A few more thoughts on the election
I’m not the least bit surprised by the Menendez win in New Jersey. It’s a very blue state, and although Menendez is a pretty bad candidate he’s still a Democrat, and that counts for a lot.
And of course, although I think Elizabeth Warren has covered herself with shame recently, there was no way that Massachusetts was going to reject her. It was never even going to be close.
Right now I’m watching Arizona with interest. It’s still unclear who will win, although it amazes me that anyone would vote for Sinema. But many things amaze me that are facts.
Scott Walker is hanging on in Wisconsin by a thread. He’s behind (NOTE: and just like that, I checked a few minutes later and he’s ahead), but only by a couple hundred votes. My guess is that there will be a recount. You know what usually happens with recounts.
It’s been a funny night. Although some polls weren’t correct, the general thrust of the polls was. The originally predicted blue tsunami had slowed to a blue wavelet, but (as predicted) it will be enough to take the majority in the House. With the Democrats’ usual devotion to solidarity, they will probably stick together and act as a majority, but I’m not sure what it will get them except the opportunity to impeach anyone they want without a chance of convicting and removing them, and the ability to stop all the House investigations cold and start their own investigations of the opposition. The Senate, on the other hand, will continue on its merry way, confirming Trump’s judges and continuing its own investigations.
I think that tonight the Democrats are happy but not all that happy. And the Republicans are sad but not all that sad. The next two years will tell quite a tale.
ADDENDUM: I just noticed that Rick Scott beat Nelson in the Florida Senate race. Again, a rather narrow victory, but I’ll take it. On the other hand, felons will be able to vote in Florida next time, so there’s that.
And all of a sudden I see that almost all the Wisconsin votes for governor are in, and Walker is still about a thousand votes ahead. That will almost certainly trigger the dread recount.
And Marsha Blackburn beats Bredesen in Tenessee for the Senate. And she did it handily, besting him by about 10 points.
How can MA send warren to the Senate and vote in a REPUBLICAN governor??????? Make zero sense, but then liberals never do
MA has been doing that for a long time, particularly the past 25 years or so. A good argument can be made that MA Republican governors are the most centrist and moderate of republicans.
What are the odds the Democrats do not pursue impeachment? Could it be they used that threat to get out the vote? I do expect that they will pursue all sorts of investigations of Trump, mostly as a means to keep him from doing more things they don’t like.
Re: House Investigations.
Republicans control the Senate and the FBI. If they haven’t already picked up the House Investigations, then odds are there’s nothing there.
Stacey Abrams, she of the GA governor race, “wants every vote counted.” Probably some of them twice since she’s behind.
Boy was I wrong. I’m usually wrong, and expected to be wrong about Warren, but I’m surprised about James and surprised about the House. Sigh.
It will be interesting to see if the Dems in the House overplay their hand, as the Dems in the Senate did.
Along with Neo, I used to worry that Trump might compromise with the Dems too much. I worry less about that now. Trump’s governing performance has been conservative way beyond what I hoped for, and I think he has learned that Democrats are not trustworthy, in Congress or in the “news” media. That’s something he didn’t know before he came down the escalator in 2015.
“I think he has learned that Democrats are not trustworthy”
Yeah, the impression I get of Trump is that he doesn’t forget an injury. It’s not a trait I admire on a personal level but it has its political uses.
The remarkable thing about politician Trump is his complete focus on accomplishing what he said he wanted to do while campaigning for POTUS. At a high level this is MAGA. At the policy level he seeks to fix a broken international trade system, extract the US from messy international engagements and wars, secure our borders from illegal immigrants, reshape the Courts with conservative judges, improve the nation’s economy for business and workers, and reduce the role and scope of government.
Through obstruction the Democrats risk alienating a lot of Americans that benefit from Trump’s policies and actions. Will be interesting to watch it play out.
I thought Trump could’ve done better because he inherited a strong economy.
Most new Presidents inherit a weak one. The first year is deceptive since they’re under the previous admins budget and their polices haven’t even taken effect yet.
That begins to change in the 2nd year, but GDP and employment are laggards, so most of the effect occurs after the midterms.
That what happened to Ronald Reagan. Unemployment continued to creep up into the high 9’s in his fist years, even after the midterms.. a trend he by in large inherited from Carter.
But unemployed Americans don’t see it that way. And he ends up losing like 26 House seats.
Trump inherited almost precisely the opposite situation. And he’s going to get wacked even more.
He no major permanent legislative accomplishments under his belt… while his party controlled all 3 branches. No even a wall, let alone Mexico paying for it. No repeal of Obamacare, etc. He squandered so much and now its over.
Do you have any unmarried sisters? If you do, I want to romance her.
She has to like dogs.
Manju, repeating Obama’s line that this economic recovery is his doesn’t make it true.
Here in Connecticut the definition of insanity continues. The state is one of the few not participating in the booming economy thanks to Democratic rule, but the voters returned control of the legislature to the Dems. The governorship, however, is still close, but Lamont (D) has a slight edge. So, more of the same for this floundering state. It’s amazing how everyone complains about the state of the state, yet CT voters just keep doing the same thing. Well, except for my little rural town. I just checked the local results, and the town went R on every race; but we are just 6,500 out of 3.6m.
Wondering if the Dems will really try to impeach Trump and Kavanaugh.
I’m not happy and now concerned about 2020.
I predict that Trump will use military money to finish the wall.
“How can MA send warren to the Senate and vote in a REPUBLICAN governor???????”
I spent weekends chowing down on quahogs and drinking cider and hunting grouse. And wondering WTH happened. It was the birth place of the revolution.
Naval War College.
Not Massachusetts, but similar.
Democrat former Senators Nelson, Donnelly, McCaskill, Heitcamp all voted against Kavanaugh. All of them lost. Like the Presidency, those are state-wide elections. Augurs well for 2020.
Also on the bright side, Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings and Adam Schiff will now chair their respective committees, which will give the voters a chance to see just how incompetent they are.
Kate, I’m confused. Is it impossible for economic miracles to happen? Or, if they happen while Trump is President, does Obama deserve all the credit? I’ve heard both.
Connecticut … is one of the few not participating in the booming economy thanks to Democratic rule, but the voters returned control of the legislature to the Dems –physicsguy
The simple answer would be, more takers than makers; but I suspect that is not quite the case in Connecticut. Maybe the more complete answer is, more people who live off Democratic government, whether as direct subsidiaries or professional rent-collectors like lawyers and social workers, than people who live and work in the private sector. If I remember the state’s finances, some degree of reorganization (none dare call it bankruptcy) is inevitable one day soon.
He no major permanent legislative accomplishments under his belt… while his party controlled all 3 branches. No even a wall, let alone Mexico paying for it. No repeal of Obamacare, etc. He squandered so much and now its over. –Manju
I agree that the Republican Congress failed to deliver in some ways. Paul Ryan was a remarkably ineffective Speaker.
But to say Trump has no accomplishments is silly. He did more in his first year alone than any President in memory. Overall, here is what the list includes, speaking of major steps only. Corporate and individual tax reform. Terminating the woeful Iran nuclear deal. Withdrawing from the (antiscience, pro-poverty) Paris Climate Accords.
The first steps toward budget sanity — temporary elimination of COLAs for government employees; orders to cut department budgets by 5%. (One day that will have to be at least 10% more, as we are still giving ourselves a 20-25% deficit.)
The Korean armistice. The Chinese renegotiation. The embassy move in Israel to Jerusalem, promised since Clinton at least, finally achieved. Federal regulatory reforms and ongoing limitations (two retired for every new one promulgated, I believe).
This man is an executive. There are more to come, Pelosi or not.
Neo, your astute observing skills and opinion are desired for the preference of suburban women for Democrats. My wife doesn’t understand why our neighbors support the democrats here in CT, especially the women. I’m guessing its a group acceptance thing or social signaling. And the Dems seem to have successfully tied the election for dog-catcher to Trump (or somehow a repudiation of Trump).
I am actually rather pleased. Now let’s see what the lame duck congress can get done. I’m hoping for another tax cut. Trump and the Republican congress gave me a good raise and I’d like another.
We can’t expect bold legislation any more (other than what the lame ducks can give us). we have to be satisfied with what has already been accomplished. It’s been a great two years for America, folks. GREAT! Be happy that the Senate was preserved. Trump has another two years to add conservative judges to the judiciary, which will bear fruit for years to come. Fingers crossed that he gets another SCOTUS appointment. That would be icing on the cake.
President Trump has given us at least 20 more years of American exceptionalism before the millennials give us full-bore Socialism (but I’ll likely be dead by then). That he could do this after Obama is amazing.
steve57, I’ve certainly seen lots of Dems claiming the current economic miracle in the US is just the continuation of the Obama economy, which makes no sense. If the newly Democrat House had its way, it would reverse the tax cuts and send us back into high unemployment. Fortunately, the House won’t have its way for the most part.
dirtyjobsguy: I said to my wife last night that Lamont’s strategy (he just became governor as Stefanoski just conceded) was perfect for CT. All I kept hearing from people at work is how much they despise Trump. So talking about Trump rather than CT’s depressed economy was perfect. Like I said my rural town went all R. I suspect the CT election map will probably reflect 2016, where the election was totally determined by urban Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, New London, and Fairfield county, and the rest of the state is solid red.
So the House will act as a check on the President and nothing, except a bunch of witch-hunts, will get done.
A more Conservative Judiciary and an effective, restrained pro-American Foreign Policy will continue.
If President Trump can use a gridlocked legislative branch to limit expenditures, what’s not to like?
Liberals love to claim they are in favor of ‘Civil Disobedience’. Thoreau started that treatise with the line:
“That government which governs best governs least”.
Has anyone on the left pondered what his views on their ‘social engineering’ would be?
Tuvea: Thoreau is just one more dead white guy, to these dumbasses.
From the day Obama was inaugurated the stock market (S&P500) declined over 20%, the rough definition of a bear (the worst) market. It was a bear market within a bear market. Almost all of that decline came immediately after his first 5 or 6 policy initiatives. Obama supporter Warren Buffett repudiated all but one of those policies as bad for the economy.
But our president with a top-secret grade point average, measured his performance from the day the market bottomed in mid March 2009. Convenient.
Over the next 8 years, the general economic situation was structurally negative, with the jack-boot of big gov. regulation and higher taxes on the throat of business, AND a highly stimulative monetary policy produced by “helicopter” Ben Bernanke. (The helicopter drops cash from the sky across the nation, figuratively.)
The result was an average economic growth under Obama of 1.5%, whereas a historical average, after a major decline, would have been something like 5 or 7%. Since a modern growth spurt is never going to be that good, something like 4 or 5% would have been completely reasonable.
Summary: Yes, Obama’s economy wasn’t too bad, but credit helicopter Ben and easy money Janet Yellen. Structurally, nothing good was happening.
______
People just don’t understand how massively important it was that the corp. tax rate was brought down from about 38% to 21%. Most of the Dem politicians understood, but were just too wedded to their propaganda. They’d sacrifice anything and everything to win the next election.
Our corp. tax rate was the worst (by a lot) in the developed world and in Obama’s last term, U.S. corp. inversions were accelerating. Large drug companies (other types would have done so too eventually) bought small companies in places like Ireland with low taxes, and then moved their home to that country. This was the life-blood (jobs and tax base) of the our nation flowing out.
How can MA send warren to the Senate and vote in a REPUBLICAN governor??????? Make zero sense, but then liberals never do
That used to be the rule in California when it was still relatively sane. Jerry Brown (Jerry Brown !) is the only conservative in CA government and he was worried about Newsom, who will give the legislature all the room it wants to go crazy, Even the gas tax repeal lost. Fortunately, Nunes was re-elected.
Here in AZ, McSally will probably win but I am also mystified at who would vote for the crazy Sinema. A Tom Steyer “renewable energy” mandate got beaten easily, another sign of why I moved from CA to AZ.
Oh, MikeK, thanks for telling me Nunes was re-elected! Good news!
I grew up in Arizona and can’t understand how people would vote for someone like Sinema for the Senate. The “renewable energy” loss is good news, too, and the governor was re-elected, so Arizona isn’t totally crazy yet.
I’m almost as positive as Lurch. I expected the election to be something like this result. I saw Dean Heller went down in NV. I didn’t like him, but it doesn’t auger well for NV either.
Martha McSally’s race with Sinema is galling, but predicable in a way. I hope she says in the win column. It’s galling because people say, Oh McSally is a veteran; without appreciating her awesome achievement in the Air Force. She was an A-10 Warthog pilot, AND flew in combat, AND attacked enemies, AND commanded a squadron of A-10’s. The A-10 the baddest thing in the sky, short of a B-1 or B-2 with nukes, IMHO, and flies the scariest of missions. Check out the history and mission of the A-10 if you don’t know it.
McSally’s military record is much greater than John McCain’s. But people will differ.
The close race was predictable because McSally just doesn’t present well, and Sinema did. Sigh. “Democracy is the worst political system, except for all the others.” McSally really should hire a media trainer and work on her speaking style.
Manju is right — that Obama is an economic genius! Look how he timed that economic recovery to take off right at the moment when Trump started rolling back regulations, and the tax cuts were passed!
Seriously though, I am at a loss to figure out how people like Sinema and O’Rourke get to within striking distance in states like Arizona and Texas? They make George McGovern look like a conservative. How does Hirona win handily when she showed herself on national television to be a complete fool?
The source must be attributed to control of the education system by the left, and that terrifies me.
I grew up in Arizona and can’t understand how people would vote for someone like Sinema for the Senate.
Twitchy is reporting that the Green Party will cost Sinema the election, which is amusing. She is behind by 15,000 and the Green candidate got 40,000 votes. She was originally a Green Party type but switched to Democrat to get elected. The Geenies are mad at her. It’s Ralph Nader in 2000 all over again. The left never forgave Nader for that
I am at a loss to figure out how people like Sinema and O’Rourke get to within striking distance in states like Arizona and Texas?
College educated voters. Especially college educated women. Thank God not all are brain washed. My youngest daughter went to U of Arizona and was taught lies, like “The Silent Majority” was made up of white people who refused to accept the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That was on the study guide for the final exam in “American History Since 1877.”
Another thought on the blue voting suburbs that worry so many. The people with large stock portfolios have had the least to complain about under Obama and the ZIRP that has devastated so many seniors whose pensions are invested in bonds. I have noticed this in Arizona and think it may have hit the Tucson area hard in real estate. Before I moved here full time, I had a second home here and used to play golf a lot with seniors whose summer home was in the northern Midwest. They spent the winters here and many had condos. The 2008 recession and the ZIRP that followed hit them hard. The old rule was that you needed to keep your retirement in stocks until you retired, then bonds were safer and less volatile. The Obama economy destroyed that. The only place to put money the past decade has been stocks, which has driven the stock market high in spite of a weak economy. It also rewarded the globalist economy at the expense of Main Street and small business. The winners in the Obama economy have stayed with Democrats. They live in those blue suburbs.
has driven the stock market high
https://www.hussmanfunds.com/wp-content/uploads/comment/mc181002e.png
Worth a little study, IMO. From the Hussman Funds organization.
I looked at that chart and I think it makes my point. The “recovery” from 2008 was paid for with TARP plus the ZIRP.. Trump’s election has added to the market as it reacted to the prospect of regulation reduction and oil and energy independence. Why did it go up from 2008 to 2017 with a weak economy ?
IMHO MikeK’s analysis is 100% correct. It certainly helps explain the behavior of so many people who should know better.
“MikeK on November 7, 2018 at 12:43 pm at 12:43 pm said: …”
Good points. I think that many of us realized, but were slow to emotionally accept that fact that not only were the interests of parts of the financial sector inimical to the health of the producing middle class, but also that some of those vested in certain instruments basically were willing to sacrifice the next generation’s opportunities to move ahead, for the same reason.
I have not done an historical study, but it has become undeniable that a sound and growing middle class economy based on the production of material wealth – say via manufacturing – is simply of little to no interest to broad swaths of the American public who have, they believe, become insulated from the entire process.
It’s remarkable too that in reading between the lines of the commentariat’s pronouncements, “college educated” as an interest group, seems to exclude automotive and aerospace and defense industry engineers and management; as well as any kindred types.
Why did it go up from 2008 to 2017 with a weak economy ?
Three reasons, IMO.
1. The Federal Reserve. The Fed unleashed enormous amounts of money — TARP and ZIRP, as you say. The first saved bankers and the second rewarded them. That money had to go somewhere.
2. The Federal Reserve. ZIRP suppressed interest rates and, as we know, played a big role in driving many global rates negative for the first time in recorded history — that’s 5,000 years of some kinds of financial data, the historians say. Thus alternative investment returns were reduced to zilch.
3. Corporate earnings surged back up with their costs of capital near-zero and other costs as low as they’ve been in decades. Wage gains correlate with interest rates; so wage gains stayed painfully low throughout the Obama/Bernanke era. And, coincidentally or no, commodities fell drastically in price throughout. So, even without economic growth, American corporations had the ingredients to grow earnings as their chief costs fell and didn’t get up.
The Federal Reserve did at least 50% of the job and they only began reducing their Quantitative Easing money this year — as though we had been in a financial emergency from 2009 right up through 2017! Corporate managements successfully delivered earnings and then borrowed a lot of that excess financial liquidity to buy back their own stock — call that another 25%. Investor psychology finally got going and did the rest.
That chart shows that the valuations being put on earnings by the current stock market are higher than 2000 and higher than 1929, per John Hussman’s work. It also shows that the regressions to the mean (and eventually below the mean) were severe, in those cases and also after the lower peak of the Go-Go Sixties.
tis is really too funny..
why?
because Trump is a reductionist..
ie. you dont need MORE money to reduce
ie. if they want to play, he and he senate can take lots of stuff away!!!
you only care about the house if your expansionist… heh
here is a sampling of the topics Cummings and his Democratic colleagues have set their sights on:
White House security clearances (involving Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, national security adviser John Bolton, and others)
The controversial addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census
The Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban
The State Department’s decision to close its cyber office
The Environmental Protection Agency’s use of a political loyalty list
The possible participation of Cambridge Analytica’s foreign employees in US elections
The deadly ambush in Niger that left four American soldiers dead
The use of private email by White House officials
Trump’s response to the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico
The dealings of the Trump Foundation
Potential conflicts of interest between Kushner’s business actions and his policy advice
Payments the Trump Organization received from foreign sources
Russian intervention with state voting systems
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with foreign officials
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MANY of these come wiht double binds..
but the funniest thing will be what they actually find
[i have worked with people like this, except for a few who are very well connected politically, they are honest in terms of following laws and rules, which is why they give so much money… you dont pay for rules you arent going to follow… ]
the best part is…
regardless of how the wind blows, it favors trump for re-election!
they are in a lose lose position now…
the current administration now has someone to blame
and to take toys away if they quiet down
For Manju Suki tovarish…
Nearly 3 million jobs have been created since President Trump took office.
304,000 manufacturing jobs have been created since President Trump took office, and manufacturing employment stands at its highest level since December 2008.
337,000 construction jobs have been created since President Trump took office, and construction employment stands at its highest level since June 2008.
the unemployment rate has dropped to 3.8, the lowest rate since April 2000, and job openings have reached 6.6 million, the highest level recorded
American families received $3.2 trillion in gross tax cuts and saw the child tax credit double.
The top corporate tax rate was lowered from 35 percent to 21 percent so American businesses could be more competitive.
In 2017, President Trump far exceeded his promise to eliminate regulations at a two-to-one ratio, issuing 22 deregulatory actions for every new regulatory action. [which is why the house doesnt matter as much. removing things dont need them… ie. doesnt cost to remove cost]
The President improved the KORUS trade agreement with the Republic of Korea, which will allow more U.S. automobile exports to South Korea with lower tariffs and increase U.S. pharmaceutical access to South Korea.
Under President Trump, the United States has led an unprecedented global campaign to achieve the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
n May 2018 alone, Venezuela released one American and North Korea released three Americans who came home to the United States.
President Trump signed legislation to provide $700 billion in defense spending for fiscal year (FY) 2018 and $716 billion for FY 2019.
From the start of President Trump’s Administration to the end of FY 2017, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) made 110,568 arrests of illegal aliens. Of the 110,568 arrests made, 92 percent had a criminal conviction, pending criminal charge, were an ICE fugitive, or had a reinstated final order of removal.
In 2017, the Department of Justice worked with partners in Central America to file criminal charges against more than 4,000 members of MS-13.
As of April 2018, U.S. Border Patrol has seized 284 pounds of fentanyl in FY 2018, already surpassing the total of 181 pounds seized in FY 2017.
President Trump has confirmed the most circuit court judges of any President in their first year, and secured Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the United States Supreme Court.
President Trump successfully eliminated the penalty for Obamacare’s burdensome individual mandate.
here are a few more, hope there arent repeats:
100 percent vote by UN Security Council to sanction North Korea.
41 percent decline in illegal southern border crossings
97,482 illegal immigrant arrests, 70 percent convicted of additional crimes, 52,169 expelled
Adopted a resolute policy on Afghanistan
Advocated for practical tertiary education
Advocated for skills-based immigration policies
American companies now expanding rather than shipping jobs overseas
Announced sanctions targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
Appointed a Transportation Secretary who is modernizing air traffic control
Appointed an Education Secretary who is correcting abuses of Title IX
Appointed an EPA administrator who has rescinded over 30 regulations
Appointed an FDA director who is facilitating generic drug competition
Appointed an Interior Secretary to improve forest management and expand users of public lands
Approved the Keystone pipeline
Called for international support of Iranian protesters
Canceled school lunch program that failed to force children to eat unpopular foods
Constructed test models of the border fence
Convinced Japan and South Korea to increase defense spending
Convinced NATO members to honor minimum financial commitments
Decertified Iranian nuclear treaty and sent it to Senate as constitutionally required
Designated North Korea as a state-sponsor of terrorism
Eliminated prohibition on interstate health insurance sales
Ended abuses of the student loan forgiveness program
Ended forced provision of contraception by Catholic nunneries
Ended requirement for state funding of Planned Parenthood
Ended research into Y2K preparedness
Ended rule requiring employers to report pay data by gender and race
Expanded school-choice efforts
FCC has begun to dismantle unnecessary Internet “Neutrality” regulations
Foreign firms building plants and creating jobs in the U.S.
Improved rules of engagement for military in combat situations
Initiated resistance “sue and settle” tactics against EPA
Initiated sanctions on Venezuelan dictatorship
Introduced regulatory budgeting requiring agencies to rescind two rules to issue a new one
ISIS bombing ramped up from about 20 to 500 or more airstrikes per week
ISIS ground campaign intensified; Raqqa captured, its fighters surrendering in large numbers
Issued a National Security Strategy
Kate’s Law passed House now pending in Senate
Leveraged U.S. contribution to UN budget to force 5 percent budget cut and reduce staffs
NLRB reversed rule making indirect employee control sufficient to be “joint employees”
Nominated 60 judges, 21 confirmed, none yet denied
Nominated a new Fed chief
Nominated one Supreme Court judge, who was confirmed
Obtained release of Aya Hijazi after three years in Egyptian prison
Obtained release of Caitlan Coleman and husband from Haqqani
Obtained release of UCLA basketball players from China
Raised awareness of Opioid addiction crisis
Recognized Jerusalem as Israeli capital and announced plan to move U.S. embassy there
Reduced excess size of two national parks in Utah
Reduced permanent staff in all Cabinet agencies except VA, HS and Interior
Reduced White House staff by 110
Repeal of ACA mandate included in tax change bill
Requested increased funding for missile defense in face of North Korean and Iranian threats.
Rescinded (temporarily) the Jones Act, facilitating speedier emergency shipments to Puerto Rico
Rescinded 2015 Waters of the United States rule
Rescinded ban drilling in the Arctic and coastal areas
Rescinded coal mining ban on public lands
Rescinded criminalization of accidental killing of migratory birds
Rescinded Cuban cash give-away
Rescinded the “Clean Power Plan”
Rescinded the “War on Coal”
Rescinded threat to pull funds from schools that prohibit transgenders picking their bathrooms
Rescinded Title IX “guidance letter” on sexual harassment
Restored policy barring federal funding of abortions overseas
Restoring military capability in the face of personnel shortages and equipment failures
Revamped U.S. space program, assigning ambitious new objectives
Revised rules for screening potential terrorist tourists
Sanctioned Venezuela for human rights violations
Sanctuary cities legislation passed House pending in Senate
Signed 74 legislative bills (13 reversing executive orders) and 23 joint resolutions into law
Signed comprehensive tax change bill containing most of the changes he proposed
Signed legislation opening Arctic Natural Wildlife Reserve [ANWR] to oil drilling
Signed legislation to expedite firing of incompetent VA officials
Supreme Court largely upheld ban on selected travelers
Taking steps to control the rogue Consumer Finance Protection Agency
Targeted MS13 gang members for priority deportation
The president’s lawyers announced a framework for restoring the separation of powers:
Congress should cease delegating its legislative power to the executive branch
Courts should stop rubber-stamping regulations and orders that lack force of law
Executive will end informal “guidance documents” that undermine due process
U.S. energy production is on the upswing
U.S. sorties and assisted forces reduced ISIS to 2 percent of the area controlled in 2016
Unemployment is at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low
Withdrew from Paris Climate Accord
Withdrew from UNESCO (a warning to other wasteful, overstaffed UN agencies
I think that the history of what happened with TARP may someday be revealed/understood. The Deep State is funded by people who got a lot of money from TARP. That law was first proposed to buy non-performing assets of banks in trouble. Nicole Gelinas wrote a pretty good book about 2008. I wrote a review that disagreed a bit about some of her points, but she had a pretty good explanation of what happened.
Why was TARP converted from the purchase to a slush fund for wealthy individuals? Interesting issues still not understood.
“If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level.”
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“Two can play that game!”
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“It’s not like we’re going to go drunk-crazy with subpoenas. But it may seem that way because we are coming off a two-year drought of no subpoenas,” said Representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Oversight subcommittee on government operations.
[hey guys… you want to find out what happens when you abuse this part of our state? keep watching.. because you cant just subpeona people for no real reasons or to slake curiosity… which is mostly what they are listing… but the kick, what if they find nothing.. what if they waste all this time, and there is no there there? do you really think someone with dirt would think they could be president and not have it aired? expecially when an ousider with no protections… c’mon people, trump may be a lot of thigns, but he is not suicidal, quite the oppsite.. but the dems are communists, and communists dont know how things work, thye assume things, including criminality!!! and that is not good when you cant frame people!!!]
subpoena ad testificandum?
subpoena duces tecum!!
hey guys…
WHO WRITES THE LAWS ABOUT SUBPEONA?
Democratic lawmakers are harshly criticizing House Republicans for altering committee rules governing how chairmen can subpoena witnesses and documents.
rule change would eliminate long-standing requirements that the chairmen either consult or get consent from the minority party before issuing subpoenas for testimony and documents or hold a majority vote
next post, where the fun will come from!!!!!!!!!!
[i am good at strategy, neo has watched me retain my job
despite being under fire for years and more… most people suck at it…
they are quite easy to predict and have lots of wrong ideas of what makes it work]
ASurvey of House and Senate Committee Rules on Subpoena
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44247.pdf
ok, here comes the fun, as Trump being a man who does real estate internationally, he is very big on RULES and understanding them and what you can do with them. even if no one else has….
the dems are used to people who tend not to have another choice at making a living, as politicans tend to be abysmal in investing unless they are using their inside info or political cache… ie. few of them can afford to fight in a real way!!! [even less so with a fickle public that wont back them if they do!]
House Rule XI, clause 2(m)(1) and (3) authorizes House committees and subcommittees to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents
this is what they are focused on..
they have lost situational awareness and are over focused
which is not going to be the plus it seems to them…
Senate Rule XXVI, paragraph 1 authorizes Senate committees and subcommittees to subpoena witnesses and documents.
Given the way this works, who has the REAL ADVANTAGE?
think hard..
Trumps hand is assumed and hidden… there is no requirement he shares his tax returns, there is no evidence he did anything illegal with it, he gets audited almost every year… so whatever happens most of the issue is going to fall on democrat administrations IRS failing…
but here comes the kicker!
you want his tax returns?
lets get all the paper on the russia nuclear deal that destroyed the nuclear finger print system
Nuclearfingerprinting of radioactive material in a radiological and nuclear safeguard perspective
http://www.nks.org/download/RADIOANALYSIS2013/rw13_mats_eriksson.pdf
[the sale of this stuff and other things insured that russia could make a nuclear bomb with a finger print from the USA… when before, they could not… ie. they could not set one off and then argue its US not russia, look at the isotopic ratios… etc]
https://www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-forensics
Radioactive substances leave electron ‘fingerprints’ behind
New forensics technique could help solve nuclear whodunits
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/radioactive-substances-leave-electron-fingerprints-behind
the left, as per nechyeve and history, does NOT accept good guys in their ranks
they much prefer dirty people who have something to hide, then control them by holding back the knowing
[which is why there are more scandals with dems, and their rino counter parts… ALSO, this is why wealthy areas want dems, tey can be bought, and so, wealth has more influence in these areas to preserve the cows with money being milked at the expense of others who are hurt so they squeel to provide excuses and impetus to act (on other things – gotta keep em squeeling)]
want to guess who has more skeletons?
IF YOU WANT TO CLEAN THINGS UP, THEN THE PRESIDENT ATTITUDE WILL BE BRING IT ON!!!!
Nothing cleans house more than a subpeona war that exposes the swamp in details!!!
anyone want to take a side and play tit for tat?
here are some interesting starting points for the president:
this one could be a lot of fun with lots of dems involved and inconvenient facts a flowing…
here is another one chock full of fun for them
[where i work they take the tax money they get extra for employing me, dont give raises, pocket it, and run through millions in some welfare for startups and other stuff… amazing.. but medical is now like chicago all over… ]
and the most fun part?
with Trump as president, ANYTHING that has not expired on statutes of limitations becomes actionable…
they would have hard time going after trump in college… but he could go after some of the old timers in office since… the 1960s…
i have a hot air popper.
we make our own butter!!! (shake shake shake)
anyone want to sit and watch the fun?
Stacey Abrams, she of the GA governor race, “wants every vote counted.” Probably some of them twice since she’s behind.
Her gambit at this point is to insist that provisional ballots be counted in an effort to reduce her opponent’s share of the total vote. He won 50.3% of the official tabulation. If she can force him down to 50% – 1, she compels a run-off election in December. If you’re a cynic, you’d suggest she’s stalling until shady NGOs in Atlanta and other places can put together sacks of absentee ballots cast in the name of people who’ve moved out of state. These ballots then appear either in this count or during the runoff. Given that her opponent is leading by 68,000 votes, I don’t think they can pull together a sufficient number of bogus votes to defeat him in this poll. She’d need to locate a minimum of 28,000 provisional ballots to force a run off. My last experience with retail politics at this level was in hand tabulating absentee ballots in a county which had 150,000 residents. I think the number of affidavit ballots we had to examine was in single digits. I cannot imagine she could locate 28,000 such ballots.
See here:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics/georgia-governors-race-stacey-abrams/index.html
Another part of this gambit is to claim she lost because of ‘voter suppression’, perhaps as a prelude to getting a Democratic operative on the federal bench to issue an order (whether he has any legal authority so to do or not) to annul the election.
Graceful loser she ain’t.
I think that the history of what happened with TARP may someday be revealed/understood. The Deep State is funded by people who got a lot of money from TARP.
Again, the banks got bridge loans, which they paid back. The transactions on which the Federal Reserve and the Treasury lost money were the AIG rescue, the rescue of the auto industry components, and the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (In ascending order of the sums involved). There isn’t any Deep State there. The UAW is a client of the Democratic Party and has been for 80+ years. As for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they’re collecting pools of Democratic Party insiders and do not hide that. We’re not talking about people four layers deep in the CIA. We’re talking about senior Clinton Administration officials and prominent lobbyists: James Johnson, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, Herb Moses.
I like MikeK, but I agree with Art Deco.
TARP was a originally a bad asset purchase program, that Bill Seidman, former head of the resolution trust corp. (RTC), immediately said was impossible to accomplish fairly. So TARP was converted to a mandatory confidence building preferred stock loan program. JP Morgan didn’t need it at all. Citi desperately needed it, because of all the damage Jack Lew did to the company. Remember who he is? Bank of American needed it moderately.
With the exception of Barney Frank’s pet local bank and few others, all that cash was paid back with a ton of interest. Yet the BLS tots up the TARP loan as an expenditure on G.W. Bush’s federal balance sheet. It all came back on Obama’s balance sheet, and STILL he had a biggest debt accumulation in history.
Kate on November 7, 2018 at 7:24 am at 7:24 am said:
It will be interesting to see if the Dems in the House overplay their hand, as the Dems in the Senate did.
Along with Neo, I used to worry that Trump might compromise with the Dems too much. I worry less about that now. Trump’s governing performance has been conservative way beyond what I hoped for, and I think he has learned that Democrats are not trustworthy, in Congress or in the “news” media. That’s something he didn’t know before he came down the escalator in 2015.
* * *
“May you live in interesting times” — isn’t that supposed to be a curse?
They can’t help overplaying their hand because it’s a losing one; however, as long as they have the media to cover for them, they will do okay.
The Senators lost on Kavanaugh because they got big media coverage of what they thought was going to be a barn-stormer case, and it was a barn-burner instead.
As to Trump’s political orientation now, I doubt he will give the Democrats the time of day unless there’s an upside for something he promised to do.
How did we ever get a president who actually believes in accomplishing what he campaigned on, instead of just putting out lies to soak the rubes (as Project Veritas so ably demonstrated recently)?
Note to Artfuldgr – thanks for the information dumps; it’s sometimes rather frightening (and on the obverse, encouraging) to get all the lists of Obama’s and Trump’s doings.