ProgDems in Panic Mode, US Economy Doing Fine, and We Have Trump to Thank -- Just Ask Kanye, Who Says "I love this guy"

SOME HOME TRUTHS FOR THE WEEKEND. A lot of news -- real and Fake -- has been flying around this week. Let's clear the air. • • • THE TRUMP ECONOMY. No matter how hard the mainstream media tries to sell the idea that the Trump economy has somehow fallen on its face, it is just not so. President Trump enjoyed his 102nd stock market record last week. Then Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell raised the interests rates -- not once but AGAIN -- taking 1,501 points off the Dow Jones this week. The President said the “Fed is crazy.” He’s right. • President Trump has been saying for the past year, with stocks at all-time highs and unemployment at 50-year lows, that the Fed’s interest rate increases show a far-left liberal bias. • Consider this. CNBC says that right after Obama was elected President, on December 16, 2008, the Federal Reserve lowered the Fed Funds rate by 1%, from 1% down to 0% -- the biggest one-shot lowering of the Fed Funds rate perhaps ever. AND, the Fed kept this 0% rate for most of Obama’s eight years in office. CNBC reported in December 2015 that President Obama oversaw “seven years of the most accommodative monetary policy in US history” created by the Fed. The Fed Funds rate was at zero for most of Obama’s time in office. Finally, in December 2015, the Fed announced its first increase in the Fed Funds rate during the Obama presidency. The only Fed Funds Rate increases since 2015 have been after Donald Trump was elected President. The Fed has increased the Fed Funds Rate seven -- SEVEN -- times under President Trump. • CNBC explains that the Fed Funds rate greatly impacts the economy : "Lower interest rates usually spur the economy by making corporate and consumer borrowing easier. Higher interest rates are intended to slow down the economy by making borrowing harder." WHY?? Because increases in the Fed Funds rate increase the cost of borrowing and the largest borrower in the world is the US government. With $20 trillion in debt, a 2% increase in interest payments equals $400 billion in annual interest payment increases or nearly a half a trillion dollars! But higher Fed Funds rates also raise home mortgage rates that affect many Americans. • President Obama benefited from the lowest possible interest rates possible for seven of his eight years and in spite of this, while he nearly doubled the US Debt from $10 trillion to nearly $20 trillion, Obama presided over a stagnant economy that lost -- not produced -- jobs. • IF there had been no rate increases in interest rates, President Trump would arguably have a balanced budget throughout his first two years in office. President Trump -- with an MBA from the Wharton School and a lifetime of success in business -- knows this. That's one reason why he keeps saying that he's not happy with the Fed raising interest rates and killing the economy. • But, Fed Chairman Powell seems to enjoy pounding on Trump and his booming economy. Last week at a meeting in Boston, Powell said he sees no need to drop the central bank’s current gradual approach to raising interest rates. Powell said the combination of steady, low inflation and very low unemployment shows the country is going through "extraordinary times." Powell's remarks immediately caused the markets to drop, despite a great stock market and job news. It is as if the Fed under Powell is deliberately holding up a stop sign to Trump's expanding economy -- every Trump rally leads to another Fed interest rate hike. • As President Trump says, the Fed’s actions show it favors the left. The Fed has gone crazy. • BUT, the theatrical panicked tones on CNN, MSNBC and some at CNBC about the beating 401k's are taking is NOT TRUE. Your 401k was operating from a market base of 17,000 when Obama left office. In the past 2 years, your market base under Trump has risen to +25,000 -- that is a gain of more than 30% in the average value of Americans' 401k's. Not bad for 2 years when we recall that under Obama the market went nowhere for 8 years, and neither did your 401k. • CNBC published an article on Thursday that said : "Though the recent stock market volatility is likely giving investors motion sickness, financial advisors are reminding them that it might be best for them to hang on through the decline. 'We're not recommending any changes for people who are saving and accumulating,' said Blair duQuesnay, a certified financial planner and investment advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management. 'Next time, you can buy into the market at a lower price than last month, but a 3% decline off of all-time highs isn't a time to become concerned,' she said." CNBC says you need to keep this market adjustment in perspective : "Stocks have hit record highs during 2018 in the march toward this latest decline. The overall trend has been upward since stocks hit their nadir on March 9, 2009. That said, it's easy for investors to lose sight of their longer-term goals and obsess over a stretch of down days....A bad day isn't necessarily a sign of an impending downturn, said Andrew Adams, a market strategist with Raymond James. 'This is perfectly normal, and we've gotten complacent,' he said. 'We're of the opinion that we're in the middle stages of a bull market. 'We see a few more years of good stock returns." So, says CNBC -- stay in the game; revisit your goals; resist the urge to act impulsively; don't act on your fears, and if you have long-term goals, but on the downturn. • All sound advice. And, it is supported by Larry Kudlow, the director of the President's National Economic Council, who told CNBC on Thursday : "We are the hottest economy in the world right now. We're crushing it. Europe is slowing down. Asia is slowing down. We are moving rapidly." Kudlow noted that the US economy expanded by 3.2% in the first half and that the Atlanta Federal Reserve is expecting growth of 4% for the third quarter. US stocks are also largely outperforming global equities. The S&P 500 is up 3.8% year to date, while the European Stoxx 600 index has dropped 7.1%. In Asia, the Shanghai composite has plummeted more than 21% while the Japanese Nikkei 225 is down about 1%. Kudlow says : "Right now, the US is carrying the ball. I don't see an end to it. With all due respect, I don't think this is anything resembling a sugar high. President Trump has changed the incentives in the economy. The war on business is over." • President Trump also is unhappy about the rising strength of the US Dollar. He said from the Oval Office on Thursday : "The dollar is very strong, very powerful -- and it causes difficulty doing business." The President said he believes that the Fed's monetary policy "is far too stringent," adding that "they're making a mistake and it's not right." In a response to whether he is considering firing Powell, Trump said : "No, I'm not going to fire him. I'm just disappointed." The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 outlines the appointment and removal of Fed officials, saying they are to serve four-year terms "unless sooner removed for cause by the President." The act does not clarify what the required magnitude is for the President's cause of removal. The President's senior advisors and Cabinet have, in recent months, emphasized that Trump would honor the Fed's historic ability to make decisions independent of political interference. "We as an administration absolutely support the independence of the Fed," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin reportedly said in July. Secretary Mnuchin told CNBC the same thing on Friday morning. President Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he had not spoken to Powell about the Fed : "I like to stay uninvolved with them. I have not spoken" to Powell all year, the President said. • Presidential jawboning usually helps, BUT, in this case, we need to pay close attention, because the Deep State and its media seem to be cheering on the Federal Reserve's actions that can have the effect of gutting the Trump economic miracle. • • • WHO SET UP THE CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD OPERATION? The Daily Caller reported on Wednesday : "Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday of being involved in the operation to leak Christine Blasey Ford’s letter to the public. 'I believe the Schumer political operation was behind this from the very beginning,' Cotton told conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt during his radio show. Ford wrote Democratic lawmakers a letter in July accusing Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct more than 35 years ago. During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September, Ford said she did not authorize the letters release, despite it being made public....Hugh, I believe the Schumer political operation was behind this from the very beginning. We learned last week that a woman named Monica McLean was Ms. Ford’s roommate, and she was one of the so-called beach friends who encouraged Ms. Ford to go to Dianne Feinstein and the partisan Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. Well, it just turns out, it just so happens that Monica McLean worked for a Preet Bharara, the former US Attorney in Manhattan, now a virulent anti-Trump critic on television and former counsel to Chuck Schumer. So I strongly suspect that Chuck Schumer’s political operation knew about Ms. Ford’s allegations as far back as July and manipulated the process all along to include taking advantage of Ms. Ford’s confidences and directing her towards left-wing lawyers who apparently may have violated the DC code of legal ethics and perhaps may face their own investigation by the DC Bar." • Whether it was Schumer of Feinstein who released the Ford letter to the media is not really important. What matters is that the entire episode was a political operation designed to deep six Judge Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court -- and in the process toss another shovelful of dirt into the political grave the ProgDems are trying to make for President Trump. • • • DOES ANYONE STILL BELIEVE ROSENSTEIN SHOULD BE AT THE DOJ? Zero Hedge wrote on Thursday : "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will not appear in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday to discuss reports that he wanted to secretly record President Trump and then use the recordings to remove him from office under the 25th Amendment, reports the Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross, citing an anonymous House Judiciary Committee aide, and later confirmed by CNN. Rosenstein said he was joking when he made the comments to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and FBI attorney Lisa Page, however that claim has been refuted by the FBI’s former top attorney. 'We have many questions for Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and expect answers to those questions. There is not at this time a confirmed date for a potential meeting,' the aide told the Caller. 'Don’t think he is coming,' added one Republican lawmaker on Wednesday. The same lawmaker told The Daily Caller on Tuesday that Rosenstein was likely to testify before the House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform Committees to answer questions about claims he discussed wearing a wire during his interactions with Trump....conservative lawmakers, including North Carolina Representative Mark Meadows and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, have been staunch critics of Rosenstein because of his failure to respond to requests for documents related to the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe." • The Daily Caller reported on Tuesday that the FBI’s former top attorney, James Baker, told congressional investigators last week that Rosenstein wasn’t joking about taping Trump. And, TheHill's John Solomon said : “As far as Baker was concerned, this was a real plan being discussed,” citing a confidential source. “It was no laughing matter for the FBI,” the source added. Solomon pointed out that Rosenstein’s comments happened right around the time former FBI Director James Comey was fired. In addition, FBI Deputy Director McCabe, Baker’s boss, was fired after the DOJ discovered that he had leaked self-serving information to the press and then lied to investigators about it. Baker, meanwhile, was central to the FISA surveillance apparatus within the FBI during the counterintelligence operation on then-candidate Trump. As FBI general counsel at that time, Baker was a senior figure with a pivotal position who had the ear of the FBI Director. Baker also is at the heart of the FISA surveillance abuse accusations, many from congressional Republicans. His deposition provided the groundwork for the planned closed-door House GOP interview with Rosenstein this week. • Baker, formerly the FBI’s top lawyer, helped secure the FISA warrant on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, as well as its three subsequent renewals. Even the New York Times noted that McCabe’s own memos attest to Rosenstein’s intentions to record Trump -- which the NYT says led to Rosenstein reportedly tendering a verbal resignation to White House chief of staff John Kelly. -NYT reports • The McCabe memos have been subpoenaed by Congress, BUT Rosenstein REFUSES to turn over those memos, and now he is a no-show for his scheduled congressional testimony before a House committee. Representative Jim Jordan tweeted on Wednesday : "Rosenstein a no show for tomorrow. Wonder why?" • While we may only speculate about whether the Deep State has infiltrated the Federal Reserve, it is clear that it is operating at the Department of Justice. It is also clear that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein is helping the Deep State by stonewalling Congress, which has the constitutional right and duty to oversee DOJ activities, inclusing those of Deputy AG Rosenstein. His goal seems clear, too -- to prevent Congress, the President and the American people from ever knowing about the corruption in the Obama FBI / DOJ that led to the illegal surveillance of the Trump campaign and the Deep State's efforts to destroy the Trump presidency. • AND, on Friday, we learned from the Daily Caller that Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the Steele Dossier, will invoke his First and Fifth Amendment privileges to avoid testifying before Congress next week. According to TheHill, Simpson’s attorney, Joshua Levy, told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte that Simpson will not appear for a deposition because the congressional investigation “is not designed to discover the truth.” Representative Mark Meadows' reaction was swift : "Rod Rosenstein doesn’t show today. Now Fusion's Glenn Simpson reportedly takes the Fifth. At some point, we have to realize: the problem has never been President Trump. The problem is the coordinated effort to undermine him...and those who will stop at nothing to cover it up. https://t.co/KtE3b00Ki8— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) October 11, 2018." Goodlatte subpoenaed Simpson on September 29 after Levy said his client would not appear voluntarily for an interview before members of the House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform committees. Simpson’s firm, Fusion GPS, was hired during the 2016 presidential campaign by Perkins & Coie, the law firm that represented the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign. Fusion GPS hired former British spy Christopher Steele to conduct an investigation into Donald Trump’s possible links to Russia. The result of the probe was a 35-page report -- the Steele Russian Dossier -- alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Kremlin. Republican lawmakers are interested in the Dossier, largely because the FBI reportedly relied on the unverified document to obtain FISA surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. Representative Jim Jordan tweeted on Thursday : "You know we’re getting close when first Rosenstein is a no-show, and now Glenn Simpson is taking the 5th.https://t.co/TB0Obje9jq— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) October 11, 2018." In addition to investigating Trump and his associates, Fusion GPS has helped plant anti-Trump news stories with numerous news outlets. Simpson helped arrange meetings between Steele and journalists from he New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and Yahoo! News. Simpson has already testified before the House Intelligence and Senate Judiciary committees. But Republicans lawmakers hoped to depose him again to ask him about testimony provided by Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department official who was in contact with both Simpson and Steele. Ohr’s congressional testimony has cast doubt on the veracity of what Simpson told the House Intelligence panel last November. Ohr testified on August. 28 that he met Simpson twice in 2016, before and after the election. The first meeting took place in August 2016 after Simpson emailed Ohr. Ohr’s notes show that he took notes related to the Trump investigation during his encounter with Simpson. But, Simpson testified that he met Ohr only after the election, and at Ohr’s request. And though Simpson acknowledged meeting Ohr, he did not tell congressional investigators that Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS while the firm was investigating Trump. Let us all pray in unison for an Attorney General, unlike Jeff Sessions, who is actually doing his job by enforcing FBI / DOJ cooperation with Congress, and by beginning real DOJ investigations of the corrupt Obama FBI / DOJ vendetta against President Trump. • • • DEAR READERS, to end the week on a happy note, let's take time to enjoy two special moments. • The first special moment came from First Lady Melania Trump. When ABC's Tom Llamas asked Melania about the #MeToo movement, she did not hesitate. And her answer is a lesson for all of us. The First Lady said : “I support the women and they need to be heard. We need to support them and, you know, also men, not just women.” Llamas then asked if men in the news who have been accused of sexual assault have been treated unfairly. Melania answered : “We need to have really hard evidence. If you accuse of something show the evidence.” When pressed as to why she answered that way, why she wasn’t standing with women, Melania Trump was consistent : “I do stand with women, but we need to show the evidence. You cannot just say to somebody that I was sexually assaulted, or you did that to me, because sometimes the media goes too far. And the way they portray some stories, it’s not correct. It’s not right.” Our First Lady, the elegant and reticent Melania Trump, told ABC and America what our constitutional freedoms and liberties mean -- the right to be presumed innocent, not having to prove it. There was a lot of wisdom in her short answers. After all, Melania Trump is an American by choice, earning her citizenship properly by passing through all the steps to become an American. And she is a very bright and successful businesswoman in her own right. So, she knows what it's like to compete in the real world. Yet, her profound belief in the presumption of innocence shone through in her statements. This basic constitutional principle protects everyone -- women and men. The ProgDem lunacy of insisting that just because a woman makes an accusation she must automatically be believed should be laughed off stage. But, as we saw in the catastrophic Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Justice Kavanaugh, the Progressive left does not believe that the presumption of innocence is everyone' right -- it applies only to their chosen few women who accuse without evidence to support their accusation. And, that will over time make it more difficult for women who are real victims of sexual assault to receive justice -- because the only thing that keeps the foundation solid when attacking a problem like sexual assault and harassment is proof. That often means that victims have to work hard to prove allegations, but unless everyone plays by the same set of rules, everyone loses in the long run -- the constitutional system loses its integrity and collapses. Melania Trump stepped up courageously when she pointed out the errors in the ProgDem insistence that “every woman should be believed.” She was articulate and made her point without being menacing. Her short, on-target, and gracious answers defended both women and men. Bravo, Melania !! • The second special moment was the Oval Office scene when Kanye West talked to President Trump as only a rapper would, and the rapper megastar left the normally talkative President almost speechless with his performance. Kanye West loves Donald Trump and proved it in dramatic fashion Thursday, leaping from his seat at a White House meeting to hug the President. “I love this guy,” Kanye declared in the Oval Office, adding, "This MAGA hat makes me feel like Superman." A lot of us agree with Kanye and wish we were right there with him, hugging the President. Kanye West had been invited to lunch, along with NFL legend Jim Brown and others, to discuss prison reform but turned what would ordinarily have been a normal White House photo-op into what must have been one of the most unusual encounters in the Oval Office history. Talking at rap-speed on everything from Trump’s protectionist trade polices to black gun crime and “infinite amounts of universe,” Kanye left President Trump able only to say, “That was quite something.” Kanye answered : “It was from the soul. I just channeled it.” Kanye added that President Trump “might not have expected to have a crazy motherf**ker like Kanye West supporting him.” Kanye West has broken ranks with much of the Progressive leftist entertainment industry to come out in support of Trump, even saying he could be President himself -- but “only after” Trump in 2024. We love you, Kanye, and we know that under your rapper facade, you are an American who is trying to show his fellow African Americans that the President wants only good for them. Kanye is saying that it is okay to love America and support the President who is helping them. • AND, by the way, it seems to take more than the Deep State and the Federal Reserve to stop the Trump economic miracle. The markets exploded upward on Friday, with the Dow Jones closing up 287 points. • Have a great weekend, everyone.