Outnumbered.
The people the system is designed to squash. Trump has succeeded his entire life because he’s embedded in a system designed for the purpose of protecting and rewarding him and those like him. All he had to do to win at life was to keep on breathing.
In case anybody hadn’t heard this before (I first heard it on Rachel Maddow this week): Trump’s economic policy, such as it is, formed when he sent Jared Kushner off to Amazon to look at book reviews supporting tariffs. Jared found one, by Peter Navarro, which is how Navarro became Trump’s go-to economic guru. Navarro’s book on tariffs cites just one source to back up his theories: some guy named Ron Varo.
There is no Ron Varo. It’s an anagram of “Navarro”.
This. You’re playing chess but you get to start short a queen and a rook while they get to start with 4 Queens.
At some point, it doesn’t matter if you’re Kasparov or not, all the skill, training, and intelligence in the world can’t make up for it. What’s more galling is they act like they were the ones playing with the severe handicap.
Even with that advantage they rely on knocking over the pieces and shitting on the board.
The hell you say. 
I too just learned about this from Rachel Maddow this week. To add to what you said, it was during Trump’s first term that he realized that he needed an economic policy and didn’t know enough to create one himself. He tasked Jared Kushner with finding an advisor, but Kushner knows nothing about economics either, so he told his Dad in Law that he’d do some research. Research simply involved going to Amazon and looking up books on Economics. He found one book called “Death by China” that he knew Trump would love based on the title alone and he was right. Trump of course didn’t actually read the book, but hired its author, Peter Navarro to manage his economic policies. Navarro is very pro Tariff and that was the point of the book. As you mentioned, he makes numerous citations to another economist who also happens to be very pro tariff named Ron Varo. Ron Varo has popped up again in Washington DC in various emails and documents supporting Trumps tariff views. And of course, as you mentioned, Ron Varo doesn’t actually exist.
Literally, Navarro’s book is a case of “My Book is my Cite”.
A bit of levity from The Onion. (But how far-fetched would this be, really?)
WASHINGTON—As part of a sweeping overhaul of the building’s plumbing system, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly ordered the removal of sinks Tuesday from all bathrooms in the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters. “People across the world lived for thousands of years without sinks, and they were just fine—healthier, even,” said Kennedy, who noted that the cuts would not only save taxpayers thousands of dollars in maintenance and water bills each year, but be better for the environment as well. “They never should have been installed in the first place. Numerous studies have shown that licking your hands clean can actually improve your immune system. Soap dispensers will remain, but only so you can drink from them.” At press time, sources reported that Kennedy had eliminated toilets and was urging staffers to dispose of their waste by simply throwing it out the window.
I guess germophobe trump would insist on a sink in the WH bathroom. His, anyway..
Two weeks.
Trump and the Bowling Ball Test
This just showed up on Rachel Maddow’s blog:
I don’t recall hearing about this before. Very weird
Ron Vara (who also doesn’t exist).
An hour ago, the Dow was up 67 points.
Then Steven Miller went on Fox News to yell and threaten more tariffs on Jyna.
It’s now down 750.
104% for stuff out of China.
I think my joke wasn’t ambitious enough. Your boy Donnie is looking for that 4th digit.
Rand Paul, meanwhile, turns out to actually believe in things.
“Decimate”?
We’re way past 10% down.
If Linda McMahon doesn’t encourage a public cage match between these two, then I want the Department of Education back!
And, yes, Press Sec’y, Karoline Leavitt: that is transparency – much like when a Congress Critter leaves his zipper down – inadequacy and incompetence for all to see.
TYVM.
“Boys will be boys”? Shouldn’t presidential advisors be, you know, adults? And what’s up with Elon Musk’s love of schoolyard insults, anyway?
“That’s what I thought!”
Looks like we’re getting coal, maybe the clean kind??
He’s a manchild with untreated ADHD. I’d say he wishes he was still school-age, but even back then he had no friends because he was an intolerable dickhead who made fun of a classmate whose father committed suicide and said classmate pushed him down a flight of stairs for it and Elmo’s father told him he deserved it.