The good news bearers
The Friday Letter / No. 435 / Updated at 8:30 a.m. to correct a transmission error
A really good friend, an old friend, left a voicemail message the other day: I can’t take any more of this. I can’t read about it. I can’t watch TV news. I’m leaving the news grid.
I had been thinking about this for a while, as it turned out. Week after week, nothing but downers, and with good reason. Our country is deteriorating very quickly. American voters had every opportunity to know what the Left has been doing to our society for a very long time. We knew this was coming. Biden warned us.
Not that Biden is actually running things; he isn’t. But we knew about that, too, well before the election: his slipping grasp of reality, his weakness as a leader and lack of accomplishment going back a half century, his corruption and susceptibility to Chinese blackmail.
If we are fortunate to return Donald Trump or some other constitutional conservative to the White House, it will take more than one term, more than two terms, to recover. It will take a succession of patriots and their allies in Congress and the state houses.
That said, we found reason for optimism in these recent headlines:
“Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bans COVID-19 vaccine passports: ‘Don’t tread on our personal freedoms’”
“Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signs bill to defy any new federal gun control laws”
“Iowa becomes 19th permitless carry state”
“Ron DeSantis issues executive order banning ‘vaccine passports’ in Florida”
“DeSantis reopens state’s economy, bans mask mandate penalties”
“Gov. Abbott announces end to statewide mask mandate, allows Texas businesses to open at 100%”
“Indiana attorney general to probe whether Big Tech is limiting conservative content”
“Arkansas legislature overrides GOP governor veto of bill banning chemical castration of minors”
“South Carolina considers bill to require colleges and universities to teach America’s founding documents”
“North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee turns back on ‘elitist, socialist’ Democrats; joins GOP: Looking forward to making America great again”
“Lawsuit forces Pennsylvania to take 21,000 dead people off its voter rolls”
The news business gravitates to the negative. That’s easy because bad news is so plentiful. A closer look reveals something else that may escape the casual eye – federalism rearing its beautiful head as the Founders intended. Republican governors and legislatures are fighting back, reclaiming their right of self-government.
Currently, 33 states have Republican governors and 16 have Democrats.
Our nation has 7,383 total state legislative seats. Excluding Nebraska, which has no-party affiliation (NPA) elections in a single body, the other 49 states break out this way:
54% of legislators are Republicans, 45% Democrats
Republicans control the governorships and both houses of the legislature in 23 states
Democrats control the governorships and both houses in 15 states
Eleven states are divided
Republicans control 61 of the 98 chambers in 49 states. Democrats control 37
Republicans control both houses of 30 states. Democrats control 18
The states are where Republicans have the most power, and some of them are beginning to flex their muscles against the menacing growth of the federal government. There are disappointments at the top in South Dakota and Arkansas, but those will be taken care of in the next election. So too will Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger likely face primary challenges for caving to the radical Left’s demands and handing it control of the U.S. Senate.
These headlines may not bring the cheeriness of a Sesame Street episode, but as Rush Limbaugh often noted, we live in Realville. So hang in there, Jack, and hold onto your delightful sense of humor and acid wit. These traits are far more important to our society than the filth that is coming out of Washington. We must keep up the fight, all of us.
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL.org)
Statistician: One who eats numbers, not food
At 8:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, the U .S. Labor Department will report inflation for the 12 months ended March 31. At that moment ordinary Americans – people who eat food, wear clothes, and use gasoline – should have a pretty good idea of how relevant this number is to their actual situation.
For the 12 months ending Feb. 28, the official government inflation rate was 1.7%. These numbers are compiled by statisticians in Washington – defined as people who don’t buy gasoline or groceries. While this is anecdotal, we watched gasoline rise by 33% between Jan. 1 and mid-March, from $2.10 to $2.70. Some food prices have nearly doubled.
Track inflation numbers at U.S. Inflation Calculator
While our early, non-scientific polls of Biden voters suggest that rising prices are Trump’s fault, as is every other calamity, anyone who took a one-semester high school economics course before leftists took over the public education system knows that price inflation eventually results when the government prints money and hands it out to people to spend on consumer goods without a corresponding increase in the production of those goods.
Continuing anecdotally, we tried to buy a certain laptop computer. Sold out, sold out, sold out. Looked for tile setters for a construction project. Booked for months. Some of this is the lingering result – sorry, Biden voters – of the greatest economic expansion in modern history brought by the tax and regulatory policies of Donald J. Trump.
When the funny money runs out, if it ever does, look for Jimmy Carter-level stagflation. But it’s important to remember this is preferable to having a president who protects our borders and fights for election integrity. Trump’s only friends are the 75 million who voted for him.
Lucky for them, these oil field workers, drywall hangers, carpet cleaners, shopkeepers and other people who like to eat and wear clothes can get jobs in the government making solar panels and cleaning up dead birds under the windmills. The opportunities are endless: Investigators in the departments of diversity and inclusion at our nation’s colleges, propagandists and censors, cellphone and GPS auditors to track our movements, ballot harvesters, Chinese Communist Party Coronavirus passport checkers, home thermostat police, hate speech monitors, and the list goes on.
Prices began rising right after the November election and are now accelerating. If Tuesday’s report shows anything less than annualized 10%, skepticism is warranted. Articles in the trade press report that the new normal benchmark for lumber is $800 per 1,000 board feet. In our town last weekend it broke through $1,000. Two years ago it was $371. Translated for the rest of us, it means that a 2x4 that cost $2 a couple of years ago now costs more than $9. And you wonder why your shack with the leaking roof and frayed wiring is said to be worth $400,000. This is nothing less than funny money at work, government’s willful destruction of the currency.
Statists love inflation because is makes borrowing cheaper. It makes people think they are getting raises and making money selling assets when they are treading water or falling behind at best. Inflation is theft by government, an act that would send ordinary people to prison.
Short takes on the news
“Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds last week signed a measure that recognizes that the only permit to carry needed by law-abiding Iowan adults is the Second Amendment.” – from a story at Guns.com. . . . Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines establish themselves as the official soft drink and airline, respectfully, of the Democrat Party. Both Atlanta-based corporations seek to dictate Georgia election law, recently changed to tighten rules on absentee balloting and fraud-inducing drop boxes. Although it does shorten the period for early voting, the law is mostly toothless in some ways, requesting – but not requiring – voters to show a Georgia driver’s license or state-issued photo ID on absentee ballot requests. Voters who claim they have neither may sign an affidavit and give part of their Social Security number. . . . United Airlines announces its future pilot hiring decisions will be based on race and sex, not competence. It says half of its next 5,000 pilot recruits will be racial minorities and women, regardless of their skills rating. . . . Great moments in “racism.” Major League Baseball moves the All-Star game from 56% black Atlanta to 90% white Denver, protesting Georgia’s mostly cosmetic voting law changes.
The Friday Letter is updated later Friday at The News-Guardian.