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Cont: The Trump Presidency: Part 22

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Blue Mountain said:
I know it's common to dump on Trump for the current horrible economic conditions, especially since he was taking all the credit for the wonderful bull run that started with Obama. But we're in the middle of a friggin pandemic right now! Okay, he botched that response as well.

But even if he had done an exemplary job as president, as far as I know the USA economy would still have taken a terrible beating. Is there a way one could determine the situation would have been improved with a competent leader in charge? For example, unemployment at only 10% in April instead of 14.7%?

I note Canada's rate was 13.7% in May, higher than in April. But it's possible each country determines its rates differently, making a direct comparison difficult.
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The pandemic would have been bad for the economy, regardless, yes. Trump's long lack of response followed by inducing massive chaos and waste that would have been very easily avoidable was indeed pretty horrible, though. Given the US, a strong, competent, and early response would have likely meant that we'd have only been dealing with much more localized shutdowns (instead of the generalized ones that we have because of how the virus went completely unchecked and untracked), though, and have much more of a handle on everything, which would naturally mean that demand would be much higher and the economy in much better shape. It is indeed hard to provide specific numbers, though, without delving more deeply into a lot of factors.

For example, on another aspect of the economy side of things, throughout Trump's time in the White House, he's been strongly pushing the use of pretty much every tool available to prevent the economy from correcting itself at all, even when strongly warned that the tactics that were being employed would fairly certainly cause a very nasty crash - a crash that he apparently very pointedly didn't care about so long as it happened after his potential re-election. When you speak of "a competent leader," that's the kind of thing that a competent leader doesn't do in the first place, so we went into the pandemic with a crippled ability to respond on top of the horrific response, and that is just one of the notable factors in play that could change the calculations significantly.
 
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Aridas said:
The pandemic would have been bad for the economy, regardless, yes.... Given the US, a strong, competent, and early response would have likely meant that we'd have only been dealing with much more localized shutdowns (instead of the generalized ones that we have because of how the virus went completely unchecked and untracked), though, and have much more of a handle on everything, which would naturally mean that demand would be much higher and the economy in much better shape....

For example, on another aspect of the economy side of things, throughout Trump's time in the White House, he's been strongly pushing the use of pretty much every tool available to prevent the economy from correcting itself at all...
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Plus, despite Trump's boasting, the economy wasn't really that strong before the pandemic hit.

Job growth was slower under trump than Obama, manufacturing has already experienced a recession in the previous year, trade wars had impacted exports (like in agriculture). And at least some of the growth was due to rapidly increasing government debt (and the effects of the tax cuts were diminishing).

Remember, the Fed had already started to reduce the prime rate in 2019 (which is usually done when there are economic problems).

It wouldn't have surprised me if the u.s. experienced a recession in 2020 even without the pandemic.


Sent from my LM-X320 using Tapatalk
 
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Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Tweets

The ramp that I descended after my West Point Commencement speech was very long & steep, had no handrail and, most importantly, was very slippery. The last thing I was going to do is “fall” for the Fake News to have fun with. Final ten feet I ran down to level ground. Momentum!
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If he Tweeted about it, there's definitely something wrong he's trying to cover up.
 
Squeegee Beckenheim said:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1271849561129091073

Footage embedded in tweet. It's striking.
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trump is, after all, 74-years-old. He has never in his life been under the kind of stress he has dealt with the past three-and-a-half years. He reportedly has a poor diet. He's overweight. He doesn't exercise. (Riding around a golf course in a golf cart ain't exercise.) It seems fairly certain he is having problems with declining health.

But dictators staying on after they have suffered serious mental/physical decline is common. My fear is he gets re-elected, then behind-the-scenes becomes increasingly infirm. What happens with most dictators? Family members take over. The country will be run by ivanka, melania and donald, jr.

Think the situation can't get worse? :( Remember to vote early and often in November!
 
Trump Retweeted

Errol Webber For Congress (CA-37)
@ErrolWebber
US House candidate, CA-37
America is better for having you as @POTUS, @realDonaldTrump!
#HappyBirthdayTrump

Michael Nöthem
@mikandynothem
Happy Birthday Mr. President!
America is blessed beyond measure to have you in the White House. You're promoting all that is good and decent in our land as you battle for all Americans.
We are behind you! @realDonaldTrump #MAGA #KAG #FoxNews #HappyBirthdayTrump



Philip Schuyler
@FiveRights
#HappyBirthdayTrump is most Jack can muster. Anything more might show respect.
Happy Birthday Mr. President, Who but you could've handled Dem/media attack on USA? We've never been in more capable hands.
Thank you for your service.
 
Regarding the retweet about soccer players, Matt Gaetz seems to believe (falsely) that the U.S. Soccer Federation is a government entity or publicly funded, since he contrasts it with the NFL. From a Law & Crime article:

Gaetz attempted to differentiate his position from the National Football League (NFL) players who are allowed to kneel.

“At least those are private people, working for a private company,” he said–while clarifying that he doesn’t like it when they kneel either. “[They] absolutely have the First Amendment right, to do whatever the heck they want to do, so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
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newyorkguy said:
trump is, after all, 74-years-old. He has never in his life been under the kind of stress he has dealt with the past three-and-a-half years. He reportedly has a poor diet. He's overweight. He doesn't exercise. (Riding around a golf course in a golf cart ain't exercise.) It seems fairly certain he is having problems with declining health.
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Absolutely! That's not just a normal decline of age. A healthy person in their early seventies would not decline perceptibly in 4-5 years.

Droning, slurred speech, waxen face, holding on to the podium. This is, at the very best, a man run down by a job he cannot cope with. But quite probably, it is something more serious. Disease or dementia, or both.


Hans
 
timhau said:
It will be interesting to follow the mental gymnastics involved in blaming Biden, the media, ANTIFA, Obama and the Democrats for that.
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That won’t require special gymnastics, the ordinary Trumpian gymnastics will do. I suspect it will be “Low-energy Joe said some nasty, nasty things about me. I’m not going to debate him until he apologizes to me and to the United States”

ETA
or it could be “Because the Democrats have been funding ANTIFA, they have infiltrated the US media. Therefore, the only way to have a truly fair debate is to have the GOP run the debate.” If folks have been gaslighted for four years, they will have no problem with that.
 
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Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Tweets

The ramp that I descended after my West Point Commencement speech was very long & steep, had no handrail and, most importantly, was very slippery.
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It didn't look all that steep to me, but whatever. I'm curious how it was slippery. Those ramps are usually built with at least some sort of tread. Sure, they can get slippery when they are wet, but it was a beautiful day, why would it be wet?

ETA: I don't fundamentally care if he needs help getting down the ramp. He's in his 70s and sure, that would mean less coordination and more difficulty moving. I don't care all that much about the physical capabalities of the president (provided they aren't dying and are otherwise able to fulfill their duties) I'm more concerned with it conflicting with "I'm the healthiest president ever" opinion and the hypocrisy of him having criticized others for their physical issues.
 
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Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Tweets

The ramp that I descended after my West Point Commencement speech was very long & steep, had no handrail and, most importantly, was very slippery. The last thing I was going to do is “fall” for the Fake News to have fun with. Final ten feet I ran down to level ground. Momentum!
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This embarrassing degree of defensiveness tells us something most of us already know: This most naked of emperors is spectacularly insecure, possessing skin so thin it's a wonder his internal organs don't spill out.
 
varwoche said:
This embarrassing degree of defensiveness tells us something most of us already know: This most naked of emperors is spectacularly insecure, possessing skin so thin it's a wonder his internal organs don't spill out.
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He's crazy and stupid. If he didn't tweet about it at all, it would not be a story.
 
Ladewig said:
What specific behavior are you referencing?

I’m not seeing anything that I haven’t seen before. And actually, I thought his reading was better than his average speech reading.

ETA
Ahhh. I simply watched the video at the top of the page. I’ll go back and look for the glass.

MORE ETA:
I concur. A bit concerning.
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Bernie, Weekend At, has more vim.
 
bonzombiekitty said:
It didn't look all that steep to me, but whatever. I'm curious how it was slippery. Those ramps are usually built with at least some sort of tread. Sure, they can get slippery when they are wet, but it was a beautiful day, why would it be wet?
.....
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Story here, video attached.
The walk in question came at the conclusion of Saturday’s commencement exercises at West Point, where Trump was the guest speaker. As he exited the raised platform by descending a ramp alongside Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the academy’s superintendent, Trump was visibly tentative and took short, careful steps.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...89cdf2-ae43-11ea-856d-5054296735e5_story.html
 
Good grief, that lawyer for Trump suing CNN was on its Reliable Sources today. A rambling, repetitious speech which didn't give Brian Stelter a chance to get a question (or correction) in edgewise, then claiming he wouldn't let her speak. I so hate that kind of interviewee.
 
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