Prickly City by Scott Stantis for July 14, 2018

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    DD Wiz  over 6 years ago

    Trump’s policies working? High tariffs causing more U.S. plant closings as factory jobs are moved overseas to avoid paying tariffs Trump issued by exploiting a loophole that allows the president to increase tariffs (instead of congress, as the Constitution requires) in the event of a national security emergency (hence calling CANADA, England, France and Germany national security threats (which offended them greatly), while cozying up to new best buds Vladimir Putin (his boss) and Kim Jong Un.

    Trump is alienating our longest-standing allies (G7 and NATO) while kowtowing and praising dictators and our longest-standing hostile adversaries.

    Trump, dancing to Putin’s puppet strings, apparently wants to blow up NATO and replace it with CRANKChina, Russia, America, North Korea.

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    Jefano Premium Member over 6 years ago

    His policies are designed to hurt people, so, yes, they’re working.

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    danielmkimmel  over 6 years ago

    What policies are working? The ones that allows him to line his own pockets while wrecking everything else?

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    Darsan54 Premium Member over 6 years ago

    Yeah, that kidnapping one is working out. Destroying our global alliances on behalf of Russia? Yeeeee…..up. Receiving stolen goods (SCOTUS seat). Affirmative. Taken money away from the majority of our citizens and shovel it up towards the one-percent.

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    Ignatz Premium Member over 6 years ago

    No, Scott, people aren’t mad because they might be working. Stop being stupid.

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    jbmlaw01  over 6 years ago

    The economy roars, despite leftist forecasts of collapse in Nov 2016, for one reason, exemplified by the now-missing Scott Pruitt: constraint of the economic regulators. Even leftists are beginning to realize that economic regulators provide no value to the economy, much less any value approaching their salaries. There is a growing awareness among non-leftists that there is no bureaucrat out there who makes better decisions than an individual can make for himself. Of course, that is not true for a leftist.

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    jbmlaw01  over 6 years ago

    Nevertheless, one would think that leftists would be applauding Trump giving more power to tariff bureaucrats and diminishing individual freedom.

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    twclix  over 6 years ago

    jbmlaw01 is wrong about federal regulation—at least as it applies to the economic dynamism that accompanies start-up activity.

    https://academic.oup.com/economicpolicy/article/33/93/5/4833996?guestAccessKey=30b0a3f7-9dff-4bd9-95e9-e3ffad1691b5

    Here’s the summary:

    “Mounting evidence suggests that economic dynamism and entrepreneurial activity are declining in the United States. Over the past 30 years, the annual number of new business startups and the pace of job reallocation have declined significantly. We ask whether this decline in dynamism can be explained by federal regulation. We combine measures of dynamism with RegData, a novel dataset leveraging the text of the Code of Federal Regulations to create annual measures of the total quantity of regulation by industry. We find that rising federal regulation cannot explain secular trends in economic dynamism.”

    I am heavily regulated and it means little to my business. I view it as a necessary evil because there are bad actors who need to be regulated—just as there are in every walk of life. I hold FINRA (SEC) securities licenses Series 24, 7, 63, and 79, so I know what I’m talking about. (Oh and for you financial services insiders who say FINRA is an SRO—so what? They ultimately report to the SEC just as I do, and the regs are based almost entirely on federal and state securities regulations. Those regs not in the law have to do with the enforcement of ETHICAL BEHAVIOR.)

    This anti-government Reaganesque nonsense has to stop. The complexity of the regulatory environment IS important. But it is also necessary. To think otherwise is to live in a fantasy land where all individual actors are fully capable of behaving themselves. Which is utter and complete insanity.

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    dlaemmerhirt999  over 6 years ago

    Are babies in cages and jobs all going oversees the hallmarks of a vibrant economy and Trump’s plans “working?” Who knew!

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    Cheapskate0  over 6 years ago

    Stantis, the Republican never-Trumper, continues to defend Trump.

    No wonder all of us, conservative and liberal, are confused with this strip!

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    Andylit Premium Member over 6 years ago

    You folks are all so funny. I love watching you cherry pick individual problems in your attempts to condemn the Trump agenda.

    What you keep ignoring are all those economic indicators that you got excited about during the slowest economic recovery in history.

    On the broad scale, the nation is doing better. Lower unemployment, higher average wages, labor participation increasing, increased consumer confidence, etc, etc.

    The leading indicators ARE good, ARE on the rise and ARE substantially better than they were 2 years ago. You will have a difficult time trying to make a credible argument that none of these improvements are the result of Trump policies.

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    Durak Premium Member over 6 years ago

    Oh, Stantis, let’s talk about the Affordable Care Act, shall we? It was WORKING. It could have worked BETTER. But how many times did the Republican controlled Congress try to kill it? Look what they’re doing with its funding. There are 1000’s of folks out there who LOVE the ACA and support it.

    But you call it “Obamacare” and instantly their tone changes.

    Yes, honestly, I believe Republicans in Congress would prefer that people be hurting. You are right.

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    jmworacle  over 6 years ago

    Phil Mahr thinks so…..

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    kaffekup   over 6 years ago

    It was strips just such as this that turned me off of PC years ago before I ever really tried it.

    And by that I mean, making a nonsense statement as if all understood that it was truth, even though most thinking people know it’s not.

    For instance, low unemployment; trump’s policies have given us eight years of job growth, high stock markets and low interest, even though he was just coronated last year! See, it’s working!

    Fortunately, there are no people losing medical care and no record deficits now!

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    JLG Premium Member over 6 years ago

    All right, Stantis. Up to now, you’ve viewed Trump with a degree of grounded sanity that is preciously rare among conservatives. Don’t start losing it now. Policies that are “working”? And who, exactly, are they “working” FOR? Empty platitudes like that are not a substitute for being a competent observer and social critic. You have never been a hack anywhere near the level of a Bruce Tinsley. Don’t give us any reasons to cast you in the same light.

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