5 Shares Reddit 3 Email

Let’s do a quick review of the Trump Presidency before and since September 1, 2017. Before 9/1/2017, the legislative achievements President Trump was able to sign off on included some, but not all, of what should have been the low hanging fruit. (Bold are my comments)

There have clearly been successes. At the very top of the list is Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who gives every sign of being the brilliant originalist who was advertised. Trump has been slower in nominating judges to lower courts, but those he has put up, in general, appear to be excellent choices. (The lower court comment here is specious. August saw numerous articles pointing out Trump’s nominees would “reshape the lower courts for a generation.”) On the legislative front, Trump’s biggest victory may have been a bill making it easier to fire incompetent employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and protecting whistleblowers in the agency. He has also signed some 15 bills repealing all or parts of Obama-era regulations. Few have been earthshaking, but most have been steps in the right direction. And while his withdrawal from the Paris climate accords was as much symbolism as substance (as were the accords themselves), it was an important signal that America is going to prioritize economic growth. Nor should we ignore addition by subtraction, so to speak. There are all the regulations that the Trump administration has not enacted, especially compared with what a Clinton administration probably would have done. By some measures, the Trump administration has been the least regulatory presidency since Reagan’s. That’s not nothing.

The legislative failure to repeal Obamacare has been correctly dumped on Ryan and McConnell who proved their incompetence during Obama’s terms was as nothing to compared to their malignant incompetence through the end of August. Any other Congressional leader in history who had spent years conducting Kabuki theater votes of significant majorities to overturn Obamacare would have had the votes locked in to succeed or would have had the good grace to resign in disgrace for failing. Virtually all of President Trump’s base has been unanimous in viewing these two serpents among the top obstacles to achieving the goal of draining The Swamp.

Frankly, the only reason there hasn’t been a tsunami of protest calling for the political heads of these two backstabbing worms is because they looked relatively timid compared to the rabid frothing of the Liberals/Progressives/Democrats and 99% of the mainstream media. Mark this down as a lesson – even though you may insist you are not influenced by the MSM, you actually are in ways too small to be readily apparent. Most people are unaware the MSM and their masters, their advertisers have spent 80+ years learning how to use media in every subliminal means possible.

The mainstream media was salivating over the end of the August recess because they expected to see September be consumed by Kabuki theater around the debt ceiling limit and President Trump’s first budget. It would be no surprise to me if many of the punditry had not used the lazy days of August to write articles which would only require a few updates to be publishable as body slams on the Trump’s positions (whatever they might be), the recklessness of Far Right politicians calling for a government shutdown and the uselessness of a debt ceiling in an age when national debt exceeds $ 20 trillion.

Benedict Ryan and Tokyo Rose McConnell were going to tie Congress in knots with a proposal to extend the debt ceiling for 14 months (to just beyond the 2018 midterms) which would have had 100% of the Democrats and just enough Republicans against it (you don’t really think these things are incompetence, do you?) to insure the leadership’s proposal failed. Amid the planned failure the proposed budget, tax reform, Obamacare repeal, etc, etc, etc would have been pushed into the background except when the MSM wanted to trot them out as Trump failures.

*** September Discontinuity ***

The best laid plans of worms and maggots were interrupted by President Trump’s refusal to keep to the sabotage script. He crafted a DACA position which put the Dreamers at risk and reminded Congress they are the ones responsible for making laws. Additionally, it destroyed the “Trump is Hitler” narrative the MSM was so heavily invested in because he comes across as humane (there are many people in this country sympathetic to the Dreamers even if you are not one of them) and it’s like Hitler expressing sympathy for the Jews.

He cut a deal with Schumer and Pelosi on the debt ceiling because it destroyed the planned Kabuki and left so much time in the September schedule Congress has actually held meetings on tax reform, the budget and, though I have reservations about it, leaves an outside chance Lindsey Graham and cohorts’ Obamacare repeal might pass both Houses of Congress.

Behold, Trump the Disruptor!

President Trump’s post Labor Day strategy is to continually disrupt his opposition’s plans by using the powers of the Presidency to destroy DC’s traditional power blocs.

FYI, this isn’t 3D or 10D chess – this is everyday military/political strategy:

Don’t Do What Your Opponent Wants You to Do

Do you suppose having some of the best military minds in American history in the Trump administration is beginning to bear fruit?

Here is a surprising concept. Like most of you, I expected the Democrats and Republicans in Congress would be eager to legislatively embody their support for Dreamers by overwhelming numbers. Before I researched it, I expected support would be strong enough to pass it with veto proof majorities. It seems that’s not the case:

Congress Probably Has The Votes To Make DACA Law. But That Doesn’t Mean It Will You could say the politics of immigration in the era of Trump have moved way to the right, and that’s true. But the legislative aims of Congress are different now too: A DACA provision would be much, much narrower than the more wholesale immigration reform these senators backed in 2013.

If you were counting along, 48 Democrats, plus four Republicans who have supported “Dreamer” legislation this year, plus eight other Republicans who backed citizenship for much of the undocumented in 2013 equals, yes, exactly 60 votes. So there may be a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate that would back a DACA bill. The math is harder in the House, where the immigration legislation died without a formal vote in 2013. There are 13 House Republicans who are co-sponsors of a bill called the Bridge Act (Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy.) Six other Republicans have joined the House version of the RAC Act that Tillis is backing in the Senate. And in January 2015, when the House had a symbolic vote to bar the Obama administration from accepting new DACA applicants, 26 Republicans voted against this legislation, including nine members who remain in the House but are not sponsors of any the Bridge or RAC provisions. If you assume all 194 House Democrats would vote for a DACA replacement and add 13, six and nine, you have 222 likely votes for some kind of Dream Act — four more than the 218 needed to pass a bill.

Not quite the head count I had expected.

Here are the Republicans in Congress who support DREAMers without conditions Just nine Republicans in Congress currently support a clean legislative fix of DACA. Most Republicans are willing to support continued protections for DREAMers only if it is paired with other legislative measures, such as a border wall. This would mean Congress would have to pass some form of broader immigration reform — a task they have failed to accomplish repeatedly over the last decade.

WOW! Both articles dated September 5, 2017 are from progressive media – if from a progressive point of view this isn’t a slam dunk – then what is it?

Note the last sentence quoted in bold. Broad immigration reform is another opportunity for Benedict Ryan and Tokyo Rose McConnell to logjam Congress for months.

What to do, what to do?

There is another military strategy:

Entice your enemy into fighting you where and how you choose.

There was zero surprise factor on my part when immediately after having dinner with President Trump, Schumer and Pelosi put out a joint statement declaring, in essence, “Trump CAVES!”

Lying liars are going to lie and the mainstream media knows a certain percentage of Trump supporters were going to panic over the progressive’s take on the meeting.

How do they know that?

Easy, it’s happened before.

When Trump authorized the launching of 52 cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase, there were lots of Trump supporters on social media declaring, “I didn’t vote for another war. I’m done with him.”

Except, it wasn’t a New War … it was just sending a message:

The spineless asshat has LEFT the building.

Did more people have a negative reaction than before?

Yep! This time we have DACA Panic: “I didn’t vote for amnesty! Trump’s betrayed us!”

This isn’t about DACA – it’s about disruption of the status quo. President Trump’s strategy is to throw away the script and stop the Kabuki theater. He’s sending an unmistakable reminder to all the professional politicians. He has the ability to change the dynamic at any time he chooses.

Those who have been around politics for a good while (cough*Ann Coulter*cough) should be ashamed of themselves for breaking into tears over “we’ve agreed we’ll talk about the possibility we might be able to agree to some sort of a deal somehow, someday, some way” – which is exactly the sum total of what happened Wednesday night.

President Trump’s supporters inclined to “abandon ship” should remember they are in shark infested waters and constantly under attack. The only viable path to #MAGA is to not take counsel of your fears and to stay the course.

Wednesday night’s specific message from President Trump was a message to Benedict Ryan & Tokyo Rose McConnell and it wasn’t about DACA, it’s about obstructionism and not doing their jobs:

I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.

Who knows? Maybe this message will result in us all getting a tax rebate check in time for Christmas?

Trump Turnaround Puts New Tax-Cut Writing on the Wall