tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37766657035905642482024-03-19T04:48:29.734-04:00Return To ExcellenceA libertarian web log dedicated to stopping the Death Of Democracy of the American Republic.ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.comBlogger1083125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-48676517247429749702024-03-14T00:08:00.000-04:002024-03-14T00:17:31.723-04:00Grocery Store Quiz<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">It is pleasing to have recently discussed some of the quizzes presented from time to time with subscribers who use them as an opportunity to monitor & participate in their children's education - & even to improve their own education. One mother told me she wants to make sure she knows how to correctly answer the quiz herself before presenting it to her daughter who is in the eighth grade.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">My friend Anne Neal, past president of ACTA, told me more than once that people love quizzes. And this is borne out in that five of the top ten most read posts on <a href="http://www.returntoexcellence.net" target="_blank">RTE</a> worldwide recently have been quizzes. The <a href="https://www.returntoexcellence.net/2017/12/rockefeller-center-christmas-store-quiz.html" style="color: #9e5205; font-size: small; letter-spacing: -1px;" target="_blank"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Rockefeller Center Christmas Store Quiz</font></a> tops the list & the old favorite <a href="https://www.returntoexcellence.net/2015/07/water-bucket-quiz.html" style="color: #9e5205; font-size: small; letter-spacing: -1px;" target="_blank"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Water Bucket Quiz</font></a> is in the top ten more often than not.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">So let's try one that is very timely - the Grocery Store Quiz. I will post all correct answers or alternatively will send the correct answer privately to anyone who requests it if no one gets the right answer to the quiz below.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><u>Grocery Store Quiz</u></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">Consider the following graph that shows the changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for groceries, dining out, & all items from January, 2020 to & including January 2024.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0otdF8k9tX7G6OkNCZxsvD2YM_3iTMmKK6zJ1e6CzaKI8BVZ1dvTnWerZNmGtdUmT7EWnXGp0Ea1fvrtPfNrfyuPS1bFImPM38AyMUI5wJUQazuJ_glUyZHYVODpcntNxwapzB00jY-9QjOhg7H3MKZQEEMrI11YbfHCtyw4siTCaSGW5AYUf7hseyRs"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7346066393969891634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0otdF8k9tX7G6OkNCZxsvD2YM_3iTMmKK6zJ1e6CzaKI8BVZ1dvTnWerZNmGtdUmT7EWnXGp0Ea1fvrtPfNrfyuPS1bFImPM38AyMUI5wJUQazuJ_glUyZHYVODpcntNxwapzB00jY-9QjOhg7H3MKZQEEMrI11YbfHCtyw4siTCaSGW5AYUf7hseyRs=s320" /></a></font><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Fed reports that the Grocery CPI was 261.057 for January, 2020 & 327.327 for January, 2024. If groceries increased in price by 3.78% from January, 2020 to January, 2021 what was the change in price from January, 2021 to January, 2024 of a basket of groceries that cost $75.00 in January 2020?</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br /></font></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-89161919887820677452024-02-27T00:17:00.000-05:002024-03-06T02:04:09.989-05:00Biden & Trump Bring Different Dangers To America<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Special counsel <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report-from-special-counsel-robert-k-hur-february-2024.pdf" target="_blank">Robert Hur's 388 page report</a> entitled " Report on the Investigation Into Unauthorized Removal, Retention, & Disclosure of Classified Documents Discovered <a class="gmail_plusreply" id="m_5000759290229708658m_8346628025788423363m_-3540130329882880315m_1385066275906122569m_-3215021586221951938m_-5721610786645740749m_7695390177099786932m_-1017316185940250331m_-2387846007951533452m_5336920054345581647m_4890981393890902412m_3702896438651181946m_3870634893310563065m_1212380173312927096m_-2678553819804081989m_1739764947705646636plusReplyChip-2">@</a> Locations Including the Penn Biden Center & the Delaware Private Residence of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.," documented the findings of his investigation of Biden's mishandling of classified documents over decades. The first sentence of the Executive Summary stated "that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter." </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But instead of feeling joy & relief @ this conclusion Biden was furious @ the reference found twice in the report that he was an <span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">"elderly man with a poor memory"</span> who could not remember the starting & ending dates of his vice presidency or even within several years the date his son Beau died.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Around 7 PM Thursday, February 8 the enraged Biden called a press conference for 7:45 PM in which he intended to prove to the world "I know what the hell I'm doing."</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Biden looked unusually feeble going to the podium in his usual old-man shuffling gait & after giving an angry speech took questions in which his answers 1) mistakenly referred to the President of Mexico when he meant Egypt regarding human aid in Gaza, 2) absentmindedly referred to his late son Beau - <span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">"Let me tell you something. Some of you have commented. I wear, since the day he died every single day, the rosary he got from our Lady of …" & then was not able to finish the sentence, 3) emphatically stated that </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">"I said I'm gonna be a president for everybody, whether you live in a red state or a green state," & 4) finally turned to the Democrat safe issue of abortion &</span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;"> promptly misnamed the "Roe v. Wade" case as "Roe v. Ward" as in Montgomery Ward & Co.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">Not a performance that portrayed the desired image of a strong energetic man in control but rather one of a confused "</span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">elderly man with a poor memory" who </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">exhibited "diminished faculties" & "significant limitations" - exactly how the report he was trying to undo had described him.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">Hur's accurate report had struck a nerve & forced Biden out of hiding into center stage of public view - a place his wife & handlers have successfully avoided for him for four years for obvious reasons to us all. </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">Witness: no formal news conference in 4 months, no news conference in three months (in which he took 4 questions), no pre Super Bowl interview, & no addresses after winning the South Carolina primary or ordering attacks on Houthis & Iranian proxies, or showing any public leadership regarding the southwest border, Ukraine, Israel, or Taiwan. List compiled by Karl Rove except for reference to Taiwan.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">Biden also recently claimed to have talked twice to </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017 & </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">former French President Francois Mitterrand who died in 1996.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#505050" face="sans-serif"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">On Sunday, three days after the Biden press conference an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted February 9 & 10 found 86% of voters think Biden is "too old" to serve another term. I think the quickly called press conference proved that Biden is not up to finishing this current term.</span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#505050" face="sans-serif"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#505050" face="sans-serif"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But Trump is not off the hook either - the same ABC/Ipsos poll found that 62% of the voters think Trump (3.5 years younger than Biden) is "too old" to serve another term as president & an NBC News poll conducted January 26 -30 found 48% had concerns that Trump does not have the mental & physical health to be president for a second term. </span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#505050" face="sans-serif"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #505050;">At a rally in Concord, NH on January 19 Trump confused Pelosi & Nikki when he told the crowd, speaking incorrectly about the Speaker being in charge of security during the riots <a class="gmail_plusreply" id="m_-7680105333527308615m_5000759290229708658m_8346628025788423363m_-3540130329882880315m_1385066275906122569m_-3215021586221951938m_-5721610786645740749plusReplyChip-1" style="color: #222222;">@</a> the Capitol on January 6, 2021</span><span style="color: #505050;"> that </span><span style="color: #2b2c30;">“Because of lots of things … like Nikki Haley is in charge of security — we offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down." I always maintained that if it was thought that 10,000 National Guardsmen were required to ensure security @ the Capitol on January 6 that the entire protest rally should have been called off just because it was thought to be that unsafe.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #2b2c30;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b2c30;">During a campaign speech in Derry, NH on October 23, 2023 Trump confused the leaders of Hungary & Turkey when he said </span><span style="color: #2b2c30;">“- there’s a man, Viktor Orbán, anybody ever </span>hear<span style="color: #2b2c30;"> of him? He’s probably like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world.</span><span style="color: #2b2c30;"> He’s the leader of Turkey.” Of course Orban is the Prime Minister of Hungary. </span><span style="color: #2b2c30;">This Trump snafu is similar to Biden mixing up the presidents of Mexico & Egypt @ the press conference above. But Trump went on to say that Orban's country shared a border with Russia - which neither Hungary or Turkey do.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b2c30;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><span style="color: #2b2c30;">Trump & Biden also have in common that they have not participated in any debates. This only obscures their platforms so that voters really do not know the substance of their positions. </span><span style="color: #2b2c30;">Without the discipline of participating in a debate with Pence, Christie, or Nikki - three people who worked for him & could rebut his answers - Trump has instead roamed the country speaking to adoring audiences @ rallies making all kinds of claims like 1) saying Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he was president (although he misstated this @ the February 10 rally @ Coastal Carolina University saying the Russian invasion "would've never happened with Putin" when he meant to say "with me")</span></span><span><span style="color: #2b2c30;">, 2</span><span style="color: #2b2c30;">) being able to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours if he becomes president, 3) saying there would not have been an attack by Hamas in Israel on</span><span style="color: #505050;"> October 7 if he had been president, & 4) saying that Iran proxies would not have killed three of our military personnel in Jordan if he was president hoping that everyone would forget that in June, 2019 Iran shot down </span><span style="color: black;">a U.S. military asset (RQ-4A Global Hawk drone) flying over the Straits of Hormuz saying @ the time it "may not have been intentional"</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;">but a "mistake" by someone "loose & stupid." </span></span><span style="color: #2b2c30;">And all this from a man who campaigned primarily in 2016 on building a southwest border wall with Mexico paying for it, yet he couldn't get it done. If there really is a plan for ending the war in 24 hours wouldn't it be best to share it now?</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b2c30;"><br /></span></span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #2b2c30; font-family: times; font-size: large;">In line with not presenting the plan to end the misery of the Ukraine war in 24 hours Trump also discourages Republicans working on a southwest border security measure, preferring to wait for him to campaign on Biden's impeachable immigration record while the country continues to be overrun by illegal aliens.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #2b2c30; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face=""Graphik Web",sans-serif" style="color: #2b2c30;">Trump's image as a fighter took a hit when he called for giving Bud Light a second chance after they showed their new WOKE colors & never apologized to consumers for abandoning their apolitical sports emphasis </span><span face=""Graphik Web",sans-serif" style="color: #2b2c30;">in favor of a </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">transgender influencer spokesman that changed the company image @ a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Why would you want to help these types of companies, by giving them the lifeblood of a second chance, when we are finally seeing a little glimmer of ridding ourselves of all the critical theories meant to destroy America?</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;">And last & maybe the worst is Trump saying, regarding NATO members not meeting their financial commitments, that he would "in fact . . . encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want" to such NATO members because "No, I would not protect you." Is a campaign rally 8 months before the election the way to handle NATO finances in a tinderbox world with an inept U.S. president who does not have the mental wherewithal to face a court in a documents case?</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;">It is this coarseness & terribly poor judgement that I am afraid will permeate Trump's second term even more than the first term if he wins - a condition that makes Trump's potential victory more dangerous to America than Biden's.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;">Consider two leading candidates vying to be Trump's VP - NY Congresswoman Elise Stefanik & Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Both have not only supported the stolen election lie but have indicated they would not have done what Pence did on January 6 & presumably as vice president would have found a way for Trump to have won the 2020 presidential election. Vance outrageously said that "I would have told the states . . . that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, & I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there." </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050;"> </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #505050; font-family: times; font-size: large;">You don't want these people anywhere near positions of power in our government where they could abuse our glorious Constitution. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #505050; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-10289444946428670382024-02-11T23:04:00.000-05:002024-02-11T23:23:28.442-05:00Argentina's Milei & Heritage's Roberts @ The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting - 2024<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The 54th annual, invitation only, meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) was held in Davos, Switzerland from January 15 to 19, 2024. The theme this year was "Rebuilding Trust." </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Click here to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xS5IoyoGqg&t=348s" target="_blank">hear WEF Founder Klaus Schwab's opening remarks</a> that address what he calls the "<span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">deeply transformative challenges" of</span> "<span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">inequalities and uncertainties that threaten the very fabric of our societies" & "</span><span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">the relentless challenges of climate change, a threat to our planet's delicate balance." The uncertainty, fear, & </span> <span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">pessimism</span> <span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">of remedying these challenges, & others, as the WEF sees fit, "</span><span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">erodes the trust we place in our ability to shape a better world" that leads</span><span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;"> to the "</span><span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">need(ed) paradigm shift" that "rebuilds trust" & the "</span><span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">fundamental need to embody trusteeship, which means to care for the greater good" & "</span><span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">exercising our trusteeship individually and collectively for safeguarding the future of humanity & nature."</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">In other words, twelve minutes into the annual WEF meeting, we see that the agenda of these global elite busy bodies is to influence & control the lives of people all over a world that "</span><span face="AkkuratLLWeb,sans-serif" style="color: black;">compels us to think beyond borders."</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="arial,sans-serif">The WEF is a self proclaimed independent international organization that is </span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">committed to improving the state of the world & promoting true global leadership through its progressive ideas highlighted <a class="gmail_plusreply" id="m_502811649377045086m_2936575890905601497m_-3261633642900587004m_8235718615643088870m_1692571689130950572m_-8327445345838236501m_7052608526606702756m_-3566467214087479569m_6648387802505580482plusReplyChip-1">@</a> the Davos meeting & operating the other 51 weeks of the year from its headquarters in Cologny, Switzerland. Its mission statement says that the WEF </span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">"engages business, political, academic & other leaders of society to shape global, regional, & industry agendas."</span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><font color="#4d5156">Attendees totaled over 2,700 people made up of the heads of WEF's 1,000 partner companies, public figures, chiefs of international organizations, society leaders, academics, & highly acclaimed "top thinkers." The list included</font><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;"> </span><span face="arial,sans-serif"><span style="color: #040c28;">Li Qiang, Premier of the People's Republic of China; Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission; & Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy</span><span style="color: #4d5156;">. Viola Amherd, President of the Swiss Confederation for 2024, also offered welcoming remarks that are included in the link above.</span></span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times;"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;">Now the only reason I was not surprised when I learned</span></span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156; font-size: large;"> that Argentina's President Javier Milei was invited to speak @ the meeting was because I had learned from Glenn Beck</span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156; font-size: large;"> that Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, had been scheduled to appear a week before I knew Milei was coming. Both men are authentic principled champions of the <i>Blessings of Liberty</i> from which economic freedom & its resultant prosperity naturally flow from unrestricted human endeavor -</span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156; font-size: large;"> so @ least the attendees heard two points of view 180 degrees from the usual progressive dribble they hear at every other WEF annual meeting.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;">The question is how much of what the attendees heard from Dr. Roberts & President Milei sticks with them & for that matter how much of what you read in this post you are able to do something with.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Kevin Roberts believes that he was invited to the WEF meeting to add credibility to the "Rebuilding Trust" theme - i.e., the WEF thought Roberts would courteously agree with the majority of their platform & maybe offer a few tweaks thereby showing the world that a major American think tank supported & trusted the WEF. If the same thinking was used to invite Javier Milei it shows how little the WEF knows these men.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #4d5156;">Roberts' remarks focused on "</span><span style="color: #111d22;">taking away the power of the unelected bureaucrats and giving it back to the American people." He said "</span><span style="color: #111d22;">The administrative state is the greatest threat to democracy in the United States, and we need to end it. "</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;"> </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">Milei's message is that too many world leaders, including those in attendance, are rejecting the empirical evidence that since 1800 the world has been ridden of 90% of its poverty thanks to free enterprise capitalism - an economic system that has given us the greatest expansion of wealth & prosperity in human history. T</span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">he continuing advocacy of socialism will eventually impoverish the world again - poverty being the economic condition of the world </span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">for all but the past 225 years.</span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">Click here to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5rV5aVRYeg" target="_blank">hear Kevin Roberts go scorched earth on globalist elites</a> in a compelling candid presentation. First, Dr. Roberts called it "laughable that anyone would describe Davos as protecting liberal democracy" after </span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">his elite moderator stated that the people who come to the WEF in Davos stand up for liberal democracy. Second, after listing five points covering 1) open borders & illegal immigrants robbing Americans of their way of life, 2) crime & public safety not only endangering Americans' way of life, but their lives, 3) the solutions to the supposed existential crisis called climate change costing more human lives than the problem themselves, 4) the WEF @ Davos not only doesn't call out China as the number 1 adversary to free people on Earth but actually gives the Chinese Communist Party a platform, & 5) the World Health Organization is discussing foisting gender ideology on the global self -- </span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">Dr. Roberts stated that "Joe Biden has done a God awful job of articulating what is best for the American citizen." Then most pointedly he concluded that "every single member of a new administration needs to </span><span face="arial,sans-serif">have a</span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;"> list of everything that has ever been proposed @ the WEF & object to all of them - wholesale." </span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;">But Javier Milei was the headliner of the Davos WEF meeting - first by flying economy class on a scheduled commercial flight (</span><span face=""Work Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #181818;">Lufthansa from Buenos Aires to Zurich via Frankfurt) that Milei calculates saved the Argentine government $392,000 in travel costs. See photo below.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face=""Work Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #181818; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiw0vEatgLqoOuxWNBkp_ybt-qXk_dSVuzzUo7Y8xBWIxh3EeFNvWxXwFnAbnT9TWL2zytPabQc4blFHPyiuhcIFysVJW5NgRqaV217xbifrHMmvGTfnp0zKJA3Ms9jVXzRrXZ7iAkdcF2qRJqYvV2ywkEf_uqIHm7JrCfeb-O0MmZFEDSywjAtrEZpq0Q"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7334561745999362690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiw0vEatgLqoOuxWNBkp_ybt-qXk_dSVuzzUo7Y8xBWIxh3EeFNvWxXwFnAbnT9TWL2zytPabQc4blFHPyiuhcIFysVJW5NgRqaV217xbifrHMmvGTfnp0zKJA3Ms9jVXzRrXZ7iAkdcF2qRJqYvV2ywkEf_uqIHm7JrCfeb-O0MmZFEDSywjAtrEZpq0Q=s320" /></a><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/live/Pfcd0gWNIog?si%3DEIQZiZfrQldcPw1k%26t%3D242&source=gmail&ust=1707797122556000&usg=AOvVaw0_7vNxNbjmYEHW0Loi0zIb" href="https://www.youtube.com/live/Pfcd0gWNIog?si=EIQZiZfrQldcPw1k&t=242" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Milei's speech @ Davos</a> was delivered on January 17, 2024 to polite applause that showed the audience heard his refreshing message that emphasized America's founding principles of limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The theme of the speech was that the Western World is in danger of abandoning freedom for socialism, & thereby descending into poverty, saying "The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself," & that a return to excellence of libertarianism where "economic freedom, limited government and unlimited respect for private property are essential elements for economic growth" that will cast off "<span style="color: black;">the political caste or the parasites that live off the state."</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Below are key excerpts from the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nationalpost.com/opinion/read-javier-mileis-entire-speech-to-the-wef-debunking-socialism&source=gmail&ust=1707797122556000&usg=AOvVaw1yqjioNw3vTg4Vlj-_lBZW" href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/read-javier-mileis-entire-speech-to-the-wef-debunking-socialism" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">English transcript of Milei's speech</a>. Also, </span><span style="color: black;">WSJ Editor in Chief, Emma Tucker flew to Argentina to interview Milei on January 27 - click here to <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsj.com/video/exclusive-argentine-president-milei-says-there's-no-plan-b-for-economy/553AA5B2-E861-4942-A852-E89BF4D203CE?mod%3Ddjem10point&source=gmail&ust=1707797122556000&usg=AOvVaw3arQGX2l08yGGiZah1001g" href="https://www.wsj.com/video/exclusive-argentine-president-milei-says-there's-no-plan-b-for-economy/553AA5B2-E861-4942-A852-E89BF4D203CE?mod=djem10point" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">watch a video of this interview</a> where Milei dismissed any idea of failure of his plan to restore Argentina to economic health & prosperity by saying "there is no Plan B."</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">1) <i>Socialism versus capitalism</i>: </span>We’re here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause. Do believe me: no one is in a better place than us, Argentines, to testify to these two points.</span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times" size="5"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>Thirty five years after we adopted the model of freedom, back in 1860, we became a leading world power. And when we embraced collectivism over the course of the last 100 years, we saw how our citizens started to become systematically impoverished, and we dropped to spot number 140 globally.</span><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br /></font></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">It should never be forgotten that socialism is always and everywhere an impoverishing phenomenon that has failed in all countries where it's been tried out. It's been a failure economically, socially, culturally and it also murdered over 100 million human beings.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">2) <i>Free enterprise capitalism is the cure for poverty</i>: </span><span style="font-size: large;">But before having the discussion, it would first be important for us to take a look at the data that demonstrates why free enterprise capitalism is not just the only possible system to end world poverty, but also that it's the only morally desirable system to achieve this.</span></span></div><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; width: 1px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Article content</span></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">If we look at the history of economic progress, we can see how between the year zero and the year 1800 approximately, world per capita GDP practically remained constant throughout the whole reference period.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">If you look at a graph of the evolution of economic growth throughout the history of humanity, you would see a hockey stick graph, an exponential function that remained constant for 90 per cent of the time and which was exponentially triggered starting in the 19th century.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now, it's not just that capitalism brought about an explosion in wealth from the moment it was adopted as an economic system, but also, if you look at the data, what you will see is that growth continues to accelerate throughout the whole period.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This trend, far from stopping, remains well alive today. If we take the period between the years 2000 and 2023, the growth rate again accelerated to three per cent a year, which means that we could double world per capita GDP in just 23 years.<br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">That said, when you look at per capita GDP since the year 1800 until today, what you will see is that after the Industrial Revolution, global per capita GDP multiplied by over 15 times, which meant a boom in growth that lifted 90 per cent of the global population out of poverty.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">We should remember that by the year 1800, about 95 per cent of the world's population lived in extreme poverty. And that figure dropped to five per cent by the year 2020, prior to the pandemic. The conclusion is obvious.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">3) <i>Individualism versus collectivism</i>: </span>Far from being the cause of our problems, free trade capitalism as an economic system is the only instrument we have to end hunger, poverty and extreme poverty across our planet. The empirical evidence is unquestionable.<br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Therefore, since there is no doubt that free enterprise capitalism is superior in productive terms, the left-wing doxa<span class="gmail_default"> (public opinion)</span> has attacked capitalism, alleging matters of morality, saying — that's what the detractors claim — that it's unjust. They say that capitalism is evil because it's individualistic and that collectivism is good because it's altruistic. Of course, with the money of others.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So they therefore advocate for social justice. But this concept, which in the developed world became fashionable in recent times, in my country has been a constant in political discourse for over 80 years. The problem is that social justice is not just, and it doesn't contribute to general well-being.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Quite on the contrary, it's an intrinsically unfair idea because it's violent. It's unjust because the state is financed through tax and taxes are collected coercively. Or can any one of us say that we voluntarily pay taxes? This means that the state is financed through coercion and that the higher the tax burden, the higher the coercion and the lower the freedom.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">4) <i>Universities & media promote poverty</i>: </span>So how come academia, international organizations, economic theorists and politicians demonize an economic system that has not only lifted 90 per cent of the world's population out of extreme poverty but has continued to do this faster and faster?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Thanks to free trade capitalism, the world is now living its best moment. Never in all of mankind or humanity’s history has there been a time of more prosperity than today. This is true for all. The world of today has more freedom, is rich, more peaceful and prosperous. This is particularly true for countries that have more economic freedom and respect the property rights of individuals.<br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Countries that have more freedom are 12 times richer than those that are repressed. The lowest percentile in free countries is better off than 90 per cent of the population in repressed countries. Poverty is 25 times lower and extreme poverty is 50 times lower. And citizens in free countries live 25 percent longer than citizens in repressed countries.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default">5) <i>Libertarianism</i>: </span></font><span>Now what is it that we mean when we talk about libertarianism? And let me quote the words of the greatest authority on freedom in Argentina, Professor Alberto Benegas Lynch Jr, who says that libertarianism is the unrestricted respect for the life project of others based on the principle of non-aggression, in defence of the right to life, liberty and property.</span><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br /></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">Its fundamental institutions are private property, markets free from state intervention, free competition, and the division of labour and social cooperation, in which success is achieved only by serving others with goods of better quality or at a better price.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In other words, capitalist successful business people are social benefactors who, far from <span class="gmail_default"></span>appropriating<span class="gmail_default"> (seizing or taking)</span> the wealth of others, contribute to the general well-being. Ultimately, a successful entrepreneur is a hero.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And this is the model that we are advocating for the Argentina of the future. A model based on the fundamental principle of libertarianism. The defence of life, of freedom and of property.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">6) <i>Radical feminist agenda</i>: </span>The first of these new battles was the ridiculous and unnatural fight between man and woman. Libertarianism already provides for equality of the sexes. The cornerstone of our creed is that all humans are created equal and that we all have the same inalienable rights granted by the Creator, including life, freedom and ownership.<br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">All that the radical feminist agenda has led to is greater state intervention to hinder economic progress, giving jobs to bureaucrats who have not contributed anything to society. Examples are ministries of women or international organizations devoted to promoting this agenda.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">7) <i>Humans against nature - climate change</i>: </span>Another conflict presented by socialists is that of humans against nature, claiming that we human beings damage a planet which should be protected at all costs, even going as far as advocating for population control mechanisms or the abortion agenda.<br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Unfortunately, these harmful ideas have taken a stronghold in our society. Neo-Marxists have managed to co-opt the common sense of the Western world, and this they have achieved by appropriating the media, culture, universities and also international organizations.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The latter case is the most serious one, probably because these are institutions that have enormous influence on the political and economic decisions of their member states.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Fortunately there's more and more of us who are daring to make our voices heard, because we see that if we don't truly and decisively fight against these ideas, the only possible fate is for us to have increasing levels of state regulation, socialism, poverty and less freedom, and therefore, worse standards of living.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">8) <i>The market value</i>: </span>The problem with Neoclassicals is that the model they fell in love with does not map reality, so they put down their mistakes to supposed market failures rather than reviewing the premises of the model.<br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default"></span>Under the pretext of a supposed market failure, regulations are introduced. These regulations create distortions in the price system, prevent economic calculus, and therefore also prevent saving, investment and growth.<br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This problem lies mainly in the fact that not even supposed libertarian economists understand what the market is because if they did understand, it would quickly be seen that it's impossible for there to be market failures.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The market is not a mere graph describing a curve of supply and demand. The market is a mechanism for social cooperation, where you voluntarily exchange ownership rights. Therefore based on this definition, talking about a market failure is an oxymoron. There are no market failures.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">If transactions are voluntary, the only context in which there can be market failure is if there is coercion and the only one that is able to coerce generally is the state, which holds a monopoly on violence.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Consequently, if someone considers that there is a market failure, I would suggest that they check to see if there is state intervention involved. And if they find that that's not the case, I would suggest that they check again, because obviously there's a mistake. Market failures do not exist.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">9) <i>Conclusion</i>: . . . l</span>ong live freedom<span class="gmail_default">, damn it! </span></span></p><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: large; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; width: 1px;">A</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><div class="gmail_default"></div></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-20556569329485775472024-01-25T00:14:00.001-05:002024-01-25T00:35:41.198-05:00Both Trump & Biden Have Disqualified Themselves From The Presidency<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">"Instead of cost of living increases (based on the wage index) we do increases based on inflation." - Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley answering a question of how to preserve Social Security during the one on one Republican primary debate with Ron DeSantis on January 10, 2024.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">***</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Federal government spending is powered by Social Security & Medicare & unless the new president is willing to tackle these gargantuan entitlements our financial miseries will only get worse due to increased longevity of older American beneficiaries & the smaller payroll contributions of people unconcerned about working. Since both Trump & Biden offer no help saying they have no intention to address Social Security & Medicare entitlement funding @ all I was delighted when Nikki Haley offered the solution above to Social Security's funding shortfalls (namely, indexing the initial Social Security benefit formula to inflation instead of the wage index) that I have presented for years, most recently in a letter published in the WSJ on November 16. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">During the December 9 WSJ weekend interview feature in NY, Editorial Board Member Kate Bachelder Odell presented the idea to Nikki of "basing adjustments on rising prices instead of rising wages—that could help address the shortfall with less political pain," Nikki admitted to being unfamiliar with the idea saying to an aide “That’s interesting. Remind me to look at that.”</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And look @ it she did - Nikki now supports the idea as indicated in her response above in the debate with DeSantis, who took a hands off approach, similar to Trump & Biden, to not touching Social Security. Very disappointing - DeSantis (no longer in the race) preferred to talk about not raising the age to receive benefits.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Nikki has come a long way from December 9 to January 10 on understanding the real solution to the Social Security funding issue that is one of the four top financial issues threatening to drag the country down. It is important for voters to understand it themselves.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The finances of Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid have been on a glide path to trouble & difficulty for seniors & the disabled for a long time. Combined entitlement spending on these three programs increased from 10.2% of GDP in 2000 to 23.1% in early 2021 - they, along with ObamaCare & CHIP comprise 46% of the federal budget. Nikki said during the debate "Knowing Social Security goes bankrupt in 10 years, Medicare goes bankrupt in eight—does that mean you’re going to go be president for eight years and leave it bankrupt? You can’t do that. You have to acknowledge we have a problem.” And of course Trump & Biden will not acknowledge the problem, preferring to play musical chairs hoping they are not the one standing (i.e., in office) when the music stops.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Nikki (& DeSantis) previously supported Paul Ryan's plan of replacing Medicare with a premium support system that bends the Medicare cost curve down over the years until the threat of this medical entitlement has disappeared as people come to not rely on the government @ all for their healthcare insurance coverage. Trump has disparaged the plan & Nikki (& DeSantis when he was in the race) for supporting it. The premium support plan replacing Medicare is the only real solution to the Medicare funding problem.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Since Trump would not sign the unity pledge required by the RNC he did not participate in any of the four primary candidate debates held in 2023 that were organized by the RNC. He was invited to the debate on January 10 organized by CNN but declined to attend - opting in all five cases to instead hold competing events like friendly rallies or a town hall on FNC in one case. Just imagine the information that voters could have learned if Trump would have participated in a debate with Christie, Pence, & Nikki - three people who worked for Trump & could have scrutinized & challenged his answers. So far Trump's no-show debate practice is tantamount to Biden hiding in his basement in 2020. Voters only know what he says he will do under the friendly environment of a fawning rally, including claiming to be able to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Since Trump never participated in any of the first five primary candidate debates we have to determine his policies by bits & pieces like I did above for Social Security & Medicare - mostly using attacks he has made on the other candidates to flush out where he stands on some issues.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">For instance, Trump has pointed out that Nikki (& DeSantis) supported a 23% national sales tax - calling that such a terrible idea that it alone should disqualify her from holding office. Now if that doesn't make the blood boil of every member of this readership who worked their fingers to the bone for the FairTax, HR-25 legislation, for several years when I was District Director & State Director I don't know what would. Trump knows so little about what he is talking about that he doesn't seem to realize that his Vice Presidential selection, Mike Pence, had been a FairTax congressional co-sponsor for several years before Trump selected him for VP. Implementation of the FairTax plan is the third real solution that America's economy is screaming for.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And of course there is the almost gratuitous issue of all politicians saying they support a balanced budget amendment as a way to end deficit spending of which Trump & Biden are the two biggest one-term deficit spenders in the country's history. The problem is that people like Biden, Schumer, Bernie, & Warren support a balanced budget of tremendous increases in spending coupled with tremendous increases in taxes that brings the budget into balance without any need for deficit spending. You will know you have a candidate who understands this issue when they say they want to "cut, cap, & balance" the budget - the fourth real solution proposed by Ken Blackwell & presented on <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.returntoexcellence.net&source=gmail&ust=1706246091267000&usg=AOvVaw30J5RjyklqgU-yybXSUJZ_" href="http://www.returntoexcellence.net/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">RTE</a> numerous times over the years. Other than Larry Elder, none of the candidates of any party has caught on to this principle.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Prior to the first Trump-Biden debate on September 29, 2020 I posted 14 questions (such as What is the significance of the national debt? & What is the maximum amount of a person's income anyone should ever have to pay to the federal government in income taxes?) that every American should know the answers to & that I had hoped would be asked to Trump & Biden. Although none of the specific questions were asked during the debate we have been able to determine by their records in office as well as their 2024 campaigning & attacks that both Trump & Biden have unsatisfactory answers.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Biden's entire presidency has been a deliberate violation of his oath to preserve, protect, & defend the Constitution. Since the early morning hours of November 4, following the election, Trump also forsook his oath to the Constitution - the low point of which was asking Pence to return, reject, overrule, or otherwise not accept electoral college votes from any or all states, even when no state had asked for their electoral ballots to be returned so they could be recertified to show Trump the winner.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Accordingly, both Trump & Biden have disqualified themselves from the presidency so we should look for others trying to earn our votes to do the job.</span></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"> </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-14621367535567129922024-01-09T00:23:00.006-05:002024-01-09T19:29:31.902-05:00Americans Don't Deserve Better Than A Trump-Biden Rematch<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">“Don’t believe anything you read on this web page or, for that matter, anything you hear on </span><em style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">The Neal Boortz Show</em><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> unless it is consistent with what you already know to be true, or unless you have taken the time to research the matter to prove its accuracy to your own satisfaction.” – a cautionary piece of advice that Neal Boortz regularly made on his live radio program & posted on his blog as he expressed his opinion on every controversial topic under the sun. It is this same common sense lesson I learned from Neal that I regularly encourage readers of </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.returntoexcellence.net/&source=gmail&ust=1704863390387000&usg=AOvVaw05PQ8AjvpQVPijO0keWG2y" href="http://www.returntoexcellence.net/" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #de7008;" target="_blank">RTE</a></span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> to use in reading this web log & everything else in life. I thought repeating Neal's advice was a good way to start 2024 before reading the first post of the new year below.</span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">***</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">"If we can't beat this guy we can't beat anybody." - Mark Levin @ the Reagan Library in California on October 21, 2023 speaking about the Republican Party & Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election. The comment is based on Americans recognizing & wanting to do something about Biden's pitiful anti-American record & his progressive policies purposely inflicted on America to transform the country during his presidency.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">***</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And of course Mark has reason to be concerned because two seemingly slam dunk elections in recent memory are still vivid GOP losses. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">First in 2022, Democrat John Fetterman beat Mehmet Oz in a flip of Republican Pat Toomey's Senate seat in Pennsylvania 2,747,601 votes (51.2%) to 2,484,096 votes (46.3%) for a difference of 263,505 votes. Fetterman had serious health issues before the election - a stroke & clinical depression that affects the ability to think clearly (Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed hospital for treatment of the depression after the election) - & magnified his personal problems with a <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/live/ovHLD5NSbBk?si%3DRJhGEwpgQH2I_gzf%26t%3D140&source=gmail&ust=1704863390388000&usg=AOvVaw1pYym0FC5wyrtLvKz3inKy" href="https://www.youtube.com/live/ovHLD5NSbBk?si=RJhGEwpgQH2I_gzf&t=140" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">normally disqualifying performance in a televised debate</a> due to his obvious inability to function under the daily strains a senator would face. Nevertheless Fetterman won Montgomery County outside of Philadelphia by 117,130 votes & Allegheny County which includes Pittsburgh by 163,241 votes meaning these two reliable Democrat strongholds' combined 280,371 vote difference was more than Fetterman's final margin of victory for the entire state. If Oz couldn't beat Fetterman, who could he beat?</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Second in 2012, BO won re-election over a hapless Romney. In September, 2012 Laura Ingraham said "If you can't beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the party. Shut it down. Start new, with new people." Laura referred to the 2012 presidential election as a "gimmee election" for the GOP because BO's first term had been a failed presidency by any historical measure - like the unemployment rate that was always higher than the rate when he took office. BO went on to win the presidency 335 electoral votes (65,915,795 popular votes) to 206 electoral votes (60,933,504 popular votes) for Romney. In addition to unemployment, other issues of the day included BO seeing no limit to the role of government in people's lives, the national debt that was growing @ twice the rate of GW Bushes', raising tax rates, the murders of four Americans in the consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, & of course global warming & Iran's nuclear capabilities. If Romney couldn't beat BO, who could he beat?</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And now Biden's deliberate anti-American assault on the country is even worse, although BO was brazen enough to carry it as far as Biden has if time hadn't run out on him - BO could only fundamentally transform the country so much in eight years. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Within two hours of taking office Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline permit thereby signaling his support for the Green New Deal & his war on fossil fuels. Biden issued 29 executive orders & actions in his first 48 hours in office further signaling the socialist far left turn of the Democrat party that had supported defunding the police, established sanctuary cities & states to protect illegal immigrants from federal law enforcement, & had turned a blind eye to the night after night burning, looting, & destruction of innocent residencies & businesses in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, & Kenosha by Antifa & Black Lives Matter thugs. Those 29 initial executive orders & actions (increased to 52 in the first 20 days) revealed Biden's real agenda - a tremendous lurch to the progressive socialist left steeped in Green New Deal incentives & policies aimed @ making America weak by encouraging government dependence on its citizenry instead of the liberty that produces wealth & value. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Biden's Executive Order on Preventing & Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation required that biological boys (i.e., transgender females) who self identify as girls be allowed to compete on girls' sports teams whether they had sex reassignment surgery or not, thereby ending the dreams of many young women with no comment from feminists as usual. Democrat womens' organizations have way more than womens' rights on their agenda.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Biden placed a 100 day halt on deporting illegal aliens including felons with final orders of removal in a direct violation of his oath to enforce the immigration laws of the U.S. This mindset resulted in 7,078,253 (including a record 302,000 in December not shown in the table below) southwest land border encounters by the CBP (U.S. Customs & Border Protection) from February, 2021 through December, 2023 - see table below. Click on table to enlarge.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVz94OFVoIOODl7_n3t-IpagJNyz_I-HzNmXU7lXMy9O4AccZdUwhIHGj1F-jpf08LDH2TiDEl7bvxD1jo2i3yz7l31vnP50bpUBCGNwRRpynFqjOdWZmno9RboMaMaWZb_da-v8S1jBGWBh59iWe4Z_RfV2o2BNyJvow2wG5Wq5xUoCz8nbQWs8yRWNw/s777/AAImmigrationStats.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="777" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVz94OFVoIOODl7_n3t-IpagJNyz_I-HzNmXU7lXMy9O4AccZdUwhIHGj1F-jpf08LDH2TiDEl7bvxD1jo2i3yz7l31vnP50bpUBCGNwRRpynFqjOdWZmno9RboMaMaWZb_da-v8S1jBGWBh59iWe4Z_RfV2o2BNyJvow2wG5Wq5xUoCz8nbQWs8yRWNw/s320/AAImmigrationStats.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span><span>Note the tremendous immediate increase in these encounters under Biden who had</span></span></span><span> incentivized tens of thousands of the poorest, lowest skilled, least educated people from Central America, all originally wearing Biden T-shirts (with virtually none of them even knowing who he was), to come to our southwest border to pursue admission to the U.S. to take advantage of the 126 welfare programs identified by the Cato Institute - & to vote Democrat out of appreciation for being allowed entry into the country.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>On the one year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic coming to America, Biden signed the </span><span>American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law providing a $1.9 trillion Covid induced stimulus right on top of Trump's even larger $3.6 trillion stimulus during the first Covid year. Both Trump & Biden's spending included direct payments to individuals (e.g., $8,400 for a family of two adults & four small children) & many other giveaways like </span>14 weeks of paid sick, family, & medical leave<span>. Due to the lockdowns people had limited places to spend that money & a so called excess savings of over $2.5 trillion had been built </span><span>up (the amount above what would have been saved if there was no pandemic) </span>that resulted in pent up demand, that the consumer is still spending today, that coincided with inflation starting to rise the first full month after Biden took office. The inflation rate outpaced wage growth from April, 2021 to February, 2023 - virtually the entire first two years of Biden's administration. See graphic below. Click on graphic to enlarge.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1HdEQuYhMs4WH5EOESRUHPKaMsyk5RaHHgsfHWOQSIyemTsbIp2SwPsp_lx7W_5SqV-_93obplSVVP3vAVwWDZKjLHzZLAsM709FfadrKv_TN99oK604L7_yfrILxPtxnxK444DcCj42NxryyOdjIJvasFkzhivdRfrOZbuZmsdI56_ljhCngxfRIlVo/s920/WagesUnderInflation.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="920" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1HdEQuYhMs4WH5EOESRUHPKaMsyk5RaHHgsfHWOQSIyemTsbIp2SwPsp_lx7W_5SqV-_93obplSVVP3vAVwWDZKjLHzZLAsM709FfadrKv_TN99oK604L7_yfrILxPtxnxK444DcCj42NxryyOdjIJvasFkzhivdRfrOZbuZmsdI56_ljhCngxfRIlVo/s320/WagesUnderInflation.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">It is this loss of purchasing power of wages to inflation coupled with the rapidity of an 18% increase in the general price level since Biden took office that has Americans down despite the stock indexes hitting record levels in 2023 - this will make seniors' RMDs larger than last year adding more discontent because 2024 RMDs are based on an IRA's fair market value on December 31, 2023. </span><span style="font-family: times;">Gasoline prices being anywhere between $3 to $5 per gallon have also been a large negative but are the result of Biden's war on fossil fuels as envisioned by the oil futures market.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes spending of $80 billion to hire new IRS agents whose main function will be to audit taxpayers or enforce the new corporate Alternative Minimum Tax, where corporations pay 21% of taxable income or 15% of the income reported on financial documents, whichever is more.</span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">And of course there is Biden's despicable</span> $430 billion student loan forgiveness program that would have completely erased the debts of 20 million borrowers and lowered the median amount owed by another 23 million from $29,400 to $13,600 that was only stopped @ the last minute by the Supreme Court last summer.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>Now the above examples </span>(there are a ton more on <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.returntoexcellence.net&source=gmail&ust=1704863390388000&usg=AOvVaw1elBMHEjPPV98EhI63PJET" href="http://www.returntoexcellence.net/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">RTE</a>) are just part of the egregious onslaught Biden has purposely imposed on America. And this from a slightly senile man who can shuffle around a studio after an interview without a clue as to where he is going. See photo below that shows the empty chair Biden sat in before finishing an interview @ which time he shook hands with the interviewer & aimlessly walked off the set behind the interviewer as she said "Don't go anywhere" - it is unknown whether she meant Biden or the TV audience & whether the bumper music was Dion singing <i>The Wanderer</i>.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSmKpfAsT-ETdP-Feym4FoFb7p86tqEJeXZSFL06vt8HKFCVNO6wW4xs5Fz_T7sHBl2QT1uc8bqZCsGG-GN6VLhZqScB3I7HI3SEB_hZp56Ni8cCTpmyjapwz8q_X-swtK4dUIwtuf5AVFOqduMKZwZJ_tr6wcQU_bPxte1CgpyvYqjTJ2Ad1bJBnGTTo/s898/BidenTheWandererScreenshot%202024-01-01%20201524.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="898" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSmKpfAsT-ETdP-Feym4FoFb7p86tqEJeXZSFL06vt8HKFCVNO6wW4xs5Fz_T7sHBl2QT1uc8bqZCsGG-GN6VLhZqScB3I7HI3SEB_hZp56Ni8cCTpmyjapwz8q_X-swtK4dUIwtuf5AVFOqduMKZwZJ_tr6wcQU_bPxte1CgpyvYqjTJ2Ad1bJBnGTTo/s320/BidenTheWandererScreenshot%202024-01-01%20201524.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Is it any wonder that three quarters of the electorate does not want a Trump-Biden rematch? - a real lose-lose situation that will come down to voters' utter disgust with Biden's performance as partially described above versus a visceral hatred for both Trump & the GOP's position on abortion.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Gallup's final poll for Trump in January, 2021 showed 34% job approval & 62% disapproval. It was 46% approval to 52% disapproval just days before the 2020 presidential election & he lost the election with these better ratings. With this 12% point loss in approval since leaving office I don't know one group Trump has picked up (Biden's falling support of Blacks & Hispanics does not necessarily mean a pick up of support for Trump of these groups) except for people who sympathize with his court cases - & they will disappear during the campaign if previous supporters like Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (who has an immunity deal) & Attorney Jenna Ellis (who made a plea bargain) testify as to what really went on regarding the false stolen election claims. To say nothing of Rudy Giuliani, who has filed for bankruptcy & is in danger of losing his law license, turning on Trump to testify against him. The Democrats are playing this hand as deftly as al Qaeda planned & executed the 9/11 attacks, just waiting for Trump to become the Republican nominee before springing this surprise attack. Only 82% of Republicans & a lowly 30% of Independents approved of Trump's job in January, 2021 - not enough to win the 2024 presidential election.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Biden's pitiful Gallup ratings are not much better than Trump's ratings after the 2020 presidential election & certainly are not as good as Trump's ratings right before the 2020 presidential election. Biden's job approval went up 2 points in December to 39% & his disapproval remained 59%. Biden's base is larger than Trump's because there are more Americans who look to government to solve their problems than want to tackle them themselves. Democrats have a way of always coming together & this includes people who are currently angry @ Biden's positions on the economy & Biden's support for Israel. This is not true of many of the 40% to 50% of Republicans who are currently considering Trump's primary opponents.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The 2016 presidential election was won by Trump by a small handful of voters in three states. The 2020 presidential election was won by Biden by about half that small handful in another three states (Wisconsin both times). The outcome in 2024 is even more uncertain to predict because in addition to the usual Libertarian & Green party candidates you also have RFK Jr., Cornel West, & the possibility of No Labels running a ticket. Who these people take votes from is guesswork but with such a small margin to victory either Trump or Biden could win by the roll of this political dice - not by their policies their voters support. People just not voting also has to be factored into a larger degree than usual.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump has recently been polling beating Biden by 4% (47% to 43%), while DeSantis ties Biden @ 45% each, & Nikki Haley beats Biden by 17% (51% to 34%). In a terrible sign for Biden, an unnamed "Democrat candidate" (aka a generic candidate) beats Trump by 8% (48% to 40%). Karl Rove points out that Trump's insults to his primary opponents & their donors accounts for Nikki's bigger lead which also gets back to my earlier question of who has Trump added as supporters the last three years. This group of polls reveals why Democrats want Biden to run against Trump - they believe Trump is the only Republican that Biden, with his terrible record, can beat & are doing everything they can to help him become the Republican nominee before turning on him in earnest with nonstop negative January 6 & abortion coverage that produces something closer to the generic candidate's 8% margin of victory for Biden.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So if voters don't want the Trump-Biden rematch what can they do? The answer is they can vote in the primaries.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I know people whose logic is so backward that they never vote in primaries because they want to "save their vote" for the general election. The only reason I am registered with a political party is because I want to be able to vote in the party's primary. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now primaries have notoriously low turnouts & this blog has reported with disgust some of the most egregious like AOC bursting on the scene from her bartending job winning her 2016 primary in a 12.9% turnout election <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">57.1% (15,897 votes) to Jim Crowley's 42.5% (11,761) meaning that AOC has come to power tormenting America with her Squad by initially receiving a meager 7.4% of the registered vote in her </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">NYC district that includes the eastern Bronx & part of north-central Queens.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">The following graph shows the voting-eligible population (VEP) % turnout for the Democrat & Republican parties in primaries from 1980 to 2016 & the totals for both parties ranging from 14.5% to 30.4%. This means that about 80% of people who are eligible to vote in primaries don't vote, thereby letting a small percentage of involved people determine the nominees, as in AOC's case as detailed above.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-sOEh9eaFTUUODq2cfkewul_eXyHtBYnEjathP5uL2ypZdveDJAzgOqZbNY1ggDPExoeUOSQGMwmxzKuKxubgyUqwaSAnCabyg16hGlQ-EhR3pkEdUfIN61B9r3jj99JOn-bbczLDixUs4oeZ4XlWHojNKkW0oKrdqcCMxBWd-t_bpmxOenDflOa5Og/s517/PrimaryTurnout.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="517" data-original-width="423" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-sOEh9eaFTUUODq2cfkewul_eXyHtBYnEjathP5uL2ypZdveDJAzgOqZbNY1ggDPExoeUOSQGMwmxzKuKxubgyUqwaSAnCabyg16hGlQ-EhR3pkEdUfIN61B9r3jj99JOn-bbczLDixUs4oeZ4XlWHojNKkW0oKrdqcCMxBWd-t_bpmxOenDflOa5Og/s320/PrimaryTurnout.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><br /></span></span></div></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The primary voting process starts next week with the Iowa caucuses & is quickly followed on January 23 with the NH primary & then primaries or caucuses in the rest of the states. If selecting the Democrat or Republican nominee for president is important to you please register to vote, study the candidates, & vote. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">If the turnouts from previous primaries don't vastly improve in 2024, Americans don't deserve better than a Trump-Biden rematch.</span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1dL-Ual12nWpzFDi5Ot0nb_H1-iPtgppfRyj2I0NwYz0m1NyUlrvhLpAJb7Ha_aTTFTPESeRNvSZZqbHT7hZgZzlKacT3kdDJxdlkUy-Ncsr0S_8z1tzCYaVjKQImZTQ5WBtv0rP08kcRvMQtHTks0cLotnaFpuNwDd0shFjh0dDiyp1jYUgMFmoBkgY/s920/WagesUnderInflation.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div></div></div>ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-43161561656955323592023-12-21T00:43:00.005-05:002023-12-29T00:52:53.389-05:00Christmas & New Year's Message For Argentina<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-3lmqG8o8XPgrTEDRlec2pfTQryhmlg_onwISeHGi51pdwE8zY_rktOybdCE03P3haOnoyUh5d12Im43E-VQr_I4BoEQe4h2NuVnfOW5ZEmkXctoc5xtHvr9kWyw5HPTSMajzZXUFctX9AUuFYiHO9wN9wxsJyjN0zqSEiimtiRL33BnXgp68H_9FTDI/s702/ArgentinePeso.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="702" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-3lmqG8o8XPgrTEDRlec2pfTQryhmlg_onwISeHGi51pdwE8zY_rktOybdCE03P3haOnoyUh5d12Im43E-VQr_I4BoEQe4h2NuVnfOW5ZEmkXctoc5xtHvr9kWyw5HPTSMajzZXUFctX9AUuFYiHO9wN9wxsJyjN0zqSEiimtiRL33BnXgp68H_9FTDI/s320/ArgentinePeso.jpg" width="320" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-3lmqG8o8XPgrTEDRlec2pfTQryhmlg_onwISeHGi51pdwE8zY_rktOybdCE03P3haOnoyUh5d12Im43E-VQr_I4BoEQe4h2NuVnfOW5ZEmkXctoc5xtHvr9kWyw5HPTSMajzZXUFctX9AUuFYiHO9wN9wxsJyjN0zqSEiimtiRL33BnXgp68H_9FTDI/s702/ArgentinePeso.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Between 1860 & 1930 Argentina experienced strong economic growth & by 1913 was one of the ten wealthiest countries in the world ranking higher than Canada & Australia. Its per capita GDP was 80% of that of the United States.</span></p><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Starting in 1946 with the government of President Juan Peron & his wife Evita, the economic experience of Argentina has been up & down but mostly down. Peron, a former Army lieutenant general, took power after engineering a coup d'etat in 1943 & his socialist policies gradually shifted leftward leading to state control of the economy. Unstable Peronism replaced the stable civilian constitutional government that had been in place for the seven decades prior to the Great Depression in the United States.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Under Peron, policies designed to redistribute wealth included increasing state-owned property, controlling prices & rents, & increasing government spending to finance populist programs. Naturally this led to ruinous inflation. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Peronism has persisted, to one degree or another, for the majority of the last 80 years resulting in political instability & economic decline in living standards. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The deterioration of the currency over the past 20 years shown in the above graphic predominantly coincides with the rule of Cristina Kirchner (first as the wife of President Nestor Kirchner from 2003 to 2007, then as president herself from 2007 to 2015, & then as vice president to Alberto Fernandez from 2019 to 2023). In the 21st century alone Argentina has defaulted on its international sovereign debt three times – in 2001, 2014, & 2020. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The above graphic tells the story of the unsustainable Argentine government spending the past 20 years & its accompanying inflationary misery & deterioration of any standard of living where 40% of the population now lives in poverty. The black-market value of the peso is well over 1,000 pesos per U.S. dollar, far exceeding the official rate of 370 pesos per dollar. The Argentine peso has lost 99.206% of its value against the U.S. dollar from December 5, 2003 to December 10, 2023, going from a value of more than a third of a dollar to 27% of a penny. See graphic below that shows the growth of the money supply the past five years.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu-ip46hsEBXE7ug6gfwKk7skKYo5h8MSs08fmc2WtBEszwSwLnciulKPDFBN5kpD41ZLQ6v9yyyvmLIy8cosOZK-GQf8YbbQ5DhW_feJkOL4243d6FLGzRShYr6tBTEH8bWjnp57g0N3O7SwcJgqOPELhfhJOLt3x_6EbX0CXF0U14ByCWzZw6OD7scM/s365/ArgentinaMoneySupply.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="215" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu-ip46hsEBXE7ug6gfwKk7skKYo5h8MSs08fmc2WtBEszwSwLnciulKPDFBN5kpD41ZLQ6v9yyyvmLIy8cosOZK-GQf8YbbQ5DhW_feJkOL4243d6FLGzRShYr6tBTEH8bWjnp57g0N3O7SwcJgqOPELhfhJOLt3x_6EbX0CXF0U14ByCWzZw6OD7scM/s320/ArgentinaMoneySupply.jpg" width="188" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Inflation was 143% the past year - see graphic below.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj35JubSym0g4U4Q8LTtlzDFjls9bC1mQsOLulWM7k2IWw-dtLILEDKCHRNxGFTFjEchHIH-cOfZgIOsvQ5oFV8w4SDdpWScvsS_ynxEJSaUNTolJ6FC7VCA38QSxruF8TFzLW7ez_lr69ggzf3dB0PAwhwTlGq39viaI5KazdK-m32feLSOEYWnCJFPA/s353/Argentina'sInflation.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="210" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj35JubSym0g4U4Q8LTtlzDFjls9bC1mQsOLulWM7k2IWw-dtLILEDKCHRNxGFTFjEchHIH-cOfZgIOsvQ5oFV8w4SDdpWScvsS_ynxEJSaUNTolJ6FC7VCA38QSxruF8TFzLW7ez_lr69ggzf3dB0PAwhwTlGq39viaI5KazdK-m32feLSOEYWnCJFPA/s320/Argentina'sInflation.jpg" width="190" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The above three graphs illustrate Steve Forbes' concise definition of inflation - the distortion of prices that occurs when money loses value. The fundamental cause of Argentina's inflation is the decline of the value of the peso. Money, first & foremost, is a measure of worth. Source: <i>Inflation</i> - Forbes, Lewis, & Ames, pages xiii & 9.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">With the above backdrop it is no wonder that the Argentine electorate felt they had nothing to lose & on November 19, in a runoff presidential election, elected libertarian economist & Congressman Javier Milei President in a vote of 56% to 44% over the sitting Peronist economic minister Sergio Massa. The turnout was 74% - you have to go back to 1900 to equal that turnout in the United States for a presidential election.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Since both candidates are steeped in different economic training the voters had a real choice - there were no subtle differences or small distinctions. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Massa's record & beliefs were on display for most of the last 20 years - he held positions in a Peronist government before working for both Nestor & Cristina Kirchner's administrations as well as Fernandez's. Massa's lifelong work was centered on making people dependent on government - one of his campaign strategies was to show commuters two ticket prices for trains & buses: one low priced ticket, with government subsidies, he supported & the other much higher priced under Melei's plan without the government subsidies. The budget deficit under Massa is 15% of GDP or about three times that of the United States in 2022.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Melei has been a university level professor of economics specializing in economic growth. He studied the work of Professor Friedman & Dr. Murray Rothbard (& thereby extension to Bastiat) & knows the importance of people producing value in an economy. Melei follows the laissez faire Austrian school of economics. Melei opposes identity politics, sex education, abortion, euthanasia, & the notion that humans cause climate change. He is an advocate for individual rights, has zero tolerance for crime, supports families' choice of education, gun owners' rights, same sex marriage, gender identity, universal healthcare, & legalization of drugs & prostitution. Melei's foreign policy preferences for Argentina include closer relationships with the United States, supporting Ukraine's stand against Putin's invasion, & less close ties with China. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The election was virtually over when Massa won Buenos Aires, where a third of the Argentine population lives, by only 1.4% & Melei won Cordoba 74% to 26% by over 1 million votes. Massa's wins were small to moderate, & sparsely distributed throughout the country while Melei won by substantial margins across the entire country. Unlike the presidential elections of the United States where Democrats win the west coast, northeast, & a few other states but lose the rest of the country, Melei had no weak spots. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The actual results of the runoff election were Melei 14,476,462 votes (55.69%) to Massa 11,516,142 votes (44.31%). Massa conceded defeat before the first official results were announced.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Melei took office on December 10 & his immediate plans include public spending reductions by reducing transfer payments to provinces, cancelling public works, & cutting subsidies to energy & transportation agencies like the train & bus commuter subsidies that Massa supported. Melei has reduced the official peso exchange rate against the dollar by 55% to bring it into line with the black-market rate which is the true market rate widely used domestically that has benefited importers (whose goods are bought using the low official exchange rate) @ the expense of exporters - now we have to see if the peso stabilizes there.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Due to the instability of hyperinflation & the loss of usefulness of the peso as a medium of exchange Melei plans to dollarize - i.e., use the U.S. dollar in addition to or instead of the peso, close the central bank that has been completely controlled by the treasury, eliminate & cut taxes, & privatize deficit making public companies. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Melei's plans touch all of the principles of supply side economics: 1) the reduction of the size of government and its claims on earned income, 2) lower taxes for the highest income earners who are the job creators, & 3) sound-money policies using the U.S. dollar the way Ecuador, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, & Hong Kong have - either dollarizing or pegging their currencies to the U.S. dollar.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now turning around Argentina's economy will not happen quickly. The misery of the entrenched stagflation (both high unemployment & high inflation) will endure a while longer as Melei's various programs come into play. Melei's party holds only six of 72 seats in the Senate & 38 of 257 in the House so the politicians of all the parties will have to cooperate & recognize the electoral mandate & work with the new president @ least for a while - like Democrats did with President Reagan in 1981.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But the stakes could not be higher for all of Argentina because it is not just the 40% of the population that lives below the official poverty level, it is really all of the people, except for the few elites like Cristina Kirchner, who suffer from the poverty of opportunity where there has been no hope of improvement to the standard of living for most of the past 80 years. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Javier Melei, & more pointedly the people of Argentina who dared greatly to elect Javier Melei in a landslide to the office of President, gives them a chance. Now they have to make the most of it.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So it is to Argentina, & specifically the libertarian people who voted to throw off the burden of socialism that I dedicate this Christmas & New Year's message - namely, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DGIUsFN1E8qA&source=gmail&ust=1703222150080000&usg=AOvVaw28-dC7LD9ozRLplVvMzOrD" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIUsFN1E8qA" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">it is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes</a>.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div>ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-40893168852883761652023-12-05T00:32:00.001-05:002023-12-05T01:05:10.523-05:00WSJ Publishes My Solution To The Social Security Solvency Problem<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">America was founded on the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise so it was an indication of how far we have moved away from these principles in learning that young adults & women think the American dream is out of reach in a recent WSJ/NORC survey: 46% of men & only 28% of women said the ideal for advancement for hard work still holds true. Only 28% of Americans under 50 have a positive outlook on getting ahead. People say they need a 50% pay raise to be happy.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Brought on by their incomes losing ground to inflation & the rapidity of an 18% increase in the general price level since Biden took office, Americans are feeling the effects of the mixed economy that is really more than 50% socialist. The federal government's limitless deficit spending is really not fulfilling but just lets people muddle through life on government dependence never knowing the "triumph of high achievement" in the words of TR's <i>Man In The Arena</i>.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Complicating the socialist economic problem for these young people is that many of the former grade A companies they work for have stymied their upward mobility by adopting <i>Woke</i> cultures centered around antibusiness non-financial aspects of the ESG movement, equality of outcome policies of DEI, a super alertness to perceived racial prejudice & discrimination - even when none exists - to the point of absurdity following the hateful teachings of Critical Race Theory, & a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial justice, sexism, & homosexual, bisexual, & transgender rights. It would be hard for a new Ivy League MBA with $100,000 of student loan debt to want to work for an employer adopting these types of policies - these MBAs are looking for meritocracy & advancement.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But what they are finding is trouble "in terms of their perceived ability to marry, raise children, own a home, & plot an autonomous course to have control of their own financial destinies - the fundamentals of traditional middle class citizenship." - The Dying Citizen, page 40, Victor Davis Hanson.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A case in point - The Walt Disney Company recently filed an SEC statement admitting <span face="sans-serif" style="color: black;"> </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: black;">"We face risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel, and consumer products, which impact demand for our entertainment offerings and products and the profitability of any of our businesses." Specifically, Disney has infamously dabbled in politics by attempting to place homosexual & queer content in children's school programs - fighting the state of Florida & the preferences of parents who are their paying customers. See <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2022/03/28/governor-ron-desantis-signs-historic-bill-to-protect-parental-rights-in-education/" target="_blank">Parental Rights In Education law</a>.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Since much of this wokeness has spread to Police Departments & the U.S. military is there any wonder that 2,500 NYC policemen have quit in 2023 & the military faces recruitment shortfalls?</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">To address the significant portion of the country that is not concerned about meritocracy & advancement of career but rather prefers time to contemplate the correct work-life balance - especially while their parents are helping out - the country obviously needs a change of mindset from a "you deserve, you're entitled to" mindset to one of even limited personal responsibility for a start. Just listen to TV & radio commercials to see how much stuff advertisers tell people they deserve for free, & of course this mindset delivers anything but freedom.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The federal government runs 126 separate & often overlapping anti-poverty welfare programs identified by the Cato Institute, like the 33 housing programs run by four cabinet departments or the 21 different programs providing food or food-purchasing assistance. But make no mistake, federal government spending is powered by Social Security & Medicare & unless the new president is willing to tackle these gargantuan entitlements our financial miseries as indicated above will only get worse due to increased longevity of older American beneficiaries & the smaller payroll contributions of people unconcerned about working. And both Biden & Trump offer no help saying they have no intention to address Social Security & Medicare entitlement funding @ all.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now I have offered four solutions for America's financial problems: 1) replace the Medicare plan with one of premium support to buy private insurance using a nominal dollar demogrant, unadjusted for inflation, for people younger than 55, 2) change the basis for the initial Social Security benefit to the CPI instead of the national average wage index to ensure that benefits do not grow faster than the cost of living, 3) cut, cap & balance federal spending @ 18% of GDP, & 4) replace the federal income tax & IRS with the FairTax Plan. Go to the search bar on the upper left side of <a href="http://www.returntoexcellence.net" target="_blank">RTE</a> to find any of the numerous posts I have written explaining in detail all of these solutions - all of which get some play in the financial media from time to time.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So with the above as background, I was delighted when the WSJ published my letter below on November 16 regarding the Social Security solution.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Dear Editor,</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">John F. Cogan and Daniel L Heil's excellent op-ed (Older Americans Are Better Off Than Ever - November 10) points out that "the typical senior household today enjoys Social Security benefits that have twice the purchasing power of benefits received by the average household in 1982."</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A beneficiary's initial benefit is based on the national average wage index, not the inflation rate. Because real wage growth has been greater than inflation, purchasing power has doubled since 1982. Indexing the initial Social Security benefit formula to inflation instead of this wage index would solve the Social Security solvency problem. By using the index, the government is guaranteeing a real positive return for the average person, a guarantee no other investor has.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-63216583339083589642023-11-21T00:29:00.000-05:002023-11-21T00:33:15.810-05:00Thanksgiving Proclamation In The Year Of The Independence Of The United States Of America The One Hundred & Forty-eighth<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhyouwKTO-inYpRkQWSb99is4C63LRkZ7SU7Z8fsnff-3lBeEa1OKceH9diHkp4EC4Cyc0hFGEZKKDH08Jy1YTeJHf-GCqLdwXZ3dhWLAph-XnkGGXd1V4UrVSZ1F5DUhLKqJVL_ImXOH6JPuiUAX9UMjGYFc3pKjhIzJ98lmfcoPrHQ6dwMmB1n21GjS4"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7303783523478994354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhyouwKTO-inYpRkQWSb99is4C63LRkZ7SU7Z8fsnff-3lBeEa1OKceH9diHkp4EC4Cyc0hFGEZKKDH08Jy1YTeJHf-GCqLdwXZ3dhWLAph-XnkGGXd1V4UrVSZ1F5DUhLKqJVL_ImXOH6JPuiUAX9UMjGYFc3pKjhIzJ98lmfcoPrHQ6dwMmB1n21GjS4=s320" /></a><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times" size="5">It was 100 years ago this past August 2 that Calvin Coolidge became the 30th president of the United States following the sudden death from a heart attack of Warren G. Harding. In the middle of the night Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a notary public & justice of the peace, in the parlor of Coolidge's childhood home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Carol & I visited the site in 2013. President Coolidge was a very humble man.</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times" size="5"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#202122" face="times" size="5">Although three of our first five presidents died on July 4 (Adams, Jefferson, & Monroe) Coolidge is the only president to be born on July 4.</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#202122" face="times" size="5"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#202122" face="times" size="5">Coolidge's presidency was a masterpiece.</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#202122" face="times" size="5"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times" size="5"><font color="#202122">Under Coolidge all of the principles of supply side economics were achieved: </font>1) the reduction of the size of government and its claims on earned income, 2) a lower marginal tax rate for the highest income earners, & 3) sound-money policies. Silent Cal reduced the top 73% income tax rate to 25% by 1925, reduced the national debt, & balanced the budget – a budget that actually was smaller when he left office than when he took office. Federal spending was 3% of GDP in 1928 – it is 24.2% today.</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#202122" face="times" size="5"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font color="#202122" face="times" size="5">On November 5, 1923 President Coolidge issued Proclamation 1680 - Thanksgiving Day, 1923.</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.5rem 0px 2rem;"><center style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">By the President of the United States of America</i><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><b style="box-sizing: border-box;">A Proclamation</b></center><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">The American people, from their earliest days, have observed the wise custom of acknowledging each year the bounty with which divine Providence has favored them. In the beginnings, this acknowledgment was a voluntary return of thanks by the community for the fruitfulness of the harvest. Though our mode of life has greatly changed, this custom has always survived. It has made thanksgiving day not only one of the oldest but one of the most characteristic observances of our country. On that day, in home and church, in family and in public gatherings, the whole nation has for generations paid the tribute due from grateful hearts for blessings bestowed.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">To center our thought in this way upon the favor which we have been shown has been altogether wise and desirable. It has given opportunity justly to balance the good and the evil which we have experienced. In that we have never failed to find reasons for being grateful to God for a generous preponderance of the good. Even in the least propitious times, a broad contemplation of our whole position has never failed to disclose overwhelming reasons for thankfulness. Thus viewing our situation, we have found warrant for a more hopeful and confident attitude toward the future.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">In this current year, we now approach the time which has been accepted by custom as most fitting for the calm survey of our estate and the return of thanks. We shall the more keenly realize our good fortune, if we will, in deep sincerity, give to it due thought, and more especially, if we will compare it with that of any other community in the world.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">The year has brought to our people two tragic experiences which have deeply affected them. One was the death of our beloved President Harding, which has been mourned wherever there is a realization of the worth of high ideals, noble purpose and unselfish service carried even to the end of supreme sacrifice. His loss recalled the nation to a less captious and more charitable attitude. It sobered the whole thought of the country. A little later came the unparalleled disaster to the friendly people of Japan. This called forth from the people of the United States a demonstration of deep and humane feeling. It was wrought into the substance of good works. It created new evidences of our international friendship, which is a guarantee of world peace. It replenished the charitable impulse of the country.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">By experiences such as these, men and nations are tested and refined. We have been blessed with much of material prosperity. We shall be better able to appreciate it if we remember the privations others have suffered, and we shall be the more worthy of it if we use it for their relief. We will do well then to render thanks for the good that has come to us, and show by our actions that we have become stronger, wiser, and truer by the chastenings which have been imposed upon us. We will thus prepare ourselves for the part we must take in a world which forever needs the full measure of service. We have been a most favored people. We ought to be a most generous people. We have been a most blessed people. We ought to be a most thankful people.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Wherefore, I, Calvin Coolidge,</i> President of the United States, do hereby fix and designate Thursday, the twenty-ninth day of November, as Thanksgiving Day, and recommend its general observance throughout the land. It is urged that the people, gathering in their homes and their usual places of worship, give expression to their gratitude for the benefits and blessings that a gracious Providence has bestowed upon them, and seek the guidance of Almighty God, that they may deserve a continuance of His favor.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">In Witness Whereof,</i> I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Done</i> at the City of Washington, this 5th day of November, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States, the One Hundred and Forty-eighth.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><img src="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/people/signatures/calvin-coolidge.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />CALVIN COOLIDGE</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">By the President:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />CHARLES E. HUGHES, <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Secretary of State</i>.</p></div><div style="border-top: 2px solid rgb(67, 180, 224); box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 2rem 0px; padding-top: 10px; width: 550px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">Calvin Coolidge, Proclamation 1680—Thanksgiving Day, 1923 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/206745" target="_blank">https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/206745</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><br /></p></div></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-66631723572149344322023-11-16T00:21:00.000-05:002023-11-16T00:22:22.394-05:00Galston Column Takes Opposite Approach To RTE<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The series of recent posts regarding problems I document with Trump's term in office so far has concentrated on 1) Trump being the biggest deficit spender per year in the country's history, 2) Trump having no constitutional, statutory, or historical basis for asking Pence to not certify Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021, & 3) Trump leaving thousands of people in Seattle to fend for themselves against a band of marauding thugs for over three weeks in the summer of 2020. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Die-hard Trump supporters commented that voters don't care about these issues citing some they do care about such as "inflation, high gas prices, & high interest rates - can't buy a house" as if Trump spending $3.6 trillion in 2020 was of no consequence compared to Biden spending $1.9 trillion in 2021 as the cause of the resulting inflation & high interest rates. Trump skates by these die-hard supporters after spending nearly twice as much money as Biden did over these two years.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">None of the lists of issues that voters supposedly care about that die-hard Trump supporters presented to me included Social Security & Medicare's solvency problems. Trump sees no problem - a position that will hurt millions of people, either with benefit cuts or much higher payroll taxes. Not good leadership on Trump's part & a definite unawareness on the part of his followers of an issue they will care about in a big way one day soon.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">With regard to voters not caring about January 6 - please remember that with the authority I cited in the last post Trump could have called up the DC National Guard instead of saying that Pelosi was in charge of Capitol security & there was nothing he could do. Not a picture of a strong president. Better yet I alway wondered why Trump would not have called off the perceived danger if it was thought so unsafe that calling up thousands of troops was necessary.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">In fact, the die-hard Trump supporter who wrote the original comment defending Trump's summer of love dereliction of duty in Seattle saying "Trump could not just go into cities unless asked by the governor" - went off this track after I presented documentation of many of the cases where presidents did "go into cities" uninvited by changing the topic to "election fraud that is going on in the midterms" & that we should "Stop the fraud, so we can have trustworthy elections" which I take to mean elections his candidate wins. Because his comments rambled so much I'm not sure this commenter even recognized he was the one that led me to research the Insurrection Act in the first place.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">I know that there is a substantial percentage of die-hard Trump supporters who dismiss anything & everything that does not put Trump in a good light - Mike Huckabee, everyone on NewsMax, & some on FNC for instance. But there are several people who could deliver all of the pro-American policies without the baggage & divisiveness of Trump. Just look @ Senator Mullin ready for a fistfight on the Senate floor. Representative Comer was in a heated dispute also & the media encourages this behavior. We need substance not bluster & Trump is more bluster than substance.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Using all of the above as background I was surprised to read Wliiam Galston's weekly column (below) in the Wednesday WSJ that, like Sunday's <a href="http://www.returntoexcellence.net">RTE</a> post, reviewed the Insurrection Act of 1792 & the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. What timing. The difference is that I presented the authority for Trump to federalize the National Guard to enforce the laws of the United States during the summer of 2020 in Seattle as something that should have been done to protect American citizens while Mr. Galston presents this same authority as a danger to constitutional liberties that we all take for granted when in the hands of a person suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font size="6">Donald Trump's Insurrection Act Gambit</font><span style="font-size:large"> </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">By William Galston</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><span style="font-size:17px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">In June 2020, President Trump considered—and was talked out of—invoking the Insurrection Act against protesters who took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd. Now Team Trump reportedly is preparing the ground to use this law whenever necessary after he retakes the White House.<br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">Like most Americans, I knew little about the Insurrection Act until recently. But the more I learn, the more I worry about its potential to erode our fundamental liberties.</font></p><div style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">The Posse Comitatus Act, enacted in 1878, mostly barred the U.S. military from the role in civil law enforcement that it had played during the Civil War and its aftermath. The act permitted legislated exceptions, however. The most important of these is the Insurrection Act.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">This act gives the president the authority to deploy the military to assist law-enforcement agencies in three situations: when a state government requests federal aid to suppress an insurrection in that state; when the president deems military deployment necessary to "enforce the laws" of the U.S. or to "suppress the rebellion"; and when the president deems such deployment necessary to suppress "any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy" in a state whose government is unable or unwilling to enforce the constitutional rights of its citizens or "opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws."</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">I quote from the statute to make a point: Its scope, which is both broad and vague, gives the president enormous discretionary power. Key terms—insurrection, rebellion and domestic violence—aren't defined. As an analysis by the Brennan Center shows, the president alone may decide whether these prerequisites for deploying the military have been met, and the Supreme Court has said it has no authority to review the president's decision.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">To be sure, a 1932 Supreme Court decision held that courts may review the lawfulness or constitutionality of acts the military performs after it has been deployed, but in the swirl of events basic liberties may be curtailed well before the judiciary can step in.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">Consider this scenario: After a divisive campaign, a presidential candidate opposed by half the country is inaugurated, and a massive protest breaks out in Washington. While observers and authorities report that the demonstrators are mostly peaceful, the new president disagrees, federalizes the National Guards of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, and deploys them with orders to suppress the protests.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">Or this one: After police in a large city kill an unarmed black man, protests break out and spread to other cities. Although the protests are peaceful at first, the president argues that similar events in the past have turned violent in a manner that exceeded local and state capacity to suppress them. He then orders the deployment of military forces to break them up before threats to life and property arise.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">In situations such as these, fundamental rights such as the freedoms of speech and assembly are at stake, and the potential for the arbitrary and capricious use of the Insurrection Act is evident. This possibility should disturb anyone who doesn't trust every president to use his authority prudently and within constitutional restraints. After 2020, Congress should have reformed the Insurrection Act to prevent future presidents from using it to suppress basic liberties.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">In one of the most enduring lines of the 2016 presidential campaign, veteran reporter Salena Zito wrote of Mr. Trump that "the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally." She implied—plausibly—that his supporters, not the press, were reading him correctly. But that was then, when his plans were relatively unformed and his understanding of how to staff his administration wasn't informed by any government experience.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">Things are different now. In his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in March, Mr. Trump declared that he had learned a great deal during his first term about who is strong and who is weak, about who can be trusted and who can't. With the help of such groups as the Claremont Institute and the Heritage Foundation, Mr. Trump's team is busy formulating policies and making lists of people on whom it can rely to staff his administration.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" style="" face="arial, sans-serif">A second Trump term would be much more effective than the first, a prospect that thrills his supporters and sends shivers through those who fear, as I do, that his re-entry into the White House would trigger the biggest threat to constitutional governance since the Civil War. Let's take him literally as well as seriously.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1em"><font size="4" style="" face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></p></div></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-62618782804301582342023-11-12T23:43:00.000-05:002023-11-13T00:05:25.010-05:00Trump's Dereliction Of Duty During The "Summer Of Love"<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Based on the series of posts I started in August even the most die-hard Trump supporter in this readership has said he understands that Trump is the biggest deficit spender per year in the country's history & that Trump had no constitutional, statutory, or historical basis for asking Pence to not certify Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021. These are two very large concessions that should encourage interest for some consideration of other candidates running in the Republican primaries. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Afterall, to acknowledge the above two points & still unabashedly back Trump takes away your right to criticize lesser spenders like Biden or BO & makes your concern less pure for the rule of law & the presidential oath of office "to preserve, protect, & defend the Constitution" which Trump obliterated with what he asked Pence to do for reasons of false pride, <span face=""Google Sans",Roboto,arial,sans-serif" style="color: #202124;">self-aggrandizement, & self-importance that demonstrated </span><span face=""Google Sans",Roboto,arial,sans-serif" style="color: #202124;">a narcissistic personality disorder.</span> Now that these facts are known, a continued acceptance of Trump, compromises consistency regarding government spending & the rule of law.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It is intellectually weak to ignore these two very large concessions, & continue with a blind loyalty for Trump who would not debate as part of the Republican primary field that included in the first two debates Christy, Haley, & Pence - three people who could counter Trump's accounts & statements based on direct personal experience. And of course that is why Trump cunningly skips the debates - these three would have been more prepared than Low Energy Jeb, Little Marco, & Lyin' Ted. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In fact, the debate last Wednesday produced many meaningful discussions that gave the electorate several good candidate choices to select from that would be an upgrade to Trump. I had trouble envisioning Trump answering the questions in a substantive way.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A Trump-Biden choice is a crapshoot that either man could win by a handful of votes in a few swing states like what happened in both 2016 & 2020. It is like choosing your poison - anthrax or phosgene. The country loses either way.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The election is a crapshoot because an inordinate number of people will stay home & not vote if the Republican nominee is Trump, or will write in Trump's name if Trump is not on the ballot (the trouble with this threat is that the citizenry votes for electors not the candidate for President meaning this maneuver is really meaningless except for taking away from the real Republican candidate). The No Labels group candidate is thought to take more votes away from Biden & RFK Jr. is thought to take more votes away from Trump. A dreadful negative election with all these external factors that will not turn out well no matter who wins - Biden will continue destructive policies & portray a feebleness to the world while Trump will ensure a divisiveness that will ultimately divide the house until it falls. Liz Peek summed it up well when she said "The country is so polarized that it is turned off by neutrality."</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Biden can't hide in his Delaware basement again this election & he really can't run on his terrible record on inflation, deficit spending that increases the national debt to new records every day, control of the border, energy dependence on the Green New Deal, allowing crime waves across the country while not supporting the police, & going wobbly on Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah terrorism in Israel. Biden is counting on the Democrat machine producing a large turnout that is anti Trump, which it certainly will be, & that abortion continues to be a political winner for the Democrats as the society continues its secular decadent slide.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump must perform a skillful deception by not taking a stand one way or the other on abortion while still taking credit for appointing three Supreme Court justices who made the difference in overturning Roe. Trump also was the instigator of the rapid Covid vaccine development that many people are opposed to, especially the vaccine mandates. Trump told a Dallas audience that he even received the booster to a chorus of boos. Trump also previously took the position to raise the age to collect full Social Security retirement benefits to 70 & called for privatizing the program calling it a "Ponzi scheme" - he now says no changes are necessary even though the program is in worse financial shape than ever. And of course there will be plenty of questions about January 6 - for certain by the Democrats including videos. By ducking the debates Trump has not been called out on these issues - but he will be sooner or later on all of them & more.</span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Both parties would be smart to put a fresh face @ the top of their tickets to eliminate as much of the crapshoot as possible so that when the election dust settles there will be no regrets for fielding terribly flawed candidates. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now I was a Trump supporter way before most of the current die-hard Trump supporters in this readership turned their devotion away from Ted Cruz. Please remember that Mike Pence was initially a Ted Cruz supporter & it surprised me when Trump picked Pence to be his VP running mate in 2016.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">As readers of this blog from June, 2015 to December, 2020 know I supported Trump - even @ 2:30 AM on November 4, 2020 when Trump said on TV, flanked by Melania & Mike & Karen Pence "Frankly, we did win." But like Texas Congressman Chip Roy (Liberty Score "A" @ 100%) my support started to erode in December, 2020 when neither Trump nor Chief of Staff Mark Meadows could produce one piece of evidence that Trump won. What followed after Trump's December 19, 2020 tweet "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!"; the ruined careers of 38 year old Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, & Meadows, with more to come; & the $787 million FNC settlement for deliberately & knowingly presenting false information on air regarding Dominion voting machines rigging the 2020 presidential election for Biden are events to be pitied.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">***</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Other comments I received that deserve a response pertain to BLM & Antifa committing violent crimes like arson, assault, & damaging business owners' property & federal court buildings during the "summer of love" in 2020. There was a fatal shooting in Seattle. I remember Trump saying that after the 2020 election he would clamp down on these violent groups & I wondered why he didn't do it then instead of waiting six months until after the election. Trump said it would take him about an hour to end the violence & restore order if such situations occurred in his second term.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The comments that deserve a response regarding the "summer of love" violence are "Trump could not do anything unless invited by the governor" & "Trump could not just go into cities unless asked by the governor."</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now governors do have the authority to call up the national guard & mayors & police chiefs certainly have the duty to protect life & property - neither of which happened in the summer of 2020 in Seattle, where the police were so overwhelmed in one section of the city by violent groups that a police precinct was abandoned & all the citizens in that section of the city were left to the mercy of thugs for over three weeks. The governor & mayor were no help to their constituents & neither was Trump. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Safety & health matters are handled by the states & cities who can call on (invite) the federal government for help if needed. It is reasonable to expect this to be a cooperative effort in a unified country but there have been occasions where governors have not cooperated.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">For instance, on September 5, 1957 Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus refused to allow the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School following federal court orders after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the court's ruling. Similarly, President Kennedy federalized the National Guard in 1962 to ensure integration of the University of Mississippi & President Johnson, in like manner, gained control of the riots around the 1968 Democrat national convention in Chicago. Trump & Biden have both put active duty members of the Armed Forces on the southwest border to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So there has been presidential authority to call up or federalize the national guard starting with the Militia Act of 1792 that was used by President Washington as his authority to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 in Western Pennsylvania.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><span class="gmail_default">The Constitution's enumerated powers specifically grant Congress the power to call out the militia (Militia Clause - Article I, Section 8, Clause 15) & the President the authority to command </span><span class="gmail_default">the militia </span></span><span style="color: #222222;">(Commander <span class="gmail_default">O</span>f Militia Clause - Article II, Section 2, Clause 1)<span class="gmail_default"> </span></span><span>when needed in the active service to the U.S. <span class="gmail_default"> </span>Starting in 1792 with the <span class="gmail_default"></span><span class="gmail_default">above named</span> Militia Act</span><span class="gmail_default"> (also known as the Calling Forth Act) Congress delegated to the President the authority to call out the militia for two years. This delegated authority was made permanent in 1795 & remained permanent as the laws were revised over the years like in 1807, 1903, & Title 10 of the U.S. code pertaining to Armed Forces.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In addition, President Lincoln believed that the "preserve, protect, & defend" language of the presidential Oath of Office clause (Article II, Section 1, Clause 8) placed a special constitutional duty on the President to fight for the nation's survival whether Congress had declared war or not, & by inference, whether or not a governor had invited him to call up the militia to suppress rebellion.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">The Take Care clause (Article II, Section 3) requires the President to </span><span style="color: #222222;">"take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed"</span><span class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"> & with particular emphasis on Article II executive branch Power to</span><span class="gmail_default"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">restrain violations of life, liberty, & property of American citizens<span class="gmail_default"></span></span><span class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> by effective criminal law & prosecution of criminals who destroy homes & businesses.</span></span></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default"></span>In summary, the President has the legal authority to deploy U.S. military & federalized National Guard troops within the United States to suppress <span class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"></span>civil disorders, insurrections, or rebellions<span class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"> as documented above.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Accordingly, Trump was derelict of duty when he left people in Seattle to fend for themselves against a band of marauding thugs for over three weeks in the summer of 2020 & only talked about doing something about it <span class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">if</span> he was reelected in November. A shameful irresponsible failure to fulfill his presidential obligation. </span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="gmail_default" face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Special note - Presidents are aware of our history of quartering soldiers in houses during the Revolutionary War & the use of the army in civil law enforcement during the Civil War & Reconstruction so they design limited missions specifically to restore order &</span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"> quickly<span class="gmail_default"> </span></span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">remov<span class="gmail_default">e</span> the military presence<span class="gmail_default"> once order is restored. See Third Amendment & the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.</span></span></span></p><p style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 18.85px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default"><br /></span></span></p></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-27615713252630099392023-10-29T23:25:00.001-04:002023-10-29T23:44:44.650-04:00Mike Pence & The Electoral History Of The United States<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A few comments I received from concerned readers regarding the post entitled <a href="https://www.returntoexcellence.net/2023/08/ten-trump-record-deficiencies-for-gop.html" style="color: #9e5205; letter-spacing: -1px;" target="_blank"><font>Ten Trump-Record Deficiencies For GOP Primary Voters To Consider</font></a> brought up points not contained in the original post & therefore deserve a response from me & anyone else who would like to weigh in.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">One such comment pertained to Mike Pence's role in the January 6, 2021 counting of electoral college votes that wondered "why Congress passed The Electoral Count Reform & Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 that restricted the VP from denying electoral votes if he did not have that authority in the first place."</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The commenter went on to say "<font>Pence did have the right to deny states' votes & if he had the right to do that he had the right to not accept. Now there is a</font><font> </font>new law (identified above) restricting the Vice President of that privilege. If he did not have the right to reject, why did they make a new law? That is something to ponder."</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Before we spend too much time pondering this comment we had better get the facts straight because the comment is full of mistakes. The commenter obviously hasn't read the twelfth amendment or @ least has not read it recently - so what facts, if any, was the comment based on? The Constitution gives the VP no such powers or authority & neither has any statute. We have to be careful that we don't just believe what we want to believe but rather search for the facts & follow them which in this case I have researched & present below.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump's erroneous legal theories about Pence being able to return, reject, overrule, or otherwise not accept electoral college votes from any or all states was based on the hotly contested election of 1876 & the Electoral Count Act of 1887 that was enacted to help clarify how to resolve disputed electoral college votes. Note that there was a gap of over ten years between the disputed election of November 8, 1876 & the enactment of the Electoral Count Act on February 3, 1887.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Following the Civil War & Lincoln's reelection Congress rightly sensed that bitter politicians from both parties would contest future close elections & asserted through the adoption of <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/contentious-election-1876" target="_blank">the Twenty-second Joint Rule of 1865</a> that Congress had "total power over the electoral vote." The joint rule never assigned such power to the Vice President in his role as President of the Senate.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This joint rule arrangement was put to the test @ the conclusion of Grant's two terms in office with the contentious election of 1876 when three southern states (South Carolina, Florida, & Louisiana) lost control of their electoral processes & could not agree on who won their respective states. There was also one disputed electoral vote in Oregon because of process reasons.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The election of 1876 was actually decided under a compromise reached on January 29, 1877 - over two months after election day & a little over one month before the new president took office in March. Under the terms of <a href="https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/disputed-election-1876" target="_blank">the Electoral Commision Act of 1877</a> a commision was established composed of five senators (three Republicans & two Democrats), five representatives (three Democrats & two Republicans) & five Supreme Court justices who awarded all the disputed electoral votes to Benjamin Harrison, who was announced the winner of the presidential election of 1876. At no time during this matter did Thomas W. Ferry, President pro tempore of the Senate & acting VP as it was known in those days following the death of Vice President Henry Wilson on November 22, 1875, participate in deciding what votes to accept or reject.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">After two more close presidential elections in 1880 & 1884 Congress passed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Count_Act#:~:text=The%20act%20clarified%20the%20vice,vice%20president%2C%20broke%20the%20tie" target="_blank">the Electoral Count Act of 1887</a> that more formally established the counting procedure for the electoral votes sent by each state to the Vice President as President of the Senate. The Electoral Count Act of 1887 minimized congressional involvement in election disputes & placed the primary responsibility upon the states themselves for determining who won their respective elections. The 1887 act gave no power to the Vice President to reject or return votes to states. In fact the problem with the election of 1876, that was decided as described above, was that three states were not able to determine their own winning set of electors & sent two sets to the Vice President so that someone in Washington would decide who were the winning electors in these three states. In other words, rejecting sets of electors & sending them back to the states would have been a futile effort because the above listed states were unable to decide themselves who won. But in no event was the Vice President, acting as the President of the Senate, authorized to resolve disputed electoral votes as described above.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>In the case of the 2020 election no state had asked for their electoral ballots to be returned so they could recertify them showing Trump the winner. That being the case the entire Pence electoral vote count controversy was created by Trump, who actually was the one trying to steal the election. In the infamous telephone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021 Trump was told </span><span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #1d2228;">"What we're seeing is not @ all what you are describing." </span><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #1d2228;">Without any real dispute from a state, Pence had no reason to do anything but see that the votes were counted & announce the winner.</span></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #1d2228; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The improvements in communication technology since the 1870s makes it easier for the states to determine the winner of their elections. Per the Constitution each state, usually under the administration of the State Secretary of State, runs their own election & typically the Secretary supervises the counting of votes & announces the winner. The problems with the election of 1876 laid dormant for over 100 years until Trump & his lawyers distorted the facts to bring a world of hurt to the country that still exists today every time Trump brings up his false claims about Biden not winning the 2020 election.</span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.collins.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/one_pager_on_electoral_count_reform_act_of_2022.pdf" target="_blank">The Electoral Count Reform & Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022</a> was written, as an example, to prevent Vice President Kamala Harris, acting as the President of the Senate following the 2024 election, from pulling the shameful trick that Trump wanted Pence to perpetrate in throwing out electoral votes & awarding the presidency to the incumbent - in Harris's case Joe Biden. The Act was not written to change the Vice President's responsibilities but to restate the constitutional text that the Vice President's function is purely ministerial so that claims like Trump made would not be made again. The 2022 act was also not written to undo a procedure that had never been done or authorized by the Constitution or statute - i.e., no Vice President has ever sent electoral votes back to a state. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In summary, the text of the Constitution is clear that the Vice President has no power or authority to return or reject electoral votes & the pertinent events of the country's electoral history, as described above, confirm that every applicable statute written into law & implemented followed the constitutional text in this regard. Neither the Electoral Commision Act of 1877, that directly decided the election of 1876, nor the Electoral Count Act of 1887 gave the Vice President any authority to return certified ballot lists from electors of any state. As per the Constitution the Vice President's function, as President of the Senate, is ministerial in presiding over the joint session of Congress for the purpose of counting electoral votes. This is in accordance with the Constitution where Pence's only function on January 6, 2021 was to open certified state election results & have the electoral votes counted in the presence of Congress, with the candidate receiving the majority of electoral votes for President winning the presidency. As such, it is appalling what Trump asked Pence to do on January 6, 2021.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">On seven occasions since 1960 the Vice President presided over the congressional ceremony that finalized his party's defeat. On two of these occasions - Nixon in 1960 & Gore in 2000 - they announced they had personally lost their bid for the presidency. In none of these cases did the Vice President send electoral votes back to a state & declare himself or his party the winner.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-35602827748399904622023-10-12T00:18:00.001-04:002023-10-12T00:18:55.278-04:00The XYZ Quiz<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The latest opportunity for parents & grandparents to monitor & participate in what their children & grandchildren are learning is found @ the <a href="https://www.cltexam.com/" target="_blank">Classic Learning Test (CLT) website</a>. The CLT, an alternative to the SAT & ACT, covers students starting in the 3rd grade & continues all the way through 12th grade so parent & grandparent involvement can be maximized through this resource. There is a section dealing with homeschooling.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The website invites you to "ensure your student is equipped to succeed" through "CLT's academic assessments . . . so your student can pursue a fulfilling future."</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Sample tests for each grade level, that are examples of a real CLT, are provided on the website to get students started - each test evaluates reading comprehension, grammar/writing, & mathematics @ the appropriate grade level while emphasizing foundational critical thinking skills (the ability to effectively & objectively analyse information & form a judgement using reasoning & logic). The real (non sample/example) tests can be taken online using your own computer with a remote proctor, or parents for younger students, so it is very convenient & as stress free as it can be - you can take the test @ the best time of day for you.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Over 200 colleges that accept the CLT offer academic scholarships to high-scoring students. In May Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill making Florida the first state in the country to allow public schools to administer the CLT & last month Florida's Board of Governors voted to approve the CLT as an accepted admissions test @ all Florida public universities. CLT is also accepted @ an additional 14 private colleges & universities in Florida.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The WSJ ran a favorable editorial about CLT on September 25 that included a math puzzle from one of the sample tests that I present below as the XYZ Quiz.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Educational innovators, like the founder of CLT, are working to improve the dreadful academic results that government schools have produced for far too long. Participating in the CLT program provides a way to work with your children to ensure they are learning what you think they should be learning to succeed in life. You can actually partner with your child in this endeavor.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Take the XYZ Quiz below & ask your child if they attend a senior high school to take it also. If your children are younger go to one of the age appropriate sample tests on the website & see where it leads regarding signing up for the real tests throughout your child's schooling.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">I will post all correct answers to the quiz below or alternatively will send the correct answer privately to anyone who requests it if no one gets the right answer.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><u>XYZ Quiz</u></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><u><br></u></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">If y^z=x & 8z=xy, then what is x+y+z if y is half the value of z?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-8831143596313188692023-09-26T00:06:00.000-04:002023-09-26T00:12:48.580-04:00Preserving Liberty Through Education<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">"Educate & inform the whole mass of the people. . . . They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." - Thomas Jefferson</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_QGR_U7LjkkrdTYY9g6I_XOCp15U9RLB2ZyH1IrR4OG2WvQCw2g-Ff3OUXzKOisCeXgX2TQi56ZHzvZLAHGSW9eVbMmn6dVxTFxwbyqRif2GIjZcq_Vpn72bTwApZB_h0MuR6ryGmbPEIskuPwxI3EfueK_idn-etZm345CLpiNYUjdSc4b_65Iv0JSY"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7282981410673386178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_QGR_U7LjkkrdTYY9g6I_XOCp15U9RLB2ZyH1IrR4OG2WvQCw2g-Ff3OUXzKOisCeXgX2TQi56ZHzvZLAHGSW9eVbMmn6dVxTFxwbyqRif2GIjZcq_Vpn72bTwApZB_h0MuR6ryGmbPEIskuPwxI3EfueK_idn-etZm345CLpiNYUjdSc4b_65Iv0JSY=s320" /></a></font><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Click on graphic to enlarge<br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>The above graphic prepared by Catrin Wigfall, Education Policy Fellow @ Center of the American Experiment, shows a majority of government schooled students in Minnesota can't proficiently read or do math - it is the latest example of what Jefferson warned us about over two centuries ago. The graphic shows per pupil spending increasing with student achievement in reading & math decreasing meaning Minnesota taxpayers are not getting their money's worth.</span> Sixty-four percent of high school juniors can't do math & 48.5 % of sophomores can't read @ grade level in Minnesota.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Click here for a <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.americanexperiment.org/majority-of-minnesota-students-arent-meeting-reading-and-math-standards/?utm_source%3DActiveCampaign%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_content%3DWe%2Bre%2Bfailing%2Bour%2Bchildren%26utm_campaign%3DFriday%2BNewsletter%2B8%252F25%26vgo_ee%3DuLeve84hyzzrvF%252Fn4DB0pPiFYkWV9mtbBixja3QlPGdmZg%253D%253D%253ACJbSECcZ82hU2YU08L23A9oltpTjR6Jb&source=gmail&ust=1695787689475000&usg=AOvVaw1k1Bg5B0mURqYTK1IRbJ32" href="https://www.americanexperiment.org/majority-of-minnesota-students-arent-meeting-reading-and-math-standards/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=We+re+failing+our+children&utm_campaign=Friday+Newsletter+8%2F25&vgo_ee=uLeve84hyzzrvF%2Fn4DB0pPiFYkWV9mtbBixja3QlPGdmZg%3D%3D%3ACJbSECcZ82hU2YU08L23A9oltpTjR6Jb" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">thorough analysis of the data written by Ms. Wigfall</a>, & here to hear an <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/OlMOzhiI8_w?si%3DIu50s63vtvs3Wle0&source=gmail&ust=1695787689475000&usg=AOvVaw3EsXA6kKHC9RTdMFWmV-TS" href="https://youtu.be/OlMOzhiI8_w?si=Iu50s63vtvs3Wle0" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">American Experiment podcast including easily debunked excuses for why the test results were so dismal & proposed solutions for improving the poor test results with John Hinderaker & Ms. Wigfall</a>.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Progressives all over the country have been very successful in replacing the teaching of reading, writing, & arithmetic in our schools with indoctrination of little more than kindergarten aged children learning about drag queen shows & gender identification - & it shows with terrible results like those on the above graphic. This indoctrination has expanded, using critical race theory & the 1619 Project, from very young children to all of K-12 schools, colleges, businesses, every level of government, & even the U.S. military.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Closely related to wanting to improve America's failing academic record is parents' determination to remove sexually explicit books from school libraries. On September 12 the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing examining what progressives call book bans, claiming that to not make the objectionable books available discriminates against homosexual, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning people. Click here to hear Louisiana Senator John Kennedy <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/KBhy_vlgKS4?si%3DECXopWHf78zC25EH&source=gmail&ust=1695787689475000&usg=AOvVaw27n4CYqSO12w8nXfNLFvG6" href="https://youtu.be/KBhy_vlgKS4?si=ECXopWHf78zC25EH" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">read out loud excerpts from pornographic books "<i>All Boys Aren't Blue</i>" <i>& "Gender Queer" </i></a> followed by a discussion<i> </i>with witnesses representing the LGBTQ community. Removing these types of books is not a case of replacing indoctrination parents don't like with indoctrination they do like, but rather is a common sense response for having their children taught this filth instead of math, reading, science, & civics.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now banning books in a school library where a significant percentage of the students can't read seems pointless except the illiterates could still look @ the pictures or have literate students read the books to them.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Many progressives ask what harm it does to give their points of view to students so that the students can hear all sides & decide for themselves what to believe.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But we never taught that the moon is made of green cheese so why would we want to teach something equally as fallacious as the historical inaccuracies & deliberate lies of the 1619 Project.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">We hear AOC's claims about climate change ending the world twelve years after she presented this theory in 2019 & yet she is not @ all concerned about the trust funds of Social Security or Medicare running out of money about the same time as her forecast for the world ending. It won't be long before we find out if the progressives pushed the wrong problem because the trust funds shortages will have more of a negative impact on the lives of tens of millions of senior citizens than the so-called climate change emergencies ever will.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Why did BO buy a multimillion dollar ocean front property with forecasts of threats of flooding from every weatherman? Is somebody pulling our leg?<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">These are not debates like the Federalists & Anti-Federalists had about ratifying the Constitution that resulted in the Bill of Rights. The progressives' ideas more resemble the arguments made & accepted by the characters, other than the little child, in the fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes."</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Thank heaven for educational organizations like 1) Center of the American Experiment whose mission is to build a culture of prosperity for Minnesota & the nation by championing the values of liberty & economic opportunity through unparalleled research & grassroots activism, 2) Hillsdale College who <span style="color: #4b4b4b;">remains independent, not accepting a single penny</span><span style="color: #4b4b4b;"> of state or federal taxpayer funding,</span> while presenting marvelous online courses given by their campus professors, distributing millions of copies each month of their <i>Imprimis</i> publications written by renowned scholars to households & businesses, & supporting K-12 schools across the country, both public charter & private, by providing an American classical curriculum free of charge of American history & civics lessons to a growing network of educators & homeschoolers through<span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hillsdale.app.box.com/s/272l3kpge4bx0c7kpu3w08belavjc2c0?utm_campaign%3D1776%2520Curriculum%26utm_medium%3Demail%26_hsmi%3D186118377%26_hsenc%3Dp2ANqtz-96JgZqlEaGFMsR6qsEimrrv1CJNKu4rK7qmXOOH-spDB_nyon_aRzFXrer5Sozb81pKXPIZna8kH1FyuICX0_12O_BSw%26utm_content%3D186118377%26utm_source%3Dhs_email&source=gmail&ust=1695787689475000&usg=AOvVaw0_wLKUVGlDC63UPm1ciGgZ" href="https://hillsdale.app.box.com/s/272l3kpge4bx0c7kpu3w08belavjc2c0?utm_campaign=1776%20Curriculum&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=186118377&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-96JgZqlEaGFMsR6qsEimrrv1CJNKu4rK7qmXOOH-spDB_nyon_aRzFXrer5Sozb81pKXPIZna8kH1FyuICX0_12O_BSw&utm_content=186118377&utm_source=hs_email" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: #de7008;" target="_blank">The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum</a>, 3) Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) whose mission is to inspire college students to discover, embrace, & advance the principles & virtues that make America free & prosperous through their network of mentoring professors throughout the country that provides an education & tight community of lasting influence over & above what is expected from any particular university so that ISI's graduates become defenders of the principles of liberty & an effective advocate for timeless principles - graduates include <span style="color: #717070;">Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #717070; outline: 0px;">Reason</em><span style="color: #717070;"> magazine editor Katherine Mangu-Ward, Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn, and Heritage Foundation founder Ed Feulner, & 4) American Council Of Trustees & Alumni (ACTA) whose independent work is committed to academic freedom, excellence, & accountability @ American colleges & universitities - like their annual</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> assessment of the core academic requirements of over 1,100 of our nation's colleges & universities entitled <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whatwilltheylearn.com/&source=gmail&ust=1695787689475000&usg=AOvVaw1c8Dq1gheMVx7fIzhscKCZ" href="https://www.whatwilltheylearn.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">What Will They Learn?</a>,</span> an indispensable guide for starting to select a college that <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">grades each school from A to F.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now it's wonderful that K-12 schools have the above organizations to call on for help - but there is more. Thanks to my friend & colleague in liberty Lawson Bader for letting me know that the state of Florida has made the decision to use the curriculum of the Prager University Foundation (known as PragerU) across all state run schools. Like the four organizations above PragerU is an educational organization that promotes American values through creative free online videos promoting conservative viewpoints on various political, economic, & sociological topics. Most readers of this blog are familiar with PragerU's online videos that I present from time to time, most recently featuring Candace Owens' video regarding the history of slavery. PragerU is working on similar arrangements with other states. Click here to hear <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.prageru.com/video/ep-300-prageru-is-now-in-schools-with-prageru-ceo-marissa-streit?t%3D450&source=gmail&ust=1695787689475000&usg=AOvVaw3mVvrV776i8L0gdydk2B_C" href="https://www.prageru.com/video/ep-300-prageru-is-now-in-schools-with-prageru-ceo-marissa-streit?t=450" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Dennis Prager & Marissa Streit's fireside chat to discuss their new venture in Florida schools</a>. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">All of the above educational organizations would make Jefferson very pleased because they each do their part to ensure the preservation of our liberty. Jefferson believed that only educated citizens could make the American experiment in self-government succeed. He placed education as the foundation of the self-government of the American republic & really every household's prosperity. Sound self-government & prosperity will not exist very long in a poorly educated Society. A tyrannical government, that can come into power only if the citizenry is uneducated, ignorant, & unsophisticated, will restrain & deprive the "whole mass of the people '' their liberties - the goal of the progressives. The above five organizations contribute to the real education of Americans by sustaining, supporting, & defending our principles of freedom.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">America was founded on the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise. Progressives are transforming these principles by instituting unlimited government with no personal responsibility for anything - like releasing people of commitments such as repaying student loans or paying people not to work. The resulting lethargy destroys free enterprise because we have less & less people making or providing services for anything of value - a sure instigator of crippling hyperinflation. Lenin knew that debauchery of the currency was the surest way to overturn the existing basis of a stable Society when he said that "the process engages all of the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, & does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This is where education & knowing a little something comes in. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-6083413734253509822023-09-10T23:40:00.001-04:002023-09-11T00:02:59.385-04:00The Real Poverty & Slavery Story<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">"In this world nothing can be certain, except for death & taxes." - Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789. Dr. Franklin was not the originator of the "death & taxes" phrase & he could have just as easily said "poverty & slavery" because, up until America's founding which started to unravel them, "poverty & slavery" too had been the way of the world since man first walked upright. But Dr. Franklin rightly anticipated that "poverty & slavery" would be abolished by the freedoms unshackled in America &, although just as accurate a term as the "death & taxes" certainties prior to America's founding, would not have been used in the right context in the letter to his physicist colleague Le Roy - a fellow experimenter with lightning conductors.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikhnmmYKFRscsKkgrAFPykoLAN3WuW4kDBVzJ9rbcy3L_3HbHUkebz0FjfRDgW6KPdHK40EWSir61Y2sEtezO13taGjBhx7j2sDea92FSJbsMGrZofggLWsX1cbkKbKyFtL4zCSuMQCtvJqf9ojWZu1M4vf2zHCjc2f6-6osccoY7lT14hzE-qz4NiW5A"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7277408303216549106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikhnmmYKFRscsKkgrAFPykoLAN3WuW4kDBVzJ9rbcy3L_3HbHUkebz0FjfRDgW6KPdHK40EWSir61Y2sEtezO13taGjBhx7j2sDea92FSJbsMGrZofggLWsX1cbkKbKyFtL4zCSuMQCtvJqf9ojWZu1M4vf2zHCjc2f6-6osccoY7lT14hzE-qz4NiW5A=s320" /></a> click on graphic to enlarge</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>Throughout the 6,000 years of recorded human history, prior to the founding of America, slavery had <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">been the norm, an overwhelming fact of life in every corner of the world,</span> including slavery practiced by the native inhabitants of America, who fought wars & enslaved & cannibalized each other long before signing the Mayflower Compact was thought to be a good idea. <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">Black slave masters traded live Black slave cargo for rum & trinkets with the British who in turn sold the slaves to the earliest </span></span><span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">transatlantic slave traders from Portugal & Spain</span></span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> - see Slave Trade Triangle graphic above. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">The ancient Greeks enslaved women & children & simply slaughtered the more unruly men. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">Slave trading was big business in the Roman Empire. Roman emperors owned thousands of slaves who were worked to death mining gold & silver for the Empire. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">In the early Middle Ages the Church condoned slavery – Christians, Muslims, & Jews all partook of slave trading. In short, poverty & slavery were everywhere until the founding of America, which began the reversal of their tyranny. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">Currently o</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">ppression of all sorts has mostly been eliminated except for the sickening tyranny of human trafficking including that of children. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Today, throughout the world, over five thousand people per day are abducted by either deception or force into modern slavery. There were ten million more people enslaved in 2021 than in 2016. International human rights group <i><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.walkfree.org/&source=gmail&ust=1694490062740000&usg=AOvVaw1ImDwH-NQrHfdtXDV_9qJ4" href="https://www.walkfree.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Walk Free</a></i> reports that 50 million people live in modern slavery - 28 million in forced labor & 22 million in forced marriages (1 in 4 are children & 71% of all victims of modern slavery are women & girls). Females account for 99% of all victims of sexual exploitation, 84% of all victims of forced marriages, & 58% of all victims of forced labor.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Modern slavery is one of the most profitable forms of organized crime in the world. Types of modern slavery include sex trafficking (the manipulation, coercion, or control of an adult engaging in a commercial sex act), child sex trafficking, forced labor, forced child labor, bonded labor or debt bondage, domestic servitude, & unlawful recruitment & use of child soldiers (estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today in @ least 20 countries of which 40% are girls taken as "wives" by male fighters). </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">At the center of child sex trafficking is the cell phone. In 2018 the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (founders John Walsh, Ernie Allen, & President Reagan) reported 18 million cyber tips of exploitation of children - 98% of the offenders were strangers. DHS released a report that same year saying that the U.S. National Trafficking Hotline was contacted 41,088 times with 10,949 cases of human trafficking - a number that has only grown each year. Look @ your IRS 1040 instruction booklet that is filled with missing person calls for help.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Red flags regarding children - starting to have a lot of absences in school, disappearing on weekends, they can't tell you where they have been, they look like they are malnourished or tired, they're withdrawn from peers, or if they're with someone & that person is not allowing them to speak for themselves. These signs can escalate into the child having multiple cell phones & motel keys, & dressing in a more provocative fashion.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">If you identify any of the above signs & find calling any of the national hotlines for help useless immediately <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">go to your local police or a trusted friend or make a getaway & find such a friend. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">Because it can happen in any community & victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality. Whether it is called "Modern Day Slavery" or "Human Trafficking" it is @ all times slavery @ its core & people obsessed with the slavery that ended in America 158 years ago could much more positively & productively spend their time working on eliminating it.</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Americans don't know the true story of poverty & slavery - Americans in the twenty first century live in a world that is so good that the foolhardy take our freedoms for granted, or even discard them, thinking there is no obvious or perceptible price to pay & that the 126 welfare programs identified by the Cato Institute will be there to draw on whenever needed. Fewer than 2% of Americans work for the minimum wage & yet someone with the earning power of a U.S. minimum wage job is above the top 85 percentile in the world income distribution. Source - Michael Munger of the American Institute of Economic Research.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">For another perspective it is important to understand that t</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">he average poor American in the bottom income quintile has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor -</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> a middle class person in Europe lives below the standard of living of someone in America living @ the so-called poverty level. Many architects & engineers in Europe can only afford to rent apartments - not own their homes like we do in America. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">Source – Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation.</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Think of your first TV & then first color TV & even the first time you had cable TV in your house, & then the first time you air conditioned a room or maybe two – did you consider yourself living below the poverty level before or during these times? For everyone who has travelled to Europe but not to the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of America it is hard to believe that the typical American living below the poverty level has a home fully equipped with appliances that is larger than the home of the average non poor French, German, or English family. In an update from just last Thursday, one of my neighbors who communicates daily with work colleagues in Europe told me that the Europeans were complaining that they did not have air conditioning in the office but rather were using fans that circulated hot air.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Education is so woeful in America that we have to start teaching the real poverty & slavery story - not the 1619 Project, Critical Race Theory, or any other theory that promotes raw hatred of America or claims America is a racist country. On page 109 of the <i>Virtues Of Selfishness</i> Ayn Rand writes that <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">"The United States was the first moral society in history," so don't stand for an anti-American opportunist with a not-so-hidden agenda to tell you otherwise. You have history on your side. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">America gave everyone the freedom & opportunity for a life without oppression & </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; text-indent: 0pt; word-spacing: normal;">no other form of government, nation, or society in human history, before America, had ever provided this to those previously oppressed.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">To augment the numerous posts on this blog regarding the correct view of poverty & slavery throughout world history please click on Candace Owens' video from PragerU entitled <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.prageru.com/video/a-short-history-of-slavery&source=gmail&ust=1694490062740000&usg=AOvVaw01FgpreOMNpXLD__QEnwLW" href="https://www.prageru.com/video/a-short-history-of-slavery" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">"A Short History Of Slavery."</a></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In addition, I include the following piece from the American Greatness blog.</span></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><h1 style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Merriweather; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 0.833333em; text-align: center;"><font size="6">Slavery, the Left, and Truth</font></h1></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><span face="arial,sans-serif">By Dennis Prager - April 17, 2023</span><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #374151;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><span style="color: #374151;">A generation of Americans is being raised on half-truths and lies about the history of slavery in America. They are given the impression that America was uniquely bad and that American slavery was uniquely bad. They learn nothing about slavery elsewhere. Among the many lies they are told are that "black slaves built America" and that America is systemically racist.</span><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Since the only mortal enemy of the Left is truth, here are some truths about slavery.</font></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1.66667em 0px 0.666667em; text-align: center;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">America's Slavery Compared to Slavery Everywhere Else</font></h3><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.33333em;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">If you are interested in morality and committed to truth, you do not ask, "Who had slaves?" You ask, "Who ended slavery?"</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><em style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Who had slaves?</font></em></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Every civilization throughout history had slaves: Asian societies, Africans, Native Americans and other Indigenous peoples around the world, and the Muslim/Arab world, which may have had the most slaves of all.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><em style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Who ended slavery?</font></em></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">There was only one thing unique about slavery in the West: It raised the issue of the morality of slavery, ferociously debated it and finally abolished it there, before it was abolished in any other civilization. If you care about moral truth rather than, for example, promoting America-hatred, you must recognize — and you must teach — that America was one of the first slave-holding societies to abolish slavery. This even includes Africa. Cornell professor Sandra Greene, a black scholar of African history, notes, "Slavery in the United States ended in 1865, but in West Africa it was not legally ended until 1875, and then it stretched on unofficially until almost World War I."</font></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1.66667em 0px 0.666667em; text-align: center;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">The Numbers of Slaves</font></h3><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.33333em;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">According to the authoritative SlaveVoyages.org, the total number of black slaves imported from Africa into America was 305,326. The number of black slaves other countries imported from Africa into the rest of the New World — i.e., into the Caribbean and South America—was 12,521,337. In other words, other countries imported 41 times the number of black slaves into the Western Hemisphere than the United States did <em style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">including</em> the years before American independence. Yet, the American Left never mentions this important moral point—because the Left-controlled education system suppresses facts it finds inconvenient, and the Left is not interested in morality or truth, but in vilifying America.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">And then there is Arab/Muslim enslavement of blacks. Professor Paul Lovejoy, in his "Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa" (Cambridge University Press, 2012), reveals that from the beginning of Islam in the 7th century through the year 1600, the estimated number of Africans enslaved by Muslims was about 7 million. After 1600, it was about a million per year. Do American students ever learn about the Arab/Muslim slave trade? How many know, for example, that a great percentage of the African male slaves were castrated so that they could not have families?</font></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1.66667em 0px 0.666667em; text-align: center;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Black Slaves Built America</font></h3><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.33333em;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">This is another lie of the Left.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Those who make this argument point to the lucrative cotton manufacturing and trade in the 19th-century — the industry in which black slaves were primarily used in the American South.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">But University of Illinois professor of Economics, Deirdre McCloskey, answered this:</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">"Growing cotton, unlike sugar or rice, never required slavery. By 1870, freedmen and whites produced as much cotton as the South produced in the slave time of 1860. Cotton was not a slave crop in India or in southwest China, where it was grown in bulk… That slaves produced cotton does not imply that they were essential or causal in the production…</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">"The United States and the United Kingdom and the rest would have become just as rich without the 250 years of unrequited toil. They have remained rich, observe, even after the peculiar institution was abolished, because their riches did not depend on its sinfulness."</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">But one need not know anything about cotton to understand how false "Black slaves built America" is. All you need is common sense.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">First, even if slavery accounted for much of the wealth of the South, the Civil War that brought slavery to an end in the United States wiped out nearly all of that wealth and cost the Union billions (in today's dollars).</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Second, if slavery built the American economy, the most robust economy in world history, why didn't Brazil become an economic superpower? Brazil imported four million black slaves, about 12 times as many as America. Why did the slave-owning American South lag so far behind the North economically? Why did England, which, though it played a major role in the transatlantic slave trade until the beginning of the 19th century, had almost no slaves, become the most advanced economy of the 19th century?</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">"Black slaves built America" is left-wing propaganda to vilify America and to discredit capitalism.</font></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 1.5; margin: 1.66667em 0px 0.666667em; text-align: center;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">America is Systemically Racist</font></h3><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.33333em;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">This is the Great Left Lie.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Four million black people have emigrated to the United States since the 1960s—and tens of millions more would if they could. Are they all fools? Why would anyone move to a country that is systemically bigoted against them? Did any Jews emigrate to Germany in the 1930s?</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Blacks have emigrated to the United States because they know what Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the black woman who fled her homeland of Somalia and who now writes and lectures in America, knows:</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">"What the media do not tell you is that America is the best place on the planet to be black, female, gay, trans or what have you."</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">Blacks emigrating to America know what Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, writing in Le Monde and Le Point, knows:</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">"It is forbidden to say that the West is also the place to which we flee when we want to escape the injustice of our country of origin, dictatorship, war, hunger, or simply boredom. It is fashionable to say that the West is guilty of everything."</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4">As regards American slavery and everything else, always remember this: Truth is a liberal value, and truth is a conservative value. It is not a left-wing value.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; line-height: 2rem; margin: 1.33333em 0px;"><font face="arial, sans-serif" size="4"><br /></font></p></div></div></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-26076530201138808482023-08-23T00:33:00.000-04:002023-08-23T20:49:54.392-04:00From A Scale Of Zero To Ten<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>I asked everyone to read the last post with an open mind & the people who responded with comments like "Soooo, who do we vote for on a “Biden V Trump II”? </span>Biden—I don’t think so!<span class="gmail_default">" or "</span>Who would you suggest instead?<span class="gmail_default">" certainly were open minded.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">One of the points of the post is to avoid a Trump-Biden rematch. Democrats are quite content with the rematch because they think Trump has too much baggage to win a general election & based on the red wave of 2022 that did not develop their theory has some credibility that GOP primary voters dismiss @ their own peril. Republicans can control the other side of the rematch by finding an alternative worthy contender to Biden - someone who earns your vote.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">Normally, a president with a record like Biden's would lose in a landslide & the chances of that happening are greater with a fresh face that comes out of the primary process pointing out Biden's failures rather than repeating Trump as the nominee. The Democrats are masters <a class="gmail_plusreply" id="m_-3874535934196081235plusReplyChip-1">@</a> distracting from Biden's terrible anti-American record thereby making the election all about Trump & his polarising ways, grievances, & stolen election claims that people have rightfully tired of. </span>Trump would be only too happy to contest the election on these grounds. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The process of making a decision on who should be the GOP nominee is just starting with the August 23 FNC debate - which is not a one night process. I encourage you to watch & learn about the primary candidates over the coming months & see how your findings square with your previous knowledge of each candidate. Voters did not do this last part in 2020 & Biden snuck in - Biden got away with masquerading as some sort of moderate after almost 50 years of being a malleable far left politician including 8 years as VP to BO.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span class="gmail_default">I also received comments like "</span>totally agree with everything said" from a two time Trump voter who said he would stay home if there was a Trump-Biden rematch. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">At the other pole are comments from people who would vote for Trump if he killed someone on Fifth Avenue like "If Democrats keep control so much damage will be done to America there is no turning it around. That is the story to be told." He is saying that the stakes are precisely known so you have to vote for Trump but Point #1 from the post highlights that when the stakes were precisely known by Trump in Dalton Georgia on January 4, 2021 that he told voters their votes in the runoff Senate elections wouldn't count & Biden wound up with control of the Senate & House. Trump had it in his power to stop Biden's agenda by successfully campaigning for the GOP Senate candidates. Terrible.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I recommend that everyone, especially hard line Trump supporters, do themselves a favor & go through the ten points of the post with an open mind & find the one that least offends, one that you could even agree with (e.g., if you think Trump was the biggest spender than you would write down #5). Then repeat the process until you find points that you do not agree with @ all. You then have a starting point to compare the other GOP primary candidates with Trump.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">You will have made a list or scale of zero to ten points from the post.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Please let me know the results of your work so we can have a good discussion on this blog over the months in choosing the best candidate to beat Biden.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-57034495483766353462023-08-20T23:18:00.000-04:002023-08-20T23:47:42.844-04:00Ten Trump-Record Deficiencies For GOP Primary Voters To Consider<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">"Let them debate so I can see who I MIGHT consider for Vice President." - Donald Trump's post on social media on July 31 implying that he would watch the FNC debate on August 23 but would not participate since he is so far ahead in the polls.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump is "running in 2024 on the things that he promised to do in 2016 & didn't do." - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appearing @ a New Hampshire TV station earlier this month.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">"The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen. For three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward - under oath - & prove anything in a court of law. . . The future of our country is @ stake in 2024 & that should be our focus." - Georgia Governor Brian Kemp tweeting after Trump's fourth criminal indictment, of Republicans blowing the 2024 election by concentrating on Trump's unproven claims & narcissistic grievances, both of which intentionally manipulate & distort the truth regarding Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election while distracting from Biden's purposeful agenda of furthering the decline of the country from apathy to dependence.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">"It amazes me that any citizen who watched the events that unfolded on January 6, 2021, can believe that he is qualified to serve this nation in any capacity, much less president." - Jack Wilson of Sandy Springs, Georgia writing about Trump in the WSJ</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">***</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The election of Grover Cleveland to the presidency in 1892 is the only time in our history that an incumbent president (Harrison) ran against an ex-president with both men running as the nominees from the two major parties. TR ran in 1912 on the Progressive Party ticket & came in second, beating incumbent Taft badly but losing to Democrat Wilson. Seventy percent of the current prospective electorate does not want a Trump-Biden rematch in 2024, or even either one of them to run - in 40 years of Gallup polling Biden has the lowest job approval rating @ this stage of his presidency of any president (37%) though it is higher than Trump's job approval rating when he left office (34%). But a rematch is what we are headed for unless one of Trump's primary opponents can break through or Biden is replaced @ the last minute due to further deteriorating cognition, scandal, or recognition that his policies have produced a failed presidency that precludes winning in 2024.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">With Trump's legal matters taking center stage 24/7 for the last several months Trump's primary opponents have had a difficult time getting their message on issues out or having reporters ask them anything other than about the Trump indictments. The debate on FNC on Wednesday night gives them an opportunity to change this.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Long time readers will remember that before the first Trump-Biden debate in September, 2020 I presented a post that listed fourteen questions that really were meant for the American citizenry, but I had hoped would be asked to Trump & Biden. With the same intention, I present below ten topics for the GOP primary voters to consider with an open mind, that the GOP primary candidates could bring up during the debate & thereafter on the campaign trail, regarding deficiencies in Trump's term in office thereby giving them an opening to make their case that the press is otherwise not providing.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">1. The Georgia Senate Runoff Elections</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">On January 4, 2021 Trump went to Dalton, Georgia supposedly to campaign for the two Georgia Senate candidates who had each received more votes than their opponents in the November election, but not a majority, which therefore necessitated a runoff election on January 5. The Democrats needed to win both of these seats in order to control the Senate with Harris being the tie breaker. The Democrats already had control of the House & now the presidency with Biden's win so the stakes were precisely known - namely, the progressive Biden agenda would proceed unchecked without the Republicans winning @ least one of these two Georgia Senate seats. And yet Trump could not bring himself to stop whining about his election loss telling people @ the Georgia rally that their votes for Loeffler & Perdue would not be counted properly & other statements about expected fraud that gave no incentive for people to vote.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span face="arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">Trump's primary opponents could rightly lay blame on Trump for all the misery the Biden assault on America has brought by Trump's failure to not focus on getting the two Georgia Senate candidates elected so that McConnell, as Senate majority leader, could have tied the Senate up in knots like only he can, thereby stopping the Biden agenda.</span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;">2. What Trump Asked Pence To Do</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Constitution calls for the electors in each state to sign & certify ballot lists that show the results of their state's election for president & vice president. The ballot lists are to be transmitted sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate - which by definition is the sitting vice president - in the latest case Mike Pence. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Students of the Constitution know that Mike Pence did not have the authority to return certified ballot lists from electors from any state - Pence's only function on January 6, 2021 was to open certified state election results & have them counted in the presence of Congress, with the two people with the greatest number of votes winning the presidency & vice presidency respectively.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump wanted Pence to not accept the certified ballot lists from electors from some states but rather to return the ballot lists of these states so they could recertify their ballot lists to indicate Trump won. No state Secretary of State had asked for their state ballots to be returned & Pence declared Biden the winner. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">From a constitutional standpoint what Trump asked Pence to do is outrageous & unforgiveable to students of the Constitution, which should be all of us, - it violated his oath of office to "preserve, protect, & defend the Constitution of the United States" which is the bedrock foundation that all officers of each branch of government are equally bound to support. What Trump asked Pence to do, above all other reasons, disqualifies Trump from being president again.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Stop & think, if the VP was authorized to reject or return votes to any state there would be a tremendous conflict of interest if the VP had just run as an incumbent & lost - like what happened in 2020. After the 2000, 2008, & 2016 elections Gore, Cheney, & Biden respectively could easily have done what Trump wanted Pence to do & the chaos that would have resulted is unimaginable.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But project ahead to January 6, 2025 - would Trump want the person counting the votes to throw some out before announcing the winner. That person will be the current President of the Senate - Vice President Kamala Harris.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;">3. The Wall </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;">At one time Trump had no bigger supporter than Ann Coulter. After he lost the 2020 presidential election Ann called Trump "abjectly stupid" for failing to build the southwest border wall. Ann reasoned that you would expect an election loss from someone who failed to deliver on the principal promise of their campaign - building the wall.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Pouring salt into an open wound, Trump ended a 35-day partial government shutdown that ran from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019 by agreeing to a temporary budget which did not include the $5.7 billion he had sought for the wall, which was the cause of the shutdown to begin with. In negotiating terms Trump got nothing from the shutdown. This prompted many conservatives to say Trump had been outmaneuvered by Pelosi & Schumer. On February 15, 2019 Trump declared a national emergency that he used as his reason to take funds appropriated for other matters to work on the wall.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;">In any event, the wall was not finished by Trump, Mexico didn't pay for the part that was built, & the gaps are a source of the millions of people who have invaded America since Biden became president. See photo below. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAnW0bYvjCNOGN_GNZ-j-TvbJq6iPryXMjVEw89utdY2f6O1P2QdWArCY8sweH16BDzCnFVXPXO3qabkRt7M_hpvtiR8sVexxTmgP9t13K2jx39XEqAaSmXPtPN0Di7jPG9y5yrmsFgPn8PfLMk4fRwoYsMut21yj7V6fejL4ockrcmBIa3u2_xitojfs"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7269609874947558002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAnW0bYvjCNOGN_GNZ-j-TvbJq6iPryXMjVEw89utdY2f6O1P2QdWArCY8sweH16BDzCnFVXPXO3qabkRt7M_hpvtiR8sVexxTmgP9t13K2jx39XEqAaSmXPtPN0Di7jPG9y5yrmsFgPn8PfLMk4fRwoYsMut21yj7V6fejL4ockrcmBIa3u2_xitojfs=s320" /></a><span></span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">4. The Trade Deficit, Tariffs, & 401(k) Accounts</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The U.S. trade deficit (negative balance of trade) for goods & services in current dollars under Trump increased from -$536.75 billion in 2017 to -$627.50 billion in 2020 - source World Bank - despite Trump campaigning to bring manufacturing home by imposing tariffs on foreign trade imports. These tariffs were paid by Americans who unwittingly cheered them on. After repeatedly saying Americans need him to be reelected to preserve the value of 401(k) accounts, the DJIA is up over 14% since the day Trump left office. These points deserve a thorough airing out during the debate.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">5. Deficit Reduction & Economic Growth</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump's plans upon taking office included the following deficit reduction points: <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">1) $250 billion for repealing & replacing ObamaCare, 2) $616 billion for reforming Medicaid & CHIP, 3) $272 billion for reforming welfare, 4) $143 billion for reforming Federal student loans, & 5) $72 billion for reforming disability programs.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">ObamaCare is still in place & </span>Trump presided over the largest deficit spending of $7.77 trillion in any four year presidency. <span style="color: #070707;">Why did Trump go along with Congress raising or suspending the debt ceiling three times under his administration with no demand for spending cuts?</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">On March 23, 2018, swearing he would never sign such a bill again, Trump signed a 2,232 page, $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that kept the government open until September 30, 2018 - only to sign an even larger omnibus of $1.4 trillion in December, 2020. In between, for the fiscal 2019 cycle Trump signed three separate spending packages centered around the previously mentioned 35-day partial government shutdown.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Regarding the March 2018 omnibus Trump had said "<span style="color: #333333;">I say to Congress: I will never sign another bill like this again. I'm not going to do it again. Nobody read it. It's only hours old. Some people don't even know what is in — $1.3 trillion — it's the second-largest ever." This turned out to be only so much bluster as Trump signed them all.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">With regard to the 63% of federal spending that is considered mandatory, Social Security & Medicare comprise the two largest programs & both are headed for funding trouble in just a few years. Trump has insisted that no changes to these programs are necessary & has ridiculed people like Ron DeSantis who advocates for changes. A KFF Health Tracking poll in March, 2023 found that 80% of adults who were polled worry that Medicare won't be able to continue to provide @ least the same level of service of benefits in the future & that 73% say changes need to be made to the Medicare program to keep it sustainable for the future. Do you agree with Trump?</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Neither Trump nor BO had one year of 3% real economic growth during their years in office.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">6. Donor Money To Trump Opponents</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Facing enormous legal bills Trump has attacked Republican donors who have given to his GOP primary opponents as RINOs, wolves in sheep's clothing, & traitors while using $21 million from political contributions from his Save America leadership PAC to pay his personal legal bills - source Reuters. Trump's GOP primary opponents could ask, like the WSJ did, "why a man who has made a billion dollars since he left office can't pay his own lawyers, especially since the indictments have nothing to do with his campaign or legal responsibilities as president." </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">7. No Proof Of Stolen Election</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">State & federal judges, some appointed by Trump, dismissed more than 50 lawsuits brought on Trump's behalf challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election - but instead of alleging "widespread fraud or election-changing conspiracy" Trump's legal teams focused on smaller complaints, which were largely dismissed by judges due to lack of evidence. A typical remark was "The Republicans did not provide evidence to back up their assertions - just speculation, rumors, or hearsay." Trump's two top lawyers Rudy Giuliani & Sidney Powell remain in serious legal trouble personally for their participation & Trump senior legal advisor Jenna Ellis, after being censured by a Colorado judge, signed a legal acknowledgement <span style="color: #2a2a2a;">that “she made a number of public statements about the November 2020 presidential election that were false” & did so with a “reckless state of mind” & with “a selfish motive.” Ellis admitted </span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">in state disciplinary proceedings that she made at least 10 false statements about the 2020 election as part of an effort to mislead the public, according to court documents. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump's primary opponents could point out that there have never been specific examples of widespread fraud presented by Trump - just statements like "I won by a lot." Give one concrete example of widespread fraud that would have changed the election result. Why Did Trump lose all of these cases & why are his lawyers in such legal trouble themselves? Why did Fox pay Dominion $787.5 million if their machines were rigged?</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;">8. Covid-19 & The Vaccine</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;">In May, 2020 Trump ordered the drug companies to produce a Covid-19 vaccine in rapid fire order under Operation Warp Speed (OWS) - the goal was to deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective, vaccine for Covid-19 by January, 2021. A typical vaccine takes 5 to 10 years to develop. The FDA approved the Covid-19 vaccines under emergency use authorization. My doctor told me it was an experimental approval.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;">For Trump, who has no medical training, to tell the drug companies how fast to make a vaccine is like a CEO of a company, who has no engineering-construction experience, telling the contractor some arbitrary date regarding how fast to build a plant & put a manufacturing process into operation. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Developing a vaccine or building a plant this way are both prone for costly mistakes.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump should be questioned on this. Many very pro Trump supporters were adamantly against the vaccine & acted as if Trump had nothing to do with it. How many vaccine shots did Trump receive himself? Why did Trump never fire Fauci?</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;">9. Antifa & BLM Run Wild In Summer Of Love With No Response From Trump</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #313132; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #313132;">Starting around June 11, 2020 Seattle was plagued by violent crimes like arson, assault, & a fatal shooting after the violent groups took over a portion of the city referred to as </span><span style="color: #313132;">CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) or </span><span style="color: #313132;">CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest) - often combined as CHAZ-CHOP. This zone included a police precinct that was abandoned - it was not recovered by the police until early July. In the meantime many businesses in the zone were destroyed. Violence spread across the country including damage to the 37 story Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in lower Manhattan </span><span style="color: #313132;">by BLM, & the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon by Antifa. Paid insurance claims are estimated @ $1 billion to $2 billion.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">During the 2020 Summer Of Love Trump acted like he had nothing to do with putting down the violence. See Tweet below. </span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="times" size="5"><br /></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxFgck9HRul2SQW4bU19lp7yCb573CebDWS15YoSYyTawgoXSARYLgBxi9BlOYEoKPg33TswIcRiujj0YeYLh3Y5RWU9PC5JSB_pN1hbk21WJ0cOwIuVqORZAiTAbxc6mYIZQRQ-dtyXkAV2J28It_Az1SlIk5CXhoiDi8OnjcqZ45adZBNITkWHncJZM"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7269609901548801682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxFgck9HRul2SQW4bU19lp7yCb573CebDWS15YoSYyTawgoXSARYLgBxi9BlOYEoKPg33TswIcRiujj0YeYLh3Y5RWU9PC5JSB_pN1hbk21WJ0cOwIuVqORZAiTAbxc6mYIZQRQ-dtyXkAV2J28It_Az1SlIk5CXhoiDi8OnjcqZ45adZBNITkWHncJZM=s320" /></a><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But Trump didn't end the Seattle violence that went on for several more weeks. I remember Trump saying that after the 2020 election he would clamp down on these violent groups & I wondered why he didn't do it then since he was already in a position as president to restrain violations of life, liberty, & property of American citizens under the Take Care clause of the Constitution that required Trump to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" - including immigration deportation laws against harboring illegal aliens in sanctuary cities & damaging federal buildings.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Trump saw the police were overmanned when they abandoned their precinct in Seattle & the mayors of Seattle, Portland, & NYC & others were over their heads. Trump should not have farcically chosen to wait until after the 2020 election to bring in federal troops to quell the riots but rather should have acted decisively to focus on the true & most important task he had as president - which is to protect the rights of life, liberty, & property of American citizens by effective criminal law & prosecution of criminals who were destroying homes & businesses.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">10. Trump Promises To End Birthright Citizenship For Anchor Babies</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">On May 30, 2023 Trump released a video announcing that if he is elected president he will sign an executive order on "day one" that will end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Nothing better than Trump's above anchor baby claim exemplifies the statement @ the top of this post by Ron DeSantis about Trump "running in 2024 on the things that he promised to do in 2016 & didn't do."</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It was Trump's anchor baby claim in 2016 that originally attracted me to his campaign. During his four years in office he barely mentioned it again.</span></div><div class="yj6qo" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-7082244932459575472023-08-03T00:38:00.006-04:002024-03-19T01:46:44.251-04:00The Two Sides Of The National Debt Coin<p> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"</span><span style="background-color: white;">And if you want to get into the details, let’s just start with the IRS: 87,000 new IRS agents, all the billions of dollars. [So,] $1.4 billion cut, leaving the balance, the balance to be used by the IRS immediately, starting at this moment, continuing at this moment, continuing on for the duration of this presidency; $4 trillion at least. An unlimited debt ceiling increase. Unlimited. Unlimited debt ceiling &, oh, by the way, puts the incoming president, whether that’s Joe Biden or whether that’s a Republican, having to deal with it in a lame-duck session [after the 2024 elections]. Absolutely & completely unacceptable." - Congressman Scott Perry, Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, speaking of his disgust with the Biden-McCarthy debt limit deal reached on June 3 that among other things confirms the addition from the Inflation Reduction Act of 87,000 new IRS agents & suspends the debt ceiling, with no limit, until after the November, 2024 presidential election. </span></span></p><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><span style="color: black;">The actual bill itemizing the Biden-McCarthy deal, known as <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746%23:~:text%3DThis%2520act%2520increases%2520the%2520federal,to%2520the%2520federal%2520budget%2520process.&source=gmail&ust=1691122387704000&usg=AOvVaw0BIJjmB0RYr8YDiW3ebK3d" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746#:~:text=This%20act%20increases%20the%20federal,to%20the%20federal%20budget%20process." style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (H. R. 3746 </a></span></span><span><span style="color: #4d5156;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746%23:~:text%3DThis%2520act%2520increases%2520the%2520federal,to%2520the%2520federal%2520budget%2520process.&source=gmail&ust=1691122387704000&usg=AOvVaw0BIJjmB0RYr8YDiW3ebK3d" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746#:~:text=This%20act%20increases%20the%20federal,to%20the%20federal%20budget%20process." style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Public Law 118-5)</a>,</span><span style="color: black;"> says the purpose of the bill is "</span>To provide for a responsible increase to the debt ceiling," yet despite the bill's intended purpose the national debt increased $358.6 billion the first day after the bill became law.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYpsYl05DjYsFXJEF7O57wEBOdpKVlOplPHHLqvhTh-ePDy2etBc0hkP0VU87ZeTSao3FqTi4VXHwHYsa0tFbkAujDXxDt7IotMpkIvjq9WhlXqCxqSx7QgYkoPi_GZXN7QYCf8Rp6eoTxn1-V9mFMgwRMdS2RapheEkkBOQVQG9MqmvT9kBprHtM_vg/s628/HamiltonDebtQuote.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="628" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYpsYl05DjYsFXJEF7O57wEBOdpKVlOplPHHLqvhTh-ePDy2etBc0hkP0VU87ZeTSao3FqTi4VXHwHYsa0tFbkAujDXxDt7IotMpkIvjq9WhlXqCxqSx7QgYkoPi_GZXN7QYCf8Rp6eoTxn1-V9mFMgwRMdS2RapheEkkBOQVQG9MqmvT9kBprHtM_vg/s320/HamiltonDebtQuote.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">There has been an uneasy truce between Kevin McCarthy & the House Freedom Caucus ever since six Freedom Caucus members voted present that allowed McCarthy to win the House Speakership 216 to 212 on the 15th vote after midnight on the 5th day of the 118th Congress - in exchange for McCarthy promising everything to the Freedom Caucus except the kitchen sink. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Although a no-confidence vote can be called by any member to oust McCarthy (one of his promises) the only casualty so far has been Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green who was voted out of the Freedom Caucus for being too helpful to McCarthy.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The first big point of the McCarthy-Freedom Caucus contention revolved around the U.S. Treasury estimating for months that the government would reach the current debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion on or around June 1 meaning that in order not to default the Treasury would need authorization from Congress to borrow more money to pay all the nation's debts on time or else parts of the government must be shut down. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">McCarthy's biggest promise to the Freedom Caucus in January was that any raising of the debt ceiling would be accompanied by substantial spending cuts. Students of economics know that it is government spending & not the debt or deficits themselves that are the problem.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">After Biden repeatedly refused to include any spending cuts in debt ceiling talks McCarthy did a masterful job of passing <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2811&source=gmail&ust=1691122387704000&usg=AOvVaw3maotzPrnOf1PyohJSMx2y" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2811" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">H.R. 2811 entitled Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023</a> which forced Biden to the negotiating table. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023199&source=gmail&ust=1691122387704000&usg=AOvVaw2gHGtwTPHbcS2GuepqNvJM" href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023199" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The vote was 217 to 215 with 3 not voting</a>. Freedom Caucus members voting Nay were Biggs, Buck, Burchett, & Gaetz who all thought the spending cuts were not substantial enough. The 3 not voting were Kelly (R, PA), Peters (D, CA), & Watson Coleman (D, NJ).</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The following table shows the estimated savings resulting from H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act. Click on table to enlarge.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2UxBKbvwDiNCitc77z7jVNUHg0P8B5WgndplaOqjes_BzgpRCLyZ3tDHhmFj07hauPfD3Jh2RndxEg1QC0SaM3ok06JU1RGafebae8KbIGroN8l94UKXXDVqZu53gXVJpKBaczp4eW5NhiDRNa5T6CbuCL8o0lPHybC7OhSALFiUlr-LPv2nbie4Z-IY/s1122/TableHouseBill.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="1122" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2UxBKbvwDiNCitc77z7jVNUHg0P8B5WgndplaOqjes_BzgpRCLyZ3tDHhmFj07hauPfD3Jh2RndxEg1QC0SaM3ok06JU1RGafebae8KbIGroN8l94UKXXDVqZu53gXVJpKBaczp4eW5NhiDRNa5T6CbuCL8o0lPHybC7OhSALFiUlr-LPv2nbie4Z-IY/s320/TableHouseBill.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">First, H.R. 2811 suspends the debt ceiling through either March 31, 2024 or a $1.5 trillion increase from the then-current $31.4 trillion debt ceiling - whichever comes first. In summary, <span style="color: #666666;">the bill would save $4.8 trillion (i.e., reduce deficits & the national debt) through FY 2033 relative to the CBO baseline, with about $4.2 trillion of policy savings and $543 billion of interest savings. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;">Most of these savings would come from </span><span style="color: #666666;">reducing the FY 2023 Omnibus bill discretionary spending total of $1.65 trillion (the CBO baseline) to FY 2022 discretionary spending levels of $1.47 trillion in FY 2024 & then allow 1% per year growth through FY 2033. Biggs & the other three Nay voters (& Kentucky Senator Rand Paul) wanted to use the discretionary spending levels in FY 2019 (before Covid funding), not the spending level of FY 2022, as the starting point for FT 2024. A big difference.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">H.R. 2811 would rescind unspent Covid relief funds ($30 B); repeal most of the Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) energy & climate tax credit expansions ($540 B); <span style="color: #666666;">rescind most of the IRAs increased IRS funding (</span><span style="color: #666666;">$80 B);</span><span style="color: #666666;"> make changes to energy, regulatory, & permitting policies </span><span style="color: #666666;">requiring Congress to approve any federal rule or regulation that the Office of Management & Budget determines would have an economic impact of $100 million or more (see <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/277?s%3D1%26r%3D21&source=gmail&ust=1691122387704000&usg=AOvVaw2HgTQ0sUJlrNMuDeouxNE1" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/277?s=1&r=21" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">REINS Act H.R. 277</a> - aptly named Regulations From The Executive In Need Of Scrutiny Act); </span><span style="color: #666666;">impose or expand work requirements in several federal safety net programs for </span><span style="color: #666666;">able-bodied adults without dependents </span><span style="color: #666666;">between the ages of 18 or 19 to 55, requiring them to either work, engage in community service, or participate in a work training program for at least 80 hours per month ($120 B); & prevent implementation of both Biden's student loan forgiveness plan & Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) program - the Supreme Court struck down Biden's $430 student loan forgiveness plan but the IDR will require a party with standing to successfully bring suit to strike it down before it resumes in October.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span><span style="color: #666666;">The Freedom Caucus considered H.R. 2811 to be the ceiling for how high they would go in government spending in negotiations with Biden to raise the debt limit, not the floor. But the Biden-McCarthy deal (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746%23:~:text%3DThis%2520act%2520increases%2520the%2520federal,to%2520the%2520federal%2520budget%2520process.&source=gmail&ust=1691122387704000&usg=AOvVaw0BIJjmB0RYr8YDiW3ebK3d" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746#:~:text=This%20act%20increases%20the%20federal,to%20the%20federal%20budget%20process." style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">H.R. 3746 </a></span><span style="color: black;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746%23:~:text%3DThis%2520act%2520increases%2520the%2520federal,to%2520the%2520federal%2520budget%2520process.&source=gmail&ust=1691122387704000&usg=AOvVaw0BIJjmB0RYr8YDiW3ebK3d" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746#:~:text=This%20act%20increases%20the%20federal,to%20the%20federal%20budget%20process." style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 - </a></span><span style="color: #4d5156;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746%23:~:text%3DThis%2520act%2520increases%2520the%2520federal,to%2520the%2520federal%2520budget%2520process.&source=gmail&ust=1691122387704000&usg=AOvVaw0BIJjmB0RYr8YDiW3ebK3d" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3746#:~:text=This%20act%20increases%20the%20federal,to%20the%20federal%20budget%20process." style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Public Law 118-5</a>)</span><span style="color: #666666;"> significantly watered down H.R. 2811 - so much so that</span></span><span><span style="color: #666666;"> it received more Democrat votes than Republican votes.</span></span><span style="color: #666666;"> See graphic below - McCarthy relied on Democrats to pass the bill he negotiated with Biden when 71 Republicans voted against it.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg72MXScQ8GQ7Y-l8A7ObXOAihLltCg8A_FgBevoaOH8eRtwl4eYWpXww38resQVdMu-BZ4kL1WgYKrBIYd4ODegurcYNACetbERodrGk5hw6TnrvzONFsTVRhPgXQGhWFGnqHYv22XJU0kkctynCHpU-fmVoxgwUFjbbMrVC3FfuWPS6mg012hunTIkYA/s643/HouseVoteHR3746.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="643" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg72MXScQ8GQ7Y-l8A7ObXOAihLltCg8A_FgBevoaOH8eRtwl4eYWpXww38resQVdMu-BZ4kL1WgYKrBIYd4ODegurcYNACetbERodrGk5hw6TnrvzONFsTVRhPgXQGhWFGnqHYv22XJU0kkctynCHpU-fmVoxgwUFjbbMrVC3FfuWPS6mg012hunTIkYA/s320/HouseVoteHR3746.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;">First the Biden-McCarthy deal has no debt ceiling @ all - just unbelievably a debt suspension until January 1, 2025 (after the presidential election) that will see the national debt increase another estimated $4 trillion. </span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.4px;">After FY 2025, there are no budget caps, just non-enforceable appropriations targets.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;">A few highlights to give a flavor of why so many Freedom Caucus members were disgusted with the negotiation: McCarthy agreed to leave in place Biden's student loan forgiveness plan (dangerously relying on the Supreme Court to strike it down later in the month - which it did). With regard to H.R. 2811 removing $80 billion from IRS funding: McCarthy agreed with Biden to only remove $1.4 billion in FY 2023 (see Scott Perry comment @ the top of this post) & $21.9 billion mostly split in 2024 & 2025.</span><span style="color: #666666;"> There were no changes to the climate & energy provisions planned $540 billion expenditures. And most embarrassing, CBO determined that the work requirements for able bodied adults resulting in an expected $120 billion </span><span style="color: #666666;">deficit reduction wouldn't save any money due to the Biden deal exempting veterans & the homeless, </span><span style="color: #666666;">both of whom would benefit from the dignity & stability of work. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;">Click <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023243&source=gmail&ust=1691122387705000&usg=AOvVaw1Cysk4qEMLPmWS7SYPRhUr" href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023243" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">here</a> to see the House vote on the debt ceiling deal & <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1181/vote_118_1_00146.htm&source=gmail&ust=1691122387705000&usg=AOvVaw0NWppvnaNu5J29lV14JgWR" href="https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1181/vote_118_1_00146.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">here</a> to see the Senate vote.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;">The only point that is worthwhile in the Biden-McCarthy deal is the inclusion of Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie's requirement that </span><span style="color: #202124;">the government cut 1% of spending across the board if Congress doesn't pass all 12 appropriations bills for FY 2024 - which is the next point of contention for McCarthy's speakership. In reality I would have to see our elected representatives take this step to believe it, but it is on the books thanks to Massie (Liberty Score "A" @ 96%).</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #202124;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: times; font-size: large;">Although McCarthy got through the Treasury's default-government-shutdown warning regarding the need to increase the debt ceiling he has boxed himself into a corner with the FY 2024 budget that starts on October 1, & its inclusion of the aforementioned 12 appropriations bills that fund the federal government each year.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: times; font-size: large;">McCarthy has now told the Freedom Caucus that he will demand more deficit reduction than his deal with Biden calls for which pleases the Freedom Caucus but has Biden saying he will veto any such measure because they have a deal in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #202124;">Starting this week Congress is on its six week recess meaning there are only twelve legislative days in session before the current law funding the government expires </span><span style="color: #202124;">which once again brings the possibility of a government shutdown in play. One of McCarthy's promises was that the House would pass all 12 appropriation bills individually for FY 2024 instead of resorting to a continuing resolution or a catch-all omnibus spending bill that hides a lot of fat & real intentions of many members of Congress. Congress's record in this regard is terrible - </span><span style="color: #202124;">Between fiscal year 1977 & fiscal year 2012, Congress only passed all twelve regular appropriations bills on time in four years – fiscal years 1977, 1989, 1995, & 1997. Every other fiscal year since 1977 has required at least one continuing resolution. Source - Wikipedia.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #202124;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The twelve pieces of legislation that require annual appropriation:</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">1. Agriculture</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">2. Commerce, Justice, & Science</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">3. Defense</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">4. Energy & Water</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">5. Financial Services</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">6. Homeland Security</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">7. Interior & Environment</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">8. Labor, Health & Human Services, & Education</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">9. Legislative</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">10. Military & Veterans</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">11. State & Foreign Operations</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">12. Transportation & Housing & Urban Development</span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #202124;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #202124;">The next two months will tell not only if our elected representatives have the nerve & stomach to resurrect the Limit, Save, Grow Act but if we the people being represented do. See the graph below that shows the referenced Act provides @ least a starting point to control federal spending.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #202124;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAYTVaAOgzsQdF11iv7eL-SKRrcFpZQwIFEcKZ8XaltMk1ArsOPYyHY7R2PvIb6VNDgV7D3mETPOlxLZYOQeVGRFVKQh7LPcfhvnZaIylT7YTs3tZ9Ypp8Qzuo4o96c8-uP0HtdpmVWwF8lDZXcOZKalD5oIIqqok97mJgfoEit2oUPCMWhwU6fdYZuw/s658/Graph2BillSavings.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="658" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAYTVaAOgzsQdF11iv7eL-SKRrcFpZQwIFEcKZ8XaltMk1ArsOPYyHY7R2PvIb6VNDgV7D3mETPOlxLZYOQeVGRFVKQh7LPcfhvnZaIylT7YTs3tZ9Ypp8Qzuo4o96c8-uP0HtdpmVWwF8lDZXcOZKalD5oIIqqok97mJgfoEit2oUPCMWhwU6fdYZuw/s320/Graph2BillSavings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #202124;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The problem with the Limit, Save, Grow Act is that it only pertains to half of the 30% of the federal budget classified as discretionary spending. See graph below that shows the entire federal spending types.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0xwqKgWGU-8WyWN1EXNDaBQ4Q7Kx9cvRlFt-92P3yML6_XCA8fXw8qmH7r0NBFDHF2y_WqbbMINy10briVlhxbGSSRg7uioo8ajGb31m1LnQHV4Ztp_Kq_kvg8dNElu8twwiVN0iSIFs42CQdf0T5F7QBxk4Th3csn2DrC0ErxVW5bf5v0FOHE5fyqBc/s506/FederalSpendingCategories.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="506" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0xwqKgWGU-8WyWN1EXNDaBQ4Q7Kx9cvRlFt-92P3yML6_XCA8fXw8qmH7r0NBFDHF2y_WqbbMINy10briVlhxbGSSRg7uioo8ajGb31m1LnQHV4Ztp_Kq_kvg8dNElu8twwiVN0iSIFs42CQdf0T5F7QBxk4Th3csn2DrC0ErxVW5bf5v0FOHE5fyqBc/s320/FederalSpendingCategories.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Obviously, if the 63% of the budget that is labeled <i>mandatory</i> is considered off-limits to debt reduction the task is impossible & our financial misconduct will continue until collapse. The mandatory programs continue year after year as if they were on autopilot following whatever formulas are called for with no, or very little, action from Congress. BTW - the term <i>mandatory</i> is a misnomer because Congress could eliminate the programs it includes overnight if it so desired - there is nothing <i>mandatory</i> about them.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">See graphic below for further breakdown of the components of federal spending. The Limit, Save, Grow Act pertains only to the 16% of federal spending that makes up the non-defense discretionary component. All the other components need to be addressed also.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm5ThPS8pMIFhGsUm9RmkuXi-vZ3aGH2Ap_lE_GgGqznragGh_I65EXWvYwT3LJ07QzTTA0WaJiwEcdvuw2_hKOiazsM4nEbjtjn2dXKIYKayI7fmpJdO_IxEOc_9F5S3yfGd_Ke1FTZkRpnFseyVWct_ObeCJVJgKf9ojbPSNofLqMNX66Vmjd47UaUk/s1037/FederalSpendingComponents.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="1037" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm5ThPS8pMIFhGsUm9RmkuXi-vZ3aGH2Ap_lE_GgGqznragGh_I65EXWvYwT3LJ07QzTTA0WaJiwEcdvuw2_hKOiazsM4nEbjtjn2dXKIYKayI7fmpJdO_IxEOc_9F5S3yfGd_Ke1FTZkRpnFseyVWct_ObeCJVJgKf9ojbPSNofLqMNX66Vmjd47UaUk/s320/FederalSpendingComponents.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The national debt went from $5.6 trillion to $10.0 trillion under GW Bush, $10.0 trillion to $19.5 trillion under BO, $19.5 trillion to $27.2 trillion under Trump in four years, & $27.2 trillion to over $32 trillion in just two & a half years under Biden.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>Professor Friedman taught that money available for taxation is composed of</span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> direct taxes & deficit spending (borrowing) & that the portion of the national debt that is paid every year is the interest payments on that debt. </span><span>The great libertarian professor explained that government spending should be minimized in order to have the most robust economy possible because the larger the proportion of private sector resources that the government takes (spends) the less money is available for consumption, production, savings , & investment - the things that drive the economy & prosperity. </span></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"> </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The above point is illustrated by <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w15639/w15639.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1691122387705000&usg=AOvVaw0PFY33ikoO_HqbYd2GG_eU" href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w15639/w15639.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">the famous Harvard study by Carmen Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff</a> in that they found that advanced economic countries with public debt above 90% of GDP typically had slower economic growth - median growth rates fell by 1% & average growth rates by considerably more. This reduction in economic growth is largely an unseen cost compared to, for instance, a very visible direct cut in pay by your employer.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now the debt & deficits can become much more serious than just a slowdown in economic growth - which is bad enough because increases in your standard of living depend on economic growth. Without economic growth our futures are less robust. This seriousness starts to turn into a crisis when the Treasury begins to have problems borrowing money to fund much of the programs that far too many Americans count on for living expenses. Dr. John Cochrane put his finger on the significance of the national debt, writing in the WSJ on March 18, 2020: America's “unique ability to borrow, & to promise eventual repayment by taxation, is a treasured but finite resource. When a crisis comes in which even the Treasury can’t borrow, we are in for a true catastrophe” - or what I call the first side of the national debt coin in which every American citizen is responsible for funding whatever financial shortfalls result from the Treasury's borrowing troubles described by Dr. Cochrane, thereby wiping out wealth built over many generations especially when you consider the unfunded $100+ trillion liabilities of Social Security & Medicare & the liabilities of Fan & Fred, the housing giants whose liabilities are guaranteed by taxpayers.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Side one of the national debt coin should be thought of as a rupture or sudden burst.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This borrowing problem for America has not gone unnoticed by communist China, whose plans to supplant American leadership is known by all but the majority of the American citizenry, who are oblivious to such matters preferring to concentrate on identity politics, racism, & political correctness matters. Already, Saudi Arabia, India, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Bangladesh, Venezuela, & parts of Africa are in one stage or another of trade & transactions using the Chinese yuan instead of the dollar. Bolivia, just last week, became the latest South American country to start partially using the yuan. China has set up the petroyuan for oil trading in their challenge to overtake America.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So why did Alexander Hamilton refer to the public debt as a "national blessing"? - refer to first image @ the very top of this post.<br /></span></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Hamilton knew that debt can be used as a tool as deficits allow governments to change the timing of production as all American war efforts did to win wars starting with the Revolutionary War or as the government did under President Reagan running large deficits to increase national productive capacity while also cutting taxes - this provided a double incentive for economic growth in the U.S. economy as GDP increased faster than debt, which was paid down by Bill Clinton with the help of Newt Gingrich. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;">Hamilton emphasized the repayment of debt starting when he accepted the responsibility, as Treasury Secretary, to pay off all of the state's debts @ full value from the war. </span><span style="color: #222222;">See graph below (click on it to enlarge) to follow debt reduction after each war & the expansion under Reagan. Notice only once in our history that the national debt was zero (not just as a percent of GDP but in absolute dollar terms) - January 8, 1835 following the plan set in motion by James Monroe, our best president, & then followed through by two men who had worked for President Monroe - John Quincy Adams & Andrew Jackson. Not only is this the only time in American history that our debt</span><span style="color: #4d5156;"> was extinguished, it remains the only time in world history that a major country was without interest paying debt. A gargantuan achievement that can’t be imagined today.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5AYPIaD8KemiYjPbBFOjtLgVNcLvADSE5TsXeZj8bv1U39_XzPhX-DlACLoITNLL03EXMmY8cE2IXByI6YsT8TYHJC3mR7IBTKAF1GbazQcj2QUYVbMkObe6OI555Kg0azFt7Ev06yfB1YLQ-EsGfvaO5oWogTjktI8m_YOjtGTwjXdIrYWzwIDTDIFw/s1266/Debt1790To2021.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="1266" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5AYPIaD8KemiYjPbBFOjtLgVNcLvADSE5TsXeZj8bv1U39_XzPhX-DlACLoITNLL03EXMmY8cE2IXByI6YsT8TYHJC3mR7IBTKAF1GbazQcj2QUYVbMkObe6OI555Kg0azFt7Ev06yfB1YLQ-EsGfvaO5oWogTjktI8m_YOjtGTwjXdIrYWzwIDTDIFw/s320/Debt1790To2021.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">After 2005 none of the four presidents elected in the 21st century have presided over an economy that has produced one year of 3% real annual economic growth (except 2021 when growth comparisons were made to a pandemic ultra low year level). The national debt has increased 475% in the last 22.5 years from what it was for our prior entire history. The labor force participation rate (lfpr) for men in their prime working years of 25 to 54 has dropped 2.5 percentage points since January 2001. The government pays people to stay home & the Cato Institute has identified 126 federal entitlement & welfare programs. The lfpr for people 16 to 24 has dropped by 1.2 percentage points since February 2020. People have retired early who were not financially prepared to retire - the lfpr rate for people 55 & over has dropped by 2 percentage points since February 2020. There are two times as many job openings as there are unemployed people & employers still cannot find enough qualified workers. There are schools in Atlanta & Baltimore where 97% & 85%, respectively, of students cannot read. Welfare programs do not require beneficiaries to work, in fact people can lose benefits if they become employed. There is no one working in half of the bottom quintile households as of 2014.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The above conditions are what I call the second side of the national debt coin in which economic growth is stymied because of welfare programs funded by deficit spending. People not working detracts from the GDP & is a burden on productive citizens. This is more of a slow burn than the other side of the coin described above as a rupture, but in the end it leads to the same place of ruin.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">GW Bush, BO, Trump, & Biden increased the national debt, all under sub 3% real economic growth years, as indicated above, meaning they did not use debt as Hamilton intended nor did any of them have any intention of ever paying it back despite the growing threat from China. Instead of increasing production to benefit the nation, they used debt to fund redistributionist policies.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">We are bleeding to death.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-80001670722571333802023-07-18T00:24:00.001-04:002023-07-18T00:24:14.513-04:00Student Loan Forgiveness - Just One Of Biden's Ploys To Win The Presidency Again<div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It was a few minutes before 11 on Friday morning June 30 when the Supreme Court released its decision striking down Biden's $430 billion student loan forgiveness program that would have completely erased the debts of 20 million borrowers and lowered the median amount owed by another 23 million from $29,400 to $13,600. <span>The Biden program forgave up to $10,000 in student loans per qualifying student ($20,000 if the student received a Pell grant) - to qualify for the forgiveness program individuals had to have an adjusted gross income less than $125,000 in either tax year 2020 or 2021, $250,000 if married. The ink was not yet dry on the SCOTUS decision before Biden announced he was still going to pursue, by other means, removing the student loan asset from the government's books & transfer the ensuing liability to taxpayers - although he really didn't say it in those terms or that clearly. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">People have been paying back their student loans to the government under income-driven repayment plans <span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">(i.e., payments are based on income & have no relationship with the size of the loan like paying off a mortgage does) since October 1, 1993 & </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-student-loan-relief-for-borrowers-who-need-it-most/&source=gmail&ust=1689739786338000&usg=AOvVaw3HPuOpUF3w8ZrpxHOUWMHj" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-student-loan-relief-for-borrowers-who-need-it-most/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Biden's original scheme floated last August</a><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> cut these payments in half from BO's program that was in place when payments were paused in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the Wuhan coronavirus.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">There are several versions of income-driven repayment plans in effect & just 14 days after the Supreme Court's overruling of the $430 billion giveaway, in a separate previously planned action (i.e., not part of the Supreme Court's June 30 ruling) that otherwise would appear to be a blatant disregard for that Supreme Court ruling, Biden's Secretary of Education announced that 804,000 student borrowers who had made payments for 20 years (25 years for graduate students) would see their cumulative $39 billion balance forgiven on a one time automatic discharge adjustment because these borrowers have accumulated the equivalent of 20 or 25 years of qualifying monthly payments. These borrowers </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">were given credit for @ least three additional years of loan forgiveness under the various terms of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965.</span><span style="color: #202124;"> Although this </span>move<span style="color: #202124;"> had been planned for about a year, the timing of this payment forgiveness (adjustment) for the 804,000 eligible borrowers takes the word <i>chutzpah</i> to another level. This is a one-off event that is independent of Biden's future student loan forgiveness plans that I label Plans B & C hereinafter.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-actions-to-provide-debt-relief-and-support-for-student-loan-borrowers/&source=gmail&ust=1689739786338000&usg=AOvVaw191Lmgx1pBzOjqJBD2qH9k" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-actions-to-provide-debt-relief-and-support-for-student-loan-borrowers/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Biden's latest proposed income-driven repayment plan - dated June 30, 2023 - that starts this Fall</a> caps monthly payments @ 5% of discretionary income (down from 10% under BO & 15% originally) defined as the difference between annual income & 225% of the federal poverty level ($14,580 for 2023) up from the current 150% of the FPL used by BO. For 2023 no one making $32,800, or less, or about $15.75 an hour for a full time worker owes anything. If you fall in this income exempt category or make your monthly payment, interest will not accrue (it will be covered by the Department of Education funded by taxpayers) so your loan balance will not increase & after twenty years will be forgiven. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An actual test case I am aware of has the borrower owing $67,000 in student loan debt while earning $50,000 per year. This means the borrower will be required to make twelve $72 monthly payments each year based on 5% of $17,200 ($50,000 - $32,800). So if this borrower makes $72 in monthly payments for 20 years ($17,200 total payments) the entire $67,000 debt will be forgiven by the federal government who releases the borrower thereby saving the borrower $49,800 on the loan principal. If the payments are made on time no interest will accrue saving the borrower over $36,000 in interest costs if interest was calculated as if the student loan was a typical loan received from a bank, @ 4.50% interest (Sallie Mae rate). But such a 20 year $67,000 loan from a bank would require $430 monthly payments - not $72 - meaning that in the real world interest on these government loans would never be paid off making $72 monthly payments - it would just keep accruing forever without limit.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-student-loan-relief-for-borrowers-who-need-it-most/&source=gmail&ust=1689739786338000&usg=AOvVaw3HPuOpUF3w8ZrpxHOUWMHj" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-student-loan-relief-for-borrowers-who-need-it-most/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The White House Fact Sheet dated August 24, 2022</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">provides three more examples on the graphic below & follows up the graphic by saying "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a2458;">For each of these borrowers, their balances would not grow as long as they are making their monthly payments, & their remaining debt would be forgiven after they make the required number of qualifying payments." Click on graphic to enlarge.</span> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWHJG6QeWDxkFArJmX5llTL8m0rbm16GUdstZRxVMYf4X3o9VvfSrs-mhUf01vrmkQAcfkb4vKi9l36Oeu0f6vZImlKUxoGHdkHSQANVTU5HrwD_9rzAOuMzAa06ZHMJEYPlJZ58w_9jqjBspYCvMS6u1vb4EDXe7l5m-aC0wfqedVzUMsHes5CnmBi5o/s762/studentloanrepayschedule.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWHJG6QeWDxkFArJmX5llTL8m0rbm16GUdstZRxVMYf4X3o9VvfSrs-mhUf01vrmkQAcfkb4vKi9l36Oeu0f6vZImlKUxoGHdkHSQANVTU5HrwD_9rzAOuMzAa06ZHMJEYPlJZ58w_9jqjBspYCvMS6u1vb4EDXe7l5m-aC0wfqedVzUMsHes5CnmBi5o/s762/studentloanrepayschedule.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="762" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWHJG6QeWDxkFArJmX5llTL8m0rbm16GUdstZRxVMYf4X3o9VvfSrs-mhUf01vrmkQAcfkb4vKi9l36Oeu0f6vZImlKUxoGHdkHSQANVTU5HrwD_9rzAOuMzAa06ZHMJEYPlJZ58w_9jqjBspYCvMS6u1vb4EDXe7l5m-aC0wfqedVzUMsHes5CnmBi5o/s320/studentloanrepayschedule.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So Biden already had a Plan B in mind - note the Fact Sheet link above, issued only hours after the Supreme Court decision on June 30, 2023 - when he made the pitch to forgive the $430 billion student loan debt showing he is determined to see student borrowers pay pennies on the dollar, if that. He is working with a pool of 43 million people who owe an estimated $1.6 trillion. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Biden estimates that his Plan B income-driven repayment scheme will save the average student $1,000 per year & $2,000 per year for a student going to a public college so that in 20 years such a student would see $40,000 in student loan debt forgiven which is more than twice the size of his original up to $10,000 per student ($20,000 if the student received a Pell grant) loan forgiveness program.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It will require another successful lawsuit to stop this income-driven repayment scheme that is costlier in many instances as indicated above than the one just rejected by the Supreme Court. But many readers know it is dangerous to repeatedly go to the courts for relief. The courts can hold off the abuse but it is much better to resolve matters like this through the political process of winning elections.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But Biden's long range Plan C involves another legal theory that he knows will end up before the Supreme Court again if he tries it.<br /></span></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The plan just rejected by the Supreme Court was based on Biden relying on the <span style="color: #333333;">Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students </span><span style="color: #333333;">(HEROES)</span><span style="color: #333333;"> Act of 2003. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">SCOTUS found that the president does not have the authority under the HEROES Act to justify such a sweeping program without the express approval of Congress. In short, Biden found some cherry picked wording from a twenty year old law that gave the secretary of education the authority to cancel or reduce </span><span style="color: #333333;">loans in certain limited circumstances (e.g., student deaths, bankruptcies, becoming disabled, or being cheated by the school) - not to rewrite the entire Education Law. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the Court's majority opinion "</span>The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not. We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to “waive or modify” existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, <span style="background-color: yellow;">not to rewrite that statute from the ground up</span>."</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">Also from the</span> Syllabus section that preceded the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1689739786338000&usg=AOvVaw1QyhIo2Qs2eQy5iEvrCMFy" href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Opinion of the Court regarding Biden v. Nebraska</a> <span style="color: #333333;">"</span>Under the HEROES Act, the Secretary “may waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs under title IV of the [Education Act] as the Secretary deems necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.” §1098bb(a)(1). As relevant here, the Secretary may issue such waivers or modifications <span style="background-color: yellow;">only “as may be necessary to ensure” that “recipients of student financial assistance under title IV of the [Education Act affected by a national emergency] are not placed in a worse position financially in relation to that financial assistance because of [the national emergency]</span>.” §§1098bb(a)(2)(A), 1098ee(2)(C)–(D)." An example of a recipient of student financial assistance not being placed in a worse position financially would be <span style="background-color: yellow;">the three & a half year pause of payments & interest accrual because of the pandemic - not forgiving the entire debt.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">In 2003 the entire student loan debt was $243 billion so Biden was relying on a twenty year old dusted off passage to claim that $430 billion, almost twice the nominal student loan debt when the HEROES Act was written, could be excused without Congress's explicit approval. Adjusting for inflation over the twenty years since the HEROES Act was written means Biden pretended $400 billion ($243 billion 2003 dollars adjusted to</span><span style="color: #333333;"> 2023 dollars)</span><span style="color: #333333;"> of the $430 billion, or virtually the entire targeted portion of student loan debt being considered, could be waived or modified as if that was what Congress intended without ever saying so. Not only didn't Biden originally believe he had such authority to forgive this debt but then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in July 2021 that the president could not unilaterally forgive students loans: </span><span style="color: #333333;">"That has to be an act of Congress."</span><span style="color: #333333;"> Furthermore, the HEROES Act has never been used previously to cancel student loan balances.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But Biden knows a good vote baiting issue when he sees one & after making the income-driven repayment program as lenient as he can before resumption of student loan payments this Fall he plans to pursue student debt forgiveness again - this time under a legal theory following the HEA mentioned above - which takes us further away yet from the magnitude of money under consideration & making it harder to connect Congress clearly intending such significant executive action without specifically saying so.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">When the HEA was written in 1965 the Department of Education had not yet been elevated to a Cabinet level agency - it began operations as such in May of 1980 - so there was no Secretary of Education to relieve student debt. The HEA is a federal law that governs the administration of federal higher education programs & is the law referred to both by Chief Justice Roberts' Opinion paragraph quoted above </span>& <span style="color: #333333;">the</span> Syllabus section that preceded the Opinion <span style="color: #333333;">(i.e., </span>th<wbr></wbr>e Education Act). <span style="color: #333333;">Title IV, entitled Student Assistance, of the HEA governs federal financial aid mechanisms including student loans. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">Numerous hearings were held by House & Senate subcommittees during 1965 & LBJ signed the HEA into law on November 8, 1965 as part of his Great Society program. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Congress authorized the first federal student loans in 1958<span style="color: #333333;"> under the </span>National Defense Education Act —up to a total of $1,000 per student each year so the maximum student debt was $4,000 per student who graduated on time. Today the average federal student loan debt is $37,338 per borrower. <span style="color: #4d5156;">Student loan debt exceeded credit card debt in 2010, auto loan debt in 2011 and reached the $1 trillion mark in 2012</span><span style="color: #4d5156;">. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #4d5156;">Since 1965 the HEA has been reauthorized eight times with Congress making amendments adding & changing policies of existing programs so we don't know which clause Biden will rely on to cancel all student loan debt in Plan C. But, with the financial growth of the program as described above & the complexities resulting from Congress fiddling with a law for 58 years, it seems a sure thing Biden will look for another cherry picked passage to try again.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And again, & again because Biden becomes the champion of buying the votes of student loan borrowers with every attempt to relieve their poorly conceived debt. S<span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">o even after the high Court struck down this most blatant & shameless political maneuver imaginable </span><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;">Democrats will remind students & their parents every election going forward that they brought it up or plan on bringing it up again under another pretense so people keep voting for them in the hope that it will somehow become legal one day.</span></span></div><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span></p><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">GenZers will make up 37% of the electorate in 2024 & when coupled with Millennials the total is just under half @ 48.5%, & forgiving student loans registers with them.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Of course, if such a student loan forgiveness scheme ever became law it would be an open invitation for colleges to keep raising tuition meaning the federal government would repeatedly do this all over again with other groups of students in years to come. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But student loan forgiveness is just one of three other major ploys Biden & the Democrats are relying on to win the presidency in 2024: </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">1) Stricter gun control laws - Biden is counting on the media unfavorably presenting this issue to the public every time there is a shooting that favors their narrative & not mentioning it when it doesn't so that emotions run high with independent voters to ban guns & eliminate the second amendment.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">2) Abortion - Other than poor quality Trump endorsed candidates in the 2022 midterm elections (the vast majority of which lost), abortion was given as the biggest reason why the Republican red wave didn't materialize. Abortion energises Democrats as well as suburban women who identify as Republican or Independents. There were plenty of indications of the significance of abortion documented on this blog in the last year such as the statewide vote in traditionally conservative Kansas on August 2 overwhelmingly voting to keep abortion a constitutional right by a 60 to 40 landslide margin. The abortion issue has been reduced to a discussion of debating the number of weeks before an abortion is illegal which pro-lifers like Bill McGurn, Mike Huckabee & Lila Rose should have a problem with - meaning Republicans are divided & still do not have a winning abortion message which can only hurt them again in 2024. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default" style="color: black;"><span class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div><div class="gmail_default">3) Trump - Since 2016 we have clearly seen that Trump brings out more anti Trump voters than pro Trump voters. Trump talks powerfully but since 2016, under his leadership, Republicans lost the House in 2018 & the Senate & Presidency in 2020 & more pathetically the two Georgia Senate runoff election seats on January 5, 2021 <span style="background-color: yellow;">when the stakes were precisely known</span> - namely, retaining Republican control of the Senate if only one of the two Georgia Republican candidates had won meaning <span style="background-color: yellow;">none of the Biden anti-American assault could have happened to America</span> if Trump would have campaigned for Loeffler & Perdue instead of whining about his presidential loss during campaign stops in Georgia supposedly on their behalf. The 2022 midterm red wave mentioned above saw Republicans losing another Senate seat as a result of John Fetterman defeating Trump endorsed candidate Mehmet Oz but the Republicans did squeak out control of the House by a five vote majority 222 to 213 (need 218 to control). It is this losing electoral record that makes Democrats want to run against Trump - & he accommodates because he is his own worst enemy.</div><div class="gmail_default"><br /></div></span></span></div></div>ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-59875244596886789022023-07-02T23:48:00.000-04:002023-07-02T23:49:17.066-04:00The Jeffersonians & Independence Day 2023<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">I recently read Kevin R.C. Gutzman's new book entitled <i>The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, & Monroe</i>. Mr. Gutzman is a history professor @ Western Connecticut State University who received his PhD from the University of Virginia that was founded by Thomas Jefferson so he was literally right @ home writing this book about the only consecutive trio of two term presidencies of the same political party in American history. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The three Virginian presidents spent much of their lives within 30 miles of each other. Carol & I have visited all three of their homes - Monticello, Montpelier, & Highland (known as Ash Lawn-Highland when we visited it).</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">A great way to honor Independence Day 2023 is to spend some time during the holiday remembering these three men who consecutively served as president during the first quarter of the nineteenth century & as the book says "implemented the foreign policy, domestic, & constitutional agenda . . . setting guideposts for later American presidents to follow." </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Reading the book also gave me an opportunity to update my notes on <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nz5MeF02gTtpCU0k9d7cRqF08kVKnMTpE5Z_xN8rcjY/edit#heading=h.45qvesdi6kvn" target="_blank">James Monroe, my favorite president</a>.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-59150404588126210282023-06-15T00:03:00.000-04:002023-06-15T00:04:03.891-04:00World Traveler Quiz<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyBg8oZz4NLjJYZo0kjsbXX_K9ClNfwTTCUZawmn2YOEP4aytQ_FFutsi9aN8YKNyNKJHDe3zfTOJEvgDJzHGw4Mxr8YEltTj6sk-4VkGk5lkZ0h7wtN2XUp2qG-CKZ7X7ikmIdS51r0alob5gHnZkIj5o2jx409wLD1En5mzMitwiq_97ODwi1pBf"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyBg8oZz4NLjJYZo0kjsbXX_K9ClNfwTTCUZawmn2YOEP4aytQ_FFutsi9aN8YKNyNKJHDe3zfTOJEvgDJzHGw4Mxr8YEltTj6sk-4VkGk5lkZ0h7wtN2XUp2qG-CKZ7X7ikmIdS51r0alob5gHnZkIj5o2jx409wLD1En5mzMitwiq_97ODwi1pBf=s320" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7244758789398569490" /></a></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">A world traveler who had not been to Japan since there was parity between the yen & penny was surprised to learn when he arrived in Tokyo on October 20, 2022 that $1 bought 150.15 yen, up 30.4% for the year - see above graph.<br></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">What was the value of the Japanese yen in U.S. dollars in the last currency trade before midnight on New Year's Eve in 2021?</font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-17714025573368721142023-05-30T00:34:00.010-04:002023-06-04T15:16:55.579-04:00Walk, You Won't Have To Run<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">"Teachers unions are more dangerous to America than al Qaeda." - Neal Boortz</span></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLA1-_0ubpCNpU2kmt0-jpxwcVx3XsT3hVa6Af7Uhgrk5rG6ZWJAmLOZu8geqhh3bAFzv0fL6eNR54-A0rHjP2DkPlY8ecO5yR8wvs2g_GgBwL13nFlIcMB7rFJcu4VjgzEB_jmQeHvvtrEQ4NhbMeFScrKKVA6xZbWa6yNpGsY0S_FVB61jFM8UxF/s1106/HistoryScores.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdX4Th472eOnBVQEPaCH9v5kuTXf-s86FHZw9pQHUT_VmYb0Prkk4i9DDcx26wly9pQ302qUuFxNnO19ol5f0F5I3H0v5bQDnxX14_PLPvbne-AbO_qVpicesR3nrcAL-hYEFaV9MxodSFzS10ImAygSRVYml0bfPPoMUNpn1CPKh3v7IbiITyV0eV/s1106/HistoryScores.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL2CrlYfJz4wzPlqLQlFT_3ibdSm06rXMOSpxI6GlU_eSg6VyZqP3EkfGksd-AMf41ezrBaHXCWJ38VlNDqYrYsFap2gFl9oRmA3Yu4BstzRov2SrKY4HcGKGdOu5pXRkFzFCMapO9B8WDHR8Yeqtym-AP9V9n0ZZxpQQfGT0FFVEOjF7R1XRa_v8L/s801/CivicsScores.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="801" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL2CrlYfJz4wzPlqLQlFT_3ibdSm06rXMOSpxI6GlU_eSg6VyZqP3EkfGksd-AMf41ezrBaHXCWJ38VlNDqYrYsFap2gFl9oRmA3Yu4BstzRov2SrKY4HcGKGdOu5pXRkFzFCMapO9B8WDHR8Yeqtym-AP9V9n0ZZxpQQfGT0FFVEOjF7R1XRa_v8L/s320/CivicsScores.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdX4Th472eOnBVQEPaCH9v5kuTXf-s86FHZw9pQHUT_VmYb0Prkk4i9DDcx26wly9pQ302qUuFxNnO19ol5f0F5I3H0v5bQDnxX14_PLPvbne-AbO_qVpicesR3nrcAL-hYEFaV9MxodSFzS10ImAygSRVYml0bfPPoMUNpn1CPKh3v7IbiITyV0eV/s1106/HistoryScores.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="1106" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdX4Th472eOnBVQEPaCH9v5kuTXf-s86FHZw9pQHUT_VmYb0Prkk4i9DDcx26wly9pQ302qUuFxNnO19ol5f0F5I3H0v5bQDnxX14_PLPvbne-AbO_qVpicesR3nrcAL-hYEFaV9MxodSFzS10ImAygSRVYml0bfPPoMUNpn1CPKh3v7IbiITyV0eV/s320/HistoryScores.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The above graphics (click on them to enlarge) released earlier this month by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), known as the Nation's Report Card, are part of the latest indication that America's youth are being poorly educated & this is a detriment to our country. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In 2022 only 13% of eighth graders in government schools were proficient in history - "That's the lowest proportion of students reaching that level out of any subject assessed by NAEP" says Daniel J. McGrath, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Acting Associate Commissioner. It is 20% proficient or above in civics.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large; text-align: center;">Last Fall NAEP's report showed national test scores had the largest math declines ever recorded for fourth & eighth graders & reading levels had dropped to the lowest levels since 1992 - only 33% of fourth graders nationwide scored proficient or higher in reading tests in 2022.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;">The last <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.returntoexcellence.net&source=gmail&ust=1685506591713000&usg=AOvVaw1qR6qx2ZnDTTZmVLiXBZ-6" href="http://www.returntoexcellence.net/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">RTE</a> post pointed out that America is experiencing shortages of doctors, pharmacists, accountants, & policemen & you don't have to look further than the above academic results to see why. It is not far-fetched to see a connection between the above education declines, </span><span style="color: black; text-align: center;">that have been reported for years, & our shortages of key professionals. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In addition, those who make it to graduate school, many of whom would be the next professionals in one of the above four fields have found "funemployment" & "quiet quitting" fits into their current lifestyle quite well. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;">"Funemployment" - the concept of GenZers & some younger Millennials that not having the worries of a job, or even the prospects of one,</span><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"> could be pleasant, delightful, & even desirable - an irresponsible level above wanting a good work-life balance. Source: Suzy Welch. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;">"Quiet quitting" is the </span><span style="color: black; text-align: center;">concept that young professionals should take their work-life balance to the point that they do no more than the bare minimum to do their job & quietly quit work, for the day, when they think they have met this standard. Mrs. Welch points out this is another way of saying " I want to work 9-to-5 in an 8-to-8 industry." </span><span style="color: black; text-align: center;">Imagine if doctors </span>or policemen<span style="color: black; text-align: center;"> were quiet quitters.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Of course these concepts rely heavily on the funemployed & quiet quitters not spending down their parents' wealth too fast, starting with their student loans being forgiven by Biden. If these people do spend down their parents' entire wealth they will have wiped out the wealth of two generations (their own that never materialized & their parents) making the question - can the next generation rebuild the wealth that was wasted on these feckless people?</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But it's even worse - the behavior described above carries over to blue collar work as well. The gas engineer who recently relocated my natural gas meter outdoors told me that the local utility has a hard time getting young people who want to work - he finds them not interested in the work, lazy, looking for time off, but wanting to receive good pay. He had an older helper that day @ my house who provided a noticeable difference to contrast this opinion to - his apprentice helper had been an experienced mechanic who was changing careers to work for the local utility. The apprentice was all the things that the gas engineer said the young workers are not - helpful, energetic, wanting to learn, & asking questions.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now like many of you, I have seen this coming for years, starting for me with two successful fathers I know who expected nothing from their sons & in one case that is exactly what he got after paying for a useless college education. Over the years I had noticed that each of the two sons either took no responsibility for work around the house or didn't have a summer job - a tip off of bad things to come.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But it's not just personal achievement that should worry us. Far too many people are falling for the woke mentality, without even realizing it, as they are being taught to hate America while simultaneously taking for granted the freedoms that America inherently offers. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Even so the topic of reparations in California, piled on top of all the other abuses (e.g., penalty free shoplifting of $950 of merchandise, sky high gasoline taxes & utility rates, & large homeless encampments) in the once Golden State, may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">California was admitted to the union as a free state meaning there were no slaves & no slave holders. Most people trace their ancestry to after the Civil War so asking people to pay large reparations pushes people's backs to the wall & they may finally be ready to "just say no" to more Critical Race Theory (CRT).</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Also in California, the new San Francisco DA (replacement for recalled DA Chesa Boudin - an accomplishment in & of itself) not bringing charges earlier this month against the Walgreens security guard in the shooting death of Banko Brown during a shoplifting attempt is another indication of a possibly changing tide. One thought was that the new DA could not find a grand jury in San Francisco that would indict the security guard. Who would have thought this possible just a few months ago?<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Other tide turning events: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (backed by both chambers of the Florida Legislature) 1) requires businesses with more than 25 employees to use the online E-Verify system to check employment to help control illegal immigration, 2) will not recognize out of state driver's licenses issued to illegal immigrants, 3) requires State & local investment decisions to focus on maximizing returns instead of making politically correct investment statements with citizens' pension funds regarding Environmental, Social, & Governance (ESG) considerations, & 4) will no longer require Floridians to have a permit to carry concealed weapons.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now the NAACP, the League of United Latin American Citizens, & the homosexual rights advocacy group Equality Florida have issued travel advisories to prospective tourists that claim Florida has state laws that are hostile to LGBT & people of color. The groups claim DeSantis has attempted to erase Black History month & restrict diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) programs in Florida schools. This is a positive step in righting our ship because people will now have a choice to make concerning what is right or wrong instead of just hearing one side, but you can count on the hostile anti-American media to present any arguments in a skewed & misleading way so people will have to beware & dig to learn the truth for themselves.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And in Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has improved the former Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) by appointing Martin Brown to the position of Chief Diversity Officer & renaming the institution the Office of Diversity, Opportunity, & Inclusion & making Brown its Director. Brown is a graduate of both Howard University & the Virginia Executive Institute @ VCU & has extensive experience working in the private sector & state government. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">These moves enhance Virginia's chances of further awakening citizens of the Old Dominion to the destructiveness of CRT where small sounding differences between words like equity & equality have led to nothing but trouble. Brown has already spoken @ the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in this regard saying things like "DEI is dead," which resulted in the Virginia NAACP calling for Brown's resignation. I take this as another positive sign that sanity is gaining some voice because Youngkin has not wavered in his support for Brown who must be doing something right to fire up such opposition.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It is important to remember that in many ways Virginia is ground zero in discovering the education problem of parents being excluded from involvement in what their children were being taught in Virginia government schools. The Loudoun county parents-teachers board meetings that caught national attention led to Youngkin being elected governor in 2021.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And in Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds just signed a bill banning gender identity & sexual orientation issues from being raised to children in K through 6th grade & school administrators are now required to notify parents if students ask to change their pronouns or names.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed legislation that prohibits government schools from requiring teachers & employees to refer to transgender people by the pronouns they use.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It is CRT & the gender identity & sexual orientation issues that take time away from what young students should be learning that is hurting America in more ways than one. We have learned that we can't just turn kids over to schools with no further parental involvement - we have to regularly look @ students' textbooks & homework assignments to make sure we know what is happening.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">As regular readers of this blog know, I present quizzes (similar in difficulty to NAEP sample questions) from time to time throughout the year. Many subscribers send these quizzes to friends or present them @ dinner parties. My hope has always been that parents & grandparents will send them to their children & grandchildren like my dear late friend Evelyn did for years. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">For instance if a ninth grader @ this point in the school year can't figure out the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.returntoexcellence.net/2023/03/train-derailment-quiz.html&source=gmail&ust=1685506591714000&usg=AOvVaw2ZUS_6royMLXy_q2I5cPfB" href="https://www.returntoexcellence.net/2023/03/train-derailment-quiz.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Train Derailment Quiz</a> that was posted on March 7 he or she is not doing math @ proficiency level & parents should know this so they can do something about it.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In his online Hillsdale College economics course entitled <i>Supply-Side Economics & American Prosperity,</i> Dr. Arthur Laffer confides his own personal answer regarding what he thinks the prospects are for our country. Dr. Laffer says that when he was young he was very optimistic & the world was much worse than it is today. From 1946 to the present the United States has improved enormously. But he admits that along the way the divisiveness, like today's, that he has seen before, has always depressed him & he is living in that same sort of depression today of the partisanship that makes him not optimistic; but he says he has always been wrong when he was not optimistic.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In that same spirit of Art Laffer I have presented above some optimistic signs in this post that people could be waking up to know we have it within our power to change the destructive path we are on. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And there are even more signs all around us like 1) Anheuser-Busch, losing beer sales more & more by the day for the past two months, after offending their own clientele with their wokeness when they hired transgender Tik Tok influencer Dylan Mulvaney, to<span style="color: #353639;"> promote Bud Light in a pair of videos that received negative feedback on social media including </span>Kid Rock posting a video of him shooting cases of the beer - all this heading into the summer beer drinking season<span style="color: #353639;">, 2</span>) Target holding true, to date, in not jamming sales of Gay Pride Month clothing items down 99% of their customers throats in favor of the 1% of households that account for Americans in same sex marriages, & even 3) the Los Angeles Dodgers waffling regarding whether or not to honor the Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence @ the ball park during the annual Pride Night baseball game - it's currently still on.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I also had the Republican House holding true on the spending reduction debt ceiling issue on the above list but removed it when McCarthy capitulated as Republicans have done every time before. If the agreement in principle that Biden & McCarthy made late Saturday night does not have the votes to pass into law there is a better than even chance that McCarthy will fold on even the few meatless bones Biden threw him in order to get the Democrat votes needed to avoid the catastrophe Yellen has warned her Treasury will ensure occurs.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">We may lose most or even all of these examples, like combining spending reduction with raising the debt ceiling, but we are @ least looking like we know something is going on that requires attention. Just a short time ago there was no resistance. Make sure you are doing everything you can to actively pull in the right direction because the forces against us are very formidable.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In the meantime I have two of my own first hand experiences that make me happy.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">First I was just notified that my friend Darien was one of four students in the Honors College @ Cleveland State that graduated with a mechanical engineering degree on a full scholarship & he starts work on his new job today. The sky's the limit for this young man.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Second, my friend Tommy is finishing his junior year majoring in civil engineering @ Rutgers. Two years ago I asked Tommy to show me his curriculum & he gave me the number for some people @ his college who I spoke to so I have gauged the quality of his education which is excellent. He has helped with work around his parents house for years & this summer will be his second working as a summer student for an engineering firm in his area. He has touched all the bases I mentioned above in this post.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Next year Tommy will be 22 years old & will have an engineering degree from Rutgers - a ticket to anywhere he wants to go in the business world.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Tommy, like Darien, won't have to run, he will walk past any pretended competition.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-8016784563415791892023-05-11T01:09:00.001-04:002023-05-11T01:10:38.596-04:00We Have It Within Our Power To Change The Destructive Path We're On<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;">There's clearly been an effort to bring down the standards for our students in Virginia to stop celebrating excellence. And this is counter to everything we believe." - Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin speaking about eighteen Virginia high schools (s</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;">ee table below that includes the number 1 high school in the nation)</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;">, apparently working in tandem targeting Asian-American students, by withholding National Merit Awards presented to the top 3% of scorers on the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sparkadmissions.com/blog/understanding-the-national-merit-scholarship-program/&source=gmail&ust=1683865278724000&usg=AOvVaw0XB9wUjIhfoBpI9wdXvD-2" href="https://www.sparkadmissions.com/blog/understanding-the-national-merit-scholarship-program/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test</a> (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">PSAT/NMSQT)</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"> - an award that is an honor acknowledgement of merit that can help students in the top 1% of scorers compete for scholarships & college admissions. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjltTvlTSrdFPNip0AIH5j3jpXjIJLGeTGOxm_UN6bCPRzRA0NGjm4CLBNQew_-Q_69cPHJJ9d0o--FmtI5gVYbnmMRCJxSV2VfkVm4Ijbw7YoLeTP6mFohDFKezQW00C8VeNxM_NXD1ttAJnzjSLgvJuWrVoXqXL8L0NOJdyTPzDJN3E3sEMAGoD-/s562/VAHighSchoolRanking1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="457" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjltTvlTSrdFPNip0AIH5j3jpXjIJLGeTGOxm_UN6bCPRzRA0NGjm4CLBNQew_-Q_69cPHJJ9d0o--FmtI5gVYbnmMRCJxSV2VfkVm4Ijbw7YoLeTP6mFohDFKezQW00C8VeNxM_NXD1ttAJnzjSLgvJuWrVoXqXL8L0NOJdyTPzDJN3E3sEMAGoD-/w330-h406/VAHighSchoolRanking1.jpg" width="330" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span>School officials said that the awards & scholarships were withheld to avoid hurting the feelings of those who failed to get them, citing their program of "equal outcomes for every student, without exception." </span></span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;">This relentless pursuit of Progressives' idea of equity went as far as hiring an "equity consultant" for $450,000 in the Fairfax County School District. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Virginia Attorney General is conducting an investigation.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Progressives have come to substitute the word "equity" for "equality" as if the two are identical - they are not. Progressives' idea is that there are systemic inequalities in the world & that social equity is achieved when everyone under whatever circumstance they find themselves is given whatever they need to reach an equal outcome with anyone else. In short, a tilted playing field. <span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #102d51; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual;">The Founders argued that government exists to protect man’s natural equality and natural rights. The Progressives countered that government exists to</span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #102d51; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual;"> achieve</span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #102d51; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #102d51; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual;">equality for individuals, particularly economically like the student loan forgiveness program that transfers the student's debt from people who incurred it to those who don't owe it. </span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Equity is the quality of being fair & impartial & of course the Progressives' idea of equity is exactly the opposite of this. When Progressives talk about equity they are speaking of "equality of outcomes" & this viewpoint not only will hurt the country - it already has.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Last fall, following the equity for equality progressive substitution, Ivy League & other highly thought of big name schools sought to protect their names & reputations a little longer by deciding not to provide data for U.S. News & World Report's law school rankings. Led by Yale & Stanford more than a dozen other law schools followed suit. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This in turn quickly led to Harvard's Medical School withdrawing their cooperation with the magazine's medical school rankings, which was followed by medical schools @ Stanford, Columbia, Penn, & Mount Sinai.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;">Rankings like USNWR's, & grading of colleges by ACTA, can only louse up the good thing some schools have going for themselves. Don't compete for excellence - just let things roll along as the non-participating schools rest on their laurels & perceived reputation. </span><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;">The above examples of the Virginia high schools & the college law & medical schools </span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: -0.16px;">intentionally hindering the brightest students' development will continue the dumbing down of the entire society that thinks there are more than two sexes, that men have babies, & that you need to state your preferred pronouns when being introduced to someone or enlist in the Army.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;">Our enemies around the world concentrate on overtaking America economically & militarily while our schools produce a society, many of whose members are tied up in preferred pronouns & can't get a responsible job despite employers' multiple openings per unemployed worker. See graphic below.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOG-PC4A396zE2RPcNZ6HzLGETAkLZPZKRWqOns_Kjj0YuuAuCZpQSNPoeqZcLn2gQIJ_kHBA3vDoZE3Oic2vf79k4cqwQnPoE2i2f8rkaKr-h52w6UAEV3RMve204tHxU0f3oAUF8Od66lXxLqXj5vTfx5NSZOauvqqutaIZLsDCHeVLTkALTLWm/s538/ACTA1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="538" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOG-PC4A396zE2RPcNZ6HzLGETAkLZPZKRWqOns_Kjj0YuuAuCZpQSNPoeqZcLn2gQIJ_kHBA3vDoZE3Oic2vf79k4cqwQnPoE2i2f8rkaKr-h52w6UAEV3RMve204tHxU0f3oAUF8Od66lXxLqXj5vTfx5NSZOauvqqutaIZLsDCHeVLTkALTLWm/s320/ACTA1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: black; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The link between lack of education achievement & unemployable people becomes clearer every day. Employers have the openings but can't find qualified people to fill them no matter how many people are out of work.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This deterioration of education in America, as documented in the Virginia high schools above, is also a growing problem in the professions.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">There was already a looming shortage of doctors forecast before the 2010 enactment of ObamaCare with its projections of adding another 30 million people into the insured ranks. The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a primary care shortage of up to 55,000 doctors within the next decade & up to 124,000 physicians by 2034 derived from an estimated 268,000 retirements & possibly only 15,000 new doctors coming in each year.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It is estimated that more than 64 million people in the U.S, live in an area that is short of doctors, nurses, & other health & human service professionals. Retiring doctors give their practices to hospitals or large group-team practices with young inexperienced doctors in exchange for being able to walk away from the practice with no further liability.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This doesn't look like it will get better any time soon with proper medical training being an expensive time-consuming process being offered by a limited number of medical schools with just so many seats - such schools not keeping up with the demand for physicians. Doctors then are being burnt out with less autonomy as they are controlled by insurance companies.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The solution is to return the medical profession to the excellence when it was the most prestigious field for a young person to go into by removing all of these hindrances & red tape encountered when trying to help patients.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But it is not the shortage of doctors that surprises me since I have repeatedly written about that since the early days of ObamaCare.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I was very surprised to see little more than a homemade sign "Pharmacists Wanted '' when I entered a local Rite Aid drug store last summer. Come to find out the major pharmacy chains have severe personnel shortage problems too.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And it all started during the Covid-19 pandemic with fewer people attending pharmacy schools - a trend that is expected to continue. According to the Pharmacy College Application Service the number of pharmacy-school applicants dropped by more than a third from its peak a decade ago resulting in pharmacies reducing hours or even closing stores on weekends because of staff shortages.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The median annual pay for pharmacists in 2021 was nearly $129,000 meaning by definition half the pharmacists you see filling prescriptions make over $129,000 per year.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This has created an overworked condition that is ripe for mistakes. I witnessed a madhouse @ a local Walmart pharmacy the winter before last when there was only one pharmacist on duty giving Covid vaccine shots, trying to fill orders, & explain how to take medications to customers. The pharmacist looked disheveled, bewildered, & spinning around like being blown out of a cyclone not knowing where to turn next. I left.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Next up in the troubled professions is accounting where a shortage of accountants is forcing small & mid sized firms to hire overseas accountants even when the U.S. income tax filing season gets in full swing. Imagine what this says - foreigners in Bengaluru, India or South Africa know how to complete an American income tax return but Americans don't.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Education starts the downhill accounting profession slide with a 9% decline in U.S. students who received a bachelor's degree in accounting (57,500 degrees in 2012 to 52,500 degrees in 2019) with the downward trend continuing the past two years. As I expected to find in researching this post, fewer people are sitting for the four part CPA examination. Evidently working the fields in the hot Arizona sun is not the only job Americans won't or can't do.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This lower number of degreed accountants is not sufficient to replace the more than 300,000 U.S. accountants & auditors who left their employment the past two years. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The accounting profession involves a lot of pressure & hard work with 70 to 80 hour workweeks common each spring during income tax season & four times a year meeting audit deadlines for business financial reports.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Just like pharmacies have reduced their hours many accounting firms have stopped performing external audits because of qualified staff shortages.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I have wondered for years why anyone would want to join the police force, border patrol, or military the way people in those professions have been treated under the criminal or enemy first, victim last or not @ all mindset.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I know army veterans who went through very selective competitive processes to become policemen 20 years ago - the NYPD had 20 applicants for every open position. Now there is a 1,700 officer shortage. Chicago is losing two officers for each one it graduates from the police academy & San Jose has seen a two thirds drop in applications to the police force the last three years. Source - Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">As the abuse of these police professionals became more & more absurd the hiring standards naturally were lowered.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">For instance, four of the five Memphis policemen who were fired & charged with murder in the beating & subsequent death of Tyre Nichols had been reprimanded or suspended earlier in their work on the force for failure to report when they used physical force, failure to report a domestic dispute, or for damages to a squad car. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">One of the four officers cited above was hired after the department loosened its education requirements. The man had worked as a Shelby County corrections officer - he had been sued for allegedly beating a jail inmate (the case was dismissed on a technicality) so on-the-job violence was on his resume.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In fact the Memphis police chief herself, who had created the elite Scorpion unit that the five accused officers belonged to, had originally been demoted from major to lieutenant before being fired from the Atlanta police force for attempting to cover up a case involving the husband of another officer. The Atlanta Civil Service Board reinstated her.<br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The above four examples of shortages - doctors, pharmacists, accountants, & policemen - show important jobs that affect our lives that are just not being done the way they should be. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">These shortages, & the above examples of why we have them from the Virginia high schools & college law & medical schools, are indicative of the destructive path we are on.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A path where we worry about transgender bathrooms but not sanctuary cities; where thugs are honored as heroes while policemen or citizens who bring them to justice are vilified - Officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri & citizen Jose Alba defending himself in a NYC bodega by stabbing ex-con Austin Simon who attacked Alba over a bag of chips Simon's girlfriend had not been able to pay for with her defunct benefits card; & where illegal immigrants can commit murder after being deported six times but still gain sanctuary in major cities - Kate Steinle dying in her father's arms after being shot in San Francisco.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">We continue to worry after AOC told us the world will end in 2030 due to climate change if we don't adopt impractical, expensive, & cost ineffective measures of the Green New Deal but aren't concerned @ all that the Medicare Part A Hospital Trust Fund will run out of money by 2028 & that the Social Security Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2032. </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">We allow trained Marxists to infiltrate our schools @ every level from kindergarten through graduate school to undermine & overturn our country by teaching radical political ideology that emphasizes Critical Race Theory & the malicious deliberate historical errors, misstatements, & falsehoods of the 1619 Project & Black Lives Matter - all of which<span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"> sees literally everything through the lens of race so that young children come to regard their parents as racists who are beyond redemption. </span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The forces against America have never been greater.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The only good part is that we have it within our power to change it.</span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div>ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-6557433234952705062023-04-25T00:05:00.000-04:002023-04-25T01:12:18.058-04:00The Changing Electorate Challenge For The GOP<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0VdSpiecak-B2htJcywwI6bRGDmi2Z6WJ_02c_Kd4x3hnO_3FXHqXaAbUqHh7sCibU64gY28DJWGy9rBNR43O3P4_hJPVpEB4kZ7JPzHFO0xAK1P-vOAYIWGGTKtA5iHD0qadxB3gbVrGC9B9GDVRuC863Ap3I9gnNWibVSeLR-ExU4TcUqyWxxqm"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0VdSpiecak-B2htJcywwI6bRGDmi2Z6WJ_02c_Kd4x3hnO_3FXHqXaAbUqHh7sCibU64gY28DJWGy9rBNR43O3P4_hJPVpEB4kZ7JPzHFO0xAK1P-vOAYIWGGTKtA5iHD0qadxB3gbVrGC9B9GDVRuC863Ap3I9gnNWibVSeLR-ExU4TcUqyWxxqm=s320" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7225851016188866690" /></a><span style="font-size:small"></span><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The electoral seesaw of the United States from one party to the other can clearly be seen by looking @ the presidential election results from 1968 through 2004:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">1. After LBJ's Vietnam war effort was in the news every night & MLK & RFK were assassinated the country was ready for a change in 1968. Nixon defeated Humphrey & Wallace 301 to 191 to 46 electoral votes.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">2. Nixon was reelected in 1972 defeating McGovern 520 to 17 electoral votes while receiving over 17 million more popular votes. Agnew resigned & Nixon resigned facing certain conviction in an impeachment Senate trial. Ford moved from VP (Agnew replacement) to President. Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office. This set up another change.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">3. Carter defeated Ford 297 to 240 electoral votes in 1976 while receiving over a million & a half more popular votes. The slow Ford economy deteriorated further under Carter & there was an Arab oil embargo in 1979 & an Iran hostage crisis that set the stage for a change to Reagan.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">4. Reagan defeated Carter 489 to 49 electoral votes in 1980 while receiving over 8 million more popular votes than Carter. Independent Anderson received over 5.7 million popular votes & Libertarian Clark received almost 1 million popular votes - neither received any electoral votes.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">5. Reagan won reelection in 1984 over Mondale 525 to 13 electoral votes while receiving over 16 million more popular votes. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">6. Reagan's popularity continued in 1988 as his VP Bush defeated Dukakis 426 to 111 electoral votes while receiving over 7 million more popular votes. After Bush's one term & his <i>read my lips</i> broken promise the electorate decided it was time for a change.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">7. In 1992 Bill Clinton defeated Bush 370 to 168 electoral votes while receiving almost 6 million more popular votes. Ross Perot received over 19 million popular votes but no electoral votes.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">8. Clinton benefited from a strong economy in 1996, that many credited House Speaker Newt Gingrich for, & won a strong reelection bid over Dole 379 electoral votes to 159 while increasing his popular vote margin to over 8 million votes. Perot received over 11.5 million fewer popular votes than in 1992 & again no electoral votes. Clinton was impeached for lying under oath (denied having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky) & obstruction of justice. Presidential ethics was a major issue of the day.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">9. The election of 2000 could not have been closer with GW Bush defeating Gore 271 electoral votes to 266 while Gore received over half a million more popular votes than Bush. Nader received almost 3 million popular votes but no electoral votes.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">10. Although the outcome of Ohio was questioned by Democrats (they dropped the issue after one day), Bush won reelection in 2004 by a vote count of 286 electoral votes to 251 for Kerry while receiving over 3 million more popular votes than Kerry. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Anyone who is not a rabid Republican or Democrat voter could look @ the above list of quadrennial presidential election results & with an open mind, objectively see what caused the power swings from one party to the other over these ten presidential elections.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">But by the time the 2008 election came about it was obvious that the nation was deeply polarized. Starting with Robert Bork's rejection (42 to 58) by the U.S. Senate to the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1987 (not mentioned in the list above), to Bill Clinton's impeachment, to GW Bush winning the presidency via a Supreme Court vote while losing the popular vote by over half a million votes something was different in America. (Note, I did not put Nixon's removal from office on this "something was different" list because people from both political parties knew Nixon's removal was justified especially after Goldwater told Nixon he was out. Actually, it was the epitome of a properly working political process as opposed to the polarization that happened in 2008.) <br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">In fact we had a taste of what was to come before Clinton's impeachment in 1998 - a Martian who just landed on Earth in 1996 & saw the resumes of Bob Dole & Bill Clinton would never have correctly guessed the winner of the election. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">BO promised to fundamentally change America & comfortably won two terms. During those eight years <a href="http://www.returntoexcellence.net" target="_blank">RTE</a> documented the reasons why I felt that BO was the first president who was not working in America's interest. Carter had his problems but I never felt that he was deliberately trying to wreck America the way I felt BO did.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">In 2016 the Democrats ran the one candidate in Hilary Clinton that Trump could surprise - "I surprised them" (his words). But by 2020 thanks to the cover of Covid, Trump's narcissism that turned off more people than his policies attracted, & the hostile anti-American media Joe Biden was elected president to the dismay of the country. Never has a president, including BO, worked more blatantly & deliberately against America than Biden.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Now for the first 143 years of this constitutional republic America did not fall prey to voting</span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap"> for candidates who promised the most benefits from the public treasury - instead we had leaders in both elected branches who followed the limitations of the Constitution. In 1930 federal government spending was 2.7% of GDP. By 2012 it was 24% & the Cato Institute had identified 126 federal welfare programs - this all flowed out of FDR's progressive government agenda. See graphic below & notice that from 1900 to 1916 the blue & brown lines coincide meaning the budget was balanced.</span><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVCYd77fLR-_HSN2h8jFW3O5vG53E08rlhcvcs0wmtP8pHQXk93XYTdhiRehBnTZk8JRqkfGVtS8YBYode6Rl8t8b50NS0VcubN8xI6UNeVTnkuPY1HkH9T4V928FTQYO6TlY7Db6r8JxALxGwxJSdpN1XB7HVQyC-eeo4itaCydlYf7BEu1gRRAzI"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVCYd77fLR-_HSN2h8jFW3O5vG53E08rlhcvcs0wmtP8pHQXk93XYTdhiRehBnTZk8JRqkfGVtS8YBYode6Rl8t8b50NS0VcubN8xI6UNeVTnkuPY1HkH9T4V928FTQYO6TlY7Db6r8JxALxGwxJSdpN1XB7HVQyC-eeo4itaCydlYf7BEu1gRRAzI=s320" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7225851051376090546" /></a><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">From the founding to the Civil War America was in the liberty to abundance stage of our history. From the Civil War to FDR's New Deal we were in the abundance to complacency stage as liberty started to be taken for granted as it was being replaced by security. And from the 1930s to the present, right in front of our eyes we have drifted through the complacency to apathy stage & into the apathy to dependence stage teetering on going back into bondage.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">These stages combined form the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J3AnXt9QvU4UMgbQkvfLceGoyAjVPHd8/edit" target="_blank">Death Of Democracy</a>.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">I have documented that Millennials & GenZers have their own interests & they are different from those of past generations. America's youth has been college educated by progressive professors who were part of the main socialist-communist movement of the last 50 years that continues today.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">These young people are interested in racial equality, healthcare, global warming/climate change, & student loan forgiveness. It is only because America is so wealthy (their parents that is) that today's youth can focus on such things as opposed to making a career & starting a family. <br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">A poll conducted in March by <a href="https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/WSJ_NORC_ToplineMarc_2023.pdf" target="_blank">the WSJ/NORC @ the University of Chicago</a> received quite a bit of media coverage over the past month because the results of the poll - some of which are given in the graphic @ the top - are so dramatic that they are alarming. Readers of this blog should not have been surprised.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The poll found that the importance of patriotism in America had fallen off to 38% - I am surprised it is that high considering all the indoctrination in schools & in the media where America is always portrayed as a bad place of racists.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Religion had fallen off in importance to 39% which again is not surprising since much of America today considers government to be their religion, which quite simply cannot lead to a fulfilling satisfying life.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Community involvement has fallen off in importance to 27% - why get involved when there is the socialist lure of free healthcare, high minimum-living wage paying jobs, & the general understanding that there will always be a government program to depend on for every eventuality Millennials or GenZers come across in life with of course the unspoken (& really never thought of) law that they will always have the freedoms they currently enjoy & mistakenly believe can be taken for granted.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The poll found that the importance of money increased but then only to 43% which agrees with another part of the poll that found that less than 2 out of 3 people aged 18 to 29 think hard work is important to them personally.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">None of the above information favors Republicans' near term electoral chances. The GOP would be wise to not concentrate on Trump's legal problems which will only get worse when we hear from Fani Willis (DA - Fulton County Georgia) & Jack Smith (Special Counsel - Trump retention of classified documents & parts of the January 6 Capitol riot). </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The presidency can only be won by receiving a majority of electoral votes in the electoral college & that should be the entire focus of everyone who thinks Biden & the Democrats are purposely working against American interests. Republicans should concentrate on having a staff of community organizers in about ten swing states, starting right now, to have any chance of winning the presidential election & keeping control of the House in November, 2024. This step would bring Republicans to the level Democrats never abandon regarding community organization election efforts.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Two recent elections that the GOP lost contain valuable lessons for Republicans in this regard. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">On February 28 Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot ran for reelection. Lightfoot is a radical progressive who shut down the city for more than a year during Covid, bankrupted small businesses, allowed rioters to burn down whole neighborhoods, presided over the worse crime wave in 50 years, & let the schools go to hell (in two dozen inter-city schools there is literally not one child that can read or write @ proficiency level) - source Chicago native Steve Moore.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Lightfoot finished third & was eliminated from the runoff election on April 4 that was necessitated because no candidate received over 50% of the vote on February 28..</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Paul Vallas, a moderate Democrat, received the most votes on February 28 after campaigning on fighting crime & improving education in the city. Many conservative writers like one of my personal favorites, Dan Henninger, thought that Chicago had seen enough in Lightfoot's destructive progressive ways & had come to their senses ready to elect Vallas.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The problem was that the second place finisher on February 28, Brandon Johnson, was a Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) favorite who was even to the left of Lightfoot (i.e., more progressive) & he won the runoff 51.4% to 48.6% (287,551 votes to 271,443 votes). Turnout was 33.2% meaning 17.1% of eligible voters elected the new Chicago Mayor. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Johnson strongly opposed education reform including charter schools & had been critical of the police - in 2020 calling defunding the police "an actual, real political goal," but later said he would add 200 detectives & focus on addressing the root cause of crime. Vallas supported education reform & had campaigned on adding 1,000 police officers on the streets & planned to restore morale in the department. Vallas was backed by the police & firefighters unions & the business community while Johnson was backed by the CTU & other public sector unions. Vallas is white & Johnson is black. Interviews with many black voters indicated they were for fighting crime but voted for Johnson. Putting these interviews into perspective on the national level - this mindset is how Biden could get reelected president in 2024.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">In a preview of Johnson's progressivism - over the weekend of April 15-16 hundreds of teenagers, organized via social media, rampaged the city vandalizing & burning cars (including a $120,000 Tesla) before the overmatched police force could break up the mayhem - two boys 16 & 17 were shot & taken to the hospital. Lightfoot condemned the incident while Johnson took the side of the rioters not wanting to "demonize youth who have been starved of opportunity."</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">So the CTU is satisfied & the 67% of eligible voters who didn't vote can't blame anyone except themselves if they feel unsafe opening their front doors or leaving their cars parked on the street. National Democrats are also satisfied - they awarded the 2024 Democrat National Convention site to Chicago.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Chicago is a town that has given up on itself. Two thirds of the city's electorate is too disinterested to want to have a say in choosing their leaders. A substantial portion of those who did vote are unionized meaning they make a decent living but in a town where one mistake in judgement regarding how safe a neighborhood is could result in being shot. The rest move.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The last Republican, or member of any party except Democrat, to serve as Mayor of Chicago was in 1931 meaning the rot & stagnation of one party rule is intransigent. <br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">If the trouble in Chicago had been handled by the voters with a change in leadership like the presidential elections I listed hereinbefore from 1968 through 2004 a Republican would have been elected like Rudy Giuliani was in NYC in the 1990s - a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 4 to 1.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">The other disheartening election that took place earlier this month was in the suspiciously called <i>swing state</i> of Wisconsin in a technically nonpartisan race - a state Supreme Court race in which a conservative judge was vacating his seat (retirement) thereby putting the one-vote conservative majority of the court in jeopardy of becoming a one-vote Democrat majority. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Democrat Janet Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County judge, campaigned on striking down the state's anti-abortion law that had been enacted in 1849, & supported a referendum to make it easier to increase or deny bail. Democrats spent over $1 million in the primary to support (i.e., hand pick) Protasiewicz's opponent in the general election, Daniel Kelly, who after being appointed in 2016 by then-Governor Scott Walker to fill a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, lost an election in 2020 to retain the seat. Kelly also had ties to Trump which Democrats love to run against, feeling he would be easier to beat in the general election than Wisconsin Circuit Court judge Jennifer Dorow - a primary election strategy trick being used more often by Democrats in the age of Trump. Protasiewicz won a ten year term by 11 points in another election that shows the importance of abortion - Kelly was endorsed by Wisconsin's top three anti-abortion groups, while Protasiewicz was endorsed by abortion rights advocates like Hilary Clinton.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Protasiewicz ran on the full-throated radicalism of the Democrat party platform: taxpayer-funded abortion on demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy (& even being left to die after birth in Governor Ralph KKK Northam's Virginia). </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Matt Elbert, writing in the WSJ, points out that in all six states where abortion was directly on the ballot since the SCOTUS Dobbs decision in 2022 voters either resoundingly rejected further restrictions or fully enshrined abortion into their constitutions - states including Kentucky, Kansas, & Montana.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">These pro-abortion results have left frightened Republicans calling for the party to get their abortion position more in line with voters, but doesn't this mean changing their moral views to what they perceive to be winning electoral-political views? How do you compromise your moral conviction, your feelings about right & wrong, with a negotiated political strategy to win elections? There is no young couple in America today, who is buying a condom in a drug store, that doesn't know when a new life begins.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Many Republicans hurt themselves by not being able to articulate a clear position on abortion & yet when they do they can win. Anti-abortion gubernatorial candidates like DeSantis won in Florida by 19 points, DeWine won in Ohio by 25 points, Kemp won in Georgia by 8 points, & Abbott won in Texas by 11 points.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, running an exploratory program concerning running for president, has said in recent days "I am 100% pro life", then saying in another venue he would sign the recent Florida law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, & then in yet another venue says he would sign a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. So what kind of principle or position is it, to be compromised to be politically competitive, that protects the baby @ 6 weeks but permits its killing @ 5 weeks? It's the same person.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Isn't it best to just say what you really believe? </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-30809163606758144762023-04-09T23:37:00.000-04:002023-04-09T23:38:17.598-04:00Huckabee Welcomes Congressional Sponsor Of The FairTax Bill<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Click <a href="https://youtu.be/-IWHsKwjVPc?t=523" target="_blank">here to watch & hear Mike Huckabee's interview with Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter</a>, the congressional sponsor of H.R. 25 - FairTax Act Of 2023. The show aired Saturday night on TBN.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Congressman Carter reviewed some of the history of the FairTax & said he was glad it was getting a second wind. This is the second time Mike Huckabee has featured the FairTax on his show this year & subscribers have told me things like "Have seen more talk about it from other supporters. Just might be the right time."</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Of course it has been the right time for me to have a consumption tax for over 50 years - ever since Nixon brought it up.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Three other takeaways from the discussion:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">1. If you haven't looked @ your pay stub for a while please do so. How many of the deductions would be eliminated with the enactment of the FairTax? I add that if you have someone do your taxes for you <a class="gmail_plusreply" id="m_-3899367344253139562m_4616214898398903849m_-5141349215721677903plusReplyChip-2">@</a> least look at the completed return to understand what income tax bracket you are in. We have fallen asleep just waiting for our refund (i.e., interest free loan to the government) to be received.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">2. The Washington Establishment does not like the FairTax because they lose control (i.e., anti-FairTax politicians thrive on people being dependent on government) - instead of our elected representatives deciding to increase taxes you decide when you pay taxes, & how much, based on your consumption above basic needs.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">I used to present this point in my FairTax seminars by saying that since enactment of the FairTax does away with Congress's ability to raise revenue, other than by raising the FairTax rate which everyone will clearly see, Congress will effectively give up the power to tax, & will be relegated only to the authority to spend. This in & of itself will help control spending & is the reason why both President Reagan & Professor Friedman believed that the best taxes were those that taxpayers could feel so they would be difficult to raise.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Just imagine the freedom this brings. The FairTax is the biggest transfer of power from politicians to the people since the founding of this country.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">3. The FairTax Bill eliminates the IRS & the 87,000 new IRS agents that Congressman Carter points out are not being hired to make certain you receive your refund sooner. Under the FairTax, if you buy something new you pay the FairTax & if you work, save, or invest you don't.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776665703590564248.post-76862016524695637462023-04-04T00:35:00.000-04:002023-04-04T00:36:14.645-04:00Letter Published In WSJ Responding To Karl Rove Column<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">In the March 30 print edition of his weekly WSJ column Karl Rove's subject was <i>Put America First by Aiding Ukraine</i>. Rove listed several points that people who favor aiding Ukraine could support. Rove also said that "sending military assistance to Ukraine is good for our economy to begin with" & added that "Washington is largely paying for American workers to make the weapons, bullets, missiles, & equipment we send."</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Rove obviously feels that a war ever so often is necessary, or @ least a good idea, to keep an economy going rather than it being a drag on it as Bastiat taught.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Below is my letter to the WSJ that was published Monday in response to Rove's column.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Dear Editor:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">In "Put America First by Aiding Ukraine" (op-ed, March 30), Karl Rove makes several good points, but writing that "sending military assistance to Ukraine is good for our economy" isn't one of them. Spending on defense is still government spending, whether it is for America or for an ally like Ukraine. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div></div> ReturnToExcellence.nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18149859814999976879noreply@blogger.com4