Let’s do some math.  Suppose I had an earned income of $10,000.000.  (Disclaimer:  I do not make $10,000,000 a year.)  At the present tax rate of 35 per cent I would pay $3,500,000 leaving me with $6,500,000 to live on.  Now if the proposed tax rate of 39.6 went into effect I would pay $3,960,000 meaning I would have to get by on a measly $6,040,000.  But some tax rate hike proposals exempt the first $500,000 meaning I would pay 39.6 per cent of $9,500,000 or $3,762,000 now leaving me with $6,238,000.  Now if, hypothetically, all my income was unearned (you know capital gains and dividends) I would pay only 15 per cent in taxes, so I’d pay $1,500,000 and have to scrape by with $8,500,000. The whole point of this mathematical exercise is that people like me who do not earn $10,000,000 a year and who dutifully pay their taxes have no conception of why enormously rich people are so adamant about not wanting to pay more in taxes.  Now the philosophical question is, do really rich people hate taxes all that much or is it because 1) Republican politicians are doing the bidding of the exceedingly rich donors who are greedy and do hate taxes or 2) Republican politicians are really dumb and have no other ideas to campaign on.  Those of us in the 98 per cent simply can’t understand why the one per cent does not want to contribute a little more for the good of our country. Warren Buffet excluded.

A Thanksgiving Story (or Stories)

Thanksgiving is often called the most American of holidays but there is something universal about it.  My daughter-in-law is Romanian.  Yesterday we spent Thanksgiving with her, son and granddaughter and 15 other people, a mix of Romanians and Americans.  The ages ranged from nine months to 75 years.  A soccer game from Eastern Europe streamed on a computer in one room and the Lions battled Houston on the TV in another.  The table held plates of turkey, beef brisket, ham, stuffing, baba ganoush, a lentil dish, stuffed cabbages and sever plates I could not identify but tasted wonderful.  It reminded me of a Thanksgiving many years ago when I took a new job in Chicago.  I had no one to spend Thanksgiving with so a co-worker of Italian descent invited me (I had lived in Italy for 12 years).  Her family, including grandparents who had come from Italy, served a huge traditional American Thanksgiving dinner--Turkey with all the trimmings--with the addition of a half-dozen bottles of Italian wines on the table and everybody was speaking Italian.  A friend who is actually in Italy right now decided to show her family there our tradition.  Her husband, she emailed, ordered the turkey from a local poultry store but made a little mistake in the weight conversion. Thinking in pounds he ordered a 13 kilo bird which is actually 28.6 pounds.  She managed to change the order to seven kilos which is a more manageable 15.4 pounds and she said she roasted her best turkey ever.  I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving.

The Republican quest for the presidency was like a fairy tale.  Romney was the handsome prince who would ride his white horse into Washington and save the country.  So the Republican Party kissed his ass and he turned into a frog.  It is almost painful to watch the agonizing gyrations the Republicans are going through to justify or explain away what happened on Election Day.  The far right wing maintains that their anti-gay, anti-women, anti-Hispanic, anti-health care, anti-taxes, anti-regulations, anti-anything-Obama proposes, is absolutely the right way to go and they lost because the party chose the wrong candidate.  The prince-now-frog himself blames his humiliation on Obama’s giving gifts to all the voting groups he not only distained but insulted.   The Republican Imbecile-in-Chief Rush Limbaugh (among others) claims the loss was because Romney’s main constituency, angry white middle- aged and elderly males (the “white horse” the prince would ride to victory) did not turn out to vote.  Then some prominent Republicans like Bobby (Maybe I could run for President) Jindal maintains the only problem was that Romney did not explain Republican policies clearly enough.  Like if you carefully explain shit it turns into chocolate ice cream.  While many Republican apologists and pundits are claiming this is not the beginning of the end for the Republican Party, it can also be seen as just that.  More and more young Americans are realizing that Republican policies are not good for our country.  And old white Republicans are dying.  Unfortunately, they probably won’t take the party with them.

Would Mitt Romney please shut up!  You lost, Mitt, get over it.  Go to one of your houses and pout in private.  Our world-class liar, political opportunist, flip-flopper and former presidential candidate held a conference call with his top donors whining that his loss was due to "gifts" Obama made to specific groups of voters.  As the Associated Press reported, Romney told his money pit Obama won “because of the ‘gifts’ he had already provided to blacks, Hispanics and young voters and because of the president's effort to paint him as anti-immigrant.”  The AP also reported, “Among the "gifts" Romney cited were free health care "in perpetuity," which he said was highly motivational to black and Hispanic voters as well as for voters making $25,000 to $35,000 a year.” Doesn’t this sound like the same groups Romney denigrated during the campaign?  You know, the 47 percent of Americans who are moochers, misfits and bums who don’t take responsibilities for their own lives.  That’s Republican code for “blacks” and “illegal Hispanic immigrants.” This is but one more example of the underlying racism and bigotry which have become mainstays of Republican “values.”  Of course, if Romney had won, that same phone call to his donor fat cats would have confirmed that they voted for him because of his promised “gifts” of lower taxes on the rich, repealing  Obamacare and eliminating regulations so corporations can reap bigger profits by screwing middle class Americans.

On this Veterans Day, it’s appropriate to discuss how Americans feel about our men and women who wear or have worn the uniform of the United States.  Following 9/11, Bush’s immediate invasion of Afghanistan, which has now dragged on to be the longest war in our history, his unjustifiable invasion of Iraq which cost us too many American lives and enormous amounts of borrowed money, our military has been elevated to some kind of Godlike status.  We gush all over our men and women in uniform who have all become automatic “heroes” and we all feel smug and full of ourselves because we are “honoring” them.  Let’s rewind back to Vietnam.  I have a dear friend who fought in that war earning several medals including two purple hearts.   He tells of returning to the U.S. where his fellow Americans spat on him and called him obscene names as he walked through the airport.   Americans have short memory spans so now returning soldiers are thanked when they walk through airports and I’m sure a lot of those who hated our soldiers then are waving flags at Veterans Day parades now.   Of course we had the draft in the Vietnam era so a lot more Americans had some stake in the war because a loved one or friend fought or died there.  Now Americans are like a lot of beer-bloated, face-painted football fans cheering on their military team but God forbid one of their kids should be down on the mud-soaked field.   It eases our collective conscious to say how much we love our military.  But let’s remember ALL of them on this Veterans Day not only World War 2 veterans who  clearly fought to preserve our liberty, but also all our fine young people have been used to do our politicians’ dirty work ever since.  They have done so with honor and commitment and deserve all the praise they get.  And for the record, I am a veteran and very proud of it.

Whatever happened to Mitt Romney?  I know, I know, you are asking which Mitt Romney:  The one who passed a law as Governor of Massachusetts requiring people to purchase health insurance and when it morphed into Obamacare he denounced it?  Or the one who was a devout, severe conservative who transformed himself into a center-rightist a couple weeks before election day?  Or maybe the world class liar who, among other whoppers, told his cheering crowds in Ohio that Jeep was moving all it’s production to China which, of course, was a big “liar-liar pants on fire?”  Whichever Romney du jour you preferred, the American public has relegated him, as they say, to the dustbin of history.  If Romney has any legacy at all, it is as an ambitious, sleazy opportunist who wanted to realize his American dream of becoming President of the United States. Some future playwright my use him as a tragic figure in theatre, a kind of Willie Loman of politics.   The every-politician who is willing to do anything, believe anything  or say anything to reach his prize and failed.  As Aristotle might put it, his misfortune was not brought about by vice or depravity, “but some error or frailty.”  Romney will join George W. Bush as a pariah for the now and future Republican far right to completely ignore.  Romney can’t go back into congress like Paul Ryan and begin a 2016 Presidential campaign.  Of course, Romney doesn’t have to worry.  He is 65 and can collect Social Security and Medicare because he and the Republicans didn’t destroy it.

We have reached the final day of reckoning.  Today Americans vote not for a man to become President but to determine if our country will continue its dangerous slide to the right.  Since Regan, who declared war on government, Republicans have been shifting America to the political right culminating in the disastrous George W. Bush presidency which brought the nation to the brink of ruin.  Let’s look at just a few of the Republican policies that have nearly destroyed us:  Bush’s far right neo-cons--Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz--pushed him into an unnecessary war that the Washington Post estimates has cost us $3 trillion.  Note that Bush borrowed most of this money which contributed immensely to the deficit.  Trickle-down economics—giving enormous tax breaks to the rich which supposedly would “trickle down” and produce investment to spur the economy and create jobs—does not work as has been discredited by nearly all economists.   Eliminate regulations and the market will resolve all problems itself.  This Republican article of faith allowed the banks to run wild, rake in enormous profits for themselves and came close to destroying the world’s economic system.   There are more examples, such as dismantling Social Security and Medicare, but these will do.  Romney has clearly indicated he will continue these policies.  Unfortunately, many Americans are either hopelessly naïve or incredibly stupid and will vote Republican because they oppose gay marriage or hate black people.

Whether you like President Obama or not, you know where he stands and he won’t do anything crazy.  With Romney it’s a crap shoot.  And it is scary. When campaigning in the primaries the Mittster was severely conservative because he needed the support of his party’s extreme right to get the nomination.  In the third debate he swerved so far so fast to the center he certainly surprised me as well as many in his own party and we saw yet another of the many faces of Mitt.  We have heard the question, “Who is the real Mitt Romney?” since the beginning of this campaign and on the eve of the election, we still don’t have an answer.  What is truly frightening is that he is such a liar and so opportunistic now, do you really think he will suddenly change if he gets elected?  A lot of people will be calling in their markers.  The Tea Partisti and the neo-cons have not gone away and if Romney wins they’ll push him to the far right and you can bet the neo-cons will pull out the same old policies they foisted on George W. Bush.  That’s why a President Romney is dangerous.  Romney has a track record of going whichever way the wind is blowing.  When the neo-cons start manipulating him as they did Bush, we could be headed for big trouble.  Do your remember the scenario of a middle east country with a ruler we didn’t like who was developing “weapons of mass destruction” but claiming the nuclear program was peaceful.  Mix that with a President who wants a bigger defense budget and believes we are supposed to lead the world and you have a very frightening mixture.  I think America would be better off going with Shakespeare on this one and “rather bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of?"

If you really need a reason why Mitt Romney should not be President of the United States, try this one:  He is a despicable, opportunist, two-faced liar.  How can you trust a man with the most important job in the world who is a shameless liar and has changed his position on issues so many times nobody can be sure where he stands on anything? When it comes to the Mittster’s flip-flopping, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg made that clear:  “In the past he has taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care — but he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the very health care model he signed into law in Massachusetts,” Bloomberg said. When it comes to lying, yes Obama and Biden have had their share, but let’s look at Politifact’s finding. (By the way Politifact is generally considered right-leaning.) Obama/Biden’s statements were found True and Mostly True 45 percent of the time.  Romney/Ryan were found to be honest only 29.1 percent.  When it comes to the lying categories of False, Mostly False and Pants on Fire (really bad), Romney/Ryan were lying 43.9 percent of the time compared with Obama/Biden 28.8 percent.  Now get this: Romney/Ryan had four times as many Pants on Fire lies than Obama/Biden and the Mittster alone has well over half of all Pants on Fire, more than all the other candidates combined!  You wouldn’t even buy a used car from a shyster like Romney, why the hell would you elect him President?

Well, at least the Republicans haven’t blamed Hurricane Sandy on Obama.  I’m sure they will come up with something hurricane-related to blame on him in the next few days.  They say everything that has happened since his election—recession, unemployment, gas prices, house foreclosures—are all his fault.  Does anyone remember George W. Bush?  Of course Republicans are in denial that he ever existed, got us into two disastrous wars, turned a budget surplus into a humongous deficit, let the financial industry run rampant and nearly destroy the American and global economy. But Republicans have their own kind of logic.  It involves ignoring their own history, pretending their failed trickle-down policies actually work (which they don’t), never acknowledge they caused a lot of problems though obstructionism, and truth has no relevance in the pursuit of power.  You’ve heard the latest Romney lie that Jeep is moving all its production to China.  Even after the lie was exposed the Republicans kept running the TV ad.  It’s unfortunate that Sandy arrived at election time.  Hopefully we can avoid another disaster.  Sandy’s mess can probably be cleaned up in a couple months.  If Romney is elected the mess he will create will take a generation to fix.  Remember what P.J. O’Rourke said, “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it.”

We all know that life is not fair. But one of history’s greatest inequities would be Mitt Romney becoming President of the United States.  Whether Republicans will admit it or not, Obama’s policies have begun to take effect and the economy is turning for the better—slowly, indeed, but turning. Most economists agree that whoever becomes President, things will improve.  So if Romney becomes President, Americans will see a brighter picture and he will claim credit for fixing the economy although no credit will be due.  An example of this is Romney’s spurious statement that he will create 12 million jobs in the next four years.  Economic forecasters have long predicted that 12 million jobs will be created over the next four years no matter who is President.  Romney knows this, but he is already claiming that his plan (whatever that is) will be the reason for those 12 million new jobs, which it won’t be.  Romney has already made the outrageous claim that his election alone will produce a wave of optimism because of what he will do, although no one is really sure what that is.  I would venture that Obama’s reelection would also greatly bolster the American spirit if for no other reason than this dreadful election campaign will be over and we can get on with our collective lives.  The Republicans caused the mess and then obstructed every attempt Obama made to correct their mistakes.  Rewarding them with a Romney victory would be a horrible mistake.

Dear God,

The Republicans are at it again.  In addition to blaming their bigotry on You, now they’re saying You’re the one causing women to get raped. "I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen," according to Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. I really find that hard to believe. I realize that Your Bible isn’t precisely clear on rape like in Deuteronomy where if a woman was raped in the city both the raper and rapee were stoned to death but if it happened in the country they just wasted the guy. Another prominent Republican, Paul Ryan said his position is that “the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life.”  You see he wouldn’t allow a women to get an abortion even in the case of rape or incest (which I know you are against, Leviticus 18:6). So, according to Mourdock, if a woman gets raped You wanted it to happen and then, according to Ryan You are adamantly against abortion no matter how conception took place.  Oh I forgot to mention Missouri Senate candidate Republican Rep. Todd Akin who said women subjected to "legitimate rape" (presumably sanctioned by You) get pregnant only because their anti-rape conception system failed.  Kind of like getting pregnant by rape is their fault. It seems the Republicans’ attitude towards women in just about everything is, oh just screw ‘em.  Excuse the pun. I do hope You get through this Presidential Election with Your reputation intact.

Your friend,

Bill

Oh poor Mitty Boo Boo.  That bad old Mr. Obama was attacking him and he didn’t like it.  “Attacking me is not an agenda,” Mitty Boo Boo complained more than once during the last performance of the Presidential Debate Show.  Of course, Mitty Boo Boo would never think of being so nasty as to attack Mr. Obama.  Oh no.  As you can see I am sparing you a rehash of all the lies Romney told which have been factchecked to death.   At several points in the “debate” I heard Romney repeating the same things the President had just said, essentially agreeing with him.  Romney’s pattern seemed to be he would do the same things the President is actually doing only he would somehow do them more, tougher and better.  Like he would have started sanctions against Iran sooner and would make them tougher.  Of course, since he was not the President, he did not actually have to deal with the problem so he can say “would have,” “could have” all he wants. Romney agreed with Obama that America has to work with China economically and politically except that Romney would declare China a “currency manipulator” on day one which hardly seems like a good start for working with another country.  If you look back at all the debates what came out of them?  Nothing substantial.  They were the same old stump speeches woven into so-called debates but all anybody remembers is that Romney came on strong in the first debate and Obama looked like he was suffering from constipation. At least the third Presidential Debate gave us one thing to be thankful for.  It was the last one.

Sideblog:  Romney won the lapel pin issue.  His American flag pin was bigger than Obama’s.

There is a very specific reason why Mitt Romney keeps changing his position on just about every issue. He’s a career businessman.  Businessmen exist for one reason: to make money.  You can’t make money by never modifying your product or updating your service.  Right now the Mittster is adamant that he wants to create jobs in America, but when it was advantageous to him to send American jobs overseas that’s what he did.  For anyone who has spent years in business (and I have) particularly in sales, you learn very quickly that you have to offer a product the clients want to buy.  You may have a product that would be better for the clients but if they don’t want to buy it, they won’t.  For example, when the Mittster was running in the primaries, his main client was the extreme right wing Tea Party so he bragged about being “severely conservative.” It worked. With their backing he got the nomination. Now that he has it, and 75 per cent of the American public think the Tea Partisti are nuts, he has new clients—the entire voting public—so he has to modify his product to appeal to them.  Remember the guy who hated Obamacare so much that he would repeal it his first day in office?  Well, he now says some aspects of it are great and he would keep them.  Could it be that those aspects are products his new clients would like to buy?  Oh, remember the Romney that hated regulations because they cripple business?  He has been replaced by the Romney who thinks some regulations are necessary.  And oh, remember the Romney who slimed 47 per cent of the American public and declared he did not care about them.  At that moment his customers were fat cat supporters.  Now the new, improved Romney says, "My campaign is about the 100 percent of America, and I'm concerned about them.”  Of course, the customers now include the scruffy 47 per cent.  The question for Americans now is:  Would you buy something from this man when you are not sure exactly what he’s selling?

Right after the second Presidential debate women became the demographic target du jour for both parties.  Just think, if you were a black, Hispanic, evangelical lesbian you would be constantly bombarded with solicitations aimed at the category vote every day.  I found it somewhat ridiculous that Romney’s idea of proof that he supports women’s issues is that he appointed women to his cabinet in Massachusetts. Wow!  Millions of women are paid less than men for the same job, they’re worried about their health care, their right to choose, right to obtain contraceptives, victims of abuse and Mitt Romney appoints women to his cabinet.  Did you need more proof that he cares for women than that? He claimed he intentionally solicited names of qualified women which produced the now famous “binders.”  Chalk up another lie to Romney.  Prominent women’s groups in Massachusetts had already compiled the binders to give to whoever became governor.  He did not solicit them they were given to him.  He put women in his cabinet because he already knew he was going to run for President and it would look good.   His popularity in Massachusetts plummeted in his last year because voters felt he was spending too much time out of state preparing his Presidential run.   In case you forgot, here is the actual debate question:  “In what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?” Romney replied he appointed women to his cabinet in Massachusetts.  Obama replied that the first bill he signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Play Act which extended the statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination. You figure it out.

If Mitt Romney had gone to high school with me, he would have been called a “snot.”  Snots were the kids who always considered themselves better than everyone else. We also had our ”nerds” but we called them “brains” because, although they might be a bit awkward socially, they were really smart and we admired them because at that time getting good grades in high school was very important to us and our parents.  But the snots, sometimes referred to a “stuck ups,” were universally disliked.  That’s the Mittster’s problem.  He is just not a likable guy.  He really does think he is better than everybody else and that’s the way he comes across. You have heard him defending his offshore bank accounts and bragging about how successful he was in business.  But does he really have to ram it down our throats?  “I’m not going to apologize for being successful,” he says, but does he have to consider everyone who has not attained his millions a failure?  When he labeled the famous 47 percent of Americans moochers who don’t take responsibility for their lives, does anyone doubt that he really meant that?  Of course he did.  The spin artists blow it off and say well he was talking in private so that doesn’t count.  Of course it does.  When speaking to your snotty club members in private that’s when you say exactly what you mean.  Once a snot, always a snot.

Welcome to the Second Presidential Debate pre-game show with Harry and Clyde:

Harry:  Well, excitement has been mounting for the second meeting of the series between Romney and Obama.

Clyde:  Right, Harry.  The Obama fans are hoping their guy can make up for his lack-luster performance in their first outing.

Harry: And the Romney side hopes he can keep up his continuous talking stream regardless of what he says just as long as he keeps talking.

Clyde:  But you know, Harry, it really doesn’t matter what anybody says during these debates because most of it isn’t even true.  What really matters is the performance.  You know, how did he conduct himself, was he too aggressive or not aggressive enough.

Harry; Yeah we saw that in the one game series between Biden and Ryan.

Clyde:  Ryan won that one on number of lies and how many swallows of water he took while Biden clearly led in smirks, laughs, interruptions and eye rolls. You know, the AP scored 92 smiles for Biden which could be a debate record.

Harry: Well, the scoring could go any way tonight since the playing field layout has been changed.

Clyde: Right, it’s town hall rules tonight. And we’ll be right there to explain it to you after it’s over since you probably will miss a lot by concentrating on how the players look and behave rather that what they say.

Harry:  Right they’ve said it all before anyway but you still need pundits to explain it to you in case you didn't get it the first 300 times. 

Clyde: We’ll see you tonight at the event.

 

Harry:  Wait a minute, aren’t the Yankees and Tigers playing tonight

Well, it looks like the miserable people in America are going to decide the Presidential Election.  All we have heard during this campaign is how miserable Americans are.  The news media and politicians, left and right, have gone on endlessly about people who lost their jobs, can’t find a job, have an upside down mortgage, got evicted, have a mountain of debt, have no health insurance… Both parties have been courting these miserable people.  According to the Republicans, everybody in America is miserable and it is all Obama’s fault so if you elect them they will fix all Obama’s mistakes and put you out of your misery.  According to the Democrats a lot of people in the United States are, in fact, miserable but Obama’s policies are turning the situation around so re-elect them and you will no longer be miserable.  This presents a somewhat unique problem for Romney because most of les miserables are in the 47 percent he doesn’t give a shit about but now he says he really does care and wants to make them less miserables.  But to counter this, the non-miserables who have tons of money want to elect Romney so they can continue to be non-miserable with even more money and screw the miserables.  I feel kind of lost because I am not miserable and I don’t have tons of money so nobody cares about me.  I used to think I was middle class, but I can’t be.  The politicians keep telling us the middle class is miserable, but since I’m not miserable, I can’t be middle class. I wonder just how many forgotten people like me there are out there? 

Good news and bad news.  My PET/CT scan and yesterday’s endoscopic ultrasound confirmed the cancer is gone.  Obviously, that makes me very happy.  But the bad news is, now that I will be around hopefully for several more years I will contribute to the increase in health care costs, worsen the deficit and become a burden on society.  I now have to live with the Republican guilt trip they have laid on us seniors for years and have really ratcheted it up during this election cycle.  You know the pitch, we seniors suck up too much government money with our expectations that we collect the Social Security we paid for, we like Medicare but we cost the government too much and we are screwing up our grandchildren’s future.  Since I have been personally and totally immersed in the health care system for most of this year I think I can speak with some authority.  First, Medicare is good and it works.  I know the Republicans will go ballistic on this point, but we would be far better off with a single-payer government-run health insurance system.  Before the right wing dings start screaming, universal health care does not equate to socialism.  Every democracy but ours has it.  Second, there are drastic flaws in Medicare which I have seen firsthand but they can all be fixed without turning it over the insurance industry.  I have lived in countries that have universal health care and the insurance companies still make tons of money. The Republicans say the richest country in the world can’t afford to provide health care for its citizens.  The truth is they don’t want to provide health care for all Americans (Mitt can tell you how many freeloaders we have).  I suppose it would make Paul Ryan happy if people like me just died and stopped wasting taxpayers’ money.

There is a scene in the 2006 Broadway play "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" where two characters are hacking up corpses to render them unrecognizable.  The stage is strewn with dismembered body parts and totally spattered with blood.  One of the characters screams in desperation and despair, "Will this never end!?" This strikes me as an appropriate metaphor for our current presidential election campaign.  Not only does it seem like it will never end, we have also hacked decency, honesty and civility in political discourse beyond recognition. Outright lying has become the norm for both parties with Romney-Ryan holding a significant edge in that department (see last week’s Time cover story).  We all know that candidates’ promises are basically meaningless since they serve only to get elected not as a basis for actual policy making.  This is where I have my biggest problem with Romney.  He keeps saying “I know how to…”  He makes all these assertions that he can fix everything then offers the same “solutions” Republicans have been spouting for years: lower taxes, less regulation, cut spending, all of which will suddenly create jobs and lower the deficit.  They haven’t and they won’t.   Regarding Obama, the Republicans will never admit that they have been a big part of the problem for the last four years.  Yes, Bush and company actually did create the mess, but they won’t admit it. The day Obama took office they swore they would not cooperate with his Administration which has been the major reason our government doesn’t get anything done.  These are facts.  But Republicans have a way of dealing with real facts. Take a drop in unemployment, they just pull a Jack Welch and say Obama’s government falsified them.  Even some prominent Republicans balked at that, so maybe there is hope.  But I doubt it.