A review of the Trump Presidency

[Avnger]

We're doing better than single payer health care UK, worse than, no mask, no lock down Sweden. Case fatality rate per infection is among the lowest in the world.

I do try to keep an open mind. Much of what you post does not jibe with my recollection of actual things that have happened (example: Gore wanted all Florida votes re-counted: no he did not... and not your fault. Someone posted that and you simply read and linked it). Others are difficult to assess, such as your charge about Trump not being EPA friendly. If/when he is not, is it because he thinks they are over doing it?

And this 2020 election is about much more than extra pocket money but about the leadership of our nation. We have reason to believe our governing elite hate us. A lot. They see us as a problem that must be kept down, frightened, cowed, and obedient. Trump is a thumb in their eye.

Of course, if I'm mistaken about our leadership, that they're really trying to keep us free and prosperous? There is no need for a Trump. I don't think I'm mistaken.

COVID-19 pandemic death rates by country - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That's very intelligent of you to pick the stat that most obscures the US's utter failure to limit cases in the first place. Oh, did I say "intelligent"? I meant "dishonest."

 

[Agema]

We're doing better than single payer health care UK, worse than, no mask, no lock down Sweden. Case fatality rate per infection is among the lowest in the world.

Unfortunately, it's not about who pays for the health service. Infection control is about societal organisation - individual responsibility, guidelines, advice, regulations, to minimise spread. If the USA had the population density of the UK, you'd probably be well over 300k deaths by now. Sweden did relatively well because Swedes are the sort of socially concious people who take sensible measures on their own initiative rather than rage that masks are tyranny.

And this 2020 election is about much more than extra pocket money but about the leadership of our nation. We have reason to believe our governing elite hate us. A lot. They see us as a problem that must be kept down, frightened, cowed, and obedient. Trump is a thumb in their eye.

Trump IS one of your governing elite. There is no real difference between the governing elite and the business elite. They all went to private schools and Ivy League universities together, they go to the same restaurants and golf clubs and black tie society functions. Some of these elites might be snobs who look down on Trump for being such a crass, uncultured oaf, but deep down they and he know he's one of them.

Trump, is let's remember, a billionaire businessman who spent three years boasting about how amazingly Wall Street was doing whilst he was president, and cut all their taxes and regulations for them (and of course his own tax - when he hasn't lost so much money that he actually pays taxes). It's only suddenly in the election campaign when he needs your votes with an appeal to the common man that he suddenly turns some harsh rhetoric on them. He's the same old shit they always are. He offers you walls with Mexico and Muslim bans: cheap crowd-pleasers that don't do you any real good, whilst the entire structure that lets the elites keep all the power and wealth goes completely unchallenged.

 

[Avnger]

Trump IS one of your governing elite. There is no real difference between the governing elite and the business elite. They all went to private schools and Ivy League universities together, they go to the same restaurants and golf clubs and black tie society functions. Some of these elites might be snobs who look down on Trump for being such a crass, uncultured oaf, but deep down they and he know he's one of them.

Like he literally shits on a golden fucking toilet. How does this not get through to people?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

We have reason to believe our governing elite hate us. A lot. They see us as a problem that must be kept down, frightened, cowed, and obedient. Trump is a thumb in their eye.

When told about what was then a hundred thousand deaths due to COVID-19, Trump replied "it is what it is". Trump IS the elite who hates you; his only use for you is to buttress his ego, and you can go to Hell otherwise.

 

[ObsidianJones]

We're doing better than single payer health care UK, worse than, no mask, no lock down Sweden. Case fatality rate per infection is among the lowest in the world.

I do try to keep an open mind. Much of what you post does not jibe with my recollection of actual things that have happened (example: Gore wanted all Florida votes re-counted: no he did not... and not your fault. Someone posted that and you simply read and linked it). Others are difficult to assess, such as your charge about Trump not being EPA friendly. If/when he is not, is it because he thinks they are over doing it?

And this 2020 election is about much more than extra pocket money but about the leadership of our nation. We have reason to believe our governing elite hate us. A lot. They see us as a problem that must be kept down, frightened, cowed, and obedient. Trump is a thumb in their eye.

Of course, if I'm mistaken about our leadership, that they're really trying to keep us free and prosperous? There is no need for a Trump. I don't think I'm mistaken.

COVID-19 pandemic death rates by country - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I didn't get to message you in time for the other three or four comments that disagree with how you see things.

But instead of that, I will instead do a favor of mine, and just list some facts.

Trump won't deliver vaccine to NY, faulting Cuomo's safety issue

Cuomo said Trump's loss in the election to Democrat Joe Biden reduces concern about politicization of the vaccine and he expects New York's approval to be "simultaneous" with the release of the vaccine from Washington.

www.newsday.com

Trump threatened to withhold aid from Pa. as the coronavirus surges. Here’s what you need to know

The comment "erodes trust" in the federal government’s obligation to help protect people regardless of politics, a national disaster expert said.

www.inquirer.com

Trump one-on-one: President says denial of federal aid to state might be 'punishment' for Minneapolis

After the Mankato rally, the president granted an exclusive interview to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on the tarmac alongside Air Force One. Among several topics, he said $15 million in emergency federal aid to help Minneapolis and St. Paul rebuild might have been rejected as punishment for letting riots...

kstp.com

Reynolds Praised Trump After He Denied Aid After Derecho - Iowa Democrats

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, August 26, 2020 CONTACT: [email protected] Reynolds Praised Trump After He Abandoned Iowans, Denied Aid in Hour of Need After Derecho Trump refused assistance to homeowners in 26 counties after the derecho, but last night Reynolds shamelessly praised him to...

iowademocrats.org

Trump wants to use coronavirus aid as leverage to force blue states to change immigration policies

The president mentioned using aid to force states into “sanctuary city adjustments” in comments to the press Tuesday.

www.vox.com

Trump threatens funds for states easing voting in pandemic

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to hold up federal funds for two election battleground states that are trying to make it easier and safer to vote during the coronavirus pandemic.

apnews.com

Trump Threatens To ‘Fire’ Florida Governor If He Loses The State In November

At a rally in Florida, Trump urged supporters to chant ‘12 more years’ and called on the Justice Department to investigate one of his political opponents.

www.forbes.com

Trump is the very definition of an undesirable elite who only cares about his base. Unfortunately, that's not the way to run the Presidency. He's not the President of just his Base. He's the President of the United States of America. He's used funding to try to bend democrats to his ways, made Newsom pretty much beg for aid for his State, and told any city that he didn't think favorably of that they are on their own.

Just because you're ok with his actions because they are against your political opposites does not make it any less odious.

And yes, for future Reference, if I catch President-Elect Biden doing anything close to this... denying aid to a state ravaged by wildfires just because they are politically 'against' the President, I will want to rake Biden over the same coals that currently Trump is on.

 

[gorfias]

That's very intelligent of you to pick the stat that most obscures the US's utter failure to limit cases in the first place. Oh, did I say "intelligent"? I meant "dishonest."

Or, um, you just do not know what you are writing about. Eye rolling is not an argument. Even when metaphorical.

When told about what was then a hundred thousand deaths due to COVID-19, Trump replied "it is what it is". Trump IS the elite who hates you; his only use for you is to buttress his ego, and you can go to Hell otherwise.

He has a public record going back decades skeptical of some of the worst exploitation of US workers, for instance, in our dealings with China. He is an "imperfect vessel" but you think we'd do better with a Romney or Biden? I do not.

Snip

He can be very acerbic... . He is a very imperfect vessel. But his record is one of fighting for fair trade deals, protecting US borders to lessen drugs, crime, and the driving down of particularly low/no skill labor wages, to bring about greater US employment, higher wages.
I appreciate that you would keep a close watch on Biden. If Biden does ultimately take the POTUS office, I do look forward to your critiques.
Of the two of them, Biden and Trump, it should be very easy to tell which is which. Biden has been protected and promoted by a globalist elite that very much want an empty suit to do their bidding. Trump? Attacked from every angle. If he cured cancer, the legacy corporate media would publish that he was killing medical jobs. I think we can better know a person by their friends and enemies.

snip

You post of how there is a ruling and business elite that are a challenge to the rest of US citizenry. I recall something about Stalin and Mao with Mao telling Stalin they do have things in common: They are both class traitors. Trump is an odd duck. I think he would love to enrich himself on the backs of millions of skilled, low skilled and no skilled workers. And yet, his policies appear to be about protecting us.

If there is a 2nd Trump admin., and COVID "ends" (a vaccine ends the lockdowns/masks which I doubt) it will be interesting to see if he helps us.

 

[Cheetodust]

Or, um, you just do not know what you are writing about. Eye rolling is not an argument. Even when metaphorical.

He has a public record going back decades skeptical of some of the worst exploitation of US workers, for instance, in our dealings with China.

He also has a public record going back decades of not paying contractors and getting the bulk of his manufacturing done in China. Why do people just take trump at his word?

 

[Bartholen]

We're doing better than single payer health care UK, worse than, no mask, no lock down Sweden. Case fatality rate per infection is among the lowest in the world.

Don't pretend for a fucking minute that you'd be so dismissive of the numbers if the scenario was reversed. If the same number of deaths had happened with a democrat in office (spoiler: it wouldn't have), republicans would probably have tried to storm the White House with guns months ago. They would be flying flags with Hillary's face covered in blood, likely attacking democrat politicians on the street (not that they're that far from that now anyway), and holding mass protests all over. Just...no. You are a delusional, reality-denying, vile conspiracy theorist, and your continuing support of this monster is actively making the world worse, and worst of all, you don't even realize it yourself.

 

[Kwak]

You are a delusional, reality-denying, vile conspiracy theorist, and your continuing support of this monster is actively making the world worse, and worst of all, you don't even realize it yourself.

In other words, an American Conservative.

 

[Hades]

Trump is an odd duck. I think he would love to enrich himself on the backs of millions of skilled, low skilled and no skilled workers. And yet, his policies appear to be about protecting us.

No they aren't. Trump's policy is about scrapping every regulation protecting the common man while lowering taxes for the ultra rich.

 

[Bartholen]

In other words, an American Conservative.

Should have thrown in fascist and NPC for good measure as well. This is literally no longer an exaggeration by any measure. The average republican can now be considered to be about on the same level as Alex Jones. If anyone caught the latest Giuliani press conference, it's literally non-stop conspiracy theories, QAnon level delusion, and talking points straight out of Alex Jones's programming. It's beyond parody. They literally said Venezuela and Cuba and Chavez (who's been dead for 7 years) were meddling in the election. Conspiracy theories, reality denial and anti-democracy are no longer the fringe or the exception, they are the republican party line. These people are beneath contempt.

 

[Buyetyen]

We have reason to believe our governing elite hate us. A lot. They see us as a problem that must be kept down, frightened, cowed, and obedient. Trump is a thumb in their eye.

The sad reality is that Trump holds you in even more contempt than you think the left does. He's currently grifting for cash from dudes like you to pay his campaign debts.

EDIT: Incidentally, "flawed vessel" or similar is Christianese for, "We know this guy's a giant asshole, but we're going to look the other way because it gets us what we want."

 

[gorfias]

"We know this guy's a giant asshole, but we're going to look the other way because it gets us what we want."

And he is doing so, right? Money talks, bull #@^$ walks. Under Trump, forget all the talk about things like "Critical Race Theory"... his policies, minus COVID, brought about prosperity his predecessor said would require a magic wand. Not possible.

Now, I'm critical in part as to how he did it (debt). We need a balanced budget Amendment. Until we do, there is a built in reason to ignore fiscal responsibility which would have huge benefits.

No they aren't. Trump's policy is about scrapping every regulation protecting the common man while lowering taxes for the ultra rich.

How many of those regulations have nothing to do with improving US life, but creating obstacles to creating wealth and making, say, China, a better place to invest? I honestly do not know. If you see our governing elite as dangerous and hateful to us plebes, you are skeptical.

 

[Buyetyen]

And he is doing so, right? Money talks, bull #@^$ walks. Under Trump, forget all the talk about things like "Critical Race Theory"... his policies, minus COVID, brought about prosperity his predecessor said would require a magic wand. Not possible.

All of which he inherited from Obama. And he squandered it. Still, this just shows you don't get to make an argument about morals or integrity, because you have none.

Now, I'm critical in part as to how he did it (debt). We need a balanced budget Amendment. Until we do, there is a built in reason to ignore fiscal responsibility which would have huge benefits.

Then don't ever talk about fiscal responsibility again because you're willing to act irresponsibly in the name of short-term selfish gain.

 

[Thaluikhain]

And he is doing so, right?

For given values of "we want". And, for that matter, "we".

How many of those regulations have nothing to do with improving US life, but creating obstacles to creating wealth and making, say, China, a better place to invest? I honestly do not know. If you see our governing elite as dangerous and hateful to us plebes, you are skeptical.

Oddly enough, a billionaire corrupt businessman and PotUS happens to be part of the governing elite, and christ does he hate you and yours.

 

[Agema]

And he is doing so, right? Money talks, bull #@^$ walks. Under Trump, forget all the talk about things like "Critical Race Theory"... his policies, minus COVID, brought about prosperity his predecessor said would require a magic wand. Not possible.

He didn't give you that sort of prosperity, though.

Trump promised 4% growth, like the glory days of the 50s and 60s: that was the growth described as requiring a "magic wand". And they were right. That's what his tax cuts were theoretically supposed achieve. However, the figures show that the growth of the USA under Trump was 2.4% (2017), 2.9% (2018), 2.3% (2019). He missed his own target by a huge margin. There was decent growth under Trump, for sure, but...

In the long enough term, economic growth is pretty constant. There are short-term ups and no-so-ups and recessions, and they all balance out to fairly stable long-term averages. Recessions are nearly always followed by rapid recovery with unusually high economic activity that "catches up" the loss. The reason is that the primary driver of growth long-term is usually just technological improvements that allow us to be more productive. It was incredibly unlikely Trump was ever going to achieve growth of that magnitude because those productivity gains are harder to achieve than they were in the mid-20th century, even by boosting investment with tax cuts.

In 2007/8 with the crash and subsequent recession, the US (amongst many others) had it's economy knocked flat on its back, and pretty much everyone took a substantial hit. It wasn't your average recession where two years later you could almost not notice it had happened, it took a huge amount of recovering from as it took years for damage to be worked out, repaired, and things gradually return to normal. The major recovery starts ~2014, and progressed right up to covid-19. However, if you actually look at the longer-term trends, under late Obama and Trump the US economy had merely returned to the long-term trend predictable from pre-crash growth - or if you like, after a longer-than-average delay, faster growth finally erased the recession, as it normally does. Taking that into account, Trump had not obviously given the USA any particular "value added" at all.

 

[SupahEwok]

He didn't give you that sort of prosperity, though.

Trump promised 4% growth, like the glory days of the 50s and 60s: that was the growth described as requiring a "magic wand". And they were right. That's what his tax cuts were theoretically supposed achieve. However, the figures show that the growth of the USA under Trump was 2.4% (2017), 2.9% (2018), 2.3% (2019). He missed his own target by a huge margin. There was decent growth under Trump, for sure, but...

In the long enough term, economic growth is pretty constant. There are short-term ups and no-so-ups and recessions, and they all balance out to fairly stable long-term averages. Recessions are nearly always followed by rapid recovery with unusually high economic activity that "catches up" the loss. The reason is that the primary driver of growth long-term is usually just technological improvements that allow us to be more productive. It was incredibly unlikely Trump was ever going to achieve growth of that magnitude because those productivity gains are harder to achieve than they were in the mid-20th century, even by boosting investment with tax cuts.

In 2007/8 with the crash and subsequent recession, the US (amongst many others) had it's economy knocked flat on its back, and pretty much everyone took a substantial hit. It wasn't your average recession where two years later you could almost not notice it had happened, it took a huge amount of recovering from as it took years for damage to be worked out, repaired, and things gradually return to normal. The major recovery starts ~2014, and progressed right up to covid-19. However, if you actually look at the longer-term trends, under late Obama and Trump the US economy had merely returned to the long-term trend predictable from pre-crash growth - or if you like, after a longer-than-average delay, faster growth finally erased the recession, as it normally does. Taking that into account, Trump had not obviously given the USA any particular "value added" at all.

I'm glad this could be stated for the seventh time, so that it can be ignored for the seventh time. And by glad, I mean sad.

 

[Buyetyen]

I'm glad this could be stated for the seventh time, so that it can be ignored for the seventh time. And by glad, I mean sad.

I've been developing a hypothesis for the last few years that conservatives prefer the illusion of freedom to the real thing.

 

[gorfias]

He didn't give you that sort of prosperity, though.

Trump promised 4% growth, like the glory days of the 50s and 60s: that was the growth described as requiring a "magic wand". And they were right. That's what his tax cuts were theoretically supposed achieve. However, the figures show that the growth of the USA under Trump was 2.4% (2017), 2.9% (2018), 2.3% (2019). He missed his own target by a huge margin. There was decent growth under Trump, for sure, but...

In the long enough term, economic growth is pretty constant. There are short-term ups and no-so-ups and recessions, and they all balance out to fairly stable long-term averages. Recessions are nearly always followed by rapid recovery with unusually high economic activity that "catches up" the loss. The reason is that the primary driver of growth long-term is usually just technological improvements that allow us to be more productive. It was incredibly unlikely Trump was ever going to achieve growth of that magnitude because those productivity gains are harder to achieve than they were in the mid-20th century, even by boosting investment with tax cuts.

In 2007/8 with the crash and subsequent recession, the US (amongst many others) had it's economy knocked flat on its back, and pretty much everyone took a substantial hit. It wasn't your average recession where two years later you could almost not notice it had happened, it took a huge amount of recovering from as it took years for damage to be worked out, repaired, and things gradually return to normal. The major recovery starts ~2014, and progressed right up to covid-19. However, if you actually look at the longer-term trends, under late Obama and Trump the US economy had merely returned to the long-term trend predictable from pre-crash growth - or if you like, after a longer-than-average delay, faster growth finally erased the recession, as it normally does. Taking that into account, Trump had not obviously given the USA any particular "value added" at all.

I keep hearing that the best of the Trump economy is just a continuation of the Obama economy. (When I'm not being told it is just my imagination: the economy sucked). It is one thing to see growth from an economy at it's nadir and growth in an economy in which the wealthiest worry that we're already "over heating". Trump did what Obama said Trump could not achieve without a magic wand. He was wrong. We saw record unemployment and rising wages for the 1st time in generations. And the top 1% have never been so outraged before.

 

[Buyetyen]

And the top 1% have never been so outraged before.

Citation needed. You keep making all these evidence-free assertions and expecting us to just go along with it. And when proven wrong, you just lie.