His hobby is yet another lie and a con

As I've noted before, Trump plays golf a shit-ton more than other Presidents ever did. He also bitched about it A LOT when Obama went golfing.

So here are some up to date statistics:

At this point in his Presidency, President Obama had hit the links on 88 days.

Trump has done so on 227 days.

Perhaps even worse, while Obama never made any money while he golfed, Trump has made millions because he golfs at his own clubs, which he refused to divest, and charges the government for all costs. He even charges the Secret Service for golf cart use while they protect his huge ass.

The total cost of Trump's golf outings so far? $118 million of taxpayer money.

He really does have the best interests of Americans at heart.

Fun with Charts - June 2019

Here are some charts providing some hard data points on the Administration's performance.

Up first is a comparison of the S&P 500 Index over Obama and Trump's Presidencies. The stock market is a metric Trump has cited over and over as evidence of his genius. Check out here for comparable NASDAQ and Dow Jones charts.

Next up, a chart I've posted many times over the past few years. This is new jobs per month.

And finally, let's check out healthcare in America. Remember, more people uninsured means more people sick and dying, and higher costs for all.

In short, Thanks Obama! Screw you, Trump!

The Rich Get Richer

Want to see one of the major contributing factors to wealth inequality in America?



The money from all those lost wages are going straight to the already wealthy: corporate executives and shareholders. In the meantime, productivity has climbed dramatically, but none of the increased productivity gains are going to workers.

You can't sustain a successful economy with numbers like these.

Something has to change.

Thanks, Obama

Just a reminder.

Let's look at that unemployment rate over more years.

The only reason the economy hasn't tanked is that the economic recovery was strong and Trump hasn't done enough to tank it yet. He's just coasting on Obama's good policy.

But trade wars, tariffs, wealth shifting tax cuts causing increasing income inequality, deregulation of the stock market, and general instability are moving us inexorably towards another recession.

And that definitely will be Trump's doing.

A reminder - 752 days in Hell

Just a few notes.

Trump has been bragging on and on about black employment, saying he's been better for African Americans than any other President. Yeah, not even close.

And here's how much the great Republican tax cut helped your average working American.

Merry Xmas

Just a reminder that the stupid, fictional "War on Christmas" never existed. It was just a lie spouted by Conservatives during the Obama Administration to somehow make people hate President Obama.

Nevertheless, one of current President Numbnuts only accomplishments this year is that he has somehow solved this NON-EXISTENT problem. America First Policies, a nonprofit started by former Trump campaign aides, is even paying money to air a commercial over the holidays to thank the Orange Menace for solving a problem that IS NOT ACTUALLY SOMETHING THAT EXISTS.

(I'm not going to embed the stupid ad, but you can see it here if you like.)

As far as the War on Christmas, I'll just leave this.

Maybe Republicans tell time in dog years?

Let this stand forevermore, a testament to how full of crap the Republicans have been over the last 8 years, claiming that Obamacare was "crammed down out throats." Not shockingly, the Republicans are IMMENSE hypocrites.

Here's a timeline by Michael Linden comparing the newly passed Republican "Tax Reform" scam bill that will give huge tax breaks to the rich while raising taxes on the poor and preparing America to gut the Medicare and Social Security safety nets, to Obamacare.

Click to embiggen.







The timeline for Obamacare is eleven months. The "Tax Reform" bill timeline is five weeks. Only one of these two legislative packages was "crammed down" anyone's throat and it wasn't Obamacare.

Here are a few more facts about the passage of Obamacare (ACA):

The ACA made it out of committee in the House of Representatives in July 2009, after a month-long markup and 160 Republican amendments. The House didn’t vote on it until November 7th.

In 2010, the Senate health committee spent nearly 60 hours over the course of 13 days marking up the legislation that would become the ACA.

The Senate Finance Committee held 53 meetings about the ACA and an eight-day markup of the bill, which was the longest markup for the committee in over 20 years. The committee considered 130 amendments and held 79 roll-call votes.

There were 44 hearings and public events about the plan in the Senate alone.

The Republicans held NO hearings and allowed NO Democratic amendments before passing the "Tax Reform" bill that will raise the debt by $1 trillion. They will undoubtedly use the increased debt as an excuse to gut Social Security and Medicare.

Don't ever vote Republican. They're liars, they're hypocrites and they HATE you.

Happy Independence Day 2017 edition

Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post:

We have a president who neither understands nor respects the basic norms of American democracy. Make no mistake: Donald Trump is a true aberration. There is no figure like him in U.S. history, for which we should be thankful.

Trump’s inexperience is unique; he is the only president never to have served in government or the military. This weakness is exponentially compounded by his ignorance of both policy and process, his lack of curiosity, his inability to focus and his tremendous insecurity. He refuses to acknowledge his shortcomings, let alone come to terms with them; and he desperately craves the kind of sycophantic adulation that George Washington, a genuine hero, pointedly rejected. [...]

The Founders, mindful of their own faults, ultimately designed a system to contain a rogue president. They limited his elective term to four years, gave checking and balancing powers to the legislative and judicial branches, and designed impeachment as a last-ditch remedy. The Trump presidency compels all of us to be mindful of our constitutional duties.

David Remnick at the New Yorker:

Donald Trump, who, in fairness, has noted that “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job,” represents an entirely different tradition. He has no interest in the wholeness of reality. He descends from the lineage of the Know-Nothings, the doomsayers and the fabulists, the nativists and the hucksters. The thematic shift from Obama to Trump has been from “lifting as we climb” to “raising the drawbridge and bolting the door.” Trump may operate a twenty-first-century Twitter machine, but he is still a frontier-era drummer peddling snake oil, juniper tar, and Dr. Tabler’s Buckeye Pile Cure for profit from the back of a dusty wagon.

Trump is hardly the first bad President in American history—he has not had adequate time to eclipse, in deed, the very worst—but when has any politician done so much, so quickly, to demean his office, his country, and even the language in which he attempts to speak? Every day, Trump wakes up and erodes the dignity of the Presidency a little more.

Hat tip to Daily Kos.

For the record - Passing Obamacare

The next time you hear someone say that the Democrats "crammed Obamacare" down our throats, point them here.

To set the record straight on that, House Democrats had 79 hearings, with 181 witnesses, working on the legislation for seven months. That’s after President Obama spent weeks and weeks in private and public meetings with stakeholders. The Senate held 53 hearings, and committees spent nearly 60 hours over 13 days debating and crafting the legislation. In September and October of 2009, the Senate Finance Committee worked on the legislation for eight days, the longest time a bill has spent in mark-up in two decades. In the process, it looked at more than 130 amendments and had 79 roll-call votes. On top of that, the full Senate debated the ACA for 25 straight days. In the middle of all this, President Obama had a seven-hour summit on the bill with congressional members.  Link

Compare that to the recent 18 day fiasco that was the failed attempt to pass Trumpcare. Then tell them to stuff it.

He loves making those links great again

Do you remember how conservatives criticized President Obama every time he took a vacation or played golf, even though his predecessor, George W. Bush, took far more vacation days every comparable year of his Presidency?

(For the record, President Obama took a total of 29 vacations accounting for approximately 228 days. President Bush took a total of 88 vacations for a total of approximately 533 days.  Link)

During the last 8 years, Trump constantly tweeted out criticism of President Obama, frequently attacking him for playing golf.

Can you say hypocrisy?

Trump today made his 10th trip a Trump-owned golf course in 8 weeks as president.

Here are his previous tweets about presidents and golf: pic.twitter.com/VTV5hAVx20

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 18, 2017

That's 10 trips to the golf course in 8 weeks.

Here's Trump during the campaign, talking about Presidential vacations. I know it's painful, but watch it, it's short.

You hear that Trump didn't hoodwink voters (they knew what they were getting!) and then find clips like this. Just breathtaking hypocrisy. pic.twitter.com/LDnb3Xr7oF

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) March 18, 2017

Look, it's not the least bit surprising that Trump, and all conservatives who criticized President Obama and not Bush or Trump, is a huge hypocrite. But that doesn't mean we should ignore the hypocrisy. It must be noted, criticized and remembered.

Here's our President, working for the American people.

This is what character and integrity look like

Check out the table of scandals below.  President Obama has run the least corrupt administration in decades.

Of course, Donald Trump will violate multiple ethical and even Constitutional provisions the instant he's sworn in to office. Not to mention his rich, corrupt Cabinet of Deplorables. I will bet money they'll beat Reagan's record and challenge Nixon's.

Man, I'm going to miss President Obama.

Oh, and for added fun, check out the breakdown by party. Notice anything different between the Democrats and the "family values" "party of morality" Republicans?

Hat tip to RoyalScribe.

Arseholes hate "freeloaders"

The next time you see people on Facebook or other social media whining about their taxes while denouncing "freeloaders" for wanting all free stuff, remind them of this.

There is an enduring myth that people who rely on public assistance are unwilling to work. However, there are 41.2 million working Americans (nearly 30 percent of the workforce) who receive public assistance—and nearly half of these workers (19.3 million) have full-time jobs. Not surprisingly, these workers are concentrated in jobs paying low hourly wages. A majority (53.1 percent) of workers earning less than $12.16 per hour—the bottom 30 percent of wage earners—earn so little on the job that they must rely on public assistance to make ends meet.  Link

The fact is, there are tens of millions of full time working Americans who cannot support themselves or their families because they make minimum wage and don't have any chance for advancement. A living minimum wage would mean they could get off public assistance and would lift our economy for everyone, rich and poor alike.

The hateful shaming of low-wage Americans by calling them "freeloaders" for relying on an adequate social safety net (which also helps the elderly and the infirm) is despicable. Call out such hatred when you see it.

Word

People who think things are getting worse under President Obama are idiots.

Thanks, Obama! (Employment edition)

Remember this if you're voting for a Republican for President, most of whom want to do the same things George W. Bush did.

If you want to see this chronologically, move the blue line to the right until it starts at the end of Bush's red line.

Which party is better for the economy?

Facts should be important. Reality and results should dictate public policy. Unfortunately, in America, they don't.

Before I get to those questions, let’s talk about the facts.

The arithmetic on partisan differences is actually stunning. Last year the economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson circulated a paper comparing economic performance under Democratic and Republican presidents since 1947. Under Democrats, the economy grew, on average, 4.35 percent per year; under Republicans, only 2.54 percent. Over the whole period, the economy was in recession for 49 quarters; Democrats held the White House during only eight of those quarters.

But isn’t the story different for the Obama years? Not as much as you think. Yes, the recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-2009 has been sluggish. Even so, the Obama record compares favorably on a number of indicators with that of George W. Bush. In particular, despite all the talk about job-killing policies, private-sector employment is eight million higher than it was when Barack Obama took office, twice the job gains achieved under his predecessor before the recession struck.  Paul Krugman

When Democrats run the country, the economy flourishes. When Republicans are in charge, it flounders. These are facts. This is reality.

And yet Americans are still under the Republican stranglehold. Decades of propaganda, demonizing and fear-mongering by conservatives have reduced much of the American electorate to idiots voting against their own self-interests. Every time Republicans cause a clusterfudge of pain and sorrow, I hope that Americans will wise up.

And yet they never do.

Just a reminder - Some facts to ruin reality

Among many other Republicans, the current presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John R. Kasich and Jeb Bush all denounced the “job-killing” consequences of Mr. Obama’s policies.

Yet the economy gained 2.9 million jobs in 2014, more than in any year since 1999, during Mr. Clinton’s term. Net job creation during the 15 years that Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama occupied the White House has topped 30 million. That is 50 percent more than were created in the 20 years of Mr. Reagan and both Mr. Bushes. [...]

Today, the United States has the strongest major economy in the world. Link

Let's just note that again, shall we?

Over the past 35 years (going back to the Reagan Presidency), during the 15 years of Democratic Presidencies, job creation was 30 million. That's an average of 2 million jobs per year. During the 20 years of Republican Presidencies, job creation was 20 million, or an average of 1 million jobs per year.

  Democrats = 2 million jobs per year

  Republicans = 1 million jobs per year

Tell me again which party is the more economically successful party.  Tell me again why we should elect a Republican to the White House. Tell me again how President Obama was a job killer.

Yeah, I thought so.

Remember that golden age of five months?

Boy am I sick of this crap.

I have heard, time after time, even from my own family, the conservative excuse for not doing something that obviously needs doing. It's a magic phrase that somehow absolves the Republicans in Congress from doing a goddamn thing. John Boehner used it as an excuse just today for not passing meaningful gun control measures.

If the Democrats really care about [important issue] then why didn't they do something when they controlled both houses of Congress in 2009-2010?

First of all, it's a pathetic excuse. The fact that someone in the past didn't take action doesn't release you from having to take action. What are you, seven years old?

But deeper than that, it's bullshit because of, well, reality.

The 111th Congress was sworn in on January 3, 2009. To accomplish anything against a united, filibustering, obstructionist Republican minority in the Senate, the Democrats had to have 60 votes for everything. But when Congress was seated, the Democrats only had 59 votes. Remember Norm Coleman?

Norm Coleman was the incumbent Republican asshat from Minnesota who contested Al Franken's victory, causing a delay in seating Franken. The Democrats didn't gain their sixtieth seat until June 30. So there's at least six months when the Democrats literally couldn't pass anything they wanted.

Then, two months later, in August, 2009, Senator Teddy Kennedy died and was replaced temporarily, another month later, by Paul Kirk who did not run in the special election for the seat. Inexplicably and to their eternal shame, Massachusetts voters selected Scott Brown (R) to replace Kennedy in early 2010, ending the Democrats super-majority of sixty votes.

So at best, the Democrats had five months of a 60 seat majority. And legislation takes TIME. Much of that time was used to try and compromise with the uncompromising Republicans to pass healthcare reform, the President's second priority after the stimulus was passed. So it's completely understandable that the Democrats didn't have time to solve every single f'ing problem plaguing America. Still, the stimulus did lift us out of the recession and healthcare reform, though it passed after Scott Brown took office, has worked out really well for tens of millions of Americans.

And I'm not even going into the conservative Blue Dog Democrats who made getting 60 votes even more difficult during that entire two year period.

So conservatives, stop trotting out this ridiculous, inaccurate excuse. It's stupid, childish and doesn't reflect what actually happened.

If you really want to see what Democrats can do for the country, throw these idiot Republicans out next year and elect super-majorities of Democrats. We'll all be much better off.

Jeb! Bush wants to kill a healthy patient - Medicare

Recently, I heard one of my relatives express the Republican talking point that Medicare is going bankrupt. This idea has, of course, been embraced by all the Republican candidates for President, including Jeb! Bush.

"A lot of people recognize that we need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits. But that we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something—because they’re not going to have anything."  Link

Remember that. Jeb! Bush wants to "phase out" Medicare. As in kill it over time.

So how's Medicare actually doing?

The Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund will have sufficient funds to cover its obligations until 2030, the same year that was projected last year, and 13 years later than was projected in the last report issued prior to passage of the Affordable Care Act. The projected portion of scheduled benefits that can be financed with dedicated revenues is 86 percent in 2030, declines slowly to 79 percent in 2039, and then gradually increases to 84 percent in 2089.  Link

In other words, it's doing great for the next 13 years, and doing slightly less than great for years after that, giving us plenty of time to get rid of all the Republicans in Congress and fix it with some increased revenue.

And the reason Medicare is doing well? Obamacare.

Thanks, Obama.

You'd think someone who wants to be President might know this

Republican Presidential candidate Jeb! Bush is in hot water for saying this:

My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this rut that we’re in.

He says this because it's become a Republican meme that the American middle class and "the poors" are to blame for their own lack of a livable income. Republicans don't want to acknowledge that wage stagnation and corporations taking bigger and bigger slices of the pie at the expense of their employees are responsible for a lot of the poverty in this country.

Here's what Bush apparently doesn't understand:

American productivity has skyrocketed since the 1950s. Wages started falling in the 1970s. The economic benefits of the American productivity increase went straight to the rich. The actual workers saw none of it.

That's why the middle class is dying, why the poor can't get out of the hole they're in, and that's why Jeb! Bush is an asshat who should never be President.

Obamacare Repeal Reality

Once President Obama took office, Republicans in Congress, who hadn't batted an eyelash at lavish, unchecked spending during the Bush Presidency, suddenly found austerity to be their guiding principle. They claimed that cutting expenditures was to fight the deficit, but really it was to prevent the President from spending any money to rescue the economy or enact any meaningful reforms. Of course, during an economic downturn, the easiest way to economic recovery is to increase government spending. Austerity does the exact opposite. The principle of austerity delayed the economic recovery and contributed greatly to unemployment and our crumbling infrastructure. But the mantra of deficit reduction is still one of the Republicans' most frequent cries.

So what happens if the Supreme Court kills Obamacare?

Repealing Obamacare would increase the deficit by at least $137 billion or as much as $353 billion, a new Congressional Budget Office report published Friday finds.

The report, requested by Senate Republicans, uses two methods to measure the economic effects of Obamacare — one that looks at the provisions of the law itself, and one that looks at how the act's effects will ripple through the economy.

Yes, repealing Obamacare would explode the deficit. And this conclusion was reached by the new head of the CBO, a former Bush White House economist, who was supposed to use Republican math to support the Republicans in Congress.

As Rick Perry would say, "Oops."

And if you think this will make Congressional Republicans reconsider the wisdom of destroying Obamacare for even an instant, then you have not been paying attention.