Not A Brilliant Politician

As rumors fly that Trump will replace Sessions with Ted Cruz if Beto, who cleaned Cruz's clock in the debate Friday night, wins the Texas Senate race, Trump has shown his political tin ear once again. Every poll-- not some; all of them-- indicate that Trump is the albatross around the necks of Republican candidates from coast to coast. In the last couple of days, we looked how the political landscape is likely to change in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, primarily because of voters' antipathy for Trump and disapproval of his agenda and, importantly, how he does his job.

Suffering from malignant narcissistic sociopathy, Trump's out-sized ego had forced him to declare, again, that the midterms are a referendum on his presidency. Late Friday night, Julia Hirschfeld Davis, writing for the NY Times, reported from another neo-fascist Trump rally, this one for Josh Hawley in Springfield Missouri, Trump asserted "that a vote for any Democrat would empower 'dangerous' and 'crazy' people and sap the Republican Party’s fragile congressional majorities. He also continued his attacks on federal law enforcement, promising to root out the 'real bad ones' and eliminate the 'lingering stench' at the Justice Department... [T]he event, like all of the campaign stops the president has held across the country in the run-up to the midterm elections, looked and sounded more like a boisterous re-election pep rally for Mr. Trump himself than a well-coordinated effort to lift the candidate."

“Get out in 2018, because you’re voting for me in 2018,” Mr. Trump told thousands of supporters in the JQH Arena, on the campus of Missouri State University. “They aren’t just extreme,” he said of Democrats. “They are frankly dangerous, and they are crazy.”

Mr. Hawley had only five minutes at the lectern, which he spent effusively praising Mr. Trump and savaging Ms. McCaskill for not being supportive of him. He criticized the senator for mocking the president’s vows to build a border wall, for opposing the tax cut Mr. Trump pushed through, and for coming out in opposition to Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee who is facing an accusation of sexual assault.

“When he makes a promise, he keeps it,” Mr. Hawley said of Mr. Trump. “When he makes a commitment, he delivers.”

“In 2016, this man and you made history,” Mr. Hawley told the crowd, adding that in his race, “everything that you voted for is on the line.”

The president noted that Ms. McCaskill had opposed Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, calling him “a fantastic man,” and saying that he was confident the judge would be confirmed because he had been groomed for the position his whole life.

“He was born for the United States Supreme Court-- he was born for it-- and it’s going to happen,” Mr. Trump said.

Most Americans are now aware Trump is a liar and say so in poll after poll. And a plurality of likely voters say that confirming Kavanaugh would be a mistake.

Trump argued that Democrats sought to undercut the legitimacy of his presidency, casting the coming elections as a culture war in which his supporters must fight to protect their way of life.

“The so-called resistance doesn’t accept the will of the American people, they don’t believe you have the right to run your own country, control your own lives, or defend the country’s borders, traditions and heritage,” Mr. Trump said. “This November, you will make your voice heard just like you did two Novembers ago, in the most exciting evening ever.”

As he recited a litany of warnings about Democrats, charging they would destroy Medicare, throw open American borders to criminal immigrants and erode financial gains, Mr. Trump only rarely paused to remember the man for whom he was ostensibly campaigning.

“And Josh,” he remarked at one point, as if out of the blue. “Josh will help a lot.”

Josh, smosh... it's always and forever all about Trump. He's the star of his own-- and his fans'-- TV reality show. Everyone else just plays a supporting role, and can be replaced next season by the brilliant director-producer-super-star they're all following with baited breath. Morbid and dejected Republican Party leaders will soon be blaming their historic losses on Trump and how he pushed that story-line and refused to allow Republicans to campaign on policies and local issues that might have saved their necks. He ruined their party-- and did they ever deserve it! And now, much of their voting base-- Walmart shoppers-- is about to get the sticker shock that's been headed their way since they decided to pull the lever for Trump in 2016. On Friday, former Walmart CEO Bill Simon predicted that Walmart will start hiking prices soon in response to Trump's escalating trade war with China. 'So far, Walmart's been able to absorb a lot of the pricing, and the question is how long can they do that and whether they actually should. As the cost of goods go up in any other way or any other model, the costs are mitigated and they are passed through… You'll see Walmart start to do that soon.' Trump's latest move came earlier this week, when he announced 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods. The duties will rise to 25 percent on Jan 1." Those billions of dollars will come directly from the pockets of Walmart (and Target) shoppers.