Important pivot in inflation coming soon (but not really).

I recently discovered Mark Moss via the video below. He talks about how he expects inflation (and therefore eventually interest rates) to come down significantly, very soon.  He explains that it's happening due to formula manipulation, rather than real world improvements, and if he's correct that is very dangerous.  

It's also political. The BLS is very political. Take a look at Shadowstats (which he does mention) if you don't believe me. But if inflation and interest rates do drop to the extent Mark Moss is predicting, this is where the political matters.  It's important for the Republican congress to be aware of this and start getting out in front of it to take credit for it.  Don't play the reactionary game and instead GOP, go on offense.

Here's Mark Moss.  The video is a bit long but worth watching through entirely.

I'm not convinced the Fed will change rates very quickly, but it will happen eventually in response to the rates. That has political implications too but also a real impact on consumers as opposed to fake inflation numbers.  Lower rates will stimulate demand and borrowing. 

Mainstream media pivot begins

 CNN cannot go after president Trump now that he has not been impeached and is not in the White House. They are losing viewers at an alarming (for them) rate.  What can they do? Pivot to the current occupier of the White House (who continues to remain nameless).  The border issue is the beginning.  He's going to become the 'bad guy'.  Well, more likely the unfortunate guy.  "He's a good man, he's in over his head.  He needs to step aside because he cannot manage the country."

The mainstream media, not just CNN, need a storyline.  It can no longer be Trump. It has to be a crisis of confidence in the White House.  "Kamala Harris needs to be president now."  The Nancy Pelosi foray into the 25th amendment talk last year was real.  For the media it is about the story.  For Democrats it's going to continue to be about blaming president Trump.

There will be a rift between Democrats and the media.  Only for a time.  They will coalesce again. But for now, while Democrats stick it to Trump blaming and the media harp on Biden's failures to secure a new storyline, this is an opportunity for Republicans if they are smart enough to seize it.

President Obama's Foreign Policy Pivot Fails on Many Levels (Part 1)

The president today made a speech at West Point today to a graduating class that was full of problematic statements. The speech was so full of...misinformation, that I've been forced to break down my breakdown of it, into more than one part. in this part I will focus on the president's cherry picking of facts in his speech.  But that's just the starting point.

In order to support his positions, the president, no stranger to cherry-picking facts to support his positions, did not disappoint in this speech, if cherry picking is something you were looking forward to hearing.

Here's the first example of cherry picking his facts:

Al Qaida's leadership on the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been decimated, and Osama bin Laden is no more.

True - but al Qaida is still an existential threat worldwide. The president has selected a narrow window to define success, because beyond that window, the problems are nowhere near being fixed.  Of course, the president tries to minimize the geo-political threats, because it helps justify a minimized military, enabling more social engineering programs.

In fact, by most measures, America has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world. Those who argue otherwise, who suggest that America is in decline or has seen its global leadership slip away, are either misreading history or engaged in partisan politics. Think about it. Our military has no peer. The odds of a direct threat against us by any nation are low, and do not come close to the dangers we faced during the Cold War.

He has parsed his words carefully -"rarely" been stronger. Yet relative to China, America is losing it's military superiority advantage. And while no nation has any reason or power to invade the United States, North Korea and Iran are both working diligently towards long range nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States. Russia and China still do of course. The threats faced today are not the same as they were during the Cold War.

Wasn't it president Obama who chided Mitt Romney when he stated that the 1980's called and wanted their foreign policy back during the presidential debates? Mitt Romney was of course right that Russia is the biggest geopolitical threat (you could argue China is a bigger threat now). And while Russia is poised to indulge in a nefarious landgrab in the Ukraine, Obama argues that the world is a different place. Well, if it is, then comparing the dangers of today to the different dangers of a different era is most definitely cherry picking.

But there's more egregious examples.

And when a typhoon hits the Philippines, or schoolgirls are kidnapped in Nigeria, or masked men occupy a building in Ukraine -- it is America that the world looks to for help.

Exactly what is America doing about the kidnappings in Nigeria or the violent unrest in the Ukraine? Effectively, zilch.  The world may have looked to America, but with missing leadership from an American president, that is not likely to continue.  At least it will not until someone else comes along who can create a sense of global leadership that an apology tour and obvious disinterest didn't do.

When the president bases his speech on selectively choosing facts, or portions of the whole picture to act as a foundation for whatever else it is he has to say, you know his arguments have started on shaky grounds.

Next I'll take a look at the implications of the president's pivot and vision for America's future beyond Afghanistan and Iraq.

Obama pirouettes back to the economy

Once again, the president has decided to pivot back to jobs and it really is becoming hard to contain the laughter. It's not a pivot it's a pirouette.  The president's actions speak louder than his words and it's pretty obvious now what his actions are saying.

 

The Washington Examiner gleefully spikes the president's hypocrisy on the economy:

President Obama, who has spent his second term so far pressing for higher taxes, gun control, immigration reform, and climate change, says “phony debate and nonsense” have distracted Washington away from the economy, which is the issue that matters most to the American people. To bring the capital’s attention back to what is most important, the president is traveling to his home state Wednesday, to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, to discuss his plans for the economy.

“I’m going to talk about where we need to go from here,” Obama told officials of Organizing for Action, the spinoff of his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, at a gathering Monday night in one of Washington’s glitziest hotels, the Mandarin Oriental. Obama said his Illinois speech would concentrate on “how we need to put behind us the distractions and the phony debate and nonsense that somehow passes for politics these days, and get back to basics, refocus on what it is that everybody is talking about around the kitchen table, what people are talking about day to day with their families.”

 That's spot on as far as it goes. But it does overlook one other reason the president wants to talk about the economy, and it's the reason that his approval ratings are tanking.  Scandal.  In addition to all of those reasons the Examiner cites Obama is talking about everything but the economy is all the scandals.  In fact, the scandals are the underlying reason president Obama was talking about all of those things in the first place. In fact the president means the talk of scandals when he says "nonsense".

 

But the president is shameless with this stuff.  He wants to cast aspersions on the GOP for being unfocused and not interested in the economy and that is wrong on every level.  The economy is supposed to be their bread and butter issue.  The president is the least focus, most crisis-management reactionary politician in Washington.  And to top it all off, he's not interested in the economy except when he's scrounging for approval or trying to distract from his own shortcomings. 

Can Romney Win?

The man with the plan.

Of course Mitt Romney can win the presidency. There's a lot of polling trying to convince voters that Obama has the election wrapped up but those are potentially misleading.  There were two articles on Hot Air today about Romney possibly changing direction because, as the press wants voters to think, they need a course correction to avoid an utter humiliating defeat. The first post by Ed Morrissey points out that the comical media narrative has lost it's focus.  The second by Allahpundit notices that maybe there are some truths in one stream of the narrative.  But while there is a media-contrived narrative in play, there are some dots that can still be connected.  So let's connect them.

Recapping Obama

For those of you or for your friends who do not follow politics on a regular basis and get your political impressions and decisioning courtesy of the mainstream media, complete with it's inherent bias, allow me to recap the Obama presidency for you in something that suits your passing fancy and/or short attention span.

Seriously.

Just one question for Obama

According to a wonderfully wry RedState post today,

After Labor Day, Obama plans to unveil his highly unanticipated jobs plan. Much like his first jobs plan, this one will include massive stimulus handouts to special interests, prodigal infrastructure spending (as much as $556 billion), unprecedented extensions of unemployment benefits, and more welfare transfer payments. Concurrently, he will inveigh against “rich” job creators and offer a healthy dose of vapid rhetoric regarding regulatory reform. However, there will be something new – something more appealing to the skeptical electorate; extending the one-year cut in payroll taxes.

It goes on about some brilliant maneuver to snooker Obama on his health care bill - blah, blah, blah.  [Actually, for the sarcasm impaired; read it, it's good]. But what stood out for me was this phrase;

'a healthy dose of vapid rhetoric regarding regulatory reform'