PRESIDENT NOBAMA

Victor Davis Hanson in his National Review column published on January 16th perfectly describes the amazingly terrific job that President Trump is doing.  I don't know if I agree with every word, but it's close. 

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President Nobama

by VICTOR DAVIS HANSON January 16, 2018 4:00 AM @VDHANSON 

Trump is commonsensically undoing, piece by piece, the main components of Obama’s legacy. Donald Trump continues to baffle. Never Trump Republicans still struggle to square the circle of quietly agreeing so far with most of his policies, as they loudly insist that his record is already nullified by its supposedly odious author. Or surely it soon will be discredited by the next Trumpian outrage. Or his successes belong to congressional and Cabinet members, while his failures are all his own. Rarely do they seriously reflect on what otherwise over the last year might have been the trajectory of a Clinton administration. Contrary to popular supposition, the Left loathes Trump not just for what he has done. (It is often too consumed with fury to calibrate carefully the particulars of the Trump agenda.) Rather, it despises him mostly for what he superficially represents.

To many progressives and indeed elites of all persuasions, Trump is also the Prince of Anti-culture: mindlessly naïve American boosterism; conspicuous, 1950s-style unapologetic consumption; repetitive and limited vocabulary; fast-food culinary tastes; Queens accent; herky-jerky mannerisms; ostentatious dress; bulging appearance; poorly disguised facial expressions; embracing rather than sneering at middle-class appetites; a lack of subtlety, nuance, and ambiguity. In short Trump’s very essence wars with everything that long ago was proven to be noble, just, and correct by Vanity Fair, NPR, The New Yorker, Google, the Upper West Side, and The Daily Show. There is not even a smidgeon of a concession that some of Trump’s policies might offer tens of thousands of forgotten inner-city youth good jobs or revitalize a dead and written-off town in the Midwest, or make the petroleum of the war-torn Persian Gulf strategically irrelevant to an oil-rich United States. Yet one way of understanding Trump — particularly the momentum of his first year — is through recollection of the last eight years of the Obama administration. In reductionist terms, Trump is the un-Obama. Surprisingly, that is saying quite a lot more than simple reductive negativism. Republicans have not seriously attempted to roll back the administrative state since Reagan. On key issues of climate change, entitlements, illegal immigration, government spending, and globalization, it was sometimes hard to distinguish a Bush initiative from a Clinton policy or a McCain bill from a Biden proposal. There was often a reluctant acceptance of the seemingly inevitable march to the European-style socialist administrative state. Of course, there were sometimes differences between the two parties, such as the George W. Bush’s tax cuts or the Republicans’ opposition to Obamacare. Yet for the most part, since 1989, we’ve had lots of rhetoric but otherwise no serious effort to prune back the autonomous bureaucracy that grew ever larger. Few Republicans in the executive branch sought to reduce government employment, deregulate, sanction radical expansion of fossil-fuel production, question the economic effects of globalization on Americans between the coasts, address deindustrialization, recalibrate the tax code, rein in the EPA, secure the border, reduce illegal immigration, or question transnational organizations. To do all that would require a president to be largely hated by the Left, demonized by the media, and caricatured in popular culture — and few were willing to endure the commensurate ostracism.

Trump has done all that in a manner perhaps more Reaganesque than Reagan himself. In part, he has been able to make such moves because of the Republican majority (though thin) in Congress and also Even his critics sometimes concede that his economic and foreign-policy agendas are bringing dividends. In some sense, it is not so much because of innovative policy, but rather that he is simply bullying his way back to basics we’ve forgotten over the past decades. The wonder was never how to grow the economy at 3 percent (all presidents prior to 2009 had at one time or another done just that), but rather, contrary to “expert” economic opinion, how to discover ways to prevent that organic occurrence. Obama was the first modern president who apparently figured out how. It took the efforts of a 24/7 redistributionist agenda of tax increases, federalizing health care, massive new debt, layers of more regulation, zero-interest rates, neo-socialist regulatory appointments, expansionary eligibility for entitlements, and constant anti-free-market jawboning that created a psychological atmosphere conducive to real retrenchment, mental holding patterns, and legitimate fears over discernable success. Obama weaponized federal agencies including the IRS, DOJ, and EPA in such a manner as to worry anyone successful, prominent, and conservative enough to come under the federal radar of a vindictive Lois Lerner, Eric Holder, or a FISA court. Trump has sought to undo all that, point by point. The initial result so far is not rocket science, but rather a natural expression of what happens when millions of Americans believe they have greater freedom and safety to profit and innovate, and trust they will not be punished, materially or psychologically, for the ensuing successful results. The radical upsurge in business and consumer confidence is not revolutionary but almost natural. The Left and Never Trump Right claim that Trump is Stalin, Hitler, or Mussolini. In fact, for the first time in eight years, it is highly unlikely that the FBI, IRS, CIA, DOJ, and other alphabet-soup agencies see their tasks as going after the president’s perceived opponents. The same about-face is true on the foreign-policy front, as the ancient practice of deterrence replaced the modern therapeutic mindset. Obama blurred, deliberately so, the lines between allies and hostiles. America experienced the worst of both worlds: We were rarely respected by our friends, even more rarely feared by our enemies; loud rhetorical muscularity was backed up only by “strategic patience” and “leading from behind.” On the supposedly friendly side, Europe assumed that the United States would fawn after the virtue-signaling Paris Climate Accord. The Palestinians concluded that there was no shelf life on victimhood and that America simply would not, could not, dare not move its embassy to Jerusalem as the Congress had chronically showboated it would. NATO just knew that endless subsidies were its birthright and prior commitments were debatable. The West apparently lapped up Obama’s Cairo speech: But when even the European Renaissance and Enlightenment were seen as derivatives of Islam, there is not much left to boast about. On the unfriendly side, China sensed there was little danger in turning the Spratley Islands into an armed valve of the South China Sea. Russia understood that America was obsequiously “flexible” and ready to push a red plastic reset button in times of crisis. ISIS assumed that American lawyers were vetoing air-strike targets. Iran guessed rightly that the Obama administration would concede a lot to strike a legacy deal on nonproliferation. It was unsure only about whether the Obama administration’s eagerness to dissimulate about the disadvantageous details were due to a sincere desire to empower revolutionary, Shiite Iran as an antipode to Israel and the Sunni oil monarchies, or arising from a reckless need to leave some sort of foreign-policy signature. Kim Jung-un concluded that the eight years of the Obama administration provided a rare golden moment to vastly expand its nuclear and missile capability — and then announce it as an irrevocable fait accompli after Obama left office. Again, the common denominator was that the Obama administration, in quite radical fashion, had sought a therapeutic inversion of foreign policy — in a way few other major nations had previously envisioned. Trump’s appointees almost immediately began undoing all that. There were no more effective avatars of old-style deterrence than James Mattis and H. R. McMaster. Neither was political. Both long ago embraced a realist appraisal of human nature, predicated on two ancient ideas: We all are more likely to behave when we accept that the alternative is far more dangerous to ourselves, and the world is better off when everyone knows the laws in the arena. Just as Obama’s pseudo–red lines in Syria signaled to the Iranians or North Koreans that there were few lines of any sort anywhere; so too the destruction of ISIS suggested to others that there might be far fewer restrictions on an American secretary of defense anywhere. On the cultural side, the Trump team figuratively paused, examined its inheritance from the prior administration, and apparently concluded something like “this is unhinged.” Then it proceeded, to the degree possible, to undo it. Open borders, illegal immigration, and sanctuary cities are the norms of very few sovereign states. They are aberrations that are unsustainable whether the practitioner is Canada, Mexico, or the United States. Calling a small pond or large puddle on a farm’s low spot an “inland waterway” subject to federal regulation is deranged; undoing that was not radical, but commonsensical. Trump sought to revive the cultural atmosphere prior to Obama’s assertion that he would fundamentally transform what had already been a great country. In 2008, it would have been inconceivable that NFL multimillionaires would refuse to stand for the National Anthem — much less in suicidal fashion insult their paying fans by insinuating that they deserved such a snub because they were racists and xenophobes. It was Byzantine that a country would enter an iconoclastic frenzy in the dead of night, smashing and defacing statues without legislative or popular democratic sanction. One would have thought that all Republican presidents and presidential candidates would be something like the antitheses to progressivism. In truth, few really were. The Un-Obama agenda was not simply reflexive or easy — given that Obama was the apotheosis of a decades-long progressive dream. After all, in year one, Trump has been demonized in a manner unprecedented in post-war America, given the astonishing statistic that 90 percent of all media coverage of his person and policies has been negative. Obama was a representation of a progressive view of the Constitution that about a quarter of the population holds, but in Obama, that view found a rare megaphone for an otherwise hard sell. One would have thought that all Republican presidents and presidential candidates would be something like the antitheses to progressivism. In truth, few really were. So given the lateness of the national hour, a President Nobama could prove to be quite a change.

Your Food Diary For:

Friday, January 19, 2018

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal- Maple, 6 packet	960	192	12	24	1,560	72
	960	192	12	24	1,560	72
L U N C H
Culvers Butterburger (2)"the Original"	720	78	32	40	1,020	12
Culver's - Fries	360	53	14	6	443	0
Add Food Quick Tools	1,080	131	46	46	1,463	12
D I N N E R
Sandwich - Peanut Butter and Jelly	700	55	31	17	286	31
	700	55	31	17	286	31
S N A C K S
Met Rx Big 100 Chocolate Cookie Dough	400	58	6	31	167	28
	400	58	6	31	167	28
Totals	3,140	436	95	118	3,476	143
Your Daily Goal	1,995	249	66	100	2,300	74
Remaining	-1,145	-187	-29	-18	-1,176	-69
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 65 extra calories from exercise today

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SATURDAY WEIGHT     249.8 LBS

TAX CUT TODAY?

Our President, Donald Trump, and the Republican Party are about to 'make good' on a promise to change our tax code. Naturally, there are some people who are unhappy. I believe that this is going to be good for America. Everyone knows that the fairest tax code of all would be a simple code where every American pays the same rate, for example 10% of income. We are not there yet, but I am convinced that the new tax law will be an improvement for many Americans. Every single day, I wake up to some new good news emanating from the White House. I understand why Democrats, Liberals and Lefties don't like Donald Trump. The mystery remains, why are there so many so-called Republicans and Conservatives who cling to their enmity for this man?  One theory: Donald Trump is governing like a true conservative, very few people believed durning the campaign that he was a conservative. Apparently, Trump was very honest about his core beliefs. I admit that I was surprised. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised nevertheless.

Your Food Diary For:

Monday, December 18, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Grits	500	110	8	10	1,550	5
Cinnamon Raisin Bagel	400	67	11	13	706	11
	900	177	19	23	2,256	16
L U N C H
Salisbury Steak	440	14	32	23	818	0
Brussel Sprouts	100	15	2	5	0	0
Cream Corn	100	22	1	2	360	8
	640	51	35	30	1,178	8
D I N N E R
Kirkland Salmon Burger, 2 piece	340	4	18	40	660	0
Kale salad	150	15	9	3	150	10
	490	19	27	43	810	10
S N A C K S
Fudge Bar - 100 Calorie, 3 Bar	300	66	0	6	270	51
	300	66	0	6	270	51
Totals	2,330	313	81	102	4,514	85
Your Daily Goal	3,734	467	124	187	2,300	140
Remaining	1,404	154	43	85	-2,214	55
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,804 extra calories from exercise today

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WHAT A GAME!

While I have been busy with my tradeshow in Houston, a rather exciting World Series has been taking place in the city. Game 5, with the series tied 2-2 took place on Sunday night (and into early Monday morning!) There was no possible way to turn off the TV and go to sleep as long as Houston and Los Angeles were playing one of the most high scoring games in World Series history. The game finally ended early Monday morning with the Astros on top,  13-12 in the bottom of the 10th inning after five hours and seventeen minutes.  What a game!

HOUSTON, TX - OCTOBER 29: Jose Altuve #27 and Yuli Gurriel #10 of the Houston Astros celebrate after a two-run home run by Carlos Correa #1 (not pictured) during the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in game five of the 2017 World Series at Minute Maid Park on October 29, 2017 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

My Sunday (which ended early Monday morning) when the World Series Game 5 finally concluded, started with a 10 mile urban hike in Houston, at 5:15AM

Your Food Diary For:

Sunday, October 29, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Zico - Natural Coconut Water, 16.9 fluid oz	90	22	0	0	110	19
Einstein Bros - Asiago Cheese Bagel w/Cream Cheese	500	67	20	19	866	8
	590	89	20	19	976	27
L U N C H
Hot Dog With Bun, 2 hot dog with bun	580	46	33	20	1,820	6
	580	46	33	20	1,820	6
D I N N E R
Chicken Tortilla Soup	300	24	12	24	640	3
Atlantic Salmon	300	1	16	39	182	0
	600	25	28	63	822	3
S N A C K S
Haagen-dazs Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream	280	21	20	4	40	20
Tim Tam Salted Caramel & Vanilla, 5.39 biscuit	500	61	26	4	0	42
	780	82	46	8	40	62
Totals	2,550	242	127	110	3,658	98
Your Daily Goal	3,717	464	124	186	2,300	139
Remaining	1,167	222	-3	76	-1,358	41
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,787 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 213.5 lbs in 5 weeks     

HERE'S A SHOCKER - THE LOS ANGELES TIMES IS AGAINST THE PRESIDENT

In a shocking editorial, so important, so large and so devastating that it could not fit it in only one edition of the paper, it will be a serialized editorial with four parts to run on 4 consecutive days.

OK, we get it. Apparently Lefties, Liberals, Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, left-coasters, right-coasters, left-handers, right-handers, blacks, whites, religious zealots, atheists, Jews, Christians, Moslems, Immigrants, illegal aliens, American Indians, visitors, gays, straights, transvestites,  and everybody else  in every conceivable group does not like the President. Nevertheless, he was elected. It used to be tradition that in America a new president enjoyed a 'honeymoon' period.  Trump's honeymoon period did not exist. He has been hammered by the media since the night that he was elected. With this onslaught of negative stories against him is it any wonder that his approval rates are low? (that is if the lying lefty dishonest media is to be believed)

We, who support the president are not blinded by some of his flaws. Flaws come with being human. Trump has plenty. What the Los Angeles Times and it sycophantic readers will never understand is that we think that the 44th president was the worst president in American history. It will very difficult for Donald Trump to strip away the title. So don't worry, libs... your guy is safe. He will always be "#1."

Your Food Diary For:

Saturday, April 1, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Essential Everyday - Butter Flavored Grits	500	105	5	10	1,700	5
	500	105	5	10	1,700	5
L U N C H
Peanut Butter	300	13	25	11	221	5
Butternut - Large Enriched White Bread, 4	280	52	4	8	520	8
Concord Grape Jelly	100	24	0	0	10	16
	680	89	29	19	751	29
D I N N E R
Broccoli	100	10	1	9	81	0
BBQ Tofu Chicken	350	50	10	19	1,444	0
Chicken Breast Teriyaki	550	47	6	61	2,390	0
	1,000	107	17	89	3,915	0
S N A C K S
Lara Bar - Chocolate Coconut Chew	400	48	22	8	0	37
	400	48	22	8	0	37
Totals	2,580	349	73	126	6,366	71
Your Daily Goal	2,473	309	82	124	2,300	92
Remaining	-107	-40	9	-2	-4,066	21
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g

       Your Exercise Diary for:

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
4 Mile Urban Hike	67	620
Daily Total / Goal	67 / 30	620 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	268 / 210	3,853 / 4,130

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Our Dishonest President

By THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD

APRIL 2, 2017 i

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t was no secret during the campaign that Donald Trump was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters. The Times called him unprepared and unsuited for the job he was seeking, and said his election would be a “catastrophe.”

Still, nothing prepared us for the magnitude of this train wreck. Like millions of other Americans, we clung to a slim hope that the new president would turn out to be all noise and bluster, or that the people around him in the White House would act as a check on his worst instincts, or that he would be sobered and transformed by the awesome responsibilities of office. Instead, seventy-some days in — and with about 1,400 to go before his term is completed — it is increasingly clear that those hopes were misplaced. In a matter of weeks, President Trump has taken dozens of real-life steps that, if they are not reversed, will rip families apart, foul rivers and pollute the air, intensify the calamitous effects of climate change and profoundly weaken the system of American public education for all. His attempt to de-insure millions of people who had finally received healthcare coverage and, along the way, enact a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich has been put on hold for the moment. But he is proceeding with his efforts to defang the government’s regulatory agencies and bloat the Pentagon’s budget even as he supposedly retreats from the global stage.

These are immensely dangerous developments which threaten to weaken this country’s moral standing in the world, imperil the planet and reverse years of slow but steady gains by marginalized or impoverished Americans. But, chilling as they are, these radically wrongheaded policy choices are not, in fact, the most frightening aspect of the Trump presidency. What is most worrisome about Trump is Trump himself. He is a man so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality that it is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation. His obsession with his own fame, wealth and success, his determination to vanquish enemies real and imagined, his craving for adulation — these traits were, of course, at the very heart of his scorched-earth outsider campaign; indeed, some of them helped get him elected. But in a real presidency in which he wields unimaginable power, they are nothing short of disastrous.Although his policies are, for the most part, variations on classic Republican positions (many of which would have been undertaken by a President Ted Cruz or a President Marco Rubio), they become far more dangerous in the hands of this imprudent and erratic man. Many Republicans, for instance, support tighter border security and a tougher response to illegal immigration, but Trump’s cockamamie border wall, his impracticable campaign promise to deport all 11 million people living in the country illegally and his blithe disregard for the effect of such proposals on the U.S. relationship with Mexico turn a very bad policy into an appalling one. In the days ahead, The Times editorial board will look more closely at the new president, with a special attention to three troubling traits:

1Trump’s shocking lack of respect for those fundamental rules and institutions on which our government is based. Since Jan. 20, he has repeatedly disparaged and challenged those entities that have threatened his agenda, stoking public distrust of essential institutions in a way that undermines faith in American democracy. He has questioned the qualifications of judges and the integrity of their decisions, rather than acknowledging that even the president must submit to the rule of law. He has clashed with his own intelligence agencies, demeaned government workers and questioned the credibility of the electoral system and the Federal Reserve. He has lashed out at journalists, declaring them “enemies of the people,” rather than defending the importance of a critical, independent free press. His contempt for the rule of law and the norms of government are palpable.

2His utter lack of regard for truth. Whether it is the easily disprovable boasts about the size of his inauguration crowd or his unsubstantiated assertion that Barack Obama bugged Trump Tower, the new president regularly muddies the waters of fact and fiction. It’s difficult to know whether he actually can’t distinguish the real from the unreal — or whether he intentionally conflates the two to befuddle voters, deflect criticism and undermine the very idea of objective truth. Whatever the explanation, he is encouraging Americans to reject facts, to disrespect science, documents, nonpartisanship and the mainstream media — and instead to simply take positions on the basis of ideology and preconceived notions. This is a recipe for a divided country in which differences grow deeper and rational compromise becomes impossible.

3His scary willingness to repeat alt-right conspiracy theories, racist memes and crackpot, out-of-the-mainstream ideas. Again, it is not clear whether he believes them or merely uses them. But to cling to disproven “alternative” facts; to retweet racists; to make unverifiable or false statements about rigged elections and fraudulent voters; to buy into discredited conspiracy theories first floated on fringe websites and in supermarket tabloids — these are all of a piece with the Barack Obama birther claptrap that Trump was peddling years ago and which brought him to political prominence. It is deeply alarming that a president would lend the credibility of his office to ideas that have been rightly rejected by politicians from both major political parties.

Where will this end? Will Trump moderate his crazier campaign positions as time passes? Or will he provoke confrontation with Iran, North Korea or China, or disobey a judge’s order or order a soldier to violate the Constitution? Or, alternately, will the system itself — the Constitution, the courts, the permanent bureaucracy, the Congress, the Democrats, the marchers in the streets — protect us from him as he alienates more and more allies at home and abroad, steps on his own message and creates chaos at the expense of his ability to accomplish his goals? Already, Trump’s job approval rating has been hovering in the mid-30s, according to Gallup, a shockingly low level of support for a new president. And that was before his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, offered to cooperate last week with congressional investigators looking into the connection between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. On Inauguration Day, we wrote on this page that it was not yet time to declare a state of “wholesale panic” or to call for blanket “non-cooperation” with the Trump administration. Despite plenty of dispiriting signals, that is still our view. The role of the rational opposition is to stand up for the rule of law, the electoral process, the peaceful transfer of power and the role of institutions; we should not underestimate the resiliency of a system in which laws are greater than individuals and voters are as powerful as presidents. This nation survived Andrew Jackson and Richard Nixon. It survived slavery. It survived devastating wars. Most likely, it will survive again. But if it is to do so, those who oppose the new president’s reckless and heartless agenda must make their voices heard. Protesters must raise their banners. Voters must turn out for elections. Members of Congress — including and especially Republicans — must find the political courage to stand up to Trump. Courts must safeguard the Constitution. State legislators must pass laws to protect their citizens and their policies from federal meddling. All of us who are in the business of holding leaders accountable must redouble our efforts to defend the truth from his cynical assaults.

The United States is not a perfect country, and it has a great distance to go before it fully achieves its goals of liberty and equality. But preserving what works and defending the rules and values on which democracy depends are a shared responsibility. Everybody has a role to play in this drama.