It has been a rather wild week. So many crazy things have happened that it is hard to keep track. Here are just a few:
1. Yesterday, Barack Obama broke his "silence" on the current political scene. It was a typical Obama speech; it was filled with amazing lies. For example Obama actually claimed credit for the current economic boom. No, really, Obama said that the "recovery" began when he was president, so he gets credit for the current economic growth spurt rather than President Trump. It was an amazing claim. In the eight years he was president, Obama never got the economy growing at a rate that hit 3%. The average growth rate for the US economy since World War II is 3.2% according to government figures. That means Obama never even got the economy close to the average growth rate in eight years.
During his term, Obama and the Democrats told us that 2% growth was now the new normal. When Trump said he would bring back faster growth, the Democrats mocked him. It couldn't be done, they told us. Structural change in the USA prevented growth at 3% or higher.
Once Trump took office, he started making regulatory and tax changes to increase growth. Last quarter, the economy grew at a 4.2% rate. In one year, President Trump has already gotten the economy to grow more rapidly than it did in any of the Obama years.
Perhaps the best indicator is the stock market. On the day after election day in 2016, the market started rising. As of now, it is up more than 25% since that time. If you have any investments (as more than half of all Americans do), you have seen first hand the sort of increase that has happened. Investors don't care about Republican or Democrat. They just care about economic prospects and profits. They vote with their cash. They have made clear that Trump is the one who knows how to run an economy, not Obama or the Democrats.
2. The Kavanaugh hearings have ended. They can only be described as some sort of third rate show. We had unfunny comedians like Cory Booker who pretended to be brave by releasing confidential documents that he knew were already cleared for release. That may sound convoluted, but actually it is just sad. In his showboating, Booker just made himself out to be a fool. The other Democrat potential 2020 candidate on the committee, senator Harris of California, did her own soft shoe by asking bizarre questions about interactions between the judge and a particular law firm. When Kavanaugh said he didn't know the identities of particular lawyers at that firm and asked for a list of names, Harris just seemed stumped and moved on. Her gotcha moment seemed to get no one but herself.
3. George Papadopoulos was sentenced to prison yesterday. If you follow the Mueller probe and the other related investigations, you know that according to the media and the Democrats, the entire Russia probe was begun by the FBI because Papadopoulos made a comment to an Australian diplomat in a bar in London. Papadopoulos was supposedly the key figure in the Trump-Russia collusion. So you would think that Mueller would see to it that he went to prison for a long, long time, right? Well that would be wrong. Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days, 14 DAYS, in prison with no subsequent parole period. He can be out in 11 days if he exhibits good behavior. His only crime was "lying to the FBI". He is not alleged to have done anything wrong with Russia or to have colluded in any way. It is yet another indicator that there was no collusion.
The funny thing, though, is that while Papadopoulos was splashed across the media again and again in the past as a justification for the Mueller probe, when we learn that he didn't do anything wrong, there is virtually no coverage.
4. The NY Times op ed by a supposed high government official is another main story of the week. Is there really such an individual? I doubt it. If there is, it is probably someone who is an assistant under-secretary of the Interior or some similar position. Most likely it would be a civil service position, rather than someone appointed by the President.
There is one other possibility. Maybe it's someone who works for the government who was high when he or she wrote the column. The Times would be happy to call that person a high government official. After all, it would be true.
1. Yesterday, Barack Obama broke his "silence" on the current political scene. It was a typical Obama speech; it was filled with amazing lies. For example Obama actually claimed credit for the current economic boom. No, really, Obama said that the "recovery" began when he was president, so he gets credit for the current economic growth spurt rather than President Trump. It was an amazing claim. In the eight years he was president, Obama never got the economy growing at a rate that hit 3%. The average growth rate for the US economy since World War II is 3.2% according to government figures. That means Obama never even got the economy close to the average growth rate in eight years.
During his term, Obama and the Democrats told us that 2% growth was now the new normal. When Trump said he would bring back faster growth, the Democrats mocked him. It couldn't be done, they told us. Structural change in the USA prevented growth at 3% or higher.
Once Trump took office, he started making regulatory and tax changes to increase growth. Last quarter, the economy grew at a 4.2% rate. In one year, President Trump has already gotten the economy to grow more rapidly than it did in any of the Obama years.
Perhaps the best indicator is the stock market. On the day after election day in 2016, the market started rising. As of now, it is up more than 25% since that time. If you have any investments (as more than half of all Americans do), you have seen first hand the sort of increase that has happened. Investors don't care about Republican or Democrat. They just care about economic prospects and profits. They vote with their cash. They have made clear that Trump is the one who knows how to run an economy, not Obama or the Democrats.
2. The Kavanaugh hearings have ended. They can only be described as some sort of third rate show. We had unfunny comedians like Cory Booker who pretended to be brave by releasing confidential documents that he knew were already cleared for release. That may sound convoluted, but actually it is just sad. In his showboating, Booker just made himself out to be a fool. The other Democrat potential 2020 candidate on the committee, senator Harris of California, did her own soft shoe by asking bizarre questions about interactions between the judge and a particular law firm. When Kavanaugh said he didn't know the identities of particular lawyers at that firm and asked for a list of names, Harris just seemed stumped and moved on. Her gotcha moment seemed to get no one but herself.
3. George Papadopoulos was sentenced to prison yesterday. If you follow the Mueller probe and the other related investigations, you know that according to the media and the Democrats, the entire Russia probe was begun by the FBI because Papadopoulos made a comment to an Australian diplomat in a bar in London. Papadopoulos was supposedly the key figure in the Trump-Russia collusion. So you would think that Mueller would see to it that he went to prison for a long, long time, right? Well that would be wrong. Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days, 14 DAYS, in prison with no subsequent parole period. He can be out in 11 days if he exhibits good behavior. His only crime was "lying to the FBI". He is not alleged to have done anything wrong with Russia or to have colluded in any way. It is yet another indicator that there was no collusion.
The funny thing, though, is that while Papadopoulos was splashed across the media again and again in the past as a justification for the Mueller probe, when we learn that he didn't do anything wrong, there is virtually no coverage.
4. The NY Times op ed by a supposed high government official is another main story of the week. Is there really such an individual? I doubt it. If there is, it is probably someone who is an assistant under-secretary of the Interior or some similar position. Most likely it would be a civil service position, rather than someone appointed by the President.
There is one other possibility. Maybe it's someone who works for the government who was high when he or she wrote the column. The Times would be happy to call that person a high government official. After all, it would be true.
No comments:
Post a Comment