Not to put too fine a point on it . . . Oh well, let’s do:
Category: Ethics
Trump’s Media Company Stock (DJT) Swan Dive – MAGA Investors Hit Hard Since NY Election Fraud Convictions
Today, Donald Trump’s media company stock (DJT) continued its two week long swan dive which took on steam May 30, the day after his 34 felony convictions for NY election fraud. From that day until today at market close, DJT gave up 50% of its value to shareholders, all within 16 trading days. That’s a collapse by most anyone’s standards. The last two days were so-called high volume days where huge numbers of shares are traded as opposed to the average trend. Often, traders interpret high volume in a short time period during a stock’s downward trend, like DJT, as a “capitulation,” in other words, a signal that in the days ahead DJT may recover a portion of its losses. Nonetheless, the loss of value is considerable from May 30 through today, considerable for shareholders who sold, including Trump himself who owns more than 58% of outstanding stock, or 115 shares, which fell from approximately $5+ billion to $2.8 billion, and due to a lockup provision, described below, he was unable to sell a single share to stem the tide.
As opposed to this sour financial market news, let’s recall that Trump campaign staff, on the political side insist the 34 criminal convictions help him with his supporters who apparently consider crime to be a major task of a president. They have insisted this with every Trump foray into the legal landscape, from accusations to indictments to civil judgments to gag orders to criminal convictions. Each is a new diamond in his crown. (Their post-conviction euphoria about Trump’s election fraud trial may be misplaced with recent polls showing, for example, independent voters shying away from Trump due to his May 30 convictions.)
One trend, though, they cannot deny is the rapid decline of DJT stock post-conviction. One cause-effect test includes a proximity requirement that the effect occur close to the time of the cause. The swoon in DJT stock began precisely the morning after the jury brought in its verdict, and has continued unabated since then.
While one can’t blame Trump’s convictions entirely for DJT’s collapse, it surely was the match that lit the fire. One of those other factors was disclosed recently: Trump may disavow a promise to post his messages on Truth Social first. That now questionable promise had been an important reason that investors, well, invested. Three days ago the company said in an amended registration statement:
“If TMTG disagrees with President Donald J. Trump about the scope of his obligation to use, or first post on, Truth Social, TMTG lacks any meaningful remedy with respect to such disagreement – which could have a material adverse effect on the business and/or operations of TMTG.”
Be Not Somebody’s Pigeon
Anyone who knows anything about Trump’s business acumen and general honesty, and lack thereof, should have known that caution was uppermost; I grew up quite near New York City and followed his misadventures closely. For those investors unaware of the myth of Trump who did the slightest amount of due diligence before investing in DJT, by simply googling “Trump businessman” ought to have avoided DJT like the plague (unless, of course, one is a high flying stock picker or institutional investor looking for MAGA pigeons to feast on by shorting the stock). Call me prone to schadenfreude (go ahead!).
This big decline in DJT in the wake of the long standing MAGA investors’ excitement and confidence based primarily on viewing DJT as a stand-in for the Donald himself rather than as an investment in their and their families’ futures. The MAGA investors’ group felt like business partners! Trump, of course, knew they’d prove to be the perfect pigeons for swallowing his financial hyperbole and outrageous lies. (I’ve reported on DJT stock and outlined the problems and risks posed by DJT, see a list at the the bottom of this post.)
Schadenfreude aside, the pity is that most MAGA DJT-investing fanatics were rendered almost wholly uneducated by their state education system, particularly K-12. They support the MAGA governors, school boards, state education departments, and the GOP/MAGA legislatures that have caused this for decades. As for DJT, the evil black swan, being almost wholly uneducated himself, he glamorizes low educational levels – “I love the poorly educated!” Of course.
Trump envisions DJT as a proxy super PAC, a source of cash for personal use, campaign funds, and legal fees. Note, however, that according to the prospectus “lockdown” provision, and other SEC filing documents, Trump and other major shareholders are prohibited from, for example, selling or taking out loans against DJT stock until September 2024. Note, again, though, that a simple vote by the board is sufficient to suspend that prohibition. So, in effect, the September lockdown date is not binding, especially given who the board members are, namely, Donald Trump, Jr., Kash Patel, David Nunes, and other similar rubber stamps. If Trump exercises his ability to purchase stock after the September lockdown period, within a month of election day, to, for example, pay for an advertisement blitzkrieg, his stock sales then could cause another swan dive since he’d likely sell large amounts of DJT thus undermining DJT’s value. That would again injure MAGA investors.
Tithing for Trump!
Nevertheless, MAGAites who hold DJT stock are cult members who, I propose, view their DJT investment as a tithe, common in actual church denominations throughout the world. So, in that spirit, they’ve invested in Pastor Trump, and support his message of a bright MAGA tomorrow. It’s far less a financial investment than a spiritual one. Despite what I suggest above, they may be reticent to dump their stock during swan dive periods. That, to them, would be something of a sacrilege, an insult to Trump and to God who supports him. How much DJT stock does God own? If, as I hinted above this swan dive “capitulation” volume the last two trading days is but a prelude to a recovery rise in DJT, then apparently God is a major investor . . . stay tuned to CNBC.
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Below are links to my other DJT posts:
Insulin Cost Cap – Trump Attacks a Biden Signature Achievement With a Trump Signature Deception
A week ago, Trump took to his Truth Social safe space to make a specious claim about a problem vexing millions of diabetic Americans on Medicare, the out-of-pocket/copay cost of insulin, one of the more contentious political issues of the day, especially since Medicare beneficiaries comprise a population with higher prevalence of diabetes (33%, 22 million) than the general population (11%, 37 million). More than three million people with Medicare coverage use insulin.
So, let us ask of the man who spent much of his administration trying to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, “What would a serious and informed policy disagreement about Medicare and insulin coverage be without Donald Trump?” Asked and answered last Saturday:
“Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked Joe Biden. He had NOTHING to do with it. It was all done long before he so sadly entered office. All he does is try to take credit for things done by others, in this case, ME!” Truth Social, June 8, 2024
This is firstly, stupid, and secondly, nonresponsive, simultaneously both false and true, a hallmark of Trump & Company. It’s a technique that confuses those who do not follow the ins-and-outs of government policy, and many who do follow it. Trump’s Truth Social post conflates outright lying with some actual facts that, on analysis, are, indeed, truthful, but that don’t advance Trump’s argument. Given that, his argument is iconically specious, i.e., apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible. So, let’s dig in and deconstruct.
Trump Administration’s Half-Baked Accomplishment
“I don’t use insulin, Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it.
But I know a lot of people are very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.”
Donald Trump, a nondiabetic, displaying
his advanced knowledge of the subject
USA Today, May 26, 2020
The above crackpot quote was served up by then President Trump at a May 26, 2020 formal White House Rose Garden speech about, among other things, an executive action reducing the copay cost of insulin to $35 for Medicare recipients. Here’s the summary excerpt from the White House (ironically named) Fact Sheet released during that Rose Garden speech:
LOWERING COST OF INSULIN FOR SENIORS: President Donald J. Trump and his Administration are lowering out-of-pocket insulin costs for Medicare’s seniors.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is announcing that many Medicare Part D plans and Medicare Advantage plans have applied to offer lower out-of-pocket insulin costs to seniors for the 2021 plan year.
Across the Nation, participating enhanced Part D plans will provide many seniors with Medicare access to a broad set of insulins at a maximum $35 copay for a month’s supply of each type of insulin.
And,
Lowering out-of-pocket insulin costs will provide the many Medicare beneficiaries who rely on one or more common forms of insulin with plan options that will deliver critical relief.
And,
No effort will be spared to give America’s seniors the care and support and devotion and love they have earned and that they deserve. President Donald J. Trump, March 26, 2020
In fact, rather than sparing no efforts, Trump administration’s policy spared many efforts. Unrevealed was that the cost cap would apply to only a small subset of 3.5 million insulin-dependent Medicare beneficiaries, and they were still stuck with a yearly deductible. That’s a big “unreveal” that affected many. Nonetheless, the Fact Sheet excerpt reads as if all insulin-dependent Medicare beneficiaries would receive the new copay cost cap. So, factually, Trump’s policy did lower insulin costs, but despite being presented as a cure-all for Medicare patients, it was misleadingly presented, ergo, factual but largely false since so many on Medicare were left out.
For Trump, even this half-baked policy was something he didn’t want to establish, nor did the pharmaceutical CEOs, or insulin suppliers who colluded with him design it as anything more than a sop to the Medicare voting bloc. Trump had been suffering some blowback on the issue and needed something that he knew he could sell as a major accomplishment to his diabetic MAGA Medicare recipients (many of whom were excluded from the insulin cap). Nonetheless, at a 2020 presidential debate Trump boasted that lowered insulin prices that vials were “so cheap, it’s like water”, despite insulin prices remaining fixed at about $300 per vial. And that wasn’t misleading, that was 100% false.
The Biden Administration’s Meaningful Accomplishment
Jump forward from the Trump administration’s weak insulin copay cost policy to today. President Biden achieved much when he signed the August 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Among those achievements was a new insulin copay cap program (effective date January 1, 2023 for Medicare Part D, and July 1, 2023 for Medicare Part B). Also, as of January 1, 2024, eligibility for the Part D Low Income Subsidy (LIS) expanded from 135 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) to 150 percent of FPL, which allows these enrollees to further reduce their out-of-pocket costs for insulin. Also, under the Inflation Reduction Act, beginning in plan year 2023 (Jan-Dec), Medicare Part D enrollees no longer may have a deductible for insulin and must have a maximum $35 monthly co-payment. These are broad and meaningful benefits, rather than – as Trump’s 2020 executive action was – a simply cynical political expedient to attempt to silence critics by, basically, confusing them. (Note, however, as always, Senate Republicans tried to block the $35 cap on price of insulin from the Inflation Reduction Act.)
As the copay cap program became effective in January 2023, an October HHS report, Insulin Affordability and the Inflation Reduction Act: Medicare Beneficiary Savings by State and Demographics, disclosed:
KEY POINTS
• The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) caps insulin out-of-pocket spending at $35 per month’s supply of each insulin product covered under a Medicare Part D plan, with similar limits for out-of-pocket costs for insulin supplied under Part B, and reduces out-of-pocket drug spending in Medicare in other ways.
. . . [Omitted — States that the study used data below based upon analysis of 2019 data]
• Nationally, [during 2019, Trump administration] the average out-of-pocket cost was $58 per insulin fill, typically for a 30-day supply. The average cost per fill among people who were uninsured for the entire year was $123, more than double the national average. Patients with private insurance or Medicare paid about $63 per fill on average.
• [During 2019] About 37 percent of insulin fills for Medicare enrollees (Part B and Part D) required cost-sharing exceeding $35 per fill, including 24 percent that exceeded $70 per fill. About 36 percent of insulin fills for people without insurance and 35 percent for people with private insurance had cost sharing above $35 per fill. These estimates are only for enrollees who filled an insulin prescription and do not include potential costs for patients who did not fill their insulin due to cost or other reasons.
• We estimate that 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries would have benefited from the new [Inflation Reduction Act] insulin cost-sharing limits if they had been in effect [during] 2020, [rather than Trump’s policy] with savings to those beneficiaries of about $734 million in Part D and $27 million in Part B – or approximately $500 in average annual savings per person among those benefiting from the provision. [Emphasis added]
The Trump plan lacked coverage for millions of Medicare insulin users. The Inflation Reduction Act remedied that.
Jump Forward to . . . Last Saturday & Donald Trump
Yes, this again:
“Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked Joe Biden. He had NOTHING to do with it. It was all done long before he so sadly entered office. All he does is try to take credit for things done by others, in this case, ME!” Truth Social post, June 8, 2024
Why now, why this spirited defense? The closeness of the 2024 election, in time and in winning margin, sespite Trump’s overwhelming confidence, he may have been alerted to the fact that today’s seniors, particularly baby boomers over 64, are not majority GOP voters seniors as we’ve assumed. And Trump relies on them, and trusts them to support him, and boomers now represent 60+% of the senior vote. More conservative or radical voters have died since the 2016 and 2020 elections at a greater number than baby boomers have joined the senior voting bloc. An April 26 NYT article succinctly summed it up:
“Mr. Biden’s strength among seniors might be surprising, but the likeliest explanation is deceptively simple: At every stage earlier in their lives, many of today’s seniors voted Democratic. They just got older.”
As a 74 year-old baby boomer I unanimously agree. (I’m also a diabetic who once used insulin and now use Ozempic exclusively: O! O! O! Ozempic!) Given the millions of Medicare insulin-dependent patients, insulin costs – Trump may have learned is a salient issue in the presidential race and as the chart below suggests, the blue seniors still retain their leftie reputation:
And since the 2012 election, much has changed. Baby boomers could decide the 2024 election, although Gen Z voters appear to be trending more conservative/MAGA, older voters vote in greater percentage terms than younger ones. Therefore, if not Trump himself, then it’s likely someone in the Trump campaign alerted him that the Medicare voting bloc was at risk, not only on general issues, but on pocketbook issues like the Medicare insulin cap. It’s unlikely, however, that many approved of his outlandish June 8th tweet and the blowback that established how cynical and untrue it was. We baby boomers aren’t babies anymore and we are still predominantly hippies . . .
Justice Clarence Thomas’s Mea Culpa, Without Much Mea
During August 2023 I wrote of ProPublica’s investigation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s creative moral and legal accounting on his yearly financial statements. His failure to disclose two all-expense paid trips during 2019 to Indonesia and to the Bohemian Grove, an all-male retreat in northern California, were each financed entirely by billionaire Harlan Crow, a cofounder of Club for Growth and a major donor to the GOP. Well, today the self-fashioned untouchable, unshakeable Supreme Court justice filed a financial disclosure document that (quite belatedly) described a come to Jesus change of attitude, if only for a moment.
This is quite a turnaround. Recall that at the time of ProPublica’s April 2023 exposé, Thomas characterized his trips – as did benefactor Crow – as “hospitality” which he maintained was not reportable on his 2019 financial disclosure report. I fact, he took high road that only lifetime tenure in one’s government job offers by maintaining that all of this was just Mr. Crow’s hospitable way of spending some of his billions. And apparently Justice Thomas was also hospitable enough to accept free hospitality. And, despite the many many thousand dollars spent by Crow, Thomas maintained that hospitality doesn’t count as income or as a gift, noe would it sully his judicial neutrality should a case come forth impacting Harlan Crow or his buddies. And, what are you going to do about it, he seemed to say, “impeach me?” Well, actually, some suggested it.
This has caused Thomas many headaches for the past two years. He wasn’t helped to escape the spotlight by his hospitable brethren Justice Sam Alito (who also got ensnared in the hospitality trap, see here). Moreover, lately, the upside down American flag catastrophe didn’t exactly cover Alito in a garland of roses. The public doesn’t seem to care for juvenile delinquents sitting on the highest court. Moreover, Rhode Island’s Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been incessantly irritating the Court to produce an enforceable code of ethics, finding no joy there. So, it’s possible that Thomas thought that disclosing, four years late, his 2019 antics now would lighten his load a bit despite how miffed he must be at having to carry a load at all. Regardless, whether what amounts to a confession of wrongdoing will actually lighten his load, his belated report is directly below (emphasis added).
Let’s see how this is received by us, the public. The fact that Thomas pleads “inadvertently” to his failure to file in 2019 – after having had a world class team of lawyers advising him – wouldn’t be accepted as a plea for mercy by a judge, for example, like Sam “Hang ’em High” Alito, arguably, Thomas’s Old Gangster crony. So, from a PR standpoint, it would have been helpful have issued a press release explaining that he “regrets” something, anything related to what I’d guess he still believes to be a small faux pas.
Perhaps, like Alito vis-a-vis the upside flag episode, he could simply blame his wife . . . Yes, Clarence, let’s try blaming Ginni.
Words of “This is NOT the way to win a presidential election”
From the Biden campaign, few seconds ago, I received this email offering a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for something I do not want:
President Biden.
President Obama.
George Clooney.
Julia Roberts.
And YOU! We’re running a contest to give supporters like you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win an all-expenses-paid trip to meet two presidents and two movie stars. All you have to do is pitch in today, and you (and a guest of your choosing) could be having your very own in-person conversation with President Biden and some of his good friends. You don’t want to miss this opportunity, Michael: Chip in $25 today and your name will be automatically entered for a chance to meet President Biden, President Obama, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts! No amount is too small, and your contribution will support our campaign and Democrats nationwide, so don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity — enter now! Thank you for being part of our team, Michael, Biden HQ
For background, let’s look back a week at a recent celebrity-heavy marketing idea: Robert De Niro’s comments outside the Trump courthouse NY election fraud trial. He’s certainly media-ready and entitled (in both meanings of the word) to have his say. Here’s part of his say:
“We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another crappy real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot . . . I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and, eventually, he could destroy the world. . . . I don’t mean to scare you. No, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. . . If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.”
Certainly, having long-term ties with the south shore of New York’s Long Island, I agree with De Niro’s take. Being old enough, at 74, I fully recall how we who knew “the Donald” berated him as New York’s most sinister yet ridiculous cartoon character, akin to De Niro’s own 1982 movie character Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy. And I understand De Niro’s passion, it was good to see an actual liberal at the microphone rather than the perpetual parade of MAGA politicos in Trump red necktie costumes blurting outrageous lies.
In any event, back to the email I just received . . . Who does the Biden campaign’s outreach appeal to? Firstly, who would believe that “you (and a guest of your choosing) could be having your very own in-person conversation with President Biden and some of his good friends,” Barack Obama, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts? Was Barbra Streisand busy? And what would I, for example, offer in conversation that would interest Barack, Julia, and George? That’s a rhetorical question.
Secondly, appeals to celebrity charisma has been a mainstay tendency that has addled our society for far too long, and, for seriousness sake, Democrats are the worst offenders, facetiously and self-servingly pounding that drum. The Biden campaign’s celebrity-based offer of far-left liberal geegaw is grist for the mill of antri-Democrat insult among MAGAs, of course, but also independents (whose votes we desperately need). Instead, have campaign messages take a rhetorical and tactical stance commensurate with the criticality of this election. Please!
Finally, this Biden celebrity campaign appeal is insulting to the seriousness of the moment, and the voter, it’s frankly grifty in its character: subconsciously insinuating that this election is just another contest, not the kind of election that De Niro’s cris de coeur identified: an election wherein a Trump win could engage us perhaps in a bloody battle to preserve the very country “that we all take for granted.” I’ve voted since 1968, and I believed every presidential election was the most important of our history, in hindsight, perhaps in history’s arc, unknown to us, they were. There’s an old saying I’ll paraphrase: “When, with age, we lose our physical strength, let us hope we grow in wisdom.” Bar none, this election is the most consequential in our history, and, coincidentally enough, the next president’s term will begin in 2025, our nation’s 250th anniversary.
Memorial Day 2024
For nearly a decade now many have seemingly invited strife and battle into our lives. Many young, many old, have never learned or have forgot the bloodstained horrors of civil war. They, like those summer soldiers of 1861, have the look of, have the sound of pleading for violent revolution, and they, like the civil warriors of 1861 believe it will all be over and decided by next Christmas. So strong do they believe themselves to be; one marvels at the confidence that only self pride can muster from those who know nothing of war, war up close, cheek by jowl, bleeding into each other. There’s a certain feeling of inevitability about it, as though they have their eyes set of it as a prize that they’ll surely win. Yet, the ending of it all, should it come, will certainly, as do all ravenous conflits, resemble this instead:
Disabled
BY WILFRED OWEN
He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.
About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,—
In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls’ waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,
All of them touch him like some queer disease.
There was an artist silly for his face,
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He’s lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.
One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,
After the matches carried shoulder-high.
It was after football, when he’d drunk a peg,
He thought he’d better join. He wonders why.
Someone had said he’d look a god in kilts.
That’s why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,
He asked to join. He didn’t have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years.
Germans he scarcely thought of, all their guilt,
And Austria’s, did not move him. And no fears
Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.
Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.
Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,
And do what things the rules consider wise,
And take whatever pity they may dole.
Tonight he noticed how the women’s eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is! Why don’t they come
And put him into bed? Why don’t they come?
BREAKING! – South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Revises Her Description of the Deaths of Her Puppy & Goat
05-09-2024, 1:54 p.m., A News Network, Pierre, SD. Governor’s Office, for immediate release.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem released this statement:
My Dear South Dakota friends and supporters, I have recently ended my book tour which is among the most tragic events that this farm girl has ever suffered. It was caused by liars and vicious reporters in the extreme left wing commie-fascist media. Their claims about the deaths of my dog and goat that they say were included in my new book are untrue. Even the excerpts they’ve manufactured are fictitious. So powerful and sinister is the extreme left wing that they’ve managed to brainwash millions. It is, therefore, time for me to go on the offensive and attack our foes with the truth, the truth as I and God understand it.
No gross executions of my dog and goat took place. The truth is quite the opposite: In fact, it was I who was fired on first. I neither sought nor welcomed armed conflict and only did so as a self defense measure. My disgruntled 14-month-old dog Cricket and his vicious co-conspirator, an obnoxious old goat who strutted on the wrong side of the barnyard, chose to arm themselves with military grade weapons and, by trickery, ambush me for obviously Biden-inspired political reasons.
They began by secreting themselves on a chicken farm belonging to my dear neighbors. There, from their hiding places in a gravel pit, they opened fire on a dozen or more defenseless chickens, loading, shooting, and reloading 16-shot clips until they had devastated the chicken herd. When I was informed and arrived at the scene, I called out to them and asked that they cease their killing fire, instead, they turned their attention to me, their primary target, in a blood lust. They fired a dozen rounds as I hit the dirt and drew from my holsters one each of the several pistols and hand grenades I carry with me whenever I visit neighbors. I did not seek this confrontation. Yet, being a South Dakota farm girl I knew that firefights with livestock were a normal life activity, not to be shied away from, particularly by a strong governor who deserves higher office.
It was not long before Cricket began a flanking maneuver while the old craven goat laid down covering fire. I tossed a grenade, I fired my Glock, I nearly took a bullet as I ducked into the gravel pit only to be confronted by that devil goat looking for a gunfight, old western movie style. He hopped toward me, I dove to the left and drew my weapon, firing instinctively as I had done so many times before in shootouts with other farm animals. Being the kind of person South Dakotans want for Vice President in the coming election, I dropped that goat stone dead. Someone had to do it.
Meantime, Cricket had circled around me and growled that fake puppy sound that is meant to disguise their true intentions, but tells a South Dakota farmer that there was death in the offing, either for me or for Cricket. I turned on him and fired, he fired, then, we fought hand to paw, rolling in the sharp gravel that broke each of my fingernails clean off. Cricket tried the old cowards tactic of licking my face, a fake peace entreaty and far too late. A gunshot rang out. For a moment neither of us knew who’d been shot, if shot at all. After a moment I could see. And Cricket was no more. Someone had to do it.
This summary rebuttal of the vile left wing tampering with the text of my book will allow me to resume my nationwide book tour as of this evening when I will appear in Pierre’s Shotgun Shell Bar & Rifle Range, from 8:00 – 9:00 pm. Free beer for all the ladies! I am proud to be your governor until something better materializes. God bless & pass the ammo!
About the Antisemitism Awareness Act – MAGA Forgets Its Own Core Antisemitism
Quick Background
Six years ago, the publication Inside Higher Education ran an article about 2018’s version of the Antisemitism Awareness Act and observed,
“anti-Semitism’s manifestations change over time. There is a robust debate, both inside the Jewish community and among experts on the issue, over the relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Sometimes anti-Zionism constitutes anti-Semitism; sometimes it doesn’t.”
Their bifurcation framed antisemitism as a set of definitional issues regarding
- antisemitism directed against the state of Israel as a state, i.e., a sovereign corporate entity, and thereby a diplomatic issue about which the State Department has its own definition, and
- in the education sector, antisemitism directed at individuals, i.e., a civil rights issue under the Department of Education Civil Rights Division’s definition of antisemitism to be used to determine schools’ antidiscrimination legal obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) “to provide all students, including Jewish students, a school environment free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.” (Note that Title VI does not apply to discrimination based upon religion itself, but applies to race, national origin, and ethnicity which creates confusion in policy. Also note, Title VI applies to institutions which receive federal aid.)
Much comes to mind since the Inside Higher Education article referenced above pointed out the perennial truth that “anti-Semitism’s manifestations change over time.” Today’s manifestation arises from the latest and most vicious war in many years between the state of Israel and Gaza’s Hamas. In the education sphere regulated under Title VI, mass protests grow in intensity and they often mix attacks on Jewish and Palestinian individuals with attacks upon the Jewish state.
How broad or narrow ought antisemitism be defined to maintain reasonable First Amendment free speech rights? And what about the distinction between the diplomatic vs. the personhood definition for federal enforcement purposes? And that definition variance is the rub. What makes this bill so controversial is its reliance on equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism: one is criticism of an entity, the other of a person. Indeed, it’s a categorical error. So, it appears, if the bill passes Senate muster, on-campus criticism of the Jewish state is antisemitic. And the Antisemitism Awareness Act seeks to resolve this by empowering the Education Department to take action against educational institutions that do not sufficiently combat anti-Israel speech on campus where this kind of “diplomatic” free speech ought to be encouraged in order to air out attitudes about countries’ treatment of, for example in Gaza, noncombatant rights.
This round of concern has, of course, arisen as fallout from the ongoing Israel-Palestine war, and the resulting protests roiling campuses. And this is a time of existential crisis for both sides, their disputed homelands up for destruction. The bill, titled the Antisemitism Awareness Act, would mandate that the Education Department adopt a broad definition of antisemitism created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRM), an intergovernmental group. The group defines antisemitism as a “certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” The group adds that “rhetorical and physical manifestations” of antisemitism include such things as calling for the killing or harming of Jews or holding Jews collectively responsible for actions taken by the state of Israel. These manifestations are directed at Jewish individuals and ought to be prevented even to the point of shackling free speech rights.
However, as noted above, importantly, the House-adopted definition of antisemitism arguably includes offenses against the Jewish state, ‘‘[d]enying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,’’ and ‘‘[d]rawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.’’ This is the substance of the Antisemitism Awareness Act. The scope of this expanded definition makes it illegal in an educational setting to merely claim “that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” or, if heavily enforced by DOE, to forbid any criticism of, for example, Israel’s brutal conduct of the present conflict. That goes too far, discussions of the behavior of our allies must be free-flowing, particularly in an educational setting.
An Example That Eats the Rule
Interestingly, and counterintuitively, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRM) examples of antisemitic behavior adopted by the House-passed bill contain a limitation:
“However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” [emphasis added]
Is this the exception that eats the rule? After all, most of the present on-campus criticism of Israel is based upon the international laws of war, and the responsibility for treatment of refugees and noncombatants. And isn’t this the same kind of criticism any other country receives in these circumstances, and therefore, according to the definitional section of the Antisemitism Awareness Act itself “cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” That creates confusion, it does not resolve it. Thus, the Antisemitism Awareness Act which is intended to, in large part, prevent criticism of Israel, the sovereign nation, contains a serious internal contradiction provided by the very IHRM definition it seeks to codify. As such, it needs to be considered carefully by the Senate.
MAGA’s Core Antisemitism
As an aside, but an important one, it’s interesting to note the overwhelming support of Republicans for a measure that supports Israel’s stated right to exist as a state. The GOP has not shown itself to be an avid supporter of Jewish causes, particularly since Jewish voters are largely Democratic party voters. Hardly a day goes by when a Marjory Taylor Greene or the erstwhile Kevin McCarthy pins most of the world’s problems on George Soros, in general, or the Rothschild’s Jewish Space Lasers. How there are Jewish Zionist Republicans I’ll never understand.
The MAGA movement (which is, basically, the Republican party at this point) is riddled with proud nazi sympathizers who openly encourage an end to the Israel and to the Jews themselves. Trump himself doesn’t have a clearly stated policy and recently has used antisemitic rhetoric that directly quotes many classic bits of antisemitism, for example, that Jews support Democrats, that they support Israeli interests over American interests. As has been pointed out often, Trump is a “transactional” political actor, so his position may remain forever unknown, but he does know his supporters are primarily and loudly antisemite, singling out both Israel as a country and Jews as individuals.
So here’s how the GOP/MAGA party acolytes voted. Given their widespread antisemitism, one is reminded that Napoleon once remarked,
“In politics, absurdity is not a handicap.”
House Roll Call (go here to view each Member’s vote)
MAY 01, 2024, 04:50 PM | 118TH CONGRESS, 2ND SESSION
| Republican | 187 | 21 | 0 | 9 |
| Democratic | 133 | 70 | 0 | 9 |
| Independent | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Legislator . . . from Deep Space
The walking, talking, vacuum Marjorie Taylor Greene has again and again fashioned herself as the guardian-at-arms of her self-appointed House leadership office: Lady High Executioner of the Speaker of the House. She’s not yet met one she didn’t have her fangs out for, and she rarely shuts up about it, demanding attention. attention, and attention. In fact, she’s lately filed a so-called motion to vacate the chair, i.e., the Speaker’s chair, along with its ceremonial gavel. One suspects that she covets that prize – goodbye gavel, hello AR15. Nonetheless, yesterday, in her best dungeon speaking voice she laid down the law to House membership, especially to Mike Johnson, the present Speaker who was then trying to shepherd a group of military assistance bills through the House:
“I don’t care if the Speaker’s office becomes a revolving door. If that’s exactly what needs to happen, then let it be. But the days are over of the old Republican Party that wants to fund foreign wars and murder people in foreign lands, while they stab the American people in their face.”*
How’s that for high dudgeon? Though many in her own party wish she’d simply shut up and resign, they also know she’s a Trump favorite, perhaps on the short list of VP candidates. Of course, that’s ludicrous, but that’s where we are, isn’t it? Would you want an exceedingly bad tempered AR15 packing VP in your White House?
* By the way, Despite MTG’s opposition, Speaker Johnson succeeded in moving the foreign aid package through the House Rules Committee and a vote on that rule was passed by a 316-94 vote this morning, with a final vote on passage perhaps tomorrow, to the relief of Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan.
She Has Her Serious Moments
Although sentient beings criticize MTG for her magnetic attraction to conspiracy theories and for her abhorrence to what many for thousands of years have called facts, her indestructible armor has held up well. Media Matter’s Eric Hannoki, among other duties, seems tasked with keeping tabs on MTG’s various research endeavours, which resulted in what might be called a well worth reading citizen’s annotated guide to her disclosures on various murky matters, listing 28 areas where she has plenty to say. Here’s the kicker: his list is only complete through February 2, 2021! Imagine if, in the intervening years, she put her mind to it! And she did.
In 2022, she told supporters: “The government totally wants to provide surveillance on every part of your life. They want to know when you’re eating. They want to know if you’re eating a cheeseburger, which is very bad because Bill Gates wants you to eat his fake meat, which is grown in a peach tree dish. So you’ll probably get a little zap inside your body and that’s saying, ‘No no! Don’t eat a real cheeseburger, you need to eat the fake, the fake burger, the fake meat from Bill Gates.’”
I haven’t touched a cheeseburger since.
Also, in 2022, when criticizing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of spying on her colleagues, she confused the name of the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo, with a delicious Spanish chilled tomato soup, Gazpacho. With that, she sparked a boom in Gazpacho Police tee shirts, jewelry, and Nazi-themed soups, like Blitzkrieg Chili.
But Wait! There’s More!
Her conspiracy IQ, high as it is, is matched by her grasp of lawmaking, where one’s imagination needs some restraint if legislative proposals are to recognized, approved, and passed. And here, she’s covered herself in glory. In the present 118th Congress she’s sponsored some obviously essential proposals, including:
H.J.Res.95 – Declaring a state of war between certain cartels and the United States of America and making provision to prosecute the same.
H.Res.538 – Expunging the December 18, 2019, impeachment of President Donald John Trump. And, showcasing her principled and consistent stand on the concept and law of constitutional impeachment, she’s sponsored four eminently readable and well-thought out bills calling for the impeachment of President Biden, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Matthew M. Graves, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose Senate trial concluded with both charges dismissed on day one.
H.R.5636 – Protect Children’s Innocence Act, o prohibit gender affirming care of minors.
H.Res.829 – Censuring Representative Rashida Tlaib for antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations, and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex.
But, Wait Again! There’s Still More!!
Continuing her Jewish space lasers crusade, MTG has offered this amendment to the Israel aid package, but not for Israel’s defense needs, but, rather, to build an anti-immigrant laser defense system on our southwest border in order to deep fry illegal border invaders. Some in Congress do not take her seriously.
Chronicle of Bankruptcies Foretold: Trump’s First Stock Market Experience
But It Was A Great Way for Investors to Avoid Inflation
Most Trump watchers of the early 21st century learned to avoid any publicly traded stock offering having Donald Trump at the helm, i.e., Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. Yes, was his Atlantic City casinos era, during which he managed to underperform the casino industry in a world famous manner. Rookie mistakes like saturating the casino market with multiple casinos to his own disadvantage, taking on massive. ultimately unpayable, debt, filing his company for bankruptcy a legendary four times. Of course, he – shameless – did well financially by having no real financial stake in his own company, yet, he siphoned off revenue from operations for himself in salaries, bonuses (for what?), licensing fees, and other sneaky deals. And, then, as now, he blamed others, lied outrageously, stiffed contractors, and all in all built the Donald Trump we know, the orange man-boy who would be king. (For a fine walk down casino lane see here.)
VOX’s Matthew Yglesias observed:
“Mom-and-pop investors who had the misfortune to put their confidence in Trump lost nearly everything. [see chart below] But as a performance of low cunning, his stewardship of THCR really did verge on genius. The company itself was a dumpster fire, losing money every year Trump served as chair. But he managed to personally pocket $44 million in salary and bonuses. Even more egregiously, he offloaded personal debts onto the corporate balance sheet and had the public company purchase services ranging from bottled water to plane flights from Trump’s privately held enterprises.”
Here’s an example from a regulatory filing, as you can see by comparing it to the stock price further below, the stock value was nearing single figures, down from its high of $240/share.
So, while the casino industry as a whole did well during the Trump era, Trump managed to quickly and forevermore collapse, basically due to both financial and management incompetence, and most of all chicanery, greed, and self-promotion at the highest levels.
Meet the New Trump, Same as the Old Trump
Those too young or too forgetful have yet to learn these lessons of the past as they lately dove into the shares of Trump’s second Wall Street adventure, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (DJT) (see my previous post to learn how they’ve fared thus far). Some DJT investors lost 37.8% in first two weeks of trading.
Also, since much of the outstanding shares of DJT owned by large shareholders (Trump owns 58%) are not eligible to be traded before October 1 (called a “180 day lock-up”), the stock available to trade is approximately 25% of total shares outstanding. Thus, with larger shareholders on the sideline, trading has been allowable primarily amongst small shareholders, i.e., by MAGA’s Trump cult investors who have little to no understanding of what they’ve gotten into, and with whom. They’re the ones with losses, by and large. And for reasons alluded to above, and other technical/contractual ones, the outlook for the future is not inspiring. More on that in my next DJT posting . . .