It’s not the conspiracy, stupid

And when did you hide it? That’s the Watergate redux of the permanent investigatory state.

Democrats are following Jerry Nadler and his enablers at MSNBC and CNN down the rabbit hole of irrationality. When one promising lead peters out, demand another trove of information! This presidency cannot stand!

Nadler’s Democrats held the attorney general in contempt Wednesday (05-08-19) for not releasing every jot and tittle of a report he is not obligated to release at all.

Do they believe that, under a crossed-out footnote on page 398 they would read “Trump is actually a Russkie.”? A Putin mole?

Is Mueller is trying to signal that Trump is guilty but you can only decode his report if you have access to all 448 pages?

Now The Resistance wants to see Donald Trump’s tax returns. Today’s New York Times editorial page (05-09-19) asks “What is he hiding?” (Short answer: his tax returns.)

That’s the ploy: keep demanding more information; there’s got to be a skunk in the woodpile somewhere. If nothing else, we must detract America from that troublesome economy, so healthy, so robust.

It’s the stupid economy

For Democrats, it was “the economy, stupid,” until Donald Trump. Then it became “the economy isn’t working for everyone” — the “everyone” being, mainly, Democrat(ic) candidates for political office.

At The Capital Times, my old boss Dave Zweifel trots out the Democrats’ fallback position: higher taxes. “Make America great again?” he asks “No, let’s make it pay again,” Dave answers. (Why do I see power plant mogul Montgomery Burns rubbing his hands together and saying, “It’s working!”?)

Now even the New York Times is admitting “the economy really has improved.” The Times didn’t like his tax cut, “but it did inject a whole lot of money into the economy. That money has boosted economic growth in recent months,” admits op ed columnist David Leonhardt. Then he hands off to Paul Krugman to explain “why it won’t last.”

The Times’ own Bret Stephens is having none of it: 

For more than two years, Democrats and their media friends have confidently insisted the U.S. economy under Donald Trump (a) would crash and burn; or (b) benefits only the few; or (c) was fake; or, failing all of that, was just (d) the lucky beneficiary of policies put into place under Barack Obama.

None of these arguments is tenable today. Anyone seriously interested in defeating Trump at the polls next year should stop making them.

• Unemployment is at 3.6%, a 50-year low.
• Job creation remains strong.
• Average hourly earnings are up 3.2% over last year.
• Inflation is 1.6%.

The continuing bad-mouthing, Stephens warns, “creates the perception that Democrats (at least those of the more ideological variety) are secretly hoping for a downturn, both to help their electoral chances and vindicate their own past predictions.” 

Stephens’ bottom line: “Trump is delivering on the core promise of the presidency.” Pretty good for a Never Trumper (like myself).

Penny wise and pound stupid

County Executive Rick Phelps’ 1992 veto of three additional floors in the construction of Dane County’s public safety building was not only short-sighted but looking more and more irresponsible. Downright damnable.

The three floors would have been roughed in to accommodate population growth that was readily foreseeable then. Or, alternatively, could have served to replace the antiquated cells on the top two floors of the mid-1950s City-County Building.

Now we’re looking at a $148 million “tower” next door. And that is the least expensive option. The Derail the Jail crowd, practiced at school board meetings, has another opportunity to shut down county government. Will Dave Mahoney let them?

Blaska’s Bottom Line: mega-hero Tiger Woods accepted the Medal of Freedom from Trump; is that a sign the tide has turned in Trump’s favor? Will the Milwaukee Bucks be go to the White House when they win it all?