How autocracy works, a brief summary.

[Ike Bana]

Trump starts a war with Iran, it ends up not being a war, and he's a hero. And the DOW is up 300 points. Trump starts a trade war with China, then agrees with the Chinese that a bunch of the changes will go back to where they were before he started the trade war, and he's a hero. And the DOW is up 300 points.

As for the fallout from the trade war...without Congressional approval which is usually required for such things, American farmers all across the fruited plain who are being hammered by the effects of the trade war tarrifs, have been provided enormous subsidies by the Trump administration. Where is this money coming from? It's coming from those of us who are not farmers.

And...according to a report on NPR, in pretty much every case, the subsidy has ended up being significantly in excess of the losses actually impacting American farmers.

So us non-farmers are not only paying for the subsidy, we're paying for the pay-off for the farm vote in November. Eighty percent of which went to Trump in November 2016, and eighty percent of which will go for him again this November.