Trump II

[Schewe]

Ah, that 100 day milestone that Trump loved/now hates...

Donald Trump Is About to Sign a Record Number of Executive Orders in his First 100 Days

President Donald Trump will mark the end of his first 100 days in office with a flurry of executive orders, looking to fulfill campaign promises and rack up victories ahead of that milestone by turning to a presidential tool he once derided. But Trump's frequent use of the executive order points to his struggles getting legislation though a Congress controlled by his own party and few of the orders themselves appear to deliver the sweeping changes the president has promised.

White House aides said that Trump will have signed 32 executive orders by Friday, the most of any president in their first 100 days since World War II. That's a far cry from Trump's heated campaign rhetoric, in which he railed against his predecessor's use of executive action late in his tenure as President Barack Obama sought to maneuver around a Republican Congress. Trump argued that he, the consummate deal maker, wouldn't need to rely on the tool.

"The country wasn't based on executive orders," said Trump at a town hall in South Carolina in February 2016. "Right now, Obama goes around signing executive orders. He can't even get along with the Democrats, and he goes around signing all these executive orders. It's a basic disaster. You can't do it."

So, ex-CEO Trump is finding life as a governing president much harder than he thought it would be. The "Art of the Deal"? It's the "art of screw the deal" and invoke a royal edict as though he's king...he's great at that, but dealing with congress? Not so much :~(

#MAGA by Royal Decree

[Schewe]

Image if the 100 day mark of Trump's Presidency coincided with a shut down of the government?

With Shutdown Looming, Trump Is Tweeting Out Demands. Will He Stick By Them?

"I also protect myself by being flexible. I never get too attached to one deal or one approach."

Those words from Donald Trump's The Art of The Deal may be giving congressional Republicans some hope this week.

That's because Congress is facing a midnight Friday deadline to pass legislation to keep the federal government fully open — or face a partial government shutdown precisely on President Trump's 100th day in office.

Government shutdowns are not unheard of, but those in recent memory came when power was divided, not when one party controled both chambers of Congress and the White House. Republicans are aware that their party generally gets blamed for government shutdowns, even if it doesn't necessarily pay the price at the ballot box.

Republicans held the House and won control of the Senate in 2014 — a year after the public put much of the blame on their party for the shutdown in late 2013.

But on the heels of the failed GOP health care effort, Republicans are hoping to avoid an embarrassing episode as they try to prove they are a party that can govern effectively.

So, can the GOP go from the "Party of NO!" to a party that can govern? Can Trump actually make a "deal" and keep the government open? Tune in Saturday for an update on Trump's reality TV show, "Makin' America Great Again! (whether you want to or not)"

[Schewe]

Wow...I gotta get me one!!!

Someone Made A NSFW Trump Troll Doll, And Now They’re Running A Kickstarter Campaign To Mass Produce It

Trump has been trolled on the Internet before, but this time it was literal. A guy from Wisconsin has turned him into a tiny Troll doll. We’re not making this up.

Former sculptor Chuck Williams revealed his immaculately designed vinyl Trump doll on Kickstarter last week, and the project has already far exceeded its original goal of $38,000 thanks to over a thousand backers. The figure is about 5 inches tall, completely nude, and clutches a miniature smartphone between his itty-bitty fingers. Donald himself has yet to comment on the anatomical accuracy of the doll.

The Kickstarter page is still active and 9,417 backers pledged $438,737 to help bring this project to life.

The Official World's Greatest Troll Sculpt By Chuck Williams

I wonder if it's anatomically correct?

:~)

[Schewe]

From Columbia Journalism Review come this commentary about the photography of the Trump administration. (spoiler alert, it sucks compared to Obama's)

11 images that show how the Trump administration is failing at photography

HOW MUCH DOES VISUAL IMAGERY, especially photography, determine the success or failure of a presidency? In the first 100 days, the Trump White House has distinguished itself with largely forgettable imagery, in contrast to the Obama administration’s brilliant orchestration, creation, and curation. The approach to photography under Trump has ranged from haphazard to negligent.

In the early going, team Trump operated with a paucity of photographers and editing staff. Staff members, such as the press secretary, have doubled as photographers. There does not appear to be much strategy in terms of which photographs are posted to staff social media accounts and which land on the president’s personal accounts or official feeds. White House Photographer Shealah Craighead has been poorly utilized. This administration hasabandoned the popular White House Flickr feed. And the administration doesn’t even have a photo section on the White House website.

By comparison, Pete Souza seems pretty good at comparing and contrasting and giving Trump some sass. Former White House photographer grabs headlines with Instagram sass

AS WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER under President Obama, Pete Souza carefully avoided discussion of politics or the idea his photos conveyed any particular agenda. In his new life, Souza’s Instagram feed has become quite political. He’s served as a virtual photo deejay—mixing images from Obama’s tenure based on the news cycle. Those photos repurpose history as a visual counterpoint and non-verbal critique of the Trump administration’s actions and miscues.

This commentary has not gone unnoticed. The Washington Post,  CNN, The Guardian, and New York magazine have done stories on it. CNN’s headline describes Souza as “throwing shade” at Trump. The Washington Post piece asks whether Souza is “trolling” The Donald.

Some of Souza’s images, including those journalists have called out to date, aren’t subtle about critiquing Trump. Others convey a deeper feeling of something lost—a low-drama White House, one with a sense of humor, one that put value on diplomacy and nuance. Souza seems to be saying that the human touch is gone. Let’s begin with a few photos that are most explicit in their criticism, then dig more deeply into a few that are somewhat ambiguous.

 

I follow Pete on Instagram at:


petesouza
(1.2m followers)

[Alan Goldhammer]

It looks like the promise of true tax reform is dead before it's even proposed.  Instead we will get massive tax cuts based on a premise that's been solidly debunked ("the Laffer Curve" which probably should be known as the "Laugher Curve") that will enrich the rich even further.  We don't know what the impact will be on the President's many pass through corporations that constitute his real estate empire but it's likely to be quite significant if the rate on corporate taxes goes down to 15%.  Of course all the current tax preferences will stay around which means the true rate might even be lower than that!!!

[Alan Klein]

It looks like the promise of true tax reform is dead before it's even proposed.  Instead we will get massive tax cuts based on a premise that's been solidly debunked ("the Laffer Curve" which probably should be known as the "Laugher Curve") that will enrich the rich even further.  We don't know what the impact will be on the President's many pass through corporations that constitute his real estate empire but it's likely to be quite significant if the rate on corporate taxes goes down to 15%.  Of course all the current tax preferences will stay around which means the true rate might even be lower than that!!!

Lower business and personal taxes are always good for boosting the economy.  More money available for investments (capital) and purchasing things boosts businesses, jobs and wealth.  The problem is if government spending continues as is, you have to borrow and print more.  More debt just puts added burdens in the future.  Of course, if business expands by lowering taxes, then the government will make up some of the loss to lower tax rates by expanding business and sales.    The question is how much will be made up? 

[Otto Phocus]

if the rate on corporate taxes goes down to 15%.  Of course all the current tax preferences will stay around which means the true rate might even be lower than that!!!

That is one of my concerns.  Having a corporate tax rate of around 35% is really meaningless.  What is important is the actual rate that corporations pay in taxes.  How many corporations actually pay 35%?  I would opine few to none. You would have to have a pretty cruddy tax attorney to pay that much.  So the arguments that our tax rates are too high and that they need to be lowered is independent of the actual tax rates that corporations truly pay. For some large corporations we can drop the tax rate from 35% to 15% and it won't affect them as they already pay less than 15%.

That, I believe is one of the problems with our tax system.  We have a tax rate and then a whole bunch of confusing ways of reducing that.  It becomes a race of who has the bestest tax attorney.

We need to lower the tax rates of everyone/thing to the appropriate level (TBD) and then remove all the deductions/loopholes so that each entity actually pays the right amount of taxes.  Everyone should pay their respective tax rate; not paying their respective tax rate minus what ever they can get away with.

If this new tax rate is too high and is hurting business, then congress can lower it.
If the new tax rate is too low and is hurting governing, then congress can raise it. This would require a separate discipline concerning government spending, but that's a different rant.

But you really should not need a team of tax lawyers to handle something that should be pretty straightforward - if you earn X, you pay Y meaning that everyone who earns X pays Y.  Not just the people that can't afford the bestest lawyer. That, to me, is fair.  I would not mind (too much) paying higher taxes if I knew that everyone was paying higher taxes and that everyone that earns the same as I do is paying the same as I do.

It would adversely affect the tax law profession though.   Someone always has to lose, it seems.

Our tax laws are getting out of control.  I doubt that anyone really understands all of them.  The government does not understand the laws and lacks the ability to consistently enforce those laws. Paying taxes becomes a game of chance.  What are the chances of you being caught?  If you are smart, i.e., hire the bestest tax attorney, pretty low chances of getting caught. I doubt even the tax attorneys understand all of the tax laws.

What good are laws when the citizens and the government don't understand all of them?  That should be our first hint that we have too many tax laws and they are too complex to understand.

But the US having too many laws is yet another rant for another thread.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Trump-fighting Democrats just repeating Hillary's mistakes: Column - USA TODAY

https://apple.news/A1zVFdhaUSLmr6unqhRtTcg

Clinton conducted one of the most negative campaigns in recent history that focused almost entirely on discrediting and demonizing Donald Trump. He helped with that process, of course, but at least ordinary Americans got some idea of what he meant to do as president. Building walls, banning Muslims, scrapping trade deals, blowing up alliances and building up the military may be simplistic promises, but at least they’re comprehensible notions. Can anyone recall, six months later, what Clinton promised to do? Even one memorable pledge? Could anyone predict with confidence what she would have done if she had won the November election?

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Trump U.S. tax plan will not manage to pay for itself with growth: experts
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-voodoo-idUSKBN17S326?il=0

"U.S. President Donald Trump's tax-cut plan will generate growth, but not nearly enough to replace trillions of dollars in lost revenues, while rising deficits could even take back some of the economic gains, fiscal experts said on Wednesday.

Core principles of the plan, unveiled on Wednesday, rely heavily on so-called "dynamic scoring," a budget analysis method that assumes tax cuts will boost economic activity, thus generating more revenues.

Such assumptions have been at the heart of Republican tax orthodoxy since Ronald Reagan used them to justify massive tax cuts in 1981 that were derided at the time by critics as "voodoo economics." "

Ah well, blowing bubbles can be fun while they last ... pop.

Cheers,
Bart

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Killing the Clean Power Plan leaves Trump’s EPA in an awkward place:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/trump-vs-the-climate-the-fights-only-just-starting/
EPA has to reject widely accepted science and/or come up with its own climate plan.

"The Trump administration's decision to terminate its predecessor's Clean Power Plan, accomplished via an executive order, would seem to be a carefully crafted decision with an air of finality about it. It neatly avoided rejecting mainstream climate science, opting instead to eliminate the only federal plan for doing anything about it.

The reality is far more complex. Unlike other actions by the Obama administration, which occurred late in his second term, the Clean Power Plan had gone through the entire federal rulemaking process. To get rid of it, the process has to be repeated in its entirety. And the scientific document that formed the foundation for the Clean Power Plan won't be touched by the reversal. Its existence is likely to leave the Trump EPA in a legally awkward position, one where they'll have to come up with some regulation to tackle climate change."

" According to its analysis, the Clean Power Plan would cost money—up to $8 billion in its most expensive year. But overall, it would save billions of dollars, in part by avoiding the consequences of climate change and in part through co-benefits like lowered health care costs from reduced pollution."

So, ethics of a responsible stewardship of our planet aside, if the CCP saves more money more that it costs, where's the rationale ...

Follow the money, who's going to benefit short term? And who is going to pay the final bill !!!

Cheers,
Bart

[Otto Phocus]

Core principles of the plan, unveiled on Wednesday, rely heavily on so-called "dynamic scoring," a budget analysis method that assumes tax cuts will boost economic activity, thus generating more revenues.

The problem with "trickle-down" economics is that after a while the middle class resents being trickled on.   

[Otto Phocus]

Follow the money, who's going to benefit short term? And who is going to pay the final bill !!!

Cheers,
Bart

(raises hand)

Q1 Big Corporations
Q2 The Citizens

[Alan Klein]

If you haven't figured Trump out yet, you should know by now that he started asking for everything during the campaign.  Now he is negotiating down from those positions for what he hopes will be the best deal for America. 

Suddenly his demands like more money for border guards and electronic surveillance seems so reasonable over building a wall, the Democrats are ready to make a deal on extending the debt.  He's not going to pull out of NATO, the Europeans might actually pay more of their fair share.   He's not going to bomb N, Korea, the Chinese might happily help control them rather than risk war on their doorstep.  The same will happen with trade, NAFTA, etc.  He just told Canada and Mexico, he's holding off pulling out of NAFTA and will try to improve the existing arrangement.  Regarding taxes, his one-page plan will get whittled down to something everyone can agree on.

That's not changing positions or flip-flopping.  That's the art of the deal.

[LesPalenik]

That's the art of the deal.

What's the art of throttling the science?

[kers]

Trump science
The earth is flat ;
The borders are the USA and has a huge fence;
and it is circling around him;

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... the Clean Power Plan would cost money—up to $8 billion in its most expensive year. But overall, it would save billions of dollars, in part by avoiding the consequences of climate change and in part through co-benefits like lowered health care costs from reduced pollution."[/i]

Then again, you said earlier, about the other side's similar logic:

Such assumptions... were derided at the time by critics as "voodoo economics."

 

[Schewe]

The poor guy...he thought being President would be easier...

Exclusive: Trump says he thought being president would be easier than his old life


U.S. President Donald Trump looks out a window of the Oval Office following an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2017.

By Stephen J. Adler, Jeff Mason and Steve Holland | WASHINGTON
He misses driving, feels as if he is in a cocoon, and is surprised how hard his new job is.

President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days in office with a wistful look at his life before the White House.

"I loved my previous life. I had so many things going," Trump told Reuters in an interview. "This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."

A wealthy businessman from New York, Trump assumed public office for the first time when he entered the White House on Jan. 20 after he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an upset.

More than five months after his victory and two days shy of the 100-day mark of his presidency, the election is still on Trump's mind. Midway through a discussion about Chinese President Xi Jinping, the president paused to hand out copies of what he said were the latest figures from the 2016 electoral map.

"Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers," the Republican president said from his desk in the Oval Office, handing out maps of the United States with areas he won marked in red. "It’s pretty good, right? The red is obviously us."

He had copies for each of the three Reuters reporters in the room.

Wait...he's STILL talking about the friggin' election?

Is he gonna last 4 years (let alone 8 years)?

It sure doesn't sound like he's having any fun :~(

[Farmer]

The election, and possibly his Coke button, are the only wins he's had in the last 100 days.  He only likes winning.

[Otto Phocus]

I think Trump is learning about how unfun being PotUS really is.  I don't know why anyone would want that job these days, to be honest.

I don't think he will run in 2020.  I think he wants to leave but leave on his own terms.

Who knows, he may be the second president to resign, citing the unfair press, unfair congress, unfair judiciary, unfair citizens, unfair ....

[Alan Goldhammer]

Who knows, he may be the second president to resign, citing the unfair press, unfair congress, unfair judiciary, unfair citizens, unfair ....

...add to this the treatment of his family.  I suspect the treatment of Ivanka and Jared must be eating away at him as well.