The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump's supporters will be enthused by whatever direction his wind vane points, like the adherents of TV evangelists who take their followers on an emotional roller coaster ride of induced fear of prophecied impending disaster followed by promised redemption if the adherents do everything the evangelists say.

With Trump, the prophecied diaster is real and the promise is that his gut tells him that the economy in 2021 will be even better than it was before the virus, if he is reelected.

 

So now that Kim has been seen again, I suppose trump will tell us where he was.

 

To be honest... NK has said Kim was seen at a fertilizer plant. It could be he was the fertilizer...They didn't specify.

 

So sadly true. Televangelists …………………….. There's a group of scammers if I've ever seen one. They live in mansions, have private planes, build "theme parks", visit prostitutes, (you get the picture). And their adherents keep sending them money like they're urged to do.

Trump …………………….. well he tapped into a vein of people feeling left out by the economy that fled the U.S. for China and other foreign countries - and truly caused by that very same REPUBLICAN party that they so tightly cling to.

It started with Ronnie Reagan when he stood before the nation on national TV and said, "We're going to change our economy from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy." Companies couldn't leave quickly enough. Reagan, George H.W. Bush and then George Bush kept up the attacks on unions - who were fighting to warn the public and ALL workers of how this was going to affect them. The public poo-poo-ed the unions as "whiners" but it turns out they were exactly correct, and millions of workers, - union AND non-union - lost their better-paying jobs, and were forced to take lesser-paying ones. It even hit the white collar people who thought WRONGLY that "it'll never affect me." Young Georgy Bush couldn't sign "free trade" (cheap foreign labor - repay our corporate benefactors with cheap workers) agreements fast enough right before he left office. The unions - who have ALWAYS stood up for workers' rights, safety, and dignity - were EXACTLY correct with their warnings. So with ALL their claims of patriotism, "hooray for the U.S.A." etc. ------ who engineered, negotiated with other countries, signed numerous "free trade" agreements & smoothed the exodus of U.S. companies???? The REPUBLICAN PARTY. Learn your history people!!! Check the FACTS of who did what.

And now …………………… NOW ……………… they still cling to Trump and his Republican party to bring those good-paying jobs back to the U.S. The very Republican party (starting with Ronnie Reagan) that started the whole "leave the U.S.A. for cheaper workers elsewhere" movement. A classic case of sheep voting for their own butcher!!!!! Aaaaaaa-haaaaaa-haaaaaa -haaaaaa !!!!!!!! Those jobs ARE NOT coming back. Trump WILL NOT make your future brighter and bring back good-paying jobs. FORGET IT. STOP HOPING. Why do people think the KOCH BROTHERS gave $800 million dollars to the Republican party??? To bring better-paying jobs back here???? HELL NO!!!! No one gives $800 million to be able to pay people more - they could just pay their workers more on their own if they wanted to. They gave $800 million dollars to the Republican party to write laws that eliminate workers' rights to organize and negotiate for better pay & benefits. Corporate tycoons like the Koch brothers (multi-billionaires) want even more money and power over workers. If the workers of this country really believe that their employers love them and really want the best for them, why don't they just pay them a decent wage & benefits package already??? Why run away from the U.S.A. to take their companies and jobs elsewhere??? If those companies REALLY thought that the U.S. economy and the U.S. workforce was important ............................. why did they run away??????? And even WORSE - to COMMUNIST China - an enemy state!!!!! Does that sound like a smart move to anyone????? "So-called U.S. companies" built up the COMMUNIST Chinese economy by taking their factories to China. And all of our cutting-edge technology is on their soil. Sound smart ..................... or just quick profits for the next quarterly report???? Short-sightedness to the N-th degree.

STOP hoping Trump is going to be the jobs savior he fancies himself as. Even the farmers are getting plastered since Trump got in. It's NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

 

Yep - and the Chinese will pay those tariffs ……………… just like Mexico is paying for "the wall."

 

Trump can't resist the role of flamethrower, even in sobering times
Analysis by Maeve Reston, CNN
Updated 12:57 PM ET, Sat May 2, 2020

Trump can't resist the role of flamethrower, even in sobering times - CNNPolitics

excerpt:

"It was the classic play to the base that Trump has mastered, stirring the fealty of his most loyal supporters and stoking the controversy that he thrives on -- even if it meant ignoring his own administration's recommendations on social distancing to support a demonstration where few wore masks and even fewer stayed the recommended six feet from one another. In the past, his gambles have had few political consequences -- most memorably when he described a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville as having "very fine people on both sides."

But these are very different, somber times and Trump seems to believe he doesn't need to adapt his political strategy, even as he looks toward a difficult reelection campaign against former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running as a uniter rather than a divider.

A pandemic is sweeping the globe, taking the lives of more Americans in just nine weeks than were killed during the Vietnam War. Many people are scared, desperate for steady leadership and grieving the losses of neighbors, loved ones and the medical professionals sickened while caring for coronavirus patients. As the death toll continues to climb, it is hard to imagine that voters will have as much patience this fall for the trivial quarrels Trump incites -- though his resiliency surprised us before."

 

Up next: Kim Jong-un reportedly appears at manure processing plant.

 

Displaced aggression. The Trump loyalists should be protesting Trump instead of the governors.

The governors have acted professionally. Their job approval ratings have gone up tens of percent in contrast to Trump's which have declined to their level before the crisis began after a meager two percent increase. Trump's antics became so ludicrous that he had to be removed from his own briefings.

Trump doesn't have much left other than his usual populist political stunts aimed at those who aren't going to reject him and at the risk of alienating moderates, most of whom have more sense than he does during a grave crisis.

 

Trump's own spiritual advisor is millionaire TV evangelist Paula White of Florida.

 

White House blocks Fauci testimony as Trump welcomes Senate return
White House said it would be ‘counterproductive’ for senior member of the taskforce to discuss response in House hearing
Amanda Holpuch in New York
Published on Sat 2 May 2020 11.23 EDT

White House blocks Fauci testimony as Trump welcomes Senate return

excerpt:

"The White House has blocked Dr Anthony Fauci from testifying to Congress, saying it would be “counterproductive” for the senior member of the White House coronavirus task force to talk about the government’s response to the pandemic in a House committee hearing.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, welcomed Mitch McConnell’s move to recall the Senate to Washington despite the office of the Congress doctor reportedly telling Republicans they will not be able to screen all 100 senators for Covid-19 on Monday.

The president also called the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, “crazy” for not recalling the House and moved to remove a health department watchdog who wrote a critical report on the government’s pandemic response."

 

Bolsonaro is in the same league as Trump. Taking on a populist-flavored, right-wing conservative political stance as an outsider when running for office, he railed against the establishment. He is now in dire circumstances and relying on Brazilian military officials and career politicians for help, the type of approach he had previously scorned.



Bolsonaro Fights for Survival, Turning to Empowered Military Elders
A flailing leader has given Brazil’s generals an opening to insert themselves onto the front lines of politics.
By Ernesto Londoño, Letícia Casado and Manuela Andreoni
May 1, 2020

Bolsonaro Fights for Survival, Turning to Empowered Military Elders

excerpt:

"RIO DE JANEIRO — Jair Bolsonaro ascended to Brazil’s presidency with a sweeping set of promises, like cutting out the rot of corruption, firing up the economy and doing away with the country’s notorious pork-barrel politics.

What a difference 16 months make.

Battered by a torrent of investigations into him and his family, an economy in free-fall and criticism of his cavalier handling of one of the world’s fastest growing coronavirus epidemics, Mr. Bolsonaro is fighting for political survival.

Now, with calls for his impeachment intensifying, he is being shored up by a narrowing band of leaders who are gaining outsize power as his troubles multiply.

Mr. Bolsonaro has become increasingly reliant on a cadre of military elders, entrusting them with the most power they have had since the military dictatorship ended in the 1980s."

 

The following passage about Bolsonaro could easily be mistaken for Trump.



Bolsonaro Fights for Survival, Turning to Empowered Military Elders

excerpt:

"Throughout his campaign and presidency, Mr. Bolsonaro has benefited from well-organized and nimble propaganda and disinformation campaigns that have bypassed the mainstream press by relying on social media platforms and text messaging apps.

“The political right in Brazil has the most sophisticated system to rely on supporters to spread misinformation to the public,” said Marco Ruediger, a researcher at Fundação Getulio Vargas University who studies political disinformation online.

But that strategic advantage has become a liability as the federal police and a congressional committee investigate the structure and workings of shadowy online communities that support the president. Among those under investigation are two of the president’s sons, Eduardo and Carlos Bolsonaro.

The president’s erratic handling of the coronavirus, which he has called a “measly cold,” has tested the resilience of his online supporters, Mr. Ruediger said.

But one base that appears to be steadfast is Evangelical Christians, who supported Mr. Bolsonaro staunchly during the campaign."

 

The US just reported its deadliest day for coronavirus patients as states reopen, according to WHO
William Feuer
Published Sat, May 2 2020 12:21 PM EDT

The US just reported its deadliest day for coronavirus patients as states reopen, according to WHO

excerpts:

"The U.S. saw 2,909 people die of Covid-19 in 24 hours, according to the data, which was collected as of 4 a.m. ET on Friday.

That's the highest daily death toll in the U.S. yet based on a CNBC analysis of the WHO's daily Covid-19 situation reports.

The country's deadliest day comes as state officials weigh reopening parts of the economy and easing stay-at-home orders."


"The U.S. saw 2,909 people die of Covid-19 in 24 hours, according to the data, which was collected as of 4 a.m. ET on Friday. That's the highest daily Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. yet, based on a CNBC analysis of the WHO's daily Covid-19 situation reports.

Before May 1, the next highest U.S. daily death toll was 2,471 reported on April 23, according to the WHO. State officials have previously warned that data on Covid-19 deaths are difficult to analyze because they often represent patients who became ill and were hospitalized weeks ago."

 

Trump’s Nationalism Advances on a Trajectory to Violence

Because those who experienced the bloody undoing of Yugoslavia have already seen the havoc nationalism wreaked in their own lives and countries, it is hard not to worry about its symptoms again — or, as a Bosnian saying goes: If you were bitten by a snake, you’re scared of lizards. It would be wrong, of course, to ignore the differences between the histories, including the respective political conditions, in pre-dissolution Yugoslavia and in the United States in the last few years (or decades). Still, insisting there are no points of comparison means accepting the proposition at the root of every emanation of nationalism: that “our” nation is unlike any other, historically unique and incomparable. If one is not blinded by that kind of essentialist entitlement, the common practices of nationalism become recognizable across cultures and histories.


Take the nationalist conviction that the nation is oppressed by state structures controlled by (the) others and is therefore unable to fulfill its unique potential, which is why state structures need to be smashed, along with those who control them. Such a conviction is repeatedly fueled by Trump and widely shared by his supporters, not least by those brandishing assault rifles around the state legislatures of Michigan, Virginia, and Ohio, soon to arrive in your neighborhood.

 

You mean he's been at The White House this whole time?

 

Desantis in Florida has ordered all medical examiners to stop reporting cause of death and Covid cases to the press. Tampa Bay Times and Huffington have the report.

 

Army defends bringing cadets back to campus for graduation featuring Trump
By Rebecca Kheel
04/30/20 04:20 PM EDT

Army defends bringing cadets back to campus for graduation featuring Trump

excerpts:

"Army leaders on Thursday defended their decision to bring nearly 1,000 West Point cadets back to campus for a commencement ceremony featuring a speech from President Trump, saying the graduates would have had to come back to campus anyway despite the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have to bring the cadets back to West Point to begin the process of the physicals they need to take, all of the clearance procedures, to clear barracks, get their personal items,” Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told reporters during a Pentagon news briefing. “They have to come back to the academy to begin the process of becoming second lieutenants and to report to their first assignments.”

McCarthy added it will be a “small, safe” ceremony, a celebration he said was “hard earned” by the cadets."

 

Post of a blogger:

"Well isn't that just special. Trump and everyone in the White House can get tested as often as they want. Now the Senate can all be tested.

And - get this one! - since Trump-the-draft-dodger insists on holding a campaign rally (officially it's being called a commencement speech) to the graduates of West Point, all those cadets are being recalled to campus, tested, quarantining for two weeks -masked - in their dorms before they all get the privilege of standing and listening to Trump praise himself and beg for their votes in November."