IT’S NOT ABOUT HIS VOTING RECORD

by with 7 Comments FeaturedPolitics

John McCain was one of the great Americans of our era. Far too many people caveat their remarks with their disagreements over one stance or another… but that’s the point.

He was a true legislator who wasn’t afraid of compromising or siding with anyone to get the best deal he could find… And yet, when he disagreed with anyone on either side, he pulled at them with all his might. That meant at one time or another, he fought with everyone, but we saw his true heart in his belief that our country’s values would set the whole world free, such as his bipartisan work on campaign finance reform.

Those who chastise McCain for his spectrum of politics or his view on an issue miss the point. He was one of the few men left in Washington that throughout his life proved that he believed in something greater than himself and directed his entire life’s work toward those goals.

If we had 100 senators who approached their own constituents and principles (liberal or conservative) as McCain did, we would be a much better country. And without his example, we are probably less.

What To Do When They Come For You?

by with No Comment Media

What to do when they come for you? It sounds like a Robert De Niro line from one of his famous mafia movies, except it’s a legitimate question Joy Reid and her team should be trying to answer.

If you’re a liberal or a big Joy Reid supporter, you’re probably defending her and prepared to move on. If you’re a conservative and not a fan of her politics, then you might be suggesting a double standard and calling for her job. Either way, it’s almost inevitable that more of her (The Reid Report) blog posts from 10+ years ago will surface.

Disparaging comments and hard to explain sentiments regarding 9/11 conspiracies, jabs at John McCain, and her apparent homophobia, which includes petty and insensitive digs at Anderson Cooper and her current MSNBC partner Rachel Maddow, are coming back to haunt her at a time when her progressive voice echoes loud for those who identify with liberal and Democratic policies.

Reid first apologized in December 2017 when homophobic posts from her past about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) first appeared saying her comments were, “insensitive and tone-deaf.” However, more troubling posts surfaced in April 2018, and this time around she sang a different tune denying that she wrote these posts and that she must have been hacked…

“Most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing… I couldn’t go see Broke Back Mountain because of the gay characters. “Does that make me homophobic? Probably… And I’m not exactly proud of it. But part of the intrinsic nature of ‘straightness’ is that the idea of homosexual sex is…well…gross. For the record, I’m sure gay people think straight sex is gross, too.” – The Reid Report

When these most recent comments surfaced, she revealed that she had hired a cyber security consultant in December 2017 to investigate. The consultant believes her blog was hacked during the time many of these posts were published, stating he found significant evidence which indicated that Reid’s old blog had been compromised.

On April 28th, MSNBC shared her recent statement regarding the matter. She stated, “I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things.” In another comment shortly thereafter she spoke about her evolution…

“I’ve also spoken openly about my evolution on many issues and know that I’m a better person today than I was over a decade ago… I believe the totality of my work attests to my ideals and I continue to grow every day.” – Joy Reid

Should her apologies and the above acknowledgment of her evolution suffice? Should we believe her when she admits to writing some of the disparaging comments but not all of them?

If she was a college student in 2005 when she admitting to writing some but not all of these distasteful things, I think many people on both sides of the isle would give her a pass. But in 2005, she was a 36-year old journalist with the assumed maturity and professionalism that should trump any college student.

Many people are calling for her to be fired for her homophobic comments in the past. The irony – many of the people calling for her to be fired likely agree with her past sentiments and beliefs about homosexuality and gay relationships.

For now, her employer MSNBC is sticking by her. The bigger question is… should you do the same?

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McCain Votes “NO” and Saves Obamacare

by with One Comment Uncategorized

Shortly after midnight, in a historic vote, Senator John McCain voted “No” to Mitch McConnel’s Healthcare Freedom Act, also known as the “skinny repeal.” As the last Senator to cast his vote, he had the power to either pass or kill the bill. He chose the latter and joined Senator’s Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkoski of Alaska. The irony… McCain was one of President Obama’s loudest critics regarding the Affordable Care Act, and last night he was the final vote, which essentially saved President Obama’s bill.

McCain was recently diagnosed with brain cancer; however, he flew back to Washington earlier this week to vote “Yes” on the motion to move forward with health-care legislation. He then took to the Senate floor to ridicule his party for trying to pass a bad bill.

“Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the Internet… To hell with them! They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood. Let’s trust each other. Let’s return to regular order.” 

This is truly a historic moment in America’s efforts to get healthcare right. After 7 years of campaigning to repeal and replace Obamacare, Republicans have failed to deliver and pass a better bill. What’s next for the Republican Party?

Even Jamie Dimon Sounds Like Middle America

by with No Comment CultureFeatured

Jamie Dimon: “It’s almost an embarrassment being an American citizen!”

What a difference six months has made – Last January, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon couldn’t stop talking about the “moment of opportunity” at the start of the Trump Presidency. At the time, he believed what many Republicans believed: that with the election behind us, the President would appoint a cabinet that could assemble policy plans even if he didn’t oversee them directly, that Congress would support those plans, draft legislation and reform that was in parity with White House policy and the President would sign it. Ah- what dreams may come…

In my day job, I must have listened to 200 or more bank earnings calls, and JPMorgan’s is one of the most important. They are generally stale and rehearsed- almost like a State of the Union address. So it’s hard to imagine this was an off-the-cuff exclamation by a long-standing, experienced leader.  But it was in some ways comforting to see an uber-conservative, powerful, connected person like Jamie Dimon feel as helpless as the rest of us as we near the second fight over an Obamacare repeal that increasingly seems to be going sideways, with bank reform, tax reform and a real budget plan still over the horizon.

Wall Street has much to fear from this stagnation. Much of the “Trump Rally” of early 2017 was due to expectations of a “lightning fast” administration that expected to already have unilaterally repealed Obamacare, put out a new budget with sweeping tax cuts, a $1 trillion (with a ‘T’) infrastructure plan, higher interest rates, a boost in GDP growth, and a massive re-vamp of Dodd-Frank alongside sweeping policy changes for bank capital plans. As the train backs up from a 2017 agenda to 2018 at best, a whole year of growth that may already be “baked in” to 2017 earnings (especially in financials) looks more and more like over-optimism… and the pain of that shortfall will be shouldered heavily by Dimon.

It feels like something’s gotta give, and my guess – maybe even my hope – is that it’s the Senate filibuster. Maybe the 60 vote cloture rule really is a relic of a lost era – when the point really was just to make sure all sides had a chance to speak (not to hold hostage the democratic process), and filibusters were rare – rather than the universal means to halt any legislation at all. Senators – this is why we can’t have nice things.

It’s time to pick an agenda and go. Repeal or move on. Obamacare is important, but tax and budget planning are the backbone of GDP projections, corporate growth and earnings, and a myriad of corporate planning objectives for the next 5 years. The Senate has set its time table based on their internal politics, and the country has spoken – that just can’t be the timeline. Godspeed, Senator McCain, I wish you a speedy recovery. But it isn’t just about one vote. It’s time to get this past us and move on to the next phase of economic growth- or by October, the “Trump Rally” may yet be another bear market.