The Show Must Go On

After seeing the headlines today about a second "whistleblower" who is about to come forward, I can only say "the show must go on".  Think about it.  According to the reports, this second person has "first hand" knowledge of the events at the center of the first whistleblower's complain.  That means that he has first hand knowledge of the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Zelezny.  The media is making a big deal of this, but here's the thing:  WE ALREADY HAVE A TRANSCRIPT OF THE CALL.  In other words, we already know exactly what was said in the call.  What difference does it make if there's a second person coming forward?

This is all part of an orchestrated plan to attack Trump.  It would have been fine if Trump had not released the transcript, but now it just looks silly.  What could this second whistleblower add to the conversation?  What nonsense!

Sanders Has to Drop Out

Bernie Sanders had a heart attack this past week.  Interestingly enough, his campaign didn't announce that for days after it happened.  Instead, they told us that Sanders had stents put into heart arteries to alleviate a partial blockage.  Actually there had been a total blockage of one artery which had caused the heart attack.

Sanders is running for president as a Democrat.  As a result, little notice has been taken by the media of the intentional lie from his campaign about his health.  One can only imagine what would be said if the same had happened to President Trump.  Maxine Waters would surely want to add it to any list of impeachable offenses.

Seriously, however, Bernie's heart attack should lead to his immediate exit from the presidential race.  It's hard enough handling the rigors of a campaign.  Being president, however, is not a job for the sick.  We've had presidents in the past who suffered heart attacks while in office; the last was Dwight Eisenhower in the late 1950s.  The pressures on a president, now, are even greater than they were back then.  America needs to know that its president, whoever that may be, is healthy enough for the job.

Bernie would do well to withdraw from the race at this point.  He should also realize that even if he stays in the race, there will just be too many people worried about his health for him to succeed in even getting the nomination.

U6 or The Real Economic News

Today brought another monthly labor report.  We heard about the number of jobs "created" and we also got major commentary about how the total "missed" estimates.  The actual number was 12000 jobs lower than the average estimate by "experts".  That means that the actual result was right on the estimate.  Remember, the survey which determines the number of jobs created has an margin of error of =/- 100,000 jobs or so.  That means that the 135,000 jobs created according to the survey were actually somewhere between 35,000 and 235,000.  A variation of 12,000 from the estimate would happen more than 80% of the time even if the actual number of jobs created (if every one were counter) were exactly the estimated amount.

A second bit of news from the labor report was that unemployment hit the lowest rate in 50 years at 3.5%.  Unemployment for blacks and Hispanics again set new records; these rates have never been this low.

One item that gets little coverage is one that is very important.  It is known as the U6 measure of unemployment.  It measures the percentage of the labor force that is either unemployed or "underemployed" meaning that the people with jobs may be working only part time due to failure to find a full time job or are otherwise discouraged.  The U6 for September hit 6.9% which is the lowest rate in almost 20 years.  What this means is that not only have jobs been found for the people easiest to employ, but the chronically troubled in the labor force are also finding jobs.  Since President Trump took office, the U6 rate has fallen from 9.3% to 6.9%.  That is a major change which means that millions of people now have jobs which will supply them with a better life rather than trying to eke out a poor existence on odd jobs and part time work.

We shouldn't let this report go by without noting this. 

Aren't The Dems Embarrassed?

There are a batch of committees controlled by Democrats that are running around Capitol Hill trying to investigate the possibility of impeachment.  One has to wonder when, if ever, these Democrats will finally feel a sense of embarrassment.  Think about it.  In the short time since the impeachment mess began, here's a sampling of what has happened:

1.  The entire investigation is based upon a complaint filed by a so called whistleblower who claims that President Trump wrongfully pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his family by withholding American military aid unless that investigation were done.

2.  Before Nancy Pelosi announced the investigation, Trump had already announced that he would release the transcript of the phone call during which he supposedly threatened the Ukrainian president.  No matter, Pelosi went ahead with the announcement.  Then, the next morning, the transcript was released as scheduled, and it showed that Trump never threatened the Ukrainian.  Indeed, Trump never mentioned military aid to Ukraine.  That put a big hole into the whistleblower's complaints.

3.  Then we learned that the whistleblower had never heard the phone call.  Instead, he was relying on what other unnamed individuals supposedly told him.  He could have just said that the "word on the street" was such and such and it would carry as much weight.  But the Dems went forward anyway.

4.  Indeed, in order to shore up the claims against Trump, the Dems shifted the narrative.  Trump may not have mentioned the military aid, but he was acting like a "mob boss", in other words he was making an implicit threat.  The Ukrainian surely understood what Trump meant.  So no mention was made of cutting off military aid, but it was implicit according to the Dems and that pressured the Ukrainian.

5.  Of course, then the president of Ukraine said that he had felt no pressure during the call.  The Dems brushed off his statement.  Their view was that the Ukrainian president must be lying to help Trump.

6.  Then we learned that the USA never told Ukraine that aid had been delayed until almost a month after the phone call between the two presidents.  That means that if the threat of the aid cut off was an implicit threat, the Ukrainian president would have to be clairvoyant to know about it.  Indeed, during the phone call, the Ukrainian president mentioned to President Trump that Ukraine was almost ready to order more javelin anti-tank missiles from the USA.  These missiles would be part of the aid in question.  Trump didn't say anything that would lead the Ukrainian to think the missiles might be delayed.  If anything, that exchange shows that president Zelezny of Ukraine had no idea that there could be any delay in American aid.

7.  Next we learned that the whistleblower is a Democrat operative.  He or she didn't take his complaint to the IG as required by the whistleblower statute.  Nope, about a month before the story broke this person went to the House Intelligence Committee and Adam Schiff.  The Dems were briefed on the entire matter and then assisted the whistleblower in putting forward his complaint.  This helps explain why Schiff was tweeting about this subject almost a month before the impeachment stuff broke in the media.  Once again, Schiff proved that he cannot keep a secret; he had to leak the story on Twitter just to prove to himself how clever he is.

There's much more, but just the stuff above makes one thing very clear:  the essence of the whistle blower's complaint -- the claim that Trump threatened Ukraine's leader with a cut off of military aid to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden -- is totally untrue.  In fact, that story is one concocted with the help of Adam Schiff and congressional Democrats to "get" Trump.

It's really time for the Democrats to be truly embarrassed (if not indicted.)

Credible??

Real Clear Politics is running a CNN article today that proclaims the whistleblower “credible.”

Think about that. Neither CNN nor RCP knows who the whistleblower is. He or she could be almost anyone. All the information needed to determine credibility is missing. On top of that we do know from the whistleblower’s complaint that he or she has no first hand knowledge of any of this. Instead he or she just repeated things that others supposedly said happened.  That’s enough of a blow to credibility that American courts would bar all of this from being put into evidence because it is hearsay.

What all this means is that there is no way to judge the credibility of the whistleblower. The headline is a phony. What is worst though is that these media sites know this but push the nonsense anyway. 

Lies —Intentional Media Lies

CNBC is supposed to be the NBC network that specializes in business news. Today that network reported that manufacturing in the USA hit its lowest level since the recession. That report, however, is wrong and of all reporters CNBC has to know that. In other words it’s a lie.

What actually happened today was that a SURVEY that polled a small sample of businesses reported that compared to last year manufacturing in September declined by a small amount. The size of a one month decline was slightly more than others since 2010. Manufacturing in total though is at least 20% higher than it was ten years ago. SobCNBC wasn’t even close to correct

The problem is that most people don’t know the details. They just hear the lies NBC News is putting out there. 

Hillary Really Seems To Be Happening

It's hard to imagine, but it actually seems as if Hillary Clinton is getting ready to jump back into the race for president in 2020.  She may be a two time loser (or a total loser depending on your point of view), but Hillary can't seem to shake the itch to be president.

Today brought another indicator of what is coming.  Andrew Stein wrote a column in the New York Post calling on Joe Biden to drop out of the race before all the investigations drive him from the race.  That's interesting because Stein is not some pundit; he is the former head of the New York City Council and a major power in New York City Democrat circles.  In his piece, Stein points out that nothing President Trump has done rises to the level of an impeachable offense, but he emphasizes that the mess that the whole matter exposes about Biden and his son will inevitably bring Old Joe down.

Stein, however, is also a Clinton supporter, and an important one at that.  Last November, Stein wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal together with Mark Penn (another Clinton supporter) to predict that Hillary would enter the race and easily get the nomination.  His latest article was no doubt run by Hillary's people and approved.

In the last few weeks, Hillary is suddenly back on the trail again, making speeches, giving interviews, releasing statements, and the like.  She's gearing up.

In 2016, the race was close enough that it is fair to say that America did not so much elect Trump as reject Hillary Clinton.  I don't think that in Hillary's case absence made the collective American heart grow any fonder.  Still, if Hillary were to step back into the race, she would command a sizable group of loyalist Democrats.  Given the splintered nature of the current field and the obvious flaws with each of the Democrat candidates, it is conceivable that the Dems would pick her again. 

This may be Hillary's chance to break the glass ceiling.  She could be the first woman to be a major presidential candidate to lose THREE times.