Corruption Politics

I have never been so naive that I believed that all of our politicians were in it for “service to our country”. They are there for two things…money and power. And the quicker that We The People understand that, then the quicker we will get it that politics is corrupt. But it’s getting to the point where it seems everyone in Washington these days is corrupt in one way or another. I still think it’s gone too far.

This year, you’ve got the two front runners for next year’s presidential election, and both of them could be wearing orange jumpsuits by the time November, 2024 rolls around. They won’t, but they should be.

Joe Biden has to be one of the most corrupt politicians that we’ve seen in a very long time. I’m not so sure he’s the worst. There was a time when entire administrations were so corrupt that it’s a wonder the union survived. We still have that mentality in Washington today. But if you look back at who have been the most corrupt presidents in our history, can you argue with these choices? (and this is according to http://www.thetoptens.com)

1. Richard Nixon. This goes without saying. I don’t know if he was the MOST corrupt, but his coverup of Watergate was monumental. Certainly impeachment was warranted had he not seen the handwriting on the wall.
2. Warren G. Harding. The Teapot Dome Scandal was one of the earliest that I learned about in middle school. And the guy only lasted a couple of years until he died in office.
3. Donald Trump. I’m not really sure why he was corrupt other than to say that as a Manhattan Real Estate Developer, aren’t they ALL corrupt? That’s the way you do business in NYC!
4. Andrew Johnson. Until Bill Clinton came along, he was the only president to be impeached. Missed getting convicted by one vote.
5. John Tyler. Tyler’s entire administration was corrupt. Filled with nepotism and cronyism, he was never viewed as one of the good presidents by any reasonable historian.
6. Barack Obama. Let’s put this into figures we can all understand. In 2009 when he went into office, Barack Obama had a net worth of $250,000. When he left office eight years later, he was worth over $1 billion. You tell me how you legally can do that on a salary of $400,000 a year!
7. George W. Bush. About the only two things I can think of when it came to corruption was a) he went after Saddam Hussein because of the death threat against his father, and attacking Iraq because of the Weapons of Mass Destruction narrative, which turned out to be false. I guess I can also blame the banking bailout disaster of 2008 on him as well.
8. Lyndon Johnson. He never met a dirty deal that he didn’t love. This guy had been such a wheeler-dealer from the time he was in the Senate. One of the dirtiest players of all time in DC!
9. Bill Clinton. He lied. He did have sexual relations with that woman…Ms. Lewinski. And several others. And he amassed a fortune for himself while doing so. I won’t even get into the trail of bodies that are strewn from Little Rock to the nation’s capital.
10. Joe Biden. In fairness, http://www.thetoptens.com has him listed 11th. I moved him to 10th, and actually as we continue to learn of his dirty dealings, he probably needs to get placed much higher on this list.

There are the top ten. I find it amazing that the two top candidates for the 2024 presidential election next year are both on this list. What does that say about our country? What does that say about our morality? And the fact that Biden is sitting at a 38% approval rating, and is going to be under investigation for taking millions from Ukraine and China? How can this guy even begin to think of running for reelection? Just because you put a “nice Uncle Joe” smile on your face, doesn’t mean you’re clean by any stretch of the imagination. Of course, it all has to be proven, and in time, I hope it will be. But from what I’ve seen so far, and of course, the fact that he’s one of the weaker presidents we’ve ever had, second term are two words I would never put together with Joe Biden. Maybe that’s why he’s not announced yet?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

What If Nobody Won?

I just saw the latest approval numbers for Joe Biden and K-baby Harris. Biden slipped 7 points from 45% to 38% according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Harris is worse than Biden. She currently sits at 36% according to the same poll.

Donald Trump doesn’t fare much better. His approval numbers according to Five Thirty Eight sits at 41%. And when asked if they wanted Joe Biden to run for office, only 27% said yes. When they asked the same question for Donald Trump, it was slightly higher at 28%.

So, my question is, what if they held an election and nobody won?

It seems to me that nobody wants either Joe Biden nor Donald Trump to be the nominee in their respective parties. Or at least very few people do. If that is the case (and frankly I’m not sure how much credibility I can put in polls any more), then one would have to come to the reasonable conclusion that neither should be seeking the nomination. If anyone decides to run against them, they should be defeated, right?

But that’s not the case. This whole thing in New York with Alvin Bragg trying to decide whether or not to indict Trump over paying hush money to a porn star for an alleged sexual affair actually boosted Trump in the GOP primary. And Biden has had a very difficult time in his own party after he signed the Republican backed bill to deny Washington DC’s city council or district council, or whatever they call themselves, their crime bill that called for an “easing” of prosecution for crimes like car-jacking, which is at an all-time high in our nation’s capital.

Trump is currently leading Ron DeSantis, who sits in second place among GOP hopefuls 54% to 28% according to a newly released Morning Consult poll. So, to understand this (and it’s difficult to grasp logically), only 28% of Republicans want to see Donald Trump run again, yet when paired against a whole slew of Republicans that either have announced or possibly could announce their candidacy, Trump basically has doubled up on the guy in second place? Where is the logic in that?

Of course, Biden is looking at trying to sew up his nomination and reelection by running to the center. He’s trying to take a page out of the Clinton playbook. Speaking of Clinton, while the GOP will be looking at possibly twelve people running for the nomination, Democrats have very few. Marianne Williamson is the only announced Democrat to run against Biden so far, and she doesn’t even show up in the polls. But something interesting is happening. A lot of these polling firms are putting out “what if” scenarios. For instance…if Hillary Clinton ran against K-baby Harris, Harris wins by 13%. If Michelle Obama runs against Harris, she beats Harris by 5 points. But if Biden runs against Obama, Joe wins by 7%. So much for being the savior of the Democrat party!

And what if Biden runs against his own Vice President? Don’t laugh. It has happened before. But it was a long time ago. Thomas Jefferson, as VP, ran against John Adams, who was the sitting president. As you know from your history class, Jefferson beat Adams.

But to answer the question above, what if nobody ever voted and nobody won? Well, of course, the House of Representatives would decide, which means that at this point, it’s most likely a Republican would defeat the Democrats, at least if they could agree on who they would be backing.

I can’t imagine at this point a Biden/Trump race if less than 30% of each party wants to see them be the candidates. Here’s hoping some semblance of sense arises in the voting public over the course of the next 19 months or so. Either that or we are in for a lot more of the current atmosphere in the country. This is why people on drugs shouldn’t be allowed to vote!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The China Problem

Joe Biden has a rather large problem. It’s called China. And it’s not going to go away on it’s own. The mere fact that Xi Jinping traveled to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin is certainly cause for alarm. But the whole thing goes much deeper than that. And I really don’t think anyone in the Biden administration has a clue on what to do about it. Except that Joe has made so much money from China, he doesn’t want to upset them any further.

Let’s look at some (not all…just a few) of the problems.

First off, you’ve got the total trade imbalance. The US currently exports about $120 billion in goods to China. We import $539 billion. That’s a deficit of $419 billion. And that’s a problem because China controls a lot of what we need in order to survive. Have you gone to the pharmacy to have a prescription filled and been told that they are “out” of the medication? There is a huge shortage right now of medicine in this country, and a lot of the medications we depend on come from China. There is a small move a foot to get some of those jobs sent back to the United States, but it’s years away from becoming commonplace. Then you’ve got the whole computer chip industry that’s taking place in the “second China”, Taiwain. We are starting to make inroads there, but that takes years. China currently makes 12% of the world’s chips. Taiwan makes 54%. The US? We currently add about 12% to the total. Between China and Taiwan, they make two-thirds of the world’s chips.

Let’s look at another area…education. China is sending their students here to get educated. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, they all are full of Chinese students. Currently, over 369,000 students studying at American universities are Chinese. And the rumor is that an awful lot of them are sending information back to the Communist Party in China. Yes, we are being spied on by Chinese students. What the Chinese can’t learn through our education system, they steal.

What about espionage. Do you think those balloons that floated over the US (and continue to by the way) a few weeks back were just on vacation? Of course not. And we allowed them to fly over military installations. China knows much more about us than we know about them.

China has infiltrated our youth through TikTok. And though TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew testified yesterday in Congress that his company isn’t doing anything untoward, they continue to track everything our kids are doing. There are over 150 million users in the United States alone on that social media platform. That’s about half the country! And they can listen in to what you’re saying, they can watch what you do and where you go, and they can send videos to you that THEY decide you should watch, regardless of whether it’s something you want your kids seeing or not.

While the US is mired in debates over stupid stuff like transgenderism, and liberal pronoun usage, the Chinese are beating us in every category out there. They have bought and paid for our president many times over, and continue to do so.

So, what’s the answer?

What needs to happen is the United States first needs to realize what is happening here. Second, we need to do something about it, and that will take time to unspool ourselves from China. They are so ingrained in our way of life today, that is not going to be an easy task. There will be pain, trust me. But we need to pull the plug on China. We can start by stopping all of those container ships coming over here and not do business with them. We can stop sending them stuff too. We can expel the 369,000 students here and send them back. And we need to develop a way to create medicines here, and if we don’t have the rare earth materials we need, we need to develop them artificially in the lab. And that all takes time.

Second thing we need to do is bring back our businesses from China. We need to stop sending them our best and brightest ideas to manufacture. We need to take Coca Cola, and Nike, and the millions of other businesses that are over there producing wares, and shipping them back here. We need to bring those jobs and those businesses back to the US. In order to do so, we need to make it so expensive for those companies to do business there. If you make it unprofitable for them to be there, they will return. Congress can certainly do that.

China has become more than a nuisance. They have become a millstone around our necks. And if we don’t do something about it, you’re going to be having ducks feet for dinner real soon!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Freebird!

With apologies to Lynyrd Skynyrd!

If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?
For I must be traveling on now
‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see

But, if I stay here with you, girl
Things just couldn’t be the same
‘Cause, I’m as free as a bird now
And this bird you cannot change, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
And the bird you cannot change
And this bird you cannot change
Lord knows I can’t change

While that 1973 classic was written about a girl that the singer was leaving, a lot of it can be applied to Donald Trump these days. He had predicted that he would become the very first former president indicted for crimes and arrested. And he predicted that arrest would have happened yesterday. It still may happen today, but for the moment, as this is being written, he is indeed a free bird.

Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, has a lot to explain one way or another on the whole Grand Jury thing with Trump. He’s been interviewing witnesses regarding Trump’s alleged payout to porn star, Stormy Daniels. If he goes through with the indictment and the arrest, Bragg, a Soros backed DA, will be under intense scrutiny personally and professionally. There are those in his own party that, even though they hate Donald Trump, don’t want to see him indicted. That’s for several reasons.

First of all, there are some very serious charges possibly pending up the road against Trump. There’s the whole January 6th thing that the special committee of the House put together and recommended to the Department of Justice that charges be filed against Donald Trump for enticing rioters to take over the Capitol Building. Then you’ve got the whole FBI Mar-A-Lago raid, though that is seeming less and less probable now that if you charge Trump, you’re going to have to charge Mike Pence (who supposedly didn’t even know he had the documents in the first place), and sitting President Joe Biden for the exact same crime of taking top secret documents.

Then let’s get into the whole statute of limitations things. The alleged payout to Daniels happened back in 2015 or 2016, when Trump was running for president the first time. New York’s Criminal Procedure Law says there is a two year statute of limitations on misdemeanors, and a five year statute of limitations on most felonies except for rape or murder. So, Bragg’s charges and this whole charade may be thrown out of court on day one if Trump is indeed indicted.

Next, you have the charge itself. It’s not illegal, even in New York, to pay hush money to someone. So, even if Trump did it, Bragg is going to have to prove that it’s against the law. He plans to say the money was paid out of campaign donations, not Trump’s personal account. That would also be an easy thing to prove. And apparently, Trump then-attorney, Michael Cohen was the one that paid Daniels, not Trump. Yes, Trump is said to have reimbursed Cohen for the payment, but does that mean he paid him out of campaign funds, or out of his own personal funds. It will make a difference.

Then there is the public’s reaction. Trump is betting on the fact that if he is charged, he can play the victim, and that will spark protests and increase his chances of getting the GOP nod for the presidency. Most pundits feel that he would be in a better position if he were indicted. It would bring out the voters that felt that he got railroaded and we need to do something to curtail the left’s multiple over-reaches since Biden took over as president.

Finally, and I think this is exactly why the Democrats that are not in favor of this one going forward, is it would be yet another chapter in what I refer to as the “Harry Reid Rule”. While Reid was Majority Leader in the Senate, he pulled a lot of strings to allow Bobo Obama’s nominations for federal judges to go through. He got it passed that it only took 51 votes to pass, not the normal 60. That came back to bite Democrats in the backside when Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, and Mitch McConnell, then Majority Leader got the Reid Rule extended to Supreme Court Justices. It’s also what allowed Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to get to the high court.

And that is exactly what could happen again. If Bragg goes through with this, what would stop someone else somewhere else from doing the same thing to say, Joe Biden when he leaves office? Or maybe Hillary Clinton? Or Bobo Obama? There is always a quid pro quo possibility in these things.

I think Trump is hopeful that he DOES get indicted and charged. He WANTS to go and have the perp walk, and have his mug shot taken and get finger printed. Nothing would make him happier. It would cause Republicans to rally around him, even as they have started to splinter their support of him. And it would strike fear in the hearts of Democrats who, let’s face it, would rather run against God Himself, then to go up against an angry and vengeful Donald Trump. Oops. Gotta go. My popcorn is done!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Cat Fight!

And you thought nothing of that nature ever happened in Washington, DC! Shame on you! Of course there are cat fights, and it appears we are in the midst of a good old fashioned one dealing with Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.

In a fight that took two months to reach the press, Warren was being interviewed by a Boston radio station. She was asked a question that is on every reporter’s mind about now…Would the Senator support Kamala Harris for Vice President in 2024? Warren basically said she would defer to Joe Biden’s judgement on that one.

Oops!

It wasn’t long after that Warren realized she had some fence mending to do with the Vice President, so she tried to call her. And didn’t get through. She kept trying to call her. And Harris kept ghosting her. Apparently, it’s now progressed to the point that the Vice President and the Senator from Massachusetts aren’t on speaking terms any longer.

And I have to say, I DO enjoy watching the occasional cat fight. They can be rather humorous at times…but not for the reasons that Seinfeld showed. I really think I’d gag at the thought of these two kissing! Anyway, what I find amusing about it is, here you have two people that are basically viewed by most people as ill able to handle their jobs. They both have some bulldog qualities about them. Harris was known as a bulldog prosecutor in California, sending people to jail for even marijuana possession. And Warren has been brash enough in her career to think she was a Native American, when it turns out that she really wasn’t…or at the very least was like had one person in her family tree some 6-10 generations ago who was a Cherokee.

So, you’ve got two women that have been rather boisterous in the past on certain issues. Both are liberal as the day is long, and both are roundly criticized and have very little credibility with the American people. Harris has been nothing short of a national joke in her current role, something that totally exemplifies the Peter Principle. Warren meanwhile, hasn’t sucked at being a Senator, she’s just lied her way to the top. Time and time again claiming a certain type of status that gave her special privileges. It may have gotten her out of Oklahoma and into a prestigious university (she went to George Washington for her undergraduate degree, and Rutgers for her law degree). And she used “special status” again to get a job once she became a lawyer.

Will the two ever get back together and be on the same side? I mean, I’m sure to be honest, that Warren only said what most Democrats are thinking…Kamala Harris isn’t fit or qualified to be Vice President, and doesn’t do anything to help Joe Biden. She has failed at every single job he has given her from the border to talking to NATO allies, to helping out in Ukraine. Other than that, she has been in attendance for the first two years of the Biden administration, at the Senate whenever they were taking a vote. That’s because as Vice President, and the Senate split 50/50, she was the tie-breaker, which she did 19 times. So, looking at her resume as the country’s number two, I can understand Warren’s hesitancy to want to firmly endorse her for a second term. In fact, most Americans don’t want to see her on the ticket.

Meanwhile, Harris has problems of her own. She has had a terrible time keeping her staff together. There have been at least 25 resignations from her team since she became VP, and that’s high in any administration! She has been roundly criticized by her critics and friends alike for her inability to get things done. So, yeah, I’d probably side with Warren on her ability to be in the number two seat.

But Warren certainly isn’t anyone to talk. As Bernie Sanders’ wingman for socialism, Warren’s approval rating at Politico was just 36% recently. Harris’ is 41%. Neither are what I’d call shining stars for their political party, and both ran unsuccessfully for the top job in 2020.

Cat fights are fun to watch. And this one won’t be any different. I’d just like to make sure it’s all done in the open, so we can all enjoy another bowl of popcorn!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Five Questions Trump Must Answer

The Hill has come out with an interesting article written by Niall Stanage about the upcoming presidential campaign. Basically it says there are five questions that must be answered before Donald Trump gets the GOP nod to be it’s presidential candidate again. And they are questions that every American, Republican or not, should be asking.

First off, what is the affect of an indictment on Donald Trump? Manhattan’s District Attorney is readying charges that Trump paid off porn star, Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The big questions I have regarding this are, did Trump pay off Daniels? Is it actually illegal to pay “hush money”, and hasn’t this thing hit the statute of limitations already? It’s been seven years! Of course, what the affect is on Trump’s campaign if he is indeed indicted is something that’s already being hotly debated, and we’ve discussed it here earlier. I think it will have some impact, but the true Trump supporters are going to hang with him. They’ll see it as he paints the picture…it’s another witch hunt.

Second question that would need to be answered is just how solid is Trump’s support? He didn’t fare very well in the November elections as far as his endorsed candidates are concerned. Oh, the majority of the won, but the candidates in the swing states didn’t do all that well. Herschel Walker lost in Georgia, Kari Lake lost in Arizona. Blake Masters also lost in Arizona, Adam Laxalt lost a close race in Nevada. Mehmet Oz got beat by John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, and Doug Mastriano got swamped in the Governor’s race there. That’s six very key races that Trump lost…in states that he lost to Joe Biden in. He obviously hasn’t been able to turn the corner in those states just yet.

Of course, a lot can be made out of this past election cycle. If you look at the candidates that I listed above, really only Adam Laxalt was a quality candidate. Maybe you can throw Mastriano into the mix, but even he was a little squirrely in his campaign. Walker, Lake, Masters, and Oz, were all just terribly weak.

The third question that needs to be answered is the question of age. You know it’s going to be a factor for Joe Biden. Hell, he’s even said it would be a factor moving forward. But Donald Trump has been able to skate on that question so far, for pretty much one simple reason. He is in his mid 70’s right now, and would be 82 if he wins and serves a full second term. But he doesn’t look like he’s in his mid 70’s. And he’s got a lot more spring in his step than Biden does. He also doesn’t make as many mental errors. So, yes…while a lot of the country is saying its time for us to find younger, more in touch leaders, and let the old guard retire to their pastures, you have the top two contenders for their party’s nomination in Trump and Biden, well past retirement age in any other industry. That is going to be a question going forward.

The fourth question is very simply, is Trump still electable? The last thing any Republican, or conservative wants to do is waste yet another election cycle on a candidate that doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting elected. We’ve seen the GOP do that time and time again, just because “it’s someone’s turn”. Look at Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney, all losers and very weak candidates. But all ran and never had a ghost of a chance of winning. My question for Trump isn’t his policies, I’ve been in favor of most of them during his first term. My big question is, can Trump do something to reverse the hatred toward him. Currently, his approval rating is just 34%. And Joe Biden isn’t faring much better at 38%. That tells me there is an “Anybody but 2020 candidates” mentality going on out there. This is probably going to be the toughest question for Trump to answer.

Finally, the question looms about Ron DeSantis. He’s as conservative as Trump, if not more-so. He’s a LOT younger at only 44 years old, so he is able to get around the age question, and would make Joe Biden look like a walking zombie. If DeSantis gets into the race after the Florida legislative session later on this spring or early summer, he is going to be probably the only candidate for the GOP nod that Trump really has to worry about. If he is as big of a rock star in political circles as it looked last November, he is going to rival Ronald Reagan’s appeal. He says all the right things, and as long as there aren’t too many skeletons in his closet (something Trump has always had to worry about), he should give Trump a run for his money next year at this time.

There you have it. Five questions that Donald Trump needs to answer to the American people before we decide on whether or not he’s worthy of getting another shot at the Oval Office. And to be honest, I’m not all that certain that he’s going to be able to do it!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Not Big Enough To “B”

Silicon Valley Bank has collapsed under the weight of a terrible technology market. The California based bank had about $200 billion in assets, but shut it’s doors and is now under the auspices of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. And for those of you that remember back in 2008, the collapse of the banking system due to the Democrat inspired sub-prime loan debacle, you’ll probably harken back to George W. Bush’s time in office, when Ben Bernacke convinced him that banks like Citi, and Bank of America, and Capital One, and Wells Fargo were “too big to fail”, and needed to be bailed out.

Nothing like that is going to happen to Silicon Valley Bank.

Janet Yellen isn’t someone I normally give kudo’s to. She’s as liberal as the day is long, but she has made the right call on this one. Silicon Valley isn’t too big to fail. And it’s not big enough for a federal bailout. You’ll remember, that caused a massive recession (dubbed the Great Recession) back in 2009. It led to the federal government taking over companies like General Motors, and giving others like Chrysler a huge influx of cash. Airlines needed bailouts. Pretty soon, everyone had their hand out. And we sat back and watched the newly installed Obama regime gladly pass out money like they were passing out candy to a four year old.

So, I congratulate Yellen on her financial ability to say no. She does get the credit for this one. And while it was the correct decision this time, it should have been the correct decision back in 2008. No company in America should be too big to fail. And since that time, I personally have refused to do business with any of those banks that took bailout money. In fact, when my mortgage was sold to Wells Fargo, I immediately paid it off. They were a little surprised that they were basically going to lose money on the deal and asked why I would do that. I told them I don’t do business with banks that should be out of business…and yours should be out of business and your CEO jailed for robbing the American people. They didn’t like my response.

My view on business is simple. There are no guarantees. I don’t care if you’re a mom and pop store down on a busy street corner selling carrots, or if you’re Microsoft. It doesn’t matter. You have a duty to those people that rely on you staying in business, whether it be your family, or shareholders, to do what’s right. In the banking industry, they got screwed over when Congress decided that it would be a neat thing for everyone in America to own their own home. The banks didn’t fight it because they were now able to make loans to people at a much higher rate. What they didn’t count on was the fact that these people couldn’t afford the loans in the first place, and would end up defaulting on their obligations.

Seeing how the FDIC and the state of California has stepped in to oversee both Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank which also collapsed in the mess, there will obviously be those that have been crying for a bailout that will be disappointed. The problem is that if you start bailing out these banks that fail, rather than give the customers their money bank that was insured by FDIC, then you’re doing exactly what conservatives are fighting the Biden administration over with the student loan debt.

Silicon Valley Bank took a risk in getting so heavily involved with the technology sector. They didn’t diversify into other areas that could have stopped their collapse, had technology been only one area of investment. But they went whole-hog to the tech sector, and it ended up costing them everything. That’s the nature of business. It IS survival of the fittest. Maybe this time, banks will learn that lesson once and for all!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

So What Happens IF Trump Is Indicted

Donald Trump is possibly facing an indictment for paying hush money to Stormy Daniels back when he ran for president in 2016. Remember that story? He denied it. She sued him, she lost. We all thought that was the end of it, right? Well, the left didn’t forget. The Manhattan District Attorney has gone through about six of the seven key witnesses that have already testified in front of a Grand Jury in New York City. The seventh? That would be Michael Cohen, Trump’s long-time “fixer”.

It’s a very rare instance that a prosecutor would take a full week to have pretty much all of the players other than the two that were involved (Trump and Daniels) testify before the Grand Jury, and NOT indict someone. Neither Daniels, nor Trump were subpoenaed to testify.

The question is what happens in the even that Trump is indicted? He has already adamantly stated that indictment be damned, he’s going to continue running for president. He certainly can do that, as there is nothing in the Constitution that says he can’t run for president if he is indicted, or even convicted. There IS a section of the Constitution that would ban someone for running for federal office if they had “engaged in rebellion or insurrection”. That was what the whole January 6th thing was about. But it’s doubtful the Department of Justice is going to go after Trump on that account.

So, even if the Manhattan DA decides to indict Trump, there’s nothing legally that takes him off of the ballot in 2024, should he get the nomination. And even the most ardent anti-Trumper would have to argue that paying hush money to someone certainly doesn’t rise to the level of insurrection or rebellion. It’s merely a cover-up. And God knows, we’ve seen tons of those things from a lot of people on that account. In fact, if the whole Hunter Biden thing were to blow up over the next two years, it could also apply in spades to the sitting president.

What would be most damaging to Trump if he was indicted would be what John Q. Public would think of the whole thing. Trump’s base is very loyal, there is no doubt about that. But that loyal base isn’t big enough to get him elected, even in the best of times. He needs other Republicans and Independents to come to the polls to get elected. And that’s what could throw a monkey wrench into this whole project.

My initial thoughts are that this may go through because I’m sure that Michael Cohen wouldn’t be invited to testify if the DA thought that he was going to back Trump on this one. I’m sure he’s going to have some damning evidence for the Grand Jury to consider. But to try and hang him on a charge of hush money? That’s a really lame stunt.

Look, the Democrats have tried everything possible to keep Trump from running. They see him as a bigger threat to this country than Russia and China combined. I don’t know what they are afraid of, but they are scared out of their wits. First they tried to impeach him after he left office, so they could get him on the rebellion and insurrection thing. That didn’t work. Then they raided Mar-A-Lago for those classified documents. Well, that didn’t work out so well, when it was discovered that Trump’s classified documents were under lock and key and properly stored. Joe Biden meanwhile, had his sitting in open boxes in his garage. Oops. That charge came to an abrupt end. And now we’re down to hush money? God forbid that Trump actually has open parking tickets out there somewhere!

What will be interesting to watch in the coming couple of weeks is whether or not his poll numbers drop measurably if he is indicted on this charge…and whether they draw this thing out to go 18 months. If they do, you could have someone that’s been indicted on a crime running for president…and that will scare some people away.

Of course, Ron DeSantis is probably sitting in the wings watching, and quietly hoping he DOES get indicted. That would boost him into the number one position for the Republican nomination. At least the GOP has a much deeper bench than the Dems. If Biden were in this situation, that party would be screwed!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Jobs Numbers Don’t Tell The Picture

In case you missed it on Friday, the Department of Labor announced that there had been 311,000 jobs added to the economy in February. That was about 85,000 more jobs than the “experts” expected. However, even though there were more jobs than expected, and the “experts” thought the unemployment rate would be steady at 3.4%, it ticked up to 3.6%.

Shows that the “experts” really don’t have a handle on what’s happening.

What it does mean is that it looks as if the jobs are still plentiful. It also means there is something screwy afoot with the way the unemployment figure is concocted. If you have more jobs than expected, and the unemployment rate is expected to remain steady, how in the world does it go UP two-tenths of a percent? The answer is easy.

It doesn’t.

Mathematically, there is only one way that can happen. Yes, 311,000 jobs were added to the economy, but it doesn’t say how many people that were already working were either fired, laid off, or quit. And how economists deal with the numbers going forward are going to get more confusing.

First of all, there was a 0.4% increase to the average worker’s wage in February. That translates into wages going up 4.8% for the year. And that would signal that there were signs that workers wages are starting to not go up quite as fast as inflation (which remained steady at 6.4% for the third month in a row). Where is the additional increase in prices coming from then? Is it profit for the companies? Is it going to the federal government by means of higher taxes? It’s not going into my bank account, that I can attest to.

And while Joe Biden is all happy that “he” is adding new jobs to the economy, he’s not doing squat. It’s the economy stupid, as James Carville once pointed out. Yes, there are more jobs being added, but the unemployment rate is going up which means that more people are looking for work and not finding it. Or more people are getting laid off.

And here’s the sneaky little fact that may shock some of you…the Fed is going to be meeting this week to determine the next interest rate increase. That never has a positive effect on the stock markets. In fact, if you’re a borrower of any type, whether it’s a mortgage, a new car loan, or something else, you’re going to be paying more regardless. The only people that are happy about this are Senior Citizens who buy CD’s (though they haven’t gone up at all during the inflation craze of this administration), and people that are investing in bonds (bonds typically go in the opposite direction of stocks, and stock markets hate interest rate hikes!)

Overall, some may say that Jerome Powell and the rest of the Fed may be close to their “soft landing” with interest rate hikes, as they are only projecting a .25% increase instead of the usual .50% hike. But that doesn’t mean much. Inflation is still at 6.4% and hasn’t budged for the last three months or so. That tells me that prices are still rising. And if it’s not coming at the hands of the workers demanding more money, it’s gotta be coming from somewhere, right?

The economy is going to do what the economy does. There is really very little any president can do to influence what happens to the economy in a positive way. Oh, they can have Congress raise taxes, as Biden is proposing for next year, and when your economy is weak, that’s the worst thing you can do. Our economy isn’t that strong, contrary to what the folks in the Biden administration suggest. And if they were to get a tax increase (not likely), it would dampen any growth at the expense of higher government spending. And that’s something NO one should want to see happen!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Examining The Logic

Joe Biden decided that he was going to side with Republicans, much to the chagrin, and loud screaming of his Democrat allies in Congress. What was it which had the leftist socialists so up in arms? The fact that the District of Columbia’s city council decided to update a crime bill that included lowering the crime of car-jacking, and making it easy for perps to get out of jail once caught.

And Biden went along with it.

Now, as you probably know, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of DC, initially vetoed the bill, and it was passed nearly unanimously by the council to override her veto. Once that happened, Bowser, also a Democrat (do ANY Republicans live in DC?) decided that maybe the bill was okay, and went along with it. Now, in most constituencies in this country, if the city council overrode a mayoral veto, that would be that, right? But in DC, the federal government has the final say. And Republicans in the House of Representative said a resounding “NO” to the change in the crime bill.

There was no way that the Democrats could go along with it in the Senate because they didn’t have 60 votes, only 51. And it wasn’t clear what Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) were going to do. So, it went along the lines of the House of Representatives as well, denying the council’s change.

And then Joe Biden weighed in. He decided that he was in favor of not vetoing the Republican resolution of disapproval that would overturn that crime bill. And the howls started from the left.

I’m not surprised actually that Biden decided to get tough on crime in the District. He has a history of this sort of thing. First of all, wasn’t it Biden that wrote and supported a crime bill in the US Senate back in 1994? Wasn’t that the crime bill that sent hundreds if not thousands of blacks to jail for crimes they had committed? He was tough on crime then, why would Democrats think he had changed now?

Second, and probably more importantly, Biden needs to be seen as someone that can work with the other side. He consistently made that as part of his pitch back in 2020 when he was running. He said Trump couldn’t do that, but he had half a century of history showing he could. Well, he chose this particular bill in order to do that. And if he gets on a debate stage somewhere against a Republican candidate in the 2024 election and is questioned on his ability to work across the aisle, it’s another arrow that he has.

I think personally what upset the Democrats is that they voted to back the DC council’s action before Biden had come out and said he wasn’t going to veto the bill. That makes the Democrats look weak on crime, already a note the Republicans are crying loud and clear. And they can use the Democrats’ votes against them in their next election campaign. Crime is still a big issue in this country, and the fact that Democrats fell face first into this mess wasn’t Biden’s fault necessarily, it was the Democrats in Congress’ fault. Hell, even DC’s Mayor was against the bill coming out of council until it ultimately passed!

No, the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves on this one. Yes, they’re unhappy with Biden because it looks like he hung them out to dry on this one, and he probably did. But his reasoning is going to be that he hung them out to dry because they only assumed that he’d be vetoing it. He was protecting his own campaign ahead of protecting all of theirs. That may be viewed as a little self-centered, but hey, that’s politics in DC!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!