He's Basically Useless

 

Trump posted the above impotent whinge on his dreadful Truth Social account, and I suppose someone may have let Putin know about it and if they did, I am sure of one thing. 

Putin would have laughed his ass off.  It's pathetic. It reeks of frustration:

The exchange shined a light on a rising sense of exasperation among the president and his advisers at his inability to mount a successful pressure campaign against Putin to end the war. Trump bristled at a reporter’s suggestion that he had not applied pressure to the Russian leader.

“You don’t know what pressure I’m putting on Russia,” Trump snapped. “We’re putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that.”

Trump then argued that “it takes two to tango, and you have to have Ukraine want to make a deal, too.”

Moscow, he said, has already made a substantial concession by not “taking the whole country.”

“Stopping the war,” he said, is a “pretty big concession.”

Part of Trump's frustration may well be not knowing exactly what a "concession" is. It's possible he only recently abandoned that idea that it meant someone was selling hot dogs and sodas during the negotiations. When Trump says "You don't know what pressure I'm putting on Russia," though, I believe that part--it's just that Russia doesn't seem to be aware of it either. That's why THIS IS NOT WORKING.

A Very Ugly Truth

 

Despite the dark horizon envisioned Sunday evening, there was a momentary market rally on Monday based on, of all things, fake news, possibly furthered in part by a single optimistic Tweet that there would be a pause on the tariff scheme. Despite the various iterations from Trump that yes, the tariffs were going to happen anyway, there was a wonderful rally Tuesday, based on I don't even know what. Wishful thinking? 

People still seem stuck on the idea that the tariff thing is a bargaining position, not a structural reorganization based on, as near as I can tell, a near-total misunderstanding about how everything to do with the economy actually works. 

But at some dark, terrible point, you have to stare into the tan Shinola'd visage of the aging dumbfuck pictured above who did that to his hair and went out in public, as he has done for decades, and realize the simple truth. 

He's really very stupid. He's not taking some deal, even though all manner of countries have been trying to get hold of him. (70? All of them?) He's already got the deal he wants.

They are literally kissing his ass, he says. And I have told you about his relationship with ass-kissing.  It's his life support system.  He has every eye on him. People are telling him he's wrecking everything--and like a toddler wreaking havoc, he's loving it.  And he gets to prove something--he was right, and all the smarty-pants people who said otherwise will find out.

This is not Normal

 

How do you confront a man who has done a lot of damage in a very short period of time, and promises to get up in front of the American people and lie about everything? Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D., NM) chose to hold a simple sign: "This is not normal."  (It was snatched from her by Republican Rep. Lance Gooden.)

What the folks who attended or tuned into this speech beheld was a long rally speech--not really like a State of the Union speech at all. Trump called out the head of DOGE, Elon Musk (who isn't supposed to BE the head of DOGE, allegedly, for some sort of legal reason). He dwelled on the ideas of immigrant crime and trans people in sports for some reason. (Divisiveness. Feeding the bigotry beast.)

There will obviously need to be heroic fact-checking. This is a speech where Trump blamed Biden for the economy that he has actually contracted, threatening higher prices and a recession. Economists were not predicting a recession with Biden's policies--only with what Trump has been doing so far. 

But we aren't new to this game. Trump lies. Trump blames other people. Trump comes up with proposals that might just be a puppet show in a madhouse. We are in a trade war with our North American neighbors. Trump has openly sided with Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian war. 

This is, in fact, not normal. A ketamine-fueled megalomaniac with poor sleep habits is Peter-Panning his crazy ass through our government with his Lost Boys, looking to move fast and break stuff--not really understanding what he's breaking, just hoping to get the contracts to fix whatever it is. Daddy Ourbucks rose for a little applause during the speech. 

One could almost wonder why he didn't give speech himself. Shy? 

Shart of the Deal 2: The Takers

 

This blog (me, Vixen!) understands that Trump thinks of himself as the Deal-maker, and his mishpocha love that for him. We discussed The Shart of the Deal a minute ago, and it's holding up. He imposes a threat, and will accept any terms that make him look like he got his "deliverables". He just got the Mexican president to send 10,000 troops to the border that were going anyway. He got Justin Trudeau to agree to the same kind of commitment he was already making. 

It's ok--just so long as Trump gets to take credit for something, even if it was nothing he actually accomplished (other than demonstrating to our allies that his government is duplicitous and not to be trusted, ruining our relationship in a completely shartastic way!)  And the 30-day pause probably just means we get another round of Trump drama. 

But the thing to recognize is Trump didn't do anything other than wreck our allies' faith in us Just like him patting himself on the back for the flow of the water (which is idiotic) into lakebeds that have nothing to do with the already-contained LA fires. It's bullshit--but he's a tv president for dipshits who watch too much tv. 

Which brings me to Elon Musk--his avatar Vizier and the shadow-president. 

Trump takes credit. I don't know what Musk is taking--but it's a whole lot, because he's rooting through our servers, gathering our information, and I have no earthly idea what all he means to do with it. But he is using boys young enough to be his sons to do it. 

What Are the Odds He Believes This?

 

Trump: A tariff is a tax on a foreign country. A lot of people like to say it’s a tax on us. No… It’s is a tax that doesn’t affect our country. pic.twitter.com/NNyNthZbKg

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 17, 2024

This isn't how tariffs work. People have been pointing out this is not how tariffs work. The benefits of tariffs are mixed. But if consumers are concerned about high prices, tariffs are not going to do anything about them. Economists say it would result in Americans paying more--it is a tax on us. Trump's concept of a trade war against foreign countries is just not how things in a global economy work. The answer--inflation. 

I'm not 100% Trump understands what his immigration policy would do to supply chains here in the US, and I'm relatively sure that if he hasn't got the tariffs thing right in his head, he definitely doesn't understand how devaluating the dollar is also terrible for consumers.

But you or I might be thinking about things from the point of view of people with "normal" incomes. We do things like work for a living or have a "fixed" income from a pension. We would actually feel those costs--the people who help set Trump's economic policy and the people who can afford Trump country club memberships would not. I don't think it matters whether Trump understands these policies, I think it's that he does not care and will say absolutely anything to be elected.