The Donald Trump Score Card

A car salesman will tell you anything just to get you to buy it. They are very good at telling you what you would like to hear: "She's a cream puff!" "A little old lady drove it!"

 

Trump and the Republicans didn't produce much of anything else significant those two years either (healthcare, infrastructure, education, tax reform, immigration). The corporate tax cut was the only major legislative passage for Trump.

 

Trump went from promising great, inexpensive healthcare for all in 2016 to 'Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated' to retrograde promising great healthcare if he is reelected in 2020 and the House goes Republican.

 

They figured out a way to make it less complicated... Nobody gets any healthcare.

 

Evangelical Magazine Christianity Today Calls for Trump’s Removal
The magazine said the president had abused his power and violated the Constitution.
By Elizabeth Dias
Dec. 19, 2019 Updated 10:30 p.m. ET

Evangelical Magazine Christianity Today Calls for Trump’s Removal

excerpt:

"“The heart of white evangelicalism is realizing that its pulse is weak, and that there is sickness in the faith,” said Lisa Sharon Harper, president of FreedomRoad.us, a Christian justice group.

“The fact that it took them so long is something they must learn from,” she added. “But I’m glad they spoke out.”

Opposition to Mr. Trump among white evangelicals remains exceedingly rare, especially in heated moments. Nearly all — 99 percent — of Republican white evangelical Protestants said they opposed Mr. Trump’s impeachment in a recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute."

 

As expected, Trump blasted Christianity Today after it's condemnation of him. Trump mistakenly referred to it as ET instead of CT.

 

Trump blasts evangelical magazine after it calls him 'profoundly immoral,' seeks his removal
The president was reacting to a scathing editorial in Christianity Today.
By Allan Smith
Dec. 20, 2019, 8:09 AM EST / Updated Dec. 20, 2019, 9:53 AM EST

excerpt:

"When President Bill Clinton was impeached 20 years ago, Christianity Today lambasted him, writing that, "Unsavory dealings and immoral acts by the President and those close to him have rendered this administration morally unable to lead."

Galli wrote that Trump's actions fit that same description.

"Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to our current president," he wrote. "Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election — that is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments."

The impeachment hearings, Galli wrote, made clear Trump "has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath" and he called on evangelicals to "remember who you are and whom you serve.""

 

Tax revenues have fallen since Trump's corporate tax cut took effect.

The U.S. federal budget deficit was nearly a trillion dollars in 2019 when the economy wasn't even in a recession. The national debt is near $22 trillion.

Trump's trade war didn't reduce the trade deficit. Even if it had, it wouldn't have reduced the federal debt. The U.S. would still be buying goods, whether manufactured overseas or at home. The goods would likely be more expensive if manufactured domestically which would tend to raise the national debt.

Trump mistakenly thinks that reducing the trade deficit will reduce the national debt, similar to how he mistakenly thinks corporate tax cuts are going to raise tax revenue and reduce the national debt.

 

2 Years Later, Trump Tax Cuts Have Failed To Deliver On GOP's Promises
Scott Horsley
NPR
December 20, 201911:32 AM ET

excerpt:

"Two years ago today, Republicans in Congress passed a sweeping tax cut. It was supposed to be a gift-wrapped present to taxpayers and the economy. But in hindsight, it looks more like a costly lump of coal.

Passed on a party-line vote, the tax cut is the signature legislative accomplishment of President Trump's first term. Trump campaigned hard for the measure, promising it would boost paychecks for working people.

"Our focus is on helping the folks who work in the mailrooms and the machine shops of America," he told supporters in the fall of 2017. "The plumbers, the carpenters, the cops, the teachers, the truck drivers, the pipe-fitters, the people that like me best."

In fact, more than 60% of the tax savings went to people in the top 20% of the income ladder, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The measure also slashed the corporate tax rate by 40%.

"It will be rocket fuel for our economy," Trump promised.

Boosters of the tax cut insisted the economy would grow so fast, it would more than make up for the revenue lost to lower rates.

"The tax plan will pay for itself with economic growth," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

It hasn't worked out that way."

 

And this is a surprise to whom?

 

After his speech in Battle Creek Michigan, Trump was captured on a microphone which had been left on. He was saying to some people after he is re-elected he would cut the hell out of Medicare and Social Security.

 

Trump said he wouldn’t cut Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. His 2020 budget cuts all 3.
Trump said he wouldn’t be like “every other Republican.” He is.
By Tara Golshan
Mar 12, 2019, 2:40pm EDT

Trump said he wouldn’t cut Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. His 2020 budget cuts all 3.

excerpts:

"“I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” Trump told the Daily Signal, a conservative publication affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, in 2015.

Over the next 10 years, Trump’s 2020 budget proposal aims to spend $1.5 trillion less on Medicaid — instead allocating $1.2 trillion in a block-grant program to states — $25 billion less on Social Security, and $845 billion less on Medicare (some of that is reclassified to a different department). Their intentions are to cut benefits under Medicaid and Social Security. The impact on Medicare is more complicated, which I’ll get into a bit later.

Over time, the Trump administration tried to whittle down the president’s promise to just Social Security and Medicare. Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Russ Vought said Monday, March 11, that Trump is “keeping his commitment to Americans by not making changes to Medicare and Social Security.” But even that is not true."


"The 2020 budget’s Medicaid reforms include adding work requirements and repealing Medicaid expansion and one of the most successful policies within the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid expansion reduced the uninsured rate by more than 6 percent in states that enacted the policy; it continues to show better health outcomes and is popular in conservative states. But Trump is envisioning changing Medicaid altogether; his budget proposes transforming the current pay-as-needed system to a block grant, where states are given a capped lump-sum fund that doesn’t grow with increased need or rising costs. The budget proposes a $1.2 trillion “Market-Based Health Care Grant.”"

 

I hate when the right wing thinks they own 1984. Everything they don't like is either the book or "communism". I wonder if they even read it.

This link sums up Trump thinking pretty well I think and compared to the famous quote from the book it lines up with them more than Democrats regarding war's place in society and faith.

Why Did Orwell Choose Freedom Is Slavery, Instead of Slavery Is Freedom as the Second Slogan in 1984?

www.inthesetimes.com/article/22196/fox-news-trump-ukraine-fake-news-independent-journalism-in-these-times

How prepared are President Donald Trump’s adversaries to deal with the reality of a lavishly produced state media operation? This, the most-watched cable news network, functions in its fealty to Trump like a real-world Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s 1984, where bureaucrats “rectify” the historical record to conform to Big Brother’s decrees.

I am referring, of course, to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. Having unsuccessfully tried to sell itself as “Fair and Balanced,” Fox News debuted a new brand in March 2018: “Real News. Real Honest Opinion.” Network executives apparently chose this slogan to differentiate themselves from “fake news” outlets—and, no doubt, to dog-whistle a pledge of allegiance to their commander-in-chief, who since being sworn into office has decried fake news in at least 630 tweets (as of Dec. 4, 2019).


Sean Hannity, the host of Fox’s weeknight flagship Hannity, regularly rails against the “media mob” and its “fake news,” terms he has used on more than 100 of his shows since Feb. 20, 2019. On Feb. 21, 2019, for example, he said, “The mainstream media, they devour, you know, any story that just fits their radical, extreme extension of the Democratic socialist party agenda. If it advances the narrative that Donald Trump is evil and his supporters are bad and America is scary and racist and sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, the media mob will shift into full gear without … any kind of investigation.”


It seems Hannity and Trump have studied the texts of the 20th century’s master of indoctrination, who wrote in his 1925 autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf, “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly—it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”

Sean Hannity, the host of Fox’s weeknight flagship Hannity, regularly rails against the “media mob” and its “fake news,” terms he has used on more than 100 of his shows since Feb. 20, 2019. On Feb. 21, 2019, for example, he said, “The mainstream media, they devour, you know, any story that just fits their radical, extreme extension of the Democratic socialist party agenda. If it advances the narrative that Donald Trump is evil and his supporters are bad and America is scary and racist and sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, the media mob will shift into full gear without … any kind of investigation.”

 

Can Trump Challenge His Impeachment in the Supreme Court?
The president has vowed to ask the justices to intercede, but the Constitution and precedents are against him.
by Adam Liptak
Published Nov. 25, 2019, Updated Dec. 17, 2019

Can Trump Challenge His Impeachment in the Supreme Court?

excerpts:

"The Constitution seems to exclude the court from the impeachment process. It grants the House of Representatives “the sole power of impeachment.” The Senate, similarly, has “the sole power to try all impeachments.” Those are the only provisions of the Constitution that use the pointed word “sole.”

The Supreme Court, too, has been pretty categorical. “The judiciary, and the Supreme Court in particular, were not chosen to have any role in impeachments,” Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court in a 1993 opinion that rejected an impeached judge’s objection to the procedures used at his Senate trial."


"The Constitution does give the chief justice one task. “When the president of the United States is tried,” it says, “the chief justice shall preside.”"

 

Military spending galore. $738 billion.

Trump assumes that the effectiveness of a military is proportional to the amount of taxpayer money spent on it.

Trump once again praised his new Space Force, the one expected to have space vehicles that run on coal.



Donald Trump signs defense bill that creates Space Force, expands parental leave
USA TODAY
December 20, 2019, 8:49 PM EST

excerpts:

"WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed a $738 billion defense bill into law Friday that hinged in part on two seemingly disparate issues: Paid parental leave and the president's treasured new "Space Force."

The National Defense Authorization Act, which includes pay raises for troops, represents history's largest investment in military power, Trump told troops gathered for a signing ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland.

"Our military is now dominant," Trump said. "Together we are protecting our people."

Trump signed the bill before boarding Air Force One for a flight to his end-of-the-year stay at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla."


"During a political rally Wednesday in Battle Creek, Mich., Trump told supporters that "I will be able to tell my kids someday, and everybody else, 'See that Space Force? That was my baby.'""

 

he does that, and the shit will hit the fan.

 

Article from April 2018.

The old school (circa 1820's) crew of Trump's commerce department think they are going to stop China from continuing its advance to become a superpower by using Trump's tariff war to thwart the China 2025 initiative.

Compare China's initiative to become a leader in science, high technology, and renewable energy with Trump's crew that wants to return to fossil fuels like coal because wind turbines spoil the view from his golf course.



Trump to unveil China tariff list this week, targeting tech goods
David Lawder
April 2, 2018 / 1:05 AM

Trump to unveil China tariff list this week, targeting tech goods

excerpt:

"The state-led 2025 program targets 10 strategic industries: advanced information technology, robotics, aircraft, shipbuilding and marine engineering, advanced rail equipment, new energy vehicles, electrical generation equipment, agricultural machinery, pharmaceuticals and advanced materials.

“Foreign technology acquisition through various means remains a prime focus under Made in China 2025 because China is still catching up in many of the areas prioritized for development,” USTR said in its report justifying the tariffs.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said that preserving America’s technological edge is “the future of the U.S. economy.”"

 

I hope people our age start to wake up to this. Merry Xmas Flagie Baby just in case we don't talk before then!

 

Democrats have been pushing this narrative for 40 years now. Every election cycle the old "republicans want to take away social security" song starts to play. And it has only come close to happening once, with GW Bush. And it was rightfully voted down by a responsible, bi-partisan congress.

If we lose social security, it won't be over politics, it will be financiers who steal our retirement by taking the economy and betting on shorts. Politicians are too stupid to figure it out until it's too late. They are primarily reactionary, regardless of party. Innovation is a distant memory.

 

and to you, and yours, Stormy.