[uh-oh]

just so we know, he is my boy by default. we don't align 100 percent politically but i thoroughly enjoy him as a human being.

so in that regard, things are going better than i couldve hoped for. the repeal of the obamacare mandate and the failure of the repeal and replace is beautiful. i was in favor of an outright repeal, but this is essentially the same thing. with the premiums set to skyrocket now they will be forced to replace it (i hope they don't) or outright repeal it.

the tax bill is beautiful. i see its benefits on a daily basis. not only from me keeping more of my own money in each check, but at work we've actually hired guys so i don't have to continually carry the place on my back. we've also had a massive uptick in retail sales, in past years the majority of our work was through dealerships and insurance, retail is considered normal people stopping in to have stuff fixed/get painted. this is completely anecdotal and theoretical at this point however, but my theory is people having more money in their pockets now translates to them spending a few bucks to fix up their vehicles. we're basically on target to double our retail sales, if everything continues this way for the rest of the year. this could be a fluke, but i mean i've been here for 5 years now so it is a little strange that the numbers are doubling

but again i could be seeing what i want to in that regard.

also im seeing an uptick in manufacturing, this is the rustbelt after all, timken steel has been getting a steady uptick in hiring, so i'm hoping that trump sticks by his tariffs and such and doesn't just use them as bargaining chips for better deals in general. either way its better than what it was. granted prices will definitely rise in the interim until places like timken steel, republic steel etc all get back going at the capacities they were once running at before the jobs left, but seeing them hiring instead of having mass layoffs is great.

so word im digging the tax bill and the repeal of the obamacare mandate.

my problems with trumps first 500 days are more so problems with our entire system. the military industrial complex and how trump gives them free reign basically. granted i'm somewhat torn on it though. i don't think a president who hasn't served should be hands on in general. but im not with our warmongering in general. how we operate all over the world lining the pockets of corporations that profit off the mass murder of people who pose no threat to us. so i'd like to see us out of everything but understand we're too deep into it at this point.

im not with the omnibus spending bill, at all. its par for the course governmental overspending on nonsense. he could say he moved some money around to fool his base like oh i put 2 billion towards the wall blah blah. its nonsense. it reeks of the continued rot and corruption of our government beyond political parties. just feeding the swamp he campaigned on draining.


so at the moment, the pluses outweigh the minuses

i think its wishful thinking that he is a 1 term president though, he's already done enough to carry his base, and might actually garner more support from what he has actually done. also i see no one from the democratic side who wouldn't be slaughtered by him. i think we're stuck with him. so we should just lean into the buffoonery and enjoy it for what it is.