Full employment
Despite record low unemployment levels for black Americans, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, says employment has been better for members of his race in this country.
In an interview last week with Neil Cavuto of Fox News, the host asked the Democrat majority whip if, “the words [of President Donald Trump’s various tweets] aside,” if he hadn’t delivered for blacks.
“Whether you like his style or not, or tweets or not, or comments or not, he’s delivered the goods for a lot of African Americans, has he not?” the host asked. “With record low unemployment levels, one group after another, mostly with African Americans. You don’t think that’s something that’s constructive?”
No, said Clyburn. What do you mean, asked Cavuto.
“I’m saying African American unemployment is not the lowest it’s ever been, unless you count slavery,” the congressman said. “We were fully unemployed during slavery, so it all depends about how you measure this up.”
Well, he had Cavuto there.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Maybe people won’t remember
Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg said in Chattanooga recently, and elsewhere, about how he became mayor of New York City right after Sept. 11, 2001, implying his leadership led the Big Apple through its first months of recovery.
In fact, the billionaire didn’t become mayor until Jan. 1, 2002, succeeding Rudy Giuliani, who did lead the city on the fateful day and for the next nearly four months.
Now, Bloomberg has a new ad that fudges a bit more. In it, he says, “I led a complex, diverse city through 9/11, and I have common sense plans to move America away from chaos to progress.
The ad, which aired last week on CNN and NBC News, also says President Donald Trump will try to win re-election by “attacking, distorting, dividing.”
Well, if the ad is any indication, Bloomberg certainly knows “attacking” and “distorting.”
Worried about her power?
The remarks got very little play, but Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has warned her party again. She did it before, of course, on impeachment. But she couldn’t afford not to be on that train when it got rolling, though she probably knew what the ending would be. This time it’s on Medicare for All.
It might be a “lovely concept,” the San Francisco congresswoman told the South Florida Sun Sentinel last week, but it’s not a “winning message.”
Pelosi said the way to do it is to win the election first.
“I just say to all of our friends, you know, you want to go to the left?” she said. “You want to win the election, let’s make a decision to win the election. And when you make a decision to win the election, you have to make every decision in favor of winning. We all understand what’s at stake.
“There’s plenty of progressive work that we can do in the mainstream without, um, shall we say, having the luxury of our exuberances in carving up a pie we don’t even have,” Pelosi said.
But are they listening?
You’re going to regret this
A Democratic Michigan state lawmaker threatened bad things for police who arrested her on drunk driving charges in December, but she was a little more docile after pleading guilty to a lesser charge last week.
“You don’t understand, I’m elected,” state Rep. Rebekah Warren said while being videotaped sitting in a police cruiser in Auburn Hills, Michigan. “I’m a senator. People will be, like, the senator got arrested. That’ll be, like, [expletive]. This is going to be the most famous arrest you’ve ever made.”
Earlier, she had whined, “It’s going to be like ‘Senator from Ann Arbor’s career is over’.” And she complained, “I just don’t want this on camera for my future. It will ruin my career.”
Warren’s blood-alcohol content was .212, or the legal definition of “super drunk” in the state. A motorist had called police after seeing her swerve on Interstate 75, and she eventually grazed a guardrail.
Last week, she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor operating while intoxicated, first offense. When she is sentenced on March 17, she could receive up to 93 days in jail and fines. Had she not been given a reduced charge, she could have received up to 180 days in jail and larger fines.
“I deeply regret the decision I made in late December to drive after drinking alcohol,” said Warren, who is a state representative and not a state senator. “I thank God that I didn’t harm anyone or myself that night.”