Not only is Donald Trump stealing the paychecks up to 800,000 Federal Workers just in time for Christmas (which saves him budget money so he can give his oligarch buddies even bigger tax breaks) but one of his despicable todies, GOP Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, says "It is just part of the risk of working in public service."
I ask you America, is this really you? Do these people represent your ideals and your values? Do you approve of their actions? If not, it is your DUTY to remember this and VOTE them out of office whenever you can. These are TERRIBLE people, they are making America TERRIBLE, not "great." Even Mad Dog Mattis, our Secretary of Defense, decided Trump is too crazy to work for and has handed in his resignation. This leaves our President surrounded by nothing but yes-men, who tell him things like this are OK. It's up to YOU to tell him it's not OK.
Meadows still gets paid, 6,200 Federal Employees who work in his district will not. Even his fellow Republican Rep, Ryan Costello blasted Meadows for being a total ass. Unfortunately, Costello is a good man and has chosen not to seek re-election as he's an actual person trying to do what's best for the country and not some partisan hack who sucks up to the richest monster he can latch onto.
Trump and the rest of his House lackeys, in their last act as the majority, put togehter a budget last night that is likely unacceptable even to the Republican-controlled Senate that includes $5Bn worth of funding for his wall and God knows what other crap they snuck into a 600-page document that needs to be approved by midnight tonight or the Government is likely to be at least partially shut down for 2 weeks. Trump is attempting to blame the Democrats, even though the Republicans don't need any of their votes if they were all on board with this idiocy:
The Democrats, whose votes we need in the Senate, will probably vote against Border Security and the Wall even though they know it is DESPERATELY NEEDED. If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time. People don’t want Open Borders and Crime!
We don't have open borders, we have rules, we have gates and fences and we have border patrol agents. What we don't have is a big, ugly wall across the bottom of the country and $5Bn is only 10-20% of the projected cost – what Trump is doing is forcing us to put a $5Bn deposit down so that then he can tell you it would be a "waste" not to finish it and, of course, those tens of Billions for the wall will go straight to his construction buddies, who will then funnel money back into Trump's pockets – THAT is why this wall is so important to Trump – it's a Billion Dollar payday!
Remember when Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Clearly they are not paying a penny yet that has not even paused the wall campaign. Why, because it's nothing more than a massively corrupt project instituted by a massively corrupt President who has been planning to use that money to line his own pockets from day one. With the wagons of justice circling the Trump camp, this wall may be Trump's last chance to cash in on his Presidency – of course he'd rather shut down the country than give that up…
None of this really affects the stock market. What do we care if the Government is closed for a while and what do we care if the Government wastes $5Bn on a wall instead of wasting $5Bn on $625 toilet seats and $2.7Bn blimp projects that never came close to getting off the ground. If you were going to get upset about idiotic Government spending, you should have done that a long time ago – the wall is just a point of principle – and we should be used to losing ours by now!
To that end, we have remained bullish and do think the market will hold the -20% lines (see Wednesday's notes or watch Wednesday's Live Trading Webinar Replay). There's no "new" danger here, Trump was an idiot all year long, his Presidency is a disaster, the Government is dysfunctional and the all-time highs the market reached were BS, based on false promises Trump and his sychophants made that never came close to being realized (after 23 months in office, Trump has now lied to you 7,546 times).
We knew about Brexit, we knew China was falling apart, with or without the Trade War and we have known about the Trade War for a year – the only people who haven't priced this into the market are idiots – and we don't follow idiots (sorry Cramer), we follow VALUE!
This market correction is just that, a CORRECTION and now we have moved back to the CORRECT levels. That means we should not be looking for huge bounces here. Trump is still President, that will put a drag on most people's confidence in America for years to come and his budget is out of control and the Senate is still controlled by idiots and criminals and we're still in a Trade War with China and Global Stimulus is winding down and then comes the cheque (Global Debt) that needs to be paid. So no, we're not going to bounce back to the highs – this is where the indexes belong.
Have a great weekend,
– Phil
