Robert Nasir writes:
"Just about everyone here knows my stand on the [US] President ... he is a dishonest, power-hungry, narcissistic, crude, lecherous, adulterous, dictator-envious, free-speech-threatening, felonious, insurrectionist bully ... and his election was a bad, bad thing for the country, for many reasons, both concrete and abstract, for our culture and for our philosophic future.
"But for all of that (and more), folks can read my other posts & comments, and follow me on all the socials.
"Here, I am working on the rest of the story.
"Including, among other things, listing some of the reasons why some reasonable people ... people we all know, and respect ... support the President. ...
"I've already published my list of reasons why President Trump is a force for ill [the worst thing is that he has destroyed the Republican Party, turning it into the Party of Trump. For all its faults and flaws, the Republican Party was a credible opposition party.
"No longer. Trump has crowded out or silenced (i.e. cancelled) all independent, principled voices in the Party.]
"And this matters, crucially, because The Left DOES need to be fought. For all its faults and flaws, the Republican Party was a credible opposition party...
"But this current list is important (at least, to me) for keeping the full context, and understanding why some very good people continue to support him. ...That said ...
[So] I'm putting together my list of good things Donald Trump has done ... a very loose category, but important for acknowledging the full reality of what's going on. ...
- "He has condemned, and imposed sanctions on, the International Criminal Court (ICC). (Feb 6 2025)
- "He has started the process of withdrawing from The United Nations by withdrawing from, and ending support for, the UNHRC; the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). (Feb 3 2025)
- "He has committed to deregulation via a 10-for-1 directive and annual financial review of federal regulatory agencies. While the method is arbitrary, ad hoc, and untargeted, it will have at least some positive impact. (Jan 31 2025)
- "He has passed measures to condemn and combat Anti-Semitism in federally supported institutions (including, but not limited to, public universities). (Jan 29 2025)
- "He has (once again) withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. (Jan 25 2025)
- "He has ended the federal EV mandate (surprisingly, given its favourability to Elon Musk). (Jan 20 2025)
- "He has passed an EO to deregulate energy production broadly, across all forms, on federal lands and waters (including, e.g., re-opening offshore drilling the Outer Continental Shelf, expediting the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska). (Jan 20 2025)
- "He ended the affirmative action mandate in federal government hiring. (Jan 20 2025)
- "He has initiated the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). (Jan 20 2025)
- "His 'Initial Rescissions Of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions' include the repeal of a 78 previous orders, the majority of which were inappropriate, economically harmful, and otherwise detrimental or dangerous."
"The last time around [points out Keith Weiner], he claimed to deregulate--but in fact [simply] increased regulations at a slower pace than Obama increased them. Trump also increased the aggressiveness of compliance enforcement of financial regulations to the point where the banks were forced to closed God knows how many accounts, and retrain all employees from tellers to executives in the new Anti-Money Laundering regime."Not to mention adding so much debt he oversaw the third-biggest deficit increase of any president in history! And, well, it was him who kicked off those trade wars.
So ...
"It’s good to keep records on all this, to be objective [says Amy Nasir]. But yes, the method of the man is that of a rabid squirrel, and if these ten things prove to provide a better future in some ways, they are accidental and most likely short-term gains. In the meantime, it’s almost impossible to list all the cons of the conman."
2 comments:
This is of course akin to looking at 'The Two Good Things from the Jacinda Ardern Administration. But I can help you there too:
First Good Thing from the JA Administration: the use in legislation of so-called Sunset Clauses, meaning that the law expires after a set period. More new law should have this.
Second Good Thing from the JA Administration: Her pronouncement that "tax collection is not a core government business." More governments should recognise this.
Just to note: the major use of the Sunset Clause was in the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020, section 3.
As I said back then, "*Every* new law should have one. And why not?! Imagine if that was at the head of all new legislation instead of clauses about the Treaty of Waitangi! Imagine if, instead of parliament spending all their time writing and ranting about new laws and regulation (when there are already so many goddamn pages cluttering up law libraries) they spent their time justifying to each other (and to us) the continuation of existing law!"
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