The Donald Trump Score Card

6

Hell man we have been through that far right cliché all the other times you’ve brought it up

So again we have to explain (for what seems like the millionth time) that there are many types of socialism - then we have to explain once again that many forms of capitalism have been brutal, exploitative an ruinous as well.

Then again we have to tell you about the problem of system being corrupted and ask you once more to go away and read some actual history or economics books?

I mean you’ve said in the past that you have based your whole viewpoint of economics on the badly written sci-fi novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and some articles by the wealth sponsored lobbying groups like the Cato Institute.

But have you taken the advice given to you back then to try and read more widely?

 

I'll bet $20 the summit stays on schedule exactly as planned. Kim is just trying to thump his chest on a world stage. He can't test anymore misses, the mountain has nearly collapsed. He has no money and won't for awhile. If he backs out, he will be even worse off.

He's simply trying to look like a big shot. He's holding a pair of 3s, trying to bluff his way to a better poker hand.

Trump has a much better hand and doesn't need to bluff.

 

$20? High roller, eh? This incident illustrates the real danger of having infantile narcissists (I mean both of them) control nuclear arsenals . The chances Trump will talk Kim into giving up his nuclear weapons are zilch. Our superhawk neocon National Security Advisor seems to havespooked the North Koreans (maybe accidentally on purpose) by bringing up the "Libyan Model". The danger that Trump will make major concessions to keep his Nobel Prize in play are real and concerning. Trump has already given Kim prestige by treating him like an equal, and legitimacy by calling him "very honorable" and a "pretty smart cookie." If Kim follows the pattern of his father and grandfather, this will be another game of Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football--only in this case, Charlie won't tolerate humiliation and has nuclear weapons. We'll be back to "rocket man".

 

The public works bill was dead the moment the GOP got control of the House and Senate.
If the Democrats manage to win big later this year, it stands a chance.

Of course, giving all of those rich people tax cuts has probably hamstrung the plan regardless. Their plan to totally defund climate science, education, etc. can only bring in so much... it's not like they were the US government's biggest expenses.

I don't know what you do for a living, but trickle down isn't supposed to just give a few people a little more money via tax breaks, it's supposed to do things like create jobs and improve society. Of course it does the former really well, but not the latter... and at this point, the only way they can sell it to everyone is by appealing to everyone's greed, selfishness and American individualism. It's not your fault that other people are poor, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, welfare queens, various racial stereotypes, you are jealous of all of the great things I have, you're just lazy, etc... totally wrongheaded, hateful, obsolete sentiments that have been keeping a lot of people down and dividing everyone into socioeconomic classes for hundreds of years.

Trump is a huge embarrassment, and so is the rest of the GOP. Only the GOP could stoop so low as to run someone like Trump in the first place, to support him, to lie and cover up everything he has done with a lot of phony investigations by people who don't give a shit about anything except holding onto power. The fact that he was even their candidate in the first place speaks volumes about how the GOP sees its base... they gambled that their base was stupid/hypocritical enough to fall for someone they should have known was a fraud, and it looks like they were right.

I would say that democracy is showing its weaknesses, but the thing is, you can't have democracy in a society that's so ignorant and/or misinformed that shit like this actually happens.

 

I haven't read his argument, but did he account for the fact that muscles weigh more than fat?
To be honest, I am glad Trump is in denial about his weight... if he refuses to accept that he is fat, he won't try to get healthier, and he will die sooner.

If it's just a public image thing and he really is trying to get healthier behind the scenes, that would suck.

 

Hopefully he considers his mortality to be fake news

 

I liked Atlas Shrugged as a work of fiction. Ayn Rand had fled Stalinism so I get where she was coming from. she was deluded however into taking on capitalism as her subsequent dogma. As far as I am concerned that shows her mindset didn't change, only the content did. As soon as dogma gets involved things start to go wrong.

 

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen this with my own eyes. Shame on you Trump, shame shame shame

 

What Trump's disclosure of his 500 LLCs can and can't tell us about his income and his businesses.
by Ben Popken
May.16.2018 / 3:06 PM ET

What Trump's disclosure of his 500 LLCs can and can't tell us

excerpt:

"A 2015 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan, tax policy think tank, said Delaware’s tax code made it “a magnet for people looking to create anonymous shell companies, which individuals and corporations can use to evade an inestimable amount in federal and foreign taxes.”

Releasing just the list of LLCs also withholds other vital information, tax attorney Steve Moskowitz told NBC News: Without Trump's tax returns, we don't know which foreign assets or bank accounts he owns or where they're located. We don't know how much foreign tax he has paid and to which countries. We can't verify which charities he's funding. And without his taxes we can't calculate how much he may have saved on pass-through entity income as a result of the new tax law he signed in December."

 

Giuliani says he revealed Trump's Stormy Daniels repayment to beat upcoming financial disclosure
By Dana Bash, CNN
Updated 9:15 PM ET, Wed May 16, 2018

Giuliani says he revealed Trump's Stormy Daniels repayment to beat financial disclosure - CNNPolitics

excerpt:

"Giuliani subsequently told The New York Times the reimbursement was made in monthly installments of $35,000 to Cohen that began some time after the campaign. He also said Trump paid Cohen far more than $130,000 -- Cohen received around $460,000 or $470,000, Giuliani said, which included "incidental expenses" that Cohen had incurred on Trump's behalf.

Trump submitted his financial disclosure form Wednesday, which showed he made a payment to Cohen between $100,001 and $250,000 in 2017. That money is believed to be the reimbursement for the payment to Daniels.

Giuliani said he knew news of the payment would come out, even if he didn't know "exactly when or what would come out.""

 

Trump’s Failure To Report Stormy Daniels Payoff Referred To Prosecutors
S.V. Date
May 16, 2018

Trump’s Failure To Report Stormy Daniels Payoff Referred To Prosecutors

excerpt:

"The payment to Daniels ― whose real name is Stephanie Clifford ― was made on Oct. 27, 2016, by Essential Consultants LLC to her lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson, according to a copy of the wire transfer.

Essential Consultants was created by Cohen days earlier. He used it in the coming weeks and months to collect millions of dollars in consulting fees from corporate clients like AT&T, Swiss drugmaker Norvatis and Columbus Nova, which described itself as an affiliate of a conglomerate known to be owned by a Russian oligarch.

“Once again Mr. Giuliani has attempted to deceive the American people with this payment,” said Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ new lawyer, who is trying to break the nondisclosure agreement in court."

 

A paper about the status threat perceived by the waning white majority in the U.S. and how Trump appeals to it.


Status threat, not economic hardship, explains the 2016 presidential vote
Diana C. Mutz
PNAS April 23, 2018. 201718155; published ahead of print April 23, 2018.

Status threat, not economic hardship, explains the 2016 presidential vote

excerpt:

"The 2016 election was a result of anxiety about dominant groups’ future status rather than a result of being overlooked in the past. In many ways, a sense of group threat is a much tougher opponent than an economic downturn, because it is a psychological mindset rather than an actual event or misfortune. Given current demographic trends within the United States, minority influence will only increase with time, thus heightening this source of perceived status threat. Although whites will likely still be the best-educated and most well-off racial group, by 2040, they are unlikely to dominate in numbers. Likewise, despite US status as an extremely wealthy country relative to those countries perceived to threaten it economically, many Americans find that small comfort.

These results also directly refute the long-held belief among political scientists that political elites “waltz before a blind audience” when it comes to international issues (36). Public opinion on trade in particular has been assumed not to matter, because politicians are not held accountable for low salience issues (57). Trump’s emphasis on these particular issues in his campaign increased the salience of international affairs. In politicizing these issues, he put greater distance between the candidates of the two parties on international issues. Elections are always structured by the candidates who happen to be in play at the time. However, in 2016, large changes in the nominees’ issue positions relative to their predecessors in the previous election made this an especially important factor. Because globalization itself is unlikely to wane, these are likely to remain important electoral issues for the foreseeable future.

Most critically, these results speak to the importance of group status in the formation of political preferences. Political uprisings are often about downtrodden groups rising up to assert their right to better treatment and more equal life conditions relative to high-status groups. The 2016 election, in contrast, was an effort by members of already dominant groups to assure their continued dominance and by those in an already powerful and wealthy country to assure its continued dominance."

 

One Tribe to Bind Them All: How Our Social Group Attachments Strengthen Partisanship
Lilliana Mason
Julie Wronski
First published: 13 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12485

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12485

excerpts:

"The relevance of social groups and identities to American political behavior has long been noted. From the founding, the concept of pluralism, or as Madison stated, “the multiplicity of sects” in American society has been noted as a source of stability for American peace and democracy (Dahl, 1972). Recently, however, many of the social divides in American politics have moved into alignment with political parties, concentrating the “multiplicity” of social divisions along a single partisan line (Mason, 2018). One corollary of this, we demonstrate here, is an increase in the strength of citizens' affiliations with their parties. Furthermore, this effect is asymmetric across the two parties. The “correct” alignment of social identities—including White and Christian identities that are not typically mentioned in “identity politics” punditry—is more strongly related to Republican partisanship than to Democratic partisanship. In essence, we find that all politics is identity politics, including the partisan preferences of Whites and Christians."

"As social identities are increasingly associated with one party or the other, and as partisans increasingly identify with these party‐associated groups, the American political divide grows more intractable. The convergence of social identities along partisan lines makes in‐party preference more powerful and out‐party tolerance ever more difficult. This article has refined the mechanism behind the relationship between social sorting and in‐party preference. Future research should use the improved knowledge of this two‐part mechanism to investigate opportunities for the parties and their partisans to combat the downstream effects of these powerful partisan identities, such as affective polarization and outgroup intolerance. "

 

Giuliani's explanation of Trump's finances is about as believable as Dr. Ronny Jackson's assessment of Trump's health.

Trump's underhanded tactic for dealing with the Stormy Daniels issue is symbolic of the approaches he has used in his business practices over tha decades.


Trump “fully reimbursed” Michael Cohen after Stormy Daniels payment, disclosure says
By Gabrielle Bluestone
May 16, 2018

Trump "fully reimbursed" Michael Cohen after Stormy Daniels payment, disclosure says

excerpt:

"“I don't think the president realized he paid him (Cohen) back for that specific thing until we [his legal team] made him aware of the paperwork,” Giuliani told NBC a few days after he started doing TV appearances as Trump's lawyer.

Giuliani told the network the president responded, "Oh my goodness, I guess that's what it was for.”"

 

If you had something of any substance to say about the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem, it quite escaped me. You seem to use this as an excuse to heap abuse on Trump.

 

Why does he not deserve it? He has made a very short sighted and arrogant political move that is killing many people and putting Americans at risk to the very terrorism he promised to stop. He said he could do the job, he can take the criticism. When he does something right it will stop I assume. But for now his score card does not look good. All he sees is "I made Muslims angry". You sure did agent orange, you sure did.

 

How Democrats Can Beat Trump’s White Identity Politics
Richard North Patterson
Columnist

How Democrats Can Beat Trump's White Identity Politics | HuffPost

excerpt:

"But in terms of electoral math, non-college-educated white voters are by far the largest voting bloc ― outnumbering the black voting population almost 4 to 1. They are 44 percent of the electorate ― 50 percent in every Midwestern state; over 60 percent in Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Missouri and Wisconsin; and over 80 percent in key counties in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Thus Democrats cannot be confident of overcoming the politics of white identity simply by turning out their core constituencies. And even if they could, marshaling one coalition against the other is not good for the party, or the country. That’s Trump’s game, and it’s tearing us apart.

But as if determined to help him, some self-styled progressive Democrats view pursuing blue-collar whites as pointless, if not morally suspect. This reflects a lamentable cluelessness, both about practical politics and people that many of them have never met.

These voters ― including Trump voters ― are not clones, however alien they may be to urban liberals. Indeed, a significant cadre of Trump voters twice supported Barack Obama. More recently, Doug Jones won in Alabama by adding non-college-educated white voters to the strong support of minorities and more educated voters ― both indispensable but, in themselves, insufficient. Would-be “deplorables” helped make Jones a senator.

To be sure, Democrats must turn out their base: minorities, women, progressives and the young. Electorally, they are essential; morally, Democrats must speak to their concerns. In particular, Democrats must motivate millennials, a multiracial and often progressive group that’s leery of institutions. But to choose between the base and blue-collar whites is a false choice. To win nationwide, Democrats need both.

Thus, the party of racial and social justice must also speak to the just concerns of working-class Americans. However richly Trump deserves impeachment, it does not address the struggles of blue-collar workers; as an electoral rationale it may put off persuadable voters. Nor does internecine warfare over a candidate’s ideological purity on issues like abortion or single-payer health care build a winning coalition in otherwise winnable states and districts."

 

Make Race Divisive Again


Donald Trump’s Identity Politics
By Thomas B. Edsall
Aug. 24, 2017

Opinion | Donald Trump’s Identity Politics

excerpt:

"Trump has mobilized the white identity electorate, and in doing so has put the tenuous American commitment to racial and ethnic egalitarianism on the line. And Trump has been captured by the success of his own demagoguery. He surged ahead of his Republican competitors for the nomination when he threw matches on the kindling and now, under siege, his only strategy for survival is to pour gasoline on the flames.

No one doubts that it has been unsettling for many Americans to adapt to an increasingly interconnected world. Still, history has not been kind to those who have unequivocally yielded to racial grievance — to our local agitators, the David Dukes and the Father Coughlins, as well as to the even more poisonous propagators of racial hatred overseas. As Trump abandons his campaign promises to end endless war, to provide “beautiful” health care, to protect Medicaid, to restore American industry, jobs and mines, to make Mexico pay for a border wall, he has kept his partially veiled promise to focus on white racial essentialism, to make race divisive again. He has gone where other politicians dared not venture and he has taken the Republican Party with him."

 

Bigoted Pastors Bless New U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem
Robert Jeffress said Jews can’t be saved and John Hagee said Hitler was doing God’s will. That’s who addressed the opening today.
Noga Tarnopolsky
05.14.18 2:13 PM ET

Bigoted Pastors Bless New U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem

excerpt:

"Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, a group that spearheaded the embassy move, got national attention during the 2008 presidential campaign when Republican presidential candidate John McCain disavowed his endorsement after comments relating to Adolf Hitler came to light.

In audio from the 1990s, Hagee appeared to suggest that Adolf Hitler fulfilled a biblical prophecy by supporting the migration of Jews to pre-state Israel.

“God says in Jeremiah 16: ‘Behold, I will bring them the Jewish people again unto their land that I gave to their fathers. … Behold, I will send for many fishers, and after will I send for many hunters,'” Hagee said, according to a transcript of the sermon. “‘And kthe hunters shall hunt them.’ That would be the Jews. … Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone who comes with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter.”"

 

Hagee has also said some nasty stuff about Palestinians, Muslims, and Arabs in general. He wants them removed by force from what land he considers Israel. It's outright ethnic cleansing.