BloggeRhythms

A mixed bag of items today reflect that when all’s said and done, the array of presidential candidates are actually quite funny. Too bad that’s not their intention.

Rush said yesterday, “There's a Democrat debate tonight.  There's a Republican debate on Saturday night.  It just continues to intensify.  A friend of mine sent me the following note with a great idea for a drinking game tonight during the Democrat debate, and here it is: "Every time Crazy Bernie or Hillary Clinton mention a new free government program," which is the contest they are having, who can come up with the most free stuff.

“Bernie... Wait 'til you hear this sound bite.  I've gotta get to this today.  Bernie gets a question from a guy upset that Bernie's gonna raise his taxes.  The guy says, "You know, I'm not a gazillionaire. I'm not a millionaire.  What do you want to raise my taxes for?"  And Bernie says, "No, no. You'll be fine because of all the new free stuff you're gonna get," and the guy says, "Oh, okay. Cool." It was fine with him. 

“He'd be happy to pay a tax increase as long as there's gonna be new freebies.  Now, Bernie didn't use that exact language; that was the message. So the drinking game is every time Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton mention a new "free" government program, you grab somebody else's drink and take a swig. Not from your own.  Just to kind of illustrate the point.” 

In this case, Rush may have explained how socialism works in terms that allow even the dimmest of them to grasp the concept. 

As far as debates are concerned, a FB friend posted the following: 

In another joke, Jeffry Bartash @MarketWatch, writes: “The U.S. created 151,000 new jobs in January, a sharp slowdown after a torrid pace of hiring in the waning months of 2015. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected an increase of 180,000 nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, dipped below 5% for the first time in eight years, falling to 4.9%. Employment gains for December and November were little changed, the Labor Department said Friday.” 

Here we have a situation illustrating that the job market is the worst it’s been since Jimmy Carter was POTUS. The economy’s slowed significantly, employment's flat and there’s little reason to expect a turnaround for the better. Yet, the unemployment rate has dipped below 5% the first time in eight years, falling to 4.9%. So, how can that possibly happen? 

The answer is that, being fully aware that citizens typically don’t read beyond the headlines, the administration cleverly changed the reporting method. And in doing so, those no longer looking for work after a month aren’t included any more. However were the formula that’s always been used in the past still applied, the actual unemployment rate would be in the range of 10% or higher.   

And what’s worse, according to the January jobs report, although the labor force participation rate slightly increased to 62.7%, up from 62.6% in December, it’s the lowest its been in over 36 years.

Which brings us to today’s update on Bill Clinton’s wife. 

Bradford Richardson @thehill.com, reports that: “Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has dramatically cut into the nationwide lead of primary rival Hillary Clinton, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. 

“The poll released Friday finds Clinton leading the race with 44 percent support, compared to 42 percent support for Sanders, within the survey's margin of error.” 

The numbers reflect an incredible shift in only two months, whereas: “The last iteration of the poll in December had Clinton leading Sanders nationwide by a 61-30 point margin.” 

“Democrats nationwide are feeling the Bern as Sen. Bernie Sanders closes a 31-point gap to tie Secretary Hillary Clinton,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. 

“The poll also finds that Sanders matches up better with top Republican primary candidates than Clinton.” 

And then, we get to the humorous part. 

According to FoxNews.com, “Hillary Clinton defiantly claimed at Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate that she is “100 percent confident” nothing will come of the FBI’s investigation of her email practices and has no concerns about the controversy’s impact on her chances in the race. 

“I have absolutely no concerns about it whatsoever,” the former secretary of state said at the MSNBC-hosted debate in New Hampshire. 

“The comments come less than a week after the State Department confirmed that, as it releases thousands of Clinton emails, it is withholding 22 emails containing information too “top secret” to release.” 

Reading Bill’s wife’s confident statements were remindful of someone mentioned here in the same context before. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, who served as Iraqi Information Minister under Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the war.  

Known as “Baghdad Bob,” he extolled the invincibility of the Iraqi Army and the permanence of Saddam's rule. And then, in a TV studio one day, while he was on the air predicting an Iraqi military victory, a squad of U.S. marines crossed the stage, picked him up and carried him off into custody. 

So, maybe the FBI will decide to do the same thing to Bill Clinton’s wife during a debate. 

Which brings up the ongoing question again: Joe Biden, Mayor Bloomberg, Jerry Brown, and Starbuck’s chairman and CEO, Howard Schultz, are you guys reading this?  

That’s it for today folks. 

Adios