The Political Page, T+59 -- First Day Of Spring -- March 20, 2017

Cognitive dissonance: the cover of The Economist, this week: "On The Up: The World Economy's Surprising Rise." Inside the issue's op-ed: the world's surging economy due to "stimulus, not the populists." The implication is that the economy would have surged regardless of who was elected US president. It's amazing how quickly the US economy, and apparently the global economy, surged -- it began the night the election results started coming in and has continued unabated.

Take It To The Bank

And The Winner Is

Senate confirmations: on track to have all confirmations complete by President Pence's second term; on tap this week -- Secretary of Labor; Supreme Court nominee to start hearings this week.

TV money: mainstream media is making a big deal that Donald Trump made $30 million off "The Apprentice" in 2005. That may be. To put that in perspective, the top three actors in "The Big Bang Theory" are each earning $1 million/episode, 24 episodes/season.  Mainstream media seem surprised that so much money can be made off television. Nominees for the 2017 Geico Rock Award? By the way, by the close of season nine (2016), there will have been 211 episodes. I believe "Big Bang Theory" is in its 10th season.

Congress talks to FBI Director Comey on whether Russia tried to influence US election, but no one asks whether he was aware of Donna Brazile's admission:

Former DNC chairwoman and disgraced CNN commentator Donna Brazile has admitted that she relayed confidential questions to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in advance of last year’s primary debate. 

Stephanopoulos comes across as looking pretty gullible.

By the way, now Donna Brazile blames this on the "Russians." This is starting to become the biggest joke in town, blaming everything on the "Russians."

[Update, June 29, 2017: it's now widely known -- and she had admitted -- that she, Donna Brazile fed debate questions to Hillary Clinton. The question is which journalist(s) fed the questions to Donna Brazile. There is at least one source (?) who suggests it was John Harwood.]