Trump, Trade Wars and the Stock Market

In gathering materials together for my accountant yesterday, I noticed that the recent declines in the stock market had literally cost me thousands of dollars.  No small part of the stock market decline has been triggered by the idiocy of the occupant of the White House who thinks he knows everything when in fact, he knows little about seemingly anything.  Wild talk and trade wars may thrill Der Trumpenführer's base in the short term, but the stock market does not like wild talk, unhinged reality TV behavior and/or unneeded trade wars.  As a column in the New York Times notes, the stock market and investors like stability, predictability and no barriers to trade/investment.  What Trump is pushing is the exact opposite and the stock market is revealing what it thinks of the batshitery.  Here are column excerpts:

As I write this, China’s announcement of a new round of tit-for-tat tariffs has stoked fears of trade war and sent stock futures plunging. If this morning’s futures hold, the S&P 500 will be about 10.5 percent off its January peak, around 6 percent off its level when Gary Cohn, the last of the Trump “globalists,” was pushed out.

My question is, why such a large fall?

One good answer is, that’s a stupid question. The three rules you need to bear in mind when discussing the stock market are (1) the stock market is not the economy (2) the stock market is not the economy (3) the stock market is not the economy. And stocks move for all sorts of reasons, or no visible reason at all. As Paul Samuelson famously quipped, the market has forecast nine of the last five recessions.

Another answer is that the trade war is a signal: Trump, Navarro et al are showing that they really are as unhinged and irresponsible as they seem, and markets are taking notice. Imagine how these people would handle a financial crisis.

[T]here is a reason why stock prices might overshoot the overall economic costs of a trade war. For a trade war that “deglobalized” the U.S. economy would require a big reallocation of resources, including capital. Yet you go to trade war with the capital you have, not the capital you’re eventually going to want – and stocks are claims on the capital we have now, not the capital we’ll need if America goes all in on Trumponomics.
Or to put it another way, a trade war would produce a lot of stranded assets.

The costs of protectionism, according to conventional economic theory, are not that tariffs caused the Great Depression, or anything like that. They come, instead, from moving your economy away from things you’re relatively good at to things you aren’t. American workers could sew clothes together, instead of importing apparel from Bangladesh; in fact, we’d surely produce more pajamas per person-hour than the Bangladeshis do. But our productivity advantage is much bigger in other things, so there’s an efficiency gain – for both economies – in having us concentrate on the things we do best.

And a trade war, by imposing artificial costs such as tariffs on international trade, undoes that productive specialization, making everyone less efficient.

Under free trade, we import anything that costs less to produce abroad than at home. If we impose a tariff, we end up not importing stuff unless the price of the import is sufficiently low that it’s cheaper even including the tariff. The marginal good we import, then, is actually much cheaper than a domestic product, and the marginal good we don’t import costs the economy a lot – specifically, the tariff that we would have paid if we did import it. . . . at each step we are imposing costs on the economy equal to the extra cost of the domestic product that replaces an import. Since about 1990 corporate America has bet heavily on hyperglobalization – on the continuance of an open-market regime that has encouraged complex value chains that sprawl across borders. The notebook on which I’m writing this was designed in California, but probably assembled in China, with many of the components coming from South Korea and Japan. Apple could produce it entirely in North America, and probably would in the face of 30 percent tariffs. But the factories it would take to do that don’t (yet) exist. Meanwhile, the factories that do exist were built to serve globalized production – and many of them would be marginalized, maybe even made worthless, by tariffs that broke up those global value chains. That is, they would become stranded assets. Call it the anti-China shock.

Of course, it wouldn’t just be factories left stranded by a trade war. A lot of people would be stranded too. The point of the famous “China shock” paper by Autor et al wasn’t that rapid trade growth made America as a whole poorer, it was that rapid changes in the location of production displaced a significant number of workers, creating personal hardship and hurting their communities.

[M]y original question was why stocks are dropping so much more than the likely costs of trade war to the economy. And one answer, I’d suggest, is disruption – which business leaders love to celebrate in their rhetoric, but hate when it happens to them.

Pennsylvania Teen Faces Prison for Blasphemy Charges

Reads scoff at me when I equate the Christofascists and some of America's antiquated laws with milder version of ISIS and other nations where blasphemy statutes can lead to prison terms or far worse.  But a pending case in Pennsylvania underscores that my comparison of Christofascists and some of America's laws with something out of the Middle East is more on point than many Americans care to admit.  What makes the situation even more outrageous is that the owner of the religious object involved did not want to prosecute.  Rather, the jihad is being driven by a prosecutor who obviously is anxious to prostitute himself to far right voters.  KRON TV4 has details on the initial story:

Pennsylvania (KRON) — A Pennsylvania teenager is facing criminal charges after posting pictures to Facebook of him simulating a sex act with a statue of Jesus.

The young man posted that he took the pictures in late July at the statue of a kneeling Jesus in front of the “Love in the Name of Christ” Christian organization in his hometown of Everett.

The criminal charge, which will be heard in family court, consists of “Desecration of a Venerated Object.” 

Pennsylvania law defines desecration as “Defacing, damaging, polluting or otherwise, physically mistreating in a way that the actor knows will outrage the sensibilities of persons likely to observe or discover the action.”

The teen, whose name has not been released, could face up to two years in a juvenile jail if convicted.

Joe My God has details on recent events and a protest against the ridiculous Pennsylvania law.    Here are highlights:

Remember the teenager in Pennsylvania who faces two years in juvenile detention for posing on a statue of Jesus? This happened this weekend:

A successful protest, where several dozen people rallied in favor of free speech, was marred on Saturday, when a belligerent group of counter protesters, including two from what appeared to be a motorcycle gang, crashed the demonstration and threatened those in attendance, including a 14-year old boy arrested for “desecrating” a Jesus statue and Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. Incredibly, there was not a single police officer on-hand to prevent potential violence and this left the protesters vulnerable to thugs and forced them to fend for themselves. “The Bedford police placed us directly in harms way and their inaction nearly caused a full-blown melee,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “This is the first time in two decades of protesting that I’ve been put directly in harm’s way by town officials. We call on Bedford to immediately review its policies for protecting the free speech rights of those who demonstrate in their town.”

What is truly disturbing is that no damage was done to the Jesus statute and, again, the owners did not want to press charges.  One has to wonder if next Pennsylvania will legalize the stoning of adulterers or those using curse words involving the Trinity?  Meanwhile, of course, the Christofascists are free to lie and spread hate and division without any accountability.  The prosecution needs to be dropped and the statute repealed.  Far too much deference has been given to individuals like this one:

Bachmann: LGBT Movement Has A Pro-Pedophilia Agenda

Some are thrilled that the extremely delusional Michele Bachmann has said that she may consider another presidential run in 2016.  Few - other than perhaps Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum - could help  keep the lunacy and extremism of today's GOPin open view more than Bachmann.  Among Bachmann's opening salvos are her claims that "child rape is the result of gay rights" and that the LGBT movement is trying to “abolish age of consent laws.”  Bachmann is truly a foul and nasty piece of work who belongs in a mental ward as opposed to running for any public office of any kind.  Think Progress looks at Bachmann's batshitery.  Here are highlights:

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has a long history of disparaging the LGBT community, and it seems she is not done. In a radio interview this week, Bachmann claimed that the LGBT movement is trying to “abolish age of consent laws.”

Bachmann told Faith & Liberty Host Dave Garrison that there is an effort underway to “do away with statutory rape laws,” so that “adults would be able to freely prey on little children sexually. That’s the deviance that we’re seeing embraced in our culture today.”

The only concerns that have been raised about statutory rape laws is that they unfairly discriminate against same-sex couples. Many states have a “Romeo and Juliet” exception that protects young people who engage in a sexual relationship with someone under the age of consent but who is still close in age, such that a 17-year-old would not be convicted of statutory rape for having sex with a 15-year-old, even though the 15-year-old would not be allowed to legally consent. But many of these state laws only apply to different-sex couples, so a same-sex couple that is similar in age would be more vulnerable to prosecution, jail, and sex-offender status, just because of their sexual orientation.

Minnesota GOP Supreme Court Nominee Vows To Put The Bible Above the Law

Examples of the batshitery of the Christofascists who now control the base of the Republican Party and their tawdry political whores in the GOP seem to be multiplying exponentially as sane and rational people flee the GOP.  One truly has to wonder when some of these nutcases are going to be charged with sedition and/or treason given their statements that their goal is to overthrow the U.S. Constitution and place the Bible as the governing document of the nation.  A case in point?  Michelle MacDonald (pictured above), the GOP nominee to become a state Supreme Court judge.  Just to add to the fun, MacDonald id up on DUI charges.  One literally could not make up the lunacy that is now the norm in the Republican Party.  These people are worse than a bad caricature.  Here are details from the Friendly Atheist on the batshitery eruption in Minnesota:

Lawyer Michelle MacDonald, who faces DUI charges, just won the Minnesota GOP’s nomination to become a state Supreme Court judge.

Just before getting the nomination, MacDonald explained how she would make decisions: Forget the law. It’s all about the Bible:

When judges used to enter the courtroom, they would hold the Bible over their head, like this.

In the words of George Washington, it is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.

She’s a bad historian, too. There’s no evidence whatsoever that Washington said that. (Even Christian pseudo-historian David Barton, who popularized that lie in the first place, later admitted there was no proof he said it.)

She’s like a female version of Alabama’s Chief Justice Roy Moore, who installed a Ten Commandments monument right in the courthouse. (But with a DUI charge.)

She said later in her speech that she would be “committed to civil liberties, constitutional rights, human dignities, and fair treatment of all citizens children or adults.” Though I wonder if she would’ve applied those principles to gay couples if the state hadn’t legalized marriage equality last year…

There’s one more MacDonald incident worth noting:

The documents also contained information about a bizarre incident in 2013 where MacDonald, who was representing a client in court, was removed from the courtroom by deputies and placed in a cell.

According to the documents, MacDonald was handcuffed, placed in [a] wheel chair and wheeled back into the courtroom by a deputy. The hearing resumed and MacDonald continued to represent her client, but she was in a wheel chair and handcuffed. MacDonald was jailed for multiple days, but was eventually released without being charged.

That’s who the GOP just nominated to the highest court in the state.

My Republican ancestors must be rolling in their graves that such a lunatic not only won any GOP nomination but that she won a nomination to Minnesota's highest court.  And the Tea Party wonders why America is dropping like a stone in international competition?  Its as if the GOP has undergone a collective lobotomy or had a collective nervous breakdown.  These people are insane and downright frightening!!

Gay Hater Bob Marshall Continues Quest to Impeach Mark Herring

I have noted that I increasingly believe that Christofascists suffer from a form of mental illness.  Need an example?  Look no farther than GOP Del. Bob Marshall (pictured above) who remains absolutely obsessed with inflicting legal harm on LGBT Virginians.  One has to wonder what bizarre aspect of Marshall's psyche drives him to such extreme lengths to harm those he doesn't even know. Marshall's newest target of this obsession is Virginia Attorney General who refused to defend Virginia's ban on gay marriage, which, like similar bans across the country was ruled to be unconstitutional.  Like too many Virginia Republicans, Marshall refuses to grasp the basic principal that the U.S. Constitution ALWAYS overrides state constitutions.  A piece in Think Progress looks at Marshall's spittle flecked diatribe sent out via e-mail arguing in support of his effort to impeach Mark Herring - and any judge who rules in favor of gay marriage.  The man is truly a mental case (as are the voters in his district who vote for this lunatic).  Here are article excerpts:

Virginia Del. Bob Marshall (R) is a longtime opponent of LGBT equality, and he’s now calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Mark Herring (D), primarily for his refusal to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Marshall filed the resolutions seeking an inquiry for Herring’s impeachment last week, but in a new email to supporters, he outlined his reasons for doing so. “Removing all standards against same sex or sodomy ‘marriage,’” he explained, is “to the detriment of children and the well-being of society.”

According to Marshall, “Mark Herring’s actions constitute a radical structural alteration in our representative form of government.” . . . Marshall also claims he “usurped legislative authority” by inviting undocumented immigrants (DREAMers) to pay in-state tuition rates at Virginia state school.

Marshall’s attacks include something that Herring did not actually even do. According to the email alert, Herring publicly announced that he is allowing same-sex couples to file joint tax returns, but Herring has made no such announcement.

In the email, Marshall also extended a threat to impeach judges who might overturn bans on same-sex marriage. Rulings based on the 14th Amendment’s equal protection “make no sense,” he argued, because when that Amendment was ratified, “sodomy was a felony in nearly every state.”

A long reputation of anti-gay comments precedes Marshall’s impeachment attempts. In 2012, he opposed the appointment of openly gay Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland because “sodomy is not a civil right.” In a 2011 letter attacking Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) for supporting marriage equality, Marshall compared homosexuality to pedophilia, prostitution, polygamy, necrophilia, and bestiality. He believes that homosexuality is a “disordered behavior” and after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” he tried to ban “active homosexuals” from joining the Virginia National Guard.

As of this morning, Marshall’s public petition to seeking to garner support for Herring’s impeachment has totaled 270 signatures, a large number of which are taking shots at Marshall, not Mark Herring.  Here are few of the "names" signed on the petition:

“FuckYou Bob.” 
"Fuck me in the ass bob Please"
"BobMarshalls ButtBoy"
"DisBar BobMarshall"
"Bob Yousukdik"
"Eat A Dick You Clown"
"Asshole of the Year"

You get the drift! :-) 

GOP Asks Utterly Insane GOP Primary Candidate to Drop Out of Race - She Refuses

You know that someone is a real whack job when even today's Republican Party leaders thinks that they are too extreme.  Of course, had the GOP not opened the doors wide to the crazies and Christofascists years ago, insane candidates like Susanne Atanus (pictured above) would never have sought to run for any office much less run for a seat in Congress.  Humorously, Ms. Atanus is refusing to withdraw and she will hopefully help highlight just how insane today's republican Party has become.  The Daily Herald looks at the intra-party dispute.  Here are stroy highlights:

Republican leaders called Thursday for Susanne Atanus to drop out of the GOP primary for the 9th Congressional District after she told the Daily Herald this winter's bitter weather is a sign that God is angry over abortions and same-sex marriage.

During an interview with the Daily Herald editorial board this week, Atanus said she believes God is angry because of same-sex marriage, abortions, civil unions and gay rights, resulting in severe weather and autism, among other things.

Her comments went viral on Thursday, resulting in a backlash online and among state party leaders.

On Thursday, Atanus said she will not drop out of the primary against David Earl Williams III, and as of late in the afternoon she said she still had not heard from the GOP leaders.  I'm not withdrawing from the race. I don't know why they are not standing behind me," Atanus said. "They should talk to me personally. I will not back out of the race."

Jack Dorgan, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, said in a statement on Thursday, "The offensive statements by Susanne Atanus have no place in the modern political debate, and she has no place on the ballot as a Republican."   "Her candidacy is neither supported nor endorsed by the leaders of our party, and she should withdraw from the race immediately."

Adam Robinson, chairman of the Chicago Republican Party, distanced himself from Atanus in the same statement.  "Atanus is not in any way affiliated with any of our efforts in the Chicago GOP, nor have we ever supported, endorsed, or assisted her in any way at any time," Robinson wrote.

Atanus, who lives in Niles, continued to stand by her comments.  "I am a Christian. I care a lot about the world and I care a lot about my obedience to serve God the right way," she said. "I can't turn my eye and look the other way when I know that abortions, gay rights and civil unions are making God very angry."

Meanwhile, on more traditional issues, Atanus said she would work to eliminate the stock indexes, including the S&P, Dow Jones and Nasdaq, to fix the economy, while Williams favors what he calls a "fair" tax — a 23 percent national sales tax on all new goods and services. Williams does not want to raise the minimum wage, while Atanus said she thinks it is needed to get the economy moving.

On immigration, Williams said he doesn't believe in amnesty but would like to see a path to citizenship for immigrants that could include work visas or military service. Atanus said she believes in open borders and that people should be able to travel freely without passports.

While Williams said he is not OK with the NSA listening and reading American phone calls and emails, Atanus said she thinks domestic surveillance is necessary for national security.

As much as the GOP leadership tries to disavow Atanus, the truth is that she is the face of the GOP base.  Go to any local city or county committee meeting and you will find plenty of individuals just as crazy as Ms. Atanus.  She is the norm, not the exception.

 

Right Wingers and Homophobes Go Nuts Over Mark Herring's Justified Decision to Drop Defense of Gay Marriage Ban

At time it is difficult to describe the intensity of the swamp fever and hate that now infect the Republican Party base in Virginia and elsewhere.  If one wants to see how the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust occurred in Germany in the 1930's, look no further than the base of the Republican Party of Virginia 2014.  The reaction of the Christofascists/Tea Party to Attorney General Mark Herring's decision to cease defending Virginia's gay marriage bans continues to give new meaning to the term batshitery.  Never mind that (i) Mark Herring IS upholding the U.S. Constitution which trumps the Virginia Constitution. and (ii) both Ken Cuccinelli and Jerry Kilgore set the precedent for not defending laws they deemed unconstitutional (in Kilgore's case, like Herring, the refusal involved a provision of the Virginia Constitution) .  Blue Virginia has compiled some of the insanity that now is deemed rational discourse within the GOP base in Virginia.  Blue Virginia has assembled examples of this sick insanity.  Note the totally untrue claims of election fraud and attacks on Northern Virginia, one of Virginia's economic dynamos that pays far more than its share in supporting Virginia's budget.  Note: the spelling errors set out below are from the far right commentators.  Here are excerpts:

As you're probably aware, the far-right, theocratic, and otherwise cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs wing of the Virginia Republican Party is in full meltdown mode over Attorney General Mark Herring's gay marriage announcement the other day. Case in point: Ken Cuccinelli's Facebook page, and specifically the comments in reaction to his posting of the image to the far right (appropriately enough) of this post. Check out a few examples of the insanity below, not to mention the utter idiocy (e.g., English grammar totally optional and typos mandatory, such as spelling "liar" as "lier;" "riddled" as "riddeled;" "election" as "Ellection;" "Presidential" as "Presidental;" "break" as "brake;" etc.; etc.) and anti-LGBT hysteria. Craaaaaaaazy!

Allegations of Democrats Stealing the Election via "Voter Fraud," etc.
*"i knew this was going to happen the moment i saw how the elections were riddeled with voter fraud. they wish to push their anti gun, pro abortion and pro gay agenda as quickly as possible."
*"I would not be surprised if these elections were rigged. Obama, was not elected with majority."
*"We MUST clean up VOTER FRAUD=NOW, BEFORE the Upcomeing Nov. 2014 Election's, & the 2016 Presidental Ellection!!! NOW!"
*"if we do not stand to liberals and their affinity to brake the law and cause voter fraud we will have a divided and destroyed United States."
*"Thank God Glenn Beck exposed the fraud between Libertarians and the Democrats."
*"DC has taken over our state and I think the election here in NOV. was all about FRAUD !!!!!"

Northern Virginia Needs to Go!
*"Man, what a sad time for VA. It sickens me to see such a great state turning into one of the liberal petri dishes of the north. NOVA just needs to be given to DC."
*"If Fairfax would join DC and leave Virginia we would be a much different state ... large percent of people in N VA are imports and bring the NJ NY mindset with them ....."
*"Can the Commonwelth rid Themselves of Fairfax and Arlington counties then we would be Red Again need to start a remove Northern VA from the rest of VA."
*"Take Arlington and separate it from the rest of the state and give Arlington to DC. Problem solved."

Don't Ask Me How, but It Relates to Obama!!!
*"Well, now Obama has his own little puppet AG."
*"There's an agenda going on here and apparently only some of us see it. I didn't vote for Obama or any democrats in Va. I find it hard to believe after the first 4 years went bad, Obama was elected again."
*"Those oaths used to mean something, until Obama took office."
*"So help me Obama."
*"If he doesn't support the constitution SOMEONE better bring him up on treason charges and let let him destroy our state like Obama is destroying our country and no one is stopping him."
*"Herring is an obamazombie. He is a disgrace and should be impeached immediately..."
*"Didn't Obama take the same oath???"
*"He swears to support the laws he likes- just like Eric Holder and Obama!"
*"Youll be Obamas enemy for taking that oath"

As I have said before, to be a Republican nowadays, one needs to either be consumed by greed, have had a lobotomy, be an active member of the KKK or some other white supremacy group, or a religious extremist extraordinaire.  I am increasingly embarrassed that I was ever a Republican.

Mike Huckabee Reminds Us of the GOP War on Women

Click image to enlarge

LGBT citizens are not the only targets of Republican bigotry and oppression.  Women are another favored target as Christofascist lunatic Mike Huckabee - Huckabee has stated on television that he wants the Bible to replace the U.S. Constitution as America's governing document - forcefully reminded us in his recent comments on women at the Republican National Committee winter meeting.  Even conservative columnist Kathleen Parker - one of the generally still sane conservatives - was offended and takes Huckabee - and by extension the Republican Party-  to task for this continued batshitery.  Here are highlights from Parker's column:

What Huckabee was saying was that women are not just packages of reproductive parts whose lives are circumscribed by access to birth control. This is the thinking he ascribes to Democrats. Instead, he said, Republicans are fighting a war for women “to be empowered to be something other than victims of their gender.”

Not bad so far, but then . . . uh-oh.

“And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it, let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be.”

That is one long sentence, punctuated with several highlight-worthy words — “helpless,” “libido,” “Uncle Sugar” and, never far from the male Republican mind, “reproductive system.”  Paging Dr. Freud . . .
 
As Republicans can’t seem to learn, it’s all in how you say things. Even if Huckabee was only describing how he believes Democrats think of women, he may have parted the curtain on his own unconscious processes. Who, really, is worried about women’s libidos? 

No one in the debate about health insurance coverage of birth control has concerned himself with libido-related concerns except, notably, Rush Limbaugh. It was he who made the leap from Sandra Fluke’s insistence that health insurance should cover birth control to his conclusion that Fluke is, therefore and obviously, a “slut.”

One is justified in wondering: Why do these men concern themselves so much with what women do with their, ahem, “reproductive systems”? 

Does Huckabee really think that Democrats are wedded to the idea that women can’t function without “Uncle Sugar” offering medications to thwart ovulation and fertilization? Even Uncle Sugar is creepy. No doubt intended as a clever twist on Uncle Sam, he sounds like the lurking uncle who trades chocolate for a smooch on the upstairs landing.

Rather than end the idea of a Republican war on women, Huckabee has merely provided fresh fodder to Democrats, while reminding women why they don’t want to associate with this crowd. Clue-less.

One does indeed have to wonder why this angry aging white men are so utterly obsessed with sex whether it be gay sex or women's body parts.  To me it suggests that they all need a serious mental health care intervention.

Utah Nutcase Vows To Starve Self Until Gays Can No Longer Marry

As studies have shown, the loudest homophobes are the ones most aroused by gay porn.  That said, one has to wonder how big of a self-loathing closet case Utah resident Trestin Meacham (pictured at right) is in light of his announced self-starvation over gay marriages taking places in Utah.  Other explanations for Meacham's behavior in my view are (i) he is psychologically disturbed if gays marrying is so frightening to him, or (ii) his claimed religious faith is not very strong if gays marrying is such a terrifying prospect.  It is also noteworthy how Meacham - like most Christofascists and far right Mormons - has no regard for the concept of religious freedom for all.  Like most such selfish, self-centered individuals he wants it for himself, but anyone with differing beliefs can basically go f*ck themselves.    I also find Meacham's claim that he "doesn't hate gays" to be disingenuous.  You do not (a) call people evil or (b) seek to deprive individuals of civil rights if you like them.  The Bilerico Project looks at this latest batshitery from one of the "godly folk":

Trestin Meacham, a 35-year-old unhinged whackjob former Constitution Party candidate for the Utah State Senate, says he is fasting to stop same-sex marriage in Utah.
Meacham, who claims to have begun his fast on the day that U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled Utah's marriage discrimination amendment unconstitutional, says he's lost 25 pounds so far.
His goal is to draw attention to the discredited legal theory of "nullification." This bogus theory holds that states -- not the federal government -- hold supreme authority and have the right to invalidate any federal law they like.
Of course, the Supreme Court has repeatedly dismissed the notion that states have the power to unilaterally overrule federal law, and the country fought a nasty 19th-century skirmish called the Civil War that should have put nullification to bed permanently. However, many southern states cited the concept in the 1950s in their racist effort to prevent public school integration before the Supremes smacked it down again in their 1958 Cooper v. Aaron decision.
But these details don't concern Meacham. "[The state] can end this tomorrow," Meacham told ABC 4 Utah. "They don't have to go through legal court battles and waste our money. They can end it tomorrow with the act of nullification."

Read more at http://www.bilerico.com/2014/01/desperate_utahn_vows_to_starve_self_until_gays_can.php#3w0IgdGxo5v5K48l.99

Trestin Meacham, a 35-year-old unhinged whackjob former Constitution Party candidate for the Utah State Senate, says he is fasting to stop same-sex marriage in Utah.

Meacham, who claims to have begun his fast on the day that U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled Utah's marriage discrimination amendment unconstitutional, says he's lost 25 pounds so far.

His goal is to draw attention to the discredited legal theory of "nullification." This bogus theory holds that states -- not the federal government -- hold supreme authority and have the right to invalidate any federal law they like.

Of course, the Supreme Court has repeatedly dismissed the notion that states have the power to unilaterally overrule federal law, and the country fought a nasty 19th-century skirmish called the Civil War that should have put nullification to bed permanently. However, many southern states cited the concept in the 1950s in their racist effort to prevent public school integration before the Supremes smacked it down again in their 1958 Cooper v. Aaron decision.

But these details don't concern Meacham. "[The state] can end this tomorrow," Meacham told ABC 4 Utah. "They don't have to go through legal court battles and waste our money. They can end it tomorrow with the act of nullification."

 

In a December 21 Facebook posting announcing his fast, Meacham frames his struggle in heroic terms:

I cannot stand by and do nothing while this evil takes root in my home. Some things in life are worth sacrificing one's heath and even life if necessary. I am but a man, and do not have the money and power to make any noticeable influence in our corrupt system. Never the less, I can do something that people in power cannot ignore.

He continued on Facebook, writing: "Let's be clear about something. Just because you disagree with someone's lifestyle [sic] does not mean you hate them. And standing up to evil does not make you unchristian. Do we not remember how He drove the moneychangers from the temple?"

Riiiiight. In Trestin Meacham's world, the fact that he's willing to literally starve himself to protest others' happiness -- that he's that committed to preventing same-sex couples from legally pledging their lives to one another and blocking them from realizing our nation's promise of equal justice under the law -- doesn't make him a hateful, bigoted extremist. It's all about the "Constitution," silly!