I was viewing television Sunday night and found Ken Burns’ excellent film series about the history of baseball. Though not a baseball nut myself, I enjoy watching history and baseball on TV during the World Series.
There was a point in the presentation in which Ty Cobb, the great player for Detroit, was highlighted. I found it interesting how they spoke of Cobb — a fierce competitor; athletic, fast, base stealing wizard, with a lifetime batting average of .367 (highest overall). His competitors hated him, his teammates feared him, his aggressive traits and style made him an outcast. He changed the face of baseball from a sanguine gentleman’s sport to a competitive style, just less than all-out war. Baseball was never the same after Cobb.
Fast forward 85 years for a Cobb-like politician to take the political world by storm. Donald Trump has beaten all professional politicians at their own game. Classic example is beating Hillary Clinton. She was the “smartest, most experienced and qualified politician,” according to presidential lightweight President Obama.
We had 16 years if inaction, first milquetoast Bush, then “who, me!” Alfred E. Neumann lookalike Obama. Congress was languishing in inaction and “go along to get along” thinking. Nothing was being done about the economy, United Nations/NATO, trade, stupid agreements and treaties, illegal immigration, and Israel. President Trump didn’t need the job, he was already rich. He didn’t need the headaches, but he saw the country was directionless and decided to do something about it. Let’s examine what he has done in less than 3 years without cooperation/support from Democrats:
• Passed the largest tax reduction bill in history. The economy that was sputtering along got a boost and has grown in jobs and increase in pay. Companies were feeling competitive again with the tax and regulation burden that was keeping them from growing, with lower tax rates, favorable depreciation rates, and fairer trade policies.
• United Nations/NATO – The Marxists in the United Nations are now stymied by the President’s initiatives and getting NATO members to pay up for the defense of their countries by United States troops stationed in their countries. No more ripping off the United States.
• Trade agreements have been negotiated between the U.S/Canada/Mexico. It will soon go into effect. The Chinese agreement is underway and in Phase 2, hopefully it will be finalized soon, if Congress will do its job.
• Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, which is an idiotic document that places all the burden on the most advanced countries while leaving the major polluters like China and India off the hook to clean up their pollution for years. President Trump was correct in pulling out of the agreement.
• Illegal Immigration was a big issue with President Trump and still is. The Wall is being built, despite no Congressional cooperation, and ICE is enforcing laws. You want in the country, get in line and come in legally.
• Israel has been promised a U. S. Embassy in Jerusalem since the 1950s. It took Donald Trump to get it done.
The United States needed President Trump because it was stale. It needed new blood and attitude to get things done. He was voted in to clean up the Swamp and he’s doing it.
I have a criticism of Trump in that the debt burden has increased since Obama left. It doesn’t surprise me in that the required outlays for Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, defense, federal retirements, etc. is an ever present burden for any president. I would suggest he needs to trim the government and give the responsibilities back to the states and take less tax money from the states so they can afford to take on those responsibilities with finances commensurate with the burden. There is no reason to have Departments of Agriculture or Commerce at the federal and state levels.
It is the media crying about the debt level, but was relatively mute when Obama took it from $8.5 trillion to over $18 trillion in just eight years. It didn’t seem to be a big deal when it was under Obama, but when Republicans take over, the focus is on the debt.
If you think there is a winner in the lineup the Democrats now have debating and focusing on, think again. There is nothing but socialism and Marxism as far as the eye can see in any of these clowns. They are all about giveaways and how to tax you for money they will waste on programs benefiting nobody.
The rotting of America from within continues…
Let’s not forget 187 Federal Judges appointed.
Many of those federal judges appointed were rated Not Qualified by the American Bar Association.
200 of the 209 were well-qualified or qualified, the 9 that were not was done out of spite as President Trump objected to the ABA standards that highly favored leftest activist judges or lawyers.
Happy Christmas to you and yours.
I’m sure the ABA is not a biased liberal organization? I’m sure they all voted for Trump and were in favor of all his Supreme Court selections?
Or is this the Trump hating, Clinton loving den of liberal Democrat hacks the ABA has become?
Basura, your judgment is slipping.
Swamp Drainage:
* Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser and confidant (convicted of multiple counts of criminal behavior)
* Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and business associate (in prison)
* Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman ( in prison)
* Rick Gates, Trump’s former campaign vice chairman (convicted and is awaiting sentencing).
* Michael Flynn, Trump’s former White House national security advisor (convicted and is awaiting sentencing.
* George Papadopoulos, Trump’s former campaign advisor (served his prison sentence).
* Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who worked with Manafort and Gates (served his prison sentence).
Plus many Russian nationals indicted, although not likely to see justice in the US. Let’s not forget Maria Buttina (also did a short bit before being bounced back to Russia).
All is relative. Trump traded one swamp for another. Which was better, which was worse? Only history can tell us.
Ms Mandaville
“Draining a Swamp ” is not a bad thing nor is having a swamp.
A political swamp is very much like the swamps many have on their property. A healthy swamp benefits all…..once invasive species enter it is just a matter of time before the swamp disappears
When that happens to the swamp on our property ….our beneficial swamp turns into developments and is no longer helpful to our environment.
I believe the political swamp in our Country had been invaded with what I would call noxious, toxic, Democrats. This is a party I once wholly supported….luckily once I saw the direction these invasive political ideologies were heading…I did my part to try and drain ( remove) them from a once healthy swamp known as the Democratic Party .
Until the Democrats can produce a candidate that denounces Socialism, believes in a working class ( not just bashing the wealthy) does not just promote free, giveaway programs, etc. Than will I once again consider voting Democratic
Harry, I think you read far more into my remarks than I intended, but that doesn’t matter. You feel about noxious Dems the way I feel about noxious Reps. Actually, I don’t carry fond feelings about noxious Dems either, but what can you do? Washington is infested with people who are so far removed from real people and their real concerns that they can only respond to money, money, money from the PACs, the lobbies, and their biased contributors. There seems to be no desire to find common ground anymore. It’s all a game where the only goal is to win – whatever the definition might mean to any given person.
I hope the new year brings some hope and sanity, but I doubt it.
Peace.
I read Ranger Rick parroting Trump 2020 talking points and see why Many people who support Trump like the President’s utterances and “simple solutions”.
For example, what President Trump touts as the “largest tax cut in history” isn’t. As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) The Tax Act of 2017 that the President brags about amounts to a cut of 0.98% of GDP.
Compare that to;
Economic Recovery Act of 1981 (Reagan) that was 2.89% of GDP;
Revenue Act of 1945 (Truman) 2.67% ;
Revenue Act of 1948 (Truman) 1.87%;
American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (Obama) 1.78%
Revenue Act of 1964 (Johnson) 1.6%
Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2010 (Obama) 1.31%
Citizen and candidate Trump regularly decried the rising national debt that grew significantly in President Obama’s 2 terms in office. Given that the Great Recession affected the US and world economies, the Department of Treasury and Federal Reserve reduced interest rates making money cheap and markets including housing and manufacturing recovered.
What Ranger Rick fails to mention is Sec of Treasury Mnuchin has gone to Congress twice to raise the debt limit so the Federal government can pay its bills that include military pay, military pensions, payments to military suppliers, Social Security payments to retirees and those with disabilities along with other government expenditures. In fact, the national debt candidate and President Trump promised to elimination is on track to grow 30% in a bull market economy. The growing national debt is subsidizing the Tax Act of 2017 cuts that have disproportionately favored corporations and the wealthiest among us.
The two countries that will benefit the most from Trump’s 21st century isolationism from our post WW2 traditional allies in NATO along with Japan and South Korea, are Russia and China. If anyone thinks that China will revert to buying American agricultural products and Mexico will pivot back to the US for corn purchases at pre-tariff levels, they are being extremely optimistic.
Lastly is sad how many who are, or have close family who are the beneficiaries of the SOCIALISM they so earnestly warn about believing the current Trump GOP’s party line that push the idea that any and all people in office or running for office want the Castro Marxism model. If you had a career in government and collect a government pension your retirement more closely mirrors retirees in the former USSR and Cuba regarding pay from the government. If you or a family member has a disability and cannot work, they collect money from SOCIAL programs. If a child is born with significant physical issues the government pays for at least a portion of special vehicles for transport, gives the parents a monthly check and additional tax breaks for the disabled child. We give corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks but none that and other programs are SOCIALISM.
And so it goes
Mr. Couchman, your laughable comparisons of tax cuts to GDP are quite a joke. The GDP was so poor growth during Truman and Obama years, they had to do something to help the taxpayers. Obama didn’t give taxpayers anything but grief, the GDP was the smallest growth since WWII. A Marxist is a Marxist. He had no idea what he was doing to taxpayers nor did he care.
In 1980, Reagan passed historic tax cuts under the guise of “trickledown” and since 1989 the top 1% has seen their wealth increase by over $21 trillion while the bottom 50% has seen their share of wealth shift from $700 billion to $200 in debt—a net loss of nearly a billion dollars.
In the time since Reagan’s tax cuts, the US national debt has gone from $900 billion in 1980 to currently $23 trillion. The money we’ve “borrowed” for services does not disappear. It has always trickled up, and while the top keeps all of that borrowed money as private equity, it’s everyone else in the US that gets stuck with the bill. Literally.
We’ve all been getting scammed, but too many obtuse rubes think they’re in on the ruse because they’ve got skin in the game with their 401k’s. It’s how our complicity has been bought, because of so many who can’t see past the tips of their noses.
https://twitter.com/PplPolicyProj/status/1139307565161037825
A lot of use of the Marxist label. How about some specific examples of Marxist proposals that were signed into federal law in the last three decades rather than imitating the current President using labels in the absence of fact?
Some here chose to deny the Great Recession ever occurred, don’t know the basis of the two tax cuts during the Truman Presidency and believe everything and anything the current President says.
Regardless of what a President Trump, members of his administration, his campaign or his supporters claim, the Tax Act of 2017 wasn’t the largest tax cut.
Truth hurts. Facts can be mean.