It is common for political scientists to evaluate U.S. Presidents after their first 100 days in office. This exercise is based on the assumption that by this time we can evaluate the effectiveness of a President and predict his future promise.

There is little "science" applied in constructing these scorecards because there is not enough data on which to make an objective analysis. As a result, these scorecards tend to be rather subjective "I told you so" exercises in which the author revisits and validates his post-election prediction of the President's performance.

While I am not persuaded that we can fairly "grade" Donald Trump's first 100 days as President, I do believe we now have greater clarity about how Trump will govern and, more importantly, the mood of the country he is governing. Politicians not only shape the countries they serve, they also reflect the voters who elected them. In Donald Trump we see a man who is lonely like America.

Dale S. Kuehne is Professor of Politics and the Richard L. Bready Chair of Ethics, Economics and the Common Good at Saint Anselm College, New Hampshire.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2017/04/28/4660433.htm

I am not sure that Dale S. Kuehne is correct. Loneliness is in his own academic mind. Donald is not lonely... Well we are all alone, but this does not mean we are lonely. Whether people understand Trump or not is irrelevant. Some of us are not lonely with our own self. We do things to maintain our internal dialogue and the value we have of our "creative" actions. That some people in America feel lonely and abandoned is another story. Some people in the US feel good about The Donald, whether they know what he's doing or not. With the "revisionism" of the Civil War, Trump shows he is agile in his bullshit. And one can wonder what would have happened anyway with a "different" President... Nothing wrong with this kind of speculation that has been done before.

Trump is a master salesman, whether what he sells is shit or not, but in the end he has the ultimate technique -- and the smart patience (despite what seems to be tantrums, etc) to sell us what he wants, not what we need, but he slowly blurs the lines. 

For example, he says he would be prepared to meet Kim of NK... That should fill the establishment with perplexity... but not fear... He has already met with the Chinese leader... Then he says he should meet with Duterte... next on the list will be Putin... slowly bringing Russia back into the US psyche with less hate than before. Some of the establishment (AND MEDIA) are still harping on about "Russia this and that" especially in regard to Flynn (the fall guy) who got paid $45,000 or whatever by RT for a talk... Wow! But this will fade slowly by lack of NEW stuff about it. This cannot go go anywhere. The Russians had nothing to do with Hillary's defeat. Eventually the Americans will buy the "infrastructure" reconstruction despite the environmental damages, because there should be some more immediate comfortable returns, like "employment" and cash in the hip-pocket, if it is well done. Corruption could become rife, but who cares, bad decision will be made, but eventually what happens happens. The American psyche through the MEDIA had been massaged to get a WOMAN and got disappointed because some of the wrong people elected another President -- possibly an albino... (not meant in a bad way) after a black guy.

The Democrats are jubilant because Trump did not get his way on his budget, but, GUYS, he is still there despite the noises about impeachment and all this. And he could not care less at this stage. The Russian thing in regard to "his" election will eventually prove to be a mirage --- and the more the Democrats try to hang onto the idea, the more eggs they will end up on their faces... The CIA and the FBI can only stretch the sting so far with more "fake" news -- even if there are "secret" reports that only a few people are allowed to see, the public (and the MEDIA) will never see the "evidence" because THERE IS NOT ANY.

President Trump has compared the state of US infrastructure to that of the third world and said his infrastructure plan is nearly completed which envisages a $1 trillion spend over 10 years.

The proposal is said to cover more than bridges and roads expanding to include energy, water, potential broadband and veterans’ hospitals.

"We're going to do infrastructure very quickly. We've got the plan largely completed, and we'll be filing over the next two or three weeks, maybe sooner," President Donald Trump told CBS News' John Dickerson in an interview that aired on Monday’s "This Morning" program.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/usa/386764-trump-us-infrastructure-money/

"Reconstruction doesn't have a happy ending," Foner says. "It's hard to assimilate into an onward and upward vision of America that says things have been getting better and better all the time. Reconstruction doesn't fit the upward trajectory."

No, it's more as though American history were Groundhog Day, and we'll keep repeating the cycles of Reconstruction and Redemption until we can figure out how to live together. But for all of Foner's willingness to see the era's contemporary echoes, he blanches at the idea that we should view regression as inevitable. "People who lived through Reconstruction did not know Redemption was coming," he says. "They were operating on the basis that this was happening, that this was gonna be permanent, that these rights were going to be there, and thinking about what to do with them. You can't make Reconstruction purely a question of failure, and you can't make it purely a question of why did it fail."

It is indeed worth considering what survived: Colleges, churches, and other civil institutions born in that utopian moment are still going strong. The 13th Amendment was never seriously challenged. The 14th Amendment—150 years young in 2018—is a cornerstone of modern politics. The Department of Justice, formed as a mechanism to combat Southern white terrorism, would some 90 years later become the vehicle by which the "Second Reconstruction" was enforced, and (Jeff Sessions notwithstanding) it may well be the vehicle to drag America out of its latest Redemption.

read more:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/donald-trump-civil-war-recon...

Hillary Clinton says she believes misogyny, Russian interference and questionable decisions by the FBI prevented her from beating Donald Trump and becoming United States president.

• Hillary Clinton going through the "painful" process of writing a book about campaign
• Vladimir Putin held grudge over her 2012 Russian election allegation, she says
• Misogyny "very much a part of the landscape politically, socially and economically", Mrs Clinton says

The former Democratic presidential nominee said she took responsibility for the loss and had been going through the "painful" process of reliving the 2016 contest while writing a book.

She said while her campaign overcame an "enormous barrage of negativity, of false equivalency" but was fatally wounded by Russian leaks and the FBI's eleventh-hour disclosures about her use of a private email server.

"It wasn't a perfect campaign. There is no such thing," Mrs Clinton said at the annual Women for Women International's luncheon in New York.

"But I was on the way to winning until a combination of [FBI director] Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off."

She reminded the enthusiastic audience packed with women that she ultimately earned 3 million more votes than Mr Trump.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-03/putin-fbi-misogyny-contributed-to-...

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Miss Deluded has understood nothing. Like the politician she has always been, she will blame anything but herself for her defeat which was SELF-INFLICTED:

a) the DNC forgot to check the Elector Colleges and did no campaigning in states "that were in the bag". 

b) she got lucky the MEDIA (apart from the Murdoch media) was all supportive of her, including brooming her previous mistakes under the carpet

c) Russia  had nothing to do with her defeat.

d) The FBI had to report on the emails which were condemning of Hillary, though it chose not to prosecute.

e) Donald got far worse treatment by the MEDIA and the spy agencies, including his "golden showers" in Moscow

f) Donald did everything wrong to get elected

g) The voters were cynically in search of a suicidal option. 

h) there was no "misogyny" in her defeat. To the contrary.

i) the Bernie factor showed her as an "establishment" puppet...

Hillary is ever more deluded than she ever was before when she pushed the trigger on Libya...

La Clinton is rewriting history...

...

Jackson then made clear that he harbored no impulse toward economic equality or societal leveling. His aim merely was to ensure that the levers of government were not used to bestow special beneficence upon a well-positioned few. “Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government,” he said. “Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law.” Thus did Jackson declare that government should not interfere with any citizen’s pursuit of wealth and, further, that government had an affirmative obligation to protect the rich from the forces of envy bent on taking their wealth away. The general harbored no redistributionist sentiments.   

This expression crystallizes the difference between conservative populism and the liberal version. Liberal populism sets itself against the rich and corporate America. It wishes to bring them down, largely through governmental leveling. In the 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders distilled the essence of liberal populism, stirring considerable excitement among many Democrats. But Jackson, by contrast, harbored no ill will toward society’s winners. He merely hated government action that favored the wealthy or gave favored citizens special paths to wealth. His message continued: “but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers—who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government.”

Rising to eloquence, Jackson added: “If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, [government] would be an unqualified blessing.”

Jackson got his veto sustained by Congress and then scored a lopsided reelection victory over Clay in November. Biddle, who dismissed Jackson’s veto message as having “all the fury of the unchained panther, biting the bars of his cage,” wasn’t prepared for this defeat or what came after. Upon reelection, Jackson promptly killed Biddle’s bank by withdrawing all federal funds from it and depositing them in various state banks. The American people, by all indications, approved, though these actions were highly controversial at the time—and remain so among many historians today.

Until Jackson, no American politician captured the evils of crony capitalism as sharply and powerfully as this combative frontier figure with his hair-trigger temper and pugilistic style. He not only entered the arena boldly on behalf of his philosophy and vision for America, but he also took the time and care to articulate that philosophy and vision in words that resonated with vast numbers of his fellow citizens. That’s how Jackson managed to dominate the terms of domestic-policy debate in America for a generation. His program—low taxes, small government, a level playing field for all Americans, strict construction of the Constitution—became the program favored by most Americans.

read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/andy-jacksons-populism/

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But like all rich white person in the US, Jackson "owned" slaves at the time... This is why he was removed from the banknotes... As well, we know today through sciences, that the pursuit of unbridled health can be damaging to the planet. Some compromises have to be made...