Our Only Hope?

It's Not Obi-Wan. Or Lawbreaking, Either.

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS

3 Minute Read

Happy Monday and after Friday’s debut chapter of my epic Ride of Your Life, you may be looking for something a bit more brief.

You know, like just about anything in the world.

Today, I will say the unthinkable: I agree with Dear Leader. Well, at least when the topic is the Federal Government being a bloated mess.

It is that way because Congress is spineless: Democrats don’t talk about raising taxes any longer, nor do Republicans bring up cutting entitlements. Both have realized doing either is unpopular, with unsustainable Federal spending being the result.

Consider the U.S. Government is spending $2 trillion more than JUST TWO YEARS AGO. That might be fine if new high-speed rail lines were going in and we were embarking upon a national public school modernization program, but we’re not.

Instead, we’re just corrupt and the populace is right to be angry we’re not getting our money’s worth.

So I get it, Dear Leader apologists. Congress wasn’t going to change, so we needed something radical. Something like the combo platter of your hero and the unelected Elonia Musk. Although some - after witnessing only a few weeks of them in power - wish we could send the platter back to the kitchen.

But apparently, and I must remember:

Unfortunately, Elonia has drawn a non-existent parallel between his ability to cut 80% of Twitter/X’s workforce and have it remain operational, with being able to do the same to the United States Government. Most would agree a federal government the size of America’s is just a smidge more complex than an electronic bulletin board.

Yet those under Dear Leader’s spell are forgetting something as Musk’s Orwellian and illegal Department of Government Efficiency ham-fistedly tries to tear the whole thing apart:

It is (was?) the stability of our system that allowed Elonia, Dear Leader, and those like them to prosper and get rich in the first place.

Before Dear Leader and Elonia, our country’s general adherence to the rule of law made the difference, and it is why we’re the world’s reserve currency: America is (was?) a stable partner that can be trusted.

Are you MAGA folks and their enablers OK with giving that up?

Likewise, one can’t overstate the value of the soft power we’ve built, post-WWII, and it happened mostly via helping other countries. It’s also made many individuals and corporations very rich in the process.

But now, with the shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development, we’re tossing all of that and leaving a gaping vacuum globally.

And I wonder who might be willing to step in and help in our absence?

Not to mention the ethical issues of the richest country on Earth suddenly refusing to help its poorest. As a negotiating ploy.

So while I agree we need to get our financial shit together, I like the rule of law, our Constitution, and its 3 co-equal branches of government. I also like our standing in the world and don’t want to see it ruined.

This brings us to what I see as the only hope for avoiding a crisis, Constitutional or otherwise, in the coming months and years. Our only chance are the financial markets, as they’re one of the few remaining “institutions” that will speak truth to power, albeit figuratively. If the markets tank or even crash (!), I think these populists and worse might come to their senses.

At least one can hope, because the only thing - apart from naked power - that Dear Leader, Elonia, and their ilk care about is money, and by extension, how the markets react to their brilliant policies.

So when Dear Leader’s tariff mania results in a spike in inflation, followed by higher interest rates, he’s going to hate how he looks as the markets keep going down. The same is true if the global instability they’re fueling metastasizes into something far worse than Germany not paying their NATO tab.

But is flirting with market disaster the guardrail we want?

For a long time, I have said here and elsewhere that America is broken and corrupt. If we all agree we need to shake things up, wouldn’t it be better done within our existing Constitutional framework?

We can and we must start by overturning the disastrous Citizens United decision. If the Supreme Court can limit the freedom of women by overturning settled law, it can do the same to corporations and other special interests and save us from our capitalist selves.

Or do we want Dear Leader to leave our country as he has everything else he’s touched? Perhaps permanently so?

FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES

Hunter Deuce was ready with his Internet research upon hearing I’ll be visiting The Sphere in Las Vegas in April:

I'm sure you've researched this, but be careful about where your seats are. If you're in the far back of the first level you're underneath the mezzanine and it really takes away from the experience as you can't see all of the sphere.

Great info and thanks! We will find out if he’s correct . . .

Thank you for reading this newsletter.

KLUF

Dear Leader and Elonia, please just go on, take the money, and run.

Far, far away from my country.

It is a Killer live album, BTW.