We are all going to be telling our deepest, darkest secrets to a volleyball within 72 hours. @DoYouEvenLlf

One of the things that drives me crazy about the main stream media is that the perception that “the economy will do better under republican leadership” goes unchallenged when the data suggests otherwise.  It happens every election cycle and because people hear it on the news this way, republicans get credit in the minds of most Americans for something that just isn’t true.  In 2016 Republicans were throwing crazy numbers for GDP growth out there like 4% if only we could get our tax cut, this engine would really start cooking.  According to the chart below, GDP growth under republican leadership is nothing to be bloviating about.

Then the media has the current woefully under-qualified NEC director Larry Kudlow on and they let him get away with using phrases like “This economy is… smokin‘”.   And he doesn’t just say smokin’, he says smokin‘ like a line right out of American Graffiti, with all kinds of emphasis that suggest that now that republicans have enacted their tax cut for the rich, we are REALLY COOKING NOW. 

And the Sunday morning shows don’t challenge it.  They don’t review the actual data and say Larry,  please show me the data that says the economy is better now vs. Obama.  It never happens.  They get a pass on this issue ever since the Reagan administration convinced everyone that trickle down was effective.

Kudlow, a disciple of the laffer curve, gets a free pass every time as do other republicans.  It’s beyond my comprehension how this continues to happen.

It’s true that unemployment is a little bit lower under Trump, but at what cost?  The tax cuts of 2017 were based on the promise of getting to 4% growth (every real economist knew this wasn’t going to happen) and the idea that the tax cuts would pay for themselves.  Obviously, they are not as the federal deficit is getting worse under Trump, and with Coronavirus, about to get worser.

To my maximum frustration level, the MSM just gives republicans a pass on these broken promises.  The general public still thinks that Democrats are going to enact policies that destroy this smokin‘ economy,  when in fact it’s doing the same thing it did under Obama, it’s just that (until recently) Trump is riding on the coat-tails of a bull market and acting as if he was responsible for every point growth in the S&P 500.  Not true.

The job market has remained steady over the past 3 years, but has it done something so noteworthy that republicans get to brag about how awesome things are under their leadership?   Looks the same to me.

Why doesn’t the MSM look at the data and challenge these assertions?

A big part of how people perceive this issue is simply how we talk about it.  Democrats need to do a much better sales pitch in this area.  It’s as if you’re riding a bus to Los Angeles and everything is going fine but then they switch drivers in Sacramento and tell the whole bus, WOW! this trip is really going well now!  When in fact it’s the same experience, different day.

It happened on the Republican watch.  Finally.  The recession I’d been dreaming of.

At last, Trumpy ran into some bad luck.  It was bound to happen.  The Coronavirus is a serious threat to seniors and Trump’s attempt to frame it as a hoax failed miserably.  Witness the stock market decline of 8,000 points in the past week.  Of course, it helps when messaging if the messenger has credibility.  Trump has none.  His staff has to spend the following day of every press conference cleaning up the lies and other misleading statements.

The best part of it all is it is happening on the Republican watch.  The biggest arguments for supporting Trump have all been wiped out in one week.  The how’s your 401k argument – gone.

I’ve said for years the Presidents get too much credit for market conditions when they are good and too much blame when they are bad.  So normally I would defend that argument except for the fact that Trump has been taking credit every point rise in the Dow Industrials since he took office.  Never-mind the fact that the economy that he inherited was riding a 6-year run of nothing but growth.

Every president has to face some adversity at some point.  Some market condition that is out of his/her control.  What we then observe is how well they handle adversity.  GW Bush had 9/11.  He brought the country together at least, including trying very hard to win the support of moderate Muslims.  Obama had the 2008 financial collapse and subsequent housing crash to deal with.  He instituted QE2, bailed out the auto-industry and restored faith to the markets.  It took over a year but he did it.  Hilarious that the Tea Party was wailing about QE2 but unanimously supported Trump’s bailout of the farmers due to his own tariffs.

Trickle-down is what George Herbert Walker Bush said it was back in 1992.  “Voo-doo economics.”

Faced with a pandemic, Trump had two options, both really bad, but one was less bad.  He could have faced it head-on, explained that we’re in a tough situation for a while and deploy the government services to respond in full.  The downside of this is that the markets aren’t going to like  the news of course, but long term they would like that it’s being dealt with and a recovery period is in sight.

The other option he had (and chose), was to try to minimize the pandemic as another form of the flu, nothing to worry about really, and hope the markets don’t notice.  The problem is, he lies so much his credibility was suspect.  The markets were nervous anyway but when the truth came out, boom, -8,000 points in a week.  The markets just voted “no confidence” that he won’t bungle the whole affair by trying to lie his way out of it.

So Trump finally got his batch of adversity in 2020.  The economy was overdue for a recession.  It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving administration and party ..on their watch.

Volume off

Volume on

When the mainstream media pulls together a select panel of undecided voters, I know without a doubt that I’m looking at the dumbest voting block in the country.

I wouldn’t say this of a hardcore Trump supporter, … necessarily.

At least with a full fledged Trump supporter you know what you’re getting. They have been paying attention and have made a choice. A horrible choice, but at least they are cognizant of the world around them and let us know where they stand.

The undecided voter gets no such benefit. If you haven’t figured out where you stand between the choice of Hillary or Trump, then I’m sorry but you are a dumb ass.

It’s like standing there in front of the TV and with a straight face saying gosh, I need to find a job but I can’t decide if I should pursue coal mining or go into medicine.

I’m old enough to remember when Republicans were aghast when Bill Clinton met with Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in Phoenix, Az. and chatted for 20 minutes.  And rightfully so, Hillary was under investigation for the now-infamous nothing-burger e-mail scandal.  Given the situation, it was terrible judgement to meet with the active AG when your wife is under investigation.

Now we have William Barr who, if he’s not sleeping at the White House appears to be a de-facto member of the Trump cabinet.  To quote Lev Parnas, “He was on the team” when it came to drumming up opposition research on Joe Biden.   Of course, the Republicans are fine with this instance of abuse of power because well, hypocrisy.

One reason to boycott Facebook is because Zuckerberg is a selfish idiot. Just sayin’

Conservatives tend to rally around war mongering without requiring the slightest bit of justification.  There were no WMDs after all in Iraq.  Qasam Soleimani was assassinated because as rumor has it, he was planning to plot against us.  No evidence of these assumptions ever seems to be required.  Cost, both human and financial, be damned.

When the Iraq war was waged by George W. Bush in 2003, cable viewers could watch bombs explode on targets on CNN every day.  I think most people thought it was a really cool display of our technology.  Entertainment even.  Lets gather around and watch some more brown people die.   It’s 6,000 miles away and looks like a well designed video game on TV.

This is where the problem lies now.  It’s easy to be entertained by war when it’s other people’s children doing the dying.  It’s also easy to be entertained by war when it seemingly doesn’t cost us anything.   Free entertainment.  And we alway seem to win.  What a cool country we live in.

To the average American, a real test of whether or not it’s cool would be if everyone had an equal chance of participating in the war games.  Hmm, hold on a minute.  I just like to watch.  That’s what I thought.

This is why I’m thinking the only solution that will force people to get real about whether or not they really support a movement towards war, is if we reverted back to the mandator draft.  I believe it would nip this kind of thinking in the bud. Oh it’s my kid who might have to be on the front line?  Wait just a minute now.

Another test would be if we had to use pay-go for the war costs.  If everyone’s tax bill went up $5,000 / year to pay for the ongoing war, can you imagine the push-back?  Well, I think we should do it but I’m not going to be the one paying for it.  Indeed.  You don’t have to worry about that because it’s on the credit card.  You’ll be dead when the bill comes due, but your kids won’t be too happy.

Lloyd Bentsen, in the 1988 Vice Presidential debate said it best.

You know, if you let me write $200 billion worth of hot checks every year, I could give you an illusion of prosperity, too.

Here is where we are right now. A picture is worth 1000 words.