It’s Wednesday, July 26th, 2017…and here’s The Gouge!

We kick off the mid-week edition with a bit of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” 

First, in a must-read piece from NRO presented in its entirety, Julie Kelly offers the best of times, the age of wisdom, the epoch of belief, the season of Light and the spring of hope…in other words, the former of each comparative:

Why We Can All Love Jordan Spieth

The young, super-talented golfer is just what the game, and perhaps the nation, need right now.

The final round of the British Open this weekend was quite simply the most jaw-dropping finish in professional golf in recent memory. And it launched Jordan Spieth to the top of golf’s historical leader board just a few days shy of his 24th birthday. Each of his last 16 strokes made divots into the fading memory of golf’s last young superstar, Tiger Woods, and it could not have come at a better time for the sport and the country.

For anyone who plays golf, watching Spieth win the Claret Jug the way he did reminded us why we stay with the game even though we know we would save time, money, and sanity if we quit. Golf is less of a mistress and more of a spouse: times of great passion and compatibility when everything is clicking followed by periods of discord and frustration when you wonder why the hell you are doing this. It takes patience and persistence, and just when you think you have it all figured out, some problem crops up that needs attention (although I strongly contend most marital issues are easier to fix than a case of the shanks).

Spieth’s final round Sunday at Royal Birkdale was a power ballad about the complicated marriage between golfer and game. He began the day with a three-stroke lead but immediately struggled, carding four bogeys on the front nine. Spieth settled down on the first few holes of the back nine, but then disaster struck on 13; his drive careened about 100 yards off-course and hit a spectator. This caused a nearly 30-minute delay while officials and spectators looked for his ball and he considered his options for a terrible lie. He opted for an unplayable that became a master class in golf rules. (His playing partner, Matt Kuchar, 15 years older than Spieth and still without a major win, did stretches on the fairway while he waited.) Despite all the distractions, Spieth miraculously ended up with a bogey. It looked like he and Kuchar might be headed to a playoff.

“Matt, I really enjoyed battling with you, buddy,” Spieth said. “Obviously it could have went to either one of us, I got the good breaks today. What a great champion Matt Kuchar is, and what a class act. I took about 20 minutes to play one of my shots today, and Matt took it in stride, smiled and … there’s not many people who would have done that. And it speaks to the man you are, and you set a great example for all of us.”

That is when golf’s grit and alchemy went on full display, courtesy of the young Texan. He almost had a hole-in-one on the par-three 14and settled for a birdie. As if that weren’t enough of a heart-thumping comeback, Spieth made a 50-foot putt on 15for an eagle. Birdie. Birdie. Par. Victory.

The win was Spieth’s third major championship before the age of 24, an accomplishment he now shares with Jack Nicklaus. Golf’s Twitterverse went nuts. Nicklaus tweeted, “Wow! What a wild back nine! Is @JordanSpieth something else?” Tiger Woods weighed in: “What an incredible way to comeback and win. Many congrats @JordanSpieth.” Other athletes from Steph Curry to Justin Verlander sent out messages of congratulations and admiration. Even Ted Cruz tweeted him. If Spieth wins the PGA Championship next month, he will join five other golfers, including Nicklaus and Woods, in having won golf’s Grand Slam (Negative: the Grand Slam is all four majors in one year), thanks to his previous wins at the U.S. Open and the Masters.

Spieth is easy to root for. He’s a class act who often uses the word “we” rather than “I” in post-tournament interviews. His caddy is his former teacher. Unlike some of his fellow twentysomethings on the tour who seem as interested in showing off sculpted quads and shoulders as they do their golf prowess (not that I necessarily object), Spieth is tall and lean and dresses more like someone twice his age. After his long delay on 13, he fist-bumped Kuchar as if to apologize for postponing play. Hard to imagine Woods doing that.

In a “baller” sports culture that celebrates indulgence and profligacy, Spieth stays off the radar. He is still dating his high-school sweetheart, and he started a charity in honor of his younger sister, Ellie, who is on the autism spectrum. The raciest picture of Spieth so far is his drinking wine out of the Claret Jug when Zach Johnson won it in 2015. He reportedly attends Bible study on tour.

Not a jinx, rather prescience!

His composure and maturity are in stark contrast to the petulant entitlement of his fellow Millennials. While they emote, he deliberates. Golf, after all, is a thinking man’s game and no place for the unhinged or impulsive. If there is any criticism of him, it’s his constant self-talk and meticulous preparation before each swing on the course (Spieth was asked to pick up the pace Sunday even before the delay on 13). Each shot is like a surgical strike, with tweaks and resets and fierce concentration.

In a cosmic way, maybe Spieth’s ascent and excellence are preordained: He was named after his father’s favorite athlete, Michael Jordan, who now spends lots of time on the golf course in Florida and must be in awe of his namesake.

As we now suffer through daily outbursts from the president, politicians, and the media as part of our nation’s ongoing political scrum, it’s nice to find a calm, capable hero in a gentleman’s game. Even if you don’t like golf, watching Spieth’s respect for civilized norms is a welcome respite from the debased culture we (what’s this “WE“, paleface!) have created. Maybe he can invite President Trump for a round?

Next, also courtesy of NRO, Michael Brendan Dougherty details the latter: the worst of times, the age of foolishness, the epoch of incredulity, the season of Darkness and the winter of The Donald…er,…despair: 

Donald Trump Is a Nightmare Boss

And he can’t get the ‘best people’ to work for him: As a newcomer, he has neither the loyalty of the expert class nor a long list of political allies who want to be rewarded with jobs.

“That’s two of them down, three to go!”

“The alert came across my phone, with a buzz. “White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has resigned.” I don’t know Sean Spicer; I’ve only shared a room with him once. But I laughed at the alert. I noticed my own reaction to the news was little different from hearing an item about a coal miner being rescued from a disaster. Finally! Sean Spicer has reached safety. I imagined him emerging from the little press office on the side of the White House, covered in soot and looking like a man who newly appreciates freedom.

Donald Trump is a nightmare of a boss. His inability to command loyalty from his political hirelings through insults and threats is not only degrading the functioning of his White House; it is threatening the very legitimacy of his administration.

Consider the case of Senator Jeff Sessions this week. Jeff Sessions was Trump’s most important and earliest supporter among elected Republicans. He gave Trump’s campaign credibility and some depth on signature issues such as immigration. But when Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, Trump vented his anger publicly. He then called up the New York Times weeks later to vent again and to say that he wouldn’t have hired Sessions if he’d known that Sessions was likely to recuse himself. This is the reward Sessions gets for sticking with Trump through every controversy and embarrassment, from the disaster of attacking judges for their ethnicity to the tape with Billy Bush.

As for the job of press secretary, anyone who serves the Trump White House in a public-facing job is going to become a punching bag for satirists and most of the media. But Donald Trump made the job worse because he adds extra humiliations to the job. Spicer’s performances and his personal style — a preference for lighter suits — were derided by Trump and then leaked out into the media. Why was the president even watching the daily briefings? It’s not the president’s job to micromanage the people micromanaging his message and his image.

The only people who seem to benefit from Donald Trump as a boss are Donald Trump’s relations (i.e., the least experienced and qualified!). Son-in-law Jared Kushner has been promoted from real-estate scion with a side job in vanity publishing to the teen-comedy version of Brent Scowcroft; he has a major diplomatic post with a portfolio that includes most of America’s threats and brokering Middle East peace. Ivanka Trump sat in on a G-20 meeting when her father left the room.

Trump’s “leadership” as a boss has created a White House that is notorious for its leaks, and for the way it constantly emits the stink of demoralization. Almost every story about dysfunction in the White House in the New York Times or the Washington Post is verified by so many anonymous sources close to the president that reporters are counting them by “dozens” now. Perhaps soon we’ll move on to “scores” of White House stool pigeons.

But the really dangerous effect of Trump’s mismanagement is that it further degrades his administration’s already compromised efforts at hiring staff for senior and sub-cabinet positions. It is literally preventing his administration from taking full possession of the executive branch of government Trump is supposed to lead.

One needn’t LIKE The Donald to vote AGAINST Hillary!

Why would you go to work for him unless you were hard-up for work or needing to take a high-risk gamble with your career? No one in his right mind would respond to a Help Wanted ad that advertised the boss’s propensity to be angered by the trivial and the everyday, leading him to tweet angrily at colleagues or to say damaging things about his employees to the newspaper of record. No one would respond to that ad if it also mentioned that the boss would redirect all the blame below and spread most of the credit to himself and his family members. But this is the Help Wanted ad the executive branch of the United States has now.

Trump was always going to have more trouble than usual in this regard because he was a newcomer to elective politics and because he was an ideological insurgent in his own party. He had neither the list of long-term political allies that needed to be rewarded nor the full loyalty and trust of the expert class that has attached itself to the Republican party. And so the Trump White House lacks the “best people” and the best minds working on the problems of government. It lacks expertise while it undertakes a job that desperately needs expertise. That means more mistakes, from simple diplomatic goofs to major strategic and governing decisions.

…Trump is a third-rate boss, and he’s increasingly running a third-rate administration. How long until it changes the United States itself into a third-rate power?“

That last sentence is a stretch; after all, if eight years of Obama didn’t turn the U.S. into a third-rate power, even The Donald can’t do it in four.  But again, we voted for the guy…and we think he’s an enormous bag of self-serving, bloviating douche!

Meanwhile, our petulant President continues to alienate those whose help he desperately needs to enact his agenda:

Trump messes with Sessions, and Senate Republicans are not pleased

Which assumes, of course, the man actually has an agenda…outside of himself.

Still, we cannot help but agree with the thrust of this particular tweet:

Not to mention Lois Lerner, Eric Holder and a host of other obvious Progressive felons.  Though, seeing as John Koskinen and Richard Cordray still occupy offices under the Chief Executive’s direct control, Trump is one physician who should heal himself.

As an aside, anyone wanting to waste their time reading a Progressive’s homage to John McCain need read only the closing paragraph of this hopelessly biased screed from one Brian Stewart, “a New York-based political writer”:

“…McCain has proved his merit as a citizen many times over. Beyond his steadfastness in his country’s battles, he grasps America’s proper role in the world better than anyone else in the governing class. It is nothing short of tragic that as his deteriorating health forces his absence — let’s hope only temporarily — from the arena, the United States is patently losing its grip on global leadership. It is surely too much to say that McCain’s recovery will be America’s. But it is hard to envision America’s recovery without McCain’s.”

It’s almost as if neither the Keating Five…

…nor the last eight years of inept international relations under these clowns…

…ever happened!

Sorry, but while we’ll always credit McCain’s courage for refusing early release, at some point his military heroism doesn’t make up for 34 years of destructive public service. 

Speaking of destructive public servants, they’re the subject of a recent article in Forbes, as Avik Roy reveals…

CBO’s Secret: 73% Of Coverage Difference Between Obamacare & GOP Bills Driven By Individual Mandate

“I’m from the government, and I’m here to lie through my teeth in support of the deep state.”

“…After Obama became president, the CBO told him not having an individual mandate would mean his health reform plan would cover 16 million fewer people. So Obama relented, and included an individual mandate in what we now call Obamacare.

Proposals to repeal and replace Obamacare from congressional Republicans and right-of-center think tanks disagreed on a number of things, but they were unanimous in repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate. The idea that Americans should be forced by the government to buy a private product, merely for the offense of being alive, is seen by all conservatives as a constitutional injury.

And there’s a more fundamental question: if Obamacare’s insurance is so wonderful, why do millions of Americans need to be forced to buy it? By definition, you haven’t been “kicked off” your insurance if the only reason you’re no longer buying it is that the government has stopped fining you.

Arguably the most significant data point in the entire debate about the Senate health care bill has been the CBO’s claim that in 2026, 22 million fewer people would have health insurance under the Senate bill than under Obamacare. Democrats have seized on this number to stoke fears about the bill’s impact; moderate Republicans, intimidated by the negative headlines, have been reluctant to support the bill.

But buried within the CBO’s reports is a key fact: the vast majority of those coverage “losses” occur because the GOP bills repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate. In its July 20 estimate of the most recent version of the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act, or BCRA, CBO says that in 2018, 15 million fewer Americans will have health insurance under the bill, two years before its repeal of Obamacare’s insurance subsidies takes effect.

Why? It’s “primarily because the penalty for not having insurance would be eliminated.”

Ok. But here’s the curiosity. The CBO has refused to disclose the specific, year-by-year impact of that thing that it says is the primary reason that people will go uninsured in 2018 and beyond.

This is a critical omission. You’d think that CBO would want to include in its tables its actual estimates of how much impact the individual mandate is having on coverage under the GOP bill, and how much impact other factors are having, like the bill’s replacement of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion with refundable tax credits.

You’d think that, but CBO has refused to disclose that breakdown. The end result is a lot of misleading commentary about how Republican plans “take coverage away” from 22 million people.

This week, I obtained from a congressional staffer the CBO’s estimates of the coverage impact of repealing the individual mandate, separate from the Senate bill’s other provisions. The estimate was built out of earlier work CBO did to model how repealing the mandate would affect the federal deficit. CBO projected then that repealing the mandate alone would lead to 15 million fewer insured U.S. residents in 2018, and 16 million fewer by 2026, though they did not publish those estimates.

16 million represents nearly three-fourths of the CBO’s estimate of the coverage difference between the GOP bills and Obamacare in 2026. That’s despite the fact that, as I noted in March, even Jonathan Gruber—one of Obamacare’s most famous advocates—believes Obamacare’s individual mandate is having little effect. In a 2016 article for the New England Journal of Medicine, Gruber and two co-authors wrote, “When we assessed the mandate’s detailed provisions, which include income-based penalties for lacking coverage and various specific exemptions from those penalties, we did not find that overall coverage rates responded to these aspects of the law.” (Emphasis added.)

To be clear, even if one excludes the CBO’s exaggerated view of the impact of the individual mandate, CBO scores the Senate bill as covering 6 million fewer people than Obamacare in 2026: 2 percent of the U.S. population. But even that number can be partially explained by CBO’s outdated March 2016 baseline, which assumes that enrollment in Obamacare’s exchanges peaks out at 19 million, when it’s more likely to end up below 9 million, if Obamacare stays on the books and premiums continue to rise. (That’s the difference between the red and green curves in the above chart.)

Even if we assume that half the difference between the March 2016 exchange enrollment projections and the real world is accounted for by the exaggerated mandate effect, the net result is that the CBO’s projection of the difference in health coverage under Obamacare and the GOP bill—the pink bars in the below chart—amounts to statistical noise…”

So, in response to what is a highly inaccurate, and more than likely deliberately falsified CBO estimate, let’s continue to destroy the greatest healthcare system on the planet in the interests of statistical noise.

As Guy Benson so accurately observes at Townhall.com:

“So virtually every person who would allegedly be “stripped” of coverage under the GOP plan would either be making a conscious choice of their own volition, or currently do not have coverage (but supposedly would in the future).  You can argue that this is an undesirable outcome, but you can’t responsibly call it lost coverage.  It just isn’t.“

Well, you can…when…

Since we’re on the subject of bald-faced liars, here’s a real shocker brought to our attention by Dennis Prager:

German media failed to report refugee crisis honestly, study finds

Imagine that; a nation’s press purposefully perverting the truth for purely political purposes.

As the real Shoeless Joe was reputed to have replied (erroneously), “Yes, kid, I’m afraid it is”.

Finally, on The Lighter Side:

And if Betty White’s a racist, ain’t it certain the rest of us Whites are?!?

Magoo