10 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. The so-called mystery of Trump's motivations laid bare:

   Trump’s Revenge Tour Finds Its True Target

   Some of our presidents have been complicated men. Consider Richard Nixon, a nearly Shakespearean figure of great talent and ambition whose paranoia, personal demons and lust for power proved to be his downfall.

   Trump, by comparison, is not a complicated man.

   His every executive function exists to satisfy his ego. He is a covetous person consumed by an insatiable desire for acquisition, a man who seems to take the seven deadly sins as a seven-day challenge. He sees every relationship as a game of dominance and seems to reject the very idea of a mutually beneficial transaction. He treats everyone around him, from employees and political allies to members of his own family, as tools to use and then discard. To cozy up to Trump is to sacrifice your dignity to his cravings and desires.

   There is no evidence that Trump is a figure of deep thought or serious insight. There is no evidence that Trump is anything other than what he’s been for his entire time in the public eye: an ego-driven creature of boundless envy and vicious, overlapping resentments. Those resentments have led him on a grand tour of retribution against the public.

   Trump is the perfect fool, easily manipulated by Putin and sychophants simply through insincere flattery.  We are in deep trouble the longer we allow him to destroy the very foundation of our republic and the democracy it has fostered for 250 years and around the world.

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   1. I agree. And I think the best way to get to him is to make him out to be a loser. How to do that is a difficult question. But if the Dems can find a way to effectively paint him as a loser, he'll respond emotionally. And if they can keep it going, they'll own him.

      The other approach is to butter him up and call him brilliant. But that only gets you a sugar high from him, forgotten hours later.

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      1. Yup, humiliating and ridiculing a bully works just like in grade school. 

         Trump is making a lot of new enemies.  Today's bounce in the market is screwing over the greedy short sellers having to cover their bets after the bloodbath of the last two days. 

         Bulls make money, bears make money, and the pigs get slaughtered.  Trump is trying to turn the stock market into one of his failed New Jersey casinos.

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2. The World's Energy Sources

   Renewables aren't replacing anything, they're adding capacity

   I tripped across this the other day and it's fascinating. The human race has never reduced the use of any energy source.

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   1. David,

      I presume that you've read Daniel Yergen?  His new piece in FA is a good one and dovetails with your most recent personal revelation:

      https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/troubled-energy-transition-yergin-orszag-arya

       

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      1. Thank you – I had not seen it. And it's a great piece.

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3. Two items worth a mention:

   • US Rep. and former Houston mayor Sylvester Turner dies at 70 — just elected in November, so now that district will need to hold a special election for a replacement. In combination with Rep Grivalja's illness that lmostly keeps him from voting, the partisan margin now is 218-213.

   • Focusing on short term impressions of the *resident's actions is not well suited to his random choices and announcements.  Many looked at the weekend's tariff blurts and said "NOW many more people will see negative consequences and begin to reject the MAGA message."  Unfortunately, jumping on that train too soon undercuts credibility.  Today's news:  "NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closes higher after two days of sharp drops as Trump pulls back on some tariffs, easing fears of a trade war."

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   1. In addition to the emotional release of the pause in the tariffs, today's upward bounce was partially due to a "Short Squeeze", where short sellers expecting a continuing market slide were forced to cover their short bets, causing the target stocks perversely to rise causing serious losses for the shorters.

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4. A distressing account of the subversion going on at the DOJ

   The Rot of DOJ Spreads

   The traditional independence of the federal prosecutorial function, combined with the Supreme Court’s infamous opinion on Presidential immunity, make citizen scrutiny a challenge. But we can credit and amplify the words and deeds of honorable Department professionals who have given up their jobs rather than violate their oaths—Danielle Sassoon, Hagan Scotten, Denise Cheung, Joshua Stueve. We can keep the heat and light on the serial abuses by Martin and push Senators to reject his nomination, which has yet to go through. And we can repeat, and repeat again, that the accusations of misconduct leveled by the Attorney General on down—the actual constitutional villains—are contemptible lies; and the truth will out.

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5. Randy Rainbow's latest: Defy Democracy

    

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