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Save this for future reference (ridicule or praise): my predictions for Donald Trump’s second term as POTUS

February 12, 2020 by tomaswell

If you’re conducting a poll, I’m probably not the person to talk to.

My record of prognostications is spotty at best. While I did pick John Bel Edwards to win both his gubernatorial races and I predicted LSU would beat ‘Bama last fall, my crowning failure was, after watching Donald Trump descend that escalator in Trump Tower back in 2015, laughing and predicting (and these are the exact words I used), “He’ll crash and burn in six weeks.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Intensely disliking either candidate, I muttered in stunned disbelief as I watched the returns on election night, “The S.O.B. is gonna win.”

I also predicted after his election that he would be impeached “within 18 months because Republicans in Congress will need to separate themselves from him.” And while he was impeached, it took a little longer than 18 months and with the exception of Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republicans have instead cleaved unto him like barnacles to the hull of an ocean liner.

So, now that:

  • he’s been acquitted (as we all knew he would);
  • Now that the Louisiana Republican Party has officially—and shamelessly—censured Sen. Mitt Romney for placing principles and country before party;
  • Trump has begun the purge of the castle that once was the White House with the firing of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, his twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman (collateral damage, it would seem), and Ambassador Gordon Sondland, his million-dollar contribution to the Trump presidential inaugural committee notwithstanding;
  • Trump’s Attorney General William Barr (notice I said Trump’s AG and not the U.S. AG—because that distinction must be made) has intervened in the sentencing of Trump buddy Roger Stone (prompting the immediate resignation of four Justice Department attorneys—and gotten away with it with the apparent blessings of a subservient Republican Party,

I make the following predictions:

  • In his second term, he is going to become even more brazen in his complete seizure of the U.S. government with more and more power grabs until he will become the first president to be impeached twice.
  • His second term actions will be so controversial and so illegal that the only Republicans who will continue to support him (provided they’re all still in office themselves) will be Moscow Mitch McConnell, Contortionist-in-Chief Lindsey Graham, Fake Investigator-in-Chief Devin Nunes and Ohio State sexual abuse Protector-in-Chief Jim Jordan.
  • His second-term takeover attempt will be so egregious that even Louisiana’s own Sen. Kornpone Kennedy will walk away from him after a few well-chosen words of wisdom for the TV networks to further embarrass his home state.
  • He will be the first president to be impeached and convicted—unless, of course, he negotiates a pardon for himself and does a Nixon and walks away

So, there you have it. Print this out, fold it up and keep it in your wallet/purse so you can either mock me mercilessly at some date in the future or choose me as Political Pundit of the Century.

There can be no middle ground. Humiliation or glory, fame or infamy.

For now, though, I’m feeling pretty confident in the accuracy of my assessment of the political horizon.

But remember, my record is pock-marked with extraordinary misses—which makes me about as accurate as any other so-called expert (ex: a has-been; spurt: a drip under pressure).

 

Posted in Politics | 16 Comments »

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

February 12, 2020 by tomaswell

“What do you think of Lindsay Lohan? There’s something there, right? But you have to like freckles. I’ve seen a close-up of her chest. And a lot of freckles. Are you into freckles? She’s probably deeply troubled, and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women—deeply, deeply troubled—they’re always the best in bed?”

—Donald Trump, on The Howard Stern Show, 2004. (so, the president of the United States, the world’s most powerful person, knows more about Lindsay Lohan’s chest than he does about diplomacy.)

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments »

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

February 11, 2020 by tomaswell

“I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. [Former Arkansas Gov.] Huckabee copied me.”

—Donald Trump tweet, May 7, 2015.

 

“The Republicans who want to cut SS & Medicaid are wrong. A robust economy will Make America Great Again!”

—Donald Trump tweet, July 11, 2015

 

“I am going to save Medicare and Medicaid, Carson wants to abolish, and failing candidate Gov. John Kasich doesn’t have a clue – weak!”

—Donald Trump tweet, Oct. 30, 2015.

 

“All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions, and if they don’t, they will after I speak to them. I am in total support. Also, Democrats will destroy your Medicare, and I will keep it healthy and well!”

—Donald Trump tweet, Oct. 18, 2018.

 

“Democrats are going to destroy your Social Security. I have totally left it alone, as promised, and will save it!”

—Donald Trump tweet, Jan. 23, 2019.

 

“[Trump’s] budget calls for removing half a trillion dollars of funding from the Medicare program over 10 years, including $135 billion from Medicare prescription drugs, and tens of billions from the Social Security program.

“In 2015, he promised not to touch Medicaid, either. Now he wants to cut it by $920 billion. He also promised to balance the budget and retire the national debt. The debt has grown by about $3 trillion since Trump took office and the budget plan would add more than $5 trillion to it over the next decade. There is currently more than $20 trillion in government debt.”

—Washington Post, Feb. 10, 2020.

[Trump also supports ongoing litigation that would disqualify recipients with pre-existing conditions.]

Posted in Politics | 8 Comments »

Bernhard does it again: wins consulting contract for Miss. River bridge in B.R. despite submitting third-best proposal

February 10, 2020 by tomaswell

A lot of people, the media included, expressed surprised that a company owned by Bernhard Capital Partners was awarded a multi-million-dollar consulting contract by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) to plan the construction of a new bridge over the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.

They shouldn’t have been—surprised, that is.

ATLAS TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS of Austin, Texas, was awarded the two-phase contract despite finishing well behind two other firms in evaluations by the state’s technical selection committee. The selection committee’s evaluation notwithstanding, the final selection was made by DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson, an appointee of Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Atlas received 61.98 points from the committee while Baker International had 72.59 and AECOM had 74.01 points, more than 12 points higher than Atlas.

AECOM appealed Wilson’s decision but in Louisiana, such appeals to fairness and even playing fields generally fall on deaf ears and this was no exception as Wilson UPHELD his decision.

The entire process got Louisiana Congressman GARRET GRAVES in a tizzy, saying DOTD “better have good reasons” for doing a deal with Bernhard.

But as we said, no one should be surprised at Bernhard’s clout. He was, after all, once the state Democratic Chairman and was even rumored once as a potential candidate for governor.

As an illustration of his influence, in May 2017, LouisianaVoice did a story about how first Jindal and then Edwards pushed for a state water PRIVATIZATION CONTRACT with Bernhard Energy of Baton Rouge after a second company’s proposal was rejected in favor of seeking an oral presentation from Bernhard. Even then, another evaluation committee rejected Bernhard’s proposal, saying it was not in the state’s best interest to enter into the partnership with Bernhard because of the exceptionally high costs.

That was in 2015, in the last year of Jindal’s administration and despite the committee’s recommendations, he entered into a $25,000 contract with a Baton Rouge consulting firm to another “Evaluation and Feasibility Study” of Bernhard’s proposal. Even then, Bill Wilson of the Office of State Buildings rejected the proposal, saying it “would not be advantageous for the State of Louisiana in its current form.”

But in April 2017, well into the Edwards administration, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, in an email to Mark Moses, assistant commissioner for Facility Planning & Control, and Paula Tregre, director of the Office of State Procurement in which he said Edwards said the state “will have the RFP (Request for Proposals) on the street no later than May 31,” adding that the proposal “needs to be a top priority.”

So, of course it happened.

Again, no one should be surprised.

On Aug. 12, 2019, the Baton Rouge Advocate had a story announcing the deal whereby Bernhard will lease chiller systems at the state-owned Shaw Center for the Arts from the state for $3 million over 20 years and the state will buy back the chilled water—used to cool the building—for $6 million. Bernhard will also modernize energy systems at 31 state buildings, including the State Capitol, the Governor’s Mansion and state Supreme Court building in New Orleans, at a cost of $54 million to the state.

Another Bernhard company, Louisiana Energy Partners, will also sell extra chilled water to other companies in downtown Baton Rouge and the deal leaves open the possibility that Louisiana Energy Partners may enter into agreements with Louisiana colleges and universities to privatize their energy systems.

And, of course, who could ever forget the Blue Tarp Debacle following Hurricane Katrina in 2005—the first real indication of the stroke Bernhard has in this state.

The Shaw Group (since sold to Chicago Brick & Iron and Bernhard then started a series of new companies cited earlier in this post) was contracted to place tarpaulins over damaged roofs at a rate of $175 per square (one hundred square feet per square). That’s $175 for draping a ten-foot-by-ten-foot square blue tarpaulin over a damaged roof. Shaw in turn sub-contracted the work to a company called A-1 Construction at a cost of $75 a square. A-1 in turn subbed the work to Westcon Construction at $30 a square. Westcon eventually lined up the actual workers who placed the tarps at a cost of $2 a square.

Thus, the Shaw Group realized a net profit of $100 a square, A-1 made $45 dollars per square, and Westcon netted $28 dollars a square – all without ever placing the first sheet of tarpaulin. Between them, the three companies reaped profits of $173 per square after paying a paltry $2 per square. The real irony in the entire scenario was that the first three contractors – Shaw, A-1, and Westcon – didn’t even own the equipment necessary to perform tarping or debris hauling. By the time public outrage, spurred by media revelations of the fiasco, forced public bidding on tarping, forcing tarping prices down from the $3,000-plus range to $1,000, Shaw and friends had already pocketed some $300 million dollars.

The state threatened prosecution of those who it felt overcharged for a gallon of gasoline in Katrina’s aftermath but apparently looked the other way for more influential profiteers.

And no one was surprised.

 

Posted in Contract, Contracts, Corruption, Finances, Governor's Office, Media, Politicians, Privatization | 3 Comments »

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

February 10, 2020 by tomaswell

“One of the hardest jobs in politics must be cleaning up after after (Joe Biden) gaffes. I feel sorry for his spokespeople.”

—Donald Trump tweet, Aug. 16, 2012 (of course, that was before Trump became POTUS and promptly eclipsed all records for gaffes).

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments »

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