TACO Thursday

 Trump was asked about how Wall Street types have a shorthand: TACO for Trump Always Chickens Out. Basically, it has been the stock guys way of looking at Trump's tariff's clusterfuck. Sure, he talks big, but in the end, he chickens out. 

A few hours later, a US court ruled that he has no emergency powers to levy the tariffs in the first place. Then an Appeals court stayed THAT decision. Are there tariffs? Who knows! Yes, I guess.

And that's...fine. As Marshall notes, Trump's poll numbers collapsed during the chaos of Liberation Day. Then, some of the tariffs went away: TACO! Then China's went through the roof. Then they came back down to merely terrible. TACO! His numbers stabilized. 

The combination of the actual legal status of his tariffs being in limbo (he has no legal authority) and the existing collapse in ocean going shipping means that we should still be headed to what we need to be headed for: empty shelves this summer. It is going to suck, but the only way the American people are going to learn something is by ramming full speed into the side of a cliff that has been painted to look like a Walmart checkout lane. We have always been somewhat of a prisoner to FAFO, and we need to wait for sentence to be carried out.

Still, my point from yesterday still seems germane. What has this festering orange goblin actually accomplished? I mean, he's definitely destroyed some stuff, some important stuff. America is weaker now than it was yesterday and a LOT weaker than it was last year. His capacity for destruction is immense.

However, what has he built? Without legislation to back his moves, how permanent is any of this crap? The courts are shooting his shit down with almost hilarious regularity. Of course, the capacity of the president to ignore the judiciary is an as yet untested strength. Trump is an authoritarian; he will defy court decisions he disagrees with.

I think at that point, it becomes necessary for the people to rise up.

On a mixed note, we are travelling. We stayed in exurban North Carolina last night and this morning one of those vapid morning show was on in the background of the complimentary breakfast. There was an ad by the local House member lying about protecting Medicare from something something Joe Biden. Seriously, Biden screwed Medicare...somehow. It was a classic Trumpian move to make every weakness an attack. This member is clearly spooked by the budget he just voted for and felt the need to start dropping ads.

This is a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that he is clearly shitting his pants, if he's running ads in May of 2025. The bad news is that I simply cannot conceive of a Democratic Party that is going to run ads in May of 2025. Republicans have learned how to hack the smooth brains of the disengaged voter. That's how they won.

Democrats need to start attacking and more importantly defining the issue. Medicare is their baby. People trust them. But they won't if they don't see them speaking up.

Trump's sort of drowning right now.

Stick a hose in his mouth.

UPDATE: This is a decent argument that ends with the real possibility that Trump - a walking sack of fat and gristle held together by seething grievances - may decide NOT to chicken out during his next showdown. So as shelves empty and he would normally retreat, he doubles down, because TACO!