Dear Mr. President: Talk is Cheap, Especially When It's All Bombast and Mostly Untrue; Americans Are Screwed

Americans have been gaslit more than enough the past five years, but President Trump's 19-minute, prime time, speed-reading exercise Wednesday night was completely over the top. Not only was the president speaking at twice his usual speed, he also appeared to be shouting through most of the rushed address. There's a very good chance that the speech was taped (and possibly sped up to keep close to the networks' 15-minute time allotment), though nobody in the media or at the White House will ever admit to it, so used to lying as they all are.

Besides being incredibly difficult to watch, the president used his standard approach, blaming the Biden administration for just about everything, embellishing his accomplishments to the point of them being the greatest ever, and making outrageous claims that were easily debunked. Fact-checkers had a field day with this latest outburst of campaign-style rhetoric.

There was also nothing new in the president's remarks, other than a claim that American military service men and women will receive a $1,776 bonus. There was nothing in this speech that warranted a prime time address. It served only to make people even more skeptical of the current administration and its meandering, give-and-take policies. 19 Minutes that the American public will never get back - a complete waste of time. Most people thought the address would be concerned with the naval blockade of Venezuela or progress in negotiations over Ukraine. It's also possible that those topics were the original intent, but nothing substantive developed and the taped speech was inserted to satisfy the network requirements. Who knows, and further, at this point, paraphrasing Hillary Clinton, another in a long line of political prevaricators, "what difference does it make?"

Moving on to more relevant issues, on Thursday morning the BLS released November CPI data, adding an exclamation point to the president's Wednesday night declaration that inflation was going lower, "much lower":

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis over the 2 months from September 2025 to November 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment. BLS did not collect survey data for October 2025 due to a lapse in appropriations.

The seasonally adjusted index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent over the 2 months ending in November. From September to November, the index for shelter increased 0.2 percent. The energy index rose 1.1 percent over the same 2-month period and the food index increased 0.1 percent. Other indexes which increased over the 2 months ending in November include household furnishings and operations, communication, and personal care. In contrast, the indexes for lodging away from home, recreation, and apparel decreased over the same 2-month period.

The all items index rose 2.7 percent for the 12 months ending November, after rising 3.0 percent over the 12 months ending September. The all items less food and energy index rose 2.6 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index increased 4.2 percent for the 12 months ending November. The food index increased 2.6 percent over the last year.

Because the BLS is well-known for its notoriously incorrect and normal downward revisions in jobs data and upward revisions in inflation data, there's reason to disbelieve these numbers in their entirety.

Checking the tables presented in the release in which almost all categories - other than gasoline, new vehicles, and used cars and trucks - are left blank for October and November, there's ample reason to suggest that the headline 2.7% inflation is the ultimate in government guesswork and most likely well off the actual mark.

As usual, in knee-jerk fashion, stock futures flew higher upon the release, as if the numbers - what few of them actually exist - are at all believable.

Honestly, with each passing day, the federal government doubles down on stupid, while expecting the plebeian population to just accept what they deliver as true and the best available. The clown show has gotten to a point at which nothing that comes out of official Washington D.C. can be believed. It's outrageous and disgusting, disturbing. Ordinary Americans are being reduced to tax donkeys and debt slaves. Everything coming out of D.C. and Wall Street is - besides being mostly lies - designed to benefit the top 10% and 1% of the greedy oligarch class.

Americans are royally screwed. They can only trust that the government always willfully lies to them. Keep your mouth shut and your head down. Buy gold, buy silver. Stay out of debt.

At the Close, Wednesday, December 17, 2025: Dow: 47,885.97, -228.29 (-0.47%) NASDAQ: 22,693.32, -418.14 (-1.81%) S&P 500: 6,721.43, -78.83 (-1.16%) NYSE Composite: 21,756.02, -86.06 (-0.39%)