Things I Learned This Week

I love learning new things.

I especially enjoy learning things that are unexpected or that show that the conventional narrative, wisdom or message that we hear may not be altogether true.

Here are a few things I learned this week.

We have been hearing that smoking is bad for you for 50 years. It appears that the message is getting through.

• The number of cigarettes sold in America declined from 640 billion in 1981 to 249 billion in 2017----a decline of 61%.

On a per capita number the decline is much, much larger considering the population increase since 1981.


We keep hearing about all of the plastic that is floating around in a massive island in the Pacific Ocean. As a result, cities like San Francisco have now outlawed plastic straws in order to save the environment.

• .03% of ocean plastics come from straws. 46% comes from fishing nets.

It makes me wonder if fishing nets will be the next target for San Francisco. What's next? Is Fisherman's Wharf safe?

We also hear a lot about the increasing education divide in the country. Technology is supposedly making it hard for even high school grads to find jobs. You need to go to college or you are doomed to poverty.

How do you explain this?

• Unemployment for high school drop-outs fell to a record low of 5.2% in July according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Trump's critics call his voters uneducated deplorables. Looking at these record low unemployment numbers these voters must have really been voting in their best interest.

We also heard that Trump was going to wreck the environment and was completely irresponsible by having the United States exit the Paris Accords on Climate Change. That is why I thought these facts were interesting.

• U.S. carbon emissions fell 0.5% per capita in 2017 to the lowest CO2 emissions per person in 67 years. Europe emissions rose 2.6%, the EU 1.5%, China rose 1.6%. The total world increase was 1.6%.

Trump is criticized for questioning the Paris Accords but USA carbon emissions are down while everyone else is up?

We also hear about how unpopular President Trump is. However, compare Trump's approval ratings with those of the leaders of France, UK and Germany.

• Trump: 50%
• Macron: 36%
• May: 30%
• Merkel: 29%

Finally, what to make of the improving trend in Trump's approval ratings with African Americans?

Election Day, 2016                 8%

Last year on this date           19%

Last week                               29%

Monday of this week             31%

Wednesday of this week        36%

The highest % vote for a GOP Presidential candidate in recent history was 12% in 1996.

Keep in mind that all of the allegations of Omarosa claiming that Trump is a racist starting coming out at the end of last week. The mainstream media has been running these stories virtually non-stop.

However, Trump's approval rating is up 7% in one week with African Americans?

Could there be anything more terrifying to Democrats right now than these numbers?

What do all these things mean?

First, there is a lot that you don't hear reported in the mainstream media.

Second, it appears that more and more people are much, much wiser than they are given credit for by the media and the political pundits.

The things I learned this week were very interesting. I hope they were to you as well. Feel free to share them liberally with friends and family.