Week 144 - Bracing for a Downturn

This week Trump’s beloved economy faltered under  pressure from his trade war with China, a ballooning U.S. budget  deficit, and other global factors. An anxious Trump, realizing a strong  economy is essential to his re-election, lashed out at the Federal  Reserve, while confiding in allies his plan to blame any downturn on Fed  Chair Jerome Powell. Meanwhile his shrinking inner-circle of sycophants  assured him forecasts were wrong. Trump held two rallies this week, one at a Shell  Chemical plant outside Pittsburgh, where later it was revealed union  employees were mandated to attend — “No scan, no pay” —  and warned not  to protest. At a second rally in New Hampshire, Trump rambled, veering  off script and repeating points he made earlier in the speech. This week the concerns of an uprising and  mainstreaming of white nationalism continued, while Trump regime  officials continued to make blatantly racist and xenophobic statements,  and defend cruel and inhumane treatment of people of color. The  Republican Party remained silent, instead seeking to downplay white  nationalism and blame Democrats. Trump urged his authoritarian ally in  Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to deny entry for two Muslim  members of Congress — an unprecedented thwart of democracy. Protests  heated up in Russia and Hong Kong.