Obamacare: Still a Failure

October 12, 2024 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

When I first started writing this column, it was during Obama’s first year and the big controversy was his plan for more government control over health care.

I focused mostly on the adverse fiscal implications, but also warned that Obamacare would worsen the third-party payer problem that makes American healthcare needlessly expensive and inefficient.

So who was right, supporters or critics?

According to a new study from the Paragon Institute and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, Obamacare has been a failure. The study, co-authored by Brian Blase, Casey Mulligan, and Phil Kerpen, lists the promises and results.

James Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute also looked at what Obamacare has meant.

Here are some excerpts from his article for the Dispatch. He starts by reminding readers what was in the law.

In short, after 14 years, the law that was a signature initiative of President Obama has a mixed record… While the ACA is a sprawling measure with scores of disparate provisions addressing the nation’s vast health system, its core changes were relatively few. Perhaps most notably, the law pushed states to expand their Medicaid programs…

To date, 40 states plus the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid. Among the 10 states still holding out are Texas, Florida, and Georgia. …the ACA made it much easier for less-healthy Americans to secure and retain insurance by outlawing premium adjustments based on health status. …These changes lowered premiums for people with pre-existing conditions and raised them for everyone else. …the ACA created a new premium and cost-sharing subsidy system.

He then reviews the results.

Most Americans did not benefit from the Medicaid expansion or the new premium subsidies because they were already enrolled in coverage… The ACA has increased the percentage of the U.S. population enrolled in health insurance. …

Those with budgetary concerns about the ACA were right that the spending was near certain to occur (and likely would be expande) and that the offsets were on much shakier political ground. Since 2010, many provisions in the original ACA that would have imposed more budgetary discipline have been repealed.

Congress also increased the generosity of the premium and cost-sharing subsidies and made millions of additional households eligible for assistance. These changes point clearly toward higher long-term budgetary costs.

And he has a very depressing – but sadly accurate – conclusion.

Heading into the 2024 election, …the ACA will largely look similar regardless of who wins. …On the Republican side, there is no prevailing theory of enduring cost control. Many in the party say they favor less regulation and a “free market,” but they have little appetite for actually moving in a market-oriented direction.

My two cents is that Obamacare was bad legislation, but the U.S. already had a system that was messed up by government.

Indeed, my back-of-the-envelope healthcare freedom meter only got a a little bit worse when the law was enacted.

So repealing Obamacare is part of the solution, but it won’t make much difference unless some bigger changes are enacted, primarily to deal with the problem of third-party payer.

• Block grant Medicaid to the states.
• Shift Medicare to a premium support system.
• As part of tax reform, repeal the fringe benefits exclusion.

The bottom line is that we need to move health care in the “market-oriented direction” mentioned by Mr. Capretta, even if neither Republicans nor Democrats are interested in doing the right thing.

The Economic Record Of Socialism -- Cuba And Latin America

September 15, 2024/ Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

With a radical far-leftist in serious contention for the presidency in our upcoming election, it is worthwhile to check in on the record of leftism and socialism in other countries.

It so happens that pretty much every country to our South in the Western Hemisphere has a long history of some variety of leftist/socialist politics. With a few exceptions here and there, when there has been an election in Latin America in my lifetime, the winning strategy has been to run against the “Yanqui imperialists” and advance a program of “social justice” and redistribution. Particular policies vary from country to country, but the usual playbook includes such things as massive government intervention in the economy, government ownership of major companies (starting with the energy industry), central planning, requirements of multiple licenses and permits to start any business, and many more such.

Recent elections have continued or returned leftists to power in all but one of the most important countries — Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile. (The exception is Argentina, which elected a non-leftist President in late 2023; it is too early there to see any meaningful economic results, so I will leave it out of this discussion.) The next tier of countries has it as bad or worse. In Venezuela the current head of a 25 year old socialist regime apparently just lost an election by a 2-1 margin, but he refuses to release the vote tallies, and hangs on to power while his opponent has fled into exile. In Bolivia a socialist party (MAS) has hung on since 2006 through a disputed election and getting the courts to abolish term limits. There are many other such examples from smaller countries. And then, of course, there is Cuba.

How has all of this worked out?

Overall, the countries of Latin America have a shockingly bad and indeed inexcusable record of economic failure. The best (admittedly flawed) measure we have to compare economic success among countries is per capita GDP. Three international organizations — the IMF, World Bank, and UN — put out lists of per capita GDP by country, and Wikipedia compiles those lists here. The most recent data cited to the UN are from 2021, and to the World Bank from 2023, so I’ll use the IMF numbers, which are from 2024, when available.

The IMF gives 2024 U.S. per capita GDP as $85,373, which is far and away the highest of any country in the world with population of 10 million or more. Here are the comparable 2024 IMF figures for the most important countries of Latin America, all currently run by leftist regimes: Brazil, $11,352; Mexico, $15,249; Colombia, $7,327; Chile, $16,616. But at least all of those have had some periods of non-leftist rule over the past several decades. Then there are the countries in the grip of the most serious socialism for the longest unbroken periods of time: Venezuela, $3,867; Nicaragua, $2,791; Bolivia, $4014.

And now let’s come to Cuba. Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, and imposed a strict socialist regime. There hasn’t been a real election since. Castro’s successors remain in firm control. The latest guy, who succeeded Fidel brother Raul in 2018, is named Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Unfortunately, there are no credible economic statistics that come out of Cuba. Unlike for all the other countries cited above, the IMF does not provide a 2024 per capita GDP figure for Cuba. The World Bank and UN provide per capita GDP statistics for Cuba for, respectively, 2021 and 2020. Those figures are $9500 and $11,255. You can accept them if you wish, but I think they have no credibility at all.

Meanwhile, there is much qualitative information coming out of Cuba to indicate that its long-time terrible economy has recently become much worse and entered a crisis stage. The idea that there is a crisis comes not from the regime’s critics, but rather from the regime itself. Don’t expect to find this information in our mainstream press, but you can find it if you look around.

On July 2, the large Spanish newspaper El Pais had a piece with the headline, “The government of Cuba declares itself in a ‘war-time economy.’” Excerpt:

At a recent meeting of the Council of Ministers, Mildrey Granadillo de la Torre, First Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, said that the measures seek to adjust the 2024 Plan and Budget to the conditions of a “war-time economy,” a term that is often used in extreme situations, and which the authorities now apply to a country that ended 2023 with an inflation of 30%, an economy contracted by 2% and a depreciation of the Cuban currency of more than 50% against the dollar and the euro in the informal market.

El Pais followed up with a further piece on July 8. Excerpt:

Cuba is living in a “war-time economy.” The island’s own authorities said it a week ago. That is to say, the food shortages that the population has been dealing with for years, the insufficient wages, the soaring prices — that whole bleak scenario resembles that of a country thrown into the battlefield. . . . Cubans have been suffering for years from a crisis that began in the 1990s with the loss of economic aid from the defunct Soviet Union and from which they never recovered. People have simply been told that the permanent scarcity in which they live has a new, more dramatic name.

The Economist weighed in on July 21. The article is behind paywall except for the first paragraph, from which this is taken:

Cubans used to look back at what Fidel Castro called the “special period” after the end of the Soviet Union and its largesse and think that was as bad as things could get. They were too optimistic. Today officials talk of a “war economy”. The consensus on the street in Havana, the capital, is that shortages are worse than in the early 1990s. Cuba produces little in sufficient quantity: not sugar, which it once supplied to the world; not eggs, which it recently imported from Colombia; not milk powder, which it gets from the un; not power, as worsening blackouts reveal. The government lacks foreign currency for imports.

Perhaps most revealing is an article by Jon Lee Anderson in the New Yorker of September 12. The article is titled “Lula, Maduro, and a New Cold War in Latin America,” and is mostly about how issues like the recent stolen election in Venezuela are causing rifts among Latin America’s current crop of leftist rulers. Anderson is clearly a man of the Left, among other things having written a biography of Che Guevara. But he reports, with evident sadness, that Latin American leftism appears to have come to a dead end. At the end of his piece, Anderson discusses Cuba:

Eight years after the death of Fidel Castro, and three years since the retirement of his younger brother, Raúl, who succeeded him in power, Cuba’s long-term leadership of the region’s political left is effectively no more. Under the uninspired leadership of the Castros’ successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, a sixty-four-year-old Communist Party official, the island has suffered a precipitous economic decline. . . . 

What it all comes down to is the end of the revolutionary dream in Latin America. A generation ago, Chávez came to power and revived Fidel Castro’s hopes of keeping the revolutionary flame going—and effectively managed to do so for about a dozen years. But then oil prices dropped and Chávez died, followed by Castro, and the money that had flooded into Cuba to fund Revolution 2.0 was gone, largely misspent and stolen. . . . Maduro and Ortega and Díaz-Canel may still speak the old language of revolution and antiyanquismo, but their economies survive from remittances from their fleeing citizens, who have left in droves to seek employment wherever they can, ideally in the Empire itself.

And finally, this incredible statistic:

Since 2022, Cuba has seen the largest exodus of its citizens since the earliest days of the Revolution, with as many as 1.8 million people fleeing the island for better lives elsewhere, contributing to an eighteen-per-cent decrease of the population.

I can’t find confirmation of that number elsewhere, but the New Yorker is (supposedly) known for its fact-checking. And even if the loss of population were half what Anderson reports, 9% instead of 18% (in two years!), it would still be extraordinary.

Could U.S. voters really be stupid enough to elect someone cut from this cloth?

After Less Than Three Decades of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Africa’s Richest City Has Turned Into a “Crumbling Hellscape”

06/29/2023 Ethan Huff 

Not too long ago, Johannesburg, the capital city of South Africa, was a wealthy, vibrant and beautiful place – an economic gem and the pride of the vast African landscape. Today, however, the city has descended into a "crumbling hellscape" due to the imposition of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) politics.  DEI, by the way, is code for anti-white racism. Wherever it rears its ugly head, white people end up being mistreated – or in the case of Johannesburg, driven out of the city entirely because it is no longer safe to be white while living there.

According to reports, Johannesburg saw a mass exodus of white people beginning in the 1990s and running through the early 2000s. Escalating violence, rampant anti-white racism, and limited employment opportunities for white people resulted in the once-successful city becoming a toxic, crime-ridden cesspool.

"This once vibrant city, built on a foundation of wealth, has transformed into a bleak wasteland reminiscent of the novel 'Lord of the Flies,' overrun by chaos, violence, and despair," reports Revolver – check out the below video to see for yourself what has happened to Johannesburg:...........

(Related: South Africa recently implemented anti-white "race quotas" for water access – blacks to receive much more water than whites, who are considered to be second-class citizens.)

America: If you don't stop the DEI and CRT takeover, your country will look just like Johannesburg..........  Technically the first entire country to be rebuilt based on so-called "Critical Race Theory" (CRT) ideals – CRT is similar to DEI in that it is basically anti-white racism under another name – South Africa has declined to such a degree that it no longer even resembles what it once was. 

The United States is another country currently in the crosshairs of the DEI and CRT agenda, bringing with it similar chaos and destruction the more these concepts become embedded into everyday life. "South Africa did everything that is being done in America right now," Revolver warned, noting that it starts with rioting and looting of the kind that became normalized in America after the George Floyd psy-op. "As a hyperdiverse multiethnic, multilingual society, South Africa has followed almost every prescription embraced by the globalist ruling class." "This is about more than riots. 

This wave of violence will eventually peter out. But there is no reason to be optimistic when that happens. There will be no sense of having survived a calamity, and having a chance to rebuild. When this wave of burning and looting and killing are over, there is nothing to look forward to but the next wave." 

Some were hopeful that things might turn around in Africa after it hosted the World Cup in 2010, but that hope has been dashed the more the country has declined. South Africa is now stricken with failing water infrastructure, widespread government corruption, and out-of-control crime – with no end in sight. "In the meantime, Johannesburg has fallen thanks to CRT and DEI,".................. "It's nearly impossible to live normally, let alone run a business; power outages can last upwards of ten hours a day in the city." Anti-white racism is destroying cities, states and even entire countries.........

Ever More Absurd New York City Education Spending

May 08, 2023 Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian 

In a post back on March 23 (“Trying To Head Off New York’s Total Self-Destruction”), I took note of the recent issuance by a think tank called the Empire Center of a big Report titled “Next New York.” The Report shines a spotlight on one area after another where progressive New York politicians have implemented destructive and crazily-expensive policies. My March 23 post discussed the subject of energy policy. Before too much time has passed, I want to delve into at least one or two more areas. For today, it’s public education.

The Next New York Report covers public education in a 15-page segment (pages 29-43) written by Ray Domanico.

The simple and undeniable fact is that New York, both State and City, spend ridiculously more on K-12 education than any place else in the country. Perhaps that could be justified if the results were notably superior. But in fact the results not only are not superior, but are actually worse than the national average at most of the measured data points. Meanwhile, our teachers union — the American Federation of Teachers, headed by Manhattan resident Randi Weingarten — demands and gets ever more funding for ever worse results.

Domanico produces the following chart of per-pupil K-12 education spending for New York versus the full U.S. from 2000 to 2020. Note that this is New York State, rather than New York City. Note also that the gap between New York’s spending and the average of the other states grows every year:

In 2000 New York State spent an average of about $10,000 per pupil, versus a national average of about $7000, representing about a 42% premium. By 2020, New York State spent about $26,000 per pupil, versus a national average of about $13,500, for a premium of about 93%.

In New York City, it’s far worse. How much does New York City spend per pupil in K-12 education? Domanico does not include such a figure in the Next New York Report; and it’s not necessarily an easy number to come up with, since various dollars of education spending are spread among different categories in the City budget. The just-enacted City budget for the 2024 fiscal year allocates $30.6 billion to the Department of Education. Teacher pensions are in a separate category, constituting at least another $4 billion. Divide that $34.6 billion by the claimed total of about 1.05 million students, and you would get just under $33,000 per student.

But are we still missing some other hidden categories of K-12 spending? A watchdog group called the Citizens Budget Commission does their own analysis in this Report on New York City School Spending dated April 11, 2023. They do a detailed allocation of pension contributions to the Department of Education, and also allocate to education spending the portion of debt service applicable to schools and also certain other fringe benefits paid centrally. Their result: $38,000 per student for New York City K-12 education for the coming 2024 FY. Pithy quote:

Long-term enrollment declines accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between school years 2015-16 and 2021-22, K-12 DOE enrollment declined by more than 141,000 students, with the largest losses (90,000 students) occurring during the pandemic. Simultaneous spending increases and enrollment declines led to rapid increases in per-student spending. In fiscal year 2022, the DOE spent more than $37,000 per K-12 DOE student—up 15.2 percent from the prior year and 46.9 percent since fiscal year 2016, including centrally allocated cost.

That $38,000 is well more than two and a half times average per pupil spending for K-12 education in the U.S.

So surely for that vast spending differential we get dramatically superior results? Just kidding. A New York City education website called Chalkbeat summarizes the results of the NAEP tests (most recently administered in 2022) for the full U.S., New York State and New York City:

For all its vast spending, New York City comes in consistently below the rest of the state, which then is also consistently below the rest of the country (except for 8th grade reading in the most recent assessment).

As far as I know, only one thing has been shown to materially improve the test scores of the students in New York City, and that is charter schools. Domanico comes up with this chart comparing results of New York students on the New York State exams (different from NAEP), comparing charter school results to those of the traditional “district” schools, and also breaking out separately the results for black students:

Note that the above chart is New York State data (rather than just the City); however, the large majority of the charters are in the City.

Needless to say, in the recent State budget process the teachers union fought tooth and nail to prevent any expansion of charter schools in New York City. The end result was that a minimal 24 additional charters will be allowed in the coming year. The large majority of the black students will continue to be trapped in the failing “district” schools, where their rates of proficiency will continue to be barely half that of their friends who succeeded in the lotteries to get into the charter schools. All the “progressives” in the State Legislature stood unanimously behind this policy. It is shameful.

 

The Bay Area is sinking into the abyss

May 9, 2023 By Andrea Widburg

Last month, Whole Foods shut down a year-old flagship store it had opened in downtown San Francisco. Two weeks later, word broke that Nordstrom, the Seattle-based, high-end retailer that had a major presence in downtown San Francisco was shutting down both its Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores. Today, news broke that T-Mobile is pulling out, too. It’s a retail exodus that is obviously bad for San Francisco. Significantly, it turns out that other Bay Area downtowns are imploding, as well.  The Whole Foods store shut down because the crime plaguing it was unsustainable, in terms of profits and worker safety. The same held true for the Nordstrom pullout:............

The latest major retailer to join the downtown San Francisco exodus is T-Mobile, which had a 17,000-square-foot store in Union Square, the heart of downtown San Francisco’s hotel and real estate district. T-Mobile hasn’t said why it decided to close the store, other than a “reshaped…retail strategy,” but it’s easy to guess that crime played a part.  After all, to stay afloat in San Francisco, a Target store had to put everything behind glass:..........To Read More

Los Angeles area cop families file a very strong wrongful death suits against George Gascon in the deaths of two officers - May 9, 2023 By Monica Showalter -  Is there a ray of hope for Los Angeles County? Up until now, Soros-backed district attorney George Gascon, has unleashed criminals onto the county without consequences. There are zero consequences for Gascon, for sure, nor are there any for his elite sponsors, and certainly none for the bad guys. Only the little guys -- civilian and police -- pay for this clown's lawless, leftist agenda as criminals are set free to continue their crime sprees. But now we see a lawsuit, from the family of a slain El Monte police officer who had been killed by a habitual dirtbag who belonged behind bars and wasn't put there, and it looks strong enough to win: According to Law.com (subscription, but first article free):.........

Our relentless march to a Darwinian dystopia

By Charles Martel ——Bio and Archives--April 26, 2023 @ Canada Free Press

(Editor's Note:  I've not asked or received permission to publish this in full.  RK)

Another week and the nation continues its vertiginous spin down the drain of history. In the words of Adam Smith:

“There’s a lot of ruin in a nation” 

Biden, his puppeteers and his administration are intent on wringing every ounce of destruction from our once great country. Faith in our institutions has crumbled. The FBI, CIA, DEA, the IRS, the alphabet soup is poisonous and fills us with fear.

The Border is swamped and drug overdose deaths spiral out of control. Death and violent crime throb in our blue cities. Racial division has never been so manifest. Our public schools rot and decay—going so far as to insist that pornography be available to children. Is there any hope to be found? Is there a middle ground? Is there appeasement? I simply don’t see it. 

Corruption dishonesty and power-lust exemplify and characterize these people, and there are neither limits or boundaries and to the extent they are willing to go. We are faced with subjugation, and there is no reasonable or peaceful way out.

Joe Biden Has Had Two Years of Disaster. Who Will Answer?

By Rich Kozlovich

On April 12th  Victor Davis Hanson published this article, The Biden 10-Step Plan for Global Chaos.  Anyone who follows events have taken note of the consequences of Biden's insane policies, not only domestic policies but geopolitical policies.  He starts out asking the following questions, such as, why are the French getting chummy with China?  It's amazing, they're slamming the nation that kept them from having to speak German, twice!

Why are Japan and India ignoring any embargoes on Russian oil? That one is really easy to answer.  Biden has taken our nation, which was not only energy independent, but was capable of providing the necessary energy for our allies, and made America energy dependent.  South American nations are now sidling up to China, and what's worse, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador bragging that millions of Mexicans have entered the United States, most of them illegally? And urging his expatriates to vote for Democrats.

The world is now discussing replacing the dollar as the global currency with BRICS.  Have you ever heard of BRICS nations?

BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, who are attempting to end the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, and wish to dominate the world's economy, mostly being pushed by China, and there's a lot of money involved and they "represent" around 3 billion of the world's population, and I use the word "represent" loosely. 

 

There are 5 factors limiting the impact of the BRICS nations, which makes it clear this is all about China and their desire to dominate the world, all of which is now and will always be the fly in the ointment.  So in my really unsophisticated opinion, who cares?  Remember, this stuff makes my eyes roll up into the back of my head.  

 

This article article by Rebecca Holcomb,  What happens if the United States loses its world reserve currency status?, tries to explain it, and it isn't pretty, but I don't know if it's represents reality.  The main problem regarding the dollar as I see it is the national debt, and the unending devaluation of the dollar through inflation.  These countries are all fake economies.  They aren't capital generating nations, they can't create their own national markets to sustain any kind of growing economy.  

 

Because of Biden's antipathy Israel is existentially being challenged internally as well as externally.  The great success toward peace in the Middle East was created by Donald Trump, called the Abraham Accords, and Biden is destroying it, even refinancing radical Palestinians.  Turkey is dictating who can be in NATO and is making threatening moves against fellow NATO member Greece, and Egypt, "who receives over $50 billion in military and $30 billion in economic assistance", is supplying Russia with rockets and Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons.   All this came into being because for a mere two years Biden and his band of incompetent nitwits and misfits have fowled up everything.

Afghanistan was a pull out disaster, leaving behind billions of dollars of military equipment, some of which the Taliban was prepared to sell to Russia, "the largest air base in central Asia—recently retrofitted at a cost of $300 million—and a $1 billion embassy", but worse yet, he allowed un-vetted Afghans to board planes to America and left actual Americans behind, then claimed all that a success.  But when called on it, he said it was a mess created by Trump.  

Chinese send spy balloons over America and Biden does nothing.  The Chinese unleash a virus on the world and then have the nerve to lecture America on toxicity and hypocrisy.  Russian cyber attacks are treated as minor incidents, and their invasion of Ukraine was just an incident he called a "minor incursion".  Which makes sense because he believes allowing tens of millions of illegal aliens into America, feeding them, housing them, educating their children and providing free health care is no big deal.  So what if all this is an avenue for Mexican gangs to sell illegal drugs in America, and worse?

He insults Saudi Arabia's leader and tries to reinstate the Iran nuclear deal,  and while China is working diligently to upgrade it's military, Biden worries about gender issues and has created a "woke" military that can't fill it's recruitment needs, throws out trained and competent personal who won't accept the false vaccine shots for Covid, which are killing people all over the world, and a general in charge that called the Chinese military to let them know he would alert them if President Trump decided to act militarily.

The media and the left, especially the media, see everything through rose colored glasses, but, what does the world see?  Weakness, unreliability, stupidity, and total humiliation.  Is it any wonder they're moving in the direction they are?  Is it any wonder the world is a much bigger mess than it's been in decades.   And it only took Biden two years to accomplish that.  Imagine what he's going to do over the next 18 or so months. 

Leftism: A Tidal Wave of Cultural Destruction

By Rich Kozlovich

I comment on a number of sites and I also read the comments of others.  Someone named Eric made this comment, which I thought was excellent, and gave me permission to publish it:

The left has opened Pandora’s box. As they moved forward with their plans to destroy America, they’ve empowered legions of violent and unstable misfits to further their cause. Financed by Soros, these goofs were herded together for ideological hive mind training. Under varying names (Antifa, BLM, etc) for various causes (pro choice, trans rights, dreamers/mass amnesty, climate change, social justice etc) the left molded their worldview, fueled their sicknesses and identified their causes/enemies. As a result, these useful idiots are true believers who are ready and committed to violently confront everyone who doesn’t fully submit to their demands. The megalomaniacs on the left are convinced that these armies are completely under their control, which is somewhat true, for now. So after every incident the left celebrates their actions and praises their motives. Thus encouraging more misfits to join and more acts to follow. Inevitably, the violence will ratchet up and the size/scope of their acts will become unmanageable and forcing the left to confront them head on.

In an instant, the MSM narrative will do a 180 and the bulk on the left will pivot in lockstep. Marginalized groups that received every perk will be treated as if they were ISIS. At that point, the left’s veil will be lifted, exposing their true selves for all to see. Confused, infuriated and hurt, many will seek vengeance from society. Resulting in the FBI/DOJ finally locating the domestic extremists.

If only those misfits were knowledgeable on what happens to the useful idiots once the Marxists obtain their socialist paradise. It turns out that Marxists aren’t very inclusive and they don’t value diversity. On a bright note though, they are exceptional at providing the masses with an equally equitable life of misery.

If you look at every culture tidal wave attacking America right now, virtually everything Eric has said applies.  Whether it's transgenderism, education, global warming, voter fraud, this foolish Trump/Bragg continuing drama, illegal immigration, the destruction of our cities, or any of the host of issues they're instigating, combined together,  it's become a destructive tidal wave overtaking the nation. 

 

American Education, The Continuing Saga

By Rich Kozlovich 

 

Over the years I've publish a great deal of information about the ills of public and higher education saying two things.  Fixing Education in America is Job One, and Education in America is a Snare and a Racket.  Those files are profound and provocative, and there will be some duplicates if you go to those files, but bear with it, there's a lot there.  

My Take in one of these posts follows:

Where did all these misfits in education come from?  Academia!  And in California they've dropped their standards for teachers because they can't find enough teachers.  Why?  Maybe because normal people won't be a part of this insanity?  And this resistance by the normals isn't just in education. 

Education must become Job One in America.  It's been totally taken over by leftists, Marxists, socialists, communists, Democrats.....sorry....I'm repeating myself.....and if America is to survive education at all levels must be totally transformed, and that has to start at the local school boards.  Then expanding to the state boards of education.  To fix this it must become an organized national effort, and one the Republican party would do well to adopt and promote.   From there to the elimination of the Department of Education and any funding to universities, and tax their endowments that are worth billions of dollars.  

Force them to become for profit institutions that have to compete without government grant money or student loans.  Then as totally private businesses, it they wish to push their leftist agenda and compete for student dollars in an open market, that's their business.  But the government must be forced to stay out of it and not force these insane diversity, inclusion and equity programs that are doing nothing more than destroying the nation. 

And again: 

These leftist sit on high looking down their noses at those they view as neanderthals, but this is the result of leftism since it has no moral foundation except to gain power by any means necessary. Jonah Goldberg, before he went insane, wrote a great book called Liberal Fascism where he discusses the Frankfort School leftists who fled Germany, that had a far left fascist government, and infested America's universities with their radical lunacy, and then eventually their "students' rebelled against them. 

There are no boundaries to the left and they will tolerate no restrictions or values, except for the disruption of stable societies.  The left is only good at one thing.  Destroying a society in order to tyrannize it.  After that, nothing works and dystopia is the standard of life with the leftist elite living on high while everyone else suffers.

 

America must dismantle our education system, that must be "job one".  It can't be fixed, it must be dismantled. Eliminate the Department of Education.  End all funding to all universities.  Tax their endowment funds.  End all government sponsored or supported student loan programs.  Allow for vouchers at the local level.  End all public employee unions, especially teacher's unions.  Pass a law that unions must have regularly scheduled votes to be reinstated as the employees representatives, ending the tyranny unions now hold over employees.  Find a system to ensure retirement plans aren't embezzled, which both unions and corporations have been guilty.  

 

I particularly like this article: Is College a Racket? New Study Links a Surge in Graduation With Greed and 'Grade Inflation by Alex Parker, with a note from me saying:  

 

Apparently Alex Parker wants to make sure the world knows just how far down the rabbit hole education has fallen in America.  Here's a list of articles he published after this November 21, 2021 article.  Enjoy....if you can!

What we're experiencing isn't education, it's the propagation of insanity.  Leftism is a failed philosophy, and anyone who keeps promoting failure over and over again, is  perpetuating insanity.  Not one thing has happened to change my mind, and in point of fact, what's happening deepens my view that education as we know it must be dismantled, all of which is confirmed by the articles linked below

 

The Public Sector Union Can't Print Money, April 12, 2023 By Silvio Canto, Jr. - Chicago, Portland, Milwaukee, etc. are all a big mess.  It goes like this:   the taxpayers move out and the public sector unions elect their man.  So what happens now?  We will see, but this may be a blessing in disguise because the finances of these cities are going nowhere. I like what Stephen Moore wrote about the situation:

The nation’s 10 largest counties have lost more than 1 million residents since 2019. The biggest losers have been the counties that are home to New York and San Francisco and Chicago’s Cook County. Even Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous county, with just under 10 million people, is now contracting.

Welcome to the real-world impact of progressivism. Instead of worker paradises, the Left has transitioned our once-shining cities into slums, murder zones, homeless encampments and boarded-up stores. They have become cults of economic and political quackery -- and tragically, few Democrats have the courage to speak out. They are worried about being called racists when the reality is that the victims -- of terrible public schools, high murder rates and an anti-business creed -- are the minorities they say they care so much about.

The three poisons of America’s leftist cities are 1) high taxes, 2) schools that don’t educate and 3) crime running rampant. 

Yes, and the good news is that the money won't be there. ..............

Second City Shamble, By Larry Sand February 25, 2023 - The teacher union-controlled school system in Chicago is an abject failure. The numbers are jaw-dropping. In 30 Chicago public schools, not a single student can read at grade level. In total, just 20 percent of 3rd through 8th graders in the Windy City are proficient in reading and only 15 percent are proficient in math. As such, it’s easy to see why students are bailing en masse. In fact, more than one-third of Chicago’s 473 traditional public schools are currently running at half-full or worse, according to data released in December. Douglass High School, which bills itself as “The Jewel Of The Westside,” has a capacity for 888 students, but just 34 are enrolled, and not one of them is proficient in reading. In the past 10 years, the city’s total public school enrollment has gone from over 400,000 to 322,000 and the bleeding shows no sign of abating. The spending hawks can’t claim it’s due to a lack of funding. When all local, state and federal dollars are added up, Chicago’s per student outlay is now $29,207...............

North Carolina parents should be wary of ‘School Choice’ bill, April 12, 2023 By Robert Bortins- Politicians in Raleigh want to transform our freedoms with House Bill 420, giving state bureaucrats more control over North Carolinians’ educational options, consequently driving up prices, reducing quality and innovation, and normalizing state welfare checks for the middle class and wealthy -- all in the name of “school choice.” But the fact is, North Carolina already has robust educational choices, and families are enthusiastically enjoying those opportunities. According to a 2022 report from BESTNC.com, approximately 16 percent of North Carolina families homeschool or attend private school. Families already have school choice, and this freedom allows for extraordinary educational innovation and entrepreneurship at a net gain to taxpayers. ...............

Randi Is Wrong Again, By Larry Sand March 25, 2023 - The president of the American Federation of Teachers makes a bunch of ridiculous and easily refutable claims.I have got to give Randi Weingarten a lot of credit. Every time I write about the president of the American Federation of Teachers and her relentless blather, I think that she cannot possibly sink any lower; yet she always manages to dig herself a deeper hole. Earlier this month, Weingarten penned “Kids Do Better In Schools With Teachers Unions,” an opinion piece for the Daily Beast, in which she claims to make “a factual case” for all the good that teachers’ unions do for children.  For starters, citing work by some left-wing think tankers, she asserts that teachers unions are associated with higher student achievement, especially for Hispanic and black children. Wrong! The teachers union’s essence is its collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which, as policy experts Rick Hess and Martin West write, is a vestige of the industrial economic model that prevailed in the 1950s when “assembly-line workers and low-level managers were valued less for their knowledge or technical skills than for their longevity and willingness to serve loyally as a cog in a top-down enterprise.” While CBAs may be the cornerstone of the unions’ raison d’être, these agreements have been a disaster for students.  “The Long-run Effects of Teacher Collective Bargaining,”...........

Are Public Employee Unions Unconstitutional? By Larry Sand April 10, 2023 -  “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.” The above caveat about government unions—usually known by the kinder and gentler “public-employee unions” (PEUs)—was not issued by Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump. The statement was made by progressive icon Franklin Delano Roosevelt.   But FDR wasn’t the only Democrat opposed to government unionization. George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO for 24 years, once said, “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” Both men understood that the very nature of government makes it wrong for its leaders to enter into negotiations with any union. When government unions negotiate, they often sit across the table from people they helped put in office with generous campaign contributions. And when these unions go on strike, they walk out on the taxpayer............

X-Rated Ed,  By Larry Sand January 20, 2023 - Educator-related sexual abuse of children is escalating.  Pedophilia is proliferating in the nation’s public schools. Going back to 2004, a report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education revealed that nearly 9.6 percent of students are victims of sexual abuse by school personnel, and these are just the reported cases. Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct & Exploitation (SESAME), an organization that works to stop childhood sexual abuse by teachers and other school employees, disclosed that in 2015, about 3.5 million 8th-11th grade students, or nearly 7 percent of those surveyed divulged that they had experienced “physical sexual contact from an adult”—most often a teacher or coach. The type of physical contact ranged from “unwanted touching of their body, all the way up to sexual intercourse.” Even worse, when other types of sexual misconduct are taken into consideration, such as being shown pornography or being subjected to sexually explicit language or exhibitionism the number increases to about 4.5 million children (10 percent). SESAME also explains that one child sex offender can have as many as 73 victims in a lifetime..........

• (Editor's  Note:  You may wish to view these articles by Larry Sand dealing with the failure of education in America, all of which the left owns, also, Socialist Roots of American Education.  RK)

The Left Has Killed Our Great Cities

Stephen Moore  Apr 11, 2023 @ Townhall.com

 

 Mark down Tuesday, April 4, as the night Chicago died.

That's when we learned that Second City voters narrowly elected Brandon Johnson as their next mayor. This is a city that was flattened during the reign of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who lost in the first round of voting for Chicago mayor because she didn't finish in one of the top two spots. Lightfoot, elected in 2019 after a career as a federal prosecutor who then held several appointed positions in Chicago, shut down the city for more than a year during COVID-19. She also bankrupted small businesses, allowed rioters to burn down whole neighborhoods, presided over the worst crime wave in 50 years and let the schools go to hell.

Now, the voters have selected Johnson. Elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 2018, Johnson narrowly won the mayoralty of America's third-most-populous city on April 4 over Paul Vallas, a former Chicago schools CEO and a Democrat who presented himself as a political moderate compared to the far-left Johnson.

The incoming mayor may turn out to be a worse mayor than Lightfoot. Johnson's occupation is an organizer for the teachers unions. The unions spent several million dollars on the race. They got their man.

What this means is that Chicago's municipal government will now be a fully owned subsidiary of the Chicago Teachers Union. (Can you imagine what the union contracts are going to look like?) This is a city where, in roughly two dozen schools, zero children can read or write at proficiency level.

Johnson said that crime and shoplifting from local schools are societal problems. And he may continue Lightfoot's policy of not prosecuting people who rob stores -- often owned by minorities.

It's not just Chicago that has become a war zone. Portland, Seattle and San Francisco were not so long ago the crown jewels of the West Coast. They were said to be progressive cities that worked. No more. Now, they are unlivable. San Francisco is overrun with homeless people on seemingly every downtown street corner, feces on the sidewalks and trash everywhere.

In Portland, major businesses are pulling out in the aftermath of the takeover of the radical anarchists during COVID-19. Crime is so rampant that Walmart recently said "adios," shutting down its last store. Rains PDX, a clothing store in Portland, shut down last November after a string of break-ins made it impossible to stay open. This printed sign pasted on the door says it all:

"Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business, in our city's current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished. Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins ... We have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd."

For the first time, Seattle is losing population. To be "progressive," Seattle is imposing a massive capital gains tax increase -- socking it to the rich. So they are fleeing the city and Washington state.

One of the nation's top demographers, Wendell Cox, has been analyzing the just-released Census Bureau data on county population. He found that "during the late 2010s and before the pandemic, population growth and domestic migration transitioned toward smaller metropolitan areas from larger ones. That outmigration is accelerating."

The nation's 10 largest counties have lost more than 1 million residents since 2019. The biggest losers have been the counties that are home to New York and San Francisco and Chicago's Cook County. Even Los Angeles County, the nation's most populous county, with just under 10 million people, is now contracting.

Welcome to the real-world impact of progressivism. Instead of worker paradises, the Left has transitioned our once-shining cities into slums, murder zones, homeless encampments and boarded-up stores. They have become cults of economic and political quackery -- and tragically, few Democrats have the courage to speak out. They are worried about being called racists when the reality is that the victims -- of terrible public schools, high murder rates and an anti-business creed -- are the minorities they say they care so much about.

The three poisons of America's leftist cities are 1) high taxes, 2) schools that don't educate and 3) crime running rampant. As mayors such as Rudy Giuliani of New York City proved in the 1990s after the Big Apple had been driven to its knees, all it takes is committed leadership to fix these problems. Things can change quickly, as they did in Manhattan.

The fact that Chicagoans have elected not a reformer, but a deformer, suggests that inner-city residents still don't get it -- or they don't care. Or they are all on the payroll of the city governments that are going bankrupt. Alas, our cities can't be saved if the voters in these metropolises don't want to be saved.

Will you like what’s coming?

April 4, 2023 By James Mullin

At the rate things are going, we’d better start preparing for life under perpetual Democrat or Uniparty governance. Hare are just a few points to ponder about what that life might be like. Feel free to share with Woke family and friends. Do you like the dark, i.e. living in the dark and carrying flashlights and candles after the sun goes down? You’d better because there will be lots of opportunity once Uniparty-induced brownouts and blackouts take hold because of our power grid’s inability to supply dependable power as the war on fossil fuels takes hold. Exaggerated? Read about California in the last 20 years. Do you like extreme heat in your house in the summer? See above. Beware of living in the Southeast. This is how the Uniparty will play nasty against its most geographically identifiable opposition. Get screens for your windows. NOW. Do you like extreme cold in your house in the winter? See above. By the way, don’t depend on firewood. They’ll ban it. CO2, you know..............To Read More...

San Francisco, RIP?

April 4, 2023 by John Hinderaker in California, Crime, Liberals

My introduction to San Francisco came in the late 1970s, when I spent a lot of time there as a young lawyer. For a Midwestern guy, the San Francisco of that era was a revelation: great restaurants, famous hotels on Nob Hill, fog drifting in off the Bay. But today’s San Francisco is, sadly, something else.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a long, long article about the city’s demise: “Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks.” And it looks really bad. The numbers are grim:..........To Read More.... 

Calamity Joe: Geopolitical Catastrophes Multiply as American Power and Influence Crash to New Postwar Lows

March 19, 2023 By Thomas Lifson

In only two years, Joe Biden’s presidency has produced multiple catastrophes from which recovery will be difficult, if it is even possible. Domestically, we see the banking system teetering on insolvency, as the rapid escalation in interest rates has devalued long term Treasury notes that used to be considered a safe place for banks to park funds in excess of what could be safely lent. The reason for these Federal Reserve interest rate hikes is the inflation that was immediately triggered by Biden’s jihad against domestica oil, gas, and coal production, that triggered an inflationary spiral that continues today, devaluing the life savings of thrifty Americans, and pushing food and energy costs up so fast that many families have had to drastically reduce their standard of living.

Bad as these catastrophes are, the potential for serious damage to the welfare of the American people from the military and diplomatic policies of the Biden administration is much worse. Losing a war – or even just fighting a nuclear war – makes a mere Depression look like a day at the beach. And make no mistake, the Biden administration is flirting with a nuclear confrontation with Russia that China might well decide to join and eliminate for good the power of the United States to oppose its aims for dominance of the Asia/Pacific region (for starters). Meanwhile, as the potential for an ultimate confrontation increases, resources for America to counter the threat are rapidly diminishing............To  Read More.....

Under Joe Biden, our corruption is becoming Africanized, March 19, 2023 By Monica Showalter - This week, we learned from a House panel that Joe Biden and his family members took $1.3 million from a Chinese energy firm. According to this NBC report:

The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee published a memo Thursday alleging that Hunter Biden and at least two relatives were paid $1.3 million from an associate of the president's son who had links to a Chinese energy company. They are alleged to have been paid after the associate, Rob Walker, was wired $3 million in March 2017 from a Chinese energy company affiliated with another company that Biden had been doing business with. The recipients of the $1.3 million in payments were Biden, his uncle James Biden and Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter's brother Beau Biden, Comer said. "It is unclear what services were provided to obtain this exorbitant amount of money," Comer said.

Some of it was dolloped out in packets, as if they were paychecks, some went to people with no possible merit utility to China's giant energy company, and in every transaction, Joe Biden took his cut. He was, according to the emails found on son Hunter's abandoned laptop, "the big guy." Biden was asked about these payments, and in a reflexive way, claiming they never happened:  .But they did happen, and Congress has the receipts on it. He's convinced he can lie his way out of it, but the receipts don't lie. ......

 

Elections Have Consequences; Stolen Elections Have Catastrophes

March 16, 2023 By J.B. Shurk

"Put the adults back in charge," they whined.  "Donald Trump will break the world," they lied.  Well, they manipulated election rules to certify suspicious vote totals that preposterously portrayed senile Joe Biden as the most popularly elected president in history; censored and locked up anyone who complained; and covered up their crimes with J6 show trials drenched in untruths meant to hide from history the Uniparty's underhanded machinations in outright stealing a presidential election.  The whole mess was so banana-republic-yucky that Biden was inaugurated behind barbed wire and a show of military force befitting the small junta who attended the successful coup's celebration.  And as a result of the Uniparty's installation of Dementia Joe as White House marionette, the American people have been plagued with crime, inflation, political persecution, COVID tyranny, deadly battlefield retreat, open borders, staggering drug deaths, proxy wars, bankruptcies, bank runs, endless new regulations, a plummeting standard of living, economic panic, and social volatility.  Elections have consequences, but stolen elections have catastrophes.........To Read More...

The Failure of Socialism in Venezuela, Part I

March 12, 2023 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Socialism is an immoral system that has a horrible track record of misery and failure.

One of the most tragic examples is Venezuela.

It used to be the richest nation in Latin America. But per-capita GDP has collapsed according to IMF data.

As you can see from the chart, there were a couple of decent periods, peaking in 2008 and again about five years later.

But those were driven by world oil prices. The overall trend during the Chavez-Maduro years has been negative.

Socialism has been such a disaster that the country is now largely incapable of benefiting when oil prices rise.

By the way, if you somehow think IMF data is suspect, you can also look at the UN’s Human Development Index. Over the past couple of decades, only Syria, Libya, and Yemen performed worse than Venezuela.

In his column for the Miami Herald, Andres Oppenheimer documents Venezuela’s descent into misery.

As Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro celebrates his 10th year in office this week, a reality check shows that his presidency has been much more disastrous than people think. Maduro…has performed an economic miracle in reverse: He has turned what used to be one of Latin America’s richest countries into the poorest one, alongside Haiti. …Venezuela’s gross domestic product has plummeted from $350 billion in 2013 to $60 billion today… Venezuela’s poverty rate has soared from 40% of the population in 2013 to 94% today… Venezuela’s annual inflation rate has risen to nearly 350% this year from 56% in 2013… More than 7.2 million Venezuelans have fled the country during the past decade, according to United Nations estimates. That’s the biggest mass exodus in Latin America’s history.

That’s a depressing indictment.

But there’s more bad news to share. Here are some excerpts from an article by Dominic Wightman for the U.K.-based Critic.

Caracas has grown into one such city from hell. …there’s all-round cynicism, the pongs of death and dank deprivation ubiquitous. …The capital city is flatlining, the flatline only spiked by oases of ill-gotten gains underwritten by Russian gangsters, by wannabe Cuban puppet masters and the Chavistas themselves, whose grip on Venezuela has been transitorily perpetuated by narcodollars… No politics class or textbook can prepare a man for fifteen years viewing first-hand this latest chapter in the failure of socialist doctrine. The descent to hell in Venezuela has been swift and gruesome. …Too often in the West we have discussed Socialism as if it were a cheese on a cheeseboard, some kind of edible mushroom from which we might find nourishment, even as a side dish in a broader menu of political possibilities. The truth is that Socialism is poison, whichever way it is prepared or digested. It is appropriate — no, it is vital — to be so black and white about it.

Wightman’s analysis is particularly persuasive since he is married to a Venezuelan woman and has personally witnessed the nation’s decline over many years.

P.S. I’m still flabbergasted that the New York Times published a lengthy article on Venezuela’s economic misery and somehow never mentioned socialism.

P.P.S. Here’s my description of what it’s like to encounter victims of Venezuelan socialism.

 

The collapse of civilization on the altar of equity and diversity

February 21, 2023 By Patricia McCarthy

The Biden administration has gone stark raving mad. While they surely know better, they are moving ahead with the false notion that “diversity is our strength,” that forced “equity” will make the country a better place. It began under the Obama administration, the purposeful ginning up of the most vile racism since slavery; but this time Black against White. Before Obama took office, there was actually near racial harmony in America. The American left has become so radical now, “diversity hires” are now a thing. We are following in the footsteps of South Africa and mandating racial quotas. What has that meant for South Africa? Their economy is in near collapse. Their electric grid is failing because no one knows how to fix it. The country is wracked by violence. Mandated equity, the primacy of race over merit, means civilizational failure.

Why have there been so many near misses in air traffic? Why so many railway derailments? Why horrific events like the murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis? Those cops were clearly not qualified to be Memphis police. When standards are done away with, this is a predictable consequence. Why the grisly rise in crime all over the nation? That would be the calculated agenda of psychopaths like George Soros and the leftists who want to see America brought to its knees. Soros has funneled billions of his ill-gotten dollars to that end. Defund the police, and of course you get more crime. Let criminals out of jail with no bail, no punishment whatsoever, you get more and more crime. A third-grader could figure that out. Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization, like Antifa, that revels in the chaos and violence it foments with Soros money............To Read More.....

• Woke Diversity Fail: BAFTA Film Awards Blasted over All-White Winners - The BAFTA Film awards are under attack by the woke mob following Sunday’s ceremony in which every single winner was white. Among the 49 people who won Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars, not a single person was an ethnic minority despite BAFTA’s much-heralded diversity requirements that went into effect in 2019 and were designed to bring more minority faces to the winners circle.............