Feeling a Draft

After 8 years in a bubble, Michelle Obama is reveling in family, friends and pet projects.  She has no personal political goals, and has pointedly eschewed a presidential run.  Running for president is a multiyear slog, with the first debates starting nearly 15 months before the election.  She wants no part of it.

But for Democrats the allure of Michelle is irresistible.  Michelle Obama was the most admired woman in a recent poll.  But unlike the prior winner, Hillary Clinton, who may also have been the most disliked woman, Michelle has few haters.  Her approval/disapproval differential is off the charts.  She would fire up the base without inspiring the opposition.

She must be furious at her husband's legacy dismantled, and his reputation trampled, by an odious imposter.  Opposition to Trump is not political, it is moral.  No one expects Michelle to throw her hat in the ring,  Instead, if the Democratic presidential nominee comes as a suitor on bended knee, we hope she will accept the Vice Presidency.

Running for VP is not the marathon of the presidency, but just a 4 month sprint to the finish.  As Vice President she could accept as much, or as little responsibility as she chooses.  With Trump out of office, she could decline to run for a second term.

The stakes are so high, that we are humbly asking Michelle to go all in on a game she does not want to play.

Pathway to Hell

I have long expressed my "Pathway to Heaven Theory."  Each individual believes that his or her greatest strength is the most important virtue.  Those gifted with great brain power value intelligence above all else.  Those who are at perfect weight consider that fundamental.  Wealthy men, like our president, give that preeminence.

But only now, is it clear that the opposite is also true.  Those with serious character flaws believe all others have the same deficiencies.  For we all want to think well of ourselves.  The President is hellfire in chief.  He, did, and would, accept help from foreign powers, because anyone would do it.  An inveterate liar, he blames all others for spreading fake news.

Because of his low moral standards,  Trump can only maintain his ego and sense of self worth by dragging the entire country down to his level.  We are going to hell in a Trump branded hand basket.

Security

Intelligence sources must be as sacred as the confessional.  They must not be sacrificed on the altar of  politics and expediency.  The larger, and more diverse the congregation, the better the chance of deferring judgement day.

A few empty foreign pews were spotted after Trump blew an Israeli source during an oval office laugh fest with the Russian ambassador.  The collection plate may be empty now that the president has a Barr in the China, Russia and Saudi shop.  Fear of exposure will discourage future recruits.

For our intelligence services, what they do not know can hurt us.  One source too few, may result in a multitude of deaths.

End Game

People of good faith could debate well into the night whether incompetence or corruption are the hallmark of this administration.  But none can deny the sickly sweet smell of mendacity oozing from every pore of the White House and from every 35 dollar pour at the Trump DC Hotel.

The lies are beyond number and the greed without limit.  One hundred and two million dollars of tax payer money has been spent to date at Trump properties for his golf outings.  When Saudi Arabia needed to curry favor with the administration, they booked an entire floor at his hotel.  Others such as T-Mobile have followed suit, in only slightly less grandiose ways.   His designated czar for the Middle East, Kushner, punished Qatar when it failed to come through with a 400 million dollar loan for his family business.

Saudi Arabia has been happy to supply the needed funds.  The Crown Prince has been amply rewarded by the downplaying of the murder of a Washington Post Journalist, and a weapon deal in defiance of Congress.

Then of course, there are the web of threats to the interests of America that fit under the rubric of Russia and Putin, including the related obstruction of justice.

Trump must be removed from office.  Unfortunately, unless after pigs grow wings, Republicans grow their own additional appendages, the subsequent Senate trial will flounder.  GOPers will place personal and party interests before country.

Conversely, just beating Trump in 2020 is not enough to restore the rule of law and the sense of decorum.  Impeachment and criminal proceedings are also necessary.  So after we move heaven and earth (he has hell locked up), to defeat Trump, we must have a lame duck impeachment session.  The politics will be greatly diminished, if not totally removed.

The American people will be able to see the nature of the beast who ruled them without a hint of beauty.

Mobility

The American Dream is a bumper sticker without a bumper.  Upward mobility, symbolized by 1950s automobiles, has jammed in a massive pile up.   Public transportation is needed.

In the aftermath of WWII, America was largely unscathed, and at full industrial production.   Our allies were crippled by a costly victory, and axis powers, by an even more crippling defeat.  American industrial might was unchallenged.  The big three auto makers, facing no credible competition, could afford to buy labor peace rather than squeeze every dollar out of union negotiations.

The middle class surged.  Workers could put their children through college, and maybe even have a little vacation cottage on a lake in northern Michigan.  Charitably, this is the great America symbolized by the Trump sea of red hats.  But reversion to the mean, is a social, as well as statistical, reality.  Globalization was inevitable.  Not even the unlikely return of industrial jobs, would herald the return of 1950s industrial salaries.

Third world level income inequality, is the product of social stagnation.  A permanent under class will eventually become self aware, with dire consequences.  Therein lies the appeal of Elizabeth Warren's plan to tax the ultra wealthy to subsidize college tuition.

Education increases income.  We can argue about details of taxation and tuition subsidies.  We can consider steps to slow the rise in the cost of a college education and alternatives to traditional colleges.  But high paying industrial jobs are the shiny chrome of the past.  The glow of the future is on computer screens and smart phones.   We need a new path to upward mobility.

The Mueller Opus

The report reprises some greatest hits, like the Trump Tower Meeting, with some hidden treasures, and unexplored "B"sides.  Highlights include Don McGhan's multiple takes of "Stop in the Name of Law," Michael Cohen's "Sing, Sing Sing," and Sarah Sanders' soulless rendition of "I Didn't Hear it Through the Grapevine."

The liner notes make clear the necessity for this concept piece.  On multiple levels, a hostile foreign power interfered in the 2016 election ,with the open encouragement of one of the campaigns.  Meetings were frequent, and polling data was exchanged.  Unlike a witch hunt, which always finds a witch, Mueller judiciously determined there was not enough evidence for the crime of conspiracy.  Shell casings were everywhere, but no smoking gun.

Side two, obstruction, was a clearer case.  Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder.   For anyone not holding temporary presidential immunity,  what I read was so fulsome as to earn a long stay at Folsom prison.  Criminality aside,  by word and deed, scrupulously attributed to Trump's handpicked associates, this creature of chaos, narcissism and veniality is a blot on our history.

The report should not play softly in the back of your mind like a Miles Davis rift,  It should be cranked up to full punk band intensity.  Our system of free elections was attacked by Russia, and our president is without a particle of patriotism.  Where is his outrage?  He is too filled with self love to have any room for love of country.

Why Not Bernie?

The three most important things in real estate are, location, location and location.  In the 2020 presidential election the three most important things are beat Trump, beat Trump, and beat Trump.  Senator Sanders is a man of integrity, worthy of our respect, but not of our vote.  Although he can raise money, and the spirits of the young, he is the least likely candidate to beat Trump.

At no time during the 2016 campaign, nor since, has Trump's approval rating topped fifty per cent.  As such, he cannot win, but he can make his opponent lose.  He will never be the vessel of our hopes, but rather the alternative to our fears.  In 2020 he will run against the radical Democrats, embodied by the term socialism.

Socialism is not scary to millennials, but it spooks the suburbs that carried us to victory in the midterms, and that will be crucial in 2020.  Bernie is a proud, self proclaimed, Democratic Socialist.  Democratic will he as silent as the "h" in herbs.  Socialist will be loud and booming.

Loud and booming is another Bernie problem.  Many of the Obama voters who subsequently backed Trump have expressed a desire for another Obama; someone diplomatic and cerebral.  Other than Trump, Bernie is the loudest and most bombastic candidate.  Granted he is a truth teller with substance, but his style is all wrong.  After 2 years of chaos, we do not want to be yelled at.  Bernie's stage whisper would make us cry for Evita.

Getting back to real estate, location does indeed matter.  Democrats have about 200 electoral votes locked up.  The remaining 70 must come either from the Midwest or the Southwest.  As a proud son of Vermont, Bernie is from the wrong region.  Biden, Klobuchar, and Mayor Pete have midwestern roots, while Beto and Castro could put Texas and Arizona in play.

In 2020, we must play to win.