Patterico's Pontifications

12/31/2018

Political Commentator: Trump’s Top 10 Achievements of 2018

Filed under: General — Dana @ 4:59 pm



[guest post by Dana]

I’ll just leave this here. Hit the link to read the entire explanation of listed accomplishments.

Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court – As messy and unfair as the process was, his confirmation secures another conservative jurist with an originalist constitutional approach and a restrained view of judicial power…With Neil Gorsuch and Kavanaugh in place, Trump has kept his promise to remake the high court with young, conservative thinkers.

Confronting China – Much of the heartland anxiety that vaulted Trump into the Oval Office emanates directly from the abusive economic warfare waged by China for decades against the United States. At long last, those workers find a champion in Donald Trump, who slapped serious tariffs upon Beijing and finally forced the regime to negotiate fairly…

Middle-Class Wages Rise – Incomes in general soared in 2018, with average hourly earnings finally eclipsing 3 percent growth for the first time since before the Great Recession. The news is even better for blue-collar workers, who now realize wage growth above that of white-collar workers for the first time in nearly a decade.

U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Deal – Trump proved that America welcomes equitable global commerce by cementing a badly needed modernization of NAFTA. The USMCA provides a template for other such trade pacts and effectively isolates China’s increasingly untenable posture.

Ending the Iran Nuclear Deal – …Instead of counting the billions of dollars of cash sent via secret nighttime flights by the Obama administration, the Tehran regime now faces a U.S. leadership determined to thwart its tyranny and prevent its nuclearization.

Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem – …Past presidents promised for decades to make this move and U.S. law has required it since 1995, but only President Trump made good on his pledge, honored our ally, and recognized the obvious reality that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel.

Smashing the ISIS Caliphate and Exiting Syria – …Unlike his predecessor…President Trump smartly dispatched limited U.S. troops to help our partners erase the territorial caliphate that had inflicted unspeakable human rights abuses…

Increasing Minority Jobs – If Trump is actually racist, as biased mainstream media “journalists” often claim, he’s remarkably bad at it, because people of color have thrived under the pro-growth policies of the Trump Boom…

Holding the Line with Migrant Caravans – In the face of continual demagoguery from liberal politicians and their allies in the legacy media, President Trump took a tough and principled stance against would-be trespassers…

Record American Oil Production – In 2018, the U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of crude oil.

There’s a lot to chew on.

Have at it.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

41 Responses to “Political Commentator: Trump’s Top 10 Achievements of 2018”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (023079)

  2. Bringing Realism to Holidays — Trump became the first President in history to face head on the seemingly intractable problem of seven-year-olds who still believe in Santa, and initiated a policy of personally disabusing them from seasonal fairy tales.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  3. Driving The Media Bonkers — When they criticize him, he doesn’t try to placate them, he cusses them out, and that’s been long overdue.

    nk (dbc370)

  4. You guys are too funny!!

    Dana (023079)

  5. Well it’s a short trip, even shorter from wherever Spiegel publishes,

    Narciso (caabae)

  6. Grouping them
    Kavanaugh & Oil Production Yes, they deserve a slot on the list
    Work in progress, foreign edition
    China, Iran, ISIS. No evidence Trump’s methods are actually having any impact. One can add Korea there. And if we truly withdraw from Syria, that last will effectively go out the window
    Work in progress
    Wage growth and job growth (minority and otherwise), with the caveat that tariffs and Trump’s desire for low interest rates (which equates to a bias against people saving and investing instead of spending) can easily throw those in reverse.
    Nothingburgers
    Nafta 2.0 and the Embassy in Jerusalem
    No way
    “Caravans” and more generally immigration. First off, most of the demagoguery comes from Trump. Second, Trump’s policies are making the situation worse, because they run counter to reality. He wants to make it harder to immigrate legally. Whereas in truth the only effective way to decrease illegal immigration is to make it easier to get here legally. Those migrants are abusing the asylum because they have no reasonable hope of getting here legally.

    Kishnevi (bb4469)

  7. Clarification
    No evidence Trump’s methods are actually having any impact. was referring to China and Iran, not Syria.

    Kishnevi (bb4469)

  8. Record trade deficit with China.

    Worst year for the stock market in ten years.

    Worst December for the stock market since the great depression.

    Tens of thousands of automotive job losses.

    Not a centavo collected from Mexico for the wall they owe us. Now trying to make us pay for a fake wall.

    $1T more tacked onto the debt.

    Life expectancy: down again – Trump is literally killing us all!

    Campaign manager – sentenced to hard time.

    Personal attorney – sentenced to hard time.

    National security advisor – guilty and facing hard time.

    tl;dr – Orange Man Bad

    Dave (1bb933)

  9. I agree about Kavanaugh. As for China, it’s good in principle to confront them about trade, intellectual property and cyber warfare, but tariffs weren’t the answer.
    Agreed on middle class wages, but the rise has been very gradual. The trade deals with Mexico and Canada are minor improvements, but our trade relationships with allies have worsened in general. On net, no achievement.
    Ending the Iran deal was the opposite of an achievement, and moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem was symbolism over substance, which is something that Rush used to mock Democrats for.
    The achievement of degrading the Islamic State is offset by Trump’s cut-and-run from Syria, thus betraying our real allies, the Syrian Kurds, not to mention the impending cut-and-run from Afghanistan. As for minority jobs, two things can be true: Trump can be a racist and job growth can have occurred among minorities.
    On the migrant caravans, the demagoguery went in both directions. It was good to protect our borders from illegals, but deploying our armed forces was a waste. Becoming oil-independent is an unalterable good.

    Paul Montagu (c0e0d4)

  10. Wet flounders give a more solid reading than this crew, we haven’t done anything substantial on any of these issues in 30 years and if Afghanistan we’ve gone around in circle for 17 years.

    Narciso (caabae)

  11. Speaking of style over substance, if this is correct, (the site is run by skydragon worshippers) the US can’t actually withdraw from the Paris Accord until the day after the 2020 elections.

    Just as there is a process to accede to the Paris Agreement, there is a process to withdraw. And that process has a timetable. The United States cannot officially announce its plan to withdraw from the agreement until November 4, 2019. At that time, if Donald Trump is still president and hasn’t changed his mind, he can send a letter to the U.N. secretary general notifying the organization of America’s intent to leave. There is a one-year waiting period before that withdrawal takes effect, which means the earliest the United States can officially exit the Paris accord is November 4, 2020.

    https://www.nrdc.org/stories/america-actually-out-paris-agreement

    Kishnevi (bb4469)

  12. They wouldn’t be screaming if it wasnt underway yes David Fenton’s alar scam thirty five years later.

    Narciso (caabae)

  13. Happy New Year to all of you.

    Kishnevi (bb4469)

  14. Speaking of style over substance, if this is correct, (the site is run by skydragon worshippers) the US can’t actually withdraw from the Paris Accord until the day after the 2020 elections.

    Yes, that was always the case, the withdrawal was “fake news” as the accords that didn’t require the US to do anything, also can’t be withdrawn from until Nov 4th 2020.

    In accordance with Article 28 of the Paris Agreement, the earliest possible effective withdrawal date by the United States cannot be before November 4, 2020, four years after the Agreement came into effect in the United States and one day after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

    Colonel Klink (Ret) (6e7a1c)

  15. Reads like a RealClear case of collusion w/Trump.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  16. Reads like a RealClear case of collusion w/Trump.

    If media collusion with an administration were a crime, Obama would have been subjected to capital punishment before he was even inaugurated.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  17. Calling The French “Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys” To Their Faces — Practically, anyway, if not in so many words.

    Thanks for reminding me, kishnevi. As for the Obama Accords, they are certainly not Treaties which are binding on the United States since they were not approved by the Senate, but I suppose they do raise interesting questions of apparent authority and ultra vires and Obama’s liability to indemnify the United States in the event of international sanctions. If we could be bothered to raise them, instead of simply ignoring them.

    nk (dbc370)

  18. Must be Sean Trende? That’s what happens when you’re from a place that doesn’t have an R until 2 hours out from downtown Chi. And if you go to one of the other ITV links downwind of Narcisos post, some Greek now has a way to keep every 3rd mattress store open.

    urbanleftbehind (8241bf)

  19. @17. His first or the second inaugural? 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  20. @7. Check the ratings.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  21. @17. His first or the second inaugural?

    I suppose if it were not a crime until he was inaugurated that they would have had to wait until President Obama finished with “. . . so help me God” on that Monday back in 2009 before they could have cuffed him and marched him off the podium.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  22. As for the Obama Accords, they are certainly not Treaties which are binding on the United States since they were not approved by the Senate, but I suppose they do raise interesting questions of apparent authority and ultra vires and Obama’s liability to indemnify the United States in the event of international sanctions. If we could be bothered to raise them, instead of simply ignoring them.

    I would give serious thought to voting for Trump in 2020 if the UN fined us $2.5 billion for failing to live up to the Paris Accords and the Trump Administration simply took the fine out of our annual $2.7 billion subsidy to the organization. Actually, I would like it more if he told them to go pound sand, refused the pay the “fine,” and withheld our contribution anyway.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  23. Whoops, had the number wrong. The $2.7 billion figure is the entire annual operating budget for the body, and our taxpayers contribute about $600 million of that.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  24. TIL Under the Napoleonic Code, a witness in court who has been convicted of a crime which carries with it loss of civil rights, i.e. a felony, or who admits to currently engaging in immoral practices even if he has not been convicted of a crime, is not impeached on cross-examination by the opposing attorney. He is not entitled to be sworn in as a witness at all!

    nk (dbc370)

  25. I would be fine with him withholding the subsidy now.

    Kishnevi (e2dc4e)

  26. Poor CNN and Foxies. If there was only some news instead of party to cover live this New Year’s Eve.

    Oh wait, there is; New Horizons has swept past Ultima Thule, 4 billion miles out in the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto this night. Well done boys and girls at NASA/JPL… thanks to NASA TeeVee for trumping Trump and staying open for business.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  27. Happy New Year, everybody!

    nk (dbc370)

  28. Happy New Year, Pontificators!

    Dave (1bb933)

  29. Welcome 2019; Happy New Year to all!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  30. The silent biggie for Trump in the next few months … seeing the tax cut show up in tax returns

    Neo (d1c681)

  31. Interesting that RCP didn’t count Trump’s support of the criminal justice reform bill as a top-ten achievement, which has now been passed by both houses. Perhaps because the House and Senate have been doing the actual heavy lifting.

    Paul Montagu (dc8272)

  32. Because much like the 1986 tax bill, it will not turn out as well.

    Narciso (1afc0f)

  33. Narciso…are u in #35 referring to the tax cut or the criminal justice reform?

    urbanleftbehind (8241bf)

  34. Criminal justice reform, whenever they push that modifier out i get twitchy, I guess welfare reform was the last one that worked well.

    Narciso (1afc0f)

  35. You and I agree on that one. That’s the mentally ill mainstreaming of this half century, having gotten suckered by folk that went Gillum/Abrams behind d the curtain.

    urbanleftbehind (8241bf)

  36. Not bad considering Trump had the active opposition of all right thinking people

    Thud Muffle (5a4596)

  37. Trump organization under investigation by US Attorneys and the FBI in Manhattan for fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, among other things, including campaign finance violations. Trump charity closed for self-dealing. Trump hotel and golf course at Bedminster under investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General for hiring illegal immigrants and distributing fake green cards, passports and Social Security numbers. Trump hotel in DC being sued by Attorney Generals in Maryland and Virginia for violations of the emoluments clause. Kushner company under investigation by US Attorneys in Brooklyn for fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, among other things, including hawking fast-track visas for citizenship to foreign oligarchs. Multiple indictments, guilty pleas and convictions by the special counsel, before Mueller has filed his report to the Department of Justice. Did I leave anything out? Oh, yeah, a crumbling stock market and an imminent global recession brought about by idiotic tariffs and trade wars, the alienation of democratic allies and the sucking up to corrupt authoritarian regimes. Happy New Year.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0759 secs.