Author: Charles M. Jones, PE, CPA

A friend of mine found a time capsule while hiking through a park on a recent trip to Washington DC and the surrounding area. He told me about a letter in it that was dated March 4, 1799 and addressed “To Whom It May Concern.” Because it was from our first two Presidents, I felt that I should share it with you right away. …

[Click This Link To Read The Letter]

I hope millions of Americans think of themselves as people “Whom it may concern.”

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Charles M. Jones

How Democrats and the mainstream media are handling the Mueller Report reminds me of jokes we used to tell in my college days about another university that will herein remain unnamed … like “How many <bleep>s does it take to change a light bulb?” [answer: five — one to hold the bulb and four to turn the stepladder.] The one more applicable to Democrats and the media today, though, is “That <bleep> lost $100 on the Super Bowl, and then lost another $100 on the video replay.”

For over two years, they have bombarded us with “Trump colluded with the Russians,” demanded a recusal from Jeff Sessions because he had a brief conversation at a cocktail reception with a Russian official, demanded a Special Counsel, touted Bob Mueller as an excellent choice, and relentlessly predicted Trump was going down when Mueller’s report came out. When Barr’s summary said “no collusion,” he rapidly became the spawn of Satan [by confirming what Trump has been saying for two years,] Mueller’s integrity and reputation suddenly took a turn for the worse, and demands for the full unredacted report [which has no historical precedent] became the new mantra.

Back to the Super Bowl analogy. …

Enough already!  You lost $100 on the Investigate Everything game. Don’t keep beating that drum and lose another $100 on the video replay. Quit investigating and start legislating [governing.]

To repeat something I said in a recent post, “Personally, although I feel that Americans who have ruined the lives of other Americans for no other reason than to drive their political agendas need to be held accountable for their actions, I can’t just jump on the side of many of my fellow Republicans who seem to be pressing that issue too harshly. We have got to find a way to get off our completely polarized “horses” and get onto a train that’s headed down a more civilized and stable path.”

President Trump had the right to end what he has [rightfully, as it has turned out] called the Witch Hunt if he had wanted to. He could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if he had wanted to. He had the right to use Executive Privilege to redact more of the Mueller Report [as President Clinton did with the Star Report.] He didn’t do any of that.

Focus On The Half Full View, Not The Half Empty View

During the two and a half years in which Democrats and the mainstream media have pushed this take-Trump-down agenda, President Trump’s many accomplishments have taken a back seat in media coverage — which means that the real motive of the take-Trump-down agenda has been successful. I’ve said in previous posts that I don’t “like” our President personally [i.e., his public persona and how he conducts himself.]  But whether I “like” him or not doesn’t matter. Retrospectively, in the future, the success or failure of his presidency won’t be based on how many people “liked” him. It will be based on a net composite assessment of his effectiveness [or lack thereof] on domestic and foreign policy matters from a long-term perspective. So what are the accomplishments that have taken a back seat? For starters, here are just a few. …

The Economy. Almost 4 million jobs created since the election [400,000 manufacturing jobs, which are growing at the fastest rate in more than three decades.] More Americans are now employed than ever recorded before in our history. Economic growth in some quarters has hit 4.2 percent. New unemployment claims recently hit a 49-year low. Median household income has hit the highest level ever recorded. African-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian-American unemployment has recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded. Women’s unemployment recently reached the lowest rate in 65 years. Youth unemployment has recently hit the lowest rate in nearly half a century. Lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for Americans without a high school diploma. Veterans’ unemployment recently reached its lowest rate in nearly 20 years. Almost 3.9 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps since the election. U.S. manufacturers optimistic about the future has been as high as 95% — the highest ever. Signed the biggest package of tax cuts and reforms in history. After tax cuts, over $300 billion poured back in to the U.S. in the first quarter alone. Small businesses now have the lowest top marginal tax rate in more than 80 years. Record number of regulations eliminated. Foreign Policy and International Relationships. Increased our coal exports by 60 percent; U.S. oil production recently reached all-time high. We are a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957. NATO allies are spending $69 billion more on defense since 2016. Withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal. Moved U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Issued Executive Order to keep open Guantanamo Bay. Concluded a historic Mexico-Canada-America Trade Deal to replace NAFTA. Imposed tariffs on China in response to China’s forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices. Our National Character. Confirmed more circuit court judges than any other new administration. Confirmed Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Innovative Thinking. Process has begun to make the Space Force the 6th branch of the Armed Forces.

Move On Already!

A very popular radio talk show host constantly uses the term “low information voters” to describe Americans who know very little about what is going on in our country and are easily taken in by the claims of candidates with “charisma” or whose “promises” appeal to them, personally.  I honestly hope those Americans can also be counted among those of us who are fed up and want our leaders to grow up and lead, and govern.

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Charles M. Jones

After months of dramatic congressional testimony, bombshell news reports and partisan jousting, the ever-evolving saga about alleged Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election and investigation into possible collusion by members of Donald Trump’s campaign continues to pick up momentum as new revelations seem to surface on a daily basis.

As much is I hate to say it, the 2020 campaign was well underway at least 23 months before the election will be held, and the percentage of media time focused on it is already accelerating exponentially. I hate even more to say that “breather” periods in news and entertainment media are a thing of the past — i.e., those brief but refreshing periods when a person could just receive “news” content without every facet of it being expressed in political terms [I usually put “news” in quote marks because all “news” is a mixture of real news and fake news, and the consumer of it must decide which is which.] Even the small amount of network and cable entertainment that does not in its content have indirect if not blatant political undertones is disproportionately sponsored by political ads.

As I’ve heard the statements and remarks of candidates [both announced and not yet announced] in the rapidly-increasing cadre during speeches and interviews, I have developed a valuable screening tool for my my readers. The tool is a lexicon of words and phrases that will undoubtedly be used by many if not all candidates between now and Election Day. I’ll start with a brief description of how this valuable tool can be used to save you a lot of time and frustration, and then present the lexicon itself.

How To Use The Lexicon

This tool can save those who use it a lot of time and frustration if used properly. Simply memorize it or keep it handy in places where you access media. Whenever a candidate is speaking or writing, just watch for uses of words or phrases in the lexicon. If within the first minute or two the candidate uses as many as three of these words or phrases, there is no need to continue reading / listening / watching. The entire speech is a standard, carefully-worded political speech designed to gain support through the “charisma” the candidate and his/her donors believe can propel him/her into the office being sought. This same logic applies to a candidate’s responses to questions in an interview.

The Lexicon

Now, for the lexicon itself. Notes: 1) words and phrases in bold italics are “red flag” items [standard campaign terminology for standard politicians;] and 2) words and phrases enclosed in brackets [<>] are to be filled in by the reader.

Well, there you have it. I may write some posts over the next — regrettably — twenty months with updates to this lexicon as the unfolding campaign reveals more items that should be included. Any such updates, as with this initial release, will be at no extra charge 😊, offered as a service to my country ✌️.

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Charles M. Jones

If you agree very strongly with either the “Conservative” or the “Liberal” interpretation of the current post-Moeller-report environment in our country, I urge you to read this entire post for one simple reason — neither of these polarized views is 100% correct, and until we realize that, the environment of the past two and a half years is the “new normal” in America, and it will remain so until the Current Paradigm has officially died and the New Paradigm is in full gear [for those who have not routinely followed my Blog, see A Major Paradigm Shift Well Underway.]

Our leaders in both parties have wasted countless hours and dozens [at least — maybe scores] of millions of our dollars over at least the past four and a half [not just two and a half] years trying to find a “smoking gun” that clearly shows that the other party [the one that isn’t theirs] is guilty of … whatever.

It was encouraging to me over the past few days to hear even some of the most outspoken critics of our President say, through media channels that are clearly hostile toward him, that the fact that Mr. Moeller’s investigation found no reason to bring charges against Mr. Trump is a good thing for our country. Personally, although I feel that Americans who have ruined the lives of other Americans for no other reason than to drive their political agendas need to be held accountable for their actions, I can’t just jump on the side of many of my fellow Republicans who seem to be pressing that issue too harshly. We have got to find a way to get off our completely polarized “horses” and get onto a train that’s headed down a more civilized and stable path.

I’m not a pollster, but I honestly think the only people in this country who are pushing all this back-and-forth “Who dunnit?” bickering are politicians who apparently think it’s needed to get them re-elected, and the media pundits and their panels of “experts” who rely on eye-catching “breaking news” headlines for ratings. The rest of us are sick of it. I pray that our elected leaders in both parties will realize that it’s time to rise above all this and get on with doing what they were elected to do — govern effectively — and that they will ultimately show that they had the wisdom to strike the right balance between holding people accountable for actions that have unnecessarily harmed a lot of people while avoiding actions that are simply vindictive.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln declared, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” [see Lincoln — 1858 for the full text of that speech, which I could argue is at least as important for us today as it was for our nation at that time.] Over 1,800 years earlier, Jesus Christ said “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and a house divided against itself falls” [Luke 11:17.] Anyone who thinks this country is not a “house divided against itself” must be in a bubble of some kind, shielded from anything going on around them.

In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill said “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it” [taken from words almost a half century earlier by George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”] Under the auspices of Mr. Churchill’s wise advice, I’ll close with some quotes from our history that we should not forget. …

• • “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” President John Adams
  • “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled [people] will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” President George Washington
  • “A democracy cannot survive as a permanent form of government. It can last only until its citizens discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority [who vote] will vote for the candidates promising the greatest benefits from the public purse, with the result that a democracy will always collapse from loose fiscal policies, always followed by a dictatorship.” Lord Thomas B. Macaulay, English Historian, Essayist and Statesman, 1800-1859 [in a  letter to an American friend on May 23, 1857.]
  • “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” George Bernard Shaw.
  • “In the end, the ultimate threat to the American republic will be America.  The problem is not with wolves at the door but termites in the floor.” Os Guinness
  • “The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.  If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. … If the next centennial does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.” President James Garfield

And then there’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results [often unverifiably attributed to Albert Einstein; in reality the best attribution for this very wise statement should be Unknown.] We simply cannot continue doing the same thing. It isn’t working, has been working less and less effectively for at least a decade, and will ultimately fail.

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Charles M. Jones

Silly. That’s the first word that came to my mind when I began paying more attention this week to the government “shutdown” coverage that is so prevalent in the media hardly any “news” is making it through the editing rooms. I decided to do some research on the facts of the situation, since raw facts [sans spin points] are nowhere to be found in the media.

From comments I receive, I know that readers of my blog posts are almost all NOT in the category of people one popular radio talk show host calls Low Information Voters [the only reason for the “almost” before “all” is that one can never assume that “all” people can be classified in any particular way 😊.] So the approach I’m going to take here is to simply list facts, more or less in descending order of their effect on how individual legislators will vote on any particular resolution to this impasse that is ultimately found. Please note the very last item — it’s actually the one that’s the most important, even though it’s on the very bottom of this list of facts influencing our decision makers.

1. 1. Who is ultimately blamed for this “shutdown” will matter much more than anything else it may accomplish.
   2. Perceptions of the level of “pain” the “shutdown” causes matters much more than whatever level of “pain” it actually causes.
   3. The campaigns of members of the party that best manages this “spin cycle” may be made more effective than those of members of the other party in the 2020 election [stated this way, this statement is a fact — change “may be” to “will be,” and it’s no longer a fact.]
   4. This situation is about as clear a confirmation as you could find that there is a major paradigm shift well underway in this country [the main evidence that a New Paradigm is already replacing the current soon-to-be Old Paradigm is that under the current/old paradigm, problems aren’t getting solved and desirable new things aren’t being developed.]
   5. Millions of actual real people are adversely affected by “shutdowns.”
   6. The $5.7 billion [at most] for a wall that is actually the last “hurdle” to overcome [which if not singled out as the single biggest issue would not have resulted in the “shutdown”] is 0.13% of the proposed 2019 Federal spending level [that’s slightly over one tenth of one percent!] It could easily be funded by cutting 0.38% [less than four tenths of one percent] of the proposed budgets of all departments [including the non-wall components of the Homeland Security proposal.] These “cuts” would be in proposed increases — not current expenditure levels. The proposed expenditures contain no cuts anywhere, and are on average 8.88% higher than Fiscal Year 2018 levels — so if all were reduced by 0.38%, the average increase would still be 8.5%.

I considered another title for this post — Send In The Clowns, the title of Judy Collins’ 1975 hit song written by Stephen Sondheim. The The [Insert Name Here] Shutdown title won out because winning the perception battle in the eyes of Low Information Voters — i.e., what ends up replacing “[Insert Name Here]” in their eyes — is the only thing that actually matters to our legislators, who are described very well by the fourth verse of the song:

Don’t you love farce? 

My fault, I fear. 

I thought that you’d want what I want… 

Sorry, my dear! 

And where are the clowns 

Send in the clowns 

Don’t bother, they’re here.

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Charles M. Jones

Well, I’m now on record as the most accurate predictor of the outcome of the 2018 mid-term elections [I know all of my readers are astute people who see the dry humor in statements like that I make now and then 😊.] Here are the predictions I made in my last post, Your Country Needs You [checkmark equals “100% accurate”:]

• ✔️It is the 310th day of 2018. ✔️In Washington, DC, the sun will rise at 6:41am and set at 5:02pm.
• ✔️By about 11:00 to 12:00pm Eastern Time, possibly much sooner, one [and only one] of the following will be true come January*:
  • Republicans Will Have Majorities In Both The House And The Senate.
  • ✔️Republicans Will Have A Majority In The Senate But Not In The House.
  • Republicans Will Have A Majority In The House But Not In The Senate.
  • Democrats Will Have Majorities In Both The House And In The Senate.

[I should point out that ✔️technical peculiarities in some states [e.g., Mississippi] could postpone full knowledge of the election outcome considerably — days, maybe even weeks. ✔️The more extremely close races there are, the higher the probability of delays in learning the final outcome.]

• Regardless of which of the above is true, …

• • ✔️millions of people will be happy about that outcome,
  • ✔️millions will be unhappy about it,
  • ✔️millions won’t care what it was
  • ✔️and millions won’t even know what it was —
  • ✔️and Republican Donald Trump will still be President.

✔️Neither of two historically reliable indicators [overall turnout rate or the fact that since 1934 the party of a newly elected president has suffered an average loss of 23 seats in the House in the following midterm] matters in this election, so the effect of high turnout on November 6 cannot be accurately predicted because we will not know until well after November 6 WHO actually turned out to make that number so high.

So What Now?

Of the four possible outcomes [the above list,] the “winner” was Door #2: Republicans Will Have A Majority In The Senate But Not In The House. Here’s how I described that scenario last week. …  “Gridlock might worsen some, but if the Democrat majority in the House results in more by-partisan bills from that chamber [which I think might be the case,] the Senate might be more likely to reach bipartisan agreement on more merged House-Senate bills that the President would not veto.  Also, if another Supreme Court vacancy occurs, the court would continue its shift toward constitutional adherence.”

As it sits only four days later, one day after the election, it appears I was too optimistic on the legislative part of that assessment. Based on statements already being made by soon-to-be committee chairs, the Democrats will apparently continue shooting themselves in the foot for two more years — i.e., only two “planks” in their “platform:” 1) vigorously oppose whatever Trump is for; and 2) team with an eagerly supportive mainstream media to constantly accentuate all negatives and hide all positives about Trump [personally, and wherever possible without embarrassing themselves, his administration.] They seem to believe that they are now emboldened to double down on that agenda with the added ability to launch investigation after investigation — now with subpoena power.

I like the way former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell [a Democrat] expressed what they should do instead: “Don’t just investigate; legislate!” I can only hope they will listen to this kind of counsel — but so far, I won’t be holding my breath. Only time will tell, but for now I’d say we should brace ourselves for daily “breaking news” of revelations in numerous investigations taking up most of the media coverage for the foreseeable future.

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones

In less than sixty hours from the time of this post, we should know the outcome of the November 6 midterm elections. I’ve never been able to figure out how to get paid for my incredibly deep insight [😊], but I’ll tell you in this post everything you need to know about November 6. That will save you the time and frustration involved in channel flipping and clicking through the myriad of predictions being offered 24/7 by “experts” in the media.  So just relax and enjoy life for the next sixty hours, realizing that the single most productive and constructive thing you, personally, can do — is VOTE. Here’s all you need to know about November 6:

• It is the 310th day of 2018. In Washington, DC, the sun will rise at 6:41am and set at 5:02pm.
• By about 11:00 to 12:00pm Eastern Time, possibly much sooner, one [and only one] of the following will be true come January*:
  1. Republicans Will Have Majorities In Both The House And The Senate.
  2. Republicans Will Have A Majority In The Senate But Not In The House.
  3. Republicans Will Have A Majority In The House But Not In The Senate.
  4. Democrats Will Have Majorities In Both The House And In The Senate.

I should point out that technical peculiarities in some states [e.g., Mississippi] could postpone full knowledge of the election outcome considerably — days, maybe even weeks. The more extremely close races there are, the higher the probability of delays in learning the final outcome.

Regardless of which of the above is true, millions of people will be happy about that outcome, millions will be unhappy about it, millions won’t care what it was, and millions won’t even know what it was — and Republican Donald Trump will still be President.

Predictions Of The “Experts”

Most of the better-known “experts” say that Democrats will probably gain a majority in the House, and that doing so in the Senate is at least a possibility albeit less likely. However, most of these same “experts” were predicting a Clinton landslide in 2016 right up to election day. History also presents that projection. Since 1934, the party of a newly elected president has suffered an average loss of 23 seats in the House in the following midterm.

The Way I See It, Their Opinions Don’t Matter Any More

For two reasons, I believe neither of these indicators matters in this election. First, President Trump has from his candidacy announcement to now ignored precedence and “upset the apple cart.” Election “history” simply doesn’t matter as much as it has in the past. Second, Democrats have seriously “shot themselves in the foot” for two years — they have only two “planks” in their “platform:” 1) vigorously oppose whatever Trump is for; and 2) team with an eagerly supportive mainstream media to constantly accentuate all negatives and hide all positives about Trump [personally, and wherever possible without embarrassing themselves, his administration.] On top of that, the way they conducted themselves in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings was over-the-top despicable.

Early voting turnout indicates that total turnout in this mid-term may surpass that in all previous mid-terms, even rivaling if not exceeding turnout in the 2016 Presidential election. Again, the “experts” say high turnout favors Democrats. My take: the effect of high turnout on November 6 cannot be accurately predicted. The reason is simple — we will not know until well after November 6 WHO actually turned out to make that number so high. If it’s mostly young people, Independents and women [of all ages and races,] I’d venture to say that the outcome is a toss-up — because those voters do not think in terms of parties, “bases,” etc., and their rationale in making voting decisions is entirely different from that of the various constituencies that tend to vote as blocs. Also, if women account for a disproportionate percentage of the people generating the high turnout numbers, traditional ways of using that information to make projections are questionable because women are not as bloc-vote oriented as many “experts” think they are.

Which Of The Four Possible Outcomes Would Be Best?

In descending order of desirability in my humble opinion [same as order listed above:]

#1 — Republicans Will Have Majorities In Both The House And The Senate. I believe Republicans have become more unified and can get more done. Let the majority elected in 2016 continue — success or failure will be better determinable in 2020. If the people’s assessment is success, 2020 might even increase Republican majorities and cause the President’s re-election; if it’s failure, a much greater shift in the Legislature would be possible, and the President’s re-election would be considerably less probable unless Democrats make the same mistake in 2020 they made in in 2016 [nominate a standard, traditional politician.]

#2 — Republicans Will Have A Majority In The Senate But Not In The House. Gridlock might worsen some, but if the Democrat majority in the House results in more by-partisan bills from that chamber [which I think might be the case,] the Senate might be more likely to reach bipartisan agreement on more merged House-Senate bills that the President would not veto.  Also, if another Supreme Court vacancy occurs, the court would continue its shift toward constitutional adherence.

#3 — Republicans Will Have A Majority In The House But Not In The Senate. Similar to #2 in terms of legislation, but if another Supreme Court vacancy occurs, the court would shift back to more “legislating from the bench.”

#4 — Democrats Will Have Majorities In Both The House And In The Senate. What happens here would depend entirely on whether the Democrat majorities in both chambers could be reasonably successful in reaching bipartisan agreement on merged House-Senate bills that the President would not veto. If they stay on their current “avoid anything that might be viewed as a Trump success” tactic, that is unlikely. Also, investigations into anything and everything will consume way too much time. My prediction: worsening deadlock as Democrats just mark time until 2020 when they will assume there will be a massive shift back to a Democrat in the White House and even wider Democrat majorities in both Legislative chambers.

Don’t Forget The Paradigm Shift

These mid-term elections might very well be the most significant evidence so far of the Major Paradigm Shift Well Underway that I’ve been writing about for two years — particularly if the high turnout numbers cause the “experts” to be wrong [again — as they were in 2016.] I’ll plan to do some post-election blogging about that angle.

Anyway, whether you agree with my assessment of where we are and how these outcomes will play out or not, please VOTE on or before November 6! YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU. And remember, if you don’t vote at all, you could be unwittingly voting for some candidates that you would NOT vote for if you did vote!! [I wrote extensively about why that is so in the weeks leading up to the 2016 elections.]

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones

This post is an appeal to anybody reading it to VOTE on or before November 6. There is only one thing you, personally, can do right now to support our current situation and direction if you like them or change them if you don’t — VOTE.  We are deluged with “election statistics” these days, but one of them is far and away the most disappointing of all — voter turnout. The U.S. ranks 26th among 35 of the most developed countries in voter turnout — 55.7% of the voting-age population; 86.8% of registered voters. #1 is Belgium at 87.21% and 89.37%, respectfully. The only countries that rank below us are Luxembourg, Slovenia, Poland, Chile, Latvia, Switzerland, Iceland, Japan and Turkey [source: Pew Research Center — 5/21/18.]

I started the web site www.USAparadigm.com and began posting weekly blogs through it a couple of months before the 2016 elections. My motivation for doing that was that I truly felt that election would be the most significant of my life time [I was 71 years old that year.] In retrospect, I believe I was correct in that assessment. As we approach the upcoming mid-term elections, I honestly believe they may be even more significant in some ways.

For anybody reading this who does not like our current President, please don’t quit reading when I say that there is not a doubt in my mind that our country is much better off today than it would have been at this time had Hillary Clinton been elected President in 2016. Please understand that I don’t “like” President Trump. I view him as an extremely narcissistic man who lacks good judgment in some aspects of his role as POTUS. He is too quick to speak [or “tweet”] his mind, and he’s insensitive to how his remarks might affect or be interpreted by some people — even his supporters. And he is not the moral model I would like to see in our President — which I could also say about the two most recent Democrat Presidents. 

What Matters

However, what we all need to do is focus on what matters — facts. In the overall scheme of things, whether I “like” our President doesn’t matter. What matters is whether our country is in a good place and moving in a good direction under his leadership. Consider these facts [condensed from over 50 items listed on 10/16/18 by Sean Hannity]:

• • Employment. Almost 4 million jobs have been created since the election. More Americans are now employed than ever recorded before in our history. We have created more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump’s election. Manufacturing jobs are growing at the fastest rate in more than three decades. New unemployment claims recently hit a 49-year low. African-American unemployment has recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded. Hispanic-American unemployment is at the lowest rate ever recorded. Asian-American unemployment recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded. Women’s unemployment recently reached the lowest rate in 65 years. Youth unemployment has recently hit the lowest rate in nearly half a century. We are at the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for Americans without a high school diploma. Veterans’ unemployment recently reached its lowest rate in nearly 20 years.
  • The Economy. Economic growth last quarter hit 4.2% [in his second term, President Obama said that 1.5% to 2% was the “new normal.”] Median household income has hit the highest level ever recorded. Almost 3.9 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps since Trump’s election. 95% of U.S. manufacturers are optimistic about the future—the highest percentage ever. Retail sales surged last month, up another 6 percent over last year. The biggest package of tax cuts and reforms in history has been implemented. After tax cuts, over $300 billion poured back in to the U.S. in the first quarter alone, and small businesses have the lowest top marginal tax rate in more than 80 years. A record number of regulations has been eliminated. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been up as much as 45% since Trump’s election, and even after the current “correction” is up 35%.
  • Foreign Policy And Trade Relations. We withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal. We moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. We are protecting Americans from terrorists with the Travel Ban, upheld by Supreme Court. We concluded a historic U.S.-Mexico Trade Deal to replace NAFTA [negotiations with Canada are underway.] We reached a breakthrough agreement with the E.U. to increase U.S. exports. We imposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum to protect our national security. We imposed tariffs on China in response to their forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices. Net exports are on track to increase by $59 billion this year. We increased our coal exports by 60%. U.S. oil production recently reached all-time high. We are a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957.
  • The Judiciary Branch Of Our Government. Confirmed more circuit court judges than any other new administration. Confirmed Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, at least slowing if not stopping a massive move in an extremely liberal direction in our country enabled by a “legislating from the bench” mentality.

None of this gets the media coverage it would get absent the extreme media bias against President Trump.

What’s At Stake

The “experts” say that Democrats will probably gain a majority in the House in the mid-terms, and that doing so in the Senate is at least a possibility. However, most of these same “experts” were predicting a Clinton landslide in 2016 right up to election day. History also presents that projection. For two reasons, though, I believe neither of these indicators matters in this election. First, President Trump has from his candidacy announcement to now ignored precedence and “upset the apple cart.” Election “history” simply doesn’t matter as much as it has in the past. Second, Democrats have seriously “shot themselves in the foot” for two years — they have no agenda other than “oppose whatever Trump is for.” On top of that, the way they conducted themselves in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings was despicable. Now, it appears they are behind the “caravan” making its way to our southern border, an undertaking that seems to be about to backfire.

Whether the “experts” are right this time, and whether election “history” will matter this time, remains to be seen. What’s at stake? Whether we continue progressing economically or begin heading back to an anemic economy, whether we continue getting the Judiciary branch of our government back to making decisions based on the Constitution rather than “legislating from the bench,” … well, those two are enough for me.

Whether you agree with my assessment of where we are or not, please VOTE on or before November 6!

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones

Anybody who gets into the fray over Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation process will immediately be considered either “one of us” or “one of them.” “Us” to some is “those who will stop at nothing to keep this man from becoming a Supreme Court Justice.” “Us” to others is “those who think this man is imminently qualified and should be confirmed.” “Them,” of course, is “anybody who isn’t one of “us.”

Since regardless of whatever else I write at this point, I will be classified by any given reader of this post as either “one of us” or “one of them” and in one of the two camps I just described, I’ll simply express very succinctly my own opinion and then insert verbatim a letter Judge Kavanaugh wrote to Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein of the Senate Judiciary Committee about this matter. To any readers who, after reading this post, consider me one of “us,” thanks. To any who, after reading it, consider me one of “them,” thank you for reading it anyway.

How This Looks To Me

You could not find a better example than this whole confirmation process of how polarized our government is — and the way I see it, how polarized our country is. I honestly hope sanity prevails, and this man’s nomination is confirmed. If the accusations about him from 30 years ago are ultimately confirmed to be facts, then there is a process for dealing with that if the facts indicate a need for “dealing with that.” As it sits right now — if for no other reason than the fact that this whole thing arose from something that Senator Feinstein knew about two months ago but chose to go public with only as it was becoming clear that Judge Kavanaugh was about to be confirmed — I’m for having an up or down vote one way or the other, whether he is confirmed or not. Let Senators who vote one way or the other because of their political decision about how their vote may affect them answer later, when the facts are known, for what will ultimately be viewed as either their mistake or their good judgment.

The remainder of this post is Judge Kavanaugh’s letter — nothing else I’ve written. …

Judge Kavanaugh’s Letter

September 24, 2018

Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein:

When I testified in front of the Senate three weeks ago, I explained my belief that fair process is foundational to justice and to our democracy.

At that time, I sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee for more than 31 hours and answered questions under oath. I then answered more questions at a confidential session. The following week, I responded to more than 1,200 written questions, more than have been submitted to all previous Supreme Court nominees combined.

Only after that exhaustive process was complete did I learn, through the news media, about a 36-year-old allegation from high school that had been asserted months earlier and withheld from me throughout the hearing process. First it was an anonymous allegation that I categorically and unequivocally denied. Soon after the accuser was identified, I repeated my denial on the record and made clear that I wished to appear before the Committee. I then repeated my denial to Committee investigators—under criminal penalties for false statements. All of the witnesses identified by Dr. Ford as being present at the party she describes are on the record to the Committee saying they have no recollection of any such party happening. I asked to testify before the Committee again under oath as soon as possible, so that both Dr. Ford and I could both be heard. I thank Chairman Grassley for scheduling that hearing for Thursday.

Last night, another false and uncorroborated accusation from 35 years ago was published. Once again, those alleged to have been witnesses to the event deny it ever happened. There is now a frenzy to come up with something—anything—that will block this process and a vote on my confirmation from occurring.

These are smears, pure and simple. And they debase our public discourse. But they are also a threat to any man or woman who wishes to serve our country. Such grotesque and obvious character assassination—if allowed to succeed—will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from service.

As I told the Committee during my hearing, a federal judge must be independent, not swayed by public or political pressure. That is the kind of judge I will always be. I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process. The coordinated effort to destroy my good name will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out. The last-minute character assassination will not succeed.

I have devoted my career to serving the public and the cause of justice, and particularly to promoting the equality and dignity of women. Women from every phase of my life have come forward to attest to my character. I am grateful to them. I owe it to them, and to my family, to defend my integrity and my name. I look forward to answering questions from the Senate on Thursday.

Sincerely,
Brett M. Kavanaugh

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones

I’m sure my July 22 post What’s More Dangerous Than Fake News? was the reason FaceBook’s stock experienced the worst one-day drop in stock market history just a few days later. Those three days between my post and the historic drop were simply due to the fact that posts usually take exactly that long to peak out on number of readers per day — so by Thursday, enough investors had gotten wind of my infuriation with FaceBook’s censoring of the post of a dear friend of mine to trigger the drop.

I’m sure those of you who know me, quick studies that you are, picked up on the humor in my opening paragraph. Thinking of humor reminds me of the old adage “All work and no play makes Jack [or Charles 😊 ] a dull boy.”  This, in turn, brought to mind that although I inject humorous remarks into my posts now and then, all of them are on what I consider to be serious topics — serious simply because I am passionate in my belief that we are indeed in the midst of a major paradigm shift in this country [and in the world, for that matter,] and I feel almost what you might call a mission to point out the evidence of that shift and enlighten anybody who will listen to me as to what the New Paradigm is shaping up to be.

‘Nuf O’ That — Now For Some More Humor

Now that I have in the preceding paragraph at least injected the obligatory serious note for one of my posts, I’m going to take a break this week and just share some interesting points about FaceBook’s market capitalization plunge [some of which are humorous for me, but not, I’d say, for Mark Zuckerberg.] …

FaceBook lost about $100 billion [that’s a “b”] on Thursday 7/26. Worse, though, is that Mark Zuckerberg’s personal net worth “plummeted” by about $15 billion [yeah, that’s a “b,” too.] And don’t you know, it gets even worse if you can imagine that. … That drop knocked him down two entire notches on Forbes’ list of the richest people on the planet — from 4th to 6th, still behind Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ($149 billion), Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates ($95 billion), LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault ($84 billion), and now also behind Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett ($83 billion) and Amancio Ortega ($72 billion), founder of retailing group Inditex. To add insult to injury, it cost him a top-five position on that list. Poor Mark’s net worth is now a paltry $67 billion [we’re still talking “b’s”, here.] My heart goes out to him. If he’s learned the lesson he needed to learn about value systems and worldview, it’s a shame that this newfound knowledge came at the cost of sending him into poverty.

Now that I’m On A Roll With This Humor …

Heck, I’m going to stay with humor this week and not even try to close this post on a serious note. I love the dry humor of John Kennedy, referring here not to the former President but to the current “Junior” Senator from my home state of Louisiana. I’ll close with some of my favorites from among his quips when responding to questions from the media on issues of the day. …

• • “Facebook is a great company, but it’s no longer a company; it’s a country. That’s how powerful it is. And its behavior lately has kind of been getting into the foothills of creepy.”
  • “I think they’re making a big mistake if they start tacking on extraneous issues to the budget. We have enough trouble doing a budget by itself. We haven’t had one since Moses walked the earth. It’s embarrassing.”
  • “So far there’s been a lot of chopping, but I don’t see any chips flying. And I don’t think that’s going to change.” [referring to the battle du jour over gun control legislation]
  • “I am not. I am petrified of giving the power to confiscate guns and ask questions later to public officials. … If you trust government, you obviously failed history class. The Native Americans gave up their guns, too.” [in response to a question about whether he is “afraid of the NRA”]
  • “We’ve got … some hogs who have all four feet and their snout in the trough. And we’ve got to find out who they are, gentlemen.” [expressing thoughts about Pentagon contractors fleecing taxpayers]
  • “It sounds like she was playing Frisbee in the quad during history class.” [referring to the author of a Washington Post article entitled “It’s time to give Socialism a try”]
  • “As we say in Louisiana, President Trump is a hard dog to keep on the porch. He’s not a porch dog; he’s a running dog. He likes to do things his way.” [speaking of President Trump after the president fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson]
  • “Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots. I think most Americans are wondering how some folks up here made it through the birth canal.” [in reference to one of the “budget shutdown” battles]

I’m stopping here not because there aren’t more of these — I could probably have found several times this many with Google’s continued help. I’m just invoking my self-imposed length limit for my blogs.

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Well, maybe I unwittingly closed on a serious note after all. Judging from remarks like these, this not-so-Junior-sounding “Junior” Senator’s apparent assessment of the Washington establishment, and his perspective in general, are spot on! This guy’s up there in a class with the likes of Will Rogers and Yogi Berra.

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones