YES, I remember, do YOU?

     I remember being activated as a member of American Airlines Initial Response Group on September 11, 2001.  I remember having thousands of conversations over the next few weeks with family members, friends, and co-workers of the victims of these attacks.  I remember our country going to war in Afghanistan, now the longest military conflict in our history.
     I remember where the terrorists originated.  There were 19 of them.  15 were from Saudi Arabia.  2 were from United Arab Emirates (UAE), and 1 each from Egypt and Lebanon.
     Evidently the President of the United States has forgotten, or quite possibly has never been aware.  He is declaring an "emergency" in order to provide Saudi Arabia and the UAE with about $8 billion dollars in offensive weapons.  You may recall these countries were mentioned in the previous paragraph.
     He has attacked a freely elected member of the House of Representatives, Ilhan Omar as an enemy of the U.S. and Israel.  He used memes which attempted to connect her to the 9/11 attacks.  This has generated substantial hate and death threats toward her.  Omar was born in Somalia.  You may notice Somalia was not a country of origin for any of the 9/11 terrorists.
     The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), has been directly implicated in the death of Jamal Khashoggi.  Khashoggi was a permanent U.S. resident.  U.S. intelligence says MBS was responsible.  Like anything else the President finds does not agree with his world view, he has denied its validity.
     MBS has a relationship cultivated with Jared Kushner.  POTUS and his Trump Organization have extensive business ties with the Saudis.  In 2015 he even said "I love the Saudis. 
     We have provided the Saudis with myriad weapons with which to kill Yemeni civilians, including children.  Now, in order to maintain ties with and ensure he may personally enrich himself he has moved to arm and assist a nation which should be considered adversarial at best and a mortal enemy at worst. 
     I'll never forget.  Will you? 
     Apparently the President of the United States has.

Whaduyathink?

CAN they tell the truth?

     Does this administration possess the ability to tell the truth?

     May 11, 2019 the President of the United States tweeted "....The only problem is that they know I am going to win (best economy & employment numbers in U.S. history, & much more), and the deal will become far worse for them if it has to be negotiated in my second term. Would be wise for them to act now, but love collecting BIG TARIFFS!" 

     This tweet was in regard to negotiations with China concerning tariffs.

     Let's talk about unemployment numbers.  These stats have been kept since 1929.  The 3.7% unemployment rate is the 10th best since the inception of the relevant data.  

     If you're in the top 10, that is great.  Own it, be proud of this during your tenure in the Oval office.  There is no need to exaggerate or to make it other than what it is. 

     With regard to the economy since 1930, it is not even close to being the best.  This covers 88 years 1930-2018.  There are better GDP numbers in 44 of those years based on BEA(Bureau of Economic Analysis) numbers available at bea.gov.  You're not even in the top 50%.  Of course, one can also go to Whitehouse.gov for periodic claims regarding economic growth.  Quite frequently the data provided disagrees with that provided by the BEA, the folks whose job it is to actually make such calculations for the country.  However, even using the numbers from Whitehouse.gov, economic growth in 2018 does not even make the top 20 since 1930. 

     Making claims that either of these indicators, growth or unemployment, is the best in U.S, history is just not true.

     Big tariffs will be collected under this administration but they are not paid by China although this is how it is represented.  

     Those who will pay the tariffs are the companies and consumers in the U.S. who purchase the goods and products upon which the tariffs are levied.  

     POTUS has proposed then using such funds as aid for farmers who have suffered from China's retaliatory tariffs.  This is effectively a tax levied upon U.S. consumers to provide social welfare to U.S. farmers.

     If everything this administration says was true, I would be thrilled.  According to them nothing has happened that is not the biggest, best, or greatest of all time.  This just is  not true.