Heaven forbid, I think I’ve been infected by Trump syndrome.  Before I caught myself, I started this post as follows.

The acorn doesn’t fall far from the oak.  You know, not everyone knows that.  It’s not as easy as it looks.  But after a 10 minute conversation with Chinese president Xi Jinping, I now understand it.

The adage about trees and their fruit generally applies to situations where offspring exhibit traits similar to those of their parents.  In Trump World, you don’t have to be a blood relative.  Consider the following two examples from this week’s news.

The BULL Market

Yesterday, Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, who voted for Donald Trump in 2016,  compared the Obama attitude toward business to “economic waterboarding.” (CNBC, April 26, 2107)

I’ve been talking to lots of CEOs. I had one who said it very succinctly, a very large Fortune 20-type CEO, and he said, ‘All of a sudden after the election, the waterboarding, the eight years of waterboarding stopped.’

There are a couple of reasons McNealy’s comments should be taken with a grain of salt.  This is the first we’ve heard from McNealy for a while.  Perhaps because his company no longer exists, much like a Trump casino or Trump University. And like Trump, he is blaming everyone but himself.   McNealy is right about one thing.  It only took eight years for the company to fall from the 52nd largest U.S. corporation with a market capitalization of over $70 billion to being acquired by Oracle for less than 1/10 of its previous value.  During the same period stockholders saw per share price fall from a high of $309.75 to $9.49 at the time of the Oracle acquisition.

There’s only one problem.  The time frame associated with Sun Microsystems’  rise and fall was not Obama’s tenure in the White House.  The company’s high point was December 1999 and its fire sale to Oracle was negotiated in 2009.  Not only does McNealy share Trump’s acumen for running companies into the ground, he too chooses to avoid responsibility for his own shortcomings and revises history to point the finger at others.

So what really happened during the professed era of “economic waterboarding.”  For purposes of this discusses, let’s use the NASDAQ composite index which is viewed as the best indicator of the strength of new economy businesses.  When Barack Obama took the oath of office on January 20, 2009, the index stood at 1,440.86.  By the end of the Obama administration (January 20, 2017), the index rose to 5,555.33, an increase of over 300 percent.

So, if McNealy is telling me that waterboarding would have tripled my personal stock portfolio, I have only one thing to say.  Open the hydrants and hose me down.

Something’s A-FOOT

One example would have been enough, but maybe I missed the announcement.  April 26th must be “National Acorn Day.”  And who better to be the poster boy than Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.  Just nine days ago, Chaffetz announced he would not seek re-election in 2018.  Much speculation about this decision focuses on the following factors.  First, Chaffetz was unmasked as a shill for the White House by willingly playing the pawn in Trump’s efforts to justify the claim his predecessor had wire-tapped him during the presidential campaign.  Second, the congressman could not have enjoyed facing off with the raucous crowds at town hall meetings in his home district.  Finally, there are unconfirmed rumors of Russian money being funneled into his 2016 re-election campaign. (Imagine that.)

Now it seems Chaffetz has emulated His Orangeness in one more way.  Yesterday, he announced he is taking a leave of absence to recover from pending foot surgery.  Does the term “bone spurs” ring a bell?  I would not call it the equivalent of draft dodging, but it certainly looks like Chaffetz is avoiding national service.  The timing, as reported by several outlets, is confusing at best and a bit suspicious.  The procedure was described on Chaffetz’s Instagram account as necessary to correct a prior surgery which took place TWELVE years ago.  Many are asking why he waited until Congress reconvened after a two week break instead of scheduling it during the Easter recess.

Observations

In a previous post, I have referred to Trump’s counter-Midas effect.  Everything he comes in contact with is soon contaminated.  Preparing for this post, I decided to research the role of acorns in our eco-system.  I found the following fact to be of particular interest.  Because acorns are too heavy for wind-dispersal, they rely on dispersal agents.  These consist mostly of animals who consume unripe acorns and deposit them through subsequent evacuation.  In other words, an acorn’s life cycle often begins in a pile of manure.  Considering the flow of verbal excrement coming out of the White House, I wonder if we should be concerned a proliferation of oak trees will soon overtake the Japanese cherry trees in the D.C. tidal basin.

Finally, I try to avoid commenting on individuals’ personal appearance, but am I the only one who thinks both McNealy and Chaffetz have some woodchuck DNA in their background.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP