April 28, 2017

I'm so tired of all the 100-days-of-Trump articles, especially the idiotic assigning of grades...

... but I like where Glenn Reynolds came out in this USA Today roundup of grades for Trump:
President Trump was elected in no small part because he was not Hillary Clinton, and he's done an A+ job of not being Hillary Clinton during his first 100 days.... And, I'm happy to say, I expect President Trump to go on not being Hillary Clinton for the next four (or eight!) years. A+ job, Mr. President!
That reminds me of a conversation we had on this blog on April 1st, when I raised the topic, "Trump is down to the last month of his first 100 days/How do you think he's doing?" I copied this colloquy I'd had with a commenter in an earlier post:
David Begley said:
Trump has accomplished more POSITIVE things in less than 100 days than Obama did in 8 long years.
I reacted to that:
I like the way Trump has accomplished NEGATIVE things.

Less doing. More nothing. That's what I want.

I give him credit for what he has NOT done. Where are the big bungles? He DIDN'T get that health thing done. That was good, no? Nothing military has happened. No foreign affairs blowups. Etc.
David Begley said:
Item one: Trump has begun to tear down the CAGW scam. That single positive thing will save billions.
I reacted to that:
Notice how that is SUBTRACTIVE and further supports my argument that his accomplishments are NEGATIVE.
That got The Cracker Emcee to say:
Every single day he's been in office, Hillary has not. You can't get more positively subtractive than that.

126 comments:

David Begley said...

If Trump reduces taxes like he says he will, then Katie bar the door on the economy.

He really needs to work the tax issue hard. Golf outings. Parties. Dinners. Deals. Become LBJ.

People have forgotten the power of a big tax cut.

Heywood Rice said...

I expect President Trump to go on not being Hillary Clinton for the next four (or eight!) years.

I doubt even Hillary Clinton could live up to this standard.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Mike Chernovich just Twitted : "North Korea test fired ballistic missile."

Anonymous said...

"I'm for boring". When the nuclear war with Korea starts boring will be especially attractive.

wild chicken said...

The whole problem with democracy is that you have to have some "positive"schtick to get into office. Lotta mischief in that.

Vote No on Yes!

eric said...

More positive subtraction please!

buwaya said...

Early report - NORK missile failed again.

JackWayne said...

Trump 100 Days stories = Death of Diana stories. I feel stupider every time I see one.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It's a joy getting out of bed on any given morning where Hillary Clinton is not ruling over our lives with her crony institutionalized corruption and standard BS.

David Baker said...

Ready, set, go: The first 100 days…

Mark O said...

Not Hillary and he installed a conservative Supreme Court Justice. He can vacation until another SC appointment needs filling.

I've had Hillary in my life for 40 years. I have crossed over into Jordan.

tim in vermont said...

Still happy.

David Begley said...

The first 100 days narrative is so wrong. FDR wasn't inaugurated until March. He had both houses. We were in a Depression. I'd say the first year is more important.

But subtract our taxes to positive economic growth.

Sebastian said...

Does anyone remember what O did in his first 100 days? Does anyone remember how much the MSM bitched about how O failed in his first 100 days?

Yes, the MSM idiocy is tiresome, but at least I get some entertainment out of the very fact that they have to do it, that Trump is a force they must reckon with.

Etienne said...

Ditto.

I'm tired of making America great again(tm)...

If it gets any greater I'm going to order kimchi from North Korea...

Ron said...

Hillary -- addition by subtraction!

AlbertAnonymous said...

He's NOT Hillary.
Justice Gorsuch.
Anything else will be icing.

But if he gets the Tax reform passed and the AMT goes away... Mt. Rushmore baby!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Inga - go watch the recent PBS Frontline show on North Korea.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Trump is not Hillary = A+

lets get the bumper stickers rolling.

Jim at said...

"When the nuclear war with Korea starts boring will be especially attractive."

You people screamed this crap non-stop throughout the 1980s. "Ronny Raygun is going to kill us all!!!"

Do you ever get tired of being completely and totally wrong? Every time?
Even when history shows you're completely and totally wrong? Every time?

tcrosse said...

The rap against Trump seems to be that he's a ruthless dictator who's powerless to get anything done, an impotent potentate if you will.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I agree - Gorsuch and NOT HILLARY!

I'm happy.

I am also happy that libs are unhappy.

rhhardin said...

The Trump presidency enters its second trimester.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

tcrosse

LOL - perfect.

Unknown said...

Let's see. Four years = 1460 days. So we're 100/1460 = under 7% done.

Let's stipulate that First Impressions Matter, Momentum, Honeymoon Effect, Etc etc etc.

Still: can we not freak out about 7% of the time already gone on the job he was hired to do?

Can we consider: learning curve, getting the team in place, digging out the flesh-boring creatures that were installed under the previous administration?

Patience. Tedious, I know. It doesn't fill a column. But it's progress.

JaimeRoberto said...

What's the obsession with 100 days? Did he promise to do a bunch of stuff in the first 100 days? If he did, I don't remember or maybe I disregarded it a BS, because 100 days is a stupid milestone. He's going to be in office for 4 or maybe even 8 years (or 1461 or 2922 days if you want to use days as your unit of measure). Regardless of what he has or hasn't accomplished in such a short time, the confirmation of Gorsuch was worth his election all by itself.

Big Mike said...

I think Trump's tax plan is wrong. It needs to have a fourth tax level of 105% for any economist who tries to debunk the Laffer curve. And no deductions!

Quaestor said...

Inga wrote: "I'm for boring". When the nuclear war with Korea starts boring will be especially attractive.

Abby Someone ignores the obvious truth that if anything untoward happens involving the Norks it will be Obama's fault for not dealing with Lil' Kim's nuclear madness when it was simply madness and not plutonium-fueled madness. Obama had eight years to use diplomacy and force to compel the Kim dynasty to trade disarmament for security, but his No. 3 driver couldn't be pried from his lazy brown hands with a crowbar.

Mark said...

Trump defenders hard at work today. Everything is just so unfair to small hands.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Not being Hillary is subtracting a negative, so it has definitely been positive.

tcrosse said...

Obama is just the guy to deal with North Korea, since I understand he knows all the words to Kumbaya. They aren't our enemies, after all, but just friends we haven't met yet.

Quaestor said...

I love how CNN gloats over Trump's supposed 44% approval and yet still has no explanation why their coverage of the election predicted Hillary would win a landslide.

readering said...

Every day a clusterf**k. Nothing special about day 100.

The Godfather said...

Not only is he not Hillary, Trump isn't Trump. He hasn't sent his brownshirts to arrest the federal judges who have delayed his orders to limit immigration by terrorists. He hasn't started a trade war with China. He hasn't withdrawn from NATO. He hasn't sold out US interests to the Russians. Caitlyn Jenner is still at liberty, and there have been no mass arrests of LGBTQs. We were told quite confidently that these things would happen if Trump was elected.

Now it is true that black-hooded thugs have broken up speeches by a gay speaker and a woman speaker and perhaps other minorities (oh yes! No Republicans allowed in the Rose Festival march in Portland), but strangley enough it's the anti-Trump folks who have done these things, not the Fascist Trump.

If I measure Trump's performance against the yard stick of what the MSM said he would do, I'd think we elected a pussy cat.

Pillage Idiot said...

It only took a little over 100 days, but Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize. One of the primary factors (according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee) was his promotion of nuclear non-proliferation.

Obama efforts were so exemplary that North Korea became a nuclear-weapons state under his watch, and he sent $150 billion to Iran to aid their nuclear development program. Iran will almost certainly become the next nuclear-weapons state.

Hopefully Trump will be far less accomplished in this area than Obama, and will not be considered Nobel Prize worthy in the area of nuclear arms for psychopaths.

David Begley said...

Nice points Pillage Idiot.

Bob Boyd said...

I think one of Trump's biggest accomplishments has been to normalize himself in the eyes of many Americans in spite of the Dems' and media's determination to never normalize Trump.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Pillage Idiot said...
Obama efforts were so exemplary that North Korea became a nuclear-weapons state under his watch


The Norks first nuclear test was in 2006, the culmination of a program begun in earnest in 2002.

buwaya said...

I said, long before the election, that if Trump got in he would be entering the worlds largest snake-pit, where every mans hand would be against him.

I am pleasantly surprised so far that the resistance hasn't been more effective. Its going rather better than I expected.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

From a review of the book “The Knowledge Illusion”:

"As Sloman and Fernbach demonstrate in some of the most interesting and unsettling parts of the book, individual humans know embarrassingly little about the world, and as history progressed, they came to know less and less. A hunter-gatherer in the Stone Age knew how to produce her own clothes, how to start a fire from scratch, how to hunt rabbits and how to escape lions. We today think we know far more, but as individuals we actually know far less. We rely on the expertise of others for almost all our needs.

... the knowledge illusion has its downside. The world is becoming ever more complex, and people fail to realize just how ignorant they are of what’s going on. Consequently some who know next to nothing about meteorology or biology nevertheless conduct fierce debates about climate change and genetically modified crops, while others hold extremely strong views about what should be done in Iraq or Ukraine without being able to locate them on a map. People rarely appreciate their ignorance, because they lock themselves inside an echo chamber of like-minded friends and self-confirming newsfeeds, where their beliefs are constantly reinforced and seldom challenged."

Earnest Prole said...

The soft limpness of low expectations.

walter said...

If there's anyone who can recruit Dennis Rodman to occupy Pyongyang/calm the Kim, Trump can.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Let's remember that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing, and some people thought that meant he didn't deserve it.

David Begley said...

ARM: It was Bill Clinton's fault.

"Under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the U.S. government agreed to facilitate the supply of two light water reactors to North Korea in exchange for North Korean disarmament."

Disarm. Right. I guess it was a definition problem.

J. Farmer said...

@Pillage Idiot:

Obama efforts were so exemplary that North Korea became a nuclear-weapons state under his watch, and he sent $150 billion to Iran to aid their nuclear development program. Iran will almost certainly become the next nuclear-weapons state.

The Nobel Peace Prize was ridiculous, but this is a completely unfair characterization. The North Korean nuclear program goes back decades, and when Obama took office, it was estimated that they already had perhaps ten warheads.

Also, Obama did not "send" any money to Iran. That was already money owed to Iran frozen in international banks thanks to the sanctions regime. If the talks with Iran had broken down, the sanctions regime would have followed, and the money would go to Iran anyway. Also, in the grand scheme of things, $150 billion is not going to significantly alter the balance of power in the region. During the eight years of Ahmadinejad's presidency, when oil prices were significantly higher, Iran received around $700 billion in oil revenue, and that did not result in a nuclear weapon or a regional dominated by Iran.

Iran will almost certainly become the next nuclear-weapons state.

Just over a week ago, Secretary Tillerson confirmed that Iran had been following the terms of the nuclear agreement.

J. Farmer said...

@David Begley:

"Under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the U.S. government agreed to facilitate the supply of two light water reactors to North Korea in exchange for North Korean disarmament."

Disarm. Right. I guess it was a definition problem.


Neither of those light-water reactors were ever completed in North Korea.

Mark O said...

Another Mark said, "Everything is just so unfair to small hands."

To this I say, "nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands"

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Mark O said...
"nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands"


Some hep cats making some groovy music.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

First known usage of the term punk, which at the time was slang for prostitute.

"At the 1722 murder trial of Mary Bolton, a witness called her a ‘nasty draggle tail’d toad, ugly Puss, and stinking Punk’."

Eric said...

The really amusing thing about these 100 days accounts is that they are written by people who expected Trump to ruin everything and they rate him a failure for not ruining everything. The only way to get high marks from these people is to be the Hitler they imagine him to be.

Quaestor said...

Neither of those light-water reactors [was] ever completed in North Korea.

Why? Because NK refused to submit to any means of independent confirmation of disarmament. No tit. No tat. Bill Clinton understood this basic tenet of diplomacy. Obama did not. You say we've received no tit? Well, let's give 'em some more tat

Jon Ericson said...

Bad people, any way you look at it.

Jon Ericson said...

Here I am.

DanTheMan said...

>>Also, Obama did not "send" any money to Iran

I guess I should believe you, and not my lying eyes?

You say it was "owed". Fine. Tell them we're not paying that debt. Ever. What are they going to do, sue?

Quaestor said...

The Norks first nuclear test was in 2006, the culmination of a program begun in earnest in 2002.

Under Bush, the Norks set off a puny nuclear fizzle. Under Obama, Kim improves his nukes to the point of being serious weapons as opposed to excavation explosives, and he develops and deploys IRBMs and submarine-launched missiles.

Here I am under the impression of Obama as an improvement over GWB, the savior heaven-sent to fix all of the mistakes of feckless Bush. Silly me.

buwaya said...

$150B is two years oil revenues. Remember that Iran is a large country with a state-dominated government, and it has to live largely on those revenues. It's been suffering from lack of means for decades, and it received a tremendous windfall.

Quaestor said...

Someone should have explained to Obama that nuclear fallout is bad for putting greens, makes the grass too crisp for a good lie. Then we might have seen some effort.

J. Farmer said...

Quaestor:

Why? Because NK refused to submit to any means of independent confirmation of disarmament. No tit. No tat. Bill Clinton understood this basic tenet of diplomacy. Obama did not. You say we've received no tit? Well, let's give 'em some more tat

There were numerous delays in breaking ground, which did not start until 2002. It never went anywhere because the Bush administration called out the North Koreans for enriching uranium. By early 2003, North Korea was out of the NPT, and thus was born the era of the six-party talks. Without Chinese pressure, it is unlikely that the US can do much to dissuade the North Korean from further developing their capacity, and even then it is unlikely that China has as much influence on North Korea as we would wish. In short, it's a tough situation with no easy answers.

J. Farmer said...

DanTheMan:

You say it was "owed". Fine. Tell them we're not paying that debt. Ever. What are they going to do, sue?

First, the money was not owed to Iran from the US in that we could just refuse to pay. The payments had already been made by numerous countries (not the US) and was frozen in international banks because of the sanctions regime.

@buwaya puti:

Remember that Iran is a large country with a state-dominated government, and it has to live largely on those revenues. It's been suffering from lack of means for decades, and it received a tremendous windfall.

Much of that money had already been spoken for, including in projects in China and on domestic infrastructure projects. A certain portion of the money would almost certainly be siphoned off by the Revolutionary Guard, but it would not be enough to significantly alter Iran's strategic position in the region.

Michael K said...

Secretary Tillerson confirmed that Iran had been following the terms of the nuclear agreement.
One, that confirms it was a bad agreement and two, they may be cheating and we can't tell.

The $400 million in small bills was ransom, not "their money."

Unknown said...

buwaya. puti: "...[Iran] received a tremendous windfall." Yes. It's always useful to convert these numbers into something tangible.

Suppose of the $150BN, Iran used 5% to finance terrorism. That's $7,500,000,000. If you assume an AK-47 costs $1000 (I am being very generous; bulk sales in a weapons-saturated market like the Mideast should go for half that or less), then that's enough Kalashnikovs to equip all the armies on the planet, two or three times over.

If you assume that you want to buy some ammo, and some RPG's, and a few tanks, and salaries, and so forth: well, adjust accordingly. But however you slice it, $7.5BN will buy you a lot of trouble-making.

And that's just 5% of the pile we gave them. If they invested it sensibly, they could generate that kind of income (or double that much) year after year.

Rt41Rebel said...

Too many factions and fear of shutting the govt down doom anything meaningful. I'm still amazed that Obamacare got passed through.

The single most important thing that Trump can do is appoint judges. They seem to rule our country these days. Can't even enforce law with some of those crazy fuckers around.

Sprezzatura said...

Golden years people get tired.



Adorable.

J. Farmer said...

@Michael K:

One, that confirms it was a bad agreement and two, they may be cheating and we can't tell.

As for "they may be cheating," that could be true of any deal with any country for any reason. But the JCPA includes a number of provisions for monitoring and verification, including the IAEA maintaining 24-hour video surveillance of the entire fuel cycle and IAEA members being permitted to inspect any nuclear production facilities at any time. It has further authority to inspect other sites and though that provision may be delayed for a few weeks, it would not be enough time to dismantle and move covert facilities without leaving behind evidence.

The $400 million in small bills was ransom, not "their money."

No. That money was over a separate dispute regarding payment owed to Iran before the 1979 revolution. It was negotiated at the same time as the nuclear deal but separately, and the Iranians agreed to take $1.7 billion, which was the original sum plus a small amount of interest. Iran had been seeking a larger amount. The $400 million issue long predated the America hostages, and the decision was made to withhold delivering the money (which had been separately agreed) until the hostages were released.

Bad Lieutenant said...

J. Farmer, it is quite clear from your writings that you wish to...deprecate all our current alliances/relationships in the ME and set up Iran as the fourth great power in the world. What I don't get is why. Could you please explain that?

Tank said...

Rene' Saunce said...

It's a joy getting out of bed on any given morning where Hillary Clinton is not ruling over our lives with her crony institutionalized corruption and standard BS.


LOL, exactly. Despite my worldview pessimism here, in real life I wake up every day and think ... whew, made it one more day, let's do it. Since the election, I wake up and think ... whew, Hillary Clinton is not president, and I made it one more day, let's do it. I had braced myself for four years of Hillarytorture, and it did not happen. Yay.

Quaestor said...

In short, it's a tough situation with no easy answers.

ALL situations are tough with no easy answers. The toughest questions Obama ever gave a moment's thought to involved club selection.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Current Obama approve/disapprove 59%/37%. Apparently people liked Obama golfing. Same cannot be said of Trump.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You're tired of articles daring to assess his performance?

We're tired of this underachieving, wig-wearing grifter cunt being the president!

So there. Seeing as how this whole drama to you is just an exercise in whose anger is more justified, we win.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Apparently people liked Obama golfing. Same cannot be said of Trump.

Uh-oh! Fact cited! Must be denied! Rejected! Alternative fact must be deployed! Trump is the greatest Hillary-beater since Hillary ever ran for president. (Except when Obama beat her).

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Obamacare is more popular than President Trump.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Obamacare is more popular than President Trump.

Uh-oh! Uh-oh! More facts! Must be denied. Send out the alternative fact squad! Extinguish this truth before people catch on! Trump is definitely not empty! He wears a wig, for crying out loud. Thats the mark of substance and priorities!

wwww said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Polls - please beeleeeev

Wapo = lolz. Same people being screwed by O-Care, are the same people being screwed by O-care, and they are not being polled. They are being hosed.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Trump is not Hillary = A+

lets get the bumper stickers rolling.


You know who also wasn't Hillary? Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, and all your other not-Hillary friends.

The level of incompetence you're happy to see out of DC due to how much you hate one person is really remarkable. You've been looking for someone to get away with setting a bar this low for quite some time, I can tell.

Dan C said...

I was thinking the same about all of the Trump first 100 days hoopla. So for grins I googled: "2017 president Trump's first hundred days" - 52,000,000 results. Then: "2009 president Obama's first hundred days" - 1 result.

Meaningless? Yeah probably, but quite amusing.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

@ Quaestor

I love how CNN gloats over Trump's supposed 44% approval and yet still has no explanation why their coverage of the election predicted Hillary would win a landslide.


Worth a repeat.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Same people being screwed by O-Care -

Says the person who knows insurance so well that she thought restrictive policies that limit doctor choice (along with everything else) were things that started with Obama, their inventor.

You sound credulous enough to do PR for an HMO.

J. Farmer said...

@Bad Lieutenant:

J. Farmer, it is quite clear from your writings that you wish to...deprecate all our current alliances/relationships in the ME and set up Iran as the fourth great power in the world. What I don't get is why. Could you please explain that.

Well, first, it isn't true. And second, why are you so concerned with me personally? Notice how when I talk about the issue of Iran, I never have to invoke anywhere here personally. But onto the substance of your critique, as it were.

1) The nuclear negotiations were not done in a vacuum but were a multi-lateral effort that included, among others, France, UK, and Germany. Those are all major allies of are, which cannot be said of the smattering of client-states that defines our relationship with most middle eastern countries.

2) The notion that Iran will ever be a "fourth great power in the world" is laughable. Iran does not even possess enough power to project conventional military force significantly outside its borders. Iran spends about $12 billion a year on its military, which is about $2 billion less per year than Spain. In terms of population, Iran has 80 million, which is about 12 million less than Vietnam and 20 million less than the Philippines.

3) Placing Iran's nuclear program under strict supervision and with a verification and monitoring regime is much preferable to an Iran operating outside of those controls. Plus the Iranians agreed to significant constrains above and beyond what it was permitted to do under the Nonproliferation Treaty.

4) The regime, like virtually every regime on the planet, is primarily motivated by self-preservation. Contrary to ridiculous notions, there is about zero evidence that the Iranian leadership is suicidal.

5) Iran poses little to no threat to the United States. They are a substantially weaker power, and it is ridiculous to treat them as if they are some great foe.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Balls- You think Trump is Hitler, so I cannot help you.

hahahahahaa - Hillary still lost and a lot of people are thrilled. I know that sends you into a tailspin.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I love how CNN gloats over Trump's supposed 44% approval and yet still has no explanation why their coverage of the election predicted Hillary would win a landslide.

Me too.

Now which of Trump's policies are popular enough to reject that 44% claim?

Policies are easier to poll than the politicians who can lie about their stance on them. Especially when voter turn-out is crucial.

J. Farmer said...

@Quaestor:

"The toughest questions Obama ever gave a moment's thought to involved club selection."

I get it; you didn't care for the previous president. So what? To whom was that sentence supposed to be a response? Are you under some misapprehension that I supported our previous president's foreign policy? I didn't, but I think the critique from his right is hysterical. If anything, Obama carried out a depressingly conventional foreign policy that has been the consensus among left and right of the political class since the early days of the Clinton presidency.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Hillary still lost and a lot of people are thrilled.

This does not bother me. The proximity of your tongue to her victor's balls is what bothers me.

Republicans are poor reciprocators, or competence ensurers. Tell me with a straight face that I would have been as uncritical as Hillary in office as you are of her opponent.

This is why Republicans can't be trusted.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

40+ years of corruptocrat social engineers screwing the American people over with their endless pursuit for the holy grail of single payer.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

All the blurred lies pimped from leftwing news media. F hack D press.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Why can't House repeal Obamacare? Because a lot of Republicans don't want to.

Drago said...

TTR: "Uh-oh! Fact cited! Must be denied! Rejected!"

Polls are not "facts".

I am perfectly happy to consider the relative polling results of policies and candidates and office holders as well as what those results might indicate depending on the source, the poll specifics, the respondents, etc., but that's about it.

Jon Ericson said...

It's like zero hedge here.
Very humourous...

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Social engineers? Let's socially engineer a way to price 24 million Americans out of the insurance market? How's that working out?

The smartest thing Newt Gingrich ever said was when he warned of the dangers of "right-wing social engineering."

That insult goes both ways.

gadfly said...

The problem is not just too many "Trump's First 100 Days", there is, by a factor of 100 times, far too many "Trump" stories, most of which comes about because of Trump's actions, reactions, inactions, policy reversals and, of course, Trump lies and Trump tweets.

Surprisingly, he runs in place better than any other President that I can recall which makes me want to listen to the conspiracy folks and the psychiatrists. Then there are the people closest to the truth, who point to the Donald's childish thinking and demand for attention that must result from his narcissism.

Bay Area Guy said...

1. Gorsuch on Scotus
2. Border crossings per ICE down 67%
3. Tax reform (almost)
4. Obamacare (almost)
5. Dems in disarray


What's not to like me?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

What's not to like me?

You.

For being just another Republican who puts party and ideology above country.

J. Farmer said...

@Bay Area Guy:

1. Gorsuch on Scotus
2. Border crossings per ICE down 67%
3. Tax reform (almost)
4. Obamacare (almost)
5. Dems in disarray


1 and 2 are the obvious, clear successes. And if Trump can resist selling out on immigration/wall, that alone will be worth his presidency, unless he gets the US involved in some catastrophic military affair.

3 and 4 have sounded like too much mainstream Republican Party pablum. It is such a yawn fest; wake me when it's over. Trump would do well to follow a Clintonite triangulation strategy of shifting left on one or two of these key issues. If he came out with Medicare For All, for example, or some sharp increase in the progressivity of top marginal tax rates. Whatever your opinion of those policies, either would be sufficient for Trump to push off against the political parties and the media organizations.

5 really cannot be contributed to Trump. If anything, Trump can be attributed to 5.

@The Toothless Revolutionary:

For being just another Republican who puts party and ideology above country.

How do you read somebody's mind?

Mike Sylwester said...

I hope that our President Trump will keep up his pace of appointing one new justice to the US Supreme Court every 100 days.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"I'm so tired of all the 100-days-of-Trump articles, especially the idiotic assigning of grades..."

I just remembered an Amy Otto Tweet, from several days ago, actually...

"What if everything isn't that bad, just everyone's think pieces are?"

buwaya said...

The US income tax is already extremely progressive compared to the G20, I think it was by far the most progressive IIRC, there was an OECD report on it.

This even if one includes the non-progressive FICA taxes.

buwaya said...

Big diff in overall systemic "progressivity" is in the payout side, not the collection side, things like unemployment qualification and payouts - i.e., the dole, plus free or subsidized housing, plus medical insurance/NHS, etc.

On the other hand, a great deal of that is handled in the US through off the books mandates like employer health insurance requirements, pension fund requirements (employers SS portion) etc.

It gets complicated.

buwaya said...

The most regressive tax is what the Euros like especially, the VAT.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

in one of Scott Adams periscopes he talked about the... inadequacy of the 100 days report card because how can one objectively compare Trump to any president before him facing whatever they had to face with what Trump is facing.

I think I agree with Scott.. To compare Trump to Bush 43, for example, we would have to see how Trump performs under another 9/11 attack. And even then, one would question how could HE have let it happened again?

So, in some ways, hypothetically speaking, we would probably judge Trump harshly, even if he performed relatively perfectly, as one could unimaginably hope to, under such a dire and tragic circumstance.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Dealing with Political Correctness is probably is yuge in my book.

And all he has to do is be himself to achieve that. Which is in some ways almost unfair. Maybe enough to drive libs mad... if they perceive what I see.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Figure a, today, Pocahontas.

Michael K said...

Let's socially engineer a way to price 24 million Americans out of the insurance market? How's that working out?


Obamacare already did it. Your point ?

"If you think healthcare is expensive now, just wait until it is free."

Anonymous said...

Letter grades are stupid in much the same way polls are for determining how well a president is doing while the presidency is still ongoing - Lincoln would have spent much of his presidency in D/F range with the press of the day and his polling probably wouldn't have looked great most of the time either even subtracting the entire Confederate population, and yet he's usually considered #1 or #2 on the list of best presidents.

On the other hand, take Bill Clinton. He was a relatively popular president throughout much of his term, but not only is he not making any lists of great presidents, but he really isn't going to leave much behind by way of a legacy as the years go by - good times are ephemeral and the Lewinsky affair will probably stand as his footnote given the subsequent gutting of welfare reform and NAFTA.

Bruce Hayden said...

Talking about NORK, I found Trump's comments on their attempt to test a rocket today interesting. He said, essentially, that the NORKs embarrassed the Chinese. That either pretty dumb, or very clever. My vote is, of course, clever. The Chinese (and some other East Asian cultures) don't like to be embarrassed. Esp publicly. How do the Chinese respond? Can they really just pretend that it didn't embarrass them? I think that he put them in a box, where they will have to put pressure on the NORKs, if they want to save face, and keep from being embarrassed by their inability to do anything about them. We shall see. In any case, Trump seems, so far, to be doing a better job at getting the Chinese on our side here in dealing with the NORKs.

Humperdink said...

The first 100 days accomplishment measurement is so farcical. Not many recall Obama's "accomplishments" in his first 100 days. It was the remaining 7.9 years of engineering America's decline the I recall.

OTOH, there is one Obama "accomplishment" that does stand out. Executive Order 13492, closing Gitmo. Obama signed that in the first two days - January 22, 2009.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Balls - the democrat left killed competition in the market place, on purpose, so that obama had to raid the treasury and bail out the big mega insurance companies who crawled into bed with Pelosi-Care. When you kill all the competition, you get higher prices and less choice.
That is what has happened on the ground in America. No link from you or ARM pointing to some bogus poll will change that fact.

Or are you THAT dumb?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

What ARM and Balls want:

Big nanny state government run health care.
The end of free market and competition.
No choice.
A nice long punitive line for life saving treatments.
Medicaid for all.

Oh -
MEDICAID SUCKS

The end of choice.
You get what the corruptocrats are selling, and you will like it.


oh look - a poll proves the leftwing progs are right!

Michael McNeil said...

We're tired of this underachieving, wig-wearing grifter cunt being the president!

Oh, we're eminently acquainted with what you're “tired of” in this regard. The Dems' continuing primal screen since the election has deafened us all with that message.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post–ABC poll shows that if the election were held again today not only would Trump still win the electoral college, but now Clinton would (more than) lose her popular vote margin as well.

“You” are shrinking.

iowan2 said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...
What's not to like me?

You.

For being just another Republican who puts party and ideology above country.

There was an election, and the Democrat Party failed at all levels of govt. You dont like that, but the voters have chosen a Conservative path. Democrats need to start acting like they lost the elections YUUGE!

Rusty said...

Rene' Saunce said...
What ARM and Balls want:

Fascism.
They want fascism.
Niether could give a shit about yours or anybody elses healthcare.
What they want is to grow the power of the political left.ARM and Balls want nothing more than to be able to force you to do what is against your interests.
Coupla punks.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Elizabeth Warren On Republicans Attempting To Repeal Obamacare: ‘I Would Like To Cut Them Open’


Shorter Tomahawk Warren - 'You will swallow Medicaid for all, and you will like it!
or die pigs die.'

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Fascism - the left are oblivious that they are fascists. They want the state to control everything, in the name of some notion that the state cares.

Rusty said...

Well, Rene' they think they care and so that makes a caring state. They are enamored of power and the phrase, "Well. Every other industrialized state has one."
They care to the point they are willing to cave your head in if you dare assemble to question how much they care.
They cars a lot.

Rusty said...

care

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

"Let's socially engineer a way to price 24 million Americans out of the insurance market? How's that working out?"

Obamacare already did it. Your point ?


Cite your numbers, liar.

No wonder health care's a mess. Even a surgeon like you can't talk honestly about it. If you think access or universality are things you don't want in the system, stop being a nutless coward and fucking say so. And say that you only want it affordable for some people, rather than for most people.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You dont like that, but the voters have chosen a Conservative path.

They did no such thing. Name one conservative thing that Trump campaigned for.

The amount of idiocy and lies in this low-info firewall is remarkable.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

ARM and Balls want nothing more than to be able to force you to do what is against your interests.

Get the fuck out of here. The only "interest" you have is a tool and die set with a drill bit sized just right for puncturing your cranium and letting the evil spirits that escape through the tinfoil to drain out and stop tormenting you.

Nice victimology mindset. Does it help when you whine to the old lady to say that it's "all the government's fault?"

I bet that goes over really well with them.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh -
MEDICAID SUCKS


Are you a poverty case relying on Medicaid? I guess it's possible. Some Republicans actually do have an interest in the programs they pretend to know so much about.

But in this case, you sound like just another wanker pretending that you can decide what's best for others. (Do the people on Medicaid really say it "sucks?") Makes you a really effective Obamacare critic.

Obamacare's not going nowhere, incompetent cucks.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Balls - the democrat left killed competition in the market place, on purpose, so that obama had to raid the treasury and bail out the big mega insurance companies who crawled into bed with Pelosi-Care. When you kill all the competition, you get higher prices and less choice.

What a factless nutcase you are. Medicine is a marketplace? That's interesting. Last I checked the AMA was controlling admission spots to medical school to monopolize and drive up costs of care. Look at Michael Cuckennedy. Has anyone ever run across a more incompetent, overpaid loaf? The guy couldn't figure his way out of a paper bag.

How much did the U.S. spend per capita and/or as a percentage of GDP for healthcare prior to the ACA? What were the health outcomes for all that extra expenditure?

I know you hate thinking and your tribe commands that you get emotional instead, but those are the facts. Healthcare will never be an unregulated market. If you think it should be then ask Cuckennedy to get his boys at the AMA to stop restricting enrollment. Get the state boards to stop regulating its practice. Never gonna happen. But people can work within a regulated market to control costs and demand quality, and that's exactly what's happened. You're just too lazy to do the work to admit that. But your constituents at the town halls have. You're living in such a bubble of an alternative reality that you can't even see that all these repeal efforts were divided and crashed and burned because the plebians you look down on so much came with pitchforks to the meanings and threatened to roast every one of your cuckservative congress critters over the coals if they so much as touched the benefit. Jason Chaffetz ("health care, not iPhones!") won't even dare to run again and Joe Wilson was shouted down as a liar. This has happened over and over again. They're too afraid to show up now and too dishonest to admit what's wrong with the positions they've been paid by the lobbies to grovel to.

But keep up the faith, True Believer!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Since April's focusing on Medicaid (most single payor advocates speak of "Medicare for All,") I'm led to believe that she is so unknowledgeable that she doesn't even understand the difference between Medicare and Medicaid.

Which it's not hard to believe a low info Republican would do.

Rusty said...


Get the fuck out of here

Make me.

Rusty said...

I like how the ever caring balls has the deepsest grasp on the economics of the healthcare industry.
Tell us balls tell us how economically viable universal healthcre is.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Half the cost per capita in countries where it's universal. They all have better health outcomes than us.

How much do you have to hate facts to dismiss that? Or to have come as unprepared to a fight to have been ignorant of that?

Facts are your friends, True Believer Guy. Don't be afraid of the big, scary facts. They will help you.

Rusty said...

Blogger The Toothless Revolutionary said...
"Half the cost per capita in countries where it's universal. They all have better health outcomes than us."

Because you say so? No it's not. Because there are procedures that they won't cover which leads to your second gratuitous assertion. Most of those systems you so avidly admire cook the books vis avis mortality stats.
Now. Lets look at a solution that does not require the rest of the country subsidizing your STD cure with other peoples taxes.
Something that doesn't require the heavey hand of an uncaring state-despite what you assert-like the ACA currently does.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Because you say so? No it's not.

Show your evidence.

Because there are procedures that they won't cover which leads to your second gratuitous assertion.

Procedures that do not extend life or prevent disease, evidently.

It's evident you don't know anyone who works in healthcare.

Something that doesn't require the heavey hand of an uncaring state-despite what you assert-like the ACA currently does.

Lol. 24 million priced out of the insurance market is "caring?" Insteresting definition, there. I guess that's why every cuck congress critter proposing it got shouted down at their town halls and now won't even run for re-election in some cases.

Why are you doing the shilling of the insurance industry? What's in it for you?

Bad Lieutenant said...

J. Farmer said...
@Bad Lieutenant:

J. Farmer, it is quite clear from your writings that you wish to...deprecate all our current alliances/relationships in the ME and set up Iran as the fourth great power in the world. What I don't get is why. Could you please explain that.

Well, first, it isn't true.


Come, J, you can't shut up about how you hate Israel you hate Egypt you hate KSA you hate Turkey you hate everybody in the Middle East except apparently Iran. You definitely want us to be BFFs with Iran. Which is confusing because they will never be BFFs with us. Or do you have some clue on how that happens?

We can go back and forth on Iran's potential to lead a future Caliphate which would, I would think, be the fourth great power in the world, but do you mean to deny that you favor Iran?

And second, why are you so concerned with me personally? Notice how when I talk about the issue of Iran, I never have to invoke anywhere here personally. But onto the substance of your critique, as it were.

I literally don't know what you mean by this. You make remarks, I respond to them. Does it hurt?