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

 

Tampa Bay 30 The New Orleans Saints 20

 The Tampa Bay Bucs defeated the New Orleans Saints on Sunday,  ending the Saints play offs for the fourth straight year.  It was the third time both teams met this season with the Saints winning the two regular season games.  But the Bucs saved their best for the game that counted the most and defeated the Saints with a defense that not only pressured Brees but gave no separation to the Saints receivers.  

The Saints top receiver and record holder Michael Thomas caught ZERO passes and the Bucs defense played the Saint's receivers tight as a glove, something the Saint's are not accustomed to because there are so many poorly coached teams in the NFL.  Brees' three interceptions were a key factor in the Saint's loss along with a fumble by a receiver that was recovered by the Bucs.  The sports media tried to make the game a Brees vs. Brady thing but was pure myth.  It was the Saints vs. the Bucs.  A Saints team the sports media talked about as a Super Bowl favorite even though the Saints beat only one team this year with a winning record.

The Saints ended the season losing 3 of their last 6 games.  And Brees has not played well in the last 4 play off years and the Saints as a team have not lived up to the hype of the sports media who lack objectivity in evaluating the team.  They are hung up on Brees personal records and Payton's so called prolific offensive mind.  but as this writer has commented on numerous times, Payton should hang up the cheat sheet, let his offensive co-ordinator call the plays and pay more attention to what is taking place on the field.

One of the hosts on "Sports Talk" a WWL radio show said the Saints were the best team in the NFL in comments a few weeks ago.  A silly judgement call for a team that had beaten only one team with a winning record.  Then we have a sports commentary on WWL-TV sports that during the week commented with screen displays how great the Saint's defense was in beating the Bears the previous Sunday.  Never mind that the Bears were a 8 - 8 football team with a less than average quarterback and offensive team.

This writer's comment in a previous commentary dated January 5, said that no one really knew how good the Saints really are and that the play offs would tell the story.  Well its history now and Sunday's game against the Bucs and their exit from the play off the previous 3 years, tells this writer that the sports media have over rated them for years because they lack being objective.  As for the Brees vs. Brady hype, Brady, in his first year with the Bucs has once again taken his team farther than Brees has taken his team

The comparison of what each has done for his team in team accomplishments through their years is not even close.  It is Brady, by a mile.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Opinion Writer Froma Harrop Suggest Republicans Start A New Party

 In a opinion column in the New Orleans Advocate dated 1/11/21 titled, "The madness of King Donald and his GOP" Froma suggest it is time for the republicans to start a new party because the present one committed to Trump can not be saved.  A noble idea but Froma goes off the rails to suggest there are enough true conservatives in the present republican party to make the change.

But the facts tell us there are no real republican conservatives in congress since the Newt Gingrich era.  It has all been documented in PolitiDose commentary for the past 9 years.  Opinion writers have promoted the self serving statements by republicans that they are conservative for years even though the evidence is overwhelming they are not.  The facts tells us the democratic party has been the more fiscal party and on political and legislative matters the most productive.  Froma's statement that America needs a center-right party to rein in democratic excesses is a fairy tale.  The excesses over the past 40 years has taken place on the republican watch and that includes the last 4 years.

And once again onJanuary 20, it will fall to a democratic President Joe Biden to bring the country out of the economic recession and virus pandemic of a republican administration and its excesses.  It is nothing new of course because every republican administration has presided over an economic recession in the past 100 years.  If that is conservatism at work, the fairy tale lives on.  But the democratic party continues to be the American party who believes in the constitution, the rule of law, the democratic process and elections free from manipulation from those who believe in undermining and over turning the American voters will.

The republican party in congress and conservatism does not exist.  Its been highjacked by the party itself.  And that really says it all.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

The Job Numbers and Unemployment For December 2020.

The U.S. Labor Department reported the economy lost 140,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate came in at 6.7%.  It was the first negative jobs report since April and the sixth straight month of falling job creation.  The unemployment rate of 6.7% was the same as November.  Over 9 million jobs have still not returned to the economy since the economic recession which began in February and the pandemic the following month in March 2020.

So as of December 31, 2020 counting the number of jobs created and lost during Trump's administration the economy has lost approximately 2.7 million jobs which represents the worst job creation record since the great republican depression of 1929 under President Herbert Hoover.  And Trump only has January to turn that record around.  Unemployment on Trump's watch increased 2% as of December 31.  It was 4.7% when President Obama left office.  The unemployment rate on Obama's watch fell 3.1%.

Trump's job creation record follows the pattern of weak job creation of past republican administrations and the precedent they have set over the past 90 plus years.  Trump said he would create 25 million jobs and his tax cuts would be the primer but even before the economic recession and following pandemic began his job creation record fell far behind that of President Obama's job creation record in his last 3 years in office.

Trump's problem like past republican administrations, never really had a real economic policy or plan for creating jobs and keeping the economy stimulated.  Their idea of tax cuts for those that need them the least was voo-do economics from the very beginning.  As a result, the country's economic future under the Trump administration was like the failed past of previous republican administrations.

And yes my fellow Americans, understanding the past is still the key to a better future.  And the Biden administration understands that.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio