BloggeRhythms

It’s been almost exactly seven months since these posts were ceased due to personal time constraints caused by illness. However today’s breaking news demands that something be written whereas it may mark the end of the Democrat party as a viable political entity. And that’s because they not only have nothing to offer as a true alternative to Trump, their only premise is negativism.

Setting the premise, according to Rasmussen on Friday, December 29, 2017: “Looking back on President Donald Trump’s first year in office, he has compiled a shockingly strong record and long list of accomplishments. As was also the case with his rise to the presidency, President Trump has broken several records.

He “signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act before Christmas, ensuring U.S. business commitments for bonus payouts to at least hundreds of thousands of Americans workers. Within hours, numerous businesses announced wage increases and billions of dollars in various industry investments.”

The tax overhaul also repealed the individual mandate in ObamaCare. 

Regarding the overall economy, “In February, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris said that the Trump Administration is “probably the most pro-business administration since the founding fathers.” His remarks came after attending a meeting with President Trump, who hosted manufacturing leaders at the White House almost one month exactly after his inauguration.”

And then, according to CNBC at year end: “In the year since President Donald Trump has been in office, the economy has done something it has been unable to do since 2005: maintain 3 percent growth for three quarters in a row.”

Conversely “Under Mr. Obama, “experts” told us we just had to live with the new normal — 2% annual economic growth.”

Rasmussen goes on to say: “The Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit record highs nearly 70 times in 2017 and U.S. markets have created roughly 6.3 trillion in new wealth. In 2017, Americans’ 401Ks appreciated by 25% to 33% and Bank of America is forecasting the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite to rise at least another 12% and 16%, respectively, in 2018.” 

“What the economists and market strategists have totally underestimated in their GDP forecasting is the positive effect from the multi-agency regulatory roll back from the Trump Administration,” TJM Investments analyst Tim Anderson said. “This has led to a record high level of business confidence indicators and most recently the highest level of industrial production in 3 years.” 

Today, many pundits compare the impact of the phrase it’s “the economy stupid” used by Bill Clinton in his successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H. W. Bush as the primary, if not the only, allure Trump has to offer voters. Particularly because business was his lifelong endeavor. However, Trump’s performance in office is proving those pundits wrong.

For example, alongside the nation's outstanding economic performance, at the same time in the Middle-East, “In October, the U.S. Pentagon confirmed to People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) that Raqqa, the “capital of terrorism” in Syria, had fallen. Secretary Rex Tillerson said the fall of the Islamic State (ISIS) capital was accelerated by “critical decisions” made by President Trump. 

“In January, ISIS was actively plotting terrorist attacks against our allies and our homeland in Raqqa,” Secretary Tillerson noted. “Nine short months later, it is out of ISIS’s control due to critical decisions President Trump made to accelerate the campaign.” 

Rasmussen then notes that: “For nearly 40 years, Republicans have tried and failed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for oil drilling. Since the 1980s, the effort always failed in the face of intense opposition because weak congressional Republicans were too afraid of the Democrat-Big Media coalition. 

“They repeatedly abandoned the decades-old campaign promise. 

“Yet, a provision for drilling in ANWR was included in the President’s signature tax bill with minimal backlash.”

Then there was Trump’s nominating and the U.S. Senate confirming Justice Neil Gorsuch, “despite unprecedented opposition and obstruction by Senate Democrats. Many of those same Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., unanimously confirmed Justice Gorsuch to his prior role in a voice vote back in 2006.” 

Another achievement concerned illegal immigration where “President Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration the centerpiece of his campaign and end-of-year statistics from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) show historic success during the first year of his administration.“

“The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in FY 2017 reported a 23.7% decline over the previous year. Illegal migration along the Southwest border declined sharply from January 21 to April, which was the lowest month of border enforcement activity on record. In FY 2017, CBP reported the lowest level of illegal cross-border migration ever on record. 

“The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Removal Operations (ERO) conducted 143,470 arrests and removed 226,119 illegal aliens, an increase of 40% from the previous fiscal year. From the start of the Trump Administration on January 20, 2017 through the end of the fiscal year, ERO made 110,568 arrests juxtaposed to 77,806 in FY 2016, also an increase of 40%. 

“Worth noting, 92%, or 101,722 illegal aliens arrested by ICE during the Trump Administration, either had a criminal conviction or a pending criminal charge, were an ICE fugitive, or were an illegal re-entrant. In other words, he isn’t ripping babies out of their mother’s arms and dreamers out of their homes en masse as the hysterical media portray.”

While these major accomplishments were proceeding, several others were also taking place including the declaring of Jerusalem the capital of Israel, pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership which Trump called a “potential disaster for our country,” overseeing moves to expand oil drilling in the Arctic and Gulf of Mexico and granting permits to the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines while pulling out of the Paris climate accords.

General satisfaction with Trump’s performance and future expectations can be seen in employer's reactions such as today’s news that “nonfarm payrolls rose by 313,000 in February while the unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent, the lowest since December 2000,” as reported by Jeff Cox @cnbc. “The total counted as "employed" in the household survey surged by 785,000 to a record 155.2 million.”

Although these accomplishments seem quite significant, and they certainly are, another one may soon overshadow many of them whereas as reported by Joe Tacopino of the New York Post yesterday: “President Trump has agreed to sit down with his North Korean nemesis Kim Jong Un sometime in the next two months to discuss stripping the hermit nation of its nuclear arsenal.”

Many attribute the sudden change in North Korea’s hostile attitude to its realization that Trump is quite different than those proceeding him in office whereas he most often truly means what he says. Such as his warning in January that his "Nuclear Button" is "much bigger & more powerful" than the one controlled by North Korea's Kim Jong Un."

While any outcome, good or bad, certainly remains to be seen, its undeniable that unprecedented progress has been made by an American president.   

The best summation I’ve seen to date as to the underpinning of Trump’s successes comes from Charles Krauthammer's interesting perspective on him.

Krauthammer writes: “To my friends "of a different persuasion" I'm not trying to sell anything or anyone but I do feel this is an interesting take on our very controversial president who I truly believe is not Republican or Democrat.

“I said that I neither view nor do I believe Trump views himself as a conservative. I stated it was my opinion that Trump is a pragmatist. He sees a problem and  understands it must be fixed. He doesn't see the problem as liberal or conservative, he sees it only as a problem. That is a quality that should be admired and applauded, not condemned. 

“The impending collapse of the economy wasn't a Liberal or Conservative problem, it is an American problem. That said, until it is viewed as a problem that demands a common sense approach to resolution, it will never be fixed because the Democrats and Republicans know only one way to fix things and the longevity of  their impracticality has proven to have no lasting effect.

“Successful businessmen like Donald Trump find ways to make things work, they do not promise to accommodate.

"[S]uccessful businessmen like Trump who have weathered the changing tides of economic reality understand what is necessary to make business work, and they, unlike both sides of the political aisle, know that if something doesn't work, you don't continue trying to make it work hoping that at some point it will.

“As a pragmatist, Donald Trump hasn't made wild pie-in-the-sky promises of a cell phone in every pocket, free college tuition, and a $15 hour minimum wage for working the drive-through at Carl's Hamburgers.

“I argue that America needs pragmatists because pragmatists see a problem and find ways to fix them. They do not see a problem and compound it by creating more problems.

“You may not like Donald Trump, but I suspect that the reason some people do not like him is because:

(1) he is antithetical to the "good old boy" method of brokering backroom deals that fatten the coffers of politicians;

(2) they are unaccustomed to hearing a president speak who is unencumbered by the financial shackles of those who he owes vis-a-vis donations;

(3) he is someone who is free of idiomatic political ideology;

(4) he says what he is thinking, is unapologetic for his outspoken thoughts, speaks very straightforward using everyday language that can be understood by all (and is offensive to some who dislike him anyway) making him a great communicator, for the most part, does what he says he will do and;

(5) he is someone who understands that it takes more than hollow promises and political correctness to make America great again.

“Listening to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders talk about fixing America is like listening to two lunatics trying to "out crazy" one another. Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Marco Rubio are owned lock, stock, and barrel by the bankers, corporations, and big dollar donors funding their campaigns. Bush can deny it, but common sense tells anyone willing to face facts is that people don't give tens of millions without expecting something in return

“We have had Democrats and Republican ideologues and what has it brought us? Are we better off today or worse off? Has it happened overnight or has it been a steady decline brought on by both parties?

“I submit that a pragmatist is just what America needs right now. People are quick to confuse and despise confidence as arrogance, but that is common among those who have never accomplished anything in their lives (or politicians who never really solved a problem, because it's better to still have an "issue(s) to be solved," so re-elect me to solve it, (which never happens) and those who have always played it safe (again, all politicians) not willing to risk failure, to try and achieve success).

“Donald Trump put his total financial empire at risk in running for president and certainly did not need or possibly even want the job; that says it all. He wants success for the U.S. and her citizens because he loves his country!”

Now, while Krauthammer’s adeptly described the circumstance regarding Trump’s accomplishments he’s simultaneously presented evidence of the Democrats probable extinction. Primarily because there is not an accomplished managerial “pragmatist” among them. 

What’s also interesting is that the same foreboding of doom surely applies to Republican politicians and their party as well.  However, they’ll most likely survive and do quite well in the future because for whatever reason, when  his time came they were the one's Trump decided to join. 

That’s it for today folks.

Adios