A pox on FL Governor Ron DeSantis, for stealing the low hanging fruit surrounding the fallout from last month’s debate. His call to end what he describes as a “Weekend at Bernie’s” Presidency removed what may be the among the most accessible of themes that I have encountered in quite a while.
He thus forces me to operate in a more derived fashion. As in, which Bernie? Because there’s a lot of them from which to select, and the first that comes to my mind is this Shmendrik:
It seems like only yesterday that the image on the left was superimposed on virtually every e-picture on the interwebs. Careful observation confirms that this Bernie’s mask skews a little to his left, if anything, insufficiently so.
But the fact is that he had the Dem nomination snatched by party elders from his rightful hands, not once but twice. In 2016 AND 2020. And that had this NOT been the case, a “Weekend at Bernie’s” Presidency would have taken on a whole different meaning. Most likely taking place at his warm weather second home, which, as he has repeatedly pointed out, ALL good Vermont socialists own, and refer to as their “summer camp”.
There is, alternatively, Bernard P. Fife, whose political chops include a losing run for sheriff against Ange. Though known throughout the world as Barney, his fun girl side piece Skippy always (incorrectly) referred to him as Bernie:
There he is on the left, alongside his opposite number – Myrt (Hubcaps) Lesh, who unloaded a lemon on him — in part by claiming to be the widow of another Bernard, which pretty much sealed the deal.
Gomer ultimately discovers that the car needs plugs, points, bearings, valves, rings, starter switch, ignition wires, water pump, fuel pump, oil pump, clutch, clutch bearings, clutch plates, brake lining, brake shoes, brake drums, radiator hose, and radiator hose coupling.
“And I’d give ‘er a good wash, too” adds Gomer, but this is deemed unhelpful.
Gomer does find sawdust in the gears of Barn’s newly acquired jalopy though, and this springs the Mayberry crime fighting team into action. I don’t know about you, but I feel we could use some of that in Washington.
There are, in addition, other Bernie’s to consider. For instance, Bernie Leadon, who, before co-founding the Eagles, was in a band that featured the guys who were part of the Mayberry Darling (known outside of the small screen as the Dillards) krew. So, there’s that.
But the comment was unambiguously pointed towards Joe (Bernie) Biden, referencing the “WaB” storyline involving the feigned re-animation of an individual who had departed these realms for a better land. Everyone gets the joke, but this isn’t the movies, Biden, whatever else may be said of him, can still fog a mirror, and, beyond this, has exclusive access to the nuclear codes.
At the point of this correspondence, he and his closest confidants are “Jilling off” in what presumably is a frantic effort to resist the growing calls for him to bounce. I have no idea where they stand on this score. But all has the look and feel of the inevitable. As was the case with Nixon and so many others, though, until the decision is made to exit (stage left), the central figure in the saga adamantly denies he (or she) is going anywhere.
So let it be with Biden. He’s in till he’s out. And then he’s out.
And it seems, as the second half of ’24 begins to unfold, political drama is impossible to avoid. The French have all but dispatched the leftist Macron. Meantime, in the UK this past week, the Whigs trounced the Tories, ending the brief Prime Ministerial tenure of that hedge fund dude who replaced the bird who dwelled at 10 Downing Street for all of twelve days.
Thus, as the French veer right, the Brits lurch left. However, ironically, the markets fear both outcomes to be fiscally unsound and as dilutive to the associated sovereign debt of each nation.
On this side of the Atlantic, of course, the political games of ring around the rosie have yet to resolve themselves. Mercifully, though, we’ve some more adult level matters with which to, at minimum, distract ourselves. Chair Pow hikes up the Hill on Tuesday/Wednesday, carrying the hopes of a nation for rate cuts — after a Jobs Report showing that the only new gigs being created are those involving the pushing of government paper and the emptying of bed pans filled by the elderly/infirm, along with him.
His Atlanta Division, meanwhile, is projecting a rather ominous diminishing of Q2 GDP figures, relative to that which it published a scant fortnight or so ago:
We’ll also be treated to another round of CPI/PPI. And to the quarterly ritual of earnings and associated guidance. With respect to the latter, expectations run high, raising the prospect of risks tilting to the downside if certain corporate chieftains break our hearts.
But God Oh Mighty, and though I hate to lay this on y’all, it is difficult for me to form any opinion other than that outcomes in November will be the most important determinant of market trajectories in the quarters to come.
And, so long as I’m killing your buzz and harshing your mellow, I may as well offer my own spin on all this.
If I wasn’t a born and bred Conservative, I certainly morphed into one after attending the University of Chicago. I thus cannot claim objectivity.
But from a pure market risk perspective, please know that the capital economy is walking on a thin wire. It has been living on borrowed time (and borrowed money) for years, and even a minor disruption could push it into free fall. Our financial system collapsed in 2008 and recovered largely through historic injections of fiscal and monetary helium. It then received double doses of same in the wake of the lockdowns.
These tanks are nearly empty.
As such, we’re better off trying to fix what we broke, concentrate on productivity and innovation — as opposed to focusing on outflanking ourselves in righteous rhetoric.
These matters, of course, are for the public consensus to determine, but I fear that if the Progressives run the table, they will press their fat left thumbs even harder on the scales than they ever have. And pressing their fat left thumbs on the scales is core to their strategy.
I recognize that thumbs on scales is a specialty of both sides of the aisle. But as of right now, it is the left thumb that terrifies me, mostly because I fear it will be permanent. Let them run the table and they won’t fail to enfranchise beholden immigrants (and perhaps felons), pack the Supreme Court, grant statehood to Puerto Rico and D.C., expand entitlements, increase taxes, cripple the Energy Complex, or some combination thereof.
If one wants to envision the true end of Democracy, that’s what it looks like – to me, at any rate.
And woe to the markets if that happens.
So, my desired outcome is a split government, and I don’t care how it splits.
But can at least elect a non-Bernie to the top spot, and my vote would be for Bernie Fife – so long as he doesn’t choose Hubcaps Lesh as his running mate. Because there is enough sawdust in the gears of our economic engine, without her shady exploitation of the better angels of our nature, to go around.
TIMSHEL