(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



The Breakfast of Champions [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-10

By David Glenn Cox

I heard this story from the White House Steward involved. It is similar to our own current situation. In the depths of the Great Depression and the run-up to the 1932 election. Herbert Hoover while being served his breakfast of eggs and bacon and sausages. Wheat toast and half a grapefruit with a glass of orange juice on the side. Mr. Hoover asked the steward, what makes that Mr. Roosevelt so popular? The steward replied, he has a nice smile, sir.

A moment of historical cluelessness. The big fat man eating breakfast for three in a big white palace while children starved outdoors was confused. Why do they like someone else? What is it that attracts them to FDR? Maybe his smile? Oh sure, that’s it! I guess, I just need to smile more.

The King stops and starts his trade war like a kid playing with a garden hose. Spraying this and not spraying that. “Oh wait! Those tariffs could collapse the auto industry in days. So never mind those tariffs for a month. He lifted the tariffs for Canada and Mexico, but not for China. Lots of auto parts come from China. Then the King in a moment of reflection says, “We might have a recession. But it will be short and won’t bother me in the slightest!

Years ago, when gasoline was around fifty cents a gallon. President Carter made a speech about energy warning gas prices could go as high as a dollar a gallon. Only a President shouldn’t say such things like that. The oil companies took it as an invitation to raise prices. The President said it could go as high as a dollar a gallon. And the oil companies said, Let’s not make him wrong fellas.

So, Wall Street on the King’s candid assessment of a recession pulls the fire alarm (yet again) and runs for the exits. The recession starts today! Wall Street like Main Street knows the King is a fantastical liar. And if the King is willing to admit to a little recession, good golly Moses we are in some deep shit now! The good News if you can call it good. The King will now struggle getting the draconian budget cuts he desires. There is fear as a dominating theme in Washington.

The town halls and the world-wide destruction of Tesla as a going concern warn Republicans to go easy Leonard. If Sergeant Hartman finds us in here, we’ll both be in a world of shit! “I am in a world of shit!”

I’ve lived through the Kennedy Assassination, Civil Rights protests in Alabama. Vietnam War protests, Nixon’s resignation, Iran-Contra and I have never seen the people this pissed off. If the Republicans stop right now in their insane agenda the bi-year elections will still be difficult. Republicans will certainly lose control of the house. The anger is almost universal and growing. If the Republicans don’t stop there will be big trouble. The Secret Service shot a man a block from the White House and there are many more a comin. This country leads the world in hi powered firearms and poor mental health.

Commodities have been getting hammered since the King decided to dispense with foreign aid. “We’re tough and strong and we ain’t passing out food anymore!” Farmers look to the future with fear. Some of you will go broke but it won’t affect me in the slightest! Some (RED) Ag States are already pushing the panic button. Nebraska says, We have no workers! No one to harvest our crops. Sing! “Where have all the migrants gone.” And 25 % Tariffs from food grown in Mexico. Our state will go broke! Treasury Secretary Doofuss says, it’s not inflationary, if we say it isn’t. Oh no, of course not.

If you in your evil little mind you set out to destroy and unravel and rattle world markets. You couldn’t do it any better without literally breathing fire and rising up from a pentagram on the floor holding a pitchfork. “You really think it’s his smile huh?”

Give it 90 or 120 days and the homes start going into foreclosure. Here’s a fun fact. Two thirds of all wealth in America is in real estate. Now suppose that real estate loses ten or twenty percent of its value like it did in 2008? Except this time hundreds of thousands of college educated workers without a prayer of ever finding improvement. A doctorate in Meteorology huh, can you work the drive through on Sunday?

When I was quasi homeless in Minneapolis, I stayed in a rooming house. I was a writer/day laborer and the guy down the hall had a doctorate and designed heart stents for a living. When you get laid off from a job like that it’s hard to find another of equal value.

So, fear is the overawing mood in America. Fear and anger! From the doctor to migrant worker. And the King says, “We might have a recession?” The understatement of the new century. If we don’t have a gully washing whiz bang of a recession it will be a miracle right out of scripture.

We’re going to sell that two billion dollars in commodities that we normally ship overseas and sell it to each other! Sure, you can pick it up in your 80- or hundred-thousand-dollar truck. What day is it? It’s only 80 thousand, if you buy before next Tuesday!

The King, despite overwhelming support for Ukraine by the American people. Gloats over a Russian victory in Ukraine. It was a spectacle which almost shines as the pinnacle of human awfulness. It cries out a warning. A warning that all of us regardless of party or position can feel intrinsically. This ain’t normal. And Wall Street answers, you’re god damn right this ain’t normal, this is suicidal!

And the King says, “You really think it’s his smile, huh?”

“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”

― Mark Twain

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/10/2309157/-The-Breakfast-of-Champions?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/