Cross Town Thoughts
As Dems rearranged deck chairs on the Titanic, Mayor Mike was out and about playing the long game. He’s had more air time with his non-stop ads than all of the rest combined. Except maybe Steyer.
Mike is dissecting the Country to target consequential counties making the case that Trump needs to go. Whether you vote for Mike or not. And. That the Democrat Party needs an overhaul. If anything can steer the barge into a 180 degree turn, it’s Bloomberg’s juggernaut.
Gun control? Minimum wage? Solar power? If people want it. Markets will react. Walmart no longer selling certain guns & ammunition. Companies raising their own minimum wages. Home-building industry choosing photovoltaic panels for its customers to save money.
And. Maybe the people will choose the next Dem nominee. Rather than the media or the DNC. Right? Elizabeth?
Remember too big to fail? The 2008 government bank bailout? That worked out really well. And today? 6 banks still run everything. Determine the global markets. Shape the American economy. Citibank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. Their CEOs say that they have ample liquidity available for lending this time around in a strange set of calls from Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. And we should believe them?
Mnuchin is forming a group including these six banks, the Fed and the SEC, the same assemblage as in the financial crisis of 2008. Calling it a “Plunge Protection Team”. Danger. Danger.
And. Oh yeah. Merry Christmas!
I hear the sound of glass ceilings shattering all over the place. Where is the celebratory reportage? Yelling yay from the balconies? Women taking over the top jobs at the most unlikely places. Gina Haspel, CIA Director. Suzanne Scott CEO at Fox News. Okay. You say Faux News. But. It still kills in the ratings. And. Stacey Cummingham, New York Stock Exchange President. The feminists’ silence is deafening. Except for Hillary’s never-ending wearisome whining.
Oh. And. Only Brainstorm. Never Green Needle.
Hair on fire! Trump is a racist misogynistic tyrant! Finally we see him for who he really is!! What? This is the same guy whose immigration policy was to ban all colorful people from entering the country, hung out at the Playboy Mansion, owned beauty pageants, led the birther movement. BEFORE he was elected President. What is with this surprised outrage? Have you met him?
None of the ire directed at Trump will win the next election. Broken record alert! Jamie Dimon said it yesterday. Dems don’t have a centrist candidate who can win the general election in 2020. That’s where the biased media should be focusing its rants.
MSNBC’s Katy Tur covered the Trump campaign from its inception. She saw first hand the crowd reaction to his brand of populism and their excitement at having someone who related to their desire for settling scores. A new bully on their side for a change who promised to level the playing field. Trump is their guy no matter his latest tweet. If the media and establishment continue to ignore this segment of America, it will be at their future peril.
Harvey’s finally moving. Sun coming out literally if not figuratively. Not much solace for Texans still taking on water. Tragic slog ahead. When Sheila Jackson Lee and Ted Cruz actually agree, you know it’s epic. Scenes of divided communities melding together. Until later. When. Economics will separate them again.
No. Not the denizens of Neverland. Well. Maybe. Lack of hope. Futility. Jobless. Poor. Addicted. Whether from the rural towns of J.D. Vance’s Appalachia, Chicago’s South Side, or a boarded up small city in Ohio. Youth lost in a neverland of their own. Who do they become? Domestic terrorists mowing down protesters in the street. MS-13 Gang members. Recruits of ISIS. Any of these paths is possible for the desperate.
As Pope Francis said. The biggest threat to World Peace is young men without jobs.
Global warming? Balmy February in New York. Rowboats on the Lake. 
Bannon’s economic nationalism. Dismantling administrative state. Trump golfing with Els and McIlroy. The new abnormal.
Books are still normal. Just finished a good one. The Honeymoon, Dinitia Smith. A novel about literary icon George Eliot’s life and last honeymoon. Which was a doozy. See review here. Oscars. Ho-hum. This year.
No. Not Trump Tower & Times Square traffic at Christmastime. Nor gridlock in government. It’s the new global economic reality. Coined in the U.K. JAM = Just About Managing. Families who are living paycheck to paycheck. Just getting by. At best. Brexit voters and Theresa May. France’s LePen backers. Italian anti-Renzi renegades. Trumpsters in the U.S.A.
It’s the economy all the way. Class stratification across ethnic, political and ideological labels. There were lots of non-white faces at that Carrier plant in Indiana. Get it elite donor class? Leave your safe spaces. Understand the working-class voters. It’s a new day.
Side Trek . NYC 