Today there seem to be several big stories: immigration, immigration, immigration, oh, and immigration. So let’s look at some of the other news.
The Inspector General’s Report and Congressional Hearings
The inspector general’s report came out and there were extensive hearings on the report. As Victor Davis Hanson points out, there were a lot of very interesting things that came out of the report. Did you hear about them?
Unemployment Claims Down Again
Today’s unemployment report came out. There were 218,000 new claims, when there were expected to be 220,000. Unemployment is now lower than it has been since 1969, and might well go down more. Did it make the TV news?
Wages Up
Oh, and wages are going up. Although while CNBC reports it as the strongest wage growth in two years, the Washington Post reports it’s “lousy”. Do you remember wage growth being called “lousy” in 2016? But if it’s lousy now when it’s the highest in two years, wasn’t it even lousier then?
International Trade
Daimler-Benz has begun asking the EU to consider canceling auto tariffs in response to Trump’s tariffs. While there’s been a lot of talk about the tariffs, there was less talk about Trump proposing a bidirectional free-trade agreement with the EU. Which is what Daimler-Benz is now asking for, and what Richard Grenell is now pitching to the EU.
Cybersecurity ‘Stand Down’ Order
We also found out, as a result of the IG report, that the U.S. — by direction of Susan Rice, Obama’s National Security Adversary — stood down from cybersecurity efforts directed against the Russians. Of course, Trump wasn’t president then.
That’s okay. I expect a flood of headlines to the effect of “President Ordered Stand Down on Russian Cyber Attacks” today. With which president buried below the fold.
(I didn’t even have time to publish:)
Imagine if, after 9/11, the president saw the attack as a political embarrassment to be minimized rather than as a national security threat to be combated. That’s roughly where we stand after the 2nd-worst foreign attack on America in recent decades. Me: https://t.co/MatJYEJO9g
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) February 19, 2018
And Then There’s Immigration
Seriously, it’s a bummer. But get a grip: the material that’s being sent around showing horrible conditions? It’s almost all from 2016 or earlier, or of facilities that Brandon Darby was reporting in 2014. The crying child in the cage? He was part of a demonstration; that’s not a government-issue cage. His parents put him in the cage for a photo opportunity. In 2014.
Glenn Back was reporting on it in 2014. So was Darby at Breitbart. Oh, and the “cages” — they were there in 2014 too.
It wasn’t important then.
The crying two-year-old who made the cover of Time today? Well, at least the photo from which it was taken was taken this year. Missing from the cover, and nearly missing from the photograph, is her mom, standing about 2 feet to the left.
And, of course, someone is going to cry “whataboutism.” Well, I tell you what: it’s a horrible situation, and one that has been made much worse by the feckless treatment of massive migration of families with children, and worse yet by the massive migration of unaccompanied children that has been going on for years. Lots more years than Trump has been president.
Pointing out that it’s only become a big issue now, when, completely coincidentally I’m sure, the IG report is making it ever more clear that the Obama administration and functionaries in the FBI, the Intelligence Community, and the Department of Justice were actively using their political power against the opposing party’s nominee isn’t whataboutism.
A common comment today is “if it was wrong then, it’s wrong now.”
But if it’s wrong now, it was wrong then.
Where the hell were the media and the Democrats?
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