I hope you’re ready for verbal battle. The problem I find too often is people don’t give him any credit for anything and say the positives are because of Obama or everything Trump does is perfect. There seems to be very little in the middle, at least in this site. I believe he’s done well with some things and bad with others. There should be more objectivity. There’s too much blind hatred and too much blind loyalty to him.
There is a select few on here who can properly articulate their disliking for Trump and why without the typical drivel; racism, Nazi, fascist, and the other overused terms.
This post was edited by Rizz at September 11, 2018 11:05 PM MDT
How? At latest count, 4713 false or misleading statements documented from Trump’s own mouth (or Twitter feed) since he took office. An average of 8 PER DAY. We might also cite what is apparently major dysfunction within the WH itself. Doubt, why shouldn’t there be?
When you don’t tell the truth, when you just flat out lie so much, HOW do you have any credibility, HOW can we believe anything from this administration when it’s the President himself who’s told thousands of lies since he took the oath of office...
Personally, I wonder HOW anyone can coherently credit America’s economic fortunes solely to the actions of one person. This calls into question your grasp of economics and finance, or for that matter, the definition of great ‘again’.
This post was edited by Don Barzini at September 11, 2018 11:06 PM MDT
As I stated above, some on here can articulate and provide reasons why they don’t like Trump. You proved me correct. You did it without the hysteria and typical drivel seen on here. I have to give you a like for that.
It’s weighing the good and the bad, Rizz. I can’t say Trump has done nothing at all good, there is some, but the bad I’ve seen is far more numerous and more readily identifiable.
Trump has only himself to blame for the many scandals and the growing talk/threat of impeachment. As Truman said, “The buck stops here.“
I always appreciate when people are able to and do articulate their views on politics, especially when facts are provided. I don’t do well the mindless and thoughtless name calling, insults, and put-downs often used by people from both sides.
Too many insults are hurled and too little intelligent conversations. I’ll admit I’m not the world’s most articulate person, nor am I always well written. I do lose my cool from time to to time. It’s usually with the same two people who make baseless claims without proof, lie, and create their own reality. It’s frustrating so much bs can be refuted with simple research which is easily accessible.
I don’t dislike anyone’s political beliefs or anyone for the political bliefs they have. My grievances are with how they convey and state their beliefs. Name calling, insults, put-downs, labeling individuals and groups is divisive and solves nothing.
This post was edited by Rizz at September 11, 2018 11:06 PM MDT
He’s divided this country. He lies. He doesn’t speak well. He’s a bully. I dislike the media as much as anyone else, but he shouldn’t be out there calling everyone who criticizes him “fake news”. I wish they would take his Twitter account from him. I wish he learned how to speak on policy and views without vile behavior, insults, constant attacks on others, and belittling people.
I hold the same negative views and grievances with Trump. If there was a democrat with his personality and lack of integrity the right wing would be outraged. I despise his lack of morals. Cheating on multiple wives. Disrespecting and insulting war heroes. Insulting disabled people. His outright disrespect to many women is nauseating and repulsive.
It’s difficult to move past his personality and focus on his politics.
It is indeed. We should all remember that the Presidency is more than merely a bastion of party and policies. It is a standard of national image, the example from which the world draws it’s opinions of our society. I can’t articulate effectively enough how the current occupant of the WH is failing in this regard. But I’m aware others have different standards here, I just heartily disagree with them.
This post was edited by Don Barzini at September 11, 2018 2:24 PM MDT
Such divisions were already present and have been for several years. When liberals were getting mostly their own way they were content to just criticize everyone else. But when President Trump was elected (which I think safe to say they were not expecting at all) They allowed all their hate and resentment-driven rhetoric to come to the surface and he became their whipping boy. Which, and let's face it, he makes himself an easy target by choosing always to do things his way and playing by the same rules he used in business which are not necessarily applicable in politics where more diplomacy is desirable.
I should have stated he’s further divided country or has exacerbated the division in this country. One thing he has done is helped people on both sides reveal their true colors.
When the economy is doing well, the president gets all the credit; when the economy is doing poorly, the president gets all the blame. The fact is that the president often doesn't have much effect on the economy either way. And it goes in cycles. There will be another recession. An economic boom is not forever.
I agree with this, Nevan. It might be said he deserves neither entirely, as WH policy is but one of many factors that influence the economy. Despite what some seem to believe.
I will float this point: Let’s see if/how quickly the current Pres throws others under the bus if the economy were to take a downturn, shifts blame. I think what his actions are in such a case would be an effective measure of his character. My hope is, of course, that this situation never materializes.
Strong economy. Strong stock market. Working towards REAL free trade. Securing the border, creating a merot based visa system, low unemployment, high job partcipation, record lows for minority unemployment, manufacturing jobs RETURNING, double GDP, tax cuts for all, US Embassy in Jerusalem.....etc.
Was never a matter of doubting him. He promised to support and back mostly the right things so we voted for him. I just think he lacks interest in working with others - would guess he is a one man show and always has been and he never learned the arts of schmoozing and dealing. "Make America great again" was just a slogan but no way can we go back to the way things were 40 or 50 years ago because people have just become too selfish in the interim and they are too much now looking for govt handouts and govt backing. There is not the sense of service and serving your country and one another there was when I grew up which is too bad.
I guess I still don't understand his appeal to so many people. I mean outside of the issues. I guess a lot of people like him because he plays hard ball and speaks his mind. Which I guess he can afford to do but not true for most of us! At least he is a realist and knows enough not to have some kind of plan to make everyone in the world "perfect" which can never happen. I just wish he were more a public servant type of person.
Because, I am afraid the reality is entirely different to the story his supporters are being fed.. Like when he said he was the most popular republican president ever.. not true.. The economy boost was based on several one off factors and the fact that policies put in place before Trump are beginning to pay off..
The Tax-Cut Con Goes On - Why Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot. - Paul Krugman, Opinion Columnist... Aug. 23, 2018
What will happen if the blue wave in the midterm elections falls short? Clearly, at this point it still might: Democrats will surely receive more votes than Republicans, but thanks to gerrymandering and population geography, the U.S. electoral system gives excess weight to rural, white voters who still have faith in President Trump. What if, thanks to that excess weight, the minority prevails?
One answer, obviously, is that the unindicted co-conspirator in chief will continue to be protected from the law. And for those concerned with the survival of American democracy, that has to be the most important issue at stake in November. But if the G.O.P. hangs on, there will also be other, bread-and-butter consequences for ordinary Americans.
First of all, there is every reason to believe that a Republican Congress, freed from the immediate threat of elections, would do what it narrowly failed to do last year, and repeal the Affordable Care Act. This would cause tens of millions of Americans to lose health insurance and would in particular hit those with pre-existing conditions. There’s a reason health care, not Trump, is the central theme of Democratic campaigns this year.
But the attack on the social safety net probably wouldn’t stop with a rollback of Obama-era expansion: Longstanding programs, very much including Social Security and Medicare, would also be on the chopping block. Who says so? Republicans themselves.
In a recent interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, Representative Steve Stivers, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee — in effect, the man charged with containing the blue wave — declared that, given the size of the budget deficit, the federal government needs to save money by cutting spending on social programs. When pressed about whether that included Social Security and Medicare, he admitted that it did.
And he’s not alone in seeing major cuts in core programs for older Americans as the next step if Republicans win in November. Many major figures in the G.O.P., including the departing speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, and multiple senators, have said the same thing. (Meanwhile, groups tied to Ryan have been running attack ads accusing Democrats of planning to cut Medicare funding — but hey, consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. So, apparently, is honesty.)
Now, Republicans who call for cuts in social spending to balance the budget are showing extraordinary chutzpah, which is traditionally defined as what you exhibit when you kill your parents, then plead for mercy because you’re an orphan. After all, the same Republicans now wringing their hands over budget deficits just blew up that same deficit by enacting a huge tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.
So it might seem shocking that only a few months later they’re once again posing as deficit hawks and calling for spending cuts. That is, it might seem shocking if it weren’t for the fact that this has been the G.O.P.’s budget strategy for decades. First, cut taxes. Then, bemoan the deficit created by those tax cuts and demand cuts in social spending. Lather, rinse, repeat.
This strategy, known as “starve the beast,” has been around since the 1970s, when Republican economists like Alan Greenspan and Milton Friedman began declaring that the role of tax cuts in worsening budget deficits was a feature, not a bug. As Greenspan openly put it in 1978, the goal was to rein in spending with tax cuts that reduce revenue, then “trust that there is a political limit to deficit spending.”
It’s true that when tax cuts are on the table their proponents tend to deny that they’ll increase the deficit, claiming that they’ll provide a miraculous boost to the economy and that tax receipts will actually rise. But there’s not a shred of evidence to support this claim, and it has never been clear whether anyone with real political power has ever believed it. For the most part it’s just a smoke screen to help conceal the G.O.P.’s true intentions.
The puzzle is why Republicans keep getting away with this bait-and-switch.
Fifteen years ago I wrote a long piece titled “The Tax-Cut Con,” describing what was even then a time-honored scam; it reads almost word for word as a description of Republican strategy in 2017-18. Yet I keep reading news analyses expressing puzzlement that men who were strident deficit hawks in the Obama years so cheerfully signed on to a budget-busting tax cut under Trump. To say the obvious: These men were never deficit hawks; it was always a pose.
And the gullibility both of the news media and self-proclaimed centrists remains a remarkable story. Remember, Ryan, who was utterly orthodox in his determination to cut taxes on the rich while savaging programs for the poor and the middle class, even received an award for fiscal responsibility.
Which brings us back to the midterm elections. Rule of law is definitely on the ballot. So is health care. But voters should realize that the threat to programs they count on is much broader: If the G.O.P. holds its majority, Social Security and Medicare as we know them will be very much in danger.
This post was edited by Beans/SilentGeneration at September 11, 2018 2:27 PM MDT
When I look at the things he has accomplished in regards to the economy, the other promises he has kept and in the process of keeping, I can't doubt what I see. :)
Don Barzini 