Prickly City by Scott Stantis for July 11, 2020

Not voting is a vote for Trump.

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Tonight, all Trump Disciples are celebrating Roger Stone, another member of their Crime Family, being sprung.

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And, of course, The Disciples still claim no collusion.

Better make that January, Carmen.

Don’t know what to say.

Trump has corrupted the entire world.

I started listening to overseas news services, wanting to get away from “all Trump all the time,” but alas, overseas, too, all they talk about is Trump.

But at least they have perspective. Most countries have had bouts with nationalists and populists. All of them were ugly. Many of them required intervention by other countries to divest them of their nationalists and populists.

Germany, I’m looking at you.

But now, Germany is looking at us.

They honestly don’t know what to feel: Pity or outrage.

The leader of the free world no longer seems interested in leading – or in freedom.

Our Congress now acts a lot like the old Supreme Soviet, a rubber stamp for whatever comes out of the Kremlin on Pennsylvania Avenue. Nancy and Chuck are powerless to stop the tanks that Trump regularly rolls over Congress these days.

I know there are many I could name who are ready to pounce on these comments, calling me a “hater” or a “hater of America,” or worse.

I don’t hate anyone.

All I want to do is cry.

Cry for the country that I spent 22 years in the military to defend, and another 14 years in TSA, trying to keep travelers safe.

I’ve worked for the government most of my adult life. Good people, all of them. But tagged by the Reaganites on forward as the “real” problem of this country.

But I never believed that government could be the real problem in this country.

Until Trump.

I voted a straight Republican ticket ever since 1966 until Trump came along. I voted for Johnson last time, but he never had a chance. I have never known anybody with less respect for our intelligence than Donald Trump. I think I’ll have to vote for Biden this time. If Hillary was running, I couldn’t do it.

Which is, effectively, a vote for Trump.

The majority of my friends on Wall Street would like to see Trump lose to Biden,” one very senior investment banker tells me. “They’re saying, ‘We’d like to see Biden crush Trump.’”

And that is without knowing exactly what Biden and the 117th Congress—to be elected on November 3—will do about such important economic topics such as the corporate tax rate, the capital gains tax rate, or taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

The consensus on Wall Street seems to be that a Biden presidency will mean an overhaul of the Trump 2018 tax law.

That means higher tax rates for the very wealthy, for corporations—likely an increase in the tax rate to 28%, from 21%—and on capital gains.

At a virtual fundraiser on June 29 with Wall Street types, Biden said he’ll likely roll back much of Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut “and a lot of you may not like that.”

Interestingly, in my conversations with Wall Street executives, bankers and traders, higher taxes seems to be a small price to pay to be rid of Donald Trump.

“Wall Street’s not this amorphous, unified blob,” the senior Wall Street banker continues, “but the majority of people I talk to on Wall Street think it’s worth taking the hit to get Trump out of office.

They view him as an existential threat.”

Robert Wolf, the former head of UBS in the Americas who now has his own advisory and investment firm, 32 Advisors, concurs.

Wolf, who was once described as Barack Obama’s favorite investment banker, says Wall Street understands the numbers: the multi-trillion-dollar annual federal budget deficits and a national debt at $24 trillion. “The numbers don’t lie,” Wolf says.

✁

He says Wall Street, while not monolithic in its voting patterns, looks “at the volatility and the lies that come out of this White House, and my gut tells me that they’re exhausted from it.

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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/beating-trump-more-important-than-money-for-some-on-wall-street

No honor among thieves?

Or Rats eating each other on the way off a sinking ship?

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The fight is on for republican candidates for the open U.S. Senate seat in Kansas. Two of the major players are Kris Kobach and current U.S. Representative Roger Marshall.

President Trump has been a fan of Kobach since his run for Kansas governor in 2018. But the president may be changing his mind about the conservative candidate.

The New York Times reported that President Trump asked the political action committee (PAC), The Club for Growth, to stop running ads targeting Marshall. Kobach said he didn’t know if the reporting by the Times was true.

“The Club for Growth has been opposed to Roger Marshall for many years, not just in this election cycle but in previous cycles,” said Kobach.

In a statement, The Club for Growth PAC said they stopped anti-Marshall ads on June 26. They continued:

“We continue to believe Rep. Marshall is not a strong pro-growth candidate. But the Club for Growth PAC is not endorsing in this race and Club for Growth Action will be deploying resources in other critical House and Senate primaries.”

Kobach was the republican candidate for governor in 2018, losing the seat to current Kansas governor, democrat Laura Kelly. Political analyst Dr. Bob Beatty said this may be a possible reason why the President is trying to get Kobach out.

“Many people in Washington D.C. and the Republican Party don’t want to see him win the primary, because they fear he’ll lose again and then they may lose the U.S. Senate,” explained Dr. Beatty.

Beatty added there is speculation that more republicans are supporting Marshall, because they believe he is more likely to win the Senate seat.

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https://www.ksn.com/news/capitol-bureau/kobach-target-of-white-nationalist-senate-ads/

November 2020; The start of the “Trump 2024 Campaign”.

So what have we learned over the course of the week? Carmen MIGHT vote for Biden. She’s not happy about it, but she MIGHT do it. And I suspect she ultimately will (even if she’s never happy about it).

This arc is over for the week, but I strongly doubt it’s over for the long run. Carmen is not one to hide under a rock (literally or figuratively) for long.

We’ve covered this, no hiding.

https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1281659718834978816

https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1281916436890386433

Don’t worry, Carmen. He’s been the best president Russian Money can buy. Why, he might even consider placing a bounty on opposition voters. Wouldn’t that be nice? /s

We need all of the trump disciples to crawl back under their rocks.

Feels like we’re pivoting back to the “both sides have their problems, which we will pretend are equal, so if any of this distresses you, just don’t vote” line that the Gops love to see.

On a lighter note, Carmen looks like Marvin the Martian.

Hide, instead of voting, and the bad guys win.

Politics today are not that screwed up, Alexander Hamilton died on this date in 1804 in a duel with then vice president Aaron Burr.