Unfit To Lead

Trade wars against countries with 1.4 billion consumers are not easy to win, as China demonstrated late last night when it suspended the purchase of all U.S. agricultural products in response to Trump’s moronic trade wars. In case you were not angry enough with Trump: BREAKING: China confirms it is suspending agricultural product purchases from the U.S. in response to Trump’s new tariffs, could hit ag imports with tariffshttps://t.co/NjBnwC7UPs — CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) August 5, 2019 We all know that this is not something to cheer, even if it surely dooms Trump. Trump already leveled the agricultural sector with his petulant, but limited, trade war. This will only be exponentially worse. Economists worry that the aftershocks from a vicious trade war between the two countries could easily spin the entire globe into an economic recession, or even an uncontrolled depression. Don’t believe me? Traders Brace for Full-Blown Currency War as China’s Yuan Sinks https://t.co/NxWX4jGX8M — Eddy Elfenbein (@EddyElfenbein) August 5, 2019 Near everyone could face needless pain, but it will start with people who make their living predicting the economy, as they bail out of securities. **** From the beginning, Trump bragged that he – and he alone, despite Obama’s heroic rescue – has kept the nation’s economy “the best it’s ever been.” He has also famously stated that trade wars are good, and “easy to win.” The single thing that every sensible person agrees upon is that Trump cannot survive an economic downturn and he definitely cannot survive an economic downturn purely of his own making. From CNBC: A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce says Chinese companies have stopped purchasing U.S. agricultural products in response to President Trump’s new 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods. “This is a serious violation of the meeting between the heads of state of China and the United States,” the Minister of Commerce says in a statement Monday. Reports of China pulling out of U.S. agriculture helped exacerbate fears on Wall Street pushing stocks to their worst day of the year. Now that China confirmed the reports, it could add to pressure on equities. While Trump puckers up, we can safely assume that he did not foresee this, because he has no grasp of cause and effect, never mind negative impacts upon him. But real economists, not fake ones, have said all along that the United States’ economy needs China far more than China needs the United States. Addiction kills. We all got hooked on Chinese goods through cheap products. The first one is always free. We spiraled into IV slamming by closing manufacturing plants here to the point where we now import 70% of some manufactured goods from China. Some in this nation are addicted to Trump, and destiny seemed to ensure they could never 12 step out of it. A moment of clarity is coming, for all of us. With that clarity will come the evisceration of Trump’s chances, indeed not only in the election but in surviving criminal consequences afterward. Republicans will tolerate racism, facism, etc. but they will not tolerate Trump taking money directly out of their pocket through a combination of vanity and stupidity, in other words, a trade war. **** Congratulations. If this continues for long at all, Trump is done. But the costs […]

In case you haven't noticed, Donald Trump has failed at nearly everything he promised to accomplish. There is no wall on the southern border. Hillary Clinton has not been locked up. He has no...

Thousands of Shell contractors were in attendance at Donald Trump’s big union speech in Monaca, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean they wanted to be. While it’s no secret that the workers were...

How did this wee-brained little man ever graduate from high school, much less Wharton?Betraying his profound ignorance of how the global economy works, Trump tweeted this bland bit of folderol today: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1162022701457989635 Got that? And he...

Is there some wear and tear showing on the Right? Or is the stress really starting to get to Trump? Tough to tell, but it is not every day where Trump chastises a couple of true Trump-apologists in the open Twitterverse, while unwittingly coming out in favor of stringent gun control. It all begins with an unfortunate, but relatively mild, incident involving CNN’s Chris Cuomo. Cuomo was eating dinner with his family when a man who, for the purposes of this article we will call “a Trumper,” approached Cuomo. The incident, captured on video found below, centers around Cuomo’s response to being called “Fredo,” which, according to Chris Cuomo, is being likened to the hapless character from “The Godfather” movies. “It’s like the n-word for us,” he claims in the footage. In the video, Chris Cuomo was having none of it, and told the verbal assailant that he would “fucking ruin your shit.” In other words, Chris Cuomo stood up for himself, rightly or wrongly. But no one was shot dead, no one wrote a manifesto, everyone could have moved on. But some characters on the Right either sincerely wanted to get Cuomo’s back, or wanted to demonstrate a little anger themselves, having undergone similar taunts from liberal activists. Whatever their motivation, it actually doesn’t matter. Hannity issued the original Tweet, which Lewandowski supported and followed up: Too many of us have seen this happen when we are out with out famIiies. If this continues someone is going to get hurt. Have some respect. @ChrisCuomo has every right to defend himself and his family. https://t.co/UD6g3hy9Mo — Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) August 13, 2019 For what it’s worth? I am fine with both Tweets, I am fine with Cuomo – who later admitted he regretted losing his cool – acting the way he did, and I am fine with two horrible people like Hannity and Lewandowski dipping their tepid toes into reality and, momentarily supporting Cuomo while claiming victimhood themselves. Fine, if Hannity gets attacked while out with his family, and he says he’ll fuck some shit up, I don’t care. I am for activism, but I think there are better times and places than a dinner with kids who have no idea what one is talking about. Want to know who does have a problem with Hannity and Lewandowski’s Tweets, and Cuomo’s response? Well, you know already, you clicked here. But this is a little stronger than you thought: (I use artistic license to put these in reverse order). It always happens! When a Conservative does even a fraction of what Chris Cuomo did with his lunatic ranting, raving, & cursing, they get destroyed by the Fake News. But when a Liberal Democrat like Chris Cuomo does it, Republicans immediately come to his defense. We never learn! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2019 Wow, you of all people being offended by “cursing,” and then whining like the little snowflake you are? That’s really piling on what you originally said, when you actually included the video: I thought Chris was Fredo also. The truth hurts. Totally lost it! Low ratings @CNN https://t.co/yBpGjt4N1T — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2019 Holy Shit! What is your job again? “Low Ratings”? You care about someone’s ratings? Have you seen Kim Jung Un’s? Please, […]

Amid reports that President Donald Trump has directed aides to examine whether the United States can purchase Greenland—an autonomous territory of Denmark—Danish lawmakers on Friday condemned the idea as both absurd and "grotesque." "If he...

Wonder if Tangerine Twitler has opened #EmptySeatMAGATour yet? https://twitter.com/tonyposnanski/status/1162401826517508097 https://twitter.com/serittel/status/1162408746015870977 https://twitter.com/petitgordi/status/1162403202370801665 https://twitter.com/IdesOfMarz/status/1162402987895132160 https://twitter.com/romspapi/status/1162413406147756033 https://twitter.com/Nelson_nel6/status/1162412508931665920 https://twitter.com/BottleyC/status/1162409784987049985 https://twitter.com/joesmith628/status/1162402519743643648 https://twitter.com/durrati/status/1162419245872865281 Good luck getting FatNixon's carcass in there.#EmptySeatsMagaTour — Bruce Strickland (@Bruce87036) August 16, 2019

FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub has had it with Donald Trump’s half-baked paranoid fantasies about voter fraud. So she’s asking him once again to prove that he was robbed in the 2016 election — an...

David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist who met Trump in 1988 and has been reporting on Trump for more than 30 years.  I enjoy listening to Mr. Johnston when he’s on...

This proposition makes just as much sense as what the bankrupt realtor from Queens came up with yesterday — in many ways, more. The New Yorker: COPENHAGEN (The Borowitz Report)—After rebuffing Donald J. Trump’s hypothetical proposal to purchase Greenland, the government of Denmark has announced that it would be interested in buying the United States instead. “As we have stated, Greenland is not for sale,” a spokesperson for the Danish government said on Friday. “We have noted, however, that during the Trump regime, pretty much everything in the United States, including its government, has most definitely been for sale.” […] A key provision of the purchase offer, the spokesperson said, would be the relocation of Donald Trump to another country “to be determined,” with Russia and North Korea cited as possible destinations. If Denmark’s bid for the United States is accepted, the Scandinavian nation has ambitious plans for its new acquisition. “We believe that by giving the U.S. an educational system and national health care, it could be transformed from a vast land mass into a great nation,” the spokesperson said. God knows that Prince Hamlet dealt with some corrupt people, in a court where backstabbing was the order of the day — literally. But even he never encountered the likes of Donald Trump. We’re ready for Denmark, but is Denmark ready for us? And here’s a thought, while we’re restructuring global alliances: How about when the UK leaves the European Union on Halloween, if it becomes an American colony? Turnabout is fair play, that sort of thing. [Editor’s Note: Andy Borowitz writes satire for the New Yorker.]