics! On Super Tuesday Joe Biden all but secured his position as the Democratic candidate for President in November. This has left Bernie punting.

Steyer, Klobuchar and Buttigieg all dropped out of the race before Super Tuesday and threw their support to Biden.

After Super Tuesday, Warren and Bloomberg dropped out. Bloomberg has thrown his support to Biden.

So Joe, without much of a campaign organization and without much in the way of money, has suddenly become the man. Joe, Joe, he's our man, if he can't do it, no one can!

Yes, this has been one helluva week. The plague is on our doorstep, the economy is in the toilet and Joe Biden is our most likely standard bearer in November.

Yeah, that's Joe in the second row over there on the right. Bernie is in the top row on the left. How this field got winnowed down to just 2 is nothing short of miraculous.

So let's quickly dispense with what's happening politically. I mean we can't quickly dispense with the plague and the coming market crash no matter how much smoke Trump tries to blow up people's butts, but we can determine the course of our politics.

Biden is not the perfect candidate, but he may just be the perfect one for us at this time. Keep that in mind, because he's about to be attacked mercilessly.

A percentage of Bernie's supporters are already claiming there was a conspiracy to make Biden the indisputable frontrunner. Yes. It turns out voters across the country have conspired by actually voting for Biden over Bernie. What can I say? Seems like sour grapes to me.

The brunt of the attacks on Joe are going to come from the Republicans. They are already calling for new investigations of Hunter and Burisma.

Senator Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee is preparing subpoenas. Just look at Ron's face. It tells you everything you want to know about the legitimacy of what the Republicans are doing.

So here's the deal. Hunter isn't our nominee. We need to literally stop defending him and comparing him to the Trump children. Hunter ain't no Trump. Trumps be world class cons/trash.

Hopefully Joe will leave Hunter to explain his own actions. Joe needs to relax and focus on beating Trump in November.

Hopefully our press will not turn Burisma into another Benghazi and make Hunter into the equivalent of Hillary's emails. The fact that there was nothing to Benghazi and Hillary's emails didn't stop endless bogus stories from negatively impacting Hillary's campaign.

Chaos and mayhem are on the rise. Twitter is a minefield of disingenuousness, disinformation and pure BS. Trolls and bots are ramping up and snipers are waiting to pick off any naïve, well intentioned Biden supporter who wanders into view.

It's important not to get lured into a crossfire or lulled into believing the person engaging you is just a fellow traveler.

We're in a hot cyber war. Russia is our main, but not our only, enemy. Russia has plenty of American citizen assets either willingly or inadvertently abetting it in its cause.

Eerily, this is also true when it comes to House and Senate Republicans, evangelicals and gun advocates.

There is also a rebel underground coalition in our country. It consists of a very diverse group of malcontents who have a fundamental problem with the idea of majority rule and democracy.

This last group wants to destroy our country in the hopes of rebuilding it "right" - far right. We can't let that happen. We need to protect our people and our rights - we can't turn on each other.

If Trump manages to hold on and the Republicans keep the Senate and, God forbid, retake the House it's all over for us/U.S.

We can't let that happen. We mustn't. Too many people have put it all on the line over centuries in pursuit of this dream of self rule.

If Joe is our guy let's stick with him. We've been well served over the years by our average Joes and our GI Joes and the cups of Joe that wake us up and get us through each day. Our Joe even has a  Jill, a partner and a force in her own right.

In bringing this PEP talk to a close I want to remind you that our fate is in our hands. We need to save ourselves. We need to get out there and vote. Only we can prevent this country from descending into fascism.

Holy Moly!