"Compared to other recent presidents, news reports about President Trump have been more focused on his personality than his policy, and are more likely to carry negative assessments of his actions, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center's Journalism Project."
"For the first nine months of his administration, observers have had occasion to wonder — and wonder, and wonder, and wonder — how exactly Donald Trump would manage to handle a real crisis imposed by external events rather than his own impulsiveness. The answer is now apparent in the blackened streets of San Juan and the villages of interior Puerto Rico that more than a week after Hurricane Maria struck remain without access to food or clean water."
"To an extent, the United States of America held up surprisingly well from Inauguration Day until September 20th or so. The ongoing degradation of American civic institutions, at a minimum, did not have an immediate negative impact on the typical person’s life."
"But the world is beginning to draw a straight line from the devastation in Puerto Rico straight to the White House. Trump’s instinct so far is to turn the island’s devastation into another front in culture war politics, a strategy that could help his own political career survive."
Almost a year ago, I remember watching the Presidential debate, and while I disagreed with a lot with what President Donald Trump, I knew from my training that he was winning audiences over with his discussion of jobs, an issue that people care intensively about. While most Americans are employed, nearly every American wants a better job that pays better and requires less physical and mental effort. Few of us are totally happy with current jobs, and wish we could move farther up the later. Donald Trump, as the Republican candidate, and whose party was on the outside of White House, could claim to he was the outsider and could do better at creating jobs. He could also point to his experience as a businessman, rather then the ultimate political insider – the former first lady in the White House.
We all know what happened on November 6th. President Donald Trump snapped up critical swing states, and became the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. His White House has been one of big roll outs of executive orders, but they haven’t really gotten any major legislation done. Most of the executive orders are reinterpretations of existing law, and while their dictates have inevitably impacted many families, they are hardly sweeping new policy that changes the lives most Americans. Obamacare remains the law of the land, and even if the president is doing everything in his power to undermine the law, there is no evidence that he’s doing much to change the good of the law has done for many families.
At the same time, the economy has kept humming along under Donald Trump. His boldest claims of accelerating growth beyond the normal growth of a healthy economy haven’t come true, but unemployment continues to drop and jobs keep being created. The tiny, but regionally important, at least in perception, coal industry continues to see an uptick in mining jobs, but that’s more due to the increase in natural gas futures, pushing some electricity generation to a limited extent from gas to coal. It’s not clear how long that trend will last. Inflation remains low, and the stock market keeps climbing. While some areas remained depressed and troubled in our nation, generally the economy is quite healthy. That could change going forward, and indeed the President’s policies on the economy will get a firmer imprint when he appoints several new regional governors to the federal reserve board, and ultimately replaces the fed chair in February 2018.
Most other things haven’t changed for the public. Shooters and hunters are certainly happy with the lower prices on firearms, more sales, and more available ammunition. It really sucked that it was hard to get 22lr ammo while President Obama was in the office. Certainly some of that was hording of ammunition by shooters and hunters, under the theory that ammunition would be harder to get under some future gun control law. But that hasn’t yet come to happen, and that’s unlikely. But it sure is nice to be able to just go to Walmart and be able to choose between a big box of cheap target ammo and more expensive sporting ammo, and no it’s likely to be in stock any time you go. I don’t know how much the election had to do with it – part of it may be Remington’s new factory for producing 22lr among other things – but a lot had to do with people’s changing thoughts on how much ammunition they need to buy today.
I don’t like how our President acts so unprofessionally, or his numerous stupid things he say that risk getting our country in trouble. Certainly the elevation of partisanship about the Confederate Flag isn’t a good thing, and the growing anger between the left and right isn’t healthy. But assuming our streets don’t break out into partisan warfare, or that angry minds on the left and right don’t turn to violence, rioting or terror to get their way, I think we will be okay. Things may seem bad, but I look back at the historical record from 1967 with all the riots and disorder in our country, and I think we really live in a time of great harmony and peace, even if our president is doing what he can to do to pour gasoline on the discontented in our country.
"America's business leaders are speaking out against President Trump's move to end DACA."
"The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, took a notable stand. He said not only will his company lobby for a legislative solution but also that Microsoft is calling on Congress to make immigration the top priority, before tax reform. And he is calling on other business leaders to follow suit."
"Here is the most logical way to view his pardon of Sheriff Arpaio: It is the latest and gravest step he has taken in his continuing efforts to undermine the rule of law. Obviously Trump delighted in fueling the racism of Arpaio’s supporters by pardoning this convicted criminal — he made that clear earlier this week during his repellent speech in Phoenix. But I am certain that is not the main reason for this heinous act."
How fast things change when you get a little rain storm that leaves a few feet of rain on the ground over a major city in Texas ...
"August 16, 2017 - President Trump's astonishing press conference on [last] Tuesday was, ostensibly, an announcement about infrastructure. But his brief remarks on the permitting process were entirely overshadowed by his defense of attendees at a white supremacist rally, among other remarks."
"But the president was, in fact, announcing a new executive order with serious repercussions. Among other things, he is rolling back an Obama-era order that infrastructure projects, like roads and bridges, be designed to survive rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change."
While I rarely agree with the president on policy issues, a strongly agree with him on the right to freedom of speech. I think we should have a robust debate on what statues grace our public places, that people shouldn't just be silenced or shouted down because their views are re-pungent to some. State and federal prosecutors should look into those who incited the rioting at the peaceful protests, and prosecute them appropriately.