@duckpin ... to Thesaurus.com so you can keep coming up with catchy names for people that don't fall into lockstep with you. Deplorables... Grotesques... ?...

Glad he's done it but I doubt if it will continue given the grotesques he's filled his administration with.

@dkmich My guess Trump will tip out on the "horrible" side.

abortion, and public schools. He is going to be a mixed bag. It will interesting to see which side of the scale tips out.

@Big Al @Big Al and making our own pipelines "like in the old days" (I think that is verbatim)when he was signing some exec orders.

Is this not a positive development for US employment and mfg in that area?

Trump's idea of helping the American worker is tied to helping the corporations and billionaires first and banking on a trickle down effect, like republicans have espoused since Reagan. If the rich do well, we'll all do well, which we know is pure bullshit. Our manufacturing base cannot be restored to it's previous capacity because automation has taken most of the jobs, not NAFTA. And now that the American worker is so low paid with such meager benefits that even the Chinese are wanting to move factories here and the Mexicans are moving out, it's not like this wouldn't have happened anyway.

@Sunspots I wholeheartedly agree! And, I might be a fool, but I feel that TPP being sent down the trash chute is a PLUS for the environment too. But let's keep that, and the fact that women are workers too, secrets from The Donald's cronies, lest they try to reverse it all just to spite us lowly earth-dwelling females.

There were two critical issues (survival issues, life or death) in the election for me: 1) no pushing for nuclear war with Russia, and 2) no TPP/loss of sovereignty to foreign corporations..

He's taken care of (2) on his third full iday in office, and (1) is looking pretty hopeful.

Let's give credit where credit is due, even if he isn't cool and classy looking like Obama (who screwed us so badly). You want to reinforce good actions when you get them, not slap people down anyway.

I'm still thankful that we've escaped Her Heinous, the Mad Bomber, Wall Street's darling.

@FreeSociety

I think he will go after the corruption in the CIA, though. Brennan et al were pretty vicious toward him, and when he talked to the CIA, he said (roughly), "maybe I'll build you a bigger room than this, by someone who knows how to build, with no columns - do you understand that?" The article's author suggested that he was talking about fifth columns. There have to be good analysts there who've been horrified by what their bosses have been pushing, probably distorting their analyses.

And apparently there's some thought that Janet Yellen is hostile to him and may try to destabilize the economy to make him look bad. He wouldn't take it lying down. He might push for auditing the Fed. Just what I read.

For me, if he does these things below:

• Avoid War with Russia
• Avoid more horrific global "Regime Change" nonsense (Syria, Latin America, Africa, etc.)
• Stop the ridiculous Trade Agreements
• Rebuild our Nation's Infrastructure (a Democrat can't get this passed, but a 'Repub' can)
• Audit the (corrupt) Bank Cartel (i don't know if he will ever do this...but he might)
• Call out the horrible U.S. News Media (CIA controlled)
• Break up the Big Pharma Monopoly on drug pricing, and provide some mechanism and means for lower cost Health Care (w/o Tax penalties on individuals like Obama)
• Block the GOP Congress from cutting Medicare and Social Security (which he indicated he would)

Then ... he's made some real progress, and done a real good job.

Of course, I worry that his Tax Reform will just be more "Trickle-Down" Reaganomics nonsense, and not benefit people like me at all. And I doubt that he will really confront the terror of the CIA, or terminate the corrupt Bank Cartel ("federal" reserve) grip it has over our Economy.

But then again, even Bernie Sanders wouldn't have done the last 2 things.

So some reform is certainly better than no reform at all.

Why can't we be friends?

@FreeSociety watched Trump, in a meeting with the auto manufacturers, telling them things have to improve or he won't give them permits. (sorry about the vagueness of what I wrote, I couldn't catch the exact words.)

I don't know what permits they need to operate, but obviously Trump is quite comfortable using power and appears quite determined to keep jobs in the US.

[Response to "Big Al": The Devil is in the Details]

The American worker is paid low wages (compared to the 1960s after inflation), but they are no where near as low as 3rd World wages. And the tax and regulatory structure of the U.S. is also higher (less desirable) than many other industrialized nations.

Thus, was born the inspiration in the first place for Multinationals to target and exploit the Foreign labor market, and Foreign Manufacturing.

Clearly, the history of NAFTA, China Trade, and the TPP show a very, very explicit incentivisation given to Corporations to move manufacturing facilities overseas, and exploit the cheaper 3rd World and Slave Labor and Child Labor markets. This includes a sophisticated legal structure that prohibits any lawsuits against these Corporations, and allows them to freely trash the Environment (with no local government redress), and escape workers benefits, workers rights, and all labor protections. This is why almost all consumer products that you buy at retail stores everywhere never say ... "Made in USA" anymore. Mere Automation by itself has nothing to do with the orchestrated transformation and the domination of purely imported goods and imported products all throughout our American Life (replacing products that were once developed and made right here).

These trade agreements have resulted in no less than the systematic destruction of the (once supreme) U.S. Manufacturing Base, leaving behind an endless and ugly display of closed out and abandoned buildings and factories all across the landscape of The United States.

Naturally, automation has eliminated jobs in specific areas as well, but that fact (and I agree that it is a fact) does not in any way excuse or acquit NAFTA and TPP and these Globalist Corporatist evil Trade deals from the plainly destructive effect and negative impact that they have obviously have had.

Ross Perot explained what would happened very clearly (and he was right).

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ7kn2-GEmM]