Morning Comes To Consciousness…

 Some House Republicans think getting Elmo out if the picture will save them in the midterms.

Yeah, I don’t think so:

Labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards believes that President Donald Trump is poised to make history with his global trade wars, but not the kind of history he will want to be remembered for.

Writing in Bloomberg, Edwards argued that the United States economy is "plodding toward a recession" and that "this will arguably be the only recession directly caused by White House policy."

While many recessions have a complex series of causes, Edwards believes that the one threatened now will be caused solely by the chaos being set off by Trump's trade wars.

"Tariffs... both the ones levied by the administration and those put on the U.S. by its trading partners in retaliation, are paralyzing business activity and rattling consumers," she contended. "Wall Street firms are rapidly reducing their estimates for how much gross domestic product will expand. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s widely-followed index of the economy in real time has turned negative. The Conference Board and the University of Michigan both report steep declines in consumer confidence."

And it’s going to last a lot longer than Elmo’s tenure:

Greg Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard University and a former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, said that the tariff proposal being floated by the president indicated a deep-seated ignorance of how economies actually operate.

"“Trump doesn’t seem to understand basic international economics," he told the Post. "A lot of the arguments he makes, Adam Smith was refuting two and a half centuries ago in ‘Wealth of Nations'... I have not seen a more wrongheaded policy come out of a White House in decades.”

And Mankiw wasn't the only economist who made dire projections about the impact of the Trump tariffs.

The Post writes that Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s, projects that "the economy would almost immediately tumble into a recession that would last for more than a year, sending the jobless rate above 7 percent" should Trump go through with his tariffs plans.

And economists at investment bank Goldman Sachs have warned that "the risk from April 2 tariffs is greater than many market participants have previously assumed," while also raising the chances of recession in the United States to 35 percent in the coming year.

Reports are Trump is preparing 20% tariffs across the board. Which will pretty much wipe out any concerns about Elon and DOGE. Or probably just add on to the concerns. Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt puts on the armor of God every morning to face the army of evil the White House press corps.

Sure, well, before briefings, it's a little bit chaotic and overwhelming because there's so much news to consume, and so all morning long, my team and I are prepping," Leavitt said. "That team prayer before is just a moment to be silent and still and ask God for confidence and the ability to articulate my words, knowledge, prayer, protection, and it is a nice moment to reset."

"It's warfare out there," Brody opined. "You know, in Christian terms, people will call what's happening in our country today spiritual warfare. Do you see it in those terms, kind of good versus evil out there, in that context, how do you see that?"

"I certainly think, I certainly believe in spiritual warfare," Leavitt insisted. "And I think I saw it firsthand, especially throughout the campaign trail with President Trump, and I think there certainly were evil forces, and I think that the President was saved by the grace of God on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania, and he's in this moment for a reason."

Christianity actually teaches humility, not warrior ethics. I can think of two saints (Leavitt is too Protestant to even accept the notion) who are associated with battle, both French: Joan of Arc, and St. Louis. She was burned alive, a fate Leavitt surely doesn’t anticipate; and Louis died in dysentery in the 8th Crusade. Ironically, Louis is credited with introducing the legal concept of innocent until proven guilty, something Leavitt’s decidedly unchristian boss would like to eliminate, except for himself.

Somehow I think Leavitt imagines her Christian martyrdom as simply overcoming the suffering of the slings and arrows of outrageously evil questions by… the hand selected journalists allowed to approach her throne.

Tough job, but somebody has to do it, huh?