Election Post Mortem

 

I had planned to write this article last Wednesday, the day after the election, but who would have thought that there would be 12 races still unsettled a week later that could impact the fate of both the House and the Senate.  There is one thing, however, that is VERY clear, and that is that the claim that our Democracy was at risk during this election was pure nonsense and fearmongering.  According to the demonizing rhetoric of the President and Democrats, these unexpectedly poor election results for Republicans should have delivered the very rioting and violence they were promising.  But, the violence never came because the suggestion that half of our country is full of bigoted, racist fascists is simply untrue.  Do you think we will get an apology for that total mischaracterization of the virtue and temperament of our country?  Don’t hold your breath, despite the complete inaccuracy of their promises.

I think Greg Gutfeld, Fox Late Night comedian and political commentator, called this election just about perfectly.  He suggested that both sides had some things to celebrate but also things to regret.  Republicans did not perform as projected.  There was no “Red Tsunami”.  At best it was a red ripple.  The GOP will take the House and had surprising successes in Florida and New York.  In Florida, Ron DeSantis won that governorship by almost 20 points and established himself as a future leader of the Republican party.  In New York, Lee Zeldin lost the governor’s race but came close enough to flip four House seats, which will account for the entire GOP advantage in the House of Representatives in 2023.

Democrats did perform better than expectations, but expectations were pretty low.  They did maintain control of the Senate, and may even pick up a seat, depending on what happens in Georgia between Warnock and Walker.  However, some real Democrat all-stars went down in flames in 2022.  Stacey Abrams lost the governorship of Georgia (again) and lost decisively.  Beto O’Rourke got thumped in Texas as he lost to Greg Abbot, and maybe most shockingly, the DCCC (Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee) Chair Sean Patrick Maloney lost his House seat to Republican Mike Lawler.

There are some more facts that we should all keep in mind.  First, in 2020, Joe Biden won the Presidential election with over 60 million votes compared to only about 75 million for Donald Trump.  In that environment, we should all have expected Democrats to pick up seats in the House.  In Fact, Nancy Pelosi projected that Dems would add 15 seats to their majority, yet Democrats actually LOST 13 seats in the House.  That was a 28-seat difference between expectations in 2020 and the actual results.  Only Nancy Pelosi and Democrats, with the support of the lame stream media, could spin this 26-seat loss in the House over the last two years as a victory.

Also, everyone knew that in 2022 the Senate was going to be difficult for the GOP to defend.  In the Senate, only about a third of the Senate runs every two years because of their six-year terms.  In 2022, there were 35 Senators up for re-election – 21 Republican and only 14 Democrats.  This was a difficult atmosphere for Republicans since they had to defend more incumbent seats.  In 2024, the situation is practically reversed with 23 Democrats defending their seats vs only 10 Republicans.  We will see how well they defend their 23 seats in two years that will, in effect, be in jeopardy.

And now we have a delusional Joe Biden suggesting that these razor thin voting margins and divided government is somehow a mandate for a continuation of his open border, big spending, “no more drilling” policies.  When asked “what he will change” given that 75% of the country believes America is on the “wrong track”, Joe said “NOTHING”!  And this is after he just said that he is willing to work across the aisle with Republicans to find solutions to the country’s problems.  Is he even listening to himself?  He certainly isn’t listening to the people of this country.

In my opinion, this midterm election was a mandate for bipartisanship.  Two years ago, we had a 50-50 Senate and a 12-seat majority for the Democrats in the House.  I suggested then that this was a demand for cooperation and Joe Biden seemed to agree, promising “unity” in his inaugural address.  Unfortunately, he has not delivered on that promise.  In fact, quite the opposite.  Now, we will probably have another 50-50 Senate and an even slimmer majority in the House, but now held by Republicans.  I can only hope that Joe Biden and the Democrats don’t misread the results of this election and fail to make course corrections in their policies.  That kind of blind stubbornness would be a disaster both for the Democrat Party and for our country.

Senator Fetterman - Really?

 

If you don’t know that name, you should learn all you can about it.  John Fetterman is the current Lieutenant Governor of the state of Pennsylvania.  His previous political experience was being mayor of the tiny hamlet of Braddock, Pennsylvania, which boasts a total population of about 1,600 people.  That ranks Braddock as the 12,065^th largest city in the United States.  And his stint as mayor there can hardly be described as a rousing success since the population of Braddock showed a steady decline in population during his tenure.  Braddock was a dying town when he became mayor and Mr. Fetterman did nothing to reverse that trend.

This same John Fetterman is now running for the US Senate seat, being vacated by Republican Pat Toomey, against TV personality, Dr. Mehmet Oz.  This is a hugely important seat in the US Senate since it would represent a pick-up for Democrats in a year when they will be struggling to keep control of that chamber in November.  Oh, just another small detail, John Fetterman suffered a stroke just five days before the end of primary elections in PA in May, but still managed to win that primary.  Since that stroke, John Fetterman has displayed many of the classic symptoms that the Johns Hopkins Medical Center suggests are common after a stroke, such as:

-Problems with speech or understanding language (this is called “aphasia)

-Impaired ability to do math or organize, reason and analyze things.

-Impaired ability to read, write and learn new information and memory problems.

 

While I am sympathetic to John and hope that he someday recovers and lives a long life, he clearly has not recovered yet and that was painfully evident in his one-and-only debate with Dr. Oz on Oct. 25^th.  Many commentators, even on the Democrat side, described Fetterman’s performance as painful to watch, horrific and even disastrous. He began the debate by saying “Goodnight” to the viewers and his answers only went south from there.  About halfway through the debate, one of the moderators asked Mr. Fetterman to explain his contradictory statements on fracking, a huge industry in Pennsylvania.  During this campaign, Fetterman said, “I have always supported fracking” yet in a 2018 interview he had said, “I don’t support fracking at all, and I never have.”  

When asked to explain this obvious contradiction, Fetterman first paused for an awkward amount of time and then stammered, “I’ve always supported fracking.  I do support fracking.  I do support fracking and I don’t, I don’t.  I support fracking.  I stand and I do support fracking.”  Now, before you think that was a huge series of typos, that is an exact quote and a demonstration of Fetterman’s inability to either grasp the meaning of the question or to communicate an appropriate answer.  And this is just one of many examples of his poor comprehension and communication skills that he demonstrated during the debate.  Don’t take my word for it.  I’ve attached a link to the entire debate at the bottom of this article.  Just copy the link into your browser and watch for yourself.

The point is, this man should not be in the US Senate.  He is incapable of performing the duties of that job.  A member of this, most deliberative body of our Congress, must be able to understand complex issues and have the skill to debate, defend and negotiate complicated solutions to our nation’s most difficult challenges.  There are only 100 people in our country that have gone through the rigors of statewide campaigns and proven themselves proficient enough to perform the duties of a US Senator.  John Fetterman should not be one of them, yet it is possible that he will be elected.  Why?

First, the Democrat Party hid John Fetterman from public scrutiny as best they could for this entire campaign.  Fetterman did only four national interviews during his campaign and all were done on the friendly airwaves of MSNBC.  Also, Fetterman only begrudgingly agreed to one debate on Oct. 25^th, almost a month after early mail-in voting began.  Sadly, over 700,000 votes have already been cast before this one-and-only debate took place.  

The Democrat Party, however, does not care if John Fetterman can understand the issues or communicate effectively.  They simply want Fetterman to vote as he is told and then fade away into oblivion. If he is elected, I predict that he will not serve his full six-year term.  Dems are hoping that the probable new Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro, will be able to appoint his replacement.  And first in line for that appointment is John Fetterman’s wife, which explains why she was willing to put John through the torture of this campaign and the embarrassment of last week’s debate.

The good news is that 82% of the people who watched this debate agreed that Mehmet Oz won.  My question is, who are the 18% who can’t admit the obvious.  And now the lamestream media is accusing anyone who suggests that John Fetterman is not qualified to perform the Senatorial duties of being “ableists” (prejudice against people with disabilities).  This, of course, is not “ableism”.  It is merely “realism”.  If Pennsylvanians send John Fetterman to the US Senate, they will be doing Pennsylvania and the entire country a huge disservice.  We need bright, capable, honest people in the Senate and John Fetterman is none of those things.

Link to debate: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/pennsylvania-u-s-senate-debate-between-mehmet-oz-and-john-fetterman-transcript?fbclid=IwAR2zPTY4vbPS6UVaPnUG772MJVYFil9eLZt6-9_a41Cx42AaTqpHgFhJe6o

Don't Be a Buzzkill

 

From the beginning of our Republic, politics has been a rough-and-tumble business.  Adams and Jefferson were bitter enemies as they vied for their Presidencies way back in 1797 and 1801.  While they became friends in later life, they viciously attacked one another during their campaigns.  Jefferson’s camp accused Adams of having a “hideous hermaphroditical character (possessing both male and female characteristics) which has neither the firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”  In return, Adams men called Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian Squaw” which was an insult at the time.  As the slurs piled up, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal and a tyrant while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist and a coward.  This was pretty brutal stuff at the turn of the 18^th century.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft were best of friends.  Taft was actually Roosevelt’s hand-picked replacement for President when he decided not to run in 1908.  But in 1912 when Roosevelt decided to create the Bull Moose party and run for President again, he and Taft famously went after each other.  Taft called Roosevelt unethical and egotistical to which Roosevelt responded by calling Taft a fraud and disloyal.  In 1964 Lyndon Johnson portrayed his opponent for President, Barry Goldwater, as an out of control warmonger with his finger on the nuclear bomb button.  No facts.  All emotion.  But LBJ won the election.

Most of us remember the relationship between President Reagan and Democrat Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill back in the 1980’s as cordial and maybe even productive.  But when they were at odds, the political gloves came off.  Tip O’Neill thought that President Reagan didn’t possess a sufficient understanding of the legislative process and called him the most ignorant man to ever occupy the White House.  In return, Reagan once compared Tip O’Neill to a Pac-Man because he was a round thing that just gobbled up money.

But what do all of these political attacks of the past have in common?  They all featured candidates or rivals attacking each other.  That practice changed however for the first time in 2016 when Hillary Clinton decided to attack not only her opponent but even American citizens who dared to vote for that candidate.  In her notorious “Basket of Deplorables” statement, Hillary attacked tens of millions of her own constituents and called them “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic (and) Islamophobic”.  These were the very people that Hillary hoped to represent as President.  She obviously doesn’t even like many or arguably most of the American people.  This statement not only lost her the election (in my opinion) but also paved the way for today’s fiercely divided country.

Sadly, Joe Biden has decided to continue this new tradition of attacking and demeaning the very people he represents.  First, he stated that “white supremacists are the greatest terror threat in America”.  Of course, he never explains how he and his national security operation came to that conclusion or exactly how many of these “white supremacists” there are out there.  This allows every person of color to suspect every white person (especially conservatives) of this pathetic mindset and further divide the country, which I believe is his real motive.  Since he made that statement I have seen no evidence that this group, which I believe is a tiny sliver of the American populous, is a threat to our country.  In fact, during the “summer of love” in 2020, dozens of people were killed and billions of dollars in damages were inflicted on cities across the country in riots instigated by Antifa and BLM.  You would think he and his security experts might show some interest in those groups, but no.  

Then, Joe turned his scorn onto the Trump voters, or the entire Republican Party.  He accused all MAGA supporters of being “semi-fascists”.  First of all, what the heck is a “semi-fascist”.  It doesn’t really matter.  Once you attach the word “fascist” to anything it conjures up visions of Hitler and Mussolini from WWII.  Then he made it clear, “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy”.  So, anyone who believes we should be trying to make America great again is a fascist?  Does Joe even know what fascism is?  Fascism is an authoritarian government, headed by a dictator that forcibly suppresses its opposition.  That sounds more like the Democrat Party today, but even I won’t go so far as to suggest that all Democrats want Hitler or Mussolini running our country today.  Comparing tens of millions of Americans to fascists is both dangerous and reckless, unless your goal is to turn Americans against each other.

And wokism is the exact same philosophy executed by the general public.  If anyone disagrees with you, they must be demeaned, ridiculed and crushed (canceled).  They certainly can’t be listened to.  But the good news is that it appears the entire country is getting weary of these tactics in politics and in everyday life.  Even Barack Obama suggested that Democrats can sometimes be “a buzzkill”.  He added that people in America don’t want to have to walk around “on eggshells” in fear that they might say something that a Democrat might disagree with (or a Republican).  In fact, I enjoy a good debate and have many friends who are willing to have those debates with me without questioning my patriotism, sanity or the content of my character.

If you agree with Barack Obama and me, the solution to eliminating this new phenomenon of selective character assassination is simple.  In politics, don’t vote for these self-serving narcissists.  If you hear a politician demeaning or attacking huge swathes or even undefined numbers of American citizens, don’t vote for them.  I can assure you that their accusations are unfounded.  My opinion of the average American is pretty high.  It is only the extreme elements of both parties (maybe a total of 10% of the country) who bash our citizens relentlessly for their own political gains.

Finally, we must ignore the wokists out there who cannot tolerate opinions different than their own.  Since this intolerance of opposing opinions is being taught throughout our college campuses these days, this will be a challenge.  But if we all continue to point out the hypocrisy and intolerance of their behavior, we will eventually set them straight, for as the Bible says in John 8:32, (they) shall know the truth and the truth shall set (them) free!

Why Dems Will NOT Codify Roe v Wade

 

There are two huge reasons why Democrats will not pass legislation to codify Roe v Wade at a national level as they are promising.  First, even the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg believed that Roe v Wade was bad law from the beginning. That idea was echoed by Justice Samuel Alito in the Dobbs decision which struck down Roe.  Justice Ginsburg was a true supporter of a woman’s right to choose, but said that in the case of Roe, the court should have simply struck down the Texas law (the most limiting in the country) as unconstitutional, “and then put down its pen”.  She believed that the job of setting restrictions on abortions rests in the hands of “the people”, or in other words, in the hands of the state legislators.  And, with the Dobbs decision, that is exactly where that decision lies today.

So, to be clear, the Dobbs decision does not make abortion illegal across the country as many people erroneously believe.  It simply returns the limitations on abortion rights back to the states, a fact the Democrats are fighting hard to obscure.  The state of California, for example, has much more liberal (lenient) restrictions on abortion than the state of Mississippi and “the people” in those states and every other state will decide what qualifications they want to make on abortion through the election of their state legislators.  

However, maybe the biggest reason that Roe will not be codified by the Democrats, as they are promising for the 2022 midterms, is that their position of abortion on demand is not popular around the country.  In fact, 90% of Americans oppose the Democrat position of abortion at any time, even up to the moment of birth, for any reason, like the mother decides she doesn’t want the gender of the baby in her womb.  This position, which may someday be found to be unconstitutional, is being hidden by the Democrat Party because it is so incredibly unpopular throughout the country.

Democrats may be successful at hiding their intentions on abortion until after the midterms (yes, this is a pathetic, short-term effort) but even if they were to keep both the House and the Senate in 2022, which is unlikely, they will not pass legislation that would legalize abortion on demand through the ninth month because they won’t even be able to get their own members to support it.  

That’s the good news and the bad news.  The good news is that Roe will not be codified at a national level, because the law now places that power in the hands of state legislatures across the country where it belongs.  The bad news is that, with the help of the lame-stream media, millions of deceived people will be voting in the fall with a complete misunderstanding of the abortion issue.  Hopefully, my readers will at least be able to make an informed decision in November with a full understanding of the abortion issue in this country.

Projection, The Latest Democrat Tactic

 

As I watched Joe Biden the other night giving his “Speech From the Gates of Hell” shaking his fist, with a grimaced face and using an often-growling voice, I thought to myself, “Is he actually listening to himself”.  Here he was acting so angry that he could spit, accusing his political opponents of spreading anger.  Here he was calling 10’s of millions of Americans fascists and traitors and putting targets on their backs for government condoned violence while condemning THEM of encouraging violence. Chuck Schumer did the same thing to Justice Kavanaugh when he gave his “Reap the Whirlwind” speech on the steps of the Supreme court.  Are we surprised that there was an assassination attempt against Brett Kavanaugh and his family even before the Dobbs v Jackson decision?  

I was asking myself, what is it called when someone accuses someone else of doing exactly what they are doing? It is call projection, and the Democrats have turned it into an artform.  The technical definition of Projection is, “unconsciously taking unwanted emotions or traits that you don’t like about yourself and attributing them to someone else.”  This fits perfectly with the Democrat strategy with the exception that it is not “unconscious”.  It is intentional, which makes it even more pathetic and sinister.

Another example of political projection is the “defund the police” movement.  The list of Democrats who called for defunding the police or defunding ICE is long and distinguished and includes the likes of Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and AOC.  And until recently, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were so weak in their support we can call it nonexistent.  Kamala even helped raise money to post bail for criminal rioters in the summer of 2020.  But now, since the defund the police idea has revealed itself to be a complete failure, they are suggesting that it was the Republicans who initiated and drove that campaign despite the fact that they can’t find a single Republican who actually spoke those words.

And then, as if their intentional projection isn’t bad enough, Democrats combine their projection with a magician’s technique called “misdirection”.  They suggest that Republicans support defunding the police because they all voted against the American Rescue Plan and the $350 billion earmarked for state and local governments.  What they will not tell you is that, not only did that bill not require those funds to be used to fund local police departments, but the words “police” or “law enforcement” do not even appear in the text.  Republicans voted against The American Rescue Plan because they thought the $1.9 Trillion price tag was too large and would only drive inflation higher.  They also feared that those funds would be used to bail out long-mismanaged state and local governments.  Not a single Republican said that they voted against this bill because they did not want the funds to be used for local law enforcement.  Do not be deceived by their projection or their misdirection.  Defunding the Police is a Democrat position and doctrine.

Democrats also suggest that many Republicans believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump because of voter fraud.  That claim is true.  Many Republicans do question the 2020 election results.  But the problem with their criticism is that they make that suggestion while claiming some sort of imaginary moral high ground for themselves in this area.  Hillary Clinton, while conceding to Donald Trump the day after the 2016 election, changed course almost immediately to suggest that the election was stolen from her.  Stacey Abrams still thinks she is governor of Georgia and Maxine Waters demanded Trump’s impeachment before he even took office.  

And Democrat hypocrisy runs even deeper in the area of questioning elections. A third of Democrats in Congress refused to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration and former Democrat President Jimmy Carter declared that Trump was not the legitimate winner of the 2016 election.  Jamie Raskin, Congressman from Maryland and member of the January 6^thcommittee, challenged Florida’s delegates in the 2016 election.  Maybe he should have recused himself from Jan 6^th committee and investigation.  Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, tweeted at the time that Trump stole the 2016 election AND Brian Kemp stole the Georgia Governor’s election from Stacey Abrams.  

Democrats have questioned elections even more broadly as a party.  The Washington Post did a survey in 2021 and found that 29% of respondents said that Joe Biden was not the legitimate President of the United States.  That’s terrible, you say.  But the Washington Post did the same survey in 2017 and found that 42% of respondents claimed that Donald Trump was illegitimate.  Both parties were represented in both polls, but who do you think was calling Donald Trump illegitimate.  I’ll leave that judgement to you.

The point is, despite Democrats’ suggesting that they are pure in this area, they are not.  The 2020 election was extraordinary in many ways due to the pandemic.  Election laws were changed and 24-7 unmonitored lock boxes were used to accommodate voters.  Was there fraud?  Of course there was.  Was there enough to change the election?  Bill Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, doesn’t think there was.  The reality is that there is no going back at this time.  Joe Biden is our President and all we can do in the future is to ensure that our voting laws walk that fine line between ease of access and voter integrity.

Just remember, however, as you listen to Democrats accuse Republicans of doing terrible things, it is usually something they are doing.  While they have one finger pointing at Republicans, they have three fingers pointing back at themselves.  Also, remember the old joke (or maybe it’s an axiom) – How do you know when politicians are lying?  When their lips are moving!

Biden's Illegal Vote Buying Scheme

 

Before I even get into the absurdity of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, let me dispel the White House’s pathetic and deceptive answer as to how they plan to pay for this scheme.  They suggest that, “the work (they) have done to reduce the deficit” is what is going to pay for this vote-buying boondoggle.  That is an utterly false statement.  In the first three years (pre-pandemic) of the Trump administration, America’s budget deficits averaged about $800 billion.  In 2020, due to the additional programs to confront the pandemic (PPP, FPUC, LWA, Warp Speed, etc.) our deficit exploded to over $3 TRILLION.  Even in 2021 our deficit was still about $3 TRILLION. 

As the expenses for fighting the Pandemic go away, of course our deficits were going to go down no matter who was President.  We ran huge deficits, for example during World War II.  In 1943 through 1945 our deficits were 10 times the pre-war amounts, but by 1947 (after the war) our deficits were actually below pre-war levels.  Did Truman run a campaign of smaller government and reduced deficits?  No.  The expenses of the war (building ships and planes and an army) simply went away.  The same thing has happened with Joe Biden.  He has done nothing to reduce our deficits.  The costs of fighting the pandemic have simply gone away, yet Biden continually tries to take credit for that inevitability.  In fact, in 2023 our deficit is projected to be over $1.2 TRILLION, an amount greater than any Trump year, and that projection does not include the Student Loan Forgiveness plan or the Inflation Reduction Act.  So, here’s the truth – Biden is not cutting the size or cost of the federal government.  Pandemic costs are simply ceasing.  In fact, he is actually increasing our deficits and debt well above pre-pandemic rates just as interest rates are increasing.  Not a good idea.

Side note – I didn’t like the deficits under Trump either and I wrote about it, but I felt I had to reveal the truth about Biden’s misleading deficit reduction claims so that you, my readers, could at least know the truth.

Now that we know that this plan is NOT paid for, we can discuss the mountain of flaws in this it.  First, notice that I didn’t call this an Act or law passed by Congress.  It is a “plan” hatched by one man.  President Biden is using a law passed to protect our service men and women from the extra pressure of student loan debt while they were deployed.  He knows he can’t get it passed through Congress because there is too much resistance even in his own party, so he is acting like a king or monarch or dictator and spending hundreds of billions if not a TRILLION dollars on his sole authority.  It’s the Nancy Pelosi approach to spending - pass it and then find out later what it costs.  Our Founders would be rolling over in their graves.

Next, this is a targeted vote-buying scheme aimed at a group of people Biden is having a particular problem with.  New polls have indicated that only 21% of young adults 18-34 approve of the President’s performance.  So, this narcissistic, short-term thinker, has decided to spend up to a TRILLION dollars of your money to buy those votes.  Who needs a campaign fund when you can just spend hardworking Americans’ money at your personal discretion.  That’s pathetic, King Biden.

This “plan” also punishes 85% of Americans who don’t have student loan debt.  Almost 60% of Americans have decided not to even go to college.  Then there are millions more who worked through college or whose parents sacrificed to send them through college without incurring any debt.  Then there are those who used student loans to get through college, but have since worked hard and pinched pennies to pay off those loans.  Where are their checks? This “plan” punishes the hard working and diligent by taking their money to forgive debt legally and knowingly incurred.

And what message are we sending to colleges and universities in America?  This is a green light to continue to raise prices, which is the real problem we are facing.  According to InflationData.com, the cost of attending college since 1980 has grown at a rate four times faster than general inflation in this country.  And the easy access to money through the student loan program has been a major factor in these excessive cost increases.

But the biggest question we should be asking is this – Is this even legal?  Just a year ago, Nancy Pelosi said, “People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness.  He does NOT.”  She added, “That has to be an act of Congress.”  I don’t agree with Nancy on much, but I do agree with her on this.  Or at least I agree with the Nancy Pelosi of one year ago.  Today, she is supporting Biden’s plan.  Maybe she just forgot her earlier statement.  She is 82.  Maybe it’s time for her to go home and take some memory classes.

And finally, this could be the death knell for the entire student loan program.  What idiot would ever pay back their student loan in the future?  Debt forgiveness will become the expectation, not the exception. 

 

PS – Colleges like Harvard, which has an endowment of over $50 Billion, should be ashamed to have any student endure more than five years of repayment of student loan debt before THEY cancel it.  That would elevate the value of their degrees and begin to change their reputations as loathsome, elitist institutions.

Don't Be Deceived

 

It saddens me that I have to continue to remind my readers about the duplicitous nature of our government and its leaders and the media.  About two years ago, I wrote an article entitle “How Can I Lie to Thee, Let Me Count the Ways”.  It was about how politicians and journalists (so called) can distort the truth through lies of omission, exaggeration and even “in your face” boldface lies.  Well, last week there a couple of whoppers that you need to be informed about.

First, Joe Biden got on national TV and tried to tell the country that there was “Zero” inflation in July.  For the naysayers, let me quote him exactly.  He said, “I just want to say a number: Zero.  Today, we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July.”  That, of course was not true.  Just a few minutes before, it was announced that we experienced 8.5% inflation in July.  But then Joe confused his audience even further by trying to explain his claim.  He went on to say, “Here’s what that means.  While the price of some things went up, the prices of others things went down by the same amount.  The result?  Zero inflation last month.” 

What he didn’t tell you was that was a month to month comparison, and that is NOT how economists measure inflation.  Inflation is measured by comparing the current month’s prices to the same month in the previous year.  And THAT number was 8.5%, another almost 40 year high.  He also didn’t tell you that if you had done the same month-to-month comparison in June, you would have found a 17.2% increase.  I don’t remember him touting that number last month.  Plus, after a huge month-to-month gain like that, is it right to be bragging about a monthly result that was just as bad?  Either Joe doesn’t understand the fundamentals of our economy or he is trying to deceive a small number of people who will hear his claim of ZERO inflation and not question it.  Either way, it speaks poorly of the President’s grasp of the issue or his honesty.

Joe does, however, seem to have an affinity for the word Zero.  Remember, last year he claimed that his $3.5 Trillion Build Back Better bill would cost us “Zero”.  Unfortunately for Joe, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) and fact checkers found that claim to be totally false.  Not only would it have to be paid for by increasing taxes, but it would also add hundreds of billions of dollars to our nation’s debt.  Beware of politicians who suggest that their programs won’t cost you anything.

The other “whopper” of the week was told by our Attorney General, Merrick Garland.  When speaking of the raid on Donald Trump’s home at Mar-A-Lago, Garland said that he and the FBI do not make decisions like this lightly, and that, “where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search, and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken.”  Now, what he said might be true, and by making that statement he is suggesting that is exactly what he and the FBI did in this particular case, but that is not at all true.

First of all, he could have just attained a subpoena for the materials that he wanted.  That would have been “less intrusive”, but that is not what he did.  He obtained a search warrant, which was very public, with lights flashing and 30 armed FBI agents in the pitch darkness of the early morning in Florida.  Second, the warrant, which we have now seen, was not “narrowly scoped”.  This warrant allowed FBI agents to search any room in his home not occupied by other people and to take “any governmental and / or Presidential records created between January 20/2017 (Trump’s inauguration day) and January 20/2021 (Biden’s Inauguration day).  This allowed 30 agents to search every room or other buildings for eight hours (a total of 240 man-hours).  This search allowed them to forage through his safe and Melania’s closet.  It also, somehow, included taking his passports.  I would not describe this as a “narrow scope”.  You can decide.  Don’t take Merrick Garland’s word for it.  Use your own judgement.

There have also been a couple more attempts at misdirection by this administration.  They just passed the “Inflation Reduction Act” by twisting arms in their own party and without a single Republican vote.  What an achievement!  (that is sarcasm) According to the CBO and many Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, this act will not have any impact on inflation.  In fact, there are hundreds of conservative economists who predict that this law will actually make inflation worse.  Don’t be deceived by the name.

Finally, Democrats will tell you that last night’s drubbing of Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primaries is a sign that democracy is under assault.  Actually, that is a sign that our democracy can work as designed.  The people of Wyoming voted her out of office because she is engaged in an obsession with Donald Trump and not working on the needs and desires of the Wyoming citizens.  Don’t believe the misdirection.  This is exactly how our democracy is supposed to work.  The power is in the hands of the people, not the press or the politicians.  Watch out for the deception as it will come in many forms from both DC and the media!!

Panic Right Now! We Only Have 100 Years Left

 

 

It’s hard to keep track of the hyperbolic, cataclysmic, even existential warnings that have been perpetrated by our politicians and the media about the importance and certainty of climate change – 99% of which have already been proven wrong.  And it didn’t just begin yesterday!  The scientific community has demonstrated an inability to predict climate for my entire lifetime.  Back in 1970, Paul Ehrlich, famed Stanford ecologist, warned that the world would end in 1985 if we didn’t take drastic action right away.  We didn’t take those dramatic actions and the world did not end in 1985.  Just four years after Ehrlich’s fatalistic warning on global warming, Time magazine cautioned the world on its cover about the coming “Ice Age”.  Yah, we have a real handle on climate forecasting, don’t we!

Let’s also not forget Al Gore’s famous prediction back in 2006 that the Polar Ice Caps (both of them) would be completely gone by 2010 and that New York City would be underwater by 2013.  And, of course, if New York was doomed, the Maldives (an island country with the lowest average sea level in the world) would be erased from existence. None of these predictions have come true, and Al Gore and the media have developed a convenient case of amnesia concerning them.  The Polar Bears are happy, however.  They were supposed to become extinct by now, but nobody told them as they have flourished in the face of these prognostications.

All of these failed forecasts do not deter the climate change fearmongers, however.  They simply move the goalposts.  In 2018, CNN and AOC declared that the “Earth has 12 years to avert a climate change catastrophe”.  That gave all of the climate change alarmists some breathing room and replaced an easy to check prediction with the ambiguous warning of a “climate change catastrophe”.  What exactly does that mean anyway?  Both CNN and AOC are hoping that none of us are keeping track of that 12-year prediction.  Today they are still using the 12-year number, but I’m monitoring that claim for them.  They now have only eight (8) years left on this prophesy, and I plan to be around to point out their error when their time runs out.

And I love the latest tactic that these climate change fanatics are using.  They now say that if we don’t destroy the fossil fuel industry and move to “zero emissions” by 2035 (an absolute impossibility), the world will be uninhabitable by 2100.  This would demand insane regulations and actions, like legislating the complete abandonment of combustion engine cars and the current infrastructure that goes with it, without understanding the implications on our economy or our environment.  It also moves the goal posts out of sight to a time when all of us will conveniently be dead. Here’s a good axiom to keep in mind when you think of this prediction – if anyone tells you that they know exactly what is going to happen in 100 years, they are lying!!!

The fact is, we have a rich history of erroneous forecasts and we currently lack an understanding of what this brave new world of “zero emissions” looks like.  Is this really a time when we want one man, soon to be 80, making decisions through executive orders that could destroy entire industries, our country’s economy and America’s position in the world?  Or is it a time to work collaboratively to completely understand our current situation and the best path to the future?

If you really want to understand the current situation and a reasonable approach to our future, you should read the book “False Alarm” by Bjorn Lomborg.  Lomborg is a Danish author, political scientist and President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center think tank.  He is NOT a climate change denier.  Far from it.  He is a believer, but he points out that we have a hundred years or more to react to this challenge through innovation and adaptation.  He also suggests that we are uncertain about the implications of any global warming on the Earth.  He implies that results will not be as calamitous as politicians and the media promise, and there may even be some positives aspects of any warming.

He indicates that the current campaign of fear mongering and fatalism is not the appropriate approach to solving this problem.  To quote Bjorn, “we need to stop exaggerating, stop arguing that it is now or never, and stop thinking that climate is the only thing that matters.” He adds, “We are being told that we must do everything right away…(and) this is what the science tells us.  But this is NOT what science tells us.  It’s what politics tells us.”

While I consider myself (and the late, great Charles Krauthammer) to be a climate change agnostic, I do agree with Bjorn Lomborg on this aspect of the climate change debate.  The LAST thing we need to do today is panic and allow an 80-year-old man to single handedly commit The United States to actions (policies) that could take decades to undo if and WHEN they turn out to be misguided.  It is time to bring the best minds on both sides of the argument together in order to guide us into a safe, prosperous and possibly slightly warmer future.  Then again, if the sun decides to cut back on its heat, we could find ourselves adapting to a new ice age, which we will have to adjust to in order to survive.  And I’m confident that we will!!

I'm Still Proud to be an American

 

One of the big stories over this holiday weekend was about the erosion of pride in America by its citizens.  According to Gallup, only 38% of our citizens are “extremely proud” to be an American.  That is the lowest number for that measure since Gallup began this survey back in 2001.  At first, this number left me a bit depressed, but then I asked myself – has our history changed?  Have we just recently learned about the Civil War, Jim Crow or the assassination of Martin Luther King or Bobby Kennedy?  Have we really lost freedom?  Has the sedition act of 1918 been reenacted, denying Americans the right to criticize our country?  The answer to both of these questions, thankfully, was no.

Our history hasn’t changed at all.  It is just being taught differently.  Gone is the balance where our children learn about the amazing evolution our country has gone through as a result of the wisdom of our Founding Fathers as well as the challenges and missteps that we have experienced along the way.  Today, media concentrates on the negative and constantly proves Abraham Lincoln’s famous adage – If you look for the bad in people (or countries) expecting to find it, you surely will.

Every country has its warts – China, France, England, Russia, etc.  Our country does also.  I could argue we have fewer warts than these countries, some of which continue to have HUGE problems even today.  Compared to these countries, America has a much shorter and actually a more laudable history.  I won’t even get into how we fought a bloody Civil War to end slavery here or how we saved Europe (twice).  I also won’t talk about how we put a man on the moon and established to world’s greatest economy which accounts for over 24% of the world’s GDP while representing only 4% of its population.  Instead, I will take you back to the amazing founding of our country.

Our country did not begin in 1619 as some suggest, but in 1776 with a Declaration of Independence from England sent to the King of England at the time, George III.   Thomas Jefferson, possibly our smartest President, included in that document the key principles on which our country was founded.  The first principle was that, that “all men are created equal”.  Even though he knew that was not true at that time, he was committing our country to reach that standard over time.  The second principle that Jefferson espoused was that “we are endowed by our creator (not the king or any government) with certain unalienable rights, (and) that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  These principles empowered our citizens and delivered the greatest country this world has ever known.

For the next 10 years our country was guided by this document and the Articles of Confederation.  Then, in 1787 a miracle of wisdom and compromise occurred in Philadelphia called the Constitutional Convention.  At that time, 55 of America’s most discerning men attended the convention to pound out a framework that would shepherd the people who would run our government, and POUND they did.  There were many contentious issues in that day.  Big states and small states fought over what our Congress should look like.  This led to the establishment of our bicameral Congress with a House of Representatives, driven by population, and the Senate with equal representation.  There were commerce issues between manufacturing states and agrarian states, and of course states rights, in light of this new federal government, was a very thorny issue at that time.  Many of the 55 delegates even refused to sign the finished document until a Bill of Rights was added in 1791.  

This sense of compromise is something that we have lost recently and must reacquire for the good of our country.  Let’s take the issue of abortion as an example.  When our current Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade recently, which even Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have supported, rather than search for a solution, Democrats in particular began spreading misinformation, hate and even violence.  What we need now in this case is a spirit of compromise that existed at the very beginning of our country.

I, for example, am unapologetically pro-life, but I at least can admit that I understand the concerns of the other side.  Thus, I support exceptions for rape and incest and the life of the mother.  I even understand the “regret” some women might have when experiencing an unwanted pregnancy.  This is why I still support Bill Clinton’s well know position on abortion, which is that it should be “Legal, Safe and Rare”. I would accept, for example, early stage abortions (maybe 15 to 20 weeks) after the woman involved was informed of all of her options, including adoption, and has been presented an ultrasound image.  

Don’t tell me that the radical pro-abortion supporters can’t understand the concerns that millions of Americans might have about ending the life of a baby in the birth canal after nine months of gestation.  We, as a country, need to stop listening to these extremists and come together to develop compromise solutions that work for the entire country and not for the fringe elements of either side of our political spectrum.

The good news is that the fanatics are losing.  People are flocking to states like Florida to escape the “woke” mobs and even companies like Netflix have begun to tell their “woke” workers to get a different job if they continue to be offended by virtually everything.  The other good news can be found a little deeper in the Gallup poll that I referenced in my opening paragraph.  While only 38% of Americans are “extremely proud” of our country, another 27% are “very proud” and 22% say they are “moderately proud” of America.  Only 4% of our citizens are “not at all” proud of America, and this is with the media and politicians doing their best to run down our country day in and day out.  America is still the greatest country on earth, which is why millions of people are pouring over our southern border to get here.  If you have money to spare – Bet on America.

Where is America on the Abortion Issue?

 

The next few years will be very interesting as the recent overturning of Roe v Wade is digested by the states.  The reality is that neither political party’s extreme positions are popular with the American people.  The left’s current fanatical position of abortion on demand includes aborting a child up to the moment of birth.  Former governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, even talked about abortion AFTER birth.  Believe me, America is not there.  A recent Rasmussen poll showed that only 13% of Americans support abortion up to the point of birth, which is the true position of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Party.  THAT is why, despite all of Nancy’s blustering, the Dems would not codify their position on abortion even if they kept the House in 2022.  It is too radical and extremely unpopular.

On the other side of the equation, a Marist poll done in 2021 showed that only 12% of American’s believed that abortion should not be legal under any circumstances.  That number only goes up to 28% when you include abortions performed as a result of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother.  These numbers are even too low to pass laws totally eliminating the possibility of an abortion in the most conservative of states.  

Bill Clinton probably had the best political position on abortion.  He suggested that abortion should be, “legal, safe and rare”.  That, I believe is where America is.  States like New York, Colorado and Oregon might be able to maintain their current abortion on demand laws, and California might join them.  We’ll see.  Actually, the Mississippi law just upheld by the Supreme Court which allows abortion up to 15 weeks of conception would be a good compromise.  We will see, but if you want to understand what that compromise might be and why, just click on the attached link to watch a video that I put together almost ten years ago on that subject.  It’s amazing how things really don’t change.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Varfz_lE9JE

The Truth About Lying

Lying and politics seem to go hand-in-hand, and everyone seems to just accept that fact.  According to Forbes magazine in 2019, members of Congress (Politicians) were the least trusted profession in America by a wide margin.  According to Forbes, 58% of the country believe that these politicians have either low or very low levels of honesty.  That number trounced the second least trusted profession, car sales people, by 14 percentage points as they were mistrusted by 44% of the country.  Politicians are clearly in a league of their own when it comes to lying.

And of course, there are many ways to lie.  Politicians can lie right to our faces like when Richard Nixon vowed that he had no knowledge of the Watergate coverup.  Then we had Bill Clinton promise that he, “never had sex with that woman” and Barack Obama assured us that, “if you like your (insurance) plan, you can keep it” which earned him 4 Pinocchios from the Washington Post.  These are just a few examples of in-your-face lies, which is child’s play when it comes to the true masters of this art.  Politicians have figured out how to deceive us even when they are stating facts.  Let me give you a few recent examples.

Today, there is a great debate about why our gas prices are so high.  Many believe it is because the current administration is strangling our oil industry in their misguided (in my opinion) transition out of fossil fuels.  I was sitting on my couch watching the news when I heard the President say that we are producing more oil today than in President Trump’s first year in office.  That sounded like an odd comparison to me.  First of all, that was over four years ago, and in any President’s first term that person’s results are mostly driven by the policies of his or her predecessor.  So, I looked into it.

And in fact, that statement is correct.  In January of 2017, we as a country were producing 8.9 million barrels of oil a day, and today we are producing about 11.5 million barrels a day.  The impression he was trying to give was that he was maximizing our efforts to produce oil now to bring down prices of gasoline here in the US and around the world.  However, in January of 2021, at the end of Trump’s Presidency, our oil industry was producing over 13.1 million barrels per day.  So, we are, in fact, producing LESS oil today than at the END of Trump’s Presidency at a time when we should be producing more.  Clever deception!

When it comes to job creation, we are constantly being told that this administration has created more jobs in its first year than any other Presidential administration in American history.  While it is true that the 14.1 million jobs created in 2021 was far more than any other year in American history.  What they don’t remind you of is that in the year before (2020) we knowingly vaporized over 20.1 million jobs as we closed down restaurants, gyms and thousands of nonessential small businesses in an attempt to curb the impact of the pandemic.  The real truth is that any President who took office in 2021 would “create” (really replace) millions of jobs as we reopened our economy.  In fact, you could argue that the 14.1 million jobs created could have been even higher with different policies, but they are not going to tell you that, of course.  Slick deception.  

Finally, we must talk about the pride that this administration is taking in their deficit reduction results.  Is it true that our national deficit went down in 2021 vs 2020?  This would suggest that this administration is being fiscally conservative.  But we have to look deeper at all the facts before we make an intelligent judgement.  In Trump’s first three years, our deficit averaged about $800 billion a year and his worst year was $984 billion.  In 2020 our country’s deficit was $3,132 billion as Trump tried to fight the pandemic and keep our citizens out of bread lines as we shut down our economy.  Billions were spent on project Warp Speed, replacing and creating Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) and an extension and enhancement of unemployment benefits.  In Joe Biden’s first year in office our deficit was $2,772 billion, only a $360 billion reduction compared to the actual year of the pandemic, and he wanted to spend TRILLIONS more on his Build Back Better (Broke) plan.  This is hardly fiscal conservatism, although that’s what he is trying to get us to believe.  Whoever is writing Joe Biden’s speeches is a real master of the art of deceiving with the facts.

I won’t even get into the data gymnastics that Secretary Mayorkas is employing to suggest that our southern border is closed while over two million illegal aliens will cross into The United States each year in his first two years. Those two years will each represent all-time records, smashing the past record by almost 25%. Here is a couple of real facts.  Our politicians will lie right to our faces, so be on the lookout for that.  Also, they will tell you the truth and suggest improper conclusions to those facts.  This is more difficult to identify, but unfortunately that is the challenge they constantly give us.

 

Heart Control vs Gun Control

             Yesterday, America was shocked and heartbroken at the news that we had experienced yet another school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.  It appears that 21 lives were snuffed out for no apparent reason and hundreds, if not thousands, will be changed forever, and not for the better.  In the immediate wake of this tragedy, it was time for the country to be shocked and to grieve over this senseless violent act and loss of life.  I think we would all argue that it was an appropriate time for the President of The United States to address the nation in an effort to soothe the aching hearts of the country and to unite us around our shared anguish and desire to help the victims; and then came Joe Biden!

            For the first couple of minutes I thought he was going to finally deliver on his inaugural speech promise of uniting the country during this difficult moment.  He was appropriately sad and spoke of the senseless loss of life and the challenges that these families would face to overcome this personal disaster.  He then quickly shifted to a message of anger, and interestingly, not an anger at the disturbed young man who killed these children and two teachers, but an anger at his political opponents.  Before the bodies had been counted and identified, before all the facts were in, he spent most of the speech dividing the country once again along ideological lines.

It is my opinion that this anger and hatred is being constantly infused into our country’s bloodstream and is, in fact, the cause of all of the escalating violence, including school shootings, in America.  From Maxine Waters’ screaming declaration that her political opponents weren’t, “welcome here (in America) anymore” to Chuck Schumer’s threat to Supreme Court Justices to Joe Biden’s condemnation of the horse-riding border guards, our political discourse has become inappropriate, hate filled and even inaccurate.  Our politicians are teaching us that it is not OK for people to have different opinions on our country’s policies.  They are training us that we must hate and condemn and demonize anyone who differs from our thinking.  And this hatred and anger is permeating our society, including our children, with tragic results.  We need heart control way more than we need gun control.

So, now that we’ve broached the concept of gun control, let’s talk a little about the origins of the 2^nd Amendment to the Constitution.  I’m not a big gun owner, but I have studied the origins and original intent of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  The second amendment was not enumerated to protect the rights of people to hunt in 1787.  The 2nd Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights to protect “We the People” from an oppressive government which could then cancel all of our rights through brute force.

I’m not saying that there aren’t things we as a country can do to protect our schools and minimize crime and violence in our cities.  We do have some very restrictive gun laws around the country today.  Might we need more?  I don’t know, but I’m willing to listen.  How much of the $190 Billion dollars given to our schools for Covid relief has not been spent?  Could some of that be used to improve security in our schools.  I think so, and I’m willing to listen to some ideas.  The 2^nd Amendment, however, is not going away no matter how much Beto O’Rourke wants to go door to door and confiscate America’s (at least Texas’) guns.  Can we do more?  Sure, but that will require both sides of this debate to LISTEN respectfully to each other and be willing to meet in the middle.

And our children seem to be under a particularly strong assault.  They are desensitized to violence and death through video games, movies and today’s music.  Schools that teach oppressor vs victim philosophies are not uniting them but turning both groups against each other.  Finally, if you study the beginnings of the explosion of school shooting deaths in America, there is a direct correlation between those shootings and America’s effort to take God out of our schools in the 1960’s. Bringing God and optional prayer and Bible study back into our public schools would certainly offer a counter balance to the violence and hate offered up by our modern-day games, movies and music. 

Let us not forget, however, the premise of this article.  We, as a country, need a change of hearts more than a change in our gun laws.  How do we do that?  First, we must change our own hearts.  We need to listen to those who disagree with us instead of condemning them immediately before we even understand their positions.  And even beyond listening, we must seek to understand.  When we do this, we will find compromise that will satisfy both sides of any disagreement.  We must avoid the temptation to condemn, hate and dehumanize.  That change alone will enrich each of our lives and unite our country around common ground and common decency.

We must also reject the purveyors of anger, hostility and disregard for others.  If it is a politician, that’s easy.  Vote them out of office.  If it is the media, which it often is, stop reading, cancel your subscription or change the channel.  They will eventually get the message and change their direction or go out of business.  We must let our political leaders and information venues know that “We the People” are in charge and we won’t take the division, disdain and fearmongering any longer. I’m praying for our country. Amen.

 

Another Thing Joe Isn't - An Economist

 

Back in November of 2020 I didn’t vote for Joe Biden because of what he was.  I voted against him because of what I thought he wasn’t.  Joe Biden is currently 79 years old and will be within a couple of weeks of being 82 in November of 2024 if he decides to run again.  In 2020 I didn’t think he was a dynamic, energetic, astute man capable of taking on one of the toughest jobs on earth.  In fact, he spent most of his campaign hiding in his basement, not answering questions even from the friendly media that was more than willing to fawn over him.  

Joe is also NOT a uniter.  He has now finally taken his “unity” mask off and revealed to the country exactly who he is.  He is a divider at every opportunity.  In his inaugural speech, unity was a main theme.  Some could argue that it was THE main theme.  That gave me a glimmer of hope that this old political dog could actually learn a couple of new tricks.  First, maybe he was actually telling the truth and, second, maybe he was planning to work with the minority party, which is what this election demanded.  With a 50-50 Senate and a razor thin majority in the House the only “mandate” that could have been suggested is a mandate for cooperation.  But Joe finally and thoroughly snuffed out that hope when, according to his staff, he declared he, “no longer plans to work with Republicans.”  These are not the words of unity but of a repressive, authoritarian and possibly paranoid administration.

And finally, we can now all be certain that our President is not an economist.  I was watching the news late last week when President Biden came on and announced that his plan to solve our inflation problem was to raise taxes on greedy corporations and the ultra-rich billionaires in our country.  I turned to my wife and said, “What the heck does that have to do with solving inflation?”  OK, for those who know me well, I didn’t say “heck”.  

If Milton Friedman had still been alive, I’m sure he would have refuted that thinking, but thankfully, this statement was so ridiculous that even the left-wing owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, had to reject it.  Bezos said, and I quote, “maybe they (the Whitehouse, the Dems, whatever) need to form a new non sequitur board instead.”  BTW – non sequitur refers to a statement that does not logically follow from or is not clearly related to anything previous said.  In other words, an illogical statement.  Bezos continued by saying, “Raising corporate taxes is fine to discuss.  Taming inflation is critical to discuss.  Mushing them together is just misdirection.” 

In this case, I have to agree with Bezos.  Taxing the rich is a pathetic appeal to low-income people in America in an effort to buy their votes.  It suggests that somehow our government will take that money from the ultra-rich and give it to them.  That, of course, will never happen.  But even if it did, it would not have any impact on inflation. That move does not decrease the money supply and if anything, it reduces the productivity of the country by encouraging people not to go back to work.  Increasing the taxes on corporations could also lead to an increase in unemployment as those companies adjust to protect their profitability.  

Joe can say the craziest things, so we as citizens of this country have to think hard about what he is saying and the implications that his policies will have on our lives.  And there is at least one more thing the Joe isn’t.  He just told us that he is not “a mind reader” in answer to what he could have done about the baby formula shortage we are currently experiencing in the country today.  The Abbott production facility at the center of this scarcity was closed in January.  Joe received at least one letter from Congresswoman Elise Stefanik in February warning about the shortage that was about to happen.  Maybe Joe needs to be a lip-reader, or turn up his hearing aid or just read his damn mail.  If he had, we might not even have had to suffer through this chaotic shortage caused by government incompetence.

What America needs is a President who IS a number of things.  He should be a uniting influence in The United States of America.  He or she needs to recognize the kindness, generosity and strength of the vast majority of American people instead of constantly magnifying the tiny thimble full of deplorables that exist here and throughout the world.  That person needs to listen to and work with the minority party which represents half of the country as the 2020 elections suggest.  He needs to be a great communicator to clearly speak to the American people and reassure them that the country is heading in the right direction.  Our President also needs to be wise, and support policies that will move us forward. Embrace an “all of the above” energy policy to bring down the price of gas today and invest in renewables for the future.  Secure our southern border, so that we can even begin thinking about what to do with the people who are already here in our country illegally.  Our President should project a positive vision for the country and the policies that will deliver it instead of an angry old man who is trying to blame everyone else for our problems.  President Biden quoted Harry Truman early is his Presidency when he said, “the buck stops here”.  It’s time he started to deliver on that promise.  

Roe, Roe, Roe Your Vote

 

The current administration finds itself in a dilemma.  They have no real accomplishments to run on.  They are underwater in the polls on almost every issue that Americans care about such as the economy, border security, inflation and crime.  Thus, they are grasping at straws for any issue that might help them in November, and along came Roe v Wade.  And now the far left is on a campaign of fearmongering, hatred, violence and even misinformation to excite their base.  Too bad the newly proposed Ministry of Truth isn’t up and running with its proposed leader Nina “Mary Poppins” Jankowicz.

So maybe the first thing we should clear up is – what did Justice Blackmun say in his majority opinion on Roe v Wade.  First, Blackmun defendeded the rights of states to limit abortions.  He, in fact, wrote, “a State may properly assert important interests in safeguarding health, in maintaining medical standards, and in protecting potential life.”  He also did NOT support abortion on demand with no limits, as is the Democrat Party position.  His actual words were, “the right (to an abortion), nonetheless, is not absolute and is subject to some limitations; and that at some point the state interests as to protection of health, medical standards, and prenatal life, become dominant.”

Next, we should clear up what Justice Alito said in his draft.  Many people, maybe most, believe that an overturn of Roe v Wade will make abortion illegal across the country.  Alito, however, made it very clear that the decision on abortion will simply be transferred to the states, where most constitutional scholars, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, believe it should rest.  Currently, abortion is not illegal in ANY state in the union.  Half of the states limit abortions to what has been defined as “viability”.  18 more states limit it to 20 weeks, which is very close to the viability definition (today), but the remaining seven have no limit.  So, the Alito draft does not make abortion illegal.  Far from it.  Maybe Mary Poppins should be singing about that little piece of misinformation.

The leak of Justice Alito’s draft opinion, which has been argued to be criminal, has unleashed other illegal activity by the alt-left.  Certainly, we can all understand that vandalism and destruction of property is criminal, but there are also laws that protect the Supreme Court Justices and churches from harassment and intimidation, and those laws are being violated as I write this article.  I believe this administration will lose ground with all but their most rabid base if they do not vociferously condemn these actions.  A single tweet by Jen Psaki will not cut it.  

Now, what does the Alito draft opinion actually say.  First, it suggests that Roe v Wade was bad law from the beginning and in that respect compares it to Plessy v Ferguson, which codified the “separate but equal” concept.  Plessy was passed by a 7-1 vote back in 1896 and stood as a precedent until it was overturned almost 60 years later in 1954 through the Brown v The Board of Education unanimous opinion.

Alito also suggests that Roe was passed in 1973 by ignoring precedents set in the states.  He suggested that to create a Constitutional right controlled at the federal level, that right had to be “rooted in our Nation's history and tradition”.  In 1973, no state in the Union had recognized that right, and Blackmun simply failed to point that out in his opinion.  Since that time, however, every state has created that right with its own limitations in mind, and that is where that decision should lie.  Alito made it clear that abortion rights were not being eliminated, but simply given to the states.  

He also made it clear that this decision did NOT apply to any other rights currently claimed in this country. The fearmongering and misinformation about other rights that could be eliminated, like interracial marriage, birth control and same-sex marriage is patently absurd.  Alito’s actual words were, "Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion".  Ask Justice Thomas, who has been part of an interracial marriage since 1987, if he would vote to overturn the national right for interracial marriage.

One more challenge that should be made to bring some sanity to this discussion is the assertion by the pro-abortion community that it is “my body, my choice”.  The reality is that the baby in the mother’s womb is a completely different and unique DNA that has never existed before and will never exist again.  It is not the mother’s body, and she and the rest of society have a responsibility to protect it.  The yet to be born are the truly voiceless.

It is my opinion that all of this misinformation about the fate of abortion rights in America will not work for the Dems because the vast majority of the American people do not align with their position of abortion on demand up to the time of birth.  Almost 70% of the country believe in limiting abortion to the first trimester (12 - 13 weeks).  Remember the Mississippi law would prohibit abortion after 15 weeks with exceptions for the life of the mother.  Only 7% of the country believe in completely unrestricted tax payer funded abortions, which is the Democrat Party position.  When the truth gets out, which is the responsibility of Republicans, Democrats will find that their last hope for an issue they can rally their base around has alluded them.