RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

Wisdom is defined by Random House Webster’s Dictionary: “The quality or state of being wise; sagacity, discernment, or insight.” If that definition leaves you confused as it did me, then read what Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote in Literary Remains, Volume I, published posthumously in 1836: “Common sense, in an uncommon degree, is what the world calls wisdom.” Wisdom involves judgement and the ability to anticipate the consequences of one’s actions. It involves honesty about oneself and the admission of one’s mistakes and limitations. It is empirical not conjectural; it sees a world where reality – not optics – is the driving force.

Wisdom is often associated with age. I recall when I was learning to drive, and that while my father agreed my reactions might be faster than his, he said I lacked judgment. He was right. In The Admirable Crichton, J.M. Barrie wrote: “I’m not young enough to know everything.” But, as can be seen in President Biden’s decision to ignominiously leave Afghanistan, age does not necessarily bring wisdom.

It is, of course, presumptuous to write about wisdom, because the reader must assume the author considers himself wise. That is not my claim. I agree with Shakespeare’s court jester Touchstone who in As You like It says: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Wisdom is rare and illusive, especially in our Twitter-filled world.

The ego-driven ex-Presidencies of Clinton, Obama and Trump show none of the wisdom of former retiring Presidents, like Truman and Eisenhower. Is it wise to assume interest rates will always remain low? What will be the costs on thirty and more trillions of dollars of debt when interest rates do rise? Regarding the federal budget, has it been wise to let discretionary spending (about half of which is defense) decline from 67% of the budget in 1962 to 30% in 2019, while mandatory spending (mostly entitlements) increased from 25% in 1962 to 62% in 2019? In 1962, we were faced with a USSR that wanted to “bury” us. Today, we are faced with a combative China, a resurgent Russia and myriad Islamic terrorist groups who chant: “Death to America.” Yet defense spending, as a percent of GDP, has declined from 9.3% to 3.4%. Has that been wise? Was it wise to leave billions of dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan, thereby making the Taliban-led government – harborers of terrorism – one of the better armed nations in the world? Should social justice be the goal of our armed forces, or should they focus on strategy and winning wars?

https://asiatimes.com/2021/09/stagflation-rears-its-ugly-head-in-us-payroll-data/

Inflation in the US is turning into stagflation.US nonfarm payroll growth of 235,000 in August, the lowest in seven months, was constrained by rising wage costs.

Average hourly earnings rose by 0.6%, or 7.5% annualized. The most labor-intensive sectors turned in the worst monthly performance.

Retail employment dropped by 29,000 and leisure and hospitality employment was unchanged for the month.

Leisure and hospitality jobs had risen by more than 800,000 during the preceding two months.

The chart of the day shows a clear inverse relationship between the rate of employment growth and the rate of change of average hourly earnings.

As labor becomes scarcer and more expensive, employers stop hiring, either because they can’t find workers or because they can’t afford them. This is a classic symptom of an inflationary cycle.

The average rent on a newly-signed lease is up 12% year-on-year as of August, according to Apartmentlist.com.

Home prices are up 20% year on year, the biggest jump on record, according to the Case-Shiller Index.

Used car prices are up 25%, and new car prices are probably up 10% after dealer discounts have dwindled.

Manufacturing jobs rose by 37,000, driven mainly by a 24,000 jump in automotive jobs.

But the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ survey of establishments was conducted in the middle of August before major auto companies announced production shutdowns to the global chip shortage.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stacey-lennox/2021/09/03/joe-bidens-excuse-for-the-horrible-jobs-report-is-ridiculous-and-insulting-n1475789

The wisdom of putting Joe Biden behind a podium more frequently in the wake of the disaster in Afghanistan is questionable. Yet, following the disastrous August jobs report, he ambled out to explain why the projections were off by a factor of three. Today he was mumbling Joe rather than petulant Joe. A slew of recent polling indicates Americans are feeling less safe, less secure, and less prosperous.

Predictably, these sentiments have cause Biden’s approval ratings to crater. While his handling of COVID-19 propped him up above 50% overall approval for most of the summer, polling shows even his marks on the pandemic are sliding. In Rasmussen’s daily Presidential Tracking Poll, his Approval Index dipped to -21 on August 24 and has remained at least -20 heading into the Labor Day holiday. There is speculation that it could be a durable decline rather than a blip.

Incredibly, Biden opened his remarks by saying, “As we head into Labor Day weekend, we have more evidence of the progress of our economy from last year’s economic calamity.” Someone needs to tell him the baseline is February of 2020. No one gets credit for reopening an economy artificially shut down by the government. Employees returning to their jobs and closed businesses reopening is not economic growth. And frankly, even those two things are not happening fast enough.

The only reason the economy did not completely collapse is because the economic fundamentals were strong. By  continuing to blow out spending, the Biden administration is eroding the foundations of the U.S.’s economic strength going into the pandemic. Still, mumbly Joe wants us to celebrate 235,000 new jobs when over 700,000 were forecasted. Employers are not going to create many jobs when there are already more than 10 million open nationwide.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/03/joe-biden-is-lying-to-americans-about-afghanistan/

John Lucas is a practicing attorney in Tennessee who has successfully argued before the U. S. Supreme Court. Before entering law school at the University of Texas, he served in the Army Special Forces as an enlisted man and then graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1969. He is an Army Ranger and fought in Vietnam as an infantry platoon leader.

Earlier this week, this writer addressed the Biden administration’s instinctive lying on matters big and small, concluding: “When the president allows his key advisors lie to us about a dog bite, the only confidence the American people can have is that he will not be honest with us about these and other life-and-death matters if the truth would hurt his poll numbers or endanger Democrats’ reelection chances.”

Regrettably, recent events confirm that the president’s deceptions and misstatements are intentional and driven by political motives. This was confirmed by multiple events, some the very next day after the previous article published.

The first confirming event was in President Biden’s own words. Biden verified that lying about success in Afghanistan is part of his political strategy.

A Foreign Quid Pro Quo Based on Lies

In a bombshell report on Aug. 31, Reuters reported on an audio recording of a July 23 call between Biden and then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. It released a transcript. In the call, Biden stated, “I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban.”

Biden then gave Ghani his marching orders: “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.” His own words condemn the president: “Whether it is true or not…” As the indispensable Mollie Hemingway noted on Fox News on Sept. 2, “What this phone call shows is that the withdrawal was, like so many other parts of the war, communicated to the American public with lies.” Indeed it was.

But this was even worse. Again, Hemingway: “While the previous president was impeached over a phone call and accused of a quid pro quo, here you actually have a president asking someone to lie on his behalf and conditioning military aid on part of those lies.”