Paradigms and Demographics

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Hopes and Fears for 2020

January 1, 2020 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Yesterday’s column was my annual end-of-year round-up of the best and worst developments of the concluding year. Today I’ll be forward looking and give you my hopes and fears for the new year, which is a newer tradition that began in 2017 (and continued in 2018 and 2019).

With my glass-half-full outlook, we’ll start with the things I hope will happen.

Supreme Court strikes down civil asset forfeiture – It is nauseating that bureaucrats can steal property from citizens who have never been convicted of a crime. Or even charged with a crime. Fortunately, this disgusting practice already has attracted attention from Clarence Thomas and other sound-thinking Justices on the Supreme Court. Hopefully, this will produce a decision that ends this example of Venezuela-style government thuggery.

Good free-trade agreements for the United Kingdom – This is a two-pronged hope. First, I want a great agreement between the U.S. and the U.K., based on the principle of mutual recognition. Second, I want the best-possible agreement between the U.K. and the E.U., which will be a challenge since the political elite in Brussels has a spiteful desire to “punish” the British people for supporting Brexit.

Maduro’s ouster in Venezuela – I already wished for this development in 2018 and 2019, so this is my “Groundhog Day” addition to the list. But if I keep wishing for it, sooner or later it will happen and I’ll look prescient. But I actually don’t care about whether my predictions are correct, I just want an end to the horrible suffering for the people of Venezuela.

Here are the things I fear will happen in 2020.

A bubble bursts – I hope I’m wrong (and that may be the case since I’ve been fretting about it for a long time), but I fear that financial markets are being goosed by an easy-money policy from the Federal Reserve. Bubbles feel good when they’re expanding, but last decade should have taught us that they can be very painful when they pop.

A loss of economic liberty in Chile and/or Hong Kong – As shown by Economic Freedom of the World, there are not that many success stories in the world. But we can celebrate what’s happened in Hong Kong since WWII and what’s happened in Chile since the late 1970s. Economic liberty has dramatically boosted prosperity. Unfortunately, Hong Kong’s liberty is now being threatened from without and Chile’s liberty is now being threatened from within.

Repeal of the Illinois flat tax – The best approach for a state is to have no income tax, and a state flat tax is the second-best approach. Illinois is in that second category thanks to a long-standing provision of the state’s constitution. Needless to say, this irks the big spenders who control the Illinois government and they are asking voters this upcoming November to vote on whether to bust the flat tax and open the floodgates for an ever-growing fiscal burden. By the way, it’s quite likely that I’ll be including the Massachusetts flat tax on this list next year.

I’ll also add a special category for something that would be both good and bad.

Trump gets reelected – Because Trump is producing better tax policy and better regulatory policy, and because of my hopes for judges who believe in the Constitution’s protections of economic liberty, it would be good if he won a second term.

Trump gets reelected – Because Trump is producing worse spending policy and worse trade policy, and because of my concerns never-ending Keynesian monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, it would be bad if he won a second term.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Energy & Environmental Newsletter: Special Notice

Friends: Happy New Year

Successful, happy people typically have the wise habit of periodically stepping-back to get a broader perspective as to what's going on in their life, and society in general.

Since we are now not only beginning a New Year, but also a New Decade, it seems that doing such a careful analysis is strongly advisable.

You'll have to decide about the pros and cons of your own life, but here is my perspective as to what is societally going on what I'm calling the Big Picture.

On the one hand, a competent review of the last ten years would indicate that a LOT of good things have transpired. I've seen no better summary of this progress than:

We've Just Had the Best Decade in Human History. Seriously!

Please read that carefully so that you have a strong understanding of that unpublicized (and accordingly, not popularly appreciated) reality.

Based on the facts, the logical conclusion is that global citizens should be experiencing widespread happiness, satisfaction, and enthusiasm for the future.

Is that the case? Generally NO.

Well why not? Because we still have good and evil.

For example, there are diabolical, well-connected parties who have a lust for power. Citizen contentment is a major obstacle to their taking over control of the planet. The most effective way they can get people to want to change, is to make them unhappy with the way things are now.

To deal with substantial good news, their strategy is to resort to three proven tactics:

a) instill fear into the masses,
b) undermine the pillars of the current, successful society, and
c) sow societal discord.

Consider that the leader of the free world is under an intense, incessant, coordinated attack ”including removal from office" primarily because of his policies."

The subversives are leaving no stone unturned to try to make the public afraid of him and his policies (e.g. his rightfully withdrawing from the Paris sham).

They claim that they are opposed to his "lying," but the reality is that they are actually angered by the swamp-exposing truths that he has said.

His opponents "actually OUR opponents" are also:

Willfully eroding the Judeo-Christian principles that our society was built on.
Purposefully corroding our democratic form of government (a Republic).
Aggressively diluting our academic system (to produce propagandized lemmings).
"Consciously" sabotaging true Science (as it is a barrier to their agendas).
Knowingly subverting our economic system (Capitalism).
Deliberately undermining our Electric Grid (the foundation of our economy and national security).

What's even worse, in all of these campaigns, these parties have no apparent standards (note #1 above) regarding truth, fairness, rights, freedoms, yet they speciously claim the moral high ground!

As mentioned, one of their main strategies for pulling off their political agenda is to sow divisiveness and discord "so that we fight among ourselves".

In this vile effort they are pitting: men vs women, whites vs minorities, young vs old, wealthy vs not-so-much, hard workers vs entitlement advocates, citizens vs immigrants, traditional religions vs secular religion, etc., etc.

Once one fully understands these attacks, it should be very clear that we are in the biggest war ever experienced in history.

-----------------------------

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

In the face of such adversity, it may seem that nothing YOU do will make any real difference. That is yet another lie they are feeding us, soÂ donâ€™t buy it! Â The truth is what Margaret Meade insightfully said:

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.:

A less well-known insight she also wrote:

"Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn't burn up any fossil fuel, doesn't pollute."

My recommendation is to be aware of what is going on, and then consciously oppose the efforts of those who wish to bring us down, e.g. by actively supporting:

1 - the Judeo-Christian principles that our society was built on (e.g. more love and unity, less hate and alienation),

2 - our democratic form of government (a Republic),

3 - our academic system (to produce critical-thinking graduates),

4 - real Science (which is apolitical by definition), 5 - our economic system (while working to make it better), and

6 - our Electric Grid (by not allowing any alternative energies on it that havenâ€™t been scientifically proven to be a NET societal benefit).

By doing all that you will be doing the Right Thing.

The world may (or may not) change because of your efforts, but your positive actions will assure you and yours of having a genuinely Happy New Year, and New Decade.

sincerely,

John Droz, Jr.. physicist and citizen advocate

PS - I've shared this before, but it bears repeating. I'm aware of no better videos that insightfully explain some of the larger picture of what is going on, than these two five-minutes movie trailers:

Agenda: Grinding America Down - plus - Agenda 2: Masters of Deceit.

Nothing Says 'Happy New Year' Quite Like Giving Taxpayer-Funded Health Care to Illegal Aliens

Beth Baumann @eb454 Jan 01, 2020

Now that it is officially 2020, illegal alien adults in California are now eligible for Medi-Cal, the state's health care system for low-income families. Starting January 1 – today – Medi-Cal is now extended to illegal aliens ages 19 to 26. Before today those under the age of 19 were able to receive Medi-Cal benefits, the Modesto Bee reported.

Before the new legislation took effect, quite a few illegal aliens were receiving limited Medi-Cal benefits (basically emergency services). Now they are able to receive full-scope Medi-Cal benefits, which include preventative and primary care on top of emergency services.

Those who were in the system receiving limited scope benefits received letters saying that, at the start of the new year, they would have full access to Medi-Cal benefits. Lucky them, right?.........2.2 million people in the state are illegal aliens...........California is going to spend millions providing health care for 19 percent of the low-income, illegal alien population............To Read More...

Cartoon of the Day

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

My Commentaries in 2019

By Rich Kozlovich

I've published 76 articles this year - yeah, that surprised me too. Some of it went international. Often times the ones I thought were my best articles went nowhere. Well, that's the way it goes. Here are the articles I published in 2019.

Please enjoy!

Best and Worst of 2019

December 31, 2019 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

(Editor's Note: There are aspects of this article I disagree with, but it is none the less informative. RK)

Time for my annual column highlighting the “Best” and “Worst” policy developments of the year, a tradition I sort of started in 2012 and definitely did in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

I’m trying to be a glass-half-full kind of guy, so we’ll start with the best policy developments for 2019.

Boris Johnson’s landslide victory – I was in London for the recent U.K. election and was pleasantly surprised when Boris Johnson won a surprising landslide. That’s not a policy development, of course, but it’s first on my list because it presumably will lead to a genuine Brexit. And when the United Kingdom escapes the sinking ship of the dirigiste European Union, I have some hopes for pro-market policies.

TABOR wins in Colorado – Without question, the best fiscal system for a jurisdiction is a spending cap that fulfills my Golden Rule. Colorado’s constitution has such a policy, known as TABOR (the Taxpayer Bill of Rights). Pro-spending lobbies put an initiative on the ballot to eviscerate the provision, but voters wisely rejected the measure this past November by a nearly 10-point margin.

Macroeconomic strength – A strong economy also isn’t a policy, but it’s partially the result of good tax reforms and much-needed regulatory easing. This has pushed up the value of stocks (though I worry we may be experiencing a bubble), but I’m much happier that it’s led to a tight labor market and increased wages for lower-skilled workers.

Now let’s look at the worst developments of 2019.

An ever-increasing burden of government spending – The federal government is far too big, and it keeps growing in size. Entitlements are the main problem, but Trump added to the mess by capitulating to another budget deal that increases the burden of discretionary spending.

Missed opportunity on China trade – Because he foolishly focused on the bilateral trade deficit, Trump missed a great opportunity to pressure China to eliminate (or at least reduce) various cronyist policies that actually do distort and undermine trade.

Repeal of the Cadillac tax – I never imagined I would be in a position of stating that it was a mistake to repeal a tax increase, but the recent repeal of the tax on high-end health plans is such bad policy in terms of health care (contributing to third-party payer) that it more than offsets my long-standing desire to deprive Washington of revenue.

I’ll close by noting my most-read and least-read columns of the year.
We’ll start with the popular items.

My most-read column from 2019 discussed a very impressive (and very understandable) example of tax avoidance from France.
In second place was my piece that lauded a columnist for the New York Times who admitted gun control is foolish policy.
Winning the bronze medal was my column from last week celebrating the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

By the way, my most-read article in 2019 was actually a quiz about political philosophy I shared back in 2015. Those must be popular items, because other quizzes (from 2014 and 2013) were actually the third-most and fourth-most popular columns for the year.
And here are the biggest duds.

The column with the least clicks (perhaps because it was only posted a couple of days ago) revolved around the technical issues of economic sanctions, extraterritoriality, and the strength of the dollar.
The second-worst-performing column was from late November and discussed the International Monetary Fund’s cheerleading for higher taxes in Japan.
Next on the list is my discussion from a few days ago about how Washington imposes policies that encourage households to make short-sighted financial choices.

P.S. About 80 percent of readers are from the United States, and that’s been relatively constant over the years. But it’s been interesting (at least to me) to observe where other readers reside. In the very beginning, Canada provided the second-biggest group of readers, but then the United Kingdom took over for several years, only to be dethroned by Australia in 2017 and 2018. For 2019, though, the United Kingdom reclaimed second place, presumably because I kept writing about Brexit. If we go by readers as a share of the population, I’m actually most popular in small tax havens.

Cartoon For 2020

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

A rough road ahead for electric cars

By Dr. Jay Lehr December 30th, 2019 | Energy | 32 Comments @ CFACT

We have all watched the apparent increase in the acceptance of electric cars (EVs) thought to be a major portion of our automotive future. Tesla’s $95,000 upscale vehicles get featured almost weekly in the Wall Street Journal as their finances, good and bad, rotate their favor with the investors who keep the stock as elevated as bitcoin in recent years with no underpinning of real value based on price/earnings ratio. Wolf Richter, a San Francisco. based entrepreneur, calculated that if the company ever earned a $billion dollars with an average stock market P/E ratio of 12, the company’s stock should sell for $65, yet it regularly hovers around $400 having made no profit. Its highly touted $35,000 car for the masses never materialized, remaining in a price range of more than $10,000 over an equivalent gasoline powered vehicle. General Motors has given it a run for its money with a similar more expensive mid-sized vehicle.

All of these facts are current reality but many other chickens are coming home to roost, none laying golden eggs. For years the EVs warranted a $7500 tax credit for the first 200,000 manufactured by each company, then the credit is halved for the next 200,000, halved again for the next 200,000 and then disappears. Both GM and Tesla are near the no-credit position with Nissan, Ford and Toyota are approaching it. They are all already screaming for the credit to start over and in fact doubled to qualify for the next 400,000 vehicles. Tesla first said they did not need the credit anymore, then back-tracked on that boast.

It was long assumed that Tesla buyers, a special group of people, would buy regardless of incentives or no incentives. That appears now to have been an assumption that failed. When Hong Kong dropped its EV subsidy, Tesla sales plummeted. It is anyone’s guess what the outcome will be as to continuing the tax credit. I will bet the green lobbies will win in granting unwarranted concessions to an industry no longer in its infancy.

Yet there are more problems, many more. Up until now, believe it or not, the EV tax credit was granted on an honor system with no required affidavits to prove the credit was actually earned. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration ((TIGTA) recently reported that of 239,422 EV tax credits claimed between 2014 and 2018, it identified 16,510 as potentially erroneous. Some are outright frauds, others are to second owners who do not qualify or those leasing vehicles who also do not qualify. Worse yet, a Congressional Research Service study showed that 80% of all EV tax credits go to households with incomes exceeding $100,000. Truly a wealth redistribution in the wrong direction that liberals should not like.

For unknown reasons the public does not recognize that all EVs are really coal powered or natural gas powered vehicles. Where do they think the electricity with which they charge and recharge their cars come from? I am afraid most think it comes from thin air,

As time goes by more owners will experience problems charging and recharging in very cold weather. Generators, transformers, power lines and motors consisting of metals are most efficient in cold weather. For example, copper has half the resistance at minus 65 degrees C as it does at 100 C. However all batteries use electrolytes which are liquids such as acids, bases and salts that conduct electricity by the movement of ions which perform to the opposite of metals as to rapid or slow movement. A typical electrolyte conducts a fourth as much at minus 5 degrees C as it does at 55 C. Little by little EVs in normal to cold climates will experience this problem.

It is time for the market to determine which vehicles the public will choose to not be nudged by state and federal programs. Robert Bradley CEO of the Institute for Energy Research said in an article appearing in the Heartland Institutes Environment and Climate News, “Among the programs benefitting the relatively wealthy are state rebates, reduced registration fees, car pool lane access and other programs that apply in 44 states, as well as Federal R & D monies for ‘sustainable transportation’, averaging $700 million a year”.

It is long over due that extremely flawed electric cars stop drinking at the government trough. Yet Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has pledged that if the Democrats win the 2020 presidential election, the Senate will pass a law requiring that every car in America be electric by 2040. Hopefully that pledge will cost votes among thoughtful people but who can say? Other than it will be a very damaging economic policy for our nation.

Dr. Jay Lehr
CFACT Senior Science Analyst Jay Lehr has authored more than 1,000 magazine and journal articles and 36 books.

Protecting the Innocent: Gun-Free Zones vs. Armed Citizens

December 30, 2019 by Dan Mitchell

When I wrote yesterday’s column, which augmented my collection of satire about gun control, I had no idea I would feel compelled 24 hours later to address the issue from a serious perspective.

But two tragic events over the weekend underscore why the individual right of gun ownership is such an important part of the Constitution.

First, an anti-Semitic nutjob attacked Jews Saturday night.

At least five people have been stabbed in an attack at a synagogue in New York’s Rockland County. That attacker is now reportedly in custody after fleeing the scene. …The suspect has been identified as 37-year-old Grafton Thomas, of Greenwood Lake, New York, in Orange County. Thomas, covering his face with a scarf, reportedly entered the building and pulled out a machete to attack the victims during a Chanukah celebration. Thomas reportedly chased after and stabbed victims as they fled the synagogue before running off and escaping in a gray Nissan Sentra. …This incident happened amid a rash of anti-Semitic attacks this week. …“We will NOT allow this to become the new normal. We’ll use every tool we have to stop these attacks once and for all. The NYPD has deployed a visible and growing presence around Jewish houses of worship on the streets in communities like Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Boro Park,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio added in a tweet.

Needless to say, Mayor de Blasio is being dishonest when he claims he will “use every tool…to stop these attacks.”

Like politicians in Europe, he’s a dogmatic opponent of private gun ownership and believes Jews shouldn’t be allowed to defend themselves.

Fortunately, Jews who live outside New York City still enjoy some civil liberties and are now prepared to thwart attackers.

PHOTOS: Orthodox Jews seen open carrying rifles in Rockland County, NY following a string of anti-semitic attacks in NYC, including last night's stabbing attack inside a synagogue in Monsey, NY that left 5 stabbed – 1 in critical condition. pic.twitter.com/l3ywnpplrB
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 29, 2019

More power to these people, who are the Orthodox Jewish versions of these good ol’ boys from Texas.

For what it’s worth, I suspect dirtbags will be less likely to target the Jews in Rockland Country.

There was another attack at a house of worship over the weekend.

Though this report from Texas has a happy ending.

Police said they received a call shortly before 10 a.m. local time about gunshots at the West Freeway Church of Christ, in a suburb a less than an hour from downtown Fort Worth. After the suspect entered the church and fired a weapon, “a couple of members of the church returned fire,” killing the alleged shooter, state officials said at a news conference. …Gov. Greg Abbott (R) condemned the “evil act of violence” in a statement, adding: “Places of worship are meant to be sacred, and I am grateful for the church members who acted quickly to take down the shooter and help prevent further loss of life.” …New laws that took effect in 2019 allow Texans with concealed-carry permits to bring guns to places of worship unless a sign is posted prohibiting it.

The happy ending is that the bad guy was killed by armed members of the congregation, presumably minimizing the death toll.

I’ve joked before about Texans and guns, but we have a real-world case of how lives are saved. And what happened over the weekend wasn’t the first time.

Let’s now shift from anecdotes to data.

A few years ago, John Lott looked at the evidence about gun-free zones, armed citizens, and mass shootings.

…not one of the mass shootings since at least 2000…would’ve been stopped by these laws. Nor would renewing the federal “assault weapons” ban solve the problem; even research paid for by Bill Clinton’s administration found no evidence the ban reduced any type of crime. …a young ISIS sympathizer planned a shooting at one of the largest churches in Detroit. An FBI wire recorded him explaining why he had picked the church as a target: “It’s easy, and a lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church.” …PoliceOne, a private organization with 450,000 members (380,000 full-time active law enforcement and 70,000 retired), polled its members in 2013 shortly after the Newtown, Conn., massacre. Eighty percent of respondents said allowing legally armed citizens to carry guns in places such as Newtown and Aurora would have reduced the number of casualties. …According to police and prosecutors, there have been dozens of cases of permit holders clearly stopping what would have been mass public shootings. It’s understandable these killers avoid places where they can’t kill a large number of people. Research I have conducted with economist Bill Landes looked at 13 different types of gun-control laws. Right-to-carry laws were the only type that made a difference in the rate and severity of these mass public shootings. …even the most ardent gun-control advocate would never put “Gun-Free Zone” signs on their homes. Let’s finally stop putting them elsewhere.

Amen.

John Lott is an invaluable resource on these issues, as is Jacob Sullum.

Though it’s really an issue of common sense.

Mass shooters are evil, but they’re calculatingly evil. Even if they’re willing to die, they want a high body count. Armed citizens make that less likely.

The bottom lines is that we can save lives by making sure law-abiding people have the right to keep and bear arms.

What happened this past weekend simply provides us with more evidence.

Education and Business: An Incestuous Relationship

Eileen F. Toplansky

Why in Sam Hill would a sentient parent send his child to any school of higher learning in America today when "colleges across the country are

Mind you, it is not to increase standards. No, the changes involve "lowering of standards and a very clear implication that students from certain backgrounds cannot score as high on tests as their peers of a different melanin makeup."

Instead of rooting out the reasons why students of color are doing so poorly, the Left continues to use them as cannon fodder to control the education of young American minds.

Why is it that the public education system has failed so many of its black and Hispanic students? How is the following possible?

[I]n America's public high schools, 45% of black students and 43% of Hispanics (as compared to 22% of whites) drop out before their classes graduate. Dropout rates are especially high in urban areas with large minority populations, including such academic basket cases as the District of Columbia (57%), Trenton (59%), Camden (61.4%), Baltimore (65.4%), Cleveland (65.9%), and Detroit (75.1%).

Of those black and Hispanic students who do manage to earn a diploma, a large percentage are functionally illiterate. Black high-school graduates perform, on average, at a level that is four academic years below that of their white counterparts. Of all graduates in the class of 2011, only 11% of blacks and 15% of Hispanics were proficient in math, as compared to 42% of whites. Similarly, just 13% of blacks and 4% of Hispanics were proficient in reading, versus 40% of whites. As political science professor Lydia Segal notes in her book, Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools: "It is in cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Philadelphia where the largest numbers of children cannot read, write, and compute at acceptable levels and where racial gaps between whites and blacks and Latinos are widest. It is in large cities that minority boys in particular, trapped in poor schools, have the greatest chance of flunking out and getting sucked into the downward spiral of crime and prison."

These failed, inner-city schools are run entirely by Democrats and progressives who, as author Jonah Goldberg points out, have "controlled the large inner-city school systems for generations." Indeed, the powerful teachers unions overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party and its left-wing agendas; the bureaucrats at the Department of Education overwhelmingly hold progressive political and social views; and the ideological orientation of America's teacher-training colleges is decidedly leftist. All of these factors have combined to create the proverbial train wreck that is public education in the United States today.

It has not improved a whit since then...............To Read More

A Close Look at Adam Schiff

What political goals does this powerful Democrat congressman really have?

Discover The Networks Tue Dec 31, 2019

Fifty-nine-year-old Democrat congressman Adam Schiff became famous in recent months for presiding over the Trump impeachment hearings in the House Intelligence Committee. Let us take a close look at exactly who Schiff is, and what his political agendas are. A Harvard-trained lawyer, Schiff launched his political career in 1996 when he was elected to the California State Senate, where he served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In 1997 Schiff received a Henry Toll Fellowship for “leadership development.” Sponsored by the Council of State Governments, this award has long been heavily financed by the billionaire philanthropist George Soros and his Open Society Foundations............In no way can Adam Schiff be described as a “liberal.” He is a hard-core leftist who seeks to fundamentally transform America, much like President Obama so candidly sought to do...............To Read More....

My Take - As you read this man's bio you can't possibly come away with any other conclusion than this man hates everything the Constitution stands for. His radical views, actions and associations are unbelievealbe, including support for outright anti-Semites. It should be clear to the most casual observer he hates this nation, just as much as does George Soros.

And the Democrat leadership is screaming about a "full and fair" impeachment.

How about a "full and fair" exposure of Adam Schiff by the media? Can you imagine what they would've done if this was Trump's bio? Yet they've totally ignored this man's intellectual and philosophical past.

Monday, December 30, 2019

The Insane Want to Run the Asylum

By Rich Kozlovich

(Editor's Note: Originally I published this on Friday, March 22, 2019. I thought it was worth repeating. RK)

The left is insane. How do I know that? It's real easy. Leftism has been a massive failure from its very beginning with the French Revolution and the resulting "Terror" the ruling class imposed on French society. A totalitarian pattern that's been repeated with every socialist dominated society. So, to keep insisting on repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expecting a different outcome is insane. At least that's what Einstein thought, and I agree!

Currently, there's a "clown car" of leftist loons running to become President of the United States in 2020. What are they promoting?

Every one of them wants to abolish the Electoral College, pack the Supreme Court, lower the voting age to 16, create new states by splitting up California, recognizing Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states, in order to create more Democrat Senators, impose a New Green Deal that will destroy the economy all the while claiming it will "reinvigorate the workforce" , demonstrating a complete lack of economic clarity.

They work to stop prosecutions on illegal aliens who've committed crimes claiming it's discriminatory. How can anyone not think this is complete nonsense? Have we lost our minds? Why would the Supreme Court have to hear this?

These people have committed crimes. First, they're here illegally and secondly, they're stealing someone else's identity. They're criminals! Why is that so hard to accept? But leftist logic declares it discriminatory.

In spite of the fact student loans have, destroyed the affordability of a college education they want to forgive all those loans and make college free. Can you imagine how the costs would skyrocket then?

They insist that Global Warming is man made and is going to destroy the world in twelve years. Prince Phillip said something like that fifteen years ago. He also said there were only months left before we were past the point of no return. Amazing!

(Editor's Note: It actually was Prince Charles, not Prince Phillip. Prince Phillip wants to come back as a virus and eliminate mankind. Thanks to Michael Harris for catching that error. RK)

He's still flying around the world and living the good life. But in the sane world, time is on the side of those of us who've taken an opposing view.

Islamists have practically taken over the Democrat party to the point many have a legitimate fear we're facing a new holocaust in the near future.

As for those who claim to be conservatives - what a confused lot!

Many who refer to themselves as conservatives are lost because they're not real conservatives with firm moral and intellectual foundations.

"Democrats talk about legalizing marijuana, murdering babies, welcoming Jihadists, seizing our guns, Soc. Sec. payments to illegals, demanding the popular vote over the Electoral vote and supporting ignorant Marxist puppet loons like AOC who wants everything free for all with no idea how to pay for it, short of the common tactic used by all governments… steal it from the producers. This applies to Bernie and the high cheek boned, blond Indian Princess, Elizabeth Warren. While other Democrat contenders may lurk in the shadows, they only try to out promise the other guy with what they would do with our money. These are simple people, you know, Morons."

How could any legitimate conservative feel they're "wandering in the wilderness" or "culturally powerless" in the face of all that? Every one of these initiatives should all be a fuse that light fires in every real conservative. The rest are all phonies and traitors to the very concept of conservatism, like John Kasich, John, McCain and a host of others. All with stunningly slippery moral convictions.

As I see it, as a society we have four options.

Ignorance, which is fixable.
Stupidity, which is ignorance coupled with complacency.
Insanity, which is unavoidable if you accept their conclusions
- or -
Clear rational thinking which means accepting the reality that to be on the left is irrational and misanthropic, morally defective and everything these leftist loons say are lies of commission and lies of omission.

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180 C.E.) once noted; "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." How much more important is it to keep the insane from turning society into an insane asylum with they, the lunatics, in charge?