Welcome Home, Comrade Trump, or should I say “Putin’s fool.”
The GSEs and the “Big Orange Baby” (nothing good connected, just that I write about both in this segment).
The President’s behavior and antics are far more disturbing than the current GSE malaise and that sorry mortgage finance state.
But then I see very little to brighten the hearts of those who believe in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their effectiveness/success as the primary ramparts of the nation’s secondary mortgage market.
Metaphorically speaking, that’s the GSE bus you see in your rearview mirror, smoking, wheezing and “geezing” its way into history. It's being driven to the Treasury/FHFA chop shop where the government will dismantle, ferret out the pieces, and fuse them onto something which they claim can do the job but won’t be able to do so as fairly for consumers (remember them, Republicans?), efficiently, and as cheaply as could be done by making rather small changes to the current Fannie/Freddie model.
Once again (how often will I write this line) the federal courts have embraced the Judge Lamberth decision, shorthand: i.e. “&^#% considering the Fourth Amendment, the federal government can do anything it wants to the GSEs.”
So opines one federal judge after another.
I know!. There still is Delaware and Sweeney, and our friend Tim Howard believes there is hope in the value to the Treasury of their GSE warrants, representing $100 Billion or more to a Trump Administration, which is spilling red ink at record levels and could use a fresh $100 Billion in revenue.
Still, viewing recent developments, non-players are left sputtering, swearing, pointing to the collective eloquence of the plaintiff’s statements and analyses and holding bubkis in our hands!!
In the meantime, the AEI puts together a daylong conference critical of Fannie and Freddie for "charter creep," i.e. trying to serve more families via credit expansions.
As I emailed a media person after the first reports of the AEI conference:
“What I find so unusual is that the AEI doesn't name names. Who is it--besides FHFA and the evil D, Mel Watt--who is boosting these GSE devils?
It's nobody on the Hill, nobody in the media, not the federal judiciary. Is it really only Rob Zimmer and his community/civil rights groups?”
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Welcome Home, Comrade Trump
Nothing I’m writing is unique, hasn’t been said and written, a few hundred/thousand times before, but President Donald Trump had an embarrassingly horrible trip overseas, first with our NATO allies, and then in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin, who remains the thuggish, lying, manipulative, and deceptive leader of—hands down--America’s greatest national enemy, Russia.
We know President Trump didn’t prep for these meetings because he doesn’t like to read and instead, trusts his own instincts, which at any moment could be disturbed by his Big Mac heavy diet.
One might think the man who describes himself as a “great deal maker” and also self described “one of the smartest Presidents ever”-- because he went to the best schools—would remember US or international history for the past 70 years, and see the Soviet Union or Russian—in the opposition to the US--in the middle of every war, regional rupture, since WWll, including the Korean and Viet Nam wars, invasions of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, certainly the Ukraine, and all of the Middle Eastern conflicts, plus so much more.
Russia (now) and the Soviet Union then, has a history as a country of have-nots, save for their constant wars, pogroms, revolutions, etc. which means for centuries false dealings and blood have drenched their national history for centuries.
It’s a nation with years of having nothing, including sufficient food for its people, and no rule of law. It has no reliable government, just oligarchs and thugs. All they do is take (usually steal), cheat, con, and flim flam.
No modern American president has trusted a Russian leader to do anything but prevaricate and misbehave.
But Mr. President you seem to love Vladimir Putin; you seen to trust his words over those of our own intelligence agency heads —make that your own, since they all are R’s you’ve appointed—who to a person don’t seem to trust Putin or Russia as much or in the way you do.
You woofed at our NATO allies; afterwards pretended you had forced them to pony up more money for the operation, but then scuttled like a scared puppy under Putin’s lash, even though he kept you waiting 40 minutes to deliver his personal “golden shower” to your presidency and person.
Who needs the British secret agent dossier when the world could see you on television in all your obeisance?
You were quite a chicken in your Helsinki embarrassment or as one observer put it, “Trump talks like a lion in his tweets but acts like a coward in the streets.”
When you returned home you sought to hide your shameful actions by lying and pretending you tripped over just “one word.” (How about the 25,000 other words about Putin and his strength and character?)
Trying to dupe the American people further, you then sent “Biscuit” Sanders out to do her song and dance blowing praises up your skirt and lie some more.
Now, it looks like you plan to invite Putin to come visit your “hood,” have a sleep over, and play with you, again?
Have you missed being urinated on this soon, or maybe you want to offer him our flag on which he can wipe his feet?
Maybe the GOP controlled Congress will bail you out by passing a resolution opposing a Putin visit, until at least you tell them and the American people what you and Vlad discussed behind closed doors, with only two interpreters present?
Here are some spine-building suggestions for the Congress from the Washongton Post's Alexandra Petri.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2018/07/18/too-bad-we-can-do-nothing-about-the-excesses-of-this-president/?utm_term=.43e3a93a7dac
But, if nothing dissuades you from this path, the NYT’s Maureen Dowd has some DC venues ideas for Vlad’s visit from Maureen Dowd.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/opinion/sunday/trump-and-his-very-special-guest.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion-columnists
How should we respond to all of this DJT-crap?
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/07/22/nbcwsj-poll-public-gives-trump-thumbs-down-on-russia-thumbs-up-on-economy/23487292/
My advice has been consistent. A large majority unhappy American people should vote against every pro-Trump candidate running for Congress and your state houses; taking the Senate is a long shot, but if the D’s can win the House and stay together, they can frustrate many of his initiatives and actions which disturb us today and which run counter what we believe is solid public policy and proper executive action, which doesn’t only benefit the wealthy and the Right.
Register and vote, urge every person you know to do both, and financially support some of those candidates running against Team Trump.
I know it’s Civics 101, but as we’ve come to learn in the past 18 months the fate of our country is at stake, so heed the advice or don’t complain.
Maloni, 7-23-2018
(Note, this blog was written on Saturday and Sunday but delayed until today by my production error--thank you Mr.F for helping me fix it--and then a power outage, today, in the Washington suburbs. So, I didn't comment on the very predictable Trump attack on Iran and the D national security holders, two obvious presidential attempts to steer eyes and minds away from his woeful international antics. Look for more of the "don't look at me, just look at them" DJT game.)
12 comments:
LoL
Thanks for reading what I know was edgy, but I was PO'd. His insecurities and ego produce more strange antics daily.
Honest question, does that mean "lots of laughs" or "lots of luck?" Or is there a third? Full sentences are tough for me; at social media acronyms and initials, I am a dud.
LoL = “Love our Leader” melt the Liberal snowflakes.
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/trump-job-approval
https://www.factcheck.org/2018/04/presidential-approval-numbers/
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/22/wsj-nbc-poll-trumps-approval-climbs-despite-russia-hype/
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/398502-trumps-job-approval-highest-in-latest-quarter-gallup
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/prez_track_jul25
Clinton, Bush and Obama were in office for a combined thirty-two years. Trump has outperformed all of them thirty different ways in less than two years.
1. Largest American tax cut.
2. Largest reduction in Federal work force.
3. Largest reduction in Federal regulations.
4. Calendar year in which national debt decreased as a percentage of GNP.
5. Calendar year with most appellate court judges confirmed.
6. Calendar year with most record high DOW closings.
7. Calendar year with most record highs for DOW, including mid-day highs.
8. Most consecutive trading days in which DOW reached new record high.
9. Record for fastest DOW increase of 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 points.
10. Month with largest budget surplus in American history.
11. Month with second largest budget surplus in American history.
12. Month with lowest misery index.
13. Month with most new full time jobs created.
14. Month with fewest new jobless claims.
15. Two, three, four, five and six month periods with fewest new jobless claims.
16. First month ever recorded with more job openings than unemployed workers.
17. Lowest female unemployment.
18. Lowest Hispanic unemployment.
19. Lowest black unemployment.
20. Smallest difference between black and white unemployment.
21. Month with fewest total people receiving unemployment.
22. Largest reduction in people dependent on food stamps.
23. Largest reduction in people dependent on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
24. Largest reduction in people dependent on Social Security Disability Insurance.
25. Largest reduction in people dependent on Medicaid and CHIP.
26. Fewest members of U.S. military stationed overseas.
27. Fulfilled Clinton/Bush/Obama campaign promise to move embassy to Jerusalem.
28. Highest median household pre-tax income.
29. Highest median household after-tax take-home pay.
30. Largest increase in median household net worth.
Hey Anon, I was expecting to hear from you. Welcome. (Excuse any typos.)
I suspect there are a few holes in your Trump achievements, but I have to ask you at what price to the United States has he met what few goals he has, given his:
--lies about immigrants and ethnics;
--hostility toward Hispanics and African Americans;
--moral equivalency between American Nazis and Charlottesville protestors;
--massive denigration of US institutions on which are nation relies, i.e. FBI, Justice Department, national intelligence institutions.
--lying about past infidelities and his former “swinger/Manhattan" life style (see Michael Cohen);
--verbal and actionable abuse against our historic allies in Europe, Australia and elsewhere;
--Trying to weaken NATO--and possibly succeeding--for reasons nobody quite can fathom;
--trashing US intelligence findings about Russian 2016 election interference on international television, after accepting Putin's word over theirs. Each of those agency heads is a Republican and a Trump appointee;
--A $Trillion tax giveaway—with red ink for decades down the road-- largely to the haves, which/who don't need it, much of which has not been spent in new capitalization but for lining the pockets of already fat executive and stock buybacks;
--A degree of nepotism never seen before in US Presidents;
--refusing to disclose his tax records so we can see where and if his policies enrich "Trump Inc." (And--if as reported--Russian money bailed him out of his casino failure several years ago.);
--attacking the media and suggesting they are the enemy of America, when they report his personal and professional shortcomings. (Beside his claim he misspoke over one word in Helsinki, have you ever heard DJT apologize over anything?);
--where is his vaunted infrastructure program?
--How much has Mexico paid for his Wall?
--Why is the POTUS attacking Canada and Mexico and our Asian and European allies and threatening a “trade war” he can’t win but which will, once again, hurt the American little guy/consumer??
I’d trade some of your list for a person in the White House with integrity and true compassion, not this egomaniacal, ego drive, non-intelligent poser.
(If any blog readers wish to add to “Anon” or my competing lists, feel free. Oh, I created my list and feel Anon grafted his from a site far to the Right!!)
-Lies about immigrants and ethnics;
Only the illegal ones.
-hostility toward Hispanics and African Americans;
Lowest unemployment for both parties in the history of the data.
--moral equivalency between American Nazis and Charlottesville protestors;
Foolish MSM propaganda.
--massive denigration of US institutions on which are nation relies, i.e. FBI, Justice Department, national intelligence institutions.
Corruption is corruption. If you can’t see it there is nothing to discuss.
--lying about past infidelities and his former “swinger/Manhattan" life style (see Michael Cohen);
Depends on what “is” is?
--verbal and actionable abuse against our historic allies in Europe, Australia and elsewhere;
If you need to buy your friends, like the DNC, are they really friends?
--Trying to weaken NATO--and possibly succeeding--for reasons nobody quite can fathom;
Really? If you can’t fathom that your tax dollars are what’s protecting the world and it’s not fair, then oh well.
--trashing US intelligence findings about Russian 2016 election interference on international television, after accepting Putin's word over theirs. Each of those agency heads is a Republican and a Trump appointee;
US Intelligence is massively corrupt. Patients.
-A $Trillion tax giveaway—with red ink for decades down the road-- largely to the haves, which/who don't need it, much of which has not been spent in new capitalization but for lining the pockets of already fat executive and stock buybacks;
After BHO added $10,000,000,000,000 to the budget and what did the “people” get?
--A degree of nepotism never seen before in US Presidents;
Anyone say Kennedy?
--refusing to disclose his tax records so we can see where and if his policies enrich "Trump Inc." (And--if as reported--Russian money bailed him out of his casino failure several years ago.);
After seeing it take 2-3 years to provide a Birth Certificate, wouldn’t one think to get complex Tax Returns completed takes at least that much time?
--attacking the media and suggesting they are the enemy of America, when they report his personal and professional shortcomings. (Beside his claim he misspoke over one word in Helsinki, have you ever heard DJT apologize over anything?);
The MSM has totally showed their dishonesty, corruption and ideology for everyone to plainly see once and forever.
--where is his vaunted infrastructure program?
Ask Nancy and Chuck.
--How much has Mexico paid for his Wall?
After watching the Rose Garden meeting today with the E.U. negotiators, it’s pretty clear that Mexico is going to pay for the wall one way or another.
--Why is the POTUS attacking Canada and Mexico and our Asian and European allies and threatening a “trade war” he can’t win but which will, once again, hurt the American little guy/consumer??
800,000,000,000 reasons why we can’t lose.
I’d trade some of your list for a person in the White House with integrity and true compassion, not this egomaniacal, ego drive, non-intelligent poser.
In your lifetime, who has that integrity and compassion?
All in fun Bill. Your hate is not healthy.
GSE’s are what’s really important, even though you now blame it on the Trump Administration after eight years of nothing from BHO who created the NWS. Now that is a fact.
Anon--I appreciate your response, believe it or not.
I understand where you sit is where you stand.
On your last point (too many edits to your other rejoinders), certainly not absolving last Admin for what's occurred--my bitching at them/it all has appeared int he past blogs-- with the GSEs, but they are gone (except for a few of them still sucking aroudn the AEI and elsewhere, peddling their poison)and now it's the Trump crew.
You're not suggesting I still excoriate Stegman, Parrott, et al and ignore Mnuchin, Philips, and the cabal of still present GSE-haters at FHFA?
Not suggesting that at all.
FYI- http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/27/economic-experts-trump-gdp-growth/
Good, because the people who care about the GSEs have a lot of work to do. And the GOP has more hands on the issue than any former D oficials.
DJT gets kudos for the near term numbers (which were already trending up under the previoous Admin), but to the exten the tax chnages charged 9NO PUN INTENDED) THE INCREASE THAT'S A HEAVY PRICE TO PAY AND THOSE PUMP PRIMING CHICKENS HAVE TO COME HOME TO ROOST AS FUTURE DEFICITS AND RED INK. (Whops sorry, hit caps key.)
I doubt if the US can have 4% or even 3% GDP growth every quarter. (If we do then watch out for inflation.)
His tariffs also carry domestic disaster as everyone with aluminun in the products mirrors COKE.
I don't want my tax dollars paying farmers a bailout because the Chinese stopped buying soybeans over Trump's tariffs.
I don’t know how old you are Bill, but I believe you and I were fortunate to live through some inflation cycles. As our home mortgage stayed the same while our incomes rose, this increased our standard of living. Today’s young people haven’t had this opportunity in decades. It also hasn’t helped many senior citizens who could benefit from savings rates more then 2%. Inflation is also a great tool to reduce the National debt, 50% of all debt that was accumulated during the BHO Administration.
From what I am seeing, I believe The GDP is just getting going as the offshore dollars are coming back.
There has been plenty of naysayers and doubt for the past two years but look at “some” of the things that are really happening. There will always be enough negative no matter who is in office.
Anon--I am older than dirt!
And, also (as I've written at various times in the blog), before going to Fannie I worked at the Fed when Paul Volcker was Chairman and interest rates were in the hgih teens, as he sought to squeeze inflation out of the system...and succeeded.(I rememebr and was on the Hill during the Nixon years of "wage and price controls" and that disaster.)
I accept being the pessimist in our exchanges and do see the glass half empty, but notice that--despite WH crowing--wages haven't risen (excellent article in W. Post by Steve Pearlsetin about flood of more exotic corproate debt instruments entering the market), while stock buybacks and other forms of shareholder/corporate renumeration has. The latter was just the fear of those opposing the big corporate tax cuts.
Yes, I'm a Fannie shareholder but I care more about sustaining perpetuation of what I believe is an excellent and fair national mortgage delivery system.
I'm also responsible enough--with four sons, two established and two newly married, and six grandkids--to wonder what kind of world they'll have?
I just don't have any faith that DJT is able to do anything beyond short term relief spurts and has no concept, nor appreciation, of long term domestic economic stability.
Anon--See my commebnt above re how corporations are using their "Trump tax cuts" and see this story, today (linked), in POLITICO.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/30/eye-popping-payouts-for-ceos-follow-trumps-tax-cuts-747649
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