Sure wish I could be at Mar-a-Largo. |
The S&P (Standard and Poors) and Dow Jones are nose diving this Christmas Eve. This is the worst drop since the Great Depression.
The federal government is shut down. Donald J. Trump and Congress are at a crossroads. The imbecile wants $5 billion added to the latest continuing budget resolution and demands it be used for funding a border wall.
Democrats keep reminding Trump that he can convince Mitch McConnell, outgoing Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy and others to push forth a law or rule change. They kindly remind the public that Trump promised the Mexican government will pay for the border wall not the tax payers.
Democrats are daring Republicans to reduce votes to a 51-49 majority.
Democrats won't relinquish any votes to funding the border wall.
Outgoing Democratic and Republican senators won't support Trump. House Republicans defeated in the Midterms won't support Trump.
The Republicans are fuming that Trump listened to far right lunatics like the ones in the Freedom Caucus and the conservative agitators on television and radio.
McConnell and Ryan are pretty much backed into a corner.
The Republicans have control of the House, the Senate, the White House and state governorship. At least until January, Republicans dominate everything.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin days appear to be numbered. He rattled the markets today by calling upon the six leading bank CEOs to demand them open up credit to Americans. He was calling from Mexico while on his vacation with wife, Louise Litton.
Mnuchin's call to the bankers was a huge disaster. Markets have tanked even further.
Jerome Powell's days as the Federal Reserve Chairman are numbered too. Trump has regularly bashed the chairman for considering interest rates hikes.
He appointed Powell this year after firing Janet Yellen, a Barack Obama appointee that the markets seemed satisfied with. Firing Yellen was one of the key factors to why the economy is falling apart.
The remarks Trump made on social media made things worse.
He threatened to fire Powell out the cannon. Doing that could cause a shockwave that could spiral our economy into turmoil.
Americans are not satisfied with their jobs. That's a problem. Usually if people are satisfied with their jobs they would spend more on products. This holiday season will determine if we're entering a recession.
With the demise of name brands and iconic brands, Americans are seeing the potential of another recession to hurt their bottom line.
The American Jobs and Tax Cuts Act hasn't seen much improvement to the economy. The Republicans managed to pass the law without even reading the damn thing.
The Republicans slipped in the repeal of the insurance mandate, rollback enrollment to the Affordable Care Act and forced it federal court to strike portions of the law down.
Now the health care market is tumbling as well.
No plan on how to fix health care.
Trump signed off an executive order forcing able bodied Americans (without children or dependents) must find work or lose benefits to housing, food stamps and farm aid. Just after Congress passed a law requiring food stamps and subsidies stay in place.
Now Americans laid off from General Motors, the brick and mortar stores and the government can't qualify for food stamps to feed themselves or families.
By the way, Trump has decided to end Jim Mattis tenure on December 31st. Trump was upset that his Defense Secretary had a disagreement on withdrawal from Syria. So instead of letting him go in February, he fired him out the cannon and told him to exit the Pentagon by the end of the month.
Brett McGurk resigned (I meant fired).
McGurk, the State Department's special envoy to global terrorism has left in protest of Mattis being fired out the cannon. He also cites the imbecile's sympathy towards Russia, Turkey, the Philippines and North Korea's brutal governments.
Now Trump has become a product of his environment.
He failed to listen to Barack Obama's advice on how to deal with an opposition. He failed to listen to the advisers. He is taking advice from television and constantly using social media.
He has not kept his promise to stay off the golf course. He has said that he will make Americans lives so much better.
He said that he knows at lot of things.
Apparently not.
Okay, folks. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa.
I will start preparing for the Yearly Wrap Up.