The Cancel Culture Is A Product Of The Republican Party

Fake news is the product of Donald Trump and the cancel culture is the product of the republican party.  The cancel culture started with Ronald Reagan when he ran for President and then took off like a rocket during the Newt Gingrich era and continues with today's GOP and the so called conservative news media.  They tried to cancel the democratic party's accomplishments with personal attacks, lies, disinformation, misinformation, voter suppression, obstruction and their attacks on liberalism as the enemy.

And the republican cancel culture fit right in with the election of Donald Trump who took the matter to a level that ended in a mob attack on the nation's capitol to intimidate congress and reverse the election of Joe Biden.  And it was done at the direction of President Trump with additional help from other members of the GOP.  And as of this writing, President Trump and many in the GOP are still trying to sell the lie that Trump won.  They are still trying to cancel the election in their rhetoric on the conservative networks and the networks are happy to allow their cancel culture to spread the lie.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell showed his brand of cancel culture when Barrack Obama was elected President by announcing he and his party wanted to make President Obama a one term President and would not support his policies.  McConnell obstructed and refused to give President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a hearing which in effect cancelled Garland's opportunity to become a Supreme Court Justice.

The cancel culture of the republican party, its leaders and the conservative media feel their on going attempt to destroy the democratic party and its accomplishments using un-American tactics because their own GOP has a failed record at governing.  The GOP also believes they are elite and above everyone else, including the law of the land.  The GOP's cancel culture sickness was understood by the blue wave voters in November who in record numbers elected democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The GOP cancel culture and tactics will continue because they are really not interested in good or stable governing.  For them, its all about personal ideology and it is the democratic party that stands in their way who truly represent the country and the American people.  And that really says it all.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

 

It Is Time To Tune Our Donald Trump and The GOP and Tune Into The Administration Of President Joe Biden and The Democratic Party.

 Donald Trump and his party ran the government the past 4 years and failed the basic test of governing, especially keeping the people safe.  It is time for the news media to move on and let go of the lying liars.  The media's attention should be on the plans and policy of the new administration and the democratic controlled congress and how they plan to deal with the many problems they inherited.  The future is at stake and not in the best interest of America if the future looks like the failed past.

So the media, who has become more of an entertainment industry should be positive to new ideas planned by the Biden administration to change the status quo with policies that will have meaningful changes to move the country and its people forward and in a different direction than the last 4 years.  If the media checked the facts they will find that democratic administrations offer real plans and policies to deal with the real issues.  The media failed to report all the good legislation the democratic controlled U.S. House passed the last two years only to see that legislation die in the republican controlled Senate without even debate.

The media should be reporting on the actions taken by the new President and the democratic controlled congress because they were elected to lead this great country.  Time will tell how effective their policies and plans will be and are off to a good start.  It is now about a democratic administration that the people put their trust in.  It is a new chapter in American history to prove we can do better than the past for our country and its people.

The GOP has already tried to frame the conversation that Biden's policies will be job killers, and the media is culpable in pushing those false talking points and their failure to point out that Trump and his party left office with the worst job creation record since the great depression and that historically, democratic administrations are much better at job creation.  It is time for the media to step up to the plate and keep America informed about President Biden's agenda and what he is doing to reverse the serious problems his administration has inherited.

The present is the democrats time to show what they can do for their country.  And it is the media's time to stand up and tell the American people the democratic story that is taking place.  

This commentary written by Joe Lorio 

Update: Job Creation for Presidential Terms: 1929 - 2021

 This is an update to the original commentary posted in PolitiDose dated 11/5/2010 concerning job creation.  The update takes us through January 2021 when Trump ended his term in office.  The job numbers cut through all the false claims by republicans that democratic administrations are job killers.  In fact the opposite is true and the numbers tell the real story how democratic administrations out perform republican administrations by a wide margin.  The bottom line shows job creation on the democratic watch is robust, while it is weak and anemic on the republican watch.

Herbert Hoover 1929-1933  4 years  Jobs Lost 6.4 million

Franklin Roosevelt  1933-1945  12 years  Jobs created 16.2 million

Roosevelt-Truman 1945-1953 8 years Jobs created  8.2 million

Dwight Eisenhower  1953-1961  8 years  Jobs created 3.5 million 

Kennedy-Johnson  1961-1969  8 years  Jobs created 15.4 million

Nixon-Ford  1969-1977  8 years  Jobs created  11.2 million

Jimmie Carter  1977-1981  4 years  Jobs created  10.3 million

Ronald Reagan  1981-1989  8 years  Jobs created 16.1 million 

George H.W. Bush  1989-1993  4 years  Jobs created  2.5 million

Bill Clinton  1993-2001  8 years  Jobs created  22.7 million

George W. Bush  2001-2008  8 years  Jobs created  1.1 million

Barrack Obama  2009- 2017  8 years  Jobs created   11.5 million

Donald Trump  2017-2021  4 years  Jobs lost  2.7 million

The numbers above show that democratic administrations served 48 years and republicans served 44 years.  Democratic administrations created 84.3 million net new jobs while republican administrations created a total of 25.3 million net new jobs (34.4 million minus 9.1 million lost jobs).  The average yearly jobs created under the democrats was 1,756,250 millions per year while the yearly average under the republicans was 575,000 thousands per year.  The record is clear how democratic administrations did much better by a wide margin than republican administrations and that no democratic administration during that 92 year period lost jobs.

And today, with President Biden in office less than a month the republicans in congress are trying to paint the President's agenda as a jobs killer.  They have no shame after America lost over 2.7 million jobs on their watch the last 4 years and a terrible history of job creation.  The republican ideology and extremism, along with their tax cuts that favor the wealthy and Corporations are the job killers.  And the job creation record of the last three republican Presidents are down right pitiful.  So the next time you hear republicans say democratic administrations are job killers just have a good laugh.  The facts tell the story and the case is closed.

Note:  Job numbers are taken from Wikipedia, U.S. Labor Department reports and other internet sources.  All three come up with different numbers from time to time but are so close do not change the totals to affect the out come of the above report.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio 

 

A Majority Of The U.S. Senate Votes 57 - 43 And Finds President Trump Guilty Of Impeachment Charges

The second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump has ended in acquittal because 43 republican senators voted to do so.  It takes 67 votes to convict.  But the big story here and the most important one is that the majority vote in the senate was 57 - 43 that found the President guilty as charged in the impeachment and those 57 votes were non-partisan being cast by 48 democrats, 2 independents and 7 republicans.

The other part of the story being the 43 votes cast all by republicans which was a partisan vote by 43 senators who made up their mind before they even heard the evidence and who have been silent on the mob attack on the capitol on January 6.  The un-American attitude by those 43 republican senators and the actions by several republican legislators and other GOP groups that censured those republicans in the U.S. House and Senate who voted to convict Trump are both deplorable and un-American.  The censure actions was an authoritarian act by the GOP who work over time to undermine the constitution and the democratic process of the country's elections.

The 57 - 43 majority guilty vote will be remembered in history as the vote that told the real story of this impeachment, especially because of its non-partisan nature.  All of the other comments and self serving statements that will follow in the coming weeks will only serve one purpose.  And that is to fill up time and space which the pundits and the news media have a lot of.

But the real story on the issues will continue to be told by PolitiDose, your daily dose of political commentary.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

 

The CBO Projects The Fiscal Years federal Deficit will be $2.3 Trillion.

 The Congressional Budget Office in a report dated 2/12/21 said the federal deficit for fiscal year ending 9/30/21 (Trump's last fiscal year budget) is projected to be $2.3 Trillion.  And that projection does not include the proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus by President Joe Biden.  The CBO also reported that the projected $2.3 trillion deficit will equal 10.3% of the GDP and that the past two years have the highest deficits relative to the GDP since 1945.

The CBO report confirms the massive deficit spending by republican administrations that continues to take place since the Reagan years that PolitiDose has commented on many times over in the past 9 years.  If the CBO's projections hold true the Trump administration will have the largest single year back to back federal deficits in the history of U.S. budgets.  The federal deficit for Trump's 3rd fiscal year that ended 9/30/20 came in at $3.1 trillion.  Prior to Trump, the single year record federal deficit took place on President George W. Bush's watch in fiscal ending 9/30/09 when the deficit came in at $1.4 trillion.  

So President Trump and his republican party has learned nothing about their past fiscal disasters cast on the country and its people.  And their tax cuts and extreme ideology on the issues failed to address the economic recession, the virus pandemic, the massive loss of jobs and then to add insult to the country and its people refused to accept the peaceful transfer of power to a new administration that our constitution and democratic process requires.  

But as this writer said in the past, democrats have a much better record at governing and that in time President Biden will answer the call and put America back on track.  Precedent will be there to back it up and when it takes place you will have read it here first in PolitiDose, your daily dose of political commentary.

This commentary written  by Joe Lorio 

The Final Job and Unemployment Numbers Of The Trump Administration.

 The U.S. Labor Department reported 49,000 jobs returned to the economy and the unemployment rate came in at 6.3% for January 2021.  The job numbers were a disappointment and the department said the unemployment rate fell from December's 6.7% because workers stopped looking for work and were therefore not included in the unemployed looking for work.  Approximately 10 million Americans still have not returned to the workforce.

It was the final numbers of the Trump administration and they followed the weak performance of past republican administrations.  So the President left office with the worst job creation record since the great depression  under President Herbert Hoover when the economy lost over 6 million jobs.  The economy lost 2.7 million jobs on Trump's watch counting the jobs that were created, the jobs lost and those who returned to work.

President Obama's administration created more jobs in his 8 years in office (11.5 million jobs) than President George H.W. Bush (2.5 million jobs),President George W. Bush (1.3 million jobs) and Donald Trump (-2.7 million jobs) did in their 16 years in office.  And the Clinton administration created more jobs (22.7 million jobs) in his 8 years in office than were created in the Reagan (16.1 million jobs), Bush 41, Bush 43 and the Trump administration in their 24 years in office. 

The unemployment rate increased 1.6% on Trump's watch.  It was 4.7% when Trump took office and 6.3% on January 31, 2021.  So Trump joins every past Republican President since 1948 with the exception of the Reagan administration where unemployment increased on their watch.  During that same period of time every democratic administration with the exception of the Carter administration left office with a reduction in the unemployment rate.  The unemployment rate on Carter's watch stayed the same.  

The Trump  administration also ended with an economic recession that began on his watch.  His administration followed past republican administrations in that regard also as every republican administration in the past 100 years suffered an economic recession that began on their watch.  The precedent of past republican failures have been consistent and therefore are not just a coincident.  Trickle down economics and the republican ideology of governing have been a disaster.

So the failure under the Trump administration came to an end like the failed past of former republican administrations.  Trump and his party learned nothing from the failed past, so the future under Trump, ended in failure like the failed past.  

And it was all fore-told here in past PolitiDose commentary from the very beginning of the Trump administration.  

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

 

Another First For PolitiDose: The Economic and Fiscal Results of Donald Trump's Term As President'

The governing by President Trump and his party for the past four years did not make America great.  In fact the President did not learn from the failures of past republican administrations and therefore his term in office, the failures was like the failed republican past.  Exploding deficits, increasing unemployment, an economic recession (a republican trademark), Job loss, spending increases, no economic plan or policy, just a tax cut for those who need them the least and a virus pandemic that Trump and his party failed to address.

Trump and his party has a history of bragging how great they are at creating jobs but trump left office with the worse job creation record since the great depression of 1928 when over 6 million workers lost their jobs.  America lost approximately 2.7 million jobs on Trump's watch.  That is counting the jobs created and jobs lost.  That sorry job record follows the fact that no republican administration that followed a democratic administration in the last 90 years created as many jobs as the democratic administration it followed.

Trump also left office with a larger deficit than when he took office.  The same fate that every other republican President has experienced since Eisenhower 67 years ago.  The federal deficit at the end of President Obama's last fiscal year 9/30/17 was $666 billion.  It was $1.4 trillion at the end of the Bush 43 administrations last fiscal year.  At the end of President Trump's third fiscal year ending 9/30/20 the federal deficit was $3.12 Trillion.  Trump's last fiscal year comes to an end on 9/30/21.  In that same 67 years only one democratic President left office with a higher deficit that when he took office, President Carter.  

The unemployment rate increased 1.6% on Trump's watch.  It was 4.7% when he took office and 6.3% when he left office.  Unemployment fell on Obama's watch 3.1%.  Every republican administration except the Reagan administration since 1948 has left office with a higher unemployment rate than when they took  office.  However, the Reagan administration has the record of the highest and longest unemployment rate during that same time period.  It stood at over 10% for 10 consecutive months from September 1982 to June 1983.

The Dow Jones DJIA index was up 57% on Trump's watch and the S&P index was up 79%.  Trump bragged about the market being the best ever on his watch, but the DJIA was up 147% on Obama's watch and the S&P was up 166%.  

The economic recession on Trump's watch began in February of 2020 according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the official economics arbiter, a month before the pandemic hit.  It is one of the reasons for the major job loss under the Trump administration.  And to understand things clearly about economic recessions, one should note that every republican administration in the past 100 years has presided over an economic recession that began on their watch.  

Total federal spending in Trump's first three fiscal years that ended 9/30/20 was up 28% over total federal spending in Obama's last three fiscal years ending 9/30/17.  Trump's last fiscal years total will be known when it ends on 9/30/21.  So when Trump's final fiscal year spending number comes in he will join Reagan and the Bush 43 administrations having the largest increases in federal spending in the past 40 years.  Under Reagan spending increased 75% and under Bush 43 it increased 61%.  

The news media in general and journalists and opinion writers in particular have failed to understand the failures of past republican administrations and instead ran with their rhetoric of lies being the great party at doing everything.  They still call the GOP the conservative party.  But PolitiDose knew the history of past republican administrations and the fate of the Trump administration back in 2016 and wrote commentary predicting what would likely take place on Trump's watch.   (see Note below)

Yes, my fellow Americans, the very first civilization on earth, that of the Sumerians said they were taught six thousand years ago that the key to a better future was to understand the mistakes of the failed past.  Otherwise, the future would be like the failed past.  On January 20, 2021 President Trump left office and he and his administration learned nothing from the mistakes of the failed republican past and as a result, the future of the Trump administration ended like the failed past of previous republican administrations.  

Note:  See PolitiDose commentary dated 12/9/16 Titled, Will the failures under a Trump administration be like the failed past of previous republican administrations.  Commentary dated 12/24/16 titled, What will the New Year Bring Politically:  A continuing story.  And commentary dated 11/20/2020 titled, Another first for PolitiDose as the outcome of the Trump Presidency was predicted in past commentary. 

Note:  Stats used in this commentary taken from CBO, OM&B, Labor Department, Treasury Dept. Dow Jones reports.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

  

 

President Biden Pauses Oil and Gas Leasing On Federal Lands

 The President announced his executive order on Wednesday concerning Oil and Gas leasing in line with his policy of addressing climate change.  The pause or moratorium as some call it is intended to allow time for officials to review the impact of Oil and Gas drilling on the environment and climate.  The announcement was quickly attacked by the industry, those related to it and especially in Louisiana by the same political leaders who attacked President Obama's moratorium after the BP blow out in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 rig workers and damaged the environment to the tune of billions of dollars.

Their talking points are old news, jobs will be lost, Louisiana will suffer, its a threat to national security, energy cost will be much more expensive, etc, etc, and etc.  They disregarded the life of those 11 rig workers and their families and said the moratorium would be a disaster.  But the fact is the Obama administration got it right and on his watch the U.S. became the worlds leading oil producer.  The Oil and Gas industry did not miss a beat  As published in a New Orleans Advocate article dated 1/27 by Timothy Boone, his chart shows the industry employment has been greater on the democratic watch of Clinton and Obama since 1990 and the lowest employment took place on the republican watch of Donald Trump and the employment drop on Trump's watch has been dramatic according to the chart.

And to those who are still trying to sell the fairy tale that the current huge drop in activity and employment in the industry is due to the pandemic is full of it.  The price Louisiana and its oil and gas workers are paying for the present slump is due to several reasons.  (1) The U.S. recession that officially began in February 2020, before the pandemic.  (2) Oil prices collapsed  because of a drop in demand.  (3) A surplus of oil and gas in the world market.  (4) increased production.  (5) A miscalculation by the industry because of greed and (6) New energy technology that came on stream.  The meltdown began on Trump's watch and he and his administration had no economic plan or policy to create jobs or keep the economy working.  In fact Trump himself took credit for the drop in the price of oil.

President Biden's plan is to create jobs like all democratic administrations do.  And the oil and gas industry does better on their watch than on the republican watch, especially oil and gas workers in Louisiana.  The oil  and gas industry and its workers did better on Obama's watch even with the BP moratorium.  And Trump revised or eliminated a good many regulations put into effect after the BP blow out which Trump said would spur more drilling and production.  Yeah, right.  The scare tactics by the industry and Louisiana's political representatives have been proven to be just that, scare tactics.

The industry, Trump and Louisiana's elected officials should answer for the industry slow down that has lost thousands of Louisiana jobs over the past 4 years.  Biden's plan is being attacked in its infancy so a judgement of its success or failure will be known at a later date.  Mean while what the industry and their allies never tell the public is at this very moment, the industry has thousands of acreage on leases they have never fully developed yet and the Biden pause does not even affect future drilling on those leases.

Trump left office with the worst job creating record since the great depression of 1928 and oil  and gas industry jobs are not the only jobs lost.  The sad fact is Trump and his party had no economic plan or policy to keep the economy moving forward.  All they had was a tax plan that gave corporations like the oil and gas industry a 14% reduction in their corporate tax rate.  And that does not include the $40 billion given to them as subsidy.  Does any one really think they are deserving of that?

And that really says it all.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Note:  View my previous commentary  dated 7/22/2011 titled, Drilling Offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico: Facts And Nothing But the Facts.  It tells the facts of how the industry and its workers do better under democratic administrations.  

  

 

Tom Brady Led Tampa Bay Wins NFC Championship, Beating Green Bay 31-26.

Tampa Bay won their conference championship on Sunday beating Green Bay and will play in Super Bowl 55 on February 7.  It will be the very first time the Super Bowl will be played in one of the teams home stadium.  The Bucs won the right to Super Bowl 55 the hard way, as a wild card that played and won all three play off games on the road.  And they deserved to be there finishing the season strong winning their last 8 straight road games.

Brady, playing for the first time on a new team proved he can still get the job done even though retirement is closing in on his long and successful career.  The Bucs came together, especially on defense and in their last two play off games handled the Saints and Packers offense in a dominate way.  But this Tampa Bay team is a complete team and it showed down the stretch.

The Super Bowl between the Bucs and the Chiefs should be a good one as both teams match up well.  Both teams also have LSU players in key positions.  And both head coaches take chances with plays considered out side the box.  It will be a game this writer believes the fans will not enjoy seeing either of the teams lose because both teams are very popular.  But there is a story line to the game.  The Chiefs will be trying to repeat its world championship, something few teams have accomplished.  And the Bucs will be playing in their first Super Bowl since their win in 2002, 19 years ago, a long dry spell.

What the sports media should take and understand from the Bucs successful season is it was never about Brees vs. Brady like they promote every time the two compete against each other.  Its a no brainer because Brees will never accomplish for the Saints what Brady has accomplished for his teams over their careers.  Not even close.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio 

 

Joe Biden: The 46th President of The United States

The voters of America passed the democratic torch to a new President in a record vote to lead the United States for the next 4 years.  It was a vote of confidence to change the direction of America with a democratic controlled congress to aid President Biden's campaign agenda.  The message was loud and clear in opposition to the Trump administration and the GOP's agenda of the past 4 years.  And as fate would have it, the Biden/Harris administration faces the same economic recession and other major problems the Obama/Biden administration faced 12 years ago that the Bush 43 administration left them with.

But the people can rest assured that the Biden administration will have the democratic "fate" on their side and bring America and its people back and have policy, plans and precedent to make it happen.  President Biden has already done more to address the pandemic problem than the previous administration and there should be no doubt the Biden administration will follow through.  The people will continue to hear the lies by the GOP and visually see their obstruction to Biden's agenda.  They will also keep up their personal attacks that began with the Newt Gingrich era.  And unfortunately the country does not have a news media willing to express how republicans are the administrations of economic recessions, minimal job creation and increasing debt.

The democratic past tells us that Biden will succeed and so will the country and its people.  And it will take place in a civil and honorable way.  The magnitude of the problems the President has inherited will not be reversed quickly, but rest assured, the change for the better will take place.  So take heart America, the future under President Biden's administration will not be like the failed past 4 years.  Man's "fate" on earth is decreed by man's own hands, and there lie the secret to man's success.  And yes, understanding the mistakes of the failed past, are the key and secret to a better future.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio