Joe Biden

Hats off to Joe. The next president will inherit a remarkable economy, according to the Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip.

The Conference Board reported that consumer confidence in the economy showed a sharp gain in October. The increase in confidence was broad-based across all age groups and most income levels.

Compared to September, “consumers were substantially more optimistic about future business conditions and remained positive about future income,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at TCB.

The US enjoyed 2.7 percent growth during the past year, a performance that is the envy of every other developed country.

Three of the past four newcomers took office in or around a recession. Donald Trump was the exception. It would be ironic if the Mango Mussolini takes office again with strong economic winds at his back. Of course, the Malignant Narcissist is going to demand accolades for creating America’s world-beating economy.

And then there’s Biden’s infrastructure bill waiting to power the economy in the future.

Politico reported that a majority of the $33.6B approved for protection against natural disasters and for climate change resilience has not been spent.

Candidate Trump has threatened to kill some of that climate-related spending. That is nuts. A president Kamala Harris would say full-speed ahead for infrastructure outlays.

The public has not given Biden his due for positioning the country for the era of climate disruption. Hopefully, people will come around once the infrastructure building and rebuilding kicks off.

Jeff Bezos deserves all the credit in the world for swooping in to buy the Washington Post for $250M in 2013, arguably saving it from a shutdown.

But now it’s time for him to move on.

In his October 28 explanation about why the Post will not endorse a presidential candidate, Bezos admits that he is “not the ideal owner of the paper” due to the appearance of conflict with his Amazon and Blue Origin aerospace and rocket launch company. He sure got that right.

“Every day, somewhere, some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other philanthropies and companies I own or invest in is meeting with government officials,” noted Bezos. “I once wrote that The Post is a 'complexifier' for me.

"It is, but it turns out I’m also a complexifier for The Post.”

Blue Origin has the potential to land billions in government contracts from the Pentagon and NASA as the space sector heats up over the next decade. Currently it is an also-ran to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

And of course, the Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan has recommended that Amazon should be broken-up because she views it as a monopoly.

Bezos has a lot of federal balls to juggle. The Post is nothing more than a distraction for a guy who is worth north of $200B.

Bezos wrote that his wealth and business could be viewed as a “bulwark against intimidation, or you can see them as a web of conflicting interests.”

He needs a clean break. The many-times-over billionaire should part with a fraction of his wealth, and set up a substantial endowment for the Post, and let its management then figure out if the paper is going to endorse a presidential candidate in 2028.

Rebutting the non-endorsers. The Economist believes the decisions of the WaPo and Los Angeles Times not to make endorsements in the presidential election just doesn’t make sense.

It’s finds it odd that WaPo and the LAT are okay with voicing opinions on policies but not the politicians who proposed them.

At the Economist, everyone from interns to salty veterans are encouraged to participate in the endorsement process, based on the notion that political ideas need to be challenged.

It is backing Kamala Harris. The millions of people who will vote for Donald Trump are betting that his worst instincts will be contained during a second term, according to the magazine.

Those voters are recklessly complacent by “gambling with the economy, rule of law and international peace.”

Harris’ "shortcomings, by contrast, are ordinary. And none of them is disqualifying.”

A Trump II White House is just too risky.

Donald Trump says his critics are making a big deal over a comedian’s remark at his Madison Square Garden love-fest about Puerto Rico being an island of garbage in the ocean.

But the editor of the El Nuevo Día, the island’s biggest newspaper, said Trump has a history of contempt toward Puerto Rico.

María Luisa Ferré Rangel wrote in an Oct. 29 editorial: ”Let’s not forget the paper towels he threw at us while we suffered without electricity for months and let’s not forget that the funds did not arrive because Trump—through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development—told them to stop because he considered Puerto Ricans ‘bums who live begging.”’

A then-president Trump had his staff explore cutting off federal dollars to Puerto Rico and using the cash to buy Greenland from Denmark. Swapping the two islands was a back-up plan.

In her editorial in support of Kamala Harris, she urged the five million Puerto Ricans living in the US to vote for the Vice President.

Rangel noted that Harris has promised to continue the Biden administration’s effort to upgrade the infrastructure of Puerto Rico.

She wrote that Trump has nothing but disdain for the 3M US citizens living in Puerto Rico who can’t vote in the upcoming presidential election. It’s downright cowardly for Trump to insult people who can’t defend themselves by voting against him in the upcoming election.

And Cadet Bone Spurs might be interested to know that more Puerto Rican soldiers died in the Vietnam War as part of the United States military than soldiers from any state of the US.

Roberto Gonzalez Nieves, archbishop of San Juan, noted that fact in his Oct. 27 open letter to Trump demanding that he personally apologize for the trash remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the Oct. 27 rally at MSG.

Don’t hold your breath, padre. Trump thinks that anybody who served in the military or died in combat are suckers and losers.