Sunday, September 16, 2018

Trump: The Kidney Stone

Eric Black at MinnPost has a very pragmatic article here. Andrew Bacevich makes me think I might be making too big a deal of Trump. Thoughts?
"If Bacevich is right, then I, too, am guilty of making too big a deal of Trumpist America. At least, for a moment, he has me thinking that I might be. 

Trump is not the disruptive force that anti-Trumpers accuse him of being. He is merely a noxious, venal, and ineffectual blowhard, who has assembled a team of associates who are themselves, with few exceptions, noxious, venal, or ineffectual.

So here’s the upshot of it all: if you were basically okay with where America was headed prior to November 2016, just take a deep breath and think of Donald Trump as the political equivalent of a kidney stone — not fun, but sooner or later, it will pass. And when it does, normalcy will return. Soon enough you’ll forget it ever happened.

If, on the other hand, you were not okay with where America was headed in 2016, it’s past time to give up the illusion that Donald Trump is going to make things right. Eventually a pimple dries up and disappears, often without leaving a trace. Such is the eventual destiny of Donald Trump as president."
Here is the latest example...
CNN Yes, Trump can sink even lower than denying the death toll in Puerto Rico

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

The problem is that we will be governed by Trump justices for decades.

--Hiram

Sean said...

Why should we assume that "normalcy will return"? Donald Trump defied every bit of the established political wisdom. The notion that everything will just magically snap back into place seems more like a way for people to excuse their enabling behavior than a certainty to me.

John said...

Hiram.
It is just 2 justices...

Sean,
I agree that both tribes keep getting more enabling and extreme. I hope something changes and pulls everyone back together somewhat.

Anonymous said...

Nah...sorry. If you're rich or white or both, you're probably fine no matter what happens. Not so for the rest of us.

Moose

John said...

Moose,
What are you looking for, ever more handouts from the tax payers?

Even with the tax cuts, the companies and wealthy are still paying the majority of our "government bills"?

"As illustrated in the graph below, in 2018 the richest 1percent of Americans will pay more than a fifth of all taxes in the U.S. (22.9 percent), but this same group will also receive more than a fifth of the nation’s income (20.3 percent). The poorest fifth of Americans will pay a small fraction of the nation’s taxes (1.9 percent) but will receive a small fraction of the nation’s income (3.5 percent)."

And this does not even acknowledge that many of the poor and near poor get more back in Medicaid, tanf, EITC, CTC, childcare subsidies, etc than they pay in.

Laurie said...

about "I agree that both tribes keep getting more enabling and extreme."
that's what I call false equivalency

John said...

I wondered who would write that first. :-)

Of course I remember this Pizza Story...

Then there are these fun folks on the Left

Here is an interesting piece

Anonymous said...

You’re really dense sometimes. I don’t even read most of your long-winded replies to me. The rich are ALWAYS able to survive disasters relatively unscathed, whether they be environmental, manmade, or political. The less well off and minorities always suffer the most. And you go on some stupid rant about taxes?

Good grief!

Moose

John said...

Moose,
I agree that squirrels who work hard in the Summer, build a good nest and store away food do best when a hard winter hits.

There is no question about the benefits of learning, working, saving and investing for a rainy day !!!

The question is what are you recommending we do for folks who are not learning, working, saving, etc for the rainy days that are likely to come?

I noted tax policy because I think you want to keep taking ever more nuts from the prepared squirrels so they can be given to the unprepared squirrels while demanding no improvements from the unprepared squirrels.

Which of course leads to ever more unprepared squirrels sitting at the feeder waiting for their next handout.

So... How are you going to encourage all squirrels to be responsible for preparing for that cold winter?

Or is your plan to just keep taking more from the responsible squirrels?

Anonymous said...

This isn’t about tax policy.

I mean I know that you see the world as nothing but debits and credits in a ledger, but that makes you blind to a lot of things.

Moose

John said...

Here is an interesting story I saw on TV last night about some wet "squirrels" who would rather complain about their subsidized housing, nobody helping them, etc rather than learning, moving, caring for themselves, etc.

It amazes me that we have folks who escape El Salvador, travel across Mexico and get across the border for employment... And these folks sit in their squalor.

John said...

I loved these quotes...

"P.J. Tobia: We caught up with Mayor Dana Outlaw at another public housing development just down the street. The Craven Terrace homes were recently renovated, to the tune of $27 million.

Dana Outlaw: They're so much better what they were, aren't they?

Woman: Not really.(LAUGHTER)

Woman: Not really."

The community spends $27,000,000 to help and it is still apparently not enough...

Anonymous said...

You love to sit in judgment over people from your place of privilege. I hope that one day you receive your comeuppance.

Moose

John said...

That is unlikely... My support systems are several layers deep, including knowledge, money and family...

And if my comeuppance does occur, like when I suffered a major panic attack / nervous break down in 2004. My nature due to genetics and environment is to learn, work, change and improve all the harder...

Settling, begging, accepting and complaining is a foreign concept for me.

Now the question I have as always is:

How do we encourage these folks to learn, work, change and improve, instead settling, begging, accepting and complaining?

So far you have provide no recommendation...

John said...

I respect the illegal immigrants in our country far more than the folks of Craven Terrace homes. At least the illegals were willing to work hard and risk a lot for a better life.

How about we keep the illegals and deport that other lot?

Maybe they would appreciate our country much more...

Sean said...

You can't talk about the history of public housing projects without talking about the racism that went into it. Public housing projects were a byproduct of the racism that excluded African-Americans from obtaining mortgages throughout much of the middle part of the 20th Century (and still persists today, as banks are still busted even now for redlining practices).

John said...

Since we have been over that dozens of times. I agree that minorities were treated terribly for the first ~200 years of our country's history.

Though I would still argue that they were still better off than the folks from 3rd world countries like those in Central America. At least for the past 100 years.

Now what does acknowledging the past do with regard to helping these people improve their situation...

How do we encourage these folks to learn, work, change and improve, instead settling, begging, accepting and complaining?

John said...

Here is an interesting piece... Medium Childhood Poverty Ends With Us.

I am always puzzled how one of richest and most liberal states can be such a disaster if handouts work?