It's All About Him
I want to clarify a point I tried to make yesterday about Trump's appointments of Joseph DiGenova, John Bolton and Larry Kudlow.
What is paramount to remember is, it's all about him. It has nothing to do with the good of the country, or really anyone else. Trump is a person whose ego is so deformed that he can not see nor comprehend anything except as it relates to himself. Given this as an obvious fact, here is what I make of these changes.
First, DiGenova. This guy is not an attorney in any meaningful sense of the term; he is a vicious, hate filled liar who has honed his craft spreading smears for decades on Fox News. The fact that Trump has fired his real head lawyer and replaced him with DiGenova shows that Trump knows that he is guilty as charged, and is now switching from a legal defense strategy to one intended to destroy his opponents. Most of us have heard of the legal concept of "consciousness of guilt." That consciousness is written all over this action.
Next, John Bolton. We all know that Trump's ultimate dirty strategy to evade responsibility for his criminality is to start a war. I am sure that Trump believes that the country would never tolerate replacing a President during wartime, even if the war was deliberately started for personal benefit by the President himself. And he very well may be right; obviously Bush and Cheney got away with pretty much the same thing, with no consequences. So, he is sweeping the deck of people who might oppose a war, and bringing in someone who has hungered all his life for the opportunity to start one.
And Larry Kudlow: again we are dealing with someone who is not really what he is passed off as. Kudlow is not an economist; he is a propagandist who has spent decades telling lies about supply side economics. Trump knows what he is guilty of, and knows that his time at the helm may be limited, so he is bringing on to the team someone whose life work has been to steer as much of the nation's wealth as possible into the pockets of people like Trump. He has to pull out all the stops at this point, to turn his office to his own personal benefit, because he may not get many more chances.
And one final comment: Trump seems to be starting a trade war. Trump is basically in the real estate and hotel business. However much damage a trade war might do, hotels, condos and resorts are not really involved in international trade, so their owners will not be significantly impacted by interfering with the structure of worldwide commerce. He doesn't care what damage he does to Boeing, or California winemakers, or anyone else, as long as it doesn't hurt him personally.
So, we may be entering an end stage here; a time which pits the President of the United States against everyone else on earth, foreign or domestic, and devil take the hindmost. That will truly represent a new turn in world events, and one which even the most optimistic will have trouble seeing as leading to anything good.
What is paramount to remember is, it's all about him. It has nothing to do with the good of the country, or really anyone else. Trump is a person whose ego is so deformed that he can not see nor comprehend anything except as it relates to himself. Given this as an obvious fact, here is what I make of these changes.
First, DiGenova. This guy is not an attorney in any meaningful sense of the term; he is a vicious, hate filled liar who has honed his craft spreading smears for decades on Fox News. The fact that Trump has fired his real head lawyer and replaced him with DiGenova shows that Trump knows that he is guilty as charged, and is now switching from a legal defense strategy to one intended to destroy his opponents. Most of us have heard of the legal concept of "consciousness of guilt." That consciousness is written all over this action.
Next, John Bolton. We all know that Trump's ultimate dirty strategy to evade responsibility for his criminality is to start a war. I am sure that Trump believes that the country would never tolerate replacing a President during wartime, even if the war was deliberately started for personal benefit by the President himself. And he very well may be right; obviously Bush and Cheney got away with pretty much the same thing, with no consequences. So, he is sweeping the deck of people who might oppose a war, and bringing in someone who has hungered all his life for the opportunity to start one.
And Larry Kudlow: again we are dealing with someone who is not really what he is passed off as. Kudlow is not an economist; he is a propagandist who has spent decades telling lies about supply side economics. Trump knows what he is guilty of, and knows that his time at the helm may be limited, so he is bringing on to the team someone whose life work has been to steer as much of the nation's wealth as possible into the pockets of people like Trump. He has to pull out all the stops at this point, to turn his office to his own personal benefit, because he may not get many more chances.
And one final comment: Trump seems to be starting a trade war. Trump is basically in the real estate and hotel business. However much damage a trade war might do, hotels, condos and resorts are not really involved in international trade, so their owners will not be significantly impacted by interfering with the structure of worldwide commerce. He doesn't care what damage he does to Boeing, or California winemakers, or anyone else, as long as it doesn't hurt him personally.
So, we may be entering an end stage here; a time which pits the President of the United States against everyone else on earth, foreign or domestic, and devil take the hindmost. That will truly represent a new turn in world events, and one which even the most optimistic will have trouble seeing as leading to anything good.
Comments
Eagle,
You are better able than I to communicate clearly. Allow me my humble contribution. To my way of thinking, nothing can satisfy or maybe even titillate Trump more than appointing exactly the worst possible human being, the most sickeningly discredited neo-nazi possible. Thus the horrifying choice of Bolton for NSA.
This was preceded by perhaps as many as two dozen worst possible appointments.
I think Trump appointed Carson to HUD as his version of joke, signifying nothing more than that he could not possibly care less whether people in the U.S. with paying jobs or families in good standing, have homes or not.
He takes pleasure in seeing people suffer. I point out the obvious.
Trump appointed Josh Bolton as the worst possible choice short of Ted Nugent. It's not so much that he desires war. He just wants the most disgusting, vile choice possible. It's all a big laugh to him. Bolton was too extreme for Cheney and Bush... Perfect!
This is probably the best way to think of right-wing "economists" in general. Their purpose isn't to study or understand anything, it's to create justifications for policies that enrich the parasitic oligarchy.
Infidel: I have made exactly this point on a number of occasions. Conservative "economics," particularly supply side economic theory, is a preposterous fiction designed to con the gullible into giving everything to the rich; it is propaganda, not any kind of economic discipline.