Month: August 2019

Unfit At Any Speed

Chaos Monkey

President* Trump is doubling down on one of the most bizarre weeks he’s had in office (King of Israel and The Chosen One being key moments). Today he is busy embarrassing America on the world stage at the G-7 meeting in France, being Putin’s errand boy arguing for Russia to be re-included in the meeting despite its being kicked out for invading Crimea. And he is trying to claim other world leaders are asking him, “Why the American media hates your country so much. Why are they rooting for it to fail?” But it’s probably just all the unborn chicken voices in his head.

Coming on the heels of Trump’s remarks on his trade war with China on Friday that sent markets into a tailspin, the Disruptor in Chief has been even more erratic than usual, prompting James Fallows to write a piece for The Atlantic called “If Trump were an Airline Pilot,” examining how if Trump were in any number of regular jobs of responsibility and exhibited his recent behavior he would likely be removed.

  • If an airline learned that a pilot was talking publicly about being “the Chosen One” or “the King of Israel” (or Scotland or whatever), the airline would be looking carefully into whether this person should be in the cockpit.
  • If a hospital had a senior surgeon behaving as Trump now does, other doctors and nurses would be talking with administrators and lawyers before giving that surgeon the scalpel again.
  • If a public company knew that a CEO was making costly strategic decisions on personal impulse or from personal vanity or slight, and was doing so more and more frequently, the board would be starting to act. (See: Uber, management history of.)
  • If a university, museum, or other public institution had a leader who routinely insulted large parts of its constituency—racial or religious minorities, immigrants or international allies, women—the board would be starting to act.
  • If the U.S. Navy knew that one of its commanders was routinely lying about important operational details, plus lashing out under criticism, plus talking in “Chosen One” terms, the Navy would not want that person in charge of, say, a nuclear-missile submarine.

Unfortunately for America, President Looney Tunes isn’t going anywhere because his Republican enablers in Congress clearly put party over country. Still, you have to wonder if it might sink in with Republicans that this force of destruction could endanger their own reelection prospects. Which also makes it curious why they wouldn’t just remove Trump (impeachment or 25th Amendment) and be just as happy or happier with a less erratic but even more Christian Right-wing President Pence.

While you sit back waiting for the next lunatic thing from Trump to emerge from the G-7 Summit this weekend, have a Chaos Monkey cocktail. Via Kindred Cocktails, the Chaos Monkey (named for the book about Silicon Valley) is:

2 oz Scotch, Monkey Shoulder

.5 oz Creme de banane

.25 oz Amaro Montengro

1 barspoon Amargo-Vallet, or substitute with a dash or two of Angostura bitters and a dash of demerara syrup

Lemon twist

Stir over ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with a large cube/sphere. Garnish with a lemon peel, expressed.

Cheers!

 

 

China Fight!

China Fight

The King of Israel, who lost his bid for Greenland, is now telling American companies to withdraw from China after China imposed a retaliatory $75 billion in Tariffs today.

Despite the assurances of Cheeto Mussolini that Trade Wars are easy to win, the current spat with China is threatening to send the U.S. economy into recession, even though his Royal Orange Geniusness wants to blame the bad wishes of democrats. This Friday night it is definitely time to put this week of bad craziness behind us.

Despite finding out the president is the “chosen one” and the “second coming of God” he apparently couldn’t keep GOP benefactor David Koch alive or keep the Amazon from burning and worsening the climate disaster now unfolding. In all of the ridiculous unprecedented madness of the Trump era, this past week may become especially noteworthy, and I’m sure Putin was certainly enjoying himself.

As a cap for the week, and an aperitif for Americans heading into the long holiday weekend next week, have a China Fight cocktail via Saveur Magazine. It is the creation of Aymeric Tortereau, of Café Juliette in Lyon.

The China fight is:

1.5 oz cognac

.75 oz Bigallet China-China

.25 oz elderflower liqueur

Stir over ice and strain into a chilled coupe glass, garnish with an orange twist.

Happy Friday, Cheers!

 

Full Reverse

Fallback

It should come as no surprise that a politician with an ill-defined slogan to “Make America Great Again,” would end up spending a lot of his time looking backward. Trump’s governing approach puts a lot more emphasis on “again” than “great,” so he ends up retreating from many of his own policies.

The latest came today, as Reuters reports Trump is telling advisors to calm Midwest farmers upset over the administration’s decision to allow refiners to add less ethanol into gasoline.

This comes at a time when concerns of a recession have begun to get under Trump’s skin, posing a potentially bigger threat to his presidency than impeachment. Along with the Trade War with China, the ethanol issue is just one more self-inflicted wound that is especially damaging in the Midwest, where Trump will need a strong showing to win re-election. The Washington Post reported on another key self-inflicted Midwest wound last week, citing Trump’s failure to make good on promises of expanding the Navy, which is likely to cost many jobs in Midwest shipyards and elsewhere. Really just political malpractice.

Despite strong and historically significant signals from the bond market about the potential for a recession, Trump and his minions continue to trot out echoes of President Herbert Hoover claiming our economic fundamentals are good, just as Hoover did in October of 1929.

Meanwhile, the economy, as measured by a number of factors, including job growth, is falling back to levels not seen since we began climbing out of the Great Recession. Proving that Trump is falling behind the achievements of president Obama, and Trump knows it. But his economic team does not appear up to the task of heading off, nevermind recovering from, a recession.

Backtracking for Trump isn’t limited to the economy, either. After seeming to embrace an overwhelmingly popular (supported by 90% of Americans) gun safety measure with stronger background checks, Trump is backing off and siding with the NRA again.

As Trump moves backwards on guns, and the economy moves backward to dangerous territory, have a Fallback cocktail from Sasha Petraske (originally meant for an Autumn menu but I’m as ready for a season change as a regime change at this point). The fallback is:

2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

.5 oz Amaro Nonino

.5 oz Carpano Antica

1 oz applejack

1 oz rye whiskey

orange twist garnish

Build in a whiskey glass, adding the bitters, amaro, Carpano Antica, applejack and rye add 1 large cube and stir until chilled and garnish.

Cheers!