Ladies and gentlemen, some s*** the president said during the previous week:
- “In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!” 1/28/2019 Trump tweet. Nothing is going on with “Global Waming” because “Waming” is not a thing, but forget about that. Forget even about the difference between weather and climate, which still eludes our president and millions of others. We’re now struggling with the difference between “Midwest” and “Global”, which is not something that trips most people up. Nearly the entire rest of the world is warmer than usual right now.
- “The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are MUCH different, but…. ….a source of potential danger and conflict. They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge. There economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!” 1/30/2019 Trump double-tweet. Don’t focus on the irony of the president using the wrong ‘there’ while telling someone else to go back to school – this is too important. With this, Donald Trump shifts from insulting our intelligence to insulting his own intelligence agencies. Agencies led by his own appointees. This makes you wonder where he is getting his information. How does he know Iran launched a rocket last week? What are these agencies supposed to do now? Trump’s criticism (Iran is dangerous, launching rockets, causing trouble) doesn’t even touch on the main intelligence conclusion of note: Iran is still complying with the nuclear deal Trump walked away from.
- “Just concluded a great meeting with my Intel team in the Oval Office who told me that what they said on Tuesday at the Senate Hearing was mischaracterized by the media – and we are very much in agreement on Iran, ISIS, North Korea, etc. Their testimony was distorted press…” 1/31/2019 Trump tweet. Makes you wonder why they were supposed to go back to school just the day before then, right? Their testimony was not “mischaracterized” – it was broadcast live on TV. Try again.
- “So I didn’t see the report from the intelligence. When you read it, it’s a lot different than it was covered on in the news.” 1/31/2019 Executive Order signing ceremony. He did try again! The report in question here is the Worldwide Threat Assessment, which provides the president with the info needed to make world-altering decisions. He didn’t see the report. He began this episode by choosing not to read it, watching TV coverage of it, tweeting that its authors are naive and wrong people who should go back to school, then finally admitting he didn’t see the report. When you read it, though, he knows you’ll find the news got it all wrong. God help us all.
- “How does Da Nang Dick (Blumenthal) serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee when he defrauded the American people about his so called War Hero status in Vietnam, only to later admit, with tears pouring down his face, that he was never in Vietnam. An embarrassment to our Country!” 1/28/2019 Trump tweet. This tweet came eight minutes after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) suggested on TV that Don Jr. will likely be indicted for lying to Congress to cover up his contacts with Russia during the campaign. You know what’s not in this tweet? Any suggestion that Don Jr. didn’t lie.
- “Democrats are becoming the Party of late term abortion, high taxes, Open Borders and Crime!” 1/31/2019 Trump tweet. And locusts! And, and…and getting a mile down the road from the drive thru and finding out they forgot the ketchup!
- “So great to watch & listen to all these people who write books & talk about my presidential campaign and so many other things related to winning, and how I should be doing “IT.” As I take it all in, I then sit back, look around, & say “gee, I’m in the White House, & they’re not!” 1/31/2019 Trump tweet. President Trump watches TV from the White House, hears criticism, and doesn’t spend one second reflecting on whether it’s justified. Because of course he doesn’t.
- “I’m honored to be here with many of the great American workers as we take historic action to accelerate the incredible revival of American manufacturing. It truly is a revival. Nobody thought it was possible, actually. And not only is it possible, but we’re thriving.” 1/31/2019 Executive Order signing ceremony. Ok, let’s take the time to do this. Here is the Federal Reserve Economic Database chart of all manufacturing employees, going back 10 years:
Sure looks to me like manufacturing bottomed out during the Great Recession (like every other sector), then began recovering in 2010 (like every other sector). Did it turn up a little after 2016? Maybe if you squint hard enough. Now here is the past 10 years of all non-farm employees:
Sure looks like manufacturing jobs have tracked with the rest of the economy. No “incredible revival.” No “nobody thought it was possible.” Just a continuation of the recovery Obama set into motion with the 2009 stimulus known as ARRA. For good measure, here’s a good timeline of Trump’s jobs rhetoric vs. the reality.
- “And you see the market, how it is. It hit 25,000 yesterday. We’re doing great. We’re doing great as a country.” 1/31/2019 Executive Order signing ceremony. Stocks did hit 25,000 last Wednesday. You know when else they hit 25,000? Almost exactly a year ago. They’ve gone nowhere for an entire year during a period of economic expansion. The huge tax cut Republicans passed apparently haven’t boosted stocks at all, despite delivering many billions in tax breaks to these same large companies. Where did all that money go? GDP hasn’t accelerated. Job gains haven’t picked up. The only thing that’s blown up since then is the deficit.
- “I think it’s unification…and we’ve had incredible Republican support. The problem is, the Democrats – you know, when they say, “We don’t want to build…” – as an example, “We don’t want to build a wall because it doesn’t work or because it’s immoral.” But part of it is going to be unity.” 1/31/2019 Executive Order signing ceremony. The question was about the tone of the upcoming State of the Union. The answer? Two things: unity, and the Democrats.
That’s our report for this week. Be sure to check out the links for more info on any particular topic and, as always, thanks for reading.
