Bad News For Congressional Republicans-- Followed By More Bad News For Congressional Republicans

That tweet from the wee hours of Friday morning will be the GOP midterm campaign platform. I don't think Democrats are shaking in their boots. It's a single-minded Trump-base strategy-- something to appeal to the low-IQ people who go to his rallies for a night of entertainment and meaning. He must have been all worked up after his exhilarating rally in Great Falls, Montana. Great Falls, with the population of under 60,000, is the county seat of Cascade County. It's the heart of Trump Country. In the 2016 primaries, Trump eviscerated Cruz-- 8,129 (74.7%) to 830 (7.6%). And Cascade County was all his in the general as well-- 57.0% to 35.5%. Far more tickets had been given away than there was space in ExpoPark so, thousand of Trump fans were turned away. He planned it that way. He "boasted about the size of the crowds he draws, saying he's 'broken virtually every record' and again calling his inaguration crowd a 'big monster' crowd. He said if there had been empty seats instead of vastly more tickets given out than could fit in the 6,600-capacity arena, he would be mocked. Instead, he should be mocked for all the bullshit was spouting all evening. A sample:

• After a little anti-McCain routine, he went after George H.W. Bush: "Thousand points of light? What does that mean? I know one thing. Make America Great Again we understand. Putting America first we understand. Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one. What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? It was put out by a Republican wasn't it."
• Earlier he had attacked Maxine Waters, claiming she has an IQ even lower than his own: "Democrats want anarchy. They really do. And they don't know who they are playing with, folks. I said it the other day, yes, she is a low IQ individual. Maxine Waters. I said it the other day. I mean, honestly she is somewhere in the mid 60s. I believe that."
• "A vote for Jon Tester is a vote for Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the new leader of the Democrat party, Maxine Waters.”
• "I am meeting with President Putin next week and getting along-- let me tell you, getting along with Russia and getting along with China and getting along with other countries is a good thing. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing... Now they're saying it with Putin. 'Well Putin is highly prepared. And Trump, will he be prepared for the meeting?' Trust me, we'll be just fine. Fake news. Bad people. Will he be prepared? Will he be prepared? And I might even end up having a good relationship. But they're going 'will President Trump be prepared? You know, President Putin is KGB.' And this and that. You know what? Putin's fine. He's fine. We're all fine. We're people. Will I be prepared? Totally prepared. I've been preparing for this stuff my whole life. They don't say that."
• "I am going to tell NATO, you've got to start paying your bills. The United States is not going to take care of everything."
• Making the Supreme Court nomination process into a tawdry TV game show: "If you tune in Monday at 9 o'clock, I think you are going to be extremely happy."
• Baiting Elizabeth Warren: "We will say, 'I will give you $1 million to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you are an Indian and let's see what she does."

The Democrats won't be running their midterm campaign based on responding to Trump's lies and stupidity. The kind of people who go to his rallies aren't the target audience-- although Elizabeth Warren's retort, reminding people of Trump's multiple Atlantic City scams and bankruptcies-- was pretty damned amusing:

"Trump thinks he’s insulting me by calling me Pocahontas. The truth is, I’m proud of my heritage-- our casinos make money!"

Yesterday the folks at Politico early morning Playbook told us that Republicans warned them privately that "they think that a trade war with China is enough to cost them their majority in the House. The everyday economic impact-- higher prices, businesses laying off employees-- would blunt any positive impact of tax reform. Well, the trade war is here. Combine that with rising gas prices four months before Election Day."

The Wall Street Journal reported that the trade war with China is on. "The U.S. and China slapped levies on $34 billion of each other’s exports, the first tangible shots in a trade battle that both sides are bracing to fight for months-- if not years. The new levies took effect after midnight Eastern Time on Friday in the U.S. In response, a commission of China’s State Council said it applied tariffs on 545 items 'including agricultural products, vehicles and aquatic products,' according to state-run Xinhua News Agency."

Here's a message from a bastion of the GOP, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that Trump is too stupid to bother paying any attention to:

China, the EU, Mexico and Canada have already retaliated or announced plans to retaliate with billions of dollars in tariffs on American-made products.

Tariffs imposed by the United States are nothing more than a tax increase on American consumers and businesses-- including manufacturers, farmers, and technology companies-- who will all pay more for commonly used products and materials.

Retaliatory tariffs imposed by other countries on U.S. exports will make American-made goods more expensive, resulting in lost sales and ultimately lost jobs here at home.

This is the wrong approach, and it threatens to derail our nation’s recent economic resurgence.

...Millions of U.S. jobs depend on America’s ability to trade with other countries. Half of all U.S. manufacturing jobs depend on exports, and one in three acres of American farmland is planted for international sales. But recent and proposed trade actions by the Trump administration threaten as many as 2.6 million American jobs and will stymie our economic resurgenc

They urge voters to "send a message to Congress." And then go through expected damaged, state by state. Here are a few that supported Trump in 2016 but are likely to abandon the GOP in November:

Michigan

Wisconsin

Iowa

China's Prime Minister, Li Keqiang: "A trade war benefits no-one because it hurts free trade and the multilateral process... If a country wants to raise tariffs, China will respond to defend itself." He politely didn't name Trumpanzee or tar our whole country with that ignorant, entitled asshole.

Pennsylvania

Florida

Texas

Arizona

NPR: "As the day dawned across the U.S. on Friday, a new economic reality dawned with it: The tariffs long threatened against billions of dollars in Chinese goods took effect just at midnight ET while many Americans were sleeping-- but Beijing was ready immediately with a wake-up call of its own... [E]ventually those costs will take their toll on the average wallet-- and it likely won't be simply because of these tariffs. Jeremy Haft, author of Unmade in China, tells NPR's Noel King that Beijing has a number of arrows in its economic quiver, and that it is "already using these weapons."

The Democrats will have plenty to campaign on without wallowing the childish name calling and obvious lies that Trump's moron base finds so amusing. In the House, Democrats are likely to win something like 50 seats currently held by the GOP. One may be the very red-leaning TX-10. Mike Siegel is the Texas Democrat running in that very gerrymandered district, which stretches, incongruously, from the Houston suburbs to the Austin suburbs. Mike won his primary but the DCCC is ignoring the opportunity to replace Republican incumbent Michael McCaul with him. But you can contribute to his grassroots campaign here.

Yesterday, Mike told us that "Trump's clumsy and ill-advised trade war hurts hard-working farmers and ranchers in the Texas 10th. This District depends on exports of sorghum and corn, among other products that are now subject to retaliatory Chinese tariffs. The President has certainly helped my position, especially given that the incumbent, Michael McCaul, has done nothing to protect his constituents, and we now have crops growing that may not have a buyer on the other side. Texas Democrats have a strong statewide candidate for Agriculture Commissioner, Kim Olson, who will make sure that every rancher and farmer knows why their businesses are suffering. As Col. Olson has explained, 'Farm, farming and ranching production are not like assembly lines. You can’t just slow them down when you start to have trouble. That stuff grows based on mother nature and you get one chance a year to harvest, one chance for farmers to make a profit.' Unfortunately, Trump's attitude problem is affecting the lives of our neighbors who depend on agriculture for their livelihood. I would prefer he stand down, but if he does not, voters will know which party is ready to represent their interests."

Kara Eastman is in the same predicament as Siegel. A progressive, she won her Omaha primary against a wretched Republican-lite Blue Dog backed by the DCCC and Pelosi. So now they are shunning her and undermining her campaign-- which probably makes her a hero among local voters (if not to big donors). And she has a similar perspective on the impact of Trump's trade war. "This administration is leading us into a trade war that will hurt the Heartland," she told us last night. "The more we alienate our trade partners, the more Nebraskan farmers are at risk of losing their exports and revenue from their agricultural products. Many farmers are already struggling to break even in our current economy and it’s irresponsible for Trump to gamble with their livelihood."