Friday Insights-August 16, 2024
As expected, Donald Trump continues to flounder.
It is Friday, August 16, and election day is only 80 days away.
This week may prove to be the calm before the storm. On the domestic front, the presidential campaigns continue, with one going north and the other going south. Harris/Walz continues to build momentum as Trump and Vance screw up. An article in Vanity Fair reported Trump's allies fear Trump is sabotaging his campaign. Curious.
Less in the news than Donald Trump’s disastrous “interview” with Elon Musk (who is experiencing a RUD or “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” in the Musk lexicon) or J.D. Vance’s less than stellar outing in Michigan where the one-time hillbilly confused Energy Secretary Granholm with Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, is the possibility of a broader war in the Middle East. Iran may be about to attack Israel.
The war in Gaza could be about to turn into a mini-world war. Most of us are not paying enough attention to the worsening crisis, which would have world and domestic ramifications. The U.S. military is ready. Assets are being positioned to strike back at Iran immediately should it attack. If that happens, watch out.
Negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas continue. Let’s hope they are successful.
Also in the news is Ukraine’s invasion of Russia. Thus far, it has been successful. Putin was caught unprepared. He is promising retribution. That is scary. When Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, many of us feared Putin would resort to tactical nuclear weapons if “necessary.” To date, Russia hasn’t gone nuclear but continues to suffer large numbers of casualties, likely exceeding the 58,200 Americans killed in Vietnam.
Should we be worrying about Putin using tactical nuclear weapons to force Ukraine to the bargaining table? Also worrisome is the U.S. presidential election. Has Donald Trump told Putin he will end all aid to Ukraine if elected? That would not surprise me.
What else happened this week?
Kamala Harris will release her economic plan later today. It includes banning “price gouging” on food. Harris’ timing is curious because inflation is down to 2.9 percent. Will the Harris announcement precipitate a business-community rejection of Harris? Given Trump’s recent meltdowns that is hard to imagine, but price controls are not popular among Capitalists. At his “press conference” at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course, Trump criticized the Harris proposal and said price controls will drive up prices, not lower them.
On Wednesday, August 14, the Washington Post reported that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has contacted the Harris campaign about an endorsement in exchange for a cabinet post should she win. Give me a break!
J.D. Vance (still his name for the time being) first hesitated to agree to an October 1 debate hosted by CBS with Tim Walz and then changed his mind. Vance also agreed to a September 18 debate with Walz hosted by CNN, so we will have two opportunities to see Vance and Walz in action. The debates won’t impact the election results in November, but I’ll watch them anyway. Based on Vance's recent stumbles, I expect Walz to do well.
The financial disclosure forms Trump filed with the Federal Election Commission were released on Thursday. CNN writes:
Trump reported earning more than $12 million through licensing and royalty deals from two LLCs he owns, including about $7.2 million as part of a “license agreement with NFT INT, LLC,” the company that is selling digital NFT “trading cards” featuring the former president. That figure is up from the roughly $300,000 he reported receiving as part of that agreement in his previous disclosure filed a year ago.
Trump reported making more than $5 million through CIC Ventures LLC, largely in royalties from his books “Letters to Trump” and “Our Journey Together.” He also reported making $300,000 from “The Greenwood Bible,” a venture associated with country singer Lee Greenwood.
The forms also show that copies of “The Art of the Deal” are still selling. I wonder who is buying them? One guess is the Trump campaign or the Republican National Committee. We will be reading more about the disclosures this week, and I suspect federal prosecutors will as well.
Finally, I again mention Trump’s “press conference” at his golf resort. It effectively repeated the “press conference” he held earlier this month at Mar-a-Lago. It was promoted as focusing on economics and included a table of groceries as a prop. However, Trump quickly returned to describing Harris as someone who destroys everything she touches and similar topics. A video of the full event may be found here.
That’s it for now. I will spend the weekend resting up for the Democratic convention (as well as for out-of-town houseguests). The convention in Chicago should be a lovefest. Demonstrations and clashes with police are unlikely—I watched a video of the police erecting barriers around the convention site this afternoon. The whole world may be watching the Democratic debate, but don’t expect 1968-type drama.
Thank you for reading Friday Insights. I welcome suggestions for issues to watch or how to make this weekly post more interesting or useful.
Have a good weekend.