CNN Says Thank Trump For These Five Things

[Gameface]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/25/opin...-trump-credit-this-christmas-avlon/index.html

Criminal justice reform

President Trump got it done after decades of talk. He cobbled together a bipartisan coalition to pass the First Step Act and used his bully pulpit to push past a reluctant Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had pronounced the legislation "divisive" just weeks before. As a measure of that alleged divisiveness, the legislation passed by an overwhelming 87-12 margin.
The law blends common sense and compassion, redeeming reformed lives while saving money in the process. It promises to lessen the sentences of nonviolent criminals and reduce frankly racist sentencing disparities. And it's the kind of bill that could only command Republican support if it were backed by a law-and-order candidate, which itself speaks to the stupid partisanship that usually outweighs policy.

Getting tough on China

Team Trump has realized that time is running out to have any leverage on China in the effort to get it to act like a responsible global power. And while I don't support Trump's trade war tactics -- mostly because they have lumped in allies like Canada with China -- the President has been right to call out abuse of trade treaties by China that have created an unequal playing field on issues from manufacturing to intellectual property to massive state sponsored cyber theft. Past administrations' attempts to engage China have been mistaken for weakness by the Marxist Leninist regime.
Their geo-political power grab and continued attacks on civil rights and civil liberties offers a chilling vision of the 21st century that deserves an unflinching pushback in the name of freedom and human rights. That does not mean America and China need be enemies -- but it does mean there needs to be more mutual respect and less of an abuse of the international order.

Economic opportunity zones

Consider this the belated love child of Jack Kemp's dwindling influence in the Republican Party, incentivizing investment in poverty-stricken neighborhoods through tax breaks on capital gains. It's exactly the sort of smart, targeted government action that may finally spur development in our atrophied regional economies.

'Right-to-try' legislation

Basically, it allows terminally ill patients to have access to experimental drugs. The logic is simple: what do they have to lose? Why not give patients and their families access to whatever experimental drug they want if it might be able to save or prolong their life?

The Music Modernization Act

ou wouldn't typically consider Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the savior of rock n' roll musicians. He's more of a barbershop quartet kind of guy. But Hatch sponsored, and Trump signed, a worthwhile and overdue piece of legislation that stops musicians from getting screwed by streaming services and cuts down on the power of predatory middle men.

 

[Gameface]

Title is "CNN Says..." but this is actually an opinion piece, so it's really John Avlon says...

 

[gandalfe]

Fake news, OBVS.

 

[babe]

A lot more to thank Trump for, on the positive side of the ledger. But this at least puts the "opinion piece" or, if you can stomach it, "CNN" as only 99.9% negative on Trump.

My fav capitalist, Sonnie Johnson, has actually educated me about some issues along this line. She was most outspoken in regard to the impacts of our unbalanced judicial system on young black folks who are systematically ruined by their brushes with the law. She supported this legislation. In her analysis, she says the socialist overlords try out their wares on minorities first, but unfailingly then impose the same abuses on the rest of us. The results? we all get impoverished and enslaved by this system, sooner or later. I would point to the indian reservation system as America's first exercise in socialism, a system that reduced proud, self-sufficient, self-reliant humans to the guv dole and reliable votes for lying manipulative politicians.

But I think the analysis of China relations and trade.... with the reference to what this portends for human rights globally.... is spot on, and important enough to give the piece five stars (outta five).

 

[str8line]

Criminal justice reform passed 87-12. Trump didn't mean **** on that legislation, McConnell's grandstanding withstanding.

Getting tough on China is overdue in theory, but has Trump handled it well?

EEZ's have been discussed here and some view it as a handout to the rich.

Right-to-try. That is considered a top-5 win? LOL

Music Modernization Act. LOLOLOL



Can we add number six to the list?

"Are you still a believer in Santa Claus? Cuz at seven, it's marginal, right?"

 

[Stoked]

Lmfao

 

[candrew]

Criminal justice reform is significant and while it's nothing more than what Obama wanted for years, Trump deserves credit for getting it through. The incarceration levels in this country are a first world embarrassment and while the bill only impacts about 2% of the all people in prison it reverses a draconian trend that has gone on unchecked for almost 40 years.

Calling China on their **** is also way overdue.

The rest:

Economic Opportunity Zones....Go Zones....community reinvestment/enrichment - it's all the same crap we've seen many times before by both parties. Businesses don't invest in communities based on tax breaks, they invest based on whether or not there is a sustainable profit is to be made. Trump got a nice photo-op out of it - that's about it.

As for the other two, they're not necessarily bad things; but if they're in your top 5 then the bar is set pretty low.

 

[Rubashov]

When Trump gets impeached and indited i may have to change my sig. Sad thing is these people are never good harbingers for a democracy, in my misspent youth i thought the racist scumbag John Howard was the best thing we could hope for on the left of Australian politics, he has set the agenda for the last 20 years. How wrong I was.

 

[JazzGal]

I'm happy that there are five things that they could give Trump good marks for, even if I don't agree with them all. Give credit where credit is due. I wonder if any of my conservative family and friends will ever mention the Music Modernization Act when I ask them what they think Trump has done that has value.