There’s no crying in politics

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Did you see billionaire Leon Cooperman crying on CNBC over the prospect of Elizabeth Warren becoming president? This is great stuff. “I don’t need Elizabeth Warren telling me that I’m a deadbeat and that billionaires are deadbeats. The vilification of billionaires makes no sense to me,” he said. “I care,” he replied when CNBC Half Time Report host Scott Wapner asked why he was getting so emotional.

Trevor Noah did a very funny bit about this on The Daily Show.

President Barack Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, the one when Obama roasted Donald Trump. Conservatives from economists to gun lobbyists predicted the worst would happen when he was running for president and then re-election. Turns out he was the best thing for both industries. (YouTube)

Billionaires and gun owners have been predicting the end of America for decades, every time a Democrat begins to gain traction with America’s voting class. The truth is Democratic administrations have been very, very good for Wall Street/Big Business and gun manufacturers.

The two presidents with the highest gains in the stock market while president are Bill Clinton, with a 210% increase, and Barack Obama with a 182% increase. In contrast, the stock market increase under Ronald Reagan was just 34%. George H.W. Bush saw a rise of 51%, but George W. Bush really saw it tank: -40%. Here’s a handy stock market index from CNN.

When Donald Trump got into office he benefitted from the Obama stock market which has risen 34% since January 21, 2017.

If you want to use the stock market as a primary index for rating the success of a president, clearly Democrats are much better for the economy than Republicans. The numbers don’t lie.

When it comes to gun sales, there’s no president better than a Democrat, especially one like Barack Hussein Obama. “Obama was the best-selling president for guns. Every time he opened his mouth,” Blue Collar Firearms owner Trisha Kinney, told Reuters in January of this year. Blue Collar Firearms is located in Colton, California.

According to that Reuters article the firearms industry was raking in $40 billion a year under Obama and in 2016 when most people thought Hillary Clinton would win the election. In 2018 15.8 million firearms were legally sold in the U.S. Or more accurately, sales that required a check in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Firearms sales are down just over 6% under Trump and the stock market growth has slowed down. A few months ago economists were predicting a market correction some time in 2020.

The big banks and giant corporations, along with the über rich folks, got a windfall with that tax bill Trump and the GOP leadership jammed through the Congress last year. Companies can now pollute and foul the planet’s earth, water and air under Trump. The EPA just “loosened” regulations to allow coal companies to dump their waste into waterways once again. Those are just some of the results of Trump as president. Let’s not forget the babies in cages, calling white supremacists “fine people” and a whole ship full of high crimes and misdemeanors.

The Democrats though are concentrating on the Ukraine scandal in the impeachment hearings. It’s now becoming absolutely clear: the president is right when he says there was no quid pro quo. It was a shakedown, extortion.  Read Fiona Hill’s testimony where she describes the interference in the foreign policy towards Ukraine her “worst nightmare.” That Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland told her he was told by the president he was taking the lead on Ukraine policies. Sondland and acting chief-of-staff and OMB director Mick Mulvaney were pushing the extortion of the Ukrainian president

Ambassador Bill Taylor (Public Domain, Wikipedia)

Because Ambassador Bill Taylor, former ambassador to Ukraine Maria “Masha” Yovanovitch and Lt. Col. Vindman have corroborated Hill’s testimony, in separate, closed door depositions, the extortion plot carried out by Rudy Giuliani, Mick Mulvaney and Ambassador Sondland has directly implicated President Trump in the crime. And we’ve learned that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry are implicated.

Sondland read the opening statements from the witnesses going into the closed door depositions he suddenly remembered many of the moments he told the representatives, during his deposition, he couldn’t remember. “Why yes, there was a quid pro quo!”

As I said, it was extortion. A quid pro quo agreement indicates both parties are willing and sometimes enthusiastic about scratching each other’s’ backs. According to the testimony from Vindman, Taylor, and Hill, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine wanted no part of the deal, digging up dirt, real or fantasy, on the Bidens in exchange for military aid and a meeting with President Trump in the White House.

Trump got his current Attorney General, William Barr involved in the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, at the behest of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, were the ones who actually interfered in the 2016 election. Barr accepted and got an experienced, investigative U.S. attorney on it. But when Trump asked Barr to go to the microphones and declare the president hadn’t done anything wrong in the call with Ukraine president Zelensky, Barr took a pass. U.S. senators like Lindsey Graham have continued the destruction of their integrity by making such statements, or in Graham’s case, declaring he won’t even read the transcripts from the closed door depositions.

Apparently though, Barr has found his floor. He knows defending President Trump on that call is a losing proposition. Barr is watching his fellow Republicans twisting in the wind, making fools of themselves. We’re looking at you Rand Paul of Kentucky and John Kennedy of Louisiana. You consciously intended to be disrespectful towards Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. All disrespect intended, Senator Kennedy: You’re a lying son-of-a-bitch.

Speaking of Kentucky — oops. Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier-Journal said Governor Matt Bevin didn’t lose the Kentucky governor’s race because he made mortal enemies of friends and foes alike, although that was a big part of it. The main reason Bevin lost to Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear is because he’s a jerk. In less polite circles we would call him an asshole.

Maria Yovanovitch
(Public Domain, Wikipedia)

Bevin, being the asshole that he is, has refused to concede, even though he lost the election by more than 5,000 votes. Is this what we should expect in November 2020 if Donald Trump loses the presidential race? Trump is an asshole too so probably.

For the next year, let’s hope, the Democrats will be putting the impeachment hearings, floor debates and Senate trial out in the news every day. Day after day, dragging the GOP through their own Republican mud; the oily, greasy Trump Swamp mud they’ve been stirring up trying to defend Trump’s extortion of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Republicans can’t argue the facts, because the facts show the president and his henchmen, Giuliani, Sundland, Mulvaney and Kurt Volker (can’t forget about him) in particular, engaged in a conspiracy to extort Ukraine for help in the 2020 Trump presidential campaign. Get Ambassador Bill Taylor in public hearings saying things like this:

“During that phone call, Gordon Sondland told me that President Trump told him he wants President Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Ambassador Sondland also told me he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting was dependent on a public announcement of an investigation. In fact, Ambassador Sondland said, everything was dependent on such an announcement, including the military assistance.”

“He said President Trump wanted President Zelensky in a public box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations. It`s important that you say it out loud. If the whole point is to use against your re-election effort, then people have to know about the investigations, right? You need a public announcement.”

Quid pro quo? No, it was extortion.

Top photo is a YouTube screenshot of Leon Cooperman crying in CNBC