Day to Day Politics: The Trump Report No. 14
And so it has come to pass that Trump, as those with any brains knew all along, was simply full of hot air. It’s easy of course when campaigning to sound tough and to make the most outrageous promises in the knowledge that you probably won’t keep them. That governing is much more difficult than campaigning.
The Mexican wall is but one example. Mexico will pay for it he boasted. Of course they wouldn’t, but he sounds tough. Then he tries to get congress to allocate the funds. They won’t of course. The symbolism of the wall was the embodiment of the man himself. It reflected his every thought on how a society could be manipulated. How others should conform to the greatest nation on earth. It showed how he could humiliate others. It reflected his xenophobia and impressed those who felt the same humiliation themselves. But the fence will never be built.
It didn’t seem to matter that polls consistently recorded that 60 per cent of Americans didn’t want the wall and that a wall along 3200 kilometres of the border is utterly impractical
I will destroy Obamacare he shouted without the faintest idea about what he would replace it with. He tried to make the poor pay but that didn’t work either.
Now he wants to dramatically reduce taxes, also without the faintest idea of how to fund it.
Of course all of this makes no difference to his followers who will say ”Oh well he tried” and go on believing in his simple solutions to complex problems.
He has ripped up trade agreements left right and centre. The latest being the US, Canada and Mexico one. Then last week despite appointing Exxon-Mobil’s chief executive officer, Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state he rejected a request from Exxon-Mobil to get a waiver to explore energy exploration in the Black Sea.
And in his madness that force is the answer to everything he decided to fire 59 tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase, following an alleged Syrian gas attack on rebel populations. It probably was but no concrete evidence that it was the Syrian’s has ever been revealed.
After saying that he and Putin would be good for each other relations with Russia have reached an all-time low.
The courts have twice rejected his much-modified and controversial travel ban that would apply to Muslim-majority countries. He thought he was above all this nonsense but he found out otherwise.
He said no one was interested in his tax returns but unsurprisingly that’s not the case. I guess with his intended massive tax cuts the family fortune will receive a boost. At no point has he attempted to address the many conflicts of interest his business empire poses.
The tax cuts will cost $2 trillion and economists say they are “basically a huge tax cut for the rich”. Including Donald. Even his own party is asking him to reveal his tax returns but he is adamant that he won’t. What business is it of theirs?
”As well as slashing costs for his own businesses, the new proposals will also cut the alternative minimum tax (AMT), a tax designed to stop the super-wealthy from taking so many tax deductions that they avoid paying anything. Leaked documents have shown that in 2005 Trump paid $31m in tax thanks to the AMT.”
It would not only be Trump who would benefit from the tax cuts. Remember his cabinet is the richest in history and contains a couple of billionaires.
He has been found wanting in terms of the intricacies of policy and how it is developed. More often than not policy is presented on a single sheet of paper.
He is still hostile to the media and continues to tweet his mindless thoughts at random. Falsehoods pore from his lips like milk through a straw. Everything is fake news that doesn’t agree with him while at the same time he is the greatest contributor to it. His Press Secretary has proven to be out of his depth with his Hitler comment and other gaffes.
Of course he was going to wipe out ISIS but may need more time which is something the Middle East is not short of.
Trump has lambasted opinion polls showing he has a low approval rating, calling the media outlets publishing them ”fake”.
The ABC News/Washington Post survey released on Sunday revealed that just 42 per cent of Americans approve of the way he is doing his job as president so far. The lowest since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. His disapproval rating of 53 per cent is 14 points higher than former President Bill Clinton’s highest disapproval rating in April 1993, which was the worst such figure until the current administration.
Trumps answer to this was to tweet that:
”New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in …..” He seems to have forgotten that Hillary won the popular vote by 3 million.
April 29 signals his first 100 days in power. Our Prime Minister has judged him kindly saying that he trusts the judgement of the President which says more about his judgement than the Presidents.
As time passes and people see that all the rhetoric of his campaign was that of a con man selling hot air. However, it well may be that Trump is the experience that America had to have. One that will bring them back to the sanity of a former time. One that might ”make America great again”.
My thought for the day.
“Some countries make a habit of institutionalising mediocre minds”.
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Michael Taylor
Return to home page“President Mac’Donald Trump has brought his reckless tax plan from the campaign into the White House, and the math still doesn’t add up. To pay for massive tax giveaways to corporations, the wealthy, and his own family, he will add trillions of dollars to the deficit , how would Trump’s White House make up the shortfall? By drastic cuts to essential services and lowering the standard of living for regular American families.
Unacceptable. The White House line that ‘tax cuts will pay for themselves’ is a lie that has been debunked repeatedly, including by the conservative Tax Foundation. We will fight this tax plan tooth and nail, and we’ll be joined by Americans of all political stripes in doing so.” —Frank Clemente, Executive Director, Americans for Tax Fairness..We are F565ked we’re next.
Weaklings ,cowards and villains are the ones that need to use hate, anger, judgement, bullying, physical/emotional pain 18C to feel better about themselves.
Hate is so easy to feel, try using love, compassion and forgiveness for others, this takes true strength. Try it, you will see just how hard it is to get out of bitterness and into joy.
Only the strong can accomplish this.
John, we also have to mention that the majority of the Republican members support Trump regardless of the consequences because the party come first and the country second.
If that was not the case, Trump should be impeached but I cannot see it happens.
And in his madness that force is the answer to everything he decided to fire 59 tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase, following an alleged Syrian gas attack on rebel populations. It probably was but no concrete evidence that it was the Syrian’s has ever been revealed.
Assad; “We believe it was a false flag for one reason and a simple reason: if there was gas leakage or an attack, and you’re talking about 60 dead in that city, how could the city continue its life normally? They didn’t evacuate the city. No-one left the city, life continued as normal” Assad stressed that the video clearly shows people without any means of chemical warfare protection helping those who allegedly fell victims to sarin gas attack.
You can fake this image, it’s very easy. So, you cannot just base your judgment on images and videos, especially made by al-Qaeda [terrorist group outlawed in Russia],” the Syrian leader stressed.
The United States and other Western countries block any attempts to launch an impartial investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, Syrian President Bashar Assad told Sputnik.
“We formally sent a letter to the United Nations, we asked them in that letter to send a delegation in order to investigate what happened in Khan Shaykhun,” Assad said in an interview.
But why shouldn’t we investigate because the west have been right all the time we can trust them of course we can it’s our duty isn’t it?.anyway “god” will work it all out won’t he?.
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You have to wonder how (a claimed) 42% still think he’s doing a good job. Bearing in mind he was elected by just 24% of eligible voters, this would seem to indicate even some of those who didn’t vote for him approve of him. This is incredibly scary.
A couple of things. Re NAFTA he has now decided to re-negotiate same rather than ‘rip’ it up. Trump does say however if he can’t get a satisfactory outcome then he will rip it up. Promises, promises, promises.
Saw a poll that revealed only 2% of those who voted for Trump are having buyer’s regret. Amazing. An interview on ABC this morning revealed coal companies in the US are hiring again because of the rise in coal prices. Trump received the credit. Indeed it was fulsome praise. Seems that the US is more divided than ever. Apparently, many buy the ‘fake news’ meme that pours from his every pore.
“It probably was but no concrete evidence that it was the Syrian’s has ever been revealed.”
A chemical analysis of samples taken from a deadly sarin gas attack in Syria earlier this month “bears the signature” of President Bashar al-Assad’s Government and shows it was responsible for the deadly assault, France says.
Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said France made the conclusion after comparing samples from a sarin attack in Syria in 2013 that matched the new ones.
Mr Ayrault said France knew “from sure sources” that “the manufacturing process of the sarin that was sampled is typical of the method developed in Syrian laboratories”.
Environmental samples, the French ministry said, showed the weapons were made “according to the same production process as the one used in the sarin attack perpetrated by the Syrian regime in Saraqeb” on April 29, 2013
Mr Ayrault also said French intelligence services showed only Syrian Government forces could have launched such an attack using a bomber taking off from the Sharyat airbase.
Meanwhile, France’s presidency said the country’s intelligence services presented evidence showing the Syrian Government “still holds chemical warfare agents, in violation of the commitments to eliminate them that it took in 2013”.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-27/france-tests-show-syria-behind-chemical-attack/8474428
Despite their tentative support for Trump I don’t think the Republicans will keep him around very long if he starts to damage their “brand”.
Celebrity-based popularity may get you into power but it won’t keep you there if you fail to deliver and you can only successfully deflect for a limited time.
Remember that this is a country where many believe the moon landing was faked but that wrestling is real and even a significant number of Trump supporters still insist that the totally discredited Pizzagate controversy was true.
In the end, voters get what they deserve.
Trump = Turnball
Republicans = LNP
Wall along Mexican border = Asylum Seekers
Obamacare = Medicare
Business tax cuts = LNP business tax cuts
I think John, the USA is a bit behind Australia.
There is greater freedom of information in America than here and interviewers and journalists are less deferential than here.
We already have our “ring of steel” employing a significant part of our navy to keep refugees out.
We cut corporate taxes to 25% and Trump goes to 15%. Do we keep chasing him when we know he doesn’t have a clue what he is doing? Who ever thought it would be so complicated he says in one breath and then produces his new tax plan – one sheet of paper and about 500 words. The KISS principle has been taken to a new low level.
There was some Southern Belle on ABC Lateline last night, who looked remarkably like Kellyanne Conway’s (remember her?) sister. She defended the indefensible to the point where obfuscation was indistinguishable from utter irrationality. She claims to have alienated some friends and family members by her stance and this does not surprise me in the least. If she typifies Trumps female support even it surely must crumble as he stumbles from one disaster to the next, putting not only his country but the entire planet in jeopardy. We can only hope they awake before it is too late for us all.
I think you are right, Jagger, and that’s why I fear for Australia; I hope we will not be roped in any conflicts between US and North Korea.
We too would build a fence, if we could, maybe we could erect a huge plastic dome over the country, and live happily ever after in a bubble..
Jagger, they certainly are behind Australia when it comes to such things as healthcare and industrial relations, but I fear our government wants to drag us down to their level.
Trump cuts corporate taxes from 35% to 15% and, significantly, he is removing inheritance tax all together : so where will the money come from to maintain government services ; from the pockets of the very workers who voted him in and will now have the burden of providing all the tax revenue to keep the country going.
Then we hear from the Turnbull government that they want to start investing borrowed money – good debt – in revenue generating infrastructure. Well that sounds sensible doesn’t it ? Well not really, this is the same regime who were bribing states to sell off their revenue earning infrastructure two years ago – ports, power generation etc – and now they’re saying that it is good for government to take equity in the very same assets.
Kaye Lee
The sarin gas attack in April of 2013 was never identified positively to Assad. Proving that the first attack matches the second attack does not prove that it was Assad/Syrian government that used those weapons.
stove_pipe,
There appears to be a great deal of evidence about 2013, much of which was revealed in this recent report from France.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/27/revisiting-syrias-2013-sarin-attack-saraqeb-idlib/
Zathras, he already has damaged their brand, but they’re too gutless to do anything about it. The attitude seems to be ‘hold onto power at all costs’.
“Now all his opponents—the Deep State, the military/security complex, the CIA, the Hillary Democrats, the warmonger Republicans—have the New White House Fool under their control. If Trump doesn’t do as they want, they will impeach him for his war crime.”
Kaye Lee turn it up.
More than half Americans want Trump to attack North Korea.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/us-commanders-damning-warning-over-nuclear-weapons/news-story/3e0fab5c0c9dd82a1c99956aa8a9eb24
He’s likely to do it to just to boost his popularity.
As a friend said to me this morning : ‘this race to the bottom on corporate taxes is going to end in tears – for us’.
if you really wanted to stimulate growth and spending and thus stimulate jobs, you would cut personal income taxes not corporate. You put more money into people’s pockets so that they spend not into corporate coffers.
He made a good point.
Westpac won’t lend to Adani and the other major banks are likely to follow suit https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/28/big-four-banks-all-refuse-to-fund-adani-coalmine-after-westpac-rules-out-loan.
Oh dear, what a pity, never mind. This will allow the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) to stump up the $1 billion Turnbull had promised Adani.
Why so ? Well, remember how the NAIF lending criteria includes this proviso :
(1) The Facility must not provide a Financing Mechanism unless the Board is satisfied the Project would not otherwise have received sufficient financing from other financiers.
Problem solved, the big four will announce, as Westpac have, that they are not available to lend to Adani : step up NAIF.
We are being gamed by our own government, folks !
That the Drumph is certifiably bananas is generally accepted. His dangerous, loose-cannon ways should keep us awake at night, especially with brother Mal’s ‘robust’ tendencies likely to include us in the next US foreign adventure. If only Drumph would spend increasing amounts of time at his country-club estate, ‘Im-moral-ego’, forget trying to run the country and take Mal’s new friend Pence with him, we’d be able to breathe a little easier. A little, I said, as there are plenty more of his billionaire nut job mates ready to take the reins. Sad!
Not since the 80’s have we been so close to midnight’s threat of nuclear warfare. 100 days in and Trump has divided nations, threatened nations AND is hell-bent on de-funding his own government with excessive tax cuts.
IS there anything this man cannot do? 😛
Well, in his last interview he said that he misses not being able to drive.
FT
Some things to be grateful for… 🙂
Trump may have drained the swamp but he has replaced it with a cesspit.
You are all being terribly unkind to the dumpster. He means well, even if ‘the elevator doesn’t go the whole way to the top floor’, if you know what I mean.
“The courts have twice rejected his much-modified and controversial travel ban that would apply to Muslim-majority countries. He thought he was above all this nonsense but he found out otherwise.”
That was just one of his presidential ejects. Sorry, my bad. Edicts. He is a captain of industry. How could he know his new job meant he actually had to have regard for the law (other than bankruptcy protection)? A mere transition problem. He’ll learn.
One of his presidential ejects came into force on the 26th and it’s a huge success.
“A new hotline to report “criminal aliens” has been launched by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is being flooded with calls…”
“The hotline was established as part of the new Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) office, which was created earlier this week in response to US President Donald Trump’s executive order to enhance public safety.”
He wasn’t merely concerned with Muslims. It’s all of the aliens!
“VOICE was also coincidentally launched on April 26, also known as Alien Day — a reference to the moon featured in the 1986 movie Aliens.
Not long after launching, the hotline was inundated with calls.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-28/us-hotline-to-report-criminal-aliens-gets-spammed/8479190
His supporters have been reporting criminal aliens at such a rate, ET has officially gone into hiding. I’m not into conspiracies, but has anyone else noted ‘Roswell’ hasn’t commented? Eh, Houston…?
As to your assertion;
“At no point has he attempted to address the many conflicts of interest his business empire poses.”
Why should he? It’s not like a captain of industry would ever be conflicted by appointment to a public office, is it? What the heck, we have been doing it down-under for years. Nothing ‘fishy’ about that.
If you disclose the potential conflict to your potential employer, no harm, no foul. If you get the job and your employer fails to state the conflict to the public, that’s on them. Once you get the job, you just recuse yourself from making any decisions (ie, your job) and collect the pay cheque.
“Under the protocol, Mr Fish’s copy of draft board minutes includes redacted sections of discussions he was excluded from.
He and other NQBP directors were also given conflict of interest training to “specifically discuss the Adani conflicts”.
Six weeks after his appointment as chair, Mr Fish resigned as a director of Abbot Point Operations.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-28/coal-port-chair-quarantined-from-adani-decisions/8477184
The transition from business to politics and politics to business is one of the truly grate Australian values we cherish. It’s about time the Americans caught up. They can then grate too.
As to your assertion;
“More often than not policy is presented on a single sheet of paper.”
We have existed for nigh on four years with policy being presented in a three word slogan or a photo op. No thought. No substance. As soon as Snowy 2 appears, it disappears up its own feasibility study.
NBN, health, education, social welfare, our First People, asylum seekers, climate change. Pick a portfolio, any portfolio at all. No thought. No substance.
At least the dumpster offers a piece of paper. Hopefully, the paper is suitably perforated to enable its use in wiping up the excrement.
A luxury we haven’t had for nigh on four years.
At least the Americans have some process to throw out an ineffective, idiotic criminal. We have to suffer on for a few more years. Yay, team ostralya.
Thank you Mr Lord and commenters. Take care
US president Donald Trump sounded sincere when he described how he felt after seeing pictures of “beautiful little babies” allegedly killed by a Syrian government chemical weapons attack on April 4.
“These heinous actions by the Assad regime cannot be tolerated,” said Trump, and hours later, the US launched nearly 60 tomahawk missiles in response to the allegations.
But what about the beautiful little babies killed by US bombs since Trump became president? Is Trump not concerned about those children because they were killed by his missiles, and not Assad’s chemical weapons?
In the first three months of his presidency, Trump has dropped bombs – and killed children – in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq to please his Zionist Neocon masters. The man is a total fraud and obviously part of the Deep State.
His missile attack on Syria was illegal, in breach of international law and did not have congressional approval. Drumpf thinks he can do as he pleases. That makes him a loose cannon and a dangerous fool.
It ought to be abundantly clear by now that neither Syria nor Russia would ever use chemical weapons in any theater of war. As a matter of historical fact, Russia brokered the deal whereby the Assad government gave up their chemical weapons and transported them out of the country to be destroyed on board a specially equipped U.S. ship in the Mediterranean. Hence, Syria possessed no such weapons.
Neither Syria’s Assad nor Putin’s Russia has any reason whatsoever to commit atrocities anywhere in the highly volatile region. Any blatant war crime would only serve the interests of the BIG OIL companies which are really behind the ongoing genocide and forced migrations throughout the Levant. The whole world knows this, which is why many have read the UK and US mainstream media (MSM) chemical attack headlines with utter disbelief.
So what happened about his determination to defeat ISIS? Do you do that by bombing the Syrians?
He’s only been there for 100 days, god help us all!
I don’t know if Assad was behind those chemical attacks or not, but I believe that Trump bombed Syria in response for two reasons:
1. Because he could. (Rightly or wrongly).
He had to show the world that the USA wasn’t going to be a passive bystander. He’s president now … things are different. “I can do what I want”.
2. It would deflect the media from talking about his ties with Russia.
That one certainly worked.
When the popularity of a leader is in decline one of the tactics is creating a conflict.
Worked well for the “Iron Lady” the Argentinian junta and can be a life saver for the North Korean leadership and Trump.
I just wonder what Putin is going to do if things do not going well for him.
Any number of reasons why Trump bombed Syria. Here’s 10 to consider. Each one provides a ‘rationale’.
http://theduran.com/10-reasons-trump-illegally-attacked-syria/
Abbott and Trump are much the same
Both liars, deluded and mediocre brain
Both misogynists dicks with simplistic slogans
Both appealling to low IQ bogans
Both tapping the dark underbelly of race
Both devoid of empathy and lacking in grace
Both vindictive and threatening towards their foe
Both with no limit to how low they go
Both incompetent without any plan
Both like a schoolboy instead of a man
Both unable to think on their feet.
Both of them failures, hoist on conceit
Both ego bent whilst abusing their nation
Both destroying their parties for a generation.
Abbott and Trump two of same mind
Boorish buffoons who’ll find history unkind
Trump dropped his MOAB bomb in Eastern Afghanistan and reportedly killed up to 90 Taliban/IS fighters as well as an unknown number of women and children.
Some days later Taliban/IS attacked an army base where Afghan government officials say the death toll has jumped to 140 following Friday’s assault in the Afghan northern Balkh province.Another 160 people were wounded in the attack.
So exactly what is Donald Trumps strategy ?
The world has become a very bad c grade thriller movie or book.
Kronomex,…. wtf….why do you talk thingies… up….. I mean..you’d give the ‘world’ a ‘C’ 🙄 …you’re posivity is inspiring. …thanx :grins:
We all know there’s one good thing in the world, don’t we, LOVO?
Port Adelaide. ?