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He's just trying to keep up with the vacationer in chief:
Judicial Watch estimates that the final costs of Obama’s unnecessary vacation and political travel will well exceed $100 million,”
http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-new-obama-travel-costs-bring-eight-year-total-96-million/
and I don't see where he (zero)donated anything back into the system.
But your quick to criticize someone giving 78,000 to the NPS:ne_nau:
ha ha, and yet so many people seemed pissed off that he donated it at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by oldno7
so, since you're more interested in comparing, at his current rate he could be on track to outpace obama's spending on similar travel many times over.Quote:
Originally Posted by oldno7
but it seems, at least to me, that it's more about whether his actions match up with what he said he would do:
TRUMP: “I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done. I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off."
sure i appreciate that he chose the NPS for donation ... but when he donates a relatively tiny sum of money while simultaneously calling for a massive cut that will significantly impact the NPS (as hank has quoted in his article), there is little to get excited about. (note, for example, the NPS has over $11 billion in deferred maintenance.) ... and when his frequent weekend travel costs many many times his annual salary, it makes the donation to a government agency marginal compared with his use of taxpayer dollars.Quote:
Originally Posted by oldno7
Or the cost of keeping his wife and son protected right in the heart of NYC. I don't really blame her as I wouldn't want to sleep with him either but I think the cost is a bit excessive to taxpayers.Quote:
Originally Posted by stefan
By the way, how do the resident Trump boosters feel about cancellation of pretty much every clean energy and global warming initiative if his budget goes through? Or do you agree with him that gw is a Chinese conspiracy?
The take away from all of this is...haters gonna hate. Doesn't matter what Trump does or doesn't do, the haters will still find something to bitch about.
That said, Trump should just donate his second term salary to the NRA or Lockheed Martin.
Or better yet, just shrink wrap the rest of his four year salary up on pallets and ship them to Iran....er, wait....Obama already did that...
Attachment 86721Quote:
Originally Posted by Iceaxe
DJIA on November 8, 2016 = 18,332
DJIA on April 5, 2017 = 20,648
Since Trump was elected we have done nothing but win in the financial sector. My personal net worth has increased by over 10% in less then 6 months. Yours should have also if you have invested wisely. That is an incredible increase in wealth after only 6 months any way you slice it that has seldom been seen in history.
Not repealing Obama care hurt stocks in the short term, but I have a feeling Obama care is doomed and will be gone one way or another in the near future.
I always expected (and continue to expect) that Trump would do well for the business sector and stock performance has been good, but the market has been rising since 2009.
The Dow went up more than 33% in Obama's first year in office, so it has been seen several times in history.Quote:
That is an incredible increase in wealth after only 6 months any way you slice it that has seldom been seen in history.
Attachment 86723
Anyway, I was just ribbing you since I chose the time period when you said the only poll that mattered was the DOW. :wink:
Even though I feel that I have invested wisely (other than perhaps buying a house here, but I didn't see that coming), my net worth has gone down, but I don't blame the president or anyone else for that.Quote:
My personal net worth has increased by over 10% in less then 6 months. Yours should have also if you have invested wisely
My home value has overall been falling in value for several years now. My house used to be valued at close to $400,000, now we haven't gotten an offer over $150,000. The same story is true all over town though.
The biggest factor is Peabody Energy, which this town is dependent on and the biggest indicator of the region's economy. When I moved here in late 2004, the stock price (I don't own any Peabody stock, but it is still the main indicator of the economy here) was around $100 a share. Now it is 38 cents.
Attachment 86724
When Trump got elected, Peabody Stock skyrocketed, but now it is much lower than it was before the election. I think the reality has set in that even though Trump is coal-friendly, the coal industry isn't coming back to its past glory.
The other factor is that Kimberly got a heart surgery in January. In addition to the cost of the heart surgery, she isn't/wasn't allowed to return to work until fully released by the doctors. She was allowed to go back for a few hours a couple weeks early at one job, but not the other. Plus, I have had some very expensive oral surgeries lately (dental insuance maxes out at $1,500, procedures costs many, many times more!).
So, losing our home value, having to pay for a heart surgery and losing three months of income due to loss of work, plus having oral surgeries isn't going to bode well for net worth, no matter how you slice it.
That said, we'll be fine and will recover.
Well I got some good news for you.... I've been bidding a lot of projects recently with Peabody. They are ramping up to dig a lot of coal. I'm not saying coal will ever return to what it once was as it's a dying energy source, but you should see an upswing. I'm not against switching to clean fuel, I'm just against switching so quickly that it kills our economy while other countries we must compete against continue to burn cheap coal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott P
I thought Obama Care was suppose to save American's from catastrophic health care costs?!?Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott P
***said with tongue in cheek***
Yeah, healthcare is a killer on savings. I know several folks in your same position.
FWIW: I got my companies new health insurance premium yesterday. Our insurance is going up over 20% this year (it went up 12% last year). I now pay just over $1500 a month in insurance for each of my employee's. That's a lot of coin. Thank's Obama.
Just think how nice single payer would be! :nod:Quote:
Originally Posted by Iceaxe
If you have been following this thread you know that's something I support. It's not my first option if I were God, but given the politics we are forced to work within I see it as the only real solution.Quote:
Originally Posted by uintafly
So what is Trump going to do in Syria?
Trump finally gets his first major chance to show us what kind of leader he will be..... Assad is already about 5 miles over Obama's red line in the sand.
Good question, but to me Assad is the lesser of two evils. He is a thug, but is better than the alternative. If Assad is overthrown, it will be the same type situation that happened when Saddam was overthrown.Quote:
Originally Posted by Iceaxe
Assad hasn't done anything to the US. The opposition against Assad has. A secular dictator is better than religious extremists.
Ousting Assad will strengthen ISIS and al-Qaeda. Both would love to have the US do their dirty work for them by ousting Assad.
I do think that we should support and protect our allies/those who spport our values, but neither the opposition or Assad fits in this category. I can guarantee you that the opposition that is fighting Assad isn't doing so to set up a peace-loving, freedom loving, pro-West democracy. They want to do the opposite and outing Assad will help them do so.
We have enough problems to fix here without getting into a lose-lose situation war in Syria.
Senate going nuke lear..
thanks to dingy harry....
the country is hopelessly divided and can likely, only get worse..
I'd say that what Scott said is pretty close to reality, but there actually may be big changes with this Syria mess.Quote:
Originally Posted by Iceaxe
This is all just the continuation of the great chess game that we and Russia have been playing for decades. They have moves to make and pawns to sacrifice, and so do we. Trump is getting ready to sit down and deal with them, and I would imagine Putin would like to see the Obama sanctions lifted instead of grinding out several more years of it. The Russians were buzzing all over Washington before and especially after the election trying just this...now the time has come.
Assad's ass may be grass. One thing for sure...we're going to have a pretty clear picture of our foreign policy within the next month.
I saw episode of Frontline about Damascus and life in Assad controlled Syria. The downtown is thumping with music and disco's even though explosions can be heard in the distance. There's plenty of food because of a supply line with Beruit. Lot's of corruption and the economy is basically a black market. There's also a healthy slave trade going on with the refugee girls with Arabs from all over scooping them up. It's like Soddam and Gomorrah,
If the Russians end up controlling that country, I say let them.
Trump has seemed to finally acknowledge that he can't continue to blame Barry. Its his shit sandwich now. He's at least changed his rhetoric on Assad.Quote:
Originally Posted by Iceaxe
Thorny subject to say the least. Complicated. And, the options all have a down side.
We'll see how he does. This and North Korea could get interesting...
North Korea especially. How quickly could North Korea kill 10 million South Koreans and vice versa? 72 hours? 24 hours? As insane as Kim Jung Un is, I wouldn't want to be one of the 25+ million people living in and around Seoul. This is another rock and hard place for the US. Any preemptive strike by us would immediately be answered by an enormous artillery barrage against South Korea. These types of situations is what freaks me out about the thin skinned and probably unhinged president we currently have.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian in SLC
I've been thinking about this and there is a HUGE difference is the 33% you quote for Obama and the 10% increase so far under Trump.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott P
That 33% Obama increase didn't even bring us back to an all time high on the DJIA. Trumps 10% has all been a new high. Yeah, I understand Obama inherited a shit sandwich, but comparing the increase between the two is apples and oranges. So perhaps I worded my original statement poorly..... Watching the stock market go from an all time high and gain an additional 10% is a very rare historical event,
You do realize that you have Obama to thank for about 90% of that lose in value on both your home and Peabody stock don't you? We can argue the exact percentage but it's a big number any way you look at it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott P
I think I've mentioned it before but about 70% of my engineering work is in mining and energy. Obama's administration basically attempted to bankrupt the coal industry through rules, requirements and regulations. Obama did manage to put a lot of coal companies out of business.
What I design for the coal industry is mostly the handling equipment like conveyors, truck loadouts, train loadouts, chutes, hoppers, any method of moving large amounts of coal fast and cheap. 10 years ago were were designing lots of this type of stuff. The past 8 years nearly zero. Lots of that type of handling equipment is currently on the drawing board.
So bottomline I just want you to understand what Obama's 'clean energy' has cost you personally. I know it's cost me a lot personally in lost work. My problem is you design one wind turbine and they use the exact same design to build 10,000 more, so there is no money in the design portion as I only get paid for the one wind turbine.
:soapbox: