Saturday, April 8, 2017

Trump not getting anything done?

Think again

 CLIMATE CHANGE
Trump signed an executive order last week to deliver on his pledge to unravel Obama's efforts to curb global warming. The order launched a review of the Clean Power Plan, Obama's chief effort to curb carbon emissions by restricting greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. Trump also lifted a 14-month-old halt on new coal leases on federal lands. The Obama administration had imposed a three-year freeze on such leases in January of last year.
The executive order covers a range of other Obama-era rules, including requirements to factor the "social cost" of carbon emissions into all regulatory actions and to crack down on methane emissions at oil and gas wells. Business groups had complained to Trump, himself a businessman, that the rules were intrusive and expensive.
INTERNET PRIVACY
Trump is expected to sign a measure soon to block online privacy regulations the Federal Communications Commission issued during Obama's final months in office. It's a first step toward allowing internet providers to sell information about their customers' browsing habits. The FCC rule was designed to give consumers more control over how companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon share information. Critics complained that the rule would have increased costs, stifled innovation and picked winners and losers among internet companies.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer says the rule represents the type of "federal overreach" that Trump pledged as a candidate to reverse.
ABORTION/FAMILY PLANNING
Trump is expected to sign legislation erasing another Obama rule, one that barred states from withholding federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood affiliates and other clinics that provide abortions. The rule was finalized shortly before Obama left office in January.
The measure cleared the Senate last week with Vice President Mike Pence, who is also president of the Senate, casting the tie-breaking 51st vote in the 100-member chamber.
KEYSTONE XL OIL PIPELINE
Trump greenlighted the long-delayed project on March 24, reversing Obama's decision less than 18 months earlier. After Trump invited TransCanada, the Canadian company building the $8 billion pipeline, to resubmit its application, the State Department approved the project, saying it would advance U.S. national interests. Obama had said the project would not.
Approval came nearly a decade after TransCanada applied to complete the 1,700-mile (2,735 kilometers) pipeline to carry oil from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.
Trump says the project will reduce costs and reliance on foreign oil, and create thousands of jobs. Obama had said it would undercut U.S. credibility in international efforts to tackle climate change.
DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE
Under Obama, the Army Corps of Engineers had declined in December to allow pipeline construction under South Dakota's Lake Oahe on grounds that alternate routes needed to be considered. Native American tribes had sued to block construction, arguing that the pipeline threatened their water supply and cultural sites.
The project has moved forward again under Trump, who acted shortly after taking office. In February, the Army Corps of Engineers abandoned further study and granted an easement that was needed to complete the pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners immediately began drilling under the lake.
FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS
The Trump administration is re-examining federal requirements governing the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks. In 2012, the Obama administration set fuel economy regulations for model years 2017-2025 and agreed to complete a midterm evaluation by next year. Then, days before Obama left office, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to keep stringent requirements it had set in place for model years 2022-2025.
The auto industry balked. Trump announced in Michigan that he's putting the midterm review back on track. His decision has no immediate effect but requires the EPA to determine no later than April 2018 whether the 2022-2025 standards are appropriate.
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
Obama was his administration's biggest cheerleader for the sweeping agreement involving the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations. But the Senate needed to ratify it, and bipartisan opposition basically doomed it before he left office.
As a candidate, Trump railed against this agreement and pledged to withdraw from it, saying he was a better negotiator and could strike better deals. Shortly after taking office, he directed the U.S. trade representative to withdraw and said he would pursue individual deals with the other countries.
ABORTION/MEXICO CITY POLICY
Trump reinstated a ban on providing federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide information about them. Obama had lifted the ban when he took office in 2009.
Known as the "Mexico City Policy" or, by critics, as the "global gag rule," the regulation has been a political volleyball, instituted by Republican administrations and rescinded by Democratic ones since 1984. Trump signed it one day after the 44th anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. The policy also prohibits taxpayer funding for groups that lobby to legalize abortion or promote it as a family planning method.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Trump has instructed the Department of Labor to delay an Obama-era rule that would require financial professionals who charge commissions to put their clients' best interests first when advising them on retirement investments. The "fiduciary rule" was aimed at blocking consultants from steering clients toward investments with higher commissions and fees that can eat away at retirement savings. The rule was to take effect this month. The financial services industry argued that the rule would limit retirees' investment choices by forcing asset managers to steer them to low-risk options.

(LINK)

45 comments:

caliphate4vr said...

The moment Stockholm police catch the third beer truck 'terrorist' after a dramatic high-speed car chase: 'ISIS-supporting' Uzbeki father-of-four, 39, is arrested before another suspect is led away in handcuffs

But Sweden doesn't have any problems.

Anonymous said...

: 'ISIS-supporting' Uzbeki father-of-four, 39,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

sure but... will we ever be able to determine a motive?


Coldheartedtruth Teller said...

Not one, using the legislative process as called out in the Constitution.

This is how a dictatorship governs, by decree.

Although according to Donald Trump won by a historical margin, and drew the largest crowd size in history to his inauguration, he was unable to repeal Obamacare and replace it.

He is governing be executive order, because he is unable to follow the Constitutional process.

In order to get his nominee to the Supreme Court, the Republicans had to use the nuclear option to approve the nomination. This is after, the Republicans wouldn't even speak to the nominee chosen by President Obama.

He claimed that he has had the most successful 13 weeks of any previous President. He had been in office for 11 weeks.

He still claims that President Obama wiretapping claim is accurate, despite the not FAKE TRUTH, that completely proves it never happened.

He is successfully governing by decree. At least as our esteemed host claims.

Commonsense said...

You weren't so distressed when the dictator was Obama.

Hypocrisy ---- Bedrock ---- Liberalism

Coldheartedtruth Teller said...

Iceland is melting.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/24/vr/iceland-glaciers-climate-change-vr/

Graphic photographs show far and fast is melting.

More science denial by the Trump Monarchy.

Coldheartedtruth Teller said...

Your hypocrisy is in full force.

You support King Trump's executive orders, but condemning every single one by President Barack Hussein Obama.

He was born in Kenya, like King Trump claimed for five years.

Commonsense said...

Get back to me when Trump is overturned by the supreme court as many times as Obama has.

Anonymous said...




it's called "winning bigly" liver boy.

get used to it.


Anonymous said...

Commonsense said...
Get back to me when Trump is overturned by the supreme court as many times as Obama has.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


ouch. that's gonna leave a mark.

hey alky, you better put some ice on that.

Anonymous said...

Blogger Roger Amick said...
Your hypocrisy is in full force.

You support King Trump's executive orders, but condemning every single one by President Barack Hussein Obama.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


whose hypocrisy, rog?

you cheered every single time ol' skeets picked up his 'pen and phone' as did many dem members of congress who were so enamored with your dear leader they willfully and gleefully abdicated their power under the constitution.

and now you're pissed that trump is governing in the exact same fashion, albeit from the opposite direction.

so it was ok then, but suddenly now it's a problem?

huh.

Anonymous said...


More science denial by the Trump Monarchy.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


haven't you heard?

climate science, like gender, is a "social construct."

we're going to make you play by your own rules.

opie said...

You are frigging nuts.....getting rid of cafe standards. Abortion rules and defunding PP, reducing risks to retirees investments and favoring commission salesman like pauline... STUPID, be proud.

The financial services industry argued that the rule would limit retirees' investment choices by forcing asset managers to steer them to low-risk options.

That ain't getting shit done, CH. Sorry, you should be enjoying paris instead of being a hack on you blog.

opie said...

climate science, like gender, is a "social construct."

And you are still a dumb ass

Loretta said...

"we're going to make you play by your own rules."

If Congress won't act, TRUMP will.

KD said...

Both houses of the California legislature passed a 12-cent gasoline tax hike on Thursday, meeting Governor Jerry Brown’s deadline to provide an estimated $52 billion in new revenues"

CA Dreaming got you in a haze, President Jerry Brown, nice ring , right?

The people of the Great State of California can not be taxed enough.

I am in favor of that State taxing more for everything, IF , that is even possible.

KD, Waiting on Honest Opie said...

The "fiduciary rule".

Interesting, opium who do you invest with , by name, thanks.


Loretta said...

I doubt Trump will pull an Obama. If he does, then we should all bitch. He hasn't begun to reach Obama's slight of hand...

"We were bombing the capital of a foreign power with a recognized government. We were spending billions in war funding. Yet, the Obama administration was allowed to simply call it not a “war” but a “time-limited, scope-limited military action” or a “kinetic action.” Indeed, the Administration insisted to the court that the President alone defines what is a war. Thus, as long as he does not use that noun, Article I effectively does not apply. You can call it a “police action” or a training exercise or a bean bag and that is all that you need to claim the right to go to war on a president’s sole authority."

Jonathan Turley 4/7/2017

caliphate4vr said...

The "fiduciary rule".

Interesting, opium who do you invest with , by name, thanks.


Fatty doesn't know squat about anything, beyond pies

Another walk on Crescent beach and paddle boarding at St Augustine tomorrow

KD, Roger cunt-n-paste said...

The Beach and boarding sounds like fun, enjoy.

Odopie and Roger Krugman Tell us how smart they are at personal finance, yet, when ask for details and an open discussion they run and hide.

Coldheartedtruth Teller said...

I've been busy. Gym today. Then I see the White House is in turmoil and the Russians have been busy. H/T Josh Marshall.

There's quite a lot of news today in the news world. But I wanted to focus briefly on a story in The New York Times last evening about what the US government knew and/or believed about Russian election interference operations last summer and fall.

These two paragraphs are the most noteworthy in the piece (emphasis added) ...

In an Aug. 25 briefing for Harry Reid, then the top Democrat in the Senate, Mr. Brennan indicated that Russia’s hackings appeared aimed at helping Mr. Trump win the November election, according to two former officials with knowledge of the briefing.
The officials said Mr. Brennan also indicated that unnamed advisers to Mr. Trump might be working with the Russians to interfere in the election. The F.B.I. and two congressional committees are now investigating that claim, focusing on possible communications and financial dealings between Russian affiliates and a handful of former advisers to Mr. Trump. So far, no proof of collusion has emerged publicly.

The key here is that the CIA had decided much earlier than heretofore reported that Russia was working to elect Donald Trump President and at least had serious suspicions that members of Trump's team were collaborating with the Russians in that effort. (It wouldn't be unfair to infer from the specificity of the date of Reid's call that the sourcing of the story is tied to that particular call.)

The story also provides greater background on the disagreements between the FBI and the CIA and questions about the FBI's own actions. Indeed, it is only now that can fully contextualize former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's fury in the letter he sent to FBI Director James Comey on October 31st, 2016, after Comey himself publicly re-injected the Clinton emails story into the campaign.

No wonder Trump is sending a carrier group to to Korea. The FBI is closing in.

Loretta said...

Spam by the drunkard

Commonsense said...

Obama’s red line decision got rebuked this week (and his former advisers aren’t happy about it)

President Trump said the chemical attack was a “consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution.” Yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley defended the strike saying, “crimes against humanity could no longer be met with empty words.” Ouch! The response from many Obama partisans has been predictable and bitter.

That's not particulary news. This is news:

Many of the most head-snapping comments I heard came from Obama’s own top advisers, who had long pushed him to confront Assad more aggressively and viewed his 2013 refusal to take military action against Syria after drawing a “red line” on chemical weapons use as a major American foreign policy debacle. There’s no love lost for Trump in this group, whose members found themselves in the uncomfortable position of cheering a leader they still both loathe and fear.

“Our administration never would have gotten this done in 48 hours,” one former senior official of the Obama administration told me. “It’s a complete indictment of Obama.”

“I feel like finally we have done the right thing,” Anne-Marie Slaughter, who served as Obama’s first-term chief of policy planning at the State Department and long publicly urged a more forceful response to Assad’s horrific attacks on civilians during the six years of war that have wracked Syria, told me. “The years of hypocrisy just hurt us all. It undermined the U.S., it undermined the world order.”


Obama, worst president ever.

Coldheartedtruth Teller said...

Yeah sure.

Hot Air.com

Why not Breitbart "News"?

Loretta said...

Here you go drunkard....

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/trump-syria-attack-doctrine-foreign-policy-theory-214999

"President Not-Obama
How Trump’s Syria strike got even some key Obama advisers cheering."

opie said...

Anonymous KD, Roger cunt-n-paste said...

Odopie and Roger Krugman T

Dumber than the dirt he farms......police never join unions.....idiot.

Commonsense said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Commonsense said...

Why not Breitbart "News"?

I might be spitballing here but Breitbart is not particularly on-board with Trump attacking Syria.

Opps!

Anonymous said...

“It’s a complete indictment of Obama.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


we're going to be seeing a lot of this over the next 8 years.


LOL.

Commonsense said...

..police never join unions.....idiot.

You'd think Opie would do a little googling first before he made such a glatically stupid statement.

wphamilton said...

Signing executive orders to undo the last minute executive orders of his predecessor isn't all that impressive as far as "getting things done". It's the executive equivalent of a "gimme" in Golf, a one-foot putt. It's pretty telling that you have to dig down to that level to find something to brag on Trump about.

Frankly about half of your points amounted to announcing policy statements to federal departments. The real test of accomplishment is when or if the policy comes to fruition.

Anonymous said...

But I wanted to focus briefly on a story in The New York Times last evening about what the US government knew and/or believed about Russian election interference operations last summer and fall.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



So according to the imaginations of those who produce the Newspaper of Discord, Putin rigged the United States election to install his puppet -- who is now straining relations with Russia.

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2017/04/nyt-does-180-on-russia.html?spref=tw


the ny times is having a hard time keeping their bullshit straight.



Loretta said...

"The real test of accomplishment is when or if the policy comes to fruition."

Why would his policies not come to fruition?

Loretta said...

"the ny times is having a hard time keeping their bullshit straight."

They don't know whether to shit or wind their watch.

Anonymous said...

They don't know whether to shit or wind their watch.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


and it's not just the times. some of the geniuses at MSDNC are convinced that the syria raid was a wag the dog exercise to deflect away from the russia nonsense.

that's why i watch MSDNC. you get to look mental illness straight in the eye. it's creepy and cool at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Why would his policies not come to fruition?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


because numbskulls like paul ryan exist just to fuck things up.

Loretta said...

Aha. Good point.

Loretta said...

"might be spitballing here but Breitbart is not particularly on-board with Trump attacking Syria."

From what I'm seeing - they're worried MORE about the neocons, like Graham and McCain, driving him over a cliff.

Which is exactly what I'm worried about, and have been worried about since day one.

Loretta said...

"comments:

Loretta RussoApril 7, 2017 at 4:13 AM
Perfect response to the Asaad chemical attack.

Swift. Decisive. Targeted.

A BIG "fuck you" to Asaad, Putin, and Iran.

A little "hint" to the fat little shit in North Korea....

What's not to like?

I'm just hoping he doesn't follow the neocons over a cliff someday."

Commonsense said...

Well I think the neocons should have learned a thing or two.

1. Jeffersonian democracy is a pipe dream in the middle east. With the exception of Israel, politics is a tribal affair. And will remain so as long as Islam is the dominate religion.

2. Air strikes are fine for sending messages and degrading the enemy's ability to wage war, but to win militarily you have to gain and hold ground.

3. There's no more political will for the US to gain and hold ground. So the ground troops for the most part would have to be inferior trained and equipped "allies".

4. It goes without saying that there no political will for a 70 year occupation like we have in Germany and Japan.

5. So basically the strategy is a negotiated peace between warring tribes. Maybe carving up the Middle East along tribal lines.

KD, Opium in dishonest Like he Leash Holder Roger Krugman said...

......police never join unions" opium


Yes they do, hell a key endorsement that Hillary wanted so badly and that Obimbo in his second term got was from the Fraternal Order of Police, which is a Union, NY PD and Chicago PD Unions are legendary.

KD, DO you invest like the Three Liberal Stooges said...

Odopie and Roger Krugman Tell us how smart they are at personal finance, yet, when ask for details and an open discussion they run and hide.


Nov 9th 2016, Roger Krugman cheered the 600 plus drop , putting it on the fact that Trump Had been Elected, yet, that was erased and we have Race up 2,000 points. So the Drop was due to Trump the Rise had to be due to Trump. Those have to be the facts.


So Odopie and RK, where are you with your investment since that date?

opie said...

Anonymous KD, the idiot of the west said. ..
Odopie and Roger Krugman Tell us how smart they are at personal finance

Once again numbnutz....but non of your fucking business. I have a very healthy, diversified portfolio that would make just about any idiot here jealous also own 2 homes outright, 2 new cars and very nice pensions . What do you have other than dirt????? Go fuck your self.

opie said...

Commonsense said...
Well I think the neocons should have learned a thing or two.

Trump learned nothing, neither did his staff.. What's the end game and expected result other than retribution, which like the death penalty means nothing to the arab sate....Remember, you voted for this neophyte, now we will all pay for his lack of experience. Next, the disaster in asia, which won't end neatly.

opie said...

Signing executive orders to undo the last minute executive orders of his predecessor isn't all that impressive as far as "getting things done"

Excellent point.....screwing the environment with dirty oil pipelines, cafe standards that take much time to show up in the real world. Adding more CO2 is never a good thing while destroying arboreal forests that take eons to recover is a crime, but R's as a whole still thing GW is a hoax., just look around here.

wphamilton said...

Blogger Loretta Russo said... Why would his policies not come to fruition?

Because Trump isn't very bright and apparently suffers from Dunning-Kruger. It's possible for Trump to achieve something eventually, but it's certainly not a given. We can hope that the buffoon accidentally succeeds in something worthwhile, without doing too much damage.