Trump: The First Year

Certainly not all, but some. TPP is gone. Clean Power Plan is gone. Increased border enforcement and less ilegals. It took Obama 18 months of wheeling and dealing to get ACA. Don’t worry H, he’ll vindicate your vote for him. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

No doubt. But I think comparing things like ACA and the stimulus package to increased border support is quite a ways off. Major pieces of legislation.

If tweeting was a campaign promise he was beyond killing it.

Untitled

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Who knew? The secret to our border was just add 50 bil to the defense spending. What a DEALMAKER.

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Even though I was just ribbing you. He has decreased illegal immigration and increased ICE deportations. Haitians who overstayed their 2010 temporary visas are fleeing to Canada. Venezuelans are applying for asylum in Mexico instead of crossing illegally into the US. So less illegals but no wall yet. That’s a half kept promise so far.

He did what he could do without the establishment Republicans he ran against (TPP and CPP). He will need some legislation for healthcare, wall and taxes. I think he’ll get something from Congress. I don’t think they dare go into the 2018 primaries with no tax cut at least. They’ve been promising tax cut since 2010.

Never meant to compare ACA to increased deportations and executive orders. Just meant that legislation will happen. It will undoubtedly be terrific.

If he gets comprehensive tax reform (that makes sense of course) done I will certainly cheer that accomplishment. Devil will be in the details on the tax stuff.

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We better stop talking. If we agree any more this week it will create a worm hole lmao.

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FWIW, I’ve worked with quite a few Venezuelans who’ve fled from Chavez and later from Maduro. Venezuela had the best education system in South America before…well, socialism and the people I’ve worked with were excellent engineers.

So as far as immigrants go, illegal or legal one can get a lot worse that Venezuelans.

I understand that Spain is actively trying to attract educated Venezuelans to settle in Spain.

Sure beats van driving Moroccans.

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Venezuela was the wealthiest South American country before socialism. It wasn’t that damn long ago. Cuba had some very smart people before the revolution also. It’s almost like corrupt despots and marxism ruin countries.

While I’d like free migration everywhere in a perfect world, we don’t have a perfect world. You can’t have an over generous social safety hammock and open borders. See Europe for the reason why not.

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You misunderstood my point - I’m saying it’s a chance to harvest the human capital of the Venezuelan educated middle class, not open the door to everyone.

As far as Europe goes, there’s migration and there’s migration.

France has a massive influx of imigrants from Portugal, for example, with Paris having the second largest number of Portugese nationals after Lisbon.

Ever heard of a Portuguese ghetto? Me neither.

Romanians dominate the healthcare and senior care industry sector in Germany, while even in eastern Europe over one million Ukrainians immigrated into Poland in the last few years.

That’s the free movement of the workforce inside the EU based on the laws of supply and demand, not semi literate Afghans crossing national borders at will who have no desire nor ability to contribute anything to the host nation.

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Have to have more in common than you think. We both have basement gyms!

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Stop! Aren’t you afraid of the wormhole?

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Do you think that will be benefit to tens of millions in Venezuela, who need the people able to do more than push a broom, to right the country?

What they need is the removal of yet another tyrant, who has destroyed the lives and efforts of millions to enrich themselves as despots.

Are they morally compelled to stay in a failed state? Maduro isn’t going anywhere fast.

The term ‘harvest’’ struck me as odd, predatory.
I don’t know if l think it’s a moral compulsion, even though that is probably a component of one’s patriotism.

I was merely thinking how difficult a time any organization has with its high-performance human capital depleted - schools, sports teams, militaries, corporations, even nations.

I have some sympathy for those concerns, but I propose that if there is to be capital flight from a failed state (and I think for Venezuela there is no doubt that all that is left for that country is to pile up its funeral pyre) then it is better for us and them to take the best of the human capital, rather than wasting it on a crumbling kleptocracy.

The West was profoundly improved by the influx of refugees from Lebanon, and there is little doubt that they could not have put a massive dent in the grotesque violence there.

As a patriot, I can see why you would want them to stay, but as a practical consideration, I would say they can do nothing to fix the situation and those who can should flee.

I’ll just drop this here.

This started a fight last time like I was giving Trump some credit for magicking jobs out of thin air. I don’t think there’s anything special about Trump. It’s just going from a President who actively tried to block and stifle energy companies to one who doesn’t.

Also it looks like the rest of the world is looking for clean coal and natural gas to provide the baseload and add megawatts in the future. So while everyone else signed the Paris agreement and then planned to build plants anyway… what’s worse? Lying about it or pulling out?

From a political standpoint I think if more people have jobs and larger 401k’s in 2020 then Trump gets re-elected. ‘Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?’ Him firing his whole cabinet and being a goober won’t matter.

https://www.platts.com/latest-news/coal/sydney/japan-plans-to-build-45-new-coal-power-plants-27762428

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I think a lot of this stems from Obama getting no/little credit for turning around the entire economy. I agree though, 2 thumbs up for more jobs. No shits given about who spawned them.

Does the agreement stipulate no more energy that isn’t clean? Serious question, I’m not well versed on it.

Important to remember, the coal miners who now have jobs were going to vote for Trump regardless of these factors. If he sacs the jobs of people that may or may not vote for him, while giving jobs to the people that are going to vote for him anyway, it turns into a net loss in votes.

RIP America. When being a goober (and colluding with Russia) doesn’t matter as long as the company you’re working for is successful.

"There is a great irony that spans the presidential terms of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. President Bush, widely viewed as a Texas oil man, presided over eight straight years of declining U.S. crude oil production. In the year 2000, just before President Bush took office, U.S. crude oil production averaged 5.8 million barrels per day (bpd) according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). During President Bush’s last year in office, 2008, U.S. crude oil production averaged 5.0 million bpd.

The irony is that President Obama - who is not viewed as a friend of the oil and gas industry - has presided over rising oil production in each of the seven years he has been in office. (On a separate note, expect that streak to be broken in 2016). From that low point in 2008, U.S. oil production has grown each year to reach 9.4 million bpd in 2015 – a gain of 88% during Obama’s presidency. This is in fact the largest domestic oil production increase during any presidency in U.S. history."

There is no inherent contradiction between signing the Paris Accord and building new carbon-based energy plants.

Re the opening of coal mines, the following is from your first link:

“The revival of the industry was one of Trump’s main talking points while on the stump last year and helped him win over working-class voters in Pennsylvania’s coal country.”

More accurately, Trump campaigned on bring coal jobs back. And in that regard, from the same link:

“The first Corsa Coal mine to open since Trump took office in January is roughly 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and is expected to generate as many as 100 new jobs.” [emphasis mine]

The point being, regulations didn’t kill coal jobs–automation (and natural gas) did. Those 10s of thousand of coal jobs–they are never coming back.

Regarding the second link about the ‘clean coal plant’ opening in Texas:

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@Basement_Gainz

Couldn’t resist.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/secret-service-cant-pay-agents-due-to-trump-travel-family/ar-AAqsmrJ?ocid=sf