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The Better Part of Valor is Discretion...But The Trump Regime Has Neither
Brazen, in-your-face grift has a cost...and the GOP is about to justifiably pay the price
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Today we start off with a reference to the bankruptcy code courtesy of my husband: 11 U.S.C. 546(e) and (g). What is it? His answer: “It’s a good example of the traditional way the über-wealthy found a way to screw the rest of us.” How so? Well, I’ll let him tell you in his own words:
What started as a simple section of the bankruptcy code became government-sanctioned robbery for the Masters of the Universe. The intent of this section was to address a straightforward situation: the bankruptcy of a broker-dealer (think Lehman Brothers). In that context, the idea was to prevent bankruptcy trustees from clawing back millions or billions of dollars in completed securities transactions (think buying and selling publicly traded stocks) because it could trigger a cascade of additional bankruptcies. So Congress insulated a discrete set of folks from these lawsuits to ensure market stability by adding these sections to the bankruptcy code.
But then the lobbyists for private equity funds, hedge funds, and other well-heeled market players got their claws into our lawmakers on BOTH sides of the aisle. Through a series of amendments over the past decades to these statutes, including new additions as to who qualified for immunity from being sued and small, subtle changes to wording, the statute became a liability shield for private equity, hedge funds, and other deep-pocket market participants. These folks can load a company with debt, pay themselves and selling shareholders enormous distributions, all while running the company into the ground.
When a bankruptcy ensues, the trustee can’t do jackshit about it. So the workers lose their jobs and pensions, the mom-and-pop businesses that have unsecured claims get nothing from the bankruptcy, and the financiers keep it all. Oh, but you know who can still get sued for receiving money they shouldn’t have received? The mom-and-pop businesses who are the least likely to be able to afford being sued. There’s a reason why people hate Congress even if they don’t know the specifics.
Boring stuff, maybe, but with huge dollar consequences. Yet how many times do you recall this issue EVER being discussed or explained on any mainstream media outlet in the past few decades? Never. And to this point, that’s how the deep-pocketed folks wanted it to traditionally operate: the idea was to be discreet when screwing over everyone; be subtle in how you’re taking advantage of the system. And if folks started figuring out that something is rotten in Denmark? Well, just respond with some unrelated distraction: “Look over there! UNICORN! Uh, I mean GAY MARRIAGE!”
But the times they are a-changing, people. Convicted Felon Donald Trump and his sycophants don’t even try to hide their desire to screw the rest of us. What’s amazing is that some Americans actually voted for this crap THREE TIMES! I mean, did these people really think a guy who bragged about jilting anyone and everyone, whether it was a friend, business partner, or spouse, would be different once given the nuclear codes?
We all know the greatest hits by now: the Big Bullshit Bill delivered the largest tax cuts in American history to those who needed them the least while simultaneously enacting the deepest cuts to affordable healthcare for those who need it most. The DOGE losers cut hundreds of thousands of federal jobs resulting in degraded public services for critical benefits such as Social Security and veterans’ support. Trump’s schizophrenic tariff program has not lead to any meaningful resurgence in American manufacturing and has singlehandedly hurt our global standing with allies. And all while Convicted Felon Trump punches down, he goes out of his way to enrich himself and those around him and bless the criminality of those who are willing to pay to play. On this last point, still dear to my heart is the case of local Miami businessman, Philip Esformes, who was convicted in 2019 of orchestrating the largest Medicare and Medicaid fraud in American history. Trump was so impressed by Esformes’ criminality that he gave him a pardon.
The pace of middle fingers delivered by the Trump Regime to the rest of us will not relent. A few weeks ago, to fulfill a “traditional families” policy goal championed by douche-canoe, JD Vance, the White House announced it would now redirect to stay-at-home moms the funds from a federal subsidy program designed to help working-class parents afford child-care. The program was set up during the Clinton administration because in those simpler times, both sides of the aisle in Congress recognized that helping working-class families afford child care was a pro-family, pro-work, and pro-economy policy. A hunger games between working-class parents and stay-at-home moms without the death. At least not yet.
But I’m not here to start your week off badly. Trump and his boot-licking cronies are losing control of the narrative. The consequences of Trump’s stupid decisions, many at odds with one another, are coming home to roost. You only need look at the actions of the few people in Trump’s orbit that have subject matter competence — although not much backbone — to understand this.
Start with Scott “I am the House now!” Bessent, the guy with the second most punchable face in the Trump Regime after JD Vance. Bessent announced to anyone who was listening that he would increase a Treasury buyback program for certain government securities from $4 billion to $6 billion. I’m not going to try to explain these securities, but at the core, this is what’s happening: Bessent made a desperate attempt to artificially suppress the rise in long-term borrowing costs that have resulted since Trump took office. Don’t take my word for it. The guy who actually trained Bessent, Stanley Druckenmiller, and who has probably forgotten more about lending markets than Bessent knows, wrote an op-ed pointing out the idiocy of Bessent’s move. The market result? Interest rates — on mortgages and consumer loans — continue to RISE as investors worry about the mounting national debt and inflationary actions under this Administration. Bang-up job, Scottie.
Next up? Kevin Warsh. This guy straight-up whored himself out to get the job of Chair of the Federal Reserve. He even had his daddy-in-law — Ronald Lauder — tout his candidacy. Imagine being in your 50s and still playing that family connection angle; that’s some pathetic country-club nepo white privilege right there. But when he was recently faced with the choice of raising short-term interest rates to try to put a damper on inflation or to please his benefactor, Warsh voted to increase rates. Unlike Bessent, Warsh at least had the benefit of being just one vote out of twelve, so he could tell Trump that rates were going to rise no matter how he voted. But Trump’s response? A Truth Social temper tantrum — dirty diaper sold separately — of epic stupidity. I won’t reprint it here, but just know this: in the next 12 months, if not sooner, Trump will go to war with Warsh. My advice to you, Kevin, is what Nikita Kruschev told Leonid Brezhnev: Write two letters.[i]
Elsewhere, you see the Trump Regime float ever more desperate ideas in an attempt to put bandages over their self-inflicted wounds. I’ve spoken before about Trump’s mystery beef imports — we now know the beef is coming from one of his big donors — all while screwing American cattle ranchers. At the lamest political “convention” in living history, Trump floated giving everyone $5,000 checks, deficit and inflation concerns be damned. And last week, the Regime began tossing around the idea of a 90-day export ban on diesel because its price has increased by over 70% in the past six months. On the face of it, an export ban would seem fine until you ask any economist or market participant, who will explain that it is a horrible idea in the short, medium, and long term. But, why do we even need to consider such a ban in the first place? Because of Trump’s calamitous adventure in the Persian Gulf, that’s why.
Thus, I end where I started. For too long, our politicians have done a piss poor job of doing right by the American people and instead, just focus on doing what’s best/most profitable for the few. If this RICO criminal enterprise of an Administration has taught us anything, it’s we’re long overdue for a huge pendulum shift to leadership that actually cares about people over profits.
That energy you’re feeling? That shift in the polls? All very real. It’s the very harsh, well-deserved clapback from Americans who have decided that bullies deserve to be punched in the nose and with vigor. So, go to www.vote.org and register to vote, check on your voter registration, locate your polling place, check on your ballot. Send Republicans packing and let’s have the door kick them in the ass on their way out.
[i] The story (who knows if it’s true) is that Krushchev handed his successor, Brezhnev, two letters. Kruschev tells Brezhnev to open the first letter when he encounters his first political crisis and the second letter thereafter. Sure enough, a crisis arrives and Brezhnev opens the first letter, and it reads, “Blame everything on me.” Brezhnev does so, and escapes blame. Some time passes and another crisis arrives. Brezhnev then opens the second letter. It reads: “Sit down and write two letters.”
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