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The Incredible Shrinking Despot [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-11
By David Glenn Cox
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step right up! (calliope music) See! The incredible shrinking despot! He walks! He talks! He posts and boasts and brays! Watch as he balls up his fist and threatens the whole world. He’s tough and he’s mean! And when shit goes wrong! Like Vietnam, the incredible shrinking despot is found to be missing.
The stock market dropping 1,000 points is very reminiscent to me. My business died on a day like yesterday in 2008. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was out of business. After the lightning comes the thunder. So, I watched in near rapture yesterday as the business climate choked on its own vomit. The CEO of Delta Airlines said last month; things are great. Couldn’t be better. Yesterday, he said the exact opposite of that. Probably all Joe Biden’s fault.
Why was I happy, you ask? Because anything which hurts, delays or hinders the march of the King’s Fascist program is wonderful and will be worth whatever pain is endured in the long run. Think: Scorched Earth.
The markets opened yesterday like any Monday after the King said, “I don’t like to talk about recessions.” With the clear implication…But! The King had scheduled multiple public events yesterday but said nothing. That would be like taking responsibility and as we all know, the King doesn’t do responsibility. Plenty of chances all day to parrot the famous Herbert Hoover line and proclaim our fundamentals are strong, and there is no need for excitement or consternation.
The poor little Bimbette on Bloomberg was trying to look positive in the face of a rising shit storm resorting to doublespeak. “Investors are moving to safety under threat of a global trade war.” Translation: The building is on fire! We’re all getting the fuck out of here. All I could see was the cruise director on the Titanic. “Okay! We’re going to have a lifeboat drill! Okay?” Then almost pleading by two o’clock, she says, “It’s hoped the President will make a public statement after meeting with his advisors.” Then, almost cringing, she said, “He might even take a few questions, if he feels like it!”
Of course, only he feels like it. We wouldn’t want to bother him with questions while the economy crashes. It’s not like he owes us anything like an elected leader would. He only does public on sunny days and never in the rain.
But yesterday, the Tesla death spiral really began. The Nasdaq lost 4% and Tesla stock lost 15%. That’s just in one day. If you had a million dollars in Tesla stock on Friday, you had $850,000 on Monday. The stock has lost 53% of it’s value since Elon opened his big yap. The Tesla future? Darker than the inside of a goat. Would you rather have a $100,000 in Tesla stock you couldn’t sell for six months? Or would you rather have $5,000 in cash money today?
There is no force on the planet which can save the Swasticar now. They’re museum pieces. An automotive historical footnote, like Duesenberg. Do you know why they murdered JFK? He was trying to change things. When there are a lot of people in high places who don’t want things changed. They won’t holler or write angry editorials to the Washeteria Post or New Yuck Times. Stay out of open cars, that’s all. Careful when you fly, accidents happen.
Now just for instance, if I had a billion-dollar government contract and someone tries to take it away from me by sucking off the King. I might respond inappropriately. I might make a few phone calls to people who don’t exist to see about having you join their club. We are talking billions with a B! Get in the car; you’re having lunch with Jimmy Hoffa!
The person of the King is inviolate. The king feeds and thrives on verbose bluster and proclamations. Losing a thousand points on the stock market does more than all the protest marches in the world ever could. The elitist and vermin watch the numbers ticking off. You can have their mother but not their money. Then they look at the numbers ticking off again. Then they look at the King again and see their coming ruin. Finely understanding they’ve been had and the jokes on them.
Cut 80,000 jobs at the VA in the face of a recession? I double dog dare you! You do that, and there won’t be a Republican left in the House of Representatives in two years. Continue on this path at your own peril. That hot blood of partisan ideology is great stuff until you start messing with their money!
That short-term discomfort the King warned us about is probably going to be about ten years. Are you busy?
Yesterday there was a thunderbolt on Wall Street. It was bad by itself but not fatal. One or two more days like this and you’ve got real trouble right here in River City. The King tells Canada, we don’t need your cars or lumber or Electricity! Go ahead! Turn it off! Let em freeze! See if I care! They don’t care how much it costs each month! I’m, I mean, they’re tough! They don’t care how cold it gets!
They don’t care if cars cost a million dollars! They don’t care if they lose their jobs. We’re tough!
In the space of sixty days the King has isolated America. Increased the threat of a world war and nuclear exchange and now…tanks the economy. In 24 hrs. business prospects and economic sentiment collapsed. The plunge protection squad was working overtime. The Dow would leak down fifty points or a hundred points and then suddenly jump up ten or twenty. Think how much money it took to move a down market up ten or twenty points.
But they buy Ford or Microsoft something safe they know will go up in a day or two. They buy to brake the fall and stifle the panic and sell when the fires is out. It works well for one day events. But can’t work for long in a down market without becoming a leaking bucket.
The Fuehrer loved pageantry and speechifying too, pounding on the lectern talking about all the big things he was going to do. But when the bombs started falling, he hid his out in his bunker. The difference between a real leader and someone just a playing a character on TV.
“Where shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurly-burly 's done, when the battle 's lost and won” ― William Shakespeare
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