THE WICKED FLEE WHEN NO WOMAN PURSUETH

Meryl Streep, in her Golden Globes speech, made not a single mention of Donald Trump's name, used no personal attack, but only called attention to a type of activity that she disapproved of.  Donald immediately took offense, treating it as  personal attack since by describing the activity without ascribing it to anyone, he knew that he owned it.

Of course, the video evidence notwithstanding, Donald denied ever having  bullied anyone or mocked the disability of a reporter. 

GUEST POST

New post on The Octogenarians

Countdown by daedal2207 On reading a throwaway segment of the LA times I found that many people have been overtaken by a form of psychic paralysis in anticipation of the Trump inauguration.I was not alone.The advice given was to realize the transience of the process and to concentrate on accomplishing things bit by bit, planning ahead for a diffferent day but resuming the necessary functioning 0f a day to day existence.The percussive aspect of the piano was available to me but the fiddle demanded  inner peace.This blog required something to respond to.I found it in my resumption of my retirement review of material from The Great Courses.The technology has altered but my old equipment groans and shudders but works.A review of economics produced the familiar lack of economic motivation beyond survival until the 13th-16th centuries.With this time period and the permissibility of the accumulation of wealth came mercantilism and the importance of gold currency to the nation state.The decline of the importance of a universal church with its stranglehold on wealth and military power was the result of the great trading companies and the production of wealth from trading(mostly export} but necessarily the development of trading blocs backed by military power.A surprising warning from the past came too by courtesy of John Maynard Keynes.To paraphrase' Do not trust the businessman who claims to be a politician.He cannot see beyond the trade and his true concern is for personal or group profit.He may pretend to support the nation state but in reality he does not.' On to the next economic period in my reading for survival! daedal2207 | January 9, 2017 at 9:04 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p4Gt4f-xc

ALL THE TRICKS OF THE TRADE

One of the ploys, used by Donald Trump, to convince his supporters, to vote for him, was that, because he was, himself, guilty of gaming the system, he would be the ideal person to be able to use his skills to benefit his supporters. 

One of his skills has been to use other people's money to build things to his benefit and then to manipulate circumstances so as to avoid paying for them either partially or in full.  That is why it seemed perfectly feasible, to some, that he could build a multi-billion dollar wall, which could accrue to the benefit of America, without having to pay for it.  Now it appears that the American taxpayer is to advance the funds and Trump will somehow have a 3d party reimburse us by an undisclosed method, just "trust him".

In the past, it has been the people who have advanced the funds, or in some cases,the goods and services, that have been left holding the bag.  Trump has a lot of experience in that sort of a scenario; not so much in paying funds back.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Early in the first term of the Obama Presidency, Republicans began to, derisively, refer to the Affordable Care Act, as "Obamacare".  I stated, at the time, in a letter to the editor of the Miami Herald, that they, the Republicans, would come to rue the day they coined the expression. 

When one thinks about it, the ACA is the only sensible compromise as opposed to a single payer system, and was devised by the Republicans, as such, and to repeal it is opposed by organizations, nominally part of the Republican constituency, such as the AMA and the Health Insurance industry, it may be that the greatest, single problem Republicans have is how to get people to stop calling it "Obamacare".  They may be wanting to repeal it so they can bring it back under a different name, without the Public just keeping the old label.

PRECIDENTIAL AMNESIA

The election of the next Democratic President will immediately bring on an epidemic which will obliterate the memory, of all Trump supporters, of the precedents that the Donald has set.

Cries of righteous indignation will fill the land as Democrats request the immediate resignation of all of Trump's diplomatic appointees; hearings on the nomination of all Cabinet appointees before completion of the vetting process; waiver of requirements for presentation of tax returns, etc.

Only the election of another "Conservative" President will cure them of their situational amnesia.

PUTIN'S PROTEGE

Donald Trump, who has already been the beneficiary of Putin's renowned skills in intervening in the elections of other countries, is due to receive even more largesse from Maestro Putin. Immediately after his inauguration, Trump will be tutored in another of Putin's skills, namely, how to become President-for-Life.

A WIN-WIN SITUATION FOR THE DEMOCRATS?

If one considers the slim margin by which Trump won the key states, which gave him the Electoral College victory, and the fact that a large number of those votes came from people who were of relatively poor circumstances, and who are benefitting, many for the first time in their lives by having medical insurance, through Obamacare, it is possible that the repeal of the ACA, by Republicans,  will be advantageous to the Democrats, if these voters will have  learned their lesson.  If not, perhaps the loss of medical attention will have lowered the number of this voting bloc, still capable of voting at all.