The Many Faces of US Politics...

[Eamonnca1]

[J70]

With any normal president and their supporters, you would point out that Trump is only, at minimum, one quarter way through his presidency and thus has a lot of potential growth (or decline!) available to him. I wonder what the figures are for the first years of all those presidents, which would obviously be a more legitimate comparison? Or best years/average year etc.

But with Trump and his followers and the way they don't seem to understand even the most basic of statistics and trends, or worse, do understand yet purposely misuse them to deceive and falsely demonize, well f**k the lot of them!

[foxcommander]

So his handle is @jeffersonobama. Says it all really. Fake news.

[Eamonnca1]

With any normal president and their supporters, you would point out that Trump is only, at minimum, one quarter way through his presidency and thus has a lot of potential growth (or decline!) available to him. I wonder what the figures are for the first years of all those presidents, which would obviously be a more legitimate comparison? Or best years/average year etc.

But with Trump and his followers and the way they don't seem to understand even the most basic of statistics and trends, or worse, do understand yet purposely misuse them to deceive and falsely demonize, well f**k the lot of them!

Good point, especially since FDR served 3 terms.

Here you go, from Fortune:

Which President Had the Best Returning Stock Market?
Looking at the S&P 500's returns during the first year of the first term of every president, Trump comes out fourth.

ROOSEVELT(1932) 30.5
KENNEDY(1960) 27
BUSH SR.(1988) 22.2
TRUMP(2016) 21
CLINTON(1992) 10.8
JOHNSON(1964) 8.3
OBAMA(2008) 8.2
HOOVER(1928) 2.9
EISENHOWER(1952) 0.2
TRUMAN(1948) -3
REAGAN(1980) -3.3
NIXON(1968) -5.7
CARTER(1976) -11.4
BUSH JR.(2000) -21.9

Stock buybacks tend to skew these numbers up a little, and there'll be plenty more of them when the tax reform kicks in. Of course we all know that the purpose of the tax bill is to enable executives to boost their share prices through buybacks and then line their own pockets with the resulting bonuses increase investment that will create jobs for ordinary working people.

[J70]

Those listed years don't match the first years of their terms - FDR was inaugurated 1933, JFK '61, Obama '09, Trump '17, Hoover '29 etc.

Edit: the reason for my initial skepticism is Hoover: did he really have a positive number for his first year with the Wall St crash that October? But maybe that +2.9% was just a reflection of the extent of the bubble before the crash.

[stew]

With any normal president and their supporters, you would point out that Trump is only, at minimum, one quarter way through his presidency and thus has a lot of potential growth (or decline!) available to him. I wonder what the figures are for the first years of all those presidents, which would obviously be a more legitimate comparison? Or best years/average year etc.

But with Trump and his followers and the way they don't seem to understand even the most basic of statistics and trends, or worse, do understand yet purposely misuse them to deceive and falsely demonize, well f**k the lot of them!

Good point, especially since FDR served 3 terms.

Here you go, from Fortune:

Which President Had the Best Returning Stock Market?
Looking at the S&P 500's returns during the first year of the first term of every president, Trump comes out fourth.

ROOSEVELT(1932) 30.5
KENNEDY(1960) 27
BUSH SR.(1988) 22.2
TRUMP(2016) 21
CLINTON(1992) 10.8
JOHNSON(1964) 8.3
OBAMA(2008) 8.2
HOOVER(1928) 2.9
EISENHOWER(1952) 0.2
TRUMAN(1948) -3
REAGAN(1980) -3.3
NIXON(1968) -5.7
CARTER(1976) -11.4
BUSH JR.(2000) -21.9

Stock buybacks tend to skew these numbers up a little, and there'll be plenty more of them when the tax reform kicks in. Of course we all know that the purpose of the tax bill is to enable executives to boost their share prices through buybacks and then line their own pockets with the resulting bonuses increase investment that will create jobs for ordinary working people.

He was elected to the Presidency four times but died about three months into his fourth term, a brilliant president.

[heganboy]

4 terms from Trump would lead to a let them eat cake moment...

[J70]

4 terms from Trump would lead to a let them eat cake moment...

In retrospect, whatever the political motives at the time for the 22nd amendment, one has to be thankful at times like this for its passing!

[Syferus]

4 terms from Trump would lead to a let them eat cake moment...

In retrospect, whatever the political motives at the time for the 22nd amendment, one has to be thankful at times like this for its passing!

Mainly because FDR liked the idea of being a 'benign' dictator and broke the gentlemans' agreement and went for a third (and fourth!) straight term..

[J70]

So apparently now Bannon (yes Bannon!) had nothing to do with Trump's presidency, was rarely in one in one meetings with him, and "lost his mind" after being fired!

Context: Bannon contributed to a new book in which he spilled some beans and gave not too encouraging opinions on the Russia connections and money laundering.

[whitey]

So apparently now Bannon (yes Bannon!) had nothing to do with Trump's presidency, was rarely in one in one meetings with him, and "lost his mind" after being fired!

Context: Bannon contributed to a new book in which he spilled some beans and gave not too encouraging opinions on the Russia connections and money laundering.

Haha....awkward for the Democrats when their enemies, enemy becomes their friend (sorta kinda)

Reminds me of when Nancy Regan came out in favor of stem cell research (which was in line with Obamas rather than McCains position) and all of a sudden she was an authority on the matter according to Democrats -lol

[Syferus]

So apparently now Bannon (yes Bannon!) had nothing to do with Trump's presidency, was rarely in one in one meetings with him, and "lost his mind" after being fired!

Context: Bannon contributed to a new book in which he spilled some beans and gave not too encouraging opinions on the Russia connections and money laundering.

Haha....awkward for the Democrats when their enemies, enemy becomes their friend (sorta kinda)

Reminds me of when Nancy Regan came out in favor of stem cell research (which was in line with Obamas rather than McCains position) and all of a sudden she was an authority on the matter according to Democrats -lol

It takes more spin than a Beyblade to get a jibe at the Democrats out of Bannon disowning Trump.

This thread is full of ideologues such as yourself who have no business discussing anything as your positions are completely intractable and predictable.

[J70]

So apparently now Bannon (yes Bannon!) had nothing to do with Trump's presidency, was rarely in one in one meetings with him, and "lost his mind" after being fired!

Context: Bannon contributed to a new book in which he spilled some beans and gave not too encouraging opinions on the Russia connections and money laundering.

Haha....awkward for the Democrats when their enemies, enemy becomes their friend (sorta kinda)

Reminds me of when Nancy Regan came out in favor of stem cell research (which was in line with Obamas rather than McCains position) and all of a sudden she was an authority on the matter according to Democrats -lol

Yes, this is very awkward for Democrats and Bannon is now the Oracle. That's the take home message here...

Get a grip of yourself.

And the point of Nancy Reagan and other Republicans like Rob Portman suddenly seeing the light is that it's all very easy to be anti-gay or anti-stem cell research or anti- whatever until the issue hits home and affects your own personal reality. Then suddenly you see that there's human beings with real actual lives and problems who are affected, not some imaginary monster who's coming to prey on your kids.

[seafoid]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-russia-steve-bannon-michael-wolff

Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president's son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic", according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian.

Trump-Russia investigation: the key questions answered

 

Read more

Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: "They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV."

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, reportedly based on more than 200 interviews with the president, his inner circle and players in and around the administration, is one of the most eagerly awaited political books of the year. In it, Wolff lifts the lid on a White House lurching from crisis to crisis amid internecine warfare, with even some of Trump's closest allies expressing contempt for him.

Bannon, who was chief executive of the Trump campaign in its final three months, then White House chief strategist for seven months before returning to the rightwing Breitbart News, is a central figure in the nasty, cutthroat drama, quoted extensively, often in salty language.

He is particularly scathing about a June 2016 meeting involving Trump's son Donald Jr, son-in-law Jared Kushner, then campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York. A trusted intermediary had promised documents that would "incriminate" rival Hillary Clinton but instead of alerting the FBI to a potential assault on American democracy by a foreign power, Trump Jr replied in an email: "I love it."

The meeting was revealed by the New York Times in July last year, prompting Trump Jr to say no consequential material was produced. Soon after, Wolff writes, Bannon remarked mockingly: "The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers.

"Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately."

Bannon went on, Wolff writes, to say that if any such meeting had to take place, it should have been set up "in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people". Any information, he said, could then be "dump[ed] ... down to Breitbart or something like that, or maybe some other more legitimate publication".

Bannon added: "You never see it, you never know it, because you don't need to ... But that's the brain trust that they had."

Bannon has criticised Trump's decision to fire Comey. In Wolff's book, obtained by the Guardian ahead of publication from a bookseller in New England, he suggests White House hopes for a quick end to the Mueller investigation are gravely misplaced.

"You realise where this is going," he is quoted as saying. "This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to f**king Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr and Jared Kushner ... It's as plain as a hair on your face."

Last month it was reported that federal prosecutors had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank, the German financial institution that has lent hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kushner property empire. Bannon continues: "It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner shit. The Kushner shit is greasy. They're going to go right through that. They're going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me."

Scorning apparent White House insouciance, Bannon reaches for a hurricane metaphor: "They're sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five."

Trump is not spared. Wolff writes that Thomas Barrack Jr, a billionaire who is one of the president's oldest associates, allegedly told a friend: "He's not only crazy, he's stupid."

[Harold Disgracey]

Based on this it should be an interesting read!

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-book-donald-trump.html