tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post6162058025193235671..comments2024-03-28T10:07:24.955-04:00Comments on Northern Reflections: Today It Becomes OfficialOwen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-74928546541212010262016-12-21T13:02:31.215-05:002016-12-21T13:02:31.215-05:00Trump knows how to play people for suckers, ffd. W...Trump knows how to play people for suckers, ffd. We'll see how long that lasts. Up until now, he's pulled a lot of wool over a lot of eyes.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-90805019648209098772016-12-21T10:35:10.568-05:002016-12-21T10:35:10.568-05:00Trump is as dumb as a sack of hammers but don'...Trump is as dumb as a sack of hammers but don't underestimate his capacity to manipulate those around him, play mind games and turn people against each other. That is his forte. The abilities of narcissists to do this can be nearly uncanny and he is a textbook narcissist. There is a narcissist survivor movement going on, started by people unfortunate enough to have narcissists as parents and they know more about the daily functioning of narcissists than most mental health professionals.ffdnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-78792148989900743562016-12-21T08:27:16.898-05:002016-12-21T08:27:16.898-05:00Not only does he have a short attention span, TB, ...Not only does he have a short attention span, TB, but he's also appallingly ignorant of the U.S. Constitution. Those to deficits are bound to get him in deep trouble.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-22831879608625468452016-12-21T00:25:27.034-05:002016-12-21T00:25:27.034-05:00@ Owen
A man like Trump -- who has a very short a...@ Owen<br /><br />A man like Trump -- who has a very short attention span .<br /><br />Trump is likely to try and run the Government as a business.<br />We all know it does not work that way.<br />How much damage will be done before he is called to task is anyone's guess.<br />I doubt he will fulfill his first term.<br /><br />TBAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-49349046450325927002016-12-21T00:20:01.499-05:002016-12-21T00:20:01.499-05:00About three years ago Glenn Beck broadcasting from...About three years ago Glenn Beck broadcasting from Seattle said .<br />Who will throw the first stone!! in a broadcast that was obviously meant to inflame tensions between the right and left wing politics of the USA.<br />In short Beck was provoking an insurrection within the USA.<br /><br />Now Beck calls out Steve Bannon for being too extreme?<br /><br />The world is in deep do do folks..<br /><br />TB<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-46242675273111916422016-12-19T19:08:03.936-05:002016-12-19T19:08:03.936-05:00A man like Trump -- who has a very short attention...A man like Trump -- who has a very short attention span -- has a tough time with complexity. And that's what he'll face, Dana -- complex problems. Things do not bode well.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-78397863184893915462016-12-19T18:27:26.923-05:002016-12-19T18:27:26.923-05:00OK, you're naive.
They've been aware tha...OK, you're naive. <br /><br />They've been aware that they were the problem for a long time now. You can't possibly think being in a cabinet composed entirely of billionaires who all got that way by gaming, manipulating and corrupting the system is going to bring about a change of heart or a sudden conversion to democratic altruism. <br /><br />Wait for Putin to hold off retaliating against Turkey until after the inauguration and Trump to violate article 5 of the NATO treaty. Then we'll see what has been wrought. Danahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12465953801145126160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-89101043312430796512016-12-19T15:37:51.087-05:002016-12-19T15:37:51.087-05:00I'm sure they think they know how to fix the p...I'm sure they think they know how to fix the problem, Steve. But all indications are that they don't understand the problem.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-7204779281394024412016-12-19T14:54:48.891-05:002016-12-19T14:54:48.891-05:00Owen, the convential wisdom is that its going to b...Owen, the convential wisdom is that its going to be a Harding shit show. I really think and call me niave these guys want to fix America and know they are the problem.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14162783936999869984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-78412501890137639942016-12-19T11:07:04.547-05:002016-12-19T11:07:04.547-05:00Your post was excellent, Mound. The evidence is in...Your post was excellent, Mound. The evidence is incontrovertible. As Santayana said, "Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it." Phillips is a rare Republican. He's learned from history.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-90635209084179285342016-12-19T11:01:36.031-05:002016-12-19T11:01:36.031-05:00"Those whom the gods would destroy they first..."Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad."<br /><br />What we have now is a "unified" Republican government. The Republicans hold the House, the Senate, and the White House (with the Supreme Court thrown in for good measure).<br /><br />Yesterday I put up a post on three previous times this has happened and what befell America - the Panic of 1907, the Great Depression, and the global meltdown of 2007-2008. Add to this one period in which the GOP held extended control of the House and that ended with the Dot.Com bubble and collapse.<br /><br />In short, it's a 4-0 record, a century-long romp through the annals of fiscal madness and ruin. The difference is this time we have an executive branch that is mad as a hatter, stuffed to the gunwales with conspiracy theory lunatics, thugs, reprobates and a president with very deep seated psychological maladies.<br /><br />In his excellent 2005 book, "American Theocracy," patrician Republican stalwart, Kevin Phillips, explored how every dominant economy/empire of the last three centuries had risen and fallen. He showed how they had started as agricultural societies that progressed to industrial/manufacturing powerhouses which led them to expand abroad in search of new markets and more trade. <br /><br />Then, at the zenith of their power, each chose to abandon their core economy, manufacturing, in search of even more lucrative returns offered by a financialized economy, a FIRE (finance/insurance/real estate) economy. They each decided to offshore their manufacturing base. In the process each dominant economy/empire unwittingly used its wealth to grow its successor's economy.<br /><br />For a number of years the "rentier" economy flourished generating great wealth for an elite segment but then seismic economic events happened, as they always do from time to time. Phillips shows that a manufacturing economy is by far the more resilient to recessions and recovers the most quickly and fully. FIRE economies, by contrast, and less resilient, slower to recover and rarely do they recover fully. The Achilles' Heel, however, is that FIRE economies soon weaken to the point that they're unable to recover adequately and then the transition to a new dominant economy/empire occurs. Unfortunately it's not always a peaceful transition.<br /><br />Look at the events that have occurred since America shifted to a FIRE economy - the Savings & Loan bubble, the Enron/WorldCom crisis, the Dot.Com bubble, the calamitous Housing Bubble. Each has delivered a body blow sapping America's economic resilience.<br /><br />And now we have the servants of what James Galbraith calls the "looter class" in control of the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of government. The "checks and balances" are of no moment.<br /><br />Using the past four incidents I mentioned earlier and applying Kevin Phillips' model, we may have arrived at the junction of America's irreversible decline when it, of its own volition, topples from the throne. It's been a while coming.<br /><br />The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.com