Comrade Trump loves to announce things. Announcing stuff is fun. You get to stand in front of a lot of people who want to hear the announcement, you make your announcement, then you can go do something else. Eat some chicken, play golf, make some phone calls. After a while you get to watch television and see how they report your announcement. Great fun.
The best thing about announcing stuff? It gets reported as if whatever it was you announced you were going to do is basically already done. You get credit for the thing just by making the announcement.
Here’s an example. Yesterday Comrade Trump held a…okay, I don’t even know what to call it. He called it a ‘press conference’ because the news media were there, but it was held at one of Trump’s golf clubs and attended by members of his club (who repeated booed the reporters). And he used the forum to campaign against Uncle Joe, so I guess it was sort of a mini-rally for folks who paid US$200,000 to join his golf club and had a free afternoon.
Whatever it was, Trump used it to announce that he’d signed “four bills” (they weren’t bills) that he said would “save American jobs and provide relief to the American worker” (they don’t). But hey, he announced it, he signed some documents, he showed the documents to the audience so they could applaud, and they applauded. Job done. The news media reported it like it meant something.
It didn’t. But here’s the headline from USA TODAY:
Trump signs executive orders enacting $400 unemployment benefit, payroll tax cut after coronavirus stimulus talks stall.
It sounds really decisive, doesn’t it. It wasn’t. It sounds like Trump actually did something. He didn’t. Three of the four ‘bills’ he signed were actually memoranda; the other was an executive order. The one he claimed would provide a moratorium on evictions only suggested that HUD should consider halting evictions. He also said he’d defer payroll tax payments for some folks, which basically means they’d still have to pay those taxes–but just not right now. It would all come due at tax time. And, of course, a payroll tax only applies to people who are actually on a payroll. If you’re unemployed, it doesn’t help you at all.
And that US$400 in unemployment insurance he promised? He’s sucking enough coin out of FEMA to increase unemployment benefits by $300 (which is nothing to grumble about), but the deal depends on states paying that last $100, which is a serious problem because 1) it means the states have to set up a system to do that, which could take some time and 2) the states are almost broke because 2a) they’ve lost a lot of tax revenue because of Covid-19 and 2b) Trump dumped the responsibility for testing and treatment on the states, which cost them big bucks. So this probably won’t fly.
The only real thing Comrade Trump did was to issue an executive order extending the suspension of monthly payments for federally-held student loans. It’s only for three months, but it’s something. And it’s a good thing (and you people say I never give Trump credit for the good things he’s done).
So the headlines suggest that Trump has actually done the things he announced, even though all he’s done is announce them. The list of things he’s announced he was going to do but hasn’t is extensive. Google ‘Trump announces’ and you’ll get about 921,000,000 results. I mean, how many times has he announced that Covid-19 is under control? But here we are with 5,000,000 confirmed cases and nearly 165,000 dead.
Comrade Trump is a serial announcer, no mistake. But here are a few things he hasn’t announced:
- a mask mandate
- the arrest of the officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor
- sanctions against Russia for putting a bounty on killing Marines in Afghanistan
- the release of his income tax records for the last ten years
- an apology for…well, any of the appalling shit he’s said and done
- his resignation
Of course, even if DID make those announcements, he probably wouldn’t follow through.
gregfallis.com 
Do you wake up every morning angry? I hated Obama as president. He was by far the worst ever. He did almost nothing as president and what he did do was so god awful. But you know what, I did not wake up every morning angry like you guys with TDS. Your inability to see anything positive done and your hypocrisy in complaining about things that Obama did more of is all I need to know.
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Hey Billy. I don’t wake up angry. I don’t go to bed angry. But I do get angry every day, often at — or because of — Trump.
Here’s just one example of my anger: I come from a Marine Corps family; my father was a Marine, both of my brothers were Marines, and even though I chose to serve in a different branch, I grew up with and around Marines. When I hear that Russia has placed a bounty on the deaths of US troops in Afghanistan — and that bounties were paid for the deaths of at least two Marines — I get angry. When Trump refuses to accept his own intelligence agencies reports that these bounties took place, I get angry. When I hear him say those bounties are a hoax, I get angry. When I hear him say he hasn’t even mentioned the bounties in his phone calls with Putin, then you’re goddamn right I get angry.
Trump is a threat to representative democracy. He acts like he’s only the president of people who support him. He is a liar, a cheat, and a coward. He has no integrity, no loyalty, no thought for anybody but himself. But I don’t hate him. I very much hate what he’s done and continues to do to a country I love and have served.
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Lists. I want to see lists of all the things Obama did wrong and a list (I know it will be extremely short) of ANYTHING comrade 45 has done right.
Otherwise, STFU.
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I’d also like to see those lists.
But I should also point out that it’s not your job to tell folks who comment on my site to shut the fuck up.
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LOL! I listened to a bunch of Obama-hating folks for 8 years. Trump haters are similar. It is as Starfish, above me, wrote though. Obama got things done, healthcare, of which I have been happily using since 2015 is the first thing that comes to my mind. Trump can’t even build the wall he got elected with. Trump is easily the worst president ever in getting people to reach across the aisle. Even Reagan could do that. Trump complains about partisanship, but his job is to bring people together.
I sure do hope America won’t tear itself apart over a guy like Trump.
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I’m sad to say the US has been tearing itself apart since the US Civil War. There have been some periods in which it was a low-intensity tearing apart, but it’s been part of our national fabric.
Trump has been an accelerant, no mistake. He’s intensified the tearing apart. Assuming we manage to pry him out of the White House in the coming election, the US has a decent chance of returning to a low-intensity status. Until we realize that citizenship doesn’t — and shouldn’t — depend on race or religion or gender, we’ll continue to tear ourselves apart.
I’m actually okay with that. There are some things about our culture that I believe need to be torn out, root and stem.
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There are no answers to political questions. Not in a casual blog anyway. I haven’t written much about politics in my blog. Just religion, LOL!
You are right though, there are aspects to American society, specifically race relations, that jeopardize the peace of our nation. I won’t pretend to know how to fix stuff. Trump is gas on the fire, but the fire had been lit already.
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Well written, as always, Greg.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
IT WAS ALL GRANDSTANDING!! … “Trump used it to announce that he’d signed “four bills” (they weren’t bills) that he said would “save American jobs and provide relief to the American worker” (they don’t).
The only real thing Comrade Trump did was to issue an executive order extending the suspension of monthly payments for federally-held student loans. It’s only for three months, but it’s something. And it’s a good thing (and you people say I never give Trump credit for the good things he’s done).”
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This will happen when people are duped into believing that there is someone who is good enough to rule over them.
“Working within the system means to become a part of the system. When you go into the voting booth, the only meaningful significance that your action will have is to show that one more person supports the state”. ~Mark Davis
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So you’re saying…what? Voting is pointless? Voting is simply recapitulating to the existing State? Are you suggesting NOT voting is a valid response?
I’m sure you’re making a point, but I seriously have no idea what it is. Could you expand on it a bit?
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