Maduro... and Trump

     It’s really a no-brainer to say that Nicolas Maduro should step down.  You’ve pretty much lost any credibility you may have had when 87% of your citizens are living below the poverty line, between 7-10% of the population has fled, and the rate of hyperinflation defies the imagination. 

     What’s less clear, however, is why Donald Trump is feigning concern for Venezuela.  After all, Trump  has rarely met a brutal dictator he hasn’t fallen in love with:  Rodrigo Duterte, Mohammed bin Salman, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kim Jong Un, and everybody’s favorite, Vladimir Putin.

     Trump may have (accidentally) stumbled into a foreign policy position that many of our traditional allies have found agreement with, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he turns around and shoots himself in the foot.  With his dismal poll numbers after the Wall/Shutdown debacle, it strikes me as plausible that Trump might initiate an invasion.  After all, he likes bright, shiny things--and we know he’s crazy for explosions--preferably caused by big weapons.  An invasion might be just the ticket (in his mind) to make him popular again.  Of course, there are potential problems.  First and foremost, Putin is supporting Maduro--and Trump does not want to offend Putin.  Second, he’s turned his Venezuela policy over to a discredited madman named Elliott Abrams.  Abrams has the blood of thousands of innocent Latin Americans on his hands (supported a brutal dictatorship in El Salvador and illegally intervened in Nicaragua), and in 1991 he was convicted on two misdemeanor counts of lying to Congress regarding the Iran Contra Affair.  Granted, that may make him look good in Trump’s eyes, but the rest of the world isn’t welcoming him with open arms.  The last thing the United States needs is to intervene yet again in Latin America.
     Economic sanctions would ultimately do little more than harm the Venezuelan people, and the military "option" isn't an option.  We need to maintain political pressure, and work with out allies--and the United Nations--to ensure a peaceful solution.  Free and fair elections should be the goal; not leadership hand-picked or installed by the United States.
     Let's hope Trump's fear of offending other dictators restrains him from initiating military action against Maduro, and that Maduro sees the writing on the wall, and resigns.

     

The Trump/GOP Tax Bill: Nothing But Coal In the Stockings of Working People

     Like a stocking full of coal (particularly apt this holiday season), the Trump/Ryan/GOP tax  boondoggle has arrived. 

     As we might have expected, our so-called “leaders” have staked their bill on corporate tax cuts (from 35 to 20 percent).  The majority of Americans oppose these cuts (Pew Research Center), but what does the will of the people have to do with reality?  Trump, Mnuchin, and Cohn have been relentlessly parroting the tired line that the U.S. corporate tax rate is too high.  On the surface, they appear to have a point.  The U.S. rate stands at 39% versus 30% in Germany and 24% in the UK.  Yet our “effective” corporate tax rate (once you factor in the bundle of goodies they’re able to deduct:  cost recovery allowances, interest deductability, and expensing research & development) is actually around 18.6% which puts us in line with the UK rate of 18.7 %, and much closer to Germany’s rate of 15.5%. 

     It’s likely that slashing our corporate tax rate will instigate a race to lower corporate taxes across the globe.  That will only benefit the rich.  The rest of us will pay a price the country can’t afford.  Trump supposedly wanted to call this the “Cut, Cut, Cut Bill”.  Apart from his desperate need to simplify everything (how else could he hope to understand the issues?), he’s accidentally right--but not in the way he intended.  In order to pay for the massive additions--an estimated $2 trillion dollars over 10 years--to the deficit that will be caused by this corporate giveaway, the government will cut funds for education, cut funds for health care (Medicaid), and cut funds to safeguard the environment.  Cut, cut, cut... but not for Trump, Robert Mercer, the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and the other bloated GOP cash cows.

     A few other tidbits to demonstrate their largesse:  Although they’ve made a show out of keeping the highest tax rate (39.6%) in place, they’ve more than doubled the threshold at which that top rate kicks in--from $400,000 to $1 million (for married couples).  Nice sleight of hand.  They’ve also made wealthy families eligible for expanded child credit!

     If one wants to study the results of Republican tax policy in action, the disastrous Kansas tax experiment stands as a terrifying testament.

     Trump and company would undoubtedly love to say “let them eat cake” (and probably do behind closed doors).  My hope is that resistance to their insatiable greed will continue to grow and 2018 will see their power begin to crumble. 

After the Apocalypse: Democrats Move Forward

In his excellent post-mortem on the 2016 presidential campaign (“Insane Clown President:  Dispatches from the 2016 Circus), not-beholden-to-anyone journalist Matt Taibbi hits the nail on the head in describing the peculiar appeal of Donald Trump.

“Candidate Trump told a story about a conspiracy of cultural and financial elites bent on finishing off a vanishing white middle-class nirvana, first by shipping jobs overseas, and then by waving hordes of crime-prone, bomb-tossing immigrants over the border.  These elites lived in both parties, Trump warned.  The Republicans were tools of job-exporting fat cats who only pretended to be tough on immigration and trade in order to win votes, when all they really cared about were profits.  The Democrats were tools of the same interests, who subsisted politically on the captured votes of hoodwinked minorities, preaching multiculturalism while practicing globalism.  Neither party saw the awesome potential of this story to upend our political system.

Taibbi later points to a Democratic leadership “increasingly indebted to banks and corporations, never imagining it could be the target of a class uprising.  They failed to understand how they could be seen as aristocrats--after all, as the party of FDR they received union endorsements and were pro civil rights!” 

The maneuvering within the Republican Party is hardly surprising.  After spending the better part of the general election campaign distancing themselves from the Donald, McConnell, Ryan and company are suddenly kissing Trump’s tuckus at every turn; while simultaneously convincing themselves they’re his equals in wielding power.  They’re seeking to impose a regressive, ultra-conservative agenda on a deeply divided country that recently rejected their vision (as well as Trump) by a margin of several million votes.
 
Democrats, meanwhile, are searching for a way out of the wilderness.  Rep. Keith Ellison, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, and several lesser known candidates are battling to become the next chairman of the DNC.  Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and Harry Reid have all weighed in with their opinions/endorsements.  Whoever wins, the task will be daunting.  Political operative and author David Brock has called on the Democrats to become the party of “no”, maintaining that their “no” would differ from the past 8 years of Republican obstructionism because anything that Trump proposes is certain to be harmful to the majority of Americans-- thereby requiring determined opposition .  Elizabeth Warren has said much the same thing:  maintaining that Democrats need to “grow a backbone”.  One thing is certain, the last thing the Democrats can afford to do is turn to career politicians or corporate lawyers running milquetoast campaigns and looking to “play it safe”. Go along to get along only leads to more of the same.  Pretty soon we’ll all be playing footsie and become Facebook buddies with the likes of Steve Bannon.  We’ll be reduced to spirited conversation about sporting events, or the weather.

As Democrats in Maine look toward the gubernatorial contest in 2018, they’re faced with the fact that they lost not only once, but twice, to Paul LePage--an early (yet equally terrifying) prototype of what the country now faces in Donald Trump.  Opposing his agenda for the remainder of his term will be a moral imperative.  LePage has repeatedly demonstrated that he has neither the vision nor the temperament to govern the state.  He’ll leave behind a myriad of failed policies and a toxic political environment-- a product of his racist/sexist/ludicrous remarks, vicious personal attacks, and irrational outbursts.  His behavior has become legendary; embarrassing not only himself, but the state of Maine.  There will be a great deal of work needed to undo the damage, and to close the enormous gap now separating Republicans, Democrats, Greens, and Libertarians.

There are bound to be several so-called “establishment” Democrats who pursue the nomination.  The “old politics” so recently turned on its head would dictate that they’re “deserving” of the nomination, perhaps “entitled” to it.  No doubt these are honorable men and women who’ve served the state well, but the Democratic Party needs to change with the times--regardless of tradition.  There’s a need for fresh(er) faces, real world experience, and a boatload of empathy and understanding.  Contrary to his mantra in the state of the State address, LePage has done a great deal of harm--to cite one of many examples, Maine leads New England in child poverty and hunger.  We must work hard to reverse moral disgraces such as these, engage in constructive dialogue,  and provide positive leadership focused on economic growth and opportunity throughout the state.  The only choice before us is to get back up and be ready to fight at every turn, because as Paul Wellstone observed, "if we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."

Donald Trump: The Tears of a Clown

     It’s a relief to know that when he’s not preoccupied with cabinet picks guaranteed to scare the crap out of any rational/sane person, Mr. Trump is now demonstrating a new found restraint and maturity.  The facts speak for themselves, don’t they?
     Our first example of this new-and-more-mature Donald came in his response to Hillary Clinton’s ever-increasing margin of victory in the popular vote count.  The most recent tally had her up by over 1.5 million votes, and climbing.  There is obviously no Trump “mandate”; in fact, he will serve as a minority president (based on the sort of campaign he ran, I doubt that’s a word he wants applied to him in any way!).  So, how did Trump respond?  He took time out from the trivial matters of assembling a government to whine that he could have easily come away with a “huge” popular vote victory if he’d decided to campaign more often in states like California or New York.  Notice the new maturity?  The man can’t stand to lose, by any standard.  He needs to understand that Clinton will likely win the popular vote by a significant number (most estimates are 2-3 million votes) and that he’ll govern courtesy of the Electoral College.  Incidentally, when President Obama was re-elected in 2012, Trump mistakenly thought Romney had carried the popular vote, and he denounced the Electoral College--deeming it a “disaster for democracy”.  He claimed the election was a total sham & travesty, and suggested “revolution” was necessary.  Hmmmm.
     This past Friday we were treated to another glimpse of the new Trump “restraint” when he settled three lawsuits (one brought by the New York Attorney General, and two class action suits filed in California) alleging Trump had defrauded hundreds of individuals who had enrolled in real estate seminars he had launched in 2005.  The Donald has always maintained he never settles lawsuits, and he proclaimed Trump University was fantastic, hugely successful, etc.  After quickly coughing up $25 million to settle these three suits, Trump took to Twitter to denounce the plaintiffs, to proclaim he’d actually “won” by settling for so little, and making it clear that--under other circumstances--he would have never folded like a newspaper.
     Finally, the two most recent examples of Trump’s “new” temperament--revealing the thick skin required of a commander-in-chief--came to light this past weekend.  First, after Vice President-elect Pence ventured to Broadway and chose to attend a performance of “Hamilton” where he was roundly booed once he was recognized, Trump was livid.  He was apparently further incensed by the eloquent words directed at Pence by a cast member at the end of the show--as Pence was making a hasty exit.  After conducting one of the nastiest campaigns in the history of our country, and refusing to ever apologize for the countless individuals and groups he deliberately chose to persecute and insult, Trump actually demanded that the cast of “Hamilton” apologize!
     Then, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, the President-elect felt obliged to take to Twitter in order to attack “Saturday Night Live” for Alec Baldwin’s hilarious portrayal of Trump in Wonderland.  If we’re constantly subjected to his whining over inconsequential matters such as these, what’s he going to do in the rough-and-tumble world of international politics?  The tears of this clown won’t cut it at that point.  Kellyanne Conway, Trump's own campaign manager, admitted he's a ridiculous man-baby... it's going to be an awfully long four years.  God save us all.