The U.S. Economy, Job Creation and Unemployment

The U.S. Labor Department announced the economy created 155,000 in November and the unemployment rate held at 3.7%.  It was the 98th straight month of positive job growth.  Economist were expecting November's numbers to come in around 195,000 jobs.  The Labor Department also reported it revised the October job numbers down 13,000 from its earlier report.

Hourly wages have increased 3.1% so far this year, however, the number of weekly hours worked has decreased.  Some economists set off alarm bells with the decreased in hours worked and coupled with the recent erratic moves of the stock market, more alarm bells have sounded.  Trump's economic adviser, Larry Kudlow had to take to the air and announce that a recession is not in sight.  (does that sound familiar?)

November's job creation pushed the Trump administration farther behind the Obama administration in Job creation during Trump's first 22 months in office as follows:  In Trump's first 22 months in office 4,037,000 jobs have been created for a monthly average of 183,500 jobs.  In Obama's last 22 months in office 4,510,000 jobs were created for an monthly average of 205,000 jobs.

The smaller number of jobs created in November will give economists something to talk about in trying to figure out any clue given in the number.  But the best clue is precedent, and the readers of PolitiDose know where that leads.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Thoughts On LSU's 2018 Football Season

The LSU Tigers completed the regular season with a won-loss record of 9 - 3.  The exact same record as the 2017 Tiger team.  It was coach Orgeron's second full year as head coach.  Before the 2018  season began, this writer's commentary cautioned that Tiger fans should take a wait and see attitude as to how the team would respond and not make any rush to judgement call.

Brody Miller, sports journalist for the Times Picayune in a 12/2 report said LSU surpassed expectations and gave several reasons why which makes no sense to this writer.  The fact is LSU still lacks a consistent offense and poor offensive game planning.  The Tigers are also behind in executing the fundamentals of the game and lacks a winning attitude.  Alabama is still the team that LSU makes very little progress against because LSU is outcoached.

This season LSU beat Georgia, Auburn, Arkansas and Ole Miss and lost to Texas A&M, yet all those teams played Alabama and scored more points against them than LSU did.  Auburn scored 21 points, Georgia scored 35 points, Arkansas scored 31 points, Ole Miss scored 7 points and Texas A&M scored 23 points.  LSU was shut out by Alabama.  Those teams do not have better offensive players than LSU so why can they move the ball against Alabama much better that LSU can?  The answer is coaching.

This writer is also on record who thought LSU should have hired a head coach with a proven record as a winner after Miles was fired.  And now, after two and half years as LSU's head coach, school is still out on coach Orgeron.  Jimbo Fisher, who is in his very first year as head coach at Texas A&M defeated LSU the last game of the season.  Coach Orgeron said after the game LSU should have won the game in regulation.  This writer believes that statement tells a story.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

The Death of A Past President Exposes The Sick Mentality of The Present President

The nation pays tribute to former President George H.W. Bush after his passing and remembers his leadership with comments and stories from those who knew him best and others who admired and appreciated his service to our nation.  His body now lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda for the people to view in person.  It has been a humble week, so what does President Trump do?

He sets out and tweets a storm of personal attacks against Robert Mueller and others involved in the special prosecutor's investigation  in order to intimidate and obstruct the investigation.  The President is incapable of understanding the moment and a time for mourning the loss of a fallen leader.  It is all about Trump and his ego and the sickness within him.  America has no President who can console when necessary.  Instead, America has a President who likes to try and knock people down and has no clue how to lift people up.

And the republicans in congress turned their backs on Trump's malignancy that has destroyed all norms of governing and America's compassion and kindness.  Trump's fog has engulfed the republican leadership, made them cowards and reduced them to ditto head robots.  The republican party of old stood up to President Nixon when it counted and discharged their responsibility to the country.  Today's republican party is Trump's party to bend, submit and break and close their eyes to the laws they swore to uphold and defend.

The malignancy will only end when the President is impeached.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

The Dallas Cowboys 13 The New Orleans Saints 10: Some Thoughts On The Game

The Saints entered the game in BIG "D" Thursday night with a 10-1 record and a 10 game winning streak.  The Cowboys entered the game with a record of 6-5 thanks to a win over Washington a week earlier on Thanksgiving day.  For the past several weeks sports writers in Louisiana were taking a lot of time talking about Brees personal records, the Saints prolific offense and a Super Bowl appearance.

But the Dallas Cowboys was one of the few Saints opponents who knew how to play defense and were not about to let the Saints receivers run wild where they and Brees could play catch like they do with so many other teams.  They had a smart enough defensive coach who knew his defense had to play the receivers tight and that is what they did so effectively.  The results were no prolific Brees and receivers that had problems with the Cowboy defensive backs playing them tight.  It's not what they are use to.

The game with Dallas exposed what this writer has said all along.  The Saints offense is just an average offense when they play a well coached team who knows how to play defense.  The game offered more evidence that the NFL has too many bad teams that are poorly coached and can not compete.  The Saints have beaten only 4 teams with winning records at this point in the season and their next opponent has a losing record.

Sports writers and sport shows, especially those in New Orleans continue to report apple polishing reports on the Saints and their shows are more about entertainment than a proper evaluation of the team.  Why did they start talking prematurely about the Saints holding the bye over the Rams 4 weeks ago?  Now the Dallas game changed all of that and with 4 games left to play it could change again.

Offensive records will continue to be broken with all the terrible teams in the NFL.  The Dallas game and the fact that more than half of the NFL teams are non-competitive, should promote a more objective review by sports writers.  But this writer sees no such change in the New Orleans sports writers reporting.  The hype and Brees personal records will continue to lead their parade.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

General Motors, President Trump and The Republican Party: They All Live in The Same Trough.

General Motors CEO, Mary Barra announced that the U.S. auto giant plans to close 5 of their manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada, reduce their salaried work force by 15% (14,700 jobs) and cut cost by $6 billion dollars by 2020.  President Trump's reaction was threatening to reduce GM's government subsidies which only congress can co.  It was the usual huffing by an out of touch President.  GM's CEO Barra also said Trump's tariffs has cost the company $1 billion.

This trio of corporate welfare, Trump, the republican party and GM, who along with other corporations sold the fraud bill of goods tax cut to America that was supposed to bring back jobs to America and build new manufacturing plants in America and the 14% corporate tax reduction would allow them to be competitive and do that.  PolitiDose pointed out long ago many times over it was the same tax fraud passed by the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush which gave the country the great Savings and Loan failure and the worst economic recession and job losses since the great depression.

Trump and the republicans fraudulent tax cuts and corporate Americas embrace of it demonstrated how the trio can not be trusted to tell the truth.  Corporate America never gets enough tax breaks to satisfy their lust for money.  Trump's reminding GM what America did for the company after the 2008 recession was a self serving statement to get people's mind off the tax cut lies and how cozy he and the republicans are with corporate America.  And now the public is being fed the information that the nations trade deficit is at an all time high despite Trump's tariffs because of the strong dollar and Trump and the business community want to lower the value of the dollar.

It is interesting to note that no reporter at President Trump's news conference has asked the President when he planned to move his company's business that operates over seas back to the U.S.  After all, his companies receive the 14% reduction in the corporate tax rates also.

The Last Two Elections Tell The Story Of How The So Called Conservative News Media Gets It All Wrong

First, lets cut through the hype of so called conservative elected officials and news media because both are extremist that preach an unAmerican ideology and are not conservatives at all.  The term will be used here simply because they call themselves conservatives.  According to Rush Limbaugh, the Fox News Network and other so called conservative media outlets, they have for years claimed the people of America were conservatives.  But it was a creation of their own imagination.

The popular vote in the 2016 Presidential election and the November 6 elections prove them wrong.  Hillary Clinton won the popular vote with 48% and more than 2 million votes than Trump received.  In the November 6 elections the democrats received 53.1% of the vote with 8.6 million more votes than the republicans received.  So the voting public did not vote conservative in either of those elections.  And certainly not the so called republican brand of conservatism.

The news media in general helped perpetuate the fairy tale of republican conservatism by just going with the flow and ignoring the facts.  The American voters ARE actually conservative in their own private and public lives but understand the failures of so called political conservatism and the extremism that has been substituted.  The voters also  understand how political conservatism is used to divide the country and its people.  The conservative media will now devote their attention to attacking the newly elected democratic controlled U.S. House since the voters tuned them out in the last two elections.  Blaming Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi for the republicans own created problems and lack of policy will no longer work.

The readers of PolitiDose could see it all coming because they paid attention to the real story and not the fairy tales and political hype.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

A Way Forward To Deal With The Coming 2019 Republican Economic Recession: Adopt The Democratic Party's Economic Messsage and Experience

Another republican economic recession is coming in 2019.  In fact the outline of it has already begun but so much is glossed over by Trump and the republicans propaganda the real world comes crashing down when its too late.  The Trump-GOP tax cuts have already proved to be ineffective (no surprise there to those who pay attention) because trickle down economics only works in the mind of political ideology.  Job creation in the first 21 months of the Trump administration was less than the jobs created in the last 21 months of the Obama administration.  GDP reached a higher quarterly level during the Obama administration than it has so far under the Trump administration.

The present stock market convulsion is a result of over price, reality and the usual manipulation that takes  place.  Large corporations used their 14% tax reductions to buy back their own stock and other non job creation ventures instead of investing in new plant and equipment like Trump and the republicans said they would.  Trump's trade wars and tariffs are not friendly to economic progress nor are his isolation attitude with our allies helpful.

But there is hope for 2019 with the democrats control of the U.S. House if Trump and the republicans listen because the democrats will propose several initiatives that will improve the economic outlook and the economy.  The democrats will also address the issues that the republican controlled congress have kicked down the road for the past two years.  So the ball will be in Trumps and the GOP's court.  Will they work with the democratic party or allow the economic gains and job creation started by the Obama administration fail once again and allow the country to end up in recession again on the republican watch?


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Nancy Pelosi: A Leader In The Democratic Party

Democratic representative in the U.S. House Nancy Pelosi is a leader and public servant who knows how to accomplish things for the country and its people.  She has served in the capacity as Speaker of The House in the past and played a key role in passing legislation when the democratic party controlled both houses of congress during President Obama's first two years in office.  Those two years produced the legislation that moved the country out of the republicans 2008 economic recession and reversed the record job losses.

Those two years also produced regulations to reform the Wall Street banks that played a role in the financial collapse of 2008, approved legislation that created the Affordable Care Act and other legislation important to the country.  Pelosi has the political understanding necessary to be pragmatic, bipartisan and is well aware what really matters and makes a difference for the average American.

Trump, the GOP and the conservative news media dislike Pelosi because she is an effective leader and knows more about issues than they do.  So now that the democrats won back the House they are trying their best to describe Pelosi as being in trouble to return as Speaker.  The republican drum beat against her will continue no matter what.  Pelosi will continue to be a productive elected official regardless what happens with the speakership because her cause is to serve.

When the democratic party takes control of the House in January, Trump and the GOP would do well to listen to the issues the democrats will talk about and propose because it will be progressive issues that have to do with moving the country and its people forward that has been neglected by the President and his party the last two years.  And Nancy Pelosi is the best democratic to lead the party.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Corporate Welfare: Nocking On The Door Once Again Of New Orleans and The State

The new Convention Center Hotel that developers would like to build next to and connected to the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans is in the news.  The Times Picayune carried the story and a large ad and a picture of what the development would look like.  Some information given in the TP story and ad about the development are as follows:  Dallas based Matthews Southwest Hospitality are the developers of the $558 million addition.  The 1200 room hotel would have a $282 million impact on the local economy, $18 million in new city taxes and $6 million in state taxes annually and 1900 new permanent jobs.  The hotel would stimulate economic activity and be the center point of a fabulous new entertainment district that will include residential, retail, dining and entertainment venues, creating a dynamic destination.

The hotel would rely heavily on subsidies that would need state and city approval.  The need for public support has been questioned by Mayor Cantrell and the Bureau of Governmental Research.  With such a rosy picture painted in the TP this writer questions why the project needs public support. (Corporate Welfare)  Should not the developers be responsible for the full cost of the project?  An if public support is given by the state and the city how much a loss in city and state taxes will that cost?  The Trump-GOP tax cuts gave the developers a 14% reduction in their corporate income tax.  The business community always wants more at the expense of the cities and states and the people.

The state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans needs all the tax revenue it is due.  We are at the bottom of the scale in many areas of need and it is time and good business for the state and city to obtain the proper financial return from business who want to move here and take advantage of what the state and city has to offer and that is much more than corporate welfare.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Louisiana's Republican Representation In Congress Continue To Be A Disaster

The National Flood Insurance Program is set to expire on November 30 unless extended by Congress.  And Congress is on its Thanksgiving break and won't be back until next week.  That leaves only a short time for Congress to act.  It is typical of what takes place when republicans are in control.  The same situation existed in 2017 and instead of passing legislation to solve the long term problem, an extension was passed in 2017 also.

Now we read in a Times Picayune article that Louisiana's senators John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy are pushing to get the extension passed so the new congress can take up the issue next year and pass a long term solution.  The people of Louisiana should remember that the republican party has controlled both houses of Congress for the last 4 years and just kicked the flood insurance can down the road.  And we all know how much Louisiana and its people depend on flood insurance.

The flood insurance program is another one of many examples how the republican party has failed to govern and then has to scramble at the last minute with extensions that do not take care of the long term problem.  Louisiana's republican representation in Congress are a pitiful lot who try and act elite but it is the democrats and their party who has always done more for the state and its people. Some truths never change.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio