I woke up a little before 1:00 AM EST to the sound of gunshots, six of them, somewhere to our South. This isn’t an unusual or surprising event. Neither does it necessarily mean that a violent action occurred. It did wake me up enough, though, to kick my stomach in gear. I needed a snack. Having retrieved and eaten said snack, I was now awake enough to look around and see that the president’s State of the Union address was a hot topic.
The thing about political speeches is that the first thing one has to do is try to wade past all the horse shit. They’re going to talk about taxes, job growth, inflation, etc. What matters is that we catch the falsehoods and understand what’s really going on. There’s a lot of context one needs to understand. Checking with a couple of major news outlets, the New York Times and CNN, one glaring issue is on the topic of crime, interesting given what woke me up.
The President claimed that violent crime is at the lowest level “in 50 years.” I just heard gunfire. I don’t feel as safe as I did eleven years ago when I first moved here. In response, Senator Katie Britt of Alabama claimed that “life is getting more and more dangerous.” Who’s correct? What are the facts, ma’am?
From the NYTimes:
Recent federal data does not support the notion that crime is on the rise. The F.B.I.’s annual crime report for 2022 showed that murders in the United States dropped just over 6 percent compared with the year earlier and, overall, violent crime also dipped. Available F.B.I. data for the first three quarters of 2023 shows that homicides were on track to drop significantly, among declines in other categories of violent and property crime.
From CNN:
Facts First: [The President’s statement] is true, at least based on preliminary 2023 data that should be treated with caution. The preliminary 2023 data published by the FBI, running through the third quarter of the year, showed that violent crime was down 8.2% compared to the same period in 2022 – a decline that would be “historically large” for a year, crime data expert Jeff Asher wrote in a December article. Asher wrote: “The quarterly data shows violent crime down in big cities, small cities, suburban counties, and rural counties, pretty much across the board.”
Senator Britt was lying through her polished teeth.
The Senator also stated, “We have the worst inflation in 40 years.”
From CNN:
Facts First: This claim is false. Britt could have accurately said, in past tense, that inflation was at a 40-year high when it hit its Biden-era peak of 9.1% in June 2022. But inflation has declined sharply since that June 2022 peak, and the most recent available rate, for January 2024, was 3.1%. The Biden presidency aside, that rate was exceeded as recently as 2011 – far less than 40 years ago.
Like Britt, former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have repeatedly ignored the decline in inflation since June 2022 to criticize Biden in the present tense.
More lies. More deception. Republicans have never been my favorite party, but this current incarnation reeks worse than a hog slop in the summertime. I guess that’s not surprising given the party’s leader looks like an overstuffed Berkshire.
There are now six cats and a black lab on my bed. I’m tired, but I’m not sure exactly where I’m supposed to sleep.