Trump's First 100 Days -- April 13, 2017

After eight years of drought, desolation, and dashed dreams under President Obama, The Los Angeles Times is now reporting that a wet winter has set a precipitation record in northern California, and for the most part, the entire state is drought-free. For the record, this was all accomplished well within President Trump's first 100 days.

Along with the Syrian airbase strike, the tactical strike on ISIS in Afghanistan, an incredible stock market rally, the announcements of any number of new manufacturing plants to be built in the US, the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice, and now the end of the California drought, one has to admit President Trump has accomplished quite a bit in his first 85 days. And there are still 15 days to go. I think we're all waiting for North Korea's "response" to President Trump's first 100 days. We should know by Monday.

Data points for The Los Angeles Times story:

• it's in the history books
• wettest winter for California's northern Sierra Nevada in nearly a century of record-keeping
• as of Thursday, "an astonishing 89.7 inches of precipitation" had been recorded; that eclipses the previous record of 88.5 inches back in 1982- 83
• Sierra Nevada provides large amounts of water to the rest of the state
• although the latter part of the year receives little precipitation, we're only into the first six month of the "water year"
• the San Joaquin index could also set a record this year

Much more at the link.

*******************************

A Must-Read

From Victor Davis Hanson's private papers: Barack Obama is America's version of Stanley Baldwin. This is an extremely well-written article. It provides a bit of history I doubt very many folks know. I certainly did not. It begins:

Both leaders put their successors in a dangerous geopolitical position.

Last year, President Obama assured the world that “we are living in the most peaceful, prosperous, and progressive era in human history,” and that “the world has never been less violent.”

Translated, those statements meant that active foreign-policy volcanoes in China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and the Middle East would probably not blow up on what little was left of Obama’s watch.

Obama is the U.S. version of Stanley Baldwin, the suave, three-time British prime minister of the 1920s and 1930s.

Baldwin’s last tenure (1935–1937) coincided with the rapid rise of aggressive German, Italian, and Japanese Fascism.

Baldwin was a passionate spokesman for disarmament. He helped organize peace conferences. He tirelessly lectured on the need for pacifism. He basked in the praise of his good intentions.

Baldwin assured Fascists that he was not rearming Britain. Instead, he preached that the deadly new weapons of the 20th century made war so unthinkable that it would be almost impossible for it to break out.

Baldwin left office when the world was still relatively quiet. But his appeasement and pacifism had sown the seeds for a global conflagration soon to come.

That last line bears repeating:

Baldwin left office when the world was still relatively quiet. But his appeasement and pacifism had sown the seeds for a global conflagration soon to come.

This perhaps explains why it is so critically important President Trump gets out in front of all this. 

Baldwin’s last tenure was 1935–1937.

FDR was president of the US from 1933 to 1945 and pretty much had to deal with the legacy that Baldwin left humanity. Exactly 80 years later (from 1937), Trump was sworn in as president.

World war threats? China is not going to go to war defending North Korea. Putin is not going to go to war defending Assad in Syria. Israel, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia will provide flank support to keep Iran in a box. [Update, April 15, 2017: Drudge has a banner headline suggesting that "war" almost broke out due to a misleading headline. The link takes us to a Zero Hedge story suggesting the same thing but hyping it to suggest "World War III." China is not going to go to an all-out war with the US over North Korea. But having said, it is possible, Russia would take advantage of the situation in the Mideast, the Crimean, Ukraine, and/or the Baltic region. So, I suppose in that sense one could call it WW III. Note: North Korea did not detonate a nuclear weapon as expected.]