Saturday, April 29, 2017

One-Hundred Days of Mirth

Why is this man smiling?

"It's hard to believe that Donald Trump has only been in office for 100 days. I swear, I think 2017 is happening in dog years."
 
Elizabeth Warren
 
Okay, I know what you're thinking and I will happily concede the point: The very existence of this psychopathic lamebrain's administration is not a laughing matter - I get the point. But one cannot deny that there is a mountain of laughter that can be mined from the Age of Donald Trump. Although there is no joy when one wakes up in the wee, small hours of the morning to be reminded at the moment of consciousness that one is still an inmate of Idiot Nation, it can be quite amusing, too. And when one's vocation is to call attention to the American train wreck, the Donald is the gift that keeps giving....and giving and giving and giving. Samantha Bee is a very happy woman. I'm pretty happy, too.
 
One-hundred days ago Donald Trump was inaugurated as the forty-fifth president of the United States, and things are now about three times as bad as the most pessimistic of us would have dared predict. In all that time the president who, as candidate, promised so much "beautiful" legislation in his first hundred days in office that the people would be "sick" of all his successes - has not been able to deliver a single thing. As I was reminded this morning by a TV talking head: William Henry Harrison was able to accomplish much more - and he died thirty-one days into his presidency. Trump, it would seem, is trying to establish some sort of record. If that is indeed the case, he is succeeding beyond anyone's wildest and weirdest dreams.

Did you ever think we would fall this hard? Strange days indeed.

Now Trump is trying to tell us that the "First Hundred Days" expectation put on incoming presidents in modern times is "ridiculous". He makes an excellent point - although I'm quite sure this was an accident on his part. Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day, as they say.

Darwin was wrong
As was noted in the previous piece on this site, the "First Hundred Days" of any presidency were never noted until the dawn of the Roosevelt administration in 1933. In his first three months and one week in office, FDR was able to get a truckload of legislation passed for the simple reason that, at that point in history, the United States was in the midst of an economic crisis of catastrophic perportions. It is unreasonable to expect that any president (even a genius like Trump - GUFFAW!) would be able to replicate that kind of precedent. It isn't remotely possible.

I was just thinking, using the names of Roosevelt and Trump in the same sentence is a bit surreal. How we devolved from the Frankster to the Donald would make a dandy subject for a book.

Out like Flynn
From the Muslim travel ban, to the wall on the Mexican border, to the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to the accusation of wiretapping by President Obama, to their disastrous foreign policies, to the resignation-in-disgrace of National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, to the utter incompetence of damned-near everyone associated with Donald Trump....I could go on for hours....this administration has been a rolling constitutional crisis.

Let me state for the record that in most cases, the Trump administration's lack of success has been a very good thing for the country. The only thing they have been successful at is keeping the public's attention diverted from what is gradually evolving into the worst political scandal in the history of this country; I am referring, of course, to the covert collusion with a hostile foreign power during the 2016 presidential campaign. That affair is metastasizing by the day. The problem is that we'll have to wait until the GOP no longer controls both houses of congress in 2019 for this maniac to be removed from office via the impeachment process - that's assuming they'll be defeated on Election Day 2018. You never know.

Like I said: Idiot Nation.

Tonight is the annual White House Press Correspondents Dinner. I wasn't the least surprised to learn that the prez will not be gracing the affair with his presence. In order to make those events fun, a president needs to have a self-deprecating sense of humor. That's why Jack Kennedy was so successful in that kind of setting; he could laugh easily at himself. This is a trait that Donald Trump is completely lacking. The only conceivable thing I can imagine him giggling at would be the sight of a wheelchair-bound paraplegic tumbling down the escalator of Trump Tower. Yeah, it's hopeless to expect him to appear at something like that. Here's what we can expect, though: an unhinged Twitter tirade first thing tomorrow morning. Wait for it.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED READING:

What's the Matter with Kansas
by Thomas Frank

How a nation with roots so firm in progressivism could possibly take such a drastic turn to the extreme right. An excellent read.


18 Comments:

At 9:05 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Elizabeth Warren: "It's hard to believe that Donald Trump has only been in office for 100 days. I swear, I think 2017 is happening in dog years."

LOLOL How tragically true, Tom. Always, in modern times, years at the helm visibly prematurely age the man living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I think this last 100 days has had the same affect on at least half of the voting population.

Day 100, and nothing has been seen from this administration except hate and incompetence. (Except for all the flip-flops, of course...)

 
At 9:45 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

"One of the many irritating things about the dominant United States corporate media is the way it repeatedly discovers anew things that are not remotely novel. Take its recent discovery that Donald Trump isn’t really the swamp-draining populist working class champion he pretended to be on the campaign trail.

The evidence for this 'news' is solid enough. His cabinet and top advisor circle has been chock full of ruling class swamp creatures like former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn (top economic adviser), longtime top Goldman Sachs partner and top executive Steve Mnuchin (Secretary of the Treasury), and billionaire investor Wilbur Ross (Secretary of Commerce). Trump has surrounded himself with super-opulent and planetarily invested financial gatekeepers – the very club he criticized Hillary Clinton for representing.
"

and...

"Trump, it turns out, is not the worker-friendly populist he posed as while running for president. He’s not the great anti-establishment outsider determined to return 'power to the people' he claimed to be in his Inauguration Address. His economic program amounts to neo-liberalism on steroids."

Yes, the transformation of Donald Trump into Hillary Clinton took less than 100 days. Neo-liberalism, in all it's savagery and manipulation of the middle- and working-classes, takes on a new form. As hateful and unforgiving as it was before, it's now even more so. Way more.

It's called the great manipulation. The American people, especially the Trumpsters, have all been had. And the Hillary fanatics -- and there are so many who frequent this blog -- have almost gotten everything you wanted. It's just that you're going to have to deal with more than you ever bargained for.

 
At 7:18 AM, Blogger Michael Stivic said...


(CNN) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is "troubled" to hear that President Barack Obama will receive $400,000 to speak at a Wall Street health conference in September.

"I was troubled by that," the Massachusetts Democrat said Thursday on SiriusXM's "Alter Family Politics." "One of the things I talk about in the book ("This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class") is the influence of money. I describe it as a snake that slithers through Washington and that it shows up in so many different ways here in Washington."


Jefferson, my progressive brother, I too am troubled by the way money is transforming AmeriKa's greatest President. Maybe money is the greatest manipulator. Look at Bernie. He no longer has the fire in his belly after becoming a 1 percenter.

 
At 10:14 AM, Blogger rjw said...

As my FB friend Jennifer C. said: "Trump heard that W was called the worst president ever and said 'hold my beer."!!!

 
At 10:33 AM, Blogger Majormajor said...

Yeah, it's really a shame that the Democrats cheated Bernie and gave us HRC.

What would Bernie have done with ISIS, and North Korea?

 
At 3:51 PM, Blogger Majormajor said...

Students at George Mason University were asked to comment on things Obama did telling them it was something President Trump did. The goal was to find if they agree with the actions because they were actually liberal policies enacted by President Obama, or would they shoot them down because of their perceived association with Donald Trump?

Here is the Youtube showing the outcome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7x7UPsttTY


"OH WOW"!

 
At 9:50 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Chuck "Michael Stivic" Morre: "Jefferson, my progressive brother, I too am troubled by the way money is transforming AmeriKa's greatest President. Maybe money is the greatest manipulator."

Agreed.

Trump knew, going in, what he was going to do. He bamboozled all the Trumpists by taking on the policies that a Hillary Clinton would have enacted. So now we're left with a war-mongering Hillary Clinton wearing the face of a racist and xenophobic Donald Trump. How horribly pathetic can it get?

 
At 8:32 PM, Blogger woodenman said...

Hey RJW, did you hang out at the Knots website years ago during the Bush years? If so I was one of the Liberals there. I forgot what I called myself back then.

 
At 12:01 AM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Wow. Conservatives managing to blame Trump's crap on Hillary.

Clucky still avoiding answering simple questions, and admitting that trump is a complete failure.

 
At 8:55 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Tom Degan: "I was just thinking, using the names of Roosevelt and Trump in the same sentence is a bit surreal. How we devolved from the Frankster to the Donald would make a dandy subject for a book."

If there's anyone capable, and who probably will, it's Eric Zuesse. Read his article post from yesterday's Washington's Blog. An excerpt (and hyperlink):

"If the Democratic Party won’t repudiate the Bill Clinton DLC repudiation of FDR and termination of FDR’s Glass-Steagall Act, and the 'New Democrats' other slimy 'Democratic' servantage to the aristocracy (such as Barack Obama led, after Bill Clinton did), then a new Party is necessary, which will aim to replace the Democratic Party, because two aristocratically controlled Parties constituting America’s body-politic is just a dictatorship by the aristocracy against the public; it’s no authentic democracy at all. A dictatorship is not acceptable to any honorable American, nor to the original intent of the U.S. Constitution, which repudiated (instead of admired) the aristocracy. Today’s America is just treachery which honors the aristocracy, not anything that the Founders sought to establish — it’s what they had sought to avoid. That’s today’s America."

It's also the reason I left the Democratic Party long ago. It's not the party of FDR, but rather the corporate-infested party of first Bill Clinton, and then Barack Obama afterwards. The DLC initially called them the "New Democrats", and they've failed us miserably. Give me those "old-time Democrats" anytime -- the ones who used to look after the common people instead of the elites. We don't need, or want, two "Republican" political parties. It's led to what we bear today.

By the way, I recommend both of Eric Zuesse's books. I've read each.

 
At 9:56 AM, Blogger Majormajor said...

Heck Mozart, I'd like it if you could just prove one of you ignorant claims instead of ignoring it. Like this one..

"the "rich" steal 98% of the nations wealth"

 
At 11:59 AM, Blogger Darrell Michaels said...

Just in case some folks truly don't know, President Trump is not a conservative. Other than removing a few asinine and extra-constitutional (unconstitutional) executive orders of President Obama's, the only significant accomplishment of Trump's thus far is that he got a seemingly constitutionally-minded justice seated on the Supreme Court.

I guess in that sense, the foolish and hapless Trump has already surpassed Obama's accomplishments as president.

As for Mozart, in the mold of all good progressives, he is still wanting to know what Republicans and their government have done for him and for the poor. It is this very mindset of turning to and relying upon government to solve one's problems that only ensures that one will continue to remain enslaved by the yoke of government bondage. I truly and honestly feel very sorry for those that look to government and others as their provider. Truly.

 
At 12:41 PM, Blogger Majormajor said...

Today let us celebrate Hillary Clinton's first 100 days NOT in office!

Mr. Paine, I answered Mozart's question with the fact that conservatives have cut taxes for the poor and middle class, something he has not acknowledged.

 
At 12:59 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

TP,

You're right. Stupid progressives believe it is government's duty to serve the public, not just the rich, the banks and the military industrial complex. (What a commie term, amirite?) At least Republicans and corpo-dems know how the system works.

BTW It was the Republican Senate that stole the seat for Gorsuch. They couldn't tolerate the constitutionally-minded, moderate, and very qualified jurist that the black guy appointed according to his Constitutional duty.

I wonder why? But we know only conservatives truly follow the Constitution. Just ask them.

And perhaps you should lecture us benighted progressives on how Trumps's corporate/Wall Street, anti-government cabinet is liberal and "not conservative".

And how suppressing science and demolishing environmental regulations is "liberal". We are so ignorant.

If you won't educate us, who will?





 
At 1:07 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Clucky, there is no time in the history of our nation, when cutting taxers helped anyone but the rich. Every time your heroes cut taxes it's 99% for the richest people, and THEN they have to cut important programs that HELP the poor and middle class (put in place by Liberals) Try again.

Paine,

Yes, WE THE PEOPLE who do all the work and pay all the taxes expect the federal government to include us and not just the top 2%. Maybe you are a billionaire but most people aren't. When the federal government TAKES MY TAXES I expect services in return. Useless things like clean air, water, healthy food, a living wage for my HARD WORK, and a President who has a clue how it all works and doesn't WHINE about how hard it all is when people ask him tough RELEVENT questions.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO DO? Sell public lands to private corporations? Sell out to foreign governments like Russia? Please. You aren't fooling anyone. The GOP has always hated the middle class. They clearly want a TWO class system, a RULING class and a SERVICE class.

Which one are YOU?

 
At 1:09 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Hey Clucky,

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/05/u-s-income-inequality-on-rise-for-decades-is-now-highest-since-1928/

There are about a dozen other sources saying the same thing if you don't like this one.

 
At 1:20 PM, Blogger Darrell Michaels said...

Majormajor, you are absolutely correct. Conservatives have done a FAR better job than progressives over the decades in providing a growing economy in which everyone benefits. They have typically minimized government red tape and intrusions into our lives, thereby ensuring our God-given freedoms that are enshrined in the Bill of Rights which the federal government is SUPPOSED to protect are done so.

Champions of true capitalism (not crony capitalism) and the protection of our liberties are not enough for Mr. Mozart though. Those are incidental and largely meaningless to him, evidently. He wants a list of what the Republicans (which are NOT conservatives by the way) have done for the poor. Have they provided cash for clunkers, free or subsidized housing, free phones? Nope. What can we get out of government to solve our problems instead of solving them for ourselves? THAT is what most progressives want today. THAT is why we are $20 Trillion in debt and why the damned fools in college teaching and supposedly learning think that socialism is the answer today.

As you have quoted in the past, sir, "The only problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." ~ Margaret Thatcher.

 
At 6:18 PM, Blogger Majormajor said...

"Every time your heroes cut taxes it's 99% for the richest people" Source please.

"the "rich" steal 98% of the nations wealth" Source please.

"WE THE PEOPLE who do all the work and pay all the taxes expect the federal government to include us and not just the top 2%."... How many times have I provided you sources and links to govt websites that show just who pays federal income tax by income level? And it's not the bottom income earners by any stretch of even your imagination. It's the top 52% of income earners who pay federal income taxes, not the bottom 48%. I think it is time for the bottom 48% to give a BIG thank you those who are footing their part of the bill.

"there is no time in the history of our nation, when cutting taxers helped anyone but the rich." REALLY? Source please.

"income-inequality-on-rise-for-decades-is-now-highest-since-1928" Published in 2015, Mozart, who was president in 2015?
A Conservative? A Republican?

 

Post a Comment

<< Home