Duck!!!

"If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck."

Just thought I would bring an item to your attention in light of the treatment of the press at the White House today. Just saying...

THE PRESS IN THE THIRD REICH
ESTABLISHING CONTROL OF THE PRESS

"When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the Nazis controlled less than three percent of Germany’s 4,700 papers.  

The elimination of the German multi-party political system not only brought about the demise of hundreds of newspapers produced by outlawed political parties; it also allowed the state to seize the printing plants and equipment of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties, which were often turned over directly to the Nazi Party. In the following months, the Nazis established control or exerted influence over independent press organs."

Full article US Holocaust Memorial Museum, "The Press in the Third Reich"

The Reading of the Will

Yesterday at his news conference the President stated he had "inherited a mess, a very, very big mess". I wonder what he would have said had he been in President Obama's shoes back in January of 2009.

The economy is similar to a cruise ship moving through the seas, it can't and doesn't turn on a dime. It can take years to reverse an economic skid. And while the trend is good, yes, there is still work to be done. But the economy is not exactly a horror show.

The U.S. is in a 76 month-long period of job growth that saw the creation of 15 million new jobs. The National Unemployment rate has bee at 5% or less every month since September 2015. The broader based U-6 Unemployment rate, which includes part-time and marginally attached workers has been less than 10% for the same period.

This past January showed an increased in retail sales and with this increase in personal consumption the forecast is expected to see a gain of 2.7% this year.

"Fed officials are expressing some satisfaction with the economy’s recent performance.
Dennis Lockhart, the outgoing president of the Atlanta Fed, said recent data suggest the economy is on a “little stronger” path than he expected. 

And Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said the economy was warming up. He noted the unemployment rate has been falling steadily and inflation is perking up, putting the Fed close to its twin goals. 

That said, Republicans like to point out that the economy’s annual growth rate has not topped 3% since 2005, and it grew an unimpressive 1.6% last year. And they think a lower level of labor-force participation is obscuring weakness in the jobs market." 

~ Market Watch, Greg Robb, Senior Economics Reporter

For more information and clues to the challenges for the future here is a link to an article by Andrew Soergel, Economy Reporter for the U.S. News & World Report.

It may not have been the inheritance a Trump would have expected when the will was read, but at least it wasn't a list of all IOU's.

Remember Pinocchio?

The Little Boy whose nose would grow and grow...

I feel it almost my duty to inform this new Trump Administration of the cautionary tale of our beloved Pinocchio. You must remember him, the wooden puppet creation of dear old Geppetto.

Geppetto loved Pinocchio and Pinocchio loved to tell lies. Little Pinocchio wasn't even clever enough to try and disguise them as 'alternate facts' or even as 'misleading words'.

So with each falsehood he spoke his little nose would begin to grow. And grow, and GROW.

It behooves us whilst watching the news on television to keep an eye on, not the prize, but the noses.