2/7/19: Do we have any good news for President Trump? Not much. Polls show his State of the Union address was well-received, with 76% of viewers in a CNN survey approving of what he said.
Unfortunately, you can’t have a Trump speech without a few gigantic falsehoods. At one point, the president claimed that building a section of border wall in the El Paso, Texas region in 2008, turned that city from the most dangerous in America to the safest. For that reason, he explained, we had no choice but to build the Great Wall of Trump from sea to shining sea.
The mayor of El Paso decided to fact check Mr. Trump. He reported that his police chief said in 2008, that the city was the second safest city in the country, with 500,000 people or more. After the section of wall was built in 2009, El Paso moved up to…well… the city remained second.
In the last decade, however, El Paso has seen a reduction in crime and is now the #1 safest city of its size.
A careful check of the records shows that crime was falling steadily in El Paso before the wall was built; and crime has continued to decline at roughly the same rate since. On a positive note, arson and car theft are way down since the El Paso section of the wall went up.
Unfortunately, rapes have increased dramatically.
For some odd reason, if we broaden our view, we notice that the crime rate in New York City has declined dramatically during the same timespan without the help of a wall to keep killers out.
In fact, crime has been falling steadily across the United States, starting in the early 90s. This decline occurred despite the fact the number of illegal immigrants living in our midst increased.
The wall would seem to be irrelevant.
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SPEAKING OF POLLS, the right-wing choir continues to howl a song of horror every time Democrats suggest raising taxes on America’s richest men and women. Elizabeth Warren, for one, has made it clear she favors a “wealth tax” on individuals earning more than $50 million annually.
On Fox News, the horror knows no bounds, when their own polling shows 70% of viewers favor increasing taxes on those making more than $10 million per year. And 65% would raise taxes on Americans earning more than $1 million.
In response to that shocking poll, Charles Payne, host of Fox Business Network’s Making Money with Charles Payne, blames America’s teachers for spreading socialism throughout the land. “The idea of ‘fairness,’” he grumbles, “has been promoted in our schools for a long time.”
Fairness!
Stupid teachers.
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The blogger - when he was still ruining America by teaching fairness. |
Apropos of “fairness,” we should note that a record for the most expensive home ever sold in America was set in January. Ken Griffin, a hedge fund manager, paid $238 million for a New York City penthouse overlooking Central Park.
If you’re like me, you don’t know what a hedge fund manager does to earn his or her swag. So, here’s what I discovered. Hedge funds can invest in all kinds of assets, not just stocks. They can gobble up real estate, fine art, rare stamps, precious metals, and even sports memorabilia. They often have several levels of corporate responsibility, including offshore bank accounts. Hedge funds may buy up companies, cut costs (i.e. lay off workers), and watch stock prices soar. Hedge funds are typically closed to individuals making less than $200,000 per year.
Hedge funds don’t produce any products. They don’t make toilets or toilet paper. They don’t raise soybeans or beets. A hedge fund manager won’t paint your house, pick up your trash, or teach your middle school child to play the flute. They don’t remodel bathrooms. The don’t roofs homes. They don’t get your car going if it dies by the roadside. They won’t rush you to the hospital if you have a heart attack, draw blood once you arrive, or unclog your arteries if that’s what you need.
They invest.
This work, of course, is incredibly hard! And because hedge fund managers work way harder than people like you, they deserve way better pay.
For that reason, the top 25 hedge fund managers made a combined $16.8 billion in 2017. It was either that, pay them a decent wage, or hire illegal immigrants to do the work instead. Mr. Griffin, for example, must have put in some grueling overtime, because he came home with $1.4 billion, earned by the sweat of his brow. That left him in fourth place among hedge fund managers, behind Michael Platt ($2 billion), James Simons ($1.8 billion) and David Tepper ($1.5 billion).
Of course, these poor fellows needed a tax cut and President Trump made sure they got one in 2018.
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