Power and respect for the working class

couple cleaning in stately home

The ongoing turmoil in U.S. politics is part of a larger political crisis that is shattering old alignments of left and right in America and Western Europe. The rebellion takes different forms in different countries—the election of Donald Trump in the U.S., Brexit in the U.K., the revolt of the yellow vests in France. The underlying dynamic is the same: the revolt of alienated white working-class voters against the metropolitan elites, the deep state, and the media… with their political pundits at the tip of the spear.

Now, don’t start your racist non sense, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  This is the new class war. Forget the familiar three-way social diagram, with a big middle class bracketed on either end by a small upper class and small lower or impoverished class.  The new class divide is manifested in striking cleavages along the lines of geography, family relationships and politics.

The class divide is most visible in politics. Between 2010 and 2018, whites with a college degree fell from 40% to 29% of Republican voters; Democrats now win an overwhelming share of the country’s most highly educated counties…. why, one asks?  because this transfer of power permits establishment politicians pressed by all working-class voters … regardless of skin color or religion…. to claim that they can do nothing because their hands are tied by courts and treaties. As a result, casting votes is like putting coins into a broken vending machine. When there is no response, frustrated people tend to kick the machine.

And kick the machine we will. We did it in November 2016, and we will do it again in 288 days.  Sure, there is always talk of the “black vote”, the “Hispanic vote” the ” union vote”… but these traditional voting blocks have a common denominator!  We are all fed up with excuses from the managerial elite, and it’s way past time we held them up for accountability.

 

Johnson Long

 

Un-elected Bureaucrats: Foot-soldiers of the Resistance?

Drain the swamp Trump cartoon

RESIST!  You see it on the bumper stickers of all sorts of cars, you hear and see it on both lamestream media and the Communist News Network.  MSNBC also pays homage to the movement with its entire broadcast schedule.

Beginning in July, Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, sent officials at the White House Office of Management and Budget emails in which she raised concerns about the legality of the hold on nearly $400 million in aid.

Her “concerns” were in direct conflict with the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily hold that foreign aid to Ukraine until they could be sure of Ukraine’s new President Zelensky’s commitment to fight the corruption that was the norm for the last two decades. A good deal of the corruption was tied to Burisma and the Bidens!

The Trump administration’s caution was based on logic and good business practice. McCuskers was one steeped in the tradition of federal employees whose career was based on the protection of the swamp environment!

McCusker’s avalanche of emails reflects the deep tension between Ms. McCusker and OMB. The relationship between Ms. McCusker and OMB slowly deteriorated, as senior officials at the office grew skeptical of her estimates of how much money was at risk of not being spent, according to people familiar with their interactions.  In her emails to OMB, Ms. McCusker raised concerns that the White House was violating the Impoundment Control Act, which requires that the executive branch spend money that has been appropriated by Congress.

Ms. McCusker’s frustrations escalated in early September. After she warned OMB that $120 million might not be able to be spent by the end of the fiscal year because of the hold, Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at OMB, responded with a letter that put the blame on the Defense Department for not doing enough to prepare to spend the funds if they were released!

So the question arises:  Whose interest are you serving Ms. McCusker? The security of America in the middle east, or your thinly veiled hatred of the Trump administration and the business-oriented logic path it follows?

DRAIN THE SWAMP!  TRUMP 2020! USA, USA, USA!!

Johnson Long

 

Why Do Bad Experiences Affect Us Much More Powerfully Than Good Ones?

Trump in front of negative comments

For the New Year, Say No to Negativity but there are ways to deal with this destructive bias and overcome it.

The new year is supposed to bring hope, but too often it feels grim. We resolve to be virtuous—to lose weight, to exercise, to unplug from social media—but we recall past failures and fear another losing struggle. We toast to a better, happier world in 2020, but we know there will be endless bad news and vitriol, especially this election year.

Our minds and lives are skewed by a fundamental imbalance that is just now becoming clear to scientists: the negativity effect. Also known as the negativity bias, it’s the universal tendency for bad events and emotions to affect us more strongly than positive ones. We’re devastated by a word of criticism but unmoved by a shower of praise. We see the hostile face in the crowd and miss all the friendly smiles. We focus so much on bad news, especially in a digital world that magnifies its power, that we don’t realize how much better life is becoming for people around the world.

So, for the Trump haters, the Never Trumpers, and the sad folks who think and feel that the Presidency of the United States of America is a popularity contest… think about the good that President Trump has accomplished in the year 2019…

Johnson Long

Mayor Pete…… not so fast!

Trump Compares Pete Buttigieg to MAD Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman

The Democrat Socialist Party’s…along with the media’s usual crew of sycophants… all hail their new darling … South Bend’s Mayor Pete Buttigieg!!!

His last name is a mouthful, but Mayor Pete would rather have his mouth on his “husband” Chasten Glezman Buttigieg!  Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, said his husband’s campaign is about love.

Continue reading “Mayor Pete…… not so fast!”

Why Stocks Can’t Wait for the Midterms to Be Over

Mature woman reading the financial news

The stock market is likely to struggle between now and the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

And it isn’t because stocks favor one party or the other.

It’s because investors hate uncertainty, and these elections create a healthy dose of just that.

If anything, this year’s election season appears to be creating an above-average amount of uncertainty, given the particularly large number of Republicans who have already announced that they won’t run for re-election—most prominently House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Why are the midterms so significant?

The professors point to an economic-policy created by three finance professors…but seriously, folks…. one does not normally play golf in a thunderstorm!

But what about another piece of traditional wisdom: “Sell in May and go away,” also known as the “Halloween indicator”?

These old saws say that the stock market is far stronger over the six months between Halloween and May Day than it is over the other half of the year.

But, that’s for the poor sod’s whose revenue stream depends heavily on investments!

As for Old Johnson, I’m hanging out my “psychic reading” shingle!

Johnson Long