Judd Legum
Verified account @JuddLegum
2h2 hours ago
Shut down due to illegal activity:
1. Trump University
2. Trump Foundation
Under criminal investigation:
1. Trump campaign
2. Trump transition
3. Trump inauguration
4. Trump administration
5. Trump Organization
Trump supporting the banning of bump stocks is predictable and yet still disappointing.
Today, the Senate passed the First Step Act... and great first step in criminal justice reform and not ruining people's lives for non-violent crimes.
A long time coming
Trump supporting the banning of bump stocks is predictable and yet still disappointing.
Trump has come to the realization he's not going to get that money for the wall.
He's desperate for any political victories now.
Why?
Why?
This is more great news. This makes me very happy
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Most of Trump’s policy pronouncements are this same kind of sugar rush. It feels good for a minute, and then, if you’re lucky, it goes away. If you’re not lucky, you get a stomach ache.
The First Steps act is an exception to this That’s one are where I’ve thought there is room to work, because there are enough Senate Republicans who are ok on the issue. It’s modest, yes, but I’m glad they did it. The WH needed a win, and they got it.
Syria? I dunno. I’m generally all for the idea that declaring victory and going home is probably the sane choice in all of our current ME conflicts. But I’m a little concerned by what appears to be the complete lack of process here, because of the precedent it sets for Trump. I don’t like the idea of his making foreign policy by whim, because I don’t trust his judgement. And short-circuiting the process may very well lead to some bad outcomes. So I’m gonna withold judgement.
Which specific policies have you disliked?
I'll go ahead and assume immigrqtion (broad brush) and tax cuts.
But has he really been that crazy from any other president if you move away from the rhetoric?
I've given up on trying to solve the middle east with troop presence. There is no satisfying the people of that region. Our best bet is to run shadow ops with the aid of Israel and hopefully Saudi Arabia while pushing modernization through MBS. That is why the Khashogi murder is such a delicate situation. Our whole strategy for the ME is based on MBS actually willing to enter the modern world.
That seems like, to put it mildly, a dumb place to predicate “our whole strategy for the ME.”
Muslim ban, tax cut, family separation policy (yes, also broad-brush immigration policy) neutering the CFBP, opening up millions of acres of federal land to extractive industries, about a zillion other exectutive orders and Congressional Review Act legislation relating to the environment (really, too many to mention individually), Dept of Ed rule-making, withdrawal from Iran deal, repeal of the individual mandate as a means to undercut ACA, supporting court challenges to ACA, withdrawal from Paris Climate accord...I dunno, that’s just off the top of my head.
And no, it’s not “crazier,” necessarily, in the current context of mainstream republican politics. Much of this stuff—the legislative pieces—would have happened under another Republican president. Probably not the hardcore immigration stuff, maybe not the Iran deal withdrawal. The trade piece, too.
Cabinet agencies would be in the pocket of industry, sure, but I doubt there’d be the flagrant corruption of Price, Pruitt, Zinke, et al. That’s part of a tone set at the top. I know you’re of the opinion that government is necessarily corrupt, but you’d have a hard time convincing me that it’s not more corrupt with a clueless and disinterested executive who is personally corrupt in the bargain.
I will concede your basic point that to someone like me, most of the Republican contenders would have been doing stuff that I considered intolerable. But I also think that Trump’s added some special sauce.