President Donard Trixon and the Trump-Putin-Nixon Water-Tower Coverup Scandal
I know I said I’d stay closer to economics in my commentary and not so much pure politics, but today became so surreal, I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t make stuff up this rich if I were drinking electric Kool-Aid while mainlining acid here in the whacky world of President Donard Trixon and the Republicrats.
First, the basic situation: President Trump fires FBI Director James Comey who is hated by Democrats for the bungling manner in which he handled the scandalous Clinton emails that were allegedly obtained and made public by Russia in collusion with Donald Trump. During the campaign, Candidate Trump praised Comey’s breach of every known protocol on how the FBI handles sensitive information, especially politically charged information, and his move outside the chain of command. (Deciding not to prosecute Clinton was never properly Comey’s decision to make or announcement to make, but rests fully in the attorney general.)
Comey’s behavior, seen as bizarre by both Republicans and Democrats, single-handedly gave the presidency to Donald Trump. I think that’s fair to state because of the undeniable fact that Clinton immediately lost about 8% in her approval ratings and never fully regained that loss, while Trump’s margin of victory in many of the states that he carried was less than 2%.
Candidate Trump loved James Comey, but that relationship soured when Comey became the man in charge of investigating President Trump. So, now, the same Trump who praised Comey’s actions as a candidate fires him as president. Moreover he fires Comey specifically over the exact same actions that he praised Comey for as Candidate Trump.
The capital clowns are bouncing left and right today
As Trump flips, the Democrats all flop. The same Democrats who wanted Comey fired and criticized Trump for keeping Comey on as head of the FBI and who recently scoffed at Comey for saying he was only mildly nauseous over the possibility that his actions might have changed the election, now rebuke Trump for firing Comey for the very reasons they all originally wanted him fired.
Then Trump, who stated recently in an interview that he “has confidence in him” (James Comey), railed indignantly against Democrat leader Chuck Schumer today by saying, “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer stated recently, “I do not have confidence in him (James Comey). Then acts so indignant.” So, the president had full confidence in Comey then fired him but is irritated that the leader of the Democrats had no confidence in Comey but is now indignant that he was fired.”
Tricky Dick smiles as Trump scowls.
The Democrats, of course, state Trump has covert reasons for the firing, alleging a Nixonian coverup. Comey, they claim, was on to Trump, so Trump needed to get rid of him. Trump, they claim, just turned the Trump-Putin electioneering scandal into a near-perfect copy of Nixon’s Watergate scandal. They compare the surprise termination of James Comey to the Saturday Night Massacre when Nixon surprisingly fired independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was investigating Nixon’s role in the Watergate scandal, wherein the Watergate Hotel was bugged for campaign reasons at the president’s orders, just as President Trump has alleged President Obama ordered the bugging of Trump Tower for campaign reasons.
Nixon’s firing of Cox led to the resignations of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General. In the present case, however, the firing of Comey came specifically and solely at the request of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General.
As I keep drinking the Kool-Aid, things gets more surreal than I ever thought they could
This very next morning, as Trump is struggling to distance himself from the accusations of firing Comey to cover up Trump’s own Russian collusion scandal, Trump announces and holds a surprise closed-door meeting with …  the Russians — specifically Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov, and Russia’s Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — and with Putin’s official American friend, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Doubling down on that bizarre strategy in order to also distance himself from the Democrats’ Nixonian comparisons, Trump invites the press spontaneously into the oval office at which they are surprised to find Trump proudly sitting beside Nixon’s infamous Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, whom some regard as a war criminal during the Watergate-Vietnam-war era.
Trump, then, boasts that he and Kissinger have been friends for years and that they were just meeting with Russia to discuss the Syrian war, where Trump is also accused by some of intensifying the conflict in order to change the public conversation in the press away from his supposed collusion with Russia. Who better to join the conversation between Trump and Russia over the current war than an ancient war criminal of the Nixon era? Just a coincidental meeting between old Watergate-era buddies and new Russian friends.
The world is wobbling on its axis today in a drunken stupor, my friends.
MAY 12 UPDATE: The Trump-Putin-Nixon Water-Tower Coverup Scandal blows its own lid off!
Yesterday (the day after I first published the article above) Trump was interviewed by Lester Holt on NBC and contradicted everything his press team had said about the firing of FBI Director James Comey, stating that it was entirely his idea from the beginning to fire Comey and that his reason was particularly related to the FBI investigation of the Trump-Russia conspiracy, though Trump implied his move was to help the investigation gain more credibility (and speed), not to impede it. Apparently, he actually believes he remains such a convincing snake-oil salesman that people will believe him when he says in an interview that his real purpose is to help the FBI investigate him and Russia more thoroughly (albeit expeditiously) and to build America’s trust in the outcome of the investigation.
Then today, as if Trump’s immediate contradiction of his entire press staff wasn’t odd enough, President Donard Trixon purposely established the most blatant tie between himself and Tricky Dick Nixon he could possibly have come up with. In order to prove he’s not a crooked Dick, he threatened (as Richard “I’m not a crook” Nixon would have done) the FBI director that he just fired (as Nixon would have done) by implying in a tweet that he will (in a manner that begs Watergate déjà vu) release the SECRET TAPES he apparently has of conversations between himself and James Comey!
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
Oh, my goodness! Even as numerous readers on Zero Hedge criticize me for laying out the Nixonian comparisons, Trump decides to heap more ready-made material on top to help me prove my case! Yes, if the former FBI director dares to act like Deep Throat (the high-level FBI director who became the primary informant during the Watergate scandal) by leaking information to the press (as Deep Throat did to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post), Trump implied he will use secret tapes he has apparently made of his conversations.
Oh my gosh! Just when I thought the Nixon connections couldn’t get any stronger! And Trump is the one creating all of them!
The result, of course, of this blatant attempt to silence the FBI, is that leaks are now bursting out everywhere:
At a moment of crisis, the White House looks surrounded on the outside and divided on the inside.
“It’s total chaos,†said one former transition team official with close ties to the administration.
“It’s image-making on the inside and people trying to protect themselves. There is a deep streak of paranoia among staff. The communications team shit the bed on the Comey firing and now the war with the FBI has them all scared and throwing each other under the bus.”Thank God I don’t work there. If I did, I’d be dialing up my attorney.â€
…
The unusually detailed accounts of inner turmoil frustrated Trump’s allies in the media, like Matt Drudge, who runs the enormously influential conservative aggregation website Drudge Report. “We never got 1 damaging leak out of Obama White House staff in 8 yrs. Under Trump, they appear hourly. BIG DANGER: Small leaks sink ships!!†Drudge said in a flurry of tweets.
“Trump advisers leaking to media are now deliberately sabotaging presidency. Major house cleaning needed for survival. Leaks on hour, every hour, will destroy Trump presidency. There’s a Trojan horse plotting within the inner circle!†(The Hill)
I think, and have stated even before Trump was elected, the Trojan horse is Trump. This is a White House falling apart at the seams as everyone is starting to realize they may really be serving a lunatic president. Like Don Quixote jousting at windmills, this Don has gone from fighting the deep state to fighting Deep Throat (or, at least, someone he fears will become Deep Throat). But the most amazing part of this is that, each step of the way, Trump is the one setting up scenes that are screaming for comparisons to Richard Nixon. He has now filled the chocolate box with morsels of Watergate-tasting treats ready-made for the press’s consumption.
Trump’s own suspicious nature (like Nixon’s) creates suspicion. For example, I now ask what exactly is it that Trump so greatly fears James Comb-me-over will leak? At this point, I more than suspect something is there because “leaks” (Trump’s chosen word — and Trump “has and uses the best words” — are about facts you down’t want known, or they wouldn’t be called “leaks.” Trump’s not-even-slightly-veiled threat to Comey could have warned that he would reveal his recordings if Comey “lied” about the president or “denied” the truth or “fabricated” things to be more than they were.
However, Trump did not threaten to reveal secret tape recordings if Comey comes out and lies about him. He threatened to reveal secret recordings if Comey “leaks” information. It’s not a leak if it’s a lie. So, Trump practically admitted there is truth Comey knows that Trump is very afraid of — so afraid that it appears to have sent him completely out of control of himself as he actually threatened Comey in a very public way, should Comey come out with any of it.
And, of course, threatening the just-fired FBI director if he comes out with any information is a thinly veiled threat to the entire FBI because, if Trump will play get-even with the beloved director, he’ll play get-even with any one of them that dares to open his or her mouth. How close is that threat from the most powerful person in the world (and the FBI’s commander-in-chief) to being an illegal impedance of justice?
Unbelievable! This is just getting richer by the day as we watch President Donard Trixon dig his way deep into the manure pile of history and then pull it down over his own comby head.
Is this what it looks like when a narcissist who started his career in the Watergate era self-destructs? This week’s stunning images of self-destruction and of a White House flying apart at the seams as its press agents literally run for cover in the hedges and beg news agencies to “turn the lights off” will be talked about for years and years to come.
The meltdown has begun.
Monday, May 15th 2017 at 9:06 am |
. . .the scandalous Clinton emails that were allegedly obtained and made public by Russia in collusion with Donald Trump. . .
Yes, I see the word “allegedly”, but this is where I stopped reading. I just can’t take it anymore. It’s bad enough the brain-dead RINOs in DC and fake news propaganda hopium dispensary (aka MSM) daily hammer this narrative into our psychies like the Chinese water torture, now I have to put up with it from my favorite blogger. This does not mean you will lose me as a reader. I’ll chip away at the rest of this article after I chase the deer off my property and feed my cats.
I await with eagerness your next an article on the economic impact of wannacry, or how the central banks force institutional
investors to purchase worthless bonds as they continually drive up asset prices in a constant effort to eke out every last penny from the labor class, and when and how the mathematical certainaty of a crash, collpase or reset if you prefer, will play out. Something along those lines.
Update: I must read the update.
Monday, May 15th 2017 at 2:28 pm |
Unfortunately, the news only gets worse in the update.
As you’ve seen, I am more than willing to take the MSM to task when their news about Trump is fake, but this past week was all about Trump doing himself in. Even Rush Limbaugh on his show this morning had to say, “Trump gave the Democrats a lot of ammo (same word I had used) to go after him last week.” He also said, “If Trump didn’t realize he was doing that, that really concerns me.” As well it should.
Last week was the most bizarre week in politics I’ve ever witnessed. Trump didn’t just step in a cow pie. Trump laid out all the cow pies, himself, and then jumped in each one with both feet.
Even more bizarre than his penchant for self-destruction was the fact that he had just successfully steered the media attention almost completely away from the Trump-Russian conspiracy story (whether that was his intent or not) with the mega bomb in Afghanistan, the bombing of the Syrian air port, and the Korean armada that wasn’t actually sent (though it is there now). The conversation about Russia in the media had almost stopped.
So, you have to wonder, “Why on earth would Trump do so many things to try to get the conversation back onto the Trump-Russia controversy?” Even Limbaugh says he HAD to know this would happen. And if he didn’t, that’s even more concerning because that means he is far too naive to ever win a battle against the establishment. They’re in a war with him, and he’s shipping them boxes of live ammo.
Economically, this is important (even though painful to those who hoped to have a champion to fight the economic establishment) because it is exactly the kind of thing that will turn the economy down right at the time I’ve said it would start to become evident that the economy and the stock market are crashing. (Early summer being the timing I have thought would be most likely.)
One of the big reasons I’ve had for saying June or July would likely be the turning point is that I figured Trump is either no warrior against the establishment at all or, at least, not a fit warrior. I’ve said that he will find no Democrats willing to work with him (obviously) but also very few Republicans. The more he does stuff like he did last week, the more quickly he will turn the majority of his party against him, so that he has no hope of driving the agenda in congress. That means the establishment wins as Trump cannot possibly accomplish much by executive decree, with half of his orders already being overturned by liberal courts.
He is effectively hog-tying himself. Reflecting back on the days of Watergate, the nation became completely embroiled in that scandal for a year, and almost nothing else got done. In a single week, Trump has practically assured that the rest this year will look like that. He has so thoroughly kicked up the hornets’ nest and handed them so many suspicion-arrousing things that even someone like Rush Limbaugh, already upset that Trump is accomplishing almost none of what he said he would accomplish for conservatives, fears this is no longer going to go well at all.
So, economically, this is the big story because this is the turning point in any remaining hope people had that Trump is going to overturn the establishment. (In fact, if he DOES fire a lot of people in the White House (which is only rumor so far), I expect it will not be the Goldman-Sachs boys he will fire. The White House will probably look even more establishment in the end, though it would be great if it turns out he does the right thing.
As evidence of which way things are likely to fall: notice that Trump didn’t even talk to Bannon about the fact that he was going to fire Comey. Bannon found out on television along with all the rest of us. That is as sidelined as you get, and it doesn’t speak well for Bannon being one of the few anti-establishment people who are likely to hang on. Instead, the White House will go more in the direction of the Kushner-Cohn team, which is Goldman Sachs to the core.
It’s why, as much as I wanted to see a candidate who would go after the establishment, I was pretty sure and pretty vocal here all along that I thought Trump would play into the hands of the establishment. Whether that would prove to be as an intentional Trojan horse or as an unwitting scapegoat, I was not sure (and still am not). What I am sure of is that last week was the most bizarre week of White House politics I’ve witnessed — far weirder than Watergate even because Nixon was guilty and was covering up. Trump APPEARS to be guilty (to many), but also appears to be trying to make himself look guilty.
He has single-handedly assured (i.e., without most of his staff even knowing all the things he was going to do) that he (and we) will all be embroiled in Watergate-like inquiries and reportage for the rest of the year. I will try not to hit too much on that because it only loses me readers, but it is a part of laying out (last year and earlier this year) where I think things are headed and then pointing out how they are, indeed, heading that way in order to show whether those predictions are staying on track or veering off track.
My prediction was and remains: 1) Trump plays into the hands of the establishment (whether as Trojan horse or unwitting scape goat); 2) the establishment’s (read the Fed’s in this case) fake recovery starts breaking apart badly in the early summer; 3) Trump’s own recovery plans get nowhere because no one will work with him, and the Trump rally proves to have been made of irrational exuberance and falls apart; 4) the establishment makes sure the failure of their screwball recovery gets entirely blamed on Trump (and his supporters); 5) the nation becomes increasingly embroiled in rebellion (first by those who voted against Trump and hated him and then perhaps by those who are angry with Trump for betraying them); 6) then in the year to follow, the establishment has convinced enough people that turning against the establishment caused the failure and that what we really need is a more global answer to a global problem — that nationalism was the cause of failure, and that we need a global (eventually digital) monetary system. The exact working out of the monetary system may take more time, but watch as things move from the failure on Trump’s watch in that direction.
None of it is what you want to hear, but it is how I see the world going. Ignoring Trump’s place in all of that would be ignoring a major factor. Still, I’ll try not to drone on about only that.
Monday, May 15th 2017 at 3:30 pm |
Even Ann Coulter today is seeing Trump as a failure:
“Coulter even went on to publish a book entitled ‘In Trump We Trust’ which she hailed as the story of a ‘one-man wrecking ball against our dysfunctional and corrupt establishment.’
“But, after a series of flip-flops on everything from the timing of the border wall to the ‘obsolescence’ of NATO, Coulter is growing a little weary of waiting on Trump to deliver on campaign promises.
“Sitting down for an interview with the Daily Caller, Coulter said she’s ‘not very happy with what has happened so far’ and asked ‘is the great negotiator?’
“‘if he doesn’t keep his promises I’m out. This is why we voted for him. I think everyone who voted for him knew his personality was grotesque, it was the issues.’
“…’It’s just that it has been such a disaster so far'”
With Coulter, Limbaugh, Savage and others seeing Trump as a near-total failure so far, Trump is now losing even his heavy-hitting supporters. So, it’s not just the MSM any more. (I’m not trying to grind in a point, and I apologize if it feels like it. It’s just this is a major, major turning on the whole Trump hope and probably will start to spill into a reversal of the Trump rally as soon as the denial breaks as people see his economic plans are just not going to happen — not with no support among Democrats, little support among Republicans, and rapidly failing support even among his staunchest supporters. So, it IS a major economic vector, and the reckless behavior of the entire last week indicates this is going to be a train wreck with Trump being the lead locomotive, not the MSM (though they are against him, too).
Monday, May 15th 2017 at 3:43 pm |
I read this response a couple times to let it sink in. I’m afraid sir, you are correct in your assessments, assumptions and predictions. It’s such an earth-shattering disappointment, as either way, whether Pres. Trump is intentionally sabotaging his own administration (unlikely) or he is simply in over his head, or he has some amazing trick up his sleeve (hopeful but also unlikely), I see it playing out as you describe.
With unforeseen external events lending its enertia to the final push over the economic cliff (Wannacry morphing into something really bad) June/July 2017 sounds reasonable to me, given what we are able to foresee, for the break up of the US economy.
What galls me is the coming collective establishment’s I-told-ya-so narrative, even in the face of the overlapping fake Russian interference claim of 2016 narrative. All of this obviates any glimmer of hope to ever get out from under the aforementioned economic and social oppression.
There will never be another opportunity like Trump afforded us in 2016. The political capital has been squandered and spent on the most worthless of worthless pursuits. I don’t know if we were hoodwinked by him. Im not ready to believe that. Honestly, I think he just got in over his head.
Read your update.
Monday, May 15th 2017 at 7:33 pm |
I know how hard it is to hear, and I suppose, because it is disheartening, I should tread easier on it. I guess it is, in part, because I am so disgusted by what I see happening that I am prone to hit Trump as hard as I can because (whether intentional or by ineptitude or by total lack of caring if he stands by what he says), it is a huge betrayal of many, many middle-class hopes.
Now that even his staunchest, ultra-conservative supporters are starting to say the same things I’ve been warning of and observing for months (like Ann Coulter below), the downward spiral on the financial side is likely to increase in steepness. Right now, I think the market is treading sideways because investors are waiting to see what happens with Trump’s plans. If they continue to see Trump acting erratically and his plans making no headway, they’ll start to back out of the Trump Trade that boosted the market out, and that could easily turn into a run for the exits.
Like you and others, I’d love to see Trump pull something magical out of his hat, but last week didn’t look like a set-up for anything magical. It just looked insane.
And you are right — that it does blow the opportunity afforded in 2016 when the middle class finally surged in revolt — which is why I wonder if Trump was a plan to tap off that growing rage and clear it out of the way by grounding it out. I think we would have been better of if things had fallen apart under Hillary as the establishment would have no scapegoat.
We can hope I’m wrong.
Tomorrow I plan (depending on how things go) to work on the Wannacry virus and give Trump a break.
Wednesday, May 17th 2017 at 4:38 am |
Snap out of it knave. Break out the cycle. MSM spin doctors seem to have you spun out in a conundrum behind the curve like a puppy chasing it’s tail after each word!
Maybe gradually if necessary, try and recall “the great recession” theme. Seems extreme CB financial engineering Great Precession applied to market cycles (intermediate term 6-18 mo., range bound, spinny top doji) is about to collide with legacy notions of a fiscal policy and delusions of demand economy dynamics eclipsing current carry trade conditions and related GDP potential output, output gaps and interest rate gap dynamics.
Wednesday, May 17th 2017 at 4:44 am |
Avatar
Spatial Memory Knave_Dave
3 days ago
I’m trying to learn and brush-up on an education by reading here. Each day I click on hoping to see your analysis on the POTUS effects even tangentially applied to any semblance of wicksellian economic applications (or any fractal of empirical data applicable in quantifying elasticity of intertemporal substitution effects) towards quantifying and forecasting short term interest rates, potential interest rate gap – real rate vs natural/neutral rate and the effects on potential output and output gap effects from current cack handed ‘events’ and the nostalgic Watergate throwback- ‘nattering knavebobs – and knavedaves- of negativism’
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Saturday, May 13th 2017 at 12:11 pm |
I wonder why Comey’s tenure as a Director of HSBC Bank is hardly ever mentioned?
https://www.spartareport.com/2017/05/comeys-bank-ftm/
Friday, May 12th 2017 at 2:17 pm |
The problem with this article is that there was actually evidence of wrong doing when Nixon was being investigated and the only thing said about Trump and the Russian is that there could be something, I feel there is a possibility something happened, maybe. could be, but absolutely nothing in the way of evidence. Since when did the Russian become our enemy anyway? I know the leftist pigs in America loved the Soviet Union while they were communist and murdering any of their own citizens that disagreed with them, but that’s gone now and they are a free country. Could be the leftist pigs here now hate them because they are free?
Friday, May 12th 2017 at 7:35 pm |
You might want to take a look at the UPDATE at the bottom of this article. Today Trump pulled out all the stops to make sure that it is impossible for anyone to miss the Nixon comparisons. There is no problem with the article not presenting actual evidence of wrong doing because the article is not trying to state whether or not Trump did anything wrong (well, until the update today where Trump strongly indicates there was). The article was about the incredibly peculiar and ripe comparisons between himself and Nixon that TRUMP (not anyone else) is setting up. He’s doing this to himself. The only evidence needed to support the fact that he’s setting himself up to look like Nixon in every way conceivable are the things he says and does. He’s the one who is making himself look guilty. The article doesn’t argue that he IS guilty, but only that he is sure making himself look guilty (and, therefore, PROBABLY is). The tell-tale heart seems to be self-destructing.
Friday, May 12th 2017 at 7:59 pm |
You missed my point completely. Nixon was investigated because burglars were arrested breaking into the Watergate Hotel. They were connected to Nixon therefore an investigation of Nixon followed. In contrast, Trump is being investigated on nothing more than a claim by 3 time loser Hillary that she lost because of Russian interference based on nothing. The investigation has now dragged on for 9 months and no evidence has been found. As long as the dems can drag this bogus investigation out, they can keep the bogus claims going that Trump is guilty of something because “why else would they be investigating”. The only people dumb enough to be fooled by this are the dems.
Friday, May 12th 2017 at 11:07 pm |
I understand all that, particularly the lack of evidence after so many months of so much talk; but the point of my article was not whether or not he’s guilty but simply that he couldn’t be doing a more bang-up job of making himself look like he’s guilty while throwing his White House into obvious disarray.
However, with his actions today, which I’ve added to the article, it now looks like the tell-tale heart. What exactly is it that he doesn’t want Comey to leak? Why do you threaten someone not to “leak” something that isn’t there? And why is it worth looking like he’s trying to intimidate the entire FBI with the knowledge that he’ll come after any one of them if he’ll come after their director? It’s truly bizarre.
Saturday, May 13th 2017 at 5:02 am |
When somebody says to me “you better hope there are no tapes” to me that means I’m in trouble from what’s on the tape, not the other way around. Also appearing guilty is nowhere near the same as being guilty and if you are not guilty then there is no need to act a certain way in order to not look guilt. Who cares if he looks guilty? In my country, America, you are innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around, and after 9 months of investigating, there is still no evidence. And besides that, it’s the biased news media that works overtime to make him look guilty.
Saturday, May 13th 2017 at 7:13 am |
“When somebody says to me “you better hope there are no tapes” to me that means I’m in trouble from what’s on the tape, not the other way around.”
Of course that’s what it means. He is clearly THREATENING the former FBI director.
By the same token, when someone says, “You had better not leak any information” that means you do have factual information that can be leaked.
Put the two together, and it means, “You have factual information that I am so concerned about your releasing that I will threaten you publicly to make sure you never do.”
Looking guilty is definitely not the same thing as being guilty, but when a child looks really guilty, you’d be a fool to just pretend he isn’t. You’d be smarter to look all the harder to find out if he is. And my article didn’t say he was guilty. It’s purpose was to point out just HOW GUILTY Trump is looking. In my country, America, if a politician looks guilty he almost always is. You’d be wrong to make a final judgment based on that. You’d be stupid not to look deeper.
As for the biased media working overtime to make him look guilty, that’s where you couldn’t be more obviously wrong in this particular set of bizarre behaviors. I have never seen anyone work so hard to make himself look so guilty. Looking solely at TRUMP’S own actions and his own tweets and his own interviews, he is either guilty OR he’s the stupidest person on the planet if he’s innocent. He couldn’t have done more in the past week to make himself look guilty if he had tried his hardest, other than outright confess. (In fact, it appears to me he did try his hardest to look guilty.)
Even then, my article was not so much about whether he looks guilty as about his bizarre behavior in making himself LOOK just like Nixon:
1) Fires the person investigating him.
2) Holds meetings with Henry Kissinger.
3) By his own words has been making secret recordings of conversations.
4) Bizarrely choses to use the word “tapes” and put it in quotes for “recordings” when no one uses tapes anymore as a means of recording things.
That’s the Nixonian stuff. Unless he actually wants to look like Nixon at a time when people are accusing him of looking like Nixon, why would you feed into that by saying, “Yeah, well wait until I get out my ‘tapes’ of our conversations?” Unless you WANT the media all abuzz about the Russian investigation, why would say things that the stupidest person on the planet would know would kick the hornet’s nest and get them all going?
The second I read it, I said, “TAPES? Are you kidding me, Trump. You actually said that!” Oh my goodness, how stupid can he be?
Then you add to the Nixonian stuff listed above the following:
1) Holding an immediate but closed-door conversation with top Russian officials, including one of the lead Russians who is being investigated with you.
2) White House staff totally caught off guard and looking utterly aflutter as they stumble all over themselves trying to explain what just happened, finally running behind the hedges and asking for the lights to be turned out because they can’t handle the heat. (I mean Spicer sounded like a lunatic who was going into a seizure. He couldn’t even string a single sentence together and started saying bizarre things like “Well, I … I don’t … I will get back … I haven’t seen the tick tock on that, but I’ll get back to you.” The “tick tock?”
3) Trump admitting to Lester Holt that his White House staff got the story wrong and then contradicting everything they had been saying.
This is the worst media meltdown I’ve ever seen from the Whitehouse in my 58 years of living. So, you’re left with he is either guilty, and the whole charade is now falling apart, or he is incredibly inept. It’s not the “biased news media” making that look like a heap of rotting manure. I’ve written a few articles here on this blog in Trump’s defense about how biased the media is and full of false facts, but there has been no bias or false reporting this. This is Trump self-destructing before our eyes. This is either guilt leaking out everywhere now, or incredible political stupidity. (Far dumber than I ever thought Trump would be.) Or it’s his narcissism saying, “I’ll go with the stuff that looks and sounds just like Nixon because it will set them all abuzz, and I need buzz when it’s about me. I need it all the time, and there just hasn’t been enough of it in the last twenty-four hours. Even bad press is better than no press.”
Sunday, May 14th 2017 at 6:20 am |
One line says it all, “1) Fires the person investigating him.”. Did Comey learn Russian, then go to Russia to question Russian officials? Did the 3 investigations into Hillary’s foundation and e mails now end too because Comey was fired? The FBI is a large organization with thousands of people investigating lots and lots of crimes and if you think these investigations end because the incompetent head was fired, you are clueless about the subject of which you speak. With that we are done. After 9 month this bogus investigation has found nothing and is nothing more than a witch hunt. I’ve wasted too much of my time with this bogus non sense. Hillary gets caught with top secret and classified documents on her personal server, (a serious crime), Trumps makes a statement “that the Russians should hack her.” Hillary says, “Trump just ordered the Russians to hack my e mails”, Hillary’s husband meets with the AG on the runway and magically, the investigation into her criminality ends, Hillary loses another run for the white house, and doesn’t get charged and arrested, she then blames the loss on the Russians for hacking her e mail, based on nothing, the idiot leftist call for an investigation into her bogus claims and 9 months later we have exactly what we had 9 months ago, a bogus claim and nothing more. Leftist are the most gullible fools on the planet.
Sunday, May 14th 2017 at 7:44 am |
I don’t think firing Comey ends anything. Neither does Trump. However, putting a new person in charge over whom Trump has more control can change whatever the two agree to change.
However, you seem to think that I think the investigation is going to find something. As I’ve repeatedly said, my point is not whether there is any truth behind it, but what a fool Trump is for doing this and, thereby, handing his critics tons of potent ammunition and reason to suspect there is something behind it. If Trump wanted to make certain this investigation goes on for, at least, another year and with a lot more people believing he did do something wrong, then his present course of action was perfect for making sure that happens.
If I wanted to look guilty, I’d fire the investigator; but if I wanted to look really guilty, I’d tell everyone on national television that the reason I fired him had nothing to do with Hillary and everything to do with the investigation into the possibilities of me colluding with the Russians. But, if I was afraid that all of that wasn’t enough, I’d schedule a closed-door meeting with one of the key Russians being investigated, and then I’d tell everyone we’re having this closed door meeting.
If all of that wasn’t going to create enough of a flurry of attention all around me, I’d try to make it look as much like Watergate as possible by including Henry Kissinger in that closed-door meetings with the Russians. And then, just in case everyone missed the Watergate connection I was hoping to make, I’d threaten the investigator that I hired so that my critics would be certain to level obstruction-of-justice charges against me as happened with Nixon. But just in case all of that didn’t make Watergate comparisons obvious enough, I’d also threaten him with secret recordings I made, and I’d use the word “tapes” in quotation marks, rather than “recordings,” even though no one records annoying on tape in this digital computer age.
With that, we are done Trump is toast. (I didn’t say “guilty.” I said he’s “toast,” and he fully toasted himself — whether due to peak stupidity in not seeing how all of that looks or out of the guilt of a tell-tale heart or because he’s just such a narcissist that any attention is good attention, so let’s kick the hornets’ nest as hard as we can about a dozen times and see how juiced-up we can get the media.)
–David
Sunday, May 14th 2017 at 2:14 pm |
Long winded nonsensical regurgitations of media spin doctors and greatest hits of mainstream media current sound bites left you behind the curve of the GREATEST ECONOMIC EXPANSION. Your CLASSIC online emotional capitulation cries at capital markets indicies cyclical HIGH inflection point(s) was PRICELESS! After being spun and whipsawed so HORRENDOUSLY behind the curve on both economic cycles and market cycles watching your whipsawing musings applied to the political and governance cycles has also reached PRICELESS comedy. Jmho. Thanks again for the many great laughs. 🙂
Sunday, May 14th 2017 at 2:50 pm |
You’re welcome, Special. Keep reading here. At least, you’re brushing up again an education. Maybe you’ll get some on you.
Sunday, May 14th 2017 at 3:20 pm |
I’m trying to learn and brush-up on an education by reading here. Each day I click on hoping to see your analysis on the POTUS effects even tangentially applied to any semblance wicksellian economic applications (or any fractal of empirical data applicable in quantifying elasticity of intertemporal substitution effects) and the nostalgic Watergate throwback- ‘nattering knavebobs – and knavedaves- of negativism’
Thursday, May 11th 2017 at 12:10 am |
Look what Kissinger’s petro dollar deal with Saudi Arabia has resulted in; endless war and conflict in the Middle East. How many civilians have died since that filthy deal was made, also conscripted young men in various Middle Eastern countries. Add on American and British service personnel losses down the decades, plus Muslim terrorist acts now frequent around the globe and countless and mainly innocent lives have been lost. Arabs have always been tribal and it was mad of the British and French to think they could turn tribal colonies into individual countries, plonk in pro Western leaders and all would be fine!
I read a brilliant article some years ago by an old guy whose father had been one of the last senior officials in one region of the Middle East when it was a French colony. He spoke about how his father tried to get French ministers back home to understand the different tribal areas, how in affect each was its own little Kingdom and each moved freely between the others to do trade but all respected the different forms of Islamic faith in the different areas. He said even Jews and Christians were not shunned let alone attacked in these areas because they weren’t regarded as a threat. He said his father could not get the French government to understand that they could not create one unified Arab country and if they tried it would be a disaster.
It would seem that colonial idiocy combined with America then creating the petro dollar set up, lit the fuse to endless Middle Eastern conflict. Talking of fuses, the greed of Western arms manufacturers hasn’t helped matters. Endless arms have been sold by America, the UK, France, Germany and Italy to the Middle East and of course Russia has also supplied them with arms. So people that for thousands of years were plodding around with camels, trading them and goats plus dabbling in any slave trading that came their way, were all of a sudden flooded with dollars for their oil and had unimaginable wealth to squander on arms and to grow armies. The death toll of the 1980s Iran/Iraq war is estimated to be well over a million. Neither side achieved anything other than spending vast amounts of money so that their young men could die for nothing.
When America and Europe realised they needed all that black gold in the Middle East, they would have in fact done better to agree a pact with Russia, split up the oil equally and tell the Arabs each could have their own fiefdoms in defined areas of each oil rich country and that for the West’s part, we would pay a sizeable yearly income to each of those regions which in turn had to be equally distributed among the people of each of those regions. In other words we should have adopted the Roman model. One reason their empire flourished for so long was because while they clobbered any people who defied their rule, they didn’t clobber any who acquiesced and paid their taxes to Rome. In fact by building their sophisticated roads and other infrastructures in heathen regions the local populations began to identify with them because their own lives were being improved. If different Muslim tribes had been given their own areas, with regular payments made to them so that the people of each area knew they had a stake in that oil wealth, but under the strict understanding that they could not create armies or attempt to take over other tribal regions, maybe the whole Middle East dictator/oil/war mess between the West and the Middle East and between countries in the Middle East that has gone on and on could have been avoided.
Yes, going into countries to take their oil can hardly be described as honourable but at least it would have been more honest and if dues had been paid for the oil we took and given not to cruel, tin pot Middle Eastern dictators, but to the actual people, at least we wouldn’t have been completely looting and plundering these countries. Instead we made one tribal family, the Saudis, far too rich and powerful. They execute any of their citizens that they even perceive of being against them. They rule with an iron grip and they have constantly aided in arming terrorist groups that follow their particular Islamic faith. That and America also funding insurgent groups is how we ended up with ISIS!
Another old saying I like is, ‘What goes round, comes round’. That appears to be happening to the West where all our selfish interference in the Middle East is concerned. Europe is slowly turning into the new Islam and even America has more and more Muslim communities. Many have come to the West to escape lives of hell that the West helped to create in the Middle East. Some of course come with other and more sinister intentions. I certainly do not like the fact that my own country, Britain, has for the past decade at least, a higher Muslim birth rate than the indigenous population. I don’t like these grotesques looking Mosques continually being built all over Britain nor do I like the way many Muslim women walk around as if they are dressed in black bin liners. I despise the complete chauvinism of the Muslim religion. At the same time I cannot resist the inevitable conclusion that the West slowly but surely becoming full of Middle Eastern, African and Asian Muslims is the result of truly terrible Western foreign policies.
I know what I am saying here has nothing to do with your article on Comey but in another sense it has everything to do with it because the Comey situation is yet another example of Western politics that have now become not only completely corrupt but infantile. By the way, I see that Comey was paid $6 million by some large company that just also happened to be a big donor to the Clinton Foundation. He has also received large dollops of loot from HSBC (the bank that was only fined for laundering Columbian drug money so not a single HSBC senior manger was ever prosecuted let alone sent to prison). Surely an FBI director shouldn’t be allowed to, ‘earn’ lottery win sums on the side? This is the root problem in the US, UK and EU; politicians and senior officials of departments that are there to make sure the rule of law is maintained and that the highest in the land are subject to that law every bit as much as the lowest, have been bought out. Corrupt politicians, banskters, law enforcement chiefs, judges and CEOs can do as they please because they all have one another’s backs. ‘X’ gets into trouble and ‘Y’ is always there to cover it up. All of them are paid vast sums of money to keep the rigged game going. That’s all is is now, a rigged game. There is no real democracy left and there never will be again once our fellow Muslim citizens out breed us (a process they are already excelling at).
Multum In Parvo
Thursday, May 11th 2017 at 6:45 am |
An astute assessment. Thank you.
We need to get out of the Mid East sand box and let the Arabs, Iranians, and Israel play play their silly games without us.
Wednesday, May 10th 2017 at 10:51 pm |
Kissinger is an odious creature. Why do so many of the vile variety live to great age? Greenspan is
Thursday, May 11th 2017 at 5:09 am |
You know the Syria situation is going to turn out great now that everyone is listening to that fossil, gramps Kissinger.
Friday, May 12th 2017 at 9:18 am |
Legacy notions and continuous misconceptions of demand economy style economic recessions throughout current ‘controlled’ demand / command economy ‘dynamics’ have fossilized homeschooled prognosticators behind the expansion curve ages ago, gramps. 🙂
Friday, May 12th 2017 at 4:56 pm |
Dear Special Memory,
I am certain that the tilt-a-whirl thrill one feels as their eyes cascade over the hills and rills or your prose will enable most readers to see how special your memory must truly be. That said, you are welcome to express yourself as bizarrely and robotically as you wish; however, if you continue to exercise your first-amendment freedom of babble outside the topic of the post, then I’ll remove your comments as I see them from this point forward. The comments don’t exist as a place for general spewing, but solely for spewing about the particular topic of the article.
Saturday, May 13th 2017 at 12:56 am |
With all due respect knaive, what you suggest are “bizarrely and robotic” comments are grounded in both traditional economics and economic science. The spewing “first amendment freedom of babble” seems obviously inherent from the quasi-seditious views foisted within the article by author to the ludicrous mischaracterzation of the current economic expansion. Jmho
Wednesday, May 10th 2017 at 7:18 pm |
I have a feeling Russia is going to have a big role in the world as a gold hoarding, resource rich neighbor to China and North Korea. I think anyone should want to befriend Russia. Hillary made deals, and Trump made deals. I smell money in Africa, Russia and satellite Asian states. Production and wealth management will shift to the hungriest, biggest dawgs on the prowl with the labor and talent to back it. Kissinger though, he is one of the vultures that have been picking at the carcass of America for a long time, yet every politician has always bowed to kiss his @$$. Trump no different? I’ll still be learning Russian you hacks. Bon apetite DC maggots.
Wednesday, May 10th 2017 at 9:09 pm |
Im not calling anyone here hacks, just to clarify, I was talking about the “red baiting” dc hacks
Thursday, May 11th 2017 at 5:13 am |
Aye.
Wednesday, May 17th 2017 at 9:31 pm |
I know you seem not to like it Dave, but I still think Trump firing comey is a smart move on his part. Now what the replacement does, that’s when we find out if Trump really is for the people, or for the establisment
Wednesday, May 17th 2017 at 10:28 pm |
I don’t know if it was the right move in terms of Comey himself. Frankly, I thought his on-again/off-again/on-again/off-again actions over the Hillary emails was bizarre and looked like an intentional effort to disrupt her election chances. While that didn’t bother me as one who didn’t want her to win anyway, fair is fair, and his actions seemed more like unfair stunts than legitimate announcements. The FBI is accustomed to working in secret, so breaking out with major detrimental news that then turns out to be nothing near the end of her campaign appears inexcusable. There is no reason Comey, with the HUGE resources he has, could not have easily ascertained whether the second batch of emails had anything the first batch didn’t have and done so within a few days, giving him time to hold off on an announcement until he knows if there is a “there” there. There wasn’t.
But the time to fire Comey was when Trump first came into office if the handling of Hillary was the reason. Trump has already said it wasn’t — that it was about the FBI investigation of Flynn (and, therefore, of Trump). Maybe Comey is out to frame Trump, and Trump knew it. Maybe that is what he was trying to do to Hillary, too. Why go after both sides, I don’t know. So, I’m not real inclined to think that was it.
Politically, doing it when he did and in the manner he did, instead of right off the bat, was extremely pour calculus on Trump’s part. Makes him look like he’s either guilty and obstructing justice or knows nothing about management. Right or wrong for reasons having to do solely with Comey, it is a disaster politically that assures Trump will be embroiled for weeks and likely months to come in Watergate like commotion. As even Limbaugh said, he certainly gave the Democrats tons of ammo to hit him with now, and you can already see the cases being laid. As Limbaugh also said, if Trump didn’t know he was giving his opposition tons of ammo to use against him, that is also concerning. It’s like finding he doesn’t know a thing about playing football after he’s already out on the gridiron. This is not going to go well for Trump’s big plans to make America great again. (And that’s the part I care about — the economic effects. I care equally about the whole right and wrong, truth and justice side, if not more, but the blog is about economics and that is where I am going with all of this as you’ll see in my next article.)
Thursday, May 18th 2017 at 2:19 am |
Looking like you’re on to something there Dr. Nave. The current cack handed actions whether emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave or Shanghai Cooperation Organization are sure to test policymakers both fiscal and monetary coordination, orientation and current avant garde financial engineering abilities to align potential output with the term structure of the yield curve (interest rates) and the affine term structure of implied variance / implied volatility along the volatility skew and navigate past what certainly may well be central banks greatest fear- the Great Liquidity Trap.
Wednesday, May 10th 2017 at 10:47 pm |
Also Russia has the least debt of all the major world economies. So when the Western and Eastern debt bombs finally detonate (or Banksterville just slowly manages us all down into complete poverty, which appears to be their chosen route and which is happening due to their self enriching but economy destroying monetary polices), Russia is going to come out on top.
Wednesday, May 10th 2017 at 4:40 pm |
you couldn’t make this stuff up if you were a writer for the Disney fantasy division. Good article!
Wednesday, May 10th 2017 at 7:09 pm |
Thanks, Alex. And if I were writing the great Amercian novel and trying to come up with a Citizen-Kane-like character for president, I couldn’t invent a more suitable last name than “Trump” or a more suitable personality. But if I wrote a character like that into a novel, who would find the novel to be a plausible scenario? It’d be like writing a medical novel and naming the bad doctor “Doctor Coffin” and naming the handsome romantic doctor “Doctor Lovall.” People would find the names a little too spot-on.
Wednesday, May 10th 2017 at 10:43 pm |
That is exactly why the phrase, ‘Life is stranger than fiction’ came into existence and is so well known. Life truly is stranger than fiction, even at the personal level (never mind the State level). I have experienced things which if made into a novel would come across as beyond the realms of believable.
Thursday, May 11th 2017 at 5:14 am |
True, but yesterday was stranger than bad fiction! : )
Friday, May 12th 2017 at 3:11 am |
Juxtaposed to the GREATEST ECONOMIC EXPANSION and incredible asset and capital markets out performance, hunches, guesses and notions of ECONOMIC RECESSIONS throughout the hundred of percentages / thousands of key index point gains = stranger than bad fiction! 🙂