There are two inescapable conclusions in the aftermath of Trumpâs missile strikes in Syria. First, the US can no longer focus only on destroying ISIS. Now, we are in the position of having to also burn calories dealing with the fallout from those strikes with Russia, Syria and Iran.
Second, we can no longer keep our previous distance vis-Ă -vis the Syrian civil war separate from our relations with Russia. Before Trumpâs Tomahawking, it was possible to argue that Russiaâs involvement in Syria was peripheral to our goals in Syria, and certainly not central to overall US/Russian relations. Now, the US has put at risk the limited cooperation we have had with Russian in Syria regarding ISIS.
And for what? Apparently, Trumpâs missile strikes didnât change much on the ground in Syria. In fact, the Syrian air force just used the same air strip that we blasted with 60 tomahawk missiles (at the cost of $1million a copy) to again bomb the same city that suffered the sarin attack.
Doubtless, Trump will call this a âvictoryâ but, if you use $60 million to disable an airbase, shouldnât it be disabled? Again, the question is: What was Trump trying to accomplish? He has taken a dangerous situation, and seemingly made it more dangerous. To Wrongo, it looks like Trump got nearly nothing from his attack. Does this remind anyone of Trumpâs attack on Yemen?
Since the Syrian fly-boys are back in the air, bombing the SAME city, Trump looks like a fool. Want to bet that he will feel the need to correct that impression? On to Cartoons!
Who/What was Trump aiming his tomahawks at?
We tipped off Putin that the tomahawks were coming:
Trump meets with Chinaâs Xi and learns something:
Negotiations with Xi werenât as easy as Trump thought:
Mitch McConnell, wrecker extraordinaire:
Invoking the nuclear option made things much easier for the GOP:
Ready, Fire, Aim! Arenât you glad we didnât elect Hillary, the neo con warmonger? From Booman:
Our Bush Era PTSD has been reactivated in a big way. While I offered a limited and cautious and conditional defense of President Trumpâs decision to authorize the strikes against Syria, I was at pains to note that itâs very important that the administration provide convincing evidence that the Assad regime is responsible for the sarin attack that served as the predicate for the missile launch.
Russia and Syria have denied that they are behind the Syrian Chemical Weapons (CW) attack. We know there was an attack, and that some kind of chemical was used. The media are saying it was sarin gas.
They also, nearly unanimously, say it is the fault of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. Earlier in the week, both US Foreign Secretary Rex Tillerson and US UN envoy Nikki Haley said removing Assad was no longer a priority in US Middle-East policy.
Now, Assad has to go.
Most news outlets and pundits support Donald Trumpâs spanking of the Assad government, but what is Trumpâs strategy? Enforcing norms against the use of chemical weapons (CW) is a good thing. But itâs hard to see how Thursdayâs all-out reversal of our level of engagement in the Syrian civil war is justified by the use of CW, particularly since it has been used several times before in Syria, and since it brings with it many other risks/issues, like a potential military confrontation with Russia and Iran.
After Thursdayâs Tomahawk missile attack, we are now simultaneously confronting the two strongest factions in the Syrian civil war, Assadâs army and ISIS. While Trump and the MSM are going bananas about the horrors of CW, no one was going bananas last week, or in all the prior weeks, about the daily death count of Syrian children who were collateral damage in the countryâs civil war.
The attack took place in the midst of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping This was where one of the hottest topics was what to do about North Korea’s continuing long-range missile tests and its work on completing a deliverable nuclear warhead.
Clearly there were implicit messages for both North Korea and China in the Syrian attack. This has something to do with Syria, and a lot to do with the Chinese. Military types would tell us that Trump firing 59 cruise missiles to take out an airfield is overkill.
But, it will not be lost on Xi that 50+cruise missiles could also devastate any of those new atoll airfields cropping up in the South China Sea. Donald Trump just proved to Xi that he is a man with 4,000+ nuclear weapons at this disposal and a military that follows orders. It looks to Wrongo like Xi and Putin now have a giant incentive to become better allies, and invite Iran to the party.
Once again, Wrongo thinks that the best option for the US would be to concentrate on humanitarian efforts and helping refugees. And to work with Russia and Syriaâs other allies to end the threat from ISIS in the greater Middle East.
Unfortunately, that also admits there is a limitation on the USâs ability to control events solely based on its military strength. Despite its flaws, if thereâs no reason to believe any strategy will improve results, then the best course is inaction. That was Obamaâs approach.
Itâs just not true that we âMust Do Somethingâ. People think that if we Do Something, then nothing bad that subsequently happens is really our fault, because AT LEAST WE DID SOMETHING. Whereas if we do nothing, then every bad thing that subsequently happens is our fault.
Thanks, Obama.
We really donât have to do anything. The problem is that by following the do-nothing strategy, America doesnât get to be the biggest, baddest ass on the Middle East Street.
Yes, if we do nothing, lots of people will die, but that doesnât exactly distinguish it from what will happen anyway. Our inaction wonât transfer blame for those deaths onto us, any more than an action to take out Assad will shift it from us.
Who knew running the worldâs superpower was so complicated? Certainly, not someone who said âI alone can fix itâ.
With all of this Bush-era DĂŠjĂ Vu, we really need some soothing today. Here is the first movement (Allegro) from Ludwig van Beethovenâs Sonata No.5 in F Major, “Spring” Op. 24, for violin/piano, played by Ilya Itin and Igor Graupman from a live performance at the Miami International Piano Festival.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Trump won because he led people who used to vote for Democrats to believe that they had nothing to lose if they voted for him. Below-median income voters had long ago lost faith that Democrats, and Hillary in particular, would ever do anything to change their plight.
Trump said he would look out for them. Whether he does or not, remains an open question, but even before Trump, Democrats had already lost a big swath of America. From the American Prospect:
In the race for the White House, the Democratic presidential candidate has won…fewer US counties with average incomes under the national median and with populations that are more than 85% white in every general election since 1996. Concentrated in the Midwest, Appalachia, and the upper Rocky Mountains, there are 660 such counties today. Hillary Clinton won two of them.
Think about that: The Democratic Partyâs influence in mostly white, lower-income America has eroded to nearly nothing since Bill Clinton was president. This chart documenting their fall is stunning:
The Parties basically split below-median income counties that were 85% white in 1996. Over a 20-year period, the erosion of the Democratsâ control was steady, and complete. This isnât just the result of a poor 2016 presidential candidate, it is an indictment of the Democratic Party, its leadership, and its strategy.
The American Prospect article is about Montanaâs Democratic Governor, Steve Bullock, who won his state by 4 points while Trump was beating Clinton by 20. Bullock is a rural populist in a party of technocrats. Obama lost Montana by 2 points in 2008. Bill Clinton won Montana in 1992.
But, the electoral failure of Democrats is worse than its showing in these below-median income white counties. The following graphically illustrates the abject failure of Democrats to be competitive in political contests at all levels:
Nothing that Barack Obama did by holding on to the White House for that entire period compensates for these terrible losses.
Democrats remain divided about their Party strategy, many clinging to the thought that if Hillary could have turned about 80k voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where white working-class people are abundant, she would be president.
But she would not control either legislative branch, and she would have had to propose Supreme Court Justices similar to Neil Gorsuch to get one confirmed by the Senate.
The question is where will the DNC be taking the Party in 2018? In a 2018 mid-term election where the president has a historically poor approval rating with independents and Democrats, like Trump has now, victory is possible.
If Democrats want to win back Congress, and the White House in 2020, they need to field candidates who believe in jobs and economic growth first. The candidates need to be authentic people, who listen more than they talk. And when they do speak, they should use PIE as a metaphor for Americaâs economy, as in: (H/T Seth Godin)
How big is the pie?
Is the pie growing?
What will my share of the pie be tomorrow?
Who allocates the slices of pie? Can they be trusted?
When voters think the economy isnât growing, things begin to feel zero-sum. People begin to think that they may permanently lose their place in our society.
If the Democrats want to win back Congress, they need to describe concretely what they plan to do when they say they support their working-class constituents, regardless of color.
They need to get to be better than Trump on jobs, economic growth and finding a peace dividend.
All of that, and Medicare for all. In Wrongoâs Thursday column, Gallup found that health care concerns ranked highest across all income cohorts.
Shouldnât these principles be credible with working-class peopleâincluding whites?
A song about pie: Here is DâAngelo with âDevilâs Pieâ from 1998. Itâs a dystopian vision of capitalism, where everybodyâs fighting for more of the tasty, materialistic dish. All is fair in pursuit of a bigger paycheck:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Takeaway Lyric:
Fuck the slice we want the pie
Why ask why till we fry
Watch us all stand in line
For a slice of the devil’s pie
White-Faced (Capuchin) Monkey, Costa Rica, 2015 â photo by Wrongo
The American economy has never been very kind to people at the lower income levels. In most ways, since 2008âs Great Recession, the economy has become riskier, and more tension-filled for lower income Americans, those making $30,000 or less per year. Nothing makes this clearer than this Gallup poll conducted March 1-5, 2017. Gallup surveyed 1,018 adults in all 50 US states. From Gallup:
Over the past two years, an average of 67% of lower-income US adults, up from 51% from 2010-2011, have worried “a great deal” about the problem of hunger and homelessness in the country.
More from Gallup:
Concern about hunger and homelessness now ranks as high as, or higher than, concern about most other issues tested in Gallup’s annual Environment survey. The only issue with a significantly higher “worried a great deal” percentage in this year’s poll is the availability and affordability of healthcare, at 57%.
Peopleâs perspectives are based on their experience, so it shouldnât be surprising that Gallup found that people making more than $75k/year had other concerns, and ranked hunger and homelessness much lower, at 37%. Still, even that number is up substantially from 23% in 2001.
The survey asks participants to rank their concern about 13 elements, and the differences between the concerns of the $30k or less cohort and the $75k or more cohort are stark.
Americans making $30k and less rank their top seven worries in this order:
Hunger/homelessness
Crime/violence
Healthcare
Drug use
Terrorism
Social Security
Economy
Americans making $75k or more ranked their top seven in this order:
Healthcare
Budget deficit
Economy
Social Security
Environment
Race relations
Hunger/homelessness
One reality is that the lower income Americans list âterrorismâ in their top five, while it does not appear at all as a top worry of higher income Americans. Lower-income Americans worry more in general than those with higher incomes; everything is riskier and tougher for them. But nothing compares to the worries about hunger and homelessness. Gallup:
On average, across the 13 issues, the percentage of lower-income adults who worry a great deal is seven percentage points higher than among middle-income Americans, and 17 points higher than among upper-income Americans.
Here is Gallupâs chart showing the relative degree of âworryâ by economic group:
No surprise that more money brings one fewer big worries. No individual worry of the $75k+ cohort was felt by as many people as the seventh-ranking worry by the $30k or less cohort.
In fact, the greater than $75k cohort sees the âbudget deficitâ as its second-most worried about item. Of course, this dooms any chance for the people making less than $30k to have greater security in life. Congratulations to Pete Peterson and the GOP deficit hawks on a job well done! Their decades of propaganda have made austerity a political obsession for the well-off, because government must tighten its belt, and cut its way to greatness.
Paging Dr. Maslow! Your theory of the hierarchy of needs is again demonstrated in the real world by Gallup. Here it is 2017, near the twilight of the empire. Physiological and safety needs are in the top five of the major worries of a population that is hanging on to our society by their fingernails.
Tighten your belts. Lower your dreams. Ignore the fact WE live in 10,000 sq. ft. mansions. We deserve it, and you donât.
The American dream is a fallacy. Free markets are a fallacy. They are propaganda used to fool those poor Americans who live every day in all-too visible peonage.
Here is a 2005 tune by Coldplay, âFix Youâ from their album âX&Yâ. It gives a few words of empathy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skUJ-B6oVDQ
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Takeaway Lyric:
When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
(Street art, Panama City Panama, 2015 â photo by Wrongo)
A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation is an eye opener. The 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation Medicaid Budget Survey asked states to report the share of all births in the state that were financed by Medicaid in the most recent 12 month period for which state data were available.
The results are staggering. Half of the states in the country reported that 50% or more of births were financed by Medicaid, with New Mexico reporting the highest number of births financed by Medicaid, 72% in 2015. New Hampshire was the lowest at 27%. Eight states said that 60% or more of births were financed by Medicaid, while in another eight states, Medicaid had financed between 27% and 37% of the births. These figures show how important and widespread Medicaid is and what it means to people from low-income families. For those who are not on a Medicaid plan, they may want to see here about how to do that, so that they can make sure their health and wellbeing is taken care of.
Kaiser provided no analysis for their survey, and an interesting question to answer would be the demographics of Medicaid-financed births. Kaiser did include this map showing percentage of births financed by Medicaid:
(Source: Kaiser Family Foundation)
The map shows us the states which would have been hurt the most by the proposed cuts in Medicaid that the GOP tried to enact in the failed Trumpcare bill. Of the 14 states with more than 54% of births financed, only New Mexico and Nevada voted for Hillary in 2016.
So, Trump and the GOP will have plenty of explaining to do if Medicare is cut deeply on their watch, since these are many of the states that helped elect Trump, and put both houses of Congress in Republican hands.
One question is, what will be different if the government cuts Medicaid? We have an indication from Texas. The state cut off money to Planned Parenthood clinics in 2013, and that led to thousands of women failing to get birth control. Medicaid pregnancies subsequently increased by 27%, according to a research paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine last year.
The time for an economic reset in America is long overdue. Conservatives will blame the poor, or Obamacare, or both for the surprising data on government-financed births. Liberals will say it is a failure of the social contract. But, when 50% of births occur to people who can’t afford them, it is clear that our economic system needs fixing.
OTOH, it is good thing that we encourage pre-natal care for all, which gives these babies a better start in life.
Our unequal economy rolls along unchanged, because the comparatively well off middle and professional classes keep electing politicians that defend the current system against the 50% who are America’s working poor. Creating a war between the have some’s and the have little’s has worked throughout history.
This is the new America. Many in the former middle class are living on the edge of poverty, and we know it. Is inequality changing America? You bet.
It is incumbent on both parties to deal with Medicaid-financed births.
Time for a tune. Here is Madonna with “Papa, Don’t Preach“, released in 1986. At the time, the song caused discussions about its content, with women’s groups and those in the family planning field criticizing Madonna for encouraging teenage pregnancy, while anti-abortion groups saw the song as having a pro-life message. Decide for yourself. Here is “Papa Don’t Preach“:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Takeaway Lyric:
Papa I know you’re going to be upset
‘Cause I was always your little girl
But you should know by now
I’m not a baby
The one you warned me all about
The one you said I could do without
We’re in an awful mess
And I don’t mean maybe, please
Papa don’t preach I’m in trouble deep
Papa don’t preach, I’ve been losing sleep
But I made up my mind, I’m keeping my baby,
I’m gonna keep my baby
(Annaâs hummingbird with bees, California, 2016 – photo by Toshiyasu Morita)
The White House faces a yuuge pothole in the road to having even a marginally successful first 100 days.
Republicans need to pass a new Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government, and the current CR expires on April 28. A CR is a form of appropriations law that keeps the federal government operating. The expiring CR was passed last December, effectively kicking the can down the road to the new administration. The idea was that there would be a GOP Congress and a Republican president for the first time since 2006, and they would work together to get things done.
But, as with the failed Trumpcare legislation, House Republicans are still divided, and Democrats will sit on the sidelines and watch the GOPâs efforts to achieve consensus. Republicans are staring at the twin issues that have led them to threaten government-shutdowns in the past, the funding of Planned Parenthood (PP) and the continuing funding of Obamacare. The GOP has not solved either through separate legislation since getting control of the government, so those issues will certainly come up.
Several Freedom Caucus and other Republican conservatives have pledged never to vote for an appropriations measure that allows federal funds to go to PP (they are for the “freedom” to fund middle-aged guys taking Viagra, but not to fund PP).
NY Magazine reports that thereâs even a possibility that hard-core conservatives could renew the effort they made in 2013 to block appropriations necessary for the administration of Obamacare, now that it will be around for a while.
Congressional rules will require that this appropriations bill be treated as regular legislation. So NY Mag says:
…the odds are pretty good anything other than a straight extension of the earlier continuing resolution will attract a Democratic filibuster, and produce the kind of gridlock that could shut down the federal government for at least a while.
If that’s the only option, [a clean CR] I will not vote for a CR no matter what the consequences because passing a CR destroys the ability of the military to defend this nation, and it puts the lives of the men and women in the military at risk…
With several Senators likely to go along with Johnny Volcano, it will be even harder to get a bill that makes it past a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.
Given the GOPâs control of the White House and both houses of Congress, Republicans would almost certainly be blamed for any government shutdown on their watch. That means that Democrats are highly likely to deny Paul Ryan any Dem votes in the House for anything other than a clean CR.
To help them both wake up and get on the same page about the nationâs business, here is John Lee Hookerâs âI Need Some Moneyâ written in 1960. Today we listen to it performed by The Beatles in a January 1962 demo recording with Pete Best playing drums. The Beatles called it: âMoney (Thatâs What I Want)â. They were auditioning for Decca records, and did 15 songs, all but three of which were covers. After the audition, Decca Records rejected The Beatles. Here is âMoney, Thatâs What I Wantâ:
Takeaway Lyric:
Money don’t get ever âthing it’s true
But what it don’t buy, daddy, I can’t use
I need money, I need money, yeah
Thatâs what I want
Those who view the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
(Wildflowers near Lake Elsinore CA March 2017 â photo by Lucy Nicholson)
The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away, and we had an excellent example this week. From the NYT:
More than 550,000 people have signed up for a federal program that promises to repay their remaining student loans after they work 10 years in a public service job. But now, some of those workers are left to wonder if the government will hold up its end of the bargain â or leave them stuck with thousands of dollars in debt that they thought would be eliminated.
The Department of Education has said in a legal filing that borrowers could not rely on the programâs administrator to say accurately whether they qualify for debt forgiveness. The thousands of approval letters that have been sent by the administrator, FedLoan Servicing, are not binding, and can be rescinded at any time.
The debt forgiveness program covers people with federal student loans who work for 10 years at a government or nonprofit, a group that includes public school employees, museum workers, doctors at public hospitals and firefighters. The federal government approved the program in 2007. And along with this bad news, there is no transparency: When the NYT contacted FedLoan, a spokesman referred questions to the Department of Education, who declined to comment on the suit, or on any of the issues it raised, including whether any mechanism exists for borrowers to challenge a denial.
Loopholes. America loves loopholes. We arenât a nation of laws, weâre a nation of loopholes.
If all of this wasnât enough wrong for you this week, Devin Nunes and the White House played âIâve got a secretâ with the House Intelligence Committee and the American people. That brought the usual grandstanding from Republicans, but nothing can top what Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) who unintentionally told the truth while defending Nunes on MSNBC:
You gotta keep in mind who he works for…He works for the president. He answers to the president.
Soon, a Yoho spokesperson was walking that back. Yoho, Yoho, and itâs back to school he goes. To learn a bit more about who Congress critters work for.
I know, these two stories sound like April foolâs day fibs, but sadly, both are true.
You need a break, so Wrongo suggests a hot mug of Tanzania Peaberry coffee. Put your feet up and brush off the weekâs trail dust. Letâs relax with Mozartâs Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major. He wrote this in 1775. He was only 19 at the time, but was already the Konzertmeister at the Salzburg court. Here is Hillary Hahn with the best 23 minutes of your Saturday:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
(Stranded bull shark found after flooding from Cyclone Debbie in Australia â photo from Reuters)
In an interview with “CBS This Morning” House Speaker Paul Ryan says he doesnât want to negotiate with Democrats on health care. Ryan, speaking to co-host Norah OâDonnell:
I donât want that to happen. You know why? I want a patient-centered system, I donât want government running health care…The government shouldnât tell you what you must do with your life, with your health care. We should give people choices.
Ryan centers his defense of the failed Trumpcare bill on the notion of individual freedom. He said he fears that Trump might move to work with Democrats so that he can make good on campaign promises to redo Obamacare, and âthatâs not, thatâs hardly a conservative thing.â
Ryanâs idea of freedom for the American people is the right to choose whether to have health insurance or not, and if they choose health insurance, to be free to choose expensive or cheap insurance.
But he sees life as a monetary transaction. In this appearance on Face The Nation March 12, 2017: (hat tip Ed Walker)
DICKERSON: How many people are going to lose coverage under this new â
RYAN: I canât answer that question. Itâs up to people. Here â hereâs the premise of your question. Are you going to stop mandating people buy health insurance? People are going to do what they want to do with their lives because we believe in individual freedom in this country. So the question is, are we providing a system where people have access to health insurance if they choose to do so…Weâre not going to make an American do what they donât want to do. You get it if you want it. Thatâs freedom.
Ryanâs freedom will get rid of the Essential Health Benefits that are mandated under the ACA in his Trumpcare bill. The Essentials set the minimum coverage for any policy offered on the exchanges. They include lab tests, drugs, maternity care, treatment for substance abuse and mental illness, and others.
If insurance companies can issue policies that donât cover these mandated benefits, policies will be cheaper. That will increase the number of people with policies that wonât cover treatment they suddenly need.
So when Ryan says âfreedomâ he means: You have the freedom to give money to an insurance company to buy any policy you can afford; you can shop around for a policy that may or may not provide the coverage you eventually need; or you can take the risk of bankruptcy and/or denial of health care when you get sick.
But, in Ryanworld, individual freedom to choose doesnât extend to abortion, despite it being the law of the land.
Ryan assumes that if the government were involved, it couldnât negotiate better drug prices. He assumes government wouldnât regulate against the predatory excesses of health insurers, health care providers, and drug companies. Government involvement does violence to his Randian wish for a perfect and omniscient free market. He assumes that people with limited resources would choose to forego rent, food, or education to buy inadequate health insurance.
Letâs give Paul Ryan the benefit of the doubt: Say he knows that this is horseshit, but he needs to legislate. The alternative is that he is the worst kind of ideologue.
Conservatives spill the word âsocialismâ like beer at a frat party. They think it coats everything and makes everything smell, at least politically.
Itâs hard to believe that the GOP has a true notion of what socialism is, or how it works.
Itâs all around us, and Republicans are expert practitioners. Their negative talk about socialism is another example of their constant projection onto Democrats and progressives. Is it socialism when Ivy League admissions favor the rich? Or when the rich help other rich people get into the country club? Or when they all appoint the same people to corporate boards?
They despise it when the rest of us use collective action; when voters get their government to combat anti-labor and anti-monopoly practices, when voters work together for better schools, safer foods, clean water and safe working conditions.
Thatâs bad socialism, not the good socialism practiced in Bostonâs Back Bay or on NYCâs Upper East Side.
Itâs good socialism when companies work together in the US Chamber of Commerce, share information, and spend millions influencing government to increase their bottom lines.
Its bad socialism when people fight for practical affordable access to health insurance.
Paul Ryanâs vision of freedom has a lot in common with Kris Kristoffersonâs âMe and Bobby McGee“:
Take away lyric:
Freedomâs just another word for nothinâ left to lose,
Nothinâ ainât worth nothinâ but itâs free.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
(Many Glacier, Glacier National Park, August 2016 â photo by Wrongo)
Whatâs next for the White House? Many are saying that the collapse of the Republicansâ failed effort to pass Trumpcare demonstrated that the ideological cleavage within the House and Senate Republicans will not be easy to overcome. This could make it more difficult for Trump to get much of his agenda passed in the immediate future.
Trump wants to move on many things, including tax reform and passing a budget, but the biggest challenge facing Republicans is the Debt Ceiling. The clock started ticking on the need to raise the debt limit, because it already expired on March 15th. That was a âsoftâ deadline, since the Treasury department can fire up a well-used arsenal of âextraordinaryâ measures to delay a reckoning, meaning that Congress can take until the early fall to enact a debt ceiling increase.
More time may not mean that a solution will be forthcoming, since the main adversaries to increasing the debt ceiling are the same people who helped derail Trumpcare. The House Freedom Caucus and their allies in the Senate have in the past, expressed a willingness to let the country default, rather than increase the level of the Treasuryâs debt.
Since they were able to face down Trump on health care, they may well be emboldened to stand up to the president and Congressional leadership again on an issue that is so close to their hard hearts.
If America were to default on its debts, Trump would be presiding over the Bananaization of our Republic, and our ability to lead in the world would be eclipsed. Wrongo plans to write more about this in the future, but it will take real management by Trump to head this off, at a time that his management skills have been called into question.
So far, he has shown himself to be little more than a salesman for his ideas.
The famed management guru Peter Drucker, who wrote about management for corporations, non-profits and governments, at one point wrote management rules for presidents, in a 1993 article for the WSJ:
It’s hard to imagine a more diverse group than Bill Clinton’s predecessors in the American presidency — in abilities, personalities, values, styles and achievements. But even the weakest of them had considerable effectiveness as long as they observed six management rules. And even the most powerful lost effectiveness as soon as they violated these rules.
Wrongo has condensed Druckerâs management rules for presidents for your convenience:
What Needs to be Done? Is the first thing the President must ask. He must not stubbornly do what he wants to do, even if it was the focus of his campaign
Concentrate, Donât Splinter Yourself. There usually are half a dozen right answers to “What needs to be done?” Yet unless a president makes the risky and controversial choice of only one, he will achieve nothing.
Donât Bet on a Sure Thing…Roosevelt had every reason to believe that his plan to âpackâ the Supreme CourtâŚwould be a sure thing. It immediately blew up in is face â so much so that he never regained control of Congress
An Effective President Does Not MicromanageâŚthe tasks that a President must do himself are already well beyond what any but the best organized and most energetic person can possibly accomplish
A President Has No Friends in the AdministrationâŚthey are always tempted to abuse their position as a friend and the power that comes with it
Just how many of these rules does Trump follow, and how many does he violate? Discuss.
Perhaps if he followed all of them, the country would avoid Trumageddon, be less divided, and get a middle of the road agenda enacted.
So hereâs a wake-up call for Donald Trump and his advisors: FOCUS!! To help them wake up and get focused, here is the Canadian group Bachman Turner Overdrive with their big hit (#12 in the US) from 1973, âTakinâ Care of Businessâ:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdf04jVOHmM
Wrongo used to take the 8:15 in to the city. Working from home is a major improvement.
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Sample Lyrics:
And I’ll be taking care of business (every day)
Taking care of business (every way)
I’ve been taking care of business (it’s all mine)
Taking care of business and working overtime, work out
