January 23, 2020--The Worser the Better.

I'm hearing from people who are so frustrated that they are stepping back from paying attention to the 2020 election. They can't take any more either from or about Trump.

They are trying to do other things with their lives. Things such as listening to music, reading again, talking to their spouses, and watching diverting programs on TV. Rona and I, for example, via Netflix, have been working our way through the 153 episodes of Gilmore Girls--seven years worth!--and immersing ourselves in Miles Davis CDs. 

I can't say that I blame my exhausted friends. They need to get their rest. And a grip.

The current predicament is the struggle to disengage from the day-to-day while still obsessed with the impeachment trial underway in the Senate. Not exactly a sitcom, but still it's an historic event and hard to click away from. And how much Shark Tank can one take?

Those who I'm hearing from haven't yet managed to kick the Trump habit and can't stop themselves from watching the trial. It will take awhile for them (and me) to detox. 

Is there a 12-step program we can join?

Knowing that there is no way for Trump to be removed from office by the Senate--Mitch has the votes to prevent that--we are zeroed in, therefore, on whether or not my Maine senator Susan Collins, to save her political skin, can find three others to vote with her to force McConnell to subpoena witnesses. Actually, not witnesses but John Bolton, who claims he has a story to tell. It must be a really good one because he has a $5.0 million book deal.

I've been saying to friends who see having Bolton testify as the meaning of life that they are failing to keep their eyes on the prize. That prize is making sure Trump is defeated in November. If we agree about that, the best way to help that along would be for the Republican-controlled trial to turn into a fiasco, including screaming, yelling, and ignoring the Chief Justice who is presiding and will plead for civility.

McConnell does not agree to witnesses and will ram a vote to acquit down the throats of his people. And once Bolton's book is published (I suspect right after Labor Day) everything he has to say will enter he public record just weeks before the election. That will be the October Surprise.

All the major news outlets will clamor to interview him. He will appear on the five Sunday talk shows and be on Sixty Minutes for the full hour. Reviews will be published above the fold on the front pages of the Times, Washington Post, and WSJ.

What Bolton will have to say will be a disaster for Trump.

The only down side? Trump will try to get us into a distracting hot war.

But one way or the other, Trump may be cooked.

In sum--the worse things get the better they are.

May 19, 2015--Shark Tank Losers

Thus far there are seven officially declared candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, including Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz. Another three or four have expressed interest--former Texas governor Rick Perry, former New York governor George Pataki, former senator Rick Santorum. Five or six more are formally exploring the nomination--Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie. Among the latter two groups all will soon become declared candidates.

Another three have expressed interest, including Congressman Peter King of Long Island and Maryland governor Bob Ehrlich. Hovering is a group of 30 or more who at one time or another ran or thought about running and may surprise by jumping into the race. Among them are my favorites Michele Bachmann, Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin, and Herman Cain.

Realistically of these 50 or so candidates and potentials only four or five have a real chance of winning the nomination--Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and perhaps Rand Paul. They are the only ones with big bucks behind them.

Perhaps another two or three could emerge from the pack because they appeal to the Republican base which ultimately can nominate even someone unelectable in the general election--a Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, or Rick Santorum.

Why then are former congressman Allen West, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Indiana governor Mike Pence, and Ohio governor John Kasich either running like Carly Fiorina or posturing and thus signaling that they might like Bobby Jindal?

I call them the Shark Tank candidates--they are in the race knowing they will lose, but in losing wind up winning.

You know Shark Tank? One of my favorite TV programs, it is a reality show where small business owners present their products or services to a panel of very wealthy investors that includes Mark Cuban, among other things the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team; Barbara Corcoran, real estate mogul; and software billionaire Kevin (Mr. Wonderful) O'Leary. Usually for a few hundred thousand dollars that the aspiring entrepreneurs seek to grow their businesses, they give up 10 to 50 percent ownership in their companies. The sharks who make the deal--investing their own money--then serve as mentors for their new partners.

In almost every instance the deals work out to be very profitable with sales typically doubling, tripling, or quadrupling over a year or two.

AirBedz was a winner. The owner received $250,000 for a share of ownership in a small company that makes air beds that inflate quickly because of their internal pumps. Kisstixx, a sexy lip balm was offered $200,000 and saw its sales skyrocket. AVA the Elephant, a plastic elephant that helps kids take their meds, secured a $50,000 investment and in turn saw its sales soar.

But the losers also tend to do very well. Scan, a mobile smartphone app that enables users to read bar codes, did not receive backing but as the result of being showcased on Shark Tank began to gross millions. As did Chef Big Shake, a seafood operation that calls itself the "home of the original shrimp burger."

Studies show that it is more the very fact of appearing on ABC TV and than being repeatedly rerun on CNBC than the money that supplies the lifting power. It is calculated that appearing on Shark Tank is worth $4-5 million in free advertising.

So, in this context, how much will it be worth, personally worth to, losers all, Newt Gingrich (yes, him) or Ben Carson or Rick Santorum to appear in televised presidential debates? Millions, some calculate in speaking fees, book contracts, and the biggest prize of all (chime in Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee), a show of their own on Fox News.

January 20, 2105--Mitt Redux

Just as I was slipping into despair that my favorite sitcom would not return for another season--the Republican Clown Car--what with no Herman (Pokemon) Cain and no Michele (pray-away-the-gay) Bachmann, how would I spend the next two years? Stuck with House of Cards, Shark Tank, Dancing With the Stars, and God help me, Girls? I might even have to develop a taste, I moaned, for the Home Shopping Network.

But I can calm down. Things are beginning to shape up.

No only are Bachmann and Cain making noises that they might in fact run for the 2016 nomination but there is also Rand Paul (who looks like a clown), Ted Cruz (who looks like Joseph McCarthy), Jeb Bush (who looks like George W. Bush), Scott Walker and Paul Ryan (both of whom look like Eddie Munster from the Munsters), Chris Christie (who, in spite of his lap-band surgery, still looks like he belongs more in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade than the White House), Donald (you're fired) Trump, and who can forget Rick (love-the-new-glasses) Perry, especially if he's on the same meds he was using in 2012 when he reminded us that the American revolution occurred during the 16th century.

Then, of course, thank you Mitt Romney who is back for a third run. Etch-A-Sketch Mitt who this time around promises to run a campaign devoted to "lifting people out of poverty." The same Mitt who three years ago called this same 47 percent of the population "takers."

I'm sure some of his Republican opponents will remind us that this is the same out-of-touch Romney who drove to Canada with the family dog strapped to the roof of his car, offered to bet Perry $10,000 about his position on health care reform, and in his new zillion-dollar California house has an elevator for one of his wife's Cadillacs.

He may have been a gaff-prone candidate (I confess to looking forward to the inevitable new ones) but every poll of likely GOP voters shows him doing much better than even Jeb Bush when it comes to a potential race against Hillary Clinton.

If Mitt and the rest of the cast of the nomination-seeking candidates don't do it for you, there is also now a new rising star--African-American neurosurgeon Ben Carson who already has a long list of fun quotes, including a recent one that claims that "Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery."

It continues to amaze me how Republicans manage to find black politicians who are as regressive on race as their GOP country-club colleagues. It's clearly a comfort to the Fat Cats and the source of mid-winter amusement to me.